 |
About This Site
Daily Musings
News
News Archive
Site Resources
FAQ
Screenshots
Concept Art
Halo 2 Updates
Interviews
Movies
Music
Miscellaneous
Mailbag
HBO PAL
Game Fun
The Halo Story
Tips and Tricks
Fan Creations
Wallpaper
Misc. Art
Fan Fiction
Comics
Logos
Banners
Press Coverage
Halo Reviews
Halo 2 Previews
Press Scans
Community
HBO Forum
Clan HBO Forum
HBO IRC Channel
Links
Admin
Submissions
FTP Uploads
HTTP Uploads
Contact
|
|
|
Shadow Ops, Chapter 1: The Mission
Posted By: Agent Shade<Agent_Shade13@hotmail.com>
Date: 15 June 2003, 4:23 AM
Read/Post Comments
|
Shadow Ops, Chapter 1: The Mission
The lush jungle canopy shrouded everything inside it with darkness. Visibility was naturally poor, and many who traveled within this part of the jungle area got lost. However, the squad of six humans running swiftly through the vegetation did not have this problem, since they came prepared with various forms of vision and already had knowledge about the surrounding landscape. The enemy they ran from did not.
Lieutenant Alan Pearson raised his arm into the air and made a fist. Immediately, the five other members of his squad halted behind him, turned and raised their weapons, scanning the lush vegetation behind them. Pearson, like most of his fellow teammates held a MA7B Battle rifle, with two separate back up weapons; the MA5B Assault rifle and M6D pistol. He had around ten extra magazines for each weapon, stored in the huge pack strapped to his back. Six fragmentation grenades, two smoke grenades, various weapon silencers and his helmet, with vision goggles attached. He and his men had come prepared for war.
Pearson and his squad were part of ONI's new section of office. Section Thirteen; Shadow Ops. More powerful and smarter than Black Ops, they went under exact same training as the Spartans, however, did not receive the augmentation that they got. They took in the odd calcium and muscle fiber pill here and there, improving their bulk and mind, but it wasn't needed. They all came into the section, intelligent and powerful.
Their call sign was simply; Shadow Ops 1. Some would shorten it down to SO1; some would just say it the way it was. It didn't matter to Pearson. He knew who they were; the only squad to have actually passed Section Thirteen's boot camp and squad recruitment. They were quite capable of anything. The squad itself had six members, which meant two teams of three, in case of any sort of "messy" situations. Pearson commanded Red team. Before issuing his command, he did another mental review of his men.
Master Sergeant Jonathan Henderson, Pearson's second in command. He took charge of Blue team. If anything happened to the Lieutenant, he would take over. He was probably the tallest and smartest in the team. He was generally assault and used the MA5B Assault rifle as his primary weapon. The MA7B Battle rifle and M6D pistol were his backups. Like Pearson, he had 10 extra magazines, smoke/frag grenades and helmet, which he always wore, since back in boot, whenever he strapped it to the bottom of his pack, it would always fall off. If there was one person Pearson could trust, it was Jonathan. His codename; Dusk
First Sergeant Paul Howe, another assault man. He and Henderson were good friends and shared the same interest when it came to battle. He was Henderson's second in command of Blue team. If anything happened to Henderson, he would take charge of Blue team. He had all the same weapons as Pearson and Henderson and used them exactly like Henderson. His codename; Specter
Second in charge of Red team was Corporal Fredrick Owens. He was like Pearson, a mixture of assault and marksmen. He was also their field medic. He used the MA7B Battle rifle and would often switch back and forth with that and his M6D pistol. When stuck in close combat, he used the MA5B assault rifle. He was very reliable, and always seemed to cover Pearson's six. The Lieutenant always thought of him as a good friend. The Corporal had originally thought of being a doctor, but decided to help the war effort and became a medic for the Shadow Ops. His codename; Spirit
The last member of Red team was PFC Daniel Clarkson. Daniel had a taste for heavy weapons. He always had double SMGs, which meant that he had limited grenades. He only had one backup weapon, which was the MA5B assault rifle. Pearson would often always use him to cover their backs as they retreated, since he could cut down anyone rushing at them. Daniel usually kept quiet, but would often speak up. He loved to joke around with Owens, and would usually cover his six, while trying to cover his own. Quite a difficult task, but he always seemed to manage. His codename; Wraith
Last member of the squad and Blue team was Corporal Colin Thompson. Colin could've been a Captain or a Commander if he wanted too, but surprisingly, the young sniper man didn't like all the attention. Colin was the only member of the squad who never talked. From the moment Pearson met him, he never spoke a word. All they knew about him was that he was the best when it came to sniping. He always carried his
SRS-099V8H Oracle sniper rifle. He never used any of the scopes, since he would uplink it to the visor he wore across his helmet, which covered his eyes. His backup weapons were the MA7B Battle rifle and M6D pistol. He would often scout ahead and look for either possible hostiles or a place for them to rest. Or, he would lag behind a little and take out any followers. He would often have to stay near one of the squad, since he never spoke and someone had to radio to Pearson what he was thinking. His codename; Shade.
Pearson shook his head quickly to clear his mind, and then focused on the task at hand. They had just been dropped into the western part of Nigeria, and had orders to figure out what had happened to Outpost Sierra. The tech's at command had lost contact with the station yesterday, and for some reason, couldn't send in any air support directly into the station. There was a huge fog around the outpost and they had already lost a Pelican loaded with Marine Regulars. So, they sent in the Shadow Ops. Fifteen minutes into the mission, and already, the Covenant were all over them. Pearson activated the scope on his battle rifle and looked through it. He cursed and activated the weapon's night vision. He couldn't see shit. The Lieutenant tapped the radio strapped to his collar.
"Shade, what you see?" he whispered. The sniper had managed to climb a tree and used his sniper rifle to scout out the area in front of them. Pearson looked up at him and Shade put two fingers up to his eyes, pointed to the west and flashed his hand three times, indicated fifteen Covenant troops following them. Pearson nodded, and then looked around him. They were sitting in a dried out river bed, and off to his left and right, the ground sloped up into a small hill. He activated his radio again.
"Dusk, take your team onto the left slope and wait for the assholes to walk through" he said. Henderson nodded, tapped Howe and motioned to the slope. Thompson climbed down the tree he was in and followed them. Pearson clicked his radio again.
"Red team, on me" he said. Owens and Clarkson followed Pearson up the right slope. Pearson motioned around him, ordering them to spread out along the slope. As they got into position, Pearson clicked his radio again.
"When the Covenant comes through this river, take them down. Crossfire from both sides of the river should cut them down. Wait for my signal" he said. No one answered, but he knew they got the point. Pearson took out his MA5B assault rifle and waited. The team stopped moving and fell silent. All around them, the sound of the jungle filled their ears. Pearson cursed the dozens of animals in the vegetation and did his best to tune them out. However, he didn't need too.
The Covenant Grunts were stupid, and always made lots of noises while on the pursuit of something. The team heard their giggles of victory first, followed by the sloshing off mud and one Grunt yelping as it tripped. There were ten Grunts and five Jackals. That was the second thing that the team noticed. The Jackal's energy shield did to things. They glowed a bright blue or yellow color, and they hummed a lot. If the Grunts had been quiet, it wouldn't have made a difference. Pearson grinned, and clicked the safety off of his rifle, then lowered it. Quickly, he screwed a silencer onto the end and ordered his team to do the same. The Lieutenant then waited, and watched the Covenant approach. He locked the nozzle of the gun onto the lead Jackal. He fired.
A silenced three round burst struck the Jackal in the head. Immediately following that, Colin pegged two Grunts with his battle rifle, Daniel killed a Jackal. On the other side of the river, Henderson and his team each took out two Grunts. Pearson quickly switched targets and shot another Jackal dead. The remaining Covenant whirled their weapons around, screaming at each other, and trying to find them, but it was too late. The last Grunt took a bullet in the head by Colin. Following that, the Shadow Ops all stood, policed their weapons and tossed their bodies into the foliage. Without a single word, Pearson motioned his hand to the east, and they moved on to the Outpost.
After nearly two hours of running, Pearson ordered them to stop. They were positioned in a tall grassy field, so they didn't have to hunker down or anything to avoid being spotted by Covenant patrols. Pearson sat on a rock and took out his canteen. He gulped down some water, and then drenched his head with it. Screwing the cap on, he looked at his men.
"Listen up. There's a Marine Outpost and few kilometers away due east of our position. The people at the UNSC lost contact with them yesterday. They sent in a Pelican load of Marines, the Pelican got lost in a huge fog that surrounds the outpost and we assume it crashed. Our orders are too find the Pelican, see if anyone is alive, then go and secure the Outpost. Something's up here and we need to find out what" he said. Pearson's men never find out what their mission was from the Admirals who give it to them, so they rely on their Lieutenant to do so. Not one of them spoke and merely looked at him. Pearson continued.
"It's obvious the Covenant is here, but what they are doing, we don't know, which is why we are here. Once we find those marines, we give them the coordinates to LZ Omega; tell them to head that way. We then press on. Once we arrive at the Outpost, we secure it, find out what the hell is going on, and take out any hostiles that could be in the area. There are no Rules of Engagement here people, so you see a Covie, you take it out. Understand?" he said.
"Yes sir" they all said. Pearson nodded, and stood up.
"All right, we got at least four kilometers of running to do, so let's get moving. That Pelican was last reported grid nineteen by twenty four. We go there first. Shade, you got point, the rest of you, fall in" he said. They all stood, and Colin took out his battle rifle, and began jogging in the general direction of their lost Pelican. They usually ran in a sloppy "Flying-V" with Shade in the middle, Howe and Clarkson off to the left, Pearson, Henderson and Owens off to the right. Pearson raised his battle rifle and grinned. He clicked his radio on.
"Let's take it to them Shadow Ops"
TO BE CONTINUED
By: Agent Shade
|
