Joyride
Posted By: Drew Pazz (Anrkey)<an_r_key@hotmail.com>
Date: 19 Mar 2001, 3:22 am
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Private John Collins heard a noise from behind him, it sounded like one of his comrades' voices. Naturally his first reaction was to head in that direction. He stopped himself as he started to get up from his crouched position hidden within the forest. He reminded himself that he was separated from his squad and self-preservation might be the best maneuver. A thought flashed through his head of hiking back to camp by himself and being vulnerable to enemy attack. So, he quickly decided to stealthily come to his comrade's aid.
As he neared the location of his comrade's voice, he heard another voice, that of his enemy...
The Covenant seemed to come out of nowhere when his squadron was on patrol within the dense forests of Halo. They came from every direction, the Sarge was the first to go, John was standing right behind him when a blast of plasma tore through his head and slammed into a near by tree. John fired off burst after burst in whichever direction he could see the Covenant's trademark neon blue light coming from and when the order for retreat was issued through his headset he quickly laid down a suppressing fire while trying to drag the Lt.'s wounded body to safety. It was no use, just when he thought he was safe, plasma fire sliced through the forest barely missing John's leg. Can't say as much for the Lt. though, the plasma round pierced his armor and ignited his still beating heart in flames*so here was John, scattered from his group after an ambush, deep within this forest, trying to find out if another one of his comrades had survived the attack.
After hearing the alien's snort-like growl of a voice, he quickly darted behind a tree for cover.ÝHe took a deep breathÝthen proceeded to scan for its location. In the clearing he saw one of his comrade's laying on his back*it was Private Eddie Marsh. A friend of John's whom he had been chatting with only an hour earlier. The alien was directly adjacent to Eddie, it lifted its energy-based pistol and fired into Eddie's chest, Eddie groaned, and then fell silent*John knew he was dead. John turned his head forward as he was overwhelmed by a violent swarm of thoughts of regret and remorse for not getting here sooner. Uncontrollably he launched towards the alien with his rifle to his shoulder firing rapidly into its torso all the while shouting out as many curses he could conjure up. He caught it by surprise, as it was only able to turn its head in recognition of the second human's arrival. John didn't even flinch as he ran towards his target with guns blazing, firing shot after shot into the alien's chest. As each shot struck the target's metallic body armor it was forced back, eventually falling over backwards it's armor was penetrated and blood began to spew from its' wounds. John was not satisfied with his kill till it was barely recognizable; all you could see was crude bluish blood pouring out from every orifice of its shattered remains.
As John's heart rate returned to normal he tried to stop himself from crying. He let go of his rifle and let it hang by his side on its shoulder harness. He walked up to Eddie's corpse, examining it for a while and as his eyes started to water he looked for his friend's death letter. He found it inside of his boot and transferred its contents to his PCPU. He ripped Eddie's dog tags off from around his neck and stuffed it into a pouch around his own belt. Wiping the tears from his eyes he grabbed his former friend's extra ammunition from his gun and ammo belt. Thinking the alien's pistol might come in handy he took it as well. The only difference that made it hard to fire was the aliens' enormous fingers, which made the trigger and handle rather large. Finally searching the area for anything more of use he noticed the Covenant's vehicle in the distance. It was some kind of aerodynamic hover cycle. He approached it with a sigh of relief as he reminded himself that if he could get it to work, he wouldn't have to walk back to camp at all.
A lot of the marines who survived battles were able to steal a Covenant craft, but this was John's first time even seeing one up close. The vehicle was as large as a regular motorcycle but had some weird Covenant technology similar to earth's magnetic technology that allowed it to hover in place. He lifted his left leg over the hovercraft and sat down on it, getting used to how it held his weight. To his surprise it barely moved at all, probably because it was adjusted to the alien's weight, which was relatively heavier than an average humans. The front panel of the hovercraft allowed the user to be well protected from frontal assault with a screen that had a live image feed from a concealed camera in the front of the craft. There were two pedals, which the marine placed his feet on and noticed when he pushed hard enough onto them, they would eventually move forward, pushing the craft slightly backward. There were also two handles that were somewhat hard to grip due to the alien's anatomy, but he eventually worked it out. The trigger to fire the two plasma cannons at the front of the vehicle was in the middle of the handles rather than the top. As he slid the handles slowly forward the engine seemed to kick in and he was jerked forward. He smiled and pushed harder and held it in. This time, the hover cycle flew forward and started to pick up speed. As he sped along he tested out the controls and got used to the feel of it.
John flew within the small valleys between the hills so he wouldn't attract unwanted attention to himself. He was glad that he didn't spot any enemies as he slowly pulled into a safe clearing a mile away from where he had gotten on the hover cycle. He tried to radio any squad mates who might have survived the attack, believing he was out of range from any alien who might try to listen in. He listened to the static for a minute or two; finally he gave up and turned off his transmitter. Pushing the handles forward on his newly acquired hover cycle, Private John Collins headed off towards camp, he was angry at the thought that command would probably confiscate his new toy. "But At least I will live to tell about it." He reminded himself with words that Eddie and the rest of his squad would never be able to repeat again.
John was suddenly struck by a blinding white light that seemed to erupt from all around him. He was thrown from his vehicle; pain surged through his entire body as he screamed out agony. He flew through the air for what seemed like an eternity, finally he hit hard, unwelcoming ground and the pain ceased as the blinding white light faded from his eyes*then everything went black
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