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Clean Sweep 1
Posted By: aussie_spartan<aussie_spartan@hotmail.com>
Date: 30 May 2008, 12:26 pm
Read/Post Comments
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I am aware that my work is not perfect. If you can see any errors (either factual or gramatical) please contact me so that I can fix them in upcoming chapters. Though, I think it fair to warn you that if I feel it pointless then nothing will change. First in a series I'm hoping on creating to get myself back into the swing of writing. Enjoy.
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>To open file press enter. To delete press delete.
>ENTER
>>... file opened. Scanning retina...
>>Comparing to registered database, please wait. Search complete, welcome Major.
>>NOTE: ALL information in this document is to be considered RESTRICTED to level Omega, failure to comply will result in immediate court marshal.
File start:
Operation: CLEAN SWEEP
Access Level: Omega
Access code: gf3w-8gtt-90hg-olmj
Receiver: Station 6, South Africa (1st Lt Tom Lucas)
Sender: Dog Company, 2nd Platoon, Red Squad leader (SSgt Glen Floury)
Recording location: Station 6
>Begin Transmission:
>>Receiver: Hello? D Company? Anyone respond.
>>Sender: ...Glen... respond... evac...
>>Receiver: You're breaking up; I need you to move somewhere I can get a stronger signal.
>>Sender: ... request... bombardment...
>>Receiver: There already is an artillery barrage hitting near your position as per your request. Would you like us to move the barrage to hit a different location?
>>Sender: ...hitting... repeat... our position...
>>Receiver: Jesus... are we hitting your position? (Off radio: Stop the fucking shelling! We're hitting our own guys!)
>>Sender: Negative! Hit... position.
>>Receiver: ... you want us to hit your position?
>>Sender: ...overrun... blast them!
>>Receiver: Negative, we cannot shell your position. We can send for another air strike if you want.
>>Sender: Negative, tree cover... thick... shell...
>>Receiver: We cannot shell your position. Please move somewhere I can hear you better.
>>Sender: ... is this better?
>>Receiver: Yes, thank God. What is your situation?
>>Sender: We have been completely overrun. Covenant are everywhere...get down! (Explosion) Suppressing fire! Suppressing fire! Just hit our position!
>>Receiver: Ok, artillery barrage on your position. What else do you need?
>>Sender: Ammo! Most of us are down to our last clips here! I've been nursing this clip for God only knows how long. And backup! I need some damn backup!
>>Receiver: Ok, one moment (pause). 1st Platoon is currently engaged elsewhere right now and 4th Platoon is only at half strength but 3rd Platoon is still a while from you. They are riding in on APC's now, how much longer can you hold out?
>>Sender: If they're not here in the next ten minutes... don't bother.
>End Transmission.
>Press Enter to Continue.
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THUMP! Another percussion grenade exploded into the enemy flanks stunning a few Grunts and a Brute. Glen jumped out of cover long enough to pop one of the grunts in the head and then ducked right back behind the tree he was using for cover. Although they tended to burn when hit by direct plasma fire they also tended to stop the spikes from the brutes weapons dead... but that was never a guarantee. The only reason that Staff Sergeant Glen Floury was hiding behind the tree was that all there wasn't anything else left to hide behind the Covenant had burnt everything else. The only thing that saved the trees was that there was so damn many of them.
"Filmore! Where the hell are you?" yelled Glen.
Filmore didn't answer at first and Glen was scared that he'd been hit without him noticing. With their corpsman already dead there wouldn't be much they could do but hold his hand while he died. There was nothing worse than watching a fellow marine die when there is nothing you can do to save them. However Filmore did answer eventually.
"When I know sir, you'll be the first person I tell."
Glen activated his microphone smiling. At least someone could keep up the humour in a situation like this.
"Red Squad, I need a sit rep."
As the other members of his squad called in Glen checked to see if anyone else had died since their last sit rep, then he winced when one more marine didn't call in. He then made contact with the other squad leaders and they exchanged figures. Glen did some quick sums and counted sixteen dead and five wounded, two of them looked like they'd die soon if they didn't get to a field hospital. Thinking back Glen remembered how this all started. They had been searching the jungle for any Covenant forces nearby. ONI satellites had reported Covenant dropships landing somewhere in these jungles and frankly no one wanted Covenant both on Station 6's front porch and back door so Dog Company was sent to hunt them down. It wasn't long before forward observers made contact with Covenant scout parties and the chase was on. For the first time in Glen's life his larger and more powerful force was chasing the weaker Covenant. It wasn't to last however as the scouting parties they were following lead them right into a ambush and soon Dog Company found themselves fighting for their lives in the sweltering heat. Glen should have known it wasn't fortune that allowed him to find the scouts but plain old bad luck. For three hours now they had been heavily engaged with the Covenant, unable to break away and becoming increasingly disorientated in the heavy jungle. In desperation they ordered an artillery barrage on the Covenant position to try and give them some cover under which they hoped to escape but this was not to be. The Covenant's ambush had been hastily organised and as a result their lines were intermingled with the human's which was good for them because it allowed them to score some easy kills with surrounded enemies but also prevented cohesive unit movement. Now Covenant and human forces wondered aimlessly through each other firing at anything that moved.
"For Christ sake!" Glen heard Staff Sergeant Potts yell over the radio "Are we being hit with our own damn artillery?"
"Well, well Potts. Isn't it nice of you to join our merry group again? And where the hell have you been all this time?" asked 2nd Lieutenant Crosshaw the highest ranking officer left.
The radio crackled twice before Potts responded. "Pinned down by the river. We tried to contact you but this damn jungle covering is too thick. All we got was static. Incidentally we can't contact 6 either and I was wondering if you can."
Crosshaw had to yell over gunfire on his end to be heard "We can't either but apparently Florey can. He must have better elevation than we do."
There was a brief pause in radio traffic while each speaker opened fire except Glen. He was out of ammunition for his assault rifle and he had lost his pistol in the mad scramble to reach the top of the hill before the Covenant so Glen now relied solely on his squad to cover him. Glen would have taken some ammunition from one of his soldiers but they had none to spare either and he did not want to put any of them out. At least he could be useful on the radio if he couldn't shoot.
Finally Potts said something "Glen, where the hell are you? I'd like to meet up and combine firepower."
"I'd tell you where I was if I knew." Glen yelled into the microphone, trying to be heard over the gunfire.
"But you don't." Potts finished the sentence for him "Well this is just great. Now what the hell are we going to do?"
THUMP! Another percussion grenade went off, this time too near Glen. Everything went white and all Glen could hear was a high pitched whine. Glen stumbled out into the open and quickly tried to get his bearings before he was shot. Suddenly his chest grew very hot and he felt a jab in his back as if someone had walked up behind him and jabbed him hard. At first the disorientation prevented Glen from establishing what it was but as the heat seared up his neck Glen realised he'd been hit with an overcharged plasma bolt. Glen tried to yell that he was hit but all that came out of his mouth was a hoarse moan. Glen collapsed.
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Jun watched the human fall to the ground. Part of his back plate had melted away where his plasma bolt had hit it and Jun could see a small fire starting. Before he could finish the job and fell the downed alien another of the monstrosities leapt out from cover and fired his way. While Jun cowered behind a rock to avoid an early grave the human dragged his fallen comrade away and deprived Jun of his kill. Not that this bothered Jun too much anyway. He had seen what a plasma pistols overcharge could do to human flesh and knew that the alien was dead anyway, maybe not yet but at least he would bleed out. Taking comfort in that Jun exposed his head and tried to find another target.
"Get back to the Warchief and tell him we need more soldiers!" a Jiralhanae somewhere roared at Jun.
Only too happy to oblige and leave the chaotic battlefield Jun stepped lively and ran back in the direction of HQ. Although Jun was happy to know he would be leaving the battle for now he also knew better than to let his guard down, this was for two reasons. The first one being that the aliens and their lines were too intermingled for anywhere to be safe, there was every possibility that a human was hiding right behind the next bush. The second being that after he had gathered reinforcements they would most likely send Jun to lead them to the hill and that meant rejoining the battle. As he waddled towards HQ an explosion shook Jun to his core and sent dirt piling on top of his head. Once the ringing had stopped Jun did a quick body check, head, torso, legs and arms (Jun knew it was unlikely he'd not realise losing them yet but it's better to be safe than sorry), then continued on his way. This was why they needed to take down the aliens on the hill. To stop them from communicating with the other aliens who were raining down this hatred upon them. Something Jun could fully understand. He wanted to stop worrying about dying at any given moment from an unseen enemy as much as any of the Jiralhanae did. Jun stopped for a moment to catch his breath. The massive tank on his back did not easily allow for speed, fighting, agility, flexibility or anything else that might be of use in combat but it did keep him alive with a healthy stream of methane. Something which made Jun very grateful at times and at other times very irritated. This was one of the irritated times. Finally Jun did make it back to the HQ and asked to see the Warchief.
"I have an important message for the Warchief!" Jun squeaked.
A muscular Jiralhanae warrior regarded him coldly "Wait here Unggoy while I see if the Warchief is too busy for the likes of you."
After waited what seemed an eternity Jun was told he would have to wait more before the Warchief would see him as he was too busy planning a new mode of attack against the humans. Although Jun knew his message was important for this he also knew how stupid it would be for him to interrupt the Warchief.
"The Warchief will see you now. This had better be important." Said a rather gruff looking Jiralhanae with a nasty scar scratched across his cheek.
While walking past the massive hulk Jun tried not to stare at the scar but, failing, he received blow to the back of the head while he past for his lack of restraint. Finally he was standing before the Warchief when suddenly he realised how much smarter it would have been to instead just give one of the Jiralhanae the message to pass on. Silently cursing himself Jun waited for the Warchief to speak. His iridescent golden armour sparkled in what light made it through the tree canopy overhead but the many blood stains ruined any beauty that the armour might have held otherwise. Through not nearly as much as the beast inside the armour did.
With a mouth that looked like it was stuck in a perpetual sneer the Warchief cried "Who is this pathetic creature with a message for me? This had better be of the utmost importance."
A thousand thoughts raced through Jun's mind all at once. He wondered if there was any way he could make his message sound important enough over the din of distance weapons clattering to make the Warchief spare his life. Realising there probably wasn't Jun started planning his own funeral and wondered if his mother would be there to see it. Jun wondered if the Warchief would leave enough left to see. This and a million other thoughts had all travelled through Jun's mind long before he heard the distant whine of an incoming mortar round. When he did hear it however only one last through went through Jun's mind before his body was blown into pieces was: 'I wonder what it's like back home right now?'
The mortar round crashed right into the middle of the Covenant HQ before anyone was able to react. The round killed off most of the Jiralhanae leadership including the Warchief instantly. Many others were left to bleed from shrapnel wounds.
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Specialist Alex Cornet loaded another of the massive rounds into the mortar gun and yelled coordinates to the man adjusting the angle. Alex knew she and the others were firing on friendly positions and they knew that they were killing friendlies. All she could hope for was that they were hitting more enemies than friendlies. She shrugged.
"Friendly fire's a bitch and so am I." She said to a laughing crew as another round tore through the air.
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"Frig! What was that!" yelled LCPL Joseph Light as an explosion tore into the ground in front of their APC's.
"Just a mortar round. One of ours." Replied 1st Lt David Scully, a hint of annoyance in his otherwise professional voice.
"How do you know it's one of ours?" Light asked.
Scully raised his eyebrows and didn't answer. Eventually someone in another APC yelled through the radio "'Cause it missed!"
This got a few chuckles out of the soldiers but the tension remained just as strong as it had been before. They were going into battle. Their comrades, soldiers they had fought and died with were in peril and they were their only hope. Lt Scully remained completely silent throughout the trip. He knew they were going into the known. There was very little Station 6 could tell them about 2nd Platoon's plight save that they were in a desperate situation, being shelled by friendlies and low on everything. Scully's mind began to wonder towards the massive metal creatures carrying them in. They would have to dismount from the APC's once the terrain became too dense, and it would, for the large and unwieldy vehicles to move through. Scully would have preferred warthog's to carry his troops in such an environment due to their ability to fit and fight in tight spaces but the ATV's could only hold so many troops and frankly Station 6 didn't have enough to put all of Scully's soldiers in the action. Luckily Scully had been smart enough to 'borrow' some of the warthogs so at least they'd have some mechanised support for the battle and a good way of evacuating the wounded without resorting to calling in a dropship.
Leaning forward to the soldier he was sitting knee to knee with Scully asked "Have you got the location yet?"
He had asked if Station 6 could use the radio transmissions from 2nd Platoon to triangulate their position but they had little luck so far. It was all that damn foliage. It blocked all radio signals coming in or out of the jungle and so made things maddeningly difficult. Scully knew that once they entered the forest they were most likely going to be on their own so he had come prepared by ensuring that each squad had someone with a high powered weapon in case they need their own mini barrage while in the jungle.
The soldier across from Scully shook his head sadly and replied "Nothing yet Lt, but I'll tell you the moment we get anything."
Scully frowned. A feat made even harder by the fact that he was already frowning seriously. "It'll be too late when we're in the jungle. Tell 6 that we need them to hurry up or else they're going to have two platoons lost in that hellhole."
The soldier nodded and went back to his radio. Scully sighed and went over his battle plans again checking to make sure that he had everything down pat. Any problem in such an isolated place and there was every chance that he'd be leading some of his soldiers to their graves, a fact which weighed very heavily on Scully.
Light smiled and asked "So, we're just gunna go in there and blow their asses off right?"
"Yea, that's right Lance Corporal," replied Scully smiling "then its back home for dinner and medals."
Taken aback by his sudden change in demeanour Light didn't have a chance to respond before Scully's attention was stolen back by the soldier across from him again.
"Sir! 6 just got back to me. They have the location and are sending coordinates right now."
Scully breathed a sigh of relief. This was going to make his job much easier. Rather than having to head to 2nd Platoons last known position and work from there they could just head to the general area they were now saving time and, more importantly, lives.
"Tell them I said thanks." Said Scully.
"I will sir."
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"Lieutenant Scully sends his regards."
1st Lieutenant Tom Lucas smiled weakly and replied "Tell him he's welcome to call anytime."
Although he was very strained Lucas had to maintain a positive outlook. He was the voice on the other end of the line for all the marines so it was his job to be light when necessary and serious at all other times. It was a difficult job and it was not uncommon to be yelled at in the normal course of his day but it felt good to be the only link between the marines and their much needed support.
"Hello? Potts? This is 6. Help is on the way. I repeat. Help is on the way. Can you hold out for much longer?"
Lucas waited for a response of any kind but the only reply that he got was a burst of static.
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