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Its Just One of Those Days (Prologue: 03)
Posted By: Elfster<briane@teleport.com>
Date: 20 July 2003, 12:00 AM
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He awoke in a hunched over position with a bad headache and an ache in his lower back. Looking around, he tried to get up but his feet were also sore, and his back wasn't taking it well either. He crawled into the middle of his cell before collapsing and looking around.
The room had a metalic purple glint to it, with a metal bench along the back wall, he guessed for sleeping, but he would get no sleep tonight, he knew.
A wall of blue plasma, white at the edges, seperated him from the rest of the room, and the rest of the prisoners. He could see out of it but things were a little fuzzy. The room outside of his cell was dark metallic purple, large, had other holding cells similar to his, with many Covenant guards.
He counted 3 sleeping grunts at the front of the room by the door. Two of them wore goldish yellow environmental suits, while the third wore red. Then he noticed two more of them patrolling the room, both adorned the common yellow armor.
He wasn't quite sure why one was red but he guessed it was some sort of leader among the five of them. Either way, none of them were very dangerous, but five of them together could probably wound a marine or two before the group went down.
Not that it mattered, the only other prisoners were 3 marines, all Sargeants. A few grunts would be a cakewalk.
As for the rest he wasn't so sure; an Elite in golden armor with a plasma sword sat at the end of the room, glaring at the prisoners, it seemed to be guarding a holo pannel on the back wall. That pannel probably controlled the cell doors, he thought.
There were no other guards as far as he knew, except for every once in a while he would notice a strange blur go by. He suspected that there were also stealth elites in the room, between the Grunts and the Elite Commander. It was rumoured that stealth Elites always travelled in pairs, like Hunters.
Summing it up, there was a small squad of five grunts, the leader and two others resting, while the remaining 2 patrolled, 2 Stealth Elites partolled the middle of the room with an Elite Commander in gold armor at the back with a plasma sword..... Against 3 un-armed marines plus 1 un-armed UNSC ship Captain the odds weren't great.
He noted that the golden Elite was scarcely paying attention, and was on the verge of sleep, while the two grunts that weren't asleep often got easily distraced and would stop and chat in their own little language, or study the prisoners.
As for the Stealth Elites, he couldn't tell, but the blurs were fast and persistant, they were the first big threat, they would easily spot any attempt to escape and wake the other 6 Covenant guards. However, he also knew that Steath Elites sacrificed their shields, because the their armor only had the power to either generate shields, or mirror their environment, not both.
Also it was rumoured that the golden Elites had shields that were three times as strong as normal Elites. They could easily turn near-invisible like the Stealth Elites and still have a double-strength shield, but guessed they didn't because of honor; study of the Elites showed that most were very honor-bound....
With the obvious exeption of the Stealth Elites, of course.
He then crawled back into the corner, hunched over, and thought of a way to escape.
____________________________________________________________
"How are we gonna get inside the ship if it's in the air? I don't even have a rifle, let alone wings." complained Johnson.
"Bullshit, Sarge said you almost blew up half the squad earlier, and suspended your weapon privilages!"
(Once again, partial credit goes to RvB for that line)
"There's a grav. lift that carries troops and supplies between the ship and the surface, thats our ticket in!"
The Pelican's engines roared as it landed on the rocky plateu
"GOGOGO! The Corps ain't payin us by the hour!"
5 Marines - Sarge, Bisenti, Johnson, Jenkins, and Stacker jumped off the Pelican and stationed themselves around the area as the Cheif spotted a nice sniper spot or two, then crouched behind a tree, turned on night vision and scoped in on the first line of Covenant defense.
There was a stationary turret that was being manned by a grunt, with 3 Covenant patrolling near it; Another grunt, an Elite, and a Jackal.
Grinning, he got his sights on the grunt in the turret and squeezed the trigger.
____________________________________________________________
A loud crack rang out on the plateu, along with a scream and a loud thumping sound.
He whipped around and saw neon blood all over a Shade, along with a motionless grunt with a hole through it's head sitting at the controls. The other grunt was trembling, hopping up and down screaming and pointing at the body.
Crouching and lowering his shield into position, he fit his plasma pistol through the slot in the shield and began scanning the area when another crack rang out and everything went black.
____________________________________________________________
Zooming back in he saw exactly what he wanted to see:
A dead grunt at the controls of a Shade, a Jackal with a hole through it's head, another Grunt retreating, and an Elite turning around to see what all the noise was.
He knew he wouldn't have much time before the Elite called for reinforcements.
Just as the Elite whipped around, he squeezed the trigger and it's head exploded in a burst of purple blood.
He also knew it wouldn't be long before he was discovered.
Quickly, he rolled to the right of the tree, crouched, and took out a grunt before diving behind a boulder and reloading. When he was done, he peeked around the corner and spotted the last real Covenant soldier here - A lone Jackal frantically scanning the area and trying to run at the same time.
He got his sights on the Jackals head when...
The Jackal tripped on a rock right as he pulled the triger, causing him to miss. The Jackal quickly rolled over and spotted him.
"Shit! Marines, move in!" he yelled.
But it was too late, the Jackal had also called for reinforcements.
The marines moved in and eliminated the three Grunts and the Jackal as more Covenant came in.
He noted that the only way the Covenant could get here was through a small chokehole with a Covenant stationary turret positioned right next to it.
Zooming in on the chokehole he waited for them to come.
Sure enough, the first through was an Elite, who's head soon blew off in a purple fountain.
Puting the sniper rifle back on his back, and pulling out his assualt rifle he strafed over to the turret while firing, he killed 2 grunts and wounded one before he got there.
Pushing a dead grunt out of the turret he hopped in as the rest of the 6-grunt squad came down the path. He opened fire as the 3 grunts were shredded and vaporized by the triple plasma blasts.
It wasn't over yet, though, as a small squad of Jackals came down right after - 2 with Blue shields and 1 with a Gold shield.
They crouched and raised their shields as the two blue-shielded Jackals held position and fired.
Their shields didn't hold very long, but it gave their leader all the time it needed to dive behind a boulder as the second one went down. Before he could react the lone Jackal charged it's pistol and released.
He swung the turret around and began to fire, but it was too late. Just as the turret recoiled from the shot, the bolt hit, sending him flying out of the turret and onto the ground.
"Damn man, I just had this thing washed." All the Marines laughed as they moved up the path to the next line of Covenant defense.
____________________________________________________________
As he continued to stare out of the transparent wall that seperated him from the outside world, he noticed some sort of conversation between the Golden Elite and....
Nobody, it appeared to be talking to itself, or, more likely, through some sort of radio. Human understanding of Covenant language was little, but this is what he managed to translate from the gibberish:
"Sir, ew tsuj lost contact h'tiw units one through fifteen, ecruos unknown!"
"Tahw! Retreat half fo enil two...."
He couldn't translate anything beyond that, but he didn't need to, he knew what was happening... He nodded to the marine in the cell opposite him, who nodded back.
____________________________________________________________
"Nice shot!" Yelled Johnson as the Cheif picked off the last of the Covenant guarding the next area.
Strapping his rifle onto his back and pulling out his assualt rifle again, he ran along between the edge of the plateu and a cliff that rose up about 8 feet off the ground.
Once he got around he scanned the area:
The area looked like a big ditch, the center was the lowest part, with the cliff he had been walking around rising up from it to the right, and the ground to the left slanted up but met a rock wall. The only way out was another meager path that went along the edge of the plateu.
The area was also occupied with a squad of five grunts and an Elite, who were now charging in his direction.
He dove behind cover and called to his Marines over the radio:
"Johnson, Sarge, Reverse triangle with me on the Elite, the rest of you circle around and flank the Grunts!"
They all knew what the reverse triangle was...
He rolled out from behind the boulder he was hiding behind and shot two small bursts at the Elite to distract it while the Marines moved around back, killing grunts on the way.
The Elite turned to him and fired a small burst from his plasma rifle, then, Johnson and Sarge crouched infront of him, making a triangle, and started firing.
The Elite was distraced for a moment and began firing at either of them as they both rolled in opposite directions so that they would switch positions. As they did this he pointed his assualt rifle at the Elite and put it on full automatic.
Now the Elite's attention was back on him, as the two Marines finished their rolls they did the same.
Bullets fired from all three directions all of the sudden, and the Elite's shields were ripped apart.
It dropped on the ground behind a small dirt hill and then, as it started to blindly fire pulses of plasma at the three, three more streams of bullets hit in in the back. Confused, it stood up and turned around and saw three more marines firing at him, as he also felt the first three firing again.
All the grunts had been killed and he was now outnumbered and flanked. His shields couldn't hold against the six streams of bullets and quickly gave way. He would not die by the hands of these primitive infidels. Rage built up in him, he crouched, took out a plasma grenade, triggered it, then held it in his fist as he charged towards one of the groups and roared a battle cry that echoed throughout the night as an explosion rocked him, blue mist filled his vision and his body was incinerated.
The front two marines dove out of the way, but the center marine was backed up against a wall and was caught in the blast.
Then 3 grunts ran down the hill and hopped around nervously as they fired small bursts out of their plasma pistols, managing to land each shot 2 meters away from their targets, their fragile bodies soon torn apart by the rifle fire.
The 6 - now 5 - marines gathered in a group - Johnson, Sarge, Master Cheif, Stacker, and Jenkins.
"Dammit..."
"There's nothing we can do but make sure Bisenti didn't die in vein... Let's move marines!"
____________________________________________________________
"Your Highness, the Humans are making their way to the gravity lift, it seems. They have destroyed all our defenses except for the last line before the lift, and the lift defenses itself."
"Send more reinforcements to the last line, and also send more to the gravity lift. And have Omega report to the gravity lift immediatly and send them down on my mark."
"Sir, we only have one dropship on standby right now, it will take us some time to ready a second, but I will make sure we get it as fast as possible."
"Very well... very well..."
____________________________________________________________
"Alert! Covenant dropships are inbound!"
"Man, it's always somethin'."
"Damn, as if this wasn't enough already!"
They had just gotten through a hard battle with 4 Jackals, five stationary turrets, and a red Elite, but made it.
Sure enough, a Covenant dropship flew by, turned and decelerated until it came to a stop, then lowered itself to the ground as two troop bays opened, reveiling a squad of four grunts, two Jackals, and two Elites.
He fired a few short bursts into one of the Elites, then threw a plasma grenade into their midst which took out 2 Grunts and a Jackal, and wounded another grunt.
He charged a Blue elite, while firing a 10-round burst into it, significantly weakening it's shields.
As soon as it was within range, it swung it's rifle down, but he rolled to the side and swung his rifle into it's leg. It fell down on one knee, and he swung again, But it jumped up in time and before he could react it swung it's rifle down on his head. As it came down, he did a backwards summersualt and then charged forward and hit it in the gut, sending it sprawling to the ground. He pulled out his sniper rifle and put it out of it's missery. The only forces left from the dropship were one Jackal and a Red Elite. The Jackal was holding it's own against the Marines but he knew that it would only last a few seconds. The Elite roared and charged him, but this time he knew what to expect, he easily dodged it and swung his rifle into it's back as hard as he could. It flew through the air a yard and a half, then hit the ground and skidded to the edge of the plateu. It started to try and save itself, but couldn't recover fast enough from the hit and fell to it's doom.
____________________________________________________________
The Elite hadn't stopped talking for quite a long time and he began to try and translate again, whatever they were talking about it must have been important, besides the fact that the worst bad-asses in the Marine Corps were kicking their asses. After about five minutes he deciphered something about a Halo... and after the next few minutes after that he noted something about a weapon and a search, then gave up again as sleep dragged at his body.
____________________________________________________________
"Cortana to Echo 419, we've cleared the Gravity lift and are ready for reinforcements!"
"Roger that Cortana, I'm on my way."
"Once we get inside the ship I should be able to lock onto Captain Keyes' neural implants, He should be in or near the ship's brig which should narrow our search."
The three marines left hopped onto the dropship as five more marines got off and jogged to the grav lift. The only marine that stayed was Johnson.
"Sleep isn't in your vocabulary is it?" he joked.
"No, but saving your ass from freaky hybrid-cyborg-Covenant is."
They both laughed and jumped onto the lift.
____________________________________________________________
He awoke with a start as gunfire and plasma filles the air. He didn't know how long he had been asleep, he didn't even know how long he had been here, every moment had been the same except for the ever accelerating need to sleep, which he had been ignoring best he could.
Looking out the fuzzy plasma wall he could see a battle taking place, four dead grunt bodies littered the floor along with one pale-blue colored Elite. Continous plasma fire came from only one blur, and the red grunt, while the Golden Elite was dueling with something. Trying to get a better view of the fight, he saw the Elite fall and a dark figure take something off of it. In the dark end of the room where they had been fighting he saw a plasma sword ignite, and in the dim blue light he could make out a tall emerald figure holding it.
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