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The Shadows - Part 4: Preparing for Reach
Posted By: Glenny<CalKid07@aol.com>
Date: 10 September 2002, 3:20 am
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NOTE: This chapter in the series has no fighting scene or anything, just showing the preparation for the actual battle (which will be in Part 5)..
The remaining eleven Shadows had regrouped into one of their own shuttles and headed to Reach. There they went to their secret HQ and awaited further instructions. All they were told on their upcoming mission was that they'd be assisting the Spartans secretly. Word had it that the Spartans were already in the ship known as the Pillar of Autumn and heading out. Just a minute ago they heard on a radio that the Pillar of Autumn was about to make the jump out of the system to start the mission.
The Shadows were resting in their headquarters in their own private underground bunker far off of the main Reach facilities. Most of them were allowing their wounds to heal up, especially Josh. Josh had suffered from several deep cuts and internal bruises that he could barely walk without everything beginning to hurt extremely bad. Mike had suffered from his shoulder popping out of the socket when he had jumped from the ledge and saved by Castor, but medics placed it back into place successfully. All he had to do right now is deal with the pressure and pain. He was taking his mind off of it, polishing his custom sniper rifle and fixing up a few modifications. Willie was icing down his legs. From all the explosions he barely escaped, his legs took quite a beating and they were extremely sore. Cameron was hardly injured, just a few internal bruises from explosions during the escape. Castor was practically not hurt at all. He suffered from only a few scratches and bruises. He was walking around talking to everyone about the mission and keeping their spirits up.
As he was ending a conversation with Willie, a beeping sound was heard...a transmission was coming in from the Navy Intelligence. Their AI, known as Havok, loaded the message onto their viewing monitor...and it was not what they expected. Instead of giving them their instructions on their awaited mission, it canceled that mission. Josh made a wise crack about how they were finally on time, but only a few laugh as they read on. The message was saying that large objects were headed through Slip Stream space in the direction of Reach, the same type of objects that headed to Sigma Octanus. Everyone got the message: Reach was going to be invaded.
Instead of some type of mission to board a ship, they had another objective: Stay on the service of Reach and act as if they were part of the Marines. If they can't act as Marines, they were supposed to at least help with the effort to defend Reach on the planet itself since a ground invasion was likely. The Shadows reluctantly accepted the task and suited up in their strongest armor...today was going to be one of those days. As soon as they were ready, they split up into four of their modified Warthogs and headed to the main area of Reach where an attack would most likely take place.
Less Than An Hour Later
"Thats the signal...the Covenant invasion on the ground is taking place. Everyone get ready!" Castor yelled out to his Shadows. They told the Marines that they were part of the Shock Troopers who were running a camp outside of the main facilities. Now they had a small zone of their own to worry about. There were towers, bunkers, and foxholes with rail guns, chain guns, turrets, the works. Artillery was set up ahead of time and is ready to go. All of these defenses, except the towers of course, were hidden under camouflage cover...allowing a sort of ambush when the Covenant got close. Most of the towers were rigged with explosives, in case they had to retreat and blow up some Covenant.
Mike looked through his 20x sniper scope into the horizon...
"Yup, that's got to be at least a thousand shuttles," he stated.
Castor sighed. "This is going to be one hell of a fight. Might as well make it a good one."
Mike gave out a small laugh. "Define a good fight for me."
"A good fight, to me, is when the winner gains respect for the loser and the battle is close the whole way. We know the Covenant don't respect us, and we certainly don't respect them," Castor replied.
Mike said back to him,"Whatever man. This is just going to be brutal."
Josh had put extra strength pain reliever in his system so his pain wouldn't keep him from doing different tasks. Cameron was sitting in a Warthog, with Mike in the passenger seat and Willie on the gun. Castor was up in a tower on the frontlines, looking out at the shuttles about 3000 yards away landing their troops. There must have been at least 250 shuttles, meaning a lot more enemies to fight then they could handle. Castor looked side to side down the human's lines of defense...maybe up to 2 to 3,000 Marines spread out along a few miles each way. Their lines of defense were filled with foxholes, sandbag bunkers, burried bunkers, sniper towers, turrets, and machine gun towers. There were also a lot of tanks and other vehicles. A transmission came in saying that the Human air fighters would be in the air shortly. Castor looked out at the Covenant again through the binoculars...Banshees were being deployed and piloted.
About 1/3 of the total amount of Marines stationed themselves in all the defenses. The other 2/3 of them gathered about 100 yards in front of the defensive lines, getting ready to meet the Covenant's attack away from the lines of defense. This would give time to allow high officials to be evacuated from Reach, and delay the Covenant advancement a great deal from the Power Generators allowing the Orbital MAC guns to work. The generator they were defending was one of the main ones, so the battle was going to be large. Mike headed up to a tower with his custom sniper rifle to already start sniping Covenant. A shuttle came down and dropped off some reinforcements...the rest of the Spartans had come to help out and they joined the counter attack force. The rest of the Shadows joined the marines in front of the defensive line, ready to meet the attack.
The Marines began to march toward the area where the Covenant landed, taking their time to save energy. Warthogs were also going slowly behind the Marine lines, and tanks behind the Warthogs. Cameron was driving one of the Warthogs, with Willie in the gunner and Castor in the passenger seat. Josh was in the front of the entire counter-attack force, with two new large daggers handing on his belt and a custom Assault Rifle strapped around his back. Nobody was stupid, they knew that they weren't going to win this battle. Their motivation was that they were going to die either way, and to die while killing Covenant was better than dying while running and hiding. The Covenant came into good view, about 500 yards away now. They too were marching forward in a large herd like movement, with a Gold Elite standing in front to lead. And everyone knew it was about to go down...
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