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Long Time Gone Part 6
Posted By: grylsy<grylsy@hotmail.com>
Date: 11 December 2003, 6:36 AM


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Long Time Gone Part 6: Locked, Cocked and Ready To Rock...

The tank's track clatter got louder and louder, Chris stood there with Alison's unconscious body in his arms and Chamber stood next to him. Chambers had the MP .357 held awkwardly across his chest as he peered into the darkness; Chris had a 9MM in his pocket.

"What the fuck are we gonna do now?" ask Chambers, staring up the street, he could almost smell the exhaust fumes... "Must be an old tank, still uses combustion engine" replied Chris, he continued, "Well we should probably bunker down until it passes and keeps going." Chambers nodded in reply.

Then came the sound of boots scraping across a loose gravel road, Chambers turned, and there was the worst sight he ever saw, five fully armed Rebels right behind them with their mixed assortments of weapons. Chris just jumped to one side out of the way, Chambers jammed down on the trigger of his sub-machine gun, click the weapon didn't fire, either it was jammed or faulty ammunition was loaded, Chambers just stood there, the Rebels had big grins on their faces, an easy kill on their minds. Chris looked around the corner of the alleyway he was hiding in, "ah, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!!" Chris yelled drawing his pistol, BANG BANG BANG BANG, BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!! Chris' pistol's emptied a whole clip into the five Rebels the first four shots were head shots killing the first four rebels and the last ELEVEN shots were in frustration at the last Rebel, ten rounds hit him in the chest, sending him sprawling with every shot, then the last bullet hit him in the head sending a spray of blood out the back of his head. Chambers just stood there, "for Christ sakes, did you have to do that to him?" Chris didn't answer, he hit the magazine release and the magazine dropped to the floor with a clang, he then placed one of the two spares into the gun and hit the slide release, it raced forward dragging a fresh round into the chamber.

If Chris had looked close enough at the magazine on the ground he would have saw a grey stripe around it, representing standard ball point 'Full Metal Jacket' rounds, but the magazine he put into his gun had ORANGE stripe around it, representing a very special kind of bullet as they would find out later.

Chambers threw the now useless sub-machine gun away, he half-crouched ran over to the dead rebels... avoiding the one full of holes, he grabbed one of the MA5Bs off the Rebels and went to throw Chris one when a shell exploded above their heads. Chris then saw what they had been trying to see before the Rebels had came behind them, it was the tank, and it was an extremely old one too. Its rusted armour didn't look like it could withstand a popgun attack, at each joint it was welded roughly; this thing had been held together with spit and prayers.

Chris sat there next to Alison, his only defence was a small 9 MM pistol, hmm not much to put up a fight with he thought just as Chambers landed next to him as another shell exploded right next to them.
"Got to do something about that tank McAllen", cried Chambers leaning around the corner, a sharp TWANG made him think twice about that, "we got company!" He continued, "About 20 Rebels." "Shit!" Came Chris' reply, no where to run and only an assault rifle and a pistol, well three pistols but two were empty, to fight with. "Swap sides", said Chris moving up to the edge of the alley, he stuck his head around, he saw several Rebels coming towards them whilst others ran along side the tank that was SLOWLY moving towards them.

Might as well give it a shot thought Chris looking at his handgun, he then jumped out, he pulled the trigger once, only expecting the light recoil of FMJ 9mm x 19 rounds, Chris didn't have much of grip on the little firearm. The gun went off, it almost flew out of Chris hands but he managed to hold onto pistol, the orange cased round flew through the air at an impressive speed of 2,030 feet per second; the usual 9MM only has a speed of 1,132 feet per second. The super fast round crashed into a Rebels head, Chris watched as time begun to slow down, the bullet entered the Rebels head and a millisecond later it exploded! Chris stopped, what the fuck? thought Chris, he looked down at the empty casing, it had an orange band painted around the rim, he picked it up and went behind the corner, reading the inscription near the primer cap, it read, '9mm high explosive armour piercing round' "good god," he breathed. Chambers saw Chris wasn't shooting so he went to the corner and ducked out firing the whole 60 round magazine into the oncoming Rebels. "Michael check this out!" yelled Chris above the gun fire, holding the orange rimmed bullet casing between his fingers. Chambers squinted looking at the round, "hey!" he said, "those are the same type of rounds used in M6Ds, but of course they are a different calibre". "Ah, ok" came Chris' reply, who didn't really care about that, only the fact of how powerful ammunition had gotten.

Chris swapped sides with Michael again, taking the corner, he leant out and fired an extended burst; 4 maybe 5 rounds into the oncoming Rebels. Chris took one final shot, at the tank! His pistol belched flame and a 9mm x 19 HEAP round hit the tank's left track at it's weakest point, the metal joint joining the tracking together, its rusted exterior exploded under the explosive power of the HEAP round. The crew didn't seem to notice as they kept moving forward, but the left track was no longer attached to the vehicle, it simply heaped up and front of the left track's forward jockey wheel. Soon the entire length of track was in a straight line behind the vehicle, with no left track to drive on the big tank began to turn leftwards. BANG! Came the sound of the tank hit the side of one of the houses in the street. The left hand side of the tank was submerged in the near-by house and its bow machine-gun was now useless, only the turret mounted cannon was of any use.

Chris briefed a sigh of relief as the tank couldn't get any closer, but a bullet smacking into the wall next to his head made him think again, they still had the remaining Rebels to deal with. Chris ducked back around the corner, firing the remaining bullets in the clip at the Rebels. The gun clicked, slide slid back... empty, he struggled to put his last magazine into his gun. Chris leant back around the corner and quickly counted no less than 19 Rebels remained. "Chambers, I don't think we're gonna make it, buddy," Said Chris wiping the sweat from his forehead. Chambers didn't say anything, and then all of a sudden he looked up, "what is i..." Chris didn't finish his sentence as Michael went "SHHH!" very loudly. Chris listened, he could here a rumble of engines far away, Chambers gave Chris the thumbs up and a reassuring smile, "no, we are gonna make it buddy!"

Circling at 1000 feet was a lone Pelican Drop Ship, the insertion vehicle of the Marines, capable of carrying 12 fully armed Marines and one vehicle. Inside the drop ship were twelve Coalition troopers, in full kit and wearing night operation gear, jet black boots, jet black helmets, jet back vest, jet black everything! Even black camouflage paint over there faces; except the African-Americans soldiers of course.

The ship did a low pass over the area where Chris, Chambers, Alison and the Rebels were, the Rebels, spotting a bigger target quickly began firing small arms at the ship. In the ship, the groups Sargeant, gave one of his men a nod, the soldier nodded back, he reached to the floor and open one of the many samsonite containers in the back with the soldiers. The lid was opened and the Soldier began piecing some various components from the box together, in five seconds flat the Trooper had; lock, cocked and was ready to rock, a SPNKr (nick named the 'Spanker' by it's users). The SPNKr was a portable 103mm Shaped Charge firing missile launcher; whilst slow in flight it made up for its speed with a serious high-explosive blast.

The trooper hefted it onto his shoulder nodding again to the Sargeant, the Sargeant shouted something to the ships pilot, and it could not even be heard by the men next to him, the pilot said something back in response and the ship turned to the left. The Troopers grabbed the complementary hand rails for balance as everything took a sharp forty-five degree turn, coming back for another low run. The ship straightened out and the Troopers relaxed their grip, the ship thundered over the Rebel tank with a sonic boom, "NOW" screamed the Sargeant, the SPNKr carrying Trooper raised the weapon to his shoulder firing the two rockets at Various parts of the tank, even travelling at such speed the trooper had gotten off a good shot as the first rocket went high detonating above the tank sending lumps of cement and wood flying, a large room support beam landed on the Commander's and AA Machine gunner's exit hatches. Sealing the tank, most tanks would have a forward drivers hatch but this did not unfortunately. The Second rocket how ever finished the job, the projectile pierced the ancient armour detonating in the forward ammunition store, and the tanks turret flew into the air with an almighty BANG!

Flames erupted all over the disabled vehicle, engulfing the houses next to it and forming a barricade across the street blocking the Rebels behind the tank on the far side of the fire. Chris took a deep breath, "I'd like to shake that man's hand" he said aloud, "me too" came Chambers' voice. The Pelican came around for one last run this time instead of rockets being launched they shot MA5B assault rifles at the cut off Rebels, it was all over in a few seconds, bloody heaps of human flesh which had once represented a human beings stood, well lay where the Rebels had been only a few seconds ago. With it's job done the Pelican hovered, and then gracefully landed in the narrow street way, "Go, Go, GO!" were the only words the Black Clad Soldiers said as they moved out of their ship, guns up, eyes open and itchy trigger fingers, the teams Sargeant moved forward in his completely black battle gear, Chris saw the mans Insignia on his armour's shoulder plate, it was a picture of a Snake wrapped around a thorny tree representing it's toughness, under it though were the words "Shock Troop, 1st Brigade," Chris thought to himself, Well the Brigadier did say they were stationed on Reach, but they must have had more ex-Marines like him-self going to Reach in a few days as well . The Sargeant walked up, "welcome to hell boys!" Were the only things he said...





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