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home turf advantage: 2nd chapter
Posted By: mark25
Date: 14 July 2005, 5:58 pm
Read/Post Comments
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Wrong, It had all gone wrong.
The four Sangheili soldiers raced towards the crew of escape pod; zero-four-two riding on banshees', each of them eager to get their first kill on the newly found ring planet Halo, a little too eager perhaps; the shots rang out from off the ridge and there were only three 'elites' left, Edkamay'Mee; assigned as scout leader lead the charge, he dropped his head low into his banshee and the other two followed suit.
"Uckley'Charr has disgraced himself by measly sniper fire, the fool!".
Price and Davies were on the left side, Price looked in horror, the elites had ducked low into their vehicles, he could see that Aziz was not able to get a good shot and that they were closing the gap all the time, he made a rash move and Davies could not hold him back, he ran some way out of his cover and began firing at them side on, unpinned a grenade and threw it at the forward moving convoy, it landed some short distance to their left but it did the trick and drew some attention; with little warning, one banshee turned and boosted right for him.
It was no use, the plasma cannons struck their target, as Price tried to scramble for cover, the banshee hit him, knocking him to the ground, Davies flanked the banshee, threw a grenade a little forward of it and began firing, the elite, upon hearing the firing of the new enemy turned the banshee on the spot of the grenade, the explosion ripped through the floor of the hovering vehicle and managed to take some flesh off the elite's lower body, Davies did not need a second invitation, he moved in for the kill.
The two remaining elites jumped up and over the ridge blind, their eagerness getting the better of them making them totally unaware of the threat, Costa slammed the one elite right in the face with the butt of his rifle, the banshee the elite was riding slid down the bottom of the ridge, Reed finished him off with a short round of gunfire, the remaining elite's attempt to get back up and over the ridge to his reinforcements, was shortlived, Sergeant Johnson had eyed the banshees turn, Edkamay'Mee's last vision was of muzzle flash and a deafening sound.
Aziz was still dishing out sniper fire to the remaining covenant force, most of the grunts had gone down without a fight, only the jackals with their keen eyesight were a problem, Johnson was surpised to find Reed had improvised and used the banshee to take out what was left of the enemy platoon,
"How in god's name do you know how to fly one of those things Reed?"
"I had a KZ one-thousand back home sir, this things just a little bit different s'all"
They all heard the screams from Davies, Price was laying on the ground holding a muted medscan, after he began passing it over his body, the initial words of "multiple organ failure and rupturing" had been enough, Davies thinking that perhaps the medscan wasn't working dug out his own and began the same routine,
"No, don't"
Came the wheezy reply from Price, with the whole crew now around him his eyes began to well up, it was not something he could stop, he clutched at the earth with his hands grasping large clumps of dirt and grass and began to sob as best as his lungs would allow, it didn't matter anymore, no more need for a brave front, it would not be long now, he looked at his watch, it would be about seven in the morning in birmingham give or take time distortion wise, Lou would just be getting up to go to work he thought.
"I don't wanna be here sarge"
Price cried as he looked around, it wasn't home it was a tomb, all the colours lost their appeal and became sinister, the wind felt like it knew a secret that it wasn't about to tell, the people around him he did not know, he couldn't think straight and now he couldn't see straight, his senses left him in disorientation, he couldn't find the words to make anything have any meaning, and then... he wasn't thinking at all.
The sarge became mesmerised by the vacant look in Price's eyes, a hand on his shoulder woke sergeant Johnson from his nightmare.
"Sir, we should really make a move, that firefight we just had won't go unnoticed for long"
Davies was right, Johnson began to remove Price's dogtags and say his prayer.
"Sir you know he wouldn't like ...."
Davies did not get a chance to finish, Johnson jumped right in.
"This shit I'm saying is for my piece of mind Davies, now back off ok!"
Johnson felt that he had been a bit harsh,
"We'll talk about it later if we get a chance, organise the men,"
Davies bent down and took Price's wedding ring off,
"He told me to give it back to his wife if anything ever happened, said she'd know what it meant"
Both men now stared into the distance, unaware from where they stood of what life had instore for them, an almost crippling fear gripped them, neither of them said a word, Johnson continued his prayer in silence, Davies moved away and motioned the rest of the men to their positions.
Fidelity, under nightsky camouflage and with minimal heat expulsion slowly moved towards Halo, most of the space fight had finished and the destroyers were manouveuring into a systems check formation, Commander Arden wanted to strike the vessels while they were prone but he knew it would be suicide, his mind turned to the matter at hand;
"Louise what can we do to help the Pillar's crew without being detected?"
"Nothing!"
Came the reply,
"What about when the covenant relay data it has to come from somewhere and I'm guessing it will be that ship there."
Arden pointed at the central ship in the system check formation on his TRS;
"It translates as the Truth and Reconciliation, commander,a class 3 destroyer, it's possible."
The a.i construct; Louise did not want to encourage Arden to get involved
"Is the relay data encrypted?"
"That will not be an issue."
"Then do it, bounce the signal off that class 5 thats closer to Halo, dripfeed the input otherwise that platinum down there will get suspicious, I want to help these guys out but not at the expense of our own safety, keep an eye on it, let me know what its doing"
"it is female sir, female,"
Louise wanted to elaborate on the differences between the sexes of a.i constructs, but she felt that he neither wanted to know or cared, the memory of him calling her a holographic toaster that just doesn't toast resurfaced in her neural pathways.
"What about Sigma concept?"
Louise did not fully understand the question,
"They are to be taken home and used as a template for the new spartan program, since Dr Denton's demise and the loss of several data files on Gemini, we do not have all the information in replicating them back on earth, thus they cannot afford to be destroyed in some fruitless endeavor of yours to help the crew of a doomed carrier ship, I will officially go on record and state that you are not fit to be commander."
At hearing this Arden lost his rag, the crew were secretly listening in while pretending to go about their business, Arden could tell as the room had suddenly become silent.
"In my office Louise now!"
Louise transferred herself into his office
"Who the fuck do you think you am huh?, you cheeky neon bitch, huh, huh!"
Louise lay her cards on the table,
"Commander with all due respect I am the facility through which this ship operates, without me you would be blind and senseless and would not have got off Gemini alive, now those seven spartans in stasis and the files of Dr Denton are all we have left of the project, without such technology we would have to make do with the plants left on Alpha Prime and Earth, they need us to supply them with the most up to date spartans there are, and right now thats what we have, they haven't been properly tested, Dr Denton said so himself, that they were not ready and needed work."
"And just how do you suppose we get the fucking resources we need huh? Think they're gonna float up here to us, I'm not losing another man from this ship, they go, final."
"Then my proposal that you be removed from active duty will be declared absolute and you will stand trial when we get back".
"Fine, your proposal has been duly noted, return to your duties".
He would pull her plug when the time was right, he looked at the top draw of his desk, inside was a gold construct, not as well made, not as intelligent, but it would still do as it was told just in case the current one needed to go offline, and Arden felt that soon, it would need to go offline.
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