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The Fall of Fate: Aftermath
Posted By: 'Nosolee<crugg2003@optonline.net>
Date: 5 May 2003, 11:47 PM
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Wkehu 'Drrana, commander of squad three-twenty-one, surveyed the disastrous scene. Piles of bodies lay heaped in various places spattered with blood, both Human and Covenant; some corpses were charred beyond the point of recognition. 'Drrana himself was bruised and burnt. His golden armor was scarred and battered; the sharp edges of his shark-like helmet were dulled. There were hundreds of human casualties, but far more Covenant deaths; thirty thousand to be exact. Whatever humans were left fled the scene in their flying metal birds; the few Covenant that were left, however, had no means of escaping the graveyard of fallen comrades. 'Drrana himself felt as if he had just passed into the gates of hell. The whole scene had changed from beautiful green fields to a fiery blazing hell—when Fate, the destroyer, fell from the sky.
Fate was a Covenant destroyer-class battle cruiser and was stationed on the edge of the human city of Hammonton on the colony planet, Ucundus, named after the cruiser that located it. Ucundus was a small planet, smaller than Earth, about the size of the planet Mercury. Ucundus was located in the Orion 3 system, and was the only habitable planet in the system. The Orion 3 system was part of the outer colonies.
Fate was accompanied by only two Seraph fighters, no other major cruisers. Fate was there so the Covenant fighters to find what...who they wanted and then pull out to glass the planet. Unfortunately, the vile humans caught sight of Fate before the Covenant could dispatch a camouflaged team to investigate the secretes beneath the ground of Ucundus.
The Covenant leadership, the Prophets, had ordered the crew of Fate to make a quick retrieval of the artifacts the ancients had left buried under Ucundus, some sort of mysterious room concerning a group of ring-like constructs. The Prophets acted very oddly when any subject concerned the ancients. Located far under ground was some mysterious room that would aid the Covenant on their search for the ring-world that would let the Covenant have control over the universe. Thus, wipe out the blasphemous humans. But no. The humans had fought strongly and downed their destroyer. It was a horrible failure, incredibly disgraceful for a higher class elite.
Wkehu 'Drrana starred at the two hunters far ahead of him, their long spikes wavering on their backs. There was a rumble as the last human dropship took off. The hunters fired rounds from their fuel-rod guns at the dropships. The rounds exploded on the armored surface of the Pelicans in green blasts, but did little damage. A marine sitting in the Pelican levied his snipe rifle and shot the Hunter through his orange stomach; the bullet passed through the belly like butter and smacked into an upright piece of metal rubble with a loud pang. The Hunter fell into his own puddle of orange blood. The Pelican's heavy 70 mm chin gun fired as the other Hunter looked upwards at the hovering Pelican. The rounds fired into its neck, splitting all muscle tissue, the rest of the neck gave way and the helmeted head fell downwards into the shoulders, as if the hunter were in a protective position. Gushes of blood flowed out of the seeps between the head and shoulders, as if one dropped a rock into a cup of water. Orange blood dripped down this Hunter's chest-plate; it fell to its knees, but was already dead.
'Drrana let out a deep, guttural wail that was in anguish and calling for any other survivors. Several other elites responded, some close by and others farther away. A shadow loomed over them all, a shadow cast by the body of Fate. Fate's bulbous bow had been blown from the oblong body of the ship by a nuclear explosion, presumably smaller than a Shiva warhead, but considerably enough to do the job. Fate was one of the larger destroyers, a more destructive one also. It still puzzled 'Drrana how they destroyed it. The body of the ship fell vertically and the butt-end of the ship had rammed into the ground, dirt and debris held it upright. It burnt like a torch at the top, where the bomb had detonated. The nuclear flames had been slightly calmed by human planes spraying water from overhead. The ship stood like a looming skyscraper, a burning smokestack that spewed smog. Pieces of the bow lay everywhere; pieces, that is, that hadn't been disintegrated.
Wkehu 'Drrana continued to stare up at the monolith. The pitiful humans would probably keep the destroyed ship as a monument of their victory. The thought disgusted 'Drrana. A loud explosion was heard and 'Drrana saw the orange fireball directly behind the standing ship. The explosion mushroomed into a cloud of smoke, it was not nearly as large as a nuclear explosion, but it shook the ground violently.
"Oh...oh...no," was Drrana's shocked response to the explosion. He realized what the clever bastards were doing. They're knocking the ship down. A second explosion rumbled and 'Drrana turned to flee. He was already out of range for the wreckage to crash down on him, but he didn't want to be any where near the ship. He heard the ship begin to creak as it began its fall downwards. The rubble and jagged pieces of the hull protruded from the ground, and thus slowed 'Drrana's sprint. He tripped over an Elite's corpse and scrambled to his feet as the creaking became a roar. He heard the screams of grunts as they too tried to escape the oncoming disaster. Ahead of him he saw low mountains and the burning skeletons of the Seraph fighters that had fallen under attack and crashed there. The ground shook violently as 'Drrana ran headlong into a flat piece of the burnt purple bow and fell. He turned saw the smoke atop the tilting ship begin to flow backwards as the ship began to swiftly fall. 'Drrana tried to rise but he saw Fate attack the ground and was knocked off his feet. There was a terrible roar as the ship smacked into the earth. A large, swiftly moving dust cloud erupted from the area around the ship, 'Drrana could no longer see Fate. The cloud rushed forwards at 'Drrana and once again he was knocked off of his fee. The cloud pushed him along the ground, 'Drrana chocked on the stale air. Debris zoomed through the air. Wkehu 'Drrana realized that the ship had fallen on the entrance to the ancient room, and then fainted.
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