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Civilian Assault, pt. Three- Unexpected Air Support
Posted By: ONI_operative_343<zattack89@aol.com>
Date: 31 March 2004, 3:07 AM
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Civilian Assault, pt. Three- Unexpected Air Support
year: 2553, exact day/time: sunset over Earthcity
Yeppka Mark'que felt the bullet slam into his shoulder. Another tore into his chest from the side, and another ripped a gapping hole in his methane tank. For some odd reason it didn't detonate, but regardless, the Grunt was dead. It fell out of the vehicle-mounted shade and slammed onto the hard pavement below. The Grunt in the driver's seat tried to escape, but Stewart's bullets soon found their way into his body, too. He slumped over, dead at the controls. The Covenant craft nose-dived to the street and slid a few feet on the pavement, scrapping the alien metal along the street with a wicked noise. Doubtless, everything in the area had heard that.
Jon watched as the alien fell out of the gun, and it swiveled around, operator-less, to the front of the craft. He saw gunfire to his left, from the same alley the craft had emerged from. Seconds later, the Covenant 'bus' dropped to the ground, no longer hovering, and slid along the street. It made a loud, eerie grinding noise, which scarred Jon out of is shock. He ducked behind an abandoned car, took a deep breath, then called out.
"Hello?" he called nervously, in the direction of the alley. "Don't shoot; is anyone there?"
Wright heard something, a voice. Not the growls and barks of the Grunts or the gurgling-like speak of the Elites, but a Human voice. He called out, too.
"Where are you? Do you need help?"
To which the voice responded, "I'm out here, near that... thing. There's no more of 'em."
Wright reloaded his Battle Rifle and cautiously stepped out of the alley and into the street. To his right he saw the Covenant's intended victim: Wright had found a civilian survivor.
"Thank you, for stopping them."
Wright laughed. "It was no problem. Are you sure you're ok?"
Jon nodded his head in the affirmative. "What should we do now? I'm sure they heard that."
A wide grin appeared on Wright's face. "Wanna go for a ride?" he asked, as he jerked his thumb towards the Covenant craft.
"This is Lt. Eriksen. How you guys doin down there? Over." Lt. James Eriksen clicked off his COM radio. He tapped the joystick of his Longsword slightly to the right, dodging a plasma torpedo by mere inches. "It's gettin pretty hot up here, over."
The Banshee that had just fired it's Fuel Rod Cannon was hot on the Lt.'s tail. It launched a stream of heated plasma after Eriksen's ship, and followed him into his inverted dive. Eriksen pulled out and rolled the Longsword to the left.
"Red 5, this is Red 3. That bitch is still hot on you, over." Eriksen's wingman, Lt. Morack said. "I'm comin up on your six. Hit the air brake in three, two..."
Eriksen pulled up on his fighter and slammed on the brakes. The Banshee pilot kept going right beneath him, but not for long. Morack dropped in behind the Banshee and let loose an AGSM-II missile.
"HAHA! To hell with ya!" he hollered as the missile streaked towards its target. The Elite in the Banshee tried to dodge it, but his sluggish fighter was no match. The AGSM-II slammed into the Banshee's tail, killing the pilot instantly. The crippled machine plunged to the ground below but was stopped mid-fall by a large skyscraper. It slammed into the building, and seconds later the structure was collapsing.
"Uhhhh... let's hope everyone e-vac'd... command ain't gonna be happy, eh?" asked Morack.
Eriksen swore. "Not much they can do now." He paused to look around the cockpit and out the large windows. Just as he was enjoying the ending of the sunset, one thing on Earth the Covenant hadn't destroyed, his radar chirped once; twice. "Red 3, you readin that? Over."
Morack glanced at his radar console. "Yea buddy, 6 of em, comin in fast. This is gonna be a busy day, over."
Wright was getting the hang of piloting the Covenant transport. He had read files on how to pilot Covenant craft; in fact, his unit had practiced for a week with a few captured Covenant Ghosts at a secret ONI facility in California. To the best of his knowledge, half of the Western United States was glassed, so the facility was more then likely destroyed, too. But that didn't mean his skills at alien machinery were lost with it. He took a hard right and followed the road he was on for about 3 miles before running into a dead end. He wasn't familiar with Earthcity; his squad had just dropped in about a week before, and Wright had no idea where he was, or where he was trying to go. Luckily, Jon was with him.
"Ok, go back a few blocks, then we'll turn right when we hit the MetroChem building."
Wright nodded, then swung the craft around. They hadn't gone three blocks before plasma erupted in the air around them. Jon hung onto the side handles in the middle section, and Wright hunkered down in the front and tried to show as little of himself as possible, without hampering his ability to drive. They both franticly looked for the source of the shots, all while Wright gave the vehicle more throttle. Suddenly a huge crater appeared in the street in front of them, and another to the side. Jon looked up just in time to see the Covenant ship open its cargo doors, and ready its massive cannon for another salvo of heated death.
Great, Phantoms! thought Wright. He had also read the ONI files on these ships: They were still being deployed in what seemed like test groups on Earth. Normal dropships usually accompanied them, since no military personnel had seen a Wraith or Ghost flown in by one of the beasts. Not that it wasn't possible though; Wright just didn't know. Typically, Brutes were the sole residents of these carriers. They would hurl themselves out of the back of the ship's cargo bay and into the ranks of troops below. Wright was unsure about the Brutes, too. All he had heard were stories of wounded soldiers... and not many survived to share the encounter. Wright recalled one story... One man's spine was snapped in half, as was the entire left side of his body, and half the time he was between unconscious and insane. When the doctor at Wright's camp managed to calm him, he had asked what had happened. The man's eyes glassed over, and he stuttered, "Big... monkey..." then passed out. The next day he was dead from internal bleeding. The Brute had tossed him around like a rag doll.
Most troops laughed; how bad could a Covenant gorilla be? That was, until they saw them. And right now, Wright was freaked.
Something else caught Jon attention besides the flying bringer of death that was keeping pace above them. A small comet appeared to have struck the MetroChem tower, their intended waypoint about four blocks away. He wasn't sure what the hell it was, but it destroyed the tower. It was collapsing; racing to the pavement below.
"Oh shit..." he muttered.
The Elite at the controls of the Phantom saw it too late. A human fighter had just shot down one of his own kind's Banshees. But his orders were to clear the streets, which was what he was doing. He had spotted the Humans in the stolen transport, and would soon clear them from existence. He had fired his cannons, but the Humans had managed to evade his shots. Reluctantly, he opened the cargo doors to unleash the Brutes... if he didn't there would be trouble. And lately he had heard rumors of the Prophets playing favorites... he wanted to live to fight another day, so he didn't question orders. But just as he pressed the button, he noticed the building in front of him collapsing. He tried to turn, but it was too late. He closed his eyes and braced for impact, mentally preparing him for the paradise that awaited.
Wright and Jon saw it all happen in slow motion. The building rushing to ground level, the Phantom getting caught and smashed under debris, and the huge chunks of metal that now rained down near them, threatening to crush them too. He swung the Covie transport around in a U-turn, the let loose as much speed as the craft had in the other direction. They were almost home free when a large hunk of metal slammed into the back of the craft, pushing it down and to the left. Something sizzled then cracked, Probably the anti-grav drive guessed Jon. The transport hit the ground and skidded along at top speed. Wright wrestled with the controls, but it was no use. They were going to crash. Well, I tried... was his last thought before the transport connected violently with another building.
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