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Above and Beyond the Call of Duty: Part II; The Gambit
Posted By: pj-NYkr90<phantomf4@earthlink.net>
Date: 31 May 2003, 1:56 PM
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0012, USN Centurion, Cryo Section B, (Military Calendar) July 6th, 2553
Zachary Denison along with nearly 5,000 other Marines were aboard the ship. The ship itself was the same as the Pillar of Autumn in several respects such as size. She could however hold over 7,000 troops to carry them anywhere in the system. It was a very prized target though. But on it's own. This was a special troop carrier though. Her crew, respectfully, termed her 'The Shield Ship'. She was. She was armed with three of the same MAC cannons that the Pillar of Autumn had; Shredder MAC or SMAC. Alone, she had accumulated at least three kills, and two probable kills of Covie destroyers. All in one shot. Fifty-two Anvil V Missile Pods were on here sides.
Zach was awakened in the cryo section. The rest of his squad came out of their tubes. "Comn' squad. My AI tells me that we've got 30 minutes to get ready and get onto that damn ship, somethin' like that. But ya know what; I want ya'll ready in 10. You hear me? 10 minutes. Let's go. Hoah!" The rest of the squad replied in unison with a Hoah. Everyone was prepared to take out the Covies on their own soil from the sound of it.
'The Shield Ship's purpose was obvious; to land on Covie soil and bring the hurt to them. But she was drawn away by the need for humanity to survive. Earth was being attacked by the Covies and these troops on the ship were not rookies. They weren't about to have some alien scum and shit take their most prized possession from them. Most of the Marines were Helljumpers. They had experience in their field, killing assassinating and destroying. But the Regulars were not at all bad, dumb or stupid. All the Marines aboard were professionals. Professionals in killing the aliens. But having all of these troops on this ship means that a serious risk was involved. If the Covies took it out, they would be out of a whole lot of troops. There was a severe risk involved in this. If the shield ship were destroyed, the Humans would loose all hope of survival and retaliation. If the ship were destroyed, the SPARTANS would surely go with it, dying to defend it.
As of now, they were near the last remaining planet in the Jericho system, Jericho VII. The troops were preparing to assault the planet. Weirdly enough, the Covies had not yet glassed the planet, even though there were 20,000 Marines. This was one of the largest concentrations in the Epsilon Ridden System. They could all be wiped out in three salvos. Twenty Covie battleships loomed over the planet, their porous heads made the ships look like giant whales, like the blue whales that are nearly extinct. The Covies didn't seem to notice the USN 7th Battle Group enter the system through a hole in Slip Space. Their Shaw-Fujiwaka engines cooled down and stopped.
On the Flagship, the USN Cobra , the bridge crew moved and hurried getting orders to one another as well as Marines. The captain was responsible for reporting any opposition to 'The Shield Ship'. He did so. "Captain Ridgewood," said Captain Marks, the commander on the Cobra . "Sir?" "We have multiple Covies on our scopes. We suggest best course of action is opening up with the MAC's and then lobbing in some Archers, or in your case, Anvils." "Nah, to obvious." "What," replied Marks, seemingly astonished at what the Captain said. "Plus, we could use the help." "What!? I don't get it! What are we doing?" "I say we let those bastards have a piece of their own medicine. Get me coordinates on their two biggest ships." "Huh? Oh yes, sir."
A couple of moments later, Marks replied with the coordinates. "Here they are. The 0349, Plight of Doom and the Falcon of Death . First is at the coordinates 356, 090. The second one is at 034, 180. What did you want to know this for? What you got up your sleeve Captain?" "You don't have to worry about that Captain. You'll see soon enough." Ridgewood cut the line. Lieutenant General Larry Barnes, the Commander-in-Chief of all the Marines on board the shield ship, asked the one important question, "What are you doing Captain?"
A while later?
"James, you ready?" The Master Chief was standing next to his friend, James. James was on his right, Linda, on his left. "Yep." He raised his good arm and patted the Chief on his back. I'll see you later. The MC ran forward and mounted up on a Pelican. James and Linda split up and got into separate Pelicans. The rear hatch on James' Pelican closed and lurched forward to take off.
Bridge Master 'Unselee, moved around and checked out all of the view screens and holo panels on his bridge. 'Unselee paced back and forth when a pitiful Grunt came towards him. It squeaked with every motion and his face was tense and low to the ground. "Bridge Master, we need you to look at these reports." "Why, must I?" "Um, I'm afraid so. It's pretty important?it says here that it's from the Prophets." "The Prophets? they are weak. The useless little bastards don't know how to fight. They ha?" His audio ended abruptly. The grunt looked around abruptly. 'Unselee grasped his throat. The Grunt turned to see a Prophet. His headdress, studded with weird rocks and gems, streamed energy across the little 'canals' rooted into it. A second later, Prophet Guard 'Methu, stated, "You may want to change that statement Bridge Master 'Unselee. The Prophet is not pleased at all with your statement." 'Unselee tried to speak, but his throat was tangled and choked. He nodded. 'Unselee managed to gasp, " Yes 'Methu ." Energy streamed across the Prophet's headdress again and then 'Methu replied. "Unfortunately, for you, that will not do for Master Prophet. Your apology was not accepted." 'Methu drew a plasma beam blade and listened joyously as 'Unselee squealed and writhed in pain due to lack of oxygen. More energy streamed across the Prophet's head. "As you wish my lord." 'Methu raised the blade just as 'Unselee blacked out.
"Are you ready Marines?" "Sir, yes Sir!" "I said, are you ready?" "Sir, yes Sir!" Sergeant Zachary Denison sat along side of the SPARTAN named James. His gold-tinted visor was like a wall, a screen of deception. "Sarge, where we goin'?" "To the Plight of Doom . Covie cruiser. Home of the scum. Essentially, to hell and back." Yeah." "We gonna get some fun in before we die though Sarge." "Right," replied the Sergeant. "I don't see why ya'll so afraid of death," said Zach's second-in-command, Corporal Darby Huttchins. "I mean, you won't know when you die and it's quick and painless, so, what's wrong?" "Never seeing tommorrow," replied Private Sanchez. "Well, there's a heaven right?" Sanchez nodded. "Well, then you've got nothing to worry about. You can jes' chill while watchin' us, your homies, kick Covie ass!" "You've got an ample point their Hutch!" "I know. I'm always there to be counted on. So what's up Zach, have you got any idea of what we are supposed to do?" "Yeah. I do, but why should I tell you?" "I'm your friend?" "Nah, I need a better reason than that to tell you." Their conversation was abruptly ended when the pilot yelled over the COM freq, "We got bandits on our six. We could use a little bit of help here." "I got it." James, who hadn't said a single thing throughout the entire conversation, was the first to volunteer to save the rest of the Marines he hadn't even been aquainted with yet. James entered the gunner's mount and fired off a salvo of rounds from the chain-gun.
"This is Talon 348, deploying the package." Linda listened in on the COM transmissions. She was the only SPARTAN not involved in actually taking the ship. Ten other Marines were aboard, all with EMP (External Motion Packs) and EVAs (External Ventilation Apparatus). They were all trained snipers and were about to go into the depth of space. They would provide cover fire for the two squads appointed to assault the actual battleships. "Opening hatch," informed the pilot. The hatch opened just in time to see the squads moving into the launch bays of the Covie cruisers. "The Shield Ship" had dropped their shields so that they could only be turned on manually from inside the shield generators. Linda and the other snipers began unleashing hell on the Covies in the launch bay. It was a 3:1 ratio over the number of Covies killed by the snipers than by the ground-ponders.
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