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The Hells of War (tides of war p.2)
Posted By: Reiyou
Date: 28 June 2002, 7:23 pm
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First I would like to say sorry for the title screw-up, I'm from the west coast and east coast time changes are no fun for me.
Stroggos, what was left of my squad, a hunter, and a fresh squad of marines were all in the room. I could see the flash-lights penetrate the darkness and the mess was not pretty, bodies of covenant and flood were everywhere.
"We hate to spoil your fun but what the hell is going on, I here all sorts of fighting gone and then Covenant and human voices, please fill us in!" A voice crackled over our TAC coms.
"The reason why we're asking is because about 4 drop ships came in, completely ignored us, then a horde of covenant come through, loaded up and left in a huge hurry." The voice went over again
"If you would decide to get your ass down here I would explain with the help of visual aids. Or, you can simply get me a new helmet with a mounted camera and that would also be useful." I replied shakily as I thought I saw a hint of movement.
"How about this, Corporal, you actually turn your camera on." Someone replied just as icily as my previous comment.
"So there is one, how about telling me where it is?" I asked as I took off the helmet and fiddled around with it.
"It's the red button next to your HUD." It replied "Do you have any wounded or dead?" It said. I found the button turned the camera on and give a quick look around the room and at everyone.
"Why isn't the Covenant firing upon you?" someone asked uneasily.
"It's called a temporary truce in the face of a greater threat."
"Oh, would you like more troops?"
"Yeah, we need more than what we've got for perimeter and a cold six pack would be nice." I joked and all the marines bursted out laughing.
"What is a six-pack?" Stroggos asked curiously. That sent us into a riot.I stifled another bout of laughter and replied to the extent of "You will never know until you have tried one." A Marine popped in and said"A six-pack is a term for another squad of infantry, and in this case a case of beer."
"Oh... Never mind I asked." He said. I had stopped laughing and kept a steady eye on the hole in the wall. The fresh squad brought shotguns and frag grenades for everyone. The hunter changed out his fuel rod cannon and shield for a shotgun and patched himself up.
"I hope you guys brought assault rifles as well." I asked as I switched to the laser rifle.
"Yeah, it's funny how the covenant has more advanced weaponry but isn't as good as a good shotgun." One of the marines remarked.
"Alright, let's advance and eliminate the flood presence, and maybe we'll all get promoted." I said and took up point. The entry hall way was a splattered mess of organs, workers and dead infectors who had lived their life span. I continued along the side of the wall and the marines formed up behind me. I thought I saw an infector and popped it with a laser. I soon found out that was the wrong thing to do. A swarm of the little balloons swarmed from a hole in the ceiling.
"AH SHIT! I screamed as I switched to the shotgun and fired a double burst. About 46 of the 50 things chain reacted, shrinking the threat level a huge amount. I didn't see one and it latched onto my leg.
"AAAARRGHHH GET THAT THING OFF OF ME!!" I screamed as I tried prying it off. A single plasma round came and popped the thing. I took a real good look at my new wound and was shocked. It had bored down to the bone.
"Pass the disinfectant; I don't want to go around sprouting things that shouldn't be part of me." I said. Stroggos came up and handed me a bottle of disinfectant. I sprayed it and filled the wound with biofoam. It looked ugly but, it did what is supposed to. I picked up my laser rifle off the ground and hefted it up onto my shoulder.
"Heads up I've got large amounts of movement ahead... I think it is another wave!" A marine said loudly.
"Hey you Spartans, you're immune to the little buggers, head on up and we'll support you." I said as I reloaded the shotgun.
"Sir, yes sir!" they all said and moved up, cannons on top of their shields.As expected a wave of workers came through. I hadn't expected them to be armed but it didn't matter. Plasma and needler rounds were everywhere. I switched to the laser rifle and took a worker out, burning a hole clear through the rib cage. To my surprised it leaped over the Spartans and I thwacked it really hard in the face. It dropped to the ground and one of the marines rushed it, yelling "Suck on this you bastard!" and pumped a shotgun round into it. It would never get up again. We moved on, the Hunter and the Spartans were our screen and the rest of us had rear. I was up among the Spartans when I heard another
"Damn this place is a mess, I mean look at all the walls and stuff, its like its alive or something."
"Hey look, I don't need a commentary, its quite obvious that the flood have been in here for a long time." I replied. I checked my motion detector and saw that there was something in the next room.
"Hey Jansen, would you mind covering the door?" I asked him.
"Would I ever, I haven't had a crack at these 'flood' although I do know why they are called the flood." He said and moved up behind the screen of Spartans. I approached the door and pulled out a 'door knocker' as we called them. The door was shut, and locked very well. Finally the door clicked open and Jansen fired a flare into there. We soon wished we never opened the room. A flood of some new kind of flood came through and over the Spartans and tore apart a marine within seconds.
"AHH SHIT OPEN FIRE!" Like I needed to say that. The corridor erupted with shotgun blasts and the occasional Assault Rifle. I then forced the door shut. We lost about 4 marines in the fight, leaving us with the Hunter, the Spartan team, and almost a full squad of marines.
"This is Alpha-bravo and Alpha-Sierra, we need reinforcements on the double," I looked at one of the dog like flood, "And bring some heavier armor, because the stuff we have is paper to these things."
"That has been confirmed, we have a base camp at the entrance to the installation, stand by." I recognized that as the lieutenant who ordered the attack.
"Oh and bring more shotguns and grenades, I think we're running out here." That got a few notes of agreement from our little troop. Drago who hadn't said anything in awhile although responsible for a lot of our kills piped up:
"Reiyou, do you think we can do this mission, because what's beyond that door might end us all, you know what I mean?, I also want to go home, I think I've had enough fun in my life..." he trailed off and I saw what happened in him. I also saw it in other marines that came back from the Halo campaign; they had come back with basically a massive case of battle fatigue.
"Look Drago, I know why you're feeling like this but we gotta end this threat for basically everything in this end of the Galaxy. And for that matter the rest of it too." I looked at him with a sincere look that always helped me have people do things for me. He seemed to have felt better but then a small horde of workers came in from behind him. I shoved him aside pulled a frag grenade counted to three and threw it with all my strength. The effect was what I wanted it to be. An explosion that would tear the important areas to pieces.
"Reiyou! Hit the deck!" Stroggos yelled and hurled a frag grenade into a mass of the infectors. The result was similar to mine but with better results. I got up and fired a couple of times with the laser rifle, boring into a carrier. It puffed up and exploded, scattering infectors everywhere I caught one on my hand and it started boring. I slammed it with the butt of the rifle and immediately extracted all of the foreign matter. Unfortunately my hand was unusable. I did the basic procedure to my hand and it made it somewhat useful, although it would not be what it would used to be until I got it to a medic. Drago never survived as he was killed by both grenade shrapnel and a plasma bolt from a worker that caught him in the helmet.
"Shit man we gotta pull out of here we can't take much more punishment!"I yelled and decided to contact the base.
"Hey base camp we need an escort team outta here! We've got wounded and dead! I repeat we need an escort team out of here!" There was no response.
"Alright we need to get back to the camp ASAP. Ignore all workers unless they are in your way or are firing upon you, I want the Hunter and a Spartan in the rear and the rest of the Spartans as our screen, that should give us enough fire power to break out of here! Get your heaviest weapons or your standard issue flood puncher shotgun, for it is the most effective." The flood slapping was a comment that I added for it did just that, it punched a flood so hard it would be rocketed back from where it came. We immediately formed up and moved out. We annihilated basically everything that came at us. The balloons never had a chance because they were small enough to step on. We moved at the highest speed we could. I had strapped Drago's body onto my back and moved at the back. When we got to the base camp, we were shocked to find devastation, courtesy of the Hunters at the corridor entrance. Stroggos and the Hunter moved up and conversed with them in their language of grunts, howls and guttural sounds with the unintelligible words in between them. The four hunters looked at each other and at Stroggos and their fellow hunter with a total "oops" expression on their faces. They then looked around and started picking up the mess.
"I would never think that the elite hunters would fire upon a camp of humans without some kind of confirmation that someone higher up gives them. Normally I would give the kill whoever moves command but I had said don't fire upon any humans unless fired upon." He explained to me. I unstrapped Drago from my back and looked at one of the humans.
"Actually, our base camp was destroyed by the flood, they saw flood and opened up. So there was a mistake here." A Hunter approached Stroggos and commented on something.
"Okay human, now call more of your friends down here so we can get another base camp set up." He said with a look of down right anger.
"Alright, but I don't think they'll appreciate me calling in a battalion at this rate." I commented and went for the assistance need channel.
"This is Alpha-bravo and Alpha-sierra; we could really need more help because our base camp was just destroyed by flood forces. Also pack as many frag grenades and shotguns for they are the most trusty and are the most effective. Also bring some refreshments and bring a medic for my hand is mortally screwed up." I also gave a situational report.
"Roger that Alpha-bravo, Help in the forms of a lot of Spartans are coming, also bring refreshment you said? Well we're bringing what is the most portable."
Great I thought. Just what we need, MRE shit.
"Bring something that is drinkable okay?"
"Like what a soda machine?" the soldier on the other end replied.
"Actually, that's what I had in mind." I said almost chuckling.
"Guess what, That's what we're bringing, we might as well make the camp livable." He said.
"Ah thanks, and bring more ammo!" I said as I turned it off.
"Now its your turn, Stroggos get more elites down here because, well they're the most effective, no offense to you hunters."
"Already done, I started as we came through the tunnel."
More to come...
New title has been implemented -The hells of war. That whole 'tides of war' was a mistake.
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