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Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Five: Part I
Posted By: russ687<russ687@hotmail.com>
Date: 22 June 2004, 10:33 PM
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________________________________________________________________
Chapter Five: Deeper To The Bottom
1430, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone
Both First and Third Squads were completely illuminated by the purple light that emitted from around the tunnel's corner. Flashlights were off and no one wore their night vision goggles, but instead waited anxiously as their bodies cast long shadows back towards the entrance of the tunnel.
Kren looked back one last time to make sure all of his men were in position and ready, then looked forward again and silently moved towards the turn in the tunnel. It turned out that it was a ninety-degree corner, which made anything on the other side unknown until he looked around it. He could feel McCollum right behind him, and could see the long silencer pointing forward just to his right as he crept along the wall towards the left hand turn.
He stopped just short of the turn. He pointed his rifle down so it would protrude around the corner, then inched up to it. Kren then turned to face the wall, and peeked out around on corner.
Before him was another tunnel spanning only about fifty meters towards a large open room. Along the tunnel walls were some type of inscriptions on them, and illuminating those inscriptions were large Covenant floodlights. There were also power crates and storage crates scattered along the tunnel way towards the door, along with some obvious Covenant equipment on the floor. At the end of the tunnel was the large room. He couldn't see it very well past the floodlights, but it too was illuminated by purple lights. There was something in the center of the room that he could not discern. He pulled his rifle's scope to bear and peered through it.
It was four large metal beams going from the floor straight up out of sight to the apparent ceiling. They we all spaced evenly apart in a square pattern and going directly up the center was bright lime green light. He couldn't see where it went towards the top, but it was definitely some type of light.
But throughout the tunnel and room, no movement was seen.
The room also appeared to be large, because he could not see the edges of it or the ceiling from inside the tunnel. The air inside seemed to be a greenish haze, making anything on the very far side of the room not visible through the slight haze that filled the room. Kren's immediate concern was that it was some sort of foreign atmosphere or chemical agent in the air.
He stepped back from the corner and turned around. His men waited anxiously with the rifles pointing towards the corner. Kren looked at McCollum and nodded slowly. "We're going in, but there maybe something in the air down here. Everyone must put on their air scrubber mask."
The sergeant nodded and turned around to pass the order down. Kren pulled out his own air scrubber kit and pulled his helmet off. The air scrubber was a full face mask that sealed around the entire head. It had large goggles for adequate peripheral vision and a air purifier attached to the breathing port at the front. The grey plastic around the head made the Marines with it on look like biological containment personnel, but it was a necessary precaution.
Kren tighten the kit around his head and activated it, then felt the kit secure to his head, cutting off all airflow unless it was through the scrubber. His breathing echoed in his head as he peered through the goggles of the full-face mask. It was not an ideal way to perform combat operations, but it was better then suffocation by some unknown air agent.
He looked back and saw his men don the air scrubbers. McCollum was already done and looked back at his CO, only his eyes visible through the light yellow tinting of the goggles. While his breathing sounds were audible in his mask, the sound of his men breathing were completely quiet. At least these things were not loud.
The was a nod from the team leaders indicated they were all set. Kren turned around took a step towards the corner again. He peered around it one last time and saw no movement. He held up his fist, then made a quick forward gesture. He rose from his crouch position and with his rifle coming up, moved silently around the corner and into the last stretch of tunnel before the large room.
Kren walked along silently in awe. The Covenant had found this place interesting, and had gone to the trouble of setting up this massive undertaking of equipment to study whatever artifacts or inscriptions were on the tunnel walls. He walked up towards the first floodlight and looked at the wall as he went by. Similar symbols that were etched on the entrance door at the surface were carved into the walls down here. They spanned along the entire length of the wall towards the large room.
The two squads of Marines cautiously made their way around the Covenant flood lamps, crates and equipment towards the room. Tools and equipment were scattered across the floor, like they were suddenly dropped and whoever was manning them left. There was no blood, bodies or anything that would indicate a fight. The Covenant were simply gone.
The only sightings were those two half-real Elites that disappeared. Kren, and now McCollum, knew that those were probably not random occurrences, but that they were actually somehow making contact with them. Whether it was hostile or not he could only speculate, but for now the important thing was that they had in fact seen them.
As they neared the room, Kren could get a better look at it. It was definitely large with the walls extending out into the green haze. From what he could see so far, there were Covenant crates and lamps in there, lighting up the area with purple light.
They neared the end of the tunnel and Kren held up his fist. The two squads came to a halt, their M7A1's pointing into the room. Then he, followed closely by McCollum, inched forward to the entrance to the room. He got to the edge and peered out both directions.
For as far as he could see, the wall stretched into the haze. He looked into the center of the room. About 200 meters in was that beam configuration with green light going straight up. He followed it to the ceiling, where it met some object that sent the beam two separate directions down toward the walls in the green haze. The room looked to be several acres large.
"Their two-car garage?" McCollum whispered from behind, his voice deep through the mask.
Kren thought for moment. What was the point of having such a large room under ground? Obviously it was to keep something out of view. But the Covenant, and now they, had found it, so what was trying to be hidden? Kren pulled out his binoculars and scanned the area.
There, right before the four beams and green light was a control panel of some sort. There were actually four, one on each respective side of the light.
"Looks like this room isn't the actually hiding place," Kren theorized quietly. "But just the first step to finding it."
___________________________________________________________
The rain continued to come down hard on the men of Second Squad at the surface. Lt. Meyers cursed to himself silently as he slowly scanned the area back and force with his binoculars. He put down the binoculars and looked at the mission countdown timer.
0 hr, 34 min, 19 sec.
He hoped Kren was making good time down there. The ONI major had said during the briefing that there was no way to tell how large the underground excavations could be, so for all they knew, it was a city under ground.
Not to mention he wanted his CO back out of there so they could get off this rain soaked planet and back inside a metal hull were it was dry. Meyers warmed to the thought; food, sleep, and all those other little things that made their life just that much more comfortable. Meyers smirked. Compared to this, everything made life that much more comfortable.
He brought his binoculars back up and peered through them. He checked the right flank to left flank for any movement. Nothing but crates, tents and the occasional vehicle filled the landscape. The initial intrigue of finding this deserted base was now gone. The only thing left to look forward to was leaving this base himself.
A blur of motioned caught his attention. It quickly disappeared behind a crate. He checked the range: 144.5 meters away. Strange...
A second later another blur of motion darting from behind a tent to a closer crate caught his eye. This one was closer, only 125 meters away.
Yet another motion came into view. It was in the open long enough for him to see what it was. A large, fur-coated creature. It was incredibly fast and stealthy. Meyers sighed, then his mind snapped to attention.
Was this the creature Lt. Kren had described to him over the comm.?
He turned to his fire team leaders. "All eyes alert, we have incoming unidentified threats."
His fire team leaders stared back blankly for a second, trying to figure out where he had seen them, but turned to pass the order down. A second later, the squad of Marines was fully alert, looking all directions for any threat, their long rifles pointing out towards the distant tree line.
Meyers brought his own rifle to bear and looked through the scope. He noticed immediately at least five more contacts, all of which were using the Covenant objects to their advantage, then darting forward to closer ones. The large creatures were very silent and fast. But why us? Meyers thought. What did we do to them?
"Contact, 50 meters, sir!" A Marine yelled out.
Meyers swiveled and brought his sights to bear.
The creature was in a low crouch run moving directly at them. Its fur was soaked with rain and its foot steps silently brought up splashes of water as the creature began closing the gap quickly.
Meyers stopped thinking and his training took over. First thing to accomplish, friend or foe identification.
His finger thumbed the safety off and pulled the trigger in one quick operation. Foe.
The single round flew thought he air and impacted the creature in its forehead. The armor piercing bullet shot through the creatures skull and sent a satisfying dark red mist out the back of its head. The creature fell forward into the mud and didn't move.
Meyers turned to face a second creature charging in at them, but before he could shoot, two Marines, after following his lead, opened fire. The muffled rounds impacted the creature and brought it down, the large body sending up a splash of muddy water.
Second thing to accomplish, observe the threats and make tactical decisions. He lowered the rifle and looked out into the flooded field. He noticed many more movements. He did a quick rough estimation in his head. Enemy strength: well over thirty.
The creatures began clustering up. He noticed as many more began appearing through the clearing. His count quickly reached triple digits.
"Fire Team Alpha, suppressive fire. Bravo: single shots to their head." Meyers called out.
Two crisp replies followed as the teams got organized. Meyers stood and watched as the creatures began encircling them. They were hundreds of them, far more then he would have ever guessed.
Meyers cursed silently, then called over to his sniper, Sergeant Galvin. "Sergeant, make your shots count, and hit the ones at long range, we'll take care of these close fucks."
The sniper nodded slightly as he settled down into a firing posture, bringing his S2B rifle to bear. Meyers watched the encirclement of creatures, but none of them charged. The Marines withheld their fire. Both sides stood still, watching, waiting. Meyers looked intently at this group of alien creatures. They obviously had some level of intelligence, but to what degree was anyone's guess.
The loud rumble of the S2B erupted from a few feet away as a single round knocked out a creature two hundred meters away. Meyers turned to see the shell being ejected and splash into the water. The long rifle barely turned, then another round fired off, the large muzzle flash sending a spray of water forward. 200 meters away, another creature fell.
"Lieutenant, I got movement!" Corporal Davidson called out, the Marine looking intently through his scope. Although officially branded as the demolitions expert, Davidson was a skilled marksman and was a former Force Recon member.
Meyers peered through is own scope and saw the large group of creatures moving toward them at an alarming rate. There were more then he could count, and they moved skillfully and quickly together. Meyers sighed heavily as his reticule settled onto the temple of yet another creature.
"Fire at will."
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