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The Revelation of War, Chapter Four
Posted By: russ687<russ687@hotmail.com>
Date: 28 July 2004, 7:41 PM
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Chapter Four: Last Place
1440 hours, September 19, 2552 (Military Calendar)
City of Rocere, South Side, 27 kilometers from City Center
Imbari System, planet Imbari V
It had gotten really quiet now; after they had taken out two more patrol groups of Covenant, there wasn't much left in the way of them and their objective. Everyone in the platoon, however, did not know the new objective that had taken priority above finding the last artifact.
Kren knew that not informing his Marines would leave them with questions, but time was of the essence. He looked at the mission timer on his HUD, they had two minutes to stop this event from happening; two minutes to stop the Covenant from getting the artifact first.
He remembered the vision he had gotten barely two hours ago, and tried to piece that with the location they were now at. The city looked very similar at every location, and the fact that it was all in ruins didn't help. He needed to find where that Covenant drop-ship had landed and fast.
He was running cautiously up the sidewalk of a torn up street, the motion sensor was clear of contacts so he felt mildly confident that there were no threats out there. Rarely would a Grunt or Jackal stay still for too long, but Elites were definitely able to do such a task. He shook his head as he ran along the street, stepping over large debris and around craters; they just didn't have the time for the normal precautions that he would have taken, especially in an urban setting.
He brought up an overlay of the city map on his HUD and looked for anyplace that could resemble where that U-shaped ship had landed, but there were too many possibilities, especially for him to get to on foot. Delta 4-1 was still in the air above them, but he couldn't use them for transportation, for some reason his gut told him it wouldn't work.
They had to catch it on the ground.
The platoon of Marines ran up each side of the street, their M7A1's scanning back and forth from the shoulder of each ODST. The sun beat down on them from above as they moved along, following their CO and trying to figure out where he was going.
"Lieutenant," McCollum said from behind. "Large contact coming in, 70 meters and closing; it's not friendly."
Kren immediately came to a stop and held up his fist. The same motion was passed down and across the street and the thirty-six Marines stopped and crouched down, their rifles scanning the street, windows and roof-tops.
He looked at the motion sensor, it was large and moved too fast to be a ground group. He looked up into the air behind him, and spotted the purple ship flying directly towards them, the noise reaching his ears a second later. The plasma turret on the back swung back and forth, but didn't locate on them.
The Marines watched silently as the drop-ship screamed over and pulled a hard left up ahead of them. Kren looked at the timer: 1442.
Kren cursed under his breathe and gave the all forward signal. He jumped up and brought his rifle to bear, then proceeded along the road at a full sprint, initially leaving some of his platoon behind. He had made it this far, now they had to stop this ship from ever leaving the ground.
Ahead, on the map, was a cross road that led to a open courtyard to the left. The setting was identical to what he had seen, and the drop ship had disappeared behind the buildings in that area; that must be it. He looked ahead of them, just over 100 meters to go before the turn. Kren pushed himself to run faster.
"Contacts! Twelve o'clock at 100 meters!" McCollum shouted from behind, keeping right next to him.
Kren looked ahead at the crossroad where they needed to turn. Coming from the right side were six Elites and seven Grunts; he shook his head in question at the number. He recognized the three Elites and five Grunts that had been down in those tunnels, but there were more. Had what he seen been wrong?
The Covenant group spotted the running Marines and immediately brought their weapons up. Kren hit the comm. link.
"Incoming!" He yelled as a volley of plasma rounds left the Covenant hands toward them. Kren didn't stop running, and brought his rifle sights to bear on a small Grunt firing at them. He pulled the trigger and sent a three-round burst into the head of the creature.
Hot projectiles flew past him and he heard a scream; but he didn't have time to look. His training took over and he cycled to the next target; an Elite. The large figure was firing off rounds towards them and dodging bullets here and there. He pressed and held the trigger and spat out rounds, most of which missed, but it forced the Elite to stop shooting.
Suddenly, the lead Elite stopped firing and brought his hand up to his head, the one Kren recognized who picked up the chrome ball; the one Elite who survived the blue flash that took away every Covenant in that room under ground. He was not wounded as far as Kren could tell, he was listening to something over a radio.
The Elite suddenly barked orders and the Covenant turned and ran down the side street to Kren's left, the Covenant group quickly made it around the corner and out of sight. Kren ran faster; he was twenty-five meters away from the street.
He got closer to the intersection and spotted one Elite body and two Grunts, that still left them with more then he had envisioned. Kren breathed hard as he got closer to the intersection. Did it really matter? The Covenant were still on their way to the artifact.
He got to the edge of the corner, running at full speed, and began a tactically unsound turn to the left without looking. He ran around, rifle first, and spotted the blur of motion that lunged at him. His instinct was to duck, and he did, but it was too close to dodge.
Kren's body immediately changed direction from a full sprint forward to a flying back as the large body toppled over him. His rifle left his grasp as he landed in the street back first; but he quickly analyzed the situation and kicked his legs up, using the new motioned backward to flip his attacker off of him and over his head. The large Elite tumbled over him and Kren rolled to his stomach, and looked up as the Elite sprang to his feet and looked back at him.
Plasma fire erupted from behind him, as did rifle fire, and he glanced over his shoulder: a second Elite jumped out of the debris firing his weapon. Kren caught a glance of a Marine taking a round to the chest as movement resounded ahead of him. He looked back to see the Elite charge him. The creature had lost his weapon somewhere, and brought his fists out instead as weapons.
Nineteen assault rifles erupted from around him and Kren saw the Elites shield flash, fail and the rounds tear through him. The armor-pricing rounds tore through the beast as blood and gore flew in every direction. Kren's visor was quickly covered with the insides of the alien as its limbs got torn to pieces, and its head flexed forward.
Kren wiped the liquids covering his visor and stared at the sight before him. The Elite slumped forward into a barely recognizable posture and Kren looked around as the ODST Marines lowered their rifles.
Kren spun around and saw McCollum and three other Marines finish that second Elite off with rounds into its chest. The beast growled in pain, then went limp.
He grabbed his pistol and brought it out, scanning the area quickly, then seeing the group of Covenant running for the drop-ship two-hundred meters ahead.
"Sergeant Dieter!" Kren yelled, trying to find where the sniper was.
The Marine read his CO's mind and ran out into the middle of the road and knelt into a quick firing crouch. The long S2B rifle came up and steadied in the hands of the expert sniper. Kren watched as the group reached the drop-ship and the side doors flung open.
The ODST sniper settled onto his target that was mounting up into the drop-ship, the safety was flipped off, and his finger glided over the trigger.
A single round left the barrel and raced at three time the speed of sound toward its target, the round immediately discarding the shell surrounding the SABOT round. The long, skinny projectile covered the distance in less then a second, and broke through the shield of the Elite. The round continued on and entered the aliens skill, then exited through the back of its head; the compression created by the round forced the Elite's brain out the back of its head through the hole created by the round. The round impacted and continued on through the drop-ship, and the former control center for the Elites body splattered against the inside of the drop ship.
The Elite slumped forward and out of the drop-ship as the bay doors closed.
Kren watched in horror as the ship accelerated quickly away before they could do anything else. The sniper slowly stood up and they watched as the ship moved away into the sky.
That was it. Kren shook his head and thought for a second; the drop ship left with exactly three Elites and five Grunts, precisely what he had versioned earlier. He pulled off the blood soaked visor and threw it on the ground, had what he seen a projection of what he would do in the future? Was there something else he should have done?
It was like the vision of the future he had seen on his way to the surface was what would happen if he saw the vision and acted upon it. He did in fact see the vision, and this was the outcome, the exact vision he saw.
He holstered the pistol and stood silently as he Marines looked at him. Was the visions that this artifact portrayed really just projections of what would happen, regardless of what they tried to do? Could they really change the future?
Or maybe the future they saw, the future that this artifact projected, was a future that they created. This artifact showed what they believed was the future, so they took actions to counter and change it, but really they took actions to create that very future they were trying change.
That couldn't be right. Kren looked around at the Marines around him, at the distant sound of fighting in the city, at the wind that blew debris and trash across the streets. No, they could change this.
They would change this.
1445 hours, September 19, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Aboard UNSC Destroyer Melbourne
Imbari System, in orbit around planet Imbari V
Baker stood up and clenched his fists. The veins in his neck and arms became visible as the Captain's face turned red. Grover had only seen him this angry once.
"What, the hell, do you mean they're gone?" He yelled at his Operations Officer.
The Lieutenant cringed at the tone his CO had just used. "Sir, they're off the boards, and the Emergency Locating Transponders for all seven Pelicans are going off; all Pelicans are down and there is not contact with Foxtrot Company either."
Baker shook his head. "So what? They're just gone? Disappeared into thin air?" He threw his arms up. "I don't believe this!"
The bridge crew looked at the Captain as he waited and cooled down. Just a minute earlier they had received the ELT's form the seven Pelicans that had dropped off Foxtrot Company near the possible location of the artifact. These transponders were only activated when the craft crashed, and apparently, that's exactly what had happened.
"Status of Tango company?" Baker barked,
"Major Griffith just reported that the Theatre Command Post is destroyed, no sign of the command staff or anyone." Cmdr. Grover said.
"And of our ODST platoon?"
"No clue, sir. Last report from them was that they were heading to Rocere, which as we know contradicted the plan of action." Grover said. "Also, Delta 4-1, the drop-ship they used, has failed to report in as well."
Baker clenched his fists. This was turning into the biggest mess he could have imaged. "Tell Tango Company to head for the location of the artifact ASAP, but not to get too close."
The Operations Officer nodded.
They would just have to wait and let that ODST platoon figure this out. Baker had heard of their feat on Milestone, but he still didn't trust their judgment. He had no choice now, however; it was all up to them. Baker leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath; this was out of his hands now.
A red warning light lit up on the command console, as it did on many others. The bridge crew analyzed it quickly as Baker stood up and walked to see for himself.
"Captain! Three Covenant ships have entered the system! Two-million kilometers and closing!"
1500 hours, September 19, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Aboard UAS-9A Blackspear, en route to possible location of the artifact
Imbari System, planet Imbari V
Kren leaned back and closed his eyes. There were too many things to think about, too many things to try and fix. They were heading for the artifact, but the Covenant were ahead of them, and there was no real way to beat them.
They had to get the artifact first, or everything they had worked for would be lost. But the thoughts flooded his mind again; was this artifact something that really told the future? He began to doubt everything he had encountered before, everything he had seen.
If this artifact projected what was to come, was there any way to change it? He thought of Reach, how he had seen the impending doom for the planet, of all the other little battles and skirmishes; could they change any of this?
He thought about it. No, they could change the future. He remembered the way they had seen the battle that almost claimed the Melbourne, the Triton, and the first artifact. They were able to prevent them from being destroyed. He thought about planet Westwind and the impending doom that could have resulted; he had foreseen it, and he had prevented it.
This artifact must project the future, otherwise everything else would not have worked out. He didn't know what to think about this last event, but there was still a way to stop the Covenant.
There was still a way to win.
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