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The Revelation of War, Chapter Five: Part III
Posted By: russ687<russ687@hotmail.com>
Date: 28 September 2004, 1:49 AM
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1610 hours, September 19, 2552 (Military Calendar)
One kilometer from possible locations
Imbari System, planet Imbari V
Kren reached up to touch his face once more and flinched at the pain brought by the simple act. Flash burns were not only evident on his own exposed skin, but of the whole platoon. Whatever explosion rang out an hour earlier had mildly injured everyone in his platoon, including himself, to some extend or another.
Aside form flash burns, all were suffering of concussions, and it hampered their efforts to get to the explosion site. In addition to bodily injuries, all rifles scopes were out of commission, as well some other sensitive equipment that could not tolerate the shockwave.
Kren even wondered if he had internal bleeding from it; his lungs were unusually weak and he had a spreading pain in his chest. But there was no time to check on speculated injuries. By his own estimate, the Covenant would be arriving at this location any moment now.
The beam of blue light was still shooting straight into space, but what it was doing or where it was going he could only wonder. What he was sure of, though, was that the artifact was at the roots of it, and all they needed to do was...rather ironic.
Follow The Rainbow. He almost let out a smirk at the thought of it, but his face denied him any emotional expression.
His platoon was scanning the area with the rifles, but none of them were concerned about anything sneaking up on them; the flattened forest around them let them see for kilometers in any direction. It also let them see the direct source of the beam of light. And to no one's surprise, it was apparently emitting from a hole.
"Second Squad, flank left, Third Squad, move up the center." Kren ordered, yelling to convey the orders. The comm. system was dead. "First Squad will take the right." The Squad Leaders nodded in acknowledgement and set out with their teams.
The platoon moved steadily along, over the piled up brushes and trees, towards the hole where the beam emitted from. Kren took note, and no doubt the entire platoon, that the trees did not all fall away from the explosion. As he moved along, he noticed certain areas where the trees and landscape fell away from the explosion, just like anyone would have reasoned logically, but in other areas the vegetation actually fell toward the beam of light where the explosion originated. The side was peculiar and eerie at the same time.
Nothing was ever normal, though, when involved with forces with abnormal power.
The platoon slowly encircled the beam of light emitting from the ground. The light was not thin, but was actually the diameter of a Longsword's wingspan. It took up the entire radius of the hole.
Kren looked around, and with satisfaction noted that his platoon had secured a perimeter around it, but nobody had ventured any closer then a hundred meters to the beam. It was not emitting heat, and it was not too bright to look at; it had a curious harmlessness aurora around it.
"Inbound bogeys, south!" A Marine yelled out.
Kren snapped a look up at the sky and saw the object looming towards them. It had a unmistakable U-shape design, and it was followed by four more specks.
"Take cover!" McCollum yelled out. The ODSTs were standing in a flattened forest, but there was still limited cover from the fallen trees.
The Covenant drop-ship hadn't spotted them among the ruined forest, and came in quickly for a landing near the beam. The small flight of drop-ships circled as the Marines slipped under the vegetation. They seemed preoccupied with the beam firing up past them to pay too much attention to the ground.
Kren rolled underneath a thick tree keeled over on its side, as did McCollum. The first of five came in for a landing just fifty meters from their position, and the large side doors raised to reveal the Grunts, Jackals, and their Elite leaders. The sight was not promising as the first two ships barely stopped to unload their warriors, then pull up into the sky, only to be followed by the other three to land. He estimated that there were at least twelve Covenant per ship, and at five ships that was sixty aliens looking for there same artifact they were.
They were outnumbered two-to-one.
The fact that they did not have their comm. links working also did not give him the resources to coordinate an ambush from the three Squads scattered about under cover. He was confident, though, that they would not fire unless he did so first, or unless they needed to for their own safety.
Kren watched as the last three ships pulled away, and their Covenant troops began moving cautiously toward the light. Two Grunts passed within five meters of him and McCollum; their high-pitched squeaks indicative of their nervousness for being around an unknown force emitting from the ground.
Kren's heart jumped when he saw a quick flash, then the rapid motioned of an ghost Elite darting around the place. It would know that they were there.
Two Elite's immediately turned and began walk, weapons up, toward one of the hiding places of the Marines. Kren watched in horror as they neared, the ghost Elite somehow communicating with them with physical motions. There was no more hiding from them.
Kren tensed as he saw a small object fly out toward the two Elites. It bounced once, and the two aliens looked down at it, then roared in rage.
The explosion rippled through the ground and sent dirt, debris, and body parts of the aliens in all directions. The Covenant looked that direction, unaware and not expecting resistance.
Kren pushed through the fallen bush covering him and stood up, his rifle coming to his shoulder and the aim settling on a Blue Elite reacting to the explosion. Kren saw in the same split second nearly thirty other figures pop up from the ground.
The Covenant's worse fear. ODSTs.
Kren pulled the trigger and spat out five rounds that quickly diminished the Elites shield and tore through its neck. The Elite fell over and reached for its neck as its purple blood spattered out.
M7A1 rifle fire erupted around him as the Marines nailed their unsuspecting targets. Kren quickly turned and found a Jackal turning to fire on a Marine. He dispatched the threat with three rounds and took a look around to find what else was standing. An Elite aimed and fired at a Marine, hitting him square in the chest.
Kren aimed and fired, his rounds hitting but bouncing off the alien's shield. It forced the Elite forward, however, and threw its aiming off. At nearly an instantaneous second, plasma fire from the surviving Covenant erupted.
Kren rolled to the ground as green plasma round flew over him. Rifle tracers crisscrossed the area as Plasma fire bore down in all directions. Kren went up to a knee and fired a burst into a Grunt. He watched the alien fall backwards just as two Marines in the background flew into the air from a Plasma grenade.
Two fragmentation grenades detonated to his left, sending debris into the air. He watched as the Covenant quickly responded with a wall of Plasma fire onto the Marines that had thrown it.
Kren turned and fired at another target, missing as it dived for cover behind a fallen tree. He look around and saw the battlefield; the Marines were all separated, and the rifle fire was dangerously close to hitting other Marines. The Covenant were in no better shape, and Plasma fire shot out in all directions.
Kren felt a warm feeling, and also weightlessness as an explosion erupted from his left. He opened his eyes in time to see his landing spot. He tightened up to avoid from hurting himself too bad as he hit the ground and rolled in the muddy vegetation.
The whiteness that he always expected but never feared swept over him. He knew where he had just been a second before, but this new place was unfamiliar to him. As the white world that settled around him, he felt unusually calm. He stared into the endless void that slowly began to get brighter.
Kren flinched as figure appeared in his realm. It appeared up in his face as the background grew brighter. He didn't recognize the being, nor did he understand what it was doing in front of him. The figure pointed off into the distance as the surroundings grew pure white. No sound was heard in this place, nothing was clear or evident except for the figure in front of him and the whiteness that made him squint.
It suddenly turned black, and the figure mutated into a grotesque scene. The once calm white was now a fearful black. Kren could feel the fear rushing through him as the figure reached out and grabbed him. It was not human, and it did not represent anything good or right.
Kren could see right into its eyes as the long, ugly arms grabbed him. Those eyes struck him like knives and seemingly cut through him.
What was this place? Kren instinct was to throw the figure off him, but he had no strength in the realm. He had no power to stop this.
This was beyond his control.
Suddenly a beam of light broke into this black world. It intercepted with the figure and cut through it. Kren watched in horror as the being let go and pulled back in pain, letting go of its grip of him. He couldn't see the source of the light, but it ate away at the blackness.
The light suddenly flashed.
Kren suddenly opened his eyes and stared up into the eyes of another grotesque figure. This one he had seen before, however, and he knew what it was. The tall figure brought its weapon down in a bone-crushing slash toward his head.
He wasn't helpless this time. In this world he had his strength, and he was able to fight back. He brought his left arm up and knocked the assailants attack to the side, missing his head by mere inches.
Kren then rolled over while simultaneously grabbing his attackers' body and thrusting it back. The combined action brought him to a knee and sent his attacker's balance back. Kren watched as the Elite took a step back to recover but trip over a fallen tree. The Elite fell backwards into the debris and let go of its weapon to try and break the fall.
He brought his M6D pistol out and in one smooth motion aimed at the alien and pulled the trigger. A round ripped out of the large pistol and impacted the aliens chest. Kren looked away as blood spurted from the HE-round wound.
Kren scanned the area and didn't see anymore figures. What seemed like a few seconds earlier where his Marines and the Covenant were fighting was now an empty zone. He looked down as his body ached and saw the blood being absorbed by his uniform on his left side.
The pain wasn't there, but he could tell that the shrapnel from the grenade explosion had made its mark on him. Kren couldn't think about why he may have not been feeling the pain, except unless he was in shock.
He dismissed those thoughts from his head as he heard movement to his right. He turned and saw the Elite get up, and despite the wound to its chest, took a hunting look at him and brought it's arm forward.
Kren instincts brought his own arm up to deflect the punch, but the Elite quickly used its other arm and his him square in the torso. Kren flew back and hit the ground as his vision went blurry. He tightened his hand, but found no pistol there. He shook his head as his vision regained slowly. He looked up at the tall Elite who, despite the mortal wound to its chest, grunted in laughter as it prepared to finish the job.
Kren braced for the blow that would break his neck.
Kren blinked as the Elite's arm shredded before his eyes as rounds ripped into the unshielded body of the alien from behind. The Elite rippled as armor piercing rounds tore through him, sending body fragments and fluid everywhere. Kren covered his face as the body of the Elite fell forward into the ground.
Kren looked up as the body remained motionless beside him. A Marine lowered the shouldered rifle.
Sergeant McCollum clasped to one knee and let his grasp of the rifle slip. Kren got to his knees and crawled over to the Marine, who was looking down at the ground.
Kren got up to him and heard the gasping from his Platoon Sergeant. McCollum coughed and blood ran from his mouth. Kren grabbed his shoulders and helped him down, seeing the wounds over the Marines back as he rested him on the ground.
Kren cursed silently as his face became visible to him. Half the Marine' face was burnt and the other half bloodied. Kren brought him around to rest his head on him and held his body. McCollum gasped again as blood ran from his mouth.
"We got them." He said calmly. "We got them."
Kren looked into the one eye still functional on McCollum face. Before him, resting in his arms, was the one Marine he would trust everything with. The one ODST who would fight along him without question, who followed him into the worst conditions and who also selflessly put his own life on the line. This man was now gasping for air in the middle of a debris flattened forest with bodies of his comrades and enemies lying around him.
Kren felt the rage inside him as the sergeant coughed up again. How could it lead to this? He held his hands tight as the emotions ran through his veins, as the Marine looked up at him, covered in blood and taking fate to his own mortal wounds.
McCollum gasped for air one last time and stared up into his CO's eyes.
"We got them."
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