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Defense of Fire Base Epsilon Ch. 2 Pt. 1
Posted By: S7NN3R<janet.johnson8@comcast.net>
Date: 22 February 2005, 3:25 AM
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Chapter 2: Rub Vigorously
PFC Manuel Delgado double timed it down the corridor to the armory. He had met no resistance since he had left Gunnery Sergeant Dan Corisca, bleeding, two levels up. That meant that there were either no enemies on this level, or they were still hidden, waiting to strike. He only hoped that the Sergeant was safe as well.
He rounded the corner and found the armory entrance. He opened the door and leveled his shotgun, expecting an Elite to pop out and cut him in half. Instead, he found six Marines and four Naval personnel.
"What's going on here?" a man asked. Delgado turned and examined his rank. The man was a Chief Petty Officer. He was lean and fit, with black hair that was graying at the temples. He had a pistol at his waste and a sniper rifle slung over his shoulder.
"Didn't you hear the announcement? This facility has been infiltrated by the Covenant. We have to hold them off and get help."
"But we can't do anything," the Petty Officer began. "There's probably hundreds of them!"
"Stand down, Marine," said a man in a stern bark. Delgado turned and observed his rank. The man was a Brigadier General. He was old, and had lost most of his hair. He had a solid band of grey around his temples. He was still fit though. He had an M9D pistol and an SMG on his waste. "I'm Brigadier General Gunter Black, and I have command of this situation," he turned to face Delgado. "Do we know how the Covenant got here, Marine?"
"No sir, they took us entirely by surprise. Sir, I've got a wounded man two floors up. He's bleeding badly, and I don't how long he can hold out against the Covenant on his own."
The General sat down on a crate of emergency rations. "Hmm," he murmured. "It's two floors up to get from here to him. And then it's another floor up to get him to the medical wing,"
he stood and addressed Delgado. "We'll go and get him," he turned and looked at the other men in the room. "Marines, we're going on a rescue mission. Select your weapons, because we're leaving in five minutes."
Meanwhile, two floors up, things were going poorly for Sergeant Dan Corisca. Elites were coming in waves. The bodies of their dead littered the floor in an ocean of purple blood. He was almost out of ammo, and only had two round left for his shotgun.
And to make matters even worse, he had just smoked his last cigarette.
Another Elite, this one a golden zealot, appeared in the doorway, holding an energy sword. Corisca shouldered the shotgun and fired a shot at the Elite. Its shields flickered and went out, and the Elite charged at him. Corisca fired his last round and the Elite dropped dead. It dropped its energy sword, and collapsed onto his waist.
"Ungh!" he moaned. The carcass was crushing his body. He started to push the dead body off, when another Elite entered the room, this one in jet black armor, holding an energy sword. The Elite lifted his sword up, preparing to bring it down right into Corisca's head. Corisca brought the shotgun up above his head, and turned away. The Elite roared a triumphant battle cry, which was drowned out in a hail of gunfire.
"Huh?" Corisca said, stunned and confused. He looked up to find that the Elite was dead on the ground, withered under the storm of bullets. He propped himself up on the barrel of his shogun, and hobbled out into the hallway. He looked towards the elevator, and saw Private Delgado behind the controls of a machine gun turret. There were four others with him, two marines and two Naval personnel.
"Good to see you, Private!" Corisca shouted down the hallway. Delgado picked up the machine gun and slung it over his shoulder.
"You alright, sir?" Delgado asked, with genuine concern.
"Don't call me sir, I'm a working man. And to answer your question, yes. I'm fine," he replied. He frowned. "Is this all that's left?"
"No, there's six others that we know of. General Black went to secure the Communications room and call for help, and Chief Petty Officer Zach Jacobsen went to secure the power generators. We, however, are going to the Med Bay."
"All right then, let's move out! The Med Bay down the hall and up a flight of stairs."
The Marines moved down the hall. They could see the stairway up ahead.
"There's the stairs," one of the Marines said. They turned to go up the stairway, and met with a hail of plasma shots. One of the Naval Personnel, an Ensign, was cut down in the fire.
"Damn!" Delgado exclaimed. "Fire in the hole!" He took out a grenade, primed it, and threw it up the stairwell. He was rewarded with an explosion and an end to the gunfire three seconds later. "Valdez, check Norman," he indicated the Ensign that had been shot. "Johansen, Vendanski, take point." The two Marines went up the stairway.
"All clear up here!" Vendanski announced. He fired a shot from his BR55 Battle Rifle into the tangled remains of an Elite.
"He's alive!" Valdez announced. "But just barely. We've got to get him to Med Bay now."
"Give me a hand with him, Valdez," Delgado said. He lifted the Ensign by his head, and Private Norman took his feet. They carefully walked up the stairway and down the hall. Corisca came hobbling along after them.
"Here it is, Med Bay," Corisca announced. Private Vendanski opened the door, and Privates Valdez and Delgado set the wounded Ensign onto a cot. Sergeant Corisca sat down on another cot.
"Is there a doctor in the house?" Private Johansen asked, jokingly.
"I'm a doctor," a soft, female voice said. The voice had severely startled Johansen, who gave a little jump and tightened on his SMG. A pale, female women emerged from the medical supply room. "I'm Dr. Dreyer," she said. The Doctor was tall, almost 5'11", and thin. She was beautiful to behold, with curly, dark brown hair that went down to get shoulders. She had piercing brown eyes and a pair of glasses. She wore a white lab coat and held a clipboard with medical papers on it in her right hand.
"Let me see the patient," she said. She set the clipboard down and walked over to the injured Ensign. She checked his pulse, and then his blood pressure. She lifted up his shirt, and turned away.
"This man is in critical condition. Low pulse and blood pressure, and he has plasma burns on forty percent of his body," she said. "You two," she pointed to Privates Valdez and Vendanski. "Go into the Medical Supplies Room. I need you to get me some wraps, bandages, some needles, a vial of kemphetamine, hydrogen peroxide, Betodine solution, some Isopropyl, and bio-foam" she said. She wrote all the supplies down on a piece of paper and handed it to them.
"Here," she said and handed them a key. "You'll need this to get the hydro-peroxide and Isopropyl in the supply cabinet." The two Marines ran into the medical supply room looking for the medicines. Dr. Dreyer moved over to examine Sergeant Corisca.
"Laceration of the thigh," she said. "And minor plasma burns. There's some bleeding, but for the most part you're okay. I'll stitch you up and fill you with bio-foam as soon as I'm done with this man."
Valdez and Vendanski came out of the supply room a minute later, holding the medical supplies. "Here you are, ma'am," Valdez said.
"Thank you, private," the doctor said. She removed the Ensign's shirt, and began working.
Several hours passed while the Doctor worked on Ensign Norman. At 9:37, she removed her white rubber gloves, which were by that time covered in blood. She threw the gloves into a trash basket and sat down on an empty cot.
"There's nothing more I can do. We'll have to wait and see,"
"Hey!" Sergeant Corisca shouted. "What about me?"
"Of course, Sergeant," Doctor Dreyer said. "Private Delgado, go get some bio-foam, a needle, and some stitching thread."
Delgado fetched the supplies and brought them back. The doctor first filled up the wound with bio-foam, and then stitched up the wound. The entire operation took forty-five minutes.
"Thanks, Doc," Corisca said. "By the way, how did you manage to avoid the Covenant?"
The doctor sat down on a chair, and began to tell her story.
"I was in the rec-room when I first heard the announcement that the Covenant had attacked. Me and my nurses started to go to the armory like the announcement said. We were getting out of the elevator, when the Covenant attacked. Both my nurses were killed before my eyes."
She paused to wipe away a tear in her eye.
"I...I..." she stammered. "I, I don't want to talk about it anymore," she said and wiped away another tear running down her cheek.
"It's alright," Delgado said. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."
"Thank you," she said.
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