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Halo 2: Chapter 3: Shadow Ops
Posted By: Shadowrunner<mortenthenerd@hotmail.com>
Date: 26 June 2003, 12:36 PM
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Note: The team Shadow Ops are from the great story by Agent Shade (now, go read it!) It was, with his permission, integrated in this story
Master Chief was looking at the orange and blue explosion left by the covenant cruiser... He was adressed by Cortana:
"Allright, good job, but we don't have time to pose for pictures... I'm calling Admiral Smets i'll try to hook you up with a squad or two, and then move in to save some of the where covenants have invaded"
"Allright, don't loose any time chatting" Chief said.
Admiral Smets was in the radio with heavy static "C**tan*, c*me i*, Cort*na KRRZZZZ..... Allright systems calibrated, do you hear me clearly?"
"Yes Admiral, we hear you loud and clear"
"Good, i can prepare some standard marine infantry within 10 minutes, we need some support to our guys in New Mombassa"
"Roger, we will be with you shortly" Cortana replied...
The 4 fighters touched down in the hangar of 'Excalibur' just as sarge had finished adressing his men. When the fighter's ramp opened he heard the marines: "SIR, YES SIR!". Master Chief walked slowly towards them. He could see the marines stare at him like a ghost. Many of them lightened up into smiles. And when the Chief saluted them, they all as one returned the greetings.
"Glad you could make it here Chief" Sarge said
Without moving Chief adressed the marines"Sorry if i'm a little late for the party. But now we are going to make these covenant run squeeling back to their dropships!" He almost shouted the last words out.
The marines' fireteam leaders stepped forward: "Chief, sir, we will have the men prepped and ready in 2 minutes when you give the order"
"Do it"
The leaders stepped back, saluted, the sarge nodded, and the fireteam leaders yelled some commands at the marines. The marines set in motion: they quickly spread out into 3 dropships. One was still empty... The Master Chief realized a couple of heavily armed marines in ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) suits had been standing behind the marines. All 3 of them saluted. Admiral Smets was standing besides them.
"So... what do you think of these guys, eh?"
Chief sounded a little surprised: "This is going to be a cakewalk... The covies will never know what hit them"
Cortana was relaying intel gathered on the cruisers infrastructure to the human military network and noted to the Admiral: "While on the cruiser, we encountered a new species in the covenant netwo-"
"Yes, Cortana, i know... we've been encountering these things all around the Earth... We have codenamed them the Brutes... But we don't know much on their military capabilities"
"We fought several of them aboard the 'Sound Of Silence'... i will transmit my data on our encounters, and relay recorded video"
Master Chief, Sarge, and the 3 ODST men all boarded the last dropship. They were due to New Mombassa.
Chief asked Sarge who the ODST troopers were. All he could tell was that they were from Shadow Ops squad 2. The Sarge didn't know what Shadow Ops was or who trained them, what he did know was that they were the most elite of elite forces... Next to the SPARTAN-II's of course. The 3 other dropships split from them, they had another LZ.
Cortana informed: "Once we get down there, we have a covenant cruiser landed in the city we should take care of... It will be the primary mission target"
"What's the status of the status of that cruiser? Did any torpedoes hit it since it was forced to land?"
"It took 2 in the nose, then dropped into the atmosphere"
"Who was the first contact?"
Sarge shouted from behind the pilot seats: "405th under Diego Gozzia... But don't expect a warm welcome, the covenant wiped most of them out before they hit the ground"
A sniper squad, a spotter and a sniper, covered their approach route to the field quarters of the remaining UNSC troops. They adressed the dropships: "Imidate! Grid Kilo-23 is hot, recommend mission abort"
The pilot replied with a simple "Roger, recon" he flipped a bunch of buttons and said: "It's your call Sarge..."
"We're going in!" he said while pointing his finger forward to express himself without mistake. "Get tactical marines!" he shouted at the 3 ODSTs
The Shadow Ops group prepared themselves, loaded their rifles, armed them, and took their helmets on. The helmets had visors remarkably similar to that of the SPARTAN class armor. While they did their stuff, Cortana briefed Chief: "Covenant groundforces own this city, we will need to take care of them before we can kill that cruiser..."
They flew through the arc of enemy flak the snipers had warned about. But at this range they had a minimal chance of hitting their ship. They touched down. Sarge barked: "Pile out, go go go!" and the ODSTs moved out in a column formation. Over the radio, Sarge uttered a few words: "I'll evac the wounded. Keep us boasted Cortana!"
"Of course, Sargeant" Cortana replied.
A marine stood at the ready to recive Master Chief: "Sir! Corporal Barress, A-Company, CP is this way!" He ran down from the pad of the LZ, along the way Chief heard a wounded say: "Must be seeing things..."
The marine taking him to the dropship for evac added: "Guess the Brass do give a shit...". He was in the middle of the city, and on the roads temporary medical facilities were set up. The corporal led Chief over to the body of their Leiutenant. The doctor watching him said as the Chief got closer: "I'm calling... It's 1900" into his data bank.
Barress spoke out: "The Leiutenant got hit as soon as we dropped in"
Cortana asked "Who is in charge now corporal?"
"Sargeant Bakes ma'm, and he's pinned down out front. Come on i'll show you!" He ran into the building next to them. On the other side of it, behind the wall, two marines were firing out through some blast holes. One of them with a mounted machinegun, like the ones on the Warthog class of LRV.
They were shouting orders at each other: "No no, BEHIND that ST!"
"YEAH YEAH!!!"
"Three more coming up!"
"I'm running low here man!". There was a large hole where a door used to be. Barress walked up to the edge of it... A marine was out on the catwalk, taking cover behind the railing.
"OH HEY Martians!" Barress shouted
"Yeah?"
"Is it clear?" A big explosion crippled the catwalk right next to Pvt. Martians.
"YOU TELL ME!"
Barress whispered to himself "Coward..." He then looked at Master Chief and shouted: "Fine, let's move it out COVERING FIRE!"
He rushed onto the catwalk and started firing his Battle Rifle at the covenant forces in the yard. Master Chief noticed a large tower shooting out big balls of plasma, like a Wraith tank... But immobile. He ran along the catwalk towards a ramp while shooting his rifle... He took down 2 Grunts using the scope. Other marines had been following Chief and Barress, they took up position at the ramp and started subtracting numbers from the enemy ranks. Chief threw a grenade down the other side of the ramp where a group of Grunts were waiting to ambush them. He then shot a small group of Grunts into pieces from long range using the scope on his Battle Rifle. He moved to the plateau below and saw Sargeant Bakes pinned down behind some railings. Chief ran over to him. "When i asked for rienforcements, i didn't think they'd send a SPARTAN... He nodded his head in the direction of the large Wraith-Tower. "We've got to take that thing out COVER ME!" He raised himself, badly wounded, and limped to his dead radio expert hanging on the railing. Meanwhile Chief played hell with the covenant forces down below... Bakes stripped the radio from his dead buddy and reported: "Tac HQ this is Sargeant Bakes, i've got hostile artillery 200 meters north-north east of my position, bring in the smoke, OVER!"
Master Chief realized he didn't have the ammo to hold back all of these covenant alone. He then noticed a mounted MG position a few meters from him, at the corner of the railing. If the covenant forces thought were in trouble before, then they were about realizing how bad things could get. The gun started spinning: "Ta...... Ta..... Ta.... Ta... Ta.. Ta.TaTaTaTaTaTa" The small covenant group of Grunts and Jackals were almost literally cut to shreds. "Dammit HQ is anybody on this brick?"
Sgt. Bakes sounded desperate. Just then, a reassuring voice came in over the radio: "Sargeant, this is Major Eavesly! Hang tight, we're inbound" Two Fighters roared overhead of them and let loose a rain of 2000lb cluster-AT bombs. The tower blew up in a bright blue flash and the loud crispy sound of a plasma core cracking and blowing up.
"Verified delivery of ordinance on target"
"Head on Major! Target neutralized!"
Bakes turned to the Chief: "Take my weapons... You'll need it!" He handed Master Chief two SMGs... Chief admired them for a splitsecond and then brought them up to his shoulder, ready for use.The covenant team was in a world of hurt, and to make it better, Chief and the entire remaing force of marines at the plateau stormed them. They were slain to pieces. Chief and the marines advanced, they got to a small alley where they had cornered a big group of Jackals and Grunts. "Frag and clear!" a marine shouted over the radio. A grenade flew into the alley. It exploded and the same marine ordered: "Clear out!" The marines charged into the alley, followed by Master Chief. They left none alive.
The marines held their position to secure it from being overrun at a later time. Master Chief headed through a small hole in the walls of the alley, after a little while he found himself confronted with an advancing line of 5 Jackals in formation. He tried shooting his Battle Rifle at them, but to no avail. Suddenly 2 warthogs flanked the Jackals, the first one was armed with an MG and ran over most of the Jackals while the gunner took care of the rest. The second jeep had a railgun, but there was no one to operate it. It stopped next to him, and the passenger shouted: "We could use a gunner sir!". Master Chief jacked in. "Go sir, we've got your back!" the marines radioed. Chief shot a covenant troop transport to shreds and the driver congratulated: "That's the way, YEAH!". The 2 warthogs kept close to each other and cut through the covenant ranks like a chainsaw throgh butter.
Now the covenant brought in some heavier firepower; the ghosts were all around the city. The field base by the LZ was under attack by 2 ghosts... Master Chief brought the gun in position and fired. The passenger kept on encouraging him: "That's one!" Chief shot the other ghost at point blank range "That's two! Come on who's up for more?!". Then Cortana headed up: "A phantom!" they were suddenly attacked by a Phantom, a new line of covenant dropship with better weapons, and able to drop their occupants in-fligh. "Hang on!" the driver ordered, taking a sharp right-turn at the next intersection.
Another Phantom flew over their heads. "Brutes!" Cortana sounded disturbed, a brute jumped onto the other warthog from the Phantom. Another Brute landed on Chief's jeep. It bashed the driver and passenger, sending them flying through the air. Master Chief jumped off and fired a couple of shots at the jeep to get the Brute's attention. It jumped off. Then Chief noticed this one had a gun; it looked like a crossing between a Plasma Rifle and a Fuel Rod Gun... He didn't mind. He gave the Brute a devestating 3-punch combo, then he turned towards the 3 other brutes dropped out of the Phantom. He shot a car near 2 of them and the car's explosion killed them. There was now a single Brute left; it tried to run away but Master Chief cut it down with a scoped barrage from his Battle Rifle. Cortana updated the situation: "Ghosts, to your right!".
Chief pulled out his double SMGs and rushed forward towards them, one of them zipped past him, the next headed straight for him. He started to run backwards, Cortana sounded nervous "wait for it..." Master Chief jumped at just the right moment; he landed on the ghost's left wing. He then kicked off the brute driving it, and in the same move he landed in the control seat. He turned the ghost around and opened fire at the Brutes in the street. The 2 Phantoms came in overhead and started shooting at the Chief. Cortana was always helpful with a plan: "The marines won't stand a chance if those Phantoms get back, see if you can draw them off!" He headed down the highway, but the highway's sensors detected his covenant transportation and started locking down the horizontal gates. Cortana was getting nerveous"Chief..?"
"Hang on!"He drove as fast as he could into the closing gate, while leaning himself to the side. The ghost hit the gate, this made the Chief fly off and through the gate, the ghost also got through but it was heavily damaged. He slided approximately 50 meters down the highway... He then raised himself. He still had his double SMGs.
"Bingo, there is the cruiser!" Cortana said, the cruiser was hovering over the city a couple of kilometers from their position. "Now, all we need to.... do.... is....." Cortana stuttered in her speach as a massive number of lines of fire descended onto the city. 5 of them ended next to the chief, they were small transport pods, each carrying a Black Elite armed with a sword. They sorrounded Chief against the railing, as he pulled out a plasma grenade and activated it. Cortana's voice sounded: "Bet ya can't stick it..."
"You're on" he said, lunging himself forwards. He threw his grenade towards the Elite in front of him, it dodged, exactly as Master Chief had planned. He ran through the hole in their blockade. He fired off both of his SMGs at the nearest Elite. It collapsed to the ground, being barraged by .50 caliber caseless ammunition at an insane rate. Cheif turned around and pointed his SMGs at them, they were confused. Suddenly a small zip! could be heard in the air, one of the 4 remaining Elites collapsed immidiately. A tail of smoke could be seen in the air after the sniper bullet. Just then, a dropship roared overhead as 2 Shadow Ops soldiers jumped out of it's bay, the landed on either side of the 3 Elites. One of the Shadow Ops was carrying 2 Plasma swords, but it didn't look like the swords carried by the Elites. Being sorrounded by the most elite unit of marines and having the cyborg that single-handedly took out a covenant armada at Halo, pointing their weapons at them, 2 of the Elites dropped their weapons and raised their hands. The third one stuck his sword through his head. The Shadow Ops sniper ran towards them from the other end of the highway. The dropship from before landed next to them, the 2 Elites were stripped of their shield units, and escorted into the dropship by 4 normal marines. The 3 Shadow Ops troopers gathered in a line in front of Master Chief.
"Corporal Davidson reporting for duty SIR!" the middle of them said, all of them saluted.
Chief returned the salute and asked: "What's the news?"
Davidson stepped forward: "We were transferred to your command sir, we will be joined by red team any moment now"
Just as he said this a Warthog with a railgun came racing towards them with red team. They unmounted the vehicle and formed a line similar to blue squad's. All the men had their callsigns engraved in their helmets. Red squad's 3 members were Balrog, Lucifer and Dragon...
Balrog was the primary assault expert in Shadow Ops squad 2; he wielded the MA5B as his primary weapon. . For long ranges he carried the SP9/A10 Carbine rifle, it was a cross between an Assault Rifle and Sniper Rifle, it had custom ammunition to fit it's task in the field. It was capable of eliminating targets at almost the range of a sniper, but had less stopping power. Still, he would only need 3 shots to bring down a standard Elite shield. The scope was the same ORACLE WolfEye(R) scope as on the standard Sniper Rifle. It only had 22 rounds in a magazine, and fired them pretty slow. But it was a delicate weapon. Harmless in a rookies hands, it could turn into a killing machine if the right man on the right mission was using it. His third weapon was the M90 Shotgun wich had a devastating force.
Lucifer, or Corporal Davidson, was carrying twin MP-15 SMGs that made for an unstoppable onslaught, no enemy would stand if he got them in his sights. He also carried the MA5B Assault Rifle for backup reasons since it took all types of standard Rifle ammunition. He also carried the SPNKR-2 Rocket Launcher for vehicle engagements.
Dragon had his name from his weapon of choice; He held a gun Master Chief had never seen before... It was generally shaped as an Assault Rifle, but the barrel was built to sustain 15mm explosive ammunition. The magazine was pretty big, holding up to 80 15mm explosive rounds. To counter the recoil it had built-in barrel springs. It was the MG294-C, one of the best machine guns avaivable. To be able to engage targets at long range he also wielded the MA7B. The M6D provided adequate firepower for a sidearm.
Master Chief looked at blue team; Katana, Ecstasy and Crosshair
Katana was the Shadow Ops to wield the dual Plasma Swords, they were made in a top secret human project called 'Razor', they incorporated the best of human tecnology into covenant plasma swords, making them have a slight green glow. They were also longer. Carrying only these swords and the M6D pistol, he had to get close to really do some damage, so instead of a lot of ammunition and a third weapon he wore armor with a shield generator.
Ecstasy was a mad warrior... His adrenaline causing him to get 'doped' in a battle situation. He had once been shot in his stomach with a Plasma Rifle, blood gushing out of his belly. And yet he kept on fighting. He was transferred to a hospital, but this day he still thought it was unneccesary. He had the MA7B as his primary weapon, but for close combat he took the M90. His sidearm was a single MP-15 SMG.
Crosshair was the sniper of the team, he had the M98-5 40mm rifle, the bullet was sabot, specifically designed for anti-armor. Strong enough to penetrate even high grade starship crystalline armor. The bullet was so big it would blow up an opponents head if a headshot was achieved. This was the only gun know to mankind that could penetrate the Hunters' front armor.
Even Cortana was impressed of this squad: "Turns out you were right, this IS going to be a cakewalk!"
Master Chief thought it was about time to get them moving: "Ok, let's move out!"
But Davidson replied: "hold on, we're still waiting for our last member..."
"Who?"
"Aaahh...Him" Davidson said as he pointed over the shoulder of Chief. He heard someone say "Hello", but when he turned around there were nobody behind him.
Master Chief turned again and saw a man standing between the two other groups. He was wearing a strange armor, and he was quietly laughing. On his helmet was engraved 'Shadowrunner'.
Davidson presented the new member: "Master Chief, this is our infiltration expert. He wasn't originally meant to be working in cooperation with the standard Shadow Ops soldiers, but he can give us valuable intel without alerting the enemy." Chief looked at him... He was carrying a Sniper Rifle and an M8SD Silenced Pistol. At his waist he also carried a strange looking crossbow. It was loaded with sleeping darts.
Master Chief was very impressed with the firepower he was now in control of: "Ok, let's make sure they don't have a chance" he said with a slight grin on his face behind the visor.
--To be continued
By: Shadowrunner
"My name may be shadow... but i'm far deadlier than such a thing"
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