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Sorry for the delay, been a rough couple of work days, and haven't been up to writing. I'm working on next IC, and it will be up at some point tonight.
Next post is live. I'm headed to work, will check for necessary updates when I get home.
Near the T-Intersection of Maynard and Fremont
The attention the Covenant patrol had been paying to the pinned down McCoy was now aimed directly at the trio of Ghosts to the west. As thunder and lightning continued to flash over head, the two remaining Jackals moved forward to provide cover for the remaining members of the group, while simultaneously laying down a sustained blanket of fire. The two armored Elites moved to take up firing positions behind the Jackals, laying down their own sustained fire.
As the last four Grunts attempted to move back and set up in similar fashion behind the two protective Jackal shields, one of them was caught clean in his snout by a burst of Battle Rifle fire from Corporal Anders. Spinning around on one leg before dropping to the ground, there escaped a soft gurgle of blood before the creature finally died.
Having noticed their dwindling numbers, the three remaining grunts panicked, and began to turn and run back down the street, but not before another was caught with one well placed DMR shot to the mid-section, dropping to the pavement. “We’re done for!” barked out one of the panicked Grunts as it threw it’s arms up into the air, and began running.
Growling angrily at the cowardice of his Grunts, the Zealot turned his plasma rifle back to the trio of Ghost to the west, and he opened fire with several four round bursts. He turned to his blue armored comrades, and hollered orders at them. Then, as he resumed moving closer to where McCoy’s position was, he felt the peppering of sustained weapons fire from one of the Ghosts, and his shields flashed and flickered as they defended him.
Trying to duck behind the two Jackals for cover, his shields snapped out, leaving him vulnerable to harm. Unaware of the movements of McCoy, he focused solely on the Ghosts to the west, barking out orders to his squad. That is until he felt something smack against one of his mandibles, and singe the soft tissues of his mouth. Brining a clawed hand to his face, he pulled a burning flare from his jaw, and tossed it to the ground as he growled in agony. As he saw the flare burn the ground, he also noticed his own purple blood, and one of his mandibles on the ground. The flare had torn it from his face, maiming him in a severe manner.
Growling angrily again, he turned back to the trio, then to McCoy, and then to the street behind him. Deciding on a hasty retreat, he barked a barely discernable command at his two subordinate Elites, then he switched on his active camouflage, disappeared into thin air, and made for the south to regroup.
His patrol however didn’t follow suit, and maintained their assault of Tenjer, Anders, and Brewer. The two blue armored Elites split up as they approached McCoy’s position, one heading west to continue firing on the western group. The other began bearing down on the sprawled Ghost, following his Ship Master’s orders to kill the one that had injured him.
The blue armored Elite raised his weapon to shoot at McCoy, barely twenty or so feet from him. But before he could fire, a hail of bullets peppered his shields until they flashed out, then penetrated his chest armor and flesh underneath. In all at least ten rounds had penetrated, and with a great bellow the Elite sprawled backward and fell onto the street, purple blood oozing from his wounds.
Releasing his just spent magazine, Jameson retrieved another from his ammo pouches and slapped it up into the receiver, and charged another round into the chamber. “Move!” he hollered out to Croft as he fired on full-auto at the three remaining Covenant troops, getting the two Jackals to turn in his direction, exposing their backs to the western trio.
Lance Corporal Croft then climbed up over the same mound where Jameson was perched and firing from, and moved over to help McCoy up to his feet, moving him back to the alley, where he’d at least be free from fire.
“Waste'em!” hollered Jameson in his comm at Anders, Tenjer, and Brewer.
When the Jackals turned, they were met with another brilliant flash, as Brewer’s flashbang went off, and blinded the snarling creatures, who were now entirely defenseless.
The attention the Covenant patrol had been paying to the pinned down McCoy was now aimed directly at the trio of Ghosts to the west. As thunder and lightning continued to flash over head, the two remaining Jackals moved forward to provide cover for the remaining members of the group, while simultaneously laying down a sustained blanket of fire. The two armored Elites moved to take up firing positions behind the Jackals, laying down their own sustained fire.
As the last four Grunts attempted to move back and set up in similar fashion behind the two protective Jackal shields, one of them was caught clean in his snout by a burst of Battle Rifle fire from Corporal Anders. Spinning around on one leg before dropping to the ground, there escaped a soft gurgle of blood before the creature finally died.
Having noticed their dwindling numbers, the three remaining grunts panicked, and began to turn and run back down the street, but not before another was caught with one well placed DMR shot to the mid-section, dropping to the pavement. “We’re done for!” barked out one of the panicked Grunts as it threw it’s arms up into the air, and began running.
Growling angrily at the cowardice of his Grunts, the Zealot turned his plasma rifle back to the trio of Ghost to the west, and he opened fire with several four round bursts. He turned to his blue armored comrades, and hollered orders at them. Then, as he resumed moving closer to where McCoy’s position was, he felt the peppering of sustained weapons fire from one of the Ghosts, and his shields flashed and flickered as they defended him.
Trying to duck behind the two Jackals for cover, his shields snapped out, leaving him vulnerable to harm. Unaware of the movements of McCoy, he focused solely on the Ghosts to the west, barking out orders to his squad. That is until he felt something smack against one of his mandibles, and singe the soft tissues of his mouth. Brining a clawed hand to his face, he pulled a burning flare from his jaw, and tossed it to the ground as he growled in agony. As he saw the flare burn the ground, he also noticed his own purple blood, and one of his mandibles on the ground. The flare had torn it from his face, maiming him in a severe manner.
Growling angrily again, he turned back to the trio, then to McCoy, and then to the street behind him. Deciding on a hasty retreat, he barked a barely discernable command at his two subordinate Elites, then he switched on his active camouflage, disappeared into thin air, and made for the south to regroup.
His patrol however didn’t follow suit, and maintained their assault of Tenjer, Anders, and Brewer. The two blue armored Elites split up as they approached McCoy’s position, one heading west to continue firing on the western group. The other began bearing down on the sprawled Ghost, following his Ship Master’s orders to kill the one that had injured him.
The blue armored Elite raised his weapon to shoot at McCoy, barely twenty or so feet from him. But before he could fire, a hail of bullets peppered his shields until they flashed out, then penetrated his chest armor and flesh underneath. In all at least ten rounds had penetrated, and with a great bellow the Elite sprawled backward and fell onto the street, purple blood oozing from his wounds.
Releasing his just spent magazine, Jameson retrieved another from his ammo pouches and slapped it up into the receiver, and charged another round into the chamber. “Move!” he hollered out to Croft as he fired on full-auto at the three remaining Covenant troops, getting the two Jackals to turn in his direction, exposing their backs to the western trio.
Lance Corporal Croft then climbed up over the same mound where Jameson was perched and firing from, and moved over to help McCoy up to his feet, moving him back to the alley, where he’d at least be free from fire.
“Waste'em!” hollered Jameson in his comm at Anders, Tenjer, and Brewer.
When the Jackals turned, they were met with another brilliant flash, as Brewer’s flashbang went off, and blinded the snarling creatures, who were now entirely defenseless.
Some else is going to have to wind up severely injured in McCoy's stead; hmm, who shall it be?
Well, he was going to lose his arm. Check again. ;)
NOTE: 696969 is resuming control of Corporal McCoy.
Post is up!
...glad to hear. Still a little while to go for your guy to appear, but we'll get there.
HellHoundWoof said
Still here!
...glad to hear. Still a little while to go for your guy to appear, but we'll get there.
04:27 Hours
23 August, 2550
“Captain! The Covenant drop ship, it’s making a break for high orbit!” exclaimed Ensign Alonso as he spun around from his console, the readout on which displayed a LIDAR image of said ship moving at high speeds on an ascent trajectory taking it up from the surface of Solace Colony.
“The intense storms raging throughout the planet’s atmosphere would have likely masked us from their ship board sensors. They are unlikely to have detected us.” Chimed the soft electronic toned voice of Oberon.
Approaching the Captain’s perch and the holo-emitter where the visage of the AI was displayed, Commander Campbell looked over the readout showing the trajectory of the Covenant craft. It wouldn’t be long until the ship was clear of whatever disturbances had hidden them from being detected, and then the party would take a whole other tone. “Ready all weapons, and prepare to engage!” she called out aloud, almost drowned out by the loud claxons as they sounded again.
“Oberon, give me a firing solution!” commanded Ramsey as he leaned over the railing of the Captain’s perch, looking out through the viewport at the stars shifting down and away as the Wanderer began to maneuver around for a shot on the Covenant ship. “Mister Smythe, on my command I want you to put a MAC round clean through the sons of bitches!” he added, addressing Lieutenant Junior Grade Smythe, the Wanderer’s chief tactical officer.
“Aye sir!” replied the Scotsman, who worked furiously at his console to ready the Wanderer’s Mark-IV Magnetic Accelerator Cannon. Though smaller than those carried aboard the UNSC’s premier ships and Destroyers, the Mark-IV Mini-MAC still packed quite a punch, more than enough to handle a small troop ship like the one accelerating up from the surface.
“Captain, the firing solution is locked in.” announced Oberon.
“FIRE!” Ramsey commanded, and Smythe obliged his CO. There was a moments delay as the lights aboard the bridge dimmed and flickered, the result of the immense power surge required to fire the MAC; then the ship was filled with the loud booming thump of the super-dense solid ferric tungsten slug reaching critical velocity before clearing the ship. Just beyond the viewport is the barely visible thin red trail of the round as it speeds away at roughly 10,000KPS.
“ETA to target is five seconds.” Announced Oberon.
In the distance, the purple reflective hull of the Covenant transport is back dropped by the dark swirling clouds of the planet below. Just barely becoming visible to the naked eye as it rockets toward the Wanderer, the countdown in everyone’s mind ends just prior to the sudden and violent result of their single fired shot. The Covenant ship is struck center-mass by the super-dense slug, and in an instant a hole a square meter across is torn through from bow to stern. The Covenant ship then tumbles uncontrollably end over end as atmosphere is vented and burned off in seconds, before finally the craft is obliterated when it’s ship board power core goes critical.
A moment of silent persists aboard the Wanderer as the bridge crew feels a sense of relief wash over them at having destroyed the enemy ship with one single shot. “Any chance they got any communications off?” asked Captain Ramsey as he looked to his left at the holo-emitted image of Oberon.
“Negative. They never had a chance.”
- - - - -
04:27 Hours
23 August, 2550
By now all of the Covenant ground forces were well aware of the presence of the Ghosts; either by the sound of their drop pods hurtling down from the heavens at super-sonic speeds, or the red streaks made as their drop pods tore through the atmosphere. While the surprise of the sudden incursion had lingered, that feeling quickly faded once orders came from their Ship Master, Kor’Vetal. Immediately spurred into action by their respected squad leaders, the Covenant patrols began moving about the wrecked city on orders to search and destroy.
The opportunity to fight and kill the infidels was exactly what several of the other Sanghelli officers were chomping at the bit for, and when this opportunity presented itself, they were all too happy to oblige. Barking out commands at their squads of Unggoy and Kig-Yar to move, they wanted to coat their hands in human blood.
The alleyway leading toward the triangular intersection of Stevens Street
Marching like barely tamed ravenous dogs, the Grunts continued to make up ground as they made their way toward Archer’s position. They kept their weapons aimed, if poorly so, and continued to blast green glowing bolts of searing hot plasma in his general direction. The bolts splashed randomly against the scorched and burned walls of the alleyway, tearing away big super-heated chunks of cement and cinder block that rained down over Archer’s armor.
“Kill! Kill the human!” blurted out one of the Grunts in a gutural high pitched voice as it marched onward, unaware of the fragmentation grenade the Staff Sergeant had thrown. Awareness came quickly to the grunt as the fuse of the grenade triggered in a loud deafening boom that echoed against the alley walls. Instantly, splinters of jagged steel exploded outward in all directions, tearing into the closest Grunt, and two others behind. As the screams of agony bellowed out from the three Grunts, large chunks of blue blood and flesh splattered against the walls.
Stunned by the concussive force of the grenade, a fourth Grunt hesitated to duck for cover, and he was caught by in a hail of bullets that had been fired from Archer. While Archer sprinted in a north direction, the Grunt staggered backward, eventually landing in a lifeless heap.
Having bore witness to the deaths of several of his Grunts, the first of two Elites, this one armored in blue, grabbed one of his Jackals by the arm and thrust him forward, blurting out some sort of command in his native language. He then raised his plasma rifle and fired several quick bursts of plasma off into the direction that Archer had ran, howling angrily at the human.
Stepping up beside his blue armored companion, the red armored squad leader raised his own plasma rifle to take a shot at the human, but instead was also struck by a flurry of bullets. Protecting him from physical harm, his personal shields flickered and flashed in response to the numerous impacts. Disorientated by the sudden and vicious assault, the red armored Elite ducked down into an adjacent alley just as his shields overloaded, and went out. Waiting a moment for them to recharge, he reached for a plasma grenade attached to his waist, and triggered it.
Peaking out from around the corner, he quickly flung the pulsating grenade in the general direction of where he taken fire from. Arcing gracefully in the air, the grenade landed roughly two meters distance from where Acosta had taken up position, well within the blast radius of the device. The grenade hummed and pulsed as it lay there for an instant, just about to explode.
- - -
The T-Intersection of Maynard and Fremont
The largest of the Covenant patrols was led by a Covenant Zealot, denoted by the unique color of his armor, and the shape of the helmet that adorned his skull. This patrol continued to advance on the pinned down McCoy, firing wildly at the burnt out shell of a car he was using as cover. The already charred and burnt aluminum skeleton of the vehicle had begun to glow white hot as it absorbed blast after blast of super-heated covenant plasma.
“Ahhhhh! Fuck!” cried out McCoy as the ambient heat from the blasts of energy were searing at his flesh, cooking him alive; but there was no where he could go.
However, as the patrol grew closer to McCoy’s position, they were suddenly assailed from the west by Corporal Anders. His first trigger pull had netted him one unsuspecting Grunt, who’s skull had been opened up like a can of beans. His second plinked at and triggered a cascade effect of one of the Grunt’s methane rebreathers. In an instant the volatile gas began spewing out from the Grunt’s tank on his back, then ignited in a brilliant blue explosion that engulfed another of the patrol’s Grunts, setting it ablaze, and even in the constant rain it still burned for quite a long while before dropping dead.
As the blue bits and pieces of the exploded Grunt fell back down upon the rest of the Patrol, the group of Jackals reacted and raised their forearm mounted shields, just in time to protect themselves for a hail of Anders’ bullets. Two immediately raised their weapons in Anders’ direction and began firing green bolts of plasma at him; at third raised his weapon, but instead began overcharging its weapon.
Not too far from where the Jackals were firing at Anders, another Grunt caught a single well placed round on the side of it’s skull, and dropped to the asphalt in a lifeless heap. Seeing another of their comrades fall victim to the impressive shooting of the Ghosts, the trio of firing Jackals began to back away from Tenjer’s position, clearly intimidated. As they backed away however, they retreated right into a Fragmentation grenade that had been tossed by the Corporal. There was a reverberating boom as it detonated, causing their shields to flicker and flash out as shrapnel peppered their unprotected bodies from behind, tearing them apart.
Angered at the deaths of so many of his troops so quickly, the Covenant Zealot barked a command at his one of his blue armored subordinates, who in turn pointed their weapon in the direction of their assailants, and fired a single blue bolt of plasma that struck glancingly off of the left Tenjer’s helmet. Though it was a miracle he hadn’t been killed instantly, the plasma splash would have left first degree burns over a good portion of the left side of Tenjer’s skull, as well as turning his helmet into a molten piece of ruined equipment.
As the other blue armored Elite reached at his waist for a plasma grenade, there came another brilliant flash, though this one hadn’t been caused by the lightning above, nor another fragmentation grenade. Instead, it came with an incredible ear shattering thud that left the Elite and his patrol momentarily disorientated. One of the remaining Grunts panicked as his eyes and ears stung painfully, and he fired blindly into the face of another Grunt, burning the flesh clean off from bone as it collapsed dead.
Letting out a great bellowing growl, the Covenant Zealot pulled a plasma grenade from his own waist, and after actuating it, errantly threw it in a daze. The round pulsating device arced in the air as it fell upon the driver’s side seat of the car Corporal McCoy had taken cover behind. In a brilliant blue splash of plasma the grenade exploded, tumbling the burnt out vehicle up into the air, flipping over several times until it came to a rest at the embankment of a pile of debris.
Corporal McCoy had also been thrown from his place of refuge when the grenade detonated, having been launched roughly twenty feet away. He landed in a heap among a small bit of burned refuse, his armor thudding painfully as he didn’t move. The entire left side of his armor was singed and burnt badly, no doubt McCoy had sustained some injuries in the blast, and when his status pinged yellow, it didn’t look good.
- - -
Near the intersection of Josten and Titan.
“I found him! I found-“ came the Grunt’s cut off words over his squad leader’s comm, who turned toward the Grunt’s last known location. Raising his plasma rifle he fired a solitary shot into the air to get his patrol’s attention, then grunted out an order to attack. As they ran after Davis who darted into the lobby of an old burnt out hotel, the red armored Elite pointed his own plasma rifle at him and fired.
As Davis fled into the old burned out hotel lobby, the logo of the ‘Hyatt’ company was still barely visible on the destroyed marble check-in counter. As he tried to traverse the stairs up into the upper areas of the old hotel, the stairwell crumpled and collapsed beneath his feet, meaning he was trapped on the ground floor. Entering cautiously through the open lobby, the Covenant began searching for the assailant that had killed one of their fellows.
However, as the red armored Elite and his blue armored subordinate approached the lobby, a single loud bang sounded and the blue armored Elite groaned out aloud as he clutched at his leg, which had just been blown off at the knee. Though wounded, the Elite still posed a serious threat if left to live.
A moment later a staccato of weapons fire sounded as bullets pinged off of the red armored Elite’s shields, which flickered and flashed. “Corporal Davis! It’s Wiley! Tuckk and I are just to your west!” announced the young ODST as he slapped a magazine of shredder rounds into his MA5C, and pulled the charging lever.
“It’s an ambush! Aggghhhh!” cried out one of the Grunts as it ran for cover, shooting randomly in the direction it had assumed Tuckk and Wiley were shooting from. The several blasts of green plasma struck supporting pillars of the hotel, and the entire structure rumbled slightly. The hotel, like the other building in the city, was a crumbling shell, and could collapse at the slightest sign of stress.
- - -
In an Alleyway between Titan and Fremont
Just to the south of Davis, Tuckk, and Wiley; a small Covenant patrol began encroaching upon Corporal Silva’s abandoned drop pod. The Grunts led the way, their weapons raised and ready to fire, backing them up was a lone Jackal who’s shield was charged, and lastly their blue armored Elite squad leader. The Elite barked commands at the others as they made their way over the twisted and charred wreckage of the two half collapsed buildings that made up the alley way in which Silva had landed.
To the west of Silva on Titan Road were Sergeants Danforth and Leonid, who were making their way north to meet up with the Corporal before heading north to assist the others. “Where are we?” asked Leonid as he looked about the dark street, his M7S shouldered and leveled down the alleyway where Silva had landed.
With a deep sigh, Danforth stepped over closer to Leonid, and looked down the alleyway. “I already told you, we’re on Titan Road, just south of Josten Avenue. According to this readout, Corporal Silva should be just down this alley, and Corporal Laurent just to the north.”
- - -
Just up the road, Corporal Laurent gradually came too. Her drop had been pretty rough, as her pod had slammed through the burned remnants of an old video board. As her vision cleared, she looked about her drop pod, and tried to reach for the latch release of her drop pod door. But as she leant forward, a strong shooting pain arced up through her back, and she recoiled in reaction. “Nnnnh!” she gritted her teeth, reaching a hand around to grab at her aching back.
- - -
Near the corner of Coronado and Titan.
As old charred steel beams twisted, and concrete slabs cracked, the top forty or so stories of an old burned out building in the northeast part of the city starting hurtling down in a hurry. The thunder of the storm overhead, and even the echoes of battle were drown out by the earth quaking calamity that chased after Sergeant Golovkin as he scrambled to escape. In fact, the very ground beneath the feet of the Ghosts and Covenant shook as the massive structure pancaked down upon itself.
Standing just outside of the collapsing structure, Master Gunnery Sergeant was tuned into his comm data, noting the yellow emergency ping of McCoy’s status. “McCoy!” he called out over the comm retreating from the structure as debris began to rain down over his position. “Can anyone get to McCoy!” he asked as he dodged a twelve foot long steel beam that crashed down just in front of him.
“Shit!” he exclaimed as he looked up and saw the top ten stories of the collapsing structure lurch in a westward direction; instead of pancaking neatly down onto itself like it had appeared, the collapsing building would rain down onto Titan Road. “It’s coming down over the west!” he announced over comms to Golovkin, just as the Sergeant burst from the façade of the building, and landed atop an old burned out car. “Move your ass!” he exclaimed.
Jameson saw more debris falling about him, and decided he’d better move himself. As he sprinted away, he could feel the ground rumbling beneath his feet, and heard concrete and steel smashing to the earth behind him. When the rumbling stopped, a thick cloud of ash and dust lingered about the northeast area of the city, which made it difficult to see and move in. Still, Jameson heard the call of Golovkin as he made his way eastward on Coronado Way.
“Golovkin! Good!” he acknowledged the Ghosts still alive status, and motioned for him to follow. “We need to move!” he said as he patted him on the shoulder, and took off to rendezvous with Croft, Donovan, and Mullan. Along the way, Lance Corporal Sanders caught up with Golovkin and Jameson.
- - -
Just north of the alley leading to the T-Intersection of Maynard and Fremont
When Jameson, Golovkin, and Sanders met up with Mullan, Croft, and Donovan; they were just north of the alleyway that lead down to the T-Intersection of Maynard and Fremont. Where Corporal McCoy’s status had pinged yellow, and the others were engaged with the Covenant in combat. Taking a short moment to check his arm mounted data pad.
“Alright, priority one is the large patrol due directly south. They’ve already engaged Anders, Brewer, and Tenjer to the west, and Ross to the east. We’ve also got at least one potential casualty in McCoy, and I want to secure him for either Acosta, or Silva.” He points to the alley leading directly to the T-Intersection of Maynard and Fremont, looking at Mullan and Golovkin.
“Once this primary group is down, Gunny I want you to take Golovkin, and at least two others to back up Davis, Wiley, and Tuckk. I’ll take Croft, Donovan, and Sanders; and head to back up Archer, Acosta, and April.” He looked to each of them to ensure they understood their orders, before nodding. “Move out!” he explained as he began moving south down the alleyway that lead to McCoy’s position, his weapon leveled, and ready.
23 August, 2550
“Captain! The Covenant drop ship, it’s making a break for high orbit!” exclaimed Ensign Alonso as he spun around from his console, the readout on which displayed a LIDAR image of said ship moving at high speeds on an ascent trajectory taking it up from the surface of Solace Colony.
“The intense storms raging throughout the planet’s atmosphere would have likely masked us from their ship board sensors. They are unlikely to have detected us.” Chimed the soft electronic toned voice of Oberon.
Approaching the Captain’s perch and the holo-emitter where the visage of the AI was displayed, Commander Campbell looked over the readout showing the trajectory of the Covenant craft. It wouldn’t be long until the ship was clear of whatever disturbances had hidden them from being detected, and then the party would take a whole other tone. “Ready all weapons, and prepare to engage!” she called out aloud, almost drowned out by the loud claxons as they sounded again.
“Oberon, give me a firing solution!” commanded Ramsey as he leaned over the railing of the Captain’s perch, looking out through the viewport at the stars shifting down and away as the Wanderer began to maneuver around for a shot on the Covenant ship. “Mister Smythe, on my command I want you to put a MAC round clean through the sons of bitches!” he added, addressing Lieutenant Junior Grade Smythe, the Wanderer’s chief tactical officer.
“Aye sir!” replied the Scotsman, who worked furiously at his console to ready the Wanderer’s Mark-IV Magnetic Accelerator Cannon. Though smaller than those carried aboard the UNSC’s premier ships and Destroyers, the Mark-IV Mini-MAC still packed quite a punch, more than enough to handle a small troop ship like the one accelerating up from the surface.
“Captain, the firing solution is locked in.” announced Oberon.
“FIRE!” Ramsey commanded, and Smythe obliged his CO. There was a moments delay as the lights aboard the bridge dimmed and flickered, the result of the immense power surge required to fire the MAC; then the ship was filled with the loud booming thump of the super-dense solid ferric tungsten slug reaching critical velocity before clearing the ship. Just beyond the viewport is the barely visible thin red trail of the round as it speeds away at roughly 10,000KPS.
“ETA to target is five seconds.” Announced Oberon.
In the distance, the purple reflective hull of the Covenant transport is back dropped by the dark swirling clouds of the planet below. Just barely becoming visible to the naked eye as it rockets toward the Wanderer, the countdown in everyone’s mind ends just prior to the sudden and violent result of their single fired shot. The Covenant ship is struck center-mass by the super-dense slug, and in an instant a hole a square meter across is torn through from bow to stern. The Covenant ship then tumbles uncontrollably end over end as atmosphere is vented and burned off in seconds, before finally the craft is obliterated when it’s ship board power core goes critical.
A moment of silent persists aboard the Wanderer as the bridge crew feels a sense of relief wash over them at having destroyed the enemy ship with one single shot. “Any chance they got any communications off?” asked Captain Ramsey as he looked to his left at the holo-emitted image of Oberon.
“Negative. They never had a chance.”
- - - - -
04:27 Hours
23 August, 2550
By now all of the Covenant ground forces were well aware of the presence of the Ghosts; either by the sound of their drop pods hurtling down from the heavens at super-sonic speeds, or the red streaks made as their drop pods tore through the atmosphere. While the surprise of the sudden incursion had lingered, that feeling quickly faded once orders came from their Ship Master, Kor’Vetal. Immediately spurred into action by their respected squad leaders, the Covenant patrols began moving about the wrecked city on orders to search and destroy.
The opportunity to fight and kill the infidels was exactly what several of the other Sanghelli officers were chomping at the bit for, and when this opportunity presented itself, they were all too happy to oblige. Barking out commands at their squads of Unggoy and Kig-Yar to move, they wanted to coat their hands in human blood.
The alleyway leading toward the triangular intersection of Stevens Street
Marching like barely tamed ravenous dogs, the Grunts continued to make up ground as they made their way toward Archer’s position. They kept their weapons aimed, if poorly so, and continued to blast green glowing bolts of searing hot plasma in his general direction. The bolts splashed randomly against the scorched and burned walls of the alleyway, tearing away big super-heated chunks of cement and cinder block that rained down over Archer’s armor.
“Kill! Kill the human!” blurted out one of the Grunts in a gutural high pitched voice as it marched onward, unaware of the fragmentation grenade the Staff Sergeant had thrown. Awareness came quickly to the grunt as the fuse of the grenade triggered in a loud deafening boom that echoed against the alley walls. Instantly, splinters of jagged steel exploded outward in all directions, tearing into the closest Grunt, and two others behind. As the screams of agony bellowed out from the three Grunts, large chunks of blue blood and flesh splattered against the walls.
Stunned by the concussive force of the grenade, a fourth Grunt hesitated to duck for cover, and he was caught by in a hail of bullets that had been fired from Archer. While Archer sprinted in a north direction, the Grunt staggered backward, eventually landing in a lifeless heap.
Having bore witness to the deaths of several of his Grunts, the first of two Elites, this one armored in blue, grabbed one of his Jackals by the arm and thrust him forward, blurting out some sort of command in his native language. He then raised his plasma rifle and fired several quick bursts of plasma off into the direction that Archer had ran, howling angrily at the human.
Stepping up beside his blue armored companion, the red armored squad leader raised his own plasma rifle to take a shot at the human, but instead was also struck by a flurry of bullets. Protecting him from physical harm, his personal shields flickered and flashed in response to the numerous impacts. Disorientated by the sudden and vicious assault, the red armored Elite ducked down into an adjacent alley just as his shields overloaded, and went out. Waiting a moment for them to recharge, he reached for a plasma grenade attached to his waist, and triggered it.
Peaking out from around the corner, he quickly flung the pulsating grenade in the general direction of where he taken fire from. Arcing gracefully in the air, the grenade landed roughly two meters distance from where Acosta had taken up position, well within the blast radius of the device. The grenade hummed and pulsed as it lay there for an instant, just about to explode.
- - -
The T-Intersection of Maynard and Fremont
The largest of the Covenant patrols was led by a Covenant Zealot, denoted by the unique color of his armor, and the shape of the helmet that adorned his skull. This patrol continued to advance on the pinned down McCoy, firing wildly at the burnt out shell of a car he was using as cover. The already charred and burnt aluminum skeleton of the vehicle had begun to glow white hot as it absorbed blast after blast of super-heated covenant plasma.
“Ahhhhh! Fuck!” cried out McCoy as the ambient heat from the blasts of energy were searing at his flesh, cooking him alive; but there was no where he could go.
However, as the patrol grew closer to McCoy’s position, they were suddenly assailed from the west by Corporal Anders. His first trigger pull had netted him one unsuspecting Grunt, who’s skull had been opened up like a can of beans. His second plinked at and triggered a cascade effect of one of the Grunt’s methane rebreathers. In an instant the volatile gas began spewing out from the Grunt’s tank on his back, then ignited in a brilliant blue explosion that engulfed another of the patrol’s Grunts, setting it ablaze, and even in the constant rain it still burned for quite a long while before dropping dead.
As the blue bits and pieces of the exploded Grunt fell back down upon the rest of the Patrol, the group of Jackals reacted and raised their forearm mounted shields, just in time to protect themselves for a hail of Anders’ bullets. Two immediately raised their weapons in Anders’ direction and began firing green bolts of plasma at him; at third raised his weapon, but instead began overcharging its weapon.
Not too far from where the Jackals were firing at Anders, another Grunt caught a single well placed round on the side of it’s skull, and dropped to the asphalt in a lifeless heap. Seeing another of their comrades fall victim to the impressive shooting of the Ghosts, the trio of firing Jackals began to back away from Tenjer’s position, clearly intimidated. As they backed away however, they retreated right into a Fragmentation grenade that had been tossed by the Corporal. There was a reverberating boom as it detonated, causing their shields to flicker and flash out as shrapnel peppered their unprotected bodies from behind, tearing them apart.
Angered at the deaths of so many of his troops so quickly, the Covenant Zealot barked a command at his one of his blue armored subordinates, who in turn pointed their weapon in the direction of their assailants, and fired a single blue bolt of plasma that struck glancingly off of the left Tenjer’s helmet. Though it was a miracle he hadn’t been killed instantly, the plasma splash would have left first degree burns over a good portion of the left side of Tenjer’s skull, as well as turning his helmet into a molten piece of ruined equipment.
As the other blue armored Elite reached at his waist for a plasma grenade, there came another brilliant flash, though this one hadn’t been caused by the lightning above, nor another fragmentation grenade. Instead, it came with an incredible ear shattering thud that left the Elite and his patrol momentarily disorientated. One of the remaining Grunts panicked as his eyes and ears stung painfully, and he fired blindly into the face of another Grunt, burning the flesh clean off from bone as it collapsed dead.
Letting out a great bellowing growl, the Covenant Zealot pulled a plasma grenade from his own waist, and after actuating it, errantly threw it in a daze. The round pulsating device arced in the air as it fell upon the driver’s side seat of the car Corporal McCoy had taken cover behind. In a brilliant blue splash of plasma the grenade exploded, tumbling the burnt out vehicle up into the air, flipping over several times until it came to a rest at the embankment of a pile of debris.
Corporal McCoy had also been thrown from his place of refuge when the grenade detonated, having been launched roughly twenty feet away. He landed in a heap among a small bit of burned refuse, his armor thudding painfully as he didn’t move. The entire left side of his armor was singed and burnt badly, no doubt McCoy had sustained some injuries in the blast, and when his status pinged yellow, it didn’t look good.
- - -
Near the intersection of Josten and Titan.
“I found him! I found-“ came the Grunt’s cut off words over his squad leader’s comm, who turned toward the Grunt’s last known location. Raising his plasma rifle he fired a solitary shot into the air to get his patrol’s attention, then grunted out an order to attack. As they ran after Davis who darted into the lobby of an old burnt out hotel, the red armored Elite pointed his own plasma rifle at him and fired.
As Davis fled into the old burned out hotel lobby, the logo of the ‘Hyatt’ company was still barely visible on the destroyed marble check-in counter. As he tried to traverse the stairs up into the upper areas of the old hotel, the stairwell crumpled and collapsed beneath his feet, meaning he was trapped on the ground floor. Entering cautiously through the open lobby, the Covenant began searching for the assailant that had killed one of their fellows.
However, as the red armored Elite and his blue armored subordinate approached the lobby, a single loud bang sounded and the blue armored Elite groaned out aloud as he clutched at his leg, which had just been blown off at the knee. Though wounded, the Elite still posed a serious threat if left to live.
A moment later a staccato of weapons fire sounded as bullets pinged off of the red armored Elite’s shields, which flickered and flashed. “Corporal Davis! It’s Wiley! Tuckk and I are just to your west!” announced the young ODST as he slapped a magazine of shredder rounds into his MA5C, and pulled the charging lever.
“It’s an ambush! Aggghhhh!” cried out one of the Grunts as it ran for cover, shooting randomly in the direction it had assumed Tuckk and Wiley were shooting from. The several blasts of green plasma struck supporting pillars of the hotel, and the entire structure rumbled slightly. The hotel, like the other building in the city, was a crumbling shell, and could collapse at the slightest sign of stress.
- - -
In an Alleyway between Titan and Fremont
Just to the south of Davis, Tuckk, and Wiley; a small Covenant patrol began encroaching upon Corporal Silva’s abandoned drop pod. The Grunts led the way, their weapons raised and ready to fire, backing them up was a lone Jackal who’s shield was charged, and lastly their blue armored Elite squad leader. The Elite barked commands at the others as they made their way over the twisted and charred wreckage of the two half collapsed buildings that made up the alley way in which Silva had landed.
To the west of Silva on Titan Road were Sergeants Danforth and Leonid, who were making their way north to meet up with the Corporal before heading north to assist the others. “Where are we?” asked Leonid as he looked about the dark street, his M7S shouldered and leveled down the alleyway where Silva had landed.
With a deep sigh, Danforth stepped over closer to Leonid, and looked down the alleyway. “I already told you, we’re on Titan Road, just south of Josten Avenue. According to this readout, Corporal Silva should be just down this alley, and Corporal Laurent just to the north.”
- - -
Just up the road, Corporal Laurent gradually came too. Her drop had been pretty rough, as her pod had slammed through the burned remnants of an old video board. As her vision cleared, she looked about her drop pod, and tried to reach for the latch release of her drop pod door. But as she leant forward, a strong shooting pain arced up through her back, and she recoiled in reaction. “Nnnnh!” she gritted her teeth, reaching a hand around to grab at her aching back.
- - -
Near the corner of Coronado and Titan.
As old charred steel beams twisted, and concrete slabs cracked, the top forty or so stories of an old burned out building in the northeast part of the city starting hurtling down in a hurry. The thunder of the storm overhead, and even the echoes of battle were drown out by the earth quaking calamity that chased after Sergeant Golovkin as he scrambled to escape. In fact, the very ground beneath the feet of the Ghosts and Covenant shook as the massive structure pancaked down upon itself.
Standing just outside of the collapsing structure, Master Gunnery Sergeant was tuned into his comm data, noting the yellow emergency ping of McCoy’s status. “McCoy!” he called out over the comm retreating from the structure as debris began to rain down over his position. “Can anyone get to McCoy!” he asked as he dodged a twelve foot long steel beam that crashed down just in front of him.
“Shit!” he exclaimed as he looked up and saw the top ten stories of the collapsing structure lurch in a westward direction; instead of pancaking neatly down onto itself like it had appeared, the collapsing building would rain down onto Titan Road. “It’s coming down over the west!” he announced over comms to Golovkin, just as the Sergeant burst from the façade of the building, and landed atop an old burned out car. “Move your ass!” he exclaimed.
Jameson saw more debris falling about him, and decided he’d better move himself. As he sprinted away, he could feel the ground rumbling beneath his feet, and heard concrete and steel smashing to the earth behind him. When the rumbling stopped, a thick cloud of ash and dust lingered about the northeast area of the city, which made it difficult to see and move in. Still, Jameson heard the call of Golovkin as he made his way eastward on Coronado Way.
“Golovkin! Good!” he acknowledged the Ghosts still alive status, and motioned for him to follow. “We need to move!” he said as he patted him on the shoulder, and took off to rendezvous with Croft, Donovan, and Mullan. Along the way, Lance Corporal Sanders caught up with Golovkin and Jameson.
- - -
Just north of the alley leading to the T-Intersection of Maynard and Fremont
When Jameson, Golovkin, and Sanders met up with Mullan, Croft, and Donovan; they were just north of the alleyway that lead down to the T-Intersection of Maynard and Fremont. Where Corporal McCoy’s status had pinged yellow, and the others were engaged with the Covenant in combat. Taking a short moment to check his arm mounted data pad.
“Alright, priority one is the large patrol due directly south. They’ve already engaged Anders, Brewer, and Tenjer to the west, and Ross to the east. We’ve also got at least one potential casualty in McCoy, and I want to secure him for either Acosta, or Silva.” He points to the alley leading directly to the T-Intersection of Maynard and Fremont, looking at Mullan and Golovkin.
“Once this primary group is down, Gunny I want you to take Golovkin, and at least two others to back up Davis, Wiley, and Tuckk. I’ll take Croft, Donovan, and Sanders; and head to back up Archer, Acosta, and April.” He looked to each of them to ensure they understood their orders, before nodding. “Move out!” he explained as he began moving south down the alleyway that lead to McCoy’s position, his weapon leveled, and ready.
Still making revisions and adjustments, but I'm in the home stretch. Should be up within the next hour or so.
So far, so good. I think the brunt of the storm has blown over now.
Oh, and for those of you curious, I live just northeast of Philadelphia, in Levittown, PA.
Oh, and for those of you curious, I live just northeast of Philadelphia, in Levittown, PA.
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