# Halo:Journals



## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

Hey guys, and girls,

This is the thread in which I will post a piece of Halo fiction which is also a deeper look at the background for the character I created for HOGGLORD's great Halo RP, Risen from the Ashes. The story follows my character during his turbulent military career and the events leading to that career.

The story is getting quite long (Nearing novel length really.) and thus I decided to start posting the three episodes of Chapter 1.

Chapter 1.1 serves as an introduction to the character and the style, little more.

One final note: This is the way the story is written: The main character keeps a journal, occasionally we get to see one of those journal entries, after which the story follows him and his many companions.

I hope you like it.
----------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1: Pre-military
Episode 1: An Introduction

*Welcome, user.

Thank you for purchasing and using the Pear Universal Personal Data Manager Generation VI, or UManager 6.

No doubt you would love to get started with your journal or notes right away but first you will need to make an introduction recording, a message which tells something about you. 
This way other will be able to find you when they find your product after you lost or misplaced it.

Let’s get started, shall we?

The recording will commence once you tap the ‘Record’ button on screen, you can do so when you are ready.*



> *Entry of Introduction:*
> 
> ‘’Hello, my name is _John Lancaster_.
> 
> ...


*Well done user, now it is time to set some settings, such as time, date and preferences.*



> *Entry- 1, date not set yet. -Please set the date and time for reference in future entries. (Please consort the manual or contact the Pear customer support service if you are having trouble setting certain settings.)*
> 
> ‘’Today is my 19th birthday and my sister gave me this recorder so I can get my head straight. It’s been well over two years since mom and dad died and she thinks I’m still troubled by it. I am, but is that really so strange? A sixteen year old who loses both his parents and is never troubled by it again, that is strange.
> 
> ...


I put down the recorder, put my hands behind my head and slowly fell backwards, onto my bed.
It had been a good birthday; my friends showing up and, of course, the fact that my sister came home without notice.

Maria, my sister, had returned from her first tour. She was a soldier, always had been. When our parents died she took over without question. She finished college and signed up for some military program, the funds generated from that enabling me to go to boarding school for a year.

‘’Why are you still awake?’’ She asked, suddenly showing up in the doorway. Her brown hair was short, military dress, of course. She wore a white tank top and sweatpants, no shoes.
I sighed and got up from my bed.
‘’Not tired…’’ I said casually.
‘’Johnny,’’ She began, but she didn’t go through with the sentence, I didn’t ask her why. 

My sister and I were close, closer than most siblings, we had been ever since our parents died. We had to be close, otherwise it would have been even harder to get through the day with just each other. We didn’t have any relatives, not in the Inner colonies at least, nor did our parents have any friends that we knew of. It was strange to suddenly realize we didn’t know a thing about our parents or their lives.
We survived however, and it only made us stronger.

‘’I’m going to bed, ‘kay?’’ Maria announced. ‘’Try to get some sleep.’’
I smiled at her, put up my head phones, wished her a good night and got back into bed. The moment she closed the door and I could hear the music through my headphones I fell asleep.


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

Chapter 1: Pre-military
Episode 2: Contact Harvest



> *Entry- 7, Date not set yet. -Please set the date and time for reference in future entries. (Please consort the manual or contact the Pear customer support service if you are having trouble setting certain settings.)*
> 
> ''Yeah, so, Pear customer support isn’t really being supportive at the moment. I have set the time and date on this thing a dozen times now but it just won’t save them. Each time I start recording, the time and date are set back to ‘Unknown’.
> Right now I’m making a few extra recordings to see if that will help. I don’t know how that would help, this software is a mystery to me, but who knows?
> ...


‘’Dammit woman, I’m busy.’’ I said jokingly as I picked up my phone. The display had already told me it was Maria.

‘’John, listen to me, and listen carefully.’’ She said. She spoke fast, I knew something was wrong by her tone.
‘’What’s wrong?’’ I asked, sounding panicked, which I was.
‘’Get to my bedroom.’’ She said and I immediately got up and made my way through the hall, doing what she said.

‘’On the nightstand is a key, take it and use it to open the footlocker underneath my bed.’’

Again I did as she said. The footlocker was heavy and I was sure I scratched the wooden floor of her room by dragging it from underneath her bed.
I unlocked the thing and was amazed at the contents of the locker; her dog tags, lots of military supplies and a gun, a pistol.

‘’It’s open.’’ I said once I had found my phone in the sheets of her bed.
‘’John, take the pistol, the gray envelopes and head downstairs.’’ She said. I could hear a car horn on the background.
‘’I’m almost home, John. Just head downstairs and watch the news for me, will you?’’
I didn’t reply, I just did what I was being told. 

I took all the gray envelopes I could find, the pistol, which was much heavier than I expected, and headed downstairs to switch on the TV.
Once it was on I saw nothing but destruction and felt an anxiety creep up and down my spine.

I was stunned, silenced in disbelief by what I was seeing; a world set ablaze, flames and pillars of smoke all across its surface.
‘’For all the viewers who just tuned in; these are images made by the crew of an unknown freighter, the images are now confirmed to be of the planet Harvest, in the Epsilon Indi system.’’

‘’Fuck.’’ I said, really not knowing what else there was to say.
‘’The UNSC has not yet released a statement on what has happened at Harvest but speculations are that a series of terrorist acts have been committed by Insurrectionist terrorist forces.’’

The front door flew open, Maria ran towards the living room and grabbed the remote control from my hands.
She turned up the volume.
‘’What did they say? What’s going on?’’
‘’Harvest got hit hard.’’ I replied hastily. ‘’They think the rebels did it.’’
‘’Fuck.’’ Maria said shocked. ‘’A whole planet?!’’

Maria moved her hands through her hair as if she was looking for a solution.
‘’Did you get my stuff?’’ She finally asked.
I kept my eyes fixed on the screen and pointed to the coffee table behind me.
Maria picked up the envelopes and the pistol and slipped them in her purse.

‘’Maria, what are you doing?’’ I asked her.
No reply.
She was going through some messages on her phone and strode around the living room before she even closed the front door.
I noticed she had turned down the television volume after a news bulletin that a force of marines was being assembled to investigate what had happened at Harvest. Was her unit part of that task force?

‘’Maria!’’ I said, louder this time, and she seemed to snap out of her trance.
‘’John, last time the Innies did something big they struck again shortly after, making things worse when people thought it couldn’t get any worse.’’ Maria told me.

Then I understood, she was afraid the Insurrectionists would strike again, maybe even on Earth, maybe in New Rotterdam… 
It was a large port, both for space faring craft and ordinary ships, it also had a large UNSC recruiting center and two ONI offices. 
New Rotterdam was a better target for a terrorist strike than most other cities.

Then again, what were the odds?

I knew it was ridiculous to expect a terrorist attack to occur nearby, yet I felt a certain anxiety, a fear which had nestled itself in the back of my mind, ready to grow.

I walked to the kitchen.
‘’Where are you going?’’ Maria asked me while biting a nail.
‘’I’m going to make some tea.’’ I said, realizing I was on auto-pilot.
I couldn’t see Maria’s reaction but I always imagined it to be a nervous chuckle which would make her look like she was about to burst out in tears.

‘’Why is this happening, John?’’ Maria asked me from the living room. Her voice slightly raised to get over the sound of the water running from the tap. ‘’Why can’t they just leave us alone?’’
I had thought about that several times, sometimes even hours straight and I always came to the same conclusion; Because they see it differently.

‘’You had history as a subject throughout high school,’’ I said. ‘’You know how it has been for millennia now; One party wants one thing, the other wants something else.’’
‘’You’d think we’d learn from our past.’’ Maria sighed. 

‘’We’re a doomed species.’’ I said, immediately regretting the words.
‘’Don’t say that, John!’’ Maria said annoyed. ‘’Whether you mean it or not, now is definitely not the time to say that sort of thing.’’
I agreed with her, but I also meant what I said…


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Cunning use of QUOTE tags.


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## WaLkAwaY (Dec 5, 2012)

Sangus Bane said:


> ‘’We’re a doomed species.’’ I said, immediately regretting the words.
> ‘’Don’t say that, John!’’ Maria said annoyed. ‘’Whether you mean it or not, now is definitely the time to say that sort of thing.’’
> I agreed with her, but I also meant what I said…


Pretty good. Also did you mean to write this or did you mean "now is definitely *not* the time..."?


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

WaLkAwaY said:


> Pretty good. Also did you mean to write this or did you mean "now is definitely *not* the time..."?


At first I intended to make it sarcastic, but then I changed that, seeing how it would not fit the situation.
Seems I forgot to to add the 'not'. Well spotted.


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

Chapter 1: Pre-military
Episode 3: Loss



> Entry- 11: 27-03-2525, 17:56
> 
> ‘’Maria just heard she is shipped out to Harvest tomorrow, part of a military fleet which has been assembled over the past three days.
> 
> ...


[*United Nations Space Command Defense Force]




> Entry- 20: 13-4-2525, 12:03
> 
> …
> …
> ...


_John Lancaster, Amsterdam, 12-4-2525

We are deeply saddened to report the loss of the UNSCDF combat frigate the UNSC Liberty Redeemed, which was destroyed during a mission in the Epsilon Indi system.

Much to our regret we have to inform you that the ship was lost with all hands, including your sister Pvt. Maria Amy Robin Lancaster.

We are further saddened to report that there are no remains to be buried.

We hope you take comfort with the knowledge that she will be missed dearly and will be remembered for her accomplishments and her service to the UNSC.

A ceremony will be held in honour of the dead on the seventeenth of March, we hope you will attend the ceremony. Specifics will be sent to you shortly.

Please know you have our deepest sympathies and if the UNSC military can be of any service you can contact us through the contact information supplied on the backside of this notification.

We wish you luck and strength in these dark days.

-Colonel Richard Ackingson , UNSCDF Marine Corps_




I didn’t know what I felt. 

When my parents died I felt sadness, grief, like I was supposed to.
But now…

Anger? Yes, that’s it.
But at who? The Innies for one. I wanted to kill them, all of them.

The saddest part was that I realized this while they were reading me her will.
She directed it to me, the entire will.

I now officially owned everything she owned, used to own…
The house, the car, everything, I now had access to her bank account. I cared for nothing of those things.

What troubled me most was the message she included in her will;

_John, if you ever get to hear this it means that I died whilst on tour.
I hope you never get to hear this off course but there are things I need to ask of you.

The first is this: Please don’t sell the house, keep it, it was the only place we ever felt at home and I want you to grow old there, you will be the only person in our entire family to get that chance.

Secondly: Don’t do anything stupid, live your life, don’t spend it fighting.

Third: Please forgive me. I have the sense that when I die I will abandon you, leave you all alone. The though makes me cry, it truly does. I’d understand if you blamed me.

I love you Johnnie, never forget that.
-Mary_

Mary... 
That's what I used to call her when we were around the age of four. She hadn't been called that in fifteen years now…

I hated myself for what I was about to do, as it was not what Maria had asked of me;

I walked into the New Rotterdam UNSCDF center and enlisted for military duty, created a plan in which the UNSC would keep my house until my service ended and I was shipped to a training center in the Ukraine right away.

All of this in a flash of rage and sadness, though I never regretted it.
I don’t even remember most of it...


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## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

Looking good so far sangus


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## Santaire (Feb 13, 2011)

Hell, now I'm tempted to do one for the Spartans mate.

Give you all a look into them, as you're giving us a look into Lancaster's past


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## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

I might start doing these kind of things but it won't be for this rp


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

Santaire said:


> Hell, now I'm tempted to do one for the Spartans mate.
> 
> Give you all a look into them, as you're giving us a look into Lancaster's past





son of azurman said:


> I might start doing these kind of things but it won't be for this rp


I can recommend it, it gives you the chance to really motivate the actions of your character.

I tend to go a bit overboard with these sort of things however, what was supposed to be 6000 words is now nearing 20.000 words an not even done yet... Curse my creative mind...

I just finished chapter 2 and already have large sections of chapters 3, 4 and 5 finished, plus a small part of chapter 7.
Once I upload parts of chapter 2 the Halo fans are going to see a lot of references.


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## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

Once this is done I hope hogglord continues these rps and let's us keep the characters.


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

son of azurman said:


> Once this is done I hope hogglord continues these rps and let's us keep the characters.


As do I. I would love to have my character command a spaceship one day, only sanctioned by the UNSC this time. 

Just wait till we get to chapters 5 and 6.


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## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

cant wait for more,i wonder who he will meet


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

son of azurman said:


> cant wait for more,i wonder who he will meet


I have six pages of short character sheets in a separate Word file, there will be plenty of interesting characters making an appearance, you know some of them.

Chapter 2 starts Friday 25-01.


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

Sorry I'm late, it has been a busy few days lately.

Here's the start of Chapter 2, this Chapter will be ALLOT more lengthy that Chapter 1.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2: UNSC Army
Episode 1: News from afar.



> *Entry- 59: 8-08-2525, 15:21*
> 
> ‘’So, here I am again, almost at the end of basic now. It’s been hell so far, I mean, I knew what I was signing up for, but still.
> I’m thinking about Maria allot lately, just thinking she did all this, right here, just like I am, is keeping me going.
> ...


‘’Shaw, what’s happening?’’ I asked my room mate as I tucked the recorder into the sheets that lay in the footlocker beside my cot.
‘’Don’t know.’’ Shaw replied as he pulled on a shirt, not noticing it was backwards in his haste. ‘’Nothing good though, that’s for sure.’’

‘’Cut the chatter and report to the auditory, cadets, right now!’’ A staff member shouted into our quarters before continuing to check the other rooms.
Shaw followed me out onto the hall and towards the auditory, we walked fast, keeping the pace with the rest of the cadets on their way to the auditory. 

I recognized some of them; Zita, Alan, Carter and quite a few more who I had to fight in all sorts of combat training rounds.

When we entered the auditory it was already crowded, full with cadets and staff members who were discussing the reason for this gathering.

‘’Lancaster! Shaw!’’ A cadet yelled out, the man waving us over. It was Cadet Thom Charles, a senior who had enrolled in the officers’ training and was assigned to lead our squad.

‘’Sir.’’ Shaw said as he pulled me out of the walking crowd and into an empty spot reserved by the rest of Triarii Squad.
‘’Don’t suppose they told you what this is about?’’ I asked Thom.
‘’Not a single word.’’ Thom replied, trying to spot other members of our squad.

There were seven of us now. Me, Thom, Shaw, Colt, Berring, Chaim and McAllister. Which meant we were still missing Nero, Schoener and Kim-An.

‘’Officer on deck!’’ A marine notified the cadets as Colonel Greyson stepped onto a small dais at the far end of the auditory.
‘’Ladies and gentlemen,’’ the colonel began. ‘’last Tuesday around zero-nine-hundred two ships returned from a patrol in the Epsilon Indi system, investigating the on-going situation surrounding Harvest.’’

I felt my heart skip a beat hearing the name Harvest, instantly reminded of Maria’s death.
‘’The UNSC Siren’s Bosom and the UNSC White Dwarf were heavily damaged after being engaged by hostile ships.’’
The colonel paused, considering his words.
‘’Intelligence they recovered confirm earlier reports and testimonies that the damage inflicted on Harvest and earlier scouting parties might not have been caused by Insurrectionist terrorists.’’

All around the auditory cadets started to cry out and yell questions.
The colonel beckoned for silence and slowly the crowd became quiet again, settling down after officers and seniors ordered them to.

‘’I can hardly believe that I’m saying this.’’ The colonel said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead. ’’ONI has just confirmed that Harvest was in fact attacked by an extra terrestrial force which calls itself ‘The Covenant’.’’ 
The gathered cadets remained silent, stunned in disbelief.

‘’Cadets, we have just received word that negotiations with this so called ‘Covenant’ were fruitless and that they have declared war on all of mankind and her worlds.’’
Whispers went through the auditory but died out the moment the colonel continued.

‘’Initial reports say that the Covenant is highly advanced and well armed but not numerous. HIGHCOM wants to turn this into our favor by striking quickly and without mercy. For that reason a large combat group is being assembled as we speak.
This combat group will take to Harvest and several other colonies which have gone dark, amongst which Arcadia, Bright and New America.’’

It didn’t make sense. How could all those worlds have gone dark in a few months, yet the enemy wasn’t ‘believed to be numerous?’
I already had several theories shooting through my mind as I considered this.
Either the UNSC had known longer than they made us think, the enemy was numerous, or both.

‘’Combat training on Mars next month has been canceled as some of you are to deploy to Arcadia.’’ The colonel said. ‘’Lieutenant Cross.’’ The colonel concluded as he gave another officer the chance to speak.

‘’Squad leaders of the following squads are to remain here;
Calgati
Velites
Equites
Evocati
Triarii
Socii

The rest of you will return to their quarters until further notice.’’ The lieutenant said and the gathered cadets slowly made their way out of the auditory, whispering and wondering.
Triarii squad was mentioned, were we to be pressed into service? That would mean the squad was going to be split up. Most likely to fill gaps in other squads, such things had happened many times during the war with the Innies.

Thom gave me a nod as I exited the auditory with Shaw. He didn’t look happy at all.



> *Entry 60- 4-08-2525, 17:58*
> 
> ‘’Alien live exists, and not only does it exist, it is hostile towards mankind.
> 
> ...


Half an hour after I made the recording Thom entered the quarters I shared with Shaw.
‘’Grab your stuff, we leave for Reach.’’ He said, nothing more.


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## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

ha white dwarf 
were did you get all the squad names from


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

son of azurman said:


> ha white dwarf
> were did you get all the squad names from


In Forward unto Dawn the squad at Corbulo Academy was called Hastati.

The Hastati were the Roman empire's least fortunate infantry, they had the lowest pay and were deployed at the front of the line.

Triarii are the exact opposite of that, they were the wealthiest members of the cavalry and they were rarely seen in the front line..

The other squad names are also based on Roman infantry and cavalry types.


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## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

nice so you did your research


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

son of azurman said:


> nice so you did your research


I sure did.


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

Chapter 2: UNSC army
Episode 2: ‘’Welcome to Baker 2-12, the Roughnecks.’’

Cold. That damned, fucking cold.

I opened my eyes, breathing hard and feeling pain in my muscles as I woke up.
I placed my hands on the glass of the cryo-pod and felt my stomach turn on itself.

The pod opened and I fell forwards, unto my knees.
I coughed and gagged as my body was still coming to grips with the fact it had come back to life.

I suddenly vomited whatever it was that I last ate before I went into cryo, I couldn’t remember, nor did I really feel the need to remember.

After that it went better, I was still a bit dazed and sounds seemed a bit distant, but it wasn’t even half as bad as the first time I got out of cryo.

‘’Private John Lancaster?’’ A voice said. ‘’You alright, lad?’’ 
‘’Fine.’’ I said as I spat on the floor.
I looked up, still panting and on my knees. I saw a man in combat dress, holding a set of dogtags in his left hand. His right hand was extended, offering to help me unto my feet.

‘’Thanks.’’ I said as I took his hand and he helped me up.
‘’No sweat.’’ The man said smiling. ‘’Private John Lancaster, right?’’
‘’Cadet, actually.’’ I said as I spat on the floor again.
‘’Not anymore, son.’’ The man replied. ‘’Staff Sergeant Jason Brolie, I’m your new CO.’’ He said as he put the dogtags over my head, hanging them from my neck, apparently they were mine.

‘’Welcome to Baker 2-12, the Roughnecks.’’ He said as he escorted me to my locker.
‘’Where is the rest of my squad?’’ I asked. ‘’Sergeant.’’ I added at the last moment, realizing my position all of a sudden.
‘’Your academy squad has been split up a few days ago, before you came to Arcadia.’’ He explained. ‘’A lot of things can happen while you’re in cryo, boy.’’
I didn’t follow his story, my brain still warming up.

I opened my locker and got out an uniform.
Sergeant Brolie kicked a heavy metal case towards me across the deck.

‘’Your new combat dress, everything is in there; torso armour, pouches, helmet, shin guards, you name it.’’ He told me. ‘’Put them on and meet me at the armory, through those doors.’’
‘’Yes, sir.’’ I said, saluting.

Sergeant Brolie shook his head, laughing as he walked through the doors he had pointed out.
I got my uniform on and then opened the case the sergeant had given me.
I took out all the gear and put them on the way I learned at the academy.
It took me a while as some of my muscles were still stiff and sore from the cryo.

When I was ready I went the way Sergeant Brolie went, my helmet tucked securely under my arm.

‘’Sir.’’ I said to Sergeant Brolie as I came to stand next to him.
‘’What weapon do you prefer, Lancaster?’’ Brolie asked as he handed me a magnum, telling me to put it in my holster.
‘’MA37, sir.’’
‘’Assault rifle it is.’’ Sergeant Brolie said smiling as he took an MA37 from a weapons rack nearby and handed it over to me.

We signed for the weapons with the requisition officer and I received some ammunition before we got on our way to a hangar bay.

‘’Lancaster, what have you heard about the Covies before you went into cryo?’’
‘’Covies, sir?’’ I asked him, never having heard of such a thing.
‘’They didn’t tell you?’’ He asked me surprised as he stopped in his tracks.
‘’Tell me about what, sir?’’ I asked confused.
‘’The damn aliens!’’ Sergeant Brolie replied.
Then I got it. Covies was short for Covenant, off course.

‘’Sorry, sir.’’ I said. ‘’I wasn’t aware what the term ‘Covies’ meant.’’ I said and Sergeant Brolie continued walking.
‘’Well, we’d best get you up to speed then.’’ He said as the doors to the hangar bay opened.

It was busy in the hangar, deck crews, marines and other ship crew were going in all directions, Pelican dropships came up or went down on large lifts and a Cyclops Mech was lifting crates unto an Albatross dropship.
‘’Is this him?’’ a pilot asked Sergeant Brolie.
‘’Yep.’’ Sergeant Brolie replied as he got into one of the Pelicans.
‘’He’s a bit green.’’ The pilot said.

I wasn’t offended, I agreed actually. I hadn’t even finished basic training but here I was on a warship orbiting Arcadia, a colony light-years away from home.

‘’John Lancaster.’’ I introduced myself to the pilot as I offered him my hand.
The pilot didn’t shake it, he just stepped into the Pelican and made his way to the cockpit.
‘’Sit.’’ Brolie told me as he secured his harness. ‘’We have lots of things to discuss.’’

I sat down across from the sergeant and secured my own harness.
The Pelican’s engines flared and the rear hatch closed as the Pelican was lowered on a lift.

The light disappeared from the small viewing port in the rear hatch and the cabin lights came to life, casting an eerie red glow over the craft’s interior.

‘’Lancaster, since the day we discovered the fucking split jaws, or Elites, one of the main infantry types fielded by the Covenant have had us running.’’ Sergeant Brolie said.

‘’First on Harvest, but other colonies are becoming awfully silent as well, thinning the UNSC navy and the Marine Corps as they have to check everywhere at the same time.’’

‘’I was told Arcadia is one of those planets.’’ I told the sergeant.
‘’They had gone dark, yes.’’ He replied. ‘’Later it turned out however that Insurrectionists had disabled several communication relays and satellites, trying to disrupt order.’’ He told.
‘’So no aliens here?’’ I asked, just to be sure.

‘’Not a single one.’’ That’s why our company is being shipped out tomorrow, so we can guard a planet which has been reported to be scouted by Covenant ‘Jackals’ a recon type warrior they field.’’
‘’Sir, how many ‘types’ do the Covenant field?’’ I asked, not knowing anything about the aliens.

‘’Elites, Jackals, Grunts, Brutes, Hunters, Drones and Skirmishers.’’ Sergeant Brolie said plainly. ‘’Each on serves a specific role;
Elites are the leading caste, commanding squads and making up the majority of spec. op. teams. They carry a variety of weapons and are shielded by a power field and some have the ability to become completely invisible.’’
‘’Invisible?’’ I asked in disbelief. For a moment I thought Sergeant Brolie was joking.

‘’Well, nearly invisible. If they move quickly you might spot them.’’ 
‘’I see.’’ I replied, not quite sure what else I could say.

‘’Jackals are marksmen and agile infantry, often using combat shields made from plasma to shield themselves against incoming fire.’’ Sergeant Brolie explained as the Pelican jolted forward, being launched from the ship.

‘’Grunts are pesky little creatures, nervous too.’’ Sergeant Brolie continued. ‘’The most common type of infantry they field and also the least effective, sometimes they just serve as cannon fodder.’’
‘’Hence ‘Grunts’, I guess.’’ I said.

Sergeant Brolie nodded before continuing.
‘’Brutes are a real pain in the ass. Giant apes who serve as storm troopers, rivaled only in size by the Hunters, heavily-armoured-canon-wielding-walker-tank-things is what we called them first, that has a reason. There’s always two of them, never a single one.’’ Sergeant Brolie told me. ‘’And get this; they are made up out of orange snakes, you can’t make this shit up.’’
‘’I know I wouldn’t be able to, sir.’’ I told him.
Sergeant Brolie chuckled.

‘’Last are the Skirmishers, beefed up Jackals who take great pleasure in stabbing you to death.’’

‘’What about the Drones?’’ I asked, not having heard a description of the creatures.

‘’Sharp, Lancaster, very sharp.’’ Sergeant Brolie said, sounding impressed.
‘’Drones are flying menaces really, insects who come crawling and flying from all directions, guns blazing.’’

The sergeant tried to display the scene using his hands, but it didn’t really clarify the situation for me.

‘’All of these creatures make up the F-ing Covenant, a religious bunch of alien fuck ups who seem to hate humanity.’’




> *Entry 63- 14-08-2525, 14:09*
> 
> I woke up twelve hours ago from cryogenic suspension. I still feel odd.
> I just met my new squad, Triarii has been completely pulled apart to fill gaps in active squads.
> ...


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

> *Entry- 94: 18-05-2526: 08:16*
> 
> ‘’We just received word the colony of Tau Hue VI has been completely destroyed by Covenant forces. It happened three days after we left for… I keep forgetting what this planet is called, I’ve been here for over seven months now and still I can’t remember the damn name.
> Anyway, it has been almost eight months since Tau Hue VI was turned to glass and only now do we hear about it.
> ...


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

Chapter 2: UNSC army
Episode 3: Nighttime 



> *Entry- 99: 20-05-2526, 23:36*
> 
> ‘’It’s extremely frustrating. We only receive seven orders; Find a good kill zone, get ready to defend your position, fire at will, stand vast, retreat, check your ammo, get ready for the next assault.
> It keeps repeating like that, sometimes three times a day. We lose more men than we can bring in and my squad might just be the last to not have suffered casualties on this entire planet. A planet of which I don’t even know the name…
> ...


I threw my helmet against the wall in anger as I shut down the recorder.
‘’Get your act together, John, you’re a soldier for crying out loud.’’ Davies said. 

Davies wasn’t part of my platoon, he was some stranded marine who decided to stick around with us after his squad got obliterated by a pair of Hunters.
I gave him an angry look and he continued his game of chess with Carter.

‘’The marine is right, Lancaster.’’ Sgt. Brolie bellowed over the noise of distant explosions and firefights. 
Brolie hadn’t changed a bit the past months, he was still the stereotype sergeant, you know, the type that has stories of how hard warfare used to be?

My personal favorite is the one where he tells how we’re lucky to have guns, armors and tanks. He says that when he was still a rookie he had two sticks, a piece of string and a rock, and he had to share the rock with the whole platoon.
Although, something had changed. A large scar ran over one cheek. It was what remained of a plasma burn he suffered a month ago, after he was attacked by a over confident Grunt with a pistol.

Many members of the squad had suffered injuries the past months, me too.
Two months ago I was hit in the back by a Covenant Carbine, leaving a burn mark in my armour and a white spot on my back.
Doc, the team’s medic had said he had seen many such injuries, the spot was probably permanent however. Not that I cared.

‘’Anything?’’ Brolie asked Teach, the squad’s corporal, asking if anything useful had come in through the radio.

Teach turned up the volume. Static and squabbling was all I could hear.
‘’Nothing useful.’’ Teach said as he turned down the volume.
Teach wasn’t his real name, like most members of Baker 2-1-2 he was called by his nickname. Jin Yakama was a chemistry teacher before he was drafted into service when his home planet was terrorized by Insurrectionists a few years ago.

Brolie shook his head and sat down on the ground next to me.
‘’You need to control yourself, John.’’ Brolie told to me.
‘’Sorry, sarge.’’ I sighed before stretching my legs. 
‘’Just keep yourself in check, ok lad?’’ 

Brolie’s voice was soothing yet stern, it gave me comfort to have him near me in the midst of all this warfare.
Alyx joined Brolie and me on the ground, handing me my helmet.
‘’Night vision is out of batteries, Brolie.’’ She said, giving Brolie the detached scope of a sniper rifle.
Brolie played a bit with the scope, checking if he could get it working, to no avail.

He sighed and re-secured it to the sniper rifle the lay beside him.
‘’Checkmate.’’ Carter told Davies, his face set joyful and proud.

Just another night in the burning city of boredom…

The radio kept squabbling, static and occasional words were all we could make out, it had been that way since we had taken this location, nearly four hours ago.

Four hours,... that meant we could expect an enemy assault any time now, Covenant seemed to care about schedules...
Later I realized nothing had happened however, and that was perhaps the most terrifying thing imaginable that could happen.
Absolutely nothing happened…

I know what you’re thinking; ‘How is that terrifying?’ 
Well, imagine this: It has been full scale war for weeks, not a second passed without hearing a firefight or an explosion, either up close or from far away.

Then nothing. Nothing but silence except for the crackle of the many fires, the woes of the wounded and the rhythmic ticking of water dripping from a broken pipe.

We were scared, for silence was a bad sign.

Suddenly the radio sprung to life, different officers shouting orders on the same frequencies and pleads of fireteams stuck behind enemy lines.
I could make out some things.

‘’Hostile artillery positions located, bring in ordinance!’’
‘’Copy that, paint the target for Echo-469.’’
‘’Hostile ground forces halting their advance.’’
‘’CCS class moving into position, beware!’’
‘’Enemy frigate destroyed!’’
‘’Scouting drones launched from location: Hex Alpha Lima. Over.’’

But then the most alarming of all;
‘’I repeat, coffins inbound, coffins inbound! Hang on to whatever you can find!’’

Brolie and I ran towards the staircase, running up the stairs towards the balcony of the hotel building we were situated in.

Although it was the middle of the night the horizon was lit by fires.
I was silenced in disbelieve as I saw a Covenant cruiser coming over the distant mountains and a smaller ship plummeting out of the sky, along with two burning UNSC destroyers.

Then it began, as more and more men started to assemble on the streets below and on adjoining balconies we looked up at the sky, and it started to snow.

Yet it was no snow, each 'flock' was a ‘Coffin’, a Covenant drop pod, housing a single Elite.


There were thousands of them…


----------



## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

Chapter 2: UNSC army
Episode 4: The ambush

That night most of the UNSC ground forces met their unfortunate end, killed by the Elites or the Banshees that picked off everyone desperate enough to cross an open area. 

We too were being hunted, a pair of Elites had been keeping us going for three hours straight, stalking us without a second of rest.
The sun was already starting to show though the bluish moon was still set high.

We hadn’t gone far in those three hours, running in circles, trying to set traps and lure the Elites into them, with little success.
We knew at least one of the Elites was wounded, we saw the purple blood staining the floor and walls in a room where we had set a trap only twenty minutes ago.

We were exhausted, three hours of constant running, placing traps and without a minute’s break. We had to come up with something, quick.

‘’I say we stand, and fight.’’ I said panting.
I knelt down, my assault rifle trained for the door we just came through.
‘’There’s no more front line.’’ Davies said frantically. ‘’We have to get the hell out of here, ASAP.’’ 

‘’Show some balls, Davies.’’ Brolie replied. ‘’And remember what we’re here for.’’
Sergeant Brolie picked up the shards from the landmine we had created.
‘’Johnnie is right.’’ Brolie said as he threw me one of the nails from the landmine.

I caught it and examined it, it had burn marks on it and closer to the tip it was covered in purple gore.

‘’So.’’ I began. ‘’Where do we make our stand?’’ I asked as I discarded the nail.
‘’Right here.’’ Brolie said. ‘’It’s as good as any other spot.’’

And so we went to work. Davies and two soldiers went to secure a perimeter while Brolie ordered men onto balconies of the building across the street and unto the second floor of the building we were in.

Getting around wasn’t hard, most buildings had crumbled walls and you could scale the exterior through the holes in the walls.
I had seen few battlefields, but I was sure this one wasn’t like any other, the fights took place on all ranges, occasionally we saw a sniper shot trail the air or we heard the distinctive shot of a shotgun. 

‘’Johnnie, you stick down here with me, Tom, Alyx and Davies once they return, copy?’’
‘’Aye aye, sir.’’ I said as I searched for Private Gossimer.

Private Caleb Gossimer was greener than grass and had never scored a kill, ever. He was carrying the shotgun however and I needed that if I was to stay downstairs.

When I had spotted him I noticed he was trembling, more so than usual. 
I paid no heed to it, I was not in the mood to reassure him and I thought my words would do him little good.

He noticed me and let out a sigh.
‘’John, what the fuck are we doing?’’ He asked me.
‘’Being soldiers, Caleb.’’ I said with little tact and I offered him a smoke.

I didn’t smoke but I had taken everything from the dead I might be able to use, Gossimer didn’t smoke either but he put the cigarette between his lips, just to take his mind of things.

I leaned against the wall and lowered myself so I squatted on my toes, trying to get the cramp out of my feet.

‘’I don’t think I’m much of a soldier, John.’’ Gossimer said as he sat down beside me.
‘’Soldiers aren’t made by their courage, Caleb, they are made by their willingness to try to be courageous.’’ I said, as if reading it from a book. ‘’The fact you’re here makes you as much of a soldier as any of us.’’ I concluded.
Gossimer grunted and shook his head.

‘’That’s easy for you to say, John.’’ He said as he looked at me. ‘’Top of the class, coming in first in everything, excelled in marksman training, you were made team leader in practice and you always completed the simulations successfully.’’ He said laughing. ‘’You are a born soldier.’’

I gave it a thought, though I knew he was probably right the moment he said it.
‘’Caleb, do me a favor and make sure you live through all this shit, ok?’’ I asked him as he threw the cigarette on the floor.
‘’Don’t jinx me, John.’’ He said, smiling.

I patted him on the shoulder.
‘’I’m going to need that.’’ I said as I inclined my head to the shotgun in his hands.
‘’Want to make a trade then?’’ He joked. ‘’Your MA5 for my little slice of Apocalypse?’’ He continued.

‘’The way you handle that thing doesn’t really do the Apocalypse any justice, Caleb.’’ I joked back and he handed me the shotgun, along with the spare ammo he had.
I handed him the assault rifle and most of the spare clips I had stashed away in my pouches.

‘’You’d better get to your position.’’ I told him as I got up. ‘’Davies will lure the bastards here any second now.’’
Caleb nodded and asked me to help him up by offering his hand. I took it and helped him off of the dusty floor.

‘’See you in a bit.’’ I said as he vaulted over a pile of rubble and started to make his way to a balcony.
I looked at Sergeant Brolie and showed him my new weapon.

‘’Good thinking, Lancaster.’’ He said before lowering his voice. ‘’And whatever you just said to the rookie, good job.’’ He said as he patted me on the back. ‘’You might be a good squad leader one day.’’ He said and I could tell he was looking at the sergeant insignia on his shoulder.

‘’Then what would you do without me if I got reassigned?’’ I joked as we walked over to the doorway Davies would enter through.
‘’Honestly, John?’’ Brolie said as he took cover beside the doorpost. ‘’I’d finally get some rest in this squad, but we’d become far less effective, I’ll give you that.’’ Brolie continued. ‘’Don’t get cocky now, this is the closest thing to a compliment you will get for the next-’’ He was cut off.

‘’Incoming!’’
It was Davies.

‘’Quiet down, fool!’’ Brolie hissed as Alyx, Tom and Davies came running through the street towards us, plasma bolts tailing them but not hitting their mark, luckily.

Alyx was the first to get inside, she jumped over the barricade we had built and took cover behind it. Tom was second to arrive, he dashed to the left once he was inside and got behind a concrete pillar at the far side of the room.

Davies got hit, not fully but the plasma bolt scraped his helmet and he lost his balance.
He stumbled through the doorway and rolled over the ground before getting to the barricade half crawling.

‘’This is it, people.’’ Brolie said over the squad’s com channel.
I nodded and we both made our way to the barricade as well, taking cover beside Davies and Alyx.

A few seconds later an Elite came rushing inside, it was infuriated. It was breathing heavy and it had its two plasma rifles raised.
We waited for the Elite to make a move, it didn’t. After a few more seconds seconds I feared the Elite would throw a grenade behind the barricade so I made my move.

I leaned out of cover and fired the shotgun. The Elite fell to his knees as its shield burst and I could hear the thing growl in anger.

I fired again but an invisible hand raised the barrel of my weapon, causing me to miss my target.
The second Elite de-cloaked itself and kicked me in the stomach, sending me flying backwards.

‘’Fire!’’ Brolie shouted and the entire squad got up from their cover, be it barricade, pillar or balcony wall.

Their focused fire rapidly depleted the second Elite’s shielding before a burst from a battle rifle killed the Elite where it stood when it attacked me. It fell to the ground gurgling as it suffocated on the blood it it’s lungs.

The first Elite was still down, likely this was the wounded one, and the extra damage I did with my shotgun had hurt it even more.

Brolie helped me up and offered me his Magnum. I pressed the muzzle against the Elite’s head and fired two rounds. 

One to kill it, one to forget the pain...

After that we hid the Elites’ bodies, we wouldn’t want more of them to come scurrying around here.

Alyx and Doc checked to see if I suffered from an injury to my ribs or if I had sustained an internal bleeding from the Elite’s kick, they deemed me in perfect health however and I was relieved to know that the pain I felt was nothing too serious.

Then we just waited to see if we would get any orders, or if we were the last on the planet…


----------



## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

Chapter 2: UNSC army
Episode 5: Third floor: Helljumpers, airstrikes and enemy artillery... 

It was still early in the morning when we got new directives; 
In a few minutes a flight of Broadsword bombers would swoop into the airspace to take out as many Covenant artillery positions as possible, all we had to do was to confirm whether the bombardment was a success, oh, and we had to fight our way there, that was all.

Luckily, a new offensive would begin once the Covenant artillery had been neutralized and their anti-air positions were nothing but dust.

Brolie wanted to get moving right away and so we did.

We could hear the artillery position firing constantly and we saw the huge plasma bolts slowly traverse the sky, they looked like comets with a hazy tail.

The shots told us where we had to go, we were clueless on how far it actually was however, which made the objective much more challenging as we had no idea what we could face on the way there.

We just started getting on our way however, he had to, really. 
Every street we turned into had more damage than the previous, the city was a ruin. I was certain we would never be able to restore it, the damage was done.

After about five minutes I heard a short, high pitched whistle, I looked at Alyx and Brolie, they had heard it as well.

Brolie nodded at me and I whistled a reply.

I whistled a high note but immediately dropped to a lower tone, then slowly raising the pitch before suddenly making it high pitched again.

‘’Up here.’’ A raspy voice said from above, I could see a head but nothing else.
It was a scout, he lay on top of a ruined garage, surveying the area.
Brolie stepped forward.

‘’Two-one-two Baker.’’ He introduced the squad. ‘’Do you have any intell on the artillery?’’
‘’Six-two-niner Tusk, Fireteam Robot.’’ The scout said, introducing his own unit. ‘’It’s a hornets’ nest, sergeant.’’
The scout had a raspy voice, he had probably been here longer than we had, his face was clean though.

‘’A-holes set up turrets in a perimeter all around the damn cannons and snipers are positioned around every corner, occasionally there’s a patrol of Grunts, led by a Brute.’’ The scout concluded.

‘’Any tips on how we can get in there?’’ Davies asked the scout.
The scout laughed, shaking his head.
‘’You can’t.’’ He replied plainly.

‘’Watch us.’’ I said to the scout as I smiled at Brolie.
Brolie shrugged and rallied the squad.
‘’Our orders are to get in there.’’ Brolie told the scout. ‘’I plan to follow those orders, scout.’’

The scout disappeared as he returned to his rooftop, after a few seconds he came back, his head popping into view once more.
‘’We’ll come with you, we need to take out those snipers anyway.’’ He said as he threw two bags from the roof.

‘’Much obliged, soldier.’’ Brolie said as he caught one of the bags.
‘’Soldier?’’ The scout asked, an eyebrow raised. ‘’Sorry to disappoint you, sergeant, but we’re not army.’’ The scout said as he and four others jumped of the garage. ‘’We’re Navy.’’

‘’Helljumpers.’’ I said in awe as I saw the jet black ODST armours the five were wearing.
The scout secured his ODST helmet on his head and looked at us.

‘’I’m Sergeant Ulysses, call me Dusty.’’ The ODST said. ‘’These are Zulu, James, Blue and Patriot.’’ He said as he looked at his fellow ODST’s.
The ODSTs greeted us in different ways.

‘’Pleased to meet you.’’ Brolie said. ‘’From left to right; ‘’ He continued as he looked at our squad. 
‘’Alyx, Tom, Caleb, Davies, John, Doc, Teach, Joey, Carter and I’m Brolie.’’
Dusty looked at us all and inclined his head.

‘’We’d better get going, sergeant.’’ He said. ‘’Patrol will be here in a minute or two, we’d best vacate the area before then.’’
‘’I agree,’’ Brolie said. ‘’Lead the way.’’


Several minutes later we stacked up behind a crashed Pelican.

‘’Two shades at one and ten.’’ The ODST called Blue said as he drew it out in the dirt on the ground.
‘’A sniper on the fourth floor of Hotel Moscow over there seems to be looking the other way but I’m not sure.’’

‘’Good work, Blue.’’ Dusty said as he gave Blue back his Battle Rifle.
‘’Patriot, Zulu, the two of you get to the fifth floor of the building over there.’’ Dusty said as he pointed out the building.

‘’Get an L.O.S. on the sniper and scan for others.’’ Dusty said. ‘’I will take James and Blue here.’’ Dusty pointed out a location on the drawn map.
‘’Sergeant, you divide your squad, one team on each turret.’’ Dusty explained. ‘’We’ll draw their fire, when we do, their sides will be exposed making them vulnerable, make sure you exploit that.’’

It was a sound tactic, a bit obvious but sound none the less.
I saw two ODSTs already entering what seemed to be an office building preparing to get a position up high.

‘’John, Alyx, Caleb and Carter, you’re with me. The rest of you follow Teach.’’ Brolie said, and it was sufficient. We knew who would attack which turret and where to take up position.

Then we waited, waited until the ODSTs were in position and ready to draw the Covvies’ attention. 
Then came the signal, the ODSTs flashed their flashlights on the ground and they got up from their cover.

Within a second a dead Jackal fell from the Hotel building, I hadn’t even heard a shot. The ODSTs opened fire and another second later the Shade turrets returned fire.

We waited two more seconds and then we got into the action.
I fired my assault rifle at the shade turret, the side panel buckling under the stream of bullets the squad unleashed.

The side panel gave way and the Grunt inside was shot to bits.
The other turret was destroyed shortly thereafter by a well placed grenade, thrown by Joey I believe.

The Grunt inside was gone, nothing but gore on a nearby wall remained of the creature.
Up above the firefight continued as the ODSTs in the building had spotted another sniper.

It didn’t take long however and soon another Jackal plummeted to the sidewalk. 

The way was clear.

‘’Brolie!’’ Dusty shouted from across the square.
Brolie looked towards the ODST.
‘’My boys and I will go up high, hunt down any snipers we can spot, you’re alone from now on, copy?’’

Brolie waved him goodbye and gave the ODSTs a thumbs up, showing his gratitude.

‘’Baker command, this is Baker two-one-two, we are ready for a rain check, over.’’ Brolie said as he signaled the squad to follow him.
‘’Copy that two-twelve-actual. Strike will commence in three minutes, enjoy the show and don’t forget to take a picture, over.’’

‘’One for the scrapbook coming up, Command. Two-one-two, out.’’ Brolie said as we exited the network of alleyways.

There it was, seventy tonnes of plasma spitting death, it was large, no, huge, easily rivaling the seven story tall buildings around it in size, and then there was still a barrel sticking diagonally into the sky.
Even though we were standing hundreds of meters away I felt dwarfed by the thing.

‘’One big motherfucker.’’ Brolie said as he examined the thing.

The cannon fired two rounds and I could feel the ground tremble as two purple bolts of plasma were sent to destroy everything unfortunate enough to stand close enough to its impact zone. 

‘’You heard Command, boys and girl.’’ Brolie said as he put on his shades. ‘’Enjoy the show.’’

We sat there, making sure we weren’t snuck upon by Covenant forces until the radio told us it was time.

‘’Bombardment imminent, all units on this frequency, stay clear of Covenant artillery positions. I repeat, all units stand clear of Covenant artillery cannons, bombardment commencing in thirty seconds.’’
‘’Twenty seconds till the rain.’’
‘’T-minus fifteen seconds.’’
‘’Ten, nine, eight, seven…’’

I couldn’t hear the radio anymore, the shrieking of jet engines putting down every other sound.

I could see Longswords approach in the distance, they came in fast and low, not just one flight, no, there were dozens of squadrons entering the airspace.
The noise became deafening as two Longswords flew right over us, towards the artillery piece.

A curtain of bombs was released by the two bombers and the gun saw its final seconds.

The gun erupted into a violent explosion and the blast lifted the dust around us before blowing it away.
‘’Baker two-one-two, what’s the status on that gun?’’ Command asked us.

‘’It’s toast, Command.’’ Brolie replied as he took a deep breath. ‘’Tell the flyboys we enjoyed the fireworks, they should do more shows.’’

‘’I will, Baker actual.’’ Command replied laughing. ‘’New orders will be issued within the hour, hold position until then. Do you copy?’’
‘’Baker two-one-two copies all, command.’’ Brolie replied. ‘’Two-twelve, out.’’

‘’Damn.’’ I said, admiring the collapsing cannon.
‘’I know.’’ Tom replied, amazed by the destruction we were witnessing.
‘’No, I forgot to take a picture.’’ I joked and we laughed, not stopping to look at how the burning gun collapsed.


----------



## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

great so far keep it up.


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

Chapter 2: UNSC Army
Episode 6: Retaliation

An hour later we had heard what was going on. The Covenant had made a sudden retreat, not because we managed to do them damage but because they were seemingly done here.

According to Command such a thing had happened before and the UNSC had thought itself victorious. Until, only half an hour later, the Covenant ships in orbit decimated an entire continent, only to move on to the next.

That planet fell the same day, there were no survivors…

We were to stall the Covenant ground forces so the fleet could move in to intercept the Covenant ships which were amassing in orbit.

What little remained of Baker Company was going in after the cavalry had rolled through the Covenant lines.

‘’Touchdown in sixty, get ready people!’’ Brolie ordered as he came out of the Pelican’s cockpit. 

It was a mental countdown from there on.

I heard the Pelican’s gun fire several bursts, the heavy machine gun laying waste to Covenant forces without doubt.

‘’Good luck out there, boys.’’ The pilot said as I felt the craft come to a halt.
Alyx and Teach were the first to jump out of the Pelican, Davies, Caleb and I soon followed after which Doc, Tom, Carter, Joey and Brolie jumped. 

When they did the Pelican was already opening it’s thrust, lifting off again.
The Pelican’s gun kept firing powerful rounds into the Covie lines and several missiles were fired from the pods beneath its wings before it sped off.

‘’Cross the ground, people! Move, move, move!’’ Brolie shouted as we saw we had been dropped in the middle of a war zone. 
We quickly took cover behind some stacked rocks and tried to assess the situation.

Squads were being deployed all around us and we could see a column of Scorpion tanks being deployed as well.
Two Wolverines were firing their missiles into the air, careful not to hit any of our own birds. 

An Elephant with three Cobra’s surrounding it seemed to serve as a mobile command centre and I guessed that’s where Brolie wanted to go.

‘’John, Davies, with me, rest of you stay here, dig a hole!’’ Brolie ordered and I followed him as we ran to the command post.

A shot from a Scorpion tank passed me only a few steps to my right.

This was absolute madness.

We crossed the field as more ordinance impacted the ground around us, turning the mud into a sluggish and warm substance.
I could hear bullets and bolts pass me with each step I took.

Madness, I tell you.

When we reached the command post it was chaos inside; officers were shouting orders at one another and data was passed down the chain of command.

‘’Baker two-one-two reporting, captain.’’ Brolie said as he saluted to a captain in battledress.
‘’Good to have you here, Jason.’’ The captain replied.

‘’Why? So we can die together?’’ Brolie asked. ‘’What the hell are we meant to do here, sir?’’

‘’You’re to stick it out, sergeant.’’ The captain told Brolie. ‘’In ten minutes Battle group Excelsior will be in position to bomb that staging area to oblivion. They’ll be carrying all the air support we need to punch a hole and enough ODSTs to liberate this planet.’’

‘’Scarab!’’ A petty officer shouted and as I looked outside I saw a Scarab walker luring over the hills. Its mechanical head slowly moving, as if deciding what prey it should destroy first.

The Cobras spotted it and opened fire en masse. The rail cannons charged quickly and fired a devastating barrage towards the mechanical monster, destroying the turret on its back and shooting one of its four legs clean off. 
The Scarab tumbled and disappeared behind the hill, quickly followed by a bright, blue-ish explosion.''

‘’You need to get to your squad, sergeant!’’ The captain ordered Brolie. ‘’Make sure the damned Covenant can’t march out of here!’’

Brolie replied through action as he signaled me and Davies to follow him back to the squad.

‘’Vultures inbound!’’ someone yelled and I saw the bulky aircraft approaching from the west, their gauss cannons blasting apart Covenant armour and infantry alike.
During the war with the Insurrectionists the aircraft were almost removed from the UNSC arsenal, simply because they were too powerful. 

It was brutal…

The Vultures launched wave upon wave of missiles and still we had to shoot down dozens, if not hundreds of Grunts, Jackals, Skirmishers, Elites and Brutes who were trying to drive us back.

Whenever a Hunter appeared Brolie would whistle and one of the other squads would fire a rocket at the thing, often resulting in a gory explosion.

Scorpion tanks and Hornets got destroyed by green bolts or by a distant shot from a Wraith or Scarab.

Occasionally a Covenant Locust walker presented itself to the Cobras, which resulted in a duel of who could charge his weapon the fastest.

It went that way for a few minutes, then we got low on ammo. Tom had already switched to his side arm and Teach had made a run for the command post to get more weapons and ammunition.

Before he came back we were liberated however.

Without warning Drop pods impacted less than twenty meters away from us. 
ODSTs came jumping out, firing their weapons as they tried to form groups.

Frigates and Destroyers flew over us, their cannons and missile pods releasing hell on the Covenant tide.

I don’t think anyone ever saw anything like this, it was intoxicating to witness it. My body went numb and my senses failed to follow what was happening around me.

I was blinded by the explosions wherever I looked or by tracer rounds which crossed the sky.

I was deafened by the constant and unending barrage of explosions and shrieking missiles.

I smelled nothing but the stale smell of blood, the fires and the smoke.

I tasted dirt in my mouth, not even aware of it at the time.

My body felt nothing, the shockwaves that coursed through my body shaking the nerves until they shut down.

If anyone ever asked me to explain what happened I wouldn’t be able to explain it in the slightest.
Then I noticed thunder, crackling off the bow of a distant Covenant cruiser.

The moment I realized the ship was jumping to slipspace, the ship was being sucked into a black disk, when it was fully inside everything turned blank... 



When I woke up some time later I didn’t realize I had passed out, that thought came to me much, much later. I saw a Covenant ship breaking away from the battle, it changed its course to get away from us.

I climbed up the hill and joined a few ODST’s, marines and army soldiers.

What we saw was unfathomable, a UNSC battle group destroying an entire Covenant staging area, Spires, landing zones, amassed forces, Scarabs... 

Nothing was spared.

Then it hit me:
It was a victory, an actual victory! We drove them back, it was unbelievable, I had never heard of a victory outside the initial days of the Harvest campaign.

Off course, I celebrated too early…


I celebrated and mourned that day, I had witnessed a victory and I had contributed to it.

The victory was at a terrible cost however as most of my squad was gone.

Alyx had been killed, a Needler crystal piercing her abdomen.
Carter was turned blind when the visor of his helmet melted due to the heat of a plasma explosion and the remains had damaged his eyes beyond repair.

Doc was dead, his body ravaged by plasma burns.
Tom and Joey were killed when the explosion caused by the cruiser’s jump launched a wrecked Warthog our way, they were crushed and died instantly.

Caleb, Teach and I were still standing, along with Davies but he got transferred to a new squad of marines the very next day.

Brolie’s body was never found…

Caleb, Teach and I got separated pretty soon; Teach got promoted to sergeant and was selected to lead a squad in Gamma Company.

Caleb didn’t pass his psychic evaluation, it seems it had all been too much for him. Can’t say I really blame the poor bastard.

*I* was Baker two-one-two...

Too many faces I would never see again. I quit.



> *Entry-101: 22-05-2526, 13:09*
> 
> ‘’They’re all gone. Most of them are dead or unable to get back into the military.
> To say it’s a shame wouldn’t do them any justice.
> ...


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## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

what happened to this, please continue it sangus i was enjoying it and i cant be the nly one.


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

son of azurman said:


> what happened to this, please continue it sangus i was enjoying it and i cant be the nly one.


I plan on starting chapter 3 tomorrow actually. 

I needed to finish the first section first, I also need your approval on something later on, but I'll PM you about that tomorrow.

Haven't had allot of spare time lately and school isn't going too well, so I had less time to spend writing.
I'm typing Chapter 3 in a different window as I type this, in order to post the first episode tomorrow afternoon/evening.


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

Chapter 3: UNSC Airforce
Episode 1: Career change



> *Entry 208- 26-10-2526, 10:41*
> 
> ‘’Today is my first day in the 126th Air Division, part of the ground crew, dubbed the Mechanical Corps.
> 
> ...



I lied, I didn’t like these guys at all. Most of them seemed UNSC extremists, still saying that anyone who even feels sympathy for former Insurrectionists must die.
If there’s one thing humanity can’t deal with right now its idiots like that, of that I was sure.

The war wasn’t going too well. Each day we heard stories of Covenant victories, once a month we heard a story about the UNSC securing a minor victory, often with a great loss of live, it had been that way for almost a year now, hell, I had witnessed it not too long ago.

We also heard other things…

Stories about super soldiers, human super soldiers.
They were called Spartans, and if the stories were true they were like the stuff of legend.
Huge, armour-clad soldiers with super-human strength, speed and skills-

‘’Lancaster, what is that thing anyway?’’ Hector Selizivad asked me.
‘’Data recorder.’’ I said plainly.
Hector wasn’t too bad. Not compared to the rest of this dip-shit team at least.

‘’What is it for?’’ He asked, not knowing how much I hated to tell the story.
‘’My sister gave it to me a year ago, just before she died.’’ I explained. ‘’She told me to use it as a journal, I keep it to honour her.’’
‘’Damn shame to hear that, John.’’ Hector said. ‘’Sorry ‘bout that, I guess it’s not something you want to talk about.’’
‘’Yeah.’’ I said, not quite sure to what.

Hector and I decided to be bunk mates, he was the least annoying of all the guys I had to work with so it was a logical choice for me.

‘’Touchdown in sixty, boys.’’ The pilot said as the Pelican changed its heading.
‘’You heard the nice mister, boys. Make sure all your stuff is on your back and your helmet is nice and snug on your head.’’ Sergeant Rourke said.

Sergeant Justin Rourke, seemingly just promoted to the rank of sergeant, was an ugly man, and that had nothing to do with the scar that ran across his face.
His features were off, his eyes too narrow and his nose was crooked, not in a poorly healed broken nose kind of way.

‘’Go go go, boots on the ground people, form up and act up!’’ Rourke said as he inspected the squad disembarking the Pelican the second it touched down.

‘’Ten-hut!’’ a base officer said as we formed up in a neat line.
We saluted and awaited inspection.

A major walked past us slowly, gazing at us, trying to see if we would be up to his standards.

‘’At ease, men.’’ A second officer said, I didn’t know the man but I suspected this to be the base commander.

When I took a closer look at him I could see a rank insignia on his shoulder, the rank insignia of a colonel.

‘’Squad Wrench Hammer, welcome to Icarus Airbase.’’ The colonel said. ‘’I am Colonel O’Shea, I am the acting base commander and you will act accordingly.’’

‘’Sir, yes, sir!’’ The squad sounded. 

‘’Squad Wrench Hammer has a reputation for being a nuance, I expect the new CO and the two new members to change that. In fact, I expect all of you to change that. Now get yourself acquainted and be ready for inspection first thing tomorrow morning. Siren sounds zero-six hundred sharp.’’

I picked up my bag and followed Sergeant Rourke to the squad’s new accommodations. 

The place was a hell. A hot, dry, sandy hell.

The base was located in a large desert, with a large, yellow sun burning bright from high in the sky. 

Accommodations were placed underground, that way the heat was kept out during the day, and the cold was kept out at night. 
By the time we got there however, I was already sweating and I knew that if I was to stay out in the sun for an hour I would have second degree burns all over my face.

‘’These are the base rules, gentlemen.’’ The quarter master told. ‘’Mandatory meals thrice a day, evening meals in the mess, breakfast and lunch can be eaten anywhere and can be picked up at the mess at scheduled hours, check the board for those times.’’

I threw my bag onto the top bunk of the room I shared with Hector, claiming it for myself.

‘’Water rations are distributed once every hour.’’ The quarter master continued while men continued to claim rooms and bunks, throwing their stuff on the bunks they chose.

‘’Five rations minimal, eight max. Be sure to drink enough, the desert is relentless and will kill you if you drink too little. Furthermore, sun block is distributed to those who require it, we suggest you build up a tan though, that way you will get burned less likely. Always carry something like a cap or hat with you to cover your face and neck when your feel your skin tingle.’’

The list of safety precautions kept going like that for a while and I knew it was going to be rough here, the precautions were there for a reason.




> *Entry- 209: 28-10-2526, 21:55*
> ‘’I fucking hate this place.
> The base is located in the middle of a desert, the kind where everything is sand and barren rock.
> 
> ...


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## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

keep it up, reading this is actually inspiring me to do this with m rp characters in the future


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

> *Entry- 231: 13-05-2527, 03:08*
> 
> ‘’Well, it only took the Covenant half a year to track me here.
> Four corvette class ships entered the system last night before being spotted by a cargo ship.
> ...


----------



## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

Chapter 3: UNSC Airforce mechanic
Episode 2: Crash site 



> *Entry 264: 06-06-2527, 08:32*
> 
> ‘’A Longsword bomber was taken down early this morning, Wrench Hammer has been sent out to do search and rescue on the pilots and salvage what remains of the wreckage.
> 
> ...


‘’Carrigan, you patrol the southern perimeter.’’ Sergeant Rourke ordered Private AJ Carrigan. ‘’John, you patrol the western perimeter, make sure nothing creeps up on us.’’ Rourke ordered me as the Elephant transport vehicle came to a halt.

The doors opened and the two Elephants that made up for the majority of the convoy unfolded into a mobile base. 
AJ and I quickly moved through the sand, not an easy task, and dropped to a knee, scanning the western perimeter. 

I saw nothing, nothing but sand and rocks.

‘’All clear.’’ I said through the radio and the rest of Wrench Hammer left the Elephant, making for the wrecked remains of the Longsword bomber.1
Hector carried an large rotating saw and immediately started removing the rear hatch of the craft, trying to get inside so we could try to save the pilots.

Two medics jumped inside the moment Hector had removed the hatch.
Half a minute later they got out, shaking their heads.

Crews were silent for a few seconds, paying their respects to the dead before Rourke started giving orders again. 
‘’Secure the bodies, salvage the wreck.’’ He told the team leaders, who immediately got to work.

‘’John, AJ, the two of you keep the perimeter secure.’’ He said over the radio.
I acknowledged by waving at him and got up on my feet, strolling around the vicinity, keeping a watchful eye towards the west.


After about an hour Rourke came to me, giving me a bottle of water.

‘’Anything?’’
‘’Absolutely nothing.’’ I said as I opened the bottle. ‘’How much longer?’’

‘’About two hours should do it.’’ Rourke told me. ‘’You want to be relieved?’’ he asked me.

‘’Nah.’’ I replied. ‘’I enjoy the silence.’’ I told him.
Rourke gave me a curious look.
‘’Don’t get weird on me, John.’’ He said.

‘’What took that thing down anyway?’’ I asked Rourke as I inclined my head towards the wreckage.
‘’Plasma fire to the engines.’’ Rourke said as he handed me a protein bar. ‘’Poor bastards never stood a chance.’’ He continued.

‘’Damn shame we didn’t get here in time.’’ I said as I noticed three body bags beside one of the Elephants.
‘’Don’t think it would have made any difference, really.’’ Rourke told me. ‘’They seem to have died on impact.’’

I shook my head as I considered such a death.

‘’I’ll leave you to your silence.’’ Rourke said and he turned away.

As he made his way back to the wreckage I turned my head back towards the west, checking to see if there was any movement.
I noticed a single cloud drift in the distance, but as I followed it something caught my eye.

A flash, like sunlight was reflected into my eye. Odd.
I turned my head a few times to see if I could get the flash to appear again but to no avail.

I decided to move a few meters closer, see if I could make anything out of it then.

Much to my surprise there was a piece of metal, about half a kilometer in front of me, barely visible.
I assumed it was from the wreckage, but it couldn’t be. It was of a different color… 

It looked like a wall, a structure maybe.
It wasn’t Covenant, that was for sure.

A shed used by migrants perhaps? To hide from sand storms.

Yet it seemed like nothing was there, like it wasn’t supposed to be found.
But something was there, I was sure of it. I walked another ten meters towards the object and I couldn’t help but think I wasn’t supposed to be there.

‘’Lancaster!’’ Sergeant Rourke shouted across the sandy plains. ‘’Don’t stray too far, we need your eyes close by!’’ He said.

I was surprised at how far I had walked, I was almost three hundred meters away from the crash site.

I waved my arm at him and made my way back to the crash site, my back turned in the direction I was going, trying to see if I could spot the metal plate again.
When I was only a few meters removed from the crash site Rourke spoke again.

‘’What was out there, John?’’ He asked me as he picked up something that looked like a piece of communication hardware.

I thought about it, should I tell him what I saw?

After being on this world for months with him I still didn’t really trust him. I mean, I trusted him, but not any more than the next soldier in line.

‘’I’m not sure.’’ I eventually said, still facing the place I thought I had seen the metal plates.
‘’More wreckage?’’ Hector asked me as he flipped up his welding mask, the sweat pouring down his bearded face.

‘’No, way too shiny, a piece of glass that reflected the sun into my eyes I guess.’’ I said.

I did my best to sound convinced and they bought it.
Hector and Rourke both followed my gaze and shrugged.

Hector got back to work and Rourke went to see if others had already made some progress.

I continued my patrol, looking over my shoulder one last time to check if I could see the metal object, but no. It wasn’t there.

Little over two hours later we had secured most of the wreckage and had stowed it on the Elephants. Some minor scrap remained but we weren’t a recycling crew, we were there to salvage usable components and large sections that might be restored, so our job was done.

The men who were using the welding arcs were close to getting heat strokes and we decided to wrap things up.

The convoy started rolling, the Warthog again riding in the front, it’s turret constantly keeping guard to ensure we were safe, not like it would do us any good if a Seraph would appear, but still, it’s the thought that counts.

The two Elephants moved slow across the sand, careful not to drive directly into a sand bank. The crew of the Elephant I rode in were anxious, scared that they might be picked off by Covenant air forces.

If a Banshee, Phantom or Spirit showed up it was in for a nasty surprise though, for in the front of the Elephant lay a large metal case saying ‘GUNGNIR.’ Inside this case lay three Weapon/Anti-Vehicle Model 6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifles, more commonly known as Spartan Lasers.
I had seen what those things did to their unfortunate victims; It wasn’t pretty.

‘’Sergeant Rourke!’’ One of the technicians said alarmed, making me reach for the GUNGNIR case on instinct. 

‘’What is it?’’ Rourke asked, not noticing what I was doing.

‘’Icarus Airbase reports being under attack, sir!’’


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## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

dun dun duuuuun. keep it up can't wait for more action. it makes me think of what forward unto dawn would be like if it were a novel.


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

son of azurman said:


> dun dun duuuuun. keep it up can't wait for more action. it makes me think of what forward unto dawn would be like if it were a novel.


There's a bunch of Halo novels.

I've read most of them but most say they were a bit of a let down.

Guess I was bit accustomed to the story being told through games and vid's though...


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## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

ive started reading fall of reach myself but i kind of have to force myself to read it as i am constantly drawn to my ravenor omnibus.


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

*Chapter 3: UNSC Air Force mechanic
Episode 3: All your base are belong to us.*

‘’E.T.A. three minutes boys, make sure you are ready to fight off some Covies by then!’’ Rourke shouted through the Elephant.

‘’Sir.’’ I said, lifting the heavy GUNGNIR case and tapping it with my free hand.

Rourke simply nodded and I unlocked the case, removed the foam padding and got out the first Spartan Laser.

I handed the weapon to Hector who then opened the top hatch of the Elephant, making his way to the roof.
I handed the second weapon to a crew member who seemed to know how to operate the thing as he clicked open the screen and powered up the laser for a small bit, checking if it was working.

I kept the third laser for myself and joined the crew member and Hector on the roof of the Elephant.

I saw the Warthog leaving a trail of dust as it darted away in the distance, making for a very uncomfortable ride across the sandy hills.
Further away I saw three Phantom dropships closing in on the base.
Other dropships had apparently already reached the base as two pillars of smoke reached into the blue sky.

‘’Sir,’’ Hector yelled down the hatch. ‘’At least three bandits approaching on Icarus, enemy attack is already underway!’’

There was some chatter inside the Elephant and soon another crewmember came through the hatch, taking position in the Elephant’s machine gun turret.

We were close to the base now, and I could hear the sounds of plasma discharge and voices, human and alien alike.

‘’Take out that dropship!’’ The Elephant’s driver shouted and I aligned the Spartan Laser with my target.
I felt the power build up as I squeezed the trigger, thin streaks of red light were being projected towards the Phantom.

The generator in the weapon was now reaching its designated power output and a thick beam of red light left the weapon, the recoil of the weapon set me back a little but I had braced in time to prevent falling off of the Elephant.

The light scorched one of the engines on the Phantom, making the craft buckle.

A second streak of light, released by Hector hit the Phantom dead center, not causing much damage.

The crew member fired his streak of light and destroyed the turret that hang from the nose of the Phantom, rendering the craft defenseless. 

On top of the second Elephant people had also taken up position with the Spartan Lasers.
Two streaks of light traversed the sky simultaneously, destroying the Phantom’s engine on impact, making it a subject of gravity’s mercy. 

Surely you know gravity has no mercy, and so the craft shattered as it crashed against one of the base’s walls, violently exploding in a blinding flash of light.

One streak of light impacted on a second Phantom, scorching away several panels of the hull and leaving it’s marks.

The machine gun turrets on both Elephants spun to life as we entered the base through one of the gates.Their hail of bullets laying waste to groups of infantry with little effort.

The Warthog that had escorted us earlier lay upside down beside a hangar, the occupants taking refuge behind it as they were being harassed by a Ghost.

I charged my Spartan Laser and aimed for the hovering menace.

When the shot was charged and released the Grunt inside the vehicle was evaporated in the blink of an eye and the wreckage of the Ghost was sent across the runway, impacting with a building.

Other shots were released by the Spartan Lasers, destroying smaller vehicles before we once again focused our efforts on the Phantoms.

After continuous fire the second Phantom erupted mid air, the pieces of wreckage coming to rest all over the base.

The third Phantom had learned from the mistakes the others made by sticking around and tried to get away from the base.
We were unforgiving however, and the long range of our Spartan Lasers made sure the craft was destroyed just before it was out of sight.
I dropped the Spartan Laser, its battery spent. 

‘’Phantoms gone!’’ I shouted over the noise of battle.

The Elephant came to an abrupt halt, knocking me and Hector off of its roof.
We fell five meters down and impacted on the sandy ground, causing quite a bit of pain.

The doors of the Elephants opened and the crews and mechanics came out, carrying a variety of weapons to battle the Covenant and re-secure the base.

Rourke helped me up, much to my discomfort as the pain in my lower back got worse as I stood.
Someone handed me an assault rifle and I took shelter behind the Elephant as plasma and needles impacted on its armoured plating.

‘’All units, open fire on my command!’’ Rourke bellowed over the sounds of war.
‘’NOW!’’ He yelled, and as one the armed crewmembers and mechanics came from cover, blasting away the Grunts and Jackals with little effort.

An Elite wielding twin plasma rifles returned fire, killing two crewmembers before being picked off by one of the turrets.

We fought our way to the air command tower, where the base personnel was apparently making its stand as most Covies were converging on that location.

We suffered few casualties, all of the casualties being crew members from the Elephants.
We kept advancing through the base until we came across a Hunter.

A single Hunter?

The crew member that had joined Hector and me on the roof of the Elephant still carried a Spartan Laser and killed the Hunter before it could inflict any damage on our ragged team.

That left us with one question; where was its soul mate? Its partner, companion, better half, brother, whatever you want to call it.

The thing introduced itself to us before we needed to look for it as it came crashing through a hangar door, infuriated by the death of its mate.
It slammed into one of the advancing Elephants, destroying the treads and rendering the vehicle immobile. We ran, we couldn’t stand near it or the Lasers would be useless. 

They turned out to be useless anyway as all batteries were now depleted.
‘’Any ideas?’’ Hector asked panting as he pulled a Needler crystal from his shoulder guard.

I heard the Hunter growl as it pounded into the Elephant once more, tearing through the metal plates and using the hole it created to get inside.

A deafening thunder and the noise of impacts made us looking for cover, but as we ran for said cover I saw something, something that wasn’t Covenant in nature.

‘’ODSTs!’’ I shouted, seeing the black armoured commandoes disembark from their drop pods.

Two of the ODSTs jumped into the Elephant and the noise of gunfire was deafening. Seconds later the ODSTs came out through the hole the Hunter had created, covered in orange gore.

Three other ODST’s ran towards the command tower, gunning down everything opposing them.
Within a minute they had made it to the tower and had managed to clear the surrounding area of stragglers.

‘’You!’’ The ODST sergeant said to Rourke. ‘’Gather your squad and patrol the area, check the Phantom wreckages for survivors, etcetera.’’

‘’Yes, sir!’’ Rourke snapped at attention, forgetting he too was a sergeant.
The ODST sergeant gave orders to other surviving personnel and the crew of the Elephants, taking command seamlessly and without question.

We too followed his orders, reloading our weapons and marching towards the nearest Phantom wreckage.


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## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

"if all else fails, blow shit up"-spartan from headhunters animation.
hopefully wile we are in Holland i have access to the teachers computer so that i can read more but i doubt it as its apparently just to update the trips blog. keep writing or i will find you and i will kill you


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

son of azurman said:


> "if all else fails, blow shit up"-spartan from headhunters animation.
> hopefully wile we are in Holland i have access to the teachers computer so that i can read more but i doubt it as its apparently just to update the trips blog. keep writing or i will find you and i will kill you


You're coming to the Netherlands? Be sure to visit GW A'dam then, it'll be worth your time, trust me.


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## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

netherlands trip was last year, this trip is belgium and france to visit ww1 and ww2 memorials as well as disney land paris. put holland by accident but i will most likely do the holland trip again next year. You ever been to Valkenburg?


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

son of azurman said:


> netherlands trip was last year, this trip is belgium and france to visit ww1 and ww2 memorials as well as disney land paris. put holland by accident but i will most likely do the holland trip again next year. You ever been to Valkenburg?


twice on school trips, I believe. Coal mines, right?

But Valkenburg isn't Holland, it's Limburg.
(Bit like saying London is Welsh. Holland is actually two provinces.)


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

> *Entry 265: 07-06-2527, 07:28*
> 
> Ground crews managed to restore the runway after the Covenant attack on Icarus Airbase yesterday. Shortswords have begun patrolling the direct vicinity while Longswords have been going to orbit and back again to maintain the defensive corridor.
> 
> ...



‘’Look,’’ Rourke said. ‘’It’s them.’’

‘’What do you mean ‘It’s them’? They’re not rock stars or anything.’’ Hector said.

I rolled from underneath the Albatross I was working on and could see the two of them observing the ODSTs sitting in the shadow of a hangar across the runway.

I got up and wiped the oil off my hands with a cloth as I observed the ODSTs. 
‘’Yet you seem anxious, Mister Selizivad.’’ I said smiling.
Hector didn’t reply.

‘’Your turn.’’ I told him as I pressed a screw driver in his hands. ‘’Hydraulics are fixed, still sluggish.’’ I instructed him. ‘’There’s probably still some Hell Dust in there, check that, would you?’’

‘’Fucking sand.’’ Hector mumbled as he lay down on the trolley and activated a light to better see what he was doing.

‘’Sarge, where are you going?’’ I asked Rourke when I noticed him crossing the runway.
He waved me over and I knew where he was going…

I followed Rourke across the runway, towards another hangar.

‘’Good afternoon, ODSTs.’’ Rourke said as he bluntly sat beside the ODSTs in the shadow of the hangar.

‘’Sergeant.’’ The ODST sergeant said with a nod, acknowledging Rourke, who seemed oblivious to the fact the ODSTs didn’t like having him around.
‘’I wanted to thank you for your assistance yesterday.’’ Rourke said with little tact.

‘’Assistance, lad?’’ One ODST asked in disbelieve and almost offended. I recognized the accent, he was Irish, without a doubt. 
‘’You must be completely bonkers, the five of us did half the work.’’ He continued.

‘’Shush it, Daniels.’’ The ODST sergeant said as he looked up at Rourke.
‘’You know I’m right, sir.’’ The ODST named Daniels continued. ‘’Just saying.’’
He shrugged, shaking his head as he did.

‘’Sergeant Rourke, was it?’’ The ODST sergeant asked Rourke.
‘’The one and only.’’ Rourke said smirking.

Was Rourke really that dumb? Or was he so oblivious to social interaction that he didn’t notice the ODSTs had no interest in dealing with a hotshot.

‘’That’s cute.’’ Another ODST said as he drew something in the sand with his knife.

Little did it take me to see this would escalate sooner or later, I had to intervene or there would be an argument, if not a fight.

‘’I apologize, for the behavior of the sergeant.’’ I said as I stepped into the shadow, deliberately not sitting down.

Daniels and two other ODSTs looked up at me, seemingly unimpressed and returning to their boredom once they saw a glimpse of me.
‘’And who might you be?’’ Daniels asked me. His heavy accent reminding me of old movies. 

‘’Corporal John Lancaster.’’ I said, not offering my hand, simply nodding at the ODSTs who were still looking at me. ‘’I serve under Sergeant Rourke here.’’ I said as I lay my hand on Rourke’s back.’’

Rourke looked at me, not understanding what I was trying to do.

Fool…

‘’Master Sergeant Maurice Paulsen.’’ The ODST sergeant introduced himself, nodding at me the way I nodded at him.

‘’Johnny Daniels, corporal.’’ Daniels said after receiving a look from his sergeant.

‘’Private Elvis Masterson.’’ An ODST lying on his back said, slightly raising his arm as a greeting.

‘’Private Zetan Sherman.’’ Another ODST said, actually making eye contact with me.

‘’Specialist Dimitri Zaragova.’’ The ODST with the knife said, angling his head as he admired his drawing in the sand.

And with that I had met all of them, sort of. 

I knew why they didn’t want to socialize, it was the damn heat. Everyone who just arrived here was suffering from it, I know I was, only a few months ago.

Perhaps I should help them, no, I _should_ definitely help them.

‘’A piece of advice, gentlemen.’’ I said as I looked at the sand. ‘’Dig a hole, the ground is cooler underneath the top layer of sand. Or move the front of the hanger, there’s more wind there.’’

Sergeant Paulsen looked up at me, whipping a drop of sweat from his brow before nodding.

‘’Thanks.’’ He said. ‘’Zetan, get a shovel will you?’’ The sergeant said to the ODST. ‘’I plan on making a really deep hole…’’


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## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

Keep it up enjoying the read. :so_happy:


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

*Chapter 3: UNSC Air Force mechanic
Episode 5: Aftermath*



> *Entry- 10-06-2527, 09:01*
> 
> ‘’It’s been three days now since the attack on the base. Casualties were substantial but nothing that would render the base useless.
> Most crewmen and pilots had managed to get to the bunkers, ready to defend their position.
> ...


‘’John,’’ Hector shouted through the hangar as he walked in. 
‘’Yeah?’’ I returned the shout, waving my arm out of a hatch of a Longsword’s nose wheel so he knew where to find me.

‘’John, I thought you said you fixed the jammed gun on the Pelican in B-2.’’ He told me as he approached the hatch.
‘’I did.’’ I replied.

I gently smeared the pistons with oil, careful not to spill any. 
Our supplies were running low and we had no news on resupplies anytime soon, so we had to be cautious with the resources we used.

‘’Yet there I was, being shouted at by Airman Preston because the diagnostics said otherwise.’’
‘’Preston is an idiot.’’ I said annoyed. ‘’Run the diagnostics yourself, the thing is working fine.’’ 

‘’I did, John.’’ Hector replied. ‘’The damn thing is in worse shape than before.’’ 
Hector threw two bolts and a piece of wire on the ground, right beneath the hatch so I could see them.
I had seen them before. The night before, when I fixed the gun.

‘’What the fuck?’’ I whispered under my breath.

I climbed out the hatch and picked up the bolts.

‘’These were loose, John.’’ Hector explained. ‘’If that gun had fired a single round the wire would have caused a spark in the ammunition storage and the loose bolts would have the recoil sending the barrel into the fusillade.’’

‘’I checked everything twice.’’ I said. ‘’Look it up in the black box, digital diagnostics were successfully done at 21:00 last night. A loose wire would have been cause for a negative diagnostic.’’ I told, certain of my case.

‘’You don’t need to get all defensive on me, John.’’ Hector said as he frowned. His thick eyebrows making it look somewhat intimidating.
‘’Just check it, would you?’’

‘’Hector,’’ Airman Gray said as he entered the hangar. ‘’Could you get around to fixing the ACU in my cockpit already?’’ He said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. ‘’I won’t fly as long as my beautiful Laura is a winged sauna.’’
Hector looked at me.

‘’I fixed it early this morning,’’ He told Gray. 
‘’Dude, I just got from A-5 and not a single craft in there is ready for flight.’’ Gray told us. ‘’That includes Laura.’’

Hector seemed surprised, his eyes widening and squinting in a pattern until he understood what he had just been told.

I thought it was a little odd that the aircraft were suddenly malfunctioning after we had spent half a day fixing them.
Along with the Pelican in B-2…

‘’What the fuck is going on?’’ I asked Hector, suddenly realizing the possibilities of the situation.

He shook his head and beckoned me to follow him to hangar A-5.

We hastily crossed the runway towards the hangar with Gray right behind us.

When we got to hangar A-5 we saw several pilots and crew members arguing around a Sparrow-Hawk which Hector and Rourke had serviced the day before.

It sounded like quite a debate and I had noticed a fair amount of cursing by the pilots.

‘’What’s going on here?’’ I asked as Hector pushed aside two pilots, giving us access to the centre of the group.

‘’Fucking sabotage, man.’’ A pilot said as he showed me a bundle of cables.

It didn’t take me longer than a second to see the cables had been cut...


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

*Chapter 3: Air Force Mechanic
Episode 6: Patrol*



> *Entry-268: 11-06-2527*
> 
> Base command seems to be convinced that infiltrators are to blame for the sabotaged craft we discovered yesterday.
> Tonight I am to join the ODSTs on a patrol run around the runway and the hangars. The ODSTs asked for me specifically, something which makes me feel quite proud.’’
> ...


After the whole sabotage thing the ODSTs had to end their little vacation, they were now on patrol duty along the runway and around the hangars.

It was too much of ground to cover for five men, even if they were ODSTs.
That was why they asked me to patrol alongside of them during the night.
And if you thought it was bad here during the day, it got worse after the sun had set…

For every degree above zero during daytime it was at least half a degree below zero during the nights.

For the record, it was 45 degrees Celsius on the average day…

We put on our masks and sweaters, our gloves and our wool socks the moment the sun disappeared over the horizon.
‘’Fucking desert.’’ Hector said.

‘’Is that your new catchphrase?’’ I asked him as we left our quarters and headed for the runway.

‘’What do you mean?’’ He asked me with a monotone voice.

‘’You’re constantly bitching on the desert lately.’’ I explained. ‘’Allot more than the past few months at least.’’ I continued.

‘’Can you really blame me?’’ He asked, opening the door for me.
‘’No.’’ I said plainly. ‘’I blame you for making me suffer with you.’’ I joked as we stepped into the freezing cold, ready to meet the ODSTs at the start of the runway.

‘’Corporal.’’ One of the ODSTs said as he joined Hector and me on our walk towards the other ODSTs.
I had forgotten his name, dammit.

It was something exotic, but not out of the ordinary…

Zetan Sherman, that was it.

‘’Good evening, Private Sherman.’’ I said, a trail of visible warm air leaving my mouth as I spoke.

‘’Nothing good about it, sir.’’ He replied.
‘’Not a fan of the cold?’’ Hector asked the ODST.

‘’I don’t mind the cold.’’ Sherman said. ‘’It’s just rough on my leg, you see?’’
The ODST tapped his leg with a knuckle.
I looked down and saw something: there was no soft-armor between the plates.
‘’A robotic prosthetic?’’ I asked, surprised such things were now given to ODSTs. 

Most military grade prosthetics were not advanced enough to be able to keep up with the ODSTs and their line of work, must be a fancy model then, and Private Sherman must have done something quite special to earn such a piece of equipment.

‘’Aye.’’ Sherman said. ‘’It was already getting sluggish due to the sand, but now with the cold I fear the hydraulics might get damaged.’’

‘’Did you use anti-freeze?’’ Hector asked the ODST.
‘’Off course.’’ Sherman replied as we approached the other ODSTs. ‘’But there’s always a risk.’’ 

‘’Come by the workshop tomorrow.’’ I told him. ‘’I’ll get you some things to keep it in pristine condition.’’
‘’Much appreciated, corporal.’’ Sherman said, though his face wasn’t set too happy.

‘’Corporal Lancaster.’’ Sergeant Paulsen said as he made the visor of his helmet transparent. ‘’Are you ready?’’

I nodded at the ODST sergeant and introduced Hector to him.
‘’Sergeant Paulsen, this is Private Hector Selizivad, he will be joining me tonight.’’ I said. ‘’Hector, Master Sergeant Paulsen.’’

‘’Selizivad? Ön született: Reach?’’ One of the ODSTs spoke up, Specialist Dimitri Zaragova, I believe.
‘’Vagyok.’’ Hector replied as he shook hands with the ODST.

‘’Specialist Dimitri Zaragova.’’ The ODST said. ‘’Your accent is unfamiliar, friend. Where are you from?’’ The ODST asked Hector.
‘’Rahyis alföldi.’’ Hector replied.
‘’The lowlands?’’ Zaragova asked surprised. ‘’Not many from there join the UNSC.’’

‘’Alas not.’’ Hector replied as he shrugged. ‘’But the smart ones do.’’
‘’Hungarian.’’ Hector said, noticing my surprise.

‘’It’s one big, happy reunion.’’ Corporal Daniels said. ‘’Could we get going? My armour won’t keep me warm for ever you know.’’
I was surprised at Daniels’ boldness. He and Sergeant Paulsen must have been long time comrades if the sergeant put up with this.

‘’Corporal, you and Selizivad patrol around the tower. Daniels, Zetan and Elvis will take the western side of the runway and the hangars aligned with it. Dimitri and I will take the eastern side and the hangars over there. Two squads of army troopers are already patrolling the outer perimeter, those will be the Mongooses you hear and the lights accompanied with it.’’

‘’Understood.’’ I said.
‘’Good man.’’ Paulsen replied as the visor of his helmet darkened. ‘’If anything happens you sent out a ping across the base frequency.’’

I nodded and pulled my mask up, making sure it covered my entire face.
‘’I’ll contact you once every twenty minutes.’’ Paulsen said as he walked into the dark beside the runway.

‘’Let’s go.’’ I told Hector and we made our way to the start of the runway, from there we would go to the control tower.

‘’Flashlight.’’ Hector said, reminding me to activate it.
I thanked him and activated the flashlight that was integrated into my MA3, stupefied by the fact I hadn’t thought of that myself.
‘’Brain freeze.’’ Hector joked.
I managed a chuckle but little more.

‘’Why the hell are just the two of us joining the Helljumpers?’’ Hector asked me as we continued our patrol.
‘’AJ and Joseph are still recovering from the attack.’’ I told. ‘’Corby isn’t feeling too well and Patrick is being a little bitch, saying he has been running twelve our shifts for the past three days.’’
‘’Haven’t we all?’’ Hector asked me.

‘’Exactly.’’ I replied as I made sure my mask was still in place. ‘’Sergeant Rourke didn’t really leave a good impression with the ODSTs, so he won’t be invited.’’ I said, concluding my explanation.

I heard Hector suppress a laugh and looked at him, shaking my head but smiling beneath my mask.

We walked about for hours, occasionally getting ‘heat packs’ from the medical bay to make sure our hands didn’t turn into popsicles. Popsicles… I hadn’t had one in years.

Can’t say I wanted one right then and there though.

Every twenty minutes Sergeant Paulsen had opened a radio channel, everyone would check in and occasionally the ODSTs would open a chat just to keep themselves entertained.

Although they seemed to be a tight bunch; they didn’t really seem willing to socialize with non-ODSTs, the reason for that could only be guessed at, and I had a few guesses ready.

‘’0340 hours, everybody check in.’’ Paulsen said over the radio.
‘’Lancaster and Selizivad here.’’ I said. ‘’All quiet on our end, sir.’’ I said before yawning.

‘’Copy that, corporal.’’ Paulsen replied. ‘’Daniels?’’
There was no reply.

‘’Daniels?’’ Paulsen asked, more demanding now. ‘’Zetan? Elvis?’’ Paulsen said, now addressing the other ODSTs.
A blue explosion took place across the runway, not too far from Hector and me.

‘’Explosion at Hangar B-1!’’ I shouted over the radio.
Base sirens started howling and searchlights came to life as blue-ish plasma trailed the air at the rear side of Hangar B-1.

Hector and I ran across the runway towards the hangar, hearing a firefight erupt when we were halfway.

The moment we reached the hangar a second explosion occurred, the heat blast making me flinch, even though I wore several layers of clothing.

‘’Grease monkeys!’’ Daniels shouted, waving us over as he ducked behind cover.

I vaulted over an empty crate and joined Daniels in cover behind a skid loader.
Two bolts of green plasma appeared out of nowhere and I felt one bolt scraping my shoulder guard. 

‘’Fucking bastards have active camo!’’ Private Elvis Masterson shouted over the noise of his assault rifle.
I saw thin green streaks dance through the air, either the sensors Jackal commandoes often had secured to their heads or the glow emitted by their plasma pistols and carbines.

I stuck my assault rifle around the corner and fired it, firing blind into the far side of the hangar.

Apparently I hit something as one Jackal appeared from thin air.
‘’I see one!’’ Daniels said and he killed the Jackal with a burst from his battle rifle.
‘’Cover me!’’ Zetan Sherman said as he got back behind cover to reload his weapon.

I did as he bid and fired a barrage of suppressive fire to keep him out of harm’s way.
The Jackals returned fire however and Daniels pulled me back behind cover, probably saving my life in doing so.

‘’Watch yourself, kid!’’ Daniels said, angry and almost offending.
The Jackals were retreating, this was evident by the decreasing amount of fire released even though we hardly killed anything. Maybe we caught them in the middle of their act. They didn’t seem to be prepared for a firefight, otherwise there would have been more of them.
Then again, how many were there?

I couldn’t see them. The ODSTs could follow movement on their motion trackers but little more than that.

Before long there was nothing firing at us anymore and I could see a hole in the back of the hangar, a perfect exit for the little creeps.
Zetan slowly checked the few Jackal corpses to make sure they were really dead, the ODST snapping necks and dragging the dead to the centre of the room.

‘’Five kills.’’ Masterson said, observing the pile Zetan had made.
I picked up a plasma pistol, tossing it towards the dead Jackals.
‘’Watch it.’’ Zetan said facing me, sounding angry but I couldn’t see his face due to his helmet.

I raised my hand as an apology and turned towards the hole in the wall, kneeling beside Hector.

‘’Like fucking rats.’’ Hecor said as he stroked the scratch marks with a finger.
‘’We’d best check the other hangars, there might be more.’’ Zetan suggested.

‘’No need, base is already mobilizing.’’ Paulsen said as he and Dimitri entered the hangar.
‘’Camouflaged?’’ He asked Daniels.

‘’Yeah, and packing little more than pistols and a single carbine, this was a stealth mission gone wrong.

‘’At least we now know the saboteurs.’’ Dimitri said as he rubbed his foot over the scorch marks of the plasma explosion.


----------



## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

*Chapter 3: Air Force Mechanic
Episode 7: The next day*

There was a knock on the door of the workshop and Zetan Sherman entered before I even noticed it was him.

‘’Morning.’’ I said, choosing to leave the ‘good’ away after what we had been through last night.

‘’Morning.’’ Sherman said in return.
‘’Sleep well?’’ I asked, trying to get a conversation going.
‘’All three hours of it, yes.’’ Zetan joked.

I looked at his prosthetic leg and pointed at it with the screw driver I held in my hand.

‘’Full service?’’ I asked, meant more as a joke than an actual question.
‘’If you’ve got the time.’’ Zetan replied as he twisted the leg a little, looking at it himself.

I cleaned the workbench and told him to sit on it as I reached for a stool to sit on.
I got a rag and some cleaning oil and turned the compressor on.

‘’Care to share what happened?’’ I asked. 
I didn’t really want to know how the man had lost his leg, but something had me curious.

‘’Not really, if you don’t mind.’’ Zetan asked, removing some of his armour so I could better reach the knee joint.

The prosthetic was modeled to slightly resemble a human leg in shape, but function came before beauty and it was evident.

‘’Not at all.’’ I said, blasting a little air through the nozzle of the compressor to check if it had built up sufficient pressure.
‘’Is it linked to your nervous system?’’ I asked him, not wanting to hurt him.
‘’I can’t feel pain through it, no.’’ Zetan told me.

I nodded and used the rubber tube that was the nozzle of the compressor to blow any sand and dirt from the joints.

Over time quite a bit of sand had been removed and a thin layer of the Hell Dust now covered the workbench and the floor in front of it.

‘’That should do it.’’ I said as I shut down the compressor, satisfied with the fact no more sand or dust came from the mechanical leg.
‘’I’ll just give it a quick rub.’’ I told Zetan.

He gave me a nod and watched me put some oil on the rag I got earlier.
I took a tip of the rag and went over every surface I could reach, switching the piece of rag I used often to make sure I oiled everything and didn’t rub a dry rag over the metal.

‘’That should keep you going.’’ I said, satisfied. ‘’I’d keep it covered though, the Hell Dust destroys every piece of machinery it can reach.’’

‘’Is that why you call it Hell Dust?’’ A voice said from behind me.
‘’Sergeant.’’ I said as I saw it was Sergeant Paulsen. ‘’We call it Hell Dust because it makes our lives a living hell.’’ I said, turning to face him.

‘’What would you know about hell?’’ He asked me. ‘’I hope you don’t mind me saying this, corporal, but hell is experienced from the frontline and in death, not from an airbase.’’

I felt offended by his statement, he suggested that soldiers at the frontline had rougher times than we. They did, in a way, but most of them wouldn’t be able to do the job I did.

‘’Hell is more fierce at the front line maybe.’’ I said, trying to keep my composure.
‘’What would you know of that?’’ Paulsen asked me, taking a step towards me.
‘’I’ve lost close friends on the front line, Sergeant Paulsen.’’ I said, meeting his challenge by taking a step towards him. 

‘’I’ve been there and I’ve bled there.’’ I told him, looking down on him. ‘’I was one of few survivors on Foundation, and I will not have an ODST speak to me like that.’’ I said.

‘’I’m sorry, I didn’t know-‘’
‘’No, you didn’t.’’ I interrupted before I walked passed him towards the air control tower, seeing if they had made up today’s schedule yet so I could get to work.

Halfway along the runway I noticed a Longsword leaving its hangar and checking its flaps before positioning itself on the runway.

The craft was doing the last of its pre-flight checks and I slowed my pace to admire it, it was a large and powerful craft, beautiful in its own way.
The engines flared and the craft started to roll down the runway, its speed increasing with every meter it crossed.

Before long the wheels left the ground and the craft took off, the black arrow departed and soon disappeared into the distance.
I felt my head getting hot from the sun and reached for my hip, where my cap was secured, or was it?

I looked down after my hand failed to find it and noticed it wasn’t there.
I looked around the ground to see if it had fallen down but there was no trace of the thing.

‘’Dammit.’’ I mumbled to the air and I headed back to the workshop to see if I had left it there.

Just before my hand opened the door I heard Zetan ask a question inside.
‘’How long will we remain in this hellhole, sir?’’ 

‘’Not much longer, Zetan.’’ I just received word Command wants us to deploy to the major population centers and help maintain control over the evacuation sites.’’ Sergeant Paulsen replied.

‘’What about Apollo Base?’’ Zetan asked. ‘’Weren’t we supposed to make sure this base remained intact so they could guard Apollo Base?’’

Apollo Base? No base with such a name was anywhere on this world.

‘’We were,’’ Paulsen said. ‘’but that was before the UNSC gave the order to evacuate the entirety of the civilian population. Besides, no-one on this base knows Apollo exists, not even base command.’’

‘’It’s only thirty clicks south west from here, sir.’’ Zetan spoke up as he secured the last of his plates and thus re-armoured his leg. ‘’Surely someone has been there.’’

‘’That’s why the base is hidden, Zetan, it’s buried beneath the sand.’’
‘’You’re messing with me, right?’’ Zetan asked his sergeant in disbelief.
Sergeant Paulsen didn’t reply and I could hear him approach the door from the other side.

On instinct I jumped to the left, hurriedly making my way to the open garage doors of the motor pool.
I stepped inside, and made sure the ODSTs wouldn’t see me on their walk to the mess.

When I was sure they were gone I quickly went into the workshop, grabbed my cap and made my way to the control tower again, Sergeant Paulsen’s words ringing through my head.

Apollo Base? I had never heard of it, but according to the sergeant it was supposed to be that way. But why build a base to keep it hidden, hidden in the dessert beneath the sand.

And was it really only thirty kilometers from here?

I shook the thoughts from my head, securing my cap and cursing the heat as I felt a drip of sweat run down my face.


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## Myen'Tal (Sep 4, 2009)

On page 3, right after John wakes up from Cryo, and I am liking what I've read so far:so_happy:! You seem to know a great deal more about the military than I do, so can't really suggest much there. 

Going with a first person view is harder than it looks, don't have too much experience writing in that format, but it seems to chive well with me so :grin:...

Keep it up!


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## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

lovin it, i'm just curious as to how much you've already got planned out as from what i can tell it might as well be a novel.


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

son of azurman said:


> lovin it, i'm just curious as to how much you've already got planned out as from what i can tell it might as well be a novel.


The word file is at 35k words right now, that includes a small summary of the story which loosely describes the remainder of the story, but not the events. It doesn't contain the episode titles however...
Plus I'm only just beginning on Chapter 4 with writing, though some sections of Chapters 5, 6 and 8 have already been written.

I warned you before, it was going to be a novel


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## DeathJester921 (Feb 15, 2009)

Good stuff man. Keep em coming


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

DeathJester921 said:


> Good stuff man. Keep em coming


Thank you and I will.
Regular posting will begin again later today, I promise.


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

*Chapter 3: Air Force Mechanic
Episode 8: Sirens*

I woke up to the sound of sirens and a few men shouting outside of the barracks.

I nearly tore my bed sheets apart when I tried t get out of my bunk and reached for my boots on the floor, grabbing some extra clothes to deal with the cold outside, it was still dark which meant it was bound to be below zero.

I had no trouble waking up when there was need to, and by the sound of it there was need to right now.
I checked to see if Hector was awake and was pleased to see he too was putting on extra clothing in order to leave the barracks.

I was satisfied with the amount of clothing I was wearing and I secured my battledress, piece by piece, going as fast as I could without making mistakes.
The sirens kept wailing and I thought I heard gunfire, making my movements even faster.

‘’Get our weapons!’’ I told Hector and he did so without speaking, likely because one of his shirts was only pulled half over his head.

I got my helmet from a shelf and secured it on my head, tightening the chin strap as Hector entered our room again, carrying an assault rifle in one hand and a Designated Marksman Rifle in the other.

‘’Only one MA3 remaining.’’ He said. ‘’Others got there first.’’ He explained as he tore the shirt which covered his mouth.
‘’I’ll take the M392, you take the assault rifle.’’ I told Hector as I handed him his helmet. In return he handed me several pouches with ammunition for the DMR.

‘’Thanks.’’ He said panting as he slammed his helmet unto his head.
‘’Let’s go.’’ I said as we left our room and made our way to the control tower, as we were instructed to do in the event of an attack.

When we got outside I noticed most of the lights were out, had the Jackals killed the generators again?

‘’Corporal!’’ Someone yelled from a nearby barrack.
I didn’t recognize the man but I could tell he was a member of the ground crew by his uniform.
I signaled Hector to follow me and we made our way to the barracks, the sound of gunfire turning my head occasionally.

‘’What’s happening, private?’’ I asked, slightly lowering myself just be sure I wasn’t hit by weapons discharge.
‘’Recruit, sir.’’ The man said as he showed his shoulder insignia.
‘’I don’t give a damn, just tell me what you know.’’ I said, annoyed by the man’s terrible sense for timing.

‘’A sergeant came out of your barracks, he rounded up all the men carrying weapons before heading to the runway.’’ The man explained as the flash of an explosion in low orbit told me something was going terribly wrong.

‘’Get a weapon, recruit.’’ I told him as my eyes scanned the starry sky for more explosions. ‘’You’re coming with us.’’
‘’John, is that really the wisest thing to do?’’ Hector asked as he put a hand on my chest.

‘’We need all the help we can get, Hector.’’ I told him. 
I turned my attention to the recruit again.
‘’How many of you are there?’’ I asked him. 

‘’Four, not counting me, sir.’’ He said, his voice now trembling. 
‘’Do you have any weapons in there?’’ I asked him, laying my hand on his shoulder and trying to make eye contact.

‘’No, we’re not allowed to have any.’’ He replied. ‘’Wait, we might have a magnum and some knives.’’
‘’That won’t do it, John.’’ Hector said as he raised his weapon, scanning my left flank for any movement.

_‘’Ha kookuhn Habada!’’_ A heavy voice said from behind the barracks.
I pushed the recruit inside and dropped to a knee beside Hector, who had turned off the flashlight in his assault rifle.

‘’Elite, pack leader by the sound of it.’’ I whispered to Hector.
‘’You speak Elite now?’’ Hector hissed at me.

‘’No, but I recognize a command when I hear one.’’ I replied, peeking around the corner. There was nothing there.
‘’And It’s called Sangheili.’’ I added to my previous comment.

Hector looked at me in a discomforting way and shook his head.
‘’Waszuya whra ingohr.’’ The voice said and I could hear a Grunt scuffle as the Elite spoke the words.

Hector and I met gazes and we could communicate without words.
As a two-headed beast we turned around the corner and fired our weapons at the group of Covies.

With a few well placed shots from my DMR I took out two Jackals and a few Grunts while Hector fired away at the Elite leading the small group, rapidly depleting the Elite’s energy shield.

‘’Now!’’ Hector shouted at me as the Elite staggered, the collapse of its shields stunning it and keeping it where it stood.

I aligned the DMR with the Elite’s head and I squeezed the trigger.

Although the MA3 assault rifle and the M392 Designated Marksman Rifle fired the same rounds, 7.62x51mm rounds to be precise, the rounds left the barrel of a DMR at a much higher velocity than that of the assault rifle, making it a truly devastating projectile.

The shot pierced the Elite’s cranium, shattering its skull to a few dozen pieces as it collapsed under the extreme force of the round wreaking havoc with the brains, scrambling them and leaving very little intact before it left the Elite’s head from the back, effectively killing it. 

‘’Headshot, motherfucker.’’ I said as the creature fell to the ground, beside the other Covenant corpses. 
‘’Five kills, John.’’ Hector said as he quickly reloaded the assault rifle. ‘’You’re on a real spree.’’

‘’Yeah,’’ I said absently as I observed the alien corpses. 
‘’Hector, gather those cadets.’’ I instructed. ‘’I’ll run a quick round, assess the situation.’’
Hector nodded.

‘’Kick Rourke in the face if you find him.’’ He said. ‘’Fucking glory-hound left us behind quicker than I thought possible.’’

I smirked, though I didn't find the comment amusing, not even a little.


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

*Chapter 3: Air Force Mechanic
Episode 9: Rise and Fall*

The sun was about to appear at the horizon when I completed my scouting and returned to the barracks.

The situation was dire, and not just around the barracks. The air control tower had collapsed and at least two of the eight surface hangars had been destroyed, probably along with the aircraft inside them.
I saw several squads of Covenant infantry running around or gathering around buildings.

At the far side of the base the fighting was heaviest, lots of gunfire which sounded like it came from human weapons.

‘’What’s our status, Hector?’’ I asked as I shut the door leading to the barracks behind me.

‘’Five recruits, minimal combat experience and minimal weaponry.’’ Hector told me as we observed the group of men who were more akin to a militia than a group of soldiers.

‘’I grabbed the weapons our latest victims left behind and handed them out.’’ Hector said as he pointed out the plasma rifle in the hands of one of the recruits.
‘’Ok.’’ I said as I weighed our odds if we were to get caught up in a firefight. 
They weren’t great…

‘’We follow protocol, head for the control tower and try to regroup with other base personnel.’’ I stated, checking the ammo count of my DMR.
A few seconds later we were already outside, slowly progressing in our walk to the control tower.

We gunned down Grunts by the dozens but encountered little more than that, hopefully that wouldn’t mean we would encounter a group of Elite’s further along our route.

‘’Corporal, look!’’ One of the recruits, Stefan Kalkbrenger, hissed as the orange glow of the sun touched one of the guard towers a few hundred meters south from our position.

The light was reflected, in a rhytmic pattern.

‘’Someone’s signaling us.’’ Hector said, dropping to a knee as he surveyed the area for hostiles.
I looked through the scope of my DMR and got a better sight of the tower and its occupants.

‘’It’s your Hungarian friend.’’ I told Hector once I saw it was Specialist Dimitri Zaragova.

Hector mumbled something, I couldn’t quite make it out.
‘’Sir?’’ One of the recruits asked me. 

‘’Helljumpers, lad.’’ I told him as I kept peering through my scope. 
I waved and signaled him we were coming his way, he waved back and signaled me he would provide covering fire when needed.
God bless non-verbal communication…

‘’We go to him, he has a better vantage point than we have.’’ I told the rest as I assembled them around me.

They all acknowledged my order and for the first time I realized I was commanding a squad, a grab-ass, garbage squad, but a squad none the less.
‘’Cover the ground quickly, check your flank and keep your head down, we run from cover to cover in two groups, one group covers the other, understood?’’ I said, as I got up from my squatted position and tapped three of the recruits on their shoulder.

‘’You three with me.’’ I told them. ‘’Hector, you take group two once I tell you to, ok?’’
Hector gave me a curt nod and rubbed his nose with his thumb.
‘’Let’s go.’’ I told the three recruits I had selected earlier.

‘’Got you covered.’’ Hector said.
Without a second’s doubt we crossed the open ground towards a shed which I had never noticed to be there before.
I was constantly checking my flanks, yet I ran as fast as I could, being the first to cross the ground.

I dropped once I had reached the shed and a second later the others joined me, looking around to see if group two could move.
‘’All clear on this end, sir.’’ Stefan said and I waved Hector over.
Hector tapped the recruits on their backs and in unison they moved to our location.

‘’One third of the way crossed, gents.’’ I said as I checked with Stefan if everything was still clear.
He gave me a nod and we got up to our feet, ready to get going again.

‘’Got your back, John.’’ Hector said and on cue I took three of the recruits with me again, now heading for the rear of a wrecked Elephant awaiting scrapping, taking a slight detour to be able to take cover.

Out of nowhere a bolt of blue plasma struck the ground between my feet and I yelled out to the others.
‘’Taking fire! Keep your heads down!’’

Hector and his group opened fire but I doubted they were able to see the enemy at all.

Dimitri fired his sniper and yelled something at us, though the message was lost in the ensuing chaos.
Four Drones came flying for me and Stefan, attempting to gun us down from above with their needlers.

After hearing a sniper shot, one of the insects dropped to the dusty ground, absolutely destroyed by the sniper round that ripped through its torso.
Still sprinting I raised my DMR, aligning it with one of the other bugs, firing three rounds before I hit it.

The third round clipped one of its wings, sending it spiraling to the ground as it failed to maintain its altitude, its silhouette on the orange morning sky actually quite beautiful.

One of its kin came to its aid however, and just before the wounded insect would stain the ground with its mangled corpse the second Drone grabbed one of the many limbs and managed to set its comrade on the ground, hurt, but still alive.
Stefan fired his plasma rifle at the two insects but wasn’t able to hit them while still running for cover.
We reached the cover without being hit though and this allowed Hector to drop back to cover himself and reload.
We fired at the drones and managed to kill them eventually, the agile insects managing to evade our fire with their quick and sudden movements.
A third sniper shot revealed a cloaked Elite, which was quickly disposed of by a fourth sniper shot from the ODST.
The enemy weapon fire laid down and we deemed ourselves safe, but a fresh batch of Covies was no doubt inbound, signaled of our presence by the noise of our weapons.

‘’Hector! NOW!’’ I shouted before any new hostiles could show up. ‘’You’d better haul some serious ass!’’

Hector got up to move but before he could even make his third step a thin streak of light pieced his head, sending him to the ground.
‘’NO!’’ I shouted, horrified by the scene before me.

A sniper shot from Dimitri trailed the air and I saw a Jackal fall down from one of the hangars, nearly 600 meters west of our position.

I returned my gaze to Hector, who lay unmoving on the dusty tarmac, a pool of blood forming around his head as the recruits tried to drag him with them to cover.

They lay him beside me and I could see his lifeless eyes staring at me.

‘’Oh, Hector.’’ I whispered, trying not to weep right then and there. 
I felt a knot in my throat and my stomach was about to turn on itself.
I closed his eyes and whispered a quick prayer, apologizing to him and thanking him.

In retrospect I could say I was in shock, the full weight of what had happened not yet felt by me, perhaps even ignored after what I had witnessed on Foundation.

‘’Take his equipment, we run for the guard tower in thirty seconds!’’ I shouted at the recruits as they took ammo and armour from Hector.
Stefan pulled the dogtags loose and offered them to me, hanging them from his fist.

I nodded at him, thanking him as I took the tags from him and put them in one of the pouches on my chest, right next to my recorder.

‘’Time’s up.’’ I said. ‘’Move to the tower, head up the stairs and take up position beside the ODST!’’ I ordered the recruits.
We crossed the final hundred meters in a few seconds and quickly stormed up the stairs and joined Dimitri in the tower.

‘’Hector?’’ He asked.
‘’No.’’ I said, shaking my head.
Dimitri said something in Hungarian, it sounded like a curse.

‘’Listen, the base is being evacuated, we are to secure the birds and then head for the nearest population centre to assist in the evacuation.’’
‘’Where’s the rest of your team?’’ I asked Dimitri. 

‘’Daniels, Paulsen and Elvis are trying to secure the hangars, Zetan and I were sent here to give overwatch for this part of the base but we got separated pretty early on.’’ Dimitri told me as he slammed a new magazine into the sniper rifle. ‘’He can’t be far though, he probably heard the sniper and is likely to be heading this way.’’

I considered it all.

‘’What do you need us to do?’’ I asked him eventually. 
‘’You know you outrank me, right?’’ He asked me. 

Great…


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

Chapter 3: Sir Force Mechanic
Episode 10: Mobilizing

‘’I suggest we find Private Sherman and then make our way to the hangars, round up all the survivors and then get the hell out of here.’’ I told Dimitri.

He nodded and checked the magazine of his Magnum before putting it away and reaching for his sniper once more.

‘’Then let’s move.’’ He said. ‘’I’m Specialist Dimitri Zaragova, by the way.’’ He said, now turning his attention to the recruits.

‘’Stefan Kalkbrenger.’’
‘’Paul DeMarco.’’ 
‘’Gabriel Lopez.’’
‘’Harry Porter.’’
‘’Lorenzo Schuner.‘‘

‘’All of them recruits, left behind by their instructor.’’ I told Dimitri. ‘’Just like Rourke left Hector and me behind.’’
Dimitri’s face turned sour, truly appalled by the news that a sergeant had left behind his men.

I rose to my feet and scanned the surrounding area through the scope of my DMR.

‘’All clear.’’ I said, and the rest of the men rose from their seated positions as well.

‘’I’ll take point, Dimitri takes rear.’’ I said and I could see the ODST nodding at me.
We carefully made our way down the concrete stairs which circled the outside of the tower and we made sure we wouldn’t run into any surprises by taking it nice and slow.

‘’This is where I last saw Zetan.’’ Dimitri said, ‘’Right before a pair of Hunters drove us apart.’’
It was a dark corner of the base, the lights in this section were out and the tall central structure of the base was casting a shadow over us.

‘’What’s that building over there?’’ Harry, one of the recruits asked me, pointing out the motor pool.

‘’That would be the motor pool,’’ I told him. ‘’Warthogs are kept there for maintenance, along with Mongooses, Elephants and Wolverines.’’
‘’And Scorpions?’’ Dimitri asked me, peering at the open garage doors of the motor pool.

‘’Usually not, but we might give it a shot.’’ I told him, a faint smile crossing my face as I dared to dream of some serious firepower under my command.
We made our way to the motor pool, still at the slow and easy pace we had maintained thus far, ever careful.

We managed to reach the motor pool without being spotted, something that you could call a success, if not a miracle.

Inside we could see the bodies of humans and aliens, piled atop one another or left to bleed out in the corners of the garage.

‘’Jackpot.’’ Dimitri said, removing the sail that lay over a Scorpion tank only a few lots down the first row of parking lots.
A heavy clank echoed through the garage, making our little group train their weapons and scan for movement.

‘’What was that?’’ Stefan asked me, slightly panicked.
I didn’t know, though it was heavy. Most likely it had been a Hunter, or a large Elite which had set its foot down on a metal plate.

Or perhaps it was one of the smaller races which had dropped or toppled something heavy…
I didn’t know.

‘’Paul, Stefan, with me.’’ I whispered, as I pointed out the direction we were heading, past a Warthog without wheels.
I scanned every corner, every surface, trying to locate the origin of the clank.

Slightly further down the next aisle was a single light bulb which burned, casting an eerie light over most of the motor pool.

Again there sounded a clank, louder and more distinguishable now.
I heard a crack, like breaking wood, or bone.

I instructed Paul and Stefan to move around the parked Wolverine and approach what seemed to be the source of the clanking noise.

‘’3, 2, 1-‘’ I counted down, whispering at a barely noticeable volume. ‘’Go.’’

The three of us rolled out of cover, our weapons trained for a dark figure which stood between us and the single light bulb, making it hard of us to recognize what we were looking at.

A new set of lights activated after a few seconds and I could see Private Zetan Sherman pulling his metal leg out of the skull of a Brute, the creature lay dead on the floor, mangled, mutilated and with a metal foot inside of its crushed skull.

‘’Corporal.’’ Zetan said plainly, shaking his leg to get the gore off. 
‘’Zetan,’’ I said relieved. ‘’We were looking for you.’’ I told him and I waved him to follow me back to the others.

Paul and Stefan examined the Brute corpse, disgusted by the exposed brains and the scene around it.
I heard one of them gag as Zetan and I walked away, but I didn’t look back at them to see who it was.

‘’Zetan, it is good to see you again, friend.’’ Dimitri said as he halted in his attempt to get one of the Scorpion battle tanks started.

‘’Likewise.’’ Zetan said as he nodded to Dimitri. ‘’Killed anything?’’ He asked.
‘’Nothing big, a few Elites, Drones and Jackals.’’ Dimitri said as he tried to hotwire the tank. ‘’You?’’

‘’Apes, Elite Officer, including entourage.’’ Zetan replied, observing the rest of the parked vehicles.
I walked to the booth next to the garage doors, kicked the lock off of one of the drawers and got a rack of keys out.

I slid my fingers past the dozens of keys, every time I encountered one that belonged to a Scorpion I slid my finger through the key ring and moved on to the next.
Once I had gone through the entire rack I tossed it aside and made back to the Scorpion.

Dimitri had started swearing, in Hungarian, frustrated he couldn’t get the tank to work.
I offered him the seven sets of keys I found and he looked up at me, his helmet not allowing me to read his face.

‘’Right.’’ He said eventually, taking the keys from me and inserting the first in the slot between the consoles in front of him.

The consoles came to life and the lights of the Scorpion flashed to life as the engine growled, awaking the tank from its slumber.

I could tell Dimitri was laughing as he increased the torque and made the engine growl some more.

‘’Ok, Zetan, you take gunner seat.’’ Dimitri said as he closed the hatch.
Zetan obliged, climbing onto the tank and taking a seat in the copula in front of the cockpit. 

He checked the ammo belt and seemed satisfied with the amount of ammunition he was granted.
I moved to a Scorpion parked three slots down and climbed on top of it.
I opened the hatch to the cockpit and got in the single seat, the driver’s seat.

I inserted one of the activation keys. Nothing happened.
The key was automatically spit out by the Scorpion and I inserted a second key.

Again the Scorpion refused the key it was discarded into my hand.
‘’Third time’s lucky.’’ I said as I inserted the third key. 
The screens and the consoles lit up, granting me access to the controls.

I noticed Stefan getting into the turret as the hatch sealed shut.
It had been a while since I had last driven a Scorpion. I was hoping it would be something like riding a bike…

I remembered the controls and the firing system, but not everything came back to me as I let my eyes slide over the many switches, screens and buttons.

I observed as one Scorpion tank rolled past us towards the open garage doors.

I followed it, not driving as smoothly as Dimitri but I managed not to hit anything.

I rolled out through the garage doors, right after Dimitri. We rode out into the open and towards the control tower…


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## Sangus Bane (Jun 17, 2009)

*Chapter 3: Air Force Mechanic
Episode 11: God mode*



> *Black box recording, Scorpion M808 MBT: #457-1D*
> 
> _‘’Dimitri, do you copy me?’’_ - Local entity, driver.
> 
> ...


‘’Get those Jackals, if they keep EMP-ing us we are screwed!’’ I yelled at Stefan as the controls of the tank stopped responding.

‘’There’s too many of them!’’ Stefan yelled back at me as he sprayed a group of Grunts and Jackals to their demise.

The tank controls came back online and I rotated the main cannon towards an advancing Elite.

I fired the HE round and the Elite was blown to bits, shattering the little courage the Grunts had left and making them run around and waving their short arms in the air as they fled in terror.

Dimitri rolled over the little creatures, shattering their bodies as the tracks crushed them underneath the tank, ending their misery.

_We were like gods…_

We killed, no, we obliterated hundreds of hostiles as we slowly made our way to the control tower.
Dimitri rode in front of me, mostly firing to the front, whereas I did my best to keep our flanks clear of threats.

‘’Watch it, two Phantoms approaching from the West.’’ Zetan said calmly as he tore apart a Ghost with his machine gun turret.
‘’I see it.’’ I replied, watching the monitor and preparing to fire a HE round at it.

I fired when the cannon was ready, destroying the side of one of the Phantoms, forcing it to the ground where two Brutes carrying heavy weapons exited the crash-landed dropship. 

‘’Brute with a Fuel Rod Cannon to our-‘’ Stefan said before he exploded in an eruption of green light.

‘’Fuck!’’ I exclaimed. ‘’My gunner is down, my gunner is down.’’ 
Two more bolts of green impacted with the tank’s treads, tearing them apart in a green explosion, the iconic bang of fuel rod explosions washing away the noises of alarms and notifications. 

I tried rotating the tank to protect the treads but it was already too late.
I managed to fire the cannon one more time, killing the Brutes but they managed to fire two more shots, one hit the cannon copula, the other hit between the treads on my portside, shredding the treads and splintering the gears with their intense blast.

I felt the tank pull to the side as I tried moving it forwards and backwards, kicking up more sand than helping myself.

I was immobilized…

I saw a new group of Jackals run for the group of recruits behind my tank and tried firing the cannon. It didn’t do anything and a quick glance at the warning lights showed me that the reloading systems had been disabled and the firing system was jammed.

‘’Shit.’’ I said as I unbuckled myself.
More sirens and alarms sounded, one of them telling me there was an engine fire.

‘’My treads are toast and my weapons are not responding, I’m bailing!’’ I shouted over the radio, not certain if it was functioning and anyone could hear me.

As I opened the hatch a Jackal climbed on top of the tank, a plasma knife in its hands. It shrieked and jumped for me.
I closed the hatch again, trapping the creature’s arm and keeping the knife only centimeters from my face.

The Jackal shrieked in anger and pain as I fought to keep the hatch sealed.
With a single bang the creature dropped to the glass canopy, the plasma knife deactivating as it fell from the Jackal’s hands.

I opened the hatch again and saw Harry Porter lowering the DMR I had handed to him.

‘’Thanks.’’ I told him, breathing heavily as the adrenaline from my previous engagement slowly ebbed away.
He swallowed hard and gave me a nod before throwing me the DMR and picking up a Needler from the blood soaked ground.

‘’Lancaster!’’ A radio signal blurred. ‘’Corporal, get behind our tank, we can shield you from incoming fire until we reach the tower.’’
‘’Copy that, Dimitri.’’ I replied. ‘’Falling in line now.’’ 

I signalled the remaining recruits to stay close and I took Stefan’s dogtags from his mutilated corpse, stowing them away next to Hector’s.
I ran for the tank, not wanting to be caught in the open when the next Covies showed up.

The second Phantom from earlier fired at the remaining Scorpion, buckling the tread plating under the weight of its fire.
The Phantom dropped its payload: Jackals, Skirmishers and Elites, as well as a Wraith before it got out of harm’s way.

I dived to get behind Dimitri’s tank in time to dodge a hail of blue plasma unleashed by one of the Elite’s.
Harry Porter and Paul DeMarco managed to get to safety as well, Lorenzo Schuner and Gabriel Lopez were less fortunate...

Lorenzo was killed when three bolts impacted on his chest, the plasma burning through his overall and into his chest.

Gabriel was hit in the neck by a needle, making him clutch the wound with both hands as he desperately tried to stop the bleeding. His eyes pleaded for mercy as he fell to his knees and died as the needle in his neck exploded with a sound of shattering glass, sending shrapnel into his skull.

Harry tried to get to the corpses but I pulled him back behind the tank.
‘’We have to leave them, we can’t risk exposing ourselves now!’’ I shouted.
Dimitri fired the cannon, making me cover my ears as the firing mechanism was only a meter from my head.

The backside of the copula slid backwards and forwards again, loading the cannon with another shell.

I leaned from behind the tank, firing at one of the Elite’s. The alien’s energy shields flared as the rounds were blocked.

‘’We’re moving up, stay close.’’ Dimitri said, slowly raising the Scorpion’s speed.

Zetan fired a hail of rounds for the remaining Covies, killing more of the bastards every second. 

We walked after the tank, Harry to my left, Paul to my right. We fired at the aliens around us, occasionally killing one of the Covies, though the tank did most of the work.

I ducked occasionally to dodge incoming fire, still keeping up the pace, still behind the tank. 

‘’Tower in thirty meters, Lancaster, make for the entrance!’’ Dimitri said.
Everything seemed to go slow from there on, it was as if the world moved in slow motion.

I tapped Paul DeMarco on his shoulder, indicating I was going to pass him.
What felt like ten seconds later I was barely clear of the tank, though not even half a second had passed.

I ran for a wrecked Warthog, sand and scrap metal around me flying up as the force of a plasma explosion threw them around.
I stretched my left arm, aiming it for the Covies standing twenty meters down the sights of my Magnum.

_My Magnum? When did I take it from its holster?_

It didn’t matter. I had it aimed for a Jackal officer, the perfect target.
Still sprinting I fired four rounds, the recoil of the heavy pistol not influencing my aim at all.

I dropped to a knee, sliding into cover behind the Warthog as I saw the Jackal officer and two Grunts drop dead, clean kills.

I continued to slide over the dusty ground, turning my momentum to my advantage as I tackled a Grunt that appeared from behind a pile of sandbags. 
I crushed its face as I planted my fist there, sending it flying. I fired a shot with my Magnum, piercing its skull and ending the miserable creature’s life.

I used my remaining momentum to get back up and continue my sprint.
Just a few more meters to the entrance of the tower and I would know if anyone was still alive.

I jumped over a dead sergeant, secretly hoping it was Rourke. 
I vaulted over more sandbags. Time was picking up its pace again, I was losing my focus at the thought of Rourke’s betrayal.

I raised my Magnum one more time, emptying the clip at the Covies that were so distracted by the tank decimating their forces.

I set one last step, entering the tower and looking into the barrels of weapons carried by three black armoured warriors, the remaining ODSTs.


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## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

More i tell you more!!!! Inalseriousness though please keep posting this.


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