Band of Brothers by Jetboogieman
|
Band of Brother: Bootcamp
Date: 3 June 2004, 9:03 PM
Band of Brothers: Bootcamp
This is the story of the 31st African Contingent.
The whole squad was woken up at 4:15 as usual by the Lieutenant Wilks and we all had to go to the usual morning inspection half an hour later. It would usually happen something like this. Wilks would walk out, he was a tall skinny man with little hair on his head but his eyes were flaming with war. Wilks walked out and we were all in out uniforms with barely any sleep in out eyes. One time he walked up to Yizwe and looked at his rusty rifle. He shouted in his ear "How the hell do you expect to kill the enemy with that piece of crap in your hand" Then he made us all run around the whole camp, which was about 2 miles long. We all didn't despise him because he was always fair but he did have random ways of punishing us. 1 day it would be running around the camp, the next day it might be moving all the warthogs from one place to another by hand. Some of us just couldn't take it. 10 out of our 50 men dropped out by the end. After the morning inspection and usual punishment it would come to breakfast. Now this was a touchy subject, no one would ever want to talk about it, it was so bad. Rations were short at this time so we had to make do with stale bread a banana (at least it was fresh) and water. And on the odd occasion we would be allowed coffee. Next would be army manoeuvres, we would do some shooting and then do some formation ambushes and patrols along the forest. The camp was based near Abuja in Nigeria in the middle of a forest. Sometime for special training we would be airlifted to the Sahara for desert training.
Months went bye and things improved. Food got better and it was bacon, coffee or tea. But because of this training got harder and we began to really get tested to our utmost limits. Although at the time none of us realised what we were preparing for, it would help us more then anything in the coming battles we would have to endure. As for the social sides of things, we had quite a bit of free time. Many of us would go and talk to the pelican pilots or fighter pilots because most of them had seen active service against covenant. One pilot which became known as Ace was a fighter pilot and had flown 34 missions against covenant forced including alongside Captain Keyes at the outer colonies when his small security force held out and let the civilians escape. Wilks was never friendly with the other commanders or trainers, he was a very secretive man with few friends. The closest thing he had was his grunt in the company NCO Sargeant Bridges.
A few weeks later me and some friends from the company were in the barracks when we looked out the window and saw people running in frenzy. We walked outside and I stopped a youngster, whom was running, "What's goin on kid" He replied to me "Reach got hit". The guys and me ran too the local Viewer screen.
"My friends and comrades of Earth, today we have received news that Reach has been completely destroyed. UNSC forces put up as much resistance as they could bur failed to stop the covenant" At this moment the crowd of Marines were really restless and silent. A few seconds later Wilks came out and broke up the crowd and we were ordered back to the barracks. For the first time we realised just what the enemy could do and just what its plans were. Just days afterwards it was announced that every man in the army would now be put into active service as of immediately. Trained or untrained it didn't matter. The UNSC forces were now expecting an attack on Earth and we would be the frontline for Africa if it was struck. For a moment I felt proud to be an African who would defend my continent wherever it may need it. There was a stir up of the people that we would not be able to survive the covenant on Earth. But something in everyone's mind would keep telling themselves the same thing that we are the human race that will stand forever. Seems funny, why should we fight such a brutal foe when we did nothing to provoke their race or people. And they suddenly turn up on our doorstep with an armada. We were always wondering what people were doing in the civilian world as none of us had been back for 5 months. The next day we were issued with the orders to go to Mombassa where we would fight the covenant just a few weeks later.
Band of Brothers
Date: 13 June 2004, 7:30 PM
Band of Brothers: Mombassa
That morning we arrived in Mombassa. Our whole contingent consisted of 500 men, 20 pelicans and 5 bombers. My company consisted of 50 men we had no support from Pelicans as such. The whole place was crawling with soldiers; military intelligence suggested that Mombassa would be first hit by the covenant. My company and me stayed in a small building near the CP, which had fold out beds and 1 toilet. The town had no civilians except for the few that hadn't evacuated to the shelters yet, and some brought out there own guns and joined our marines. Some of our friends from the other companies called us over to the CP where a lot of men were crowding around. The president was making a speech to the whole Earth.
"What Fleet Admiral Sir Terrance Hood called the Battle of Reach is over; I expect that the Battle of Earth is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Human civilisation. Upon it depends our own Terran life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. The Covenant knows that they will have to break us on this Earth or lose the war. If we can stand up to them, the entire Galaxy may be free and the life of our species may move forward into broad, bright worlds. But if we fail, then the whole Galaxy, including the Inner Colonies, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of pervert science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that, if the Human Empire and its United Nations Space Command last for a thousand years, men will say, 'This was their Finest Hour"
Now this speech prepared my men for the worst. My men seemed as though they would fight till the bitter end. Which Wilks would always say was your only option because the Covenant took no prisoners. They would fight till the end and so must you. That day Wilks assembled the whole Contingent.
"Men the covenant are coming, they will land here in Mombassa and we'll will be the first line of defence against them. Most of you won't make it, but one thing I ask every single one of you. If you die you give em hell before you do"
This speech got cheers and war cries from everyone including me. Now we began making preparations for the invasion. Defences and roadblocks were being set up around the area. We received two more divisions that arrived that day. That night me and some of the soldiers from my company were sitting by a fire when we looked up and saw a bright flash. Suddenly a huge siren went off and we rushed to our defence stations. The battle for Earth was about to begin. The city was electric with fear and activity preparing for the invasion. All night we could see in the sky the battle being waged up there with the fleet of the UNSC forces. Then something happened, something that would break the morality we had. The covenant started to bomb the Earth from their ships. I looked over and I could see for a split second a missile coming down, and in a flash of light it destroyed the building killing instantly all the men inside. Then a few metres in front of me a few man that were trying to return back to base, a missile landed literally on them and they were vaporised while it caused great damage to the surrounding buildings. Now it became a lot more frequent and now a vehicle that was driving was flown into the side of a building. Then all a sudden it went silent. No more. We rushed out to see if there was any people that needed help. I rushed over to the warthog, I threw up when I saw this. The frame along the top came down into the drivers head and his brains had come out. We went back to our defence point and at day break the battle would begin.
Day came. And we knew that the covenant had landed. We were told that that covenant had landed east in the city and that we would intercept their advancement. My company and me would support an ambush. We arrived at where they thought they would come through in formation. The street was wide and had medium sized building on either side. We were told to move into those buildings and shoot out the window when they came past. Surely enough they did so. We got ready. My 5 Rock Launcher men got ready to take out the tanks. We could now see them coming through in straight line formation. And then we heard Wilks voice. "FIRE" and we opened all the windows and fired our hearts out. The street was suddenly shot to pieces. There were 5 men in the room with me the youngest of them being Yizwe who was always getting himself into trouble. He stood firm against the Covenant here and fired the crap outta them. We now had to move out because the covenant behind this one had regrouped to surround us. The 4 others and me got moving but nobody from out company was around. They had all gone. We were trying to piece it all together but we believed we were on our own. Moloko looked at me and he said "Man we are not going to be able to get back alone", and I looked him dead in the eye and I said "Private, We have to try" With that we set off to try and make our way back to the CP. As we were going along the street cautiously trying to make it back by foot. We saw 2 gigantic cannons firing at our forces. I looked at my 4 compatriots. "Men change of plan. We go and destroy that cannon" I did this because I knew Felompolo had explosives we would use. The cannon must have been about 2 miles away. And been airlifted in. We were in the street when an missile came flying at us. "HIT THE DECK" someone shouted and I fell to my back and a Covenant rocket Launcher bullet flew past my head and smashed into the debris behind me. My men scattered to set up a defence. The Covenant that came forward was to much. Yizwe got hit in the stomach. He shouted out to me. "Get outta here now" We left him sitting there firing his SMG's into the crowd of Covenant that were approaching then I heard his scream as he was killed. Now there were 4 of us. We found our way to a group of 10 other marines and we tried to get back to the CP. By now the situation was getting desperate and we had been pushed all the way back to the CP which was only just left. As we walked through the street we approached a groups of grunts which we surprised attacked and they were slaughtered like the animals they were. There screams and blood made us want to fight on. We felt good about slaughtering them. After that battle we finally reached the CP. We hooked up with the 300 left of our contingent and we got the orders we were retreating all the way to Zimbabwe where we would fight out next battle. That day our Pelicans picked us up and we were shipped off to Zimbabwe's Harare.
|
