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Death Dealers
Date: 6 October 2002, 6:16 pm
The year is 2556, four years after the fall of Reach. In the wave of the Covenant attacks, a brave few banded together to form a resistance to combat the Covenant scourge. They fought, some died, but the survivors learned from their mistakes. They taught the newcomers everything they knew, and so they began to win more and more battles. Throughout the remaining human colonies, this band of warriors became known as the Death Dealers. The green plasma blast blazed past Arkady, blackening the skin on his face. He screamed in agony and rage, emptying the clip of his assault rifle into the elite that had popped up in front of him. The bullets took down the elite's shields and blasted through its chest armor, wounding it mortally. I screamed in agony ad Arkady slammed his rifle downward with all his strength. He heard a scream over the din of the battle. He searched for the sound. Over behind a packing crate, he saw his friend Wolfegang scream in agony, his hands clutching his leg, which was charred and blackened. Arkady raced over, emptying another clip in the general direction of the enemy. He could make out sounds of suppressing fire coming from his other brothers in arms, struggling to hold back the advancing Covenant. Before he got there, a shadow blurred toward Wolfe, brandishing a plasma sword. Arkady shouted to Wolfe to warn him, but there was no time. He pulled out his pistol and emptied ten well placed shots into the cloaked elite's head. It fell, the plasma sword deactivating as it died. As Arkady approached, he saw the wound was not as severe as it appeared to be. Yes, there was white bone showing, but modern medicine would patch that up in a matter of hours. Arkady knelt by his comrade and withdrew some Second Skin. He unwrapped it and placed strips of it on the wound. The strips helped healed the burned skin, as well as quelled the agonizing pain. Arkady patted his buddy on the back, and returned to the battle.
He reloaded his rifle and drew up next to the only female in the group, Eve. She was lightning quick, and very deadly with a sniper rifle, which she now clutched with a death grip as she picked off commanders and hunters.
"What's the situation Eve?" Arkady asked. A lot could change on the battle field in just a few minutes.
"Patrick and Villanueva are farther up, behind that wall over there," she gestured over to a crumbled wall, the remains of a school. "and Mikhail and Hodges are up by those energy shields to the left."
"Wolfe is down back behind us with a charred leg. How many covenant left?" Arkady asked
"About thirty grunts, ten jackals, and fifteen assorted elites and hunters." She squeezed the trigger again. "Make that fourteen."
Arkady acknowledged and rushed up to a clump of fallen trees. Arkady swept his assault rifle around, searching for targets. A heavy machine gun barked fire to his left, and he almost jumped out of his skin. A line of tracers floated to an elite, and ripped him in half, blood spewing from its torn body. Arkady fired a three round burst and caught a grunt in the side, wounding it. It limped away, screaming, before the tracer's fingers of death reached out and slammed it to the ground. A hunter charged at the machine gun, lowering its shield to protect itself from the hail of fire directed at it. Arkady could see its orange side from his position and opened fire. The bullets found their mark and ripped through the alien, sending it crashing to the ground.
Mikhail and Hodges rushed up to another covenant cargo crate, Hodges peeked around the corner and hastily retracted his head as a fuel rod blast flashed past. Sweat running into his eyes, he cursed and wiped the sweat away from his singed eyebrows. He hoped to his feet and spun around the edge of the crate, emptying his rifle's clip into the two hunters lurking by a pile of weapons. Most of the clip bounced off the thick armor harmlessly, but a few got though and wreaked havoc on the internal organs of the huge beasts. Three hunters fell, bleeding from multiple wounds. One of the dying hunters got a shot off. It streaked across the ground and impacted on the crate behind Hodges. The green blast knocked him to the ground. He smashed his head brutally into the ground. His vision dimmed, and he slipped into unconsciousness.
Mikhail saw his squadmate go down and smash his head. He withdrew a grenade with green tape wrapped around the pin. He yanked the pin out and hurled it at the hunters. A misty fog hissed out of the grenade. Mikhail hit the dust and covered his head with his arms. Five seconds later, a huge explosion rocked the ground. The shockwave lifted Mikhail off of the ground and tossed him ten meters. The fuel-air explosive grenade had badly injured the remaining hunters, and completely wiped out the rest of the grunts.
Arkady hopped up from his position and walked over to the injured hunters. He finished them off with bursts from his assault rifle into their exposed flesh. The bullets churned vital organs to a pulp.
"Vampire One, this is Bandit Four. Do you copy?" arkady hissed into his mike.
"Roger Bandit Four. ETA is fifteen minutes." The radio crackled.
Arkady called his men to meet him in the clearing. He surveyed the destruction around him. Another covenant base destroyed. They were drawing closer to their goal.
UNSC forces had made several important victories against the covenant, but there were not enough planets left under human control to draw substantial resources from. Bands of warriors like the Death Dealers were causing havoc behind the covenant lines, trying to buy the UNSC time to reorganize and regroup.
A pelican dropship dropped out of the darkness and settled to a landing next to a stack of covenant crates. Arkady and his men watched as several men appeared out of the ship and began shoving the crates into the dropship. A second and then a third dropped from the sky to pick up the covenant weaponry.
Presently a different object appeared in the night sky. Their ride. It was a heavily armed T-98 heavy troop transport. It glided to a halt in front of Arkady. The ramp opened and Arkady and his team tromped up the ramp and buckled into their seats. The transport lifted off and jetted off into the darkness.
Death Dealers Chapter 1
Date: 22 October 2002, 1:51 am
The troop transport settled down to a halt on the tarmac. Arkady led his people out as Stark, their pilot, shut don the engines. They stepped onto an elevator and descended into the depths of their base.
They strolled into the conference room where their intelligence specialist, Murdoc, was waiting for them. Ever since their little band of warriors came to the UNSC's attention, they had been getting a lot in the way of funding, weapons, and intelligence. Murdoc was a top lever ONI agent once. He was here now with the Death Dealers, minus and arm, which he lost to plasma fire in action on Sigma Octanus IV.
"OK people, listen up!" once he got everyone's attention, "I would very much like to debrief you, but this one is hot and there is no time. A covenant tactical assault group has just landed on Aries, a human planet in the Aquilar System. This is one of our last strongholds, so look alive out there. We can't afford to screw this one up. Aries is the home of one of our major shipbuilding yards. The covenant assault group is made up of mostly Spec Ops elites. There are two hunters for heavy fire support, as well as two Scout Class grunts. In case you haven't been informed of these newly discovered types of grunts, here is a special warning: be very careful around them. If you encounter the whole unit at once, engage the grunts first. Their special environment suits make them more agile than the elites, and much quieter. You cannot pick them up on infrared because their suits also contain thermal cloaks, just as your suits. For this mission, ONI has a surprise for you."
He held up a pair of goggles that appeared to be regular NVGs. "these goggles are what we in the spook business are calling SVGs or sound vision goggles." He slid them on and activated them. "the way they work is unique. You guys ever heard of an animal called a bat before?" he asked quizzically. "No? well, back on earth, there are a certain species of bird that only come out at night. They have no eyes, only antennae. The way they "see" is they let out an ultrasonic screech. That noise travels out and bounces back. The sound bounce is received by the antennae and tells the bat where it is going. These goggles operate on the same principal. These little holes around the lens send out a millimetric radar wave constantly. This radar wave is silent and invisible. It will bounce off any solid object. The bounce back will be received by the lens itself and will be converted into the visible spectrum. What you will see is a black and white world. Kind of like being color blind."
The group looked at him skeptically. So he said, "OK, you don't believe me? Try them for yourselves. After we get going to Aries, of course. Come on, lets go!"
With that, he strolled out of the room. Arkady led the way to the main docking bay. In the bay a former UNSC corvette sat, glistening in the overhead lights. The ship was christened as the Stiletto by the members of the death dealers. It had been specially procured by ONI to help the Death Dealers. The Death Dealers were not a part of the UNSC, but even so, in light of their success against the covenant, ONI was directed to help them in any way possible. The Stiletto was small for its class, but what it lacked in size it more than made up for in acceleration, speed, maneuverability, and sheer firepower.
The Stiletto had two MAC cannons similar to the Pillar of Autumn's. each cannon could successively fire three rounds with one charge. The rounds were composed of ferreted tungsten. However, each round was also packed with enough tritium to demolish a cruiser. Tritium is what is used in the ignition packets of nuclear weapons. The tritium is explosively volatile. A container the size of a fingernail full of tritium is what is usually used to detonate a nuclear weapon. Each round carried 80 kilograms of tritium.
The Death Dealer's flagship also had no Archer missile pods. In their place were extra MAC rounds, extra 50 mm ammo for the point defense weapons, and the newly added TADD defense system.
The Stiletto was truly a fine ship to behold. On her long bow were nearly a hundred and fifty outlines of covenant craft. Thirty covenant carriers, ten cruisers, twenty frigates, forty drop ships, five of the newly discovered Aztec class battlecruisers, and forty-five Seraph single ship fighters. These kill records reflected the top notch crew, precision engineering, and intelligence of the best that the human race had to offer. No other ship in human history had nearly so many kills.
Arkady and his crew entered the ship to find their gear already waiting for them, stacked neatly in rows next to their lockers. He looked around. Eve, Mikhail, Patrick, and Villanueva were checking their gear. Wolfe and Hodges stood at the foot of the ramp and watched their friends with sad faces. With their injuries, they would not be joining the rest of the group on this mission. They would have the harder part of this mission. They would have to stay behind.
Arkady waved to them as the ramp started to close. The ship rumbled as the engines were brought on line.
"OK Death Dealers, meet me in the briefing room to get your SVGs, weapons, and other gear. We are not going to bother putting you in the cryo tubes, the Aquilar system is only 48 hours away at best speed. Murdoc out."
Arkady trotted down the hallways to the briefing room. He entered and got a seat in the front, dead center. The rest of the group filed in behind him and took their seats. Murdoc appeared with a cart. He wheeled it down the aisle, and handed out the SVGs. Arkady slipped his on. Blackness. He flipped the power switch and jolted his head. The world around him was now black and white. He held up his hand and looking closely found that little tightly spaced lines made up the contours of its surface. Amazing what ONI came up with.
"Ahem!" everybody snapped around and looked to see where the sound came from. "now that you have had your fun, we can get on to some f the new weapons." Murdoc said. When he spoke, Arkady could "see" the breath coming out of his mouth. It was like being colorblind in the middle of the winter. Weird.
Murdoc hefted a really wicked looking piece of hardware from the table. "this is the new MA16B all purpose infantry assault rifle. The way it handles in combat will decide whether it is to see combat with the regular infantry in the future." He paused. "you can take those damn goggles off now," he said with some amusement, "save the batteries. I swear, you are like a bunch of little kids sometimes."
That earned a giggle from eve. She could be a cold and efficient soldier, but away from the combat zone, she had the mentality of a little girl.
"as I was saying, this weapon is totally different from the weapons on the front lines now. This weapon has two barrels, and a grenade launcher slung underneath. The topmost barrel fires regular 7.62 mm ferreted tungsten rounds. The bottom barrel fires 12 gauge shotgun shells. Switch the selector on the side, and you change from machine gun to shotgun. Because of the shorter barrel, the buckshot gets more spread, and therefore can neutralize more enemies at a closer range. The grenade launcher has a three round magazine. We have been supplied with a variety of rounds that you are free to choose as you please. For this mission I suggest white phosphorus, fragmentation, and tanglefoot grenades."
"Tanglefoot grenades? What the hell are those?" asked Villanueva. He was always full of questions.
"Ah, good question. ONI has come up with a type of nerve gas that attacks the covenant nervous system. While they are composed of different species, they all have a similar nervous system that we humans do not share with them. So the gas will short out their nervous system, rendering them cripple, but it will not harm humans. This weapon has been used to great effect on Sirius Prime and Sirius Minor in the Altair System. I am sure you have heard of the action going on there."
"I have one more weapon to show you that has recently come out of development." He lifted what looked to be a billiard ball from the table. "this is probably the best grenade ever developed." He tossed the ball to Arkady to inspect. Surprised, he nearly dropped the thing. "we've nicknamed it spiky. See those little holes all over it? Well when the fuse is activated by pressing that button three times, you have five seconds to toss that thing and get the hell away. When the fuse runs out, three needles with tritium tips explode out of each hole. Those needles bury themselves into anything and everything within ten meters. After another two second delay, the tips explode, completely demolishing anything that they are attached to."
Arkady gingerly passed the grenade to Eve, she gave it a quick look and passed it on.
"now are you ready for the grand finale? Good." He knelt and opened the side of the cart. He stood up, holding what looked like a regular pair of camouflage fatigues.
"what's so special about a pair of BDUs?" Mikhail asked.
"absolutely nothing." He grinned at us.
"Man, he pulls this every time he gives us some new stuff. Always gotta play a joke on us huh?" Villanueva blurted with some amusement.
"well, if that's it, I'm gonna get some sleep. I am worn out from our little dance with the covenant today. Wake me up five hours before we get there." Arkady announced as he stood up and strolled out of the briefing room. 43 HOURS LATER Arkady jolted as ice cold water splashed on his face. "Goddamnit!"
"just trying to get you awake with a minimum amount of fuss." Mikhail had an ear to ear grin on his face.
"I'll show you a minimum amount of fuss." Arkady muttered as he swung his feet to the floor. Mikhail bolted for the door as Arkady went after him with a pillow.
Arkady, Mikhail, hit the showers and suit up in ten minutes. We are almost there." Eve announced as Arkady swung the pillow in a wide arc and nailed Mikhail on the side of the head. Mikhail fell to the floor, pretending to be unconscious, as Arkady stepped over him and headed for the showers. Arkady closed his eyes and let the steaming water rush over him. He opened his eyes and shut off the water. He was brushing his teeth in front of the sink when Mikhail stepped into the bathroom, carrying his towel.
"Man, you take the longest showers." Mikhail commented as he stepped into the shower stall. "Back on my planet, we conserved water. Shoot, I didn't even know what rain was until I was 13 years old."
Mikhail continued his monologue as Arkady finished brushing his teeth. "I used to go out in the mornings with some soap and roll around in the morning dew. That was a real man's shower. I thought a creek was nothing but a dry ditch where rattlesnakes lived."
Arkady finished with his teeth and examined the water tap. He turned the cold water wide open and grinned as a scream and a cloud of steam erupted from the shower stall. Arkady hauled out of the area as a wet bar of soap sailed in his direction. The Death Dealers settled into their chairs in the briefing room as Murdoc passed out the new rifles and grenades. Arkady strapped his to his back as Murdoc reached the front of the room and cleared his throat.
"Gentlemen, we have reached the Aquilar System and are currently in close orbit around the planet. An automated shuttle will take you to the surface near the spaceport where the Covenant strike force has landed. They have set up a perimeter and are getting ready to disembark. From the thermal scans we have taken of the area, the covenant seem to have brought up some additional support. Be careful out there." He turned and left the room as the Death Dealers filed out after him. The headed to the docking bay and boarded their ride down to the embattled spaceport. The shuttle settled onto the tarmac with a gentle thud and a hiss as the hatch rushed open. Arkady lanced out of the shuttle and found some cover. Eve was right after him as Mikhail and Vilanueva headed for a large chunk of concrete on the other side of the tarmac.
Eve's motion sensor picked up a high speed inbound. It was not in the air, however. This contact was blitzing from the center of the compound from one kind of cover to another. this must be one of those scout class grunts coming out to check on the shuttle we came in. She activated her SVG's and nudged Arkady to do the same.
In the midst of the black and white world that Eve now found herself in, she spotted a ball of grey speeding toward her. It was completely silent, sliding along the ground and raising a rooster tail of ambient dust behind it, visible only with SVGs. She chambered three frag rounds into her rifle and sighted in on the scout. She adjusted for its speed and sent a round sailing into the path of the scout. The round hit the concrete in front of the scout and bounced. Eve flared with anger as she realized that she had mistakenly chambered a delayed action round. Maybe it will still get a piece of the scout she thought as the round exploded in a fierce fireball laced with shrapnel.
The scout squealed with pain as it caught a few shards of shrapnel in the side. It skidded to a halt and was riddled with bullets as Villanueva opened up on the injured grunt. It sank to the floor, its lifeblood flowing smoothly out of multiple bullet holes.
Mikhail caught another few contacts on his motion sensor. He pivoted, found a target, and fired all in one smooth motion. A grey armored elite crashed to the ground, its head shattered. Arkady spotted a hunter closing in with startling speed. Almost without thinking, he sent a white phosphorus grenade at its face. The round impacted and detonated in a cloud of snow. The white phosphorus rapidly ate away at the hunter's armor as it roared with agony. The white phosphorus settled on the plasma core of the hunter's fuel rod cannon. The resulting explosion severely injured a nearby elite and several spec ops grunts.
Villanueva and Mikhail broke from cover and rushed forward, guns blazing. The ferreted tungsten rounds tore through wounded grunts and chewed up concrete. Eve steadied her gun and sent the remaining two frag shells arcing toward the main door to the compound where the last hunter stood guard. The twin explosions toppled the huge covenant warrior, and blackened the blast door.
Arkady and Eve sprinted forward to the blast door as three elites dropped from the roof, blocking their way. Arkady pumped four shotgun rounds into two of the elites while Eve took out the other with a few rounds to the legs. She advanced on the fallen elite. It roared as she put a single shot between its eyes. An explosion to the right sent three grunts flying through the air. Mikhail and Villanueva signaled all clear and met up with Arkady and Eve at the blast door.
"Blow it?" asked Villanueva
"yep"
Villanueva unpacked two blocks of C-12 and molded them to the door frame. Everyone got behind cover as he blew the door. They waited for the smoke to clear, and entered the complex.
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