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Destiny
Date: 15 June 2004, 1:24 AM
History of Destiny
The planet Destiny is on the outermost reaches of U.N.S.C. controlled space, in the Frontier system. When it was discovered in 2520 (five years before the Covenant attacked Harvest) it was going to be used as another planet for training soldiers, harvesting crop and mining for metals and fuels to use in constructing and fuelling the U.N.S.C's numerous ships. Destiny was going to be another Reach, due to it's enormous natural resources and productive land, it was also in an excellent spot to use as a refuelling stop for any ships heading deeper into space to map out the area or colonize other planets.
However a year into the development of major bases, agricultural land and mines on the planets three continents, a survey team came across a strange structure in the woods on the eastern most continent. After careful examination of the structure it was determined that it was of non-human origin and therefore extraterrestrial and Destiny became a classified planet and was never put on any star charts.
Development continued over the next four years and five major military bases were set up, along with dozens of other bases. The major bases served the general purpose of protecting the planet, training troops and transporting supplies from the fields and mines to the southern continent. Where they were blasted into space by one of the twenty launch platforms, so they could be loaded into huge tugs and hauled off to the ship building yards over Mars and Reach.
Research in the alien structure was ongoing and had taken many teams of scientists miles underground in numerous concrete/metalish tunnels. They were finding a lot of new technology, but were making few advances in getting it to work, or understanding it.
When Harvest was attacked by the Covenant on February 1st, 2525, Destiny's security was tightened, and they were given permission to begin constructing ten Super Mac orbital defence platforms. However before the guns could be completed the Covenant attacked and quickly slagged the un-finished platforms and the few ships in the system.
Then, when the marines and brass on the planet thought that they were going to be glassed, to their surprise the Covenant ships moved out of the system. No one was sure what was happening, until Delta base (the base on the eastern continent, where the alien structure was found) called in for reinforcements. They were under attack from a huge Covenant invasion force. Thousands of drop ships were unloading hundreds of thousands of troops, tanks and every other sort of equipment the Covenant possessed. The other bases all sent as many troops as they could spare, but by the time they arrived Delta base was destroyed and the Covenant had already set up a huge base around the alien structure. The Generals leading the reinforcements were forbidden to bomb the base in any way in fear of destroying any of the technology in the alien structure.
Twenty-five years later, the war on Destiny is still on going. The Covenant have expanded their presence into the central continent, setting up numerous bases and outposts. The marines have set up front lines and a monitored perimeter to try and keep the Covenant from getting more than the 500 miles in shore than they already had.
Current Characters
Sergeant- Sean Visentin Cross Trained in all Specialties
Corporal- Fred Archer Sniper
Lance Corporal- Malcolm Parsons Pilot/Driver
Private 1st Class- John Tucker Medic/ Driver
Private- Chris Ding Heavy Weapons Specialist /Technician
Private- Richard Louse Communications Expert
1630 Hours, February 1st 2550 (Military Calendar) / Destiny, 50 Miles outside M.F.B (Marine Forces Base) Aqua
"See, there it is again!" exclaimed Private Richard Louse.
"I see it," agreed Sergeant Sean Visentin, watching the radar screen along with the private. "Don't get to excited. It's probably just a herd of those woodland deer that were introduced when they first came to the planet."
Sergeant Sean Visentin was almost used to the Private's excitability now, almost.
He had had this squad of guys now for six years, and had been on Destiny all his life. He was born here thirty years ago, and had been in the Marine Corp. for fifteen of those years.
His Staff Sergeant had brought him up after both his parents were killed by the Covenant in an attack on the Southern M.F.B. Adventure. He was now serving at the most northern base on the planet, M.F.B. Aqua.
The name "Aqua" was a weird one for the base because they were not actually on a lake or ocean; they were in the middle of a huge deciduous forest with few lakes or streams.
Sean shook his head and brought himself back to the present.
"Everyone give me a status check," he ordered into the boom mic. on his helmet.
Private Chris Ding the squads heavy weapons specialist and technician was the first to report in.
"All clear Boss", Ding said in a deep voice. Ding was 6'6 with a very strong and muscular upper body and very dark skin.
Next to report in was Private 1st class John Tucker the squad's medic, better known as "Doc". He always had a cheerful attitude and cheered everyone around him up. He was very well liked back at base, and in the squad. He checked in with an "A.O.K., Sir."
The squads Pilot/Driver Lance Corporal- Malcolm Parsons reported in with a British accent and a simple, "All clear, Sir". Of all six members of the "Sharks" Malcolm was the most serious of the squad, with no messing around or joking on duty.
Second last to respond was Private Louse the "Sharks" communication expert. He was the youngest of the group at 19 and the most excitable, though he was a little timid in combat situations.
Finally Fred Archer the teams sniper and Sean's best friend, said "Every things cool, Sir".
He didn't call in over the com. channel he called down from fifteen feet above.
Sean, Louse and Archer were all on top of a heavily vegetated hill in the middle of a forest.
Sean and Louse were peering through a thick bush, and watching the radar screen they had brought up.
Archer was up in the tallest tree on the hill, he had climbed up there to set up the powerful motion detector, and to get a good view for his sniper rifle.
Doc, Ding and Parsons were all down the hill in a small clump of boulders watching the rugged path for anything that might come their way.
"How far can our radar reach?" wondered Archer out loud.
"From this height we can see about twenty miles," replied Louse.
Archer let out a low whistle, "Wow, that's pretty good, you soup that thing up Louse?"
"Sure did," he answered. "Sarge!" exclaimed Louse again, "There's those blips again!" Sean put his powerful binoculars down, and looked at the small screen.
"Looks like six maybe seven signatures. Archer take a look 1.4 miles east and tell me if you see anything."
"Um, well... there, got ya," said Archer, "There's an Elite, two Jackals, and three, no four Grunts."
Sean considered his options; have Archer try and snipe them all before they could get away, sneak up on them and ambush them, or let them continue on the path and walk right by the hill to be attacked.
The last option sounded the best, so he told Parsons and Doc to move the Warthogs across the path and set them up in a camouflaged spot, but with enough room that they could fire the powerful M41 Laag on the back of each Warthog. He then told Ding to get a rocket launcher ready and to meet him at the boulders half way down the hill.
"Louse," Sean said, "I need you to stay up here with Archer and watch that radar in case there are any other scouting parties in the area", said Sean. "Sir, yes Sir", replied Louse.
The real reason Sean had kept Louse up here and away from the ambush sight, was because last time they came across a Covenant scouting party Louse had almost killed half the squad.
He had armed a fragmentation grenade and threw the pin!
Luckily Doc had quickly noticed this and yanked the grenade from Louse and threw it into the group of Covenant.
It was later determined that Louse had gotten to excited and nervous to realize what he was doing.
Sean didn't want to take that chance again, so he told him to watch the radar, even though he knew there would only be the one group, so having Louse stay at the top of the hill was pointless.
Sean met Ding at the group of boulders and explained the plan to everyone over the comm.
"When the Covenant get in front of us I'm going to give the signal. Archer you snipe out that elite, Ding will jump in with an M 19 SSM Rocket Launcher and engage the jackals, Doc and Parsons you open up with the Laags and take out the grunts. O.K. people this is straightforward and shouldn't take more than ten seconds. From here on in no com. only acknowledgement lights, everyone in position?"
Five acknowledgement lights winked.
After fifteen minutes of waiting the squad could hear the Covenant coming up the path.
They kept walking almost to the spot were everyone had a clear shot, but then all of a sudden the Elite stopped.
The Jackals took notice right away and also stopped but the Grunts kept walking right into the back of the two Jackals. One of them was knocked to the ground and got back up squawking, it turned around and clubbed the Grunt on the head with its plasma pistol. The Elite growled and they all stopped, and got back into formation.
"Oh shit," thought Sean, "He knows we're here."
But as soon as he had completed that thought the elite snarled again and the group continued walking.
Once the Covenant got into the ambush site Sean yelled the order: "Fire, fire!"
Archer was the first to pull the trigger, and sent four 14.5mm armour piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot rounds, at the unawares Elite. The first round to hit bounced off the Elites shield, which promptly lit up and failed. Before it even had a chance to start recharging the other three rounds hit. The second round made a sizable hole through the Elites head while the last two opened up the Elites chest cavity. The Elite didn't even have time to react, or to scream as the rounds tore through him, he just simply fell to the ground in a puddle of gore.
Ding pulled the trigger on the rocket launcher exactly half of a second after Archer had finished off the Elite. The 102mm shell roared twenty feet before connecting with the ground in between the two Jackals. They were hurled ten feet in opposite directions and landed with a wet smack, where what was left of them lay smoking.
The two Laags were the slowest in reacting to the Sergeant's order. By the time they opened up with a hail of 12.7x99mm rounds, the Grunts knew they were under attack.
One Grunt who had seen the where the rocket had been launched from, quickly pulled a plasma grenade and threw it towards the rocks, just before being pounded into mush by the powerful Laags.
Sean and Ding saw the grenade flying through the air and toward their position and immediately jumped out of the rocks.
On the way out though, Ding tripped and fell hard on his left arm. He heard a crack as the bone snapped in two and felt a sharp pain as the bone forced it's way through the skin on his arm.
"Holy, Shit" Ding screamed, "That's not good!"
Sean immediately called Doc, "Hey, Doc get up here fast, and bring your stuff!"
It took the Doc twenty minutes to give Ding an anaesthetic to keep down the pain, an antibiotic to keep the wound from getting infected, bandage his arm up, get it onto a splint and sling it.
"Before we can head back we need to clean up the mess," said Sean, referring to the dead Covenant on the path. "Louse head back up to the top of the hill and get our radar package."
"Yes, Sir," replied the Private.
The rest of the group proceeded to haul the dead Covenant and un-ceremoniously dump them some bushes a little ways up from the path. As soon as everything was cleaned up and collected, they prepared to head out.
"O.K. everyone, time to head back to base," Sean said once Doc had finished. "Doc you're driving the second Hog with Ding riding shotgun, just in case you need attention for that arm," he added quickly, seeing the look he was getting from Ding. "Archer you're on the gun in Doc's Hog. Parsons you're driving my Hog with me navigating from the front seat, Louse you're on my Laag."
Everyone acknowledged the order over the com. now that the Covenant scouting party had been eliminated.
Everyone was silent for the first twenty minutes, enjoying the ride. Then Louse spoke up over the com, "Sir?" he said. "Isn't it weird to see any Covenant out here? I mean we're almost two thousand miles away from the front lines!"
"Yes, replied Sean, "but there is so much un-patrolled area between here and there that they could have thousands of troops inside our lines and we would never know. We really only protect our bases and major highways you know. Since we don't have any satellites in orbit we have very limited real time information, the only time we can get updates on their troop movements is when we see them with atmospheric radar or we have a ship in orbit with satellite capabilities. And since we rarely ever get a ship out here (because the Covenant also patrol this system) we don't always know where they are. We do certainly have detection outposts around the bases but farther out than that and we have to see them or be close with strong radar. Does that answer your question?"
"Ya," Louse murmured, as Ding laughed over the com.
They took the same route as they had come this morning. Their average speed was only 25mph, and since they were taking a winding route not a direct one, the trip took about two and a half hours. They were silent most of the way after that, with only idle chitchat.
When they got within ten miles of Aqua Base Sean radioed in to say they were ten miles out and had run into a Covenant patrol with light casualties.
When they arrived at the base around 2100 hours they drove in through the massive hangar door, after being admitted through the bases main door.
The hanger door was three stories tall and retracted vertically into two sections. The squad parked their Warthogs in their hangar beside the "Sharks" Pelican and Ding walked over to the hospital to get his arm looked at by a surgeon.
The two Warthogs and the Pelican all had the squads logo painted on them. An animated sharks mouth pulled back to reveal lots of sharp and pointy teeth, with to squinting, menacing looking eyes painted above them.
The "Sharks" took their gear into their adjoining barracks and dumped it on the worktables. They would clean it up tomorrow after they had had a good night sleep.
They were all so tired that they had a shower and went straight to bed, not even talking or having supper.
Destiny Chapter 2
Date: 18 June 2004, 4:45 PM
1000 Hours, February 2nd 2550 (Military Calendar)/Destiny M.F.B Aqua
Sean was the first of his squad to wake up, he rolled over and looked at the clock beside his bed; 10 AM. He sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.
Looking down the barracks, he saw five more beds in the room, each contained a member of his squad. That meant that the surgeons had patched up Ding and sent him back to the barracks, which was a good sign.
The Sharks were lucky, extremely lucky to be precise; they had their own barracks, showers, hangar and wreck room. Most other squads had to share those things on the relatively small base.
Sean got up and got dressed in some coveralls, grabbed a portable computer pad, and headed over to the mess hall, which was at the centre of the base.
As he walked he noted the many guns lining the bases four-meter thick titanium A walls. There were 28 of the computer controlled, fully automatic "Sabre Tooths".
They fired 1000 80mm rounds per minute and had an effective range of 900 meters, making it almost impossible to get anywhere near the bases if you weren't allowed.
There were also ten heat seeking Argent VIII missile batteries just inside the base; these could shoot down a pigeon flying at three thousand feet.
Even after seeing all this go to work in numerous drills, the sergeant didn't really completely safe. The Covenant were a deadly enemy, not one to be taken lightly.
He continued on his way to the mess hall, saying hello to other Marines and saluting to superiors.
All the minor bases on Destiny were designed the same way. Four-meter thick Titanium A walls surrounding four square kilometres of hangars, barracks and armouries, as well as other buildings. There were three roads leading out of the Aqua Base, leading to other bases. The east road lead to a major base called "Frontier", and was a wide highway with six lanes. While the roads leading west and southwest were still paved they were only two lanes. These roads led to two other minor bases, basically the same as Aqua Base.
The base also had six landing pads that could accommodate Pelicans, Condors and other vertical landing aircraft. There was also an ancient runway three miles north of the base, but that was almost never used. Most supplies were flown in on the large "Condors", which could carry three times more weight and troops than a Pelican, however they guzzled a lot of fuel.
Sean finally reached the mess hall and went inside. He grabbed a large helping of bacon, eggs and sausages and a tall steaming cup of coffee.
The sergeant took a seat in the far corner of the nearly empty mess hall, passing a couple of Privates playing cards.
He sat down and pulled out the computer pad he had brought with him. He looked over the report he had written up on the ride back to the base last night. He took a couple minutes to add in a few things and finished up by signing it.
After saving the report, he opened up the news file that he had downloaded just before he had left for the mess.
The headline read "Covenant patrols spotted 500 miles past frontlines".
He didn't need to read anymore to know what that meant; the Covenant were looking to expand their property line and were scouting out the area first. This had happened before; the Covenant would scout out an area for a year, build up a huge force and storm in taking out anything in their way. It was all preventable, with the proper intelligence, of course.
For now at least, they would probably have about a year, before they saw any major troop movements.
The door to the mess hall opened and Sean looked up; the rest of the sharks were walking in noisily. Ding came in last and Sean noticed his arm was still in a sling.
They got their breakfast and sat down with their Sergeant.
"How's the arm feeling, Ding", asked Sean.
"Pretty good," he replied, "The surgeon said that it should be fully healed by tomorrow."
"Perfect", Sean said we go back on patrol on the 5th, so you'll have lots of time to rest it."
"I can't believe that your arm heals so fast", Archer said.
"Well the surgeon said that it will heal that quickly because he used some sort of laser to speed up the cell regeneration", Ding answered. "I barely even felt it, and they also put a metal plate in to hold the bone together while it's healing, though he said that they'll never take it out."
After the team had all finished their breakfasts, they headed back to their barracks/hangar complex to clean up their gear and do a maintenance check on their Pelican and two Warthogs.
Ding checked under the hoods of the Warthogs, filled the tires and gas tanks. Once he was finished Louse washed the Hogs and Pelican. While Doc and Parsons checked the Pelican to make sure she was still ready to fly at a moments notice. Sean completed some paper work that allowed the team to have the Pelican and Hogs. When that was all done they checked their weapons, and other essential equipment for out in the field.
It was three O'clock by the time the Sharks finished their checks, and decided to have a card game before heading to dinner.
"So Sarge," Archer inquired with a sly grin, "When are those new weapon shipments coming in."
"What!" exclaimed Louse, "New weapons? How come we weren't told about this?" "Sir", he added. The rest of the squad laughed.
"Well I was going to keep it a surprise, Archer ," Sean said, "But I guess now that you know that they're coming, I can say that they'll be arriving on two Condors flying up from Alpha base, tomorrow."
At this the other four who didn't know about the shipment, exploded into a loud whooping, hollering, high-fiving riot.
"Oh man!" exclaimed Ding, "This is awesome!"
"What's coming in?" inquired Doc.
"Battle Rifles and SMGs," answered Sean, unable to keep back a smile. "But don't get too excited they still have to get here."
The Commanding Officers had all received the specs. on the new guns but hadn't been expecting to get them for another couple of years. The Marines on Destiny usually got weapons long before many top ranking officials even knew that they were developed. They were used as a last testing measure to ensure the guns worked effectively.
After they all calmed down and finished the game, they headed over to the mess hall, to have dinner. At the hall they found the General in charge of the base standing at a podium that wasn't there this morning.
"Please, Ladies and Gentlemen take your seats so I can begin."
The Sharks found their way over to some empty seats and listened as the General started talking.
"Now as I'm sure you all know, tomorrow there will be two Condors flying in with a new weapons shipment."
There was a roar of applause and cheering through the hall, and it took a couple minutes to die down.
"Now, I'm sure you're all anxious to get your packages, however I must make a request."
The hall fell silent as soon as the General said this. The Marines in the room were nervous that they might not after all, get their new weapons just yet.
"I must ask that you don't go and crowd around the landing pads, when the Condors arrive. If the whole base goes out to get their shipments all at once it will take days to get the weapons off the Condors."
The whole room let out a sigh of relief, if that was all the General wanted then they could live with that.
"I will have the supplies delivered right to your barracks instead."
The mess exploded into cheers and applause, at this last statement.
"I'll be sending memos out to everyone reminding you of this, and those that aren't here right now," the General continued, over the noise, "But remember, if you go out to the landing pads without orders to do so you'll be but on the outer patrol route for a year!"
After that the talk started up again and the General left the mess hall.
"Perfect," Louse said, "We won't even have to leave the barracks to get our new guns!"
The Sharks quickly finished their dinner and left the hot, sticky mess hall and headed out for a nice walk back to their barracks in the cool night air.
When the squad of Marines got back to their barracks they grabbed a beer and climbed up to the roof to watch the planets twin moons float by overhead.
Louse had brought a small but powerful telescope up with him and was gazing up at the stars, when he disturbed the silence with a yell.
"Sir, I can see a Covenant Cruiser up there!" "And it looks like their dropping something!"
"They're probably just sending down supplies or more troops, Louse," Sean said calmly, "It's normal procedure, they do that every week."
"Are you sure?" Louse asked nervously. "Maybe we should tell someone."
"Marine, they know it's up there, they have all sorts of people watching for things you can't even imagine," Sean said in a slightly irritated voice, "If we can see it, then they most certainly can."
"Just relax and enjoy the moment," Doc said, leaning back and putting his hands behind his head, "You'll live longer that way."
Destiny Chapter 3
Date: 18 June 2004, 4:59 PM
0900 Hours February 3rd 2550 (Military Calendar)/ Destiny, M.F.B. Aqua
Even though it was only 0900 hours, Sean was the last member of the squad to get out of bed. He sat up and looked around, all the beds were empty and already made. None of the guys were in the room, but he could hear the sound of tools in the hangar. He out of bed put on his fatigues and walked into the hangar yawning and stretching his stiff-arm muscles.
"Hey Boss," Ding said, his arm was now free of the sling, as the Sergeant walked through the door into the hangar. "We weren't sure you were ever going to wake up."
"But, it's only 0900," commented Sean, with a huge yawn.
"Ya, but the new weapons are coming in today."
"Not for another four hours, though."
"Still," Ding said, "You've got to be excited."
"Ya, but it's not worth losing sleep over."
Sean looked around the room, Doc was surrounded a mountain of medical supplies from the Pelican, checking what he had and the expirary dates on everything.
Private Louse was checking the air in the Warthog's tires, while Parsons was updating the terrain maps in the computer systems on the Hogs and Pelican.
Ding was standing beside him, cleaning a few extra guns that were in the storage room and Archer was checking gears on the retractable roof over the Pelican.
Half of the roof slide back so that the Pelican could lift off and land vertically, since having to fly it out of the hangar door (however big) would be very difficult, because the hangar across from them was only 30 feet away, and there was a road going between them.
The morning went by pretty quickly, considering that the anticipation of the shipment was practically killing them. 1200 hours rolled around and everyone was just about finished whatever they were doing. Sean suggested that they head to the mess grab a lunch, bring it back and eat it on the roof so they could see the Condors fly in. Everyone liked the idea so they quickly finished what they were doing and followed their Sergeant to the mess hall.
They jogged to the mess hall and walked in. It was pretty full, though it was lunchtime. The Sharks walked up and got in line; today's lunch was corned beef on rye, with left over mashed potatoes and turkey. They quickly grabbed their lunch and walked back to their barracks, where they climbed the ladder just inside the hangar door, to get to the roof.
There were a few other squads on the roofs of their bases around them, but the majority of the roofs remained empty, providing a better view.
The landing pads were near the centre of the base and they were also slightly elevated, so the wash from the jets didn't blow to much crap over the roads and into the barracks surrounding it.
"Pretty good view from up here, eh?" commented Archer.
"Ya", agreed Louse, "I could see a Covenant attack miles before they got here."
"Shut up," snarled Ding, "Don't say things like that!"
"Hey, Louse you got that telescope of yours up here?" asked Parsons.
"No, but I'll go and grab it."
"Grab a radio while you're down there," shouted Doc, after him. "We might be able to hear the pilots reporting in before we can hear the engines."
"O.K.," the Private yelled back, "Be back in a minute."
When he got back they all sat back and listened to the static on the radio as Louse fumbled with the powerful, yet small radio.
"Damn, I'm not sure which frequency they'll be on, but I would think that it would be the air traffic towers freq."
He twisted a few more knobs and they heard two people talking.
"...Roger control." "We spotted three large Covenant patrols in the last 60 miles Southeast, they each had two Ghosts with them, and were all moving in the same direction," said the first voice, obviously the Pilot of one of the Condors.
"Roger," came the voice of the control tower officer, "I'll have the General meet you at the landing pads so he can question you, but until then don't say anymore over this frequency, understood?"
"Yes, Sir, understood."
"What's your ETA?" asked the control tower officer, changing the subject.
"Approximately 25 minutes," the pilot replied.
"Roger that, over and out."
"Sir," Louse asked, "what do you think so many Covenant are doing way out here?"
"Just reconnaissance Louse nothing to worry about, we do that all the time in their territory," Sean replied.
Though he didn't tell them that these reconnaissance missions were becoming all too common, in this area.
Sean remembered when he was 10 and he had overheard his parents talking about the same thing one night. They had told him the exact same thing that he had just told his men, one year before M.F.B. Adventure was attacked and both his parents were killed.
Except this time he would be ready, and he wouldn't let anything happen to his men.
It was another ten minutes before the Sharks heard the first faint roar of the two Condors. Louse was looking through the telescope he had retrieved from the barracks.
"Hey, guys," Louse said slowly, "looks like the one of the Condors is smoking from one of its engines."
"What?" said Parsons, "Give me that."
He looked through the telescope for a minute before saying, "Oh my God, he's right the forth jet on the front right wing is pouring out smoke, it must have gotten pummelled. Those Condors are designed to take one helluva beating, if it's that badly damaged then they must have come under some pretty heavy fire!"
"Now guys," piped in Sean, trying to calm everyone down, "It's probably just an engine malfunction or something."
"I don't think so Sir," said Parsons putting the telescope down and turning around to look at his Sergeant, "That sort of malfunction has never ocu.."
Parsons stopped his sentence short because of the look he was getting from his superior.
"Uh, right" he said lamely, "It was probably just an engine malfunction or something."
The Condors roared overhead 15 minutes later; the second Condor was still belching thick amounts of black smoke from its engine and the plasma scoring on the hulls were unmistakable. Only a couple of seconds after the two Condors had touched down the pilots came running out the back of the vehicles and over to the General.
They all quickly went into H.Q. and that was the last they saw of them.
The Techs. immediately started unloading the cargo onto the landing pad, and lots of small golf cart like vehicles rolled up with three interchangeable trailers behind them. The trailers were loaded up and the carts drove off to deliver the crates.
"Hey, Serge," Ding said, "we should head down to the hangar to wait for the delivery."
"All right," Sean replied, "Lets head down."
The Marines climbed down the stairs, and grabbed some chairs, to wait by the front of the hangar with.
They didn't have to wait more than 15 minutes before one of the carts wheeled into the hangar loaded up with crates.
The crates were Vacuum-Sealed, stainless steel about four feet long, two and a half feet wide and three feet deep. They also weighed about 800 pounds, with all the armaments inside.
"Oh boy, I hope all of these are for us," Archer said excitedly, almost hopping up and down on the spot.
"No, not all of them," the driver answered, getting out of the drivers seat and walking to the last trailer, "But I do have three crates here for a Sergeant Sean Visentin and his Sharks."
The driver handed Sean a clipboard and said, "Just sign here, Sir."
Sean obliged and thanked the driver, then handed the clipboard back.
It took two Marines to lift a crate off the trailer and deposit it beside the workbenches on the right side of the hangar.
"Lets crack these babies open and see what we got," Louse said, unable to keep the excitement out of his voice.
The marines opened the first crate and found ten brand new Battle Rifles, and sixteen new SMGs.
"I'm in heaven," commented Doc. "This is absolutely wonderful."
The Sharks opened the second crate and found 200 cases (cases hold twenty magazines) full of magazines (magazines have 30 rounds) for the Battle Rifles.
The final crate contained cases of magazines for the SMGs and instructions on using them. Since the team and all the Marines on the base had been e-mailed the complete instructions on both weapons, they already knew the guns inside and out and just left the instructions in the case.
"Oh, no," exclaimed Archer, "In all this excitement we forgot to book time at the shooting range!" "We'll never get any now, the range will be booked for months!"
The rest of the Marines became distraught at this, and immediately began cursing themselves for not remembering to book some time.
"Oh, Jes," Sean said, "all of you guys forgot?" "What kind of a squad have I got here?
The Sharks looked at their Sergeant in disbelief.
Sean continued, "Well I guess it's a good thing I didn't forget to book us some time, because then we would never be able to use the new guns."
"You got time," exclaimed Doc, "Awesome!"
"You're the best, Sir!" Archer yelled.
"You're the Man!" screamed Louse.
"I love you, Boss," Ding sobbed.
"Excellent, Sir," Parsons said beaming at Sean.
"Ya, ya," Sean said, "Your all buying me a beer after, I know. But if you want to get to the range on time I suggest you put those crates onto the Hog's trailer and hook it up, cause were booked for an hour in 20 minutes."
The Sharks quickly hooked the trailer onto the first hog, loaded the crates on and tied them down with the straps on the trailer.
They hopped into the squads two Hogs and took off for the shooting range.
When they arrived, the place was packed with squads trying to get in. They parked the Hogs and hauled the heavy crates up to the gate.
The shooting range was an open field at the back of the base, which was separated from the rest of the base by a five-meter tall cement wall. The door leading into the shooting range was a solid stainless steel sliding door. The only way to open it was by pressing the button on the inside of the office that was protected by a plexi glass window, which is where they were standing now.
"You can't get in," the clerk said irritably, without looking up, "We're booked solid for the next two months."
"Well than I guess it's a good thing I booked four hours during that time then," Sean said.
The clerk looked up, "Oh, Sergeant, sorry come right in."
He pressed a button and the door slide back. The squad lugged the heavy crates down to the end of the shooting area where they opened them up.
"Alright, lets pass these out then," Sean, suggested.
Each Marine received a Battle Rifle and one case of ammunition for it, and two SMGs and one cases of ammo to use at the shooting range. This was more than enough for the short time that the Sharks would be at the range, but Sean wanted them to get as much practice as possible before going on patrol on the 5th. That only gave them today and tomorrow.
"O.K team," Sean yelled over the gunfire coming from the other slots, "Lets not waste anytime."
The Sharks quickly got into their slots, put on their eye and ear protection and started shooting.
They started with the Battle Rifles; the gun had excellent long range with a 2X scope on the mount. It fired single shots while zoomed, but became automatic while not zoomed. Which made it a good close range weapon as well. The team had no trouble putting the bullets where they wanted them to go, so they moved onto the SMGs.
The SMGs were not an effective long-range weapon due to the terrible accuracy while aiming at targets more than 20 metres away. However they made up for that in close range combat. The team quickly realised that the SMGs should not be used as long-range weapons and moved their targets to ten metres. As soon as they opened fire the sheer number of bullets tearing through the paper and wood blew the targets apart. Using two SMGs made the job that much quicker, though you lost some accuracy it didn't really matter at that distance.
The Sharks spent their hour perfecting their technique with the new guns, and basically had fun. After their hour was over they slung their guns and hauled the crates back out to the Warthog's trailer.
"Sir," Parsons said, "Do we have any more time at the range tomorrow?"
"You, bet", replied Sean, "But tomorrow were only taking 10 clips of ammo for each gun, so we don't use up to much. So you'll have to concentrate on your targets more and not fire every where at once."
"That's fine by me," answered Ding, "As long as we get to do more shooting, soon."
The Sharks got back to their barracks and spent the rest of the day talking about the guns and what they were going to do to the next Covenant that walked into their cross hairs.
The next day was spent in much the same fashion; they went to the shooting range at 1200 hours and practiced everything.
They were called to HQ at 1500 hours to be briefed on their up coming patrol.
They learned that there had been many Covenant sightings in the last 48 hours and that there would be double the amount of patrols as usual.
What they weren't told was that highflying radar planes had found a huge encampment of Covenant forces 74 miles to the southeast and that the Generals feared an attack within the month. The base's long-range communications were being jammed and that they had sent Skyhawk jump jets out to try and get word to the closest bases before it was to late.
Destiny Chapter 4
Date: 24 June 2004, 1:07 AM
0400 Hours February 5th 2550 (Military Calendar)/ Destiny, M.F.B. Aqua, Sharks Barracks
"Everybody up!" screamed Sean.
The Marines rolled over and got out of bed.
"Damn Serge, it's early," yawned Doc, looking at the clock beside his bed.
"We've got patrol today," said Sean already dressed in his full combat suit, "We should get a head start."
Since Sean was already dressed and loaded up he split the teams ammo that they would be taking and put it into the two Warthogs. He had grabbed ammo for the SMGs, Battle Rifles, Rocket Launcher and Sniper Rifle, as well as two shotguns and ammo, and extra two pistols and ammo.
The Marines got dressed then headed to the weapons storage room to grab their guns, armour, and all the other personnel equipment that they carried. This included a small map of the area, a water canteen, grenades, a small but powerful com pack for sending and receiving signals from sources other than the squads private com channel, a tiny pair of binoculars, and a small survival kit.
They put all this equipment in their pockets and a small, almost weightless backpack that fit under the back plate of their armour.
All of this equipment plus the weight of ammo and guns felt like a lot when you didn't have adrenaline pumping through your system, and it was four in the morning.
"Damn, this shit weights a lot," whined Louse, who had the team's long distance radio, which was quite large.
"Quit your complaining, man," said Parsons, "Dings got it the worst with the rocket launcher, and you don't hear him complaining." That shut Louse up.
After that Doc grabbed the sandwiches they had made for lunch the night before, and put them in the Warthogs. The team was ready to go in under 15 minutes. They opened the huge hangar door and drove out, shutting it behind them.
They slowly drove through the quiet base, coming to the massive titanium A doors 10 minutes later. The guards on duty opened the doors after writing down the team's name and time of departure.
The squad watched silently as the huge doors slide apart allowing them to drive out into the wilderness, and the unknown.
The Marines were always a little nervous about going out on patrol, but after a few years they got used to it.
What they didn't know was that going out on duty this day, may have saved their lives.
The sky was overcast and the sun had yet to climb into view, as the team drove down a side path that led away from the bases main road.
They didn't talk much, just to report in every so often.
After they drove for a couple of hours, they reached the base of a tall hill. It wasn't the same one that they had attacked the Covenant patrol on the other say, but it was about the same size. They parked the Hog's off to the side of the path and climbed the hill to get a good look at the surrounding area, and have a break.
"Stay sharp everyone," Sean said, "You all heard the Intel. last night, there is increased Covenant activity in the area, so keep your eyes peeled."
The squad acknowledged their Sergeant, and set up positions around the top of the hill. Once again Archer climbed a tree and set the radar dish at the top, then found a nice branch that gave him a clear view and started to scan the area with his sniper rifle. Sean and Louse were sitting under the tree looking east, and watching the radar screen.
"O.K." Sean said to Louse, "Scan for any movement starting at one mile, then work your way out one mile at a time."
They were all silent for a while, carrying out their orders in silence. Sean was fiddling with the large radio Louse had carried up to the top of the hill with them. He was trying to get the range as far as possible, to hear the reports from the base. It was along shot but he didn't have anything better to do, with all the eyes watching, nothing would be able to sneak up on them. All of a sudden there was a loud crackle and an urgent voice interrupted by a lot of static. The voice identified its self as Major Weasley of Aqua Base.
"...attack, repeat we are und... ttack. This is Major Weasley of Aqua base and we ...under attack. Send any and all help immediately, ... message is set to repeat every 15 seconds. All patrols are ordered to return as quickly as possible."
Sean looked up, "Holy Shit!" "Boys, Aqua base is under attack and we've been ordered to return now!"
"What?" Archer said grinning, from 20 feet above in the tree, "Are you sure you got enough sleep last night?"
"I heard it," piped in Louse, "Major Weasley said they were under attack and we had to get back now!"
"That Prick?" Ding said, "Why would he be radioing that in, shouldn't the General be sending that out?"
"Maybe the General is dead," Sean said quickly, "It doesn't matter, were going now!" "So pack up your shit up, and haul ass back to the Hogs!"
The squad did as they were ordered and began to trot down the hill, now realising that their Sergeant was serious they ran even faster. The Marines hopped in the Hogs and took off, it had taken them three and a half hours to get here, but if they put the pedal to the metal they might be able to shave off an hour.
After an hour and a half of driving at top speed they could start hearing garbled voices, issuing orders and reports.
It didn't sound good; the Covenant had gotten through the Eastern gate and had taken out most of the guns on that wall. Though they had suffered heavy casualties on the first attempt to breach the wall, they had attempted to overwhelm the guns with as many targets as possible, but it didn't work. On the second attempt they threw everything they had and managed to get the one gate, and open it. (Or melt through it) Letting in the rest of their forces, was a huge advantage for the Covenant and the Marines were having some serious trouble holding them at the gate. The Covenant were slowly getting into the rest of the base and wreaking havoc.
"We have to get back there now!" shouted Sean over the roar of the engines.
"We're going as fast as we can Sir!" yelled Parsons, who was driving Sean's Hog.
The path was narrow, winding and very broken rough ground. It was little more than a cow path and they were already doing 50 miles an hour, going any faster and they could loose it going around a turn.
After another hour , they were getting close and they started to see signs of battle; bits of purple metal and charred bodies of vehicles and their occupants. Most looked as if they had been hit by hundreds of bullets but some had huge holes in the side which were most likely from the bases huge Argent VIII missile batteries.
"Damn, looks like the Covenant took one helluva beating," said Ding.
"Just wait 'till we get in the base, then you'll see some of our boys, like that," said Doc.
The team finally made it back to the base entrance they had left through this morning to find it half ajar and bent inwards about 80 degrees. They were horrified at the raw power it must have taken to melt those doors enough to do that.
"Shit," Sean said quietly to himself. Then more loudly he said over the com., "All right boys, lock and load your weapons it's party time! Eyes open, drivers take us around the streets to the mess hall and we'll see what we can do to help."
The drivers gunned the Warthogs and sent the team in with good speed. The base was a mess; there were dead bodies everywhere. Firefights were raging all along the streets, and the command frequency was in disarray.
There were orders and please for help flooding the channel until it was almost impossible to hear anything.
The squad was now half way to the mess hall and had run into a roadblock, it was straight ahead, so they veered around the left corner of the four-way intersection, while the Laags poured fire onto the Covenant and their vehicles clogging up the road. There were two ghosts, and a Covenant 'Bus', there was a grunt in the top turret and the rest of the soldiers who had ridden in on it were taking cover around it and the two ghosts.
"O.K." Sean's voice came over the com, "Ding pull out a Rocket Launcher and load it up. When we hit the intersection take out the 'Bus' and the ghosts, then we'll ram through with the Hogs."
Ding pulled the launcher out and loaded it, "Ready," he said over the com.
"O.K." lets go!" ordered Sean through the teams com.
Parsons and Doc floored the gas pedals and the Hogs, flew up to the intersection. Ding let a rocket loose and it struck the 'Bus'. Four jackals that were crouched behind their shields nearby were blown sideways. The rest of the Covenant were showered with hot metal as the rocket blew the 'Bus' sideways.
It tipped to its left side, and tottered there for a second then came crashing down on top of the three Grunts who couldn't run fast enough to get out of the way. The Grunt in the turret fell out and scampered for cover.
Ding had just let the second rocket go. It sailed straight and detonated on the Ghost to the left of the Bus, flipping it over and onto the Elite standing next to it.
By this time the Covenant had figured out what was going on and started to return fire. Most of the plasma bolts flew wide as the two Hogs raced through the debris. Though some connected and splashed over the windshield and hood causing minimal damage.
"Yahoo!" screamed Louse who was gunning on the second Warthog, mowing down the Elite as it tried to struggled to get from under the Ghost.
The squad was very close to the mess hall now, and heard a sudden roar of engines. Up ahead they saw the two Condors taking off from the landing pads. They began to draw fire, and one of them had explosions rip through the left side, it keeled over to the left and dropped like a stone. It smashed into a hangar and everything went up in a huge ball of flames.
"Oh, shit," yelled Archer through the com. "They must have landed on the gas pumps!"
The second Condor managed to get up and the pilot gunned the engines, and took them out at high speed, heading west.
Just as they were about to head deeper into the base, a voice broke through the command channel, "This is Major Weasley, I am herby ordering all Marine forces from the base. You are to scramble; do not lead the Covenant to any other bases. As soon as you are sure that you are not being followed report to the nearest outpost."
"Whoa, did you hear that, Sir?" asked Doc.
"Yes I did," Sean replied," Turn these Hogs around, we're heading back to the barracks, boys. As soon as we get there I want Parsons warming up the Pelican, Doc grabbing all the food and water he can find. Ding and Louse gassing up the least damaged Warthog and attaching it to the Pelican. Archer I want you to fill up the spare gas tank with fuel for the Pelican and store it in the tail section, I'll grab the ammo crates and any other equipment I can, understood?"
Five acknowledgment lights winked, then Sean added, "I want this done in ten minutes, no more."
The team raced back through the streets, there were more Covenant inside the base now, and the Marines were running, driving and flying out of the base. The Sharks came up to their barracks and used a remote opener to open the hangar door, just enough to fit the Warthogs through. They quickly drove inside and closed the door, then set about their tasks.
Parsons ran over and opened the roof door before hopping in the Pelican and firing up the engines. Ding and Louse refuelled the Warthog that was in the best condition and filled the Laag's ammunition chamber before pulling down the four arms on the Pelicans tail and latching them onto the Warthog.
Doc ran into the team's small storage area and grabbed all that was there. It wasn't much but he thought that the 10 cans of soup, dried beef jerky and 20, one-litre bottles of water were better than nothing. He stuffed it all into a large duffel bag he found on the floor and ran back to the Pelican, throwing the bag onto one of the seats he kept running right into the weapons/equipment storage where Sean was.
"What can I help you with?" Doc said to Sean as he skidded to a halt.
"Grab one of the HP 700 radios, all the field medical kits and all the extra body armour you can carry, throw it in the Pelican than come back and help me load these crates with MA5B and ammo."
Doc quickly ran out into the hangar -his arms full- to find Archer, Louse and Ding wrestling the spare gas tank into the Pelicans tail section. He threw the gear in the back (they'd have to arrange it all once they got into the air) and ran back to Sean.
"Almost got it all," Sean said grabbing the last armful of ammunition for the MA5Bs. They sealed the three crates and piled them onto a trolley (with difficulty, since they weighed more now than when they had first got them) and wheeled them out as fast as possible without dumping the crates everywhere- because the trolley was not meant for that kind of weight.
"Everything ready?" asked Sean.
"Yes, Sir," replied Archer, "The spare gas tank is loaded, and we've just quickly moved all of the gear to the middle compartment so we don't lose it."
They all pitched in and hauled the heavy crates to the small middle storage section. And it was smalll, the first two crates had to be slid in sideways on either side of the path to the cockpit, while the third crate was stacked on top of the left crate to fit it all. The other gear, which included Doc's food and equipment in the duffel, was strapped down in a web like bag on top of the right crate.
All this only took nine minutes, but it was nine minutes the Covenant had used to move deeper into the base and start entering buildings to clear out stragglers.
There was a sudden sizzling and popping sound heard, everyone looked around, but Parsons who was up in the cockpit was the one who found where it was coming from.
"Oh, shit! They're melting through the hangar door!"
He quickly activated the Pelicans 70mm chin gun and opened fire on the door. Hundreds of rounds dimpled the door, allowing the bright sunlight to shine through the bullet holes. The squeals of Grunts and the wail of an Elite told Parsons that he had done the job well.
"Sir," Parsons said quickly over the com. "I think we should leave now the Covenant are trying to get in, and they won't give up that easily."
"I agree," said Sean. "We've spent too long here, most of the Marines will have left by now. We should go too."
The Sharks all quickly hopped into the pelican, Doc (Parsons co-pilot) ran up to the cockpit to help out.
Parsons voice came over the team's com. "I suggest everyone sit down and buckle up until we're clear of the base, this is gonna be one helluva ride!"
They all did as he suggested, Ding sat on the left side, in the seat closest to the open back of the Pelican with a Rocket Launcher. He was ready to take out any Banshees that might harass them when they got into the air.
"Here we go," said Parsons over the com.
The Pelican lifted off the ground, and the four legs supporting them off the ground retracted into the side of the Pelican. They quickly got into the air above the hangar and saw a scene straight from hell.
There were Banshees everywhere; Pelicans trying to take off were taking fire from the air and the ground. Many exploded in mid air and fell back onto the hangars where they came from. Some made it up and managed to get going but they were still taking heavy fire from everywhere.
"Hang on!" Parsons yelled and gunned the Pelicans engines before they were at optimum height to start moving.
As soon as they moved four Banshees turned and chased them.
"Ding," Sean yelled, "Take out those Banshees!"
"I'll try" he responded, " But I gotta shoot around this Warthog too!"
The Banshees were gaining ground on them and started firing. The Pelican swerved to avoid the plasma bolts and threw everyone against their harnesses. Ding recovered quickly and tracked one of the banshees.
He pulled the trigger and sent a 102mm rocket to intercept the Banshee. When it hit, it completely obliterated the aircraft. Ding quickly tracked another and blew it out of the air as well.
"I'm out of rockets!" he called over the com.
"Shit," Sean swore.
He was wondering what he could do to get rid of the Banshees, because getting up and walking over to the storage room where more were sitting wasn't really an option since he didn't feel like being thrown out the back by the constantly swerving Pelican. As soon as he had decided to do just that the closest Banshee exploded, quickly followed by the last one.
"What did you do?" he asked Ding.
"Nothing, they just exploded," he answered, looking confused.
Parsons voice came over the com. "Sir, we just received a transmission from the bases defensive A.I. It was the Argent VIII Missile Batteries took care of the Banshees for us. It also said that we are clear of any pursuits and sent the trajectory of the Condor, advising us to follow it since it sustained heavy damage on take off. It suggested that we give any assistance that they require. What would you like me to do, it's off course from the nearest base by 75 degrees and if we follow it very far we will be along way from any other base."
Sean processed the information for a few seconds, then said, "Follow the Condor's trajectory and notify me if we catch it, or if we find it crashed along the way."
"Roger that, Sir," Parsons replied, "I'd like to take us to 500 feet so we save some fuel, we'll also be able to see the Condor on the ground if it landed, if our sensors don't pick it up."
"Proceed. All right boys, lets get some shuteye. Doc and Parsons keep flying and wake us up in six hours, if nothing happens before then."
Everyone understood, so Ding, Archer, Louse and Sean pulled their helmets over their eyes, strapped themselves into their seats and tried to get some sleep over the roar of the Pelican.
Sean intended to head towards the nearest base, when he woke up, if they hadn't run across the Condor by that time.
The Condor had a lot more fuel capacity than the Pelican, though Sean doubted that the Condor's tank would be full, since they were doing repairs when the Covenant attacked, and it was standard procedures to empty the aircraft of all fuels before starting any major repair.
With any luck though, they would find the Condor and get the hell out of there. The day had already taken a turn for the worst; Sean just hoped it wouldn't get any messier.
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