 |
About This Site
Daily Musings
News
News Archive
Site Resources
Concept Art
Halo Bulletins
Interviews
Movies
Music
Miscellaneous
Mailbag
HBO PAL
Game Fun
The Halo Story
Tips and Tricks
Fan Creations
Wallpaper
Misc. Art
Fan Fiction
Comics
Logos
Banners
Press Coverage
Halo Reviews
Halo 2 Previews
Press Scans
Community
HBO Forum
Clan HBO Forum
ARG Forum
Links
Admin
Submissions
Uploads
Contact
|
|
|
Feet First All The Way, E Company’s Story by Crazy-Ivan
|
Intodution and Part I:Eath
Date: 18 August 2005, 12:48 am
Feet First, All The Way, E Company's Story
Introduction
2602 Reach, Epsilon Eridani System
I first meet Lt. Colonel Demitri Romidovskii, UNSC (ret.) at the 15th Echo Co. reunion at the Covenant War Memorial in orbit around Reach. I was their to research the early years of what is now known as the Great War, the Covenant War, or any number of other names. I had been to reach several times before, mostly as a young ODST.
Today was slightly different; it was my first time back to Reach since 2551. The planet brought back many memories, some good, some bad. Many of the E co. veterans had similar memories, those of old friends, and of old nightmares as they looked out at the light of Epsilon Eridani reflecting off the planet. It would have been a beautiful vista, save for all the death the reflective coating on the planet symbolized.
Myself an old member of the 582nd Jet Drop Platoon I felt it important that a book be written to honor those Marines and Helljumpers that fought to protect humanity in its darkest days. This is the story of the most highly decorated, surviving non-SPARTIN unit in the UNSC. This is the story of Echo Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Orbital Drop Division, Orbital Drop Corps, UNSC.
Part One: Earth
Chapter 1
2553, Madrid (formerly in Spain), Earth, Sol System
Earth, despite its crowded slums and pollution problems it was the crown jewel of the United Nation's celestial 'empire,' or at least what was left of it by 2553. It was the 'spiritual;' political; and, since the Fall of Reach, the Military center of humanity. For the second time in the twenty-eight-year struggle with the Covenant it was under attack. The large Orbital Defense Platforms were the first echelon of defense, but their days, indeed their hours were now numbered by the unrelenting assault by the Prophet of Truth's fleet. When they fell, the task of being the last line of resistance fell to the Marines and Orbital Shock Drop Troopers groundside.
The Earth defense program, masterminded by Lord Fleet Admiral Sir Terrance Hood CinC UNSC Sol System required the stationing of all available Orbital Drop (OD) Regiments from the last three OD Divisions left after Reach to be stationed around the world in such a manner that at least one could be anywhere in the world within three hours in the event of a Covenant invasion. Within five hours an entire OD Division and at least two Marine divisions could be at the sight of an invasion.
The 506th Regement was stationed at Thatcher Air Force Base outside Madrid. It had been on full alert for an hour, ever since the first Covenant ships entered the Earth Defense Perimeter.
Covent Super Cruiser Holy Justice, above Earth
"My lord, the enough Human battle stations have been wiped out to allow us to land a force on Earth. Unfortunately our ground forces are reduced to fifty percent, the cursed humans have put up a good fight." Said the Jiralhanae Fleet Master.
"Excellent, do not bother wiping out the other stations, there are more important tasks at hand. Out time here is short, and the Great Journey is about to begin! Launch the attack, Rasius.
Madrid Airfield, Madrid, Earth
WOOOP WOOOP WOOOP. The alert sirens roused the men of Echo out of their bunks (even troops at full alert need their sleep) at 0500. Their gear was ready to go, and the entire 506th was lined up on the tarmac at 0506, dawn was peaking over the horizon. The men were briefed by Colonel Omar Johnson, the Commander of the 506th.
"Men, today we face an old enemy. Covenant forces have landed at Gaza in what was formerly Egypt. The 505th will be on site in half an hour, Home Guard Militia units are being overrun. Our ETA is four and one half hours, move out."
The men of Echo loaded into their pelicans. Each Company had 175 men and officers along with a mortar section of three 81mm tubes. Battalion HQ Company had an eight 81mm tubes and a recon section of three Warthog Light Armored Vehicles.
The D77 Pelicans were all underway by 0510 escorted by two squadrons of C601 Skyhawk fighter-boomers. The convoy, rather than taking a ballistic rout that would have attracted fire from Covenant warships, flew at only 1,000 feet. At that altitude fuel burned quicker and progress was slower, fortunately there was a tailwind that made the going slightly faster.
"ETA ten minutes." Said the pilot over the intercom, four hours and forty minutes later, to Sergeant Bill Gehris. He stood and held out the fingers on both his hands towards his squad.
"TEN MINUETS!" He yelled over the roar of the engines. The Pelican flight dived as low as possible to avoid the Covenant version of radar. The Skyhawks dived too but accelerated, surging forward of the Pelicans. The fighter-bombers hugged the ground, racing towards the Covenant positions. As they passed over the retreating HDF and Marine forces they popped up to 600 feet and each drooped four Hammer-III Gravity Cluster Bombs. The bombs dropped 100 feet and broke apart releasing thousands of small bomblits. The bomblits floated down on parachutes to 200 feet and exploded, sending slugs of molten metal into Covenant infantry, cutting though them like a scythe. The Skyhawks pulled up and engaged the Seraphs with their AGSM-9 missiles (smaller versions of the AGSM-10). The Seraphs returned fire with their plasma cannons, opening their backs to attack from the south. Two entire wings of Skyhawks popped up from under Convent sensors and attacked the Seraphs in a pincer motion from the south and east.
UNSC forces now had total air superiority and worked on taking out ground based anti-aircraft instillations with more Hammer –IIIs, Anvil-II and autocannon fire. The C709s caught nearly twenty Apparitions (dropships) with their figurative pants down and had a turkey shoot.
"ETA five minuets." Said the pilot. Gehris stood up and walked to the back of the transport. He held up five fingers.
"FIVE MINUETS! EQUIPMENT CHECK!" The ODSTs lined up along the center of the transport, holding on to an overhead bar.
"TWELVE READY!" Yelled Martinez.
"ELEVEN READY!" The men called out in order down to Gehris.
"ONE READY!" Yelled Gehris. "STAND BY!"
D77-GS gunships spotted a likely landing zone, the park in the middle of the city. Two of them went into a steep turn and strafed the park with their two quad mounts of 70mm Autocanons and Anvil-II missile pods
The aft troop door of the Pelican opened, giving the troopers a view of the city flying by beneath them. The Pelicans rotated their vectored thrust pulse detonation engines, causing rapid deceleration. The Helljumpers held onto an overhead railing with one hand and held their weapons, mostly MA55s (a Special Forces variant of the BR55) with their other. The Pelicans came to a rolling stop, giving the troopers just enough time to jump down from the craft at ten feet above the surface. Upon landing the ODSTS ran to the perimeter, taking refuge behind pieces of rubble left by the gunships.
Captain Demitri Romidovskii was the first Echo Co. man on the ground. He set up a temporary headquarters along the southern perimeter and waited for his company to regroup. His task was to link up with the remnants of the 505th, holed up in an old apartment complex about one klick south of the LZ. The rest of second Battalion's task was to hold the LZ until relived. Strangely enough, the rest of the 506th was to secure the Great Pyramids about three klicks away from the LZ, on the other side of the Nile. These orders had come directly from the ONI and again from High Command. Only 2nd Battalion and the 505th would actually be in the city, until a larger Marine force arrived.
"Echo, move out. 2nd Platoon on left flank, 1st Platoon center, 3rd Platoon right flank, 4th reserve. Lets make the covies wish they never tangled with the Helljumpers!"
Covent Super Cruiser Holy Justice, above Earth
The Kig-Yar orderly handed the communication to the High Prophet of Truth. He swiveled his chair to watch the Seraphs return to the Super Carrier Divine Jurisdiction.
"May humanity be infested by the parasite! Elosi, how did the humans gain air superiority?"
"They came in bellow our radar. While they distracted us with one group, more struck from behind."
"Who was the Air Group commander, Rasius?"
"A Jiralhanae, Yavin Yo'dula"
"Order him to report to Holy Justice, immediately. Send one someone more competent to straighten this mess out. Go straight for the Ark, waste as little time as possible on the humans."
Gaza, Earth
Gehris's squad moved cautiously down the street. They were on point; other squads followed behind and cleared out buildings. The building clearing slowed down the advance, but it prevented Covenant forces from ambushing the company from behind.
The Echo troopers could now smell the battle. The distinctive smell of ionized air caused by plasma blasts and the even more distinct smell of burnt cordite. From seemingly nowhere a bright purple beam cut a neat hole in the head of the man next to Gehris.
"SNIPER!" The ODSTs dove for cover. Another beam split the tarmac where Corporal Ian McKee, Gehris's assistant squad leader had been standing seconds earlier. Eli Kravitz, the platoon's sniper, switched his scope to infrared at two times normal magnification. He made out two Jackals on either side of a catwalk above the street. He switched back to normal and used his SRS99C-S2 AM to sever the neck of the first Jackal. The sodium head on the bullet left a distinct vapor trail back to Kravitz. The second Jackal leaned out to get a shot off at the new threat, too far. Its head exploded from a three round burst from Gehris's MA55.
"Echo 1-2 to Echo 0. We have made contact with enemy forces: two Jackal snipers. Over"
"Rodger Echo 1-2, they know were hear now."
Hotel Gaza, overlooking East Nile apartment complex, Earth
Another fuel rod projectile from a Lekgolo ripped into the building, causing the top floor to crumble. A vapor trail from another building connected with the fuel rod gun, causing it to detonate wiping out the Lekgolo's Bond Brother and several Unggoy.
The Jiralhanae smelled the foul methane gas released from the Unggoys' rebreather apparatus, but took little notice. The Unggoys he could care less about, most of them had sided with the heretics anyway. But the Lekgolos were excellent fighters; unfortunately most of them had sided with the Heretics as well.
He paid little attention to those fleeting thoughts, there were more important things on his mind: he didn't expect the humans to try to rescue this insignificant force. "Crush them, send Specters, Ghosts, Shadows, anything just crush them."
Covent Super Cruiser Holy Justice, above Earth
"Ensure that you gain total air superiority. After that we will deploy as much of our infantry forces as possible. I will personally visit the Ark to begin the Great Journey." This time there would be no botching up; the commander of Divine Jurisdiction's air group himself would lead the attack. "Send Yo'dula up to my quarters." Truth left the bridge for his quarters, directly aft of the bridge.
Yo'dula entered, escorted by two Jiralhanaei of the Prophet's Guards Force carrying plasma tipped spears. "Come with me Yo'dula, I wish to speak to you."
Yo'dula followed the prophet down the corridor and into a lift, still restrained by honor guards. "Yo'dula," said Truth. "You have failed me. You allowed yourself to be defeated by these barbaric pagans, the Humans. Either you are a nitwit or a heretic. The Covenant does not promote nitwits to positions of leadership such as yours, that leaves one possibility" he said ominously.
The lift stopped, and Yo'dula, Truth and the guards exited. "I would have preferred to infect you with the Parasite, but that would have been to risky, and we have none onboard. This will have to do." They entered a room with a glowing circle in the middle of the floor and a glass dome over it. The sun was directly over the dome. In the middle of the circle was an energy restrainer assembly, temporarily placed by the guards.
Yo'dula was secured in the restrainer, each cuff held a wrist. "Do you know what this device is Yo'dula?" Truth asked the bewildered Jiralhanaei.
"An air lock."
"Exactly, begin now." One of the guards pressed a button. An energy shield was emitted from the circle, extending to an identical one around the dome. The dome slid open, allowing the sun's unfiltered rays to beat down on him. Third degree burns appeared almost immediately; the pressure inside of his body caused the abdominal cavity to rupture. The disgraced Jiralhanaei was dead before he had time to suffocate.
Gaza, Earth
Hundreds of Seraph fighters swarmed down. The Skyhawks fired off their remaining AGSM-9s and engaged the Covenant single ships with autocannons. Bolts of superheated plasma evaporated most of the Skyhawks before they got in range. The remaining fighters broke and ran, pursued by the Seraphs.
Pelican Tango 1 and Tango 2 came in low over the desert. Both dropships in the flight carried AGSM-40 anti-starship missiles with FURY tactical nuclear weapons mounted in their warheads. In addition to the standard three-man flight crew there was a single weapons officer in the troop bay of each Pelican.
"Tango 1 to Tango 2, our "40" has acquired its target. Launch on my mark. Five…Four," the weapons officer disengaged all safeties on the AGSM-40s. "Three…Two," the missile's engine activated, giving the Pelicans a boost of speed. "One…MARK", the missiles were released with a ten second fuse. The dropships decelerated and pulled up, executed a roll and flew back to Cairo airbase along their entry path. The AGSM-40s flew into the center of the Covenant fighter pack and detonated, completely whipping out most of the Seraphs. A wing of fresh Skyhawks out of Cairo downed the rest.
"Echo 1, Echo 1, we have made contact with enemy, three ghosts." Gehris said over his EMP hardened radio as he hid behind a dumpster as one of the ghosts rushed past. He let of a three round burst. The Brute on the ghost slowed to turn and return fire, putting him in the middle of the hiding rifle squad. Eleven MA55s poured lead into the Brute, several of the rounds entering the head. McKee took the Brute's red plasma riffle as a souvenir. Kravitz put a 14.5 mm round through the next Brute's head. The third Brute wildly fired plasma down the street. Gehris felt the super heated air as a plasma bolt melted thought the dumpster above his head. PFC Lowe shouldered a M19 Jackhammer missile launcher, and fired one of the two rockets into the ghost, reducing it to hot scrap metal.
Gehris's men whooped and hollered over their victory. The sergeant smiled under his helmet and look at his motion sensor (a relatively large hand held box, rather than the built in motion sensor system in the MJOLNIR armor used by the SPARTAN IIs). His smile faded.
"Multiple motion sensor contacts around the corner!" the squad scrambled back into position. A blue sphere of plasma lazily arched above the building to Gehris's right and detonated five meters in front of him, putting a crater in the pavement.
Three Specters rounded the corner, firing random bursts of plasma. Lowe scored a hit with the Jackhammer. Kravitz took out the gunner on the second one. PFC Martinez reloaded Lowe's launcher. Lowe locked the launcher on the next one. The alien vehicle tried to dodge, but the missile followed. More Specters rounded the corner with two Shadows and squadron of Ghosts. Jackals and Brutes disgorged from the Shadows. One of the platoon's machine gun sections fired into the swarm of aliens from a rooftop. Martinez fired the last of his rockets into the Specters. Two Wraiths rounded the corner and destroyed the machine gun. McKee called in mortar fire from the company's 81mm mortars. Jackhammer missiles from other squads tore into the Covenant infantry. More Shadows rounded the corner. Drones popped up from around the buildings and tore into the ODSTs with plasma rifles. Several rockets destroyed a Wraith. Two Brutes lobed grenades from their launchers behind the ODSTs shrapnel cut down the Helljumpers like ripe wheat. Mortar rounds landed, a lucky hit took out the second Wraith. Martinez took a plasma bolt thought the chest. A plasma grenade from a drone stuck to Lowe, he screamed and franticly tried to tear it off him, to no avail.
"FALL BACK, FALL BACK!" Boyle yelled through his radio. Men broke cover and ran, many were cut down by plasma. Gehris popped a smoke grenade to cover his retreat and ran backwards, spraying rounds into the smoke. Specters and Shadows charged after the retreating Helljumpers.
A 25mm MAC round tore thought the lead Shadow. Two Jackhammer missiles knocked out the Specters. Captain Romidovskii jumped out of the passengers' seat of the lead Warthog, discarding the empty Jackhammer launcher.
The gunner on the first Hog used his thermal vision system to put another round from his Gauss gun into a Specter. The .50 caliber chain guns on the other two Warthogs chewed up the Jackals and Brutes.
Chapter 2
Outside Solus System
Pinpoints of light heralded Task Force 290's exit from Slipspace. Fleet Admiral Stanforth surveyed his Task Force from his flagship, Leviathan. Over 200 ships of almost all classes and types: Atlas and Trafalgar class carriers; Marathon, Unyielding, Falkland, and Halcyon class Cruisers; Comanche, Solstice, Hammerhead, Nebula, and Keyes class destroyers. Protector, Magellan, Conquistador, Cook, and Clark class Frigates; as well as several slipspace capable private yachts commandeered by FLEETCOM.
His most promising vessels were the twenty Keyes class Destroyers. They were the first ships built specifically to battle the Covenant. They had gotten rid of the two meters of Titanium-A battleplate, relatively useless against Plasma. They were cheaper and quicker to build, faster and far more maneuverable and than other ships. They each had forty Archer missile pods and two MAC guns. The MAC guns had their own fusion generator in addition to the ships main one and could hold enough energy in their capacitors to fire two consecutive MAC rounds apiece. Both MAC guns could recharge in nearly a minuet.
The fleet had 240 warships plus twenty converted yachts. Not nearly enough to combat over 300 Covenant ships, but Stanforth had one advantage over the aliens, desperation.
TF 290 move in-system, thought the Oort cloud and past the orbit of Pluto, moving at nearly one half AU/minuet. As the TF moved towards Earth the Covenant fleet turned and jumped into slipspace, exiting in front of TF 290. MAC rounds tore into the Covenant ships as their shields recharged after the slipspace jump Archer missiles followed. The alien ships retuned fire with pulse lasers as they turned sideways and charged their plasma torpedoes. The Keyes class destroyers fired a second volley of MAC rounds and missiles.
Nineteen Covenant ships were gutted. A lucky hit destroyed the antimatter reactor on a destroyer. The resulting explosion knocked out two frigates and damaged a cruiser. Holy Justice and her two sister ships, positioned far behind the rest of the fleet, fired brilliant white beams that sliced thought the carrier Iron Bottom Sound and the cruisers Napoleon and [I]Winchester.
The Covenant fired their plasma torpedoes. The Keyes class destroyers fired a third MAC volley, then 'dived'. Each destroyer had plasma torpedoes trailing it. They executed Keyes Loops. Three mistimed it and slammed headlong into Covenant shields. Others failed to shake off the torpedoes; they quickly melted thought their thin armor. The rest managed to break the homing lock and send the plasma into Covenant ships.
The Keyes class destroyers fired a volley of MAC rounds and Archer missiles into the alien vessels at almost point blank range and then transferred all power to their engines, retreating at almost the speed of light. Longsword fighters engaged the Covenant ships with Shiva nuclear missiles and retreated.
The Keyes class destroyers quickly passed the rest of the TF, which in turn did and about face and fled, leaving two carriers and the hulks of destroyed starships behind. The Covenant deployed hundreds of Seraphs after the C709s. The Longswords returned to the carriers in time for landing as the Seraphs arrived.
As the last of the Longswords entered the docking bay the carriers made a slipspace jump. Some of the single ships were sucked into the slipspace rupture; their pilots would slowly asphyxiate, as they had no way to exit slipspace. The rest were annihilated by the blast that the ship made when entering slipspace.
The reminder of the Covenant fleet chased the retreating UNSC ships. As they passed through the space previously occupied by TF 290 a pattern of HAVOCK and NOVA nuclear weapons detonated, cutting the strength of the Covenant fleet in half. White beams from the three Covenant capital ships halved the cruisers Leviathan and Unyielding and the Keyes Class Destroyer Cote d' Azur. Leviathan's Archer missile pods exploded, completely gutting the ship. Plasma torpedoes cut into the fleet. The captain of one of the Keyes class destroyers fired four MAC rounds and then moved at top speed into the alien fleet, detonating his engines and destroying two alien frigates. Several Ship Masters jumped into slipspace in a desperate attempt to save themselves.
Captain Harvey Johnson of the Cruiser Bernard was now the highest-ranking officer in a task force that once held four Admirals. He now had to do the unthinkable: order the Frigates and other smaller ships to scuttle their ships with all hands inside the Covenant fleet. They would distract and damage the alien ships, possibly providing enough time to destroy as many of the Covenant ships as possible before his ship was destroyed.
Johnson never was a particularly religious man, but now, as he stared death in the face he realized the futility and meaningless of his own life. He hadn't prayed since childhood, but now he whispered a quick prayer, not really sure why.
"Comm-Captain, put me in contact with the rest of the TF."
"Aye sir."
"This is Captain Johnson. I am now in command of this task force. We have no other alternative, execute maneuver Omega." Johnson watched in silence as the TF's Frigates launched their lifepods to save as much of their crew as possible. The entire TF let off a MAC volley and the Frigates accelerated towards the Covenant fleet. The destroyers and cruisers no longer had to worry about maneuvering, all Covenant weapons were focused on the Frigates, allowing the larger ships to put all available power into firing their Magnetic Acceleration Cannons. The Frigates that finally made it through the gauntlet of plasma detonated their fusion reactors, tattering the Covenant fleet.
Covenant Super Cruiser Holy Justice
"Rasius, jump back to the barbarian planet, the super cruisers are our last vessels! Our two sister ships will remain to crush the last of the human fleet. But we must get to the Ark." The massive Covenant ship effortlessly jumped into slipspace. As they exited slipspace and waited for their shields to recharge after the jump Union, a Clark Class frigate left over from yesterday's battle put several Archer missiles and a MAC round through the fragile hull.
The entire ship shook with the impact. The Prophet of Truth panicked, suddenly fearing for his life. "JUMP, JUMP, jump into slipspace NOW Elosi!" Holy Justice jumped into slipspace. The other Super Cruisers not realizing the reason for the jump, made their own jumps. Leaving the victory to USNC. Each Marine, Pilot and Sailor knew, however there would be no more as the last ships in the UNSC Fleet limped Earthwards.
|
