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Blue Horizon Part Three: Proven Stratagem
Posted By: Cassus Falco<reillycarroll@bigpond.com>
Date: 17 April 2006, 12:39 am
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1109 Hours/ July 27, 2552 (Military Calender)/
Pedestrian Overpass 19, Blue Horizon, Alpha Caridanis IV
First Morning of Operation September
During the five minute run across the plaza and down the deserted highway towards the Scarab, Michael Richardson could do nothing but stare at his CO, seemingly resurrected from the dead, Julie Theresa Walters. Private Wallace seemed to be doing the same thing, though it was most likely the deaths of Nguyen, Lewis and Dubois that was irking him so. His eyes were wide and unfocused as they ran up the stairs of Pedestrian Overpass 19, the only chance they had of boarding a mighty Covenant Scarab and stopping it from reaching the Plaza of Serenity.
The three Marines bolted up the stairs, across to the middle of the overpass, before slumping to the deck.
"Captain, how did you…?" Richardson asked, breathing heavily after the run from the building he and his squad had taken cover in. The run had gone well, aside form the encounter with the Hunter; Chet Li and Lynette Davies had picked off most of the Covenant who had been in the plaza, before retreating into the building.
The three of them had then run past abandoned cars and trucks towards the overpass and the encroaching Scarab, perhaps the most deadly of the Covenant's ground vehicles.
Julie just smiled knowingly.
"I'll tell you once we've taken care of this Scarab. Okay?"
Richardson's radio crackled as he popped a cartridge into his MA5B Assault Rifle. "Shenandoah to Lieutenant Richardson, come in, over." The voice belonged to the UNSC Shenandoah's AI construct, Curie.
Richardson palmed the receiver over to Waters.
She nodded in thanks.
"This is Captain Waters. I'm with Lieutenant Richardson and Private Wallace on Pedestrian Overpass 19, two minutes away from Scarab contact. Over." Julie said into the radio. It crackled with static for a moment.
"Captain. It's good to hear that you're okay." This voice was not Curie's. Rather, it was the commander of the Shenandoah, Captain Lee King.
"Thank you, sir."
"Report." The Captain said as a way of acknowledging Waters' gratitude.
"We have three MA5B Assault Rifles, my shotgun and twelve frag grenades against a Scarab. Which, if I remember correctly, has aboard at least six Elites, twelve Grunts and four Jackals. Bad odds for them." Julie said, her jaw locked with a grim determination.
"Very well, Captain. As soon as you neutralise that Scarab, I'll send in a Pelican to pick up you and the rest of the squad. How many of your people are left, anyway?"
Julie was about to answer, when she was cut off by Curie.
"Seven, sir."
"Very well. I'll have Pelican India 492 ready to pick you up once you've completed your mission. Shenandoah, out." King cut the connection.
The distant footfalls of the Scarab suddenly became much louder.
"It's here!" Wallace shouted in warning.
As one, the three Marines stood.
They checked their weapons, making sure clips had been slotted in, that chambers had been cleared, that everything was ready for the inevitable battle on the Scarab that was now within minutes destroying the building in which four of their friends were sheltering.
Julie looked at her two Marines and she smiled. "Saddle up, Marines. Lock and load." She pumped her shotgun. "We have one hell of a Covenant motherfucker to bring down. You with me?"
"Yes, ma'am!" Richardson, with fire in his eyes cried. Wallace followed somewhat less enthusiastically.
"On three." Julie said. "One…two…three!"
All at once, Julie, Richardson and Wallace all dropped off the overpass, onto the Scarab directly beneath.
1105 Hours/ July 27, 2552 (Military Calender)/
Rendili Inc. Headquarters, off Plaza of Serenity, Blue Horizon, Alpha Caridanis IV
First Morning of Operation September
Felicia Hernandez was drifting in and out of a world between consciousness and blinding agony, until a sudden, sharp pain in her side suddenly ended the pain, and she slipped into a groggy, unpained, way-too-happy state. She gurgled a few words, but her drug-addled brain couldn't decipher the words of the person who was carrying her. She remembered being on the roof, before being hit by a carbine shot and being thrown backwards, before being lifted into the arms of one of her companions and being shot full of morphine. After the quick period of travelling, Hernandez found herself on the ground, under what appeared to be a desk. Her friend, the one who had ferried her from the roof where Nguyen had been murdered, Bashir, knelt by her side, helping her to get comfortable.
Even though her senses were scrambled by the painkiller, Felicia heard gunfire; the sharp, unmistakable crack of a sniper rifle, the whump whump whump of plasma rifle fire. Then both stopped.
She was dimly aware of Bashir moving to the door of the office he had taken her to. He stood there, as though listening intently for something.
He stepped through the door, MA5B in hand. He looked around the darkened corridor, just as the gunfire outside started up again
She heard sounds of movement, and a sudden scrape of metal on metal, then a resounding gunshot.
A spray of blood coated the wall above her head.
She would have screamed, but she was fighting too hard just to stay conscious. On the edges of her peripheral vision, she saw Bashir slump to the ground, and two black clad figures stepped over his corpse. They moved swiftly, silently towards her, but still she struggled, less and less as the drugs began to really take effect. She tried to shout for help, to key her radio, but all that returned was static, static that seemed to pierce her skull, that threatened to completely envelope her.
The black figures moved like shadows, soundless, barely visible. Absolutely frightening.
The black clad figures seemed to surround her, and suddenly she was off the ground, and then, she was off the face of galaxy, lost in her own little world.
She saw the events of the past twenty minutes over and again.
The Pelican crash.
The run to the relative safety of the building.
The death of the captain.
Nguyen, lying dead at her feet.
Her own wounding.
Bashir's cold-blooded murder.
Finally she saw what could only have been described as what she thought was her inevitable fate; death at the hands of theses mysterious people.
In her drug induced world of nothingness, she screamed.
But on the roof, Li and Davies, covering Richardson, Wallace and their mysterious, at least to them, female Marine benefactor, had no idea that Bashir had had the back of his head and half of his brain blown out and that their wounded friend was being carted off by unknown people, to an unknown fate…
1109 Hours/ July 27, 2552 (Military Calender)/
Covenant Scarab, Blue Horizon, Alpha Caridanis IV
First Morning of Operation September
Richardson was the first to hit the top of the Scarab, and pain burst along his right side, temporarily immobilising him. Next came Wallace, who, oddly, landed with cat-like perfection, and the seemingly resurrected Julie Waters followed, landing on the uppermost deck the same way as her second.
The two experienced Marines righted themselves, and ran towards the ramp at the rear of the Scarab that lead down to the main troop deck. Julie motioned left and Richardson and Wallace moved to the ramps left side, ready to run onto the deck in that direction. Julie herself went to right. With a wave of her hand, she brought all three Marines running out onto the troop deck. Julie lost sight of her fellows, and ran headlong into a blue-armoured Elite. The alien roared with shock and surprise.
It reached for its plasma rifle, but Julie didn't give it a chance.
She fired her weapon at the creature's head. Its shield flickered and disappeared in puff of blue energy. Its head soon disappeared in much the same way, but the blue wasn't a shield. It was the Covie's brain.
The thing's purple blood coated the beast's squat Grunt companions. The little methane-breathing aliens squealed, and Julie lowered her MA5B, opening fire with the machine gun, killing two of the little aliens.
"It's a human, get it!" shouted another Elite.
Julie spun about, lifted her shotgun. She fired at the large alien, but it leapt aside and her shot went wide, instead killing a Jackal. She saw Wallace and Richardson now, fighting a host of Grunts.
A sudden burst of noise, an unholy roar, brought her shotgun around. She saw an Elite, the Elite who had just gotten away, hurtling at her. She fired, but the shield merely flickered this time and didn't die. She was about to fire again when the alien ran into her. She was sent sprawling back the way she came.
Her shotgun left her hand, as did her MA5B. Her helmet was the next to go, falling from her head and rolling over the side of the Covenant war machine, her lucky charm, the gold chain and the attached crucifix, going down with it.
The Elite, tumbling with her, lost its grip on its plasma rifle and Julie seized the golden opportunity.
She planted her feet on the Elites midsection as they rolled to the end of the troop deck, directly adjacent to the ramp she had run down. A split second later she heaved with all her might, sending the confused, disoriented Elite flew into the air, before plummeting to the street below.
Over the crunch of the Scarab's legs
She took a second to right herself before turning back to where Richardson and Wallace were wiping out what few troops remained on the deck. She ran back to their position, but found herself face to face with a Grunt.
Realising she had no weapons, she grabbed out at the little creature's breathing apparatus.
She pulled with all her might, and the mask left the alien's face with a satisfying puff of methane and the Grunt's sudden cry of shock, before it began to choke. She swung the little thing off the side of the Scarab, where it could join its Elite comrade on the cold hard street below. Julie smiled with satisfaction. A hand on her shoulder sent her spinning, raising her hands lest she have to fight another Covenant.
Instead she saw Richardson offering her a plasma rifle he had scavenged from the body of an Elite.
"You might need this, ma'am." He said handing her the double pronged, purple Covenant weapon, smiling at her. "We do have a Scarab to conquer."
Julie smiled back at her friend. "Thanks, Michael."
Wallace stepped up, coated in electric blue blood. "I…I can't do this, ma'am."
Julie looked at the young Marine. He obviously wasn't in the best of it at that moment, but he didn't appear to be injured. "You hit, Marine?"
Wallace shook his helmeted head.
"Then suck it up. When we've beaten the Covenant off of Alpha Caridanis, I'll put in a request for you and the platoon for some shore leave, alright?" Whatever respect Water's had had for the rookie, it was dissipating quickly, even if though was a bit unfair. She had never personally frozen up, but she knew Marines who had.
"Yeah, but that's just it, isn't it?" Wallace shouted back. "Carrie, Tyson, Lewis, Arnie, Felicia, they ain't going to be able to fight the Covenant off! Because they're dead! Because you and Richardson, you're going to live, but the little people are going to die!"
"I don't have time for this." Julie turned towards the passageways that lead into the Scarab, her pilfered plasma rifle ready for battle. "Michael, let's go."
Michael pushed past Wallace rudely, hefting his MA5B. "Little motherfucking runt," the angry Marine lieutenant grunted.
Both of them left the dejected rookie standing on the troop deck as they descended into the Scarab's control centre. At the foot of the ramp they walked down were passageways into the control centre proper. Michael and Julie reached the passageways and took the left one, running into a blue coloured chamber decorated with hovering control holograms. At each of the six control surfaces stood Elites, all of them in black SpecOps armour. This was going to be tough.
Julie reached into her belt and took out a frag grenade. She pulled out the pin and heard the internal components click into place.
Unfortunately, so did the closest Elite.
The alien spun about, growling, as an energy sword flared into existence from its wrist.
It began to run towards Julie and Michael. The latter lifted his MA5B and poured fire at the Elite. Julie lobbed the grenade as the other Elites twisted around.
The frag grenade hit the deck and detonated as Richardson's clip ran dry.
The oncoming Elite's shield was down but still it kept on coming. Julie lifted her rifle and fired. The Elite's blood splattered the control deck.
Unfortunately, even as their most recent attacker died, the two Marines saw that the grenade had done nothing; the rest of the Elites were now running for them and the Scarab had now stopped.
Richardson popped in another clip and squeezed the trigger, bullets leaping from the barrel, but it was only a stopgap measure, and an ineffective one at that. Despite the bullets and the blasts from the plasma rifle, the five SpecOps Elites kept on coming, their shields sparking, yet still completely unhampered. And, then, on the edge of her vision saw Wallace. But it wasn't the young Marine she had seen, disgraced, up on deck. He had two heads, and a spike growing from his chest. It took a moment for Julie to realise what was happening; Wallace was carrying a Grunt's corpse, a corpse that seemed to have been covered with every grenade, whether it be Covenant plasma explosives or frag grenades.
Wallace ran past Julie and Richardson, carrying the Grunt's body. The Elites, suddenly faced with a charging human took steps back, for a moment confused. One lifted its plasma rifle and fired at Wallace.
The rookie Marine was struck by three bursts of azure plasma.
He was lifted and thrown backwards, leaving the Grunt behind. Wallace's broken form hurtled into Julie, bowling her over like a tenpin.
The Elites continued forward, ignoring the Grunt's corpse.
Then Wallace spoke, gurgling through his own blood. One word. "Bang."
The Grunt just exploded, every grenade crammed in its bright orange armour, or strapped to the creature's deceased form, exploded as one. Richardson threw himself atop Julie and Wallace, but it wasn't enough; the sudden wave of heat and pressure lifted all three Marines off the deck of the Scarab, hurling them into the rear wall.
Thankfully, the Elites faced a far worse fate.
All five were vaporised, their bodily fluids and parts of their formerly white, now scorched black and grey, armour decorating the strangely undamaged control deck.
Julie shook her head and crawled over to the wounded Wallace, who was clutching ragged, bloody tears in his flesh. "You did good, Wallace," She said comfortingly, trying to bring in a level of maternal warmth. "You were very brave."
The young Marine laughed, blood flecking his lips. "No I didn't. 'S you and d' Lieutenant dat did good. I did what I…" he trailed off for a moment, his words slurring, collapsing into a fit of coughing, blood splattering his face. He stopped for a moment to take a way-too-shallow breath. "I froze up der. I sorry."
"Don't be, Wallace. I'm gonna get you back to Shenandoah. You'll be fine. We'll be fine." Julie whispered to the badly wounded Marine.
Richardson stirred.
Julie turned to him and said "I'm going to call for dust-off. Take care of him for a second."
Richardson nodded, suddenly fully alert.
Julie stood and ran back up to the troop deck. The Scarab had stopped a short way from the Plaza, and she could make out two figures waving their arms on the roof of the building that the small platoon had escaped to after Hotel 156's crash. The Pelican itself lay burning off to the side. Julie took a moment to grieve for her friends who had died. Carrie. Tyson. Lewis. McDowell. And now apparently Nguyen. She stopped herself before she started. One more person was relying on her. No, six lives.
"Waters to Shenandoah. Waters to Shenandoah, we need dust-off." Julie said into the COM unit on her wrist. "Please come in, over."
The air was suddenly filled with a strange roar, and a Pelican descended before her.
The pilot, visible through the Pelican's cockpit windshield, gave Julie the thumbs up and turned the bird around. The troop bay was packed with Marines, all of whom leapt from the dropship. Captain Lee King walked towards her, wielding an MA5B.
"Good job, Marine. Did anyone else survive?" the captain of the Shenandoah asked graciously.
"Yes sir. Hernandez, Bashir, Davies and Li are still in the plaza. Richardson and Wallace are on the control deck. Wallace is badly injured. We need to get back to Shenandoah ASAP." Waters quickly reported.
"Very well. Mr Buckley, Mr Johns, go and get Richardson and Wallace." he said to a pair of Marines ant his side. They both nodded and ran down the ramp from whence Julie had come. "India 429 will take you back to Shenandoah."
"What about you, sir?" Julie said, looking around at the twelve or so Marines standing around the Commander, minus Johns and Buckley.
"This is now my personal mobile command base, Captain Waters." King looked around proudly. "You did very well, indeed."
1111 Hours/ July 27, 2552 (Military Calender)/
Rendili Inc. Headquarters, off Plaza of Serenity, Blue Horizon, Alpha Caridanis IV
First Morning of Operation September
India 429 descended onto the roof of the building in which the squad had taken refuge. Julie stood next to Wallace who lay on a stretcher, his wounds temporarily patched up. Richardson leapt from the troop deck and ran towards Li and Davies, who walked across the roof side by side, solemn looks on their faces.
"Where's Felicia?" Richardson asked them when he reached their position. "Where the hell is Bashir?"
"Bashir's dead, sir." Davies said, and Richardson saw that she had been crying.
Li spoke next. "What happened on the Scarab?" His eyes were fixed on Wallace.
"Later." Richardson said with irritation. "What the hell happened to Bashir? I saw him run into the building with Felicia?"
"He's dead." Davies reaffirmed. "And Felicia's gone."
TO BE CONTINUED...
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