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HALO: Beachead Chapter One
Posted By: GT GammaSpartan003<patchkiri@yahoo.ca>
Date: 21 April 2008, 6:21 am
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HALO: Spartan
Chapter One
"Frag and clear!" Shouted our team's leader as we stacked up in front a door into where a group of jackals and grunts were hiding. I slammed myself up against the right side of the door, the loud metallic crash of my MJOLNIR Mark VI EOD Armor against the stone wall barely audible amidst the sounds of explosions and gunfire all around us. The beachhead of Apostle 5 was the newest battleground for UNSC and Elite forces after the fall of truth. It was said that here was where most of the brutes, jackals, and grunts had taken refuge after Truth was killed by the Arbiter and the Master Chief, Spartan 117, on the Ark.
I grabbed a frag from my belt, shoving my thumb through the pin. "Hold it, Shaun!" I frowned at the use of my full first name. I was usually called S, or Gamma, as I was the third in our squad of five, and third in command. I waited as Gordon, the second in command, opened the door from the other side. "Now!"
I pulled the pin, counted to three, and shoved it in the doorway. I waited for a split second before the grenade exploded, and then ran in.
Through the shrapnel, smoke, and debris I saw bolts of blue and green plasma. I watched as one soared past my helmet, then fired a controlled burst of three rounds from my BR55 Battle Rifle. I heard a squeal as a grunt died. I ran through and saw three jackals fleeing down a corridor and skidded forward on one knee, aiming through my scope and flicking my weapon off the burst mode to fully automatic. I opened up on them, filling the three vulture-like creatures with 7.62 mm armor piercing rounds in the back. My magazine empty, I reloaded.
I could hear screaming. It was a guttural, almost inhuman scream, beginning low, but getting higher and higher. I ran down the hallway. It was getting louder. "Shaun! Where are you going?" "I hear screaming, sir! I have to see if there are any survivors in here!" "No! Shaun, get back here!" I ignored my team leader and sprinted down the hallway.
I spun around the corner- "Oh, crap!" I whispered through my helmet's microphone. In front of me was a marine, still screaming gutturally, as a Hunter's shield slowly ripped him apart. The hunter, seeing me standing in the doorway of the communications room, ripped the shield out from the marine. The marine collapsed, his lungs giving out. Blood from the shield getting ripped out of the man's spine splattered against my armor and helmet.
"We've got a situation sir!" I shouted. The hunter roared at me. "What is it, Shaun?" I gulped, spinning around a running back out the down the hallway. "There's a hunter on my ass!" "Are you seri-Spartan team 033, retreat! We've got a hunter!" I saw my team leader at the end of the corridor. "Run faster, Shaun! Push it!"
I glanced behind me. The hunter was less than two meters behind me. I guessed its arm's reach was about two meters, and its shield was raised above its head. I swore and dove forward. I felt the vibrations in the ground as the giant metal blade slammed in the ground. Lying face down, I rolled onto my back and aimed through the scope at an exposed bit of orange worms in the hunter's neck. I fired on full auto, emptying my magazine, and screaming. The hunter screamed too, and orange goo splattered across my armor, decorating it more next to the blood.
I panted heavily, realizing I had just slain a hunter. "Jesus... You did it, Shaun. You killed it." "Yeah," I said. I pulled myself up from the floor and reloaded. "Spartan Team 033, advance down this hallway. Check your corners." That was the last thing I heard my team leader say. "What's that screaming noise?" I asked. "You hear more screaming?" Asked my team leader. "Yeah, but more like..." I felt the blood drain from my face beneath my helmet as a marine broadcasting on all frequencies shouted, "Incoming! Shot down helicopters coming down on that building! They've got a Wraaith!"
The helicopter smashed through the side of the hallway, tearing through the stone, metal, and flesh of the hallway and my team leader. More blood painted the walls and my armor. I had a feeling that my armor was no longer tan, and was now red. The helicopter exploded in mid air, for now I realized the hallway was suspended above a ravine covered in lush jungle. It exploded and I fell backward, covering my face as shrapnel flew everywhere. Another helicopter, as there had been more than one, like the marine said, smashed into the building behind me, sending me flying forward. I lost my grip on my battle rifle, and as the weapon went flying down into the ravine, I grabbed the ledge of the hallway above the ravine, bits of rock scattering down over me into the long drop. There was no way I could survive that.
"Team 033! Check in!" I heard a coughing and listened as Gordon said, "Spartan IV 002 checking in!" I grimaced and shouted, "Anyone else!?" "None, Shaun. We're the only two left. I just checked their vitals. All flat lined. Lead's is missing." I swore. "Are you in the hallway?" "Yeah, where are you?" "Hanging on for my life! Help me up!" I heard footsteps as he ran up to me. He reached out a hand, and I grabbed it. He pulled me up from the ledge and hefted his assault rifle. "Let's get the hell out of here, 003."
I nodded at my Spartan number. That was me. Gamma Spartan 003. "Gotcha. Let's go." We ran down the hallway. I gasped at the extent of destruction the second helicopter had caused. Our piece of hallway and the room where the hunter had been were the only bits of the building left. I looked at the helicopter, embedded in the stone, rotors twitching, and a loud whine began to emanate from its innards. As a child, I had seen a few old and new action movies, and had learned enough to know what was about to happen. "It's gonna blow!" I shouted, and booked it from the room. Gordon was right behind me, and we ran out the door of the other room down a path from the cliff and dove over a broken stone wall. The helicopter exploded, shattering what was left of itself, the building, and our teammates, falling into the ravine.
I pulled out my M6C, a relatively old model of the primary sidearm for marines and Spartans alike, which could fire relatively fast for its caliber. Looking around, Gordon and I could see two Wraith tanks in the distance, and UNSC reinforcements heading this way from the beachhead. But closer to us, directly in front of us in fact, was two hunters, five brutes, and a scattering of grunts and jackals with plasma pistols, rifles, and energy shields. One of the brutes had a grenade launcher.
The brute leered at me as I looked at his grenade launcher. The group of covenant began to advance slowly towards us. I frowned. "You're on ugly son of a bitch." The brute realized my reference, and snarled, charging with his weapon's large, sharp looking bayonet. I raised my pistol and shot him once in the head when he got close. As the other covenant opened fire, I darted forward and grabbed the brute's weapon, hefting the heavy, awkward grenade launcher against my hip.
Gordon threw down a portable shield generator, stolen from covenant forces earlier, and the blue energy shield blocked the barrage of plasma from them. I leaned out from behind it and fired three grenades into the grunts and jackals, blowing away about seven of them. Gordon, who still had his assault rifle, fired at the brutes on fully automatic.
I shot another three grenades at the closest hunter, and managed to cripple it. I took out my sidearm, the brute shot empty, and ran up to the crippled hunter. I jumped on the creature's back, and grabbed one of the incredibly sharp spines. I wrenched it out I spun it around, jamming it through the hunter's neck. Orange blood sprayed everywhere, and I jumped backwards off of it.
I raised my handgun and fired the rest of my magazine into the nearest brute, who was charging at my with a red plasma rifle. It dropped, and I reloaded. Gordon threw a frag into the other jackals and grunts, blowing them away, and retreated next to me, reloading a mag into his assault rifle. One brute and one hunter left, the brute fired at us. The hunter's fuel rod beam had begun to charge up, and would fire at any moment.
"Three... two... go!" I shouted, the hunter's fuel rod flying between us as we jumped out of the way to both sides. I hit the brute in the head with a shot from my M6C, and Gordon emptied a magazine from his assault rifle into the hunter, but most of the bullets bounced of the creature's armor. The hunter growled and advanced towards my friend, raising the shield welded to its arm.
I screamed and ran up to the hunter's back, swinging on its left shoulder blade, out of range of the dangerous spines. I grabbed a frag grenade and armed it, then plunged the grenade into the hunter's orange worm-gooey arm. I jumped back and rolled away. It exploded. I gasped for breath, lying on the ground, and realized that today, I had not only been very, very lucky, but had also killed three hunters. Never in all my life and training had I figured I could do that.
Gordon walked up to me and pulled me up.
"Good job, mate. Keep this up, and you'll be blowing up wraiths." As he said this, warthogs, marines, and a scorpion pulled up beside us, firing at incoming banshees and ghosts, not to mention more brutes, grunts, and jackals. "We got incoming, sirs! Get ready!" A marine shouted and ran up to us. He handed me a SPNKR Rocket Launcher for the enemy vehicles, and a sub machine gun for the infantry. "Thanks," I said. I holstered the SMG, and hefted the rocket launcher. "Bring it on."
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