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Operation Covert Elimination
Posted By: UNSC Trooper<unsctrooper@hotmail.com>
Date: 8 July 2007, 8:38 pm


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OPERATION COVERT ELIMINATION
DATE: August 28, 2533
LOCATION: Hades, The Cyruss Valley
MISSION: Operation Covert Elimination
COMBATANTS: United Nations Space Command (UNSC), Neo-Communist Rebels "Volkovs"


The sky blazed a blood red brightness over the wild jungle of the Cyruss valley, almost as if the sun Hades was receiving light from was on the brink of going Nova. Yet the apocalyptic scenery didn't discomfort Private James Calderon of the Third UNSC Special Ops Squad the slightest bit, for he had been confronted with far more disturbing images and battle conditions. James' height was approximately five feet and nine inches, he had dark brown hair, black eye pupils and a partially grown beard. The Pelican assigned to drop the Special Operations Squad right in the middle of the jungle followed the pathway according to the Landing Zone coordinates. The flight from Glazia to the Landing Zone evolved normally avoiding detection by either rebel radar systems.

Private James Calderon and his teammates were suited up in accordance to the landscape the mission was destined to take place in, specifically, Jungle Camouflage uniforms. The mission itself involved assassinating Joseph Huffen, the son of the "Volkov" neo-communist rebellion Leader with minimal enemy detection. The target would reside inside one of the neo-communist Raw Material storage buildings, performing weekly inspections. However, there was a certain "catch" to the mission's tactical maneuver of eliminating the target. The Squad was not engaging in combat using the standard UNSC black and blue uniforms, instead using the neo-napoleonist red and blue uniforms as a disguise in order to create confusion among the Rebels regarding the source of the attack. Three other Spec Ops Squads were to be dropped in several different parts of the jungle and would engage in a deadly skirmish with the neo-communists. James was part of the five Sniper Riflemen team which would be commissioned to eliminate the target.

At 19:28 Hours, Pelican number three arrived at the designated Landing Zone deep inside the untamed realm of the jungle. The jungles on Hades were considerably more dangerous and hostile than those on Earth, mainly because of the wildlife and lethal viruses hidden inside them for a period of thousands of years. The wildlife consisted of creatures such as Hematheas, Grokkles, and Froyocks. The Hematheas were two feet tall, three-horned Dinosaur-like creatures, the Grokkles had an Aligator-like appearance, and the Froyocks were short biped beings similar to the Apes on Earth. Some colonists on Hades refer to the Froyocks as armorless Grunts and believe they are the ancestors of the Covenant Grunt warriors. This theory however, is yet to be confirmed.

The marines parachuted out of the Pelican once the order was given by Sergeant Larry Fletcher. They hit the ground rather violently causing painful bruises to most of the marines, especially the two females. Some of them even got their parachutes caught up in the tall trees to the amusement of the others.

James got some pretty nasty bruises on his right arm and right knee as a result of the violent impact with the ground. However, these were only minor bruises and he quickly got up on his feet and joined the other marines. The Sergeant began verifying the presence of each and every single individual of his Squad.

"Bradford?", The Sergeant spoke.
"Present!", The marine answered.

"Mitchell?"
"Locked and ready, sir!"

"Calderon?"
"Ready for action, sir!", James spoke with an obviously determined tone.


"Anderson?"
"Present, sir!"

"Mendez?"
"Right here, Sergeant!"

"Christian?"
"Armed and ready, sir!"

"Blake?"
"Loaded, Sergeant!"

"Wesker?"
"Right here, sir!"

"Richards?"
"Ready to kick ass, Sarge!"

"Springfield?
"Present, Sarge!"

The Sergeant took off his hat and put his hands behind his back. For some reason he appeared to be worried and somewhat disturbed. Perhaps the Jungle awakened his fear of dying a cruel death in a war no one really knew the meaning of - a fear he has been beholden to bare for a long time. James noticed the evident fear the Sergeant was revealing, but took no further action as to comfort him.

"Listen up, marines. We must carry out our mission swiftly and efficiently. The Office of Intelligence elaborately informed us about the defensive strength of this particular region. Our objective is to follow the designated path in the direction of the neo-communist base. Joseph Huffen is performing weekly inspections of the Resource storage buildings during night time. This night happens to be one of them. Once we get in range we will infiltrate the enemy base, eliminate any kind of resistance and carry out the assassination. Sniper team, you will be doing the honors this time."

"Sarge, you get me in a good enough visual range from Huffen with this here sniper rifle, and the war is as good as over.", James said.

"Keep the enthusiasm for the mission son, you'll be needing plenty of it.", the Sergeant spoke. "If everything goes according to plan, we are to proceed to the extraction point General Eddings indicated. Do I make myself clear marines?!"

"Sir, yes sir!". the marines shouted while arming their "MA2B" assault rifles and "SRS99C-S2" sniper rifles.

"For the good name of the UNSC, move out!", the Sergeant said.

"Hope we don't run into any Hematheas or Froyocks, though." Springfield, one of the female marines said.

"Don't think they got the guts to confront ten of us armed with MA2B's.", James responded.

The Fire Squad headed steadily closer deep inside the wilderness of the jungle. Numerous strange and outlandish sounds surrounded the squad which was now walking at a rather slow pace. Visual markers indicated that the rebel base was very close. Two minutes later, the lights surrounding the compound were visible, and the Team was situated at a distance of only one hundred meters of the neo-communist base.

"Calderon, do you have a visual on the compound?", the Sergeant asked.

"Affirmative, Sarge. Though the trees are making it difficult for a clean line of sight."

"Very well, tactical marines you all know the drill, head out. Mendez you take front position, Richards you take rear!"

"Understood, sir.", Richards answered.

The Squad was now walking in a column position towards the compound. A few moments later a boisterous and fierce explosion almost vibrated the entire jungle. It was Mendez, he stumbled upon a mine and was instantly killed.

"Oh my God, sir we lost Mendez!", James shouted.

"It's a mine field, everybody stay still!", the Sergeant spoke.

The explosion shocked the neo-communist patrol troops stationed inside the compound. They immediately realized they were the target of a Special Operations unit, however, they did not know whether it was a neo-napoleonist, neo-nazi or UNSC unit. Regardless of the source, the rebels opened fire.

"Our cover's blown, we're under attack!", Anderson, one of the snipers shouted.

"Return fire marines! Fire at will!", the Sergeant ordered.

The gun shots echoed throughout the battle area. Meanwhile the Sergeant attempted to establish contact with Glazia.

"Glazia, this is Fire Squad 102, come in. We are under heavy attack, we lost one of our men, our cover has been compromised, request immediate extraction!", the Sergeant spoke.

"Negative 102, you're too far away. We're sending a Pelican in your aid right now, but you're going to have to fend them off for fifteen minutes.", the operator at Glazia said.

"Copy that, Glazia." the Sergeant answered. "Everyone keep firing until you run out of ammo, we're going to make a run for this one. Attack, attack, attack!".

It didn't take long before the second UNSC trooper fell in the line of duty. It was Springfield, one of the two female soldiers. James rapidly rushed to her aid, but there was nothing more he could do other than watch her fade away in the chaos and terror of the battle surrounding them. He couldn't help being overwhelmed by the pain he felt holding her in his arms while she took her last glimpse of the world that has been shaken by countless wars for such a long time. Tears slowly started flowing down James' eyes, tears he has never shedded before.

"James, she's gone, keep firing!", Christian shouted.

"Grab her tags and ammo, soldier." the Sergeant said.

James was surprised by the apparent unconcern the marines and the Sergeant were expressing towards their fallen team mate. However, it was not the time nor the condition for an argument. James followed orders and kept firing round after round of shots towards the rebel troops.

"Anderson, Mitchell, Wesker, listen up, see that barracks over there? That's their ammo deposit, we're going to give you some cover while you sneak in and blow the place up to smithereens. We need to hit them in their soft spot. Get me?", Sergeant Fletcher ordered.

"We get you sir!", the three marines shouted.

The three marines advanced into the enemy territory, broke through the defenses and headed on to the ammo deposit. Unfortunately, Wesker didn't make it to the deposit.

"Sir we've just lost Wesker.", Mitchell reported.

"Carry on marine.", the Sergeant answered.

In a matter of moments the two remaining soldiers successfully destroyed the enemy ammunition deposit. The fighting was now more intense than ever and after what seemed to be a long period of time the rebel troops slowly ceased firing one by one due to ammo depletion. This was the moment the UNSC marines were waiting for.

"Move into the perimeter marines, this is the time to take out Huffen!", the Sergeant spoke.

Every single marine ran as fast he could inside the enemy compound and eliminated all resisting enemy troops, but there was no sign of Joseph Huffen.

"Spread out and search the perimeter, he's gotta' be around here somewhere.", Sergeant Fletcher said.

The marines searched the compound inside and out, but there was still no sign of Huffen.

"Sir, we scoured through every damn corner of this Godforsaken place, we can't find him.", James reported.

"Copy that private. Let's head out he's clearly not here"., the Sergeant answered.

A few seconds later the Pelican carrier assigned to extract the Fire Team contacted Sergeant Fletcher.

"This is 7-4-3 Pelican Transporter, calling Sergeant Fletcher, come in Sergeant.", the pilot of the Pelican said.

"This is Sergeant Fletcher, you're a little late don't you think? We've neutralized every rebel scum bag, except Huffen. We didn't find him."

"Understood Sergeant, we're on our way to the extraction point right now. Wait a minute, we've got a ground vehicle on the move here, possibly a Light Tactical Jeep driving down the road to the camp. Coordinates are 23 West, 40 North, 18 South and 5 East."

"That's him, that's Huffen! I want everyone operational now, we're going to ambush him!" the Sergeant ordered.

"Sir, yes sir", the marines exclaimed.

The Fire Squad moved down the road where they were to engage and eliminate the target supposedly moving in a Light vehicle. The vehicle came across the Squad standing in front of them and immediately stopped moving.

"This is the United Nations Space Command Third Tactical Fire Squad of Glazia, you may either surrender peacefully and we will place you under arrest or we shall be forced to open fire upon your men.", Sergeant Fletcher addressed the three men inside the vehicle.

A man stepped out of the vehicle.

"My name is Huffen, Joseph Huffen. As you can see this G6 Tactical Maneuvering Vehicle carries a state of the art MAC Automatic Firing unit in the back of the vehicle. If you don't order your men to move away from the vehicle, I will order my gunner to open fire and implicitly kill your men.", Huffen spoke.

"Not if we beat you to him.", James answered, loaded his SRS99C-S2 sniper rifle and shot the gunner stationed in the seat of the Firing unit in the back of the vehicle.

"You're lucky you caught me in a good mood and I will politely give you another chance to surrender.", Sergeant Fletcher said.

"If you kill me imagine what terror your army is going to face. You thought the Volkov movement was violent enough until now? Wait till you see what you're going to have to deal with from now on.", Huffen spoke.

"I'm willing to take that chance. Open fire marines!", the Sergeant ordered.

The UNSC marines fired a round of shots and neutralized Huffen and the remaining driver inside the vehicle.

"This is Fletcher, Huffen has been eliminated. Requesting extraction."

"Good to hear, we'll be there in a few moments. Pelican 7-4-3 out."





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