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Welcome to Shatella - Chapter 2
Posted By: Beep<MBassos@gmail.com>
Date: 22 November 2004, 9:34 AM


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Hawkins gazed out of the high soaring pelican. The cockpit was silent. Sargent Bison lit a cigar, sat back with one leg crossed over the other. Two nameless marines that were just picked up from a "hot spot" stared at the ground, nervously twitching from time to time.
      Hawkins didn't get a chance to catch their names, there was no time for chat, and even if there was, this wasn't the time nor the place. The skirmish like battles in Shatella, were in full effect now. Hawkins stood and watched the carnage as the pelican flew above, the urban like streets were defiled by the covenant, trashed, lined with the corpses of both human and alien alike; Shatella had officially gone to hell.
      It had been three days since UNSC marines had been sent to the slaughter to push back the covenant, the only problem was it was suppose to have been wrapped in twenty-four hours.

      Those stupid bastards, Hawkins thought to himself, the ONI screwjobs had underestimated the covenant's intent in finding this so called object. Of course they didn't care for the lives of marines; they would stop at nothing to ensure that the covenant didn't get the upper hand in the war. Upper hand, Hawkins continued is train of thought, the covenant already were wiping out planets like it was nothing, they were fighting a landslide battle.
      The pelican blazed through the smoked filled atmosphere of the city, heading directly south. The relentless sounds of battle intensifying; he could now hear the screams of each and every single marine which the covenant butchered.

      Hawkins train of thought snapped, as he quickly turned to see sarge. He had heard it too, and was now on his feet, the two new marines staring at him wondering why the hell he had sprang to life all of a sudden. It was the unmistakable sound of a modified fuel rod cannon; a covenant siege weapon which was literally biologically inserted into their heavy shock troopers, known as hunters.
      Hawkins had dubbed the cannon "the incinerator", as on his second day on Shatella, he saw a hunter burst through the front line and fire the cannon point blank at a fellow marine. The results were devastating, as the highly fused plasma energy ripped through his body, the marine jolting from shock, as Hawkins watched his flesh and bones meld together from the intense heat before finally combusting into chunks of burning, charred flesh. It would be one memory that would haunt him forever in his sleep.

      A female voice rang over the intercom,
      "Sarge get your men out now, this zone is hot, I will only be able..." the pilot didn't finish the sentence, the pelican was torn in half by "the incinerator"

      The flaming wreckage flew thirty metres and hit the ground. Hawkins was thrown violently to the left, the plasma wound to his shoulder, which had recently been filled with Biofoam stung with intense pain. Hawkins lay for a second, before attempting to move the pelican wreckage covering his upper body.
      He struggled for a moment pushing a section of the pelican wing when he stomach revolted. The sight was ghastly, it made Hawkins insides turn; he had seen his fair share of death, but no marine deserved to die like that.
      His two nameless pelican companions lay splinted in half, fresh blood slowly oozing over the metallic floor of the pelican. The fuel rod cannon had passed through the centre, cutting both marines like a knife through warm butter; and it had done so in an inexplicable manner, most of their intestines still visible through the lower half of their torso.

      Hawkins limped up, the impact of the severed pelican taking a greater toll on his body then he thought. The crash site of the pelican was a similar looking street, at where he got picked up.
      That was Shatella for you, architecturally repetitive, an urban jungle of streets and skyscrapers, the difference however between this street and the other was it was lined with over a dozen bodies of blood stained marines.

      It was then at that point Hawkins heard a recognizable, bellowing voice.
      "Hawkins get your ass over here now" it seemed the sarge had survived the crash, and it made him only more pissed off. Hawkins ran the small distance down the street avoiding the bodies and destruction, until he entered a dimly lit shelter, where sarge and a minute number of marines huddled together behind a worn-torn wall, watching two hunters in the near distance; fuel-rod cannons charging.





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