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legion of Honor - part 1: Holding Si Bhet
Posted By: Brocktree<LordBrocktree_2@hotmail.com>
Date: 13 December 2003, 2:18 AM
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Legion of Honor
Part 1: Holding Si Bhet
After the fall of Lunar Three and Lunar Five only one hospitable planet remained in the system. The United Nations Space Command deemed this system vital and demanded it be protected at all costs. Therefore, the largest mass movement of military personnel and vehicles began in 2553. More than six million soldiers were brought in by an innumerable amount of transports. Approximately half a million tanks, three hundred thousand bombers and half a million tons of ordinance were shipped in monthly to keep up the defense and stave off skirmishes presented by the Covenant. All manner of battleships, frigates and cruisers orbited the planet to defend against a glassing.
* * *
The fluorescent lights flickered in the prefabricated base headquarters of the 375th division. Colonel Ferrye, in charge of the entire division, stood bent over a digital map on his desk. The map displayed photo-realistic terrain and real-time friendly and enemy troop movement in the area. The entire 1st and 3rd armies were engaged in a seven-mile long firefight in the fields of Si Bhet. Both sides had at least three million troops engaging in the fight. The Covenant was trying to break through human resistance.
The Covenant army was comprised of some of the most elite types of soldiers in the known galaxy. Elites, the field commanders and standard officers boasted full body shielding; not that they would need it, one elite is stronger than two ODST's. The bird-like Jackal made up for its frailty with the large energy shield it toted around on its arm. Hunters were massive in size(they ere able cut down two to three soldiers with a single swipe of the arm) but lacked proper intelligence to think for it's own. Grunts were the "cannon- fodder", the ones that were expendable in battle. These little creatures were only dangerous if massed into a frenzied mob.
The Covenant forces occupied the north and west quadrants of Lunar Four's only continent. The humans controlled the east quadrant and were currently fighting the Covenant for control of the south area.
Covenant forces had already surrounded elements of the twelfth army and continued a firefight with the 1st and 3rd armies in Si Bhet. The Covenant pounded away at the 12th while they were encircled. Unending plasma mortar attacks and daily raids began thinning out their ranks fast.
This, thought Ferrye, was becoming a serious problem. If the 12th goes under, then the Covenant has a straight march to HQ. He watched the battle at Si Bhet, focusing on Able Company. They had somehow slipped to the end of the firing line and crossed into enemy territory.
They seemed to be making progress when, out of nowhere, five KIA's in the same instant. Then another four. Within seconds more than half the Company had been picked clean, the others were turning tail and retreating. A holotransparent message appeared above the map.
ABLE COMPANY TOO MANY KIA
--- PULLING OUT
Ferrye wasn't surprised by the message, "Lieutenant Foley?"
"Sir?"
"Get me a direct line to Company A."
"On I, Sir." The soldier replied. There followed a brief hiss, then a crackle.
"Sergeant Evanson, reporting." Came a voice on the opposite end.
"Sergeant, this is Colonel Ferrye, what is Able Company's status?"
"We took a beating, Sir. 1st and 2nd platoons have been decimated. We have four survivors from both platoons combined. Third platoon is at half strength, twenty men, Sir. I'm afraid we won't be able to fight with this many soldiers."
The Colonel looked at the men in the room who were staring at the map. Everyone was tired; no one had slept right in months. Pulling off a company, no matter how many men were in it, was nearly suicidal.
"Sergeant, turn those men around. Tell your Lieutenant-"
"We don't have a Lieutenant, Sir. He was melted by a mortar; he is on the bottom of our boots, Sir."
Ferrye hung his head, his hands clutched the table, "I'm sorry, son, but we need every soldier we can get to fight. Turn around and get on that line." All the officers in the room looked away from him, returning to their tasks.
"Sir. Yes Sir." Sergeant Evanson responded, his voice hollow and detached.
The connection closed. Ferrye slammed his against his hand against the table so hard that it shook. He turned around, opened the door, walked into his office, and slammed the door behind him.
* * *
Sergeant Evanson looked at his battle-weary squad. Two men had missing skin on their arms, covered only by white pieces of cloth. Another man had a large bloody stump where his hand used to be, before it melted away by a plasma shot. And lastly, Private Hackman lay on the ground writhing and screaming in pain and agony. A needle had penetrated into the side of his skull and exploded, blowing away a chunk of his brain. The rest of it was severely damaged and left uncovered by skin or skull.
"We move out", Evanson called out, back to the front-lines." The men turned to him, horror on some faces, and blank passiveness on others. "And for God's sake," Evanson added, "Someone help Hackman."
Private Decater upholstered his pistol, said his condolences and praise (You're lucky to be getting out of this, man) to Hackman, and then shot him once through the head.
As they walked grimly back down the hill from which they had just run up a stray UNSC artillery shell whirled in and thunked into the ground not five feet from where Evanson was standing. There was no explosion or flash of light, just a smoking canister lodged in the earth.
A dud.
* * *
The entire forest was on fire. Flames arced high above the tree line, visible for tens of miles. Evanson's platoon along with the other company members trudged across open terrain on their approach to the MLR (main Line of Resistance). Many of the men grew pale and sickly, on the ground were liquefied soldiers, Covenant and all types of plants. The light-titanium boots of paratroopers were the only solid mass in the ooze.
The mixture went up to their ankles. It felt to them like walking through egg yolk because of how runny it was. It also varied in color from the skin of a human to the blue blood of a Covenant.
To be able to walk through an ankle deep deposit of melted brothers in arms took amounts of courage and bravery that no civilian could ever even imagine. Every man who had to have the guts to endure it would remember that mile long walk in the dead of night forever.
* * *
A sentry saw Evanson and called out to him. Behind the sentry Evanson could see tracers and bolts of plasma crossing every which way on the battlefield.
He crept up to the sentry's position, a flare lit up the pitch-black area. From this position Evanson could see the entire battlefield. Covenant troops were emplaced in a trench half a mile across the field, into the opposite patch of forest. UNSC mortars battered away at the encampments but doing little harm if not aimed directly into trench. Human soldiers lay prone behind the hedgerow, firing away at the Covenant. The most amazing spectacle, however, was the light show put on by the streams of plasma bolts and tracer bullets crossing the field.
"Sir, Private Conway, I'm part of Dog Company, 375th.. What company are you with, Sir?" The Sentry asked. Evanson's men stood up and started taking potshots at exposed Covenant heads. "We're with Able, or what's left of it. Twenty men strong ready to hold position where ever we're needed."
"Roger that, Sir. We could use an extra tea-aaghh!" A plasma bolt smacked right into the sentry's face. Instantly the skin on his face melted. He attempted to scream but the shock was too great as his left eye liquefied and ran down what remained of his face. A message appeared on Evanson's Heads-Up Display:
ALL UNSC PERSONNEL ENGAGED IN THE
SI BHET SECTOR ARE ORDERED TO
CHARGE COVENANT LINES. AIR STRIKE
WILL COMMENCE ATTACK WITH BOMBARDMENT
Three plasma bolts struck a tree two feet from his position, "All right, men, when you here the shriekers go by, we charge the Covies, is that understood?"
"Sir, yes, Sir!" They replied in unison, firing their weapons. A piece of heavy artillery erupted into action just off to their right, each shot creating a ring of thunder and a deep rumble in the ground. A steady thrum became audible off to the east.
Suddenly all artillery ceased fire and a loud shriek of jet engines flared above them. Just as suddenly as they had come, the bombers were two miles away, their ordinance falling to the target. Huge bouts of fire rose up behind the Covenant tree line. Laces of plasma interlocked with the fire showing that they had hit directly on enemy mortars. "All right, men, enemy mortars are disabled, go!" Colonel Ferrye commed to every soldier.
* * *
Sergeant Evanson's heart began pounding loud in his ears. Everything seemed to move half as fast, as if in water. He held up his hand above his head and called out at the top of his lungs, "Able Company - CHARGE!" and he ran headlong into no-man's land.
Bullets whizzed by him as he ran. Ran as fast as he could get his body to go. He didn't breathe or think about anything else besides getting to that trench.
He ran straight past plasma bolts and tracer rounds, faster than any other man on the field. He would also be the first on to engage the Covenant head-to-head.
A grunt popped up. It saw Evanson ten feet from itself and began running in the opposite direction; he sighted his weapon, and then fired. The trio of bullets smashed the back skull of the alien and it crumpled to the ground.
As he approached the trench, Evanson pulled a fragmentation grenade from his belt and pulled the pin. He sighted a blue armored elite directly in front of him. He tossed the grenade full into the aliens face and it exploded.
The wave of heat hit first and burned out the creature's eyes and mouth. One hundredth of a second later the plume of flame incinerated the its helmet and face. Lastly the concussion ripped the elite's head right off of its shoulders; spraying bits of spine and neck everywhere.
Evanson jumped into the trench and began pumping all the aliens next to him full of lead. Ten seconds later the rest of the company jumped I right after him and formed a tight arc, alternatively firing at any alien that moved. As he gazed left and right Evanson could see other UNSC soldiers hopping the hedgerow and killing anything on the other side.
Another elite, a red one, jumped in at them only to be cut to ribbons by half the platoon. The company's machine gun squad set up their machine guns and began mowing down the incoming wave of Covenant reinforcements. Above them, the sky became clouded with fighters from both races. The only way of knowing where a craft was by the wing lights. Thus, there were many collisions; Flaming ships would fall to the ground crushing and killing warriors from both sides.
A secondary wave of Covenant soldiers charged at them through the sparse woods, but they were completely unprepared for what hit them.
The 71st bomber wing shrieked across the sky for another run. This time, hundreds of thousands of tiny carpet bombs blanketed the incoming tide. Blue napalm was dropped after, covering the area in thick blue liquid that instantly incinerated anything organic before burning out five minutes after touching the oxygen in the air. Almost al the Covenant forces disintegrated in the death storm.
Evanson watched as the survivors limped off the battlefield only to be picked off by UNSC soldiers. The 1st army received more orders: move up and seize Covenant weapons, strongholds and vehicles in the area. Able Company was responsible for taking back the city of Pets Setal, an Oceanside town three miles west of their current position.
* * *
They had done it, prevented the enemy from penetrating friendly territory. Now the UNSC had the advantage and would push as many men as possible into the north. The only problem was, both sides had lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers in that four-day battle.
Evanson checked his HUD again; two more messages appeared:
Matthew Evanson is hereby awarded the
title of Captain of Able Company, 67th
regiment of the 375th division, the Bronze
Star and Medal of Honor for bravery in
Leading the charge at 0200 at Si Bhet.
Able Company will receive forty replacements
soldiers as of March 17, 2554.
Good, Thought Evanson, replacements in two days. But for now, we need to take back that town.
And so the newly appointed Captain moved his troops out at first light to take the city of Pets Setal.
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