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ODSTs - A Tribute
Posted By: Conrad Lauf<conniesworld_aka_hell@hotmail.com>
Date: 25 April 2005, 1:21 AM
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ODSTs - A Tribute
LOCATION: Downtown New Mombassa
TIME: 2 hours since commencement of Covenant invasion of Earth
Smoke rose from the ground in a choking cloud as the immensely tall skyscraper began to collapse on itself, the middle section blown apart by Covenant artillery. Grunts covered their faces with their arms as shrapnel and small pieces of concrete showered upon them from above.
Aldaree didn't even flinch however as the solid rain struck his armour. An experienced and feared Elite Spec Ops leader who had fought and won many battles, he had risen to the rank of Commander over many years.
He turned to face the unwavering line of forty Spec Ops Elites which surrounded the base of the human-occupied building.
"When the civilians come fleeing out of the base of the structure, open fire. Spare no-one," he told them, raising his Carbine, as they all did as well.
There was a tense silence as they waited.
Ten seconds later, an unsteady stream of terrified men, women and children poured out of the exits.
"Fire!" yelled Aldaree, pressing the trigger of his Carbine down hard, feeling it buck as he watched his first target, an old male human, have his head snap back with the force of the round that passed clean through it.
Everywhere, the humans fell, neat smoldering holes in their corpses.
A middle-aged female human carrying an infant in her arms ran directly at Aldaree, screaming and sobbing. He kicked her hard, and as she lay in a whimpering heap on the footpath he shot her through the ribcage and then rolled her over to shoot the infant which she had tried to shield underneath her body.
Aldaree realized that there were a lot more humans than he had thought coming out of the building, and rather than risk being overwhelmed by the terrified mass of tainted creatures, he motioned for the Elites manning a dozen plasma turrets to open fire.
Instantly the air was filled with a hissing sound as the turrets began to methodically cut down the group of humans, the hissing sound of them being fired filling the air like a great snake.
They did not stop until every last one lay on the ground, their bodies torn apart by the heavy weapons.
Aldaree turned to face the platoon of Grunts standing behind him.
"Go forth and check so see if any still breathe. If they do, finish them off," he instructed.
As the erratic sound of plasma pistols being fired filled the air, a Spec Ops Elite called out from the line of executioners:
"Leader, look up at the sky! There are stars falling above us!"
Aldaree raised his head and frowned in the glare of the bright sun. He pushed a small button on the side of his helmet, lowering the brightness of his vision. He looked again, and this time glared in silent rage as he realized what the eighteen stars really were.
They marked the arrival of his most hated foe, the human equivalent of his own Spec Ops Elites, known as ODSTs in the crude human tongue. He touched the scar on the side of his face as he remembered that it was a close-combat weapon wielded by one of the ODSTs that had caused it. He had killed the man responsible for it a few moments later, but the humiliation of being witnessed by his fellow Elites receiving a wound on his cheek from a mere human lived on. And today he would make the ODSTs pay with their lives.
"Open fire!" he roared, unsheathing his energy sword and dropping the large Carbine to replace it with his lighter blessed plasma rifle as the plasma turrets burst to life, blue sparks of plasma impacting on the outer shells of the HEVs but failing to do much damage. Only two HEVs exploded from the heavy fire that was aimed at them as the remaining sixteen HEVs slammed into the road and wide footpath in great explosions of concrete and bitumen.
Gunnery-sergeant Maleck gripped the handle and pump-action grip of his M90 shotgun inside his HEV, checking to make sure that the 12-inch long razor-sharp bayonet was securely attached to the underside of the barrel. He quivered in impatience as adrenalin pumped through his bloodstream like it was going through a fire-hose.
The door burst from its hinges, and temporarily blinding sunlight filled Maleck's vision as he charged through the gas that had been released from the cramped HEV, feeling plasma rounds whip through the air around him and the other fifteen ODSTs as they sprinted straight for the surrounding line of Spec Ops Elites.
Maleck racked the slide of his shotgun and fired as he came into range of the aliens, blowing great chunks out of their armour with each shot. He swung the barrel of the weapon down onto the helmet of an Elite in front of him, almost cleaving the foul beast's head clean in two with the shotgun's bayonet.
He spun around 180 degrees, bringing the butt of the shotgun up to connect with another Elite's jaw with a loud crack as alien bone splintered under the impact. As the Spec Ops Elite staggered backwards, Maleck thrusted the bayonet upwards through the base of its ribcage and up into its hearts.
Wrenching the glistening blade from the corpse in a spray of purple blood, Maleck felt his bloodlust reach breaking point, and virtually ripped the bayonet from the end of his M90, dropping the heavy shotgun and pulling his combat knife from its thigh scabbard. As he began to lay about himself with well-placed blows, he yelled "Come on, you split-lipped alien bastards! We didn't drop feet-first into Hell just to kick your asses easily, give us a friggin' challenge!"
"Very well human, I shall send you and your fellow tainted Earth-spawn back to the hole from whence you came," was the deep-throated reply.
There was a break in the combat around Maleck, as if though some unspoken command the Spec Ops Elites surrounding him had been forced to allow their leader to take on the ODST for himself.
A tall muscular Elite strode forward from the swirling mass of fighting combatants, both his energy swords sizzling as fresh human blood dripped off their blades. Dozens of small wounds on his body pumped blood, but the Elite leader took no notice, not even blinking as a stray plasma bolt smacked against his shields, causing ripples of thin blue lightning to crackle across his alien figure as he strode towards the blood-covered ODST gunnery-sergeant, swords lowered to his sides.
Maleck bent his knees slightly as he crouched slightly in a hunched position, both his knives held loosely. He spun them confidently across the palms of his hands, liking to hear the sound of the flat blades cutting through the air.
Rain began to fall upon the city, and bright pink steam rose from Aldaree's weapons as the droplets impacted on the energy swords. There was a brief silence as the two enemies sized each other up, and then without warning, they broke into a charge towards one another, Aldaree sweeping the two blades across in a horizontal arc, which would have decapitated Maleck had the Helljumper not slid underneath the attack, lashing out with his weapons, scoring deep wounds in the alien's shins.
As the ODST leapt up from behind the hulking Elite, Aldaree swung his right sword around in another backhanded horizontal arc, and this time the blow impacted on Maleck's right shoulder guard, cutting deep into the Helljumper's upper arm. Maleck roared in pain as he brought up his right knife to bat away the weapon, then spinning around clockwise to come inside the Spec Ops leader's guard, head-butting the alien square on the front of the face. There was a smash of tinted glass as Maleck's visor broke, and as Aldaree hunched over, clutching at his ruined face, Maleck stepped away, then lunged at the Elite, swinging his left serrated bayonet up in a blurring vertical arc, the blade thrusted up through the base of Aldaree's head and bursting through the top in a splatter of brains, blood and helmet fragments.
The ODST then brought up his razor-sharp combat knife to sever the alien's head from his shoulders, the Spec Ops leader's head still impaled on the bayonet.
After the surviving eleven Spec Ops Elites had seen their leader slain by a mere human, they had fled, with Maleck's remaining five ODST Helljumpers in pursuit, howling with bloodlust as they tackled the Elites to the ground and disposed of them with their combat knives.
Maleck had placed Aldaree's head on the top of the collapsible ODST Helljumper banner pole that he carried in his HEV, having planted the pointed base of the banner firmly in the chest of the fallen Spec Ops leader.
As the five ODSTs returned, each carrying an organic trophy taken from the aliens whom they had killed, Maleck looked up at the sky. And grinned in excitement.
Fifty purple Covenant Spec Ops pods were descending on their position. Maleck cleared his throat, and then said with manic glee:
"Helljumpers, something tells me we won't have to leave Hell just yet."
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