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Fire Team Echo: Darkest Hours: Chapter I
Posted By: Dark-NiTe
Date: 9 May 2004, 5:13 AM
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The rain fell lightly but in thick drops, pelting the foliage over the grassy feilds. A storm was brewing on Halo. The hills rolled on out into the dark horizon; dusk was coming to a close. This was the time of day that Corbin Anderson hated the most.
Yet there he was, along with the rest of fire team Echo. He stared out into the coming darkness at the Covenant outpost. As the rain spattered on his face, curiously warm, he had a bad feeling already about the battle to come. Something didn't feel right. He'd had this feeling before, many a time actually, but he could never ignore it.
"This is crazy!" Geoff Bradley hissed a fierce whisper as he lay on his stomach next to him. The fire team was stationed on top of a large hill, lying in the wet grass until the moment of attack. "Three teams are supposed to take this outpost? It's too big! They're have to be a ton of them in there!" Geoff continued.
Corbin felt the same way. He turned his head and whispered back, "I don't know what the hell HQ's thinking. I've already told Maddox I don't think our forces are adiquate for this operation, but he just tells me that those were his orders. I just think they want to conserve men."
"Conserve men?! I don't even 'wanna hear that bullshit!" Quentin Paciano said, almost being heard by Captain Maddox. "They got marines out there dyin' every day!"
Behind them, Colin Varick whispered, "It's not like we can just leave. We have to fight for this thing and there's not a damn thing any of us can do about it."
"Okay men," Captain Prestin Maddox said more audibly. "We have the short end of the straw. Our orders are to storm the front."
"Figures," Paciano muttered.
"Alpha and Bravo will be taking both sides of the establishment, and we get to play the decoys," Maddox said. "I don't want you uppity bastards running in there thinking you have to blast everything to hell. Stay low until you are fired upon, or are in position. You hear me?"
A slight clattering of helmets was heard as the team nodded in unison, all looking ahead.
Maddox nodded to Alpha and Bravo on either side of his team, and then lead Echo quietly as possible down the slope. He crawled down the hill head first, feeling the moist and muddy ground beneath his uniform. The tall and raincovered grass bent in his path on both sides, brushing his face.
Corbin felt a distinct sense of anxiety and nausea crawling down that hill. The grass smell was strong. He looked up breifly at the dim blue sky. Dark clouds loomed over them with a forboding presence. The rain started slowly, but surely.
Geoff was right beside him. The rain fell steadily over them, pattering against their uniforms and trailing down their helmets in lines. It was uncomfortably humid for such a late hour. He felt uneasy like they could be fired upon any moment.
They were less than halfway there, when Maddox heard a rustling he knew wasn't one of his men. He threw a cautious hand up, stopping their progress. His ears tensed.
"What is it Captain?" whispered Sebastien Sanders.
"Quiet,"
...
"Damn it all!" Maddox's voice rose.
The Jackal's screech rang out through the dusk, and he saw it throwing its arm forward suggesting a charge. The Jackal came up the hill firing, and four more of its kind followed.
"It's an ambush! Fire at will!" Maddox yelled. There was no point in being discrete anymore. Either way this screwed up the whole operation. No one was breifed that there might've been a possibility of outside patrols of the structure. Therefor it wasn't factored in to the plan. That was so stupid it made Maddox sick. He knew he was smarter than that. Even if he wasn't briefed he should've suspected it...
Golden flashes from assault rifles lit up the feilds in short bursts. Some of the men started yelling, panicked. Corbin wasn't the most experienced of soldiers, but it made him mad how some of the men on this fire team were still so green.
Blood spattered across the grass right past him, Geoff couldn't tell which kind it was. It unnearved him but he kept firing, seeing a Jackal twist and flail back. He followed the rest of his team, now running down the hill.
Equipment on their uniforms shook and clicked as the soldiers ran down the embankment, their footsteps splashing up rainwater as they went. Geoff shot another Jackal and watched it tumbled down the hill, leaving a dark streak. The rain started heavier now.
Corbin ran toward the outpost, a dark, octagonal establishment. His heart shot up near his throat as he saw the plasma beginning to rain from it. It was a bright contrast to the darkening sky. He felt his heart thumping in his chest, his vision was bobbing wildly under his loose helmet and steps over uneven ground.
"Turrets, turrets, turrets!" Quentin Paciano called out, his loud call still almost inaudible over the gunfire.
Corbin saw them. The triangular purple blasts. He focused his MA5B on the top of the outpost and began burst firing the assumed location of the turrets. A warm substance sprayed onto his face. He cried out in surprise and wiped it off quickly with his sleeve. It was blood. "Ahh...oh shit!" his voice was shaky. He didn't know if it was human or Covenant, which relieved him slightly, but also terrified him. He ran and rolled behind a rock, dodging a turret blast. The purple plasma drove into the ground with a burst of water and muck. He leaned back against the rock panting and holding his AR close. He was starting to feel like that feeling of uneasiness before the battle was rightful this time... "Man...where the hell's Geoff," Corbin said aloud. He sometimes talked to himself aloud in battle when in a bad or nervous situation.
"I'm right here!" Geoff said, throwing himself down beside Corbin behind the same rock. They both felt a couple jolts as the plasma following Geoff hit the rock. They both didn't notice, but the rain intensified. "Having fun?"
"Fuck you Geoff," Corbin sighed, breathing laboriously. He closed his eyes.
"Comon, get up. We're not helping anybody like this!" Geoff pulled Corbin up by the arm and they both started firing at the turrets. The muzzle flash lit the details of their faces.
Elsewhere, Varick was contending with an Elite closer to the outpost. He laughed sinisterly, ready for the challenge. He ran forward, firing through the rain and hitting his target. He meleed it in the face with a thwack, not really doing much. Varick ducked the aliens swipe, grabbed a plasma grenade off of it, and stuck it to the it. He rolled back and fired off more rounds, and the Elite went up in a blue explosion. Varick loved it when that move worked.
He felt a sharp pain in his back then that took the wind out of him and knocked him back. Another Elite. It roared menicingly, ready for the kill. Just as it charged, Quentin killed it with two shotgun blasts to and near the head. It grunted and died, falling to the muck with a heavy splat. Quentin went and helped Varick up. "Don't get cocky right now. Nobody needs that."
"Mind your own, Paciano," Varick said.
"No thanks for saving you?"
"No. None. Stay out of my way." Varick shoved Paciano aside and ran toward the rest of Echo. Quentin shook his head with a puzzled and slightly angered look and followed him.
Geoff and Corbin had almost finished up with the turrets when the rest of the fire teams focused their attention to the Covenant footmen pouring out of the entrance. Corbin cursed under his breath, realizing this thing was just starting.
The battle raged for another half-hour when an alarming message came over the com. Corbin was behind a weathered old tree under cover when he heard it in his helmet. "This -s H-! We hav- - seriou-- --oble-! A anomal--- bio--- is att-----! Help! We can't ----" and then it went dead. "What the hell are they talking about?!" Corbin said aloud.
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