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The Croton Chronicles: Chapter 1
Posted By: Earl Hershberger (Funkster) & Trevor White (Boxer[subnova])<twhite1721@hotmail.com>
Date: 26 February 2004, 6:34 PM
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-The Croton Chronicles: Chapter 1-
1230 Hours November 19, 2554 (Military Calendar)/
Location: Croton, planet-side (Map reference 2B)
Renner was quite literally thrown out of his deep ponderings. "INCOMING!" is all he heard, before he was thrown into the air like a toy. He landed unceremoniously on the ground.
"Crap," he thought, "how did they zero in on our position so quickly, and where the hell did they get that mortar tank from. They should have all been destroyed in the previous battle."
He stood up and called over to Shandor, his radioman, and screamed over the COM.
"We need air support at map reference 2B; all hell is breaking loose!"
Just at that, most convenient of times, five ghosts accompanied by an entire army of grunts and a trio of banshees attacked the small recon post. After about 10 minutes of nothing but static and chatter of assault rifles Renner finally heard a pilot's voice come over the COM.
"We'll be there in ten minutes" the pilot drawled in a poor southern accent.
"You've got three, anymore than that and our opossum is cooked" Renner retorted.
"Well see what we can do, no promises."
"Fucking jet jockeys" Renner thought to himself.
He looked over to Pvt. Carl Hoffbraugh, "Get a squad equipped with M-19 SSM rocket launchers. We need to take out those banshees, they're tearing us apart."
"Already on it." Carl said.
Renner then looked over to Pvt. Tod Gearhart, "Gearhart you get your team equipped with MA2B rifles, pistols, and whatever...just set them up and keep those rocket crews safe, no matter what."
"Yes sir!" Gearhart said and immediately jumped to his task.
Renner looked around the encampment and noticed he only had two warthogs to work with, "Man, why does the universe always have to get stuck in the boonies?"
"Smitty, you and Grater man the warthogs" Renner yelled to a nearby private.
"Take full crews with you, I need you to distract those ghosts so they don't wreck havoc with our lines."
"What are you going to do Sir?" Smitty asked.
"Me," Renner said, "I'm leading the counter attack."
At the command base a private came running threw the door, "Sir!" he yelled to Col. Jamison.
"Forward recon base Delay is getting hit pretty hard, they say they can only hold out for maybe five minutes at the most...unless they get additional support."
Jamison went over to his maps; he looked tired and aged beyond his years. The war had certainly taken its toll on him.
"There's a narrow canyon pass about five clicks south of their base, tell them to double-time-it back to that position and we'll give them all the support they need."
"Yes sir!" the private said and went about his task.
"Do really think they can make it?" a voice asked. The voice belonged to Lt. Micigger. He was Col. Jamison's right hand man. Micigger wasn't much of a soldier, but what he lacked as a soldier he made up for in ass kissing and boy was he a good ass kisser.
"For their sake I hope they can, but I wouldn't count on it" Jamison growled.
"So should we send the reinforcements, they could be used elsewhere" Micigger asked. "I don't see why not. All of the other fronts are quiet and have been for three days, this is probably the Covenant's last-ditch effort."
Jamison then sent the order out with another private who had been standing in the room. The private began handing out the orders. No sooner were the assigned reinforcements redeployed then messages from five different forward bases came over the COM. The private immediately rushed to tell Jamison what was going on.
"We've got a problem sir; we've got confirmation of attacks on five of our forward bases."
Jamison was in shock, so much so that he almost couldn't speak...almost.
"Well," he said, "now we're like the French..."
"Excuse me sir, I don't follow" Micigger said in a slightly confused tone.
"We're fucked in the ass, except this time it's not Germans."
Back at recon base Delay the battle had gone from bad to worse; out of the fifty marines Renner had started with only thirteen were still able to fight. The counter attack he was to lead never even happened. One warthog had been destroyed during the initial assault. The Covenant had paid for the loss with three ghosts and a fair number of infantry. More importantly, the Covenant had lost all of their air support; which had gone down with limited marine casualties. The first of the three Banshees to be taken down was able to fire upon the marines assigned to its destruction. The fuel rod blast struck the group of marines dead center, killing most of the squad instantly the rest were killed when the flaming hulk of the now dead Banshee smashed into their position. The other two Banshees had gone down with relative ease; two SPNKR rockets found their targets before the Covenant pilots knew what was going on. After the initial attack is when the shit really hit the fan. The marines that had survived would have to repel attack, after attack, after attack, after attack, after a brief 5-minute break with tea and cakes, followed by another attack.
The remaining warthog had to be pulled back in order to help support what was left of the marines.
Shandor ran over to Renner, "SIR ORDERS FROM HQ SAY WE ARE TO PULL BACK TO A NARROW CANYON PASS ABOUT FIVE CLICKS SOUTH OF HERE!!"
"What the hell, we finally get dug in and we have to pull back, this is such a load of bullshit! Tell them we will be there ASAP." Renner said in annoyance.
"Shandor, make sure those fly boys know what's going on, we can't afford to lose our air support." Renner added. "Not that we had it to begin with."
"I'LL DO MY BEST!!" Shandor replied.
"ALRIGHT MEN, YOU HEARD THE MAN, MOVE OUT!!!" Renner yelled to his troops.
He ran to the warthog and jumped into the now empty gunner seat; while the driver's seat was occupied by a one armed Grater, who in all honesty didn't seem to care that he had lost it. He remembered having sent Grater and Smitty out as a distraction; Grater in the driver's seat and Smitty manning the LAAG gun.
"That means Smitty is dead," Renner thought, "good riddance to the stupid bastard."
Renner looked up in time to see two Covenant Ghosts come over a nearby hill. Both vehicles looked as if they had been in a demolition derby. Renner was surprised that they were still intact let alone able to move. Renner aimed at what seemed to be the heavier damaged of the two Ghosts. He pulled the LAAG gun's trigger sending a high powered stream of lead-death straight for the Ghost. The bullets impacted and exploded, denting the front of the ghost over and over and over and over again. After about 10 seconds of sustained fire the Ghost finally exploded. The explosions caused a thundering echo to reverberate throughout the narrow canyon.
"And for my next trick," Renner yelled to the passenger over the whine of the engine.
"What was that sir?" The passenger yelled.
"I said you're a prick!"
The passenger, whom Renner didn't recognize, just smiled and gave a thumbs-up.
Renner set his sights on the second of the two Ghosts, which just happened to be following the Warthog. Renner pulled out a grenade, pulled the pin, and dropped it behind the Warthog. "One, two, three" Renner yelled and was rewarded with the sight of the second Ghost exploding.
"That's the last of the Ghosts" Renner said with a chuckle.
Grater continued driving and after about 5 minutes they cleared the canyon. The Warthog came to a stop about 200 feet from the end of the canyon.
"We'll set up here" Renner said.
"We can use the canyon exit as a choke point and wait for reinforcements."
The marines formed a tight semicircle around the canyon exit with the warthog in the center and waited. Ten minutes later the Covenant came barreling around the corner completely unaware of what they were about to run into. The Elites and Grunts that rounded the corner first were immediately gunned down by the small band of marines.
Renner looked at his men and thought, "I can't believe I'm going to die here."
No sooner had he resigned himself to death than a rocket went screaming passed his head "Watch your fire marine!" Renner yelled.
"Sorry, my bad!" Carl managed to say while he choked up blood.
Renner looked down and noticed that Carl was holding his side. He was bleeding freely. The elites at the front of the advancing formation met the rocket head on and lost. Those who were too slow to get out of the way were blown into oblivion. Their finale cries echoed through the canyon like sweet, sweet music. Just then Renner saw something that put him into a near state of catatonia, emerging through the dust were ten hunters and what appeared to be two Ghosts; poorly welded together. Instead of drivers these Ghosts were carrying a plasma mortar cannon, probably salvaged from one of the Covenant Wraith tanks. Renner felt the air around him crackle with static electricity. The hunters had set the Ghost-Wraith on the ground and began powering up their fuel rod guns.
"NO," Renner thought, "they're going to wipe us out with one gigantic salvo and there is nothing we can..."
Renner's thought was interrupted by a high pitched scream. The scream was followed by two consecutive explosions that sounded like rolling thunder. A majority of the hunter guard was obliterated.
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