The Fallen: Halo 2 Ch5S1 Moving In
Posted By: Hikaru-119<hikaru119@email.com>
Date: 8 October 2003, 12:53 PM
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Chapter 5 Section 1: Moving In
0000 Hours November 22, 2553 (Military Calendar)
Enroute to Sector 0347.08 Aboard Omega 74
The Master Chief didn't particularly like this new assignment he had been given. After meeting up with General Kits' division the Spartans had been spread out to four different locations. Two were with General Kits, another two joined an assault for a potential firebase that was being held by the Covenant, and the other two were sent out on patrol looking for any major hostilities. The Chief unfortunately got stuck with recon duty in a known Covenant held position with fifteen marines. They would slow him down considerably. Only good thing about them is that they were the gray uniformed special forces. Members of the 202nd Special Reconnaissance and Infiltration Division.
Their mission was to land in this territory, gain any data they could on the Covenant location, exterminate all hostiles, and they were to examine all Forerunner technology that they should run across. There wasn't anything good about this mission. Despite all of this the Chief sat back in his seat and waited patiently until the dropship would land and deploy him for the mission.
" Prepare for drop. ETA three minutes. " Marner said over the radio. The Chief prepped his M7C sub-machine gun and rechecked his S2 AM sniper rifle. Both were fine and he was ready to get back on the ground. He looked out the back end and watched the snow covered ground accelerate beneath him. The dropship slowed down and landed. The Chief was the first off and immediately he looked around through the scope of his rifle.
All he could see were the stars in the distance, the lightened ring above him, and one of the six silver moons off to his ten o'clock illuminating the night just barely. He checked the cliffs in the distance, the field in front of him, and the area behind him. The entire sector was clean of any Covenant presence. He double checked and saw nothing. The marines had made it out of the dropships and spread out into defensive positions. Both of the transports accelerated off into the distance leaving them without air support.
" Reinforcement is on standby. If they are needed they'll be here in roughly half an hour. We'll be out of the sector and will be waiting for the evac signal. Good luck Omega 74 out. " Ellerman said.
" Copy that. " the Chief said. " Cortana was initial recon incorrect? I don't see any sign of the Covenant. "
indent]" Chief the Covenant position is not far from here. They are stationed just three hundred meters relatively west of the drop zone. " Cortana said. " We need to meet up with the sniper patrol that is currently on their way back from the Covenant position. I'll give you a NAV point with their current location. " He turned to his left and walked towards the orange NAV marker. Towards the cliffs in the distance. The marines followed in two lines behind the Chief.
It took them several minutes to reach the snow covered cliffs where the snipers were in hiding. The marines looked around for their comrades and could not find the original sniper team that came in. All they saw were snow covered rocks. However for the Chief the NAV point gave them away entirely. He walked over to them and looked down at two white lumps in the ground. They saw the Chief and revealed themselves from their hiding spot. Both of them could barely be seen even with their rifles.
" Sniper Team November report. " Cortana said.
" Corporal Fargason sir. " one of the snipers said saluting. " The Covenant are dug in pretty well sir. I estimate fifty some infantry and two Phantom dropships. Infantry are comprised of mostly Grunts. There are also sixteen structures and the eight defense turrets are active. Don't know what the structures contain. Never seen their profile before. There is also another structure native to the ring. An entrance of sorts it seems. Lots of Elite activity around there. " The Chief thought this over and examined the marines. They should be able to take on those kind of odds as long as they didn't draw the attention of the dropships.
" What entrance options are there Corporal? " the Chief asked. The other sniper answered this.
" Master Chief Sir there are two ways in. We can go through a cave system that we've been using that the Covenant don't know about. It leads straight to the top of the cliffs and to the central valley. Or we can enter through the ravine at the opposite end. The Covenant have two turrets watching that entrance very carefully though. " the sniper said.
" Very well. " the Chief replied. " Fargason I want you to take my four snipers along with your spotter and place them in three separate sniping positions. Target Elites and officers first. Don't fire until the order to do so is given. "
" Yes sir. " Fargason replied. The sniper turned and grabbed the four snipers the Master Chief had under his command. The Chief turned his attention over to Sergeant Dollneaz.
" Sergeant you and your men follow me. We'll attack from that ravine the corporal had mentioned. " the Chief said to the grizzled soldier. Dollneaz nodded and his squad was ready.
" Okay you heard the Chief everyone. Let's move out. " Dollneaz ordered. They immediately scattered like cockroaches in light.
It was a five minute jog to the other side of the cliff formation with the Chief taking point. The marines came to a sudden halt when they saw the Chief had stopped in his tracks. The marines were momentarily puzzled as to why the sudden halt until they saw what he spotted. Two Phantoms had taken off from within the valley encircled by the hills and sped off at maximum burn.
Once the Phantoms had passed they resumed their advance. The Chief led them to a small pile of boulders where he had stopped. His motion tracker had picked up a pair of signals. The marines came to the pile slowly and stayed low. With his sniper rifle in hand the Chief took a quick look.
The ravine was insight along with two manned Shade turrets. Next to them was a pair replacement gunners. All operators were the high ranking yellow shielded Jackals. After a momentary examination of the targets he placed his rifle between two rocks and gained some extra balance on the weapon..
" Fargason are those men in position? " the Chief asked.
" Roger that Master Chief. All snipers in position and awaiting the order to fire. " Fargason replied. The Chief took aim and practiced the movements for the order in which he was going to shoot. Officer near the left gun, officer near the right gun, right gun, and finish off the left gun. The Chief turned to the marines that were waiting with him.
" Squad after I reload and all the shots have been fired fan out and advance. Stay in groups at least three strong. Prepare for anything. " he said. The Chief then took aim at his first target. " All snipers fire at will. "
With that seven guns armed with APFSDS rounds were fired in rapid succession. The bullets flew straight into their targets sucking out the entrails through the exit wounds tearing the Covenant warriors apart. In just three seconds the enemy went into a sudden snap of confusion with the death of their officers. The Chief reloaded and the marines advanced. The sound of heavy gun fire echoed off of the valley walls as the humans made their inward advance.
The Chief followed the trail of marines that ran into the entrance and switched to his M7C. Immediately upon entering they split up into two groups taking the forward and right flanks. The Covenant had regained their command structuring and made a hasty counter offensive. Roughly fifteen Grunts and two Jackals moved in on the advancing humans.
The Grunts opened fire with their plasma pistols and threw several grenades at the bunched up squad. The marines rolled out of the way and missed the plasma grenades, but met the heavy gun fire instead. Screams of pain and flesh burning came from the wounded as they were hit.
Those that were unfortunate enough to be shot fell to the ground attempting to take cover. The following plasma bolts struck and burned away at what was left of the wounded. The snow around the charred corpses was stained with blood. Another squad of Grunts ran out and attempted to engage the humans. Their efforts were thrawted by the sniper support.
" Squad move in right flank! " Sergeant Dollneaz yelled at the marines. Four of the remaining marines ran far right and took cover behind a stack of crates. A few of the Covenant moved towards them and were exposed to the rest of the marines and the Chief. They learned their mistake with a wall of hot lead. With those units down the four marines moved in on the right flank.
Two grenades were thrown behind the remaining Covenant. Twin flashes of smoke and fire flew up killing them. The Chief moved in on the enemy corpses with his SMG ready. He made sure they were dead and turned to the marines behind him. As he turned the final Jackal fell to the ground grasping its throat. Blackened blood poured out of its wound and onto its fallen comrades.
One of the marines spoke up firing a three round burst into the dying Jackal. " Area secure. " As the marine finished this sentence he fell to the ground without warning. Everyone brought up their weapons and searched frantically.
" What the hell was that! " Dollneaz yelled. Again another marine fell dead next to him. The Chief looked down at one of the dead marines and saw a tiny hole through the back of his helmet.
" SNIPER! " Cortana yelled beating the Chief to the punch. Everyone immediately scattered taking cover where they could. Behind a crate, near one of the larger pod like buildings, anywhere that could cover them up.
A Covenant sniper was completely unheard of. Most people even thought the idea of the Covenant using such tactics was completely unlike them. Even the Chief did not think about the possibility of such a unit existing until now.
The Chief suddenly entered his first cold sweat in years. It seemed that the Covenant had been busy assimilating the effective human tactics into their own. Another shot was fired and zipped by the Chief's helmet.
He saw the thin lance of blue-white light stream by in front of his face. he moved his head back and saw where it the bolt hit. It impacted on the ground just a few feet in front of him. A tiny wisp of smoke and steam came up from the point of impact. It's up top he said to himself.
" Fargason are you still there? Over. " he said over the radio.
" Yes sir. What is it? " Corporal Fargason replied.
" Do you see anything odd up on the cliff top? A shimmer or anything? "
" Negative. " Another shot was fired and it hit the edge of the Chief's shields. They dropped immediately. He curled up as best he could and prayed his shields would return quickly.
" Come on I need you to- " the Chief said with worry in his voice.
" Hold on. I think I saw it. " Fargason said interrupting. He turned on his night vision and looked past the origin of the shot.
His vision picked up a small, faint, blue light. If it hadn't of moved he never would have noticed it. Before another shot was fired the sniper pulled his own trigger and a stealth Elite appeared.
The air was sucked right from its lungs as the shot penetrated its armor. Another shot was fired to the head. Its helmet was torn from the skull and the Elite fell off the cliff edge. The limp corpse landed with a hard thump.
" Sniper down. Are secured. " he said. A cheer of victory rang out from the marines. The Chief looked up and let out a long sigh. If the shot had been a centimeter over he'd be in bad shape. After his momentary relief he looked around and found the body.
He took a good look at the Covenant warrior. On is back was a runic symbol of sorts. It almost looked like a crosshair from a scope with a diagonal line going through it. He then looked at the weapon he had been hit with.
The design was similar to a plasma rifle. Except the top half was much more elongated, about the length of an S2 AM's barrel. On top of it was a tubular scope. The chromed weapon also had a butt plate like that of an MA5B and was clip fed. The Chief slung his M7C and gave the weapon a feel on the shoulder. It was light and worked with his shoulder perfectly.
" You can have it. " Fargason said walking up to the Chief. " I want its helmet. " Fargason added grinning. The Chief nodded to the sniper. The corporal happily picked up the head piece and placed it inside his backpack. The Chief stripped all ammo from the body and placed his S2 AM and munitions on the ground.
" Sergeant Dollneaz hold this position. " Cortana said. " The Chief and I are going inside. "
" Yes Ma'am. Okay you heard the lady, get into hold out formation theta. On the double! " Dollneaz yelled at the remaining members of his squad. The Chief gave a final look at the scrambling marines and then head into the entrance buried within the cliff side.
To be Continued in Chapter 5 Section 2: Where Did they come from?
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