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Unexpected Surprises Part 6
Posted By: JediKnight114 (James)<jediknight114@aol.com>
Date: 16 July 2003, 1:01 AM
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Pondering the thought (what now?) for what seemed to be quite a while Lewis turned as the last bit of sunlight slipped under the horizon, though an aura of dusk still clung to the air. He beckoned John over to him and struck a conversation with him. O'Malley found his way to Lewis and John whom were conversing quietly. "Sir, hell of a job .... What do you have in mind now?" the captain fondly responded with a gesture towards Ramirez who was helping his partner at the helm who was meticulously keying in something at his station.
"You should really thank him, Cortana admitted to me that without his efforts we would have gone nose first into the side of this plateau and not where we are now, needless to say we all owe him great thanks. As for now I don't see any harm in using our ship as a field HQ, do you?"
"Well sir under the circumstances I would have to agree, though we should get right to it incase anyone decides to come have a look see" said O'Malley in a soft tone.
"I'll get right to it then" said the Master Chief as he turned on heel and left the bridge to track down the rest of his Spartan team to do a little recon.
"That man, definitely odd, but I'm glad he is with us" said O'Malley as he looked around the bridge. The next few hours went like clock work there was even enough room to squeeze some clean up time into the jumble going on, in fact you could barely tell they had just crash landed from the inside, if you were outside it was a different story. A perimeter was effectively set up by the Spartans which was pointed out by a pair of Warthogs coming within sight every so often.
The tough job of setting up a fuel depot was left to the ship's engineers who all seemed to be working very diligently. Pelicans helped maneuver tanks and other heavy equipment into place as a forward staging area was created. While all the organization was going on mechanics and other personnel tended to their ambient jobs, if you were to survey the sight from afar you'd see anything from pelicans moving to a fro, to mechanics disassembling a broken 60mm tank turret with tank treads laid out across the area. It was rigorous but the crew managed to set up a decent looking HQ in a very short time.
Then the Fighters all 110 of them came in groups of 6, the blazing roar of the engines caused most to look upwards at the incoming pride of their fighter wings. Each came in and did a large angled turn and then settled in a line to enter the Aquarius and dock. Only 18 Razortooth fighters had to be cared for outside the Aquarius due to damage. The scene was unfolding as if it where a normal every day thing to crash land on a planet. Lewis helped with restoring the bridge to a 75% operating level, which included Cortana's holopad. This was obvious due to her constant appearances and articulate thinking aloud in self contained bouts before she actually became of some use. She worked her ass off restoring the other more complicated 25% of damaged materials such as computer terminals and main system bus(s).
O'Malley came to Lewis for his action report and as usual was a bit hastened by the constant calling of his name, or the introduction to a problem that required his presence. "Sir we have everything you ordered combat ready and standing by, as well as food rationed out to our boys, in all ... everything is fit to pass inspection sir" O'Malley said as he used a dirty towel from his back pocket to wipe some grease from his blackened hands. He looked up at Lewis after approving he had cleaned his hands enough; tension could clearly be seen in him. Lewis watched in a bleak way, then responded,
"Ok O'Malley we haven't seen anything threatening to us other then a (would be) mistake......"
"What would that be sir?" question O'Malley
"Me over working you boys till I don't have anything to fight with" said Lewis who gave a reassuring smile and continued... "Let everyone know that I have, effective immediately, changed their shifts to 7 hours now instead of 11, you guys surprised me, you all are way ahead of schedule so you boys deserve some R&R"
"Sir, yes sir, take it easy yourself we need you if anything gets sticky"
"Bah you get outta here" Lewis said while laughing "I know I'm old but not that old heh"
O'Malley exited while chuckling to himself as two MP's snapped to attention as he exited the bridge. He walked down several corridors before coming to a service elevator. He stepped inside and heaved a large sigh then reached and pressed the access terminal. Upon activation the elevator plummeted downward toward the ground level. As it reached the bottom of the shaft the elevator slowed until its full stop was signaled by a soft bump and the opening of the doors. O'Malley stepped out and was immediately assaulted by hot, humid, almost stingy air. The breeze was soft yet seemed ominous of a storm, O'Malley closed his eyes and remembered Texas back home, as a kid he would be found outside always perusing some type of childish game, it had been so long since he felt a breeze like such. He was jerked out of this reminiscence by a Cpl jogging up to him, offered a salute and said,
"Sir, Can I help you?"
"No Cpl, actually I can help you..." said O'Malley in a suggestive way
"What are you getting at sir?" answered the Cpl
"Well something along the lines of a comfortable bed and a couple blankets involved accompanied by a nicely made meal" answered O'Malley. He gave a smile that seemed to match the thoughts going through the Cpl's mind.
"Hell yes!, sorry sir, must excuse me I'll let everyone else know send our thanks to the Cap'em for me eh mate?" without a pause for a response the Cpl took off running and quickly spread the word. O'Malley smiled once more and began a slow meander around the staging area. People where already taking advantage of the welcomed news and were sprawled out on the ground next to their tools or propped back on two chair legs snoring heavily. A few, it seemed more like a skeleton crew, of people were still awake and gave gestures of acknowledgement whenever O'Malley was spotted, clearly they were very tired. He continued along until he saw a large man with a very muscular build who was cleaning his armor. It wasn't until O'Malley got around to the front of the man and looked back did he realize it was John.
He did almost a double take; John didn't take notice of him as he was inspecting his helmet which seemed to have been bent oddly. Only when O'Malley stumbled over a large rifle which had been partially dismantled did John look up and without surprise said "Lt, what brings you this way?"
O'Malley who was still startled to seeing John out of his armor, he was normal, just like any other soldier, I was almost frightening to O'Malley, but he suppressed this feeling and answered,
"Hello Chief, I was just down here spreading the good news, the Captain approved of some R&R, I guess we all really needed it after all" he looked up into the night and observed a sky clogged with stars, much more then you could ever see on earth.
"well that's good to hear, I don't care much for rest, I never got used to it, but I am glad we are off that ship, I don't like ships, too cramped" said John as he wrestled with his helmet and upon hearing a loud snap he nodded approvingly and set it aside.
Then something slammed into the tent John had pitched some yards away from where O'Malley was standing. A large explosion followed mere seconds after impact, sending large chunks of upturned soil into the air, dust fell as O'Malley grabbed his left leg, spun to his left and fell backwards. Then a second round came in closer to O'Malley's position it gave the sound of a waffle ball but then gave a sinister hum like it was vibrating. It too detonated shortly after impact and sent more dirt and stone into the air. John who had already moved from his sitting position to a determined strafe in O'Malley's direction with his MA5C assault rifle shouldered. "GET DOWN! ....... INCOMMING" yelled a frantic marine who was holding his rifle with only boxers on. John rolled to his right as a round tore over his body and slammed into the ground ahead of his original destination. O'Malley was now on his stomach moaning clearly injured once more.
John jumped back to his feet and made way to the Lt. he dashed and then knelt down over O'Malley. He could see a small trickle of blood coming from his mouth, then he carefully picked him up and carried him at his waist. The MC turned and made a bee line for his armor he hastily slung his rifle while pausing only to put on his helmet he picked his armor up and continued on a mad dash for cover. All the time shell after shell hitting the grounds about the area sending debris everywhere, then, the first casualty a marine took the blunt of an explosion to save his friend and was thrown 45 feet like a rag doll and then landed hard obviously dead. The strain was clearly visible as John carried a 175 pound officer in his left arm and nearly 1000 pounds of armor in his right.
"What the hell is going on!?....... damnit!" a marine shouted as another shell hit near by.
"Move back, take a defensive posture I want everyone on either side of the center stay together, I want a sniper team down here on the double we need to find out where this is coming from.... Move move move!" shouted a Sgt. who was also half dressed but holding his rifle at the ready. The confusion did not last but at most, four minutes, the shelling of the grounds had continued and showed no signs of stopping. The marines moved back a hundred feet or so before they took up safe positions for defending the ship. They also had managed to set up a cover system to dress themselves in their armor, a group would cover another group whom where putting on their armor.
John managed to make his way to the medic's tent and laid O'Malley on an empty cot. He looked up to find two medics running over to assist him, he spoke quickly,
"He took a piece in the leg, more shelling hit near by so a concussion might be present, get on your radio and inform the captain that I am going to handle this" with that he left the tent and suited his armor remarkably fast while moving back towards the front. With a little pat to his head, his helmet's HUD display flickered to life the motion sensors instantly light up with movement both friend and foe. He brought up his rifle and ran to a warthog which was being commandeered by a pair of marines he jumped onto the back end and took a solid stance as one of the marines greeted him. The driver slammed his foot to the floor and the warthog shot out of its bay they headed for a small ridge just beyond the staging area as they reached it they suddenly went air borne. The marine riding shotgun gave a cheer as they landed hard, enough to bring the bumper low enough to scrape at the sand. Once they were moving again they were able to spot big long flashes of light, obviously the artillery that was attacking them.
"Blimey look at tha'..... what are we gonna do Chief?"
"There at your 9 o'clock, let's pair up with them and go check it out" John said as he patched a comm. link to the other warthogs that were racing in their direction. The driver saw them and swung his own hog around and headed to meet up with the others. John spoke to the warthog that seemed it would meet with them first. "Who is in charge out here!?" he yelled.
"Master Chief that would be me Major Davis Commander of the 203rd Cortana has a grid map of this area let's see if we can't call an air strike"
"Yes sir I'll assume point....." John was cut short by Major Davis
"That won't be necessary chief I have a better idea, follow me" the warthog carrying the MC turned about once more and followed Major Davis back up and around to the Pelican bays. Davis jumped out of his hog and gave a smile as he thumbed in the direction of four fully loaded Pelicans; each had a warthog attached to it. Davis and John both ran to the lead Pelican and jumped in, Davis raised his arm and gave two short twirls. The pilot call signed (Thumper) gave his acknowledgement by raising his own arm, and took off. Three other Pelicans followed, they tore through the night sky while Davis gave a chat to his men via universal comm. link. "Alright men this is it, looks like no more R&R I want you boys sharp and careful we have to plant these (he held a small device in his hand looking similar to a small cone) along the base of their entrenchment, our hogs will be our cover if you get into any kind of trouble radio us and we'll pick you up" just then a stifled ping following by a shutter in the aircraft's flight path marked they'd been hit. Thumper came over the comm. channel,
"We've been hit something in the left aileron I think we can make it"
"Son of a Bitch,...... son of a fucking bitch I just had this thing fixed!, those dirty whores, ok boys new plan kill as many as you can while planting these things ride em hard boys!" yelled Davis
"We are here LZ's hot watch yourselves" thumper said under stress. The Pelican swiveled but didn't touch the ground, the three others followed suit, and marines poured out of them and manned their warthogs.
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