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Operation: Stingray
Posted By: Nick Kang<digitai430@yahoo.com>
Date: 26 March 2004, 12:17 AM


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AUTHOR'S NOTE: Oh yeah, Fanfic's up! I'm gonna start my writing stuff back off with a smaller series before starting back on my big series. Enjoy.




      0800 HOURS, ST. JOSEPH BEACH, FLORIDA,       CURRENTLY UNDER COVENANT SIEGE

      Cold, salty ocean air bit at Sergeant Nicholas Bradley 's face as the UNSC ocean Destroyer Retribution slowly approached the sandy shores of Saint Joseph beach, Florida. Luxurious beaches stretched out as far as the eye could see on both sides. Bradley might have been able to enjoy the sight a bit more, had the background of the beautiful seen not been a blazing inferno. Pillars of smoke stretched up to the clouded sky while walls of flame hundreds of meters high slowly stretched toward the hard-packed sand of the beach. It looked almost as if the Earth had opened up and belched Hell into the atmosphere.
      The Covenant had occupied the area. They had broken through the 4th Armored Division, as well as the 8th Army. They were on an inexorable march to take Florida, and this area was their next target. It was Bradley's Troop's job to slow their advance long enough for major reinforcements to arrive.
      Bradley's Troop was not like normal Marines. They were Special Forces, the Green Berets of the UNSC. The best of the best. Those of the mighty Spartans only rivaled their skills at combat and strategy. Bradley envied the super-soldiers. He looked to them as idols. He had even shaken the Master Chief's hand before. He wished there could only be two or three in his Troop. But there couldn't be, so he had to make due with what he could get: his two hundred comrades on the Destroyer.
      "Sir?" Corporal Tyler Benson's voice pulled Bradley out of his thoughts. The Sergeant turned around to see that the Corporal had joined him on deck.
      "What is it Corporal?" he asked.
      "Sir," Benson said, "our shipboard radar has picked up a large Covenant reconnaissance group heading toward our position. There's a chance that they may have spotted us.
      "Very well, Corporal, send a few silenced snipers to take care of them. I'll set up an encampment and work on fighting this blaze." Bradley replied.
      "Yessir." Benson said before turning around and jogging to the dormitory door. He opened it and swiftly stepped inside.       Soon after that, ten fully armed snipers with silencers screwed onto the barrels of their rifles ran out, followed by Benson toting dual silenced M6Ds. They ran down the docking ramp and began jogging down the left side of the beach.
      Bradley grabbed an outdated MA5B Assault Rifle from the armory. Though they were old, he still chose them over the newer battle rifle. He liked the design more. He grabbed a handful of extra clips and loaded one into the rifle before putting on his helmet. It was almost like a standard Marine helmet, except where it had the UNSC SF insignia in the middle of the forehead, a circle with a diamond shape in the middle of it. The other SFs were already in the armory before he had come, getting ready for setting up the HQ. He quickly rallied them all and set out on the task of setting up the camp.



      The Jackal's head leapt forward as Corporal Tyler Benson activated the 2x scope on the M6D pistol. The Covenant recon party was abnormally large, consisting of five Jackals, three Elites, and fifteen Grunts. The ten other SFs were lying prone by Benson's side, sighting their targets. He made a quick hand signal and eleven coughs from the silenced weapons echoed through the trees. The three Elites dropped as well as one Jackal. The survivors looked around with alarm at their fallen comrades and began firing in random directions. A green plasma bolt shot past Benson's head, leaving behind the smell of burnt ozone. Eleven more thuds brought down the remaining Jackals as well as four Grunts in splashes of gore. The remaining eleven orange-armored Grunts screamed and ran for it, their arms waving wildly in the air.
      "If those bastards make it back to their base, they'll tell their commanders that we have arrived! We can't let them reach their HQ!" Benson quietly said. The eleven snipers quickly got up and took off in pursuit of the fleeing Grunts. They put the sniper rifles in their back holsters and drew silenced M6D pistols. A few silenced thuds killed two of the slower Grunts. The remaining nine disappeared in the mist surrounding the giant blaze. Benson and the ten others soon found themselves shrouded in fog, unable to see anything more than five feet in front of them. All they could hear was the wild yips and gasps of the running Grunts and the snapping and blazing of the huge inferno. Benson activated his infrared vision implanted into his helmet and nine Grunt-like shapes appeared in the fog. He fired, catching one in the arm. It hooted in pain and kept on running. Just as he was about to take it down with a shot too the breathing apparatus, five bright red shapes appeared in the mist, these much larger than the running Grunts. Benson wasn't sure what they were, but it was obvious if they were Covenant, they were going to be a tough obstacle.





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