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Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Two: Part III
Posted By: russ687<russ687@hotmail.com>
Date: 24 May 2004, 6:45 PM
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___________________________________________________________
0915, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone
Much to Kren's disgust, he hated the fact that ONI personnel withheld every speck of information, despite the circumstances. Hell, if a Marine needed to know something to save the ONI spook's life, he probably wouldn't get it.
He looked at the mission timer on his Heads-Up-Display.
19 hr, 23 min, 33 sec. Goddamnit.
They had been busting their humps over this flooding, thick jungle for almost a day now, and even found enough time to neutralize some animal that would have probably eaten them all alive. The throbbing pain in his chest didn't help him cope with the situation either.
They had landed at the correct coordinates, so they were supposed to be less then 18 hours away. But apparently either the math done by those staffers on the ship was bad or the Marines were slower then they thought.
Hell no, Kren thought. The Marines were never slow. It was the water, the hills, the mud, the vegetation, the weather that slowed them down. If only those bone-head spooks had gotten the latest weather report before sending them to this pit.
The Marines traveled in a tactical wedge formation, moving cautiously, but briskly along the jungle floor as the rain continued to shower them and add to the half foot already on the jungle floor. All of them remained silent, but Kren knew they were thinking the same thing he was.
What, the hell, are we doing here?
"Sir," came McCollum's voice over the comm. link. "According to the topography map, the clearing where the structure is about two miles ahead."
Kren stopped and looked around. The jungle looked the same everywhere. "Copy. Security circle, now." He ordered.
The two fire teams immediately pulled in from their formation and set up a security circle where each Marine pointed a slightly different direction from the one next to him, this creating a circle where nothing could sneak up on them.
"Sergeant McCollum, Privates Henderson and Reynolds, and Sergeant Dieter, front and center." Kren order quietly.
The four Marines came immediately to their CO and knelt down beside him.
"I want to get some eyes above this jungle and see what's around us." Kren said. "Dieter, I want you to get up this tree right here and tell me what you see, OK?"
"Yes, sir." Dieter replied, slinging his S2B SR rifle. Dieter was First Squads sniper, and was very mobile. He was very skilled in the use of the S2B and was reputed to be able to knock Elites out with one shot up to 700 meters away. The only sniper better then he was that of Second Squads, who had nearly ninety confirmed kills.
With the help of Henderson and Reynolds, and with McCollum securing a rope around Dieter's waist, the sniper began climbing the large tree. It had no branches this low to the ground so they had to hoist him up twenty feet to get to the first branch. After that, Dieter made his way steadily up the tree.
Kren watched for the full fifteen minutes it took for him to get as high as he could. The sniper was about one hundred thirty feet high.
"Nothing but hilly terrain in every direction, sir." He replied, his voice subdued by the wind, which was blowing the top of the tree, with Dieter on it, back and forth.
Kren cursed silently to himself. "Okay, get him down."
McCollum was about to follow the order when Dieter spoke back up again. "Wait, I think I see something." Kren watched as the tiny speck at the top of the tree reached back and pulled out the long S2B. Dieter gazed through the 10x optical scope. "Yes, sir, I see something. Looks like the top of a building about...laser range indicates 4.5 kilometers."
"That must be it," Kren said. He hit the comm. link activation button. "OK, get down here, sergeant. We've got to get moving." Kren turned to Corporal Ryder, their comm. specialist. "Ryder, get Second and Third Squads online. Tell them we have the location of the objective, and we will mark it with a nav aid. ETA to objective, 2 hours."
________________________________________________
Kren held up his fist, and the eleven Marines behind him came to a halt. They had set up a navigation marker at the range and bearing the Dieter had reported, and had been following it steadily for almost two hours, cautiously making their way through the flooded, muddy jungle. Now the marker range read less then a kilometer.
Second and Third Squads had acknowledged the orders and were one mile east and west of them, respectively, as the entire platoon traveled north towards the nav maker. Lt. Damon Meyers took the information about the creature seriously when he heard about it over the comm. link. Apparently, only Kren's First Squad had encountered anything.
He motioned again for Alpha to move farther to his left and Bravo farther to his right, then to proceed further along towards the nav marker.
Kren was now on point, with McCollum tagging within arms reach behind him. The sergeant reluctantly gave up his position, but made up for it by being as close to point as possible. The two Marines were five meters ahead of both fire teams, and were sometimes even out of sight through the thick vegetation, but so far, they had kept the formation close and proper, without many problems.
Kren look ahead to see a large bush directly in his path. Instead of going around it, he decided to go straight through it, since it was bigger then most. He ducked down even farther and pressed through it, pushing past the large wet leaves and branches. He pushed aside another branch and stopped mid step, causing McCollum to bump into him.
"Down!" Kren whispered to McCollum, and the two Marines dropped into the prone position. He then quickly activated the squad comm. link. "Alpha and Bravo, hold your positions. I say again, hold your position."
"Roger."
"Acknowledged."
The two responses sounded completely normal, as the two fire teams, who couldn't see through the vegetation yet, hunkered down and awaited further orders. Kren, on the other hand, stared ahead in awe.
In front of him was the large clearing that had been predicted. And, also as predicted, a large Covenant Garrison was there, surrounding the large structure that lay two hundred meters ahead in the center of the clearing. Covenant crates, tents, and even vehicles, were scattered about, completing the camp that surrounded the structure. It was large enough to easily have a thousand Covenant in it.
Except for one thing.
"Where the hell are they?" McCollum asked, scanning the area with his M7A1, and not seeing anything move.
Kren looked around. The rain continued to fall and the thick clouds overhead continued to mix around by the high winds. Nothing was different. Nothing felt different or looked different. Except for the fact that nobady was at the garrison.
"It's completely deserted."
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