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Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Four: Part II
Posted By: russ687<russ687@hotmail.com>
Date: 2 June 2004, 6:44 PM
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___________________________________________________________
1420, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone
The silence dominated Kren's men, only broken up by the occasional splashing of feet and the constant pouring of rain. The platoon had just finished burying their first casualty on this mission, and none of them were happy. To make matters worse, most were flat out angry at how the Corporal had died. It seemed like a meaningless act and that his death had no purpose behind it.
While most of the Marines calmly scanned the area, making sure nothing would sneak up on them, all of them in their minds were trying to figure out what would happen now. Kren was especially distracted by these thoughts. For one, he had survived a direct encounter with some unknown creature only hours before, and now he had just survived a near drowning incident that claimed the life of his electronics specialist. Was it luck?
Or was it fate?
Kren pushed aside these thoughts as he walked over to the entrance to the structure and looked down. The large door was now open, a black void beckoning at him, and the ground in front of the door sunk down 10 meters to a pool of muddy water. The sides of the newly formed hole were not metal, but rather of a crudely cut rock. Why it was there and who created remained mysteries. But the now open door took superiority over whatever else might be there.
So the logical conclusion is that this place was booby-trapped. Kren would have expected a much more sophisticated defense system, but if it claimed the life of one of his Marines, it must work. He knew that the enemy, even if it was completely absent from this base, was going to make a formidable defense to this structure. He had to stay on his toes.
But he knew that the only reason this place would be defended was because something inside the structure was of high value and importance. The first obvious reason was the huge Covenant garrison they were standing in the middle of, the second was this door leading down into a dark abyss.
Kren turned to face McCollum and Meyers, who stood staring into the open door with their rifles pointed at the ground. "Well, we've completed two of our three tasks," Kren said, disgust in his voice. "We've made it this far, let's finish this off so we can get off this god awful planet."
McCollum grunted in approval. "Should we leave anyone at the surface?"
Kren looked around at his men, organized in their fire teams. They were all on alert, scanning the area from their perimeter locations. He could not risk leaving their only entrance and exit open to being overrun, even if the only known enemy on this planet were ghost Elites and savage animals.
"Second Squad will remain at the surface, keeping this building completely guarded." Kren looked at Meyers and saw the look on his face. Kren spoke in a lower tone. "I need you up here to keep our evac in good condition. I cannot risk a whole platoon of Marines to go into his rabbit hole and leave our backdoor compromised."
Meyers nodded reluctantly.
"First and Third Squads will go into the structure and see what we can find. I have no clue how big this place is, but I'll give it Four-Five Mikes until we can make it back out. Any longer, and this probably wont work."
McCollum and Meyers nodded, setting their HUD mission countdown clock to 45 minutes.
"Meyers, while we're under get the Valiant Knight over the comm., and tell them were going to want an evac in Five-Zero Mikes. As soon as we get the surface, I don't want to hang out to see what might be on its way to get us."
Meyers nodded again. "And a back-up plan?"
Kren thought for a moment. "We rendezvous at the surface here and travel due south, the way we came in. If you are not here at the surface and if a don't see any bodies, I'm going to assume you will be at this..." Kren quickly found and established the coordinates for a nav marker. "...location." The nav point appeared on the HUD, reading 500 meters due east.
"Understood, sir." Meyers responded.
"Okay, gentlemen, this is it." Kren said, checking his ammo clip as he talked. "Let's get this over and done with, and get the hell out of dodge."
The Marines split three ways, with Kren moving for First Squad and McCollum moving to get Third Squad ready to go. The day journey through the jungle to get here, and all the encounters along the way only left more question to be answered. Nevertheless, Kren knew that they would be answered, somewhere in this structure.
___________________________________________________________
First Squad moved silently down the right side of the tunnel as it sloped downward into the darkness. The flashlight beams of the M7A1's danced across the walls and tried to penetrate deeper into the darkness. Behind them, the opening that they came through seemed like a small hole of light, leaving them with only their rifle mounted flashlights and night vision goggles to see where they were heading.
Kren opted to save the NVG's battery use. Even though they could last for hours of continuous operation, he didn't want to take a chance with running out of battery life deep underground. Besides, the flashlights were outstanding for this type of situation.
Private Smathers followed close behind Kren, watching the motion sensor closely as the two squads moved deeper under ground. They had be moving for almost three hundred meters, and by the looks and feel of things, they had to be at least 50 meters under ground.
The walls were void of anything significant, except for the fact that they were expertly constructed, being perfectly vertical and perpendicular to the floor, which sloped down. Whoever made this went to great trouble to make this place a structure masterpiece, something that could also probably withstand plasma bombardments.
Kren held up his fist and the squad came to a silent halt behind him. On the other side, Gunnery Sergeant Jacobs held up his fist as well, following his CO's lead. The group of Marines silently crouched down and looked around, trying to see or figure out why they stopped. Kren waited a minute, then gave the signal to cut off all lights. Four seconds later, the Marines sat in utter darkness.
The Marines did not don their night vision goggles, but rather waited in the darkness. Kren peered ahead down the dark tunnel as his thoughts were confirmed. Ahead, the tunnel made a right-hand turn, making whatever was beyond it unknown. However, Kren could now see, after his eyes adjusted to the dark, a faint purple light coming from around the corner, barely visible. The appearance of the turn was maybe one hundred meters ahead, and a quick check using his M7A1's scope range-finder laser gave him a report of 107.
The light looked strangely similar to the color and tint the Covenant used aboard their ships and inside their structures. It followed closely the Covenant's apparent love for those types of colors, which led Kren to believe that the light was not from whoever built the structure, but from the Covenant.
McCollum silently came up next to his CO, and without goggles, stared ahead and saw the same thing. "Covenant?"
Kren nodded in the darkness. "Appears so."
McCollum reached into one of his web pouches and pulled out his NVGs and connected them to his helmet. He pulled them down over his eyes and activated them.
Kren was quickly startled when McCollum raised his rifle immediately and aimed it off into the darkness.
McCollum's voice was flat and serious. "Sir, you saw some ghost Elite in that tent?"
Kren thoughts went into overdrive. Obviously, that was not an isolated event. "What do you see?" He asked quietly, slowly pulled out his own NVGs.
McCollum stared through the scope as the crosshairs settled on the temple of a barely visible humanoid from, waiting silently along the wall and staring directly back. The green and black perspective through the lenses made identification impossible, but it stood at least eight feet tall, and the silence of it made it seemed trained and ready.
Kren donned the NVGs and looked off to where McCollum's rifle pointed. He sighted his own rifle and found the same thing. The half-transparent Elite stood there, watching them, making no sound or movement. It was alone, and it carried no weapon.
"Do not fire." Kren said softly.
McCollum continued to keep the rifle's sights on the apparent head of the creature. "What is it?"
Kren watched in silence as it stayed perfectly still. He couldn't tell if it was the same one he encountered on the surface, but it had the exact same attributes. Half-invisible and completely silent. Did it even exist in real time? Or was this some kind of separate dimension that made it merely visible to them?
Kren continued to watch as it stood there. Then, his goggles began to flare up. The area around where the Elite stood became a bright green through his goggles. The brightness was slowly making his goggles useless as it filled his vision.
Then it vanished, along with the half-transparent Elite.
"Somebody knows we're here."
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