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To Kill a Mockingbird
Posted By: sunscorpian<mmizaras@attbi.com>
Date: 2 April 2003, 10:36 PM
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To Kill a Mockingbird
Central Command come in this mockingbird 545 we have taken fire and are losing altitude CENTRAL CO- (oh my god) BRACE FOR IM-…* that's all that we have received sir. Are you sure? Theirs nothing else? Just static sir…they're gone. DAMN!
Do we have any idea were they landed? Well sir, 545 was on a search and destroy mission following a damaged covenant drop ship heading due east. They may have been ambushed.
Hmm… (They must have been ambushed if 545 was hit)… Do we have any fire teams open for a search and rescue? Well sir, fire team Zulu is due back within two weeks… but I don't know if they can last that long.
Have fire team Zulu commence the mission as soon as they get back.
Yes sir.
**********************************************************
Starling woke and then threw up. He could hardly breath and every time he tried to open his eyes they were filled with blood. He could only move one arm. He managed to wipe one of his blood caked eyes enough to look around. It was horror. The smell of burning flesh filled the air. The ship was tilted so that all of the bodies were piled upon him. This may be why he was not on fire. There was a trickle of burning fuel running down onto a body on his leg. He tried to collect himself. Follow… destroy… ambush… collision. It all started to come back. They were following a covenant drop ship that had no defenses and was badly damaged. Then they were attacked by… something… it must have been banshees. One main engine was blown and they hit…something. Starling then remembered the situation he was in and started to pull himself out of the wreck. As he pulled his leg gave out a sharp pain and he realized it was broken. His leg had been caught in the ties of a container holding various supplies.
As he tried to free himself he realized he was in big trouble. A separate leak in the opposite corner of the ship was forming a large puddle. If he did not get out soon it could light and he would be incinerated. He started working faster. The straps on the ties in the cargo were wrapped around his leg and he could not untie them. One of the bodies carried a knife. It was Stillwater's. He immediately took it from its sheath and began cutting. The knife cut through the ties unexpectedly fast. Once he was free he opened the emergency hatch, grabbed a med-kit on the wall and a random case from the bags and crawled out.
Once he had crawled a safe distance he looked back. The fuel had caught fire and the ship was quickly being consumed. He rested against a rock. He was glad that the fuel wasn't explosive. The fuel used in non-space ships burned very hot and very long.
Starling looked at knife. This knife saved his life. This was a very, very special knife. In the mid 2300's, the government experimented with molecularly compacting metal. It was a very difficult and expensive procedure and the final product was made into a knife. It was 6 inches long excluding the handle. It was had a very strange, mercury color, and was very, very thin about as thin as two pieces of cardboard paper! The research was discontinued though because of the cost. Eventually the knife was auctioned off at 40 billion credits and somehow John Stillwater got it. John was his friend and he would keep his knife to remember how john was always there for him.
He examined the contents of the med-kit. It was vacuum sealed and contained tightly wrapped bandages, a good amount of medical foam, a cauterization kit, a bone and cell growth stimulant, pain killers, a bottle of iodine, some emergency nutrient pills and even a simple surgery kit containing some tools, a pair of syringes with spare needles, chloroform and a sewing kit. The sides of the container can even be used as a splint!
Starling took the splint out of the box. He was lucky. The splint worked best on lower leg breaks because the bottom could be snapped into the boot and the top can snap into the knee guards. This redirects a lot of weight off of the leg so it can be lightly walked on. He took the syringe and injected his leg with the growth stimulant. This would make his brake heal much, much faster. The only problem was that if the break is not aligned properly it could heal crooked. He took three nutrient pills. He needed energy. Soon starling fell into a tormented sleep, reliving the little of the crash he could remember in his dreams.
Starling woke suddenly. The air was crisp and cool. It was early morning he guessed. He could not be sure what time it was because his HUD was wrecked in the crash. He opened the case he had brought with him. It was exactly what he had hoped. It was the army issued pistol with 5 clips including the one in it. He picked it up and brought it up to the light. It shined, as light bounced and reflected off like it was the composer of a great orchestra of the sun. He took the holster it came with and attached the snaps to his belt. He cocked it, let down the hammer, and gingerly placed it in its holster.
He sat up, quite rejuvenated, considering. He looked around and noticed a small stream about 20 yards away. He pulled himself onto the rock. He put some weight on his foot. The splint seamed to work like it was supposed to. He stood, favoring his leg. He started to limp towards the stream. When he got to the stream, he carefully got down on his knees and washed his face with the cold, but refreshing water. He dunked his head and gave a whoop when he took it out. "Damn that's cold," he said trying to cheer himself up. After drinking his fill he got up and walked back over. Towards the wreckage. Suddenly he stopped. To his left behind some boulders he thought he heard something move or fall.
He slowly made his way toward it, pulling out his pistol and locking the trigger. He hid behind a rock and looked over. NOW he remembered! They had hit the damaged covenant ship. We came to some fog and were ambushed by a pair of banshees, but we managed to incapacitate them with some excellent sniping. As soon as we cleared the fog we were about to hit a cliff but, thanks to the maneuvering of our pilot we avoided it. Then out of nowhere the damaged drop ship appeared and we hit.
Starling carefully looked at the wreckage. The drop ship was broke in half and the pieces were some feet away from each other.He carefully creeped towards it. There were a few, obviously dead covenant lying around. Three grunts, and two jackals. He kicked over a few to make sure there were indeed, dead. As he did, rocks hanging over the edge tumbled down. He slowly let down his guard. "Must've been some rocks," he thought.
As he began to make his way back he heard something that was not rocks, something rubbing against the ground. His senses immediately went back too fully alert and he went to the farther side of the wreckage were he simply overlooked. Cautiously, and carefully, he approached the left, front part of the ship were he thought the noise came from. Sure enough he saw what he had been expecting. He saw an elite, leaning against the ship, with several wounds and its right claw underneath the door on the side door of the ship. The elite's eyes, full of weariness, yet still alert, looked up at him. Their eyes locked and it was utterly paralyzing.
Starling then broke out of this trance, as if returning from a coma. He knew what he had to do, what needed to be done. He raised the pistol and aimed it right between the eyes of the elite. But soon, he began to think to himself, "should I really do this? I mean, this creature is still…a creature… a life. Can I…should I, take its life away"? But then he became stern and thought: "he…it…its race, has killed thousands, millions, billions of ours, what right does he have to be alive" ? why should I, a soldier, one soldier, of thousands, preserve the life of an alien, one of millions? Should I quench my thirst for revenge for my people, for john, why shouldn't I? What difference would it make?
Starling was absolutely torn. He wanted revenge, for all the lives of humans its race has taken. It was like all of good and bad in the universe was fighting right now inside him. I've killed many of his race before what makes this one is different. Maybe he doesn't want to kill? NO! He is in this war, it knows the risk. But we cannot just keep fighting. I must do what is in the best interest of my race. I must…spare him. I must show, as a race that we do not want a war and that we are the superior race by doing what's best for both races.
He lowered the gun. The elites eyes changed. They looked confused and somewhat…angry, like it was knew it was going to die and being spared was something unheard-of. Starling examined the elite more closely. It had deep cuts on its legs, ribs, arms and one dangerously close to one of his eyes. It looked as though it had got out of the drop ship, and leaned against it. When he did so, the ship may have shifted and the door landed on its claw.
Starling sat on a rock. "what the hell am I going to do with you." He said, even though he knew the elite couldn't understand. "First," he thought, "I should make sure there are any weapons that it could get. He searched the area, he found three undamaged plasma pistols, and two plasma pistols that were damaged, but he didn't test them because they might explode or something. He also found a slightly damaged plasma rifle. He took all of the weapons except one pistol and threw the rest into the molten metal that was left of the ship. They were quickly consumed. He put the pistol in the box that held his pistol.
He returned to the elite. "Well, looks like the start of a long relationship" he thought.
Authors note:
I hope you liked my story! Central command was not in the game. I made it up because there had to be some place in the game were they planned their operations.
Also, don't worry; there will be a another story following this one. I had to cut short because of size restraints.
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