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 Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2008 11:35 pm
Larthrial McGraw leaned his head back not to look at the sky, but to take a deep breath when he heard the sweet sound of a bombing run. Oh those flood in the canyon were going back to whatever hell they were from. With a small chuckle and a turn of his upper torso he looked over at Captain Mendez. The Captain's recent promotion served him well; commanding placing him as his CO was definitely a smart move. A small smile appeared at the corner of his lips and his hazel eyes met the Captain's briefly, and however brief it was it was long enough for the horror to sink in. All around them multiple tangos moved on their positions, their body mass not large enough to be Brutes. "s**t," he called out, "we've got multiple tangos, Captain!"
As Larry turned to face the first of the hostiles the flood infection form jumped into the air latching onto his neck, burrowing deep into his body in a series of violent and painful jerks. His vital signs flat-lined and another soul was lost to the Gravemind.
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Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 12:00 am
Mendez toggled his external mikes and just nodded to Lee's SITREP. "Roger Lee, i'm relaying the relevant info now."
"Alpha, this is Bravo. Shake and Bake is proceeding on your position, find some cover ASAP."
Mendez turned and met McGraw's eyes for a moment, then turned away and faced off towards the canyon. "Christ..."
"s**t, We've got multiple tangos, Captain!"
Mendez whipped around just in time to see McGraw's body go limp, being taken over by one of the infectious forms. "Tangos! Take them out!" Shouldering his rifle, Mendez fired bursts from his BR55 into the misshapen forms that used to be his friends and enemies. Brute and Marine alike, they all fell to a hellstorm of hot metal ripping through their spongy bodies.
"Sergeant Fawlkes, you and your snipers open fire! Anything you see even being TOUCHED by these things, shoot it!" "Roger that Captain, TRE in effect."
These bastards were like the definition of a horror movie, a mix of Dracula, Dawn of the Dead, and Alien. Reanimating with another infection form, body shots proving useless, and the ability to take over or kill everything they touched.
"Ruby! Bring those SPNKrs up here and concentrate your fire down front! I want to see bodies flying, Marine!" "Confirmed, Captain, painting target area."
Immediately, trails of smoke left the launcher tubes and ended in explosions down on the field in front of Mendez. Spongy limbs flew through the air, landing in wet thwacks all around. Some chunks still moving, clawing their way towards the marines with a hellish, gurgling scream.
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Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 6:13 am
"Fire on Mark.... FIRE!"
The Pelican jolted as the missiles let loose from their pods, straight into the belly of the canyon. The hillside belched in fiery red blotches as the missiles did their work.
"Captain's be advised, Tango is not down, repeat, TANGO IS NOT DOWN. Multiple hostile advancing on your position. Proceeding with out second run, next Bombing run is in 3 minutes... I'll buy you some time."
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 12:57 pm
There was a large shudder and the secondary generators were disabled. After the smoke cleared Lipton found himself in darkness, the lights had gone out as well. There was a dull pulse coming from above, which he knew was the primary shield generator. It stayed active longer than it was supposed to, but then it too fell silent. He smiled within his helmet and jogged through the darkness to rejoin the ODSTs.
[Elsewhere, high above the battle]
The massive assault carrier, Shadow of Intent, lumbered above the battle. Below it were all three battles. The one involving the 305th, the Spartan, and the hidden charge led by the human special forces. Ship Master R'tas Vadum sat in his hovering command chair and overlooked the island below. The first of the three towers had fallen quickly, the third however had not. The Spartan and the Sangheili had made a desperate charge to deactivate the final spire. The shield fell. He stood triumphantly, gazing at the image projected before him. He opened a full hailing channel, all would be able to hear his words.
"Now, Prophet... your end has come."
Perhaps his words were premature. A large and frenzied wormhole appeared in the atmosphere, tearing apart the fabric of space and time. All eyes were drawn to the sky, to the portal.
"High Charity..."
The massive city emerged from the rupture and began to plumet toward the surface of the Ark in a screaming ball of fire.
"By the gods... Brace for impact!"
The once glorious and proud city began to fracture, sending chunks of debris the size of frigates hurtling towards the ground. One of the many ship-sized pieces of debris tore directly through the starboard side of the Shadow of Intent's hull, raining further debris onto the battlefield below. Another chunk of debris exploded in the atmosphere and sent a sizable portion into the command room of the third tower, where the Spartan waited silently.
The Flood had found the Ark.
The Helljumpers quickly made their way to the emergency lifts that Spark had identified in the installation. These would take them back to the surface, where they would be able to link back up with the rest of the assault force. Or so the floating lightbulb said. The ODSTs were oblivious to the dangers lieing in wait though, they had not felt the impact of High Charity, They did not know the Flood were waiting.
Rather than go directly to the surface, the lifts traveled the circumfrance of the inner ring of the Ark in a slow ascension. All Forerunner elevators seemed designed to make things slow and tedious. When the large doors parted above their heads they were not greeted with sunshine, but with burning wreckage and fire. They were within High Charity. Lipton knew they were screwed if they couldn't find a way out. Guzman, one of the ODSTs with him slung his MA5C-ICWS and opened the case he had been carrying. Contained within was an M7057 defoliant projector. The flamethrower would come in handy when dealing with the Flood. Now all that stood in their path was an army of the dead, barring their exit from this grave.
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Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 3:32 pm
[MSgt. James A. Mitchell]
The Master Sergeant cursed when there was no reply from the CWO. Bringing himself to his feet, the man scanned the horizon and moved forward cautiously. "Foxtrot One-Seven-One, this Delta-Zero-Six-One, if you can hear me, moving to your position, over." He said into his COM unit and brought his rifle to bear. Moving silently and swiftly through the forest, James was quite, only the soft patter of foot steps could be heard. After a couple minutes of trekking through the forest, James heard screams blast over his COM. Stopping, James watched as entire platoon's status went to KIA.
"s**t!" He cursed as he heard a low growling sound from behind him. James didn't bother to turn, he just sprinted forward, and then he was stopped at the sight of a large beast. It looked like a human in some ways, but was deformed and hideous. This must be the flood... Was the only thing he thought as he brought his battle rifle to the things chest and fired three single shots off. The creature staggered and growled lowly and started to move toward him. The Master Sergeant didn’t give it a chance, this time he fired a three-round burst into the tentacles that protruded from its chest. This time the creature toppled backwards, lying awkwardly in a puddle of tan-green blood.
Sighing, James turned to see a rather large group of bug like organisms at surrounded him. Mitchell knew at this moment that he probably would not survive. Four of the hulking beasts like the one that James had just killed approached from behind the crowd of infection forms. The Master Sergeant emptied his magazine into two combat forms with a cringe as he saw only one fell. The infections forms rushed him, at the growl of the combat forms. James tore his M7 free from it's holster and cut down the three combat remaining combat forms as the infection forms swarmed over his body. In the exchange his helmet was torn off, as he fell backward he felt a sharp pain thought his body.
As the marine fell onto the ground his found something familiar. The round orb was unknown to James, but he knew had to pull the small pin on it. As his fingers found they're mark, then he pulled the metal pin with a confident tug. For some reason, he smiled, although he couldn't think straight, he knew it was the end of him. As everything around him grew dark, James saw his father looking down upon him, and then everything went white.
James's bio signature flashed crimson red.
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Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:07 pm
As Jon recieved the order from Mendez and heard how much was going on over the COM he said "God Dammit....." he wasn't a man to cuss, especially not use the lord's name in vain, but it didn't matter what he said now... he was already in hell.
"Bravo, let's go support Captain Mendez!" as Jon's half of Bravo Squad ran to Mendez's position, Jon stopped dead when he saw the flood. "no...." as Jon turned to walk to Mendez ond of the blob-like infection forms jumped at him, he grabbed it, threw it onto the floor and popped it with his boot, he then took out his MA5C ICWS and fired at the parasites around him, slowly making his way to Mendez, picking up any useful clips he saw on the way, once he arrived he rushed to Mendez.
"Captain, I came as fast as I could, you sounded like you needed the support, permission to proceed with you from here on out? i think it would be fatal if we seperated again." Jon figured Mendez didn't already have any respect for him, he hoped before this was over he would earn some, but honestly, as much as he thought it was just to dangerous to split up again...he was terrified.
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Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:23 pm
"Delta Six-One-Zero, this is Foxtrot One-Seven-One, do you copy?" he called, but static answered him. He checked the TEAMBIO and the Master Sergeant's vitals ran read, and then his name erased from the roster and moved into the KIA/MIA stat list.
"Damnit, Captain's be advised, 3rd squad's Master Sergeant just bit the big one. the 3rd squad is down and 2nd squad is getting eaten up as we speak. Awaiting you response..."
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Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2008 10:05 pm
"That's it," Lee said, thumbing his mike to UNSC E-BAND, "all UNSC ground forces, retreat to the INSIDE of the generator facility.
I want all pelicans to conduct continuous bombing of flood forces, then meet us in fifteen minutes at rally point epsilon.
Marines, once you get inside the building, seal and barricade the doors. Deploy unmanned anti-personnel defenses at major junctions then proceed to rally point epsilon, barricading as much as possible on your way out.
Hopefully we can lure the tangoes into the generators as we go out the other side, then detonate the entire facility and take out a few of them with it."
Lee then motioned at the marines around him to provide covering fire as he sent runners to collect explosive material. They only had one chance at this.
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Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 5:19 am
"Copy that Captain, relaying message...
All UNSC forces, proceed into the inside of the generator complex. Additional support is on their way. Good luck men."
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Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2008 9:22 pm
It was dark. There was no ambient lighting, and the place crawled. Everything moved, pulsated, bulged. High Charity was no longer the proud Covenant city, but a massive hive of Flood super-cells. They had reached the level of self-replication in their life cycle, and new biomass was not needed to propagate the Flood. Lipton knew they were not alone in the dark catacombs of the devil incarnate, he knew there were horrible abominations of twisted flesh and bone, shambling through the twisted corridors and passageways that littered the once-proud city. He knew they were heading in the right direction when they started an upward climb. They took great care not to disturb anything, to keep their presence to a minimum. For the moment they were safe. It seemed that the Flood's attention was elsewhere.
The band of ODSTs reached a large chamber that was bathed in sunlight. The weary Marines moved closer to the edge, towards the light and warmth, away from the oppressive grave. The sight that created their eyes once the glare wore off was a sad one indeed. The mausoleum of the Arbiter, an immense structure, lay fallen and smoking amid a chasm shrouded in smoke and flesh. Flood forms crawled along the furthest remnants of the Covenant holy city, and immense arm-like tentacles moved slowly up from the pit and in the direction of the Citadel controlled by Truth and the remaining Covenant. The ODSTs felt an immense sadness as they looked down on the destruction. A gentle breeze had picked up in the aftermath of High Charity's crash. Lipton moved further out on a fleshy, fungus like platform. It did not sway or budge beneath his weight. The Marine, knowing his duty, signalled for EVAC. The call never went through. He radioed the human controllers directly and was able to reroute a single Pelican. One Pelican would not be enough.
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Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 10:41 pm
Stuttering automatic fire began to lower in intensity as the hundred and fifty remaining marines began to pull back into the shield generator facility. So far, the backup systems hadn't kicked in yet, even though in the distance the shield towers winked off, each going down after the other. Marines pumped ridiculous amounts of lead into the parasites as they attempted to drag wounded squadmates with their other arm, just to succumb to the flood's organic embrace as well. Eventually, when another third of the survivors had been killed or infected, marines had to cast away their hearts as they put infected friends out of their misery, people who had until seconds ago been fighting the same foe.
Lee paved the way, shotgun in hands and battle rifle slung across his back. His higher-grade TAC-COMP painted the thermal signatures of the final remaining brutes in the facility, smarter warriors who had decided to fortify their positions instead of rushing out to their deaths like their compatriots. Motioning for a firing squad of marines to come with him and for two others to guard the single entrance while the last of the 301st and 305th poured in, the Captain stuck a frag grenade to a captured plasma grenade using a standard-issue equipment strap. Priming the frag, he then peeked past the corner and tossed the dual-grenade contraption at the base of the deployable cover the final brute squad were using to barricade the corridor. The resulting explosion took out the piece of covenant tech, and created a smoke screen through which Lee and the five marines charged, thermal enhanced imagery allowing them to fire at the power-armor equipped brutes even though the beasts were unable to see their assailants.
Two brutes ultras and one captain began to bellow at the marines as they ran through the smoke and still-descending rubble, the shields on their power armors sizzling as bullets disintegrated against the energy fields. Then they drew their weapons, and two marines immediately fell to spiker and mauler rounds piercing neatly through their insufficient body armors. One marine with an assault rifle screamed at the top of his lungs as he ran through a hail of red crystals, emerging with but small cuts on his shoulder as the brute he emptied his clip into lost what little artificial protection it had. Dropping the empty weapon, the marine then jumped at the nine foot tall beast, drawing his combat knife and plunging it squarely into the ultra's forehead. The alien let out a weak moan before collapsing, but before the marine could rejoice he suddenly found that he no longer had a midsection, gravity hammer cleaving right through him and crushing the atomic residue of his being into the wall adjacent to where a man once was.
The other brute ultra exchanged rounds with the remaining 3 marines, the brute captain recovering quickly from his swing to take a defensive position behind it's ally. The initial charge abated, the gunfight was now more drawn out and each side tried to find cover in the tightly designed forerunner architecture. Gunshots rang out through the corridor for a few more seconds, a groan of pain followed the collapse of a marine, spiker round through his left shoulder, and finally the brute ultra fell, riddled with bullets and tracers. Lee verified that the next shell was already in his shotgun as he prepared to face the brute ultra captain, with only one marine for backup. Quickly assessing his relative position to the enemy, he counted the seconds that had passed since he threw the grenades... 32... 33... 34...
Coming out of cover, Captain Lee stood in the middle of the corridor, facing the brute chieftain Ultra who was standing about twenty meters away. A few feet away, the marine who had taken cover spared a look at his injured comrade before doing a double-take on what he Captain was doing. "Sir! With all due respect get back under cover! The others'll be here soon!" Instead, Lee tossed aside his weapon and drew his titanium-A combat knife, a whole forty centimeters of water-sharpened, well oiled blade. The brute captain laughed, and disactivated the energy feed to his hammer, essentially accepting Lee's challenge to a one-on-one fight. His heart pounding wildly, Lee could barely hear the brute as the creature laughed and spoke in a gravelly voice:
"I'll make but short work of you, miserable creature! None can stop us on our quest!"
Instead, Lee was thinking ...I hope Hammer's right about Mobuto being a bad-a**, cause I'm going to need all of my speed and agility to survive this one. Lowering himself into a combat pose, Lee's footsteps rang against the metallic floor as he sped inexorably towards his opponent. The brute made the first move, swinging it's hammer in a great horizontal arc that covered the width of the corridor, enough strength behind it for any sort of blocking to be futile. Lee expertly dodged under the blow, turning his run into a long slide as he passed between the creature's legs, slipping his knife in the junction of the brute's power armor. Red and blue blood flowed freely from the deep cut, spurting out onto the previously pristine surface, as the brute captain roared and continued it's swing to attempt and change it's facing.
Taking the window of opportunity that then presented itself, Lee ran into the brute's range just as it began pulling back it's blow. Running his blade now along the brute's extended right arm, he severed muscle, tendon and ligaments as the beast roared in frustration. Now face-to-face with the kneeling creature, Lee smashed the brute's chest plate with an open-palmed thrust, then grabbed the creature's other arm with the same hand and severed the neural connections at the armpit. The blade going slightly deeper than he anticipated, the brute captain's arm ended up completely falling off, a dead weight in a pool of blood on the floor. Still face to face with his opponent, Lee gave the brute one of his sternest looks as it tried to understand what had just happened.
"Finish me now, now that you have robbed me of my honor!"
The creature seemed angry, sad, and confused. It almost looked like it was crying. "The parasite will have us all, anyway! Your kind is doo-"
It's voice suddenly cut short as Lee's blade came out the back of it's throat, through the cracks in it's power armor. Fatigue beginning to itch in his joints, Lee opened a com channel to Mendez as the amazed marine who had been taking cover limped over with his injured squadmate.
"Mendez, get everybody in here NOW! I want you to barricade that entrance and set mines, claymores and all the explosives we still have at major choke points. Also, tell Karr to meet us at the pickup point in 20. We need to get off this hellish ark."
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Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:10 pm
Jon had stood outisde the Generator facility entrance when he heard Lee's orders, worried about all the people who had gone in with Lee, Jon ran in, noting all the corpses of the marines and flood along the way, there were few marine corpses, but not because few had died, it was because few had stayed dead.
Arriving in the area where Lee was he stopped and stood in attention, saluting as was customary "Cpl. Jon Coenen reporting for duty Captain Lee sir! I was the first one in after your orders, and am awaiting the others...." Jon was at a loss of what to say when he shook it off "I just came in to check how many had survived, sorry for wasting your time, sir" he said, before turning around to look for Mendez and the Marines who would be coming with him.
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Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:47 pm
"Mendez! Get everyone inside now!"
"Roger. Retreating now." Turning to the remaining marines surrounding him, Mendez switched to TACCOM. "All units, retreat. I repeat, retreat. I want Claymores, Lotuses, C-7, And whatever the hell Demolitions we have set up on our backs.
"Demolitions moving in last, sir, clear the way."
"Negative, standby for orders. Echo, you take lead. Get that turret set up in front of us, India, get your demolitions up front. If we get overrun, set up as much as you can and get the hell out of here."
"Ten-four. Moving in."
As the marines around him thinned out and retreated into the structure, Mendez was one of the last to get through the doors. He was wielding two MA5Cs now, one retrieved off of a dead comrade, ID tag hanging off the trigger guard.
"Karr, meet us at rally point Epsilon, we need to get the ******** out of here."
As an infection form launched itself into the air, it met a hailstorm of lead from Mendez's weapons.
"Lee, we're inside. Demo is being set now."
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Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:21 pm
Jon found Mendez and saluted to him "Sir! sorry for the wait, shall i begin setting up defenses with the others?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 7:33 pm
Captain Lee sheathed his non-standard combat knife, sliding it soundlessly against the special, non-abrasive fabric his scabbard was made of. Mendez's reply buzzed through his ears, good news after far too much going wrong.
"Roger that, Mendez. Commencing transit to rally point Epsilon, you have one minute to set traps and clear the building."
Lee hastily jogged to his discarded shotgun and BR, retrieving the rifle after strapping the short range weapon to his back. After about 20 of the 100 remaining marines poured into the corridor that had just been cleared, he waved them after him and began the trek out the facility's back door.
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