- soulguard
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- Exalted Mythic Member
Plasma rounds zoomed past his head, explosions erupted around his feet, but he pushed forward. Marines shouted in agony at his side and death was all around. Cries that would make any man crumble in fear as soldiers were mowed down by waves of plasma fire, but Eric pushed forward. His muscle strength and years of experience screamed for him to race ahead. He had to get within the Covenant ranks and cause as much trouble as he could, or else his whole line of marines would be cut down. He dodged sideways as a brute reared his head and leveled a brute shot. The grenades exploded around him, but he didn’t falter. The brute went to reload and Eric sent a three round burst against the brutes helmet. The brute rocked backward, stunned as his helmet tumbled of his head, but then Eric sent another round through his unprotected skull. His path was unguarded, and Eric lowered his shoulder and crossed the trench into the first camp. He didn’t want to look back and see if he had support, all he cared about was shutting down the brutes’ encamped position. He pulled his combat knife from his back holster and carried it in his left hand loosely, as he steadied his battle rifle with his thumb.
He turned to his left and saw three Jackals. He pulled the trigger three times, three shots and then there were three dead jackals. They had yet to raise their shields, despite all the combat happening around them. A roar caught his ear, and he turned back to see a brute rampaging toward him. He jumped back and fired several rounds into the brute’s head before it moaned a deathly sigh. A drone dropped on top of him from above, shrieking as its legs and arms clawed at his armor. Eric raised the combat knife into the thick skin of the creatures head and slapped the blade deeper into the drone. It shrieked and fell to the ground, twitching in pain. Eric took a knee and reloaded his rifle. The familiar bark of battle rifles filled his ear as looked around and saw several more marines and ODST pulling up to his side. Thankfully, some of his squad had survived the first charge.
The thunder of a raging brute cut through the roar of weapons fire and Eric regained his focus just as a brute began to fall upon him. Eric braced himself, knowing that his strength could not resist the might of the beast. A high pitched sound zoomed past his ear and Eric watched the brute fall backwards in disbelief. The sound was obvious; a sniper round. Eric exhaled as he finished slapping a fresh clip in the butt of the battle rifle.
Melanie sighed in relief that her shot was dead on. She sprinted forward, and stopped a few feet behind Eric and looked around the camp. Marines, jackals and brutes littered the area, firing and cursing at each other with full hatred. Several jackals were trying to flee the battle but were savagely mowed down by their brute commanders. A few drones hovered above, but were quickly shot down by random marines. A jackal leapt out from behind a plasma mortar and fired several shots at Melanie. She easily dodged and fired a round at it, but the sniper round pinged off the jackal’s shield and it slowly stalked forward, firing at Melanie rapidly. She had to drop back and seek cover. She switched her sniper rifle to her left hand and pulled up her side arm with the right. She wanted to charge the bird like creature, but it had a lock on her. She fired a few round to surprise the jackal and give herself some time to find cover, but a plasma round seared across her shoulder. Her modified ODST armor super heated and the gel layer around her shoulder boiled away. A second shot from the jackal hit the same spot and this time the armor flash heated, and scorched into Melanie’s shoulder. She screamed as she fell backwards into the sand.
From out of nowhere Mathew 08 sprinted toward the jackal and fired several battle rifle rounds at the jackal’s shield. The creature shrieked and tried to fire back, but was terrified that the human was charging at it. Mathew kicked the shield and the Jackal stumbled backwards, dropping his shield enough that Mathew could get a clear shot. The jackal screamed as the battle riffle rounds entered his frail chest. It toppled lifeless into the blood stained sand. Mathew pushed on, firing at another target in the distance. He hadn’t seen Melanie, only the jackal, and in true soldier fashion he fought on. Melanie staggered to her feet and reloaded her magnum. The pain in her arm and shoulder was excruciating and she struggled to ignore it. She peered around the camp and began to look for Eric.
Eric stood up and pointed three fingers to his left and right, without knowing who was behind him. Eric’s instincts told him that he had more support then he thought, and sure enough dozens of marines had survived the initial charge. Several soldiers split to the right and left, falling into make shift squads, while a few men followed Eric deeper into the encampment.
They neared a new trench and it quickly seemed as if a hornets’ nest had been shaken. Twenty or more drones sprang into the sky from the sandy trench beneath. Plasma rained over Eric and his small team of marines, and they instinctively returned fire. The high pitched squeaks and heavy hum of the drones’ wings filled the air and everyone fired wildly. A heavy burn filled Eric’s chest and he stumbled to his left for cover behind a stationary mortar cannon, several marines followed his lead while others continued to fire at the wild flying bugs. Several of the creatures fell to the ground, but more and more marines fell under the drones’ constant plasma fire. Eric checked his rifle and leapt into the drones targets, hoping to draw most of their fire.
He pulled up and fired into the humming bugs, killing two quickly, but plasma rained on top of him yet again. He fired several more deadly rounds and killed several more drones quickly; the marines marveled at his aim. He staggered to the right and realized that his gamble had paid off; he was drawing all of the enemy fire. He continued to move and then saw that the bugs had turned there backs to the reaming, hidden, marines. The drones were annoying and fast, but not very smart. They became tired from the constant flying and landed just as the marines jumped out from their cover. At close range the marines suppressed the drones under Sub Machine Gun fire, each cursing and spitting upon the dead creatures corpses.
Melanie ran toward the commotion and saw the silhouetted image of ODST battle armor and walked closer. She stumbled behind him and was happy that she had found Eric. Melanie could always tell who Eric was, even with his armor on, buy the way he moved. She quickly pulled out a med kit and popped the seal on the right side of her armor.
Eric, still feeling the burn on his chest, turned to see that Melanie had joined his ranks and was bandaging a wound on her shoulder. He couldn’t see the expression on her face because of her visor, but he knew that for such an amount of blood her wound had to be serious. Eric waved for the marines to push ahead, knowing that this zone of camps had been secured, and he stepped closer to Melanie. The marines raced ahead, checking the trench and killing any stragglers that had been left behind. They then ran into Simyaldee and Gridolee. The two groups stared at each other, pondering what to do. The alliance had been formed but hatred between the two species still brewed highly.
Simyaldee spoke, “The rear of the camp has been cleared. My forces are eliminating stragglers and will continue to patrol this area.” The marines simply nodded and returned to scanning the camps.
Eric knelt over Melanie, “Fall back to the front line and get a medic to check it out.” Eric whispered over a secure channel.
“No time. Sounds like the others need us toward the left flank.” Melanie tied down a field wrap and dropped the empty sniper rifle she held. She picked up a fallen marine’s battle rifle and slapped in a fresh magazine.
Melanie didn’t have to say anything else because Eric knew it was pointless to argue with her at that point, “Form up on me. We’re going to press the left flank.” Eric shouted. Four marines in ear shot quickly raced over and joined Melanie and Eric as they jogged toward the heavy weapons fire to the left of the camp. The closer they came, the easier it was to see how dyer the situation was. A lone wraith tank was suppressing the marine forces and several ghosts were speeding into the zone.
Eric and Melanie took aim and fired on the ghosts, as the wraith dropped plasma mortar on top of them. They quickly took cover but two of the four marines didn’t get clear in time. Their screams echoed around them as the superheated plasma melted away their bodies. The other two marines took cover behind a small hill of sand and prayed that the brutes weren’t able to lob mortar on them.
Eric peeked around the smoldering tank that he, Melanie and a flock of marines were hiding behind. He could see more tanks and ghosts speeding toward them from another camp emplacement in the distance. The gig was up. The covenant finally caught on to their attack and support was on the way. Eric quickly surmised that if the camp to their left was sending reinforcements than the right camp would do the same. They were about to be surrounded.
He opened his com line and yelled, “Rolling thunder! I repeat. Rolling thunder!”
From over the sand dunes that once served as Melanie’s recon position, came a thunder of roaring human engines. Five gauss hogs ramped over the dune and sped down the hill, they immediately raced toward the lone wraith and the ghosts. But then another wave of human vehicles crept slowly over the hill in the form of five scorpion tanks. But it didn’t stop there as ten pelicans dropped in from overhead and prepared to deploy a payload of marines into the camp.