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P.28
Seven families huddled in the basement of a building. The UNSC had cut off the evacuations, and were gunning down every civilian in sight. The only thing left to do was hide. Sixteen year old Timothy Derricks had had enough. After hours of listening to gunshots and explosions, he was furious. "That's it!" He shouted, standing up, "I can't sit by and watch anymore!"
"Sit down son." Timothy's father commanded.
"I'm outta here," The boy headed for the steps, but his father got up, and grabbed his arm, "Let go of me!"
"I'm not letting you go out there! You'll die!"
"So be it then! I'd rather die up there than hide down here like a coward!"
"Listen to me son-!"
"I have to do this!" The child cried out, "You have to let me go."
A young girl stood up, and took Timothy's hand. "Don't go Tim."
"I can't stand by while the UNSC murders good people Ellie."
Ellie reached slightly into her shirt, and pulled out a necklace. On a silver chain was a sapphire, her birth stone, shaped like a heart. "Do you remember the night you gave this to me?" Timothy's father knew his son had made up his mind, and left him and Ellie to have their last words with each other.
"I do." Tim confirmed.
"We were on the lake in Calintine at night, sitting at the edge of the dock, alone. We we're talking about the stars, and you were saying how constellations looked nothing like they were said to be." Ellie let out a laugh mixed with a sob. "Then you told me I should be a constellation, and that I was more beautiful than all of the stars put together. You reached into your pocket, and took the necklace out. Then you went to hand it to me and-"
"And dropped it into the water, yeah." The two laughed, locking hands.
"So you dove into the freezing water in your clothes, and disappeared. I was so worried. When you came back up you shook your head and said, 'Give me a hand.' So I reached out my hand, and went you took it I felt the necklace in my palm. That's when I knew I loved you." Timothy was about to reply when the door to their hiding place was kicked in. A squad of UNSC marines rushed in, and opened fire.
Dante did his best to not worry about Sarah as he fought his way towards the Capitol Building. He couldn't help but keep her vital signs on his HUD at all times, but he told himself that it was all he would do. A flaming siege warthog rounded the corner behind the enemy, and slammed into the side of a building. The Master Chief saw that the innies were distracted, and launched forward with incredible speed. The Spartan had been re-augmented, making him equal, if not better, to the Spartan fours.
Jumping over the abandoned cars, the Chief landed behind the enemy's position. He drew out two SMGs, and moved his arms across in opposite directions, slaughtering the enemy. The rest of Red Team caught up, and took a look at the Chief's destruction. "Nice," Cody commented, "Where the hell are the Rangers?"
"They should be worrying about catching up with us" Dante replied. He had never been on a mission he hated this much.
This is camp Charlie! The innies are pressing hard! We have wounded in here and we need emidiete assistance!
Dante looked at the Chief, who nodded. "Alright Red Team, keep pressing forward. The Chief and I are going to save Charlie Camp's ass."
This is Charlie Camp, we need immediate assistance!
"Rodger that Charlie, we're on our way." Dante and 117 branched off from their squad, and headed towards Charlie Camp. Down every street there was fighting. At this point, not one place was calm. It seemed that the marines in their path were pinned down by three warthogs. The cars they were hiding behind were peppered, and the majority of the marines were shot.
Dante switched his BR55 to semi-automatic, and fired three shots in a lightning fast movement. The gunners of the warthogs fell to the ground, dead. As the two Spartans approached, they saw that the company's leader was sobbing. So many had died, and under his command. "Can you men move?" The Chief asked.
The soldiers were in too much shock to speak. A moment ago they were meat, and now they had just been saved by a two meter tall juggernaut. Only one man was still in the right state of mind to talk. "I can." With a grunt, the marine stood up.
"You can't carry five men, and we don't have the time. Take this," 117 pulled the Spartan laser off of his back, and gave it to the marine, "And radio for help."
The marine nodded, and the Spartans sprinted on, trying to make up for lost time. By the time they got the Charlie Camp, it had been overrun. The base had been set up in the basement of a company building. Monitors were erected, electronics set up, and cots laid out. From the beginning the attack promised to be a long and painful. However, Charlie was now ransacked. The enemy had come and gone.
Dante's eyes scanned the floor. Dead marines lay in pools of blood all around. Then he noticed how young they were. With that, and slouched down against a wall, and leaned his head back. "How do you do it Chief?"
"Do what?" 117 asked.
"Keep going no matter what. Nothing fazes you, you're unstoppable. What happened to these kids isn't right. I was supposed to save them. I failed Chief, I failed. You never did."
"That's not true," The Master Chief replied, "I failed to save Reach, I failed to save my best friend, and most of all, I failed to keep my own men alive. You succeeded in that."
"Not really," Dante said, shaking his head, "I didn't save them. The Rangers did."
"You can't win all the time." 117 reached out his arm to give Dante a hand.
"Thanks Chief."
117 nodded. "Call me John."
"Tank!" A marine cried. A SPNKR missile was fired just as the cannon went off. Out of a one in a million shot, they collided in mid air. A second missile was fired, and it slammed into the tank. It wasn't enough to take it down, but the cannon was offline. Shadow ran forward, and jumped on top of the tank. The operator tried to get out, but as soon as he opened the hatch, Shadow punched him directly in the face, dropped a grenade into the cockpit, and ran like hell.
When the tank exploded, the top flew into the air, and nearly crushed Shadow as it came down. In that moment he thought of Saline. He had just come inches from death, from never seeing her again.
This is Alpha Company! We are under heavy fire and require immediate assistance!
"Rodger that Alpha," Shadow said over the COM, "We're on our way." He turned to the marine squad. They were terrified, terrified kids. It hurt Shadow to give the order, for he knew that there would be casualties, but they were soldiers, and had a job to do. "Alright marines, lock and load. Alpha is in deep sh1t, and we're gonna save em."
"Yes sir!" One of the marines shouted. It meant something, his enthusiasm. The boy wanted revenge, and he was sure as hell going to get it where they were going. Whatever was left of the company got to its feet, and headed for Alpha.
Only two steps onto their way there, one of the marines broke down, and fell to his knees, sobbing. Everyone stopped and looked down at him. "Leave him," A marine said coldly, "He's not going anywhere."
Shadow pushed the marine out of the way. "No man is left behind."
"Please," The soldier begged as Shadow forced him to his feet, "I can't, I can't!"
"Just stay with the group, and keep your head down. Do that, or I'll shoot you here and now." The marine nodded, shaking in fear. "Alright, let's do this."
Lieutenant silvers ducked behind an abandoned car as a rocket flew over his head. "This is Alpha, hurry your asses up!" Silver's squad had met up with Alpha Company on their path towards the Spartans. They were already under heavy fire when the Rangers arrived, but now it was even worse. "Lauren, Florek, I need you do take out the snipers in the building ahead now!"
"Negative sir!" Florek shouted above the gunfire, "We can't get up without getting shot!"
Shadow slid behind the car, slamming against its door right next to Silvers. "Sorry it took so long. We had to help out a friend. He was under mortar fire."
"How did one guy survive mortar fire?" Silver's questioned.
"Well, let's just say he had some help from modern day technology." There was a deafening "BOOM!" as a tank cannon fired, and slammed into the building containing the innie snipers, collapsing a large part of it, and obliterating the snipers. Another explosion sounded off, this time hitting the insurgent men on the street. "Thank's Bull Dog."
"Noooo problem." The tank operator replied as he turned around, and headed towards his destination.
Shadow looked around at Alpha. They had taken heavy casualties. "Why don't these two companies link up?" Shadow suggested to Silvers, "And I can roll with you, wherever you're going."
The Ranger shrugged. "Sounds good to me. We could always use another man."
"Where are we going?"
"We're meeting up with the Spartans."
A grin spread across Shadow's face. "Just like old times."
(Remember the part with the boy, it's more significant than it seems.)
[Edited on 05.19.2010 3:09 PM PDT]