- Skulblaka
- |
- Intrepid Heroic Member
An assassin will always carry on, even after death.
Part 16.
New Mombassa, 20th October, 2552, 2052hours.
The conversation with the Elite, Narr was abruptly stopped when a covenant grenade flew through the door, landing at the end of the room. Everyone in the room jumped down, except Narr who bellowed a war cry as he readied his Plasma Rifle. The grenade detonated, hurtling debris around the room, and shattering two nearby picture frames.
The marines got back up, weapons ready, to see two unarmoured Brutes rush into the room wielding Maulers. Narr fired his Plasma rifle, easily burning through the first Brute however the second Brute had gotten close enough to Narr to fire its Mauler. The shot however deflected of Narr's armoured chest and Sam was able to gun down the Brute with his Assault Rifle.
'Get back outside,' ordered James, 'kill any Covies that try to get in.'
With that the marines ran outside. Several shielded Jackals tried advancing, but they were cut down from Bravo squad's fire from across the crash site. No more help could be gotten from Bravo squad however as the Covenant forces split and attacked each building. Alpha squad made use of the cover provided by three large pillars that were at the front of the building.
A wave of Grunts rushed forward and fired at Alpha squad. Alpha squad returned fire and quickly cut down the forward Grunts. The next group of Grunts threw down their weapons and drew plasma grenades, activating them and running at Alpha Squads position. Narr along with Ryan and Sam quickly killed them before they could get to their position.
Two Hunters entered from the other side of the square along with several Brutes. These new arrivals were not an immediate concern for James however as they were attacked by a fresh wave of Jackals and Grunts.
This time the Jackals formed a turtle shape with their shields, overlapping them to deflect incoming projectile fire. The Grunts fired wildly from the sides of the turtle. The tactics were very successful until an over passing Pelican dropship's gunner opened fire with the turret, breaking the formation with the force of the fifty calibre bullets. Once the formation broke, Alpha squad took the opportunity to fire on the Covenant, quickly finishing them off.
James saw that the Covenant had stopped attacking their position and had instead begun attacking Bravo squad. The small squad of four men was in trouble as one of them was hit directly by one of the Hunters cannons. Another recklessly charged the Hunter and ended up impaled on its spiky armoured back. James turned to look for Sarah to tell her to shoot at the Hunters, however he found that she was already on it and saw her quickly empty a clip of ammo into the back of one Hunter. It fell and the second Hunter turned, giving Bravo's two survivors a chance to kill it.
'Ryan, Sam, I want both of you to run across and link up with Bravo squad,' said James, 'everyone else, give them cover running across.'
With that Ryan and Sam began running towards Bravo squad and the battle raging around them. Sarah reloaded her S2AM sniper rifle and after three cracks of the rifle, three Brutes were dead. Plasma rained down from a rooftop as Jackal snipers fired both Carbines and Beam rifles at the two marines, however a burst in their direction from Wilson's assault rifle silenced them, for some permanently.
Sam and Ryan made it past the crashed Pelican in the centre of the square and began shooting at the Brutes and Grunts advancing towards Bravo. Between sniper fire from Sarah and Bravo squad's assault rifle fire, combined with their own they made short work of the Covenant forces. James saw Bravo squad pull back into the safety of their building and James quickly withdrew Alpha squad back inside too.
'We should move out,' said Narr, 'The Covenant will return.'
'Yeah, but we don't have any transport,' replied James, 'We'd never make it out of the city alive.'
The Elite was about to say something but was stopped when the ground shuck. James looked outside and saw that an ODST drop pod had smashed through one of the pillars. The hatch popped off and an ODST stumbled out. James quickly ran to him and helped him up as several other drop pods smashed into the square, on impacting on the Pelican itself.
***
Adam looked over the buildings to see the sun starting to dip below the buildings. Brian staggered out of the building behind him and also looked at the sun.
'It'll be dark soon,' said Adam, 'we had better get back to Alpha squad soon.'
They set out towards the crash site. The marines turned a corner and found a Brute chieftain, with a huge hammer, along with several other lesser ranked Brutes looking right at them. The Brutes roared in unison and the Chieftain charged swinging the hammer.
Adam heard a whirring noise and soon found its source as four of the Brutes dropped from the sky in front of them. Adam fired his MA5K at them and saw that Brian did similar. Two Brutes died but the other two fired at the marines. Adam, seeing an open door, dragged Brian towards it but was too late as a spike punctured Brian's neck. He dropped to the ground, dead.
Adam felt a pang of guilt for Brian's death but quickly forgot as the Brutes turned their fire to him. He jumped through the door of the house as a spike impacted with his leg, however it deflected off his ballistic armour. From the ground Adam kicked the door shut. He then got up and ran to the back of the room, to a second door. There, he readied himself and aimed his rifle at the door.
The door flew inwards violently as the Chieftain hit it with its hammer, three Brutes including the Chieftain swarmed inwards and James started firing, and downing one Brute before he ran threw the door, kicking it closed like he did the last time. This time however he did not stop in the room and ran through an exit to the street outside.
He looked around and saw a sniper tower further down the street. Its occupants appeared to have been killed earlier in the day. Adam then saw that the other side of the street was littered with bodies, both Human and Covenant. He heard the door inside explode open. He quickly pulled a grenade from his belt, pulled the pin, dropped the grenade and ran down towards the sniper tower. A Brute stepped outside just as the grenade detonated, killing the alien.
The Chieftain however wasn't far behind and Adam ran into a cafe full of dead bodies, he jumped behind the counter and crouched down. The Chieftain entered just seconds later and overturned a table. It didn't see Adam though and when it turned its back on the counter, Adam jumped over and stuck his combat knife through its neck. After making sure it was dead, Adam set off for the crash site.
***
Steven felt the drop pod lurch as he was dropped over New Mombassa. He opened the video link with Sergeant Dunne and then started to concentrate on the flight controls. Steven, like many other ODSTs, preferred to fly the drop pod manually. He gripped the controls and corrected his course to bring him safely down into the square.
After falling nearly two kilometres he deployed the drop pods chute and felt another, stronger lurch as it slowed him down. However from somewhere deep in the city, an anti-air Wraith fired at the drop pods. He activated his thrusters to evade the attack but he still lost his chute as it took a direct hit.
He quickly accelerated ahead of the rest of the squad as he went into freefall. He quickly hit the emergency chute button and a second chute was deployed and soon after the pod smashed into the ground. He quickly hit the four eject buttons and the hatch was launched off. He waited a few moments and staggered out as a marine appeared from a building he had landed in.