- Skulblaka
- |
- Intrepid Heroic Member
An assassin will always carry on, even after death.
Part 22.
New Mombassa, 20th October 2552, 2358.
Michael climbed back out of the Longsword, through the square hatch located in the centre of the top of the interceptor. He had his MA5B with him along with three spare clips of ammunition. After a quick look around Michael decided to leave the area before the Covenant arrived, searching for survivors.
While he was inside the Longsword he had quickly checked the still working map of the city on the control panel and found that the Longsword had crashed two kilometres from the cities edge, four kilometres from Mabuka station and the group of marines he had been escorting. His helmet's heads up display however was damaged and Michael could get nothing from it. Michael didn't need a map of this part of the city anyway. He had grown up here. He had left the helmet in the Longsword.
He looked around again, the sky was filling with clouds from the west, blocking the already scant star light. There was no light from the city either, no one to turn on lights in their apartments that night. Everyone had left the city, almost everyone anyway. Almost.
Michael remembered what the now abandoned city once was. It was the most important city in Africa in the last century, a huge sea port that brought prosperity and wealth to what was once known as Kenya. But now it was abandoned, lifeless and destroyed except for the Covenant invaders and the few hundred or so marines still remaining in the city.
Michael heard a noise in the distance coming from behind him. The dark shape of a Phantom appeared only a few hundred metres away, searchlight shining from its nose. The pilot jumped off the top of the Longsword and landed flat on his face in the sand below. He quickly scrambled up and hid below the Longsword's remaining wing which was raised only around twenty centimetres from the sand below. It took a small bit of digging through the sand for Michael to get under enough not to be seen.
The Phantom dropship lowered until it was just hovering off the ground. Michael saw it only ten metres in front of him however the Phantom couldn't see him in his hiding place under the wing of the Longsword. Several Brutes jumped out followed by Jackals. The Brutes were hard to see once they were away from the Phantom, however the Jackals shields glowed in the darkness, giving their location away nearly as much as the Seraphs.
Everything went quite for a few seconds but a sudden thump noise from inside the Longsword was quickly followed up by a load growl. Michael aimed his MA5B at a Jackal standing in front of Michael with its back turned. He was just about to fire when a Brute appeared in front of the Jackal, startling both the Jackal and Michael. It made a series of grunts and growls at the still stunned Jackal and shortly after the Phantom reappeared.
Michael watched as the Brutes re-entered the dropship and counted each. One less Brute got back on the Phantom then got off. Michael thought about this, maybe he counted wrong. It took him a few minutes but he convinced himself that he must have counted wrong. He was about to move out of his hiding spot when he heard a crunch and saw a large footprint etched into the ground. There was still one Brute.
A second footprint was made in the ground a few inches from the first and Michael pointed the barrel of his Assault rifle between them. He waited a few seconds, confirming he was on target, before firing. The first bullet clanged of something, followed by a Brute appearing from invisibility. More of the bullets hit the Brute while a few flew wide.
Michael had emptied his clip however the Brute remained upright, only startled. It turned looking for its attacker while Michael fumbled with a clip trying to shove it into its slot in the assault rifle. He finally managed and was happy to see that the Brute was still clueless as to the whereabouts of its attacker. He opened fire again, however the first few shots flew wide, he adjusted his aim and saw the Brute fall to the sand.
After waiting a few moments to guarantee the Brute was dead, Michael crawled out from under the destroyed Longsword interceptor and quickly ran to the Brutes body. He checked the dead alien for anything that might be useful and was about to give up when he saw a Mauler lying on the ground a metre from the Brute. The weapon resembled a shotgun without the barrel and Michael knew it was a deadly weapon at close range.
He quickly picked up the Mauler and stored it on his belt. Looking around, he saw another Phantom coming towards the crash site, or was it the same one coming back for the Brute? Michael didn't plan on staying around to find out and he quickly turned to run towards the city.
***
The marines, and Narr, approached the train that sprawled across the road in front of them. They moved cautiously as both Steven and James had seen the glowing green shield of a Jackal from somewhere behind the train. Sarah and Steven hung back, they would provide covering fire if anything went wrong.
Narr slowly advanced forward, once he reached the train he quietly slipped through a door and out to the other side. James did the same on the other side. He slipped out the other side of the train and was shocked by what he saw. Two Jackals were eating the remains of a human. James raised his assault rifle and killed both Jackals with quick bursts to the head.
James had seen Covenant eating humans before but he never grew accustomed to the sight. He signalled for the other marines to come over as and watched the darkness behind them for any signs of hostile movement.
The sound of a jet engine could faintly be heard in the distance but as Steven and Sarah neared, the sound grew louder. James looked around, searching for the sounds source and quickly found it, a Longsword interceptor was hurtling downwards in their direction. James was surprised the interceptor was still flying as one of its wings was in flames.
Suddenly, the burning wing came loose and fell from the Longsword, spinning through the air. It had enough forward momentum left however to make it as far as the marines, who scattered and jumped to the ground so they wouldn't be hit by the giant object. It flew over the marines heads and smashed through the second floor of a three block apartment, causing the third floor to collapse down.
James pushed himself back upwards and saw the Longsword manage a turn and head back out into the desert. Its altitude didn't stop decreasing however and it disappeared over the horizon. A few seconds later a plume of sand and smoke entered the air.
'Is everyone all right?' asked James who got the normal nod of the head response from everyone, 'good. Now we have to check the crash site of the Longsword for survivors, its '
'Why should we do that, we should be concentrating on getting the hell out of this city before more Covenant show up,' interjected Steven.
'We owe it to the pilot to see if he is alive. He's been watching us all night, making sure every one of us got out alive. How would you feel if you were left to be killed or eaten by the Covenant? We are going out into that desert to search for survivors.'
'Give me one reason I should go with you,' said Steven.
'You can hardly walk with that foot. Without us you wouldn't get one hundred metres,' replied James, 'will you come?'
'No.'
'I'll ask you one more time, will you ,' he was cut off by Narr.
'If you were under my command Human, I would have killed you,' then turning to James, Narr said, 'Why do you try? Clearly he doesn't want to go with you.'
'Nobody gets left behind,' said James who added, 'since you don't want to come I won't force you. Just remember, we're not coming back for you.'
With that James turned his back on Steven and was happy to see that Sarah and Narr were following. They had walked only ten metres away before Steven ran after them and shouted, 'wait, I'll go.'
***
Adam ducked behind another wall. The four marines had split up and agreed that to get through they would have to proceed alone while there were so many Covenant around. He peered out from his hiding spot to see an empty area. He ran through, over the gravel and debris just as a Phantom flew overhead, searchlight blearing.
Adam jumped down, attempting to appear dead with all of the bodies around him. The Phantom passed, not noticing anything unusual. Adam again got up and ran as quickly as possible over the gravely ground.
He stopped a short time later as a Brute patrol advanced around a corner in front of him. He immediately dived for cover into an alley way, filled with dead civilians and marine personnel. Just to be safe Adam aimed his assault rifle down the alley, in case one of Brutes managed to smell him. He laid down on the ground, behind a pile of tyres, still with his assault rifle aimed. After a few tense minuets, the Brutes finally passed, ignoring him.
***
(Continued)