- Skulblaka
- |
- Intrepid Heroic Member
An assassin will always carry on, even after death.
Chapter 5: Voi
"Commander White."
"James, Adam" replied the commander as he stepped of the Pelican, "good to see you alive."
"Likewise sir," replied Adam, "and specific reason for us being here?"
"You're officially recruited into ONI, again. Lord Hood plans on initiating a low level strike on the dig site, but his plans rely mainly on the Spartan destroying the AA gun. You and your squad however will target a second gun in case the Master Chief fails."
"Understood sir."
"Right, now listen carefully," the Commander lowered his voice so that only Adam and James could hear, "you may have heard rumours of a UNSC squad pulling off unlikely victories against the Covenant, the rumours are true. Most of your old squad is in it. You'll be working with them on this mission but I believe they took some injuries in their last skirmish, along with one MIA. They'll link up with you in Voi."
"Ok, when do we leave for Voi?"
"Right now," he raised his voice, "everyone into the Pelican now!"
The marines quickly complied and the Pelican took off into the darkening sky. The Pelican flew over a small Warthog convey heading away from Voi. Of the three Warthogs, only one had a turret mounted on it, the other two had injured marines crammed into the rear. James didn't know where they were headed but he doubted all the marines would survive the journey.
In the distance a small Covenant Corvette was hovering over the remains of Crows base, possibly searching for and exterminating any human survivors. James looked up at the faint white moon in the sky. Here he was, on Earth, fighting for humanities survival against the Covenant.
He sighed, only a few weeks earlier he heard the news about Reach and had been deployed to New Mombassa, when the Covenant came the UNSC put up a worthy fight yet still lost the city. Not long after Covenant reinforcements had arrived and crushed most of what remained of the UNSC fleet.
The Pelican flew over a small village and began to descend, on the ground; two transport 'hogs were waiting for them. Two of the marines that had been with Commander White joined Adams squad for the mission.
"Good luck marines," said White, "coordinates are have been uploaded to your tac pads, James, Adam. Two hours."
Adam rallied the marines and gave them his plan for the mission. Both warthogs would split up; Adam would take one and head around the west of the gun, through the centre of Voi. The second warthog would head straight for the gun along the Tsavo highway; they would leave the highway half way to Voi and travel through the desert before leaving their Warthogs and climbing a cliff nearby the gun. They would take the Covenant by surprise.
Adam entered his warthog and the four marines he had selected, along with James, entered the vehicle, James in the front beside Adam. The other five entered the other vehicle. Adam gave a thumbs up to the other driver, who returned it and drove into the desert.
Adam slowly maneuverer his warthog through the village, the wide eyed residents stood in doorways, watching the warthog as it drove by, their face's expressionless. Adam stopped for three scantly clad children playing football in the street, one kicked the ball off to the side of the road and the three followed it to let the warthog pass.
As they exited the village, two men appeared on rooftops either side of the street the warthog was traveling on. Both were armed with ancient guns, similar to the AK-67 James now carried. They looked at the marines like the other villagers, expressionless.
To the far north lay the Covenant dig site, around thirty large Covenant ships hovered in the air above the dig site, and in the centre was the largest ship James had ever seen. No one seemed to know what the triangle shaped ship was, ONI, as always, hadn't said anything about it. The one thing James knew was that it wasn't Covenant, it was something else, something much more powerful than anything the Covenant or UNSC possessed.
Suddenly the warthog hit rougher ground and James was momentarily thrown out of his seat. He grabbed the rail on the roof to steady himself. The marines in the back were talking amongst themselves, James however could only hear muffled, impossible to understand words thanks to the warthog's loud engine. If any Covenant soldiers were in their path, they'd have a few minutes warning of the warthog's approach to prepare.
Four Hornets flew overhead, marines holding onto the sides of each aircraft as they approached Voi. They quickly overtook the warthog and after a few minutes, James could make out the hornets landing on a building at the edge of Voi and the marines dispersing from the aircraft. As the warthog neared the edge of the town, the hornets rose into the air again and headed over the town, towards the raging battle around it's far edge.
Then the warthog stopped, in front of it was a massive barrier of debris from a fallen building.
"We're going on foot from here," shouted Adam as he exited the warthog. The marines complied and followed him as he climbed up the hill of debris.
They quickly reached the top from where they had a clear view of their target, the huge Covenant AA gun. The gun was firing at any UNSC aerial vehicle that moved, easily destroying the small Hornets and Pelicans.
The marines followed Adam down the other side of the debris and down the street that followed. They all heard the distant sound of automatic fire and plasma bursts, along with the occasional quick chilling scream from a marine splashed with plasma. They were two kilometres from their target at this stage and they only had thirty minutes remaining to destroy the gun.
From the end of the street came a single ghost. The vehicles commander, a Grunt, attempted to ram the marines and fired the ghost's boosters, sending it straight for the soldiers. James was ready for it and a short, yet loud, burst from his AK-67 hit the tip of the Grunt's methane tank, igniting it. In terror the Grunt crashed the ghost into the side of a building, moments before the methane tank finally exploded, killing the Grunt and destroying the ghost.
They began to sprint and within a few minutes, they reached a street blockaded by UNSC forces. The commander of the blockade, a young sergeant, looked happy to see them.
"I need you marines to take up defensive positions here," said the Sergeant. He was barely heard over the noise of the surrounding battle.
"We can't," Adam shouted back, "We have to push through the Covenant forces and get to that gun."
"We need the support here, we have four KIA and only five men left to defend-"
"ONIs orders, let us pass marine," Adam said, quietening the Sergeant and forcing him to help them.
Adam continued, "I want your machine gunners to draw fire away from us, we're going to have to move up through the building on the left. Once we destroy the gun, we'll attempt to get back here and help you withdraw back to a better outpost. We need the help now though"
"Alright, Kazim, Wilkins, I want you two to give these marines covering fire."
"On it sir," responded one of the two machine gunners.
"Right, James you go in first," Adam pointed at another marine, Finn, "you follow him and I'll follow you. I expect everyone else to follow me in. If there are any hostile forces inside, we kill them. That gun is our primary objective, remember that."
They quickly ran to the entrance of the building. Adam tapped James on the shoulder and watched as James kicked in the door. He threw a flashbang in and withdrew, a second later a silent flash burst out of the building and James burst inside. Finn followed James and Adam followed Finn. Less than five seconds after Adam tapped James's shoulder, the squad was ready inside.
They heard the machine gun fire from outside as they stealthily advanced through the building. A Brute walked in front of Adam, who was now leading the squad. He quickly ran upon the Brute and jumped on him, knife ready. In one great sweeping motion, Adam brought the knife down upon the Brute's neck, easily passing it through the alien's thick skin. He silently let the now dead alien drop to the floor.
Soon the squad exited out the other side of the building, only to startle a Grunt squad. The marines were forced to attack, James's AK 67 let out a loud series of bangs as he emptied half his clip into the enemy. Another marine dispatched the last Grunt with the considerable less noisy MA5B.
"-blam!- James, the Covenant definitely heard that damn thing," Adam shot James an accusing look, "We had better move before half the city comes down on us. Throw that thing away and get a proper gun."
James didn't reply, instead he took up the rear of the squad and wordlessly followed. As Adam had anticipated, several curious Covenant squads appeared both behind and in front of the marines. They took up a defensive formation, and began firing against the advancing aliens both sides.
The Covenant returned fire, needles, spikes and plasma flew towards the marines who took cover at each side of the street behind fallen debris. The plasma splashed oven the stone while the spikes deflected. Many of the needles burst into several thousand tiny shards; however a few made it over the debris and tracked their targets. Only two needles hit their target, both hit Finn.