CHAPTER TWO

ON THE DEFENSE

The ghosts roared over the edge of the hill and sprayed the defensive position the marines were hiding behind. They wouldn’t last much longer at this rate. A marine by the name of Sgt. Ahmed fired his rocket launcher and blew a chopper speeding up the hill at them. “Yeah! First kill!” Ahmed yelled.

“Metcalf fire on that wraith!” Ahmed ordered.

Metcalf threw a grenade at the driver side of the wraith. It exploded sending shrapnel through into the elite’s face. It’s shield shimmered as the shrapnel bounced off. Metcalf lunged at the elite with his rifle and repeatedly smashed it in the face with the butt of his rifle. The elite was bleeding now as its shields broke. As Metcalf went in for a last swing the elite grabbed the gun and twisted it out of his grasp. It clattered to the floor. Metcalf yelled in pain as his arm broke. The elite gave a roar of triumph as it levelled the plasma rifle to his face. It was about to fire when it heard the roar of a vehicle approaching. It turned its head to see a scorpion tank aiming at him. He dropped Metcalf in surprise and tried himself to run. But the scorpion was too fast and the first shell it fired incinerated the elite in a shower of purple blood. Metcalf scrambled to his feet and ran behind the hill. The tank slowed to a halt in front of them and he driver got out. It looked like a marine out of alpha squad. The captains insignia on his arm made the other marines stand at attention. “Cut the bullshit.” The marine said. “Where are the rest of my squad!?”

Ahmed nervously walked up to him. “Sir, we saw them last defending the hill from the eastern position. We don’t know what happened to them sir.”

“***!” Gavin yelled. He ran up the hill and stooped to observe the charred remains of a marine. He picked up the dog tag. The name on it read: “Pvt. Alastair.” He threw the dog tag to the side and observed even more bodies. A Corporal named Langley approached and saluted. “Sir, someone’s asking for you sir.” Gavin walked up the hill toward where Langley was pointing. 2 marines were stood there with their ODST helmets visor up. “Gavin, good to see you sir.” It was Henry and Francis. They had made it after all. Ahmed yelled. “Oh *** more covenant approaching, give ‘em hell marines!”

The battle had begun.

                                                            CHAPTER THREE

                                                             JERICHO LOST

Grunts in waves ran up the hill toward the human position. Assault rifle blasts blew chunks out of the approaching grunts. Many clawed at limbs shot off hoping that they would somehow reattach. The humans started taking heavy plasma pistol fire that killed a few unlucky privates who were changing cover. The scene Gavin could see was horrible. He knew the aliens were waiting for this side of the defence to go help the other side so that they could flank us. From what Gavin could see the humans were taking terrible losses now. Wounded were left where they dropped. They couldn’t move them back to the hospital tent without them being shot. Gavin had in his squad now: Henry, Francis, Ahmed, Langley and an overeager Private called Thorley. Thorley had the sniper. He was firing rounds non stop. He was a terrible shot. After he missed a wounded grunt, Ahmed grabbed the sniper off him and shot an elite square through the eye. “That’s how to do it rookie.” Ahmed growled. He handed the sniper back to the Private and resumed watching the battle which was pretty even sided. Every time the aliens charged up the hill, they were slaughtered, while the aliens that stayed back were able to inflict the most casualties. A grunt wielded a strange purple weapon with glowing pink spines sticking out of the top of it. The grunt aimed at a marine with an MA5B and fired a burst from the weapon. Pink needles swarmed toward the marine. They imbedded themselves in his chest. He flinched as they hit. He fell backward down the hill. As he rolled to a stop, the needles exploded in a hazy pink mist. All that was left of the marine were meaty chunks.

“Crap, we need to help them.” Ahmed sighed.

“No. as soon as we move, the real invasion force will come from the trees down there.” Gavin pointed towards the tree line where occasionally you would see a glint of purple armour or a sudden blur of movement. Gavin tapped the shoulder of Thorley and grabbed the sniper off him. He aimed down the scope and saw through the many trees a jackal. It had its head bowed as if crouched. This *** was his.

The humans had wrecked the covenant assault force. And they couldn’t hold out much longer. The humans wouldn’t budge from their defensive position. If they could hide a few minutes longer, the humans would move to reinforce the defending army and then the way would be clear for a victory. At least, this was how the elite vorum’ antarkee saw it. He had a jackal next to him with a needler. The jackal looked at Vorum and turned away. As it settled its gaze back at the tree line, its head exploded.

Gavin lowered the sniper an inch and whispered “Gotcha.” 

The grunts were scrambling over the bodies of their fallen and wounded comrades trampling each other in the process while they tried to get away. Elites were shooting the retreating grunts for their cowardice. The humans threw masses of fragmentation grenades at the huge cluster of aliens. As the grenades detonated, aliens yelled and died as they were torn apart by the initial explosion or finished by the extra sharp shrapnel that flew into their faces. A victory for the humans. The aliens who had been hiding in the trees thought that it was now or never and so they burst from the forest and took alpha squad and the 100 marines there with them by surprise. Someone yelled “Open fire!” everyone complied and the first wave of the new attackers were shredded almost instantly. Elites engaged their camouflage and snuck up on the hill. They clambered over and set to work assassinating the humans. They disengaged their camouflage and shot long bursts at the massed humans. Many fell and died from plasma burns. The marines had just turned to engage this new threat when they realised that the aliens who had just retreated had been faking the massed panic. They instead resumed their charge at the now heavily disorganised human forces. Stray bullets and plasma blasts flew everywhere hitting intended and unintended targets. This was no longer a battle. It was a massacre. A squad of grunts scrambled over the hill and tore a lone private to shreds. Gavin took down an elite and a squad of grunts with a grenade. A jackal fired a lucky shot and hit Gavin in the arm. He yelled in pain as the plasma burned through his armour and scorched his skin. He brought the gun up one handed and fired a full magazine at the exposed jackal from the hip. Its ribs flew outward and its guts tumbled out as the armour piercing bullets tore through the alien. The gun clicked empty. Gavin dressed his wounds quickly while the marines held the aliens off for a few seconds. He then reloaded his gun and set to work on a wounded jackal.

Ahmed thrust his combat knife through the eye hole of an elite’s helmet and grinned with maniacal glee as the blade penetrated through its weak shields and imbedded itself into its brain. The elite let out a blood curdling scream as it shuddered violently. Then it lay still, gave one last shudder and a gasping breath and then died. Ahmed left the knife in its eye socket and fired short bursts from his assault rifle. Grunts and a few jackals went down from his rifle. But that’s when he heard the whine. The whine of a vehicle which had become his nightmare. The whine of a ghost. A squadron of ghosts blasted through a squad of marines, decapitating a few with their wing tips. A few badly placed rockets roared after them only to hit their own men or fly into a group of grunts. Plasma cannons opened fire on the marines. Why hadn’t they had the order to fall back yet? Ahmed heard his headpiece crackle and the voice of the commander came through. “Get the hell out of there you idiots! Why didn’t you run 5 minutes ago?! Air support coming in, get out of their before you get fried. Over and out.”

Ahmed heard the approaching aircraft from a mile off. That gave him about 10 seconds to hoof it. He saw most of the marines scrambling over dead and falling flat on their faces, taking energy swords in their backs. This was anarchy. Alpha squad were ahead of him by 30 paces. He knew they would survive. He sprinted faster than he had ever sprinted in his life. He heard the shortswords go over his head and that’s when he dived onto the ground. He covered his head with his hands as almost unbearable heat washed over him. The last thing he remembered were hands picking him up by the arms and hauling him up from the ground.

                                             CHAPTER FOUR

                                   ABOARD THE LEONIDAS

The UNSC heavy battle cruiser, Leonidas was one of the fastest ships around. It was a good thing it was there to get the survivors off Jericho. Among the survivors was Sgt. Ahmed. He had suffered heavy plasma and fire burns during the battle. It was a magnificent stroke of luck that he had survived the airstrike almost landing on him.

On the bridge of the ship was Gavin, talking to the captain. He had found out there new destination. A colony world unknown to the public. Only to select units in the whole military. It was known as Solus. The ship was one of 100’s heading to the military planet to stave off a large scale covenant attack. It was rich in ancient alien artefacts and that’s what the brass thought the aliens were after. They hadn’t glassed the planet yet. The fleet was tasked with destroying the orbiting covie force of about 25 ships. The UNSC had a fleet up to the challenge. “Exiting slip space in 12 minutes.” The announcement was clear. It was time to gear up.

Many of the medics had tried as hard as they could to revive Thorley.  But he was eventually given up on. He had refused to run when the call came in.

“No way am I letting these bastards through!” Thought Thorley. He shot his assault rifle directly at a grunt. It was ripped in half and its blood sprayed everywhere. The noise of the shortswords was getting closer. Now it was time to run. He jumped and rolled down the incredibly steep hill and tried catching up with Ahmed who he saw a few paces in front of him. He sprinted faster than ever. The bombs were dropping. He knew it. He tried to dive on the ground but was instead roasted alive as the flames engulfed him. He was still vaguely aware of his surroundings as he waited to die.

CHAPTER FIVE

OPERATION LIBERATION

The banshee’s screamed overhead and unleashed their deadly fuel rod blasts. They impacted on the teams only warthog and flipped it over. The gunner was killed. This was what life was like for the 44^th special operations division. They were secret, unknown to the public and made at the discovery of Solus. They were over 50,000 when the covenant arrived, now they were fewer than 20,000. This battle was a massacre on a global scale. All over the planet engagements were rife. The dead littered the battleground as Lucas crouched behind the warthog and blind fired a group of jackals. One of them fell while the others formed a phalanx and shot from behind their shields. One plasma bolt hit a young Corporal in the face. His helmet visor smashed into his eyes. He screamed as blood frothed from his helmet. The plasma had boiled away a part of his face and the glass had stuck in his eyes. He clutched his face and wept on the floor as the blood seeped from his clutched fingers. A second plasma bolt to the head finished him off. Lucas crouch ran to the rest of the team and crouched next to his sergeant. “Sir, we’re hit pretty badly; I don’t think we can hold out much longer.” Plasma blasts from an Elite strafed the debris they were hiding behind and burned away some of Lucas’s armour. “*** OFF!” Lucas exclaimed as he lobbed a grenade at a gathering of grunts. They were shredded as the grenade detonated. Lucas sat back down and sheltered form the newest wave of plasma. “As I was saying sir, we have a fallback point about 600 meters back. We get there; I guarantee we can hold out longer.”

“Ok Lucas, but this better *** work boy. COVERING FIRE MEN!”

The pelican carrying alpha squad and a few regs including a Private Jones, a Sgt Ahmed, Captain Barrigan and lieutenant Morrey, dropped them off at a near clearing. Gavin spoke. “Ok men, set up forward. I want the sandbag bunker set up ASAP, you clear on that soldiers?” A chorus of “sir yes sir!” rang out.

The marines ran out from the cover of the debris and sprinted low around the distant street corner, but not without losing 3 men under heavily organised plasma fire. “Return fire now!” MA5B shots rang out and stopped an elite dead in its tracks. “Keep up the fire you bad ass motherfuckers!” The sergeant yelled. A marine fell dead from a plasma bombardment. “***! 30 rounds left sarge, then I’m out!”

“Then use them to good affect private!” The sergeant fired a burst at a jackal, splitting it in half.

“Sarge, look over there!”

Alpha squad emerged from the billowing smoke and setup near the fatigued marines.

“Reinforcements sergeant, RV with the rest of your platoon is about 2 miles through the covie line. Suggest we push them back!” Gavin yelled as his assault rifle tore chunks out of a jackal.

“Ok squad move out!” The sergeant yelled.

Ahmed moved from cover to cover, firing shots at the aliens as he ran. This kept them suppressed and possibly saved Ahmed’s life. Ahmed crouched behind the old warthog and fired over the top. A plasma grenade sailed over and stuck to a lone marine searching for cover. “GET THIS THING OFF ME! GET IT OFF M-!”

The marine exploded before he could finish the sentence. Ahmed was showered in gore as the remains of the soldier landed around him.