Intelligence Interface.
SUPPORT WEAPONS- 30. Caliber deployable gun
50. Cal deployable gun
ARMED WEAPONS- Heavy machine gun( Belt operated with 100 chain belt). Standard reload time is 30 seconds.
Rocket Launcher( 1 rocket per shot.). Similar in design to the RPG but with stronger rockets.
9 millimeter sidearm( 15 rounds in a magazine). Just a regular nine millimeter pistol.
30. Caliber sniper rifle( 4 rounds in a magazine). Armor piercing bullets that can penetrate into a cobras cockpit via the windshield and door.
SMG( 30 rounds in a clip). A small machine gun mostly carried as either replacement side arms for experienced marines or carried by crewmen aboard frigates and command bases.
Frag. Grenade( each marine carries 2). 12 meter kill radius can strike fear into anybody.
VEHICLES- Cobra, light assault hovercraft thought to be the predecessor to the hornet. Since the technology to hovercraft is so new it can only run for seven hours before it must be recharged.
Mamba , A tank that was redesigned after the inter-planetary failure of classic tanks. With a stronger barrel and two passenger seats on the back it is a formidable weapon.
Python , heavy assault jet meant for quick, dangerous, missile attacks for long range warfare. One of the only human vehicles to still run on jets and not hover crafts, therefore meaning it cannot go into slip space or any space travel at all.
Anaconda, Air transport meant to carry many men and quickly drop them off at a designated location. Because of its large use of hovercraft energy it can only be used once every three hours. Although its lack of energy are made up by its many machine guns and high capacity.
Boa, A light tank that looks similar to a jeep. With two rockets on the sides it can go into any battle with a top speed of fifty miles per hour. All terrain with thick enough metal to withstand many bullets from an SMG.
Blue racer, despite its name it is a heavy tank with a top speed of twenty miles per hour. The size of a one story house this tank is more like a mobile command base. Usually what the commander rides in when he’s supervising but this has been brought into many battles by the URF.
W.M.D’s- Tactical nukes, a smaller version of the horror that arrived at Hiroshama. This bomb has an effectiveness ratio of ½ a mile. The URF have been known to use these to chop up vehicle convoys or trenches.
NOVA bombs, an experimental and extremely deadly bomb. About fifty of these were stolen out of a UNSC lab and now are in possession of the URF.
Restrictor Bomb, a strange bomb that destroys the breathable air in a mile radius of the impact site. The URF built this especially for the war.
EMP charge, not technically a weapon of mass destruction but tell that to the URF. The UNSC used this against them once to stop a large vehicular assault and we wiped them out with minimal casualties.
PROLOGUE
BLOOD, it isn’t just the color of the ground after every battle human kind has faced. Approximately 413 battles have taken place in an area named after this dreaded sign of death. The Romans lost their first epic loss at Blood Falls. General Carter was shot for the first time in blood creek, ironically named after his grandfathers struggle and loss at that location. The USMC quoted that Iwo Jima got its name from the horrid sight of a Chinese generals bloody body. Its much more than the color of water after you get cut, its what we dread, what we fear, what we wish never to see.
This story will follow the path of soldiers that saw blood and refused to believe it, I want you to know that everything I will say in this fic is what I mean and criticism will be ignored if it involves saying that this story will be too graphic. I wrote this to tell of the epic struggle between human kind before Halo: CE, before the loss at Harvest, and before the covenant were even thought of. This will be halo- related but do not expect the entire story to be dedicated to the elites.
CHAPTER 1
I’ll never forget the day that I was put in the marines, it was the year 2231. The gym was full of chairs and I was so proudly sitting on the stage in my uniform. My school instructor did a long speech about how he’s gotten to know us personally. Then he gave us a piece of advice I’ll never forget.
You’ve been raised to think that its okay if you win or lose, but I have to tell you that there was never a funeral if your favorite baseball team didn’t win the world series. This is not a game, be careful out there. I didn’t forget that piece of advice forever. No matter how bad things got.
Two years later.
I was in a trench that stretched for thirteen miles, I was under the command of General Artorious. I was crouched down beside my two best friends ever Jade Prieb and Ryan Saxton. I was mounting the new heavy machine gun along with Jade and Ryan. My name is Corey Mccutcheon, and I’m a soldier in the UNSC. After earth reached a large enough level of population we expanded, my amazing prowess allowed me to be in a colony ship. Now I was in some strange moon so far away from earth that I couldn’t see it in the sky.
The fleet admiral was so stressed out he refused to visit the surface of the moon anymore. Jade walked over to me and handed me two magazines.
“I was running low, its thirty yards to the nearest case of ammo.” Said Jade as he put his head over the trench top for a few seconds. He jumped back down and shot over to the other trench. Ryan came over with a rocket launcher, he loaded it quickly and took a quick look at me.
“Those rebel bastards need this.” He said as he shot the missile over the edge of the trench. The trail of smoke ignited the moons colors, the explosion sent screams into the air.
“Yaha, did you see that?” Shouted Ryan at Jade and I. I just laughed and looked over the edge of the trench. The buzz of cobras spread through the air and machine gun fire shot all over. I could see the bullets make the mud splash into the air. I saw them coming before they hit.
“Get down!” I shouted as the machine bullets hit the men who didn’t crouch down. Jade and Ryan jumped down at the first sound of cobras and were shouting over the ruckus.
“This is the first time this has happened to me!” Shouted Jade, Ryan just looked confused.
“They almost always do this. At the first sign of a loss they send in a strike team.” Said Ryan as he reloaded his rocket launcher. He sent a rocket into the air that blew up a cobra that was passing over. I smiled and reloaded my heavy machine gun.
“Ya my friend, this war is going to test us to the limits. Those cobras are the rebels interplanetary sign of death.” I said as a bullet killed a man beside me. His limp body fell on my lap and I looked into his eyes.
“I know who he is, we were in the academy together. He was a hell of a shot. Enjoy the trip, you got out better than most of us will.” I said as I put down his eyes. The whine of rockets filled the air and I saw human artillery fire into the air. Cobras and pythons with UNSC across the side in large letters flew over us. Pythons fell into the mud and sank. Some more troops ran from the tunnels in the trenches and moved up to the front.
“What’s going on?” Jade asked as the men loaded their guns. A man with a captains patch pulled out a shotgun and cocked it.
“We’re going to charge across no mans land.” Said the captain. A shot rang off and the captain jumped up onto the edge of the trench. Gunfire rang off and ecouple men fell down. I jumped behind the wreckage of a mamba as the sound of bullets rang off the side of it.
“Kill those idiots who shot Gregory.” Shouted the captain who had jumped behind a destroyed python. More machine gun fire rang but it was suddenly stopped when some artillery crashed into the rebels trench. I jumped out from behind the rubble and grabbed two more magazines from a body, the other marines were rushing and we were almost to the real trouble. The barbwire fields, I jumped over the first coil and was tripped by a coil that was right in front of me. I felt the blood seep out of the slice in my leg as a marine was blown up by a mine. I heard the scream of the captain warning everyone about the mines but it was too late. I heard the ring of explosions as many marines were blown up.
Jade jumped down beside me and started bandaging the cut on my leg. The wind stung and it made me flinch.
“Screw it, just help the captain storm the trench.” I said at him, he was about to jump up when he looked at me.
“Here take this, it’ll give you an excuse to stay here.” Jade said as he handed me a heavy machine gun. I mounted it in the muck and opened fire on the rebels. Blood poured all over the mud and filled every footprint, making the ground filled with tiny red ponds. I crawled through the barbwire and used a tank hull to pull myself up. I was able to make the rest of the run when most of the second wave was charging too. I had already shot five rebels when the marines running in front of me suddenly tripped and fell into the mud. They started sinking and screaming.
“Quicksand, help!” Shouted one of the soldiers. I grabbed a rope off the ground and threw it to the sinking marines. All over the area was half sunk tanks and pythons. I screamed as the soldiers were fully drowned so quickly. Some marines had found a way to climb over a crashed cobra and had put slabs of plywood over the gaps. I followed some soldiers and was about to make it over when the plywood broke beneath me. I was able to hang onto the tail of a python but the marines behind me fell the ten feet into the deathtrap. I pulled myself up and jumped across the pitfall just as an artillery shell hit the tanks on the other side. The explosion killed many marines but also the shock stopped the sand from sinking. I jumped into the rebel trench and my leg gave out. I saw Ryan and Jade run up and hug me.
“We were worried the sand would get you.” Said Ryan with a smile across his face, there was a long cut all the way down one cheek. He noticed me looking at it and laughed.
“A rebel mistook my face for butter, they took a knife to it.” Said Ryan at my confusion.
“C’mon, the captain was raised to sergeant, this whole trench is his. We’re supposed to go to the new front.” Said Jade as he walked through one of the tunnels, I followed him as I threw the gun over my shoulder.
CHAPTER 2
I was up on top of the trench edge helping to secure the defense statutes. Securing the defense statutes consisted of coiling barbwire ten yards into no mans land. Then I had to carefully lay mines to make sure that we were safe from tank borders. The whole process usually took about ten hours and that was if you didn’t run into quicksand and pitfalls. It started raining, you had to be very careful in the rain because sometimes if it hails it’ll actually set off the mines. I was just finishing the final coil when the captain ran up to us.
“I just got word from command. The URF is pressing hard, there sending vehicles everywhere. Lay more mines.” He said as he jumped back into the trench. I just nodded and laid out five more mines. Jade jumped up holding his usual gear. In his right hand he held a box of ten clips, and over his shoulder he had a sniper rifle.
“How’s it going sweet thing? Asked jade as he crouched down beside me. I just nodded and held up a little lump of skin.
“O what is that!” Shouted jade as he backed off. I just laughed.
“it’s a guys finger. Just found it on a piece of old barbwire.” I said as I tossed down the finger.
“Ya, you dig deep enough and you’ll find a head.” Said Ryan as he walked up with a 30 caliber deployable machine gun.
“Well I’m just finishing up. Meet me down in the bunks for lunch.” I said as I laid one last mine. I jumped into the trench and looked around. There were many deployable 30 calibers set up along the front lines. I stepped into the tunnels and saw rats running all over the place. I almost tripped over a body that was still on the ground. The blood was seeping from the body really badly so it was fresh.
“Died of pneumonia, a lot of guys have it from that winter. Now most of us are going to die from rabies from these *** rats.” Ryan said as he walked up beside me. I walked into the bunkroom that was carved into the mud. There was a big canvas thrown over the opening in the makeshift ceiling, even the heavy cloth wasn’t holding out the water. I sat down at the poker table and pulled out my ration. I was about to eat the lettuce when the captain came rushing in.
“All men to your stations. URF are rushing the trenches.” Shouted the captain. He rushed out of the room just as all the soldiers in the bunkroom grabbed their gear. I grabbed a sniper rifle and thirteen clips. Jade grabbed a heavy assault rifle and Ryan grabbed a rocket launcher and seven missiles. We got to the front lines just as the men started firing the deployable guns. The noise of hundreds of guns going off made my ears ring in an endless string of pain. I looked through the scope and activated night vision. I saw a boa coming towards us through the mud and shot one of the passengers off. I turned to the right and saw some rebels attempting to flip another boa. I shot the one wearing a hat right through the head. The blast also killed the man behind him. Out of the corner of the scope I saw a trail of smoke. I jumped down from the trench just as a rocket hit a machine gun down the wall.
“Whoa, that guy just flew like fifty feet in the air!” Shouted Jade as a wave of mud went everywhere. Ryan came crawling over to Jade and shot a missile before ducking back behind the wall.
“Fix grenades!” Shouted a voice down the tunnel. I pulled the pin on a frag and threw it over the wall without looking. More mud flew over the wall and it had a red tint.
“Direct hit!” Shouted Jade who just took over a deployable gun. For a little bit the gunfire stopped as everyone reloaded their guns. I threw another clip into the sniper rifle and looked back through it. Men were almost to the barbwire when some cobras flew into the mess. The machine guns mowed down most of the rebels when some URF pythons entered the battle. UNSC artillery from the other trench started shooting the pythons down. I shot the pilot of a URF python and it fell on a mamba. A rise of celebratory screams arose from the trenches that masked a hum that would have scared everybody.
A strange wisp erupted from the ground and the rumble grew to unstoppable lengths. Fifteen blue racers came over the hill and shot there machine guns at the trenches. The marines unlucky enough to look up had there brains shot out before they saw the threat. I ducked down and ran for the tunnels. I heard the awful order that always marked defeat.
“RETREAT, back to the southern trenches!” Shouted the captain. Now I had to run faster than ever because there would be a huge mob of frightened soldiers. I heard the scream of soldiers as the rebels through frags into the trenches. The explosions were so loud it stunned me for a few seconds. I ran into the southern portion of the trench I was in and jumped over the wall. The artillery was going off in the southern trenches. URF attack anacondas released thousands of missiles into the trenches. boas came over the trenches and started mowing down the retreating marines. Ryan and Jade showed up beside me, Ryan blew up a boa with his rocket launcher. I pulled out another rocket launcher and started shooting missiles at a mamba. With combined fire from Ryan the mamba blew up. I started running faster as two blue racers came over the trenches. The machine guns killed many more marines. I watched as the trenches got closer and the artillery fire picked up again. A blast destroyed a blue racer behind me and the shudder knocked Jade off his feet. I went to help him up and machinegun fire from a blue racer went up his legs and stopped at his knees. Ryan and I picked up his body and carried him to the trenches. We set him behind the wall and covered the people trying to help him while we stood behind the wire and shot at the boas. After ten minutes of bullets whizzing around me the URF quit assaulting the trenches.
CHAPTER 3
I was standing outside the trenches infirmary, Jade said that it looked worse than it felt but I knew better. As Ryan came walking out he had a relieved look on his face.
“He’s going to be okay,” he said as he put his hand on my shoulder. I sighed and slowly sat down, I took off my boony hat and wrung it out. Ryan sat down beside me and punched me on the shoulder.
“What was that for?” I asked him.
“Just to thank you for not letting me stay with you back there. If I would have stayed with you I would have fallen in that quicksand and died just as fast as those other guys,” he said in despair. I was about to retort when a commotion aroused from outside. Ryan and I got up and went to the front lines. There were a lot of marines screaming and pointing into the air.
“What’s going on?” I asked a man who was trying to calm everybody. He just turned to me and nodded into the air. I looked up and saw trails of smoke that had a bright blinking light in the trails.
“O, flock me,” I shouted. Ryan looked up and gasped.
“Tactical Nukes, everybody hit the deck,” shouted Ryan as he jumped into the mud. I jumped down as a rocket hit the mud in the distance. I felt the heat on my back as I heard men get burnt up. I was just about to get up when another blast rang. Mud poured all over my back and I felt the heat again. This time it incinerated my back. I was flinching in the searing pain when another blast rocked the trench itself.
I woke up and wiped the dry mud off of me, there were bodies everywhere. There were some living marines trying to clean up the bodies. The captain jumped down from the edge of the trench and looked around.
“Stack the bodies around the outside of the defense statutes. They’ll provide a good enough cover. If these URF want war. We’ll give them war,” shouted the captain as he picked up a body and threw it over the barbwire. The men nodded and started picking up the bodies of there friends. I looked around and realized some thing that made me run to the infirmary. I got to the red sheets and tore them down, inside Jade was laying in the bed looking across at Ryan.
“What happened?” I asked looking between the two. They just laughed.
“Well Jades still suffering from the same injuries, and apparently I have third degree burns on my back,” Ryan said as he continued to laugh.
“Surely you felt that heat,” Jade said as he tried to sit up, he grunted in pain and laid back down. A man walked through the door and looked at Jades charts.
“Where are all the other survivors?” I asked the man. He just looked at me and crossed his arms.
“I had to send half of the people in this infirmary to a different trench. It was getting to crowded,” he said as he walked out. I followed the doctor out and went up to the front lines. The captain was taking scrap metal taken from crashed and destroyed boa’s, attempting to make a landing pad. In the air there was a large frigate ready to release dropships to pick us up. I picked up a sheet of metal and walked it over to the strip.
“Captain, what’s going on?” I asked him as I laid the metal down and a man came over to weld it to the other pieces. The captain turned to me and looked straight into my eyes.
“We’re abandoning the moons. The Fleet Admiral says its too dangerous to be here,” the captain said without missing a beat,” well soldier get to work.” He said again and walked off. Ten more guys jumped out of the trench and started helping me.
After three hours and many cuts later the makeshift landing pad was made. The captain signaled for dropships to come and a few minutes later we were all in the hangar making our bunks. Jade limped in with the help of Ryan who was bandaged quite a bit on the back. I laughed when jade sat down and started taking off his boots.
“Its 3pm, your not thinking of laying down are you,” I said as I leaned next to Jade. He just looked at me and laughed
“In my book its midnight. I’m not much help if I can’t walk five feet on my own,” he said as he covered up with the brown wool covers. I just looked at Ryan and we left the room, in the halls there were a lot of people rushing to get to the cafeteria to get lunch. I followed the crowd and whiffed the great smell of ham sandwiches. Of course it wasn’t real ham but merely a supplement but it still tasted and smelled so good. I stood in the long line to get the brown tray and when it finally came my turn I saw who was behind the counter. He was a tall man with a long scar across his neck.
“Hey Zach, how’s the cook life treating you,” I said as Zach shoved the tray into my gut. I gasped for air and walked on while Ryan waved at him. I sat at square table with Ryan and two other guys, both of the guys looked Mexican and were talking to Ryan. I sat down and nodded to the two guys.
“Hey I’m Corey,” I said to them, the one with brown hair waved at me but the one with black hair replied.
“I’m Reyas, this sourball here is Vargus. We’ve been together for five years, on this exact ship,” he said with a smile. I waved at Vargus who was still eating his sandwich.
“So are you a pilot or mechanic?” I asked Reyas who was in mid bite.
“I’m a mechanic, now what kind of gun do you carry?” He asked after a large swallow. I held up the heavy machine gun and Ryan smiled. Ryan held up a sniper rifle and laughed.
“What about you,” said Ryan as he threw the sling over his back. Vargus and Reyas both held up tiny guns that looked like pistols with extended barrels, there was a clip in front of the trigger case.
“We stay classic, SMG’s really work against the targets,” said Vargus as he took another bite. I got up and went to dump the tray when the alarms went off.
“Not today,” moaned Vargus as he slowly got up. Then the intercom screeched on.
“This is not a drill, URF are preparing to launch bombs at us. Activating EMP in three, two, one,” the intercom shut off as a blast rocked the ship and a bluish glow spread over the windows. Ryan looked at me and I looked back. We laughed and nodded at each other. We turned to Vargus and Reyas and they laughed too. A few seconds later all four of us were loading our guns.
CHAPTER 4
The frigate was getting shot at from every angle, the intercom was going crazy since the EMP charge was destroyed. Cobras were launching out of the ship and entering slipspace. I was outside the hangar door when a blast rocked the ship at unstoppable lengths. I was knocked to the ground along with Vargus. I turned to him.
“What happened?” I asked him. He just laughed and looked around.
“An anti-matter charge. The URF found a way to manipulate it,” He said as he stood up. I got up to and walked through the hangar door. Two cobras were launching and the last one was getting ready to launch. Vargus and I jumped in as the doors closed. The cobra entered slipspace and the rupture closed. I looked around at the five others in the cobra and eventually fell asleep.
I woke up and heard rain pounding on the sides of the cobra. Everyone in the chopper was preparing special operations weapons. I looked around and Vargus tapped my shoulder. I freaked out and almost punched him.
“Its okay, some of the choppers were rerouted to a strange skyscraper. The leading members the URF are said to be there,” he said as he handed me my gun. He saw my confusion and laughed.
“it’s a mill shooter. An experimental gun that’s naturally silenced and has armor piercing bullets. Perfect for our next mission. Also each of you HUDs have been changed to show night vision and a stable radar.” Said a bulky man who had a belt across his chest with magazines hanging on it. On the belt around his waist he had grenades of different types. I had just fully awaken and looked around.
“If these guns are so great. How come I’ve never heard about them? They weren’t in the database,” I said to the man standing up. He just looked around and laughed.
“The databases cannot be trusted, all special operations weapons and vehicles are under major security,” he said as the rush of wind signaled that we weren’t moving anymore.
“How are we landing?” I asked as the doors opened. The man looked at me and smacked the side of the helmet he just put on. He flipped on the HUD that glowed green. A second later I suddenly saw a thin piece of glass go over my right eye. Then I suddenly saw a radar towards the bottom of the screen with nine white dots on it. The commander jumped out of the cobra and the other men followed him. Vargus jumped out and I fell with him. The wind rushed at my face and the rain seemed to fall right beside me. The parachutes below me opened and mine suddenly did without my consent.
We hit the ground and I took off the parachute, my gun clicked into place on my belt and I yanked it off. Across the screen a tacmap showed up with nav-points showing a town in the distance. In the sky’s I saw many more cobras release men. My night vision flipped on and I saw the men all crouched in the waist high grass and weeds. I got down and looked at the commander, he was making signs in the air that I couldn’t quite understand. Then I remembered one class in my training that we flew through. He was signaling to check the tac-map. There was a man in front of me that had the control pad to the HUDs and was making them scroll through the map. After a long break the commander signaled for us to move on. We walked through the weeds until we came across a brick wall, it spanned into the woods and beyond. We all leaned against the wall, the commander was talking into the radio.
“Men, we are going to bang and clear the first floor then proceed up the stairs and one at a time search and seize all info. Hopefully the leaders of the URF will be there. Stay on guard men, we cannot screw this up.” The commander said, then all the men moved through the gate in the brick wall. In the town we saw the other groups of soldiers running down the road to get to the skyscraper. In the sky’s we saw some cobras flying towards the building and they sent missiles at the helicopter that was stationed at the top. We got to the front door and the commander walked up to it, he put a C-4 on the crack in the center of the opening. I held up my hand and made the signs for three, two, one. A blast issued and we rushed in, I shot the two guys that were standing behind the counter. There was no recoil in the gun and the blast knocked the men out of their chairs. The other men rushed to the doorway to the elevator and placed claymores on the doors. Some other men broke down the door to the staircase. A few seconds later a bomb went off and men started climbing up the elevator shaft. I ran with them and started climbing up the metal ladder with the commander. There was rain coming through the ceiling up ahead and rain was dripping and bouncing off the metal. The annoying clicking noise drove me so crazy I shut off the sound enhancers in my ears. After we climbed even further I heard the sound of a drill, the men at the top of the ladder were cutting through the wall.
The hole was broken through and the men through flash bangs through it. A blast issued and the men rushed through the hole. I heard gunshots and I saw a UNSC body fall down the shaft. More screams and then everything went quiet. The rest of the soldiers piled through the hole and held up their guns. I crawled through and watched as one by one each room was broken into and everybody inside was killed. I went with captain who rushed upstairs with some other marines. As i went upstairs I looked and saw that we were on the 12th floor. As we entered another elevator and I pressed the button for the top floor a shockwave rocked the tower. On the radio we heard another word I’ve heard to much in this war.
“RETREAT!” As the words left the radio the elevator fell.
CHAPTER 5
The ground was full of rubble, a missile from a URF cobra had hit the building. A smell was in the air that I couldn’t explain. I pulled myself up and a pain surged through my leg. I limped out of the elevator and caught a horrid sight. Inside the hallway URF soldiers were lining up marines and shooting them point blank with heavy machine guns. I looked around for a gun and on the ground I saw two pistols. I picked them up and cocked them. I checked the magazines and found they were both fully loaded. I shot two bullets into a rebels head. I dove to the side and landed on my stomach. I rolled from one side of the floor to the other while shooting.
The nine rebels seemed to have awful aim but the heavy guns were making up for it. I had killed two of them but the seven others threw frags towards me. I jumped behind a wall and caught one of the grenades in my hand. I lobbed it over my head as I dove for cover behind the desk in the main lobby. The blast killed three of the rebels and the remaining four shot into the side of the desk. Wood chips went everywhere, I pulled another frag from my belt and tossed it over the desk. As they suffered from the effects of the frag I jumped up and unloaded entire magazines into the rebels. The bullets flew right through the rebels and impacted the wood behind them. There limp bodies fell to the ground as I jumped over the tarnished desk. As I threw down one of the guns and picked up a heavy assault rifle from the bodies more marines came through the main door. They had the yellow patches that signified that they were Charlie squad. They didn’t even notice me and ran up the stairs.
I walked outside of the tower and saw yet another horrible view.
There were cobras crashed into the ground and into the towers. In the horizon I saw AA gunfire leading into the clouds. Up in the air there were small flashes of light that signified that the guns were hitting. All around there were squads of marines running all over the place. I picked up a radio from a marine body and plugged it into my ear.
“This is Gamma squad, we’re at the dropoff location with the rebel leader. Wait….. Oh no, this is Gamma squad requesting immediate assistance. The rebels are launching a counter attack to get back their leader. AAAAAAAHHHHHH!” The radio silenced to the sound of gunshots. I ran to the location expressed with a red star on my tac-map. As I left the suburb part of the city I got onto a huge highway. It was ten lane and on one side of the highway was a wall of cars. On the other side was yet another wall of cars. On opposite sides were marines and rebels crouching behind the cars. The bullets were surrounding me more than the screams that were the cause of the iron balls. I jumped behind a block of cement and started firing around it.
Over the wall I saw a rebel pull out a rocket launcher, I was about to pray for my life when three UNSC blue racers popped over the cars. They quickly annihilated the rebels and the marines pushed forward. There were easily thirty marines in this attack group. As we ran down the road we saw five pythons fly over and bomb the drop off location. We were about to celebrate when we saw that they were rebel pythons.
“Men, the rebel leader was killed in that explosion. This mission is a success, I want everyone to pull out of that town.” As the commander quit talking I saw cobras enter the area. They landed and marines jumped into them faster than I could tell. A cobra landed beside the cars and I ran for it. As jumped in I saw Jade and Ryan getting in a cobra beside mine. The cobras took off and flew into the horizon. The ships were darting left and right to avoid being the victims of the AA guns. I was watching out the windows when a cobra was blown up by AA fire. Our cobra made yet another swerve that jolted me off the chair. The rest of the marines in the cobra buckled up and I did the same.
I sat up and looked around. No one was saying a thing but we all knew what each other was thinking. How had it come to this, I thought as the cobra took a quick nose dive and straitened out. The faces all grew a worried look as yet another missile flew by us. This one made the cobra shudder and swerve some more. I looked at the pilots cockpit door and smiled as I heard them talking casually. This time a missile hit underneath the cobra and sent it whirling in mi-air. Everyone screamed silently as the cobra spun out of control. I held my breath in fear until eventually the talented pilots were able to straighten it out. I unbuckled myself and lifted up the tiling of the floor in the cobra.
I looked down and saw the ground hundreds of feet below us. I picked up the damaged metal and threw it towards the scarred ground. I snapped my fingers and someone handed me a replacement tile. I put the metal over the hole and welded it into place. I pulled myself out of their and put the tiling over it. I sat back down and buckled myself in yet again. I looked at the cockpit door and I heard the pilots talk about the news.
“How about you guys give us some television,” shouted Vargus. A few seconds later a screen came down over the door and the news flipped on.
CHAPTER 6
I was in the cobra and the news was going crazy, all over the television screen there were videos of battles from the sky’s. The news reporters were blaintly reciting the poorly written words that were written by idiots who had never held a gun in their life. I finally started to pay attention to what they were saying,
today an attack launched on the capital city of the jovian moons. The URF had a strong offensive that, once again, repelled all UNSC attack forces. In other news, Gamma squad of 1st force recon team was killed in a massive URF bombing run that also killed one of their main leaders. Then a message was sent to UNSC commander in chief Lord Loot, the message talked about three generals are going to take over the URF. This shocking message is revealing that the URF is not only incredibly organized, but it also tells us that wiping out their leadership will not cripple their resistance to the mother colonies. As I speak a strike force of epic proportions is being organized for a large scale attack against the Jovian moons. The attack will consist of whats left of 1st force recon, and volunteers from Harvest. As I heard the last part I looked up and laughed. Vargus and the other started laughing too. The pilots were even chuckling, I would have rolled on the ground gasping if I wasn’t buckled in. After a few solid minutes of laughing we all looked up at each other.
“This has got to be a joke, thirteen teams of fifteen marines are going to ally with farmers from harvest,” I said as I looked around. The others nodded as the cobra started to land. The doors opened and I stepped out. We were at the central command base for the outskirt wars. The rest of 1st force recon was landing and walking towards the command room.
I stepped through the chrome double doors and looked around. All over the walls were maps with holographic pins in certain places. In the center of the room was a table with a map of the central asteroid in the Jovian system. Lord Loot was standing at one end of the table and directing the pins with a laser pen. The team commanders of 1st force recon walked up to the table, but there was something wrong, only twelve commanders were up there. Lord Loot looked at the soldiers of alpha team.
“Lt. Mccutcheon, I understand you personally watched helplessly as your commander was shot. Then you took vengeance on him by killing ten rebels, then escaping a city swarming with rebels single handedly,” Lord Loot said as he rolled his pen around in his hand. I just nodded and he smiled. He pulled a bronze medal out from his pocket and tossed it at me. I caught it and looked at it.
“Congratulations, team commander Mccutcheon, Rally seven more men for your team and report back here in two hours. That goes for all of you, get out of here,” shouted Lord Loot as he sat down at a chair. My men were sitting around outside and saw the badge on my chest. They stood up and saluted me, I walked through them and went to the database. I walked through more chrome doors and showed my badge to the lady at the front desk. I sat down across from her and looked right into her eyes.
“I need files on the best marines who are currently not in a team inside 1st force recon,” I said to her, she just smiled and started typing into the computer, I looked around at the long shelves of history books and disclosed data from past wars. This place was very strict on only allowing commanders inside, I got up and looked at the books. I picked out books on the civil-war of America, the revolutionary war of America. I even chose one on the Roman Empire. I sat down at my previous seat across from the receptionist and got to reading, the books were so interesting it felt like my eyes flew across the pages. After reading everything I had in front of me I went back to the book shelf and got a book about the world wars.
These books were much more interesting and I couldn’t help but lose track of time. I looked up after reading about world war 2 and saw that the receptoinist was printing off the reports of the soldiers. She smiled and handed them to me, I nodded and walked out. The light temporarily blinded me as I walked to the command room. It was twenty minutes shy of 7:30 so no one was there except for the usual staff. I sat down at the table and looked over the soldiers profiles. After twenty minutes of judging people literally by their covers Lord Loot came in and sat down beside me.
“Well, how is it being team commander?” Asked Lord Loot, I just smiled and put the portfolios in a slot beside me that sent them to the library.
“I’m tired,” I said as the other team commanders came in. Lord Loot stood up and pressed a button beside him. The whole wall turned into a terrain map of the central asteroid, all over the map were small satellite images of mining towns and military camps. I looked around in awe as the rest of the team commanders sat down. Lord Loot stood at the front of us and examined our faces.
“I understand that this mission seems impossible, but you aren’t the only ones on this mission.” Said Lord Loot, immediately after he said this one of the commanders stood up.
“Yes, we are all fully aware that we have the assistance from volunteer hicks from Harvest,” he said as he sat down.
“They are backup none the less,” Retorted Lord Loot, the commanders laughed. I didn’t join in because I noticed the look on Lord Loots face. This time one of the most senior commanders stood up.
“They have no training at all, all you did to prepare them was teach them how to load and unload a gun. Now your going to throw them against people who went through better training than the seals who have better weapons and a *** NOVA bomb,” shouted the commander. I looked in fear at Lord Loot who simply sat down.
“Get to the cobras, I’ll brief you when you get in the air. NOW,” Shouted Lord Loot. I ran to the cobras and my fifteen men ran into theirs. I sat down and buckled in. The pilots stepped in and started the cobra. I realized the rank I was and stepped into the cockpit. Inside the pilots saluted me and pressed a button. From underneath the floor a chair came up for the commander to sit in. I looked around and sat down. Outside I saw the other cobras take off, I sighed and set my gun down.
CHAPTER 7
The skies were as dark as the grim mood everyone was in, rain had been pounding the cobras as they neared inevitable death. The asteroid was so large that it had its own gravitational pull and an unstable weather system. Right now the entire asteroid was covered in a storm that had been going on for four days and was showing no sign of stopping. Unfortunately, we were in the eye of the storm. Winds were whipping at our skins at eighty miles per hour. The rain was the size of golf balls, and the hail was the size of pennies. Lightning was branching across the skies like trees and the thunder was producing roars similar to those of stampeding lions. The cobra sped over a mining town and rockets flew into the heavens. The lightning illuminated the little devils and I saw that they had RPG’s. I smiled and turned on the intercom.
The skies were as dark as the grim mood everyone was in, rain had been pounding the cobras as they neared inevitable death. The asteroid was so large that it had its own gravitational pull and an unstable weather system. Right now the entire asteroid was covered in a storm that had been going on for four days and was showing no sign of stopping. Unfortunately, we were in the eye of the storm. Winds were whipping at our skins at eighty miles per hour. The rain was the size of golf balls, and the hail was the size of pennies. Lightning was branching across the skies like trees and the thunder was producing roars similar to those of stampeding lions. The cobra sped over a mining town and rockets flew into the heavens. The lightning illuminated the little devils and I saw that they had RPG’s. I smiled and turned on the intercom.
“Men, I’m opening up the back hatch, prepare to shoot those bastards on sight,” I shouted into the microphone. The following sound of wind and bullets told me they were following my orders. The pilots set the cobras five rockets and one heavy machine gun on auto shoot. I saw hundreds of rockets from the cobras hit a tall building in the middle of the town. Screams slashed through the air and the building collapsed. A wall of dust engulfed the town and the cobras flew into the impending fortress of rubble. The pilots navigated the town via the infrared. After a few moments of holding my breath we exited the mess and returned to the skies. I heard the back hatch close and I started to turn my gun in my hands. I still had the spec op gun that I had stolen on the previous mission. I reloaded it and I heard a pop inside it.
I took out a screwdriver and opened it up, there was a jam inside it that would have screwed me on the battlefield.
As I repaired the gun I heard a rattle that spread through the air. As I looked up I saw a long wall rise out of the ground. It looked like the great wall of china except made of metal and it was miles high. The cobras started hovering in mid-air as the commanders inside contemplated on what to do. It seemed like all of our minds were in sync because when I pointed at the wall all of the cobras sent missiles towards the wall. After the explosion settled I noticed that it wasn’t harmed at all. Small holes opened all over the wall and rockets were sent out of them, they hit the cobras in a fury of thunder. The surviving cobras attempted to land but were bombarded by machine gun fire from the wall. I grabbed a parachute and opened the cockpit door just as the pilots opened the back hatch. I saw the other marines had their parachutes ready and had all ready started jumping out. Just as I fell out of the cobra a rocket hit it. The fire nudged by back and seared me in pain. One of the motor propellers was launched through the air, I watched it fly through the air. I was about to sigh when I noticed it turn around, I pulled to the right and the propeller flew right beside me. It sliced into another soldiers parachute and he fell to the ground. The ground was getting very close, it was merely ten yards away.
After a few moments of looking around I hit the ground. I tunneled myself out of the cloth and looked into the skies. There were flashes of light and many small white dots in the air. I pulled out my only weapons that were left: five frags and duel 9 millimeters. I pulled out the handguns and walked through the rubble. I got to a small camp that some survivors had set up, they had a working radio and someone was asking for help. I passed by a woman that was organizing some leftover ammo into crates. She looked up to me and nodded.
“Backup is on its way, they still want to assault that wall,” the woman said without losing her gaze. I just sighed and grabbed a sniper rifle.
“There’s nothing left for us now, except death,” I said as I sat down on a small stool. She just laughed and lifted her head. She had dark green eyes that illuminated the rain. Her hair looked like it was tied in a bun but now it was straggled around her face.
“I’m Sarah by the way,” she said as she held out her hand. On her ring finger she had a diamond ring. I took the hand and shook it.
“So uh, I noticed the ring. Who’s the lucky guy?” I asked her, she just looked down and rolled the ring on her finger.
“He’s at home, on Epidumis II,” she said without letting go of the ring. I just looked at her and twiddled uselessly with my gun.
“Hey I didn’t mean to bring up your personal life. I was just curious,” I said with the presence of shame in my voice. She just laughed and got back to fiddling with the ammo.
“It’s okay, he’s just a real worry wart, and me joining the UNSC didn’t help his nervous outbreaks,” she said as she locked up another crate and pushed it away. I chuckled and cocked a shotgun, I put it in a crate beside me as a cobra crashed into the distance. I know I should have been worried about the pilots but all I could think about was how the explosion lit up her black hair.
“So, is there anyone special in your life?” She asked as she turned back around.
“Not really, I find it hard to commit. I’ve sorta wanted kids but I have no cool dad skills,” I said as I loaded a heavy machine gun and stuffed it into the crate. She just giggled and closed another crate.
“Now what was that,” I said as I looked at her. She just smiled and leaned towards me. Our eyes locked and I felt my stomach turn.
“Well, that was what I used to think. When I was like fifteen though,” She said as she moved closer.
“Well you know how they say woman mature faster than men,” I said as I smiled. After that pathetic line I mentally slapped myself. She must have read my mind because she moved so close our noses were almost touching.
“Then I guess soon you’ll realize that the person you love is right in front of you.” She said as she got even closer. I knew from ten years of experience that now was the time to kiss. Our lips locked and their was a good five seconds before the radio screeched off. We backed off of the kiss and looked at each other. She blushed and walked away with some crates. I smiled and started loading more guns. The wall was a good mile away but it was still a giant in the horizon. I sighed and closed my eyes. It seemed like once they shut fully I fell asleep.
CHAPTER 8
I woke up and watched as cobras flew towards the wall. I jumped up and ran to the radio, there was a man sitting at it shaking his head. He looked at me and shook his head. The rockets echoed and the crash of cobras blowing up echoed through the air. I fell to the ground and screamed but no one could hear it over the mess. I looked up and watched as the rubble fell. I pulled out two pistols and ran to the tree line. I loaded them in mid run but I felt someone grab my shirt. They knocked me on the ground and I saw who it was. Ryan and Jade were standing above me and had their guns out.
“You aren’t planning on doing something stupid without us,” said Ryan as he helped me up.
“What about me,” a voice said, then Sarah came out from behind a bush with a heavy machine gun. She waved at me and walked between Jade and Ryan.
“And you are?” Asked Jade, Sarah just laughed and pointed at me.
“I’m a friend of Corey’s,” she said as she walked through the trees. I laughed and followed her, I looked
behind to see Ryan and Jade shrug their shoulders and follow. As I turned back round some echoes spread
through the trees and blue racers tore through the trees. There were some marines with rockets on top that
were shooting at the wall. Behind the line of blue racers there were boas sending more rockets into the
wall. In the air there were hundreds, if not thousands of pythons releasing laser guided artillery attacks
and machine gun fire on the wall. More holes opened up inside the metal monster and released heat
seeking rockets. The missiles swerved through the air and met with the pythons, the explosion was so
intense it made many marines fall to the ground.
I was stunned when two frigates came swooping through the atmosphere and stopped right at the wall.
Cannon fire echoed from the frigates and the wall slowly fell apart. When the dust cleared hundreds of
anacondas flew out of the frigates. Their machine guns opened fire onto the ground as I attempted to
climb over the mountain of rubble. Their were hundreds of other marines attempting to get over the rubble
as well. As I got halfway up I heard a rumble and blue racers started driving up the rubble. A giant wall of
clouds seemed to cover the sun in an instant and issue rain and lightning stronger than ever. As a blue
racer passed me I jumped into the cargo bay. Inside their was a man running the armory, I grabbed a
rocket launcher and ten rockets. I ran up the stairs and reached the command central. Lord Loot was
standing beside the radar holding a cup of coffee. He looked up and smiled at me.
“How’s it going Corey?” Asked Lord Loot as he set the coffee down. I smiled at his remark. A blast
echoed throughout the air and the blue racer was rocked. I climbed up the next set of stairs and reached
the roof of the racer. Around the edges of the roof there were rims about three feet tall to allow the men to
take cover. There was a small gap on each side that allowed for deployable guns to be set. I took cover
behind the wall and watched as a marine running a fifty caliber was blown to pieces by a heavy machine
gun. The rain quickly washed away the blood but it left the mangled body. More lightning blared and it
allowed me to see over the edge of the rim. I then saw what rocked the blue racer. Beyond more trenches
there was a gauntlet of watchtowers that were infested with rocket troops who were shooting at the UNSC
vehicles. I watched as a anaconda was blown to pieces by rockets and its rubble hit a trench. I shot a
rocket at a watchtower which was blown to pieces, its wood seemed to fall slowly to the ground. The blue
racer seemed to come within range of the trenches because machine gun fire peppered the edges of the
rim around the roof. Some of the bullets were armor piercing because a marine was killed shortly after the
bullets hit. More men ran up the staircase and shot over the edge with heavy machine guns. A rocket hit
the rim and blew a man off the edge. A man sat beside me that wasn’t wearing a UNSC symbol. He eyed
me and stuck out his hand.
“Hey, I’m a volunteer from Harvest. I learned to shoot a heavy machine gun when I was ten,” the man
said as I shook his hand, I nodded and shot a rocket over the rim. Another bolt of lightning blasted the
ground beside a racer ahead of mine. The shockwave flipped the racer and the racer I was on turned and
went around it. I shot yet another rocket at the trenches and two men flew up. Three anacondas flew over
us and released machine gun fire into the trenches. The anacondas hovered over the trenches and sent
over eighty men into the trenches. The blue racers drove over the trenches and ran over some men who
were too stupid to duck down. I smiled as I heard the screams of rebels running for cover but were killed
by skilled UNSC operatives. I ran out of rockets and was about to jump up and run to the staircase when
five pythons flew over my racer and killed a marine running to the staircase. I freaked out and crawled
over to them as fast as I could, on my way there I shot my final rocket at a python which was blown up by
it. I jumped down the stairs and passed through the command center. As I entered the armory they had
opened up the front hatch and were preparing two 4-wheelers for immediate battle. I walked over to them
and looked at their pure black paint and black seats.
“You want to drive them?” Asked the man running the armory, I just nodded and jumped on the one in the lead. A man with a 30 caliber deployable gun jumped on the back and cocked the gun. Two more guys jumped on the other wheeler and revved theirs up. I blew out of the racer and skidded a little in the mud, the wheeler bounced off the partially solid ground but I maintained control. I blew to the right and the gunner killed a rebel. His body splashed the mud as he fell and a little got on me. The backup trenches were only a few hundred yards away but I was still worried about snipers. The marines that had stormed the last trench were rushing through the elongated no-mans land. Bullets were splashing on the mud and rockets were blowing up vehicles everywhere.
I drove between two blue racers as one of them was destroyed by rockets. Lightning blew up a watchtower that the rocket had just come from. I looked behind me and watched as the wounded soldiers slowly bled to death in their soppy graves. I turned back to where I was going and accidentally ramped up a pythons wing that was sticking out of the muck. As soon as my back tires left the ramp a rocket flew underneath them. I prepared for impact as the wheeler hit the mud and almost flipped, the amazing shocks sent the wheelers back tires into the air and slammed them down harder than ever. The three anacondas flew over me and stopped over the trenches that were merely a hundred yards away. I watched as the marines jumped out and stormed those trenches. The marines that were on foot ran ahead of me and charged the trenches.
I swerved to avoid a pile of bodies that some of the marines used as cover. I almost ran over a marine that jumped out of my way at the last second. The soldier on my back was shot in the head by a sniper and his limp body fell off. I almost spun out as the blood squirted all over my head. I tore off my helmet and threw it to the ground. The marines reached the trench about the same time as the racers and tore through them. I drove into the trenches and sped down the main path. I was so caught up in the adrenaline I didn’t realize I was going sixty miles per hour in this cramped space. I swerved to avoid the wall and ramped out of the trenches about the same time that the racers tore out of them. I smiled as a rocket from a racer blew a watch tower apart. A sheet of burning plywood almost hit my head but I sped up to avoid it. A frigate flew over the trenches and all of the vehicles and released more anacondas that flew towards a town that was surrounded by trenches, watch towers, barricades, a gigantic wall, and AA guns big enough to tear through frigate with a few rounds. As I comprehended our odds, lightning spread across the sky like a redwood tree at full height.
Restlessness You will read this fic.
Blood Ties its a sweet fic.