I was looking through my archive and I forgot that I never posted this here, ah well, here you are. It was my ODST FF entry, it didn't win, but I thought it was a decent effort for something I conjured up at the last minute.
Whispers on the Battleground.
In the UNSC forward trenches- Jericho VII
12th February 2535 Military calendar 01.00
Corporal Robert Shortland ran as needler fire and plasma bolts whizzed past him. As he ran he looked back at what had once been a peaceful and tranquil rocky valley, which had now turned into a living hell.
He and the rest of the 105th Drop Jet Platoon had been dropped here to hold the line against the advancing Covenant ground forces. At first it had looked like an easy job, they had dropped down from orbit in their Human Entry Vehicles also as HEVs. They had walked into this valley, and had seen a large contingent of Grunts. Their Sergeant; Harry Winslow had seen them as target practice, and all the other ODSTs had as well. They had been gravely mistaken.
They had moved forward and engaged them, wiping a large chunk of them out before they had realised what was going on. But they had underestimated their numbers, and the sheer tenacity of the creatures. They had swarmed at them, forcing them to fall back. It had been truly terrifying as it seemed every Grunt they had killed five more crawled over its corpse and came after them guns blazing. Losing numbers fast they made a last stand at the top of the large hill that lead into the valley. The steep climb had been their only chance of winning this battle. Robert remembered how he had given his all, killing hundreds of the short stocky creatures, using up all his ammo, forcing him to grab more from the rising piles of bodies.
But it was to no avail. The Grunts continued to swarm them, no matter the hundreds they killed. Robert had watched in fascinated horror as he had seen his comrades, his friends die as plasma burnt though them, or they were blown apart by needler fire or plasma grenades.
Robert had been hit in the shoulder by a plasma pistol and had gone down, where he had played dead, keeping deadly still amongst the bodies of his comrades, as the Grunts scrambled onward killing any who were still fighting. He could hear them braking and growling in high pitched yelps as they started to make their way back down the hill. By some twist of fate, they hadn’t decided to check the bodies more thoroughly.
He had waited until he could no longer hear their footsteps and grabbed whatever weapons and ammo he could and made for the large pine forest that spread around this side of the valley. He suddenly realised he had been drawing two much attention to himself as he turned to his left, he saw a pack of Grunts pointing and barking in his direction, weapons raised. Wasting no time, Robert raised his MA5B assault rifle and opened fire in short controlled bursts. The bullets tore through their environmental suits, spraying blue blood as they fell. One of his shots must have ruptured the methane tanks of one of them, as they exploded, send bits of Grunt in all directions.
Unfortunately the sound of the explosion had alerted more of the little creatures to his presence, as he saw a large force of grunts, around thirty clambered back up the hill to investigate the noise.
Robert knew he couldn’t take that many Grunts alone, especially in his condition, he had to retreat into the cover of the forest, and try to lose them, or at least make them spread out into more manageable groups.
Plasma bolts and needles shot past him as he made a dash for the trees. He could feel the heat of the plasma bolt as it shot past his left ear. Their aim was improving and they were gaining on him fast. It wouldn’t belong until those bolts hit him. Pushing himself even harder, Robert summoned every tired muscle and kept going. He was almost there, the tall pine trees towered above him, their vast trunks and thick branches serving as excellent cover. With a last ditch effort, he ran as fast as he could and made it into the thick underbrush.
He knew he only had a few seconds before the Grunts entered the forest as well, he needed a good place to hide from them. Wading through the thick brush he saw a massive tree, which overshadowed the fifty foot trees around it. Without a second thought he started to climb the wooden colossus, taxing his already tired body. The wound on his shoulder screamed in protest, but Robert ignored it. He could felt his heart pounding like jackhammer, as the only thing that kept him going was his own will and adrenaline. When he felt he couldn’t go any further, he stopped on a large branch, as he was pretty sure it could support his weight. The branch gave an uncomfortable groan, but held.
Taking a second to catch his breath, he took his helmet off. He placed it next to him and put a hand on his face. His brown eyes closed as he thought about all the friends, all the good men he had just seen die. He was still a young man, only in his late twenties, and had dark brown stubble on his shaven head. He stroked the bristles on his chin as he thought what he could do next.
Above them, a massive space battle was underway, while UNSC ground forces tried to repel the Covenant ground assault. His unit as well as the rest of the ground forces had done very well, as they had held the Covenant advance for three long days. As Robert had been fighting most of that time, bolstering the regular marines’ lines, and slowing their advance. They had been in the valley to clear the area, so the rest of the UNSC forces could push the Covenant further back.
He had to get back to UNSC lines, so he could tell them what happened, so that none of the other marines down here suffered the same fate as them. The only problem was the Grunts would no doubt still be searching for him, and he couldn’t stay up this tree forever. From the last he had heard, the ships overhead were taking heavy losses to the Covenant fleet. Robert had a bad feeling that in only a few more hours, this planet would be turned into glass by Covenant orbital bombardment. Robert really didn’t want to still be here when that happened. He would have to move, the sooner the better. He grabbed his helmet and inspected it. It was covered in red and blue blood from the battle and had several large dents in it, much like the rest of his once black armour. Fortunately, it seemed to be in working order. He put it back on and activated the zoom and turned on the thermal vision of his suit. In the sea of light blue, he could see several very dark blue cold spots. Grunts in their cooled environmental suits. They were very spread out in small groups of four or five. Robert guessed they were searching the entire forest for him. He waited for the Grunts to leave, and prepared to climb down when a voice yelled,
‘Shortland? You up there you son of a ***?’
Robert recognised the voice, but for some strange reason he couldn’t find the orange colour of another human being.
‘Sarge is that you?’ Robert tentatively said downward.
For a second there was no reply. Robert thought he must have imagined it. After an unbearable pause, the voice replied,
‘Yeah I’m still here Corporal, why don’t you come out of that *** tree so I don’t have to shout at you to hear me and alert every goddamn Grunt in this forest.’
Convinced, Robert grabbed his gear and started to scale down the tree. During his descent he realised how high he had climbed, he was surprised his tired and broken body had managed to get that far. He wondered why the thermal vision hadn’t picked the Sergeant. It must have been malfunctioning, which didn’t surprise him, especially as it his helmet had been through a rough ordeal, like the rest of his armour.
Still that wasn’t important, getting out of here and back to the UNSC lines was. As his feet landed back on the ground he turned to look for the Sergeant. Again, the thermal vision wasn’t picking up anything, so he switched to normal vision and there, right in front of him was Sergeant Harry Winslow. Like Robert his armour was covered in scratches and dents, as well as human and Grunt blood. He took of his helmet and let off a weak grin. He was older than Robert, in his mid thirties, and a veteran. He had many scars on his grizzled face. His cold grey eyes looked at him as if they were peering into his very soul.
‘Nice to see you Sarge. I thought I was the only one who made it out,’ Robert confessed.
‘The feelings mutual trooper. That was one fight I’m surprised we walked away from,’ Winslow replied.
‘How did you find me?’ Robert asked?
‘Your IFF tag. I managed to pick up its signal as I was making my own retreat from the battle. I homed in on it and found you,’ Winslow explained.
Robert understood immediately. Identification of Friend and Foe tags let off a specific signal that would register to a UNSC HUD as a friendly.
‘Sir we need to get back to the UNSC lines. If they aren’t warned about what happened, they will walk right into that nightmare,’ Robert said grimly.
‘Agreed. The longer we wait, the more likely the rest of the UNSC forces will walk into that death-trap let’s go.’
‘What about all the Grunts in the forest?’ Robert asked.
‘I saw their patrols on my way in, there aren’t the smartest I’ve ever seen. I’m pretty sure we can find a blind spot in their patrol routes and slip past them. If not we’ll just have to deal with them the old fashioned way,’ Winslow said raising his assault rifle.
And with that they set off, slowly creeping through the forest underbrush. Robert’s eyes and ears where keeping a look out for Grunts as he followed the Sergeant as he lead deeper in the forest. He paused and raised a hand to stop him as he drop down to one knee. In front of them four Grunts barked at each other as they waddled by them. They hadn’t been seen. Winslow slowly crept forward, making painfully sure he made as little noise as possible. As the Grunts barks slowly faded away to nothingness, they picked up the pace.
The forest was at its thickest here, the trees seemed to be as close together as they could possibly allow, and the underbrush became even thicker. Robert had to wade through the small bushes and brambles as if he was up to his middle in water.
Unfortunately it made moving quietly nearly impossible, so both men had their weapons raised, ready to attack any Grunts that approached them.
Sure enough another pack of Grunts appeared twenty meters ahead of them, searching the area. Winslow buried his head in the sea of bushes they waded through, which Robert quickly copied.
The Grunts got closer and closer. Robert could hear their footsteps as they approached his hiding spot. He held his breath hoping they would go by. Unfortunately things were never that simple. A Grunt stumbled as it went past his hiding space and saw the ODST sitting there. Their eyes connected and it rose to its feet quickly screaming and barking insanely. Wasting no time Robert rose to his own feet assault rifle blazing.
The Grunts had no time to react and were cut down, as Robert tore through them. Winslow rose to his feet and then said,
‘Nice work, but the other Grunt patrols probably heard the gunfire; we need to get out of the forest now. On the double marine!’
Without even replying they waded as fast as they could through the bushes, and when they started to clear began to jog. The trees darkened the sky but through the canopy he thought he caught a glimpse of a Pelican speeding by. They had to be getting close to the other side of the forest though Robert had no idea where they were going; he was relying on Winslow’s sense of direction. Luckily for him, Winslow seem to know exactly where he was going, and after a few minutes of jogging, the forest began to thin out even more, and in the distance Robert could just about see were the trees ended.
There was however on problem. It seemed that the Grunts had beaten them to it. Around twenty Grunts slowly advanced from the exit of the forest, weapons raised. Robert was tired of hiding from these creatures, which had killed his friends and comrades. He thought it was time for some payback. He slammed a fresh clip into his assault rifle and readied a grenade. When they Grunts got close enough he threw it with all his might at the pack in front of him. It detonated reducing four of them into bits. Robert fired a barrage of bullets at the two closest Grunts. The bullets tore through their weak environmental suits, killing them in seconds. He turned and sidestepped as the remaining Grunts returned fire. Plasma bolts whizzed past him as he picked off another three grunts with the remainder of his clip. He took cover by a large oak tree, as he threw his rifle aside and pulled out his pistol. He popped out of cover and fired taking another five grunts out as bullets slammed into their skulls with a satisfying squish.
With over half of them dead, the Grunts started to panic, as several turned and ran screaming in fear. Only four remained, the more senior ranked red suited Grunts. It only took a few more seconds to deal with them and any lingering stragglers. When he was certain the coast was clear, he got back to his feet and looked for the Sergeant, who was behind him.
‘Where were you? I‘d have appreciated the help a minute ago,’ Robert said, slightly annoyed. This made it two fire fights where he had done all the work, while his senior officer just seemed to vanish, leaving him.
‘Sorry Corporal, I was just making sure they didn’t try and flank you, you seemed to handle it fine all by yourself,’ Winslow commented.
‘Yeah, but I’m almost out of ammo. We’ll have to hope we don’t run into more Covenant before we get back to UNSC lines,’ Robert replied.
‘I doubt we’ll run into anymore Covies, especially if we move now, follow my lead,’ Winslow ordered.
‘Yes sir,’ Robert replied in an arrogant tone.
‘Look I know you feel like I’m not helping, but I can get you out of here. Trust me and we can get out of this alive,’ Winslow pleaded.
Given his position, Robert really didn’t have a choice but to trust him. If he was going to survive, he needed all the help he could get, despite any grievances he had.
‘All right lead the way,’
Winslow nodded and walked towards the edge of the forest, with Robert beside him. As they got closer they started to see the orange glow of the sun as it slowly crept into view. When they finally exited the forest they could see the horizon was bathed in light. Directly in front of them was a plain field of grass and in the far distance, Robert made out a green building: the UNSC forward base.
At the sight of the base, both of them picked up the pace, and were practically running through the field. The base got closer and closer. The large green doors were dead in front of them, as they approached they opened. Then Winslow just stopped. Robert turned at him with bemusement.
‘What’s wrong?’ Robert asked.
‘I’m going back to see if there are anymore survivors,’ Winslow said.
‘But there are hundreds of Grunts back there. You won’t stand a chance,’ Robert warned.
‘Maybe, but if there are any more I need to find them,’ Winslow replied.
‘It’s suicide. Look, I you know I don’t think you were the best team-mate ever, but you did lead me to safety, don’t do this,’ Robert pleaded.
‘Go Corporal. That’s an order. I’ll be fine,’ Winslow demanded.
‘But sir-,’ Robert started.
‘Not another word. Go,’ Winslow ordered.
Robert didn’t understand. Why was he so desperate to go to his own death? When Robert had made a run for it, he hadn’t seen anybody else doing the same. All of them were dead still. He doubted anybody was still alive back there; it was of waste of a good soldier’s life going back. Robert understood Winslow’s pain at the loss of their entire platoon, but they had to live to fight another day. The Sergeant’s stubbornness wasn’t helping.
‘No. I’m not letting you go off and get yourself killed. We are going to leave this planet together. There is nothing left you can do here. Don’t throw your life away,’ Robert said, walking closer to the Sergeant, preparing to drag him kicking and screaming if necessary.
‘If only there was a life to lose. You leave me no choice then,’ Winslow said cryptically.
‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’ Robert replied.
He never found out. Winslow lunged at him, and smashed him in the face with the butt of his rifle. His vision darkened and blurred as he crumpled to the dirt. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was Winslow slowly walking away, then just as the darkness was about to take him, he seemed to become transparent, and turned into a wisp of smoke. Then he blacked out.
12 hours later
UNSC Destroyer- Foolhardy Medical bay.
Robert awoke in a bed with a jolt. He looked around. Gun metal walls, with rows and rows of beds filled with wounded and dying soldiers. He felt the dull vibration of the deck beneath him. He must be on a ship. A nurse stood over his bed, looking calmly and pleasantly at his return to consciousness.
‘Ah good to see you’re awake,’ the nurse said, giving him a small smile. She was young. In her twenties, with raven black hair that was tied in a bun. Her hazel eyes looked intently at him as he summoned the words to reply.
‘Where am I? What happened?’
‘You’re on the UNSC ship Foolhardy. You’re safe now. Several marines found you at the front gate of the base. They had opened the gate for you when they had seen you coming, but when you didn’t enter they looked for you. They found you collapsed right at the gate, due to exhaustion. They carried you in and put you onto a Pelican for evac and medical attention. They said you looked half dead when they found you,’ the nurse explained.
‘My whole platoon was wiped out, the 105th…,’ Robert croaked.
‘Yes, command heard about their fate from the other survivor,’ the nurse said.
‘Other survivor? Was it Sergeant Winslow?’ Robert asked.
‘I’m afraid I don’t know that name. The man who told them was called John Heller,’ the nurse replied.
Robert felt his heart sink. So Winslow had indeed gone to his death, as he had feared. He wished he could have talked reason into him, but the man had gone mad with grief. He doubted anybody could have gotten through to him. He then spun the name John Heller round his brain before it clicked. John had been a new addition to the platoon, a fresh faced private. Robert couldn’t believe he had managed to survive when veteran troopers with years of experience had been butchered.
‘What about the battle? Did we win?’ Robert asked.
The Nurse’s face dropped as she gave him the grim news, ‘It was the same old story. We won on the ground but those *** aliens beat us in space. We were lucky to get out of there before they started glassing the planet.’
So another defeat. Another UNSC planet lost. Robert’s worse case scenario had come true, and another world left barren and lifeless as they Covenant brought fire to its skies.
‘I’m sorry, but I have to continue my rounds. Will you be okay?’ she asked.
‘Yeah. I’ll be fine,’ Robert said bitterly.
‘If you need anything, just press the buzzer and I’ll be there as soon as I can,’ the nurse said as she walked away, tending to the other wounded soldiers.
Robert sat there for a few hours letting the information sink in. Then he wept. He wept for his fallen comrades. He wept for all those who died on that planet. He wept for Harry Winslow who he had failed to save. And he wept for the planet that now burned.
After he had regained his composure he examined the plasma burn on his shoulder. It still had a dull ache to it, but it was bearable. Satisfied he was able to get up. He slung himself out of the bed and put on a t-shirt and trousers as well as a hooded top and military boots and discharged himself from the med bay.
As the doors opened as he left he saw two marines who nodded at him and turned to talk him.
‘Corporal Shortland?’
‘That’s me,’ Robert said dully.
‘We were asked to pass on a message. John Heller would like to talk to you,’ the marine said.
Robert could understand why. With only him and John being the only survivors from the platoon, they were the only thing they had left for each other.
‘Where is he?’ Robert asked.
‘On deck twelve. Take a right at the next intersection and take the elevator up two floors. His room is the third door on the left. You can’t miss it,’ the second marine explained.
‘Thanks,’ Robert said as he followed the Marine’s directions.
He walked silently through the ship as marines and crewmen walked by him. He stood alone in the elevator as it thrummed up and took him to his destination. The doors opened and he looked for the third door on the left until he stood in front of it. He tapped his knuckles against it once and the door swung open.
John looked right at him. He was just a few years younger than Robert and had short ginger hair and freckles. His blue eyes looked on the verge of tears when he saw him.
‘Robert come in, we need to talk,’ John said as he closed the door behind him.
The room was small; Spartan with only two chairs a small table and a bunk bed and wardrobe filling it. John sat on one of the chair which Robert did as well.
‘So what do you want to talk about?’ Robert asked.
‘I just needed to talk about what happened to somebody who was there. We both need to get it out of our system if we are to move on,’ John said, as if he didn’t believe a word he was saying.
‘All right, I suppose your right in a way. We are soldiers after all. People die in war and we can’t do our jobs if we’re hung up on this even if this is unbearable right now,’ Robert reasoned.
‘So…how did you survive?’ John asked, starting the conversation.
‘I played dead after I got hit by a plasma bolt in my shoulder. When they moved on I made a run for it and they chased me into a forest,’ Robert explained.
‘I ran away when they pushed us back up the hill. I knew that was basically the same as deserting but my mind just snapped you know? It felt like I wasn’t even in control of my actions I was just running on instinct. You must think I’m a massive coward,’ John admitted.
‘Not at all. I hid up a tree. I don’t know why, it seemed like a good idea at the time’ Robert replied.
‘You hid a tree? Like some kind of ape? Nice man,’ John said laughing, which Robert joined in.
‘So did you stay in the tree or did you make a run for it?’ John asked.
‘Well I was using my thermal vision to work out where they were when I heard a voice and it was Harry Winslow, and he lead me out of the forest and to the nearest UNSC base,’ Robert continued.
‘Sarge Winslow? You must have been off your trolley man. I saw him die,’ John said.
‘What? When he went back to find survivors?’ Robert asked.
‘No, during the battle. I saw him get hit by a dozen needler rounds and he blew up. There wasn’t anything left of him,’ John said.
‘Are you sure?’ Robert said.
‘100%.’
Robert couldn’t believe this, but oddly it made sense. He hadn’t picked up Winslow on thermal vision, he hadn’t killed any of the enemies and when they had got to the base he had gone crazy and knocked him out. But that can’t be true, was he hallucinating? That last thing he saw, as he blacked out… A transparent Winslow who slowly dissipated into a cloud of smoke like a ghost. Robert passed for a moment to think about that. Had Winslow had been a spectre of his imagination? Or a Ghost? He decided to pursue this further.
‘John. Did command tell you anything about my recovery when you were debriefed?’ Robert asked.
‘A little. They said they had seen you walking alone towards the base and they found you unconscious,’ John said.
‘You sure they didn’t see two people?’ Robert asked firmly.
‘They definitely said, you were seen alone, there was nobody else when they spotted you or when they found you. Nothing about Winslow being with you,’ John replied.
‘Did they examine my gear? Did they find a glitch with my thermal?’ Robert asked. He doubted John would know anything about that, but he had to get to the bottom of this.
‘Funny you should say that. After my debriefing, I gave my gear to the engineers and the guy looked at it and said that was the second time he had been amazed by ODST armour. He said that even as dented and buckled as mine was it still worked perfectly. I assume the first one was yours, so I doubt there was a problem with your gear,’ John theorised.
Robert sat their silently and thought about this information. He then continued his conversation with John long into the night, but at the back of his mind Robert thought about the mystery he had left back on Jericho VII. A mystery he guessed he would never know the answer to.
The End.
Vigil will never be defeated.