UNSC controlled planet Sera Tau-B
Marine Corporal Robert Jadin
Prologue
Stars, not something that you want to be seeing while in the middle of the afternoon. Especially not while in the middle of a firefight with some alien baddies. But not something that one can really avoid when an explosion tosses you thirty feet through the air and headfirst into a log. Robert reached up and felt that his helmet had been knocked loose in the explosion. That wasn't a good sign. Rob also noticed that he couldn't see any of his squad mates, another bad sign. He reached to his side and realized that his MA5B had been knocked out of his hand, and was now lying twenty feet away next to a large Blue-grey foot. Third Strike, he was out.
He looked up and saw the shield bearing monstrosity level and fire its glowing green weapon toward a tree. It either hadn't seen him survive the fuel rod blast, or it didn't care. Either way he wasn't going to stick around long enough for the hunter to have a second go at him with one of those explosive fuel rods that they liked to share with the marines. Rob clambered over the fallen tree that had broken his fall, and by the feel of it his head, and ducked low hoping to have escaped detection for a few more seconds.
Echo squad was supposed to have had the cake walk mission of delivering ammo to the marines pinned down north of Lunsford city here on the mountainous planet Sera Tau-B. They hadn't been expecting, or welcoming, the two dozen jackals and hunter pair that had been sent to flank the marines in the canyon. Even worse was the fact that their convoy's only vehicle mounted weapon had been on the same warthog as all of the rocket launcher ammunition. It had been the explosion of that warthog that had blasted Rob into the dirt from over one hundred yards away, along with any chance of heavy weapons to take down a hunter with. "Over here." Came a quiet whisper, at least it sounded like a whisper, everything sounded like a whisper after the explosion. Rob looked to his left and saw one of his squad mates who had been riding in a transport hog with him. One out of 4, not the best sign there, regardless he was glad to see a friendly face, even if her face was splattered with blood. He looked at her and his stomach sunk, she was also not carrying any weapons. Today was not a good day to be a marine.
Chapter 1
Running was all that they had left in their options. The human body may be designed wonderfully for endurance, but it was not made to have that endurance tested after having been thrown thirty feet through the air and headfirst into a tree, however, Corporal Robert Jadin and Private Jessica Ransford were going to keep pushing their endurance to the limit until either they dropped dead of exhaustion and injury, or those damned Jackals stopped taking potshots at them. It seemed that the jackals, who were excellent marksmen, were amusing themselves by shooting at the fleeing pair of marines feet in the same style that a bandit might make a barman dance in a western. This continued until they got out of sight or range. Rob wasn't sure which.
"What do we do, Sir?!" Jessica yelled at the Corporal as he dodged another plasma bolt by jumping over a rock. Rob looked around, there was not much cover in this valley other than some fallen trees, there was wreckage strewn about the valley from aircraft that had been shot down in the massive air battles that had accompanied the first three or four days of the battle. Just ahead of them lay the mangled wreckage of the pelican whose failure to deliver supplies to the front lines had triggered this disaster of a mission. "get to the pelican, it won't last us very long but we may be able to find some weapons." Jessica nodded, although from the way that she nodded it seemed to Rob that she had intended on stopping there, regardless of what he had ordered.
Out of breath they crawled behind the downed pelican. It hadn't been more than ten minutes since the explosion, but already Rob could feel the adrenaline in his system starting to wear off. This also came with a realization that he had an incredibly painful headache. "You don't look too hot corporal." said Jessica with a concerned look on her face "maybe you should rest for a minute." Rob nodded, his head was starting to seriously hurt him now, and he was seeing spots. He sat down amidst the burnt remains of a squad of marines and their precious cargo. "Maybe just for a minute." he mumbled. As he tried to sit he felt the rest of his strength leave his body. His head throbbed and his muscles burned, it would be hours before he would be able to move again.
I used to have an awesome signature that linked to my comic here...
too bad... goodbye any feeling of personalization on the HWF... 3 years of sig making for this website down the drain