Chapter 2 Hard Landing
John, lifted his feet off the floor of the pelican, he linked arms with the marine next to him with his right arm and grabbed a handel with his left. He looked around the dark room at the marines, the memergency light flickered iluminating faces for a second then throwing them into darkness. He could tell that most of them were frightened, they had every right to be. They were about to crash land in a city, but what puzzled John was that he wasn't afraid. He wasn't afraid to die, he was ready to do what was asked of him.
Johns moment of thinking deeply was abrubtly ended as the Pilot yelled into the comm system "Ten seconds out!
John said a quick prayer and tried to loosen up, then he felt the pelican abrubtly slow as the crashed through a building, he could hear building crumbling. He was thrown to the floor, along with the rest of the squad, he could tell they were still moving. Then he felt them stop completely, he blacked out.
Fire filled his mind, he cold see chaos and pain, everything was splintered facts flying around him in an orb of pain and sorrow. He could hear the scream of women and children, he could feel the chaos. He watched as a the flames engulfed the building, confused and dazed, an explosion ripped through another building. He was thrown to the ground, he felt the helping hand of a police officer pick him up and carry him away from the flames.
"John wake up! Come on I don't intend to loose a soldier on his first day! He heard Lt. Gorman yell at him.
John slowly opened his eyes, and saw a medic and Lt. Gormans worried faces as they hovered over him. He closed his eyes and stuck his hand in the air. He felt Lt. Gormans hand grip his and pull John to his feet. John reopened his eyes and looked around, the pelican was to his left, the right side was bashed in pretty far. The front wasn't to badly damaged, he looked around and saw the entire sqaud, it was still daytime actually it was just about noon. Then he noticed other marines along the street, all with BRs and SMGs to the side. John then realized that multiple buildings were damaged and black marks from plasma marred the street and buildings. "Whats with the Plasma scarring? John mumbled.
"The covenant blew up the Athens and managed to sneek a carrier through, another tried to get through and the Chief nailed it with a covenant bomb planted on the Cairo. For some reason the carrier that slipped through landed here and is dispatching troops through the city. We got hit by a piece of debris from the carrier that got nailed. Our objective is to repel the Covenant forces out of our city and then board one of their ships and find out why they came here." Lt. Gorman said.
John picked up his BR, he checked the clip, he checked his grenades, all good. John picked up his helmet and put it on, his HUD was good, he tested his comm system, it was good. John took a bottle of water the the medic handed him, he chugged the bottle in a few gulps. The water flowed down his parched throat and soothed it. He gave the empty bottle back to the medic, the medic took the bottle and stuck it in a bag for recycling. Even the army had to recycle bottles, resources were becoming that scarce.
A plasma mortor hit a building down the street, debris flew through the air. The bulding collapsed into the street, concrete blocks and metal beams had just formed a road block. Some of the blocks were blackened by the plasma, others were brocken into small pieces. The metal beams protruded from the concret chaos, they shone in the sun, a dark reminder of what this war was about. The ends were as sharp as a razer, some were deformed from the momentary heat of plasma.
"Incoming! one of the Marines yelled.
John looked up and saw a banshee fire a banshee bomb at them, the banshee climbed and then dived towards them firing at John. John put his BR up against his shoulder and aimed through the scope. Let off six bursts into the wing of the banshe, the wing broke and fell off. The banshee broke off it's appraoch but the bomb and plasma rounds were still coming.
John ran across the street for cover, he jumped through a doorway into a building. He heard the bomb explode behind him, he then felt the heat of the plasma as it dissipated into the air. John rolled over onto his back and looked at the crater the Banshee bomb had made, it was a few inches deep and about a foot and a half wide. John grabbed his BR that layed beside him, he pulled the clip out and stuck a new one in. He got to his feet and looked out a window that had just lost it's glass. The banshee was limping away with a wing missing.
"Good shot man" a voice behind John made him start, he turned around. Several marines had also taken refuge in this building, the one that had spoken had an SMG with two pistols strapped to his side.
"Thanks" John said. He could hear the distant sounds of plasma mortors and battle. An explosion here and there, gun fire, a fighter flying over head.
"All right eveyone gather up! John heard Lt. Gorman say.
"Hey my name is Tod Domd, call me Tom" The marine that had spoken a minute ago said.
"John is my name, who are you with? John whispered back as he walked toward where Lt. Gorman stood along with a couple of other marines.
"374th, B company, you? Tod replied.
"374th also, A company" John replied, John stopped and stood about twelve feet from where Lt. Gorman stood, five marines stood to Johns left and about twenty to his right. The rest of his squad along with the medic were across from him.
"Listen up, I know I'm not your officer but I'm in charge of a squad of BEMs so I want you to listen. The Covenant have a carrier hovering over this city dumping covies into it. We are gonna kill them and then take that Carrier, got it? Lt. Gorman said in the standard pep talk voice.
"Sir yes sir! they all replied in unison.
"Do not die a coward, a villan, or a hero, die a servant who dies for others"
Check out my story, earth in flames, the occupation of earth.