Recording:
Pvt. R. Hunter
Military date,
19/02/2108
Recon:
Hunter hunched in the passenger
seat of the LRV “Warthog.” The combat jeep bounced along the rough dirt road
around the base on Alpha IV.
“Why the
hell do we always end up with recon? Does High Com have a grudge against us or
something?” The Pvt.’s voice was agitated, he obviously didn’t like recon.
“I don’t
know, but someone sure has something against the three of us.” The older man in
the driver’s seat sighed. “Why even have us out here? Isn’t this supposed to be
some super secret base? There haven’t even been any sightings for months.”
“Stow it
marines, you know the C.O.s check those helmet tapes. You’re going to get us
all court marshaled.” The tall man on the rear gun was a stuck up rules junkie.
“Why don’t
you all shut up, I think I heard something.” Hunter brought a pair of
binoculars to his eyes. The forest glowed a bright green in the infrared light
sent out by the goggles. Suddenly a bright light started to move towered them.
“Oh my… every one out now!” All three men jumped from the jeep.
A large,
green orb exploded just in front of the jeep, sending it flying end over end
into the trees. It finally settled upside down twenty feet away. There was no
more complaining, only cries of terror. Hunter ran as fast as he could, but
tripped before getting far. Something large and heavy rolled him over. The last
thing he saw was a large, blue, metal foot coming down on his head.
The war had
come…
Recording terminated
Reason unknown ?KIA?
Video transmitted to
closest UNSC vessel
Target found
File sent to: UNSC Frigate Relevance
The Relevance
Slipspace
Classified Date
Captain
James A. Cane moved quickly down the corridors of the frigate Relevance. His graying hair was un-kept
and his uniform buttoned awkwardly. The Covenant had attacked Alpha IV, a UNSC
base that had been undiscovered until now. Relevance
had been called on station and her crew were quickly defrosted.
The large
metal doors to the bridge slide noiselessly open.
“Good
morning captain,” the disembodied female voice echoed in the large empty
bridge.
“Hello Salina,”
Cane slid off his voice to annoy her, she never showed it, but it did. “So
inform me why we were pulled off leave? I’ve got men who haven’t been on land
for months.” The Relevance had been
off duty for three days, then this?
“Level nine
security breach, Alpha IV has been taken.” A lean figure appeared on the
holographic display board next to the command terminal. “Relevance and her crew are to report there immediately and tally
damages.”
Cane shook
his head, “Why, It’s the same thing every time, they attack, lose on the ground
and then glass the *** planet from space. What’s different this time?”
“The
Circumstances of the base on Alpha IV merits immediate reconnaissance. They had
a break through a few days before the attack. They broke the codes on the
forerunner stone found near the ruins there. They’re coordinates, we think to a
planet of infinite knowledge of the forerunners. We obviously can not let this
fall into Covenant hands.”
“Yes, but
what does that have to do with us?” His crew was on their way back for a months
leave on Reach in the Epsilon Eridanus system, not the best place to go, but
leave was leave. Reach, being the most advanced navel base the UNSC has, still
had some of the best clubs and hotels Cane had seen in a long time.
“The
Relevance is to retrieve the artifact and be the first to that world. An
extension bonus will be added to all crew pay, and… Captain, are you even
listening?” But Cane had long ago stopped listening to annoying glow of
numbers. Instead he gaped out at a massive Covenant armada orbiting Alpha IV.
“How many
ships do they have?”
“But
Captain…”
“HOW MANY
SHIPS?!” Cane recomposed him self after the sudden outburst.
“Approximately,
five hundred ships sir, mostly battleships, two carrier ships are also
present.”
“Five
hundred?” Cane gasped, his breath escaped his as he leaned over onto the
command terminal. “Have they seen us?”
“No, we are
well out of their scanning range. Strange, there seems to be a concentration of
vessels around the first moon. Analyzing, there is a large unidentified
Covenant ship, if I had to guess, a command vessel. Based off its size and its
visible hangers, the new approximant ship count is one thousand ships total.”
Cane nearly fell over, now there were a thousand ships?”
“No way am
I putting this ship and her crew into that, set a course far away from here,
now.” Cane gripped the railing, veins visible in his fists.
“Negative
captain, direct orders state that we must retrieve that artifact, at all cost,
crew is expendable.”
“Screw
orders, I will not risk my ship because of some rock that ONI wants. Turn this
ship around and get us out of here before they see us.”
“Can not
comply, moving ship to low orbit on the dark side of the planet for
deployment.” Salina seemed to
flinch as the ship shuddered slowly forward. Cane knew that no amount of
arguing would break the code controlling the AI’s actions. They were locked in
for the long one, and god it was going to be long.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Assault on
Alpha IV
Alpha IV
Dark side
Pelican Drop Ship 113
Two hours after landing
Blake
Conner clung close to the wall of the drop ship’s bay. Three hours ago he was
enjoying the thought of leave and ‘real’ food. Capt. Cane said that this
mission was more important then leave.
“Pa-thetic,
just another excuse from ONI to keep us fighting,” He sighed and loaded the
MA5B on his lap. “I mean, come on, we fought this war already, it’s our turn
for a break.” The soldiers around him nodded solemnly.
“Just calm
down and deal with it marine. We got called to duty, and we’re gonna answer
that call. You didn’t join the Corps to ***, you joined to…” The Sergeant was cut off as huge amounts of
plasma filled the sky.
The pilot
called back, “You’d better close that hatch marine, we’ve made it to hell.”
Conner slammed the hatch pad and the thick metal door slid into place. “***,
they’re everywhere, get ready people, we’re comin in hot.” The pelican banked
left as another salvo lit up the sky.
The radio
cracked to life, “We’ve lost Bravos two and three, captain, we need longswords,
there are fighters everywhere down here.”
Salina
was the one who answered, ‘strange, the captain usually did’ Conner thought.
“Affirmative,
squadrons three, seven, and eleven have been dispatched to your position.
Give’m hell marines”
“Rodger
that Salina, see ya when we get
home. Leave the front door open”
“How did
they know we were coming?” Conner thought aloud.
“Who cares,
I just want to land” the marine next to him turned and threw-up as the pelican
spun to avoid another salvo.
“Marines,
hold your lunch and listen up. We’ve been thrown into the fire boys. Most of us
won’t make it back to Reach, but to those who do, beer’s on me.” The marines
cheered the sarge on, they fully knew what was likely to happen, but enjoyed
every minute they had left.
“Oh my god,
marines, buckle in. They’ve got a Scarab.” The pilot lifted the receiver for
the radio, “This is Echo-113, we need assistance. Any longsword in the area,
we’ve got a scarab and need immediate support.” She turned back to the marines,
“Alright, I hope you’re held down, cause I’m going evasive.” The pilot watched
as the Scarab’s head opened and charged with a bight green light, a beam burst
from it’s head, hurling plasma at the oncoming pelican. Just then a missile
burst into it’s side, tipping the massive vehicle over.
The
partially thrown beam continued toward it’s intended target. The pelican rolled
left, but it was too late. The particle beam connected with the pelican’s right
wing.
“***, they
clipped my wing, mayday, mayday, Echo-113 going down. Brace yourselves marines,
it’s going to be a rough landing.” Conner watched in horror as black smoke
billowed out of the pelican’s wing. It’s nose angled down, then it started to
spin. Someone screamed. The world tilted and spun as the crippled bird
plummeted towered the ground. Finally, darkness ensued, and it all seemed to
stop, the world was silent.
Taking Control
On board the Relevance
Dark side of Alpha IV
Three hours after landing
Salina
turned her attention from the battle to the ship-to-ship monitoring system.
“The probes are in place captain, they don’t know we’re here.”
“If they
don’t, they will soon, how’s the battle going?” Cane still was adverse to this
whole thing, but orders were orders.
“Not so
good, we’ve lost dropships Bravos 114, 243, and 975, we’ve also lost Echos 113,
146, and 572. So far only three of the shuttles made it to the target, all
longsword fighters reporting in. Ground teams’ requesting orbital bombardment,
but that is un-suggestible, that would tell the Covenant that we’re here.” Salina
didn’t like the odds of survival. She added the names of those onboard the lost
ships to her list of MIA.
“Unacceptable,
they need those bombardments, we have done nothing but sit here, I’d rather
tell them we’re here now then let them find us cowering here later.” He turned
to one of the ensigns on the bridge. “Charge the capacitors, I want the MAC
ready to fire ASAP.”
She smiled,
“Aye captain, capacitors charging, 20%, sir.”
“This is
illogical, you should not reveal the Relevance’s
position until…”
“Until
what, every soldier is dead? I’m taking control of a bad situation, now either
help the ensign with her calculations, or power down. We’ll get your *** rock,
but we’ll do it my way.”
“All right
captain, but I will not let this ship fall into enemy hands, do you understand
that?” The AI glared into Cane’s eyes, sending a chill down his spine. She
referred to the self-destruct protocol, in place to ensure that any and all
UNSC knowledge, including the location of Earth, would stay out of Covenant
hands.
“You just
do what you have to, and I’ll do what I have to, then this mission will go a
hell of a lot faster.”
The ensign
tuned and reported to the captain, “Capacitors charged sir, calculations
complete. Relevance is ready to fire
on your order, sir.”
“Good work
ensign, return to your duties as usual. Salina,
stand by to fire.” Cane leaned in and stared out the forward view port. “Fire…”
Surface of Alpha IV
Wreck site of Echo-113
Three and a half hours since landing
Conner
slowly opened his eyes. “Strange,” he laughed to himself, “Why is the pelican
upside-down?” Images of the crash flashed through his mind. He groaned and
levered himself up. Slowly, he made his way to the hatch of the transport.
Strange
sounds emanated from the clearing where the pelican ended up. Trees surrounded
the wreck and encompassed the clearing. Conner froze when he saw them, Jackals.
The bird like creatures bent thier long snout and hungrily bit at the body of a
dead marine. Watching the creatures eat one of his friends made him sick, and
he retreated into the cargo bay. In the back he found an M6D pistol.
Conner
moved to the mouth again and stood up, visible to the aliens. He raised the
pistol and yelled, “Hey, Uglies.” The Jackals turned and screamed in their
harsh tongue. He aimed the pistol at one of their heads, and pulled the
trigger. The clip fell nosily to the floor, empty.
“***,” he
scurried quickly back into the bay, he could hear the creatures behind him. Their
wrist energy shields sprang to life as they bounded towered the drop ship.
Conner slid as he hit the floor and
slammed the hatch bay controls. The huge door slammed down under it’s own
weight. The Jackals ran into the closing doors and banged their metallic blue
pistols on the small, narrow window.
Conner moved farther back into the
bay and tried to think of a way out of this. He found one. Near the cockpit was
a control that blew the bolts holding the bay doors in place. Quickly he typed
in the command to run the function. The huge door groaned and then fell over
onto the unsuspecting Jackals.
Conner moved out of the bay and
inspected the clearing for more enemies. As he passed the smashed aliens, he
felt obliged to ‘relieve’ them of their weapons. The oddly curved plasma
pistols were nothing compared to an MA5B, but would have to do for now. He
moved to the edge of the clearing and prepared himself for the long hike to
base camp.
Suddenly some thing moved in the
corner of his eye, not really moved, but bent. The branches curved at odd
angles, and then bent back. The attack came from the left, two camouflaged
Elites charged him. They had him before he could raise his pistols. The
familiar sense of peace came over him as the forest floor came up to meet his
face.
Bravo 243
Wreck site
20 miles from Base XI
3 hours after landing
Paul Archer
stood looking out at the expanse of green. The pelican had dropped and caught in
the branches of a huge oak-like tree. Linon and Jeffery hung out the hatch and peered
down at the fifty-foot drop.
Linon turned
to the pilot, “Nice job, we’re not even landed yet.” He smirked and turned to Jeffery
to receive a whack to the back of his head. “Ouch, what was that for?”
Jeffery
turned to him, “At least you’re alive, you could’ve been one of them.” The
radio continued to pour names of the dead or missing.
“Yah, well,
at least they’re on the ground.” The pilot spun and landed a blow to Linon’s
face. Bialy and Joshua jumped up to restrain the man.
“You think they’re
better off, why don’t you jump down an join’em, give us all a break,” the pilot
spat venomously. Linon tried to swing, but was held back by Jeffrey and Archer.
“Alright,
break it up,” the Lt. cut in “look, we’re all in the same bucket o’water, so
why don’t we just get along.” Just as the Lt. finished, the pelican began to
tilt. An unbearable screeching filled the air as the drop ship dropped the
extra fifty feet. The front of the vessel compacted, killing the copilot that
was operating the radio. The pelican then tilted and fell over, settling on it’s
bottom.
“Uh, what happened,” Linon groaned as he crawled from the
crumpled pelican. “Did I do that?”
Lt. Haravez was the next one to get
out, “Whoa, *** that was a great ride.”
Joshua and
Bialy clambered out after that, carrying the pilot between them. Archer and
Jeffery pulled themselves out last. Archer coughed “Is everyone alright?”
“No, we
lost the copilot, and the radio’s dead. How are we doing on weapons Bialy?” Lt
said, he sounded as resolved as usual.
Bialy
reported back, “Alright sir, all rifles accounted for, Linon lost his sidearm
in the crash.”
“Good, pack
up marines, we’re moving out. Archer, which way is it to the rendezvous point
from here?”
“About one
or two clicks northwest sir, though I’m not sure how many made it landside.”
Archer was worried, if the battles had gone too wrong, then Relevance would have pulled out by now.
“Doesn’t
matter, our orders are still to make it to the rendezvous point ASAP, so line
up and move out. The faster we get there, the sooner we get home.”
Alpha IV
1 click from wreck site
4 hours since landing
The marines
moved solemnly through the forest. Every man there was ready to fire at a
moments notice. The squad moved past wrecks of other ships, including Echo 113,
the ship that had been shot down by the scarab. The marines prayed for those
aboard and moved on. The forest seemed to close in around them. Suddenly the
trees parted into a wide dirt road.
“Hey, this
is the road that runs straight to the base, if we follow this…” Linon was cut
off by the Lt.
“If we
follow this, we walk straight into a Covenant trap, now keep marching.” After another
hour of marching the marines came to the RP. Wreckage was strewn across the
clearing, Warthogs stood melting near the tree line. A lone Scorpion tank sat decrepit
in the center of the crater. The soldiers halted and stared at the carnage before
them.
“What the
hell happened here!” the Lt.’s face turned red as the anger boiled up inside
him. The marines stood silently and waited for the reality to sink in. This was
no ordinary battle, this was a fight for survival. They decided to camp not too
far away, in a grouping of fir trees. They would wait till night to move on.
Capture the Flag
Alpha IV
RP
? hours since landing
The marines
awoke to the Lt, night had come over the sky and they were ready to move.
“What the
hell happened, the RP was supposed to have tanks, this shouldn’t have happened,”
Linon mumbled.
“Who cares,
we need to get out of here,” LT said, “now the base has at least two pelicans
if they haven’t been destroyed. We march there first.”
“No, they
need to pay for this, we’ve played this too easy, lets take the fight to them.”
Linon started yelling. The marines around him all agreed. “So, do you want to
rethink that order el-tee?”
‘Great’
Archer thought ‘now he’s on a power trip.’ The Lt shrugged, they were hot and
wanted revenge, he understood.
“Alright, fine,
but we do this by the book. Bialy, Joshua, go check the RP for supplies,
anything will work. Archer, you and Jeffrey go check the vehicles and see if
any still work, especially that tank,” he motioned towered the Scorpion. “Linon,
you’re with me and the pilot, we’re going to plan the insurgency. Alright marines,
get moving.”
The marines
quickly moved out to their jobs. Even though the odds were against them, they
were satisfied that they were actually doing something. Archer moved about the
wrecked Warthogs and checked the ammunition and chain guns. As he moved past
his third, one of the others hissed. The radio quickly came to life.
“…repeat,
all troops… back…. Relevance… base…”
Archer played with the dials till he had a clear signal. Captain Cane, the Relevance was still here. “All forces,
fall back, regroup and prepare for a final push.”
Archer
picked up the receiver. “Captain?”
“Who is
this?”
“Pvt.
Archer, me and my squad are at the failed RP. We have a plan to strike back
against the Covenant.” Archer quickly retold the events since the crash.
“Alright,
you continue your plan, the 44th tank division will run distraction
for you to get in. One more order marine, when you get to the base, go to research
lab AF324 and get artifact IF-039. This is the key to success of our mission.”
“Yes sir,
we will get the artifact, Archer out.” Before the captain could say more, the radio
died. Archer through the receiver back into the Warthog and moved on to the
Scorpion. He would tell the Lt when he got done with the tank.
Alpha IV
Still located at the RP
Dawn
Lt Haravez
stood with Linon and the pilot. The plan had been set.
“So,” he said,
“We attack tomorrow morning?”
The pilot
answered, “Yes, then the sun will be at our backs making it harder for them to
see us. They will be blind for about…” He paused, looking around the forest.
“Do you hear that?” he asked, a tone of fear in his voice. A groaning, creaking
sound moved through the forest towered the group.
Lt moved
first, “Alright, everyone get to cover, now,” but before they could move the
massive form broke the tree line.
“Hey
el-tee, look what we got” Archer yelled as he rode the back of the Scorpion
tank into the clearing. “Finally got’er fixed up.”
“Why you
son-of-a… why didn’t you call ahead, we could have shot you,” Linon sneered,
moving towered the tank. “See you didn’t fix everything,” he gestured towered
the half-melted machine-gun on the front of the vehicle.
“Hmm, you
know I could just take it back and… return it for a new one,” Archer started
laughing as he jumped off the tank, “I wonder if they’ll accept dirt as a
down-payment?” The group enjoyed a moment’s relief to laugh and just have a
good time. Tomorrow morning would start their plan.
__________________________________________________
The Beginning of the End
Relevance
Night
G-Deck, near hanger B-2
Alarms blazed red as the sirens started. Cane just near ran down the corridor when Salina reported.
“All
men to battle stations, prepare to repel Covenant borders.” She
repeated the message over with the same emotionless monotone. Cane
continued to move down the walkway when the wall to his right started
to glow.
“***,” he swore as he ducked into the next hall. He
unclipped his M6D pistol from his belt and leaned around the corner.
Two Elites moved out of the pod and into the corridor. Cane blinked in
surprise, the two creatures vanished. He turned left and right, trying
to figure out where the aliens went.
He spun and started to run
to the hanger when a burning pain shot through his chest. He looked
down to see the energy blade protruding from his stomach. He gasped as
it was yanked out. Falling, he saw his attacker as peace fell over him.
Slowly he slipped into a deep tiredness. The last thing he saw was the
strange object a group of grunts hefted onto the deck plating. He
finnaly fell out, and slipped away.
____________________________
Surface of Alpha IV
2 min later
RP
The
marines watched in silent horror as Relevance fell to the planet. Fire
light the openings of the ship as explosions moved towered the stern of
the ship. The ship was mostly through the atomosphere when the fires
made it to the reactors.
The men shielded their eyes from the
light of the nuclear reactors imploding the ship. Slowly the wreckage
fell to the surface. The night was silent then.
(Soldato to the Corleone name)
Relevance, my fan-fic, check it out:
Relevance: by Omega 505