Originally posted by Rothos1
Jason propped his battle rifle on a rock and began to snipe grunts, taking care to leave the elites that were friendlies alone. Three rounds burst out of his barrel and killed three grunts. He checked his ammo and swore, only three rounds left, the clip on his harness and one grenade.
Dan looked at Jason, and hopped off the gun.
"What now?"
((Since there are no other spartans in this story))
Jacob stood up into a stare down with the two other brutes. Their eyes burned with a firery hatred for him. "Pathetic human! That was our brother you just killed!" The other brute dropped his weapon and started to shake. It almost seemed as if he was ready to pounce. Just as Jacob suspected, the brute tackled him onto his back and started to attack him with melee blows. The next thing Jacob could see was the brute's head explode. He only knew one weapon that could do that, a human sniper. The next thing he knew, the other brute was laying on the ground witha serious head wound. The only thing that kept it alive was the helmet. Jacob could see another Spartan holding a sniper rifle out of his peripheral vision. "This is Spartan 139, please to meet you." Jacob stood up and saluted. "Wow, didn't expect to see another femal Spartan for a while. Oh and I'm Spartan 693." Jacob turned around and picked up his earlier discarded MA5B.
It was a dark night, no clouds...no moon...the three ODST troopers slid silently from the bunker. Sgt. Johnson had agreed to let them go after Lt. Victoria had explained the nature of their mission. Sgt. Pannik would stay behind as well as Spc. Amanda Smith and the two recovering wounded. They would be back on their feet soon and able to fight.
Lt. Victoria and her men stole silently down the cratered street towards the Charles River. The ruined bridges loomed like dark smudges out of the water. Lt. Victoria called a halt and pointed to a overhanging ruined bridge abutment. One of her men slid over and pulled out a black raft from its hiding place. They climbed in and rowed quickly across the river. The reached the other bank without incident. They stowed the raft under another overhang on the otherside....hiding it behind ruined bits of concrete and twisted steel. The moved out towards a Boston Police garage where they would find a warthog to take them to the Navy Yard. They froze against a wall. The wailing whine of a Covenant Banshee flew over them, but the black uniformed ODST remained hidden in the shadows and they were not discovered. The Police garage was just ahead. The hidden entrance moved back smoothly on oiled tracks after Lt. Victoria hacked the code on the keypad next to a fake door.
"Saddle up"
She jumped into the passenger side as her men manned the turret and the drivers seat. The engine roared to life and settled into a dull rumble as the warthog rolled slowly into the street. The driver gunned it and they rolled towards the Navy Yard. The gunner keeping his eyes skyward and hoping they would make it. Meanwhile, Lt. Victoria was on the comms trying to raise the two marines trapped there.
"UNSC forces at the Navy Yard, this is ODST LT. Victoria...we are en route to your position. Stay put, we are inbound. please respond."
"Cadet, stay put we have friendlies going to evac us out of here."
Jason stared across the distance at the Brute cropse that had just lost its rigor mortis and grined at the supplies that could be recovered. He needed something to keep his mind off of the dark thoughts flitting about in his mind when the Banshee roared overhead.
Jacob and the other Spartan crouched behind a large piece of rubble as brutes, grunts, and jackels could all be heard, trying to find the ones who killed their allies. "So.. Elli, where have you been? We thought you died back on REACH..." She laughed coldly. "Well, the elite had knocked out my shield and threw me to the ground.. I though I was a goner when I didn't see any of you around... it was so long ago, I don't want to think about it." Jacob just nodded his head and pulled the hammer of his assault rifle back. "Slip and Weave on three." Elli nodded and made sure her weapon was loaded. Jacob tapped his fist against the wall three times and both spartans started to criss-cross paths while firing at anything they saw.
Murphy sat against a wall by the office building of the Naval Yard. he was eating the last of his energy bars, and was running the days events through his head. Mostly, though, he thought of all the friends, classmates, professors, and instructors that had been killed at the Academy. He took off his Red Sox cap and ran his fingers over the brim. He winced in pain as he did so, and saw that there were needler splinters embedded into it. He turned his hat, seeing the purple shine in the moonlight. He picked them out and reaffixed his cap, when the radio finally started to crackle to life. Dan grabbed it and put the receiver to his ear, and readjusted the positioning and signal
"@*$*&@ %(#*@) %$*# -avy Yard, this is ODST LT. Victoria...we are en route to your position. Stay put, we are inbound. please respond."
Dan acted quickly to the call
"Aye ma'am, this is Eagle-6, Cadet Dan Murphy and Marine Jason, awaiting evac. Watch out for those bug things. ive heard some wing humming tonight, Eagle-6 out"
Jason laid very still, so as not to complicate his position when he started to see things flying in the sky. The didn't look like drones, they were humans with wings protruding from their backs. Thinking they were some new Covie weapon he snapped his Battle Rifle to his shoulder and began tracking one.
The speeding warthog fishtailed into the Navy Yard. All was quite...too quite. Lt. Victoria and her men climbed down from the transport, weapons held at the ready. The USS Constitution's berth lay empty, the ship long since removed before the evacuation to a safer location, and the sound of the tide lapping at the stone and concrete pier seemed deafening. Lt. Victoria looked around. The bombed out buildings of the Naval Facility, and the still smoking rubble of the adjoining spaceport gave off an eerie glow from deepset fires still smoldering.
Lt. Victoria checked her HUD mounted map, the NV attachment shut off for the moment. It had been a while since she had been at this particular facility. She pointed towards the far end of the compound.
"There, lets go."
They advanced on the possition of the ammo bunker, and what she saw when she rounded the corner made her stop and do a double take.
Covenant corpes littered the ground. Blast craters from both sides grenades pockmocked the concrete, and the two Marines lay in piles of their own blood near a ruined warthog. She was about to order her men to grab their tags, when they moved. One of her men, a Navy Corpsman rushed forward. Reaching the moaning man, he glanced at the namebadge attached to his badly dented, and in several places, breached chestplate. "Jason...can you hear me"
Jason lifted his hand and reached for the sound reflexively. His eyesight was blurry and all he could make out was a blob of black addressing him as Jason. He thought it was a corpsman, but it could be a large rat too.
He called out as strong as he could and then tried to stay awake. Sleep felt inviting so very inviting, but deep inside Jason knew to stay awake.
With effort, he grabbed the blobs shoulder.
Jacob took a deep breath as he stood above a small incline just above the now bloody beachhead. "This is Spartan 693. Spartan 139 and I have successfully cleared the beachhead as ordered. We've sstained little injuries and request to be put into the battle further in. Over and out." Jacob raised his assualt rifle to his shoulder and watched over the beach. Many bodies were twitching but non showed any sign of life. As Jacob's nerves calmed, he slid his finger off of the trigger just as Elli sat back and waited for a reply.
"LT!!! they are alive!" the corpsman said over the closed comms.
He than returned his attention towards the wounded man. He had a pretty nasty piece of shrapnel sticking out of his leg. The wound would require emergency medical care that only the Sickbay back on the BattleAxe could accommodate. He ran a quick check of the other mans vitals through the armor port and was surprised to find out that the unconscious Marine wasn't a Marine at all, he was a Cadet from the UNSC Officer Academy, UNAP Sector! what the hell was a kid doing on the battlefield The boy stirred and jolted upwards, weapon at his shoulder. Lt.Victoria and the warthog driver instantly snapped their weapons up. The Cadet lowered his gun and introduced himself after realizing his mistake. The corpsman looked up.
"Ma'am we need an evac now, or this Marine is going to loose his leg."
Lt. Victoria nodded and motioned to the driver to take the cadets radio and call the BattleAxe, an evac here would be easier, the covies didnt control this airspace.
Dan stood up and saluted the officer as the corpsman looked after Jason
"1st-Class Cadet Dan Murphy reporting, ma'am." He said and slung his rifle behind him before going on,
"I was going into my senior year at the Academy, and was finishing up my summer training when the attack broke out. I left Yankee Station before the attack and got trapped her with that Marine right there."
He motioned to Jason.
"Ma'am, If I can just get some painkillers for the shrapnel in my leg, i'd be glad to help you and your men get to Yankee-Station, or Sox Station, as everyone in Boston called it." he let out a light laugh, trying to lighten the mood.
"I grew up in the area, so I know my way around very well."
Sergeant Johnson had given his marines explict orders: Hold Yankee Station with the Elites until either an evac was called, or reinforcements were sent out to repair up a barricade and give the station a chance. It was one of the last remaining strongholds on Earth, and it had to last as long as it could. As soon as he walked outside, the Sergeant put a hand over his forehead. After being in the dark for so long, the light was a bit blinding. As he stared around, he saw buildings that were either blown to the ground with nothing left but rubble, or had sections left, with fresh smoke billowing from their insides. On the outside, overturned Warthogs and Mongoose's, crashed Banshee's, Hornets, and surprisingly a few Phantoms and Pelicans.
Beside them, bodies. Bodies of both Human and Covenant alike laying in pools of their own blood. The sight would be sickening to some, but to the Sergeant it was nothing. He lit a fresh cigar and placed it between his teeth, shaking his head. He turned to a marine beside him. "Call Bravo Sector and have them pick us up. We're going to look for survivors and try to find Sierra 117. I recieved reports he landed somewhere out back in the forests of South America. But before we do, we need to get all the wounded out of here and get as many tags from Marines as we can."
He took a step forward, then turned to another marine. "Get Lieutenant Victoria on the horn. Find out where she is and when she needs evac, then tell her we'll be there as soon as we're done. It's going to be a long day marines," The Sergeant Major pulled away his cigar and exhaled the smoke. "But someone's got to do it."
"I repeat this is Spartan 693, we are currently holding the beachhead and are awaiting- oh who am I kidding? As long as those covie signal jammers are up, we're not getting anything out." Jacob leaned back and double checked his weapon. Elli looked at her comm and didn't even bother to try her luck. "So what's the plan Jake?" Jacob stood up and looked over towards a cave heading up towards the Yankee Station. "I told you not to call me Jake.. we're gonna head up to that cave and secure and escape route for the survivors like we were originally ordered to." Elli started to walk towards the cave. "But we're outnumbered twenty to one.. I wouldn't have it any other way." She grinned playfully under her helmet even though she knew Jacob couldn't see it. They both start to run for the cave.
"Thank you Cadet, but we just came from there. We received you distress signal and came to get you out." The soldier nodded. Another moan was heard coming from the semi-conscious form of the marine on the ground. LT Victoria had called the BattleAxe over an hour ago, but the Covenent jamming signals were making it hard for transmissions to get through. Hopefully they had heard the request. The comm in the warthog had also crackled with a transmission from what had sounded like Yankee Station, but all attempts to recontact the station had proved useless.
The sonic blast of a spacecraft entering the upper atmosphere announced the presence of a pelican from the BattleAxe. It flared into a landing and two corpmen rushed out of the cargo compartment as a platoon of Marines took up a 360 formation around the lowered hatch. Their commander, 2nd LT. Joshua Hamilton, walked over and saluted . **to be continued....have to go to class**
The two Fleet Corpmen lifted Jason into a stretcher and quickly carried him into the waiting Pelican where they started to insert IV's to stabilize his blood in preparation for surgery.
2nd LT Hamilton jogged over and saluted LT Victoria, than turned to watch the loading of the man onto the bird. He gestured:
"What happened to him?" LT Victoria looked over:
"From what we can tell, the Pelican carrying him was forced by enemy fire over this section of th city, he jumped right before it was hit by a covie AA round...took the rest of his platoon with it.....poor bastards didnt even have a chance to make it out the hatch. He was the lucky one I guess."
The whine of the Pelicans jumpjets spooling up indicated it was time to go. Lt. Hamilton saluted once again and ran back towards the Pelican. He turned: "Anrt you coming ma'am?"
She shouted back, "No, we have some unfinished business here. Take care of that Marine. We will see you back at the ship."
The Pelican lifted off and turned, heading south and climbing to reach escape velocity. As the bird turned to a tiny speck in the rapidly darkening sky, Lt Victoria turned back to her remaining men.
"Let go, we need to get back to Yankee Station....start the hog, lets get outta here."