Anyway, any comments, suggestions, "this fanfic sucks"s, "this fanfic rules"s and grammar-language corrections are more than welcome. As everybody says, I hope you enjoy reading the story as much as I did witting it
November 17th, 2552
Tsavo Region, 4 Km far from Voi
Second Battle of Earth is at its peak in eastern Africa. The ground burns with countless scars from Covenant bombardements. Up above, in the skies, UNSC Hornets dogfight with Banshees and Phantoms to take control of the atmosphere, to give human ground forces a chance to regroup and strike back.
The air battle has been raging for hours, and the badly damaged and destroyed vehicles of both sides are scattered through the plains, littering the ground and marking their resting places with columns of black smoke.
A destroyed Phantom, its engines still burning and propelling blue mists of incandescent gas, sits humillated and conquered. An UNSC Flag waves planted over its damaged and blackened hull. Near it a shadowy silouette covers a Mongoose with camouflage while another sits in a rock, looking at the sky with vigilant eyes.
In the savanna....
The pair of ODST had been fighting nonstop for the last three hours, riding the Mongoose they had nicknamed “Valentine” searching for suitable locations to do their art or speeding through enemy territory to hunt down jackal snipers. Now they sat near the destroyed Phantom, waiting for briefing after receiving a transmission from HQ telling them to wait there “for further instructions on a vital mission”. Kuno Hudson, the sniper, didn´t knew what was worse: The waiting under the merciless african sun, or the even more merciless waves of Banshees which were flying over them
-Do you think they see us??-asked William Dietrich, Kuno´s Spotter and escort, the ODST was looking upwards after having covered “Valentine”. Kuno looked to William´s polarized visor
-I don´t know. Do you see anything but the enemy which is trying to kill you during combat?-asked the sniper
-What? Of course I do-William seemed offended by the question
-That´s why you are a spotter, and not a flyboy. Relax, those alien bastards are too worried of being shoot down by our Hornets to even look for each other. Not to mention looking for two tiny little humans on this endless savanna-Kuno took his C-S2 AM Sniper Rifle and extracted the magazine containing the four 14.5x144mm AP Sabot rounds to inspection it, more of a ritual than an actual comprobation. William looked back at the sky and then again at his comrade, the ODST shrug his shoulders
The pair heard only the explosions of the raging battle above them for about two eternal minutes before standing up in surprise for the sudden incoming transmission in their open Com Channel
-Alpha nine? Alpha nine come in....-the voice was miraclously clean, taking into account that most, if not all, of the UNSC Comunication Satellites had been destroyed by the Covenant during the orbital battle. Kuno pressed a button on his helmet and began to reply
-Here´s Alpha Nine. Waiting for orders-while his partner talked William listened and looked around, vigilant as always
-Alpha nine, this is the Temporary Fleet Command. We´re sending you a transport. Wait there and secure the landing zone. Briefing and resupplies will come inbound. TFC out-the transmission, like all the transmissions from the crippling FLEETCOM, was short and inconclusive. William shock his head
-I don´t know if I like this....-said the ODST
-Would you rather ride Valentine with all those Banshees and Covies around here?-as always, the pair exchanged sarcasm and impressions when there was nothing else to do
-I thought they couldn´t see us
-Well, that was before we had a better transport-under his helmet Kuno was smiling
Briefed...
After about ten minutes of waiting the pair of ODST saw a formation of three AV-14 Hornets. At first, the soldiers thought it was a group of damaged Hornets trying to flee from the ongoing battle, but soon they saw how the VTOLs descended towards their position
-Alpha nine, this is King One. Clear the landing zone, we´re coming in. Supplies and ONI inbound-Kuno looked at William...ONI inbound??
Only one of the aircrafts landed, the other two took attitude again an swept the area in defensive formation. Once the dust propelled by the turbines of the Hornet started to disperse the two ODST saw somebody with a strange looking armor jumping from the left skid.
-It can´t be....-started to say William. But not even him dared to pronounce the word “Spartan” A word of hope and victory that had come to be the nearest thing to a sacred word between the UNSC troopers, despite the famed rivalry between ODST and Spartans. But no, it wasn´t possible. The tales of Spartan soldiers being more than 2m tall, clad in cybernetic armor with shielding and killing thousands of Covenant brutes may have been a bit overdone, but that figure clad in strange armor looked just like a human, not like a supersoldier
-You may call me ONI Recon Five-Twelve. You are Alpha nine, aren´t you?-said the armored figure with a deep masculine voice. His helmet was enclosed but different to the ones of the ODST. It had a tiny amber visor. The armor was like a lighter yet more advanced version of the ODST combat suit
-Yep, Alpha nine through and through-nodded Kuno-So, what do we stand?
-This-the ONI operative gave the ODST a pair of dusty photographs. Kuno and William looked at them. They were of a white-haired brute chieftain. In one of them the gigantic creature was kicking a grunt while another ran in panic, in the other it was tearing out the arms of an agonizing female marine
-Disgusting...a friend of yours?-said William. The ONI operative seemed to look directly into the ODSTs eyes, like if he could pass through the polarized visor with a furious eyesight
-The girl was-said him with a calm, yet tense voice-That brute its the closest thing to a Rommel the Covenant have in Africa right now. And you are going to kill him-the ONI gave Kuno a little memory chip
-My pleasure, do you want me to put one bullet straight to his balls before cracking his cranium with the next?-asked Kuno
-This is not a revenge, its a key mission. FleetCom its organizing a combined air and ground counterattack. This Brute, we think its name is Taralus, is the commander in charge of the ground operations in and around the battlezone. We need you to sever the snake´s head just while the attack punchs trough, cause chaos in the Covenant ranks, break their command chain....basically kill this motherfucker and make the Covenant Battlenet a fuss full of “Commander is down!!” cryings. Got it?
-Understood-said Kuno, looking again at the photographs
-Great. You got all Intel data in the memchip: Last know locations, field inspection patterns, everything we know about the bastard. Thats CLASSIFIED information for the most part. You´ve got to kill that brute at any cost. This attack is going to change the course of the entire War, and we won´t let this gorilla spoil our best chance to launch it-Said the ONI, Kuno had the feeling of being inspected by him like a piece of equipment
William was busy taking the few supplies command had sent them in a supply pack. Two S2 AM magazines, a suppressor and two extra magazines for his SMG and just enough water to refill their canteens. Seeing how the war was going, the ODST didn´t dare to complain.
-I´ll put a bulled through the brute´s skull, you can mark that-Kuno held his S2 AM firmly to accompany the words.
-If it is so vital, why send just one sniper team? Why not blast the bastard with an air assault?-asked William, the ODST wasn´t so fond of military ceremony and discipline
-Covenant AA units own the area surrounding Taralus´s base of operations, we can´t get near him, we can´t even send guided missiles.... And you´re not the only snipping team. In fact, you´re the last to be briefed. I´m changing your designation from Alpha nine to Death. The other teams are called Conquest, War and Famine. Now go to it, you´ll have plenty of time to read the details from the memchip on the ride to Voi. Good luck-The ONI operative walked towards the camouflaged mongoose-I´ll be needing this
The two ODST looked at each other before jumping into the Hornet, one on each skid. The pilot nodded and then the VTOL began to rise
-Too much asking for a simple letter-and-number code??-whispered William over the open com channel
-Well, I´d rather be Death than Famine, if you ask me-answered Kuno
-Man, I just hate biblical references....
The fourth riders...
The formation of Hornets flyed over the Tsavo region on low-attitude. Not low enough to be in range of Covenant ground units, but not high enough to be in risk of being involuntarily engaged in the massive air battle for the african sky
William was too busy looking up and down, the man was always trying to be as aware of its surroundings as he could, the perfect spotter. Kuno, on the other side, was trying not to get sick. It wasn´t the fly, he was an ODST and riding on a Hornet, even in the eye of a hurricane with plasma bolts all around, was nothing compared to taking a trip on an HEV. It was just.... he couldn´t stand the noise the jet outtakes of the aircraft made.
-Hang on, it seems we´ve got a couple of Banshees on our tails-the Hornet´s pilot, King One, was talking over the open channel. When that kind of news were delivered William and Kuno would look to each other with concern, but being in opposed wings of the aircraft like they were, they limited to look around and then secured themselves to the body of the VTOL
The three Hornets quickly began to gain attitude, trying to get advantage against the attacking banshees. If they we´re going to be engaged in the air battle, there was no point in fighting low. William easily spotted the group of banshees, a V formation of seven alien aircraft were approaching at full speed, the battle was raging all around, but the sky between the incoming ´shees and the Hornets was unfortunately clear of friendly units
The Hornets were flying in a little arrowhead formation with King One in the center
-I´ll call for reinforcements, but we might as well have to fight those bitches-said the pilot, its voice was filled with tension
The Hornet to the left of the formation broke out and accelerated towards the alien aircrafts
-Take them to Voi, I´ll hold the ´shees. Make it two, three kills if I´m lucky. But I´ll give ´em hell of a fight-the other pilot was using the open channel as well. Kuno was on the right side of the Hornet and couldn´t see a thing, but William whispered:
-”We owe you a big one, pal”
The remaining pair of Hornets descended quickly between a mountain valley hoping to get out of the pursuing banshees sight by the time they came back after them. Accelerating, King One spoke again
-I hope your mission was important enough for sacrificing a pilot as good as King Six, if we´ve had ten like him we would be having breakfast at Covenant Capital right now for sure
Kuno looked back and saw King Six´s Hornet maneuvering quickly to doge several plasma bolts from the banshee formation, one of the banshees plummeted to the ground in a ball of fire, and the ODST at last managed to understand what was going on
-I hope it too-he said after making sure its com was closed
After the valley, the mountains ahead opened into a vast plain and a great group of smoking buildings could be seen on the horizon: Voi. But the one thing that called the ODSTs attention was the huge storming clouds forming an spiral over the crater that used to be New Mombasa and Voi´s Lake. The crater was there before, but not so big, the clouds were also there the last time they operated in the area, just five hours ago, but not as big, not as stormy, not as....sinister
-That´s what I´d call a bad omen-said William, laconic
-Voi its right ahead, the city is owned by Covenant forces and the dock factories are a battlefield from what I´ve heard. I´ll get you guys as near to the city as I can, but with all the AA ground fire I don´t know where that will be-said King One. It started to rain wildly as soon as they entered under the stormy clouds
Voi is burning...
Either the air battle was of a bigger scale of what Kuno previously thought, or it was moving towards Voi, the crater and the storm. Seeing the amount of Banshees and Phantoms heading to the same place, the second option was the more likely. In that brief moment Kuno had the sensation that the crater under the storm would be the place were the fate of all Earth, all the War and even something bigger would be decided
Voi city was right ahead, more precisely, what was left of Voi city. The worker town was almost wiped out of the map, only a few sectors from the dockside factories and the adjacent commercial district remained, along with a few apartment blocks and half-ruined outskirts buildings. The city itself looked like a funerary pyre, the only sign of life were the explosions in the sky and the AA fire coming from the dockside factories
-´shees! Lots of ´em!-cried the other Hornet pilot. Of course there were lots of Banshees, when the ODSTs looked front the only thing they could see were dozens of the dammed aircrafts
The burning outskirts of the city started to roll under the Hornet´s skids. Kuno held his MD6 sidearm while securing the sniper to his back, looking down the only thing he could see was smoke: no marines, no covies, nothing
-Do you think they know we´re coming in?-asked William over the open com
-They always know when we´re coming in...-answered Kuno aiming down with the MD6.
The Hornet shook while moving sideways to avoid the incoming plasma of a bashee, two more were coming fast from the dockside but were still far away. The escort Hornet quickly aimed at the aircraft and nailed it down with its powerful triple barreled twin chainguns, turning the ´shee into a pile of pierced and burning alien metal which plummeted to the ground. The banshees were no match to the Hornet´s firepower. On the other side, regarding maneuverability and numbers, they aliens always won
William saw five bolts of green heavy plasma fire coming from the ground towards the Hornets, but not what was firing them
-Enemy fire, incoming!!-he shouted over the com. The Hornet´s outtakes burned while accelerating fullspeed and the aircraft stepped aside from the way of the plasma fire. William heard an explosion and a green light illuminated the sky. The escort hornet´s right truster was burning and half of the aircraft´s armor was missing or melted
-I´m hit!-the pilot was shocked
-Nolan, pull back!-ordered the lead pilot
-It´s only a scratch, I´ll follow until you drop the snipers, then retreat-the Hornet´s pilot sounded tired and breathing with difficulty. Looking at his damaged aircraft, with the cracked cockpit wide open and pieces of melted metal and glass all around, William could tell he was injured
-That´s it, more AA fire. We´re going down. Get ready to drop guys...-said King One. More green plasma fire was coming from the dockside, and fire from small plasma turrets was erratically filling the sky while trying to hit the two VTOL
The burning roofs of the higher buildings were now getting bigger as the lead aircraft descended fullspeed while the damaged escort tried to attract enemy AA fire. Kuno saw the smoking streets nearer, and could now see they were littered with dead bodies
-Drop us in one of those building´s roofs-asked the ODST. Anything better than going down that graveyard
-Roger-answered the pilot. The Hornet moved forward a little to correct the course and kept going down, in a few seconds it was hovering one meter over the roof of a medium-sized apartment block in the outskirts of the commercial district.
The ODSTs jumped out and as soon as they hit the ground the Hornet accelerated and started to gain attitude. Kuno and William took cover in the border parapet of the eastern side and checked their gear
-I´ll regroup with the other Hornets and get as many banshees as I can. Good luck with your mission, whatever it is. King One out
Ghost town...
Kuno took the memchip and put it in his battered PDA. William looked to the east, the commercial district was a tiny group of metallic and windowed buildings, the tallest of which was just of about ten floors. Most of the windows were broken, and most of the metal panels melted or blackened. Fires inside the buildings were the only lights and nothing could be seen moving. Although the ODST had the feeling that a battle was going on down there. Beyond the commercial district were the dockside factories, but the view was blocked by the nearest buildings, the only thing William could see farther than the district were the stormy clouds and the titanic Covenant warships over the crater
-If I had to represent the apocalypse in just one photo, this would be it-said William, using his hands to make an imaginary camera objective
-I though you hated biblical references-said Kuno while looking at his PDA. William laughed and then took his spotting scope. The rain was already soaking the ODST´s combat suits
The air battle was raging at its peak, new waves of Hornets met the increasing number of banshees over Voi and burning debris felt towards the city. William swept with the scope the roofs of the nearest buildings in search of snipers: Nothing, not even a single Grunt. Then he sat next to Kuno and looked at the PDA
-Lets see what we´ve got here-said Kuno as the memchip finished loading. The PDA had received a hard punishment in the days of endless battle and the ODST wasn´t even sure it could be able to load the chip. Fortunately it did. Satellite images from the city, a 3D map and the last known position of the THREE enemy legions which occupied the city filled the PDA´s screen-The brute´s command is just in the center of the commercial district, heavily guarded, full of Tangos and probably the place where that Taralus will be. But ONI marked a few other positions were he is likely to be found: Two outposts in the dockside factories and a trench line near Traxus Factory Complex 09. Here-Kuno pointed in the 3D map to a factory on the edge of the dockside. The factory had a red flickering septagon inside, as Kuno pointed to it a series of letters appeared: E2-BAG/1/7
-That´s a marine unit!-said Williams looking at the septagon. The fact that it was red and flickering indicated that the unit had heavy loses and was under attack. Kuno nodded
-So, that´s why our hairy commander goes over to the trenches, to inspect the onslaught
Kuno put the PDA into his backpack again and took the S2 A, standing up he looked to William and then to the buildings
-I´ve already checked, clear. We should get moving-said William. Of course Kuno knew he had checked, otherwise he would have never stood up before checking himself for aliens wishing to rip his head off. William stood up too
-So...which way? Up or down?-asked him. Kuno looked down to the smoking streets.
-Its damn dark and noisy down there....
-Lets get down there then-said William. Kuno put the S2 on his back and took the MD6 sidearm. The ODSTs went downstairs through the only door in the roof
The stairs in the interior of the building were completely dark but miraculously in good shape, the ODST went down the 7 floors without a single stop, conscious that their mission couldn´t be delayed
Once in the exterior they saw the street, littered with dead bodies, being washed by the stormy rain. The other side of the street was completely clear, the entire block had been destroyed and reduced to a pile of debris, burned down cars and the molten rear half of a Warthogh were the only remains of human technology in the street. The pair quickly took cover behind one of the cars, several marines lied dead next to it. William looked at them with a grim face, the car hadn´t been enough cover for the poor guys.
Once in the streets they were shielded from the wind howls and, among the hundred raindrops hitting the asphalt, they heard...gunfire.
-Well, hang me if that´s not a Br-55-said William
-Maybe our friends from the Echo Two ain´t all defeated yet-answered Kuno, the ODST reached his helmet with one hand, adopting the usual position he used to broadcast by the com. But just listened
-They...just....keep....coming....sarge!!!-a female voice full of static complained over the com channel, the loud sound of a .50 machinegun accompanied her words
-Gun ´em down García! We can´t pull back-another static-filled voice answered. Perhaps the so called sergeant. Kuno and William looked at each other and headed straight to the place were the gunfire came from
Firefight...
A dark street opened into a little plaza to the east, surrounded by low buildings partially destroyed and with remains of a modest garden now completely burned down. A group of humans were sheltered inside from the alien hordes which came from the district center to the northeast. Kuno and William took cover behind a destroyed Covenant ghost in the street which led to the plaza. The vehicle had a 25cm wide clean hole on its front side, which, judging from the blackened mark and all the blood in the driver´s seat, had passed through the whole engine and armor before killing its driver. Probably the work of a Gauss Cannon
Now the ODST could hear the marines without need of the radio, for they were screaming loudly. William saw the Covenant troops, at least 20 grunts led by no less than six brutes. And that not counting the probably already under cover troops he couldn´t see. The marines covered behind a little concrete wall of about 1´5m high. A .50 caliber machinegun operated by a marine fired endlessly over the frightened and disorganized grunts while their brute commanders shouted and took cover. Several other marines provided suppression fire, and William saw that even a few light armed civilians and policemen did their best against the Covenant troops
-Three more, coming left!!-shouted a marine, armed with an SMG
-I´m running alone man!-replied, hysterically, the marine manning the .50
Kuno took his sniper rifle while William looked for a way to pass through the skirmish
-Alright, we can pass trough simply following the street to the east, while the fight lasts and those ali.....hey...what are you doing?-William started to talk but when he saw Kuno aiming his rifle to the incoming aliens punched the sniper in the shoulder
-Stay still!-complained Kuno, now completely drawn in the scope. William firmly took his arm and made Kuno put down the rifle
-Kuno, we´ve got a mission... and if you shoot those aliens are going to know we´re here.
-So what?? Shall we sneak pass the battle and let those men die alone?!-the sniper asked angrily
-This is not our fight...-said William pointing to the group of surrounded marines-that´s our fight....that´s the DECISIVE fight-now the ODST was pointing to the stormy clouds and the alien warships-So yes, we should sneak past the skirmish and head right to the place were that brute commander is, kill the fucker and then you can snipe every single Covie we find, it´ll be fine for me then
The Covenant troops were getting near the marine´s trench, the groups of grunts had quickly stepped over their fallen comrades and rushed directly into the marine´s position. Now they were covered a few steps from the concrete wall. The brutes remained behind, being a largest objective they were nailed down with no mercy by the .50 machinegun
The ODST started to crawl pass the ongoing battle. The marine manning the machinegun was hit in the left arm by a spiker round and screamed in pain without stop firing
-That´s the best you can do....bunch of monkeys???!!-she said, taunting the brutes. One of the marines got hit by a plasma bolt fired by the grunts while another ran crying with a plasma grenade stuck on his chest, exploding and splashing with his guts his frightened and demoralized companions. Three more spikes struck the gunner marine, one in the right shoulder, one in the left leg and another scratched her chest armor, after being barely stopped by the machinegun´s armored body. The marine collapsed, groups of grunts and brutes had rushed towards their cover now that their defense had weakened and the few survivors started to run in panic, shooting madly in a vane attempt to stop their bloodthirsty enemies.
-Somebody take the fifty!!-ordered desperately the sergeant to no avail. One of the brutes stepped over the fallen´s gunner chest and growled, the marine was seemingly alive, her face pale for the pain, and her lips dripping with her own blood. Suddenly the brute growled again and collapsed, lifeless. Its helmet cracked by a fortunate headshot
William pulled Kuno´s arm and made him crawl again. The ODST depolarized his visor so the sniper could see the angry and reproaching look on the spotter´s face
-They even didn´t know what hit him.....-was everything Kuno gave for answer before crawling pass William
Next: Famine
That´s all by now, stay tunned if you liked it, and more will surely follow
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