Battlefield Specs.
- Destination: Romeo-13
Buildings: None
Obstacles: Cliff face, Ship debris
Area: 9017 m x 10000 m
Time of Day: 1:29 PM
UNSC Units: Battalion Charlie Kilo Sierra
- Number of Men: 1,500
Wounded: 134
KIA: 900+
MIA: None
Active Units: 27
Enemy Units: -----
"In October of 2552 marines were deployed down to the surface of Romeo-13 to investigate suspicious activities. Upon arrival they met a new foe, one that had never been fought by the corps alone; it was once a rumor. Infectious parasites called the Flood had crash landed the Divinities Disgrace, a Covenant Carrier. Equipped with only their weapons, friends, and two scorpion tanks 1,500 marines risked their lives to take back what was once ours. And to keep the infection from spreading." - Major General Nicolas Strauss
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"LOOK OUT!" Justin shouted out, a rocket came flying over his head and caught an ODST behind him. Swarms and swarms of the Flood were pressing out of the ship. It was like it was made of the things. His BR55 didn't stop firing. He was almost enveloped in the sound of gun fire. Shotgun shells flew through the air, hundreds of Flood fell. But for every hundred that fell, another hundred moved in.
"Where the hell is that tank!?" Justin yelled over the COMM. His shots connected, as it was almost impossible to miss the mass horde of Flood coming his way. The bullets seemingly flowed from his barrel nonstop. Then he heard a click sound and he ducked down. Quickly he grabbed the clip and pulled it out. He threw the clip on the ground and replaced it with a fresh, new one.
If the fighting continued like this, his team wouldn't last long. With the only 27 active soldiers, 3 groups of 9 men, there was no way they'd last long against a near infinite supply of Flood. But he was a Hell Jumper. He could do this. He had to.
One by one, his team would take turns. 3 would squat down and reload, while 3 would pop up and fire. They'd take turns shooting and conserve ammo. They were doing surprisingly well considering the circumstances. Suddenly a large blast blew apart the front lines of the Flood. The blast caused a chain reatcions of Carrier Flood to explode and kill nearbye Flood. The blast, was the Scorpion.
"Thank god!" Justin heard one of his squad mates yell, "Their you guys are, we were getting worried."
"You said it Zanella," Justin said, he walked over to Bravo and Charlie squad, "Glad you guys decided to show up. Where's the other tank though?"
"Sorry Justin," Stephen walked over to him, "They needed it at camp, just in case."
"Whole lot of bull if you ask me," Cody walked up. "Good to see you guys are still alive." He was Justin's close friend, ever since they grew up they were always together. Luckily they were asigned to the same Regiment, so they were always on the same planet.
"You and me both Cody," Justin said, "Now are we going to fight or what?" He asked, another tank round fired, decimating another rank of Flood. The shells were keeping them at bay, for now.
The team assembled and got back behind the trench. "We're going to follow the tank and provide supporting fire. We'll make our advance into the ship and get in via the damaged hull. Understood?" Lieutenant Stephen went over the plan again.
"Yes, sir!" The entire team of ODSTs yelled in unison.
"Ok, on my mark," Stephen said, he paused for what seemed like an hour but was really only 3 seconds, "MARK!"
On his mark the whole crew of 26 men hopped over the trench and chased behind the tank. The one man operating the tank was the most reliable with technology, Bill. He'd gone through every manual for every piece of military equipment, so he was surely the best man to put on the job of driving that thing by himself.
The bullets rained down the slope, pelting the hundreds of Flood. The bullets didn't stop, anything near the team's line of fire was easily torn to shreds, whether it be by the bullets or the tank rounds. Their advance was slow, but smooth. They had to conserve ammo, as they walked past the dead carcasses of the Flood they grabbed all the weapons they could carry.
The ship wasn't that far away and the concentration of the Flood increased the closer they got. "They've got to end somewhere, their couldn't have been that many bodies on that ship!" Justin thought, he kept moving though, he didn't have time to think. Only to act, he left the thinking to Stephen.
They closed into within 100 meters of the ship and Justin's assumptions were right. The amount of Flood was reduced, but that meant there'd be a lot of tight quarters battles for him, and his team. The Flood were surprisingly easy to kill as a group, since the Flood came from one direction. But Justin knew that in close quarters the battle is going to be hell.
Finally they reached the ship, but that would turn out to be bad for the team. "Sir," Bill yelled over the COMM, "The tank won't fit in through this spot! I'm going to go look for another opening to go through."
"Not on your own you won't!" Stephen yelled over the COMM, "Charlie teams coming with you. We're not just gonna let you die and hand the Flood a tank!" The group sprinted after the tank, Stephen with them, "You're in charge of this group Justin, good luck, we'll meet up in the Covenant hangar, understood?"
"Yes sir!" Justin yelled over the COMM, his bullets took the last of the Flood outside the hull's damaged section down. He walked into the hole only to spot more Flood, "Okay team, time to show 'em why you don't land a stolen vessel infested with flood on one of our planets!"
He quickly reloaded his BR and popped a few shots into the bulk of one of the carriers. It exploded sending the little ones flying everywhere, but the ones around quickly "popped" and were no longer a worry. Justin's radar was off the charts, it looked like the entire thing was painted with enemies.
Rifles discharged almost instantaneously, bullets sprayed the ground hoping to reach one of the "Poppers." Most connected but some were left missing. However not a single popper got through, as if one ODST missed another shot dead on. The team worked in perfect unison, almost like a group of timed machines, or SPARTANs even.
Eventually the shots peppered the entire threat away and there were no more Flood at all in the entire hallway. Surprisingly there were no casualties, "Odd," Justin thought, "you'd think this would be harder."
"Alright men, let's keep mo..." Justin was talking with his men when he was suddenly interrupted.
"Shoot that thing damnit! Justin, things have gone to hell and a hand basket here, there's a massive hole on the other side of the ship where it came in contact with the cliff edge, easily 2,000 Flood here! We need support! NOW!" Stephen's voice crackled over the COMM, "The only way here is around the back of the ship and AUGH!!" Stephen screamed in pain then the COMM cut to the sound of battle. All Justin heard was a loud grunt, one he'd never heard before, then the COMM signal was lost.
"Damnit!" Justin yelled, he slammed his fist against the cold walls of the Covenant ship.
"Justin, what should we do?" Cody ran over to him, obviously he wanted to prioritize the mission first, rather than Stephen.
"We move on, soldiers." Justin said, he didn't want to, but he knew he had to. Priorities came first. He was going to cook these Flood bastards to a burnt crisp. "Stephen is dead men, and Charlie is most likely dead as well. I'm now in command, any problems?"
Not a single soldier objected, they all knew the cold hard truth and weren't going to cling to false hopes, "Good, we're changing our objective men, our new objective is the Engine facility. I have no clue how it works, but I'm sure if we set enough C4 off in that thing, it'll blow a 3 square mile clean of all life. So then, let's get moving."
He pulled out a small AI uploader and stuck it into one of the Covenant computers, it wasn't a smart AI, but it sure did know how to hack into a Covenant ship. That's what it was built for.
"Amy, we really could use some help, get me the map to the engine room, and if you could, upload a NAV Point on my HUD." Justin spoke to the AI.
"Sure thing sir, this should be a sinch, there's low power so the Covenant AI has been deactivated." A few seconds went by, the Ai hummed through the halls of ship. "Okay, all done!" The NAV Point immediately displayed itself on his helmet. 450 m out. "I'm going to stay in the system in case you need me, unti lthen, ta, ta." The AI was done with it's work and was now unkown to all that didn't know where to look for it, mainly the Flood.
"Alright men, go!" Justin yelled at his soldiers. The AI uploaded a small tracker on the ground that showed which doors to take and which hallways to turn down. Useful little thing it was. He continued down the hallway, leading his team into battle. This could be their last battle, only 17 soldiers left, against an entire armada of Flood. Justin liked the odds.
As the squad approached a hallway there was a few signatures on the radar that were in the hallway. They weren't moving much, had to be the Poppers. Justin turned and gave the silent but deadly hand signal and the team crouched down closing in on the hall. He turned the hall, BR raised, he only had two clips left and one of those was in his gun. Soon he'd have to resort to his SMG, something he really didn't want to do.
He continued down the hall, inch by inch. He noticed some still active shields, which was rather surprising. After the ship had crashed that hard, how it remained with enough power to operate it's shields he'd never know. What was even more odd was the fact that the source of the motion was behind these shields, or at least that's what his radar said.
He held his hand out, telling his team to stop, and he cautiously moved forward. He came around the corner and looked into the shielding, there sat an Elite Honor Guard and a lone Hunter. He quickly leveld his rifle then realised, they weren't getting out of that cell, the controls were on his side. "The Flood taking hostages?! That doesn't happen, what's going on here?!" He thought.
"Hey you, why are you locked in here?" He asked, his rifle still leveled.
The Elite heard the voice and turned to Justin, "Human, let us out please! We've locked ourselves in here to protect ourselves from the Flood. We heard your battle and assumed the worst, thank god you're here!"
"And why would I rescue you?! You're trying to erase humanity from existance!" Justin yelled poking the shield with the tip of his barrel.
"You don't uderstand, the Sanghelli, or as you'd call us, the Elites, have broken off from the Covenant! The Prophets have betrayed us. We side with the humans now! The Arbiter and Sergeant Johnson stopped a detonation of a Halo ring! We are your allies, as are the Lekgolo, the Hunters."
"And why should I trust you?" Justin asked.
"Because I know Sergeant Johnson, Miranda Keyes, and more importantly, Master Chief. I was there when the three aided us in stopping the detonation of the ring. You can ask your command yourself. Even they know of the rebellion that has happened."
"Miranda Keyes?! Is she alive? Last I heard, she went on a wild mouse chase into slip space of the Prophet Regret with the Chief."
"Yes, she is alive, she escaped with me when the Flood got loose on the Ring."
"Fine, I'll let you free." Justin sneered, it's never good to trust an enemy, but in this case, he needed all the help he'd need. "Team, I'd like you to welcome our newest members." He motioned them over, "Cody, open this shield."
"Justin, are you sure about this?" Zanella asked, he looked dumb struck by the fact that he was going to do this.
"I sure am. We need the help, they may know how to work the engine of this thing, and help us cause an overload, like they did on the Pillar of Autumn, but this time, with Plasma."
Zanella walked over and tapped off the shields, slowly the Elite walked out followed by the Hunter. All the squads guns were leveled on the two, except for Justin's. He knew they wouldn't try anything, not with the Flood around.
"Well then, let's move it." Justin said, he still had 200 yards to go until they even reached the engine room. They walked down the hallway, until Justin stopped.
"My god..." Zanella coughed. The radar was the deepest, darkest red he'd ever seen ahead of him.
"What is it?" The Elite asked.
"Flood," Justin said, "And lots of 'em. Someone lend this Elite a weapon, he ain't much use just standing around!" Immediately Cody handed the Elite his two spare pistols.
Justin latched his BR to his back and grabbed his SMGs. His squad back from the hallway as the source came closer and closer. He leveled his sight and got ready. A door about 20 meters from him slid open to reveal the walls crawling with Flood, and the floor being trampled on by hundreds Flood soldiers.
"LET LOOSE!" He yelled, then pullled the triggers. His guns immediately began to kick back, but Justin didn't counteract. No, he let them drag up, he had to take care of the Poppers. He fired, watching dozens of Poppers simply exploding to be replaced by another. A fuel rod shot from the Hunter cut through the ranks of the Flood, and most of them fell to the ground, dead. His squad focused on the Poppers, as did the Elite. They shot every single inch of wall and floor to clear it of Poppers.
The numbers of Flood was quickly reduced, they were winning! "Come on Marines we can win this!" He yelled, and as he did, the cieling tile shot down.
"Crap! Run for it!" He yelled, the entire floor was cleared of Poppers and other Flood, though the wall was still caked with them. Justin, Zanella, the Elite, Cody, and a few other ODSTs sprinted for it. The rest were consumed by a wave of Poppers that burst from the cieling. The Hunter's fuel rod arced up and burnt a few but it was too slow. Easily ten of the Poppers got into the Hunter. They swarmed, then it was covered. Like it was never there. The ODSTs behind the Hunter were covered too. Screams of pain echoed through the hall.
Justin just kept running. He didn't look back, he didn't look anywhere, just straight ahead. He never had run this fast, his legs practically glided over the ground. He made it through to the next hallway, directly followed by Cody, Zanelle, and the Elite. The door sealed shut, "Lock that door Amy!" He yelled.
"Yes sir," She said almost melodically. The door flashed red then went dull. Nothing was getting through there. Only one more hallway until they reached the engine room. "Keep running ,if they come through that cieling we're dead. So don't stop."
The four were at a full sprint, headed for the door. Their radars dimmed from red to a now dull clear, gray. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... the door slid open and they found themselves in a small corridoor.
"We're here," Justin said, as his NAV Point dissapeared off his HUD. He looked around. "So my Elite friend,"
"Tano, if you please," The Elite said.
"Alright, Tano, do you know anything about these engines?"
"I know enough to rid us of the Flood." Tano said.
"Well lay it on me,"
"Well, if you detonate the plasma coolant I know the plasma core, running or not, will overheat, and breach it's casing. Thusly igniting the plasma fuel, causing a massive explosion."
"And where is this coolant located in the engine?"
"Well this is the engine room, the Coolant is usually located in the rear of the engine, and is operated by a panel with emergency power."
"You mean this one?" Zanella asked, He had already walked over to it and was staring down at the keypad.
"Yes I believe that is it, but you can also control it from the main command."
"Good, then we don't have to be here when it gets detonated." Justin said, he'd much rather have a chance of getting out and surviving than getting cooked by a large plasma meltdown.
"Amy, I've got one last task for you," Justin said.
"I'm already on it, you should head to the hangar and get out of here, Once you leave the vicinity I'll light this baby. Don't worry about me, I'm just an AI, I can always be replicated."
"Thanks Amy," Justin said, "You're the best. Well, you head the lady, let's get moving. The hangar isn't that far from here, we'll probably find a Phantom or a banshee."
"Sure thing Justin," Cody and Zanella responded. The Elite simply nodded in approval.
The four turned towards the door and began to leave. The left out the sliding doors and across from their door was a hallway leading to the Hangar. The door opened as he approached it, and a Flood came lunging out at Justin. Justin blacked out.
"Where am I?" He thought, "Am I dead? No I can't be dead, I wouldn't be thinking." He remembered the Flood, then awoke as he heard a blast.
"AH!" He yelled as he rolled over. He rolled ontop of the now dead Flood. Two wholes were straight through it, one through the head, and one through the chest.
"You can thank for that one when we get out of here," Cody said, smoke rose from his shotgun barrel.
"Yeah, thanks man," Justin stood up. "Shall we?" he asked, he wasn't going to go down like that again.
The team continued down the hallway, jogging down past the multiple hallways, straight towards the new NAV Point marked, HANGAR. Justin heard and echo from behind him, a familiar echo that brought a chill to his bones. The cieling was coming down at the beginning of the hall. Flood poured in a few dozen meters behind him. It was now or never.
"Ok, time to go!" Already almot out of breath, Justin began to sprint again, coughing and weezing it hurt just to hink about running let alone do it. But he fought past the pain. He was an ODST. He could make, he assuered himself of it. Faster and faster, his legs carried him, they ran for what seemed like an eternity. They reached the door and dove through. The door sealed shut and locked.
Justin had just made it. He was safe, or so he thought. Explosions burst throughout the hangar. Covenant fought the Flood, grenades burst, plasma weapons fired left and right. Justin was out of the frying pan, and into the freezer.
Justin watched as Flood occupied Phantoms erupted, and burst into large explosions of plasma from the Covenant's concentrated fire. Three lone Banshees sat near the wall of the Hangar, that was their way out.
Zanella read Justin's mind and new what he was thinking, "There's only three there Justin! There's four of us."
"One of us has to stay behind!" Cody yelled over the explosions.
Justin's mind went blank, he couldn't think, he just spoke. "I'll be the one..."
"To stay here." Tano interrupted, he looked over at Justin, "You have a mission to accomplish, as do I. You must return to your base, and I must save as many of my people as I can."
Justin stared blankly at Tano. He admired Tano's bravery, he now had a new respect for the Elite kind. He wanted to say thank you, but he couldn't think.
Tano pushed Justin towards the Banshee. "Go! I'll save as many Sanghelli as I can, you just get out of here!" Tano then ran off towards his brethren, firing an SMG at a Flood near by.
Cody and Zanella ran towards the Banshee, Justin just stood there. He couldn't think, he was frozen solid. A Popper was slithering towards him. Finally he snapped to. He knew what he had to do. The Popper jumped up at Justin, he merely reached out his hand and caught it mid-air in his fist. He crushed it in his hand and it was no more.
He ran up to Cody and Zanella, "Let's get out of here guys!" He yelled. The three reached the Banshees and hopped in. Immediately there suits recognized the ship and instructions came up on their HUD. They punched a few buttons on the controls of the machine and the Banshees lifted off the ground. From their on out it was all piloting.
Cody and Zanella were already flying towards the exit, Justin behind them, when he noticed out of the corner of his eye. It was Tano, and he was cornered by a dozen Flood.
"Not this time!" He shouted, he veered his Banshee towards Tano and made a sweeping run at the Flood. The plasma bomb discharged and killed the Flood.
Justing turned his Banshee around and flew to catch up with his teams. The only thought on his mind was, "Thank you Tano." The trio flew from the scene in their banshees. About five miles out Justin opened up a direct COMM link to Cody and Zanella. The air shook violently as the Covenant ship erupted. The memories, were now dust. The mission, complete. "Good job guys, mission accomplished."
Main Body Written by Teh Professor
Main Idea and Content Editted by ` Lt
© 2007 G.NET Production Studios
Main Idea and Content Editted by ` Lt
© 2007 G.NET Production Studios
