Halo- The War- Chapter 1-Combat
Disclaimer: Look, I make no profit from this, Halo belongs to Bungie and maybe Microsoft too. The quote belongs to Antony Swofford and is taken from his memoir Jarhead it's not word for word and I don't claim it as my own so please don't sue me, okay? Plus, the colony is made up by me.
A/N: This is my first fic so don't flame me, and review alright?
A story: a man carries a rifle for many years, and carries it to war. Afterwards, he turns the rifle in at the armory, and believes that he is done with the rifle. But no matter what he does with his hands: build a house; love a woman; change his son's diaper; his hands remember the rifle, and the power that it gave him.
- Corporal Antony Swofford, USMC STA Scout Sniper, ret.
BOOM!
That's all I heard. That one deafening sound was all I could hear, all I could feel at first. The biggest lingering question on my mind for the last year and a half had finally been answered. There had been many questions on my mind: whether grandpa would be fine after grandma died; whether Melissa was being faithful; whether Jeremy would be able to take care of mom; whether Sarah would ruin my hunting rifle. All were overshadowed by the one big question on my mind: what's combat like?
Now I finally knew, and it was indescribable. There were explosions everywhere, gunfire and plasma going off so fast it sounded like angry birds attempting to remove the titanium-c roofing off a trailer during a hailstorm. There were men screaming for their mothers, aliens yelling in unintelligible tongues, all mixed with the ringing in my ears that I got when my helmet's sound isolation system failed momentarily from some EMP caused by plasma. So all in all, combat was very loud, very chaotic and horrible⦠so horrible.
To think, 18 months earlier I experienced my first day of boot camp, and after that, after coming home a man, where I left a boy. But I really was a man only by word of law, so I decided to test myself in the most brutal test in the UNSC; I joined the ODST's.
On reflection, it made me a better man in the long run, but at the time, by week 2 1/2 of ODST selection, death seemed like it would be like a nice warm bed, which was also something I longed for.
But none of that mattered now; all that mattered was the fact that I was now, for the first time, in combat.
Immediately, my training; training I didn't think I'd absorbed so well; took over.
The DZ for my platoon was a flat field, in the tall grass of the outskirts of Lehris, second largest city on Wells VI, the closest in of the outer colonies. Wells VI was relatively untouched by the insurrection; a stable economy with profitable jobs and no overcrowding tended to mellow people's outlook on things. Not that the Covenant cared.
The Covenant had arrived in system a day and a half ago with 2 frigates and proceeded with a land invasion, apparently the enemy commander thought that his forces needed some target practice. Whoever he was, he underestimated Wells VI's importance; it was the virtual gateway to the inner colonies and had a decent population of 550 million colonists.
So the UNSC sent the cruisers Calypso and Brandywine, plus the destroyers Plataea, Khe Sahn, and Salamis. Normally it would have been less than ideal odds for us, but we had arrived in system while the enemy was on the other side of the planet, and thus caught the enemy with their proverbial pants down. The Brandywine had been severely damaged but otherwise, the task force had destroyed the frigates easily.
So all that was left was to wipe out whatever Covenant were left on the ground, and Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Regiment, 105th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) had the job of dropping in on the outskirts of the capital, and clearing the way for the infantry to land so we could all take back Lehris.
Travel light first to fight, feet first into hell. Yeah, right. That plan sounded decidedly better on the Calypso where I had several meters of Titanium-A armor and several million kilometers between me and the enemy.
But now, I had more immediate concerns. I pulled my BR-55 rifle from my back and took aim on the first sentient being I ever killed. The unlucky grunt seemed to freeze as I put pressure on the trigger. The whole world seemed to stop. Then the trigger broke evenly just like just like during all those hours on the range, and 3 rounds of M634 9.5x40mm High Powered Semi-Armor-Piercing ammunition perforated the grunt's gray, mottled head, letting loose a spray of florescent blue blood.
So, that's what it feels like to kill another sentient being. Another question answered. Just then the rest of the company started to charge. One way or another, this world would not fall. Lehris would be retaken; at any cost.
I rose and joined the charge, and knew that I would never be the same. I also knew that this would be a long, hard, blood soaked war.
