AUTHOR'S NOTE: i wanted to create a short story on a young rookie, fresh outta boot, pressed directly into the fight against the Covenant. i also wanted to have that rook experience REAL war in the short span he has in his first combat experience, overwhelmed by what destruction weapons of war can wreak. Private Colby was the product of these ideas. easily influenced, weak of motivation, but strong of heart, he witnesses the especially gruesome death of one man and it sends shocks into his system. ODST's, the men and women of the armed force that best represent what the honest fighting man has to offer, come to dig him and his people out, and their mere presence is an instant morale boost for him, urging him back into combat despite what he'd just witnessed.
I figure it came out well enough, but that is for you to decide. Thanks for reading!
"RETURN FIRE, GODDAMMIT!" Sergeant Hylls screamed over the Comms, rifle blasting away.
Plasma arced and burned around me and i knew with certainty that we were well and truly Fucked. limbs trembling with fear, i leveled my MA5C over the low concrete barricade and i let off a long stream of rounds in the general direction of the Covenant. Our situation was so FUBAR, i didnt think we'd live out the night! we were cut off from all support on the ground somewhere near Rally Point Charlie, just two lonely infantry squads, ambushed in the darkness by Covies on the streets of New Mombasa. no one would know of our deaths, no one would care...
"JIGGS! Snap the fuck out of it!" a trooper i didnt know, his tags denoted him as PFC. Walthers, grabbed me by my lapels and slammed me against the barricade's side. apparently i'd stopped firing and was sitting, whispering away that no one would care... no one would care..."We need every goddamn rifle on the line right fucking now! i dont wanna die out here and im sure as FUCK you dont either!" i looked up and i could see the determination, underlined with a healthy bit of fear, in his eyes. "you hearing me, motherfucker?!" he needs me just as much as i need him...
Oh god, i was so scared, so scared of dying, i didnt want to leave life just yet... i had so much to do in my young- don't let it take hold. "S-s-sir! Yessir!" we both ducked when plasma fire slammed into the other side of the barricade, close enough to feel the heat. the world was lit up with plasma and tracers, my whole existence ruled by fear of same...
"All right, Jiggs! that's what i like to hear!" he clapped my shoulder with an uncertain grin on his face and returned swapping fire with the Covies down the street. i took a deep breath and slammed a new mag home, begging whatever higher power there was to not let me die here, not let my short, short life be wasted intercepting a blast of superheated blue magma... nothing for it but to fight... once more, i leveled my weapon and i let my own fire add to the others'. it was hard to see in such darkness... was that a target?! what about there?! i fired long and heavily into shadows, the dark concealing my enemies... Shit- I need to calm down! Focus!
the Sarge was chattering over the comms, i couldnt understand what he was saying, his words weren't directed at me. i kept firing at ghosts, kept ducking into cover when a bolt or two raced my way. my world was one of fear and trepidation, my comrades' the same...
i may have scored a hit, then, because one of the dancing green lights wavered, spun, and went still. i couldnt tell for sure, because at that moment a line of blue fire, one of the Elites' plasma rifles, flickered about, burning a path through were i was standing and forcing me to seek cover. Sarge yelled at us over the comms, us being green as grass, to remember our training, to conserve our ammo for the long night ahead. Remember your training, Colby! if you wanna survive, you need to fight for it! more fire was converging on my cover, blazing away like wildfire at my little barricade. My little voice at the base of my skull, the one who'd kept me alive all through boot, my survival instinct, urged me to seek better cover. My MA5C kicked against my shoulder as I poured fire into distant, poorly-lit maybe-maybe-not-targets.
Walthers stopped firing for long enough to say, "we need to find a better place to get- " and there was a bright green flash and his face exploded into fragments of gore and gristle, showering me with a truly shocking spray of blood. i whimpered, falling backwards from the now-corpsed body of my comrade. shamelessly, i pissed myself, my BDU's damp and warm with pure unadulterated fear, and i scrabbled back from the barricade, crying in fear and desperation, my rifle left in the dust, and whining and crying now, nothing, no comprehensibility, no SENSIBILITY, just jibbering fear and now, now- as i look behind me, i see salvation, salvation in Black.
ODST's. A full squad of ODST's engaged the newly appeared Jackal Snipers at range, picking them off before they could return fire, dropping several of the Covie regulars with the aid of their VISRs before the enemy even realized they were there. one of them slid behind my barricade, by Walther's body, and swapped fire, accurately, effectively, almost distainfully, with the Covenant. He stooped a moment, picked up my rifle, and tossed it to me.
"Get at 'em, marine! We got a city to take back!"
The Covenant line broken, my confidence being quickly restored by the appearance of some of the UNSC's finest (dispite the gruesome death of my comrade), and rifle in hand, I pushed my breakdown and Walther's demise to the back of my mind, rejoined the line and we set to pushing the Covenant off my planet, one step at at time.
