Just Cannon Fodder

The Feeling's Mutual

Poli watched the scenery from the open back of the pelican as the humans transported them to some place were they would most likely be interrogated and killed. Strangely, he felt rather peaceful considering the situation he was in. They had been flying for about two units, flying over forests, deserts, and bodies of water along the way. Several grunts and elites were wounded their blood staining the metal interior of the dropship. Two grunts had died during the journey thus far, and their bodies were unceremoniously dumped out the back of the ship. Not that it mattered anyway; the grunts had given up burying their dead long ago. The most Poli had ever seen done to dead grunts was them being moved out of the way so more could press on.

"Sir!" the human pilot called out to someone. A human that was sitting across from Poli stood up and walked into the cockpit.

"What is it?" Poli could hear the man say.

"Radar shows twenty seraph fighting incoming sir." A third man in the cockpit said. The humans in the Pelican became uneasy, shifting in their seats, but never taking their eyes off their prisoners.

"What do you recommend we do corporal?" the man obviously in charge asked. 'How strange' Poli thought to himself. 'A commanding officer asking the opinions of his soldiers.

"Sir, they outnumber us two-to-one, recommend we bug out." The pilot said to the man, and Poli agreed.

"I agree but..." the man sighed, "Those seraphs are heading straight for our base. Send a transmission to Lieutenant Miller warning him about this."

"Aye, sir." The third man in the cockpit replied. There was a slight pause until he spoke again. "Transmission sent sir, but the Lieutenant said he can't send any reinforcement to us at the time." He said with a small trace of fear evident in his voice.

The commanding officer paused shortly then said to the pilot, "We have a duty to carry out. Tell our wingmen to prepare for battle." A silence washed over the dropship as the human's words sank in.

"But sir," one human called out, but the man quickly cut him off with a hand gesture.

"No buts son, if those covenant reach our base in full force they'll be overrun, we have to take down as many with us as we can." He said to you nervous human, but it did nothing to calm him down.

"Sir the seraphs are 500 kilometers away, moving into attack positions." The pilot called out as the ship lurched to the side.

"Close the hatch!" one human yelled as he almost stumbled out of the pelican. On cue, the back door closed and the dropship became darker as the pilot diverted more energy to the weapons. "Here they come! Hold on!" the pilot yelled. A few seconds later the whole ship rattled as its machine guns fired. The ship then spun violently to the right and the sections of the hull melted away as plasma hit the ship.

"What the fucks going on?" a humans shouted as he went to check on the pilot. "Oh shit, they're dead!" he yelled in a panic.

"Get on the controls!" the commanding human called out to him. The marine slowly crept into the cockpit and disappeared from sight. A few seconds later, he ran out and said, "The control are fried, they got hit with plasma."

The commanding human, who was once relatively calm, now became panicked, "Oh Jesus we're gonna die!" he shouted. Seeing their commander lose his cool sent all the other humans in a state of panic also. One elite took advantage of this. The humans had not retrained them in anyway, except for making the elites disable their shields. The elite jumped from his seat and snapped the closest human's neck. A second human turned to fire at him, but dropped to the ground as Poli jumped on his back. The humans struggled to get free, but to no avail as Poli kept his grip around his neck. With his free hand, Poli began bashing his fist against the human's skull. After hitting him a few more times the human stopped moving as the back of his head bled profusely.

Poli looked up to see the once prisoners rebelling against the humans. Caught completely off guard, the humans did not put up much of a fight, not even getting off one shot. No one in the dropship seemed to notice the sudden rise in pressure as the craft sped down to Earth. The pelican slammed into the round at 200 MPH, sending everyone in the ship flying off their feet. Poli felt his head bounce off the roof of the ship and his vision slowly went black as he lost consciousness.

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"Gather any human weapons you can and move outside." Were the first words Poli heard as he reawakened. He got up to his knees and saw a puddle of blood were he had been lying, his blood he realized. He slowly stood to his feet as he tried to get his bearings. His vision was blurry but he managed to make it outside of the dropship, only to fall into a small crater the ship had made. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes to clear his vision. Once he could see straight he climbed out of the crater he had fallen in. When he squirmed out finally, he saw a discarded human pistol lying at his feet. He picked it up and examined the odd-looking weapon. He was not entirely sure how to use it, but figured it would have to do since there were no other weapons that he could see.

He looked to the sky to see how the battle above was going, and saw numerous human ships exploding as the covenant ships took little damage. 'Who were in the ships though' Poli thought. It would be a great stroke of luck if they were controlled by elites, but if there were brutes in them, things would get ugly fast. He looked up again and saw two seraphs flying towards him. He looked closer and saw the guns under the seraphs power up.

"Take cover!" he yelled out as loud as he could as he dove back into the crater he had fallen into. Several elites had not listened to him, thinking he had been overcome with fear, as most grunts do. However, when a hellfire of plasma began to rain down on them, they quickly got the hint and dove for cover.

Poli looked around the area they had crash-landed in. He did not see and other of the humans' ships intact, and the few that he did see, it was obvious nobody in them survived. 'Looks like were on our own…' Poli thought as the two seraphs landed around them. Several brutes floated down the gravity lifts that had been activated and fired their red plasma rifles at the small band of elites and grunts. Poli aimed the human pistol at the closest brute and pulled the trigger, but the trigger did not budge. He pulled again, this time putting more strength into it but still he had no luck. He frantically examined the weapon for any signs of activating it. He looked it over until he found a switch that had a writing he could not understand on it. He flipped the switch and heard a clicking noise in the gun. Poli aimed the gun once more at the now extremely close brute. He pulled the trigger, and this time the weapon fired, the recoil sending his arms flying upward. Poli was surprised at the power of the shot. He aimed at the brute again, who was now breathing down Poli's neck and fired, this time expecting the recoil. This time, the bullet hit the mark, going through and through the brute's neck, putting it down for good. Poli still was not used to the recoil, but he would have to make do.

The first brutes to come out had underestimated them, and they were all killed with no casualties on the ex-covenant side. Before they could celebrate however, ten more brutes and a few jackal snipers emerged from the seraphs. The brutes charged as the jackals stayed behind, pinning them down with accurate fire. Poli fired the pistol at the charging brutes, but found his first shots had been luck, as the bullets inflicted minimal damage. Poli fired the pistol three more times before hearing a 'click' every time he pulled the trigger. He examined the gun again, this time finding a tine button near the grip of the gun. He pushed it and a small metal device fell out, making the gun substantially lighter. Poli yelped and tried to put the device back in, but could not. He looked around again for any sort of weapon. Near where he found the human pistol, he found a device similar to the one that fell out of the gun. He excitedly picked it put and pushed it into the pistol, and this time it stayed in. Poli, feeling triumphant, aimed at another brute and fired. But this time, the trigger moved too easily, and it did not fire. Poli thought back, he had seen humans use this weapon before, but he didn't remember how they had worked them. Suddenly, it came to him, he had once seen a human pull back on the top of the gun before firing. Poli placed his palm on the top of the pistol and pulled back, and was rewarded with the sound of a round being loaded into he chamber. Satisfied, Poli aimed once again and pulled the trigger. He was getting used to the recoil and could now aim quite well, hitting a brute in the head with his first shot. He let the elites take care of the jackals, and let himself concentrate on the brutes that were close to him. He controlled his firing though, not knowing if he could find another one of the devices, 'clips' he remembered for the gun.

Many of the others had run out of ammo, and were engaging the brutes in hand-to-hand combat. One elite, however, a field master Poli recognized, went back into the human ship they had crashed in. He stayed in there for a minute or two, before returning with a huge weapon. Poli had seen these 'rocket launchers' before, and knew the damage they could inflict. The elite pointed the massive gun at a cluster of brutes and pulled the trigger. A 120mm rocket flew towards the unsuspecting brutes. When it hit the ground, a massive explosion killed five brutes, and wounded two other that had been too close.

Having the upper hand, the remaining ex-covenant charged, as the field master fired another rocket at the jackal snipers, killing them in a fiery display. Poli still had a few shots left in his pistol, so he stayed back to pick off the distracted brutes. One brute stood absolutely still has he waited for a charging elite to reach him. Poli took his time and aimed the gun's sights at the motionless brute's head. When the sights centered on the beast's he pulled the trigger twice. Two bullets entered the brute's skull and lodged in his brain.

Poli's pistol ran out of ammo after he killed the brute. Deciding he would be of no help in close combat with no weapon, so he stayed back and watch the elites tear the brutes to shreds, bashing in their skulls with rocks, and biting them with their razor sharp teeth. The outnumbered brutes no match to the elite's superior fighting techniques, as elites dodge their blows with ease. With the immediate threat averted, Poli looked to the sky once more. The seraphs had disappeared, most likely going to attack the base the human had mentioned earlier, thinking the two seraphs would be enough to take care of them.

"Into the seraphs" the field master, now wielding a discarded plasma rifle shouted. "We are to attack the human base." A murmur of confusion washed over the remaining force of elites and grunts. The field master spoke up again to explain, "We will board these two seraphs, and give the brutes attacking the base the impression that we have returned. Once they drop their guard, we will attack those damned brutes from behind, then we will move on to the humans." The elite said, his mandibles forming what could pass as a grin. Satisfied, the force of fourteen ex-covenants boarded the two seraphs, seven in each.

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Dedious watched as his brutes laid waste to the pathetic humans, as they struggled to mount a useless counter-attack. "Have the pilots take off and bombard the humans to the west from above, they have gathered a substantial amount of troops over there." He said into his com-link.

"Yes Excellency, it will be done." A voice said into his earpiece. Dedious looked to where the seraphs were and saw several of them take off and approach the humans' positions. When they neared them, the massive plasma turrets on their undersides opened fire. The worthless humans fired their puny weapons at the seraphs, but their bullets bounced harmlessly off their armor. Within a minute, ever human to the west was dead and the seraphs were now heading towards the bulk of the humans' forces.

"Do not engage the rest of the humans, they have set up anti aircraft guns inside their base, they will tear through your ships." Dedious said, seeing what the humans' AA guns could do before. Even though the humans were the sworn enemies of the gods, Dedious had to respect the raw power of some of their weapons commanded. On cue, the seraphs turned back and landed where they had previously been. Beyond them, Dedious could see two ships approaching from the distance.

'Excellent, those heretics have been dealt with.' He thought to himself, as he ordered his troops not to engage the incoming seraphs.

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Poli looked at the view screen in the seraph as they approached the battle. His heart rate quickened as several seraphs began to fly towards them, but it returned to normal as they returned to where they were.

"Good, they haven't noticed us yet." The elite piloting the ship said over the com. "We will first destroy those seraphs that we are coming up on; they will be trouble if we allow them to get in the air. Once we have drawn their attention, we will activate the gravity lift and you will begin the attack. Our brothers in the other seraph will set down inside the human base to take care of them." He finished, the ship vibrating as he fired upon the seraphs on the ground.

"Go now!" He yelled as the center of the floor illuminated as the gravity lift activated. Poli was one of the first to enter the lift, as he felt his body being pulled down into battle below.