Dedicated to a good friend who has passed away on January 25th, 2008. Please, if you read this keep him in your prayers. His name is Dakarai, and at 5:27, I heard he was dead.
Cold Blood
12:58 a.m., POW camp near Neinville…
I sat against the wall in the shed. The smell of wounds and blood was strong in the air, as 15 or so other marines were mostly sleeping in the room. Muffled grunts and curses came from the packed in mob. The dim light which was the only in the room weakened, and then cut out, only to restart a second later. The sounds of battle were of to the north, and each explosion shook the light. The doors to the shed were shut as best they could, but could not close the whole gap. Letting the unwanted cold in.
I got up, trying not to muffle my sounds, attempting to save the last pleasure the Marines in the shed had. Sleep. I came to the guard who was half asleep, I shook him awake.
"Hey, I got to go take a leek." I asked.
"Yeah whatever." He replied, trying to shoo me away to return to sleep.
The stinging cold hit me all over, being that most of my clothes had gone to the seriously wounded, and my armor confiscated. I trotted away from the camp, and stopped by a tree to piss.
"Ahh." I said as steam rose from the liquid.
I zipped up my pants and turned to leave but the sound of softened tank and assorted vehicle engines softly humming. But then it stopped, and I picked up the sound of boots cushioned by snow. I looked into the darkness, trying to make out friend or foe.
"Hey you!" a voice came from the dark, but I could not see the Marine in the 1:00 a.m. darkness.
"Yeah?" I asked, squatting down, surprised at this unexpected events.
"You part of this camp?" the Marine asked, along with one other. I could not make out the facial features but both of them had a smoke in their mouth.
"Yeah, you guys come to liberate the camp? Hell, about time. We've got about 30-." I started.
"You know this guy?" he cut me off, handing me a picture and a flashlight.
"Never saw or heard of him, who is he?" I asked, looking carefully at the mid aged Marine with a nice smile and attractive hair.
"No one, now how many are in there?"
"30 or so, most wounded."
"How many defenders?"
"I saw 35 or so, probably more."
"See any heavy emplacements?"
"Yeah, one is straight that way." I reported, pointing in the direction.
"Did you see a radio or any way of giving away our attack?" he asked.
"Yeah, I think I saw one, give me a pistol and I'll take it out."
"You've got… one minute." He said, checking his watch and handing me a standard pistol.
"Marine, report this to Sarg, got it?" he said.
"On my way." The other one left us.
"Best of luck, if you're not done by the time limit, were starting the attack."
"I know the drill."
I started towards the café, clutching my shoulder as if hurt. My plan was simple, ask for medical treatment, scope out the place and then attempt to find and destroy the radio.
I walked into the door, grunting and cursing.
"What are you doing here? This is army personal only." The noncom instructed, looking at me with madness and disgust.
"Can you please change my bandages." I asked, trying to sound hurt and remorseful.
"Fine, come with me, and don't do anything stupid." He warned and started walking into the café.
"Don't worry about a thing…" I sarcastically said, skillfully unholstering a plasma grenade on his belt and hiding it in my sleeve.
We walked in; guards we passed on the way hissed and made threatening movements against me. I was laughing inside my head, looking around at all the faces of enemies about to be killed. Then I passed the radio, my target. I had to act now if I had any chance of destroying the thing. All this time, the noncom ahead of me was talking about how bad out military was, and how we would lose the war we started. Luckily, there was a mirror right in front of him, so I could clearly see a guard tailing me.
"Thanks doc." I said, taking out my pistol and firing two rounds into him. I flicked the plasma grenade behind me, which found contact on the guard's head.
He attempted to remove it, but failed. Blue blood sprayed everywhere, getting all over myself as well. I grabbed the doc's gun and started spraying the radio and its crew, destroying it.
"What the hell is happening here?" the elite who interrogated me yesterday asked.
"Sorry about this." I said, and pointed my weapon at his head and fired, killing him.
An explosion ruptured outside, the attack began. More troops started coming from other rooms of the café. No one even noticed me as I cut them down with their own weapon. And even if they did get outside, they were greeted by bloodthirsty soldiers.
Fevered gunfire erupted, as the Covenant were totally caught by surprise. They managed to rally by one of the heavy anti tank emplacements. It wasn't the Marines the surprised the Covenant, except the grunts of course, but the tanks and armor. How did they get there? Right under their noses they got Scorpions, Warthogs and other heavy equipment.
Never did they know the humans to be so smart and devious before. This was sort of like a revelation to the Covenant and their commanders.
"Keep the fire on em boys!" a Lieutenant shouted outside, leading the men, trying to take the last hot zone. I steeped out into onto the snowy ground. But one thing was different, I felt no cold.
The battle now has all but ended, a Scorpion landed a lucky hit on the emplacement, destroying it. All other resistance was crushed, and Marines were now helping the wounded and looking for this guy.
"Hey, hey you!" A Sergeant asked, approaching me along with his subordinate.
"Yes sir, you guys our rescue party?" I asked, with the confidence that they were.
"No son, were here for this guy." He said, crushing my hopes.
"But what about the other POW's?" I asked, with obvious distress and anger.
"I can take 50 others."
"You need to take them all!"
"I have my orders."
"Fuck Orders."
"Look at how many vehicles I have, what do you think I could do?? Now our lines are about 50 clicks back, we'll give you ammo and enough supplies to make it out. We can take the critically wounded." He said, leaving me before I could retaliate.
… 2 hours latter…
The line of prisoners surrounded the vehicles like a mob, all-trying to get aboard and get away from this hell.
"Please back away from the vehicles!" a distressed Capitan pleaded. He was answered with angry shouts.
I sat at the steps of the café, not joining the fruitless struggle.
"Your not even going to try?" a man asked, with a heavy Russian accent.
He was tall with hair the color of the snow, he was of good posture, but did not seem strong.
"Its hopeless, the best chance we have is to fall back to our lines."
"Seems like you need help."
"You want in?"
"I want in."
"Steven Arrows." I introduced, extending my hand.
"Call me Gregoriovich." He said, shaking my hand.
"What are you? Rifle man?" I asked.
"I'm multi purpose."
"Alright sounds good."
We took time to choice ammo, weapons and provisions. It was a long way back.
"How far do we have to go?" Gregoriovich asked, clearing his Sniper rifle and checking its sights.
"Hey what are you guys going to try?" an African American and his partner asked, both with smokes logged in their mouths. The bigger of the two had a cap on his head, and a rag tag type of outfit.
"We're getting out of this hell." I replied.
"You're going to need me." He said.
"Why?"
"You're going to need a man who escaped from prison before." He bragged, a grin on his face.
"And your friend here?" I asked.
"Oh, he, he's a demo expert, comes in handy in tight places." The bigger one said.
"Y-yeah, that's m-me." He spoke, stuttering.
"Let me guess, Stut right?" I asked, giving a comical look towards Gregoriovich.
"H-how did you guess." He asked.
"Lucky guess."
"Names Walker." The bigger one said, offering no handshake.
"Arrows."
"Gregoriovich."
"So what's your plan to get out of here?" Walker asked, sitting down.
… 1 hour latter…
The trucks were now gone, and much of the mob had fled into the woods. Now only the sick, the wounded, or the men unwilling to run remained.
The Covenant forces rolled into camp, their convoy on the main road. No resistance remained, at least that they could see. Tanks, men and trucks were all in the group heading for the POW camp. They rolled into camp, and started to unload.
Then five explosions went of simultaneously, destroying the café and setting much of the convoy on fire and destroying much of the rest. The surprised and morally damaged Covenant scrambled out, believing they were up against a vastly superior foe.
As they stumbled out blindly from the smoking wreaks, well-placed sniper rounds felled even more. The grunts in the group had enough; they started to flea back up the road.
As they started up the road another defining explosion tore them to pieces. Body parts and blue blood was all that remained in the massive hole left from the explosion.
"Damn it fall back!" an Elite ordered.
"Stut! Walker! Now!" I ordered, as the four of us converged on the survivors.
That was the nail in the coffin for them, as we took no prisoners. Even the wounded were not given the curtsy to live.
"Please… I never wanted to be in this war." A painful cry came from an Elite with a nasty chest wound.
"Neither did I." I replied, firing a round into his head.
"Damn, now that's how it's done!" Walker exclaimed, looking at the casualties they just inflicted.
"Hell of a good start." Gregoriovich added.
"Hey Stut, nice job on the explosions, how many we got left?" I asked.
"F-five s-sir." He replied, checking his backpack full of presents.
"Alright. Lets move men. Covey isn't going to be happy." I said, and we started our long journey back to friendly lines.
… Two hours into the Journey, Support Covenant division…
"Well, well, look at what our human friends just did to our troops. May this be a lesson to everyone." The Brute said, almost laughing at the destruction of his brothers.
The elite commandos scouted the camp. The carcasses of tanks, vehicles and corpses did not deter the best the Covenant had to offer.
"Orders sir?" a subordinate asked.
"Bring all prisoners here."
"Yes sir."
All prisoners that could be found were brought to the commander. He observed them with pitiful disgust.
"You men believe that you are fighting for good. But their lies have led you to this." He started, walking along the ranks of bloody POWs.
"We… we will right those wrongs."
He walked once more along the ranks, and then started picking out random people, 12 in total and made them kneel down.
"If you have a god, start praying to him." He said menacingly, and starting killing them off, with a headshot from his pistol. He finished all of them, and then turned to the others.
"You have 30 minutes to get away from here, after that, you will be hunted. For those who can survive 1 hour of being hunted will be free to go. Go now." He instructed, and the game was on.
"Stray. Kill them all." The Brute whispered into a terribly scared Jackal.
"No one will see the next light."
… Somewhere in the forest near Neinville…
"I was born in Moscow, lived their my whole life until I was dragged into this bloody mess. Haven't looked back since." Gregoriovich said, me and him making small talk trying to pass the time. The thick forest fell silent, as most life was devoid in winter.
We'd been walking for about two hours, and we thought we were in the clear. We have heard no movement and we all thought it was over for us.
"Hunters!" Walker shouted, walking behind us with Stut. We all dove to the snowy ground, trying to find out where they were.
"Hey! Where are they?" Gregoriovich called back as silently as he could.
"See that weird tree next to the crater? Right to the left of there, I see five of them, plus support."
"Shit." I said, "Hey, Stut, set up a trip and some explosives around here."
"Got it s-sir."
"Hey, you got a bead on them Greg?"
"Yeah, should I take the shot?" he asked, eager to fell.
"No, wait for Stut."
"Walker, get ready to fall back."
A silence fell over the woods, as the unsuspecting prey would suddenly come under fire.
"Walker. Walker put your damn smoke out!" I called; believing the sensitive noses of the hunters would pick up the scent.
"A-all done b-boss." Stut reported.
"Gregoriovich, any one hit kills on the hunters?"
"Yeah, right between the slits in their eyes."
"Go for it."
The crack of the sniper rifle went off, and the distinguished white streak followed the bullet. The call of the Covenant party followed after, and began to scan the trees.
"They see us." Gregoriovich said.
"You get the hunter?" I asked.
"Yeah, think so but two more inbound."
We all started to fire on the enemy, our empty cartages smoking as they hit the snow. The ten or so mixed Covenant forces charged forward, firing incredibly accurate shots for such a far distance.
"Grenade!" Walker shouted his warning, pulled the pin and let fly. The throw was no were close to hitting anything, only succeeding in alerting more enemies.
"Hostiles right!" Walker shouted, trying to keep fire on both sides.
"Stut! Get those bombs ready!"
"Y-yeah!"
"You want some of this!!?" Walker screamed, the adrenaline and thrill of battle running through his blood, making him stand up and firing in sweeping ark.
A green round hit him, causing a "popping" sound, as he fell to the ground.
"Stay down man!" I called over.
"What the hell are we fighting for now?" he asked, knowing that the tide of battle was going greatly against us.
"For a fucking miracle that's what!"
A hunter came out of his cover and rushed towards us, my fire not even putting a dent in it.
"Stut now!" I called, jumping out of my ditch and covering Walker as best I could.
A remote mine went off, damn, that thing had kick. It almost knocked me over Walker. Dust and big chunks of dirt and remains of the adversary fell all around us.
"Were you hit?" I asked, turning him over trying to find the wound.
"Right here, its bad." He grunted in pain.
"Sir! The cavalry arrived!" Gregoriovich shouted.
"That's right sir! We got your back!" a line through my COM came through, and the distinctive Warthog engine and machineguns add to the mix of sounds.
"Right on! Keep up the fire!" I shouted enthusiastically back.
After the Warthog showed up, the rest of the Covenant slowly started to fall back, having no weapons to combat it.
"Dead on Lieutenant! You're a godsend." I exclaimed, eager to shake my saviors hand.
"You guys with that failed attempt to liberate the POWs? We were sent with some other guys to check it out." He asked.
"You kidding, we are the POWs, the attempting was solely for the high rankers, not us low rollers."
"All right, we got to get out of here." The Lieutenant said, aware of the approaching doom.
We loaded Walker onto the Warthog and started rolling off, eager to put miles between us and the menaces approaching behind.
From then on out, there was no action, but the four remaining mines did get tripped and exploded. But we were only about 1 mille out so there was no rush.
…Back at camp…
"Damn fine work out there Marines, earned yourself a medal you did." The Lieutenant stressed.
"Yeah, sounds good." I replied, not really caring.
"Well comrade, this looks like the end." Gregoriovich said, giving me a handshake.
"See you sometime after the war."
"Hey you guys, what about me?" Walker asked, being carried away by a stretcher.
"Hey, catch you latter also, don't work to hard."
"Don't worry." He replied, a big smile on his face.
"S-see you boss." The stuttering from Stut came.
"Yeah, you did good."
I never saw those men again, they were good people though. We all wanted to get out, that was our motivation and soul driver in that crazy operation we pulled. All POWs that stayed behind were killed, half the bodies were found in the forest.
But what of the main operation? They were cut off by an elite group of Covenant forces, cut most of them down. 98 in fact, died for the life of one person, who ended up dieing in the ER after being hit by shrapnel. Some got out though, the only plus sign to that damn mess…