Halo / Starcraft
Human / Covenant Alliance War
 Vignette 1: The Different Faces of Marines

December 9th 2554, 14:22 (Military Calendar)
Mangius system: Above Mangius IV
Aboard USD Flagship Hyperioron

"Gentlemen, today, we will fight. We will fight because that is what we are trained to do. To be honest with you, we don't have much to fight for. Our government is deteriorating day by day and the old man Mensk will die off. We fight for ourselves, and our families, not for these USNC marines or their people."

The echoing voice from General Edmond Duke was forced into every marine's ear either by transceiver or in the giant room in the bowels of the hulking ship. One hour after the speech three fourths of the entire Terran fleet entered the Mangius system (300,000 ships). The sky was littered with black dots in every space above the planet.

General Duke ordered a full assault on the planet at 16:00 hours on December 9th 2554. This record was documented that day to be remembered as the Terran's finest hour. All 300,000 ships turned and entered the atmosphere and thousands upon thousands of fighters, Drop-ships, and smaller frigates were scattered upon the terrain of Mangius IV. Within the hour the covenant hit a brick wall of marines. The marines tore the covenant to pieces with searing hot rounds. The most known thing to a marine to see before he died in that hour was blue blood squirting up in the air in every direction and shots piercing the hot air.

The battles around the planet each lasted a good night or two. 32 million men were deployed that week on the planet, 200,456 men died in two days.

A stray marine platoon of 45 walked into a USNC base outside of western world development site three and was welcomed to stay because they fought along side the marines during the battles. One USNC marine looked at a Terran admiring his bulkhead battle armor. The suit alone weighed 193 pounds but it held its own weight so the marine was comfortable. His C-22 gauss rifle had scorch marks where the mussel flare burned the metal. "Pardon fellow but why do some of you have barcodes on your heads?" said the smaller marine to the Terran. "Re-soc, it's a thing we have to go through before training. Some guy on mar Sara found out that it's a memory layover or brainwash if you will. We are bred where I come from so I didn't go through Re-soc to get the memory layover, just for training." The terror on the smaller marines face was growing. Some Terran on his left leaned toward him and commented "You know I looked into my files and before Re-soc I was a murderer and institutionalized at a insane asylum in New Braxis.

The former psycho got up and walked to the mess building. The terrorized marine gazed into the dirt on the ground. "Wow, I can't believe your past is so horrible." The Terran chuckled "It's not so bad once you know your gonna die anyway. That's the thing I am grown, programmed and killed, it's my purpose." The marine had a tear in his eye and it dropped to the ground. "Don't worry son, it's nothing to be concerned about because the whole idea is that we will go to any lengths to survive. Unlike earth which uses Estimation and Chances, we take no chances, we kill or be killed. For every marine killed two are created. It our way of life, if you want to cry about it blame yourselves. You humans are the ones who exiled our colonies." The marine wiped the tear away and announced that he was hungry for dinner.

The battles would continue for the next month nonstop until all of the covenant were dead or retreated as ordered by General Edmond Duke, Terran expeditionary force.

A Lieutenant walked into the clearing between the mess hall and barracks and yelled to the sitting marines to come inside because a storm was coming. In the barracks the marines sat at the tables and discussed what they would do after the war ended. "Hey forget it man this war will not end." The other two stared at the bulkhead marine with a puzzled face. "Do you two honestly believe that we are here to end this war, I can't believe you don't realize the truth. We can't beat the Zerg or Covenant let alone the Protoss. It is our fate to die, that is why we tried to stop you humans from entering our business."

The same Lieutenant walked into the barracks and announced a tank regiment was strolling through the town and that they should pack up and follow the tanks, give them support. At 23:00 hours the 45 marines met up with the tank regiment accompanied by some goliath suits and a squad of vulture bikes. A marine climbed onto an Arcolite siege tank and opened the hatch. "Yo capt'n where we going?" He looked up at the marine "You didn't here yet? Were going to the western world development command center to destroy all resistance.

The next morning they rumbled into the small development town and immediately the 88 flak rounds burst in all directions. The thunderous shots compressed the air in the marine's lungs and they started to loose consciousness one by one. Through the shots the marines were told to shut their face plates and did so. The marines in the USNC didn't have face plates so they were crammed into the tanks or lied on top of them. A squad of marines was blown apart by artillery covering tanks with blood.

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