Chapter 7
Brilliant sun beamed down on to the field of snow, the only break in the total whiteout was the cluster of squat buildings near a shear ice cliff that soared over 100 feet above. In the largest of these buildings, the command centre with two landing pads and a communications dish on top, Major Niles Pullman gave the attack order.
Over eighty dents, twelve feet across, appeared in the unbroken snow. Theses dents transformed into gaping holes, revealing their deadly secret.
All was silent as the marines, deep underground in the main base, franticly searched for targets. A deep rumble sounded, growing to a deafening roar as the first of the missiles struggled against gravity to pull its lethal form into the daylight. Just as its conical nose was clearing the silo, the others began their long climb.
The noise on the surface was incredible, the ground was shaking like a 6.4 earthquake as a dozen gigantic missiles streaked into the sky. Within a minute the first of the defence missiles had exited the atmosphere. In the vacuum of space there was no sound as the head of the missile split, and ten separate thermonuclear warheads, each with their own targets, shot forward with new energy. The missiles behind did exactly the same and within five minutes of the attack order being given, one hundred and twenty nuclear bombs were going to give the Covenant Earth's welcome greeting.
The alien fleet had been out of Slip-Space for only ten minutes but they were already in formation and preparing the first wave of attack. As the human strategist's had thought, they couldn't risk their large cruisers against Earth's orbital and ground defences.
Aboard the Devine Light Captain Jen'raik gave the order for the first attack wave to launch, hundreds of thirty foot U-shaped troopships disengaged from their motherships along with their fighter escorts to give Earth a welcome of their own.
About halfway they met the nukes.
A dozen of the smaller warheads with intelligent targeting veered away from their original co-ordinates and began tracking the alien dropships. Frantic Jackal pilots dropped flares and chaff in a futile effort to shake the missiles. Though the invasions ships were well spread out the first fifty- megawatt explosion vaporised five ships and crippled two, leaving the surviving occupants dead in space, contemplating whether to die from starvation or commit suicide, there would be no rescue sent by the Covenant commanders.
A total of forty-six were destroyed or were left dead in space, which could be considered even worse for the crews onboard. Earths' first "Hello" had been received.
Chapter 8
As the first nukes were hitting home, Master Chief and his reunited brother had just passed Earths' atmosphere. The sergeant in the hanger bay was right, the pilot, Jenkins, was good. The entry through the atmosphere was smooth, well, as smooth as you can get considering the hulls glowing red- hot and the crafts being buffeted by incredible winds and pressure.
John and Steve had a chance to see what was in the armoury.
The technicians in charge had done an excellent job, all of Dr. Hienlien's new weapons were aboard along with sufficient ammunition for many hours of combat operations.
The loading ramp opened whilst they were still approaching the base and the two Spartans were blessed with an amazing view of the Artic tundra, they could see for miles, able to pick out the gapping silos of the missiles that had already flown and knowing many more were still hidden under the snow, primed and ready for their time to kill.
As they touched down to the roar of the Pelicans' retro rockets a group of soldiers ran to meet them. Chief disembarked and approached the Sergeant, a small man, only around five foot four but incredibly heavy built, he looked like a human Pit Bull Terrier and just as mean.
"I need a squad of good men to unload what my partner tells them, then to arm up and get into the bird. We're gonna set up a sniper post on the top of that crevasse." Said Chief pointing to the huge ice cliff.
The squat Sergeant barked the orders to his men then turned back to the Chief. "Where do you want our armour situated? General Madison and most of the 7th armoured corps are deployed underground. We've got two Scorpion MBTs' and five Warthogs, three with LAAGs' and two with rocket launchers. I've got the two Scorpions situated on either side of the base but the Warthogs haven't been deployed yet, they're not to good in the snow"
Master Chief scanned the area and spotted a few nearby mounds of snow and ice that looked large enough to conceal the Warthogs. As he was pointing these out the jets of the Pelican burst into life, taking the snipers to find their foxholes.
Within five minutes everything was in position, the Warthogs, partially concealed behind their mounds with a driver and gunner in each. The marines, some hunkered down behind makeshift cover on the roofs of the buildings, others, the unlucky ones, dug into trenches in the snow. They weren't a moment too soon. As soon as Chief had loaded and checked his Minigun then crouched behind the metal bastion of the base the first of the alien dropships was spotted.
At first it was an insignificant speck in the brilliant blue sky, rapidly growing till the familiar U-shape was clearly visible. More began to appear and the Chief began to count them. Five...Eight....now twelve, Seventeen. Damn! Thought John, more than he expected. He'd got to twenty before the first craft was in range. Twenty dropships, at least ten creatures in each of them. Over two hundred incoming Covenant.
John stood and took aim, looking at the pristine white snow and knowing that in a few minutes it would be corrupted with the blood of many creatures, Human and Alien alike. He could hear a murmur of approval from the uncharacteristically quiet marines as his huge weapon spun into action.
Bright tracer fire leapt from the spinning barrels like flaming arrows, sweeping the gun in an arc he raked the side of the craft with titanium slugs. The armour penetrating bullets easily pierced the side of the ship and carried on through, cleaving support struts in two and liquidising passengers. The right hand extremity of the U-shaped ship was blown clear off and crashed into the snow, the rest of the ship following seconds later ploughing a massive groove in the snow. It wasn't the huge explosion John had hoped for but it had the desired effect on the marines morale.
"YEEHAW! Way to go Sir! Them filthy Covvies are gonna wish they stayed at home!"
John didn't have time to reply, the rest of the dropships were coming into range. Seeing their lead ship destroyed so easily the others were more cautious, the underslung twin plasma cannons opened up with uncanny accuracy blasting Chiefs' position. He managed to down one more before ducking back into cover to allow his shields to recharge.
Chapter 9
Steve watched the approaching ships through his scope, his HUD readout in his helmet put the temperature at minus eleven degrees Celsius. The cold didn't bother him but he could tell his squad was suffering; he could hear at least one pair of teeth chattering. Once the plasma starts flying they'll soon warm up the thought.
As they came into range he checked the wind and elevation one more time and shifted into firing position, both eyes open, one looking down the scope, the other looking past to help judge range (the scope automatically ranged but Steve felt more comfortable using it as a guide and trusting his own instincts).
A small wry smile crossed his face as the first of the craft was blown apart and crashed into the snow, closely followed by a second. The Doc wasn't kidding about his new toys.
Now he saw rockets from the Warthog's blasting into the sky and the returning plasma fire. The dropships were moving into landing positions and the sides dropped revealing the rows of Covenant troops. He took a deep breath, let out a little and held the rest as he drew a bead on an Elite commando.
This was what he lived for.
Loosing of two shots in quick succession he didn't even wait to see if they struck home, he knew as soon as he pulled the trigger that they would be true. He had already fired another two shots before the first two bored the Elite another orifice.
Now his whole squad was firing, killing scores before they had even touched down. He'd just despatched with another three Elites when he saw two ships alter course and head towards their position. This could be a problem he thought, the only heavy weapons they had were still onboard the Pelican and there was no way he could reach it in time. Superheated plasma lanced at them, melting the snow and their cover with it. Suddenly one of the craft jinked to the side, its stabiliser torn of by Minigun fire, as it spun it collided with its twin and both craft began to drop guns still firing all the time.
"FALL BACK NOW, MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!!!"
Brilliant sun beamed down on to the field of snow, the only break in the total whiteout was the cluster of squat buildings near a shear ice cliff that soared over 100 feet above. In the largest of these buildings, the command centre with two landing pads and a communications dish on top, Major Niles Pullman gave the attack order.
Over eighty dents, twelve feet across, appeared in the unbroken snow. Theses dents transformed into gaping holes, revealing their deadly secret.
All was silent as the marines, deep underground in the main base, franticly searched for targets. A deep rumble sounded, growing to a deafening roar as the first of the missiles struggled against gravity to pull its lethal form into the daylight. Just as its conical nose was clearing the silo, the others began their long climb.
The noise on the surface was incredible, the ground was shaking like a 6.4 earthquake as a dozen gigantic missiles streaked into the sky. Within a minute the first of the defence missiles had exited the atmosphere. In the vacuum of space there was no sound as the head of the missile split, and ten separate thermonuclear warheads, each with their own targets, shot forward with new energy. The missiles behind did exactly the same and within five minutes of the attack order being given, one hundred and twenty nuclear bombs were going to give the Covenant Earth's welcome greeting.
The alien fleet had been out of Slip-Space for only ten minutes but they were already in formation and preparing the first wave of attack. As the human strategist's had thought, they couldn't risk their large cruisers against Earth's orbital and ground defences.
Aboard the Devine Light Captain Jen'raik gave the order for the first attack wave to launch, hundreds of thirty foot U-shaped troopships disengaged from their motherships along with their fighter escorts to give Earth a welcome of their own.
About halfway they met the nukes.
A dozen of the smaller warheads with intelligent targeting veered away from their original co-ordinates and began tracking the alien dropships. Frantic Jackal pilots dropped flares and chaff in a futile effort to shake the missiles. Though the invasions ships were well spread out the first fifty- megawatt explosion vaporised five ships and crippled two, leaving the surviving occupants dead in space, contemplating whether to die from starvation or commit suicide, there would be no rescue sent by the Covenant commanders.
A total of forty-six were destroyed or were left dead in space, which could be considered even worse for the crews onboard. Earths' first "Hello" had been received.
Chapter 8
As the first nukes were hitting home, Master Chief and his reunited brother had just passed Earths' atmosphere. The sergeant in the hanger bay was right, the pilot, Jenkins, was good. The entry through the atmosphere was smooth, well, as smooth as you can get considering the hulls glowing red- hot and the crafts being buffeted by incredible winds and pressure.
John and Steve had a chance to see what was in the armoury.
The technicians in charge had done an excellent job, all of Dr. Hienlien's new weapons were aboard along with sufficient ammunition for many hours of combat operations.
The loading ramp opened whilst they were still approaching the base and the two Spartans were blessed with an amazing view of the Artic tundra, they could see for miles, able to pick out the gapping silos of the missiles that had already flown and knowing many more were still hidden under the snow, primed and ready for their time to kill.
As they touched down to the roar of the Pelicans' retro rockets a group of soldiers ran to meet them. Chief disembarked and approached the Sergeant, a small man, only around five foot four but incredibly heavy built, he looked like a human Pit Bull Terrier and just as mean.
"I need a squad of good men to unload what my partner tells them, then to arm up and get into the bird. We're gonna set up a sniper post on the top of that crevasse." Said Chief pointing to the huge ice cliff.
The squat Sergeant barked the orders to his men then turned back to the Chief. "Where do you want our armour situated? General Madison and most of the 7th armoured corps are deployed underground. We've got two Scorpion MBTs' and five Warthogs, three with LAAGs' and two with rocket launchers. I've got the two Scorpions situated on either side of the base but the Warthogs haven't been deployed yet, they're not to good in the snow"
Master Chief scanned the area and spotted a few nearby mounds of snow and ice that looked large enough to conceal the Warthogs. As he was pointing these out the jets of the Pelican burst into life, taking the snipers to find their foxholes.
Within five minutes everything was in position, the Warthogs, partially concealed behind their mounds with a driver and gunner in each. The marines, some hunkered down behind makeshift cover on the roofs of the buildings, others, the unlucky ones, dug into trenches in the snow. They weren't a moment too soon. As soon as Chief had loaded and checked his Minigun then crouched behind the metal bastion of the base the first of the alien dropships was spotted.
At first it was an insignificant speck in the brilliant blue sky, rapidly growing till the familiar U-shape was clearly visible. More began to appear and the Chief began to count them. Five...Eight....now twelve, Seventeen. Damn! Thought John, more than he expected. He'd got to twenty before the first craft was in range. Twenty dropships, at least ten creatures in each of them. Over two hundred incoming Covenant.
John stood and took aim, looking at the pristine white snow and knowing that in a few minutes it would be corrupted with the blood of many creatures, Human and Alien alike. He could hear a murmur of approval from the uncharacteristically quiet marines as his huge weapon spun into action.
Bright tracer fire leapt from the spinning barrels like flaming arrows, sweeping the gun in an arc he raked the side of the craft with titanium slugs. The armour penetrating bullets easily pierced the side of the ship and carried on through, cleaving support struts in two and liquidising passengers. The right hand extremity of the U-shaped ship was blown clear off and crashed into the snow, the rest of the ship following seconds later ploughing a massive groove in the snow. It wasn't the huge explosion John had hoped for but it had the desired effect on the marines morale.
"YEEHAW! Way to go Sir! Them filthy Covvies are gonna wish they stayed at home!"
John didn't have time to reply, the rest of the dropships were coming into range. Seeing their lead ship destroyed so easily the others were more cautious, the underslung twin plasma cannons opened up with uncanny accuracy blasting Chiefs' position. He managed to down one more before ducking back into cover to allow his shields to recharge.
Chapter 9
Steve watched the approaching ships through his scope, his HUD readout in his helmet put the temperature at minus eleven degrees Celsius. The cold didn't bother him but he could tell his squad was suffering; he could hear at least one pair of teeth chattering. Once the plasma starts flying they'll soon warm up the thought.
As they came into range he checked the wind and elevation one more time and shifted into firing position, both eyes open, one looking down the scope, the other looking past to help judge range (the scope automatically ranged but Steve felt more comfortable using it as a guide and trusting his own instincts).
A small wry smile crossed his face as the first of the craft was blown apart and crashed into the snow, closely followed by a second. The Doc wasn't kidding about his new toys.
Now he saw rockets from the Warthog's blasting into the sky and the returning plasma fire. The dropships were moving into landing positions and the sides dropped revealing the rows of Covenant troops. He took a deep breath, let out a little and held the rest as he drew a bead on an Elite commando.
This was what he lived for.
Loosing of two shots in quick succession he didn't even wait to see if they struck home, he knew as soon as he pulled the trigger that they would be true. He had already fired another two shots before the first two bored the Elite another orifice.
Now his whole squad was firing, killing scores before they had even touched down. He'd just despatched with another three Elites when he saw two ships alter course and head towards their position. This could be a problem he thought, the only heavy weapons they had were still onboard the Pelican and there was no way he could reach it in time. Superheated plasma lanced at them, melting the snow and their cover with it. Suddenly one of the craft jinked to the side, its stabiliser torn of by Minigun fire, as it spun it collided with its twin and both craft began to drop guns still firing all the time.
"FALL BACK NOW, MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!!!"