Bad Luck Always Comes In Twos
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars, or Halo. Bungie/Microsoft and George Lucas do.
About 12 chapters ago, in the prequel: The Front Lines/on board Accumulator…
Clone Trooper number 833 stepped away from the 3 clones: 325; 310 and 211, who had formed their own little 'squad', and spoke to another clone via private comm channel:
"Monitor all comm transmissions, and make sure that they're the ones that Commander Neyo is looking for."
"Yes, sir." The clone said, bringing his advanced DC-17 Assassin's Sniper rifle to bear.
Planet-side on Geonosis…
The clone lay on the dirt, concealed by a number of rocks, on top of a cliff, overlooking the site of a command post building site. He peered through the scope of his Sniper rifle, and watched as a Republic gunship took a missile to the back. It crashed to the ground, and crumbled inward, shattering glass and leaving fires burning inside it. Clones ran towards it, and they pulled out a pilot.
The second gunship dodged a few missiles, and he heard the pilot say something, but it came through as static – a sign that the pilot used a private channel. He watched as the second gunship zoomed away, and then saw one clone run into one of the tents.
A moment later, he heard a comm message being broadcasted out to any nearby gunships:
"Mayday, mayday! This is Corporal Xan, requesting immediate backup! We have wounded! I repeat! We have wounded that need evac, ASAP!"
That was all he needed to hear.
He keyed the comm, and opened a private channel to his superior; 833.
"Sir," he whispered.
"This is 812, we have confirmation, I repeat, we have confirmation: they are the ones."
There was static for a moment, and then:
"Roger that, 812, good work. Take them out."
"Yes, sir!"
The clone loaded his Sniper rifle, and he looked through the scope once again. Did he have any thoughts of betrayal, or mutiny? Perhaps, but if he expressed them, he would be silenced.
Besides, orders were orders.
He watched as the CIS forces closed in, and saw one of the Hailfire droids explode. The crosshair was aimed at one of the clones crouching inside a bunker. Fortunately, he could make the shot, as it was a very poor bunker.
The projectile entered the clone's back and exited via his chest, travelling through his heart on the way. The clone was dead before he slumped against the stone, and the clone next to him had time to yell before he went down too. 812 knew that the second clone would live… for now, so he left him to die of the blood loss. Blood covered the stone, and the last three clones ducked down in a trench.
He had no shot.
The clones were suppressed by the remaining Spider tank, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to make the shot any time soon.
He stopped.
What was he doing?
Killing clones…killing allies.
"Why?" he asked himself.
He lowered the Sniper rifle.
He didn't have an answer.
833 looked through his own sniper scope, and saw 812 stand up, lowering his sniper rifle.
"He's becoming like them," he muttered.
He nodded to the pilot of the gunship that he was in, who brought the LAAT about to face the clone on the cliff.
"Open fire," 833 said.
The pilot fired the gunships main cannons, and 4 large lasers zoomed towards 812.
CT-812 heard a LAAT gunship firing its main cannons, and turned around, only to be blasted away from the edge of the cliff. His body smashed onto the ground, and dragged along it, gnawing away at his armour. His back hit a rock, and he stopped, and lay still.
"He's dead." 833 said to himself, glad that he had stopped a clone that was about to turn against him.
Right Now...
The 3 Pelican's roared over the highway, zooming past buildings and heading towards the centre of New Mombassa. The streets of Old Mombassa lay deserted – ever since the Covenant had started their attack, the city had been evacuated.
Or at least, most of it had.
Dead civilians lay strewn across the ground, and vehicles lay on their sides or roof, some with flames sprouting out of them.
Cpl. Silverman closest to the cockpit, and McCabe sat across from him.
"Can't get this fucking thing on!" Ryan said, struggling with his seatbelt.
Somebody laughed.
"Careful," Axton said.
"Your gonna fall out the back of the Pelican!"
After they had been treated, and most of their wounds had been healed, they had been immediately assigned to this mission, along with the rest of their squad.
"Lock and load!" The Sergeant shouted, and Silverman racked a round into the chamber of his Battle rifle.
Axton and McCabe punched fists, and Quanse patted Silverman on the back.
"30 seconds out" the pilot of one of the other Pelican's said.
"Stand by to- whoa…"
Silverman leaned forward and looked through the cockpit window to see what was going on, and a knot formed in his stomach. He yelled out, which hurt his lungs:
"Brace yourselves!"
There was an explosion as the large metal bug that Silverman saw fired a long, large, green beam, which only just missed their Pelican.
3rd squad, the ODST's inside the middle Pelican, weren't so lucky.
The beam enveloped the Pelican, and it crashed to the ground, accompanied by a huge explosion.
Purple plasma bolts fired from one of the two secondary turrets on the Covenant machine, and a number of them hit the Pelican that Silverman was in.
Or, to be more precise, they hit the Pelican's left engine. Black smoke immediately poured out of the damaged engine, and it veered off to the right.
Ryan screamed as the only one of four seatbelt straps that he was holding was ripped away from his hand, and he flew out the back of the Pelican, but was jerked to a halt as Sergeant Grale's hand slapped into his.
The Sergeant pulled him back in, and as soon as Ryan's feet touched the metal, he held onto the handholds above him with a death grip. The damaged engine coughed, and then flames spat out of it, just as the Pelican passed over the top of a hotel, and then they came closer to the sand of the beach they were going to crash on.
"Hold on!" the pilot yelled, struggling to bring the Pelican under control.
It was no use.
The Pelican's nose hit the sand first; smashing the glass and making the nose crumple inwards. Sand flowed past the now dead pilots, and the Ryan was jerked off his feet, and one of his hands came free. The other didn't, and the elbow snapped because of the pressure. He screamed, and someone's belt snapped, causing them to fly forward and make them slam head first into the bulkhead right next to Silverman, with a sickening crack! The man's neck was bent at a grotesque angle, and McCabe's helmet hit the wall next to her, giving her one helluva headache. At the last second, Ryan let go of the handhold, and his leg hit the bulkhead.
But he was alive.
"Status!" Grale yelled, ripping off his now visor-less helmet to reveal a bloody gash.
"Both pilots are dead," Silverman reported, unstrapping himself and looking through the doorway that lead to what remained of the cockpit.
"Mendez is down," Axton added, pausing to strip his dead friend of his dog tags and ammo.
"Sarge!" Quanse was already standing at the back of the Pelican, looking at the wreckage that was a building, a hotel.
Grale basically read his mind, and echoed Quanse's thoughts.
"Let's get moving!" he barked.
"Quanse, you got point. Silverman, Axton, stay here with Ryan – make sure that he gets all of the necessary treatment, and then we'll let you know once that building is secure."
"Yes, sir!"
"Yes, sir!"
Blay sat on the IFT-X, and as the second hovercraft fired at him, he fired his last rocket. It zoomed towards the purple hovercraft, and then, at the last second, the hovercraft moved to one side, and the rocket flew past, detonating on the sand at the beach.
Shit.
The hovercraft flew towards him, and he knew that, if no one came, he would die.
Xan fired his DC-15 blaster rifle at one of the flying vehicles, and it zeroed in on him. He rolled to the right as it strafed his position with blue plasma, and stood up again as it screamed over his head. He fired at the back of it, and at the wings, and a few lucky shots landed on the left anti grav pod. The tiny white sphere disappeared, and the single-man fighter spiralled down to the sand, crashing into it.
The occupant had jumped away at the last second, and a fire had formed inside the cockpit. Xan aimed at the blue alien and squeezed the trigger. Ionized bolts smashed into the alien, and its personal shield disappeared. More bolts hit it, and it roared once, and fell to the ground, dead.
"Xan!" He heard Blay's voice
"Help!"
Xan looked over to where his HUD showed where Blay was, and saw him standing on top of the flaming IFT-X. Xan looked over to the corner where the flying enemies had come from, and saw hundreds upon hundreds of aliens come pouring around the corner.
"Into the water!" he shouted to everybody through the comm.
"Regroup at the ships! Snipers maintain positions – fire at will!"
The thousands of clones on the beach began sprinting to the water, and plasma rained down on them from every direction. Xan ran to the ship with the others, and when the water became too deep to run, he swam.
The base had been overrun, and any clones that remained on the beach were slaughtered by plasma fire. Sent the codes to the ship to open the hangar ramp, and then the thousands of clones poured into the hangar via the access ramp.
"Blay," Xan said.
"Wait there – I'll be back."
"I don't have all day, Xan!"
Xan ran on bard the Venator class ship, and broadcasted a message to every clone:
"Grab any IFT-X tanks you can, and I'll see you on the beach."
He gave them a dead giveaway: they were going to assault the beach. Right now.
He jumped into his own IFT-X, manning the turret, while another clone took up the driving position. Hundreds upon hundreds of tanks, including Xan's, and spray was kicked up, even though they hovered above the water.
"Take us over to the wounded tank!" Xan yelled to the pilot, who acknowledged the order by accelerating towards Blay.
On the beach, Xan watched as the few hundred aliens turned into a few thousand. He gulped, and then their tank pulled alongside Blay's dead tank. He fired a blue beam at the hovercraft that had remained in front of the dead IFT-X, and it exploded.
"Jump on!" he yelled over a private comm channel to Blay.
Blay stumbled and fell into the water, and Xan told the pilot to stay, and then jumped out, standing on the hull of his tank.
"Xan!" Hawkins' voice was barely audible over a wash of static.
"Look out!"
Xan didn't have any time to move, and the ensuing explosion threw him clear from his tank.
Hawkins looked through the scope of a DC-15 Sniper rifle, and tracked one of the screaming enemy ships. He tried to find a way to kill the pilot, and he found one – a small hole, about half a centimetre wide, and pulled the trigger.
The sniper shot zoomed through the tiny gap, and the pilot slid out the back, dead. The flying vehicle fell to the ground after it.
Hawkins reloaded and looked at the water, where he saw a clone, designated as Xan, stood on the hull of an IFT-X tank. He also saw one of the flying things bearing down on Xan, and it fired a green thing, some sort of rocket.
"Xan! Look out!" he yelled into the comm.
Too late.
He watched as the rocket connected, destroying the tank, and flinging Xan away from the flaming wreckage.
The world was eerily silent.
Deathly silent.
Xan floated underwater, and he heard nothing, and saw none of his HUD's instruments. He then realised that his helmet wasn't on his head – must've been thrown clear during the… the what? Explosion? Yes, that was it…. Wasn't it?
Whatever it was, it didn't matter – he had to get to the surface, and take a breath.
He managed to surface for a quick second and gasp, during which he heard screaming. He surfaced again, and heard explosions and more screaming, followed by the whining sound of plasma. He fell under the surface again, and saw dead bodies floating above him.
He might soon join them.
He surfaced once more, and saw that a lot of IFT-X tanks had made their way to shore, and were accompanying the many troops that didn't have a vehicle. He heard screaming and inhuman roars all along the beach, and he found a helmet – his helmet – floating in the water next to him.
He picked it up and placed it on his head, hearing frantic pleas for help, and orders streaming out to and from almost every clone trooper on the beach.
Blay… he had to find Blay and then order in the ARC's, and then, maybe, they would take the beach.
What was he thinking? They will take the beach.
No matter what the cost.
A/N: I am sorry if this chapter was too long for everybody that reads it! And if i didn't cover too much!
Please Read and Review on your way out.