Chapter 11
Remember
"You're Sentinels, haven't you ever wondered why they refer to humans as the Reclaimers? And why there is some technology that couldn't be activated with four fingers?" Roger said calmly, the disbelief burning on the Sang-Heli's face.
"How did you know that?" Sorrung-Yaan asked. Roger smiled before replying.
"Same way as I know about the flood, I asked the right… person."
"There was once a man who wrote a poem. It went like this:
Remember that day on February,
The Day of Judgment has come
And all the bodies buried,
Will fill the holes they dug
Remember that day on February,
And there we wonder why
And all the bodies buried
Of those that day that died
The twenty third of February
Where Heavens angels wept
And Satan's soldiers were merry
For all of those who slept" Roger said it carefully, knowing the power that words played, and as he came closer to the Sang-Heli. It seemed the Alien knew what he meant.
"You still haven't told me how you know about the Reclaimers, or the Flood." It stated.
"We are part of a unit called M.E.R.C, Marine Emergency Reconnaissance Corp. my squad, GreyFox, used to have thirteen members. Alexia was an on and off kind of person, between her Orion training. Drac was a great soldier, and was killed at the battle of Bloodied Canyon, same with Dog, Biggie, Aussie, Doc and Bird.
Mia, Roman, Ziizika, Jackal, Alexia, Silence, and I are the last.
At Bloodied canyon, we managed to make it away…"
Then the wraith appeared. Ramming one of the other M.E.R.C's away with ease, Bird was her name, and the last thing she did was fly.
Roman, the new recruit, the greenhorn, came rushing up, holding his Sniper in his hands. He ran up behind the Wraith and jumped on its back. But Alexia had already sent herself smashing in the front half where the alien driver sat.
Roger noticed both of these, and ran to the back of the giant alien Tank, tackling Roman from the back half, and sending him sprawling to the half-glassed ground.
The wraith exploded, and Searing hot plasma came rushing out in a spherical shape from the now ruined Wraith turning the ground underneath into glass. Roman was only scolded on one side of his face, but screamed in pain as his face began to melt.
"CORPSMAN" Roger yelled, knowing of the closeness of Romans damage and the possibility o Plasma-poisoning, or even worse Boren's syndrome,
Doc came over, and took out a First aid Kit.
Alexia started boxing one of the silver Sang-Heli that remained. And Jackal Tackled another, sending it tripping over, but not killing it, It got up, and as it did, The reinforcements came, for both sides. Three Hornets engaged three out of four Banshees' and a Scorpion Tank rolled over a hill for the fourth, And a dozen more heavily armed Sang-Heli's Came down in Drop-Pods, Which was met by the hardcore human 41st O.D.S.T Division. The M.E.R.C's retreated, dragging the Semi-conscious Roman with them.
"There, let's get inside that bunker." Silence called, pointing his T.A.T.R-14 at an open lean-to type building, His pretty face showing fear as he watched the O.D.S.T unit was blown from existence by a Scarab that had followed the Covenant army over the hill.
Roger remembered his briefing.
/ The following Document is classified, and is deniable by any or all major countries of the UNSC.
/
/
/
Project Bush Fire
This mission is designated Heavy risk
The Industrial planet Lauren has been attacked by the Covenant forces. They seem to be interested in a specific area of the planet. They are digging. Information is sketchy at best as they have heavily fortified the area. Last estimate counts that the planet has only had a small portion of it "Glassed" and it's atmosphere Is breathable. We want to Claim the prize of what they are after. Unfortunately the Orion forces are completely overwhelmed with other missions at the moment. As you may well know the remaining three Orion's are beyond classified and you should be Relieved to know our deniability of their current existence is working very well at the moment. There are a number of problems. Only one Orion will be accompanying your M.E.R.C, Units Grey-Fox, Green-Boar, and the H.U.N.T.E.R Unit Backstab.
The O.D.S.T 41st and 42nd will be accompanying you also.
Be also advised that all radio contact will be shaky at best, as the Covenant sent a EMP into the Ionosphere to disrupt any of our communication
The mission if accepted is to either
(a)Assault and remove any Covenant Resistance for our scientist team to extract whatever the Covenant is after.
(b)Destroy the Object/Information that the Covenant are after.
(c)Hold the Covenant from their excavation until the remaining Orion forces, ONI and more UNSC forces arrive.
And good luck to you and your Unit Lieutenant-Major Roger.
Signed Captain Lucas Nelson
/
/
/
End Transmit
Beyond Classified… Good Luck… He should have done more than expect more than to actually believe they could make a difference.
The 42nd O.D.S.T and the whole H.U.N.T.E.R Unit were killed before they even made landfall. Alexia 121 was one of the remaining "Dead" Orion's. And yet here she stood. With the new title of Spartan to bang her up to shape. He eyed up Roman, and then scoured the landscape for more cover but the only cover he could see was further into enemy territory.
"Silence, grab his feet, Jackal, Ziizika? Cover us okay? No one from my unit dies today. Is that clear?" Roger said, grabbing Romans feet, and motioning down the hill towards the enemy's stronghold.
"Um how much you want to bet no one makes it back?" said Jackal reloading his T.A.T.R-14 and picking up Silence's as well. Ziizika did the same with Rogers' and her own.
"Could we at least wait for our next wave before we go?" Roman said, as his face began to solidify, but his eye was completely white and his face was showing deep plasma burns, it was clear he needed medical attention.
"We don't even know if there will be a next wave Ro. We really got to go now" Roger said running backwards outside of the cover, with Ziizika in front and Jackal at the rear.
The second they broke cover, they came under fire from the superior forces on the other side of the long hill.
Roger turned his head to give Jackal directions on who to shoot first and when he turned back Ziizika was nowhere in sight
"Hey,
you're supposed to be giving us cover fire. That usually works when
you shoot back." Silence stated, as he lost some hair to the
incoming fire. Thankfully they were too far away for them to fire
accurately.
Jackal dropped to his knee and sent a few of his own
shots from the dual T.A.T.R-14's back at them, then resumed the run
towards the cover.
But as he turned, he noticed Roger and Silence had disappeared, just the same as Ziizika had.
"Aw crap." He stated as he ran to where he last saw them.
"Aw crap, Aw Crap," He stated when he heard the sound he had come to dread, that of empty batteries, his hand slapped down to his ammunition pouch.
"Aw crap again." He said when he found he had run out of batteries for the T.A.T.R-14's he was holding. He began running backwards, towards the way which his Unit went missing.
Then he fell over the edge of the trench.