10 Miles from Standoff Military Base, East Africa
Aprox. 90 minutes after briefing
"You okay, sir? You're lucky your pod hit close to base."
"Yeah. Can you get the hatch open for me? It's stuck."
"Sure thing" the Marine replied, grunting as he ripped the hatch off the drop pod.
"Thanks. I thought I was gonna die in there" said Mike, stepping out of the pod. It's had to have been at least an hour. ONI's holding good.
"We got the rest of your squad back at Standoff. Need a ride?" the Marine offered, gesturing to a nearby Warthog. "What the hell's goin' on up there? We lost contact with ONI over an hour ago!"
"Get me to your Sergeant at base" Mike said, hoping it wouldn't be too late. "We may have some Covie problems."
"Damn! Never thought I'd see 'em up close!" the Marine said, excited at some real action.
As they pulled up to the base, the Gunnery Sgt. came out to meet them, with Robbie and Gunter with him.
"Gunnery Sgt. Akov, glad to meet you, sir" he said, offering his hand.
"Sgt. Mike Kingston, good to meet you to" Mike replied, scanning the base. It was oddly devoid of tanks, turrets, and other standard Military equipment. "This is Standoff? I thought it was a major Military base."
"Actually, it's a high-caliber Military training facility" Akov replied, a little embarrassed.
"But we do have major contact with Rat's Nest."
--"Sir? It's Parke. Good to see you alive and well. Me and Will are over in the COM base, trying to connect to Rat's Nest."--
"Are you two okay? Hate to lose someone on the first day."
--"Will's pretty banged up, but he says he's fine. I landed softly, no injuries"--
"Any luck with contacting Rat's Nest? We gotta get some backup and armor, now!"
--"With ONI gone, I can't directly call them. I'd have to run a tech bypass, bug and old telephone cable…"--
"How long will that take!?" Mike was starting to get anxious. "There's no way we can survive a heavy wave fight."
--"Sir? New contact slipping in. Looks like Phantoms, high and slow. They don't know we're here yet."--
"They're here already!?" Akov smashed his hand against the Warthog. "Okay Marines! We've got weapons and ammo in the base. Get that turret up, and somebody get the Hog rollin'!"
"OORAH!" all the Marines replied in unison.
"Gunter, get up top, help out with the turret. And keep some rockets on ya." Gunter nodded. "I always do." As he left to help move the turret, Mike turned his attention to Robbie. "You and me are base defense" he said, walking to the armory.
"Aye aye, sir!" Robbie replied, loading a shotgun. After loading two SMG's, Mike Instructed Will and Parke. "You guys keep overwatch, and try to hurry with your phone call! Let's give them one hell of a surprise party!"
A few minutes passed, and nothing happened. A few of the Marines were starting to get testy. "Are they coming or not?" asked Akov jokingly. Then, as if by magic, 2 Zealot lances dropped out of a camouflaged Phantom, looking around. Suddenly, a white trail zipped through a Major's head. Then all hell broke loose. Rushing, the closest base, the Minors from the weakened lance barged through the door, but were easily mowed down by the above turret and well-trained marines inside. The remaining Major came next, but only managed to get a few shots off as it was rammed by the hidden Warthog. As the Warthog charged the other shocked lance, a Zealot attempted to board it. However, the turret on the back ripped it to shreds. By this time, the other lance attempted to break into the base. Most of the Minors were destroyed by the turret, but a Major made it inside, charging Robbie.
"Saved a little extra for ya!" Robbie yelled as the buckshot slammed the Major into the wall. The other Zealot outside was doing some damage with its rifles.
"Let me get that for you" Mike taunted as he sprinted at the Zealot, knocking it to the ground and spraying it with his SMG's. "So much for that" he commented, heading back into the base.
--"Sir, we've got new contacts. Phantoms… but there are some different Elites. They call themselves Brutals"--
"Lets see what they've got."
Then another wave dropped. This time, there were six Zealot lances, punctuated by 3 brown Elites.
"Those must be the Brutals" Akov observed.
"Let's teach 'em a lesson!" was Robbie's response.
This time, the Hog was ready. Rolling down the hill toward the drop zone, the gunner ripped apart the Lances with the machine gun, while ramming right at the crowd. By the time they retreated, they had done huge damage. Only one Major remained, and all the Minors were taken down. Four Zealots had been killed trying to board the Warthog, and then another fell to Will's great aim.
The Brutals began charging, sprinting uphill at an impossible rate. The turret got one, but the other two smashed their way into the base. Robbie put one down himself, while the other Marines struggled against the last, which greatly wounded Akov with a mauler shot.
"You okay, sir?' Mike wasn't going to let anyone die.
"Long as I've got a gun."
"Good to hear it."
The remaining Zealots were wiped out by the turret.
--"Next wave coming in. It's heavy"--
"Any luck with the contact?!" Mike was worried. "We can't keep this up forever!"
--"Plasma interference just shot through the roof! No way to contact anything far away"--
"Sir" A wounded Marine broke in. "We've got two Gauss hogs. If you can get to them, you might be able to escape."
At that moment, the cavalry arrived. First came two Ghosts and a Chopper, driven by a Brutal. Right after came a Chieftain Bulk.
"Gunter! Get the damned Ghosts before they kill our Hog" Mike shouted, hoping that Gunter had good aim. Then, right before his eyes, the Ghosts seemingly exploded for no reason. Everyone yelled to congratulate Gunter.
"How about that Chopper?" Mike yelled up as the Chopper bore down on their Warthog, which was effectively eliminating the Bulk.
"I'm out of rockets up here!" Gunter replied. "Gimme the damn turret!" he yelled as he ripped the turret off the tripod and began firing at the Chopper. By now, the Marines were at total war, with grenades and gunshots rising over their voices. A resounding CRASH pierced the noise, and everyone looked over to see the Chopper plowing through a mutilated Warthog. Right then, the worst happened: two Wraiths dropped and immediately began firing at the Marines.
"Everybody fall back to the base!!!" Akov yelled. The situation was turning desperate.
Everyone got back inside safely, just as the War Chief got in.
"I will murder the Heretics!!" It yelled, smashing people around with its Gravity Hammer. Even though everyone was pumping it full of lead, It's Over-armor withstood the attack. But then, Robbie jumped it, slamming it to the floor and shoving 3 rounds of buckshot into its head.
"Get to the Warthog" he yelled, racing to its hidden location.
Taking the driver seat, Mike yelled to Gunter "How 'bout a Wraith for breakfast? Or a Chopper?"
"I'll have the combo!" Gunter yelled back, decimating the Chopper with a single shot. The Warthog ran circles around the Wraiths, smashing them up. Will and Parke joined them on a Mongoose while they were cleaning up the rest of them.
When they were done, they got ready to head for Rat's Nest.
"After a while, you should fall back to Headquarters" Mike yelled as they raced down the path out of the base. As they were leaving, a Zealot sprang out, landing on top of the Warthog and smashing its sword through the engine before Gunter took care of it. Farther down the path, something went wrong with the steering.
"Watch out! I'm losin' her! Hold on to something, we're going down in the canyon!!!"