Venturing Further
Disclaimer: I don't own Halo 2.
1259 (Suits time)/
17 October (Military Calendar)/
Milky Way System/Earth/
Old Mombassa/
Status: Scared (As usual, in the game).
The doors that had burst open saved Jonno's life.
Three times. The first door flew over the top of the grenade and smashed into him, leaving the grenade only to affect the door. Jonno was thrown backwards from the door, and he hit the ground hard, sliding along it. The Hunter's fired immediately, and the beams passed right over him. The second door landed on top of him as he stopped sliding, and the Phantom fired all of it's turrets at him, bombarding the door with plasma fire.
"Ow!"
Jonno dropped the control and put his hands to his back, where he felt a small amount of pain. He was tempted to go and check on Andrew, but at that moment, Andrew came back in with Harry and Kiel at his side.
"What happened?" asked Jonno.
Andrew shrugged.
"Dunno, but I'm fine now."
Jonno looked at the T.V again, and saw that the door on top of him was beginning to break.
"Here we go," he said, picking up the control again.
Alex leapt off the balcony, firing his Battle rifle at the Hunter's, and yelled through the COM for the marines to do the same. He hit the ground and rolled, feeling the blistering heat of the Hunter's custom Fuel rod cannons. He was on his feet again, and he got to the black door that had Jonno trapped under it, and he lifted it up, heaving it with all of his strength, amplified by the armour, at the Phantom's grav lift. The first Elite in a squad emerged and floated down, until the door sliced him in two, leaving each half to fall to the ground.
"Come on!" he yelled, taking Jonno's hand and picking him up.
They ran inside the building as the Hunter's fired after them, despite the marines that were shooting at them, and plasma from the Phantom and new ground troops hit the walls and floor around them. They ran up the steps, and Jonno picked up a Plasma rifle.
"Use this instead," Alex said to him, handing him his SMG, and Jonno dropped the Plasma rifle, cocking the SMG.
"Marines," he said into the COM.
"Status."
"We got 1 Hunter down, but that Goddamn Phantom is stopping us from getting the other! It already got Kane and Wister, and it's gonna get the rest of us if we don't take it out!" PFC. John Hawkins answered him.
"And the other Covenant?"
"Dead,"
He could hear the gun/plasma fire through the channel and his ears, so he ran outside and told Jonno to get on the turret.
"I'll distract it, while you take out its guns." He said whilst priming a plasma grenade.
Jonno hopped onto the turret and Alex threw the grenade at the first turret, and then began shooting at it while he was running through the courtyard. All of the turrets swivelled towards him, and purple plasma lasers scorched the ground around him. There was a small blue explosion that clouded the front turret, and then Alex saw that Jonno had taken it out. The trail of bullets moved to the next turret, which then took aim at Jonno.
Jonno's shields fell fast, and he jumped off the turret, falling off the balcony and landing on his feet as the turret exploded, leaving nothing but the stump in its place.
"Sarge, you need to get to a clearing on the other side of these buildings!" a voice said, and Alex saw a Pelican flying towards the Phantom.
"Meet you there, over?"
"Copy that!" Johnson replied.
"Can you take care of this Phantom for us too?"
"Will do, Sarge!"
A missile streaked out of one of the pods on the side of the Pelican, and a long trail of exhaust followed it to the Phantom.
"Get out!" Johnson shouted.
"Through the door! Now! Now! Now!"
The remaining marines, Johnson, Alex and Jonno bolted through the doorway, just as the missile smashed into the right engine of the Phantom. The original explosion was clouded by a plasma explosion, which spread to cover most of the Phantom. Screams could still be heard from the inside, and they were silenced by the secondary explosion, which sent the remains of the Phantom – a black exoskeleton – crashing to the ground. Flames roared away from it, and any tree or shrub caught in it began to burn.
"2nd squad, this is Cortana, what's your status, over." Cortana broadcasted over the COM to the crashed Pelican's team, 2nd squad.
"We're operational ma'am – barely – our pilots didn't make it."
"Find a hole, stay put. We'll come to you."
They walked through the alleyway, and the marine on point cautiously stepped around the corner which led into a clearing with a large highway stretched above it, broken by the Scarab, and rubble strewn along it. At the other end was another small alleyway, and part of one of the buildings had been blown out, which had a Jackal standing on one of the support beams. The marine got one glimpse of the Jackal before it fired a high velocity beam, which smashed into the marine's head and emerged out the back, where his blood splattered onto the wall.
"Shit!" Alex said.
"Jackals," murmured Hawkins, peeking around the corner for a quick glance, and then bringing his head back.
"2 with shields and one with a fucking sniper rifle…"
"Grab his ammo and tags, after we deal with these sons of bitches." Johnson said, pulling the bolt back on his Sniper rifle.
He leant around the corner with the scope raised to his face, and he doubled the magnification. He saw the Jackal's head, and he said,
"SMG's in the front, Battle rifles up back,"
Alex, Jonno and the 4 marines made themselves into 2 lines, with 4 SMG's and 2 Battle rifles between them.
Boom!
The sniper shot boomed, and Alex heard the thud of the Jackal hitting the ground, and he and the others leapt out from behind the corner. They ran towards the 2 Jackal's with the shields, firing their weapons. Jonno lobbed a grenade at them, and it exploded, throwing one of them into the wall, breaking some of its bones, and shielding the other from view. They all stopped running and poured fire into the small smokescreen, and when it disappeared, the Jackal was dead. Alex reloaded his Battle rifle, shoving another clip in just as 3 more Jackals emerged from around the corner!
One of the marines screamed in pain as he 2 bolts of plasma melted his chest plate, his skin, his liver and his ribcage, and he fell to the ground, dropping his SMG.
"Hawkins!" Alex yelled.
"Concentrate on the one on the left!"
Hawkins had the other Battle rifle, and he fired at the left Jackal, who answered with fire of its own. Everybody covered each other in turn as they ran for any defilade amongst the rubble. Jonno reloaded again, and he realised he was running out of ammo.
Boom!
Johnson's Sniper rifle fired, and one of the Jackals dropped.
Boom! Boom!
2 more shots rang out, and one more fell, but the last one learned to raise its shield in the other direction, and was rewarded when one more shot boomed, and it stumbled back as the round smashed into its shield. One of the SMG bullets caught it in its side, and it coiled that way, blocking a heap more. Hawkins fired again, and his burst smashed into the Jackal's head. It flopped backwards and hit the ground, its shield deactivated.
They got out from behind what cover they had, picked up the dead marine's dog tags and shared their ammo around.
Boom!
Johnson fired again.
"We got more!" he yelled.
Alex turned to see more Jackals enter the clearing, accompanied by Grunts.
"Where the hell is the fucking drop ship!" he shouted in frustration, taking down 2 Grunts. Then, thousands of rounds smashed into the Covenant, the walls, the ground, the windows, everything, and it all came from the Pelican that zoomed over them and hovered above the ground, letting 2 marines jump off.
"Johnson!" Keyes' voice came through the COM.
"I need you on that bird."
"Ma'am?"
"We're gonna start airlifting reinforcements to this city – we'll need an escort that isn't afraid of a little hostile ground fire."
"Understood, I'll keep an eye on 'em." He turned to Jonno.
"Chief, good luck."
Then he turned to Alex and tossed him his Sniper rifle, picking up an SMG from the weapons rack in the Pelican, and then standing next to the marine on the turret. The Pelican lifted off, leaving dust in its wake, and Alex checked the ammo in the current clip on his HUD: 3 rounds.
Static filled the COM, and Alex heard the voice of the 2nd squad leader:
"This is 2nd squad, we have found a hole at Hotel Zanzibar and we are awaiting your arrival, over,"
"Roger that, 2nd squad, we're on our way." Cortana answered.
They continued on, and when they got to the next corner, the Hawkins – who was on point – cautiously peered around the corner first, and then came back.
"6, maybe 7, snipers." He said.
"Bunch of Grunts on the left, and an Elite out the back, next to the blown out building."
"Okay," Alex said.
"Jonno, lead the wave with the SMG's, people with Battle rifles, stay back here and try to take out the closest snipers."
He swapped a marine his Battle rifle for an SMG.
"Where are you going?" Jonno asked.
"I'm going up there," he said, pointing to a tower that had a view of almost everything in the next area.
"And when you're finished with them, continue on to Hotel Zanzibar."
A/N: That took a while, because I was trying to work on The Front Lines 2, but I got sidetracked and started working on this. Also, it might be a bit short, but I hope you liked it!