Time seemed to stand still as O'Connor walked at the head of the column. The desert sun beat down on the group, sapping their strength, while the sands buffeted them from every direction. A storm was coming.
John took another pull of water from his canteen as he pondered the problem of getting his covenant 'allies' into Rally Point X-Ray unharmed. If they tried to enter as-is, they'd surely be cut down by over eager marines.
Maybe if they look like prisoners we have a shot...His thoughts were cut short as the thunderous roar of a pelican dropship soared overhead, clearing the sand long enough for John to realize they were almost on top of their destination. Less than 15 feet away were two marines guarding one of the many entrances to the biodome. Their initial shock passed, the two guards levelled their battle rifles in the direction of Fasu.
"NO!" O'Connor let go of Rema and barrelled into the guard on the right, rolling to his feet and bringing his own battle rifle to bear on the other guard's head.
"What the hell is this?!" The marine shouted as he looked from the Sergeant to Fasu, keeping his weapon raised.
"These two are prisoners under my command, private, do not shoot!"
"But they're Covenant!"
"If you pull that trigger you will not live to see the bullet hit, do hear me son? Now LOWER YOU WEAPON!" O'Connor barked the last command as he put the barrel of his rifle against the guard's skull.
Grudgingly the private lowered his weapon, then went to check on his fellow guard.
with a sigh John turned to Fasu and Pip, "Sorry, but from here on in you have to look like a prisoner, so get up front here. Everyone, keep your weapons pointed on them, we have to make it look real.
And with that the party walked through the gate, into the biodome, and through the marine encampment inside, drawing countless looks and murmurs:
"Covenant prisoners, well that's an oxymoron..."
"Damn sandstorm is making it impossible to use motion trackers..."
"Since when do we take prisoners?..."
Finally they reached the building that had become the makeshift command post, a relatively small office building almost squarely centered in the massive city. Someone must have sent word ahead, because right in front of it were two full squads of heavily armed marines, weapons aimed and safeties off.
"At Ease!" Called out a voice, and the squads parted to let a man through.
"Stellar work, marine! Not only did you escape The Mantis, but you grabbed us two prisoners as well. I'm Lieutenant Mitchels, in command of these forces."
"Sergeant John O'Connor, sir. But sir, I have to tell you, these two are not my prisoners, they have fought alongside the rest of us, and without them we probably would not have survived."
"Sergeant, perhaps the desert heat has gotten to you, but Covenant don't fight alongside humans, they slaughter us without end." The Lt. raised an eyebrow, "Now I know you have quite the reputation, so I'll let this slide, but you need to understand-"
"Sir, I can vouch for the Sergeant, these two helped us." interrupted Corporal Perez. Then to John: "The medics just took Rema to patch him up, they say he'll be fine."
Clearing his throat loudly, Lt. Mitchels continued: "Enough. Your new assignments are to attach to what's left of 2nd Platoon. We don't have many troops here yet, but there are more survivors on their way, as well as some heavy armor. We're going to hold this city until the navy arrives with reinforcements."
"Speak of the devil, there's the albatross" he said looking into the sky. Sgt. O'Connor turned to look as well. The Pelican's bigger cousin, the Albatross was designed much the same way, but with mass transport in mind instead of speed and firepower. Whereas a Pelican could hold one squad of marines, the albatross could hold as many as three squads, or two warthogs, or even a scorpion tank in it's rectangular hold.
The Lt. frowned, "Why the hell are they flying at that angle?"
"Sir!" a comms operator burst form the command building, "The Albatross is not responding!"
Any further questions were immediately answered as the albatross, it's hull aflame with plasma, crashed through the top of the biodome with a thunderous noise and spun out of control until it crashed on the Northern edge of the city.
_________________________________________________________________________
04: Outta the fire...
For a moment everyone stood shock still, as sand poured in through the huge hole in the biodome.
The marines of The Mantis were even more surprised to find several elites suddenly appear in their camp, their active camoflage overloading from all the sand.For a second both sides were too surprised to do anything.
But only for a second.
Chaos ruled supreme as Marines and covenant found themselves in close quarter combat. More marines rushed out of nearby buildings to help, but they were met by still more covenant rising out of the many manholes on the streets.
"They're in the sewers!"
"They're everywhere!"
"There's too damn many!"
John and Perez ran back to the group amid the cacophony of screams, gunfire, and death. As one they sprinted to the corner of the command bulding, each man (and alien) taking up a firing postion to cover every angle. "We have to get to that Albatross!" Sgt. O'Connor yelled over the din of battle, "The vehicles should be intact, and we're gonna need them if we plan on surviving this."
"Wraith!" Shouted Perez, and John turned to see that the tank had already launched a concentrated ball of plasma. Again, time seemed to slow down as the orb of plasma made a graceful arc and began to descend. Sgt. O'Connor tried to get away, but he knew it was too late. Before he got more than a few steps the command post building exploded outward in a shower of rockcrete.
The last thing Sergeant John O'Connor felt was the sensation of flying through the air before the darkness overcame him.
((Ok, this took a while. No, my character is not dead heheh. Everyone got thrown and basically disoriented/separated. Anyways, either working with each other or by yourselves, get to the albatross. Make it interesting and sorta long, nothing quick and easy. You know I take forever to post in these threads nowadays, so you have a good amount of time. If you haven't posted anything about your character and I manage to get mine to the albatross, then I'll leave the fate of your character unkown.... or something. Oh yea, and I did mean to say rockcrete instead of concrete, it's in the Halo books.))