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And So It Began.
Posted By: Alex Sullivan<spartan140@hotmail.com>
Date: 23 July 2003, 12:39 AM
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Thomas Carozza just arrived at Alpha Base 4 on the planet of Reach. Not long after he hopped out of the warthog he was greeted by the stench of gun powder that drifted throughout the air coming from the shooting range. The base was the color of concrete, with walls 3 feet thick all around. The fence was a good 14 feet high topped off with electric and barbed wire. This is much different from his last base. This one is much bigger and more secured than any other that he has seen.
"Greetings. You must be Lieutenant Thomas Carozza," said a wide shouldered man about six feet four inches tall. "I am General Baker, Paul Baker. No matter what I say, it will be done around here. If I tell you to lick my boots clean, I would only want you to ask which one should I start with. You got that?"
"Yes sir!" Thomas quickly shouted without even remembering what Baker has just told him. He was too busy staring at the marines driving in and out of the base in their warthogs and the Pelicans flying over the base to the air field about one mile behind the main building. He wasn't used to all this at his old base. There was no major air field around and there was only about seventy warthogs. There must have been over five hundred here.
"Follow Private Jenkins to your sleeping quarters. We will meet back here at 1800 hours so you can start your new training. Good day." Commanded Baker.
On the way to the bunkers, there wasn't much talking. They introduced themselves and that was it. It was a long walk to the bunkers, maybe fifteen minutes. Thomas stared at Jenkins for a good majority of the walk. Tough looking guy, about the same height as he, five feet eleven inches. Didn't look to muscular, but you could never underestimate anything anymore.
Jenkins turned to him and said, "This here is your new home," pointing to a large, old building with a rusted roof "you will be living here until further notice." Jenkins lead Thomas to his new bed, which was more inviting looking than the exterior of the building, and then Jenkins just disappeared. It was the last time he had ever seen Jenkins. The inside held about fifty bunks, but it wasn't too cramped inside. Every bunk had it's own table with two drawers next to it for personal belongings. Thomas laid his clothes out on his bed, folded them, and put them away in the drawers. The only thing he brought with him to put on the table was a picture of his wife and two kids. He lied down and slept.
What felt to him like only five minutes, was actually two hours, so he got up, dressed himself, and headed off. He knew he wasn't needed for another hour, so he wondered around. He didn't get far due to the large size of the base, and then he went back to where he started for training.
He immediately recognized General Paul Baker and to his left must have been Chief Mendez. A tall man with gray eyes that seemed to pierce right through you. After a quick introduction, Baker was off to his office and Mendez lead Thomas to the training course. It wasn't far at all, he couldn't believe he didn't see it when he first arrived. There was three sixty foot polls in the ground with cables across each one with people walking across them. Barbed wire fences laid across the ground plus hundreds of more activities along with the shooting range he first smelled when he arrived. The training wasn't too bad, there were twenty other members in his squad along with him getting screamed at equally. He assumed they were all new since he was placed with them. He didn't have anytime to meet any of them during training. It lasted for a good six hours.
After training, he met all of his squad, but three people really stood out the most Tony Starr, Alex Feeley, and Scot Ritson. That's all he knew about them now.
For about three months after he first arrived, everything was still the same, but training lasted from six in the morning until eight at night. He now hung around with Tony, Alex, and Scot the most when he had the free time, at lunch or when there was no training that day. Neither one of them was in the same bunk so they couldn't communicate after lights out at ten. Also, they all got their positions in their squad. Tony and Scot were both excellent rifle men, they surpassed everybody else in their squad. Alex was a remarkable sharpshooter and himself was a demolitions expert.
So far they never had a real mission, but this was all about to change. On the morning of August 18th, all hell broke loose. He was awakened with a large explosion that sounded like it was in the air field. He looked at his watch, 3:00 AM it read. Everybody in the bunk was awakened by the disturbance. He, along with the forty-nine other people in his bunker jumped up, got dresses and headed for the door. They thought that an oil tank exploded in the fields or maybe a crash landing for a pelican. They were all wrong, they couldn't be more wrong actually. They walked over the hill, the field lights were still on and all you can see is a wall of fire where there was once a watch tower. Everybody in the whole base must have been out there. There were thousands of marines everywhere you look. As everybody looks on confused, you can hear a faint rumbling in the air. Not many people could hear it, but those who could looked up in the air to see a faint purple dot disappearing in the night sky. Nobody knew what it was.
People ran back to their bunkers to get their weapons only to hear more explosions. This is it. Everything that they learned was soon to be tested. They have heard of this enemy, but nobody thought that one day, they would be invaded by them. It was the Covenant. A large group of different species that seemed to cooperate with one another. Many soldiers ran out to the fields and met in their squads at their designated point. Thomas grabbed his rifle and some grenades as he headed for the training facility to meet his crew. Scot, Alex, and Tony were already suited up with guns in hand ready to go. Some people stayed in their bunks praying as Thomas ran out. He wondered if he should, but now it was too late.
Nobody really knew what to do, but each squad made their decisions. Their squad leader David Knowles assigned them each a duty. Alex, since he was the best sniper, was assigned to the biggest hill in the base to scope everything out. Tony and Scott along side all the rifle men took to the air fields for support. Thomas had no where to go, since the demolition man is used mostly for missions, not defending. He followed the seven members left in his crew lead by Knowles to the front of the base. He never saw Scot, Alex, or Tony ever again. He never had a chance to say goodbye.
He was thinking that when he left his bunker, he never looked at his picture of his wife and children either. He wanted to go back, but he knew he couldn't. He had a duty, and he would never failed when he was needed most.
All was quiet for the next four hours, but everybody was still on guard when the next set of explosions sounded. More Covenant banshees, as they were known, took out more pelicans and some squads. There were about thirteen of these ships attacking them, but only one of which was shot down and the pilot was killed in the explosion. He started to think of all the people he had met here at his new base and wondered where they were. He heard the Jenkins had been shipped off to be a crew member of the new Pillar of Autumn ship, he figured that Baker was in his office surrounded by military police everywhere thinking how he would get himself out of this one, and he hasn't heard from Chief Mendez in a long time. He had left training his squad to work on a very important, top secret program that everybody could only guess at what it was.
Then all reality came back to him when a plasma beam had just skimmed past his head and struck the man next to him and heard his last sounds which was just a scream of terror and pain all mixed into one. He quickly laid down not knowing if another beam was heading his way, but it wasn't just beams that was coming his way, it was about sixty, maybe even more, Covenant soldiers running towards him shooting. There were the tall ones, known as elites, small ones with giant shields known as jackals, and the smallest, weakest looking ones, known as grunts. But he remembered that no matter the looks of anything, you couldn't judge it. Everybody started to fire around him but at the same time, people started to fall as plasma burned through skulls, stomachs, legs, everything. He was lucky that he wasn't shot, and even luckier as he ran off when there was only him and David Knowles left. Knowles was shot in the back as he ran, but Thomas had no time to save him. He ran into the main building running where ever he thought he could hide. He ran right by General Baker's office and to his surprise, nobody was guarding him, but he kept on running into the basement of the facility near seven large tanks holding oil that fueled the entire base.
Upstairs, and everywhere else for that matter, was being invaded. General Baker stood up, walked over to the cabinet to the right of his desk and pulled out an assault rifle with only one cartridge of ammo. A private ran over to his office to his office, "Sir, you must evacuate now, there is one Pelican left on the roof, we must go now!"
"No. I am not leaving. This is my base, my home! I will not abandon her in this time of need. If she falls, so do I!" shouted Baker, his last words.
The private ran off to the pelican which was shot down as soon as it took off, and General Paul Baker stood his ground in his office killing everything that walked by his door until he had no ammo left. He decided to get one more magazine, but he didn't have enough time. As he stood up reaching for the next clip, an elite quickly shot six or sever burst to the mid section of Baker to take him down. Once on the ground, a shot to the head finished him off.
Alone in the basement, Thomas started to wonder what was going on upstairs until he heard about a dozen aliens running down the stairs maybe thirty yards away from him. He threw three grenades in their direction and held onto his last one as more of the creatures filed down into basement. He finally decided that if he goes down, he is taking all with him. He looked at the tanks and thought if they run throughout the entire base, there must be tubes carrying oil throughout the base and an explosion big enough should destroy everything. The gigantic base and everything inside it.
He got up, pulled the pin and ran for the tanks.
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