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Marooned - Chapter 15
Posted By: Steve Ollett<sollett@clydematerials.co.uk>
Date: 23 April 2004, 7:19 PM
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MAROONED, CHAPTER 15
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1826HRS 08-OCT-2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
SECOND PLANET OF ACKWAZE SYSTEM.
UNDERGROUND FACILITY, WALKWAY OVER CHASM
Just as I thought things couldn't get worse! Ryan thought as he grabbed Karen around her slender waist and bodily dragged her whilst in a crouch until they were out of the line of Covenant plasma fire.
When Ryan was satisfied that they were out of immediate danger, he released Karen and she dropped to the floor and backed herself into a corner where the wall and one of the pillars lining the edge of the walkway intersected.
The look on her face said it all - she was terrified.
Ryan quickly fastened his helmet's chin strap. He unslung his MA5B assault rifle and checked the ammo counter - fifty-two rounds remaining in the current magazine. He felt the right thigh pocket of his combat trousers, and to his relief, two spare magazines lay within. He shot Karen a grin and a wink. "Stay out of trouble!" he said as he turned to make his crouching run towards the new threat.
"Don't leave me here!" Karen pleaded, grabbing hold of Ryan's right arm, "I don't want to die!"
Ryan turned and put his left hand on the small pair of hands that had a grip on his right arm. "Karen," Ryan sighed as he slowly peeled her hands off of his arm, "you have to stay here. If you go with me you might get
injured, and I can't allow that."
"Ok." Karen replied quietly as Ryan cautiously made a start towards the column.
"Incoming!" Yelled Corporal Stocks from his refuge some ten metres or so further across the walkway.
Ryan sneeked a peek over the top of the wall next to him. Where was the green bolt of plasma from one of the Hunter's fuel rod cannon?
Ryan could see Corporal Stocks in the distance, frantically gesturing back at him. "Get dow-" the Corporal began to shout.
A terrifically loud noise washed over Ryan, together with the heat blast typical of a rocket exhaust.
What the?!?! That was close! thought Ryan, as he watched a vapour trail rapidly extend over the walkway, connecting with the lead Hunter. A familiar sounding explosion followed. The shockwave from the blast propelled the bodies of two of the Jackals off the walkway and down into the darkness as if they were rag dolls.
When the smoke cleared the lead Hunter lay lifeless on the floor, it's body an broken charred mess.
In the midst of the chaos, O'Shea had despatched one of the Jackals, courtesy of a well thrown frag grenade.
Only one Hunter and one Jackal remained.
What the Hell? thought Ryan. One minute it looks like we're surrounded by the Covies and now this! Rockets? It must be Guerra's team!
Ryan glanced back at the column, his eyes flicked over it and the floor surrounding the column. Nothing except the black scorching left by the fuel rod blast moments ago. He could not see anyone inside the doorway.
Strange... Ryan thought, and he turned back to face the Covenant on the walkway.
The Hunter shuffled sideways, holding it's fuel rod cannon aloft as the weapon's barrel began to glow a bright green colour - the tell-tale sign that they would soon have to take cover.
To Ryan, the sound of the Hunter's metallic armour clunking sounded like a metal bucket full of bolts being slowly shaken.
"Get down!" A deep gruff voice suddenly called from behind Ryan, breaking that thought.
He had barely hit the deck when another rocket blazed overhead.
The second rocket impacted on the Hunter's shield throwing the large creature backwards onto the floor, crushing the last Jackal under it's immense weight.
As the creature struggled to get to it's feet Stocks finished the Hunter with a well placed shot into the exposed orange flesh in the lumbering alien's side.
"Looks like you needed some help here." said the deep voice again.
Ryan turned to the see three figures emerge from the aperture in the column.
The lead figure was approximately five foot ten inches tall, and of a heavy build and a slight beer-belly. The man was at least fifty years old, and his dark hair was cut in a short crew-cut, with streaks of grey around his temples. He wore light grey combat fatigues, complete with a holstered M6D pistol, and he wore a light grey tunic that was adorned with spatterings of human and Covenant blood. Over his back was slung an MA5B assault rifle and he carried a Covenant Plasma Rifle in his left hand.
Following him was a large soldier slightly bigger than Private Tom Collins. The soldier was dark skinned, his head was clean shaven. He wore a dirty, blood stained grey vest that looked like it had taken a Needler round through it near the left shoulder. His dark grey combat trousers were covered in blue Covenant blood. It looked as if the man had been up to his knees in the stuff. A large canvas bag was slung over his back, an together with an M90 shotgun, and he shouldered a freshly fired M19 SSM rocket launcher - smoke still rising from one of its' launch tubes.
The last figure was a tall thin man - pale skinned with long silvery hair slicked backwards. He wore a blood stained lab coat and carried a large aluminium brief case in his left hand, and a Covenant plasma rifle in the other hand.
"Sergeant Ryan", the lead man grinned as he extended his right hand, "Good to see you again son." he said as he shook Ryan's hand vigorously.
"Dr Armstrong." Ryan laughed, "Thanks for the help. We had the situation under control until you guys showed up!"
"I'm sure you did." replied Armstrong with a twinkle in his eyes, "I see that you've got Private Collins with you. Where's Corporal Coultas?"
"He didn't make it back to the LZ." Ryan answered solemnly as he fished Corporal Coultas dog tags out from inside his dark grey vest as showed them to Dr Armstrong.
"Too bad." said Armstrong shaking his head slowly, "He was a good man, just like Guerra."
"Guerra?" Ryan asked hopefully.
"Got hit pretty badly. Lost a lot of blood." Armstrong replied, "Dr Muller here patched him up with biofoam as best that he could, but the medikit didn't have enough blood volume expander in it. Damn Covenant bastards!"
"Where is he?" Ryan said, as he put Coultas' tags back inside his vest.
"Down in the control room." Armstrong replied, pointing back at the column as another explosion shook the walkway. "No time to talk now - We need to get out of here, and fast!" he added.
1852HRS 08-OCT-2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
SECOND PLANET OF ACKWAZE SYSTEM.
UNDERGROUND FACILITY, EXACT LOCATION UNKNOWN
"Why the haste to leave? The explosions? And what about this 'control room'?" Ryan asked as the group, together with its' three new additions, moved quickly through the corridors away from the platform.
"One question at a time son," Armstrong replied slightly out of breath due to their quickened pace, "We found this place from the data produced by the Deep Imaging Radar onboard the Sheffield. This facility is immense - the imaging from DIR scans shows that it goes almost as deep as the planet's mantle."
"Wow..." Ryan answered, now noticing the extra embroidered detail located on the man's lapel under the name R.J. ARMSTRONG. "That's serious shit that we're dealing with down here!"
"Yeah, and that's not all of it," Armstrong puffed, not realising the context of Ryan's last statement. "The subterrainean obelisks we found are linked into a giant lattice, geometrically arranged across the whole planet!"
"What's their purp-" Ryan began as he slowed down, noticing a corner in the corridor ahead. He quietly slung his assault rifle on his right shoulder and slowly approached the corner whilst fishing out the inspection mirror again. Just short of the corner he turned to face the rest of the team following behind him, and signalled them to be quiet. After a brief scan with the mirror, Ryan signalled the all-clear.
"You were saying?" Armstrong asked When they were safely on their way again.
"Er, yeah." Ryan replied, "What's the story with the obelisks then?"
"We weren't sure of their purpose - they might have been some kind of crystalline antennae array."
"You mean this planet could be a Covenant listening outpost?" Ryan answered."I thought so at first." said Armstrong, "But in all the years that I've fought the Covenant as a soldier and a scientist - I've seen a lot of highly classified stuff, recovered Covenant tech - but this is..." He paused to find the right word, "Different".
His interest piqued by Armstrong's revelations, Ryan stopped and asked. "What is it then?"
"A relay station or a pulse transmitter of somekind." Armstrong replied, "Real powerful too - it draws its' power from the geothermal energy produced in the planet's mantle. As I've said already - I've seen lots of retrieved
Covenant technology in my time, and according to our readings, this stuff predates out estimates of Covenant civilisation by several dozen millenia! Besides we found the Covenant down there tinkering with the stuff trying to find out how it works."
Ryan whistled slowly in awe.
"Yeah." nodded Armstrong, "Awe inspiring isn't it? And you thought that the Covies were advanced!"
"Where do the explosions come into it?" Ryan asked as they continued onwards again.
"We had to stop the Covenant getting their hands on that technology - those bastards would probably find some way to use it against us!" Armstrong continued, "We ambushed them and rigged the control room to blow. Guerra knew he was finished, so he volunteered to stay behind and hold off any more Covenant. Besides there is something in here that suppresses radio signals so someone had to manually denotate the charges instead of remotely doing it. The explosion must have set off some kind of overload... which means we need to get out of here and fast!"
"But to where?" Ryan answered, "I don't know the layout of this place!"
"Well, looks like we're in luck!" Armstrong chuckled, as he produced a small datapad which he waved infront of Ryan's eyes. "I'll take over the navigation shall I?"
"Be my guest." Ryan replied, gesturing Dr Armstrong to take point.
"No thanks son." Armstrong laughed whilst waving his hand dismissively, "I'm getting too old for charging ahead, guns blazing. Besides, I probably still outrank you although I'm not on active duty, and I'd hate to have to make it an order."
"Whatever you say, Sir" Ryan saluted with a grin.
"As you were, Sargeant" Armstrong replied.
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