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Marooned Chapter 5
Posted By: Steve Ollett<sollett@clydematerials.co.uk>
Date: 17 November 2003, 1:58 PM
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M A R O O N E D
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CHAPTER 5
2156HRS 07-OCT-2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
SECOND PLANET OF ACKWAZE SYSTEM.
OVERLOOKING DROPSHIP LZ.
"What the fuck are were doing out here?" Corporal Stocks uttered, as he loosened his helmet's chin strap and carelessly cast the helmet aside. It clattered loudly on the hard ground.
Ryan's eyes widened. "John, What the hell has got into you?" he said angrily, glancing back at the Covenant contingent some 800 metres away at the crashed dropship. "They could have heard that!"
The fires in the wreckage of the crashed Albratross dropship still blazed, albeit at a lower intensity.
The Covenant contingent were no longer visible, even on Infra-Red, the cold night air masking the cool thermal signature given off by the Grunts' super-cooled methane-fed breathing apparatus. The Elite wasn't visible either - probably on the other side of the wreckage.
Ryan hoped that the Grunts didn't decide to wander off for a midnight snack as they probably wouldn't see the little bastards until it was too late.
The wind was still blowing towards Ryan's position, at a speed of a couple of knots as far as he could ascertain, the smoke from the burning wreckage steadily accending as some ghoulish sacrificial offering to the Covenant gods.
Looking up at the endless blanket of stars, Stocks sighed loudly and his shoulders sagged. He looked like a broken man. "What the fuck are we doing here?" Stocks repeated plainly as he turned to face Ryan again.
"Were you asleep when we were briefed back on Reach?" Ryan asked, incredulously.
"Of course not." Stocks replied, "Just fucking indulge me, okay?"
Ryan stared at Stocks momentarily. In twenty years of friendship and active service, he had never seen this side of John. He already had two liabilities to deal with, the scientist Zoran, and his assistant, Karen. The last thing he needed was having to babysit one of his own team, especially when that member was the best sniper among them all.
"Alright John," Ryan began, "So why do you think we're out here?"
"To kick some Covenant Arse - to take the war back to them." Stocks replied, "To make our families proud, and get some bloody glory and recogition for all of these years of being up to our eyes in shit and blood!"
"Glory, eh?" Ryan replied as he viewed John Stocks sideways, "That's not what we signed up for. We signed up to do our duty. If you were after glory and recognition you should have been a politician or movie star. Sure everyone who joins up during peacetime never thinks that they would have to go to war but we all should consider the real possibility that one day we would have to fight, and that we or our friends might never come home alive."
"I know." Stocks said, looking away at the dropship wreckage, nudging a nearby rock with his right boot, "But I never thought that we would be fighting to save our species' existance!"
"Look John," Ryan said, "At the end of the day, all we can ask for in life is that we have good mates to watch our back in combat, and that your wife and kids are waiting for you when you get back home. Or, at the very least that you and your mates survive to enjoy a few beers back at the mess hall."
"Yeah, and with a bit of good luck thrown in too!" Stocks added, "What about your family Ryan, how long ago since..."
"Twelve years", Ryan answered sharply.
"Didn't you ever think of remarrying?" Stocks asked.
"Not at first," Ryan said whilst fingering the wedding ring which he still had, attached to a chain around his neck, "After the Covenant came and took Clare away from me I didn't have time to think about anyone else - Christ John, she was pregnant - I never got to see my son!"
"I'm sorry Ryan," Stocks said, feeling emabarassed, "I never knew that Clare was pregnant at the time, talk about a double blow!" Stocks kicked the rock away and watched it roll a couple of metres before coming to rest against a larger stone.
"You know if it wasn't for the Covenant, and the UNSC needing every soldier they could get I'd have left the service by now. I knew that Clare wanted me to do so, but she never actually told me - maybe because she knew that this work was so important." Ryan put the ring back inside his shirt, "It's too late now to think about the past."
"You know Karen's got a quite a look of Clare hasn't she?" Stocks said, changing the subject, "I think that she's got the hots for you!"
"No way, John!" Ryan replied.
"Oh yes." Stocks said seriously, "I saw the way that she was looking at you when you were driving us back from the scientist's camp - she wasn't having any of Murray's sweet-talking crap."
Stocks paused for a second, then broke out into his trade-mark smirk, "Besides I saw you checking her arse out when she was bent over packing that instrumentation away - I'll bet you would have liked to pack your own instrument away somewhere on her!"
Ryan nearly gagged on his chocolate. "Come on John! I've just been talking about how much I miss my wife for a minute and you go suggesting that I should be slipping the girl one!"
"Maybe you should get laid, maybe then you'll chill out and stop being on my case so much!" Stocks replied, "I mean, how long has it been?"
"That's my Fucking businesss!" Ryan replied angrily, and was quiet for a second. He then fished inside one of his uniform pockets and Seconds later he produced two chocolate bars.
"Catch!" Ryan said as he tossed one of the bars at Stocks, "Bet you haven't eaten anything since this morning, right?"
Stocks caught the bar, ripped the wrapper off, and eagerly tucked into the chocolate. Ryan did likewise.
"I've figured out what's wrong with you." Ryan said between bites of the chocolate, "You miss your family, John, don't you?"
"Yeah", Stocks replied, through a mouthful of chocolate, "Is it that obvious?"
"Come on, why else would you bring up the issue of family life if it wasn't bothing you?" Ryan answered.
"I-I just have had this terrible feeling now for a week or so that something really bad has happened to them back on Reach. I don't know why I just do." Stocks said quietly.
"I wouldn't worry John." Ryan said, slapping Stocks on the back, "I'm sure that they're fine. If it's the Covenant that you're thinking of, you know as well as I do that Reach is probably the most heavily defended system we have - massive orbital MAC guns, and anything up to 250 warships in and around the system at anytime - it's like a fucking fortress!"
"I suppose so." Stocks answered unconvinced by Ryan's comments.
"Well the Covenant would have to bypass, what, at least a dozen outer colonies before they get to Reach and it seems unlikely that they'd do that considering how they've been so systematic at glassing the other outer colony systems so far." Ryan said before popping the last chunk of chocolate in his mouth.
"You know people high up in the ranks, how is the war going?" Stocks asked as he concentrated his attention on adjusting the scope on his sniper rifle.
"Not good." Ryan replied, as he took his helmet off and ran a hand through his matted hair, "The UNSC and even ONI are shit scared about the situation. They have realised that their strategy in the war against the Covenant has been fundamentally flawed. We can't fight a defensive war! Falling back and fighting a retreat is just wearing us down not only from a resources point of view but also in terms of morale. Basically, they have analysed the progress made by the Covenant over the years and have realised that we have maybe eight or nine months before the Covies get to Reach and then if they glass that system - however unlikely that is - that would give us another four to six months before they are knocking on Earth's back door!"
"Chirst! I didn't think things were so bad! Aren't the Spartans helping to slow them down?" Stocks asked.
"Yes, but that only buys us time to evacuate people and supplies from that particular planet before the Covenant just bring on more ships and glass the planet." Ryan answered, "We can only win space battles where we outnumber them by at least three to one, and usually the numbers are the other way around."
"I know." Stocks said, shaking his head. "So where do we come into this?"
"Realising that the extinction of the human race was maybe two years away, ONI sanctioned some, er, let's say, inventive measures." Ryan said as he gazed skyward for a few seconds. Looking back at Stocks, Ryan continued, "John, before we discovered slipspace, in the early days of mankind's spaceflights we used chemical rocket engines, and later on ion drives."
"Yes, the ion drives were more fuel efficient than chemical rocket engines, but they were really slow." Stocks answered.
"That's right," Ryan said, "They were used on the colony ships that were sent from Earth about four hundred years ago in an attempt to colonize nearby star systems. Ion drive technology was the best option available at the time given the vast distances that they would have to cross. These colony ships were immense vessels, containing 250,000 people in cryogenic stasis, plants and animals were also in stasis along with seed samples and embryos of all available species at the time - a snapshot of life on earth back then - sort of Noah's Ark if you like, except that they built twelve."
"What happened to them?" Stocks asked.
"When slipspace technology came online, the twelve original vessels were found and their courses logged. Before treaties came into effect protecting the colony ships, two of them were plundered by pirates, and later one ship just 'disappeared' without trace." Ryan said.
"So what has this got to do with our fleet out here, we're dozens of lightyears away from those ships!" Stocks replied, scratching his head.
"Well as I said, ONI did something VERY inventive. Realising that the legacy of mankind's existance is at stake they violated the treaty on the protection of the colony ships by instructing UNSC vessels to intercept and retrieve the colony ships, although they gave strict instructions not to disturb the vessel's contents." Ryan answered.
"How they hell did they do that?" Stocks said in amazement.
"You know the mobile repair and refit vessels?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah." Stocks replied.
"They flew some of those out there to rendevous with the colony ships, where they refitted them with slipstream technology and fitted new computer cores, complete with AI. They also gave the ships false registry codes and disguised them as heavy freighters before taking the vessels to separate muster points - one of those being at Reach where the UNSC's 3rd Exploratory Fleet - of which the Sheffield is a part of - was waiting to receive three of them."
"Whoa, slow down Ryan", Stocks said. "So the three mysterious packages that the fleet are carrying aren't the Spartan soldiers?"
"Who said we had any Spartans?" Ryan said, raising an eybrow.
"I dunno'" said Stocks, "I've heard many rumours."
"I heard something similar." said Ryan, "A story that all but three of the Spartans were recalled back to Reach for reasons unknown. What I do know is that the fleet's mission now is to avoid engagement with the Covenant and look for somewhere new for mankind to setup in case Earth gets glassed."
"So is that why we have the scientists stopping at every habitable world and taking samples?" Stocks asked.
"Exactly, except I don't think that we'll be diverting the rest of the fleet to this system after what's happened here in the last twenty-four hours!" Ryan replied.
"Oh Shit!" said Stocks dejectedly, realising the full implications of the fleet's mission. "So that means we'll not be going back! We were all told that this was a three months stint. I never got chance to say goodbye to Maria and Lisa properly! Fucking Hell!"
With that Stocks kicked the nearest rock with some force, sending it tumbling off the edge of the cliff overlooking the dried lake-bed of the LZ.
"Sorry Ryan" Stocks said, realising he could have drawn the Covenant's attention to them by his rash act, "I promised that I'd be back for Lisa's sixth birthday!"
"Who's Birthday?" A voice said from behind.
Turning around Ryan and Stocks were greeted by Private Garrett approaching, with his assault rifle slung over his right shoulder.
"Time to relieve your watch, Ryan." Garrett said cheerfully.
"I see you managed to get some shut-eye then" said Ryan.
"Yeah, despite Zoran's snoring." Garrett replied, "Maybe you should gagg him or something?"
"I just might do that" Ryan answered as he got to his feet, turned to face Corporal Stocks and offered his hand out to pull Stocks up off the ground. "C'mon let's go."
Ryan and Stocks slowly walked back towards the Warthog.
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Author's Note: This has been some time in the writing due to demands from work and family. I thought that it was a convenient point to bring some history in to explain why Ryan and his men are in the current predicament, light-years from human space.
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