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Marooned Chapter Ten
Posted By: Steve Ollett<sollett@clydematerials.co.uk>
Date: 29 December 2003, 3:34 PM
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MAROONED - CHAPTER TEN
----------------------
0705HRS 08-OCT-2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
SECOND PLANET OF ACKWAZE SYSTEM.
CLIMBING CANYON WALL, NEAR DROPSHIP LZ
"Explain to me again why we're doing this?" panted Stocks as he struggled to reach the next hand-hold. He reached up as far as he could but his left foot slipped. "Shite!" he exclaimed as he scrambled to hold onto anything that might prevent his fall backwards onto the canyon floor. He slid down several feet, striking his chin on a rock. More obscenities followed.
These boots are totally useless for this job, thought Stocks. If it were for making a Grunt eat steel-toecaps, especially when following up a smack from the butt of a MA5B Assault Rifle, now that was different.
"Remember when we found Zoran yesterday? We could hear distant thunder and saw all of those black clouds?" said Ryan who was totally unaware of Stocks' difficulties, being some ten feet above the Corporal.
Not hearing a response, Ryan stopped and looked down at Stocks, trying not to loose his footing.
"What?" said Stocks irritatedly. His chin still smarted.
"It might have rained." replied Ryan.
"If it did rain over the mountains," interrupted Zoran, "it would probably take a day for the waters to reach this place, and with the canyon being to so narrow we would all be swept away."
"Look, I'm just a soldier." Stocks shouted back. "I get told to go shoot some fucker and I do it, I'm not interested in weather forecasting, or climbing for that matter either!"
"Zoran? Er, what sort of notice would we get before a flash-flood?" asked Ryan as he watched the scientist continue to climb above him. "And how come you're so good at this climbing? I didn't think you scientists were into physical stuff like this?"
Zoran stopped and thought for a second. "There wouldn't be much of a warning," he smugly replied, "that's the beauty of why they call them flash-floods."
"That's the beauty of why they call them flash floods..." Stocks muttered in derision back at the scientist. "Wanker!" he added under his breath.
Ryan laughed having heard Stocks comments, but he was not impressed with the scientist. However, as he was not a climber himself he felt somewhat at the mercy of Zoran's climbing experience but said nothing. Not yet anyway.
Besides, there was some tactical advantage of getting up off the canyon floor. If the Covenant were to attack, it would most likely come from the top of the canyon walls or from a Banshee. It they were on the canyon floor it would be like shooting fish in a barrel.
Looking down at the floor of the Wadi, Ryan thought he saw movement.
"I love climbing." Said Zoran in his Swedish accent, "In my country, due to the high latitude it is dark for most of the year, so when it is light I like to get out and enjoy the daylight. Actually, I prefer ice-climbing to the free climbing that we are doing now. At least I'd have the added security of using ice axes, ropes and cramp-"
"Zoran?" Ryan interrupted, tired of the man's boring speech. He looked down into the gloom of the Wadi. He certain he saw movement on the ground.
"What is it?" Zoran snapped, irritated at being interupted.
"There!" pointed Ryan. "Is that enough notice of a flood?"
"Er, yes" replied Zoran, viewing a small stream of water running down the canyon floor, "Looks like we are just in time."
"In time for what?" asked Stocks, daring to take a look below him. "What's that noise?"
A distant hissing sound, combined with a low rumble grew steadily, until suddenly a wall of water swept around the bend of the canyon.
"Shit!" yelled Stocks as he began to scramble up the rock face as fast as he could.
The water roared past some thirty feet below him, carrying rocks and boulders of varying sizes, some as large as a Warthog.
The three men clung onto the rocks and watched in an almost surreal way as over the sound of the water came two distinct cries - the voices of the two escaped Grunts - barking, yelping and screaming almost in a comical way as they were swept past them back towards the LZ.
Stocks, Ryan and Zoran looked at each other in amazement.
Finally Stocks spoke. "Fuck me!" He said as he struggled to hold on to the rocks, "If only I'd been able to get at my rifle. It would have been like shooting fish in a barrel!"
Ryan laughed out loud, whilst activating his helmet comms. "Garrett? O'Shea? You guys copy?" He shouted into the microphone.
"We read you... barely." replied Garrett over a terrible hiss. Ryan couldn't tell if it was due to some static interference or the sound of the water.
"What's your status?" Ryan yelled back.
"The salvaged wheel assembly is fitt-" began Garrett, but was cut off mid sentence by a burst of static.
"Garrett? You still there?" replied Ryan.
"Yeah." answered Garrett. "We can hardly hear you. You're at extreme range for the comms. We'll be heading into the canyon as soon as O'Shea is happy were in-"
Static hissed angrily again.
"Negative! Negative!" screamed Ryan, "Canyon is flooded. LZ will be wet in minutes! Hold position over looking the lake."
"Affirmative." replied Garrett.
"Oh, and one last thing," Ryan added. "There'll be two little absent friends joining you guys shortly. Lay out the welcome mat and take care of them for me."
"With pleasure!" said Garrett.
Ryan could have sworn he heard the sound of Garrett loading a fresh magazine into a MA5B over the comms.
----
0921HRS 08-OCT-2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
SECOND PLANET OF ACKWAZE SYSTEM.
TOP OF CANYON WALL, FOLLOWING COVENANT DROPSHIP LAST BEARING.
"Okay Garrett. That's our approximate position." Said Sergeant Ryan into his helmet comms as he pointed at a certain part of a tatty A4-size terrain map that he held in his other hand. It was the same map that Garrett had printed for him to plan the attack earlier that morning. It seemed like days ago.
The wind had picked up and kept trying to whip the paper out of his hand. Ryan folded the map carelessly and stuffed into the right thigh pocket of his combat trousers. "We'll stay on the Covenant dropship's last heading for now and we'll be watching out for you later this afternoon."
Ryan paused whilst he listened to Garrett over the comms. He then looked down and sighed. "Okay. I'll tell Stocks. Ryan out."
----
Corporal Stocks sat about twenty feet away from the edge of the canyon, his sniper rifle lay disassembled on the ground before him as he carefully cleaned out the barrel.
The scientist Zoran sat nearby, facing the opposite direction, talking into what appeared to be a small dictaphone.
Both men ignored each other.
Stocks looked up to see Ryan approach. "How's O'Shea and the others' doing?" he said as he quickly reassembled the rifle.
"Not bad." Ryan replied. "They've replaced the wheel assembly on the Warthog we left behind, and they took care of the Grunts as well."
"What about Murray?" Stocks asked, his voice tinged with concern.
Ryan took a step closer, leaned over and put a hand on Stock's shoulder. "I'm sorry John. He didn't make it."
"What?" Stocks yelled in anger and bewilderment as he hit the ground with his fist. Zoran visibly flinched in surprise as he heard Stocks' raised voice. "Those Covenant bastards!" Stocks added, his voice in rage.
"Relax John." Ryan said, trying to calm Stocks down, "Murray had complications - from the plasma discharge. Internal bleeding or something. He arrested, and O'Shea had to use the defibrillator from the medikit. But they couldn't get him back..."
"I'm tired of all this shit now." Stocks said, now in a subdued tone. "Let's get the hell out of here."
----
1358HRS 08-OCT-2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
SECOND PLANET OF ACKWAZE SYSTEM.
AT CLEARING, CLOSE TO UNKNOWN DOORWAY.
"Do you think we should just walk up and knock?" said Stocks sarcastically as he, Ryan and Zoran lay on the ground amid large boulders and thick bushes that covered the ground on the edge of a clearing. About three hundred metres from their position there appeared to be a door set into the side of the mountain.
The aperture of the door was approximately three and a half metres wide by three metres high by their reckoning, and had a strange colour - a mixture of slate-grey and metallic blue. From their position, they could not see any control panel for the operation of the door. A large symbol had been intricately carved into the rock face to the right of the door, roughly one metre square, showing what appeared to be a stylised form of an obelisk. The carving appeared to slowly pulse with a red colour every few seconds.
"Nobody's home." said Stocks peering through his sniper rifles' scope at the strange portal.
"My gut instinct tells me that this could be a trap." Ryan replied.
"We've been here half an hour and seen nothing, only a couple of small foraging animals and that coloured wall-carving near the door - this place is dead." Stocks said dismissively.
"Okay." Ryan said quietly, "I'll go and take a look. You stay here with Zoran and cover me."
With that Ryan carefully crept off into the bushes, using the cover they provided until he could get close enough to sprint the shortest distance to reach the cover of the door, which was set into the mountainside some three or four metres.
"Alright Zoran," hissed Stocks, "Stay put. Don't move. Don't touch anything and don't fucking say a word. I need to concentrate in case this all turns to shit.
Understand?"
Zoran was about to complain when Stocks motioned to him to remain quiet. He had heard something - someone approaching from behind.
Stocks remained rigid, straining to hear. A biped. Something big and heavy. Something crunching on the dried leaves and twigs on the ground.
Stocks didn't have room to manoeuvre his sniper rifle around - besides, at this close range he would have to be pretty desperate to engage anyone with his S2 AM, which would risk damage to the weapon in a hand-to-hand fight.
Still laid in the prone position, Stocks reached inside his jacket and slowly began to pull out his handgun.
Looking across at Zoran, Stocks saw an empty space where the scientist had previously been laying.
Realising that the scientist had bugged out, Stocks was about to utter some words of contempt when he felt something like the end of a weapon press hard against the back of his head.
"Wort! Wort!" roared a deep voice from behind him.
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