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Battle For Tamria, Africa -Preview of Series
Posted By: CorruptedHalo<corruptedHalo@live.com>
Date: 16 July 2009, 4:03 am


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As Private Caleb Connor rounded the corner of the battle-worn concrete wall, he paused and looked over his shoulder for a brief moment. What he saw would numb his brain and send chills down his entire body.
A Covenant Dropship, known commonly as a Phantom, was directly behind the wall where the Covenant had subsquently ambushed his squad of fellow ODSTs afew mere moments ago. He ran to catch up with his squad commander, Lieutenant Felix Froman, and the few survivng men from the attack. Caleb looked at each of them briefly when they came to a halt inside a 6-story apartment building.
A total of four men where there, including Caleb and Froman. The other two marines were Corpsman Ethan Demarko, the group's medic and Spec Ops leader, and Corporal Perez, known only by his last name and rank, the group's marksman and second-in-command. As Caleb squated and gripped his BR55, Demarko began to speak:
"Sir, as soon as I landed and jumped out of my pod, I saw Hatch land afew meters away. I scoped in on his pod to see if he had survived his drop, and the next thing I saw was the red mist erupting on his shoulder. Whoever shot missed his head by inches."
"I ran to the position you told me via radio with Gibbs behind me. He didn't have as lucky a fate as Hatch."
"Any news on Sterman or Higuchi?" Froman asked.
"Negative, sir," Demarko responded. "MIA, probably dead."
Caleb refueled his BR55 with a gas tank he found lying nearby while listening to the conversation.
"I managed to grab a couple of clips off Gibbs's body," The Corpsman added. "they may be of some use to us."
"Toss me one," Perez said. "I'm out on mine."
Demarko threw a clip at the Corporal, which he caught and slammed into the vacant spot on the butt of his gun.
"Alright," The Lieutenant muttered as he rose. "Caleb, scope out the area outside and see what we're up against."
" On it, sir," Caleb replied.
He crouched and looked around the wall with the scope on his rifle. He saw a few minor and major grunts mixed in with two Elites, both low ranking.
"Heh," Caleb muttered to himself, then added out loud: "looks like we got off easy, boys. 4 grunts and two elites."
"Noted," Froman said. "Private, you take point with me. Corpsman, follow close behind. Corporal, you follow 5 meters behind and cover us. I'm calling extraction. Hit it, marines!"
"YESSIR!" They shouted in response as they charged out of the building. Caleb fired his rifle and watched through his scope as the rounds pierced straight through a grunt's skull. That first shot startled the Covenant soldiers and the small battle began.
No matter how startled they were, the Covenant soldiers weren't about to go down without a fight. As soon as they found their targets, they fired their assorted plasma weapons. Afew of the scorching-hot bolts found their way to the ODSTs, but because of they durability of their armor compared to a regular marine's they didn't do much.
As the battle raged on, the Covenant soldiers became fewer in number. After two grunts and one elites had fallen, the remaining grunts broke off in fear. The only major threat then was the elite, which went down easy after a few shots from Perez's high-caliber rifle.
"We survived, I can't belive it, we're alive!" Demarko stated extatically.
"Don't let your guard down, marine," The Lieutenant warned. "we don't know for sure that we're out of this yet."
"This is Dropship Alpha 339 to Fireteam Roland," The radio on Froman's shoulder rang out. "do you copy?"
"We read you, Alpha," Froman responed. "we need immediate extraction now. I have a couple of marines under my command now, but they're are two other marines from our squad MIA, so keep an eye out."
"Understood," The Dropship pilot replied. "where is your current position?"
"We're near an old abandoned apartment complex near the city square. Do you see it?"
"Not right now, but I see your beacon on my radar."
"Beacon?" Perez noted. "We didn't send a beacon."
"You're right," Th Lieutenant responed, then said to Alpha: "the beacon doesn't belong to our current four man group, Alpha, so it must be a Covenant trap, or a survivor who isn't part of our little party. Stay sharp either way."
"Acknowledged, Lieutenant," The pilot replied. "I am coming in on the city now, so just stay in the building and I will track your COM and pick you up."
"Roger, Alpha," Forman said. "marines, assemble for evac, but be prepared to fight again."
The ODSTs checked their weapons and reloaded as they fell back into the building. As they fled, three Covenant Banshees saw them and began to fire at the building. The men didn't notice it until one of the aircrafts launched a giant plasma bolt that almost seared Perez's flesh right off the bone.
"Jesus!' he said as he ducked around the corner of the building.
"There's no way Alpha is going to be able to pick us up with those thing flying around," The Corpsman noted.
"Let me get a shot at one of them," Caleb suggested. "I picked up one of the grunt's sticky grenades when we killed them."
But before his fellow marines could argue, he flew out of the building and immediately started firing at the nearest enemy vehicle.
His plan had worked. The pilot of the aircraft slammed on the boost and attempted to make Caleb a bloody mess all over the gray, battle-charred ground, but instead was rewarded with the marine rolling out of the way and throwing a small blue explosive, that attached to the vehicle and made fireworks in the sky for about a second, followed by debris.
This caught the attention of the other two pilots and made them become enraged, and Caleb soon found himself running for his life back to the complex with plasma bolts landing about him and charring the ground even more so then it already was. The response of the Covenant pilots was to destroy the supports of the building that were partially showing clean off, so the ODSTs would have to come outside and fight.
They somewhat succeded, but when the ODSTs came outside they saw a giant, red laser the radius of a warthog tire hit the side of one of the banshees, while the other was blown to smithereens by rockets. The ODSTs looked up and saw a Pelican landing near them.
"Welcome aboard, men," The voice of the pilot rang out. The marines looked inside and saw Gunnery Sergeant Sterman, the sqaud's demolitinist and heavy weapons specialist in the cargo bay. The ODSTs happily greeted him as they boarded the ship.
"Lets get this thing back to Base, Alpha," Froman said over the semi-loud roar of the active engines.
"Roger, Lieutenant," The Pilot responded, and the dropship took off.





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