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Author Topic: A Spartan By Any Other Name - Chapter VI - Fire!  (Read 1916 times)

Offline jokerman

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A Spartan By Any Other Name - Chapter VI - Fire!
« on: September 25, 2009, 07:40:03 PM »
<boring stuff>
The following story is copyrighted material and all rights belong solely to the author.  Any reproduction or republication of any or all of this publication without the explicit and expressed written consent from the author is strictly forbidden.
</boring stuff>

“So, it appears you can dance, and you know your stars.  But I’m getting tired of calling you ‘cadet’.  You need a call sign.  Do I hear any suggestions?  You had first contact with him, what do you think?” the commander said approaching the cadet’s first teacher on Purgatory.

She looked at him up and down and finally said, “I can’t think of anything with him standing there like that.  Look at that armor, it’s too clean.  The Covenant troops can see him from orbit.  He doesn’t have a scratch on him.  What did they send us?  A doll?”

“So, do something about it”, the commander said turning away and walking behind her.

“I think I will!”  With that she immediately pulled out her Magnum and shot him at point blank range dead center of his chest plating.

The cadet reeled back from the concussion of the round and grabbed his chest.  Alarms went off in his helmet signaling a shield failure.  Already being taxed by the torture of the radiation from above, the shields had fallen quickly.  Immediately, he felt an intense burning sensation on the back of his skull and neck from the rising blue beast.  He quickly ducked and rolled to a nearby rock formation.  The shade protected him until his shields powered back up but the few moments in between were agonizing.  Even in the shade, the heat and pressure were unbelievable.  His armor protected him just enough to keep him alive but he felt suffocated as if a great weight was pressing down on him from all sides.

His shields back online, he felt a sudden release and the cool air quickly begin to re-circulate through his suit.  Breathing much easier, he stood back up making sure he stayed in the shade this time.  He looked down and saw a smudged dent in his chest plate where the round hit and the scorch marks on his armor.  “What are you doing?!” he yelled.  “You shot me!”

“Get used to it”, she replied in a low and sincere tone.

“Feel better now?” the commander asked his companion.

“Yeah, I do.  And you’re right, he can dance.”

“Well, I’m not alright”, the cadet blurted.  “Fine, I’m out here and everything wants to kill me!  But from my own team!?  She shot me right over the heart!”

“She likes you”, said the commander.

“Likes me?!  What will she do if she doesn’t like me?!  Give me a gift box of bath salts and aromatherapy candles with a note attached that says a box of chocolates is on the way?!”

“The reports were right.  You don’t act like the others”, the commander said.  “No, THIS is what she does when she doesn’t like something.”  

With that, the commander walked over to a large shiny tarp covering what the cadet thought were more supplies stacked on the ground.  Grabbing the tarp the commander quickly pulled it aside.  The cadet instinctively turned his head.

Under the tarp were the recent remains of a Covenant Brute.  Its jaw had been broken and fell to one side leaving the mouth agape.  Its eyes were still open and it seemed to be frozen in a look of surprise.  A rib, or what looked to at one time have been a rib, was sticking out of its side.  One leg was completely folded back and under its head and an arm was twisted in an impossible fashion and over the body.  That’s when the cadet realized that even though the head was looking up, the body was faced down.

“You see, we have to keep these things covered from Big Blue up there, too.  Eats the flesh right off the bones before we get a chance to get any info off of them.  Just be glad that the atmosphere is toxic and you are wearing that helmet.  The smell is something you never forget.”

“Ok, mental note, stay on her good side”, the cadet said to himself.


« Last Edit: September 26, 2009, 06:59:09 PM by jokerman »

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