Federation's Trial (ST/Halo crossover fic) 3rd chapter is up

[Micheal Ryans, Beta pilot]

Federations trial chapter three

“Faster!” Lieutenant Hit-Man yelled, “You want to die in the mud marine?”

“Hell no sir,” corporal Ryans responded, putting the pedal to the metal as the jeep skidded down a dry river bed on Centennia.

Hit-Man looked down at private Crazyz, lying in the back of the jeep. He’d caught fire in the engagement from a new Covenant weapon, a gauntlet that fired purple needles that exploded a second or two after impact.

This shouldn’t have happened to them, damn it. They’d done all the right things, from mining the entire area around the firebase to moving cautiously through the jungle.

It was Captain Kennedy’s fault when it came down to it though. The fool had used active sensors in an environment where the enemy had better sensors, and more of them.

He was dead, along with the rest of Charlie Platoon. They’d found a com setup belonging to the enemy while on patrol. Kennedy had ordered them to fall back to the jeeps. They hadn’t obeyed immediately.

That was what saved them.

The three of them, and private Jones, had been knocked flat by a plasma detonation.

When they’d arrived at where they’d left the platoon, all they found was a glassy crater and a few carbonised skeletons.

Then Ryans had seen something. He’d described it as a huge, armoured beast. He hadn’t gotten a good look at it, but he guessed it was about twelve feet tall.

He hadn’t stayed there for long, only up to the point where he’d noticed the glowing green plasma gun on its right arm.

As they were running to where they’d parked the jeeps, hundreds of Grunts had started chasing them.

They’d fallen back; spraying the jungle with phaser rifle fire as the exploding needles peppered the trees around them.

Then Crazyz had been hit. The needle had come out of nowhere, hitting him in the stomach. Crazyz flinched, his side exploded, and he went into shock before he could scream.

Hit-Man had tossed a grenade into the midst of the advancing Grunts, and then dived into a crater, where Ryans was bandaging the gaping hole in Crazyz’ side.

Hit-Mans recollection was spotty after that, but he remembered running like hell, and climbing into the back of the jeep, then driving back towards Firebase Bravo.

About a minute or so later, they arrived on the ridge overlooking it.

The LT lifted his binoculars up, trying to see through the haze over the valley.

Slowly, it dawned on him that it wasn’t a heat haze, it was smoke.

Tapping the zoom button, he moved them across to where the Firebase should be, and froze.

It, and the hill it had been dug into, were gone, replaced by smooth glassy earth.

Covenant attack fliers circled around high above, occasionally dropping down to strafe UFP marines that stepped out of cover at the wrong time.

He saw something moving. Zooming in on it, he saw that it was either the same thing Ryans had seen, or something similar.

It stomped through the rows of dead or injured Federation officers, sometimes pausing to crush a survivor. A pair of orange phaser beams struck in the side, and it turned towards their source, raising its arm.

Even from the ridge, Hit-Man could hear the screams of the men who were hiding there.

“Get us the hell out of here!” he shouted to Ryans.

“But, everyone else,” Ryans started.

“They are all dead, and we are gonna be too, if you don’t get us back to the headquarters, ASAP,” Hit-Man replied.

Ryans nodded, putting his foot to the floor.

As the jeep raced down a dusty track leading towards the HQ base, Hit-Man spotted the stubby-winged shapes of a scouting pair of Banshees descending towards them.

“Jones, fire that damn missile launcher!” he shouted, spraying the Banshees with fire. It was a useless gesture really, as the phaser cannon on the jeep was hard enough to use on things that weren’t a good hundred meters above you and dodging like hell.

His best hope really was to nail the wing anti-grav pods, but on the ground and from a moving platform that was the wrong side of impossible.

“Jones, you little bastard, get the goddamn missiles in the air,” Hit-Man yelled, firing again.

Suddenly, a blast of heat and light flashed past his shoulder.

Hit-Man screamed, still firing, sure he’d been hit by the Banshees and would be dead in an instant.

Instead, the Banshee blew apart in mid-air.

Hit-Man looked down. Crazyz was lying there, holding his stomach wound with one hand, and the missile launcher with the other.

The private waved Hit-Man down, and he ducked, just as Crazyz fired.

The second Banshee turned into flaming wreckage.

Hit-Man stood back up, just as they cleared the jungle and arrived at the HQ.

What greeted them was a human marine with a patch over one eye.

He saluted Hit-Man as the jeep rolled up.

“LT,” he said breathlessly, “its good to see you. I’m Lieutenant James Tomlinson. Covenant hit us about an hour ago. There are about fourteen of us left now, out of four hundred.”

“Who’s the ranking officer?” Hit-Man asked.

“That would be me,” someone else said.

A man, wearing the uniform of a marine but the rank badges of a colonel, stepped out of the buildings.

“Colonel Chris ‘Crackpot’ Devine, at your service,” the man said cheerfully.

“Sir,” Hit-Man said, “just what in the hell happened here?”

“The Covenant hit us hard,” Chris explained, “they had tanks, aircraft, hundreds of troops. They wasted the SATCOM uplink and the hospital first. We killed pretty much all of them though.”

Hit-Man nodded thoughtfully, and then asked, “Where are the rest of your men?”

“In the armoury, wearing firefighting suits and trying to salvage whatever ammo they can,” Chris explained.

“Right,” Hit-Man agreed, “I’ll get on watch then.”

Standing up, he nearly put a few shots into Jones. The lousy goldbricking bastard had nearly gotten them all killed when he had frozen up.

Still, they needed every man they could get, bloody stupid or otherwise.

[Companion Cube]

W00t! Good job, I liked your description of the ground battle.

[Col. Crackpot]

*orders LT Hit-Man to get me a cup of coffee

lol

[Micheal Ryans, Beta pilot]

*orders LT Hit-Man to get me a cup of coffee

lol

I wouldn't.

[SylasGaunt]

It's pretty good so far, my one problem is that a few of the lines are pretty much straight out of 'the fall of reach' with names changed.

[Micheal Ryans, Beta pilot]

It's pretty good so far, my one problem is that a few of the lines are pretty much straight out of 'the fall of reach' with names changed.

That should change next chapter, if I ever get it finished.