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Halo: The 4 Arrows ch.4
By Skidmarkz
A silence so quiet filled the ship, nobody breathed, nobody moved, completely, silent. All Dontan mustered was, "Ok come on back". 10 minutes later the crew and ships returned. There was a lot of extra space in the loading bay, a space that wouldn't be filled in several months. "What-What should we do now, Dontan?" asked Halan. "I'm not sure..."he replied. "All of you are dismissed. Report back to my office at 1700 hours." They left slowly and returned to their quarters.
Dontan on the other hand went down to the loading bay to check on the soldiers. As he approached the fleet leader saluted him,"Sir!" he said respectfully. Dontan saluted back and kept walking, he knew where he wanted to go. He found what he was looking for, the soldier that contacted him right after the flood suprised them. He saluted. Dontan sad,"Listen, I know what happened out there was rough, and there are going to be more battles like it. But keep doing what you're doing, you'll make a fine fleet commander one day. But for now, second Squad leader should fit you just fine. The other one was killed anyway." The soldier replied, "Thank you sir!" and went about his duties of checking the rest of his ship. Dontan moved on checking for wounds and soldiers that needed food or water. When he found one, whether it was a Gontalite, Trontan, Armaron, or Daxxona, he always treated it with the same respect as any other. Dontan was known for treating his soldiers well, although he was still tough on them, he cared for everyone in his army.
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The other generals met Dontan in his office at 1700 hours. "Ok gentle men, let's start with what happened. I'LL TELL YOU WHAT HAPPENED! WE THOUGHT TOO SOON, AND SUFFERED FOR IT! From now on, there will be no more of this boasting about how bad we'll beat them, or how good we are! Because obviously, they were a lot smarter than us!" The generals had a blank expression on their face. "We understand." replied Flak-su. "What should we do now? We have hardly enough ships to fight a fleet of flood! If any at all!" he said. Halan joined in, "This is true, but what if, we came up with a ground battle. We have enough ground soldiers, and artillary. Our problem is the space battles. So let's just trick them into thinking we've landed on our home planet, mabye make a base or two to convince them. Then when they land, we fight on the ground!" Gofin added,"Yes, this might work, the flood are bad ground fighters compared to our effective weapons and fighting skills. The flood are quite clumsy when it comes to walking."
"Ok, so how do we find a planet and build two bases in a couple days before the flood are ready to strike again.?" Dontan asked. Flak-su replied,"I can get us a planet in 2 hours tops." Gofin said,"We have engineers and mechanics that can build two bases in a couple days, that's all we need, just supply us with tools."
"So there's the plan for that. Now how do we want to get them to follow us down to the surface?" asked Halan."Just send several squads of transports down to the planet. The flood will see the activity for sure on their scanners. Even if they're a galaxy away." replied Gofin. "Alright, so there's the plan." said Dontan."Halan, if you would be generous enough to go inform the soldiers of our plan. And tell them to train for two days straight, with the minimum sleep required." Halan immediately left to inform them of the plan.
Later that day, several transports of engineers and mechanics were snet to the planet Wat-roha. They made sure on purpose that the flood would be able to detect them. Since the flood had used up their hyper jump fuel, their ETA was in 2 1/2 days. In 2 days exactly te bases were done. with the extra time, they built bunkers, shelters, extra weapons storage, and hangers for aircraft and and spacecraft. Back on the the base ship, the soldiers trained day and night. None of them wanted to sleep, so they were given a drug that kept them awake and alert for 1 week. They were trained for rugged terrain, since the planet was mountainous, stormy, rocky, and had a gravity pull 5 times they were used to. They were also given new equipment. Guns and clothing that could withstand weather that was unpredictable. One day it could be extremely hot, up to 150 degrees, then the next day it could be in temperatures of -50 degrees. 2 days was all it took for the soldiers to get used to fighting on the planet, not to mention getting used to eachother.
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3 hours later the transports full of atleast 5,000 soldiers were deployed. It would take 45 minutes to arrive on the planet Wat-roha. When they descended to the planet surface, it was just what anyone expected. Mountains everywhere, rocky plains, and was snowing at the moment...Just what the soldiers wanted. A particular soldier named Skidami was on that first ship that landed. He was the nephew of Dontan. He wasn't given special treatment like anyone would expect because of relation to Dontan. Dontan was very fair to everyone, which was mentioned before. In fact, Skidami was just a regular infantry soldier, he had noone under his command. Atleast not yet anyway. This was only his first real battle, like many others. Since their had been peace with the Gontalites for many years, until now.
"You nervous!?" shouted a fellow soldier over the hum of the engines. "A little!" Skidami shouted back. They felt a jolt as the ship touched the surface. The cargo ramp opened up and 200 soldiers ran out into the open towards the base. Skidami could see the other 24 ships carrying 200 soldiers each out of his peripheral vision as he ran towards the base. The soldiers would only use one base, since they were using the other one just to make it look like there was more activity going on than there really was. Everyone knew their positions, so as soon as everyone was present at their battle stations, the Squad leader aproached them on a hover platform and spoke into a large voice enhancer.He said,"Today we fight under the eyes of the universe! What we do today, counts for tomorrow! What we do tomorrow, counts for the rest of our lives! And every other being in this universe free from the flood! Fight hard, fight with honor, and fight proudly. It will be an honor fighting by your side." With that cheers erupted from every soldier on the face of that planet. It went on for several minutes as they fired gunshots and cheered. After awhile it quieted down. It was several hours before anything happened. Skidami was assigned to a laser gun nest at the moment. He didn't know where the soldier he had talked to on the ship was. It didn't matter though. After two hours his post got a messenger. He told them,"Aproximately 3 hours til flood reaches surface." and then he was off to the next post to spread the message. No body talked much, everyone just stayed quiet at their assignments. They believed that if you didn't talk, noone got hurt when someone you knew died. There was no room for that in the military. And noone had said different.
Skidami was eating some food when he heard some talking arise from the soldiers. He looked around to see if he was missing anything. When he looked up he saw something strange happening in the clouds. Almost like they were parting, and fire was erupting around a huge ship. When they saw the flood drop ships come out of those clouds, their hearts skipped a beat. The big battle was coming. They landed atleast 5 miles away. But fighting would come quick. The guns and artillary they had could reach up to 2 1/2 miles. They could see the army form in the distance and begin marching, if that's what you wanted to call it. It took them almost 15 minutes to get within 3 miles. Skidami looked up to see and hear 2 aircraft fighters shoot overhead. They passed over the flood troops. About 4 seconds later 2 fireballs erupted in the mass of bodies. The battle had begun....
10/2/2002 9:29:47 PM
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