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| - // Battle of Arras // Alpha Eridani Star System // 21 DEC 2569, 0524 Local Time First Lieutenant Freeman counted down from ten, closing his eyes as he prepared for what a normal person would consider to be suicide. The whine of a fifteen-five filling his ears, the UCC artillery perched over twenty kilometers away had their position zeroed in and weren’t letting up. The area around the relatively small service road had become nothing less than an all out warzone in the past 72 hours. The various housing developments, buildings, forests, and fields that surrounded the road had become a breeding ground for death and destruction, serving as the perfect environment for the UCC to halt the defenders attempts to retake their newly gained territory. Springing from the foxhole, he sprinted across the field as the shell landed only nine or so meters from him. The shockwave rippling through the ground and almost sending Freeman to the ground as the reverberations shook the earth below him. In almost the same instant a 14.5x114mm APFSDS round passed only inches above his head, the Marine continuing running through the small column of smoke and dust rising from the impact crater. Ten meters away he slid down into yet another foxhole, three other ODSTs pressing themselves as close to the deck as physically possible beside him. “Did you get the SOBs position?” he shouted over the distant explosions and gunfire “Just called it in, sir” responded McKay. “Target confirmed 3/1 Bravo, payload away.” the sound of the FDC commander coming over SQUADCOM. The four Marines waited for the ordinance, hearing incoming only a little more than thirty seconds after getting confirmation from the Fire Direction Center. The four 115mm rounds landed directly on target, one after another ripping through the soft wooden structure of the house, collapsing the entire building only a few seconds after the impact. “Move up!” ordered Freeman Pulling himself up from the prone position, the Marine moved forward across the battle worn field, his boots just managing to gain traction on the blood soaked grass. His eyes scanned the area ahead of him, shifting from picking out possible hiding spots to scrutinizing the forward terrain for possible enemies. The four ODSTs were less than 40 meters from the road, putting them about a good quarter klick from the subdivision that the sniper had been in. Behind the squad, the rest of their allies began to follow the example, grabbing their weapons and emerging from their own foxholes. They could hear their comrades behind them, boldly leaving the safety of their makeshift defenses in an attempt to break through the line. In unison, it sounded like every Marine was shouting at the top of their lungs as they let out a battle cry, the weary soldiers continuing their sprint through the houses, blocking out their aches and pains, only wanting to spill blood. A single UCC soldier opened a door of one of the houses, emerging from the structure with only a M7 SMG, Alenko slowing for a second in order to deliver a three round burst from his MA5C to the soldier’s chest. The one hundred thirty five bloodthirsty soldiers converged on a platoon worth of enemy soldiers taking shelter in the central park of the development. The UCC unit was tending to their wounded, many soldiers caught without more than a M6G on hand. The charging Marines stopping and raising their weapons, opening fire with a deafening roar of more than a hundred weapons letting loose a flurry of lead. He watched the corpsman lay another body down in the grass, just one out of the many corpses lined up along the sidewalk. In twelve hours his company had sacrificed over sixty brave men and women, and for what? Holding a road in the middle of no where on a colony of no real tactical significance. PFC Daniels knelt down beside his former friends Janet Taylor and Kyle Turner. The two were the only reason he hadn’t torn up his draft notice back on Contention, his closest friends so eager to go into combat, not even entirely for the UCCs reasons for the war. A tear ran down his cheek as he stared into Taylor’s lifeless eyes, her gaze sending shivers down his spine. He stood, bowing his head and saying a small prayer to God for the dead, but was not alone in grief, the fifty odd men and women around him all hurting in someway. All but a few were conscripted for the ‘noble’ cause, each had their own motives for continuing on, but as their brothers and sisters lay around them motionless, they became less and less clear. The only sounds in the small park were of the combat in the distance, the single explosion nearby not even registering to the battered company. The young man tried to move, but his mind refused to let him leave his friends sides, he himself not wanting to accept their deaths. He turned away, letting another tear roll down his face as he opened his eyes. His vision was filled with enemy soldiers the instant his eyes adjusted to the light. Between every house it looked like a dozen UNSC had taken a position, weapons ready to fire. Daniels did not even have time to respond, the soldiers opening fire on him and his fellow Marines. The first few rounds were stopped by Titanium-A, but round after round followed, numerous projectiles piercing his armor and tearing through his flesh, the young man falling to the ground beside his friends. The soldiers tried to react as the lethal semi armor piercing rounds tore through anything in their way, striking any surface that was in the line of fire. The bullets left pockmarks in any concrete, sending into the air a flurry of dust and bits of the material. Wood in the park was splintered by the hot lead, ripping apart anything made of the relatively soft Tacwood found on the colony. The few Marines that were fast enough to react and try to run were cut down just like the others, sent to the ground in a puddle of their own blood. It was a massacre, the remaining men and women of 4/3 Tango slaughtered in the park as they were licking their wounds. Freeman released the trigger as the last opponent fell, the other guns on the line quieting down as the lives before them were extinguished. He allowed his weapon to drop, scanning the devastated area before him. He started to walk forward, holding up a fist in order to tell the rest of the Marines to hold their own positions. The scene sickened him, over a hundred bodies lay in the green grass covered in the viscous, crimson substance seeping from their wounds. He dropped his hands, walking thorough the mess, his stomach becoming uneasy as he looked over the dead. Why had this war gotten this far, so quickly? He didn’t get to answer his own question as Marine with a radio pack trotted up next to him, holding out the handset. “Command wants verifications we’ve broken through” asked the young soldier. He nodded, taking the radio from Private Hennessey.
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