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9/1/2010 1:41:19 AM
104
[Story] Streams of Fire *(Chapters 15 has arrived!!!)*
This is my first fan fiction, or my first fiction, period. So feel free to give me any criticism or comments, as they usually are helpful...
For those who are too lazy to sit and read this here, you can download one of these 3 PDF files and read them wherever you want on:
[url=http://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_BP88KGqGTnNzU1NWJmYzAtMWU5ZS00Nzg5LTgzZmItYjQ0ZjZkYjY2NTU3]Your computer[/url]
[url=http://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_BP88KGqGTnMzM1ZmJiNDctZmJmNi00MzkyLTlkY2UtNzZkMTNkYTA5ZmZh]Your iPad or eReader[/url]
or even
[url=http://docs.google.com/open?id=0B_BP88KGqGTnODBkZTQxN2UtMWZkZC00YjI3LTg3ODAtN2I0NDIyNjEyM2Yz]Your iPhone or iPod touch[/url]
These PDF will be updated with the post here, so you can grab the new one when the chapter is up. All you have to do to download the PDF files is click "File" then "Download Original"
To pull this file into iBooks on you iPod or iPad, simply send it to yourself as an attachment in an email. Open that email on your selected device and there should be an option to import it into iBooks, where you can read in the comfort of wherever you happen to be.
You may also notice a shiny new cover. Keep in mind that I made it, and I am in no way an artist, and I drew it on my iPod too... If you would like to contribute a more awesome cover, please do so. I would love a nice, even shinier cover...
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=48303195&postRepeater1-p=1#48303855]Chapter 1[/url]
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=48303195&postRepeater1-p=1#48303931]Chapter 2[/url](it's in the middle of the post)
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=48303195&postRepeater1-p=1#48303997]Chapter 3[/url]
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=48303195&postRepeater1-p=1#48388277]Chapter 4[/url]
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=48303195&postRepeater1-p=1#48473026]Chapter 5[/url]
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=48303195&postRepeater1-p=1#50245125]Chapter 6[/url]
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=48303195&postRepeater1-p=2#54105324]Chapter 7[/url]
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=48303195&postRepeater1-p=2#59135727]Chapter 8[/url]
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=48303195&postRepeater1-p=2#59135803]Chapter 9[/url]
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=48303195&postRepeater1-p=3#60043938]Chapter 10[/url]
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=48303195&postRepeater1-p=3#60111189]Chapter 11[/url]
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=48303195&postRepeater1-p=3#63477589]Chapter 12[/url]
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=48303195&postRepeater1-p=3#64561818]Chapter 13[/url]
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=48303195&postRepeater1-p=4#64562113]Chapter 14[/url]
[url=http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=70212379]Chapter 15[/url]
[b]Streams of Fire
Prologue[/b]
The battery of my wrist computer was dead. Of all times for it to happen, the nearly limitless energy source that powered it had gone out. I stared at the black screen, my reflection showing clearly, despite the long crack running through it. It was the first time in fifteen years that I had seen my face. I had always been too busy, too focused to spend time in front of a mirror. I gazed now into eyes that seemed unfamiliar, a face covered with scars that I could barely remember, and a short crop of hair much different from the long style of my adolescence. Gray patches were just starting to appear, odd, considering my age of 35. I guess that's what war does to a man. I pulled the busted contraption off my bleeding forearm, and threw it to the charred dirt. I put my hands to my face, holding back the tears of a battle gone bad, continuing them upwards through my graying hair. Then, as if a switch had turned off, my arms dropped, lifeless, to the ground. I no longer had the energy, nor the will to move, the day had drained all hope from me.
I sat in silence, leaning against the useless warthog, watching the landscape around me burning. Reach was glassed, but for some reason, where I was had been left untouched. I watched what were once mountains flicker behind the heatwaves of the superheated surface. I heard the fizzling of the air around me as the temperature continued to rise. I felt the sweat dripping from my beaten brow. My senses were ablaze with the symphonies of a dying planet, and all I could do was wait, wait until I joined it. Reach's last hour had arrived, and I had been unfortunate enough to be stranded on it. Strangely, my thoughts veered away from my situation, and drifted towards my past. I put my head back, staring into the fiery sky. I watched a Covenant cruiser drifting silently overhead, its purple hull creating a stark contrast against the orange and crimson sky. It flickered with the flames of a burning world, its plasma weapons finally finished. I stared at it for what seemed like hours, and then I finally closed my eyes, and drifted off into another world.
[Edited on 02.17.2012 10:25 PM PST]
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[b]Chapter 3[/b] I looked around at my squad as we made our way towards the surface. I saw the anticipation and fear in the eyes of Private Reynolds. This was going to be his first engagement, and everyone else in the pelican knew it would probably be his last. Looking around, I saw the sadness in everyone else's eyes. They knew there was no hope for this planet. Once the Covenant found a human colony, they glassed it. That was how it worked, how it had been for every planet previous to this one. Reynolds looked hopeful though, despite his fear. He and I both knew that this was one of the strongest human worlds, and that the UNSC wasn't going to let the Covenant take Reach without a fight, but only I knew that they couldn't win. I looked to my Corporals, Nguyen and Sharpe. We had all seen multiple glassings, but something told me that it was different this time. A shimmer of hope, perhaps, or it could have just been my stomach dropping as our pelican dove into the atmosphere. It didn't really matter. As we neared the planet, I looked out the window in the cockpit and watched the planet grow in my vision. I could see one of Reach's crater lakes and watched the clouds drift over it. My mind was captured by the beauty of it, and then we hit the atmosphere, jarring the pelican. Flames slowly obscured the view, but the effect was lasting. I was not going to give up on this planet. "We're entering the atmosphere now, Sergeant." Luck reported. "ETA in ten minutes." "Noted" I replied. After that fateful day on Jericho VII, Luck had been my designated pilot. She'd aged into her forties since then, but she still had that same attitude of confidence. I stood up from my seat, barely able to stand from the shaking of the bird, and entered the cockpit. I looked out of the side window, and watched a neighboring pelican. It was quiet, almost soothing. Then a loud mess of sound came through on the radio. As the static cleared, I distinguished it to be flip music, a loud, harsh sounding music that came from an archaic type of noise from the 21st century. "Staff Sergeant, is that you?" Luck shouted over the noise. "You bet your sweet ass it is, Lukenowski." Staff Sergeant Johnson sounded, "Gettin' you and your cargo pumped up for the battle, ma'am." "Pumped up how, Johnson? Torture may excite you, but I for one don't roll that way." Corporal Sharpe sneered. "Why aren't you on your way down here with us, anyway?" "Oh, I've got something to do up here in orbit, a bit of clean up. But don't you worry your pretty little head, soldier, I'll be down there before you know it to save your ass." "I think we'll be the ones saving you, Sarge." Sharpe commented. "Haha, I'd like to see that, Corporal." "If I remember correctly, sir, we've pulled you out of a few hairy situations in the past. Remember Arcadia?" "Arcadia? You mean when I saved you from those hunters you tried to ambush?" "The way I remember it, Sarge, those hunters were trapping you in a corner when I opened fire. They'd have torn you up, sir." "Ha! I was just about to take them out when you distracted me with your 'crazy tactics!' Two hunters ain't no match for Staff Sergeant Avery Junior Johnson! I-" The comm. went out, and the music stopped. "Well, at least we can think now." Luck remarked. That got a few chuckles out of the men. By now, the red flames had lessened, and I could see the surface again. I returned to my seat and prepped for insertion. I grabbed my trusty Assault Rifle, the same one I had been given on board the Resolute in orbit of the glassed Jericho VII. Over the years, the gun had been worn by my hands, seared by close misses of plasma, and gouged by the blades of the Brute's weapons, and all the marks and scratches made the weapon my own personal trophy. I also grabbed a shotgun, just in case I got cornered. "We're about to touch down, sir! ETA one minute." Luck reminded me. As I double-checked my guns to make sure they were loaded correctly, the pelican jolted. "Aw, hell. Banshees! On our tail, sir! This is going to be a quick drop off, Roland!" "You heard the lady, get ready, men!" I ordered. "Nguyen, get that turret set up in the back for cover. Turn around and line up, you know the drill." I turned to Private Reynolds. "You just follow suit, Private." The hatch in the back of the pelican opened up, revealing a fast moving surface not too far below. By now, the rest of the squad had lined up with their backs to the opening. I checked the map on my wrist computer. "Approaching the LZ, gentlemen. Get ready to drop in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Go! Go! Go!" Corporal Sharpe was first, he jumped backwards out of the back of the pelican. The others followed as Nguyen fired on the two banshees. The men dropped out until it was just Nguyen, Reynolds, and I. "Your turn, Private." I told a nervous Reynolds. "Sir, I don't think-" He began. "Exactly!" I interrupted. "Don't think, just jump. Roll when you hit the ground and you'll be fine." "I'm not so sure, sir." "Don't worry, private, I'm right behind you. Jump. Now." He reluctantly moved towards the back of the pelican. Closed his eyes tightly, and jumped. I quickly followed suit, with Nguyen close behind. i was only in freefall for a second or so, but it always felt like an eternity. It was an amazing feeling, but it was soon replaced by the pain of impact. As my feet hit the ground, I curled and rolled multiple times until I stopped. When my head stopped spinning, I looked up to see Nguyen about 100 feet in front of me, just finishing his rolls. As I raised myself up off of the ground, I checked my wrist computer. We were a little off from our landing zone, but it would have to do. I glanced behind me, and down the hill I saw six more figures spread along in a broken line. They were all heading this way. Good, I thought, everyone's OK. "You and your boys make it alright, Roland?" Luck buzzed over the comm. "Shaken, but safe, Luck" I replied. "Those banshees still giving you trouble?" "Ha, a couple banshees aren't gonna bother me for too long, Roland. You should know that by now." She insisted. "Fair enough. Be careful out there." "Likewise." By now, the rest of my squad had assembled around me. There was Private Reynolds, Private Lammons, Private Kendrickson, Private First Class Wallace, Lance Corporal Stone, Corporal Sharpe, Corporal Nguyen, an me, their Sergeant. "We're not far from our target LZ." I looked around, we were atop a grassy hill. Just over the next hill is where the supply point should be, and from there we move to protect one of the generators for the orbital MAC cannons. We already had weapons, but this supply point has warthogs and heavy weapons, which I knew were going to be invaluable for the battle to come. We marched, Private Reynolds experiencing difficulty from a hard landing. I blamed myself, of Course, for pulling a stunt like that without training him first, even though it was our only choice at the time. We didn't see any Covenant, not that I was complaining. It was a bit unsettling to be in a war zone with no enemies. As we reached the top of the second hill, we saw why. From our vantage point we could a Covenant cruiser dropping hundreds of dropships towards the MAC generator station. Instantly, we all knew that we could do nothing. "My god." I couldn't help but exclaim. "Either way, we need those warthogs, men, so let's get a move on!" As we made our way down the hill towards the armory, I felt it would be a good ideas to contact command and see what we should do. They hadn't responded by the time we made our way down there. There was a bit of a surprise waiting for us when we arrived at the armory. The barbed wire fence had been cut through. Somebody beat us here, I smelled insurrectionists, even though they would be crazy to try to find both the Covenant and humanity. "Stay sharp, men." I warned "Someone's here." Almost as an answer to my statement, a man stepped out from behind one of the buildings. "Don't shoot!" He pleaded. "I just want to fight the Covenant, all of us do. They're destroying our - " "Did you just say 'all of us?' How many are with you?" I asked. "Just come and see, sir." he reasoned. I motioned to Sharpe, it could still be a trap. He followed the man around the corner. Thirty seconds or so passed before he sounded over the comm. "Sir, we've got ten civilians. Unarmed, they couldn't break into the weapons cache." he informed me. I winced. Babysitting ten civilians definitely complicated things. I don't like complicated. "They said they wanna fight. Who are we to stop them?" I began "Reynolds, Nguyen, and Stone, you're with me. We'll be finding some transport. Everyone else, help get those civis armed and grab some heavy weapons while you're at it. Everyone got that?" "Sir, yes sir!" They responded in unison. "Then move out." Reynolds, Nguyen, Stone, and I made our way towards the vehicle bay, and to our delight, there was not just one, but five warthogs. I moved to grab one of the machine-gun hogs, and ordered the others to each grab a troop hog. We drove over to the armory, where the civilians were being outfitted with armor and being given brief training on the use of firearms. I took the opportunity to grab a Designated Marksman Rifle, which would be better at range than my shotgun. [Edited on 11.19.2010 8:15 AM PST]
