Halo: Into the Jungle

This is a story about two conflicts that occur at the same time which has two main characters. The first is a UNSC Pelican Pilot, Petty Officer First Class Nikola Dobrovic, who works out of the UNSC City of Lights during the Darcyc System Campaign. The second is Jiralhanae Captain Duro with hundreds of warriors under his command, and is of many New Covenant Chieftains in the Second Great War. Though they are both involved in this story, their stories are unrelated. The stories only take place in the same era: July of 2581.
==Chapter 1==
Petty Officer Nikola Dobrovic arrived in the Light's mess hall and walked towards the food line. He loved the liveliness of the hall, as it was a bit of enlightenment during long journeys. After getting his brunch of barbecue chicken, mashed potatoes, and water, Niko paced to his usual table, sitting down with his usual friends. Everyone was dressed in full armor, save for helmets, since they were close to the warzone. They were all small-craft pilots--hey stayed away from the Marines and Navy personel to avoid fights. "So," someone said, chomping into an apple, "Think this'll be anything like training?"
"Not really. Training is just so you don't wet yourself in real situations," an older man said, having participated in the Great Civil War, "Just keep a clear mind and a tight grip on the stick, and you'll probably live."
"Probably? That's a great way to motivate, you know that, Grigsby?" another man said. They joked, jeered, laughed, and debated for what seemed like hours, but was only forty-five minutes. Right after the meal, the Captain's voice was heard through speakers around the ship.
"Lock and load, we're deploying at twelve hundred hours. Get going."
"Damn, I was just getting relaxed." Niko said.
"Cap it, Dobo. You're always relaxed." a pilot joked. It was true. Niko tended to not take situations seriously enough, and he hated it. This mission, however, he was determined to change this. PO1C Dobrovic walked over to a digital sign in a corridor, listing when certain dropships were departing.
"Looks like me and you are in the first four, Ron." Niko said to Senior Chief Petty Officer Ron Walsh.
"Yep, guess so."
Niko had arrived at the Cruiser's hangar, and took in all of the chaos. Hangar crewmen were fueling two Pelicans and running last minute inspections: engines, landing gear, life support, comm systems, and many others. Niko paced to a small locker near the entrance he walked through. He grabbed a helmet, and an NH47 SMG, and began walking towards a Pelican.
"Petty Officer Dobrovic?" a man asked, dress in a hanger crewman's uniform.
"Yes sir."
"Good, yer bird's ready. Your co-pilot, PO Dobrovic walked to the rear hatch, climbed in, and buckled in. He noticed a group of around twenty Marines enter the hangar, ten of which headed towards his Pelican. They climbed in to the bulbous green dropship.
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The Jiralhanae Captain Duro was aboard a Covenant Battlecruiser, headed for the hangar. He had just mentally prepared for the upcoming conflict, and was ready to lead his army of thousands into the fray. He had been fighting since the war against the Humans, and wasn't worried about letting the hierarchy down, yet. He stepped into the armory as he passed it, and picked up a Gravity Hammer and a Spiker Rifle, and continued walking at a fast pace until he arrived at the hangar.
Duro boarded one of the four Phantoms in the giant room, awaiting his deployment. They were to invade the Sangheili-controlled colony known as Arca V, a vital foothold to winning the war. "We are the first down, be brave, brothers, and we will win over the heretic menace." Duro's voice was raspy yet very powerful. Nobody dared to challenge his authority, as that would shorten their life expactancy down to a few seconds. The signal to launch was given, and the forcefield doors to the hangar opened, shooting out the four Phantoms.
"Sir, what size is the enemy force?" a lower Jiralhanae asked.
"Larger than ours. Purge yourself of fear, and we will prevail." About a minute later, the Phantom violently shook.
"A squadron of enemy Seraphs! Take evaseive action!" one Unggoy pilot yelled.
"It's too late! They got our engines!" the other yelled. He was right. The Phantom was struggling to survive, descending in a spiral towards the planet. Without Duro, the assault was doomed.
==Chapter II==
"You guys ready?" Niko called out right before launch. No response. They knew that he was a rookie pilot, so didn't bother with him. The hangar then cleared out for depressurization. A siren went off, followed by the opening of the hangar doors. Two Pelicans shot out of the Hangar, and formed up with two other dropships, one Pelican and one Albatross, from another hangar. The squadron formed into a diamond shape, Niko's in the rear. He was unsure what would happen once they reach the enemy's AA range. He hoped that training was enough to keep him alive.
"This is Nova-556, at point. For all you greenhorns, keep a clean mind, when we hit the ground, do what you need to do. Pilots, we're going to do a quick scan, just to check for nearby hostiles." Senior Chief Petty Officer Walsh broadcasted to the group from the head Pelican.
Niko, concerned, replied back, "This is Nova-558. Sir, isn't the LZ surrounded by thick jungle? Couldn't we just use a few firebombs to burn 'em out?"
"We could, but we couldn't control the fire. In the dry season, the fire could spread to the farmland. That's the fun of goin' into the jungle," Walsh said over the comm system, "alright, we're hitting atmosphere... now." The sudden force of the natural gravity struck them, shaking the Pelicans. The four Pelicans remained in their formation except they were more leveled to weaken the stress of g-force.
Niko then said to his passengers, "Alright, we're just over a click fromt the LZ. When we drop you down, head north to the small allied outpost. They'll help you out there."
"Why can't we just be dropped there?" a disgruntled Marine asked.
"If we just travelled straight there, there's a good chance ULG scouts would track us. They don't know where it is, and we need to keep it that way." The squadron had arrived at its landing zone, a small open patch, only wide enough for one dropship to drop off her soldiers at a time. This left the waiting Pelicans extremely vulnerable. In this case, however, there was no known enemy air threat, so they were still safe. After the drop, forty Marines and 2 Mongooses were on the ground. (I looked it up, that is the right spelling.)
SCPO Walsh then came back on the intercom, "Nova-557 and 559, head back to the nest. Niko, you're with me, we're running a quick scan over the area."
"Aye," Niko replied, then said to his co-pilot, "Colon, warm up yer guns, we're going on a hunt." The two teams split, one headed to the southwest, and the other back up to the City of Lights. The battle was on.
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Duro's Phantom was careening down with a damaged engine. "I think we got the left engine back online at 40% capacity." the head Unggoy pilot announced.
With a bold voice, Field Master Duro said back, "Good work, little ones. Resume the course to the target. Everyone, make sure your weapons are prepared for battle, for it won't be much longer." The ships entered the cold atmosphere of the planet. The Unggoy then said,
"Sorry, Master, but we must change the target, the bad ones are too concentrated at the first spot."
After a moment of thinking, the elder Jirahlnae replied, "that is fine." The squadron of sleek, indigo Phantoms then arrived at the drop spot. Eighty loyalists were deployed from the four dropships into a vast, mountain-coated tundra. "Onward, comrades, for we must scourge the land of the Sangheili menace." The group cried with pride, then followed their leader into the everlasting blizzard.
The area they were deployed to was a huge coldasac-shaped valley, with its opening to the southwest. Hills of various size dotted the miles-wide canyon. For as far as visible, a slightly blue snow, likely due to a chemical in the atmosphere, coated anything tangible. As they were travelling, a Jiralhanae Major murmured, "Excuse my offense, but what would the hierarchy do with this planet?"
"Tritium flourishes underneath our feet. Our warships would do well with it," another replied. Moments later, a loud ching echoed, and a Jirahlnae dropped to the ground, a steaming hole squirting maroon red blood out from his head. "Sniper!" a soldier yelled. Everyone dropped down, and deployable shields were activated, while Kig Yar used their personal shields to protect them. A Kig Yar Sniper moved to the front of the group, while a panicking Unggoy was hit in the chest, killed instantly. With ease, the small creature killed the inferior Sangheili sniper in two shots (only one would've been needed if it wasn't for the blinding blizzard).
"Good work, Kig Yar. Let us continue our trek," Duro said. The group of seventy-eight continued towards the Sangheili fortification.
==Chapter 3==
"Hey, Senior, what exactly should we be looking for?" Niko inquired to SCPO Ron Walsh.
"Anything that looks like ULG's are there. They might be using Rhinos or torn up Scporpions with dozer blades, and a well placed shot could take one of us down."
"Alright, thanks." The pair of Pelicans continued for around another 600 yards, then PO1C Niko Dobrovic's copilot, Petty Officer Third Class Joe Nixon pointed something out in the distance.
"Hey, what's that ov-- shit!! We're hit!" a Rhino battle tank put a well-placed shot to Niko's Pelican's right wing, detonating the rockets it held. Niko tried to regain control, but could only get it another 100 yards before accidentally ramming the adjacent Pelican, crashing both and killing all but Niko. All he had was a pistol, an NH47 SMG, a few days of rations, and a med kit. He began to talk to himself to stay calm.
"Alright, let's hope the field training is enough. The radio transmitter is 100 yards out of range to the southwest, but is built approximately 2 miles away. I'll need to get there if I'm ever going to survive this mess." He found a small weapons cache, which was a sack with a BR55 carbine, four extra clips, and three grenades. This would be the last bit of goodness for a while, so he made use of it. Moments later, he heard the crunching of a quadrapedal creature at his 10 o'clock. He pulled out his new BR55 and zoomed in with the scope, and saw a tiger-like animal, with a thin coat of shaggy beige hair. The creature took notice of him, and charged. Niko took a deep breath, aimed, and fired his silenced Carbine in semi-auto mode three times, the last shot hitting the animal's head and killing it. Niko took another assuring, deep breath, then continued walking.
After he walked another sixty yards, he heard a gunshot. Damn, Liberialists, Niko thought. He sprinted as fast as he could, trying to reach the radio tower. Twenty yards away, he was hit in his left shoulder by a battle rifle round. Niko shrieked in pain, his shoulder was bleeding badly, and he needed to get to the station to apply medical care. He made it, running into the polycrete buildng that had a pair of openings: one as an entrance and the other a glass window. On the opposite side of the the old hut was the radio operating mechanism. Careful to not be noticed through the window, Niko hastily applied a small shot of Biofoam to his shoulder, wrapped it, grabbed the headset connected to the radio system, tuned the frequency to the group they dropped, then said, "Hello? Do you read me?"
"Loud and clear, who the hell is this?" Someone replied from the platoon.
Deligthted to hear the voice of a Marine from aboard his Pelican, Niko replied, "This is Petty Officer Dobrovic, at the radio tower. The others are dead, and their on my tail. Where are you?"
"Roger that, we're approximately 400 yards to your southeast and on our way, over."
"Understood, Dobrovic out." Well, I'll need to dig in now. Niko hurriedly searched for any weapons around. To his amazemment, he found a crate which carried a M486 HMG along with two 100-round belts. He painfully lugged it into the building, and set it up. He mounted it just in time to notice a group of ULG militants moving on his position. One of them yelled something in French, and the group of six charged. Niko let out on the group, splattering limbs, and body armor. In just under four seconds, all that was left was six barely identifiable bodies. Without time to waste, a slightly larger group charged, with no success. A third and final group of fifteen charged, two throwing grenades. Without thinking, Niko lobbed them back, killing all but the last three. His turret had run dry of ammunition, so he took out his SMG, then unloaded on the enemies. Despite his poor accuracy, Niko had gotten all three poorly trained guerilla attackers. Niko had taken another two hits: one to his left bicep and one to his right thigh from the last group. He knew that help was on the way, and he would be safe until then.
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The Covenant ground force was slowly advancing towards the Sangheili firebase, supposedly at the mouth of the basin. Suddenly, the ground beneath Duro's feet began rumbling. "What is that?" an Unggoy inquired.
"Walker. Prepare yourselves!" Duro yelled. He haunched his fuel rod gun onto his shoulder, intently studying the horizon ahead. Without warning, a green beam shot out, just a few yards short of the New Covenant group. "Split up! Call in support!" the Captain commanded. The footsoldiers of Duro's legion entered a state of organized chaos, scrambling behind nearby hills to avoid the deadly beam of the encroaching Scarab. Within a few moments, the vague silhouette of a giant figure was visible from Duro's position behind a frosted boulder. Then, with a steadfast voice, the Jiralhanae yelled, "fire on the carriage!" Illuminating green plumes closed in on the Scarab's legs from a number of fuel rod guns. The Scarab's main cannon let out on a group of Unggoy, killing a handful. After two more firings of the Scarab's gun and a barrage of fire focused on its legs, the Scarab buckled, allowing a trio of Jiralhanae to board the Scarab, one making it to the reactor and effectively detonating it, another jumping off to save himself from the blast, and a third dying in the effort. "Let us move on, my brothers. We must keep going."
"Captain, we are only down to fifty. Do we even have enough power to tackle the Sangheili fortification?" a Minor Jiralhanae asked.
"Dropships are on their way. They will supply us with mobile armor and reinforcements," Duro replied.
"I knew I should have stayed on Balaho," an Unggoy murmured under his breath.
Category:Halo: Infinity