UNSCDF2 Chapter 10- Strong Dissent

San Francisco, California, USA

UNSC San Francisco Outpost

April 11, 2001

1200 Local Time

            Reid walked out of a building handcuffed beside two marines. He held his head down in shame as he walked by a crowd of bystanders who’ve got nothing productive to do at the Outpost.

            “Get out of here!” a woman yelled.

            “You better be locked up for good!” an old man spoke.

            “Dirty marine!” a young girl hollered.

            Reid shook his head as he watched the onslaught of hurtful words pelleted his self esteem. He was a good man with a good life and one simple gesture to a woman was all it took for his tower to come crashing down. Reid scanned the crowds and saw Sarah standing beside her police buddies at the back of the crowd.

            “Sarah Parks! You will pay for this! I will make you suffer!” Reid yelled out loud.

            “Move along.” a marine beside him shoved him to keep walking.

            “I will hunt you down and you will pay!” Reid shouted.

            Reid watched as Sarah and her police buddies turned away from the crowd and entered a building as if they didn’t hear him. He continued down his path and turned a corner. Reid approached a Pelican and saw four marines dressed in full combat gear from head to toe armed with MP5s. The marines beside Reid shoved him inside the Pelican to the four marines and walked off.

            “Strap him in.” a marine commanded.

            Two marines buckled Reid to a seat in the center and sat down beside him on each side.

            “Get ready for liftoff.” the same marine spoke and walked to the cockpit.

            Reid watched as the third marine sat down in front of him and looked at his watch. The Pelican began to ascend and Reid looked at his feet. His life was ruined and his way out seemed unlikely. Once the Pelican reached altitude, the Pelican hatch closed and the interior lights turned on. Reid watched as the marines sitting in front of him and left of him stood up.

            “What?” the marine right of Reid exclaimed as the two marines knocked him out with their fists.

            “Who are you?” Reid watched in horror.

            The two marines removed their helmets and revealed their faces.

            “Surprised to see us?” Morgan joked.

            “Hornet Squadron’s got your back.” Miller smiled.

            “You guys know this is punishable by death?” Reid opened his mouth in shock.

            “We know.” Miller nodded.

            “Quick, get in the outfit. We’ll swap prisoners.” Morgan released Reid.

            “There are two pilots and another marine there.” Reid pointed at the cockpit doors.

            “Don’t worry. We’ve got it all planned out. Corporal Mendoza and Corporal Timothy are the pilots. We had to do a little shift trade.” Morgan laughed.

            “Hurry.” Miller urged.

            “We’ve going to assume the other guard doesn’t realize yet.” Morgan pulled out a black cloth and tape from his pocket.

            As Reid dressed up, Morgan taped the unconscious marine’s mouth shut and placed a black cloth to cover his head. Reid sat down into position and concealed his face with his helmet. Just at the same time Miller buckled back to his seat, the cockpit doors opened and the marine walked out.

            “Hey, what’s with the black cloth over his head?” the marine asked.

            “Idiot kept on blabbering about his revenge.” Morgan replied.

            “You sure he can breathe in that?” the marine pointed.

            “Oh yeah, he can breathe and he needs to calm down. I don’t want this trip to be painful.” Miller added.

            “Whatever, it’s better not to have him starring at me for the whole trip.” the marine sat down beside Morgan.

            Reid just kept his mouth shut as he was afraid that his voice might be recognized. Reid watched the Pelican lights dimmed down a bit as it reached its cruise speed.

            “A couple of hours and we’ll be done. I prefer zombie killing than prisoner transport.” the marine folded his arms.

Fairbanks, Alaska, USA

UNSC Compound

April 11, 2001

1415 Local Time

            “Why is the flight so long?” the marine stood up and stretched.

            “Chill dude.” Miller waved his hands.

            “I’m wondering if the pilots know the way.” the marine walked into the cockpit.

            “Sit tight, we’re landing.” a pilot called out.

            Reid watched as the marine sat down to his seat and strapped himself in. He could feel the Pelican slowly descending as the interior lights slowly faded. Then, the Pelican hatch opened and Reid could see a medium-sized facility below them. It was half the size of the San Francisco Outpost, but seemed to be very vacant. Perhaps everyone was inside due to the coldness of the North.

            “Thank goodness we got full suit.” Miller shivered.

            “I agree. I prefer the South.” the marine nodded in agreement.

            “Almost zero zombies up here.” Miller pointed out.

            “Almost no life up here.” the marine joked.

            The Pelican descended onto a snowy landing pad and two marines dressed in parkas rushed to the Pelican with SA80s.

            “Take them.” Morgan spoke to the marines.

            “Come on inside. Get some hot food to eat before you go.” one marine waved as the other marine grabbed the prisoner.

            The prisoner suddenly woke up and began to struggle. The two Alaskan marines tackled the prisoner to the ground as he wriggled violently. Reid stood up and watched as the marine whom they were flying with aided to restrain the prisoner. Miller rushed to the cockpit whilst Reid and Morgan watched the three marines tackled the prisoner onto the snow. After a scuffle, the black cloth came off and his face was revealed.

            “That’s not Reid!” the marine exclaimed.

            Morgan looked at Reid and then rushed to the Pelican hatch lever beside the rear opening and flipped it.

            “Stop!” the marines shouted and aimed their guns as the closed Pelican.

            “Mendoza, get us out of here now!” Morgan shouted as he heard bullets hitting the hatch.

            “Copy Sarge!” Mendoza shouted.

            The Pelican lifted up and the marines outside pelleted the aircraft with bullets. Suddenly, an alarm went off from the facility and brought spotlights onto the Pelican.

            “Get us out of here Mendoza!” Morgan shouted as he heard the deafening siren.

            “We’ll be clear of range in five minutes. The engines don’t operate that efficiently when you gun it upwards.” Mendoza replied.

            “Everyone strap in!” Timothy hollered.

            “Why?” Reid grabbed a handrail.

            “We are about to get shot down by missiles!” Timothy exclaimed.

            Reid rushed into the cockpit and grabbed a seat behind the two pilots. Miller and Morgan quickly sat down and buckled on their seatbelts. Reid looked out a cockpit window and saw around twenty marines firing below them. In the group of marines, five held missile launchers.

            “Missiles launched!” Timothy watched as warning lights flashed on his computer.

            “Banking left. Hold on!” Mendoza swerved Pelican.

            “More missiles aft side.” Timothy flipped a switch.

            “Deploy countermeasures.” Mendoza commanded.

            “Deploying.” Timothy pressed a button.

            Three missiles flew towards the back of the Pelican when suddenly a barrage of flares erupted from the aircraft’s tail. Mendoza pushed the thrusters forward to exit from the UNSC Compound’s fire, but the missiles pursued. One missile hit a flare and exploded while two passed the heat distraction from the nearby flares.

            “Deploy again.” Mendoza commanded.

            “It’s too close to deploy.” Timothy commented.

            “Get the hatch open. We’ll gun the missiles down with the turret.” Reid stood up.

            “Copy LT.” Mendoza nodded as he continued to speed the Pelican forward.

            The Pelican hatch opened and revealed a determined Reid mounted on the M60 turret. He began to spray a hail of bullets at the missiles trailing behind the aircraft. As one missile got close, Reid was able to shoot it down in midair causing a bright flash light in the sky. The other missile came from a few meters left of the explosion and Reid aimed. He fired, but destroyed it too late as the explosion flung shrapnel to the hull and blew one of the rear thrusters off.

            “We’re hit!” Reid yelled as he saw fluid leaking from the side of the aircraft spraying a mist of yellow into the sky.

            Reid ran into the cockpit and grabbed a seat. The Pelican was beeping and alarming as the two pilots frantically commandeered the damaged Pelican.

            “Left thrusters are gone and fuel line has been severed.” Timothy reported to Mendoza.

            “With some luck, we can land this bird.” Mendoza spoke with optimism.

            “They’ll find us.” Reid interrupted.

            “Where to then?” Mendoza spoke with frustration.

            “Russia or Canada? I have no idea where we are.” Reid replied.

            “Canada’s heavily UNSC controlled, but not Russia.” Timothy answered as he looked at a map.

            “The Soviets are not allies with the UNSC. Both places we’ll get shot. I’ll steer to the closest country.” Mendoza turned the Pelican a few degrees west.

            “Which is?” Reid asked.

            “Russia.” Mendoza pointed forward.

            “We have enough fuel?” Reid asked.

            “Just about enough. If we crash, there will be no explosion as most the fuel is either used up or leaked out.” Mendoza looked at a computer screen.

            “Alright, Russia here we go.” Reid said with a straight face.