Private Joseph Clark pulled on the helmet to his UNSC Marine Battle Armour. It was a perfect fit, but that wasn't a surprise. Each Marine in the Corps had their armour tailor made for them, using their precise measurements. He slid his visor down, and it clicked into place at the bottom of the helmet. A message flashed across the visor. Airtight.
"Ready for this, Joe?" asked Jospeh's friend from boot camp, Private Dillon Green. Dillon was shorter than Joseph - most people were. However, Joseph looked up to him.
"Of course," lied Joseph, "I'm fully trained, fully equipped... Innies won't stand a chance."
"But mentally?" Dillon said, slotting a clip into his assault rifle.
"I don't know, Dillon..."
"Remember, these are the scum who killed your brother."
Jospeh's twin brother Tristan had been killed in a suicide bombing three years ago while our clubbing one night. Joseph had never forgotten the moment the police officer turned up at his door and told him the bad news. On that day, he had joined the Marines, not for revenge, but to stop the same happening to others.
"That's not why I joined, and you know it."
"But you do want revenge, don't you?"
"You know me too well, mate." Jospeh replied; "That, or you're a physic."
"A little bit of both, my friend."
"Touchdown in one minute," said the robotic voice of the dropship's AI. Joseph activated his visor's HUD.
The Pelican dropship was piloted by an AI. Human pilots made mistakes. AI didn't. It swooped down from the clouds and came to a stop over the flat roof of a highrise. The doors burst open.
"Alpha, go go go!" shouted Sergeant Titus, Alpha's captain.
Joseph rose to his feet and jogged out onto the rooftop. He raised his assault rifle, and checked ahead of him. Clear. He rounded the edge of the dropship and swept his eyes across the other side of the rooftop. Clear. He flashed a green 'all clear' light over the SQUADCOM.
"All clear," said Sergeant Titus after a few seconds.
"Bravo, move out!" shouted the leader of the other twelve man squad on the Pelican, Sergeant Rogan.
Bravo Squad surged forwards in a tight-knit group, and headed for the door down into the building.
"Titus, have your lot supress the buggers. Bravo'll come down on them from the floor above," Rogan said, before leading his squad into the building. Four of them instead headed to block off the exit.
"You heard the man, Alpha! Over onto that fire escape!" Titus ordered, pointing to the fire escape of the building opposite.
Joseph's thruster pack was brand new, fresh from manufacture and testing. The model had been in service for seven years, during which it'd received praise for its reliability and resilience under fire. It was as safe as military hardware got. That didn't make the idea of jumping across a motorway onto a building any more appealing to Joseph. If he fell, he'd be screwed. His armour might take the force of the fall, but it wouldn't stop one of the cars.
"Clark! Hurry it up!" said Corporal Hook, the squad's second in command.
Joseph took a deep breath, and jogged towards the edge of the building. He reached it, and jumped. For a second, he hung in the air. Then he dropped. He activated his thrusters, and flew the distance to the building, landing on the fire escape with a thud. He looked down at the relatively solid surface beneath him, his arms shaking.
"You get used to it," said Hook reassuringly, standing not too far from Joseph.
Joseph looked across at the building. The wall may as well have been transparent, because Joseph's HUD let him see everything he needed to. The furniture in the room was outlined in yellow, and the Insurrectionists in red. They had no idea that a squad of Marines could see them from the next building over.
"Pick your targets," Titus said.
"Dibs on the fat one," one of the Marines said.
Eleven red crosshairs blinked into life on Joseph's HUD, showing where each member of the squad was aiming. Joseph picked an Innie who no one was aiming for, and centred his own crosshair on his head. The guy was tall, and slim, similar to Joseph. He was standing on his own, looking down at a datapad. Joseph wondered what was on there for a moment, before forcing them thoughts out of his head. They'd only distract him from his task.
"We're breaching in three..." said Sergeant Rogan to Alpha Squad over the comm; "Two... One..."
An explosion roared over the comms, and Joseph saw the room's door - what was left of it - go flying into the room. Gunfire roared in his eardrums as his squad opened fire. Eleven Innies dropped to the ground as armour piercing bullets tore through them. Joseph hesitated as he squeezed the trigger, and suddenly shifted his aim downwards. He pulled the trigger all the way, and a burst of gunfire ripped through his target's knees. The Innie fell to the ground, his screams of pain barely audible. Bravo Squad stormed into the room, green outlines around them.
"You has it's head in your sights, why didn't you shoot the damn Innie?" the Marine next to him - Private Dogolea, asked angrily.
"I couldn't! He's a person too!" Jospeh said, equally angry. He hadn't been able to bring himself to shoot the man.
"A person who would kill civilians doesn't deserve life," Dogolea snapped.
"Don't you think I know that?" Joseph said desperately; "I'm not like you, I don't kill people just because I can!"
"But by letting it live, you let people die to it's hands!" Dogolea replied as clips started hitting the ground.
Joseph popped out and settled his sights on an Innie's chest, then his finger tightened on the trigger. The Innie fell down, blood billowing from his chest. Jospeh stood there and stared, seeing what he had done. He'd killed someone. The few surviving Innies broke and ran, and Joseph stared at the carnage. Nineteen dead Innies.
"Nineteen..." Joseph muttured.
"You did the right thing, Private," said Dogolea; "Killing one of them saves god knows how many people."
"I guess," Joseph muttered vaguely, then turned to Dillon; "You kill any?"
"One," Dillon said quietly, almost as pale as Joseph.
"This isn't over yet, Alpha, they're fleeing with bombs and hostages." Sergeant Titus announced.
"What's our plan, Sarge?" one of the Marines said.
"We chase them over the rooftops," said Sergeant Titus.
"I thought a few Marines from Bravo were guarding the exit," Joseph replied.
"They were," Rogan said, "All the more reason to hunt and kill those bastards."
A horrible feeling swept through Joseph. Marines had died, when not ten minutes ago they were joking together in the Pelican. Perhaps if he had been more aggressive, shot more Innies, they'd be alive...
"Come on, Joe," Dillon urged, before activating his thrusters and jetting up onto the roof.
Joseph activated his own thrusters and shot straight up. He touched down on the rooftop and jogged after his squad.
"Warning. Hostile dropship inbound," an automated voice said.
A red marker appeared on Joseph's HUD, pointing upwards. He glanced up to see the dropship soar down through the clouds. It was an old Auklet dropship - smaller than the Pelican, and slower, but encased in thick armour. The Innies had painted it brown, with rough orange lines streaking over it.
The Auklet's frontal chainguns burst into action, aimed straight at Joseph. He used his thrusters to throw himself out of the way, and tumbled across the roof. The spot where he had been standing crumbled under the gunfire, and rubble rained down into the building below. The Auklet turned to a new target, and Joseph opened fire on it. The rounds from his rifle bounced off of the dropship's armour.
"Small arms won't work on that ship," Titus shouted, "Gauss rifles might."
Joseph tossed his assault rifle aside and drew his secondary weapon - a gauss rifle. It used electromagnetic coils to accelerate a projectile to deadly speeds. Joseph took aim and fired. The shot left a dent in the dropship's armour, but didn't break through.
"Joe! Aim for the engines!" Dillon shouted, "You're a better shot than I am!"
A marker popped up on his HUD, pointing to the Auklet's exposed engines.
"I can't do it!" Joseph said.
"You've got to! It's them or us," Dillon said, "We're pinned down, and you're the only one at the right angle for this."
"I... I..."
"I know it's hard, Joe. But you can do it," Dillon said.
"And fucking do it quickly," another Marine shouted.
"I'll do it," Joseph said, quietly.
He turned, raised his gauss rifle, and aimed his smart scope at the Auklet's engines. There was a slight gap in the armour for the heat to escape. It was the Auklet's Achilles Heel. Then he fired, and a superfast projectile cut a path through the air, only to scrape along the armour to the side of the engines. Joseph cursed and fired again, this time scoring a direct hit. The Auklet wobbled in the air and the engines started smoking. Joseph fired one last shot, and the engine exploded. The Auklet span out of control, smoke and fire pouring out of it as it spiralled through the air.
The pilot ejected, his thrusters powering him away. He got only a short moment of saferty before a gauss round from Titus' rifle tore through his chest. His corpse plummeted after the dropship. The pieces of wreckage spiraled to the ground, before landing with a cacophonous crash, right in front of the Innie jeeps.
Dillon jumped from the roof, followed by Joseph, then a few more members of Alpha. Their thrusters flared, slowing them down to a safe landing speed. They raised their weapons, glaring at the Innies who were leaving their jeeps. The Innies left their jeeps and took cover, outdated rifles clutched in their hands.
"Hands up!" said Sergeant Titus.
"Fuck off, UNSC scum!" an Innie shouted, raising his rifle.
Five of them hit the ground before they finished raising their rifles, a combination of the Marine's slightly augmented reflexes, and their tactical advantage. Joseph had the final one in his sights, but couldn't bring himself to fire. The time he'd gunned down the Innie earlier was different. But up close, Joseph couldn't bear to shoot someone. Not when he could see his face, the face of a teenager barely old enough to drive. Not when he could see the panic written across his features.
The Innie fired a burst, and next to Joseph, a Marine hit the ground. Blood sprayed from his chest, his armour torn through by armour piercing rounds. His helmet feed icon was vanished, and was replaced by a red X on Joseph's HUD. The Innie was gunned down, and Joseph glanced over at the fallen Marine.
It was Dillon.
Joseph threw his rifle away and knelt at his friends side. He removed his helmet and dropped it, then took of Dillon's.
"I'm so sorry," Joseph sobbed, "I'm so sorry, Dillon, I'm sorry..."
Dillon coughed up blood as he lifted his head, "Don't be."
"I could have shot him, I, I... It's my fault," Joseph cried.
"Joe... Don't blame yourself..." Dillon gasped, "Blame him... Blame them..."
"Dillon, I-"
"Shush... Tell my parents I love them... And tell Jane I'm sorry... That I couldn't come back..."
"I will. I promise."
Dillon closed his eyes, and his head fell back.