i'll admit, this chapter has much fewer changes. just thought i had done a better job. as always, please review the crap out of this. pick it apart, help me improve my writing. if you see any specifically bad spots, send me a message.
It had been an hour since we had retreated into the cave. None of us were medics, so, without any kind of proper medical supplies, we used his empty rifle to immobilize his leg and gave him some morphine. His name was Private David Ryan. I checked to see if all of my weapons were loaded, swapping the standard magazine on my M7 to one full of subsonic ammunition. I also slipped out the silencer I kept at the small of my back and screwed it on to the end of the barrel.
"Come on guys, it's now or never." They nodded, two of the marines hoisting Ryan between them. I slipped into the tunnel leading back to the surface and stopped at the mouth of the cave. It was night time, but the ODST helmet comes standard with Low light enhancement. Although not as good as night vision goggles, it gave the user a little bit better sight while in dark areas. There wasn't any covenant in the area, so I slipped out of the cave and headed toward the city, constantly shifting my aim around to check every nook and cranny that an enemy could hide in. I moved slowly enough to let the wounded trooper keep up.
We reached the city without any incidents. As soon as we got to the first set of buildings, we searched for an empty one to occupy. Sánchez found an unlocked door and beckoned us over. I stood by the door, across from Sánchez. Three others got behind me, or 'stacked up'. I nodded to her and she pressed the door switch. I stepped around the corner, instantly heading for the corner of the room on my side of the door. Sánchez would be doing the same on the other side. Those stacked up behind us would alternate between which corner they would go to. The first two in usually cleared those two corners while the others cleared the rest of the room. The room was clear, so we ushered the others inside.
"Beasley, Holden, take two with you and clear the rest of the building. Quietly. Sánchez, you got a city map?" they moved off as she pulled her map out of the Tactical soft case on her thigh. She unfolded it and handed it over. I searched the map for the city's secondary spaceports, knowing that the main one was already dust.
"There's a military base here. May not have a slip space boat, but it should still have ammo stores." She pointed at it on the map and I nodded as I continued searching.
"Looks like there is a privately owned spaceport here. I don't know if the locals had the money for a slip space capable ship, but as long as the FTL buoys are active, we should just need something with radiation shielding." FTL, or faster than light, buoys were made to accelerate civilian ships fast enough to shove their way into slip space. It was very rare to find a civilian ship with a Shaw-Fujikawa Trans light drive core on board. They tended to make for excellent bombs. The Shaw-Fujikawa drive, or slip space drive, allowed ships to 'shove' their way into slipstream space, which is technically a different dimension. It was all Latin to me so.
"What's the plan Staff?" Ryan had been propped up on a wall.
"First, we hit this base, see if we can't get more ammo, possibly heavy weapons. Then we move to this space port and see if anyone left their keys in their ride." Sánchez shook her head.
"The only two routes from that base either take us through the main port, which is the covenant landing zone, or through downtown, which is filled with covenant and debris. We'll just get pinned and killed."
"What about these sky bridges between the buildings. Are they still standing?" I hadn't even noticed Beasley return.
"Yeah but we'd be sitting ducks if they find us." I smiled as I spoke.
"So we don't let them find us. It's better than nothing so let's get going." Everyone in the group nodded and started prepping gear as I spoke.
Specialist Maria Carrion slowly regained consciousness, feeling a dull throb on the side of her head. She opened her eyes to find herself back in the troop bay of the pelican. All she could remember was a massive bang, along with a tremendous amount of heat.
"Hey Carrion, you ok?" her battle buddy from the engineering unit she was assigned to, Haden Bale.
"I'm not dead." He smiled and laughed, slapping her shoulder as he did so.
"Good, you got hit pretty hard by that rifle. It hit you stock first, thankfully. Would've punched a hole in that noggin of yours if it was the other way around." He smiled as he spoke.
"Why are we still on the bird?" his smile faded as he responded.
"Door's jammed. Top hatch got welded shut when the wraith got us. Might've made it back up to the ship if a fuel air wraith hadn't also nailed us. Lucky for us, flyboy over there aint half bad." He pointed at the pilot sitting on the deck, next to the door leading to the cockpit. There had been only six engineers in the pelican when they had gone to pick up Renegade 1-2. Three Army infantrymen, two Marines, and six ODSTs had gotten on before the craft was hit.
"Anyone need me?" she was trained as a combat medic. Bale was the unit's communications specialist.
"One of the ODSTs took a nasty hit before he got on. Says he's fine but, doesn't look so good." She unbuckled the harness and moved over to the wounded trooper. It looked like a plasma round had hit his shoulder. Burned right through the shoulder piece and taken about three millimeters of flesh off his almost black skin. She grabbed a clean cloth from a small pack on her waist and an alcohol bottle. She dabbed the cloth with the liquid, then shook the trooper before she tried to clean the wound, waking him up.
"Just going to clean it out and bandage it." He nodded, keeping his faceplate polarized. ODST helmets were capable of being blacked out or cleared using the polarization of the atoms. When polarized, the faceplate turned dark silver, hiding the users face, but allowing him to still see. The concept was similar to a two way mirror.
She gently cleaned the wound, cleaning out dirt, charred flesh, and bits of fused armor. His hands flexed as she worked, showing that what she was doing was hurting him. She got it clean and pulled out a clean bandage, wrapping it tightly around the wound.
"There, just try not to touch it and don't take the bandage off. It doesn't look too bad so you should be fine, just take care with it." He nodded and leaned back again, presumably to fall back asleep. "How long have I been out, Bale?" she moved back to where she was sitting as she spoke. She nearly collapsed into the seat beside him, feeling nauseous from the head hit.
"'Bout two hours." She nodded and let her head rest on his shoulder, wanting to sleep.
I held up a fist as I reached the corner. We had been sticking to the side streets and alleyways, trying to avoid the covenant. The center of the street in front of us was split through the center by a recent sinkhole, probably caused by fighting in the sewers. Across the sink hole, about twenty meters down the street, a crashed pelican sat, jammed into a building. A small troupe of covenant soldiers were walking to it, most likely to investigate it. The group was made up of a single elite, five or six grunts and a jackal sniper. I pointed to Beasley and Holden, then at my silenced weapon, and finally at a car leaning on the edge of the sinkhole. They nodded and I stepped around the corner, headed for the car. I silently glided up behind it, crouching at it. My fellow ODSTs were only seconds behind me.
I signaled for them to hold put at the car as I took my pack off. Inside was a climbing rope, as well as three extra magazines for my assault rifle and three days of rations. I grabbed the rope and made a simple anchor on the lip of the sink hole. As soon as it was secure, I dropped off, holding the rope with one hand so I could keep my M7 ready. I loosened my grip just enough to let me slowly creep down the rope. At the bottom, I clipped my M7 onto my side so I could climb the other wall. I slowly inched my way up, trying to move as quietly as possible. I reached the lip of the sinkhole and peeked up to see if the enemy was watching. They were all too busy investigating the pelican to care, so I slipped up onto the road.
I slipped behind a flipped car and pulled out my combat knife. There was a quiet rasp as it slid out of the sheath. The elite was the closest to me, and he was standing fully erect. If I tried to slit his throat, I wouldn't be able to reach it due to its near four meter height. There was a bench and a trash can less than a foot behind him. If I used the trashcan to get higher, I might be able to jump high enough to get the knife where it was needed. I took a deep breath, then stepped around the corner. I reached the bench in less than a second, using it as a step up onto the trash can and leapt forward, landing on the elite's back. As soon as I hit him, I slammed the knife into its throat and raked it back toward me. The jackal was the first to react to me, but was silenced by suppressed weapon fire from my teammates. All of the grunts were killed by them before the elite could collapse to the ground.
I quickly danced away from the dying creature. It clutched its throat, trying to stem the flow of blood with its raw power. One of its eyes locked with mine as it slowly died from the wound. I heard a crash behind me and I spun to find a trash truck jammed into the fissure, giving my team a way to cross it. Beasley tossed me my pack and I shrugged it back on.
"Check the crash, see if anyone survived." He nodded and moved over to the pelican's rear, to check the main doors.
Carrion jumped when something banged on the sealed doors beside her. Her MA37 Assault rifle shot up out of pure instinct, aiming at the small window in it. One of the ODSTs moved over to it and peeked out. They all had taken their helmets off to try and relax a little. He smiled as he saw something out side. He pointed at the small access hatch on the top of the craft before He spun and leaned against the door.
"ODST, looks like someone found us." Suddenly, there was another knock. The trooper bounced off the wall and he pressed his ear to the window. His expression grew grim as a faint mumbling echoed through the cabin. "Everyone, get back from the hatch, they gotta blow it. Get ready to move!" she grabbed her helmet and put it on, securing the strap under her chin. The bird's pilot waved everyone to the cockpit. There was a short passage between the bay and the cockpit. This passage was merely meant to act as an airlock between the bay and the cockpit. All told, the cockpit and foyer could hold maybe seven people. There were seventeen soldiers crammed into the bay, meaning that at least ten people had to stay in the bay. There were six ODSTs, who had the best chance of surviving the blast. Meaning four normal troopers had to stay in the bay.
"I'll stay in the bay." Her battle buddy instantly spoke up when she did.
"Me too" one of the marines stepped forward.
"Us marines aint lettin you all have the fun. I'll stay too." his buddy stepped forward, simply standing with Carrion and the others.
"All right, good luck you guys." One of the ODSTs shoved pilot toward the cockpit.
"thanks. Come on, you four, get near the door." They all crowded to the back of the bird, Carrion taking up the spot closest to the window. The other three none-ODSTs swarmed around her. The ODSTs tried to make a living wall between her and the hatch. There was a knock on the hull again and she glanced out the window. An ODST was standing just outside. She gave him a thumbs up. A few seconds later, there was a loud whump as explosives went off on top of the hull. They backed away from the door. Black armored feet and legs appeared in the smoking hatch. An ODST dropped down, landing in a crouch.
My radio cackled to life with Beasley's voice.
"Corporal, we got survivors on board. Rear door is jammed on rubble. They keep pointing at the access hatch on top." I jogged over to the side of the hull.
"Holden! Get your ass over here and give me a boost up!" he jogged over and crouched slightly, making a makeshift step with his hands. I put a foot into his hands and he shoved me upwards. I grabbed the edge of the pelican and lifted myself the rest of the way up.
"You know Wander, you need to lose a few." I rolled my eyes as I moved toward the center of the craft. I crouched at the access hatch and frowned. Plasma rounds had welded the hatch to the hull.
"Holden! Still got those thermite cords?" I moved back to the edge of the pelican as I spoke.
"Yeah, how many do you need?"
"Five. Detonator too. Beasley, warn the survivors." Holden tossed me the cords and detonator one at a time. Thermite burned hotter than the devil himself, allowing it to burn through just about anything. I bent each into an arc, following the curve of the hatch. The last two overlapped a little but it shouldn't cause any trouble. I plugged the remote trigger in to one of the cords and checked that the detonator was receiving a signal.
"Beasley, I'm ready to go up here!" he was silent for a few seconds before he spoke.
"Good to go!"
"Alright, I'm going to drop down after this goes off and help them out. We gotta move fast." I got reports announcing everyone as ready as I slid down the front of the craft, grabbing onto a hole in the hull. My breath rattled slightly as I squeezed the trigger on the detonator and slammed the top of it against the pelican. There was a loud whump as the thermite lit. I heaved on the hull, pulling myself back on top of the bird. The hatch was just a smoking hole on the top of the craft. The edge was still boiling hot, so I pulled out my canteen and dumped it on the hot metal. The metal screamed as it flash cooled. I dropped down, grabbing the still hot metal.
The rungs had melted in the blast, so I dropped down to the deck, letting my legs collapse beneath me. I stood and looked around. There were six ODSTs in the bay, along with two army troopers and two marines. Four of the six ODSTs were from my squad.
"Shit guys, didn't think I would see you again." one of the ODSTs stepped forward, letting his visor depolarize.
"Well, aint this world all screwy. Good to see ya corporal." Lance corporal Benjamin Cole. He had been on the sergeant's team. I crouched and created a step with my hands.
"Come on, we don't have time to catch up." he stepped up as the door to the cockpit opened. I hoisted him high enough for the soldiers up top to be able to grab him. Another ODST stepped up beside me. His shoulder had been hit by a plasma round, but he helped me lift each of the soldiers up. His HUD tag said he was specialist K. Reynolds. His name was familiar, but I didn't meet him. Within a minute, we were down to one other person in the bay. She was an Army medic, and she seemed to be swaying slightly.
"Come on, we don't got all day!" she took a step forward and collapsed to the floor. I darted over and lifted her up. "Hey, you okay?" she shook her head slightly. That small movement seemed to hurt her.
"She got hit in the head by a rifle when the wraith nailed us." I nodded and signaled for him to turn around. I opened his pack and grabbed his climbing rope. I quickly tied it around her waist.
"Alright, I'm going to lift you up, take the other end of the rope up with you. Once up there, hoist her up." he nodded and I got ready to lift him. He seemed heavier than anyone else on the bird but I still was able to lift him up. I moved the army trooper over to the hatch and they hoisted her up.
I jumped up, grabbing onto the lip created by the second hatch. My fingers burned slightly from the still hot metal as I hauled myself as high as I could. A hand reached down and I grabbed onto it. The soldier hauled me up. As soon as I was standing, I ran and took a leap of the hull. I hit the ground and rolled to my feet. The other ODST did the same, only faster somehow. The rest of the soldiers were running for a building. Sánchez was at the door, beckoning everyone inside. I shot through the doorway and slid to a stop. Sánchez rolled around the corner and sealed the door. I counted heads, ending up with twenty eight soldiers. And more importantly, a pilot.
"Pilot, can you fly a slip space capable ship?" he nodded.
"Yeah, but I'll need some extra hands or an AI. No offense but you groundies tend not have the….. Coordination." I nodded as I thought.
"What about the city's super intendant? Should be smart enough for it. Name?"
"Lieutenant Carson. Yeah it could, but doesn't the Cole protocol mean that it's destroyed?"
"Maybe not, the Cole protocol mainly focuses on navigation data and weapons research and development. Super intendants tend to only have Nav data. May have only deleted that data, not itself." The Cole Protocol was set up to protect Earth and the other central colonies, such as Reach.
"Worth a shot, Sergeant?"
"Staff Sergeant. Wander." He nodded and I turned to the soldiers. "For those of you who don't know, we are on our way to a small Army supply depot. After that, we are heading into the city to recover the super intendant, if it's still active. Then we are moving on to a small spaceport. With any luck, there will be a ship there that can jump to slip space. Take five mikes to get ready to move." I dropped my pack and grabbed the assault rifle magazines, stuffing all three in one of my empty pouches. I moved to sling the pack back on, but Sánchez stopped me.
"Your rope." She smiled as she handed me the coiled rope. I nodded and stuffed it in my pack. My legs ached as I stood and I slung the pack back onto my back. My chest was suddenly throbbing violently every time I took a breath. Probably cracked or broken ribs from the elite kick to the chest. I took short shallow breaths to try to lessen the sharp pains.
"Who has advanced recon skills and knows this city?" my own voice startled me as I spoke. Sánchez put her hand up and one of the army troopers from the pelican did as well.
"Sir, I may be an engineer, but I grew up in this city and I was an ODST for two years. I switched to the army to be closer to family." His IFF tag read as Private H. Bale.
"Sánchez, what about you?"
"I was also born here. Got stuck working with some ONI guys to deal with some insurgents two years ago." ONI, or Office of Naval Intelligence, did a lot of secret operations, and would sometimes hijack other military units to get what they wanted.
"Alright, I want you two to scout ahead. Everyone else, cover the wounded." I walked over to the two severely wounded troopers. Ryan had somehow obtained a makeshift crutch. The medic's eyes were closed and her face was contorted in pain. "Hey, how you feeling?" her eyes opened as she spoke.
"Feel like someone tried to split my head open." Her voice sounded strained.
"You got hit in the head with a rifle. I'd say that something did try. Come on, we gotta move." She stared at my faceplate, a look of complete confusion on her face. "Ryan, how ya feelin?"
"I'm moving, if that counts." I nodded and moved over by one of the doors. Sánchez and Bale moved over beside me, without me even having to speak.
"Get going, we'll follow you. Sánchez, you're in charge. Move!" they opened the door and jogged out. I waited one minute more, letting them get a head start, then led the group out the door and into the narrow streets of the city.