Contact
Date: 01.10.2545 (UNSC Military Calendar)
Locale: Pelican Charlie 032, Fifteen Kilometers East of New Albany, Outer Colony of Draco III


2nd Lieutenant Gaige gripped his assault rifle tightly as the D77-TCI Pelican that he and half of his platoon's Marines rode in began its controlled descent towards the ground of Draco III.

After the Winter Contingency had been declared and all relevant data and documents were destroyed per the Cole Protocol, he and the rest of Bravo Company had received orders to relocate from Camp Mawhinney to the outskirts of the city of New Albany, located in the province of Lombard in the northern hemisphere of Draco III. Specifically, Bravo Company had been charged with securing a perimeter around the city and assisting with evacuations of the civilian populace.

The rest of the 1/73rd had been charged with directly combating Covenant forces at a staging area in the southern hemisphere, a mission that Gaige and a majority of the other Marines of the company did not envy nor desire. Fortunately for both Bravo Company and the residents of New Albany, the city resided within the planet's northern hemisphere, which had not been heavily targeted by the initial invasion forces.

However, despite their initial focus lying in the southern hemisphere, the Covenant had still deployed two CPV Class Destroyers, to the northern hemisphere to establish a staging area and begin screening UNSC defensive forces. As such, command had established a defensive posture in the different provinces of the northern hemisphere, while they took a more aggressive approach with the southern hemisphere.

"3 Bravo this is Bravo Actual, radio check." Captain Joyce's voice came through Gaige's internal helmet speakers, tearing him away from his own thoughts.

"Bravo Actual this is 3 Bravo, reading you Lima Charlie*." Gaige responded almost instantaneously, trying to mask the nervousness in his voice, though he doubted he did a well enough job.

If Joyce detected his somewhat frayed nerves, he didn't comment on them. "Roger 3 Bravo, be advised, Charlie 032 will be dropping your Marines into grid square Papa 13. You're to secure the local spaceport and establish a perimeter to ensure civilian evacuation succeeds. It's suspected that the Covenant have landed a small amount of their forces in the city, so watch your corners, over." Joyce explained, leaving the 2nd Lieutenant perplexed. His platoon was the most depleted in the entire company. If the Covenant were already in the city limits, it seemed somewhat detrimental to rely on the most understaffed platoon to secure the spaceport proper.

Choosing not to voice his concerns, Gaige simply acknowledged the order and switched to 3rd Platoon's communication channel. "3 Bravo, we'll be dropping in the the city center to secure the spaceport. Once we've secured the spaceport, we will establish a defensive perimeter and standby for further orders. Covenant forces are suspected to be in the AO*, so keep an eye out. Squad leads, acknowledge." The 2nd Lieutenant ordered, checking his weapon for what felt like the hundredth time. Three green blips lit up on his HUD, indicating that the three squad leaders in his platoon had received and acknowledged his last transmission.

"Actual's giving us the babysitting job, El-Tee. That's some bullshit if I ever heard it. 3 Bravo had the biggest fucking kill count in the whole Sansar Campaign." One of the Marines in Charlie 032, a Lance Corporal Larson, hollered to Gaige from where he sat in the blood tray* over the sound of the dropship's engines.

"Maybe the Captain gave us the babysitting job since we're down twenty one guys, you fucking 'tard. The other platoons are only missing a few Marines, not half the damn roster. Jesus, Larson, it's like your mama deprived you of oxygen for shits and giggles." Corporal Pierson countered, responding before Gaige could.

"Fuck! Banshees slotting in on our six! Break, break, break!" Charlie 032's crew chief shouted over an open frequency, firing a burst of shots from the rear mounted M247 GPMG at the offending enemy aircraft, quickly silencing the banter between the Marines that sat helplessly within the relatively unarmed dropship.

Mere moments passed before Gaige heard a loud sizzling explosion and felt the troop transport shudder, quickly plummeting towards the ground at what felt like terminal velocity. "Mayday, mayday, mayday! Charlie 032 is hit! We are going down! Last known grid, Oscar 29! Requesting immediate-!" The pilot didn't have the chance to speak further, with Gaige feeling the Pelican rotate upside down and quickly fell from his seat, hitting the ceiling with a resounding thud.

The next two things the 2nd Lieutenant realized clearly was the distinct scent of smoke and a splitting headache. "Fuck me..." He heard somebody mutter, prompting him to force his eyes open.

Once he did, he saw that Corporal Pierson and Private Connors both hung limply in their jumpseats, still strapped in. From the skewed angle of his neck, Gaige theorized that Pierson had been killed from a broken neck, while the blood pooling out of the back of Connors' helmet implied that he was killed from blunt force trauma sustained during the impact.

For several moments, Gaige found that he could only helplessly stare at the two now-deceased Marines, before being shaken back to reality by a loud series of coughs and movement within the wreckage.

Tearing his eyes away from the bodies, the platoon commander saw Lance Corporal Larson unclasping himself from his jumpseat, landing rather ungracefully on his shoulder blades. With a grunt of frustration, Larson pushed himself up and moved to where Gaige sat.

It was only then that Gaige realized he was still strapped into his jumpseat, which meant that he was now upside down. He attempted to undo his own straps, but found that the clasping had malfunctioned due to damage sustained during the crash. Larson noticed the issue and retrieved his Ka-Bar. "Brace your arms to catch yourself, sir." The Lance Corporal instructed as he began to cut away at the straps.

Gaige did as Larson said and managed to somewhat stop his fall, using his momentum to roll forward. With the help of a ceiling-mounted handclasp, Gaige hefted himself upwards to his feet and took a moment to assess his surroundings.

Of his twelve Marines that had initially boarded Pelican Charlie 032, ten were still alive, with Pierson and Connors being the only two of his Marines killed in the crash. The crew chief that had been operating the dropship's rear-mounted M247 was nowhere to be found and the pilot was just emerging from the cockpit, with his female co-pilot stumbling alongside him.

PFC Elliot had a patch of blood forming on his left leg from where a shard of debris had penetrated his skin and was working with Lance Corporal Delzotti to get out of his jumpseat, who had temporarily set down his M7057 Flamethrower while he assisted Elliot. PFC Lynn had made it out of her jumpseat and had just finished retrieving her MA5B from where it had fallen during the crash, while Corporal Page and Lance Corporal Becker had just begun to struggle with their own jumpseat restraints. Sergeant Fischer, Corporal Powell, Lance Corporal Aiken, and Private Skuja had already exited the Pelican, presumably to establish a perimeter around the downed dropship.

"You green, El-Tee?" Larson questioned, tearing Gaige away from his thoughts and bringing him back into focus.

"I'm set." He reported tonelessly, before he began issuing orders to the Marines still inside the passenger compartment of the Pelican. "Delzotti, get Elliot outside. Larson and Lynn, grab the medkits and everything you can from the weapons locker." Gaige ordered, stumbling over to the pilots and grabbing the other arm of the near-unconscious co-pilot.

"I brought her down the best I could, but she fought me like hell, Lieutenant." The Chief Warrant Officer-2 explained, still shaken from the crash, as the trio exited the crashed Pelican.

Gaige shook his head and, as his eyes protested to the light, helped set the co-pilot down against the outer hull of the upside down Pelican. "Don't worry about it. Just get her set to move." He ordered, taking a moment to assess his new surroundings.

They had crashed inside of New Albany proper, specifically on one of the side roads of the city. Surrounding the platoon were two rows of one and two story commercial buildings, indicating that this had been a series of shops and other businesses commonly found within a small city.

"Larson, once you two are finished with the weapons locker, grab the tags from Pierson and Connors." Gaige called out into the Pelican, before attempting to reestablish communication with Captain Joyce. "Bravo Actual this is 3 Bravo, be advised, Pelican Charlie 032 is down. Pilots are both alive, but I've got two KIA, Corporal H. Pierson and Private G. Connors, as well as an MIA crew chief. Multiple WIA on the ground. Requesting assistance, over." He reported, receiving only a loud drone of static feedback from his helmet's internal speakers.

"Covenant are jamming our transmissions, El-Tee. I tried raising the Staff Sergeant and the Captain both once I got out of the bird." Sergeant Fischer explained from where he knelt, guarding the perimeter of the crash site from behind an abandoned civilian vehicle. Fischer was first squad's leader and was in charge of the majority of Marines that were being transported by Charlie 032. Lance Corporal Aiken was setup on the other side of the vehicle, with Powell and Skuja laying prone across the street, covering the different avenues of approach to the crash site.

Muttering a string of curses under his breath, Gaige brought up the city map on his HUD in an attempt to pinpoint their exact location. Glancing to his left, he noticed a street sign reading '5th and Dickerson', severely narrowing his search. "We're a full nine klicks* from our objective. We need to head west." He stated aloud to no-one in particular, closing the map and moving to face his nine remaining Marines and the two pilots. "Let's get a move on. Staggered column formation. I'll take point. Lynn and Skuja, take rear guard. Wounded in the middle." Gaige ordered, shouldering his rifle and beginning their trek away from the crash site.

After several minutes of marching down the quiet New Albany street, a stream of gunfire erupted nearby, prompting Gaige to motion for the group to scatter on either side of the street. The 2nd Lieutenant chose a nearby traffic signal as cover, momentarily scanning his surroundings as the firefight escalated. At a best estimate, he placed the firefight as four to six hundred meters away from them. The sound of both ballistic weaponry and plasma weaponry could be heard, along with a louder whooshing sound that, quite frankly, struck fear into Gaige's heart.

"Sir, that whooshing is from Covenant armor. We've got no weapons capable of taking that head on." Sergeant Fischer explained after moving to his platoon commander's position. "I don't think we'd be any good in that fight." He added to his original statement, just as the gunfire and sound of explosions became even more intense.

Nodding his head in agreement, Gaige turned his helmeted head to face Fischer, just in time for a shot from a Covenant Beam Rifle to barely miss his forehead. Fischer, in response, quickly grabbed Gaige and threw him into a nearby alley, diving in behind him as another shot impacted the ground by their feet. "Anyone see the fucker?" Fischer shouted to the Marines now pressed tightly into cover.

"Three story building on the right side, about four hundred meters! The flash was from a second story balcony with some kind of potted plant on the ledge!" Aiken reported from behind a nearby abandoned civilian vehicle, tossing the DMR he held towards Fischer and Gaige, with the Sergeant placing his shotgun down and hefting the DMR at the ready.

"Wouldn't the bastard keep his head down when he wasn't shooting?" Gaige questioned, keeping his head firmly behind cover and hands tightly gripped onto his assault rifle.

Fischer paused, before glancing ever-so-slightly out of cover to gaze towards the building in question. "Need something to flush the little prick outta there." Gaige heard the Sergeant mutter, before concocting arguably the worst idea he felt that he had ever had.

"Fischer, for the love of Christ, don't miss. I'll make a run for the alley across the way. Take the bastard out when he decides to kill my sorry ass." The 2nd Lieutenant stated, quickly explaining the plan to 3rd Platoon's first squad leader.

"All due respect, El-Tee, you're either really fucking stupid or really fucking brave. Either way, I never miss." Fischer stated cockily, double checking to ensure that the DMR was ready to fire.

Gaige began unbuckling his armor and setting his gear aside in attempt to lighten his load, before putting three fingers up. Systematically, the 2nd Lieutenant began dropping each finger, before reaching his final digit. When he dropped said finger, Gaige took off at a full sprint across the street, with Fischer leaning out of cover with his DMR at the ready.

The enemy marksman got a single shot off, which impacted next to Gaige's feet and threw up a smattering of debris, before Sergeant Fischer fired and quickly returned to cover. The platoon leader reached his intended destination and hugged the wall tightly, taking a few deep breaths from both the sudden cardio and intense fear he was experiencing as a result.

None of Gaige's group said anything, awaiting confirmation that their would-be attacker was incapacitated. After several moments of waiting, Fischer experimentally took a step into the open, ready to spring back into cover if need be. Even more time passed before Gaige felt it was safe enough to usher his squad out of cover.

Just as he motioned for his Marines to move out, a squad of Covenant troops began funneling out of an alleyway several hundred meters further up the road. "Contact!" Gaige shouted, raising his weapon to attack the Grunts that were at the front of the Covenant group. Squeezing the trigger, Gaige shouldered the recoil of his rifle as the Grunts at the lead of the pack began to scatter for cover.

His fellow Marines began firing from their cover as well, causing four Jackals armed with energy shields and plasma pistols to walk out into the street, shields at the ready. "Reloading!" Gaige heard PFC Lynn shout, prompting the 2nd Lieutenant to turn his head to look at the female Marine, just as an overcharged bolt of plasma impacted her chest and sent her spiraling out of cover, motionless.

"Marine down!" The pilot of the Pelican, who was armed only with an M6C variant Magnum, shouted, desperately dragging Lynn back into cover by the straps of her chest gear as he fired wildly down the road.

"Fall back, fall back!" Gaige shouted, firing several short bursts from his rifle as he began backpedaling away from his cover.

Sergeant Fischer and Lance Corporal Aiken did the same, with their combined fire managing to just barely push back the lower tier Covenant troops, when a single blue armored Elite appeared with a plasma rifle in its grasp. Aiken, who had given his DMR to Fischer, was armed only with an M6G Magnum, while Fischer utilized the DMR and had his shotgun hanging from its straps around his shoulders.

The Elite, seemingly eager to gain a kill, charged towards the Marines with ferocious roar. "Focus fire!" The platoon commander ordered, reloading his assault rifle, before he began dumping his magazine into the shields of the Elite. Shrugging off the fire, the blue armored behemoth of a being ran straight towards the 2nd Lieutenant, who drew his magnum when his assault rifle ran dry.

Unfortunately for Gaige, his shaky aim combined with the speed and agility of the Elite paired together poorly and resulted in the Elite reaching the fearful Gaige without much of a challenge. The hostile alien grabbed his arm and forced the magnum out of his hands with one of his four fingered hands and hefted Gaige upwards by his neck with his other.

Gaige could do little but writhe in the grasp of his significantly stronger foe, gasping for what little air he could manage to intake with the four fingers tightening around his trachea. He attempted to grab for his Ka-Bar, which was on the left side of his utility belt, but was unable to reach it with the Elite restricting his movement.

"Die, heretic!" The Elite roared in garbled English, before a shot from behind penetrated his shields and sent bluish colored blood all over Gaige's battle dress. Upon being roughly dropped by the now deceased Elite, Gaige quickly began gasping for air, inhaling freely.

Staring upwards, he saw Sergeant Fischer, once again wielding his shotgun, standing over the body of the Elite. Offering a hand to the 2nd Lieutenant, Fischer hefted Gaige to his feet as the Grunts and the Jackals scattered for cover after the loss of their leader. "Fall back!" Gaige ordered once again, retrieving his magnum as he and the Sergeant began jogging towards the other Marines, with sporadic plasma bolts flying overhead.

After nearly a block and a half of being pursued by a growing force of Covenant, Gaige halted the group, allowing the fatigued Marines to regain their breath and take inventory of their remaining supplies. PFC Lynn, carried by Lance Corporal Becker, was set down as the group came to a halt.

"Set up security and get an ACE* report." Fischer ordered the two ad hoc fire teams that comprised 1st Squad as Gaige knelt down next to him.

Corporal Powell and Corporal Page, the two senior members of their respective fire teams, gathered their reports from the remaining Marines. "Yellow on ammo, Lynn is KIA and Elliot is lightly wounded, and green on equipment." Powell reported first, showing that his team was down to half supplies on ammo and was down a Marine, with another one wounded.

"Yellow ammo, Delzotti and the co-pilot are both wounded, but can continue, and green on equipment." Page reported diligently.

"Grab Lynn's tags." The 2nd Lieutenant ordered, visibly upset at the loss of another Marine. Counting the loss of Pierson and Connors in the Pelican crash, that added up to three Marines killed from his Pelican alone, with the group's numbers beginning to dwindle. "We need to get out of the open. We're too exposed and the Covies can call Banshees on us any second." Gaige stated mostly to himself, while he brought up the city map on his HUD for the second time today.

While he searched for a location for his Marines to hunker down in, Sergeant Fischer had his fireteam of three fan out into cover, increasing the spread between the two teams as to lessen the effect radius based weapons would have on the group. "Sir!" Fischer called out after reaching his cover, prompting Gaige to jog over to his position.

After Gaige arrived to where the Sergeant was, Fischer pointed out a nearby sign that indicated there was an entrance to an underground Maglev station that was apart of New Albany's underground rapid transit system. Bringing up his map of the city's underground, Gaige found that the Maglev system ran across the city with stops at major locales, including the spaceport that 3rd Platoon had been ordered to help secure.

With the sounds of gun and plasma fire increasing around the city, along with explosions and other hellish sounds of war, Gaige felt that this would be their best option with their low numbers and the wounded they had. "Rally on me. We're going underground." The 2nd Lieutenant ordered, motioning his Marines towards the station.

And with that, he and his eight remaining Marines, alongside the two Pelican pilots, descended the staircase leading into the depths of New Albany's underground maglev system.


Lima Charlie* = Loud and Clear.
AO* = Area of Operations.
Blood Tray* = Marine nickname for the passenger compartment of any D77-variant
Pelican.
MBT* = Main Battle Tank.
Klick* = Military slang word for kilometer.
ACE* = Ammunition, Casualty, Equipment. A report on the amount of supplies left in a team-sized element. Often used to determine if a unit can continue a mission.