Knee Deep

The days on Gamma Iocale were much longer than on Earth or Reach, around thirty-eight earth hours. The only platoon of shock infantry on the moon had attacked a covenant forward operations base sometime close to the local midday. Lieutenant Mixer had everyone loaf around the farm for the next hour, refilling their canteen from the stream and generally taking it easy. But an hour was stretching the time they had, if any Covenant forces were close they would have heard the fight or could now see the twin clouds of thick, black smoke that were now billowing high into Iocale's purple tinted sky. And someone was bound to notice that thirty-three Covenant troops had stopped responding to anything on the coms.

But while everyone was enjoying their short break in the air conditioned comfort of the farmhouse, or sleeping in the shade of the barn (clear of corpses of course) Mixer and her council of war met in a small room in the house. Donnelley thought it was probably an office, with a sturdy desk who's metal frame covered in cheap, peeling wood now supported Mixer's weight as well as the terminal on the top and a single window letting in the only light in the room. He, Kostoff and Ryan stood facing her, nearly taking up the whole width of the room from one dark paneled wall to the other.

He knew by now what Mixer would want to know, terrain, possible location of the Covenant force, estimate on their reaction time, and planning their next three or four moves. He watched, surprised, as she did something new. She set her helmet on the desk and undid her ponytail, letting her black hair fall across her shoulders as she smiled broadly. "Ok boys, I am in a really good mood, so don't spoil it with bad news. How are we doing on amo?"

honestly all three on the NCOs were taken aback by her cheery mood. They had grown so accustomed to working with dreary eyed and unsmiling officer that seeing her actually happy, even beaming, was just... odd. Kostoff was the first to recover and he cleared his throat. "Negligible loss. Mostly they used about one magazine and only four or five used more than that. But Nasri used all the rockets he had been carrying."

"Ok so have two of the boys bust out the reloads they were carrying. Other than that?'

"we're golden."

It didn't seem possible but her smile broadened. "Great. Now it's safe to say we need to leave her before any Covies come looking. Any ideas on how long that will be?"

"If any of their patrols had been close enough to hear the gunfire or see the smoke we would have a dropship breathing down our necks by now." Donnelley commented as he leaned against the wall. "But they'll get suspicious when they call and no one here answers the phone. I honestly don't know when that will be or how long it would take for them to come check it out. When they come it may just be a small group of infantry but it could be a dropship or another fighter scanning with thermal. Either way we should be long gone by then."

Mixer crossed her arms and tilted her head to the side, staring at him with her green eyes. "Again, how long?"

"If we're being cautious?" He said rolling his eyes back and trying his best to remember everything he could remember about Covenant operating procedures. She hadn't put him on the spot exactly, but without knowing where the Covenant in the area were made it hard to come up with any reasonable estimate. And somehow that simple question stung, in part because of her tone. But that wasn't all, he just didn't know what else caused it. "If they are close to the river and send a dropship we're looking at maybe half an hour."

"Damn, and I said an hour." She smiled again and shook her head. "Now our job was to find where the main force was, not to kill everything out here. And I know that we couldn't let them set up a base this close to Van Dam's troops but we need to find the rest before they find us. Ideas?"

Ryan raised his hand. "I have been thinking about that ma'am. You said that they took the highway out of the city but were blocked from going north and that no one near the road itself had seen them. And since the dropship came up the stream I think it's safe to assume that they are close to the river."

"Ditto." Kostoff said pulling a Sweet Williams cigar out of his pocket and stuck it between his teeth. Donnelly raised an eyebrow he was pretty sure the shorter man couldn't see. Kostoff had been smoking them more often than he had ever seen in their years together and he had never known him to smoke inside. "But I don't think a force that was big enough to try to take the city would be able to move too far through these woods."

"So we're looking for clearings, or at least more open ground near the north end of the river." She hesitated and lowered her gaze to the floor before looking back up but seemed a little shaken. "All of you go sit down and have a cool drink. In ten minutes we're going to pick up and follow the stream to the river. Dismissed."

Donnelley stayed leaning against the wall and kept his eyes on Mixer as Ryan and Kostoff turned and walked through the door. Once they were gone he closed the door and fixed Mixer with his gaze again. She was looking at him but really past him, avoiding his eyes. "You're not very good at hiding things Lieutenant." He said keeping his voice level and soft. "What's wrong?"

She closed her eyes and turned her head so he couldn't see her face. "You are dismissed Gunny." An order was an order but he could hear that she was choking up. So he pressed.

"I'm standing right here until you tell me." He said crossing his arms.

"Go away Eric!"

She was still choking up but the shout took him by surprise and he nearly jumped. Maybe I shouldn't have been that blunt he thought. Switching tactics he crossed the gap between them and gently placed a hand on her right shoulder. She shrugged his hand off and still had her head turned away, refusing to meet his gaze or even let him see the emotion that was inevitably shown on her face. He softened his tone and lowered his voice. "I just want to be sure you're alright. If it was something small you know you don't need to hide it, and if its something else..."

"It was nothing." She managed to say quietly. "Just for a second, a bare second I saw Lai standing there with you. These little meetings started with you, Kostoff, Dees and him and he's the only one not here now. And in that second I forgot he was dead."

"Look at me. Mixer, please look at me." He stood there for a few silent seconds while she sat unmoving. He was about to say something else when she slowly turned her head to look up at him, her eyes tearing up. "You're not alone you know. All of us have been seeing things like that. The guys that were with Derrick keep going back to a massacre they saw in the city, Kray especially. Vik still has nightmares about waking up and finding no one left, Punske admits that every so often she can feel herself crashing a warthog all over again. And just seven hours ago I... I was back on the tarmac pulling as many people on board as I could. It's not something any of us want to relive, not something we want to live with but so far we have all managed to stay sane, in the here and now because we are surrounded by people who know what it was like. People who are going through the same things we are. People who care. And we're here for you."

He stood in silence again for a time that felt like ages. As much as he talked about opening up about her pain he hadn't said a word to anyone about it. Honestly he was just as scared as her, just as scarred and just as stubborn. Finally realizing he had nothing left to say he gave her a slight nod and turned. Opening the door he heard the Lieutenant move and he paused in the door frame.

"Thank you Eric." She whispered.

"Not a problem... ma'am."

…

Nelms was now a firm believer that an S2 had to be about the worst weapon to carry through the woods, it was large, heavy and close to useless for any close in work. The only thing that could be worse would be SPNKr because it was just as big, heavier and even worse to use at close ranges. Which was exactly why both he and Nasri had put the big weapons on their backs and stuck to their M7s when Mixer had them pull up stakes. There had been some grumbling that she had promised them an hour but he had stayed silent, there were Covenant out there and she was being cautious. Moving was the right call in his book.

And move they did. They started heading northwest from the farm for the first hour, moving as fast as caution allowed. Then turned to the west and continued to in that direction for another hour without so much as a single break in the rising heat of the day. Most of that time Nelms had to bend just that much more to get the stock of his rifle under the low branches. Now they were taking a needed rest under the canopy at a point Nelms had to say was a little less than a kilometer north and two kilometers west of the farm and no one had seen or heard a single sign of the Covenant.

He picked up his canteen and shook it, listening to the small amount of water that was left swish around inside. The day was getting hotter and they had left the stream far behind in necessity, haste and the promise of river bearing water to drink and aliens to kill. And even though he'd filled it up before they left, Bailey hadn't thought of that and now the two of them were sharing a single canteen. With an exasperated sigh Nelms unscrewed the cap and swallowed a mouthful of water and looked down the neck at about two more mouthfuls. Shaking his head, he put the cap back on and closed his eyes.

"How much is left?" The big marine was sitting on a large root in front of him and his perpetual cheer seemed to have faded.

"Not much thanks to your stupid ass." He couldn't keep the venom from his voice. "Honestly, didn't I tell you to fill up when we crossed the stream?" The fact that it had been because of Bailey that he had been wounded once almost slipped out, but he managed not to bring up that painful memory. Bailey didn't respond and the sniper cracked open an eye out of curiosity. The big man was staring at the ground between them and working his jaw.

"That's ok. I'll have to leech off of someone else soon anyway." Bailey finally replied grinning like an idiot.

"You are such a parasite." He couldn't help but smile at his friend's sense of humor.

"I'm living the high life while half of everything you have goes to me? Yeah, I can live with that."

The two of them sat laughing under the foliage but sobered up when Sergeant Kostoff whistled and spun his hand over his head. It was time to get moving again, the river was waiting for them. Nelms stood, careful his rifle didn't snag on anything like it had done several times before and tossed the canteen to Bailey. "Last call buddy."

Once again the platoon spread out into a staggered line with him near it's center. And as they pressed on he saw the flanking squads falling farther and farther behind the center. His mind flashed back to his high school and his class on pre space age human history. Famous general, what was his name? Hannibal? Yeah, that sounded right. Hannibal formed his army into the same crescent shape they were in now and allowed his center to retreat behind his flanks and basically encircled his enemy. He remembered thinking it had to suck being the center of the formation, and now he was standing at it's center.

And now he was standing knee deep in muck.

That took him by surprise. One moment he had been trudging along with the rest of the platoon on solid ground, now there was standing water up to his knees and his boots sunk deep into the mud with every step. The canopy had gotten so thick that it was all but impossible for him to see the sky and looking behind them he could see ripples for several meters up to the point the water met dry land. Checking the mission clock he noticed he had to have been spacing out for at around five minutes and it had to have been deep enough that the feel of the water seeping into his boots didn't snap him out of it. Even weirder was the fact that he hadn't walked straight into a tree, tripped, or caused a big enough noise to draw anyone's attention while in that state.

What really irked him was that he even could have a lapse in concentration that bad in a combat zone, It was unprofessional and could have gotten someone killed. He mentally slapped himself awake and really started to take in his surroundings. The term swamp seemed fitting because of the muck, standing water and slight smell of rotting vegetation. There were still trees, many more and denser in fact, than he had seen anywhere else that day but they were they same kind. And everyone agreed it had rained recently because the ground was still soft and moist. To Nelms it made sense that they would run into a swamp, it was the rainy season here and they were moving closer to a river that had been dammed up, it must have overflown and flooded the surrounding woods.

The mud was sucking him down and each step took more effort than the last. The platoon was still moving forward but looking closer it seemed like everyone was in a daze. Sergeant Kostoff just kept looking straight ahead, never once turning his head to scan the area like he usually did. The Lieutenant had the tacpad in her hand but held it at chest level, not stopping to read it but not putting it away either. And Bailey was close enough for him to see that the big man's eyes had glazed over. It didn't seem like anyone nearby was paying any attention, which makes sense that Bailey ran headlong into a low branch.

Recoiling from the hit the marine snapped back to reality and rubbed his nose where he had hit it. He shook his head and looked over at Nelms, still holding his nose. "Where did that branch come from? And why are my legs wet?" he whispered.

"You weren't paying attention, and I'm not going to call you a moron for that because I did it too. But take a look around, almost everyone is in a daze."

"But we're still basically in formation. That's just too weird man."

"Tell me about it. Just look sharp and keep an eye out, and ambush would be great right about now. Do me a favor and wake up Saucedo." He said motioning to the marine on the other side of Bailey.

The big man nodded and started pulling himself through the water and muck in that direction as Nelms turned and took two sucking steps in the other direction. The closest person to him was Jennifer Harris, who was just about to walk straight into a tree the size of a warthog wheel. He reached for her shoulder but still in that daze she took another awkward step toward the tree forcing him to pull up his leg and take the biggest step he could without losing his footing. Now that she was within reach again, and one step away from running into the tree he extended his arm... just in time to watch three streaks of whizzing red metal pas between the two of them. He pushed her into the tree and followed her in a dive of his own, hoping to get some cover, yelling "Hostile fire on me!"

His cry seemed to snap everyone out of it and there were a series of splashes as marines dove for cover. But and amidst the shouts that followed he could hear several more loud thunks as something slammed into the tree. Accepting the risk of having his head taken off by enemy fire he peeked around the tree. Six or seven metal spikes, still glowing from the heat, had bored their way into the trunk and were causing the wood to smoke. Other than that the water was still and nothing moved other than the leaves in the wind. That was until several more spikes formed out of thin air and he was forced to duck back behind the tree.

"Report!" Mixer called from behind a tree off to his left.

"Spiker rounds! Can't see where they are coming from." Nelms responded.

"Anyone see brutes?"

"Nothing on our left ma'am."

"I don't see anything to the right."

Nelms cringed, they must be using active camouflage. He had never actually run into any Covenant using this invisibility device but had heard about it just as much as any other jarehead. The thing was he had never heard of a brute using it, only elites who seemed to hoard all the good technology. He gritted his teeth and racked his brain for every bit of information, every rumor he had heard about about invisible alines and after parsing out all the bullshit found one gold nugget. The camouflage distorted the light leaving an odd ripple in the air like a heat mirage.

"Hey Harris, gimme a boost." He said pointing up into the branches of the tree. The petite blond looked at him with disdain then sighed, lowering herself so the water cam up to mid thigh and cupped her hands in front of her. He dropped his M7, letting the friction strap catch it and put his right hand on the trunk of the tree and his left on her shoulder. He had been standing behind the tree too long and the mud had sucked him down much farther than before, but with some effort he got a booted foot into her hands. She started to lift and he straitened his leg until he grabbed hold of a branch and pulled himself up.

After getting his feet on top of the base of the branch he saw the tree split into two separate branches that could both be called trunks. Pulling himself up by another branch he managed to get one booted foot in the split and plant the other on a slightly lower branch. After testing that he wouldn't have to worry about a branch breaking underfoot he settled his shoulder against one of the trunks and pulled the rifle off of his back. The idea had been to scan the area for movement but there was one little flaw in his plan, as he had been climbing the brutes- and there had to be more than one- had started pouring spike in on the marines' positions.

And of course his comrades responded with a hail of gunfire aimed at the general area anyone saw hot metal appearing from. Unfortunately all those bullets had to go somewhere and they were hitting trees causing bark and splinters to fly, whizzing through the foliage, and hitting the surface of the water. That made for a chaotic mess to see through, and it be came especially hard when his targets were practically invisible. Is it odd to hate the laws of physics? He asked himself squinting in order to get a clearer view.

Though the firing was not sloppy in the least, and if anyone had lost their nerve it didn't show. No one aimed directly at a muzzle flash, no one broke from cover to pursue a shimmer, all the bursts of fire were short and clean, and most importantly no one froze. And as Nelms waited for a good sign of one of the apes someone managed to wing one of them and they became briefly visible to everyone else. And being seen was a death sentence as countless rounds smashed into armor and tore the alien apart leaving it a bloody pulp sinking into the mud, aside from the blood that expanded into a deep red area in the swamp.

Nelms thought it best not to add his fire into that scene of butchery, it would have been an unnecessary wast of ammo. What he did do was keep an eye out in front of the platoon's position, watching the movement of the leaves and water for any disturbance other than the occasional bullet. Then he saw it, the thin spreading wake of something moving through the water, almost like a ripple but not. He aimed at the starting point of the wake then up above the surface of the water, letting his finger squeeze on the trigger as he let out a breath.

The heavy round went through the brute's armor like it wasn't there, ripping a savage hole through it's left chest. It stumbled from the force of the impact, but even bleeding profusely it righted itself and followed the bullets vapor trail back to his perch. It stared him down, bearing it's ugly yellow teeth. It was a target too good to pass up and as the brute raised it's spiker one more 14.5mm round tore through it's skull and exploded out of the base of it's neck.

What happened next just was not as fortuitous for him as that shot. Even though he was semi-exposed in the tree a brute decided not to shoot at him and threw a plasma grenade. The glowing blue pulsating orb stuck to the tree a few feet above the water and seeing this Nelms hugged the trunk as tightly as he could. His world shook and his ears were assaulted by the loudest noise he had ever heard as an invisible hand crushed his chest for a second. Then it was over, either he was dead or the grenade had been just far enough away for him to-.

There was the sound of splitting wood below him and he slowly began to lean outward. Yep, he was alive... for the moment at least. The sound built in a catastrophic crescendo and the tree slowly fell until the rest of the trunk broke under its own weight. The tree, and Nelms, landed in the brackish water with a terrific splash and the sniper struggled his way through the branches and surfaced sputtering, lucky he hadn't been crushed. But as he sat there breathing hard and trying his best to unwedge his S2 something heavy landed in the water near him.

He let go of the rifle and pulled up his M7 watching the water around the tree. There it was, yet another wake. He aimed for where he imagined the chest would be and pulled the trigger. The first five or six rounds pinged off of armor and battered down the camouflage so he could see the fuzzy shape of the hulking monster just two meters away. But then his gun clicked and didn't fire a single round more. In a panicked rush he checked over the gun and found the problem, the magazine was smashed. Before he could replace it a massive shadow fell over him and he looked up into the eyes of a beast.

…

The long overdue chapter three ends in a cliffhanger? Of course it does, things are heating up and the woods are a scary place.

/thank you for reading.