Chapter 3

November 16th, 2552 19:53:53

Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, United Republic of North America, Earth

Cmdr. Aleksander Nevsky

"Half of an entire battalion?" Aleks asked the CO of Sixth regiment.

The Colonel looked at him with an affirmed stare, "In fifteen minutes."

Aleks sighed.

He heard boots run up behind him. He turned around to find both his team, and Team Omicron forming a circle around him.

"What's the scoop Commander?" Aleks heard Nigel ask behind him.

It was impressive how fast Nigel made his way into the stadium, Aleks thought to himself.

"Apparently the Covenant are sending reinforcements. Half a battalion's worth of reinforcements to be exact. They arrive in fifteen." Aleks informed.

"Can't we evacuate before they arrive?" Nigel ask.

"No, there simply isn't enough time given the amount of pelicans we have to evacuate all few hundred civilians, plus the entire regiment, and us." Aleks explained.

"If we stay here, we'll be overwhelmed. We might do it, but the regiment won't be able to." said the leader of Team Omicron. Dave Sparks, as Aleks remembered.

"Yeah..." Aleks sighed.

A minute of silence followed as both teams started brainstorming possible solutions, so that as many civilians are evacuated, but the casualties aren't high.

Uduak, of all people, decided to forth his idea, not expecting to succeed. "How about just us Spartans take them on? Sorta like... distract them while the others evacuate." he said.

Immediately, the group erupted.

"How can we just abandon our comrades like that?"

"You just want more fame behind your name."

"How can you say that after what you just did?"

Everyone was fighting the idea, except for Aleks, who just stood in the middle in silence, pondering the idea.

His mind was running at a mile a minute. It's suicide, even for us Spartans. But it isn't impossible, plus we'll be getting the bulk of the forces away from the civilians, and the regiment. Even if we did get the battalion to follow us, how could we get them to continue to follow us? We could trick the General, or Field Marshal, leading them to follow us for a personal reason.

The teams were still bickering over the idea Uduak suggested. The conversation turned into shaming Uduak, and it really irked Aleks.

"Hey guys," Aleks called out, receiving the undivided attention from the others around him, "that may actually be a sound plan to work with."

Everyone sighed, since they all were in a general acceptance that Uduak's idea was stupid.

"Stick with me, but this may work out." Aleks said as the teams huddled together to discuss the plan Aleks had in mind.

Ten minutes later.

Nigel stood there unceremoniously. He was ready to begin this cross-country guerrilla war with the Covenant.

"When were done with this, you better be buying me a drink Aleks." Nigel shouted to Aleks, who was standing a few yards in front of him.

Both teams were standing in the middle of an interstate highway that went through the city, hoping to get the attention of the Covenant.

"When we are done, I'm buying the entire team all of the drinks for a night, and I am serious." Aleks responded.

"Well in that case, I'm going to get myself wasted after this." Nigel declared.

"Me too. I will also tell you all of the stories of my people." Uduak declared as well.

"And to that I will listen and drink." Aleks responded.

The entire team laughed.

"I only wished you could spend the money on my drinking instead on my new farm." Deven piped.

"Well, I can't do that, but I give you a good recommendation on your behalf as a farmer." Aleks mused with Deven.

"And maybe we can talk about our future." Emilie spoke over their private channel.

Aleks responded by turning to face her, and flashed an acknowledgment signal through their chat. She felt a lot of warmth flow through her body, and she felt excited to hopefully start something with him.

RUMBLE...

Everyone looked towards a thunderstorm that was brewing in the East.

"Seems like it's going to be a big one." Nigel called out.

No one had time to respond when a phantom appeared in the air, and landed about half a kilometer away from them down the road.

Another flew over towards the same direction, and then another.

It didn't take long for the first wave of Covenant troops to reach the Spartan's position.

However, instead of immediately engaging the enemy, they all threw up their hands, which surprised the enemy.

It was at this point Aleks started the plan.

"Hey, I demand to see your commanding officer. I have a proposal to offer him." Aleks shouted at no one in particular, hoping that one of the Elites would contact their commanding officer.

When it became apparent that none of the Elites understood what he said, he had Emilie said the same thing again, but in Sangheili. One of the Elite majors grunted something in reply, and fell back to the phantoms behind the Covenant forces.

"He said wait a minute." Emilie whispered to him through the battle-com.

Aleks smiled to himself. This is actually working.

The teams continued standing there, arms in the air, in silence.

After a wait, another phantom flew over them and landed right in front of the group.

It didn't take long for the group to realize who was the cargo that arrived.

A squad of Spec Ops Sangheili, clad in their bright red armor disembarked the ship and formed two lines on each side of the entry way. Following them were six Ultra Elites, clad in their bright white armor. Probably just polished for this occasion, Aleks thought to himself. After them, a giant Brute of a creature lumbered out. He donned crimson and black armor, and carried a rather large hammer. Aleks identified him as a Brute Chieftain. A dangerous threat, Aleks noted to himself. Finally, after the poesy left the phantom, a final Elite, clad in a very shining gold armor that distinguished it as a the rank of General, disembarked.

"Whom is the Demon that offered a proposal to me?" the General boasted in perfect English, looking at the group of ten Spartans in front of me.

Aleks stepped forward, showing no pride, but no embarrassment, like he was just doing his job.

"Tis' me." he replied.

"Enlighten me with this proposal of yours. I doubt it would change the current situation of you and your friends." the Elite responded.

Aleks knew that these next few exchanges will mean the different between life and death for the regiment in the stadium. For the first time in a while, he will have to think of his words carefully.

"Tell me, good General, do you hunt?" Aleks inquired.

The General placed his hand on his chin, or the equivalent of it, "Well... I used to be an avid hunter when I was in my youth."

"I'm guessing you went after some pretty big game back then."

"Yes..." the General sighed, remembering the days when he didn't have to look over an entire battalion of troops, "We would spend days, even weeks, tracking down the biggest animals of my family's realm, and we would come back the most famous warriors of the clan."

"Your parents must've been proud of you. Must've been real fun, too." Aleks added.

The General started thinking deeper, "Yes..."

Aleks had him where he wanted, "What if I could bring that back to you one more time before the end of this war?"

The General looked up, "You have peaked my interest."

Aleks opened up his arms in an offering, "Well... you have ten Demons in front of you. I propose you can have a hunt with your battalion, and we be your prey. Does this seem like a fair hunt?"

The General started contemplating. After a while in deep thought, the Brute started talking to him. Something about the Prophets, and loyalty towards their Great Journey, Emilie told Aleks.

"I no longer care about what the prophets desire." the General barked to his subordinate, not knowing that he was still in English, "They were whom started this bloody conflict. Having us sacrifice the bloods of our brothers for many years in vain for random artifacts of the so-called 'gods.'" The Brute merely growled at that statement.

The General turned to Aleks, "You have me convinced Demon. How long do you need to prepare for our little skirmish that you call a hunt?"

"As long as it takes for your troops to prepare to track us down for long distances." Aleks bounced back.

The General made what was the equivalent of a smile for a Sangheili. "Then I will give you no more then ten minutes." he then began to rub his hands together, "This will be a hunt to stand for the rest of time. One for my clan to remember so long as it lives."

He turned around and boarded the phantom, with his poesy in tow, and proceeded to leave the Spartans. The rest of the Covenant forces did the same.

Aleks motioned for the Spartans to start moving away from the city.

"This is Omega one," Aleks said over the com, using the team name for once, "Operation Zaroff is a foot."

Ten minutes later.

Aleks looked over the barricade that was hastily set up. It consisted of a few cars that were abandoned on the highway they took. Aleks, Emilie, and Deven using his mounted machine gun. A few hundred meters behind them, Nigel was laying prone on top of a highway overpass, giving the team support. A hundred meters ahead of the barricade, Uduak was crouched behind another car.

Operation Zaroff was a basic, yet cunning plan. After the General agreed to this 'hunt', both Spartan teams agreed to run West of Cleveland, drawing the assault force away by leaving tracks. Team Omicron would head south towards Columbus, where another regiment was stationed, and a second regiment was being sent to reinforce them. Aleks' team, Team Omega, would head West towards Detroit, where two regiments were already stationed. By doing this, they hoped to separate the half a battalion into two quarters of a battalion. Along the way were supply drops to help the Spartans replenish their ammunition, and explosives.

The current plan of Omega Team was to utilize basic hit and run tactics to wear down the enemy force. From their current location, Aleks felt like they could do a good job of holding off the enemy for a while, but they were prepared to retreat to another position, and setup another defensible position. They were planning on doing this all the way to Detroit.

From far away, Aleks could make out the faint silhouettes of Covenant forces. It seemed like a basic wave of Covenant infantry. Grunts, Jackals, Skirmishers, and Elite Minors all lead by Elite Majors.

As they started to get closer to the trap they had set out, Aleks started prioritizing targets.

"Nigel, I want you taking out leaders. Send the Grunts retreating. Uduak, wait until they are on top of you to attack. Emilie, you and I are going to take out everything not Elite Majors or Grunts. Deven, spray and pray." Aleks ordered.

The team said their affirmations.

Aleks watched as the Covenant got closer to their trap. Then, they were in the trap.

"Blasting." Aleks announced.

BOOM!

The five or so squads of Covenant didn't have time to realize that they were in a trap when the explosives that lined the side of the road exploded in a massive fiery ball, turning all of the troops into flaming bits.

Then silence.

It lasted for a few seconds until...

THWANG!

A needle struck beside Aleks. Then a plasma ball. More and more shots filled the air as Covenant troops started firing at what they thought was their position. They were right.

Immediately, Omega started firing back. Aleks looking over the cars, and taking trained shots at whatever targets decided to take a shot at the team. Emilie followed his example, along with Deven, who was just firing away at the mass of infantry trying to push towards their position.

"Deven, try firing in short bursts until there is a general rout. Unleash hell when that happens." Aleks hollered at Deven overtop the noise of the ensuing battle.

"Copy that." Deven hollered back, and started firing in bursts.

"Uduak, maintain your position. We'll tell you when to jump them. Be patient in the meantime."

"Yeah..." Uduak sighed, he really wished he could be firing away at the enemy, helping his friends.

"Nigel, some sniper fire would be most appreciated." Aleks shouted.

"I'm working on it mate." Nigel shouted back through the coms.

Nigel laid on the highway overpass. He had just arrived, and started looking through the scope of his rifle. He quickly trained the scope on an unfortunate Elite major, and ended his life with a simple pull of the trigger.

Nigel then looked beyond the scope, and saw the dark clouds, the streaks of rain, and the lightning just starting to creep over the city of Cleveland.

If Nigel remembered the few books and movies he enjoyed, thunderstorms weren't good things.

They were never good things.

Later...

Aleks lost track of how many kills the team have been racking up, but his quick estimations have been in the hundreds, specifically around 500. This meant that they were through approximately through a third of the force that was dispatched after them. He knew that these next two-thirds wouldn't be anywhere as easy as the first third.

The two definite things that Aleks could keep track with was how long their engagement was going on for, and the current weather.

They have been fighting for two hours. Aleks never noticed it until he checked the clock, which stated that it was 2200 hours. A full two hours after the ultimatum was made with the General of the Covenant forces. Aleks really didn't notice the time change. He noticed that it got darker, and turned on his night vision on his HUD, but didn't give any greater notice.

Immediately, he thought about the sayings time flies when you are having fun, and if you are doing what you love, you won't work a day in your life. He hoped that these two sayings didn't mean that he enjoyed his job as a super soldier. It isn't the fame that he hated. It wasn't the over-the-top, controversial augmentations that he was given as a child, to which he was given a greater share of than his colleagues. It was all of the killing he did, and the death he saw that upsetted him. He was tired, and just wanted to be done, but everyday was just a new battle. He was afraid that over the course of this decades long war, he had lost his humanity.

"COMMANDER, THE ENEMY ARE STARTING TO CLOSE ON UDUAK!" Emilie shouted at Aleks.

He snapped out of his train of thought. He immediately remembered where he was. It was raining, pouring actually. He was west of Cleveland, still huddled behind a barrier of cars hoping that the day just end. They have been in the same position since they arrived earlier.

Aleks leaned against the car, and started peaking over the barrier. The recent exchanges have been very heavy, and Aleks didn't want to try his luck any more.

He saw a column slowing making its way towards Uduaks position, a few hundred meters ahead of them.

"Uduak. On my mark, take out as many as you can, then proceed to make your way towards my position. Deven, start packing up. I beginning to think we've overstayed our welcome." Aleks announced over the battle-net.

He waited as he saw the column arrive at Uduak's position.

"GO!"

Uduak sprang out of cover, and started firing his shotgun into the massed group in front of him, taking out two to three enemies at a time. After he was satisfied with his progress, Uduak started bolting towards Aleks position.

When he arrived, Aleks motioned for Deven to start moving.

"We'll meet you at the next supply drop." Aleks shouted back towards Deven.

Deven simply nodded as he started lumbering Westward, the stationary three giving him covering fire.

After Deven made some progress towards the next rendezvous point, a lull began in the battle.

"Seems like a good time to leave." Aleks suggested to his colleagues.

They agreed.

"Nigel. Cover us. We're falling back." Aleks ordered.

"Got ya covered mate." the Australian voice responded.

The three turned around, and started jogging in the same direction as Deven just recently went. It was at this point a thought popped into Aleks' head.

"Was it just me, or were there a lot more Brutes than expected?" Aleks asked.

"Yeah. Towards the end there they seemed to be replacing a lot of the Elites as leaders of squads." Emilie said.

"There was that particularly nasty lookin bugger with the General too. Even questioned the choice of the General, which surprised me." Nigel piped in.

"Yeah. Just for the record, no one goes about trying to take that Chieftain on all by themselves. It's suicide." Aleks said.

The rest of the run was filled with nothing but silence, and rain.