"Bingo!" whispered Snipe with a grin. "There it is, sir."
Shane looked down the street and then grimaced. "Snipe, that turret emplacement is larger than the last three," he growled. It was true. The street was blocked by their purple roadblocks and behind them were three turrets, all manned and alert. Dawn was breaking and everyone was waking up, which would be a problem. Behind the roadblocks were several brutes and many scurrying grunts and jackals. Shane couldn't see how they could sneak past that. "Snipe I think the heat has baked your little sniper brain," he said.
Snipe laughed a little and pointed again. "No, sir. In front of it. See that manhole? Down in front? All the sewer systems lead to the center of the city. We'll just drop down in there and go under the outpost." The marksman smiled at his plan.
The captain had to admit that it was a relatively ingenious plan. But there was one problem… "How do we get in the manhole without getting spotted?" asked Shane.
"Um… yeah, well," the sniper looked out again. "Well, we could wait until it's dark again."
"What?!" whispered Coop fiercely. "We just got here!"
"We've been moving all night!" followed up Shawn.
Snipe held up his hands in surrender. "I know. Maybe we could catch up on some shut-eye."
The men groaned. Shane looked at the scene again. This was probably the best opportunity they'd get, they couldn't risk losing it. "Okay. We're gonna hide in one of these buildings here, until dark."
"But there's barely any light, it's barely dawn!" complained J.
"Shut up, soldier!" He continued, "In the meantime, let's catch up on some sleep, look for food, and try the radio. Maybe we can find some more survivors."
Seeing that there leader had made his final decision, the men complied.
At the corner of the street, they spotted a small café, and decided it would serve them nicely. They holed up in the loft on the second floor. From there, Snipe had a good view of the outpost, as well as the other two streets. The fourth, street was behind them and out of view, but hopefully no Covenant would discover them, and they wouldn't need to watch that street.
Shane set the radio down on a table and turned it on. Static. Nothing more. He sighed as he picked up the mike and started broadcasting, "Survivors, this is ODST group Foxtrot radioing for assistance. Please respond. Over." Static in response.
The captain shook his head and looked at the rest of his men. Coop was tending to his injured leg. Shane had almost forgotten he was injured. The rest of the men were sleeping or looking for food. J and Shawn walked up the stairs holding several boxes.
"What's in there?" asked Shane.
They set down the boxes on the floor. "Food, sir. Hopefully it's still good. It was in the freezer so… it should be okay."
They sifted through the findings. Mostly it was bread, but they had some fresh fruits as well, and some frozen vegetables. Most of it was still good, but they needed to wait for it to thaw. Shane smiled. "While you're waiting, how about you take a look around the streets."
The two men looked up, shocked. "What are we looking for?" asked Shawn.
"Just watch for brute patrols and let us knew when some come."
The men groaned and started heading down the stairs. Coop got to his feet. "I'll go with them, sir."
"You sure?" asked Shane.
"Yeah. It'll be nice to stretch my legs." With that, the marine jogged down the stairs.
Wind whistled in between the buildings as the three lonely marines trudged through the streets. Silence stretched between them for a while before Shawn finally asked, "Think we can pull off this mission?"
The other two shrugged. "Depends on the Covenant really. We'll need to see what they're doing with that ship. I imagine they've got a whole bunch of men surrounding it."
"So, if there's a lot of Covenant, what will we do?"
"Fight," replied Coop quickly. "We can't leave them behind to be killed. Even if that means some of us will be killed. We'll keep fighting." Shawn gulped quietly, making Coop ask, "What rank are you?"
Shawn looked away. "A corporal."
"You ever seen combat before?"
"No. I was headed to a colony before the attack on the planet started. They rerouted us back to New Mombasa then. My CO got sniped as soon as we jumped off the pelican, so I got promoted. But this is the first combat I've seen."
"How'd you know Guns?"
"Guns was a good friend of mine before the war. He went into ROTC to become an officer. After a few years he encouraged me to join. Then the war started. We were headed separate ways but found each other before Regret jumped into slipspace."
Everything made more sense to them now. Losing Guns was hardest on him because they were friends before. And he was scared in combat because he'd never really fought before. Rook and Rascal probably had more experience than him. Poor guy.
The silence stretched on again for a while. Then they heard a roar up ahead.
The sound made the marines stop in their tracks. "What was that?" asked Shawn.
"Sounded like a brute roar," decided J.
Seconds later, they heard gunshots… from a human weapon!
"Survivors!" yelled Coop.
The three men charged forward in the direction of the sounds, hoping they wouldn't be too late when they got there. After a couple hundred yards, they came to a corner of a street where the sounds seemed to be coming from. Coop held up a fist to stop them as he checked on what was going on.
Three brutes were crouched behind a row of burning vehicles, firing into a shop. From the shop were two, no three, weapons firing at the monsters. Coop wasted no time, and charged after the three brutes, firing his shotgun. J and Shawn followed suit.
The monsters were surprised to say the least. Before he could react, the first brute found himself only inches in front of the shotgun barrel as it fired. Practically blew his head off. Shawn and J fired at the second, as Coop looked at the third. He was still firing his spiker into the building, and when Coop heard a scream from inside it, he decided that was enough.
He jumped over the brute carcass in front of him and fired his shotgun into the brute's side. The rounds hit him in the side, making him stop firing his weapon as he doubled over in pain. Coop finished him with three shots to the body and one to the head.
J and Shawn finished the second right after that. Coop, still on an adrenaline rush, looked around for more enemies, but there were none. The three marines then walked over to the shop to see how many had survived.
Three dead bodies lay on the ground, most with spikes sticking out of their chests. Two were still alive; one was looking at one of the dead bodies, who was still bleeding. Coop guessed it was the one he'd heard just before he'd killed the brute. A red hot spike was embedded in his throat. He sighed and held out a hand to them.
"You guys okay?" he asked.
One accepted the hand and then helped up the other himself. "Yeah. Thanks."
Coop nodded. "This is J and Shawn," he said, pointing to each one. "I'm Coop."
The first one, clad in green but missing his helmet, smiled. "I'm Saint. This here is Hoot," said the marine, motioning to a fully armored ODST. "Who are you guys with?"
"There's just a bunch of us that grouped together. We're hiding in this shop here. Come on!"
Shane was worried now. He'd sent out the three of them hours ago. Snipe watched him curiously while the rookies slept. "Sir, don't worry I'm sure they can handle themselves," said the sniper.
"I know. But we're deeper in enemy territory and the brute travel in bigger packs. And you heard those gunshots!"
"I heard them."
"So… what? Where are they? Night's coming fast and if they aren't here, we'll have to leave them behind."
Before the sniper could respond. They heard several footsteps coming up the stairs. Shane and Snipe took defensive positions behind furniture as the intruders came to the top. They sighed as they saw Coop.
"Whoa, hey guys," he said. "What's with the guns?" he asked, looking at their weapons, which were pointed at him.
"We thought you guys were Covenant," explained the sniper.
Coop removed his ODST helmet, revealing a smile. "We found survivors."
"Really?!" asked the two men simultaneously.
"Yeah!" said Coop. He moved to let up the other four men behind him.
The rookies were awake now. "Survivors!" shouted Rascal.
"Yeah. This is Saint and Hoot," explained J.
Shane stepped forward, ready to shake their hands. "Captain Shane Bekker," he said. "This is group Foxtrot."
Saint nodded. "Your boys here got to us just in time. Those brutes almost had us."
Shane glanced at the three marines. "Glad they got there. You know of any other survivors?" Saint shook his head. "Well then I guess you better stick with us."
