AN: I don't own Fallout or Halo. They belong to Bethesda and Bungie/Microsoft/343 Industries respectively.

Chapter Seven

Spartan-B124, Pentagon interior, city of Washington, DC. 1613 Hours, September 06, 2552 (Military Calendar)

The first thing Scott registered when he came to was a sharp pain in his chest and a dull whine in his ears, both of which were good because it meant he wasn't dead or deaf, and he gradually became aware of someone tapping on glass and a feminine voice calling out to him.

'Commander, can you hear me?' the voice said. 'Commander, say something.'

'Status.'

Scott coughed and forced his eyes open, seeing he was lying at the bottom of a stairwell looking up at the ceiling, piles of rubble and liberal amounts of dust surrounding him. None of the lights he could see from his position were working correctly, either flickering on and off in random intervals or were dark, and he could hear the unmistakable sound of automatic gunfire and the dull whump of grenades exploding.

'Oh, good, you're awake,' Tara said. 'Seven bombs detonated in quick succession, starting with the one in the Great Hall, and you were thrown down these stairs.'

The Spartan pushed himself up, wincing slightly when he took a deep breath.

'You have two broken ribs, one bruised, and a minor concussion,' Tara added before saying, 'You're perfectly fine.'

'How long was I out for?' Scott asked as he trawled through the rubble for his rifle, finding it half buried beneath a mound of plaster. Aside from a few scratches and a liberal layer of dust, the weapon was fine and he clamped it onto his back.

'A little under two minutes,' Tara said. 'In that time an unknown force engaged the Brotherhood soldiers in the courtyard, and from the sounds of things they're slowly winning.'

Scott checked the rest of his equipment and weapons, finding they were okay, and stood, drawing his MA5K as more explosions were heard, shaking small amounts of dust from the ceiling.

'Sounds like they could use our help,' Tara said.

'It does,' Scott said in agreement as his augmented eyes adjusted to the darkened interior.

He began moving up the stairs and paused at the top, glancing at the wall he had collided with and saw a vaguely human sized dent on the brickwork. Opposite it was what remained of the Great Hall, now buried under tons of rubble and stones that had been brought down by the explosion that had sent him flying.

'Whoever planted the bomb must have been incredibly lucky,' Tara said.

'Or well informed,' Scott said. 'You said this was the first to blow?'

There was a moment's pause as Tara scanned through her records and analysed them, saying, 'Yes.'

'Everyone in there made up the Brotherhood's central command structure and veteran troops,' the Spartan said, taking a step closer. 'Take them out and organising an effective counter attack becomes that bit more difficult.'

As if to back up his musings, the sounds of gunfire increased and began mixing in with harried and barked orders, the Brotherhoods or the people attacking them.

'Which points to a highly detailed and intricate plan of attack,' Tara said. 'Not exactly what you'd expect from mercenaries.'

'No,' Scott said. 'You wouldn't.'

His mind briefly flashed back to the scribe that had ducked out only a few minutes before the bomb detonated, wondering if it was a coincidence or if they had been the one to trigger the explosives.

Shaking the thought from his head, Scott headed for the stairs that would take him up into the courtyard, rifle held at the ready, pausing by a door that has held on only by one hinge with dozens of bullet holes peppering the wooden surface.

Beyond it was the courtyard, so many different firefights in one place they seemed to have just merged into one massive one, the Brotherhood soldiers fighting on one half and a more numerous force of men fighting on the other half, pouring through the open entrance.

Each side was giving their all but the Brotherhood troops were slowly being whittled down one by one. For every attacker they killed, three seemed to take his place while for them, there no replacements.

'Tara, can you pick up Hullum's Pip-Boy signal?' Scott asked, taking cover behind some barrels that were already filled with holes, the ground surrounding them wet with blood and water.

'Of course, Commander,' she said, a waypoint appearing on the Spartan's HUD an instance later, directing him to the other end of the courtyard where Hullum, Sarah and Glade were located, the Lone Wanderer using his skeletal rifle and firing it in bursts of three with unnerving accuracy, scoring a headshot nine times out of ten.

Scott couldn't see Lyons or Rothchild, or any of the scribes from earlier.

'Radio the Heavy and let them know we need immediate assistance,' Scott said as he pulled out a grenade, waiting for a momentary lull in the fighting before priming and tossing it at the enemy.

He jumped from cover just as it went off, running for Hullum and firing his rifle at Talon Company, if that's who the attackers were, downing the mercenaries with controlled bursts of his own and not missing once, not even at a flat sprint, slamming down into cover beside Hullum and the others, a few hitting his shields and making them flare.

'Status,' Scott said as he popped up from behind cover, firing into the onslaught of mercenaries and adding his own firepower into the mix.

'Talon Company made a move on the entrance and took out the barricade,' Hullum said, shouting over the din of battle. 'After that was gone, they made a move on the entrance and started pouring into the courtyard, getting a foothold. We've been fighting the bastards off ever since.'

'Heavy Hitter standing by, Commander,' Tara said in Scott's ear. 'I have Captain McNeal on the line.'

'Patch him through,' Scott said as he closed down his external speakers, a brief crackle coming in over the radio as Tara powered up his suit's communication suite. 'Captain?'

'Here, Spartan,' McNeal said. 'Give me a SITREP.'

'A large group of mercenaries attacked the Pentagon in force and breached the outer walls,' he said, idly clipping one such mercenary in the head with a well placed burst. 'Local forces are surrounded and in danger of being overrun. They cannot hold on for much longer.'

'Acknowledged,' McNeal said. 'Help is inbound, ETA thirty minutes.'

'Solid copy, sir,' Scott said. 'Thirty minutes.'

He ended the transmission then said to Tara, 'Start a countdown for thirty minutes, on my mark. Mark.'

'Aye, Commander.'

A small timer appeared in the lower left of Scott's HUD, the numbers quickly counting down from thirty.

'How long can we hold out for?' Scott asked Hullum, reactivating his external speakers.

'Not much longer,' Hullum said. 'I'm running low on ammo and we're down to about twenty soldiers. Talon Company doesn't seem to have an end to either.'

The two braced as a salvo of rounds impacted on the barricade they were crouched behind before returning fire, each man downing a Talon Company mercenary.

'Best guess on how long?' Scott asked.

'Ten minutes, maybe less,' Hullum said while next to him, Sarah fired an assault rifle in a similar triple tap before the bolt cycled open, indicating it was out of ammunition.

'I'm out,' she said, drawing a pistol.

'Me, too,' Gallows said as he dropped a sniper rifle.

Scott did a quick check of his own ammo situation, finding her had ten spare magazines for his rifle and just as many for his pistol, plus three fragmentation grenades and his knife.

'I've got three mags left for this,' Hullum said as another Brotherhood soldier fell, crumpling to the floor. 'We need to try and force them out.'

'How?' Sarah said in a raised tone. 'They have us outmanned, outgunned and pinned down. We barely have any ammo here, so what are we supposed to fight back with?'

'I don't know!' Hullum snapped back. 'But if we don't figure something out, they're going to finish us off and the Citadel is going to fall.'

As he spoke, a mercenary wielding a bulky shoulder mounted weapon appeared and took aim at the four soldiers, firing a second later and sending a missile erupting from the barrel that travelled on a pillar of flame and smoke.

'Down,' Scott said, tackling the others to the ground just before the missile impacted, throwing shrapnel and fire over everyone and causing his shields to drain by a quarter.

They began to recharge as Scott rose to one knee and fired an extended burst at the missile wielding man, downing him.

'What the hell was that?' Hullum asked, noting the golden glow that had surrounded the Spartan.

'A missile strike,' Scott said, not noticing where Hullum's and everyone else's attention was focused.

'No, that weird glow just now,' Sarah said.

'Oh,' Scott glanced at the three and said, 'Recharging energy shield,' before ducking again as more shots peppered the position he was in. 'We need to move to a more defendable location.'

'Where, though?' Hullum said, focusing back on the attack. 'They've broken through the main gates and it's only a matter of time before they take us down, too.'

Scott glanced at the timer just as it hit four minutes, thinking, before saying, 'Underground. It would funnel their troops into tight spaces and provide you all with a chance to rearm and regroup, establish some solid defences.'

Hullum looked at Sarah.

'Sounds good,' she said. 'Gallows, head down the line and pass the order to fall back inside. Give priority to the wounded and tell those with any ammo left to provide cover fire, retreat in staggered groups. Understood?'

'Yes, ma'am.'

Gallows left and ducked and weaved through the barrage of gunfire, passing along Sarah's orders before disappearing inside.

Sarah then turned to Hullum and Scott, saying, 'You two are on rearguard. Wait until we're all inside before following. Hold Talon Company off as best you can.'

She handed Hullum her pistol and every spare magazine for them that she had.

'I'm going inside to help organise a defence. Good luck.'

With that, she turned and flat out sprinted for the door Scott had exited out of as fast as she could while wearing her armour, leaving him and Hullum behind.

'Looks like we're on our own, Spartan,' Hullum said as he placed all his remaining guns and ammo on the ground before him.

It was a pitiful sight. Between his two pistols, he only eleven spare magazines not including the ones already loaded and just three extra ones for his rifle.

Scott raised his own rifle and kept firing, expending thirty rounds to kill ten men, and Hullum followed his example, alternating between carefully aimed triple taps and less steadily aimed bursts in a random pattern the Spartan couldn't fathom.

Before long, Hullum's rifle had burned through all its ammo and he picked up both pistols, firing them one after the other until it was time to reload, at which point he ran into the problem of reloading both guns without dropping one or the other.

To remedy this, Hullum simply abandoned the pistol Sarah had given him and used instead his own, employing a two handed grip that improved his accuracy no end.

Another glance at his timer told Scott help was still seventeen minutes away, an eternity in a fast paced, close quarters gun battle.

'Tara, what kind of help is the Heavy sending?' he asked.

'ODSTs and Longswords,' she said, morphing part of his HUD into a top down view of the area, the parts beyond the Pentagon's walls marked in a legend usually reserved for areas destined to suffer carpet bombing while inside the courtyard, the legend meant ODSTs would be attempting to make landfall. 'A squad of Helljumpers will try to land within the Pentagon and offer immediate assistance while the Longswords will saturate bomb the area surrounding us with anti-personnel sub-munitions to eliminate whatever soldiers remain in the area.

'I recommend being inside when that happens.'

'Noted,' Scott said as he took down another batch of mercenaries. 'Which is arriving first?'

'The ODSTs,' Tara said, shutting down the map as Hullum inserted his very last pistol magazine.

'How you doing?' he asked.

'Fine,' Scott said as he tossed another grenade, leaving himself just two left. 'How many soldiers left outside?'

'Three not including us,' Hullum said as he took careful aim, downing one mercenary after another with headshots before running out of ammo completely. 'I'm out.'

'Then go,' Scott said. 'I'll hold them off until you and the others are inside.'

The Spartan ducked as a fresh salvo of incoming fire was thrown his way, a few of the rounds impacting on his shields and made them shimmer, and Hullum's mouth opened, either to question him about the golden glow suddenly surrounding him or to object about being ordered around, but he quickly shut it and nodded.

'See you on the other side, Spartan,' he said, scooping his weapons up and sprinting for the remaining three Brotherhood soldiers.

Scott watched him go on his motion tracker as he continued to fend Talon Company off, now all by himself.

They were making another push on the entrance following the slackening amount of incoming fire, assuming good firing positions with decent cover and directing all their attention on the lone Spartan.

'All friendly forces evacuated, Commander,' Tara said. 'I recommend following them.'

'Sounds good,' Scott said, tossing his last but on grenade.

He waited for it to explode before running for the entrance, every remaining member of Talon Company opening up with their weapons the moment he did and making Scott's shields drain rapidly under the combined onslaught and then break, leaving his armour vulnerable.

Rounds ricocheted off the hardened plates or simply shattered, and for once Scott wasn't worried about having the lack of an energy shield. The typical calibre of the weapons he had encountered were too small to have any chance of breaking through his armour, given that it had been designed to shrug off a much larger, more powerful cartridge.

Scott skidded to a halt once he passed the threshold of the door and leapt down the stairs, leaving behind buckled floor tiles in the shape of his feet when he landed, drawing his rifle when he stopped.

Hullum was already there, a sack in one hand and a tan disk in the other, watching as the MJOLNIR's shields recharged, giving off that same luminous golden glow, then jolted himself back to awareness.

'Frag mines,' he said, answering the Spartan's questioning look at the disk in his hand. 'Head down the stairs. They're setting up for round two. I'm just gonna leave a little surprise for our friends and rig the wall to blow.'

'Got it.'

Scott jogged past Hullum and went down the same set of stairs he had been blown down barely fifteen minutes ago, passing by two Brotherhood soldiers wielding shotguns and entering a capacious underground room that looked like a laboratory/workshop combination with various pieces of scientific equipment and partly dismantled sets of armour littering the space, but what drew his eye more was the partly rebuilt or dismantled hulk of a robot.

'Tara...' Scott said as he stopped on the upper walkway of the room.

'Scanning,' she said. 'No matches found.'

'Figures,' Scott muttered under his breath before descending to the room's lower level, finding Sarah standing in the midst of a mixture of scribes, knights and paladins, issuing orders and directing troops as the timer on his HUD entered the final ten minutes.

'What's the situation?' he asked the senior Brotherhood soldier.

'We've got maybe fifteen knights and paladins who are combat capable and another eight or so who can fight from a fixed position. Everybody else is either too wounded or a scribe, meaning our fighting force is hardly adequate if or when Talon Company breaks through.'

She gestured to the room and everyone in it.

'Aside from the scattered troops out in DC right now, this is all that remains of the Brotherhood in this area.'

'If they make it through,' Scott said. 'You've got the home field advantage and more motivation to win than they do. They might have more troops than you but from what I hear, that hasn't usually been an issue. Just tell your men to keep their cool and place their shots. You have the superior armour, plus myself, to balance the odds.'

'Glad to see one of us is optimistic,' Sarah said, flashing the Spartan a wan smile. 'Now, I don't suppose you could help set up some barricades?'

'Of course, ma'am,' Scott said.

He holstered his rifle and moved off to help a trio of scribes fill a number of filing cabinets with chunks of concrete and place them in a semi-circle near a door way, hefting the bulky items with ease.

'What's with the speech?' Tara asked.

'She's their commanding officer,' Scott said. 'It wouldn't do much good for morale to see her thinking the end is coming.'

'I suppose,' Tara said. 'But we've got ODST reinforcements and Longsword bomber support inbound in less than ten minutes. Morale wouldn't be down for long.'

'We just have to then explain away how they arrived,' Scott said, grunting slightly as he picked up a filled filing cabinet, depositing it further along where a Brotherhood soldier took up position behind it, rifle aimed vaguely in the direction of the door.

'We could always tell the truth,' Tara said. 'They have to know our technology is far beyond anything they could ever hope to produce or replicate.

'And what exactly is the truth?' Scott asked as he went back to fill another cabinet. 'We're on Earth, the UNSC's primary headquarters, and nobody has heard of it or recognised my armour which anyone on an Inner Colony should have done. We don't even know what happened here.'

Overhead, there was a sharp boom from another explosion that dislodged a few tiles and caused the lights to flicker on and off for a brief moment, everyone stopping and looking up.

'Hullum,' Scott guessed once activity resumed.

'But we do know what happened here,' Tara said. 'A full scale nuclear war.'

'We also know it couldn't have happened,' Scott said, taking a large crate of grenades from a scribe and hefting it with ease, taking the them into a room at the end of a hall that seemed to be serving as the final stronghold, the wounded lying in rooms branching off from it including Elder Lyons. 'The UNSC has full control of all nuclear weapons in Earth and there is just no chance they would launch them all at once, accidentally or otherwise.'

'Yet look around you,' Tara said. 'This is Earth. The constellations and planets match those on file, the major geographical points match up and a nuclear war occurred.'

'I know,' Scott said with a hint of irritation. 'But the Heavy was here less than six months ago and these people claim to have been around for years.' A scribe handed him a box full of ammo, directing him to put it near the grenades. 'The ship's records show that there was a UNSC presence and normal atmospheric readings.'

'So how do you explain all this?'

Tara brought up a brief slideshow of everything she and Scott had seen during their time in the area, including the bombed out remains and the mutated creatures roaming around in it.

'How do you?' he said back. 'The time the frigate was away was too short for the Brotherhood to have been operating within the area for nearly thirty years, and the architecture is all wrong. What explanation for that is there?'

The AI in the Spartan's head fell silent, either due to indignation or due to a lack of a feasible response. Tara was programmed to deal with electronic locks and secure computer networks, not work up answers to major discrepancies between a ship's logs and what it found.

Scott placed the box down and sighed, saying, 'Look, until we can get access to the files we need, let's drop this and focus on surviving until help arrives. Okay?'

'Okay,' Tara said. 'ODST personnel should be on site within two minutes.'

'Can you pick up their SQUADCOM yet?' Scott asked.

'Just faint signals so far. I'll patch you through when I can.'

More explosions came from above though unlike before, they were much quieter and didn't dislodge as much if any tiles from the room's ceiling, Scott's mind guessing they were the frag mines Hullum had been setting up.

He turned and made for Sarah who nodded when he drew close, recognising the sounds for what they were.

'They're coming,' she said.

'Where's Hullum?' Scott asked, drawing his rifle as Sarah did the same.

'I don't know,' she said. 'The last I saw of him he was heading back upstairs with a bag of mines, right before you showed up.'

She and Scott both looked towards the stairwell hoping to catch a glimpse of the missing man but to no avail.

'I'll go look for him,' Scott said, walking towards the stairs without waiting for Sarah's reply. 'You just focus on getting this place ready for an assault.'

'SQUADCOM acquired,' Tara said as he went. 'Patching you through now.'

'This is Sierra One-Two-Four to the ODST squad dropping in,' Scott said as he radio came alive. 'Can you hear me?'

'Yeah, we hear ya,' a gruff sounding voice said. 'Gunnery Sergeant Evan Mitchell, Alpha Squad. What kind of party we crashing, Commander?'

'Unknown numbers of hostiles are trying to force their way into the Pentagon and have inflicted heavy casualties on local forces,' Scott said as he reached the bottom of the stairwell that would bring him level with the Great Hall, or what was left of it. 'They're in danger of being overrun.'

'Got it, standard Helljumper situation,' Mitchell said. 'Troopers, get set to come out swinging. Our objective is to make it to the Spartan and hold off the enemy until such a time as our navy brethren can carpet bomb the area.'

A chorus of acknowledgements filtered in over the airwaves as Scott made it to the top of the stairs, rifle tucked firmly against his shoulder and ready to fire. He saw Hullum was crouched down low in the shadows and waved, Hullum waving back.

On the floor surrounding him were several corpses, their feet and legs either mangled or missing, some with a single bullet wound to the head.

'Gotta love frag mines,' Hullum whispered as Scott drew close. 'Cover them up with a bit of dust and plaster and the dumb bastards never see them until it's too late.'

'Is that why they aren't making another attempt on the door?' Scott whispered back.

'I think so.' Hullum nodded at the bag he'd brought with him, now half empty. 'Took about eight of them out with the wall bomb, then I sat back and watched them go pop on the hot little potatoes and helped a few who needed passing on to do just that. They're either working up the courage to have another go at us or they're planning on waiting us out.'

'Are the mines still in place?'

'Yeah, why wouldn't they be?' Hullum said, looking confused, a look that only grew when the low rumble of twelve ODST drop pods approaching filled the air, followed in short order by their braking rockets.

'Because we have to move them,' Scott said. 'Now.'

He rose from his half crouch and moved towards where the frag mines were, tossing them out into the courtyard where they exploded, prompting fresh screams of pain from the wounded but they were quickly overtaken by shouts of panic as the twelve drop pods touched down, landing with a muffled whump and then a sharp bang as the front hatch was blown off to deposit a single Helljumper onto the battlefield.

Gunfire followed in short order as the twelve soldiers began engaging the mercenaries, Hullum shouting, 'What the fuck is going on?'

'Help just got here,' Scott said as he cleared the last mine and drew his rifle. 'Get back into the room and tell everyone to keep their heads down. It's about to get noisy.'

He moved to the doorway and dropped to one knee, rifle firing in controlled bursts at the nearest targets while he activated a waypoint on his position.

'Gunny,' he said on Alpha Squad's private channel. 'Over here.'

'Got it, Commander,' Mitchell said before barking orders to his troopers. 'Form up on the Spartan and get your asses below ground. We got air support hot on our asses and I don't wanna be around when it gets here.'

The twelve soldiers cut a neat little path through the mercenaries, their equipment, armour and training far surpassing that of the attacking force, one by one passing Scott as he maintained position by the door.

All but three were armed with MA5Ks, only the medic and the two marksmen carrying different weapons who had an M7 submachine gun and BR55HB SR battle rifles respectively.

Everyone paused by the door and pulled out a single frag grenade each, Hullum having vanished somewhere below.

'On my mark,' Scott said as he held his final grenade. 'Mark!'

Thirteen thumbs pressed thirteen activation buttons and thirteen primed grenades sailed out of the doorway, some harder than others, shredding the still recovering and shocked with a veritable wall of fire and shrapnel.

'Longswords ninety seconds out,' Tara said. 'I recommend moving below.'

'Acknowledged,' Scott said before turning to Mitchell. 'Have your men prep the door with a mine then head downstairs.'

'Yes, sir,' he said, turning to his troops. 'Joey, get that door rigged to blow. Franks, you keep him covered. Everyone else, follow the Spartan. We got wounded in need of attention.'

The two men singled out by Mitchell lagged behind as the rest formed up on Scott and followed him down into the Brotherhood's last stronghold.

'Don't fire,' Scott said as he pushed open the door. 'Friendlies coming through.'

He went through first and nodded at the two Brotherhood soldiers standing there who lowered their guns at the sight of him, only to raise them again when Mitchell appeared.

'They're with me,' Scott assured them, gesturing for them to lower their guns with one hand.

They bristled then did as asked, muzzles pointing back down at the floor as the rest of Alpha Squad walked in, staring at them in surprise and curiosity.

'All right, Alpha Squad, let's lend a hand,' Mitchell said, dispersing them with hand signals.

The medic led them down onto the bottom floor where a scribe just pointed to the rooms holding the wounded, spotting the red cross on slapped onto their armour, just as Joey and Franks returned from up above.

'Mine in place, Gunny,' Joey said.

'Good,' Mitchell said. 'Both of you, go see if Leo needs a hand with the wounded.'

Both men nodded and went to join their teammates while Mitchell stayed close to Scott as Sarah and Hullum approached, staring at the ODSTs.

'Where did they come from?' Sarah asked quietly, mute with shock.

'Long story,' Scott said.

'Bombing run commencing in ten seconds,' Tara said.

'But if I were you,' he continued. 'I'd cover my ears and brace.'

The duo just continued to stare as Scott and the Helljumpers did just that, wrapping arms protectively around their heads or standing beneath a door way as the rumble of numerous Longsword engines cut through the air, muffled by distance and layers of concrete and dirt, followed shortly after by a keen whistling noise.