Reveille

The city's streets were empty but not completely dark. The streetlights, stoplights, shop signs and anything else on a timer had turned on a long time ago. But large portions of the roads remained shrouded and almost every window was dark. Since only a few of the spaceport's defenders had the equipment to see in those areas the job was split up among them. Jonah Nelms, still laying on his stomach atop the main terminal, had the dubious pleasure of watching every darkened window and every shadow along the street running up to the plaza in front of the port.

He tried his best to stifle another yawn and failed. He and Bailey had not seen any movement or even heard anything of the covenant since what was left of the battalion had gathered at the port. To Nelms that meant that a huge shit storm was headed their way, and it was going to happen soon. He just wished that he wasn't so tired. He had been watching for covenant and shooting for over half the day and the fact that he was lying still didn't help. As amazing as sleep sounded right then he knew that he needed coffee more than anything.

Taking his eye from his scope he glanced over at his spotter. The big marine hadn't dosed off since the first time, and Nelms was proud of him for it. Bailey needed to move and if he stood still he would start to lose his energy. He had worked on that ever since the two of them had been paired up and could now manage to stay still for about two hours. That fact that he had stayed alert and focused as long as he had was a miracle. But Bailey's attention wasn't on the scope but his left wrist.

"And it's now five AM, our watch is over."

"We don't leave until the guys from Alpha show up." Nelms whispered back.

"I know, I know. I was just saying, for the record, that we should be off duty now."

Nelms went back to his scope and Bailey was still staring at his watch when the door behind them squeaked open. The stairwell behind the door was just as dark as the roof and the marines from Alpha walked out in total darkness. The replacement sniper gave Bailey a nod as he passed and farther down the roof to Nelms' original position. The big spotter pushed himself up with a grunt and a smile on his face. He took two steps toward the door when he noticed Nelms hadn't moved.

"Jonah? It's time to get some rest."

"Shhhh, I thought I saw something move." He whispered.

Bailey looked across the plaza and scanned the windows, nothing moved. He glanced over at the sniper team from Alpha, the spotter was still setting up his scope but the shooter was already prone and watching the darkness. "You're tired, your eyes are playing tricks on you. Besides there are people watching out other than you. Now come on, sleep awaits."

"I guess you're right." Nelms said with a sigh. He pulled himself away from the scope and pinched the bridge of his nose. "It's nothing."

Nelms got to his knees and then to his feet. Bailey held onto his shoulder while he made sure his legs could take the weight and let go to let him pick up the S2. Nelms took one last look at the building he thought he saw a shadow move, and reluctantly followed Bailey to the stairs. The big marine disappeared through the doorway but something made Nelms stop. He had to be sure that there was nothing out there, moving in the dark before he could leave. He couldn't see anything with the naked eye, so he hefted the rifle and put it to his shoulder. One last look couldn't hurt, right?

"Jesus, it's darker in here than it is out there." Bailey balked from the darkness. "I can't see the stairs. Where's the light switch?"

He found the switch quickly enough and the lights in the stairwell flashed on, leaving Nelms standing in what amounted to a spotlight. The light caused him to squeeze his eyes shut and he stood there stunned for a moment. But a moment was all it took. The movement Nelms had seen, and it wasn't his eyes lying to him, was a jackal moving past one of the darkened windows in an office building. The whole of the roof had been dark so Nelms and Bailey just as hidden as it had been. But now it had a target and a chance too good to pass up.

The pinkish beam hit Nelms on the upper left corner of his chestplate, just below his collarbone and right of his shoulder. It had burned its way through a plexiglass window, over the row of parking garages opposite the terminal, and across the one-hundred meter open plaza before it even touched the armor. But that journey wasn't enough to slow down the beam's accelerated particles. They burned through the light armor quickly, cut into Nelms and knocked him onto his back screaming at the top of his lungs. It felt like someone had stabbed him and poured molten metal in the wound

Bailey was out of the door and pulling Nelms to the safety of the stairwell by the time the sniper from Alpha had fired back. Once inside the stairwell Bailey pulled out a bottle of Biofoam from his pack and inserted the nozzle into Nelms' wound. The expanding antiseptic foam filled the wound and would stop the bleeding, at least for a while. But the pressure on the burned tissue sent a fresh wave of pain through his nervous system and caused him the scream again. Once the foam was used up Bailey tossed the can aside and switched off the light before trying to calm his friend down.

"Shit. I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking." Bailey apologized in a near panic.

Nelms slapped Bailey in the face with his right hand. "Don't ever fucking do that again." He ground out, pointing right at Bailey's face. "Now quit blubbering and help me down the stairs."

"Can you walk?"

"I was hit in the shoulder, not the leg dumbass."

Bailey gingerly pulled Nelms to his feet and was about to follow him down the stairs when he remembered something. He held onto his friend's right shoulder to stop him from heading down, then turned around and ran back out the door. A few seconds later he came back in carrying Nelms' rifle. He held it in his right hand and put Nelms' right arm over his shoulder with the other. Together they felt their way down the pitch black stairwell and had made it to the landing between the roof and the next floor down when Nelms' ears perked up. There were three loud booms that had to be an S2 firing, but in the quiet that followed he swore he heard the wine of anti-grav engines and the sound of elites barking orders.

Most of the marines had been awake after hearing the first few shots but the rest were quickly roused when the frantic calls came over the radio. It was a tangled mass of confusion as everyone tried to find their squads and officers in a whirling mass of human bodies and the dark. And it was loud as well as every marine tried to find their gear and buddies and called out for assistance. A hundred different voices saying a hundred different things filled the room. It was anarchy.

Because he had been up all night keeping an eye on mixer, Donnelly had been on his feet right after he heard the S2 fire. He had made it over to Mixer before the pandemonium had struck and was trying to find the rest of his men. The dim light from the tarmac that spilled through the windows lit up a few of the faces in the crowd and it wasn't long before he spotted Kostoff and waved frantically to get his attention. The sergeant made his way over to Donnelley and Mixer with a good number of marines in tow, and Donelley saw Lai approaching from the other side with a group of his own.

"Head count." Mixer ordered

"Eleven." Lai said barely audible above the rest of the battalion.

"Nine." Kostoff's voice cut through the din clearly.

Donnelley did the math in his head. "We're missing three Lieutenant."

"That's good. Those three can find us as soon-"

There was a crackle over the radio as someone turned to the all-hands channel and the Major's voice came over Donnelley's ear piece. "Large covenant force inbound with armor. Bravo Second and Alpha Second, hold the plaza and Bravo first will join you. Alpha Third stay on the tarmac. I want the rest of Alpha and Bravo to set up defenses around the northern and southern terminal. I want charlie to get to work on those tanks. Just keep them off the tarmac and the terminal."

"As soon as that happens." Mixer confirmed. "Tanks?"

"There are still some gauss hogs in front of the terminal." Donnelly offered. "Driver and a gunner?"

"No, full crew on each. I also want out rockets on the roof. If there aren't enough hogs I want people holding the front or keeping the civies calm. Now get to work people."

The members of Charlie company split up and joined the mass of marines heading for the doors, a few still picking up equipment. Donnelley gave a nod to Mixer and joined the crowd, keeping close to Nasri and the other rocket jockeys and made sure that the three of them made it to the stairs to the roof. He saw a pair of marines stumble out of the stairwell, one who's left arm hung limply, and had to press against the wall to let them pass before pushing his way into the tail end of the crowd. Squeezing through the front door with two other marines he found himself out of the press and in to open air of the plaza.

Dawn was still an hour off but the plaza was aglow in yellow light from streetlamps and the ports exterior lights. There was a wide lane that ran from the highway, past the front of the terminal and looped back to the highway. On the inside of the loop was a large park with low trees and centered around a large fountain, this park was what was stopping the covenant from firing as they entered the plaza. In front of the terminal was the line of warthogs that Bravo had put there earlier, but now the dozens of them that had survived the recall were ready and waiting closer to the doors. Now marines were climbing behind the guns and, in the case of the gauss hogs, into the driver's seat.

By the time he made it out of the door the gauss hogs were either being filled or already full. But there were still plenty of marines that he recognized from Charlie that were unsure where to go. He pulled two of them out of the crowd and waved to get someone from a small group of them to pay attention. As everyone gathered around him he counted six heads plus his own. Now all he had to do was figure out what the seven of them could do.

Donnelley took a second to look around the plaza. The covenant had to be on the highway headed east and had to have at least managed to get some troops closer than the intersection. That meant they were headed through the park. That looked like there were some good places to defend in there, maybe even set up a few ambushes if they were lucky. Then he remembered the tanks. Would they take the road around or crash right through the park? Then it occurred to him that he didn't know their range, maybe they didn't need to get any closer than the intersection.

Well one idea is better than none.

"Alright, we're moving into the park. Don't worry about the tanks, Mixer and the rest will take care of them. Just concentrate on the bastards in the park." He caught the eye of a few of the marines around him. They were tired and all a little shocky but they looked ready for another fight. Donnelley felt a sense of pride at their resolve, but he felt, once again, that their mental health may suffer because of all of this. He sighed mentally, there was nothing that he could do about that right now, it was time to fight for their lives once more. So he hefted his MA5B, checked the magazine and the safety and jogged through the mass of warthogs and into the park.

He crossed over a paved path and had to run around a bench before his mind kicked into gear again. He had to find cover, or at least a defensible position. He nearly tripped over a rock the size of his head when an idea came to him. There were large boulders, some as large as a warthog, that looked like granite scattered all around the park. That was good cover but he just needed to find a good grouping of them. So he slowed his pace and took a look around, and there it was.

They were near the center of the park now, near the fountain which acted as a hub for all the paths. Off to the left was the group of boulders he was looking for. It was an area about thirty meters to a side with a variety of differently sized rocks, most of which were easily climbable , with enough space between them for a big man to squeeze through. As bonus, he noted, they seemed too small to allow an elite to get around inside the grouping. One of the slabs even was held up over the path around the fountain like so half made arch. It was as close to perfect as they were going to get.

He looked back over his shoulder to make sure the other six were with him. None of them had gotten lost, good. As he neared the rocks he turned sideways and pulled himself through one of the smaller gaps. Then he stepped on one of the rock slabs and lifted himself on top of the rock that hung over the path. He belly crawled farther away from the lower portion and closer to the edge. He had set out two magazines on the rock in front of him when movement caught his eye. He scowled at the sight of a trio of grunts rounding the bend of a path and shouldered his rifle.

His first burst was on target, the first two rounds smacking into the lead grunt's chestplate, pushing it back and exposing it's neck for the third round. It fell back, gurgling and clutching at the blue gushing hole. The other two grunts split up and ran for their lives. Donnelley chose to take down the one running to his right and fired a longer burst that tore up the ground behind the fleeing grunt, one round managing to hit it's leg. The grunt was off balance from the hit and Donnelly took the opportunity to aim properly and put five rounds into the alien's chest. Now it was time for the third to die.

What he didn't know was that the last grunt had suddenly found a source of courage and turned back around. By the time Donnelley had killed the second one the grunt had already locked him in it's sights. Three glowing green balls of plasma wooshed over his head causing him to push himself closer into the rock. The grunt fired off a few more shots, one hitting the rock near his head. The surface melted on impact and the force of the hit sent droplets of molten rock flying in all directions. Some of the heated rock landed on Donnelley's cheek and the noncom pressed a gloved hand into his cheek and rubbed furiously, trying to get the rock off.

Of the marines that had followed him into the rocks, two had stayed close to their Gunny and both of them fire on the last grunt. The first short burst took it in the shoulder and spun it, then the other marine fired off half his magazine into it, ripping it into gooey blue shreds. One of them rushed over to Donnelley, rolled him over and pulled his hand away from his face before pulling out a canteen and pouring water on the burns. The Gunny cringed and nashed his teeth together but he never let out a peep.

Donnelley waved the marine away with a muted thanks and stayed on his back, letting the stinging pain subside. He found himself staring at the sky, just a black void to him since the lamps in the park blocked out the light from the stars. Still, there was a peace to them that pulled him in. Soon he found himself laying there letting his mind wander, forgetting entirely about his stinging cheek. Suddenly his peace was broken by a burst from someone's assault rifle and he shook his head vigorously to snap himself out of it. Now was no time for spacing out, not if he wanted to live.

He checked the readout on his rifle, forty-five shots left in the magazine, he'd keep it in for a while longer. He rolled back over and looked over the small open area for any movement. Neither of the grunts were moving anymore, either dead or close enough that it didn't matter. He saw a little sparkling of blue light through the trees, probably a jackal's shield but it was too far away and behind too much brush for his MA5B to do any good at all. Maybe another group of marines in the park could take care of it and it's friends that were no doubt with it.

Donnelley froze. He hadn't checked to see if any others had gone into the park with his group. He hadn't even told anyone what he was thinking. He sighed explosively and buried his face into his right arm. He had been just as exhausted as everyone else when they reached the port but he hadn't gotten any sleep at all. He wasn't thinking straight at all. Stupid, just stupid. Hopefully someone saw us go into the park. Otherwise I've screwed us. The wave of guilt and fear subsided somewhat when he heard another MA5 firing somewhere close but nowhere near the rocks. He hadn't killed himself and the six marines with him, they were still in for a hell of a fight but he hadn't killed them outright.

He picked his head up and looked over the small section of park again just in time to see a jackal back through the trees into his clearing. Then another three three backed through the brush as well, firing their plasma pistols into the darkness beyond. They were close together, trying to keep someone from firing through the gaps in their shielding. Too bad for them that Donnelley had a shot at the unprotected backs and they wwere just begging for a grenade. But before he could grab one from his harness one of the marines with him in the rocks fired, and missed.

The aliens spun around incredibly fast and fanned out, trusting the trees to keep them safe from the other group of marines. Donnelley's finger tightened on the trigger and the three round burst just bounced off of his target's shimmering shield. He couldn't even see the jackal in the dark, just the shield, so he guessed at where it's feet might be and fired another burst. No luck. All he got out of it was a few blasts of plasma aimed in his direction so he tucked the rifle into his chest and rolled even farther up the rock.

While he was moving a marine somewhere in the rocks called "Grenade out!"

The Gunny knew the jackals were spaced too far apart to get more then one of them with the frag, but they could get lucky this time. He finished his roll and watched the glowing shields. The aliens must have seen the grenade somehow because the closest two dived to the side and rolled away right before the frag exploded near where they had been. But instead of cussing up a storm, which was his first reaction, Donnelley aimed at a point just above the glowing shield and held down the trigger. The tidal wave of 7.62 ammo tore into the jackal and left it laying in a mangled heap atop it's shield. Donnelley saw the silhouette of the dead alien for a moment before it's shield flared and died.

With one down and three more to go he reached out and felt around for one of his spare magazines and grabbed the first one his fingers brushed. After seating the magazine, with was entirely too hard given his state, he sighted in on another of the jackals and watched as another marine's burst bounced off, hoping the impacts would unbalance it. Again, no luck. So he fired a burst of his own, aiming for the top of the energy shield trying to push it out of line, but most of the rounds didn't hit and went completely over the jackal's head.

But they did hit something. There was a spark of blue light behind the jackal, like a small lightning storm. The light show was accompanied by a guttural roar, a sound that had to belong to an elite. Once the flickering blue lightning had stopped he concentrated on the spot it had last been and couldn't even make out it's shape in the darkness. But now that he was paying attention he noticed that the firing had picked on the other side of the trees, both human and covenant. And with the inclusion of elites in this skirmish, things were going to start to hurt.

Sergeant Matt Kostoff had been settling himself behind the gun of a gauss hog when he had seen Donnelley go charging off into the park. He shook his head, the Gunny was brave and generally played things smart, but he had to be even more tired than almost anyone, add in the little concussion and he was bound to make mistakes. He just needed someone to keep an eye on him, almost like an angel on his shoulder. Unfortunately there were no angels around so the Gunny just had to settle for Matt Kostoff.

He had seen a Lieutenant from Alpha pass by the warthog and leaned down to pat the officer on the helmet. He explained that a group of marines had been sent forward to act as skirmishers and that he felt it would be best if another one or two of these groups joined them. Kostoff had been surprised to learn that the officer had already been on his way to do exactly that. Ok so sometimes a marine lucked out. Soon after that all four of the gauss hogs had been ready and moved out.

Now the four of them were speeding around the loop with two of the gun hogs. Mixer had explained it to Kostoff as they scrambled out of the terminal. She believed that if they were fast enough the hogs could break through the infantry, take out the tanks and make their way back around the loop. It was a ballsy but chancy move, and if it didn't work eighteen marines had no chance in hell to get through the loop alive. He just wished that Mixer had the rocket jockeys riding shotgun instead of putting them on top of the terminal. It would have almost doubled their chances for taking out the tanks. But if they were lucky, and he knew that they had been so far, the tanks would be pushing through the park and the hogs would have a pretty shot at their lightly armored engines.

The gun hogs, which were side by side in front of the scattered line of gauss hogs, were just around the curve of the loop from the intersection when they ran into a speed bump. Rather they made one out of a grunt that had been in the dark portion of the street. At the same time as the hapless alien was being turned into mush it's cohorts began firing on the human vehicles. The chainguns lit up in response and the marines riding shotgun aimed at the origin of plasma blasts, but the drivers just sped right past.

The fire became thicker as they came withing sight of the intersection with the highway. At this point the gauss hogs were swerving left and right in order to avoid the fire but the warthogs up front didn't have the room to move. Not unless they wanted to go over the curb and possibly crash into a tree or a wall. But they separated none the less when one of the two bulbous shadows coming off the highway fired a ball of plasma the size of a quad-bike on a nearly flat trajectory. It passed between the leading vehicles at about the height of their turrets, arced down and hit the asphalt directly in front of the first gauss hog.

The flash silhouetted the hog for a second before the ball of fire dissipated and the hog rolled on through. Kostoff didn't envy it's occupants the experience of driving through the blast wave and the heat. But the flash must have blinded the driver because the hog slowed on the other side and began to veer right. The next hog rushed past it and it had slowed to a crawl by the time Kostoff's hog and the fourth passed it. But the driver had regained his sight, or at least composure and started to accelerate again. That's when the second wraith's shot tore the vehicle to shreds.

There was no time to mourn for the dead now. Kostoff pushed the turret into position and centered the right hand tank in the gun's targeting screen. If he fired quickly he could possibly get in a second shot before the tanks were out of sight again. He pressed down the firing switch and felt the gun shudder in his hands as the round slug was accelerated out of the barrel. It was too fast to follow with his eyes but he saw the tank's front armor just right of center spark then the plasma turret fly because of a hit from the hog behind him.

But both of the wraiths were still intact and were turning to fire another pair of shots as the warthogs pass directly in front of them with no more than fifty meters distance. Kostoff looked at the screen on the gun, fifty percent charge. He began to wonder how much time between shots the tanks really needed. He had seen wraiths in the field before, but always from a distance where they were more like artillery. They took a good amount of time but he wondered now just how much of that time was taken up by watching their shots and re-aiming. Hopefully a lot less than he thought.

Seventy percent charge on the gauss cannon and it looked like the left tank was pointed strait at him. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that if it fired right then the shot would land behind the jeep and he would be perfectly fine but fear gripped his heart anyway. Ninety percent and the tank was aiming somewhere ahead of his jeep, just how far ahead he couldn't tell. The screen flashed three times, one-hundred percent charge, so Kostoff once more pressed down on the firing button. He and the tank fired in the same instant and his faster round hit slipped in right under the arcing mortar round and smashed through the main gun and buried itself somewhere in the power supply and the tank stopped floating and slammed into the ground.

The slower orb of destructive blue energy flew to Kostoff's left and in front of his hog as the second tank fired. The left hand round crossed in front of his view and would land somewhere behind his vehicle so he naturally watched shot that could possibly end his life in the next few seconds. What he hadn't seen while he was shooting was that one of the gun hogs had slowed down and put itself between the gauss hogs' path and the tanks. The wraith's shot hit the pavement a mere two meters to the gun hog's right and flipped the vehicle right between the lead gauss hog and Kostoff's.

It rolled over onto it's side then upside down, smashing the gunner into the ground with enough force to shear off the gun and the Sergeant knew the marine was dead. But the vehicle kept on rolling. Onto it's side, upright, over on it's side again and finally coming to a stop with it's tires spinning in the air. But his hog was going to pass right by the wreck.

"Slow down, idiot!" He yelled.

His driver obliged and cut their speed back to about ten kilometers per hour as they passed the mangled hog on the driver's side. Kostoff saw that the driver of the crashed vehicle was slowly pulling herself from the wreck, jumped down to the street, pulled the marine to her feet and was glad to see his driver had enough sense to stop. He practically picked up the marine and threw her into the back of the jeep before pulling himself up. But he'd forgotten about the marine riding shotgun. Looking back over the flipped jeep he saw a bloodied marine pull himself out by the axle. He was about to let go of the hog when the marine was hit by fire from the park and fell with a smoking hole in his back.

"Go go go go go!"

The warthog jumped into motion and the gas peddle was floored. They were on their way to catching up with the other hogs so Kostoff looked back. The tank he had targeted was grounded and it's main gun was sparking wildly. But the fourth gauss hog was now a burning mass of twisted metal, well more like four burning masses of twisted metal. There was no possible way a human survived that. The second wraith, however was still up and turning to track them. All he could do was hold on tightly to the gauss cannon and wait to see if they would live or die.

As fortune would have it they rounded the curve and put the park's trees between themselves and the tank. No longer able to tell where they were or would be the tank quit tracking them and pushed forward into the park, snapping the trunks of some of the smaller trees as it went. On the other end of the park the three hogs pushed their way through the still light infantry fire and pulled up in front of the terminal. Kostoff did the math in his head as they came to a stop. Eight marines and three hogs in return for destroying a tank, hitting another and taking out a small smattering of infantry. It didn't seem worth it. But maybe he was wrong, he sure hoped he was.

Ok, so I left it at a bit of a cliffhanger. There is more of this battle to come, I promise.

Again, I thank you for reading this far. Please leave a review.