Disclaimer: See chapter 1 for disclaimer.
With the office tower blocked off, the Covenant's first wave was the only source of action, and so all the Marines had repositioned on the balcony to fire on them. Joseph Carson had seen a lot of action in his four years of service to the UNSC Marine Corps, but he'd never seen this much Covenant. Bullets and plasma flew back and forth, and the 24 man Marine garrison had been struck down to 17, most of which were on the ground floor. Shell casing hit the ground, magazines were replaced, and the Marines just kept firing. Carson was loading his last magazine for his Assault Rifle when a large violet round form came over the rubble, a teal glowing mortar mounted on top.
"WRAITH!!!" someone on the balcony shouted just before the Plasma Mortar fired.
"Inside now, go, go, go!!" Corporal Lantermann, cried, motioning the other balcony Marines inside. Legs, Carson, Foley, and Corporal Valance joined the others as they rushed through the doorway. Carson was one of the last ones through when the mortar landed, blasting the door and the wall around it. Marines were thrown to the floor, dust and rubble burying some. Carson coughed dust out of his lungs as he pulled himself from the rubble, grabbing the outstretched hand Legs offered.
"I'm okay." the Lance Coolie coughed.
"Lantermann's dead." Corporal Valance said, crouching by the body of the last Marine through the door. He hadn't escaped the blast of the plasma round. She stood and turned to the other Marines. "Everyone downstairs, ammo up. We've gotta reinforce the ground floor." Several "yes ma'am"'s and "on it"'s sounded as the group made there way downstairs. In the armory, Carson, Foley, Legs, and the others packed ammo magazines and grenades into their pouches. Soon Carson and Foley were the last ones leaving.
"Hey wait a minute." Foley said, stopping suddenly.
"What?" Carson asked. "We gotta go, come on!"
"Where the hell's Valance?" Foley asked. Carson shook his head.
"I don't know, she's probably outside with the res, so let's fucking go!" Carson replied.
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Outside, the surviving 16 Marines were gathered behind various barricades focused towards the oncoming Covenant. Carson took cover behind one and looked about at the various Jarheads, all focused on surviving. He sighed with relief when Sergeant Howell came to a stop near his position, directing the fire of a group of riflemen.
"Hey Sarge!" Carson yelled to be heard over the battle. "What're Morgan's orders?!"
"Morgan's dead." Brutal replied, crouching by Carson to reload his Assault Rifle.
"What?! How?!" His answer came in the form of a classic Brutal Look, the kind that told Carson to worry about it later. Carson instead focused on firing, using short controlled bursts to increase his accuracy. He was crouching to reload when Legs dove to cover beside him, the machine gun being wiped out by the Wraith, taking several Marines with it. Legs rose just enough to aim and fire over the barricade, her Battle Rifle set to semi-automatic to conserve ammo. She suddenly froze, her scope near the Wraith.
"Oh my God." she said.
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It'd taken Corporal Valance some work, but she'd navigated some alleys near the hotel and was now in throwing distance of the Wraith. It surprised her the Covenant hadn't used them to flank the Marines, but then again, Brutes earned their name from hard-hitting smash 'n' bash tactics. The Wraith was close enough that she could sprint to it without running into any Covenant, who were all on the other side of the armor piece. She was even more fortunate to see there was no one manning the plasma turret mounted on the front of the Wraith. She took a deep breath, squeezed the package she held, and began running. With a leap, she mounted one of the forward fins of the Wraith, maintaining her balance as she climbed to the hatch leading to the drivers compartment. She was only able to pry it open partially, so partially the driver didn't even notice. With a grunt of frustration, she fitted the package of explosives into the gap of the hatch. She still needed some tape to hold it in place, so she reached for it with her hand.
"CORPORAL, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!" Brutal's voiced raged through her comm, making her jump and drop the tape. It fell to the ground, but Valance knew this was her only chance. Holding the charge in place with one hand, she pulled out the detonator with the other.
"This is for you, guys." she whispered to Wesker, Cotton, and Copeland, hoping they were listening before she pushed the button.
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The Wraith exploded in a flash of orange and blue, just like the ones they'd destroyed what seemed forever ago. Brutal was frozen in shock as he watched helplessly, realizing he'd lost his entire Fire Team Delta. Several Covenant were thrown to the ground by the explosion, but the majority just continued charging. The four 2nd Squad members couldn't even fire their weapons, though the rest of the Marines did just that. In that moment, Brutal, Carson, Legs, and Foley lost hope. They could only stare, frozen. They didn't know how long they stood there before they were shaken out of it by another explosion…the explosion of missile pod-fired rockets striking the ground. With a hiss, three Pelican dropships flew overhead.
"Ground forces, this is Juliet One Nine. We're prepared to cut a way out for ya, but you'll have to make your way to the Seventh Column monument, how copy, over?" a pilot said through the comm.
"Negative, One Nine, I don't understand, why can't you just pick us up here?" Brutal replied, his eyes on the open monument down the street, the one that provided no cover and would get anyone around it killed.
"LZ's too hot, the monument's by the riverside and is more easy for us to cover while we load you up, over."
"Mother fucker," Brutal muttered. "Roger that, we're on the way." he said before turning to the Marines. "Alright, you six, lay suppressive fire and fall back when I give the order, the rest of you get to the monument down the street!" Carson was one of the "rest of you", so he leaped to his feet and ran, following the others as they ran down the street. Some running towards the monument were cut down by plasma fire slamming into their backs. Ahead, Carson saw two Pelican settle down, hovering above the water of the river, their rear hatches open where two chain guns provided covering fire over the Marines' heads.
"Hold up!" Brutal yelled. "180, cover the others!" he cried before giving the fall back order to the other six back at the barricades. Carson and all the others stopped, turning around and kneeling to increase accuracy. They began burst firing past the six Marines bolting for the exfil birds, each silently begging the six to hurry their asses up. What shocked Carson was that Legs was one of them. A Marine running next to her fell with several scorch marks in his back. Soon, she was the only one still running towards the others. Carson was reloading his rifle when he noticed a shimmer, as if the air was miving towards her. She screamed as a Brute materialized beside her, holding the back of her neck and lifting her off the ground. Shocked, Carson could only watch as the Brute slammed the blades of his Spiker into her stomach, pulling it out forcefully and at an angle, splattering blood and gore on the street. Intestines dangled from the wound, which the Brute began expanding, seemingly relishing in her wails of anguish. More innards were pulled out by the time bullets slammed into the Brute dropping him like a rock. Carson, Foley, and Doc Valdez surged forward, running toward their fallen comrade. Carson and Valdez grabbed her arms and began dragging her towards the birds. She was blubbering incoherently, tears sliding down her pale as paper face. Blood formed a trail behind them as wide as Carson's waist. Foley was backpedaling behind them, firing his Shotgun in the direction of the oncoming Covenant. Carson and Doc jerked suddenly, as if Legs was stuck on something. Her screaming intensified by a thousand-fold.
"SOMETHING JUST PULLED, SOMETHING JUST FUCKING PULLED!!!!" she screamed. Carson followed the trail of intestines and saw Foley's foot on the end.
"FOLEY, GET OFF HER FUCKING GUTS!!" Valdez screamed. Foley turned, looked down, and moved his foot, his face paling considerably. He turned back and continued firing ad backpedaling as Carson and Doc dragged Legs even faster to stay ahead of Foley's blind retreat. Most of the Marines had already boarded and filled one Pelican, so with the help of another two, Carson and Valdez lifted Legs into the dropship. All they could do was lay her on the floor and keep her innards in a pile nearby. Brutal turned to the city and saw Foley was the only Marine still on the ground.
"Foley, get your ass on board, we're getting the fuck outta here!" he shouted. Foley turned and began running for the dropships, the turret providing covering fire over him. He suddenly screamed and began thrashing, before he was thrust forward by a pink mist. His chest slammed into the ramp of the Pelican, and Foley fell to the ground face down, his marred back visible to all. Brutal turned away and screamed toward the cockpit.
"We're all aboard, go, go, go!!" he cried before looking back sorrowfully, his eyes on Foley's corpse as the dropship rose and the hatch closed. He turned and watched as Valdez was scurrying to try and help Legs, even though they all knew it was no good, even Legs.
Carson watched her face as she continued babbling incoherently, no doubt on the edge of losing consciousness. She suddenly stopped babbling, her eyes glassy and staring forward. Doc stopped, threw his medkit to the side and screamed in frustration. Carson was numb. He wasn't in love with Legs, and he was pretty sure she wasn't in love with him, but dammit she was one of his best friends, and here he was practically sitting in her guts. He slumped back against an empty seat, and stared at her face the rest of the ride. He was alive. He'd survived. But his friends were gone, and he'd never see them again.
Author's Note: I fixed and extended part 6 for those who're interested. One last chapter remains, then I'll post a page answering any questions you guys wanna ask. Just PM them to me.
