Chapter 9: Charlie Foxtrot
1215 hours, May 18 2525, (Military Calendar)/
Durban, BikoWe opened up on the aliens advancing on the street below.
The MG teams on the first footbridge ripped into their ranks with their heavy machine guns, cutting down the little frogs and catching a few of the ones with shields, exposing them to the fire coming from the troopers holed up in the buildings. I squeezed off a few short bursts of my assault rifle and brought down one of the little aliens. They were flesh, I thought to myself. They weren't indestructible, they were killable. We caught the alien group off guard and they fell my the lot. The big lizards, however, were not harmed by our bullets. Our shots seemed to be deflected by some kind of shimmering aura surrounding them. Once the aliens realized what was going on, they reorganized and returned fire.
They leveled their strange blue and purple weapons at the first footbridge and unleashed streams of what looked like blue and green fire bolts, along with pink crystalline spikes that washed over the outside of the footbridge as the MG teams ducked behind the sills.
Mackenzie slapped a new mag into his assault rifle, "Jesus feckin' Christ! What type of weapons are those? Ray guns?"
I had no idea. Whatever they were, they were alot stronger than our own weapons, "No fucking clue, keep firing!"
Their infantry parted towards the sides of the street and allowed their big vehicle and the four smaller ones to advance in front of them, giving them some sort of cover. The big tank-looking vehicle pivoted it's main gun, and spat a big blue ball of fire at the first footbridge. The three MG crews had no time to react as the "fire" melted away the front portion of the bridge. Men screamed in agony as they were burned by whatever substance the aliens were using, some falling from the twenty-foot high bridge and into the advancing alien line. We watched as they landed, breaking bones as the hit the pavement.
"Shite! 'Tis like a bloody tank!" Mackenzie blurted as he started to increase the rate of fire he was putting out of his assault rifle. The alien tank hadn't spotted us yet, although the midday sun was beaming down on our side of the boulevard.
The smaller purple vehicles accelerated ahead with a low warbling, droning noise and fired upon the buildings between the first and second footbridges. Windows were shattered as the alien weaponsfire sailed towards the building's occupants, men and women falling silently as they were hit. The second line of MG crews tore into the alien fast-attack vehicles, ripping through their armor. One of the heavy .50 caliber bullets blasted through the side wing of the closest purple-alloyed hovercraft, and the vehicle skittered to the ground and was instantly destroyed by the combined fire. The vehicle brewed up in a blue explosion, the chassis of the vehicle flying through the air and through the front window of one of the stores opposite us. The destruction of the vehicle was instantly met with the brief whoops and hollers of 2nd Platoon.
The enemy "tank" and the rest of the infantry was almost at the remains of the first footbridge. Surviving troopers from the first line of machine guns tried helplessly to crawl out of the street, but were met by the little aliens and ravenously jumped on a ripped apart, limb from limb. I turned away as their shrieks joined the chorus of automatic and alien fire.
"Oh my God..." I uttered as the little aliens kept up the advance, blood smeared all over their arms, bodies, and faces. Mackenzie held back his vomit as we continued to shoot. The aliens were not only hateful, but merciless as well.
"Detonate the C4, now!" Lieutenant Li screamed over the TACCOM. The vacant buildings next to the approaching line of aliens exploded outwards, sending brick, rebar, wood, and glass came raining down on the aliens. The buildings in front of the first footbridge collapsed inwards and into each other. The majority of the little aliens were not fast enough to get out of the way of the collapsing buildings, and close to fifty of them were crushed by the downfall of rubble. Most of the shield birds and the big lizards, however, quickly avoided the collapsing structures. The tank and the little vehicles narrowly avoided the explosion.
Now that they were virtually outside of our building, I could really see the aliens up close. The little aliens were not really little at all, almost the size of a full-grown man. They made up the bulk of the alien infantry, and some of them wore red or white armor, while most of them wore orange and a few with heavy guns wore green. They had masks on their faces for some reason, and big cones on their backs. I aimed by assault rifle at the nearest one and sent a group of 7.62mm rounds into it's red-armored chest. It squealed and fell to the ground, blue blood spattering on the pavement. One of lizards clad in white armor which I assumed to be the leader of this group, warbled something in it's native tongue and pointed at our building. The enemy tank turned in our direction.
"OH FUCK! GET INTO THE HALLWAY!" I screamed into the TEAMCOM as I grabbed Mackenzie by the collar and dragged him out of the room and into the corridor. The rest of the squad dove out of their rooms, hitting the floor and covering their heads. We heard the whoosh as the tank fired it's payload, burning through the air and crashing into the storefront. The doors swung open violently as the building was hit, dust falling down from the ceiling as we cowered on the floor.
I looked up and to my left through the door into the bedroom we were once in. I could clearly see out of what was once the outside wall, the entire face of the building totally destroyed.
We all got to our feet shakily. O'Grady was panicking, "Holy fucking shit man! Fucking aliens shoot explosive fire! First Innies, now fucking aliens, we can't do this man!"
Rhodes approached him and shook him by his shoulders, "Snap out of it Specialist! The building's still standing and we're still in one piece, we can still kick some ass." The Sergeant picked up O'Grady's fallen MA5B and passed it to him. The sound of the battle still raged on outside.
Valdez peered through the far door, "Oh fuck guys, better take a look at this."
We all slammed up against the wall and looked through the doors. Outside, the alien force was pushing up towards the second footbridge. But that wasn't our concern, as bad as it was. The aliens were advancing towards our building, almost reaching the front door. Mackenzie let out a stream of colorful Scottish profanity.
Rhodes was immediately barking orders, "Valdez, get the stairs. Mackenzie, you cover him. O'Grady, you're with me. Santos, plant claymores in the back room downstairs, Clarke you go with him. Move, move!"
We all instantly sprang into action as Mackenzie, Valdez, Santos and I made for the stairs. We all clomped down the steps, Valdez pumping his M90 shotgun, "We'll cover you boys."
Santos and I nodded as we made for the door. We leaned up against either side of the frame, Santos signaling me to breach. Santos grabbed the door handle and we entered, weapons at the ready. Blue and green bolts flew over our heads as we ducked and made for the front desk infront of us, returning fire as we went. Three of the little aliens came through the obliterated storefront, but quickly fell under our combined fire.
"Santos, get up there and plant those claymores, we'll cover you!" I yelled at the Hispanic man as I ducked under another blue bolt. The big Madrigalian was surprisingly nimble, and bolted towards the front of the store, taking cover behind store shelves as he went.
"Big boy is pretty fast." Valdez remarked, pulling out his M6 sidearm and popping another frog alien in the head.
"He's lighter, hasn't eaten in a while." Mackenzie replied with a laugh. Santos dove under the concrete base of the front window, pulling out a claymore and placing it next to the front door, extending it's "legs". He pulled the priming pin out and ran back into cover, placing more claymores on either sides of the aisles.
Four of the bird aliens and a blue-armored lizard took notice of all the frogs piling up in the entrance of the convenience store. Fire from Rhodes and O'Grady above kept them in cover behind parked cars outside, although the big lizards steadily returned fire.
The bigger aliens started to fire upon the store, I downed another two frogs as they approached the storefront, "Santos, get your ass back here!"
Santos was hiding behind a shelf full of bread and other grains, tapping away at a small demolition datapad, "Im coming hombre, i'm just setting up the detonator!"
Valdez slapped another magazine into his magnum, "Set it up faster, we've got trouble!"
Santos quickly inputted a few more commands and tucked the datapad into his breast pocket, snatching up his assault rifle and running back towards us. We covered his return, as now the shield birds were upon us. Santos hopped over a fallen shelf and hit the ground instantly, screaming in pain. One of the birds had shot his hip, burning through the fabric and into the skin underneath.
"OH SHIT! FUCKING MOTHER!" Santos screamed profanity as he lay on the floor of the convenience store, right under the firefight between both us and the aliens.
"Santos has been hit, I repeat, Santos has been hit!" I shouted over the TEAMCOM. I turned to Valdez and Mackenzie, who both had a look of shock on their faces. Our comrade was down in the direct line of fire of these new enemies. Without even thinking I slid over the countertop and was moving from shelf to shelf, adrenaline pumping through my body. I reached Santos, and grabbed him by the collar and pulled him into an aisle.
"Santos! Are you alright? Can you move?" I shouted in his face over the sounds of the battle.
"I can't walk, senor!" Santos said through gritted teeth. This was bad. The aliens were almost through the front of the store and it would be impossible to get help from other squads. We were on our own. I hoisted Santos to his feet and wrapped his arm around my shoulders, handing him his assault rifle. I placed my weapon on it's magnetic strip on the back of my armor, and took my magnum out of it's holster.
"Mack, Valdez! Get frags out the front!" I yelled as I moved as fast as I could back towards the desk, firing my magnum as we went. Santos pulled off a few bursts, but he was in too much pain to aim correctly. The two troopers behind the desk lobbed fragmentation grenades across the store and out of the front, detonating at the feet of the shield birds. The bony aliens were obliterated by the explosions, adding their four corpses to the growing pile outside of the store. I went straight for the door to the back room and entered with Mackenzie and Valdez behind me.
Santos started to slump towards the ground, "Santos, stay with me buddy." I slapped his chubby face as we kept moving towards the stairs.
"Get 'em up the stairs quicktime." Mackenzie said as we reached the first steps. Valdez was still at the door, blasting away with his shotgun.
Valdez pumped his shotgun and fired again, removing the head of a frog-alien in a mist of blue blood, "Faster boys, bastards just keep coming."
I looked over my shoulder and shouted, "Valdez, shut the door and push that fridge infront of it, that should keep them out for a while!" The muscular African American slammed the door and locked it, and pushed the fridge infront of it. The high-pitched barks and squeals of the gas mask-wearing aliens came through the door as they tried to break through. Time was of the essence.
Mackenzie helped me get Santos to the top of the stairs, bringing him towards the end of the hallway and leaning him against the wall. Rhodes emerged from the bedroom, assault rifle firing away. He knelt down beside me and Mackenzie and removed Santos' helmet.
"What the fuck happened?" the Sergeant asked as Mackenzie examined the wound on Santos' hip. It wasn't a normal wound, relatively speaking. Where Santos had been it the wound was cauterized, the fabric of his uniform fusing into his flesh and blackening. It looked revolting, worse than a bullet wound by far.
Mackenzie rummaged through his bag and took out some gauze, antiseptic, and a pair of medical scissors. He tried picking the fabric out, but it was literally embedded in his flesh. He disinfected the wound as Santos groaned in pain, "This is bad shit, amigos."
I turned to the Sergeant, "Fucking bird things down there got him after he planted the claymores. Valdez is down there keeping them at bay."
Rhodes spoke into the TEAMCOM, "Valdez, what's the situation like down there?"
The TEAMCOM was filled with the noise of the alien's weapons and the repeated gnashing of Valdez's shotgun, "Not good Sarge! The little guys keep on coming, they burned through the door and more of the bird-things and lizards are out front, we need to get the fuck out of here!"
The Sergeant looked at me, "Alright, get your ass back up here double-time." Rhodes patted around Santos' chest and removed the detonator and handed it to me, "When I give you the go, blow those bastards to kingdom come."
I took the palm detonator and I nodded, following Rhodes back into the far bedroom where O'Grady was cowering behind an overturned desk, blind firing over the top. We slid into cover with the rookie, and I stared the kid right in the eyes. He was scared shitless. Rebels were one thing, but these were aliens, and in this battle we were all rookies.
I grabbed his shoulder and shouted, "You still with us O'Grady?" The blonde-haired kid looked me in the eye and nodded hesitantly. I clapped him on the shoulder and fired at the aliens outside of our store. 2nd Platoon was in a bad spot. I could make out squads in other buildings facing similar situations as us, while others I could only see the dark silhouettes of human bodies motionless on the floor. The alien offensive had already pushed up between the first and second footbridges right outside of our building. I looked to the left and saw a line of troopers at the top of the street, firing down the slope and trying to keep the aliens down. The only way we would have an even remote chance of living is if we could make it to that defensive line. But that fucking tank was in the way.
"Charlie Foxtrot!" Valdez yelled over the TEAMCOM.
O'Grady glanced at me, like a little boy looking to his mother for an answer to a difficult question.
"Clusterfuck. And he's right," I responded through gritted teeth.
Rhodes put his hand to his ear and spoke into the TACCOM, "Outlaw this is Charlie Two-Three, we have a man down and Tangos in the perimeter, we need immediate assistance, over?" Lieutenant Li's voice came over our radio headsets, "Charlie Two-Two this is Outlaw, we are pinned down on the street and are unable to help you. You'll have to find your own way to our position, out." Rhodes cursed under his breath.
I glanced over at the Sergeant, who was blasting away with his assault rifle, "Sarge, we need to get out of here! We cannot hold this position much longer!"
Rhodes barred his teeth and brought down another frog alien, "I fucking know that Clarke, i'm thinking!" The Sergeant looked around the half-remaining room, then back into the hallway where Mackenzie was treating Santos' wound.
"Mack, hows Santos holding up?" he shouted over his shoulder. The Scotsman turned to Rhodes, "Laddie's holdin' up, but he won't be able ta walk without help."
The Sergeant made for the door, "Good enough, I'll carry him. O'Grady, Clarke, lets move." Rhodes helped Santos to his feet and put the Hispanic man's arm around his shoulders.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing Sarge?" Santos said as he held his assault rifle in one hand. We all had the same question on our mind, but nobody dared to ask. Santos' pain made him a bit more carefree when it came to questioning a superior's actions.
The Sergeant helped Santos to the top of the L-shaped stairs where Valdez was killing aliens as they came up. The platform between the two flights of stairs was filled with the remains of the little frogs, and even a shield bird. Luminescent blue and dark purple blood covered the steps, making it a bit slick to as you placed your foot on it. "Getting out of here, now lets go!"
The Sergeant turned to me, standing at behind him with O'Grady and Mackenzie, "On my mark, set off those claymores," I fumbled with the digital detonator as I pulled it out of my pocket, "Three... two... one... mark."
I pushed the red button under the screen. Multiple explosions went off downstairs as the claymores exploded, sending dust and debris up the stairs. We covered our eyes and bolted down the stairs and through the dust. The cries and squeals of the aliens as they lay wounded on the floor filled the air as we stepped over them, quickly making for the obliterated front wall. We emerged into the sunlight, the aliens outside still slightly dazed from the explosion.
"Go! Go! Go!" Rhodes screamed as we made our way up the sidewalk in front of the stores on our side of the street. We stuck close to Rhodes, who was supporting Santos at a brisk pace. The cars and mailboxes along the side of the road provided sufficient cover as we made our way under the second footbridge. Just as we reached the halfway point between the second and third bridges, the alien tank fired and obliterated the second line of elevated machine guns.
"Feck me sideways, our boys are getting bloody mangled!" Mackenzie shouted, firing into a group of shield birds.
Valdez pivoted on one foot and sent a shotgun slug towards the nearest lizard-man, it's aura flickering and disappearing as the alien recoiled from the blast. Taking two massive steps forward, the CQB specialist blasted a hole clean through the tall alien's torso, "Thats what happens when you fuck with a Martian!"
Squads in other buildings were doing the same thing as us: retreating. Men and women streamed out of their buildings like hornets smoked from their hive, although some of them weren't so lucky. The blue and green bolts along with the pink crystals impacted them as they collapsed onto the street, motionless.
We booked it under the third footbridge and towards the hastily erected barricades at the top of the street. The barricades were mostly the automatic roadblocks that popped up out of the street, however there were two sandbag encampments housing a heavy fifty each. Gunnery Sergeant Overholt beckoned our squad towards the defensive line. We scaled the barricades as Rhodes and O'Grady lifted Santos over to two awaiting troopers. We slid into cover alongside the remains of 2nd Platoon.
Rhodes turned to Gunny Overholt, "Whats the situation, Gunny?"
"Fucking birds are protecting the rest of their infantry with their shields, only way to kill 'em is with frags, and we're all near out. Those three rapid-attack vehicles are givin' us hell too!" the red-haired leader said as she shot at a bird alien with her assault rifle, the bullets bouncing harmlessly off it's shield.
"Where is the El-Tee?" Rhodes shouted. Overholt jerked a thumb to her left, and we all gazed down the line and saw Lieutenant Li was popping off shots with his M6J Carbine, bringing down a few of the frog aliens and clipping a bird on it's hand. Looking suddenly shocked, the bird reeled back from it's wounded hand, allowing the Lieutenant to finish it off with a bullet to the head.
"Thats it!" the Lieutenant exclaimed, "Shoot the birds through the gap in it's shield, then take 'em down when they're exposed!"
Troopers manning the line looked at each other, then did as they were instructed. Much to our surprise, the Lieutenant's idea had worked quite well. Instead of having a wall of shields approaching us, holes were being punched in their line as we dropped the birds one by one.
Another noise filled the background of sound, detonations going off in many of the streets to the sides of Juravinski Boulevard.
"What the fuck was that?" Santos exclaimed, leaning up against a barricade and shooting around the corner every now and then.
Rhodes kept on shooting at the advancing alien line, "Demo teams are sealing the roads so the aliens can't get any flanking routes on us."
I thought about that for a second as I reloaded my assault rifle, "Then why don't they do that for all the roads in this sector? Saves us from getting our asses handed to us by these things."
Gunny Overholt spoke up now, shaking her head, "They'll get through eventually, and we will have to face them eventually. Might as well get them into specific bottlenecks and give them as big of a bloody nose as we can before we fall back to Hotel Romeo."
Rhodes didn't have time to respond as the MG crews on the final footbridge saw the approaching alien tank and displaced themselves, hastily picking up their weapons and getting down to street level. The tank fired another ball of blue at the last bridge, collapsing it under the intense heat and hurling it's remains at us. We cowered behind the barricades, but cries were heard as people were hit with falling concrete and glass. The fast-attack purple vehicles moved up and unleashed their fury on our line, cutting down troopers who weren't hidden well enough. I grabbed onto my helmet and made myself as small as possible, trying to live through the onslaught of blue.
O'Grady looked up at Staff Sergeant Rhodes, "We're gonna die here if we don't do something!"
The Gunny overheard this and called down the line, "Get some EMP grenades on those vehicles!"
Four troopers with grenade launchers loaded EMP shells into their weapons, and arced them over the tops of the barricades. The alien vehicles scraped to the ground, blue static washing over the purple armor of the vehicle. I heard someone shout. "It worked!" just before the heavy fifties roared to life and killed the alien drivers, but that didn't stop the onslaught. Like a tidal wave, the horde of aliens kept marching towards our lines, launching their streams of deadly bolts at us once more. With nothing stopping them from above, they were free to rush our lines.
The very front of their line was all of the shield birds, providing an almost impenetrable wall that protected the two-dozen lizard-men behind them. The frog aliens scrambled towards the front, and few by the dozen as we cut them down. They weren't very tactical, but their sheer numbers overwhelmed our lines and forced us to divert our attention from the heavier-hitting aliens to them. The fast-attack vehicles did almost hit-and-run tactics on us, darting out of the advance and strafing our barricade with fire, then returning behind the infantry to get out of the way of the heavy fifties. This time the tank hung back, lobbing it's massive ball of judgement down onto our lines whenever it was needed. Men and women were falling all down the line of our makeshift barricades, scorched, burned, and impaled by the alien weapons.
"We're royally fucked man!" Valdez exclaimed nervously as he downed another giant lizard.
The advancing line of aliens was less than thirty meters away from us now. For the first time since Thern, I thought about not making it home. We knew about rebels, we knew how to fight them and how to win. They were unpredictable, yes, but we could still defeat them in combat. This was something entirely different. We were learning as we went, we had no idea how to properly fight this new enemy. We didn't know their motives, their structure, anything. This was the first time in UNSC history that a ground engagement was fought against something non-human. If Durban fell, then the rest of the planet would go with it. What would stop the Covenant from going to other worlds?
I lobbed a grenade into the enemy advancement. The big lizards were hard to kill, but under our combined fire we could get rid of that shimmering protective aura they had and actually do some damage. I slapped a new magazine into my assault rifle and popped up over the barricade, watching my grenade explode and bring down some of the frogs with it. I was about to pull the trigger when I saw a bright green flash out of the corner of my eye. I felt something hot graze my shoulder armor and I was spun like a top to the ground. I hit the pavement face-first, my MA5B falling to the ground beside me.
"Clarke!" Valdez shouted as he came down beside me, "Clarke! You alright?"
I rolled onto my back and Valdez helped me sit up, ducking as more blue and green flashed over his head. I looked at my shoulder and saw the armor melted away, barely missing the skin of my shoulder. It felt blistered, which I wasn't surprised at because it was really fucking hot.
"Clarke, you good?" Valdez shouted in my face. I nodded as he handed me my fallen assault rifle, hoisting me back to the barricade.
The aliens had come within 20 meters of us, and were now arming little blue objects and lobbing them at us. Grenades?
One of the blue objects landed on a trooper and stuck. He cried for a help as two marines around him tried to get it removed. Within two seconds the three of them were gone, enveloped in a blue flash and a following explosion. They were reduced to nothing more than charred bodies.
"This is fucked, we're done!" a young trooper yelled as he cowered behind the barrier, holding onto his helmet and rocking back and forth. Not only were these aliens effective combatants, they demoralized us with their brutality.
"Fall back! Fall back!" Lieutenant Li yelled as he stood and started to rush towards the street running lengthwise across the north end of the street. Nobody hesitated as we got up and ran. I'm a good runner, but everybody was sprinting at a breakneck speed just to get away from the line of death behind us. The MG crews packed up their weapons and followed, moving as quickly as they could to keep up with the retreat. We ran up the street and towards a pair of townhouses that overlooked the entire length of Juravinski Boulevard. People fell all around me as the aliens cut them down with their burning weapons. The tank fired it's deadly packages arcing up through the air and gliding down into our retreating mass, killing whoever was unlucky enough to get caught in it's resting place.
Those who did get caught by the blue ball of death weren't brought down screaming, they vanished. Gone. Poof. Just like that, they were gone, wiped from existence like a speck of dirt wiped from glass. Nothing to give back to their families as keepsakes.
"Get inside!" Rhodes screamed as he waved us inside the lefthand townhouse, along with the troopers of Bravo Squad and the remains of Echo, Foxtrot, and Juliet Squads. Lieutenant Li and the remainder of the survivors of 2nd Platoon made their way inside the righthand townhouse. We panted as we slumped down behind the windows of the living room, having a brief moment to catch our breath before facing the enemy outside. The troopers with heavy fifties and tripod-mounted HMGs made their way upstairs, along with a few sharpshooters. Valdez had miraculously gotten Santos all the way to the pair of townhouses without getting hit.
Aberdeem from Bravo Squad glanced around the dark living area of the townhouse, "Where the fuck did Boyle go?"
We looked around the room briefly, my eyes meeting those of Mackenzie's and he shrugged. We heard shouting from the boulevard outside, "Open the door! OPEN THE DOOR!" Boyle was sprinting his ass off towards the townhouses, his portable radio weighing him down considerably. Gunny Overholt cursed aloud.
"Shit, thats our last radio! Open the fucking doors!"
Aberdeem opened the front door as two pink objects smacked into the wooden door with a loud thuck, and two more embedding themselves in his body. He screamed in agony, clutching the pink spike protruding from his stomach, the other one above his pelvic area.
"Get it out! Get it out!" the Indian man screamed as Mackenzie and another medic pulled him across the floor and into the kitchen, blood trailing from his body.
Boyle was sprinting his ass off, approaching our townhouse as we beckoned him towards us, encouraging him to run faster. He was nearly halfway across the townhouse street before he caught a blue bolt in his leg. The radio operator cried out and hit the pavement. He pushed himself up and started crawling on his hands and knees towards the townhouse. I was taken aback as I tried to process what just happened. In a period of less than ten seconds, two friends of mine had been wounded. I watched as my friend Boyle crawled across the street, barely making any progress with the heavy radio on his back.
McDermott, Boyle's closest friend, hefted his SMG, "I'm coming Boyle!" he shouted as he sprinted out the door. Cries of protest were raised from the troopers on the first level of the townhouse as McDermott ran under heavy fire towards Boyle, kneeling down beside his friend and attempting to put him over his shoulders. Thats when shit hit the fan.
The white-armored lizard that had directed the tank to fire at our building approached the two men in the middle of the street, a two pronged blade appearing out of nowhere in it's hand. He kicked McDermott onto his back, shattering his ribcage. We raised our rifles, but was stopped by Overholt, "Don't shoot, you'll hit Boyle and McDermott!"
Pinning his right arm to the street with a large armored foot, the alien leader plunged the blade of light into McDermott's chest. McDermott screamed as the blade seared through his chest cavity, but was silenced with a quick upwards flick of the blade through his neck. Boyle got to his feet quickly but shakily and tried pulling out his magnum, but in one swift movement the lizard swept it's blade in an arc and lopped Boyle's head off. His headless body fell to the ground without a sound.
"NO!" the Gunnery Sergeant screamed as she unloaded her assault rifle into the alien on the street.
The horde was now on the street itself, barely kept back by the MG crews who had set up on the second floor of the townhouses. This was fucked. No, this was in fact a clusterfuck. It was death just waiting to happen. We were dead the moment we got out of our warthogs, and we all knew it. I checked my mission clock, it read 1302. I smiled to myself, surprisingly. We had been pushed off of our street in just over forty-five minutes. We had virtually no way out of here without support, and if we didn't do something now there was a zero percent chance of getting home. What did I have to lose now?
I turned to Santos who was leaning up against the wall beside the window, "Wish me luck."
A puzzled expression crossed his face as I took a deep breath...
...and I ran.
The aliens weren't expecting another human to come running out of the building, especially not at their white-armored leader. I ran across the street and heard more exasperated cries from the troopers in the two townhouses. The white armored sword-wielder turned to see me running full speed at him. He tried to level his sword but I was quicker. I dipped my shoulder down and plowed into his torso, knocking the alien to the ground and sending his sword skittering to the curb. These things were huge, well over seven feet tall. I unloaded an entire magazine of my assault rifle into it's chest and the shimmering aura disappeared with a pop. The alien advanced on me and tried to throw me to the ground.
I put my assault rifle between me and the muscular alien and he seized it. It was now a match of strength, one that I would lose. My eyes met his, initiating some sort of challenge. To be honest, I was fucking scared shitless. I was engaging in hand-to-hand combat with an alien much larger than myself, and alot stronger. I will never forget my first battle with the Covenant, and my firsthand experience of directly fighting one.
The assault rifle bent under the lizard-man's strength, and he eventually forced me to the ground. He seized me by the neck and held me up a few feet above the ground. I scrambled around my neck with my hands, trying to ease the iron-tight grip. The alien snapped it's four-mandible mouth at me, saying something in it's native tongue. Nobody dared to shoot our way, fearing to hit the person on their side.
I felt myself blacking out. This was it, I was dead. I looked over at the townhouse, realizing that this would be the last thing I ever saw. This far-away world on the first day of battle against the Covenant. Thats when I saw Mackenzie leaning out the window screaming, "YOUR SIDEARM! USE YOUR FECKIN' SIDEARM!"
The ivory-clad lizard was momentarily distracted by Mackenzie's outburst, giving me time to reach down to my hip and take my magnum out. I pulled off three shots to his split-faced head, his aura fizzing and popping as it disappeared. The alien's head rocked back with each bullet, and finally he dropped me on my ass. I gasped for air, and realized I had no time to sit. The alien lunged towards me, kicking the magnum out of my hand. I rolled onto my stomach and tried to grab for the gun, but it was just out of reach. The white alien raised it's two-toed foot and brought it down onto me. I rolled again, and the pavement cracked it as it's foot landed. My hand brushed something metal, and I picked it up, hoping it was a weapon.
The large cylinder was the light blade of the alien.
I got up and ran, towards Boyle's body. The alien was faster though and grabbed the back of my shirt and threw me to the ground. He bore down ontop of me. I held the cylinder up, not knowing what to do. I closed my eyes and waited for it to be over.
Nothing happened.
I opened one eye, and then the other. The alien's face was centimeters away from mine, air escaping his mouth in short bursts. Over his shoulder I could see the blades of the light sword penetrating out the back of it's body. I rolled the alien off of me and got to me feet, realizing that I was still in the middle of a crossfire between friendly and alien forces.
Without stopping I ran over to the corpse of Boyle and jerked the radio out of it's holder on his back. The aliens in the advancing line had no time to react to their leader's defeat, as I was already sprinting.
I sprinted under enemy fire back to the door of the townhouse, to the cheers of my comrades waiting inside. I passed the portable radio to Gunnery Sergeant Overholt and slumped down beside Santos, who was looking at me with awe along with the rest of the men and women on the first floor of the townhouse. It had been less than forty-five seconds.
"Clarke... how did you... how did you do that?" Santos uttered as he stared at me with wide eyes. I hadn't even realized what I had just done. I had killed the boulevard assault leader and taken back the radio in the amount of time it would take to reload a machine gun.
Without hesitation Rhodes spoke over the TACCOM, "Lieutenant Li, we have the radio. I repeat, we have the radio."
"I'm well aware of Private Clarke's show he put on outside of my townhouse, Sergeant. Cut the chatter and call in some support!"
Gunnery Sergeant Overholt picked up the microphone on the radio, "Baseplate this is Six Alpha Two-Bravo, we are pinned down in a pair of townhouses on the crossing of Juravinski and Shepherd, priority level Python, fire package Romeo, danger close."
The radio crackled to life again, "Six Alpha Two-Bravo, this is Overlord. Satellite images convinced us you were dead, glad to see your still kicking. Keep your asses together, support is on it's way."
Within moments the thunderous boom of artillery could be heard in the distance, cutting through the noise of the weaponsfire. The familiar noise of artillery shells screaming through the air filled our eardrums as they came streaking down onto the street outside. Massive plumes of smoke and debris filled the air as the high-explosive shells obliterated the alien lines. The buildings on the corners were reduced to piles of rubble as the artillery bombardment rained hell from above. The enemy tank was impacted directly and brewed up into an explosion of blue and white flames. By the time the bombardment was finished, our ears were ringing. The dust settled on the street, and nobody made a sound.
Gunnery Sergeant Overholt opened the front door, nothing. She stepped out, rifle at the ready, but nothing happened. She beckoned us all out, and troopers from both the townhouses emerged onto the street. The sounds of battle could still be heard in the distance, although it was quiet all along our street.
Lieutenant Li approached me, "Private Clarke, that was some damn good work you did out there. I'll be sure to tell Montgomery about this."
I barely even acknowledged his praise. To be honest, I couldn't even remember what I was thinking or how I did it. I was like a machine, or an aircraft on autopilot. I didn't think about it, I just did it.
"Thank you sir, but it had to be done. I was doing my job, and thats it." I responded in a humble tone. I didn't want praise, if I didn't do it, we would all be dead in those townhouses right now. This was the second time in a year that I had almost been killed in hand-to-hand combat. Lieutenant Li clapped me on the shoulder and walked down the boulevard, surveying the battle. I looked at the troopers around me, all weary from the intense battle. It had been relatively short, but it had been brutal. Of the eighty-one men and women of 2nd Platoon that arrived on Juravinski Boulevard, twenty-seven of them had been killed in the alien offensive. Everybody was wounded in some way, although some were worse than others. We had forty-nine fighting capable troopers, almost half of what we arrived with. The toll had been terrible, but we had staved off the aliens.
Troopers fanned out along the boulevard and collected the ammunition, weapons, and dogtags off of fallen comrades. My assault rifle was beyond repair, so I hoped somebody would pick up an extra one. I approached Rhodes, Valdez, and O'Grady who were surrounding a disabled enemy fast-attack vehicle.
"Whats going on here?" I asked as I entered the circle between Valdez and Mackenzie. O'Grady was crouched on the ground, inspecting the vehicle. A dead green-armored frog lay dead on the ground, blue blood oozing from it's body.
"Looks like plasma, to me," the tech specialist said as he turned his head at the blue and white flame sprouting from the hood of the vehicle.
"How can you tell?" Sergeant Rhodes asked as he knelt down beside O'Grady. The tech specialist went into detail about how the plasma must be concentrated by some means in order to produce flames as vibrant and colorful as this. He also mentioned the different colors of the enemies' bolts.
"Green is weaker," O'Grady explained, "Plasma gets darker as it grows in intensity."
Rhodes turned his attention to the dead alien, "Ugly bastards. I suppose these are their main infantry, like us."
Valdez snorted, "Not like us, Sarge. Don't even compare those things to us."
I was about to mention the different armor colors as Gunnery Sergeant Overholt called over to our group, "Staff Sergeant Rhodes!" She beckoned him towards the place where her, Lieutenant Li, and the other squad leaders were standing around the radio on the hood of a car. After a minute or two of talking, the Sergeant returned to our group.
"When are we leavin'?" Mackenzie inquired solemnly. He had just come out of the left townhouse, Aberdeem didn't make it.
Rhodes had a grim look on his face and answered Mackenzie's question with pursed lips, "We're not. Grab your gear, command tells us that we are rearming the line."
All of our mouths hung open. We had just gotten the shit kicked out of us, and now we were getting thrown into the same meat grinder again, this time understrength, under armed, and lacking supplies. I sat down on the pavement and removed my helmet, rubbing my eyes with the palms of my hands.
"Charlie Foxtrot?" I asked out loud to nobody in particular.
Rhodes nodded once and responded quietly, "Charlie Foxtrot."
Author's Note:
Hooray for two chapters in two days! I worked my butt off all afternoon for you guys, so here you go, Clarke's first battle with the Covenant. Just so you know, I am obviously aware of the proper names for the various Covenant units, however the squad and their comrades are not at this point of the war, being the first ground engagement and all. "Frogs" are Grunts in this chapter, "Birds" are Jackals, "Lizards" are Elites, the tank is a Wraith, and the fast-attakc vehicles are Ghosts. This is obviously a temporary thing until they come up with the "proper" names for the various Covenant forces. Anyways, enjoy. I'll be updating alot more now that it is summer. Feel free to review, your feedback helps me greatly in my writing!
-Phantogram