Chapter 10: Atonement

"Everybody, get out of here! The place is going to come down on us!" yelled Zimmerman as he ran through the main room
"Why, what's wrong?" asked a female scientist looking up from her magazine.
"The early-warning seismograph system is going of the scale! We need to get out of here! The marines are long gone by now so the elevator will be still up there so we need to move now!"
After a few minutes organizing the rest of the staff, they all escaped and were hurtling up the shaft when an almighty boom resonated throughout the shaft, rocking the twenty-four people within.
What had actually happened was this: Clegg had hot-wired the EWSS to go of exactly 34 minutes and twelve seconds after they had left the room. They then left the compound and began to set high explosives around the loose bits of rock, enough to cause a cave-in after the scientists had escaped. The plan went off without a hitch and soon there was nothing left of the facility or its inhabitants that could be recognised; everything was squashed flat. Of course, Six and his team had left by the time the explosions went off. As they flew off in their Falcon, the marines looked back at their handiwork in satisfaction, Six just stared, his face an impassive mask. As they returned to the ONI base, harper came out to greet them. Sherman was puzzled by the lack of protocol and let it show on his face.
"No time for pleasantries," explained Harper "we have to get you guys out there right now. You may keep the transport to provide aerial support. Now go!"
Six directed his pilot to head to the co-ordinates given through his HUD display. A few minutes later, they arrived at the edge of the massive canyon in which the city they were in before was located. As they approached, Six and the marines could see a battle raging in front of them. Plasma mortars rained over the human troops and Banshees ruled the skies. Six and his two Falcons started firing at the Banshees from the machine guns mounted on the sides. The Banshees were taken by surprise; they had not expected any more aerial resistance. In the confusion, three of them were taken down quickly. The rest scattered and were driven into the range of the Scorpion tanks were they were promptly shot down. Six and his marines fired upon the advancing Covenant forces, sending them back up against the edge of a ravine, near an outpost were the automatic defences added to the bullets that fell like hailstones of metal all around the Covenant troops. Soon, their numbers were reduced to a few Wraiths, as many Ghosts and Revenants that were skilled enough to avoid the onslaught, some Hunters and Jackals and whatever Banshees that escaped the first volley of gunfire Six's marines fired. The marines, ONI and the few Spartans the UNSC managed to round up to assist all proceeded to pick off all the ground forces while the Scorpions took out everything else.
"That wasn't so hard." remarked Clegg
"Not over yet, we still have more places to clear out, and they're all much more prepared than this one. They've already installed anti-aircraft batteries and are heavily guarded." came Harper's voice through the coms.
"I think we should regroup and count our wounded first sir." said Brandeis.
"OK then. Do what you will, just make sure you all get there before they manage to get any more ground."
Six directed the pilot to land and they met up with the rest of the survivors who were assigned to the same area as they were.
"So you're the one that's going to replace Tom. Somehow I expected you to be more talkive." commented a marine who walked up to Six. He shrugged in response and walked off to check his weapons in peace.