Author's Note: Finally reached chapter 10, and I hope you'll enjoy it! I just want to add as a small note to fatdude, I didn't steal your idea. ;-) I actually had up to chapter 25 written long before I put this story up on the site. Anyway, I'm now up to 32 chapters and getting closer to the beginning of the end. I hope everyone continues to R&R and have fun reading this!

Chapter Ten: The Moment We've All Been Waiting For

It's hard to fall asleep in a hole in the sand when you're hot, sweaty, dirty, and hungry, but somehow "tired" beats out everything else. Within minutes of getting back to my foxhole, I was out in some dimension between wide-awake and deep sleep. In combat, I'd learned to get enough rest while still being subconsciously aware of any noise around me that might be out of place.

I wasn't sure how long I'd been asleep when I first heard the crackle over my radio. It started out as a fuzzy sound invading my dreamless oblivion, just some background buzz. Images of long-extinct bees floated around my head for a while before I slowly became alert.

"Lieutenant Cooper, this is OP One," a voice said through my helmet. "We've got Covies on approach! Repeat, we have been compromised!"

I shook my head a bit to clear it out. Had I heard right?

"Corporal Simmons? This is Lieutenant Cooper. Repeat your message and give me a situation report," I said, sitting up in the foxhole and picking up my rifle.

"Covies headed towards the OP, Lieutenant, and in huge numbers. I think they've spotted us, and we can't take 'em all. Request back-up ASAP."

Shit, not now that we were almost out of here, I thought.

"Reinforcements on the way, Corporal. Hold your position until then. Does this attack look like they're heading for the lines?"

"Ma'am, there are tons of them, and they certainly don't need that many just to take out our observation post. This is the real deal."

"ETA to your position?"

"Minutes, El-Tee. We've got our machine gunner setting up now, but I'm not sure how long of a delay that'll cause."

"Standby."

I opened a platoon-wide channel.

"First platoon, this is Lieutenant Cooper. Listen carefully: OP is in danger of being overrun, and may be so by the time we get there. But we can't let the Covenant break through our lines, got it? We're going to move up to try to stop them at the post. We've gotta go rescue our Marines out there; I'll get second platoon to cover our six. Rally on me and let's go!"

Three minutes later, first platoon was surrounding me, ready to move out at my command, while second platoon was now positioned to cover us in case we weren't able to hold off the attack at the OP. This was it, what Willis had said to me on his message: Semper fi, do or die.

"First platoon, let's move it out," I said quietly into the platoon channel.

I kept my channel to the observation post open as I sprinted through the desert, my platoon members behind me. Of course, in case a bombardment began, the thirty of us were spaced out in the black of the night. But, now that we didn't have to worry about radio silence, and with all members having night-vision and area maps, there was no way to get lost.

Two minutes later we were scaling the desert rocks on the side of the OP, trying to get to the top where our four observers had been hidden. I was the first one starting up the jagged rocks, and I could hear the rattle of a machine gun and the occasional explosions as rocks melted when hit by boiling plasma.

It had been five minutes since the distress call sent by Corporal Simmons had reached me.

"Simmons, we're at the bottom of the rock formation. What's the situation?" I radioed, straining to hear the answer because the noise of the battle was getting louder and louder.

"Hurry…I'm trying to hold them off with the machine gun…everyone else is dead…Jesus, there's a lot of fucking blood, El-Tee…" the corporal responded.

The reply sent chills down my spine.

"First squad, on me! Second squad, get our six, and third squad, take one of our flanks," I ordered my platoon. To Simmons, I said, "Don't worry, Corporal, we've gotcha now."

A few seconds later, I reached the top of the rocks, along with Beesner and first squad. The air was hot with plasma and gunfire…the smell of the three torn-up Marines next to Simmons was suffocating.

"Am I glad to see you, Lieutenant!" Corporal Simmons shouted over the chaos. "I thought I was done for, just like my…my buddies. I've been gunning the aliens for a long time, but they just keep coming!"

"You still got ammo?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Then keep firing. You've got back-up now," I said. I switched channels. "First squad, let's get another gun set up a few yards away. Start rolling in the ordnance, too."

I ducked between the rocks and had Beesner follow me closer to the attacking alien horde. I unhooked two frag grenades from my belt and stuck one glowing blue plasma grenade to them. I counted two seconds, with my heart pounding in my ears, until I let the triple-threat loose on the oncoming group of Covenant.

"Get down!" I yelled at Beesner, who flattened himself behind a large rock. I held my helmet and waited as the heat wave from the explosion passed over us; debris rained and pinged off my helmet and armor plates. The battle was just getting underway.

"Yeah! That'll show 'em, El-Tee!" someone cried on the radio. I was too busy thinking of what to do next to read the ID on my helmet's screen.

"Third squad, flank 'em!" I bellowed into the COM channel, trying to keep the momentum going for our side. "Hit 'em with grenades, rifle fire, and machine gun them! Second squad! Cover our other flank!"

I'd realized now that since we were the forward line, there was no use covering the back if the Covies had easy access to our side; I decided it was best to keep all three squads on the main line of resistance.

Despite our efforts, the battle was quickly going in the aliens' favor. All three squads attacked from two sides and the front, giving it everything we had; it seemed, however, that the more Covenant we killed, the more would climb up the rocks and keep the attack going.

I was firing off my battle rifle so fast the barrel was beginning to heat up my hands, even through my gloves. I turned my scope to an Elite leading a group of assorted aliens up the jagged rocks, and I fired off two three-round bursts. The alien's torso was ripped open by my shredder rounds, splashing purple blood on his comrades as he fell backward. Still, the enemy kept coming.

Meanwhile, reports were coming over the radio about the wounded. Doc Reynolds, who was originally behind with second squad, had moved up with the team. He was busy juggling several patients, with more coming in every so often.

Finally, just as we were starting to run out of ammo and grenades, the Covenant attack seemed to be letting up. Our combined counterattack, coming from three sides, had greatly diminished their numbers; the waves were slowly getting smaller and smaller.

"Snipers, you're clear to pick them off," I radioed, allowing the sharpshooters to do the rest of the work. Machine guns were getting silent now, with only occasional burps, and no more explosions echoed through the night.

It seemed to be all over until I saw something whoosh at me.

The explosive needles missed me by mere millimeters, slicing through my combat trousers when they sped past my thigh. At first I was too busy staring down at my grazed leg to notice the end of the needles' path.

Piercing screams tend to remedy any problem with attention spans…especially when they come from right behind you.

"Lieutenant, the Covies are on the run! We beat 'em!" Corporal Simmons said over the COM channel, but my eyes were frozen to the scene that greeted me when I turned around.

I stared for a heartbeat before shrieking, "Medic!" at the top of my lungs.

Beesner's blood was spurting, bright red, from his right thigh.

I jumped on the young private's leg, immediately clamping both hands down over the wound. When I saw the leg from this close, blood spattering on my helmet and uniform, I nearly gagged.

The four needles that had only cut through my battledress had lodged themselves into Private Beesner's thigh, and exploded inside seconds later. The flesh on the private's wounded leg was torn and mangled, and the femur utterly shattered; splinters of bone and what looked like ground meat replaced his thigh.

"Bee, you with me?" I asked when I could speak again. I could feel the blood drain from my face, and I hoped I didn't look too shocked and worried to the private.

"Yeah, what happened?" Beesner asked weakly. He started propping himself up on his elbows and managed to see the wound before I could stop him. "Oh, God!" he yelled. "My leg!"

I pressed harder onto his thigh. Blood was seeping through my gloved fingers; I couldn't keep this up much longer. "It's ok, Bee. Don't freak out, I gotcha."

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw a helmeted figure marked PO2 REYNOLDS with a red cross symbol on my helmet's display. Help had finally arrived, and not a moment too soon.

"Doc, can you do something about this?" I asked him, realizing too late the look of panic on Beesner's face at my question.

Reynolds shot me a look for my outburst and said, "Keep pressure on the leg till I tell you to let go, El-Tee." The medic then crouched beside me and put his hands over mine.

"Got it?" I said.

"You can let go."

"My leg! Oh, God, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die---" Beesner shouted.

I ripped off my bloody gloves and helmet; the visor had so much blood on it I could no longer see. I knelt beside Beesner's head and grabbed his hand with my bare one. "We've got you, Bee, just hang on. You're not gonna die here, kid. Not on my watch."

The young private looked at me with an expression that read the most fear I'd ever seen on a person's face. Still, he nodded, reassured by my comment. I wasn't nearly as confident on the inside as I was on the outside, though.

As Doc Reynolds worked on the wound, Beesner was getting increasingly pale. His breathing was rapid and shallow; I didn't want to admit it to myself, but I knew he was dying.

"The femoral artery's cut," Petty Officer Reynolds said. "He's lost a load of blood, Lieutenant."

"I don't wanna die. I want to see my family. Mom! Where's my mom?"

Christ, he doesn't remember they're all dead, I thought. Doc gave me a look that said this was going downhill fast.

"Beesner? Hey, look at me!" I cried, willing him to turn his head. And, at the sound of my voice, he did. He looked me right in the eyes, pleading for his life.

"Lieutenant…" he started to say.

I squeezed his hand tighter, trying hard to keep my voice steady. "Listen to me, Beesner. You will not die, understood?"

Reynolds was hard at work, but by now he realized it was a lost cause. Beesner was not going to live.

"Tell him, Doc. Tell him he's gonna make it." Even as I said it, I could feel Beesner loosening his grip on my hand. He was paler than ever, and his breathing was slow and weak. As the young private breathed his last, I turned and glared at Reynolds. "Tell him!"

Doc Reynolds quit working on the leg and pressed a bloody hand to Private Beesner's neck. For some reason I still held out hope that he'd find a pulse, however weak, and revive my aide…and friend. Doc looked at me and shook his head.

"The kid's a goner, ma'am."

This time I was the one who gave Doc the pleading stare. We looked into each other's eyes for a moment before I felt rage build up inside me. I always felt anger before I felt grief.

I stood, stared down at all of Beesner's blood on me, and shouted, "Fuck!" I kicked my helmet and without thinking, grabbed my rifle with one hand and started running down the rocks. I was going to take on the entire Covenant army that was left; they had taken the last life from me.

"Lieutenant!" Doc Reynolds called after me, and I soon heard him scrambling down the rocks. I wasn't sure what the rest of the platoon was doing, but right now I didn't care. I was fueled by a deep hatred for the alien bastards that decided the lives of my father and my older sister Jenna and other comrades and buddies weren't enough; Beesner had to go, too. The promising young kid I had only met a few days ago, who had become a good friend, was now just another corpse.

I gritted my teeth when I made it to the bottom of the rocky formation, gripping my rifle tighter and intent on exacting revenge, all alone.

That is, until Reynolds' arms closed around my ankles and sent me crashing into the sand. I tried to get back up, but the six-foot, hundred sixty-five-pound medic had my feet firmly on the ground. I attempted to kick him but only managed to roll onto my back in the process, making it easier for Reynolds to keep me down. We wrestled for a while till he had me pinned.

"Get off me!" I yelled.

"No! Not so you can screw everything up by attacking the Covenant alone and getting killed!" the medic spat back.

"I swear to God, Reynolds, if you don't get the fuck off---!"

"Do you want join the kid? Leave your men without a leader? Again?"

I stopped struggling then, stunned by what he'd said. "Let me up. Right. Now."

He looked into my eyes for the second time, our faces nearly touching. I was so mad at him I could have pulled my combat knife on him, if only to scare him a bit.

Finally, the medic released me. He stood and extended his hand to help me to my feet, but I got up on my own. I brushed the sand from my uniform without success; Beesner's blood made some of the sand stick. I glared at Reynolds.

"I'll have you court-martialed for this," I said, and walked away.

The tears welling up in my eyes were hard to contain.