Okay, here we go, chapter 14! I'll be honest I never thought it'd be this well received, I mean don't wrong I still have haters but the majority of you like it well enough so far so...
Anyway, I've been going over my earlier work and I really need sort that rubbish out. At some point in the near future I will be editing everything and re posting it as a new story, but only when I've gone over everything.
I noticed a fair few of you want the combat over with so I will be incorporating the diplomacy part of it along side the combat, this is because I don't want to rush the Shanxi part too much, it's nearly over now anyway.
I don't own anything
Orbit of UNSC Colony World Shanxi, Shanxi-Theta System, UNSC Infinity, September 28, 2587
Admiral Lasky had seen a great deal of war, from Corbulo to Requiem and to here, Shanxi. He was no stranger to war. Most of the bridge crew of the Infinity had never seen a real battle before today, sure they'd been engaged with a couple of Rebel and Remnant ships but they hadn't seen the battles fought during the war, dozens of ships would go head to head in brutal engagements, each side trying to wipe the other out. Only the UNSC didn't have shields back then, nor did they have the powerful weapons of today. None of them had seen a planet glassed. They didn't know peace either; they didn't know what it was like before the Covenant, before the Insurrection, even he didn't know what life was like back then. He could barely remember, he didn't want to remember. Casualty reports were coming constantly, the number of dead was steadily getting bigger. Of course, if they were fighting the Covenant the casualty rate would have been over double what it was, but that didn't mean the Batarian's weren't playing fair either. They were strapping bombs on slaves and throwing them at allied lines and using stolen nuclear devices against UNSC forces. They'd lost fire-team Zuma to that attack. Lasky clenched his jaw at the thought, good men and women had been killed just to bomb the damned tether. Thankfully the 'war' would be over before the day was out.
"Sir, the UNSC Hopeful has just entered the system and is requesting permission to start picking up the wounded." Roland said from the holo-table in front of him.
"Granted, tell General Strauss to send up the wounded." Lasky replied, he was watching the holographic representation of the Hopeful moved into position near the Infinity. It was surrounded by her usual escort of a dozen Destroyers and two Marathon-II Cruisers.
"Aye, Aye, it seems the illustrious Commander Walters has been located, he's still alive." Roland said.
"You sound disappointed Roland." Lasky said, looking up at the yellow hologram with an unreadable expression on his face.
"Well, after a stunt like that, I don't think..."
"He saved everyone on that planet and gave the fleet time to take out that ship, he also thought of looking for the blue shift of incoming Batarian ships before you did." Lasky replied, cutting the A.I off mid sentence.
"Yes but-" Roland started.
"But nothing Roland. I'll be damned if he's hung for being a hero. Drop it Roland." Lasky finished, the conversation was final.
"Aye Captain. Huh... it appears that General Oraka wants to know what the Hopeful is doing here."
"Tell him." Lasky replied, not his gaze went back to the display of ships and debris that littered the system. He stood up straight, ran his hands over his uniform to remove any creases and moved to the Command elevator at the back of the bridge. "Roland. Get Crimson ready, they're going hunting." he called over his shoulder.
UNSC Colony World Shanxi, Shanxi-Theta System, Fire Base Epsilon, 1621 hours, September 28, 2587
The low whistling sound woke her up before the shout, seconds later an explosion rocked the ground. Moving as fast as possible Coulson ran out the barracks and moved to the makeshift armoury, thankfully she didn't need to bother with her armour. Sleeping in it had it's benefits. She grabbed her MA5E and moved out, she looked round, more explosions rattled the base. Peopled were shouting over the explosions and gunfire, there! She saw a distinctly alien shape move across the base towards the front.
"Victus!" she called out, the alien slowed and turned to face Coulson, it was Vakarian, his alien rifle held tight in his hands.
"Coulson!" he called back, she ran up to him, dirt and shrapnel bouncing off her armour as more artillery fired down on the base. Together they ran for the outer perimeter; a series of Titanium ceramic plating and sandbags, along with 12 meter tall watchtowers. One of them was nothing but four metal supports, still smouldering from the explosive. Explosions rattled off in the distance as the bases own artillery returned fire. A young marine, no older than 19, straight out of boot camp was wondering in circles, his right arm had been blown off and he was going round trying to find it, not even realising what had actually happened to him. Becky shook her head, the poor kid would more than likely die before the battle was over. Vakarian nearly stopped at the sight but Becky grabbed him and forced him to keep going, there was nothing either of them could do to help.
The outer perimeter was surrounded by a series of trenches and bunkers made from fast drying instacrete. M247H Heavy Machine Gun's and M736 Light Machine Guns providing cover fire and mowing down any batarian that moved out of cover and got too close. Two large vehicle rolled up the road, they had six large wheels and retained the same blocky shape the rest of their vehicles had. A single turret rested on top of the chassis, Becky and Vakarian jumped in the closest trench as the leading vehicle turned to face them, moments later the ground erupted where they had been stood, the fountain of mud and dirt rained down like thick dirty rain on top of them. The mud matted down Becky's hair, making it cling to her face and ran down into her eye's.
"Train, Felix? Victus? Where are you?" She called into the Comm, for a few moments all she could hear was the beating of her own heart and the static that filled her Comm unit.
"Sarge? It's Felix, I'm in one of the watchtowers overlooking everything, Train's with Victus and Captain Dixon, and the other Turian guy! I'm marking their location now!" Felix's voice crackled over the Comm. A small blue triangle popped up on the HUD being projected onto her iris'. She heard the crack of multiple S5's as she and Vakarian started moving through the trenches, gunfire and artillery fire landing all around them, bodies of those that had died still littered the dug-out's, arms and legs were embedded in the mud walls, a puddle of water three inches deep had collected at the bottom, the rainfall had deposited so much that the run-off's had blocked up- trapping the water inside the trenches. A HMG opened fire on one of the bunkers and almost instantly the titanium flaps snapped closed and than covered in jagged holes as the armour piercing round tore through them.
Becky led the way through the maze of trenches, it was only two dozen meters from the back to the front but they were dug in such a way that made the run nearly twice as long. And nearly cost them their lives as an artillery shell landed ahead of them, the blast threw her backwards and on top of Vakarian, who threw out a multitude of curses the translators didn't pick up. Shrapnel and small pebbles clattered against her armour and cut up her already damaged face.
"I'm really gonna have to get a new helmet." she mumbled to her self as she stood up, offering a hand to Vakarian, who took it.
"Train? Captain Dixon? It's Coulson, I'm on my way!" she called through her Comm, hoping they'd hear her. They had to back track and go around the collapsed section. Not an easy thing to do when there are people running every which way trying to get to their teams and resupply the front lines. After pushing their way through the half a Company they reached the front trench, a step was set up on the outer edge to allow shooters to fire back at their enemy. More M736 LMG's were set up along with a few high-calibre GPMG's, tearing away at the incoming forces.
Captain Dixon and Train were huddled next each other with Adrien next to them, the other Turian whose name Becky hadn't bothered to remember lay nearby, bleeding out, bio-foam and a sterile field generator worked to keep him alive until they could help him properly.
"Coulson! Where the hell have you been?" Dixon shouted as she saw her approach.
"Running that gauntlet you call trenches, what the hell's happening?" Becky questioned.
"Hegemony are launching a massive counter-strike for the city, but they've got to get through us first! The Intrepid is en route to provide aerial support, ETA is five Mikes. Broadswords are inbound as well, ETA for them is two! Spartans are also en route but we don't know how long." Dixon replied.
"A Frigate? How much trouble we expecting?"
"Enough to overwhelm us in the next five minutes!" Dixon snapped. Her grip tightened on her rifle before she let out a deep sigh, "Look we need to hold the line here, if we don't than nothing short of an orbital bombardment will stop them before they reach the city, once that happens it'll be a massacre. The Challenger's are 'bout to roll on up so keep your head down." The Captain said after calming her nerves a bit. Becky nodded and grabbed the rest of her squad, barring Felix, and moved further down the line, towards a patch of ground where the edge of the forest was only thirteen feet away, and contained some of the heaviest fighting.
UNSC Protectorate world New Babylon (Zion), Deliverance System, November 11, 2587
Fal'Cai stood on the observation deck of the UNSC Orbital Installation Eden, high above his peoples Home world. Today a UNSC Corvette would be taking him along with his aides to a station the Ambassador had referred to as Trevelyan and from there they would be moving onto the political talks. The door behind him opened with a near silent swish and his two personal guards came to attention, the clicks and snaps of their armour was almost like music to his ears, he could never get enough of it. Sudden memories from his own time as Enforcer raced through his mind for a brief second before he turned to face the new comer, it was Ambassador Chance.
"Ambassador." Fal greeted with a low bow. The Ambassador returned it.
"Fal'Cai." the Ambassador replied, Chance moved next to Fal by the view port, outside was a beautiful view of space, the darkness dotted with the living stars themselves and the two closest moons to Zion. The running light from multiple ships as they moved between the moons and Zion or off on to the UNSC shipping lane before they vanished into almost magical realm of Slip-Space.
"The UNSC Bite Me will be arriving in-system soon, we go as soon as we're on-board. Once we get to Trevelyan you'll be introduced to the other representatives that'll be present at the talks." Ambassador Chance informed him.
"I see, thank you Ambassador Chance."
"Fal, we've known each other for years. Please, call me Erwin." the Ambassador said with a slight chuckle.
"It would be my honour, Erwin." Fal replied with a small smile on his face despite the awkward word in his mouth. The last time Fal had left his Home world was to travel to Earth for Lord Hoods funeral, he had thought the installations around Zion were incredible but the orbital stations at Earth had been... unbelievable, and the cities, they were huge! Thousands of kilometres of metal and concrete and glass where tens of millions lived maglev trains, six orbital elevators, each one with a further five or six tethers attached to it, all leading to different orbital stations. It was magnificent.
After half an hour the profile of a UNSC Corvette slunk into view, its gun turrets were powered down and it slowed down to dock with the station. The Ambassador led the way through the station and to the airlock that the Corvette was docked at. Fal'Cai was led to the Officers Club as it was called, a dark room that was dominated by a large wooden table, a bar was set up on one wall which was covered in a rainbow collection of alcoholic drinks. The journey was only going to be a few hours long, as they had to stop by a couple of other worlds as well, either to drop of supplies to a human world or pick up another ambassador, he wasn't sure.
Several hours later the UNSC Corvette Bite Me shuddered slightly as it exited Slip-Space and the Ambassadors were escorted to the airlock where after waiting again for some time, the door opened and they were led through a UNSC Dry-dock, and onto a landing pad near the top of the installation. What he saw caused Fal, his aides and the other ambassadors to stop dead in their tracks. The natural curve of the planet... wasn't. Instead it carried on going, and going and going until it was out of his view. But the circular curve was wrong, upside down, instead the ground rose up and wrapped around the star. Almost unnoticed by the group a UNSC Four star Admiral walked up to meet them.
"Welcome to Trevelyan Ambassadors, I hope your journey was a pleasant one." the Admiral greeted, everyone's attention turned to him. He seemed a lot friendlier than most human Admirals, veterans from a war they refused to talk about.
"Admiral Sullivan, I was quite surprised that we are departing from here, I would have thought it would be from Eridnus or even Sol, but here? I assume there's a good reason for it." Ambassador Chance greeted the Admiral, they shook hands as part of their greeting.
"There is, she's just one short trip away." Admiral Sullivan said joyfully, he rubbed his hands together and had an excited smile on his face.
UNSC Colony World Shanxi, Shanxi-Theta System, Fire Base Epsilon, 1624 hours, September 28, 2587
"KROGAN!" the warning from Victus came too late, the large nine hundred pound armoured alien jumped inside the trench, wielding a weapon with a barrel large enough for a 40mm grenade to be fired from it. It landed on a marine whose ribs and chest were crushed under its feet and his organs were turned into a pink and red mush between the aliens toe's. As Becky and the other marines turned to face the intruder it lifted one of its large feet and brought it down on the dead marines face, and crushed it, turning it into another small pile of mush in the blood soaked mud. The Krogan as Adrien called it, lifted the large weapon in its hands and fired. An ODST was torn in half as the powerful armour piercing round shredded the ODST.
"Shit!" Becky exclaimed, she opened fire on the alien, only for the rounds to stop dead in there tracks as a blue shield popped up. She cursed as they held, even as twelve men fired unceasingly at it. The alien reloaded it's gun and fired again, this time at a marine just in front of Becky. The soldier was crouched to allow other troops to fire over him, the blast turned his head and shoulders into a mist of red gore and brain matter. The round still had enough force to knock Becky back and double over as it impacted her stomach. Some of the metal shards pierced her armour and sliced through her under-suit.
"SARGE!" Train called out, the alien stomped towards her, his shields fell from the combined fire but still it moved, barely noticing the bullets striking it. Before it could reach her a flash of black and blue smacked into it, Train had hit it with enough force to stop it and cause it to stager but that was it. Focussing on Train who pulled out his combat knife, and jumped on top of the alien, keeping it focussed on him. The Krogan roared and thrashed about to dislodge the ODST who was hanging to the hump on its back and was stabbing wildly at the aliens head. It managed to get a hold on Train's shoulder pad, and yanked him round so they were face to face. The alien let out a small chuckle, raised its gun to Trains centre of mass. Train punched down on the aliens crested head with all his might, and managed to wedge his knife between two of the aliens crest plates. It almost looked frighted for a second before it let out another roar and fired. The point blank shot didn't blast him apart but tore a messy hole straight through him and launched him backwards into the soldiers waiting to get a clear shot on the alien. The force of the round had thrown Train across the trench but he had still held his knife with a death grip and had taken the alien crest with him.
The alien howled with pain and anger, the force of the roaring shook the ground slightly. With the armoured head plate gone the marines didn't hesitate to fire at its unprotected skull. It fell into the mud and slumped down over one of the marines it had killed, its face torn apart and its back had more holes than the metal grid beneath it. Orange blood oozing from the wounds and onto the trench floor. The muddy water was now a mixture of red, orange and brown as it sloshed around beneath the walking platforms in the trench. It was than that Becky realised that the ground was still shaking, and as she faded from consciousness as she continued to bleed out, she saw the five and a half hundred meter long Frigate high up in the sky, its deck gun orientated to fire down at the forest where who knew how many aliens were, still moving forward, and being blasted apart by the Frigate. She heard someone call for a medic, it sounded like Victus. It was nice to know that not all aliens were as bad as the history vids proclaimed, she thought to herself before everything went black.
Orbit above UNSC Colony World Shanxi, Shanxi-Theta System, UNSC Orbital Installation Crown, September 28
Fire team Leader Michael Fletcher hated Zero-G, he absolutely hated it. Too many things could go terribly wrong and he could end up dyeing as he floated aimlessly through space with little to no hope of rescue. He should be safe enough now that he and the rest of Crimson had made contact with the outer hull of the Crown but he would feel better once they were inside. Moving along the outside of the station they moved towards an empty airlock, from there, they'd breach and the rest of the mission would be a cake walk. At least a small part of him hoped it would, he didn't want to end up like Zuma, especially after all Crimson went through on Requiem. It would be really shit to be killed by some four eyed psychopath with a god complex. Arriving t the airlock the teams demo expert placed a small directional det-pack on the door. They moved to make sure they weren't thrown into space by the blast and Michael watched as Mira held up three fingers, than two, than one. Just before the charge detonated she let out a small quip.
"Knock, knock."