Five days later
October 1st 2551
For the past five days, Moe had rarely talked to his friends after the incident with the camcorder. They had tried to apologize to him but he was not having any of it. He, though, did feel a bit guilty of shunning them when they tried to apologize to him but then again they did take something that was his and new and broke it so they could not just think he would shake their hands and everything would be alright with them. He would eventually get over it, but for now he just did not want to accept their apologies.
Today, however, he was thinking of making up with them because he and his friends were in a pelican that was heading towards the city of Sukuki, along with tens of other pelicans. Some carrying warthogs and mongooses, others carrying heavy weapons pods attached to the back of the ship just in front of the entrance to the craft.
Sukuki, as explained before, had been under siege by the Covenant for about a month now. Though most of It's population had managed to escape, there were several hundred still trapped throughout the city. The UNSC was doing everything it could to rescue them and get them to safety whilst trying to drive back the Covenant, but both were proving hard, the second almost hopeless. The Covenant were just unstoppable and no matter what the UNSC was doing to fight them, it was defeated everywhere. Already, large swathes of Takra had been glassed or taken by the Covenant and now with Sukuki under threat of falling to the Covenant, a large portion of Takra, including the main defence to Rodum, the largest city on Takra, would fall. It was just hopeless now. Humanity had no chance of winning back Takra. They could only hope to hold back the Covenant long enough for the civilian population to escape to their home system.
As the pelicans flew off the fields and over the first few suburbs of Sukuki, Moe, who was in one of the pelicans at the front of the large formation, looked down at them. Though they were almost a thousand feet in the air, he could just make out the many warthogs and civilian vehicles moving away from the city and onto the main roads that led out of Sukuki, into the surrounding lands. Everyone left was content with getting out. By the looks of it, they had managed to rescue almost everyone left, but there were probably still more left in the city and they needed to be rescued.
The cog pit door opened and the co-pilot stuck his head out. "Get ready, men. We're entering the hot zone,"
The men reached under their seats and took out their weapons. Moe's was a battle rifle and he reached into his pocket and loaded a clip into it. Next to him was Alan. He had a SR S99C sniper rifle in his hand and he loaded a clip into it. Alan looked at Moe to try and see reason with him but his friend just looked away, obviously still not wanting anything to do with trying to make up with him.
As the pelicans flew further on, the scene below them began to change. Rather than suburbs with parks and small houses and corner shops, the marine began to see devastation. Several buildings were on fire whilst others were completely destroyed. Then, far on ahead of them, the city skyscrapers came into view. Most of them were burning and there was a large cloud of black smoke that seemed to cover the entire sky as if it were a wall of darkness descending over them. Then, large shapes were visible over, in or below the clouds of smoke. Covenant ships, mainly CCS battle cruisers with about two assault carriers. Every now and then, one of the Covenant ships would fire a purple laser down onto the city, creating an explosion that would engulf an entire building(s) and bring untold death and destruction to whoever was within them.
"Jesus Christ," the pilot of Moe's pelican gasped, which the marines heard from the resting area. "It's like the end of the world."
It is, in a way Moe mentally replied to the pilot's words.
"All pelicans, break formation immediately. We have reports of Covenant aircraft and AA defences in the city. Make your way to the LZ's as quickly as you can and stay low!" a voice ordered from the radio in the cog pit.
At once, Moe was almost launched into the wall behind him as the pelican veered right. Looking out of the pelican's entrance, he saw other pelicans either bank right, following his pelican, left or fly onwards or descend, disappearing into the mass of buildings below.
Then, a large wave of craft swept out from the right, the direction of the city centre from Moe's point of view, appeared all of a sudden and fired on a few pelicans that had decided to fly onwards. Covenant banshees. Moe and the marines in the resting area with him watched as one of the pelicans was hit and rolled over as it fell towards the ground, a tail of fire coming out of It's right wing from where a barrage of blasts from the banshee had struck it. Another pelican was struck by an ion blast from another banshee. The craft exploded in a fireball and broke in two, the remains falling down towards the ground far below.
"My God," Michael, who was sitting across from Alan, whispered, though it was loud enough for the others in the resting area to hear him, as he watched the remains of the pelican disappear behind a small skyscraper. "We got away just in time,"
"Get ready back there!" the co-pilot ordered. "We're about to descend!"
The marines checked their weapons and stood up, holding onto the side of the resting area entrance walls or the small pens, just above them, for weapons and ammunition. They felt the pelican descend watched as the cityscape buildings seemed to grow. However, as the pelican descended closer to the ground, the marines could hear explosions and, though only just, the sounds of mechanical whirring and the sounds of something going off as if something was being fired continuously.
Then, the craft stopped all of sudden, which almost threw the marines off their balance, and began to descend. The marines watched as the landing gear either side of the pelican entrance unfolded themselves and touched down on the metal platform of the LZ, bringing the craft to a halt.
"Everyone out, go, go, go!" the pilot ordered.
The marines jumped out onto the ground, Jerry and Isaac coming off last. Moe gazed at the sights around him and went wide-eyed. What he was seeing was beyond belief.
Many of the surrounding skyscrapers were burning, some of the fires stretching from the middle all the way to the top. Other nearby buildings were completely destroyed. Explosions filled the sky and every few seconds, as he looked up at the sky, a smoking vehicle, a Covenant seraph fighter, banshee or drop ship or a UNSC long sword fighter, hornet fighter or pelican, fell out of the sky, either into a another building, which would only spread the fire, or they would fall between them to the ground far below.
"This way!" a voice behind the squad shouted and Moe looked over his shoulder to see a marine sergeant order them to follow him across this walkway towards a small office-like stone building about three hundred feet away.
Moe joined the marines as they ran across the walkway towards the building, looking down over the side to see the ground about two hundred and fifty feet below, but what was on it he could not tell as there was smoke rising from the base of many buildings as well as destroyed vehicles, both Human and Covenant, though he could see green, blue and red lights illuminate the cloud of smoke below it, indicating there was heavy fighting going on below it.
The squad reached the building and were led through a side entrance into a large square shaped room which would have been an officer room but the usual cubicles, computers and tables and chairs were gone, all having been thrown out to make room for the marines to set up a command post. There were a few tables left, but they were no longer holding computers or papers for officer workers in meetings. Now they were holding UNSC army equipment such as radios, weapons and ammunition and even wounded soldiers. Scattered around the room were several other soldiers, some talking into radios, others giving orders to other marines. One marine was standing over the door on the walkway side, keeping an eye out for any Covenant craft that might try and land here. On the wall opposite the doorway that led into the room from the pathway was an open doorway that led into a stairwell.
The sergeant led the marines over to the stairwell.
"Head downstairs to the next floor," he told them, pointing down the stairs. "Commander Gofer'll meet you there,"
The sergeant ran back into the room. The squad ran down the stairs to the landing at the bottom and then turned and ran down the next flight of stairs to the next landing where another open doorway on the left wall was. The squad ran through the doorway into another large square shaped room with a large table that had been overturned and put against the wall the doorway was on. On the opposite wall were several large windows, each separated by a panel that came down from the ceiling to the floor. Most of them were smashed open and there were marines standing at them, some with sniper rifles, and others with binoculars. A few other marines and officers and sergeants were scattered around the room. One sergeant who was standing over at a doorway on the right wall of the room looked over at the squad.
"You lot, over here!" he ordered.
The squad obeyed and ran over to the sergeant. Moe took in the sergeant's form as they reached him. He was quite short, around about his height or maybe about an inch or two shorter, with black hair, green eyes and had muscles that were visible through his uniform. Across his chest was the name 'Gofer', hence letting the squad know they had found their sergeant, and their commander.
"You guys the squad I've been given to command?" he asked and before any of them could reply, he said "Good, now follow me,"
The sergeant turned and ran out of the doorway. The squad looked at each other and followed. The sergeant led them down another few flight of stairs, every two passing another floor, until they finally reached the ground floor, where the doorway was on the right wall and it led outside into a war torn street where the sounds of battle were flooding into their ears like water flowing in a river. Gofer took out a M6C pistol from his pocket and loaded a clip into it.
"Get ready," he told them. "We're in for a tough fight,"
The men raised their weapon and Gofer ran out ahead of them into the street.
It was chaos that greeted them as soon as they left the building. The street was long and had many small side streets going off from the left and right. Most buildings along the bottom were small shops of officer buildings, but there were a few entrances that led into the tall skyscrapers that stuck out in the city. Now, however, most of these were on fire and the street was littered with rubble from the surrounding buildings and destroyed ground and air vehicles, both Covenant and UNSC, as well as many bodies of fallen soldiers, again both Covenant and UNSC, and civilians, which were scattered all around them. Blasts were shooting down the street from one direction and rockets and bullets would reply from the other.
Gofer looked left and saw a scorpion tank positioned in the middle of the street. A marine was kneeling down on the side of it next to the section that held the main cannon, firing down the street. Next to the scorpion tank were the remains of two machine gun warthogs, both of which were burning, and standing behind and next to them were more marines, firing down the street. Gofer then looked right and saw a Covenant shade turret, a large sphere shaped section with three huge legs sticking out of the bottom of it in a triangle formation with a seat hovering above it with three large metal thorn-like bits sticking out of the front, A Grunt sitting in the turret, firing down the street. Alongside it were several Covenant Jackals and Elites firing down the street, the Jackals hiding behind their shields and moving them down to their sides to fire down the street at their Human enemies every now and then and the Elites, some standing in full view of the Humans, others hiding behind the remains of destroyed vehicles and firing at the Humans with the plasma rifles.
"This way, we'll charge 'em!" Gofer said.
"What?" Michael half-shouted in surprise, obviously shocked, but he was not the only one as the rest of the squad were shocked to know they were going to charge headfirst into the Covenant forces. Gofer, who had taken a step forward to charge out towards the Covenant, stopped in his tracks.
"Don't 'what' me. Come on!" he shouted at them and, with that, he ran out into the street towards the Covenant, firing away with his pistol at the Covenant. Moe sighed and ran after him. The others did the same.
As soon as they were in the street, they were met with disaster. A blast from the shade turret struck one of the marines in the face, killing him. Another blast from a Jackal only just missed Moe's head and struck a burning ghost behind him. Moe raised his battle rifle and fired a burst of ammo at the Covenant soldiers, hitting a Jackal that had moved It's shield to It's side to fire on them. The creature screeched loudly and fell backwards onto the ground, dead. The rest of the squad open fired on the Covenant as well, Michel and Alan's bullets hitting and killing an Elite, but they were quickly forced to take cover behind anything nearby.
Moe dived forward behind the burning remains of a mongoose that was behind the crushed remains of a car. However, he saw he was not alone. Next to him was Gofer, breathing heavily and wide-eyed as if he was in shock. At once, anger filled Moe and he grabbed Gofer by the chest and pulled him towards him.
"What the Hell were you thinking?" he shouted at him. "Are you even experienced in combat?"
"Of course I am, you idiot!" Gofer replied, pushing Moe off him, which was a hard push, coming only from his strength. "I've been in the UNSC for two years!"
Well, you're not a good commander, are you! Moe thought. Charging a Covenant position is suicide! You should know that, you idiot!"
BOOM! An explosion threw a large chunk of another vehicle, a few metres away on the other side of the mongoose, over their heads to the ground next to them. Michael, who was hiding behind part of the remains of a warthog, stood up and fired a burst of ammo that flew over their heads. A loud roar erupted behind the mongoose and two light blue blasts flew over their heads, both hitting Michael in the face.
"MICHAEL!" Moe yelled.
He got up, not caring that he was in the line of fire of the Covenant forces, ran over to his friend, who fell down to the ground, and knelt down beside him. He put two fingers on Michael's pulse and gasped quietly. No. H-he was dead!
A hand grabbed Moe and pulled him behind the warthog remains. Moe looked up and saw it was Alan.
"I can't believe him," Moe said to Alan, obviously referring to Gofer. "He doesn't even know how to lead us!"
Alan did not reply, but Moe could tell he was angry as he was glaring at Gofer, and stood up and fired a shot from his sniper rifle at the Covenant forces. A yell erupted from them and Moe looked to see the Grunt fall out of the turret onto the ground. Gofer was occasionally firing shots out from behind the mongoose at them, all of which were nowhere near hitting their target.
Suddenly…
BOOM! Another explosion, though this one was more powerful, erupted above them. The Covenant and the squad looked up to see a large portion of rubble from a nearby skyscraper falling…directly towards them!
Without bothering to tell his men to run, Gofer got up and ran towards the UNSC positions behind them. The squad followed him. The Covenant roared and screeched and fled as well, all of them trying to get away from the rubble as quickly as they could.
CRASH! The rubble slammed into the ground with such force that a large hole was made in the street and some members of the squad even fell over as they ran from the shockwaves caused by the crash. A cloud of dust sprang out in all directions from the rubble, covering much of the street and making visibility near impossible.
Moe, who had been in the middle of the street, in line with the doorway they had exited the officer building from, and had fallen onto the ground when the rubble fell, got up and brushed the dust off him, grimacing a little. He was going to need a Hell of a shower when he got back to the base, but enough of that now. He had to make sure everyone else was alright.
"Everyone alright?" he shouted through the dust cloud.
"Yeah," came a marine's voice.
"I'm okay," came Alan's voice.
Moe walked forward, trying to find the source of the voices. He could still hear the sounds of the battle raging throughout the city and he could hear other voices nearby shouting. He just had to find them and they could regroup.
Finally, the dust cloud began to clear and Moe could easily make out his friends and comrades. They ran towards the Human positions at the end of the road, where they saw Gofer talking to another sergeant over what to do next.
"We've got word the Covenant is stepping up their advance here," the sergeant said to him, which the squad heard as they reached the Human positions. "High Command is ordering everyone to fall back to the next line of defence in the Kiva district."
"You go on, we'll hold the line here," Gofer told him, which shocked the sergeant a little. "Let 'em know who owns this place,"
"What are you talking about: holding the line?" Moe asked Gofer furiously. "You heard what he said, High Command wants everyone to fall back to the next defensive position!"
"Well, I will make sure that they do whilst we make a heroic stand," Gofer replied. He turned back to the sergeant. "You go on. Me and my men'll wait here for the Covenant,"
The sergeant paused for a second, staring at Gofer as if he too thought this idea of his was crazy, before he nodded and walked behind the remains of one of the warthogs and shouted an order. Moe walked up to Gofer.
"What the Hell are you thinking?" he asked. "You know we can't make a stand here,"
"Well, you haven't learned that some decisions like this might have worked," Gofer replied and he walked over to the remains of a nearby banshee and climbed on top of them and loaded another clip into his pistol.
Moe glared at him as he walked off. This sergeant was a suicidal maniac. He wanted them to make a stand, more like offer themselves as sacrifices to the Covenant! They were as good as dead if they stayed here and tried to make a stand.
"Alright, Gofer's men are going to hold this position!" the sergeant Gofer had been talking said. "This way," he ordered.
The sergeant and his men climbed onto the tank, one of his men climbing into the tank's driving seat and closing the hatch behind him, and reversed the tank back down the street, turned it around and drove forward to the end of the street, turning right at the end and disappearing from sight.
"Alright, take up positions," Gofer ordered. "We'll get ready for the Covenant advance. Make a stand here, men!"
Moe and Alan looked at each other and shook their heads in disbelief. Isaac and Jerry ran over to them.
"Hey, guys," Isaac said. "Where's Michael?" he asked.
At these words, Alan and Moe looked at each other. Moe then sighed and looked at Isaac and Jerry with a dead look on his face as if it would signal what had happened to Michael. It had worked for Isaac and Jerry looked down at the ground, now knowing their comrade had been killed.
"We'll mourn him later," Alan said to them. "Right now, we have to try and hold o-"
BOOM! BOOM! Two enormous explosions suddenly blew apart the wall of rubble where the Covenant forces had been a few minutes earlier. Another cloud of dust and smoke filled the air in front of it. Then, a barrage of blasts, light blue and green, and purple needler projectiles flew out of the smoke towards them. One of the marines, who had taken up position on top of a destroyed civilian car, was hit in the chest by three needler projectiles and fell backwards onto the ground, dead.
"GET BEHIND COVER!" Alan yelled as the squad dived for somewhere to hide as more blasts flew out towards them. One narrowly missed Moe's head as he dived behind one of the destroyed warthogs that had been next to the scorpion tank, with Isaac. Jerry and Alan hid behind the other warthog with another marine.
"Argh! Ah!" Isaac gasped.
Moe looked at his friend and saw blood trickling out from his side. He had been hit!
"Oh God!" Moe whispered in fear under his breath. He had already lost one friend, he was not going to lose another one.
"I'm gonna get you outta here, Isaac," he told him.
Isaac nodded and put a hand over the wound and pressed down to try and stop the flow of blood. Moe looked out from behind his cover over at the doorway that led into the office building. If he could get Isaac over there, he could save him. Problem was…he looked over at the pile of rubble and saw a group of five Elites with many more Grunts and Jackals among them, all firing away at them. That was a lot of Covenant and they could easily fire on him and kill him and Isaac. It was suicidal, but it was either that or Isaac would die.
Moe looked over at Alan and Jerry and shouted to them: "Guys, give me covering fire!" and they nodded and fired a barrage at the Covenant, forcing them to take cover. They managed to hit and kill four Grunts as well as a Jackal but were forced to stop when two of the Elites and three of the Jackals returned fire on them, but they were distracted. Now was Moe's chance.
Picking up Isaac around the back and under the legs, which he struggled to do as he was a little taller than him and therefore heavier than him but managed to hold his balance, he moved towards the end of the warthog remains, keeping low to avoid attracting any attention from the Covenant. He took one more look behind him to make sure Alan, Jerry and the marine they were with were firing on the Covenant. They were.
Moe took a deep breath and ran.
One of the Elites rose up from behind the destroyed vehicle and fired at the marines, his shot narrowly missing the head of one of them. Damn! Well, it was close, and the next shot he would hit the Human. However, as he went to duck down, he noticed something move out of the corner of his eye. He looked and saw it was a Human, and he was fleeing towards the doorway of a nearby building!
"Over there! Kill them!" the Elite roared, pointing at the Human.
Moe was just a few metres from the door, and the medical outpost inside the building that could save Isaac, or at least stop the wound from bleeding. He was almost there! Just a little furth-"
WHAM! Moe and Isaac were sent crashing to the ground, Isaac yelling out as he landed on his injured side. Groaning in pain, Moe looked up to see someone getting to his feet in front of him. His eyes went wide as soon as they saw him, both in shock and anger.
It was Gofer. He-he was running and…and leaving them!
He did not even bother to say sorry, or even pick up his pistol that he had dropped when he had run into Moe, that he had run into them, he just ran on into the building. A few blasts zoomed after him, indicating he had been spotted by the Covenant.
"Oh great!" Moe muttered frustratingly. "Thanks a lot, Gofer, you bastard!"
There was probably a lot of Covenant a group of Covenant coming over here after them and now, thanks to Gofer, Moe and Isaac were dead. Mow was going to have to hurry if he was to get Isaac out of here.
As he moved over to Isaac, a large figure ran onto the pavement about ten feet in front of them. An Elite! The creature growled and aimed It's weapon at them. Moe gasped and grabbed Gofer's pistol and, before the Elite could react, fired a barrage of bullets at the creature, lighting up It's shield before, eventually, breaking through it and embedding a last bullet in It's skull, killing the Elite.
"AAAAHHH!" a high pitched voice screamed. "LEADER DEAD! RUN AWAY!"
Moe smiled a little at his move. He had probably not got rid of the group of Covenant that were coming over here to kill him and Isaac, but he had at least bought them some time, though he would have to be quick.
Getting up, but staying crouched down, he picked up Isaac and ran into the building, just in time as well as another of the Elites had taken charge of the Grunts that had been with the other Elite before Moe had killed it and was now leading over to the building. Moe ran up the stairs, his feet pounding loudly on them. He had to hurry and get to the medics so they could treat Isaac, or he was dead.
After several minutes of frantic stair climbing, Moe reached the room they had met Gofer in, only to find it completely empty! What the…? Where were the marines and sergeants and soldiers that had been in here?
"Sir, all of my men were killed," a voice said from the stairwell through the doorway at the other end of the room. Gofer's voice!
"Alright, sergeant. Get on board the pelican. I'm gonna make sure we haven't left anything important in the next room," another voice replied.
A second later, an officer holding a pistol appeared in the doorway. He saw Moe and Isaac as soon as he entered.
"What the…?" was all he could say at first.
"Sir, you got to help my friend," Moe told him.
"I thought Gofer said you were dead," the officer said to Moe
"Well…he-he lied!" Isaac replied. "He…ran in here…to-save…himself!"
"Kill them!" a deep voice shouted from the stairwell behind Moe.
Moe panicked and ran towards the other stairwell with the officer. Just in time as the squad of Covenant had reached the room and were looking around to see if they could find those Humans they were looking for.
However, they quickly forgot about them when the Elite looked out of one of the smashed windows and saw the group of marines still holding out in the street below. As he reached the window, another marine was hit and killed by a blast to the face, leaving only four left. The Elite laughed. The squad of Humans were all easy targets now they were up here above them. They could pick them off easily.
"Line up along the window!" the Elite ordered to his Grunts and they did so. The Elite then raised his weapon slightly so it was pointing down at the squad of Humans below. The Grunts did the same. "Prepare to fire on them," the Elite said.
Moe saw this and began to panic. He turned to the officer.
"Alright, look, you take him upstairs and get him on the next pelican," Moe whispered to the officer and thrust Isaac into his arms before the officer could reply and took his pistol.
"What are you doing?" the officer asked him, whispering furiously.
"I'm gonna save my friends. They're still alive. Now go, quickly," Moe replied.
The officer went to reply but decided it was best not to argue and ran up the stairs as quietly as he could. Moe stepped into the doorway and aimed his pistol at the Elite and rested his finger on the weapon's trigger. He had to kill the Elite quickly or his friends and he were all as good as dead.
"On my mark," the Elite said to his squad of Grunts. "Three…two…on-AAAAHHHH!"
Suddenly, the Elite was thrown forward out of the window. His roars continued to fill the air for the next few seconds until they came to an abrupt halt alongside a loud thud. At seeing this, the Grunts turned to see their enemy standing in the doorway…and screamed in panic.
"AAAHHHHH! He got leader! Run for your lives!" and they ran out of the room through the other doorway, hoping to get away from Moe before he killed them.
Moe ran over to the window and stuck his head out.
"Guys!" he shouted to his comrades, who were taking cover, and they looked up at him. "Get up here! We're leaving!"
Without bothering to ask why, which maybe was the best thing; the four remaining marines got up and ran towards the doorway that led into the building, firing at the Covenant forces as they did. They also fired on the four Covenant Grunts as they emerged from the building, killing three of them. When they finally reached the doorway, Alan, who told the other three to go on ahead, threw a fragmentation grenade at the Covenant forces. It exploded as he turned to run inside and a loud screech erupted from the dust cloud, indicating a Jackal had been killed.
Loud thuds from the stairwell indicated to Moe his friends were running up the stairs when they reached the room, he led them up the next stairwell back into the large office room where the officer and few remaining marines were hotwiring a large rectangular device with a small button panel on It's side. Above the button panel in a holographic timer that was set on 01:00. The officer looked up from the other side of the device and saw the squad.
"Ah, good," he said. "We thought you were dead. Get on the pelican, quick," he ordered.
Alan, Jerry and the other two marines ran out of the building and down the pathway towards the pelican on the platform at the end. Moe, however, remained where he was.
"What is this?" he asked the officer.
"A bomb," he replied. " A little welcome gift for the Covenant when they get in here,"
A loud screech erupted from the stairwell. Moe, the officer and three remaining marines looked at the stairwell entrance wide-eyed and filled with panic. They were coming!
"Alright, go!" the officer ordered.
The three marines got up and ran to the pelican. The officer ran around to the other side of the bomb, the side facing Moe, and typed in a small code on the button panel. At once, a small beep emitted from the bomb and the timer started going down. 00:59. 00:58. 00:57.
"Alright, c'mon," the officer said to Moe and the two ran down the walkway towards the pelican.
As they reached it, a loud roar erupted behind them. Moe looked over his shoulder to see an Elite with about six Grunts and four Jackals run into the room they had just been in. The Elite had seen them and now the Covenant squad was going to do whatever it took to kill their Human enemies. Moe and the officer sprinted around the craft and were pulled on by the marines waiting for them.
"GET FLYING!" the officer yelled at the cog pit.
The pilots did not need telling twice. The pelican shook slightly as it hovered into the air; the landing gear folded themselves back up. Blasts struck the side of the craft, one striking the cog pit window and making it crack, but they did little damage and the pelican flew off into the air. As it did, Moe looked back at the building, waiting for the bomb to explode.
The Elite growled as the pelican flew off into the air. Their enemies had escaped! They were perfect targets, right there for the killing and they escaped! Oh, he was furious! Absolutely furious!
However, none of the Covenant noticed the device in the room behind them.
00:03
00:02
00:01
00:00
The officer walked to the back of the craft and looked out in the direction of the officer building as the pelican flew onwards away from the city and towards the suburbs of Sukuki.
"Has it gone off?" the officer asked.
He got his answer when…
BOOM! An explosion lit up the air, throwing large chunks of metal and stone and steel into the air and surrounding buildings. Everyone in the resting area, which was about fifteen men, looked and watched as the explosion died down.
The officer smiled. They had done it. Maybe not held back the Covenant advance in the city, but at least made sure they were not taking it without suffering heavy losses.
Moe felt the same way, but the smile quickly fell from his face as the pelican flew over the suburbs of the city. He watched as the CCs battle cruisers fired down on the city, causing untold death and destruction to those at the point of impact. It was not hard to tell he was upset, but not just because Sukuki had now pretty much fallen to the Covenant, but because one of his friends was dead and another was badly wounded, and all because of their stupid leader, Gofer. Oh, if he was here right now, Moe would throttle him!
He sighed and took a deep breath to calm down and looked back at the city as the pelican was about half-way over the suburbs.
With Sukuki gone, there was little hope in the way to Rodum being under the UNSC's control.