Chapter Thirty-Seven: High Stakes Game

Corpsman Michael Reynolds finally showed up when the assault against the newly arrived Storm troops was in full swing. Not too far ahead of my position - where my aide dutifully stood guard with his squad surrounding us in a small, loose perimeter - were the frontlines. I could hear a ton of explosions going off within scant seconds of each other, plasma and human ordnance alike. And for once, it wasn't just Marines fighting rebels. Now both sides were forced to do what I'd been pushing for all along: cooperate to survive and beat back the alien horde.

I still couldn't figure out where the Remnant warriors might've come from. Obviously the island just off the coast from here, but how and why they'd suddenly decided to attack the mainland remained unclear. I didn't know their numbers yet, either, but judging by the sounds of the pitched battle being fought all around us, it definitely wasn't the low estimates our spook had given us. And I trusted in Lieutenant Lloyd's skills. That meant they'd somehow acquired more troops right under our noses...but how?

I decided it was something I'd have to talk to others about before I could make anymore sense of it. For now, I was still neck-deep in my own problems. Like breathing, and my heart going haywire.

"Doc," I attempted to say in greeting the medic, though it came out in a more strangled tone than I would've liked. Reynolds' eyes went a little wide and he jogged up to me fast.

"Major? What happened? What are you doing out here fighting?"

"Couldn't...sit out..."

Reynolds snorted, fixing his blue gaze on me. "Yeah, good plan. Your body's not up to this kind of strenuous activity yet, ma'am. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, I...jumped the gun..."

"As usual, Major." He motioned for me to lay down. "Let me take a look."

As soon as I was on the ground, he waved to Porter's squad to move in closer to surround us with their firepower, then helped me pull off my helmet and started stripping off my torso armor.

"I don't know if you remember this, ma'am, but you just got shot through your chest two weeks ago," he said while he worked. "And you came this close to getting pronounced dead. You should still be in the medical wing. How'd you get out?"

A faint smirk on my face was all I could manage. "With my legs and feet."

That earned me a brief look, but then the medic quickly pulled out his datapad to check my vitals.

"Whoa," Reynolds said a moment later. "Tachycardia. All the intensity and adrenaline rush of the fight put your heart into overdrive." He glanced down at me again. "That's not good when you've just endured such serious trauma, Major. Your body - and your heart - are still weak from those bullet wounds. It hasn't been nearly long enough yet for them to fully heal."

"You make...due with what...you got, Doc."

"No," he said firmly. "You don't, ma'am. There's no reason for you to be out here right now. You need - "

I let out a frustrated sigh. "My Marines are...out here, Michael. That's...always...reason enough. Now can you...fix this...or not?" I paused to take in an uneven breath. "Dammit. I'm too...fucking young to have...heart problems."

The medic snorted a second time. "That'd be true if you hadn't been nicked by a sizable bullet, Major. Survive something like that, and you've got this to deal with for a while. You're lucky you're not six feet deep."

"You mean...six feet...under?"

"Whatever." It was his turn to sigh now. "There is something I can do about this, ma'am. A medicine I can inject you with. But as always, this is not an instant cure. And while the symptoms will dampen in the short term, in the long run, it's to your detriment, not benefit."

"Right. Just...do it."

He frowned. "I was afraid you'd say that, so there's something else to deter you. It's going to counteract the pills you've been taking for birth control. Not that...you should be engaging in those activities yet, either."

"Like...completely?"

"Not completely, but it definitely increases the odds that you'll get pregnant. Some of the meds I had to give you for your wounds have already been doing that, to an extent. But this'll have a more drastic effect."

The words were out before I could stop them. "Shit. I wish you'd...told me that sooner."

I watched the medic's eyes light up in momentary surprise, but it was gone again in a flash, replaced by his professional mask. "I didn't think that was pertinent information to dole out while you were still recovering in the medical wing. My apologies, ma'am. Just...be careful, from now on."

There wasn't much I could do about that now except hope that whatever Doc had given me earlier hadn't made too big a mess of things. Another item to add to the list of stuff going awry today.

"Okay," I said. "I get it. And all the...nasty side effects...too. Just...give me it, Doc."

"Yes, ma'am."

It was the first sensible thing Reynolds had said all day. He stuck me with the drug, and just a few seconds later, I felt my heart rate begin to normalize, and my breathing grew steadier. I finally stopped perspiring, too, and felt more able to get back into the fight. A minute after that, I managed to push myself back up to a sitting position, then started strapping my armor back on.

"I don't suppose you've...heard anything about why the Storm are here, huh?" I asked the medic.

He shook his head. "That's a negative, Major. Been too busy working on patients to listen to the COM chatter lately."

"I figured."

I slapped my helmet back on as well, and then had Staff Sergeant Porter help me up to my feet. When I was standing again, I turned back to Reynolds.

"Thanks again, Doc." I smirked beneath my helmet. "It's a good thing we picked you back up on Earth before we...left to come here. I would've been in a casket twice now."

"No problem, ma'am. Just try to take it easy from here. You've still got a long road to recovery ahead of you."

"Duly noted."

As I grabbed my DMR from the ground, though, I could still hear the battle continuing to rage around us as if nothing had happened. There was still a lot to do. So I pointed to Porter beside us and said, "All right. Let's head back out, Staff Sergeant."

My first order of business when I returned to the field was making sure I re-equipped my battalion with regular bullets - ex-Covie armor was tough to break through, and that was true even more so with non-lethals. It put my Marines at a serious disadvantage with the new enemy we faced, so I tackled that issue before the rest. I keyed my COM as I took cover again from the incoming Wraith rounds.

"Hayden?"

"Yeah, Cooper. Go ahead."

"Don't suppose you've got any extra ammo to lend us? It's a long way back to Columbia from here."

My best friend chuckled, even amid the chaos. "Sure do. Tired of playing the pacifist?"

"Nope. Not yet," I answered sincerely. "We've just got new targets to fry."

I heard him sigh over the radio. "Fair enough. But watch your back, Natalie. Please. As soon as this fight's over, you can bet your ass the rebs'll be waiting there to finish the job the Jackals started with you."

I didn't want to start an argument with him now, so all I said in reply was, "We'll see, buddy. And thanks."

With that task complete, I switched to the battalion-wide channel now. "Marines, this is Major Cooper. The 904th has graciously decided to give us some better firepower. You're free to engage with live rounds." Then in a private one to my XO, I said, "Harris, it's Cooper. I'm back, more or less."

"Glad to hear it, ma'am. The 8th Engineers are all yours."

The nice reunion with everyone via COM stopped then as a sudden round hurtled into the immediate vicinity. My eyes went wide the moment I saw the giant blue orb arching through the air, so I gripped my rifle tight and sprinted as far from my current position as I could. I landed in a heap just outside the rebel HQ building, near where I'd been at the start of the fight, heart pounding and both chest and shoulder hurting. But when the huge round impacted the earth, I was no longer in danger of getting blown away with it.

I glanced up just a second after the shockwave passed. It was only then that I realized who I'd inadvertently gone running toward - the human enemy. Four shaken up insurgents stared back at me, rifles raised, unsure now what to do about me as the newly appeared alien threat advanced. I didn't give them time to think it over. I just reacted.

"Don't just fucking stand there and stare!" I yelled, as if they were my own Marines. "Move it! They've got this entire position zeroed in! You can bet the rest of the damn building is next!"

They looked back at me uncertainly for a while, but eventually figured their skin was first. When I realized they were waiting on me for direction now, I gestured to more solid cover nearby.

"Hurry, get over there! Hunker down and set up with whatever you've got! We'll take care of the Wraiths, but it's up to you to deal with the ground troops! And they're coming in fast!"

I spared a moment to look up ahead and saw exactly what I'd been expecting: hundreds of Storm troops on approach. It was time to get things going myself, or we were all toast. DMR held tightly in both hands, I keyed the COM to my husband this time.

"Will? Uh - Talon? You on station?"

There was a bit of static, and then his voice came through. "Yes, ma'am. What do you need, Major?"

"Those Wraith tanks...how the hell are they maneuvering through the forest like that?"

"They're not, Coop," Willis replied. "The boys and I just did a flyby. Wherever they came from, the Storm found a clearing nearby to set up shop, about four hundred-fifty meters out. They've got four tanks there just lobbing rounds at the HQ."

I paused, confused. "Are they trying to kill us, or the rebs?"

"Both. They're not discriminating from what I can tell."

"Then why target the building?"

"Because it's the closest human structure they can destroy, and you're all surrounding it."

I frowned. "Oh. Right."

"I assume you have orders, ma'am?" my husband asked.

Recovering quickly from my lapse, I said, "Yeah, Talon. I want those things out of commission. We don't have anything down here right now to take on that armor, and we're looking at an enormous ground battle shortly. Something's gotta give or we're cooked."

"Roger that. Sit tight, Major. We're on our way."

Willis's responses to my questions assured me that he was as much in the dark as to how the Storm had suddenly appeared here as I was. Hayden hadn't mentioned anything to me yet, either. I still wondered how that had happened, and what was truly going on, but that wasn't anything I could get an answer to at the moment. For now, I just needed to make sure we all survived the fight, then wonder about the how and why questions later.

Opening a channel to my battalion, I said, "Marines, we've got heavy ordnance incoming! Friendly this time! Everyone stay as far back as you can, and get ready! Captains, get your companies into position and make sure you dig in for a tough fight! The Storm's going to hit us hard as soon as their tanks are out!"

Even before I heard the hypersonic sounds of Willis's squadron of Broadswords coming through up above, though, I heard yet another shwoop. This time when I ducked, I was far enough away to watch where the glowing plasma round landed - and it was devastating. The round burst among the trees before hitting the ground and detonated, felling three large redwoods and sending wood fragments everywhere. Those nearby the blast were ignited, and suddenly, part of the forest around the rebel HQ was now ablaze.

It was Hayden who opened up a private channel to me now.

"Holy shit! Cooper, did you see that?"

I coughed on a thick plume of smoke that was very rapidly enveloping the area around the building now, faster than my helmet's air filters could compensate. "Yeah, I did. Holy - !"

Another mammoth round launched into the air, but unlike before, the sound was quickly followed by something else - a flurry of missile rounds from our pilots in the skies. One Wraith went up in a cloud of black smoke just as its ordnance burst through the roof of the HQ building, smashing a huge hole in the middle of it at the top. If we'd still been after the rebels, it would've been a good way to finally get at them from above, but instead, we were all fighting for our lives against the Remnant now.

At that point I ducked again, just as two more Broadswords passed overhead. One came strafing through at top speed, chewing up more of the trees surrounding the clearing, and making a few dents in one of the alien tanks from what I could hear. The other launched another set of missiles, and a second tower of black smoke spiraled into the air.

"Cooper!" Willis shouted over the COM then.

"What?" I cried back.

Then he laughed at my reaction. "Hold on, Major. Got one more pass coming through. Two tanks down, two to go. And watch those fires. They're spreading."

Willis was right. When I looked up at the forest, another half a dozen trees were alight now. I used the time in between air support runs to switch my cover for another, further away and to the right of the now badly damaged HQ building. Then I keyed my COM again.

"Not funny, Will," I said under my breath.

"You'll feel better after this next run, I promise," my husband returned. "Starting now, so keep your heads down."

In the meantime, the other two Wraiths were still active, but it wasn't for long. The next trio of pilots came hurtling through overhead, loosing cannon rounds and missiles alike, until a second set of twin columns of smoke could be seen through the forest. With a hair-raising sound of screeching metal and the smell of oily flames, the Storm's hardest-hitting pieces of equipment were now all out of commission.

When it was over, I propped my back up against my cover and let out a deep sigh of relief. I found myself grinning as soon as I heard my husband's squadron finish their run.

"Oh, Jesus. Thanks, Talon."

Willis chuckled. "No problem, ma'am. Now give 'em hell."

The rest of the fight was like everything else I'd encountered during the war - and everything I had way more experience doing than I should. Instead of fighting people, it was back to aliens...at least for now. And that was an area I excelled in.

Though there were a great number of Storm troops to fight, we also had a lot of Marines on hand for defense, and a good number of rebels, too. In this battle, we were better off together than alone. Once everyone realized that - and with the nasty Wraith tanks now out of the fight - pushing back the Remnant wasn't as daunting of a task as it had first seemed.

Both insurgents and Marines let loose with long sprays of gunfire all around me, our units set up in an arch around the bombed-out HQ building. Parts of the forest were still on fire, and that was a threat to anyone who got too close, but again, with the help of our air support, even that was reduced to something manageable. As soon as the strafing runs were complete, Willis had ordered his squadron to start dumping its gallons of water tanks onto the flames so that those of us on the ground weren't forced out of our cover by the fire. With that, our strategic positioning improved, although the affected parts of the woods remained blackened and charred by the hits.

But our lives counted more than the forest. And right now, we were dishing out the hurt to the members of the Remnant who'd suddenly attacked all of us today.

Gripping my DMR hard, I tracked a Grunt running between the trees, trying to get at a small group of rebels that had been cut off from their larger unit. From behind the cover of one of the many felled tree trunks littering the ground, blackened from the blasts, I squeezed the trigger and took the alien down in one burst. Quickly shifting to another target, I did the same with a second Grunt nearby, then set my sights on the bigger prize - an Elite. For that one, and its Jackal friends on approach, I pulled a frag off my web belt and primed it, then sent it flying towards them.

"Fire in the hole!"

The explosive burst in the dirt a split second after I shouted the warning, and did about as much damage as I'd expected. While the Elite managed to roll away in time, the two Jackals behind it didn't, and both went up in a geyser of bright purple blood and high-pitched squawks. I smirked inside my helmet.

"Payback time, you son of a bitch," I muttered.

I didn't waste too much time taking revenge, though. There was still another formidable target at large.

I brought my gun up again in an instant and fired off a trio of bursts at the stunned Elite. All three did little except get absorbed by its translucent shield, but the fourth burst finally caused it to fizzle out, and the fifth put several fatal rounds into its helmeted head. The tall creature fell back against a burnt tree trunk then and slumped to the ground, dead.

As soon as the Elite was down, I got up from behind my cover and raised my right arm, signaling the Marines behind me to move up. "Let's go, Marines!"

Watching while we did so, I noticed that the small group of rebels I'd saved decided to tag along, too. That was fine by me, as long as they didn't stir trouble. We could use all the manpower we could get for now.

The more the merrier. And deadlier.

It was when we moved up past the previous front lines, ahead of the main entrance to the burned-out HQ, that I suddenly realized something was wrong. There weren't as many Storm troops in the area as there'd once been, and the steady sounds of gunfire and constant rattle of MGs around us - and even the occasional cracks of sniper rifles - could no longer be heard with as much frequency. I paused for a moment to look around, but, seeing nothing unusual, got down on one knee to hit the radio to my XO.

"Harris? This is Major Cooper. What's going on? I don't see a wall of aliens up ahead, and I know we didn't clear them out that fast."

The response didn't come for quite a while, but I waited.

Finally, the captain said, "I don't know, ma'am. We're seeing the same thing all around. Looks like the Storm just decided to clear out."

I frowned. "Why would they do that? They just got the jump on us."

"I can't answer that, Major. Maybe try Hayden?"

Letting out a quick sigh, I took the suggestion and hailed my best friend next.

"Oliver? Are you seeing this?"

"Yeah, Cooper." He swallowed. "There's a reason why they're retreating."

"Why? What happened?"

"I'll have the spook fill you in."

I wasn't even aware that Lieutenant Lloyd was somewhere on the battlefield. It shouldn't have surprised me, given that he was an ONI operative, but it did.

"Major Cooper?"

"Go ahead, Lieutenant," I answered, keeping my gun up and sights moving in case anything else was going to come at us.

"I've got some...shit. Well, some bad news for you, ma'am. For all of us." He took in a deep breath. "I lost contact with Outpost Columbia during the battle, Major. I just hoofed it there and back to check it out."

I felt my blood run cold. I'd been here too many times before in the past, and I could feel the hit coming. "And?"

"Columbia's been destroyed, ma'am. The Storm somehow knew...waited until the bulk of us were out here fighting the rebs, and they attacked the outpost en masse. Colonel Dwight is dead."

"Oh, my God. Fuck."

It was all I could think of to say in the moment. That was just about the worst possible news we could've received right now. But even that wasn't my primary concern. It was my young brother-in-law, who'd been left behind at the outpost during the battle. What about Matthew? I wondered. I swallowed down the hurt I knew this was going to cause Willis, and prayed that his little brother was okay. And that we'd somehow find him alive...a second time.

But before I could delve into that too deeply, Lieutenant Lloyd was speaking again.

"I suppose you know what this means now, ma'am," he said.

Lost in my thoughts, I replied, "What?"

"You and Major Hayden are now jointly in charge of everyone left."