-Chapter 3-
Initial Strike
0130 Hours - UNSC Military Standard Time
12 March 2551 (Military Calendar)/
GH-5 Star System. Magma V
A massive o-type star burned its short life away in a blaze of light-bluish energy. Broken wreckage orbited the star slowly, the metallic sheen reflecting starlight in unorthodox patterns. It was the remains of what'd once been a slice of human civilization; an amalgamation of orbital habitats that had, at one time, housed several hundred million. Detritus floated about randomly. Like a synthetic kind of asteroid field. The star - and the broken wreckage orbiting it - weren't the only celestial bodies inhabiting the system.
Many astronomical units away from the star was a silver-hued gas giant. Compared to the star, it was minuscule. But it was still a behemoth in its own right. It, as well as the giant moon orbiting around it. That moon was Magma V, and even from a distance, one could tell that Magma V was special. First, a massive space-based construction facility hung in low orbit above the moon. Gigantic machinery, including clamps and cranes, suspended itself in a crescent shape. Thousands of docking bays ran along it, and the facility itself connected to a groundside base through the use of multiple orbital elevators and gravity lifts. The groundside 'base' was the second feature, and was more of a municipality; it ran the length of a continent, housing not only several military-installations, but also shipbreaking yards, manufactories, industrial parks, and even communal city-sites, where the Covenant had begun an administrative occupation of Magma V. This was the Ghalossus, and it contained numerous dig-sites, where raw minerals and materials were stripped from the surface, processed, refined, and then sent up into orbit to be used in the construction of ships, as well as an in-progress superweapon.
Defending the Ghalossus was an army of Covenant ground troops - too many to be counted - as well as the Fourth Fleet of Ubiquitous Sanguinity. And attacking it was a combined UNSC-FSDC battle group of considerable size.
Even now, though it was very early morning on Magma V, the battle had just broken out between the two sides. The war for Magma V was underway.
Brilliant flashes of laser weaponry and energetic plasma lances streaked out like lightning from the Covenant fleet. From the UNSC fleet came barrages of ferric-tungsten and missiles. Violent explosions erupted then vanished against the cold backdrop of space. With each impact, with each blow, with each explosion, hundreds of lives were snuffed out. As the dance raged on, several UNSC vessels dipped toward Magma V's surface - under harassment from Covenant bombers and fighters the entire way. At first glance, it would have looked like the vessels were planning an emergency landing on the surface. Their true intent became clear once the first swarm of drop pods fired from their bellies, protected by a crossfire of point-defense cannons and longsword fighters. Or, so it seemed.
Covenant forces groundside had gathered in key sectors to receive any invading enemy troops. As such, several whole brigades found themselves clustered in the UNSC-FSDC drop zones. Lying in wait. They were surprised - and bewildered - to discover that the entire initial drop wave was a bluff. The pods contained not human troops, but Type-9 Condensed/C-7 Impact Explosive Devices; essentially, high-yield bombs. This was a tactic Admiral Bren J. Shepard had devised as part of the final revision for the UNSC-FSDC attack strategy, and it'd worked. Thousands of Covenant troops perished before the first human ever set foot on Magma V.
By the time the bombing wave finished, the true invasion waves launched.
"Brace for impact!"
The ship rumbled violently. Mago stumbled and had to catch himself on a guardrail to keep from falling. Warning lights flashed an angry red, providing the only source of light in the vicinity. Around him were hundreds of others, everyone decked out in the blackened standard-issue PTRN V[B] ODST armor, along with thruster packs. Ammo spilled out across the floor from a nearby munitions-pod, and at least two other troopers tripped on the rolling shotgun shells and bullets.
Everyone was packed into thick lines heading into the drop bay. Packed extremely tight, shuffling forward as one collective wave. Ahead at the entrance was First Sergeant Charles Manzey. Standing on top of several stacked crates above everyone.
"Get to your pods, secure your CT packs!" Manzey's voice carried louder than the commotion somehow. And the warning lights bathed him in a red glow. Gave him a menacing look. Manzey lifted a fist. "And prepare to die! Kill and destroy, Helljumpers!"
"OO-RAH!" Everyone shouted back in response, loud enough to drown out the 'warning' loop on the intercom.
Another collision rocked the ship again as the troopers spilled over into the dropbay. It caused Mago to lose his footing, and a hand grabbed him by the shoulder and helped steady him.
"Don't fall!" Lucius Cain said, a smile on his face. "We ain't even in our coffins yet."
Mago pushed Lucius forward and followed closely behind. They hurried down the aisles in the dropbay, passing by troopers, snipers, crewmen, and even a wounded ODST that was being seen to by a corspman. Mago's thoughts jumped from one thing to the next, unable to keep up with the pace of the action. Worse still, this was shaping up to be a messy drop. Admiral Shepard's bombing gambit had been clever, but it'd been a last minute thing - they hadn't prepped for it before, and it'd thrown things into disarray. Mago had no idea where Captain Sparr was, or where Lieutenant Jane Shepard was. He didn't have time to find them, either. It would help to know where their pods were, but he'd have to drop without that knowledge this time. That meant that Mago could end up separated from where he needed to be.
"Here's my stop," Lucius said when they reached his pod. Lucius climbed in, and Mago took a moment to help him get secured.
"Be ready to shoot the second your door opens back up," Mago told him as he secured Lucius's assault rifle.
"You don't gotta tell me," Lucius said as he equipped his helmet. They bumped fists one last time. "See you in hell, brother."
"Likewise."
The door sealed tight on him, and Mago headed off toward his own drop pod. Along the way, he came across several of the rookies who needed assistance. Which was a problem. This was what they'd been preparing for, and they were letting their nerves get to them already.
Another distant explosion rocked the ship, and this time Mago tripped to his knees, his helmet flying out of his hands in the process. Part of the turbulence was the atmospheric disturbance, but a lot of it probably had something to do with the enemy corvette everyone was talking about; it was supposedly encroaching on the Despair's Light. Harassing the vessel in an attempt to force it to pull away.
This time when Mago went to stand, he was helped to his feet by a spartan. He recognized her from Reach; remembered her from numerous run-ins during the training exercises. Remembered her distinct combat blade attached across her back. Lieutenant Nyxa-B310.
"Thanks," he said. She handed him his helmet.
The lieutenant nodded once before tapping the side of her helmet.
Mago got the message, already sealing his helmet on tight.
Wharp-wharp-wharp. It was the 2-minute warning klaxon blaring in his ears, and Mago raced for his drop pod. Found it with about a minute to spare. Bolted along the righthand side was his grenade launcher, so he placed his M7S on the lefthand side before climbing in. Each second, another strap clicked into place until Mago was fully secured. The door automatically slammed shut, and he activated his COM system.
"-bearing 720 by 514! Firing-"
"-fighters, 'dey are closin' in, bredren! SPE towards a new bearin' an' avoid-"
"-broadside attack? Alert Admiral Shepard. They're employing new tricks-"
"-on my tail! Can't shake the sum' bitch! Our numbers ain't countin' fer shit!"
"-hostile interceptors closing on my six. Too many. It's been an honor to serve -"
"-Super-Destroyer just took out a whole god-damned battleship 'n a half! How -"
Mago's eyes winced; so many comms barged down his ears, he couldn't think straight. A space battle was raging out there, and the BATTLENET COM channel captured it all. Mago switched over to OPCOM and filtered away most of the communications, until he heard the voice of General Shesty.
"...casualties mounting too fast," Shesty said. He sounded out of breath, and Mago wondered where the man currently was located. Probably still in the Strat-Comm room. "When you touch down, expect immediate close-combat. First wave reports massed Covenant infantry collapsing on all drop zones in sectors 3 to 4, including brutes. Major Huxley and Force-Captain Aketai are already on the ground and have established a CP in sector 2 - use that if you're cut off from your unit, until we get our FOBs established. Work your sectors, and push them back..."
Mago processed the general's words. It sounded like things were a lot worse than they'd expected.
The 30-second warning klaxon rang out, and the blue preparation light came on. After a few seconds, the deck opened up beneath the drop bay, revealing the mossy green planet below and the space between. Mago could just barely see enough to make out a barrage of explosions and plasma bolts rippling back and forth. Raging storm clouds melted with one another in Magma V's sky, which meant that there'd be lots of interference on the drop. Mago only hoped that it'd go cleaner than his last drop did.
"Remember," General Shesty's voice continued in his ear. "Those guns are your top priority. We need them offline before the main invasion starts. Godspeed, helljumpers."
As soon as he finished, Mago spotted a Covenant seraph fighter whip by just beneath the ship at insane speed, followed immediately by broadswords. A split-second later, what looked like a plasma torpedo sailed upwards and scored a direct hit. Off on the far side of the drop bay, the explosion detonated and ripped apart at least a handful of drop pods. One of them was vaporized entirely, while another plummeted toward Magma V like dead weight. Wreckage and debris spilled out, along with several ODSTs that were sucked out into space. There was nothing that could be done for them. Automated fire-extinguishers kicked in, messily spraying coolant all over the damaged area to snuff out the flames.
Captain Sparr's face appeared on the COM interface within Mago's drop pod. "Alright, troopers - we're going to the 9th Circle for this one. So grab your fuckin' nuts!" Sparr shouted at the entirety of the 34th. Ever since Lieutenant-Colonel Packman died in combat well over a year ago, Sparr had been acting as Battalion CO. Mago didn't envy the man's responsibilities.
"You all heard the general," he continued. "We've got covies in our DZ - mean's we got some housecleaning to do. Maintain radio discipline from this point forward, until we get our scramblers set up. I'll see you on the ground. This is what we were made for. Prepare to die, kill and destroy!"
Overhead, the blue preparation light changed to green. Mago's heart did that fluttering thing, where it skipped a beat just before pounding away like a drumroll. And he swayed as his drop pod - along with everyone else's - began sliding down into the firing position. Out in space below, there were already hundreds of pods streaming toward Magma V from other drop bays and other ships.
The clock on Mago's HUD ticked down; when it reached 0, his pod fired.
Thousands of drop pods sailed toward Magma V at once; there were a total of five different battalions deploying in the second wave. Mago was suspended in low-orbit surrounded by hundreds of others from the 34th, the 23rd, and several other units, and immediately noticed multiple problems. First, the Instinctual Predator - one of the cruisers carrying ODSTs - was pulling off from formation prematurely, with multiple gashes scarring one side of it. Exhaust leaked from its starboard half like an ink spill. Second, there was no drop formation that Mago could discern. Typically, during high-stress combat drops, there'd be a staggered formation following the CO's drop pods. This time, Mago couldn't even tell which one belonged to the captain. Thousands of pods filled his view; he couldn't tell if it was drop pods, or a swarm of angry insects barreling onto Magma V.
When they entered the cloud line, Mago's pod controls began fighting him like a miniature arm wrestle. Water and thick cloud was all he could see. Lightning flashed angrily on occasion, briefly illuminating drop pods off in the distance, and raindrops streaked along Mago's window. Blurs of motion whipped by at impossible speeds, immediately followed by small explosive pockmarks. Seraph and banshee fighters. They were picking off troopers mid-insertion. Flying dangerously close. it was like being helplessly suspended within a maelstrom of violence on all sides. Hell, that literally is the case right now. Mago was utterly aware of his own mortality and the fact that he could literally die at any moment. But he couldn't even focus on that. His bones rattled angrily; numbness began to settle along his hands and forearms. Worse yet, Mago couldn't tell where he was in relation to the rest of his company. Anti-air fire began at that point; fat plasma bolts sailed up from the ground, and explosions rippled through the clouds like a fireworks display. There were direct hits on at least several drop pods that Mago could see, and he could only hope that his own wouldn't get hit.
After they burst through the cloud line, Mago had to switch his VISR on; it was something around 0400 on Magma V and so the sky became pitch black. As he struggled and fought his steering controls, he took in the battlefield scenery below. Vicious explosions lit the ground from horizon to horizon, and even at this distance, Mago's VISR could just barely make out the exchange of small-arms fire. There were at least three different Covenant dropships he could see patrolling off in the distance, their undersides lighting up with plasma cannon fire. Tall hills littered the landscape, all of them defended by whole brigades of Covenant troops fighting off UNSC forces. Giant plasma bombs arced high in the air, no doubt coming from the artillery cannons they were tasked with destroying. Moreover, he spotted what looked like Locust walkers in several different locations. Their laser cannons beamed across the nighttime landscape and carved brilliant paths of destruction. They towered on the battlefield like overgrown insects, no doubt vaporizing whatever they fired at. Energy shielding flared around them as small-arms and explosive weaponry sought purchase.
As Mago got closer to the ground, his steering control failsafe locked into place; it was now just a game of falling wherever he may. And he began making out the distinct green-dot signature of friendlies along the valley beneath him, where they were busy fighting an uphill battle trying to make it out of a thick woodland area. And worse - those dots were turning red at an alarming rate. Casualties, and an incredible amount of them. Which meant that Mago was about to drop smack into the middle of a brutal firefight. Grunts, Jackals, Skirmishers... Brutes.
God help me, Mago willed as he unstrapped his M7S Caseless and thumbed the safety off. Then secured his grenade launcher to his utility belt. He whispered a silent prayer, and longed to be back on New Carthage and working in a factory. Anything but here.
It was at the point where Mago could make out individual figures, and he spotted at least a couple dozen Covenant infantry positions on a massive hill a hundred yards out laying down a brutal crossfire. ODSTs were putting up a fight, but Mago couldn't tell who was winning.
He didn't have time to figure out, either.
In a matter of seconds, he went from having an overhead view, to bursting through a tree and landing into soft-pack dirt, surrounded by trees and God knows what else. A red overhead light flashed on inside his drop pod, followed by a series of low beeps. It was an obnoxious sound, but it wasn't as loud as his heartbeat pounding in his chest and drumming throughout his entire body. And that wasn't as loud as the sounds of combat raging just outside. Mago took a deep breath, then punched his failsafe-deactivation button. A half-second later, his door shot out like a cannon and he jumped out behind it, hitting the ground running.
Before he could even take a few steps, an ODST came flying from out of nowhere, landing in a heap several yards in front of Mago. A brute followed the trooper, wildly swinging a hammer over its head before bringing it down on the trooper's skull, smashing it with a wet crunch. The brute let out a warcry. Mago opened fire and didn't let up, but the brute's armor held strong. The second it made to charge Mago, an explosion ripped the ground - it was bright enough that Mago's VISR struggled to dim the effects. Dirt and grit showered Mago, and when he looked back up, there was nothing left of the brute.
A spartan materialized out of camouflage from a tree overhead.
"Get to the front!" the spartan roared over the sound of combat, toting a M41 rocket launcher in one hand and a grenade launcher in the other. Mago recognized the voice as belonging to Lieutenant Commander Rhynar. Just as quickly as he came, Rhynar reactivated his camouflage and disappeared from sight, probably going to clear out other Covenant stragglers in the area.
Mago pushed forward, keeping low and moving from one tree to the next. He ran past dead Covenant and ODSTs, his only goal to get to the frontline. Rain poured down, leaving the ground slick with mud and blood. Plasma bolts sailed from up ahead, along with mortar shells that lit the atmosphere like small stars. Trees were toppled over and whole patches of ground were vaporized. A nasty scent - some mixture of death and burnt wood - wafted through to his nose. Around him, other ODSTs - none of them from the 34th - similarly struggled to move. Which wasn't good. If they didn't make it out of the forest, they'd be cut down and slaughtered.
Mago sprinted forward with his head down to make a low-profile target. Just overhead by a few yards, the plasma beam from a Locust carved a path through the air. Letting loose a violent beam of energy at targets behind him. The heat from the beam lit Mago's body up as though he were bathed in pure sunlight. Several trees were either blown apart entirely or split in half. Mago ducked even lower and followed behind another group of ODSTs just in front of him. The FOF tags on his HUD identified them as being with the 41st - which meant that somebody was nowhere near their dropzone. Whoever the squad was, they were moving too close with one another.
"Spread out!" Mago called to them. He couldn't even hear his own voice. "You're too -"
A mortar round detonated on them, the plasma explosion seemingly enveloping them in light. The concussive force was powerful enough to throw Mago into the air several feet.
He faceplanted hard, too stunned from the explosion to think straight. Dazed. Everything sounded distorted, and for a moment, Mago couldn't do anything but look around in dumb silence, trying to gather his wits. Shellshock overcame him.
Someone grabbed him by his collar and gave a rough shake. "Get up! We gotta get out the forest!"
Before Mago could even register who it was, a round from a beam rifle tore clean through the man's head, blowing open his visor and leaving only a smoking stub. His body collapsed on top of Mago like dead weight.
It was enough to snap Mago back into action. He tossed the body aside, grabbed his M7S, and scrambled to his feet as he headed forward again.
The ground was increasingly deteriorating beneath the rain, making it difficult to move. By the time he got his pace consistent, he'd reached the edge of the treeline. In front of him were dozens of ODSTs pinned at the base of a hill that stretched upward by several hundred feet. Covenant defensive positions were set up across the hill at various locations, pouring down suppressive fire. A loud vvvvvr-owww thumped from the peak of the hill, and a fat blob of plasma spewed forth high over the battlefield. Luminescent blue-green energies sparkled in the air behind it, and Mago felt the shot vibrating through his bones. His teeth rattled. No doubt, it was one of the Covenant's artillery cannons they were tasked with destroying.
They'd have to make it up the hill for that, however. Mago jumped into a ditch that ran along the base of the hill, finding himself in cover alongside others. Most of them were bullfrogs from the 41st, and a few others from the 23rd SAB. Mago didn't recognize anybody. There were wounded troopers all over the place and not enough corpsmen to see about them. And being pinned down like this wasn't going to help.
Mago reached out and grabbed a nearby trooper. "Who's in charge here?"
"Lieutenant Juarez, she's up there!" He pointed up the hill.
Mago peeked his head up out of cover. There were dozens more ODSTs pinned down in various locations uphill, struggling to gain ground under constant suppressive fire. Several barricaded firing points were dug-in leading up to the hill's apex. Of note was a bunker complex that stretched all the way to the top of the hill.
"You two pass the word down the line: jump 1-35 at two minutes mark 15," Mago told him and another trooper.
"What!?"
Rookies. Mago shoved the trooper angrily. "Move!"
The lance corporals nodded frantically before heading off, each one going in either direction along the trench line. In the meantime, Mago unslung his grenade launcher and loaded it, crawling his way up the hill several meters. Plasma rounds streaked by overhead. Dangerously close and dangerously hot. Explosions sent dirt showering all over him. Several close detonations heated him up like a microwave. For a second, Mago wondered if he were about to overheat. Mud caked his hands and armor, and he vaguely wondered if his weapons were going to work. After making it several more yards, he posted up on his side and took aim, firing an HE shot uphill at the nearest Covenant defensive position. Then reloaded and fired three more shots in succession. He didn't see the damage they caused, but the explosives would be enough to scatter their infantry for a moment. Lighten up the suppression barrage. Up the hill a ways, he spotted the FOF tag of Lieutenant Antonella Juarez; she tossed a pair of frag grenades, along with another trooper. When they exploded, she rushed from cover with a group of others and charged the Covenant bunker entrance. They leaped into a trench line connecting to the bunker and out of sight, and Mago couldn't tell who was winning the fight.
Just as he turned and looked back downhill, at least half the troopers activated their jump-jets and rocketed up and over, firing concentrated burst-fire the entire way. Good. The jump-assault had its intended affect: more troopers into the thick of the fight to smash the first defensive line. Covenant infantry scrabbled their way back up the hill under the assault. Gunfire exchanged with plasma fire as retreating grunts and jackals scurried to their next line of defense.
Mago scrambled his own way up the hill then. The bunker was ahead of him and to the right, so he made for it. On his way up, he slipped several times. It wasn't easy trying to move uphill underneath a monsoon. But determination and a sense of urgency kept him on the move.
The bunker was a large construct with a trench network that ran along either side of it. Mago practically dove into that trench gun-first, rushing past a pair of dead jackals as he headed into the bunker.
Inside, Mago ran into the main room where there was a brutal close-quarters melee. Three whole brutes, all of them holding off the ODSTs on their own. One of them hefted a large plasma cannon, unloading it in a concentrated barrage from a position at the far end of the room. The other two engaged the ODSTs up close. Mago watched as one of them smashed a hammer through the torso of a trooper, using the blunt head of the weapon like a spear. Then it leaped in the opposite direction at breakneck speed and smashed its fist clean through the head of another. The third brute fired rounds from a brute shot in rapid succession; explosions rippled across the massive room like grenades setting off. At least one trooper caught a shell in the leg and collapsed to the ground like a sack of potatoes, clutching at the stump that remained of his shin.
Lieutenant Juarez was in cover behind a small set of barricades opening fire alongside several others. The hammer-wielding brute took a round in the knee that seemed to stagger it - for a second, at least. It turned toward Juarez and let out a warcry before charging.
"Get down!" Mago shouted, aiming his grenade launcher at the brute. Despite its size, the brute moved fast. Juarez ducked behind cover just as Mago fired.
The HE round sailed over her head and hit the brute directly, bounced off its chest and detonated just in front of it. Shrapnel, bone and limbs burst apart, leaving nothing but mauled remains and a scorched floor. Mago sprinted up and slid into cover beside the lieutenant.
"Gracias," she said breathlessly. She looked at him closely. "34th? You're in the wrong area, amigo. For my sake, that's a good thing."
Mago loaded up a fresh round. Before he could say anything, explosive brute shot rounds detonated on the other side of the barricade. The cover was blown to shreds, sending him and the lieutenant rolling backward across the floor with shrapnel bouncing off their armor.
Mago looked up to see the brute towering over him with a crazed look in its eye. It tossed aside its brute shot to pick up the bloodied hammer, growling angrily as it charged. The hammer swooped through the air, and Mago rolled aside - just in time to avoid being crushed. A smoking crater remained where he'd been just a half-second before. Juarez scrambled to her feet and opened fire on it, drawing its attention in her direction. The brute backhanded her with its fist, knocking her helmet off and sending her spinning. Before it could swing its hammer again, Mago opened up on it from behind with his M6. Rounds pierced through the armor, and concentrated fire from other ODSTs in the bunker caused it to fall to one knee.
For a brief moment, at least. The brute was on its last surge of strength. It snarled, then rushed Lieutenant Juarez. Mago's M6 ran empty, and he was helpless to stop the brute. It swept out an arm to trip Juarez and send her to the floor, then viciously brought its hammer down right onto her.
Mago finished reloading and sent a round through the brute's head. It collapsed on the spot.
More troopers spilled into the bunker, and the final brute was dead by the time Mago made it to Juarez.
Blood pooled in her mouth. And her chest was caved in. She was already dead.
Mago took a moment to close her eyes. He looked around - for what, he wasn't certain - but everyone was rushing toward the major hallway that ran out the far end of the room. He took her dogtags and locked them onto his belt before following everyone else through the bunker, working his way to the front.
Clearing out the bunker proved to be a methodical and deadly process; one where they had to rely on hand signals and other non-verbal communication when checking rooms and pathways. There was a single expansive hall that ran its way uphill, occasionally twisting and turning as it went. Auxiliary rooms connected to that main hall, each one cleared in succession as the troopers flooded throughout the bunker. The 'tunnel' ran up the hill a long ways, and the further they got, the more casualties they sustained. But the Covenant were being rolled back. Not only inside, but as well as the exterior. Rumbling vibrations could be felt as the battle raged on outside. And there was at least one moment where the ground shook violently. It had to be the artillery cannon firing again.
At the front of the push, they came up on a barricaded doorway sitting off to the lefthand side of the hall. A group of ODSTs were stacked up on either side of it. One of them beckoned Mago over with a series of hand signs. The trooper - his FOF tag identifying him as Sergeant Darius Terrall - tapped the side of his helmet, then pointed at the doorway. Mago signaled for the troopers behind him to keep pressing forward cautiously, then veered off toward the corporal.
Mago moved up to the side of the locked doorway across from Terrall and put his helmet against it. He could hear chittering and squawking. Grunts and jackals. Probably a lot of them. He looked across to Terrall and made another series of hand signs. Then he tapped the trooper behind him and held up two fingers, then a thumb. The trooper, and another behind her, broke off from the formation and set up a few paces back from the doorway. Terrall did the same thing on his side of the door. In the meantime, Mago unstrapped a charge of I7-TDetonite from his utility belt. Having an explosives rating came with its perks.
After several seconds of stitching and priming, the I7-TD was ready to blow. Mago fell back from the doorway and got behind Terrall; a detonator in one hand, and his M6D in the other. Once the other troopers all got set up, Sergeant Terrall gave him a thumbs-up. Mago counted down with his fingers, then pressed the detonator.
The explosion ripped apart the door and blew it inwards. Almost simultaneously, a pair of stun-grenades flew into the room through the dust and wreckage. Then, Terrall swept inside and broke left, with Mago rushing to closely follow, going right. Mago nearly ran into a jackal that'd been hiding around the side of the door. It waved a plasma pistol around, and Mago caught its wrist just in time, wrenching its hand toward the ceiling just as it fired. Heat flared. Instincts kicked in. Still gripping its wrist, Mago brought his elbow down on the jackal's arm hard enough for the bone to snap. Then he shoved it against the wall. Drove his M6D just under its chin. Squeezed the trigger. Blood and skull fragments peppered Mago all over. He let the jackal slip to the floor, already scanning for his next target.
Plasma rounds returned but the shots were inaccurate. Short bursts from multiple M7S SMGs silenced the remaining Covenant. After just a few seconds, the room was dead quiet. No casualties. They took a few moments to double-tap the bodies and Mago cleaned off his visor. Afterward, Mago met Terrall's gaze. They nodded at one another, heading back out into the main hall with everyone else.
The spartan-III, Lieutenant Commander Rhynar, was standing there waiting, full of poise and stillness. He was a full head taller than Mago, toting more weapons and equipment than Mago had ever even considered possible. And his SPI battleplate was freshly scarred.
"You're not with the 41st," Rhynar said as a matter-of-fact. Despite all the footsteps around them, his voice was loud and clear, and still incredibly deep.
"34th Jump-Jet Legion," Mago told him through gasps of air. Mago realized just how winded he was.
Rhynar glanced past his shoulder for a second. "Have you seen the lieutenant?"
"She's around here somewhere," Sergeant Terrall said with confidence.
Mago put a hand on Terrall's shoulder, then unsnapped her dogtags and held them up. "Brute went berserk. Nothing I could do."
Terrall went quiet and took the dogtags. Mago couldn't see the man's expression behind his polarized visor. He didn't need to.
"You're the highest ranking around here then," Rhynar told Mago. "The other officers and NCOs for this sector are dead, wounded, or MIA."
"What's the situation?"
Rhynar signaled for Mago and Terrall to follow. They fell in line alongside each other and walked up the hall, following behind dozens of troopers rushing their way toward the front. "Covenant forces have retreated to the apex of this hill, digging in around the artillery cannon for a last stand. Fourth and fifth platoons have secured their AO and are expediting here to reinforce the push. But they're thirty minutes away. That's assuming they don't run into Covenant forces. So we'll take this cannon ourselves."
"You have a plan?" Mago asked.
"Yes: kill them all. Here's how..."
-Forty minutes ago-
-One mile away-
Force-Sergeant Zhaojun emerged from her drop pod.
Alone. At least, as far as she could tell from her immediate vicinity. Her partner Caecin must've landed somewhere nearby. Zhaojun had seen his drop pod when they were about 400 meters out. Somewhere to the east. She'd have to link up with him at the RV point.
Her first instinct was to take in her surroundings. Trees, and more trees. With a sky full of stormclouds, the frequent flashes within them being either lightning, or explosions. Despite the mysteriousness of the world, it vaguely reminded her of Beliese. Except a bit more warm. And the gravity was noticeably stronger than what she was used to. She wondered if the wildlife was as diverse, if there was any.
The time for all that would come later. Right now, she had to get a handle on her location. Zhaojun activated her nightvision, crouched low and moved into position beneath a tree. She activated her localized HUD-map. Unfortunately, most of Magma V was still unmapped, and so her HUD-map was still dark in many locations. It couldn't be completely trusted either. Although the UNSC had apparently been operating with a lot of good intel for this campaign, the actual terrain maps were still rough estimations. And Zhaojun simply didn't trust the UNSC that much. Based on what Zhaojun could tell, she was currently about 200 meters south of RV point Alpha.
"Nice," she whispered, deactivating the HUD-map.
From what she could hear, the battle was raging to her north-east. That was also a good sign. It meant that her drop had gone relatively well.
So she thumbed off the safety on her Extended Range Shooter System-27 and moved out. Thanks to it being nighttime on Magma V, it was easy for Zhaojun to move within shadow. Which was important. No doubt, Covenant ground forces had tracked her pod. They'd likely send out patrols to track her and Caecin down; them, and the other TSC sharpshooter teams dropped around the periphery of the main battlefield. There were enough woods to make that a difficult task. Enough woods, and enough rain. The bad weather would only serve to cover Zhaojun's tracks.
Minutes went by with Zhaojun carefully heading toward the NAV marker on her HUD. There was still no sign of Caecin.
But she did begin hearing something close, almost like... Footsteps. Instantly, Zhaojun swung in direction of the sound with her gun raised. She didn't see anything. Despite that, she could still hear the sound of leaves and twigs snapping. Her survival instincts told her to move. Just before she did, she spotted a shrub being pushed aside. Then she realized it was an animal - an animal that camouflaged perfectly with the environment. It had the size and build of a small cat, except it appeared reptilian. It looked like a creekdide from back in her home-system, except a lot more agile.
Zhaojun lowered her gun. She assumed it was a reptile, and she knew that they could mostly eat meat. Zhaojun took a moment to pull out a piece of spadehorn jerky she'd packed in her rucksack and tossed it to the animal. It caught the food in its mouth and consumed it immediately. "Now, get out of here," she whispered.
The animal changed colors on the spot, turning a light-grey color. Its tail swayed back and forth a few times, then it sat on the ground and stared up at her with its large coal-black eyes. A light, throaty groan issued from its mouth. Almost like a yawn.
"Scat!" she commanded. The creature spun around in a circle one time, then sat back down and groaned again. "You little bastard," she muttered before heading back off. The animal scurried up beside her and followed closely.
Zhaojun paused in her tracks when she spotted the silhouette of grunts about 25 meters ahead. Grunts, and a single brute. They were heading in her direction. One of the patrol teams she'd guessed would be coming.
Zhaojun went prone and crawled across the ground to reach a nearby tree. Her reptilian companion switched colors and blended into the environment again, mimicking her as it crawled on its belly like she did. When Zhaojun reached the tree, she peeked out from cover to analyze the patrol. The brute stayed at the back of the group by several paces, while four grunts hobbled along at the front. They were armed with basic plasma pistols and plasma rifles. Five of them in total. The brute barked out a command, and the grunts marched along just a bit faster.
Moments went by, until the entirety of the patrol walked into her line of sight. She could see them all at once.
Grunts are gonna flee when I... Zhaojun took aim and rested her sights on the brute. At such an extremely close range, she wouldn't even need to aim for its head. So she aimed at center-mass and fired. The sniper rifle roared with a distinct crack and smoke puffed along the barrel's exhaust ports. A 8.68mm Armor-Piercing Full Metal Jacket blew open the brute's torso and tore clean through out the other side. By the time the brute hit the ground, Zhaojun had already pulled back the bolt and chambered another round. None of the grunts reacted quick enough, seemingly too stunned to process what'd happened.
Zhaojun fired again, this shot tearing through the leading grunt. Its methane pack exploded on its back; nothing was left of the grunt's head but a gushing mass of meat and blood. The other grunts finally broke off, each of them fleeing deeper into the woods. From her position, Zhaojun was able to track them easily. Within mere seconds, she chambered two more rounds and killed two more grunts, leaving just one that managed to break her line of sight just in time.
"Get back here," she called out.
She slung her rifle and got to her feet, sprinting after the grunt. It fired desperate plasma rounds in an attempt to slow her down, but the shots were horribly inaccurate. Despite its efforts, the grunt didn't make it far.
In just a few seconds, Zhaojun caught up to it. She rounded past a tree and leaped off a large rock embedded within the ground beside it. Midways through the air, she whipped out one of her combat knives; with a practiced flick, the blade whisked through the air and plunged into one of the grunt's legs, maiming it on the spot. She hit the ground moving, and the grunt frantically rolled onto its back, aiming its plasma pistol in one last attempt to kill her. Zhaojun rolled as the grunt fired, the shots sailing by overhead harmlessly. When she came to her feet, she threw a second blade. This one buried itself in the grunt's skull. Thick blood spewed out from the wound as the grunt toppled over and died.
The little reptile appeared along side her. It trotted up to the grunt and grabbed one of Zhaojun's knives with its mouth, yanking it out with a spurt of blood.
"Thanks," Zhaojun said, taking her knife from it. The reptile retrieved her other knife as well. "Alright - now scat, before you get killed."
Instead of fleeing, it jumped suddenly, leaping from the ground and landing perfectly balanced on her shoulder. Then it camouflaged again.
Might as well, she figured.
Zhaojun took a second to catch her breath, and to stop her hands from shaking. Took a moment to load another round in her ERSS. She decided to try her COM. It was no use trying to avoid them tracing her location; they already knew her general area now. On the Battlenet, there was a collage of communications all distorted, nearly all of them coming from the Combined Fleet up in space. She switched her way to OPCOM, and then to a localized channel.
"Caecin? Zhaojun here. Covenant patrols are active in this area - brutes and grunts, so far. If you can hear me, respond."
She waited a moment. No response. "Caecin, give me a sitrep. Fuck security protocols."
No response. She put some mischief in her voice. "Ghosting me after last night, huh? Don't act like you didn't enjoy that."
There was a brief communication signal, but it wasn't Caecin. She didn't recognize the voice, and whoever it was sounded as if they were in combat. Probably one of those ODSTs.
"Guess it's just me and you... Scat," Zhaojun said to the reptile. She felt Scat crawl its way to her other shoulder.
Zhaojun slung her rifle and headed off with Scat.
The further she moved, the louder the sounds of combat were. With any luck, the ODSTs would be pushing the Covenant back. If things were going smoothly, at least. This wasn't her first battle, but it was her first time deploying alongside UNSC forces. She'd spent weeks training with them on Reach prior to the operation; from what she could tell, they were eager and tenacious... But not as well-trained. Only time would tell if her assessment was correct.
When she reached the RV point, she hid in the shadow for a moment to wait and see. To observe. After a minute, she held up her wrist and tapped a button on her chronometer. Mission time was at 1017. No time to waste. She checked her COM again for Caecin, and again got no response.
Her firing position was just ahead. Zhaojun went prone and crawled her way past the RV, her armor getting slick with mud and dirt. Scat hopped off her back and crawled on its belly next to her, mimicking her yet again. Insects scurried into the darkness beneath her. Minutes went by. When she emerged from the forest on the far end, she found herself near a cliff's edge, and had a vantage point overlooking most of the battlefield finally. Far away and below her, warfare raged on a massive scale. Several hills rose up from another forested area, where Covenant defensive positions were embedded and fighting against encroaching ODSTs. Dropships ferried in Covenant infantry, and at least several Locusts crawled along the hills reigning dominant.
Zhaojun set the tripod for her ERSS-77 and adjusted the scope. She felt Scat crawl onto her back and curl up.
"Better hang on tight," she told Scat.
Through her scope she had a much better view. The ODSTs were gaining ground on the hill closest to her. ODSTs poured into a bunker that sat midway up the hill; it tunneled all the way to the apex. At the apex sat one of the giant artillery cannons, surrounded by a defense line guarded by grunts, jackals, skirmishers and many brutes. A brute chieftan, adorned in complex armor pauldrons and carrying a plasma repeater, coordinated fire on several ODST teams advancing along the hill. Then it pointed at the bunker, and a full team of brutes rushed into the bunker tunnel.
Zhaojun linked her helmet to the scope and let it calculate the distance, then adjusted her aim slightly. Let it hover just above the chieftan's head.
"Delta-2, firing one," she whispered to herself. Then she squeezed the trigger.
-In orbit above Magma V-
An attack wave. Three frigates, supported by a battleship. Purposefully ignoring the seraph fighters meant to screen them. Purposefully charging at full-speed.
As Gedo had anticipated.
Fleetmaster Gedo Nar 'Kululee shouted at his NAV team. "Now! Bring us about! Intercept their attack trajectory!"
The Infinite Potential veered hard to portside. Several small kinetic shells impacted along the ship's stern. Rather than merely detonating, they punctured the shielding along that section of the ship. An electric charge sizzled out from the shells before they exploded. Seconds later, that whole area of the shielding dissipated, exposing nearly a quarter of the vessel to enemy fire. Then came the massive human coilgun rounds. One of them missed, sailing past the ship's stern; the other three rounds connected; two of them flared the shields along the starboard side and drained them substantially. The last one scored a direct hit on the exposed section, blowing away several meters of armor plating. Nearly a thousand missiles streaked along behind the MAC shells. About half of them were picked off with point-defense turrets, while the rest impacted on the shields and exposed area, wreaking a moderate level of damage. A hull-breach alert issued for ship-section 29.
Good.
Shipmaster Ori 'Sumai's face appeared on the holoprojector. "Weapons ready, Fleetmaster!"
Seconds seemed to take an eternity. As the Infinite Potential continued along its trajectory, Ori's super-destroyer slowly regained its line-of-sight. The cannons along its prow were already heating. Had Gedo not blocked the enemy salvo, they might have destroyed the primary cannons on Ori's vessel - a loss that Gedo couldn't allow.
Instead, Ori now had a clean, fully-charged shot.
"Fire and withdraw," Gedo commanded. A note of calm confidence in his voice.
The Furious Vengeance unleashed a trio of plasma lance projectiles. Beams of ultraheated light-blue plasma arced from the super-destroyer like lightning. One lance blew clean through an enemy frigate and struck the battleship in formation at its stern. The frigate suffered a series of explosions along its portside before erupting in a brilliant detonation. Detritus drifted from the ship's torn remains, and the wounded battleship behind it thrust hard to starboard to avoid collision. The other two plasma lances connected on a pair of smaller frigates, one-shotting them both into clouds of debris and metal.
"Targets destroyed, Fleetmaster," NAV officer Hugo 'Antamee reported. "Initiating second-phase vector correction in mark 5."
Hugo counted down from five. Gedo held onto a nearby railing. His knuckles whitened. "Mark!"
They lurched at maximum velocity - just enough for Infinite Potential to make the sharpest possible course change without ripping the ship in half. Artificial gravity sensors beeped in alarm as they fought to maintain cohesion. From the corner of his eye, Gedo could just make out Hugo. The NAV officer's face was strained, but he skillfully guided the vessel until they stabilized.
The Systems officer Mbas 'Hesuvai called out from his control throne. "Shield sectors 11 and 13 are down to 24%. Sector 2 is down and recharging, E.T.R. one minute. Sectors 4 through 6 hold steady at 58%. We've sustained heavy damage to ship-section 29; armor plating is gone, and I've redirected huragok teams to begin repairs. Combat-readiness level estimate: fair."
Gedo stood to his full height. He clutched at the holy charm that hung about his neck, taking a moment to whisper a quick prayer. The gods had not yet forsaken him. Then he looked to his left. "Repa! Weapons status?"
Repa 'Antamee swiveled in his seat. "Unless we redirect energy from shielding, we won't be able to fire at full-power for another three minutes."
"Hett," Gedo cursed out loud in anger. They'd been in the thick of combat for a long time now. The weapons were simply too hot. "Don't change our energy output. Set our point-defense cannons to aft."
He peered at the radar feed. The four-pronged human fleet was finally pulling back to regroup. For the past two units, the entirety of the Ubiquitous Sanguinity fleet had been engaged with the humans non-stop. It'd taken everything Gedo and his sub-commanders had to stay alive. And the human fleetmaster was very, very clever. But Gedo had been just a bit more clever. The humans had already lost multiple ships, while the Ubiquitous Sanguinity hadn't yet lost a single vessel.
"Fall into formation with the Furious Vengeance," Gedo commanded his NAV team. "Alert the fleet to hold position at line Seceta."
As his bridge crew began work, Gedo headed toward the main command table at the room's center. Moved with a swiftness that belied his years. His battle cape flowed along his back like fluttering shadows in the dark.
A long sigh issued from his mouth. For the first time since the battle began, he had a moment to rest, even if brief.
Hieroglyphic alerts appeared from the command table when Gedo approached. Dozens of them. He extended a hand and began cycling through, filtering away the bulk of them until only the most critical remained. A warning report hieroglyphic - shaped like a cross - flashed green, with a golden outline around it. Next to it was a smaller symbol of the jiralhanae.
Bad news. Gedo tapped the hieroglyph, and the command table's surface vanished. In it's place was the holographic face of War Chieftan Gannikus. The recording was spotty, and Gedo had to input a suppression command to try and reduce the background noise of combat and warfare. The short message repeated in a loop.
"The humans have smashed us in force. And we've spotted several demons active on the battlefield. The Etulan Range is lost. I will regroup and gather forces at the Greater Spires. Our numbers stand equal challenge to defend the Lesser Spires as well. But we will need reinforcements if we are to hold them all."
The message ended there. For a second, Gedo was about to relay the distress call. Hesitation kept him from bouncing it across Magma V.
Things were... Delicate. Many under his command had balked at the thought of granting a brute such an important strategical role in defense of Ghalossus. Officially, Gedo had done so out of necessity: there were simply not enough high-ranking brethren to spread out at such extremes. And that was true. But left unsaid - even to Gedo's most trusted brothers - was that he respected the strength and experience of Gannikus. Part of him didn't want to relay the distress. Because it would be seen as a sign of weakness. A sign that jiralhanae were truly unfit to lead. Gedo decided to sit on the message for the time being.
If the Etulan Range was lost, then the humans must've targeted it for some reason. Targeted it with incredible force, from what he could tell. Which meant... What?
Gedo snapped around and shouted at his NAV officer. "Hugo! The human fleet!"
Hugo brought up a radar panel. "No change as of yet, Fleetmaster. New signal reports coming in. 3...2..."
"And?"
Hugo leaned forward, his face mere inches from the radar panel. Gedo knew that gaze, and he didn't like it at all.
"They're yet holding position, but... They've swapped out their first line. Battleships have fallen back, and they're now spearheaded by 4 carrier-type ships."
What type of fool would expose his carriers needlessly? Gedo turned back around and went to work at the holotable. After switching through several different modes, he finally made it to the geo-circular maps. The Ghalossus sat neatly within the largest continent, surrounded by mountain ranges, forests, vast seas and so on. Defensive spire rings sat in key strategical positions surrounding it. And the Etulan Range sat just beyond the western fields, right past the outskirts. So...
If I were the human commander, where would I strike? I've taken a foothold on the western front and secured a beachhead. In front of it lies great numbers and greater firepower. I need a secondary invasion route... No, rather, a primary invasion route. One closer to the Ghalossus where I can feasibly field a massive ground force. One that can proceed without threat of extra-range artillery cannons. Weapons that were knocked out when the Etulan Range fell.
A thought clicked in Gedo's mind. His eyes looked to the south of the Ghalossus. He input a command, and the geo-circular map switched over to it's tactical-control mode. Two icons popped up beneath the southern rim of the Ghalossus. Two armies, led by two of his trusted officers. This was where the humans would attack next. Undoubtedly with an even greater force. He had to warn them.
First Lieutenant Jane Shepard stood atop a pile of broken Covenant Locust wreckage, her visor magnified by 1.5x as she scanned the surrounding region to the east. The rain had stopped sometime ago, making visibility easier. Dropships limped away, their undersides leaking fuel and coolant. Occasional Covenant seraph fighters or UNSC broadswords collapsed from up above as the war for air superiority continued. Covenant troops peeled back across a river to the east, abandoning their positions along the mountain range in the face of the assault. Far off in that direction was more woods and various Covenant structures, and further beyond that, just above the horizon in the distance, was what looked like a series of spire defensive towers. No doubt, that was where the Covenant forces were heading to. And those spires would have to be taken out.
That was a fight for a later day, however. Jane reset her visor magnification. The final artillery cannon had been destroyed; with it, the first fight for Magma V had been won.
"Lieutenant!"
Jane turned to the voice, looking down from her perch and spotting Sergeant Lucius Cain waving to her. She swiftly clambered off the destroyed locust, meeting Lucius at eye level.
"What's the damage?," she asked.
"47 KIA, and 70 wounded. And 11 still missing," he added, his voice carrying a note of disappointment as he shrugged. "It's bad, but it could be worse."
She cringed at the numbers and felt slightly nauseated. Casualties totaling up to nearly half the company.
"Where're we going from here?"
"Well," she started, her gaze traveling around to her left and right. Troopers ran from one spot to the next, carrying supplies, ammunition, gear and equipment. Makeshift field stations and pre-fabs were being constructed: a medical station, a number of billeting tents, a communications array post, a command center, and various others. This location was going to serve as an FOB for the Jump-Jet Legion, as well as several other battalions, until further notice. "Captain Sparr's orders are to stay here and regroup for the time being. We'll probably be here until the general gives the word to advance."
"And when will that be?"
"Some time after the main invasion begins. Days from now, likely."
"Gotta be honest. I don't like the idea of sitting around while Covenant are nearby. Makes me get... Twitchy," he commented, holding up his prosthetic hand and rubbing the fingers together.
"This is a good position for sitting around in, at least." She looked at Lucius. "Any word on Sergeant Rictus?"
He turned to face the west. Back in the direction they'd attacked from. A few more SOEIV pods were still dropping in, but those were just supply and order-carrier pods. The forest on that side had been nearly blown to shreds from Covenant mortar bombardment, and there were probably well over a thousand bodies still left to be found in it. "He's still MIA. Could be anywhere in this mess. Once we get our scramblers online, we can get a communications network up. See if he's with another unit."
Jane yawned suddenly. Her eyelids were heavier than normal and distinctive muscle pain flared along her back and shoulders. Felt like someone had been hammering her back with a baseball bat. Beating it until the pain was all-consuming. She took a moment to check her wrist-chronometer. I've been up for over 36 hours. Jane pulled her helmet off and sat down on the ground, then stretched out and used her helmet as a pillow. One lesson she'd learned since being in the infantry was how to find sleep under any conditions.
"You good?" Lucius asked.
"Get someone to wake me up in 35 minutes, please. Thank you."
Lucius nodded once then marched off, and Jane closed her eyes.
Someone patted her on the shoulder. Jane opened her eyes to see Jain crouching next to her.
"Hey."
Jane checked her chronometer. Thirty minutes had already passed just that quick. "Well, you're early."
"Word just came down the line," Jain said, smiling from behind her helmet. "Guys from 41st found a Covvie listening outpost about 2 clicks southeast."
"Ohkay. What's that got to do with us?"
Jain unstrapped the LMG from her back. "We can get in on that."
"Let them handle that."
"Lieutenant," Jain insisted. "I ain't had my fill yet."
Jane relented. "Ohkay. Take Pall and someone else with you. And ask the Brigade if they've seen any of our MIAs."