Chapter Ten

0300 Hours, July 24, 2555 (Military Calendar)

Unknown forest region

Tabah Region, Planet Leka, Katami System

A group of ten soldiers walked past Cobb as he lay prone in a lee between trees, all of them muttering to themselves in the local dialect as they attempted to follow the path being blazed by the civilians. Half of them carried flaming torches that cast long shadows, all of which jumped in time with the sputtering of the flame.

The other half had their swords held at the ready, casting wary glances around in case of ambush. Word had to have spread about the armoured monstrosity that barged into the tavern and killed two of their own before making off with some slaves, though Cobb wondered how much of what they knew was based on factual recall and what was based on wild exaggeration.

All the people in the tavern would have seen of him was a split second before being blinded by the flashbang. Even the people upstairs had only caught glimpses of him before ducking back into their rooms, and what few had actually gotten a good look were dead.

Nothing filled an absence of intelligence more than rampant speculation from people who weren't there, each retelling growing the tale all the more.

The most likely story they were telling each other was that he was a monster, sent by whatever deity they believed in to punish them for some wrongdoing, or a demon from the underworld seeking to claim the lives of the innocent for its own animalistic desires.

Whatever the tales, Cobb was adding to them as he worked to keep the civilians away from the soldiers. Despite his earlier musings, not all of the town's troops had deployed into the forest after them. Some had remained back at base to safeguard it against attack, around two-hundred by Cobb's estimate, and of those that did come into the forest they broke up into smaller groups, companies most likely, with specific avenues to search along.

In turn, the companies broke down into groups no bigger than twelve, and no smaller than eight, and spread out across a front more than a kilometre wide. Through the trees, Cobb could see the flickering torchlight of other search parties as they kept roughly the same pace. Voices filtered through the trees as well, the groups passing along whatever intelligence they had.

Cobb waited for the group he was watching to pull ahead before rising to his feet, combat knife held at the ready, stalking after them to close the gap between him and the rearguard until they were within arm's reach.

He surged forward before the soldier even knew he was there and clamped his hand over their mouth, plunging his knife into the soft flesh just behind their jaw and used his augmented strength to wrench it open in one fell swoop.

They let out a wet gurgle and dropped their sword, hands immediately moving to try and stem the flow of blood as they dropped to their knees, and by then Cobb was already heading for the next soldier in line who was only just turning around, alerted to something being off by his comrade's dying breaths.

Cobb stabbed him right in the gut, driving the blade of his knife all the way in and twisting it when it would go no further. He withdrew the knife and centred his attention on the next soldier, noting that behind them the rest of the group was turning around in alarm. One of them shouted out for help even as Cobb worked through the rest with mechanical precision, slashing and stabbing at them with a speed none could hope to match.

Before long all ten were lying on the forest floor, dead or dying, their wounds covered in copious amounts of blood, and Cobb melted back into the shadows as the groups on either side began converging on their position. Within thirty seconds, twenty more troops were clustered around the bodies and looking outwards for the culprit.

Two fragmentation grenades landed in their midst, detonating to eliminate about half in the blink of an eye and serious wound or maim the rest just as quickly. Soldiers clutched bloody stumps where arms or legs had been, or tried to hold in their guts as they cried out in pain.

More shouts could be heard as more groups closed in, doubling their pace on hearing the twin explosions and subsequent screaming, and Cobb settled on meeting the nearest one to whittle their numbers down further.

Knife still to hand, he charged at the lead soldier and jammed his blade into their chest, using his newfound handhold to hoist the soldier up into the air before slamming them down to the ground again, raising his head to stare directly at the next soldier along who stopped abruptly in their tracks, fear etched on their face.

Cobb withdrew his blade and charged at the soldier before they could recover, ramming the blade through the underside of their jaw and into their brain. They twitched once then fell still, then collapsed to the ground once Cobb removed his knife. He reversed his grip on the weapon and met the third soldier along, this time stabbing downwards directly into their brainpan.

Like before, the soldier's body let out a spasm as control was lost before dropping to the forest floor in an untidy heap.

The soldiers behind them saw this and came to a sudden, abrupt halt as they looked on at the carnage before them. To Cobb's augmented reaction times the whole engagement seemed to take ten or so seconds, but to an outsider it passed by in the blink of an eye.

Worse still, it was conducted by a being dressed entirely in metal yet made no noise, their face hidden behind a mirrored faceplate that reflected the sputtering orange glow of the torches, and towered over their largest member by a clear foot at the very minimum.

The five soldiers that Cobb had yet to engage with turned as one and fled away from him, four of them vanishing into the trees. The fifth, though, fell flat on their face once Cobb's knife embedded itself at the base of their skull as they turned to run. He darted forward and retrieved the weapon, taking a moment to look at where the rest of the soldiers were and plan his next move.

Word was slowly getting out to the rest of the soldiers something was in their midst and they were converging on his location just as quickly as their feet would carry them, which meant they were moving away from the civilians which is what Cobb had hoped on.

He lingered just long enough for the next batch of soldiers to catch a glimpse of him before sprinting off into the darkness, continuing the chase.

0600 Hours, July 24, 2555 (Military Calendar)

Unknown forest region

Tabah Region, Planet Leka, Katami System

The sun had not long since risen by the time Cobb reunited with Sophie, George and Molly, all of them footsore, weary and thirsty after stumbling through seven klicks of wild forests, huddled together in a small grove of trees as they took a moment to rest.

'You're a goddamn sight for sore eyes,' Sophie said when Cobb materialised from the trees, DMR held loosely across his chest. 'Where have you been?'

'Working,' Cobb said by way of reply, holding out a trio of water skins he had acquired from some soldiers. 'Didn't you wonder why nobody found you?'

By the time he made the decision to return to the civilians, more than 150 of the enemy were dead with half as many again taken out of action by serious wounds or deep, unbridled terror at seeing a Spartan tear through their friends. That still left close to five-hundred soldiers in the nearby vicinity, plus who knew how many reinforcements summoned by courier or messenger.

With the rising of the sun and plenty of time to collect and organise themselves, the chase would begin again in earnest. Cobb had no doubt the soldiers were readying animals that could track scents, or just sweeping the section of forest they had entered to pick up their trail. Even without his experience and training, the path left behind by the civilians was an easy thing to trail.

They had two, maybe three hours before the enemy found them.

Sophie opened her mouth to argue, or just question him, when her eyes locked onto the bloody stains surrounding Cobb's knife and hands, testaments to how many soldiers he had killed over the past few hours alone. Her mouth closed again and she accepted the proffered water skin, taking a long drink alongside George and Molly.

'Show me your feet,' Cobb said.

The civilians did as asked and hoisted their feet up into the air for Cobb who crouched down next to them, easing their shoes off to examine what lay beneath. He winced on seeing both the number of blisters and their sizes, knowing they were going to slow them down significantly. Some had already popped of their own accord and reformed, and the poor quality of the footwear each of the civilians wore meant infection was a very real threat.

But, that assumed they lived long enough for an infection to become a possibility.

They were still deep within enemy held territory and because he was out of range of a working satellite link, Cobb had yet to call in the Pelican to rescue them. As far as they or anyone else at Camp Rory knew it was still business as usual, and wouldn't be coming to extract him for another week.

Cobb dressed the blisters as best he could but it wasn't much, then handed out some of his rations as he sat back on his heels to plan his next move. Calling in the Pelican was obviously the only thing he could do, but it would take time to reach them. Those two hours he thought it would take for the enemy to catch up was only a guess, and an optimistic one at that. They might have already set out in the pre-dawn light and were less than two kilometres out from their position.

There was also the risk of exposure to contend with. Up until now, all flights had taken place only under cover of darkness and avoided obviously inhabited locations to try and maintain a low profile. If the enemy knew where their base was, they would assault it before reinforcements from the wider UNSC could come in.

A daylight flight would increase the detection risk tenfold, maybe more, but it would get here before they could be surrounded and overrun by the locals. Cobb might have been able to slip through their lines but he was under no illusions that the civilians would be able to manage the same. Nor did he imagine they would be treated well upon being recaptured.

'What are we going to do?' George asked in a low whisper.

There was also his limp to consider. Up close, Cobb saw that his leg had been broken at some point but the local doctors either couldn't or hadn't set it properly, leaving it to heal improperly and give him a pronounced limp that was slowing them down that bit more.

'I'm going to call in a Pelican,' Cobb said. 'It can be here inside of two hours to take us back home. We just need to avoid our new friends until then.'

'Like that'll happen,' Molly said under her breath. 'We're surrounded.'

Cobb cocked his head to one side as he looked at her, saying, 'I'm a paratrooper. We're supposed to be surrounded.'

0812 Hours, July 24, 2555 (Military Calendar)

Unknown forest region

Tabah Region, Planet Leka, Katami System

Cobb levelled his DMR at a soldier and fired, dropping them amidst a scream and spurt of blood, then shifted his attention to the next soldier and fired again. He was rewarded with another cry and the soldier went down, behind a fallen tree, but they weren't dead but they also weren't going to continue the chase anytime soon which was just as good.

He paused, searching for a third, then moved off when none immediately presented themselves and went after the civilians again.

For the past fifteen minutes he had been fighting a continuous rearguard action against the enemy's lead elements, working to keep them from coming within a hundred metres of the civilians as they hobbled down what had once been a stream or river. He would drop two or three at a time and that would be it for a few minutes, only for more to reappear and start the process all over again.

So long as it stayed like this it was sustainable and he could keep them off long enough for the Pelican to extract them, but Cobb knew this wasn't to be. If these soldiers had any sense, the few that kept appearing were only doing so to maintain contact with their foe whilst larger forces hurried on ahead and set up ambushes.

If that were to happen then they'd be in trouble, seeing as how Cobb was covering the rear and the civilians lacked communications with him. The first idea he would have of trouble would either come in the form of a scream or stumbling into the ambush himself, finding his wards held at the point of a sword if they weren't already dead.

Cobb jogged down the route the civilians were on, an old stream or river that had long since dried up, and found they hadn't wandered into an ambush just yet but they were seriously struggling to maintain their pace. All three had been up for more than twenty-four hours and been forced to travel across virgin forests without much in the way of breaks.

The threat of being captured again was motivating them to keep moving but soon it wouldn't be enough. As Cobb arrived he watched George collapse to the ground, his bad leg giving out, and it took both Sophie and Molly to get him up again. Sweat was beading on all their foreheads despite the cool morning air, from both nerves and exertion.

The Pelican was coming to extract them, Cobb having doubled back to a road to establish a clear SATCOM link with Primo Victoria, and according to a timer on his HUD it would only be another twenty minutes until it was close enough to do so. But then, the enemy could have launched their ambush by that point.

'How much longer till the Pelican arrives?' George asked between laboured breaths.

'Twenty minutes,' Cobb said. 'Approximately. They only have a rough fix on our location.'

'A rough fix?' Sophie said. 'That's it?'

Cobb nodded but didn't say anything else. He had no idea how badly the knowledge that only a single corvette, staffed by a single platoon of mostly green Marines, had come to rescue them would affect everyone's morale. Better they find out when they were safely away from this place and not in immediate danger.

A shout from somewhere behind them cut off any further questions from Sophie or the others, and Cobb immediately rose to greet the soldiers coming closer. He moved fifty metres and spied a flash of movement to his left, then his right, then half a dozen soldiers stepped out from the trees with swords and bows drawn.

One shouted an alarm out and pointed Cobb's way as another loosed off their arrow which glanced harmlessly off his shields, barely even causing them to give off their characteristic golden glow signalling a hit. In response, Cobb levelled his DMR at them and dropped each with a single round apiece. More took their places and he dropped them too, ejecting his spent magazine for a fresh once.

A third wave of soldiers appeared and Cobb fended that one off with the same ease, retreating back to the civilians when a fourth one didn't follow. Less than three minutes had passed since he left them, but when he returned Cobb found that George couldn't walk without assistance, Sophie on one side and Molly on the other, supporting him down the shallow path at an even slower pace now.

'How long?' Sophie asked.

'Fifteen minutes,' Cobb said. 'Approximately.'

That didn't include making their way to a suitable extraction point, assuming there was one within walking distance. Alternatively, they could winch the civilians into the dropship but Cobb couldn't remember if the Pelican was fitted with a hoist in the troop compartment. He didn't even know if it carried rope strong enough to support the weight of a grown adult.

Cobb frowned inside his helmet as the ways this mission could go sideways seemed to only increase, not decrease, detaching twice more from the civilians to fend off increasingly bolder attacks by the locals that made him wonder if they were even going to stage an ambush.

Then, at long last, his suit's COM system crackled to life as the Pelican finally came within range.

'Spartan Cobb, this is Pegasus. We are arriving on station. Please respond. Over.'

'Pegasus, Cobb,' he said. 'I read you.'

There was a second delay then, 'Spartan Cobb, say again. Last transmission broken.'

'Pegasus,' Cobb said. 'I read you. Activating waypoint.'

There was another delay as the Pelican drew closer before, 'Cobb, Pegasus. Acknowledged, we have your waypoint. You are one-seven klicks from our current location. Be advised, we are blind due to tree cover. Moving to cap your location at Cherubs Five, two klicks distance.'

'Copy, Pegasus,' Cobb said. 'Be advised, we have hostile groups approaching from our rear. Request immediate extraction. Can you designate suitable pickup point?'

'That's a negative on that one, Cobb,' Pegasus said. 'All I see is a sea of green. There are no breaks, repeat no breaks, in treetops within five kilometres your current. I can vector you in from here.'

Cobb looked at the civilians with him, at their gaunt and exhausted expressions, and at George's lame leg, and shook his head and said, 'We won't make it in time. Hostiles are in continuous contact. Pegasus, do you have any SAR gear aboard?'

'Negative on that one too, Cobb,' Pegasus said.

A long minute passed by with Cobb fending off another wave of enemies in that time, more than before. Soon enough they would attack in sufficient numbers to overwhelm his ability to kill them, and they would make it to the civilians. It didn't seem fair for them to get this far, elude capture for so long, only to be beaten down within sight of their Pelican as it orbited their position. Cobb could hear the whine of its engines through the trees, when it wasn't drowned out by the booming report of his DMR or the shouts of the pursuing soldiers.

'Cobb, Pegasus.'

'Pegasus, send it,' Cobb said.

'Cobb, we are north-northeast your current,' Pegasus began. 'It looks like there's a faint trail in the treetops, like, where the canopy thins out some. Can you confirm?'

He looked up to the canopy above and saw that was the case. The old stream they were following had prevented any trees from planting their roots down a narrow strip of land three or four metres wide, leaving a thin strip above where the branches of the trees either side just couldn't quite reach.

'Pegasus, Cobb, I can confirm the canopy thins out,' he said. 'We're following what was once a stream. There are no trees in this path tall enough to fill out the gap.'

'Copy, Cobb,' Pegasus said. A moment later, they added, 'Be advised, we're going to mow the lawn. Coming in from 018 true on a reciprocal heading.'

Cobb was only shocked for a split second as he grasped what Pegasus had in mind before regaining his composure to say, 'Acknowledged.'

Thirty seconds later the whine of the Pelican's engines cut through the forest air as the pilots lined it up and pushed the throttle forward, and Cobb couldn't help but wince in anticipation. The D77 airframe had a reputation for being durable, a consequence of having to undergo the stresses of re-entry, and were capable of taking more than a few knocks before breaking down.

Cobb didn't know if that held up when the pilots deliberately aimed for trees, though.

The gap carved by the stream might have been wide enough to accommodate the Pelican's main body, but not the engine units either side and the trees they were about to come into contact with weren't exactly young and thin. They had a heft and weight to them, and Pegasus was going to slam into numerous such trees with the vital, and delicate, thruster units that enabled the Pelican to fly.

Hopefully the pilots were aware of the impact tolerances of their bird and not letting emotions cloud their judgement, otherwise Cobb would find himself protecting a crashed Pelican against who knew how many thousands of troops whilst they waited for the Falcons to reach them.

'Impact,' Pegasus said scant seconds before their Pelican burst through the canopy and came into contact with the trees either side of the old stream, Cobb wincing with every dull thud as another tree was struck.

Sophie, George and Molly froze momentarily then threw themselves to the ground as the Pelican screamed over their heads, coming to an abrupt landing forty metres away. They took a moment then stood and made their way as best they could into the waiting passenger compartment, a shaken fireteam of Marines emerging from within with assault rifles drawn to cover their movement.

Cobb did the same and fired at a trio of locals that appeared from the Pelican's left side, stepping into the passenger bay and grabbing hold of an overhead rail, saying, 'Go,' to the crew chief.

He nodded and slapped the close button for the rear hatch, and the Pelican lurched into the air before pivoting in place to aim for the mountain Camp Rory was nestled on. As they flew, Cobb couldn't help but take notice of a slight juddering that hadn't been there before and some sparking panels, evidence that the Pelican hadn't come through its rough landing unscathed.

The crew chief gave him a wide, goofy smile, elated they had rescued some of the civilians, but Cobb just glared back at the man from behind his mirrored faceplate as anger began to well up in him following the brazen, almost reckless actions of the pilots that had come close to costing them their sole Pelican and means of moving large amounts of troops around Leka.

Slowly the smile faded and the crew chief seemed to wilt before Cobb's glare, busying himself with fixing a conduit that had come loose in the wake of the 'landing'.

'ETA to base, ninety-three minutes,' the pilot said over the intercom.

Cobb looked to where he thought the juddering was coming from and wondered if they'd make it at all.