Gedrus examined his Phaeston rifle one last time before the attack began. His ammo block was fresh, his omni-tool was up to date, his barrier setting were configured for anti-plasma duty, his ablative armor coating had been enhanced. Disruptor? check. Armor-piercing? Check. Rad-rounds? Check. Cryo? Check. Incendiary? Check. He'd counted his grenades, and checked every function on his omni-tool. After the "Elites" had cut into them with their Swords, Omni-Blade programs were quickly distributed to all Turian soldiers. His Armax Arsenal Avalanche shotgun was ready. He'd had to get a replacement pistol after he gave his previous one to a human.
He climbed into the C77 Tyrus IFV that his squad had been assigned to. He hadn't bothered to get to know his new Squad members yet. Not until their first battle was over. Nearly his entire previous squad had been killed or incapacitated by the Covenant during their orbital drop.
Most of them weren't going to make it out of this battle alive, but none of them complained. This was their duty to their people. Victory would be won in Turian blood, as it always was. The devastation around them made it clear to them that the Covenant had to be stopped, at any cost. He'd put his affairs in order before mustering out. He was prepared to die for the Hierarchy. "Die for the cause." As the anthem went.
The squad leader, Sergeant Nialla, stood up inside the C77, her smaller frame probably making the trip a lot more comfortable than his. She activated her omni-tool and began transmitting a message from General Pallonis.
"Soldiers of the Hierarchy! I expect all of you to serve with dignity and valor as we bring the fight to the Covenant. "New Ghent" may not be our home, but it is in our galaxy, and therefore its the duty of the Hierarchy to defend it. Our task is to break the Covenant army on the surface of this world, and drive them into the abyss they crawled out of. Be prepared for the deployment of high energy burst weaponry."
There were mutterings in the IFV about using atomics on a Garden World, but nobody spoke up. They trusted the general.
"This will be an urban war, and a bloody one at that. The first wave will be honored for their sacrifice. Die for the cause."
Gedrus inwardly wished the General was better at speeches. But it worked.
Nialla spoke up. "Deployment in one minute. I've just received our orders. We are to engage in standard building-clearing operations against the Covenant and drive them from this city. Expect heavy resistance and air support. The flyboys are flying interdiction and close air support missions, while our artillery batteries are ready to fire on command." the warning lights went red. It was time to deploy. "VI drone scans will provide you with a 3d map of the fighting area. If we can't take a building due to resistance, call in a missile strike. If that doesn't work, we take it the old fashioned way"
"Incoming mortar!" The driver yelled. The IFV swerved to the side so fast they were nearly thrown out of their seat. The mass accelerator cannon and missile-racks atop the vehicle opened fire.
"Deploy, deploy!" The ramps dropped and they charged out. Immediately they came under fire from spikes of green energy that took out Arturis's skull the moment he stepped out of the Tyrus.
His fellow soldiers ignored him, they'd seen his lifesigns flatline.
Gedrus get into position behind the wreck of a human vehicle, laying down suppressive fire at the window the shots came from. With the window suppressed, his squad could move up.
Tollara prepared their squad's rocket launcher and fired it at the side of the building, bringing it down in a thunderous explosion. With the threat dealt with, Gedrus advanced to a HUD marker designated by Nialla. Grunts began popping out of cover in ruined storefronts, firing their plasma pistols and those weird purple crystals. He had a volley of crystals bounce of his barrier,, and a plasma bolt grace his armor. He and his squad opened fire immediately, punching through the flimsy wood used as cover. Upon further examination, it looked to be some kind of diner, or restauarant. Covenant snipers were firing from the building, and laying down suppressive fire with heavy plasma turrets that shredded an advancing Turian fireteam in seconds.
The city was lighting up in the early gloom of morning, plasma and mass accelerators flying overhead, Covenant dropships and Turian shuttles placing forces at strategic locations, while both armies forces advanced through the city.
"Enemy strongpoint. Designating!" Nialla yelled, and a marker appeared over their hud, designating it as danger close. Seconds later, a missile shot out of their Tyruss's missile racks and wreathed the building in flames. Burning Covenant troops ran out, and were gunned down mercilessly by the UNSC.
The Tyrus moved up behind their squad as they advanced, shooting any survivors that popped up out of the ruined building. The city was filled with Turian infantry formations, each of them moving as a team from building to building, clearing those in their path. IFF signifiers were sent back and forth, while communication passed between squad leaders. Drones mounting combat VI's flew overhead to map the enemy positions and update the real-time maps each Turian soldier had access to.
Streams of missiles flew overhead from the Turian lines, raining throughout the city, hitting tanks, troop clusters, and any buildings offering too much resistance to be cleared easily. The distinct sound of heavy shells hitting the ground rang in the distance. He didnt recall the Turians bringing barreled artillery, so he assumed it to be human.
As Gedrus was covering behind a ruined Covenant… weapon storage crate, charging station? He didn't know what they were, but they were large purple cylinders filled with Covenant weapons. He marked them on the tactical map for retrieval. They continued to advance, going from room to room in search of Covenant forces.
"Ambush!" Tollara yelled and fired a missile at a wall. The wall exploded in an explosion of concrete, and the gore of the enemies hiding behind it. His fireteam took up positions and began laying down covering fire as they prepared to cross a street. The other fireteam advanced, spriting to the other side.
Suddenly a beam of white energy punched through Gellonis's chest, killing him instantly.
The Covenant resistance was intensifying. He could see Elites leading Grunts out into the carnage of the street battles, catching the Turian's attentions while Jackal sniper fire intensified from all directions. His squad was pinned down behind rubble while their IFV opened fire on a squad of Elites that were advancing on their position. Its armor had seen better days, and its coaxial and missile racks had melted to non-existence.
"Damn humans build too sturdily!" Tollara yelled angrily as her missile failed to take out the side of a building she'd shot at. A burst of plasma hit her and Terrolis in the side. Terrolis fell into cover, his armor smoking and melting around the top of his chest armor, while Tollara had taken a round to her leg.
"Outer layer held." Terrolis confirmed across the squad channel.
"Plasma took off my leg, Tollara said in the squad channel." Gedrus moved over to see if he could provide first aid. The plasma had passed through the barrier, hit her kneecap, and melted through her knee. Only a small bit of the armor that remained stopped the whole limb from falling off.
Plasma began raining from the air. Huge bolts of blue plasma that carved melted through buildings, and made the Turians pay a murderous price for their advance. Whole squads pinned down by Covenant fire disappeared from the battlenet at a time. In response the Turians loosened their formation further, reducing some of the casualties taken.
Nialla came over to take a look. "Gedrus, carry her to the Tyrus and swap her with Nallex in the turret!" Tollara nodded and awkwardly hopped her way to the Tyrus with Gedrus supporting her. She quickly climbed into the turret, with Nallex helping her in, then grabbing his rifle and stepping out of the Tyrrus.
Then a barrage of green bolts hit the Tyrrus and ripped through the side, exploded inside, and killed Nallex, the driver, and Tollara instantly. There wasn't even enough left to bury. He picked up the Rocket launcher she'd dropped, and its ammunition. Two shots left. He'd use them sparringly.
Gedrus did not let his anger cloud his judgement. He whirled around and took aim at the advancing covenant. Laying down a stream of Incendiary rounds into the oncoming grunts, while Nialla gunned down the Elite who'd destroyed the Tyruss using disruptor rounds to break down the shields. The moment the shields of the Elite failed, Gedrus switched his fire and hit his chest with a burst of Rad-rounds. The Elite roared in pain and fell down.
Small fast-moving covenant fighters began to fly across the streets, strafing them with plasma bolts and some kind of explosive green plasma bombs.
"Get to cover!" Someone yelled, and fired his rocket-launcher at it. As he did so, the remaining Tyruss's began shooting them out of the air with their own missiles. Quickly learning of their mistake, the small fighters began to shoot the Tyruss's. One took a hit by a green bolt and looked as if it had melted in half.
Nialla looked ready to give the order to retreat, when another squad of Turians approached. Their armored covered in minor plasma burns, with one Turian having a vicious looking scar on his head which had blinded one eye.
The other lifesigns of his squad were quickly going down from intense Covenant sniper fire. He mourned each loss, but did not let them get in the way of his duty. They were in this to the end.
There was no opportunity to pull back squads, instead squad leaders and the battlenet automatically formed fractured groups of soldiers back up into full squads, as the Turian advance continued. They were taking losses, but they were still winning this. He looked up to see the Turian air-interdiction patrols begin hunting down the small Covenant fighters.
It was a glorious thing. Streams of missiles flying overhead, or curving down to hit targets on the ground.
He could see three Tyruss MBT's racing across a main road, firing their cannons and missiles as fast as they could. One being hit by four homing orbs of plasma that melted off half its armor and showed the internals. He could see the Turian driver pull out his service pistol and begin firing through the hole, until a green bolt hit him in the head.
The newly arrived soldiers took cover behind the ruined Tyruss and joined their two squad channels together with a single omni-tool command. "Our squad leader is dead. Elite cut him in half and killed half of us with grenades before we took it down."
Nialla nodded, then turned to look at a large reinforced skyscraped out of which they could see heavy Covenant fire. Those deadly green beams. Command needs that skyscraper cleared. We're going up the service stairs, while fifth platoon airdrops on its roof, and ninth platoon assaults the front gates. We'll be trying to clear it with airstrikes through the open windows, but limited only. Commands wants that building secured for our own snipers. The newly reformed squad quickly advanced through the rubble and towards a small side entrance. They switched to their shotguns and loaded Disruptor rounds. This was going to get nasty. He quickly checked if his omni-blade still functioned. It did.
Gedrus still hadn't read the names of his new squadmates. He decided he could make friends with the ones who survived.
"Terralis. Take the lead." Niadra commanded. He complied and threw a grenade into the building, then charged inside, with Gedrus and a new soldier, Gallis, following closely behind. Terralis unloaded into the chest of a Jackal, only to be tackled by an Elite in white armor, and instantly dispatched with a headshot from a plasma rifle. Gedrus and Gallis opened fire, hitting the Elite's shields, but not breaking them down before it shifted its aim and shot Galis in the throat with a precision burst. The last shot Gallis got off shattered the shields, and Gedrus's final shot before the heat-sink overloaded hit it in the chest. The Elite roared, his chest burning and bleeding, and took a handle from his belt. An unlit energy blade.
Acting on instinct, Gedrus activated his omni-blade and closed the distance quickly, stabbing the Elite in the chest. This did little to phase the Elite, as he threw him aside and into a wall, igniting the energy sword, and leaping forward, only for Nialla to hit him with a spread of cryo-ammo. The Elite froze mid-jump and broke in half at the waist where the shot had hit him when a second shot hit him. Its energy blade embedded in the wall so close to Gedrus's head, he could swear he felt the heat. He quickly took the blade from the Elite's hand and found the button to turn it off. It could be useful.
The Turians continued to advance, firing Shotguns and Phaestons as they moved up the stairs, and began clearing the building room by room, just like they had been trained. Incoming IFF-tags confirmed the presence of other Turian squads advancing through the building, the Turian battlenet's tactical VI's coordinating their advance.
On the fifth floor, Gedrus kicked open a door and saw a Jackal firing down into the streets below, a quick burst of fire from his rifle tore its head apart. He looked out the window and saw a determined Covenant advance heading through the street. Plasma-mortar tanks, full elite Squads, Jackal Phalanxes, and a -lot- of grunts.
Dropships were passing overhead. U shaped dropships with some kind of energy field in between the arms, and large bulbous dropships, both firing plasma-cannons on Turians he couldn't see from the window. A look on the live feed of the battle confirmed they were heading to stop an armored spearhead. He opened the digital copy UNSC field manual the STG had recovered with a few quick commands of his omni-tool, searching for their names.
"Enemy air-transport spotted. Spirits and Phantom dropships supporting a Covenant advance." He notified over the radio.
Nialla immediately responded. "Relayed. Air support moving to intercept. Take up positions at the windows and prepare to open fire. Deploy heavy weaponry."
He took Tollara's rocket and shot a rocket into the turret of a plasma-tank, blowing it off of the tank. He smiled at that.
One of the new squad members, a "Hadrian" according to the squad UI took aim with a M-490 Blackstorm Singularity projector and shot down the middle Phantom. The artificial singularity passing through the ship, crushing it like a can, then returning to normality in an explosion of radiation and heat. Then the squad opened fire, firing down into the advance, enacting a heavy toll.
The soldier next to Gedrus took a burst of plasma to his chest and stumbled, before a stream of pink needles embedded in the molten slag of the armor, and detonated, ripping open his chest and killing him instantly.
Gedrus readied a grenade when Nialla yelled. "Elites heading up the stairwell. Gedrus, Terrolis, block them!" He sent a confirmation ping across the squad network and moved into position at the top of the stairwell. He took most of his disc grenades and set it to remote detonation, and throw a few down the stairwell into strategic locations in the room.
There was nothing down the stairs, nothing he could see at least, when one of his mines gave off a proximity alert. He triggered the grenade immediately in an explosion of fire, revealing a shimmer that caught alight, upon seeing the revelation, he also detonated all the other grenades. The spec ops Elite roared as the explosions ripped him apart.
There was silence for a moment, then the sound of massed footsteps and muffled breathing. "Grunt mine-clearers." Gedrus quickly realized, regretting his decision to detonate the grenades early.
"Massed assault on the stairwell. Terrolis, rig it to blow." He told his comrade firmly. Terrolis took out his grenades and began setting them on the stairs. He had just enough time to set the final grenade when a Grunt appeared around a corner.
Gedrus shot it in the head, then switched to Incendiary and took aim down the corridor. He grit his teeth and shot the next who came around the corner. Then the next. Then another. He fired until the emergency venting activated. He cursed, and tried to override, but didn't have enough time.
The next grunt came around the corner with an overcharged pistol and shot Terrolis as he'd made the top of the stairs. The shot impacted the barrier, overloaded it, and cut the Turian in half. Gedrus dropped the Phaeston and switched to his Shotgun, the rad-rounds turning the grunt into green sludge.
One of the new squad members, Kellana, was dragging Terrolis's still alive upper-body away. The wound had cauterized. Perhaps they could cybernetically rebuild him? He hoped so. Terrolis was a good shot.
When the shotgun overheated, he ducked out of the line of sight, taking his fallen comrade's Phaeston and opening fire with it. Jackals were moving up now, advancing behind their energy shields, he switched to Disruptor. Those didnt go through the shields, but if they went past the shields, they could short them out. Sometimes.
A normal plasma bolt took him in the chest. Knocking him back into the wall, his armor's alarms went off. No catastrophic internal damage, but he'd lost a shield emitter. He activated his omni-tool and deployed a layer of rapidly hardening omni-gel onto damage.
The grenades Terrolis planted exploded, taking out the stairs.
"Sergeant. Stairs secured." He asked as he get back onto his feet. The rubble looked solid, and he went back into position at the window, firing suppressive fire into the Covenant positions.
A heavy Turian formation advanced on the street below the window, spearheaded by Tyruss MBT's. Their main cannons firing as fast as they could, while the coaxial Mass Accelerators blazed away at Covenant positions. Each of the tanks was pockmarked by plasma impacts, and their missile racks were almost uniformly spent. One didnt have a working coaxial anymore due to repeated plasma impacts warping the barrel.
One of the tank was cored by a stream of green energy, that then went to cut a second Tyruss in half. Scores of Turians died when the beams swept across them, burning them to piles of burnt slag and meat. The screams of the wounded and dying were loud enough to hear from several stories up.
"What the hell was that!?" He yelled, his usual calm broken by the curse.
Two… creatures in heavy armor were trudging through the street, some kind of heavy thick blue armor, with a shield in one arm, and a heavy cannon in the other. There was an ominous sound as the creatures charged up their weapons. Their appearance emboldened the Covenant, who continued their attack. Blue plasmabolts and those green projectiles reaping a heavy toll on the Turian soldiers as they tried to advance from cover to cover.
The remaining Turian MBT's turned their cannons to face the new threat, but not before a second volley was fired. Another two tanks died, as well as scores more men due to the beams being swept across their lines. Dozens upon dozens of Turians lay dead on the field, and the armored advance had been turned into slag. He saw a surviving Turian fire a singularity projector, at one of the creatures, which had the horrific effect of ripping its orange organs right out of its body.
Hadrian saw this and aimed his own weapon at the remaining creature and fires. He had just enough time to see it impact before a massive bolt of blue plasma incinterated him, three other soldiers, and melted a massive hole in the building that went several meters in.
The battlenet painted a bleak picture. Move Covenant forces were moving in across the city, moving forces to counter each Turian advance to counteract any encirclements. An army in Citadel space would have disengaged and looked for a better opportunity to attack, but the Covenant were fanatical. It was almost like they were in it for the fight itself. The fight and the soft targets the Turians were protecting. He grit his teeth and took the time to discharge the heat of his weapons. The fighting was only going to get heavier from here on out.