Pallonis observed the latest status reports from the front.
Jirris IFV losses had been minimal due to deployment at extreme range. Their rockets had quickly proven an indispensable asset to the Turians at the front, their missiles proving capable of destroying points of Covenant resistance with continued strikes.
The Tyrus IFV and MBT's had been taking disproportionate losses. He marked that for study by the Hierarchy. He'd recommend the development of a new heavy, something that could more easily stand up to sustained plasma strikes. If contact with the full UNSC could be established, they'd try to bring some of their tank designers over. Ask them how they dealt with plasma.
Turian forces were beginning to break off from the siege of the city in small advance groups, to prepare for the push on the gravity lift. So far the Covenant did not show any sign they'd caught wind of these activities, and Pallonis was happy to keep it that way. The human forces were moving up as well, driving a mixture of military and captured human vehicles. Some even piling onto All-terrain-bikes.
Major Ross's omni-tool went off. He and the rest of the UNSC officers had been given simple versions of the devices to aid in communications, and had quickly grown accustomed to using the intuitive interface.
"Group two has been found by Covenant scouts. They won't hold for long" He said gravely. "They'll know our plans now."
"Can we try a remote detonation?"
"Unlikely. We've been cut off from regular UNSC supplies for so long, we've had to make some of these nukes locally. I don't trust them to hold up under fire like military-grade ordinance would. It would be easy for the Covenant to render them inoperative." Pallonis thought back to a story he'd heard as a child. Of a makeshift separatist fission bomb that couldn't explode after it fell and something delicate broke. The movie made about it had been quite amusing, if a bit too sympathetic towards the separatists. But those were Asari for you.
Pallonis looked at the tactical map. His troops were well outside the blast radius for the weapons the UNSC marines had planted. But his deployment for the attack on the gravity lifts were far from ready. The Covenant would have more time to prepare than he liked. But if he didn't and one nuke failed, they'd only have two more, and a city full of Covenant that still needed clearing. It might take longer than if they activated them now, kept a small force to clear survivors and take prisoners, and then sent everything they had to prepare for the final assault.
He'd made his decision. "Do it."
The Major nodded, and pressed the large red hologram on his omni-tool.
-
Gedrus pulled his omni-blade out of the Grunt, pushing the large bulky creature away from him. The thing had almost managed to strangle him when its weapon ran out and it charged in a suicidal frenzy. The creatures looked feeble at a distance, but up close, they were two-hundred and fifty pounds of crustacean anger compressed into a tiny ball.
He and what remained of his squad had been fighting for what felt like an eternity in this hellish urban war. Even if it had barely been more than an hour so far. The Covenant attacks were relentless, and they were quickly learning how the Turians were fighting. They were getting dangerously close to Turian lines whenever possible, making calling in fire support risk friendly fire.
His squad had left their position in the human buildings when the Covenant forces had been driven from the city block at a horrific cost of lives. Hundreds of Turians lay dead across the city. The historians of the Thirteenth Legion would have their hands full cataloguing every name.
His armor was covered in plasma burns and scrapes, and his suit had pumped him full of enough combat stimulants to keep him going. He'd never fought with these kinds of injuries before. He'd not lost any limbs, but even a grazing plasma bolt could melt armor and blister the skin beneath. But he would fight on. Their duty demanded it. He taked the omni-tool of a fallen soldier and used the omni-gel to begin fixing the damage to his armor.
"Prepare for high-energy burst weapon deployment." The warning went out across the battlenet. Gedrus had done the drills. But he'd never been on the surface of a planet subjected to the deployment of fusion weaponry. He quickly put his engrained training into practice.
Visors polarized, and suit seals were examined. Soldiers began applying omni-gel to holes in their armor and getting into cover. No radiological alert had gone out, which meant a pure fusion weapon.
The ground shook as three suns lit up in the distance. The shockwave levelled buildings and broke every remaining window in the city. The fireballs swallowed whole sections of the city and levelled others. The Covenant onslaught stopped for a moment, shaken by the surprise attack.
This moment of hesitation was exploited ruthlessly by the Turians, who resumed the attack. The Covenant lines, already flagging, broke with the final push. A new massive volley of Jirris-launched missiles rained down on the Covenant, taking out positions they could retreat into.
Gedrus was about to rejoin the assault, when Nialla spoke up. "New orders. We're to head to the plaza west of here and take a transport north towards our new rally points. Once we're inside our transport, chow down on your rations and check your equipment. We'll be reformed into new formations and prepared for deployments as reserves." They quickly got into marching order and began heading towards their rally point.
-
Vado'Mavamee yelled at his subordinates. "I want the anti-aircraft cannons operational as soon as possible. Set up any portable defenses we have, and prepare damage-support teams for if they hit the Cruiser as well!"
They had been caught by surprise by the sudden detonation of nuclear ordinance by the humans, but quickly snapped out of it. He'd received reports of humans in the sewers, but had written them off as rats avoiding the boot.
His forces in the city were as good as dead, reduced to a handful of squads which were being taken down one by one, with only a handful of Sangheili and Mgalekgolo boarding dropships and making it out without being shot down.
The only thing that might have saved what remained of his men was that he had not immediately thrown his forces into a breakout. If he'd done that, the enemy armored forces could have hit his advancing forces from all sides and crushed them, instead, they'd been put to work preparing defenses.
Shades in dug in emplacements, Type-38 Tyrants, Type-48 artillery turrets, and enough plasma turrets with overlapping fields of fire to make any advance a murderous slog. Recharge stations had been placed, weapons readied, rations handed out. He could hold the ship for at least a day. Maybe two. By that time, his reinforcements would arrive.
He'd stopped counting on the remnants of his fleet winning the battle in space. Both sides were staying away from the other, exchanging fire at extreme range and using solar bodies as cover. Neither had suffered a permanent ship-loss since the last engagement, both sitting outside the maximum firing range of the other, occasionally making a move towards the planet, then backing off when the other side began moving in to intercept.
If one side lost the void battle they'd lose the war on the ground, and they both knew it. This was no time to take risks. He respected that in his opponent. Striking hard and fast to cause maximum damage, then staying at a distance to wait for a good opportunity.
"Major. Status report." He commanded.
"The human and unknown forces are taking up positions that would seem to imply a planned assault. I've had the shield-generators reinforced in preparation of bombardment."
The shipmaster nodded at Vul 'Vratumee. The Major's star was on the ascent. A formidable fighter, and a keen intelligent mind. He'd undoubtedly become a fine commander.
The city really had seen better days. Most buildings had taken some kind of missile or plasma strikes during the fighting, and the bodies of the fallen from both sides lay out in the open. Not to mention the bodies of the humans who'd been slaughtered in the streets. Gedrus had not paid any attention to them as he'd fought his way through the city, but now without distractions, he could see just how many there were.
Most of the bodies had been so shot up by Covenant plasma weaponry, it was hard to get an accurate count. But just going by the amount of skulls, the slaughter was monumental. It reminded him of the stories of Turian worlds occupied by the Krogan during the rebellions. But at least the Krogan had ruled conquered peoples, not slaughtered them to the last child.
Turian support personnel were already arriving to begin the process of preparing the turian dead to be sent back to Palavan, while the Covenant dead were being stripped of equipment, and placed on mass burial pyres. He remembered the Energy Sword he'd taken, and reminded himself to bring it to the quartermaster after the battle. It had fizzled out after he'd taken it, but there had to be something worthwhile in it. He hoped the Salarians could make something of what they had discovered. Covenant energy shields could save a lot of turian lives.
He saw members of the Turian Engineering Corps surrounded by drones moving through the rubble, taking detailed measurements and scans of the battle damage, as well as collecting examples of Covenant technology. It would take some time to clear all the bodies from the city. But it would be done. The turian dead deserved nothing less.
He heard something moving near where he was. Some type of garbage dumpster. He made a "stop" hand signal, readied his shotgun, and moved over. The rest of the squad saw what he was doing, and did the same. A quick thermal scan confirmed there was a small shape inside of the container.
He opened the dumpster and looked inside, preparing himself for whatever was inside of it.
There was a human child inside. Small. Eyes wide with terror. So filthy that he couldn't make out what gender it was. He assumed by the short hair it was a male, but the face threw him off. The child was hyperventilating and looking at the Turian in barely contained horror.
"Stand down, everyone." He said. "Human survivor. A child."
Nialla took a look inside as well. "Gedrus, carry the child. We'll take him to the rally point and send him back with the wounded. "
Gedrus nodded and reached for the child, who was too stricken with fear to even move. He picked him up like he used to do with his own younger brother, resting on his right arm, left arm around his body to keep him secured.
He was about to move when he saw the flash of a camera. He turned to look at Nialla, her omni-tool activated and aimed at him.
"Congratulations, Private Gedrus. You're going to be on every extranet news site in the galaxy." Nialla said in the way only she could, that mix of heartfelt kindness, mixed with a wicked sense of schadenfreude, and an undertone of a miniscule amount of sadism.
Gedrus immediately realized that the picture was going to be sent to the Conflict Operations Messaging Legion on the first FTL tightbeam. Why wouldn't it be? It probably looked very inspiring. A Turian soldier carrying a human child away from a warzone.
"I hope I go up a citizenship-tier if that happens, Ma'am." He said snarkily, barely able to disguise how uncomfortable he felt about the prospect of being turned into some type of propaganda symbol. He was happy being a soldier, not sent around the galaxy on propaganda tours.
Nialla scoffed. "After today? I think we all deserve to go up a tier or two." They both laughed at that.