2128 hours, May 11, 2542 (UNSC military calendar)
Northern plains, Covenant-occupied territory, New Milan
John-117 slammed his commandeered Ghost through the Jackal phalanx guarding the slope, the scout vehicle running the aliens over with a satisfying crunch. . The twin plasma guns kept firing: there was no shortage of targets.
Blue Team's attack came as a complete surprise to the Covenant guarding the slope. Grunts and Jackals bumped into each other, trying to scatter and get away from the Ghosts. The unlucky ones were sent flying by the stolen reconnaissance vehicles, which drove the rest into further panic and disarray.
Having run over a pack of Grunts, John maintained maximum speed as he aimed his Ghost at the entrance to the bunker in the Tyrant closer to the top. A pair of Shade turrets opened fire, tracking him, but Linda and Fred returned fire, reducing the turrets to slag.
"Blue-Two, Blue-Four, circle around the base of the gun. I'm going in."
Two lights lit up on his HUD in acknowledgement. Fred and Linda began deftly weaving through the crowds of the Covenant, smashing through the more organized groups and killing dozens.
Master Chief drove through the entrance to the first Tyrant, crushing the Elite in his way against the structure's wall; the front of the Ghost crumpled from the impact. Having jumped clear of the vehicle, John jammed his combat knife into a Grunt's forehead, then pulled out his pistol and opened fire, clearing the control room of other Grunts. An Elite charged him with an energy sword, so the Spartan sheathed the knife and grabbed his assault rifle, firing at the alien one-handed and then, once the shields collapsed, finishing it off with a pistol shot to the head. Re-holstering the rifle,, he kicked a Grunt's plasma pistol into the air, snatching it with his now-free left hand. John kept moving, disabling an Elite Major's shields with a charged plasma pistol shot and then double-tapping him.
He could hear explosions and carnage outside, as well as the sound of fuel rod cannons firing.
"Blue Team, this is Blue-Three. I've hijacked an Anti-Air Wraith. There's a dead Elite in my gunner seat." The fuel-rod cannon fire continued. "Second Tyrant inoperative. I've melted the barrel."
Meanwhile, John was working on destroying his target. The gun hadn't been activated yet, so setting off the plasma core wouldn't work, and a satchel charge would leave too much intact. Therefore, he resorted to pulling out anything that looked important and crushing it underfoot. After this he set explosive charges and activated TEAMCOM.
"Blue-Four, relocate to an advantageous position. Blue-Two, get in the Wraith's gunner seat." His response was the sound of a plasma pistol going off, followed by two gunshots. "Blue-One, I have captured a Revenant."
A Wraith tank, a Revenant, and a Ghost would be quite useful. Their own little armored convoy.-
Suddenly, Kelly yelled over the radio. "Covenant has just deployed drop pods on our position! Spec Ops and Wraiths de-cloaking around the base. Banshees and Spirits heading our way. They knew we'd be here."
John immediately realized what happened: the Covenant must have known there were Spartans in the field due to the attack on Target Alpha, so they'd turned the most likely target into a trap.
"Can we disengage?" John asked.
"No chance, Blue-One." Fred responded. "There are snipers and Spec ops all around us. They shot my Revenant apart and are now firing fuel rod guns at Blue-Three."
"Everyone, get to me. We'll make a stand with our backs to the cliff. All things failed, we can jump off and get a head start on them."
Captain Exaviel suddenly spoke up over the radio. "Blue Team, this is Circumference Actual. I am detecting massive Covenant forces heading towards your position. Dropships, tanks, Scarabs, and three whole Covenant legions. I am trying to scramble forces for evac, but Covenant fighters have launched from hidden airfields and achieved air superiority."
"We need you back at the Alessandro line. New Covenant anti-orbital guns have de-cloaked and just shot down a Marathon-class cruiser that contained a quarter of our ODST's. Our allies managed to slow their advance in the mountains, but they've brought up heavier gear in response. Scarabs, Anti-Air Wraiths and what must be a small fleet of dropships. They're blowing up whole mountains with antimatter charges to clear a path through for their forces. Stand by for updates."
John left the Tyrant's control room and took cover behind a barricade alongside Fred. The bodies were starting to pile up as they fought to keep the Covenant at bay, and the two settled into a rhythm: John took down the Elites' shields, then Fred shot them in the head.
To deprive the enemy of cover, John threw a grenade at a Covenant power core thirty meters away. The explosion blew apart both the core and a Covenant file behind it.
The Elites were now pulling back, but that just meant a "grunt shoot", as marines called it. And indeed, as the first dropship landed in the distance, a veritable tide of Grunts with their signature suicide backpacks poured out. They'd wear the Spartans down until their ammunition ran out, which would leave them open for an attack by the elites.
"Taking too much fire. Bailing! Blue-Four, cover me!" Kelly reported, leaping out of the Wraith and ripping the plasma turret free, which she then proceeded to use as a heavy machine gun, cutting down scores of Grunts.
Linda emptied her sniper rifle from a position behind a Covenant charging station, each round taking an Elite's head off. She had taken some grazing hits, however.
John turned around to peek over the ledge to check their escape route, only to see a pair of Hunters and a pack of Jackals looking up at him, the molten wreckage of Kelly's Ghost lying between them. The Covenant had expected them to flee off the cliff.
John sent a message to Exaviel. "Circumference, this is Blue Team. We require immediate extraction. We're pinned and surrounded." He said calmly, gunning down another elite.
There was a pause, before Exaviel responded. "The Air Force is fighting its way to you, but the Covenant Seraphs have air superiority. Admiral Karil is sending a frigate to brave the anti-orbital cannons to drop ODSTs near your position. I'm working to scramble some kind of evacuation force. I might have to ask our new friends to assist. Stand by."
John instantly knew that the frigate in question wouldn't be surviving the drop.
"Understood, sir." John switched to TEAMCOM. "Blue Team, support is on the way."
Now they had to hold out until reinforcements arrived, and so Kelly's shotgun roared, Linda's sniper rifle sang, Fred's DMR yelled, and John's assault rifle screamed, their thunderous chorus never ceasing.
The Grunts were now upon Fred and John and were falling by the dozen, each taking two bullets in the head. The Spartans' accuracy was impeccable, but there were just too many creatures. John lobbed another grenade to thin their ranks before continuing to fire. He was starting to run low on ammunition.
John put a 40mm grenade from his underbarrel launcher into a pack of Grunts and Jackals, while Fred dual-wielded his Magnum and a plasma pistol, scoring near-perfect headshots with each.
Their cover was starting to melt under the sustained plasma fire, and John threw himself from his cover to another barricade nearby, with Fred following suit. They immediately got back to work, and any Grunt that came close quickly succumbed under crossfire. Suddenly Fred took a plasma bolt to the chest, knocked back for just a second, before resuming firing; the MJOLNIR's plating held.
At that moment the first ODST pod slammed down, crushing an energy sword-fielding Elite like a bug. The hatch flew off, and an ODST with a shotgun stepped out and shot the nearest elite in the head.
More drop pods began hitting all around the combat area, the Helljumpers coming out of their pods guns blazing. The surprise assault broke the Covenant lines; the Elites rallied and returned fire, but had lost nearly all of their previous momentum as a result. And the pods kept coming.
"Blue Team, push them back!" John ordered, picking up two plasma rifles and unloading them into a sword-wielding Spec Ops Elite that charged him. John narrowly dodged the lightning-fast thrust, grabbed the Elite's wrist, broke it, and jammed his combat knife into its eye in the same motion. He activated its plasma grenades, then threw the body into a group of Spec Ops that had just finished cutting their way through an ODST squad.
As the dust cleared,John knelt down to pick up two submachine guns dropped by the fallen troopers, and unleashed lead upon the Covenant.
Exaviel came in again. "Blue Team, Admiral Karil has convinced our new friends to scramble stealth dropships of some kind to pick you up. Best we could arrange. Any Pelican we sent down would be destroyed."
"Captain, I have an idea." John said, gunning down a Jackal with a short burst. "We can use the HAVOK." He emptied the submachine gun in his right hand, threw it hard enough to crack the skull of a Grunt, then took the pistol from his hip and emptied it at the shields of an Elite, forcing it into cover. "I'll arm it, and hide it in the Tyrant somewhere. Then we detonate it when we're out of range, destroying the Covenant army with it."
There was a pause. "Authorised."
John immediately opened a nearby Covenant charging station, placed the HAVOK nuke inside, and entered the arming code. Remote detonation via radio signal would have to do. Closing the charging station, with a punch he deformed the lock; now the station would stay closed. Then he flipped it onto its front.
Fast-moving dart-shaped fighters flew overhead at an incredible speed, too small to be UNSC or Covenant. They dropped missiles onto the Covenant massing outside and shot down incoming dropships with bursts of cannon fire.
As John looked up, he could see a UNSC frigate breaking up; it had to have been the one which dropped off the ODSTs. John felt a pang of guilt at all the lives sacrificed to save him and his team, then took that guilt and turned it into anger against the Covenant.
Sergeant Kirta felt the dropship shake as it approached the coordinates the human admiral had given them. He'd asked the Citadel forces to extract a "high value asset" and keep silent about it. The STG contingent of the Citadel Expeditionary Force had immediately agreed to the terms put forward by the human and scrambled five stealth shuttles to retrieve the humans.
A heavily modified variation of the Turian M-32 Telkis, the Selana was essentially a very stealthy flying brick, capable of deploying a squad of salarian operatives and avoiding detection by radar, lidar, or any other sensors operating in the EM spectrum thanks to the monstrously overpowered mass effect core, which meant that the thrusters weretiny in comparison. The core generated mass concentrations that the shuttle would "fall" into. This allowed them to fly without any heat emissions from the engines.
However, it didn't stop the interior from being unbearably hot, as the heat was not allowed to escape, leading to a heat buildup that made the interior feel like an air car left out in the sun for hours. Every STG agent aboard had put their helmets on and activated the internal life support in order not to deal with unpleasantly high temperatures.
Kirta inspected his Venom. it was a sturdy weapon, capable of firing VI-guided explosive micro-munitions, or, when charged, cluster micro-grenades. He and the rest of his team had been equipped with the weapon, as well as the Scorpion heavy pistol for sidearms.
Kirta didn't like this war. Too many variables, too many unknowns, too much uncertainty. The salarians preferred winning a war before it started. But sometimes that was impossible, and the STG had to use every dirty trick in the book to win.
When the human admiral had with some visible hesitation asked if the Citadel forces could discreetly extract a human strike team Kirta's unit and another STG squad were assigned to the operation. The salarian fleet had lost its dreadnoughts in the battle. But the STG never stationed its troops on dreadnoughts. Too obvious. They spread them out over multiple generic cruisers instead, and had not lost any forces in the battle.
"Approaching extraction zone. We have not been detected by electronic sensors, but we are approaching visual range. Prepare for a hot drop." The pilot spoke up.
Kirta did a final equipment check, then got ready at the egress hatch. He activated the twin automatic guns that would unfold from the overhead to provide covering fire for the drop. Unlike the turian shuttles, the STG dropship was expected to be able to provide a measure of fire support for its passengers.
The shuttles set down on the ledge that the human strike forces were guarding, then the hatches opened.
Five double gun turrets unfolded from their "standby" position and began laying down suppressive fire, causing the Covenant to pause.
The STG squads inside the first two shuttles to land leapt out and opened fire on the Covenant, providing cover so the humans could board three unmanned shuttles. The Venom micro-munitions blew gaping holes into the Covenant formation, blasting off limbs, caving in chests, or taking down shields. The STG immediately began taking losses to enemy fire, however: a quarter of second squad died to automatic plasma fire the moment the hatch opened.
The humans seemed surprised for a moment, and hesitant to approach. So Kirta yelled, "Get in, humans!" and motioned at the three empty shuttles, as the salarians spread out and provided covering fire.
One of the black-armored humans screamed, "Look how much you lot fucked up! We just had to be bailed out by aliens," then laughed as he emptied his assault rifle to suppress a Covenant position.
Then a plasma round took off his head.
Suddenly Kirta saw a fast, large human in a full suit of heavy green armor and a helmet with a large yellow visor. It seemed to flow across the battlefield, dual-wielding submachine guns and cutting down scores of the Covenant. Its movements were uncannily swift and fluid, to say the least. It reminded Kirta of an Asari commando, if the commando were pumped full of so many chemical cocktails and illegal gene-mods they'd rip themselves apart.
Was the armor a life support system? Something to keep a highly augmented and heavily drugged body from ripping itself apart? Perhaps it was fused to their body. The implications were fascinating.
But there was no time to think about that. Kirta had a job to do.
He charged his Venom and fired a spread of cluster munitions, blowing apart a Jackal shield wall.
One of the armored behemoths, one with "087" on its chest plate, turned to look at Kirta, or more specifically, his weapon. For a brief moment, Kirta was worried the thing would try to take the weapon by force. Then it took out its own shotgun and shot past Kirta, blasting a cloaked elite, who was moments from beheading Kirta, in the chest. It then threw the weapon down and reached for a pistol from a fallen human.
Kirta double-tapped another Elite who leapt to the human as it reloaded, blasting it back. Kirta quickly offered his Scorpion pistol to the human. The giant snatched it up and began laying down suppressive fire, the sticky projectiles exploding with the force of a grenade, albeit without shrapnel. It apparently liked the weapon enough, as it snatched up a second one from a fallen STG agent and began dual wielding them.
"Cloaked combatants. Deploy chaff." Kirta ordered. He set the microfabricator of his omni-tool to produce a stream of thin metal slivers, his agents following suit. The foil floated in the air, and a cloaked soldier moving through it would find it sticking to his armor. And that was what happened: Kirta saw a moving clump of foil, and shot it twice center mass, then in the head. The first two shots took down the shields, and the third blew off its head.
The humans in black body armor were dragging their wounded aboard, while the heavily armored green giants were providing covering fire. Just in time; the fabricator in Kirta's Venom was starting to run short of mass. He was going to run out of ammo if he kept this up.
He activated his omni-tool and fired an incineration blast at a feathery Jackal without a shield, setting it on fire. The thing ran away screaming, only for another of the Covenant to shoot it in the head.
Kirta climbed back into his shuttle, waiting for his squad to join him, only to see they'd been cut down by an Elite in white armor. He felt a chill go down his spine: they'd been killed so quickly he hadn't even heard anything.
One of the salarians in the dropship next to him yelled at the green-armored behemoths, while pointing at Kirta's shuttle, "Your armor is too heavy! One of you has to get in that one!"
After an awkward pause, they complied. The one who took his pistol climbed into Kirta's shuttle, dragging a wounded human with each hand, and carrying an STG agent on its shoulder, using its pauldron and helmet to keep it in place. It placed the wounded down and whirled around to empty the last pistol rounds into the head of an elite, then shoved the pistol back into Kirta's hands.
The automatic turrets stopped firing as the hatches closed, and the shuttles blasted off, near-instantly reaching supersonic speeds.
"We set up a nuclear device before we fell back. How soon will we be out of its blast radius?" John asked the salarian next to him.
"What's the yield?" the alien asked.
John hesitated before answering. "Thirty megatons." He said.
"A minute should be enough."
John made some quick mental calculations. That meant the shuttle was traveling around more than 3000 kilometers an hour if it, but he barely felt it. Impressive.
It was the only thing helping him from feeling so out of place aboard the shuttle. These were undeniably aliens, with long slender bodies, three-fingered hands and flexible limbs. His instincts and training yelled at him to kill, and it took him a conscious effort not to flinch away when one of them bumped against him when the shuttle bobbed up and down.
He activated his radio and contacted the Circumference 's captain again. "Circumference, this is Blue-One. Blue Team and ODST support safely extracted."
"Good to hear, Spartan. I trust you made it all out intact?"
"Affirmative. But revealing our existence to these aliens was a serious breach of protocol. Was there no other extraction available?" John still wondered if he might have to kill the aliens who'd saved him. He hoped not.
"I'm afraid so, Chief. The Covenant won in the air. What's left of the Air Force is defending the airfields and landing zones for our reinforcements."
John felt his gut clench. He'd thought the battle for New Milan won already. "Captain, how bad is it?"
"All ODST forces deployed through the gap in their orbital defenses were wiped out by Elite Spec Ops and Rangers. And we're being pushed back on most fronts, even with our allies reinforcing our positions."
"How?" John inquired.
"According to satellite data, the Covenant have been hiding massive forces under cloaking fields or in underground bunkers. After shooting down the Utrecht they wiped out the ODSTs in the landing zones, as well as forcing our new allies to break off their own orbital insertions."
"No easy way to say it, Spartan, but the orbital assault failed. And Command has forbidden the deployment of large scale nuclear, chemical, or biological weaponry until the civilians are evacuated and the harvest has been shipped out. Until then we'll just have to dig in."
It was a sobering prospect. John hadn't thought about the food situation in the Inner Colonies. He'd not eaten any food that didn't come in a tube since a wilderness survival training course that had seen him and his fellow Spartans eating insects, fruit, and any fish or wild animals they'd managed to catch. But if the UNSC was refusing to use nuclear weapons for the sake of rescuing a harvest, things had to be truly desperate.
"I understand, Captain. Where do we redeploy?" John asked.
"You're going scarab-hunting."
The salarian from before tapped his shoulder. John fought back the instinct to rip the arm off. "We're out of the blast radius now."
John nodded and mentally willed his Mjolnir to send the activation signal. There was a mighty roar as the HAVOK detonated, and the sattelite feed in his HUD confirmed it. The Covenant base had been consumed in nuclear fire. At least the Covenant ambushers were dealt with.