1728 hours, September 16th, 2542 (UNSC military calendar)
Alexander Square, Bhaakto City, Equatorial Plains Province, Alluvion
After a hasty retreat from their now-compromised position, Ravager Squad, the survivors of 8th Jump Infantry and their human tagalongs stumbled across a Coalition strongpoint in an abandoned restaurant, close to one of the bridges. In there they had found a few surviving turian and human soldiers from a smattering of units, doing their best to hold the Covenant. Nialla's assistance was most welcome - her troops more than doubled the defenders' numbers.
The two-story restaurant, once overlooking a busy intersection, was now important to the Coalition forces as it could cover several approaches at once and thus served as a focal point in a ring of defensive strongpoints around the bridgehead. The defenders had wasted no time in fortifying the place with what they had on hand; from what Nialla could tell, they had a couple of heavy machine guns, snipers posted on the roof and even missile launchers taken off a disabled human vehicle. All those came in handy as the Covenant tried to force their way through, either in penny packets or in massive waves.
"Any luck on getting through to Command?" Nialla asked Socinus, a stocky turian corporal who had been in charge when Nialla and her Ravagers showed up. He was the commander here by right of survival , and he was clearly glad to have finally found someone else to foist the responsibility off on.
"No, ma'am. BATTLENET has been down for over twenty minutes. We've fallen back on local networks. Not a single word from Command," the kid, who Nialla could swear was shorter than even Kelnara, said, his voice cracking for but a moment. He peeked out of cover two times, then ducked back down and fired blindly, spraying and praying. "We can raise the bridge, Lambda-Five and Kappa-Two through Four, but they're pretty busy themselves."
"Thought so," Nialla grumbled as needle rifle rounds shot overhead. She popped out of cover and hosed down a trio of Grunt suicide bombers that charged towards them. Twenty rounds later the area was reprieve wouldn't last long. "Thanks anyway, Corporal."
Gelvod and Gelnis were with her on the ground floor, while Kelnara and Yeltis were upstairs. Yeltis was posted on the roof along with the other snipers, while Kelnara, lacking long-range options, manned an M-170 Thumper heavy machine gun and took to tearing Covenant soldiers apart with HE rounds with gusto, shouting obscenities and other remarks as she did, much to the delight of UNSC Marines. Sergeant Johnson and his marines were helping with perimeter defense, exacting a heavy toll on the Covenant troops.
As the Covenant kept trying to kill her, Nialla was finally able to wrap her head around the way they fought.
Moving in through the tiniest gaps in the Coalition's defenses, the jackals were quick, nimble, and outstanding marksmen. They struck at targets of opportunity with their carbines and needle rifles. The ones with energy shields were more of close range brawlers, getting in close and then using grenades and pistols. The latter were less dangerous, unless properly supported.
The grunts were often used as cannon fodder, and individually they could be dismissed for the most part. However, they made it hard to deal with the real threats. They were also lethal in close quarters, with a hell of a throwing arm, and surprisingly persistent, even brave sometimes. Some of them even tried to suicide-bomb Coalition troops when the push came to a shove.
The true danger however, were the elites - capable of feats of martial skill that put the finest Citadel soldiers to shame. They were also varying in skill, to the extreme. They ranged from overeager Minors, eager for glory and quick to get themselves killed, to utterly merciless and effective killing machines who required whole squads of infantry to take down. The standard response to a white or grey-armored elite was an airstrike.
And when combined, they formed a murderous onslaught that took the best the Turians had to offer, just to slow them down. Grunts attacked en masse to soften up the enemy, making them waste ammunition, while the Jackals used the distraction to get into opportune positions to provide fire support. And then the Elites would come and mercilessly exploit any weaknesses their subjects had exposed. When one added to that the Covenant plasma artillery, vehicles and the Hunters, used as a part of a combined arms force for a change, they became a much more challenging enemy.
There were several ghost and spectre wrecks in the plaza, raging as plasma lines and plastics burned with bright flue fire. The ground was littered by the bodies of fallen Coalition soldiers, gunned down in the initial retreat. Next to them were the bodies of the Covenant Skirmishers who'd been in pursuit, gunned down by hidden machine guns from Socinus's company.
The matte grey streets were started to pool with molten metal and streams of multi-colored blood. The Covenant had fallen in droves, but the majority were merely grunts, easily replaceable. Each fallen Coalition soldier represented years of training and commitment, and would not be so easily replaced. Nialla committed herself
Suddenly, an alert chimed inside Nialla's helmet, a stream of status messages rapidly scrolling down in the corner of her vision.
COMMAND CONNECTION RESTORED
RESTARTING BATTLENET
PLEASE HOLD
BATTLENET ONLINE
REQUESTING SECURITY KEY
SECURITY KEY ACCEPTED
WELCOME, T. NIALLA, S/N VN080-5401TU-5037107
RANK: SERGEANT
CLEARANCE LEVEL: SQUAD
!EMERGENCY PROMOTION!: ASSIGNED CO, 8 JUMP INF COY. NO ACTIVE COMPANY LEADERS ON THE ROLL. GRANTING TEMPORARY COMPANY LEVEL CLEARANCE
REBOOTING COMMAND-LEVEL BATTLENET: ACCESS GRANTED: COMPANY LEVEL
FIRE SUPPORT: READY: COMMUNICATIONS CLEARANCE GRANTED
STRATEGIC VI: ACTIVE: ACCESS GRANTED: COMPANY LEVEL
STRATMAP: ACTIVE: COMPANY LEVEL
REBOOTING COMPANY-LEVEL BATTLENET: ACCESS GRANTED: COMPANY LEVEL
TACTICAL VI: ACTIVE: ACCESS GRANTED: COMPANY LEVEL
!WARNING! COMPANY TACTICAL VI STORED IN HARDSUIT DUE TO LOSS OF ORIGINAL STORAGE DEVICE
CACHING TACTICAL VI IN NEARBY HARDSUITS: STAND BY
FOUR VI CACHES CREATED
REBOOTING SQUAD-LEVEL BATTLENET:
TACNET: ACTIVE: ACCESS: COMPANY LEVEL
TACMAP: ACTIVE: ACCESS: COMPANY LEVEL
SQUAD VI: ACTIVE: STORED IN HARDSUIT
SQUAD TACNET: ACTIVE: ACCESS: FULL
SUIT VI: ACTIVE
COMMUNICATIONS: ACTIVE
DOWNLOAD COMPLETE
COMMUNICATIONS STATUS:
MESSENGER DRONES: IN RANGE
CABLE TERMINALS: N/A
SUIT TRANSMITTER: ONLINE, COMMAND UPLINK ESTABLISHED
NO JAMMING DETECTED
LONG-RANGE COMMUNICATIONS ONLINE
FILTERING CACHED MESSAGES
ARCHIVING OUTDATED MESSAGES
TRANSMITTING RELEVANT MESSAGES
1 MESSAGE(S) SENT. CLEARING CACHE
As the BATTLENET came back online, so did her suit's more network-dependent functions. Immediately her TACMAP was updated with more precise data on the location of all friendly and enemy forces in her sector, with strength and range estimates, more data than she'd ever seen before. Now she understood why officers were so fond of their holotanks in the vids; a company commander processed a whole lot more data than a squad leader, and an omni-tool alone wouldn't cut it, even with the help of the company VI.
After fumbling with the settings for a few seconds, she shunted the TACMAP and STRATMAP feeds to her compad, and not too soon, as Yeltis called in."Boss, I've got eyes on a Covenant attack group. I've got…" the sniper paused for a second, clearly tallying the contacts and recalling the briefings, "a spectre and four ghosts on the southeastern approach, seven hundred meters out, with an infantry screen. Patching you in. Orders?"
True to his words, scores of new contacts sprung up on the TACMAP to the south-southeast. After a second or two of data-crunching the company VI gave her the estimates on enemy strength - an oversized platoon of grunts and jackals and even a few elites - and time of arrival - ninety seconds at most, assuming that the Covenant vehicles stuck with infantry.
"Wait for it, Yeltis, but load hi-ex. I'm calling in some help. You're clear to engage once it arrives," Nialla replied and switched the channels to call in fire support, the VI routing her to the nearest artillery unit available - a heavy mortar battery stationed a couple kilometers away, somewhere on the other side of Ellana.
"Amber-Two, this is Lambda-Three. Requesting fire support at grid 019 by 244, three rounds. The target is a mixed group of infantry and light vehicles, two platoons plus in strength. Transmitting data."
"Roger that, Lambda-Three. Stand by."
Seconds later, the first salvo of 200 mm mortar shells landed in the street, blasting apart the Covenant soldiers caught in the open. Taking that as their cue, the Coalition snipers opened fire as well. The Covenant assault group was stopped dead in its tracks. Surviving grunts and elites scattered and rushed into cover, taking heavy shrapnel or going down for good. The enemy vehicles boosted ahead, trying to get away.
Unfortunately, the turian gunners had staggered their shots so that shells would bracket their targets. The second salvo hit, and one ghost went flying head over heels, the damaged boosters going haywire. The other crashed down in the street, its driver catapulted from his seat by a shell and sniped before he could recover. The spectre was straddled by no less than three shell impacts that shredded its drive pads and sent it careening into a burnt-out building at highway speeds. The two surviving ghosts managed to boost away in time, the third salvo merely peppering them with shrapnel.
The defenders of the outpost opened fire, a veritable wall of metal meeting the ghosts head-on. One of the vehicles disintegrated within seconds, while the driver of the other was stripped of his shields and then his head by several high-explosive rounds.
"Target taken care of, Boss. Switching to targets of opportunity," Yeltis reported in a sing-song voice.
"Bragging about your qualifications again, Yeltis? Carry on," Nialla chuckled. So far, the surviving enemy infantry was still far enough away that they could do nothing more than scatter and take potshots at the defenders, which meant she had time to implement an idea that could increase her forces' effectiveness.
"Johnson, BATTLENET's back up. Patching you into our tactical feeds via your hardsuit," Nialla said, punching in a command into her omni-tool.
Moments later, Johnson's reply came in over the radio, full of faux incredulity. "You turians really need all this stuff clogging up your view? Proper marines only need an aiming reticle!" he said out loud, mirth clear in his voice. Chuckles could be heard in the channel.
"I can shut it off, Johnson." Nialla grinned internally, popping up and shooting a Jackal through the head. She had known its position before she moved thanks to her HUD highlighting its presence behind a wall. Her armor-piercing round went through the thin wall and blew out its brains.
"What. And say no to such a generous gift? From a fine lady like yourself? Hell no!" he said, firing a stream of incendiary rounds at a window the BATTLENET indicated a jackal was hiding behind. With the jackal suppressed, his outline on the HUD had blue stripes appear across it.
Nialla took her chance, and charged forward, grabbing a grenade from her belt and throwing it through the window, then with a mental command, the incendiary grenade exploded mid-air, sending a jet of flame out through the window. She didn't see the jackal die, but it screamed. She gave a mental command, and the stripes turned black. Assumed dead. She then used her armor's rockets to shoot herself backwards, landing on her back in the cover she'd used moments before.
One of the human marines, whose ID read "Private Omar Befali," laughed. "Look Sarge, another alien fell for you!" He popped up to lay down suppressive fire, when three Needles slammed into him. He froze, arms in a defensive posture.
"Shit. Barriers. Almost forgot. I can actually survive a few needles," the human muttered in embarrassment at his panicked reaction. "I'm still not used to having armor better than cardboard. What's it like you split-lipped alien fucks!? WE HAVE SHIELDS TOO NOW!." He yelled, half cheer and half battle cry, as he fired on fully automatic to suppress the Covenant advance.
A building in the middle of the contested street suddenly exploded outwards, the dust cloud covering the battlefield, however this did little to impede both sides, their armor's targeting systems effortlessly marking enemies on their HUD's.
"With great enjoyment: Die. Die. Die. Die."
An elcor in a full suit of powered armor strode out of a ruined building, his monotone voice booming. It looked like a tank that had gotten tired of being shot up by the infantry, and had grown arms to punch them. On the back of the elcor was a huge mass-accelerator with two barrels the size of Nialla's arm. Each of these blasted out a stream of high explosive rounds, while the elcor waddled forward. On each of its arms the elcor had a rapid-fire mass accelerator, which it used for precision as it moved, and a flamethrower that it used to spray down buildings concealing snipers.
"With barely restrained inappropriate glee: SUCK. ON. THIS."
The cover the Covenant was using was quite literally blown away by the elcor, driving them back as its guns ripped through barricades, vehicle wrecks, or punched holes through the sides of buildings. Nialla's hud marked him as "Private-equivalent Delnerro."
A grunt screamed from its hiding place and ran at the elcor, foaming at the mask and screeching. The elcor ponderously turned to look at the grunt, and reached for its head. It tightened its grip and lifted the grunt up, squeezing as it did. Then, with casual dismissal, the elcor let go of the now-headless corpse. It turned back towards the Covenant, raising its bloody hand, and firing the mass accelerator mounted on it at the Covenant forces across the street.
"Holy shit. I love these guys!" Private Passalaqua yelled. "Living tanks! You're my new best friend, buddy!"
"With proud concern and more than a little amusement: Stay with me, humans. Kill their anti-tank troops." The Elcor moved towards Sergeant Johnson's squad, laughing boisterously as it continued to provide covering fire. The humans chuckled and cheered over the COM.
With the BATTLENET back online, the Coalition forces fought with a new coordinated fury, their precision fire exacting a heavy toll upon the Covenant advance. Cover might as well have not existed for the Covenant, as any elite that tried to sneak closer to the defenders through a building, would quickly be spotted by heat sensors, and buried alive. They may have been outnumbered, but they made excellent use of the buildings for cover, and were forcing the Covenant to pay for each inch of ground.
Gelvod had holstered their Phaeston rifles, and were lugging the chaingun of a human warthog into position, propping it up with rubble. Gelvod squeezed off precision bursts that turned whatever Covenant they hit into Chunky salsa, while Gelnir spotted with his Hardsuit's sensor modules. He also helped feed the belt-fed weapon with a constant stream of ammunition.
Another pack of grunts swarmed forward, as jackal snipers in hidden locations emerged from cover and began laying down covering fire with their carbines. Three humans and two turians dropped, clutching wounds and screaming in pain. An elite carrying a heavy plasma turret opened fire from the roof of an abandoned building, lying down and suppressing the defenders, forcing Johnson and his squad into cover, and killing the only one marine who still had a functional rocket launcher. Socinus fell, clutching a chunk of his chest armor that had melted under the barrage, and fused to his skin. His almost teen-like screams of pain filled Nialla with a violent bloody resolve.
"Yeltis, Jackals. Kelnara, Elite. Twins, take down those grunts." She calmly said over SQUADCOM. She had no doubt in her mind about the skill of her Armigers.
Yeltis immediately shifted his aim, his formerly cheerful demeanor replaced with cold determination. The jackal snipers had been marked by the sensors of the hardsuits whose owners they had killed, and Yeltis knew exactly where to shoot. Each armor-piercing round punched through thin masonry and sheet metal walls, and one by one the guns went silent.
Kelnara leapt from cover and engaged her tactical cloak, disappearing from sight as she darted across the street, towards the building the Elite with the plasma turret was occupying.
Gelvod, Gelnis, and Nialla all fired a cryo blast at the oncoming grunts, freezing a dozen of them in place, and forcing the ones behind to stumble into or around their frozen comrade. Gelvod's chaingun then let rip, ripping through the grunts in explosions of ice, blood, and meat.
Movement from the rooftop caught Nialla's attention, and she turned to look. Kelnara had snuck up behind the elite and put her shotgun to the back of its head, blowing its brains out through the window. She'd picked up the plasma turret and was now firing it back at the Covenant. "Choooooooooooke ooooooooooon iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!" She screamed as the heavy turret sook in her hands as she moved. She used her thrusters to boost across the street and land back with Gelvod and Gelnis, offering them the turret, which Gelnis took from her hands and examined.
A message went out to all Coalition soldiers in the city, and the gruff voice of General Pallonis filled their ears again. "All forces, be advised, Covenant forces moving into the city are doubling in size. Stand your ground. The civilian evacuation is nearly complete."