1815 hours, September 16th, 2542 (UNSC military calendar)
Akseli St/Landing Ave intersection, Bhaakto City, Equatorial Plains Province, Alluvion
The Coalition forces fought a desperate fighting retreat, giving ground inch by inch as the Covenant pressed their advantage. Grunts kept attacking in waves, and the increasingly frequent attacks left behind so many bodies that Nialla could swear Elites and Jackals would soon be able to take cover behind the corpse piles. The city all around them echoed with weapons fire.
They'd had to fall back once the enemy was able to spare some artillery to shell them. Bombardment was short-lived thanks to Coalition counter-battery fire, but the damage had been already done. Gradually, the entire defense line had shrunk in on itself as the Coalition forces pulled back across the river… or fell to the Covenant. Not too long ago, powerful explosions signaled that Nialla's neighbors to the east were overrun, the few survivors triggering the stay-behind "presents" they'd set up and proceeding to punch through to the bridge. At least the newly-created walls of rubble slowed the Covenant down.
It wasn't all bad news, however. Surviving Coalition troops from the southern suburbs and beyond continued to trickle to the bridge in squad- and platoon-sized groups. Some survivors stuck with Nialla, bolstering her ad-hoc force. Command even sent some "special assets" her way; they turned out to be a trio of asari commandos whose ship had been shot down over the city. Their biotics had helped immensely against the increasingly heavy assaults the Covenant were launching.
At least they weren't being shelled for the moment, though Nialla guessed that would only last as long as Coalition still had air cover.
In the corner of her eye, Nialla could see a pair of Hunters engaged in an artillery duel of sorts with Private Delnerro. The gestalt creatures declined from getting into close range where asari commandos could figuratively and literally dismantle them with their biotics, instead opting to take potshots at the resident elcor. The tactic was paying off as the enemy infantry closed in.
Entire squads of blue-armored Elites, led by their red-armored compatriots, leapfrogged from one piece of cover to another; while one squad was on the move, another provided covering fire. The Coalition defenders had to keep their heads down as plasma bolts and carbine rounds whizzed overhead, punctuated with an occasional assault cannon blast. Nialla heard environmental alarms blare in her helmet; she was starting to feel the heat as plasma bolts splashed on her kinetic barriers. Then she had to drop back down into cover as a carbine round breached them. She'd been just a second too slow, however, and she registered a mild burning feeling as a follow-up shot clipped her arm. Nialla suspected that the result would be far worse than melted armor and damaged myomers if the arm had still been flesh and blood.
Gelnis and Gelvod seemed unfazed by the odds. The twins kept firing at the advancing aliens until their weapons overheated, then swapped them for the rifles they'd picked up from fallen soldiers at some point and continued firing. They fought in complete silence, their movements almost mechanical.
"Sergeant," Gelvod said, dropping back into cover, "we should begin pulling back."
Gelnis added to his brother's statement, finishing off a wounded Grunt, "Our position is compromised. Considering the enemy troops, the main Covenant force is likely already approaching."
As if to punctuate his statement, a series of explosions thundered in the distance, in the southwesterly direction. This could only mean one thing, and Nialla frantically checked the TACMAP again. She noted that the main Covenant advance was just over half a kilometer away from them, still moving up the main highway as they cleared away the remaining Coalition armor. Even the near-constant bombardment by Coalition artillery didn't seem to stop them long enough, which meant that soon the Covenant would overrun those still remaining on this side of the Ellana river. She made a decision.
Then a message appeared on her HUD, dispelling the last doubts she had.
LAMBDA-3, BRIDGEHEAD EVACUATION COMPLETE. BE ADVISED LAMBDA-5 HAS BEEN OVERRUN, NO SURVIVORS. EXTRACT IMMEDIATELY - IOTA-2
"Across the river, everyone! I need these Hunters out of our way!" Nialla barked into the radio.
"On it," was Yeltis' curt reply. Seconds later, he opened fire; Nialla poked her head out and zoomed in just in time to see the rounds spark off the Hunters' armor to little effect. As soon as they pivoted and returned fire, a blue streak lanced out, resolving into an asari commando who immediately launched a singularity. Immobilized, the Hunters finally fell to a fusillade of high-explosive shells from Delnerro's cannons. The Covenant infantry promptly hit the dirt as the quadruped turned his wrath on them, and the Coalition soldiers made a break for it. The elcor turned to follow them, his armor forcing his body to move faster than was comfortable.
"With great consternation: This is very painful," Delnerro intoned as he broke into a slow, uneven gallop and his back-mounted turret traversed to face behind the retreating soldiers, laying down covering fire.
The Ellana river was a hundred meters wide, and the bridge was only two hundred meters away, but that seemed like a continent away as Nialla's rag-tag command, barely over a platoon strong, leapfrogged down the street, the Covenant hot on their heels. A few more transponders vanished from the TACNET.
Then a missile salvo streaked over their heads and detonated amidst their pursuers, followed by a handful of heavy caliber shells. Looking up, Nialla saw a squadron of Coalition armor move around the corner ahead. The group consisted mostly of human Scorpion tanks, but there was also one of those house-sized, six-wheeled personnel carriers the humans were unreasonably fond of and a couple of Jiris IFVs. All of them sported heavy damage, with armor scorched, warped, melted and even outright missing in some places. Still, the vehicles were functional enough to turn the charging Covenant infantry into dust. They stopped for a moment, idling, as if waiting for something.
"They're waiting for us to climb on. They're saying the troop carriers are full, so tanks it is," Sergeant Johnson said, and he and his marines promptly over towards the nearest tank, climbing onto its drive bogies. The other humans followed suit as the turian soldiers with them looked at this bizarre display dubiously. After a couple seconds, the desire for survival won out, and the Citadel troops clambered atop the vehicles as well.
"Haven't ridden on tanks before, catfaces?" a human, one Corporal Petrova, chuckled as the armor column started up. Nialla just shrugged, gripping a safety bar.
The seven combat vehicles (plus one elcor) rolled across the bridge, trading fire with their pursuers, plasma nipping at their proverbial heels. The defenders on the other side also joined in, their massed fire stopping the enemy cold. . As soon as they reached the other side and cleared the blast radius, the Coalition soldiers dismounted while the giant troop carrier sped away into the city. NAV markers popped up on their HUDs, showing defensive positions they were to take. As instructed, the Ravagers and their tagalongs promptly took cover behind massive stone barriers - apparently built to prevent the traffic from falling, walking or driving into the river - and started digging in.
Nialla did not know who decided that large stone blocks were the right material for a roadside barrier,, but at this point she wanted to kiss that person.
"All troops, stay clear of the bridge," she heard the local commander over the radio. "Detonation in ten… nine… eight..."
When the countdown reached zero, a series of explosions raced down the length of the bridge , their report a rapid staccato, blowing out the support beams and collapsing the spans. The defenders let out a ragged cheer at that: the Covenant wouldn't be crossing the river so easily now.
1833 hours, September 16th, 2542 (UNSC military calendar)
North Ellana Embankment, Bhaakto City, Equatorial Plains Province, Alluvion
As the battlle continued, soldiers from all over the city that could be spared for the task fought at the possible crossing sites.
The voice of General Pallonis echoed over the COM. "The last civilian transport is away. I repeat. The last civilian transport is away."
A loud cheer went out across the defenders. They'd fought hard, but they had bought the evacuation the time they needed. A feeling of contagious elation spread through their ranks, as they took aim at the Covenant forces across the river, gunning down scores of advancing grunts carrying portable shield emitters and energy mortars.
Yeltis's sniper rifle rang out five times, and five grunts lost their heads. Then a sixth round rang out, and the grunt he hit exploded in a fireball, plasma grenades and methane tank detonating! "Aim for their grenades." He intoned over TACNET, shifting his aim as he continued to pick off attackers.
"Nice shooting." Sergeant Johnson said, whose assault rifle boomed once, and another grunt exploded. "But you got quite a ways to catch up before you best me."
Kelnere laughed. "Damn, I can smell the male hormones from here." Her Daedalus Shotgun's choke tightened, and the barrel adjusted for long range firing. She fired a single shot, and three grunts vanished as their plasma grenades set off a chain reaction. "But I think this kind of job requires a woman's touch."
"You're not a woman, you're some kind of half-woman half-varren hybrid. And your varren half is part thresher maw and cybernetically enhanced." Yeltis quipped, his rifle ringing out seven times, taking down six grunts and a jackal. The bodies of the grunts were piling up at the edge of the river, forming a macabre barrier for advancing jackals. Nialla felt disgusted at seeing one of the Jackals taking a quick cheeky bite out of one of the grunts.
The Coalition forces had a definite advantage at this range over most Covenant forces. Their armor's integrated targeting systems, supported by the LADAR and RADAR equipped drones that buzzed overhead coordinated by the cloud computing of the BATTLENET, allowed them to lay down an expertly aimed and distributed stream of projectiles that brought the Covenant advance to a halt.
"Look." Gelvod said, marking the grunts on their TACNET with a waypoint marker.
The grunt bodies were starting to smoke. Small canisters around their belts were spewing out a thick silvery smoke which blocked the targeting equipment of the Coalition soldiers. Nialla tried to combine her cybernetic eyes with her armor's higher grade targeting systems, but she could not see through the thick metallic smoke. A hundred hardsuits aimed their sensor equipment at the smoke, combining processing power to analyze the new phenomena. It was a thick smoke filled with metallic particles. Some form of lead based nanotechnology. A hundred recordings were taken, and immediately transmitted to the BATTLENET for review by high command.
More and more grunts were charging towards the large concrete barricades, dying in droves as they waved around their grenades. The smoke they created almost seemed to form a solid wall through which the BATTLENET could not penetrate, even with the combined sensory equipment of over a thousand Turian hardsuits. Eldritch green bolts shot out, taking down the drones that tried to fly closer and over the cloud. Large chunks of the TACMAP began going grey to signify a loss of feed.
An eerie silence descended on the battlefield, followed by a rumbling sound. Not taking any chances, Niala opened fire through the cloud with armor-piercing rounds, her squad following in her lead.
Through the smoke Nialla could see the outline of seven massive almost cylindrical vehicles rolled through the smoke upon massive spiked wheels, reinforced by the distinct glow on anti-gravity fields beneath their chassis. Anti-tank rounds bounced off heavy energy shielding, while dozens of plasma turrets returned fire, laying down streams of suppressive plasma fire. Wraith plasma bolts then appeared overhead, arcing downwards towards the defenders.
"Get down!" Johnson said, ducking behind cover as the Wraith strikes impacted, whole strongpoints disappearing in brilliant blue flashes.
The unknown vehicles turned their sides towards the other side of the bridge, revealing them to be as wide as three Wraith tanks. Massive spikes shot down from underneath the vehicles, anchoring them to the ground. Then in the blink of an eye, a wide slit at the bottom of the cylinder opened, and a wide platform shot out from it, crossing the span in seconds. They bridge slammed down onto the concrete barriers, flattening them, then attaching themselves with a series of long spikes.
"Bridging vehicles!" Someone to Nialla's right yelled.
A warning flashed on her HUD.
INCOMING ARTILLERY STRIKES: DANGER CLOSE AUTHORISED
Missiles and artillery shells began striking the bridging vehicles. Shields that spanned the entirety of the bridge began to flare, absorbing the damage. When a hole was blasted through one of the bridges, it began to close itself up as an automatic repair system kicked in.
Now hundreds of Covenant carbines and plasma rifles opened up through the thick fog, as red Wraith tanks began to engage Coalition armor with fuel rod cannon-equipped turrets. Screams of pain and death echoed from both sides of the river as the battle started up even more horrific than before.
Nialla didn't even need to think, moving purely on instinct as she fought. There was nothing to do now besides fight and try to stop the Covenant from crossing.
The sky went dark.
Nialla looked up, expecting to see a Covenant ship charging up its glassing beam. But instead she saw a burning half-destroyed Cruiser.
A single damaged Covenant cruiser was in a downwards flight towards the city, the shadow blotting out the sun for but a moment. Large chunks of the ship were breaking off, crashing down to the planet as spears of lights. There were some cheers at the sight, but the majority of the Coalition's soldiers were too engaged with the hectic firefight against Covenant forces to pay much attention.
Five Asari Cruisers were chasing after the crashing ship, their mass accelerators firing into the engines of the Covenant ship, while torpedoes shot out and embedded deep into the Covenant cruiser, detonating inside in whirling gravitational explosions.
There was a massive BANG as the 13th Company had been using as a base of operations was instantly flattened by a massive chunk of metal that had detached from the cruiser.
Nialla for a moment felt fear grip her heart as it looked like the Cruiser was going to slam into the city in a suicidal charge. Then her heart soared as silo-launched missiles flew in from the north and slammed into the underside of the cruiser, nuclear fireballs eating into the ship and breaking it apart. The Asari cruisers that had moments before been in pursuit released a swarm of dropships that sped towards the surface, as the cruisers broke off back towards Orbit, avoiding flights of Seraph fighters that attempted to engage them. Turian fighters and Human Broadsword fighters scrambled and engaged their Covenant opposites. One of the cruisers went down as Seraph fighters took out its engines.
Silence reigned for a second before a beam of green plasma lanced out from behind the Coalition lines, cutting buildings in half and cutting through one of the Asari cruisers instantly.
There was a thunderous footsteps, and a massive mechanical monstrosity on four legs rose up from the crater that used to be the 13th Company's building, its massive head scanning back and forth, then widening when it looked at another tank. Another stream of green death shot out, incinerating a hundred soldiers, and a dozen tanks.
"SCARAB!" Johnson yelled. "Target the joints!" He took aim with a rocket launcher taken from a dead soldier, and took aim at the so-called Scarab. Other soldiers began to do the same, trying to take down the new threat.
"What the fuck is that thing!?" Kelnara screamed, firing at it in fear. "Did they just drop that thing from orbit!? Wh-"
Yeltis grabbed Kelnara and pulled her down into cover. "We can gawk later. Run!" He said, grabbing Kelnara by the arm and running away from the creature's line of sight.
In an instant, the cohesion of the Coalition soldiers broke in the face of the sudden arrival of the Scarab, trying to counter the behemoth behind their lines. But as the Coalition soldiers got to their feet to relocate, the Covenant soldiers across the river opened fire with needle and carbine rounds. Soldiers went down, screaming as carbine rounds ate at their insides, or exploding when needle rounds supercombined inside of them. Either they stood and fought off the Covenant and the Scarab killed them. Or they tried to run, and would be gunned down.
Nialla took a needle round to the shoulder, her armor cratered and her cybernetic arm spasming before the automatic repair system could kick in. She folded her Phaeston into its carry-case format, and began using it as a pistol, her cybernetic grip allowing her to hold the weapon tight. Targets began lighting up on BATTLENET, hundreds of markers lit up in the cloud, each one designating an active enemy combatant. She fired strategic bursts at the source of the Carbine rounds.
A massive roar shook her bones, as a massive of brown fur and golden metal began to charge across the bridge. Brutes. Hundreds of the dreaded beasts charged across the bridge, crossing the distance faster than creatures their size had any right to. Caught between the Scarab and the forces across the river, and with their air-support engaged by Seraphs, the Coalition could do little to contest this crossing in time.
Nialla saw Gravity Hammers flatten Turians into paste or throwing them dozens of meters away, slamming into walls or each other. The Brutes were utterly merciless, and used their superior strength to great effect, barreling through defenders, sending them flying, kicking them to death, or picking a soldier up and ripping them limb from limb while roaring. The humans were targeted with particular gusto, with the Brutes striping the armor from those they grabbed, and devouring them alive without a shred of mercy. Fighting even as they stuffed human limbs into their massive jaws, chewing through armor, undersuit, flesh, and bone.
"C-cannibals." Kelnara muttered, sounding on the point of vomiting. "They're xenophages!" She took aim, opening fire at a group of brutes just twenty meters away. Her shotgun struck one in the chest, throwing it back for but a moment, only for it to roar in rage and charge her.
Yeltis took aim with his sniper rifle, kneecapping the oncoming brutes, then freezing off its head with a cryo blast. "We've lost. We need to evacuate."
Niala was inclined to agree, and then saw that the Scarab was sweeping another beam in their direction. She had only moments to react. Niallis grabbed Sergeant Johnson and jumped into the river with him, followed by the rest of Ravager team. Plasma hit her as she leapt, and everything went dark.
-
1852 hours, September 16th, 2542 (UNSC military calendar)
Secondary Command Center, Bhaakto City, Equatorial Plains Province, Alluvion
"NO NO NO NO NO!" Pallonis yelled as he saw what was happening. He didn't even know the Covenant could drop out Scarabs from orbit, not even the humans had known, or if they did, it hadnt been in any of the reports. HIs forces could have survived the Covenant's deployment of bridging vehicles or at least managed to contest the crossing, or survived the scarab drop. They might have even fought off a massed attack of Brutes. But not all three at the same time. Not when coordinated so well. Any defensive cohesion had been completely destroyed.
Everything was falling apart. The Reinforcement fleet had only just begun to engage the remaining three Covenant ships, and the Covenant was putting up fanatical resistance. No reinforcements would be landing until the Assault Carrier was disabled. And the Coalition didn't have any MAC guns operational to take them out. The 61st Battlegroup hadn't even arrived yet. And what if the Covenant brought up reinforcements?
"We're leaving." Spartan 104 said. "The battle is lost. I'm getting you off this planet before the Covenant overrun this position. "
"No. I'll remain with my men. They'll need me on the ground to coordinate an evacuation.. We'll regroup at-" He was immediately interrupted by the Spartan.
"We lost, General. Your capture would represent a significant security breach. Covenant Inquisitors have broken even the finest ODST's. I have seen the effects left by their mind-melter probes. Either you are going with us on the Pelican." The Spartan's faceplate and voice didn't betray the slightest hint of emotion. "Or I will be forced to deny the enemy the chance to capture you. Please do not force my hand."
The entire room went quiet, even one of the Spartans seemed somewhat surprised at this, but they did not speak up.
"Are you threatening-me, Spartan?" Pallonis asked incredulously. He didn't even consider making a move for his weapon. If the Spartans wanted him dead, there was nothing he could do. He noticed Saren discretely switching a Phaeston to armor piercing, but not take aim.
"My orders are to prevent the disruption of Command and Control on this planet, and to protect you as an intelligence asset. If I can't protect you, I will deny you to the enemy." The leading spartan said, then turned to the other Turians in the Command Center. "Destroy everything you can't carry. We're leaving now."
They looked at Pallonis for confirmation, and he just nodded somberly. "Bring me one of the suitcase computers, I'll coordinate a retreat from the Pelican. Call a full retreat to the spaceport, or the railway to the outskirts of the city. If they can't make it, have them flee into the hills and wait for EVAC."
-
2304 hours, September 16th, 2542 (UNSC military calendar)
Ellana Valley, 17 km NW from the Bhaakto City, Equatorial Plains Province, Alluvion
Nialla gasped for breath, clutching her chest. Her HUD was filled with red warning symbols, declaring large parts of her body heavily damaged and in need of cybernetic replacement. She needed a moment to get her bearings, trying to reorient herself and get back in tune with her cybernetics. Slowly, sound, color, and vision returned to her senses. Her cybernetic body's self repair systems had brought her back to consciousness after finishing the automatic repair sequence. She looked at her left arm, testing the damaged shoulder. It was fully functional.
"With annoyance at the state of things, but delighted at what I see: Nialla is alive." Delnerro growled.
Nialla looked around, seeing Delnerro crouching as a human was using an omni-tool to perform some maintenance on the Elcor's armor.
Kelnara was kneeling next to Nialla, using surgical tools to remove molten fragments from Nialla's cybernetics. The young turian looked shocked by what had happened, and was unusually silent. A human moved up behind her, and pumped a small squirt of biofoam into a cut on the back of Kelnara's neck. The Turian grimaced, then continued her repairs.
"Where do we go? The spaceport will have fallen by now. Shortly after our impromptu swim began, we received a transmission from the General, telling the troops to move at their best speed towards either the spaceport or the railway station - or scatter into the hills if they are unable to reach them in time. As of now, we've missed the deadline by hours, " Yeltis shrugged, leaning against his sniper rifle. He was talking to Sergeant Johnson, who Nialla noticed was dragging her heavy body.
"Incoming!" Johnson said, taking aim with a rocket launcher at something off in the distance. A Covenant Shadow APC had burst through the trees to the west, heading towards the survivors at high speed. But before someone could fire, one of the doors opened, and a green figure leant out to reveal himself, waving at the Coalition soldiers. It was a human in massive green armor, with a golden visor.
Johnson lowered the launcher, grinning from ear to ear. "Good news marines, we're going to make it. Prepare to move out! I have a feeling the gentle green giant there can use some help getting off this rock before the Covenant glasses it."