Author's Note: Part Two y'all.

Chapter Thirty-Four: What Remains

"What if this doesn't work, ma'am?" Major Delaney asked as he stood beside me on an outcrop of rock just south of the forest – part of the patchwork of trees where we'd encountered the rebels last time, and later the Prometheans. I knew that there were more out there this time.

I was ready.

"It will," I answered firmly.

My XO must've heard the confidence in my voice, because he didn't push for an explanation. Instead he turned his attention back to his datapad, watching the progress of our lone battalion in the field, waiting for the proverbial fireworks to go off.

My new approach had changed a plan a week in the making. It'd been usual, the norm, not unique – this alteration, done at the last minute, would fix that.

It was a gamble for sure. The least of which wasn't because of the two men I'd chosen to spearhead it.

"Murphy?" I said into the command channel, standing steady in a circle of Marines that made up my security detail. "Got a sitrep for me? What's happening down there?"

"Quiet, ma'am," the ex-ODST, and commander of my former battalion, replied. "The 8th is moving forward. No sign of movement so far."

His even tone sounded forced, and from that I knew he was turning over in his mind if he should trust my judgment or not. He thought I was leading him and his men to their deaths. Maybe I was. But if everything worked out as it should, it wouldn't necessarily come that. That's what I was banking on.

"Acknowledged. Send out a ping as soon as they appear," I said.

"Understood."

I switched channels then to a private one with the Elite leader. "Torran? Is your team in position?"

"Yes, human," he answered curtly. The channel went dead.

I smirked a little to myself. Torran and I would be strong allies after this was over, I could tell.

"Any updates?" Delaney asked when he saw me shift position after the calls had ended.

I shook my head. "Nothing yet, but we've got nothing but time right now. They'll show."

Finally I allowed myself to stare ahead. I couldn't see much past the line of trees in the distance, but our electronics helped with that. So did our last patrol. I was determined not to make the same mistakes again, so I'd tried a different tack this time. Before folding my arms across my chest, I pulled back my sleeve and checked my watch. We'd been here forty minutes already.

Nothing but time, I reminded myself.

I looked to my left and saw Gunnery Sergeant Gage York had left his faceplate up, same as me. Our eyes met briefly before a massive explosion rocked the trees ahead, and then the Eighth Engineers' lines erupted in gunfire.

"We've got contact!" Murphy cried into our shared channel, and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. This was it. What we'd all been waiting for.

"Colonel?" Murphy yelled again. "Do we push forward?"

"No," I answered calmly, unmoving. "You're to stay put, just like we discussed. Let the enemy come to you."

His tone was more forceful this time. "Colonel, I don't – "

"Flush them out, Major. Give 'em just enough resistance to make them fight back."

Make them think they have the advantage.

"We can try, ma'am, but they're – "

The open channel was consumed with sound then, and I could see and hear the battle further up getting more intense. My initial impulse was to pull my rifle off my back and join the fray, somehow, but I held myself in place. Now wasn't the time to be rash. I had to see this through, for better or for worse. For all our sakes.

I waited until the air had grown thick, even out here where my command group was gathered – our makeshift CP. I knew Marines had died during the initial contact. I regretted that, but it was a necessary part of what was to come. What might just save the rest of us.

I took a deep breath.

"Jack, pull back," I said into the COM channel.

His first reaction was disbelief, as I'd expected. "What?"

"The words you're looking for are 'yes, ma'am,' Major," I responded with a slight edge. "Make it happen."

I heard him start to protest. I cut the connection and didn't let him. He'd learn to trust me with this move I'd planned, or he'd go against orders, take matters into his own hands, and earn himself a court-martial for insubordination. If it were the latter, I was done with him anyway. If it were the former, this was the best way to ensure he'd reach that conclusion himself.

This wasn't the only precarious part of my plan. The next involved another person I didn't have the greatest relationship with at the moment, but when I called on him, he was professional and cordial, as always.

"Are your squadrons ready, Major?" I asked Willis over a private channel.

"Standing by, ma'am," he answered just as coolly.

"Let's get your flyboys in the air."

"Acknowledged."

I could feel the reverberations from the fight beneath my boots now. I motioned to Delaney and took his datapad to see what was going on dirtside. He'd been viewing helmet cam feed from a sergeant in Golf Company. Gunfire – from bullets as well as light rounds – filled the Marine's view. I watched him fire back, slip and fall in the tall grass, and then get back up in time to see a Knight warp out of existence from the machine gun fire to his left. I heard him breathing heavy inside his helmet before I disengaged from the feed.

"Murphy?"

"Yes, ma'am!" came the gruff, almost exasperated, response.

"Retreat now, Major. Get those Marines back."

"Colonel, I – "

I severed the connection again and switched channels.

"Major Hawk, bring in that payload now."

"Yes, ma'am. Coming in hot in one mike."

That's what I'd meant about time. Besides getting two people who currently hated me to listen to and trust me, I also needed their movements and attacks to coincide perfectly. It was why Delaney was up here with me, too. This phase of the plan required double-checking everyone's maneuvers to make sure it went off without a hitch.

Triple would've been even better.

I turned to my former classmate from War College. "Justin, can you get a clear read on your datapad? Are Murphy and the rest in the green zone yet?"

"Almost, ma'am. Just a little – "

"ETA?"

"Fifty-three seconds, Colonel."

I'd just spoken to Willis ten seconds ago. There'd be an overlap of three seconds. Three seconds, in this instance, meant lives potentially lost.

I took in another full breath and didn't let it go this time. If we managed to pull this off, it'd be by the skin of our teeth.

It'd all been a kind of game of chess. If I'd ordered Murphy to pull back too soon, the insurgents and robot-AIs may not have followed – or followed too early. If I'd ordered Murphy to pull back too late…more Marines would be lost. My Marines.

I brought down my faceplate and closed my eyes briefly as the seconds ticked by. Soon, this would be over, one way or another.

It has to work.

I glanced up and saw Willis and his squadrons coming in before I heard them pass overhead, and then their ordnance began to drop. All along our enemies' lines, now that they were out in the open field en masse, out of the relatively safe cover of the trees our Marines had retreated to.

It was slaughter on an enormous scale. It had to be.

I kept my eyes on the carnage in the distance even though all I could see were large dust plumes floating into the air between the trees. When the earth stopped shaking beneath us, I pulled out my datapad and checked. Everything beyond the green line, into the red zone, was greyed out. Meanwhile, the green zone was still flashing – pending.

"Hawk?" I said into the command channel.

"It's done, Cooper," my husband answered brusquely, and cut the connection. I frowned.

"Murphy?" I asked next.

Silence.

Delaney looked over at me, a worried look on his face. I stared back from behind my polarized faceplate and ignored it. Ignored the sudden twist in my gut, too.

"Jack, this is Lieutenant Colonel Cooper. Please respond with your status, over."

There was another lengthy pause, and my heart began to hammer inside my chest. Then –

"Murphy checking in, ma'am. Just did a quick roll-call with my company commanders. The Eighth is safe."

I almost released a relieved sigh. But before I did, I lifted my visor and checked with my XO. "Justin?"

Slowly, the apprehension in my second-in-command's face morphed into a grin.

"Eighty-percent losses projected for the enemy force, Colonel. This is – " He actually chuckled and then shook his head, still unbelieving. "This is fucking over."

Although I allowed the relief to wash over me now, too, I kept my expression neutral. This was far from over just yet, and I knew that.

"Except for one thing," I said to Delaney. "They've still got control of the portal, which means they can replenish their troops at any time. We can't. So that's our next step – we need to take it out." I finally smiled, just a little. "Luckily, that's a lot easier done when the path is clear." After pulling the battle rifle off my back, my smile changed to a small smirk. "Let's get the rest of the 52nd Regiment in gear, Major. We need to rendezvous with Torran's team now. We've got one more important hurdle to get past before we're truly done."

Waiting in the wings for my plan to go into motion had been tough; I'd had to show an unconcerned demeanor on the outside, but on the inside, I knew it'd be a disaster for our forces if it wasn't done right. Using Major Murphy's battalion as bait to lure out the rebel and Promethean force could have backfired - but it hadn't. Willis and his pilots had then been able to rain down hell upon them without cover, and now it was finally time to bring in my other two battalions - and Torran's group - to overwhelm the survivors and finish the job.

It felt good to be down in the trenches again. The hike over hadn't taken too long, surrounded by my security detail and spurred by our resounding success in the first phase of the attack. Now, after we hooked up with Torran and the Elites, it was onto Phase Two.

"Wayne, come up on the left flank with your batt," I said into the COM channel as we marched through the forest, silent and quick. Just ahead was the battlefield Willis and his air wing had decimated – I could smell it from here. "Marsh?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Bring the 213th in on the right. Murphy, you know what to do."

"Acknowledged, Colonel," the ex-Helljumper said. "Pushing forward again now."

Captain Theresa Marsh was Delaney's XO, taking over for him while my old classmate made his way back to his battalion. My other commanders also had their orders; that left Torran and his team of Sangheili.

I paused for just a second to take in our surroundings. "Torran, this is Lieutenant Colonel Cooper. We're almost – "

At the edge of the treeline, I'd been about to say. But I didn't get the chance.

"Colonel, get down!" Gunny York suddenly yelled at me, and before I knew what was happening, I found myself getting tackled to the ground as a barrage of gunfire tore through the air around us. The hail of bullets clipped branches, bark, and leaves as my detail dropped into the dirt as one, barely missing the eight of us.

"Report!" I said from my uncomfortable position before York tapped me on the shoulder to let me know to get up. I brought my rifle to bear at the same time, aiming down the sights, watching my electronics as well for movement. "What's – "

I saw the first reb shift through the trees ahead and squeezed the trigger instantly, out of pure instinct. Blood erupted from his chest as he fell. A figure moved right beside him, almost leaping for his body, and I fired another burst. She went down, too.

I knew it was a she because of her scream.

I blinked and almost missed the rest of the skirmish. More insurgents poured into the woods from the killing field, but these looked like stragglers – what was left of the enemy force after our air assault. Their fatigues were torn and blackened, and their movements slower. I raised my weapon, ready to fire again, but then stopped. I made a quick motion with my fist to indicate my Marines halt, too, to see what they did.

I was ready to show these wounded rebels mercy and render aid if they surrendered. But they opened fire instead.

My heart pounded in my chest as I hit the dirt again, and I heard someone from my detail cry out in pain – she'd been shot. And just like that, the anger bubbled up inside me again.

Goddammit.

"Get a corpsman over here now!" I yelled into the general channel, just before rising up to a crouch to take out the fucker who'd hit one of my team. "The rest of you, open up!"

We took down the first line of insurgents that ran at us quickly, but more were coming through now. Not all injured this time. It'd been a ploy – I saw that now. And I almost couldn't believe they'd done it.

Just as we were about to get overwhelmed, as Delaney and Mullen's batt hadn't made it up yet, I heard a distinctly alien growl to our left and saw a familiar crimson-armored Elite appear with a flash of his humming energy sword. As I kept my gun trained forward, I watched the progress of the glowing weapon in the shaded forest, swiping indiscriminately through the line of rebels before us.

And behind Torran came his Elites.

In seconds the platoon-size enemy element facing us was gone – they were just more bodies on the ground now. A whole minute passed with no further attacks, and I finally lowered the barrel of my rifle and took a deep, steadying breath.

"Ma'am," a female voice said over the COM then. It was Captain Marsh. "You wanted a report, Colonel."

"Yes," I replied hastily, still out of breath from the fight.

"I got off the COM with Commander Lloyd. That element you just encountered was the insurgents' forward patrol. They were scouting for our location."

I snorted to myself. "Well, they aren't anymore. And there's no one left to report back. Do we know where their command group is?"

"Negative, ma'am," Lloyd cut in then. "Commander Cooper and I are working on that now."

"Got it," I answered.

In the brief lull before we reached the open field, I thought of Laraza again. He was out here, somewhere. Had to be. But I could also imagine him being far from the carnage – in the past, he'd always left his dirty work to his underlings.

Before I got lost in that, though, I reminded myself that our first priority was still the portal. If we found Laraza and his daughter, too, that would be a bonus. But for now, we needed to stem the tide, and make sure no more Prometheans or rebels made it through the gateway.

"Keep at it, you two," I said over the radio to Lloyd. "Let my brother know we're pushing in now. If you find Laraza we can pivot, but only once that portal's gone."

"Will do, Colonel."

As soon as the connection cut I gestured to my detail and began moving forward once more. I saw Torran standing amongst his Elites, who were now mixed with my Marines, and gave him a slight nod. His blade was still lit and ready, although he lowered it as I approached.

"You came in at the right time, Torran," I said with an extended hand. "Thanks."

The Sangheili warrior looked back at me for a long moment before shaking it. "It had to be done. We have achieved our…what did you call it? Rendezvous? Shall we continue the assault now, human?"

I pulled my rifle closer to my chest, glancing ahead. "Yes. Let's." Then I sighed. "I don't know about the rebels, but I know for sure some Prometheans survived. We'll have to fight to get through the rest so we can get that damn gateway shut down. Are you ready?"

"I am always prepared, Colonel."

I nodded and turned away. I knew the smart thing at this point was to get an aerial vantage point before we continued. That meant contacting Willis.

"Hawk? What do you see?"

"A whole lot of destruction, ma'am," he answered without hesitation.

"Can you paint enemy areas of activity for us?"

"Yes, ma'am. We'll do a sweep real quick. ETA is two mikes."

I sent him a flash of acknowledgment via my HUD and entered the command channel. "Marines, this is Colonel Cooper. Keep pushing forward. This isn't over yet. We're not expecting a lot of resistance; the enemy has taken confirmed heavy losses. But that doesn't mean there's no one left to fight. It's still dangerous. Be cautious as you move ahead, and take out any stragglers you see. We're getting an updated hotspot map from our air support shortly. Standby."

In the meantime I made sure my security detail and I geared up again – reloading weapons and rapidly checking our HUDs and packs. After that I sent Torran and his Sangheili group on their way as well. There was still some ground to cover before we made it to the big field. I hoped we'd get there by the time Willis and his pilots were done scouting for us.

After too many setbacks, at least something was finally going well.