The squad exited a pair of lifts in one of the many skyscrapers lining an open area that was easily a kilometer long in the western quadrant of the city. Thunder, the thunder of large-bore anti-aircraft artillery, shook the building but the squad was used to such an effect after nearly two days of the almost constant firing of the guns. They quickly moved through the building, guided by the schematics in their wrist-com's, and set up positions in several offices facing out into the open area. A long avenue ran right to the edge of this portion of the city, ending at an observation platform that gave an expansive view of the hundred-story drop below, and would have made a perfect dropzone for Covenant dropships. Complicating that possibility was the presence of a ring of AA emplacements and scavenged Naval vessel autocannons. They, along with the orbital MAC cannons, had played havoc with the Covenant assault. The delaying tactics had given time for most, if not all, of the TechCom forces in Capital city to go to ground. Now was the time to really bring the fight to the Covenant.
Corporal Sarah "Reese" Perry led her three-man turret crew to the center window of their appointed office. She, the smallest member of her team, was responsible for lugging the supports for their squad's plasma turret. She set up the supports, a titanium-A reinforced tripod, while Private Vance set up the fusion batteries, and Private Rogers began quickly assembling the turret itself. Both of her subordinates were huge men, it was almost a requirement for a turret team, and towered over her. Vance was a black man with a shaven head that reminded her of her father with his militaristic attitude toward life. Rogers on the other hand reminded her of Luna with his teasing attitude, usually at Vance's expense. Rogers looked at her with his wide green eyes and ran a hair through his short-cropped brown hair.
"How long do you think it will be?" he asked, a little nervously.
"If you want to be a better soldier then you'd better learn some patience, Rogers," Vance said, slipping the cylindrical body of the turret onto the support top.
"Well," Rogers said as he connected the power supply," They did use to call me the minute man in high school."
"I guess that's why you're not the gunner, huh?" Reese teased, making sure the tripod was securely planted in the floor," You'd start shooting the minute you saw the pink… of a Grunt's eyes you pervert!"
Vance grunted, which he did whenever he was restraining what he thought of as inappropriate laughter, and began affixing the targeting computer and firing studs to the turret. Within a minute of their arrival they had a large, and lethal, plasma turret assembled in position between two desks. A flexible plate of highly heat reflective plating gave the gunner some, but not much, protection. It was a highly dangerous position but the turret could be operated remotely in case the situation was too dangerous. This time though Reese was going to fire the thing manually. She took her place in front of the firing studs, her eyes locked on the targeting screen slightly below eye level, and made a few passes to the left and right. Her crew did good work.
Sergeant Red, their squad leader, came into the office quietly. Reese nodded companionably to him and he returned the nod. The pale-skinned man studied their position with his shrewd light brown eyes before leaving with a satisfactory wink in Reese's direction.
"Hey, Reese, what's the deal with the Sarge, anyway?" Rogers said, settling back in a comfortable looking desk chair," I know me and Vance have only been with the squad for a couple days. Hell, most of the squad's been with the squad for a couple days, but everyone says you and the Sarge know each other. So we was all wondering why the hell he only talks when he can't avoid it. I've only heard his voice over comm's and even then it was… short."
Reese shrugged, settling her back against the turret," I have no idea. He's a Canadian?"
Rogers laughed at that and shook his head before falling into one of his rare silences. Vance kept a vigil by the window with the middle fingers of both hands tapping lightly against the pair of DAF's holstered on his thighs. It took Reese a minute to get comfortable in the body armor they were all forced to wear. It was light, with heat resistant polymers on the outer surfaces, and threaded with Titanium-A but it still felt restricting. Reese retreated into herself, seeking that stoic calm that her father was always trying to impart on her, and drifted in a state of restful semi-consciousness.
Sooner than she had expected the sounds of the closest auto-cannon fire stopped amid the sounds of explosions. That was the signal and no one needed Sergeant Red to propel them up and into their positions. Which meant only that Reese stretched lazily and stood to take her place in front of the flatscreen display of her plasma turret. Far off in the distance she could see thin trails of smoke climbing into the sky. It was where several auto-cannons had apparently misfired. Leaving a narrow channel, only a couple dozen meters really, free of anti-aircraft fire. The response was almost instantaneous. Banshees shrieked towards the open sector and hammered the already destroyed AA cannons with a barrage of plasma and fuel rod cannon fire. Behind them swarmed what looked like an entire flotilla of dropships.
The bastards must have been circling; waiting for a break-in, Reese thought grimly, wiping her suddenly moist hands on her leg.
On and on they came even after the first of the U-shaped dropships touched down almost directly below Reese's position. It disgorged a squad of Covenant soldiers, one Elite, two Jackals, and a collection of Grunts. That seemed to be the majority of the dropshps make-up though a few of the larger varieties carried Hunters and the recently discovered Brutes. The forward dropships had to remain on the ground while their comrades continued to pour into the gap in the UNSC's defenses. Each squad began to move independently to form a series of overlapping perimeters around the safety of the dropships heavy plasma turrets. Reese could only shake her head. Her father would have ordered every squad to double-time it into the close confines of the buildings just in case of an ambush.
Much like the one they were planning.
"Okay, everyone, remember your target priority," came the Sarge's soft, melodic voice, " Turrets on the Hunters and Brutes first if they're in range. JackHammers on the dropships. Heavy gunners on the Elites. The rest of you I want volley fire on those grunts. Save the grenades unless you see a big grouping. It won't be long now."
Reese brought the targeting reticle on her screen to center on the chest of a Brute that seemed to be directing several squads. She tracked his movement as smoothly as if she knew where he was moving before he moved. All she was waiting for was the signal.
Just as the dropship below her began moving back to make it's exit a trio of brilliant plumes of plasma lanced their way into the sky. A blinding barrage of plasma fire almost immediately obliterated the encroaching Banshees. Reese and the TechCom soldiers, outfitted with visors specifically designed to null the blinding after-image effect of TechCom plasma weaponry, opened fire. Windows were broken with sonic hammers in every building along the avenue. The contrails of rockets launching blasted through the windows almost before the glass was broken. Multiple rockets, fitted with plasma warheads, enveloped each of the dropships in the killzone regardless of if they were airborne or not. Then everyone else opened up and all hell broke loose among the Covenant ranks.
Reese thumbed the firing stud of her plasma turret and a tight, grim little smile played with the corners of her mouth. The Brute she had first sight on disappeared from the waist up as plasma bolts in the hundred to one hundred and fifty kilowatt range blasted the area all around him. The plasma turret had a cyclic barrel to cut down on overheating but Reese still had to fire in short bursts to prevent the weapon from going into auto-cool mode. The volume of plasma fire pouring out of the surrounding buildings was staggering. Heavy gunners and turret crews pouring so much fire into the higher priority targets that nearly all of them were dead or dying within thirty seconds of the first volley. The remaining Covenant soldiers scurried about in the vain hope of seeking cover but were cut down by plasma rifle and carbine fire. Then, once the leadership castes were dead and the Hunters cooked, the heavy weapons hosed up and down the avenue. Reese herself accounted for three Hunters, five Brutes, and at least a dozen Elites before charring dozens of Jackals and Grunts. Some of the smarter grunts tried to duck down sidestreets only to be gunned down by the heavy gunners stationed in the alleys surrounding the killzone.
TechCom was not without losses themselves. Many of the Hunters managed to fire off their fuel rod cannons before they died as well as those Grunts that wielded smaller cannons. Most impacted harmlessly among the buildings but Reese saw at least three impact directly on locations where concentrations of UNSC plasma fire was pouring from. The thought that it could happen to her honestly never occurred to Reese as she relentlessly mowed down the alien bastards.
Then there was no more return fire.
Reese stopped firing and gradually so did everyone else.
The next day an exhausted Reese joined her father in his Command Center deep within the city. It was almost an exact replica of every TechCom HQ she had been in. Her father stood watching video feed from what he had rightly assumed the Covenant leadership would pick as a Command Center. The orbital MAC cannons had fallen only a few hours after the ambush that had claimed nearly four thousand Covenant lives. Then the AA weaponry had been destroyed by pinpoint blasts of Covenant Naval firepower. Estimates had it that nearly a million Covenant troops had already landed and thousands more were coming to join the party. By far the greatest concentration was around the tallest spire, the one Reese had noticed upon her arrival in the city, and some kind of floating platform had been erected above it. Intel operatives said that there were at least three hundred thousand Covenant in the single building alone. Reese had scoffed at that report but after seeing the monstrous proportions of the building she couldn't disagree. Added to that the thousands more camped in adjacent buildings to protect these obviously important figures made it an extremely high priority objective.
"Are you sure you want to do this, General?" Reese said, drawing raised eyebrows from the UNSC officers who were unused to their commanding officer being asked such a question by a non-com, even if it was his adopted daughter.
Perry turned to regard his soot-faced, tough as nails daughter and smiled sadly," It's necessary. They have to see and understand. This will show them our resolve. Suck away the morale of the lower castes. It pains me too, Corporal, but this is war. "
Perry nodded to a Sci/Tech Sergeant and turned to watch a monitor that showed a panoramic view of the spire.
Many in the Covenant caste that were the Prophets had long since regarded the humans as savages that would go to nearly any extreme in their desperate struggle to survive. But they also had come to understand the flaw that was human compassion and a cultural affinity to view their places as somehow holy. It was one of the many things that made them blasphemous. So it was with some surprise that the Prophets discovered yet another facet of humanity. When humans could be drawn beyond compassion into a realm where no step was too far.
A tactical nuclear weapon was detonated in the midst of Capital City which killed the Prophet Council sent to recover the Forerunner relics and over four hundred thousand of the lesser races.