Reese lay on her belly inside the twisted steel skeleton of, well she really had no idea what it had once been, and viewed the remote flatscreen display on her wrist-com. It showed a staticky view of a narrow street a few kilometers from the western edge of the city. The sun was just beginning to set and it cast a soft golden glow over the area because the buildings in this quadrant were fairly low. A Covenant patrol was making their way quickly towards one of the fortresses they had set up all over the city. The numerous bases never numbered more than three hundred Covenant troopers of mixed races while the new Covenant Command Center was a squat building in the center of a relatively level space in the city. This time the area had been scoured over time and time again before the leadership caste had moved in. Captain Black and his Special Forces unit were still trying to find a way to assault the enemy HQ but with two hundred thousand veteran Covenant warriors crawling all over the place it was proving more and more unlikely.
But that situation was not Reese's problem. Eliminating this Covenant patrol, part of the assault force that had taken out the 152nd and 163rd, was.
Reese sighted on the left of a staggered line of Grunts near the middle of the patrol. A purple-white bolt cut through the golden light of sunset to slag the red armored Elite's face. Predictably the Jackal's and Grunt's that made up the rest of the patrol panicked and started firing in all directions. Reese remotely let loose with her plasma turret, which was set in a precarious position two-story's above her head, and the street was filled with searing plasma death. Within seconds there was not a living Covenant body left in the street.
The screech of an approaching pair of Banshees made Reese instinctively flatten even more in her hide.
"I hate losing our baby," Vance said, growling slightly as the Banshee's made their run and obliterated the turret.
A dropship descended suddenly and deposited an elite squad of Elites and Brutes who immediately began fanning out in a fairly standard search-and-destroy pattern.
"Banshee's pegged," Red said," Light 'em up."
Reese grimly thumbed the safety off of her plasma carbine and heard the quiet whines of her men powering up their rifles. A Brute and three Elites were rushing towards their position, below the destroyed plasma turret, and they were armed to the teeth. The three TechCom soldiers had a good defensible position but it would be a death trap if the Brute started opening fire with the highly explosive rounds his weapon fired. The ugly bastard would have to go first. Reese placed her eye up to the weapons inset scope and brought the crosshairs at a place just slightly in front of the Brute's feet. Reese fingered the firing stud for the grenade launcher and slowly let out a breath.
Reese fired the grenade and a second later the Brute disappeared in an expanding sphere of electric plasma. Vance and Rogers quickly opened up with their plasma rifles to pick off the Elites. An Elite bearing a shoulder mounted fuel rod cannon popped out from behind cover fifty meters from their position but a plasma bolt hit the cannon and caused it to explode spectacularly. The street quickly became filled with the strobe-like effect of plasma fire as half a dozen separate firefights broke out. The Banshees came roaring back in and one of them took a direct hit from a rocket. It tumbled out of the air to shower the area with debris after colliding with a building. Banshee Two, the tagged Banshee Reese assumed, was hit by a trio of plasma bolts but was not destroyed. It was out of the fight though and it began limping back towards its hidden base.
"Let's get moving. I feel like a sitting duck," Reese told her men, rolling onto her back to began easing her way out of their hole.
By the time they had emerged, the ambush was over, and every Covenant soldier's body had been accounted for. Sergeant Red was striding towards them as they stood up and he had the entire squad at his back. To a Covenant soldier they would have all looked the same, especially with their helmets covering everything but their chins, but to a TechCom soldier the gear each soldier wore was enough to identify their rank if not their identity. The Sarge signaled for them to return to their temporary barracks, the basement of an old warehouse as usual, and the squad filed out in their usual marching order. Reese and her crew cast one longing look at their ruined plasma turret before assuming their place in the squad's spread out marching formation. Sergeant Red had requisitioned a new plasma turret for the squad but who knew when they would get it. Reese had no idea where her own father was let alone where one of the precious weapons factories was hidden.
They moved like shadows, sticking close to the buildings, weaving in and out of debris-laden streets. TechCom's standard armor and camo gear were all shades of dark gray that blended well with their environment. It was almost partially thermally shielded. Despite their gear and their training, tension was always thick when they were moving through neutral zones where neither TechCom nor the Covenant held dominion. Several squads had just... disappeared over the last week only to later be discovered dismembered right on the perimeter of some of TechCom's sub-level bases. Counterstrikes were a constant give and take between the two forces but at least TechCom was much better at it. It was small consolation against the fact that their squad could be ambushed at anytime.
Reese was crawling her way over a mound of rubble that had once been the outside wall of a building when an explosion in the general direction the Banshee had taken off in shook the deepening night. Orange-red light, reflected from the explosion no doubt, made the building faces to the north glow. Then the sound that no TechCom soldier ever wanted to hear sliced through the brief silence following the explosion. The eerie whine of Wraith mortar fire was suddenly cut off by the sound of their thunderous impact. This time the buildings were awash with a spectral purple-white glow. Then the sounds and lights of a firefight broke out in that section of the city. Plasma bolts speared their way into the sky and around buildings as half a dozen Banshees appeared out of nowhere. The Wraith tanks continued to fire even after the impacts of what sounded like half a dozen rockets.
"Hunker down," Sergeant Red ordered, sounding slightly distracted.
Reese's men joined her atop the pile of rubble and waited for their Sergeant. Captain Inman had gathered several platoons to launch a strike on the hidden base that had been taking a too heavy toll on their men. It sounded like they had encountered more resistance than they had expected.
"Alright, corporals, you two have qualified on combat driving. So you get this wonderful job. The Captain's assault force has run into a bit of a snag. The Covenant dropped a pair of Wraith tanks inside a ramp leading to a sewer access tunnel. It'll be a little longer before they can break through and clean out the nest. Unfortunately they don't have much time. A reaction force of Ghosts is heading in that direction now. I'm going to need you to take three men each, take a couple of MPV's, and slag those Ghosts. I'm transmitting the coordinates of a vehicle depot now. Hurry."
"Yes, Sarge," Reese and Corporal Higg answered in unison.
Reese quickly explained the situation to her two men before asking," Who'll be our fourth?"
"Kinh," they both answered without hesitation.
"She's good with a stationary heavy plasma gun," Vance added, with a nod from Rogers.
"Plus," Rogers grinned, "She's just crazy enough to enjoy a ride with 'Sky-High' Reese."
"Shut up, Rogers," Reese said, quickly patching into Private Kinh's wrist-com. "Double-time it to my location, Private. We have orders."
"On my way," came the soft voice.
Private Kinh reached them just as Corporal Higg contacted Reese," My team's ready. What's your stat?"
"Good to go," Reese replied," Lead the way, Corporal."
Reese turned to her two regular team members," Fill Kinh in on the way."
Corporal Higg and his three-soldier team briefly appeared beneath them before skittering away like shadowy insects. Reese was the first to slither down the mound of rubble and was followed by Vance, Kinh, and then Rogers. Corporal Higg's team led Reese and her men across the street into a series of relatively intact alleyways. The entire time they jogged, sprinted, and ducked behind cover the sounds of battle echoed through the area. Occasionally stray comm bursts overloaded their wrist-com's and a soldier's voice would shout in Reese's ear. It was an unavoidable consequence of the relatively low-tech transmission techniques TechCom communication gear used.
Reese and her men caught up with Higg's team just as they disappeared down a partially hidden stairwell behind a purposefully created debris mound. The eight soldiers moved down the narrow stairwell in single file. Higg's rapped out a code on the metal door at the bottom of the stairwell. A voice demanded an authorization code and Higg's began reciting the squad's alpha authorization code. Reese knew that if a number was recited wrong, then the mines planted along the entire length of the stairwell would be detonated.
Fortunately the door opened up after Higg's was done and they entered into what had once been a small auto shop. The first sight that greeted Reese was the barrel of a stationary plasma turret. Once through the door, past the two heavy gunners flanking the doorway, two massive Multi-Purpose Vehicles dominated the dimly lit room. Reese had no clue as to what the MPV's had been used for before the war but now they were a part of TechCom cavalry. The pair of MPV's was virtually identical. There was a long and high passenger compartment and the cab was completely closed inside armored plates. Armored plates covered every surface of the vehicles in fact and gave them a spit-and-hope feel. It was fairly representative of TechCom's philosophy. Two men in greasy overalls appeared from a bright square in the floor on the opposite side of the room and headed for them.
Reese stood beside Higg's as the apparent senior man started talking.
"What do you need, Corporals?" he asked, although he had to know why a pair of corporal's, three soldiers apiece, was knocking on his door.
"We need to requisition those MPV's," Higg's told him, nodding at the vehicles.
"I shoulda known. Who gave the orders?"
"The Captain," Reese said," We don't have time for talkin'. Are they ready?"
The grease monkey frowned at her," Yeah, they're as ready as I can get 'em. Be careful goin' out. There'll be a damn near ninety-degree turn right at the end to avoid the mound we dropped to cover up the ramp. Let's get back to work, Vinsen."
The two mechanics disappeared back down their hole without another word or glance at the soldiers. Higg's team had already taken possession of one of the MPV's and Reese's team wasted little time in climbing into theirs. Reese opened the door, placed a foot in the metal booster, and hauled herself up into the cab. Kinh scrambled into the seat beside her and began assembling the stationary heavy gun in the hollowed out space in front of her. Reese heard the rear door of the passenger compartment slid down with a thud that shook the entire vehicle.
"Rear entry's secure," Vance said, amid the sounds of heavy exertion by the men.
The two men were quickly prepping the stationary plasma turret that was centered squarely atop an axial platform in the rear compartment. The platforms allowed the turret to cover both sides of the vehicle via long slots that could be slid open as well as rise in order to provide anti-air fire through the roof. Rogers would be man the turret while Vance would cover their rear with a stationary heavy gun like Kinh. Her selected team knew their jobs well. Reese stared at the plethora of machinery in front of her for a moment before her hands flew into dizzying action. A small view slit in the heavy armor plating was the only way to see out of the cab. Once a firefight started Reese couldn't risk plasma splashing into her eyes through the view slit so she would have to slide and lock a thick armor plate over it. Then she would rely on a rough sonar sketch of her surroundings, as well as external camera feeds, and that was not something many soldiers had proven very adept at yet. Her pre-ignition tests were done quickly and seconds later Kinh slipped the cylindrical clip into the heavy plasma gun and slid back the locking bolt.
"We're ready on your word, Reese." Rogers told her over their comm.-link.
"Higgins here. Ready to go on your word."
Reese thumbed the ignition switch and grinned tightly," Let's go."