"Fire!" Reese ordered, watching with a vaguely disturbing joy at the half dozen streams of reddish gas that suddenly speared at a forty-five degree angle into the ceiling.
"Targets down!" Corporal Kinh had command of the Juggernauts newly formed sniper squad.
"You're up, Vance!"
An earth-shattering explosion rocked the stone around Reese's squad, Kinh's sniper squad, and Corporal Tren's Heavies.
"Detonation," Vance answered over the comm., calmly and rather unnecessarily.
"Moon, go!"
"Rockets away," came the instant reply.
Reese thumbed her detonator and fiery light blossomed at the top of a stairwell at the end of the corridor.
"Tren!" Reese shouted, surging to her feet as Tren and his five Heavie squad mates surged up the service stairwell.
Kinh's squad went next and was followed closely by Kinh's squad. Kinh and her soldiers set up a defensive perimeter at the base of the stairwell. Reese's squad continued upwards and Reese made sure she was the first through the blasted opening. The sight that greeted her was very grisly. At least ten of a mixed guard of Covenant lay on the floor, some dead, some dying. Tren and his Heavies had taken position at the only entrance to the room.
"Who's got mercy duty?!" Reese barked, calmly stepping over the twitching, groaning, stinking mess of Covenant.
"Sergeant Rogers would have loved those new guns, huh, Master Sergeant?" one of the Privates asked in as melancholy a voice as Reese had heard any of her men use.
Reese herself had to mentally bite down on the surge of grief that threatened to overwhelm her and nodded at the Private. She didn't trust herself to speak when the death of one of her closest friends and confidantes was still so fresh. Somewhere in the back of her mind she had always thought that she, Kinh, Rogers, and Vance would be around forever. Rogers buying it from something so simple and stupid as a malfunctioning flyer had brought reality crashing down on her head. Reese shook herself and remembered that dwelling on her friend wouldn't get their mission accomplished.
"All clear, Master Sergeant," Tren said as he caught up to her, " Looks like we caught them completely by surprise."
"Status?"
A brief burst of static was followed by the sounds of a firefight.
"Looks like we stirred up an anthill this time," Vance came back.
Another burst of static and then it was Moon speaking.
"How the hell did they manage to get Hunters down here?"
"You've got rockets, use them!" Reese barked, cutting off the connection.
Reese cradled her plasma carbine and nodded at Tren.
" Let's roll 'em."
Thirty minutes later, though to Reese and her platoon it had felt like an eternity, the whole of what Command had dubbed 'Beta Target' was secured. They had lost six soldiers all together and had accounted for nearly two hundred of the enemy. Not an all-together bad exchange but as no one knew how many Covenant there really were it was never really that heartening. Kinh and Tren's squads, having suffered no casualties, were hauling away the smaller Covenant bodies. No one even wanted to try to move the lone Brute, let alone the Hunter pair, and those bodies were left were they lay.
Reese and her Sergeants, reduced to two with the deaths of Newman and Rogers, were sitting against a wall in what had been the garrison commander's office.
Reese finished her ration bar and nodded," So it's decided then. I'll give Kinh and Tren field promotions to Sergeant. It would be better if I had done it at Command but there wasn't any time. "
Vance snorted," Your word's better than any fancy code from Command, Reese. It's why they never gave you or Red some greenie Lieutenant to take charge of your platoons. Lord knows there's enough of 'em being spat out of Officers Academy."
"Amen to that," Moon, a short, heavily muscled man with brown eyes, hair, and a dusky brown complexion, agreed.
Silence fell for a moment as the three took the brief respite to rest.
"Do you really think we have a chance to win, Master Sergeant?" Moon asked, as everyone always seemed to ask the TechCom veterans from Reese's world.
"Yes," Reese tried to keep from snapping at him," That ONI spook said that they've almost completely retrofitted what's left of the Fleet. And they even have half a dozen new ships almost ready to come out of the shipyards. All we have to do is hold out a little longer." Reese paused for a minute and bared her teeth in a snarl," And if we can't we'll make the Covenant know what it is to drown in their own blood."
Moon laughed," With you on our side, I don't doubt we'll accomplish that at the very least."
Reese shrugged, suddenly self-conscious," It's the platoon."
"You're the heart of the platoon. You make the Juggernauts the Juggernauts. I don't know about anyone else but everytime I just wanna lay down and quit I just look at you. You'll stand there, slapping in a fresh battery pack, looking like a dried-up piece of crap, but you'll just keep right on movin'. Maybe it's shame, maybe it's pride, but you make me get my ass up and keep moving."
Reese caught Vance nodding at the edge of her peripheral vision.
Reese laughed," Stop it you guys or my swollen head'll snap my damn neck."
The Juggernauts communications officer cautiously entered the room. His pale face was red, as it was whenever he had to talk directly to Reese, but he managed to salute her without shaking too badly.
"Sir, Master Sergeant Red has secured his objective."
Reese waited for the bad news because she knew it was coming.
"He has sustained zero losses," the awe in the Comm. Officers voice was quite clear.
Reese laughed, the knot in her stomach loosening somewhat, and wondered how Red had pulled it off.
"Any word on the primary objective?" Reese asked, stretching both arms in front of her, stifling a yawn.
"No, sir, but there should be soon. I'll get back on it now, sir."
"Thanks, Bunti," she said as the comms. Officer rushed back to the relay he had set-up.
It seemed like only a few moments before he was bursting back into the room with a panicked expression on his face.
"Sir, Captain Black wants you. I'm uploading the frequency to you now," Bunti seemed to barely stop himself from screaming.
Reese fixed him with a barely discernible frown and he seemed to settle down slightly as she patched herself into the command freq.
"This is Reese," she said after a moment of static.
What sounded like a plasma grenade ignition nearly made Reese rip her helmet off, but she held on to it.
"The mission is an abort!" came Captain Black's voice a moment later," Massive Covenant forces. We have to- Second squad, volley fire! I'm bringing my men up to your position. I've sent Sergeant Red and his men to link up. Get the welcome mat ready! Black, out!"
Reese stood and her Sergeants stood with her.
"We've got company coming. Mission's been scrubbed. Captain's on his way with a lot of Covie-flak on his tail. Sergeant Red'll be here shortly. Vance, get turret crews set up around the primary entrance. Moon, take a demo-team down to where we accessed the garrison. I want to be able to seal it up with a few tons of rock if they try to come up under us. Move it people, we probably don't have much time. "
Reese crouched behind the left barricade they had hastily erected around the main entrance to the garrison. All of the architecture this far down was the work of what the Covie's called Forerunner. She had no idea what they were but their materials were surprisingly durable for their weight. The garrison was composed of two levels. Reese had entered through the lower level and now waited at the upper. The lower level was composed of only three small rooms connected by narrow, dim corridors. The upper was more spacious but that had been filled by quarters for all of the lesser Covenant races. The primary entrance was a huge door that closed and opened very slowly. One of the soldiers, trained in advanced engineering before the war, had jury-rigged it so that it only opened wide enough to admit three men abreast. They could close the door much faster now. Reese's major concern was the path to the garrison.
The garrison was suspended nearly half a kilometer directly above where the main excavation was taking place. The Captain's men would have to cross a wide bridge, easily two hundred meters long, with a gradual incline, and totally devoid of cover. The access point Reese had used could only be reached from the upper levels through a series of cramped tunnels and crawlspaces, so there was no way the Captain could use that.
"I don't know if you're a genius or just crazy, but either way I'm glad you're here," Red's soft voice came from her left.
Reese shrugged and watched as her and Red's biggest men hauled the last piece of broken down Covenant machinery into place. Now the bridge had ample amounts of cover liberally spread throughout its length. A dozen of the new MRG's and four rocket launchers, were pointed directly at the huge tunnel that Black and his men would come down. The oblique angle would make the rocket shots tricky but the MRG's would have no problem boring through the solid rock. The entire complement of long-range, anti-armor ordinance was spread out on the wide ledge the Covenant had used to store many of their supplies.
Faint motes of purple light began to swim before her eyes as she focused on the tunnel.
"Pack it in," she spoke into the joint all-hands freq she and Red had agreed upon. " Everyone lock and load. Jackhammers, pick your targets carefully. Once the last of Captain Black's men are on the bridge I want you to all open fire even if you don't have a clear shot. Let's send these Covie bastards straight to hell."
"I'm going to go with crazy," Red said, grinning when she turned to stick her tongue out at him, before jogging away to the fallback position inside the garrison.
Reese placed her eye level with the plasma carbine's optical scope and placed its magnification setting to the highest level. The light amplification setting illuminated the darkened gloom of the tunnel so that she saw with perfect clarity the Captain and what looked like three platoons worth of men hurrying towards the bridge.
Reese activated the command link," Once you hit the barricades just kept running. We've got you covered."
For a moment there was only the sound of heavy breathing and then a terse "Roger."
"Snipers! Slow 'em down!" Reese barked and her order was immediately followed by faintly luminescent trails of red gas streaking towards the Covenant lines.
There was only a wait of maybe thirty seconds, barely enough time for the Captain's reduced company to make it ten meters up the bridge, when what looked like the Second Coming of Grunts appeared out of the tunnel. Such a barrage of plasma fire met them that a three-meter swath of the tightly packed creatures was almost instantly incinerated. Reese added her own firepower to the barrage and she found that she had been right to order everyone to fire even without a clean target. The actinic glare of the TechCom plasma weaponry was playing havoc with the rudimentary targeting computers in their visors or weapons themselves. Reese briefly caught the outline of a pair of Hunters trying to advance under the hellish fire of the defenders before four plasma turrets simultaneously targeted them. The Captain and his men were halfway to them now.
"Turret crews start packing. Heavies conserve your ammo. Reload by fire team," Reese rapid-fired her orders out as she replaced her own battery pack.
The defensive fire slackened considerably as the turret crews powered down their weapons for the retreat. Captain Black was only ten meters away from Reese when a faint purple-green shimmer from below the bridge caught her eye. She sighted on the Banshee just as it roared above the cliff.
"Banshees!" she roared at the exact instant two more crested the cliff and the first fired its fuel rod cannon directly at her.
The three-man fire team she had with her all leapt away as fast as they could. Two even abandoned their weapons in their haste to get away. Reese leapt to the left, sighted, and fired a single grenade at the offending Banshee. The range was not the best and neither was a plasma grenade the best weapon to use against Banshees. So the sight of the grenade crisping the Banshee into a twisted, melted ruin of metal was immensely gratifying. Unfortunately she had not leapt far enough and the shockwave from the FR-cannon seemed to pick her up and slam her to the ground. Then for a horrifying second she was falling before her hand seemed to clutch instinctively for the edge of the cliff. Reese had kept her grip on her plasma carbine and thus was able to return fire on the Banshee that was about to make a strafing run on her. Her fire made the pilot jink right into the path of a rocket and end his life in a pyrotechnic display that would surely please his gods.
"Where's the Sarge!?" she heard someone shout over the screams and curses of the wounded.
"She's dead man! We're screwed!" it sounded like one of the fire team men that had dropped his weapon.
"Stow that, soldier!" that was Captain Black," I'll wait until I see a body before I believe that. Sergeant Moon, organize stretchers for our casualties. The rest of you hold this line until we get our wounded evac'd. Move it people! "
Reese hung there for a second, her grip solid, and wondered why she wasn't particularly frightened anymore.
Probably shock, she thought before slamming her carbine wielding hand onto the cliff top.
"What the hell?" Captain Black's voice came closer just as Reese was pushing her hips passed the cliff level.
In a quick fluid motion, she swung her leg over and rolled back onto solid ground.
"Dead!" the Captain snorted, holding out a hand for her to grab.
Reese grabbed the hand and was hoisted to her feet. Only to promptly drop down into a crouch as a burst of Covenant plasma globules sailed over their heads.
"Tell me something, sir," Reese said as they joined a Heavie who was holding the left flank close to the doors," Where are the Master Chief and the HellJumpers?"
Captain Black grinned," The Chief's even crazier than you. Him and those HellJumpers say they've got a plan and that they should be here… Now, I think."
A Covenant dropship appeared before them after a minute of waiting.
"Hold your fire on the dropship!" Black ordered, pointing to the big blocky, U.N.S.C. painted on the sides.
The dropship oriented its back to the garrison and being laying down saturating plasma cannon fire. The troop compartments opened and out jumped the missing HellJumpers, some carrying the bodies of their squadmates, and a moment later the Master Chief hurled himself out.
"Come on! Move your asses inside!" Captain Black roared, waving them through the garrison blast doors.
When the last of their men had been moved inside Black and Reese went through.
"Seal it!" Reese shouted at her engineer and it closed an instant before dual fuel rod blasts hit them.
"Did you get it?" Black asked, and the Master Chief nodded.
He held out what looked like a simple, little leather pouch and opened it up for the Captain. Reese couldn't resist edging closer and grinned at the beautiful light shining out of the bag.
Dad's gonna love this.
The human General named Perry stood in front of an archaic looking pot of some noxious thing the humans called stew. He grinned, an obscene expression the humans seemed fond of, and tasted the stew with a large spoon.
" I think you Covenant fools have misplaced something," the General held up one of the Sacred Keys, shaped somewhat like the human spoon," It makes a handy stirrer. I think I'll pass it around our surface bases. My troops need a good meal every now and then. I think I'll even carry it myself. I doubt if any lowly, cowardly Elite, let alone Prophet, would dare brave the city to take it. Well, I'm off to make some stew. If you want it back you'll just have to say please…" the human grinned again,"To my face."
"The human mocks us, Holy One. Let me purge the city clean of their blasphemy. Give my legions the honor of serving the gods will. I beg this of you," the Elite Commander of the occupation force begged in a most unseemly manner.
The Prophet was too enraged to care.
"You will have your purge," the Prophet said, his voice seething with holy wrath," But I want this General alive so that he may feel the weight of his blasphemy. Go. By the will of the gods."
"By the will of the gods."