The clearing where the enemy's Shepherd had stopped moving was a large plaza. Surrounded by tall buildings and fortified with several hundred extra machines, the place itself stood before what was once a shopping center belonging to the Imperial nobility that must've lived in this more modern section of town. Shin counted at least two platoons worth of enemy tanks, but the artillery pieces had been dispersed and he couldn't pinpoint the Shepherd among them.
He hummed, then looked to the rest of his team. Several had stuck themselves within the ruins of the buildings, which provided them cover. Shin peeked from around a corner at the hostile force, his Juggernaut on its last magazines of ammunition. He cued his Para-RAID and said, "Black Dog. We'll need the artillery on your mech for crowd control as soon as possible... Gunslinger, if you and your platoon spot the enemy's own artillery pieces, take them out. Wehrwolf and everyone else, we're dividing into two platoons and attacking from two sides. The enemy's got a numbers advantage, but they're divided."
"Roger," Everyone replied, almost in a whisper.
Shin frowned, looking at the dispersal of enemy forces as their voices screamed in his ears. He hummed, then looked around, trying to pinpoint the Shepherd's voice so he could figure out what was going on. The dispersal pattern of the defensive units made no sense whatsoever. They would've had better defenses prepared, even with a dumb Black Sheep commanding them.
He sighed, then ordered, "All units, engage. Be careful," as he skittered forth in Undertaker. Fido was hidden farther away in the ruins, trying to stay safe, but ready to provide supplies as the need arose. Shin took the first kill, his cannon roaring, APFSDS round punching clean through the belly of one of the Ameise, shattering the machine's internals with one precise hit.
Following it, two of its siblings turned to meet Shin, letting loose a quad stream of 7,62mm ammunition toward the boy's Juggernaut, forcing him to dodge just as the guns of his comrades started raining hell from their positions within the ruins around him. Raiden and his platoon followed him in, with Theo firing away with his twin MGs at a squad of Ameise that advanced upon them.
As the team moved in to engage, Shin listened carefully for the one calm voice in a sea of machines that screamed bloody murder. Indecipherable at first, some of the screams cleared out and Shin could immediately tell whom he was hearing. "I don't want to die! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" Kaie's voice cried in his ears again, this time linked to a Löwe instead of whatever she'd been previously attached to.
Grauwolf missiles flew in to greet Shin's advancing squad from one of the buildings. He ordered, "Gunslinger, take out those Grauwolfs. They'll be problematic otherwise..." and the reply from Kurena came in the form of a chuckle, followed by the roar of the 57mm cannon on her machine letting loose a volley of shells with the help of her comrades. Following them in, Daiya burst through a wall and opened fire with his 75mm cannon.
Black Dog said, "I'm not sure how much ammo this thing still has! If push comes to shove, I'll start punching!"
"If you run out of ammo, withdraw, Black Dog. We can't risk any other Grauwolfs with High-Frequency Blades cutting you down," Shin ordered firmly as he pushed forth, utilizing his own blades to cut through the legs of one of the Löwe and disable it. He swiveled about and put a round into the back of its turret for good measure, but sought to end this current copy of Kaie that was screaming in his ears, disrupting his ability to hear the ODST, Hades.
The ODST's artillery platoon, meanwhile, opened up. Rockets and shells rained down into the plaza, shattering concrete and tearing chunks out of the buildings they struck. Ceilings caved in on the farthest buildings in the place as the reactive projectiles detonated against them and black smoke rose up into the cloud of Eintagsfliege, obscuring some of the silver-shining robot bugs as they squirmed and danced above Shin and his force.
Kurena yelped as a shell blasted apart the ceiling above her. She called out, "Gunslinger here! I'm alive, but that was cutting it close! I'm joining with you guys and engaging up close!" and she watched as Lecca, Haruto and Anju all pushed forth through the smoke, formed up as a wedge. Each fired machine gun and cannon to greet the enemy mechs, mercilessly slaughtering both small and big foe alike.
Lecca utilized her own tow hooks to quickly flank around one of the bigger tank-types. She aligned her crosshairs as quickly as possible and fired, but the round sparked off angled armor and narrowly missed the engine compartment. Lecca swore, "FUCK!" just as the tank traversed its turret to engage her. Haruto was quicker on his feet, though, firing one shell into the back of the turret that ignited the ammunition.
He approached Lecca while firing his HMGs, then smirked and said, "I got you."
"Thanks..." Lecca breathed a sigh of relief, then swiveled about and engaged the converging squadron of a dozen Ameise around them. The two dodged to the best of their abilities, but some of the rifle-caliber rounds penetrated the canopies, with one dangerously-close to striking the girl in the chest as it did so. Thankfully for her, it tumbled and lost a lot of its energy in the paper-thin canopy of her vehicle, somehow.
Still, she felt a slight breeze coming through the hole.
The screech of steel crashing against steel filled the team's ears. Haruto craned his head to the left as he let out a volley of suppressive fire, only to see Black Dog actually and genuinely punching through the side plates of one of the Löwe, the armored hydraulic fist of the humanoid machine tearing through the plate, into a leg gimbal and grasping around the central processing unit of the tank. He tore it and the sensor suite out of the midsection of the tank and tossed it into a line of Ameise, then utilized the secondary armaments of his mech to put out volleys of explosives that cordoned off areas of the battlefield.
He called out, "Anyone gonna take care of the Skorpions!?" as shrapnel from the shells and rockets pinged off of the hull of his mech.
"I can't pinpoint them," Shin stated as he finally got through to engage the machine Kaie was in. He surged forth, still listening to one of his closest friends in the squadron begging him to help her in some way or another as he dug his High-Freq blades into the machine's belly, gutting the hull from front to back. He then spun utilizing the tow hooks and put another armor-piercing round into the back of the vehicle for good measure.
The girl's voice finally died, leaving Shin able to listen in. As he focused upon the more stern of the voices, he narrowed his lips and cut down two more machines with his main cannon, letting Kurena's platoon pelt the next enemy tank to death with a flurry of shells before he engaged the next Grauwolf. He jumped, overriding the safeties of his leg hydraulics again and turning his blades to greet the machine's main missile pod. He vivisected it, cutting into a missile's warhead by mistake. The detonation removed the right arm-mounted High-Frequency Blade, leaving him with only one.
Still, he'd killed that Grauwolf with the shrapnel. And that blade was starting to get a bit dull.
"Uh, Shin?" Raiden started, "Is it just me or... Are the Legion here fighting really poorly?"
"Could just be stragglers that Hades slaved to his will," Shin remarked, "Fresh new units... Who knows...?" He murmured. They'd taken out his brother not too long ago, so some of his former subunits must've gone to Hades when the damn thing pulled a full tactical withdrawal. Shin murmured a swear to himself as a 7,62 round punched through one side of his canopy, flew in front of his face with chunks of shrapnel, then punched out the other side. He looked to his right, to see an Ameise firing at him.
Actively utilizing the agility of his Juggernaut, Shin pushed to meet the machine head-on, bringing his other blade to bear upon the lightly-armored foe. He slashed, vivisecting the enemy machine from camera eye to rear, before spinning on the spot and putting a fifty-seven millimeter round through the side of another Ameise, killing its twin in the process.
Haruto's MGs chattered, rounds tearing through the thin plates of enemy mechs as Kurena and her sharpshooter platoon repositioned and opened up on another of the enemy's Löwe, the sheer amount of shells striking it being the reason for it going down. Admittedly, some of Kurena's shots were clearly aimed, what with the barrel of the cannon in the tank's turret being bent completely out of shape to an almost ninety-degree angle up.
"Whatever they are," Raiden noted, "I have a bad feeling..."
Shin agreed. He didn't voice it, but he agreed. Something was certainly far too strange about the current situation. The man they were hunting was supposed to be an ODST and an officer at that, one of the UNSC's most proficient warriors with some tactical acumen beyond their own. His units were throwing themselves at them at this point and they weren't even using the artillery at their disposal properly.
Shin hummed, pushing forth through the thicket and firing his cannon. He ordered, "Try to break through. Gunslinger, take your platoon over the rooftops. Find those guns and silence them, but leave the smartest-looking one to me. Wehrwolf, Black Dog, Snow Witch, you and your platoons are to follow me. We're going to carve a path, take out as many of the enemy's units as possible... If they're giving us the kill, there must be a reason, perhaps a trap... Let's spring it."
"Aye, aye!" All of them called out yet again.
They pushed the advantage for now, with Shin's hairs standing on-end as he listened attentively for the enemy commander, waiting for him to spout orders. He still heard nothing. Either that thing knew Shin could hear them, or he had disappeared again. Either way, no option was good. If they realized... or maybe they knew beforehand Shin could hear them. He didn't know...
But if they didn't and this was some elaborate ruse, Shin didn't even wanna consider what the plan was, especially if it was something as smart as an ODST Shepherd, so he kept himself prepared for even the slightest hint or noise from the enemy. He pushed forth, firing his main cannon with impunity as he and the rest of his chosen comrades pushed through the rubble of the city. One of his rounds went wide, tearing into the face of a block and blasting out concrete and brick shards.
A one-hundred-five millimeter shell snapped past his tank and drilled into the concrete and stone pavement behind them, exploding with a thunderclap. More Löwe up ahead. This one used a High-Explosive Anti-Tank Fin-Stabilized, or HEAT-FS shell. A dangerous type of round that would definitely have been more useful against lightly-armored targets like the Juggernauts, considering it was designed specifically for light transport-type vehicles and anything with armor below that of a normal Main Battle Tank.
He ordered, "That one's yours, Black Dog."
The thunderclap of a 75mm cannon shell leaving the barrel roared by Shin's tank again. The round smacked right into the barrel of the Löwe, snapping it off and destroying the tank's ability to fire at them again. Its Ameise escort, however, was still clearly ready and able to empty the rounds in their almost bottomless-magazines toward the line, advancing rapidly as their metallic legs dug into the concrete and the aluminum bodies of cars littered on the boulevard. The response fire was pretty much instantaneous.
Still, shells from the artillery landed sporadically around them, kicking up geysers of dust and debris that further obscured their vision. Shin gutted another Ameise with his blade, feeling it start to dull with every strike. He used his tow hooks to launch himself onto the rooftop to their immediate right and fired down on the Legion's advancing forces. He heard a yelp from Myna and asked, "March Hare. Status?"
"Took one in the thigh... I'll be fine..." The girl reported through grit teeth. It was clearly more than just a simple wound, though.
"Get yourself in cover and disinfect and patch it," Shin ordered, "Snow Witch, provide cover. Burnt Tayl, you're their support element. We'll take care of the rest of the enemy force..." and he noted something. Another area opened up ahead, where there should've been another building. There was just rubble there, however, which was suspicious in and of itself. Still.
"Gunslinger, status?"
"Took out three of the guns! There's two more, but I can't see any sign of the lead!" She cried out, the muffled thunderclap of the cannon echoing through the Para-RAID.
Shin scoffed. Where the hell could he have gone?
His mind go stuck, however, when he heard it through the cries... Hades's voice.
"TRAP SPRUNG. TARGET PAINTED AND ACQUIRED... FIRE AT WILL, PALE RIDER."
"... KILL THEM ALL...!" A second voice let out, a pained scream more than a threat...
Shin's eyes grew wide as they entered the second open area. He cried out fearfully to his comrades, "FALL BA-!"
And yet, he was cut short. His ears rang as the cloud of Eintagsfliege split at the seams and blue sky lit the world. The thunderclap of the impact and proceeding explosion had deafened Shin. The very ground below them buckled and exploded outward, as if struck by God's own hatred. Shin felt himself tumbling in his machine. Multiple times, his head slammed against his seat and against the thin walls of his machine as he tumbled head-over-heels. He only stopped when he landed somewhere, his machine blaring a thousand overlapping warnings into his ear.
He blinked, his vision blurred by the blood that seeped into his eyes. He groaned, or more so felt himself let out some form of noise from his mouth, his ears still ringing. He called out to his team-mates via the para-RAID. He could not hear himself speak, his consciousness slowly slipping away from him. He searched for the release of his harness and hit it, finding that half of the damn thing had sheared off anyways.
He could see faint light poking through the holes in his Juggernaut. Slipping his hand down below his chair as he bent forth, he searched for it. The one important item in this entire machine, he pulled out from below. The heavy box was still there, still intact. He hugged it, leaning back against his destroyed and uncomfortable seat as he felt his own blood running down his cheeks and face, obscuring his vision.
The muffled roar of some sort of machines echoed in his ears as he slowly faded from reality. If this was how he was going to die, so be it. He drew his sidearm and readied himself, aiming up toward the sky... The canopy was torn from its hinges in front of him, light inundating the small, cramped coffin that he'd nearly called his eternal resting place. Humanoid figures, much taller than normal, stood over him.
One of them spoke to the other and Shin could hear him faintly... "... Alive! MEDIC! WE NEED A MEDIC!"
A third person appeared, their feet slamming against the concrete. The thunder of gunfire echoed above. One of the two other figures turned around and hefted what looked to be a heavy machine gun, letting loose. A hot casing fell onto Shin's hand and onto his gun. He caressed the outer layer... A fifty-caliber bullet? The Medic, a person in a similar set of gear as the compatriots, spoke, her voice blurred, "... The others! I'll drag him back...!"
"Roger!" The other two replied.
The others.
"My squadron..." Shin mouthed, his voice ragged, as he felt the woman stab a needle into his arm. His pain, all of it, slowly vanished.
"Alive!" The woman replied, "Now... Sit tight..." And Shin felt himself lifted in a bridal carry by the woman. She was wearing some sort of exoskeleton, clearly, seeing as Shin felt the metal plates that held the machine together. She cried out to the other troopers, "BOUNDING!" and then ran. Her feet slammed against the concrete below. The young man craned his head to the left, feeling droplets of blood falling onto the floor. Six-legged machines with heavy cannons fought the remaining enemies in the area, that was clear as day for Shin. It was just the Machines and Soldiers that were a blur.
Shin saw the world outside, though blurry, vanish yet again, only to be replaced by the hard steel of some sort of vehicle. He felt himself get set down on a stretcher and tied into place by a group of medical personnel aboard the tank. He looked down, past the box he still tightly held, wrapped in his arms, to see two more survivors being brought aboard. These two were pretty much on their own two feet.
"Shin!" He heard a familiar voice cry, then strands of silver hair punctuated by red appeared in his vision. The girl, clearly Anju, breathed a sigh of relief, then said, "They found him!"
"Thank Christ..." That was Daiya, "Stay with us, Shin! We'll... We'll make it!"
Two more were brought in on stretchers. Daiya knelt beside one and checked them. That was Kurena, he recognized the strange shade of her hair. One of the doctors called out to the driver, "We're full! Second LAV should be right behind us! GET US THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!" and Shin wanted to protest, reaching out to the doctor. She put his hand back onto his box and tied him into place, then said, "Don't worry. You'll all be fine, kid."
The vehicle's rear hatch closed with a whine and the vehicle took off, with half the wounded of SPEARHEAD aboard it.
UNSC Training Station Thirteen
Eighty-Fifth Sector of the Republic of San Magnolia.
Lena had soundly slept through their first day at Boot, surprisingly enough. Nobody had tried waking her or her friends up, so it pretty much turned into a day camp of sorts, honestly. Still, she expected something to happen now, seeing as it was pretty much early morning and the sun poked its head through the eastward windows of the makeshift barracks they were in.
The ringing of metal against metal woke her up with a startle. She jumped to her feet and marched up to the line in nothing but the standard-issue grey tank top and shorts given to them as PJs by the UNSC's training staff and saw almost everyone was in the same situation as her. Awoken suddenly, surprised and terrified. They heard a hard female voice call out, "ALRIGHT, CHROME-DOMES! NAP-TIME'S FUCKING OVER!"
She was a tall woman with ginger hair and azure eyes. Her face was morphed into an angry scowl fit for the Drill Instructor she probably was. She wore a black uniform with camouflage patterns on and had the rank insignia of a Sergeant-Major pinned to her shoulders and on her collar, as well as on her black officer's cap. She spoke to them sternly, "I am Sergeant-Major Serebryakov, of the Twenty-Sixth Regiment, Orbital Drop Shock Troopers and, for the next six months of your worthless lives, your Senior Drill Instructor! And for those six months, all I wanna hear coming out of your mouths at the end of EVERY SENTENCE is 'ma'am'! YOU GOT THAT?!"
"YES, MA'AM!" The entire line-up of Alba cried out, with Lena suddenly feeling that regret set in. Why'd she take Volkov up on the training offer...?
"I've been given orders by Major Volkov and Admiral Nakano to train you worthless lot of officers into proper fighting machines that will be able to not only help their men in combat, but defend themselves if shit ever hits the fan harder than a MAC Round impacting the fucking planet!" She continued her tirade, looking around them, "I'll be damned if I don't have the hardest job in this entire military... Look at all of you!"
She marched up to Annette, looking the girl straight in the eye, then said, "You, four-eyes. You any good with firing a rifle!?"
"U-Uh, N-No, ma'am!" The girl replied.
"Out-fucking-standing..." Sighed the Sergeant-Major, "There ANYTHING you're good at?! Because it's pretty fuckin' clear you can't even see right!"
"I-" Annette paused while Lena snorted. The Sergeant-Major craned her head toward the short bout of laughter and glared daggers at. The Sergeant-Major made the 'I'm watching you' motion to Annette, before stomping up to Lena and sizing her up. She was standing a forehead above Lena in terms of height and stared down at her like some crap she picked off her shoe.
"Something funny there, kid?" She asked, "And the fuck's with his hair?" She grabbed one of Lena's bangs and tugged at it, "Didn't get your ass dragged to the barbers' to shorten this fucking thing, did you...?" and she saw the girl stare, a bit surprised. She scowled again, then said, "Lemme make a suggestion to you, Snow-White! Either CUT THAT SHIT SHORT, or TIE IT IN A FUCKING BUN! Because I ain't seeing any random bimbo running around with long hair in MY Platoon! Do you understand me!?"
"Y-Yes, ma'am!" Lena replied, as firm as she could, while Annette flashed a proud grin at her.
She hummed, then nodded and let go of Lena's hair before noting, "Doesn't matter to me what you kids were before you came to me. I'll whip you all into fucking shape or die trying! Now! MAKE YOUR BUNKS AND GET DRESSED! YOU HAVE FIVE FUCKING MINUTES! Then, we're doing roll call and formation, followed by a nice, quick Ruck March through the camp! Hop to it!"
The entire room spun about and started making their bunks as best as they could, with Annette whistling to Lena and giving her an 'OK' sign with her hand. Lena rolled her eyes and tucked the bed's green cotton blanket tightly around the mattress and set the pillow as she'd found it yesterday, before going to the footlocker at the end of the bed and opening it.
Inside, she saw her personal effects, like a toothbrush, toothpaste, personal hygiene products and such, as well as a rather familiar uniform. Desert-tan in color, with various belts and pouches, as well as with a vest that contained even more of said pouches, a pair of boots and even a pair of cotton socks, the standard-issue infantry uniform of the Republic's pre-war military sat in front of her.
She hummed, narrowing her lips, then picked the item up and started getting dressed around the same time as the rest of her comrades. Fitting the last belt around her waist and clipping it shut, she looked over herself and gave an approving nod. While it looked wholly uncomfortable to wear, the standard-issue uniform was actually quite nice. It was baggy, allowing for free movement and it was also perfectly fit for the environment they were working in. Sure, the Eighty-Fifth sector wasn't desert, but still, it was a pretty warm spot in the field.
She and the others moved out of the place together, like a gaggle of idiots in the eyes of the officers, then lined up for roll call and formation. Annette took Lena's left side as they grouped up within the parade square, dead in front of their barracks. She said, "You forgot to put that in a bun, Lena..." and turned to help the girl with a special hairband. Lena smiled at Annette.
"Thanks," She said, "Guess we really are in for the hard stuff, huh?"
"Looks like it," Annette commented. She looked forward, to see the Sergeant-Major had brought forth a truck loaded with equipment that was now being unloaded by the UNSC's other active support personnel. It included stuff like large backpacks, rifles, ammunition to slot into the pouches and all that jazz. As the group lined up at parade rest in front of the Sergeant-Major, the woman looked them over.
She hummed, then whispered something to one of the soldiers helping her and said to them, "At least you little shits can make a proper parade rest! Christ almighty, there's one redeeming quality about you! Keep your ears open! We're doing Roll Call! Each one of you that gets called up, you get your asses in gear and retrieve one of the sets of equipment that're being lined up behind me. From there, we go on a march together so I can understand what levels of endurance I'm dealing with from this class of maggots."
She pulled out a tablet and started calling out names. The men and women in Lena, Annette and Dustin's class replied firmly and saluted. Dustin himself, though sat farther behind, replied with a snap-salute and nodded to the Sergeant-Major, before stepping up past Lena and Annette, giving them a nod and a smile, then he hefted the equipment with some difficulty. That stuff must've weighed several pounds.
"Jeez..." Annette whispered, "I think I'm gonna fold in on myself with all that..."
"Well, you can back out..." Lena whispered back.
"Nah... You kids are sticking with it," Annette smirked.
"Von Penrose, Henrietta!" The Sergeant-Major called out.
"Here, ma'am!" Annette barked, snapping a crisp salute. She whispered to Lena, "Wish me luck..." before stepping forth at the beckoning of the Sergeant Major and approaching one of the items of kit. She started slotting the magazines first into her vest's pouches, followed by the armor plates, helmet and, finally, the backpack and the firearm itself. By the time Annette and Dustin came back into formation, their legs were wobbling under the weight. Annette whined silently, bearing the weight as best as she could.
Around them, the sound of Pelican transports flying in and out with equipment and supplies roared just as the Sergeant-Major called out Lena from the line, "Milizé, Vladilena! Up front!" to which Lena quickly saluted and responded. The Sergeant-Major eyed the girl as she jogged forth, then stopped her and asked, "Says here you got the rank of Colonel from some of the shit you pulled during the Coup?"
"Yes, ma'am," The girl replied.
"Hm," The woman nodded, "Get your ass in gear, girl. We'll see if you're worth the eagle pins."
Lena nodded, then jogged up to and picked up her own kit. To say she understood Annette and Dustin's reactions would be an understatement, seeing as the kit must've weighed at least half her body weight in terms of equipment being hauled. From the personal radio transmit system to the backpack filled with what one would assume were supplies, to the Battle Rifle of the Republic Army and the ammunition for it, as well as the armor and helmet, it was a fucking pain to haul.
The Sergeant-Major, however, seemed to be enjoying their suffering. As the last man in the squadron lined up, which meant Lena had been sitting there with this kit killing her spine for the better part of fifteen minutes, she said to them, "Alright! Looks like you sad sacks are actually not as weak as you look! But here comes the real test! FACE LEFT! We're going on that ruck march, NOW! Follow me!"
She hefted her own backpack and kit, surprisingly enough, which included her ODST Armor, then stood to the front-left of the formation and said, "Forward, MARCH!" and took the first step. Beside her, in the front row, some of the better-trained men and women took the first step with her, followed by the rest of the group. They tried to move as synchronized as possible, their boots clapping against the tarmac below.
As they slowly got into stride, even with all the heavy gear that caused Lena, Annette and Dustin to pant like a trio of dogs, Lena looked over the training base. Fellow Alba marched, like them, in full kit, behind UNSC Marine and Army trainers, UNSC vehicles were being deployed within the walls, including Warthogs and Scorpions, and in the fields, training courses were being rapidly built by the Army and Marines and their Construction Battalions. The UNSC was here to drill them into a proper army. She even saw Shiden and her boys and girls training farther away, with the buff Captain clearly able to bear the load of the equipment better than them.
It was their turn to learn how to fight, Lena thought as she marched.