Thorthemighty321:
I'll actually be completely honest, it hadn't really occurred to me, using Mobuto in my story, as he was only supposed to be a nod to canon, but now that you've mentioned it, I probably could use him in this story. I'll have to sit down and figure out exactly how and what I want to portray him as doing, but I'm sure I can figure something out. However, if you, or anyone else really, has any suggestions, I'm certainly open to new ideas.
Broman:
The chapter might have felt short simply because not a whole lot happened in terms of action, but the chapter itself is exactly 7,714 words long of story content (not including notes and responses.) On average, my chapters are about 9,096.67 words long, so yes, this was shorter than usual, but overall, it's only the seventh shortest chapter so far (shortest was chapter 17 at 2,697 words of story content.)
I don't really blame people for not knowing the different between the two, mainly because the USMC is very unique in terms of its size, culture, and role. The only other unit that could even remotely compare would really be Russia's VDV units, but even then (in my opinion,) they're nowhere near as famous as the USMC.
Which leads me to my next point: what would be the current status of the USMC (and the rest of the US Armed Forces) in the Halo universe. That is rather hard for me to answer as I don't feel like there's enough information in regards to how the US fell and how the United Republic of North America came to be. If it was the modern day United States, they would most definitely have their own military as politically and culturally, Americans are rather averse to being under someone else's command. However, five hundred years in the future, the United States we know is no longer around so really, it definitely could be whatever the reader wants it to be.
Me personally, I think just like any other colony, Earth would have their own Colonial and Provincial Militia units. I personally like the idea that some of the more famous US military units would have survived to the "modern day" (like the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions or the 1st Marine Division,) but I think those militias would be rather limited in numbers because, as the birthplace of the UNSC and humanity as a whole, Earth would be heavily stacked with UNSC military garrisons and bases, thus making a CM and PM somewhat redundant (similar to the way I felt about Reach, as mentioned in my notes for chapter 17.)
Chapter 23
UNSC Gallipoli, High Orbit, Actium
May 6, 2545
1320
Adel
Adel drummed his fingers against the buttstock of his rifle, as he tried to avoid fidgeting. He was bored out of his mind. Being part of the first wave of Marines to be deployed to the planet was not turning out to be nearly as exciting as he thought it was going to be.
When the word had come down from Command for the Marines to begin loading onto the Pelicans, Adel had figured that meant they were actually going to get deployed soon. But after five minutes of them just sitting there without moving, Adel realized all he had done was go from being bored aboard a Navy assault carrier, to being bored aboard a Marine Corps Pelican. Adel was seriously beginning to wonder if he was going to be able to make it to Actium before all the fighting ended.
Exasperating the situation was the fact that it was so damn uncomfortable inside the spacecraft. The D77H-TCI Pelican they were sitting in may have been designed to carry up to a squad of Marines across extremely long distances, but clearly the spacecraft designers didn't have the comfort of the Marines in mind when they built the damn thing. The seats they were sitting on were made of metal and lacked cushioning of any sort, and they appeared to have been intended for a midget as Adel barely had enough room on either side of him to move his arms. Furthermore, there must have been something wrong with the circulation fan because, not only was it starting to get rather warm in there, it was also starting to smell.
In short, Adel was hot, tired, grumpy, and absolutely ready to kill any inhuman son of a bitch that looked at him wrong. Which, now that he thought about it, might have actually been the point.
Deciding he need something else to focus on besides his discomfort, Adel glanced around the Pelican. He was sitting in the center of the spacecraft on the starboard side, with Sam and X wedged in on either side of him. At the end of the row sitting next to the ramp was Reynolds because, as the highest ranking Marine on board, he was expected to be the first one off when they finally landed on the battlefield.
Sitting directly across from Reynolds with his arm resting on the ramp controls, was one of the Pelican's crew chiefs. Despite wearing the same enclosed helmet with opaque visor that every other air winger in the MEU wore, Adel could tell the man was just as uncomfortable in this enclosed space as Adel was, and the sight honestly caused Adel to cheer up a bit. After all, if a Marine, whose sole purpose in life was to sit in fully loaded Pelicans such as this one, was uncomfortable, then clearly this situation was rather abnormal. And therefore, Adel's discomfort was the result of the abnormality of the situation, and not because he was a pussy or anything like that...
At any case, the rest of the Pelican was filled up with the remaining members of 3rd Platoon's HQ section. Aside from the regularly assigned Marines, there were also the support weapons teams: Adel's own three man assault team, a three man general purpose machine gun team, and finally a three man 60mm mortar team. Lieutenant Silva, fortunately, was not present, having decided that it was in the platoon's best interest he rode down to the surface with 1st Squad instead.
All told, there was a grand total of fourteen fully armed and equipped Marines sitting in the back of this Pelican. Coupled with their weapons, all the munitions they were carrying in their rucksacks, and their extra supplies, it made for an extremely tight space.
"Goddammit," Adel exclaimed, his impatience and discomfort finally getting the better of him. "When are we fucking leaving!?"
"I don't know how many times I can say, 'When they fucking tell us,'" Sam immediately replied, without even bothering to lift his head. "Seriously: shut the fuck up already."
"Man, I wish I was in charge," Adel grumbled. "We'd be halfway to the planet by now."
"If you wanted to be in charge, you should have joined the Army," X murmured.
As best as he could, Adel turned to face X. "Why the fuck would I ever want to do that?"
X jumped, as if he hadn't expected Adel to hear him. "Nothing," he said, "it's just the Army promotes people faster than the Corps does. My twin brother is in the Army; we enlisted at the same time but I'm still an E-3 while he's already an E-5. Of course, mother always did say he was the responsible one," he added with a shrug.
Adel sneered. "The Army, huh? Guess you got all the brains X. Why the fuck would he want to join that band of pussies when he could have been a badass warrior like you and me?"
"He got a signing bonus plus, prospects were better in terms of long term career opportunities. Or at least, that's what he told me," X explained. "Of course, I never cared about that. Soon as I get my four years in, I am out."
"Not planning on being a lifer, huh X?" Sam asked.
X laughed. "Fuck no. Why the fuck would I want to do that?"
"Yeah, you didn't strike me as the type," Sam noted with a wiry grin before leaning forward so he could glance at Adel. "Not like Adel, huh? Adel, you ain't ever getting out, are you?"
"The only place I want to get out from is this damn dropship," Adel uncomfortably growled, and then immediately cringed. He hadn't meant to admit that out loud.
To his surprise, Reynolds, who Adel didn't even know was listening in, burst out laughing.
"Yeah, kinda tight in here, ain't it Private?" he commented, making Adel instantly feel better about himself. "Reminds me of a job I pulled years ago: we was transportin' cattle. Lawd, you would not believe the smell!"
Reynolds abruptly stopped speaking and Adel stared at him curiously before realizing Reynolds had his hand pressed against the side of his headset. At the same time, a loud whine filled the air and the entire vehicle began vibrating as the Pelican's engines were activated. Adel quickly sat up in his seat in anticipation, though he dared not breathe, least it turn out he was mistaken.
His fears were unfounded though as a moment later, Reynolds unbuckled himself from his seat and stood up.
"Marines!" he loudly yelled to be heard over the increasing sounds of the Pelican's engines. "The light is green!"
"WOOOHOO!" Adel couldn't help but immediately cheer. "Fucking finally!"
Beside him, he could hear Sam facepalming, but Adel didn't care; they were finally moving out.
On the other side of the cargo bay, Adel could see a hint of a smirk appear on Reynolds' face, but he hid it well.
"Lock 'n load Marines," was all he said instead as he lifted his rifle and inserted a magazine.
Gleefully pulling out a magazine he had hooked on his sleeve for this very purpose, Adel jammed it into his BR55 battle rifle and chambered a round, the rifle making a very satisfying racking noise. As he did that, Adel could feel the Pelican rotating as it moved into launch position.
"Attention all cargo and crew," the Pelican pilot suddenly said over the internal intercom. "We are T minus thirty seconds to launch."
Adel could feel something heavy rumbling outside and even though he couldn't see what it was, he instinctively knew it was the hanger bay doors, and Adel suddenly felt a thrill of anticipation go down his spine as the realization that he was literally standing on the edge of the precipice struck him.
"SQUAD!" Reynolds yelled, drawing all attention to him. "What are we!?"
"UNSC MARINES STAFF SERGEANT!" Adel bellowed alongside everyone else, picking up on the rallying call.
"And what do Marines do!?"
"KILL!"
"What was that? I said: WHAT DO MARINES DO!?"
"KILL!"
"WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU! WHAT DO MARINES DO!?"
"KILLLLLL!" Adel screamed at the top of lungs, even as he heard the pilots in the background counting, "T minus ten, nine, eight..."
"Oorah Marines!" Reynolds declared.
" - five, four, three, two, one... LAUNCH!"
Adel was abruptly thrusted against his restraints as the Pelican dropped straight down. Before he even had a chance to gather his bearings, the pilots threw the Pelican into a tight barrel roll, and the maneuver caused Adel to reflexively grip his restraints as the adrenaline in his veins spiked. He quickly caught himself though, and thrusted his arms into the air like he was on a rollercoaster and let out a loud, "OOOOOORRRAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Laughing as maniacally as he could, Adel glanced over at his team to see how they were handling the ride. X was sitting in his seat, looking rather annoyed at Adel's screaming, but seemed relaxed for the most part. Sam, on the other hand, had completely tensed up, his hands tightly gripping his restraints while his eyes were squeezed shut.
At that sight, Adel couldn't help but let out another loud laugh. For all of Sam's chill, Sam was deathly afraid of flying.
"Come on Corporal!" Adel jeered, even as the pilots executed another series of maneuvers which threw everyone against the back of their seats. "Open your eyes at least you fucking pussy!"
"Shut the fuck up Private Savaschi before I fucking shoot you!" Sam snapped back, eyes determinedly remaining closed.
Adel just grinned in response, undeterred by Sam's threats of violence.
The intercom overhead suddenly crackled to life.
"…join the rest of the formation, right there. Uh, alright Marines, we're in the pipe. ETA, seven minutes to the LZ."
Adel tightened his grip on his rifle in anticipation. Seven minutes. Seven minutes and he'd be on the ground where he would finally get his chance to bag a real-life alien. He could wait seven minutes. After all, there were no more obstacles left to stand in his way.
BEEPBEEPBEEP!
"What the - contact, contact! Enemy Banshees starboard side bearing one seven seven six!" the copilot yelled out.
"Evade, evade!"
Adel was thrown hard against the back of his seat as the pilot threw the Pelican into a spin. He immediately lost all sense of orientation as his entire world spun, with the floor and the ceiling inverting, then reverting, and then inverting all within the span of seconds. Through the cockpit window, he could see all the Pelicans in the formation scattering in all directions as a green fuel rod cannon passed through their ranks.
"What the hell!?" Adel screamed as he struggled to recover. "I thought there was a stalemate right now!"
"A stalemate ain't a ceasefire!" Reynolds yelled back. "Big 'uns ain't firin', but the fighters are still active!"
Adel was thrown hard against his restraints as the pilot abruptly leveled out the Pelican.
"Super 6-3 to Golf Charlie Tango," Adel heard the pilot yelling through the open cockpit door. "Be advised, we have been engaged, out! Moonshine, all power to forward engines, get us out of this shit!"
"Copy that Toad!" the copilot replied.
"Jarheads!" the pilot yelled over his shoulder. "Make sure you're really strapped it! This is going to get messy!"
"How much messier could it get?" Adel started to snarkily say, but he was forced to immediately swallow his words as the pilots threw the Pelican into a dive, the force of which shoved him against his seat with enough force, Adel actually found it hard to catch his breath.
Outside, electric blue plasma bolts were flying right by the Pelican, missing its hull by centimeters, but getting closer with each shot.
"Heads up Toad, we got three bandits, on our six!" the copilot hollered.
"I see 'em!"
The pilot threw the Pelican into a wide loop and beside him, Adel could hear Sam practically whimpering, and normally Adel would have given him shit for it, but truth be told, it was taking Adel almost everything he had to not do the same. Then -
CLANK!
A loud yelp managed to worm its way between Adel's lips as something struck the roof of the Pelican, sending reverberations through the entire aircraft.
"We've been hit!" the copilot warned. "Minor damage to the dorsal hull. Hull will hold, but we can't take another hit like that!"
"God damn motherfuckers don't know when to quit, do they?" the pilot snarled. "Where the fuck is our air support!?"
"Don't know: damn flyboys are late as usual!"
"Then we need to figure out a way out of this mess ourselves! Moonshine, find me some cover!"
"Okay... there! Seventeen degrees, starboard! That burnt out wreck of a frigate!"
"Got it! Marines, hang on!"
That was the only warning Adel had before the pilot ignited the Pelican's portside maneuvering thrusters, causing the aircraft to execute a near ninety degree turn starboard on the spot. Adel nearly screamed out loud in pain as the force from a turn at those speeds played hell on his body, but he forced himself to bite down on his lip instead to avoid losing face in front of his friends. Not that it mattered as X clearly had no such compunctions.
"GAHHH!"
The Pelican suddenly straightened out and Adel let out a sigh of relief, but they clearly weren't out of the woods just yet. As the Pelican skimmed along the hull of the destroyed frigate, fuel rod cannons began raining down from above.
"Look out!"
One fuel rod cannon slammed into the wreck about a hundred meters in front of them, tearing out a massive chunk of debris, which floated away from the destroyed frigate and into the Pelican's path. At the speeds they were traveling at, it was clear there was no way for the pilot to avoid the piece, which was about the size of an entire Longsword fighter.
"Moonshine, guns and rockets: fire!" the pilot blurted out. "Blow a hole through that thing!"
Outside, Adel could see rocket contrails and tracers shells from the dropship's 70mm nose cannon streak ahead of the Pelican as the copilot opened fire on the debris. Explosions ripped through the chunk, causing it to slowly drift apart, leaving a small hole that looked barely big enough for the Pelican to fit.
"Watch out Toad, you're going to have to thread the needle!"
"I know! It's going to be tight! Marines, brace for impact!"
Adel tried to keep his eyes open as the debris quickly filled the entire cockpit window, determined to go to his death by staring his killer straight in the eyes, but at the last possible second, he flinched and turned away.
The Pelican jerked and a loud screeching noise filled the air as the Pelican weaved through the hole, but it wasn't quite big enough and the Pelican ended up scraping the bottom of its hull against something. Still, the Pelican had made it through, and that was all that mattered for the moment.
"INCOMING! Dive Toad, DIVE!"
The cockpit was lit up with radioactive green light as the fuel rod passed by overhead, missing the small boat by mere centimeters. Adel could see it start to curve upwards, then there was a brilliant orange flash of an explosion. Adel couldn't see what got hit from his angle, but obviously the pilots could as they began yelling:
"Oh shit! 6-1 just got hit! Super 6-1 just got hit! It's going down!"
"Watch out watch out watch out!"
Another Pelican, with its entire portside wing in shreds, began to pass right in front of the path of Adel's aircraft, putting both birds on a collision course. Adel could feel his Pelican swerving to the side as the pilot did his best to avoid a crash, but before they could get clear, the other Pelican simply exploded.
"Fuck! BRACE!"
The entire Pelican began to violently shake as it passed right through the rapidly expanding debris field. Adel flinched as something slammed into the cockpit window with enough force, it caused the outermost layer of the window to crack. Adel mentally braced for a following shot, but nothing happened.
"Goddammit that was close!" Adel heard the pilot exclaim instead.
"You said it man. Hey, at least our escorts finally showed up."
"Good," the pilot emphatically announced. "Let those assholes deal with the Banshees. Let's hurry up and get these guys on the ground."
"Copy that. Hey, crew? We're starting our descent."
"God damn," Adel breathed as he released the breath of air he'd been holding. "Holy shit. We fucking made it."
A loud snort caught his attention, and Adel looked back to see Reynolds shaking his head.
"Don't celebrate yet Private: that was the easy part," he ominously stated.
All Adel could do was stare at him as flames began to lick at the window as the Pelican began its descent through Actium's atmosphere.
KABOOM!
Adel jerked as something exploded just outside the hull, causing the Pelican to shake.
KABOOMKABOOM!
Another two explosions went off in quick succession, and Adel looked around in alarm for the cause.
"Marines, we're experiencing some heavy flak up here!" the pilot yelled over his shoulder. "Might want to brace yourselves: we're not quite out of the shit just yet!"
Adel gritted his teeth as explosions continued to rip the sky around them apart. Through the cockpit window, Adel could see green streaks soaring through the sky, raising up from down below, only to exploded as soon as they close enough to the aircraft. Green flames licked at the window as the Pelican descended through the storm, and the sight reminded Adel of old videos he had seen of hurricane chasers flying through various hurricanes, only, instead of rain hitting the window, it was shrapnel.
"Five minutes until touchdown!" the pilot abruptly announced.
"Five minutes!" Reynolds repeated.
All of a sudden, the explosions ceased, leaving an eerie silence in its wake. At first, Adel wasn't sure why, but as he glanced through the window and saw they were beginning to pass through a cluster of skyscrapers, he realized it was because the Covenant AA could no longer target them. Adel started to sigh in relief, only to stop when he realized that meant the Pelican was only minutes away from landing in the middle of a battlefield. Somehow, that fact seemed far more exciting ten minutes and seventeen thousand meters ago.
"Three minutes."
"Three minutes!" Reynolds repeated.
"Come on," Adel urged himself. "Come on. You're a killer. A warrior. A fucking Marine. You can do this."
He was vaguely aware of X shooting him a concerned look, but Adel ignored it as he continued to try and psych himself up.
"One minute."
"One minute!" Reynolds bellowed. "Marines! On your feet! Get ready!"
Adel shakily undid his restraints and climbed to his feet. Pulling out his rucksack from underneath his seat, he slipped it onto his back and made sure to grab his rifle. He stood there behind Sam, doing his best to hide his trembling.
"Thirty seconds. Crew chief, lower the ramp."
The crew chief reached out and hit a button on his console. With a whine of hydraulics that was quickly lost in the roar of the wind, the ramp slowly lowered, revealing the battlefield for the first time. Adel couldn't see much from where he was standing, but what he could see revealed the Pelican was maybe thirty to forty meters off the ground and descending fast. At the moment, they were flying over a large parking lot, with burning cars and trucks covering most of the surface and filling the air with smoke. From his vantage point, Adel could see all sorts of people running around on the ground between the cars, but he couldn't see whether they were Covenant or human. Then, what he could see was lost as they passed over a large stadium.
The Pelican stopped in mid-air with a jerk, nearly knocking Adel off his feet, before it descended straight down, the engines screaming at the sudden increase in power output. The Pelican touched the ground with a thump, but even before the aircraft had fully settled, Reynolds was already springing into action.
"MARINES! WE ARE GREEN AND VERY, VERY MEAN!"
"OORAH!" Adel screamed at the top of his lungs at a last minute attempt to psych himself up.
"Follow me!" Reynolds bellowed one last time before disappearing down the ramp. At once, everyone else in the Pelican began surging forward to do the same.
Following closely behind Sam, Adel jogged down the ramp -
- and descended into hell.
The first thing that hit him was the noise. A cacophony of sounds filled his ears: the roar of jet engines as more Pelicans descended down from the heavens, the screaming of Banshees as they did their best to stop the flow of UNSC reinforcements, the thumping of mortars and artillery, the sharp ripping noise of machine gun fire, and the crackling of fire as it consumed all it could reach. The noise was almost overwhelming, and it was nearly enough to drive Adel to tears.
The next thing to hit him was the smell. All sorts of odors, many of which Adel could barely recognize: the tangy aroma of blood, the acrid stench of smoke, the stinging musk of gunpowder and ozone, and finally a scent that, even as inexperienced as he was, Adel recognized as the sweet fragrance of death. The bouquet of pungency made his stomach churn, and Adel fought the urge to puke.
Finally Adel took in the sights. Shattered skyscrapers filled the horizon, many of which looked around ready to collapse. Smoke was rising from so many places, causing a dull gray haze to fall over the city. Multi-colored lights: neon-green from Covenant fuel rod cannons, icy-blue from Covenant plasma weapons, red-orange from UNSC tracer rounds, white-gray from UNSC SAM contrails, and blinding off-white from aircraft flares crisscrossed the air; the kaleidoscope of colors kind of reminded Adel of a rave. Aircraft and spacecraft of all kinds from both sides darted above and between buildings, fighting for dominance of the sky.
Closer to where Adel was standing, a downed VTOL aircraft laid burning in the stadium stands. At the base of the stands, an entire platoon of 81mm medium mortars had been set up, the mortarmen frantically firing their weapons into the city. Several meters away from the mortars, a triage center had been set up under a small tent. Doctors, some wearing civilian scrubs, others wearing military fatigues, were busy tending to dozens of wounded people. On the field less than fifteen meters in front of the Pelicans, a crowd of panicked civilians, many of them covered in ash and blood and carrying nothing but their children and the clothes on their back, were pushing towards the Pelicans with only a small line of airmen to hold them back.
As Adel stood there, trying to process everything, one of the airmen attempting to hold back the civilians happened to look up and see Adel simply standing there at the back of the Pelican.
"Soldier!" the man screamed. "Come on! Let's move it! I got to get these people out of here! Let's move it soldier!"
The use of the term "soldier" immediately caught Adel's attention.
"'Soldier?'" Adel repeated, incredulous. Instantly some of the swagger he had when he was back on the Gallipoli returned to him. "'Soldier?' Listen up asshole, I'm a fucking UNSC Marine, not some pussy-ass mutherfucker who got handed a rifle and a uniform one day and told to go play war. I'm a fucking god of war, a stone cold killer, and a goddamn Marine. I had to earn the right to wear this!" he yelled, finishing up his speech by patting the UNSCMC emblem that was printed on his name patch that was plastered on the center of his chest.
The airman, however, didn't look impressed.
"Listen fuckface," he snarled. "No one gives a flying fuck who you are. These people have got to get off this fucking planet, but you're holding everything up! Get out of the fucking way!"
"I don't take orders from the Chair Force!" Adel tried to retort, but before he could, Sam came running up.
"Are you fucking kidding me Adel!? Now's not the fucking time!" he bellowed. "Clear the ramp! Let's move Marine!"
Adel had no chance to protest as Sam yanked him off the ramp and away from the Pelican. Almost immediately, the airmen stepped aside and a mass of civilians began piling onto the Pelican. It took maybe all of five seconds before the crew chief was indicating the Pelican was full, and the airmen quickly stepped in to stop the flow of civilians.
Adel ducked his head as the ramp slid shut and the engines flared, launching the Pelican straight up into the air. The aircraft continued to climb until it was high enough to clear the stadium, before igniting its afterburners and speeding off in the direction of high orbit.
"Adel, let's go!" Sam urged as soon as the Pelican was out of sight. "We gotta go find Reynolds! Come on!"
Adel wanted to protest, but with Sam tugging on his sleeve, he wasn't given a chance. He half followed, half got dragged towards the interior of the stadium where the rest of the platoon was gathering.
"MARINE!"
"Ah shit," Sam muttered, and Adel whirled around only to see Lieutenant Silva marching towards them with an irate look on his face.
"Marine!" Silva repeated as he walked straight up to Adel and stopped right in front of him. "What was that?"
Adel's annoyance instantly turned to confusion.
"Sir?" was all he said instead.
"I saw you fighting with that airman," Silva yelled. "What the hell was that!?"
Adel stared at him, incredulous. Out of all the things he expected from Silva, that wasn't it. Fortunately, Sam quickly stepped in before Adel could reply.
"Sir, with all due respect," Sam calmly said, "I don't think this is the time and place for this."
Silva immediately whirled on him.
"No one cares what you think Corporal," he hissed. "I will not have my Marines fighting personnel from our sister services. I will not tolerate it!"
"LIEUTENANT!
Adel and the others turned around to see Reynolds jogging towards them.
"Sir, what the gorram hell is goin' on?" Reynolds demanded to know.
"Staff Sergeant, I want this Marine's name, rank, and service number," Silva snapped, pointing at Adel. "He was fighting with an airman, and I will not tolerate it!"
Reynolds stared at him like he was crazy.
"Sir, we got other problems," was all he said and before Silva could protest, he turned around and gestured at someone standing a couple of meters away. "Major Edison!"
A man wearing the uniform of the Air Force and golden oak leaves of a major came running up.
"Major, this 2nd Lieutenant Silva, 1st Platoon Commander," Reynolds recited, pointing at Silva. The Major turned to him.
"Major Edison, No 101 Network Operations Squadron, Actium Air Force!" the Major yelled as something exploded just outside the stadium. "Listen up Lieutenant, here's the situation: an unknown number of Covenant soldiers have managed to break through the MLR and are making their way here, right now! I got several hundred civilians waiting to be evacuated, but most of my troops got sent to go help hold the line, so I've got next to no one to help defend this place. I need you and your platoon to head to the southern entrance and hold the Covenant back until more reinforcements arrive!"
"Understood Major. We'll get it done," Silva smoothly replied, and Edison gave a single nod before running off.
As soon as Edison left though, Silva immediately turned to Reynolds.
"Staff Sergeant, bring the platoon to the southern entrance and set up defensive positions; prepare to defend this landing zone!"
"Sir, you ain't comin' with?" Reynolds asked, sounding surprised.
"With the executive officer having been shot down en-route, the company commander will need me to coordinate the actions of all his platoons, at least until he touches down himself," Silva smugly replied.
Adel's eyes flickered towards Reynolds, only to see a surprised look appearing on his face.
"Sir, that's not exactly your job..." he started to say, but Silva quickly interrupted him.
"Staff Sergeant, was any part of my order unclear?"
Adel could see Reynolds frowning, but he nevertheless said, "No sir."
"Then see that it gets done Staff Sergeant," Silva snapped, before leaning in close, and saying in a low enough voice, Adel had to strain in order to hear him over all the background noises. "I'm in charge Staff Sergeant. Don't ever forget that."
And with an imperious look on his face, Silva spun around on one heel and walked away, leaving Reynolds looking flabbergasted.
"Húndàn(1)," Adel heard him mutter before, more loudly, he yelled, "Alright 3rd Platoon! On me!"
Adel hefted his rifle and followed Reynolds as he lead the platoon towards the concourse area of the stadium. They jogged through the concrete corridors, passing scores of civilians, all headed towards the arena for evacuation.
Finding a staircase that would take them up to the southern entrance, they headed up. The stairs were packed with even more civilians, but all of them quickly moved out of the way at the sight of nearly forty-five heavily armed Marines charging towards them.
"Jesus," Adel heard X call out. "Why the fuck are there still so many civilians around?"
"A city this big and this dense?" Sam called back. "I'd be surprised if the UNSC had even managed to evacuate half of the city's population before the landings started. But fuck, this is going to complicate things."
"Hey, as long as they don't get in our way, we should be fine," Adel growled as he shoved his way through a group of civilians who had wandered into his path.
Sam grunted in agreement.
Rushing up the last flight of stairs, they entered into the main level of the concourse. The area was a mess. What had once been a gateway to entertainment was now a war zone. Large windows that had once flooded the area with natural light had been shattered, the glass and metal frames littering the ground below and exposing the lobby to the freezing air and snow outside. Concession stands and kiosks that had once attracted sports fans with their merchandise had been ripped out from the ground and shoved in front of the windows and doorways, forming a makeshift barricade. Crouched behind the barricade located at the main entrance, were seven very nervous looking airmen. Presumably they were supposed to be guarding the entrance, but all they were doing was hiding behind their wall, not even moving as dozens of civilians climbed over the sandbags and rushed further into the stadium.
One of the airmen happened to look up and spot them.
"Oh, thank god, it's the Marines!" he blurted out.
"At ease Airman," Reynolds ordered as he walked up. "Staff Sergeant Reynolds, UNSC Marine Corps. Who's in charge here?"
The same airman that originally spoke up raised his hand. "That'll be me sir."
Adel could see Reynolds raising an eyebrow. "I ain't an officer."
"Oh good," the airman blurted out. "Me neither. Uh, Senior Airman Tsui sir. I mean... Sergeant. I mean... I'm Senior Airman Tsui, Sergeant."
Reynolds reached out and put a comforting hand on Tsui's shoulder. "Relax son, help is here. Major Edison be sayin' Covies are on their way. What's the situation here?"
Tsui took a deep breath and seemed to calm down just a bit. "Surveillance says a company-sized unit of Covenant light infantry managed to break through the frontline and are making a beeline right here. They don't got no armor, but it doesn't matter cause I only got seven guys, and none of us are trained for combat."
"We're A-1(2) squadron headquarters support staff sir," Tsui explained at Reynolds' questioning look. "I deal with payroll. Last time I held a rifle was in basic."
"Got a bunch of gorram REMFs(3) here," Adel heard Reynolds mutter before, more loudly, he asked, "What 'bout civilians? Seein' loads of 'em right now. We got anymore comin' in?"
"I think this is the last of them sir," Tsui reported. "Crowd's been quickly thinning out, and anyone between us and the Covenant, well, Covies would rather shoot 'em than let them get away."
Reynolds sadly shook his head. "Ain't that the sad truth. How many entrances we got on this side?"
"Four sir. This is the main one, but we've one down on the left, one on the right, and a small one downstairs. I think it's a service entrance."
"Alright. 1st Squad! Head downstairs, cover our asses. 2nd and 3rd, left and right entrances, cover our flanks. Platoon HQ will set up here!" To Tsui, Reynolds barked, "Y'all airmen with us."
"Yes Sergeant."
Reynolds turned around. "Marines! Set up defensive positions!"
Adel immediately and eagerly leapt forward, determined to get to the barrier first in order to secure the best position possible. Finding a potential spot, he began scanning the battlefield in front of him.
The stadium as a whole sat on top of a very small and gradual hill, putting it at about two meters above the surrounding area. Surrounding the entire stadium was the parking lot, which itself was maybe two hundred and thirty to two hundred and fifty meters wide. Dotting the parking lot were a large number of cars which could potentially provide a lot of cover for the attacking Covenant, but Adel wasn't worried: the 9.5mm round his battle rifle fired was more than capable of penetrating the light-skinned civilian vehicles.
At the other end of the parking lot, there was a large, four lane road that separated the stadium and its parking lot from the rest of the city. On the other side of that road were some small, one story brick buildings that appeared to be restaurants of sorts. Beyond that, Adel couldn't see much more.
Deciding he had sufficient fields of fire from where he was, Adel started to get settled in. He began pulling out the rockets from his rucksack and setting them up; as the team's assistant gunner, Adel was carrying four rockets for X's M41 "SPNKR" rocket launcher: two HEDP rounds for usage against bunkers, and two HEAT rounds for use against Covenant armor.
"What are you going to want X: HEDP or HEAT?" Adel asked.
Sam quickly stopped him before he could remove the rockets from their protective cases. "Hold up on the rockets Adel," he ordered. "Flyboy over there said incoming Covies don't have any armor, so let's save them until we really need them."
Adel nodded and then grinned. If they weren't firing the Jackhammer, then that meant Adel didn't have to worry about reloading it, and could focus on firing his rifle, thus increasing his chances of a kill. This really was turning out to be the best day ever.
Sliding the rockets back into their cases on his rucksack, Adel instead began removing the covers off all his magazine pouches for faster access to reloads. Beside him, he could hear Sam and X following suit. Then someone else took a knee next to them. Adel looked up. It was that airman, Tsui.
"You guys mind if I take up position next to you?" Tsui asked with a rather pathetic begging look on his face.
"Fuck yes we mind," Adel immediately snapped. "We don't need some slack-jawed faggot sitting next to us."
"Adel, shut the fuck up," Sam snapped. "Ignore him Airman, he's an asshole. Yeah, you can set up next to us. One condition though: I've seen how you Zoomies fight. Try to remember, when the shooting starts, make sure you're shooting in the same direction as everybody else."
Tsui gave a sheepish grin as he lifted his assault rifle in response, and Adel growled as he noticed Tsui's finger was on the trigger. Tsui at least had the good sense to have the safety on and keep his rifle pointed down range, but the sight didn't exactly fill Adel with confidence over the Airman's fighting ability. With any luck, Tsui would get himself killed pretty quickly, and Adel wouldn't have to worry about accidently getting shot in the back by friendlies.
Without warning, there was a purple flash of light and Tsui's head practically exploded. Adel snapped his head in Tsui's direction in time to see his body sagging to the ground like a puppet whose strings had just been cut.
FWOOZ!
"Sniper!" Sam screamed, shoving Adel to the ground as the retort from the beam rifle shot echoed across the battlefield. "TAKE COVER!"
"Contact!" X screamed. "Enemy sniper, one story building, other side of the parking lot!"
"SUPPRESSING FIRE!"
Adel had no idea who shouted out that last order, but it didn't seem to matter as all military personnel present promptly opened up. Adel hastily grabbed his rifle, not wanting to miss out on all the action, and leveled it. He didn't know which building the sniper had been in, so he chose one at random and pulled the trigger.
BANG BANG BANG!
Adel felt a feral grin cross over his face as he felt the familiar feeling of his battle rifle recoiling into his shoulder and for the first time since he enlisted, he actually felt like he was in a war. The noise, the chaos? This was what he'd been training for. This is what he lived for.
"Whoa, whoa! Slow down your rate of fire!" he heard Reynolds yelling in the background. "Lance Corporal! Which building you see the sniper shootin' from?"
"The noodles place Staff Sergeant!"
Adel peaked through his two times scope and scanned the row of buildings, and noticed one of them had a half-broken sign that at one point, appeared to have been a graphic of a large white bowl containing either spaghetti or lo mein. He shifted his aim towards the building and was about to pull the trigger, when Reynolds shouted,
"Marines! Cease fire!"
Adel heard someone running and he glanced around to see Reynolds running up the machine gun team.
"MG team, suppress that building!" he ordered, pointing at the noodles place. "Sergeant Badger! Drop a couple of mortars onto that roof!"
"Roger that Staff Sergeant!"
Adel watched as Badger unsling the mortar tube from his back and planted it on the ground while the machine gun team began spraying down the building. Dropping a mortar round down the barrel, Adel watched as Badger adjusted the angle of the mortar before putting his hand on the trigger.
"FIRING!" Badger yelled, and pulled the trigger.
THUNK!
The 60mm mortar left the tube and Badger quickly adjusted his aim, tossed another mortar down the barrel, and pulled the trigger again.
THUNK!
With the machine gun team suppressing the building, Adel waited with bated breath for the mortars to hit.
SWOOOSHHHH!
BABOOMKABOOM!
The mortars landed on the roof and exploded in rapid succession. There was a loud roar as the roof of the building partially collapsed, hopefully killing the sniper along with it. At that sight, Adel couldn't help but cheer.
"Yeah! Get some Badger!" he yelled.
"raaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Adel's head snapped in shock as a ton of Covenant infantry suddenly began pouring from the building they had just hit. Hollering and screaming at the top of their lungs, the Covenant quickly crossed the street and started charging straight towards the stadium, firing their weapons as they ran.
FWOOZFWOOZFWOOZFWOOZ!
Adel dove for the deck as plasma bolts began showering the area around the entrance, hitting the walls, the floor, the roof, the barrier, everywhere. The smell of ozone quickly overpowered all other scents and temperatures in the general vicinity skyrocketed as the plasma left scorch marks in the concrete.
This time, there were no need for orders: the Marines immediately began firing back.
"CONTACT!" someone screamed.
"No shit!" Adel yelled back as he brought his rifle up to his shoulder and pulled the trigger, only to find he had emptied the mag in the firefight against the sniper and hadn't thought to reload.
Swearing violently under his breath, Adel ripped out the empty magazine and let it drop to the ground, pulling out a new one as it did. He was about to ram it home into his rifle when –
KABOOM!
The entire building shook as something heavy hit it, and out of surprise, Adel reflexively tossed his magazine into the air as he hefted his rifle and started looking around for whatever it was. For his troubles, he nearly took a plasma bolt to the face, the bolt impacting the doorframe just above his head and sending sparks in all directions, as well as causing Adel to reflexively dive for the floor.
"What the fuck was that?" Adel yelled at Sam.
"Dunno, don't care! Fire your weapon Marine!" Sam screamed back at him.
"Shit!"
Scrambling around on the floor, Adel casted around, looking for his magazine. Finding it sitting in a rapidly growing pile of brass, he quickly reloaded, and then casted around the battlefield, looking for a target. He spotted one Grunt emerging from cover around a small red car and start to charge forward while two of his buddies started laying down suppressing fire.
Dropping the crosshairs of his scope over the charging Grunt, Adel slowly released his breath and pulled the trigger.
click.
"Son of a bitch!" Adel screamed as he slapped the bottom of his magazine a couple of times and racked the bolt. He quickly lowered his rifle again and tried again, but again his rifle let out a mute click as the Grunt slid to safety behind a small white pickup truck. "Malfunction!"
Adel gave his magazine another hard smack and racked the bolt again as one of the Grunt's buddies emerged from behind the red car. He took aim at the new Grunt and pulled the trigger, but again his rifle failed to fire. "Fuck fuck fuck!"
He racked the bolt several times to try and clear whatever was causing his rifle to jam, and pulled the trigger, and then cycled the bolt a couple more times when that absolutely failed to accomplish anything.
"What the fuck is wrong with you Adel!" Sam screamed at him from his spot behind the barricade.
"I'm jammed!" Adel yelled back as he racked the bolt once more and pulled the trigger with no luck.
"Shit! X, pick up your rate of fire!"
"Come on baby, don't do this shit to me; not now!" Adel pleaded as he began looking his rifle over, trying to figure out what was wrong, when he noticed his ammo counter was still showing his magazine had a full thirty-six rounds left, which was weird because he should have at least ejected a couple by now.
Pulling back on the bolt just a bit, Adel peered into the chamber of his rifle, only to see nothing was getting loaded. "What the fuck!"
Ripping the magazine out, Adel was astonished to see the magazine feed lips were bent, probably the result of him dropping it. Because his ammo counter only tallied the number of bullets in his magazine and not the chamber, he hadn't realized anything was wrong.
"Shit!" Adel yelled, hurtling the busted magazine to the ground and ripping out a new one. This time making sure a round got chambered, Adel switched his rifle to full auto and pulled the trigger.
BANGBANGBANGBANG!
"YES! Finally!" Adel cheered as he emptied the entire thirty-six round magazine without issue. Hastily reloading, Adel rose back up to search for a target. He spotted one Jackal welding a carbine, rising up from behind the engine block of a nice looking sports car to fire at targets unseen.
Slowly exhaling, Adel pulled the trigger, only to see a bullet hole forming in the hood of the car just below the Jackal. Biting back a string of curses, Adel adjusted his aim a bit higher and fired another few shots, but having been alerted by the first one, the Jackal ducked, and all Adel's rounds accomplished was shattering the window.
"Come on!" Adel urged as he emptied the rest of his magazine in the Jackal's direction, trying to bag his first kill, but the Jackal steadfastly remained in cover. "This ain't fair! I should have gotten you with that first shot!"
He hastily moved to reload but just as he did, the Jackal suddenly emerged from cover with his carbine pointed right at Adel. In the middle of swapping magazines, there was nothing Adel could do except awkwardly stand there as the Jackal drew a bead on him.
BANG!
The Jackal jerked as a bullet slammed into his chest.
BANGBANG!
Another two bullets slammed into him and the Jackal toppled over backwards, blood gushing from the bullet holes in his chest.
Adel let out a mute sigh of relief, but then the anger hit him. Who the fuck stole his kill?
He glanced around, only to see X firing his rifle in the same general vicinity the Jackal had been.
"'X, what the fuck!" Adel yelled.
X paused in his shooting. "What?"
"You stole my fucking kill asshole!"
X stared at him. "Who the fuck cares!?" he yelled back and started shooting again.
"I care," Adel muttered before turning back to find another target. But before he could -
FWOOZ!
"Shit!" Adel yelped as a plasma bolt flew past his face, missing it by mere millimeters. He dove for the ground as more bolts began impacting the area around him.
"Plasma cannon!" Sam yelled in warning. "Red brick house, third story, second window on the right! Adel, suppress!"
Adel peeked around the barricade. Following the bolts back, he could see where the fire was coming from, though he couldn't see the actual plasma cannon itself or the gunner, probably because they'd been set up at the back of the room. Nevertheless, Adel leveled his rifle and started shooting back.
He could see bullets impacting the wall all around the window, sends puffs of dust into the air as they punched right through the brick and masonry, leaving massive holes in its wake. The incoming fire from the plasma cannon stopped and just as Adel was about to assume the gunner had been taken out and turn away, it abruptly started up again.
"God dammit!" Adel yelled as plasma raked his position again. None of the fire was specifically being aimed at him, but rather, the Covenant gunner was merely hosing down the entire line. But between the cannon and the small arms fire, the Marines were close to becoming pinned down. That cannon had to be taken out.
Adel stood up, trying to get a better angle on the window. All he needed to do was identify where the muzzle flash was, then aim just a few centimeters above it so he could take out the gunner and -
POW!
It was like someone had just punched Adel in the chest. The impact caused Adel to take a couple of steps backwards before he lost his balance and he toppled over, landing on his back. He felt slightly winded, like he'd just finished morning PT, and he laid there for a moment, trying to catch his breath.
"Adel! You alright?" Sam yelled as he dropped to his knees next to Adel.
"I think so?" Adel stammered. "What the hell was that?"
"You got hit by a plasma bolt!"
"Did I?" Adel dumbly asked, feeling numb. That is, until he smelled something burning.
Lifting his head up, Adel was startled to see a massive smoke hole in the center of his chest plate where the plasma bolt had hit him. He could see smoke rising from where it was still melting its way through the armor, and then that was when the panic hit him.
"Corpsman!" Adel screamed as he tried to check the damage, but his chest plate was still a bit too hot for him to touch. He started to feel a tingling sensation on his chest, which started to freak him out even more. "I'm hit! Corpsman!"
The platoon's assigned corpsman, Private First Class Compton(4), instantly appeared by his side.
"Move your hands! Let me look at it!" Compton demanded and Adel quickly complied. He winced as he felt Compton gently remove his half-melted chest plate and began checking the flesh underneath.
"How bad is it Doc?" Adel anxiously asked.
Compton glanced in his direction with a look on his face that clearly said he thought Adel was being an idiot.
"Dude. You're perfectly fine," he reported in a rather exasperated voice.
"What?"
"You aren't wounded in the least bit," Compton repeated. "Plasma just melted your armor. It didn't burn your chest at all. In fact, it didn't even burn through your uniform."
Adel tilted his head forward to look at his own chest. Sure enough, while his chest plate now had a hole through it and his jacket was slightly blackened due to the heat, Adel was perfectly fine.
"Why does my chest feel numb then?" Adel asked, trying to do his best to hide his growing embarrassment, but failing.
"Because it's sub-zero temperatures out here and without the extra layering your armor provides, you're finally feeling the cold?" Compton suggested. "Whatever the case is, you haven't been wounded, so stop being a whiny bitch, get up, and get back into the fight!"
Without another word, Compton took off, leaving Adel's face burning from embarrassment. He had honestly thought he'd been injured, and the fact that he hadn't left him feeling both relieved and absolutely modified at how badly he had freaked out.
"Adel! GET UP MARINE!"
Adel jumped. He seized his rifle and threw himself behind the barricade next to Sam.
"We gotta to take out that fucking cannon!" Sam snapped as he reloaded his rifle. "X! Hit that motherfucker with the Jackhammer!"
"Roger that!" X yelled back. "Adel, give me an HEDP!"
"On it!"
Adel hastily tossed his rucksack to the ground and ripped out an HEDP rocket as X planted the launcher onto his shoulder. Popping the protective cap off, Adel slide the rocket into place and patted X on the back of the helmet to indicate the Jackhammer was loaded.
"Backblast area all cleared?" X asked as Adel took up position right next to him.
"Backblast area all secured!"
"ROCKET!" X screamed at the top of his lungs before standing up and pulling the trigger.
WHOOMP!
The 102mm rocket launched from the end of the M41 Jackhammer at nearly three hundred meters per second, the concussion from the launch hitting Adel like a slap to the face. Even with his hearing protection, the launch left Adel's ears ringing; at nearly one hundred and ninety decibels, the Jackhammer was one of the loudest weapons on the battlefield.
Still, despite all this, firing the Jackhammer never ceased to provide Adel great joy and he quickly turned around just in time to see the room the plasma cannon was positioned in exploding outwards in a giant cloud of dust.
"Target destroyed!" X hollered.
"FUCK YEAH!" Adel cheered. "Take that you sorry sons of bitches!"
SWHOOOOSHHHH! SWHOOOOSHHHH!
"INCOMING!" Reynolds screamed as two bright red plasma mortars rose up from somewhere behind the building the plasma cannon had been and started streaking towards the stadium. Adel grabbed his rifle and hit the deck, but instead of impacting around or even near his position, the mortars actually flew passed and to Adel's horror, landed somewhere inside the stadium itself.
"They shootin' at the LZ!" Reynolds yelled with realization. "Tryin' to take out our Pelicans on the ground. Anyone got eyes on?"
"It's coming from behind those buildings!" Sam reported. "I think I got line of sight Staff Sergeant!"
Reynolds quickly moved over to where Sam was.
"That's close enough!" Reynolds reported. "Bendis! Bring up the target locator!"
The forward observer, Sergeant Bendis stood up with a pistol-like device in his hands. He pointed it in the direction the mortars were coming from, but was forced to duck as a plasma bolt splattered near his position.
"Fuck!" he yelped. "Staff Sergeant! I need about three to five seconds for a lock!"
"Got it! Alright Marines, standby to provide suppressin' fire for Bendis! On my mark!"
Adel hastily swapped his magazine for a fresh one and leveled his rifle.
"Suppressin' -"
"STAFF SERGEANT REYNOLDS!"
Out of reflex, Adel turned around, even though it wasn't his name being called, just to see who was shouting. To his annoyance, it was Silva.
"Staff Sergeant! What the hell are you doing? They're starting to take fire inside the stadium!" Silva yelled.
"I know sir, we're workin' on it!" Reynolds replied but Silva didn't appear to be having any of it.
"No!" he snapped. "We need to attack, now! Marines! Get up! Attack, attack! Let's move it!"
He began moving from Marine to Marine, all the while yelling, "On your feet! Move it out, NOW!"
"Lieutenant, GET DOWN!" Reynolds screamed, grabbing Silva and yanking him to the ground. As he did, a barrage of plasma bolts cut through the space Silva had just been occupying moments ago, missing him by mere millimeters, much to Adel's disappointment.
"Lieutenant, keep you head down," Reynolds ordered. "No need for us to attack, we got air support! Bendis, get ready to laze the target. Marines, SUPPRESSIN' FIRE!"
Whatever protests Silva may have had was immediately drowned out by the sounds of automatic weapons fire as everyone promptly opened up. Grinning to himself, Adel lifted his rifle. With the battlefield now being covered with burning vehicles and smoke, it made it rather difficult to see things so he just started firing in front of him at random. Beside him, he could hear Bendis yelling into his radio,
"Blackjack, this is Warhammer 1, I'm marking a target for you with the locator. Target is a Covenant light mortar battery, in the open!"
As Bendis spoke, Adel could see a holographic red circle suddenly appearing in his HUD roughly where the mortars were firing from. Adel couldn't hear what the pilot's response was, but he quickly heard the roar of a jet fighter as it flew by overhead and, moments later, three cylindrical objects broke through the cloud cover.
"INCOMING!"
The bombs speed to the ground with a loud SWOOSH noise before all sounds promptly disappeared as the bombs exploded. Adel could see the shockwave from the explosions ripple across the parking lot while plumes of smoke were sent billowing into the sky. At that sight, the remaining Covenant infantry immediately began retreating.
"See Lieutenant?" Adel heard Reynolds say as his hearing protection unsealed. "We let the air wingers do the 'eavy liftin', then we can move out. MARINES! ADVANCE!"
"LET'S GO GET THE BASTARDS!" Adel screamed at the top of his lungs. "RAHHHH!"
Almost as one, the entire squad of Marines vaulted over the barricade, firing their weapons and screaming battle cries at the top of their lungs. Charging forward, they surged down the hill in pursuit of the retreating Covenant.
"Pour it on them boys!" Reynolds yelled in encouragement from somewhere in the background.
"Hey! Adel, X! Move cover to cover!" Sam yelled from somewhere beside Adel. "And maintain your spacing!"
Attempting to maintain a rough line formation with the rest of his squadmates, Adel casted around for a target. He spotted a retreating Grunt at the other end of the parking lot, the alien's bright orange armor causing him to stand out amongst all the burning cars, and Adel quickly brought his rifle to bear. He started to pull the trigger but at that exact second, the strap to his rucksack, which he had hastily thrown back onto his back before dashing forward, slipped off his shoulder and caused his arm to jerk down, causing him to fire his rifle into the ground.
Snarling in annoyance, Adel readjusted his aim, but by that time, the Grunt was gone, though whether it was because the Grunt had successfully managed to retreat or because someone else had shot him, Adel didn't know. He looked around for another target, however there was none to be found: it was clear, even to Adel, the firefight had ended the moment the bombs had hit.
Lowering his rifle in disappointment, Adel relaxed as everyone else around him began to stand down.
There was a loud hiss from behind Adel, causing him to jump and whirl around, but it was only Reynolds ignited a smoke grenade. Holding it until it started spewing out green smoke, he tossed it to the ground a few meters away.
"Warrior, this Warhammer 1 Actual, sitrep as follows: LZ Yankee secured," Adel heard Silva saying into the radio as he walked up. "Marking LZ with green smoke, I say again, green smoke. Send in the vics, over."
"Hey!" Reynolds yelled, catching Adel's attention. "Spread out y'all, we got dropships inbound! Team leaders, set up a perimeter!"
"Roger that Staff Sergeant!" Sam called out. "Come on guys, let's find some cover."
Adel followed Sam as he led them to a spot behind one of the few intact cars left in the parking lot a few meters away.
"X, reload the Jackhammer," Sam ordered as they all dropped to one knee. "Adel, cover him."
Adel nodded. Quickly reloading, he brought his rifle into a low ready position and began scanning the direction the Covenant had retreated to, just in case they decided to come back as X reloaded his rocket launcher. The sound of heavy jet engines started to fill the air and Adel glanced skyward.
Descending from the sky were a large amount of Albatross dropships, with the occasional Pelican mixed in. All the dropships began headed towards the green smoke and as they got closer to the ground, Adel could see they were all carrying vehicles, mainly Warthogs, though the Pelicans were carrying Scorpion tanks.
Swooping down, the dropships began depositing all the vehicles onto the parking lot, following by the vehicle crews. As soon as their vehicles were safely on the ground, the dropships all took off again and headed in the direction of the stadium itself, presumably to go pick up more civilians.
"PLATOON!" Reynolds yelled. "MOUNT UP! "
"It's time we took the fight to the Covies."
1. Húndàn: this is Mandarin Chinese and is actually from one of the Firefly episodes (Episode 3: Bushwhacked.) Literally translated into English it means "stupid egg" but with context, it could be translated into "asshole" or "bastard."
2. A-1: the "A" is simply Air Force staff positions, similar to the "S" positions in usage by the Army and the Marine Corps. Similar to those services, the Air Force A-1 staff position in a military headquarters is responsible for managing the training and services provided to the airmen under their command. Think of them as the military version of the civilian HR department.
3. REMF: I might have explained what this was at some point, but just in case, this is an acronym that stands for Rear-Echelon Motherfucker
4. I realize in the modern United States Marine Corps, all medical services are provided by the United States Navy, with all hospital corpsmen being Sailors as opposed to Marines. That means, if Compton had been in the USMC, he would have actually been a Hospitalman Apprentice, not a Private First Class. I spent a long time thinking about whether I wanted to replicate that system in this story, but given that the UNSCMC is in fact, its own separate and independent military branch of the UNSC (unlike the USMC, which is technically a component of the Department of the Navy,) I decided they should have their own medical branch like all the other military services do (out of tradition though, they'd be called corpsmen, as opposed to combat medics.) In my head, Navy corpsmen could still serve with the Marines, it just wouldn't be as common as it is nowadays (they would act as individual augmentees.)
In summary: the UNSCMC has their own corpsmen
General Notes:
I'm not sure if it's clear just yet, but Adel and all the other Marines are armed with BR55 battle rifles. I don't think it's ever been outright said, but I personally feel that is been heavily hinted that the UNSC Marine Corps had been in the process of replacing their MA5C assault rifles with BR55s just prior to the Covenant invasion. I feel like this is the case because in the Halo novel, Halo: Contact Harvest, which takes place in the year 2525 (the first year of the war,) Sergeant Johnson and his men are all using a prototype battle rifle variant, the XBR55. Furthermore, enough of these prototype weapons had been constructed that year for the Insurgent group, the United Rebel Front, to have stolen enough of them to have fully equipped one of their fractions, as shown in the Halo graphic novel, Halo: Collateral Damage, Issue 1. Not only that, as shown in Halo 2, every single Marine on Earth is equipped with a BR, with the assault rifle not making a single appearance.
With all that being said, I think in my headcanon, the history of the battle rifle would have gone something like this:
In early 2500, with usage of heavy body armor becoming more and more common among Innie forces, the Marine Corps decided they needed to fundamentally rethink the way small arms worked to defeat this new threat. Because by the late 2400's, the standard UNSC cartridge, the 7.62x51mm M118 round, had reached its upgradable limit, the Marine Corps decided an entirely new round was needed: the 9.5x40mm M634 Experimental High Powered Semi-Amor Piercing. Utilizing an entirely new propellant, as well as a fundamentally redesigned bullet design, the M634 X-HP-SAP round would not only possess better armor penetrating characteristics as compared to its predecessor, it would also have further range and better accuracy, all the while better retaining its initial velocity.
Unfortunately, a simple conversion of the standard MA5C proved to be impossible without the rifle undergoing a massive redesign not only because of the M634's larger cartridge size, but also because the MA5C rifle was simply unable to take advantage of the new performance characteristics as offered by the M634. As a result, a new rifle was designed, the XBR55. First undergoing limited field testing in 2522, the rifle received high praise high praise not only for its stopping power, but also for its reliability and accuracy. As a result, the rifle was formally adopted by the UNSCMC as the "Battle Rifle, Model 55," in 2525.
Despite Marine Corps Command's stated goal of having the entirety of the Marine Corps converted over to the new rifle by 2535 (with all existing stocks of MA5B and C rifles being turned over to the Navy, and Marine Corps Reserves,) the Covenant invasion coincidently began the same year as the rifle was adopted. With two wars raging, it became increasingly clear to UNSC High Command just how expensive and disruptive switching the Corps over to a new service rifle would be, not just the cost in converting MA5 factories into BR55 factories, but also the training and new logistical requirements. As a result, the decision to halt further procurement of the new rifle was made in 2528. All current BR factories would continue to exist in order to support the few units that had already converted to the new rifle, but eventually, they too would convert back to the MA5C. By 2545, the only conventional units to have the BR55 would be the entirety of Earth's military garrison, as well as those Marines stationed on New Jerusalem and Harmony. By the war's end, only Earth's military garrison would have the BR as their standard service rifle.