Broman
Thanks for the review as always Broman! I don't think I've said it enough, but I really do appreciate you taking the time for not only stopping by to read my story, but also to leave a review! So, hats off to you!
A couple of responses:
- The MG team came from the company's weapon's platoon, same with the assault team and the mortar team. Basically, I'm treating the UNSCMC infantry company organization like that of the USMC in the sense that every Marine rifle company is made up of four platoons: three rifle platoons and a weapon's platoon. In the weapon's platoon, there are three sections: a machine gun section, a 60mm mortar section, and an assault section. My understanding is that while the platoon with sometimes fight together, other times the individual teams will be partitioned out to each one of the three rifle platoons for added support.
So, in this case, 3rd Platoon received one mortar team (Sgt Badger,) one assault team (Adel,) and one machine gun team (unnamed as of yet.)
(Technically speaking, there should be two assault and MG teams, not one, but I didn't include them as this was complicated enough as it is.)
- I actually already do have a panzerfaust-like weapon in my story, the M76 SRAAW (which appeared in chapter 6 of MIA, as well as chapter 15 of this one.) Similar in the sense that it's a one shot, recoilless anti-tank weapon, I based its appearance off that of the real-world Panzerfaust 3 (which in turn is arguable the modern incarnation of the Panzerfaust 60, the most common panzerfaust variant of WW2.)
As for last-ditch weapons, I'll be honest, I don't really see the UNSC ever running out of small arms to ever need last ditch weapons in the same vein Nazi German did during WW2 for the simple fact that, in my opinion, they would already have had a massive stockpile stored before the war even began. I think there's something to keep in mind, the UNSC had essentially been fighting a civil war long before the Covenant ever appeared (the Insurrection began in 2494, a full thirty-one years before the fall of Harvest,) and the war was apparently turning out so poorly for the UNSC, it inspired Dr. Halsey to create the Spartan program in the first place. With that in mind, I would imagine that would already mean there were plenty of small arms in circulation.
Then, I think one needs to wonder what sort of gun laws the UEG had. If they were as liberal as, say, the gun laws in the United States (which, IMO, I can totally see a lot of colonies being like that, especially in the outer colonies,) then there's another stockpile of weapons to draw from (for example, it's estimated that as of 2018, there are anywhere between 5 to 15 million "assault rifle" weapons in the United States, the vast majority of which are probably AR-15 style rifles.) (For reference, between active and reserves, the US Armed Forces currently consist of a little over two million personnel.)
Anyway, thanks once again for the review!
Chapter 24
Byzas, Thracia Province, Actium
May 6, 2545
1421
Adel
The sound of artillery whistling overhead accompanied Adel and his platoon as they made their way further into the city. The reverberation of those shells exploding in the distance, accompanied by the crackling of machine gun fire, echoed down the streets, but given that none of that was directed his way, Adel paid it little to no heed. Instead, he stood in the back of the M831 troop transport Warthog, excitedly staring at the city as they drove by. He had never been inside a city that was under siege, so he was taking the opportunity to see what it was like.
Surprisingly, it was a lot like being inside any regular old city. Parking was a nightmare: every conceivable spot, every parking lot, every garage, and even some spots on the sidewalk were occupied by vehicles, as usual. Traffic was backed up and it seemed to take ten minutes just to travel half a block, with the situation not being helped by the fact there seemed to be construction every other intersection. And then of course, there were all the pedestrians wandering around aimlessly on the sidewalks, and naturally, every now and then, one of those pedestrians would abruptly decide to jaywalk across the street, forcing Adel's driver to hurriedly jam down on his brakes.
Of course, looking past the surface similarities, one could start to see the subtle differences between this city and a normal city going about its regular business. For one thing, all the vehicles sitting in all the parking spots? Roughly a third of them were military vehicles, with the rest being civilian vehicles, some of which had clearly been abandoned in a hurry as their engines had been left running and their doors hanging wide open. The traffic jams, which would normally be a result of all the traffic lights, were now because some of the roads were choked full of debris, the result of parts of buildings having been blown off by artillery and airstrikes. And the amount of jammed roads only increased the closer the Marines got to the frontline.
Furthermore, all the construction Adel was seeing? Military engineering units hard at work building bunkers, artillery and machine gun pits, trenches, and fortifying select buildings. As a result, of the few pedestrians that dared risk walking around in the open, all were wearing some sort of military uniform, whether it be Air Force, Navy, or Army. There were no Marine Corps uniforms though, outside of the convoy Adel was traveling in, which he noted with a bit of perverse pleasure as it proved for a fact that Adel and his battalion were the first Marine units to touch down inside the city.
All in all, it was quite an impressive display of military might, one that gave Adel a surge of patriotic pride. With all this effort and firepower, plus all the Marines that were finally being unleashed, there was no way Adel could see the UNSC losing this city.
Without warning, the convoy abruptly came to a stop, and Adel quickly looked towards the front to find out why. With his Warthog located in the middle of the convoy of Warthogs, which in turn were trailing behind four Scorpion tanks, Adel didn't have the best view, but fortunately his rifle had a scope. Bring it up, he looked up in time to see Lieutenant Silva climbing out of a Warthog and moving to the front of the convoy. As soon as he was in position, the convoy started up again, only with Silva leading the way like he was leading some damn parade session, not a military convoy geared for war.
"What the fuck," Adel muttered. "Hey Sam! Get a load of General Miles!"
Sam quickly stood up and glanced in the direction Adel was pointing.
"What a fucking arrogant douchebag," Sam growled as he lowered his rifle.
"I know, right? Hey, what do you think the chances are some sniper will shoot him and solve the problem for us?"
"Not very high, given how our luck has been so far," Sam replied. "Seriously though: what the hell is that idiot thinking!?"
X shrugged. "Well, as Leo Tolstoy once said, 'When a person inflates his own importance, he does not see his own sins.(1)'"
Adel and Sam stared at him.
"Damn X," Sam commented. "Kinda laying this whole 'warrior poet' thing a little thick, aren't you?"
"You can't deny your true nature Corporal," X mysteriously commented as he went back to loading magazines.
Adel and Sam exchanged a look.
"Where did we find this guy!?" Adel exclaimed.
All X did was smile.
The convoy suddenly stopped again, and Adel started to look forward to see if Silva had finally come to his senses, but instead, a navpoint abruptly appeared on his HUD, pointing at a spot just around the next block.
"3rd Platoon, rally on the navpoint," he heard Reynolds ordering over the radio.
"Alright guys, you heard the Staff Sergeant!" Sam called out. "Let's go!"
Grabbing his rucksack, Adel eagerly ducked under the bars of the roll cage and hopped to the ground as opposed to waiting for his turn to exit from the rear. Tapping his foot on the ground, he waited a bit impatiently for Sam and X to join him, before they headed towards the navpoint. Jogging down the street, they round the corner and –
"Whoa," was all Adel could say.
The scene in front of him look almost like a set piece from the holovids. Covenant bodies, shrapnel and debris, impact craters, and destroyed vehicles covered the street. At the end of the block stood a building that appeared to have been a hotel at some point, only it had been hit with so much artillery and ordnance, it looked like one giant honeycombed riddled beehive. At this point, Adel was kind of surprised it was still standing, as it looked one hard sneeze away from collapsing.
Emerging from the building were a small number of shell-shocked people. Presumably they were Army, but it was a little hard for Adel to tell as they were covered in so much dust and grime, they were actually making Adel feel rather subconscious about how cleaned he looked at the moment. And he'd already been scuffed up through a firefight of his own.
Despite their appearance though, the soldiers were slowly picking their way through the street, stopping by each one of the Covenant's bodies, presumably to make sure the aliens were really dead.
"1st Squad!" someone yelled out, causing Adel to jump, and he looked up to see Reynolds making his way back down the street towards them. "Cover the south! 3rd Squad, cover the western approach! 2nd Squad, you got the east! Platoon HQ, help the Army boys secure the area! Secure all enemy weapons and check for intel! And spread it out y'all!"
"Oorah Staff Sergeant," Sam confirmed and gestured for Adel and X to follow him.
They started to make their way towards the Army soldiers.
"Hey, guys, start collecting these weapons," Sam ordered as he crouched by a Covenant Grunt that was missing it's head. Reaching out, he carefully extracted a plasma pistol from underneath the dead creature's body. The plasma pistol had been destroyed by a bullet to the upper receiver, but nonetheless, Sam lifted it up to show his team. "Doesn't matter if they're broke or not, we'll stack 'em in a pile, make it easier for the engies to demo."
"If we got them, shouldn't we be using them?" X asked.
Sam snorted. "Yeah, if you want to get shot in the back by our own guys," he replied. "These things are so distinctive, anyone on our side sees the weapon, they'll start shooting before checking to see who's actually holding onto the damn thing. Plus," he jerked his head in the direction of Silva. "I think Mr. Stick-in-the-ass over there would probably throw us in the brig for violating some NAVCOM general order or some other bullshit like that."
"True," X admitted.
The two of them continued to pick through the Covenant bodies, but Adel was no longer paying attention. At this point, the Soldiers had gotten close enough for Adel to actually take notice, and one soldier in particular had managed to catch his eye.
She was a Hispanic looking chick, though Adel could definitely make out some Oriental features, which made Adel wonder if she was of mixed heritage, however she was covered in the same amount of soot and grit as everyone else, making it hard for him to tell for certain. Though, truth be told, he wasn't exactly staring at her face…
Without another word, Adel reached behind him and started frantically patting the first shoulder he touched.
"What?" Sam demanded without looking up.
"Corporal, are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Adel asked and out of the corner of his eye, he could see Sam looking up. Adel quickly pointed.
He knew the moment Sam had seen what Adel was pointing at because he suddenly said, "Whoa."
"What are we looking at?" Adel heard X ask as he walked up, then stop short. "Ah. I see. Well… damn."
The three of them stood there, unashamedly staring at the lady's ass. Adel would be the first to admit it, he wasn't much in the way of words, not like X was. It never bothered him much in the past as Adel was always one to prefer to talk with his fist, but at the moment, he couldn't help but curse his inability to fluidly describe the sight that laid in front of him. The best he could do was say it was like someone had stuffed a couple of watermelons down the girl's pants. They were firm, with just the right amount of curve, and Adel could tell, even through the snow pants the chick was wearing, her cheeks were flawless. He wanted to walk up to her and have her remove all her equipment, just so he could admire her ass even better, however, fact of the matter was, her equipment actually seemed to enhance the sight: with a bandolier of 40mm grenades wrapped around her waist and an M6G pistol and holster strapped to her right thigh, they actually provided a nice outline for her rear.
"I think I've discovered why my brother decided to enlist in the Army instead of the Corps," X said after a few moments of silence.
Sam suddenly placed his rifle onto his shoulders and turned around to face Adel and X with a giant grin on his face.
"Well gents, it's been an honor," he brightly announced. "But I think I've just been selected to go work on enhancing our, uh, 'inter-service communications.' I'll see you people somewhere else."
Adel quickly grabbed Sam before he could walk away.
"Hang on, I've got dibs: I saw her first!" Adel pointed out. He yanked Sam and shoved him back in line. "You guys step back; let me show you how it's done."
Without waiting for a word of protest, Adel sauntered up to the woman. As he got closer, he could see she was busy reloading magazines for an M392 DMR she had hanging from a sling around her neck.
"Hey there," Adel said in a as suave of a voice as he could manage.
"sup." the chick replied without looking up.
"Hey… so I got to ask: what's a sexy-ass looking lady like you doing around here?" Adel slyly asked. "This doesn't seem like a place for you."
The chick stopped what she was doing and slowly looked up at him. "Excuse me?"
"I'm just saying: why don't you and I go into one of these buildings and I can show you…" Adel's eyes flickered to the M319 the lady had strapped to her back, "…what a real grenade launcher looks?"
Adel finished his proposition with a waggling of his eyebrows. The lady stared at him –
- and then promptly drove her knee into his crotch.
Pain erupted through his entire body and Adel reflexively grabbed his groin as he dropped to his knees. The blow itself had been bad enough, but the fact that the woman had been wearing knee pads and Marines, unlike Soldiers, generally didn't wear blast diapers, made the pain far, far worse than it should have been.
"Kuso kurae, bakayarou(2)," Adel heard the woman mutter.
"Hey PIP!"
In pain, Adel nevertheless reflexively looked up to see another soldier, some Chinese-looking motherfucker, come running up. He slowed to a walk as he noticed Adel kneeling right in front of the girl.
"Everything alright here Pip?" the man asked, talking to the woman directly.
"Yeah, everything is fine here Moss," Pip casually replied. "What's up?"
Adel could see Moss glance uncertainly in his direction, and Adel could tell Moss very clearly wanted to ask for an elaboration, but he evidently decided it wasn't worth it as he said instead, "Hey. Command's got a mission for us, somewhere further in the city. We got to go, the rest of the squad is already waiting."
"Okay," Pip cheerfully replied. "Let's go then."
The two of them ran off, leaving Adel to writhe in agony. Unfortunately, as if to rub salt into the wound, he heard someone laughing from behind him and he slowly turned around to see Sam and X practically dying of laughter.
"Hey Adel!" X called out between laughs. "Remember you said you were going to show us how it was done? Well, good news: you succeeded! Now I know what not to do!"
"You know," Sam added, "I'm a crayon eater, so I don't have much for brains, but I think… that was Army speak for 'fuck off.'"
The two of them dissolved into laughter once more.
"Laugh it up you assholes," Adel muttered with as much dignity as he could muster. The pain in his groin was finally fading away, enough where Adel could stand upright.
"Hey, don't get me wrong Adel: I'm very glad you're here," Sam informed him.
Adel waited for the other shoe to drop.
"…because everyone knows, every battalion needs at least one retard everyone can laugh at."
Both Sam and X burst out laughing again and as they walked away, Adel couldn't help but glance skyward. What exactly did he do wrong to deserve these assholes for teammates?
After few moments of internal stewing, Adel quickly jogged to catch up with his friends. He found them standing a few meters away, watching as Silva and Reynolds walked up to one of the Army dogfaces wearing the silver bars of a first lieutenant.
"1st Lieutenant James Lancelot. I'm acting commanding officer of all UNSC Army forces on this block. Who the hell are you?" Lancelot demanded to know before Silva or Reynolds could get a word in.
"Staff Sergeant Reynolds. This is my CO, 2nd Lieutenant Silva," Reynolds said, introducing himself. "UNSC Marine Corps. We're here to relieve you sir."
Lancelot nodded. "Good. Here's the situation."
"My troops just got finished driving off about a company sized unit of Covenant infantry, reinforced with light armor and artillery, about three mikes before you guys arrived. Given the size and composition of said attacking force, the lack of Hunter support, and being primarily led by low ranking Elites, I'm inclined to think it was nothing more than a recon in force, intended to probe our defenses, pre-spot our strongpoints for artillery, and to sap some of our strength. They were probably going to hit us with their main force in a few moments, but your arrival disrupted that plan."
"Because they're not going to know just how many Marine reinforcements we received, the Covenant are going to have to take some time to reorganize their forces. Which gives us time to reorganize our defenses. While my troops were using that building," Lancelot pointed at the nearly destroyed building behind them, "as a strongpoint, that obviously is no longer a viable option as the structural integrity of the building has been compromised. Those Scorpions you rolled up with: they sticking around?"
"No sir," Reynolds immediately replied. "They was just supposed to escort us here. Battalion HQ is pullin' them back, holdin' them in reserve to act as a counter to any Covenant breakthrough."
Lancelot nodded, as if that had been what he was expecting. "Then I recommend falling back at least one block and setting up another defensive line there."
"Yeah, we could do that sir," Reynolds thoughtfully said. "We got some engie support; get them to reinforce the buildin', lay out some markers for artillery, and then dig in tighter than a tick. Lieutenant," he said, turning towards Silva. "Call up the engineers and tell them to bring some heavy lift gear. We don't know how much time we got, so we need to get workin' right away."
Adel could see an annoyed look appearing on Silva's face and he turned around to stare Reynolds right in the eyes.
"You seem to making a lot of decisions here Staff Sergeant," he growled.
Reynolds stared back with a look of innocence on his face, and he held up his hands in surrender. "I'm jes tryin' to help 2nd Lieutenant."
"Well, don't," Silva snapped. "Because fuck. That. If the Covenant are in the midst of reorganization right now, then now's the perfect time to launch an attack."
"Lieutenant, military intelligence suggests there's at least an entire Covenant armored division set up right in front of us," Lancelot interjected. "You've got, what, one platoon of Marines? Sure, if you want to get all your men killed, attack away. But for the rest of us who aren't interested in dying just yet, pulling back is the better option."
"Sir, I have to agree with Lieutenant Lancelot," Reynolds said. "We don't know nothin' about the force or the terrain in front of us. We attack, sure we might be able to disrupt the Covies for a mite. But it'd be too easy for them to outflank us, then we'd be wiped to the last man."
Silva whirled on him. "Let me explain something to you Sergeant Reynolds," he snapped. "We are Marines. Marines never retreat, they never give ground. Not like the fucking Army," he sneered, throwing a disgusted look at Lancelot. "We attack. And if you don't like that, and you're not going to follow my orders, then I will find someone who will. Is that clear Sergeant!?"
Adel stood there, alongside everyone else, staring in astonishment at everything Silva had just said. As much as Adel wanted to go on the offensive, even he wasn't so gung-ho to think charging headfirst into an entire division of Covenant armor was all that smart. Plus, with the way Silva had just addressed Reynolds, Adel didn't think that was even allowed in the Marine Corps.
"You said your name was Silva, huh? You wouldn't happen to be related to Major Antonio Silva of the ODSTs, would you? That old mustang?"
Everyone turned to stare at Lancelot, who was looking at Silva with a rather neutral expression on his face.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I am," Silva replied. "He's my oldest uncle. You know him?"
"Yeah. I do," Lancelot bluntly replied. "He was the executive officer of my force reconnaissance battalion back when I was an enlisted Marine assigned to the 105th Shock Troops Division. He's one fucking hell of a Marine, let me tell you that much. Brilliant tactician. Some of the shit that he would pull… he'd leave the Covenant trying to figure out their ass from their elbow. We used to call him 'Old Man Silva' because he was one of the old school Marines: tough as hell but damn if he wasn't fucking fair. Hell of a man."
"Thank you," Silva said, a smug smile appearing on his face. "That's my uncle all right."
"Too bad his nephew is a little fucking bitch."
The smile instantly disappeared from Silva's face. "Excuse me?" he hissed, rearing back as if he'd been struck.
"You heard me," Lancelot growled, taking a step forward. "Or maybe you didn't because you were too fucking busy running your fucking mouth and patting yourself on the back to listen."
Adel quickly glanced at Lancelot, then at Silva, and then back at Lancelot as a look of pure fury appeared on Silva's face.
"How… dare you," Silva growled but before he could say much more, Lancelot stalked forward until he was right in Silva's face, and Adel suddenly realized just how big Lancelot actually was.
"Shut. The fuck. Up," Lancelot growled in a low voice. "Staff Sergeant Reynolds here might be willing to put up with your bullshit, but I assure you, I do not have the patience for that. You see this silver bar? That means I'm an O-2, and I outrank your fucking ass so you will do exactly what I fucking tell you, when I fucking tell you, and without fucking question. And if you fail to fucking do any of that, I will fucking bury you. Do you fucking understand 2nd Lieutenant?"
Lancelot waited until Silva reluctantly nodded his head before taking a step back.
"It's because of fucking officers like you who treat their Marines like nothing more than fucking toddlers that made me want to leave the Corps in the first place," Lancelot snapped. "Let me tell you something 2nd Lieutenant, you might be some big shot back in TECOM(3), but out in the real world, out in the field, no one gives a shit which academy you got commissioned from or how high you scored on your tests. Out here, as far as we're concerned, as a 2nd lieutenant, you know nothing. In fact, you know less than nothing. You know even less than that fucking PFC standing over there."
He jabbed a finger in Adel's direction, causing Adel to jump in surprise. He didn't expect to get singled out.
"Man, given how stupid Adel is, that's really bad," he heard X mutter, and Adel quickly flicked him off behind his back.
"Your job," Lancelot continued, "is to shut your fucking mouth, open your fucking ears, and learn from your fucking betters like Staff Sergeant Reynolds here. And if you can't do that, then I hope to fucking god you have a will written out because if the fucking Covies don't get you, your ass will get fragged. Doyou understand?"
"Yes," Silva hissed.
"Yes… what?"
Adel could see Silva clearly grinding his teeth together.
"Yes… sir," he finally said.
"Good," Lancelot replied in a surprisingly calm voice. "Now, keep your god damn mouth shut until I tell you otherwise because the adults are speaking."
And with that, Lancelot turned back to Reynolds and started speaking as if nothing had just happened.
"Call up the combat engineers Staff Sergeant," he ordered. "We've already wasted enough time: we got to move fast. Get your assaultmen over there to go toss a satchel charge into that building; might as well just take it down entirely, give us a clear field of fire."
"With all due respect sir, wouldn't it be better to wait for the Covies to attack? We could rig up a booby trap 'stead of a satchel, wait til Covies come by, then drop the building on top of them and take out some of them shă bī(4)," Reynolds suggested, but Lancelot quickly shook his head.
"Unless things have changed since I left the Corps, they don't teach assaultmen how to rig up something that elaborate," Lancelot said, glancing at Sam for confirmation, who nodded in affirmation. "Plus, too many things could go wrong before we have a chance to set off the charge. No, our best bet is to just to blow the building now and move on."
"Aye Lieutenant. Corporal Yilmaz?"
"On it Staff Sergeant," Sam immediately said before turning to Adel. "Adel, gimme your C-12."
Adel quickly tossed his rucksack to the ground and began digging out his plastic explosives. In the meantime, Lancelot and Reynolds continued to plan.
"What will you be doing sir?" Reynolds was asking. "Are you 'tendin' to pull back?"
Lancelot shook his head. "My orders are to hold my position, which is what I plan on doing. I just had to send my sapper squad away, so my numbers are somewhat limited, but I still got about seventeen troopers of assorted MOS's on hand. Still got two .50cals, just need some ammo, which I can steal from the 'Hogs. Once we get that, I can set them up as a heavy machine gun slash support slash reserve section. That reminds me: you got a corpsman?"
"Yes sir. PFC Nathaniel Compton sir."
"Bring him up. I got a medic who got hit early in the battle. Can't send her away, still need her. Least I can do though is get her patched up and mobile again."
"Aye sir. COMPTON!"
Compton came running up but Adel was no longer paying attention as, at that moment, Sam slapped his shoulder.
"Charge is set!" he announced. "Let's go!"
They took off running towards the building.
"You guys see anything on your IFF trackers?" Sam asked as they entered the building. "X?"
"No, I'm not picking up anything," X replied.
"Adel?"
Adel glanced down to the bottom left hand corner of his HUD where his IFF tracker was. Aside from three triangles representing himself and his team, he didn't see anything, friend, foe, or otherwise.
"I got nothing."
"Good," Sam said as he tossed the satchel to the ground and quickly rigged up a remote detonator. "Last thing we wanna do is accidently frag our own guys. Come on, let's go. We're done here."
Throwing one last glance at his tracker, Adel turned around and follow Sam out of the building.
Outside, Sam held up the remote.
"Anyone of you guys want to be the one to set this thing off?" he offered.
Adel's eyes immediately lit up. "Dibs!" he quickly yelled.
Sam snorted. "Yeah, I figured you would," he commented as he handed the remote over. "Wait til we get to a safe distance. Warhammer 1, this is 4-3 Charlie: we're ready to detonate, over."
"Copy. Fall back to defensive positions."
"Wilco. Out."
CRACK! SMASH!
A bright pink needle suddenly shattered against the ground, sending crystal shards in all directions.
"CONTACT REAR!" Adel heard X cry out, followed by the sound of a battle rifle going off, but Adel wasn't pay attention. Instead, he was staring in shock at where a pink crystal shard had embedded itself into the back of his hand.
Numbly, and without thinking, Adel grabbed the shard and ripped it out. Immediately, blood began spilling out of the wound. And then that was when the pain hit.
"GAH!" Adel screamed, gripping his wounded hand with his other one. "I'm hit!"
"Fall back!" Sam immediately bellowed. "X, cover!"
Reeling from pain, Adel stumbled down the street to where the new defensive line was forming. He hopped over a sandbag and into the nearest building, and found himself next to Lancelot.
"How many Tangos are out there!?" he asked.
"I don't know sir!" Adel admitted. "I got hit!"
Lancelot glanced at him and then noticed the blood streaming down his hand. He seemed to grimace before glancing over his shoulder and yelling, "WESTLEY!"
A young woman came jogging up, a bandage wrapped around her thigh, her red hair noticeable even under her helmet. She took one look at Adel and swore.
"Shit. What'd you get hit by?" she asked as she roughly grabbed his wounded hand and began pulling out a medkit.
"Shrapnel from a needle rifle!" Adel yelled back and watched as the Doc pull out a can of biofoam. He quickly looked away as she began applying the substance to his hand, so she wouldn't see him flinching.
Around him, all sorts of gunfire was beginning to ring out.
"Conserve your ammo!" Lancelot barked. "There's going to be more coming!"
Someone jumped over the sandbag and landed on the ground beside Adel. He automatically tensed up, but it was only X.
"Adel, you alright?" he asked as he reloaded.
"I'm fine," Adel irritably said, doing his best to mask his pain. "I just - "
A sudden realization struck him, and he frantically started looking around.
"I drop the detonator," Adel said with a growing sense of dread. "Shit! I dropped the detonator!"
He reflexively started to move back towards the street, but the Doc quickly grabbed a hold of him.
"Hold still, I'm still working!" she growled.
"Forget about the detonator," Lancelot commanded. "We'll hit it with a rocket instead. Looks like you'll get your booby trap after all Staff Sergeant. Lance Corporal! Load up an HEDP and wait for my command!"
"Aye aye sir!"
In the meantime, Adel impatiently waited for the Doc to finish.
"Come on Doc, hurry it up, will you?"
"I'm working as fast as I can," she retorted. She pulled out a strip of fabric and wrapped it around Adel's hand, pulling it tight. "That should help keep the biofoam in place. You're not really going to be able to close your hand, but at least now you don't have to worry about bleeding out or getting an infection."
Adel experimentally flexed his hand. It was like the Doc said, while he could wiggle his fingers, he couldn't exactly make a fist.
He mentally swore. He was left handed too. He was going to have to switch shoulders if he wanted to fire his rifle, but his aim was terrible with his offhand.
Adel turned to the Doc to demand she do something about that, at the very least, loosen his bandage so that he could partially close his fist, however the Doc was already gone.
"Dammit."
"Adel, help me with this!" X demanded as he struggled with his Jackhammer.
"Fuck!"
Scooting over to X, Adel dropped his rucksack to the ground and awkwardly removed a couple of rockets, one of each type, and helped load them into the Jackhammer. Once that was complete, he took a quick inventory of his ammo: he had one rocket left, a HEAT round. X himself was carrying two rockets, one of each type, and Sam should have been carrying the last two, but now that Adel thought about it, he didn't actually know where Sam was.
"Where's Sam?" he asked.
X jerked his head in the direction of the street where gunfire was still ringing out. "Still out there with some of the dogfaces taking out that Jackal that took a potshot at us."
Adel grunted in acknowledgement before hefting his rifle and studying it, trying to figure out the best way to hold it so that it would both be stable, as well as not spit burning hot brass casings into his face.
The sound of heavy footsteps, as well as the loud pitch whine of gravity engines in the distance caused Adel to look up, and he saw Sam, a handful of Soldiers, with Reynolds following up the rear, sprinting down the street. Lancelot quickly stood up and waved at them, and Adel could see the group turn and head in his direction.
"Sergeant Restrepo!" Lancelot barked as they started leaping over the barricade into cover. "Get your troops in order! Redistribute your ammo, and standby to defend yourself!"
"Yes sir!"
"Adel, you okay?" Sam immediately asked as he tossed himself onto the ground next to him.
Adel held up his bandaged hand. "I'm pissed off as hell, but the corpsman's already patched up my hand. You get the son of a bitch who shot me?"
"Got part of him," Sam distractedly replied as he removed the rockets from his rucksack and tossed them over. "Here, take this shit: we're going to need it!"
"Staff Sergeant Reynolds!" Lancelot barked out. "Status?"
"Oh lawd, they comin'," Reynolds replied with a chuckle.
"What is?"
"Armor and infantry. Lotta infantry."
"Right. Here's the plan: you take 2nd Squad, cover the east. You tell Silva to take 1st Squad and cover the west. And you tell him he is to keep his ass right there, come hell or high water. He gets any fucked up notions of launching a counterattack or some shit like that, frag his ass. That clear?"
"Aye sir."
"I'll hold the center with Weaps Section, as well as the HQ section, and we'll put 3rd in reserve. Questions?"
Reynolds shook his head. "No sir."
"Good. Let's make 'em holler!"
Reynolds gave a single nod before taking off in the direction of 2nd Squad. At the same time, the sounds of the incoming Covenant grew louder and louder.
"Come on you bastards, come on," Adel muttered to himself as he adjusted his grip on his rifle. "I got something for all of ya."
"Adel, forget the rifle: stay with X and help him with the Jackhammer," Sam commanded.
"But I - " Adel started to protest.
"Shut the fuck up and fucking do it."
Grumbling to himself, Adel slung his rifle over his shoulder and took up his position on the other side of the Jackhammer. As he got close, he could hear X muttering something.
"- from this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be remembered - we few, we happy few...(5)"
"X, what the fuck are you saying?" Adel demanded.
"It's Shakespeare," X announced, as if that explained everything.
"Who the fuck is that!?"
Adel could see X peering at him over the top of the Jackhammer with a wiry grin. "Dude, we really need to work on your cultural education. At this point, this is just embarrassing."
Adel snorted. "Like I give a shit," he said, more to himself than anything.
The rocks on the ground began to rattle and Adel glanced up to see dust falling from the ceiling as the road began to shake. Whatever was coming was either very big, or there was a whole ton of them. Making sure he was in the proper position, Adel glanced behind him to preemptively ensure the backblast area was cleared.
Movement at the end of the block caught his eye, and Adel immediately tensed. He held his breath as he spotted the edge of the glowing orange energy shield, followed by the Jackal holding on to it, as the creature rounded the corner. The Jackal stood there for a moment, shield held high in front of him with plasma pistol sticking up and over the barrier, as the alien carefully scanned the road in front of him. Then, Adel could very clearly see the creature gesturing behind him with his pistol hand. At once, more Covenant infantry began rounding the corner. Following them were even more Covenant soldiers. All the while, the rumbling in the background continued to grow in pitch.
Slowly bring his rifle up, Adel started counting. The Covenant had split into two groups, with both groups simultaneously advancing down either side of the street towards the UNSC positions. The Jackals were leading the way, with their shields active in front of them. Following the Jackals were a number of Elites, wearily scanning every doorway and window that overlooked the road. Following up the rear were the Grunts, all toting a random assortment of firearms. Total, Adel counted about a dozen Jackals, twice as many Grunts, and a handful of Elites.
"Standby Lance Corporal," Lancelot whispered as the Covenant began approaching the building the satchel charge was in. "Standby..."
Adel could feel a drop of sweat sliding down the side of his face as he waited.
The Covenant reached the building.
"Lance Corporal: DO IT."
X took a deep breath and stood up.
"ROCK - !" he started to scream just as he pulled both the trigger and Adel had just enough time to remember to relax his jaw before -
WHOMPWHOOMP!
Two rockets went screaming down the street! In a blink of an eye, they slammed right through the outer wall of the target building before the wall itself bulged outwards as the rockets detonated, triggering the satchel charge left inside.
BOOOMMMMMM!
What few walls were left of the building instantly shattered as the ground floor exploded! A massive tidal wave of debris swept through the streets and the air became flooded with dust as the building promptly collapsed! The half of the Covenant soldiers that had been standing right next to the building were instantly consumed by the torrent, while the other half was completely knocked off balance, having been caught flat-footed by the blast. To their credit, they immediately scattered, but it was too late.
BAMBAMBAMBAMBAM!
Machine gun fire rang out as both of the Army's heavy machine guns opened up. .50 caliber SLAP rounds sliced right through the ranks of the Covenant, cutting through armor and flesh alike, ripping off entire limbs, and causing some of the aliens to practically explode, painting the ground with all sorts of entrails. The initial group was almost completely wiped out to the last being in a matter of seconds, but already more Covenant infantry was pouring out from around the corner.
"Restrepo, SHIFT FIRE LEFT!" Lancelot bellowed. "Marines! OPEN FIRE!"
Rifle fire tore through the dusty air and into the ranks of the Covenant. They Covenant took advantage of the wreckage left over from the destroyed building, quickly finding cover amongst the debris strewn street. They immediately retaliated, however most of the plasma fire impacted harmlessly against the Marine's defensive barricades. That is, until -
"WRAITH!"
With a loud rumble, a Covenant assault Wraith rounded the corner. Armed with an assault cannon similar to the ones used by Hunters instead of the standard plasma mortar, the Wraith fired its main cannon directly at the UNSC forces, all the while its dual anti-infantry plasma turrets laid down copious amounts of fire.
"INCOMING!"
Adel ducked his head as the radiative green projectile streaked through the air overhead and exploded amongst the Army troopers. Cries of "MEDIC" began ringing out over the radio and glancing over his shoulder, Adel could see that redhead corpsman dashing away from her spot next to Lancelot.
"Contact, enemy Wraith!" Lancelot bellowed even as the Wraith fired again. "Assault squad: take it out!"
"ADEL!" X yelled. "Got to reload!"
"On it!"
X popped open the chamber and Adel nimbly ripped out the spent rocket casings and hurtled them to the side. Replacing them with a couple of HEAT rounds, Adel slammed the chamber closed and patted X on the back of his helmet.
"Up!"
"ROCKET!"
WHOMP!
The rocket sped down range but by that time, the Wraith had fully turned the corner, exposing its front hull, and the rocket glanced off the Wraith's bulbous nose.
"DEFLECTION!" Sam roared over the bark of his rifle. "Reengage!"
"Hit that fucker at the base of the main cannon!" Adel yelled into X's ear.
"I know what I'm doing!" X retorted as he toggled a switch and the gears on the Jackhammer rotated, placing the second rocket in line with the barrel.
Unfortunately, that initial rocket had already caught the attention of the Wraith gunner.
FWOOZFWOOZFWOOZ!
"Down!" Adel screamed, shoving X to the ground as the Wraith turned one of its plasma turrets in their direction. Plasma began raining down all around them, showering them with burning dirt and ash and preventing them from moving in any direction. "Lieutenant! Assault Squad is pinned down!"
"RESTREPO! HIT THAT FUCKING TANK!" Adel heard Lancelot roar.
Bullets began ricocheting off the Wraith's hull as even .50 caliber armored piercing incendiary rounds weren't enough to do more than scratch the paint off the armor. However, against the more lightly armored anti-personnel turrets, the rounds were more than enough, and poking his head up, Adel could see a small blue flash, then sparks began leaping from the turret as it was destroyed, severing the deluge of plasma and giving Adel and X their window.
"X, HIT THAT FUCKING THING!"
X stood up.
"ROCKET!"
Adel could see a small hole, surrounded by molten orange armor appear at the base of the Wraith's main cannon, before the entire top of the Wraith erupted. The assault cannon shot straight up into the air like the top of a shaken bottle of soda, while blue flames shot out the back of the Wraith. The Covenant vehicle instantly lost all power and went crashing to the ground as its gravity engines failed.
There was a small clang as the hatch to the driver's compartment opened, and the Elite driver hopped out.
"Hey! Shoot that asshole!" Adel yelled, grabbing his rifle and opening fire, but with his wounded hand, his aim just wasn't there. Adel could see puffs of dust rising from the ground as his bullets impacted all around the Elite, and Adel desperately tried to compensate, but it just wasn't happening.
As he finished off the rest of his magazine, the Elite slid into cover inside a nearby blast crater, quickly reemerging with plasma rifle in hand. The Elite had just enough time to pull the trigger when a 40mm grenade landed in the crater, blowing the Elite to shreds.
"Shit," Adel hissed. He still had yet to score a single kill.
"ASSAULT SQUAD, DISPLACE!" Lancelot suddenly screamed and Adel looked up as a second Wraith abruptly appeared from behind the first one.
"Oh fuck!"
Adel grabbed all his stuff and scrambled out of his hole, X and Sam following close behind on his heels. He had only managed to make it a few meters when the Wraith fired.
BOOOSSHHHH... KABOOM!
The shockwave ripped through the ground, knocking Adel clean off his feet. He fell, eating a mouthful of dirt as he hit the ground face first.
Rolling on the ground, he instinctively looked for his rifle, finding it sitting on the ground nearby.
"Come on Adel, get up, GET UP!" Sam yelled from somewhere above him.
Adel looked up in time to see a massive piece of ordnance drop out of the sky and land directly on top of the Wraith. The ensuing explosion completely obliterated the Wraith, and the blast was so strong, even from a block and a half away, Adel could feel the pressure from the shockwave.
"The hell was that!?"
"Bendis is calling in fire support!" Sam yelled. "Enough with the twenty fucking questions Marine, let's go!"
"GRENADE!"
A plasma grenade exploded nearby, knocking Adel and Sam back down.
"Fuck! X, COVER!"
"I'm covering!"
Adel scrambled up to his hands and knees and moved to recover his weapons and all the remaining rockets as he heard X opening up with his rifle.
"Adel, dammit, we need to - "
"INCOMING!"
Hearing the telltale swoosh of an incoming plasma mortar, Adel needed no further promoting: he took off running for the nearest building. He had almost made it when he heard the screaming of the mortars from somewhere behind him and -
KABOOM KABOOM!
Hot air washed over him and shrapnel slammed into the ground around him, but fortunately the mortars landed too far away to hit him. Nevertheless, Adel dove head first into the building, landing on a heap of rubble with a loud thud.
Scrambling upright, he seized his rifle and emptied the magazine downrange to try and cover for Sam and X as they darted inside.
"Up two five, charge three!"
"Hanging!"
"Fire!"
Adel glanced around. The building he had landed in was already occupied by Sergeant Badger and his mortar team. They had set up their mortar and appeared to be attempting to lay down some counter battery fire. Adel wished them the best of luck, but he honestly wasn't sure what sixty mortars could do against mortar Wraiths.
"Adel, get that fucking Jackhammer reloaded and stand by for more enemy armor!" Sam bellowed at him.
FWOOZFWOOZFWOOZ!
Adel ducked his head as plasma bolts smashed against the building wall, sending dust and shattered chunks of brick in all directions. Someone started screaming, and Adel looked up to see one of the mortarmen had been hit.
"MAN DOWN!" the mortar gunner screamed.
"Who's been hit? Hightower, who's been hit!" Badger yelled back.
"Roland!"
"Shit! CORPSMAN!"
With plasma still spraying the area, Adel dropped to the ground and crawled over to where the man laid to see if he could help. The Marine, Roland, had been hit in the left shoulder, and the high velocity plasma bolt had damn near torn his arm off. The plasma had instantly melted through Roland's left pauldron, incinerated his uniform, and burned right through his flesh leaving a very nasty looking hole, large enough for Adel to put his fist through, and leaving the rest of his shoulder blackened and shriveled. The smell was horrendous, and Roland's screams of pain caused chills to go down Adel's spine.
Slinging his rifle, Adel reached down to his IFAK and pulled out a can of biofoam but truth be told, he had no idea what he was supposed to do with a wound this bad. Fortunately, he was saved from having to figure it out when Sam grabbed him and roughly pulled him to his feet.
"Forget about the damn wounded, leave that to Compton!" he snarled. "Pay attention to your fucking job! Get that fucking Jackhammer back up to operational status!"
"Aye Corporal!" Adel reflexively bellowed.
He scooted over to where X was struggling to reload the Jackhammer by himself. As he pulled out a pair of fresh rockets, he glanced over his shoulder in time to see Compton diving into the building and sliding to a stop right next to Roland. Without a second glance, he began working.
With plasma mortars continuing to rain down from above, and Marine rifle fire crackling all around him, Adel suddenly realized that his earlier thought at the stadium had been wrong. That hadn't been what war was like. With Marines going down left and right, artillery and aircraft screaming overhead, and gunfire being exchanged at a frantic rate… this was a war.
"Adel, we got more incoming! Get your rifle up!"
As Adel snapped his rifle up and began empting the magazine downrange, he was struck by a sudden realization:
War was not turning out to be nearly as fun as he thought it would.
"MARINE, FIRE YOUR WEAPON!"
1. This is actually a partial quote. The full quote is normally given as follows:
"When a person inflates his own importance, he does not see his own sins and his sin get bigger right along with him."
- Leo Tolstoy
2. Kuso kurae, bakayarou: as far as I can tell, these are Japanese swear words.
- kuso karae: roughly means "Eat shit"
- bakayarou: literally means "Idiot," but in effect, it's used similar to the way "asshole" is used in English
3. TECOM: Marine Corps Training and Education Command. Basically, the Marine Corps equivalent to the Army's TRADOC, which is the command responsible for the enlistment, training, and education of their respective personnel. I've read somewhere, at least in regards to TRADOC, there's a bit of disconnect between what TRADOC thinks, and what actually happens in the field.
4. shă bī: Chinese. Literally translated into "foolish vagina," it essentially means "stupid cunt."
5. This is a small part of William Shakespeare's famous "St Crispin's Day Speech" from his play, Henry V. Most people probably don't recognize these lines, but everyone would probably recognize the very next line: "we happy few, we band of brothers; for he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother…"
General Notes
For those of you who don't quite get it, Pip, Moss, Lancelot, and Westley are all characters from my other story, Missing in Action. Moss and Pip were part of the main cast, while 1st Lieutenant Lancelot and Doc Westley was their platoon commander and platoon medic, respectively, though they only showed up in two chapters (chapters 1 and 2. Lancelot did get a mention in chapters 9 and 12, but only in flashbacks.)
If you go back to Missing in Action and read chapter 2, at the very end, there is mention of Moss and his platoon being relieved by a unit of Marines. Those Marines are intended to be Adel and his platoon, which means this chapter takes place (chronologically) between chapters 2 and 3 of Missing in Action. You guys are going to see a few more tie-ins like this in future chapters, none of which are going to be super essential to the plot of the story, and all of which I'll be explaining in notes like this one at the end of their respective chapters. So, that means reading my other story won't be necessary to understanding this one.
However, if you guys were to go back and read it… well, I certainly won't be objecting…
Other Notes:
Just in case anyone was wondering, and because I can't think of a way to integrate this information into the story itself, but Adel and team are assaultmen. An assaultman is a former United States Marine Corps occupation within the infantry branch. Their MOS code used to be 0351, however the entire MOS field was actually phased out by the USMC just recently, back in 2018.
So, what was an assaultman? Basically, assaultmen were Marines responsible for the destruction of enemy fortifications, which they accomplished through the use of a variety of weapons, most notably the Mk. 153 shoulder-mounted assault weapon, or SMAW for short. The SMAW is an 83mm, general purpose, anti-armor, anti-fortification, reloadable, recoilless rifle (one of the two used by the US military.) Even though the SMAW does have anti-tank rounds, my understanding is that the SMAW was never actually intended for the anti-tank role (which would have been the role of the BGM-71 "TOW" missile launcher.)
Other tools used by an assaultman would have been the APOBS and the Bangalore torpedo, both of which are used to destroy static obstacles like barbed wire and mine fields, as well as C-4 explosives. Basically, from what I understand, Marine assaultmen are kind of like Army combat engineers, only assaultmen focus on the "offensive" part of the combat engineer's job, and not the defensive (i.e., assaultmen aren't responsible for building defensive fortifications, trenches, anti-tank barriers, etc., or conducting route clearance missions, all of which would be the responsibility of actual Marine Corps combat engineers.)
So, that's that for the reintroduction of Adel the Marine. Next time, we move on to other characters. I'm curious as to what you guys think of Adel though because my editor, Darkfire7881, hates him :)
Until next time…
Enjoy.