Chapter 25
Newington, Thracia Province, Actium
May 6, 2545
1503
Tariq
"Look at those assholes. Look how clean and shiny their hulls are. What the fuck."
"I know, right? Can't fucking believe we're being reinforced by the fucking Cunt Munchers. Seriously: couldn't Command have sent us some real armored units to back us up?"
"Technically, I think cavalry divisions are classified as being armored units."
"Fuck that shit man. You ever see the inside of a Bison(1)? Their armor is fucking paper thin. They ain't no armored unit. Plus, they got wheels, and everyone knows treads can do everything wheels can do, but better."
"Oh, I know. I'm just saying: that's what the Army calls them."
"Pricks," Chenko snarled as he viciously jabbed his shovel into the ground.
Tariq nodded in agreement as he reached up and scooped out the now flavorless pinch of chewing tobacco in his mouth and tossing it away. He pulled out his can to get a fresh pinch, only to find he was out.
"Shit," he muttered as he began patting himself down, hoping to find another can, only to remember he had left his extra supplies in his tank. "God dammit."
"What's up?" Chenko asked.
"I'm out of dip."
"That it? Don't worry bro, I got you covered."
Pulling out a can of his own, Chenko tossed it over to Tariq, who gratefully grabbed a pinch.
"Thanks," he said, shoving it into his mouth –
- and nearly gagged.
"Fuck!"
"What," Chenko bluntly asked.
"Dude, what is it with you and this fucking flavored dip man?" Tariq cursed as he glanced at the can. "'Citrus flavored?' The fuckity faggotity ass shit is this? Whatever happened to the good old 'natural' flavor?"
"Hey!" Chenko snapped. "If you don't fucking like it, don't fucking take it man."
"Too late for that shit," Tariq muttered. More loudly he said, "Aren't you fucking Russian? I thought 'mother Russia make you stronk?' What's with the flavored shit then?"
"Okay, first off dumbass, I'm Cossack, not fucking Russian," Chenko heatedly replied, and Tariq did his best to hide his smirk. He always found it rather amusing to try and set Chenko off on a rant like that. Unfortunately, he didn't hide his smirk well enough because Chenko paused mid-sentence, his eyes narrowing until they were nothing more than slits.
"Ohhhh, I know what you're doing," Chenko growled. "Well buddy, it ain't fucking working this time!"
Tariq snorted, and then spat to the side, grimacing. Fucking citrus.
"Man, there is something slightly disturbing about the way you two are talking to each other."
Tariq looked up to see one of Chenko's men digging in the next foxhole over, looking at them with a strange look on his face.
"You got a problem with two men trying to have a conversation with each other Contras?" Chenko immediately snapped.
Contras jumped and looked surprise. "No Sergeant, talk away. It's just… do you have to do it when one of you's on the shitter?"
Tariq and Chenko exchanged looks, and Tariq absentmindedly scratched his bare thigh as, coincidently, at the same time, he let out a loud fart.
"What's wrong with needing to take a shit?" Tariq heatedly demanded to know. "It's a perfectly natural thing."
"I know that," Contras replied, sounding mildly amused. "But… well, aren't you bothered by the lack of privacy?"
"Let me tell you something about my buddy here, Mister Freddy Contras," Chenko began. "Me and Sergeant Helmand here served in the same tank for damn near over a year. It was me in the driver's seat, him in the turret, and Sergeant Duvall as the TC. During that year, we trained. A lot. Ended up eating, breathing, and practically sleeping together. When we were on Draco III, some of the fighting got so bad, we literally were not allowed to leave the tank, so we ended up having to piss and shit in there. Once you've been through that with somebody, you find that little things like 'privacy,' don't really matter much to you anymore."
"Yeah… what he said," Tariq lamely added. Then he let out another partially loud and obnoxious fart. "Ooh, that was juicy!"
A slightly disgusted look appeared on Contras' face, and he started to look a bit green around the gills. "You guys are like fucking three year olds," he muttered, before disappearing below ground.
Tariq and Chenko exchanged a glance before bursting out laughing.
"Fucking new guys, am I right?" Tariq said between chortles. "Squeamish little fuckers, aren't they?"
Chenko merely shrugged. "Yeah. Well, they'll learn to get used to it. We certainly had to."
The smile instantly slid off Tariq's face. "Yeah," he said, looking down. "Yeah…"
Chenko hesitated. "Hey… do you ever… think about what could have been if we – "
"No." Tariq instantly replied, cutting Chenko off. "I don't think about it at all. And you shouldn't either. Let the past go dude."
"Yeah… I guess you're right," Chenko quietly said.
An awkward silence descended on them.
Letting out a sigh, Tariq decided he was done with his business. Standing up, he cleaned himself off and pulled his pants back up. Then, moving the bottomed out ammo can he had been using as a shitter, he grabbed a nearby shovel and buried his waste as best he could.
"Well, I'll have to catch you later man," Tariq declared, making sure he had his SMG. "Mechanics are bound to have finished patching up Lillian by now, and with the Cunt Munchers taking our place on the line, you know Command's probably about to make us go poke the sleeping dragon."
"Motherfuckers," Chenko said, spitting to the side. "Easy for them to make those decisions; it's not their asses hanging out in the wind."
Tariq nodded in agreement, but didn't say anything. Not that there was much to say.
He was about to head out when Chenko suddenly called out, "Yo T!"
Tariq glanced over his shoulder. "The fuck do you want."
"When'd you start naming your tank like that?" Chenko genuinely asked. "Never pulled that shit before Draco III."
"That's Noble's thing," Tariq explained. "She's the one who wanted to do that. I figured: what the fuck, you know?"
Chenko snorted. "Fucking POGs. Hey! You better get out of here before your FNG throws another track."
Tariq grimaced. "Yeah…"
Without another word, he pulled himself out of the hole and took off in a full-tilt sprint towards his tank, to try and minimize his chance of becoming a target. Despite the Covenant not having fired so much as a plasma bolt in their direction after calling off their attack three hours ago, Tariq know that, that could change at any second, and the last thing Tariq wanted was to get stuck out in the open during an artillery barrage.
Sliding into safety into Lillian's hull down position, Tariq found Corona sitting by Lillian's exhaust vent, shelling some peanuts and apparently trying to stay warm.
"Hey Sergeant," he said. "How was your shit?"
Immediately he cringed, as if he couldn't believe he had just said that, but Tariq barely gave it any heed.
"The fuck do you care?" he demanded, breathing hard. As a tanker, Tariq wasn't used to sprinting like that anymore.
"Just trying to make conversation," Corona innocently replied.
"Don't," Tariq shortly said. He jerked his head in Lillian's direction. "What's our status? Don't see the mechanics anywhere. They finished?"
"Yeah, they finished up about five minutes ago," Corona reported. "They fixed all the holes and replaced some of the more worn out armored plating, but the chief mechanic did want to warn me that all his crew did was patch things up. And that patch jobs out in the field are nowhere near as good as ones at the motor pool."
"Well, that was never an option for us," Tariq distractedly replied as he studied Lillian's hull. He could see the slightly discolored spots where the mechanics had installed new plates, but from a distance, they weren't all that noticeable. Good. That meant the Covenant wouldn't be able to target them specifically.
"We also got more fuel and ammo," Corona added, then paused. "Why are we getting resupplied by the Colonial Militia?"
"We're getting resupplied by everybody," Tariq absentmindedly told him. "Including the Colonial Militia."
"Yeah, I mean, I was just wondering: what happened to our own logistics guys?"
"Cause, with the one five fives being some of the only things preventing us from gettin' overrun, our logistical support was moved to support them. Normally, we'd get extra support from Division, however, from what I hear, our divisional sustainment brigade has been scattered to the four winds with half the unit MIA, including their CO, Colonel Menteith. That leaves the CM as the only ones available for support."
Tariq paused and glanced over at Corona. "Why the fuck does it matter to you where our supplies come from?"
Corona shrugged. "It doesn't. I was just talking to one of the drivers, Private Marcus Olsen. He was telling me he only joined his unit this morning!"
"Yeah, that's what happens when the Covenant invades a colony moron," Tariq snapped. "Everyone gets thrown into the shit. That's why I'm stuck with you."
To his mild annoyance, Corona seemed to take his snide attitude in stride and merely shrugged in response.
"Where's Noble?" Tariq asked instead, changing the topic.
"She and Captain Lightfoot went over to battalion HQ about ten minutes ago, though I don't know why."
Tariq mentally nodded to himself. He had a feeling he knew exactly what it was about and if it turned out he was correct, then he didn't have much more personal time left. Time for a meal.
Unslinging his SMG from around his shoulders, he scanned the ground for a relatively clean spot to sit down. He was just about to get settled in, when he heard someone running towards them. Tariq automatically tensed, but then relaxed when Noble poked her head over the edge of the hole.
"You two," she said without preamble. "Drop whatever you're doing and come with me. Captain Lightfoot is holding a briefing."
Corona looked up, startled, but Tariq couldn't bring himself to so much as groan. He had a feeling he knew what this was about and in some ways, he was almost looking forward to it. He was starting to feel on edge, waiting for something to happen.
The three of them dashed across the open field to where Captain Lightfoot and his tank were positioned. Sliding into the hole, they were confront not only with Lightfoot and his crew, but also the executive officer as well as the remaining platoon commanders and their sergeants.
"This everyone?" Lightfoot asked, addressing Noble.
"Yes sir."
"Good, let's begin. All right, as everyone should have noticed by now, we're being joined on the line by the vanguard of the 7th Cavalry Division. While their Bisons might not have as much armor or firepower as our Grizzlies or even Armadillos have, their presence here greatly boosters our defenses."
Lightfoot paused and Tariq silently waited, sensing a "but" incoming.
"But," Lightfoot began and Tariq suppressed a groan. Sometimes, he hated being right. "Because of that and because those Bisons are better served in a hull down position as opposed to being on the offensive during a conventional battle such as this, Command has decided to reallocate 2nd Brigade to other tasks. Namely, to go on the offensive."
Lightfoot activated a holographic map of the area. "Three hours ago, the Covenant invasion force ceased all attempts to break out from their LZ and push south of Byzas. Instead, they shifted the weight of their attack north, to the city proper. We're still not a hundred percent sure why, but XIV Corps SIGINT(2) is picking up a lot of high level, heavily encrypted radio traffic between the invasion force, and their fleet in orbit."
Tariq couldn't help but be intrigued by that. He wondered what that all meant. High level encryption would imply that the Covenant commanders of both the invasion force and the invasion fleet were in constant contact with each other, which by itself wouldn't be all that unusual. However, with the way the Covenant Army was reacting, Tariq had to wonder what exactly it was that had gotten the Elites all riled up.
Sadly, no answered seemed forthcoming as Lightfoot continued with his briefing.
"Unfortunately, north of the city would have been the AO's of our sister divisions, the 71st and 119th Infantry Divisions who, for obvious reasons, aren't there. With the other three quarters of our Division in complete disarray, there's not a whole lot of defenses north of the city, which is perhaps why the Covenant decided to shift their attack north. At any case, High Command decided to drop reinforcements in the form of the 222nd Airborne Division and the 9th Marine Expeditionary Force. Despite this influx though, all UNSC forces north of the city are getting hammered, hard."
"Of course," Tariq heard one of the platoon commanders mutter to his platoon sergeant. "That's what happens when you send light infantry divisions to fight in an armored war."
Tariq snorted in agreement, but quickly quieted himself when he noticed Noble glaring in his direction.
"In order to try and relieve some of that pressure," Lightfoot continued, "General Langley has ordered us to launch an attack on Covies positions just north of us. Our objective is twofold: draw some of the Covenant's attention back on to us and, because our intelligence right now is so spotty, gather some intel as to the Covenant's current disposition, as well as mark Covie strong points for future demolition by artillery or airstrikes."
"So, basically sir," one of the platoon sergeants asked, "we're doing a recon by fire?"
"Basically."
Tariq silently groaned. He hated recons by fire.
"The bad news is," Lightfoot continued, "is because we're just doing a raid, Command has decided for us to go light: this attack will only involve us, the tankers of Kilo Company. We will not have any infantry, sapper, or SPAAG support."
This time, Tariq didn't even bother hiding his groan. Despite their great size and massive firepower, a tank without infantry support was one of the most vulnerable war machines on the battlefield.
"Quiet!" Noble snapped and with a start, Tariq realized he hadn't been the only one groaning. "Alright, settle down people!"
Lightfoot waited until everyone had quiet down before continuing.
"I realize this situation isn't the most ideal," he drily said, "but unfortunately, those are our orders. The good news is, we'll have plenty of fires support: aside from all our regular artillery, the Actium Navy has a missile destroyer, the ANS Serenity(3), parked some three hundred klicks off shore, ready to provide us with some cruise missile support."
That... actually made Tariq feel a bit better. While the Actium Navy was strictly a blue-water navy, thus limiting their versatility, Tariq knew just about every single one of their ships was capable of firing "Pilum" hypersonic cruise missiles. Not only was each missile capable of carrying a 450kg explosive warhead, which was a little over four time the weight of a standard 203mm high explosive shell, each missile was also capable of hitting a target the size of a soda can from nearly 2000km away. And Tariq knew a missile destroyer like the Serenity was capable of carrying up to ninety-six of these missiles.
In short, that was one heck of a lot of firepower at their disposal.
"As such," Lightfoot continued, "the XO and I have been both issued a target locator specifically synced with the Serenity. If we run into any strong points we can't bypass, we'll level it."
"Our objective is this circle right here." Lightfoot pointed at a spot on the map approximately three blocks inside the city limits. "Savvas Circle. MI thinks that's where all the plasma mortars this morning had originated. Whatever the case is, we go in, blow a bunch of shit up, and then we leave. Period. It's about as simple as that. Marching order will be 1st and 2nd Platoons with the XO and me on the left and right flanks, respectively, with First Sergeant Noble and 3rd Platoon in reserve. Any questions? Good. Platoon leaders, go brief your men. We're Oscar Mike in seven."
Tariq automatically turned to Noble as the group broke apart.
"You two," she ordered as she walked towards Tariq and Corona. "I have to go check on the other platoons. Go prep Lillian, and make ready to step off."
"Got it First Sergeant," Tariq replied and smacked Corona on the shoulder. "Let's go kid."
After a quick glance outside of the hole for possible Covie contacts and finding none, Tariq took off running back towards his tank, hopping onto the top of Lillian herself.
With the knowledge he only had a couple of minutes before the start of the mission, Tariq quickly scrambled to the rear turret bustle where his rucksack was stowed. Reaching into it, he dug around until he found an MRE, before scrambling through the top hatch and plopping himself behind his station. Tearing open the MRE, he ignored the main entree and instead pulled out the desert, which in this case was some sort of toaster tart. Taking a bite out of it, Tariq hastily strapped himself in as Corona activated the tank, and Lillian came to life.
"Hey Sergeant?" Tariq heard Corona say. "I got a question."
"Good for you," Tariq replied between bites.
Corona gave a small laugh. "Nice. Well, I just wanted to ask something: what's a recon by fire?"
Tariq swallowed.
"Seriously?" he asked as soon as his mouth was empty. "It's exactly what it sounds like: we're reconing everything in front of us, by shooting everything in sight."
"That doesn't seem like a very incognito way of doing things," Corona noted with a frown. "If we go around lighting everything up, won't the Covenant see us coming from like, half a continent away? Plus, I thought we had all sorts of cavalry squadrons and surveillance units for this very thing."
"Did you not listen to a damn word Lightfoot said a minute ago?" Tariq demanded. "First, the Covenant seeing us coming is the entire damn point. The point of a recon by fire is to throw so much gunfire in the Covies' direction, they're forced to shoot back which in turn, reveals their position. And the reason why we're doing that is because there's no way we can sneak a recon unit across no-man's land without the Covenant noticing. And if the Covies are going to see you coming no matter what, might as well send your strongest forces to root them out."
"That seems rather dangerous," Corona noted. "If we don't know what's in front of us, how do we know we're not about to drive into an ambush?" He paused. "Is that why you were groaning during the briefing?"
Tariq glanced around his work station to stare at the back of Corona's head. "Dude, do you realize how fucking creepy that is, you paying that much attention to me?"
He could see Corona shrugging. "Sorry. I can't help but notice these things."
"Well, figure it out," Tariq demanded. "Otherwise, I just might have to shoot you."
"Hey!" Noble snapped as she climbed into the tank. "No shooting your teammates!"
Tariq resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Figure of speech First Sergeant," he assured her.
"Well... nevertheless, if you're going to shoot anyone, shoot the Covenant, got it?"
"Yes First Sergeant."
"Good. Gunner: what's our status?"
"Everything looks good on my end First Sergeant," Tariq reported.
"Driver? How about you?"
"Green across the board First Sergeant and ready to move out on your command."
"Good. 07 to all 03 victors: we're moving out." Noble lowered her radio. "Driver? Move us out!"
Tariq braced himself as Corona threw the tank into gear and proceeded to back the tank up onto the surface. Behind him, he could feel a cold breeze on his back as Noble opened the hatch and climbed out.
Calmly munching on the rest of his food, Tariq looked around as Corona drove in the direction where the rest of the company was gathering to form up before advancing on the Covenant.
Sitting in the center of everything was Lightfoot, with the upper half of his body sticking out from his hatch. Swiveling his optics around, Tariq watched as Lightfoot visibly counted, probably checking to make sure the entire company had assembled. Not that there were that many tanks to count: at this point in the day, seven hours into the invasion, Kilo Company had already been reduced to a mere eleven tanks. Tariq had hoped they wouldn't lose any more than that, but given their mission, he had a feeling that wasn't going to be possible.
Apparently confirming everyone in the company had arrived and was in position, Lightfoot waved his hand forward, and the entire formation began moving out.
"Driver, keep your pace," Noble commanded over the radio. "And keep your spacing too; don't get too close to 3-1 or 3-3 on either side of us."
"Copy."
For his part, Tariq grabbed his controls and began panning his turret around, searching for hostiles.
The field was littered with all sorts of wrecked vehicles; souvenirs from the Covenant's first few failed attacks. While teams of Army engineers had been steadily going out to remove some of those wrecks, both to prevent the Covenant from retrieving and repairing them, as well as clearing the fields of fire for the MLR, there were still enough of them around that the possibility of Covenant hunter-killer teams lying in wait among them still existed, however remote.
"Alright, eyes peeled everyone," Noble commanded over the radio. "As of right now, we are in bad guy country. You see any movement, assume hostile and engage. Gunner, confirm."
"Copy that," Tariq calmly confirmed.
They continued slowly making their way across no-man's land. Outside, Tariq could hear shrieking as an entire salvo of MRLS rockets passed by overhead and across the field, he could see plumes of dust shooting up into the air as the rockets landed amongst the Covenant positions on the edge of the city. Tariq sighed. Well, if the Covenant hadn't initially noticed Tariq and his company approach, they certainly would now.
"Gunner!" Noble called out. "Standby! Alpha and Bravo Sections are about ready to open up on every probable Covenant position! Keep your eyes peeled; I want you to help spot for any return fire, and mark them for artillery strikes!"
"Yeah, roger that First Sergeant!" Tariq yelled back.
Pushing away from his primary sight, he switched over to his secondary sight and waited. About ten meters in front of them and spread out in a rough line were the eight tanks that made up Alpha and Bravo Sections. Looking around, Tariq could see all the tank commanders sticking out from their hatches with binoculars pressed against their faces, scanning for targets. All of a sudden, everyone simply opened up.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Tank shells landed amongst the buildings sitting on the edge of the city, smashing through walls and blowing out entire rooms. As debris came crash down to the street below, Tariq carefully scanned the buildings, looking for telltale signs of Covenant activity: muzzle flashes, splotches of neon color that normally wouldn't belong in human architecture, or just simple movement. Strangely enough though, he saw none of that.
"Gunner, anything?"
"Negative," Tariq reported as he carefully swept the area with his sights once more. "I'm not seeing any movement."
"Actual, this is 07, negative contact, over," he heard Noble report over the radio.
"Copy that. Alpha and Bravo Sections, maintain fire."
The tanks fired again, sending another salvo down range. With the smoke and the dust from the explosions quickly filling the air, it was getting harder for Tariq to see, but sweeping his sights across the entire Covenant line, Tariq was pretty sure he knew what he saw: nothing.
"No sign of movement First Sergeant!" Tariq barked over his shoulder.
"Copy."
"You'd think the Covenant would have started firing back by now!" Corona yelled from the front of the tank even as Alpha and Bravo fired a third salvo.
"Maybe. Depends on how good their fire discipline is, and how close we're getting to their positions," Tariq distractedly yelled back. "Not going to know until we get closer!"
Alpha and Bravo Sections fired once more, sending another volley of shells downrange. Tariq grimaced. If the Covenant didn't start showing their ugly mugs, then the company was going to have to take some drastic measures. And Tariq hated drastic measures; somehow, they always ended up with Tariq's tank getting shot at.
Alpha and Bravo launched another salvo in the direction of the city, but this time Tariq barely gave it any heed. At this point, it was becoming increasingly clear that either the Covenant just didn't care about a single company of tanks, or the UNSC just wasn't hitting close enough to the Covenant positions to make them care.
"Probably should have sent the entire battalion across," Tariq muttered to himself. "That probably would have made them freak out."
"All gunners, cease fire. All tanks: halt."
"Driver, halt!" Noble repeated.
Tariq braced himself as Corona brought the tank to a grinding stop. They sat there, engines idly running, with the rest of the company less than a hundred meters away from the city proper.
"Now what?" Tariq heard Corona ask.
"Now we do something stupid," Tariq miserably replied. "Ten to one we're going to have to go into the city itself."
"But," Corona began, looking startled. "We don't have any infantry support."
"Nope."
"That's a really bad idea."
"No shit."
"But we're still going to do it anyways, aren't we?"
"Well, I'll give you credit kid," Tariq reluctantly announced. "You are definitely faster than some of the retards I've had to deal with in the past."
"Thanks Sergeant Helmand," Corona brightly replied.
"But you still ended up here, so that's not saying much.
"Well, I volunteered Sergeant."
"Somehow, that just makes it so much worse," Tariq muttered to himself.
"Quiet you two," Noble snapped. "We're getting our orders. Go ahead 06."
"07, we're pushing into the city."
Tariq started to groan, but before he could, Lightfoot continued.
"Alpha and Bravo Sections will push onto our objective area, see if we can't take anything out," Lightfoot declared, "but given our lack of infantry support, there's too much of a risk of an ambush. So I want you to take Charlie Section here," a navigation point suddenly appeared at a spot just outside of the city limits on Tariq's HUD, "and set up defensive positions. You should be able to provide us some limited overwatch, as well as a fallback position for when we pull out."
"Copy that 06," Noble replied.
"Let me know when you've established yourselves, over."
"Wilco. 07, out. Driver, move us out!
"Good lord, it's like a goddamn Christmas miracle: we're not going into the city after all," Tariq announced, not even bothering to hide his relief. "Wonders never cease."
"Two thirds of the company still are Sergeant," Noble was quick to remind him. "Keep your mind focused on the task at hand and let's make sure everyone else can make it out alive."
Tariq sighed, knowing Noble was right. It might not have been his ass hanging out in the wind this time, but that didn't mean he was off the hook just yet. "Understood First Sergeant."
Corona drove the tank in the direction of the nav point and as soon as they came to a halt, Tariq began looking around, checking his sight lines. As far as overwatch positions went, this was perhaps one of the worst ones Tariq had seen in his entire career.
The problem was, while the city of Byzas did sit downhill of the town of Newington, it was a very gentle slope, meaning that even from this far away, Tariq and the rest of Charlie Section wasn't going to be that much in higher in terms of elevation when compared to the rest of the company. That being said, Tariq could see why Lightfoot had chosen this spot as opposed to any other for Charlie Section to set up: due to a gap in the buildings, anyone positioned here would at least be able to see relatively far into the city. As long as Alpha and Bravo didn't deviate from the main roads, Tariq could cover them fairly well up until just before they reached Savvas Circle.
"Driver, halt," Noble ordered as 3-1 and 3-3 quickly established positions on either side of Lillian, creating a sort of 'triangle' formation. "07 to 06: Charlie in position."
"Copy. Alpha and Bravo Sections? Advance!"
"All crew, keep your eyes peeled," Noble ordered as the rest of the tanks began advancing into the city. "We don't know what the Covies have in store, so let's be prepared for anything."
"Everyone knows that this is a trap, right?" Tariq noted.
"Yeah," Noble bluntly replied.
"Most definitely," Corona murmured.
"Guess the only thing left to do is to wait and see how bad it is," Tariq said to himself as he disabled all the safeties to his weapons. He was going to need them.
"All call signs, this is Cataphract Actual. We are entering the city and proceeding onwards to the objective area, over."
"Copy."
"07? Any sign of movement?"
Tariq could hear Noble click her mic on. "Negative."
"Understood. Cataphract 1 and 2 pushing past checkpoint one at this time, over."
Tariq watched with bated breath as Alpha and Bravo rolled down the street. At the moment, they were sticking to the main roads which had been cleared of snow and civilians vehicles, allowing the tanks to advance down the street abreast of each other, as opposed to in a single column, thus greatly decreasing the chance of a catastrophic ambush. Unfortunately, they would not be able to advance the entire way in that fashion as they would eventually have to turn down one of the side streets.
"This Cataphract Actual, we are now advancing past checkpoint two."
Tariq made sure to keep an eye on all the buildings that lined the streets. The greatest danger unsupported tanks faced while operating inside an urban environment wasn't other tanks, but light infantry armed with rocket launchers, grenades, satchel charges, and other such explosive types of weaponry. Due to the enclosed nature of a city, as well as the three-dimensional element, attacks could come from any direction: the flanks, from behind, or even from above.
"This is Cataphract: we are now moving past checkpoint three."
The problem was, inside a city, there were windows everywhere. It was something people generally didn't notice until they were looking for one in particular, at which point they realized a city the size of Byzas was practically ninety percent all windows. It was rather intimidating, actually, and one of the reasons why any soldier worth his salt hated urban combat, even when on the defensive. There were just too many factors to consider, too many places to get ambushed from, to allow anyone to be at ease inside a city that was under siege.
"This is Cataphract: we are now turning past checkpoint four."
Tariq hurriedly reached up to bang on the turret roof.
"Hey First Sergeant! Let the Captain know I can't see him anymore once he makes that turn!" Tariq warned and, over the radio, he could hear Noble saying just that.
"Understood 07," came Lightfoot's reply. "Bravo Section: halt. Set up on this intersection here to provide cover. Alpha Section: proceed onward to the objective area, over."
"Copy. Bravo Section, moving out."
Tariq anxiously began tapping his foot against the ground as he grabbed the controls to his turret. If the Covenant were going to spring their trap, now would be the time they would do it.
"Cataphract Actual moving into Savvas Circle now. And... negative contact."
Tariq sighed. Of course there wasn't. Why would the Covenant had stayed there, especially if they knew the UNSC was coming?
"All call signs, Cataphract. There is zero presence of any Covenant forces within Savvas Circle. I am picking up signs that there may have been Covenant here at one point, but at the moment, there is no, I say again, no Covenant presence located within or around Savvas Circle."
"Goddamn artillery pieces must have shifted north," Tariq suggested. "Probably why they stopped shooting at us in the first place."
"Does this mean this entire mission was one giant waste of time?" Corona asked.
"Not really," Noble replied before Tariq could. "Our problem was: we didn't know anything about what was going on in this part of the city. Now we know the Covenant don't have forces stationed here, suggesting they don't have enough troops to defend the territory they've grabbed. That also means, without any resistance, the Army could push up some units, recapture this part of the city, and establish a good launching point for when the rest of the XXX Infantry Corps comes up from the south, at which point we can move in with enough armor to completely crush the Covenant's landing site."
"That's only if you're the optimistic type," Tariq started to say, but before he could finish, Lightfoot spoke up again.
"Hang on. We're picking up something. Can't tell what it is from here though..."
Lightfoot trailed off and for a moment, the line was silent. But then he suddenly sighed and when he spoke again, Tariq could hear the obvious reluctance in his voice. "Cataphract Actual is dismounting."
That made Tariq shut up and sit up straight. Historically speaking, tankers suffered the most casualties when they were out of their tanks. As tankers were expected to normally be surrounded by several centimeters worth of composite armor, tankers generally did not have the equipment, nor the training, to be walking around like a damn crunchie. Tariq knew Lightfoot knew that, so for Lightfoot to voluntarily leave his tank, especially in an unsecured environment, well, either Lightfoot was really hoping to score some brownie points with the battalion commander or whatever he saw was damn important.
"Thor, keep the engine running in case we need to make a quick escape," Lightfoot was saying. "Broman, keep your eyes on that building over there. I'll be right back. Actual is dismounting now."
Tariq could hear Lightfoot grunt as he leapt from the top of his tank and landed on the ground.
"No movement," Lightfoot reported, sounding out of breath. "Moving to object now."
The sound of Lightfoot's breathing filled Tariq's headset. Either Lightfoot's radio was stuck on transmit, or Lightfoot was deliberately transmitting his every word across the company's dedicated channel.
"Approaching object. Not seeing any wires or pressure plates or anything that would suggest a booby trap. I think it's safe to get closer."
Tariq waited with bated breath for something to happen. The problem was, Tariq had no eyes on the situation. He could only rely on Lightfoot's commentary to gain some insight as to what was going on. But Lightfoot was no narrator and plus, he was too distracted, by obvious reasons, to actually be able to sit down and describe what was happening. Hell, Tariq didn't even know what Lightfoot was even looking at, and it made the situation that much more tense as his mind was swirling with possibilities.
"Okay, I'm right over the object."
Lightfoot's voice cut right through Tariq's thoughts and he quickly started paying attention again.
"Damn," Lightfoot breathed. "Still can't tell what this is. I'm, uh, I'm going to pick it up."
Tariq felt like facepalming. That was the last thing Lightfoot should do as that was the most obvious method of booby trapping things. He wanted to scream and shout at Lightfoot not to do it, but unfortunately with Lightfoot on transmit, the entire channel was jammed up.
"Picking it up..."
Tariq cringed, and waited for the explosion.
Seconds ticked by, but nothing happened. There was no explosion, no screaming of pain from Lightfoot, nor had his mic turned off yet. There was absolutely no indication as to whether Lightfoot was still alive or not until -
"Hey Broman," Lightfoot suddenly said, sounding confused. "What the hell does this look like to you?"
Tariq let out a sigh of relief. Somehow, despite all odds, Lightfoot had managed to not only survive, but from the sounds of it, he hadn't even been in any danger to begin with.
KABOOM!
"Son of a bitch!" Tariq yelped as he grabbed his controls and panned the turret around. In the distance, he could see the smoke arising from the explosion, but much to his surprise, it wasn't coming from Alpha's position, but Bravo's.
Lightfoot's radio abruptly clicked off, but almost immediately the radio waves became flooded with calls.
"Contact, CONTACT!"
"Does anyone have eyes on!? Where the fuck did that come from!?"
"Shit, XO's tank is down! Cataphract 05 is DOWN!"
"Where the fuck did that come from!?"
"Shit, did you see that? They're coming from underground!"
"Hit that fucking building!"
The sound of cannon fire began echoing in the distance, with no eyes on Bravo's position, Tariq had no targets, no idea what was going on, and no way to help.
"Look out!"
"Back up back up back up!"
"Somebody grab him! Somebody grab him!
"Lieutenant! Get on!"
"Fall back! Fall back!"
More cannon fire rang out but this time, Tariq could see flashes of multicolored light: Covenant return fire.
"Shit. First Sergeant, I'm seeing plasma discharge. Bravo's been engaged!" Tariq reported.
"God dammit," Noble snapped. "Cataphract 07 to any Bravo Section victor, I have got no eyes on your pos. What is your status, over?"
"Fuck fuck! How many of them are there!?"
Tariq could hear Noble snarling.
"Cataphract 1-1 Actual, this is 07," she snapped. "What is your situation, over?"
"Situation is we're fucked!" came the immediate reply. "I've got Drones coming out of the goddamn ground!"
"What!? How?" Tariq heard Noble ask. "Fucking sewer system isn't big enough for Drones to sneak through.
A flash of insight suddenly struck Tariq, and he hastily pulled up a map on his TACPAD to confirm.
"Goddamn subway system runs under about where Bravo is located!" Tariq yelled in realization, and he could hear Corona gasping in surprise. In the meantime though, 1-1 had continued his report.
"05 is down, hard. Fucking Drones managed to sneak under his tank and plant some sort of shaped charge on the base, blew the fucking vehicle to hell. 05 driver and gunner are both KIA. XO managed to make it out, but he's in bad shape! Working on trying to extract him now, break! 2-3, secure our exit! 1-2 and 1-4, cover us, we're going to see if we can't go grab the XO, over!"
"1-4 to 1-1, that building to our ten is crawling with fucking bad guys! They got top cover over us... we can't risk moving ahead with them in the way! We need to take that building out, over!"
"Copy! 1-1 to 07, requesting immediate fire support at this location!"
A navigation point appeared on Tariq's HUD.
"Copy! Stand by to spot the fall of our rounds, break! Gunner, indirect fire! Load up HEAT, set fuses to delayed detonation. On my command!"
Tariq rapidly punched a series of buttons on his targeting computer. While tank guns generally fired at too high of a velocity to make for effective howitzers, in a pinch, they could be used as such and as a result, all tank computers were equipped with software designed to aid in indirect fire missions.
"Gun up!"
"FIRE!"
"On the way!"
Lillian shook as Tariq fired one of her cannons.
"1-1: shot, over."
"Shot, out! Uh, drop two five, left... one seven!"
"Down twenty five, left seventeen," Noble repeated as Tariq adjusted. "Fire when ready!"
"On the way!"
"07: drop one zero, left five!"
"Adjust fire: drop ten, left five!" Noble roared.
"Up!" Tariq yelled as soon as his status light turned green.
"Fire!"
"On the way!"
Lillian recoiled again, and Tariq hastily reloaded as he waited.
"On target! Fire for effect, FIRE FOR EFFECT!"
"Gunner, give me that targeting data so I can transmit them to 3-1 and 3-3, then you are free to engage!"
"Understood! Data sent, firing main cannon!"
Tariq pulled the trigger, firing both barrels in rapid succession. As soon as his guns reload, he fired again. Around him, both 3-1 and 3-3 were also opening up, and eventually Tariq began to see a large cloud of dust rising from about where he suspected his shells were hitting.
In the meantime, on a different channel, Tariq could hear Lightfoot saying, "Longbow, mark that as fire concentration Kilo Six and fire for effect, break! 06 to all Alpha Section victors, fall back to checkpoint four and standby to provide covering fire for Bravo, break! Bravo, give me a sitrep on the XO, over!"
"We managed to recover him sir!" came the immediate response. "But he's in bad shape! He needs immediate medevac! How copy, over?"
"Bravo, break contact, envelope right, and fall back to checkpoint four! Alpha will provide cover! 1-1, take all casualties and pull back directly to checkpoint one, break. 07, push up and standby to collect those casualties from 1-1, then medevac them out of here! Over!"
"Understood! 07, moving out! Gunner, cease fire! Driver, get us to checkpoint one, ASAP!"
"I'm on my way First Sergeant!" Corona yelled back and Tariq could hear him throw Lillian into gear. Tariq hurriedly moved his hand away from the trigger as the tank lurched forward and headed for the city.
No longer was this area of the city quiet: the sound of machine gun, plasma, and cannon fire echoed through the streets while artillery could be heard whistling overhead.
In front of them, Tariq could see a lone tank back down straight down the street towards them and as they got closer, Tariq could see the company's executive officer, barely burned and looking half alive, sprawled across the top of 1-1's left rear sponson, just barely clinging on.
1-1 suddenly backed up into a corner of a building, and Tariq let out a gasp of horror as the impact caused the XO to accidently roll off the tank.
"1-1, stop, STOP!" Noble instantly roared over the radio. With the entire tank buttoned up, there was no way they would be able to see the XO, especially at that angle. Thankfully 1-1 stopped before they could accidently back up over the XO.
"Come on Lieutenant, get up. Get up!" Noble urged.
They watched as the XO stagger upright and start to limp over to Lillian, but his injuries were clearly too much for him as he was only able to take three steps before collapsing.
"Shit, I got to go get him!" Noble said and Tariq could hear her disconnecting her headset before he spotted her through his sights, dashing through the snow towards the XO. She ran up to him, threw one of his arms around her shoulder, and together the two of them began staggering back towards Lillian.
"Come on," Tariq whispered as the sound of fighting could be hear drawing nearer, and he could hear Lightfoot over the radio indicating the company was in the middle of falling back. "Hurry up First Sergeant!"
Something slipped off of the XO's shoulders and landed on the ground, but neither he nor Noble seemed to notice. At first, Tariq thought it was the XO's sidearm, but then he realized it was too thick to be that. Zooming in, he abruptly realized what it was.
"The goddamn target locator," he gasped before hitting his talk button. "First Sergeant, you guys dropped the target locator! It's on the ground behind you!"
Unfortunately, Noble didn't seem to be paying attention, and Tariq's mind was a whirlwind of thoughts. That target locator was directly tied in with their navy support, and there was no way the Covenant could be allowed to capture it. While the target locator did have some security measures designed to prevent the enemy from being able to use the device, Tariq had no idea if the XO had been able to implement them before he had been injured. And with Noble seemingly too distracted to have noticed, plus the device's close proximity to both 1-1 and Noble meant Tariq couldn't try and use any of weapons to disable it from afar, that meant there was only one thing Tariq could do about it...
"I have to get out there," he said, feeling a sinking sensation in his stomach.
"What? You can't go out there," Corona exclaimed. "You're the gunner!"
"I don't have a choice!" Tariq yelled back as he grabbed his SMG. "Keep the tank running: I'll be back!"
Before Corona could protest, Tariq was up and out of the tank. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Tariq took off running so he didn't have to think about what he was doing and how stupid it was, least he lost his courage.
Dashing past a very startled Noble, Tariq ran right up to the target locator and scooped it up. As soon as he touched it, the screen lit up, indicating that the XO had not been able to lock the device before he had been wounded.
Tariq couldn't help but sigh in relief. That meant this run hadn't been entirely pointless.
Tossing the target locator back onto the ground, Tariq lifted his SMG and prepared to blast it at point blank range but before he could -
FWOOZFWOOZ!
- two bright green plasma bolts soared right past his shoulder. Instinctively, Tariq dove for the ground before looking to see where the shots had come from. At first, he didn't seem them, but then movement caught his eye: a series of Covenant Drones were pouring out from a nearby building.
"Ah, crap!" Tariq yelped as he leveled his SMG and opened fire.
His initial burst caught one of the Drones head-on before the insect-like alien could take off, causing the Drone to explode and sending the rest of them scattering for cover.
Taking aim at another, Tariq let it rip, but this time he wasn't as lucky and his burst completely missed. Tariq swore. If he survived this, he was so going to visit the range more often: his aim was just terrible.
The Drones began returning fire, and Tariq scooped up the target locator and dashed for cover behind 1-1. With this many Drones, there was no way he could take them all, even if he was some sort of expert marksman. Nor could he retreat back to his tank; looking back, both Noble and the XO had managed to make it safety back inside Lillian before the Drones had appeared, but if Tariq were to try, he'd be cut down before he could make it halfway.
"Fuck, I knew this was a bad idea!" Tariq yelled at himself as he reached for the infantry phone mounted on the back of 1-1's tank. "Lieutenant Buckley? This is Sergeant Helmand! Can you hear me?"
"Helmand!? What the fuck are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be in your tank!?"
"It's a long story!" Tariq yelled back. "But you got enemy foot mobiles, on your six!"
"What!? Shit! Gunner, contacts on our six!"
Tariq could see 1-1's turret panning around.
"Hit that fucking building!"
VOOOMP!
"Ah shit!" Tariq yelped as 1-1 fired both barrels of his main cannon, destroying the building the Drones were coming from, and nearly giving Tariq a heart attack. He always forgot how loud these 120mm cannons were when he wasn't behind a bunch of composite armor.
Forcing himself to ignore the pain, Tariq leveled his SMG as 1-1 followed up with a couple of burst from their coax. 1-1's rounds cut through the Drones like they were made of paper, but some of the Drones were able to evade. Aiming his SMG at one that managed to escape, Tariq fired.
PATATATATA!
His SMG, sounding so pitiful, especially in comparison to the main cannons of his tank, nevertheless was able to catch the Drone midair, sending it crashing to the ground.
PATATA! PATATA! PATA - click
"Come on baby," Tariq muttered to himself as he frantically ripped out the empty magazine and tossed it aside. Reaching into his vest, he pulled out a fresh mag and, after ensure he was inserting it with the correct side up, smacked it into place.
"Helmand? Do you copy?"
Tariq scrambled for his radio at the sound of Noble's voice. "Helmand here!"
"Sergeant, I don't know what the hell you were doing out of the tank, but I trust you had a good reason. Unfortunately, I'm getting a direct order from Actual to fall back, so I can't come pick you up. You're going to have to hitch a ride with 1-1."
"Shit," Tariq muttered, glancing around. At least all the Drones seemed to have been dealt with for now. "Copy that First Sergeant."
Slinging his SMG over his shoulder, Tariq scrambled to the top of 1-1, where he encountered 1-1's tank commander, 1st Lieutenant Buckley, with the upper half of his body sticking out from the hatch.
"What the hell are you doing here Helmand!?"
"I came to recover this!" Tariq showed him the target locator.
"Fuck! Is it locked?"
"No sir! Need to destroy it so the Covies can't get their hands on it. I'm thinking you could back up over it!"
"If it's unlocked, we could use it right now!" Buckley pointed out. "We need some covering fire so that the Captain and the rest of my platoon can get out because we've got fucking Drones pouring out from the fucking ground and all sorts of infantry coming out of the woodwork!"
"Alright, copy that sir!" Tariq reluctantly replied.
"Hold on to something Sergeant! Driver, forward!"
Tariq grabbed the edge of the turret as the tank lurched forward a block and stopped in the middle of the street.
"Sergeant, you see that building!"
"Yes sir!"
"Most of the Drones were pouring out from there! I want it gone!"
"Yes sir!"
Leveling the target locator, Tariq held the trigger. The words "TARGETING..." appeared in bright yellow words on the screen before it changed to a red "MISSILES INCOMING!" and a red holographic circle appeared over the building in question.
"Lieutenant: INCOMING!"
There was no warning. As the missiles were traveling faster than the speed of sound, Tariq had no way to see or hear the missiles before they hit. One moment everything seemed fine, the next, there was a flash of light, and then a shockwave that went rippling through the streets.
WOOMP!
His ears plugs had sealed themselves the moment the Pilums had exploded, filling Tariq's ears with white noise, but he could still feel the reverberation from the explosions on his body. He looked up to see the front half of the building was gone, replaced by a massive crater.
"Target destroyed, new target!" Buckley bellowed. "Follow my tracers!"
Buckley fired his heavy machine gun, and Tariq hurriedly aimed the target locator at the place the rounds were hitting. The locator let out a chime and the words "MISSILES INCOMING!" flashed across his screen once more.
WOOMP!
Another missile exploded, and Tariq was forced to duck as 1-1 was pelted with debris despite being a couple hundred meters away from the impact area, as well behind several large buildings. Such was the explosive power inside those cruise missiles.
Tariq turned to Buckley for another target, but Buckley at the moment was being distracted by his radio.
"Copy that 06!" he yelled. "Hey! They're still taking fire from that first building! Hit it again Sergeant!"
Tariq nodded and leveled the locator once more. This time Tariq was just barely able to catch sight of a blurry objective passing through the air just before impact.
WOOMP!
All sorts of dust, debris, even a few smaller cars were picked up and hurtled away by the blast. A loud, inhuman groaning filled the air, sounding very much to Tariq like one of the gods of old was finally waking up after a millennium of slumber, and he looked up to see the building the missiles had struck was visibly swaying before it abruptly collapsed.
"Yeah! Take that you fuckers!" Buckley cheered. "That ought to give us enough cover to fall back! Driver, reverse! We're falling back to the MLR! Helmand, hang onto something!"
1-1 began rapidly reversing down the street and out of the city, all the while laying down heavy amounts of fire. Overhead, plasma mortars and artillery shells were being exchanged at a frantic pace as the entire city came alive with Covenant activity once more. Clearly, Cataphract Company's recon by fire mission had succeeded. With any luck, the pressure the Covenant were applying to UNSC forces up north would subside long enough for the Marines to regain their footing, thus putting another nail in the Covenant's dreams for an easy victory.
For Tariq however, clinging onto the side of 1-1's turret and doing the best he could to not fall off, all he could think of was: 'Great.'
'Here we go again.'
1. Bisons are canon vehicles, which made their first appearance in Halo Wars 2. I've never played the game, and it's a little hard to tell from the pictures on Halopedia, but I think it's supposed to be a 6x6 wheeled vehicle. At any case, for the purpose of this story, I'm treating them as a Halo version of the various wheeled armored vehicles in use by real-world militaries today (BTR, Stryker, LAV, AMV, Piranha, etc.)
2. SIGINT: abbreviation for "Signal Intelligence." Basically, as the name implies, it's the gathering of intelligence via the interception of signals. The cracking of the Nazi enigma machine during WW2, would be an example of SIGINT at work.
3. The name Serenity was suggested by one of my reviewers, Broman, back in chapter 16. I'm pretty sure he wanted me to name a space ship Serenity, but I couldn't figure out a way to fit it in, so this was the next best thing. I hope he doesn't mind…
Author's Note
So, as you guys can see, this chapter sort of reintroduces an idea that I had first had back in Missing in Action, and it's something that I was trying to reintroduce into this story earlier, but found I just couldn't make it fit: the ANS Serenity of the Actium Colonial Navy. Like I said, this idea of a "blue-water" Actium Colonial Navy has been around since chapter 4 of MIA (the museum was destroyed by submarines of the Actium Navy,) but I never really explained what the Actium Navy was.
A quick explanation of terms: a "blue-water" navy is simply navy capable of independent operations in open oceans. Pretty much most of the world's navies are "blue-water" navy. Notable examples include: the US Navy, the Royal Navy (UK,) and some historic ones like the Imperial Japanese Navy. "Blue-water" is used to differentiate from "brown-water" navies, which are navies that operate solely on rivers and basically "landlocked" bodies of water, and "green-water" navies which are navies that operate close to shore.
A bit of background. First off, the introduction of a blue-water navy was originally just because such a thing already exist in Halo canon. In Halo 3, there's mention of an aircraft carrier that was part of Earth's "blue-water" navy and because of that, when writing chapter 4, I just threw it in because it was something different. I didn't really think much about it, and it wasn't until one of my readers of that story left a review questioning the point of the submarines did I really sit down and think about what sort of role such a force would play in the Halo universe (or at least, my version of the Halo universe.)
One of the things to keep in mind when designing a military force is: what threats are they expecting to face? Militaries exist for a specific reason, and the threats they expect to face will dictate not only their doctrine, but also the type of equipment they acquire.
At first glance, the idea of having blue-water navies in the Halo universe doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Historically, real-world navies were used for several reasons, one of which was the defense of their coastlines, because that's where most of the threats would have come from. But in the Halo universe, there really won't be much of a threat coming from the ocean. The Covenant obviously attack from orbit, which means they aren't confined to amphibious assaults and can land pretty much wherever they want, whereas I imagine any Insurrectionist group (if they had the money, resources, and manpower,) would rather build spaceships as spaceships are much more versatile than ocean-going vessels simply because they can actually go into space.
Yet, at the same time, not having assets dedicated to traveling the ocean would be a waste as that meant much of the planet would be unusable. (Obviously, this only really applies to planets that are covered in large amounts of water, like Earth and in my headcanon, Actium because as stated back in chapter 8, sixty-four percent of Actium's surface is water.) So, I'm thinking some colonial governments (not all) would devote resources to constructing a blue-water navy. And as most threats would be coming from above, and not on the surface, I would imagine the role of said navy would be the defense of the colony from threats in orbit. Which would mean the vast majority of vessels would be equipped with missiles capable of reaching high orbit, similar to how I would imagine there would be land based batteries capable of accomplishing the same thing.
Of course, a ship sitting in the middle of the ocean all by itself would make it an extremely vulnerable target for aircraft, as we've seen multiple times throughout history. Usually the defense for that is to have escorts, better sensors, and more anti-aircraft weaponry. But I think in the Halo universe, the best defense against attacks from orbit would be to use the ocean itself as a shield. Therefore, I imagine the vast majority of a colonial navy's defensive power would come from "missile submarines" that would be capable of staying underwater for weeks upon time while still being able to accomplish their mission. Similar to how the real world submarines of the NATO and Russian navies work, only more extreme because with Halo technology, having underwater bases that could serve as resupply and refueling points (even dry-docks) would mean the only time a submarine would ever need to surface would be to give their crew shore leave (and even then, underwater bases might mean they wouldn't have to do that.)
Of course, oceans aren't foolproof. There are obviously ways to counter submarines such as depth charges, sonar, sonobuoys, magnetic detectors, most of which are deployed utilizing aircraft, so as part of the defensive package for submarines, colonial navies would also utilize a surface fleet primarily made up of dedicated anti-aircraft destroyers and frigates. Most navies probably wouldn't develop any ships larger than that, as it would just be too big of a target and require too many resources to build and man, not just in physical materials, but also money and manpower. So, no cruisers, battleships, dreadnoughts, or battlecruisers. There would still be carriers, but unlike modern navies, they wouldn't be the focus of the fleet, and would be used more as mobile airfields for aerocraft capable of space flight (like Broadswords, Pelicans, or Wombats) that could be used to augment the fleets of both the UNSC Navy and Air Force.
Now, I know what you guys are thinking. Having submarines capable of engaging spaceships in orbit? Isn't that the point of having stuff like orbital defense platforms and spaceships of your own? Wouldn't they be far better assets to have than ships confined to a certain environment? Well, you're right in that ensuring a high concentration of orbital assets would be a far better use of limited resources than a blue-water navy would be. However, as shown in canon, ships can be destroyed and ODPs aren't infallible. And if those orbital assets were to fall, then I feel it would be beneficial to at least have some way to contest the enemy's control of orbit, so at the very least, you can force your opponent into deciding whether it's worth going for that quick and easy victory by having their warships swoop in and burn everything from orbit at the potential cost of taking heavy damage or even losing some of said warships to surface fire. Or to settle for the long grind by deploying smaller, cheaper assets (like fighters and ground troops) first and engaging in a long and bloody ground battle (ground in the sense you're fighting within the atmosphere, not necessarily being physically on the ground itself) to secure the area before deploying their warships.
As history has shown, a layered defense is the best type of defense, if you've got the resources for that sort of thing (important caveat here.)
Now, readers may have noticed how vague I was throughout that entire spiel, using phrases like "I would imagine" or "I think." That's because (and I'll be honest here) I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. I'm sure some of my readers cough Thorthemighty321 cough are reading this right now and going "well, that was all wrong," so I'd love to hear your guys' thoughts. This is not the best venue for a discussion like this, so I'm not actually expecting any response (if I even get any) but whatever you guys have to offer is appreciated.