Broman
Now that would almost be a Game of Thrones level twist, wouldn't it!
I'm also glad you're able to enjoy all the tie-ins. It can be a bit difficult to write them, as I want to make sure I give enough of a hint for readers to follow, yet make sure it seamlessly fits within the scene at hand. So, thank you very much!
Also, I want to take this moment to thank everyone who followed or favorited this story. I guess you guys really enjoyed reading about the civilian perspective because I had more people leave a follow or a favorite than I've ever had in one week. So, once again, thanks and I hope to be bring more "civilian perspective" content to this story.
Chapter 27
Covenant designated Landing Zone: Deliverance*
Forerunner Designated World: MS 222-53 a
9th Age of Reclamation
6th Cycle of the Planet's Rotation
Zek
Concrete and glass. That's all Zek saw, no matter which way he looked. It almost a nightmare, really. As a poor Ruuhtian that had grown up on the outskirts of Tilu City, Zek was used to the sight of massive sprawling cities and towering buildings. But the humans seemed to take it to new heights.
Dull gray and tinted glass, as far as the eye could. Not even a hint of turquoise. And the weather? Ice and snow covered the ground, making travel somewhat of a treacherous chore. Whenever the wind blew, it cut right through Zek's armor and uniform, chilling him to the bone despite his best efforts. And the skies were dark and overcast, as if the Sky Mother couldn't bear to see what sort of damage these humans had done to her beautiful world.
In short, Zek couldn't understand how these humans could tolerate living in this cold, desolate place.
"I don't know: I kind of like it."
Zek reflexively jumped at the sound of Rezan's voice. Zek hadn't realized he had spoken that last part out loud.
"You like it?" Zek echoed once he was able to recover his wits. "You're telling me you like all this? How?"
He could see Rezan tilting his head in a shrug. "I don't know. I guess there's a certain ruthless practicality to the way this city is built." He gestured at the roads. "See how the roads are all laid out in a grid-like pattern?"
"But that's so dull," Zek protested. "Where's the aesthetic appeal?"
"Function over looks," Rezan reminded him. "As long as it works, who cares what it looks like?"
"Yes, but the humans live here, don't they?" Zek retorted. "Why wouldn't a living being try to make the place they live in more visually appealing? Who would want to life like that?"
"I wouldn't mind," Rezan admitted.
"You would, would you?" Zek noted, narrowing his eyes. "Are you sure you're a Ruuhtian and not a T'vaoan?"
Rezan whirled on him. "You take that back!" he hissed, though without any real heat in his voice. Zek bared his teeth in amusement and shook his head, causing Rezan to turn away in a huff.
Zek quickly casted around, trying to think of something to say in order to continue this moment of levity, but unfortunately nothing came to mind and the moment was lost, and Zek was left with trying not to think about the one subject he couldn't help but think about: his and Rezan's survival from the Hammer of Justice.
In truth, there wasn't much for Zek to think about. As soon as he saw that Unggoy reaching for the bomb the Demons had left behind, instinct had taken over. He remembered grabbing Rezan with a strength he hadn't known he had possessed and dragging him over to the escape pods, all the while thanking the gods he and Rezan had been manning Security Station Salvation that day as Salvation was perhaps the only security station on the ship that was positioned right next to an escape pod.
As the ship began to rumble, Zek remembered throwing Rezan into the escape pod and hurtling himself in afterwards, hitting the button to close the door with his foot as he did. As flames began enveloping the corridor, Zek remembered punching the launch button so hard, he had actually cracked it. After that though, everything was one giant blur.
Zek vaguely remembered watching as the Hammer simply disintegrated behind them. He vaguely remembered watching as the rest of the fleet began to make a retreat. He vaguely remembered making sure to reset the autopilot so that it would take them to the landing zone instead of anywhere else on the planet, where they would hopefully have been rescued by friendly forces. And then, after that, Zek couldn't remember anything else. He couldn't remember entering the planet's atmosphere. He couldn't remember the landing. And most importantly, he couldn't remember getting knocking out.
Unfortunately, what Zek could remember, with absolute clarity, was the feeling of terror he had when he and Rezan first spotted the Demons, lurking in the corridors of their ship. He remembered the growing sense of dread as he watched as the Demons butchered their way through the ship on their way to their objective.
But most importantly, Zek remembered the growing sense of dread as he realized that nothing; security teams, bulkhead doors, even Kamet himself; could stop the Demons from going wherever they wanted. The only consolation Zek had was the fact that because that stupid Unggoy had accidentally set the Demons' bomb off early, there was no way the Demons could have made it off the Hammer before the ship was destroyed.
Still, despite knowing the Demons were dead, Zek was sure he was going to have many a sleepless night in the coming months ahead, forever haunted by the sight of the Demons cutting through his friends like they were nothing more than insects to be crushed underfoot.
Zek felt a shiver go down his spine, and it had nothing to do with the cold. He nervously glanced over his shoulder, as if a Demon would suddenly leap out from the nearby building.
"What is it Zek, did you see something?"
Zek quickly shook his head to assure Rezan. "No; it was but a figment of my imagination," he admitted.
Rezan visibly relaxed. "Yes, this area is not very safe. Come on: we're very near the firebase. Hopefully things will be better once we are around our comrades."
Zek nodded in agreement.
Despite having landed in what was supposed to be friendly controlled territory, the area was far from safe, as Zek and Rezan had learned when they first emerged from the escape pod and something shot at them. Not being armed themselves, they had been forced to hide until whatever took a shot at them got bored and left. Afterwards, Zek and Rezan had been left wondering what to do.
Fortunately, Rezan had had the good sense to grab a communicator before they had abandoned the ship and as a result, they were able to learn there was actually a friendly firebase not too far away from where they had landed. It had been set up in one of the human structures, a building that was dedicated to the human's past. What did the humans call them? Not a shrine but a... museum. That's right.
Zek could only hope that not only would the base have plenty of guards and defenses, it would at least be warm so he could finally get out this cursed cold.
"Come Zek! It should just be around this corner!" Rezan shouted, and Zek couldn't help but pick up his pace. Just a few more steps and Zek could finally feel safe again -
Zek skittered to an abrupt halt at the sight that laid in front of them.
"No..."
"What in seven hells has occurred here!?"
Right in front of them was a human building that had been completely destroyed, sitting in the exact place the firebase should have been. Two Type-44 troop carriers were parked on the ground nearby with their doors open, and all sorts of Covenant warriors were running to and from the ships and the wreckage. As Zek and Rezan got closer, they could see the warriors were digging through the rubble of the building. Already they had extracted a number of trapped warriors from within, but even then, Zek could see several dozen bodies of Kig-Yar and Unggoy sticking out from the rocks.
"Gods..." Rezan whispered. "What has happened here?"
"I don't know, but let us find out," Zek said, pointing at a fellow Ruuhtian sitting on a gravity stool nearby.
"Brother!" Zek called out, causing the Ruuhtian to turn in their direction. As he did, Zek faltered as he realized the Ruuhtian was completely covered in dust, and was bleeding from several wounds, the most devastating of which was his left arm: from the elbow down, it was completely missing.
Realizing he was staring, Zek quickly gathered his thoughts.
"Brother, what has happened here?" Zek asked.
The Ruuhtian dipped his head, allowed some blood to drip out from his mouth.
"The thrice damned humans were able to infiltrate our bases before our defenses were fully established," the Ruuhtian gravely growled. "And were thus able to drop bombs with impunity on us. They were able to destroy much of the base before many of our brethren even knew we were under attack. Curse those cowardly humans!"
"How many dead and wounded are there?" Rezan asked, sounding shocked.
"I do not know," the Ruuhtian replied. "But I do know my entire Lance was destroyed, including by blood brother, who was killed by falling debris right next to me!" The Ruuhtian's head snapped back, and Zek could see how much in mourning this Ruuhtian was. "Sky Mother knows, I tried to save him, but there was nothing I could do! One moment, he was there, the next, nothing! There was nothing I could do!"
The Ruuhtian started warbling, and Zek cautiously reached out to awkwardly rub the Ruuhtian on the back, making sure not to aggravate any of his wounds. Zek suddenly remembered he had some khat(2) in his armor pouch, and he hastily pulled it out to give to the Ruuhtian.
"Here Brother," Zek said, "take this. You have earned it."
"Many thanks Brother," the Ruuhtian mournfully said as he took the offered khat and threw some into his mouth.
"ALL WOUNDED, BEGIN BOARDING NOW!"
Zek and Rezan hastily moved out of the way as the Ruuhtian struggled to climb to his feet.
"Brother, do you require assistance?" Rezan hurriedly asked as he and Zek watched the Ruuhtian awkwardly start to make his way towards one of the ships.
"Nay Brother, it is not my injuries that stay my feet, but that of my failure to protect my blood brother," the Ruuhtian sadly said. "For this great journey, I must make on my own."
Zek nodded in understanding and stood back as to not be in his way.
"Wait Brother!" Rezan called out. "Your weapons!"
He pointed at the spot next to where the Ruuhtian had sat. There, laying on the ground, was a single Type-51 carbine and Type-25 plasma pistol.
"Take them," the Ruuhtian said without looking back. "For I shall not be needing them where I am heading. Take care Brothers. May the Sky Mother and all the Gods above watch over you."
Zek and Rezan quietly watched as the Ruuhtian painfully made his way towards the assault boat. As soon as the Ruuhtian disappeared inside, Zek turned and glanced at the weapons he had left behind. After a moment of awkward silence, Zek mentally shrugged before he reached out and grabbed the carbine off the ground. Looking it over, Zek was glad to see that not only was the weapon fully loaded and intact, it also had a number of spare cartridges, all of which Zek immediately pocketed.
"Well," Rezan began as he lifted the pistol. "Now what?"
Zek thought the question over. Now that he was armed, he felt a lot more confident, but he was no leader. And with no Sangheili in sight to give them orders, Zek had no idea what to do.
"I suppose we should help out with the rescue," Zek finally said.
With no other suggestions, Rezan quickly signaled his agreement, and the two of them started to make their way towards the rubble. But as they passed one building that was still intact, they heard a scream of pain coming from within.
Zek and Rezan exchanged looks. It wasn't a scream from any of the Covenant races, of that much he was certain, but other than that, Zek couldn't figure out what it would have come from.
Without saying a word, the two of them turned and entered to the room to see -
- a cursed human. It was clearly one of the human warriors, as the alien was wearing the colors of the human's UNSC, but this one was without its weapons or armor. Surrounding the human were three Unggoy: two Minors and a single Major. The three Unggoy were all armed with sharp metal sticks, probably pulled directly from the wreckage, and were jabbing the human all across it's body.
"Stupid human!" one of the Minors yelled, kicking the human hard in the face and causing the human to spit out a large amount of blood.
"Not so tough now, huh!?" the other Minor yelled as he brought his stick down hard on the human's arm. Zek could hear something cracking and the human screamed out loud.
As the human laid there, groaning, the Major gestured for the two Minors to pick the human up.
"This is for my Brothers!" the Major yelled, before driving his stick into the human's leg. The human screamed in pain once more as the Major gave the stick a good twist before yanking it out, and looking more closely, Zek could see half a dozen more cuts like that one spread across it's body.
Laughing, the Unggoy forcefully tossed the human to the ground, who started to try to crawl away.
"Look at the worm crawl!" one of the Unggoy jeered.
"In the dirt, like all insects belong!" another one yelled.
Viciously stabbing the human in the foot and pinning it to the ground, the Major grabbed the human by it's mane and pulled hard, yanking some of the hair out.
"We should cut off its reproductive organs and shove it down its throat!" the Major yelled, to the cheers of his men.
Watching the abuse go down, Zek couldn't help but give an indifferent shrug. While he wasn't one to advocate creatures playing with their food like that, humans were heretics. Plus, one thing Zek had learned over the seasons was that the key to controlling the Unggoy was to let them have their fun every once in a while.
Zek stared to turn away.
FWOOZ!
At the sound of a plasma pistol discharging, Zek jumped and whirled around, his carbine raised and ready for action. Instead, all he saw was the human lying on the ground, dead, with a single plasma bolt through it's head.
Zek glanced at the Unggoy to see which one of them had fired the shot, only to see all three of them were staring at him, with furious looks on their face.
Voi paska.
Very slowly, Zek turned around. Standing behind him was Rezan, his plasma pistol raised, and a look of horror and disgust on his face. It was Rezan who had shot the human.
Great.
"You - !" the Major began, shaking with absolute fury. "Why you shoot my prisoner!?"
Zek glanced at Rezan, who was staring at the Major with a look of absolute disgust on his face.
"Because this," Rezan pointed at the human's rapidly cooling corpse on the ground, "is not the way of a Covenant Warrior! We do not torture our enemies! Kill them, yes, but what we are doing is a mercy! What you ryökäles were doing is the opposite of mercy!"
"They Heretics!" the Major screamed back. "The San'Shyuum say we can do what we want with Heretics, and no big bully like you say otherwise!" The Major's eyes narrowed. "Unless you a heretic."
At that, Zek's head snapped up. He might not have agreed with what Rezan did, but he'd be cursed if he let an Unggoy talk to him like that.
"You watch your mouth, Unggoy," Zek growled in warning, but in a surprising move of defiance for an Unggoy, the Major whirled around on him and sneered.
"What you gonna do 'bout it," the Major taunted. "Heretic?"
Zek punched him, hard across the face, with enough force to knock him to the ground. The other Unggoy let out a squeak of alarm and started to draw their weapons, but before they could, Rezan fired three shots into the ground by their feet.
"Don't," he warned, "even think about it."
In the meantime, Zek had planted his foot into the back of the Major, making sure to dig his claws into the Major's flesh.
"You Unggoy," he began, "need to remember your place in this Covenant."
Reaching down, Zek calmly ripped the Major's mask right off his face and tossed it across the room, causing the pathetic creature to begin gasping out loud in panic as he tried to draw breath, but only finding poisonous oxygen filling his lungs.
Bending over slowly, Zek place his mouth by the Major's ear. "You Unggoy are beneath us. Forever and always. Never forget that," he hissed.
"And you Kig-Yar are beneath us!"
Zek stiffened, and immediately straightened. Strolling into the room was a single Sangheili Evocatus(2), much to Zek's horror.
The Sangheili casted a critical eye around the room, and Zek hastily moved away from the Unggoy Major still gasping for breath on the ground. Zek could see the Sangheili staring at the corpse of the human lying on the ground, but unfortunately Zek couldn't tell what the Sangheili was thinking.
"Who shot the heretic!?" the Sangheili demanded.
Before Zek could say anything, Rezan took one step forward. "I did Sire."
"But I authorized it," Zek quickly said. He didn't know what Rezan was thinking, volunteering that information like that, but Zek had no intention of allowing Rezan to get himself in trouble.
"No he did not sire," Rezan immediately said, much to Zek's annoyance. "My actions were undertaken alone and by my own initiative."
"Rezan, shut up," Zek muttered out of the side of his mouth.
"Zek, you shut up. You had nothing to do with this."
"I'll be able to handle this Rezan, but only if you shut up!"
"This is my problem Zek, you need not - "
"SILENCE!" the Sangheili roared, causing Zek to jump in alarm. "You, Kig-Yar," he pointed at Zek, "silence! You, Kig-Yar," he pointed at Rezan, "will explain why you executed that human. And you, Unggoy," the Sangheili abruptly pulled out his plasma rifle and calmly shot the still gasping Unggoy Major once through the back of his head. "Die in silence."
The room was very quiet after that.
Slowly stalling forward until he was standing right in front of Rezan, the Sangheili growled, "Explained. Now."
"The Unggoy were torturing the human sire," Rezan quickly said. "As the Ones Most Holy have often said sire, our Crusade against the humans is but a mercy, to free them from this heretical life their leaders have imposed on them. Torture, sire, is not a mercy."
"So you decided to kill a human," the Sangheili growled, "contrary to my commands that all humans were to be taken alive!? Explain yourself!"
That caught Zek's attention. Since when were they taking human prisoners?
Out of the corner of his eye, Zek could see a look of fear finally appearing on Rezan's face as Rezan finally realized how badly he had screwed up.
"Sire, we... I mean I..." Rezan spurted. "I can only claim ignorance sire. We are not part of the vanguard Legion sire, and thus, we never received your commands."
"And what Legion are you a part of, Kig-Yar?" the Sangheili growled.
"We are part of the Fleet, sire. We were assigned to the Hammer of Justice."
For some reason, that last part seemed to catch the Sangheili's attention.
"Hammer of Justice," the Sangheili echoed. "That was the most Holy ship that defiled by the Demons, was it not!?"
Zek couldn't prevent the shudder that passed through him at that reminder. "Yes sire, it was," he reluctantly reported.
"And did you see these Demons?"
Both Zek and Rezan bobbed their heads. "Yes sire, we did."
"Then you will describe them to me, in great detail!"
Zek couldn't help but exchange a look of confusion with Rezan.
"Most Noble One," Zek began. "Please forgive my impudence, but why? The Demons are dead."
"No, they are not."
"What!?" Zek reflexively spat out, but then cringed at the insubordinate tone in his voice. Fortunately, the Sangheili didn't seem to notice.
"The Demons are here, inside this city," the Sangheili announced. "And I intend to present their heads myself to the High Prophets. Which is why all humans are to be taken alive and intact!" the Sangheili bellowed, glaring at both Rezan and the two remaining Unggoy.
"As you will sire!" Zek reflexively bellowed at the top of his lungs. The Sangheili gave a single nod of approval.
"Gather your weapons my Warriors," he commanded. "We resume our hunt, NOW!"
With that, the Sangheili marched out of the room, leaving Zek stunned. He couldn't figure out what was worse: the fact the Demons somehow had managed to survive the destruction of the Hammer -
- or that he was going to go looking for them.
Zek could only hope this little hunt of the Sangheili wasn't drawing resources away from the real mission.
XXXXX
Byzas, Thracia Province, Actium
May 6, 2545
1643
Adel
"Reloading!"
Adel ducked back around the corner and awkwardly ripped out the magazine from his rifle and dropped it to the ground. Quickly reloading, he whirled around again in time to see three Grunts dashing across the street in the open. Leveling his rifle, he aimed it at the last Grunt in the line and let it rip.
BANG BANG! BANG BANG!
Adel could see puffs of dust and snow getting thrown in the air from where his rounds were impacting, and the Grunt lifted its hand to protect its face from the debris flying all over the place, but the little alien kept running, giving no sigh it had been injured at all. Grimacing, Adel adjusted the grip on his rifle and fired again, but at this point the Grunt had already made it to safety behind cover.
"Fuck," he snarled. Ever since his hand had gotten injured, Adel's aim just wasn't there.
Slinging the rifle over his shoulder, Adel reached down and pulled out a frag grenade.
"FRAG OUT!" he yelled, hurtling the grenade in the general area the Grunts had disappeared to.
BOOM!
The grenade exploded, sending a plume of dust and smoke into the air, but otherwise, there was no other indication Adel had even managed to hit any of the Grunts in question.
"Adel, INCOMING!"
Adel instinctively hurtled himself away as two plasma grenades emerged from the chaos and adhered themselves to the wall he was taking cover behind.
weeeeeeEEEEweeeeeeEEEE! BOOMBOOM!
Coughing and sneezing as masonry dust filled his lungs, Adel blindly fired a couple of burst in the direction he suspected the grenades had come from, before making a hasty retreat. With plasma hissing right over his shoulder, Adel hurtled himself over a line of sandbags into an impact crater.
"Adel! You alright?" X asked him as he reloaded his rifle.
"Fucking shit!" Adel spat as he struggled to entangled himself.
"I'm going to take that as a 'yes!'" X drily reported before standing up and began laying down covering fire downrange.
"Why don't you take it and shove it -!" Adel started to snap back, but was cut off when a loud WHOOSH filled the air. "INCOMING!"
Adel dove for the ground again as the plasma mortars came screaming in and detonated not too far away, unleashing their deadly payloads and causing the ground to tremble. Battlefield debris was turned into murderous shrapnel as they were picked up off the ground and launched in all directions at extreme velocities, and Adel could hear them whistling as they flow by over him. Cries of "CORPSMAN!" and "MEDIC!" once again filled the airwaves indicating that at least one person had gotten hit by the blast.
"What the fuck!?" Adel demanded as he recovered. "I thought the fucking Army was supposed to be launching an attack along the Covies' southern flank, try and draw some of this heat away from us. DO THE COVIES LOOK FUCKING DISTRACTED TO YOU!?"
"Don't ask me Adel, I just fucking work here!" X snapped back as he raised his rifle to fire in the direction of the Covenant once more, only for there to be a mute click. "Malfunction! Adel, cover!"
"Gahh!" Adel snarled as he rose up, rifle at the ready, searching for a target, but there was so much back and forth gunfire, it was hard to keep track of where the Covenant actually were, so he settled for simply emptying his magazine in a random direction.
"Where the fuck is Sam with that goddamn resupply!?" Adel demanded as he extracted one of his last three magazines from his belt and reloaded. "How the fuck does he expect me to kill anything if I don't have any fucking ammo to do so!?"
"You haven't killed anything yet motherfucker!" X replied with a laugh before standing up to fire, and Adel let out a low growl at the reminder.
"ROCKET UP! ROCKET UP! ASSAULT TEAM UP THE LINE!"
"Oh great, that's us!" X yelped. "Come on Adel: we got to go!"
Without a second glance, X grabbed his Jackhammer and took off running.
Slinging his rifle over his back, Adel grabbed the carrying cases for whatever rockets they had left and took off in X's wake. As soon as he emerged from his hole, Adel immediately began taking plasma fire, but they were either too high or tearing up the road right behind him, so Adel ignored the plasma and focused on running as fast as he could. The sound of his heavy breathing filled his ears, quickly drowning out all other sounds.
X skittered to a stop at the next building, and Adel hurriedly joined him. Just around the corner, the barrel of a .50cal heavy machine gun was sticking out from the hole in the wall, blazing away at the Covenant.
"FRIENDLIES COMING THROUGH!" X screamed at the top of his lungs to be heard over the monstrous roar of the .50cal. The machine gun abruptly stopped shooting.
"Come on! Hurry up!" the two Army Dogfaces manning the gun yelled, and X and Adel hastily ducked inside the building, past the gunners who promptly opened up more.
On the interior of the building, they found a hassled looking Army sergeant working on linking a number of .50cal rounds together.
"Sergeant Restrepo!" X called out and the Sergeant's head snapped up. "Who's calling for the assault team?"
"Your Sergeant Reynolds did!" Restrepo yelled back. "He's up on the second floor!"
FWOOZFWOOZFWOOZ KABANG!
Adel couldn't stop himself from flinching as the sound of a needler explosion filled the air and someone began screaming in pain. He turned around to see the .50cal gunner had taken a couple of needler rounds straight to his right bicep, which had promptly exploded, blowing off his entire arm and taking a good chunk of his shoulder with it. Blood was coating the walls and spilling all over the ground as the man writhed on the ground, screaming at the top of his lungs, and the inhuman noises he was making caused shivers to go down Adel's spine.
"Man down!" Restrepo screamed as she leapt to her feet and dashed over to the soldier. Adel watched as she dragged him away from the gun and began breaking out her IFAK. "Mauser, get on that fucking gun! MEDIC!"
The assistant gunner hastily scooted over and took position behind the .50cal. Ignoring the puddle of blood that was beginning to soak his pants, Mauser reached out, racked the machine gun a couple of times, and began firing once more. Adel was hardly paying attention though as he watched as Restrepo desperately worked on trying to save the original gunner's life, but it didn't look promising as the gunner was beginning to convulse.
Someone began tugging on Adel's arm.
"Come on, we got to go!" X was yelling. "Adel! Let's go!"
Throwing one last look at the wounded Doggie, Adel allowed himself to be pulled away. The two Marines started charging up the stairs when –
"INCOMING!"
KABOOM!
Adel was nearly sent tumbling back down the stairs as the entire building shook from the impact of the plasma mortars. Chucks of plaster toppled from the ceiling and shattering against Adel's helmet and shoulders, leaving him coated in all sorts of dust.
"Son of a bitch!" Adel spat, trying to clear his mouth. "Goddamn mortars are getting fucking closer and closer, aren't they!?"
"Oh good, I thought it was just me!" X yelled back as he climbed back up and continued up the rest of the staircase.
"INCOMING!"
Adel and X stumbled down the hall as another plasma mortar came screaming in. At the end of the corridor, they found Reynolds staring out a window with a pair of binoculars pressed against his face while the platoon radio telephone operator sat nearby.
"Staff Sergeant! Assault team reporting as ordered!" X yelled, catching Reynold's attention.
"Lance Corporal! Need you over here!" Reynolds yelled, gesturing for X to join him. "Dunno know if you noticed, but them mortars are gettin' mighty close to us! Reckon Covies got a gorram spotter!"
"Do we know where he is Staff Sergeant?"
"Yeah, he's got to be in that there buildin'!" Adel watched as Reynolds handed the binos over to X and pointed out the window. "Only place that got eyes on us! Been pepperin' 'im for a spell with machine guns, but we ain't got his ass yet. Be easier at this point to take out the entire room! You think you can do that?"
"Aye Staff Sergeant!" X reported, handing the binos back and grabbing his Jackhammer. "Adel! I need a thermobaric round!"
"We don't have any left!"
"What?"
"I said we don't have any left!" Adel yelled again as he dug through the carrying cases for the rockets and finding only one rocket left. "We only have one rocket left, and it's a HEAT!"
"Fuck! That'll have to do!"
Extracting the rocket from its case, Adel quickly jammed it into the rear of the Jackhammer as X hefted the weapon onto his shoulder.
"Backblast area all secure!" Adel bellowed.
"ROCKET!"
Adel ducked his head slightly as the Jackhammer erupted, and he looked over his shoulder in time to see a hole getting blasted into the side of a large building about a hundred meters away, sending a mass of debris crashing to the ground below. Adel could only hope that there had been some Covenant soldiers that had been standing underneath.
"Rounds complete!" Adel yelled, extracting the empty tube from the launcher and tossing it aside.
"Good shot!" Reynolds complimented. "That'll leave his ears ringin'! Marines! Hammer that hole!"
He swiftly brought his rifle up to his shoulder and began firing on the hole Adel and X just created. Adel quickly followed suit, not really sure what he was shooting at, but not really caring either.
"Staff Sergeant!"
The platoon RTO, Private Pendanski, abruptly appeared right next to Reynolds.
"Staff Sergeant, I got Lieutenant Lancelot on the line for you!" Pendanski breathlessly reported as he handed the radio telephone over.
"Maintain coverin' fire Marines!" Reynolds barked as he grabbed the phone. "Sir, Staff Sergeant Reynolds here!"
Reynolds pulled away from the window to continue talking on the radio and Adel quickly moved aside to take his place. Immediately spotting movement on the street below, Adel shouted out a warning: "Contact, low!"
"Pendanski, keep suppressing that building! Adel, you and me hit those targets below!" X commanded even as Adel promptly opened fire on the Elite he had seen. He could see the Elite's shield flickering before fading away as his rounds struck, but before Adel could even try to finish off the Elite, he felt the bolt on his rifle lock back.
"Oh, come on!" Adel yelled as he checked his ammo counter and found he had ran out of ammo. "This fucking sucks! Reloading!"
Moving to the side, Adel ejected his magazine and drove a new one in before whirling around the corner, hoping that Elite was still there, but unfortunately the Elite had disappeared in the time it took Adel to reload.
Adel jumped as someone abruptly touched his shoulder, and he looked around wildly, but it was only Reynolds.
"Marines, listen up!" he yelled. "We're takin' too many casualties here and now Command thinks we're overextended! Orders are to begin fallin' back to secondary positions! Pendanski, find your way back to Lieutenant Silva. You Assaultmen, with me!"
Without another word, Reynolds took off.
"Oh shit!" Adel yelped as he dumped all the empty rocket carrying cases to the side and grabbed his empty magazines. "We gotta go!"
"I'm right behind you!" X promised, tossing the Jackhammer onto his back.
Adel immediately dashed out of the room and towards the stairs that would take him back down to the ground floor. But before he could go more than a couple of meters -
KABOOM!
- Adel was knocked clean off his feet as X was abruptly thrown into him as a shockwave was sent rippling down the hall, coating the Marines in a thick cloud of dust and ripping the wallpaper off the very walls.
Ears ringing and violently coughing, Adel nevertheless still had the presence of mind to grab his rifle and look around for the source of the explosion, only to see the room he and X had just vacated had taken a direct hit from a fuel rod cannon, leaving it in ruins.
A cold sweat started to break out all over Adel as it suddenly struck him, how close to being killed he had just been, and he couldn't help but gasp, "Holy shit that was close!"
X groaned in response, startling Adel.
"X, you alright!?" Adel yelped as he quickly began checking X over for wounds. X batted his hands away.
"I just got the wind knocked out of me," X reported before hesitating. "I think."
"I don't see any injuries," Adel informed him. "Dude, we got to get out of here before the Covies realize they missed us and put another shell through here."
"Yeah, yeah, help me up!"
Adel grabbed X by the back of his vest and hauled him up to his feet and together, the two of them staggered down to the ground floor. Reynolds looked up as they approached.
"You two okay?"
"Yeah, we're fine Staff Sergeant," X said before Adel could. "Room took a direct hit just as we left. Need a few seconds to catch our breath is all."
"Sorry," Reynolds said apologetically, "but no time. Sergeant Restrepo! Sergeant Restrepo!"
Restrepo glanced up from her machine gun. "Yeah Sar'nt?"
"Displace and fall back to secondary rally!"
"Got it Sar'nt! Alright Mauser, break this shit down and let's move out! You grab the gun, I'll get the tripod and the ammo!"
"Marines, cover 'em!"
Adel bounced forward and assumed a kneeling firing position right by the entrance hole to the building. As he sprayed his rifle downrange, he could hear the Army Doggies grabbing their machine gun and running out of the room, leaving behind only a small pile of brass casings and metal links, as well as a large puddle of blood.
"Break contact!" Reynolds commanded as soon as the Doggies were gone, "and let's bounce!"
Firing one last shot, Adel surged to his feet and followed Reynolds as he led them out of the building.
Outside, things were in complete chaos. Bullets and plasma were crisscrossing up and down the street, artillery and mortars were screaming by overhead, and explosions were going off left and right. Despite the promised Army offensive against the Covenant's southern flank, the Covenant attack had yet to abate; in fact, to Adel, it almost seemed as if it was actually intensifying, as if the Covies had somehow managed to pick up on the fact the Marines were about ready to pull back.
Running down the street, doing their best to dodge the stray plasma that flew in their direction, the group nearly ran into Sam who was headed the opposite way.
"Hey! I got ammo!" Sam breathlessly reported, lifting an entire assault pack full of loaded magazines. "Where are you guys going?"
"Corporal, Battalion is gettin' ready to pull us back to secondary defensive positions," Reynolds explained. "Seabees are workin' on prepin' that now! I need you and your team to 'interface' with the engies, work on riggin' this road with 'plosives to cover the rest of the 'toon's retreat!"
"Aye aye Staff Sergeant!"
Reynolds nodded, and then promptly disappeared.
"Hey, restock on ammo!" Sam ordered, tossing the bag to X. "I'm gonna go find one of the engies, see what they need use to do!"
"Hey, did you pick up anymore rockets Sam? We're all out," X asked as Adel grabbed the bags.
"No, but we'll worry about that later! Hang tight, I'll be right back!"
"Okay!"
Sam darted off, and both Adel and X dove into a nearby crater for cover.
"Man, what the fuck is this shit," Adel complained as he refilled his ammo pouches with fresh magazines before tossing the bags away. "They want us to build obstacles? Do fucking people not know what assaultmen do? We erase the obstacles, not create them!"
"'Let them alone. If the blind lead the blind - '" X started to say.
"Stop fucking doing that!" Adel snapped before X could finish his quote. "If I want to know what some ancient asshole had to say about this situation, I'd fucking ask!"
"Sorry, force of habit," X quickly said.
"INCOMING!"
Adel ducked his head as another mortar exploded nearby, showering him with dirt.
"Man, if we're going to fuck pull back, we better fucking do it soon!" Adel said with a groan. "What the fuck is taking Sam so long!?"
As if on cue, Adel looked up and happen to spot two people running towards him. One of them was Sam, the other was some Army dude. Both men prepared to dive into Adel's hole but before they could, another mortar exploded nearby, knocking both men to the ground.
"Ah fuck!" X yelped. "Hang on Corporal, I'm coming to get you! Adel, covering fire!"
Adel automatically turned and started firing his rifle down the street. Behind him, he could hear X scrambling out of the hole and dashing over to Sam.
A plasma bolt splashed into the ground nearby, and Adel twisted and unloaded a burst of fire in the rough direction the plasma had originated from, but between the haze and the distance involved, there was no way Adel could tell if he hit anything.
Movement from his right peripheral vision caught his attention and Adel turned and almost immediately opened fire, only, to his horror, he realized it was one of his fellow Marines from 1st Squad; Adel had already forgotten how far back he was from the actual frontline. Fortunately Adel was able to prevent himself from actually firing and shooting one of his buddies in the back, but it was a near thing. Letting out a sigh of relief, Adel realized he was definitely going to have to make sure he properly identified his targets before shooting at them in the near future.
Fortunately, at the moment it wasn't something he was going to have to worry about as, with a loud grunt, X returned with Sam and the Army Doggie in tow.
"Son of a bitch!" Sam grunted as he tossed himself into the hole. "This shit is getting really old, really quickly."
"Come on dude, get in here!" Adel yelled, urging everyone in as more plasma splashed against the ground nearby. "Who the fuck is this guy?" he asked, jabbing a finger at the Doggie.
"Corporal Elias!" the man replied, sounding out of breath. "9-97th Engineers, 1/53rd Armored! LT said you guys were going to help us block off this road. You combat engineers?"
"No, we're infantry assault Marines," Sam replied but Elias shook his head.
"Sorry, I don't know what that is."
"We do what you guys do, but better," Adel immediately sneered. Without looking, Sam reached out and smacked him hard against his shoulder, but Elias didn't seem too bothered.
"Good enough for me!" he replied, removing a musette bag from around his shoulders and handing it over. "Take these claymores, start setting them up! We'll use them to cover the withdraw of the rest of the Marines! Come find me when you're done!"
With that, Elias ran off.
Almost immediately, Sam turned and punched Adel in the shoulder once more.
"Ow, what the fuck was that for!?"
"You always chose the worst times to fucking mouth off, you know that!?" Sam snapped as he reached into the musette bag and extracted a couple of claymore anti-personnel mines. Scanning them with his TACPAD, he shoved them into Adel's arms. "Because apparently you're such a fucking expert with explosives, you get to fucking plant these! X and I will cover. Go!"
"I was only kidding - !" Adel started to protest but Sam grabbed him, lifted him up, and shoved him out of the hole.
"Come on! Clock's ticking! Move it!" Sam barked.
"Ah crap!" Adel yelped as he realized Sam was serious. Making sure he had his rifle, Adel scrambled away.
Adel ducked his head down as he ran down the street, trying to avoid getting hit by all the plasma and needles flying by overhead. He wanted to stop and return fire, but there was nothing visible for him to shoot at plus, that would take time. And the last thing Adel wanted was to be running around a battlefield with an armful of explosives, so the sooner he got rid of these claymores, the better off he would be.
Realizing that Sam technically never told him where to plant the claymore mines, only that he had to do so, Adel ducked behind the first corner that took him out of the line of fire he found. Grabbing one of the claymores, he extended the wire legs and then propped the mine onto the ground. Despite not really caring where the mine was placed, Adel did want the mine to kill some Covenant, so he took a moment to figure out what the best angle to place the claymore was. Once that he set, he carefully reached out and removed the safety pin. The device was now armed and ready for remote detonation from Sam's TACPAD.
A noise from Adel caused him to turn around.
"Oh SHIT!"
Adel reflexively ducked and was thus able to accidently dodge the plasma dagger that had been thrusted in his direction at about neck height. He tried to bring his rifle to bear, but the Elite casually kicked the weapon from his hands. Surging forward, the Elite grabbed Adel by the neck with it's free hand and slammed Adel into the wall. Adel's assault pack and armor was just enough to buffer the blow, but the impact was still enough to shock Adel into action.
Lashing out with his legs, Adel managed to deliver a good solid kick to the Elite's knee, causing the Elite to stumble slightly and prevent it from stabbing Adel in the face with it's dagger.
Finding that his feet were still touching the ground, Adel was able to twist his body, and break the Elite's hold around his neck. At the same time, Adel brought his left arm up and drove his elbow straight down onto the Elite's wrist, clearing the Elite's hand away from his neck. Such a move also left the Elite's face open to counterattack, which Adel quickly seized by delivering an elbow strike to the creature's face.
Unfortunately Adel wasn't able to hit the Elite hard enough to cause any serious damage, and in retaliation, the Elite drove it's knee into Adel's stomach. As Adel keeled over, the Elite hit him in the side of his helmet with a left hook punch. The blow sent Adel flying, and he ended up sprawled out on the ground.
Head spinning, Adel was nevertheless able to understand he was still in mortal danger, so he quickly scrambled backwards on his hands and knees away from the Elite, trying to find his rifle before the alien attacked again. Strangely enough, the Elite just watched him go, and Adel found out why a moment later when his hand wrapped around the barrel of his rifle. He yanked on it, trying to bring it to bear, but his rifle refused to move and as Adel glanced back to figure out why, he realized it was because there was a Grunt standing behind him, it's foot on Adel's rifle, keeping it pinned down.
Before Adel could react, the Grunt brought it's plasma pistol down hard against Adel's face. As Adel collapsed, he could taste blood flooding his mouth.
"Wort wort!" Adel heard the Elite bark out and as Adel laid there, stunned, the Grunt thrusted it's plasma pistol into his face and prepared to pull the trigger. Adel closed his eyes.
"SAVASCHI, KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN!"
RATATATATA!
Adel let out a loud shriek of alarm as someone hosed down the entire area with machine gun fire. Bullets chewed through flesh and masonry alike, some of which passed mere centimeters over Adel's head, causing him to curl up into a ball to try and protect his vitals as he waited for the barrage to end.
"Clear up!" someone yelled as the gunfire ended and Adel cracked an eye open to see both the Elite and Grunt were lying dead on the ground next to him, riddled with holes. "Clear up!"
"Clear down!" Adel hoarsely yelled back.
An entire squad of Marines poured into the alley. Leading the way was the commander of 1st Squad, Sergeant Oyler.
"Savaschi?" he called out. "What the hell are you doing here!?"
"Planting some claymore mines to cover the platoon's withdraw Sergeant," Adel responded as he shakily sat up.
"Well, forget about that! We're pulling back, now!"
"But I only got one mine down!" Adel reflexively protested. "I still got at least another two I need to place!"
"Savaschi, we are getting outflanked here!" Oyler snapped, jabbing at the rapidly cooling Covenant corpses laying on the ground. "I dunno about you, but I'm not planning on getting shot in the back! On your feet Marine and let's go!"
Without waiting for a response, Oyler grabbed Adel and yanked him to his feet. Adel's rifle was suddenly thrusted into his hands and along with Oyler, Adel stumbled down the street.
"Contact rear!" someone screamed out and more gunfire began ringing out, and Adel tried to turn his head to see what was going on, but Oyler had grabbed him by the arm and was half-dragging him down the street, preventing Adel from doing just that.
Bullets and plasma continued to whizz overhead as Oyler and Adel dove into the hole where X and Sam were waiting.
"Sergeant Oyler!" Sam yelled over the sound of X providing covering fire. "What's going on Sergeant!?"
"We're somehow getting outflanked!" Oyler yelled back. "I'm pulling my squad back before we get cut off!"
"How'd the Covies get behind us?"
"Dunno! Must be some sort of underground pedestrian tunnel or something we missed because they sure as hell didn't break through our lines!"
"I thought the Army took down all the tunnels when they blew up the subway to prevent this sort of thing from happening!?" X yelled as he ducked down to reload.
"Goddamn Army pukes can't get anything fucking right today!" Adel spat as he took X's place.
"If it wasn't connected to the subway system, then there's no way the tunnel could have gotten destroyed along with everything else!" Oyler yelled back. "Look, I got to get my squad organized! Covies are going to try and take this opportunity to push hard and we still got 3rd Squad out there on the right! We need some way to cover for them!"
"That's what we were trying to do!" Adel heard Sam protest as Oyler darted off. He was almost immediately replaced by the Doggie engineer from earlier.
"What the hell? Are we pulling back already? I thought we had more time!" Elias yelled. "How many claymores you guys get set up?"
"One," Adel grimly reported.
"One!?"
"Look asshole, you try setting up claymores when you got an Elite sniffing your ass!"
Sam whirled on him, but Elias didn't seem too bothered by Adel's lip.
"One claymore's not going to cut it!" he was saying.
"Well, what do you want us to do about it Corporal!? I'm not sending my Marines out into that mess again, not if we're falling back!" Sam retorted.
"The idea, Corporal, was to set up explosives that we could detonate after everyone pulled back so we could delay the Covenant advance long enough for everyone to resume defensive positions! We can't very well do that now, can we!? You want to fight the Covies out in the open, that's your prerogative, but I rather not!"
"Can't we achieve the same affect with artillery?"
"Smallest piece we have are the one five fives, and we are way too close for that!"
"Reloading!" Adel yelled as he ducked back down. As he ejected his mag, he happened to look up and notice the large case Elias was carrying on his back. "Hey Corporal! Can't we use that APOBS?"
Elias stared at him like he was crazy. "What for? We're trying to create an explosive obstacle, not destroy one!"
"I know! But that thing still fires a long chain of plastic explosives, the same explosives found in our claymores! We can fire it out, wait 'til the Covies walk over it, and then detonate it! Won't be a lot of shrapnel, but at that point, would it really matter?"
Both Sam and Elias stared at him.
"What?"
Sam slowly shook his head. "Well well well, guess what they say is true: a broken clock is right at least twice a day!"
"I never understood that expression!" Adel retorted.
"It's for twelve hour clocks; way before your time! Look, it doesn't matter: let's get this APOBS set up! X, Adel, cover us!"
"Covering!" X immediately yelled.
Adel jammed a fresh magazine into his rifle and stood up. Marines were slowly streaming back down the street but just beyond them, Adel could see Covenant infantry emerging from the chaos.
Adel spotted one Elite Minor emerging from the smoke and even though he knew this Elite wasn't the same one, Adel couldn't help but feel like this was his opportunity to get revenge on the Elite that had punched him. Pulling the buttstock into his shoulder, Adel dropped his crosshairs over the Elite's chest and opened fire.
Brass casings littered the ground as Adel pulled the trigger as fast as he could, and even through his scope was jumping all over the place due to the recoil, Adel could still see the Elite's shields lighting up just before they disappeared completely. The Elite immediately dove for cover behind a nearby car, but because the creature didn't know where it had been taking fire from, the alien didn't realize Adel still had line of sight.
Adel felt a grin crawling onto his face as he planted his crosshairs over the Elite's head and started to pick up the slack on his trigger.
"ADEL! Get your head down!"
Startled, Adel accidently jerked his rifle upwards as he pulled the trigger, and his shot disappeared into the sky. Frantically, Adel readjusted his aim, but he couldn't find the Elite any longer, and Adel resisted the urge to start crying in frustration. How was it, despite all the fighting that had been going on non-stop for the last three hours, he had yet to get a single kill!? This was not fair!
"Adel, get your fat fucking head out of the way!"
Growling, Adel nevertheless obeyed, hurriedly shuffling to side. Behind him, Sam and Elias had the APOBS all set up and ready to fire.
"Fire in the hole!" Sam screamed, before hitting the trigger.
The shriek of a rocket firing filled the air as the APOBS activated, shooting up into the air and down the street, bringing along the full thirty-five meter long line of plastic explosives with it. The mass seemed to hang in mid-air for a moment, and it seemed impossible to Adel none of the Covenant could see it and not decide to shoot it, but somehow the mine-clearing charge came crashing back to the ground where it settled, ready for the detonation signal.
"Alright, that's it!" Sam yelled. "We're ready! All Marines, fall back to secondary positions! Assault team, cover up!"
Adel propped his rifle against the edge of the crater and opened fire as Marines streamed past them. Most of the squads had already fallen back, so it didn't take long before Adel and his team were the last ones left. The Covenant were quick to take advantage of the slackening fire coming their way: emerging from whatever holes they had been hiding in, they started charging down the street hoping to run down the UNSC Marines, and very quickly Adel found himself ducking his head as more and more plasma started landing closer and closer to him.
"Uh, I don't want to unduly alarm anyone," X yelled over the increasing barrage, "but I do believe it's getting rather hot around here! Perhaps we should detonate the charges!?"
"Not yet!" Sam yelled.
Adel tried to stick his head up and fire a few shots. For his efforts, he nearly took a concussion shell to the face. "They're getting kind of close Corporal!" Adel warned.
"Hang on! Wait until there's just a bit more!"
Adel flinched as a plasma grenade detonated directly over them. "We're in grenade range now! How much fucking closer do you want them!?"
"RAAAHHHH!"
Adel looked up to see a Grunt charging at them, plasma pistol firing wildly. Before Adel could react, Elias unloaded half his magazine, tearing the creature to shreds.
"Now do it!" Sam barked. "Get your head's down everybody! Fire in the hole!"
"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"
1. Khat is actually a real life plant native to the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula that's used as a stimulant drug. Similar to tobacco, khat is normally chewed, but when dried, it can also be smoked as well as used in tea.
2. Evocatus is evidently another name for the Elite rank of "Ultra"
In this fiction, I'm intending it to be more like chewing tobacco rather than the drug that it's classified as.
Author's Note
*The setting for this first part might take a bit of explaining, so I'll try to break it down line by line.
"Covenant designated Landing Zone: Deliverance"
I think this is pretty self-explanatory, but 'Deliverance' would be the Covenant name for their landing site. Given the naming conventions of Covenant ships, it seems to me the Covenant are big on giving their stuff grandiose and religiously themed names. So, while the UNSC gives their LZs some rather generic designations like "LZ X-Ray" of "LZ Echo," I imagine the Covenant would call them stuff like "Salvation," "Justice," or "Righteousness."
"Forerunner Designated World: MS 222-53 a"
Actium is obviously the name for this planet (which is a canon colony, in case readers didn't know that; in fact, this entire battle is a canon battle, even if the finer details aren't,) but that would be the human name for it and I just don't see the Covenant knowing or even caring about that. Which led me to ask: what would the Covenant call this planet?
I remembered a conversation I had with reader: Thorthemighty321 a while back where he was asking about the composition of the Covenant invasion fleet, and essentially, the question "How did the Covenant discover this world, but not realize there was such a large human presence here already" was asked. At the time, I hadn't really thought about that, so I gave a rather generic answer of "oh, the Covenant didn't actually know about the planet, they only found out by searching through Forerunner archives." Having given it some thought though, I decided I actually like that explanation, so I decided rather than give the new planet a name, the Covenant would have simply used the Forerunner designation. (I think the Covenant will eventually rename the planet, but only after it's been purified. Which means I will eventually need to think of a name for this world. Anyone have any suggestions?)
The Forerunner designation itself was a bit tricky as there are only three Forerunner planets in canon so far that utilizes a similar naming convention: LP 656-38 e, CE-10-2165-d, and DM-3-1123-b. I'm sure in canon, the Forerunners had an entire system behind their designations (MS would perhaps designate the type of star the system was centered around perhaps, 222-53 might represent the number of astrological bodies located in the system itself or something of that nature, and I know the 'a' represented which planet in the system it was, with 'a' being the closest to the star,) but I wasn't really interested in inventing one myself, so I took a less creative path: I named the planet after my main character from Missing in Action.
"9th Age of Reclamation"
This is the only canon thing here. The 9th Age of Reclamation is the Covenant designated period that encompasses the entire period of the Human-Covenant War.
"6th Cycle of the Planet's Rotation"
This last part was tricky as I wanted to give a time, but I also wanted to be different and not use "hours" and "minutes." I debated "borrowing" from other sci-fi series (like Farscape, which uses "arn" and "microt" as their designations,) but I decided I didn't like that idea and wanted to create my own (because, well, I wanted to be different. Seriously.)
It's a fairly simplistic system, I think. Using the same idea that hours are based on the time it takes for the Earth to make a full rotation on its axis, I figured the Covenant would do something similar but instead of "hours," they would call them "cycles." I figured one "cycle" would probably be equal to about three hours, and given that I decided a while back that Actium would have 36 hour days (35.5 to exact, but rounded up; yes, this seemed like a good idea at the time; no, it turns out it really wasn't,) that means on the Covenant clock, Actium has twelve "cycles."
What about minutes and seconds you ask? Well, I'm glad you asked because I haven't actually thought that far ahead. So... yeah...
And that's it for the Covenant designations.
General Notes
As for the entire first part involving the Covenant, that's intended to tie-in with chapter 4 of Missing in Action. For those who do not recall, in Chapter 4 of MIA, our protagonist ended up calling down a submarine-launched missile strike on a Covenant base that had been established inside a museum. I thought it would be fun, now that I've got some Covenant characters to show a little bit of the aftermath of said strike.
As for the human the Grunts were torturing, he is in fact one of those characters from MIA, abet, not of the major ones. His name will be revealed later in this story, but for those of you who are curious, it's Doc Puck Falco, the combat medic that had been assigned to assist Moss and his squad (sort of.) If you read the beginning of MIA chapter 5, you might notice that Doc Falco had mysteriously disappeared. Again, just thought it might be fun to slightly expand on his ultimate fate.
Anyways, as always, many thanks to my editor, Darkfire7881. If you guys haven't checked out his stuff yet, I highly recommend it. He writes a lot of Command & Conquer fanfiction so if you guys are a fan of that game, then he's the man to check out.