Broman: I'll see what I can do!
Special thanks as always to my editor,Darkfire7881for editing this chapter.
Also want to extend my thanks toTheWildCanuck, who has recently volunteered to act as my second editor. Not only will he be providing a third set of eyes for all chapters coming in the future, he's also volunteered to go back and some of my chapters that have already been uploaded, to make sure they're completely up to speed. So, look forward to that in the next coming weeks!
Chapter 32
Northern Byzas, Thracia Province, Actium
May 6, 2545
2435
Adel
"What the heck was that?"
Adel looked up sharply at X's comment. "What was what?"
"You don't hear that gunfire?"
Adel cocked his head and listened as hard as he could, but he couldn't hear what X was claiming. "No. But my ears aren't as good as yours."
"It's all that flip music; it's not good for your hearing. Ought to listen to classical more often," X distractedly commented. "I think it's coming from in front of us."
"Only the Covenant are in front of us."
"Yeah, I know," X replied a bit impatiently. "That's why it's weird."
"That's not saying much," Adel replied, though more to himself than anything.
Truth be told, this entire battle had been rather weird. War was really turning out to be completely different from the way Adel had imagined it when he was young. For one thing, the behavior of the Covenant was just simply illogical to him: one moment, they would be attacking with everything they had. Then the next moment, with no warning or apparent reason, they would abruptly stop, leaving in their wake an eerie silence, one where neither side was doing anything. And then, after several long minutes, the fighting would abruptly pick up again as if it never stopped in the first place.
At the moment, this was one such lull. So, in Adel's opinion, anything that happened that didn't involve the Covenant launching another attack, could be considered "weird."
He shrugged to himself.
Grabbing his rifle, he also gave Sam a good kick to the leg. Sam, who had been taking a power nap, instantly came alert.
"What is it?" he asked, grabbing his own rifle.
Adel gestured at X. "X says he's hearing gunfire in front of us."
"Gunfire? You mean plasma fire?"
"No, gunfire," X insisted. "Sounded heavy, like, I don't know, an autocannon of sorts. It's gone now though."
"Huh," Sam commented. "You guys call it in?"
Adel shook his head.
"Right then, I'll do it. Hoplite-3, this is Warhammer 4-3 Charlie, do you copy?"
"Go ahead 4-3."
As Sam proceeded to have a whispered conversation over the radio, Adel made sure to keep a wary eye on the line. He wasn't sure why the assault team was this far up, manning this observation post, but damn if Adel wasn't going to make sure no Covie bastards managed to sneak by him and ambush his friends.
"Head's up guys, the LT is coming over," Sam warned them in a low whisper as he lowered his radio. Adel frowned. Great, just what they needed.
"Brass!" someone suddenly called out.
"Dragon!" Sam hissed back.
Adel automatically tensed at the sound of someone running up. To his surprise, Lieutenant Lancelot came bounding out from the darkness, not Silva like Adel was expecting.
Adel let out a sigh of relief. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Sam smirking ever so slightly, and he realized Sam had done that on purpose, but Adel was too relieved to get angry.
"What've we got?" Lancelot asked in the meantime.
"Lance Corporal Xanthus here heard some gunfire in the direction of the Covenant, sir," Sam reported.
"It was something heavy too, like an autocannon or something, sir," X added. "Can't hear anything now, but I swear it was there, sir."
Through his night vision glasses, Adel could see Lancelot frowning.
"Well, it's not impossible," Lancelot said. "According to Command, the 53rd has got an entire company of soldiers running around behind enemy lines right now. But Colonel Menteith is supposed to be operating further inside the city, far from this sector. You sure it was an autocannon Lance Corporal?"
"Yes, sir. It was too heavy to be small arms, too light to be anything bigger. Also, sir, I was hearing… vehicle noises? Like a… tank or something."
"If you heard an autocannon, chances were it was an IFV. But, I can't imagine the Covenant allowing an Armadillo to be driving around behind their lines uncontested. Hmm. Well, I was planning on doing a reconnaissance mission, just to see what the Covenant are up. This is as good of an excuse as any," Lancelot reported. He activated his radio. "Hoplite Actual to Warhammer 1-5: consolidate on my position, break. Actual to Hoplite 3-5, you do the same, over."
A holographic navigation point abruptly appeared over the hole Adel was in, but he ignored it in lieu of maintaining his watch on the line.
"Private."
Adel jumped and whirled around. ", sir?"
"You still got those claymores from earlier this morning?"
"Yes, sir."
"How many are left."
"Two of them, sir."
"Good. Then you're with me. Might end up needing some explosives to cover our retreat depending on how this turns out," Lancelot ordered.
Adel stared at him. "With you… on the reconnaissance patrol?" he dumbly asked.
"Yeah. Is that a problem Marine?" Lancelot asked upon seeing Adel's hesitation. "Because if it is, I could always find someone else."
Adel subtly glanced at X and Sam, both of whom gave no indication of what they were thinking, and while Adel didn't think either of them would think any less of him if he refused to go on this patrol, he knew other people in the platoon would. So, he quickly shook his head.
"No, sir. Not a problem."
"Good. Leave the rockets. Grab your rifle, and make sure you have the explosives."
"Aye, sir," Adel replied.
He looked up as another two people abruptly dropped into their hole. It was Staff Sergeant Reynolds and one of the Army dogfaces, the one that had been acting as Lancelot's platoon sergeant all day. Adel was pretty sure her name was Restrepo.
"Listen up everyone," Lancelot said in a loud whisper. "I'm getting reports of gunfire and vehicle noises originating from somewhere behind the Covenant positions. Don't know what it is, or who it might be. Could be one of our guys, could be a trap. Either way, it needs investigating. I'm going to take a three-man reconnaissance team to do a short-range patrol of the next couple of blocks, take a look around, see if we can't lend some support. Team will consist of myself, Sergeant Restrepo, and this assault Marine, PFC…."
"Savaschi, sir."
"Private Savaschi," Lancelot corrected himself. "Staff Sergeant Reynolds: you're in charge of the line while I'm gone. I want all troops at full alert, on standby to provide covering fire in case we need to come back hot."
", sir, with all due respect, should you be goin' on this patrol?" Reynolds queried. "Yer kind of valuable to the defense of this line. Me'be I should go 'stead."
"No offense Staff Sergeant, but between the two of us, which one of us was the Reconnaissance Marine?" Lancelot drily noted, and Reynolds immediately fell silent. "You'll do fine Staff Sergeant. Just make sure Silva doesn't do anything stupid. Actually, scratch that: make sure he doesn't do anything, period."
"Aye, sir," Reynolds replied, sounding slightly amused.
"Countersigns will remain the same, so keep an ear out for that."
", sir," Sam interjected, "how will we know if you guys are coming in hot?"
Lancelot shrugged. "All the gun and plasma fire will probably be a clue, I'd imagine Corporal," he noted. "Though, I suppose you have a good point… Okay. Our emergency code word will be 'Ethics.' You guys hear that, that means we're coming in hot."
"Understood, sir."
"We'll be on channel one twelve," Lancelot continued. "Call sign: Foxtrot-3. Check-in every seven minutes, depending on circumstances. If everything goes off without a hitch, we should be out there for about an hour or so. If things don't go so well, we'll be back decidedly quicker, if we're back at all."
Adel couldn't help but shiver at that idea, though he tried to stay positive. They were coming back. They had to. Adel had yet to score a single kill.
"In case we don't return or become incapacitated in any way shape or form, my orders are as follows: Staff Sergeant, take command of this section and hold your position until commanded by a higher authority. Sergeant Oyler from 1st Squad will take your place as platoon sergeant and Corporal Mauser will take over for the Army Section. Any questions?"
"No, sir."
Lancelot nodded before glancing at Adel and Restrepo. "Weapons and ammo only; lose everything else. That means no hydration packs, personal effects, rucksacks, etc. We're going light. Lose the pauldrons. Oh, and your helmets."
Adel hastily moved to obey Lancelot's orders. Unbuckling his chin strap, he slid his helmet off and shivered as his nearly bald scalp came in contact with the freezing air. He glanced at Lancelot and Restrepo to see if they both had the same issue, but both of them were wearing some sort of beanie under their helmets.
Adel frowned. He needed something like that.
Slipping off his pauldrons, Adel tucked them in his helmet before handing the entire package off to Sam. Removing all his extra equipment, Adel grabbed his bag of claymores and made sure they were strapped tight against his body, before grabbing his rifle and doing a quick functions check. As he worked, he tried to think of anything else he might need, but nothing came to mind.
"Sergeant Restrepo, do me a favor and jump up and down."
Adel looked up as Restrepo, in the limited space they had, proceeded to jump once. As she did, Adel heard a slight jingling noise coming from her.
"Your dog tags are loose," Lancelot told her, before pulling out a small roll of tape from nowhere and handed it to her. "Tape it down. Private, you next."
Laying his rifle on the ground, Adel scrambled to his feet and gave a small hop. Immediately, he could hear his bag of claymores bouncing against his thigh.
"That's what I thought," Lancelot said with a nod. "Put the claymores on your back, not on your thigh."
"But, sir," Adel protested, "if they're on my back, I can't reach them."
"Don't worry about that," Lancelot assured him. "If we need them, I'll grab them."
Adel nodded in acknowledgement and hastily moved his equipment around. Finally, they were ready.
"Alright Marines, stay frosty," Lancelot ordered. "We'll be right back. You two: just do what I do and we'll be fine. Sergeant Restrepo, wait about five seconds before following."
Without another word, Lancelot climbed out of the hole and disappeared into the darkness. Restrepo waited for a few seconds before quickly following, leaving Adel alone with his team.
"Good luck buddy," Sam quietly said.
"I don't need any luck Corporal: I'm just that badass," Adel replied as confidently as he could.
He could see Sam flipped him off before Adel threw himself out of the hole.
Keeping low in a crouch, Adel immediately ran the fifteen meters to where Lancelot and Restrepo were waiting for him.
"You good Marine?" Lancelot asked as he joined the group.
Adel nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
"Alright then: let's go."
Keeping low, they started to cautiously cross no-man's land towards the Covenant's main line of resistance. As they jogged down the street, Adel did his best to keep the noise to a minimum as he maintained his spacing with the rest of the patrol.
The street was quiet. The wind brought with it the sounds of fighting that was taking place elsewhere in the city, but for the most part, this sector was dead silent aside from the crackling of fires and the sound of Adel's heart beating in his ears. It was dark too. The sun had set a long time ago and all artificial lights had either been destroyed or turned off, but the sky was still glowing ever so slightly. Adel had no idea what the source of the glow was, but he kind of wished it would go away because while it wasn't enough for Adel to actually be able to see where he was going without night optics, it was still enough to cause eerie shadows to be cast all over the place. It actually made Adel really nervous, as he couldn't be sure if the shadows were hiding something.
As Adel ran in the footsteps of the rest of the patrol, the burnt-out hulks of all sorts of vehicles, both civilian and military, loomed out of the darkness, a testament to all the fighting that had been taking place all day. Most of them had been destroyed beyond all recognition, but occasionally, he would run across one that was still partially intact: a Warthog here, a Ghost there, even half a Banshee fighter sticking out from a nearby building a block away. However, it was clear none of them were functioning, plus, none of them looked like they were armed with any sort of autocannon or equipped with any sort of caterpillar tracks. Therefore, none of them could have been the source of the noise of what X claimed he had heard. Which raised the question: what was?
Distracted as Adel was, he almost missed it when Lancelot abruptly raised a closed fist. He only noticed when Restrepo suddenly stopped in front of him, forcing him to step to the side to avoid running into her.
Mutely swearing, Adel quickly cast around to see if anyone noticed his misstep, but neither Restrepo nor Lancelot seemed to be paying attention. Instead, they had both dropped down to one knee and assumed defensive positions, one that Adel hurriedly moved to mirror.
Lifting his rifle, Adel carefully scanned the road, trying to figure out if Lancelot had spotted anything, but before he could start to panic, he heard Lancelot activating his radio.
"Foxtrot-3 to Warhammer, radio check," Lancelot whispered, catching Adel by surprise. Had it only been seven minutes since they left the MLR? It seemed longer than that.
"Foxtrot, this is Warhammer: we read you loud and clear, over."
"Copy," Lancelot replied. "Sitrep is as follows: reconnaissance patrol is crossing the disputed zone now. Nothing to report, over."
"Understood Foxtrot. Well, we're still here waiting for you, over."
"Roger, good to know. Hopefully we won't need you. Foxtrot, out."
Lowering his mic, Lancelot gestured for the patrol to gather around him.
"Alright, listen up guys," Lancelot announced in a loud whisper. "Take note of this place: this here is Rally Point. If, for whatever reason, any one of us gets separated, break contact and fall back here. Wait exactly ten minutes for the rest to join you. If no one else does, assume they've been KIA and fall back to the MLR, understood?"
Adel silently bobbed his head. He could only hope that wouldn't happen because there was no way he would want to get left behind for the Covenant to grab him.
"I'm going to set up a claymore to give us cover in case we end up needing to fall back in a hurry," Lancelot continued. "Private, cover the east while I grab one from your back. Sergeant, cover the west."
"Aye, sir."
Adel shifted around so that he was facing the east. Meanwhile, he could feel as Lancelot reached out and began extracting one of the claymores from Adel's back.
", sir," Restrepo suddenly said.
"Yeah?"
"I suppose this isn't the best time to ask this but... well, with all due respect, sir, why am I here?" Restrepo nervously asked. "I'm mean, I'm not an infantryman or a cav scout, so... what exactly am I doing here?"
Adel glanced over his shoulder in her direction.
"You're not?" he asked before Lancelot could reply. "Then what are you?"
"I'm a nineteen lima: a Grizzly crewman," she replied. Adel couldn't help but let out a soft scoff.
"God damn," he swore, "you're a fucking DAT?"
"A what?"
"A dumbass tanker," Lancelot interjected. "And the reason why you're here Sergeant is because you are a tanker: whatever is in front of us was some sort of tracked vehicle which, as a tanker, you'd be more familiar with than me or the Private here. Plus, if it's tracked, it was probably attached to the 53rd at some point, which means you'd have a better chance at identifying who they are than we would."
Adel took a moment to think over all that, then decided that made some sense. Still, the fact they had a DAT in the patrol made Adel nervous; he didn't like the idea of a fucking POG watching his back. But, it wasn't his call.
There was a mute click from behind him as Lancelot removed the safety pin from the claymore, arming it.
"We're all set here," Lancelot declared. "Let's move it out. Private Savaschi, cover our six."
"Aye aye, sir."
Adel waited for Lancelot and Restrepo to depart before moving to follow. Before leaving though, he took a glance in the direction the MLR was. Adel knew he wasn't too far away, and that it was currently being manned by dozens and dozens of Marines huddled behind their weapons, ready to unleash hell at a moment's notice. Yet, even from this distance, Adel couldn't see any of that, only darkness.
Adel shivered. He never thought he would ever be this close to so many people, yet at the same time, be so far away.
Throwing one last glance at the MLR, Adel took off after the rest of the patrol.
They jogged down the rest of the street in silence. It wasn't until they reached the end of the block that Lancelot abruptly raised his fist once more, though this time he didn't gesture for the patrol to join him. Instead, once he had everyone's attention, he very clearly pointed two fingers at his eyes, then pointed straight at the ground in front of him.
At first, Adel had no idea what he was supposed to be looking at. But after just a few seconds, it quickly became clear.
It had been snowing on and off all day. While the sheer heat from all the fighting had caused much of it to melt, enough had made it to the ground to cover it in a fine layer. However, spread out on the ground in front of them were a number of small mounds of snow. Each one was circular in shape, almost identical in size, and they were all spread out in a randomized pattern. It was clear, even to Adel, what they were: land mines.
They had reached the outer perimeter of the Covenant's MLR.
"Alright guys," Adel heard Lancelot say over the local channels on the radio. "Looks like we got a minefield in front of us. Hold back: I'm going to check it out."
Adel absentmindedly nodded as he backtracked a few steps and took a knee. He watched as Lancelot pulled out his bayonet and began digging up the area around the mine. Very carefully, Lancelot dug away all of the snow, revealing the outer housing of the mine itself. Adel watched with bated breath as Lancelot began closely studying the mine, looking it over and making some notes. It wasn't long before Lancelot was carefully covering the explosive back up and running back towards Adel and Restrepo.
"Well, it looks like we've got a mixture of AP and AT mines," Lancelot breathlessly reported. "Good news is, they all seem to be dumb mines with pressure triggers; as long as we don't step on them, we'll be able to cut right through this field. I'll lead the way: just make sure you guys step exactly where I step."
"Yes, sir," Adel murmured along with Restrepo.
Climbing to his feet, Adel watched as Lancelot took a deep breath, before he cautiously began walking out into the minefield, making sure to take short strides that would be easy for the rest of the patrol to follow, while at the same time, stepping somewhat heavily into the ground to make sure he was leaving a clear imprint in the snow. Once he was a couple of meters into the field, he turned around and gestured for the rest of the patrol to follow him.
Adel waited a few seconds after Restrepo started to cut through the field before following. His initial goal had been to keep his head up so that he could continue scanning the area for Covenant soldiers, but two steps into the field and it quickly became clear that was impossible as Adel really needed to see where he was going lest he walk over a mine. He could only hope no Covenant patrols would show up while he was cutting across the field.
Adel carefully stepped from one footstep into the next. It was surprisingly hard and required an especially large amount of concentration for Adel to avoid losing his balance. It was strange how Adel could be walking on solid open ground, yet feel like he was trying to walk across a tight rope.
But, the good thing about the snow was that not only was Lancelot's path clearly marked, the snow also marked the positions of each mine, allowing Adel to see how much wiggle room he had in terms of putting his foot down. Obviously, for the Covenant, this wasn't a good thing and Adel couldn't help but wonder how they missed this obvious flaw, but he decided he didn't care as it made this infiltration much easier for him.
After several very long minutes the mines abruptly ended, and he looked up to see he was officially out of the field. Looking back, he was startled to see just how big the field actually was: from the spot they had started to the spot they had finished, the field was about ten meters in width. Given the size and density of the field, Adel felt there was no way the Covenant had planted all those mines by hand, as someone would have noticed them doing so, and thus concluded the mines must have been airdropped into position. That would also explain why they were so poorly concealed.
"You guys good?" Lancelot whispered as Adel rejoined the rest of the patrol.
"Good here, sir," Restrepo immediately replied.
In lieu of a vocal response, Adel lifted his right thumb.
"Good. Foxtrot-3 to Warhammer: radio check, over."
"Foxtrot, Warhammer: we're still reading you loud and clear, over."
"Copy. Warhammer, sitrep is as follows: Foxtrot-3 has successfully infiltrated Covenant defenses and are proceeding with recce. Will be going radio silent for the next thirty mikes, over."
"Understood Foxtrot. Radio silent for thirty mikes. We'll be on standby waiting for your call, over."
"Affirmative. Foxtrot-3, out."
Lancelot lowered his mic and glanced at his waiting troops. "Eyes and ears open from this point on, ladies and gentlemen. We're in bad guy country now, so try and remember everything you see or hear. Never know if it might come in handy later. We'll go into this building over here, see if we can't get a good view of the entire Covenant line."
Adel silently nodded, though at this point he was kind of wishing he had kept his helmet. All modern battle helmets now came with a built-in headcam which would record everything the wearer was seeing, something that could prove extremely useful in a post-analysis of a recon patrol. But then again, Adel had found that helmets always made a bunch of noise, so perhaps the risk wasn't worth it.
Lancelot led the way towards the nearest building. The doors had been blown apart at some point, leaving the entrance clear; nevertheless, Lancelot gestured for the patrol to wait by the door before proceeding into the lobby by himself. Adel watched as Lancelot cautiously entered the building, with him carefully sweeping the entire lobby, including the ceiling, looking for possible traps or tripwires or other methods of detection. He must not have found any as, moments later, he gestured for the rest of the patrol to come in.
Adel climbed to his feet and slowly entered the building, glad to be sort of out of the cold, even if it was for just a few moments.
The crunching of glass under the soles of his boots greeted him as he looked around. He didn't recognize this building, but it had clearly been part of the UNSC's MLR at one point as the floor was littered with all sorts of brass casings, metal machine gun links, and frozen splatters of blood. Plasma scoring covered just about every surface of the room, and firing holes had been constructed in the walls. As a result, the room was a mess.
Catching Lancelot's eye, Adel glanced at the staircase he was gesturing at and nodded. Stepping over an empty can of biofoam lying on the floor, Adel pointed his rifle at the top of the stairs and waited as Lancelot and Restrepo walked past him before following.
Despite Adel's best efforts, the metal staircase made a hollow thunk noise every time his heavy boots touched a step, the noise sounding far too loud in the dead silence. Fortunately, no one seemed to notice as the patrol ascended nearly four flights of stairs before Lancelot decided they were high enough. Exiting the stairwell, they cut across the floor before reaching a balcony that had no safety rail, thus allowing them unimpeded sightlines of the Covenant positions below.
"Sergeant, cover our six," Lancelot commanded as they huddled together. "Private, with me. Stay low, we'll high crawl to the edge of the balcony and start noting Covie positions."
Without waiting for a response, Lancelot dropped to the ground and started to crawl away. Adel threw a quick glance at Restrepo before shrugging to himself. Tucking his rifle into the crook of his elbow, he dropped down to his hands and knees and quickly scrambled to join Lancelot at the edge of the balcony.
"Alright," he heard Lancelot whisper. "Let's see what we can see, shall we?"
Adel glanced over at Lancelot in time to see him pulling out a pair of miniature binoculars and begin scanning the ground below. Adel didn't have binoculars, but he did have a scope on his rifle so, unfurling his rifle from his arms, he activated the night vision setting and brought his rifle up to his eye line.
At first, he didn't see anything. After a moment though, his eyes gradually adjusted, and he realized where he was.
The building overlooked a large opening that gave Adel excellent sightlines of all of the Covenant positions. To his far right was the Covenant's main line of resistance. There wasn't much to see as, much like the UNSC, the Covenant had dug a number of foxholes into the ground, such that most of their defensive line was hidden from view. Adel did spot what looked to be one or two Jackals running around, but without their arm shields activated, it was hard to track them.
However, what Adel was really interested in was the open area directly in front of him. Set some forty to fifty meters behind the MLR was what appeared to be some sort of Covenant forward operating base. At the moment, it didn't look like much: set inside a small civilian building that appeared to have been some sort of general store in its past life, the only thing that identified it as a Covie base was all the alien-looking tech sticking out from the roof, as well as all the Covenant soldiers walking in and out of the building. However, Adel could also see that it was quickly changing. A number of Grunts, supervised by a handful of Elites, were running around, reinforcing the building with portable energy shield generators and triptych barriers. Other Grunts were busy installing mounted defenses like plasma cannons, fuel rods, and auto-turrets, making sure they were well protected behind several barricades, as well as ensuring they had proper interlocking fields of fire.
"Bingo," Adel heard Lancelot whisper. "Now this was worth coming for."
Adel nodded, more to himself than anything. Sweeping the face of the building with his rifle, he started counting.
", sir, I count four separate plasma cannon emplacements," Adel noted. "And two fuel rod cannons."
"Yeah. Looks like we also got snipers in the back buildings too," Lancelot observed.
Adel started, and slowly panned his rifle to the left. Maybe another twenty meters behind the Covie occupied building, there were a series of apartment complexes. With the face of the buildings covered in shattered windows, it took Adel a long time before he spotted any of the snipers. But he finally spotted some movement on the roof of one of the buildings and focusing on it, he could see a pair of Jackal snipers wandering around in the snow.
"Lots of firepower down there too," Lancelot noted, and Adel glanced in his direction and noticed him staring at the base of the apartment buildings.
Pointing his rifle in the same direction, Adel spotted a handful of Covenant vehicles, all covered in some sort of camouflage netting, sitting there idly. By his count, there were half a dozen Ghost vehicles, two assault Wraiths, and maybe four Shadow APCs.
"Gonna need a lot of support if we are to try and break through all that," Adel commented.
"Yeah. Snipers should be relatively easy to take out: hit them with the one five fives, maybe one of the MLRS'," Lancelot reported. "That FOB though is going to be the issue, especially once they get those shields online. It will probably take a couple of JDAMs just to crack that shit open. Wonder what sort of air support we can get our hands on. Savaschi, you guys got a JTAC with you, right?"
"Yes, sir. Sergeant Bendis, sir."
"I'll need to talk to him once we get back, see what sort of air support we can get out hands on. Rather avoid talking to the Air Force if I can avoid it."
By the sounds of it, Lancelot was talking to himself so Adel opted not to respond. Instead, he continued sweeping the area below him, trying to spot other things of interest.
"Restrepo, get up here," Adel heard Lancelot suddenly order. He heard soft footsteps coming from behind before Restrepo appeared, throwing herself onto the ground between them.
", sir?" she said.
"You see anything down there that could look like a UNSC tracked vehicle or at least something that's equipped with an autocannon?" Lancelot asked as he handed his binos over to her.
As Restrepo started searching the area below, Adel did the same with his rifle. Unlike no man's land, there weren't too many destroyed vehicles around, probably because the Covenant had moved them, so it didn't take long for Adel to confirm for himself there weren't any tracked vehicles, or vehicles armed with any sort of heavy ordnance. He did, however, notice something else...
"I'm not seeing anything that matches that description, sir," Restrepo was saying.
"Yeah, me neither," Lancelot replied. "Which makes me wonder what the hell was making that noise earlier?"
", sir," Adel quickly interjected, "is it just me, or do the number of Covenant not really match up with the amount that have been attacking us all day? I mean, I know we've been killing a lot of them, but they seem rather... depleted."
He could see Restrepo doing a quick double-take, but Lancelot merely nodded.
"You raise a good point Private, but could be they're all just in the building over there. Wish we could get eyes inside some -"
Boom.
Adel's head snapped up at the sound of an explosion in the distance.
"What the hell was that?" he exclaimed.
"Was that an explosion?" Restrepo asked. "Sounded like it came from even further behind enemy lines than we are."
"It was a TR/9 trip mine," Lancelot calmly replied and Adel snapped his head in Lancelot's direction.
"You can tell what things are simply by the sound of their explosion, sir?" he couldn't help but blurt out.
Lancelot snorted. "No. I can, however, when I get a message on my TACPAD telling me what it was."
He lifted his TACPAD to show them and in the dim light, Adel could just barely see the screen.
"One of my Sappers planted a couple of mines earlier this morning," Lancelot explained. "Their status was all synced up with my TACPAD. But those were planted near our initial strongpoint, the one we were holding before you Marines arrived. That was hours ago. What caused them to go off now?"
"Well, whatever it was, sir, it's clearly gotten the Covenant in a tizz," Restrepo pointed out and Adel quickly raised his rifle.
Sure enough, the entire Covenant base had come alive with activity. Covenant soldiers were pouring out of their FOB while Elite commanders were running around screaming orders. It was clear the Covenant were mobilizing, but to Adel's surprise, they weren't headed for the UNSC MLR, but further behind their own.
"They're definitely heading for their rear," Restrepo pointed out as Covenant soldiers began piling into the majority of the Ghost and both the Shadows before the entire convoy started heading in the direction the explosion had originated from. "What the hell is back there, sir?"
Lancelot slowly shook his head. "I have no idea but whatever it is, it's clearly one of ours; no idea why the Covenant would be freaking out otherwise. Both of you: back up. I'm going to call in an artillery strike, see if we can't- "
CLATTER.
Adel reflexively jerked his head up and turned around at the sound of a piece of metal rolling across the floor behind him. To his absolute horror, a single Covenant Grunt Minor was hurriedly walking right by the room they were in. What the Grunt was doing in this building, Adel had no idea, but clearly, the Grunt wasn't expecting to see them as the creature let out a loud cry of alarm and began to draw its plasma pistol.
Adel hurriedly turned around to bring his rifle to bear, but Lancelot was faster. With a speed that caught Adel by surprise, Lancelot scrambled up to his feet and launched himself at the Grunt.
Reaching the Grunt just as the alien was bringing its pistol to bear, Lancelot lashed out with his right hand, knocking the plasma pistol clean out of the little creature's hands. Before the astonished Grunt could react, Lancelot delivered an upper elbow strike with his left arm, hitting the Grunt hard in the face and causing the alien to stumble backwards. Before the Grunt could get far though, Lancelot grabbed the alien by the arm, did a sort of half-turn, and proceeded to flip the Grunt right over his shoulder and onto the floor.
The Grunt landed with a loud thump, and Adel automatically raised his rifle to shoot it, but before he could pull the trigger, Restrepo grabbed the upper receiver.
"No!" she hissed. "Gunfire will compromise our position!"
Adel swore as he realized she was right and hurriedly flicked the safety on to prevent any chance of a negligent discharge.
In the meantime, Lancelot had pulled out a wicked-looking knife from his belt and raised it above his head, but just as he stabbed down, the Grunt recovered from its stunned state and quickly rolled out of the way. Lancelot's knife embedded itself into the floorboards, where the Grunt promptly kicked it out of Lancelot's hands and into the far corner of the room while at the same time, pulling out a knife of its own. But before the small creature could do much more than look menacing, Lancelot planted both his hands on the ground and lifted himself high enough for him to smash the soles of both his feet hard against the Grunt's chest.
The blow sent the Grunt stumbling backwards, and both Adel and Restrepo reflexively moved to get out of the way but Adel immediately realized that was a mistake as the Grunt stumbled all the way to the edge of the balcony -
- and toppled straight over the edge.
"AIEEEEEEEEE!" the Grunt screamed at the top of its lungs before the scream was abruptly cut off by a loud, metallic thump, one that audible even five stories high.
Lancelot proceeded to sum up the situation in one succinct word: "Shit."
"Maybe the Covies won't notice, sir?" Adel hopefully suggested.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
The inhuman screech of an alarm immediately put that hope to bed and if that wasn't enough, Adel could hear the clunking of what sounded like lights being turned on before the room they were standing in was instantly flooded with bright light. Adel's night vision goggles immediately switched off, but it wasn't fast enough, and Adel let out a loud grunt of pain as he was blinded by the light. He found himself stumbling as he tried to clear the white spots from his vision.
"Marine, GET DOWN!"
Adel felt himself getting tackled and as he fell, something hot passed mere centimeters by his bare head and as he hit the ground, the retort of a beam rifle filled his ears.
FWOOZ!
"CONTACT!" Restrepo screamed. "I can't see where it's coming from!"
"Hit the deck!" Lancelot screamed back. "It's those fucking Jackal snipers in the other buildings! Hit the deck and crawl for the door! Fall back, fall back!"
Adel flinched as another two plasma beams speared through the room and he hastily scrambled for the door, trying to get out of the kill zone as soon as possible.
Reaching the doorframe, Adel rolled out of the room into the hall and scrambled to his feet, only to stumble once more as two plasma bolts punched through the drywall right by his head.
"MOVE MOVE MOVE!" Lancelot screamed, grabbing Adel and hauling him to his feet. "We got to get out of here before we get boxed in!"
Nearly falling down the entire stairwell, Adel ran after Restrepo and Lancelot as more and more alarms began sounding. Hitting the ground floor, they burst outside.
"Ah, FUCK!" Adel screamed as he was blinded by the spotlight once more. In pain, he lifted his rifle and began firing in the direction the light was coming from, trying to hit it.
"Keep moving, KEEP MOVING!" Lancelot hollered.
"INCOMING!" Restrepo screamed.
SWOOOSHHH!
A fuel rod cannon went streaking by overhead, exploding somewhere behind them. Adel immediately hit the deck.
"Lieutenant! We got incoming, rear!" Adel yelled in warning as he spotted the Covenant soldiers maneuvering towards them from behind. He raised his rifle and fired at them, causing them to scatter. Immediately, he began taking plasma fire.
FWOOZFWOOZFWOOZ!
"We got to move otherwise we're going to get pinned down!" Lancelot warned. "Savaschi! Set up that claymore and give us some cover! I'm going to pop smoke! Restrepo, covering fire!"
"On it, sir!"
Restrepo's rifle roared to life as Adel tore his bag off his back. Ripping out the claymore, he hastily planted it on the ground and activated the motion sensor, so that it would explode the moment the first Covenant ran by. As soon as he armed the device, he gestured wildly at Lancelot.
"LT, WE'RE SET!"
"Smoke out!" Lancelot immediately yelled, hurtling two devices in the direction of the Covenant.
As the smoke cloud began to form, Adel pointed his rifle at the spotlights and began unloading on them, trying to take them out before the smoke got too thick for him to see. Adel pulled the trigger as fast as he could, and just as he felt the bolt on his rifle lock back, there was a flash and the blinding light abruptly disappeared. A moment later, the smoke cloud rolled in, obscuring the humans from view.
"Fall back, NOW!" Lancelot instantly roared and, grinning to himself, Adel whirled around and ran for no man's land.
Despite not being able to see much, the Covenant emplacements continued to unload into the smoke, forcing Adel to keep his head down as he ran, lest he lose it.
"Come on, we got to keep moving!" Lancelot was urging. "We got to get the fuck out of the Covies pre-registered kill zone!"
Plasma continued to fly past overhead as, despite the smoke cloud, the Covenant gunners continued to pour fire downrange. However, as if that wasn't enough –
SWOOSH SWOOSH!
"INCOMING!" Adel screamed as he heard the plasma mortars come screaming in. He hit the ground once more.
KABOOM KABOOM!
The mortars exploded nearby, sending waves of heat rolling in all directions.
"Holy shit!" Adel yelped as he shook the excess dirt off his head that had landed on him as a result of the explosions. "What the fuck did we do to piss these guys off!?"
Someone suddenly grabbed him and yanked him to his feet.
"Keep moving Marine!" Lancelot yelled at him.
"But we've got incoming!" Adel protested even as the sound of more mortars coming in filled the air.
"They're just going to keep saturating this field with plasma until they get us! We have got to get the fuck out of here!"
SWOOSHHH… KABOOM!
Adel was knocked off his feet as the closest plasma mortar so far exploded, sending shrapnel whizzing right by Adel's head, though he hardly noticed as he was gripping his ears in pain. Without his helmet, Adel didn't have any earplugs in and while adrenaline had allowed him to power through all the gun and plasma fire, the explosions had been too powerful from him to ignore. As the ringing started to fade from his ears though, he could hear someone screaming in pain.
"Patrol, sound off!" Lancelot roared, sounding very far away. "Lancelot is green!"
"Savaschi! I'm okay!" Adel yelled back as he quickly checked himself over for injuries and finding none.
"Sergeant Restrepo! Status!"
A very pain-filled voice sounded over Adel's radio. "I'm hit! I'm down!"
"Shit!"
Dashing back into the smoke, Adel nearly tripped over Restrepo as she laid on the ground, gripping her upper thigh. Her rifle laid nearby, neatly cut in two, but more alarmingly was the blood that was leaking out from between her fingers.
"Oh shit!" Adel yelled as he reflexively reached for his IFAK to grab a can of biofoam, but Lancelot immediately shoved him aside.
"You're out in the open for fuck's sake!" he screamed as he grabbed a hold of Restrepo and hurriedly dragged her to a nearby crater.
Realizing how stupid he was being, Adel hastily dove into the hole behind them.
SWOOSH... KABOOM!
Drops of plasma splattered against the edge of the crater. Hastily reloading, Adel snapped his rifle up and randomly fired in the direction of the Covenant. Behind him, he could hear Restrepo groaning in pain.
"Sorry, sir, fucked up," she was saying.
"Forget about it! We got to get you out of here! This is going to hurt."
Restrepo abruptly screamed; startled, Adel looked back to see Lancelot had removed the sling from Restrepo's rifle, wrapped it around her thigh, and tightened it like it was a tourniquet.
"That'll hold long enough for us to get back to the MLR!" Lancelot yelled over the sound of the plasma fire. "Private! Grab the Sergeant and fall back! Skip past the rally point and head straight for the line! I'll cover!"
", sir, I -"
FWOOZFWOOZFWOOZFWOOZ!
Both Adel and Lancelot ducked as plasma fire chewed up the edge of the crater.
"NOW Marine! That's a fucking order!"
Slinging his rifle onto his back, Adel grabbed Restrepo and lifted her up in a fireman's carry, ignoring the yell of pain as the motion jostled her wounded leg.
"Get ready!" Lancelot hurtled another smoke grenade downrange. "Covering! Go go GO!"
He began firing his rifle in the direction of the Covenant as Adel surged to his feet and began retreating. Plasma splattered on the ground next to him, mortars and fuel rods were passing by overhead, it was almost overwhelming! For the most part though, Adel did his best to ignore it as he concentrated on running as fast as he could.
Making it to the edge of the minefield, Adel hesitated and glanced back in the direction of the smoke. Lancelot was still out there, and Adel wasn't sure if he should wait.
"What are you doing!?" Restrepo demanded to know.
"The LT's still out there!"
"He'll be fine! Let's go dude!"
"But - !
Restrepo grabbed him by his shirt.
"Listen!" she yelled into his ear as best as she could from his shoulders. "Every centimeter of this area has been pre-sighted for machine guns and artillery! We stay here, we're fucked! Let's go!"
Adel opened his mouth to protest but before he could a word out, he heard the sound of another incoming mortar. "INCOMING!"
Dropping Restrepo on the ground, Adel hurtled himself on the ground and curled up into a small ball.
KABOOM... BOOMBOOMBOOM!
The mortar landed directly in the minefield. The ensuing explosion caused a sympathetic detonation amongst some of the mines there and as Adel looked up, he saw a small path had been cleared in the field.
"Come on Private! We have to leave, right now!" Restrepo screamed at him.
Realizing she was right, Adel grabbed Restrepo and started running. Skipping through the minefield and somehow managing to avoid every single mine, he hurtled past the rally point and ran directly towards the UNSC front lines.
"BRASS BRASS BRASS!" Adel screamed at the top of his lung as he approached.
"ADEL! OVER HERE!"
Adel looked up to see Sam and X waving from a hole just to his left and, angling himself in the direction, Adel dashed towards them.
Sliding into the hole, he felt Restrepo slipping off his shoulders, but Sam and X quickly grabbed her before she could hit the ground.
"What's goin' on!? What's your status!?"
Adel looked up to see Reynolds in the hole with them.
"We got compromised, Staff Sergeant!" Adel breathlessly yelled. He pointed at the groaning Restrepo. "Sergeant Restrepo got hit!"
Reynolds took one look at the wound and swore.
"Go shi! CORPSMAN! COMPTON!"
Compton immediately came running up.
"Where's she hit?" he demanded to know.
"Upper right thigh!"
"Give me some light!"
Sam hastily pulled out a flashlight and switched on. Red light filled the hole and Adel watched as Compton checked Restrepo out. He shook his head.
"Okay, let's get her out of here!" he yelled. "Lance Corporal, help me out here! Grab her legs!"
X leapt to his feet and together, he and Compton scurried away with Restrepo in tow.
In the meantime, Reynolds had grabbed a hold of Adel.
"Savaschi, where's the Skipper?" he demanded.
"I don't know Staff Sergeant," Adel admitted. "He stayed behind to give us some cover."
"Gorram it!" Reynolds swore. "STAY ALERT Y'ALL!"
To Sam and X, he said, "Stay here. I'll be back."
And, without another word, he darted out of the hole and disappeared into the darkness.
With most of the priority stuff out of the way, Adel sat down and took a deep breath. He found himself trembling, and he wasn't too sure why. Clenching his fist, he tried to stop but it didn't help that much.
"Adel."
Adel looked up.
"You alright?" Sam asked.
"Yeah. Yeah! I'm good dude," Adel tried to assure him but found he couldn't hide the tremor in his voice. Fortunately, Sam didn't press the issue.
"You see what the hell was making all that noise X claimed he heard?" Sam asked instead as he glanced out into no man's land.
"No. But there was definitely something out there, it was just further behind the Covies' lines."
"'Further behind Covie lines?'" Sam repeated, incredulous. "How the hell did X hear that shit then?"
"Dunno. Maybe X is a freak of nature," Adel replied, staring at his hand. Yeah, tremor was definitely not going away.
Before Sam could say anything else though, there was a mute explosion from somewhere in no man's land and Adel hastily grabbed his helmet and rifle. Were the Covenant about to attack?
"ETHICS!"
Adel damn near pulled the trigger and it was only at the last second he remembered that had been an alternative challenge word Lancelot had set up before they had left on their patrol.
Lowering his rifle, he watched as Lancelot emerge from the darkness, looking no worse for wear.
"LT! OVER HERE!" Sam yelled and Lancelot hurriedly dashed in their direction.
Tossing his rifle to the side, Adel reached out and helped Lancelot into the hole as Sam tapped his radio and reported, "Staff Sergeant, the Skipper's back."
", sir, any more pursuers?" Adel asked, staring out into the darkness as if an entire horde of Covies soldier would suddenly emerge.
"Negative," Lancelot breathlessly replied. "That second claymore seems to have scared them off. Status on Sergeant Restrepo?"
"Corpsman is with her now, sir. He's bringing her back to the aid station as we speak," Adel reported as Reynolds returned.
", sir," Reynolds began. "What's the situation?"
"There's definitely friendlies out there," Lancelot confirmed. "But who, what, or where, I couldn't tell you. Whoever it is has gotten the Covies all fired up and freaking the fuck out, so we got to try and support them."
Whipping out a piece of paper, Lancelot quickly scribbled down something and handed it off to Reynolds.
"Get a hold of Battalion and start rocking that sector with the eighty-one mils," he demanded. "And get me some arty support if you can! I'm headed over to the heavy machine gun section to get some indirect going: send your JTAC over as soon as you can!"
"Aye, sir! Bendis, this is Reynolds: Skipper wants to see you!"
"Keep alert Marines," Lancelot ordered. "This is probably going to stir the hornets' nest. Watch for infiltrators!"
Without another word, Lancelot and Reynolds dashed off, leaving Sam and Adel alone.
"Holy shit dude," Sam muttered.
Adel didn't reply, as he was still trying to figure out how to stop himself from trembling. All of a sudden, he found himself craving a cigarette, which was weird as Adel wasn't much of a smoker, but he couldn't figure out how to calm down otherwise. Unfortunately, none of his teammates were smokers either, but Adel knew X kept a pack of cigarettes in his rucksack for the sole purpose of bartering.
Ignoring the concerned look Sam was throwing his way, Adel grabbed X's bag and started digging through it, tossing shit aside until he found the pack.
With trembling hands, Adel managed to extract a cigarette, but just as he was about to light it, Sam stopped him.
"Sorry dude," he said apologetically. "But you know we can't have a fire here: it'll light up our entire position. Best I can do is give you some Copenhagen."
Wordlessly, Adel tossed the cigarette away and grabbed the can Sam offered him. Grabbing a pinch, he shoved it into his mouth and waited for the nicotine to kick in.
"You sure you're okay Adel?" he heard Sam ask, and Adel bobbed his head but there was no denying it: he just couldn't stop trembling.
He sat there, doing his best to calm down, as the sound of fighting coming from directly in front of them filled the air.