Halo: Operation Fallout
Chapter 1
The sun was setting on Harvest not that they could truly tell, the men huddled in their foxholes as the Plasma artillery from the Wraith tanks fired above them. Six months had passed since first contact with the Alien conglomerate known as the covenant was made, Hundreds of thousands of humans had died in the war with the technologically advanced alliance. It was now August and yet a winter had overtaken the lands of Harvest, its sun blocked out. The Aliens had used some form of weaponry to effectively "melt" the surface of Harvest to glass, with that dust had risen to the sky. As snow and ash fell to the ground the men in the foxholes tried to keep their spirits up as ever-increasing volleys of plasma landed around them, bubbling and sputtering upon contact with the ground before burning itself up rapidly and evaporating to nothingness. The dark skies mixed with the blue flashes of light of the Wraith's Cannons were beautiful in their own, deadly ways, but when the order came, the men of the 1st Battalion, 265th Marine Division charged forward towards the covenant battery, amongst them, Corporal Marcus Faust, a veteran of the civil war that had erupted across the Human colonies as secessionists had been fighting for decades, he was still new to the UNSC Marine Corps, having signed up only four years ago, but with multiple tours on multiple planets he was an experienced and respected soldier, but the Covenant were not like the rebels, they were organised, and they were advanced and of course, they were Alien. He feared war in his first year in the UNSC, but after he continued to gain experience and fought alongside the men and women he had grown to think of as family, his fears decreased until it disappeared altogether. But now, as he and his Battalion charged towards the enemy, he felt scared, plasma bolts hit all around him and his fellow soldiers, and the armour he and the Marines wore could not take many before the plating melted away, along with the skin and bone, if lucky the wound would be cauterised and the soldier evacuated for urgent medical aid, however, for most, it would result in an excruciatingly painful death as part of the body was burned away by any bolts that would hit the unfortunate soldier.
As the Corporal advanced, his trusty assault rifle firing in bursts to little effect to the larger of the Alien creatures, the UNSC had coined the term 'Elites', as they seemed to be the one in charge of all the Covenant ground forces, the smaller ones, that looked like apes with a giant shark fin and a gasmask were called 'Grunts' because they were the poor foot soldiers sent to soak up the bullets. Despite being the enemy, Marcus pitied the little Aliens, he must have seen millions, if not billions of them die in the short time he had been on the planet, but yet here they were, soaking up the ammo of the Marines in the assault, at the same time though he felt little remorse, they were more powerful then they looked, able to fight hand to hand if necessary and had the strength of the apes that they looked like, he had seen them throw a fully grown woman, in full combat armour, and with a pack of rockets on her back, into two men, before leaping over to them and snapping all three of their necks before any of them had the chance to retaliate, he killed it, but it was too late for the three Marines lying dead on the floor. He approached a destroyed building nearby the enemy vehicles and took cover to catch his breath which evaporated in the breeze as its smoke rose high, four other Marines reached the wall shortly after him, they all had the same objective, storm the covenant positions and force back the enemy, destroying their vehicles as they do, Alien roars came from the Elites nearby, igniting their energy swords and beckoning forth swarms of more grunts who charged forward with vicious yet squeaky battle cries, Marcus and the four marines sprinted around the wall, they reached a nearby shell hole and jumped in, one levelled a battle rifle and fired at least half a magazine into the turret gunner of the wraith ahead of them, finally the Elite dropped dead, it's lifeless body hanging over the turret it once manned, a second Marine then clambered out of the foxhole, sprinting towards the rear of the tank, tearing at a rear vent and placing a frag grenade inside, he ran back to the foxhole just as the grenade exploded. At first, nothing happened, but as the wraith prepared to fire again, it rapidly overheated, exploding in a flash of crimson and blue, the Elite driver clambered from the wreckage, it's shielding must have stopped its immediate death, however it did not stop the fire from covering its body and the explosion from tearing off half of its jaw and it's arm, the creature was in a terrible state, it quickly dropped to the floor dead, unable to cling to its life. The Corporal and the Marines with him then again advanced, engaging the Covenant forces as they did, the ruins of Harvest's cities provided the Covenant with equally perfect cover as the UNSC, and as they advanced, Marcus heard a horrifying scream, a Marine with him had been impaled by an Elite, her screams blood-curdling as the Crimson Armoured beast glowed blue with the light of its twin energy blades, as quickly as her screams had been let loose her head slumped and her body went limp, the Alien dropped her corpse to the floor and swung rapidly for another of the Marines, slashing down across the front of his armour, fortunately whilst the swing struck its mark, it was with the edge of the blades, piercing it but not mortally wounding the man who was knocked to the floor and began crawling back, firing off his Assault rifle as he withdrew whilst the Marcus and the third Marine too began to open fire, the Elite roared and shouted something in its guttural language as its shield broke, the beast turned invisible but the marines began to spray their rounds throughout the area, the soldier on the floor rose to his feet and the three men continued on, linking up with more Marines as they pushed the Covenant back from their positions. Another hour passed of heavy urban fighting before the orders came to cease, by that point at least half the Battalion had been wiped out, entirely dead, at least another third wounded, Marcus was lucky as the Marines dug in again, he was just as lucky this time, a building that was secure enough was to be used as a machine gun post, the Corporal and several other Marines decided to take advantage of solid shelter away from the cold and set up in there, taking it in turns to guard their positions. No covenant retaliation came that night though, a reprieve for the battered Marine forces, as the Snows continued to fall and the ash as yet unbroken above the ruined city, Pelican dropships deployed a division of Army troopers as reinforcement.
Before the war with the Aliens, the Marines and the Army often had inter service rivalry, not enough to harm combat operations but enough to cause banter between the forces, now however, no Marine wished to be a soldier of the UNSC Army, the Marines could be withdrawn, had significantly better equipment, and could be redeployed where needed, the Army had to hold their worlds, they stayed there until they all died, every one of them, the Marines learnt that when they first arrived on Harvest to find no UNSC presence on the planet at all except the corpses of the Army troopers who held the line despite all odds, and in the face of the orbital bombardment, were forced to stay where they were and burn, the UNSC did not deem them important enough, and now, him and the Marines were here to fight the Covenant, and when that is done they will leave the planet, and if the planet is to be bombarded again, they will be withdrawn, but the Army will be left behind, they will evacuate the remaining civilians and if needs be they will give up their own places. It was a cruel life. The new Army forces on Harvest were made up of large numbers of civilian volunteers from the planet itself, though multiple Divisions were brought in, fresh from their training on Reach, rumour had it that ODST's were to brought to Harvest soon too, to bolster the defences. As the Soldiers of the UNSC Army deployed they brought with them much needed entrenching equipment, alongside portable barriers and Machine Guns, even some tanks were deployed too. The bolstered Marines spirits were risen by the arrival of their new friends, how long any of them would survive, no one knew, but the forces there began to bolster their position, and within a matter of hours the UNSC forces had set up a fortress amongst the ruins, crackles of gun fire were heard all throughout the city, the whizzing of Missiles and artillery echoed across the skies, but at the Corporal's position, all remained quiet throughout the day, much to his relief.
Night fell once again, not that you could truly tell, the clouds looker blacker then they did gray, but apart from that, for the troops on the ground, it was near perpetually dark, Marcus and the remaining Marines of his battalion had heard that it wasn't like this all over the planet, some places still remained light in the day, the sun shining down on it, it sounded like Eden compared to the darkness of Utgard, the Corporal didn't know much about Norse Mythology, but he felt it fitting that it was the realm of giants given the large size of the Elites, the Grunts felt out of place but it made no difference to the Corporal. "I'm looking for 1st Battalion, anyone? 1st Battalion, 265th Marines?" A voice shouted from the distance, gradually getting closer the voice shouting the same question, no one was replying so Marcus got up and went outside the building he'd holed up in, "Over here!" he shouted in reply, "Sort of, I'm with the 1st Battalion 265th Marines!". The soldier ran over to him, leaning over and beginning to pant heavily 'Must have been running a long way' he thought to himself. "Sir..." the soldier started but had to force herself to catch her breath again. "Take your time bud, the covenant will take theirs" Marcus stated bluntly with a slight laugh. "Sir, we tried to establish radio contact with your battalion, I'm from 5th Battalion, we can't seem to find any others, the Division is to withdraw from Utgard and resupply for an offensive into the North Eastern fringes of the city, encircling the covenant forces, but every time we tried to contact you we couldn't establish secure links, where is your CO?" she asked, "That, is a brilliant question, I have four marines in here, there's at least one hundred others scattered around, give or take, if I knew where they were I'd point you there way, but I suppose since we get a chance to get out of this shithole for even ten minutes I'll help you rouse up the remains of the Marines here" he replied. He pointed her in the direction he thought some of the Marine forces would be and he went in the other, finding a dozen other members of his Battalion to follow him, realising he didn't actually set a rendezvous point with the soldier sent to find them, he then set about locating her, after a half hour of wandering around their position he finally found her with at least seventy other Marines, 'is this truly all that was left?' Marcus thought to himself, of eight hundred, there were seventy-three of them left, he was shocked and saddened, he'd thought of them all as his family and now he had lost the vast majority of them. The remnants of 1st Battalion followed the Marine sent to find them through the ruined streets, occasionally one of the Covenant fighters, the UNSC called them Banshees on account of the howling noise they made, would come to strafe them, firing bolts of Plasma at them, fortunately none were hit on the journey to 5th Battalions encampment, and as they arrived Pelicans and Warthogs were there to extract them all. "Where's your CO?" a gruff Lieutenant Colonel shouted as the Marines arrived at the camp. "Dead sir, poor bastard got impaled by an Elite, thankfully my lucky friend here got the bastard in the head with his sniper as revenge. We don't seem to have an Officer" a young soldier replied, Marcus recognised the voice anywhere, it was Private Abraham Walker, the newest member of the Battalion before arriving here at Harvest, he made it through a tour against the Insurrectionists and then the Covenant came and he ended up here, kid was as lucky as ever, he survived a close encounter with a wraith "shell" with only minor burns to the face, he'd managed to dive into a crater just as a bit of plasma hit his helmet and face mask, it burnt through it, burning a part of his face, but thankfully the amount of material in front of it meant it burnt itself out before it did any serious damage.
"Alright, where's the NCO's?" the Lieutenant Colonel asked again, silence filled the air, "fuck me, right, Corporals?", Faust and three others stepped forward, "Jesus Christ, okay. You!" The Colonel pointed at the Marine next to Faust, she saluted and the Colonel ordered her to step forward, "congratulations Sergeant, it's highly irregular, but these are irregular times, you're in charge of what is left of first battalion, and you!" he pointed at Faust, "You're her second in command, now mount up, we are leaving!" he ordered, the Marine, the new Sergeant turned to her battered forces, and repeated the orders to mount up, despite there being ample space in the pelicans, most Marines piled into the 'Hogs, that way they had the chance to take cover if the Covies attacked them. Marcus however, decided to take a Pelican, he got into it, there were only four others in the troop compartment, despite the fact it could up to twenty people, they were all trying to sleep, so he did the same. The flight lasted perhaps forty minutes, he wasn't able to get much rest but when the transport landed and its bay door opened he saw a beautiful sight, thousands of Marines, hundreds of tanks and dozens of artillery pieces all preparing for their assault on Utgard, if the Covenant could withstand an assault this large and well-equipped Marcus didn't know what could stop them. "Faust, get your arse over here" his new Sergeant ordered, when she dismounted her Warthog, Marcus placed his rifle over his back and made his way towards her, Sergeant Alice McArthur, had fought with him since boot camp on Reach, four years they'd made their way through the Insurrection, he trusted her with his life just like any of the Marines in his Battalion, but he worried now, for her, and for them, knowing that hundreds of Marines died in Utgard over the course of the past couple of weeks they had been deployed here, they were all that he had left, and it terrified him. "Sergeant" He said, and saluted her mockingly, she laughed at him, and returned the salute mockingly. "So, I have no idea what I'm doing, and as second in command, you are going to advise me, so, Faust, what do we do?" she asked him, "Eat, I'd suggest we eat, we have no idea when we are deploying, and most of us haven't eaten since before the assault yesterday, what good are Hungry marines if we go into battle thing of our stomachs" he replied, she laughed at him, "you are a greedy bastard Marcus, always thinking of your stomach" and with that she turned to the rest of the Marines, who were forming up in front of the two, "Get some chow Marines, we don't know when we're moving out, so eat up, don't want any of you thinking of you stomachs instead of butchering Aliens" she shouted, the Marines replied with the customary "Yes Sir" and scattered, heading for the mess quarters that had been set up. Marcus and Alice made their way there too, to see so many Marines made the Corporal feel relieved, up until the Army units made their way into the city, they'd been relatively alone since the start of their campaign, but now, they had people to fall back on and bolster their forces, it was truly a glorious sight.
Marcus and the men and women of his Division approached the Mess Hall, the smell of bacon, eggs, coffee, tea, everything he'd been missing since being on deployment made his stomach growl, he didn't realise how much he had been away from such normalities for so long, he'd been living on Marine Rations for almost a year, his Division was on deployment before being sent to Harvest, and so at the sight of all this food his spirits were almost immediately raised, everyone gathered up platefuls of whatever they could, and all but inhaled it. "Listen up Marines!" A gruff looking man with a moustache and a cigar came in. "We're about to storm Utgard... Again... These Alien bastards have butchered hundreds of thousands of people and today we're going to show them why they chose the wrong species to go to war with, we have out there the fist of the almighty, and we're going to ram it so far up their extra-terrestrial asses, that they'll turn tail and run straight back to wherever they came from, am I right Marines?" The man shouted, "Hoo-Rah!" the Marines shouted, the man gave a nod and Faust swore he could see a smirk form on his face, he took a drag on his cigar, turned and left the mess facility, the Marines went about their business now, some heading to the Armory some to the deployment area, waiting for the moment they are sent back into the city. The Corporal wandered out to the Armoury, grabbing some magazines for his trusty Assault Rifle and a couple more grenades. He thought about the troops that were left behind to occupy the Marines former positions in the city, it had only been about an hour and a half since they had been redeployed but he felt sorry for them, they could have been hit hard, the Covenant were always swift to react to any change in circumstances, and he felt himself getting uneasy at the thought of returning, but before he could begin to worry any further, he heard someone shouting in the distance, "1st, 5th battalion of the 265th, mount up in the Pelicans, we have the honour of being the tip of the fucking spear!", it sounded like it McArthur, she walked into the troop compartment in one of the nearby troop transports, he ran over too it and got in, sitting himself next to her, "So, what are we going to face Sarge?" he asked her, the door began to close behind them, the full compartment full of Marines, some of them started rummaging around their pack, placing a music device into one of the speakers and blasting flip music into the troop bay, the men and women onboard immediately felt their spirits raise and many cheered when they started playing it, Faust smiled as Alice replied to his question, "Well, we're going to deploy right into the middle of a Covvie encampment, we believe there are anywhere from four thousand to six thousand of the little bastards there, apparently the Office of Naval Intelligence themselves have gotten us this intel, that their defences are formed of "Shade" turrets and Wraiths, these "Shade" turrets seem to be either a different variant or a different type of turret itself than the ones we encountered in the past, faster fire rate, potential for AA capabilities so, clearly a wise idea to have us in this fucking thing, but regardless, stay sharp, and once on the ground, stick close to me, can't be having my second going and dying on me can I?" she laughed as she finished, he nodded, and placed his helmet on, dragging his mask up over the remainder of his face.
As the Pelicans approached their targets the ships were bracketed by bolts of Plasma, the turbulence shook them greatly, Marcus couldn't see outside, but he knew that there must have been casualties already, several Pelicans must have been shot down, it saddened him, but he steeled himself for the attack. "Marines" Alice began to speak through Comms, "Get up, and get ready, we land in ninety seconds!", the whole bay in near perfect unison prepared their Weapons and stood up, preparing themselves to be deployed, the compartment bay door opened up as the Pelican began to descend, the chaos outside had a strange beauty to it, burning Pelicans fell from the sky, bolts of blue and green plasma erupted and flew through the air and along the ground as the Covenant forces unleashed their fury on the Human assault, "30 seconds" the Seargent said over the radio, Marcus' heart was racing and his mouth ran dry, he could feel his legs trembling but had to try force himself to ignore his fear. "Go! Now! Everybody out, push forward and take out their artillery" The Seargent screamed through the Comms as the noise of the battlefield engulfed them. Faust sprinted out of the Pelican and ran to a nearby wall taking cover, he poked his head around the corner and spotted a group of Grunts firing off their pistols, they were pinning down another group of Marines just ahead of them, cutting down any more of their platoon if they tried to leave the Pelican, a highly dangerous position, he had no choice but to step out from his cover to get a shot, he leant back a minute, breathed in heavily, he turned the corner and opened fire on the little creatures, he cut down three of them, the rest fled, the Marines thanked him over the radio and advanced, Marcus turned to see several of the Marines from his Pelican cut down nearby, the transport itself hadn't been able to withdraw and was burning in the ruins of a nearby house. "Sarge, where the fuck are you?" Faust asked over the Radio, "Don't get mouthy with me boy" she began jokingly, the crackles of plasma bolts hitting nearby her could be heard over the radio with her, "I think I'm to your South, do you see the Marines crouched down by a stone fence?", Marcus scanned his surroundings, he saw dead and dying soldiers all around him, a couple of seconds later he saw them, "By the destroyed Scorpion?" Faust replied, "Yeah that's the one, I'm over here, we're pinned, this was a shit plan of attack, get over here" Marcus broke from his cover and sprinted towards his friend's position, three large balls of blue plasma began to fly up over him, slamming into a nearby skyscraper, probably an old office building, it began to collapse, no longer able to support its own weight as the last of its structural integrity was taken out by the stray artillery rounds of the Aliens, the dust began to fill the battlefield, as Marcus just made his way to his Seargent. "We'll use this to our advantage, we don't have long, we need to charge forward now, take out the covvies up front, I think a wraith position is around the corner from them, if we move now, we may be able to get there before they reposition", with that she leapt the wall with the other Marines of the platoon, Marcus followed along, the green bolts energy the only true illumination until the dust would begin to settle, the occasional muzzle flash of the human weapons in reply, he couldn't tell what was truly going on around him, if anyone had been hit or not, the battlefield was excruciatingly loud and if he didn't have a radio he wouldn't know what anyone was saying, but from the sound of things, the assault was not going well. "There, right there, to your right, right!" A voice screamed over the radio, "What was that? What the fu-" the communications cut off, Marcus had to ignore it right now, he saw a glowing sort of port in front of him, perhaps a hundred metres away, he ran forward, smashing it open with the butt of his rifle, he grabbed a grenade from his belt, pulled the pin, placed it in the broken exhaust and ran as fast as he could away, as the dust began to settle he looked back just as a blueish-purple flame rose into the sky, he had destroyed the wraith, but he didn't see any of the other Marines. 'How did I get split from them so quickly?' he thought to himself, at that very moment, a giant collection of armoured worms flung the destroyed wraith out of its way, sending it crashing through the wall of an abandoned shop, behind it lay the bodies, or what was left of the bodies, of at least six marines, arms, legs, in one poor soldiers case, their entire upper body including head, melted, vaporised by Plasma, at first Marcus thought it was his fault, they were close to the Wraith when it exploded, but he didn't have time to think, he raised his Assault Rifle and opened fire, his rounds did nothing, bouncing off the giant blue shield the creatures pushed in front of it, he pulled another grenade off his belt, pulled the pin and tried to roll the Grenade close to the beast, he then proceeded to back off, firing his rifle until all the remaining rounds of his thirty-two round magazine had been spent, forcing him to reload. The grenade exploded and apart from a loud roar the creature seemed completely unfazed by the explosive device, puddles of orange had splattered off along the floor and walls and strange worms lay limp on the ground but apart from that the beast marched onwards, it raised its arm and a green glow began to build up throughout it, Marcus barely had time to get out the way, though it didn't matter, the beast followed him, trailing a beam of plasma towards him, thankfully though, it seemed to last only a matter of seconds before seemingly overheating, "Uh, I need support on my position, right god-damn-now" Marcus shouted through his radio, he once again opened fire upon any exposed piece of the beast, and when he finally thought he was weakening the beast, he soon found himself flying into a nearby car, slamming into it, his rifle flung far from him, he saw it in a pool of blood, a Marine lay there, torn apart by something, possibly the creature, when he finally looked towards the strange worm beast, he thought at first he was seeing double, but after shaking his head he realised he was, but not because he was concussed, but there really were two of them, he drew his pistol, and fired helplessly at both of them doing little more than infuriating them, he tried to stand but a piece of metal had somehow managed to find its way into the lower part of his leg, not severe, he pulled it out as he fired at the beasts, screaming in pain he finally managed to drag himself to his feet, the cumbersome Aliens now dangerously close to him, "get out the way!" a woman shouted down the comms, he spotted a couple of Marines with rocket launchers just down the street from him, the adrenaline beginning to take over, Marcus ran as fast as he could, he leapt through a broken window, taking cover as the two soldiers fired at the alien creatures, when the dust and shrapnel settled, the only things left where the two beasts were, were large groups of worms, limp and lifeless, surrounded by a very large pool of orange blood. "Thanks" Marcus began down the comms, "I definitely owe you one", and he slumped down by the window, catching his breath, pouring biofoam into his leg wound, and biting back the pain.
After the pain subsided, a good five minutes longer than he could truly spare, he got back to his feet, there was a small stinging sensation, but it was better than leaving the wound open and untreated. He hopped back out the window into the street, glancing over at the orange puddles and dead worms on the floor, wondering what the hell they were and how they even formed that giant creature, especially as on their own they looked surprisingly weak, brittle even as if they could be crushed in between someone's fingers. He headed in the direction of the gunfire, he had to regroup with someone, being on his own now was dangerous and he was sure Jackals would soon be scouring the rooftops and picking off stragglers, the creatures didn't exactly look like the creatures that roamed the plains of Africa back on Earth, they seemed more birdlike, with strange reptilian teeth. They were fast, tenaciously so, and surprisingly they were excellent shots, though you wouldn't think so, given how weak they actually were, they didn't have bulky muscles like the Grunts and Elites they sacrificed that for their agility. Whatever their physiology, Marcus just hoped they wouldn't make their appearance anytime soon, or else he wouldn't stand a chance. As he walked the street, rifle raised slightly he kept scanning the rooftops and the windows of the nearby buildings, stumbling every so often across the bodies of Marines or dead aliens. The gunfire however, drew closer as he walked on, a large blue light illuminated the sky, he once again found himself jumping through the window of a building as a large ball of plasma struck a few meters behind where he had been, as he popped his head above the ruined structures, he saw the impact crater and the giant scorch mark as plasma began to bubble away, again hopping the ledge he ran forward, turning the street corner and following the sound of gunfire as it echoed throughout the ruined city, as he was half way down the lengthy road a destroyed building gave way to the views of the battlefield, a wide local park, the grassy field long since turned into a moonscape with the trees splintered and felled Marines huddled in the craters firing at the Elites and Grunts who had fortified the buildings in the surrounding area, some Jackals were stood firing off from the roofs, however they were ineffective at all but pinning down the UNSC forces. Marcus ran forward as quick as he could and hopped down into the nearest crater, one of the Marines gave him a nod of acknowledgement as he crawled up next to them poking his head up slightly to take a better view of the surroundings. In the darkness of the sky, the flashes from the muzzles of UNSC ballistic weapons and the green and blue hues of Plasma, alongside the strange pinkish glows of the 'needles' fired from the rifles of the Jackal sniping down upon them. "Has anyone seen Sargeant McArthur?" he asked one of the nearby Marines, having to shout over the sounds of the firefight, "Sargeant McArthur? Of the 265th? She was last seen East of here, I think you might be lost pal" she replied, firing a couple of bursts from her Battle Rifle, a good shot too, right through the gap in the shield of a sniper, then quickly into its head, it fell from the roof, Marcus didn't see where it landed though, but presumably it was very much dead. "Do you know their exact position?" he asked her, hoping he could link up with own platoon, "Not a clue, our Lieutenant is up there in that foxhole, if you can make it too him he might have comms that can reach them I'll lay down some covering fire, but once they spot me, you're on your own" the Marine replied, Marcus nodded, took a deep breath, "Alright, go" he shouted, the Marine opened fire with her Rifle and he sprinted up and out of the crater, running in the direction of the officers position, the covering fire stopped and he felt like he was running a marathon, as bolts of plasma hit all around him, he felt something warm running down his leg, in the exertion the biofoam must have begun to fail him, he slid into the crater, which had the benefit of some extra protection as it was close a damaged short wall, presumably there to mark the boundaries of the park. "Sir, i'm Corporal Marcus Faust, of 1st Battalion, 265th Marines, I've lost long range communications, I was hoping you would have a way of getting in touch with my CO, I need to regroup with them and help them with their objectives". The Lieutenant looked at him, his helmet was off, though he had enough cover that he didn't really need it, a Marine had dismounted a turret and just dug it into the ground, occasionally firing off rounds into nearby enemy positions, how effective it was Faust didn't know, but if it meant another dead Alien, then he didn't care.
"My radio is busted, but there's a radio broadcasting station right in front of us, I've been trying to take it for the past half hour since arriving, we need it to try link up with Army forces already in the city alongside our fellow Marines, there's a group in that old restaurant to our left, link up with them and join the assault, when you find a working radio, get yourself in contact with your CO, then get yourself going" the Lieutenant said, Marcus nodded, breaking the cover of the crater and entering the restaurant where a group of twenty Marines were gathered with the same gruff looking Sargeant who had given them the 'motivational' speech in the mess tent. "Marine, are you here you to join the assault?" the Sargeant asked, "yes sir, I have to get in there" alright, we're going around the back way and kicking them up their asses, there shouldn't be any resistance out there, so once at the broadcasting station, we go in, cut them down, and secure the equipment we need, we HAVE to hold that building until the Marines outside can secure the park and the buildings around it. So, let's move out" he said, opening the fire escape door and entering on to the street, Marcus and the other Marines followed his lead, once out into the open they split up out into two columns on either side of the road, their rifles raised despite their leader's reassurance of the lack of the enemies around them. It was a short walk and around the corner they engaged a couple of Grunts who seemed to be on their way to reinforce their comrades at the front. "Stack up Marines" the Sargeant shouted, and the men gathered around the doorway, one of the soldiers placed a charge onto the door, the gruff looking NCO nodded, and the Marine blew the charge, two Marines entered, and gunfire was heard, as Faust arrived at his turn to enter, he immediately found himself under fire, he had to leap to the side and join a couple of soldiers by the desks they'd flipped for cover, the Grunts as always were easy to dispatch, but the Elites stood, stoically firing their plasma weapons towards to the Marines, who fired desperately in the small breaks they got as the enemy were forced to cool their weapons, their bullets doing little more than making the shields flicker, Marcus chucked a grenade over towards one of the enemy, one of them must have been close to having its shield broken as it was immediately dropped to the ground, dead, blue-ish blood leaking from its shattered body, the other Elite roared in anger, it's shield broken, it charged forward, but the combined fire of the Marines quickly brought it down, "move up, but be careful" the NCO said over their headsets. The group advanced, cautiously scanning every gap in the room for hidden enemies, especially any Elites that had decided to cloak themselves, slight shimmering in the lights of their torches, steamed breath in the cold air, anything, but as they moved further into the building, it was clear to the Marines that the floor they were on was clear, "Alright, Jackson, Miller, Franco, downstairs, clear the basement, Freud, Monk, Abrams, Chesterfield, you four stay here, if they call for help, go down and help them, but otherwise, keep this floor secure, the rest of you, on me, we need to clear the next two floors of the building". The Marines fell into their positions and Faust followed the rest of the soldiers to the first floor, they split up again as Faust and six of the Marines continued up to the second floor and the Sergeant took the other 6 with him to clear the first. The building seemed clear and the cackle of the Marines guns outside could be heard through the destroyed roof and a partially demolished floor. The marines spread out and began to check around the desks, making sure no Grunts or Jackals were hiding and waiting in ambush, "Cle-" a Marine was about to say before her voice was cut off, impaled by a cloaked Elite, the remaining Marines fired on the alien but it deactivated its energy sword, once again leaving them in the torchlight, "Shit" Marcus murmured, "Rally up on me Marines, form a line against the wall, when it appears again, open fire and don't stop" he finished, they cautiously made their way to his position, he was leaning back against a wall, that way no one could ambush him from behind, "Sargeant, we have an Elite on the loose, cloaked, we have a man down, keep your head on a swivel" Marcus said through the comms. "Copy that, we'll make our way to you, first floor is clear" the gruff man said in reply, Marcus tapped the comms twice in acknowledgement and the last of the Marines with him formed up in their line. There was near total silence. The only noises were the breathes of the Marines and the firefight from the park below which must have been coming to an end as the gunfire was beginning to die down. Marcus didn't have long to think about anything as suddenly a bump was heard, and in the torchlight a shimmer could be seen, the Marines immediately opened fire and whilst the Alien's shield didn't break, its cloaking device must have been damaged as the creature appeared, crimson armour gleaming in the light. The Sargeant arrived with his squad and they too joined the fray. The Alien roared, igniting its two energy swords it leapt forward with great speed and lunged for one of the Marines in the squad of reinforcements, the soldier dropped to the floor, his armour incapable of stopping the superheated plasma from doing any fatal damage, two more Marines followed in his stead, decapitated by the Alien, the Marines continued to pour fire onto the creature and finally the shield glimmered and broke, they fired at any exposed piece of the Elite's flesh and blue blood began spraying everywhere as dozens of bullets hit their mark and pierced its skin, within seconds it had dropped dead, at the cost of four of the Marines. Faust sighed with relief, looking at the floor around him it was covered in casings and abandoned magazines, he was short on ammo, he had only three magazines left in his pouches and he glanced at the counter on his Assault Rifle, sixteen rounds left. The Sargeant set about collecting the tags of the dead Marines, one of the soldiers who had been next to Faust approached the destroyed wall section and popped a flare, dropping it to the ground, the blue smoke began to rise high into the air and soon several other plumes of blue smoke rose around the park area. Marcus walked over to a window and looked down upon the moonscape, dozens of Marines lay dead, several more were being carried into the restaurant that they had left from earlier, medics were heading over to them, but with Plasma burns the chances of survival were pretty slim, not because they were any different to any other burn, but because even though they were alive, the chances were, a direct hit in the chest area would cause breathing problems, and with extraction unlikely anytime soon, a lot of them would die. "Corporal" a voice called from behind, "we've found your Sargeant, she's over to the East at these co-ordinates" he said passing him a map, Marcus pulled his own map out of one of the pouches on his chest armour, he copied down the co-ordinates and handed back the Marines map, then set back to examining his own, he memorized the shortest route and set about trying to scrounge some more ammo. He was grateful that someone else had gone through the grim job of taking ammo from the dead, and so he approached the Marine handing out the munitions, being giving three extra magazines. If he got into a fight with an Elite he'd be screwed, but he couldn't be choosy about it. He went to see if he was needed elsewhere and when he was informed he wasn't he placed more biofoam into his leg, which had been bleeding the whole time, he took a seat and waited a couple of minutes for the pain to subside again, a medic came and checked him over, but due to the situation Marcus denied the offer of stitching, the biofoam would do until he could get proper medical attention, other people would need the medics attention more than him. When he felt his leg was good to go he set off East to rally with his own platoon.
Marcus scanned the rooftops, looking at the sixteen that glowed on his Rifle's ammo counter, he wanted to reload, a full magazine was better than a half full one, but the lack of spares made the need to conserve a priority, gun fire was once again echoing across the city. The streets of Utgard were long and wide, a common theme in colony worlds, to ensure the heavy lifting vehicles can get around for rapid construction, but now the war was here, it provided a major obstacle, there was limited cover except the odd abandoned car or destroyed military vehicles. Marcus approached a crossroads and felt uneasy, he placed himself on the corner of a building nearby and poked his head around, it was clear, and so he advanced, but he heard a loud rumbling coming from behind him, it was getting closer but he had nowhere to hide, he crouched down and raised his rifle, from round one of the corners a Warthog came speeding round, seeing the vehicle he quickly rolled to the side as it came skidding to a halt just a few meters away from him, "Hey Marine, need a lift?" one of the troopers shouted, it was an Army soldier, Marcus grinned and got up off the floor, he jogged over and hopped into the passenger seat. The ride was uncomfortable, but the Warthog wasn't designed for comfort, it was designed for speed and rapid transportation/assault depending on the variant, Marcus, thankfully, had been picked up by an M12 with a Mounted Machine Gun, and for that he felt relieved, he had speed and firepower on his side, and the troopers were heading to link up with his Division, he kept his eyes on the rooftops and the ruins though, but he allowed himself to sit back a little. Within ten minutes they had arrived at the positions of 1st Battalion, apparently the 5th were further down the line, ahead of them lay six destroyed wraith tanks. Marcus almost felt disappointed that he had missed out on the battle, but he had had his own fight and he wasn't feeling too eager to jump back into combat yet. "There you are, and in your very own Limousine of all things!" one of the Marines shouted to Marcus, it was Jacob Little, ironically he was actually six feet tall, but the Marines liked to call him 'titch' anyway, both as a mockery and as banter, "well what can I say?" Marcus shouted back, "I like to arrive in style!" he finished as he patted the side of the 'hog. Walking over to Titch's position, "how bad was it?" Marcus asked, "bad, after those big worm things came for us, we got trapped behind a load of rubble, we wanted to come back for you but we couldn't, so we carried on to the objective, as soon as we got here there were shade turrets on the rooftops, they gunned down six of us, the wraiths killed fourteen more with their cannons and the gunners killed seven, wounded fifteen, of those wounded three have since died. Alice is trying to get us reorganised to hold the ground we have, hence the Army troopers you'll see huddled around, and the reasoning behind why you got your own lift. She's got some of the higher ups to divert them to us, and thankfully they'll be coming with Cobra's, which will help us pound Covvie positions as well as provide us with some Anti-Fort capabilities, which we sorely needed earlier, what about you? Are the other Divisions holding up?" Titch replied, worry in his voice, and reasonably so, his brother was somewhere in the city and according to Titch, it was his first engagement. "I haven't seen your brother mate, if that's what you're asking, but I was with another division to the West, we stormed a Radio Broadcasting Station, it was alright until the final floor, a cloaked Elite killed four of the Marines before we got the bastard, two were decapitated, not a pretty sight, when the battle died down and the building was secure I looked down from the second floor, there must have been at least twenty to thirty dead, they were moving the wounded to a restaurant for shelter and aid, I don't know how many had already been moved inside but at least eighteen were still laying outside on stretchers. Fucking bloodbath, and when you look at the map, we barely have the outskirts" Marcus said disapprovingly. "You can say that again" Titch said, at that moment a convoy of Army forces rolled up, three Cobras, six Scorpion tanks and six transport Warthogs arrived, including the Army soldiers that were sat on the tanks, or swarming them by the looks of things, there were at least a hundred troopers coming to reinforce the Marines. Marcus and Titch looked over as Alice arrived to greet the CO of the Army Battalion here to join them. She had her mask over her face but her helmet hung across her chest, the straps wrapped around a bandoleer, but Marcus could just about see that she was worried, he wasn't going to bother her yet though, but whatever she knew, it must have been bad, especially if she requested such powerful equipment to reinforce their positions and that concerned Marcus.
As the minutes ticked by, Marcus found a damaged wall and sat himself down, he pulled his canteen from a pouch on his chest and took small sips of water, he wasn't much of a drinker but he wished he had some whiskey or bourbon to steady his nerves. As he glanced around the UNSC position he saw some of the artillery crews setting up their Cobra's, one had already begun firing and the loud thump of the M98 105mm railgun echoed across the stillness of the positions, every few seconds a new thump would signal the artillery's presence in the area, and as the other two Cobra's joined the thunderous chorus, Marcus almost felt sorry for the covvies who would be the target of the cannons giant shells. Titch and Alice made their way to the wall where he was sitting, so screwing the lid back on to his canteen and placing it into his pouch he grabbed his Assault Rifle and holstered it over his back, the mag lock keeping it safely in place against the back of his armour. "So what's the situation Sarge?" he asked as Alice approached him, "For the most part, we've secured the objectives we were sent to secure, the 112th had their arses handed to them, poor bastards were absolutely smashed by Wraiths, plasma turrets and Banshees as they approached their LZ, those who made it tried to take out the Wraiths like they were ordered but they took heavier casualties on the way to their objectives and were forced to fall back, we don't even know if they still exist at this point, contact was lost with them. We took out a good proportion of the artillery positions they set up, but unfortunately, they moved the rest of the Wraiths to the North East of the city, thankfully, out of range of us, but that means we're again stuck in a stalemate, we'll be advancing with the troopers in the morning, I'd say get some rest, but I reckon the Cobra's are going to keep us all awake" she replied, rubbing her eyes and sighing, clearly the pressure of command was taking its toll, she was in charge of what was left of an entire Division, about three hundred men and women, and to make matters worse, they're scattered between other Divisions in the city, attempting to regroup them and bring them back into the fold, not to mention the matter of the dead, she had to keep a record of them, and she knew she was going to be responsible for ensuring their families know... If they were even alive themselves.