New Addie, Providence

November 30, 2557

Austal's tears dripped on his armor and his mouth salivated at the sight before him. The secretions from his eyes were not from sadness however.

For thirty-six hours nonstop, the team had been fighting from Sierno to Adrian's CNRD base to here without any additional replenishment, save for bottles of water that had been miraculously spared from destruction. The respite was short-lived and the entire amount inside was practically two mouthfuls.

The two classes of kids plus their teachers were lucky to find a grocery store that had been sparsely raided in an attempt by civilians for survival supplies, but they still found weeks' worth of food still left. They had put it all together near the back storage areas along with the perishables in the meat lockers.

Marcus smiled, downing the rest of the water bottle that had been given to him by Katie, the younger of the teachers. If he had remembered, her cheeks had reddened when his hand curled around hers to accept the drink.

The water felt like first rain on a dry California day. The water was nonrecycled, having a nearly untraceable sweet flavor despite it unmodified. The fluid sluiced away at the unpleasant sticky coating lining his mouth. He was surprised that his dehydration didn't start a monster headache, which often occured before he was augmented.

Then came the food. Austal had never been happier to see a tray meal in his life. One of the kids, he recognized her to be the one he had shielded earlier led him to their food storage and he helped himself in two of such meal trays plus two fruit energy bars.

All of it was devoured in the span of ten minutes. A couple of children had been next to him, watching in awe. They had never seen someone ever eat a full meal in that short of a time span. He felt the energy from the food surge through him, recharging his body and clearing his mind from the hunger urges that growled in his stomach. Just the taste of the food from a civilian supermarket was enough to make his stomach long for more, as UNSC rations did not produce the same effect. Another thing the augmentations did to his body was to take the maximum possible nutrients out of food with minimal waste. It wasn't uncommon to see a Spartan having a five thousand calorie diet per day,

"Austal."

"Cap?"

"I need you at the storefront. We need to discuss our next move."

"On my way." Austal picked himself up and made his way over to the front.

Adrian and the rest of Eon had regrouped at the entrance with the older teacher. She introduced herself as Lizabeth and Bowman had to shut down a conversation Austal had initiated upon greeting.

"As much as I want to stay and help, we need to get going."

"Where are you heading?" Liz had asked.

"We're en route to the nearest UNSC stronghold in the Lumbar Mountain Range where we will await extraction and reinforcements to retake New Addie."

"What about us?"

"We're not going to leave you behind." Austal assured.

Bowman stepped in, "I'm not sure if we have a choice."

"What do you mean?"

"If you're all done bickering kids," Hades' voice drifted into their comms, "Tyrant, the Admiral and myself would like to chat."

"Give us five minutes and we'll be ready for further discussion." Bowman replied.

In three of those minutes, Eon was clustered around the side of the store bakery, sitting down beside one another. All food in that area was picked clean as if the entire store had packed up and departed. Surprisingly, there wasn't even a single crumb on the floor. Adrian had gone to stand guard by the clusters of children.

Bowman's tablet was positioned so that all four Spartans could have a view with the splitscreens in thirds, one of them had Tyrant, who had put a mug of coffee to his lips in an effort to stay awake at Reach's 0400 in the morning. The second had Hades, who now shaved his hair in a double Mohawk and he had his guitar, a wooden acoustic which drastically differed from his typical punk and rock designs. The final screen showed Admiral Brady. His form sat lazily in his command chair and like Tyrant, must've been working for more than sixteen hours without pause. It was most unusual to see a high ranking admiral with imperfections in his uniform. Just as much of a surprise was that he was still wearing it, over more comfortable clothing he likely had back in his own quarters.

"You all look like you could use a booster shot." Fowler quipped upon first glance.

Brady made a half-smile. "That scotch in my cabin is going to taste awful good when we're done."

"I look fine." Hades said, "Don't see why you had to make that snide remark Eon-Two."

"Gentlemen." Tyrant sounded a bit more stern than usual and Eon suspected it was from lack of sleep. Spartans were typically trained to run entire days without a single hour of sleep, but they were still people. Going without rest longer meant a temper got shorter. "Eon Lead, what's the situation?"

"We're holed up inside a grocery store about three miles east of downtown New Addie. We had been following a group of jackals and neutralized them, just as they had discovered a group of survivors. Thirty plus civilians in said location, two adults and the rest children."

"Good God!" Brady was certainly startled by the news, "How the hell did they evade brute patrols for so long?"

"No idea." Bowman himself couldn't believe it either, "They sought refuge in a grocery store and were only discovered."

"Sir," Ross Pine butted in, "If I may add; our way out to NOCTURNE base at the Lumbar mountains is heavily clogged. I saw numerous abandoned civvie vehicles on the highway in what seems to be a mass exodus. I don't think anyone's alive in that traffic, but our primary exfil route out of the city is shot, unless we find a way to clear it."

"Extraction by air is impossible." Bowman added, "Banshees and phantoms are prowling the sky and I've already seen two wraith class triple As during our entrance."

"You'll have to move fast. I need you to reinforce the ODST unit defending NOCTURNE, as their scouts are reporting an entire Covenant legion bearing down on their position and without your help, they won't stand a chance. It's being led by at least a dozen brute chieftains, two of them confirmed as targets Sabre and Torch."

"Unfortunately I can't provide any support from my end. We've got the brute ships cornered, save for the carrier and battleship and I don't see us attacking within days or suffering a significant loss here." Brady said, "I want to minimize casualties if we can and that means I can't send in assets to pull heat off you."

"We'll find a way Admiral. I appreciate the concern. I'll keep you all in the loop."

"Make it fast Eon. NOCTURNE is in danger of being overrun."

"So what's the plan?" Adrian asked when Eon had returned to the store's back area.

"Fowler, Pine and I are going to scout the area and see what available resources we have. I need you and Austal to put everyone else in a drill for an evacuation. There's no way we'll make it on foot out of the city and using vehicles is going to attract the entire Covenant armada over here."

"Don't worry about us." Austal said, "They'll be back and we'll be ready."

"Keep in touch." Bowman lobbed Adrian a spare comlink, "That one's already linked to the group channels. It's the only one I got."

"Alright here's the plan." Bowman huddled the trio together out in the streets. "Pine, you and I are going to scout around for any military assets. Everyone's low on ammo and we need some firepower if we're going to bust out of here in one piece. Fowler, head to the city centre and search for transport. There's no way we can get everyone out in one piece with just a couple of warthogs."

Fowler's acknowledgement light winked in response.

"Keep it safe out there. No idea how our opposition stacks but refrain from engaging unless absolutely necessary."

For the next hour, Bowman and Pine began triangulating brute outposts to determine the best route out of the city. The majority had been stationed around the perimeter, but the thick amount of hostiles made it impossible to locate weak points in the defensive line. It was just as efficient to take the highway out as it was to circle around to the northern area.

They had just finished watching a patrol when Fowler radioed in.

"I got transport. It's a city bus, more than enough to fit everyone."

"It operating?"

"I can hotwire it in no time."

"Hold position." Bowman ordered, "We haven't found military assets yet."

"What do you mean assets?" Fowler questioned, "You're not going to find UNSC stuff that's intact."

"That's right. We're looking to take one of the Covenant's toys."

Pine tapped him on the shoulder and pointed skyward. The droning sound of a phantom's engines was nearby and they saw a stark beam of a headlight attached to the primary nose cannon scanning around. It didn't appear to be searching for them and lazily drifted into view, however its cargo was what had caught the sniper's attention.

It could only be seen as a dark object that took up the entire undercarriage of the dropship, but there was no mistaking the crescent shaped front of the T-26 wraith tank.

"Austal, how's it going back there?"

"We're ready to move on your mark and it's all quiet on our end."

"Okay, I think I see what we're going to go after."

"Roger that."

The phantom settled down in another intersection just a block ahead and released the wraith into a small section where a pair of grunts with tools ambled over underneath the watchful eye of a brute dressed in a smeared light armor vest.

Scanning the area with his sniper, Pine pointed out two ghosts and a banshee nestled beside the tank. This was definitely a motor pool and likely served as a maintenance section. However it was puzzling to see so few vehicles being stationed there at the time. Were the majority aboard their ships? Or deployed elsewhere? Either way, Bowman had found himself being somewhat grateful. Few vehicles could mean that a rapid Covenant response could be slowed. There were no guarantees to this, as he had no idea how many other vehicles the brutes had in the area or how fast they'd mobilize a task force to take them out.

Might as well use the delay of a reaction to his advantage.

Signaling Pine to cover him, he slowly made his way closer to the motor pool. His HUD was lighting up with at least a dozen contacts, although it wasn't able to make out their signatures quite yet. He could only see two grunts and a brute mechanic. They were lightly armed, with plasma pistols and a spiker respectively.

The grunts began chattering in their native tongue, a chorus of gibberish along with an occasional squeal as they brandished tools and moved over to the ghosts. The brute kept an eye on them, although the view of the wraith was still in his peripherals.

"I got a visual on three more brutes just around the corner." Pine whispered.

He considered his options. There was a good chance they wouldn't know a Spartan was hijacking their tank and he could line up a shot to obliterate the remaining opposition.

That's what he would go for.

Now he bided his time. Even when night was when the Council of Chieftains made New Addie their own place for hunting grounds, the brutes were not spared in the fact that they too were susceptible to rest. The brute and two grunts were moving almost in a style to sleepwalkers, indicating that such rest hadn't been experienced in a while.

Time to extend their nap.

Raising his assault rifle, he let out a long stream of automatic fire. The suppressor mounted on the barrel muffled his shots to simple muted thumping sounds. The bullets however, never lost their lethality, tearing straight through the backs of one grunt and rupturing the tank of the second. A sickly green gas hissed out of the breaches and the grunt made a wheezing sound before toppling over, dead.

The brute had been bent over on the outer hull of the wraith, peering inside the cockpit. Just as he sensed something happened to his grunt accomplices, Bowman had silently leapt onto the tank, reared back his fist and slugged the brute in the back of the head. The furry creature roared in surprise, but had no time to act as the Spartan grabbed the tank's armored canopy and slammed it shut, clamping the brute's head in between the door.

Remarkably, with its strength, the skull hadn't been lopped off in the attempt, but it certainly killed it.

"That was pretty fucking badass." Pine said.

"Fowler, you there?"

"Yeah."

"Alright. Start the hotwire and get the bus back to the store in five minutes. I'll be right behind."

"You got it Cap."

"Austal, this is Bowman. We're all en route back with a wraith and a bus for transport. Get everyone ready for a hot evac. All hell is about to break loose as soon as we start our vehicles. I want to be as far ahead as possible."

"Roger."

It was only a matter of time before the rest of the motor pool's staff noticed the deaths and they were about to find out, as soon as Bowman turned on the wraith.

"Alright here goes."

He settled himself in the driver's canopy and flipped the engine on.

Now for the awesome dash back to the store and getting the hell out of the city!

Thanks for reading and reviewing. You give my writing purpose.