Lumbar Mountains, Providence
November 30, 2557
Just visible outside the windows were the greenish glow lights of a phantom dropship approaching at a nine o clock vector. Flanking it were a pair of banshees that broke off and moved towards the rear of their convoy. Immediately, Adrian tossed Austal one of the spikers and they both aimed at the twin flyers on their six. Fowler's dubbed "hot nail gun" was fairly obsolete against two banshees flying just behind the convoy.
"Cap, we got more problems on our twelve." Fowler said from the wraith just ahead, "Hostile armor."
"They were waiting for us." Bowman muttered. It was too far for NOCTURNE to help, but he could at least get them to put down their pursuers, "This is Captain Jake Bowman of Spartan Fireteam Eon to NOCTURNE? Does anyone read?"
The line remained silent for about ten seconds before he suddenly heard a ping on the other end, "This is Captain Sunil of the 105th Shock Troops Division. I read you captain." The voice had a slight Indian accent.
"Sunil, we're inbound on the Mountain Highway heading on your one zero vector. We have multiple civilians onboard and hostiles are in hot pursuit and blocking our exit."
"I have a reading on your location Captain Bowman, however I cannot divert assistance. NOCTURNE is under attack from brute forces and all hands are currently in process of repelling the invaders. All wheels and birds are down and you're out of ordinance effective range."
"Understood." Bowman groaned in frustration, "Captain, prep your medical crew and accommodations for twenty plus civvies."
"We are critically short of medical supplies and only have two combat medics."
Two medics? Austal and Adrian shot him a puzzled look.
"How many of the 105th were deployed?"
"Originally seventy with over three hundred civilians, but relentless brute attacks have dwindled our force to twenty six."
"Understood." Bowman said, "We should be there in fifteen mikes."
"Incoming!"
No sooner than when Pine shouted that, everyone crouched low and heard the whoosing sound. Twin comets arced down before splashing onto the concrete where the bus had been a second earlier. They had vaporized a sizeable amount of the concrete highway and crashed with a deafening roar. Screams came from the civilians as they were thrust into yet, another panic situation.
In front of them, the three pronged mortar cannon on Fowler's wraith contracted, sending a purple blob of plasma into the air. The target wraith shifted sideways, having plenty of time to move out of the mortar's path.
"The alien ship!" The Spartans heard Katie exclaim and pointed towards the back, "It's right over the bus!"
Sure enough, the phantom's pilot had set their speed nearly equal to that of the bus, giving it parallel to the vehicle. The banshees were not too far behind and they let loose a strafe of plasma that peppered the rear. Had it not been for the Spartans' presence, the civilians would have descended into complete chaos.
Bowman doubted that he would remain in control of the situation much longer, but he knew one fact.
"Fowler, keep just ahead of the bus Blast any cars blocking our way."
"Are you crazy Captain? Want those wraiths up ahead to blow the both of us up?"
"Trust me, they won't." He looked up at the roof, which was where a loud bang suddenly occurred as something slammed on top. "Not while they're boarding."
Austal was at the rear of the bus, returning fire with the spiker at the banshees. Even with the pathetic range, the twin purple flyers weaved around as if taunting his inability to hit them.
The gun clicked empty and he let out an annoyed growl. Another salvo from the banshees impacted his shields, causing them to glow bright orange and he put up his gloved hands to help shield himself from the heat.
"Please Mr. Army guy," He heard a plea from the corner and turned around. Three kids were a couple of seats in front, all huddled together with terrified eyes. Even they were beginning to sense the inevitable. "Don't let the scary aliens hurt us."
He felt a tiny hand slip into his and he lightly squeezed it.
Movement to his left suddenly brought him back to attention as an enormous three-fingered hand clasped the edge of the window port. Its long fingernails dug into the bus' side and it pulled, trying to rip off a section.
Austal ran over, grabbing the hand himself and giving a savage yank downwards. Caught off guard, the brute had no time to react as he fell to the ground and tumbled away on the road.
"Austal with me." Bowman tossed him the plasma cannon, "Up on the roof."
Both Spartans hauled themselves to the windows and looked up at the phantom keeping pace just behind them. The craft had six jump pack brutes hanging on the sides, all watching the Spartans' moves with bristled enthusiasm. As soon as the Spartans were up top, they were easy pickings.
Just before Austal could heave himself up on the roof of the bus, he gave a quick glance at the kids. They too, were watching what he was doing.
"Be careful okay?" Katie said.
He nodded before putting the plasma cannon down and leapt on top. His magnetic boots activated with a clicking sound, securing himself atop the moving vehicle.
Bowman wasn't so lucky. As soon as he had gotten up, a large meaty foot stamped down on his fingers, causing him to visibly wince.
The beast as half a ton in weight, nearly equivalent to his own when he was in armor and it sent jarring pain straight to his brain. He gave them a wiggle to try and free, but it only made his assailant push harder.
Eyeing his prey with pleasure, the brute held a small revolver pistol to his hand. The mauler had a blast similar to a shotgun that was more than enough to blow his fingers off his arm.
With his free hand, Bowman quickly grabbed his knife and rammed it as hard as he could into the brute's foot that kept him pinned. It gave a howl in pain and fired the gun, causing his shields to flare. It gave him the feeling of pebbles hitting him head-on. Using his own position and the brute's balance against it, he pulled backwards to the edge.
Still briefly not able to catch himself, the brute careened over the side and vanished from his sight. HE gave a slight smile up front as Fowler launched another mortar at one of the wraiths, causing it to explode in a brilliant white fireball.
The second wraith backed away just as Fowler released another mortar that missed. It saw its comrade fall at a close range and wasn't going to give the volatile Spartan that edge again. Instead, it moved to the side, trying to get a good shot at him without risking hitting its comrades on the bus.
Bowman suddenly felt himself lifted into the air as a jarring force seized him in his armpits. Through his visor, he saw that the bus was getting farther away and turned around.
That brute he had tossed off the bus had activated its jump pack before it could plunge into a high-speed death and went straight for the bus, intent on making him regret putting a shell through the Spartan's hand.
Bowman rammed his elbow backwards, catching the furry beast in the face and spewing dark red blood all over his armor. The tenacious grip refused to loosen on his waist so he performed the same attack again. No avail, the brute held him like a moray eel.
Down below, Austal had dispatched the final jump pack brute with a plasma repeater when a massive armored one leapt onto the Phantom to confront him. He must've been a chieftain as when he had impacted the roof; it had partially buckled, causing the bus to sway slightly. No doubt everyone inside was scared out of their wits. His HUD suddenly lit up and he recognized the chieftain.
Ferrus, codenamed: CLOUD by the UNSC as one of the seven Council of Chieftains. He specialized in jetpacks and aerial combat. All his dossier had said about him was danger, danger and more danger.
Ferrus charged forward, letting out a wild volley of fire from two plasma repeaters, one in each hand. The fire overloaded Austal's shields and his best efforts to dodge had failed. He stumbled back before disappearing through the bus' window.
Bowman fumbled in the grip, trying to break hold, but then he realized that he would be splattered like a bug if he fell from this height. Time to change things up.
He constantly felt the brute's waist for any grenades, but only found the mauler pistol, which the two of them were now fighting over.
Fortunately for him, the brute wasn't as strong as he expected and he forced the muzzle of the mauler up his jaw. Still having his finger on the trigger, the brute felt Bowman use it to pull. A shot was suddenly discharged, jerking the brute remnants of his head sideways.
He then unstrapped the jump pack harness, letting the lifeless body free fall to the road and slid into it as best he could. The bus was just below him and he needed a quick descent.
Back on the bus, Austal used his momentum of falling down to traverse underneath to the other side. Like in the spy holonet movies, he emerged just as quickly as he had entered. Holding his own plasma cannon underhand, he squeezed the trigger, spraying the chieftain with white hot plasma.
Caught off guard, Ferrus lost grip on one of his weapons and returned fire with the second one, holding it with both hands made it look like a toy.
Austal knew that a hand to hand fight with a hunter left him barely alive, so therefore he needed his own advantage over a muscular brute chieftain.
He had seen another brute take Bowman into the air and begin their own scuffle and knew that it was a ploy to keep a one vs one against Ferrus.
Glowing in ceremonial bluish armor with ornate markings and blended with ribbons of symbols, the beast charged forward, crashing into Austal and their momentum sent them tumbling straight onto the bus' engine hood. Unseen by them, Ross Pine jumped in his seat at the sudden impact and he knew that Austal was in trouble. The fact that Bowman hadn't come to his rescue meant he was occupied with a predicament of his own.
"Take over!" He shouted to Adrian, who was still at the bus' rear. Without waiting for her reply, he kicked out the front windshield, pulling his sidearm out of his holster. Checking the magazine on his HUD, he saw he only had eight rounds left.
Ferrus swung his hammerlike arm, which Austal managed to catch using both of his. Before he could mount a counterattack, the chieftain used lightning speed and suddenly flipped the Spartan over on the bottom. With his free hand, he removed a wicked curved knife, bringing it down towards his exposed stomach.
Austal caught the blow, the silver tip of the blade mere inches from carving through his stomach. His hands shook as he fought off the immense strength by his adversary. Ferrus on the other hand, seemed to relish in the struggle, giving a roar of triumph.
The knife easily pierced his shields and went straight through the suit. Blood began to spring up from the wound even as Austal continued to try and fight off the onslaught.
Peering out, Pine emptied his magnum into the chieftain with all shots glancing off his shielded armor. The chieftain snarled and for a second took his attention off Austal.
It would prove costly for him.
With a grunt, Austal jerked the knife out of his body, wincing noticeably from the pain and jammed it inside one of Ferrus' armor gaps at the back of his knee. He saw Pine was about to intervene and made up a plan of attack in a millisecond.
The damn ape barely even flinched, considering its awesome threshold to pain amounts. However it was just enough for Austal to snag the plasma repeater out of his hands. As Ferrus reached over to get it back, Austal one-handedly slung it backwards.
Seeing what he had in mind, Pine snatched it out of mid-air and let loose a barrage of plasma that was aimed straight for the chieftain's face. It snarled and screamed as the bolts splashed over its overloaded shield and bypassed his armor.
The chieftain's face wasn't even recognizable by the time the automatic gun had slowed down its rate of fire. Pine realized that he had squeezed the trigger at full force, continuing to shoot the chieftain's corpse long after he was dead.
A loud boom shook him from his thoughts and he tossed the depleted weapon out of the window. Even through the armor, he could feel the buildup of excess heat warming his wrists. Fowler saw an opportunity and had rammed a large truck in between his and the enemy wraith. The Covenant controlled one had the unfortunate side of being pinned in the truck and a long drop past the buckling concrete barrier. The wraith's engine whined to a higher pitch as her driver put the boosters on maximum output, but Fowler was gradually gaining ground towards the edge.
Tipping upwards, the enemy wraith fired a stray mortar that was aimed ridiculously off course. Fowler punched the boosters again and this time the truck suddenly began to collapse, but it did the trick.
With an animalistic howl, the brute driver and his wraith tank disappeared from sight, plunging over the edge where they heard a gut wrenching screech, followed seconds later by another bang. Wraith number two; taken care of.
"Target Cloud down. You okay?" Austal asked, settling back inside the main cabin.
Pine nodded, "I should be asking you that?" He pointed to the wound on his stomach which still had blood dripping from it.
Another thud interrupted everyone's thoughts. Bowman.
Austal saw an armored hand reach from above his seat. "Grenades."
Nobody had any grenades on them…except.
He scooped up the brute shot and opened its ejection port. "Aha!"
Taking out the belt of six grenades, he handed it over. "What's your plan?"
"Just watch." Bowman replied annoyed, "Fowler, you watching?"
"How am I supposed to watch and drive at the same time?"
"Cause you'll love this." He took off the jump pack and looked back at the phantom keeping pace just behind the bus. Strangely, it never fired its plasma cannon ever since it began pursuit. Either it was toying with them or there for a different reason. Strapping the grenades in the harness, he activated the jetpack, aimed as best he could and then let it fly.
Of course, this was a wild crazy idea he had come up with in the last two minutes and here he was about to pull it off…hopefully.
The jetpack sailed right over the phantom and disappeared. A second later, purple fire erupted from her rear and an explosion tore through her engines. Slowly, the giant aircraft descended down at full speed until it hit the concrete with a solid crunch and skidded to a halt in flames.
Down below, he heard everyone inside cheer loudly at his stunt and he found himself grinning like an idiot.
"Captain that was insane!" Austal sounded extremely enthusiastic, "Where did you get that idea?"
"Just popped into my head." Bowman ducked through the window. Actually he had gotten it from an inspiration by a Spartan that had lost his life because an explosive had damaged his pack while operating in zero-G during the Battle of Reach.
"First Austal gets into a tangle with a hunter inside a freezer, now the Cap decides to tie grenades on a jetpack and lob it at a phantom!" There went Fowler again. "How come my crazy stunts don't work like that?"
The wraith and the battered bus had reached the highway's end and the beginning to NOCTURNE base when the red sun began to peek over the horizon, bathing the sky in a beautiful pink color. A few clouds drifted lazily above. The large shadow over New Addie indicated the Covenant battleship Abdicated Fortitude was holding position nearby.
The base was off the highway, a separate path from the tunnels and dug into the face of the cliffs. Snow had done a light dusting overnight and the air was noticeably colder than when they had left.
Preceding the base were a series of concrete barricades chipped, burnt and damaged from a recent attack. Further adding to the battle were corpses, both Covenant and the black armored ODSTs. A couple of them were milling around, gathering their own dead and scavenging what they could.
Hearing their approach, they raised their weapons at the wraith, still a bit reminiscing of such tanks rolling in their direction on the highway.
Fowler shut off the engine and climbed out, stretching his limbs. Seeing a Spartan, the two ODSTs relaxed and lowered their rifles.
"Spartan? Man, the captain's gonna be glad to see you."
"Multiple Spartans." Bowman said as he opened the door for the bus, "Multiple civilians. Lots of us wounded."
"Captain Bowman." The voice he had heard over the radio came from another ODST emerging from the main garage of the base. He stuck out his hand, "Captain Sunil, 105th. Good to meet you in person."
"You have no idea how happy I am to see additional UNSC forces right now."
Hauled into the concrete walled medical ward, Fowler gently laid Austal on a chair and began to work at the black undersuit that had been stained with blood. Fortunately it had clotted and stopped leaking, but he knew that it was in danger of getting infected if it wasn't treated too.
He accepted a volunteer's lending of medical supplies and filled the cavity with biofoam.
"Thanks."
"That's twice you owe me. Soon as you're patched up, Captain wants us to meet with their head." Fowler gave a smirk before taking his leave.
Austal removed his helmet and found himself subconsciously rubbing where Ferrus had stabbed him. It still hurt and throbbed enough to seriously impede his thought processes. He needed painkillers.
A volunteer was tending to another wounded civilian and some of the kids with scrapes and bruises from the bus ride had also come in to be tended.
"Excuse me-" He was interrupted when she had turned around, bumping right into his armor. He reached out before she could fall and gently steadied her by the shoulders. It almost took an effort to not use force especially after having a lethal mindset for days on end.
Something about her was…familiar. Then he saw her face.
His helmet was off, giving Gabrielle Addison a good look at the Spartan who had grabbed ahold of her shoulders. His gray eyes narrowed and he looked just as surprised as she did.
"What the HELL are you doing here?"
Things are about to get ugly again.
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