NOCTURNE Base, Lumbar Mountains, Providence
December 1, 2557
Fighting non-stop for five straight hours.
Ross Pine was a sniper, being able to sit still for hours on end to take a perfect shot that had the potential to turn the tide of an entire battle. The SRS fifth generation sniper rifle he had in his hands shot super-velocity antimaterial rounds that effortlessly ripped through shields and dense Covenant armor alike.
Most snipers worked in duos, with one manning the rifle and the other using optics to spot and laze targets for termination. Spartan snipers could work as one, with their HUDs displaying up to twenty different targets. He could also sort them out by the distance, enemy type, who was more dangerous, etc.
Although today, every one of the targets was dangerous. The measure of that was different.
For five long hours, Eon and the small company of ODSTs fought bitterly over the entrance to the highway against a never ending wave of Council of Chieftain forces.
They had the advantage, with high ground and good positioning, they were able to funnel advancing Covenant into kill zones. Pine himself was already scanning the next oncoming groups and picking off whatever seemed valuable. He could only do it so much as next to him was forty rounds of sniper ammunition, all that he had left.
The ammo situation had seriously gotten worse.
Despite their advantage, the Spartans could easily hold their own against the more powerful brutes.
The ODSTs weren't so lucky.
Already in the attack, more than twenty had been killed and many more wounded. The enemy's numbers were just too great. If they didn't get help soon, it was going to be all over. Both the military and civilians would die, all to a group of fanatical bloodthirsty brutes.
That was not going to happen.
Like clockwork, Pine's crosshairs remained just slightly in front of an advancing brute captain. He saw no other high ranking Covenant officer in the area and deduced that he was in charge. Taking him out would prove to be a bit disastrous to whatever lesser troops happened to be in the area.
His finger firmly began to squeeze the trigger and the sniper cracked, blowing out a slug that snapped the brute's head clean off faster than the blink of an eye.
Down beneath him, Austal, Fowler and Bowman were at the action's center. The three of them were set apart behind destroyed warthogs and firing at whatever popped into sight whenever possible. Countless grunts and jackals tried to advance into the base, but were only met with barrages of overwhelming firepower. Pine and a pair of ODST sharpshooters were keeping the tougher brutes at bay from concealed sniping positions atop the tunnel. They hadn't seen any hunters, but the longer they took, the more likelihood they would show.
All of a sudden, the enemy density began to lighten and they soon ran on the defensive. The survivors quickly fell back as the brutes finally showed themselves to cover their retreat. Three phantoms arced across the sky before settling behind the cover of some large piles of overturned vehicles.
"The hell." Fowler growled as he loaded additional twelve gauge shells into his shotgun, "Covenant leaving again?"
Pine saw the phantoms ascend once more before departing towards the city, "They're heading back to the city. Orders?"
"Hold position and remain on guard outside." Bowman ordered, "Fowler, Austal with me. If I'm right, they'll be back and we both know what's coming."
"It's not every day you see Covenant on the run." Captain Sunil studied the scene at the tunnel entrance. Medical personnel were rushing gurneys with countless wounded ODSTs to the already crowded hospital section of the base, which had just finished tending to the last of the wounded civilians. The amount of supplies had been nearly exhausted, due to the thought of the Navy coming rather quickly. However, the help had yet to arrive and the wounded were continuing to be piled up.
"We have about twenty soldiers remaining," Bowman said, "Plus you, me, my team and Agent Adrian. Rest is all wounded or dead."
"Sir, if I may." Fowler added, "Those Covenant are going to mount one final assault with everything they have. If you thought that this fight was exhausting, trust me, they're far from done."
"We won't survive another night and they know it."
"What about assistance?" Sunil furrowed his brow in frustration.
"Still nothing." Another ODST said, "All attempts to make additional contact have ceased."
"We don't have a lot of options Captain. Any minute, the Covenant could come right back on our doorstep and I don't think even we could hold them off."
"I'm open for ideas." Sunil sighed, "Just wish I had figured out how desperate of a situation we were in earlier."
Austal put a hand on his shoulder, "There's a lot of things I wish I had done differently. A lot of them Captain. No sense dwelling on it now."
He nodded. "What's your plan?"
Fowler had never really given Bowman enough credit. He wasn't a risk taker or overly flashy leader, but every now and then, he had ideas that were insanely brilliant and stupid at the same time.
Austal and the ODSTs spent an hour rounding up all three hundred refugees and preparing to move them out. Night was still present over the skyline with the sun supposed to rise in two and a half hours. Several empty trucks were found deeper in the tunnel, which they would use to put all the civvies on for moving.
Inside the crowd, he could see all the kids and the two teachers they had rescued among them and received an enormous hug from nearly all of them. He spotted Gabrielle as well but this time kept to his job, despite what he and the rest of the men were about to do could very well get him killed. There would be time to reconcile later, if there was such an opportunity.
Under the cover of darkness, they had quietly evacuated everyone to head further down the roads away from the Covenant occupied territory. One of the slightly wounded ODSTs, Corporal McKnight had volunteered to take point and lead the way to a secondary rendezvous point Sunil had marked. In addition, Adrian would accompany him.
"You're the only means of defense for all these people." Bowman handed the young trooper an M41 Jackhammer Rocket Launcher next to their lead vehicle. "Hopefully we can draw the majority of Covenant to thinking we're still holed up in the base and they'll not think about a rather dirty flanking routine. If you run into trouble," He gestured to the weapons, "That's all you've got."
"I won't let you down." He gave a salute. "I promise."
Bowman chuckled, "You won't let me down. It'll be all these people."
The remaining twenty four soldiers returned to the front, taking position beside the spots where the enemy and their brothers had fallen. McKnight, Adrian and the civilians had departed an hour ago and were well away in the case they were overrun.
"I got movement." Pine reported. While the ODSTs had hid themselves in shadowy areas, the Spartans utilized their cloaking units and were at the very front. The Covenant would meet them first.
"Incoming. Eight phantoms on a vector in our direction. ETA about fifty seconds."
"I see them."
"Wait until the footmen are past us." Bowman told Austal and Fowler. There will be a chieftain leading the charge. This is it everyone. Those people we just saved are counting on us. It's our last stand. My team and I will go down fighting if we have to and I expect you to do the same. However, if it is not the case with you, speak up now and begin your journey through the tunnels. Nobody here will think any less of you."
No replies of anyone leaving.
"Good." Bowman gripped his rifle a little tighter, "Leave the chieftain for Austal, Fowler or myself. Concentrate on creating as much chaos as possible to disorganize the first wave. There'll be a second one and it will be even bigger."
By now, the Spartans saw the approaching figures of tall brutes, accompanied behind by the grunts. They moved briskly towards their position with the gorilla creatures barking orders to stay alert as they moved closer. In the center, they easily spotted the ornate headdress of the largest brute there, the chieftain. He clutched a T-33 LAAW fuel rod, a rather nasty Covenant explosive launcher that posed a serious threat to any Spartan.
"This Prophet of Clairvoyance really seems concerned about our capabilities if they're sending a chieftain to lead the first wave." Austal noted, "Are they going to send us three in the second?"
"Why would you say that man?!" Fowler snapped back, "Now there'll be even more than that."
"Guys." Bowman interjected, "Focus."
The chieftain sniffed the air and let out a loud roar, causing the troops to halt.
"They're stopping." One ODST Sergeant noted the obvious, "Think they found the trap?"
It appeared so, as he steadily stepped forward, pointing his fuel rod gun at anything that he thought moved. They were angry their quarry had escaped, but were also curious on why they had been offered zero resistance.
"Fuck it." Bowman muttered, "Let em have it!"
At once, the entire team primed one grenade each, lobbing it over in the general direction of the brute force.
A yelp of surprise erupted from the other side as the grenades all detonated at the same time. It sounded like a flurry of cannon shots.
Through the smoke, the chieftain had survived and now looked around, snarling with anger at whoever had made such a cheap attack. His shields sparked and the grenades had worn out the gold armor to a dull sheen.
At the same time, both Bowman and Austal thought the exact thing. Automatically decloaking, they squeezed the trigger on their weapons, aimed directly at the enormous Covenant leader. He snarled, bringing his gun to bear, but the bullets had punched straight through and he went down in a bloody heap.
The death of the chieftain was a big moral blow to the rest of the foot soldiers in the first wave. The brutes' leadership quickly deteriorated and some of the less experienced grunts began to flee the scene or suicide themselves by running into the open with armed plasma grenades. They were killed before even getting within shooting distance.
"Hold this position!" Bowman shouted to everyone, "Do not let the Covenant break through!"
Ammo became scarce. Fowler and Austal knew that the two of them had weapons that chewed through bullets pretty quickly, given that the former was very liberal towards dispensation of shells towards the tough brutes.
Austal was in the middle of trying to put down a raging brute when his rifle clicked empty.
Not the best time to run out of ammo. Without hesitation, the beast grabbed him in a bear hug squeezing too tight for his own comfort. Austal quickly freed his arm and slugged him in the stomach. The ape loosened his grip, causing the two of them to stumble at the highway's edge.
His last resort, the two Sting Knives were in his hands and he lunged forward, the blades biting into the shoulder muscles. It must have hurt because it let out a pained scream, but amazingly managed to hit Austal over the head, dazing him. Nevertheless, he gripped the knives in both hands, driving them deeper inside, blood gushing out from the slices.
The creature tried one last lame attempt to hit Austal, but the loss of so much blood had slowed movements and he even let it hit him, only to have the shields easily shrug off the blow before it finally collapsed. With a grunt, he yanked both knives out, the blades both soaked in dark red blood.
A sound alerted him, as well as everyone else. On hot approach were ten phantoms some of them carrying wraiths, accompanied by a squad of banshees.
No weapons, no ammo and surrounded by angry brutes, grunts and jackals.
Austal was never afraid of death before. Neither were the rest of the Spartans or ODSTs. It was all part of the job.
And he never got to say goodbye if he didn't even come back.
Something caught his eye, glowing orange. For a second he thought it was the rising sun, but it was still too dark for the dawn. The orange light came closer and suddenly more appeared in the distance.
The closest one slammed into a phantom, blooming a giant orange explosion. The other orange points found similar actions, targeting the banshees and phantoms closing on their position.
A roar of jet engines sounded over head.
Broadsword fighters.
Sounds of a different jet engine came from the other side as a stream of fire raked the highway where the Covenant were positioned. The pelican banked to the left to launch a missile barrage at the remaining brute attackers before moving off.
He had no conscious idea, but he was screaming at the top of his lungs. Similarly, everyone else having to endure the trials since the battle's beginning were experiencing similar euphoric expressions.
ODSTs were hugging, laughing and cheering as the help they had waited so long for, had finally arrived.
With reinforcements on hand, no longer were Eon on the defensive. It was time to tell the Covenant that this was humanity's world and they were here to take it back.
Time to switch gears and shut the books on this failed Covenant invasion. It's going to be tough, but Eon is nearly though! Glad the Navy finally got an opportunity to relieve our heroes!
Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate and to anyone shopping on Black Friday, may the sales be ever in your favor.
Thanks for reading and reviewing, you give my writing purpose.