A/N: This chapter's so long because it's a flashback of John's escape from his home planet, so bear with me. And sorry I haven't updated in forever... I blame WoW.
Chapter 14 – 0745 Hours – Year 2534
That's the last one for today, I thought. Now it's time for school. "Guys, you can come down now," I yelled. My friends came down and I gave them each a weapon. "These are the guns I've been training you with. It's up to us to protect the other students. If I'm right, they'll underestimate us and send their weak groups. These guns may not be as good as the ones the Marines use, but they can still do serious damage." I had made assault rifles, snipers, machine guns and explosives out of scrap materials and my dad's old stuff. We all wore big jackets to hide our guns. I took an M16 and a Glock 18.
Just as I expected, the Covenant attacked our private school. Also, just as I expected, they sent these short weak aliens to fight us. We caught them off guard and killed lots of them before they knew how great a threat we were. I was proud of my creations when I saw what they could do. Several students were killed before we attacked, but we saved many more. Once our battle was over, we began salvaging weapons from the Covenant. I found a radio and heard reports of bombings on the fort.
"Men, get the civilians to safety. James, give me that sniper," I ordered. I took an M24 bolt-action rifle from him and ran to a building near the base. I saw more of the things we had killed at the school and some taller, more dangerous aliens with shields. I brought one of the little things into my sights and fired, piercing its little skull. The report got the attention of the others, so they started firing at my position. Luckily, their shots dissipated before they got to me. I kept picking them off until a squad of my soldiers got to me and made me retreat.
"What the hell were you guys doing? I was picking them off easily until you guys got there," I yelled.
"John, they were sending guys to flank you. We had to get you away before they killed you," Ethan replied. "We need you so we even have a chance of surviving." I heard my friend Karen running at me, so I turned to face her. She hugged me so tight I couldn't breathe.
"Oh my God, John, thank goodness you're okay," she said. "Oh, I found this with your name on it." She handed me a note. I opened it and it was from my dad. It said:
Dear John,
If you're reading this, then your mother and I have been killed by the Covenant. I want for you to save everyone you can and to get out of the area. Do not try to get revenge for our deaths, because we want for you to live as long as possible. Enclosed is a map to get to some vehicles I have hidden. Use them to get to our country home and stay there until the UNSC comes here. There are further instructions at the house. I have stocked up plenty of weapons and other supplies, so you should be able to survive. Use them how you want, but don't get revenge for our deaths. That's an order, soldier.
"New orders, men. Gather our supplies and move to location Foxtrot Fife. We'll use the vehicles there to find a new base," I shouted. I heard several hoo-ah's, but Ethan stayed to ask me something.
"John, you're not going to get revenge, are you? You have an order not to," he said. I was reloading my M24 as he said that.
"He's retired and I'm not a soldier. You know how I'm a fan of the 21st century, right?" I responded.
"Yeah, that's where you got the ideas for these guns."
"You remember when we saw the movie The Punisher?"
"Yeah, that movie rocked, but I don't see how that matters."
"Well, this won't be revenge. It'll be punishment for all they've done and everyone they've killed. I won't go looking for them, but l feel sorry for the next poor Covenant bastard that gets in my way." I cocked the rifle and led my group to the warehouses that were Foxtrot Fife.
We decided to take the long but stealthy route, which involved circling the entire city and going from building to building. Most people got tired, so we stopped to rest several times. While they rested I went through the buildings looking for possible weapons. As I was going up the stairs I spotted several marks of plasma shots on the walls. Good, I thought, this means I might find some weapons. I continued up and heard some noise that didn't sound human, so I drew my Glock and made sure it was loaded. I turned it to automatic and cautiously proceeded towards the noise.
I put my back to the wall beside the doorway and pulled out a mirror. I looked around the corner and saw two aliens my size that had shields. They were looking the other way, so I put my gun away and crept up behind them. I grabbed a big shard of glass off of the ground and stabbed the first one in the back of its head while covering its mouth. The alien's gun hit the ground, alerting the other one. I tackled the other one, took its gun and shot it in the face. The plasma melted through the alien's skull and its body went limp.
"Platoon, this is Henson. Come in, over," I whispered on the radio.
"I read you, John. Go ahead," Ethan replied.
"I've got two tangos down, unsure if more are present. Get the platoon ready for possible engagement."
"Roger that. Over and out." Now that the others were aware of the situation I felt better, but I was still worried. I then heard the aliens' radio come on and I heard a deep alien voice speaking that sounded like those shielded aliens. I couldn't understand what it was saying, but it tried to reach the two aliens again.
"Oh shit," I muttered to myself. "Ethan, I've got multiple contacts in an unconfirmed location. Be prepared for an assault and take up defensive positions, but stay quiet. Over"
"Damn. You have no idea where they are?" Ethan replied.
"No idea, but I think they might be on my level." The deep voice came on the radio, but it sounded angry this time. "I think they're coming for me, so hold your position. Maintain radio silence." I climbed onto a bookcase near the door and drew my Glock again. Remember, I thought, the key to victory is the element of surprise. The alien with the deep voice walked in, unaware of my presence. "Surprise!" I yelled. Before it had turned around I had taken its shield down and was aiming the shots at its head. It tried to raise its rifle but it was dead by then. I jumped down and pulled my M24 off of my back. I removed the safety and peeked into the hall.
I saw some of those little fat aliens come out and decided they weren't worth a sniper shot. I put the rifle back and drew my pistol again. Setting it to single-shot, I started aiming for their heads and firing. All five of them died with the last five rounds in my clip, so I hit the release and put in a new one. Judging that the threat was gone I resumed my search for weapons. I started by putting the alien guns into my duffel bag, and then I saw a big red blood smear behind some tables with holes in them. I investigated to find a dead man, still hanging on to his MA5B. I saluted him and then relieved him of his rifle and ammo. There were three empty magazines and other dead aliens in the room, so I knew he had put up a fight. Slapping a fresh magazine into the rifle, I resumed searching for guns.
"Henson, what's going on up there?" Ethan radioed.
"Didn't I say maintain radio silence?" I asked.
"Yeah, but when you say that it means you're getting into a firefight really soon. I assumed you were done and the others are worried about you." I had gotten all the guns on the last stories of the building, so I was on my way down again.
"I'm fine, just had a little run-in with some aliens. I've found some more weapons, so have those who need one to get by the stairs."
"They're already there, dude. What all did you find?"
"An alien rifle, seven alien pistols, thirteen alien grenades, two alien shields and an alien shield system for me. I also found an MA5B, an M90 shotgun, ammo for each and two frags." I had activated the shield system and, surprisingly, it worked without the armor. It was very close to my skin so that I could still pick stuff up. It felt kind of cold, but it also felt relaxing. But that might have been due to the fact that I was now even with those tall sons of bitches.
I pulled two alien grenades out and dropped the bag so those guys could sort it out themselves. I walked over to Ethan and started talking to him.
"Have you chosen our route from here?" I asked.
"Yeah. The town center's nearby, so I was thinking that we could raid it for food. It might be dangerous, but several people have been complaining about being hungry. They stopped when they listened to our last conversation, though," he replied. "Earlier it seemed like they followed you because you had guns, but now it seems like they actually believe you can get them out of this."
"Then let's not let them down. I didn't see any nearby aliens, but we should still be careful. Have everyone get ready to move out." He went and told everyone to get ready to leave. I made sure my guns were fully loaded, and then I looked outside to ensure the absence of aliens. It was all clear, so we slowly made our way to the town center. Once in we found several vending machines that still had food in them.
"Listen up, everyone. Sort the food so that everyone gets the same amount, and everyone needs to eat something. If you don't eat it, take it with you. Don't leave any trash on the ground in case those damn aliens come here. You can talk some, but try to stay quiet," I ordered. I sent some lookouts to make sure that we were alone. Looking around I saw some people playing cards, some were checking their guns, and others just sat there quietly eating.
"How far are we from the destination?" I asked Ethan.
"We're about ten miles from it. I think everyone's too tired to go that far for today. Maybe we should stay the night here," he replied.
"I don't know. If we make it there today, only a few people have to stay awake, which is what it would be like if we stayed here. They're tired, but after eating they should have enough energy to make it there."
"That's at least ten more hours of walking, and you have to remember that none of us are conditioned like you are. They need to rest, but they're willing to go if you tell them to." I looked at my watch and it read 19:16.
"We'll rest here until midnight and then continue to the objective. Find volunteers or choose victims for first watch, it doesn't matter to me. I'm going to search the place some more." Hopefully I'll find a map of the building and maybe some more supplies, I thought. The main office was nearby, so I started there. I found only office supplies, but there was a map of the building on the wall. I took a picture of it with my PDA and took the map itself back to the group.
"Set up an effective defense. I'm going to keep looking," I said as I set the map down. Ethan acknowledged and I returned to my search. I went to the security station, judging that it was the most likely place to find weapons. All I found was three riot batons, ten tear gas grenades, six smoke grenades and four riot shields. Heh, I thought, some retard took a baton but no shield. I put the stuff into a duffel bag and went to the supply room, searching the other rooms I passed.
Once in I saw that I wasn't the first in here. Shelves were knocked over and open boxes were all over the ground. I obviously wasn't the first party to come in here. I spotted four MA5B's and four M90's laying near one crate. In the one beside it there was plenty of ammo for each. I don't see why the aliens don't take these, I thought as I packed them, because they kick their asses and that means they'd tear us up. Oh well, it's their loss. I finished searching the building and the only other things I found were two MA2B's on dead bodies.
I went back to our camp to check on the status of our defenses. "You have a perimeter set?" I asked.
"Yeah, eight people volunteered to be on the lookout and the nearby streets are clear. Everyone has a gun, so we don't really need those," Ethan said.
"I'll have some people dual-wield. Anyone with a small weapon, come over here." Once the group was here I took some people's guns and gave them bigger rifles. Those who still had small guns got two. I stuck with my weapons. "Anyone who hasn't been given a job needs to get some sleep. We won't rest again until we're at the objective." I pulled my M24 out and went up to the highest point of the building so that I could spot hostiles and give the group plenty of warning.
I'm going to be sitting here for four more hours, I thought. Instead of wasting those hours, I began to disassemble my weapons. It was then that I realized that I took the M24 from James, but I didn't give him the M16. Then I remembered that I gave him an MA5B not too long ago, so no harm done. I cleaned the M24 first so that it would be ready in case I spotted enemies. Then came the M16, which was relatively easy to clean since I had hardly used it. The Glock was much more dirty, but still mostly clean, since I had used a few magazines with it. Completely cleaning all three and my gear took about an hour, and there were no signs of aliens. I radioed in to check on the group.
"Ethan, give me a sit rep. Over," I radioed.
"This is Ethan. Almost everyone's asleep and the guards haven't seen a thing. Seeing everyone asleep kind of makes me forget about this war and think it's like a lock-in or something." he responded.
"I wish we weren't in the war and that it was a lock-in. I hope it stays quiet down there, because I haven't seen a thing, either."
"Hey John. Can I ask you a question?"
"Didn't give me much choice, but I'm assuming you want to ask another. Go ahead."
"What happens after we get to the objective?" I had to think for a moment.
"I really don't know. There should be more instructions when we get there, so let's just focus on getting there."
"You got it. You staying up the whole time?"
"Yeah, I have a bigger range of view than the others. Get some sleep, ok?"
"Okay, I guess I'll try. Good night." The radio clicked off. I started thinking, and it dawned on me that all they have left is each other and me. They're all counting on me to get them out of this because I'm the last one left for them to rally behind. I set my M24 down and got my M16 since its scope had night vision. I removed the magazine since I was recon only and I'd have time to reload if I had to shoot something. Just in case, I left the 40mm grenade in the M203 that was attached to the bottom of the rifle. I also put the silencer on, so that if I did need to shoot it wouldn't bother the others.
Around 2218 a small party of aliens came into sight. I found it hard to believe that they still used flashlights, but they were extremely bright which led me to disengage my night vision. Stupid sons of bitches are giving their positions away by using those things, I thought. That or they're confident that we're not a threat. They shined it at all the nearby buildings to check for snipers. Luckily, they didn't shine it in my direction. They moved along after a few minutes, so I let out a sigh of relief.
I checked my watch and it finally said 0000, so I went back downstairs to wake everyone up. While I was going down I radioed ahead to the group to wake up. There were still some asleep when I got there, so I gave them a "special" wake up, which consisted of quite a bit of pain on the receiving end. I had to cover their mouths to prevent possible detection.
"Glad to see that you're all awake and feeling better," I said. "I take that back; glad to see you're all awake. We have a plan laid out to follow, so let's move out." We left the building quietly and cautiously, which proved difficult because some people were still half-asleep. That problem was solved by a quick melee to the head. As we were going our forward scouts came back panicking. I knew it was contact.
"John, we've spotted a large group of entrenched aliens. It looks like a makeshift base and they have turrets all over the place," the first one said as I tried to calm him down.
"That's not a problem. Ethan, calculate an alternate route. I don't want to fight them if I don't have to," I ordered. He pulled out a small copy of the map and began planning. "Let's head into this building for now." I pulled up the building plans for it on my PDA and sent small groups to the most effective defensive positions. "How long is it gonna take?"
"Ten, maybe twenty minutes. It was hard enough to plan this route, and I never thought they would set up here. It's just not a good spot to defend if the city were to be attacked from the outside. The only reason those bastards would choose this spot is if they knew we were coming," Ethan answered.
"Dammit, they must have used those invisible ones. Sons of bitches snuck right past us and listened to your plan. Plot the quickest route through the city."
"Are you crazy? That's up Main Street. We'll be mowed down in seconds."
"Not with their firepower based here. It's the place they should have their weakest defenses at. How far is it from here?"
"About three minutes from here."
"Good. Men, rally at the entry point. We're moving out." I got some yes sir's back. "These things are really starting to piss me off!" Once they were down we moved out undetected. After a few minutes we got to Main Street, which had vehicles all over it. Some had keys in them, so we drove them down the street to the objective. Luckily, we encountered no resistance. We knocked the windows out so that we could shoot if we needed to.
Every now and then I had the cars stop so that I could look ahead. It was a good thing I did that, because I saw an alien roadblock. It wasn't too heavily fortified, so I considered taking it out. I went back to the group and formulated a battle plan.
"Everyone with silencers, scopes and night vision, come over here. You three, go to the roof of that building. You three, go up top of that one. The three of us will go up this one," I ordered. Once we were all on top of our buildings we acquired targets. There were only four little ones and a big one, so four people shot them and the other five of us concentrated our fire on the big one. They didn't have time to call for help before they died, so we moved up to the roadblock quietly. We go their weapons and moved on. Right before we left, I heard an alien radio click on. Shit, I thought, they'll know something's wrong. "Move out now! Get to the objective as soon as possible!" I yelled. Everyone ran to their cars and drove off. Oh damn, I thought, I'm not in any of those cars.
I ducked into the nearest building and tried to radio the group, only to realize that Ethan had my radio. Armed with my M24, M16, Glock 18 and a Plasma Rifle, I began wondering if I would make it out of this alive. This sucks ass, I thought, because fortune is supposed to favor the bold. Time to see if I'm bold enough to gain Lady Fortune's favor.
I readied my M16 in case I was spotted because it was the most effective weapon I had at this range. I was breathing heavily and my pulse was racing. I looked over the counter I was hiding behind with my mirror and saw one of the shielded aliens, only he was wearing golden armor. He must be strong, I thought, and his shield must be, too. I was in a shadow, so it couldn't see me in or the mirror. It started walking into the building that I was hiding in.
I began to raise my rifle and moved to turn the safety off. Hold your fire, I thought, because he might not know you're here and if you shoot they'll all know you're here. I moved my finger away from the trigger and tried to relax. After what seemed like hours, it walked away. I closed my eyes in relief. I looked over the counter again and saw that they were still out there, but the gold alien was gone. I moved to the back door and got out of the building. As I quietly closed the door behind me I heard a very high-pitched energy sound. I turned around to be greeted my Mr. Goldy and his energy sword.
"So, you are the human that has been causing so much trouble," it said in perfect English. "Surprised? Any good hunter studies its prey in order to more efficiently kill it. I must commend you for being able to kill an Elite, but the blue ones are the weakest and have been killed by your pathetic race before. Now, it is your turn to die. Any last words?" I chuckled a little.
"Not yet," I replied. I dropped my rifle and drew my Glock quickly, but before I could fire I rolled under it to avoid its sword.
"You are quick, human, but not quick enough," it said. As it was turning around I fired five rounds at it before it jumped to the side. I charged at it while still firing and it did an overhand chop, which I easily dodged.
"I could say the same about you," I replied. It slashed at me again and I did a back-flip to dodge its swing. Once I was on my feet again I noticed that my gun was significantly smaller. The alien smiled as it charged at me again. I picked the M16 up by the magazine and fired the M203 at the alien, which made direct contact. I heard some beeping which meant that its shield was gone. I used the round in the Glock's chamber to shoot his shielding device, effectively disabling it. The alien stared at me with amazement and fell to what I think was its knees.
"How was I… defeated… by a… a human? This… this is impossible… absolutely impossible…" it muttered to itself. I walked up to it with my M16 barrel at its head. "Go ahead, human. I deserve to die since I was unable to defeat a human. May the Prophets have mercy on my soul." I moved my finger to pull the trigger, but I shot so that it would only graze its head. The alien yelled in pain.
"Living will be worse for you. My name's John Henson. Remember me as the one who gave you that scar." I hit it in the head and knocked it out to keep it from killing itself. As I left I dropped my pistol and magazines and picked up the sword. "Now you know that humans are not to be underestimated," I said as I walked away.
As I was walking I reloaded my rifles and the M203. I pulled up a map of the city and plotted a path for the objective. It was mostly through confined buildings, but I chose some public centers for when I needed food. I carried a canteen with me, so water wasn't an issue. I began to question whether I should have killed that alien when I had the chance.
"That thing now has the chance to kill more people since I let it live. No, letting it live will let that alien tell the others what they're dealing with. This war should get more exciting, but the others might not be able to handle it. Anyways, they should be at the objective by now, since it's 0047," I said to myself. I was moving at a much faster pace than I had with the group, which meant that I was getting closer to freedom faster. It was 0328 when I got to my first re-supply point, which was the local supermarket. While I was there I found plenty of food, water, a new radio, a 12 gauge automatic shotgun, and plenty of shotgun shells. I ate lots of energy bars and ice cream, and drank lots of energy drinks. I also filled my canteen and loaded the shotgun. Once my watch hit 0354 I moved on.
Having the biggest sugar rush ever, I was sprinting for about an hour before I even considered slowing down. I changed my route so that I'd be staying in the forests near town, so I was confident they wouldn't find me. I spotted something ahead, so I stopped and began moving slowly. I discovered some hunters who had been killed by plasma weapons. Their equipment was still there, so I packed some of their food onto one of their ATV's and rode on that. I hadn't noticed how much I had been sweating, so the air in my face felt so good. It was about two hours before I got some company.
I turned around and saw that two alien hovercrafts were following me from a distance. I sped up to lose them, but they could keep up. Why aren't they shooting at me, I wondered. They could easily kill me that way, but they must want me alive or something. I figured it would be a bad idea to ask them, so I grabbed my M24 and shot one in the head. Its hovercraft halted almost immediately while the body went flying. The other one sped up and rammed my ATV. It pulled up beside me and was trying to grab on so that it could jump on. I kept hitting its hand with my M24 since I didn't have time to switch weapons. It pulled its plasma rifle out and was about to fire but I hit the gun down and caused the shot to connect with my back right tire. The ATV spun out of control as I jumped off and hit the ground at forty miles per hour.
As I was laying there trying to get up I heard the hovercraft stop and turn around. I switched my shield on and pulled out my shotgun. The alien shot at my arm, but my shield deflected the blast. It was about fifteen feet away, so I returned fire. The buckshot connected, but didn't do enough damage to take the shield off. I fired another shell, which happened to be a slug. The slug had more power than buckshot, so the alien's shield was gone and the impact momentarily stunned it. I kept firing shells until the alien fell to the ground as a bloody heap.
I slowly got up and took a few minutes to recover from the crash. Inspecting the ATV I decided that I couldn't repair it, so I considered learning how to use the hovercraft. After a few minutes of experimenting I decided its controls were like those of a jet since it had two joysticks. Once I gathered my gear, which was luckily undamaged, I got on the hovercraft and continued to my objective. I checked myself and found several cuts and that my left arm was fractured. I decided to stop by the hospital to pick up some bandages and BioFoam. Once there I saw that it appeared to have been abandoned early on.
I moved to the storage rooms and found lots of BioFoam. I looked down and saw a little alien that had some in a cut. I looked closer and saw that the BioFoam appeared to have poisoned it. Note to self, I thought, use BioFoam against wounded aliens. After patching up my wounds, I gathered a few canisters and checked my watch. It read 0645, so I rested for an hour and reloaded my guns. I reconsidered resting when I spotted a Chemicals Lab on the map. I went there and found one of my favorite ones: white phosphorous. I fashioned a white phosphorous M203 grenade and loaded it. That took about twenty minutes, so I made a Molotov Cocktail out of some gasoline and a glass bottle I found.
I still had time to eat, so I drank some water and ate a few energy bars. They didn't taste too good, but I needed the energy since I hadn't slept in twenty-three hours. This better not be my last meal, I thought, because I want to eat some real food before I die.
"I sure hope the others have gotten there by now," I said. "They should be having an easier time than I am." My arm had mostly healed by then, so I got back on the hovercraft and kept going. I learned that the hovercraft could boost and render its weapons temporarily useless, so I boosted down the small country road that led to our home out in the middle of nowhere. I preferred it out here because there were little signs of war and it gave me a calm feeling. Our house was in the middle of nowhere, so it took me about an hour to get there. I didn't see any other cars there besides the ones we owned, so I began to worry. Just then a bunch of people jumped out of the bushes wearing camouflage.
"Dude, where have you been?" Ethan said as he walked up to me. Everyone else was cheering because their leader had returned to them.
"I've been killing some aliens, man. Why did you guys leave me? Hey, is that my ghillie suit you're wearing?" I asked.
"Yeah, I looked around for defensive equipment and found it. These are why you couldn't see us. You made them pretty well. And we didn't mean to leave you, but we figured you'd tell us to keep going anyways."
"Well, yeah I would have said that. I see you've looked pretty well for my stuff." I looked around and saw foxholes, turrets, anti-tank rockets, and many more defensive weapons I had made or stockpiled over the years. "All those years of doing PT for my dad and building everything I did really paid off, huh? None of you would have made it through what I've been through, no offense. Let's go inside. Everyone, back to your positions." Ethan and I walked inside. I started looking around and found a cross-galactic communicator in my personal armory, which is where I kept the really good stuff. I was the only one who had access as well.
"How'd you get them all trained this well in such a short amount of time?" I inquired.
"We found a training program in your room, so I had everyone take turns using it," he responded. "They complained about headaches, but it's a pretty good program." I set the communicator up and used my dad's access code to get into UNSC communications. I started calling out for the nearest ship to my planet's sector.
"Ethan, go get everyone better weapons and more ammo while I'm up here," I ordered. Suddenly I got a reply on the communicator.
"This is Major Evans of the UNSC. Identify yourself. Over," a reply said.
"I am John Henson, the son of retired General Henson. I am requesting immediate extraction from Sector 7 Bravo. Over."
"Sector 7 Bravo? Hell no, kid. That area's crawling with Covenant. I can't go there without authorization, nor would I want to. Over."
"Covenant? That what those ugly things we've been killing are called? They're not too hard to kill, plus the planet's defenses haven't given out yet. There's still a way to extract me and my men. Over."
"You're in command of a military unit? What unit are you?"
"It's not really a military unit. It's more along the lines of indigenous forces and militia. It's still a pretty effective unit, though. Over."
"If you've killed Covenant with them, I guess I'll ask for authorization. Hang on a second. Over." We waited a few minutes before the Major got back to us. "You're in luck, kid. I've been given the green light to extract you. What's your location?"
"We're in Planetary Grid Kilo Echo Foxtrot Fife Six Fower Niner. I have at least fifty militia garrisoned with me, all of which are heavily armed but willing to dump it. Over."
"Roger that. We'll be there in about thirty minutes. Over and out." I grabbed my radio and turned it on.
"Listen up, everyone. I just made contact with the UNSC and our ride off this rock will be here in half an hour. Stay alert, and we all get out alive. Stay quiet so the Covenant doesn't know we're here." I went down to my armory and looked for a new outfit. My school clothes were pretty worn out. I found an ODST suit that I had made based on pictures and donned it. While I was changing I saw all the scars and bruises that I had acquired during the day. It was also then that all the pain from them came to me. I tried to ignore it as I put my ammo in its place on the suit, but it was too much to just shrug off. Every now and then another troop would come in and exchange his or her weapon for a better one, so I had to maintain the illusion that I was invincible, because to them I was.
Once I was done I chose a new sidearm. My choice was a Desert Eagle with .44 magnum rounds. .50-cals would be too much with all I had. I checked the map I had of the building and found that the defenses were nearly flawless. Anti-tank positions, machine gun nests- they were all in ideal spots. "Good work on the defenses, Ethan," I radioed.
"I learned from the best, John. It was just a matter of putting the pieces together."
"Here's to hoping these thirty minutes just fly by."