Section IV: Defense of Alpha Base
Chapter 19
1200 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)
North side/ Alpha Base/ Sydney, Australia/ Earth
Cameron opened the drop pod and rushed out into the muddy area. It was raining heavily as Cameron looked around. Nearby, ten identical drop pods laid in a cluster. The drop pods had been reprogrammed to fall in clusters of ten ODSTs and one spartan around Alpha Base, therefore, a defensive screen of ODSTs would be able to clear out any Covenant invaders. Cameron grabbed his MA5B assault rifle and joined the ten ODSTs waiting for him. They needed to "rinse" out the area of one kilometer and then head towards Alpha Base, so the sooner they did it the better.
The two ODSTs armed with sniper rifles aimed their weapons at the mountain side and started to open fire. The three jackal snipers that had been positioned there fell down and lay where they landed… dead. Ahead in a small, narrow canyon, Cameron saw a Phantom hovering over what seemed like an old rockslide and knew that hundreds of Covenant could be concealed in the rocks.
"Grenades, on my mark… MARK!" Cameron ordered. The eleven humans in unison; threw their fragmentation grenades at the rocks. There was a scream of fright when… BOOM! Handfuls of dead grunts, jackals, and drones flew into the air. The other Covenant who had been concealed not far from the explosion, however, had been alerted by the explosion and charged in en masse.
"Open fire!" Cameron yelled. Five ODSTs armed with assault rifles kneeled down and fired a hail of bullets at the approaching Covenant. Three ODSTs stood behind the five ODSTs and doubled over with their BR55 rifles. The Covenant took cover behind the rocks. The two ODSTs armed with sniper rifles went on opposite sides of the formation and joined in. Elites crouched behind the rocks and raised their plasma rifles over their heads. Blue plasma lanced by the humans followed by green plasma. A plasma bolt caught an ODST in the side and the soldier fell down, writhing in pain.
"Suppressing fire!" Cameron yelled as a swarm of Drones flew from their hiding spots. Cameron raised his assault rifle, switched it to spread mode, and fired a hail of lead at the approaching aliens. The Drones saw the meat grinder they were headed to and tried to turn back… too late. As the last Drone fell to the ground a large team of Elites, Grunts, and Jackals charged forward.
"Grenades people!" An ODST sergeant yelled. BAM! The Covenant were thrown back from the powerful explosion. Several grunts were trying to crawl away but seeing that the Phantom was retreating, they knew they were good as dead. The survivors were easily put down by a hail of bullets.
Cameron aimed his assault rifle at the surrounding area and saw that no Covenant emerged.
"Good job people, now let's go see what they were doing." Cameron said. He led the nine surviving ODSTs to the back of the small canyon and saw a crashed warthog. Lying next to the warthog, were three dead marines which all of them were armed with…
"Rocket launchers…" An ODST murmured. The team of humans retreated from the canyon and headed towards Alpha Base; they were done for now.
1200 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)
West side/ Alpha Base/ Sydney, Australia/ Earth
After joining up with Evan's team of ODSTs, Smith led the 22 humans on their, "Two kilometer rinse". They had come up on a crashed Pelican and picked up several infantry weapons and a single warthog. Three ODSTs had been sent ahead in the warthog to scout around. There had been no word from them yet.
Smith walked through the rainy canopy and looked around. His motion tracker had picked up several movements. Then he saw them. The warthog's remains had several plasma burns, it seemed like a plasma grenade had been stuck on the vehicle. A few steps forward and Smith came across the three ODSTs. They were dead.
"Stay sharp team, this seems mighty like an ambush…" Smith muttered. He was right. Two ghosts piloted by grunts, boosted forward and attempted to run over the humans. Smith rolled to the side and shot one of the drivers with his battle rifle. The other ghost, however, had driven on.
"Agghhh!" Evan cried out but was immediately cut off. The single ghost had boosted straight over and killed the spartan.
One ODST cursed angrily and shot the fuel tank on one of the ghost's wings. It landed on Evan's dead body and exploded; completely desinigrating everything within three feet of the ghost.
Smith saw Evan's right hand fly past and cursed.
"Watch out! More Covenant!" Smith yelled. A pair of Hunters followed by two Elite's and four Grunts emerged from the thick jungle. One hunter fired its fuel rod cannon and narrowly missed Smith's head. The tree behind him burst into flames, rain slowly started to put the fire out.
"Attack!" Smith yelled. He threw a grenade and took cover. The four grunts and one of the Elites were torn apart by the shrapnel... the last Elite was wounded.
"Yes! Now let's take care of those hunters!" Smith cried out. The Hunters, however, had different things in mind. They fired their fuel rod cannons at a group of ODSTs and were rewarded with several screams of pain. An ODST sniper, who had survived from the fuel rod blast, raised his sniper rifle single handedly, and fired it randomly at the Hunter. Maybe it was a lucky shot, but as the ODST sighed heavily and died, the hunter fell down… headless.
Smith saw the hunter go down and looked at the other. Enraged that its bond brother died, it raised its spines and charged forwards. Several ODSTs jumped out of the way, yet some unfortunate ones were cut in half.
Smith watched hopelessly as his ODSTs died… he needed to do something… and fast. Suddenly it dawned on him. A good leader has to be ready to sacrifice his men for his life, or his life for his men. Smith thought. He took out his combat knife and waited for the hunter to charge at him. He jumped up and grabbed the beast's spines. The Spartan then grabbed the Hunter's neck and shoved a frag inside its armor. The last the Spartan saw was a fiery explosion…
1200 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Alpha Base/ Sydney, Australia/ Earth
The six Pelicans flew through the rain on their way to Alpha Base. The sky was dark, there was fog everywhere, it marked the beginning of a hard, long, tedious battle. Kyle entered the cockpit and saw Alpha Base loom into view… almost hidden in the fog. Below, several drop pods littered the surrounding landscape. Seven of the ten teams sent to "flush" or "rinse" the area out were slowly walking back. The three other teams were deemed KIA.
Everything seemed miserable; it was surprising that a few hours ago everyone was relaxed and happy.
The six Pelicans landed in the middle of Alpha Base and the humans filed out. Kyle looked around and saw many wounded Marines, soaked in the rain, lying next to the walls clutching their weapons as though clinging to dear life. Kyle noticed several tactical mistakes inside the castle-like base. The warthogs were parked behind the scorpion tanks, turrets were set at the most random places; they needed to get to work. Alpha Base was simply a large rectangular, medieval wall two or three miles long surrounding a few scattered buildings with only one entrance in the north. Kyle ordered several marines of the 500 in groups of 16 to guard every few feet of wall. Four snipers, four rocket launchers, four marines armed with assault rifles or battle rifles, four marines armed with shotguns for point blank but would be manning turrets for the time being. Spartans were spread out to command each group of sixteen, all armed with the weapon of their choice. The leftover marines were sent to the walls and provide covering fire or formed into groups of forty, each group would be armed with sniper rifles, rocket launchers, or regular assault weapons. They were the solid teams, teams only armed with the same type of weapons. The ODSTs sent on the "kilometer long rinse" mission were sent outside the titanium alloy gate with the vehicles… which were now in their correct positions. Several vehicles had been placed inside the wall just in case the Covenant would get inside. The vehicles would also serve for a heavy, anti-air defense in case an enemy flying vehicle would be able to fly above the base.
They had air vehicles too, besides the pelicans; they had a new UNSC vehicle called the "Shortsword flier." Pretty much a smaller version of the Longsword fighter except the Shortsword was pretty much a human equivalent of the Banshee. 55mm chain guns, a single scorpion rocket launcher, and a second seat for the copilot who would man the back turret. It was a highly maneuverable aircraft. After several hours of rearranging, Kyle had turned Alpha Base into a well defended, hard to crack, powerhouse.
"Any Covenant approaching Cody?" Kyle asked.
"Searching… no, wait! Several ground troops are approaching, radars show at least 600 infantry, and several assorted vehicles. Twenty, no, twenty-five phantoms are coming into sensor range, banshee fliers too… all ground troops are coming from the North and West wall, aircraft are only coming from the west. We're gonna have one hell of a time." Cody replied anxiously.
"Let's do it then." Kyle smiled. The humans were ready, ready for anything…