Chapter 20

0500 hours, January 25, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Alpha Base/ Sydney, Australia/ Earth

"Snipers! Split up in two groups, one group go to the north, the other to the west, got it!" Kyle ordered.

"Sir yes sir!" The snipers shouted.

"Good, rocket launchers, you guys head to the west wall. All marines with assault weapons, you men head through the gate, let's go!"

The three solid teams rushed to their positions and stood at ready.

"Cameron, Cody, Philip… you guys get over here." Kyle said over the COM. The four Spartans rushed towards Kyle's position.

"Yeah?" Philip asked.

"Okay, Cody, you're in charge of the assault team, Philip; you're in charge of the rocket team, Cameron, you lead the snipers."

"Yes sir!" Everyone said as they saluted.

"Good luck."

"Wait for it… fire! Salvo two… fire!" Philip yelled as he fired his rocket launcher. A total of 41 rockets joined by another 41 rockets making a total of 82 flew towards the oncoming aircraft. The first Phantom was utterly destroyed, about twenty rockets to its nose. The Phantom exploded and engulfed the second Phantom in blue flames. The third Phantom swerved to the right, narrowly dodging the swarm of rockets. The fourth Phantom, however, took a full blast of rockets and was sent plummeting to the ground.

"Fire again!" Philip shouted. Another 82 rockets flew towards the Covenant aircraft. Seven rockets impacted on the third Phantom, thus crippling it, the fifth Phantom crashed into the crippled dropship and both exploded.

Finally realizing that they would all be destroyed if they kept it up, the Phantoms spread out. Half the remaining rockets swerved around, tracking the Phantoms, the vast majority of them, however, flew on and impacted on one unlucky Phantom.

"Fire at will!" Philip shouted as he tracked one Phantom. Soon, salvo after salvo of rockets flew towards the aircraft. Dropships exploded in blue flames, Covenant were killed, and only a fifth of the aircraft survived, but they still advanced. A few abused Banshees flew full speed towards the base's wall and sprayed a stream of boiling plasma at the humans. Several members of the team fell down under the waves of energy before they ducked behind the wall. Philip stood there however, overshields activated, he took down one banshee after another, finally, the last banshee exploded and the remaining members of the team emerged from their cover.

The Phantoms had moved closer, much closer, in fact, close enough to return fire. Lances of boiling energy lashed all around the rocket team, several more marines died. The surviving marines returned fire and sent most of the bastards to hell.

Behind them, a group of pilots had entered their Pelicans and Shortswords. The group of aircraft rose above the ground and flew to engage the enemy. A Pelican's chin gun stuttered and let loose a wave of armor piercing bullets… which completely shredded three battered Phantoms. Shortsword fliers flew around the area spraying the Covenant aircraft with missiles and lead. Banshees crashed into Phantoms, which in turn exploded and crashed into other Phantoms. Soon, the entire wave of aircraft had been turned to smoldering bits of metal…

Cameron aimed his sniper rifle at the Covenant and fired. There were over hundreds of them; from grunts to jackals, elites to hunters, swarms of drones. Not to mention the powerful Covenant mortar tanks… the Wraiths. One Wraith tank turned and fired a blue comet of plasma at the defense cluster guarding the entrance. The comet slowly started to descend and almost made contact with the Scorpion tank when a Warthog got in the way; the human vehicle and its inhabitants were lost in blue flames.

Back on the base's wall, the sniper team fired another line of sniper bullets, rows upon rows of Covenant troops fell down under the hail of powerful armor piercing rounds. Cameron aimed his sniper rifle at the Wraith tank and shot the tank's cockpit. The little purple piece of armor guarding the driver fell off and the elite inside it had a sniper bullet pass through its head.

"There!" Cameron yelled. "Aim for those Hunters!" A quarter of the members of the sniper team turned their sniper rifles in the direction of the heavily armored aliens and let loose on them. A total of forty sniper bullets pounded the Hunter's shields, finally, some lucky shots found their way through the unprotected parts of the Hunter's armor.

"SNIPER!" A marine screamed. Several marines ducked or ran for cover. One marine, however, stood in her place. The marine fired her sniper rifle single handedly and, after three more shots, collapsed.

Cameron sprinted towards the marine and saw a large gaping hole in her body armor. A beam of a Covenant sniper rifle had passed straight through the marine, yet somehow she still managed to take down her opponent. The UNSC needed men and women like that soldier…

"Get back to position! Drive these aliens back to where they came from!" Cameron ordered. The marines quickly returned to their positions and resumed their sniping.

A few Shortswords flew over the sniping humans and sprayed the advancing troops with lead. Rows upon rows of grunts, elites, jackals, drones, and hunters fell under the spray of 102mm rounds. A Wraith tank exploded; having a Scorpion missile to its front, and engulfed several Covenant soldiers, who were unlucky enough to stand near it, in blue flames.

"Look at that!" A marine yelled as he pointed towards the trees. A fleet of Ghosts were emerging from the misty undergrowth and were quickly approaching the human base. The human snipers simultaneously fired their sniper rifles at the Covenant scout vehicles. A few Ghosts abruptly blew up from multiple shots, completely desinigrating the driver. Other Ghosts, hit by more precise snipers, stopped moving as they were now driverless. The rest, however, continued on.

"Quickly! Destroy them all before they can reach the gate!" Cameron yelled. A few more Ghosts exploded as a hail of sniper bullets were bestowed upon them, but there was no way they could destroy them all with sniper rifles.

Suddenly, a large team of marines joined the snipers, each one of them had rocket launchers.

"Need some help?" Philip grinned. The marines fired two salvos of rockets at the oncoming Ghosts, reloaded, and fired again. Several 102mm tracking rockets made direct hits on the Ghosts, literally blowing them up in blue flames. Other rockets missed their marks but detonated as they hit clusters of Covenant infantry, several Grunts and Jackals were thrown into the air.

The humans started to unleash a merciless rain of bullets, and rockets upon the enemy… soon, the Covenant army slowly started to fade…

"Assault rifle and SMG wielding people up front, let's go marines!" Cody yelled. The twenty assault rifle and SMG wielding marines ran up front, kneeled down, and started to spray an impressive 25 rounds per second.

"Battle rifles, get behind 'em! Shotguns, spread out and knock out any damn Covie that tries to get past us! Move out! GO GO GO!" Cody shouted. Soon, a large formation had been set and Covenant started to fall. Cody leveled his assault rifle at a nearby red armored Elite and put a three round burst through its head.

"How do you like that split lip!" Cody laughed.

"Swords!" A marine screamed. Several gold armored Elites were brandishing their energy swords and sprinting to the formation.

Trying to break the formation eh? Cody thought. "What are you guys waiting for! Open fire!"

"Hell yes, sir!" A marine replied. A hail of bullets and shotgun shells rushed towards the advancing sword wielding Elites and impacted upon the alien's energy shields. Three Elites were ripped apart by the wave of armor piercing bullets, others just lost their shields.

From above, several sniper bullets slashed through the air and made contact with the unshielded Elites. After a few more salvos of armor piercing rounds, only a single lucky Elite had managed to get close enough to lunge towards an assault rifle wielding marine… just as Kyle blasted its head off.

"Heh, heh, heh… You should see what I just set up!" Kyle sniggered. Four Pelicans flew over Alpha Base's wall and started to drop hundreds of Lotus anti-tank mines on the Covenant army. Soon dirt, dead bodies, and bits of metal started to erupt all around the battlefield. The screams of hundreds of Covenant were deafening over the explosions, the "cracks" of the sniper rifles, the distant thunder, and the sounds of automatic weapons fire.

"YES! We're winning! Now let's give it everything we've got! CHARGE!" Kyle yelled. Kyle, Cody, and the team of marines charged forward, and completely slaughtered the surviving Covenant. Surviving Spectres and Wraiths were pummeled by the Scorpion tanks resting around the base's entrance. Clusters of Grunts, Jackals, and Elites barely had enough time to blink in the rain before they fell under a merciless hail of bullets. Humanity was getting revenge for the millions of lost lives sacrificed for the war… and soon, the battlefield was silent…