"Wander my friends, wander with me

Like the mist on the green mountain, moving eternally
Despite our weariness
we'll follow the road
Over hill and valleys
to the end of the journey

Come on my friends and sing with me
Fill the night with joy and sport
Here's a toast to the friends who have gone from us
Like the mist of the green mountain,
gone forever…"

-Gaelic song (translated) composed by Bear Mcreary

Chapter 3: Gone From Us

December 17, 2551

Two days had passed since the Covenant had made landfall. The train should have made it to Helios, but it was barely even at the halfway point. Due to the EMP blast, a lot of the train's control systems had been fried, and the engines suffered the most. Now, the train could barely top sixty miles per hour. It was so slow, that the Warthogs could easily keep pace with it, which is exactly what they did. In order to reduce the weight and to better respond to possible Covenant attacks, Armbruster deployed all of the Warthogs being stored on the train. They now flanked the train as it wove its way through the snowed in countryside.

Meanwhile, on the overall front, the Covenant thankfully unable to land troops in significant numbers. Their main fleet was still slugging it out with the defending Navy fleet and too busy fighting to disgorge troops. The few that did were scattered around the planet, and local forces were quickly dealing with them. Since the initial attack, nobody had seen another Covenant force.

"I'm starting to like this assignment." Williams said as he leaned back in his seat. "For once we're not being shot at."

"Don't write it off just yet." Karla muttered. "I'm getting that feeling again."

"I hope you're talking about the feeling that we're going to make it to the end of this mission alive and in on piece.

"No, it's the feeling that something will go horribly horribly wrong and that we're going to have to deal with it."

"I hate it when you say that." Williams said glumly.

"Uh, guys," Karen pointed up to the sky, "I think we've got company."

As if to confirm it, the Sensor Wagon buzzed in said, "We've got contacts two klicks south and closing. Looks like dropships and Banshees."

Just as Karla thought, more Covenant were on their way.

"Heading?"

"The dropships are dropping off the sensors like flies. Looks like they're making landings south of us, but the Banshees are still headed our way."

"Numbers?"

"About twenty."

Karla nodded. Well, that was what Warthog LAAGs were for. She surveyed the available Warthogs. There were eight in all, since there wasn't enough space to fit the entire company's Warthog complement.

"Two, Four, and Five, this is One. Break formation and form up with me. We're going to head off those Banshees."

"Roger that, One."

Three LAAG armed Warthogs immediately broke off from their flanking formations and closed in on Karla's Warthog, which was already headed straight for the Banshees. Though they were still out of the range, the LAAG gunners immediately started firing to break up the Banshees' tight formation. Seeing the tracers zipping towards them, the Banshee pilots panicked and scattered, leaving them vulnerable to the Marines sitting in the Warthogs armed with M19 rocket launchers. Two of the Banshees exploded and fell to the ground in pieces. Combined cannon fire brought down three more before the Banshees managed to regroup and return fire. Plasma fire stitched the ground as the Banshees tried to track the Warthogs.

By this time, the fight began to gravitate toward the train, putting the Banshees in range of its defensive batteries. Heavy machine gun and cannon fire knocked a pair of Banshees out of the air. Whether by incredible luck or precision, one of the 90mm turrets struck a Banshee square on, scattering its remains for miles.

However, the other twelve Banshees rushed forward to brave the gauntlet of fire, heading straight for the engine. Half of them were shot down in the hail of gunfire, but the remaining half dozen managed to break through. They began to line up on the engine, fuel rods glowing green in preparation to fire.

"Shit." Karla growled and footed the accelerator.

The Warthog shot forward in an attempt to catch up the Banshees. Williams fired two M19 rockets in quick succession, bringing down the lead Banshee and buying the engine a few more seconds. Karen kept a stream of tracers flying at the remaining Banshees, but they were too determined to finish their objective to break off. For a second, Karla thought that the engine was gone for until missiles and streams of tracer fire slammed into the side of the Banshees. In just seconds, the entire formation dissolved into pieces of falling purple debris.

Karla was at first confused until a scant few seconds later, when a flight of four Navy Longswords streaked overhead. They circled around for several seconds to make sure there weren't any targets left, and when they were satisfied, waggled their wings and disappeared into the clouds.

Karla fought the urge to laugh in disbelief. By some grace of good fortune, a Longsword flight just happened to be passing by and decided to help out. The Longswords probably didn't know what the train or its escorts were doing, but they knew that they were fellow Marines in trouble and was enough to convince them to commit.

As if to confirm that the battle was over, the sky darkened and it started to snow again, as if the planet itself were trying to cover up the burning remains of the twenty dead Banshees scattered all over the countryside.

December 20, 2551

Karla was almost dead from fatigue. For the past three days, she and the rest of D Company had been repeatedly fighting off waves of Banshees. Though they were easily dealt with, the effects of the constant attack were beginning to be felt. Many of the Marines, Karla included, were extremely fatigued and tired out from being on constant alert for attacks. There were significant amounts of plasma scoring and damage along the surfaces of the train, and two Warthogs and five Marines had already been lost.

To make things worse, the engineers were still unable to fix the bugs caused by the EMP burst. The train's speed was still crippled and it would very frequently break down, extending their already prolonged schedule by days. Short of a complete overhaul, the engineers couldn't find any other way to fix the train.

About the only people on the train who weren't affected by any of this were the children. Thanks to some clever psychological and physical manipulation, many of the children weren't even aware that the train was several days overdue. Masterful adjusting of the train's internal clock and lighting served to trick the children into thinking only a day or so had passed. Karla didn't know how those ONI spooks did it, but they certainly knew what they were doing.

Ironically, the only place where Karla could get any decent rest was inside the childrens' cars. She had long figured out a way to get past the ONI guards at the door, and she would take a car full of noisy and obnoxious children over Armbruster any day.

"You know, contrary to the Laws of Nature, I'm pretty sure you used to be one of them once."

"Huh?" Karla turned to see Hubbard standing next to her. "What do you mean?"

"A kid." Hubbard shrugged. "Though the way you act, sometimes I think you came out of the womb the way you are right now."

Karla sighed. "What are you doing here anyways?"

"Like you, I really get tired of officers who like to hear themselves talk."

Karla couldn't help but grin. Though she didn't want to admit it, she and Hubbard were fairly similar in some ways.

"So, do you have any idea why the Covenant want to stop this train so badly?" Karla asked, in a tone as if she already knew the answer.

"I really have no idea."

"You mean, you don't know because you don't want to tell me."

"Something like that."

"Well Hubbard," Karla stretched her arms, "what I do know is that the Covenant want to get to this train very badly because of the countless suicide runs they've made, and that they want to stop the train instead of destroy it because so far, they've only been focusing on the engine."

"Well, who knows what the alien minds of the Covenant are thinking?"

Karla smiled, "I thought that was your job, Lieutenant."

"Touche." Hubbard smiled back. "Anyways, I'll be heading off to the Sensor Wagon now. I have a few calls to make."

Karla watched Hubbard disappear through the door and felt a very familiar tugging at her sleeve.

"Have you seen my brother yet?" Lyn asked.

"No, I'm afraid I haven't." Karla answered innocently. "Must have just missed him."

"I asked that other man too, but he didn't know either. He was really nice, though."

Karla laughed. "Ryan is a lot of things to a lot of people. Being nice is one of the few things that keep me from beating him up."

Lyn's eyes widened in alarm. "Wouldn't that put you on Santa's naughty list?"

"I guess, though I'm not exactly the nicest person you could ever meet."

Lyn smiled. "Karen said you would say something like that."

Like Karla, Karen had something of a soft spot for kids, and had also found a way past the apparently incompetent ONI guards at the car door. She basically snuck in whenever she wasn't on patrol, which was quite common. Karla couldn't blame her. A lot of Marines had to maintain their sanity in their own little ways.

"Lieutenant." Conductor's voice buzzed through Karla's radio.

"What is it?"

"I suggest you come to the engine right now. It is quite urgent."

Engine

In the cramped confines of the engineers' lounge, Karla, Armbruster, Hubbard, and a couple of other officers sat around a tactical map.

"Okay, first, the good news." Hubbard said, "As of six hours ago, the Navy has claimed total air superiority over Tau Serra. Through some magnificent tactical maneuvering (suicidal, Karla thought), the Navy fleet has managed to drive the Covenant force out of the system, at least for the time being. That means no more dropships or Covenant reinforcements."

There was a small and weak chorus of cheers around the table.

"However," Hubbard coughed, "the Covenant still have a very large ground presence on the planet, and that's where the bad news starts."

Hubbard activated the map, which began to display a holographic view of the surrounding area. A single green dot represented the train as it was slowly moving.

"That's us." Hubbard pointed at the green dot. "And that's the nearest Covenant ground force as of three days ago."

Hubbard then pointed to a large mass of red dots clustered on the other side of the map. That pretty much meant that they wouldn't be seeing that Covenant force for a while.

"Satellite scans showed that area as the main LZ for the Covenant dropships. Estimates range from one to two thousand troops with armor support. Of course, this was just three days ago. Here's a scan that was taken just twelve hours ago."

The tactical map blurred as it updated the information. Suddenly, the red cluster jumped from the other side of the map to just a few dozen miles behind the train. The cluster was also significantly larger.

"Apparently, the Covenant also landed additional forces during that three day window. The first force is only the spearhead. Behind them is an additional four thousand Covenant."

Everybody in the room gaped in disbelief. Few armies had the will or means to move so many troops so far and so fast.

"That's several hundred miles between us and them, and they covered it in just a few days." Lieutenant Burt Andrews gasped, "They would have to have been moving at full speed all day and night to catch up."

"The Covenant have proven to be incredibly fanatic to get what they want." Hubbard said, "I've seen them sacrifice entire fleets on the off chance that they could recover an artifact of religious significance to them. Case in point, they want this train destroyed and very badly."

"What about reinforcements?" Armbruster asked, "I doubt General Black would just leave us to the wolves."

"Unfortunately, this isn't the only landing the Covenant have made on the planet. There are multiple, smaller landings all over the continent and the Marines are tied up dealing with them. Also, the majority of our forces are committed to protecting the population centers. Even if they mobilized now, there's no way they could reach us in time. However, the Navy has seen our plight and is sending Longswords to bomb and harass the Covenant. They might buy us enough time; they might not. The thing is, things will get ugly and they will get ugly fast."

"Sir!" A Marine burst into the room. "We've got Covenant bearing down us! Looks like Ghosts, and lots of them!"

Immediately, the Marines scrambled out of the engine to deploy their troops. Within minutes, Karla and her five remaining Warthogs were already on the ground and moving to meet the incoming tide of over sixty Ghosts. Karla had no idea how six Warthogs would hold off over ten times their number in enemy vehicles, and she wished she wasn't in the position to have to find out for herself.

Already, Karla could hear the distant thumping of 90mm cannon fire as high explosive shells rained down on the oncoming Ghost formations. Like a shoal of fish, the Ghosts broke up and scattered as explosions ripped several unlucky comrades to pieces. The oncoming Warthogs kept up the pressure on the Ghosts with their LAAGs, showering them with a storm of 30mm rounds.

The Ghosts returned fire as well. Williams winced and ducked as plasma bolts struck the Warthog's armored hood. Karen swung her turret around as the Ghosts flew past them. If the Warthogs had one advantage, it was that their turrets afforded them a full three hundred sixty degrees of coverage, while the Ghosts with their nose-mounted plasma cannons had a much narrower field of fire. Around a dozen Ghosts crashed and burned as 30mm rounds ripped into their unprotected backs.

However, the Ghosts completely ignored the Warthogs and made a beeline straight fort he struggling train. Small arms fire from the Marine garrison began to track the Covenant vehicles. The barking of assault rifles, the roar of rocket launchers, and the popping sound of sniper rifles could be heard in the distance as the slower Warthogs tried to catch up with the Ghosts.

The battle continued for another grueling five minutes, with Ghosts and Warthogs weaving through and around each other as they tried to jockey for position around the train. One of the Warthogs was struck by plasma fire and its front tire evaporated. The vehicle spun out and shuddered to a stop. The crew of the downed Warthog continued to fire, but without any mobility, it would only be a matter of time before they were torn apart by the Ghosts. The train certainly wouldn't stop for a single downed Warthog, especially with a fleet of Ghosts harassing it, so it was up to the other Warthogs to help.

"Three, Four, pick them up. We'll cover you." Karla ordered.

Immediately, the two Warthogs circled around and moved to rescue the stranded Marines. Karla had her Warthog move around the stationary Warthogs in order to draw the fire away from the rescuers. By this time, the Ghosts were beginning to thin out and many decided it was best to try again some other day. However, a few diehards decided to stay behind and figured that taking out a group of helpless Marines would be a good consolation prize. Three Ghosts veered off from the main group and made a beeline straight for the wrecked Warthog.

"Williams, Karen, take those Ghosts out!" Karla yelled as she swung the Warthog around.

Williams fired a pair of M19 rockets at the oncoming trio of Ghosts. The first rocket was too high and spiraled into the air. The second rocket hit dead center, spraying dirty snow, Ghost parts, and pieces of steaming Elite all over the ground. Karen nailed the second Ghost with the 30mm cannon. The Ghost tried to evade, but Karen had the mounted weapon locked on, and the Ghost was torn to pieces under the fusillade.

However, the final Ghost managed to close the distance and pulled up alongside the Warthog. Karla gasped and ducked as the Elite driver raised a Needler and starting pumping the side of the Warthog full of explosive needles. Needler rounds sparked and flared as they ricocheted off of the Warthog's armored plating. Throwing the spent M19 aside, Williams rose up from his seat and fired his assault rifle the Ghost. Though none of the rounds penetrated the Elite's shields, the bullets ripped up the Ghost's control panel, causing the vehicle to nosedive into the ground. The entire Ghost flipped over and crushed the Elite under its enormous weight.

Karla quickly looked around. Warthogs Three and Four had already picked up their charges and there were no Ghosts in sight.

"Everybody okay?" She asked.

"Still alive." Williams said.

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant. I screwed up." Karen coughed.

"What?" Karla turned around and saw Karen's condition. "Oh Jesus…"

It turned out that some of the Needler rounds had found their marks. Karen was slumped over the Warthog's gun, hands clutched over her torn abdomen.

"Shit, Williams, help her out."

Williams nodded and climbed over to the Warthog's rear section, first aid kit in hand. He unhooked Karen from her safety harness and laid her down. He then quickly sprayed the wound with biofoam and closed it up with a fibrin bandage.

"How does it look?" Karla asked, having to keep her eyes on the road.

"It's bad, real bad." Williams said, "We have to get to a doctor fast. She's gut-shot."

Karla grimaced. With the complexity of human intestines and digestive system, most Marines and medics didn't even try to touch major gut wounds. Most of the time, they just filled the cavity with biofoam and hoped that the wounded would stay alive long enough to get to an actual surgeon. Karen's chances so far didn't look so good. She had already lost a lot of blood, and biofoam could only do so much.

"Is this what dying feels like? Because it really sucks." Karen groaned, coughing up blood.

"Don't worry Karen, we're almost back at the train. We can get a doctor to help you." Williams tried to comfort Karen.

"Hey look," Karen stared at the sky, as if she didn't hear what Williams said, 'it's snowing again."

Indeed, snowflakes began floating down, the first signs of a coming storm.

"Just stay with us, Karen, we're almost there." Karla said.

"Yeah, and once we get you to Doctor Pennert, he'll fix you up, good as new. He managed to sew up the Lieutenant every time she decided to intercept a plasma bolt or two."

Karen smiled, "I'm sure he did."

She was silent for a while. Karla began to fear the worst when Karen suddenly spoke again.

"L-lieutenant, is this the first time you've ever lost anybody?"

"No, I've lost more then you can ever imagine."

"Do you…. Do you ever get used to it?" Karen asked. "Was there ever a time where you just didn't… feel anything?"

Karla didn't even hesitate in her answer. "Never. It's not something you can easily forget."

"Okay…." Karen sounded relieved, and then suddenly changed the subject. "What do you think we'll do after all this? I mean, after this war ends?"

"Well, we'll most definitely find the most expensive bar on whatever planet we happen to be on, you and Williams will get uproariously drunk and insult a bunch of Navy boys, and then I'd have to come and save both your sorry asses."

Karen gave a weak laugh. "Yeah, I can imagine that happening."

Karla and Williams continued to engage Karen in small talk. They were trying to keep her active and awake, since they feared what would happen if they ever let her doze off. It took another five minutes for the Warthog to catch up with the train, and another three to load it up onto the cargo sled.

By that time, Private First Class Karen Sykes was already dead.