Chapter 4
Forward Assault
This chapter will be the main part of the First Contact War, then more likely than not the next chapter will be wrapping up lose ends, then we make our time skip.
"You think that this be enough?" Damon asked as he, Mack and Crystal walked around the back of the hospital with around a dozen Marines. The two Warthogs they had brought had been pulled around back along with the others. Williams was forced to withhold the majority of his Marines due to the fact that the hospital was doubling as an HQ and a shelter for the civilians, along with many other strongpoints throughout the city.
"It'll have to do," Mack said as he, climbed into the driver's seat of one of the Warthogs they had salvaged. Crystal make to climb into the passengers seat, but grunted softly, stepping back as she held her stomach. "Baby acting up Crystal?" Mack asked calmly.
"WHAT?" Damon yelled as he approached the Warthog "Are you telling me that in the middle of an alien invasion, they decided to drop this girl into the middle of hell, and she's pregnant?" Who was the dumb ass who made this..." but he was cut short as Crystal grabbed him from by the collar of his armor and pulled him towards her until he was right in front of her.
"Listen closely," she hissed through her helmet "My alcoholic pathetic excuse for a husband ditched me the second I told him I was late, so I'm in a bit of a bad mood about this whole thing. Second, I am one of the best damn snipers that was available for this mission, and there was no way in Hell I wasn't going. Third I am going to snipe your ass off if you make another wisecrack about..." Crystal stopped talking as if she had just realized what she was going. "Sorry," she said, as she let go of Damon "It's just, you know, mood swings."
"I get it," Damon said, slightly shocked at Crystal's sudden change in emotion. "Just be careful out there."
"Don't need to tell me twice," said Crystal, as she climbed into the passengers seat, as Damon climbed onto the gun. "Still tell anyone else about this, I'll stick my sniper rifle so far up your ass it'll come out your mouth."
"I'll keep that in mind," Damon chuckled, as the Marines climbed into the other Warthogs, which roared to life as they did.
"All right let's roll!" Mack shouting as he floored the acceleration and the Warthog speed forward, the others following behind them. Almost as soon as the pulled onto the city streets, there was a deafening crack. Glancing up, the Marines and ODSTs saw an Assault Carrier emerging from a slipspace directly above them. "The RSN?" Mack muttered as he glanced up "What the Hell is going on here?"
Back in orbit on the Peacekeeper, Hall was speechless as the Shipmaster's words reverberated in her mind. As she found her voice again, she spoke the first thing that came into her mind "How did you find out what was going on here?"
"We intercepted your emergency communications," the Shipmaster of the Vigilant Guardian replied "We were despatched from our patrol duties in order to assist in any way that we could."
"Well we certainly could use that," Hall replied. "Some form of unknown species landed on Shanxi and has advanced into the city of New Austin. Marines garrisoned there and ODSTs we just deployed are fighting as hard as they can, but if you're offering help we're more than happy to accept it."
"Very well," the Shipmaster replied "As soon as we are in position, we shall deploy SpecOp troopers throughout the city."
Back on Shanxi, the Warthog charge was closing on the city hall. "We're closing on the city hall," Mack shouted from the front of the Warthog charge. "Strafe around it and spray the hell out of them and chip them down bit by bit. Crystal, how good are you at shooting from a moving Warthog?"
"Very," Crystal hissed, pushing herself a couple of inches above her seat with her feet, and aimed her sniper rifle over the windshield.
"HERE WE GO!" Mack shouted as they drove into sigh of the city hall, and the turrets of the Warthogs roared to life. The seven Warthogs drove towards the city hall, and veered off as they drew close, bullets from the turrets shattered the windows and chewed up the doors off the city hall. The aliens garrisoned inside the hall returned fire, firing out of windows and angling out of doors, ducking their heads down when the turrets came to bear on them, although some were not fast enough. One of the aliens fired what looked like a rocket launcher, and the bright blue projectile slammed into the front of one of the Warthogs. The jeep exploded, the bodies of the driver and the gunner flew limply through the air, hitting the ground with a dull thud.
"Crystal, take that son of a bitch out before we lose another Hog!" Mack shouted as the Warthogs turned around and drove back for another pass on the hall. Crystal aimed down the scope of her sniper rifle, gritting her teeth as the Warthogs passed the hall again, turrets blazing. The alien with the rocket launcher leaned out of cover to fire again, but before he could, a bullet from Crystal's rifle slammed into some sort of shield that was protecting the alien, causing it to collapse. Before the alien could even blink, Crystal fired two more shots, which imbedded themselves in the aliens chest.
As Crystal fired another shot from her rifle, Damon fired the turret at the hall nearly tearing an alien that had been caught out in the open in half. At the loss of alien with the rocket launcher, the enemy forces changed tactics, concentrating fire on one of the rear Warthogs. The driver's shields collapses and a stray bullet tore through his neck. The Warthog flipped and crashed into a nearby department store, exploding as it did.
"Damn it they're picking us off one by one!" Damon swore "We've got to end this fight fast otherwise we're all screwed! Any ideas Mack?"
"I'm thinking I'm thinking I'm thinking!" Mack shouted as he veered the Warthog, avoiding a burst of enemy fire. As he did, a series of spheres slammed into the ground around the city hall. "OIPs?" Mack said looking at the Orbital Insertion Pods as the doors slid open. A Special Operations Sangheili stepped out of each one, carrying weapons with the intent to kill. Around a dozen Sangheili had been deployed around the city hall, and all of them opened fired on the entrenched aliens. Several of their shots found their mark, strangely enough, the plasma bolts that they fired passed through the alien's shields as if they weren't there. As if the aliens had realized this, they incoming fire stopped as the aliens retreated further into the hall.
"They cower and flee before us!" one of the Sangheili shouted as he activated an energy sword and raised it over his head "Hunt them down like the cowards that they are!" Roaring in approval, the Sangheili charged into the city hall, smashing through the barricaded door as if it was plywood.
"Don't just watch!" Mack shouted as he pointed at two of the Warthogs "You four, you're coming with me and Damon, we're helping the Sangheili out!" Everyone else, stay outside incase any of them try to make a run for it.
"Don't take too long," Crystal said as three of the Warthogs stopped in front of the building and Mack and Damon climbed out.
"We won't," Mack said through gritted teeth, as he unholstered his assault rifle. "FORWARD!" he shouted as he, Damon and four Marines charged into the building.
The Sangheili were already in heavy combat with the aliens, mercilessly progressing forward, with a half a dozen dead aliens, and only two dead Sangheili. "Hey there," Mack said, as he and the others came to where the Sangheili and the aliens were staging a vicious firefight. "What brings you so far away from RSN space?" he asked a SpecOp Officer as he slid behind an overturned desk.
"We received word of an attack on one of your colonizes. At first we thought it was either Kig-Yar pirates or a Jiralhanae invasion." The SpecOp Officer paused as he leaned over the desk, firing three shots in rapid succession with his carbine, killing one of the aliens. "Now it is evident that there is another space fairing civilization, clearly hostile. If they think they can attack an ally of the Republic of Sovereign Nations and there will be no repercussions, they are sadly mistaken."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Damon said as he fired his shotgun at one of the aliens, forcing it back into cover. "From what we've seen of them, they can't hope to win a prolonged war with either one of us, let alone both."
"Then they shall perish for their foolishness!" the SpecOp Officer roared as he threw a plasma grenade, which stuck to one of the aliens. As the grenade detonated, bits and pieces of the alien flew through the air. One of the aliens stood up, and extending his empty hand forward as a strange blue/purple aura surround him. One of the Marines flew threw the air, hitting the wall with a loud crack.
"The fuck was that?" Damon shouted as he fired his shotgun again, this time causing an alien to collapse.
"No idea!" shouted Mack "EVERYONE, CONCENTRATE YOUR FIRE!" The surviving Marines, ODSTs and SpecOps leaned out and fired as one. A handful of aliens collapsed under the fire, and the remaining ones ran for the lives down the hallway.
"Looks like they're legging it," Damon said, as he slipped fresh shells into his shotgun.
"It appears that way," the SpecOp Officer said as he and the other Sangheili stepped out of cover. "We shall peruse them, can you search for any equipment that they may have left behind? It may help us find more entrenched positions or maybe even locations of planets that they control. Most likely they would not utilize something similar to your Cole Protocol."
"Sounds like a good idea," Mack said "We'll get right on it. And for what it's worth, I'm glad we're allies."
A small grin flitted over the SpecOp Officer's face "As am I," he said, as he and the other Sangheili charged down the hallway.
"Alright, fan out and look for anything for anything that could contain data," Mack said as he and the others entered adjacent rooms. Damon walked into what looked like a standard cubicle office. The computer that had apparently been used by employees before the invasion had been carelessly pushed off of the desk and now laid shattered on the floor. An odd looking terminal was sitting on the desk in its place. Damon stepped forward looking at it. Odd alien symbols covered the screen and the keyboard, which looked like it was designed for someone with less fingers that Humans. Damon closed the terminal the way you closed a laptop and tucked it under his arm. He had no idea what kind of information was on it, but more than likely a smart A.I. would be able to translate it into English.
"Damon did you find anything?" Mack shouted through the door.
"Yeah," Damon said climbed out of the office and holding up the terminal. "Some sort of computer, might have something useful on it."
"Some of the other guys found something that looked exactly like that," Mack said as he slid his assault rifle onto the magnetic lock on the back of his armor. "I say we should go see how the Sangheili are doing."
Damon and Mack walked to the the rear exit of the of the building and fond the Sangheili standing there, with two dead Sangheili, and five dead aliens. "How did it go?" Damon asked.
"They retreated, they are heading back to their ships by the looks of it," the SpecOp Officer replied. "I am getting reports of similar moves of withdrawal from all over the city." The SpecOp Officer glanced sadly at the dead Sangheili "The alien with those odd powers killed both of them, he was clearly a skilled fighter, it is a shame he got away."
"This was their HQ," Mack explained "Apparently when we took them out here, they decided to make a run for it. Should we go after them."
"No," the SpecOp officer replied as he glanced up at the sky, looking at the Vigilant Guardian. "Let them run, they will not get far, the Vigilant Guardian has moved into low orbit over the city. If they alien ships wish to escape they will have to get by it first, and they won't."
As I said before, the next chapter will wrap up the event of the First Contact War. Please note that the next chapter will have an important event taking place that will affect a future character's life. By the way, the biotic Turian isn't anyone new, three guess as to he is, and the first two don't count.