Chapter 3: Search and destroy.
With a heavy breath of relief Showpire's foot hit the ground floor. He ran a few paces across the lobby before he remembered that he was in a live combat zone. Automatically he put his SMG into his shoulder and braced it tightly. His gun sights now lining up with everything he looked at as he checked the lobby's corners and scanned the street outside through the glass windows but all seemed quite and clear. The news of his dead squad mates flashed though his mind but his ODST training forced his craving for immediate revenge deep down. If he was to be of use he had to maintain a clam thought pattern when confronted with an enemy not rush in hot headed. Showpire turned the revolving door ahead of him slowly until his head was poking out onto the street. The night sky was now slightly clouded and Showpire decided that the few remaining street lamps and occasional burning fires were enough to see by without his night vision for now. The only movement was dust and rubbish gently moving in the wind. Dead civilians were scattered in every direction along with abandoned vehicles some standing as if in traffic, others burnt out wrecks. In a shady corner of the street the trooper decided to check his computer again. He tapped the screen so the 2D overhead map turned into a 3D version instead to gain a better understanding of his objective. The ONI building was wide in diameter but low, maybe four floors high. It was surrounded on all sides by medium height office blocks. His waypoint was five miles away from his current location each block between himself and his waypoint contained many different buildings, alleyways and small back roads. He made the choice to go straight down for four blocks then cut in a block and weave through service road's until he could get a good view of the ONI building whilst remaining in the shadows.
The ODST re-braced his silenced SMG into his shoulder and stepped out into the street. He knew that if the Covenant were still around then he might have to hide quickly at any moment. Making sure to keep close to buildings, shadowed areas or darting between objects for cover he made the first two blocks without incident. Showpire was shocked to see the state of Downmarket. He'd never been here before but he couldn't imagine it before the Covenant attack. Rubble from half destroyed buildings lay fallen across the street. Dead civilians lay scattered everywhere. It looked like they were the victims of a Covenant surprise attack as the bodies where spread out in every direction. Some humans had even been piled and burnt, possibly some sort of half arsed Covenant clean up. If they had been given some warning then all of the civilians knew where to go. They would have all committed to memory a local shelter or a re-enforced building to hide in and await UNSC forces. There would be little to do but take shelter if the Covenant decided to glass the planet like they did with Reach. Chances are in a city the size of Downmarket that some of the civilians had been run through the 'Planetary Defence Force' program. Ever since Reach the UNSC had made sure every major city on every planet stood a better chance of putting up a fight. With PDF training civilians were taught to handle firearms and explosives. Given a basic understanding of tactics and told of local supplies of armour and weapons. Some had even been trained up to operate huge anti air defences placed in strategic locations around vital cities.
The first signs of human resistance were the bullet holes and shell casings Showpire spotted along the walls and floors. As he moved down the third block he started to find dead Covenant Grunts amongst the human bodies. At least someone was fighting back! However knowing the Covenant forces the way he did, it would not be a surprise to know that the Grunts had died from their own friendly fire. The little alien Grunts are already well known for their panicking in battle. Most of the time all you had to do was stand up in front of one of them and they would turn tail and run.
One wrecked car in particular looked like it had been used by UNSC forces for cover in a firefight as one side was unmarked but the other was half melted and stuck with spikes. Unexploded needler rounds by the look of it. Empty shell casings rattled under foot as the ODST moved in for a closer look. He scanned the area for any extra ammo left behind but nothing remained. Then he noticed that there were no human corpses at this position. Popping his head above the wrecked car Showpire saw the former Covenant position. A few dark purple metal shields sat on the corner of the street opposite the car. Covenant temporary defence shields. The Covenant must have started laying down roots in Downmarket. Showpire crossed the semi lit street slowly and carefully. Upon reaching the shields he found four dead Grunts surrounded by a pool of alien blood. One standard covenant pistol lay very close to his feet. He picked it up but found it drained of charge. There was a needler on the floor as well but even from a few meters away he could tell that it was broken. It still had a couple of rounds in it but the front end of the weapon was a cracked mess so he decided to leave it. The ODST turned to leave but as he did he caught a glimpse of something. Underneath one of the Grunt bodies lay a small round baseball sized object. He crouched down for closer inspection and found it was a blood covered plasma grenade. Just what he needed to make up for his missing frag. Now he was closer to the floor he noticed something else. UNSC shell casings lay towards the back of the Covenant position. Showpire stood and kicked over the grunt lying on its back right next to him, he found it's back riddled with bullet wounds. If he had to guess he'd say the scene in front of him was the aftermath of a UNSC fix and flank manoeuvre. And judging by the lack of UNSC armour clad bodies in the area it looked like it had been executed perfectly. One maybe two troopers had kept the Covenant busy by firing off a few shots from the car and popping up every now and again. Whilst another had crept into the darkness and around the back of the enemy. Showpire quickly wondered if it was his squad mates who had taken the aliens out but again pushed the thought out of his mind. He'd spent enough time day dreaming already. He had to get to the waypoint!
Brushing off some of the blood he stashed the plasma grenade on his belt and carried on towards his objective. Showpire passed another three buildings crouched in the shadows. Only one building away from the end of the block he saw the remnants of a Covenant Ghost and its splattered rider in the middle of the road. But just short of drawing level with the former vehicle he froze stiff. He dropped to the lowest crouch and made sure every step he took was silent as he quickly crossed the road. He was now only thirty foot directly behind a Covenant Elite trooper. It's back turned to him the alien stood arms crossed looking down the road. He knew by the Elites body language that it wouldn't be alone as it was way too relaxed being in a hostile area. But it was bound to turn round at some point. Showpire had closed the gap to ten feet and he decided to take shelter from the Elites line of sight behind a commercial rubbish bin on his left. His current plan was to wait and listen intently for the movements of his enemy. After twenty seconds or so he heard the Elite shuffle his feet and his best guess was that the alien had just turned around. Showpire grinned underneath his helmet but made sure not to move an inch. Another few seconds passed and another shuffling of feet. The ODST chanced a glance around the bin to see his enemy looking away again. Now came the first big risk as Showpire moved up to near touching distance of his enemy. He only stopped because if he had gone any further the cover of the building to his left would have ended. Another risk as he popped his head around the corner to see what allowed the Elite to be so relaxed. A piece of Covenant light armour sat twenty odd metres down the road. The hell-jumper knew the vehicle as a Revenant. It would seat two life forms within its reddish purple coloured armour, one driving and the other as passenger. The hover craft also supported a medium power plasma launcher at the back. He knew it as a deadly fast vehicle, difficult to hit even with a lock on rocket. However this hovercraft was grounded with another Elite stuck head first into the plasma core at the rear of the machine. Showpire knew that this vehicle ahead of him was an effective piece of armour as he'd seen it a few times before. The Elite nearest him shuffled his feet and the ODST dropped into the deepest shadow nearby at his side. Very slowly the blue armoured alien began to walk back towards his ally and the immobile craft.
In a split second Showpire knew his plan. He left the shadows and followed the Elite step for step to hide his slight sound. Gently and making sure to make no noise what so ever he slid his SMG around on its shoulder strap until it rested on his back. Only a few feet away from the centre of this small hive of hostile activity he stopped his creeping and let his enemy stray away from him a few feet. From the moment he stopped Showpire reached both hands onto his belt for the two grenades that he possessed. Bringing out his one human made grenade with his right hand and the salvaged alien one with his left, thumbs hovering above both detonators. Private Showpire took one final lung full of cool night air before pressing both fire buttons, as everything happened in the blink of an eye. He rolled the human grenade past his oblivious nearest opponent towards the back end of the downed craft and tossed the now glowing plasma grenade into his nearest enemies back. The rolling human grenade made enough of a scrapping sound on the unlit concrete for the enemy playing at mechanic to look up from within the machine. The first Elite feeling the slightest bump of the plasma grenade turned around to see an ODST running flat out towards him. Only then did it start to feel the burning of the attached grenade through his Covenant armour. As the unprepared alien gave voice to his fear and pain Showpire left the ground at full pace aiming both his feet into the Elites chest. His running drop kick knocked the doomed creature back into the static vehicle where his Covenant ally stood in shock taking in this sudden turn of events. The hell jumper landed hard on his back at the exact time that the first grenade started a fast chain reaction of explosions that knocked the troopers breathe from his body along with most of his senses.
When the ODST regained enough of his senses to scramble back to his feet he saw a brighter world before him. The shattered remains of his two huge enemies and their now flaming craft filled the road for metres around. Showpire gained his feet like a drunk. Stumbling and nearly going head over heels. Once again the senses had been knocked from him. This time it was his own doing and he realised the drop pod crash landing had probably hurt him more than he had first thought.