Chapter 4: There's nothing like having your friend turn up with a rocket launcher!
Having scrambled to the shadows once more Showpire rechecked his surroundings for any sign of incoming enemies. Nothing could be seen or heard so he took a moment to breathe deep and try to rid himself of the massive adrenaline rush he had received from his actions. Breathing and heart rate slightly more settled the trooper rechecked his direction and continued to move towards the ONI HQ where his friends had lasted reported their location.
Showpire approached the ONI building directly from its north with increasing caution. He could hear the sounds of battle way off in the distance. Massive explosions and the faintest sounds of gun fire came at him sporadically. Too far away for it to be the ONI HQ in battle Showpire figured it was the UNSC counter offensive in full flow. Probably heading towards the ODST's location.
Finally the trooper gained a visual on the ONI building but it was surrounded by significant Covenant forces, most notable of all was the Wraith tank facing away from him and pointed towards the HQ. Quickly deducing that the enemy still surrounding the building meant that at least someone was alive inside Showpire set about mentally planning his best course of action. He could see a difficult situation ahead of him. From his location he could see there was a vehicle sized opening at the buildings centre, the type of opening that would lead down into an underground car park and drop off point. The ideal place for a last stand if you blocked off the stairwells and disabled the elevators to that level. It would also explain why there was a stalemate between the two enemies. The alien tank was too big to fit down the underground access and any of the Covenant heading into the building would be bottle necked into an easy kill zone for any human troops inside, provided they had some solid cover to hide behind.
A slight sound caught the ODST's attention somewhere off to his left, unseen beyond the corner of the nearest skyscraper. It sounded a little bit like barking, a sound the experienced trooper quickly recognised as a Jackal's vocalisation. His heart beat faster as he realised he had nowhere to go. To his front lay the small blockade of his allies and going backwards would lead him into the line of sight of his now clearly audible enemies. Thinking and acting quickly, as he was trained to do, he darted across the road so as to be closer to his enemies. A risky move as if any of the troops by the blockade had been facing him or turned around they would have seen him in the open and in all likelihood killed him with little effort. Now he was squatted down as close into the wall as possible as the Jackal and whatever else it was talking to walked just past the edge of the skyscraper. The Jackal appeared first its luminous blue defensive shield attached to its right arm whilst pointing off into the distance with its left, towards the direction Showpire had originally come from. Then a Covenant Grunt wobbled its way forward holding a massive cannon on its shoulder and looking where its leader was pointing. Hoping that luck was with him and that these two aliens were alone the ODST made his choice to conserve his ammo and pulled his combat knife from its sheath located on the left side of his chest. With a few quiet and powerful strides forward he grasped the Grunt's face from behind with his left hand pulling it into his chest so the shocked alien had no chance to move. Muffled as the creature was it still made a noise when it dropped its giant cannon. The Jackal turned saw the human and opened its mouth to scream a warning but before any noise left the creature Showpire had pushed his knife into the beast's throat just above its armoured chest. Blood shot forward from the wound covering Showpire's hand as it fell to the floor in near silence, its shield already dead, the creature grasped at the hole in its neck trying and failing to stem the flow. The trooper then reversed the hold on his knife and drew it powerfully across the neck of the panicking grunt. Taking a quick glance over both shoulders he knew he had not been seen so he stored his bloodied knife and took a dead alien in each hand and dragged them out of sight.
The trooper returned to the corner quickly and retrieved the dead Grunt's cannon. A Fuel Rod Cannon with five rounds already loaded. A new and dangerous plan formed in his mind. A quick check on his mini map and the ODST had decided what to do.
He knew someone was alive in the ONI HQ underground due to enemy presence and thanks to the ODST message on the city central computer they must by now be very low on ammo. Showpire could see a way into the underground but getting in just wasn't enough. Whilst checking the route his plan would take him the trooper found the remains of a human defence post. Seeing the best of the tragic situation he pushed aside the dead and filled a nearby duffle bag with all the ammo and spare weapons he could carry. A couple of MA5's, the most common human assault rifle, with a few full clips each and two grenades. A spare pistol that took the same calibre ammo as his pistol gave him yet another idea as the ODST started his final preparations to get in and if need be back out again of the underground safe zone. The sounds of the UNSC offensive grew louder and the Covenant started looking towards the sounds of battle more often.
Showpire returned to the corner where he had killed his two enemies and retrieved the fallen Jackal's plasma pistol. Adding it to the duffle bag along with two of the fuel rod cannon's live round's, the bag now weighed quite a bit. He then emptied his own side arm of ammunition and wedged the pistol between a lower wall of the skyscraper and some rubbish. Making sure the view was decent via his helmet linked camera. He made sure that the gun turned CCTV camera was covering the entrance of underground. Final prep done he shouldered the cannon and took aim at the rear end of the Wraith.
Three rapid bright green shots left the cannon and stuck the back of the tank inflicting maximum damage and causing the armoured vehicle to explode in a beautiful pattern of bright blue plasma. Quite a bit faster than he expected two huge Covenant Elites rounded the corner and opened fire. The Elites were followed by a steady stream of subordinates and any of them with clear line of sight on the fleeing human opened fire. Needler rounds curved into the building as the ODST sped around the nearest corner. Showpire braced his submachine gun into his shoulder once more and popped his head back around the corner to see plenty of enemies closing on his position before letting off a few rounds claiming another Grunt towards the back and invoking a scream of rage from the nearest Elite.
The hell jumper then summoned all of his strength and ran the length of the building he was using for cover as fast as possible. The weight of all his equipment slowed him down considerably but the Covenant troops thought they were advancing on a stationary enemy, maybe they even thought he was part of the UNSC advance forces which slowed their progress allowing him more time. Showpire made the corner and turned left heading for the road that ran straight in front of the HQ. His lungs worked hard as he made his final left turn and he could see the entrance to the ONI building, a second of doubt entered his mind as he wondered if this plan was going to work. But then he looked ahead of him and it seemed, for a few moments anyway, that all the Covenant forces had turned in the direction of the first attack. Some were advancing to where the cannons shots had come from. Others had simply turned their backs on the underground passage waiting for other braver comrades to do the dangerous work. The distance closed quickly as Showpire sprinted towards the human strong hold. Close enough now to feel the heat from the burning tank he briefly thought he might enter the HQ without even being seen but as the angle changed two Jackals stood facing the burning tank and caught clear sight of him. The ODST unleashed a whole clip from his silenced machine gun cutting down the nearest of the pair. However the Jackal at the rear had brought his orange shield to his defence as soon as he had seen him and the ODST's deadly rounds dropped harmlessly to the floor after striking it. The Jackal screamed an ear splitting cry bringing all Covenant attention straight back to underground entrance and Showpire barely made the last few feet into the underground. Narrowly being missed by plasma repeater rounds and screaming as he entered the ONI HQ. "Don't shot me! Don't shot me!"