Chapter 6: The last stand ends

The Master Sergeant's voice commanded authority as he spoke "Obi. You still got those fuel rod cannon rounds Showpire brought in?"

"Yes Sir."

"Set them both on the left hand side of the entrance. Showpire I want you to hold up on the left hand side when the shooting starts and wait for my word. Obi and I will make all the noise and get their attention over here on the right and when I give the word pop up and hit the fuel rod ammo. You got that?"

"Aye Sir." Showpire liked the plan, simple though it might be. In fact he liked any plan where there was an explosion as a result.

Obi returned to his post having placed the shells in a good position. The squad leader was giving some orders to the PDF troops in the rear concerning covering fire and fall back patterns if his ODST's fell and Showpire was doing a last check on his weapons when Obi shouted out. "Incoming! Jackal's and Grunt's leading with Elite's at the back pushing them all forward."

Showpire shouted out whilst Grover jogged back to his position near the front. "Numbers Obi?"

"About twenty all together. Most are shorty's but there are four regular looking Elite's and the big one."

Grover reminded Showpire to wait for his say so before hitting the explosives and all the ODST's braced for combat as the first enemies appeared running down the ramp.

The ODST's standard weapon being silenced the squad leader had clearly switched weapons with one of the PDF troops as he opened the firefight with a half clip of standard assault rifle dropping multiple enemies and alerting the Covenant to both his and Obi's position. After the initial shock the Jackal's took to the front to provide cover for the Grunts and a steady return fire started up from the small aliens. So far all the fire had been to and from the metal anti vehicle ramp the two ODST's were using as cover which gave Showpire a superb angle to shoot at his unaware enemies but he had to wait for his time and he knew he wouldn't be waiting long as the Elite's emerged into the underground. Showpire kept watch on them as one of his friends emptied a few rounds at the towering enemy but most of the shots bounced off their armour without effect. One bullet struck the huge Elite clad in gold armour, it stood two clear foot above the others and even without an ornamental headdress it barely fit under the vehicle entrance roof. Showpire frowned as he saw an energy shield take the impact. Shielded enemies were always tough to kill.

Three of the Elites moved swiftly as the gold beast pointed orders for them to flank. Showpire wasn't waiting long until the Grover gave the go ahead with a hand gesture. Showpire burst up from his covered position and loosed two small bursts from his sub machine gun with incredible accuracy into the partially obscured explosive rounds.

The explosion was incredible confined within the underground structure as all the ODST's retreated behind their cover as parts of aliens and debris flew in all directions. Showpire was the first one back up as he scanned the now flattened area. He saw the three Elite's attempting to flank and several of the closest smaller aliens had all been killed in the powerful blast. Then he spotted the gold armoured behemoth knocked down near the bottom of the ramp and for a moment he thought it was dead but a split second later he saw it stand up and roar as loud as it could. Encouraging its remaining troops back to their feet and using its energy sword as a pointer it seemed to be ordering a retreat as he waved his arms and shouted in his alien tongue for his troops to follow him back up the ramp.

The ODST's opened up with everything they had on the fleeing aliens. Showing no mercy after what they had inflicted on Downmarket, and the rest of humanity. They claimed some smaller kills as some of the Grunts fell but the remaining two Elite's were back up the ramp and out of sight too quickly to take any major damage. Showpire darted over to his brothers as the last of the aliens went up the ramp and disappeared.

"Obi what do you see out there?"

"Lots! There are vehicles and ground troops flooding past heading west and the gold Elite has just hoped on a drop ship and bailed."

Showpire voiced his concerns about what had just happened. "You weren't wrong about the big Elite Obi. It must have been pushing 9 feet tall. Biggest I've ever seen by far."

"I told you. And doesn't gold armour mean General or Field Marshal or something?"

The squad leader interrupted. "It's General, now quiet down a moment. Can you hear that?"

Silence fell for a few moments whilst Showpire thought about running into the General for Covenant ground forces on Osiris and regret filled him that they had not killed the foul creature responsible for all the innocents killed since the invasion started not to mention his squad mates. But his day dreams of vengeance stopped when he heard the distinctive roar of human engines from outside.

Master Sergeant was the first to recognise and make the call. "Brace! Everybody brace!"

The ODST's and the PDF troops all slammed themselves tightly into their nearest cover as series of massive explosions rocked the ONI HQ. The blasts sent waves of flames shooting down the entrance tunnel and shook a light dust from the ceiling above.

Feeling thankful that the bombs hadn't hit the building directly Showpire raised his head and was looking to Obi for answers when he was forestalled. "Sorry mate but the cameras dead."

Showpire voiced his curiosity as he switched helmets with Obi once more. "Sir permission to recon outside and find out what just happened?"

"Negative Private. We need all hands down here in case of a second incursion. We can however try and make radio contact with the UNSC from nearer the entrance."

Grover then retrieved an old school portable radio from the PDF boys and gave it to Showpire and sent him forward to attempt contact. He clicked the radio and made all the correct call signs but received nothing but static. Just about to give in and turn around Showpire heard a heart lifting sound. The kind of sound that brought fire to the darkest places.

He shouted over his shoulder as loud as he could manage. "Scorpion!"

Grover and Obi came running forward whilst the PDF took the forward cover position just in case. The sound of heavy tracks rolling got louder by the second and Grover ordered the ODST's to follow him out. They all ran up the ramp to find the most common heavy armour in the UNSC facing straight at them in the early light of Downmarket dawn. Not too far behind they could also see a couple of warthogs slowly pushing the remains of Covenant tanks off the main road. Master Sergeant Grover opened his comm's and the scorpion's driver hatch opened to reveal a young Lieutenant with a broad smiling face. "Nice to see someone survived. I shouldn't be surprised to see it's the ODST's. Are you alone?"

Master Sergeant Grover removed his helmet as he gave his answer. "No Sir. Some PDF's helped us hold the building and we have almost two hundred civvies in the lower levels."

"Well done troopers. You can stand at ease for now. Our boys will secure the area and then we can move the civvies out safely."

Grover responded with his emotionless deep tone. "Sorry Sir, but we haven't finished yet. One of my ODST's is still MIA. If you resupply us we need to head back out into the field?"

The young officer looked slightly taken aback. "Ok I'll make you a deal Master Sergeant. You and your men take one of these Warthogs and drop in at our forward operating base. Grab your ammo and a hot meal and you can get back to it. Deal?"

"Deal. Thank you Sir." The ODST's made their salutes and proceeded to commandeer the nearest Warthog, complete with mounted Gauss cannon. They drove in silence past the advancing units of the UNSC until the Master Sergeant pulled up outside an ammo stash in front of the forward operating base. They filled their pockets and holsters with everything they could carry and Showpire took the time to find a hand held radio and headset to replace his dead mic. As soon as he returned the Master Sergeant spoke. "I hope you enjoyed that hot meal guy's. Time to get back to it and find Private Li Pyandao don't you think?"

"Aye Sir." They both repeated glad to skip the waste of time a hot meal would cost whilst one of their own was still out there somewhere.

With Grover concentrating on driving and Obi on the cannon Showpire took the passenger seat and tuned his new radio to the ODST frequency as they wove in between all the UNSC ground forces. As they reached an open stretch of road Grover announced out of nowhere. "Showpire you've just been field promoted to Specialist in the field of demo. Congratulations."

Obi leaned forward and slapped him on the shoulder pad and Grover carried on looking forward as if nothing had been said at all. Specialist Showpire sat stunned for a few seconds then spoke in his most serious tone. "Thank you Sir! I won't let you down!"

Epilogue; Back at it.

Resupplied and ready the brave ODST's head back into the field their mission priorities slightly changed from the original drop.

Search for the mysterious Private Li Pyandao.

Help any remaining civvies.

Take any opportunity to hurt any the Covenant still in Downmarket.

Take enemy intel.

I hope you enjoyed this tale of ODST's in action. Maybe one day far off in the future we will revisit the 677th Marines from The Lady Justice together. Until then thanks for reading.