Marcus ran over to the side of the command centre building, Alima, Stinger and Tanya followed him. As they reached the command centre, they saw that the ladder had been destroyed about three quarters of the way up, about three feet short of the section of the roof it led up to, which was still standing despite the majority of the roof being destroyed and resting on almost completely unstable steel and concrete columns within the building.
"We'll do it up there," he said, glancing over his shoulder at his squad.
"Up there?" Tanya repeated, a sense of worry in her voice. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Why, you scared of unstable buildings?" Marcus asked and he began climbing up the ladder towards the roof. As he climbed, he muttered to himself: "Because I'm sure as Hell am,"
The other three looked at each other for a moment as if deciding whether it was best to follow Marcus before he called down to them from the roof and they began climbing up. As they did, Marcus turned and moved up a narrow path of the roof, which was only just under a metre wide from the side of the roof and a collapsed section, where the rest of the roof had been, that had formed a kind of slide of rubble down to the ground, and stopped and began setting up the radio equipment. The aerial came up out of the circular shaped device and turned in a kind of dish and pointed towards the CCS battle cruiser, which was nearing the Michigan. It was then Marcus stopped. He had managed to set up the aerial but did not know how to set up the computer, though there was someone on his team that did.
"Alima," Marcus said, looking over his shoulder at the side of the roof where the ladder had come up to. She was kneeling down next to Stinger, both with one of their hands reaching down to pull Tanya up from the ladder. She looked over her shoulder at him.
"What is it, Marcus?" she asked as she felt Tanya grab her hand and she and Stinger pulled her up onto the roof.
"D'you know how to work these type of computers to set the distance and location of the ship?" he asked. She nodded. "Then I need you over here,"
Alima ran over and knelt down next to him and began working on the computer. "Give me a second," she said. "And we best get ready, the Covenant'll be heading this way with loads of troops,"
Marcus nodded in agreement. He had almost forgotten about the approaching Covenant army for the moment and he stood up and looked out towards the desert to see the Covenant vehicles at the front of the army moving closer. Though they were still quite far away, he could just about make out the shapes of the wraiths moving along the ground. A few whirs in the air made him and the others look up and three banshees flew overhead towards the Michigan, no doubt to another fiery death from the AA turrets along the sides of the ship.
"We're in for a wild fight," Stinger said as he looked around the landscape in front of the command centre.
"Okay, It's done," Alima said and she stood up. The small aerial dish emitted a small beep and a small timer appeared on the computer screen. It read 03:00 and began counting down. They had three minutes to defend their position.
"Well, this is it," Marcus said as he looked down at his weapon in his hands. The others walked up alongside him, looking out at the approaching horde of Covenant, whose infantry, which they could see, was beginning to run across the dirt road that separated the two building areas. "It's up to us to make sure they get out of here," he added, looking back at the Michigan.
Silence fell between them, the noise of the air being pierced by the occasional distant explosions from the buildings on the outer areas of the base and the roars and shouts of the approaching Covenant.
"Are you guys ready?" Marcus asked his squad.
They all nodded. "We're ready," they all replied in unison.
Marcus nodded and looked back once more at the Covenant. The first of the wave of Covenant infantry was rushing behind the outer buildings of the second group of buildings. This was it. This was their last stand. They had to hold out just for three minutes, but they knew very well that in war death would come in a lot less time than that, especially in this war with the Covenant.
"Let's go," Marcus said.
He ran down the slide of rubble on the front of the command centre to the ground, the rest of the squad followed. When they reached the ground, they took cover behind individual piles of rubble and raised their weapons at the pathway behind the wraith, which was a kind of shield to them but also to any approaching Covenant. They waited tensely for the Covenant too appear at the other end of the pathway. One second passed…two seconds…three…four…
Then, a tall bulky figure with light blue armour ran out into the pathway. A minor Elite. Another minor Elite followed and behind the second Elite was a squad of ten Grunts.
"Down there!" the first minor Elite said. "Find and kill any survivors!" he ordered and he led the squad down the pathway towards the four taskforce soldiers. Behind them, another group of Covenant, a squad of six Jackals, appeared at the end of the pathway and followed the Elites.
"Get ready!" Marcus whispered to his squad, who nodded and cocked their weapons, ready to fire when the order was given.
The moments ticked by quickly, the noise of the Covenant forces growing louder as they came closer. The Grunts lumbered around the remains of the wraith whilst the Elites began climbing over it. Behind them, the Jackals were nearing the wraith. They were almost all within range. The first minor Elite jumped down from the wraith to the ground and barked a command at some of the Grunts, who had stopped at the right side of the wraith. They quickly lumbered on towards the command centre, towards the squad of four Humans they had no idea was in front of them.
"NOW!" Marcus yelled all of a sudden.
All four quickly rose up and fired a barrage of bullets at the Covenant squad. The first minor Elite was hit and fell to the ground, dead, riddled with bullets. The second Elite tried to jump down and hide behind the wraith, but failed and was also killed.
"AAAAAHHHH! LEADER DEAD!" one of the Grunts screamed. "RUN AWAY!"
The Grunts immediately scattered, panicking and waving their arms about in the air in terror. Most of them began running back down the pathway they had come from, directly into the squad of Jackals. The Jackals screeched in surprise and were quickly pushed and shoved to one side as the tide of their smaller comrades ran into them. Marcus saw this as he began to reload his weapon.
"Quick, let's get 'em!" he exclaimed and he ran out from behind the pile of rubble. The others ran out after him. When they reached the gap between the wraith and the building, they fired at the force of Covenant. The high pitched screams and screeches of dying Grunts and Jackals filled the air as the barrage cut through the Covenant.
Finally, after about two or three seconds, the barrage stopped and the squad lowered their weapons. All of the Covenant Grunts and Jackals were lying dead in a small pile on the ground in front of them.
"One load down," Stinger said. "But a million more to go,"
"Should we try and move down and hold them at the end of the pathway?" Tanya asked.
"No, not a good idea," Marcus replied. "We should stay here and wait for them to come to us,"
"AAAAHHHH!"
Suddenly, Alima was thrown to the ground as a purple laser appeared all of a sudden from nowhere and then disappeared almost as quickly as it came into thin air. Marcus grabbed her by the arm and dragged her behind the wraith as blood began to drip from her shoulder.
"ARGH!" she cried. "It…it hurts!"
"You'll be alright," Marcus replied trying to calm her down. She had to calm down. If she kept up her stress level, then the blood flow in her body would increase and more of it would be lost and if that happened, she would die from blood loss. "Breathe deeply and try and keep still," he said.
She nodded slightly and, wincing in pain, began to breathe deeply, though it was hard to try and keep still. She placed a hand on the wound on her shoulder and pushed down on it. It would stop the wound from bleeding, but it would not heal it. She needed medical equipment. Marcus looked over his shoulder at the command centre. There was small hole just big enough for a man to fit through into the building. Surely there had to be medical equipment in there!
"Guys, c'mon! We're going into the command centre," he said to Tanya and Stinger, who both fired a burst of ammo at the rooftop of the building at the end of the pathway. A screech erupted from the end of the pathway, indicating a Jackal, most probably the sniper that had injured Alima, had been killed.
"What about the radio equipment?" Stinger asked.
Marcus looked up at the roof of the command centre. Damn it! There was that as well. They could not leave the radio or the Covenant would destroy it, and if they destroyed it there was no way the squad would be able to receive another from the Michigan.
He sighed in annoyance. "Alright, Stinger, Tanya, you two go up to the roof and hold off the Covenant from there. I'll deal with Alima,"
Tanya and Stinger nodded and ran past them up the slide of rubble to the roof. Marcus, looking past the remains of the wraith once more just to make sure that there were no Covenant coming up the pathway before he picked up Alima and, resting their weapons on her torso, ran with her over to the hole in the front of the command centre, having to turn sideways and crouch down slightly to fit through the gap into the command centre.
When they were inside the command centre, which was almost completely filled with rubble and almost completely dark save for the light coming through the hole in the front of the command centre and the side entrance doorway, Marcus looked around the main room, trying to find anything that might look promising in helping Alima, but most of the medical equipment had been either used up or taken. There was nothing!
Then, his eyes rested on a small box on the right wall of the room. It was open and he saw a small injection needle in the box with a cream coloured liquid inside the needle. It was a morphine serum. It would not cure the wound but it would at least stop it from hurting and enable Alima to walk again.
He rushed over and gently set her down on the floor. He then picked up the injection needle and checked it to make sure it was not broken. It was not.
"Sorry if this hurts, Alima," he said.
"Right now…" she replied, gasping a little in pain. "I…really…couldn't care…if it did,"
He gave a small laugh and injected the serum, the liquid going into her blood flow. He threw the needle onto the floor and watched as Alima sat up as the serum began to take effect. She moved her arm that was attached to the wounded shoulder to see if she could still use it. Thankfully, she could.
"Thank you, Marcus," she said, handing him his weapon.
"It's okay," he replied. A barrage of bullets being fired exploded from outside, followed by a high-pitched yell. "We better go," he said. "Let's go out the side way,"
She nodded and, after getting up, ran with him over to the side entrance. They ran outside and Alima began climbing up the ladder to the top. As she reached the top of the ladder, a blast flew overhead in the sky a few metres above the roof. Another blast followed the first and a burst of ammo filled the air afterwards. Alima climbed on to the top and Tanya, who was nearby and looked over towards where the ladder had once been attached to the side of the roof, saw Alima and she quickly came over and pulled her up onto the roof.
"Are you okay?" she asked her.
Alima nodded. "Yes, thank you," she replied.
A few moments later, Marcus appeared on the roof after her and rushed over to the radio. It read 01:00. Just one more minute!
"Watch it!" Stinger shouted all of a sudden.
Another wave of light blue blasts flew overhead and Marcus looked down to see a group of three minor Elites and a major Elite running towards them. The squad fired a barrage of bullets at the Elites, hitting and killing the major and one of the minors. The other two dived behind the piles of rubble the squad had been using earlier on. They fired a few blasts out from behind the rubble at the squad, who had dived to the floor to avoid the deadly blasts.
"How are we gonna get rid of these two?" Alima asked, leaning on her right more so as not to reopen her wound on her left shoulder.
"You guys got any grenades?" Tanya asked.
"I do," Stinger piped up, holding up two in his other hand.
"Pass one here," Tanya said and he threw one to her, which she caught, narrowly avoiding having her hand being hit by a blast. She pulled the pin and, sitting up, threw it down to one of the pile of rubble where one of the Elites was hiding. It hit the top and bounced off and disappeared behind it.
BOOM! The grenade exploded, followed by a roar as the Elite was thrown out from behind the pile of rubble to the ground, dead. The other Elite roared something in anger and fired a barrage of light blue blasts from It's plasma rifle at the squad.
"Keep him pinned down," Stinger said.
The others nodded and returned fire on the Elite, causing it to duck for over behind the pile of rubble. Seizing the opportunity, Stinger pulled the pin off of his grenade and threw it at the Elite. Like with Tanya's grenade, the explosive device hit the top of the pile of rubble and bounced off and disappeared behind it. Another explosion filled the air, followed by another roar, and the Elite was thrown to the ground, dead.
"Nice work, guys," Marcus said. "Now we just need to wait for the timer to end,"
"It already has," Tanya said. "Look," she added, pointing at the computer screen.
They all looked at it and saw the timer hit 00:00. They quickly turned their heads in the direction of the Michigan and saw a long thin object, with a kind of long barrel-like object on the top of it, rise up out of the side of the dome. It stopped after a bout two seconds and the barrel pointed up at the CCS battle cruiser, which the front of was just over the back of the Michigan. A gold coloured ball began to form on the end of the barrel. The squad watched it grow in size. Hope began to fill them. This cannon was smaller than they imagined, but captain Parker had said that this cannon was capable of destroying the CCS battle cruiser, but may have he been over-exaggerating? Hopefully not or the Michigan and everyone on it was dead.
Then, about five seconds later, the gold coloured ball, which had grown to about the size of a small house, flew out towards the bottom of the Covenant ship and struck it. At once, a large explosion filled the air as the ball collided with the metal of the battle cruiser. Smaller explosions erupted all along the inside of it and the CCS battle cruiser came to a halt in mid-air and began to list a little to the right away from the Michigan.
"We better get down from here," Marcus said, running down the slide of rubble. The others decided it was best to follow and ran after him, though none of them took their eyes off of the CCS battle cruiser. A few moments…
BOOM! Another more powerful explosion lit up the sky as the CCS battle cruiser was torn in two. The back half fell to the ground a few hundred feet from the Michigan, making the ground rumble violently as it hit the surface of the planet. The front half fell towards the buildings and slammed into the ground much harder, which was what the squad felt it was like as it was closer to them, and drove along it over the river and into the second area of buildings, throwing a huge cloud of dust into the air. Finally, it came to a halt about two hundred feet from the command centre, the dust dancing around it like a dustbowl.
When the dust finally settled after a few minutes, the squad broke into a cheer.
"Nice one!" Stinger exclaimed, pushing the air with his fist.
"We've done it!" Tanya exclaimed.
"Nice work in setting up the computer, Alima," Marcus said to her.
"Thanks," she replied, smiling.
They all looked back at the remains of the battle cruiser. Hope had filled them once again. The Michigan was safe, along with all those on board it, and hundreds more Covenant were dead. In fact, there might actually be a chance for them to call for a pelican.
"We've got enough time," Marcus said. "I'll call for a pelican," he placed a finger on the radio in his ear, but just as he was about to speak.
"WATCH OUT!" Stinger yelled all of a sudden and Marcus shot round, lowering his hand, to see three banshees dive in from the CCS battle cruiser and each fire a green ion blast at them. They all quickly scattered, narrowly avoiding being blown apart by the ion blasts and Stinger ran up the slide of rubble to the top of the command centre.
"Stinger, watch out!" Alima shouted at him and he shot round and his eyes grew wide with fear that seemed to lock him in place.
One of the banshees had flown off a little from the others, who had turned back towards the approaching Covenant, and had suddenly turned and was flying back towards them, and Stinger was his target.
"Stinger, get off of there!" Marcus shouted up at him.
But it was too late. By the time Marcus had started shouting, the banshee fired a green ion blast at the command centre. It struck the slide where Stinger had been standing and exploded. Then, the slide crumbled and caved in into the main room of the command centre.
"NOOOO!" Marcus yelled. "STINGER?" he yelled, desperately hoping to receive a reply.
He did not. Oh, this was terrible! He could not believe it! That was three squad members under his command dead and another was wounded and more vulnerable. If they were killed, then… Marcus shook his head as that thought seemed to take over his mind. No! he did not want that to happen, but he was worried, and even certain, it would happen.
"No!" Tanya said as she stared at the remains of the command centre with sad eyes. Alima did the same, her eyes filled with tears that silently rolled down her cheeks.
"Kill them all!" a deep voice from behind shouted.
The three shot round to see a wave of mortar blasts shoot up into the air and land up and down the pathway, destroying the buildings and reducing them to rubble, throwing a cloud of dust into the air. Then, a group of Elites ran out of the dust cloud. Upon seeing the Covenant soldiers, anger seemed to grip the squad.
"You bastards!" Marcus shouted at them, firing a burst of ammo at a minor Elite, killing it.
However, they quickly found themselves being forced back towards the command centre as the Elites advanced. Then, as the dust cloud began to disappear, the forms of many other Covenant soldiers, Grunts, Jackals and several large forms that were Hunters, began to become visible. Marcus swore and looked behind him over his shoulder at the hole at the front of the command centre. That was the only place they could hide in.
"Guys, in there!" he shouted to Tanya and Alima, pointing to the hole in the front of the command centre.
"WATCH OUT!" Alima screamed all of a sudden, pointing at the Covenant.
Marcus and Tanya looked and their eyes went wide. One of the Hunters had pushed It's way to the front and was charging up It's huge arm cannon, which the squad saw from the light green light coming out of the cannon attached onto It's right arm, and the cannon was aimed at them. Then, it fired.
"GET DOWN!" Marcus screamed, diving to the ground.
However, a sound that made his heart stop filled his ears. It was a scream, no two screams. No! No, that meant…!
He looked behind him over at Tanya and Alima. His heart seemed to stop again. Both of them were lying dead on the ground just inches from the hole in the front of the command centre. His body felt like it was breaking down. He felt like he was going to break down and cry. Then again, who would not?
Snapping back into reality, Marcus got up and ran towards the hole, diving into it and jumping aside behind a wall, narrowly missing another set of blasts. He heard the Covenant shout and squeak outside he readied his weapon, ready to fight them. He took a deep breath and poked his head out from behind the wall, his weapon raised, ready to fire on the Covenant.
What the…? The Covenant! He could not believe his eyes. They were retreating! They were all…fleeing back in the direction of their army. Why?
However, a different feeling was filling Marcus as he looked down and saw Alima and Tanya's bodies on the ground just feet from him. He moved back into the command centre and rested his back against the wall of the room and buried his face in his knees, breathing heavily as he began to cry. Tears ran down his face.
He could not believe it. For just a handful of days, he had proved himself to be a good leader of a squad of taskforce soldiers. He had led them through dangers and battles and even through an attack on a CCS battle cruiser, but now… Now they were all dead! All but him!
Why? Why had he been allowed to live? He did not want them to die! They were like his family to him. Stinger's words ran over his mind repeatedly: "If you're staying, then so will we," That…that was true loyalty and friendship. He lifted his head up and sniffed, wiping away a tear from his eye.
It really is just me now he mentally said to himself.
He looked over at the pile of rubble, which had been what Stinger had been standing on moments earlier, and then at the wall behind him, as if he could see through it, at the place where the bodies of Alima and Tanya lay.
"I'm sorry, guys," he muttered. "I didn't want this,"
Another set of tears worked their way into his eyes and he wiped them away. It was not fair for him to live and them to die. It was not fair, not at all!
Suddenly, a roaring sound filled the air, making the ground rumble slightly. Marcus gasped a little and went wide-eyed. What was going on? Wait; was it the Covenant ships glassing the planet? No, it could not be. The ground would be rumbling more if that was the case. The only other possibility was…
Marcus crawled out of the command centre as quickly as he could, quickly looking up at the CCS battle cruisers. They were all holding position in the sky several miles away. The roaring noise was coming from the direction of the… He looked and saw the Michigan resting on the enormous landing pillars, only large columns of fire were shooting out from underneath it. It was taking off.
Then, like a sleeping giant rising from It's slumber, the Michigan began to rise up into the sky, the columns of fire forcing it up from the landing pads, which began to fall as if they were collapsing. Marcus slumped down onto his knees and watched as the Michigan rose higher and higher into the air, almost disappearing into the clouds before it came to a shalt in mid-air as the columns of fire that were shooting out from underneath it suddenly stopped. It hung there in mid-air for a moment as if frozen. Then, the engines on the back of the craft activated and, in a sonic boom, the craft shot forward and Marcus watched as it rose up into the air, disappearing into the clouds, but the light blue colour from the engines still shone brightly from behind the clouds, though they began to shrink as the Michigan climbed higher in the sky until they finally disappeared.
Marcus sighed in defeat and looked around him at the war torn landscape. Everything was either damaged or destroyed and the many bodies of the Covenant littered the ground along with the bodies of marines and the remains of Covenant and UNSC vehicles. Among the bodies of the UNSC forces here were those who had been part of his squad, those who had been his friends, but now they were all dead. He felt like his heart was braking, like a part of him had been taken from him.
He mentally cursed himself for being alive. Why him? Why was he allowed to live and they were not? That was a question most soldiers asked after service in war and witnessing their friends and many others be killed. It was horrible!
Marcus looked up at the area of the sky where the Michigan had disappeared into. At least the defence of the ship had not been in vain. The many wounded on board had escaped, along with many more marines and workers, among them Debbie and Hans, two people he was glad had escaped. All of them were safe and had been spared from death.
But not without the help and sacrifice of Marcus' friends.