"We've got a very hot LZ down there," the kodiak pilot announced as the shuttles circled around the southern defensive line the militia were just barely holding. "I'm going to be in and out in less than one mike."
"Understood," Chief Williams said, turning to inform Colonel Veers. He just nodded acknowledgement due to the noise of the wind blowing through the door, which was opened to facilitate a Marine sniper taking shots at targets exposed on the ground.
The kodiak flew two more circles around the battlefield before swinging in low to the ground behind two others and depositing the sharpshooter, Colonel Veers, Chief Williams, and three other Marines onto the scorched ground. True to his word, the shuttle pilot rocketed into the sky as soon as they cleared the door.
Gunfire surrounded them as the two Marine teams advanced to engage the Heretic troops that had bunkered down behind the ridge. Two more shuttles landed and deposited two more Marine squads onto the dirt behind them, and those two teams moved on to engage as well.
"Send the rest of the brigade to the base and drive the Covvies out of the city," Veers ordered, motioning to Ashley. She relayed the orders to the remaining shuttle pilots, and she noted them turning and darting into the city. Veers was leading them toward the damaged bunker from which some firing was still occurring. Ashley took the lead with the two Marines and left the sharpshooter to accompany the Colonel.
"Friendlies!" Ashley shouted, pointing her rifle at the front of the bunker that appeared to have been blown clean open.
"Come on in!" a male voice replied from within the darkened bunker. Ashley climbed through the hole and helped the two Marines and the Colonel in before turning and facing the ragged remnants of Terra Nova's militia.
"I can't explain how glad I am to see you," one said, snapping to attention and offering a military-grade salute.
Colonel Veers stepped forward and returned the salute. "Your men have done beautifully, Captain. Regroup with the survivors and return to your base. I'm making you the 212th's rearguard."
"Yes, sir," Captain Marquez said, gathering his men and officially relinquishing the bunker to the Marines. The militiamen cast wearied looks at their relief and filed from the bunker, retreating quickly into the city to help the second half of the 212 in driving off those aliens that broke through into the city.
Veers looked out of the bunker toward the horizon, which was an odd sight. In the waning sunlight the clouds to the south-east were died an otherworldly pink color where their targets had landed. "I'm designating the bunker next door as our brigade command post. We've got to finish our clearing operation and plan an attack on those cruisers."
"Division will be here in a few days, Colonel," Ashley said. "I don't know if we could scratch four dreadnought-sized ships."
"Operations Chief, I'm well aware of our capabilities in combat. I'm also aware that they outnumber us greatly and we have to use the initiative if we are to have any hope of not being swamped by their superior numbers and firepower," Veers said, shutting down any talk of sitting tight.
"What I could see during our approach is that the cruisers landed in a wide circle about twenty-five kilometers to the south-east. We can take the shuttles in, but we don't have any data on the effective range of their point-defense weapons, and I don't want to risk the 212 getting blown out of the sky," Ashley said.
"Marching would take too long, and the makos aren't deployed yet," Veers observed.
"If we wait until the makos are deployed we can cover the distance from Scott to the target in under an hour," Ashley proposed. Left unstated was the fact that the 2nd Division would be that much closer every minute she could buy.
"Supposing we do, how do you think we'll take these things down?" Veers asked.
"I'm starting less ambitiously—just taking one down. They've clearly landed and began disembarking troops, logically leading to the conclusion that there is a door or loading ramp open we can use to ride right into the guts of the ship and kill the crew off," she said, her voice far from certain. She was speculating more than anything. It was the longest of shots with only light weapons and vehicles and fewer than 1000 troops against four massive ships. "This is all dependent on the status of the ship's defenses."
"Right," Veers agreed. "We'll call it Operation Red Carpet, and I want a concrete battle plan hammered out within an hour, Williams."
"Yes, sir," Ashley said, saluting. Veers returned the salute and left the bunker to go to the second. Ashley regarded the pink light to the southeast with trepidation.
The only other person in the shattered bunker with her were the two Marines, both hunkered down behind the walls. Ashley peeked over the wall, unsure of the enemy's proximity to them, and saw the 212's troops advancing across the plain, driving the Heretics back.
She jumped out of the bunker and ran across the no-man's-land between the two bunkers toward Veers' headquarters, a decidedly more stable structure.
Inside, an upended power cell crate served as a table upon which a local tour map was being used to plan the defense. Veers himself was in the back of the room, near the weapons lockers. He appeared to be talking to a higher-up on his omni-tool, most likely extolling the virtues of Operation Red Carpet.
Ashley took a seat against the wall, pulling up her omni-tool and bringing up a picture from one of the frigates in low orbit over the planet. The four ships were indeed landed in a circle a few kilometers away from Scott, though smoke from the burning tanks and some light grass fires ignited by the conflict obstructed the view from orbit somewhat. She plotted out Operation Red Carpet as the rest of the brigade staff went about preparing the troops to move.
Several hours later, in the dead of night, the plains were alive with the noise of movement. The strange acoustics attributed to kodiaks caused the noise of their thrusters to seemingly echo up and down the plains and make it hard to figure exactly where the source of the sound was.
The source was more than a dozen kodiak shuttles in a delta formation streaking through the sky toward the ominous deepening purple light reflecting off of the lower cloud coverage on the horizon. They were merely sixty meters above the ground, oftentimes drifting lower than that before pulling up sharply to avoid the occasional tree or exceptionally large hill.
As the LZ approached, Ashley had elected to accompany one of the squads into the combat, knowing full well that every able body would be needed, charging into the unknown like they were. Slowly the shuttle began to decelerate, and it turned sharply to the right. A drop in her stomach alerted Ashley that they were descending.
Then there was the familiar thud of the shuttle hitting the dirt and the hiss of the doors opening, a rush of hot air came blowing in from outside, and the soft nostalgic sound of grass blowing around.
Hers was the first pair of boots on the ground, lead only by her rifle. Immediately she swiveled and started toward the oppressive overhanging clouds that from this range could be seen to be wreathed around the nearest of the ships. They were less than a kilometer away now, and as the kodiaks continued to land, disgorge their troops, and depart, strange sounds were emanating from in front of them.
Ultimately, though, Ashley noticed that the ships weren't landed in the strictest sense of the word: they were hovering about 100 meters above the ground, either lifted by a strange beam of light or tethered to the planet by it.
Issuing a groan, she lowered her rifle and opened her omni-tool. "Colonel Veers, this is Chief Williams. The targets are not on the ground, they're actually pretty high above it. Recommend we change mission parameters from counterattack to force reconnaissance."
"Chief, I don't think I heard your last. You said they're high above the ground? Are they withdrawing?" Veers' tinny voice replied.
"Negative, they appear to be holding steady," she said, her eyes tracing up the beams to the ships. They appeared to reach some kind of ventral opening in the ship, which was curious.
"ROE are the same though: deadly force is to be applied to all enemy combatants," Veers said from the headquarters, breaking the connection afterwards.
"Yes, sir," Ashley said, shutting down her omni-tool and raising her rifle again. Silently she motioned to the officers present and then toward the ships. Advance.
While they moved forward, Ashley relinquished the lead to an officer not on battalion staff. She was still living in the gunnery chief days, before she got kicked up to a staff officer position after the 212 was all but destroyed. She got moved up after Saren, and after Shepard.
Thinking about him put a lump in her throat, which she cleared. This wasn't the time to think about that. There was a mission, an entire planet to hold. Right now there was an advance she was a part of, one she hoped to keep secret.
They got close.
They got very close before they were seen—just a few hundred meters from the landing zone the Heretics were using. A Marine in the lead squad pointed out a series of strange purple pinpoints of light atop some kind of tower immediately before being killed by a sniper round.
"Down!" someone shouted, and the Marines went prone before focusing several dozen rifles on the tower from which the shot originated. Ashley crawled forward to the stricken Marine but what was left of him was beyond saving.
A new sound became apparent: the sound of troops mobilizing. The Marines got up and advanced as far as the sniper tower, observing several dead kig-yar at the foot of it and draped over it. The base of the beams—massive purple platforms covered in equipment and vehicles—became visible, and it was clear an entire invasion force was being amassed to overwhelm Scott.
She took several still shots during a lull in the combat while they pressed in as far as they could before meeting stiff resistance. Line after line of the grunts charged, bounding forward on all fours, only to be cut down by aimed rifle fire. Some even exploded when the cone-shaped tanks on their backs were hit more than a few times.
At first that seemed to be all the Heretics had. Then it became apparent that the grunts were only distractions. Elite forces on the ground behind them and snipers were taking a steady toll on the Marines.
Ashley broadcast a message to all squad leaders—Hold off the grunts but focus as much fire as possible on the snipers behind them.
The effect was immediate. The grunts got much closer, but their friends behind the lines were being suppressed. As a result, fewer Marines were being picked off. Another group of grunts charged, barking and squealing as they approached, but very few even got close. Now all fire was focused on the tall sangheili and lanky kig-yar hiding behind the various crates and weapons lockers strewn about the landing site.
"Drive 'em!" a voice Ashley recognized as Captain Banks shouted and the Marines got onto their feet and began to push into the landing zone.
As Ashley crested the hill she looked down into the landing zone in its entirety and saw the four ships arrayed in a very large circle, and in the center something was being assembled—the sparks of welding torches or whatever the Covenant equivalent was were visible around the huge construct.
Intriguing as it was, the objective was the nearest ship. Her landing site was not very far away at all, the massive purple landing pad sat at the very foot of the hill. Even as they watched another component was beamed down to the surface from the ship and picked up right away by two of their tuning fork-shaped drop ships. They flew it away to the construction site
Following that down were several new squads of infantry, reinforcements for the few remaining survivors of the defending force. They touched down on the pad and charged into battle, stalling the Marines' advance, causing the battle to fall into an uneasy stalemate as the Marines dug in on the ridge above the landing pad and the Heretics at the foot of the ridge.
"We can't budge them," Ashley reported to Veers after twenty desperate minutes of fighting. "They're dug in deep down there."
"Hold your position, Chief," Veers replied. "You've got help on the way."
Another of the tuning fork-shaped drop ships flew high above the plains, warm air blowing through the cracks in the troop bay. Opposed to the claret color of the metal used to build most of the spirit-class drop ships, this one was silver. It had been painted that way to distinguish it from the Heretic ships and prevent any friendly fire.
"You've brought one squad?" the voice of the human commander, Veers, said through the device affixed to the Arbiter's wrist. It glowed an annoying orange color, which he sought to change. That was inconsequential, though.
"Yes," the Arbiter replied. He looked to the other special operations sangheili to his sides.
"I don't know how so few of you are going to hold up. There's a lot of… 'heretics'… down there," Veers said, his skepticism obvious. The Arbiter was not well-versed in the subtleties and intonations of human language beyond the basics but he could tell the human did not believe they would make a difference, the fool.
"We will move in support of your main body of troops. Our primary objective is the construction site at the nexus of the landing zone. What they are building there can not be completed," the Arbiter said, his tone firm, or so he hoped. He kept his voice flat and expressionless.
"What is it?" Veers asked, though the Arbiter knew the question to be inevitable. He did not know how to explain it.
"What they are building is a vehicle. It is so large that most often it is dropped from orbit, as landing with it is impractical. These ships are too small to carry the whole thing, but each can carry the component parts. The Heretics have gotten clever, indeed," the Arbiter said. "If it is completed, you will lose the planet. I do not know why they did not merely glass this world, but that vehicle will be unstoppable unless we halt its assembly."
"Are you sure?" Veers asked again, his voice somewhat quieter this time.
"It is an absolute certainty," the Arbiter replied. The spirit flew quietly over the landing site the human Marines and then again over the battlefield, drawing some fire despite the efforts to distinguish this transport.
A blast rocked the ship and smoke filtered into the bay through the same cracks that admitted the air. "Arbiter, the weapons system is operational. We have been struck by the anti-air component," the pilot reported.
"Can you keep control?" the Arbiter asked.
The pilot was silent for a moment. "It is uncertain."
"Drop us here, and we shall fight through," the Arbiter ordered, feeling the ship begin to ascend. More shots began to impact the hull from the ground, but they did negligible damage beyond scuffing the silver paint.
"Heretics," the Arbiter broadcast from the ship to every Covenant signal receiver in range. "This is the Arbiter, mightiest warrior of Sanghelios and of the entire Covenant. I am the Hand of the Prophets, here to choke the heresy from your wretched throats! Your doom is at hand. Flee before our glorious coming!"
As a result of this Heretic insurrection, the Prophets had sent the Arbiter to the beleaguered human world as a show that they would aid their new neighbors, especially when the issues were internal in nature but trying to externalize themselves. It wouldn't do to have the humans fight the Heretics without at least some representative of the true Covenant present.
It was troublesome, but not entirely unexpected, that the humans were yet unaware of the Arbiter's status and the prowess in combat attributed to and expected from it.
The door to the troop bay opened, revealing quaint grassland dotted with plasma batteries and weapons crates. At first it seemed the broadcast had sent his foes running, but as soon as the Arbiter and his squad of special operations sangheili disembarked and the drop ship departed, and directly into a hastily-laid trap.
Heretics had hidden amongst the crates waiting until the option for escape was gone, and then they sprung their trap. A few dozen sangheili wheeled around their cover, pointing their weapons into the opening the stricken spirit had landed in—and saw nothing.
The Heretics looked to each other and one spoke, shouting, "The cowards! They fled from us."
Unbeknownst to them, the twelve special operations sangheili and their leader had cloaked upon hitting the ground. They were currently moving into position behind the Heretics, laying a trap of their own.
"You see? They are deceived. They know they are wrong, and when faced with the forces of the right, they scatter as so many," the same sangheili began to say, before he felt a strong hand grip his throat, cutting off his air. He was pushed backward by what he determined to be a stealth-fielded enemy and felt his back hit one of the weapon containers, and his feet left the ground.
Before him a tall sangheili in an ornate platinum armor appeared from thin air and ignited an energy sword with his unoccupied hand and plunged it into the suspended Heretic before throwing the lifeless body to the side and issuing a loud war cry, the signal to the hidden special operations sangheili to uncloak and dispatch their assigned targets.
Twelve energy swords ignited and plunged into their targets almost in unison. The remaining four Heretic sangheili now had targets, but they had too many targets. They fought—briefly—but were subdued.
With the landing zone secured and the sounds of battle intensifying to the west, the sangheili strike team cloaked again and took off toward the super weapon being assembled. They had precious little time, as its legs were all in place and only a few parts had yet to be installed from what they could see. Perhaps only the lekgolo had to be added. It would be close.
Several hundred meters to the west, the 212th Marine Brigade had crested the hill and charged down into the few remaining Heretics, dispatching them with minimal loss.
"Alright, up the beam!" Ashley shouted, garnering some confused looks from the Marines. She rolled her eyes but decided to lead by example.
She stepped onto the metal landing pad and found her feet lifted off the ground almost immediately. The ground left her and departed rapidly, even to the point where she could see Scott again.
Then she was within the ship. Once more, unto the breach, dear friends, once more, she thought as she tracked her weapon across the room.
It was an overwhelmingly purple room. The walls, the ceiling, the support beams, the doors were all one shade of pink or purple. Well, at least the floor panels were mostly grey.
The cargo bay was empty though. Whatever was held in here was already planet-side. She hoped that would be the case for the whole ship, though she did expect the crew to be aboard. It would take most of the 212 to take it, since dreadnoughts had a crew of several hundred at the least.
Finally the rest of the Marines began showing up. After the first two companies were assembled and reorganized, they struck out for the engine room, seeking to destabilize the ship. Ashley followed the Marines as they wove through the empty corridors toward the engines, hoping the drive core was located far to the aft where the thrusters were.
More of the 212 jumped up the beam, but the first two squads were tasked with disabling the engines. The rest of the teams were going to hold the beam to allow for an easy escape.
Able Company took the lead, and behind them were the least damaged company, Charlie Company. Altogether they fielded a depleted one hundred fifty men and women, but the long train of soldiers snaked through the ship like a much larger force.
They had no map of the ship, and internal scans were unreliable when performed from a frigate moving past the target at top sublight speed. Instead, Ashley was occupying herself by leaving marks on the walls and creating her own map as they moved along. At the very least it would allow them to escape quickly.
Eventually they reached a point where they had to turn inwards rather than keep going along the same path they'd taken from the cargo bay. Captain Banks took them forward, the door opening automatically when motion was detected.
Inside was a vast room, and in the center was a mass of lines and machinery leading further aft. This had to be the drive core, but they were totally unequipped to destroy it. A series of unggoy looked down and saw them, uttering shocked squeaks as they were dispatched by the Marines.
Then there was a fluttering noise, sounding like wind blowing through a dry branch in rapid short breaths. After that, a Marine screamed as he was hoisted bodily into the air by a pair of insectoid creatures, each wielding a small weapon that shot green bolts of plasma at their prisoner's comrades.
"Cover! Find cover!" Banks shouted, and the Marines in the engine room broke and ran to the nearest pipe, tube, or crate to hide behind. They fired up at the bugs in an effort to save the man who was now the next deck up, but hitting the bug on the left caused the one on the right to unceremoniously drop its burden, leaving the poor Marine a crumpled mess on the floor ten meters below.
The small bugs put up a short fight, but didn't survive for long.
"Destroy the drive core, hit it with anything you've got that explodes!" Banks ordered, and a half dozen grenades and a few rockets all were fired or lobbed toward the machinery, exploding in a long series of bangs that caused blue sparks to shower out of the device and alarms to blare across the ship.
The lights dimmed and were replaced by emergency lights. Ashley pulled up her map but was interrupted by a call from the CO of Baker Company, back in the cargo bay. The first thing she heard was gunfire, which meant that they didn't have much time.
"Chief, we're getting nailed over here. The next round of reinforcements bound for the ground hit us. We're holding, but the lights went out and we don't know how much longer the beam will have power. Hurry up back here!"
Ashley looked up and turned on her omni-tool flashlight. "All of you follow me!"
She led the way through the darkened corridors, hoping emergency power for the beam held up as the ship descended toward the planet. Able and Charlie Company made it to the cargo bay, and they descended down to the much-closer ground, though now it was traveling below them. The ship was moving forward as it descended toward Terra Nova.
Baker and Dog Companies were holding magnificently, but Ashley gave them both the order to break contact and jump ship or risk plowing into the ground.
Ashley herself jumped out of the cargo bay and traveled down the beam the twenty or so meters that separated it from the ground now, followed by the Marines of Dog and Baker Companies. The ship they were just on traveled another couple hundred meters, spilling materiel and troops onto the ground before the nose smashed into the ground, crumpling and bowing the back of the ship as the momentum was killed. The last six hundred meters of the ship swung up to an almost vertical position before it began to fall backwards, landing atop most of the Heretics who had managed to escape. The massive ship came to rest this way, tendrils of purple fire and smoke sneaking out of places where the hull buckled so hard it burst open.
"Chief, we need to hi-tail it back to the Heretic LZ. That Arbiter just blew up something big, and the other three ships are beating it. We've got a hell of a cleanup op to do," the CO of Baker company announced, and it occurred to Ashley they were a full two kilometers east of Easy and Fox Companies and the Heretic camp.
It was going to be a hell of a run. "Alright Captain, let's go for a run," Ashley said, signaling to the four companies strewn about the country side to start moving as the sun rose above the horizon. It had been a long night, but the day ahead would be longer.
A/N:
So Terra Nova is saved from the threat of a Heretic ground invasion, though at the cost of a large portion of the 212. The Arbiter has returned to Citadel space, an emissary for the Prophets and a potent weapon against any further Heretic incursions on the small scale (or large, really).
The Covenant Civil War has now struck out at the Citadel, though, a matter of some consternation for the Council and particularly for the Systems Alliance. The War may be going decisively for the Citadel/Covenant Alliance, but you know that old adage: A cornered animal fights hardest.
Thanks for reading, preemptive thanks for reviews, and as always I'm open to any questions you may have. Feel free to drop a PM or review, and I'll get back to you within a cycle or two.
JLake4