AN: Hey y'all, I'm back, went off and enlisted and now finally found some time to write. Please read and review!
2549
Arcadia
They were on Arcadia, for a second time. The covenant tried to take this planet once and failed, and now they were back, with a vengeance. The battle had been a shitstorm since the covenant had landed, civilians were slaughtered and eaten, Marines fought hard, every inch they lost was paid for in blood, bright blue and purple blood of the Sanghelli and Unggoy. But they were outnumbered and outgunned. The battle for this world was nearly over, all UNSC forces had been scattered, hunted down, and killed. All that was left was scattered pockets of resistance attempting to reach a slip space capable ship to escape the doomed world. Luck was not on their side.
PFC Gains, UNSC, callsign ECHO2GOLF, was one such Marine, his unit, Zulu Battery, 25th Marines was an artillery battery assigned to the task force designated to defend Pirth City. On the first day banshees destroyed all 6 of the battery's MK 121 155MM cannons. The battery was organized into fire teams and deployed throughout the city. Gains and his 4 man fire team, led by LCPL Smith was ordered to man a machine gun post overlooking a three way intersection in downtown Pirth. Along with Gains, the fire team marksman, and Smith, was PVT Bay, and PVT James. James was the first to die, he was stuck with a plasma grenade and leapt three stories off the edge of the building to take 4 grunts with him in a blue explosion. Bay died skewered on the edge of an energy sword by a Sanghelli Zealot that Smith dispatched with his M90 shotgun. Smith died next. They had been in the process of breaching a National Guard armory in downtown Pirth. Gains had been searching the armory while Smith stood overwatch. Smith had been surrounded by a unit of Elites, he killed one, stabbed another when he was shot in the leg with a plasma rifle, melting his flesh. Smith pulled out a stick of C12 plastic explosives, inserted a detonator and triggered it, taking 6 Sanghelli with him. Now here Gains was, alone. In a deserted National Guard Armory, with no friendlies in the area, if any where even left. The city burned, fires raged unchecked in over 60% of the city, painting the sky a grey and sickly pallor. Most of the city was rubble. And there were bodies everywhere. The stench of rotten and cooked flesh hung heavy on the air, making the already barely edible MREs nearly impossible to choke down.
The hopelessness of the situation stuck Gains. He was a dead man walking. Walking on a doomed planet. His planet. He was born here, grew up here, and joined the Marines to defend it. He had no hope, but he had motivation, for vengeance. The armory was untouched, thousands of rounds, dozens of rifles, pistols, machine guns. A few SRS99C sniper rifles, pounds upon pounds of C12 plastic explosives, a dozen M45 155MM artillery shells, and the grand prize. One Fury tac nuke. Gains took stock, formulated a plan, and got busy. He had work to do. He began to build his defense, placing small stockpiles of MA5Bs and grenades and ammo boxes in each room overlooking the intersection. Machine guns and sniper rifles went on the roof, to deal with air support and high ranking Sanghelli. He loaded up carts with C12 and artillery shells and placed them in the basement of each house surrounding the 4 way intersection. Gains put 8, 125lb shells in the 8 farthest houses, unscrewed the fuze caps of the shells and filled the fuze well with C12. The other 4 were placed in the trailer of a truck in the middle of the intersection. The tac nuke was armed, and he carried the detonator, which was keyed to his pulse. If he died, the bomb went off. Now he needed to draw the covenent to him. To bait the trap.
Gains strapped a BR55 to his back, filled his mag pouches and set off along the rooftops, looking for covvies. 2 blocks east he saw a patrol, sighted in on the point Sanghelli and opened fire. 6 bursts to the head and the elite fell dead. Gains armed and tossed a pair of frag grenades, which exploded in a storm of shrapnel, painting the streets blue. Gains turned and sprinted across the roof tops, back towards his stronghold, the covenant gave chase, already radioing for reinforcements. His back slammed into a low wall on the roof of the armory, hand grabbing a SAW and racking the bolt. He brought the weapon to bear and peppered the enemy, energy shields flared and died as the heavy 7.62 rounds penetrated flesh, ripping into the elites. He reached for the first detonator, ducked, and pushed the red button. A massive explosion split the air as fire reached the sky and a building was leveled. The reaming covenant was disintegrated in the explosion. "Well that ought to get their attention" he thought to himself.
The intersection began to fill with aliens, squads of elites and grunts, supported by ghosts and wraiths. There were over 100 covenant directly in front of him. Gains detonated the four shells in the truck, an explosion ripped through the square, the earth bucked, concrete flew thru the air as dust and fire arched for the heavens. Bodies were blown asunder and the blood splattered on the rubble looked like paint strokes from a macabre artist. Wraith and ghost skeletons burned brightly, boiling the aliens inside. The air began to taste of cordite and composition B. Fires reached for the sky as buildings crumbled to the ground. Now this defiantly caught their attention, phantoms and spirits began to come into view, as the engines of more ground vehicles came into hearing range. They were coming, to squash him like the bug they thought he was. Well this bug would not be squashed easily.
Covvie dropships began to drop off aliens by the dozens, they streamed into the square by every side street. Elites took cover behind destroyed cars and rubble, jackals took to roof tops and windows, all looking for what was killing their comrades. When the square was packed with alien bodies and vehicles, Gains connected all wireless signals from the remaining 7 shells onto one detonator, took a deep breath and pushed the button. This explosion was so massive it threw him backwards, head over ass, as a massive fireball exploded upward, flash boiling all covenant inside its reach. Rubble and instacrete was vaporized and thrown everywhere, he could nearly taste cooked alien on his tongue, and the stench hung heavy in the air. He pitched foreward and vomited, the explosion was so large it knocked off his equilibrium. He shook his head, took a drink from his camelbak and picked out an adrenaline stim from his IFAK, he was going to need it.
Gains got into the prone position behind the SRS, flicked off the safety and began to wait. Sure enough more covenant began to arrive. They may be assholes but at least they never quit. He centered the crosshairs on the first squidhead and squeezed the trigger. The fin stabilized SABOT round destroyed the aliens head, turning it inside out a half dozen times. He quickly compensated for recoil and fired again, and again, and again. He fired the SRS until it was out of ammo, jumped up and grabbed the SAW. He quickly stabilized the bipod on the edge of the wall, peered through the ACOG attached and began to fire. He sawed through grunts and jackals, overpowered shields and mutilated flesh. Plasma began to pepper his position, he jumped through the open ladder well and repositioned himself in a window and continued firing. The elites began to rush, laying covering fire and charging his building. He couldn't hold them off, there were too many, but that wasn't his plan. He ditched the SAW, grabbed an M90 shotgun and retreated into the building. The elites were inside. He heard their warbles and battle cries as they began to look for him. He reached for his radio, "This is PFC Gains, Callsign ECHO2GOLF on all com channels, to any UNSC forces, it was an honor serving with you all, good luck and Semper Fidelis." he clicked off the transmission and tossed the radio, he wouldn't need it. Gains wasn't going to hide in a dark corner and wait to get a plasma bolt to the face. No. he took the fight to the covenant.
Gains sprinted out of the room, down a stairwell and ran smack into a surprised elite, he quickly jammed the shotgun barrel into the squid heads neck and fired, blowing its brains all over the wall behind it. He heard footsteps, turned, racked the slide and fired again, taking down another elite. A plasma bolt impacted his back armor, sending him to the floor. He rapidly drew his sidearm, and fired the M6 into the elites face, bringing down its shields and killing it. He leapt to his feet, only to be impaled on the edge of an energy sword. He looked straight at the elite, who warbled "Time to die weak little human." Gains threw back his head and laughed. He reached forward, grabbed a handhold on the elites armor and pulled himself toward him on the sword, roaring "haven't you heard squidhead? Marines don't die! They go to hell and regroup!" and with that, PFC Gains breathed his last. With that last breath, the Fury tac nuke went off. The explosion was beyond massive, instantly vaporizing anything within a ten mile radius, sending a massive mushroom cloud upwards. Taking with him hundreds of aliens. But his sacrifice was in vain, the planet burned hours later, energy projectors scouring the earth. But the squid heads would not forget the single human, Marine, not Spartan, who took hundreds of their kind to hell in a blaze of fire with him.