Hammer 5 reported losing a Warthog as Lieutenant Laurent's men retreated to the basement. Not all of them were flamer boys, a few totted crew served HMGs, Gauss Cannons and mortars while a few more carried regular assault rifles. The weapon crews had to make due with SMGs and sidearms so long as their guns were not assembled, but that would not be an issue for long.
Black stood in the middle of the empty carcass of a building, way too tired and blasé to see cover whenever a stray shot whistled by. He waved two HMG crews and one Gauss Cannon over and they broke from the flow of armored Rangers diving down the stairs and into the cellar.
"Hold here just a second!" He thundered over the cacophony of gunfire. They six men took cover behind the meat locker. "Delacroix, this is Hammer 1-1, I need some shooters up here, over!"
The sergeant, directly beneath him, took stock and replied within half a minute "I can spare four, I repeat, four shooters, over!"
He looked around. Most structures in this place were wooden and sheet metal shacks, some tents and other such temporary constructions, there were only three actual buildings in their new bunker's vicinity; a single story high store with massive windows and most likely two ways in, to the right, a five stories apartment complex just ahead, in between the Covies and the Rangers, with four entry points just on this side, and, to the left, was a fountain, dried up and with stone walls rising a waist height.
The fountain, thirty meters back the way they'd come, would provide a wide firing angle, but little protection and would be too far away to help or get help from the main force, the apartment complex would be impossible to secure and the store faced the cellar, but couldn't open fire on the Covenant forces until they were at the Ranger's throat.
"Send 'em up, Hammer out!"
The other direction, opposite the apartment complex, had once been a playground, but had long since been turned into some kind of junkyard. He sent two of Delacroix's riflemen and the Gauss Cannon to set up a heavy weapon position there and had the rest do the same in the storefront.
This way, the Rangers would have this area locked down tight, firing outward from the cellar and inward from the store and playground, with a "recoilless rifle" ready to engage any Covenant that stepped out onto the street.
They had a decent LZ set up, now they needed a god damn VTOL to come and get them… Command informed him there was no air support available at this point, so he fell back on an alternative plan.
"Hammer 1-1, this is Hammer Actual, come in." Plasma wheezed down from that same apartment building just as the HMGs were bolted in place, it only took a wave on Blackburn's part to the Gauss Cannon crew and toward the third floor windows to take care of those hostiles.
The left side perimeter, forty meters from the LZ, was being manned by Hammer 2's main forces while the right hand side was shared between 2-3, 1-3 and 2-5. The whole space at their back unprotected but for Delacroix's shooters covering the Recoilless rifle…
"Hammer Actual, Hammer 1-1 here, we hear you, over." Dahl sounded relieved, the tension in his voice a notch lower.
Black stepped up to the meat locker when Elites with Carbines began poking out from cover. "Say, Major, those ODSTs had VTOL transport, right?"
"Affirmative, Colonel, three Pelicans, over."
"Thank you, Dahl." He was about to switch frequencies when the Major's voice punched through again.
"Didn't catch that last, Hammer Actual, come again, over." Statics were growing thick, thanks to all that plasma flying around.
"I said solid copy, Major, Blackburn out!" Bouncing the signal off Laurent's radio, Black set up a direct line with the UNSC Atlas, a carrier in orbit.
"Rangers, this is Atlas, send traffic."
"Atlas, this is Hammer Company, you have Helljumpers operating in our vicinity." He gave the operator their exact coordinates, resisting the need to point out 'In the southern corner of Fuck and You.' "I would like a secure comm. Link with them."
"Please stand by…" The Radio contacted a superior, though Blackburn could hear none of it, and that superior denied the Colonel's request.
The air now thick with hostile fire, all coming from the other side of that locker, Blackburn ordered a controlled fallback by squads for whoever was still manning the outer perimeter, with orders to lay down traps as they went. Then, he went back to bureaucratic mode.
"Atlas, these men just assaulted one of my officers and disabled our Company's Support AI, if they fail to provide assistance when requested, I will be forced to consider them AWOL and issue a shoot on sight order, do you understand me? Over." The static would be his friend now, they could hear him just fine, and he'd been in the military long enough to decipher even the most garbled transmission, but they didn't have to know that.
"Hammer, Team Rubicon is operating as per lawful UNSCDF orders, confirmation code…"
"Didn't catch that last, Atlas, signal's breaking up, tell Team Rubicon to contact me on a secure channel within the next ten minutes or Cole Protocol won't be enforced and they will no longer be allowed to operate in the city. Hammer out!"
Enough talk, now was the time to fight. He leaned around the corner, spotted a silhouette doing the same across the street and almost squeezed the trigger when it made to quick circular gestures with its hand. Norrisson.
"Friendlies, two o'clock!" He roared to the kids downstairs, who echoed his words a dozen time. He then returned the gesture and a first squad ran out of the alley. "Provide cover! Focus on the grey building!" Sergeants boomed similar instructions over squad-wide radios, making Black somewhat redundant.
The squad made it to the meat locker easily enough and he directed them to the playground, to make sure the thing kept firing no matter what.
The next squad came from the left, Sergeant Krauser at their head, and Blackburn sent them to the burnt down school in between the store and the playground, to provide sniper support. The thing would provide little cover and plenty of entry points, but was ripe with concealed spots and evasion routes, not to mention its position, fifty meters away from the LZ, kept it out of the heat…
Looking at the blackened skeleton, Black could only scoff at his choice of word.
A third squad came in from the right and made it halfway to the locker when two men disappeared in a flash of green and red.
"Hunters!" The scream echoed all over the Rangers' lines, referring to the pair of knight Teutonic with plasma cannons stomping down the street, further right.
The guys in the store could have spat on them, were it not for the four meters high, half a meter thick concrete wall erected between the road and them.
That same wall protected those Hunters from the Recoilless in the playground, a fact they apparently knew well as they stopped just out of the danger zone and began raining fire on Norrisson's men, who found themselves sandwiched between the hostiles occupying the apartment building and those two walking tanks.
Laurent's men tried to get the mortars up, but found themselves unable to leave the stairs, pinned down by the sheer volume of enemy fire.
"Hammer 5, sound off!" Black needed something to change, he needed more firepower or some of the pressure taken off his troops.
Cody himself answered this time, "This is Hammer 5-1 Actual, we're taking heavy losses from enemy fast movers, I've got more wounded than ables, Colonel, whatever you're going to do, do it fast!"
Not good. And still no word on the ODSTs. He could order the rest of Hammer Company into the fight, but they would never make it in time.
"Just hang in there, Hammer 5, help is on its way."
Six Rangers reached Blackburn's position at that moment, his Neural Interface identifying them as Hammer 2-4. He had them stick to cover and await instructions.
Norrisson had only one squad left in the alley, his own. Most Companies would have Hammer 2 at large be under the Lieutenant command and placed a random Sergeant in charge of Hammer 2-1, but Blackburn's Rangers were running out of officers and most had to multi-task as squad leaders.
This meant the first squad of every Platoon had to be hard as nail, as they were always first in and last out.
Hard as nail or not, Norrisson's boys were catching fire from behind, above and could not move forward or they'd get incinerated. Whatever would happen to these men depended on the Colonel's next decision…
Blackburn sucked in a deep breath, flipping his fire selector to semi-auto, and roared over the firefight that he needed covering fire.
He lined up his sights with the first Hunter in time to see its guts splatter on the other big guy, who roared in anguish for a few seconds before being cut short by another shot.
Black laughed and ducked back behind cover, just in time to avoid a hail of needles and plasma.
"Nice shooting, Demetro!" He boomed in the radio, still grinning at the magnificent bastard's sense of timing.
The sniper's voice was nowhere near as enthusiastic "Wasn't me." He muttered, "Hiding in a ditch. Out."
A UNSC Marine Corps Pelican flew over the LZ, it's nose mounted gun showering Black and Hammer 2-4 with red hot shells.
Inside the apartment building, nothing fired anymore and Norrisson took that opportunity to get his men in cover. All of them, they crossed the street like Russian conscript at Stalingrad. Facing the wrong way, granted, but still.
Blackburn distributed the kids in a triangular formation, in between the playground, cellar and store, using only hand signal and completely oblivious to the smell of bacon his skin gave off whenever a shell slipped down his collar or bounced off his wrist.
Even when they were the fucking cavalry, ODSTs managed to be a pain in the ass.
Eight men rappelled down from the Pelican, all dressed in black and moving with the coordination of ballet dancers.
They were all kneeling, except their sniper, who crossed his legs, facing the street with his Spartan Laser ready.
A final soldier fast roped down. Green and gold, tall and menacing. A Spartan.
Blackburn had served with both IIs and IIIs, he respected both deeply. He still went up to the ODST Lieutenant first, just long enough to tell him where the wounded were and sum up the Rangers' defensive position.
Lieutenant Korva tried to object, going as far as physically holding thirty years' worth of nothing but combat experience and pent up PTSD variants. Black turned, looked at the ODST's glove, then his helmet.
"Stand down, Marine, now's not the time!" He barked, both men now upright, out in the open and in the middle of a war zone, "We both have our…" An explosion nearby drowned the words. Letting go of the Colonel's arm, Korva dropped to a knee, but Blackburn knew that, by the time you hear the blast, you're either safe or missing pieces, and this one was a plasma grenade, as common to him as birds singing.
"We both have orders!" He repeated, "You want that chip? You work for me, clear?!"
Korva nodded once and began distributing orders as Black walked up to the Spartan, who'd been standing there, MA5B in hand, scanning the rooftops and waiting for instructions.
His chest plate read 359 and he wore one of the new armor model, the Mark V.
A sound reminiscent of a bushfire filtered from the golden visor; "Colonel." The Spartan didn't salute, but nodded once, his golden visor reflecting the morning sun like a fireball stuck in amber.
"Petty Officer. Might I ask what your business here is?" He'd asked the ODSTs and their three Pelicans to come and pick his Rangers up, instead, they got one Pelican and a Spartan.
Said Pelican gracefully lowered itself on the makeshift landing pad, its ramp in line with the stairs and the nose mounted machine gun, poking out the opposite end of the meat locker, kept the Covies suppressed.
"Contingency, sir, I am to ensure all sensitive data on the planet is destroyed, as per Cole Protocol Article one." The Spartan might as well have been reading a shopping list. No wonder many though them to be machines.
"Well, you Navy boys sure have a hard on for that chip…" Black shook his head, getting back to the task ahead, "I have mechanized infantry stuck up shit creek right behind that block." He waved Norrisson over just as the man reached the meat locker, rejoining his squad already taking cover there. "I'm getting them out!" Finished Black, earning a puzzled look from his Lieutenant.
"Who, boss?"
"Cody's boys; you're in charge of the Evac, leave no man behind, I'll…" A Banshee screamed in the distance, its plasma cannons ablaze, and was brutally interrupted by a Ranger with a Jackhammer, firing from the cellar.
Belching smoke like a burning tire, the flyer tumbled straight for the Rangers' hidey hole, apparently intent on going out in a blaze of glory.
Another missile kicked the wreckage off course and it smashed ten paces to the left, burning and shaken with secondary explosions. The scorched cockpit made it all the way across the street and in the alley Norrisson had just left.
Even the Spartan found himself staring, but was the first to snap out of it, the brisk movement of his helmet snapping the others back into the game. "I'll take Krauser and Delacroix," Blackburn jerked a thumb toward the Spartan, "and squiddy here if he's up for it, and push through to them."
Norrisson blinked and shook his head, "Ya reckon yer jus' gonna walk 'cross that killzone, sir?"
The Spartan's voice interrupted Blackburn's response, "Out of time, Colonel." The Navy commando linked his neural lace with the Ranger's; Four Spirit dropships, coming in low and fast from the north, three minutes out. Soon, the Covies would have this block locked down tighter than an Admiral's butthole.
"1-2, 1-3, lock and load, we're heading out!" There were no Ou-ahs nor snide comments at that. Everyone, even these hardened Special Forces operators, was reaching their limit.
Not just in this firefight, as Blackburn quickly learned from the Spartan's uplink; Navy wouldn't hold much longer, the Army steadily pulled back to Fort Aleksandr, the Air Force struggled to fill in for the Navy and cover the retreating UNSC forces and the Marines were already gone and bragging about their kills.
Only Blackburn's Rangers, Korva's ODSTs and the local militias were still in this fight.