Halo New galaxy Ch10 Push on
25th July 2554
Riga Lillo system, Rio
The 29th Sky Hopper Battalion had pushed onward after capturing the town held by the Storm and then continued towards the northern beaches. They had found as suspected-the town's inhabitance had been slaughtered-and only a few lucky had hidden and managed to survive. After communicating with Lt. General Horus Shepard led his Battalion into a three pronged attack on the Storm's position along the beaches. Vector, Bravo and Sierra Company's assaulted Storm positions in three different locations with Alpha and Charlie acting as backup and rearguard.
Shepard was taking cover behind a rock formation as super-heated plasma bolts spewed all around him. With a tight grip around his BR85 he peeked up and spewed back a burst of lead. He quickly got back down when a row of bolts almost scratched his helmet.
"Stay down, sir!" Reiben shouted over the fire of plasma and bullets. With her squad covering them she stood up and leveled her SAW at the Storm Elites.
She released a deadly hail of rounds over them. Before she ducked back down she counted two Elites going down.
They were still two hundred meters from the ocean. Above them an aero war was being thought. At the moment Shepard and his detail was fighting with Captain Hendricks and her Bravo Company.
"Stay down yourself Holly," Shepard told the Staff Sergeant.
"Just trying to keep them off you, sir," she responded quickly.
"Which I appreciate," Shepard acknowledged. "But don't throw your own life away by getting sloppy. ODSTs don't get sloppy."
She nodded. "Yes, sir!"
"Good. Glad we understand each other." Shepard looked at the Squad members of his security detail in turn. They were hunkered down behind the same rock formation, which countless troopers around them.
"Medic!" Someone shouted. "Hershel's down!"
Shepard got his grenade out. "If you got a frag left, be ready to throw it on my mark."
The squad did so. Reiben didn't but only because she had run out of frags an hour ago. Specifically when the Lt. Colonel decided to clear out a building on the front lines. Which he did no matter her protests. But Shepard knew he made the Staff's job hard as hell sometimes, but she was good at attempting to his decisions.
"Mark!" He barked.
They lobbed their grenades over towards the enemy.
A few aliens yelled before they detonated and caused screams. Reiben was the first to get up and open up a barrage of lead, but was quickly joined by others. She saw a few Grunts that appeared to have been killed by the grenades and two Elites. A third was bleeding badly but still standing. He fired his Plasma rifle were he stood up behind cover. He roared angrily.
A burst from Shepard's BR85 put three rounds straight through his right eye socket.
"Move up!" He ordered.
In the good old days he would take point himself but as a Lt. Colonel had to let Reiben's detail do their part and create a circle around him. Reiben herself led up front with her SAW at the ready.
Shepard gave the Staff Sergeant a glance over from behind his visor. She reminded him of himself in his younger rookie days. Eager, adaptive and led from up front instead of from behind her men. But she was too quick to charge into battle without thinking first.
He didn't think any more about that and took cover behind a wrecked Wraith tank when a trigger happy Grunt behind a turret. It rattled away with a hail of plasma. His flank was guarded by three Grunts and a Skirmisher.
Damn, Shepard hadn't seen a Skirmisher for a long time. He knew a lot had been used on Reach and before that but after Reach there were rarely seen in combat anymore. It looked like so many had died at that point that the Covenant couldn't resupply their numbers, which now was a problem inherited by the splinter factions such as the Storm.
An Elite ran up to the turret and fired his Storm rifle.
"Can't get a shot at 'em!" Reiben told Shepard.
"Wait for the turret to overheat!" Shepard responded.
She nodded swiftly. She felt bad that she hadn't thought of that. It was a rookie mistake. Again. She mentally kicked herself.
"Some time you gotta sit back and think," Shepard said. He then turned his attention to the turret before she could respond. He was surprised when a rocket striked the turret, eliminated everyone present.
"You're welcome, sir," Hendricks said over his commlink.
He spotted the ODST Captain moving up with a Platoon of troopers.
"Nice of you to join us Pamela," Shepard said honestly.
"I got your back," she answered dutifully. "Bravo's pushing through. 2nd Platoon have cracked the Storm's lines and scattered a bunch of the bastards."
Shepard chuckled. He moved up with Reiben right beside him and her team flanking him.
"My snipers and mortars took out a Storm sniping position overlooking the beaches," Hendricks brought her CO up to speed. "So we don't need to worry about snipers taking potshots at us."
"Excellent," Shepard approved. Then he spoke into his comm. "Daniella, what's your status?"
"Sir, we are pressing onward," Daniella Cornfield responded.
"Keep at it," Shepard said.
"Yes sir. We have a bunch of infantry heading your way. They're withdrawing to the tarmac I bet."
"Understood." He then contacted Hathaway. "York, how's your boys doing?" He asked the Vector Company CO.
"Colonel," Hathaway replied. His voice was strained and his breathing heavy. "Got trouble here. Lots of armor and air support. Our pilots trying their best but the damned Storm don't want to lose their improvised tarmac."
"The Storm's started falling back, York," he informed him. "I'm going to have Bravo try shutting it down by taking the mid-section."
"Copy that. My boys are only advancing slowly until we can take out the heavy vehicles. Hathaway out."
Shepard then called in John Keegan's Alpha Company to join Bravo and prevent the Storm from reaching the tarmac and establishing a strong presence there. It would make it a lot harder to get them off Rio with a strongly held foothold.
The 50 caliber on top a Warthog danced over the aliens as a trio of Warthogs approached the Storm's lines with drop troopers in support. They moved right in between the ex-Covies lines and scattered the local soldiers.
Shepard spotted an Elite Commander. He was shouting and pointing left and right, directing the Grunts, Jackals and Elites present on the battlefield. One Elite obeyed and took five Jackals and a Squad's worth of Grunts to reinforce the right flank. The Commander was desperately trying to halt the troopers advance by reshuffling his men and reorganizing the defense.
Shepard marked the Commander on his HUD.
"Armored Platoon, this in Colonel Shepard," he said.
"Gunnery Sergeant Bergman, sir!" The voice of a drop trooper replied.
"Marking the enemy Commander and sending it to you Gunny," Shepard informed him. "Take the fucker out."
"On it, sir!"
Shepard fired three bursts into the shields of a Storm Elite with a Storm rifle. With some assisting bullets from two men from his detail the Elite's shields fell and Shepard put a single slug through his skull.
Two 50 Calibers laid down a barrage onto the Storm Commander. They did quick work of his shields and they turned the alien bastard into Swiss cheese.
Shepard moved up with Reiben's Squad to join the Warthogs.
With their Commander down the Storm was getting desperate. They had to hold to allow their comrades in arms to make it safely to the base south of there.
Five Grunts grabbed a plasma grenade each and charged screaming into battle in a suicidal last attempt to hold their ground.
"Take them out, quickly!" Shepard shouted and fired a burst through one of their chests.
The little alien fell and the grenade exploded a short moment later. The other four Grunts was spread out enough to avoid getting blown up by the detonation.
Reiben's SAW ripped two of them apart and other troopers easily dispatched the remaining two before they reached them. But one Grunt managed to throw his grenade before dying. It landed smack down in the lap of one of the Warthog drivers.
"Oh fuck fuck fuck!" He cried out in quickly rising panic.
The explosion tore the Warthog apart but everyone else inside managed to get out in the last second. They got a few scraps and burns but they survived.
Shepard ran to one of the wounded.
"Are you alright trooper?" He asked.
He groaned but nodded. "I'll live!"
Shepard waved over a medic to help the trooper.
Meanwhile Hendricks was pushing on from the front. Leading a Platoon up front she kept pushing. She took a knee to reload her SAW quickly as the Platoon covered her by continuing the push forward. They were only seventy meters from the ocean. Shepard was currently a hundred meters from the ocean.
She looked up when she heard Pelicans above. A Squadron of them flew over them and unloaded a wave of missiles at the beaches. Their 70mm cannons then turned their attention to the infantry.
"Captain Hendricks, we're pushing through the turrets as we speak," 3rd Platoon's CO informed her.
"Good going Lieutenant," Hendricks complemented him. "That's good work right there. Congratulate your men and keep up the momentum. We're not far from the beaches."
"Yes ma'am!"
She jogged up to the first lines of her troopers. On the way she jumped over a dead Jackal littered with bullet holes.
"Elites ten o'clock!" A Corporal alerted.
In fact three Elites charged them with Storm rifles blasting. The continual firing of plasma quickly overheated two of the Storm rifles and the Elites throw them aside and drew an energy sword each. One of them quickly went down with a barrage of rounds. The third fired his rifle slower and kept it from overheating in five seconds of firing. Hendricks aimed her SAW and mowed the Elite down. Surprisingly he didn't have shields so he went down fast. For an Elite anyway. They were pretty strong in general.
That left one Elite with an energy sword. He charged right at the troopers with his shields taking quickly taking a beating. He finally leaped forward and decapitated a trooper and quickly ran the sword through the guts of a female trooper and kicked another close by to the ground. When a Lance Corporal stuck a Shotgun in his face and pulled the trigger the suicidal rampage ended.
"Caster you good?" Hendricks asked the man who had been kicked down.
"Y-yeah sir. I'm good. Just got the air kicked out of me," he responded.
"Good, keep moving. Don't give them time to breathe," Hendricks said firmly.
She aimed with her SAW and let lose a burst that killed two Grunts charging out with Plasma pistols blazing. Their blood splattered in the green summer grass, piling on the mass of dead ex-Covies that already filled the area. Although an amount of troopers had already joined them, it wasn't nearly many enough to make the Storm's holding action profitable from a strategic standpoint.
"See that turret, sir?!"
Hendricks had indeed spotted the unmanned plasma turret fifteen meters ahead. But she also spotted a Jackal running to it. He had his energy shield up to protect himself from any trooper going for a kill. Four Storm Grunts was moving up with Plasma pistols firing.
"Don't let that Jackal reach the turret!" She commanded.
With that she started running. She had to kill the Jackal or he'd kill several of our men would die. She hung her Saw over her back and drew up her M7 SMG and fired a burst into the closest Grunt. His comrade was shot down by a fellow trooper running behind her. She shifted her aim and mowed down the third Grunt. The fourth zeroed in on her and a blast impacted her armor. She kept up her momentum and sprayed him down with a burst of lead. Two of her men forced the Jackal to turn in their direction to avoid getting killed. But it gave Hendricks an opportunity, which she took and put a burst through his back. He toppled over dying. She finished him off with a merciful shot through his head.
In her peripheral vision she saw one of her snipers blow an Elite's brains out.
She then realized she could see the ocean and the sandy beach was just a short walk further. They had pretty much cut off the Storm's retreat and locked them into a pocket. Now they just had to make sure the rest of her Company managed to reach the beaches and then hold against the counterattack she was certain was coming.
25th July 2174
CCS Heavy Battlecruiser Warlord's Judgement
Vezk was in his personal quarters on board the newest addition to his fleet-and his new flagship-the fancy giant warship he captured over Hollow. It was a heck of a battle and he lost thirty Krogan warriors and almost sixty Kig-yar. But in return they killed over one-hundred Kig-yar and Unggoy pirates on board the ship.
They were currently traveling through slipspace after dropping by a Kig-yar colony and picking up volunteer pirates for his crew. He got a total of eighty Kig-yar who surrendered and joined him and forty-four that joined him from the colony.
A few hours ago he had met with that birdbrain Sax and his loyal friend Kegg. They discussed their next course of actions. In the end Vezk decided to return home to gather Krogan warriors. It would take about a month to reach Tuchanka in slipspace so they would just travel to the closest Mass Relay and send a shuttle through. Then Vezk would go planetside himself and bring back his warriors. Thankfully his Warband back on Tuchanka had several Freighters to ferry the warriors through and onto the fleet. Off course there was no way he could fill the entire Battlecruiser. No way. It would take tens of thousands of men and he couldn't gather so many until he proved his worth to the galaxy. Something else-and boring-they needed was supplies so they would bring on board a large amount of food, medical supplies and extra weapons.
He emptied his third bottle of Ryncol.
The door panel chimed and opened. Sax appeared and stepped inside.
"I beg your pardon boss," he apologized.
"What's up little bird?" Vezk asked. He leaned back in the chair he sat in, with his feet on a table. "Important I hope."
Sax stepped further inside and dropped a pad on the table.
"I wouldn't disturb you otherwise," he assured him. "It is interesting, in nothing else. Since you asked to be kept informed about events occurring that might interest us. You I mean."
Vezk waved for him to speak.
"We managed to pick up chatter earlier. We couldn't decipher it until now. It appears two different splinter factions is invading a UNSC world. They call it Rio apparently," Sax gave him the short version. "It has been going on for weeks. A month or so I gather. The planet isn't too far away. On the edge of UNSC control space and on the edge of territory several Covenant factions fight over. Sword of Sanghelios, Mdama's Covenant, Drorzyus's Covenant and the Covenant of the Hand."
Vezk looked right at him and put his new bottle down.
"Who who and who?" He asked annoyed and confused. "I know of the Sword of Sanghelios, Jul Mdama, the Enclave but I have never heard of the others."
Sax bowed his head and raised his hands.
"Trust me big boss, I assure you that if they had been important enough I'd have told you already," he assured him. Vezk just huffed in response. "Drorzyus is a Jiralhanae Chieftain that had some amount of power before the Covenant's fall. He gathered his own faction after its fall. Unggoys, Kig-yar, Yanme'e and Jiralhanae mostly. But actually a few Sangheili willingly joined him. Why, I don't know. No one really does." He paused to breathe. "The Covenant of the Hand is this all mysterious powerful faction. Some regular-ass Sangheili is charge. But…I'd put some credits on that they have a serious chance to win this crazy conflict but-"
Vezk raised his hand to silence him.
"Too much information," he said in his raspy gruff voice.
He stood up and walked across the room.
"I have made my decision," he said grinningly.
He grabbed the bottle and almost emptied it in one fell swoop.
"Which is?" Sax asked carefully.
"We go to Rio."
Sax frowned confused. "Right…and do what boss?"
"Don't you see? This is an opportunity to prove the worth of my power and earn battle experience against the Sangheili," the Warlord started explaining. "I care little for Storm, human or any other faction here. This is an opportunity for mercenary work. I will offer the UNSC to fight beside them if they pay my price."
"Well, you think the xenophobes will accept? They don't like aliens much. Including the Sangheili and their allied with a faction of them!"
Vezk laughed lightly.
"The fact is that we can fight for any of their enemies on Rio if they decline will convince them. If it does…we fight against them instead." He then shrugged uncaringly. "I don't play to join any of them longer than the battles carries on. Unless they convince me with a mighty price." He gave a gleeful grin. "The future is knocking on your door pirate. We'd do well to let it in."
Sax just nodded. "Whatever you said boss."
I was gonig to wait a little whiel before puttign this chapter up but it's the day after Chrismas so...yeah.
Also I feel like the latter part of this chapter_being Vezk and Sax's scene-felt a bit forced. I'm sorry about that. i was out of inspiration about how to do that scene and-eventually-decided to power through it and move on.