Chapter Twenty-One: No Holds Barred

I stood there and blinked back at Heat for a second, curious as to what he meant by his words. My mind was still in a bit of disarray from everything that had just happened, and I couldn't think of a reason for what he was saying.

"What is it?" I asked. "I thought the Storm got him. One of the Banshees up there. Right?"

The captain swallowed. "There's that. They were gunning for us hard but that's not what did it. I...may have helped things along, Colonel."

"How? What do you mean? Just tell me, Brandon."

He held up his hands in surrender then. "Natalie, I want you to know that I never meant...you know Willis is my best friend. Has been for years. He's like a brother to me, and I care about both of you guys. I'd never - "

I couldn't help the undercurrent of consternation that made it into my next words as anger rippled through me. "Heat. What the hell did you do?"

My husband's wingmate licked his lips again, and this time his voice wavered a bit. "I shot at him, Cooper. A Banshee swooped in on his six, getting ready to tag him. I had him in my sights but it ducked out of the way at the last minute, and I...I got the back of Willis's bird with my MG."

In the moment it was all I could do to digest what I'd just heard. I simply continued to stand there and listen - not because I wanted to, but because I couldn't do anything else. I didn't even move.

"It was an accident, ma'am," Captain Heat went on. "I was trying to go for the Storm bastard behind him but I missed and hit Hawk instead. Then one of the birds next to us got drilled with enemy fire and a big chunk of the hull just came flying off. Debris blew sideways and it...it struck Willis's Pelican hard, right where I'd hit. Compromised the craft. He - "

"That's enough, Captain," I said in an even tone, holding up a hand. "I heard all I need to know."

"Natalie, really, I'm - "

I turned on him then, eyes blazing. "You're what? Sorry?" I pointed a furious finger at Willis's cot, where he lay barely clinging to life. "My husband might die because of you!"

"I...I know," the pilot replied in a low voice.

"He's not stable and he's not waking up! And for that, I find out I have you to thank!"

I paused to take in a breath. My voice was cracking and I could feel the deep hurt enveloping me. When I tried to speak a second time, it was scarcely above a whisper. "I love him more than anything except for my kids. I have no fucking clue how to deal with this. And you, of all people, Brandon. You're his wingmate. His friend. You're supposed to have his back and instead he's barely alive because you shot him."

Heat didn't even attempt a response this time. He just stood there now, looking over at Willis with regret in his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, and that's all well and good." Gripping my helmet tight in my hand, I purposely pushed past him as I made to leave. "But know that if he dies, I will never forgive you."

Once I was out of the medical tent, Matthew tried to accost me to get information on his brother's condition, but I was in no mood to deal with anyone else at the moment. I gave him a bare-bones update that likely Doc Reynolds had already given him, pushed my helmet back on, and moved ahead.

Now that I knew there was nothing to be done for Willis right now except wait, the best thing I could do to help was get the battle under control so he could be flown to the mainland. I also had to check in with Major Erin Collins, my husband's CO, and make sure she was aware of the command change with her squadrons. Willis had been in charge of his own Kilo and Victor Squadrons - as well as Cobra - when he'd been shot down. She needed to be informed so a new pilot could take his place. From what the medic had said, even if he made it through, Willis wasn't going to be back in the fight anytime soon.

Something I knew was going to be just as painful to him as his wounds whenever he woke up. If he woke up. Flying for him came in second only to his family; he wouldn't take well to being grounded for such a long period of time, just like I hated it when I couldn't be there myself to lead my Marines because of an injury. But that was something we'd tackle later - if we got the chance. Please, Will, I thought to myself. Keep fighting. You can beat this thing.

Presently, I stepped close to Porter's squad for security and opened up a private COM channel. "Major Collins, this is Lieutenant Colonel Cooper on the ground. Please respond."

It took a minute for her to answer. "This is Flight Leader, ma'am. What can I do for you?"

I swallowed. "It's Major Hawk. I'm not sure if you know about this yet, but he was just shot down. We've got him in the medtent now and he's alive and being cared for, but his prognosis is less than good. You're going to need to find someone to take over his squadrons for a while." Possibly indefinitely, but I refused to believe that. Wouldn't even let myself think it.

"I...see. I'll get that done now, Colonel. And ma'am?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry to hear about the major. I hope your husband recovers quickly."

"Me too, Collins. Thanks. I'll keep you updated on his condition if it changes. Cooper out."

With that done, I stood there a moment longer after the connection cut, trying to reel my emotions back in. If I was going to get through the rest of this fight in one piece and ensure safe passage to the field hospital for Willis, I needed to believe he'd be okay and just do my job.

"Staff Sergeant?"

My aide instantly glanced up. "Yes, ma'am?"

"Gather your squad. We're taking the 'Hog back to the 904th's lines. Let's go kick some ex-Covie ass."

Staff Sergeant Porter flashed me a faint grin, replying more enthusiastically this time. "Yes, ma'am."

In a way, it was nice to know the rest of the world hadn't come to a screeching halt after Willis's hard landing. When Porter, his squad, and I arrived back at the 904th Infantry Battalion's lines, the battle seemed to be continuing to rage in earnest around us.

"Colonel, it's a good thing you're back!" Lieutenant Caleb Lloyd shouted to me above the din as I jumped out of the Troop 'Hog. "I heard about what happened to Major Hawk! I'm sorry! Is he all right?"

I shook my head, gripping my rifle tight. "He's in the medtent awaiting evac to the mainland! Situation's not good, I'd rather not talk about it!"

"Right!"

"What's been going on here?"

"We've been trying to hold our own per your orders, ma'am! Things've gotten better since the Phantoms took off, but unfortunately they left us a lot to play with! The Storm are everywhere, Colonel!"

"Well, let's hop to it then, Cal! We need to get this contained ASAP!"

"Acknowledged!"

I heard the rough grating of tires against packed sand behind us after that as the Warthog we'd just vacated set off to get closer to the forward lines. I hoped they'd make it there without incident; Porter's squad and I had had a hell of a time in the back of the unwieldy vehicle, firing off burst after burst at the Remnant troops that had harassed us along the way. What we'd faced were only pockets of enemy warriors - out here, we were facing the whole damn army.

Moving up to a hunk of debris through the incoming fire, I ducked behind it with Staff Sergeant Porter to my right, and the spook to my left. I held my DMR against my chest with the barrel straight up, back pressed against our cover, and turned to face Lloyd.

"What have you been able to gather in terms of enemy strength, Lieutenant? Do we have an estimate on how many have arrived?"

"Hard to say, Colonel! I've spent most of the time in firefights myself!"

"Give me a ballpark!"

"Yes, ma'am! I'd guess we've got about a battalion's worth of aliens with boots on the ground now after all those Phantoms unloaded their troops! Add that to the company or so they started with during our initial assault on Qamar, and we're looking at a lot of ex-Covies!"

"Dammit," I muttered. "And we have no way of knowing if they've got anymore hiding inside that ship in orbit! There's still a chance those Phantoms that took off might come back with more!"

"Negative, Colonel! That class of enemy ship can't hold more than they've already brought dirtside. That's some good news for us, at least!"

I snorted. "About time!"

"Roger that!"

It became clear to me now more than ever that we desperately needed to get our reserve battalion in the fight. So long as all of our air support was locked in atmosphere and space combat, however, that was something we just couldn't do.

But we had one advantage over the Storm that they didn't - heavy groundside support for our pilots in the skies. Not only did we have more armor and vehicles currently involved in the battle, but we also had our heavy weapons Marines and a Mantis wreaking havoc wherever it went. I figured that had to count for something, even if our pilots were technically still outmatched by the all Banshees flying around.

"Ma'am? Do you have a plan?"

Under the circumstances I couldn't quite grin, but for some reason I felt a little more hopeful than I had before. "Always, Lloyd! Wait one!"

Getting tired of having our cover viciously assaulted, I tapped my aide's shoulder and had him quickly switch places with me so I could see what we were up against on the other side. What I found when I peeked around the debris were two Jackals and four Grunts running up to our position, weapons hot.

"Porter! Get on the other side and give us some suppressive fire!" I yelled at him. "Cal!"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"You're going to nail the Jackal on the left while I take the one on the right! Josh'll handle the Grunts! Let's move!"

"On it!"

Once in position, Staff Sergeant Porter opened up first, returning a long burst of gunfire at the oncoming Storm group. Two Grunts were already lying in a pool of light blue blood on the dirty sand when the ONI operative and I joined the fray, firing several tight bursts at the two Jackals in rapid succession. The whole skirmish took less than a minute, ending with six more aliens down.

"Nice work!" I exclaimed. "Now let's - "

"Flight Leader to Ground Actual, please respond."

I paused and pulled back behind our cover, motioning for Porter and Lloyd to momentarily do the same. "This is Ground Actual. Go ahead, Collins."

"We've had a development, ma'am. Looks like even more of the Storm are bugging out."

I frowned. "What? Why?"

"Because we got 'em, Colonel," Willis's CO said smugly over the COM. "Against all odds, we've defeated the Seraphs in orbit. They've only got about half a squadron left and they all just retreated back to the barn. That makes our Broadswords free to engage in atmosphere now, ma'am."

I could hardly believe the good news. The Phantoms taking off had been one thing, but this was a real game-changer. With the Broadswords freed up to help us on the ground now, they could do a lot of damage to the number of Storm troops we were facing with their bombing runs. It also meant I could divert one of Willis's squadrons to go pick up Major Brewer's battalion on the mainland, giving us some much-needed reinforcement.

And most importantly, they could bring Willis there for treatment.

"That's fantastic, Major," I replied over the open channel. "Come on down. Let me know when your squadrons are inbound, and then make sure Kilo and Victor's acting commander have them veer off for the coast. I'm going to send them across the water to go get the 213th Infantry now that we've finally got an opening."

"Yes, ma'am. I'll get it done. You'll be hearing from me soon."

"Excellent. Cooper out."

As soon as the connection cut, Lieutenant Lloyd gave me an inquisitive look beside me. "Ma'am? What was that about?"

"That was our air wing commander," I answered. "We've now got superiority in the skies."

More than anything I wished Willis had been here to see this, but I could feel at least a little better knowing that now, he'd get the proper treatment he needed from the field hospital. The Pelican carrying him and a handful of other critically wounded Marines had just lifted off, headed for our staging area on the mainland. I'd go there myself to visit him and take care of a few other things later. At the moment, there was still plenty of mop-up to do on the island.

"Colonel, this is Major Warfield," I heard over the COM then. "I'd like a word."

My reply was curt this time, as his had always been in the past. "About what, Major? We're in the middle of something."

"I understand, but it's important."

"Fine. Meet me at these coordinates in five. I'll be here."

I wondered what the major possibly had up his sleeve now. Things were no longer dire but we still had a good deal of work to do; most especially if the Storm received reinforcement themselves from the ruins anytime soon, or if the Prometheans showed up. But in the end, I figured this was as much of a lull as we were going to get. If Warfield had something to say, now would be the time.

The perpetually disgruntled battalion commander jogged up to me a few minutes later, just under the five-minute mark I'd set. Surrounded by Porter's squad for protection, as always, I folded my arms across my chest with my DMR on one shoulder and looked at him.

"Well?"

"I wanted to apologize for earlier, ma'am. Is your husband okay?"

I released a sigh, the incessant worry over Willis's condition never far from my thoughts. "I don't know yet. He's aboard one of the Pelicans Major Collins just sent to the mainland. Doc said he'll get the care he really needs there. It's still a big toss-up for now."

He shifted his stance uncomfortably. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah. I've been hearing that a lot today." I glanced down at my boots, covered in dirt and sand. "Doesn't change the facts."

"No, ma'am. But for what it's worth, I wish Hawk a speedy recovery."

"Thanks. Is that all?"

"No, ma'am. I also came to say that...you might've been right about our air support. They've done a damn good job. More than I gave them credit for at the start."

I snorted. "Now that they've single-handedly changed the tide of the battle, you mean?"

"Yes. And there's...more. That I wanted to say, Colonel."

"Let's have it, then, Major. Speak freely."

He too crossed his arms over his chest. "You asked me before if we had a problem. Now seems like a good time to tell you. It has nothing to do with the obvious you might be thinking; I have no issues with female commanders in general. I've fought with many who were worthy of their rank and that I'd gladly follow anywhere, without question."

"I'm just not one of them, huh?"

Warfield shrugged. "Like I said, I have my reasons."

"And they are?"

"Firstly, that no matter how you like to slice it, you play favorites. Most of my Marines saw it as a snub when our battalion got relegated to backup when we first landed on Qamar, and you sent in your former battalion, the Eighth Engineers, in to do the heavy lifting instead. We're an infantry batt, ma'am. That should've been our job to do."

I frowned. "The fact that those titles aren't supposed to mean much in the Corps notwithstanding. We're all Marines here, Cole. We're all trained to fight."

"I don't contest that, Colonel. But I can say none of us in the 904th liked that move."

"Okay. And besides?"

He blew out a breath. "Laraza. And your treatment of him. All due respect, but he's a fucking reb, ma'am. He's the enemy, just as much as the Storm and the Prometheans are. That prick's shown his disloyalty to you and to the UNSC time and time again. Even to the point of nearly killing you a short while ago. And yet you always give him the benefit of the doubt, and don't attack his forces. Instead, you try to rally them behind us. That I just...don't understand. At all."

"Well, I guess that's what makes me the LTC and not you, Cole." I sighed a second time. "Look. Like you, I have my reasons for what I do. Some of it has to do with what I believe, and some of it has to do with what I know is best for my men - whether they like it or not, whether they agree with my actions or not, even whether I like it or not. I'm not here to win a popularity contest. I'm here to get all of you home safe in the midst of what's become an unholy clusterfuck. To do that, I always have to look at the bigger picture when I make my decisions. Not what's going to sound good to everyone at the moment. Are we clear?"

The major stood silently for a minute, seeming to soak in my words. When he'd finished absorbing them, I couldn't tell whether he'd changed his mind about me or not. His body language gave nothing away.

Eventually, though, he met my gaze. "Clear, ma'am."