Chapter XIII: Waste

December 2, 2534 (UNSC Calendar)/ Three Months Later

UNSC Inconvenience, in orbit over Amber, Beta Calope System

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Despite having my pillow over my ears I could hear the noise coming from Singh's videogame. We had been de-freezed a couple of hours ago and he was feeling the urge to… well, you know.

I sighed, lately, I'd been tempted to ask Singh to borrow his videogame, but my pride prevented me from doing so. Besides, if my blossoming relationship with Layla kept going on, soon I wouldn't really need his videogames. At least that's what I hoped for.

After stocking up on Sigma Octanus IV, we had left straight for Amber, in the Outer Colonies. It had fallen under attack by a Covenant fleet. It wasn't a particularly significant world or anything, but no one was about to let the millions of civilians living there to be slaughtered. Our ship had been sent along with a small battlegroup consisting of five cruisers escorting an armored colonizing ship that would carry whatever survivors couldn't fit into the escape crafts.

Our frigate, I had found, sported additional armor and an improved MAC cannon. The MAC was like a pre-prototype and hadn't been tested, it was practically only theoretical stuff. It was supposed to fire two shots in quick sucessions before needing to heat up again. Our thrusters allowed us to move as fast as any Covenant ship not in slipspace. We were basically a hit and run craft. A hit and run craft straight from the drawing board. I wished that I hadn't learned that particular piece of information, as it made me quite nervous, to say the least

We had arrived to the Beta Calope System (what a weird name) shortly before we were unfreezed. The Covenant were on the other side of the system and already gunning for Amber. We started the race later, the covvies would get to the planet first. They'd probably have time to deploy ground forces.

Just as the virtual girl in Singh's videogame was getting louder and louder, the ship alarm signaled for battle stations.

"Thank God," I said as I jumped of the bed. I couldn't have taken much more of that.

I quickly dressed up in my new armor for the first time. It was completely black. I hadn't gotten the chance to paint it yet. I grabbed my BR55, the same one I had been given back at Mars. Luckily, it had survived everything.

It was now outfitted with a laser sight which doubled as a laser designator and I had changed the standard scope with a more expensive one that could switch distances and measure them with help from the laser. That would help me if I ever needed to make long-distance shots. The only other thing I had gotten were some quick-release additions to my armor, to release it… ahem… quickly in case any piece was hit by plasma.

"Ok, listen up soldiers," called out Captain Richardson. He was the leader of my section, which consisted of ten six-man squads. On my squad were my two roomates and three other guys whose names I didn't know, one of those guys was the alcoholic Sergeant Bell. He was our squad leader. That only made me more nervous.

"We will be dropping off in a Covenant camp, there we'll catch themby surprise and eliminate as many of them as possible. It is really quite simple. Questions?"

A soldier raised his hand. "Will we drop literally on top of their camp?" he asked, sounding nervous.

"Yes," stated the captain.

?

That's right, I didn't even know what to think. That operation would have a casualty rate of at least 30%, and it was more than likely to go well into 50%.

I sighed along with the rest of the soldiers on the room. I couldn't really complain, that was what we had signed up for after all. We all left the room as we went to the drop pod bays. There weren't enough SOEIV's to fit all 200 soldiers, so some would have to go down in Multiple Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicles, or MOEIVs, for short. They were basically SOEIV for six. They were square in shape and each corner sported thrusters. Those could actually maneuver quite well to compensate for their size. They could also break atmosphere and be reused to compensate for their cost.

Before I entered my bay Layla bumped into me.
"Oh, I'm glad I found you," she said.

I smiled. "Is that so?"

She looked at me but didn't smile. "Please don't die," she said as she hugged me. Around us there were catcalls and whistles, even female soldiers were teasing.

"I won't," I said. "I promise."

Layla nodded and simply left. As I turned around I smiled at my teammates, but inside I was feeling worried, what the hell kind of whacko sends us straight into a Covenant base with no intel on numbers.

I jumped into my SOEIV while immersed in those thoughts when the speaker crackled to life.

"Ok, listen up soldiers," it was Grandpa Zavala's voice, "the camp you are going into contains roughly a thousand enemy combatants in addition to a dozen ghosts and five wraiths, at least that's what our intel tells us. There are sniper towers along the complex and also a couple of transmitter antennas. I'd really appreciate if you could take those out. Good luck soldiers."

The speaker went silent just as the launching light turned on. I gripped the handles on the pod tighter as we started our descent. There were about 75 pods flying through space right now. The MOEIVs would follow soon after and the rest of the soldiers would arrive in pelicans as surprise backup a few minutes into the battle.

The pod started shacking as we entered atmosphere. The landscape below me started to take real shapes and I found out that we were going to land in the outskirts of a middle-sized city.

"We'll land on the western side of the enemy complex and regroup there, remember to use your pods as cover and do not fire at friendlies, clear?"

The channel was filled with yessirs, and mhmms, and all that. We were going to land soon. I could already see the small shapes of the buildings and wraiths on the Covenant camp if I squinted my eyes. I deployed my drag chute and my thrusters when I had to and at the last second directed my pod to strike a sniper tower. Time seemed to slow down as the jackal that had been firing into the air with his carbine was squashed by my pod, I went through the tower's floor just as my windows polarized and hardened to protect me. I stopped suddenly. Just like planned.

I depolarized my pod's window just as a plasma bolt hit it, denting the glass and making it start to melt. I pressed the button that pushed the hatch away at a high speed. It smashed an elite into a wraith, as it fell down, I was pleased to see a purple smear on the wraith's side.

I smiled as I pulled out my battle rifle from its case inside the SOEIV. I fired a couple of quick bursts at some adventurous elite that decided to poke it's head over a rock and took cover behind my pod. I fired a single shot into the body of a jackal that was making noises on the floor. The platform had crushed its legs but not killed it completely.

As the dust cleared, I could see my fellow marines and soldiers firing at enemy soldiers. The area where our pods had landed was already clear, or mostly clear. In any way you saw it, we had just gotten ourselves a rudimentary perimeter.

"Advance!" ordered Richardson's voice through the intercom.

No regrouping then.

"I remind you that I know who is currently speaking Lance Corporal Castillo," the Captain's voice said.

The comm channel was filled with chuckling, but it quickly died down as we complied with the captain's orders. The first fifty yards were easy, as the covvies were unorganized and surprised, but later on we found ourselves facing two wraiths and the entirety of the ghosts on the base. We were forced to take cover when the ghosts started peppering us with plasma fire. More than one soldier didn't make it to solid cover in time. I managed to slide into the burned out husk of one wraith. Dom slid as plasma hit the air right behind him.

"Dom, you ok?" I called out.

"Yeah, I'm fine;" he said.

We nodded at each other and peeked out of the sides of the wraith to fire at the Covenant. I knocked down a couple of grunts.

"Whatdya get?" asked Dom.

"Couple grunts, you?"

"Turkey-face. I hit an elite, but its shields held up, damn cheater."

"Amen to that," I said, I was already peeking out again and managed to hit a jackal in the arm before requiring cover. Needle shards were starting to explode over my head.

"Ok, where's the elite?" I asked.

"Behind that concrete slab," answered Dom.

I nodded and primed a grenade I threw it as my roommate provided covering fire. It exploded in front of the concrete slab an overturned it.

"Damn it, I fell short," I complained.

"I killed three grunts," said a Dom that could only be smiling.

I rolled my eyes inside my helmet and popped from cover again, only to be surprised by an angry elite charging at me. I quickly switched my rifle to automatic and emptied a third of my mag before bringing it down. I looked around for enemies, but they were falling back.

"Push forward!" This time, the captain was calling out through his helmet speakers. We all complied, running with our backs hunched and our rifles up. I arrived at a crater near the place I had killed the elite and jumped into it; it was fairly roomy and provided accurate protection. I decide not to look over the rim for a minute.

It paid off as soon as I heard the captain's voice ordering us to move forward. I stood up and looked around, the enemy was falling back to their radio antenna, which also happened to be a very fortified position.

"How you doing?" asked Bell's voice.

"I'm good sir, how about you?"

"Never better," he said, although I could see the burn marks in his helmet and shoulder pieces. He then asked me a couple of questions before we were interrupted by the groan coming from the elite I thought I killed. He ignored me and started telling me what we would do to take the antenna, it involved something with rockets and a hijacked ghost, I didn't get half of it because the elite kept moaning and groaning in pain. I finally shot it in the head absent-mindedly and listened to the sergeant, but he was finished and was now sprinting towards the antenna. The wraiths had been blown up by the rocket-toting marines, and so had the ghosts. I looked around and saw a dozen human bodies lying still. I shook my head and followed the sergeant. I slid into a wall that was missing it's upper half. I was next to two unknown marines. Dom was nowhere to be seen since he jumped into his own crater and no sight of Singh anywhere nearby. I popped out every few seconds to shoot at the grunts manning the plasma cannons. The marine next to me was shot in the chest by a plasma bolt. He twitched once and did not move. The other guy was hit in the neck by a green bolt from a carbine. I cursed and sprinted for a different place to take cover. This place happened to be the dead body of a hunter. I sat down as I heard and felt the dull thuds of plasma connecting with the hunter's armor. I crawled under the death behemoth's shield arm and poked my rifle from underneath. I shot a couple of sniper jackals and took down an elite with its shields down before they figured where my fire was coming from.

Time to move. I thought as I sprinted to a different place. And not a moment to soon. The hunter's body blew up in a blue flash and I felt something splattering on my back. Hunter blood and body bits no doubt. My next cover spot was a burned car. As I jumped at it two marines arrived. They were carrying an M247 general purpose machine gun. They set it up on top of the car as I provided covering fire for them. They managed to get it going in ten seconds only. It made a loud noise as it ate through ammo. One of the marines ran back to the rear as the other kept firing. I wondered where he would be going. This was complete chaos, we were not organized, there was no rear, there was simply the front line and that's about it. You can count the wounded not being attended to if you want.

The soldier returned with two canisters filled with 7.62mm ammunition. Solving my doubts. He probably picked it up from his pod.

The soldier firing the machine gun was hit in the chest and shoulder by a plasma pistol. He yelled in pain and collapsed. He grabbed his burnt armor and took it off. It was melting into his body.

Add to my to-do list: avoid impact from enemy fire

"Stop saying horseshit and fire the goddamned gun!" yelled the wounded marine.

"As you say," I said as I pulled back the loading lever and fired at an elite that was commanding its troops, it had red colored armor, which meant he was a major. He was turned into bloody pulp from the chest up by my machine gun in seconds.

"Charge!" called out a different voice. This time it wasn't the captain, so I assumed it was a lieutenant, no one else would be stupid enough to give that order.

But sure enough, there were marines leaving cover as they fired their weapons wildly into the enemy position. Oddly, it seemed to work.

I yelled like an idiot as I joined this charge. I unfastened the clip securing my main battle knife to its sheath in my lower back. I ran without being shot and jumped over some purple metal and into the antenna itself. I landed in front of frightened-looking grunt and promptly slammed my rifle into the back of its head. I then stomped his already dented head with my metal boots a couple of times. I turned around and sprayed a couple of shielded jackals, hitting one in the knee.

I had no cover right now, but I was saved by two soldiers shooting the jackals from behind. I gave them a quick salute and entered the antenna itself. There were only a handful of enemy soldiers left in there, but I had made the stupid mistake of going in alone, or at least uncoordinated. As soon as I turned the first corner, a couple of thin and long hands grabbed my rifle and yanked it from me. I found myself facing an armored skirmisher. Before I even had time to react, it was bringing its fist to my head with an uppercut. I managed to lean slightly back, so that his blow only hit my helmet. Still, it stunned me.

"Fuck you bird!" I cursed at it as it jumped at me. We tumbled to the ground. I kneed the jackal a couple of timed before realizing I couldn't get it in an arm lock. Its head was to far forwards to allow for a nice grip with my legs. Instead I pushed it over my head and quickly stood up, I was greeted by claws slashing at me. One blow actually managed to pierce the undersuit on my forearm. I cried out as I bled. Here I was, having a one-on-one with a freaking jackal. There was no way I was going to get killed by a motherfucking ostrich on steroids.

I punched it with all my strength. The blow connected with its metallic beak armor. I cried out in pain. "Fucking fuck!"

The jackal recovered and decided to bite on my arm. I twisted it so that his teeth would only hit armor. It made a noise that clearly meant it was in pain as it broke its own teeth. Now I grabbed its head and kneed it in the ribs a couple of times. Then I brought my knee into its head with all my strength.

It collapsed as I let it go. I snapped its neck just to be sure. Once I had done that, I grabbed my rifle and climbed a ramp, kicking the jackal on the way. There were a couple of marines up ahead, they were fighting and elite ultra. It pulled out a sword and slashed at them. One of them ducked, but the other was decapitated. Decapitated is being used loosely here, since her body from the mid-chest up was separated from the rest of her body. Her chest and head fell to the ground with a dull thud the elite kicked the other marine before pulling out his sword from the metal wall. It set its eyes on its next victim, which happened to be me.

"Oh crap."

I stood there for a moment, frozen in fear before the elite's attention shifted to five soldiers peppering it with lead. I snapped out of my daze and joined the fire, the elite collapsed within five seconds and its body stopped moving. One of the marines brought a pistol to its head and fired one shot. I simply walked over to the marine that had been kicked in the chest by the elite and asked him if he was all right. He nodded and a second later he coughed up some blood. I told him to hang in there when my eyes met the dead eyes of the sliced woman. I was able to lift my helmet just in time to throw up. The scene was so macabre. Her upper body was lying a foot away from her lower body, her rifle still clutched tightly in her hands, a look of pure horror on her face.

"Oh God," was all I had time to say before I threw up again. I staggered up and leaned on a wall, facing away from the dead woman. I walked out of the building when a guy carrying a bunch of explosives prompted me to do so. I was helping the guy with the crushed ribcage. He could walk, so that was a good sign, I guess, I'm not really a doctor.

I left the antenna, which was now spewing smoke. I glanced back at it and had the strangest of thoughts What happened to the hijacked ghost? I asked myself. Later, I would learn that there was no need for that since the marines arriving by pelican had distracted the covvie defenders for long enough for us to make our charge.

I hopped over a rock and two minutes later the antenna was blown up. It didn't come cheaply though; over seventy marines were dead or wounded, with the majority of that number being dead.

I found out from the sergeant that Singh had been struck as soon as we arrived, the captain had also been hit by two needler rounds to the forehead. I was lucky I didn't know that many people here, otherwise, I would've gone into shock.

I waited at a clearing for a pelican to come pick us up. We were pulling back to the Inconvenience. That meant that all the people that had died here had died for nothing. Absolutely no greater goal for the UNSC, or for Humanity. They had just been sent there to die. Our small force had been sent to death for a strategically insignificant position. We had won, but about a quarter of our number were gone.

I sat on the pelican, blank stare in my eyes, I'm sure someone would've been freaked out by it if I had had my helmet off.

"This is madness," I murmured into my helmet, its speakers off.

Why did we just do that? All those men died for nothing.

When I arrived at the Inconvenience an hour later, I was feeling gloom. Sixty-two men and women had been sent to their deaths for the sake of dying. Our small battle group had failed their objective of rescuing the majority of the civilian population, only managing to cover the retreat of around three million souls, less than a third of the planet's population. It had cost us two of our ships and a large number of infantry. At least those other men died for a cause, we had done no good to anyone down there. If we were going to be sent on high-risk missions, we should at least be sent to the ones that mattered for something.

I left the pelican and jumped to the hangar. A hundred soldiers were doing the same, some were wounded and limping, while others were being rushed to the medical bay in stretchers or just being carried over someone's shoulder. I sighed and walked to my room. There would be no debriefing after this mission. I just felt like getting stoned, and quickly.

I met up with Dom on the way to the room, he wasn't his usual cheery and goofy self, but he was looking less affected by this than me.

"You ok buddy?" he asked me while patting my back.

"I'll be fine," I lied.

"Huh, yeah right. Hey, don't worry about it, all of those soldiers knew what they signed in for."

"To be sent to their deaths for no reason?" I said.

"Hey, the ONI might be ruthless, but they're not stupid, there was probably a reason why they sent us there, besides, it really wasn't such a bad mission, last time the whole contingent was deployed, we suffered a 70% casualty rate."

"Well that certainly makes me feel better," I mumbled.

Dom chuckled. "It's not supposed to, but trust me, there was something special about that enemy camp."

"Sure, whatever you say," I told Dom before walking away.

On my way to my room I suddenly realized that the ship wasn't moving. A ship is supposed to be moving if it is falling back. This wasn't making any sense.

Suddenly the ship shook, but not in a good way. It was rocked sideways and I could hear explosions, there was the rumbling of AAA fire from the ships point defense guns as well.

"Great, now we're under attack," I muttered as the alarms started ringing.

I ran towards my battle station, which happened to be an emergency pod. I was joined by two other scared-looking marines soon after. I felt the ship shake, but this time it was because of the MAC firing. The ship shifted position and fired again, this time I could almost swear I heard a gigantic explosion on the other side of the ship's armor.

The alarms subsided and I was able to breath normally again. During those three minutes that the engagement lasted, I was scared as shit, it was all I could do not to shit my pants. Seriously, there was nothing I could do to avoid being either melted or going into vacuum.

The alarms subsided as the ship started moving, this time it was clear that we were using our own thrusters. The Inconvenience must've had a hell of an AI at the time.

A few hours later, we were on slipspace and on our way out, we would be doing six or seven random two-day jumps. Then we would be on our way back to Reach or Paris IV. Probably Paris IV, since it was a less important colony.

I was to be placed in stasis for the duration of the trip, so would the rest of the crew, including officers. The AI would handle the ship for the two weeks that we would spend in candy land.

As I walked into the cryo bay where I was supposed to be in, I was dismayed to find it surprisingly empty, only about half the tubes were occupied. I simply took of my clothes and neatly folded them and placed them on the designated space next to my freezer. I jumped on it and swallowed the anti-freeze fluid. A second later I felt really cold and then it all went black.