Chapter XLIII: What's the Point of Crotchless Panties Anyway?
February 28, 2541 (UNSC Calendar)/
Ajai Badlands, Juno, Olympus System
"Any moment now," I said. I was extremely glad that the operation had been green-lit by command. You have no idea how many times useful intel was sent to waste because command didn't deem it 'strategically viable' or some bullshit like that.
"Not like I have any place better to be," Pavel murmured.
"Silence," said Lieutenant Yevgeny.
I saw them before I heard them. Five green blurs interrupted the night sky, the scarab was hit by a few bombs, all of them going deep into its armor, but not completely wrecking it. Instants later, they exploded simultaneously, finishing the job.
"Move, eliminate all survivors," said Nezarian.
"You heard the lieutenant," one of my temporary squadmates said. His name was Banks, he was earth-born, from the UK. God I loved his accent. I think he might've been from Scotland.
"Ok, move on," I said, motioning for my three other squadmates to follow me. Their names were Pavel (obviously), Lunge, and Park. They were of unknown ethnicity and Taiwanese respectively. Both proved themselves able soldiers while we were eliminating patrols to close in on the scarabs. Banks was pretty damn good as well.
The scarab toppled sideways after several explosions completely wrecked its right side. It fell on the ground with a metallic groan and crashed loudly on the hard floor. It let out a huge plume of dust, dirt, and smoke around it, but we were already moving in to confirm that there were no survivors.
We moved through the dust and entered the wreckage of the scarab, our visibility was bad because of all the dust. We moved in a tight-packed formation while checking the area for living covvies. We saw a couple of mangled bodies, but nothing out of the usual.
"Movement right," Lunge said.
"Um, Titan, that's us," a voice said through the dust.
"Ok, guess we're clear," I said.
"Clear it is then," Nezarian said. "Well, let's move, we're spearheading this thing and we gotta do it right boys."
Someone cleared her throat.
"And girl," conceded the lieutenant.
We all waited for a few moments and eleven warthogs showed up. Most of them were regular M12 warthogs with M41 LAAVs, but there were a few Gauss Hogs and troop transport variants. They had been given to us by other regiments and battalions for this particular mission. I hopped on the driver's seat of one of them as soon as the Ranger driving it dismounted and moved to another one. Pavel hopped onto the turret position while Park took shotgun. Lunge and Banks shared another hog with a member from a different squad, but they would keep close in case we had to bail out of the jeeps.
We floored the hogs and headed towards our goal. We had already destroyed the strongest point of the covvie line in this area, but we had received support from atmospheric bombers. Next time we wouldn't get the chance, we'd have to get our hands dirty to accomplish this next stage of our mission.
"Thee they are!" Nezarian's voice said on the Battlenet. "Squads one through three take the left flank, four gets the middle and five and six attack on the right."
The warthogs shuffled for a few seconds before we managed to accommodate ourselves properly. The massive group of choppers in front of us would be receiving a hell of a kicking in a few seconds. All the brutes were either sleeping or resting, but none of them was on board of one of their massive cycles. My squad was four, so we would charge through the middle of the formation, our warthog and the one with Banks, Lunge, and unknown ranger would cause as much chaos inside of the perimeter of the brutes before the rest of the squads destroyed their flanks.
Our target was the brute equivalent of a warthog platoon. There were approximately forty choppers and the same number of brutes. Units like this were used to break through weak points in human defenses. Don't you guys love irony?
"Roar!" was all that the closest brute could say before I ran it over. The hog jumped a little bit, but I managed to control it. Pavel started firing at waking brutes or at the ones that were trying to hop into their choppers. Park simply sprayed and prayed.
We made our way through the bunched up choppers in a few seconds and exited on the other side, after leaving behind a group of confused and angry brutes. Instants later the rest of the hogs smashed any resistance with lead and depleted uranium. We didn't even get one casualty.
Next on our to-do list was to form some sort of 'head' so that the rest of the UNSCDF could use us as some sort of tip to the spear. Spearhead is the correct term. Our small platoon would charge at some place or other before the bulk of the UNSC forces decided to come crashing through with their tanks and air support.
Before long we finally found our target. It was stronger than other possible places where we could charge through, but it was an excellent place to break the covvies' line. What we were facing off against was a relatively large camp of about two hundred covvie soldiers. Most of them were infantry, but there were a few vehicles that we had to worry about, namely choppers and ghosts.
Our eleven hogs rumbled through the flat ground and started firing. We instantly received return fire, with several plasma bolts hitting the sides of my hog. I twisted a little bit to avoid plasma fire while Pavel and Park did their best to accurately shoot the covvies. That is easier said than done when speeding so fast on uneven ground and with a zigzagging vehicle. A warthog nearby was hit by plasma through the windshield. I saw the driver slump forwards and the car start slowly moving sideways until it crashed onto another warthog.
We reached the covvie camp's first line of defense and wrecked through it, but that's where we had to stop. Numerous deployable shields and rocks prevented us from advancing any further or make any sort of use of our warthog's guns.
"Use the gauss!" Nezarian ordered.
The gunner turned his turret to fire at the deployable shields. He got off two shots before a chopper that nobody managed to see coming ate through the vehicle. The man was splattered by the enormous chopper and the warthog was utterly destroyed. I parked the hog behind a partially destroyed chopper and jumped off at the same time as Park. Pavel stayed on the M41, occasionally firing bursts at a grunt stupid enough to leave cover.
"Titan! I need you to move forward and try to flank the closest brutes!" came the order.
"You heard the man," I called out, "Let's move!"
The other warthog had parked next to mine moments ago, and Lunge and Banks jumped off quickly. The other ranger was hit in the chest by no less than three needle rounds.
"Fuck!" cried out Banks.
"Pull him here," said Lunge.
Banks grabbed the wounded ranger and pulled him towards cover, as soon as the man's leg had been dragged to cover, his whole chest exploded violently, blood and gore raining on all of us.
"Shit," said Lunge.
"Well, let's move," I ordered. Although technically I couldn't do that, I had been placed as the default squad leader. All Rangers were privates.
Our five man team moved forward while trying hard to avoid enemy fire, some other squads provided covering fire and we managed to slide into cover after many uncomfortably close spike rounds flew by us. The rock we used as cover was the same that a brute was using for the same purpose, only on the other side.
"Frag out," Park warned us.
His grenade went over the boulder and I could hear it distinctly bounce of the rocks even through all the firing, it detonated less than a second later.
We went around the boulder while firing at the grunts manning the covvie camp's turrets and anything else that wasn't behind something solid. This time the deployable shields worked against the brutes. Our five man squad sprinted for a few meters before a spike grenade slammed into Pavel's chest piece, knocking him backwards. I didn't even have time to stare in horror before Lunge lunged towards my friend, ripped the grenade from his chest piece, and tossed it back, nailing a brute.
"Impressive," I said after killing an eager grunt.
"Thanks," said Lunge.
"Thanks," said Pavel.
"No problem," replied Lunge.
We moved forward while the Rangers behind us provided covering fire. It felt weird to be doing this because I didn't exactly have an objective other than shoot everything that didn't have human DNA. I barely bothered taking shots at brutes, the Rangers were making a damn fine job of taking them out. Eventually I decided to just fire at grunts while everyone else did the entire job. I felt embarrassed.
A few minutes of fighting later and every last covvie was dead. I gotta admit, fighting with other spec ops troops certainly has its perks. It's a lot more boring, but quicker.
"Corporal, give the go sign for the general to start the attack. No more significant covvie positions around."
"Yessir," said a corporal.
"What do we do in the meantime?" Pavel asked.
"We wait, nothing else to do really," Nezarian said.
And so we waited. The rest of the UNSC forces were supposed to overtake our positions in maybe half an hour, they were seriously mobilizing the whole fucking planet here. That was some medieval shit right there. Pretty soon we would witness a bunch of troops coming here, their lines stretching as far as they could see.
I had no idea how right I was.
"Uh-oh," the only female ranger said.
"Agreed."
Coming at us was an army. Yes, it wasn't exactly our army. It was fucking insane, I swear, purple and gray as far as the eye could see. Well, maybe not as far, but still about a kilometer wide. Plus the ones further back. And the fliers. And the fucking scarab.
"Take cover!" Nezarian ordered.
We barely even had time to move the warthogs into decent positions before the banshees started their strafing runs. They were devastating. The fliers were so many they just needed to shoot in a straight line. Granted, the gunners took out like a dozen of them on the first pass, but they blew up three warthogs and killed two gunners.
"Lieutenant, I don't think we're gonna survive," I said bluntly as Nezarian slid into cover next to me.
"What do you propose then?" he asked angrily.
"Retreat," I said.
"Retreat?" he said, spitting the word out as if it pained him to do so. "Rangers don't retreat!"
"Well, neither do we, but there's always a first time," I said.
"No, we hold the line goddamit! We'll stay here and wait twenty fucking minutes for reinforcements to arrive."
"We might not have five minutes," I stated.
"So be it," the lieutenant said.
"We stay then," I said, disappointment in my voice. Truth be told I wasn't to big on falling back, but it was our only option. It's not like we needed to hold some important point so that the UNSC could break through the covvie lines. Oh, actually we needed to do just that.
"Position yourselves to project the maximum amount of firepower!" Nezarian ordered. "Make it seem like we're more than a platoon, use the warthogs and their LAAVs!" he said furiously.
A few rangers moved towards the hogs while the rest of them moved sideways to get into better firing positions. A few instants later every last one of us was prone, taking aim at the massive covvie column coming at us. I could see that the rangers were trembling a little bit. Undoubtedly they were scared. I noticed I was shaking a little bit myself.
"Do we hold our fire?" one ranger asked.
"Are you fucking stupid? We are facing a massive army and we are holding our fire? No way, shoot as soon as they're within range!" another ranger replied.
As soon as he said that a dozen long-range weapons barked. My BR was aimed at a brute captain urging his scared grunts to go forward. Three rounds bounced of its helmet and another three dented it in and killed the armored gorilla. A few high-ranking officers toppled as well, courtesy of the two platoon snipers and a few other marksmen such as myself.
"Pavel?" I asked.
"Just a moment," he replied, sighting his machine gun.
I kept firing at high ranking officers, they weren't even bothering to take cover now, they were simply trotting towards us, they were bound to hit us hard pretty soon. A few ghosts took off from their ranks, surging forward like cavalry would've done in the Middle Ages. Usually, cavalry was chewed up by bullets, but this was the equivalent of stopping an armored horse with an arrow. Pretty much impossible. Two ghosts blew up from concentrated fire. Pretty much impossible.
"Rockets!" Nezarian ordered.
Yep, it wasn't nearly enough, the ghosts flew through our ranks, forcing at least half of us to turn around and fire at the purple vehicles. I strafed a brute, managing to make it fall out of its seat. A couple of shots to the chest and head ended its life quickly. Some of the Rangers weren't so lucky. At least two were fried by plasma while I witnessed the very grisly spectacle of a ghost running over a standing human being.
Three other ghosts were destroyed or their riders killed before the rest decided to retreat for another charge, by that time the covvies were already in front of us.
We had the advantage here, in a way. The place we were in was covered by boulders and rocks on all sides, that made for a nice defendable position. Normally we would've managed to hold out for a long time before we were overrun, using CQC and similar tactics. It would've worked against any human army. Unfortunately, our opponents were nine-foot tall gorillas mixed with rhinos that had the ability to withstand surprisingly high amounts of pain and bullets. Not to mention the shield-toting jackals and the grunts. No hunters so far, otherwise this might've gone differently. It went terribly wrong as it is…
"They're on our flank!"
"Medic!"
"We need backup."
"Fuck!"
"Pass me his gun!"
"Behind you!"
"Fuck!"
"Shit."
"Argh!"
"I'm hit!"
"…contact command."
"…king airstrike."
"Fuck!"
"Fucking shit."
"Ape!"
"Grenade!"
"Take cover!"
"Frag out."
"Goddamn FUCK!"
"Fuck!"
"Fuck!"
"Fuck!"
"Fuck!"
"Shit."
Well, needless to say, it was complete and utter chaos. While all this happened I was running away from the covvies, towards the ghost whose driver I had killed. I stepped over the brute and dropped to the floor, doing it on instinct other than anything else. The feeling of plasma scorching the air above me rewarded my soldier's skills. I immediately hopped back up and jumped on the seat of the ghost. It was uncomfortable as sitting on a pointy rock, it wasn't meant for humans to ride in, and the controls were a bit far away from my hands, but the layout was simple enough.
I grabbed the two handles and the ghost immediately lifted itself up from the ground.
"Whoa," I said. It had been a while since I last hijacked a ghost. Funny story actually, it even involves a rubber duck and some Vaseline, but that's a story for another time.
I spun the ghost around by pushing one handle and pulling on the other one. Now I found myself face-to-face with the advancing horde of brutes, grunts, and jackals. I hoped my IFF tag functioned properly and then I charged towards the covvie line. At first they didn't fire at me. It was simply to absurd for a ghost on their own side to attack them. I didn't fire a single shot as I splattered over a five-bird squadron of jackal soldiers. Three of them were instantly killed and the other two were permanently injured. That's when I started firing. The heated plasma bolts burned through grunt and brute armor with the same ease as they did with ours. At first the covvies were startled and didn't return fire, but soon enough plasma started striking my stolen craft.
The good thing about plasma is that it doesn't have much penetrating power. As soon as it hits something it becomes unstable and simply dissipates. The problem is that as it does that it reaches temperatures high enough to melt armor. The ghost had almost no armor, but there was a good portion of engine between their fire and myself.
My ghost suddenly hit the floor violently, crashing down on the hard rock floor. I knew enough from experience to jump of the thing and as far away as soon as possible. I rolled away from the ghost and instants later it blew up after a charging-up sound. This time the heat of the explosion actually managed to burn my skin, not seriously, but it still hurt.
I now found myself in a dilemma. I was in the middle of my line, and the advancing enemy troops. What to do? You run. And how I ran.
Gravel was raining all over me, plasma singed my armor more times than I could count, I saw spiker rounds lodge themselves on the floor just inches away from my feet and legs. I was luckier than I should've been. I was luckier than anyone should've been. And it still wasn't enough.
I clearly remember Pavel leaving cover to pull me behind some rock, I remember seeing the reflection of the covenant army on our back on his visor, distorted by the angles and lighting. Just as I grabbed his forearm, two things slammed into my back. I lost my balance and Pavel actually had to drag me into safety, almost breaking my arm as he did so. He put me face down and gave me a quick once over.
"Ok, don't you move," he said.
I screamed as he pulled out one spiker round. Tears welled up in my eyes as he pulled out the second one. Then I felt like a million tiny needles were stabbing at my back, and moments later, the pain dulled. It didn't stop, but it dulled.
"Up soldier!" Pavel yelled into my ear, more to wake me back up than to actually motivate me to fight. I had enough of that.
I jumped up with the help of my friend. The pain in my back and the adrenaline made for a weird combination. Everything was moving in fast slow motion, but everything was shaking a bit. Maybe it was me.
"Eh Pavel," I called weakly. Rangers and brutes were engaged in fierce combat all around us. It seemed that the brutes were getting the worst of it.
"Yeah?" he asked as he hefted his machine gun.
"Count your rounds," I said with a chuckled that didn't fit at all with the situation.
My friend simply raised his gun and fired a long steady burst at a charging brute minor, making it topple over.
When he answered he changed the meaning of my words. "I intend to make every last round count."
Hey, I uploaded this chapter in a bit of a hurry, so I didn't have much time to edit out all my mistakes. Still think I did a pretty decent job for the time I ahd on my hands. Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading guys.
-casquis