Chapter XLV: All of the Lights
March 5, 2541 (UNSC Calendar)/
Ajai Badlands, Juno, Olympic System
I stretched myself for the first time in five days. For the previous week I hadn't been allowed to move more than a couple inches in any direction or moving my arms around.
I felt the familiar sensation of missing a bit of skin on the two places where I had been hit by spikers. My ribs now only felt like I had been hit by a world class boxer and all the bruises in my body were a sickly yellow-green instead of black and deep purple. All in all, I was fit for service.
I was already fully armored except for my helmet. My rifle was attached to my back (the strap had been burnt off by plasma), my thigh holster was empty, only sporting the extra magazines for the M6G pistol. My medical hard case on the other thigh was filled to the brim with stolen medigel and biofoam. Those would pay out later. My face was still mostly intact except for the scruffy hair, which had been cut down to a buzz cut. I'd have to turn it into a mohawk again soon. I could do it with my knife, but it took time, a mirror, and a steady hand. None of which I currently had right now. I'd get the regimental or battalion barber to give me the haircut as I arrived in the frontline.
I stretched again and felt the two fresh scars in my back tighten. They were in my lower back, on the left side, about four and five inches above the waistline respectively. Whatever, more scars to brag about in the future or seduction items. Depends on how you use them.
I hopped on a pelican with three other men. They were from other elephant-hospitals, so I didn't recognize them. All three of them were marines from different battalions, so the ride consisted mostly of silence and awkward conversation about what got them into the hospital. I simply stared at the Ajai Badlands fly by as the pelican flew by with its cargo bay open. The ground we flew over was mostly empty, barren wasteland, as it name suggested. Every few kilometers I could spot the burned-out husk of a wraith or chopper. Sometimes it was a scorpion or a crashed pelican.
Eventually I started seeing tents and parked Rhino tanks here and there. Finally I started seeing hogs, scorpions, and larger mobile barracks. This was where the majority of my unit was quartered, or at least my friends Pavel.
I jumped off the pelican just as the sun was setting. The craft promptly took off to leave the other three soldiers in their respective sections. I turned around and then I saw it. The Avenging Inheritor. It was the source of all our troubles, a gigantic bull's-eye with all its white and purple lights. It hovered at about 200 meters of the ground. The ship was perhaps thirty-something kilometers away, perhaps a little bit closer. From here it seemed to span the whole horizon. I just hoped that it would crash into Juno's floor soon enough.
I looked away from the ship and instead focused on my surroundings. There was enough light around for me to see clearly, and I could always just put on my helmet to use night vision. I had been dropped in a flat empty stretch of space that served as a landing pad. I stretched myself after the long journey and a young corporal approached me.
"Staff Sergeant Castillo?" she asked nervously.
"The one and only," I grunted. Let's make her sweat a little.
"You are to come with me," she said.
"Is that so?" I asked with a menacing tone.
She visibly gulped before going on. "Yes, Captain Sharma's orders."
"Very well then, lead the way," I replied, suddenly switching to an overly cheering tone.
The corporal looked confused for a moment before deciding that she didn't want to piss off a Helljumper.
"Sure thing, sir, this way, sir," she said, still nervously.
I grunted in agreement and followed her through the camp. Most people here were in fighting order, but I spotted a few marines with bandages on their arms, legs, and sometimes even around their heads. This offensive had not been a nice thing. Suddenly, I was glad that I had missed five days of it, even if it was at the cost of almost dying. I can't believe that it only took five days for two spiker injuries and a broken rib to heal. Ah, the miracles of modern medicine. They could probably flash clone me a liver within hours if I required it.
"We're here," the corporal said.
I glared at her.
"Sir," she added nervously. I waited for her to turn and scurry away before breaking in a wide grin. I turned to enter the command tent to find Sharma's face less than an inch away from mine. It would've been a romantic position in other situations, but this time it was slightly threatening.
"Please don't intimidate my soldiers Castillo," she said. "That girl over there has a bright future, so don't make her feel like shit."
"Yes ma'am, I'll take that into account in future encounters with any of your soldiers," I replied, perhaps a little bit too sarcastically.
"Watch your tone soldier," she said. The term soldier is considered an insult in the Marine Corps. It meant that you were regular Army, and not a highly trained soldier.
"I'm a Helljumper… ma'am," I said, this time I made my voice sound as dangerous as possible and let my eyes show a little anger. I also stood taller. The Captain was almost a foot shorter than I was, so she appropriately looked nervous and backed off a little. Those are the little things that make me glad that I went through hell and back to become a Helljumper.
"Regardless," she said. "Come inside," she ordered, trying to save some face.
I entered the tent to find a large holotank with a display of what I (correctly) assumed to be the area around us. The large supercarrier in the middle of the map was a pretty nice giveaway.
"This is the situation," an unfamiliar voice said. I looked up to see a middle-aged man dressed in a Colonel's uniform, probably the officer assigned to lead the battalion or regiment that the Inconvenience's troops had been absorbed into.
"We currently have the Covenant outnumbered in terms of infantry and air support, but they have a large amount of vehicular assets here, and here," he said as he pointed at objects in the holo-map. "There are definitely more enemy troops and materiel hidden around the area, probably in this ridges or in those cave systems. For a decisive attack to be made, we need to eliminate a large number of these vehicular assets, facilitating the job for out tank corps to break through the infantry lines. The best way to do it would be a small infiltration team laser painting the area for missile strikes," he explained. "Sharma, is your man back?" he asked.
"Yes, sir," she replied as she took one step forward. "He's right here."
"Colonel," I said as I saluted.
"At ease staff sergeant," he said.
I complied gladly, I was still a little tense from the long trip on the pelican. And the spiker wounds.
"Well, you and Hernandez's Rangers, what's left of them, will be the ones to partake in this mission, it is simple enough. Get there without getting caught, paint the targets, get back to the extraction point, and leave."
"Straightforward enough, sir."
"Nezarian, what's your assessment?" the Colonel asked.
"The mission should be a success, Castillo is more than capable enough for this," he replied.
"Why thank you lieutenant," I said, perhaps a little bit too mockingly.
"Fuck off asshole," he said.
"Easy there, we're all on the same team here," the colonel said.
Neither Nezarian nor me said anything for a few moments until I was dismissed. I saluted and left after asking Captain Sharma where my tent was.
"Same place as always," she said.
The statement had me confused for a few moments before I realized that camps were always set up in the same fashion, meaning that my tent would be in the same position relative to the command tent as it usually was. I thanked the captain and saluted once more before leaving. It was almost completely dark now, the light had quickly gone away now that the sun was over the horizon. I could clearly see the planet that Juno orbited in the night sky, making it a little brighter than most planets. The supercarrier with all its twinkling lights also lit up the nigh considerably. It was enough for me to walk comfortably without fear of stepping on something.
I walked through the now empty camp and finally reached my tent. I sighed in relief at finally being able to rest after the long trip and I opened the curtain-doors.
Inside, I was something that frightened me more than anything I had ever seen before in my entire life.
Chloe Delacroix was there, she was wearing nothing but thigh-high leather boots and a smile. I dropped my helmet and fumbled for words before she covered herself and squealed.
"What the…?" was all I could say before I heard Pavel.
"I'm here," he said, his voice coming from behind. "Oh…" he said as he blushed visibly. "Welcome back Frank."
"Where did she even get those boots?" I asked, still a dumbstruck.
"Well, yeah, funny story," Pavel said while scratching the back of his neck. "I'll tell you later, so take a walk, will ya?"
Great, kicked out of my own tent.
I left my helmet on the floor and walked around the camp for a while. After circling it two times, I realized that I had only spent ten minutes walking around. I sighed and climbed up a small hill to look at the plains beyond.
From my vantage point I could clearly see the entirety of the Inheritor. It stretched from side to side of my eyes. It looked almost invulnerable sitting there. It was a beached ship, a beached ship that was desperately waiting for the high tide to escape. Only that this ship had plasma projectors instead of cannons and it was floating instead of simply resting on the sand.
I could see little lights traveling from the floor towards the gargantuan cargo bay of the ship and back. Below and around the Inheritor there were numerous purple and white lights. The Covenant army. They were ready to hold against us with tooth and nail, literally. The jackals had some pretty nasty talons while the brutes were the ones who were fond of using their fangs. They were camped in between some small hills, sometimes those hills didn't permit me to see some sections of their massive encampment.
I saw some dim lights a lot closer to our line. Those were certainly ghost and chopper patrols. Some of those were destined to become small-scale raids. I sighed with reluctance and simply stared at the pretty lights until they hypnotized me into sleep.
I woke up to a few voices. I couldn't quite understand what they were saying. I ignored them and wondered why people would be talking so loudly right outside my tent. I moved slightly and then realized how uncomfortable I was. Then I realized that I had fallen asleep on the hill wearing my full armor save for the helmet.
"What time is it?" I asked suddenly. There was a group of three young-looking marines chatting next to me. Probably replacements.
"Three hours after sunrise," one of them said.
"Aw fuck," I murmured. That was the equivalent of about eleven o'clock back on Earth and Reach. "Couldn't any of you wake me up?" I asked, annoyed.
"Well…"
I could see that my armor had prevented them from doing so.
"For fuck's sake, I'm a Helljumper, I won't eat your face or anything, I said as I hopped back up. I walked past the marines, bumping my shoulder hardly into one of them. He winced as my armor hit his soft unprotected skin, but didn't say anything.
I walked all the way back to my tent and walked in. The first thing I did was punch Pavel in the gut.
"What the hell man?"
"That's for making me sleep outside!"
"I told you to take a walk, not to stay outside!" he complained while gasping for air.
"Well fuck you, I wasn't about to return and take another look at your girl. Don't you know anything about the man code? It's like older than dirt," I said.
"Ok, fine, I'm sorry."
"Damn right you are," I said.
Before any of us could say anything else the same shy looking corporal that had led me from the landing pad towards the command post slid her head through the doors.
"Ahem," she cleared her throat.
"What?" we both replied.
The female corporal visibly recoiled a little bit before she got the courage to talk.
"You're needed at command," she said almost shyly.
"Be right there," I said.
The corporal scurried away as fast as humanly possible.
"Well, she almost shat her pants," Pavel pointed out.
"I wouldn't be surprised if she actually did," I said. "By the way, I want a bottle of that Scotch you have," I said.
"Fine, but you'll get the three-quarters full one."
"Fair enough," I said after some thinking. And just like that we were back to normal, except for the pain in my neck that came from sleeping awkwardly, but I could forget that, mostly in account to the tightness in my lower back and the fading bruising in my ribs.
We walked back to the command post, it looked exactly the same as yesterday except that this time Darbinian was in here as well. He looked grimmer than usual for him, and that's saying a lot. Despite his cheery personality, the man always had a haunted look to him, now there was no cheery personality, so he looked exactly what he was. A lieutenant that had lost most of his platoon at the cost of completing the mission. That would haunt him for the rest of his life.
"Well, now that we're all here, we can start," the colonel said. He hit a button on the holotank and the same display that was in there yesterday popped up again. It showed the same small hills and ridges all around the area, the Inheritor was still in the middle of the map, colored in a bright red. "As you can see, there are large concentrations of enemy ghosts, wraiths, chopper, and specters here, and here…"
He went on for what seemed like hours, explaining the tactical and strategic advantages and disadvantages that those vehicles brought to our predicament. He pointed out several other UNSC units that were slowly pressing the Covenant line, closing in on the supercarrier. There were already a couple of cruisers orbiting right outside of the range of the supercarrier, preparing a strike in case the thing decided to go ahead and glass the fucking planet and kill everyone of us. There were already numerous launchers aimed at the ship, all equipped with nukes ranging from a few kilotons to HAVOK warheads. Our entire nuclear arsenal.
The colonel relished in explaining every last detail about the offensive for about fifteen minutes before he actually went to the part that interested me.
"Well, seven strike teams will be sent here, here, here, here, here, and here, that last location will need two strike teams. The operators will paint the targets with lasers and a missile barrage will eliminate or neutralize most of the vehicles the covvies have."
He took a moment to take a deep breath.
"Nezarian will take four of his Rangers to this point," he said and pointed. "And Castillo will go here with Sergeant Klaus."
The colonel had pointed at two middle-sized red blots, they were behind relatively steep hills, which made out mission slightly easier. Nezarian looked at the area around our targets for a long time before nodding quietly.
"Well the operation is a go for tonight. Be in the landing pad by nine, the sun should have set by then. "Dismissed."
We all saluted and left the Colonel with his officers alone. I caught up with Nezarian.
"Lieutenant," I said.
"Staff Sergeant, good to see you're alive and kicking."
"Thanks lieutenant, I can say the same for you. Just wondering, what happened after I blacked out?"
"Well, the covvies fell back a little bit, allowing for Pavel, the rest of us, and me, what was left of us, anyways…" his eyes drifted away. "Well, the falcons destroyed the advancing forces, but the scarab and the rest of the covvie troops attacked immediately. A few falcons were destroyed and for a couple of minutes it looked like we would be overrun. You were still unconscious there. Then, like another gift from god, artillery hit the enemy troops. A shell hit one of the scarab's joints by pure luck, and it collapsed to the floor, trying to repair itself. With the walker out of the equation, the final push was relatively easy, the falcons and artillery did most of the work, and then actual infantry arrived. It was not until then that we got to rest."
"How did your platoon do?" I asked. I had to know.
"Well, there's only eight of us left."
"Damn," I said sadly.
"I know," he said as he looked into the ground. "It doesn't matter, we'll make the covvies pay for it a thousandfold tonight."
"Damn straight," I said. Damn straight.
By nine o'clock, I was already fully armed and armored, my BR55 was cleaned up and oiled, a fresh magazine was slapped into its port and the batteries on the laser sights and flashlight were charged. My belly was covered in armor and ammunition pouches full to the brim. The two UNSC-issue knives that I had were new ones, both looked shiny and deadly as I had put them inside their sheaths. My other knife was still strapped to its place by my boot, sharp as ever and ready for blood.
There were flashbangs and frags hanging from my sides. It was more than I would probably need, but these things tended to go wrong. Hell, everything in this war was going wrong.
I reached the landing pad and was dismayed to see four hornets waiting for us. Yes, hornets, not falcons. I slumped my shoulders a little in disappointment and walked towards the group already there.
"Staff Sergeant" Nezarian greeted me.
"Lieutenant," I acknowledged.
"I believe this is yours," he said.
Yevgeny handed me my pistol. It looked the same as always. Battered, scratched, damaged, and the paint wearing away. The extended barrel/suppressor was still there and the gun looked like it had just been cleaned.
"Thank you, lieutenant," I said as I replaced the other M6 pistol I had with my own. I placed the other gun below my larger knife and above my but pack, securing it with straps.
"Well, of we go," a hornet pilot said.
I reluctantly hopped on the dangerously thin platform on the side, it wasn't even comfortable, my but was resting on the flat piece of metal while my legs hung out. Pavel did the same and sat down on the opposite side.
The craft ignited its rotors and immediately lurched upwards. I grabbed to the small platform as I saw the dark shapes of the tents in the camp fly by.
The hornet flew rather fast for a craft that possessed absolutely no aerodynamic form. It dropped us about a mile away from our target, in between two clusters of covvie troops. As soon as the pilot had descended to a hovering altitude of two meters we hopped off, the hornet was already leaving at top speed when I looked up after my landing.
I glanced at Pavel. He was dusting himself off. He had replaced his shotgun with an M7 SMG, he had placed a silencer on it in case we needed to take down any sentries. I had done the same thing for my BR55, outfitting it with a suppressor.
Pavel nodded at me and we quietly made our way forward. We would maintain radio silence and communicate only verbally through our helmet's speakers. And only if it was necessary. We were behind enemy lines, with absolutely no support other than the ammunition and weaponry that we had carried here with us. It seemed terribly little in the face of an enemy army. Lucky that we wouldn't need them.
We started a slow trot as we made our way forward. Eventually we started walking and finally we crouched into combat stances while advancing slowly. Our VISRs didn't detect any enemy troops nearby. The positions of sentry towers and vehicles had been uploaded into our helmets, so we knew which places we should avoid.
"Shh," I said, actually putting a finger to my face instead of doing the usual silence hand sign.
There was a rhythmical noise. Completely unnatural in the night of this wasteland. Pavel and I both went prone behind a small rocky outcropping and soon enough we spotted the source of the noise. It was nothing else than a jackal. It was carrying a covvie carbine on its back. The purple weapon was almost as tall as the creature, but I knew that didn't stop them from being deadly. Pavel glanced at me and gave me a nod, that was all I needed.
My knife was already in my hand as the jackal passed below us. I dropped behind it with absolutely no noise. Despite that, a 185 pound man with the addition of full battle armor landing on a rocky surface is bound to make a noise. Even if that noise is nothing more than a very dull thump.
The jackal turned around while screeching, but the sound never exited its throat, as I had already launched my hand forward in an attack. The tip of the knife hit the underside of the jackal's jaw, it went deep into the flesh of the alien and went through its thin skull with relative ease. Death was instantaneous, more than this worthless piece of shit deserved.
I signaled for Pavel to hop down and we both resumed our infiltration after hiding the body and covering the little spilled blood with some dirt. The carbine was left without any ammunition and I twisted my knife inside its port to mess it up. Just in case.
Finally, after three more jackal patrols and some skull-bashing and knife wielding, we made it to the summit of the hill completely intact. Unfortunately, the summit of the hill was a decent vantage point, which meant that the covvies had obviously placed a well-sized force in there. From here I saw mostly jackals, although I spotted a few brutes in the encampment as well.
That meant trouble, we had to paint the large parking lot of enemy choppers, ghosts and wraiths. Normally, this would've been done with orbital bombardment, but we didn't quite have that luxury right now, fortunately, we had a couple of micro-satellites that could relay the laser signature to the computers on the missiles. We would need some time to paint the area completely, sort of like circling the place with my laser sight, and we couldn't exactly do it if there was a heavy enemy presence on our asses.
We couldn't exactly simply avoid them either, as soon as the missiles fell, the entire camp would wake up and we'd be found. Fortunately for us, the complement of this hill summit was of about twenty enemy troops. After some recon we found out that only two of them were brutes. Time for some serious infiltration shit.
Pavel and I both split up, he had slung his M247L over his back and pulled out his silenced M7 SMG. I had simply unbuttoned the safety strap of my thigh holster for easier access to my silenced pistol. I rounded the camp until I came across a lone jackal patrolling. Well, to call it patrolling would've been an insult to every patrolman in the history of ever, the jackal was sitting down on the floor, staring towards his own camp. A almost decapitated the alien as I slid my knife across its neck.
I moved on while circling the camp, I killed two more jackals before I finally spotted Pavel. He was about forty yards away from me.
"Three," he signaled.
"Three," I signaled back.
My squadmate pointed towards the lone guard tower that this small outpost sported. I aimed at it with my rifle and found out that there was only a single soldier on it. Unfortunately, it was a brute, with full battle-armor at that. We absolutely had to eliminate the threat before we went deeper into the camp. This third brute could easily be taken out from here, but not with any technique that would guarantee total stealth.
I decided to go for it.
"Mine," I signaled.
I aimed at the brute and zoomed in on the face of the brute. The entire scope was now showing only the alien's face. I zoomed in and made sure my reticule was aimed exactly at the iris of the creature. I followed its eyes as the creature made small, natural movements. Finally, after a few seconds of steadying myself, I took a deep breath and fired. The 9.5mm thick slug went right in between the folded material of the brute's helmet. That round flew through the air and ended its trajectory in the brute's left eye. Just to the right of the point where the sight had been centered. The round went easily through the brute's redish eye before it broke through all the nerves, skin, and tissue,. The bullet finally stopped after being forced back into the brute's skull after hitting the inside of the creature's helmet. It finally came to rest after bouncing a couple of times inside the skull.
Pavel simply gave me a double thumbs up before we resumed our task of eliminating every last covvie soldier in the outpost. My gunshot had made enough noise to get me nervous, but not enough to actually alert any alien. Pavel and I moved five meters apart, killing any alien that was in front of us or even within range. Finally, we both reached the barracks. Pavel nodded at me and we both went inside separate buildings.
I was surprised at the position the jackals slept in, it was surprisingly human. I pulled out my pistol and put it against the temple of a sleeping vulture. I fired the gun. The sound of its brains turning into mush was louder than the gunshot. After six more rounds, all the jackals were dead.
You could've used the knife you idiot! I thought as I facepalmed.
I sighed and moved outside. Pavel gave me the clear sign. We inspected the camp for another couple of minutes before we finally decided it was safe enough to target our… well, target.
I moved towards the end of the camp that faced the large numbers of covvie vehicles. I couldn't help but compare the sight to that of a car dealership. The vehicles were all closely packed together and most of them were parked. Sure, there were a few patrolling ghosts, but that was about it.
I activated my laser targeter and went to work.
A few minutes later the camp had been circled completely by my laser. A diagram in my HUD showed a rough aerial view of the line I had painted with my laser. Usually I would've needed to keep my laser pointed at the target, but the micro satellites on orbit had acquired the coordinates and saved them in their hard drives. Those would then direct the missiles launched to land at every single place inside of the area I had circled off.
Finally, after a few minutes of waiting, the time for the missile to launch came.
I actually saw them strike before I could hear the noise their powerful engines made. The 'parking lot' in front of me lit up with flames that turned night to day for a full minute. Only then did I hear the surprisingly loud whoosh that the missiles had made, traveling a few times faster than the speed of sound. Moments later I heard the explosions and felt the dampened shockwaves.
"Pretty," Pavel grunted.
Pavel and I were sitting on the guard tower of the covvie camp. We were using the corpse of the brute as a pillow and leaning back on it as we watched the gory spectacle. My lips twitched in a macabre smile as I saw the first explosions. When the bulk of the missiles had hit, that smile had changed to an almost psychopathic grin. The missiles fell for what seemed like hours, flashes of orange followed by gigantic fireballs dotted by plasma explosions.
It was probably the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my entire life.
"Well, of we go laddie," Pavel said in a faux British accent. I am pretty sure he did a terrible job at it.
We both jumped off the platform and rolled as we hit the ground. I thought about taking a souvenir of sorts, but decided against it. We started our walk back to our extraction zone, the fire of the burning covvie camp lighting the way.
"So, why was your first time with Delacroix so bad?" I asked halfway through.
"Well, you saw those leather boots," he half-asked.
"Yeah," I said, smiling a little at the memory.
"Well, it wasn't the whole outfit," he started.
"You know what, I'm not entirely sure I want to know anymore," I said.
"Fine by me," Pavel said as he shrugged.
By the time we reached out extraction point, we were both tired of jogging and the hornet pilot was yelling at us. We hopped on the passenger platforms and the small aircraft flew away, back towards our base and human lines.
I could see that our forces were already mobilizing for that final push. I just hoped that it would be more final for them than for us.