Hey guys, how are you doing? Good, if you're doing great you're more likely to leave positive reviews, aiding in Step 81 of my Conquering The World plan.

The sharp ones of you might notice that this chapter is a whole lot better than all the previous 74 ones in terms of spelling and grammar mistakes. This is in account to my decision of finally getting a beta reader to help me out with my less-than-desirable talent for double-checking my mistakes. From now on, all of my chapters will be headed by the phrase: "As always, thanks to Sniper Fodder for proof-reading this chapter."

I think it won't be a big issue for you guys, seeing as you have already stayed with me for 74 chapters. That's gotta be torture.

I sincerely hope you enjoy this chapter, ladies and gentlemen.

-casquis

Chapter LXXV: En el Hoyo

September 3, 2542 (UNSC Calendar)/

PB-04 Base, New Barbados, Emerald Cove, Caribe System

"Wake the fuck up!"

"What is wrong with you lady?" Lamberti called out as he flailed around wildly on his bed.

"Mother fuck!" Agnarsson was a little less subtle on his feelings.

"Albaf, why?" I asked, still half asleep.

"That's commander to you, Staff Sergeant, and you better get up and ready right fucking now."

"We're on it, we're on it," I said.

I groaned as I sat up on my bed and then groaned again as I pulled myself up.

"For the love of god Castillo, put something on," Commander Albaf ordered while directing her eyes elsewhere.

"Briefs are something," I muttered as I reached for my pants. As soon as they were on I had a nice drink of water and shook Snark awake. He looked a little scared as he woke up, but recognized the situation soon enough. "What time is it?" I asked the commander.

"Two hours after midnight," she said.

"Two in the morning?" Pavel muttered. "Why didn't you say that?"

"Because we're running on twenty hour days here Sergeant, you've been here two days, you should know that."

Pavel simply mumbled something and squeezed on his shirt after spraying some deodorant.

"Ma'am, you said to be here as soon as I was-" Grass was already armored up and had her MA5C already slung over her back and her pistol on her left thigh. I didn't know she was left-handed. "Do you need a minute?" she asked as she saw all of us half naked and getting dressed up.

"No, we're fine," I said. I didn't plan on anyone falling in love with Camilla, so it would be good if the men started her seeing her as one of the guys sooner rather than later. I included myself in that category because despite all her armor, I couldn't help but notice how great her face looked.

"Did you put makeup on?" Pavel asked.

Grass blushed and looked away while fixing her hair behind her back. "Um no, what makes you say that?" she asked. Her attempt at lying was so pathetic that I chuckled a little bit.

"The makeup on your face," Pavel said simply.

"Ok fine, I just wanted to look good all right?"

The entire tent-room went silent at the same time and all of us (Commander Samantha Albaf included) stared at her with looks of incredulity. Not because she was going to be doing some weird exercise, but because she wanted to look better while doing it. Either she wasn't aware of how good she looked when she woke up or she was a stuck-up bitch with a serious vanity problem. Knowing her as little as I did, I would've guessed that it was the first one. I would hope it was the first one.

"Why the change?" I asked our ONI overseer.

"Confidential," she said.

"Shit."

I wasn't the only one smart enough to figure out what that meant. Pavel grunted in annoyance as well and Konstantinov's eyes looked unfocused for a few seconds before he kicked his bed in anger. I felt like kicking the shit out of something right now. If it all went how it usually went, I would probably have to do that. If I was lucky I would be able to do it without breaking a sweat.

I finished putting on my armor and strapped on the Multi-Threat shoulder pauldrons to my upper arms. My boots were more scratched than I would've liked, but they were still working as well as the day when they were first given to me. Except for having had almost all of the black paint peeled away you couldn't find a flaw in them (other than the scratches, of course.) My helmet presented the occasional small scratches as well as some paint missing, it still had a scorch mark on one side where a plasma burst had fried my radio and almost done the same to my brain. The large chest piece still sported half an inch deep gashes that went diagonally across the central section. The brute that had the brilliant idea to do that didn't meet his god in a pleasant way; Pavel saw to that.

Sutton seemed even larger when he had placed all his armor pieces in their right places. His armor was completely standard except for an optics system that he had added to his helmet. Sutton lifted his assault rifle and placed the grenade launcher attachment under the barrel before loading it with a single 35mm HEAT round. The gun looked like a toy in the man's massive hands. He then proceeded to strap his pistol in an armpit holster. I raised my eyebrow at the unusual configuration but then could only nod in understanding as he strapped bands full of explosive grenades on each leg.

Agnarsson's armor was pretty much standard except for his left shoulder plate, which had been replaced by a longer and bigger two-piece pauldron that was painted all in bright yellow. The pauldron showed several small scorch marks and a few holes that probably came from needle rounds. His helmet had a line of the same yellow color running from front to back and a nice drawing of a pinup girl on the side. His chest piece was painted in the same yellow as his pauldron and his helmet. It had the words "spank spank bitches" written on the right section. I smiled at the cockiness and suddenly came up with a new call sign. His boots also had a bright yellow line covering going along the front part of his boots. The Scottsman pulled out a trunk from underneath his bed and produced an M41 SSR. He loaded the two-tubed monstrosity and placed it his bed as he did the same with his pistol and an M6J carbine on as well. The M6J was a powerful weapon in its own right. It basically looked like an M6C pistol with a stock and a longer barrel with rails. Agnarsson had added a longer magazine that looked like it had about twenty rounds in it. He placed his pistol on his left thigh and his carbine on the right one.

Snark had gone all-out when choosing his armor configuration. It was a sharpshooter's armor through and through. No right pauldron to allow better mobility and aiming. His left arm was almost completely covered by a large pauldron designed to protect against counter-sniping and his helmet had a fancy optics system that looked just like Pavel's. As with Agnarsson, he had also painted his armor differing only in that he had chosen a deep, woody green. The color was present in his helmet, his one pauldron and his chest piece. The only other addition to his armor was a red crosshairs right above his visor. I think I liked the detail.

Lamberti's armor. Oh, if it could tell a story, I don't know what kind of story it would tell. The armor was black. That would be completely normal if I couldn't tell that it was black with soot and not with paint. Being close to so many explosions had left his armor permanently black. I could see red streaks of paint under all the soot where he had once thought it would look cool. I couldn't blame him, my armor still had some red painting on it. I liked the color, it made it seem like there was less blood. The man placed several box magazines on his belly and thighs, pasting them to his body with Velcro strips. Those weren't very stealthy, but the odds of him running out of ammunition right before we went inside quietly were really small. He grabbed an M7S and placed it on his right thigh, opposite to his sidearm. He placed a few magazines for the submachine gun in cloth pockets in his thigh and moved his leg experimentally, checking if it would be too much weigh. The armor's strength enhancer wasn't strained and Lamberti smiled. He grabbed his M247 SAW and loaded it.

His gun was essentially a downsized version of Pavel's, which in itself was a downsized version of the M247GPMG that was deployed pretty much everywhere. The GPMG was also a downsized version of the M247H that was often mounted on tanks and Falcon gunships. The army was especially fond of that last version.

The Italian man proceeded to strap unsafe amounts of explosives to his body and finished by slinging a bandolier of grenades across his shoulder. He jumped lightly a couple of times to test the weight of his armor and looked satisfied when he deemed it appropriate.

Grigori Konstantinov, the mole. His armor was as standard as it could be. It was all black and had surprisingly little scratches on it. I don't know whether that was a testament to his skill or his inexperience. His dossier made it clear that it was his skill, but I still had my doubts about the man. Seemed likeable enough, would've been easier to accept him if I hadn't found out that he was here spying on the team and me.

Well, his armor was entirely black and had no additional gear. The man picked up an M90 CAWS shotgun and pumped it a couple of times to see if it had any rounds chambered in. When he was satisfied with his gun he started loading rounds into it with what seemed like inhuman speed, but with enough practice anyone can do it that fast. He placed the shotgun across his back and slung a couple of bags full of shells on his belt. He then picked up an MA5K rifle and did the same security check before proceeding to load a magazine into it. I hadn't seen the carbine variant of the MA5 in a long time, in fact, I hadn't seen it since New Constantinople. The special operations weapons had been in the hands of Carter and his SPARTAN-IIIs. It was most certainly a coincidence, but it annoyed me a little bit.

Grass had her armor on in standard configuration, with her MA5 rounds placed along her waist and additional rounds for her M6 sidearm on her right thigh. She carried a large machete behind her pistol in addition to the smaller combat knife that all soldiers were issued, that one she had placed on her lower back, in the same position that I kept mine. Her backup knife was in upside down on her right shoulder. She hadn't painted her armor with anything except for some lettering in Finnish that covered almost all of her lower left arm.

Pavel looked the same as he had always looked, at least to me. He had so many additional pieces of armor on that I wondered how he could move. I knew that most of his extra armor was lightweight and 'disposable', but it still looked like it was a lot. His left shoulder was covered by another massive pauldron that provided modest protection against pretty much anything you could think of. He hefted his machine gun and placed it across his back. He then grabbed the magnificent automatic shotgun that I had given him and collapsed it on itself. The ACS had been so heavily modified that it barely looked the same as when I had bought it. It had a collapsible stock and could be folded into a piece of metal no larger than my forearm. It still packed the same punch though, and could eat through a hunter's armor in less than one magazine.

I finished sheathing my knives and grabbed my BR55 before loading it with a box magazine. "So?" I asked Albaf.

"Come on," she motioned.

We followed her out of the tent and I wasn't particularly surprised to see marines running around half naked and waking up everyone. There were already some armored soldiers and pelicans were flying in even as warthogs were turned on and their turrets were loaded. Albaf lead us to a pelican and my team all hopped in. Albaf stayed behind though.

"A Covenant fleet has been detected in the system," she said. "It's pretty small and we can handle it, but you never know," she added.

"Ma'am, why are you staying groundside?" I asked.

"ONI stuff," she replied as the hatch of the pelican closed and the ship took off.

The trip to the Inconvenience was a quiet one, with no one saying anything. Most of us were still half asleep.

I pulled out my knife, the one made out of Damascus Steel, and started twirling it in my right hand. The movement not only calmed me down, but it also allowed me to focus on something, which woke me up a little bit. The dim lighting of the cargo bay, combined with the pattern of my knives blade made for a hypnotic pattern. That, combined with the rhythmic turns and skillful maneuvers soon had everyone in the ship looking at my knife. I don't want to flatter myself here, it was probably because they had nothing better to do.

"What's the story behind that blade Sarge?" Agnarsson asked in his Scottish accent.

I stopped spinning the knife abruptly. "A friend gave it to me," I said. "Back when I was still young, free, and innocent."

"Lovely blade," Grass remarked.

"Useful too," Pavel half-joked. "You wouldn't believe how many times that knife has saved Frank's ass."

"And yours as well," I noted.

"And mine as well," he conceded.

"I suck with knives," Lamberti said.

"Why is that?" Konstantinov asked the Italian man curiously.

"Too messy for my taste, and I've been known to snap covvie necks."

"And level half a city," Grass noted.

The squad chuckled at the joke, no doubt having heard the story from Pavel or having done their own research about it. We were still laughing when the ship left the atmosphere, and we suddenly all felt a little bit weird floating in zero gee. The ship boosted towards the Inconvenience and within a minute a crane was picking the ship up and the hangar bay was depressurizing.

"OK people!" I called out as the hatches opened. "Head out to the launch room, we'll wait for orders there."

"Yes, sir," half of them replied. The other half simply headed towards the launch room. I hopped off the pelican and glanced around the hangar as the walls collapsed upon themselves. Marina's pelican was close by, so I decided to see how it was going. When I arrived I found my girlfriend fixing something in the cockpit.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Calibrating the thrusters."

"Aren't they calibrated by default?" I asked.

"Yeah, but they last too long," she complained. "I like it more this way."

"So, what have you heard?"

"Probably the same as you," Marina replied, puling herself up from the floor. "Small fleet, not very likely to beat our own, full alert."

"Any numbers?" I asked.

"No, no solid information on their size," she said.

"They won't break through the line," I told her.

"They will, they always do."

"They do," I admitted.

"And then, you'll be dropped into a hotzone," she said with a little sadness in her voice.

"Where I'll kick some ass."

"Yeah right," Marina laughed as she punched my shoulder playfully.

"Then you'll come pick me up when I'm done and I'll be home for dinner," I added.

"Agreed," she said with a smile.

"After that you'll reward me with some crazy awesome sex."

"I think I missed that part," my girlfriend quipped.

"I'm just stating the facts woman."

"Good luck Frank," she said. Even as she said that she reached up to me and gave me the quintessential good-lick kiss.

"You too," I said, kissing her back.

After that, I left the ship and left the hangar bay. It seemed absurd that a few years ago this place had witnessed the deaths of hundreds of covvie boarders and marines alike. Then we had vented the place, losing a couple of unsecured vehicles in the process and killing pretty much every single covvie that was left. It hadn't really worked for us though, the covvies made it all the way through to the bridge and killed over 90% of the ship's complement. They had also shot Layla in the shoulder, leaving her badly burnt and legitimately angry with me. Last I knew she had been transferred to the Home Fleet.

The ship's hallways were almost empty. Most of the marine complement was still groundside, and the army blokes were moving in to help defend some city or other and calm the civilian portion of the planet. The Navy personnel were all right where they were supposed to be and ready to kick some ass. The PDG were already up and running and the MAC cannon was warm and loaded. I thanked ONI once more for the upgrade in the cannon. Two slugs do double the damage one does, especially if fired within milliseconds of each other. The magnetic accelerator cannon had saved my life more than a few times.

"Eliza!" I called out. "What's the sitrep?"

"It seems that the enemy fleet consists of one CCS-class battlecruiser and two corvettes." I noticed. "Stealth?" I asked.

"Well, obviously not, since we can see them," the AI said.

"Good point," I conceded. "We could take care of the two corvettes by ourselves."

"I could take care of the two corvettes," Marina corrected. "The cruiser, on the other hand…"

"I know, I know," I said. "Keep me updated."

"Sir yes sir!" Marina's voice said and she signed off.

I arrived at the drop bay and my squad was already congregated around the Holotable in the middle while Lamberti checked each and every pod for any type of damage or anything that could cause the launch to go wrong. I turned on the Holotable and a hologram of Caribe System popped up. It immediately zoomed in to the habitable zone and markings appeared naming major planets and moons as well as marking the locations of the UNSC defense fleet and the invading covvie fleet. They were uncomfortably close to each other.

"Zoom," I commanded the Holotable.

The UNSC fleet was composed of over fifteen frigates and destroyers as well as an outdated Halcyon-class cruiser. With the battle star station that orbited Emerald Cove up and ready, the covvies wouldn't have a chance, yet they still charged into battle. I watched in real time (or almost) as the battle unfolded. The two Covenant corvettes were destroyed in the initial salvo, while the cruiser's shields managed to withstand the barrage. It started boosting forward, no doubt trying to avoid all the missiles that the battle star was firing at it.

The cruiser managed to take out three frigates and damage two UNSC cruisers before its engines were damaged by the battle star's missiles. It then boosted away from the fight and towards the planet. Everything had happened in less than two minutes. Over five hundred people had died in less than two minutes. They were outnumbered seventeen to one and they managed to kill three of our ships.

"Listen up!" I said, snapping everyone back from their trances and directing the attention of my squad towards me. "We clipped the cruiser's wings, but no doubt they will be deploying a small invasion force, we will most certainly go first, understood?"

"Yes staff sergeant, sir!"

"Good, now we wait."

It was three hours before Eliza's avatar appeared on the holotable. Unlike most of the time, she was normal-sized now, further confusing me about her attractiveness. "Staff Sergeant, is your team ready?" Eliza asked politely.

"We are," I replied.

"Castillo!" Albaf said as a hologram of her chest, neck, and head appeared. "The cruiser landed in the New Barbados Marshlands, near Holetown, you heard of it?"

"Yeah, medium-sized city, largest in New Barbados."

"There are already several thousand enemy troops groundside and they've just started unloading combat structures," she informed us.

"Why didn't someone take out the damn ship?" Pavel asked.

"Damn thing kept sniping us," Albaf growled. "Castillo, you know the drill, you work as a spearhead for the marines, and they do the same for the army."

"Yes ma'am, any support?"

"The Halcyon is getting in position to nail the Covenant ship, you might want to keep your eyes open for the spectacle."

"Will do ma'am," Pavel said. "Anything we can use?"

"Nezarian's rangers will be jumping down on a different sector, attention will be diverted between the two teams and then the marines come in."

"That it?" Sutton asked.

"Unfortunately they are using jammers," Albaf added. "You will be out of contact with us as soon as you hit the ground."

"Ok, thank you ma'am," I said. "Reaper Actual out."

"Wait, that's it?" Grass asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked her.

"That's barely enough intel on anything," she complained.

"I'm going to have to go with Grass on this one," Sutton said.

"We usually jump with less," Pavel shrugged.

"Lamberti?" I called out. "Pod's are fine?"

"Like new Sarge," he replied.

"Well then, what are you waiting for?" I asked them.

My squad unholstered their main weapons and placed them in the designated space in their respective pods. They each did a quick check of the HEV's systems before hopping in. Everyone did something different as soon as they got in. Sutton crossed himself, Snark shook both of hisfeet two times, Agnarsson slammed his head back three times, Grass gripped the handles tightly and took deep breaths, Lamberti arched his back as if he was stretching, Konstantinov rolled his shoulders backwards, Pavel slapped his thighs, and I cracked my neck and my knuckles. Every Helljumper did something that distinguished them. I had been cracking my joints ever since my first jump back in Mars and wasn't about to stop right now. The door of my pod closed at the same time as all the rest, the two screens flickered on. One showed Albaf's face and the other one had a map of the area where we would land.

"Thirty seconds Staff Sergeant," the commander told me.

"Reaper squad!" I called out. "How do we go?"

"We go feet first, Staff Sergeant!" they all called back.

A countdown appeared on my HUD and the launch doors below the launch room opened up slowly as our pods were rotated to launch position. I rotated through my squad's cameras and was surprised to see that they all had their helmets polarized already, Pavel and I usually kept them clear until we landed. I finally reached Pavel's pod and he gave me a quick mock salute before gripping his handles tightly. I turned off the camera as I braced myself.

When the countdown reached four it disappeared, the lights above and in front of me replacing the numbers. Three was a red light, two was a yellow one, and green was one. Less than a second after the green light blinked I felt my pod lurch forward. Half of what I could see was black space and the bottom of the Inconvenience, the other half was the oceans of Emerald Cove. The temperature started going up as the pods entered atmosphere, I could feel myself start sweating both because of the heat and because of the nerves.

"Three thousand feet!" I called out "Deploy chutes!"

I could see two pods jerk upwards right before I pressed the button to deploy my own chute. The pod shook violently and it stabilized. I took a deep breath of relief. My last jump hadn't gone exactly well.

As we cleared the clouds I could see the enormous Covenant ship holding position about twenty kilometers from us. I ordered my squad to steer their pods towards the ship. At an altitude of about one thousand five hundred feet above ground a white bright light impacted the Covenant cruiser. The round went through and through, slamming into the ground below the ship. The sheer kinetic force of the MAC rounds made an explosion that probably killed more than a few covvies that had just disembarked. The ship itself shook violently before several explosions ripped it apart.

I was still looking at the spectacle when my thrusters were automatically activated. I closed my eyes and polarized my helmet as the pod closed in on the ground.

Let's hope it's crowded.