Chapter LXXXII: Axed

February 24, 2543 (UNSC Calendar)/

UNSC Inconvenience, in orbit above New Moskva, Ursa Tertio System

I'm glad that's over.

My god was that the most awkward ride of my entire life. Marina used protocol as an excuse for closing the door between the cargo bay and the cockpit and then she had Sheppard explain to us the reason for her choice. The new guys didn't seem to fazed by it, after all, they had only flown with the feisty Croat once before. Pavel on the other hand, he knew something was up.

As soon as I hopped down from the ship Pavel swarmed me. "What. The. Hell."

"Hmm?" I feigned ignorance.

"It was colder in the plane than back on the ground."

"You noticed?" I asked, trying to play it cool.

"She wasn't even in the same room and the tension was thick enough to cut with a spoon!"

"Nice phrase," I said sincerely. "Agnarsson's movies?"

"Yeah, can't remember the name though, one of the older ones. Early twenty-first century."

"Huh," I huffed.

"Back to the point…"

"Oh, yes," I said. "Tension. Spoons. Cold."

"You don't have to be a smartass."

For this in particular, I had to be.

"Frank," Pavel pushed.

"All right," I said, glancing over my shoulder. "Marina and I broke up."

"Ha." Pavel had a goofy smile on his face and an expression that made it plain that he thought I was kidding. "No really."

My silence was enough answer for him.

"Are you fuck-"

"Shhh!" I said, putting a finger to my lips. "Let's move. Away."

I walked with Pavel through the large hangar bay of the frigate. My rifle was pointing at the floor in one hand and my helmet was hanging on the other. That, coupled with my impressive scowl and the fact that I belonged to a branch that was renowned for its craziness probably made me look a little more intimidating than even I would have liked.

"Explain," Pavel demanded. He wasn't angry at me, he was probably just annoyed that I hadn't told him, my best friend, earlier.

"We just realized that we were having more and more spats," I started. "We weren't really… ummm… clicking, you know? How can I put it? We fell out of love." I said those last three words in a corny voice just for the hell of it.

My friend just nodded as if in deep thought. "Do I need to be an asshole to her?" he asked me.

"Nah," I replied. "She's good."

Pavel nodded at me once again.

"Oh," I said, suddenly remembering something important. "Which reminds me, I kind of called Chloe a lying cheating slut."

"You what?" he asked.

"I kind of called Chloe a-"

"Ok, what did I just tell you about being a smartass?"

"Sorry," I said.

"Ok, just don't ignore her from now on. I was an asshole to her because she deserved it and now we're even, you don't have to rub it in her face."

"That's surprisingly mature coming from you," I noted as I stepped inside an elevator. I gave an evil glare to two navy mechanics that planned on getting on board,stopping them in their tracks just as the doors closed.

"So," Pavel said halfway through the elevator ride. "Want to talk about it?"

"Not really," I said.

"Was it friendly?"

"As friendly as can be with her," I chuckled. "But it was friendly enough."

"Man, I really feel for you," he said while detaching the box magazine from his gun and making sure it was empty. "She must've pointed out all of your flaws before finally telling you it was over."

"Yes," I shrugged. At least the first part was true. "Let's just forget it. Still, it'll probably take a while before things can get back to normal. Or at the very least as close to normal as possible."

I know this is a spoiler, but it took over two years.

"Agreed," Pavel said. "Also by the way, happy birthday man."

"What?" I asked. "Oh. Right. It came and went already."

"Yeah, you are now officially…"

"What year are we on?" I asked. Sadly, it was an honest question.

"Forty-three," Pavel said after thinking about it.

"Already?" I asked, a little shocked. "Dayuuum."

"You are now officially…."

"Twenty-eight," I said. "Probably just twenty-three if my looks are anything to go by. FTL and cryo are depressing."

"Hell, what are you gonna do about it. At least the chicks stay young too."

"Chicks?" I asked, stunned.

"Oh yeah, girls."

"Since when do you use that term?" I asked him. It was an incredibly antiquated word.

"Damn Agnarsson. He keeps giving me dozens of his fancy videodisks. It looks like I'm watching a low-res pirated film, but they sure as hell are good."

"I know," I said. "Did you watch the one with the giant robots?"

"Oh, the one that also has this insanely hot girl?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah. The robots fight each other and shit. Explosions everywhere."

"I watched it," he nodded. "A work of art."

Although I wouldn't really call that movie in particular a work of art I just agreed with Pavel for the sake of avoiding going back to the previous topic. Elevators are awkward enough as it is.

"If I could only remember the name…" Pavel muttered to himself while on his way to Albaf's office. Her office had become our briefing room in the past months. It was still small and felt too stylish to be military, but it would do the job while they installed more advanced equipment in the drop bay.

"Here we go," I sighed as I opened the door.

"Oh, Staff Sergeant, Sergeant. I'm glad you're here," Wilkins said.

"Wait, where's the-" Pavel caught himself. "Where's Albaf."

"Commander Albaf was required at the Disproportionate Retribution for official ONI business."

"I can't get over the awesome name of the ship," Schitzo said, this time he was sitting in Albaf's chair. He even rolled the chair so that he could face me as he talked. I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

"What kind of business?" Pavel asked promptly.

"I do believe I mentioned official ONI business," Wilkins said while reaching for Albaf's chair. At that point Schitzo got up and gestured for the officer to sit down.

"The point is," the lieutenant continued, "that you did a good job. Although there are several other enemy jamming or communication towers the one that you knocked down was enough to allow for a coordinated attack by our forces. We now hold tactical points in the city of Highbay."

"Civilians?" I asked.

"Most of them are dead," Wilkins said with resignation. "However some of them managed to escape and the ones still inside the city have been instructed to stay where they are or, if possible, make their way towards human-held ground."

"What about the rest of the planet?"

"A few of the largest cities were glassed, at least one of them was partially evacuated before it happened and another one had over 30% of its population moved to secure bunkers. The smaller towns and cities have so far been left alone. Local militias are working with the army to evacuate them all and create temporary refugee camps."

"All right," I said. "Sounds good."

"It does," the normally cold officer said. "Enough about logistics, the battle is only just starting and your team needs to be ready for action in three hours," he said. "I'll meet you in the HEV drop bay then."

"Sir!" I saluted. "One more question, what are the Rangers doing?"

"They are taking down a couple of lightly guarded fuel depots."

A lightly guarded fuel depot is akin to a stupid AI. There is no such thing.

I nodded at him and saluted professionally once again.

"I don't need to remind you that that's confidential," Wilkins said while glancing down at a datapad and finally sitting down. At that last action Schitzo let out a chuckle.

"Do you think Albaf would be pissed if she found out that-"

I left the room and punched the closed button for the door. It was as close as I could get to slamming it without having to go to an old-fashioned neighborhood.

"Eliza," I commanded as I walked towards my room. "You know the drill."

"Ooh, I love it when you say that," a voice replied with a sexy tone.

"And it creeps me out when you do that," Pavel said while shuddering. The armor he was wearing made for a very theatrical expression.

"Dibs on the shower," I said. "I need a nap."

"Wake up!"

"No!" I yelled back.

"What?"

"Piss off."

"I said," Pavel enunciated, "Wake. Up."

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Not sure, running on longer days here, but we're thirty minutes away from dropping."

"We're jumping again?" I asked. "I'm not sure I feel ready for that."

"Oh Frank," he said and then promptly pulled the pillow from under my head.

"Fine, fine, I'm going."

I got up from the bed and instantly felt cold as I pushed the sheets away from me. I had decided against putting anything on other than my underwear. Granted, it was comfortable, but it made for uncomfortable wake-ups. I groaned loudly as I stood up and reached for my closet. Inside were plenty of gray and black camouflage pants same as long-sleeved and short-sleeved shirts of the same type. I put on my sweaty undersuit before getting fully dressed. Once I was done with that I put on my boots and placed the rest of my armor in a small cart that I had stolen from a storehouse. It was my first time using the cart and already I was loving it.

"Pavel," I said.

He was nowhere to be found, no doubt headed towards the drop bay to assure everyone that their fearless leader was most certainly fully awake and busy with important matters.

I couldn't help but wonder if I had done the right thing when breaking up with Marina. Sure, I'm pretty sure that I didn't love love her anymore, but I still cared for her and wanted her to be happy. Perhaps I could've stretched it out a little bit longer…

Well, there was nothing I could do about it now, what's done is done and I wouldn't find out if it was the right choice until I waited it out. I might've broken up with her eventually or I might've not, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

"Trust me, it was a good idea," Schitzo said, helping me push the cart.

"Yeah right," I replied as I got inside yet another elevator. "I don't know, which means you don't know either."

"I know," he insisted. "Since I know, it means that you know."

"That doesn't make any sense," I complained.

"Neither does you talking to a wall."

I realized that I was actually talking to a freaking wall and promptly shut up before glancing back at Schitzo with daggers in my eyes. Of course, he was already gone by the time I looked back in his direction and that only served to make me even more irritable.

I entered the drop bay under the inquisitive glances of my team. They were all fully armored and their weapons looked as ready as can be.

"You're late," Grass pointed out.

"No I'm not," I replied.

"Yes, you are," she insisted.

"No. I'm not."

I suppressed a smile when she actually shot a glance at her watch.

"You are late, there's no sense in denying it!"

"I'm not late, so stop lying just to fit in."

"What?"

"Just shut up," Snark told the beautiful blonde. "Please."

There were some chuckles until Eliza popped up from a holotank and interrupted our fun.

"Now that we are all here," she said. There was definitely some contempt in her voice, even if it was fake contempt. "We can proceed."

"Go ahead," I said as I started putting on my armor for the second time in the day. "What's the suicide mission now?"

"Computer virus," Eliza informed.

I couldn't help but stifle a groan. Pavel didn't have the same amount of self-control and actually groaned loudly. The rest of the team just shook their heads in annoyance while Konstantinov actually had an evil smile on his face.

"You'll do a silent drop behind enemy lines and infiltrate an enemy CIC-"

"What?"

I wasn't the only one who said it.

"You'll do a silent drop behind enemy lines and-"

"Ok, leaving aside the irony of calling a drop silent. Why the hell would you think we could make into an enemy command center?"

"You are the best," Eliza replied simply.

"We are the best," I agreed, "but-"

"But we can't break through hundreds of enemy troops and then do whatever you want us to do," Sutton exclaimed, leaving behind his usually calm demeanor.

"If you'll just-" the Ai started.

The whole room exploded, everyone started talking at the same time and complaining to Eliza that infiltrating an enemy CIC was impossible at best and death at not so best. The worst it could go was capture and imprisonment. I am not really proud to say that I joined in with the rest of the team and started yelling at a robot for sending us to our deaths when just hours ago I had pulled my team back from theirs.

"If you'll just let the lady talk!" Konstantinov boomed.

"Oh shut-" Agnarsson started before he got a slap to the back of the head for his trouble, courtesy of Camilla.

"Go on," I said grudgingly to Eliza's avatar.

"You will do a silent jump," she said with ice in her voice, uncharacteristically for the AI, "and then you will infiltrate an enemy CIC located here." As she said that a hologram of a region down in New Moskva popped up. "Once you drop here you'll get to this point and take out any and all soldiers patrolling the area. Once you are done Lieutenant Corporal Lamberti will insert a virus into the enemy network, either allowing us to gain control of several of their assets or forcing them to shut down the network and restart it, leaving all the troops in the area without any type of coordination for several minutes."

"You need to explain yourself better," I said. "You made it look like we would actually be going inside a CIC. Jeez."

I analyzed the hologram carefully. Our pods would be dropped a few kilometers away from our target just as the sun set, allowing for darkness and relative stealth (as stealthy as you can be on a meteor). Once we had landed we would haul ass to our target, which happened to look like a small Covenant tower that acted as a generator for the main CIC. There was a partially buried cable that led from there to the main CIC building. If we couldn't access the generator tower's mainframe then we would gain physical access through the cable.

If you look at it from this perspective it sounded rather easy.

"Fine, fine," I admitted.

"It does sound a lot easier," the Italian chimed in. "Hacking into a Covenant network is easier than hacking into-" He wisely stopped himself there.

"When do we leave?" Sutton asked.

"Nine minutes."

There was a universal nod of reluctant acceptance and Eliza's avatar disappeared.

By the time Eliza had disappeared I had most of my armor put on. I tightened the straps and grabbed some of the pre-loaded magazines and stashed them into my webbing. Surprisingly enough there were still some leftover magazines from the previous mission. Usually the problem is running out of ammo.

Once I was a couple of pounds heavier with ammunition I went towards the new pod in my launching tube and checked it very thoroughly. I asked Eliza to do a systems check and to confirm that everything was absolutely fine. Then I allowed Lamberti to check it along with the rest of the pods. No way in hell I would have my pod malfunction again. I had survived two out of two pod malfunctions and didn't plan on pushing my luck a third time.

"Winter gear?" Pavel asked me.

"Nah, we'll be there for less than six hours, our suits can handle the cold well enough. Everyone, bring full-handed gloves, not fingerless ones."

"Yes Staff Sergeant!"

"Sarge," Agnarsson asked. "The doctor said that I should probably take it easy, you know, because of my injury."

I spared him a glance and then my eyes moved towards his shoulder.

"Pavel," I said.

My large friend moved towards the broad-shouldered Scottsman and squeezed his injured shoulder until he cried out, then he punched him in the gut.

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me!" I yelled. "You are a Helljumper and are seriously trying to get out of a mission? What the hell kind of half-assed, inbred parents did you have?"

Pavel helped the man back up and dusted him off before slapping him softly in the check. That was followed by an "attaboy" and a mean smile.

"If I ever hear you trying to get out of a mission or even imply that you'd rather not do the mission I will have you sent back to your original unit. You understand?" He nodded, still trying to catch his breath. "Same goes for everyone else."

I nodded thanks to Pavel as everyone else shuffled their feet nervously. I grabbed Agnarsson's yellow striped helmet and passed it to him just as he started breathing normally again. He nodded at me in reluctance and with some anger in his eyes, but he understood me well enough.

"Inside your pods Helljumpers. How do we go?"

"We go feet first, Staff Sergeant!"

"Damn right."

I put on my helmet and glanced at the countdown in my HUD. We were less than thirty seconds away from launch. I cracked both my knuckles and actually muttered a prayer to whichever god would listen to me. The countdown had reached ten by the time I was finished. I kept my eyes focused on the clock and for the first time since my first actual drop I felt really nervous. Not just nervous. Really nervous.

Red. Yellow. Green.

The pod lurched downwards. Well, more like planetwards and there was a brief instant of weightlessness as it started falling back to New Moskva. Then it was the same process that I was used to all over again. It got shaky as fuck, then it got hot as hell, then I was overlooking a planet devastated by war. The pod shook once more, this time the product of the drag chute. We were going to fall down in nice fluffy snow.

The landing wasn't particularly soft, but it certainly was a whole lot better than my previous one. At least this time there was a landing.

A gust of cold wind made me shiver as soon as I opened the door. The outdoor thermometer marked a temperature of negative twenty-five degrees. Fahrenheit. Snowflakes started hitting my helmet's visor and promptly melting into water, impeding my vision. The special glass made the water slide downwards, but there was so much snow that it really didn't make a difference. My suit started heating up to a more decent temperature even before I stepped out of my pod.

My feet crashed down on a puddle of boiling water. There was already some steam coming up from the crater that my pod had made on the snow.

I could barely see through the snowstorm and only spotted all of the other seven pods with help from my VISR. Everyone gave me the ok sign and collapsed on my position after doing a quick perimeter check. Seven black shapes ran awkwardly through the snow and kneeled by my side.

"Ok, we landed just on target," I said, sending a map of the area to everyone's HUD. "We'll split into two fireteams. Pavel will lead Caboose, Scarecrow, and Snark. Grass, Angel, and Bumblebee are with me. Fireteam A will approach from southwest and Fireteam B will stop in this hill northwest of the target. From there you'll leave Snark behind to act as overwatch and attack the complex at the same time as we do? Clear?"

"Clear."

"All right," I nodded. "Let's get moving."

Grass took point in my team as we started moving east towards our target. There was so much snow falling around that without help of my IFF and VISR I wouldn't have been able to spot her, even if she was just thirty feet ahead of me. Unfortunately, I couldn't get an eyeful of the reason why she got her call sign.

"One thing," I broadcast. "Supposedly there aren't any cracks or crevices in this area, but it pays off to be cautious."

I only received acknowledgement lights. Everyone was too annoyed to answer. The snowstorm only seemed to be getting worse and weather radars showed no sign of relenting on the part of New Moskva's climate. I had to wonder why the planet had been named after Moscow instead of another city instead. A colder city.

We were now only two hundred meters away from the Covenant generator. Well within small arms range. Unusually enough, we were out of sight even though there was absolutely no natural cover for us. Well snow might count as natural cover, but I think you can grasp my meaning.

I stopped cold (ha ha, cold) when Grass winked the signal for that. "Target is fifity meters away," she said quietly.

I nodded to myself. "Pavel, we're in position. Are you ready?"

"Just about," he said. I waited for perhaps thirty seconds before he talked again. "We're good, Snark is in overwatch and has his thermal scope set up. Man, I wish I had one of those."

I knew exactly what he meant, but not even being an ODST gave you the right to get a free one from the armory unless it was only for one special mission. Buying them on the market was extremely expensive and I was still saving up for one. I heard there were some scopes that could spot a grunt hiding in a forest fire.

"Great, Eliza, you there?" I asked, switching channels.

"I'm here," she said calmly.

"Any additional intel?"

"The weather makes it difficult for us to send a drone, but satellite imaging shows perhaps thirty hostiles inside. Most of them are brutes and jackals it seems." As she said this she sent several schematics to my helmet. There was an actual picture that only showed a vague shadow covered by white and then there was another image that showed the locations of all enemy hostiles. I sent the images to my team.

"Thanks," I told the AI.

"I will cut communications after this, your proximity to enemy spires and equipment means that our broadcasts could be intercepted."

I nodded to myself once again, feeling stupid even as I did it. I glanced in the direction of the tower. There was nothing that I could make out except for an occasional silhouette every time the wind blew strongly, pushing some of the falling snow out of the way.

"Snark, we move on your mark."

"Aye, aye."

"Everyone ready?" I asked. My helmet's HUD practically went green from so many acknowledgement lights at the same time. "Good. Activate the smart battle aid, it's supposed to be great."

I didn't get any acknowledgement lights but I could only assume that everyone would follow my instruction. The new smart battle aid, or whatever it was called was a system that allowed my helmet to transmit information to the HUDs of other members of my squad or unit. For example, if I spotted two grunts my squad would see their silhouettes outlined in red right where they were, even if they couldn't see them. That by itself wasn't a new invention, but this new program supposedly went further. It also drew lines representing walls that your helmet cam automatically picked up and sentto nearby soldiers. If you had a couple of soldiers using this battle aid inside a structure they would quickly have a complete blueprint of the place in their motion sensor, further aiding in combat situations. It also had some other improved features, but nothing really worth mentioning at this point in the story.

There was a loud bang.

Well, presumably there was a loud bang because through the fucking snowstorm raging I didn't hear a thing. Snark fired a couple of times, knocking down three brute guards in total before we started moving towards the compound. The snow impeded our vision, but then again, it did the same thing for the covvies.

Three red outlines representing the dead brutes were slowly fading. Snark had yet to see any other enemy soldiers or he would've taken them out just as quick. I finally reached the outer wall of the complex and hopped over it. Grass, Angel, and Bumblebee hopped right behind me and started spreading out. We were in the enemy lines and we couldn't see a damn thing.

"Keep moving," I said quietly.

I shuffled my feet through the snow as I scanned the area in front of me. My fireteam was doing the same team as we formed a square of sorts and moved at the same pace.

"Contact!" Bumblebee shouted. Immediately after that three shots from his carbine rang out. "Tango down."

No one even says that anymore.

"Move along."

After a very stressing walk towards the main part of the tower I stopped. My hand was resting on the cold purple metal of the generator tower and we hadn't found a single enemy other than one unlucky jackal. Either the covvies were really cold or they didn't care about security. Either way, the perimeter was clear, that only meant all the more targets inside.

"Pavel?"

"Empty, no contact. Think they know we're here?"

"Probably," I said. "We go through the walls," I added. "Just in case."

I could almost see my Polish friend shrugging.

"Aight," Pavel replied. "On your mark."

I gestured at Angel and he slung his weapon before approaching the wall of the tower. Since it was at an angle we would literally be hopping up and then down the blasted hole. The Italian explosives and computer expert placed what seemed like triple the amount of necessary explosives for blasting through a wall. A necessary precaution since this was a Covenant structure, those were notorious for their sturdiness.

"Green?"

I waited a couple of seconds before I heard Caboose grunting. "Green."

"On my mark," I said, gesturing for the three members of my fireteam to for up in standard breaching formation. "Three, two, one, mark."

There was an uncomfortably loud explosion and the entire section of the wall collapsed downwards just like it was supposed to, even if it did so a little more violently than usual.

"Breaching, breaching, breaching!" Grass cried as she hopped over the hole.

She was the first in with Angel closely following her. I hopped after the ex convict and Bumblebee was the last one to do so, right behind me. Time slowed down as I took in the scene in front of me. Grass was aiming right in front of her while Angel was spinning to the right. Even as I processed this I spun to the left to check my designated field of fire.

There were at least a dozen stunned covvie soldiers behind barricades and with their weapons pointed at the door. Wrong direction.

I fired my first shot at the first brute I saw. Its head jerked back with the impact of my bullet, but the helmet held. Another three rounds to the same area helped fix that problem. My next shot hit another of the apes in the shoulder, in the gaps in its armor. I fired my gun as fast as the single-fire mechanism would allow it to and brought it down with several shots to the neck. I promptly changed to three-round burst even as the monstrous alien fell to the floor. Once it made contact with the metallic floor time sped up back to normal once more.

Two jackals covering their ears met their end with well-placed bursts and one valiant grunt making a run for his dropped needler was suddenly missing half its hand. I finished it with a headshot.

As soon as my sector was clear I pivoted to face the front. Five grunts, a jackal, and a brute lay dead, their chests riddled with holes from Grass's assault rifle. I used my momentum to turn towards the right and saw the same spectacle. Angel had done an excellent job, killing four brutes and twice as many jackals. It wasn't nearly as pretty as Grass's or my job, but it accomplished the same.

"Left clear!"

"Front clear!"

"Right Clear!"

"All clear," Bumblebee finished.

I could hear one last shot ringing out from across the tower even though I couldn't see the other fireteam. I heard them calling it clear just instants after we did.

"Grass, Angel, take right." I ordered. "Bumblebee, you're with me."

The three ODSTs nodded and moved on. Bumblebee was behind me because his weapon was even less suited to close quarters combat than mine. Well, technically speaking it was better suited, but it couldn't hand out the same amount of firepower.

I shot a grunt in the back as it tried to run away from a badly chosen hiding place and Bumblebee shone with three jackal kills in three shots. All were perfectly placed headshots that made a light clang as they went through the metallic beak armor.

"Brute, behind the column," I warned.

Immediately after I said that the hairiest specimen that I had ever seen pivoted from behind the column and brought to bear a brute shot.

Sometimes 'Oh shit' just doesn't cut it.

I jumped to one side even as I brought my gun to bear. I managed to squeeze off a burst while in the air… and missed wildly. It's actually more difficult to pull off a movie jumping gunshot than it seems.

My partner slid into cover behind a column even as a grenade flew through the place that we had been standing in instants ago. He popped out and had time to squeeze a round before three more rounds hit the column he was taking cover behind, badly damaging it but otherwise leaving the ODST just fine.

The brute ran out of grenades and spun his weapon around, bringing the deadly bayonet to bear.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit."

For those occasions when the phrase just doesn't cut it: it will usually serve as a nice substitute while you come up with something appropriate.

I hadn't even had time to push myself up when the brute took a gigantic leap towards me, his weapon raised above his head for a killing strike. I spun sideways and the axe-like bayonet sunk deep in the floor where my head had just been. Bumblebee aimed at the brute and squeezed his trigger, only to hear the most horrible sound that he could've imagined.

The sound of his gun jamming.

"Aw shit."

Oooh, a cliffhanger. Is it the first time I've done this? I honestly don't remember, I have done 82 chapters after all. Putting that aside, I hope you enjoyed this chapter peoples, and rest assured, it is not the last one. Not even close.

To whoever asked: I'm planning on sticking with this story until the end of the war, the only problem is that I still don't know how I'm going to go about it. Some ideas here and there, but nothing concrete.

As always, thanks to Sniper Fodder for proof-reading this chapter.

-casquis