What is this? Another chapter up so soon? That's right, I really love you guys. Enjoy.

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

Chapter LXXXIV: Real Estate is Harder Than it Looks

March 1, 2543 (UNSC Calendar)/

Highbay, New Moskva, Ursa Tertio System

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing!" I replied, perhaps a little bit too quickly, because Pavel wasn't fooled at all.

"Uh-huh, and this nothing involves…"

I stared at him. "It involves nothing."

"Hey Sarge!" Scarecrow's voice came from outside the room. "It looks like the block is clear, we'll be-" As soon as he walked inside the room he stopped cold. "Are you stealing?"

"I am not," I complained. "I just wanted to borrow this movie pad. I haven't been keeping up with new films, you know."

"You're stealing," Scarecrow stated, his voice growing cold.

"Fine! Fine!" I conceded. "The owner of this house is probab-"

"Frank," Pavel interrupted quietly.

It was only then that I remembered the owners of this house as a family of five. They had two daughters that were probably around thirteen and ten and a little toddler boy around the age of three. The father had graduated with a degree in child psychology from a local university and the mother seemed to like kilts very much. They were probably second generation immigrants from one of the Slavic countries judging from their names and the styling of the house. The two daughters shared a room, it was actually painted pink, while the little brother had one room all to his own. There were still stuffed animals and toys lying around, clothes and other valuables were littered all over the floor, evidence of the hasty evacuation of the city. All in all the Ozolinsh family was everything that I would've wanted had I chosen to take the family road.

And I was stealing from them.

"Wow, we are an asshole," Schitzo said. "But on the other hand, you could keep the moviepad for free. There's gotta be a couple hundred movies in there…"

"Staff Sergeant, put that back where you found it," Scarecrow said even as Pavel moved to his side.

"Fine," I sighed. I placed the moviepad right back where I found it and picked up my helmet from the bed. I put it back on and looked at Pavel and Scarecrow, daring them to say something.

Pavel just shrugged and would soon forget all about it. Scarecrow looked like he had lost all the respect that he once had for me. It felt weird, but for some reason that possibility worried me a whole lot more than the plasma artillery falling a couple hundred yards from our position.

"You were saying?" I asked Scarecrow as soon as Pavel left the room.

"This block has been declared clear and safe," he replied icily. "We'll be charging into the next few blocks in ten to fifteen minutes. The general will broadcast the orders."

"He just expects us to win back the city with full on charges?" I mused. "Must've read a little bit too much war literature, we should be doing small raids before large attacks. Not pausing in between large attacks." By the time I was done I realized that I had been talking to myself for the last sentence. Well, Schitzo had jumped down on the bed and had been listening intently, but he doesn't really count.

"You're right," he said. "Small raids followed by-"

Shut up! I mentally yelled at him as I slammed the door close, making sure the hallucination disappeared. I climbed down the stairs while avoiding looking at the hanging portraits and family pictures. The living room was occupied by six out of the seven other members of my squad while Grass did lookout in the attic. The rest of the squad made sure that the curtains were closed and were sitting around a table.

"Hey Sarge! Care to join?" Angel asked as he patted the cushion besides him.

"Blackjack or Texas?" I asked.

"Go fish…" Pavel admitted almost shyly.

"I think I'll pass," I said. "Perhaps some other time."

"You sure Staff Sergeant?" Caboose asked, switching his MA5K from one side of his chair to the other. "We're having fun."

"I'm sure," I insisted. "I assume you heard Scarecrow?"

Everyone nodded.

"Be sure to wrap this up quickly," I said. "As soon as you're done make an ammunition count and get ready for going-. What am I saying, you know the drill."

"Hooah!" they cheered. Well they didn't include Scarecrow, who was obviously looking away from me on purpose.

I sighed inwardly and went towards the kitchen. There was a granite table in the middle of the room. On top if were a couple of small boxes of ammunition and empty magazines, also lying there was one page of the local English-language newspaper. I kicked a jackal corpse out of the way and grabbed the newspaper. The page in particular had the daily crossword puzzle on it. I had picked it up two days ago and was still trying to finish it.

Man, was I tired.

As soon as this offensive was over I was hoping to get some rest and a little bit of love from my girl. Except I had no girl and she certainly wouldn't be giving me any more 'love' for the rest of my days.

I sighed once again as I grabbed a pencil from my butt-pack. I looked at the crossword puzzle and then decided that it would be easier if I sat down. I did so on one of the stools and looked at 18 down.

"Title for the Samoan head of state." I sighed for the third time in thirty seconds. "How the fuck am I supposed to know that?"

"I guess you could cheat," Grass said from over my shoulder.

"If you try sneaking on me like that maybe you should take lighter steps," I suggested. "And no, I'm not going to cheat. What's the point?"

"You heard me? Why don't you cheat just for this one? Or you could ask me the answer."

"You made some noise on the last couple of steps," I informed the female Helljumper. "What's the title for the Samoan head of state?" I asked her.

"A le Ao o le Malo," she said. "Lots of vowels."

"A le Ao le Malo?" I asked as I checked if the letters would fit in the boxes.

"No, A le Ao o le Malo," Grass said. "You write it like-"

I wrote it down before she could go on. "Thanks," I said while turning around. My face came within inches of Grass's. I stayed there for a moment before pulling back slightly. She did the same and blushed a little bit before excusing herself rather awkwardly. Her rear wiggled with every step she took and managed to look majestic despite all the armor she was sporting.

"I wouldn't mind getting some love from that," Schitzo said, he was pulling a milk carton from an open fridge. The fridge was filled with rotten food and stale beer, but Schitzo managed to make me believe that he was drinking ambrosia.

She's out of bounds, I reminded myself. Besides, you'd have a hard time getting that even if she wasn't out of bounds.

The entire house shook and dust rained from the ceiling as a shell landed particularly close. The lights flickered briefly and then came back before going out completely.

"A-ha!" I said triumphantly, "I know this one. I-na-ni-lo-quent." I said the word slowly, enunciating each word as I wrote it down on the torn newspaper page. I nodded to myself with satisfaction and folded the crossword puzzle neatly before stuffing it in one of my magazine holsters. I then shoved a full magazine on top of it to keep the crossword puzzle that I had been working so hard on securing for the next couple of minutes. If they were anything like the last couple of days, they would be very noisy.

"Sarge?" Caboose called out. Sometimes I wondered how he could treat me so normally even when he sent weekly reports back to ONI. Eliza hadn't been able to crack them and I hadn't been able to confront him about them. "We green?"

"We green," I said, imitating both his intentionally bad grammar and his accent. I have to admit, his Russian accent made him sound intimidating. According to him it was also popular with the ladies. I guess I have to take his word for it.

I picked up my helmet and checked the universal timer that every single soldier in this entire city had on their HUD. I had fifteen seconds until the vehicles started charging and another ten after that before I had to leave the relative safety of this house.

I picked up my rifle and released the magazine, catching it on the way down. I pulled back the bolt of the rifle, ejecting the chambered round, which I caught too and placed on the table. I pulled it back to make sure nothing was awry with the mechanism and then slid the magazine back in. I released the bolt, chambering a round and unloaded the magazine once more. I filled the 36-round magazine and slapped it inside the receiver, giving me an extra bullet to fire.

I looked once again at the timer and took a deep breath when I saw that it was only five minutes before the cavalry charged forward, opening the way for us. I walked through the open side door and instantly crouched, the shoulder-height fence covering my movements from the eyes of any prying jackal or brute sniper. I was mostly worried with jackals though. This side of the house was facing a two-lane street. The only members of my squad that would be charging with me were Grass and Scarecrow. Pavel would take Bumblebee and Caboose from the front while Snark and Angel would stay in the attic and roof of the house respectively, providing covering fire and sniper support.

I looked across the street to see an Army lieutenant crouching behind a concrete barricade. He was the platoon leader of the unit that had been on our left flank ever since yesterday morning. So far he had outlasted three of his predecessors. I nodded at him as I found a nice position to sprint like a demented man from and waited. The countdown had reached zero at least six seconds ago, but I didn't have to worry, because soon enough I could hear the loud rumbling of an armored fighting vehicle through the Covenant artillery.

An Armadillo rolled through and started firing its main cannon and coaxial machine gun at the same time. It was not the only one to do that, I could hear the familiar booms that the cannons of Scorpion tanks as they rolled forward in parallel streets and alleyways. Soon after that I heard the glorious whistling that Rhino's Zeus 320mm plasma cannon's shells made when they flew through the air.

Yes, that is correct, the cannon is named after the Greek god of thunder, fired actual plasma and was 320mm caliber. Just measure it, it's a whole lot larger than the requirements to be an adult film star.

There was a huge explosion as the high-explosive round detonated thirty or forty yards from our position. That explosion was followed by another one, and another one, and another one. After the third Rhino salvo there were no more gigantic explosions of doom and a green light started flashing in my HUD. I rolled my eyes at the go signal and psychologically braced myself for the three or four minutes that would follow me stepping out from cover.

"Go, go, go," I said deadpan.

As the squad leader I stepped from cover first, bringing my rifle to bear on the house that was directly in front of ours. Correction, bringing my rifle to bear on the house that had been in front of hours. A combination of 30mm explosive rounds fired full-auto and the shockwaves from the Zeus cannons had reduced the three-story building to rubble with only one wall standing intact.

I made a point to use the Armadillo's profile to cover myself from fire that could be coming from my forward left and aimed in front. The amount of smoke, dust, and snow that the explosions had lifted into the sky didn't allow me to see anything clearly, but covvies were like spiders, you thought you were safe from them and suddenly the biggest fucking arachnid that you've ever seen appears in your shower. Inside a ship. In outer space.

That's how annoying they are.

I crossed the street just as multi-colored plasma started raining on me from all sides. I moved side to side on instinct to avoid the orbs that represented certain death. I knew that this wouldn't decrease my survival odds significantly, but it was something I did naturally and hadn't failed me so far. I hopped over the white picket fence in the next house and hit the ground running. The walls of the first floor had been left mostly intact by the Armadillo, for both purposes of cover and because their cannon couldn't aim that low in this proximity. Once inside the roofless house I could see the buildings in front of it. That one was only missing a section of the wall and was built with polycrete and not simple concrete or fragile wood, thus could bear the Armadillo's assault better.

I ducked quickly behind a kitchen wall and Grass slid next to me, getting behind a table in the middle of the destroyed kitchen. Scarecrow was forced to stop slightly earlier as eight spiker rounds lodged themselves in the wall that he had just taken cover behind.

Suddenly water started spraying my faceplate. I looked around in annoyance at having to get rained upon instead of fired upon but then smiled when I realized that the water spraying my helmet came from a broken pipe in the kitchen's sink. Say what you want to say about the UEG Colonial Administration, they build to last.

After wiping some water from my helmet and repositioning myself so that the water wouldn't fall directly in my faceplate I prepared myself for the real thing. "Scarecrow."

"Got it," he rumbled.

The large man pivoted from cover and fired one grenade from his under barrel grenade launcher. The explosive collided with something important, because there was a brief second of no fire directed at us. I took full advantage of the situation and stood up from behind the chest-high wall. I fired at a jakal sharpshooter that was taking potshots at a group of soldiers and then at a brute that had been stretching its arm over its head. The second alien I fired at was unlucky enough to receive an armor-piercing round through its neck and then-

Wait, stretching its arm?

My ponderings were interrupted by a tchack-like noise to my right. I glanced down at the noise and saw a miniature mace that hadn't been there a second ago embedded in the wooden floors. I tilted my head sideways even as I Grass stared at me in confusion. The I realized what was happening. I dove for the spike grenade and threw it as hard as possible while trying to make it land in the covvie's building. The explosive detonated about halfway through, sending wiked spikes in every direction but harming no one, human or alien.

Man, I shouldn't have had that beer… I thought to myself.

"Damn right sarge," Scarecrow said, the friendliness in his voice returning. "It was stale."

"Not exactly what I meant Scarecrow," I said, smiling despite the situation. "Besides, it was Corona, I haven't had one of those in ages."

I didn't get an answer as Scarecrow jumped from one torn-down wall to another. A second later three carbine rounds penetrated through the thin concrete that had been serving as cover for the Helljumper. By my calculations he would've been hit in the right shoulder blade and in the waist. Lucky that he decide to switch cover at that precise moment.

"Again," I ordered.

The huge man fired another 40mm grenade at the building in front of us. I popped once again from cover, this time choosing a hole in the wall to serve as my firing spot. I spotted a grunt carrying a box of plasma munitions for a turret and gave it the sweetness of a quick and painless death. Well, as quick and painless as being shot through the throat can be.

"Go Grass," I ordered.

The female marine hopped over the granite table she had been using as cover and ran five meters before she crouched behind another wall, the last one before we hit the backyard and had to sprint all the way across the street to the next building. She had been lucky, no one had seen her change positions as they were too busy keeping their heads down, courtesy of the M987 Armadillo's main armament. The AFV was wrecking the covvie line with its autocannon. A brave grunt made a grab for a plasma turret and started firing at the vehicle. I could see the frontal armor of the AFV starting to boil and melt off from the intense heat, but a quick shot from my BR55 took out the heroic grunt. This time I hit it right in the chest.

So much for my throat-shot streak…

"Snark, what do you see?" I asked.

"Thermal shows seven, no eighteen enemy foot mobiles inside the building directly in front of you, sixteen for you Pavel," the sniper said professionally. "Also, nice moves Bumblebee, your fall didn't look stupid at all."

"I'd like to see you say that to my face you little twerp!" the Scottsman replied angrily. "Maybe I'll whoop your ass like in Fight Club."

To my surprise, the whole squad, including me replied to Bumblebee's comment with the same phrase and at almost the same time. "The first rule of fight club is… YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB!"

There was a moment of awkward silence through the communications channel.

"Damn Rob," Pavel said, "your movies are affecting us way too much."

"Oh, shut up, that's a bloody classic."

"Yes," I said. "Gunfire, plasma, covvies, death, and baddasery."

The entire team focused back on the actual battle instead of psychological films from the beginning of the goddamned millennium. I still didn't quite understand how someone would get into that time period in particular, with it being so boring and all that.

I fired a couple of rounds while Angel kept his finger on the trigger, releasing a hose of lead that sent the covvies to the floor. That gave me enough time to run to a different place. I slammed into the corner of the same wall that Grass had been using as cover while Scarecrow took advantage of the situation to switch to the place I was using for cover. Of all three of us I was the only one that could stand up and not be exposed in some way or other.

"Isn't this going a little bit too well?" Schitzo asked, sitting in an intact chair.

I ignored him completely and fired three shots at a jackal, the thing got lucky and had time to get to cover after my first shot hit the wall next to it. I promptly jumped back behind the wall before a hail of super-heated plasma would fry me inside my armor. I tossed one of my fragmentation grenades in a high arch, as it went up I wondered why the covvies didn't simply set their hand-thrown explosives to blow up after hitting something. They had this tendency to let their spike and plasma grenades sit there for about four seconds before they actually detonated, giving us plenty of time to get out of the way, or at least try to get out of the way.

My thrown frag landed on the roof of the building and detonated. The explosion probably maimed one of the two jackal sharpshooters that were there. If that didn't happen it would at least daze them and prevent them from firing their best shots.

This time a couple of red plasma bolts and spikes hit the wall that I used for cover just before I was able to get behind the relative safety of the concrete. I decided it was probably for the best if I waited a couple of seconds before leaving cover again. Grass popped from cover in a weird crouch-like stance and fired short bursts at anything she saw. The MA5C made brutes stagger and killed most grunts that it hit, although sometimes the alien armor held its own.

Scarecrow instead fired longer bursts, taking out everything that he managed to make contact with and then firing a couple of extra shots at it when it hit the ground. Well, unless the body fell behind a wall or something like that, in which case he didn't really bother. For the only member of the team that didn't absolutely hate the Covenant, he sure was very thorough when he killed them.

When I aimed at the second story of the building a gold-clad brute captain emerged from behind cover toting a plasma launcher I fired at the brute but my rounds simply bounced off from the golden armor, barely even forcing the 9'3" tall beast to jerk backwards with the impact. I fired at it but it wouldn't budge until it fired. Four blue balls (hehe, blue balls) of plasma flew from the barrel of the weapon and all landed right on top of the Armadillo. Two of the crew managed to leave the vehicle just in time and then it blew up, its turret being completely melted with the heat.

The two surviving crewmen were quickly cut down by jackals with needle rifles, their bodies exploding with half a dozen pink crystals each. The two men were left an unrecognizable mess and the Armadillo a pile of molten metal.

"Crap," I muttered, that was an understatement. "Snark, can you fire through the walls?"

Three bullets made contact with the wall that the brute captain was using for cover but didn't do anything other than chip off small bits of the polycrete façade. That was more than enough answer for me.

I was wondering how we would take out the brute captain when I caught some movement in the corner of my eye. Four soldiers from the army platoon were sprinting towards the destroyed armored fighting vehicle, braving the enemy fire. They couldn't really be racing there to commandeer it, but must've had another reason. They broke into two fireteams and one went towards the two bodies while the other went towards the tank. They crouched on the ground and patiently removed the dead soldiers' dogtags while plasma rained all around them. The two others emerged from the destroyed vehicle, presumably with the dogtags already in their possession. I saw them run back to safety as fast as they could. Just as they were about to reach it one of the soldiers got shot in the waist. He went down screaming in pain and slammed to the floor. One of his friends stopped abruptly and returned towards him, she grabbed him by the arm and started pulling with one hand while she fired her MA37 with her spare arm. I looked for whoever was firing at her but couldn't spot the offending aliens.

The wounded soldier was killed when at least six rounds of red plasma hit his body all over his back. The woman let go of his arm and fired another sustained burst before turning around and hauling ass. She was hopping over a pile of rubble just as a plasma grenade detonated next to the soldier's body. When the white flash receded there was nothing but a crater of red-hot pavement left in the place where she had been. I hope she managed to get behind cover before the grenade detonated.

"Senseless sacrifice," Grass lamented. "They could've waited."

Scarecrow grunted in disagreement. "Those men had saved their lives repeatedly, same as ours. They owed them at least that much respect."

"Respect can wait," the woman countered.

"It can wait for the dead," I said, "but sometimes the living just want to stand as tall as the fallen."

"Amen," Pavel hummed.

"Snark, as soon as that captain leaves cover nail him in between the eyes," I ordered. "As soon as that's done we run across the street, I'll cover you," I told the two members of my fireteam.

I didn't have to wait long for the bloodthirsty alien to emerge from cover toting its plasma launcher. Before it could even aim at something its head jerked backwards slightly and two sprays of alien blood emerged from the back of its head. The hulk of muscle and fur collapsed to the ground, dead.

"I'm sorry sarge," Snark apologized, "it wasn't between the eyes."

"Good enough for me," Scarecrow said. "Let's go."

My heart started beating faster than it was already when my two friends sprinted across the destroyed street. I kept my gun trained on the building in front of them. My scope showed nothing but gray walls and smoke floating around. The Armadillos was still aflame and the black smoke was impeding my vision.

"We're good," Grass said through heavy breaths. "There's a door over here."

"Hold on," I said. "Angel, keep their heads down."

"Aye, aye cap'n," the man said. I heard his machine gun roar at my back and saw the occasional tracer make contact with the building or go through the second story windows. I sprinted through the cratered street as the 7.62mm rounds flew over my head. I hopped over the sidewalk and slammed my shoulder into the building to stop myself. There was a small ledge above me, keeping me out of sight from the enemies in the second story.

The building was some sort of an office building. Perhaps offices for a small business, I'm not sure. It was two stories tall and the first floor didn't have any windows. There was a metal side door on the side we were on and the corner that faced the intersection had been blasted away by the Armadillo's sustained autocannon fire. This side of the building was mostly intact except for several bulletholes that came from our own weapons.

"Snark," I called out. "Any enemies inside?"

"I can see three jackals on the second floor, but nothing on the ground floor," he said. "Not because it's empty," he pointed out, my scope can't go through for some reason."

"Shit," Scarecrow cursed.

"Grass, request a drone flyby and wait here."

I moved along the wall, careful not to be spotted by a jackal that just so happened to be looking straight down. The whole ground shuddered as two shortsword bombers flew overhead, probably less than one hundred yards above ground. I reached the corner of the building and crouched behind a pile of rubble. I glanced across the intersection and looked for any soldier from the army platoon. I managed to get one's attention and waited while he brought the lieutenant.

I asked the man how it was going and if he would need any help through hand signals, I didn't want to use radio because to communicate with the man I'd need to use a drone or satellite to redirect the radio frequency instead of just transmitting directly, like I did with my friends. If I did that, the transmission could be intercepted, and I wouldn't want that to happen on a decisive charge. For some reason my helmet's radio wouldn't pick up anyone that wasn't Marines or Helljumper, a terrible mistake if you ask me.

I told him of our plans to breach the building and then asked him to signal me through radio just when he was about to charge, so that we could provide cover from our newly acquired building and draw fire away from them. The man nodded and gave me an ok sign before crawling back behind safer cover.

Two plasma rounds burst against the rubble I was using as cover, inches away from my face, and forced me to jump backwards slightly. I cursed myself for not being more careful and went back towards the door with Scarecrow and Grass.

"Drone is right above us Sarge," Grass informed me.

I gave the command and a bird's eye view camera popped up on top of my HUD, allowing me to see everything that the drone saw. There were the three aformentioned jackals in the second floor in addition to eight grunts and two brutes on the ground floor. The new software in my helmet immediately outlined the covvies in red, allowing me to see them through the walls. This just wasn't fair for the covvies.

I grabbed a breaching charge from my pack and placed it on the door. Scarecrow and Grass would be going in first and I would follow right after them. They placed themselves on one side of the metal door and I did the same thing on the other side. I lifted my left hand and put up three fingers while holding the detonator with my thumb and pinky. I then let down one finger and then put down the my index finger just as I pushed on the detonator. The door blew inwards with a loud boom.

Grass walked inside in a crouched combat stance while the seven foot tall monster of a man nicknamed Scarecrow walked in behind her with his rifle raised.

The door had hit one of the two brutes in the shoulder, stunning it and probably breaking a couple of bones, allowing Grass to take it out with relative ease. The other brute was a priority target and was riddled with twenty rounds from Scarecrow's rifle. Six of the eight grunts were quickly dispatched with three round bursts form my BR55 and the other two were shot by Grass. I smiled as the red silhouettes disappeared as the aliens they outlined died.

I looked up and saw the three jackals moving towards the stairs. I aimed at the stairwell and shot the first jackal that came through on the leg and then on the ribs as it fell to the ground. The other two promptly scrambled backwards to avoid a swift death.

"Scarecrow," I said. "Flashbang."

The man nodded and loaded a flashbang grenade into his underbarrel launcher. He positioned himself at an angle and fired the canister into a wall, it bounced off of it and then detonated just as it got out of sight. Our helmet's had been sealed to all outside noise and the light didn't hit our retinas, so when we climbed the stairs we had full sight and hearing, unlike the two unfortunate jackals that were riddled with holes from my two teammates rifles.

"Clear," Scarecrow boomed.

"Clear," Grass echoed.

"Good," I said. "We'll be providing assistance to the army platoon to our left. Scarecrow and Grass you stay here and fire from the window, I'll take the roof. Try and keep that drone floating above us as long as you can, you hear me?"

"Yes, Staff Sergeant," the woman replied.

I nodded at them and climbed a ladder to the roof. The place was a grim spectacle with the mangled bodies of two jackals all over the place. I hopped over the gory flesh and went prone right before the edge of the building. The building next to this one was under attack by the army bloke, but so far they hadn't attempted to take it decisively. I looked around for friendly's and my helmet outlined the few that I could see, once that happened their helmets sent me information on where the rest of their platoon was. I could soon see twenty-odd green silhouettes hiding behind a large house.

And yet I couldn't communicate with their helmets directly.

"Lieutenant," I said, risking my message being intercepted. "Ready when you are."

"Well, fire away! What are you waiting for?" he asked, a little bit too rudely in my opinion, but what the hell.

"You heard the man, let's make it rain."

I fired at a couple of jackal sharpshooters on the roof of the building opposite me. They both fell down before they realized what was happening. Grass and Scarecrow peppered the windows with lead, the covvies, believing that the place we were on was still occupied by friendly forces had their flank completely exposed to our fire. I brought down those two jackals and a brute sniper before anyone realized where they were being shot at. By the time they had taken cover I managed to kill a fuel-rod wielding grunt and a couple of jackals. My two subordinates did an excellent job of their own, each bagging five kills in little over five seconds. I ducked and slid backwards as plasma and needles rained on my position. Despite having been spotted it was already too late for the covvies. A whole platoon was charging at their building and they were distracted with the three of us.

It took perhaps one minute for the army soldiers to clear the building.

"Thanks Reaper, we're clear," the lieutenant thanked us in between breaths. "I owe you one. We owe you one."

"You mean you owe us another one?" Grass asked.

"Hey," Scarecrow said, "don't be an asshole."

"Sorry," she apologized. She didn't mean it.

"Ok, now we help Pavel," I said.

I didn't even have time to talk to my friend when I heard the sound of nearby gunshots and a couple of squealing grunts.

"Don't worry about it Frank," Pavel said. "We've got this house cleared." He added, "Without your help."

"Thanks, I did the same thing right here jackass."

"He has a point Pavel," Caboose said.

"Shut up," the Polish man snapped. "Frank, we take on the next block?" he asked me.

"No, let's clear up the rest of the structures in this block, three houses, their backs to our buildings," I explained as I connected him to the drone's live feed.

"I see," Pavel noted. "You take the one on the left and we take the one on the right then converge in the middle house?"

"Agreed," I said before directing my attention to my fireteam. "Ok, you heard my son and your savior, get ready to breach the next house. Looks like an easy one." Then to Angel and Snark, "You two, start hauling ass over here, I've got a great sniping spot for you Snark."

I got several different sets of acknowledgement lights and switched positions. I was now facing the house that Grass and Scarecrow would be breaching, I would provide cover for them while they cleared the first floor and maybe tag along right before they went upstairs.

"Ok you two, go!"

And go they did.

The house was made out of bricks on the outside and plywood on the inside. It was a centuries old design that for some reason or other hadn't been deemed insecure and still saw use all over human-held space. God knows why they built this kind of houses on this kind of planet, where sub-zero temperatures were the norm more oft than not.

I fired a burst through the walls at the red outline of a jackal. The first bullet didn't go entirely through, but the other two punched through the bricks and hit the jackal somewhere in the upper torso area. I fired another burst through the wall, this time hitting a surprised grunt in the chest. While I had fun shooting through walls Grass and Scarecrow were pumping aliens full of lead on the ground floor.

"Ground floor clear," Grass called out.

"Three hostiles in the second story," I warned them. "A baby kong and two grunts."

"Roger, we see them," Scarecrow acknowledged. "Flashbang out."

I heard the dull bang of the grenade and picked up my rifle before I started going down the ladder. By the time my feet hit the ground the three covvies were dead and the house was clear. I left the building that we had just taken and sprinted towards the house that my two squad mates had just cleared. On the way there I noticed that there weren't any plasma shells falling around anymore, probably courtesy of those Shortsword bombers. Still, it was only a matter of time before the Covenant brought forward the wraiths and started pummeling us with mortar fire.

"Pavel?" I asked.

"We green," he replied in between breaths. "Let's take this other house," he said.

"Uh-huh," I agreed. "Angel, Snark, where are you?"

"I'm right behind you," Angel said, "Snark is setting up shop."

"Aight, Snark, how 'bout you shoot some gorillas through the walls?"

"On it," he said. "It'd be easier if I had an SRS," he added.

"Next time you can bring one," Bumblebee said. "For now you can work with an EMR."

"I'll make you a deal," Snark said, "I'll bring an SRS next time if you switch that pea-shooter of yours for some real weapon, even an MA37 will do."

"Shut up and fire."

Six rounds fired in rapid succession were all that Agnarsson got for an answer. My HUD told me that three brutes had been brought down with two headshots each. I couldn't help but admire the little guy for his precision, speed, and lethality. Six rounds, three kills, four seconds.

"Just take out the rest," I said, not even bothering to try and clear the house personally. "We can make sure their dead later."

Four other shots rang out, killing the panicking grunts and jackals with headshots. As soon as the red outlines showing their positions disappeared I went towards the house to make sure they were dead. I slung my rifle over my shoulder and entered the house through the kitchen door as I drew my sidearm, I didn't really bother with caution in this situation, because the drone overhead showed no heat signatures in the house other than me and Caboose entering on the other side. Then it only showed static.

"They shot down the drone," Grass informed us.

"Thank you," Angel said sarcastically, "I never would've figured it out on my own."

I ignored the bickering that started between those two and knelt next to the body of a brute. I drew the knife from my boot and slid it between the first two vertebrae. I withdrew it with surprisingly little blood staining the Damascus steel blade. Then I moved on to a jackal and a grunt, snapping the jackal's neck just to make sure and slicing the grunt's throat all the way to its spine.

Caboose presumably did the same thing with his own knife because I didn't hear any gunshots, muffled or otherwise.

I finished with the kitchen and moved towards the living room, where I saw my fellow Helljumper and not so fellow ONI informer cutting up a jackal. He really liked his knives. It worried me a lot.

"Enough with that," I said. "Second floor."

"Yessir," he replied mockingly, cleaning his knife on a bullet-riddled couch.

"And don't call me sir, I'm not an officer."

"Yes Staff Sergeant," he said.

You can put that in your psych report, I almost said, but managed to hold it in.

I checked the rest of the house for anything that might've been of interest while the Russian butchered the bodies of the dead covvies very, very thoroughly. I knifed a couple of other dead aliens while checking for loose ordinance that could blow up if anything made contact with it. There were a couple of plasma coils that I carefully placed behind several pieces of furniture and the obligatory plasma and spike grenades. Nothing that could send the entire house sky-high if heated slightly above room temperature.

"This house's clear," I broadcast. "And that's the whole block."

"Seems like it," Pavel said.

"We stay here or charge across the street?" Bumblebee asked.

"We stay here," Grass said. "The main push takes place west of here, they got armor and all that."

"I know that," he replied. "Don't treat me like a child."

"It'd be easier if you didn't act like one," Snark chimed in.

"Ok, listen you tiny little fu-"

"Shut up," Pavel said boringly. "Let's hole up, this house is the most undamaged and has a working heating system."

"Great," I said. "Snark, get your ass over here. Caboose and Bumblebee, you each stand guard in the other two houses, tell me if something interesting happens."

"Dibs on this one," Caboose said.

"Damn it," Bumblebee complained. He would have to cross all the way to the most damaged of the three houses in the block.

I left the middle house and went towards the right most one, meeting up with the rest of my team bar the two that were standing guard in the other damaged houses. The street in front of us was an eight lane driveway and the buildings opposite us were heavily fortified. It was pretty much where the residential area of Highbay ended and the business area started. You know what that means, lots of tall buildings, tridimensional combat, you know, the works.

"Get some rest people," I said. "Angel, you stand guard here, wake three of us up in three hours to change shifts."

"Who do I wake up?" the Italian asked.

"Whoever you feel like," I said, already moving a mattress to the basement of the house. I was tired and I was going to get some rest goddamit.