Chapter XCI: My Desk is Missing a Lamp
June 26, 2543 (UNSC Calendar)/one month later
Constanta, Ninive, Zeta Argenteus System
"Lots of guys got cut off from the rest of the UNSC forces. Mostly elite units, those are the ones that they send in first." –anonymous UNSC serviceman.
"I swear to God Sarge, if we have to have one more meal that consists entirely of these shitty bars, I will shoot myself in the foot and get medevaced," Grass complained while munching on an energy bar. She didn't seem to be enjoying it and I didn't blame her for it. They had about as much appeal as dirt.
"We've been expecting evac for three days now," Scarecrow pointed out. "If you shoot yourself in the foot they won't hurry it up."
"And there you go folks, that's Captain Obvious for you!" Snark called out from the next room.
"I will step on you," Scarecrow said through chuckles. "Wouldn't be that hard really, seeing how small you are."
"I'm as tall as Grass!" he complained.
"Yeah, but she's a girl," Angel chimed in.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Grass asked angrily.
"Ok, ok. Ok!" I shouted. "Stop, relax, and keep guard. You all heard the last broadcast, we are probably surrounded with only a few other friendly units, all right? Stay calm."
"Yes, Sarge," they replied. They sounded awfully close to little kids that had just been scolded for doing something wrong. If I mentally reduced their ages and gave them armor with oversized helmets it made for a pretty funny mental image. Think about it. "Snark, stay on the rooftop, Bumblebee, go with him."
"How come you never stand watch?" he asked me.
"Because I'm the sergeant, and I can do whatever I want."
"But you have the only other ranged weapon here," Bumblebee complained.
"Here," I tossed him my rifle. "I don't want a scratch on it, I've had it since boot camp."
"Fine," Bumblebee grunted as he tossed me his own rifle in return. He seemed to have forsaken his M6J carbine for a more conventional MA5B rifle. I checked the ammunition counter. I had sixty rounds before I had to get my weapon back. Sounded like at least six kills.
"Everyone else, try and get some sleep."
The building we were in had been a small business, of what, I cannot say. It had been so badly burnt that the walls, floor, and ceiling were scorched black. There were some carbonized pieces of metal laying here and there in addition to a crumbling counter, but any traces of merchandise had long since been looted or disappeared. Unlike most stores, its street-facing wall didn't consist of tampered glass, instead it was built of solid polycrete all the way up to stomach level. I had chosen this place to bunker down because of the walls and because two cars had crashed right in front of the storefront, next to the door. They made any access from the left impossible. The store also had a small second floor that had probably been a small office or something, but the fire had burned everything in there too. From the second story you could reach the roof, but the weather wasn't the best at the moment and Snark would've been pissed if I had sent him up there.
The small store also had a back exit that led to a narrow alley that in turn led to a street. Or you could take another alley and another and another. Constanta was a city designed for urban combat. Had this been a videogame it would've been a beautiful level, challenging, tri-dimensional combat, narrow alleys that allowed for close-quarters battle and multi-storied buildings that allowed for height advantage. Right now it was living hell because of precisely those reasons.
"Sarge, cover me, will ya?" Angel asked.
"Sure," I shrugged, not even bothering to ask what he wanted to do. I had sixty rounds in the MA5B plus three spare magazines for my BR55 and two for my pistol, so I wouldn't really bother with shooting at anything unless he found himself in some real trouble.
I watched as the Italian helljumper opened what was left of the door and then moved in a low crouch towards one of the cars that had crashed into the wall next to the door. He slowly opened the door while I scanned the area for hostiles. Angel drew his combat knife and started cutting up something in the pilot's seat. After a couple of seconds he tossed me something.
"Catch," he whispered, even though there was no need. No one could've heard him over the rain.
I caught the bottom part of a car seat with one hand and struggled not to drop it, eventually pinning it against the wall with my leg. "Good idea," I admitted.
Angel climbed further inside the car and started doing the same thing to the copilot's seat. He tossed me the cushion as well and then pulled out both the headrests. He tossed one of them to me and prepared to do the same thing with the other one.
A beam rifle burned through the car's passenger window and out through the other door.
"Shit," Angel cursed as he scrambled to get out of the car, his cumbersome LMG getting in his way. Another bright purple round blew out the windshield and melted one of the metal frames that held the room in place. "Merda, merda, merda, merda." Angel finally made his way out of the car and threw his machine gun at me over the wall. I caught it and he slid home just as another beam rifle round singed the back of his helmet.
Next thing I heard was the familiar snap noise that Snark's EMR made when it fired. There was only one shot, so I assumed that he got his kill. He usually did.
"Got him," Snark confirmed. "Jackal, didn't see anyone else. Probably a loner."
"Thanks kid," Angel told Snark.
"Ok, listen, I am twenty-four years old, you're twenty-nine. You're not in a position to call me kid," Snark snapped.
"Whoa, relax man."
"Shut up."
I frowned a little bit at that. Snark might've had some assholeish tendencies, but he didn't often snap at people like that, maybe he was just tired of the situation. Well, all of us were. The sniper hadn't really had any changes in behavior since he broke his collarbone, having stayed his same snarky self. Angel had been depressed for a few days, but after a while he had gone back to normal. I don't know if Scarecrow talked to him or something, but I am sure that Marina never did. Regardless of what happened, I was glad that he was better, we were already one man down.
"You ok?" I asked Angel.
"Yeah, last shot grazed my helmet."
"Hey, maybe it cleaned off a little bit of all that soot," Bumblebee said.
I laughed at it, his armor was still covered with ashes and soot, no matter how often he scrubbed it or washed it, trying his hardest to get rid of it, it was always there. I am not entirely sure how though, since he hadn't been near many explosions since I recruited him. The way my luck usually works, that was probably bound to change sooner rather than later.
I grabbed the headrest that Angel had tossed me and took a couple of quick steps towards the remains of the store's counter. I took off my helmet and placed my head on the relatively soft cushion. The headrest was actually the exact width for my head, providing for a very comfortable pillow. That, coupled with the exhaustion from the last couple of days and the sheer amount of sleepiness that I felt had me asleep in less than two minutes.
Yeah, you guessed it, explosions.
"How long did I…?" I mumbled.
"An hour, now get up Sarge," Grass said, pulling me by the arm.
"Oi, Sarge!" Bumblebee called out from the second story.
I looked up at him just in time to catch my rifle. I grabbed his and tossed it in return. As soon as he caught it he disappeared from the stairs and climbed back up to get his rocket launcher. Scarecrow joined the sniper and Agnarsson on the second floor while Grass, Caboose, Angel, and I remained downstairs. Caboose actually pulled out his shotgun from his back and propped it against the wall next to him.
"What are we facing?" I asked.
"Don't know," Angel replied. "A helluva lot of infantry and a revenant."
"Heavy infantry?"
"So far? No."
I shrugged as I moved towards the front walls. The windows had long since ceased to exist and the polycrete managed to hold out against any and all attacks from plasma-based small arms. It provided a decent cover and a nice position for firing upon the enemies. The enemies in question consisted of a medium-sized infantry column that had been patrolling this area and had somehow spotted us. There were only about thirty of them, but with our ammunition reserves, we wouldn't be able to kill them as easily as we usually would have.
A purple flash blinded me briefly as the revenant's mortar detonated some meters in front of me. I covered my eyes and realized that I hadn't put on my helmet. I stumbled towards it as I ordered Bumblebee to take down the small tank as quickly as possible. I put on my helmet and blinked a couple of times. The neural implants communicated with the helmet so that its visor shifted to accommodate my stunned eyes. Technology is fucking awesome.
"On it," Bumblebee growled.
I went back to the window and fired three shots at a grunt, I killed the unlucky alien, but didn't have enough time to shoot the other one as it jumped out of my line of sight and behind a car. I shifted my aim and hit a jackal that had miscalculated the angle of his shield just a little. My shot hit it in the ribs and forced it to fall down. The alien struggled to get up and collapsed once more, blood pouring from the hole in its torso. I was deciding whether I should finish it off or use my ammunition on more worthy targets.
Bumblebee finally got a bead on the revenant and fired his second-to-last remaining rocket at the vehicle. The HEAT rocket made contact with the revenant head-on. The detonation killed both the pilot and the passenger and damaged the vehicle enough to destroy its controls and its anti-gravity thrusters.
"Shit," Caboose said. "It's still in working order."
I looked back to the revenant and saw that it was true. One elite was moving towards the damaged tank. He reached the pilot's seat and pulled out his butchered comrade without a second thought. Just as it was about to hop in a round pinged off its head, draining its shields and forcing it to stumble sideways. The next headshot perforated his armor, skin, skull, brains, skull, skin, and armor back again. The elite's brains splattered over the pilot's seat and the huge alien collapsed to the ground while his left arm twitched repeatedly.
"Snark, don't let anyone get nearby. Scarecrow, how many grenades you got?"
"Ummm, three," he replied.
"Don't use them on the revenant unless I tell you to. How far away is the revenant from here?"
"One hundred and nine meters," Snark said, obviously using his rangefinder to give me the most annoyingly correct answer that he possibly could.
Too far for hand grenade range…
"I can throw that far," Caboose suggested.
"Yes, but you need a wind up and you wouldn't have any accuracy," Angel informed him. The man certainly knew his explosives.
"That," I agreed. "Keep shooting."
The ten jackals in the enemy group had overlapped their shields on top of one another, forming an almost impenetrable wall. Grunts were using the shields as cover to get inside a building across the street. The building they were getting into was half-collapsed, but it was still the one in the best conditions on that side of the block. The five remaining elites fired their plasma rifles and repeaters at our building, covering it with plasma and forcing us to keep our heads down. I was unable to fire accurately until Grass tossed a grenade at the wall of jackals, killing two and forcing the rest to retreat. By the time that I could leave cover the rest of the covvies had taken cover inside the half-wrecked building.
The place that they had decided to use for cover was a two-story building much like ours, only that one of the front corners was collapsed and along with it over half of the front walls. The rubble piled up on its side had blocked the stairs to the second floor but also formed a ramp to that same place. If anyone tried climbing that ramp they would get a bullet in the back of the head, so we had the advantage of higher ground. We were probably twenty meters or so apart, extremely close range and within easy reach of grenades.
"Keep your guns trained on them!" I ordered. "Don't let any alien so much as take a peek."
The first grunt that decided to do just that received about sixteen bullets to the head. Everyone groaned in annoyance at the waste of ammunition. I told Grass, Caboose, and Bumblebee to fire at any grunt or jackal that they saw, the rest of us would shoot at any cocky elite. As soon as we had organized ourselves and decided on our fields of fire the covvie platoon started firing everything that they had at us.
"Shoot," Grass cursed as she dove for cover.
"Shoot?" I asked, raising an eyebrow behind my polarized visor. "How… quaint."
"Oh, shut up."
I popped up from behind the wall and fired three bursts at an elite. The rounds bounced of its shields as it took three steps backwards as if to absorb the blow. The third round of the third burst managed to completely strip the alien of its shields and Snark finished it off with a headshot. The heavy round also succeeded in piercing the elite's head entirely and painted the wall behind it with alien blood. If there was a true art, it was that.
The killing aliens part, I mean, not the blood splattered on the wall. That would just be weird.
"Fuck," Snark cursed from the second floor.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Fucking grunt grazed me!" he yelled angrily.
I looked back down just in time to see a grunt with a plasma pistol jump back behind a wall. I took careful aim and switched back to single-fire. I fired a single round at the place where I guessed the grunt would be behind the wall and watched the bullet hit the polycrete. The armor piercing round was strong enough to punch through the wall completely, but not strong enough to deliver a killing blow. The bullet got lodged in the grunt's armor and the alien tumbled backwards ever so slightly. There it was caught in between Scarecrow and Grass's fields of fire.
After I helped kill that grunt I was forced to keep my head down for a long while. An elite with a plasma repeater decided to get wise and start spraying plasma all over the place as soon as anyone of us showed a part of our armor. That went on for about five minutes before Caboose started getting irritated and tossed a flashbang over his shoulders. He threw from a sitting position, backwards, over a wall, through the street, and into the building. The throw itself was majestic, but I couldn't help but give him a pissed off expression because he hadn't done the same thing with a regular grenade.
I didn't have time to admonish him for that, though, because he stood up and emptied the remainder of his cartridge into the stunned elite. The alien's shields and armor held against the lead until the very last round. Said round hit the elite in the edge of the neck. The elite collapsed and threw a hand to its neck, trying to stop the bleeding. I'm not really an alien physiologist, but I can tell that they have vital veins in their neck, same as us. Two grunts grabbed the elite from the armpits and dragged it behind the wall. I succeeded in killing one of them while the other put its leader to safety.
"Shoot the medic," Angel laughed. "Still, I'm surprised the little ones risked their lives."
"Yeah, they'll probably get a promotion," Bumblebee said, only being half-sarcastic.
"A posthumous one," Caboose added with a shrug.
I turned to look at him and nodded in approval at his humor. I would've high fived him but another sudden outburst of plasma fire flew through the glassless windows and hit the wall behind us.
"Great, now you pissed 'em off!" Bumblebee complained.
No one even bothered answering the complaint. I focused on killing everything that showed itself same as the rest of the squad. For some instants no one fired, but the covvies started going at it again and we started exchanging sporadic shots with one another. From that point on the battle degenerated into what I could only call trench warfare with walls. They fired a couple of shots every once in a while and we occasionally returned with a few of our own. This manner of combat went on for a few hours. In that time we only succeeded in killing two jackals.
Yup, we weren't doing a particularly good job at it.
"Shit, we're starting to run out of ammunition," Snark said.
"I know…" I agreed while I thought of something. "Ok, how about Grass and me take one floor each for an hour and the rest of you take a rest. See how I didn't put you on watch?"
"Ha-ha," Bumblebee deadpanned.
"Top or bottom?" I asked Grass.
"Top," she replied. "I like being on top." There was a definite naughtiness in her tone, I don't know how else to describe it.
"My kind of woman," I replied in the same tone, shutting her up and reminding her that I was better than her at that kind of thing.
"Couldn't you let her have the moment?" Schitzo asked. "Geez, what an asshole."
I don't know whether to be offended or mock you because you're calling yourself an asshole. The problem is that if I mock you I'd be mocking myself.
"Ah, so we have met an impasse."
I think I like the word paradox better.
"Have it your way," Schitzo shrugged me off.
I waited for Grass to climb to the second story and ordered Snark to stay up there in case we needed him to snipe someone. The rest of the team huddled together behind the counter and tried to catch some quick power naps while we kept watch and discouraged the covvied from doing anything that was dangerous. All the while I tried to come up with some sort of strategy that would allow us to wipe out the covvies. With the state of communications and utter chaos that this battle was I doubted that they had the means to radio for reinforcements. We could try, but we would get laughed at in the face just for asking. Even if we were Helljumpers.
That stupid Falcon just had to go and get itself shot down before taking out the SAMs.
"Sarge," Grass said. "A few of the grunts are trying to climb to the second floor."
"I know," I replied. I could see them just as well as she could.
"Should I shoot them?" she asked.
"What do you think?"
Grass wondered for a moment what she should do and a moment later I heard two bursts of gunfire. They both hit the grunts in the back. One grunt was instantly killed but another one struggled to move away from Grass's line of fire. The small alien motioned for his friends to help it with weak hand signals. As soon as one grunt jumped out in aid of its friend I got it with a shot in one ear and outside the other. No other aliens made a move to help their fallen comrade or even attempt some sort of rescue. When it became clear that they wouldn't be rescuing the grunt Grass ended its suffering with a single well-placed round.
"What is that?" I asked suddenly.
"What is what?" Grass asked me.
"That noise, sounds like… scraping."
"I don't hear anything. Just the rain."
The storm had only gotten worse.
"Listen," I insisted. "And be ready."
My words had risen the rest of the squad, all of them were cocking their weapons and getting ready if we had to repel an attack. Bumblebee slowly climbed up the stairs, trying hard not to make noise despite his huge frame. The rest of them made their way towards the window. Caboose tossed me a small wire with a camera and a screen. I twisted the wire so that it looked out the window much like a periscope would've worked on a submarine. The screen took a moment to adapt to the lighting but eventually gave me a crystal clear image of the surroundings. The rain made it impossible for the camera to see more than a few meters out. I tapped the screen and the camera switched to thermal mode.
"What is…?" I wondered as I peered into the screen. The figures were distorted by the amount of rain between the camera and themselves, but I could make out that they were elites based on size alone. "What are they doing?" I asked myself, worried.
Scraping, two elites forsaking all security… wrecked revenant.
"Shit."
Before I could even warn my friends what was happening a round from the revenant plasma mortar landed on the roof of our building. The unstable plasma ate through the roof and scorched a little bit of the top of the second floor, but it wasn't enough to harm any of us. The second shot was slightly off and hit the roof as well. The entire building shook and a small part of it collapsed right on top of us. By the time we were recovered from the shock the remaining Covenant soldiers were charging at us full strength.
"Shit," Snark echoed.
We opened fire as soon as we realized what was happening, but by the time we did that they were ten meters away from us. Our initial barrage stopped at least five of them in their tracks. By stopped them in their tracks I mean killed them. Three grunts and two jackals slumped to the floor as the rest charged on. One burst through the door before Angel caved its face in with a kick.
"Shotgun!" I yelled.
To his credit, Caboose didn't even ask what I meant, he simply kept on firing one handed with his carbine and tossed me his M90. I racked the shotgun with one hand and fired at a downwards angle over the wall. The weapon boomed loudly and I knew that I got someone judging by the noise that the pellets made when they impacted soft flesh instead of hard rock. Someone tried pulling the shotgun from my grasp over the wall and I yanked it back before I lost it. We had managed to avoid any aliens other than the grunt getting inside, but the rest of them were less than a foot away from us, protected by a solid wall. A grenade was out of the question since the explosion would bring down the walls and probably collapse the entire building.
"Angel, mine the alley all the way to the first turn to the left," I ordered. "Everyone else, we hold the line."
They all nodded in unison and trained their guns on the door and windows. I heard Snark's rifle crack twice before a barrage of plasma fire forced him to retreat.
"Second floor is no-go," he announced.
I shrugged and turned my head back towards the door. I did so just at the right moment. One of the two elites was charging through the door with one plasma rifle on each hand. It wrecked the damaged door with its shoulder and stepped over the dead grunt. The dead grunt was our savior because the unstable ground made the elite lose its footing for just a moment. The small window gave me enough time to lunge towards the elite and tackle it. My weight and momentum were enough to slam the elite against a wall. Soon after I tackled the split-chin Caboose followed my example and did the same thing. Our combined strength was enough to bring it down. Once there I started pummeling the surprised elite as hard as I could. The alien backhanded Caboose and then pushed him of its chest. I used that time to draw my knife from behind my back. I took two quick stabs at the elite but its shield held. My third attempt managed to drive the laser-cut blade through the weakened shield and into its collarbone. The elite snarled and pushed me off its chest with one powerful shove.
Scarecrow reacted the fastest. He jumped on top of the elite and bashed its head with his boot, stunning the elite and further draining its shields. He did the same thing again and once that they were drained completely stomped on my knife, driving it deeper into the elite's shoulder. As soon as the elite howled Scarecrow jumped and brought both his feet on the elite's face, crushing its helmet and the front part of its face. I don't know if he killed the elite, but he sure as hell took it out of commission.
I jumped towards the elite and grabbed my knife. I yanked it and then cut the alien's throat just for good measure. I felt a measure of relief as the purple blood started flowing from its throat in copious amounts.
"Sarge, I'm done!" Angel said.
"That was quick," Bumblebee noted.
"Ok, everyone fall back, I'll stay here and cover you."
"Sarge…" Caboose started.
"I'm not planning on dying today," I said. "Go."
My team left through the back door behind Angel. I turned back to the front door and slid my knife in its sheath in the small of my back. I raised my rifle and backed away slowly. The first alien to come through was a grunt that got its face destroyed for its eagerness. The second one was the remaining elite. I switched to full auto and managed to force it to leave the room once again. I heard the sound of an energy blade opening and that's when I decided to turn around and leave.
The elite jumped inside in a diagonal, but I was already turning towards the door. The large alien lunged at me with a horizontal sword slash. I saw the move coming and I ducked. The blade passed right above my head and continued to the other side. The loss of balance forced me to fall forward. If I allowed myself to fall on my hands I would have two even holes in my back before long, so instead I used my legs to propel myself into a combat roll. I heard the elite growl in anger as its follow-up attack missed.
I finished my roll and slammed into a half-closed door. I wasn't able to stop myself until I hit a wall. I was outside the burned store and in the alley behind it. I started running away towards the rest of my squad, but the rain made it hard for my boots to get any traction and the elite was right behind it.
"Blow it up," I yelled as I saw one of Angel's charges. "Blow it all up. Now!"
Angel didn't even complain. I heard the detonation of the first of the rigged charges a few meters behind me. Neither the elite nor I were harmed by the detonation. The second explosion actually propelled small rocks at my back and helmet a second later and forced the elite to stumble. The third one must've drained its shields and slowed it down even further. I prepared myself for a sharp turn when a large arm extended from the corner and grabbed me.
I felt myself swung around in a circle as Scarecrow dragged me around the corner. As soon as I made contact with the wall I heard another explosion. Scarecrow looked around the corner. "It's dead," he decided.
"How dead?" Bumblebee asked.
"It's upper half is missing."
"Dead enough for me," Angel said.
"Let's go," I ordered in between breaths.
"Wait," Angel pleaded. He peeked around the corner and when he decided that there were enough grunts and jackals swarming towards us he pressed another detonator in his hand. The entire place shook as one of the buildings collapsed on top of the bloodthirsty aliens, stopping them from chasing us.
"You are a sick man," Snark said.
"Hey, it got the job done," Angel replied.
"Let's move," I repeated. "Find someplace safe."
"Aye, aye, Sarge," they said.
Aye, aye is for the Navy. Why the hell do you reply like that all the time? I asked myself.
We left the alley and started moving through the narrow backstreets. Most of these backstreets were just alleys and the biggest one of them would've had trouble allowing a warthog to pass through. The buildings started getting as tall as ten stories, giving me a feeling of claustrophobia and making me more nervous. We weren't heading in any particular direction, just towards the place where we had heard that a sizeable friendly force was in.
"No one there anymore," Grass informed me after I sent her and Snark to scout the area. "Two dozen bodies, but the rest of them fled the area."
"So, where to?" Bumblebee asked.
"Hold on." I opened the list in my helmet that had all the different channels and contacted Nezarian. "Yevgeny."
"Frank, how curious, I was just about to contact you. Faith is a strange mistress indeed."
"Why are you talking like that?"
"Sorry, have been reading some fantasy novels lately. Gets into my head."
"Whatever," I interrupted. "Where are you? Do you have access to evac?"
"We're pretty much in the same situation that everyone is. My team, what's left of it, is currently holding the last two floors of the spire."
"You're shitting me," I said.
"Unfortunately no," he replied. "It's not so bad though, as soon as have a nice distraction we'll jetpack out of here. As a matter of fact, we have a few spare jetpacks. Might help your team."
"No, I think I'll just wait for you to land. Where exactly do you want to land?"
"Wide building, about thirty meters high, probably a hundred meters away from us."
"Hmm," I hummed as I checked the city map in my visor. "Ok, we'll head to your landing area and hold the fort for you guys. From there we can work our way back to our line."
"Sounds good to me," Yevgeny admitted. "I'll contact you before we jump."
"We'll provide the distraction, I assume?"
"Correct."
"Roger, Reaper out." I turned towards my team. "Well, you heard the conversation, no need to explain the plan to you. Let's get moving."
Got nothing interesting to say. Hope you enjoyed it and thanks to Sniper Fodder for proof-reading this chapter.
I am never drinking again.
-casquis