Chapter XCIV: First One In, Last One Out
July 1, 2543 (UNSC Calendar)/
Hill 5439, Shinajh, Ninive, Zeta Argenteus System
"Our last stronghold on the planet. You'd think it would be more impressive." – PFC Robert Agnarsson.
"Are you sure he's fine?" I asked the doctor.
"For the upteenth time, yes. I am sure."
"Doesn't hurt to be cautious," I shrugged.
"Listen your boyfriend's fine, he'll be up any second now."
"My what now?"
The doctor backed off a few steps and spread out his arms in a please-don't-hurt-me gesture. "The lieutenant's fine," he asserted.
"Good," I said, nodding to myself and crossing my arms.
Nezarian was looking a lot better now. Back when his unwounded ranger and Caboose had dragged us both out of the spire's courtyard and into safety I remember that his face looked horrible. There was blood pouring from his nose and from a cut on his brow. Don't even get me started on the exposed bone fracture on his arm and his leg. That's why he had been put in a coma, they could heal him quickly and save him all the pain of having two bones fixed in just five days. Fortunately for him the treatment had worked and now his broken limbs were as good as new. The bruising, well, there was nothing that they could do about that.
Nezarian's eyelids flickered slowly. He winced as the bright light from the ceiling hit his eyes, a sensation that I was all too familiar with, and then closed his eyes once more. Yevgeny took two deep breaths before speaking.
"How many?"
"Only two more made it out," I said.
"Valeri?"
"Your friend? The sergeant?"
Nezarian gave me an almost imperceptible nod.
"He's alive. I talked to him, wasn't feeling so well, with losing an arm and that. They'll probably issue him a nice prosthetic and discharge him honorably with a few medals to boot."
"Shit," Yevgeny cursed. "It's my-"
"No," I cut in. "It's not your fault."
"I could've been faster, I could've-"
"You couldn't have been faster, you couldn't have been better. You did everything right, and in the end, it just wasn't enough. Don't blame yourself."
"Easy for you to say."
"Right."
Nezarian didn't move for a few seconds. He opened his eyes once again, trying to get them used to the light. His eyes teared up a little as he blinked repeatedly. Eventually, the Army lieutenant managed to sit up on the bed with a little help from the doctor. He cracked his neck noisily and asked for a mirror before turning back to face me.
"Who was the other one? The other survivor?"
"You don't remember?" I asked, curious. "A young kid, perhaps about nineteen by the looks of it. No visible scars on him, they treated him for dehydration and he's been locked up with a shrink ever since."
"Fuck, really?"
"Yeah," I shrugged. "I feel for you man."
"After having ninety percent of my platoon killed, I think that-"
"That you just might need psychological help?" I asked. "Yeah, it usually works, even if it's a pain in the ass."
Yevgeny was quiet for a minute. "Did anyone else from my team make it?"
I shook my head. "I'm so sorry."
He sighed deeply, obviously in pain over the situation. "Thanks, how are you?"
"Fine, doc said I would've cracked a couple of ribs. Luckily, they are made of metal."
I banged my artificial ribs while hitting the metal night table by my side with my other hand, making a metallic noise. Nezarian was not amused, he simply nodded once more and sat back down on his bed. He still looked like he had been beat up very badly, but now he also looked like he had lost his will to live. I had only had a handful of men under my command at a time, and having them die over the long periods of time helped me deal with the guilt, even if it still pained me. Yevgeny had had twenty-seven men that were under his command, that were his responsibility, killed in the span of two days. That could hurt any officer more than any physical injury could.
"Bro, I gotta go," I told him. "Get well soon?" I patted the man on the shoulder and griped him reassuringly. The explosions outside were getting louder.
To my dismay, Nezarian didn't even bother with asking me what the situation was, he simply stared at the light illuminating his bed while nurses and doctors started scrambling all over the place. I grabbed my helmet from the night table and slung my BR55 across my back before turning around and jogging outside of the field hospital. I made myself avoid a few nurses on my way out and finally reached the metal doors. I sighed before tapping the console for them to open. The hospital was so quiet and clean.
The noise that hit my ears was almost overwhelming. Half the city had been burned to ruins and the other half had been reduced to molten glass. The only point in the city, the planet, that the UNSC held was this hill. Hill 5439 wasn't nearly as high as its name implied. Well, it was, but since the city was about 4500 meters above sea level, coupled with the hill's gently curving slopes, that didn't make Hill 5439 the mountain its name made it out to be. I don't think I'll ever know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Two seraph multi-role craft strafed half the camp. They mostly hit ground or empty tents, but a couple of plasma shots hit an ammunition depot, producing a spectacular explosion that reached into the sky. A SAM emplacement turned a hundred and eighty degrees while trying to track the fast fliers and fired two missiles at the second seraph. The first missile only succeeded in depleting the fighter's shields, but the explosion was more than enough to knock it down into the ground, where it detonated with yet another grand explosion. I raised my hand to my face to protect myself from the heat.
The other missile flew in a straight line before banking hard and locking in on the other seraph. The Covenant craft tried to outrun it and both aircraft and missile disappeared from my sight. I tried listening for the telltale explosion that the destruction of the seraph would bring, but the battlefield was way too loud for me to make out anything in particular.
I put on my helmet and the whole battlefield went quieter. It wasn't that it eliminated the noises, it just filtered them. I heard the most important noises loud and clear while the ones of less concern were quieter. Yeah, the helmet pretty much made the quiet noises quieter and the louder ones louder, at least in the configuration that I had set it up for in this battle. My HUD flickered to life and half a dozen waypoints appeared before I eliminated the ones that I didn't care about.
"Sarge!" Grass was yelling into my helmet instantly. "Sarge, come in!"
"I give the orders around here," I joked as I started moving towards my team. "What's the situation?"
"Same, covering for civilians and wounded."
"Great," I said. I meant it, same objective meant that I didn't have to go around making plans on the go. Easier.
The seraph that had been shot down suddenly shook a little bit some thirty meters away from me. A part of it fell off and a badly hurt elite stepped out, the right half of its body was burnt horribly and it was missing its bottom two jaws. It raised a plasma pistol at a marine and fired. The shot missed by that much and the marine returned fire with far more accuracy and prejudice. The wounded elite seemed to seize wildly as bullets hit its body and then fell to the ground in an extremely dramatic fashion. It even tried to keep itself up with one hand before it fell.
I nodded at the marine and he gave me a quick salute as he started running towards the edge of the camp.
"Snark, what can you tell me?"
"Nothing much, same numbers as before," the sniper replied. "Only now they are attacking."
"You don't say," Bumblebee muttered.
"What's the sitrep on the gauss?" I asked the Scotsman.
"It's about- never mind, it's done. Heading towards it now."
I slid behind cover as two needle rounds flew close to my head. "Good, if you shoot down a seraph I'll give you a bottle of Scotch."
"Deal, but I want your finest."
"No, but you can choose everything else."
"Agreed."
"Scarecrow?"
"Nothing to report, camp's a mess, whole outer area fell to the covvies when they first attacked, the rest we are holding."
"Not for long," Angel asserted.
I huffed as I took a couple of potshots at the jackal that had fired at me. "I leave for two moments and this is what happens. Great."
"Hurry. The. Fuck. Up."
"Damn Grass, calm down," I ordered her. "I'm going."
My crosshairs finally found their intended target and I lightly squeezed the trigger. The rifle barely kicked when it fired, the single round that left the barrel of my BR55 flew at supersonic speeds into the jackal's throat. The unarmored alien jerked backwards and fell on its butt as the round destroyed its trachea and severed its spine. The jackal was left a quadriplegic even as it chocked on its own blood. Even if it couldn't feel what was happening it certainly knew it was happening. Once more I had killed an alien in an incredibly painful way.
It made me feel good about myself.
I sprinted the rest of the way to my team and slammed my shoulder into a metallic barricade to stop myself. The barrier shook from the impact and Caboose looked over his shoulder at me. He shook his head to himself and fired a couple of bursts before taking cover and kneeling. Caboose motioned for me to do the same. I did so and listened to what he had to say.
"We are outnumbered at least six to one," he started. "We are in the same place as you ordered us to deploy, but the covvies are bringing heavies, we're already out of rockets."
I patted him on the shoulder. "Relax, as soon as Bumblebee is on that gauss cannon we'll be kicking ass."
Before Caboose could say anything I heard the telltale sound of a gauss weapon firing. I saw a flash out of the corner of my eye and heard the following explosion instantaneously. The gauss cannon was pretty much a nerfed version of a MAC cannon. It fired at a fraction of the speed and had a fraction of the firepower. That meant that it was still what you would call an overkill weapon when used against infantry or lightly armored vehicles, with one shot being all it took to punch through them.
"Hunters, three o'clock," Grass said.
"I see it," Bumblebee acknowledged.
I peeked out of cover. I just had to see this. Bumblebee fired the mounted gauss cannon on the hunter. It wasn't really a contest. Everybody knew what was going to happen and nobody was really disappointed when it did. The 25x130mm slug left the barrel at a fraction of the speed of light. The shock lifted dust from all around the gauss platform and actually caused our helmet's to block out all incoming noise for a brief instant. The slug hit the hunter's shield right in the center. It went completely through, leaving the thick metal plate with a nice round hole and doing the exact same thing for the hunter.
The large alien took half a step before it realized it was dead and fell face first on the ground with a loud slamming noise. The death of the hunter sent a few of the neighboring grunts in a hasty retreat that was promptly stopped by a few bursts from Angel's machine gun. The ogre's bond pair seemed to shake with rage before another projectile blew its chest and head apart from the rest of its body. That elicited a small smile from me.
"Snark, see those elite majors? Take out their shields for me, will ya?"
"On it."
The sniper fired two quick rounds from the watchtower to my left and I followed up with two bursts that hit each of the red-armored elites in the head, removing half their faces in the process. That sent even more grunts panicking before lesser ranking elites managed to keep them in check. They did so by shooting one of the panicking dog-like aliens. That seemed to calm the rest, but not that much. The death of the two leaders of their group had definitely made them think twice about charging into this point with no regards for cover.
"Snark, keep harassing them, don't worry about conserving ammunition, Scarecrow, I want you shooting grenades at anything that you see, doesn't matter if it's a grunt running for its life."
"Got it."
"Sure thing."
"Do you want us to run out of ammunition?" Bumblebee asked irritably.
I sighed. "The camp is going to fall, we're not going to have time to run out of ammunition. We just want to hold them back."
"Don't be so bleak," Grass snorted.
"Shut up," I said with a laugh. It was becoming evident that I was the only one that found the situation even remotely funny. I have no idea why.
I switched cover to a large rock and fired in semi-auto at a group of jackals with overlapped shields. When my rounds failed to penetrate Scarecrow fired a rifle grenade at them. The impact killed the one whose shield the grenade had collided with and gave me enough space to take out the other five. That was the good thing about jackals, one shot was enough to kill them no matter where it hit. They were the weakest of all covvies, physically speaking.
"Banshees fast and low!" Snark warned.
"Bee?"
"Got 'em."
Our rocket launcher man fired two shots at the banshee formation, the first one went high and hit a crumbling building a kilometer away, crumbling it further. The second slug hit the lead banshee head on and produced a wonderful explosion. The slug kept on flying and hit the aforementioned building, finishing the job and bringing whatever was left standing to the ground. The banshee actually hit a pair of jackals as it fell to the ground. The sight of the bird-like aliens being squished brought yet another smile to my face.
"Wow, you really are smiling way too much given the situation," Schitzo offered. "Psycho."
Oh, shut up.
"Watch out for those wraiths!" Snark warned.
"Where?" Grass asked.
"Can't see 'em," Bumblebee said. "Can't hit 'em."
"Shit, out of your FOV. Location is about three hundred meters out and to the right."
"Behind those boulders?" I asked.
"Yup."
"Hmmm… Mortars. Mortar Team-6, are you still active?" I asked, communicating with the unit through my helmet.
"We're green, Reaper," the leader replied. "What have you got for us?"
"Wraiths, I need you to-"
An explosion nearby interrupted me. I looked up and ran the hell away from my position as two more wraith mortar shots impacted right where I had been standing before. I jumped to the ground and felt a few bits of heated rock land on my back. The wraiths had our position zeroed in and wouldn't stop firing until they ran out of ammunition. Or until they were blown to oblivion.
"Coordinates are seven-golf-niner-yankee," Snark cut in.
"Use scatter ammunition."
"On it."
I kept my eyes on the sky to see if I could spot any blue mortar shots. The wraiths' rounds were incredibly deadly, but they were relatively slow flying and incredibly easy to spot. I was forced to move from my position two more times before the mortar rounds destroyed the wraiths or damaged them enough that it made no difference to us. The onslaught from the Covenant tanks had forced most of us twenty meters back and had allowed the enemy footmobiles to advance.
Snark was still in his watchtower though, the closest aliens were only a few meters away from the marksman. Snark took advantage of the situation and dropped a flashbang before taking out two elites and eight grunts. He used the last five rounds in his magazine to force another group of elites into cover. As he reloaded one of the aliens threw a plasma grenade at the watchtower. The detonation wasn't enough to do any significant structural damage to the tower and it cost the elite that threw the grenade its life.
"Snark, get over here," I ordered.
I saw the small man nod at me from the watchtower and jump. He fell on a tent butt-first and collapsed with the canvas structure. Snark pushed the fabric away from him and propped himself up before sprinting towards our direction. The team provided covering fire for Snark as he raced away from the covvies. Bright projectiles were flying all around him. It looked like a scene right out of a movie, only that in this situation, it wouldn't be some actor pretending to die if they were hit.
"Safe!" Scarecrow cheered as he pulled Snark behind cover. "Nice."
"Thanks," Snark said in between heavy breathing. "I aim to please."
"That's my phrase," I complained.
"May I bring your attention back to the fanatical homicidal aliens?" Grass asked.
"Yes, you may."
"There are fanatical homicidal aliens trying to kill us."
"How nice of you to remind us."
"Sarge… just… just fire."
"I like it when you boss me around like that," I smiled.
"Did you steal some meds?" Caboose suddenly asked.
"Maybe…" I admitted. "Why?"
"Oh, no reason," he shrugged. "What were they?"
"Dunno, they were colorful." I deadpanned.
"Nice one, Sarge. Seriously."
"Let me be," I complained, it's not like I was high or anything, just looser than normal. "Just keep firing."
My cover now consisted of empty crates. They weren't exactly solid, but they did a good job at holding back plasma and the metallic material that they were made of was enough to deflect the comparatively fragile needle crystals. We were lucky it wasn't brutes firing at us. Their spikers would've cut through the material with no more difficulty than they would've through paper.
My first victim from this position was a jackal with a carbine. I fired just as it took aim at me and managed to hit it right in the forehead. Its brains splattered the face of the grunt that was behind it and I promptly killed the stocky alien as well. The overwhelming amount of covvies coming at us was, for lack of a better word, overwhelming. Bumblebee was wreaking havoc on anything larger than an elite with his gauss cannon, but he couldn't fire constantly or risk annoying the covvies too much.
Too late.
"Seraph!" Snark warned him. "Headed towards you from above."
"I see it!"
Bumblebee turned the gauss turret around, exposing his left side to enemy fire. The whole squad opened up at the closest covvies while Bumblebee tried to shoot down the aircraft. Two shots hit the seraph, but as soon as its shields flickered and died it banked to the left hard. It didn't drop its payload, but it also avoided being shot down. It gave us some more time to prepare.
"It'll be back," I warned.
"To the right! They're flanking us!"
What?
I turned ninety degrees just in time to see an elite take aim at me. I fired faster than the alien and forced it behind cover. Unfortunately, I had no cover myself. I kept aiming at that position while the rest of my team scrambled to find a safer place to stand behind. The closest I could see that would serve that purpose was a flaming scorpion fifty yards away.
"Shit!"
"Sarge, where's the covvie?" Snark asked me.
"Elite, behind that large tent next to the barracks."
"Got it."
Everything around seemed to go quieter. The loud boom of the gauss cannon occasionally broke the relative silence and the automated defense turrets fired at any oncoming infantry that were stupid enough to get within their field of fire. I listened carefully for any noises that might betray a covvie trying to get close while keeping my eye on the tent that the elite was using as cover. Nothing seemed to move.
Then the sudden silence made sense. I heard the noise even as I was rolling away from my position. The energy sword cut through the rock I had been using as cover like butter, but the elite had some trouble pulling it out. The alien had just deactivated its camouflage cloak just before it struck at me. I'm not entirely sure how it worked, but I think that any sudden releases of energy damaged the system. I rolled once again while getting a good grip of my weapon and switching to full-auto.
I fired wildly at the elite, trying to hit its arm. Most of the bullets flew around the elite, but a few of them actually made contact. The ones that did bought me enough time to take a knee and fire a steadier burst at the elite's hand.
The amount of bullets in my magazine wouldn't have allowed for me to kill the elite, so instead I settled for draining its shields and forcing it to drop its weapon. A Forge. The technique only half worked, but it was more than I needed. I dropped my empty rifle as I reached for my Damascus steel knife for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime. I avoided tackling the elite since last time that hadn't ended so well for me, but I succeeded in pushing it back a couple of steps when I threw my knife at him.
The knife embedded itself in the elite's shoulder. The pain forced the elite's body to react by trying to get the area in pain away from the source of pain. The elite turned to look at the knife's hilt in slight shock just as my studded glove collided with its jaws. The impact wasn't really that solid, but since the jaws of the Sangheili were a weak part of their bodies the elite roared in pain.
I drew the knife that was strapped upside-down to my chest and brought it down on the elite's helmet. I wasn't strong enough to go completely through, but the first stab was enough to dent the armor and stun the alien while the second one finished the job.
I smiled at myself for being able to hit the same spot twice on a moving target with a notoriously inaccurate attack.
The falling body took the knife from my grasp and I was forced to let go of it. I waited for the elite to collapse completely and then ripped my Damascus steel knife from its shoulder while reaching for my smaller backup knife. I was forced to use my legs to push down against the alien's skull while pulling the knife out with my arms. I succeeded and found myself sitting on my ass with a dumb look on my face.
"You done Sarge?" Scarecrow asked me quizzically.
"Yeah."
"Then try to be productive, will ya?"
And I was the one that was supposed to be giving orders.
"Fine, fine."
I grabbed my dropped battle rifle and fired at the waves of infantry charging at us. They were an awful lot closer than they had been when I last saw them. I heard three shots from Snark's rifle and knew that our right flank was safe from any enemies. Now that I was without any kind of distractions I was free to shoot as many covvies as I wanted until we had to fall back once more.
A couple of grunts were stopped dead in their tracks with accurate bursts from my rifle even as scores of aliens were killed by my squad. Bumblebee had started shooting everything that would serve as a target, whether it was a hunter or a grunt. He was going to have to leave the cannon before he ran out of ammunition if things kept on going just like this and I think he knew that.
"Grass! Behind you!" Caboose warned.
Grass turned around just in time to deliver a vicious kick at a jackal skirmisher. The muscular alien jumped backwards to avoid the kick and then lunged again. Grass was an experienced Helljumper and had dealt with this situation before. She let the alien hit her even as she reached for her knife and allowed herself to be scratched a couple of times before stabbing the skirmisher three times in quick succession. She shoved it off her and checked herself for injuries.
"You aight?" Angel asked.
"One scratch to the forearm," she replied. "Nothing serious."
"Oughta get that checked," Angel recommended.
Grass nodded from far away even though Angel couldn't see her without risking having his head blown up. She grabbed her rifle and slapped a magazine into the empty receiver before firing a burst into a small lance of incoming jackals. Grass sprayed the vultures until they were all dead on the floor before sustained fire forced her to take cover farther back. We were being forced back slowly but surely. The camp was going to fall soon.
"Caboose, nail those bastards," I ordered, highlighting said bastards for him. "Scarecrow, I need you to provide indirect support with your forty-millimeter, Angel, fire everything you've got."
There was a brief moment of silence as everyone prepared to follow my orders followed by a huge increase in noise as two 40mm grenades detonated and Angel's SAW started firing a bullet hose. Caboose took aim at his designated targets and took them out with short, careful bursts. After a few seconds the elites that had come up to the frontline to assume leadership had been eliminated with extreme prejudice. The Covenant advance on this point faltered slightly.
Behind Hill 5439 I could see the ruins of the city. Hovering about one kilometer above ground level were two Covenant CCS-class cruisers. Their sole presence was damaging to the morale of the troops and civilians. So far they had only been deploying troops and equipment, but as soon as we left the place and the battle was lost they would start orbital bombardment.
Or not.
The belly of the cruiser on the right started glowing and then I heard the loudest noise that I had ever heard short of a nuclear explosion. The entire world lit up by more than a few candelas. My helmet polarized just after the event happened, but it was still a little too late, and the image of the spaceship firing was burned into my retinas. I could hear the noise of the energy beam burning everything it touched and more. The Covenant had decided that they were going to win and had decided to start early.
As soon as my helmet depolarized I witnessed several dozen SAMs firing at the cruiser. Bumblebee joined with a trio of slugs from his gauss cannon before turning back to fire at the more immediately dangerous infantry. The missiles streaked through the air at high speed before half of them were shot down by the point defense lasers that the CCS-class cruiser sported but the rest detonated right against its hull.
The enemy ship had taken down its shields to fire, and it had paid the price. The explosions that painted the side of the ship looked painfully small from here, but I knew that the cruiser's alarms were blaring and that several of its crew had been killed by the barrage. If we were lucky, they might've even damaged its engines or its core.
Suddenly I heard a noise even louder than before. I saw a flash of light much like that of a gauss cannon would make. This flash of light was a whole lot brighter and a whole lot bigger. The first MAC round was quickly followed by a second one, and they both hit the cruiser that had begun glassing early while it was unshielded. The two rounds seemed to go completely through without doing much damage, but soon enough I started seeing explosions all over the hull of the ship. It didn't take long before the ship collapsed and exploded in the biggest detonation yet.
I looked up at the sky, following the trail of superheated air particles as I went. The trail got lost amongst the clouds, but I knew that it had been the Inconvenience that had fired on the ship. Brooks was always the last to leave when a battle is lost and he kept on fighting for as long as he could. He was one hell of a captain, for all the good it did to humanity.
"All remaining units!" the Hill's commander's voice blasted through my speakers. "Civilians and wounded are evacuated. Head down to the central landing pad in an… orderly fashion."
I pulled my eyes away from the sky and looked over my shoulder to see seven pelicans flying away in a loose formation. Three of them were hit by Covenant AA fire, two of those three came crashing to the ground shortly afterwards. I could hear the explosions, but I couldn't see them.
"Did he say central landing pad?" Bumblebee asked.
"I'm afraid he did," Angel affirmed.
"Shit."
"It's far," I admitted. "Snark, Angel, Caboose, and Scarecrow, start heading back to the landing pad. Grass, Bumblebee, and me will cover you."
"Roger that."
"Got it."
"Good luck Sarge."
"Why don't you wish me good luck?" Bumblebee complained.
"Oh, shut up."
The four men left their covers after emptying as much rounds from their magazines as they could. They didn't fall back in an orderly fashion, instead simply sprinting away from the frontline while trying to avoid enemy fire. It was probably the most sensible tactic that they could've used.
"Keep on full-auto," I told Grass. "And now would be a good time to start firing again."
"Aye, aye," Bumblebee snapped.
Three rounds hit as many different elites in the span of a few seconds and then the gauss cannon went silent.
"Bee? Beee, come in," I called to him.
"Shit, needle pierced the power cable."
"Well this is gonna suck," Grass said almost resignedly.
With only three of us to fire at a company-sized enemy force it was surely going to suck. The gauss cannon was inoperable because of a damn needle round piercing its energy source and we were very far away from our evacuation point. Did I mention that we had to actually hold for a while?
Then of course I was forced to abandon my thoughts in order to save my life. I fired in full automatic bursts at anything and everything that left cover. Grunts and jackals were usually wounded while elites simply shrugged off my shots. I sustained my fire on them to drain their shields a little bit, but I was still walking backwards at a steady pace. Bumblebee and Grass were doing the same thing with their weapons but weren't being as successful in account of the smaller caliber that the MA5s had.
"Sarge, Bumblebee!" Grass cried. "See that hangar?"
"I see it," I replied, turning my head around. "What about it?"
"Might be a hog inside."
"Bee, go check it out," I ordered.
Bumblebee fired a couple of quick bursts and ran towards the hangar. A trail of plasma followed him as he ran to the building. After a few moments I had to return my attention back to the advancing enemies and focus on trying to take out as many of them as I could before we had to run back. The rest of the squad had only been gone for a minute, less than half the time that they needed for reaching the landing pads. They wouldn't be the first to hop in, in fact, they would probably volunteer to hold off any enemies until we arrived.
"Bingo!"
"Sarge?" Grass asked me.
"Bee, bring it here, I'll take the turret."
"Way ahead of you."
Ten seconds later I heard the familiar roar of a warthogs engine and saw the vehicle slide to a full stop a few meters away from me. I ran towards it and hopped in the turret while Grass took slow steps backwards, fending off any grunts or jackals that got too close to her. It surprised me that even though they had weapons they were charging at us. The covvies were probably as low on ammunition as we were. The only difference between them and us was that we knew how to handle that without sending half our numbers to their deaths.
I pulled back the lever on the hog's M41 LAAG. The noise was a sign that something great was coming. I spun around and aimed at the covvies. As I depressed the triggers I felt that great something rumbling all through my body and the vehicle. The M41 machine gun roared as it fired 12.7x99mm rounds at five hundred and fifty rounds per minute. Only a couple of them were needed to burn through an elite's shield. Everything else needed to be hit only once.
The first wave of attackers fell to my fire faster than you could say "Die motherfucker, die!" and then the rest just stared at the carnage for a minute. I killed three elites with my machine gun and sprayed rounds on the rest of the soldiers. Grunts and jackals were torn completely apart by the heavy armor piercing rounds. Colorful blood flew everywhere, leaving splatters on the ground. The smaller aliens panicked and ran for cover while their superiors did the exact same thing. A couple of carbine shots hit the shield of my machine gun and I ducked on instinct. I aimed at the offending elite and killed it with a short burst of fire.
"Scoot!" Grass ordered Caboose.
"What?"
She fired at an elite and sent it flying for cover. "I'm driving. Move."
"Do it," I said.
"Fine, fine."
Bumblebee hopped over to the passenger's seat and started firing from his position, adding even more lead to that of my machine gun.
I could feel every round as it left the three-barreled monster of a gun, the stocks bounced off my shoulders whenever that happened. I could tell that I would have a line of bruises on both my shoulders next morning. I could see the cases of every round fly to the side and heard them clattering on the warthog's floor or on the ground.
"Hold on!"
I put one foot back and held on tighter to the turret while keeping my thumbs pressed down on the triggers.
The warthog lurched forward against a chest-high wall. It broke through the weakened structure and slammed an elite that had been taking cover behind it against a wall further back.. The elite was cut in half by the impact and died instantly. As Grass hit the reverse a little piece of the elite got caught in one of the vehicle's tusks and decided to join the ride.
"Hunters!" Bumblebee warned.
"See them."
I turned my turret while Grass moved at high speed away from the enemy fire. She managed to give me a good angle to fire while avoiding crashing with anything. I saw walls and structures flashing by but never stopped pressing the triggers. One of the hunters hunched down in a defensive position and spun slowly to keep its shield facing me, but the sheer amount of ammo flying at it was more than the shield could handle and soon it was dead on the floor.
The hunter's bond partner roared in anger. They tend to do that when their best friend dies.
Grass somehow managed to place the warthog in an open stretch of ground while facing the hunter. She revved the engine a couple of times for drama and then floored it. I jerked backwards while firing at the hunter. My rounds were hitting it all over the place, but the alien was so enraged that it didn't seem to feel anything. The hunter was sprinting at us even as the warthog gained speed.
"We're gonna die!" Bumblebee warned us.
The back of my head thought about how hunters were heavier than the warthog by more than one thousand kilos just as our vehicle collided with the creature's shoulder. The hunter was instantly killed. No matter how heavy it was it couldn't compare to the sheer force the vehicle gained through speed.
Us, on the other hand, suddenly found ourselves jumping off of the warthog as it flipped sideways. I landed pretty hard but maintained consciousness. Grass jumped early and rolled on the ground before coming to a halt. Bumblebee simply fell out of the warthog. For some reason he fell on his feet and in a combat stance. From my perspective it was quite impressive really. He helped Grass up and half-led her, half-dragged her to the warthog for cover.
I shook my head and made a dash for the overturned vehicle. Slid home just as the covvies started firing at me. The hog was on its side, meaning that the turret was still intact, even if it wasn't available for use. I took a few quick potshots at the loudest aliens before taking cover once again. I looked at Grass and Bumblebee, doing the same thing on the other side of the vehicle.
"We lift on three!" I ordered. "One, two, three!"
Bumblebee and me lifted from the bottom while Grass pushed from the top. It was at times like this that I wished Scarecrow would never leave my side. He was as strong as they came. The warthog didn't seem to be moving at first, but soon enough it was back on its wheels. I immediately hopped back on the turret and fired a long burst to ensure that our attackers would keep their heads down.
"Take us to the landing pads," I said. "Now!"
Grass complied and drove through the camp faster than I had ever driven a warthog. She managed to avoid every single obstacle with deftness. I was impressed because she kept the car from sliding to the side too heavily and all in all had a very smooth driving style.
Eventually plasma stopped coming at us as we left the Covenant's weapon range. There were several buildings in between them and us. The covvies were no doubt rushing towards us even as we drove. The warthog finally reached the landing pads after what seemed like an eternity. Only two pelicans were still there. The rest had taken off a few minutes ago.
"Sarge," Scarecrow greeted. "Let's get the hell out of here."
"Agreed."
"Over here," he pointed.
My team hopped on the pelican ship just as the other craft took off. It drew some plasma fire but made it out without problems.
I put one foot on the pelican and looked back. From this point I could see most of the city while it burned. Centralia had been the first major UNSC landhold to fall. Several others had quickly followed. We had been redirected here, to Shinajh to try and hold one major city in hope of victory. It wasn't until the UNSC fleet was decisively defeated that we started losing.
"Sarge, what are you waiting for?" I heard Sheppard yell.
"Nothing," I murmured. "Just taking one last look."
The remaining cruiser powered up its main cannon, a sure sign that the Inconvenience and whatever warships were still up there were beginning to turn around, marking our defeat as decisive.
I climbed to the pelican's cargo bay and with that simple move the last surviving member of the UNSC left the planet to be glassed.
So there it is, I hope you enjoyed it. As per usual, thanks to Sniper Fodder for proof-reading this chapter.
To TheUltraGrands: you asked me how many chapters this fic would have. The answer is: I don't know. Originally I wanted to hit forty or fifty chapters, but this story took a life of its own. I'm going to hit a hundred pretty soon and I don't plan on stopping there. I want to have at least one-fifty chapters. Hell, I might even make it to two hundred.
-casquis