The Life

by casquis

The Great War was a long one, millions made it, more didn't. Frank is an ODST, a human just like us, that has managed to survive the most grueling battles for years. With so much experience under his belt he has some amazing stories to tell. This are the life stories of an immature, not-all-in-there, and talented Marine just living, fighting, and being plain badass during the war.

101. Uppergap

Chapter CI: Uppergap

August 12, 2543 (UNSC Calendar)/

Uppergap, Lambari, Campo Sorrisco System

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"Tri-dimensional combat is a bitch."- unknown

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"What do you need us to do?" I asked without even bothering to see who was calling. The sound of the explosions that destroyed the pylons was fading away.

"Sergeant, this is Commander Albaf."

"I read you," I said lazily.

"Tanks and AFVs are already moving in on the city, I need you to relocate here and provide support for the Eighth Column. It consists mostly of Scorpions and Armadillos, although there are two M313 HRVs in there as well. Those need to be protected at all costs."

I eyed the waypoint in my HUD's map. Our new location was only a few blocks away, within quick reach. We had been redirected to a building that flanked one of Uppergap's main avenues. No doubt it would be becoming the home of a pitched battle soon enough. Snark would get one hell of a sniper alley though. He'd probably rack up his officer killcount in the double digits before we had to relocate again.

"Roger ma'am," I replied. "We're on our way."

"Good. Albaf out."

"Ok, you heard the lady, let's get moving."

"No rest for the wicked, eh?" Angel joked.

"I thought they were the wicked," Snark put in with his usual sarcastic tone.

"That's what I meant kid."

Snark stood up. "Ok seriously, I am twenty four years old. Don't call me kid."

"I was already toilet trained when you were still pissing in your diapers," Angel told him condescendingly. "Show some respect."

"Cool it," I warned. "Grass, I want you to take point."

"Sarge," she acknowledged with a nod.

"Everyone else, safeties off and helmets on, let's get out of this building."

The climb down was easy, we were only seven stories up after all. The entire building had been target of some sort of bombardment because chunks of it were missing altogether and the parts that had survived had all the paint and flooring peeled off until only the dull gray polycrete base remained. It looked like it was about to collapse any second, but the Colonial Administration always made sure that buildings were built sturdy. After all, if one of their buildings collapsed it would make for very bad PR.

The street here was just as blasted and damaged as the rest of the city. Parts of the buildings that we had just been occupying had fallen here, serving as both obstacles and cover. Since Albaf hadn't ordered us to get moving as fast as possible the piles of debris worked to our advantage.

Grass moved ahead of us, she did a weird crab walk to ensure that she always remained behind cover on at least one side. She made a point to keep her eyes on the other side, this section of the city was still under enemy control and jackal snipers could be lurking anywhere. I could tell that she was nervous, perhaps I should've sent someone else as lead after her nerve-racking experience on the side of a building. No, I definitely should've.

"Stop," she warned us.

God, it was good to have our helmet radios working again.

"Enemy patrol, one elite and three grunts."

"Bit small isn't it?" Bumblebee asked.

"Sucks for them," Caboose said. "Even under an organized offensive they are still arrogant assholes."

"What the hell happened to the brutes?" Scarecrow asked. "I thought their fleets were segregated."

"Can it," I snapped. "Scarecrow, Bumblebee, move up to Grass' position. Take out the patrol."

"Yessiree."

"You're on point after that," I told Bumblebee. The man would take it as a punishment for having a big mouth and so would Grass. In reality, it was a clever maneuver of mine to have her back with the rest of the squad and make her feel calm.

"Smooth," Schitzo complimented.

I have my moments.

I pressed myself against a pile of rubble and waited for the four bursts of gunfire. There were three short bursts followed by two longer ones. After a moment that was followed by a single shot.

"Clear."

"Ok, move your asses, someone must've heard that," I prompted.

We ran while doing our best to keep ourselves low for a block and a half. It was better to be spotted by an alien in the distance than be pinned down in a nearly indefensible position. In that short run the battle started for real. I heard the familiar noise of the armadillo's autocannons and the scorpion's main guns. After the initial salvo I could make out plasma explosions. Then everything went to hell.

"Sheeit," Scarecrow muttered. "We better move it."

We were forced to stop abruptly in the next intersection. A large group of elites was walking towards our main attacking force. There were several grunts in there as well. We kept our heads behind rubble or abandoned cars as we waited for them to pass us. The ground shook as a pair of hunters walked less than ten meters away from us, oblivious to our presence. What really had me worried though, was something else entirely.

"What the hell is that?" Angel asked.

"I don't know," I replied quietly, motioning for him to keep his head down.

I grabbed my pistol and connected the camera to my HUD. A small screen appeared over the ammunition count showing what I was aiming at. I carefully put it over my cover so that I could see what was happening behind my back. Most of the infantry had already walked past us, but there were still some latecomers trying to catch up, mostly grunts with heavy weapons.

Behind all of them was something else entirely.

It looked like a wraith. Kinda. It had the same half-circle base, although it was a lot thinner than that of the wraith and a lot larger. The vehicle was perhaps twice as wide as a regular wraith and at least a couple meters longer. The circular base some sort of supporting body about two meters wide that leaned slightly backwards. That was topped off by a rotating turret with a long cannon resembling an oversized beam rifle.

"So the covvies finally got themselves a decent tank," I mused. "Not good."

"We gotta warn them," Scarecrow said.

"Agreed. Eliza, you read me?"

"I always read you Frank."

"Good, I'm seeing what looks like a new Covenant vehicle, I'm connecting you right now."

"I'm in." Eliza waited for a full second, no doubt an incredibly long amount of time by AIs standards. "Design configuration matched with Covenant aesthetics, even if the vehicle is a little bit more angular than usual for them. Multiple hatches indicate the necessity for a crew of more than one, probably two or three. Long barrel of the main gun indicates that it is meant for straight-line strikes and not curved mortar bombings. The cannon's similarity to the beam rifle would make it seem like they fire the same type of ammunition although they probably fire plasma rounds similar to those of Covenant long-range artillery. There are four automated turrets identical to those of a standard wraith, two on either side, in addition to one manned plasma cannon. Temporary designation Daemon. That is D-A-E-M-O-N."

"Did you just broadcast that to the entire ground forces?" I asked.

"And the fleet."

"Good for you Liz," I cheered her. "I assume you spotted no usable weaknesses."

"The daemon didn't seem to have any heat vents like the wraith, so no. It's probably on par with the wraith on plating, so a couple of shots from a scorpion or one from a rhino should take it out."

"Got it, thanks. Oh, and before I forget, nice touch on the name. Daemon. I like it."

"I'm glad you do Sergeant, call me when you need me."

"I will, Reaper out."

We waited a few minutes while the rest of the Covenant force passed us. Once we were in the clear we ran across the intersection and pressed ourselves to the walls of the buildings. The buildings here were shorter, perhaps only about a hundred or so meters tall, but they still had plenty of windows for a jackal to pop out of. The buildings could probably work to our advantage if the UNSC sent Falcons or Pelicans as well. The covvies would have a hard time shooting them down with their fast flying banshees, and our own aircraft could shoot back as well. So long as the aircraft stayed beneath the top of the buildings they would be safe from enemy fire.

Crashing against the walls and AA fire was still an issue though.

"There's our target," Bumblebee said. "Looks cozy."

Compared to the last building we had been in, it did look pretty damn cozy. It was just shy of a hundred meters tall and was very old-fashioned. The design was blocky and the buildings itself was pretty much a brick with windows. The only saving grace that this building had was that said windows were quite small, they would serve as excellent sniping positions while protecting us from the majority of incoming plasma.

"Snark, Caboose, and Bumblebee, clear the building. Make sure that the first five floors are empty."

"All of 'em?" Snark asked.

"No, actually I was kidding. You only have to make sure that the first one is clear. I also used that order to imply that you were free to go fu-"

"Ok Sarge!" Snark interrupted, exasperated. "I get it. Clear the five floors."

"That wasn't so hard, was it?"

The four of us waited quietly while the scouting fireteam made their way across the street and into the building. We took cover behind a bunch of columns in another building across the street. We had quite a view of all four directions here and could put up a nice fight if anyone spotted us. Scarecrow apparently didn't care that we could be spotted because he propped his back against the wall and let himself fall into a sitting position. The rest of us glanced back at him and Grass shrugged at me.

"Scarecrow, you ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he said after a moment.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Ok," I shrugged. His vitals were fine.

"It's just that…"

"What?" I asked. I didn't need to be a psychologist to know that something was troubling him.

"I got this weird feeling, that something's wrong."

I laughed. "Then the feeling is a little late my friend. Everything's wrong in this universe, at least for us."

He chuckled humorlessly. "It's not that, I just have this gut feeling. And to top it all off today's my baby brother's birthday."

"Really?" I asked. "The quarterback?"

"That one," he confirmed with a smile. "He's already a starter and it's only his second year."

"I take it success runs in the family," I half-stated, half-asked, sitting down next to him. I could see Angel shaking his head to my right. No doubt he wanted to be sitting down too.

"You could say that," Scarecrow shrugged. "Dad used to be a professional boxer. Did pretty well too."

"What's his name?"

"George Sutton."

"Sounds familiar."

Scarecrow laughed at that. Not that it was incredibly funny, but the joke seemed to relax him a little.

"Come on." I offered him my hand. "You can send him a card once this is over, then he can introduce us to some of his lady friends."

"Count me in for that," Angel said. "You game Grass?"

"Sure, I'll send you a picture."

"I want a copy of that," Scarecrow joked. "Make that two."

"Men," Grass said as if annoyed before laughing softly to herself.

"Sarge, we're clear," Bumblebee came in through the radio. "Building is as empty as it can get." He thought about what he had just said for a moment. "Save for us."

"Good one Bee," Snark complimented. "How you made it past basic escapes me."

"Well, you were actually approved when you went through the preliminary physical, weren't you?"

Ouch.

"Cool it," Caboose stepped in. He obviously didn't enjoy those two fighting all the time and wanted to have no part in their discussions. Especially in their stupid discussions. "We're clear, just get down here Sarge. Please."

I propped my back against one column and motioned for Grass and Scarecrow to get ready. Angel and I checked that there weren't any covvies within sight and gave them the go sign.

"Ok, go!"

The two of them ran while keeping themselves low. Our immediate surroundings were quiet, despite the explosions and gunfire in the background it still made me nervous, as if someone was just waiting to get the jump on us.

"We got you covered," Grass told us. "Go!"

I waited for Angel to step out of cover first. Partly malicious of me, if someone shot at us they would most likely shoot at him first. I didn't do it intentionally, but years of fighting had that survival instinct hardwired into my body. I jumped off the sidewalk half a second behind him and started sprinting across the street. It was more difficult than it sounds. The eight-lane avenue was divided by a wide median with scorched grass on it. That is without even counting the abandoned bus and the burnt-out cars.

Apparently covvies are idiots, because whatever alien saw us decided to shoot at me first.

I stopped dead as a beam flew less than an inch in front of my visor. I turned around and tried to return to the other building that I had been using as cover. Yet another beam cut me off, this one little over a foot away from my chest.

Ok, now he's just fucking with me.

"Kill that fucker!" I yelled as I changed direction yet again and lunged for a car. I landed on the ground and slid for a few meters before I had to pull my legs to cover, barely avoiding a third beam that would've burned one leg clean off. I started taking long breaths to calm myself while Grass and Scarecrow opened fire. The trail of ionized particles that beam rifles left were even better than breadcrumbs, you could spot the shooter from pretty far off if you knew what to look for.

Vapor from an SRS is pretty bad too, but most shots leave no visible trace.

"Ok, we got you covered!" Scarecrow yelled. "Make a run for it!"

That was the last thing that I wanted to do right now. So I did it anyways.

I felt another beam singe the back of my armor and decided to dive the last couple of meters. I landed with a pretty hard bang and slid along the polished marble until I hit the wall. Grass and Scarecrow paid me no mind as they peppered the enemy sniper's position with bullets. They kept the pressure on for another second before one loud bang rang out.

"Headshot," Snark said smugly. "Elite, by the way, major."

"Good for you buddy," Caboose congratulated him with an exaggerated happy tone. "I've never seen someone do that before."

"Making that sort of joke is my job!" Snark complained. "Sarge can snipe almost as good as I can, if you take my jokes away from me then I have no purpose in this squad and I'll be killed!"

"That's the weirdest logic I've ever heard," I commented as I stood up. I couldn't snipe half as well as he could, but I wasn't about to admit it.

"Gotta admit, it works like that in the movies," Bumblebee said.

"Only in your movies," Grass explained to him.

"Please, you've watched half my collection. The only reason that you didn't burn through the other half is because we were deployed."

"Wrong," Snark said, "the only reason that she isn't burnt through the other half is because the other half is porn."

"See? You're as funny as always," Caboose told him. "Now shut the fuck up."

"If you weren't the same rank as me…"

"Please," Grass interrupted, "rank doesn't matter here, we're pretty much slaves to Sarge."

"You into that?" Angel asked. "Slave and master thing? Whips and chains?"

"I've tried it, not my thing."

And with that, this stupid conversation came to an end. I thanked whichever god would listen to me for giving her more self-confidence. I thanked him a lot.

Snark, Caboose, and Bumblebee had set up shop on the fourth floor. Snark was already piling up desks so that he could fire from a prone position near the windows. The other two were piling up desks and overturning them against the windows for mild cover. While they did that I tied an emergency hose to the emergency door's handle. Angel grabbed a piece of broken glass and shattered it on the floor right outside the elevator doors. Not as good as alarm sensors, but they would do the job well enough.

"Now what?" Angel asked after we were done fortifying the place.

"Now we wait," I said simply. I looked around the section of the building, the walls were still intact and there was surprisingly little debris in the corners. This place seemed to have avoided the bulk of the fighting, let alone the thermobaric explosions.

Snark kept watch out the window while the rest of us chatted and waited. Angel had mounted his SAW on the edge of a broken window and was sitting underneath it while munching on some M&M's. Grass was leafing through a magazine that she had found on the opposite wall while Caboose and Bumblebee discussed the best way to kill an enraged brute. Scarecrow had decided that a powernap was the best option while he waited. That left me to keep watch down the other side of the building. Snark could cover one side of the avenue and of the street from his position, but he couldn't cover the other side, that was left to me.

While Snark checked the side where our troops would be coming from I was left to check the side where a large enemy column was bound to appear from. To do that I searched for a broken window and placed a chair on the intact window next to that one. From there I could watch comfortably without anyone being able to spot me and I had a nice firing position within easy reach.

Smart? Probably not. Comfortable? Hell yes.

"The Covenant column is falling back," Snark suddenly informed us. "They'll get here in about two minutes by the looks of it."

"Ok, I guess break time is over," Angel groaned as he got up. "Come on big guy, wake up."

"I'm awake," Scarecrow told him.

I looked back out the window and cursed. "We've got a flight of banshees inbound."

"Flying under the buildings?" Bumblebee asked.

"Yes, going pretty slow by the looks of it."

"Want me to take them out?"

I thought about it for a second. The three banshees were traveling the length of the avenue, they were likely heading towards friendly forces to bomb the hell out of them. "Yes."

"Got it," he nodded as he grabbed his rocket launcher.

"I want everyone to pummel the third banshee with gunfire, Scarecrow, you think you can hit it with your 40 millimeter?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Good, as soon as it flies by we bring it down, Bee, you've got the other two."

"Sounds like a plan."

The three purple craft were going pretty slow and had put some distance between one another. These were military pilots, not acrobats, they didn't want to risk crashing into each other if they had to avoid a bunch of angry missiles. That or they were brutes purposely delaying their arrival to support elite-led troops. You don't have to be Einstein to know that those two didn't get along.

The first banshee screamed by.

Then the second one.

"Fire," I ordered.

Six ODSTs let out their weapons in full automatic fire and a grenade at the last banshee. It might've been designed to take small arms fire, but a light machine gun coupled with three assault rifles, a battle rifle, a submachine gun, and a grenade did pack one hell of a punch. The banshee lost one wing to the explosion before several bullets made it through the craft's body and killed the pilot.

"Get some!" Bumblebee cried as he fired.

The M19 surface-to-surface missile flew out of the launch tube and immediately banked sideways to follow the second banshee.

"Eat this!" he yelled as he fired his second rocket.

The second banshee had no chance, the rocket slammed right into its tail, destroying half the craft and killing the pilot in the process. The lead banshee had a second of warning, it tried pulling up to escape the walls that the buildings formed and to have more maneuvering room, but the missile quickly caught up with it and hit it on the side, destroying it completely and bringing whatever was left back to the ground in a flaming wreck.

"Reload! We need to be ready for when Eighth Column needs some hell rained upon the covvies."

My order was followed by the sound of magazines hitting the floor and of slides being cocked. I never got tired of that sound, it was empowering and intimidating.

"Eliza, patch me to whomever is in charge of the Eighth Column," I requested.

"Hold. Done."

"Staff Sergeant, this is Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Lavriv, I am told you will be providing support."

"That is correct, we can see your column from our position, we're about ten blocks away from you."

"Acknowledged, what equipment do you have?" I could hear the explosions in the background.

"Standard squad small arms," I replied. "Nothing else."

"Shit, and you're supposed to give us support?"

"That is correct, sir."

"This sounds like we're rescuing you!"

I sighed. "Sir, is there any target in particular you want us to take out? Soft target."

He knew exactly what I was doing and went along with it. "There is an elite, either the gunner or the commander of one of those Daemon tanks, he sometimes looks out the hatch to assess the battlefield and give some orders."

"Consider it done," I told him. "Snark?"

"I got the tank in my sights, should be a matter of time… and there he is."

Snark's rifle boomed.

"Sir?"

"Good one," he acknowledged. "I'll tell you what targets we need taken out and when. Lavriv out."

"What kind of accent was that?" Angel asked after Lavriv ended the conversation.

"East European," Scarecrow said with a shrug.

"Slovenian," Grass asserted. "Definitely Slovenian."

"How the hell do you know that?" Snark asked.

"Well, I lived most my life in Europe, so I have a pretty good grip on the accents."

"I'm from Mexico and I have a hard time differentiating Colombian and Venezuelan accents."

"Aren't they in the same union now?" Bumblebee asked.

"They weren't when I left," I shrugged. "But it's possible, the only news from Earth I follow are those regarding football."

"American?" Bumblebee inquired.

"Both."

"Definitely Slovenian," Grass repeated herself.

"Is there anything you don't know?" Caboose asked. He was definitely annoyed by her deducing that faster than him. He was supposed to be of Russian origin and Slovenia was part of the Balkan States, which meant that it neighbored Ukraine, which had pretty much been a part of Russia ever since it seceded from the Soviet Union. His reasoning made him conclude that he should've figured that out before Grass, but his logic was as flawed as was my grammar in this paragraph.

"She doesn't know what a guy looks like without clothes on," Angel teased.

"Are you calling me a lesbian?" Grass asked. "Or a virgin?"

"Whichever you find more offensive," he told her. "Or both."

I interrupted them before they got into a discussion regarding the rights of gay people. It wouldn't be the first time that they went down that road. The funny thing is that they switched the roles of liberal democrat and conservative republican whenever they felt like it. I was often left wondering if they actually cared about the issue or were just looking for an excuse to start a shouting match.

"If any of you two start another fight I swear to god I'll have you returned to your original units!" I snapped violently. That certainly grabbed their attention. "Now shut. The fuck. Up."

"Bravo Sarge," Bumblebee said after clapping twice.

"Bravo indeed Francisco," Shitzo mocked.

As soon as those two shut up everyone moved to the windows. The Eighth Column was already within sight and the first of the retreating covvies had run by our building. The surprise attack by the UNSC had left the covvies mostly defenseless, they had just begun to assemble an effective defense now. The sheer amount of purple that I could see coming from the direction opposite the Eighth Column was evidence of their newfound decisiveness.

"Sir," I started.

"We see them," Lavriv muttered. "We're going to need your sniper as soon as they meet us."

"He's… eager," I told him. Snark was actually giddy at the prospect of having an entire shooting range's worth of targets.

"He'd better be. We'll close in as much as we can, to deny them their wraiths. Those tanks, however…"

"We might be able to kill a couple," I said, looking at Bumblebee, who nodded back at me. "But as I said, we just have small arms with us."

"Understood… Get those 'Dillos up front! I'll see you soon."

The covvies force that was meeting Lavriv's was more than a match for them. I could count three of the Daemon tanks as well as half a dozen Wraiths. At the front were several Ghosts and a few Revenants. They were moving slowly in order for the regular infantry to keep up. Bulking up their numbers were three Shadow troop transports as well. From the looks of it they were just under battalion strength, same as the Eighth.

Once they clashed the battle was bound to turn ugly. Very ugly.

The Covenant fired the first shot. Once they realized that Lavriv was moving his troops as close to theirs as possible to avoid the mortar fire. The UNSC infantry scattered and took cover, but the Armadillos and Scorpions had to stop or speed up in order to avoid the initial blasts. Even then a couple were hit. One Scorpion took a glancing blow, damaging one of the tracks while an Armadillo was put out of commission from a direct hit. I didn't see any of the crew escape the burning craft.

The UNSC's counter-attack was a lot more devastating. The Scorpions fired directly at the offending Wraiths while the Armadillos used their autocannons to kill as many ghosts as they could. The human forces were now firing as they went, reducing the distance between both groups. The vehicles lurched forward while the infantry did their best to keep up.

One block before they reached our building the Scorpions stopped. They positioned themselves behind buildings or rubble to protect themselves while keeping their turrets free to move around. Half a block later the Armadillos did the same thing, leaving the infantry to form the first line of defense against the attacking covvies while the vehicles would provide support.

The covvies did roughly the same thing, only that their Ghosts pushed forward ahead of the sprinting infantry to meet the marines head on. The image reminded me a little bit too much of a medieval cavalry charge. Those never ended well for the regular infantry.

"Now would be as good a time as any to intervene Sergeant," Lavriv suggested.

"You heard the Commander," I snapped at my squad. "Intervene."

Snark emptied his rifle's magazine at the charging ghosts, taking out four pilots with an equal number of bullets. I used the three-round burst to hit grunts, taking down two of them. Bumblebee took a more direct approach and blasted two ghosts with his M12 while Angel managed to stop one with his M247SAW. As soon as we were done firing a rain of missiles was fired, taking down even more ghosts. We had managed to take down half of the ghosts by the time they hit the frontline.

Several marines were splattered by a few ghosts while others were hit with the twin plasma cannons. I saw one marine jump aside from a charging ghost and clothesline the grunt pilot, snapping its neck but breaking his own arm in the process.

"Might try that sometime," Scarecrow muttered. "Even if it's just for the vid."

The ghosts were now turning around to strafe the surviving foot soldiers one more time before escaping from the more powerful tanks and AFVs. A few of them were hit by the autocannons or the tanks' turrets, but most of them managed to escape without doing too much damage.

That's covvie strategy for you, waste two thirds of your most agile vehicles in hopes of sending the enemy in disarray. It might've worked, but these marines were one tough bunch, and they shrugged off the deaths of their friends before taking cover and opening up on the most eager of the charging infantry. The bulk of the UNSC's forces were arriving now, with both elephants taking a turn to avoid making targets of themselves and to cover the flanks. From the looks of the huge vehicles one of them was a mobile hospital and the other one a mobile command center.

A couple of the Armadillos moved forward and scraped against the buildings before stopping behind piles of rubble. Those two would serve as direct support for the infantry while the others took their time taking out targets of opportunity.

"Snark, climb a few floors, I want you to take out as many officers as you can. Don't make yourself a target."

The sniper folded his rifle's bipod and stood up before nodding at me. He ran to the stairs, only stopping to complain about the hose securing the door. He untied it and disappeared.

"I don't want anyone firing unless I tell them to," I ordered. "The covvies already know we are here, let's not make ourselves a bigger target."

While the battle unfolded below us I looked for high-value targets. Most of the infantry was grunts and jackals with the occasional elite, but most of them could be handled with ease by the Marines. The higher-ranking forces had stayed in the back while the disposable ones had been sent forward to prove at the strengths of their opponents.

A loud shot rang out and I caught sight of an elite falling far behind the frontline. A few rounds of plasma flew above us and hit the building. Snark informed me that he was ok and that he had just taken down an ultra. He was already switching floors. I started looking for any jackal snipers that might be trying to kill a human counterpart.

"There, Bumblebee, you see it?" I asked, pointing at a wraith tank that was emerging from behind the corner of a building to fire.

A single missile flew straight at the heavily-armored vehicle. The HEAT charge detonated right above the driver's hatch and directly into the turret. The explosion completely wrecked the barrel of the wraith's gun, rendering it completely useless for anything other than cover. An angry elite jumped out of the useless vehicle while drawing its sidearm. I couldn't resist adding insult to injury and took the alien out with a quick headshot. Its weakened shields didn't do anything to stop the bullets flying at it.

"I'll call that an assist," Bumblebee told me.

A couple of covvies fired at my position, breaking the last remaining intact windows and scorching some of the inside walls. They had spotted us but didn't deem us enough of a threat to commit more firepower to our position.

I saw a two green fuel rods fly straight at one of the Armadillos. The explosive rounds hit the frontal armor head on, melting it off but not doing any un-repairable damage. I traced the origin of those rounds and killed the grunt carrying the Covenant's counterpart to our rocket launcher. The grunt fell to the floor with a theatrical spin and I took advantage of the distraction to kill a jackal next to it that jumped to the side in fright.

"Can we fire now?" Caboose asked.

"Feel free," I said. "Might as well do some damage now that we're made."

My whole squad opened fire. They were smart and no one picked the same target. They each looked for an elite or a grunt with heavy weaponry. Their concentrated fire allowed them to take out Covenant infantry with relative ease. The covvies had nowhere to hide since we were several meters above them, making cover relatively useless. Several elites fell to our fire before they realized that there were more of us up here than they originally thought.

We were forced to dodge behind cover as plasma and needles rained on our position, scorching the walls and ceiling.

"Snark, draw their fire," I yelled.

"On it."

Three shots rang out and I could picture three elites falling down with half their heads missing. A lot of the enemy fire was redirected and we were free to take potshots at the covvies again.

"Shit, Deamon tank!" Angel warned everyone.

"Sir, you see it?" I asked the LC.

"We see it, but none of our Scorpions has a bead on it."

I was about to suggest a plan of action to him when the Daemon fired. It was the first time I had seen one in action and it surprised me completely. The shot sounded like that of a Wraith but several times louder, it shook the entire block. The round itself looked like a very large, elongated plasma rifle round. It hit a position where two marines had set up a turret.

After the explosion cleared out the only thing that remained of those two marines was half a torso and a twitching arm.

"Holy fucking shit in hell!"

"Kill that motherfucker!" Caboose urged.

Bumblebee fired his tow missiles in quick succession at the tank. They both flew in a straight line and hit the base of the Daemon. Both detonations rocked the tank backwards, lifting its front and then bringing it crashing down on the ground once again. The tank started letting out smoke from where it was hit, but it kept moving. Suddenly several small explosions pinged off its armor as the damaged Armadillo fired at it. The tank's turret moved to the side almost calmly and fired a single shot at the offending vehicle, completely blowing it up. The Daemon was finally brought down when three more missiles from the marines down on the street slammed into it.

"And they have more of that?" Grass asked rhetorically.

"Game faces on people," I said. "Let's bring some hell."

From up here we had an incredible vantage point. The covvies were almost directly beneath us, they had nowhere to hide. Grass, Caboose, and Scarecrow use their assault rifles to kill lower-ranking elites and grunts. Angel had a less precise weapon so he simply provided suppressing fire and forced anyone that took aim at us to think twice about their decision.

"Sir, you've got another tank coming up!" I warned. "This one is flanked by a Revenant!"

"I see it, Sergeant, I need you to draw some fire."

What?

"What?"

"Sergeant, I need you to-"

"I heard you the first time, sir. Why?"

"I sent a team to flank the Covenant forces, we don't want them looking anywhere other than us or you."

I sighed reluctantly. I didn't really want to paint a bull's-eye on my chest, but what the Lieutenant Commander was saying made sense. If we managed to draw their eyes away from their rear or flank we could catch them unawares and end this battle a whole lot quicker. Everybody won. Except the covvies, they died.

"Fine. I'll cook something up."

I turned around and looked at my squad. They looked tired, we had been fighting almost constantly for a whole day and things weren't looking up. I eyed them one by one and waited for them to nod. Once they all did I nodded back to them.

"Snark, can you remain here by yourself?"

"As long as you don't let anyone through I'll be fine," he said. "If someone decides to bomb this building I guess I could be in trouble."

"Stick to the lower floors then."

"Roger that Sarge, good luck."

We left the floor through the emergency stairs. Once we were on the bottom floor I made sure to lead my team outside through a door that didn't mark us as targets. We crossed the street with no trouble. The Covenant was still a dozen meters from the intersection, same as the UNSC, and they couldn't spot us from where they stood. This allowed us to remain out of sight as they focused on the larger force directly in front of them.

The building in front of us was a more modern one, sleek and with curved walls. The side we were in front of had no doors, but plenty of windows. Unfortunately, all of them were still intact. I kicked one and stepped back as the crystals fell before jumping inside the building. Under normal circumstances an alarm would've started ringing, but power was still out in the city. I walked through the immense lobby and took cover behind the reception desk before signaling for half my team to join me.

"What's the plan?" Scarecrow asked me.

"We set up positions there and there," I told him, pointing to some large spots immediately outside the building. "Behind those… ummm... How are those things called?"

"The pots?"

"Yeah, but they're big pots."

"I guess you could call them big pots," Scarecrow shrugged.

"Grass?" I turned to the one member of the team who knew everything that there was to know about the most insignificant things.

"I'm going to have to go with big and rectangular pots."

There were three of those big and rectangular pots. They were about ten feet long and three feet high. I couldn't exactly gauge their width from here but I was guessing that they were thick enough to stop anything short of a beam rifle or a tank from shooting us.

"I want Angel and Caboose on the left, Grass and I in the middle, and Scarecrow and Bumblebee take the one on the right. You got it?"

"Got it," they acknowledged.

"Good, as soon as we three leave this cover you run over here," I told Bee, Caboose, and Angel.

I looked over my head. The short plants that were in the big and rectangular pots would have to serve as cover for the moment. We could move over there without being spotted by the covvies in the street in front of us, but if there wasn't something covering us from the other side we would make easy targets. Sometimes you just have to flip a coin.

I vaulted over the reception desk and sprinted across the lobby before jumping through a broken window. I took two steps on the wide sidewalk before sliding to cover. Grass slammed into the big and rectangular pot a second after I did, and Scarecrow did the same on his big and rectangular pot a moment later. I looked to my left and breathed with relief when I saw that there was a bunch of debris and a car on top of it that covered us from prying eyes. It could also serve as a nice firing position if our distraction worked very well.

"Sarge, we clear?" Caboose asked.

"As clear as you're gonna get," I told him.

"Here goes nothing," Angel muttered.

The three of them ran from the reception desk outside to us they all slid into their respective positions and waited for me to give the attack order.

"Snark, you see us?"

"Hold on." From the sound of it he was climbing up a flight of stairs. I heard his boots slamming into the concrete and then the sound of his bipod being unfolded. "I see you Sarge. You sure that's safe?"

"No, where are you?"

"Eleventh floor, corner window," he told me.

"I see you. What's there on the other side of this big and rectangular pots?"

"Why don't you just call 'em pots?"

"Big and rectangular pots, that's what Grass said they were."

"Then they're probably named that," Snark admitted. "There are at least two dozen covvies in the same strip of space that you are occupying. All of 'em are vulnerable to you right now, you could take them out if you're quick."

"Highest ranking officer?" I asked.

"A major, elite."

"Jackals?"

"Skirmishers. Three."

"Send me a feed."

A small screen appeared on my helmet and I could see myself from a high vantage point.

"Snark, aim more to the back."

"There."

"Ok, here's what I want you to do, you take out the major and then kill that elite near the shade."

"Got it."

"'Crow, I want you to blast that shade turret as soon as we are done with those covvies close to us, ok?"

"Everyone got the feed?" I asked.

They all said yes.

"Select targets and fire on my Snark." I waited exactly three seconds for Snark to kill that elite major.

We stood up from behind cover at exactly the same time. Grass and Caboose tossed grenades at clusters of covvies while the rest of us went straight to killing. I immediately set my sights on an elite and put three quick bursts in its chest. It recoiled from the successive impacts before its shield flickered. Caboose finished it off with a sustained burst, hitting it in the chest and neck spraying alien blood all over the place. I switched targets and caught one of the skirmishers in the arm before hitting it three times in the belly. If I didn't kill it instantly I certainly put it out of commission.

I caught sight of another elite trying to return fire, but Angel killed it with sustained fire from his SAW. I brought down another elite with help from Scarecrow and then set myself to kill as many grunts as possible in the shortest amount of time. The little aliens were scared and confused, most of all, they were exposed.

I caught one grunt in the back as it tried to run, the bullet hit the methane tank and punctured it, causing the grunt to fall to the ground and start clawing at its neck in an attempt to get some air. Then I saw something impressive. Another grunt jumped to his fallen friend and took off its mask. The grunt took his own its mask and tried to pass it to his dying friend. The surprise didn't last long for me because I hit the second grunt through the temple with a burst, spraying bioluminescent blood all over its dying friend.

"We're done here," I said as soon as the aliens there were dead. It took some fifteen seconds in all, but every single alien in front of us was either dead or dying. "Take their positions and keep on pushing!" I ordered.

I heard two snaps from a sniper rifle and knew that the elite I had told Snark to take out was dead as well as another unfortunate split-chin. Scarecrow moved towards a burnt out husk and fired his 40mm as he went, hitting the shade turret. The rest of my squad followed the enormous Helljumper and took positions behind cars, debris, or craters. I stayed where I was before running to the pile of debris that had covered us. I went prone and climbed over it.

It was truly a wonderful position. On my left side was a wrecked car that protected me from any attempts at flanking. In front of me was a pile of rubble at least two meters thick. To my right was a fucking building.

"Lavriv, I mean Sir," I talked into my radio. I caught myself before I pressed my hand against where my ear would be. The helmet radio would be working just fine. "Can you order your men to push forward?"

"I'll give the order," he replied almost immediately.

Satisfied, I started earning my paycheck.

My first victim was a jackal sharpshooter. It ran forward and slid behind another burning car before propping his carbine on the hood. It was no doubt gunning for one of my squadmates, but a quick shot to the beak remedied the situation. I winced when I realized that even though I blew half its face off it was still alive. The jackal struggled weakly on the ground before I put three more bullets in its chest and ribs.

"On to the next one," I whispered to myself.

The next one was killed before I could shoot it. Courtesy of a grenade. The next one was almost ripped in half as Snark's bullet ripped through its waist. I was forced to duck as Lavriv's mortars shelled the area briefly.

"A danger close warning would be pretty nice," Bumblebee growled.

"It's called combat, get used to it," Caboose quipped.

Once the shelling stopped I popped from cover again. The Covenant nearby were either stunned or suffering from a case of serious blood loss. Or both.

One elite in particular stumbled sideways and kept itself propped up by leaning against a destroyed Wraith. It shook its head as if to ward off the dizziness and shock, the sheer humanness of the expression always astounded me, but I had seen them do that hundreds of time before, this time was no different than those before. I ended the elite's confusion with a quick shot to the neck.

Did that sound corny? It sounded corny, didn't it?

Someone tapped me in the back.

I nearly clocked the bastard with my full strength before I saw that it was a marine.

"Fucking fuck marine," I snapped. "A warning would be nice…"

"Sorry Sarge," he apologized. "Ramirez."

"Everyone's called Ramirez," I said in a bitter tone.

He shrugged. "My ancestors were horny."

That was the best thing that he could've said.

"I like you," I told him. "You a sharpshooter?"

"Yeah," he showed me a DMR he had slung behind his back. "I lost my gun in the retreat," he informed me when he saw that I was staring at his gun.

"Ouch," I said. Losing your rifle is like losing your favorite toy, only worse.

"Nothing you can do about, eh? Let's kick some covvie ass."

"Sounds like a plan," I nodded at him.

I looked over my shoulder and saw several Marines running to our position, bolstering our strength. I smiled at the reinforcements and propped my rifle on the debris, looking for high value targets. "DMR's a five-shot, right?" I asked, referring to the amount of rounds it took to unshield an elite and finish it off with a headshot.

"Yeah, not as good as the BR's four-shot, but it does the job," he replied after killing a jackal.

"Good to know."

From that point on we both stopped any conversation and started taking out targets further out back. I noticed that Ramirez was sticking to jackals and grunts, he didn't really trust the speed and punch of his DMR. I didn't blame him for it either, I would certainly be apprehensive of the weapon after years of relying on my trusty BR55.

"Fuck," he said after a while.

"What?" I asked without taking my eyes of my scope.

"Tank… TANK!"

I didn't bother looking for a tank, if he could see it then it was there.

"Much like I am. Right?"

Schitzo, fuck you.

I slid down the pile of debris as fast as humanly possible. I was just in time too. The entire ground shook as the plasma round detonated against the pile of rocks. My entire skeleton was jarred from the shockwave, leaving my body feeling numb and my muscles weak. If that wasn't enough, the blast lifted the car off where it was. The entire event seemed to happen in slow motion. I was there, lying on my back and watched a recent-model Caballo coupe flip over and land, back first, a foot away from my legs.

Of course, the higher powers didn't deem it appropriate that it should meet the conditions required for it to remain in that position, so it started falling back down. Right on top of me. I rolled to the side over a slightly-slower reacting Ramirez. He grunted when I rolled over him but then used his legs to push himself out of the way. The car missed glancing on his right shoulder, eliciting a yelp of surprise from the man but not harming him.

"You alright?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said.

"You sure?" I asked again, this time a little bit mockingly. "That yelp scared the shit out of me."

"If you weren't my superior I'd tell you to fuck off Sarge."

"I think I get the message."

I rolled back on my belly and climbed over the pile of rubble, heavily reduced in height but still useful. I saw the Daemon tank take aim and fire another shot. This one flew straight down the avenue and collided with the other Armadillo that had taken up position near the front. The shot bisected the AFV and detonated its ammunition stores in a blaze. The rounds started going off wildly, prompting every Marine nearby to run away as fast as possible.

That got Lavriv's attention. I could hear him ordering his tanks to move to position. A few seconds later three 90mm rounds slammed into the new Covenant vehicle. The first two rocked it backwards and peeled away some of the plating while the third one punched through the tower's armor and blew the turret up high. It was good to see that happening to an enemy tank for a change.

"Move up!" some marine yelled.

Several of his mates complied and charged forward with loud war cries. They dove for better cover and forced any surviving covvies to retreat lest they were overrun. Ramirez decided to join the charge and leapt over the pile of debris, rifle in hand. The poor marine was hit by a needle right in the chest. The round went completely through, spraying me with a little bit of blood. He fell backwards and I caught him before he slammed into the floor. I gently lowered him to the floor.

"Are you ok?" I asked him.

He gave me that 'are you fucking kidding me' look.

"Right." He had the right to give me that look. "Ok, look at me." He eyes were beginning to close. "Look at me! Don't close your eyes."

"I'm trying," he cried.

I pulled out a can of biofoam from the pouch in my left thigh and gave it to him. "You know how to use this?"

He nodded and reached for it. He made a grab for the can and missed by a couple of inches, that was all that I needed to know. I placed the tip of the can in his wound and shoved the side of my other hand in between his teeth to prevent him from biting his tongue out. "Hold on buddy," I said. I clicked the can and it released a generous amount of biofoam. The foam dug into the wound, burning like hell as it did so.

"Come on, no pain, no gain."

"Fuuuuuck…"

"Yeah, I feel you. You're getting a Purple Heart. Smile."

"Fuuuuuuckkkk….."

Once the biofoam hardened I stopped pouring it into him. I rubbed the excess foam around his injury, eliciting a few cries of pain as I did so. He seemed to be breathing well enough, and he was cursing like the best, so I took it as a good sign. Sadly, I wasn't a professional so I did what the standard marine or jarhead would do in a situation like this.

"Medic!" I cried. "Medic!"

It took maybe half a minute but eventually a female corpsman showed up. Every corpsman seemed to be a female nowadays.

"Where did he get hit?"

Every corpsman seemed to be named Hanna Lockley nowadays.

"Hanna?" I asked. "The hell are you doing here?"

She looked at me for a moment, seemingly unsure of what was going on. I depolarized my visor for her convenience.

"My platoon was attached to the Eighth, where did he get hit?"

"Chest, needle rifle went clean through, I already patched him up best I could, but he's still bleeding."

"Marine, marine!" she yelled at Ramirez. "Look at me. You're going to be fine," she assured him. "Now don't move."

She moved forward and carefully turned him over. The motion elicited a cry of pain from Ramirez. She looked at the exit wound, partially patched up with biofoam and also revealed a small puddle of blood in the ground underneath him. She looked at me and gave me one of those glares that I was so familiar with, just not from her.

"Ah… sorry?"

"Stick to blowing shit up Sergeant," she recommended. "I'll take care of him."

"Thanks," I said.

"And Frank?"

"Yeah, yeah, be careful, I know."

"For the love of god, put me down lady, puta madre!" Ramirez cursed.

I smiled at the familiar Spanish insults and vaulted over the pile of debris after making sure no one was waiting for me to do so. I ran fast for a column that had fallen sideways and slid into it. I crouched and walked sideways to the edge of the broken column before going prone. From there I could fire comfortably and was very well protected from plasma fire.

I took a couple of potshots at an elite moving from cover to cover before killing a jackal. I shot the bird in the foot, forcing it to use one hand to support itself. The motion placed its shield out of the way and it got five rounds to the ribs as punishment for the oversight. A grunt spotted me and fired a few shots at me forcing me to pull myself back into cover. I waited for a couple of seconds and readied myself to fire again when a blue orb landed by my side.

I stared at it dumbly for a second before jumping over the rectangular column. The four-feet thick piece of architecture protected me well enough. I avoided the blast just in time, but exposed myself completely in the process. I then jumped back over to my previous position as an elite with a plasma repeater started firing at me. Unfortunately, I landed right in the crater of molten and super-heated rock, eliciting a yelp of surprise and forcing me to jump up in reaction. Two rounds from the repeater whizzed by my head before I dove forward.

"Fuck, that was annoying."

"Want me to take it out Sarge?" Snark asked with a mocking tone.

"What rank is it?"

"Blue armor."

"No, I'll kill that fucker myself."

And I did just that.

"Snark, I need your eyes."

The screen appeared again, this time it showed the whole intersection and the battlefield from an even higher vantage point. I could see dozens of Covenant corpses to our rear, most of the human victims had been pulled back to the Elephant as fast as possible, but the obviously dead ones had been left where they were. There had been a lot of obviously dead ones.

I focused on the task at hand and asked Snark to look farther ahead. The covvies had started to bulk up their defenses with deployable covers and barricades. They now had a nice semi-circle blocking off one half of the avenue and were already moving up to do the same thing on the other side. Some of the elites were even dragging cars into position.

"Snark, tell Lavriv to shell that position."

The sniper didn't reply.

"He says that he's low on mortar ammunition, rather not waste."

I cursed, this would make our job a lot harder. Then I stopped myself. Our job wasn't to kill every last one of the alien invaders, we just had to draw their attention long enough for the flanking team to… flank.

"Sir, how much more until your team makes it?" I asked the light commander.

"Two minutes, by their estimate."

"They better hurry," I urged. "You are losing a shit ton of men here."

"You think I don't know that?" Lavriv snapped at me. "Just do your fucking job."

I realized that what I had just said was most definitely very insensitive. "Right, sorry. The covvies are fortifying, we won't be able to just barrel through. We need your 'Dillo."

"That's out of the question Sergeant," he informed me. "I'm sending reinforcements and a squad of Hellbringers."

Full stop. I blinked.

"Hellbringers?"

"Yeah, I was surprised when I found out they were still in service. Quite useful, you know?"

"I'll bet," I agreed. "We'll do our best Commander. Reaper out."

Hellbringers, go figure.

I fired a few more shots, taking out grunts and jackals before moving to more comfortable cover. I reloaded my rifle and checked myself for ammunition, I was running low, but could still stretch it out for some time. If worse came to worse I could just pick up another weapon in the meantime.

"Reaper, how are you on ammo?" I asked my squad.

"I'm running low Sarge," Snark said. "Might need to borrow some from our friends down there."

"Angel?" I asked, he was the only other squad member that would have a hard time scavenging ammunition.

"I'm good, still have two full boxes plus seventy rounds on this one. Worry not Sarge, I can still dish out some damage."

I nodded to myself and tossed a frag grenade over my head, it was meant to serve as a distraction while I popped out and killed anything that didn't find cover. Three grunts that dove away from the explosion met their end as I put three rounds in each of their chests. The small distraction allowed a few of the marines to push forward and gain position. This battle was beginning to turn into something reminiscent of Stalingrad. Let's just hope the covvies didn't get the brilliant idea of getting inside buildings and fortifying them.

"Move aside!" someone boomed from behind. I looked back to spot the source of the voice and saw that two marines were pushing a combat barrier, scraping the ground as they went. Behind that slab of metal were two Hellbringers. Their armor looked eerily like that of a Spartan-III. The large tank on their backs and the long tube in their hands left no doubt as to what they were. If there was one unit that was considered crazier than us Helljumpers, it would be them.

"That's enough," one of the Hellbringers said, prompting the marines to move away from them and look for other cover. "Flashbang out!" he warned us.

The two pyros tossed two flashbangs each at the covvie line. Immediately after the stunning devices detonated they popped from cover and took aim.

"Need a light?"

The jet of flame that left the NA4/Defoliant Projector lit up the night like nothing else. Maybe it affected me more because I was only a few meters away, but the fire made everything look clearer. The sound of scorching air was immediately followed by that of screaming grunts and jackals, soon after, elites gave in to the pain and started screaming bloody murder while their skin melted right of their bones. Once the closest covvies were reduced to a pile of goo and a charred skeleton the two Hellbringers started pushing forward ever so slowly. They let out short bursts very often to force covvies to keep their heads down.

Their immediate success inspired the rest of us, with two dozen dead covvies in less than half a dozen seconds we all felt a little bit empowered. I jumped from cover and took a combat stance while shooting at enemy infantry trying to run away. Several grunts made easy targets, they had forgotten what little discipline they had drilled into them and wanted to escape the hell closing in upon them. I also got the pleasure of shooting a flaming elite. The alien tried shooting at the Hellbringers even as the fire burned through its armor, never giving up in its quest to eradicate the human race.

"They're on the building!" someone yelled suddenly.

"To the left, to the left!"

Several marines jumped behind cover as a needles started raining from above. I was on the right side of the avenue, so I was spared from being a target. I took advantage of the opportunity and shot two jackals before one of the Hellbringers aimed at the second floor window and torched the entire floor with one pass of his weapon. What a buzzkill.

The push wouldn't last forever though. The covvies knew a priority target when they saw one. Soon there was an unhealthy amount of plasma raining on the two Hellbringers. The jets of fire blocked them from sight more or less, but one of them was hit in the leg with a plasma rifle, eliciting a cry of pain and forcing him to jump behind a crashed banshee. The other man didn't stop his advance, instead simply firing a constant jet of fire at the enemies in front of them. By the time he ran out of gas we were already on top of the improvised barricade the Covenant had set up.

"Dinner is served," the Hellbringer said. "Extra crispy."

I laughed at the corny one-liner. The Hellbringer started to duck behind a car when a beam caught him in the elbow, the impact cut clean through the armor and severed the arm. He cried in pain and clutched at his bleeding stump before another beam went clean through his head. I cursed as the man's body slumped over the car's hood.

"Forward!" A marine yelled.

Barring the wounded Hellbringer I was the forward most human. I hopped over a bunch of piled up rocks that the covvies had set up as a barrier and landed in the smoking area. I found, to my displeasure, that not every enemy soldier had been turned into overcooked steak. A grunt yelped and reached for its needler by my left foot, but I punted its face in before it could react. Several of the marines and a few of my squadmates were already firing full-auto at the retreating covvies. Our diversion had worked and gone the extra mile. I smelled some medals in the near future.

"Sergeant, your diversion worked!" Lavriv exclaimed. "The flanking team is in position. Take a rest."

"Thank you, sir," I said. I killed a jackal playing possum with a good 'ol fashioned curb stump and sat down behind a nice and sturdy piece of building. "Reaper, you good?" I asked.

"Caboose was glanced by plasma, some minor burning, everyone else is fine by the looks of it," Scarecrow said. I tried looking for him but couldn't spot him over the several destroyed cars, the flaming ghosts and the piles of debris. "Snark?"

"I just ran out," he told me, "SMG still has most its ammo though."

"Get down to street-level and talk to Lavriv about getting some spare mags."

"Way ahead of you Sarge."

I looked up as a couple of rounds from the Scorpions flashed by. Now that the Daemon tanks were reduced to half their number Lavriv was pounding the remaining Covenant forces to facilitate the job of the flanking force. I heard a few explosions and then the comfortable noise of the Armadillo's autocannon a block away from my position. I smiled at the sound of human-made explosions and allowed my body to relax a little.

Then something wiped that smile off my face. It was that noise that Covenant walkers made when they charged up their main weapons. I'd only heard it a dozen times at most, but the particular sound that the things made before unleashing death and destruction was one that had been engrained into my mind. The electric humming got higher and higher until it disappeared. For the briefest of instants it went quiet and then it fired.

"Locusts!" I heard through the radio. "Ther-"

The signal went dark as whoever was talking got vaporized. I looked over my cover and saw the two back legs of a walker disappear behind a corner, no doubt making the killing move on the flanking team. Then I looked to my left and spotted another Locust walking in our direction. It paused to charge up its main weapon, shields flickering as small arms fire hit it. The purple beam flew the length of the avenue and hit a Scorpion tank. It melted through the frontal armor in a matter of seconds and then detonated the ammunition stores, causing the turret to fly up into the sky from the explosion.

"Fire!" Lavriv ordered. "Pull back the Elephants, I want air support. Now!"

Two HEAT rounds from an equal number of tanks made contact with the walker. Both of them drained the shields but didn't kill them completely. This Locust seemed to be an upgraded model. Several small explosions adorned the front of the walker as a few Armadillos joined the attack. The Locust stopped walking again and fired a sustained beam that burned through three of the AFVs. That left one or two tops.

Another shot from a Scorpion slammed into it, draining what was left of its shields. Now that the vehicle was relatively defenseless all of us infantry that were close to it opened up on the cockpit. My squad and I knew better and concentrated our fire in the weak knee joints. Eventually the other Scorpion finished it off with one shot to the cockpit.

"There's more behind!"

I looked over there to confirm that statement and, sure enough, there were three other locusts emerging from behind buildings.

"How the hell did they get there?" someone asked.

"Doesn't matter. Run!"

"Fall back!" I prompted. "Fall back!"

I started making my way back to relative safety when one beam vaporized a squad of marines running with me. I dropped to the ground as the energy weapon flew above me, scorching the back of my armor and burning my skin. Another two beams flew in the direction of the buildings that the remaining Scorpions and Armadillos were using for cover. The plasma burned through the polycrete like it was paper and buried one Armadillo in debris before it could get out of the way. The two Scorpions concentrated their fire on the offending walker and managed to bring it to the ground with five shots.

The other two didn't take kindly to it and combined their fire to melt one of the tanks while the other retreated behind a corner. Our entire advance had been stopped and turned into a full retreat in a matter of seconds.

"Bee! Can you delay them?" I asked as I stood up again and ran.

He didn't reply, instead I heard two explosions behind my back.

"Those were my last two missiles!" he informed me.

"Fall back," I ordered again, "we meet in th-"

Another Locust beam interrupted me. I had to run for my life as the street behind me exploded with superheated plasma. The Locust's cannon ran out of juice just in time, because the beam was meters away when it died out. I jumped behind a bus as several needles flew by my head.

Great, infantry suddenly decided to grow a pair.

"This is Firefly-3, we heard that you needed some support?" a pilot's voice asked through the network.

"Affirmative, there are two Locusts burning through us!" Lavriv yelled desperately. "We are in grid One-One-Seven."

My mind flashed back to that encounter with the Spartans in Concordia, two years ago. The image of that one Spartan, the three numbers in white against his green armor seemed to flash before my eyes, stunning me for a full second.

"Roger, ETA is fifteen seconds."

Sure enough, fifteen seconds later two Hornets turned the corner, firing missiles and regular ammunition at the one of the Locusts. Their concentrated fire destroyed it and they disappeared from sight behind the corner, leaving a very angry Locust shooting at the building that protected them.

"Second pass."

The two Hornets appeared at a different altitude and started pummeling the Locust with everything they had. The Covenant walker tried shooting them down, but the pilots knew their crafts too well and avoided the beam with skill. The purple energy weapon streaked across the buildings, burning through columns and supports but not hitting the small and nimble Hornets. It took longer than the other Locust, but the Hornets managed to destroy the walker.

I looked over my shoulder and saw the destroyed Locust. I nodded to myself and turned to wave in thanks at the pilots when something hit me in the head. The impact brought me to the ground and almost knocked me out. I opened and closed my eyes several times and found myself looking straight up. The combination of smoke and darkness didn't allow me to see what was happening at first, but soon enough I had a pretty good idea.

"Frank, Frank, are you all right?" Chloe asked.

Where did she come from? "Watch out," I said weakly, pointing at the building above us. The Locust beam had destroyed enough supports that half the building seemed to be collapsing on us.

Hanna screamed and I blacked out.

A dripping noise woke me up. How cliché.

I opened my eyes to see absolute darkness. At first I panicked and thought that I was blind, but then I regained my composure.

"Ok, what's the last thing you remember?" I asked myself. "Something hit me in the head." I had a terrible headache. "Something else…"

I did my best to remember. "Shit, building."

I turned on my helmet flashlights and found myself in an impromptu cave. I recognized the angular walls, ceilings, and floors, I just found it extremely hard to figure out which ones were which. I tried sitting up and got a terrible dizziness for my trouble. I shook my head, trying to ward it off, but it turned out to be another mistake as well.

"Shit," I cursed as I took off my helmet.

I placed the helmet beside me and kept the lights pointed at the area in front of me. I reached for my pouch and looked around for my combat stims. The pills were multi-purpose, serving to keep you full of proteins, dull out pain, and relieve headaches. They also had terrible side effects, but in this case the advantages outweighed the consequences. I swallowed one pill and waited for the pain in my head to subside. Once it did I rubbed my temples. One hand came out wet.

"Huh?"

I felt around my head and realized that the rock that hit me had somehow managed to press my helmet hard enough against my skull to break through the skin.

"That certainly explains the headache," I mumbled.

I stood up, steadying myself with one hand against the wall. Or floor, whatever. I took the time to look around and examine the area. A building had fallen on top of me, but the metal and polycrete breakup had been minimal, so part of a room had protected me from everything that fell afterwards. Sure, there were piles of broken stone and debris all around me, but a large section of the cave trapping me was mostly intact.

I put my helmet back on and tried the radio. Nothing. I cursed and looked for ways to get out of here. There was a single ray of light in here, it was coming from a hole in the ground, about a foot in height and not much wider. I went towards it and knelt beside it. Quick examination showed that it bent to the left after a few feet. I sighed, I wasn't claustrophobic, but with an experience like this, I could very well have been one.

I climbed into the hole and pulled out some rubble to make passage easier. I crawled through the small tunnel and stopped when it turned. I threw my rifle up ahead and squirmed around the corner. Finally I succeeded and crawled some more. The tunnel varied in height and width, but it was never more than two feet in either case. I was beginning to get very nervous when I saw the end of it. I crawled faster and faster, remembering Sergeant Gabuka firing live ammunition over my head as I crawled through a muddy pit.

Finally I emerged and had to check myself lest I let go a cry of happiness. I breathed easy, feeling like glory. The chamber that I had emerged into was a large one. It took me some time to realize that it was the lobby of another building, probably the one that I had been standing next to when it collapsed. It was very damaged, with half of it collapsed and the other half crumbling down. The exits were all blocked off by rocks and rubble, but knowing where I was located was a start.

I slung my rifle over my back and started walking to explore the area.

I hadn't gone more than two steps when three rounds bounced off my chest armor.

"Friendly fire! Friendly fire!" I yelled. "The fuck!"

"Ohmygod, ohmygod I'm so so sorry," a familiar voice apologized profusely.

"Hanna?" I asked. "How the hell did you end up all the way over here?"

She emerged from behind a pile of rubble and walked towards me, turning on her helmet's lights. "I saw the building collapsing and ran away."

"So you left me to die?" I asked. I was not amused by that.

"Yes, sorry about that."

"And the friendly fire…"
"And the friendly fire," she added.

I couldn't tell with the lighting, but it looked like she blushed a little bit.

"Yeah whatever," I muttered. "I need you to patch me up some," I said.

I took off my helmet and pointed to my injured area. The corpsman looked at it carefully, using her helmet's lights to examine the wound. She nodded to herself and produced gauze, cotton, and a small bottle of alcohol from her bag. She poured some alcohol on the cotton ball and pressed it against my temple. It was a time-proven method of disinfecting a wound. It stung like hell, but not nearly as bad as biofoam.

She used the cotton to wipe off some caked blood running along my cheek and then covered the wound with the gauze.

"Press that to your head," she ordered.

I did as I was told and waited for her to keep the gauze pressed against the injury as she put a bandage over it. She circled it several times around my head before securing it with a pin.

"I bet I look like a movie extra," I joked.

"You look the same as always," she replied, confused. "Except for the bandage, that is."

"No, I meant that… Forget it."

"What?"

"Nothing. Have you found anyone else?" I asked her, changing topics.

"No, I saw a dead marine, but nothing more."

"Radio?"

"Doesn't seem to be working. Not sure why, we're apparently close to the surface," she said, waving her arms around her to emphasize the lighting of the place.

"You check the emergency stairs?"

"Yes, the door's pretty much intact, but I couldn't get it open."

"Show me," I said.

"Right this way mister."

She helped me stand up and led me through the destroyed lobby. I had to crouch through several areas and crawl through others, always careful not to disturb anything that might bring the rest of the building crashing down on us. Finally I found myself in a small passage with the door leading to the emergency stairs right in front of me. Sadly, Hanna was in the way.

"See, I can't open it," she said after demonstrating just that.

"Let me try," I suggested.

The passage was not wide enough for both of us to fit in it, so she had to squeeze by me. Halfway through she got stuck, her chest to me and her back to the wall.

"I'm stuck," she said after trying to wiggle out.

"You know," I said, grabbing an outcrop with one hand. "If this was a movie, this would be the part when the audience laughs at the sexual tension."

"There is no sexual tension! There's nothing sexual about this!" she complained.

I let go of the outcrop and took off my helmet. "Really?"

"No," she insisted.

"Really?" I asked again, putting my face extremely close to hers.

"No…" she whispered.

I laughed. "You're such a girl."

"If I could move I would knee you in the balls," she growled.

"I'm sure." I reached for the outcrop again. "Hold on." I pulled myself as hard as I could and managed to get us unstuck. I almost fell to the ground and Hanna complained of pain, but otherwise remained where she was standing.

I moved to the door and shook the handle around. It didn't budge. I jumped and put my whole weight on top of the handle trying to move it, but only succeeded in breaking it.

"Nice one genius," Hanna complimented sarcastically.

I looked at the handle and tossed it at her, startling her. I laughed as she put both of her hands up and caught the broken door handle. She looked at it and then back at me She shook her head and let it fall to the ground, producing a loud clatter. I considered my options and decided that this was pretty much our only one. I took a couple of steps back.

"You sure that's a good idea?" she asked me.

"No," I admitted.

I took half a step forward and a little jump as I kicked at the door. It wasn't like kicking a wall, but it was damned close. The door budged a couple of inches from the kick, but otherwise we couldn't go through it. Some dust fell from the ceiling and got in my hair. I put my helmet back on before kicking at the door again. This time it moved almost half a foot. I squeezed my arm through and tried tackling the door open, but there was a bar preventing me from doing so. I switched arms and tried pulling at it. I succeeded in moving it just a little bit.

"Ok, this is getting annoying," I said to myself as I took another couple of steps back and kicked at the door once more.

This time the door flew open but a bunch of rocks fell in front of me immediately. I stepped back to avoid them and crashed into Hanna, bringing both of us to the floor in a tangle.

"Sorry," I apologized profusely. "Gotta admit, there's some sexual tension." I helped her up. "If this were a movie," I added as soon as I caught her glare. "Come on, we can climb through the top of the doorway."

I pulled myself so that I was behind her once more and helped her up the near-vertical pile of rocks. She grabbed the doorframe and started squeezing herself through the small opening.

"You better not be staring at my ass," she warned.

"How can I avoid it when you put the idea in my mind!" I complained. "Fine, fine, I'll look away."

To my own surprise, I did turn my neck sideways to avoid staring at her ass. Maybe there was a gentleman deep, deep, deep, inside me. Maybe.

"Ok, I'm through. Looks like we can still use the stairs, they look mostly intact, but they could break down any minute. You never know with these kinds of things."

"Hau-pah!" I said as I jumped up and grabbed the doorframe. I kicked at the air behind me and wormed my way through the small opening before falling to the ground on the other side with a dull thud.

"Smooth," Hanna complimented.

"You telling me you landed on your feet Lockley?" I teased.

"No, I just fell with more grace," she eyed me over. "A whole lot more."

I helped myself up and looked around. There was some dust falling from the roof, or rather, from the walls, because looking straight up I could see the night sky. This entire corner of the building had collapsed in account to the Locust firing wildly. Those things had pretty powerful guns, but the structure was probably weakened beforehand in account of the artillery, the bombing, and the first battle.

"How the hell did a single Locust managed to do all that?" Hanna asked.

"Well, Locusts have pretty powerful guns, but the structure was probably weakened beforehand in account of the artillery, the bombing, and the first battle."

She looked at me with a dull stare. "Nobody asked you."

"You're telling me you were talking to yourself?" I asked her mockingly.

"That's a little hypocritical, isn't it Francisco?" Schitzo said.

I ignored the hallucination and walked past Hanna before she could come up with a comeback. I ducked underneath a piece of wall and started climbing the stairs. The high amount of debris made it a difficult process, but soon enough I was making some progress, coaching Hanna as to where to step and where to climb as I went. Soon afterwards we were both climbing largely undamaged stairs and making our way to the rooftop.

"-ge. Sarge, come in," my radio crackled. "Frank, Francisco! Answer goddamit!"

"I'm here, I'm here!" I replied. "Who is this? There's a lot of static."

"I… Grass. Are… k?"

"I'm fine, you're breaking up. I'm in the same building that collapsed, making my way up."

"Co… gain…nt… hea….u."

"I'm ok, I'm ok, I'm ok, I'm ok, I'm ok," I said repeatedly. "Making my way up, making my way up, making my way up, making my way up."

"Und…ood."

"How's the team? How's the team? How's the team?" I asked, starting to climb up again.

"Go…Goo…. d… good," she replied, catching on to my method.

"Out, out, out, out," I said, cutting the conversation.

"What happened?" Hanna asked me from two flights of stairs up.

"They're all good," I replied. "I can't communicate with them properly. Covenant must be interfering with communications again."

"Darn," she said simply before she kept moving.

I grunted in agreement and started jogging up the stairs to catch up with her, turning at regular forty-five degree angles as the stairs hit into a wall and turned to the right. Finally, after fifteen minutes of climbing we reached the top. Or at least as close to the top as we would get. The stairwell stopped suddenly in account of everything from that point on amounting to empty space. A large section of the building had fallen off, leaving the emergency stairs exposed to the outside and putting us a couple of floors shy of the top floor.

I cursed loudly.

"Eliza?" I asked. Static.

"Captain Sharma?" I tried the next one in my list of permanent contacts. "Major Hernandez?" Static. "Chloe? Chlo?" Static. "Lieutenant Hardwick, Emily?" I got the same result. There was one last option, but I would never hear the end of it. "Commander Albaf?" I asked tentatively.

"Sergeant?" came the immediate response. I didn't know whether to feel grateful or not. "What the hell are you still doing in that grid?"

"A building kinda fell on top of me ma'am," I explained. "I'm in need of immediate extraction. I've got a corpsman here with me as well."

"Damn it Castillo, you realize I'm going to have to redirect gunships providing air support?"

"You can call one without gunners," I suggested. "We can help out."

"Hey, no one's asking me," Lockley complained.

"Shut up," I snapped. "Commander, both of us are good and ready for action, just send someone to pick us up and we'll be kicking ass sooner than you know it."

"A Falcon has already been sent to your position," she informed me. "It'll bring you directly to the FOB. Albaf out."

"See?" I turned towards Hanna. "I know what I'm doing."

"You didn't have to snap at me like that."

"You were raised in a sheltered environment, weren't you?"

Hanna refrained from commenting and shook her head before climbing down a couple of steps and sitting down. I stayed where I was, as high up as I dared without stepping on the cracked steps. I didn't want this entire tiring climb to turn into a quick drop to the ground below. I looked over the visible area, which amounted to the two buildings in front of this one. They had visible marks from the Locust's cannon, but they were still standing up. One of them was aflame, but that seemed to be it.

"Next time I'll stick to the left side of the street," I muttered. I still couldn't see the street, and therefore wasn't able to gauge the extent of the damage, but it sounded like a better idea than being right underneath a collapsing building.

"You hear that?" Hanna asked. "Rotors."

"Yeah, I hear them."

Seconds later a Falcon appeared from above. The pilot spotted us as soon as I flashed my helmet lights at the cockpit. He turned on the cockpit lights and gave me a thumbs up. "I'll position myself so you can jump," he told us. The Falcon turned sideways and exposed its cargo bay to us.

"Want me to jump first and catch you?" I asked.

Hanna swallowed as she inched towards the edge. "Sounds like a good idea."

"Ok, here I go," I said, steeling myself. I looked down to the ground below and got nervous. "Dios dame fuerza," I muttered under my breath.

I took the jump and landed with both feet inside the cargo bay, I used my hands to hold on to the webbing in the ceiling, avoiding the fate of going completely through and falling down the other side of the gunship. I turned around and motioned for Hanna to jump. She took a few deep breaths and took two steps back before running forward and taking the jump.

She made the mistake that I strived to avoid and almost went completely through. I caught her in a hybrid clothesline/hug and pulled her chest back inside even as her legs flew outside of the cargo bay. We both slammed into the floor, she was scared, but we were both safe.

"Careful," was all I came up with.

"Thanks," she said in between breaths. "A lot."

I helped her up and banged on the wall, prompting the pilot to fly away from the building. Hanna sat down and strapped herself on while I pulled a box of ammunition from a case in the ceiling. It had a bunch of magazines for the MA5 series rifles and for the M6 pistols. I dug through it until I found a pair of battle rifle magazines. I salvaged them and strapped them to my body. Once they were secure I sat down on the floor and cocked the lever of the Falcon's turret.

From this position I could see the street very clearly. The pilot was flying his craft in between buildings to avoid being spotted by Banshees or Seraphs. The avenue that he was using was the same that the Eighth Column had come up through. I could see plenty of alien bodies where they had barreled through, but then I spotted more and more human corpses. Their positions indicated that they had been retreating or running away when they were shot. I also saw an Elephant completely enveloped in flames. I could still see the red cross on its side even as it burned.

"That bad?" I asked the pilot.

"Lost my wingman," he replied. "His ship went down with four troopers inside. I was lucky that I was up here, one of my door gunners was hit from the ground and the other got nicked in the neck. Nothing compared to what I saw some of the infantry guys go through."

"What happened?"

"Locusts and a Scarab. The covvies did an ass-pull, nobody knew that they had walkers hidden someplace in the city. After all, where can you hide a fucking Scarab?"

"Well they did it," Hanna said sadly as she watched the burning city go by.

"It wasn't all bad though," the pilot went on. "All the walkers were killed. After we suffered heavy casialties, but they were still killed. The covvies got the short end by the looks of it, ground forces managed to retake most of the city. We're commencing evacuation procedures."

"Of civilians?" I asked, dumbstruck. "You mean there were still civilians in here?"

"Yup."

"Alive," Hanna joined.

"No Hanna, they are dead but we're evacuating them nonetheless."

The pilot laughed. "You two seeing each other? You know, romantically involved?" He chuckled at his own fancy language.

"No," Hanna snapped.

"Yes," I lied.

He laughed again. "You're like something right out of a movie."

I laughed a little and nodded. I immediately stopped laughing when I thought about what he had said. If this were a movie we wouldn't be losing millions of people. If this were a movie we wouldn't be losing this fucking war.

---

So, thanks to Sniper Fodder for proof-reading this chapter, however short it was.

Now, there are a couple of things that need to be said. So far, I have done my best not to deviate form canon on things other than weapon firing modes and certain armor mods being available to ODSTs as opposed to only Spartans. The Daemon tank (pronounced Demon) is the first time I have ever added a whole new element that actually deviates from Halo's canon. Note, it does not necessarily contradict it, but it's highly unlikely that they would exist.

The reason I added the tanks is because the lack of a Covenant vehicle that fired like a regular tank always bugged me a little. I mean, you can travel several hundred times the speed of light but the concept of a projectile flying in a straight line elides you? I have a hard time believing that. Anyways, I thought that the tanks could make it more interesting, you know, mix things up a little.

Daemon tanks look pretty much like the Baktoid Armor Workshop Armored Assault Tanks, better known as the droid tanks from Star Wars: Episode 1.

Stay strong people

-casquis