Chapter CII: Convoy

August 12, 2543 (UNSC Calendar)/

UNSC Joint Forward Operating Base, Uppergap Outskirts, Lambari, Campo Sorrisco System

"All these people are under my care, sir. I'll get them all out."- Major Wade Brown

"Castillo!" someone yelled angrily. "Castillo!"

I had just decided to lay down!

"Where the hell is he?" Albaf asked some marine or trooper that happened to be right outside my tent. "Where the hell is he?"

"Sorry ma'am, who?"

"Useless."

The curtains leading into my tent opened wide, letting in a ray of sunlight that happened to hit me directly in the face. I made a great show of pretending to have been asleep before opening one eye and looking at Commander Albaf. Standing at attention behind her was Lieutenant Wilkins, ever the watchdog/bodyguard for his direct superior.

"Castillo!"

"Ma'am!" I shot back as I jumped out of bed and saluted.

"Christ's sake," she said disgustedly. "Do you ever wear shirts?"

"Only when I'm awake Commander," I replied as respectfully as I could while still making the comment sound like an insult. Doing that flawlessly is an art, but everyone in the military picks it up sooner or later.

"Get dressed," she commanded. "Wilkins!"

I reached for a duffel bag and dug through it, looking for a shirt. I found one quickly enough and put it on. By the time I was back up on my feet and had a thin layer of cotton in between my skin and the rest of the atmosphere Samantha was already up in my face.

I backed a couple of steps on instinct. She was one of the few people that could intimidate me when they wanted to.

"Sergeant, I need you back in the action," she told me. "Your team has already been redirected to your target."

"Back to the suck?" I moaned. "I barely got any sleep."

"Not my problem," Albaf shrugged me off. "This time it's not me who's sending you back. Command wants elite troops for this one."

"I take it Spartans aren't in this phone area," I joked. "They're quite adept at making themselves scarce, don't you think?"

I was fully prepared for what followed, but the quick smile that flashed across Wilkins' face made being eaten alive by Albaf worth it. She didn't snap at me for disrespecting 'humanity's greatest soldiers' this time, instead she snapped at me for being a condescending asshole with some sort of superiority complex. Albaf also happened to mention how Spartans had saved my life in a couple of occasions. I almost reminded her that I had saved a few Spartans of my own, but then remembered that those were IIIs, and those I didn't have as many problems with.

"Yes ma'am, sorry ma'am, wont' happen again ma'am."

"Just get ready, be in the car lot in five."

"Ma'am," I saluted. "Lieutenant."

I waited for them to leave to get undressed and put my undersuit back on. I had been wearing that thing for consecutive days now, most of that time I had been under pressure and in combat. By that I mean that I sweated in it a lot, by that I mean that it smelled like shit. I grabbed a spray of some smell-good aromatizer and sprayed my suit with it. Once I had sprayed the suit completely I sprayed myself with deodorant and antiperspirant. Not because I cared about my squad mates mentioning that I smelled like shit, but because jackals had an awful tendency to notice small things like human smell.

I put on my undersuit and a pair of black fatigue pants. My armor was all piled up in a corner, I hadn't bothered securing it or putting it inside its crate. My boots smelled even worse than my undersuit, so I sprayed them with flowers and watermelons too before I put them on. The rest of my armor was dirty, damaged, and had blood on it; half of which wasn't mine. I strapped my leg armor and put on my vest before grabbing my rifle and my pistol. I jogged across the FOB while putting on the rest of my armor. By the time I was in the vehicle depot I was fully armored and wiping off leftover blood from the inside of my helmet with my gloves.

"Castillo, over here," Wilkins motioned.

I put my helmet under my arm and walked in his direction. Half the Warthogs here were damaged and the rest were being repaired. We had really gotten our asses kicked back in the counter-offensive. The vehicles that did look like they were in working order were the Scorpion tanks and a few of the Armadillos. It made sense, prepping up the big guns before the little ones.

"Sergeant," Albaf snapped at me. She was standing besides one of the damaged jeeps. A pair of legs were popping out from underneath the 'Hog. "As soon as th-"

"Commander," an authoritative voice boomed from behind me. "Can you tell me why the hell is my personal vehicle being repaired?"

I could see Albaf refraining from doing an eye roll, had the officer that asked the question been anything less than her own rank she would've yelled at him so loud that he would've ran back the way he came form with his tail between his legs.

"Wilkins, please tell Colonel Klink, without getting too technical, why his personal vehicle is being repaired."

Wilkins didn't miss a beat. "Certainly ma'am." He turned towards the aforementioned Colonel Klink, a medium-sized man with Marine combat armor on. "It's broken."

Klink looked just about ready to punch Wilkins' teeth down his throat. "I mean," he spat out with barely concealed anger. "Why the hell is my personal vehicle being touched by a pair spooks?"

"I'm sorry sir," the person fixing the 'Hog said. "They told me you had authorized this."

"Shut up Corporal," Albaf snapped. "Sir, under Directive Regulation WINC-00128573

"Yes," the Colonel admitted, "but under WINTER CONTINGENCY military matters precede those of ONI, that means that you don't have any authority whatsoever to commandeer my vehicle."

"Sir," Albaf begged, exasperated. "Please don't make me start an argument that involves citing regulations and rules."

Klink gruffed and crossed his arms over his chest. He looked at her, the lieutenant, and me in turn, examining us one by one. "I'll take it you'll take care of the 'Hog?" he asked me.

I shrugged. "I'll do my best not to scratch the painting," I told him, "but I can hardly avoid every plasma bolt that flies at me."

The Colonel nodded, apparently my reply had satisfied him enough to refrain from delaying us any further. "Fine, you can take my vehicle, but next time you want it you just ask beforehand."

"Yessir," I thanked him.

"Wasn't talking to you kid," Klink said.

"Of course, Colonel," Albaf saluted.

Klink nodded and returned the salute before turning back around and returning to camp. The corporal underneath the 'Hog pulled himself out and hit the hood lightly a couple of times before grabbing his tools from the ground. "Ready to go."

I hopped in the driver's seat and secured my rifle in its holster before leaning out to listen to Albaf's debriefing.

"Listen Castillo," she started. "There's a civilian evacuation convoy in this position-"

"There were still civilians in the city?" I asked.

"Yes, don't interrupt-"

"Sorry."

"Don't interrupt! As I was saying. They sent several transports to evacuate the remaining civilian population. While you were resting in base they set up a perimeter and liberated a couple of blocks from Covenant forces. Several hundred civilians have been flocking to that position in the hopes of getting out of the city alive. We've been bringing a few of them at a time, but now we have a reason to suspect that the Covenant are planning a counter-attack."

"So you want to pull 'em out before they strike," I nodded.

"Don't interrupt. Several Elephant transports and commandeered civilian vehicles are already in position, waiting to be filled up with sweaty men, women, and children."

"I don't see why they're waiting for me," I mused. "I'm pretty good at what I do Sam, but even I'll have a tough time protecting a couple hundred vehicles by myself."

"Don't interrupt," she repeated. "And don't call me Sam."

"Sorry ma'am."

"I'm inclined to agree with you, for once. But someone up top requested that Shock Troopers be present to boost the morale of civilians and make it easier for them to follow orders. Apparently they have been getting…unruly."

I scoffed. "Boost morale? I take it there weren't any Spartans in the vicinity."

She glared at me and leaned closer. "That program hasn't yet been made public," she lectured me. "And the location of nearby Spartans is none of your business."

"Of course not, ma'am." I was pretty sure that she had even less idea than I did on the location of any Spartans. She was as likely to have knowledge of their deployment locations as she was to have a can of tuna in between her breasts. "So I'm just going to stand there, shoulders squared and rifle in my hand, looking intimidating?"

"To put it bluntly, yes."

"Great," I rolled my eyes.

"You'll meet your team there." The Commander took half a step back. "Don't let your guard down Sergeant," she recommended. "An attack is expected, so keep your eyes open."

I turned on the car and put my helmet on. I revved the engine once and looked back to Albaf. "I'm glad to know that you care about me Sam," I told her before I floored the accelerator and drove away before she could scream her face off at me.

I hopped out of the car even before it completely stopped. Grass immediately took the wheel and Caboose hopped in the passenger's seat. I, on the other hand, climbed the back of the Warthog and grabbed the turret. Another Warthog containing Scarecrow, Angel, and Bumblebee appeared from an emptied out store. Snark was nowhere to be seen, but I had been told that he was doing overwatch in a Hornet gunship. I wasn't jealous of the man's job.

"They behave?" I asked Scarecrow.

"Well enough," he replied with a laugh. "We had an easier job when you were gone, took you a while to return."

"Yeah, but the rest was worth it. Maybe."

"Itchy to shoot something?" Angel asked. He was only half-joking.

I shook my head. "Maybe, but I have no intention of being the one that is getting shot at. Let's move to the rally point."

"Aye aye," Grass said loudly as she stepped on it. Scarecrow waited for us to pass the other Warthog and followed suit.

Uppergap was in pretty bad shape. I could see that less than half the buildings were still standing upright and none of them were completely intact. The avenue that we were driving on was now almost completely covered with rubble and debris from the collapsed buildings on either side making the ride a bumpy one. Most of the city was covered in dust and smoke. Fire was visible in pretty much every direction. After the UNSC succeeded in taking back a portion of Uppergap I realized that we had taken back a pile of blood-covered rocks. Even if we did manage to push out the Covenant, from the city and the planet, this city would be gone.

The Warthogs climbed over a pile of rocks, allowing me to see the rally point. It was one of those large intersections with a huge, circular roundabout. The roundabout was completely covered with buses, Elephants, and large vans. The street around it was paved by tanks, AFVs, and parked gunships. I could see jamming towers in the buildings around the intersection and suspected that there was more than one Wolverine AA tank prowling around waiting for prey.

"Sarge, that you in the lead Warthog?" Snark asked me.

I looked up to see three Hornets scream above my head. One of them had an ODST on one of the sides. I waved at him briefly as the jeep started climbing back down the steep rubble hill. I tried to keep the turret steady as it jerked side to side. Eventually I gave up and just let the damn thing spin about. I aimed it towards the sky when we arrived to the improvised command post and hopped off the car.

"Staff Sergeant," an Army major greeted me. "Major Brown."

I saluted and he returned the salute before offering me his hand. I took it and shook twice before he let go. "Sergeant, I know exactly the reason why you're here, personally I think it's a waste of good talent to have you on convoy duty, but the way things are looking we might just need you and your squad."

"How are things looking?" I asked as he led me inside his command tent. The command tent consisted of four metal poles and a camouflage netting roof. There was a large crate in the middle that served as a table and a holo-tank next to it. A sphere popped up as we approached.

"Greetings," the sphere said, lighting up with every word it spoke. "I am The Ball, I am the AI in charge of this city."

"Get on the ball!" Bumblebee shouted in a loud and energetic voice, apparently having heard what was being said, courtesy of our linked helmets.

"Nice to meet you," I told it, ignoring my squad mate's antics. I stopped and ordered Grass and Scarecrow to wait right outside the tent and to try and look imposing and threatening.

"The Ball is helping with logistical matters," Brown informed me. "Despite the damage that the city has suffered several CC cameras are still active. A few of the weather satellites also escaped destruction and are under The Ball's command."

"I see," I nodded. "You'll be warning us of any incoming attacks? Enemy numbers, vehicles, equipment."

"That is correct," the AI stated.

"Good. Major, you mentioned that things weren't looking too good?"

"Yes, there have been an increasing number of attacks on the perimeter," he explained as he pointed to an area on the map. As soon as he did that The Ball disappeared and was replaced by a three-dimensional map of the area. "Thanks. As I was saying, several low-intensity attacks have been staged all over this area. There had been a few minor skirmishes before the brutes came in."

"Brutes?" I asked, raising my eyebrow. "Last time I was here it was elites trying to shoot my head off."

"You complaining?" the major asked jokingly.

"Not really, brutes have no shields and rarely use their brains."

"I agree, but they do have ferocity, I've lost eighteen men in the past few hours alone."

If that was low-intensity attacks then I felt bad for the man. I took off my helmet and placed it on the crate. "You want us to help with anything?"

"No," he said quickly, putting his hands up. "We've already set explosives and are just waiting for the last of the civilians to hop on their transports."

I nodded. "What's the estimated time of arrival?" I asked. "For the FOB, I mean."

"You made… what? an hour getting here?"

I nodded again.

"We can only move this convoy as fast as the slowest vehicle. Command issued a pair of Pelicans to us so that we could ferry some civilians and any wounded soldiers."

"Only two?"

"Yes, there have been several attacks on the Northern end of our line, they want as many birds available to them as possible. It pains me to say so, but civilians are not a priority."

Scarecrow scoffed from right outside the tent. "We rescue a marine, he might fight tomorrow, we rescue a civilian, he will become a refugee, losing the UNSC precious credits."

"Hush," Grass told him.

"Your man's got the gist of it," Brown said with a sad smile.

"You a local?" I asked suddenly.

The smile disappeared from his face. "Is it that obvious?"

I shrugged at him and shook my hair. "Family."

"Wife and kids. Twins, they would've been going to college this year."

"They made it out ok?"

"My wife and one of the kids," he replied sadly. "Diana was killed when she tried to rescue a wounded police officer." He smiled a little bit. "She always wanted to enroll, I finally convinced her not to and she still managed to get herself killed."

"A death worthy of a hero," I told him, unsure what to say and trying to do my best to comfort him. "I'm sorry for your loss Major, but now is not the time to dwell on that." I could feel Scarecrow's and Grass' eyes boring into the back of my head. They were soft at heart, both of them.

"Yes, of course," Brown replied softly. "You already have your own vehicles, so that problem solved itself. Your sniper will keep serving as overwatch along with the other marksmen that we possess. The convoy will move through here, taking a small detour here and will finally haul ass to the FOB. We have several available Falcon and Hornet gunships, used to have a Vulture, but a couple of Seraphs shot it down. In addition to the birds we have fourteen Scorpion tanks and twenty-one Armadillos. Warthogs and Mongooses, Mongeese? What is the plural of mongoose?"

"If I had a quarter for every time I heard that question," I chuckled. "I would be a rich man."

"Mongooses it is then. We don't have that many of those but don't really need them. The ones that we do have will scout ahead and lag behind to warn us of any ambushes or attacks. Warthogs will stick with the bulk of the convoy and will occasionally serve as scouts."

"Sir," I said.

Brown continued. "At any given time your squad may be given the order to dismount and set up a nest or cover us."

"Of course," I agreed.

"Good, now that we have the ground rules clear I'd like to remind you that I am in command here. Not you, not anybody else. What I say goes."

"I wouldn't have it any other way Major."

"Good. Dismissed."

I saluted the man and turned around neatly after grabbing my helmet and putting it back on.

"Scarecrow, Grass, grab anything that you might need, we're leaving pronto."

"Sarge," they acknowledged as they went towards the hastily set up armory that was right next to the command tent.

"Snark, where are you?"

"Transferring to a Falcon," he explained. "Hornets are pretty good and pack firepower, but I always feel like I'm about to fall off."

"I know the feeling," I agreed, chuckling. "I want you to keep an eye out for everything-"

"That's my job."

"I do mean everything Snark. A trick of the light should be reported immediately and terminated with extreme prejudice."

"Yeah, I've watched enough of Bumblebee's twenty-first films to know that rule. Snark out."

"Bee, I want you as passenger, Caboose, the same for you. Grass and Scarecrow drive and Angel and I shoot."

"Why do you get the turrets?" Bumblebee complained.

"And here I thought he was making progress," Schitzo said, shaking his head.

"Angel shoots because he's our heavy weapons expert and I shoot because I'm your commanding officer."

"See?" Angel taunted. "Easy to understand. Isn't it Bumblebee?"

"Fuck off."

I was about to chastise them both for their behavior when I heard the sound of a missile flying from its tube. I turned around to see what was going on but wasn't able to see anything. A moment later an explosion joined the chorus of concerned murmurs, frightening many civilians. I could hear several people screaming. Over the noise I made out a crying baby.

"Major!" one voice came through the network. "We've got several Banshees inbound! The M9s can handle them for now, but I see plenty of infantry closing in on our position. I recommend immediate evacuation."

"Roger that Corporal," Major Brown replied. "Your unit will hold the line while we evacuate and then retreat to our position."

"Don't know if we'll have that long sir, but we'll do our best."

Another brave soul sent off to die.

"That's our cue people!" I yelled. "Reaper Squad, back to the Warthogs!"

I could hear small arms fire join the noise just before everyone started turning their vehicles on. By that time every single civilian had found their way inside some sort of moving vehicle and the lead Elephant was starting to climb over the hill that we came from earlier. I could hear the rocks breaking under the massive weight, but the tracks had no problem going up and after a few tense seconds the Elephant was on the other side. Its massive weight had crushed down rubble and compacted it enough to make a passable ramp. Two Scorpion tanks went immediately behind the Elephant and then the cars just started flowing.

We waited for our turn while all the birds took off. The two Pelicans available flew by above us, their cargo bays no doubt filled with children and women. The Falcons and the Hornets took off and hovered above the bulk of the vehicles. Occasionally one bird would move forward and accompany the vehicles already outside of the fortified roundabout. A Hornet went back and disappeared behind the corner from which we were being attacked. I saw as several plasma bolts flew out of that direction and hoped that the craft's weapons would tear through as many alien bodies as possible.

"We're being overwhelmed Major!" the corporal screamed into his radio, alarming every trooper and marine connected to the battlenet. "They took out the Wolverine, we're out of heavy weapons. Casualties at sixty percent and raising! Every program I download has the progress move slower than we are getting killed!"

"Roger that Corporal, pull back your squad, I'm sending three Armadillo's to support."

"Negative Major, you need time and all the firepower that we can use," the corporal replied immediately. "We can give you more time."

"I copy Corporal. Thank you and good luck."

"Corporal Victor Andrade out. Hooah! Right flank, cover that righ-" The Major cut off Andrade from the rest of us.

"Hoo-fucking-ah Corporal," Caboose said under his breath in a sign of respect. He even used the Army battle cry instead of the Oorah that us Jarheads used.

"Grass, snap out of it," I prompted my squad mate.

Grass had been looking back over her shoulder, trying to see what was happening in the rear. My shouting made her get back in her action mode and she started following the van that was in front of us. Halfway up the pile of rubble the van stalled, so Grass had to lightly ram it in the back and help shove it all the way up. Once there she broke off from the main group and started skirting the edge of the avenue as if to form a perimeter around the civilian transports. Several Warthogs and Armadillos had already done the same thing, forming a barrier of sorts around the weaker vehicles.

I shot one look at the vans and buses and knew that they wouldn't survive more than one blast. Several of them had been fitted with metal plates on the outside and even sandbags. I knew that a plasma rifle shot would melt through the metal without any problem, the next shot would punch right through the car itself and kill whoever was unlucky enough to be in its way. That's why were in between the plasma rifles and the trucks. With a big-ass Gatling gun to help us.

"You know, this city used to be home to over one million people," Grass mentioned as soon as we had a steady speed. "This was one of the most successful colonies in the sector."

There was a few moments of silence. "Now it's all gone," Angel said.

"Can it with the negative attitude," I growled.

"Sarge's right," Scarecrow agreed. "There'll be plenty of time to rebuild."

Bumblebee scoffed. "If we even manage to win this."

Everybody remained quiet for a few minutes before another conversation topic surfaced. We all joined in on the discussion and talked to each other while we made slow progress. I wasn't really into the conversation since I kept looking back with the turret and tried to spot any aliens gunning for us. I could hear sporadic gunfire and the occasional Armadillo firing, but so far it seemed like it was going well enough for us.

"Major, we've got Banshees closing in on us from the rear," someone suddenly said. "I count eighteen of them."

"Shit, Wolverines 5 and 11, make your way down there. Lieutenant, you have numbers 1, 3, and 7, am I correct?"

"Yessir."

"Good, that oughta handle the fliers for now."

I saw that one Wolverine had stopped and was going to the rear of the convoy in reverse. Every vehicle gave way to let it pass. A minute or so later I heard the Argent missiles leaving their pods on top of the Anti-Air tanks. A couple of plasma explosions joined the cacophony before it suddenly stopped.

"Rear of convoy clear of enemy fliers Major," the lieutenant in charge said. "We lost three men though, one of the fuel rods hit a 'Hog."

"Good job lieutenant," Major Brown acknowledged. "Keep your eyes open."

After that it was all quiet for maybe half an hour. The convoy was moving at a painfully slow pace, and the lack of any enemy activity whatsoever unnerved me.

"People…" I started.

"We know Sarge," Scarecrow said.

I nodded to myself as I pulled back the loading lever of the huge M41 LAAG machine gun. I wasn't the only one who was creeped out by the sudden lack of noise. I could see several marines and troopers checking their weapons and tensing up. My own squad separated the two Warthogs from the bulk of the convoy a little bit more while Bumblebee loaded his Spanker and Caboose cocked his shotgun. Even the Falcons and Hornets seemed to be on edge.

"Snark, you getting anything?"

"Thermal's not detecting anything, but I'm seeing some movement a couple of blocks away. Pair of jackals by the look of it."

"That it?" I asked.

"Seems like."

"Keep looking, I got a bad feeling about this…"

"Easy there Kenobi…" Bumblebee warned.

"Who?" I asked.

"Didn't you see Star-. Never mind."

I shrugged away the random interruption and kept looking in every direction, the Warthog's turret aimed to the right, where there was nothing in between us and the unknown.

"All ground troops, be advised," Major Brown's voice boomed through my helmet's ground speakers. "Satellites and surveillance cameras are picking up a large Covenant force heading in our direction from the right flank. A smaller force is preparing to intercept on the left flank. Air units, coordinates of their location are being transmitted to your location, engage."

And with that, the battle commenced.

The brutes came en masse. Even with the gunships thinning out their numbers as they came at us I was still surprised by their numbers. It looked like half the covvies in the city were coming at us. They barely bothered with cover and simply charged at us. With the brutes were grunts and hunters, jackals could be seen here and there or taking potshots at valuable targets from office buildings. They became visible less than a hundred meters away from our position. At that point I started rock and rolling with the LAAG. Fountains of blood sprouted from the brutes and grunts that I hit. The grunts collapsed immediately as the large-caliber rounds ripped through their bodies. The brutes took three or four rounds to bring down. The ones with armor were harder to kill, but they went down relatively easy too.

The sheer amount of aliens coming at us made it impossible for us to kill them all before they reached our line. For a moment I remembered the D-Day landings in the Second. The Allies were putting up people on the beach faster than the Axis could kill them.

That day had not been a good one for the Axis.

"Ram the motherfucker!" Caboose urged Grass as he fired his shotgun at aliens we passed. The buckshot ripped through grunts and made brutes stumble, but a single shot was hardly enough to kill one of the bigger aliens.

"Banshee!" Scarecrow cried from the other Warthog.

"Busy!" Bumblebee yelled.

I spun my turret around and spotted the Banshee. It was just beginning to start its strafing run when Angel and I caught it in the crossfire. Our combined effort was enough to bring it down in a few seconds before it had time to pull away.

"Whose kill?" Angel asked.

"I'll take the assist," I replied quickly.

As soon as the matter of the Banshee was resolved I returned my attention to the aliens charging at our flanks. We had killed enough of them that the ones that hadn't been in the front had started taking cover, instead choosing to shoot at us as we flied by. I also looked back just in time to see a brute jump at us out of nowhere. It held on to the sides of the hood before it put one hand on the top of the windshield. It snarled at me as I aimed at his face. My efforts proved for naught, as an instant later Caboose blew half its head off with a shot from his shotgun. The brute let go of the car and slid down the front of the hood. The entire vehicle shook as the tires passed over the dead alien.

"Reloading!" Caboose informed us.

I wasted a pair of grunts and braced myself for an impact with a chest-high wall. A meter before we collided with it Grass hit the E-break and did a full one-eighty turn, bringing the Warthog around and sparing us the need to pummel through a polycrete wall. I had no warning and it was all I could do to hold on to the turret. At one point both of my feet left the floor of the 'Hog.

"Warn us before you do that again," I grunted. "Go."

Grass visibly chuckled and floored it again. This time we were heading in the opposite direction, strafing the covvies that were entrenched and running over the ones that weren't. I saw one Brute Jumper fly from cover and towards the convoy, no doubt trying to land in one of the transports. I fired at it as it flew through the sky and hit its jetpack, detonating it and sending it to the ground. Amazingly enough, the brute was in good enough condition to stand up and roar in my direction.

"Red jumpers?" Grass mused as she nudged the Warthog in the brute's direction. "I've never seen one of those before."

"Probably a major," Caboose suggested. "Color matches that of the elite equivalent."

The entire vehicle lurched to the side as the major fired two grenades at us from its Brute Shot. Grass spun hard to avoid the explosives. One of them detonated a yard from our rear wheel, lifting the Warthog for a few moments. I aimed at the brute and fired ten rounds at its left leg purely out of spite.

"Aww Sarge, you left it for me?"

"Just for you darling," I replied. "No hurry up, this M12 doesn't stop for red."

As the 'Hog plowed through the wounded brute I smiled at my own wittiness. Perhaps I was smiling at the sound of the brute's skull being crunched under three tones of UNSC metal, but as long as I was smiling it didn't matter to me.

"We don't stop for red," Snark said. "I like it. Maybe I'll write it down, use it in my memoirs."

"Be sure to credit me," I shot back.

"Are you kidding me? That's pure gold, I'll write that I said it myself. Shit, Sarge, I see two hunters headed your way, you should be able to see them in a few."

"Can you take them out?"

"Hey, you, see those hunters?" he asked one of his Falcon's gunners. "Kill 'em. Yeah Sarge, they should be down or weakened before you see them."

One of the Falcon gunships started spewing ammunition at some point behind a partially-collapsed three-story building. One of the hunters emerged from behind the building only to have my own fire added to that of the Falcon. The alien was dead within a millisecond of emerging.

"Thanks Snark."

"I aim to please."

I gunned down a group of grunts and jackals hiding behind a wall. The thin polycrete wasn't nearly enough to stop the 12.7x99mm AP rounds. The small chest-high wall exploded into hundreds of shards as the rounds made contact with it. I could see splatters of alien blood coming out from behind.

I noticed that Caboose had put his shotgun aside and was now using his MA5K to fire short, accurate bursts at grunts and jackals. Occasionally he would shoot a brute off a vehicle, saving the civilians inside of it. All in all we had done quite well in this section of the convoy. We had succeeded in pushing back the assault with only the loss of one Warthog gunner. A couple of spiker rounds had punched through a bus, but no casualties were reported.

"Sergeant," Brown's voice rang in my ears. "The section behind yours is getting pummeled, I need two Warthogs to go help down there."

"Roger that, Scarecrow, you go down there. You, Private, go help out."

"Sarge," Scarecrow acknowledged.

"Sergeant," the marine private said in a neutral tone.

They couldn't have left at a worse time.

A flight of Banshees appeared from a cloud of smoke and started strafing my section of the convoy. The first and second ones were brought down by me and one of the other gunners respectively, but the third one evaded all our fire and dropped a fuel rod on a school bus. The vehicle detonated as the plasma ignited its hydrogen fuel cells. Half the bus was engulfed in the explosion, the rest was reduced to a pile of molten slag and charred bodies. There were no survivors.

With the Banshees came a Daemon tank. Its first shot hit one of the other Warthogs nearby, it punched through the hood killing the driver and passenger as it did so. The gunner jumped off and rolled on the ground a couple of seconds before standing up and limping towards a van that slowed down to pick him up. He jumped on top of it and used his weapon to shoot at exposed covvies.

An Armadillo started firing its autocannon at the Covenant tank, aiming right for the turret. A couple dozen rounds bounced of off the hard armor and the tank spun its turret to address the new threat. I pounded the tank with my M41, but the rounds that so easily obliterated infantry seemed to be having no effect on the heavily armored tank. The Daemon fired a single round at the Armadillo, hitting it in the tracks. The Armadillo stopped but kept on firing at the Daemon. Smoke and fire started to pour out of some holes in the armor of the tank before it shot the AFV a second time. The round clearly punched through the armor, because the Armadillo's ammunition store detonated.

I saw the top hatch open to reveal a bloodied man falling out. Another soldier, slightly less wounded popped out with a grenade launcher. He fired at the Daemon, hitting it right below the part where turret joined the body of the tank. The grenade apparently damaged the spinning mechanism, because the turret tried to move as it jammed. The soldier with the grenade launcher threw away his empty weapon and climbed out of the hatch. Just as he was about to hop off a beam rifle hit him in the back of the neck.

I cursed as I traced the ionized particles and sprayed the window from which the trail originated with fire. Once I was satisfied that the jackal sharpshooter was killed I returned my attention to the damaged Daemon. The whole tank was spinning so that it could aim at the vehicles in the convoy. It was about to fire when a pair of rockets slammed into it. The explosives seemed to do nothing other than scorch the armor, but the Daemon stopped hovering and suddenly exploded, killing three neighboring brutes and a grunt when it did.

One of the other Warthogs with us stopped behind the flaming Armadillo and the passenger hopped down to pick up the wounded trooper. He threw him over the passenger's seat and hopped back on as the pilot took them to an Elephant to drop off the injured Armadillo operator.

I waved with one hand at the Hornet that had come to our aid and kept on firing. Ghosts and Choppers were beginning to emerge from all directions. Most of them tried to take out the UNSC vehicles first, but a few of them gunned for the civilians first. As soon as they did that they signed their death sentence. It didn't matter if I had a Chopper on top of me, as soon as I saw one of them gunning for unarmed civilians I blew it to kingdom come. Same thing goes for every other gunner in the vicinity.

I killed two grunts and a jackal when my gun clicked empty.

"Shit, Grass!"

"I hear you Sarge."

"Cover our area," I ordered the other two Warthogs in our section. One of the drivers spared me a quick salute as Grass stopped the car behind a larger-than-average pile of rubble. I knelt and detached the ammunition drum from its clamps. I made sure that it was empty and tossed it away. I grabbed the spare one that was attached to the side of the 'Hog and attached it before pulling the ammunition hose through its chamber and fired a couple of rounds to make sure that they were chambered properly.

"Go, go, go!" I urged Grass.

The Warthog lurched forward as Grass tried to keep up with our section. I was startled to see that the convoy was turning to the right, severely slowing down our progress. Grass halted the Warthog almost completely as I killed a few jackals that were trying to shoot at us with carbines. They were quickly reduced to feathers and gore as the rounds went through their bodies.

"Lead transports, proceed into the tunnel!" Brown ordered.

Right, must've missed that the detour was for a tunnel…

We entrenched ourselves as the civilian transports rolled by. This part of the avenue had less Covenant presence, so it was easier for us to hold them back. I was keeping a group of brutes pinned down behind a wall when I was tapped in the leg. I stopped myself from kicking in a teenagers face.

"Get back to cover kid," I snapped at her. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Sir please," she said, she was crying. "They hit our car, it won't turn on. My mom has this big spike sticking out of her hip. Please help us."

"Shit, I don't have time for this," I cursed. "Caboose, take the turret."

"Sarge?"

"Do as I say! Now!"

Caboose hopped off from the passenger's seat and fired a few bursts at the covvies while moving towards the turret. Grass propped herself up and joined her fire to his. As soon as Caboose was up in the rear section of the Warthog with me I handed him the turret and jumped off.

"Where's your car?" I asked.

"Over here," she said, almost beaming.

The kid started making her way towards an SUV with smoke coming out of its engine before I pulled her back by the arm.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I asked her, looking at her as if she was crazy. "Stay down and go when I say so."

"Yes, sir," she replied immediately.

"And stop calling me sir," I muttered as I drew my BR55 and took aim at a jackal sharpshooter.

"Sorry sir, I mean…" she shut up after that.

"Forget it," I told her. "Cover your ears."

Perhaps I was a little bit late in the warning, since several dozen firearms were going off continuously in her immediate vicinity, she would have an annoying buzzing in her ears for a few days after this. Provided she made it out alive. I shot the jackal in the chest and then shot a startled grunt next to it.

"Go, go!" I urged the teenage girl.

She sprinted back towards her wrecked car and I did my best to keep myself in between her and the Covenant's line of fire while firing suppressing fire from my battle rifle. I was kind of disappointed that I didn't hit anything, but that was not the goal. I slid behind the SUV right as another school bus passed through, taking fire from one side.

"Over here," the girl told me, pulling me by the arm towards an open door.

I moved in that direction and the girl stepped back before crouching behind one of the wheels. I raised my eyebrows at that. It was a pretty smart move. Hardly anything could go through so much metal from where she was standing.

"Oh thank god," one man greeted me. "My wife, she's been shot."

"I know," I said. "Get out."

I half-pulled, half-waited for the man to leave the SUV and join his daughter and climbed in. There were four people in the third row of seats, all of them with their hands over their heads and crouching as low as possible. A few spikers hit the car, but none went through. I took one look at the engine and knew that this car wasn't going to work ever again.

"Get out," I told the ones at the back. "You, in the front, get the hell out too!"

I almost laughed when I saw them scramble over the seats to comply with my orders, but then checked myself.

"Ma'am," I told the woman, "ma'am, do you hear me."

"Yes, yes, oh, it hurts so much."

I pulled the injured woman towards me and saw that she had been shot right in the hip with a spiker round. The spike had punched clean through the car and was three-quarters embedded.

"Can you move your legs?" I asked her quickly, trying to finish this as quickly as possible.

"Yes, but moving the right one hurts."

Ok then.

"Very well, it's about to get worse," I told her as I positioned her sideways, so that she was lying on her left side, the spike jutting up. "I'm going to yank this thing out."

"What?" her husband exclaimed from behind me. "You should immobilize her and have medical evacuation before they remove…that! Surely you can't mean to just yank it out with your hands!"

I looked over my shoulder at the man irritably. "Excuse me, are you a doctor?"

For a moment he got a smug smile on his face. "As a matter of fact, I am. Doctor Sigfrid Vinter at your service."

Luckily, I had backup for him. "Ok Doctor Sigfrid Vinter. Do you have any experience tending to soldiers in the battlefield?" I asked.

The smug smile disappeared from his face faster than a prostitute's panties would drop in New Alexandria's Red District. "No…"

"Then shut the fuck up and let me save your wife!"

The man looked like he was about to say something, but I took advantage of that moment and yanked the spiker from Mrs. Vinter's hip. She howled in agony as I did so. I had to elbow her husband off of my back. He didn't stop trying to hit me until his daughter grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him out of the car.

"Sorry missus," I apologized as I reached for my last can of biofoam. I grabbed the can and pressed it against her wound. The wound was already starting to bubble blood. I was no doctor, but there seemed to be relatively little blood coming out of the hole. "This is gonna hurt," I warned her.

I pressed the button on top of the biofoam can and used my other hand to restrain her as she started trying to shove me away from her. The medical compound was certainly working. She kicked a couple of times until the pain receded a little bit. By that time Mrs. Vinter had stopped screaming in pain and was now crying and moaning pitifully. I rolled my eyes and reached into my backpack for a dose of painkillers. I gave her one and she seemed to faint right after she swallowed it.

I dragged her carefully outside of the SUV and placed her on the ground with her husband's help.

"She have any augmentations?" I asked him.

"What? No."

"Ok, I gave her one military-grade painkiller," I informed him. "She'll be unconscious for a long while. The biofoam on her hip will hold everything together and speed up the healing process. With any luck she won't need any operations or stitches." As I said this I put an adhesive bandage over the wound. Normally those were reserved for wounds when you had no biofoam, but I could make an exception. "She'll be fine."

"Thanks," Mr. Vinter said.

"Part of the job, sir," I shrugged. "Now let's find you a vehicle."

I reminded the civilians to keep their heads down as I popped from the rear of the SUV. My Warthog was still were I left it and they seemed to be holding out just fine. I fired a couple of rounds at a pair of grunts and went back into cover just as a packed bus rolled by. I stayed where I was for a second until an Armadillo rolled by. I hopped out of cover and right in front of it. The AFV's pilot had no choice but to stop. I banged on the hull and a small peephole opened.

"The hell do you want?" the pilot asked.

"There are eight civilians behind that SUV, they have no transport, you carrying troopers in the cargo compartment?"

"Negative Helljumper, we can take them."

"Great, open the rear right door, I'll send them out in a second."

"Hurry up."

I turned around and ran back to the truck. "Ok, that Armadillo troop transport is going to transport you towards your destination," I pushed back down a man that tried to make a run for it. "Go when I tell you to. Groups of two."

I popped from cover and fired a couple of rounds at nothing in particular as the first two women made their way out there. I urged Mr. Vinter to stay with his wife. "Next!" I fired another burst, this time hitting a brute in the chest, making it stumble and dive for cover. "Next!"

This time only one man ran out.

"The hell?" I asked as I turned back.

"I'm not leaving without my mother!" the girl asked.

"Astrid…" his father started.

"No!" she screamed. For a moment I thought that she would start kicking and making a fuss over the thing, but surprisingly enough, her father just shrugged.

"Fucking stupid," I murmured. "Ok, Mr. Vinter, you go."

"My wife…"

I grabbed the unconscious woman and slung her over my shoulder in a firemen's carry. "Go!" Both of us crossed the short distance towards the Armadillo I handed the wounded woman to one of the troopers inside the AFV and sprinted back towards the SUV, where the teen girl, Astrid, was still hiding. I reached her and pulled her close as I prepared to make the run back again.

A fraction of a second before I started running I saw the Armadillo reversing as fast as possible. I barely had time to jump back and push Astrid to the ground. I wrapped my arms around her and to shield her just as the Wraith's mortar detonated on the other side of the car. I felt the immense heat as the explosion melted half the SUV. The blast was partially blocked by the large car, but I'd still get raw skin in my back and neck.

"You alright?" I asked the girl. When she just stared at me with big blue eyes I shook her. "Are you ok?"

You know, usually you are the one that cannot hear anything other than the ringing in their ears. Usually you're the one that has to be shaken up and back into action when something detonates nearby. Hell, even vids switch to the victims point of view when something like that happens. We get a nice little section where the protagonist just looks around in confusion, the noises in the background eventually get louder until they went back to normal. Usually I was the one that found himself momentarily deaf. I never considered that it would be me shaking someone else. Much less a pretty girl in her late teens with lovely freckles running below those bright blue eyes.

Ok, full stop. Even if she was legal it would still mean that she was ten years younger than I was. The implications were somewhat unpleasant.

Focus.

"You ok?" I asked for the third time.

"I'm… fine," she seemed confused. Didn't blame her.

"Good, now stand up."

The Armadillo had started advancing again and rolled besides us. I saw that its rear hatch door was still open and immediately sprang into action. I dragged Astrid behind me and started sprinting towards the Armadillo. Mortar shells started falling all around us, the pilot wasn't going to stop.

"Come on!" the trooper in the hatch urged, offering his hand to Astrid.

As soon as we were close enough I grabbed the girl by the hips and threw her forward. The force of the action had me fall to the ground on my face. I quickly looked around and hid below a stone bench as blue-hot plasma started raining from every conceivable direction.

"We need an airstrike!" Browns yelled at some air-traffic controller. "We are getting ripped to shreds here! There are over five hundred civilians with us!"

I lost track of the argument as my ears started ringing, an ironic echo to the situation that took place less than a minute ago. I curled myself up and waited for the worst to pass. From my position I saw several transports get hit by the Wraiths. The civilians inside had no chance. Once the plasma mortar detonated they died instantly. I wasn't comforted with the knowledge that their deaths were quick ones. I could also see Hornets and Falcons flying across the avenue to destroy the Wraiths that were shelling us.

I was underneath the stone bench for what seemed like hours until a chain of explosions, human-made, marked the end of the Covenant shelling.

"Reaper Squad, status report!"

"Reaper-3 active!" Bumblebee said.

"Go for Snark."

"Grass is green," Grass said, using her usual line.

"Banged up but fine," Angel informed me.

I waited for Reaper-7 to report in. "Scarecrow? Scarecrow!"

"Sorry, sorry, Reaper-7 is green."

"Yeah," Caboose said with a dull tone.

Once I was satisfied that they were fine I emerged from the bench. "Major, what's the status?" I got no answer. "Major? Shit." I waited a couple of seconds before I thought of something. "The Ball?"

"Yes Staff Sergeant?"

"What the hell happened?"

"The Covenant disabled my cameras and sensors in that grid, I was unable to see their Wraith-class tanks approach your position."

"What can you see?"

"At this moment I only posses control of one weather satellite, there are teams of Jiralhanae breaking into my main server as we speak. I am at the moment purging my databases and overloading my servers to detonate as soon as the Covenant enter the mainframe. I will be taking out many of them with me Sergeant."

Suddenly I felt guilty and sad. "Shit. I wish I could've known you longer Ball," I told it. "Goodbye."

"This is The Ball, AI serial number 3901. This is my last transmission. Semper Fidelis."

With that, I lost contact with the city AI.

"Semper Fidelis?" I asked myself.

"It means always faithful," Grass helpfully jumped in. "In latin. It used to be the motto for the United States Marine Corps."

"Leave it to Grass to know that," Angel joked. Despite the nature of his comment he sounded a little bit more serious than usual.

"Major?" I tried again. "Orders."

"Sorry Sergeant, I command a large unit right now. The Wraiths inflicted fifteen percent casualties in civilian vehicles, putting up the total to somewhere around twenty-three, but that is just a tentative figure. Over forty percent of military assets were lost. We're pulling back to the tunnel now. I understand that one of your men is an explosives expert?"

"That's me," Angel chimed in.

"Good, you can help set up the charges. As soon as the last transport goes by you detonate the tunnel."

"Understood, Reaper Actual out."

I jogged back towards my Warthog. It seemed like every single bit of space around it had been hit except for the vehicle itself. Grass and Caboose had ducked underneath the 'Hoh and used it for cover during the barrage. I hopped on the turret and fired at a brute emerging from cover. They were already starting to attack again.

"Come on!" I pressed them. "Move along!"

The road to the tunnel was relatively uneventful, since half the attacking covvies had been eliminated by their own friendly fire leaving a few of them firing at us. Leave it to the brutes to waste a perfectly good opportunity to eliminate a weak enemy force and kill half their number instead. The creatures are cunning, but sometimes they're just too damned bloodthirsty. Their pack nature no doubt influenced the action, maybe a junior officer wanted to off his superior in the attack. Don't really care, works for me.

Then it hit me. Twenty-three percent civilian casualties.

Over five hundred civilians, twenty-three percent of them dead. That amounted to one hundred and fifteen dead civilians at the very least. It was an speck of dust in the grand scheme of things, I had no doubt that many times that number had been killed in the Covenant's first strike, but these hundred and fifteen dead were under my care, near me. I had seen their faces, heard them screaming. It was an awful lot to take in.

"Sarge, charges are set," Angel told me.

"Good, any vehicles still coming behind us?"

"Birds say that we are the last ones."

I sighed. "Scarecrow, Grass, floor it. Angel, detonate as soon as we are out of range."

"Yes Sergeant."

The Warthogs moved quickly through the well-paved tunnel, its headlights illuminating the way ahead of us. Halfway through the tunnel Angel informed me that we should be safe from the blast and that the tunnel shouldn't collapse above us. He seemed pretty sure of himself, so I gave him the thumbs up to detonate. I heard the explosion, the strength of its sound multiplied by the tunnel walls. There was no discernible shockwave, but a second after the explosion I could hear the tunnel entrance collapsing.

We emerged on the outskirts of the city. Several UNSC vehicles were waiting for us and had already set up a nice security cordon. I could see a dozen Pelicans parked and civilian refugees hopping in the birds. One of the Pelicans had red paint over its hull. The design was different, but it was still recognizable. As I counted the vehicles in the convoy I realized the it had to be more than twenty-three percent casualties, and that's not even counting the wounded and the ones that hadn't died yet.

All in all, this evacuation had turned into a clusterfuck.

Thanks to Sniper-Fodder for proof-reading this chapter.

The Ball is a reference to Billy Mays for those of you that missed it, credit for the idea goes to my beta reader.

So guys, originally the Vinter family was intended to be in this chapter only, but I developed an entire personality and character for both Dr. Vinter and Astrid, so I might be bringing them back to the story after a while, perhaps forty chapters will do. Another thing, as you know, I have featured both Carter and Kat as characters in my story, I've also had the one and only John-117 appear in a brief cameo. This got me thinking, I could probably include some other character as a guest for a chapter or two. If you like the idea leave a suggestion in the comment section beeeloooowww...

That was a Ray William Johnson impersonation, pretty hard to do on writing.

One last thing, I started a tvtropes page for this fanfic, feel free to check it out and add to it.

So, thanks for all of your past and (hopefully) future reviews, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

-casquis