Chapter CIII: Stale Beer Sucks

August 15, 2543 (UNSC Calendar)/

Uppergap Seaport, Uppergap, Lambari, Campo Sorrisco System

"Talk about a looming threat."- unidentified Lambari local

I kept rolling around on my bed. I had been trying to sleep for what seemed like hours but was probably just a few minutes. Ever since we had relocated to the port everything seemed to be a lot louder. The appearance of the CCS-class battlecruiser above the city forced us to evacuate and abandon all attempts to retake Uppergap. Despite having lost several thousand of their number and many key positions, the Covenant still held the trump card.

We had our remaining ships on standby, the Inconvenience was mostly intact, somehow it managed to stay out of harm's way while racking up two corvette kills. Granted, corvettes are small ships and unshielded, but that just means that they stand on equal footing with our own frigates.

The ships we had out there were ready to pummel the battlecruiser with MAC rounds and nuclear weapons as soon as it made a move towards our position. In the meantime, we were trying to evacuate as many civilians as possible. The convoy only contained a fraction of the civilian population that was stranded groundside, but we were making decent progress with the help of Lambari's wet navy. They were even using submarines to transport people to the other side of the gulf for evacuation.

A loud horn blared, signaling that a ship was about to leave.

"Shut the fuck up!" I begged, pressing my pillow against my ears as tightly as I could.

Finally I gave up and sat up in my small bed. I groaned in annoyance when I saw that Grass, Angel, and Snark were all fully asleep. At least they seemed to be. Caboose was cleaning his weapons, I wasn't surprised to see him wearing his cap even inside the barracks. Bumblebee was watching something on his datapad, I just knew that it had to be yet another age old film that he would tell us all about after he was done watching it a couple of times.

"Where's Scarecrow?" I asked, looking around.

"I'm here, Sarge," he called out from behind a curtain.

"What are you doing?"

"Date with Rosie Palms," Caboose suggested playfully. Bumblebee snickered.

Scarecrow, however, was unperturbed. "Reading messages from home," he said calmly. "They finally reached the ship, I had Eliza send them down here."

I stood up completely, grabbing a shirt. Since it was a new shirt I had a pretty tough time getting inside of it, once it was on it felt like an anaconda was trying to crush my ribs. I pulled at it for a few seconds before it stretched some, allowing me some comfort.

"Any news from Earth?" I said, joining Scarecrow.

"They've finally started construction of the Orbital Defense Network, phasing out the old Battlestars in favor of ODPs," he informed me. "Liberal president took over URNA in a landslide, Israel and Palestine are going at it again, and the Russian Federation is threatening to veto a couple of UEG resolutions unless they are given more trade something. Oh, and St. Louis lost the Mega Bowl."

"Shit, I had money on them…"

"Anything from the UK?" Bumblebee asked, pausing his film.

Scarecrow scrolled down some. "Not much, the King is trying to reinstate nobility titles…"

"Same as always," the Scottish Helljumper scoffed before resuming his vid.

"Who won the Rugby Cup?" Caboose asked from across the room.

"Didn't they discontinue that?" I pondered.

"Yes, I mean the Russian Rugby Cup."

Scarecrow tapped a couple of holographic buttons and went into the sports section regarding Russia. "RC Novokuznetsk," he said carefully, trying to not to mess up the pronunciation of the word.

"Damn it," Caboose cursed.

"Aren't you a colony kid?" Scarecrow asked.

"Well yeah, but I still remember my roots."

"What colony you from?" I asked, prying for information.

Caboose said nothing and went back to cleaning his weapons. I didn't press him for any more information and instead went back to checking the most important news back on Earth.

"Any news from your brother?" I asked. "The quarterback."

"Yeah, his team did pretty well in the season, didn't win anything big, but apparently he is being hailed as the next big player of his university, but that might just be my mom inflating his talent. You know how moms are."

I chuckled. I didn't really know how moms were, but I wasn't about to make my second favorite squad member feel like an inconsiderate jerk. Although, I gotta admit, the thought did cross my mind.

"I'm more worried about my younger brother," Scarecrow went on. "He wants to join the Corps."

I honestly couldn't see what was wrong with that.

"I see," was all I said. I didn't want to compromise.

"He has a bright future ahead of him," Scarecrow muttered almost angrily, "I don't see why he should throw it all away for crap coffee and a death sentence."

"Maybe he admires his big brother?" I joked while patting him on the shoulder. "You can't control what he does, man."

"I know, I know, but still. It's my little brother we're talking about. Would you want your brother joining the military?"

"I wouldn't want to have anything to do with my brother," I said through gritted teeth, memories coming back, things that I hadn't thought about in years flashing in my head.

"Bad blood, huh?" Scarecrow asked, turning around to look at me.

"Don't want to talk about it."

"Fair enough," he shrugged as he returned to his reading.

"I'm going to go for a walk," I announced.

I returned to my bed and laced my boots on before deciding against a jacket and leaving the barracks. Campo Sorrisco, the weirdly-named star, hit my face with its full strength. We were on the planet's equator, the only section that had been deemed appropriate for colonization even after extensive terraforming. The ocean breeze was now more like an ocean gale, blowing at tents and threatening to whisk them away. All in all the wind was a pretty sweet counter measure for the hot sun.

The port presented a completely different image than last time I was here. All the containers had been removed and were used for a wall of sorts around the port and the refugee tents surrounding it. The Pelicans had used their magnetic clamps to do that. The wide open space was now covered with military vehicles and temporary structures such as barracks, tents, and two bases on opposite ends of the port. The paved road that lead from the port's entrance to the docks had been left alone and there was a steady influx of civilians making their way to what would hopefully be their salvation. Armed troopers, who watched over them to make sure that no one tried any funny business, flanked the men, women, and children. At first the civilian leadership had complained about the measures, but the appearance of the Covenant ship had quickly made them think twice about opposing the UNSC forces.

I shook my head to clear away the recently-raised unpleasant thoughts and headed in the direction of the hangars. Calling them hangars would be an insult to every hangar that ever existed. Any aircraft being used was now grounded in a cleared part of the complex. Half of them weren't even on top of polycrete. Not one single aircraft had any kind of roof overhead, instead they were just left there, exposed to the elements.

I immediately spotted the Pelican that I was looking for and headed towards it in hopes of an improvement on the situation.

"I'm telling you, we need to cover our ships with something, anything…" then Marina spotted me. "Hold on. What the hell do you want?"

I raised an eyebrow and spread my hands out in the universal 'I come in peace' sign. I guess there would be no improvement to this situation. "I'm just looking for H," I lied. "Have you seen him recently?"

"That's his bird over there, I don't know where he is, now leave me alone."

I thought that perhaps it would be a good idea on my part to thank her, but my thoughts interrupted the action.

If she wants to be a bitch treat her like one. Let her rot in hell.

I nodded to myself in agreement as I moved on to the next Pelican. I banged on the outer hull and entered the cockpit when no one answered. It was immediately obvious that Zekalwe wasn't in the immediate vicinity. I cursed at that and took a detour to avoid having to confront my bitchy ex-girlfriend once again. In the process of taking said detour I found myself in the section of the 'hangars' where all the Hornets were grounded.

Why the hell not?

After asking a couple of pilots I finally caught up with Hardwick.

"Hey, Emily," I called out as soon as I saw her.

She looked around to try and spot whoever was calling her name, but didn't seem to see me. I felt like an idiot but I waved at her so that she could spot me. She waved back and hopped down from the rotors of her craft. She told a mechanic to keep working on it and walked towards me, swaying her hips.

"Hey there Frank," she smiled at me. "Been a while."

"I've been busy," I replied.

"I can see that." She reached for the small straps keeping my head wound closed. "What happened here?"

"Building fell on top of me," I informed her with a cocky smile.

She shook her head and pulled her hand back. "You don't say."

"What's the deal with your Hornet?" I asked her, pointing at the mechanic working on one of the VTOL's rotors.

"It's this damned sand, it's doing wonders for my craft. The damned stuff gets everywhere." She added, "Hell, I even have to switch my panties twice a day."

I would've raised my eyebrow at her panties comment, but that was just Hardwick being Hardwick. Instead I decided to step up to her game. "Twice a day?" I asked. "Wow, you must be using a dirty pair right about now."

She raised her eyebrow above the rim of her old-fashioned aviator sunglasses. "Dirty with what?"

She had me against the ropes there. "Sand?" I opted to say.

"Nice choice," Emily chuckled.

I shrugged. "I aim to please."

"That you do…"

Before I could ask her exactly what she meant she stopped abruptly.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing, where did you say you were deployed last time?"

"I didn't. I was in the convoy."

"The last one?"

I nodded.

"Ouch, heard it was bad."

"That it was," I confirmed. "How about you?"

"Same thing as usual, providing ground support for jarheads like you on the frontline, we were pulled back after a Scarab emerged from out of nowhere."

"How the hell do they even hide those things?" I asked myself.

"If you turn a Scarab upside down in the middle of a square it looks like modern art. Maybe that's how they're pulling it off."

I laughed. "A decent idea," I agreed. "But I hardly think that's the case."

"I hardly think that's the case…" Emily mimicked. "You remind me of a college professor."

"I'll try to avoid using proper syntax then."

"I think you just failed," she giggled.

She had a pretty laugh, I couldn't help but notice that. It went well with the rest of her overall prettiness. Or sexiness, whatever you want to call it.

We had been walking through the hangars and we now found ourselves in front of the road crossing the port. I remembered that I had killed a group of grunts with Grass' and Caboose's help just a few meters away. I wondered if their blood still stained the pavement.

Emily and I talked a little while longer about nothing in particular before another large group of civilians started making their way down the road. They looked like they were right out of one of those historical videos. Half of them were injured in one way or another and the other half had mile-long stares. A few of them looked happy enough to be on their ways to safety and some even tried to cheer up each other, but the majority of them looked grim.

"Want a beer?" Emily asked out of the blue.

"Sure."

"What kind?"

I glanced at the grim parade. "The one with the highest alcohol volume."

"Aye, aye cap'n."

I waited there for Hardwick to return with some (hopefully) cold beer. The parade of civilians seemed to be endless, each one was a sadder sight than the last. I crossed my arms over my chest and kept my face hard, displaying no emption. I almost failed when I spotted a familiar-looking woman in crutches slowly making her way with the crowd. I looked at her closely, trying to figure out why she seemed familiar until I noticed her husband standing beside her.

I sighed and walked in their direction.

"Excuse me sir," a trooper stopped me, "what are you doing?"

"Nothing that harms national security," I assured him. He put his arm down and let me pass.

"Dr. Vinter," I called out as I closed in on them, the majority of the civilians moving aside to let me pass. "Dr. Vinter."

"Excuse me," he said as soon as he spotted me. "What is it now?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to apologize."

The look in his face told me that he didn't recognize me.

"I'm the soldier that helped your wife," I explained helpfully.

"Oh. You."

"Yes," I admitted. "How are you doing?" I asked Mrs. Vinter.

"Fine, leg still hurts," she said quietly.

"I'm sorry I behaved like that," I apologized. "I was out of line."

"Not your fault," Vinter said. He paused in the middle of the sentence to look at the nametag on my shirt. "Staff Sergeant."

I felt relieved. "Your daughter?"

"She was talking with the mother of a friend," he told me. "I'm also sorry for attacking you. My wife had just been shot, I… I wasn't thinking straight." He looked at his wife and kissed her on the head before looking back at me. "Besides, I'm not even that kind of doctor," he furthered.

"You're not a medical doctor?" I asked, surprised.

"No, no, I am, but I'm hardly qualified to deal with that kind of wound."

"Oh."

"Hello?" another voice joined the conversation. I turned around to see none other than Astrid Vinter looking doubtfully at me. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing," her mother quickly calmed her down. "This is the man that saved me."

She looked at me with wide eyes.

"You see, Astrid said that if you hadn't helped out my wife back there she would've been considered a non-priority patient once we made it here. She said that the surgeons here would've looked after other patients first."

"Smart girl," I pointed out. I smiled when she beamed at my praise. "Anyways, I just wanted to make sure that you were all fine. Good luck in the future."

"And to you as well Sergeant Castillo."

I nodded at them and turned back around to leave. I shot the trooper that stopped me a 'you see' look before making my way back to my spot, watching the refugees move towards the docks. I had barely begun to cross my arms again and turn my face to a scowl before the youngest member of the Vinter family emerged from the crowd. She avoided one of the troopers and sped-walked in my direction.

I waved another trooper that made to catch her and waited for her to stop in front of me. I had to wave away certain thoughts again when I looked at her lovely eyes and pretty face. I had to remind myself of her (probable) age.

"Yes?"

"I just… I wanted to thank you for saving my mom," she explained, pulling her hair behind her ear and doing an excellent job at looking cute.

Underage, underage, underage, underage, underage, underage.

"What?" she asked.

"What?"

"I thought you…. never mind. I just wanted to…" she blushed. "Thanks. For saving my mom."

"No problem," I smiled at her. "Comes with the job description."

"Still," she went on. "I wanted to give you this." She reached into her pocket and produced a couple of bills. Actual paper money.

"No, no, keep it," I told her. "You're restarting your whole life, you need it more than I do, besides-"

"Heads up!"

I turned around and caught a bottle of beer headed straight for my face. I thought I looked quite awesome while I did. I mean, seriously, catching something one-handed with barely a moment's warning? It's pretty awesome.

I looked at the bottle.

"Eight-point-seven percent alcohol?" I asked. "Local?"

"Yeah," Emily told me as she took a small sip of her own drink. "Pretty damned good if you ask me."

Then she spotted the blonde teenager whose hands I was holding. Well, actually I was pushing it away, but I understand how it could look from a different perspective.

"Who is she?" they both asked at the same time. Suddenly, I felt highly uncomfortable.

"Umm, hi, yeah. This is Lieutenant Emily Hardwick and this is Astrid Vinter," I introduced them. "I helped them during the convoy evacuation."

"He saved me," Astrid said.

"Did he? Frank has a habit of saving people," Hardwick explained. "Where are your parents, kid?"

"I'm not a kid," Astrid snapped. "I'm eighteen."

Thank god she's legal, thank god she's legal, thank god she's legal, thank god she's legal, thank god she's legal. I repeated to myself.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, man?" Schitzo asked quite angrily.

For once, I was inclined to agree with him.

"Sorry," Emily backed away a step. I could tell that she was mocking the kid in her own subtle way. "Where are your parents?"

"They're with the crowd," I interceded.

There was a moment of silence as no one said anything.

"Well, I better get going," Astrid finally said. "Thanks again… Frank." With that, she took off.

Emily waited a couple of seconds while taking small sips from her beer. "So…" she prodded.

"Don't' ask," I pleaded.

"Oh, but I want to ask. That poor girl looked like she had her heart broken when I walked in on you two."

"It's not my fault," I told her. "I'm just naturally handsome and girls keep falling for me."

With that cocky line I opened my beer and took a healthy swig from it. Halfway through swallowing Emily slapped me on the back, making me choke on the alcohol and forcing me to spit it out.

I coughed out the rest of the beer. "If I didn't know better I would say that you're jealous," I finally managed out. I did know better, but that particular line (or any variations) always managed to make the fairer sex go on the defensive.

"Am not!" she complained suddenly.

Never fails.

We probably would've sunken into one of those childish arguments that only serve to increment sexual tension, but we were rudely interrupted.

The noise of a Covenant capital ship's main weapon was a fearsome one, and one that you weren't going to ever forget. Everyone turned from where they were looking to spare a glance at the CCS-class battlecruiser hovering over Uppergap. It was firing a sustained burst at the city directly below it, melting through anything and everything that stood in its way, turning solid rock to molten crystal. The energy beam vaporized anything that was underneath it. It was a show of force if I ever saw one.

Several missiles were fired at it, ranging from Argent to ground-based Archer missiles. As soon as it fired it had to put down its shields, but it stopped its glassing and its shields were up again by the time that the wave of missiles slammed into it. For a moment the entire enemy ship was covered in smoke and explosions, but I knew better than to hope that it had been destroyed. As the wind cleared away the smoke I could see the battlecruiser emerge, unharmed.

"There they go again…" Emily said quietly. "Why?"

"Because they're assholes."

We couldn't position a cruiser or frigate within firing range because the cruiser would take it out from where it was standing. It had been firing at the city occasionally for the last day, but otherwise it hadn't moved from its location. I just knew that it wouldn't be much longer before it decided to stretch its legs.

"That they are," she agreed. "But there's no point in wasting energy on an abandoned city."

"Intimidation?" I suggested.

"I think that the big-ass motherfucking ship covers that part."

"You've got a point," I admitted.

"Move along!" one trooper urged the civilians. "The transport might wait, but the Covenant will not!"

With that the civilians started moving faster towards the docks. We watched them for a while before we decided to head somewhere else. I mostly listened to Hardwick talk, she seemed to be unable to shut herself up once she got wound up, but I didn't mind. Her stories were usually pretty funny or showed the covvies in a bad light. Kudos for her. After she finished telling me of how this one time her rotor got stuck on a Banshee and she managed to unhinge her craft while destroying the enemy flier in the process we bumped into Grass.

"Oh, hey Sarge," she said. "I was just looking for you actually. Hey Hardwick."

"Cam," Emily replied. "I guess I'll see you later," she told me. "Au revoir."

"Bye, thanks for the bear."

"But Staff Sergeant, I aim to please."

I smiled at the joke and looked back at Grass. "What's up?" I asked.

"Hey Cam, how are you? Good, glad to hear it, I hope you had a good nap."

"So you're jealous?" I asked her.

"Don't even go there," she growled.

"Relax, I'm just kidding, but seriously, what do you need me for?"

Grass scratched at the back of her head, looking awesome while she did that, but then again, this was Camilla Seppa we were talking about. "Albaf sent me to look for you."

"Shit, what does she want now?"

"I have no idea, but she looked pissed…"

"Shit again," I cursed. "C'mon, I just might need a friendly face there."

"Not a pretty face?" she asked, pouting.

I chuckled. "That too. Come on, rápido."

"Si señor," she replied cheerfully. I couldn't help but smile at her antics.

The cruiser firing had sent everyone into high alert. Several marines and troopers were running about the camp while triple-checking their weapons and making sure that their weapons were in fine working order. You could cut the tension in the place with a dull fork. For once, it was not sexual tension.

"I'm here, Commander," I said as soon as I entered the tent. MY squad was standing at ease in a straight line. Grass promptly joined them and left me standing in front of Albaf. Lieutenant Wilkins was one step to her right and one step back, his hands clasped behind his back and his face betraying no emotion. Usual Wilkins style.

"At ease Staff Sergeant," Albaf prompted. She sighed and commenced her address. "Francisco Castillo is promoted to the permanent rank of Gunnery Sergeant effective August 15, 2543 AD." As she said this Wilkins broke formation and closed in on me. I was wearing a t-shirt as opposed to my BDUs, so instead of tearing out my old chevrons and tossing them away he just handed me the new ones and the corresponding pins. Albaf went on. "Marines will present him the required respect and follow his orders… ok, you know the drill."

Not very formal.

"The promotion order was signed by General Saint-Georges herself," she informed me. "Outside of ONI."

"So you didn't recommend me?" I asked.

"No," she deadpanned. "I meant it as a compliment."

I smiled, I had, after all, just been promoted and raised a pay grade. "Thank you ma'am," I said as I shook her hand.

"You, Gunnery Sergeant, are not the only one to have been promoted. Your entire squad has been bumped up one grade."

"Can they even do that?" Angel asked. Grass hushed him.

"Robert Agnarsson is promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal effective immediately," Albaf said. Wilkins immediately handed him his new chevrons and pins. "Naveen Avninder is promoted to the rank of Sergeant. Camilla Lilja Seppa is promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal. Arcangelo Lamberti is promoted to the rank of Corporal. George Manuel Sutton is promoted to the rank of Lance Corporal. Last but not least, Grigori Konstantinov is promoted to the rank of Sergeant."

"It's official," Wilkins said as he tapped something on his datapad.

"Congratulations Reaper." Albaf saluted us.

The entire squad saluted her crisply.

"As you were."

Albaf and Wilkins left the tent and left us standing like that, more than a little bit shocked. I looked down at the golden pins in my right hand and quickly shoved them inside a pocket. This had been a highly irregular ceremony. Usually people were only promoted at the same time if they were going to be promoted to the same rank. Then again, this usually happened back on base and there was a huge ceremony to it. It seemed to me like the only thing that I knew was battlefield promotions. At least it made everything easier.

Snark was the first to break the silence. "So we now have two sergeants in the squad? And that's not counting Pavel."

I understood the question. For any regular squad the irregular rank in Reaper would've resulted in confusion, but special forces teams were sometimes given higher rankings to facilitate interaction with other units. It wasn't unheard of to have a squad consisting of five sergeants and one staff sergeant leading them, but it was still highly unusual.

"Take what you can get," Scarecrow told him while patting him in the back. "Sergeant."

"I do believe I will, Lance Corporal."

At that point everyone in the tent broke into smiles. They shook hands and congratulated one another while joking that they were now even more badass than they had been a minute ago. I didn't know if they were happy because of the promotion itself or because of the pay raise. Personally, I looked forward to having more money to spend during leave, but the idea of people calling me 'Gunny' was one that was alien to me. Gunnery Sergeants were supposed to be older and mentor figures to enlisted marines. I mean, I was just twenty-eight years old at the time.

"Congratulations Gunny," Grass said with that gorgeous smile of hers.

"Call signs stay the same," I told her. "You hear that? Call signs stay the same."

"Of course Sarge," Snark told me. "From one Sarge to another."

"Very funny, kid," Bumblebee hit him on the back of the head.

"You're just jealous because you're a Lance Corporal and I'm a full-fledged Sergeant."

"To me you'll always be a whiny brat," he replied.

"What about Pavel?" I wondered out loud.

"Albaf said that the whole squad was promoted, so he probably got bumped up to Staff some time ago," Scarecrow suggested. "Even if that's not the case he's still our second in command."

"And you're the backup," I told him with a smile, placing my hand on his shoulder.

"I am honored," the huge man smiled while he shook my hand. Comparing the sizes of our hands you would've believed that I was a kid, and I was told by everyone that I had big hands.

You know what they say about big hands, don't you?

"Congratulations Sarge," Scarecrow said with a grin on his face. He was obviously very pleased with himself at the promotion.

Suddenly a Heavy Flip-like piece of music started booming out of Bumblebee's datapad. We all looked at him and he gestured at us to wait. The drums, woods, and the rest were joined by an ancient-sounding choir of wailing women. Suddenly the music grew to a crescendo and it became what I could only describe as an absolutely epic piece. We all looked at each other and stood around trying to look awesome while listening to the music.

"Hell of a piece," Caboose pointed out. "What's it called?"

"To Glory, from the Twenty-First."

"Better than those movies," Snark told him as the music gained speed.

"Which ones?"

"The ones about the pie. Or something like that. I'm sure that they had the word pie in the title. Supposed to be comedy."

"Ok, that series is pure comedy gold," Bumblebee argued.

"And I assume that the boobs help too," Angel chimed in.

"No, they're there for comedic effect," Grass joined the discussion. She was fast to pick up an opportunity to contradict our resident Italian.

They started going at it, but everybody was too happy with their promotions to give a crap. Bumblebee smiled and put up the volume of the music as high as his pad would allow him to. The music drowned both Grass' and Angel's voices, forcing them to scream at each other. Now that I was getting used to their scuffles I found them quite interesting to observe. Provided it was a small scuffle, I didn't want to be nearby when they went full agro on each other.

Snark and Caboose were saluting each other and putting their pins on the collars of their shirts while Scarecrow started composing a mail to send back home, telling his mother and many siblings that he had just been promoted. I smiled at the mental image of a group of little black children cheering and jumping up and down while their mother read them the news. I knew that his family wasn't that big, but it was still a pleasant image.

Then the sound of the Covenant ship firing again interrupted us.

Whoa, talk about mood whiplash.

"They're firing at faster rates now," Grass pointed out. She noticed things like that.

"Not good," Snark said.

"Agreed." Caboose declared. "Sarge, you oughta go see the General, get an idea of how the situation's developing."

I nodded. "I want everyone in full battle armor. Angel, start setting up equipment on the table in the back. Scarecrow you're coming with me."

"All right," he agreed.

"Bee, I want you to take his armor and mine out of their cases as soon as you're done suiting up. Undersuits as well."

"Sergeant," he acknowledged.

I motioned for Scarecrow to follow me and grabbed my battle rifle on the way out. It only had one magazine inside, but it was better than being caught with only a pistol to defend myself. I shot the CCS-class battlecruiser a quick look before heading to the CIC.

The command room in one of the bases wasn't packed, but it was extremely close to being so. There were a couple of colonels, captains, and several lieutenants talking to one another and trying to get the attention of the general. The general, on the other hand, was busy ignoring everyone and having a discussion with a pair of AIs. One of the two holograms in front of him was Eliza's. The AI turned around and made her holographic eyes sink on me, letting me know that she was aware of my presence. She probably saw me the moment I walked through the front door of the base.

"Ok quiet down!" the general finally sayed, his authoritative voice booming all around the CIC. "These two AIs believe that the Covenant are about to mass an attack on us. We would be able to hold them back if they didn't have that battlecruiser." He paused for effect. "We're retreating?"

"We're leaving the planet?" one Army major asked, his voice full of shock.

"I'm afraid we have no choice on the matter," the general went on. "Civilian evacuation is almost complete, as soon as they are all tightly packed up in freighters across the gulf we'll start pulling back."

"But, sir-" another Army officer started. It was mostly Army personnel complaining about the decision to abandon Lambari. After all, most of those guys had lived here their entire lives.

"The decision is final," he dismissed him. "Ah, I see you're here Sergeant."

He was talking to me.

"Sir." I saluted him.

"Your squad will have to stay, holding back any probing advances," he told me. "You'll be last ones out."

I swallowed nervously. I didn't really like the idea. "I hardly think that a seven man squad would be enough to hold back the entire covvie ground forces… sir."

"True, you'll have support from other units from your ship. I understand there is a Marine company attached to the… Inconvenience. Is it?"

I nodded.

"That would be us, sir," Captain Sharma called out, taking a step forward.

I could see Darbinien glowering at me from behind his CO. He was obviously not very happy that I had condemned the entire Echo Company to remain here as a rear guard.

The general nodded. "Very well Captain. Your company will provide support as well. To everyone else, the order of evacuation has already been issued, be sure to keep control of your troops. Dismissed."

Everyone saluted quickly before leaving the CIC. I waited for the bulk of the officers to leave the room to catch up with Captain Sharma. She looked at me and shook her head.

"This is one hell of a cluster fuck you got us into, Staff Sergeant," Lieutenant Darbinian said angrily before his superior could speak.

"Actually, it's Gunnery Sergeant now," I explained.

"Oh, is that so?" he asked sarcastically.

"Lieutenant," Sharma interrupted him. "Cool it."

Darbinian looked like he was ready to protest, but he kept his mouth shut instead and allowed us to gain some distance on him before resuming his walk. Scarecrow did the same, ignoring the Marine lieutenant walking by his side. It was probably uncomfortable for Darbinian to have a seven foot tall monster standing by his side, but he did an exemplary job at hiding it.

"Ok Gunnery Sergeant," Sharma started. "We're gonna be leaving behind a whole lot of equipment, I assume that they can be used to push back any attacks. We'll need to create a couple of lines of defense. I would propose the container wall to be the first one, the port wall the second one, and a third defense line near the docks themselves."

"Sounds good," I said. "We're going to need to convince some of the pilots to stay back to evacuate us. How many men does your company consist of currently?" I asked her.

"A hundred and nine."

Ouch, it was usually one-twenty.

"All fit for duty?"

"No, we have ninety-eight soldiers available to us."

"That'll do. We can squeeze twenty per Pelican," I suggested. "Bogdanovic and Zekalwe will surely stay."

Sharma smiled. "I'll see about asking Marina, Gunnery Sergeant," she proposed. "That makes for forty people, we need to bring everyone up in one trip."

"Are the two Albatross transports undamaged?" Scarecrow asked.

"No, only one is in working order," the Captain explained. "So that's fifty plus forty. Another Pelican should do it. I'll talk to the pilots and set my men preparing barricades. Get your team ready Gunnery Sergeant."

"Yes ma'am," I saluted. "Scarecrow, with me."

"Sarge, what's the plan then?"

"What Sharma said, it's the best we can come up with on such short notice and with so little men."

"We'll be surrounded."

"No, the covvies will be trying to pummel through, by the time they realize that they won't be able to beat us by concentrating on one point we'll be on the second line, then we'll fall back to the third and evacuate."

"What about the ships?"

"The AA batteries will be left here, and Liz can remote control them from the Inconvenience, that ought to get any Banshees off of our tail. Ground based AA is another matter though."

"Desperate times, huh?" he joked.

"Damn right. Grab as many grenades as you can Crow, we're going to need stopping power."

"Will do. Next time we're in Reach I'm upgrading this 40mm to those fancy 25mm rocket grenades."

I nodded at his idea and walked inside my tent. My team was already outfitted and stood up as soon as I walked inside.

"Sarge?" Snark inquired.

"You heard the news?"

"Yes," Grass spoke up.

"Good, then go and help out Captain Sharma however you can."

"Got it," Grass said. Apparently she was the de facto leader after Scarecrow. I smiled at the sight of her giving orders to two sergeants when she herself was only a lance corporal.

Bumblebee had pulled out the crates that contained Scarecrow's and my armor and laid out the black undersuits on our beds. No, they weren't neatly folded, and no, he didn't place the armor so that the helmet was on top and the boots at the bottom, but he had complied with my order well enough.

So, armoring up again.

Get naked. Check.

Undersuit on. Check.

I would list every single component of the armor itself, but it would probably take much too long.

Putting armor on. Check.

I grabbed my pistol from my discarded cargo pants and slide it into its holster on my right leg. I also drew my knife from its case in my right boot and put it in its sheath in my right armored boot. The other two were already where they were supposed to be, so I didn't pay them much mind other than making sure that they were safely strapped in. I stretched to make sure that my armor was in fine working order and moved towards the table that was currently working as our armory. I saw that several magazines already had ammunition inside, so I quickly packed those in. I refrained from grabbing rations and water, instead packing as much ammunition as I could in addition to two cans of biofoam. I also decided to stack up on frags as opposed to flashbangs. By the time I was done I felt like I could take on an army.

"Sarge? What about our belongings?" Scarecrow asked as soon as he was done.

"Shit, didn't think about that…Pack them in your rucksack and take them to Marina's ship. I'll do the same thing."

"Looks like the rest of the squad already packed up," he noted.

I nodded and shoved my clothes and valuables into the armored rucksack. I finished the improvised packing and shoved my datapad inside as well. I glanced at Scarecrow and took off after telling him to meet up with the rest of the squad. The port looked a lot emptier now. Several of the vehicles that had been parked were missing, the tanks, AFV's, and Warthogs were all being returned to ship. Pelicans were ferrying troops back to their ships as well. Civilians must've been safe by now, because I saw no one that wasn't wearing a uniform.

I jogged towards the docks and saw that three Pelicans had been parked in three separate docks with an Albatross right next to them. I quickly spotted Marina's and moved in that direction. As I closed in I spotted Sheppard checking the Anvil missile pods on the top of the craft's wings. He saw me and waved before quickly looking back down.

"Marina," I called out.

She emerged from the cargo bay and looked at me. She even rolled her eyes. "What do you want?"

"I take it you're last one out?"

"Yes," she said irritably.

"Good, so am I," I replied as I tossed my rucksack into the ship's blood tray. "Make sure the rear turret is loaded and in working order will ya?"

Two can play the bitch game.

"You don't get to order me around."

"Fine, do whatever the fuck you want. You were always good at that."

I left before she could recover from my vicious verbal attack, leaving her standing with her mouth agape. She wasn't really shocked by the insult itself, she was probably just surprised that I had started acting like an asshole too. I mean, I had tried playing nice because I cared about her, but I'm not Gandhi, I can only take so much.

I shouldered my way past a group of pilots jogging towards their Pelicans and immediately spotted the Marines of Echo Company setting up barricades and digging shallow trenches. So much materiel was going to be left behind that they were fortifying the positions with an unhealthy amount of turrets and machine guns. An unhealthy amount for the Covenant, that is.

"Gunnery Sergeant," my radio rang.

"Yes General?"

"I managed to snag three low-yield tactical nuclear weapons and place them in both bases, the other one is being moved towards the customs office as we speak."

"I see, who has the detonation codes?"

"Your ship's captain, Brooks has authority to detonate them. Just letting you know."

"Thanks General, glad we're leaving them a surprise."

"Same here, good luck."

Yup, we were most certainly going to need some of that.

So, thanks to Sniper Fodder for proof-reading this chapter, he did an impressive job at it, as per usual. Been a while since I used a non-related phrase as a chapter title (check out Chapter 43).

Now, I would like to take a moment to thank you all for your reviews and ideas. I'd like to say that Sergeant Johnson and Noble Six having brief appearances did cross my mind, in fact, I already developed a small plot for the Spartan-III, but it would take a couple of in-story years to come up, and judging by the length of the fic, it might be a couple dozen chapters before (s)he shows up. Johnson, on the other hand, is a difficult choice. I don't think I could do the character honor precisely because of the hung-ho attitude, but if I come up with a good idea, I'm definitely going to use it. Lastly, Buck and the Squad from Halo 3: ODST is the logical choice seeing as Reaper Squad is an ODST unit as well, but since The Squad didn't become The Squad unit after Reach, I would just have to resign myself to meet one or two of them at a time.

Worry not, Spartan-IIs are coming back to the story pretty soon.

Regardless, thanks for your reviews (again) and ideas (again).

In case anyone was wondering, the song Angel played is called "To Glory" by Two Steps From Hell. You ought to listen to it, it's pretty good, although opinions may differ. Here's the link.

.com/watch?v=rP2zA3lZk9Y

-casquis