Chapter CXI: The Long Night
February 10, 2544 (UNSC Calendar)/
Wilk Waste Disposal Facility, Wilk Outskirts, Wolff, Zeta Lupus System
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."- George Orwell
"Yeah, that's us."- Corporal Arcangelo Lamberti
It was one of the darkest nights I had ever had the pleasure of witnessing. With Zeta Lupus VI covering almost all of the sky there was no stars. Sure, you could spot a few small white dots on the edges of the sky, but for the most part it was just a mass of blackness encompassing everything. We still had power in here, courtesy of the hardy UNSC constructions that were the norm in colonies. Still, we only had one light on, the one on the main building at this waste disposal facility.
"I'm sorry," Snark said, coming up to me suddenly.
"For what?" I asked. I was a little bit confused, but I had a pretty good grasp on the direction that this was headed.
"I missed the cloaked elites, I should've spotted them, but the distraction worked like a charm on me."
I shook my head at him in an attempt to discourage him from blaming himself. "It's not your fault," I insisted. "The elites must've turned off their shields and cloaks to better blend with the background, the range was pretty extreme for the thermal sensors on the scope."
"Yes, but still, I shouldn't have kept my attention on the Shadows for that long."
"None of us spotted the elites," I told him. "We all missed them, myself included."
"Besides," Pavel interfered. "We are none worse for wear, no one was hurt and we kicked their asses."
"Gave them a nice little show for bothering with an attack too," I said with a smile. "It's all right."
"It won't happen again," Snark asserted, standing a little bit straighter.
"I'm sure it won't," I agreed with him. "Now off you go, we need as many eyes out there as we can manage."
Snark saluted and left the small building, closing the door behind him. I worried about the little guy, he hadn't been the same ever since Lambari. He had never been particularly chatty, but he always jumped at an opportunity to quip about something or humiliate someone in the squad. Now he just seemed to use all his strength and focus on whichever mission we had at hand. Normally that would've been a good thing, as it would drive away all possible distractions and make him more effective, but exchanging his mental health for better headshots was something that I wasn't willing to risk. Not even I was that much of an asshole.
"What do you think?" Pavel asked me.
"About him?"
"No, about our situation."
I glanced back down at the table and at the two-dimensional map projection of Reaper Hill, as we had taken to calling this plateau. More Covenant troops had arrived to provide backup to the ones already here. We had been surrounded by some forty or fifty troops originally, then the two Shadow transports arrived, bolstering enemy numbers. The four Spirits that followed soon afterwards only served to make our position bleaker. Grass had shot down one of them with the mass driver, but the other three had quickly skirted close to the ground, avoiding fire from the powerful weapon.
"I don't know," I admitted. "Mister Army General in charge here doesn't feel like providing help."
Pavel scoffed. "I did feel that his excuse was a little bit flimsy. Otherwise engaged, please, there are five thousand soldiers present on the planet, they can probably spare thirty and a Pelican."
I agreed with him. We currently had control of one of the most important points on the planet. With this cannon we could give every Covenant ship under battlecruiser classification a pause before attacking this section of the planet. We knew that, the general knew that, hell, even the Covenant knew that if their numbers were any indication. So far they had refrained from a direct assault, but they had been setting up more permanent emplacements.
"They won't help us, so we're alone on this for now."
"Could we ask other troops from the Inconvenience?" Pavel prodded. He seemed to ask the question with utmost care. I understood why he did that. We all had a mission here, we weren't about to keep them from accomplishing theirs because we had gotten ourselves in a shit storm.
I sighed in reluctance. If we wanted any shot at surviving we needed some heavy weaponry and a shit-ton of ammunition. "I'll call Zekalwe, see if he can set up a connection with the Echo or B. What was Echo's new captain's name again?"
"Alexander Salas," he informed me.
"Good to know that."
I went for the rucksacks. They were all neatly piled on top of one another right next to the wall. I opened up the one belonging to Caboose and rummaged through it. He had packed some MREs and a lot of ammunition, a couple of boxes of shotgun shells and several magazines for his MA5K. I ignored those and grabbed a rectangular device with an antenna. The small radio set looked like a dinosaur compared to other communication technology, but it was as reliable as they got. I linked the thing to my helmet before placing it on the table and putting on my helmet.
"Search for F99s." The order was short and simple, easy for my helmet's program to understand.
A progress bar with the caption 'searching' appeared on top of my HUD and started filling up. Within five seconds a small text box appeared on my helmet, it informed me that there were five F99 Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles. One of them, the most up-to-date UCAV, belonged to the Inconvenience, the other four were older versions in service by the Air Force branch on the planet. None of them had any software that prevented me from linking to them.
"Link," I ordered again. My helmet immediately used the radio set to establish contact with the small drones, showing five different green lights once contact was established. "Horace Zekalwe, Chief Warrant Officer."
It took about a minute, but the radio established a secure link through the network of F99 Wombats. Zekalwe was probably busy some way or other, but he could relay my request for help to other troops on the Inconvenience.
"Frank!" his loud voice came in just as I took off my helmet, the radio's speakers and mics were enough. "We lost all contact with you, some here were starting to get worried."
I smiled at the show of concern, at least I wasn't universally hated on board the ship. "Good to know H," I replied. "But we do find ourselves in a little bit of a…situation."
"Roger, what do you need?"
"We're defending a waste disposal facility, temporary designation is Reaper Hill," I informed him calmly as Pavel leaned back on the wall and crossed his arms. "Increasingly large numbers of enemy troops are surrounding the plateau in question. They are mostly infantry right now, but if they get Wraiths or fliers here we'll find ourselves in some deep shit."
"I see. What do you need?"
I glanced at Pavel.
"As much ammunition as you can spare as well as two or three SRS-99s with ammunition to go with. M41 ammunition and a spare Spanker would be helpful. Those two things are the ones we need the most, but boxes of 7.62 and 9.5 would do wonders too," Pavel said quickly. We had gone over a list of supplies that we might need several times before, so he had no trouble shooting out the items in question.
"As far as it goes, that's pretty tame," Zekalwe noted. "Things are getting edgy here on Wilk, Echo and B are doing most of the heavy-lifting."
"Can you get us the supplies?" I asked.
"Yes, the Army in here had a surprising amount of weaponry here, some of it they weren't supposed to have."
"Two undeclared mass drivers and an arsenal," I thought out loud. "As helpful as that might be right now, it's still not a good sign."
"I toyed with the idea," the pilot admitted. He paused for a second. "Still, nothing we can do about it right now. I'll see what I can do about those supplies, drop them on your position from high altitude."
"Thanks H," I said, meaning every word of it. "Any word on Nezarian?"
"Yeah, him and his Army Rangers are jumping around the city, playing havoc with the enemy supply lines."
"See if he can spare a squad," I asked. "If he does, you can tell him that I owe him a favor. A big one."
"Will do. You can expect those supplies in half an hour, still, I don't know if I'll be able to round them all up."
"Do your best," Pavel said. "We'll be waiting. Eagerly."
I heard chuckles on the other end of the line. "Of course you will. Good luck boys, give 'em hell. Zekalwe out."
We both looked at the radio set for some time.
"Well, it was about goddamned time we got some good news," Pavel announced loudly, uncrossing his fists and cracking his knuckles. I smiled at him and cracked my own knuckles, making a louder noise than he did, outmatching him. Pavel just looked at me and rolled his eyes. In all fairness, what I did was pretty childish, even if I did win.
"Sarge, I'm getting some movement," Snark's voice came in out of my helmet.
"What kind of movement?" I asked after putting it on.
"You might want to see this," Grass added. "Now."
Here we go…
"Get some rest," I ordered Pavel. "Quick nap."
"Way ahead of you," Pavel replied, moving towards a folding chair.
I activated my oxygen tank and tried to ignore the metallic taste. I quickly closed the door behind me so that Pavel wouldn't get some sort of poisoning. And die.
"What is it?"
"Over here," Bumblebee said, gesturing for me to join him up in his tower.
I jogged that way while making sure that my rifle was in fine working order. I spotted Caboose sharpening his knife and Angel checking on the explosives and detonators that he had brought with himself. They were both taking a rest from being on watch. Believe it or not, having to pay full attention to everything that happens in front of you can be very tiring.
"There," Snark pointed. "I thought you'd want to see this for yourself."
I looked through my scope at the enemy line. They had set up themselves in a position reminiscent to that of a siege. We were fully surrounded now. The Covenant had set up several barriers and purple barricades all around us. Those I had already seen several times. The only vehicles present were the two Shadows from yesterday, the Spirits had left as soon as they dropped their payloads, but the ones that had been shot down were being used as cover.
"Shit, those Daemon tanks?"
"Looks like it," Grass affirmed. "Profile matches. I haven't seen terribly many of those, but I think I can recognize it well enough."
"It's only two of them," Bee said. "I might be able to hit them from here, match their profiles to the missile tracking computers, fire straight at them."
"You'll hit them?"
"Not sure," he admitted, "they are pretty far away and could always boost away at the last second."
"I can paint the target," I said. "Make it easier to track."
"That might help," he admitted.
"Maybe you can fire straight up, make it hard for the tanks to dodge?" Grass suggested.
"Do the rockets have enough fuel for that?" Snark asked. "Won't they just plummet down halfway through?"
"No, the tanks are within missile range," Bumblebee said, sounding sure of himself. "Even if they fly twice the distance there shouldn't be any trouble."
"Sweet," Grass said without much feeling.
"Aim at the bigger target," I ordered, "the closest one, I'll paint it while you shoot it, but shoot from somewhere else, I don't want them blowing up the towers in retaliation."
"Got it," he said as he climbed back down the ladder.
"You ready?" I asked after a few seconds of silence.
"Hold on," Bee shouted back, "I have to change the rocket's configuration, it'll be just a second."
"You can do that?" Snark asked, out of all of us, he was the one with less knowledge regarding heavy weapons.
"Yeah, you just need to unscrew the top and flip a switch," he replied. "Broad strokes, but it basically boils down to that."
"Huh," Snark mused. "I wasn't taught that."
Bumblebee chuckled slightly while seeing to his rocket. "Few people are, very rarely does anyone lack access to laser-guided missiles, if you need to change the default settings you probably have more serious concerns." The Scottish accent made the small piece of information sound way more interesting than it actually was. It was useful information though, I didn't know that either.
"Ahh, story of my life," Caboose said.
"Done," Bumblebee announced. "Paint the target Sarge."
I turned on the laser designator and aimed it at the Daemon tank closest to me. The extreme range caused the laser to wobble all over the place, forcing me to plant the BR55 on the railing to stabilize it. As soon as the infrared line stopped wobbling I pressed the button on the side. My HUD immediately outlined the tank and it lit up as soon as the laser hit it.
"Target painted," I voiced out.
"You better watch this," Bumblebee said. "You might not see it again."
The familiar sound of a rocket firing was heard over my back. I could make out the noise of the rocket boosting away but couldn't afford to look up to watch lest I move the laser away from the target. It took about five seconds before the laser-guided missile appeared on my scope, it was coming at the Daemon tank from an almost vertical angle. It flew at the tank at breakneck speeds before impacting the top of the turret.
The explosion wasn't nearly enough to destroy the sturdy and well-armored tank, but hitting it right on the top caused enough damage to the turret to make it unserviceable without some heavy duty repairs.
"And there it is gentlemen," Bumblebee announced. "Magic in the battlefield."
I smiled at the sight of the flaming Daemon far off in the distance before I spotted the other one, it was turning around to face us.
"Shit, get down!" I cried as I jumped towards the ladder and slid all the way down. The team was already running down towards the mass driver, sensing the tone in my voice they decided that it was probably best not to ask any questions. The mindless obeying paid off, as seconds later the first plasma round hit the edge of the plateau, somewhere near Caboose's previous position. It lifted up dust and rocks while making a small crater.
Of course, the Covenant, being the stupid assholes that they are, decided that it would probably be a good idea to keep on shelling us for one full hour. The Daemon was completely unsuited for an artillery barrage at a higher position, its fast-flying plasma shells had little drop and it was impossible for them to hit the top of the hill itself. Eventually, the tank settled for bombing the shit out of the watchtowers on that side of Reaper Hill. By the time it was done we were two towers short and a large portion of the cliff had been glassed from the heat of the explosions. No part of the plateau had collapsed thankfully, otherwise we would have lost an important portion of our wall.
"Are they done?" Bumblebee asked.
"Looks like," Angel replied.
Of course, a second later another round hit the remains of one of the towers, sending pieces of hot metal flying everywhere. We all waited before saying anything else and tempting our luck. After five minutes it finally felt safe enough for me to stand up and look around. The buildings and structures were undamaged. Except for the two destroyed watchtowers everything else was intact, a few of the buildings closer to the edge had received shrapnel damage, but they were still airtight and safe for us to remove our oxygen tanks inside them.
"Want me to shoot someone in retaliation?" Snark asked eagerly.
"Yes, please," I agreed. "Highest ranking elite you can see, if it's the zealot all the better."
"My pleasure," Snark said grimly before moving towards the edge of the cliff and taking position. He placed the bipod on the ground before securing the rifle's stock to his shoulder.
After a minute of waiting for a suitable target the Indian marksman squeezed the trigger thrice in quick succession. I was looking at the enemy line through my scope and immediately spotted his victim. An elite ultra received two shots to the chest, absorbing the impact with its shields. The third shot punched through the weakened shields and hit the elite below the collarbone, ignoring the armor and going completely through. The ultra collapsed and its white armor started getting covered with purple blood.
Two grunts moved in to help their leader back into cover, but I fired three burst, hitting one of them in the chest, killing it. The other grunt decided that it wasn't nearly brave enough for the task at hand and scrambled off to cover. I cursed at the two missed bursts.
"Getting sloppy Sarge?" Grass asked playfully.
I shook my head before crawling backwards and away from the enemy line of sight. "Nah, range is extreme, and this is a battle rifle, not a sniper rifle."
"I know, I know," she conceded. "Just messing with you."
"Hey Grass," Bee came in. "Since you're supposed to be a gunsmith or something fancy like that, how come you've never modified any of our weapons? I mean, all the indication that I have that you're good with guns is that you can field strip them pretty fast."
"Agreed," Caboose said simply.
"You've never asked," Grass answered, effectively ending the conversation.
The starless sky was all that I could stare at while we kept watch, Pavel hadn't been able to catch a nap and instead joined us on watch. All of us were posted along the length of the round cliff, watching for any sign of an impending attack. So far we had only been shot at by jackal snipers or marksmen, all the shots missed, but they served to remind us that we were still within enemy range. Snark took out the ones that fired, and soon enough, the enemy snipers stopped exposing their positions to us so readily.
"Reaper, come in," Zekalwe's familiar voice called out.
"This is Reaper," I replied immediately. "What's the sitrep?"
"I'm currently hovering above your position, just letting you know that I'm dropping the packages. I'm being painted for targeting, gotta bail."
"Thanks H, news on reinforcements?"
"I talked to Lieutenant Nezarian, he said he might send you a spare squad in some hours time. Packages dropped, keep your eyes up."
"Thanks again, good luck."
Horatio chuckled. "Don't waste your luck on me, from the looks of it you're gonna need it."
I nodded even though he had no way of seeing me before cutting the channel. I looked straight up and squinted, trying to make out the resupply canisters in the dark night sky. Eventually my helmet outlined several shapes in the sky, falling rapidly towards our position. I made sure that they weren't about to land anywhere near me and waited for them to slam down on the ground. The six oblong shapes embedded themselves in the hard rock surface.
"Everyone, stay in your positions," I ordered, "Pavel you have my sector."
"Aye aye Frankie."
The resupply canisters had landed relatively close to one another, but the extreme altitude from which they were dropped caused them to be further apart from one another than usual. I moved towards the one closest to me and opened the panel, revealing a bunch of hastily-packed magazines stacked inside. I pulled out a few and confirmed that they were all 9.5mm ammunition for Snark and me. The next pod revealed a shiny SRS-99 sniper rifle, I grabbed it and yanked it out from the gray security foam. The second box also contained a belt full of magazines for the rifle itself.
Once I had pulled out the sniper and the ammo I moved on to the next canister. This one revealed another M41 SSR. This one had the ergonomic thumbhole design that Army seemed to favor. The change in design was minimal and wouldn't affect us, so I ignored it. The box also contained four boxes of rockets, bringing the grand total to ten M19 missiles in addition to Bumblebee's other eight. It wasn't a lot of firepower considering we had a couple of companies laying siege to us, but it was a start.
The other three cases revealed another sniper rifle with an equal amount of spare ammunition, a bunch of magazines for the MA5-series rifles, and several boxes worth of 7.62mm linked ammunition to be used by Pavel and Angel.
"Snark, come 'ere," I said. "Got a little gift for you."
He jogged to my position and looked at the sniper rifle that I handed him greedily before taking off again. I warned him to only take out targets of opportunity and to restrain himself to one shot per half hour. He acknowledged my order and returned to his position, heavy rifle in hand and spare ammunition around his waist. I had Pavel and Angel grab a box of ammunition each, if push came to shove we would need their fire volume to help out suppress the enemy.
Now let me tell you how exactly it was that push came to shove.
With two high-powered armor-piercing sniper rifles on our hands, Snark and I decided that we could cause some mayhem. We stuck to my one shot every half an hour policy. At first.
Snark's first target was another ultra. His shot hit the alien right in between the eyes, blowing the rear part of its skull and neck in a gory explosion. The bullet went on and hit a jackal in the neck, all but decapitating it. The round finally stopped after hitting the ground several meters further ahead. I knew that because Snark was enough of an asshole to record the kill and show it to everybody just so that we could see just exactly how good he was at killing people from a distance.
Me, being the same type of asshole that Snark was, could not allow myself to be outdone. Of course, out sniping the twelfth best marksman in the entire UNSC Armed Forces is easier said than done. In fact, there are precisely eleven people that can claim to have done that. In a universe with a trillion human beings, that's an incredibly small number. I don't think that I need to use some weird example to put it into perspective, so I'll move on.
I searched through the Oracle scope for the zealot for a while before finally giving up. The alien commander was smart enough to remain behind visual cover at all times. Eventually I settled for an ultra much like the one that Snark had killed. I had spotted it some time ago, it was jumping from cover to cover, probably headed from one point to another. I watched it for some time, seeing how long it took the outline to wait behind a rock and jump towards a deployable cover. After five cover changes I held my breath and waited for the next.
You see, the elite was at a distance of 2,213 meters. Every single Helljumper could easily hit a stationary target at that distance and do it consistently. The difference here was that I didn't have a spotter and that the target itself wasn't stationary. Hell, by the time I had squeezed the trigger there was no target whatsoever.
The SRS bucked as the sabot round flew out of the barrel. The 14.5x114mm round, tracing its origins back to the defunct Soviet Union's anti-tank rifles, did exactly what it was designed to do. It flew at high speed towards the exact point that I had been aiming at when I squeezed the trigger. I had accounted for wind and drop slightly, but with this round I barely had to shift my aim. It took little over a second for the round to fly that distance. It took exactly the same amount of time for the elite ultra to emerge from cover and dive towards a boulder in a search for safety.
The round collided with the elite's neck. The shields didn't hold up, and the neck armor didn't do a good job at it either. The force from the impact jerked the ultra sideways, tearing out a large chunk of flesh from its neck while punching through the flesh. Arterial spray was clearly seen through my thermal scope and the ground around the dying alien started turning a bright white as the blood left its body.
No matter how impressive the kill, I was still outshot by Snark.
"Don't worry Sarge," he said. "You aren't the first to fail and you won't be the last."
"I can sure as hell try," I shot back. My tone was harsh, but I didn't mean it. My squad knew me well enough to know that.
"Wait, we're getting movement."
I peered through the sniper scope again and saw that what Pavel had said was true. What worried me was that he was on the other side of Reaper Hill, overlooking a different section of the enemy blockading line altogether. If there was movement on two sides we were probably in for some deep shit.
"Shadows are moving up," Grass warned.
"Revenant too. Where the hell did those come from?" Angel announced.
"Banshees." Caboose never lost his cool, except when you talked about killing human beings.
"Infantry units moving up."
"Grass, hop on the mass driver, I want you to shoot down those fliers before they get within close range. Everyone else, give 'em hell."
My first three rounds were wasted on shooting out the pilot of a Revenant. Once the elite minor fell out I decided against such difficult shooting. The moving craft made for a difficult target, especially when I was aiming at a pilot that was covered up to the chest. My next shot hit the vehicle adjoining it right in the right side of the front section. The round punched through the weak armor covering the alien engine and rendered the vehicle immobile. At this distance we were still within shelling range, but the aliens couldn't maneuver the mobile artillery vehicle, so it was stuck firing at one position only.
"Artillery inbound!" Pavel warned.
There was really nothing that we could do except for looking up and hoping that we would be able to dodge any pink plasma blob flying at us in time. Since only three Revenants were firing at us at any given time, we were relatively safe, we were pretty small targets in a comparatively large are, our positions weren't fixed and the enemy craft was firing blind at us.
"Kill them!" I ordered Bee. "I don't want to get hassled."
I heard two rockets being fired in quick succession. It took about five seconds for the M41s to find their marks.
"Kill and incapacitation!" Bumblebee yelled triumphantly, "let me take care of the other one."
"Firing mass driver!" Grass called out before doing just that.
The loud noise of the magnetic accelerator cannon made my ears ring loudly for a few seconds. I immediately turned on the noise dampeners on my helmet, making everything outside of my bucket sound dull and quiet. All the sounds were still there, only that they were dampened. My team's voices were still completely normal, allowing me to hear how everything developed the exact same moment it did.
I reloaded the sniper rifle and squeezed off two shots at an elite major. The first shot hit it in the chest, sending it down to the ground on its ass. The second shot hit it in the chest again, making a softball-sized hole in the red-clad elite. The grunts and jackals near it scurried away before hastily trying to get back in formation, with the bird-like aliens erecting a nearly impenetrable wall of shiny shield while the short and stocky grunts cowered behind.
"This doesn't make any sense!" Pavel called out loudly. "Even if they do get down here what are they gonna do? Storm the castle?"
"I'm seeing rangers," Caboose informed the squad.
I zoomed in on the direction that he had highlighted and immediately spotted a squad of elite rangers. Their helmets reminded me a little bit of those that the Spartan-IIIs wore. Kat, Carlos, and Carter had worn similar helmets, a full-face visor making them visible targets, essentially painting a bulls-eye on their heads. Of course, the young human soldiers had photo-reactive camouflage armor, meaning that their helmets weren't even visible half the time. The elites, didn't have that much foresight, instead choosing to flaunt their fancy armor.
"Caboose, Angel, spray the rangers!" I ordered. "Get the shields down, I'll punch through them."
Reaper-8 and Reaper-6 complied, spraying at the enemy air-capable troops with controlled bursts of five to seven rounds. The elites started recoiling from the impacts and were forced to jump and roll to avoid their fire. There was little cover on the flatlands surrounding our hill/fortress. The elites were caught out in the open and had no choice but to activate their jetpacks to get away from the fields of fire from my two squad mates.
Of course, while they were up in the air they were nearly impossible to hit. Caboose immediately switched targets to one of the rangers that hadn't activated its jetpack yet. I tracked one of the airborne rangers with my scope, keeping my crosshairs as close to the elite as I could. I refrained from firing until the elite landed. It bent its knees to absorb some of the shock from the impact. For a split second it was immobile. A sitting duck.
One burst sent it stepping backwards and drained what was left of its shields. The second one put three holes in his armor and neutralized it permanently.
"Start over and repeat," Angel muttered. "Nice shot Sarge."
"Thanks," I thanked him. Obviously.
Two dead rangers later they got right down to the edge of the cliff.
"Get ready for CQC," Pavel's voice boomed. "Caboose, get out your M90."
"And you your ACS," the man replied.
I was now firing almost completely downwards, targeting grunts with my BR55, the SRS that I had grabbed was now magnetically strapped on to my back. While it made for uncomfortable firing, I preferred to have the weapon within easy reach in case I needed an impromptu shotgun.
What? It's happened before.
"Rangers are jumping!" Bee screamed frantically.
"Grass! Get outta that cannon!" I ordered. "Bee, you're on skywatch."
"Got it."
"Got it."
The first elite to jump up near me had a plasma repeater. I dove towards the nearest ditch as the rapid-fire weapon sprayed the area all around me with blue-hot plasma. I kept my head down for five seconds until the weapon overheated. I took advantage of the opening and popped from cover, firing in bursts at the elite. I caught it with its weapons vents open, trying to get his weapon to cool faster. I aimed the first burst at the ranger's shoulder, the three rounds made it drop its weapon, the other three bursts took out its shields and finished it off. There were two other elite rangers in the immediate vicinity, they were behind a small supply shack, one of them was firing at me and the other one was firing at Caboose.
"Angel, can you help out here?" Caboose asked.
"Negative."
"It's just us then Sarge," the ONI-employed Helljumper said with an almost reluctant tone. I knew he didn't particularly like me, but I mean, c'mon, I'm one of the best killing machines in human space, he couldn't have had a better partner in a situation like this.
Ok, that sounded just a little bit assholeish. And self-centered. And show offish. And- well, you know.
"I'll toss a frag," I called out, "you try to get close and blast them with your M90."
"Sounds good," he shrugged me off.
"Frag out!"
The grenade flew at the closet-sized construction and rolled behind it, where the two elites were taking cover. One of them must've kicked the device, because it flew away and detonated three feet from them. I didn't see it happen, but I knew that their shields were drained. I started firing wildly at the buildings corner and at the building itself, trying to keep them down and hoping that a round would punch through the polycrete and hit one of the unshielded elites.
Caboose beat me to it. I heard one shotgun blast and then another. The second blast was accompanied by an elite falling out of cover, a big gaping wound in its chest. An M90 might be effective for up to seventy or eighty meters, but there was absolutely no doubt in my mind that it was devastating when fired at ranges of less than five meters. It could simply destroy anything that it made impact with as long as it wasn't shielded.
"Nice job," I complimented, letting sarcasm drip into my tone. "Discourage any other jumpers."
He nodded and went back to the edge of the cliff before he started firing occasional bursts at the enemy soldiers below.
Me, on the other hand, got right to rescuing pinned-down members of my team.
While Caboose and I had been fending off the two rangers, an entire squad's worth of jump pack elites had made their way up. They were currently contained to a small area on the other side of the plateau, but they were causing some mayhem and were firing occasional bursts at the Onager mass driver. The rest of Reaper was keeping them in the same area, but the rangers had an advantageous position and nice cover. My squad would have to pull back soon.
"Pavel, Grass, keep their heads down!" I called out. "Bee, Snark, keep your heads down!"
Immediately after I gave out my orders the sound of shotgun shells being fired at full-auto and the familiar cracking of an MA5 flooded the hilltop. I saw the elites dodge behind cover and took advantage to run straight at them. I made sure that I kept myself as low as possible. If one of the elites had one of those pesky sensors I would be in for some trouble.
"Stop firing," I ordered before I got hit by friendly fire. The gunfire ceased and I slid feet-first towards the walkway that the elites were using for cover. I pressed my back against the walls and waited for the elites to start peppering my squad while keeping my head up.
As soon as the muzzle of a plasma repeater appeared above me I shot it once. The bullet punched through the alien material and rendered the barrel of the weapon useless. I heard a grunt of confusion, I took advantage of the momentary confusion of the elite and its warrior brothers by jumping up and switching to full-auto on my battle rifle.
You know, one versus five would usually mean bad odds for me, but when you're faced with a little alien wearing black armor, firing an outdated weapon, and being completely fearless you get surprised. Getting surprised when someone is firing a weapon at you is very often the last thing you'll ever do.
I sprayed the aliens, stunning them, and then focused my fire on the one closest to me. It went down quickly and so did the next one. As soon as the second one died I drew my sidearm and emptied it on a third elite, hitting it in the chest until I drained its shields. The last two rounds in my magazine hit the elite in the arm, pushing it backwards and sending it running away while its shields recharged. An SRS round punched through its head halfway to safety.
Three down, two to go.
I dove back down as the two remaining elites recovered. Blue plasma flew by me just as I hit the floor. The sloped surface allowed me to slide below the walkway. Since it had a completely solid floor the elites didn't spot me.
But they weren't stupid. As soon as I arrived on the other side a burst welcomed me. The first rounds missed but the second one grazed my arm right above the elbow. I dragged myself back below cover while cursing. I stayed down there for a moment, thinking of a course of action.
That's about the time that I started feeling the plasma repeater rounds hitting the thin metal floor separating me from the two elites. I shuffled backwards, waves of pain erupting from my arm. I kicked at the floor and pushed myself backwards just as red-hot metal started dripping down onto the floor. A second later the dirt below the walkway received several bursts of plasma fire as the elite tried to send me to kingdom come in as many bits as possible.
"Shit," I muttered as I brought my rifle up.
The plasma repeater twisted around the other direction and the elite fired a burst. The only thing that I could see of the alien was its hand and part of its arm. I fired two bursts at the alien, both of them hitting his hand. Six bullets were enough to make him drop the weapon, and the repeater clattered onto the ground as the elite pulled back his hand. I didn't waste any time, choosing to push myself away from that point lest I was still around for the retaliation.
"Fucking blow them up!" I cried furiously. My team was taking their sweet time rescuing my ass.
"Frank, we've got jackal rangers on our ass!" Pavel replied. "They have us pinned down, we're in the supply building."
"Fuck me!"
I was obviously feeling very angry at the time.
I turned around so that I was down on my belly and crawled below the walkway, following its slight curve. I went for about thirty meters before I finally felt safe enough to get out. I emerged on the outside of the circle that this walkway formed and confirmed that I was out of the elite's line of sight before I moved on while crouching. You know, contrary to what videogames would have you believe, walking like that is incredibly hard and tiring. Not to mention that it looks completely ridiculous.
"Pavs, how goes it?"
"We're good, solid defensive positions," he said. It was evident that he was being sarcastic.
"Good."
I was also being sarcastic, in case you were wondering.
Ok, now I was almost on the side opposite to where the elites had first been when I fired at them. I peeked above the safety rails on the side and saw that two elites were nowhere to be seen. The Onager was probably covering them from me. I looked around and immediately spotted the jackal rangers. Since they weren't looking at me or my direction I simply hopped over the short wall and onto the walkway. It felt a lot safer now that I had two waist-high slabs of metal on either side to protect me from prying eyes and plasma ammunition.
The gunfire and plasma fire was starting to sound almost frantic. With my team pinned down by two elites on one side and an unknown number of jackals on the other I was in a position where I had to act fast. I pressed myself on the inside rail of the walkway and walked for some ten meters before stopping and peeking out. I spotted one elite firing with a repeater at a polycrete building, shattering what was left of the windows and leaving scorch marks on the walls. I pinpointed its location before going back behind cover.
Once there I grabbed a grenade from my webbing and lifted the safety cap before depressing the trigger button. I held it down and stood up, my arm outstretched behind my back. I zeroed in on the oblivious elite and tossed the grenade. It flew right where I had aimed. A half a second later that entire section of the walkway flew apart, sending additional shrapnel in all directions. A couple of metal shreds banged against the railing I was taking cover behind, but didn't penetrate it.
I made my way to the elite's position as fast as possible and sighed with relief when I confirmed that the elite that I had seen was missing a large majority of its chest, face, and both arms. The sigh of relief quickly turned into a gasp of realization when I didn't spot the other alien. I turned around and looked for it, but it was nowhere to be seen.
"Ahh fuck it," I said in reluctance.
I jumped down to the ground and pressed towards the small construction where my team was taking cover. The wall was completely filled with small black craters and scorch marks, but it hadn't been broken down. On that matter kinetic weapons have the advantage. I banged three times on the wall and waited for an answer while my eyes scanned the area in front of me for the other elite.
"Frank, you do realize you can use your radio?" Pavel's voice came in. I could almost see his judgmental expression in my head.
Fuck…
"You know me, I have a penchant for the dramatic," I said in an attempt to save some face. "How many jackals do you have? Cause there's one elite missing and I don't want it to catch me by surprise."
"Twelve," Pavel replied. "We killed three others but we can't fire, they have us pretty good."
"Frags?"
"Grass tossed one, but it didn't have any effect."
"Cause it was a sucky throw," Angel opinionated.
"It was a good throw!" Grass snapped back.
"Suuure."
"Shut up," I ordered quickly. "Flashbangs?"
"We have some, but if they're behind cover they'll be pretty much useless. When was the last time you saw a bird die because of a loud noise?"
"You should've stopped at useless," I growled. I was starting to get pissy at the situation.
I looked back again and failed to see the elite. That was starting to really scare the shit out of me.
"Wait, did they stop firing?" Caboose asked. It was clearly meant to be rhetorical, as every last one of us could hear the lack of the characteristically loud plasma and needle weaponry.
"Why would they-?" I interrupted myself and looked up. The starless sky offered nothing, but I heard light shuffling on the top of the building's roof.
I jumped up, grabbing on to the ledge with my left hand and pulling myself up. I saw the other remaining elite ranger on top, planting what looked like explosives on the roof. I immediately brought my rifle to bear and squeezed off a burst. The three rounds went wide, flying right over the alien's shoulder and serving only to alert him to my presence.
The ranger turned around and aimed at me with a plasma pistol. I fired a second burst a moment before he did. The rounds, by luck or skill, hit the pistol in an important point. As the elite clicked on the trigger, the plasma charge detonated instead of firing, destroying the weapon and overloading the elite's shields. I smiled at my good fortune before the elite lunged at me. I was barely able to squeeze off a burst before it reached me.
My three rounds collided with the elite's belly, but the armor held. It batted aside my rifle and yanked me up. He lifted me up over its head and brought me back down to the rooftop.
"It's on the roof!" Angel cried out, his voice resonating in my helmet.
"No shit!" I groaned.
I rolled and drew the SRS-99 from my back before aiming it at the elite, intending to make full use of its impromptu shotgun capabilities. Unfortunately, the weapon was almost as long as I was tall, making it an unwieldy piece of metal. The elite yanked the weapon away from me before I could even get my finger on the trigger and tossed it aside. I heard it clatter on the ground, somewhere near where my rifle had been batted aside to.
Ok, so I found myself in a situation here. There was an elite trying to kill me and I was rifle less. If I stood up trained jackals would shoot the shit out of me. My team wasn't in a position to help me because all large windows and the door to the supply building were on the side where the jackals could target them easily and take them out. So yeah, I was on my own against an eight-foot tall monster with a penchant for killing humans.
The elite brought its fist down on my stomach. I contracted my muscles to avoid getting the wind knocked out of me. My armor helped a little, but the hammer punch felt almost as bad as having an elite chieftain stomp on my chest. I jerked up from the impact alone before regaining my bearing and rolling to the side, avoiding a follow-up punch. I reached for my sidearm before the elite stomped my arm down, preventing me from grabbing the pistol. An energy dagger appeared from its right arm and it stabbed at me. I moved to the side as the energy dagger flew downwards. The plasma cut through the roof, but not me.
"Fucking fuck. Help!" I cried as I let out a weak kick at the elite.
It didn't do any harm, but it made it stumble backwards and it released my hand in an attempt to regain balance. I lost no time in drawing my pistol and aiming it at the elite. I fired three shots, hitting it in the stomach. Only one punched through the armor. The elite roared and launched a kick just as I squeezed the trigger for a fourth time. That fourth bullet hit the alien in the shoulder in between the pauldron and chest piece, jerking it backwards slightly and exiting the elite's body with a trail of blood behind it.
Of course that the elite was completely unfazed. You've been reading this for long enough to know just exactly how bad my luck is.
The shot was enough to leave that arm out of the equation. Unfortunately, that still left a hundred and fifty kilogram beast with advantageous position to contend with. Not to mention that I had hit its left shoulder, not the right one, so he still had use of that pesky energy blade. Yeah, pesky is probably an understatement. With two bullet wounds in its body the elite was really starting to lose its cool. I had no doubt that it was roaring and cursing at me, but its full-face helmet spared me the sight.
Hey, you have to appreciate the little things.
With my gun kicked away I only possessed three knives as weapons. While metal blades are all good and nice, I wouldn't want to pit them against an energy blade. The elite lunged at me once again before using its wounded left arm to press me towards the floor. I felt its forearm pushing against my throat, but the bullet wound was bad enough to prevent it from cutting off my oxygen supply. I reached for one of my knives, the large one on my lower back. As soon as I unsheathed it I brought it down on the elite's elbow. The armor deflected the stabbing blow slightly, but the next time the elite wasn't nearly as fortunate. The laser-cut blade went through the armor and at least four inches of high-carbon steel sunk into the ranger's flesh.
Not bad for a petty human.
This time I heard the elite's roar of pain in all its glory. I have to say that it served to frighten me more than it did to satisfy myself that I had been successful.
"You will burn along with the rest of your race!" the ranger spat out in broken English.
While I was aware that the covvies could speak English and Spanish and some other human languages, I had little experience when presented with that kind of thing, so the speaking alien still surprised me. It had actually spat out a decent sentence with proper grammar and syntax. Hell, all I could say in Elite was 'Wort, wort, wort'.
"Fuck you split-chin!" I shot back.
Apparently, the elite didn't take it too kindly, because it brought down its right arm, attempting to stab me through the chest with the energy dagger. I caught the ranger's wrist with both hands, stopping the blow. Of course, the elite had a ton more strength in one arm that I did in both of them and my enhanced strength would only serve to buy me some time. The elite slowly but surely pushed down, the energy dagger getting closer to my chest by the second. It made contact with my chest piece, but the ballistic metal melted away like butter at the touch of the hot energy weapon.
"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck," I eloquently said as the dagger sunk deeper into my chest piece.
Then there was an explosion that shook the entire building followed by 400-plus lead pellets slamming into the elite. Most of those pellets were stopped by the aliens armor. The ones that weren't shattered its visor and carved through the soft tissue and bone as easily as the elite's energy dagger had burnt
"What?"
"Am I good or what?" Angel boasted loudly.
"Yeah, yeah, now let's kill those fucking birds," Bee said quickly, trying to prevent Angel from going into a very long boast. He tended to do that.
I pushed the dead elite off of myself and made my way to my pistol. I grabbed the weapon and popped from cover, firing a double tap at a jackal that had left cover. I was surprised to see those aliens in particular here. Kig-yar Rangers tended to stick to zero-gee and vacuum environments. To top it off, they didn't usually wear jetpacks like this ones were.
Well, the jackal that I had target didn't take to well to being shot twice. It promptly collapsed. So did the one I targeted after that.
A few magazines and one grenade later we were once again safe and the plateau was clear of hostiles.
"Do we rock, or what?" Bumblebee asked.
"We rock," Grass agreed with a coy smile.
The entire squad turned to look at her in surprise before she polarized her visor, hiding her face from us. Grass wasn't one to partake in such childishness, but even she had to admit that we had made the best of a very bad situation and emerged triumphant.
Cue We Are the Champions by Queen.
I'm sorry, you probably haven't heard of them, but thanks to Bumblebee and his stupid fanaticism for all things regarding the past, I know absolutely everything that there is to be known about them. Not that that's a bad thing, I actually kind of like their music.
Sorry, back to the story.
"You have to admit, it was a brilliant plan," Pavel pushed.
"Fine, yes, but only because you had someone that could pull it off."
"Isn't that the purpose of this team?" Angel asked. "Having all the bases covered. Besides, it's not like it's that hard to blast through a wall without killing yourself. Ever heard of breaching charges?"
"Did you know that they've had those since the twenty-first?" Grass asked.
"I did," Bumblebee said loudly. There was a definite tone of satisfaction in his voice at having known one of Grass' pointless little facts.
"Shut up," Caboose said, irritation creeping into his voice.
I looked over my shoulder and waved my squad away to their respective positions. They immediately started firing straight down at the few grunts and jackals that had made it all the way down there in the attack. Pavel and I went over to the storage building. The small polycrete box was missing a chunk of one wall, where Angel had placed some explosives to escape and save my ass. I looked at it appreciatively and slapped Pavel in the shoulder in thanks before climbing back up to examine the elite that had almost killed me.
It wasn't even a particularly impressive specimen. It had wide shoulders, but all elites had those. It also had large hands. Still, the alien wasn't particularly tall or big, and it still had managed to overcome me and beat me. Had it not been for Angel's skill with explosives and Caboose's M90's stopping power I would probably be dead right now.
"How come you didn't use your ACS?" I asked Pavel as I hopped back down. "I mean, you could've pumped three shots into that elite easy."
"Caboose was first out," he said with a shrug. "And I kinda dropped my shotgun when the jackals hit us."
"Huh," I said simply.
"What do you mean by huh?" he asked accusingly.
"Nothing."
"Huh."
Cheeky bastard.
I decided to ignore the challenge and made my way towards my BR55 and the SRS. Both weapons were lying relatively close to one another. Both were in fine condition. I silently thanked any higher being that the elite didn't bend any of the barrels. If it had I would find myself weaponless. Well, I could make use of the additional Spanker, but not much else.
"Cliffs are clear," Snark announced after some time. "Nothing but a bunch of dead grunts and jackals here."
"Good," I said. "Bee, Caboose, grab the bodies of the jackals and elites and toss them down. No decapitation or gutting, just get rid of them."
"Aw Sarge," Bumblebee complained. "You get to have all the fun."
"That's why I'm a gunnery sergeant and you a lance corporal. You are also four pay grades below mine."
"Fine, sorry."
I can relate to Albaf's complaints about lack of military discipline.
"Now what?" Angel asked.
"You, Snark, and Grass keep watch, I need to think."
"That might be so," Pavel agreed, "but think quick. We have a fucking battalion surrounding our little hilltop Frank, we don't have a whole lot of time."
"It's not that bad, we have tons of ammo, a nice defensible position, and the Covenant have no aircraft or vehicles other than that lone Daemon," Grass said, showing an uncharacteristic amount of optimism.
"Agreed," Angel agreed (obviously). "We can hold out until the fuckers get run over by a tank company."
"You two agreeing on something?" Bee huffed out. "It really must be the end of the world."
Moment of silence.
"Sorry, poor choice of words," he apologized quickly.
"It happens to all of us," Pavel said. "Don't worry about it."
"Sure, thanks."
I suppressed a sigh and slung my battle rifle over my shoulder while gripping the sniper rifle tightly with my hands. I let go of it for a moment to trace the length of the stab mark in my chest piece. It was about two inches wide and of unknown depth. I would have to replace the chest piece soon. I had already replaced the one with two spiker gashes and now saw myself sporting another chest piece with blade damage. Not really ironic or anything, just annoying as fuck.
"Frank," Pavel started. "We need some help soon. We got lucky last time, and the time before that."
"I know," I said. "But I can't do anything about it. Nezarian already said he would send us a squad if he could."
Pavel looked down at the floor and shook his head lightly. He knew the situation just as well as I did. The Polish man said nothing as he turned around and moved towards his position, leaving me standing alone. I sat down on the floor, focusing and trying to do my best to come up with viable defensive strategies or escape plans.
"Sarge?"
"What?" I asked irritably.
"You've been sitting for hours," Grass said. "Well, over an hour and a half."
"So?"
"So, what have you come up with?"
I looked up from the ground. My eyes traced the length of Grass' armored body from her boots to her helmet. Even through all that armor I could tell that she had a picture perfect body. I was proud of myself, I very rarely stopped to think of Grass as anything other than a comrade in arms, but still allowed myself to admire her simply ravishing ass on occasion. It was the perfect balance between being a man that would love to tap that and being a professional and a soldier. She was a comrade in arms, and you don't fuck those, it never works out well. Either somebody dies or the entire squad is affected when it doesn't work out. Think divorce in small-unit military terms.
"Not much," I admitted. "There's just eight-, seven of us."
"We've faced worse odds," she said. I don't know whether she was trying to cheer me up or cheer herself up. Either way, it was a gesture that I appreciated.
"Not numerically speaking," I reminded her. "But yeah, we've been through worse."
"So, what did you come up with?" she asked again.
"I came to the conclusion that escape is all but impossible, the covvies have a nice cordon around us. They probably have some aircraft but aren't fielding them because they are scared of the Onager."
"Mass drivers are pretty intimidating."
"Yeah. Defensively speaking, I think that our best bet is to kill any air infantry that tries to get close and hide when enough enemy troops get here. From there we can take out the first wave by blowing up the elevator and then just barricade ourselves in the firing centre."
"Why not the employee locker room?" she asked.
"Too many windows," I explained. "We can use the doors as choking points in the firing centre, bottleneck those assholes."
Grass was silent for a minute, pondering on the information. "That's not really a plan, just a course of action."
"I think that a plan is a course of action."
"Well yeah, how do I say this?"
"I understood your meaning," I told her. "Relax."
"Yeah, about that…"
"You want some rest?"
"That would be nice."
I suddenly remembered that stunt she pulled off back in Uppergap, climbing down the side of a building before being left hanging on for dear life, absolutely no control over her fate. I had held on to the cable and pulled her up back then, but she had become a little uneasy around heights ever since.
"You ok?" I asked.
She knew exactly what I was talking about. "Nothing I can handle, besides, the shrinks said that I'm doing well considering."
"You see Francisco?" Schitzo asked. "At least she's not afraid to go to a psychologist. You should really see one."
Yeah, maybe then you'd finally go away.
Grass offered me her hand and helped me stand up. She dusted me off theatrically before looking up at me expectantly. Her visor was transparent, allowing me to see her pretty face. I noticed something that startled me once I looked into her eyes. I had probably noticed it before, but I hadn't been able to see it for what it was until then.
"Are you wearing makeup?" I asked.
You probably thought that I was going to say that I realized I was in love with her. I bet some of you did.
"What?" she asked, surprised at the sudden change of topic. "No!"
"Yeah you are!" I accused. "You're wearing rimel."
"What?"
"Sorry, mascara, or eyeliner. Whatever."
By that point Grass had already polarized her visor hiding her face from me again.
"Am not!"
"I just saw it," I said sternly.
"What if I am?"
"Nothing, I'm just wondering how the hell you even had time to put makeup on when the general alarm was sounded."
"I didn't."
"Then?"
She sighed. "It's permanent eyeliner." For some reason she sounded like she was in a trial and had been forced to confess to a crime. I found the comparison rather humorous.
"Ok."
"That's it? You pester me about wearing makeup all the time and that's all you have to say?"
"Grass, it's not like you're the only one with tattooed-on eyeliner," I told her. "Plenty of people do that. The only difference between you and them is that they are not ashamed to admit that they want to look better."
"I am not-"
"You are," I interrupted. "And it doesn't matter, at least not to me."
She was silent for a second before making her visor transparent again. "Ok then."
"Catch some sleep," I advised. "I'll wake you in two hours."
Then the third attack came. It was short, but it was brutal.
They made their way towards the elevator, attacking from different directions all at once but keeping the bulk of their forces near the large metal columns that supported the elevator itself. We were too busy shooting down rangers to be able to focus on the main strike force. Five minutes after the attack had started we all heard the sound of the elevator rising slowly.
"Angel!"
"Ready!" he replied.
I waited four seconds. "Now!"
Several explosions merged into one as the support columns of the large elevator were destroyed. The platform, and every single alien on it, fell over seventy-five meters to the ground. A loud clang marked the deaths of those covvies that hadn't been killed by the explosions themselves.
"That's right fuckers," I said. "Work for it."
"Sarge!" Snark called out. "They're setting up gravity lifts!"
"Don't work that hard!" I complained.
Seconds later a bunch of elites appeared at the edge of the cliff. They landed pretty hard on the top of Reaper Hill, but the sturdy aliens just fired in our direction. I took aim at the one closest to me and offed it with four bursts from my battle rifle. I switched targets and sent that elite into cover. The rest of the aliens were too far away for me to do anything about them. I just aimed at where the first elite had emerged from and waited for its support.
Three grunts flew straight up before coming back down. One of them landed on its head. I heard a familiar crunch as its skull caved in. The other two stumbled from the hard landing before I ended their miserable lives with two headshots. Three other grunts emerged from another point.
"How many gravity lifts?" I asked.
"Fourteen's my best estimate!" Snark replied. He sounded like he was busy.
I took out one of the three grunts before the other two dove behind cover, joining their fearless leader. The next alien to come up the gravity lift was a hunter.
"Hunter!" I cried as I retreated from the mighty alien.
I heard the sound of its weapon charging and jumped sideways. A stream of green plasma flew above me, heating my back but leaving me unharmed. I struggled up and fired a couple of quick shots at the hunter before running away from it.
"Somebody shoot the motherfucker! I begged.
Thankfully, Bumblebee had a clear line of sight and hit the alien with a well-placed rocket. He aimed precisely at the unarmored orange section in its torso. When the HEAT charge detonated, the alien literally blew up. Orange bits of gore rained all around the area where it had been standing. No matter how tough you are, a rocket to the chest won't do you much good in any situation.
"Kill its partner and fall back," I ordered. "Pavel, Snark, Caboose, Grass, Angel?"
"Already on our way to the firing centre," Pavel replied immediately. "You should do the same."
I walked inside the building in question a second after a second explosion resonated around the hilltop and sometime after the rest of Reaper had. I immediately pressed myself to the wall on the side of the door and switched my battle rifle for the SRS-99 still slung over my back. I aimed it at the door, slightly higher than my own head. Pavel and Caboose were behind an overturned metal table, their shotguns ready. Grass had grabbed Angel's SAW while the Italian was toting Pavel's own M247L, aiming it at the door.
"Coming in," Bee warned. He opened the door and closed it behind him. "There's at least thirty of them up here," he said. "More coming up."
I nodded, still aiming at the wall on the other side. "Walls will hold, so can we."
The first alien to come through was an elite. An ultra to be precise. Why they send their officers in first is beyond me, but in a society where martial prowess is the most important thing, leaders were bound to die more often than in any other kind of society. This time it was no exception. I squeezed the trigger once and sent a very thick bullet into the alien's head. It jerked violently to the side as the sniper round sent it flying. I smiled at the sight of blood splattered on the wall opposite me.
"Jeez, so fucking stupid."
The next alien met a similar fate. I decided that by then even the stupid covvies would figure out what my deal was and try to kill me. I jumped behind the overturned table and waited for the next aliens to come. Pavel and Caboose ripped a squad of grunts to shreds as they walked up to the door. Their dead bodies covered a portion of the door, making it even harder for the other covvies to walk in. An elite minor tried its luck before receiving two shots worth of buckshot to the chest and face.
"Grass, Angel, Bee, make your way to the next room," I ordered. "We'll join you."
Pavel made good use of his automatic shotgun while Caboose provided added gunfire volume. I simply kept to myself, firing an occasional burst from my battle rifle but letting my two squad mates do most of the heavy lifting. Eventually I decided that it was probably best if I returned.
"Frank, we're gonna be overwhelmed," Pavel said. "Give us some covering fire."
"Angel?" I asked.
"Sure, lend me your shoulder."
I bent my knees enough so that my shoulder was chest-level with Angel. He placed the barrel of Pavel's M247 on my shoulder and started firing full-auto. I shook as the gun shook. It was a weird sensation, not pleasant in the least. As the machine gun spewed out a trail of lead, an occasional tracer flashing by, Pavel and Caboose crawled from their table to this room. Angel killed three jackals that had attempted to use their shields to walk in the building before concentrated enemy fire forced him back.
"Nice one," Bee complimented.
"Yeah, 'scuse me," Snark asked as he pushed Angel and me out of the way. He positioned himself like I had in the first door, aiming at the place where an elite's head would be. I nodded at him and crouched on the side opposite him. Snark killed two elites in the same way that I had, covering the wall behind me (and me as well) in alien blood. He retreated behind cover and left me playing the same role that he had just played.
When a jackal skirmisher burst through the doorframe Bumblebee made sure it was blasted to pieces. The two following grunts were killed by Caboose with shotgun shells to the chest. When an elite finally burst through, spraying wildly with twin plasma rifles, I put a bullet through its head, leaving a stain similar to the one behind my back on the wall in front of me.
I ran back behind cover just as a plasma grenade landed an inch from my previous position. The blue flash atomized a large section of the wall, allowing the covvies to pass with more ease. It was about time to fall back. Pavel and Caboose were the first to retreat to the third and last room. I followed them quickly, leaving the ones with machine guns behind. Bumblebee and Snark quickly joined us, leaving Grass and Angel firing wildly at anything that moved.
"How many are left?" I asked.
"Dunno, about fifteen?" Angel shrugged.
"I like those odds," Pavel said.
"I can work with that," Snark agreed.
I have to admit, two to one is not the worst that we've faced. Not nearly.
The fifteen or so remaining aliens had lost their leaders. The two elites in command of the small group were pissed and knew that they could not return to command honorably. Either that or they were just incredibly stupid. They attempted to swarm our position, but they could only come through one at a time. Our combined gunfire quickly killed them all.
So, we had burnt through most of our ammunition and one of the only two buildings that could recycle oxygen was destroyed. The Onager was apparently intact, but we were in for some serious shit if those rangers didn't arrive soon.
As I walked out of the building, examining all the alien corpses, I glanced up. Most of the sky had stars now, and there was a line of light marking the outline of Zeta Lupus VI. Night was almost over. We had made it through two day's worth of night no worse for wear. My arm hurt like hell, Angel had been nicked by a needler, and Bee had been grazed by a plasma pistol shot on his left hand. But perhaps we only survived because our helmets allowed us to see them clearly. The poor grunts and jackals and most of the elites couldn't see us clearly in the dark night. When daytime came, they would be on equal ground with us, and they had a shitload more numbers than we did.
Desperate times indeed.
Thanks to Sniper Fodder for proof-reading this chapter.
Well, I hope you enjoyed it. I promised over 10,000 words of sheer epicness and delivered over 10,000 words of my attempt at sheer epicness.
Just a few comments now. First of all, improvising a shotgun out of a sniper rifle is either the most awesome thing that you can do in multiplayer or the most frustrating thing that can happen to you on multiplayer. The second thing are the configurable rockets, I took a little bit of artistic license doing that, but the games never say that it isn't possible, so technically speaking I didn't go against canon. Finally, a small rant, the knives. I have to describe the knife and where exactly it's strapped to so you know which knife I'm talking about. I think I'm going to give them names. I'm open to suggestions.
Stay strong.
-casquis