Chapter CXV: Mission Accomplished
February 15, 2544 (UNSC Calendar)/
UNSC Inconvenience, in orbit above New Lagos, Miridem, Zeta Lupus System
"The mission difficulty increments exponentially when you've got a piece of meat that won't shut up placing herself in between you and the enemy's line of fire. VIPs have an awful tendency for refusing to understand just how much we fucking hate protecting them."
Lieutenant Yevgeny Nezarian
I ignored the woman's arrogance. "Are you Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey?" I repeated. "Yes or no?"
"Yes," she replied.
I nodded at her and turned towards Pavel, who nodded at me in turn.
"Grass, we've secured the VIP, how's the situation up there?"
"…deteriorating rapidly," she replied.
"How bad?"
"Like I don't think we can break through bad."
"Dammit," he cursed.
I took all this in and was thankful that Halsey couldn't hear the conversation inside our helmets. I walked towards her, taking in her appearance. I noticed that she looked older than she did in the hologram, it was unmistakably her, but she didn't look as young or attractive like I had made her out to be. Not that I minded, but it was nice to have something pretty to look at while everything around you turned to shit.
"Are you all right ma'am?" I asked her. "No injuries?"
"I'm fine," she replied dismissively.
I nodded once again. "Good, it must've been tough," I said as consolation.
She looked down at her feet before meeting my eyes through my depolarized visor. The doctor had a sad look in her face, but she maintained her air of superiority and confidence nevertheless. "They killed the guards and everybody else too."
"They tend to do a lot of killing, these covvies," Schitzo put out helpfully.
"And the Spartan?" I asked tentatively.
"Her too," Halsey said sadly. "But now's not the time to dwell on that. I assume that you have evacuation here or en route?"
"Yes ma'am," I replied immediately, taking in the information regarding the dead Spartan. "There seems to be a bit of a problem with us reaching them."
"What kind of problem?"
"We're surrounded up there."
Caboose stepped in. "Ma'am, is there any other way to leave the building?" The way that he asked that question unnerved me slightly, as if he knew something that I didn't and wanted to let me know that.
Halsey put her hand to her chin and seemed to lose herself in thought for a few moments. "Jerrod?"
I was briefly startled until a holographic depiction of a spark appeared from the computer terminal that she had been using. "Yes Doctor?"
"I recall seeing some tunnels in the building's blueprints, might you double-check that?"
"Right away," the AI replied.
"Micro-AI," Halsey explained after she saw my look of confusion. "Not nearly as much processing power as a regular AI, but smaller and portable."
"Huh," I said simply.
"Doctor," the AI called out, its holographic projection appearing once more. "There are several tunnel-like structures that lead to the surface. Ventilation tunnels are present-"
How stereotypical.
"-as well as a supply shaft."
"Supply shaft?" Caboose asked.
"It is commonly used when certain items need to be delivered directly to the laboratories," Jerrod replied.
Ok, so that meant that this ONI installation had several projects involving questionable ethics going on. There would be no other reason to hide whatever you were buying unless you knew people would get pissed. Questionable morality meant that this was probably a Section Three facility, most likely one overseen by one of the Beta subdivisions.
I suddenly saw the good doctor in a whole new light.
"Jerrod, can the vents or the shaft fit a grown man?"
"The vents are too small for human beings to fit through, but the shaft is one meter by one meter."
"Excellent. Grass, get down here."
"Sarge, you sure?" she replied, "we might be able to keep them at bay here, down there…not so much."
"Get down here," I repeated a little bit angrily.
"Right away Sarge," Grass said.
"Caboose, Pavel, spread out," I ordered, "secure the area."
"I hardly believe that's ne-"
"Pavel…" I growled.
"Right away," he replied.
Once the two of them took off, going through the laboratory with their weapons lazily held up, I sat down on a desk and faced Dr. Halsey. While she didn't look as attractive as I had first pictured her, she was good-looking. Still, now I saw her as something close to a monster. It brought back to mind the stories of the Nazi doctors during World War Two.
"So, Doctor, what kind of work do you do here?" The question was blunt and direct, I didn't see the need to hide my intentions, besides, I had no doubt that Halsey could dissect me if I tried prying the answer out of her slowly.
"Are you paid to ask these sort of questions?" she asked sarcastically, obviously not amused with me.
"No," I replied simply. "You gonna give me an answer?"
"No."
I shrugged, I didn't expect a different answer, but I still had to try. Instead of going deeper into the matter I stood up from the desk and instead sat down on the chair that Halsey had been using. The terminal was still on, so I tapped a few buttons while she just looked at me incredulously. There was a folder that caught my attention and I clicked it.
"Jerrod, purge the databases," Halsey ordered the AI.
"Right away Doctor."
I caught glances of a few projects. Orion, S-I, S-II, and S-III were the ones that I saw first. The last two I knew already, the first two I had no idea to what they were. The only other thing that I caught before the folder disappeared was a section called Nove. It sounded interesting, I regretted not being able to take a quick peek inside. As soon as the computer was completely useless I sighed and stood up, giving a disapproving look at Halsey.
"Grass, where are you?" I asked into my radio.
"Right here Sarge," the reply came from behind me.
"Hey," I greeted. "How's it go up there?"
"I detonated the Shades and collapsed the entrance behind us," Angel informed us. "Still, there were plenty of covvies to go around, we fell back before they could stage a proper assault."
"And you wanted to stay," Snark mused, punching Bumblebee lightly on the arm.
Bumblebee just chuckled and shoved Snark towards a wall. The smaller man was no match for Bee's brute strength and was caught unprepared. He slammed pretty hard against the wall, succeeding in looking like a complete pushover.
"Enough," I ordered the both of them. "There's a supply shaft that can lead us outside."
"Supply shaft…" Angel asked.
"Yeah, yeah, illegal stuff dropoff zone," I explained dismissively. I could literally feel Halsey rolling her eyes at me from behind. "We go now. Grass, tell Pavel that he goes up first, Caboose second, then you and the VIP."
"Aye, aye."
Grass moved towards Halsey and politely ordered her to follow her. I stayed where I was and looked at Snark, Angel, and Bee. They seemed cheerful after the friendly banter and shoving match that erupted between Bee and Snark, but I knew that that was probably just a mask. They had to have seen the dead Spartan in the hallway, I had no doubt that it had struck them just as hard as it had me.
"You saw?" I asked quietly.
The smiles disappeared. "We saw," Angel confirmed with sadness in his voice. "A shame."
The three men looked down at their feet, uncomfortable with the situation. So far we hadn't met many resistance despite being behind enemy lines. Granted, we had been purposely avoiding confrontation, but we'd still had a bit of luck on our side. If things got heated enough for a Spartan to die then the same thing could happen to us. I did not respect the creatures, but I did respect their combat prowess. If something could kill it, then it could kill us.
"We're good to go Frank," Pavel announced from somewhere across the lab.
Dammit, if the doctor holds a grudge she could look me up and have me discharged.
Nah.
"Alright, let's go!"
I walked across the laboratory, my eyes looking forward. The shaft was in another room adjacent to this one. The room itself was large and unadorned, the only things inside were a couple of olive drab crates and my squad. A door led to the shaft itself. I could see elevator rails on the side, but no elevator anywhere nearby. There were ladder-style handholds on one of the walls though, and they would have to do. Pavel sighed as he saw the trial that awaited him, he said nothing and grabbed the first handhold before pulling himself up. His machine gun was hung across his back and his shotgun was strapped next to it in its combat-ready mode, in case it needed to be used.
Caboose jumped up as soon as Pavel climbed a couple of meters. The process repeated itself until Dr. Halsey herself. I climbed immediately after her and set myself to trying to forget that we were over a kilometer underground. I just kept repeating to myself that if I made it back I would have a nice warm bed waiting for me, and if I was lucky, that bed would come with a naked Lieutenant Hardwick on it too.
The odds of making it back were slim, but I was accustomed to that. The odds of actually being allowed to rest after making it back were slimmer still, and that's something that I had never really grown used to.
"I found the elevator," Pavel announced after a long while of climbing.
"Figures," Caboose muttered.
"Here, pass me that laser cutter of yours," Pavel told him.
Sparks started falling from above, Grass did her best to shield the doctor from them by propping herself backwards and hunching her upper body forward, forming a wall of sorts. A few sparks made it through though, and landed on the doctor's head and shoulders. She shook them off almost nonchalantly, making no comment as to the pain that they surely caused her.
"Done," Pavel announced. "Passing the slab down."
Caboose grabbed a large portion of the elevator's floor and gave it to Grass. She in turn passed it to Halsey who gave it to me. Once Snark had it he let it fall down all the way back to the floor. The clanging noises were magnified by the confined space, and my ears would've been left ringing had I not been wearing my helmet. Halsey looked slightly uncomfortable at the noise. It made me want to smile.
"Don't look down now," I said.
What? I'm an asshole and she uses child soldiers. Feel free to judge on that one.
It took over an hour of climbing and stopping to rest, but eventually we made it all the way up. The loading bay was a small room very much like the one on the bottom of the shaft. It was also underground, but the top of the walls had small windows that let some light in. It was most likely light that came from one of the many fires that ravaged the city.
"Stay here," I ordered. I climbed a flight of stairs and opened the sliding doors slightly. I couldn't see any covvies anywhere nearby so I opened it a little more. I deduced that we were in the same loading bay that the rest of the ONI facility used for normal needs, but instead of being in one of the regular ports we were in one that was disguised as an out of service loading port. And I deduced all that from a single glance.
"It's safe," I called out. "Relatively," I added a second later.
We piled up into another small room, this one was full of crates and boxes, no doubt some of them contained items that would be considered illegal under most jurisdictions.
"Snark, Pavel, check the lay of the land."
The two of them moved towards the gate and lifted it. Snark went underneath and Pavel went after that, putting the gate back down. As soon as they disappeared I contacted the Inconvenience.
"Liz, what's the status on Army?"
"Francisco, I've been trying to raise you for an hour!" the AI exclaimed. "We lost contact with you and your team."
"I appreciate the concern Liz, but we need evacuation."
"Yes, the evac team has been on standby ever since you disappeared, should I tell them to move out?"
I considered that while looking at a city map on my HUD. We were little over three kilometers from our designated evacuation zone. Usually we would've had a Pelican escorted by Hornets and Falcon gunships pound their way here, but the Covenant had complete air superiority and a small column could only break through certain points in the enemy lines, the weakest.
"Not yet," I finally said. "I'll let you know."
"Don't take too long, the Covenant is setting up spires, communications could be lost any minute."
"Could this day get any worse?" Bee asked.
"It could start raining," Angel suggested.
"It already is," I let him know.
"Well I'll be damned."
We all stayed quiet for a moment while Halsey hugged her laptop across her chest. She looked at us distrustfully but knew that she had no other choice but to come with us. The woman didn't like me, and that dislike somehow extended itself to the rest of my team. Oh well, it's not like the woman could do much to affect them in the future. At least not directly that is.
"Sarge, the covvies are trying to break through what's left of the front door," Pavel said. "None of them are nearby yet, we can make it outside of the perimeter if we make a run for it."
"Ok, hold your position, we're on our way. Everyone else, I want you at your best. Doctor…keep your head down."
"Are you giving me a gun?" she asked.
"Are you trained in firearms proficiency?" I asked in return.
"No…" she admitted.
"Then you don't get a gun unless absolutely necessary. Oh, and before I forget. Grass."
"Right." Grass reached over her shoulder and pulled out a sheet of fabric that had strapped to her magnetic clamps. She shook it and it took the form of a vest. She handed the vest to Halsey, who promptly put it on over her lab technician clothing. As soon as she finished putting the vest on I lifted the gate and held it up for my team to go through.
"Where'd you hide that vest anyways?" Angel asked Grass.
"Strapped to my back," she replied.
"Huh, didn't see it."
"Don't worry, I've never taken you for a particularly sharp man."
"Nice. I'd do a comeback implying that you hid that thing in between your generously-sized ass cheeks, but it'd probably come out wrong."
"Ha-ha."
"Lots of big words for you," Bumblebee noted. "Been reading the dictionary."
"I know it'll sound dumb, but your mother's reading it to me."
"Ok, stop. Before it gets too stupid," Caboose interrupted. He and I were of the same mind in only one thing, and that was our dislike of stupid arguments in which we weren't involved.
The loading bays were on the west side of the complex, about thirty yards away from the perimeter wall. A section on this side was broken down. We could (and would) use it to escape without any trouble.
"Snark, Doctor, you're with me."
We closed in to the edge of our visual cover and dashed forward towards the rubble of the wall. Once there I hoped over to the other side and half-shoved the doctor into a crook where she would be relatively safe from snipers. Snark crouched and kept aim at the covvies trying to break through the collapsed entrance while the rest of the team rushed in our direction. Once we were all ready I gave out orders.
"Two fireteams," I said. "One scouts ahead while the other hangs back keeping the good doctor safe. I want her flanked on all sides. Three men to scout fireteam and four to protection detail. Shouldn't be too hard. If we can avoid combat we avoid it. If we can run away, we run away. Point is, I want as little plasma flying in our direction as possible."
"Who's on scout fireteam?"
"Pavel, Angel, and Caboose. I need you dishing out a lot of damage."
Pavel stood up and beckoned for his fireteam members to join him. They ran across the street and took position on the nearest building's corner. They took a peek and waved us over in their direction. That pretty much describes how it went from that point on. The rain kept us relatively hidden from prying eyes, and Pavel's scouting fireteam would keep watch for covvies. If they saw a patrol they would wave at us to stay down, we didn't use radios, didn't want them to pick up our transmissions.
"Shit, large patrol," Pavel warned.
I cursed and ducked sideways into the nearest door. I dragged the good doctor behind me and waved my fireteam inside.
"Hide her downstairs," I ordered Grass. "Pavel, what are their numbers?"
"Waaaay beyond patrol size, this looks like an armored column. I've got four Revenants and a Daemon tank. Platoon's worth of infantry, mostly elites and jackals. They seem like an anti-tank unit."
"Understood, stay low, don't attract any attention."
"As if we would," Angel chuckled.
The ground started rumbling from the sheer force of the anti-gravity generators of the enemy tanks. It felt almost surreal, having a mini-earthquake move the whole house we were in with enemy vehicles passing less than ten meters from our position. I climbed to the second floor and waved over at Pavel on the other side of the street. I had used my helmet radio a second ago, but I preferred not to use it now. You know, with the large enemy group below us, they could have transmission receivers or something.
Pavel peeked outside from the other side of the street while keeping his eyes on the enemy. He shrugged at me, asking what we should do. I moved my hand up and down, palm facing downwards. It wasn't exactly military-grade hand signals, but it got my point across. Pavel nodded and let his eyes linger on the large Daemon tank for a second before sliding back into cover. I did the same thing, but took the time to see exactly where the high-ranking aliens were. Eventually I settled back into cover and sat down in a chair. I waited for the column to pass for what seemed like an eternity, but after a few minutes they were finally gone.
"Let's go," I ordered my fireteam.
I opened the door slowly and immediately looked in the opposite direction. Angel was opening the door on his own house. He looked at me and nodded as he walked out, weapon at the ready. Caboose and Pavel emerged immediately afterwards. I waited a few seconds before actually going out as well, giving the scout team a wide berth and saving enough time for us to dive into safety if they spotted something.
One shot rang out and I saw Grass collapse.
I turned sideways and fired a burst into a jackal. Snark did the exact same thing. The alien got four shots. Three to the chest and one to the head. Death was pretty much instantaneous.
"Grass," Bumblebee asked gently as he shoved Halsey down and knelt beside out wounded teammate. "Grass."
I sighed with relief when I heard a gasp coming from her. I diverted my attention from the rooftops around me to look at Grass. The carbine round had hit her right in the chest. There was a round hole in her chest piece, green matter covered it, giving it a weird look. By the looks of it the round hadn't punched completely through the armor.
"You all right?" I asked her.
Grass just coughed and groaned again.
Maybe this is more serious than I thought…
"Bee, drag her behind that car, Snark, eyes up."
I walked while escorting Halsey next to me. Angel grabbed Grass by the scruff of the neck and dragged her unceremoniously through the floor. Snark simply kept his eyes up. Pavel's fireteam refrained from saying anything, keeping their eyes up for more snipers.
"Grass, can you hear me?" I asked. "Grunt or groan."
She tried mumbling something. "Ok, good," I replied.
I grabbed her chest piece and detached it from the rest of her armor. The large metal armor had stopped the round, but the bottom was dented inwards, jagged pieces popping out. The metal from the armor was what hit Grass, cutting through additional armor and the skin. It didn't look any more serious than a particularly bad hit.
"Dammit," I cursed under my breath. I reached for one of my pouches and produced a can of biofoam. I pulled off the rest of her chest armor and placed the tip of the can on the hole in her undersuit. I dosed her with some of the foam and rubbed it around a bit, doing my best not to go anywhere near her breasts.
"Coping a feel Sarge?" Bumblebee joked.
"She'd probably kill me if I tried," I replied.
"Ass," Grass moaned weakly.
"You're alive," Angel scoffed. "Oh goodie."
"Can you walk?"
"I don't even think I can stand up," she replied.
"Adrenaline it is then," I sighed. I put on the rest of her armor and then took off her helmet. Her eyes showed me that she was in obvious pain and her brow was covered with a layer of sweat. I pulled down the undersuit from her neck and looked for a vein. "Brace yourself," I warned before sinking the needle inside her neck and clicking the button on top.
Grass took a deep breath and her eyes opened wide. She tried breathing more and more until her body realized that her lungs were already full. She breathed out and her chest started rising and falling rapidly. Her eyes shifted from side to side incredibly fast and eventually settled on my visor. She looked at me and nodded, reaching for her helmet and putting it on.
"I feel so…alive."
"Great, now we've got a walking wiki on a sugar rush," Angel moaned.
"Better than a dead one," Caboose pointed out.
"Agreed," Pavel joined.
"Are you always like that?" Halsey asked in annoyance.
"They sent us here because we're the best," I said. "Not the most professional."
"Oorah," Pavel laughed. "Now let's go."
We made it all the way to our evacuation point without further trouble.
"Liz, we're ready for evac," I radioed. "Tell the Army to start pounding."
"Right away."
I turned around to face Halsey. "Don't worry doctor, we're good to go now."
Halsey just nodded at me before sitting down. Our evac point was a random point on a random street, but there was a large multi-level parking lot on one side. We could see most of what went on, on the ground level. The circular structure had plenty of cars still inside, and the elevator that put them there was broken down, so any covvie that wanted to storm the castle had to use stairs. Or a jetpack.
"Sarge, I've got really, really bad news."
"What?" I groaned.
"We're made." Snark almost sighed. "Badly."
"Goddamit," Bee complained. "No rest for the weary."
"Doctor, go to the highest level," I told her. "Everyone else doesn't go any higher than the middle level."
"Number Snark," Pavel ordered just as everybody started moving about.
"Looks like the same column that rolled by us."
"Must've done a u-turn," Pavel murmured.
Fuck.
The Daemon fired straight at us. We barely had any time to dive away before the super-dense round of plasma punched through the parked cars. Three recent-model luxury cars were obliterated by the tank. One of the hydrogen fuel cells ignited and a fireball suddenly engulfed half the level. My armor and undersuit protected me, and it was the same for all of my team.
"Return fire!" I yelled as I scrambled up, my hands reaching for my battle rifle. I moved towards the edge of the parking lot tower and fired blindly at a mass of elites making a run for our position. The spraying was enough to send them down for cover, buying us some time while we got everything figured out. I calmed myself down and fired at a pair of jackals, knocking them both down and finishing them off.
"Snark, I want those elite's with their heads down! Bee, kill that tank!"
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
"Liz, put the Army officer in charge of evac on the line!"
"Reaper Leader, I understand you want to talk to me?" a voice came a second later.
"Yes...Captain," I said after seeing the man's rank in my HUD. "We find ourselves in a situation. It's desperate."
"You don't sound desperate," he noted.
"Would you like cam footage?"
"Negative, I believe you, we're doing our best, but we're receiving small arms fire from every direction and have to avoid heavy weapons. It may be some time."
"How long is some time?" I asked.
"About five minutes perhaps."
"At this point two minutes would be too late," Pavel said.
I groaned. "Damn, we'll try to stay alive."
The conversation ended officially when a burst of plasma hit the metal frame next to my head. I had no choice but to scream 'fuck' repeatedly and to drag myself back. I tossed a grenade from my position and waited until it exploded. As soon as it did I aimed back down again, hitting a stunned elite in the neck and shoulders. I killed that one and the passenger on a Spectre mortar tank before I had to take cover and switch positions before too much plasma flooded my position.
"Somebody do something about those Spectres, suppress the motherfuckers!"
I was desperate, everybody was firing wildly and we were getting bombarded with plasma mortars. I ducked under a piece of flying steel and jumped through the shaft in the middle of the lot and onto the next floor down. I slammed on the hood of a Volkswagen and rolled to the side. I slammed onto the car next to it, banging my ribs against it.
"Fuck!"
"Try the stairs next time," Schitzo suggested. "I hear they're more gentle."
I regained my breath and moved back towards the edge of the lot. I aimed down and fired several shots at the turret gunner of the Daemon tank. After five bursts of inaccuracy I finally managed to blow the top of the elite's head off, leaving blood splatter on the purple armor of the tank. Of course, that action got the attention of the tank gunner itself, and I soon found myself running for my life as it brought its gun to bear on me. I jumped across the shaft once more, grabbing the edge of the opposite side as the plasma shell punched through the thin metal sheets of the civilian cars before exploding with the one above me.
Unfortunately, the explosion was strong enough to rip the floor I was holding onto from the rest of the floor. I know that last sentence was vague and grammatically incorrect, but if you understand it then my goal is accomplished.
Back to the story. I felt myself falling down. I was still way too high up to feel comfortable falling to the ground. Luckily enough my legs slammed into the floor below me, sending me into a backflip. My face then collided with the car on the floor even further below, stopping my fall further. My hands reached out and grabbed onto the hood. Unfortunately, the hood of a car doesn't feature handholds. I finally stopped myself with the floor below the car that cracked my visor.
"Motherfucker!" I cried out, my head ringing. "Motherfucking Covenant are motherfucking everywhere with their motherfucking tanks… Fuck, fuck, fuck!"
"You ok there Frankie?" Pavel asked. "Need some biofoam?"
"Does it look like I fucking need it?"
"It sounds like you fucking need it."
"I need a motherfucking hospital."
I climbed up and took five deep breaths before punching the hood of a sedan inwards. I shook my hand to get rid of the pain and cursed again. Instead of deciding to break my knuckles on the car I simply grabbed my rifle from the floor and headed towards the stairs. Of course the moment I got there I almost crashed into a pair of skirmishers with needlers akimbo. I kicked at the first one, sending it into its partner. They both rolled down the stairs and stopped violently when the stairwell turned ninety degrees to the left. I vaguely heard the sounds of bones crunching over the sound of my rifle firing full-auto on those bastards.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," I told myself. I reloaded my weapon and took aim down the stairs again. I heard clattering and fired as soon as a third jackal decided to pop from the corner. Its brains ended up painting the railing and cars behind it. Another jackal tried its luck and received the same treatment. I tossed a grenade after that, deciding to stop testing my luck and just destroy the stairwell. The detonation wrecked a nearby car, but didn't ignite it. That's realism for you guys.
"Snark, you're not doing a very good job at keeping them at bay!" I growled.
"I'm burning through my ammo shooting at the elites!" he shouted back. "Don't expect me to shoot everything!"
"Grass, how's the package?"
"Did he just call me a pa-"
"Charlie Hotel is fine," Grass interrupted. "So far they haven't targeted us."
"Good, keep it that way. Now Bee, if you'd just pound the shit out of that Daemon we could make some progress."
"They won't let me fire!" he complained.
"Angel," Pavel called out. "Suppressing fire."
"About goddamned time. Figlios de puta," Angel said. The two machine guns of the squad started ringing. I set myself to climbing the stairs. I could hear and feel plasma banging against the thin metal walls that made up the parking tower. Either they had some really good thermal or they were just firing randomly at the tower. Both of those were bad news, but I really hoped that they didn't have thermal.
"Ok, firing one!" Bumblebee cried. "And two!"
The two rockets detonated with something. Given the Scottsman's ability with the Spanker I could bet on that something being the Daemon tank. I knew that even despite that the tank would probably be pretty much intact. Covenant vehicles had an annoying tendency to absorb all kinds of damage and escape in fine working order. Bumblebee's swearing only confirmed my fears. Another tank round shook the tower violently, sending us all to our needs. This structure wouldn't take much more damage.
"Captain! Where the hell are you?"
"Now that sounds desperate," the officer in charge of the column noted. "We'll get there soon, we're doing our best here, we're driving through hell!"
"Well keep on driving!"
"Did you know that Winston Churchill originally said that?" Grass said.
"Not the time Grass," I grunted.
I finally reached the floor where Caboose was. I tapped him on the shoulder and ordered him to keep watch on the stairwell behind me while I took his place. My weapon had better range and accuracy, so it was a swap that made sense. I leaned against the wrecked car that he had been using for cover and took a couple of shots at a jackal with a carbine. The alien collapsed from the bullets, leaving it out of commission. I caught a glimpse of the covvie tank while at it, it was smoking from the right side and I could clearly see that it was tilting sideways, but it could still pivot and move its turret well enough.
"Pavs, don't let that squad get close!"
"Sound simple enough," he replied with way too much humor in his voice.
"Simple isn't the same as easy!" Angel reminded him. "Merda!"
The entire tower shook as another shell hit us. The tank wasn't purposely shooting for the support beams and columns, but with enough explosions the thing was bound to collapse soon enough.
"One minute Reaper Leader!"
"Grass! You heard the man, get the VIP down here! Everyone, I want you to keep those covvies with their heads down. And Bee, just shoot that motherfucking tank to oblivion!"
By this point all of the Spectres were driverless, Snark had been doing his job well enough. While the vehicles were useless, we still had to keep any eager alien at bay. The tank was giving us enough shit as it was, we didn't need four more of them thrown in the mix. The Daemon fired another shot and the entire tower shook. When I say shook, I mean shook. The thing leaned sideways.
"It's gonna collapse!" Bee cried.
"Everybody out!" I ordered.
Caboose fired a burst, presumably hitting either a jackal or an elite minor trying to climb the stairs. I rushed towards his position and tapped him on the shoulder, prompting him to climb down the next flight of stairs. I stayed where he had been a second ago and waited for Pavel, Angel, and Snark to fly past me. A second later Bumblebee rushed by, reloading his Spanker. Everything had happened so fast. I waited for Grass to arrive, dragging the good doctor by the shoulders. Halsey held on to her laptop and kept a surprisingly calm expression. You know, for a civilian.
As soon as Halsey passed me I rushed down the stairs with her.
On the ground level Pavel, Caboose, and Snark were firing wildly at the horde of elites approaching while Bumblebee took careful aim at the Daemon. His rocket flew out and hit the vehicle's frontal armor, raising its tip and redirecting the shot that had been aimed right at us. As soon as I hit the third floor I knew that this whole things was coming down.
"Ah, shit!" Snark fell to the floor, dropping his rifle and reaching for his upper leg. A plasma shot had hit him head on, the armor hadn't done anything to protect his leg.
Bumblebee dropped his Spanker and reached for Snark, dragging him behind the walls of the parking tower.
There was a loud noise behind me, almost like a car honking. There are two things that sound like a car honking, a crappy ringtone or a car honking. I looked behind me to see one of those huge-ass HM SUVs rolling forward with Angel at the wheel. I had no idea how he managed to get past all the security measures on the thing.
Oh right, the thing's got so many electronics he probably just hacked them.
The SUV slammed into three elites, two of them rolled over the hood and behind the car while the third one just disappeared underneath the truck. Once it came out it was just a mangled mess of a corpse. Angel kept driving until he eventually crashed into the opposite side of the street, pinning yet another elite against a lamppost. A burst of machine gun rounds erupted through the windshield, finishing off the alien. He kicked out the door and jumped behind the truck, using it for cover as what was left of the alien platoon fired on his position.
All the jackals were dead by now, only ten elites remained and still we were about to be overwhelmed. If they didn't have the tank we would probably be in an advantageous position, but they did have the tank, and we weren't in an advantageous position. We were out of ammo and royally fucked.
"I'm out!" Grass cried out.
"Here," Caboose said, tossing her a magazine. "Last mag."
I heard my gun click and knew that I was out of rifle ammunition. I dropped my rifle and reached for my sidearm. The BR55 made a clattering noise as it bounced around on the pavement. The elites were rushing in on us, Pavel killed the one closest to him before the following one tossed his weapon to the side and kicked my friend in the chest. I emptied my pistol's magazine on that elite, making it recoil and lose its shields. Grass finished it off with her last rounds.
"They have me pinned down!" Angel cried.
"Stay the hell down!" I ordered the doctor. Now she looked worried.
A third elite pounced on top of Pavel. It took its time aiming at my friends head and paid the price for it. The elite was suddenly ripped in half as a thirty-milimmiter round impacted against its midsection. I looked to my right and saw an M987 Armadillo AFV rolling down the street at full steam. Its thirty cal autocannon was now firing two hundred rounds a minute at the Daemon tank. The tanks front armor was already damaged from one rocket shot, making it easier for the explosive rounds to punch through. After a second of firing the Daemon fell to the ground, its pilot and gunner dead from the small explosions.
"Inside!"
I looked away from the Armadillo and saw two Warthogs plowing through what was left of the platoon. Behind the Hogs was another 'Dillo, this one with its rear hatch doors open. A man wearing the usual big and round helmet that tank crews usually sported was beckoning for us to go inside. I grabbed the doctor and pulled her upright. She seemed to be in better condition now that we were winning this thing. I climbed inside with our VIP and patted the man in the shoulder, thanking him for getting us out of the fire.
Bumblebee climbed next, carrying his Spanker in one hand and Snark on the other shoulder. He gently put the marksman down on one of the seats and sat next to him. Snark looked to be in some serious pain judging from the screams that came from his throat. Grass climbed next, clutching her chest and limping slightly. Don't ask me why.
"Let's go Angel!" Pavel ordered. A new group of covvie reinforcements had just arrived, they were shooting at the leading Armadillo, but its cannon was more than match for them. Pavel climbed inside after Caboose and fired a few random bursts, buying some time for the man to climb inside. As we closed the door two needle rounds flew inside. One of them shattered against the wall, the other one hit Grass on the wrist. She looked at the thing in shock for a second before yanking it out with her other hand. She pulled it out but wasn't quick enough on the throwing it away part. Her right was perforated by hundreds of shards as the needle detonated. She hadn't been clutching it tightly, otherwise she would've lost her hand.
Grass cried in pain, sounding awfully human as she did so.
"Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!" the crewmember cried.
The Armadillo spun around and headed back. The hatch door was closed and I couldn't hear anything that went on outside. I could only feel the rounds hitting the armor plating and hear the autocannon firing everything it had.
"Jump on the gun!" the AFV's pilot ordered. The crewmember that had welcomed us climbed a couple of steps and pushed out a hatch, grabbing onto the M247 machine gun that the craft had as supplementary armament. He started firing and casings started falling inside the troop bay. He only lasted five seconds before a plasma round grazed the side of his face.
The poor man fall back down to the floor, screaming horribly as he tried taking off his helmet. Half his face was falling off from his skull, but if the screaming was any indication, the man would live the rest of his life fully, even if he'd have a horrible scar marking him as the veteran that he was. Few people would be inclined to see him as a hero though, civilians had this tendency to overlook disfigured veterans as mere victims, no matter what they had done.
"Fuck," Bumblebee cursed as he saw the man. Caboose moved towards the poor crewmember and started applying some biofoam on his face, trying to salvage as much skin as possible. At this point, his whole cheek and jaw would need grafts. Same thing for the edge of his forehead.
And despite the sad fate that this man had just suffered, I climbed on top of him and manned the machine gun.
I pulled back the loading lever and aimed at the Banshees that had appeared out of nowhere and were strafing us. The first one was going ultra-slow mode on top of us, or more accurately, on top of our little column. I pounded it with automatic gunfire, eventually bringing it down. The aircraft crashed into one of the buildings next to us, sending debris flying everywhere. The second Banshee veered off with a trail of tracers following it. I redirected my fire from the purple aircraft towards the occasional infantry troopers on the rooftops or windows. I kept firing at anything that moved until my weapon started sounding weird.
I cursed as it overheated and ducked below the hatch, keeping my hand on the grip while plasma hit the hatch, leaving scorch marks behind. After fifteen seconds of letting the thing cool down I emerged again. I was just in time to see a fuel rod hit the Warthog leading. It blew up, killing everyone on board. The Armadillo's pilot plowed through the wreckage. The autocannon was firing at targets that I couldn't see and I was starting to run out of ammunition. Eventually my machine gun clattered empty and I pushed down the hatch again, separating my squad, the doctor, and the tank crew from the outside world.
Eventually, we stopped.
"We made it," the driver said. "We made it." He didn't seem to believe it himself.
Angel opened the hatch door and clambered out into a UNSC firebase. Two medics grabbed him and let go when they realized he was ok. Snark was carried off in a stretcher and Grass had to be helped by another medic, her hand bleeding profusely. Three other doctors came inside to work on the crewmember that had gotten shot in the face. Halsey was swarmed by doctors when she emerged, she had to wave them all away and Pavel and I actually dragged some of them off of her when they kept pestering her.
I didn't like the woman, but I knew what it felt like whenever people wouldn't leave you alone, thinking that they could help.
Another medic tried to approach me, but I shoved him out of the way mindlessly. The guy didn't even scoff, it was part of the job to deal with super-ego soldiers. If he didn't want help and wasn't about to die, you didn't give him help and instead focused on somebody else that actually wanted it. It's a weird thing, but it's a part of military life.
I looked around and noticed that out of the Warthogs and Armadillos that had plowed through the enemy lines to come and get us ours was the only one that made it through. It was hardly intact. The turret was blown up, the M247 was mangled beyond recognition, and the armor plates were actually molten in many places. The thing would be lucky if it could ever work again.
"Come on, let's go check on Snark and Grass," Pavel suggested.
We followed the group of medics and doctors towards a tent. An actual tent, as in made with fabric and not solid materials. Hell, I don't think that the military has used those kind of tents for over three centuries.
Desperate times, eh?
Inside the tent were ten beds, eight of them were already occupied by the dead or the dying. The other two had Snark sitting on one and Grass lying down on the other. Grass was obviously in pain, no amount of adrenaline could dull out a carbine wound and a needle detonation right on the hand. Snark was also cursing as the doctors removed his armor. His leg was badly burnt and the skin was charred in some places. He would be out of commission for at least a few weeks.
"How are they doc?" I asked the one that looked to be in charge.
"Well, the biofoam was applied properly. They'll both live and walk and fight again, but the man is probably going to be unable to fight for a while?"
"And her?" Pavel asked.
"At least a few days, her hand can heal, but it'll take some time, the wound on her chest is minor, so no worries on that one."
"All right, thank you doctor."
"C'mon," I said.
I walked back out and saw an exasperated Dr. Halsey ordering random soldiers to take her to their officer in charge. The image was so funny that I probably would've laughed if not for the situation two of my teammates were in.
"Doctor, follow me."
"About time," she grumbled. I could tell that she was used to being in charged and talked respectfully. So far, I hadn't really done anything disrespectful other than being a bit nosy.
I walked Halsey through the camp, escorting her with Pavel next to me. We finally arrived at an office building that had been repurposed to serve as the ONI liaison's HQ. We walked past a couple of MPs and made our way inside. Two ONI officers that I had no previous recollection of and one that I was all too familiar with were waiting for us.
"Ah, Doctor Halsey, good to know you're still among the living," Major Cavallaro said. The man looked the same as he had two years ago, smug and satisfied with himself. "Well, well, Sergeant Castillo, it has been a while since we met face to face, I almost didn't recognize you with all that armor on."
"It's actually gunnery sergeant now," I replied. "Sir."
"Ah, of course, how could I forget? Your performance reports have been very…thorough."
"I hope they say good things."
"Oh, they say wonders about the prog-" Cavallaro seemed to remember the situation he was in and stopped himself mid-sentence. He looked over at Halsey, completely ignoring Pavel. "Well, perhaps we'll discuss this another time," he shrugged off. "Now Doctor, please?" he beckoned her to enter a room. Cavallaro looked over his shoulder and at me one last time before closing the door behind him.
"What the hell was all that about?" Pavel asked.
I shrugged. "You know, about that."
"Yeah, don't ask," he scoffed. "You should really be more clear on that."
"Don't think I can," I replied.
"Whatever," he said, effectively ending the conversation.
We walked the rest of the way back in silence. The firebase was relatively quiet. That showed that either we were winning or weren't desperately losing. Marines and Soldiers moved about freely, they didn't look exactly cheery, but they looked all right. It was actually nice to see people not-desperate for a change. We might have a chance of winning this one battle.
"The docs aren't letting us in," Bumblebee informed me when I joined him. "Usual bullcrap."
I shrugged. "You all fine?"
"Killer headache," Angel complained, "but otherwise I think we're fine."
"Yeah, we're good," Bee agreed.
I sat down on the ground next to the hospital tent, Snark's screams of pain were awfully loud, and Grass constantly grunted or stifled her own cries of pain. It actually made me feel good that they were still yelling and screaming, that way I knew that they still had fight in them.
"Frank!"
Aw crap.
"Team, scram," I ordered. "Now."
"Wouldn't want to interrupt your quality time. Eh Sarge?" Bumblebee teased.
"Come on," Pavel chuckled, "give him some space."
Pavel and Bee took off in one direction while Angel and Caboose excused themselves in the other. I stood like a deer caught in the headlights as the good Corpsman Hanna Lockley ran at me. She stopped herself shy of hugging my neck, but only just.
"Frank, I came as soon as I heard," she said, sounding worried.
"Didn't know you were in the neighborhood…"
"Yeah, my platoon was redirected after an enemy artillery strike," Hanna informed me. "We made it out fine, no casualties," she added immediately afterwards. "What happened to you?"
"Classsified."
"Trying to sound tough, are you?"
I shrugged.
"Your helmet?"
"Fell off a parking tower," I said dismissively.
"Mind if I check?"
"I do, actually."
Hanna chuckled. "Yeah right." She reached for my helmet and took it off without my consent. Normally I wouldn't allow anyone to do that. Then she started moving my head around to check for injuries, that was a capital offense if you did it without my explicit consent, but then again, this was the sexy girl-next-door medic with kick-ass light brown eyes that could melt even the hardest man. Trust me, I know.
So I allowed her to keep touching my face. In fact, I almost reveled in it. Who am I kidding? I loved the attention, even if I did my best to pretend that I was annoyed by it.
"Small cut here," she said. "Sure your head doesn't hurt?"
"Oh, my head hurts like hell, but it usually does."
"That could me migraines," she suggested, sounding worried.
"It was a joke," I informed her.
Hanna looked taken aback before punching me lightly on the arm and shoving my helmet into my chest. "Come on," she said. "Let's go get something to eat, I salvaged some instant noodles."
"Beats MREs," I replied, smiling.
And for a moment, despite everything, it felt like everything was exactly where it should be.
Ok, before I say anything, I would just like to say that the parking tower is based off the one at the end of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. Yep, the fourth one, hence the chapter title.
Thanks to Sniper Fodder for proof-reading this chapter.
Well, there's not much to say here. I really hope that I got Halsey's personality right. It's been a while since I read the books and most of them have no insight into the good doctor's personality. From what I remember and hot of Halopedia Halsey is self-centered, doesn't care about people she doesn't know, is insensitive, and kind of a bitch. Apparently she is aware of that and dislikes herself very much, just read Glasslands.
Well, moving on, I put in some fair amount of badassery all around here, Frank hit himself pretty hard in the parking tower and Angel pulled off one hell of a splattering stunt. Gotta say, I based the idea of the AFV evacuation on one mission from the first GRAW, with the mexican and american presidents. I just don't want to get my ass sued by Ubisoft, thought that it was better to come out.
Storywise: Oh snap, we've got a man from Frankie's past. For all of those that don't remember, Major Cavallaro is the man that forced our beloved Francisco into becoming the Spartan-IV prototype without his knowledge. Well, he's back and not for Frank, just letting you know that he's alive and well, plan on using him later on. Besides, Frank's got some suspicions about just exactly what is causing Schitzo to become so friendly and Scarecrow to manifest himself to keep him company. Yes, hallucinations my friends.
The other story-realted thing is the one and only Corpsman Hanna Lockley. Is she a fan favorite (occasional reader favorite?). I was just wondering, because I've got two different characters to get in a relationship with Frank and wanted to know what you thought before going through with it. Your opinions may have absolutely no impact on my final decision.
With all the stuff that you don't care about having been said, there's only one more thing for me to write down.
Stay strong.
-casquis