Chapter CXXVIII: Angels in the Battlefield

October 2, 2544 (UNSC Calendar)/

Temporary FOB Golf, Catamaran Peninsula, Asilon, Omicron Ebur System

Hospital Corpsman Second Class Hanna Lockley

"You called us angels."- Clara Barton

"I love you."

He had said it again. And then he turned around and left. Who does that? I mean, it's something that would be romantic in a movie or a book, maybe at the end of a chapter. But honestly, doing it once is ok, twice? Now that's just rude.

Still, I was angry at myself. I should've been able to reply in turn. I saw no reason not to, I did love him, why shouldn't I? He was nice, caring, funny, and good-looking too. I trusted him and I liked him more than I had anybody in my entire life. These past months with him had been a whirlwind, I was surprised at myself mostly, but in a good way. I certainly never expected to die a virgin, but all things considered I don't think that I would've done it any other way. Besides, it was fun, enjoyable, most certainly better than helping myself.

Look at me, blushing even as I wrote that. If anyone ever read this I would die.

Well, he turned around and left, all clad in his fancy black armor, with two knives more than the norm strapped to his body. He was very proud of his toys, but I never understood the infatuation with blades. I understood that they were useful and could be a nice last-resort weapon, but I had never been in a situation where I needed to use my own combat knife yet.

I kept my eyes trained on him even as the Falcon disappeared through the mist. I was angry. I was usually the one in control, I always kept my bearings, there was absolutely no reason why I should panic, or stutter, or stumble over my words. There was most certainly no reason why I should react like a nervous schoolgirl. I was supposed to be the cool and collected one!

Well, it doesn't matter, I don't exactly have time for a self-analysis. The Falcon departed and I immediately returned to barracks. After having lived my whole life in foster care with only other girls to share my room with this mixed environment felt weird. They usually set up different building for men and women, but under these circumstances we only had one building per unit. The whole company was tightly packed up into the barracks. It was a good idea that we would only be here for a day or two at the most, otherwise we would start killing one another.

"Hanna Banana!"

I smiled despite myself. Corporal Harriet Buchanan was one of the only two other women in the company ever since the captain was hit. She was a pretty good friend.

"Harry," I replied with a smile. "Why so cheerful all of a sudden?"

"Oh, you know me," she shrugged. "I'm just happy you finally got yourself a sexy stud." When she said that a couple of the guys within earshot turned and laughed, I glared at them and they promptly turned around to try and stifle their laughter. They wouldn't want me fixing them up wrong.

"It's been long enough," I said. "You should be over it already."

"I know, but I've never seen you so happy!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, you're smiling."

"Am not!"

"Well, not anymore," she conceded, "but you had a big grin on your face when you walked in."

"I can vouch for that," Lance Corporal Pablo Nilsson joined. "I'd say the smile lit up the room, but it came from you…" Pablo was born to an Argentinean dad and a Swedish mom. Genetics had been nice to him. He had inherited the tan skin that his dad had and the light hair and eyes that his mother had. He usually joked that his dad had been the blond one and his mom the tanned one. His parents were both born and raised on Earth, they met up in college. He really liked talking about his family, that's why I know all this, no other reason in particular.

"Pablo, just what I needed."

Pablo smiled, he had a cute smile too, and hugged Harry, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Getoffme!" she complained, shoving him away half-heartedly.

"So, tell us young Hanna Banana, what happened out there?" He adopted a concerned expression. "Did you jump his bones again? Because I've been talking with Harry and we're concerned tha-"

"Don't get me involved in this!"

"Well, perhaps talking is an exaggeration, I've been boinking Harry and we- ow!"

Harry slapped him pretty hard. She wasn't really angry with him, after all, it was true that they had been boinking regularly. They were the closest thing that Echo Company had to an official couple. It was a little bit sad that they spent most of the time fighting or Harriet punching Pablo. Funny thing, right?

"Well, we are curious, what happened?"

"He said it again."

"Again?" Pablo raised an eyebrow, rubbing his reddening cheek.

"Yup," I nodded.

"What's so bad about it?"

"I couldn't say anything. I froze up."

"Again."

"Again," I repeated.

"Wow," said Harry, shaking her head. "That's so sad."

"Yeah," I scoffed. "Thanks."

Pablo chuckled and stretched himself, casually putting one arm around Harriet. She scoffed but otherwise snuggled up close to him. "You know, you're going to have to give him a reply sooner rather than later."

"I know."

"Here, I've got an idea, why don't you say it to Harry? As practice?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"Sure," Harry shrugged.

I sighed and rolled my eyes but looked at Harriet. "I love you."

"Nononononononono," Pablo complained, slamming his hands on the table. "You have to say it like you mean it, love is a heavy word, use it carefully."

"Fine!" I turned to face Harry again. "I love you."

"Better," Pablo nodded. "Now why don't you kiss her, make it more realistic."

I was lunging to slap him when Harry tackled him to the floor and started poking him in the ribs. A regular person would've tried to defend himself, but Pablo was so incredibly ticklish that he just started laughing like a madman and begged Harry to stop torturing him, arguing that he was going to wet himself and get the floor dirty. Of course that didn't work, the whole company formed a circle around them and started yelling at them to start…well, you know Marines.

"What the hell is going on!"

It wasn't a question, it was more like a statement. Lieutenant Darbinian didn't bother with questions, he just yelled. A lot. Nobody liked him, but he was a good leader and could keep us together when it counted.

"Um, nothing El-tee," Pablo said, suddenly serious and standing up. "Corporal Buchanan and myself were just doing a little bit of…uh…close quarters practice."

"Uh-huh," Darbinian nodded. "Is that true Corporal?"

"In a way, yes."

"Oh, it's 'in a way' now?" Darbinian was obviously not impressed. "Which was it?"

"We're sorry Lieutenant," Harry apologized. "It won't happen again."

"Damn right it won't," he agreed. "Or you two will be wiping the floor on the ship for the next three months." Darbinian turned around to face the rest of Echo. All of them promptly took a step back and stood with their backs a little bit straighter. "We're going to be going into combat any time now, that's the definition of standby in case you weren't aware of it. I'm stuck with you ignorant idiots, so I never know if you understand what the hell is going on. We're on standby, everybody should be in full combat gear already!" Everybody shuffled awkwardly and looked down at their feet. "What the hell are you waiting for?!"

Everybody stopped shuffling awkwardly while looking down at their feet and instead moved quickly towards their armor and weapon lockers. I was already clad in half of my armor, so I waited where I was standing.

"Corpsman," Darbinina nodded at me. You know, he could've been attractive had he not been such an…well, an ass.

"Lieutenant," I replied politely.

"Let's hope your boyfriend succeeds," he sighed. "He's a fine soldier." The words sounded heavy coming out of his mouth, but he never said anything that he didn't mean, except perhaps calling all of us ignorant idiots. "Even if he's an idiot."

"I'll be sure to tell him that," I replied. "The first part, sir."

"I'd rather you told him the second," Lieutenant Darbinian grunted. "Now put on the rest of your armor."

"Sir!"

Echo Company was a fine outfit, we all had combat experience and could be ready for combat in less than two minutes. I finished putting on my armor and reached for my MA5. The gun was old but in fine working order, I slammed a magazine into the port and pulled back the bolt. The gun clicked satisfactorily and I smiled to myself. I couldn't imagine what my sisters would say if they saw me dressed like this. After that I strapped my corpsman band on to my arm.

"We taking e-tools?" Harry asked me. "Cause we might need to dig ourselves in."

"I don't know," I replied. "Ask Sarge."

Harry looked over her shoulder and saw that her sergeant was packing an e-tool on his pack. I sighed and grabbed my own little shovel and placed it next to my already oversized pack. The rest of Echo had small backpacks with water and items that they deemed necessary. I had a rather large backpack with tons of medical equipment on my back, my own little mobile hospital. It was heavy.

"Now we wait," Harry sighed.

After two hours we finally got the go ahead.

"Banana, over here."

"I'm going," I told Private Lopsang Topche. He was one of the two marines in charge of my safety. "And don't call me Banana."

He laughed. "No chance on that one."

"Where's Mal?"

"Duff's taking a leak."

"Charming."

Darbinian and Captain Salas started giving out their orders. We would be advancing right after the army, with the Scorpion tanks. The advance would consist of three lines, we would be switching with one another every certain distance. Like those races with more than one person, I forget how they're called. Well, the point is that we were supposed to get moving now, the Army was already attacking with their fancy Armadillos and their own Scorpions. Old Gryphon jets were flying overhead, off to bomb some place or other.

"Banana," Duff said from behind. "Hey Topche."

"Hey Duff," we both replied.

"You stay behind, ok?" he told me. "You know the drill."

"Yeah, yeah," I replied. "Keep myself safe so I can do my job."

Duff nodded and we just stood around awkwardly while our own company was mustered up and called to the assault. Three Scorpions left the vehicle lot and positioned themselves next to each other. They started going forward at walking speed and slowly pulled apart to leave sizeable spaces in between them.

"We're behind Scorpion number two," Mal said. "Come on."

It was a spectacle, marines as far as the eye could see in either direction with tanks and warthogs at regular intervals. Occasionally some jets would do a flyby or Falcon gunships would roar by. If there was a war journalist with us he would be having the time of his life.

"We're catching up to the Army," Lopsang warned. "Stay behind the tank as much as you can."

"I know," I complained. "I've been doing this for a while now, you know?"

"Just making sure Banana."

"And stop calling me that!"

"Not a chance."

Eventually we came up to an enemy trench, it was occupied by tired Army soldiers and Covenant corpses. The tanks just barreled over them while we climbed down and then back up. I stopped to ask the soldiers what we would be facing, they gave me unhelpful answers. I then asked them if they needed help, but they told me that their own medics were taking care of it, but thank you. I shrugged and hopped out of the trench as they wished me good luck. Mal and Lopsang made sure that they covered me from the sides and front, trying to make out hostiles through the mist.

The Scorpion fired twice and we ducked to the ground.

"Hey, what's going on?" Mal asked, banging on the tank.

"Some Wraiths, you'd better get out of the way!"

We ran away from the Scorpion just in time for three blue mortars to fall around it. Two of them were misses, but one of the explosions glanced the tank, lifting it slightly sideways. The tank fell back to the ground and fired three shots. I heard an explosion in the distance and knew that it had taken out the Wraith that had hit it. A few hundred assault rifles opened up at the same time, we had come up to an enemy trench. I was about to start earning my pay.

"Keep your head down," Mal said for the umpteenth time.

If I kept my head further down I would be eating mud. Mal and Lopsang were firing short bursts and plasma rounds were starting to come awfully close. I aimed down range and looked for movement. I spotted a jackal running sideways and fired a sustained burst at it. A couple of bullets hit it and it collapsed to the floor. Someone must've seen my muzzle flashes because they started firing at me with needle rounds.

"Come on," Mal yelled. "Let's get out of here."

We ran to the side and I dove behind a crater. I stayed there for a few seconds, trying to regain my breath. I barely had time to get myself calmed down when I heard the dreaded cry.

"Medic!"

I looked around to try and spot the yelling marine. I saw one guy waving around and stood up. Lopsang and Mal started yelling at me to wait for them, but I was already sprinting for the man. I slid down when I arrived. The man placed himself between the enemy soldiers and me and started firing short bursts. To my left I saw another marine, he was bleeding from the stomach and chest. There were three spikes embedded in his belly and one in his chest. He was groaning and trying to keep from crying out while one hand reached for his assault rifle.

"Don't move," I told him. "This is going to hurt, all right?"

"What?"

"Listen Sergeant…Boone, can you hear me?"

"Yeah, yeah!"

"Ok, bite on this." He nodded and looked straight up, wincing even before I even touched the spiker rounds stuck in him. "Hold on."

I yanked the first spike from his belly, Sergeant Boone groaned and shook, but otherwise didn't do anything.

"Hold him down!" I told my two so-called bodyguards. They knelt next to him and pressed his shoulders against the ground. I yanked the two other spikes and he started crying out in pain, technically speaking that was the worst thing that I could do outside of an ER, but I had with me the modern miracle of biofoam. Blood started emerging from the wounds and pooling on his stomach and sliding to the ground.

"Come on, come on," I told myself, examining the wounds. Boone was lucky, no important veins had been punctured, his stomach had been cut open though, but I didn't have the proper equipment to deal with that right now. Sure, I could sew him closed, but that would take too long and biofoam would work well enough while they gave him a medvac.

"This is also going to hurt." I poured a little bit of biofoam on his wounds and rubbed around to make sure that it covered everything.

There was still another spike right in the middle of his chest. I grabbed one of the bloody rounds and placed it next to the other spike.

"Listen Boone," I yelled into his ear, he was about to faint. "Pay attention!"

"Yeah…"

"The other spike is stuck in your sternum, it's not dangerous, the doctors back there can take care of it easily."

"Ok, ok."

"You heard me too?" I asked his squad mate.

"I got you ma'am."

"Good, stay here with him."

"But I-"

"Stay here with him!"

"Fine, fine."

"Let's go," Mal told me, dragging me by the arm.

There were a couple of plasma turrets firing at a bunch of marines hiding behind two boulders. They were pinned down and couldn't move from their position. The gunners hadn't seen us yet. We were to their right, but they were so focused on killing the men behind the rocks that they didn't see us.

"Hanna," Mal turned to me. "Topche and me are going to kill the guys in that bunker, throw a frag at the two turrets, ok?"

"Got it." I watched as they crawled away and threw one of my grenades at the plasma turrets. The explosion killed the two gunners and I smiled to myself. Mal and Lopsang then threw additional grenades inside the bunker-like trench and jumped inside through a window. Said window lit up with orange from the automatic fire. The noise lasted for about ten seconds before it finally stopped.

"All clear!" Lopsang yelled.

As soon as I heard that I ran straight towards the two boulders. The marines there were already running towards the covvie trench, firing as they went. I ignored them and knelt beside two prone figures on the ground. One of them was dead for sure, he had been hit four times in the face, most of it was gone. The other one was alive, but just barely, his entire torso had been shot up. I looked at the injuries and reached into my pack for painkillers. The marine died before I could give him the shot. I shook my head and closed his eyes.

"Banana, let's get moving, we're being left behind."

It was true, the front of the advance was already two hundred yards away, they had already reached the Covenant trench and were jumping inside. Us three just ran up towards them and joined the fight.

The enemy trench was littered with bodies, both human and alien, but most of them were alien bodies, something which I was thankful for. Mal and Lopsang fired at any alien that moved. I ran from body to body, checking their vitals to see if they could still be helped.

"Watch out!"

I raised my rifle and gunned down a brute with Mal's help. The alien collapsed before it could do anything. I allowed myself a sigh of relief. One marine was breathing heavily just a meter away from the dead brute, obviously happy that we had saved him.

"Some help?"

"What's wrong?" I asked, examining him."

"My back," he sighed. "They hit me in the back."

"Where?"

"Right above my ass."

"Ok, this might hurt." I turned him around and saw that there was a single spike jutting out of his lower back.

"I can't feel my legs," he suggested.

"That might be permanent," I told him.

"Afraid so."

"There's some surgery that can link back together all the nerves, expensive, but the military should help pay for it."

"Thanks," he sighed.

"Listen, I'm going to cut a section of the spike, make it harder for it to move around."

"Ok…"

"And then I want you to stay here."

"Poor choice of words ma'am."

"No," I assured him. "I've seen wounded men try to crawl away from combat. Stay here and someone will come pick you up. Are you in pain?"

"Not really."

"Good, keep your weapon ready."

"Anything you say ma'am."

Mal cleared his throat. "Um…Banana?"

"I'm going Duff," I snapped. I didn't like getting interrupted. "Now, anything you need?"

The wounded marine shook his head. "Nah, go ahead. And good luck."

"Thanks," I said, standing up and following my two escorts.

From that point on I couldn't help anybody. There were still covvies all over the place and they were doing their best to kill as many of us before they died. I wasn't as good when it came to killing, but I was more than a match for any grunt or jackal. Mal and Lopsang were more experienced when it came to that, but I like to think that I carried my own weight, I killed several grunts and a pair of jackals, but the brutes I left to the other two guys if possible. Those things were hard to kill.

"Medic!"

There it was again, no matter how many times I hear that coarse scream I can't get used to it. I know that I'm doing a good thing here, but seeing so many people die, being unable to help them all, it's really terrible. I turned my head towards the direction which the scream was coming from and went after it. I heard bodyguard one and two shouting at me to wait, but I was already around the corner. A squad of marines was finishing off a bunch of jackals.

"Miss, over there," one of them said as soon as he spotted me.

"What happened?" I asked.

"He got stabbed, spiker."

The victim was trying to breath with two holes in his chest, two pretty large holes. There was a dead brute right in front of him, it had several holes in its head, most of them from pistol rounds.

"You take him out?" I asked the stabbed marine. He nodded weakly. "Nice job!" I exclaimed, trying to cheer him up. The wounds were serious. He started shaking and I proceeded to take off his armor with calm precision.

"What's happening?" his friend asked me, obviously worried.

"He's going to go into cardiac arrest."

"What?"

"Blade hit his heart, it's straining too much."

"What are you going to do?"

"Patch him together and then bring him back to life."

"Can you even do that?!"

"Just you watch."

The stabbed marine's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he flatlined. I yanked the vest away from him and reached into the wound, his heard had been sliced ever so slightly. I patched him up quickly, closing the sliced vein and then sewing it together. Then I stuck the heart together with biofoam and reached into my pack for the emergency defibrillator.

"Come on, come on," I muttered.

I hit him and his body jerked from the shock. I got one beat from his heart but that was everything. I cracked my neck and upped the current by a large percentage. The marine on the floor wasn't moving. His heart had been quiet for almost thirty seconds now, if he didn't come back soon I risked bringing him back with permanent brain damage. I hit him again and he jerked, but his heartbeat didn't change.

"Come on…." I hit him three more times before giving up, tossing the defibrillator to the side. "He's dead."

"Shit," his friend cried and punched the wall. "Shit!"

"Calm down," Mal told him, "we've got a job to do."

"Don't tell me to calm down! My best friend just died!"

I stood up and put my hand on his shoulder. "It's ok," I assured him. "It's all fine."

The marine collapsed on the floor and started crying. He was young, younger than I was. He probably enlisted with a couple of friends, believing all the propaganda. He certainly hadn't expected this when he joined the Corps.

"Can you take care of him?" I asked his squad.

"We'll stay with him ma'am," one of them nodded at me. "He'll be fine."

You know, I'm writing this all wrong, I'm skipping some stuff, not being detailed, I'm honestly doing my best, but I keep trying to write this like a novel or something and not like a journal, I don't even know why I'm bothering with the dialog and everything. I would make for a crappy novelist, but you always said that you wanted to keep a diary or a journal, so here I am, doing it for you.

After that we kept moving, climbed out of the trench, followed the rest of the marines. The ground here was less damaged, since it was the space in between trenches there hadn't been much fighting on it, well, at least not much heavy fighting. We went around a couple of Wraith husks, maybe one of these had been the one that the Scorpion pilot destroyed, probably not though, too far away.

"We have to return to our unit," Mal said. He was right, and we all agreed on it.

According to our HUDs the rest of the company was due north of our position, not too far away, but air intel showed that a couple of firefights had erupted along the way, we would have to go around, maybe catch a ride on a Warthog or a Scorpion. Lopsang immediately took the lead, settling into a fast jog, with me behind him and Mal covering the rear. The firefights were pretty intense, but we bypassed them completely, Mal had to restrain me when I tried to make a run for one of the groups, one man was screaming for a medic.

You know me, right? You always said that I took my job way more seriously than I should've even for a corpsman.

"Stop," Lopsang said.

"What is it?"

"A 'Dillo," he replied. "Looks abandoned."

After he had cleared the vehicle we approached. It had been hit by a plasma mortar, heavy damage on the top and sides. A quick look inside revealed that the occupants hadn't made it out. The driver, gunner and navigator were all roasted inside, black skin emitting a horrible smell.

"Let's go," I said, covering my nose.

It was only a couple of minutes later when we arrived with Echo once again. They had been diverted to help assault an enemy artillery position. The assault had gone well, but there had been a few casualties, I went from one place to another, doing what I could for everyone, but a few were beyond saving. Eventually I was finished with the job and just sat back down to relax. This place was full of destroyed Wraiths and alien corpses. The Army was already rolling through to replace our line and push deeper into enemy territory. We would have a couple of minutes of rest before we advanced in the wake of the frontline.

"Hanna Banana?"

"Hey," I said, Harry was looking at me, there was mud and blood on her face, but the blood wasn't hers. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, you?"

"Same, got separated from you."

"Obviously." She was smiling, she has this big grin that lights up the room, you know? Well, you probably do. "Shame about Matthews."

"Hardly knew him," I said, looking at the body next to me. I covered his face with a tarp that had been lain out on him. "But yes, it's a shame."

"You chose a nice moment to get separated, it was tough here, almost got hit once or twice."

"I'm glad you didn't."

"Well I'm glad too!"

Harriet looked down at me while I took off my helmet and examined the bottom of it. People had been putting photos of their loved ones in their helmets ever since photography had been invented. It was a part of the military that was underplayed sometimes. I guess that the logic behind it was that you kept your inspiration close to your head, some other people put them close to their heart, in a pocket or something, but I preferred to have this picture in my helmet.

I had taken it back on Harvest, I was only four years old at the time. The picture showed my mom, my dad, and my two sisters. They weren't really happy to be posing for me, but I had just gotten a new camera, the real deal. It took pictures that you could print, an antique. Only my mom was smiling in the picture. My dad looked a little bit tired, and my two sisters were obviously pissed at being forced to be there. I remember the moment perfectly, it was one of the happiest memories that I had left.

"They'd be proud of you," Harry said.

"I know. I just don't know if I'm proud of myself."

"You do what many people can't. It doesn't matter if a few of them don't make it, you are doing a good thing here."

"You always say that," I smiled.

"And you always believe me."

"Always," I confirmed.

Half an hour later we were on the move again. This time I would be sticking with my unit. Mal was covering me carefully, Lopsang had gone off to man a Scorpion's turret. Salas had ordered him to cover a section of the company from there if possible. Command had given us a couple of the tanks for support, the three that we started with had gone off to fight an enemy Wraith formation, these two would stay with us and help in our objectives. One of them was already damaged, the other one was just muddy.

"C'mon," Mal urged, waving me over.

Hornets were flying directly overhead, firing as they went. Maybe Emily was one of them, laughing like a maniac as she depressed the triggers on her joysticks. Small explosions were beginning to litter our ranks, most missing, but a pair forced a few guys to duck sideways. After the explosions we started getting shot at with plasma and needles. The tanks started firing, but only the turrets, we wanted to keep the big guns a surprise for the last possible second. I did my best to keep low, wishing that I had adjusted my helmet's chin strap back when I had the time, it was banging around on my head.

The Scorpion closest to us fired and a huge plume of dirt erupted upwards fifty meters away. Talk about close range. Mal took a knee and fired at a pair of brutes making their way out of the crater site. I aimed at them and helped him take them out. Mal nodded at me and resumed his run. We got separated when a mortar hit in between us, not a Wraith mortar, but a Revenant. I was able to duck out of the way into another crater.

"Hanna!"

"I'm here," I shouted back. "You all right?"

"I'm fine, let's go."

Mal covered my entire field of vision as he pulled me out of the crater. I hadn't realized it then, but I was up to my waist in mud and dirt. He helped me out and dusted me off; he even secured my helmet. Then he took a step back and collapsed on the ground for no apparent reason. I shouted his name, but he was already unconscious, his vitals were going crazy, a second ago they had been just fine. I turned him around and saw that the back of his armor had been burned clean through, his skin was completely gone and parts of his ribs and spine were clearly visible. He was dead, there was no way going around it.

"Mal! Mal!"

He flatlined a second after that, nothing that could be done. With some luck he died before he realized just exactly what was going on.

I now faced a problem, for some reason I found myself alone, belonging to no squad in particular. I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. I shook my head and ran towards the nearest human being that I saw. It turned out to be Captain Salas, he had been nicked by a spike, hit him right next to the knee, cut a tendon, he couldn't walk.

"Captain! You all right?"

He grimaced at me. "I'm fine, what the hell are you doing Corpsman? Where's your unit?"

"Dead, sir."

"Goddammit! They sent regular infantry against armored!"

"Sir, please stretch your leg."

"Forget it," Captain Salas yelled. He pushed me back and away from him before sliding into cover behind a rock. "I'm not going to die any time soon. Get anyone with one of those big radio kits, I need to call command directly."

"Sir."

I ran towards the sound of gunfire, bent forward at the waist to avoid getting shot. I tripped on the dirt a couple of times, tripped on a corpse too. I ignored it and kept running until I met up with a squad of marines from my unit.

"Hanna?"

"Pablo, thank God!"

"What's wrong? Where's Mal?"

"Dead," I replied. "I need a radioman."

He nodded, not asking any questions. "Larssen!"

"What?"

"Follow Corpsman Lockley, she needs your assistance."

"Yessir!"

PFC Larssen was a veteran of this company, he had made it through years of heavy battle with not even a single Purple Heart. He was something of a legend for it, he was also something of a joke because he hadn't been able to rise past his current rank for the past couple of years. He was a skinny man, built for swimming, maybe running too. I had never really fought with him.

"Lockley," he nodded at me. "What is it?"

"Salas told me to look for you," I informed him calmly. "He's back there."

"Listen up!" Pablo yelled. "On my mark we spray the fuckers, I'm going to need some covering fire." He turned to me. "Ready when you are Hanna."

"Now," I said, taking off with Larssen close on my tail. Plasma flew by us, but never seemed to actually hit us. Pablo's squad opened up on the unseen enemies, hopefully hitting some of our assailants. I resisted the urge to cry out as I kept running, holding my MA5 in one hand, keeping it strongly in my grip. "There!" Captain Salas' rock was just a dozen meters away. I was about to reach it when something heavy slammed into me form the back.

I yelled and elbowed at it, shoving it off my shoulder. It was only after a few seconds that I realized that it was Larssen. He had been hit in the side of the head, a big nasty hole. The 'doctor' in me quickly assessed the wound, probably caused by a needle, but a spike might be a possibility, went through the side, just in front of the temple, near the eye and exited out back. If it had been a needle then it had punched through the skull, brain, and helmet with ease, going out before it could even detonate. Quick death, no pain.

"Larssen!" I yelled. That was the other part of me screaming, the human one. The part wishing that a fellow Marine wasn't lying dead on top of me. "Shit!" I spat out, surprising myself, I rarely cursed, even after living all these years amongst troubled girls much like myself and being surrounded by Marines.

I kicked the corpse away from me and grabbed the radio, the backpack was firmly secured to him and I couldn't take it off quickly. Already some covvie had taken notice of me and was firing at my position with a plasma pistol. I stopped what I was doing it and hit the grunt in the chest with a sustained burst. It fell backwards and disappeared down some hole. At that point I had already grabbed Larssen by the back of the neck and was dragging him towards the boulder. A couple of plasma rounds hit him in the legs, but I was already behind the rock.

"Damn it!" Salas muttered. "Nice job Corpsman, you would've made one helluva Marine."

"I am a Marine," I replied.

"Maybe you're right," he nodded, smiling and staring at the distinctly Navy insignia on my shoulder. He picked up the radio from Larssen and dragged the corpse further behind the rock, to keep the bulk of the radio safe. "This is Captain Salas, with Echo Company, section E21 of the advance! Does anyone copy?"

"Captain Salas, this is HQ, we copy."

"We need immediate reinforcements! Someone up there messed up, we were supposed to be facing soft targets, but we just ran into a whole enemy armored unit!"

"Can you repeat that last transmission?"

"We just ran into a whole fucking armored unit!" he shouted angrily, Captain Salas wasn't one to lose his cool, but he was understandably pissed at his men dying. "A couple of Hornets and two tanks aren't going to cut it!"

I pulled out a bandage and started cutting open the captain's pants with my combat knife.

"Don't waste biofoam on me," he ordered.

"I won't," I replied, stretching the cotton bandage in front of his eyes.

"No I don't want to call a strike on my position!" He waited. "Yes! I'm fucking desperate for support." Another pause. "What? You want me to be British about it? Stay cool and collected even with my men dying by the droves? That'd be so fucking awesome if it worked, I want you to know that I need help!"

I strapped the bandage around his leg, getting a wince out of him in the process. I tightened it around the wound and then stapled together the tear on his pants with surgical staples. To top it off I covered the tear with duct tape, it was a last resort method, but it ensured that wounds stayed clean and that they stayed closed. Salas nodded at me and went back to his discussion.

"Close air support would be great," he said into the radio. "A couple of Gryphons should do it, but I'd sure appreciate it if you sent me a bunch of tanks. No? I guess the fighters will have to do. Yeah, I'm sorry I yelled at you, Salas out." He hung up the radio and looked up at me. "Listen, my helmet's fried, is your radio working?"

I spoke into it some and then shook my head.

"Figures," he muttered. "Jammers. Well, I need you to find Darbinian and tell him that he's in charge of the company for now, ok? Can you do that for me?"

"I can try."

"That's all I'm asking kid, now go out there and make the Corps proud."

"And the Navy to," I added with a smile.

"Aye, aye, captain."

Darbinian was who knows where, probably up the front trying to make things work. I had to make my way over there, dodging plasma, crystals, and everything that was thrown at me. I was thankful that most of the killing had been done already and only had to stop to knock out a half-dead brute trying to reach for its weapon. Finally I reached a Sergeant, a new guy, hadn't gotten around to learning his name yet. Seemed like a good man though, firing on the covvies and yelling orders at his squad.

"Sergeant!" I yelled into his ear, snapping him from his combat high.

"What?"

"I need to find Lieutenant Darbinian."

"He's over there!" He pointed at a crater ten meters in front of us, it was the closest piece of cover that we had before the enemy trench began. Before I realized it I had hopped over cover and was running towards it. For some unknown reason I made it without being hit once, and I should've been hit, it was point blank range. Anyone with some training should've been able to make the shot easy, even while under fire. I don't know if it was God, or Dad's ghost, or something else altogether, but I wasn't hit then.

"Lieutenant!"

"Lockley?" he asked, not believing his eyes. "Are you insane?!"

"Captain Salas was hit," I said, ignoring his question. "He wants you to know that you're now in command of Echo Company. Oh, and there's going to be an air strike soon on the enemy armored."

He laughed loudly. "And here I thought you were bringing bad news."

"Not today, sir."

"Ok, listen, as soon as your airstrike hits, I want you to jump over this sorry excuse for a hole and storm the trenches."

"Sir?"

"Yeah, you heard me, we're going medieval up their asses, rally the company, take the enemy position."

"Ok…"

"Don't sound all scared, it's been done before and it'll be done again."

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Darbinian was already fixing his bayonet on his weapon, I looked at him but did the same thing. "Sir?"

"What?"

I started repeating my question when the first bombs hit. He looked at me and nodded before hopping over the crater. I was left there, stunned, but a second later I found myself running after him, spraying wildly at the area in front of me.

"Charge!"

The second wave of explosives hit, lighting up the mist in front of us. The covvies had turned or ducked or something, but they had stopped paying attention to us for a few vital seconds. Darbinian jumped inside the trench, kicking a brute's face as he did so. He emptied his mag into the brute's face and then killed two grunts with his pistol. When I jumped down I sprayed one side of the trench with wild fire, hitting several grunts and jackals that hadn't even seen me there.

"Lockley! Duck!"

I dropped to the ground just as stream of plasma cut through a dozen enemy soldiers running at us, Darbinian had commandeered a plasma turret and was putting it to good use. When the last of the visible aliens fell in a smoking heap he jumped out of the trench, disregarding all safety rules. He waved at our own troops and urged them to join us.

"Where are your balls?"

A challenge to a man's manliness is probably the most irresistible kind, and soon there was a hundred and something marines running into the trench, screaming wildly and bayoneting dying aliens. It was like a scene taken right out of an old war film. Just switch out guns for old bolt-action rifles and we would be all set. Maybe change the aliens too, or something.

"Push forward!" Darbinian yelled, toting an empty plasma turret over his head. He turned to face me after the men and women of Echo had run past us. "Say what you want about my methods, crazy or not, they work."

"Am I getting a medal for this, sir?"

He scoffed. "Not you and not me Corpsman. I'm not putting you up for one and I'm not going to ask for one either."

"Understood."

"This is our job."

"It is, sir."

For some reason it felt like he was talking to himself, repeating the reasons why he wouldn't get a medal and trying to believe them. I understood how he felt, he deserved something for this, and so did I, but command would probably never grant us even a Bronze Star when there were other men and women out there doing things beyond our wildest imaginations. Take Frank for example, one moment he manages to leave me gasping for words and the next he is off to chop of a brute's head with a pair of shears.

"We can rest here," Darbinian said, snapping out of his daze suddenly. "Army can back us up later." He turned to face a group of Marines. "You three, go get Captain Salas, drag him here and cover him with your own bodies."

"Yes, sir!"

"You, come tell me personally when this place is cleared, the flyboys did half our job, but don't slack out."

"Of course not, sir. Yes, sir."

"Shouldn't it be the other way around?"

"Yes, sir, sorry, sir."

Lieutenant Darbinian grunted. "Set up a perimeter, casualty report and all that, hand it to me as soon as you're done."

"Right away, Lieutenant."

I sat down where I was, mud and blood covering my hands and sprayed over my face. Some of the blood was alien, most of it was human. After a while I stood up, the Armadillos had already rolled overhead, roaring and squeaking as they did so. I set myself to finding Harry, to sit down and have a talk with her. I know I didn't make it seem like it was a lot, but we had probably advanced ten or twelve miles since the moment we first left the base. I was tired from running and fighting, I wanted some rest.

"Banana!"

"Harry," I said, smiling with relief. "I was afraid you were-"

"Me? Never. Say, have you seen…"

"He was fine last I saw him, but it was a good ten minutes before the charge."

"Damn, I guess I'm going to have to find that mother all by myself."

"Later, let's rest."

"Fine."

We both sat down on the trench floor and talked. Talked about nothing mostly, occasionally we would turn to one of Harriet's squad members, but they mostly kept to themselves and let us two ladies talk. We talked, and talked, and talked. It must've been an hour of the two of us just sitting there. After a while her squad mates also slid down to the floor, finally allowing their bodies to rest some. It was even more time before it happened.

A Brute Stalked. Someone missed it. Many someones missed it. Myself included.

It emerged from out of nowhere and stuck his two spiker bayonets into a marine's belly. The man grunted from the impact and was lifted into the air. The brute tossed him aside like it was nothing and then swiped another marine on the side of the head. I heard bones crunch. Harry was the first to react. She stepped in front of me and lifted her rifle, firing four rounds at the brute before it clicked empty. She looked at her gun in surprise and shock and then looked back up. She was just in time to see the brute slash at her neck. One blade hit her neck and the other one her face. I jumped back and fired at the brute, stalling it.

It just growled and made to go after me before jerking forward. Another shotgun blast to its head and it collapsed next to me, its giant arm hitting my chest. That alone was enough to knock the wind out of me, but I was already getting up to reach for Harry, trying to see if she was dead.

She wasn't. Not yet.

"Harry, come on, stay with me," I told her. Her throat was sliced wide open and there was a cut that reached from one ear to the other, crossing through both her cheeks and her nose. She was desperately trying to get some breath in. "You're going to be fine."

You just looked up at me and tried to smile like you always did, but the light was already dimming from your eyes. A lot of blood was leaking down your nose, staining your uniform and falling down your throat. I held you, even after you died I held you. I don't think I realized that I was crying until Pablo pulled me off you. He hugged me and cried with me, but you were already dead.

So there I was, staring at your body, wondering why it had to be you. You know what came to my mind? That time you told me that you had wanted to be a journalist and hoped to be one after the war. You wanted to start keeping a journal, maybe have it published when you retired or ended your tour of duty. I thought about it a lot, and decided that writing this was probably a good idea to honor your memory. I think you would've liked it.

So, there it is, I hope it was a decent beginning, up to your expectations. For as long as I'm alive, I'll keep writing in this. I'll write whatever happens, good or bad. I don't think anyone will want to publish it when I'm done with it, but if they do, I'll make sure to dedicate it to you.

I don't know how this chapter ended in Frank's journal. He probably read Hanna's diary...snap. Nah, I'm just kidding.

Thanks to Sniper Fodder for proof-reading this chapter.

Well, I have been meaning to write this chapter for a very long time now, I actually introduced Hanna as a minor character so that I could write it (I originally planner to have Frank stay with Hardwick after a very romantic moment where both of them realized they wanted more than just meaningless sex). That was a long parenthesis. Well, whatever, as I was saying, I wanted to this chapter because when I decided that I wanted to write the story of a man fighting through the entire war I didn't know whether I wanted him to be a Helljumper or a Navy Corpsman. Ultimately, badassery won over a different kind of badassery because I wouldn't have been able to write a whole fic about that topic in particular.

Now, I want to apologize for any medical errors, I did take a first aid class, but it was after writing this. I did change some small stuff, but please remember that I am not a medic and that in the future medic's jobs are easier. Sort of, well, in my fic they are.

One last thing, you'll be happy to know that I started school again, so I'm going to have to do my homework and other stuff that is supposed to be important and help me in the future. That and seven and something hours of my day will be spent away from my computer. Yes, this means that I might slow down a little bit on my update speed in the future, but I will try to dish out at least one chapter per week, hopefully two.

Hope you enjoyed and that you thought that this was just the right amount of depression for the chapter.

Stay strong.

-casquis