The Life

by casquis

The Great War was a long one, millions made it, more didn't. Frank is an ODST, a human just like us, that has managed to survive the most grueling battles for years. With so much experience under his belt he has some amazing stories to tell. This are the life stories of an immature, not-all-in-there, and talented Marine just living, fighting, and being plain badass during the war.

131. Short End of the Stick

Chapter CXXXI: Short End of The Stick

October 12, 2544 (UNSC Calendar)/

Catamaran City, Catamaran Peninsula, Asilon, Omicron Ebur System

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"It's not unusual for us humans to be on the wrong end of the stick, we just never realize just how long that end is."- Staff Sergeant Pavel Klaus

---

"Just one last stretch," I announced. "One last stretch and we can freeze ourselves for a month or so."

"And then what? Back for combat again?"

"That's the life we chose, Pavel."

He sighed. "It wasn't the same without a family."

"I understand."

I don't think I understood, not even close. The closest thing I had to a family was Pavel and Hanna, both of them were with me at all times, I had never had to leave someone behind. Sure, I missed my uncle from time to time, but he was dead and I had gotten over it a long time ago. My mom was nothing that I would wish to go back to and my brother…well, him I didn't exactly care about.

"Fine, I'm sorry. I just miss my wife."

"If I was you I'd miss her too," I said, trying to smile. "Especially with the pair of jugs that she carries around."

Pavel did smile at that. "What can I say? I'm a lucky man. But if you ever talk about my wife like that again, I'll kill you."

"Understood."

The noise outside wasn't making it easy to rest. We had gotten a few hours of rest, command's orders. Our advance had been effective, but the covvies hadn't made it a walk in the park, our forces were being slowly ground down, with one out of every ten tanks dead or out of working order. Infantry troops were having a slightly better time, but they were still getting hit hard.

Just a couple hundred yards away our forces exchanged fire with whatever was left of the Covenant forces. The huge crater in the downtown area was halfway full, the aliens had blocked the water flow with explosives and whatnot. I don't know why they hadn't allowed the water to go all the way to the top, it might've helped block our advance somewhat, and besides, all of the covvies in the impact zone must've been dead.

"You know, this little spot isn't so bad," Pavel said after a while. "Under other circumstances I might find it cozy."

I looked around at the place. We were inside a building that had collapsed sideways, on one of the rooms that had ended up facing up. The floor below us was just cracked walls and debris while the walls were struggling to keep the new ceiling above us. The glass windows were still intact, but they were supporting a bunch of rocks above them, so they might actually break at any minute. To top it all off, the room was no larger than a walk-in closet.

"Pavel, that was a terrible joke."

He chuckled lightly and shuffled in his position so that his helmet propped up his head. "I aim to please."

"Now you're just stealing my line."

He waved me away and tried to get some sleep. Any normal person would've been deterred by the close-range explosions and the gunfire, but Pavel was asleep before I could say anything else. I'm not sure, but I think that the initial augmentations that they gave us helped us when it came to sleeping during combat. It was funny, I had trouble sleeping anywhere else.

I was just about to doze off when Grass slid down and woke Pavel up. "Sarge, they want us at the front."

"About time," I said, quite sarcastically I might add. "About what?"

"Dunno, kid came and woke us up, said it was urgent."

"Huh, funny that you'd call someone else kid," Pavel said. "You're like nineteen."

"Twenty-five," she corrected. "Only three years younger than you pops."

Pavel laughed and got up slowly, slinging his weapon across his back and putting on his helmet. I followed suit, grabbing my battle rifle as I climbed out through the hole that worked as our entrance. The sight that received me was not a nice one. Catamaran City was in ruins, no other way to describe it. The ground sloped downwards gently, building skeletons and subway tunnels adorning the crater slopes every now and then. From here I could see several Covenant structures, in the epicenter of the explosion, it was good to know that some good had come out of all the destruction.

"Ain't that a sight?" Pavel asked, rhetorically of course. "You should've seen Adamant when he came here."

"Sorry," Grass grunted, annoyed. "I was getting my head worked on, concussion and all that." She wasn't exactly pissed, but the headache was probably making her cranky. I didn't exactly want to think about the alternative, much less mention it to her; I wasn't suicidal.

"To the command bunker?"

"Yeah."

Pavel giggled. "I love how you say bunker."

He was right, the command bunker was the lobby of an office building fortified with sandbags and metal walls. While it did look quite impressive, it wouldn't survive more than a few Wraith shots. Good thing that it was far beyond the range of the nearest Wraith and the covvies had no long-range artillery at the time. Our flyboys had taken care of that and most SAM batteries. Across the crater we could see little specks that were covvie soldiers or Ghosts. They were doing their best to suppress our fire, even if their best wasn't exactly enough.

"Ah, Gunnery Sergeant."

"Sir," I saluted Brigadier General Jon Yule. "Good to see you again."

He nodded slowly and motioned for me to follow him. "You are aware that the enemy has dammed the flow of water into the crater."

"Yes sir."

"Good, then you also know that they can blow the dam the moment we move into the crater." He paused. "While we could potentially go around the crater, going through would save us a lot of time. This is where it gets tricky, we can't exactly go through unless we want to be drowned."

"I see."

"What I want you to do is blow the barrier keeping the water at bay, flood the crater and allow our Armadillos, Elephants, and other amphibious transport to sail through."

"Sounds simple enough, sir."

"Simple, yes," he agreed. "Easy, not so much." A hologram popped up on the holo-table behind him. There seemed to be one of those within ten feet of every high-ranking officer. "Damage to this city has uncovered several subway and sewage tunnels. Two of them in particular run the length of the crater."

I leaned in close on the holographic display. "We are vulnerable in a couple of spots, could you provide cover for us?"

"Yes, the mortar units can suppress enemy fire for enough time. Once you're spotted we can only help you so much."

I tapped my fingers on my chin absent-mindedly as I examined the large crater. It was perhaps three hundred yards in diameter, it was fairly round in shape, but the section where all the water had flooded in made a teardrop shape on it. Depth was about a hundred meters and about one third of it was filled with muddy water. It was funny how little piles of debris were visible here and there, making little islands, some of them were even occupied by covvie forces.

"It certainly is possible," I agreed. "Are there any drones available? We could use some steel in between us and the enemy."

"That's a good idea," Pavel said.

"Thanks, Pavel," I replied, giving him a weird look that he responded to with a shrug. Pavel was sometimes weird and unusual.

"You have half an hour," Yule snapped. "I cannot give you any reliable intel on enemy forces surrounding the dam, but resistance is expected to be heavy."

I smiled. "We can handle that, sir. We're trained to do that."

"Good to see you're confident in yourself," Yule grunted. "Not all of us share the same mentality."

"Uh…"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, sir," Pavel interrupted before I said something I'd regret. "Are we free to take anything?"

"Anything you can carry on your person."

"And what about that drone, sir?"

Yule tapped a couple of commands on the table. "Yes, you'll get one of the smaller ammunition carriers." He tapped some more commands, probably letting whoever was in charge of the machine know that we were allowed to take it. "Dismissed."

Pavel and I saluted the general before walking out. The rest of Reaper was outside, waiting for us while milling about and doing their best to try and look badass without looking like they were trying too hard. They were actually doing a pretty good job at it too, had I not had a good decade of experience at doing just that I might've not noticed what they were trying.

"Nice poses," I announced loudly. "Come on, arms room. Pavel, take care of them, I'll get us the eight-track."

"Done," he replied. "Let's go, let's go!"

They took off down one side street while I walked down the avenue. Most of the armored transports had come down the main avenue running the length of Catamaran City. It was one of those fancy and adorned avenues that had four lanes on either side and one huge fountain that ran down the middle. Most of the fountain now was destroyed and useless, the avenue was full of craters and huge piles of debris and abandoned cars. To top it all off, most of the ground space was now covered with tanks, mortars, and resting marines. The farther I walked back the more wounded marines and mobile hospitals I saw.

"Excuse me!" I cleared my throat. There was an engineer working on fixing one of the eight-tracks that I would be getting. "I'm Gunnery Serge-"

"Castillo, yeah, I know," he replied without turning around. "Small ammo transport, priority mission, right?"

"Correct."

He stopped examining the undercarriage of the scorched plating on the side to look me up and down. At that moment I knew that this man was the kind that would relate to the equipment he worked with as if it was a living, breathing dog. Or human being, but dogs are more relatable. He let his eyes linger on mine for the briefest of seconds and then motioned for me to follow him with his head. He walked across the street and entered an abandoned boutique store. Inside the store were four remote drones. They looked pretty much like the Armadillos that they were modeled on.

Not surprising considered that they were modeled upon them.

"Here, Vera here will work well enough. She's been through much of the combat on this planet, wheels and suspensions work nicely, armor is mostly intact, plus, you can trust it to protect you."

"Sounds good, I assume that I'm not going to need to give it repeated commands and it's not going to run into a wall."

"Vera works just fine," he assured me. "Take care of her and she'll take care of you."

I stopped and examined the small vehicle. "I don't think we're going to bring it back."

"Suspected as much," he sighed. "Just make it worth it."

"Oh, trust me," I said. "She'll go out with a bang."

The mechanic patted the drone and turned it on. "That's all I ask for."

The drone whirred and scanned me, that always made me uncomfortable, before following me out of the abandoned boutique. The thing was surprisingly silent for a small tank. The only thing that actually made noise were the wheels whenever they clattered over a stone.

"Pavel, meet Vera."

"Aw, Frank, you shouldn't have." He shook his head slightly, "I'm a married man now."

"You're right, besides-"

"Watch your mouth there," he interrupted.

I thought about what I was going to say and decided that a fat woman joke was probably not the correct course of action, besides, I liked Amber, she didn't deserve to be insulted just so I could get to Pavel.

"Now you've made it awkward," Snark snarked.

I rolled my eyes and made sure that they were all geared up before I took the bandolier that Pavel was offering me. I switched the magazines from it onto myself and then strapped grenades and flashabangs onto myself. The weight felt comforting and reassuring.

"You know Sarge," Angel said, "you could've just switched belts."

"I like my ammo belt." I rolled my neck and put on my helmet. "You brought explosives?"

"Oh yeah," he said, producing several large packs of C-12 from the ground next to him. "These babies can blow through the dam no problem. If we have time I can even rig them for some pretty fireworks."

"I'd love that," Bee said, putting his hand on Angel's arm. He said it in a creepy homoerotic tone that one would normally save for your spouse of partner. He pulled it off magnificently and Angel jumped sideways while making gagging noises.

"Put the explosives in the trunk," I told him. "Medical supplies and extra ammo go in there as well. When I say extra ammo I mean spare rockets."

"Sweet," Bee smiled. "I'm going to have so much fun."

I waited while Grass stuffed medical stuff inside the gear port in the drone and Bee ran towards the armory for a bunch of extra rockets. He could barely handle all the extra ammo by himself, but he looked as giddy as a…

Man, I've used up all my virgin jokes on that one.

He looked very giddy, let's leave it at that.

The artillery started firing right before we left our line. That should keep the covvies down and allow us to slip into the subway tunnels unnoticed. The entrance to the subway was only a block away from the crater, but the land underneath it had slid down and the tunnels were now tilted sideways.

"Well this doesn't seem dangerous," Angel said. "Are you sure this is safe?"

"No," I replied.

"It's just that I don't want to die buried by tons of rock. Scratch that, I don't really want to die at all."

"Yeah, I'm kind of with Angel on this one," Grass agreed.

"That certainly shows the situation," Snark noted wisely.

Bumblebee looked like he was about to say something but stopped. We'd have our two arguing couples agreeing on something, that was probably one of the signs of an impending apocalypse. I smiled behind my polarized visor and raised my rifle and turned on the flashlight.

"Snark, you take point."

He nodded and ran up ahead, making absolutely no noise as his feet hit the tunnel floor. That was something quite impressive about him actually, I never remembered just how quiet he could be. We waited until the darkness swallowed him. I knew that soon enough a crack in the wall would light up the tunnels, and in turn, make us visible. We walked slowly while Snark's helmet mapped out every last detail of the tunnel on our minimaps. The place dampened all sounds from the outside, but I could still feel the ground vibrating.

"Drones," Snark whispered. "Just a couple of them, haven't seen me yet."

"Take 'em out," I ordered. "Quick."

Snark waited for more ground-shaking explosions before he fired two quick shots. His EMR was considerably quieter than the SRS, but it still made a shit-ton of noise inside the subway tunnels.

"Yeah, we'd better move it," Pavel recommended.

The little drone behind us clattered as it hit rocks and debris inside the tunnel. The magnetic plates that once supported subway cars sure did make a lot of noise. I had bad memories from the last subway we had been in, I did not like the idea of walking inside of a drone hive. Again. And having to fight them all off. Again. Man, my life feels like a bad sitcom some times.

"Snark?"

"Wall's collapsed for about fifty meters, cover is scarce."

"Can you make it across without being noticed?"

"I think so, but only the first one to sprint through could."

I quickly thought about it and decided that it probably be for the best if Bee and Pavel ran through together. They were the two biggest members of our squad. The drone could protect two or three of us at a time. Angel could go with me and Caboose with Snark and Grass, the drone could probably cover us well enough while keeping itself mostly intact.

And it was a pretty big probably.

Pavel and Bee were now on the edge of the crack, the light illuminated the entire tunnel but I still couldn't see anything on the outside. They glanced back at me and I nodded at them. The both of them immediately started sprinting towards the other end of the crack in the wall. The crack itself was three meters high and started at about knee-height. It wasn't much of a crack, instead it was more like a huge hole in the wall. Halfway through they started being fired upon. Snark left cover and fired several rounds from his EMR before he was forced back behind the tunnel walls. Covvies were firing on our position from the crater's edge.

"Grass, artillery cover! Now!"

Grass immediately started barking orders and approximate coordinates into her helmet. It took all of five seconds for mortar shells to start whistling down. The explosions were off, so Grass started giving updated coordinates as I moved the drone forward. Its all-terrain wheels and drive did allow it to traverse the damaged tunnel well enough, but it still moved a little bit too slow for my taste.

"Caboose, Snark, Grass! You go first. Pavel and Bee try and provide some covering fire!"

Plasma and spikes were now flooding the tunnel. The redirected mortar fire made things a little bit better. Bee and Pavel did some little more, but their two weapons weren't much against hundreds of angry aliens. The drone started rolling forward, a little bit more slowly now. Grass placed herself in the front and crouched by the side. Caboose and Snark joined her, packing tightly against one another so that they'd fit behind the mini tank.

"Holy fuck," Snark yelped as a needle burst just a few inches from his leg. "Can't this thing go any faster."

"You asked for it," I shrugged, ordering the drone to increase its speed fractionally. Sure, it complicated things a little but they did get across quickly. I immediately had the drone return, it clattered and banged as it ran back. It shot past my position and halted abruptly. I could see that one side was smoking and melted slightly. With enough time the plating would cool down and be good as new, but we didn't have the luxury of time right now, the enemy was probably sending troops into the tunnels to block us right now.

"You ready?" I asked Angel after I was crouched behind the drone.

"Ready enough."

The little tank shot forward and we were hard-pressed to keep up with it. The floor was pointy and hard to crawl on, Angel being right in front of me didn't help matters at all, he kicked and crawled as fast as he could, but I still felt like I was being left slightly behind. I could feel the drone vibrating with the impacts, but still I pressed on. I could hear the mortar and artillery fire just outside of the tunnel, and I knew that if I looked through the hole in the wall I could see the flooded crater and destroyed city.

"We're through!" Angel exclaimed.

"Damn," Pavel huffed. "For a moment there I thought you weren't gonna make it."

"Is the drone ok?"

Caboose walked up to it, plasma still being fired into the tunnel from outside. "The armor on one side can't take much more, it's soft enough for spikes to go three quarters through."

"Damn," Pavel repeated.

"Cargo intact?" I asked, getting up and making sure that no stray bolt had hit me.

Caboose opened the rear hatch with some trouble and examined the inside. He leaned backwards as hot air hit him in the face and then leaned back in to examine the results of the damage. "Explosives are good, otherwise we'd know."

"Oh, we'd certainly know," Angel agreed.

"Spare ammunition looks intact," he went on. "Don't know about medical supplies."

"They're probably fine. Did you know that most UNSC medical supplies are designed to take temperatures in excess of three thousand degrees." Grass, as per usual, knew something that could end up saving our asses later in our lifetimes but that could not help us in any way right now.

"Celsius, Fahrenheit, Kelvin?" Snark asked her

"Celsius," she asserted. "We can still use them."

"Good," I nodded, "I have a feeling that we're going to need some patching up after this."

Pavel shook his head. "Way to keep the morale up."

"Thank you," I replied. "Ok, let's move on, they probably have teams going into the tunnels right now, be ready for anything. I want VISR mode on, don't want to get jumped by stalkers."

Snark checked his rifle and nodded before disappearing ahead and taking point. We moved much more slowly now, crouching whenever there were cracks in the tunnel walls and making sure that we weren't stopped. We only stopped a couple of times when Snark asked for permission to take out two brute captains commanding machine gun nests. I gave my permission and he wasted them with headshots, firing through a tiny crack in the tunnel walls. His EMR was most certainly a good alternative to the SRS that he usually carried. Same ammo type that the BR55 used but a whole lot more muzzle velocity and accuracy, if that was even possible.

"Contact," Snark whispered a couple of minutes after firing on the brutes. "Three stalkers, cloaked."

"Copy that," I whispered in reply, fully aware that I could've screamed and the sound wouldn't have left my helmet. "Keep them zeroed in, I'm moving up." I ordered my team to hold positions and assume a defensive pattern through hand signs and then quickly moved up towards Snark's position. He was leaning against a wall, using a pile of rocks as cover and support for his weapon. I looked to the absolute darkness ahead and activated my VISR. I could already see the outlines of the three brutes with Snark's helmet aid, but when I turned my VISR on I was able to see the active camouflage shimmering in the darkness.

"I hate power armor," Snark muttered.

I hated it too, you never knew if the armor would have integrated shields or not, that's why a simple headshot or neckshot could turn into a messy firefight of escalating proportions. If you expected an easy kill then you would probably end up dead. I squeezed Snark's shoulder and aimed at the brute on the left. They were moving here slowly and deliberately, clearly expecting to find an ambush or a booby trap. Normally, that would've been a good idea, but we were hard-pressed for time.

"Ready?"

"M-hm," he replied.

I fired one burst at the brute stalker. The impact drained its camouflage and had its shields flare up. Snark fired one shot at one brute's neck and then another to the other one's head. That way he tested for shields and bought himself some time in case they did actually have shields in addition to camo. Both brutes recoiled from the impact and struggled to stay afoot. Snark then fired six times into the first brute's head while I fired three more bursts into my target. When both of those two were dead Snark finished off his third target with quick, precise shots.

"Nice job," I said. "Let's move up squad!"

We were now moving at a steady trot, Snark and I shared the role of scouts, he'd walk to the next turn or pile of debris, wave me ahead and then we'd switch. The rest of the team hung out back, waiting for anything.

"Our exit point should be-"

Bee never got to finish his statement. The whole tunnel in front of us blew up. I was lucky and so was Snark. We were just far enough away that the collapsing rocks didn't bury us. I ran backwards to avoid secondary collapses, cursing as the tunnel shook and I lost my footing. The rest of my squad was also moving backwards, trying to keep their selves unburried. After a few seconds the noise stopped and we found ourselves ok.

"Countoff!" I grunted, turning on the filters in my helmet. "One."

"Two."

"Three."

"Four."

"Five."

"Six."

"Eight."

I nodded. "Good. Angel, come with me."

Both of us returned to the front of the tunnel. The entire section was blocked by a huge pile of rocks. It could probably be moved with enough explosives, but we needed our current payload. That's exactly the assessment that Angel reached.

"What do you propose we do then?"

"Only logical solution right now?" he asked himself. "Well, there are two, actually. First, we could blow a hole in the roof, climb out and carry the explosives on ourselves."

"Ok, number two is the wall I take it?"

"Correct Sarge," he confirmed quietly. "Blow a hole on the wall, slide down the crater and climb our way up to the dam."

"You mean fight our way up."

"Semantics."

I pondered on the options for a while. "Either way we make ourselves targets. No, the mission's too dangerous. We fall back and try again later."

Angel shrugged. "Your call Sarge."

"Listen up," I spoke up. "We're going back to base, rest up, make a new plan."

"That's not our traditional MO," Grass noted. "I don't know how to feel about this."

"You're a girl, you don't know how to feel about anything," Angel groaned. "Come on, let's go."

It would've been nice if things went according to plan just once. Sure, our first plan had been torn to pieces the moment some avant-garde brute decided to try and bury us under tons and tons of rock, but our second fall back plan had absolutely no reason to go wrong. Well, other than because somebody up there hates our fucking guts.

The tunnel shook sideways, tilting a couple of degrees and forcing me to lean to the side and grab one of the maglev plates still attached to the floor. I looked around to see what was going on and saw my squad in equal states of confusion. It didn't take too long for anybody to realize what was going on. The tunnel had received too much damage and now the little dirt that it had underneath it was going to collapse into the crater bottom.

The wall, now quickly becoming the floor, started breaking apart. I hadn't realized that we were actually above the crater slopes now, not by running next to them. The hole in the wall started becoming wider and wider as this section of the tunnel rotated more and more.

"Hold on!" Pavel yelled.

At that precise instant I heard the sound of rock and polycrete breaking and the tunnel started falling. We only fell for a second before we hit the slope of the crater. I was shaken by the impact, but I managed to hold on to my rifle and the maglev plate. The world around me then started rolling around. The wall, which was already the floor, became a wall again and I was hanging upside down. Then I was on the side of the tunnel and then loose rocks and debris were falling on top of me. It felt like an eternity, rolling around, everyone screaming to seven hells. I knew it couldn't have been more than six or seven seconds, but those were probably some of the longest in my life.

Time resumed its normal speed when I felt the crash on water. That was enough to pull part of the magnetic plate from its base. It might sound ridiculous, but at that moment I felt some weird sense of pride at having lasted longer than that piece of metal embedded in the floor. Sure, the pride vanished the moment I realized that I was flying at a very high speed towards the other end of the tunnel. I slammed into the wall shoulder first. I might've heard a crack or might've not, but the adrenaline was too high now. Water was flooding into the tunnel and I couldn't see any light.

"Angel!"

"Yeah!"

"Blow one of the walls!"

I didn't wait for confirmation, instead checking my minimap and clambering my way towards the drone. It hadn't landed on its wheels, instead turned completely uspide down. It wasn't one of those models that could flip itself back on its wheels, instead being a piece of crap. At least that's what I thought at the time.

I tackled the drone to try and put it on its feet. At that moment I did feel pain in my shoulder. Somewhere in the back of my brain I probably realized that I had a fractured collarbone, but my survival instinct was stronger than that. My right arm had been through enough that I had become used to fighting through the pain. That and I could get high on adrenaline a couple of minutes after this.

I screamed loudly and tackled the drone again. I suddenly found myself being helped by Grass. She was getting low and trying to gain some leverage, but the drone was pure armor and steel, it was a heavy piece of equipment. I tackled it once more and it moved onto its side. Pavel appeared out of nowhere and helped both of us turn the drone on its eight wheels. It whirred and rolled forward before stopping abruptly.

"Angel!" I cried. The water was reaching to my waist now.

He replied with an explosion, an annoyingly common habit of his. I heard polycrete cracking and saw a flash of light.

"Everyone out!" I ordered loudly. Grass and Pavel quickly made their way towards the hole as more and more water started flooding the tunnel. We weren't about to drown, we had oxygen reserves, but we could find ourselves trapped if we didn't hurry and fifteen minutes of oxygen wouldn't get us through that under any circumstances.

The drone waded through the water and left the hole a second before me. I turned and let Caboose jump out in front of me before looking for Bee and Snark. The first one was carrying the later. Snark was unconscious and didn't seem to be moving, but suit scans only showed a concussion. He'd be fine with a shot of adrenaline.

"I got this!" Bee huffed.

I climbed under the hole, the tunnel was still rotating, trying to fall all the way to the bottom of the crater. I emerged into muddy water and the sounds of battle. Plasma, spikes, and bright pink needles were landing all around me. I forced myself to ignore them and dragged Snark out as soon as Caboose passed him to me. I moved the body towards the equivalent of a beach in this crater lake. My team had already set up a defensive position with the help of the drone and some more loose debris. There seemed plenty of that to go around right now. They were firing on a squad of grunts led by a brute that were making their way down the crater. The six aliens were all hit and killed within one second of one another, making for a spectacle as they collapsed and rolled down the slopes before stopping.

I dragged Snark towards the drone, forcing Pavel, Angel, and Caboose to find another spot to take cover. Snark was still unconscious and needed help, they understood that. Grass immediately went to the back of the drone, disregarding her own safety as she opened the hatch and looked for adrenaline and other meds. She wasn't alone, we all provided covering fire, killing any who would dare to fire on one of our squad mates. Grunts were being thrown here to kill us, but they weren't being smart about it, dying by the dozens as they tried to get a bead on us.

"Got it," Grass said calmly, sliding back behind cover and producing two tubes full of synthetic adrenaline. "It'll make you pretty much impervious to pain," she told me as she handed me one. "You know your limits Sarge, don't break them."

I nodded and took the tube. If I decided that I was immortal only because I felt immortal I would die pretty quickly. I knew that I could get shot ten times before I realized it if hopped up on this much adrenaline. I'd just have to stick to the basics, stay behind cover, and be a badass like I normally was.

Shit.

Bee had already left the tunnel and was behind me. He fired his two rockets at a squad of brutes. They were engulfed by the explosions and killed immediately. In my opinion it was a waste of rockets, but we could use the shock right now. He reloaded and patted me on the back before moving forward for a different position. I extended my right arm and stabbed myself in the inside of the elbow with the adrenaline needle.

It took just a moment for me to feel the rush.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed, already feeling like a god of war.

"Easy Frank," Grass warned. Her using my name brought me back.

I nodded and shook my head several times before lying on top of Snark. When he was given the adrenaline shot he shook awake and tried to get up. My weight prevented him from doing that. It took a couple of seconds for him to realize what was happening and for the initial shock to wear off. Grass gave him the same lecture she gave me and checked him for additional injuries and signs of brain damage. Suit scans could always be wrong.

"I'm good," he said, not sounding completely sure. "I'm good."

I nodded at him, reassuring him and myself as well. "We go up!" I yelled. "Our target is just a hundred and fifty meters away! We fight our way through!"

"Up a hill?" Bee exclaimed. "I'm all for giving the bastards a beating, but Sarge…"

"You can do this," Scarecrow assured me calmly, clad in full battle armor.

"No, you can't," Schitzo disagreed. It sounded like a taunt, almost like a dare.

"We go up!" I repeated.

Nobody said anything, instead they only concentrated their fire on the enemy and assumed a leapfrog pattern. Bee and Angel covered Pavel and Caboose as they advanced and then vice versa. Grass, Snark, and me remained with the drone. Snark and I had the long range weapons and drew a ton of fire, Grass was our unofficial medic and would need the cover of the drone if somebody else was injured. I sighted down on a pair of jackal sharpshooters and hit them. I fired quickly and hit the ground around them before killing them. I cursed and rolled my right arm around after diving behind a rock. I didn't know what wasn't responding, it could be either my shoulder or my elbow.

"You ok Sarge?" Snark asked, firing on a bunch of grunts.

"I'm good," I grunted as I popped from cover to help him finish the little beasts off. A lance of jackals caught my attention, they had their shields on top of one another, overlapping to make a foolproof defense. Rounds pinged off the colorful shields, bouncing off and slowing them down but otherwise doing no damage to the bird-like aliens behind them. I tried aiming at their feet, but they were doing an excellent job at pissing me off.

"Bee!"

He fired one rocket into the center of their shield wall. The little birds were blown apart like rag dolls. The explosion killed five or six and maimed the rest. I shot the ones that were still struggling to move before any of their comrades could pull them back to safety. Pavel and Caboose moved forward up the slope, going up in a diagonal as opposed to a straight line.

"Frank!" Pavel complained. "What the fuck are we doing here?"

"Ever heard of a reverse slope defense?" I asked him, too tired for his attitude. "Mission comes first!"

"Reverse slope defense?" he asked. "So what is this?"

"A reverse reverse slope defense?" Snark suggested.

"We can't go back Pavel!" I yelled.

"We need help!"

I ducked to avoid several red plasma bolts and cursed. "Fine, I'll see what I can do." It wasn't easy, but I had to admit that we were as good as dead. We might make it all the way to the target, but we had no way to fall back safely. One way or another we were dead men walking. Living on borrowed time, as they say.

"Command, come in Command, this is Reaper Actual."

"Reaper Actual, we copy this i-" the transmission was interrupted.

"Castillo, this is General Yule. What in the living fuck happened down there?!"

"Tunnel collapsed," I explained, hitting a couple of brutes and sending them behind cover. "Can't fall back, only way is forward. We need some help!" The two brutes decided to fire at me, one of them got itself nailed in the head with a burst for its troubles. "Fuck," I grunted, reloading my weapon. "We need reinforcements!"

"All the way over there!" he exclaimed. "Do you know what you're asking for?"

"I know just what I'm asking for!" I snapped. He wasn't the one getting his ass shot at. "Air strikes, gunships, a couple of platoons."

"Son, you're in a no-fly zone, the covvies have enough shoulder mounted weapons to kill any of our gunships."

"Shortswords!"

"We don't have enough equipment, it might not look like it to you, but we've been fighting here for months now!"

I paused for a second. "You're denying me help."

He didn't say anything.

"And you still want me to finish this mission!"

"I want you to do your job!"

"And yet you don't do yours," I growled. "Reaper Actual out." I cut the conversation and punched the dirt next to me. My whole squad had heard the exchange, they were as angry as I was, if not more. If it hadn't meant our death I was sure that every last one of us would've stopped firing and let the Covenant win.

"Motherfucker!" Grass cursed. She never cursed. Ever.

"Hunters, one o'clock!"

"Snark! Keep them at bay, Bee!"

"I'm reloading, they have me pinned down!"

I jumped over my cover, ducking underneath plasma and needles. A beam landed at my feet and I dove in a small crater, it was barely enough cover, but it kept me safe enough. I fired blindly from my position, only drawing more fire to myself. The drone rolled by and helped provide cover while I switched to a piece of building. It was about my height and thick enough to provide cover from the pair of hunters. It was a nice spot to die in.

"Angel!"

"I'm trying!" he cried, spraying wildly, hitting a few aliens but leaving more alive. They were rushing us now, dying as they tried to get close to us. We had only made it halfway up the crater and still had more distance to travel still.

"Bunker down!" I ordered, it was as close as I could get to admitting that we were all dead. "Fields of fire, you know the drill!"

I took potshots at brutes, trying to stop their progress. My position was pinned down by enemy sharpshooters, I couldn't get more than two bursts out before beams and carbine rounds flooded my position. It was seven against an army. They had the high ground, they had the big guns, they had the advantage. Pavel and Angel still fired wildly, killing anything and everything that they saw. That bought enough time for Bee to fire two rockets.

"Both are hits!" he said joyfully. His joy was turned to frustration immediately though. "One of the fuckers is still alive!"

It was true, Bee's helmet cam showed a hunter emerging from a crater, its shield arm was missing, but the dangerous one was getting a bearing on Bumblebee. I left cover and ran sideways as I fired on the hunter, drawing its attention and fire. I jumped just in time for the green fuel rod to fly over me, heating up my armor and skin. I immediately stood up and jumped backwards as a plasma repeater cut through my previous position.

"Duck," Schitzo said lazily.

I followed his instruction because I had nothing else to do. Two beams crisscrossed the place where my head had been. I barely had enough time to react before Grass tackled me to the ground. I stood up once again and yanked her behind a small pile of rocks, it was only big enough to hide her from enemy fire. I turned and ran as I was fired upon. By some miracle or other I found myself back in the building wall that I had started from, the only damage I had received was some minor scorching to my armor. My heart was beating fast enough that any doctor would've given me a sedative. I wasn't worried, I was just pissed.

I reloaded once again as green plasma lit up the space above me. I crouched as part of the building was atomized by the hunter's weapon. It was angry that its battle brother was dead and now it just wanted me to join it. I heard another SPANKr blast and Bee hollering insults in a Scottish accent that became stronger and stronger with each passing second. Caboose was muttering to himself in Russian now and Snark had also returned to his native language. I considered that weird and unusual before I realized that I was praying in Spanish.

I'm not religious, I've doubted the existence of God and at some points have considered myself an atheist. Pavel always gave me shit for my rapid change in beliefs. One day I would believe in a higher power like I was taught as a child, the next I refused to believe that a god could've created something as evil and wrong as the Covenant. An old saying came back to my mind, it was something my uncle had told me. He was as religious as my parents had been, at least it seemed that way, for a man that had fought in the Insurrection and seen the worst that humanity had to offer he sure had a strong faith. I clearly remember him saying this when I asked him how he still believed in a god. He had stopped reading whatever book he was reading and looked me in the eyes.

"No man is an atheist in a foxhole, son."

At the time I had considered it a copout answer. He had his reasons and didn't want to explain them to me. I was old enough to understand that I shouldn't ask again and left it at that. Now I was old enough to understand that he hadn't lied to me.

"You know what else I told you?" he asked me, leaning against the wall next to me in his fatigues. Manuel looked expectant at my answer. Even after all these years I didn't want to let him down, I ignored the noises of the battle and went through every single piece of advice that he had ever given me, trying to see what would fit.

"I don't know," I whispered.

"Frank?" Pavel asked. "What was that?"

I ignored him.

"Si sabes," my uncle assured me. "You do know, just think about it."

I was sitting on the ground, the hunter was dead now, but grunts with fuel rods had taken up the slack and were hitting my wall repeatedly, pieces of polycrete landed in my lap. I brushed them off lazily, trying to concentrate on whatever my uncle had said to me back then. Our gunfire was slowly being drowned out by the enemy plasma and spikes. Bee and Grass were not doing anything anymore, their positions were being overwhelmed by the enemy, they couldn't do anything. Pavel had stopped firing full-auto, instead just firing short bursts wildly. Angel wasn't faring much better. Caboose and Snark were pulling their weight and picking up the slack, but even they were starting to give up.

The drone rolled up to my position and placed itself next to the wall, providing a seat for my uncle.

"Vamos, what is it?"

I don't know!

"You mean you can't remember?"

No se, no se, I told him, I didn't know, I just didn't know.

"Francisco," he said, his voice growing a little bit of steel in it. "I didn't raise you to be like this. What would your mother think? What would your father think?"

I felt every bit like the little kid that had seen his dad die in a car crash and had seen his beautiful mom in a hospital bed, not fully understanding that she would never wake up from that sleep.

Millions of images flooded my head, memories from a lifetime ago when I still had a family, my brother being taken away, my mom crying and my dad shaking his head. I saw myself playing with my friends from school, having dinner with uncle Manuel. I saw myself laughing, crying, smiling, shouting, fighting, sleeping, playing, being annoying, and misbehaving. I saw my mom smiling again and my dad nodding in approval as I played in a little league game.

"That's not who you are," Schitzo laughed. "Not anymore."

Then I wasn't smiling anymore. I was crying for a while, for a very long while, but then I was just angry, angry at everyone and everything. Angry at my uncle, angry at the truck driver that left me without my family, angry at Lieutenant Darbinian and General Yule. Angry at myself for not saving Layla and for losing Marina. Angry for countless mistakes that I had made.

"That is who you are," Schitzo said. "You're a soldier, a trooper, a Helljumper, nothing more."

"That's not all you are," Scarecrow insisted.

"That's everything that you are," Schitzo shouted at him.

My uncle stepped through the both of them, dissipating them into thin air. I could hear Pavel shouting for me in the back of my head, I ignored him, trying to remember. "Francisco, you can be more than just a Helljumper, so much more."

I almost laughed when I realized that Schtizo wasn't disagreeing.

Then I remembered. It wasn't a phrase that could be written into the climactic scene of a book or a movie. It wasn't one of those phrases that you would remember for the rest of your life just because of the sheer power of it. It wasn't even a phrase, it was a simple matter of logic and common sense.

This time I saw myself on top of a wooden tower in the challenge course in Camp Afghan, back on Jericho VII. Climbing up had been easy enough, even with the rain. An eleven year old could do it easily, and I did it easily. I had felt so cocky, so proud of myself when at the top. I had forgotten that I had to climb back down. My uncle was watching from beneath, arms crossed over his chest as he watched expectantly. There was one rope on the other side and a twenty foot drop. For a kid my age that was as high as an orbital elevator. My uncle untied the rope ladders on the back, leaving me stranded on top. Another one of his ideas on parenting.

"¿Qué ganas al rendirte?" he asked at the same time I repeated the phrase to myself. It was a simple matter of balancing things.

"Frank! What are you saying?"

"What do I win by giving up?"

Peace of mind, rest maybe? I don't know. Why would I gain peace of mind? What good would it do to me to die on my ass, well-rested, if I could die on my feet, breathing hard and fighting until the very end.

"What do we win by giving up?" I asked my team, loudly now. "Not a single fucking thing! Let's show these fuckers what we're made of."

Sometimes fate plays an interesting role in your life. Call it coincidence, call it expected or unexpected. Call it a miracle if you want to.

Me? I just called it awesome.

"Don't die on me just yet Frank," some voice said. This voice was a real one. "You owe half my men crates of quality alcohol." Yevgeny was trying to make an entrance. He could've worked on the one liner, but what an entrance he made.

Bummer, I had already convinced myself that I died in here, kicking ass and being a badass.

"Rangers!" Yevgeny shouted. "Strafe those gunners, disrupt their fire! First and Third squads, up the slope, storm their positions!" He paused for a breath. "Second squad, aid Reaper."

I turned to see the Rangers. First Platoon, First Company, Seventh Battalion. All thirty of them, fit for duty or not, had used their jetpacks to jump across the crater. I saw their shapes flying through the sky, muzzle flashes marking their guns. Their jetpacks flashed to stop their fall, some of them landed pretty hard, but they all started firing at the covvies. The aliens were surprised enough as it was, throw thirty flying humans into the mix was only making it worse. For them.

"Bee and Grass, get up! Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" I yelled loudly, firing at two jackals that had held their position despite the appearance of reinforcements. They still had numerical advantage, but numbers don't mean much when you're facing the best that the UNSC and humanity has to offer. Two quick headshots got rid of the jackals. "Pavs, Angel, where are those fields of fire? Snark, handle their officers."

I was still barking orders like a madman when a hand tapped me in the shoulder. I stopped firing at a group of retreating grunts and turned to face none other than Sergeant Waylon Durant. He was smiling behind his goggles. He was obviously feeling cocky about his heroic moment. I wasn't about to take that away from him.

"Pleasure to see you," I said, slapping him in the arm. "Sergeant, have your squad spread out, you'll be working with me, move our way up and towards the dam."

"Yessir," he saluted, still smiling but gaining a look of determination on his face. "Winchester, Abu, Iheri, Dibra! You're with me. Rest of you, help Staff Sergeant Klaus."

He got a couple of 'Yes Sergeant' from his squad, but mostly the Rangers just split off and went towards different places. Pavel was starting to strafe a couple of enemy squads on the top of the crater, clearing the way for the rest of us to advance. I whooped in joy as I saw three brutes collapse from gunfire and several other grunts and jackals panicking. The Rangers took care of the little aliens, taking them out with practiced ease.

"Forward!"

I vaulted over the wall, feeling the heat from the explosions that just seconds ago had been spelling my doom. I saw the explosion craters and the red-hot rock out the corner of my eyes, but ignored it. Instead I fired on four jackals at the top of the crater. I hit one in the leg and killed it when it fell. That was enough to send the other three backwards and out of sight. Snark and Grass were running with me. Firing with one hand and using the other one to help themselves climb the steep slopes of the crater. When we were about to reach the top all three of us stopped and with us stopped half of Ranger Squad Two.

"Frags," I said.

Everyone of us took out one fragmentation grenade and tossed it over the edge of the crater. A couple of stray bolts were hitting our position from the side, but the other two squads had it handled, forcing the covvies to fire on them and not on us. As soon as the devices detonated we all climbed over the top, helping one another over the steep edge. Several blast craters marked the position where our grenades had exploded. Bodies and body parts adorned the ground. The Covenant had dug trenches here, fully expecting an assault to come. They weren't as through and fortified as those outside the city, but they were certainly not a shabby job.

"Flank those bastards!" I barked at the Rangers. "Snark and Dibra, hunt for brutes and officers." I paused and looked around. Bee and Caboose were already climbing the top of the crater, just a dozen meters away from me. "Bumblebee, I'm sending the drone towards you, don't save on rockets."

"Wouldn't dream of it Sarge."

An instant later two partially collapsed buildings went to the ground as rockets hit support points. I smiled to myself and started ordering the Ranger squad and my own into fireteams. Nezarian was drawing attention right now, but soon enough we'd have to help him get up the crater. We could just run the length of the trenches and flank the enemy, yeah, that would work.

"Sergeant," I told Durant. "You and your men need to take those positions out."

He nodded. "Understood." Durant pointed at three of his squad mates and left with them. Bee and Caboose had joined us now, bringing the rest of Squad Two with them while Pavel and Angel moved to join Squads One and Two. We quickly started setting a defensive perimeter, covvies were already firing on us, realizing that a sure victory had just turned into a significant loss of ground.

"Well, that certainly outweighs beating me in a hand-to-hand match," I heard from behind me.

"Claire," I said, only just realizing how tired my voice sounded. "It's good to see you," I told her as I gave her a one-handed hug.

She smiled, returning the hug. "Good to be here. I bet that the two generals back there are going to be pissed at us if we get back."

"When we get back," I corrected, letting go and taking a step back, crouching behind the trenches. "How'd you get here?"

"Walker in Three heard something about an ODST squad sent off on a priority mission. Brass has been very jumpy on an SOS signal getting out, so he assumed that you'd been sent to finish everything off quickly. When he asked about it he got stonewalled and went directly to the lieutenant."

"Smart man," I said. "Introduce us sometime, him I will definitely give something nice."

She smiled, reminding me of how pretty she was, even when covered in soot, dirt, and not wearing any makeup. "I'll tell him you said that."

"Frank!" Nezarian came in. "We're at the top, moving to join you, can you advance?"

I looked around and smiled at the determined looks in the faces of the Rangers and my Helljumpers. "Affirmative on that Lieutenant. We're going forward."

I was the first one to vault over the trench. I was a firm believer in leading by example and wasn't willing to waste an opportunity to impress Specialist Winchester. Committed relationship or otherwise I was still a male and had that hardwired instinct to impress the opposite sex.

The streets here were cracked, cratered, and all but destroyed. Perfect.

I dove behind a piece of pavement that was raised at a forty-five degree angle. It provided excellent cover and a stable firing platform. I climbed to the top slowly while the rest of the men and women with me moved forward. I saw Grass and two Rangers slam into a car for cover as spikes appeared on the hood. I traced the origin of the spikes to a brute with one spiker in each hand. I took care of it with three bursts, even bagging a grunt kill before sliding back behind cover.

"Left side! Left side!" one Ranger cried. I think he might've been Jacques.

I turned just in time to see three brutes on the building on our left. We should've checked before. They fired spikers at us even as we fired at them. Snark and Dibra killed the first two before Caboose could fill the third one with holes, but that last one managed to fire a burst into a Ranger. The three rounds that hit the man got embedded in the back of his upper left thigh, then just above his waist, and a few inches above that.

"Zheng!"

"Grass!" I ordered. "Pull him back!"

"Hans, Jacques, clear the right side!" Durant warned.

"I got the left," I told him. "Claire?"

"I'm with you," she nodded.

I provided cover for her as she ran towards the car that Grass had been in just seconds ago. She did the same for me and I joined her on the late-model SUV. Grass was working on the wounded Ranger, opting to leave the spikes in instead of pulling them out. She was pouring some biofoam on the edges and bandaging around. Zheng, the Ranger, was in some sort of shock, unconscious from the pain. The spike on the top was the more worrying one, it could've punctured the stomach, liver, or kidney. Hell, maybe even the intestines.

"Frank!" Claire shouted. "Move up!"

I ran across the street and finally made it into the building that the three brutes had fired on us from. The building was as close to collapsing as it could get while still standing on its feet. Columns supported the second floor just barely, with several of them cracked or completely blown apart. A large portion of the second floor had collapsed and slid down to street level. Claire slid to cover next to me and I had to yank her back as her momentum carried her forward.

"Thanks," she said in a quiet voice.

"Don't mention it," I dismissed, peeking around the corner to see if we were spotted. I could see bunches of jackals and grunts taking cover and forming walls with their shields, a few brutes were here and there, but Snark and the Ranger marksman were taking them out quickly and efficiently. "Ok, up we go."

We took the stairs to the second floor and cleared it quickly. On the window aisle with the three brutes I went a little bit slowly. I could see the other two Rangers clearing the building opposite us out of the corner of my eye.

"Movement!" Claire cried. She fired one long burst at one of the doorways. From the sound of the bullet impacts I knew that she hit nothing. "Call me crazy, but I think that might've been an elite."

"You hear that Yev?" I asked.

He took his time answering. "Yeah, I got that. You sure Specialist?"

"No," she replied truthfully. "Might've been a skirmisher, but if I had to choose I would say elite."

"We might have elites!" Nezarian announced. "Everyone be ready for a little change in the game."

"Wanna follow it?" I asked Winchester.

"Can't. This is a pretty good position for covering fire. You snipe away, I'll cover the doorway."

"Giving orders like that to a Helljumper? Pretty ballsy," I teased. I placed my rifle on the windows and aimed down street, where several jackals were slowly moving forward. I timed their steps and saw a small window where I could fire on one jackal's arm. After five seconds I let out a burst. At least one of my rounds hit the alien. The jackal slid backwards and the wall shifted to account for one less shield. They made it impossible for me to hit any of them, but the rest of the Rangers and my squad didn't have that disadvantage, killing them all in a second. "Spot me some targets," I ordered.

"Brute major, behind that Chevy," Snark said. "Won't leave cover, the fucking coward."

I switched targets and saw the brute. From my position I could only hit its left leg and arm, but that was good enough for me. I fired three bursts, two hitting the arm and one the leg. The brute shied away from the pain. Its head must've raised a little bit too high, because three shots from Snark punched through the windows and the brute's skull.

"Fuel rod grunt, all the way down range!"

I switched once again, fuel rod aliens took priority, they could fry a tank and kill a platoon in a matter of seconds. The grunt received gunfire from no less than six different weapons. I'm proud to say that I managed to beat Snark to the punch, firing a burst an instant before he squeezed out his first shot.

"Don't get too used to it Sarge," he said. He was back to his normal self after having faced death a few minutes ago.

I shot a few other brutes with Snark and Dibra's help. I was on par with Dibra, but Snark was on fire, killing aliens left and right like nobody's business. It only took five minutes to advance. It was only one more block, turn right, plant the explosives and take off. With the help of our Rangers it should be simple.

Remember, simple, not easy. Never easy.

"Wait up," Claire stopped me. She moved to the door and deactivated a trip mine. I never did understand how the Army people managed to carry so much stuff in their vests and backpacks. "Ok, clear."

We climbed back down to the first floor through another set of stairs, keeping our guns aimed up and ready for anything. Once on the ground we crossed the side street to the next building. A couple of shots were fired at us, but I didn't pay it much mind. I broke down a window to enter the next building. It had been a residential building, three stories, two apartments per floor. We climbed up to the third floor after clearing the second one. Halfway through I heard something.

"You hear that?" Claire whispered, shifting her aim rapidly from one point to another.

I looked left and right. "Yeah," I whispered back. Only then did it occur to me to look up. "Vents?"

I had barely processed my own word when three jackal skirmishers burst from the shiny gray vents. I don't exactly know how they got in there or how they managed to jump out so quickly. I don't even want to know how two of them landed on Claire's rifle and mine. I pulled out my sidearm and emptied half the magazine in one jackal's head. The other skirmisher close to me jumped on my arm, biting through the unarmored spot near the elbows. I'm pretty sure it broke a little bit of its beak off, but it hurt me more than it hurt it. If I kept this up I would need a prosthetic right arm soon.

"Fuck," I grunted, dropping my gun only for the skirmisher to kick it away. I used my other arm to bang the alien on the head before it clamped its jaws on my arm, urging me to cry out. It reached for a plasma pistol on its belt. I quickly kicked at its knees and we both fell to the floor. For a bird, this skirmisher was pretty fucking strong. I could see Claire struggling with her own skirmisher, but couldn't help her. Instead I focused on saving my own ass. My right arm was in unbelievable pain right now, even despite the adrenaline running through my veins. I banged again and the jackal's grip loosened a little bit. It was enough for me to yank my arm from its mouth and reach for my knife.

As luck would have it, the jackal caught my hand just as I had yanked my backup knife from its sheath on my chest. It stopped the blade just shy of entering its belly, snapping at my helmet but failing to connect. Those jaws and beak looked uncomfortably powerful from up close. The bird had one broken knee from one of my kicks and my punches had drawn blood from the equivalent of a cheek. It was still on top of me and had the leverage and weight to prevent me from stabbing it.

"Fuck you," I spat at it.

I shoved myself into a seating position and then managed to slowly stand up, carring the jackal with me. I wasn't even trying to stab it now, its own weight would bring it into my knife now. Still, at this point I wasn't feeling exactly patient, so I spun my whole body and slammed the jackal into the wall. The first time I heard bones crunching and the jackal hissed and screamed. The second time it stopped struggling and screamed some more. The third time I slammed it into the wall I plunged my blade all the way to the hilt and then some. I then pulled straight up, gutting the jackal skirmisher from just above the groin to the sternum.

"Fuck you," I repeated.

I turned around and saw something awesome. The jackal grappling with Claire made a minor mistake on the positioning of its arm and suddenly found itself in trouble. Claire spun, twisted, pulled, and pushed the jackal in a series of quick movements and suddenly the jackal found itself face to face with Specialist Winchester, its two hands pressed against its chest and its back against the wall. Claire reached for her sidearm and fired twice into the underside of the jackal's beak, splattering blood on the wall behind it.

"Got that on tape," I told her. "You ok?"

"Yeah." She was breathing as hard as I was.

"Let's go."

"Yeah," she repeated. "Fucking…birds."

"Agreed."

As we moved ahead to clear the rest of the floor I felt the pain in my arm. The jackal had left two long cuts on the inside of my elbow. Blood was flowing freely from it and I could feel my arm going numb in the spot. I waited to clear the rest of the floor with Claire and then sat down on a couch, pulling out a can of biofoam. I self applied the miracle product and cursed repeatedly at the stinging sensation. Before I could say anything Claire was placing neatly folded gauze on my arm and securing it with cotton bandages.

"To prevent infection," she explained as she worked.

"Thanks," I said simply, reaching into my butt pouch for painkillers. My shoulder was really starting to hurt right now. I downed the pill and shook my head, a habit that I had gained throughout my years of fighting and downing pills. "Whoa."

"Frank, we're on the intersection, Squad Three can keep the Covenant at bay, but we need you and your explosives team to hurry up."

"I copy," I told him. "Yev, I need your squad to provide cover for us. Angel and Caboose, you two are with me." I turned towards the specialist. "Thanks for your help."

"Are you insane, I'm going with you."

"Don't be stupid," I told her. "Go back down and provide cover, plenty of danger there."

She planted her feet firmly on the ground and put one hand on her waist. She looked very business-like. "You owe me."

I groaned. "Fine."

"So unprofessional," Schitzo chided disapprovingly. "You're nothing but a soldier, don't turn into a bad one."

My mind was made now, if Schitzo said something, I did the opposite. "Come on," I told her.

"What's with her?" Angel asked when he saw Claire.

"Guest party member," I replied.

"What?"

"Never mind, I've been watching way too much of those old shows," I explained. "She's coming with us. Caboose?"

He nodded.

"Good," I nodded in return. "Cover us!" I yelled at the rest of the my squad and the Ranger platoon.

We were near the ocean now. Catamaran City had a boardwalk covering the length of the coast. Most of it was still intact, but a large section of it had come down when the Inconvenience fired its main cannon. That was where all the water had flooded in from. It was now being dammed by a bunch of different buildings. I don't know how the brutes managed to react that quickly. They had blown up several neighboring buildings after briefly containing the flow with shield walls. Shield walls couldn't contain the onrushing water forever and they didn't have big enough walls, so they decided to play it human and blow the buildings next to the hole up.

If it works it works.

The ocean was to our left now, it was not exactly calm, with waves splashing into the boardwalk walls, spraying it. The space in between us and the improvised dam was probably some fifty yards, the buildings to our right were being occupied by Rangers as we spoke. Aliens occupied the street in front of us. They evidently didn't want us to blow up the dam. Or maybe they were just pissed at us and wanted us dead. Both were equally probable if the aliens were brutes. If Claire had actually seen an elite then chances were that they had figured out we were going to blow the dam.

"Angel, stick with the drone. Everybody else, we cover him."

"Second choice?" Bee asked, obviously just being a dick for the fun of it.

"Me," I replied, humoring him. "Then Winchester and then Bee."

"Why am I last?" he asked. He wasn't really annoyed, he was still being a dick.

We ran several meters with Angel and then slammed into a U-Haul for cover. The big box-shaped trailer tilted a little bit from the impact before coming back down. We positioned ourselves behind the wheels so that we couldn't get our feet shot at. Angel had the big gun, so he mounted it on top and fired wildly while we got beads on more important targets. Caboose and Claire kept their bursts short, hitting grunts and jackals and occasionally softening up a brute for my BR55. Angel just kept their numbers at a manageable level.

"We've got shooters on top," Claire said. "They're ours."

"Next time," Bee sighed in relief, "be more specific about that."

I agreed, I suddenly realized that I had one of the Rangers beaded in. I jerked my weapon away and instead scanned the abandoned car wrecks for movement. After ten seconds of no movement I gave the go ahead signal to advance. We moved a little bit more slowly now, we knew that our asses were being covered by a platoon of elite soldiers and took our time in clearing every car and corner. After we made it to the end of the street we halted.

"Looks clear," Bee said finally.

"Looks," Caboose emphasized.

I looked around, never stretching my neck more than I should and sticking behind my newest pile of debris. "Send the drone up." It was more of an order to the drone, it could hear and process millions of word combinations so that the operator didn't have to memorize keywords. I remember the fuzz made about that one, some politician or other had thought that it would make our minds weak or something. As if we weren't already under enough stress now. Making us memorize stuff, senseless.

I was being sarcastic there.

"Volunteers?" I asked. Of course, nobody was stupid enough at this point in their careers. "Nope? Bee, thank you."

"Why me? Why not the chick?"

"Not under my direct chain of command," I explained. That was actually a legitimate reason to not send her up ahead. "Don't wanna get sued."

"I'll go," Angel said. "I can move with the drone if I'm fired upon."

I shrugged. "Your funeral. Metaphorically speaking. I hope."

"You know Sarge, you've got a gift with words, but sometimes you just butcher it."

"Shut up and go," I laughed. "We'll cover you."

Angel ran towards the drone and slid down behind cover. A couple of needle rifle rounds bounced against the ground, but none were close enough to frighten Angel. He shuffled so that his legs were out of the enemy's field of fire and started moving slowly towards the dam. No more needles flew in his direction.

"Did you get it?" I asked.

"No," Bee said.

"Negative."

"Damn," I grunted. That was slightly worrying. I kept scanning the windows to Angel's right carefully, but I couldn't see half of them. The corner of the building next to me was blocking everything from sight. I needed to move up. "Pavel, Grass and Nezarian making out yet?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Looks like they're about to," he replied. "Want me to break it up?"

"Nah, just asking. I was going to order Grass here anyways: Good to know I'm getting a little bit of extra satisfaction out of that."

"I can't believe you just asked that to your friend," Claire scoffed. "Just to know if you were pissing someone off more."

"That's the Sarge we all love and adore," Bee said.

"Grass," I started with a smile. "Need you up here." I turned to Claire and Bee. "I'm moving up on the left, see if I can get a better vantage point on those windows. I need to see better."

"We'll stay here," Bee said uninterestedly.

I slid back and went back around, meeting Grass on my way back. I swear, her glare could've melted through her visor. She said nothing at all as I passed her. I turned around and started moving down the boardwalk. The only cover I had was the occasional stone bench positioned to observe the ocean. I was careful not to move too much forward, I didn't want to be spotted before time.

"Angel," I said. "Think you can do a little bit of baiting?"

He sighed. "Fine." I saw him purposely let his leg drag behind him for just long enough to bait an alien. He yanked it back just in time for three needles to hit the spot where his foot had been in.

I immediately looked up to the origin of the needles and spotted the shape of an elite in one of the windows. It quickly hid behind a pillar, preventing me from blowing its brains out. "Angel, we've got elites. Yev, I'm confirming the presence of elites in the battlefield. Can you relay that to command?"

"Command is not in a speaking mood right now," he grumbled. "But I'll broadcast it."

I kept my sight trained on the last known position of the elite while actively scanning other locations. Angel was slowly moving up towards the dam, he was now climbing up the pile of broken building. Once he made it to the middle of the dam he stopped.

"You're going to have to set the charges from the ocean side," I told him.

"I know. It's just dumb." He slid back down until his feet were in the water. The drone turned and slid down towards Angel, where he pulled out the explosives. Seeing the size of the explosives put me at ease, that much C-12, could create a crater as big as the one that the MAC round had made. He quickly started positioning the charges along the length of the dam.

That's about the time that I spotted the elite again. It was on the roof now. I fired four quick bursts at it. Hitting it on the chest on all of them. The elite fell back on its ass and didn't get back up. "Hit an elite, can't confirm the kill," I warned. "They might try and get you Angel."

"Comes with the job," he said simply, arming another charge. "One more and we're done."

At that point three different elites appeared on the ground floor and started firing on my position while rushing Angel. I dove behind the bench as needle rounds started hitting my cover. I heard gunfire from Bee's and Grass' position and I knew that at least two of the elites would be going down. I stayed down and waited for somebody to confirm the kills.

"Shit," Bee cursed. That couldn't be good. "One down, the other two are pulling it back to safety."

"I'm done," Angel exclaimed. "I need covering fire."

"We need covering fire," Claire exclaimed.

"Moving up!" Nezarian's voice boomed.

I looked up to see the legs of one bleeding elite being dragged behind safety. One burst bounced off the floor near its leg, but I missed it. More and more elites were appearing now, all around us. Most had needle rifles in their hands, the mark of their Spec Ops squads. Their armor wasn't exactly standard either, with their helmets being more adorned than usual. The ones without needle rifles had repeaters, and even deadlier weapons.

"Fuck, they got me pinned!"

This had just gone from good to a fucking shitstorm. Angel wasn't anywhere remotely safety and we had a platoon's worth of enemy elites firing on our positions. I tried firing a little bit at some of the elites, but they weren't being stupid about their ambush, they stuck to cover and fired on our positions, keeping us with our heads down. Eventually we would be overrun or flanked, both of which would spell death for all of us.

"Flashbangs!" Angel cried suddenly. "Toss all of them!"

We were drilled to follow orders as Marines. We weren't drilled to be stupid, but for some reason everybody thought that throwing a dozen flashbang grenades into the open would somehow help us.

So, a dozen detonations later I found myself hopping over my cozy stone bench to save Angel. I was doing the brave and soldierly thing to do, but it was also the stupid thing to do. To Angel's credit, the quantity of light released in the past five seconds had stunned the elites that could harm me the most. I killed two of them that were near the drone and Angel and slid into cover behind it. I immediately popped back up and downed another stunned elite with the help of a frag grenade. Suddenly, we found ourselves in a firefight, not an ambush.

"Shit Sarge," Angel said. "Anybody else tried that they would've gotten a hole through their forehead."

"Yeah, I'm sure they would've," I agreed, ducking behind cover after realizing that the drone wasn't going anywhere with four molten wheels. I mean, it could roll in a circle, but that wouldn't really help us much. "When you can I need you to spray the roof of that building on your one. When you do that try to stick to the bottom, if you miss you'll hit the bricks, make noise and startle them. Ok?"

"Sure thing," he nodded. "Then what?"

Then the drone all but disappeared as a Plasma Launcher grenade detonated. We were thrown forward as more and more explosions started going off around us. I tried to make a run for cover, stopping to drag a stunned Angel with me when the ground below me disappeared and instead I found myself looking at the world upside down. I landed on my head and everything went black for an instant.

When I opened my eyes I could see an elite coming towards me to finish me off with an energy dagger. It fell sideways when sustained assault rifle fire hit it. It was funny, for all the movies I had seen and from my own personal experience I didn't know why the hell the sound was off until I saw Grass depolarize her visor when she knelt over me. She was mouthing words, and much like in the movies, my hearing returned gradually.

"Sarge!" she was yelling.

"I'm-I'm fine."

"Frank, stay down!" Yevgeny appeared on the other side of my field of vision, firing short bursts at different points and then ducking next to me. "Cam, we gotta pull him out now!"

"But his neck-"

"It can be fixed later, Angel, you up?"

"Yessir," I heard from behind me. "Just stunned, that's all."

"Camilla, help me with hi-"

Yevgeny never got to finish his sentence. A single pink needle sliced through his throat, cutting it open like a knife. He immediately dropped his rifle and reached for his throat, clutching it. I could hear air escaping even in my state. He had to use one hand to support himself as he fell over me. His open wound was right above my visor, drops of blood that escaped his grip splashed on my visor, but I was in shock, not at myself, but at seeing one of my best friends dying.

"No!" Grass picked up her gun and fired wildly, cursing and crying at the same time.

I rolled to my side and placed Yev on the ground, I didn't know what to do with injuries of this scale. I did what I thought would be best. I poured half a can of biofoam into the wound. For a moment it seemed like the UNSC Army Ranger managed to sneak in two quick breaths, but his hand let go of his throat, revealing the a pink mess underneath. I knew at that instant that he had been doomed from the moment the elite fired.

And so I watched in complete helplessness as First Lieutenant Yevgeny Domitrovich Nezarian died.

"Fuckers," Angel growled under his breath. He stood up and started going beserk on the elites, firing side to side, full-auto, on the aliens. I was now on my feet, too stupid not to join the revenge seeking. I managed to bring down three elites with Angel and Grass' help, but it only took thirty seconds for things to go wrong.

Three repeater shots hit Angel in the belly and chest, knocking him backwards and making him stumble. He dropped his weapon and stared in confusion and shock at the blood on his body before realizing that he had been shot.

"Watch out!" Grass yanked Angel just as a shimmering figure jerked behind him. An energy sword appeared out of nowhere, slicing thin air. The elite that appeared after that sword growled and slashed at Grass. It was too quick and she wasn't in any position to defend herself. The slash hit her right below her shoulder. I saw her arm fly sideways with a trail of blood following afterwards. Grass fell to the ground on top of Angel and went unconscious.

By that point I had fired two bursts at the elite, yelling incoherently while I closed in on it. The blue-armored swordsman didn't budge at my gunfire, instead rushing to meet me. Its first attack was an upwards thrust that missed when I ducked backwards. It then attempted to chop my head off, but I had already rolled under the blow. My backup knife was already stabbing for its sword hand while my right hand reached for the huge knife on my lower back. The elite dropped the sword from pain at the same time that I started moving my right hand towards its head. The slash cleaved one jaw off its ugly face and got stuck in the other. I yanked and then stabbed at the ever-unprotected roof of the mouth, driving the sharp steel all the way through the skull and even the armor on top.

"Fuck!"

"Sarge!" Caboose screamed, suddenly right next to me. "We gotta pull back! Zekalwe is on his way, Command is about to detonate the charges remotely!"

"Those assholes," was all I could say.

"Frank, let's go!" Pavel and Claire Winchester were dragging Angel back to safety while Bee emptied both tubes at some unseen enemy. A couple of Rangers confirmed that their lieutenant was dead and cursed before trying to recover his body, one of them was shot in the process. Grass was being helped by Snark and Sergeant Durant, blood from her arm getting both of their armors red.

"Go!" I told Caboose. "I'm right behind you."

I wasn't lying, I didn't intend for that statement to be an untruthful one. I kicked Caboose forward to give him a boost when another swordsman slashed from nowhere. I emptied what was left of my rifle at it to no effect, Ultra-class shields and armor holding with ease. It batted my rifle to the side with ease and drew its sword in an almost slow motion. I took advantage of the momentum from my rifle to sling it to my back and to jump sideways. My right hand was now holding my bloody knife, the smaller backup one was still embedded in the dead elite's hand. The ultra lunged towards me, attempting to gut me with its sword. I don't know how but I managed to sidestep the attack and launch a flimsy stab at the elite. The knife didn't go through the shields, instead just bouncing back. I noticed that nobody was firing at the ultra, instead focusing on retreating, then I realized that there were explosions going off everywhere, explosions from Plasma Launchers and Concussion Rifles. The Rangers were falling back and my squad couldn't help me.

I guess that it sucked for the ultra.

"Focus Sarge," Scarecrow told me. "Focus on your enemy."

"Yeah, but first you have to know where your enemy's at." The way that Schitzo said that made me stop and consider the situation. The way the hair on the back of my neck stood up in account to millennia of survival instinct honed into my genes was another giveaway.

I sidestepped without really needing to and turned at the same time. I was rewarded to see an energy sword slicing through the spot I had been occupying previously. I finished turning to duck underneath another lunge by the ultra. The huge elite tripped on me and fell forward. Before it could react I had slashed at its armpit and the back (or front) of its right knee. The first stab into the armpit was deflected, but the shields were weakened from my fire, my stabbing, and the shrapnel flying around. The second slash cut deep into the elite, at that instant I went for the knee, stabbing half of the blade through.

The other elite wasn't nearly as vulnerable though. The second swordsman, another blue-armored elite, was lunging towards me. It was a weak attack though, the alien must've been afraid to hit its commander with his own blade, so I had plenty of time to roll sideways. I reached for my boot and yanked my knife, from its sheath. The blade made no noise that I could hear, it was well-oiled and the leather sheath was just loose enough.

I jumped forward just as the elite drew its arm back for another attack. An explosive hit the ground next to us, lifting dirt, rock, and dust into the air. Time seemed to slow down to a halt on that moment. There was the bright blue light of the explosion to my right, the elite had its jaws spread open in an angry snarl while its sword shimmered to its back. It seemed like some weird kung-fu pose to me. My knife hand was also drawn to my back, ready for a powerful upwards-stab. I calculated where I could go, it seemed to me like it took forever to do that. My only foolproof option was the open, snarling, roaring mouth of the fuckhead. I went with it.

The sword flashed to my side and I felt my knife on the elite. It took a step backwards and then another one forwards before landing on top of me, I refused to let go of the knife, instead twisting it sideways.

"Frank!"

Pavel's scream seemed so out of place, so full of worry, barely audible. I tried figuring out why he sounded so worried if I had just kicked some serious ass with only my knives.

Then I felt very weak and remembered no more.

---

Thanks to Sniper Fodder for proof-reading this chapter.

Well, the mission was flawed from the start. For starters, they lost Mr. Reporter's comic relief and were sent through the subway tunnels. I mean, every single time they go inside subway tunnels they end up facing something terribly dangerous. And then things got worse.

On a side note, I'd like to tell you that I love writing slow-mo scenes, I love imagining them in my head as I write them.

Angel was shot several times, Grass got her arm cut off, and Yev's dead. More to come.

Stay strong.

-casquis