Chapter CXXXVIII: Coaching the Tryouts

August 31, 2545 (UNSC Calendar)/six months later

UNSC Flawless, in orbit above Acheron-VII, Beta Rho Omega System

"Well, the siege was a short one."- PFC Sander Almers

One more day. In fact, less than one. Thirteen hours was all that we needed. Thirteen hours and we would've been able to return to Reach without a major incident. Three months had been spent on duty, playing at security guard outside of armories or important rooms, the other three months had been spent in a freezer. I had been woken up, expecting to be told to pack up my things and report for duty before I was shipped off again.

But no, that didn't happen.

I was woken up one day ahead of schedule by Lieutenant Hayes. Contact had been made with the Covenant in a nearby system and we were gunning towards Acheron-VII, the sole colony on the whole solar system. We had already done a risky jump that put the colony itself between us and the aliens, then the entire battlegroup had gunned towards the enemies while we infantry grunts prepared ourselves to kick the covvies' sorry asses out of the ground.

It had been a relatively short fight. Surprised by the sudden appearance of seven enemy vessels and reveling in victory, the two Covenant battlecruisers had been destroyed by a MAC barrage. Our heavy destroyer, the Honorable, well, actually it was the (Dis)Honorable, but that's a long story. As I was saying, the heavy destroyer took out one of the ships almost immediately, firing its two MACs within seconds of one another and scoring direct hits. The three frigates closed in for the kill on the second one just as thousands of Archer missiles from the rest of the fleet hit it.

Our prowler had done nothing.

Still, even our brutal counter-attack hadn't been enough. A small enemy ship of unidentified class had managed to jump out of the system. It was obvious that we had very little time to kill all of the ground forces and evacuate as many of the civilians as we could.

Considering the numbers that we were facing, this was going to be a tough one.

"What the hell are you doing?"

I immediately removed my hand from my codpiece and glared at him. "Straps were too tight," I explained. "It was digging right against my balls."

"Uh.-huh;" Pavel muttered. "Sit down."

I sat next to him and glanced at the empty podium.

"Ten-hut!" someone yelled.

I stood up on reflex as Lieutenant Tahlia Hayes walked inside the room clad in full battle armor, her helmet under her arm. As per usual, Master Sergeant Dajani was walking right next to her and stood at ease when Hayes reached the podium. "As you were," she said. "Now listen very closely. Acheron-VII has been under attack for one week now. The only reason that they lasted so long is because the colony possesses two mass drivers, one of which is history. Enemy forces groundside are estimated at two regiments worth, that's a little bit more than our entire complement plus the one on the Navarone." I searched my memory until I remembered that the Navarone was a light carrier attached to our battlegroup. That's the kind of stuff that I had to remember. "We currently have the element of surprise plus complete space dominance. Air superiority is going to take a while, but we'll get there. Army troopers on the ground are all but reduced to ashes and the ones that are still alive are doing their best to keep the covvies outside of the surviving cities." She paused and sighed. "That's the basics, but we have it a little bit more complicated this time."

"It wouldn't be a Helljumper mission otherwise!" Lance Corporal Wiremu boasted. There were a few calls of agreement.

"Shut up!" Hayes boomed. It was very unlike her, but I guess that you need to have a little fire in you to be an officer. "And listen very closely. Our mission involves a jump behind enemy lines. Deep behind enemy lines. There's this little town that was built around one of the aforementioned mass drivers. By little town I mean village that formerly had ten thousand souls on it." As she said that the holotank and the screen lit up. "There are three points of interest in this village, all of them highly critical to the war effort. Number one!" The screen zoomed in on a portion of the smoking village and a mass driver appeared on the holotank. "The mass driver, it is still functional and coincidentally enough, pointed at the initial jump point of the Covenant forces." She allowed us a moment to examine the cannon itself and the visible enemy forces. "Second target is a vehicle depot. The depot itself is not what interests us, there is a fuel refining facility set up there, intel shows that it's one of three in the planet, the fuel refined there feeds an entire front."

The refueling facility was surprisingly small for the amount of fuel that it produced. Granted, three regiment's worth of vehicles isn't exactly that many tanks or ghosts, but if you took into account the fliers, phantoms, and additional vehicles. As important as it was, it was very lightly defended for a target of that value. If you consider two companies lightly defended.

"Third target," Hayes snapped rather aggressively, getting our attention again. "Is a radar dish. Well, as you can see, it isn't exactly a dish, but it gets the job done. The tower works in conjunction with several smaller ones planted over the continent, but if they will stop working properly if the main tower is destroyed. That's the overview people. Three targets."

"El-tee," Staff Sergeant Gregory Williams, the second in command of Third Squad, started. "Which squad will take which target?"

"I'm glad you ask Williams, since we've got a new squad leader on Second Squad, we'll let him take a pick. Gunny?"

"Um, what?" I asked rather dumbly.

"Take a pick, A, B, or C."

I quickly went through the targets in my mind and made a decision. "A."

"Good. First Squad will take B and Third Squad takes C. Since First squad has the platoon's sniper I recommend every squad get a marksman. B's got the medic, and C's got our laser man. Adapt accordingly."

We all stood up and headed for the drop room itself. I walked up to Rob and tapped his shoulder. "You finally got them to give you the laser?"

"It was easier than you'd think, they've got like ten in the ship alone."

I raised my eyebrows, I was suitably impressed. "Try not to burn your eyebrows off."

He laughed loudly. "Ha! With the Spartan Laser I could burn your eyebrows off Sarge."

"Watch it," I told him, driving my elbow into his ribs. "I still expect some measure of respect."

"Right, sorry," he apologized. After he thought he was out of earshot he muttered something along the lines of, "Same old Sarge."

The drop room was a combination of well…a drop room, and an armory. There was a large section to the side with a bunch of weapons. Only then did it finally hit me that I had lost my battle rifle, the first gun that I had ever owned in my life. The weapon that had killed hundreds of hostile aliens and that had saved my life in countless occasions. I had lost my BR55 and I had only just realized it.

"Shit," I told myself.

"Something wrong Gunny?"

"Oh, nothing El-tee, it just hit me that I lost my weapon when my last ship was destroyed."

"Ah," she said understandingly. "I know what you mean. But you'll have to make do. Grab any of the weapons here."

I smiled. "Thanks."

"And wipe that smile of your face."

I almost scowled. "Yes, sir."

As everybody grabbed their own weapons from their named racks I went towards the deep end of the weapons closet and looked over the weapons. I shrugged and grabbed the BR55 closest to me and hefted it experimentally. It weighed exactly the same as my old weapon, but it just felt a little bit wrong. I slung it over my back and walked out. My sidearm had been replaces, but it wasn't the first time I lost a pistol. I had opted to take the M6C/SOCOM instead of the M6G that I usually took. Felt a little bit light too, but I had used the model several times.

Knives were good and strapped, magazines were secure and ready, grenades were good to go. I was ready to kick ass and I had never been more nervous before a drop, excluding my first combat drop.

A year. It had been about a year since my last drop, and that drop hadn't ended very well.

"Feet first Helljumpers," Lieutenant Hayes said. "Now onto your pods, I expect only the best out of you, so deliver."

"Feet first," I muttered to myself. I was the one that usually got that line. I shrugged and hopped inside the pod with my name on it, securing the BR55 onto its compartment on my right. I leaned back on the cushioned back and rolled my neck a little bit before putting on my helmet. After I had it on and secured I cracked my knuckles. Pavel gave me a quick salute from across the room before his door closed in front of him.

A second later my door closed in front of me and I took a breath in anticipation. It wasn't the good kind.

Red, yellow, green.

The pod lurched, gravity disappeared, and then we were entering the atmosphere. I felt sweat all over my body just as the nav systems on the HEV redirected me ever so slightly so that I would land right next to my target. I saw the other pods fly at an uncomfortably close distance before thick clouds blocked them from sight. My eyes then drifted towards my altimeter before I looked straight down. The village was putting out a shitload of smoke and I could spot the covvies from here.

There was a bunch of them.

"Good luck," Schitzo said. This time he chose to appear as my reflection on the glass in front of me. There shouldn't have been a reflection.

We made contact with the ground and I almost smashed my head against the door. I unlatched it just as I reached for my BR55. I took a step forward but was abruptly yanked back when my rifle didn't leave its holster. I drew my sidearm and emptied half the clip on a brute that was only just beginning to register what was going on. It fell to the ground with five holes in its head and twitched once.

"Fucking crap," I cursed as I tried at yanking my rifle. The pod had landed hard and the metal had folded over my gun a little bit. If I could just yank a little harder…

I heard growling and turned around to shoot another brute. This time I ran out of ammo before it went down.

"Shit," I said as I unloaded the magazine and reached for another one. The brute was now charging at me, blood flowing from its wounds. I wouldn't be able to make a reload that fast.

My hand changed directions and went to the knife in the small of my back. I had only just gripped it when the brute flew sideways.

"You planning on killing many Bravo Kilos with that?" PFC Beckel asked me, a smoking shotgun on his hands.

"Preferably not," I told him as I reloaded. "But I'm not opposed to the idea." I turned around and used both hands to peel the folded metal out of the way and retrieve my weapon. I slid the bolt backwards and reveled in the click that it made. "Let's go, we're meeting up with the rest of the team on Alpha."
Alpha was actually a house. Unlike most of the buildings surrounding the mass driver it was an actual house. I was willing to bet that it belonged to one of the caretakers and the owners would be in serious danger of their roof collapsing on top of them. Regardless, it was relatively close by and had windows facing the driver proper. It was a strategic position that we had landed further away from than I would've liked. That's why I preferred to do things manually.

"Rea-Second Squad, check in."

"Klaus," Pavel said.

"Konstantinov," Grigori said.

"Wiremu," Apirama said.

"Beckel," Axel said.

"Almers," Sander said.

"Brisbois," Serge said.

"Novak," Miranda said.

"That was lame," I stated. "We need callsigns."

"Amen," Pavel agreed.

I ducked as plasma flew in my direction. The enemy was starting to form a cohesive defense. "You know the plan, rally on Alpha." I looked around, examining the scorched brick walls. They were actually brick walls. Funny. "Stick with your partner."

There were a few scattered acknowledgements before I nodded at Beckel. We started moving up the street when a squad of grunts led by a single brute emerged on the far end. I fired a couple of shots, hitting a grunt and wounding another one before they opened up on us.

"Over here!" PFC Beckel yelled, waving at me. He kicked down a door and I jumped in after him.

"Backyards?" I asked.

"Yeah," he nodded. "I'll go around, flank them."

"I'll keep them busy."

I popped from cover and fired a burst before a couple of spikes embedded themselves on the doorframe. I cursed and ducked before leaving cover again. This time I managed two bursts at the brute before I had to jump back to cover. The brute stumbled and fell backwards but didn't die. Its power armor stopped the rounds.

Since when do the minors get fancy power armor?

I fired a few more bursts, this time deciding to focus on the grunts to thin down the fire volume. They had my position tagged, but I was able to hit one grunt and take it down. After that I simply fired a few blind bursts, hoping to buy some time for Beckel. The grunts were now close enough for me to hear their bark-like language. The translator was deactivated of course, a mistake on my part, but I knew what they were saying, or at least the general idea.

Then I heard the first shotgun blast. "Brute down!" Beckel announced.

I walked out the door with my rifle raised and wasted two grunts while PFC Beckel took care of the rest. The brute was still twitching and struggling in the ground, trying to reach for its spiker. Beckel walked up to it and executed it with his sidearm.

"Clear?" he asked.

"Move up," I told him. "We're running late."

We had to climb uphill, it only made sense that the mass driver was positioned on the highest point around. Right now I wish it wasn't so. A couple of squads attempted to stop us, but a combination of my long range shooting coupled with close-quarters ambushes quickly left them in the ground. The brutes were terrible strategists when you compared them to the elites, and they lost their temper more often than not, we had that to our advantage. When the mass driver was ours, then we would have to worry.

"Pack of brutes," I whispered. "They're guarding our way in."

"Can we bypass them?" Beckel asked me.

"Don't think so," I muttered. "Not unless we take a big detour."

He peeked over the corner and than turned to look at me. "Is that backdoor our only entrance?"

"Our only realistic entrance," I told him. "Ideas?"

"You're the sergeant, Gunny," he replied.

I grunted. "You asked for it. Ok, so here's what we're gonna do. There's six of 'em and only two of us. You've got your SMG ready?"

"Yup."

"Good, I want you to run to the other side of the street."

"Are you crazy? They'll see me!"

"I'm the sergeant," I reminded him. "Now go!" I made sure to push him as I said that so that he'd have no other choice but to run.

Halfway through a couple of carbine shots flew past him, but Beckel made it safe. He jumped to the other side and glared at me before returning fire. I went prone and looked around form ground level. The major in command of the pack was ordering two of the brutes to go and flush out Beckel while the rest of them guarded the door. I slid back and grabbed a flashbang and a regular frag. "You've got the two coming for you, ok?"

"What?"

"Good."

I tossed the flashbang and the frag within a second of one another. Both were pretty good throws and landed close enough to their intended targets. The flashbang detonated right before hitting the ground, stunning the four brutes that had stayed back and drawing the attention of the other two. The frag grenade went of a second later, killing one brute instantly and wounding the three others. At that time I emerged from cover completely and took the brutes that were still standing with one headshot for each before Beckel wasted his two targets with concentrated bursts.

"One of them's alive," he noted.

"I see it," I replied.

The brute was struggling to get to its weapon, much like the one we had killed first had been. This one was a major and had more powerful armor, so it had been able to take the blast better.

When I say better I don't mean it in a necessarily good way. It was missing most of its two legs and there were shrapnel holes all over its body. I walked up to it and kicked it in the head, forcing it sideways. It roared weakly before I kicked it again. The brute was clawing at the ground, trying to reach for a plasma pistol, slowly dragging himself towards the weapon. Just when it was about to reach the gun Beckel pulled it back with his foot. The major roared and pounded the floor weakly, but it was losing blood and couldn't live much longer.

"Do you want to do the honors?" I asked Beckel, gesturing at the brute.

"Nah, you do it."

I shrugged as I pulled my knife from my boot and stepped on the back of its head. Normally that wouldn't have been enough to stop a brute, but this one had the strength of a handicapped grunt right now. I placed the top of the knife against the base of the skull and stabbed. The brute jerked before finally dying. I yanked my knife and wiped it on the creature's fur before sliding it back into its sheathe. The stab had severed the spinal column from the brain, cutting all the body from the brain. The brute would die a painless death, albeit a horrible one. It would lay there for as long as its brain could go without oxygen, knowing full well what was happening to it and not being able to do a goddamned thing about it. It didn't deserve that. It deserved worse.

"Man, Bravo Kilos sure can take a pounding," Beckel noted, examining the corpse of the brute and the blood trail behind it.

"They die just like us," I said. "And we can aim better."

Beckel shrugged before he reached for the door. "They broke the terminal, kicked the door in."

"So?" I asked.

He kicked at the door. "Twisted, blocked, can't open it."

I felt like hitting him for talking to me like a baby, but I decided that humiliation was enough. I walked up to the door and kicked it with full force. The blow yanked the heavy metal door of the wall, dragging a few pieces of polycrete with it. I pointedly stared at Beckel and waved him in first.

"Milady," I said.

Beckel grunted something but otherwise didn't voice his opinion.

"Badass," Schitzo said complimentarily. "What are you gonna do next? Kick him in the balls?"

We walked inside with out weapons up. This time Beckel got to take point, switching his SMG for the M90. He had configured his shotgun to have a flashlight, a bayonet attachment, and less spread. It was basically enhanced for greater range while keeping the lethality at close range. Plus, the switch-activated bayonet would make for some nastiness.

"House should be directly across after we exit."

"Well, move along," I said. "You go first, I'll cover you."

We left the building we were in and Beckel sprinted across the street before I did the same thing. He opened the door before I slid in.

"Ok, we're in," I said over the squad channel. "What's your status on arrival?"

"We're there," Pavel said. "That's Wiremu, Almers, and me."

"Novak and I are on our way." Brisbois told me. "Thirty seconds."

As he finished saying that Pavel walked in with Almers and Wiremu. I nodded at them and Pavel signaled for them to got to the second floor while he and Beckel cleared the ground floor.

"Caboose?" I asked.

"Who the hell's Caboose?" Beckel said in the background.

"Ran into some trouble," he said. There was a hesitant pause. "I'm bringing it to you Sarge."

"Hunters?"

"Hunter."

"You took one out by yourself!?" Almers exclaimed.

"Damn," I said. "Draw it to the street and keep running, we'll take it out as it flies by."

"Understood."

I turned around and started upstairs just as I heard the clear shout. "Who's got the heavy weapons?"

"That would be me," Lance Corporal Wiremu informed me, a little bit more dryly than I would've liked.

"You, roof," I ordered. "Pavel I want you to spray the fucker with everything you've got as it comes up, everyone else, same deal. Wiremu, blast it once Caboose is out of range."

"Why do you call Konstantinov Caboose?" Almers asked me.

"Used to be his callsign."

"Obviously he didn't get to chose it," Beckel stated.

"No," I replied. "And I was thinking about giving you guys your own."

"I'm good with my last name."

"Keep on talking and you'll end up being princess," Pavel told him. "Positions."

"Almost there," Caboose grunted in between breaths. "Can you see me?"

"I gotcha," Wiremu told him. "I can make the shot from here."

"Caboose?"

"Just get this thing outta my ass."

"Change of plans," I said. "Fire."

"Backblast!" Wiremu called in warning, he didn't want anyone roasted alive by the rockets, especially himself.

The dull thud that the SPANKr made was heard and a moment later an explosion followed. Pavel and two other rifles opened up on the hunter, finishing it off while I ran outside to get Caboose. He was on the floor, several meters away from the hunter.

"You ok?" I asked him, pulling him up and aiming downrange for additional enemies. He nodded and I helped him towards the house. "We're clear," I announced.

"That was the easiest hunter I've ever killed," Beckel said.

"My first," Novak voiced weakly.

"You never forget your first," Pavel laughed. "Good work kid."

"Cut the crap," I rolled my eyes. Not even I had made such a big fuss about my first hunter kill. Well, I had, but everyone else in the squad hadn't even mentioned it. I was kind of jealous actually.

"Novak, you're with me on the rooftop," I said. "Wiremu, I want you on the second floor in case we need a boom." I thought about my assets. "Pavel, you also get second floor, lay down fire on the enemy, keep their heads down. Everybody else is going to go out the windows and clear the courtyard."

"Wait, what about snipers?"

"That's what Novak and me are for."

The roof was a complicated one. Old-fashioned style with tiles and shit. I mean, who the hell uses tiles outside a museum? We climbed up and went prone on the top, our bodies on the opposite side from the mass driver. There were several grunts running around while brutes ordered them around. A few jackal sharpshooters kept overwatch on the neighboring rooftops, but none were overtly alert. Their attention was mostly focused on the other side of town where Lieutenant Hayes and her squad was causing mayhem.

"Hey, how the hell did you kill a hunter by yourself?" Almers asked Caboose.

"With my shotgun," he replied.

"It's not that hard," Pavel told him. "You just have to keep your cool and be at the right distance."

I nodded to myself while chuckling. It was that hard.

There was some more bickering between Almers and Beckel with Pavel occasionally joining up while Novak and I tagged every single visible alien with our guns. Little red silhouettes would be appearing all over our squad's HUDs, showing them where to fire.

"Done?" I asked Novak.

"…Yeah," she said. "Do we start firing?"

"On my mark," I said to everybody. "Mark."

Two jackals went down at the exact same time, two more went down with a fraction of a second in between them. Only after that did we start taking out the snipers at different rates. The jackals were stunned, trying to find the source of our fire. Only the last ones managed to fire in our direction. I took out a final sharpshooter before sliding back down behind cover to reload.

"You ok?"

"Round bounced off my shoulder," Novak said. "Didn't punch through."

"Good," I said. "Now provide some snipering. Or whatever. Hey, hey, you all right?"

"I was just hit."

"Get used to it," I told her. "Hey, hey! Snap out of it! I'm not here to babysit you. Novak!"

"What?"

"You're fine, didn't even pierce the armor."

"Ok, ok," she was telling herself.

I rolled my eyes. Fucking baby.

"Pavel?" I asked. "How goes it?"

"Right side is mostly clear and left one is being worked on."

Two minutes later we flushed out the last brutes and killed them.

"Clear!"

"El-tee, we're good on our side."

"Copy," Hayes replied. "Secure the position."

Well, that was easy enough now that the position was actually secure.

"How many explosives have we got on us?" I asked to nobody in particular.

"I've got rockets," Wiremu told me.

"That it?" I asked. "I want to blow up some of the surrounding buildings."

"What for?" Brisbois asked irritably.

"We're at the top of the hill, brutes are little more than animals, they're gonna come here first."

"This or the refinery, that one's gonna make a lot of noise," Pavel added. "But there are probably going to try and retake this first."

"I've got a block of C-12," Brisbois announced. "Standard weight."

"Good, break it into three parts," I told him as I produced my own block of explosive and climbed down to the ground level. "Anyone else?" Silence. "Serge, I want you to place one block on that building corner, one on that one, and the third over there." As I said this I tagged the positions on his HUD. "Pavel, the covvies have probably called air support already, hop on the Onager."

"I always wanted to fire on of those," he said cheekily.

"Let's hope you don't have to." I was already running down the clear space around the Onager cannon. It seemed unusual that they had put it in the middle of a village as opposed to the outskirts. Well, it seemed unusual that a village had grown around it instead of next to it. "Novak, I want you sniping from the best spot you can find, Wiremu, coordinate with her to locate and eliminate any hard targets. Caboose, Beckel, you two do a quick run of the perimeter, eliminate any enemies you see and place those new warning thingies."

Let me elaborate on that one. The warning thingies (whose name escapes me at the moment) were very small spheres that had sensors and cameras on all sides. They could see on most directions and stick to most surfaces. They also had the ability to spot thermal signatures and feel movement around them. They were pretty sweet.

They were also expensive as fuck, so we had a very limited supply.

"Who's free?" I asked.

"Me," Almers said.

"Go with Beckel," I ordered. "You know how it works, now move your ass."

"Yessir," he said before taking off.

"Serge," I told the Frenchman, "you ready?"

"Oui, oui," he replied.

I was only just finished sticking the charges onto their positions. "Good, set them to detonate on my detonator frequency."

"Already done."

"Good, anyone on my one through four? No? Good." I detonated the charges after running a reasonable distance away from them. The explosions were massive when you compared them to the size of the compound. Three different buildings on the north section of the mass driver compound collapsed. Two had been storage facilities for radioactive waste and ammunition. The other one had been a radar room that probably coordinated with satellites to target space-borne enemies.

"Probably shouldn't have blown that one so soon," Pavel snuck in after the noise died down.

"Planet's dead," I reminded him, "if we need to use that facility it's only because we're dead already and want to take as many of them as we can with us."

"So glum," he muttered. "Onager powered up, we need to keep our power source functional."

I nodded, thinking about it. "It's underground, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"It should be fine," I said, thinking about it. "Serge, help me move those barrels in front of the wires and panels. An extra layer of protection won't hurt."

"Oui Sergeant."

"And cut the French crap," I snapped. "Or I'm going to start giving orders in Spanish, see how you like that."

This time he only nodded and rolled a barrel by himself towards the Onager. I heard a couple of shotgun blasts and immediately turned around to their direction.

"Caboose?"

"Negative, it was Beckel."

"What happened?"

"Two jackal scouts, they probably realized they lost contact with the garrison here and sent them in to see what happened."

"Might buy us some time," I muttered. I couldn't believe that the brutes still didn't know what the hell was going on, but I wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Caboose, Beckel and Almers. As soon as you're done I want you to take position there. Pavel, hand me your M247L."

"What?" he asked dryly. "No."

"Come on man, I'm not going to break it."

"Is this where you toss it to Almers and tell me that you said you wouldn't break it."

Damn…

"No…" I said.

"Yeah right."

"Just hand it over, I'll take care of it with my life. Remember my old gun? How long did I have that one for?"

"Ten plus years."

"Thanks," I said as he gave me the weapon. It was a lot heavier than I was used to, and I hadn't picked one up in at least seven years. The workings of the weapon were burned into my memory, courtesy of long hours with Gabuka and Bulldog. I strapped my BR55 to my back and hefted the weapon. "Toss me an extra."

"If you run out of both those drums before we get reinforcements, then we're in trouble."

"Aren't we always?" I asked him.

Caboose chuckled on the radio channel. The rest of the squad was obviously annoyed that we cut them off from our past and inside jokes, but I didn't exactly trust them yet and I didn't expect them to trust me. As a person of course, I fully expected them to die if I ordered them to.

"Brisbois," I called for the former legionnaire. "Set up in the fallen buildings, we need to aim down the street, got ourselves nice sniper alleys, so make good use of them. Caboose and Beckel, you're with him, Almers, with me."

There was a chorus of aye ayes and the like before I climbed over the smoking ruins of one of the buildings that we had blown up. It had been the one housing waste and ammo. The carts with the little cylinders had been all but destroyed, but the cylindrical bullets themselves were almost completely intact. They were, after all, designed to tolerate extreme friction. A pile of them would stop a plasma pistol shot sure as a Scorpion would. Now, I'm not exactly sure how much my suit would protect me from radiation, so I made sure to pick the bullets and not the empty casings filled with radioactive material to build my fort.

"Novak here, I see a platoon's worth of tangos coming here."

"Tangos?" Almers questioned her choice of words.

"Novak, I copy, who's leading them?"

"Brute captain, with the…um…brute shot?"

"Yeah, aim at the gap in his armor in between the chest and face. With some luck you'll get him in the first one."

"I'm new Gunny, I'm not ignorant."

"Then by all means, demonstrate."

There were four shots before she confirmed the kill.

"Maybe not ignorant," I groaned. "But you're demonstrating yourself as incompetent. Stall them."

Pavel then talked to me through a private comm line. "Bro, take it easy on her."

"And make her soft?" I asked him. "No."

"Frank, you gotta at least make her like you?"

I sighed. "She's a rookie, she's not supposed to like me, she's supposed to respect me for my combat skills. I don't care if she hates me as long as she stays alive."

"Protective are we?"

"You understand."

"Frank, I'm not questioning your leadership style-"

"But you are."

"Regardless. You should try and play nice."

"Me? Play nice?"

"I know it sounds insane, but don't be that much of an asshole."

I sighed, relenting. "Fine, I'll try more, but don't expect me to make any friends around here."

"Course not, next thing I know you're gonna be shitting rainbows and hosting barbecues."

"That's all I'm asking for."

"Fucking dick," I muttered after he cut off the line. "Caboose, got news?"

"Not on this side, I can hear a load of action of Almers' side."

"Almers, Beckel?"

"Uh, there's a shitload of covvies headed our way."

"Shitload?" I asked Beckel.

"Give or take a few," Almers specified.

"Boy Almers, you've got a gift for wittiness," Wiremu said. "How many?"

"At least fifty."

"Next time you give me a vague answer you're gonna be point for the next ten missions," I warned. "Now get back here, I don't want your ass getting shot." I positioned the M247L's bipod on a pile of rocks and set it to aim down street. There was very little cover for the aliens if they wanted to come up without blasting holes through the houses and buildings. It was a perfect killbox. Plus, I got nice cover and the option to slowly fall back through the ruins of the storage facility before I was overrun. "Novak, any targets on your side?"

"Negative on that one Gunny."

Now she was chatty.

"Ok, haul ass and get a position that allows you to see the force Almers and Beckel saw. Start taking out the jackals first, then the leaders."

"Wilco. Oscar Mike."

I rolled my eyes. Oscar Mike, nobody said that anymore.

Novak started firing at a rate of one round per second. I took the lack of curses from her as an indication that she was scoring her hits. It wasn't very long before Almers came back hopping over the rubble of the warehouse. Man, a little block of C-12 could bring down a lot of shit if you knew where to place it. There were only small sections of the wall left here and there, but mostly it was just a giant mess of rock. Worked for me.

"Almers, there's a nice spot over there, target brutes, spray them and keep them on their toes."

"Got it, Gunny."

"Caboose, Beckel?"

"We're there," Beckel replied. "Switching to MA5."

"Same deal, two of you target grunts and the other sprays the big guys."

We were in a very advantageous position. The street that led here was rather narrow and no cars could provide cover. Caboose and his fireteam were to our side, several meters away and looking down another street. Those two were the most likely approach routes of the Covenant ground forces, but we had Novak and Wiremu watching for flankers.

"Here's to reinforcements," Pavel said.

"Amen," me and a couple other guys agreed.

"Just around the corner!" Almers said. "Sensors say that-"

I fired a long burst from the M247L just as three grunts turned a corner halfway down my line of sight. The weapon was expertly sighted and I knocked them all out, splattering the floor and walls with their blood. There was a short pause before a group of shielded jackals emerged one by one. I managed to wound one, hitting it in the belly, before the rest of them overlapped their shields and formed a phalanx. More birds appeared and placed their shields on top of the first row.

Fucking Romans could've learned something from these guys.

"God-fucking-dammit," Almers cursed. "Can't get a grenade behind from this range."

I was pretty frustrated to, little orange and yellow pings marked the spots where my bullets hit their shields. They had even pressed them to the ground, making it impossible for me to make them stumble and fall. Precise shots were impossible too. Their phalanx was all but impenetrable.

I adjusted my aim and slid slightly backwards. Plasma and spikes were beginning to fly by my position. "Almers, I want you to target the jackal that I'm gonna fire at, ok? Overwhelm their shields."

"Got it."

I aimed at one of the jackals in the middle and started firing at full auto. Some shots hit other shields, but most of them pushed the jackal back. The rate of fire was enough to push it backwards and stall the advance of the entire formation. A second later Almers started firing, adding his more precise fire to mine. It took a lot more than I expected to destroy the shield, but we did and killed the jackal as well as whatever was behind it before the rest could close the gap.

"Another one," I said, repeating the process. "Last one!"

By the time we had overwhelmed a third jackal, the rest of them were forced to spread out from the top to the bottom, leaving some parts of the top row unprotected. The grunts behind mostly clustered behind the jackals, but now they couldn't all be protected.

"Almers, catch!" I shouted, tossing him my BR55. "Aim for the jackals if you can."

"Not a sharpshooter, Gunny," he reminded me.

"But you're a Helljumper, if you can't make a shot at a hundred yards then you're a failure."

"Understood," he replied, not coolly, but rather professionally.

While Almers took his time sniping the jackals I pummeled them with automatic fire. I didn't get that many kills, but the speed of their advance was dramatically diminished by my persistent firing. I had never played the role of squad gunner, but I had never realized how much concentration it took.

Sorry Pavel.

"Gunny, they're coming up close," Beckel radioed in. "No sight of brutes yet!"

"Use grenades," I replied. "I know I'm about to."

With that being said I tossed one of the grenades as far as I could down the street, setting the timer for three seconds after impact. With me being on my belly and throwing sideways, the grenade didn't fly very far. Well, it flew more than three quarters of the way, but I'm not one for bragging. After that the grenade bounced twice before rolling a couple of meters and then detonating. The impact wasn't enough to shatter the shield wall, but the jackal closest to it was overwhelmed by the shrapnel.

"Fire, fire, fire!" I ordered even as I moved my aim.

"Castillo! This is Lieutenant Hayes, is the position secure?"

"Affirmative El-tee."

"Then I take it you're just wasting ammunition for shits and giggles. Am I right, Gunny?"

"Negative Lieutenant, we're most definitely not wasting ammo on shits and giggles."

"Don't give me any more fucking attitude Gunny!"

"Sorry ma'am. Our position is being stormed, right now we're not in any trouble, but if they keep coming like this we'll be in serious trouble."

"Now, was that so hard Gunny?"

"No ma'am;" I replied, firing as I did.

I was a little bit confused. Lieutenant Hayes was friendly enough on the ship, but she most certainly didn't have any problem with chewing me out for being insubordinate. Which I wasn't being, by the way. Mood swings were something to be expected then. I took note of that and told myself to be more respectful when in combat situations.

Bitch.

"Novak, sitrep."

"Aliens are bunched up behind those buildings," she said, setting a waypoint for them. "Occasionally a squad comes up, but they're using cover and covering fire."

Yup, she also changed during combat situations, chatty as hell.

"Anything else?"

"Nobody coming up on our sides or back yet," she replied. "But that might change soon."

"Tell me when it does. Wiremu?"

"Bored as hell Gunny."

"Be thankful," Beckel told him. "This isn't fun."

I was inclined to agree with him, needles were now breaking themselves on the rubble in front of me. Plasma was heating the rocks and smoke was from them too. If we didn't stop them soon we'd be forced to fall back.

"Brutes on your twelve!" Novak warned.

Shit.

"Shit," I said. "Focus on the jackals," I ordered Almers. "I'll stall them."

I stopped firing on the jackals and aimed down range, waiting for the brutes. When they emerged, I was quite surprised. An unknown number were carrying a large piece of polycrete big enough to occupy two thirds of the street's width. Not that it was a very wide street to begin with, but it was most certainly a huge-ass chunk of wall.

"That's one huge-ass hunk of rock," Almers noted dryly.

"You don't say," I replied absent-mindedly.

I started firing on the brutes carrying their improvised cover at full auto. Some of the bullets punched through, leaving big holes in the wall, but most were stopped by the hard material. The advance stopped slightly before regaining speed. I rolled my head and then switched to the dwindling column of jackals and grunts trying to make their way up here.

"Hand me that rifle!" I ordered Almers, setting down the stock of Pavel's M247L on the ground before catching the BR55.

I ejected the half-full (or half-empty) magazine and inserted one with armor piercing rounds. Those would punch through the polycrete and then some. I took my time and fired a burst right at the middle of the wall. Two holes appeared after that.

Must've yanked the trigger, I told myself. Getting sloppy.

From that point on I made a point to fire precise bursts at the edges and center, it wasn't very long before one brute corpse fell behind and the rest struggled to lift the huge piece of polycrete.

"Grunts are gonna overwhelm us!" Almers warned.

"We can handle them," I told him, twisting myself sideways and attaching the bayonet to my BR55. "As soon as the little ones are gutted you open up on the brutes."

A second later the remains of the grunts reached us. They were running on four limbs and more angry than scared. The one in the lead jumped me only to find itself stopped by a sharp knife and a stiff arm. As the first grunt fell down Almers killed the second and third ones with bursts before another one jumped at him. Had they been in their clear minds they would've fired at us, maybe even hit us, but they weren't. So they didn't.

As another grunt tried to grab me I slashed sideways with the rifle, hitting it across the neck and nearly decapitating it. I fired a burst at a jackal raising a plasma pistol before killing two more grunts.

"That's the lot of them!" I grunted, wiping blood spray from my visor. "Brutes!"

Almers was firing on them before I finished the sentence. I immediately dropped my battle rifle and reached for the light machinegun, the sling was a useful addition for a gun as heavy as that. I slung it over a shoulder and fired from the hip with one hand while I reached for grenades.

My arm rattled as the gun fired. "That's gonna hurt tomorrow."

"Got that," Pavel said. He sounded awfully bored, like he was seeing a rerun of an old sitcom or something. "Shit! Banshees!"

"Your job!" I replied. "Wiremu!"

"Got them on my sights, do I fire?"

"Pavel?"

"Please do!"

I could hear the characteristic screaming that had given the Banshees their name. I did my best to ignore the potential danger of a fuel rod up my ass and hit the polycrete wall with as much bullets as I could. Almers reloaded and my gun ran out of bullets at the same time. I kept the finger on the trigger for a little bit more than necessary, and the supposedly modern mechanism of the weapon kept on feeding non-existent rounds into the chamber. The repeated clicking noise was one known to everybody. Including brutes.

The wall hit the floor with a very loud thud and three brutes, one of them bleeding, jumped over it before it even fell on its flat side. Almers jumped back as he reloaded and opened up on the wounded brute. Apparently, it was very wounded, because a couple of bursts was all it took. The other two, however, were fully armored and very angry.

One of them fired at me with its brute shot. The grenades flew right by me, missing and hitting the ground behind. As the fourth one landed four meters behind me I stumbled from the shockwave. The brute grabbed the weapon by the barrel and swung it at me. I dropped to the floor underneath the blow and reached for my battle rifle. As I grabbed it I rolled away and to the side, I could barely register Almers running back as the other brute chased after him.

As I rolled the huge bayonet slammed onto the ground next to me. The near miss allowed for a thrust at the brute's knee. My knife dug in halfway through and I yanked back as the brute roared, more in anger than in pain. Fucking brutes and their nervous systems.

It tried to backhand me but I jumped away. Still, its long arm hit me in the shoulder, twisting me completely to the other side. I used the momentum to launch another slash with my bayonet. The knife hit the brute's skull and got stuck there. The brute roared once again, this time in pain, before batting the gun away, with it a good chunk of its skin.

"You've gotta be kidding me."

I drew my sidearm and emptied an entire clip on the brute's face before it could react from its dumb move. If a knife to the knee wouldn't bring it down and a knife to the face wouldn't kill it, twelve 12.7x40mm M228 Semi-Armor-Piercing High-Penetration rounds to the face most definitely would.

Eleven were enough to bring it down and one more was used when it was on the floor.

"Fucking ape," I grunted. "Almers, get back here!"

"Gunny?"

I turned to see that he had backtracked almost thirty yards before his assault rifle knocked down the angered brute. He was prodding at it with his foot, making sure that it was dead. Judging from the amount of blood in here I'd say that it was.

"Are you gonna keep playing around?" I asked him. "We're supposed to defend this street!"

"Right," he said. He kicked the brute one last time. "Fucking ape."

The echoed statement was a nice touch. I was thinking I liked PFC Almers.

"PFC! Get over here, help me drag those corpses over there."

With his help we used the dead grunts, jackals, and brutes to form an improvised barricade covering the street. It meant that any aliens that climbed over them would have to do it with care and they'd probably not be too excited about having to climb over the corpses of their comrades. It was a good plan, we could even use their corpses as cover. Brutes were soft and plushy when they were dead.

"Phantoms inbound!" Novak called. "Sarge?"

"What?"

"I was talking to Pavel, Gunny," she said dryly.

"Excuse me?"

"Um, sorry Gunny."

"Hey, don't worry about it," I told her, messing with her. "Honest mistake."

"Um…thanks?"

"Now back to sniping shit," I snapped. "Wiremu, I want you down here, Pavel can handle the birds!"

"No I can't!" he replied.

"It's hard to take that seriously when you're behind an Onager mass driver, Sarge," Beckel noted.

"Kid's gotta point Pavs," I assured him. "Keep firing."

The Banshees and Phantoms were flying around, trying to evade the incredibly fast and deadly rounds being fired from the Onager. The Banshees couldn't get a bearing without being shot at, and the Phantoms that tried to shoot were then switched to priority. The couple of dropships that tried to drop troops further back were hit while hovering above ground. Pavel was doing a fine job with the mass driver.

"Fine, but don't drag it on too long."

While we all took new positions a new transmission came in. "El-tee, this is Staff Williams, target is secure."

"Copy that Williams, calling in marine reinforcements."

"Regulars save the day, don't they?" Beckel asked Almers.

"They like to think that," Almers replied. "There are only like…what, a hundred and fifty aliens left in this town?"

"We could handle them," Beckel stated. It was a matter of fact to him.

And to me, but that's not the point, reinforcements were always appreciated.

"Ok squad!" I boomed. "You heard the El-tee, all we need to do is hold this position until we get a few ol' regulars in here to help us."

"Help us?" Pavel asked in between mass driver shots.

I rolled my eyes. "You know what I mean."

"Maybe observe us would be more appropriate?" Beckel suggested.

"Take the credit?" Wiremu threw in.

"Etcetera," Almers said sarcastically.

Novak's sigh was clearly audible. "Is it always like this? 'Cause in bootcamp they made it out to be this super serious thing."

"You have no idea," Pavel said.

I palmed my visor with my hand. Soon the marines would fly in and I could take a short nap before our next mission. Evacuation was probably it.

Yeah, evacuation, it was going to be fun.

Thanks to Alshep and SilasWhitfield for proof-reading this chapter.

So, you've finally been introduced to the new squad, I hope you liked them. I know, I know, you probably think that they're not nearly as badass as Reaper, but Second Squad is made out of Helljumpers, and they're as badass as they come. The next four or five chapters are going to be introductions to the new members. I think that this serves as a good one though.

I had like a whole speech planned but I forgot, sorry. All I have left to do is apologize for the delay in posting, I am ashamed to admit that I have watched the full three seasons of Blue Mountain State. Which is fucking awesome.

:)

Hope you enjoyed, don't forget to review, and always stay strong.

-casquis