Chapter CXL: Spaceport
September 4, 2545 (UNSC Calendar)/
New Montevideo, Acheron-VII, Beta Rho System
"Nice for a landing, not so much for avoiding strafing runs."
"Is that the More Badass Than Thou?" I asked, my eyes tracking the UNSC frigate as it flew across the sky, chasing away a damaged Covenant corvette. It fired its MAC once, blowing up the enemy ship. The corvette managed to sustain itself in the air for a few brief seconds before a secondary explosion finally brought it down. As the purple spaceship fell I heard the incredibly loud boom that the MAC had made. A few seconds later the shockwave jerked me backwards.
"Nah," Apirama Wiremu told me. "That's the Cappadocia."
I nodded, looking at the massive frigate. Even at this distance the five hundred meter long ship looked imposing. I wished that I could say the same when comparing it to Covenant battlecruisers.
"The other two frigates are escorting the evacuation ships as soon as they exit atmosphere," Wiremu went on. "The rest of the battlegroup is holding back the enemy cruiser."
"And the prowler is gathering intel," Beckel sighed sadly. "We could sure use the help down here."
"I don't think heavy destroyers are rated for atmosphere," I said, observing the Capadoccia. "At least not when they come out of the shipyard. And the ONI guys in the prowler are helpful, as much as it pains me to admit it."
"Wow, Frank giving ONI credit, call the reporters."
"Last time it didn't end so well, did it?" I asked Pavel.
"Well, he wasn't a reporter, he was a journalist."
"Is there a difference?" Beckel asked. "I mean, other than the word?"
I shook my head. "Enough with the chat. Keep your eyes on your sectors."
The control tower was nearly useless. It was only in the spaceport in case there was a critical systems failure. Right now I was on the rooftop of the tallest building around. It didn't mean much though; there were several skyscrapers within beam rifle range around me. That's the main reason why I was covered by a pair of metal sheets and only aiming at the ground level. Still, I was scared.
The SRS99C-S2 AM rifle in my hands felt deadly, and it was. Snark and Novak had other firing positions. I had been given the best one and Snark the hardest. He could manage it and I wanted to have a nice spot. Novak hadn't been very happy about it, but she didn't mention anything.
Right underneath me Wiremu and Beckel were pacing the control room itself. All the windows had been turned into one way mirrors, and the windows that had zooming capabilities had been turned into telescopes to aid in keeping watch.
If I turned around I would see a crowd. A big ass crowd of the likes you had never seen in my entire life. Most of those people were alone, having lost their friends, their family, and everything they owned. They only had survival to look forward to. They waited patiently as FTL-capable transports were filled up to bursting and then tried to jump out of the system. So far we had enough ships for everyone in here, something to be grateful for considering that they'd have to be put inside our ships otherwise.
I heard another transport take off, but I kept my eye on the long avenue leading into the spaceport. I had practically every feature memorized. I saw the SUV that was practically fused to the side of a semi. The blood from the driver was splattered on the white side of the truck. I also saw the pair of trashcans that had no business being there, I couldn't figure how they had gotten down in the middle of the street. I saw the fresh corpses, only just beginning to rot. There was one Scorpion with it's turret by its side, flames were still flickering from the driver's compartment. A hundred meters away a Wraith was on the floor, a big hole in the front. It would've required at least three shots to punch through. Closer to the spaceport I could see cars just parked in the middle of nowhere. People had tried to get here as fast as they could, in their haste they hadn't even bothered to go inside the parking lot, instead opting to climb over the fence.
Ah, the fence. It was an old-fashioned chain-link fence. Useful and sturdy. It had been brought down by a polycrete truck, corpses were here and there, a dog was walking the area, andit occasionally paused to sniff a corpse before moving on. I had been watching the dog for a long time now. It seemed completely unaware of what was going on. I envied it for that. I also hoped someone would grab the poor animal and take him inside a ship before it was too late. From my position I could see two other dogs, both of them dead. One had been clearly run over, a large section of its torso caved inwards. The other one had been shot with plasma. Who would shoot a harmless dog?
It was a sorry spectacle.
A minute or two later silence was broken again. "How are the guys delaying them doing?" Beckel asked.
It was another full minute before anyone replied. "They're probably planting the explosives right now," I said.
Pavel chimed in from a small shuttle hangar. He was commanding the rest of the squad down at ground level. "That means we've got about twenty minutes for the explosions."
"What are they using?" Almers asked.
"Standard C-12 charges," I told him. "You know what they say."
"When in doubt, C-12," he replied. "I don't know if that's very wise."
"Oh, it is," Wiremu assured him.
"Shh," I muttered, tracking the dog through my scope.
Sure enough, twenty minutes later we got the first explosion. It was enormous. The noise was almost as loud as the MAC blast had been. A whole block disappeared after that and with it any Covenant soldier that had been there. Soon after the first explosion the second, third, fourth, and so on followed. Groups of marines and soldiers started trickling by. They had all been pretty beat up by the Covenant forces. Most of them came on transport 'Hogs or piled up on tanks. The Army came on their venerable Armadillos. A few Pelicans flew past the fence at low altitude. Some others kept heading straight towards space, no doubt filled to bursting with wounded men and women.
"Any moment now boys," I stated as an Armadillo plowed through the fence, gunning towards an empty space in the spaceport. That had been reserved for the UNSC Navarone, our battlegroup's light carrier. It would be taking in any surviving local forces and evacuating them.
"Weapons free," Pavel ordered. "Remember your fields of fire."
"Wiremu, first Daemon you see you take out. They take priority over Wraiths."
"Castillo," Hayes came in a moment later. "I want you, Avninder, and Novak to target officers and officers only."
"Got it," I said.
"Roger that ma'am," Novak acknowledged.
"Don't I always?" Snark replied.
The first ones to come through were Ghosts. It was obvious. The Ghost was the standard recon unit for the Covenant ground forces. A few of them were blown up by landmines planter by the escaping marines and soldiers. The rest of them made it through and fired at out more visible positions. There was some machine gun fire exchanged and a couple of Ghosts blew up before the rest retreated. They had probed our defenses and were returning to report.
Brutes were getting smarter. That would just not do.
"See that?" I asked suddenly. "Wiremu, dead ahead, movement behind that upside down tanker."
"How'd a gas tanker end up on its top?" he asked.
"Yeah, man, how?" Beckel furthered.
I don't think I need to tell you that he was being sarcastic.
"See it?" I pressed.
"I see it, barely."
My scope was doing a great job, but the smoke made anything behind it invisible. It wasn't necessary for me to zoom any further, because an instant later a plasma round burned through the smoke before plowing onto one of our first trenches. The explosion lifted a ton of dirt that buried whoever had been left alive.
"Can you make the shot?"
"I can aim at it," Wiremu informed me. "But from here I have no guarantee that the rocket will fly in a straight line. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a miss."
The Daemon was four clicks away, extreme range even for the SPANKr.
I got an idea. "Bee, you hear me?"
"Loud and clear Sarge, need any help?"
"Think you can blow up…that target?"
"Ouch, it's a tough shot."
Bee was on the opposite side of the spaceport, but his position had a line of sight to the tank.
"What about the tanker, think the laser will ignite it?"
"Sure, provided it has anything flammable in it. There could be milk inside of it for all I know."
"Do it."
"Belay that," Hayes ordered. "Castillo, what makes you think you can waste a Spartan shot on a tank on your side of the yard?"
Another shot was fired from the Daemon, this time it killed at least three soldiers trying to set up a machine gun.
"That," I replied simply.
Bee didn't wait for me to say anything else or for Hayes to give the go sign. I saw faint, flickering, red lasers and then a red line appeared out of nowhere. The Spartan Laser hit the point underneath the cannon of the tank. It had burned through the armor and punched out the other side. The heat had melted the barrel of the cannon, and it fell down before two faint figures climbed out of the hatch.
"Damn, I was aiming for the cannon."
He had missed his target by a few inches at a range of four and a half kilometers away. With a shoulder mounted weapon.
"You've got good pulse man," one of his squadmates voiced. It might've been Corporal Escamilla, but I hadn't learned all of my platoon's names. "Didn't even have to aim at the tanker."
I nodded in agreement. That had been a helluva shot.
"Shadow transports," I warned a second later. They were coming at us at full speed. "Target the lead one."
A few seconds elapsed before a rocket burst through the windows of the control tower. It flew straight at nothing before the Shadow's speed put the transport vehicle right in the way of the rocket. Boom it went and just like that a dozen covvies were dead. Another dozen followed as Wiremu hit a second transport. The two wrecked Shadows meant that the rest had to go around their wreckage, making themselves targets. Easy targets.
They stopped, eventually, and infantry started dismounting. The brutes moved several of our human vehicles to form a nice barrier. The barricade got them out of the field of fire. Well, out of some fields of fire. I got a brute captain in my beads and squeezed the trigger lightly. The armor-piercing round left a vapor trail behind before it made the brute's head explode. I laughed as I saw a grunt scream and recoil in fear.
"Spirits coming in," Novak warned. "Three of them, fast and low."
"Pavel, time to unveil our special weapon," I ordered. Take 'em down, the last thing we need is a bunch of troops amongst us."
"Aye, aye cap'n."
Our secret weapon in question was, you'll never guess it, a AAA gun from the Rain Forest Wars. It was here on an exhibit and it just so happened to use rounds that our ships could produce. The explosive shells would take down a Spirit dropship with a couple of hits at the most. The AAA gun had four barrels and had to be fired manually. It was one of those almost-impromptu guns made by the rebels, effective and sturdy. The fact that it was still in working order after four centuries was a small miracle in itself.
"In range," Pavel called.
"Targeting," Brisbois said. "Targeted."
"Fire," I ordered.
The tracer rounds lit up even in the middle of the day. The first few missed by a couple of feet, but when Serge realized that he had overcompensated for the drop he re-aimed and started pounding the lead Spirit. It started falling to the ground after the explosions tore off one of its two arms. The second one met the same fate even as it tried to bank, but the buildings around had it trapped. The third and last transport stopped abruptly before attempting to escape in reverse. Serge didn't let it escape, the French Foreign Legionnaire killed the third craft with solid body shots.
"Nice job," I complimented him. "Hide the gun, but keep it ready."
The battle started growing in intensity. Two Scorpion tanks were moved to aid us in the struggle. They kept themselves moving while firing at hard targets and buildings, attempting to bring a mountain of debris on top of the enemies. Meanwhile, Pavel and his section of the squad attempted to hold back the enemy at all costs, but there were simply too many of them. I took my time when picking targets. Shooting several officers at a time would only serve to bring me heat, I didn't want that. Instead, I mostly used my range finder and laser designator to call in mortar strikes. The mortar teams were low on ammo, so I just called them in on Hunters or Wraiths.
We sure could've used an H-165 Forward Observer Module, but we had no ships or satellites to rain missiles on out targets.
"They're reaching our frontline!" Pavel cursed. "Earn your pay, ladies!"
I spotted the dog running away from the gunfire and plasma fire. Away from the battle. I cursed when it didn't run towards the humans, instead drawing a perpendicular line and attempting to escape the battle altogether. The dog had just signed its death sentence.
"Fuck," I said. Thankfully, my squad took it to mean that I was frustrated at the covvies.
Then I spotted something that drew my attention from the dog. A brute, bigger and faster than all else. It had a plasma turret and wielded it as easily as I could a pistol. It was very obviously a chieftain, probably the man in command of this first assault. The sheer volume of firepower made it a highly visible target. A very tempting one at that.
I aimed, breathed in and out, accounted for the minimal drop, and fired. The bullet punched the highly ornate helmet that wobbled on top of the animal's head before turning its brain into mush. The chieftain collapsed.
One could just feel the entire assault wavering with that. I could relate to the cockiness that recon snipers often carried around.
"Boom, headshot," I boasted.
"There he goes," Pavel moaned. He was probably rolling his eyes right now.
The enemy assault had wavered. A few minutes after that they started falling back to the original barricade. They were now reinforcing it with deployable covers and shield walls. A couple of Scorpion shots ought to bring down any wall, but the mortars were just outside of range. Even with my rifle I'd have a tough time hitting anything behind it, especially now that they had all that hard cover.
"What now?" Novak asked. She had been the last to stop firing.
"We wait for the second assault," I replied simply. "You are under orders from the ranking officer down there," I reminded the squad. "So don't look up to me for everything."
There was a pause. Not quite audible, but close enough. That had certainly been an unusual order.
The conversation grinded to a halt after that. Everyone helped pick up the bodies and take their ammo during the lull. The barricades were reinforced and new positions were taken. I observed the process through the Oracle scope.
"Eyes up," I called the moment I saw the Wraith mortar shots arching up towards us. "It's beginning."
Minutes later I found myself firing at brutes indiscriminately, whether they were officers or not. I tried to save the marines and soldiers down there, hitting the brutes closest to the line, occasionally taking the time to target a higher-ranking ape. My ears were ringing constantly, I was going to have them checked the moment I got back on the ship. If I got back on the ship.
A brute fell down as a round severed its head from the rest of its body. Another one collapsed as I hit it in the chest. Others died, most of them had already killed before I got my sights of them. Some I ended before they could do the same to my comrades. I was trying my best, but I wasn't fast enough, not by any means. Pavel and his fireteam were holding their sector, but they were the best, and the rest of our allies weren't nearly as good or experienced. If the line broke we'd have to take a step back.
"Shit, I need a danger close mission," Pavel finally said. "We need those fuckers wiped out."
I nodded silently and called in the strike. "Heads down!"
I could barely hear the explosions from up here, but I could certainly see the limbs flying. The mortar rounds decimated the enemy and then decimated them again. By the time the smoke cleared only half of the original aliens remained alive. Those were dazed and wounded, they were wiped out within a minute. The ones further back slowly returned to their barricades. They were no doubt preparing for a third assault.
"That's the last one you get," I warned. "Mortar ammo is low and those crews are going to be pulling back."
"Understood," Pavel said. "Officer in charge was killed in the last assault."
"Guess you got yourself your own command," I congratulated. "Enjoy."
He scoffed. "Yeah, right."
The third attempt to attack came afterwards. The sun was still up in the ski, but soon enough it would go down. We needed to keep them out as long as we could. I could see the occasional dropship flying way back, dropping troops and equipment. They were preparing for a big assault. Reinforcements were called and our positions were strengthened, but we were underpowered, even with a whole battalion protecting the spaceport.
"Castillo," Lieutenant Hayes chimed in on my radio. "Bad news."
"Is there any other kind?" I replied. "What is it, El-tee?"
"Enemy fleet jumped in the system, they're already making the way towards the planet."
"Shit," I said. "What's the plan?"
"We have the More Badass Than Thou coming down here to evacuate the marine battalion as soon as the last civvies are out. The rest of our ground forces around the planet are already being pulled out."
"And the local Army?"
"They'll do what they can, but there's a lot of them."
"There's still over a million civilians left all over the planet," I mused. "Damn." I zoomed in on some movement and relaxed when I saw that it was nothing.
"What's our job now?"
"We're going to be last ones out," Lieutenant Hayes explained. "We're going to be pulled out by Pelican."
"That sucks," I said. "Well, we'll do our best."
"You don't have to tell me that," she stated. "It's expected of you."
"Aye, aye, sir."
I relayed the news to my squad; they received it better than most would've. It was our job to be the first ones in and the last ones out after all.
"Frank, think we can get some air support here?" Pavel asked me. "Looks like we might need it soon."
"The Ground Attack Air Wing-"
"Just call it the GAAW," he interrupted.
"The GAAW," I groaned. "Is protecting the civilian ships, the Pelicans are being used to transport wounded and civilians to the ships without atmospheric capability," I lectured him.
"I know, I know, just don't talk to me as if I was a baby. Besides, a pair of Hornets couldn't hurt."
"No, they couldn't," I agreed.
I waited until they made their first move.
You know, I expected the brutes to start their assault the same way, bunch of grunts on Ghosts and perhaps a few Choppers thrown in the mix. After pounding our defenses they'd send regular infantry, some heavy weapons and hunters were definitely a probability. I didn't really expect them to launch a full-blown combined arms assault.
Banshees lifted off from behind the wall of vehicles and deployable covers that they had built in the last couple of hours. A dozen purple Banshees slowly rose up before flying down the street towards us. They let out green explosive rounds, aiming for the improvised instacrete bunkers down there. A couple of them were hit by SPANKr fire, but the others flew past our perimeter and turned around to fire at our forces from the rear.
"Serge, shoot 'em out of the sky!" I ordered. "Wiremu!"
"I'm on it, I'm on it!"
The fliers were screaming past, but none of them had spotted my hiding spot. I wanted to shoot at them, to do something, but I knew that giving away my position would do more harm than good. The Banshees strafed the marines on the ground, they tried taking out Serge's AAA gun as soon as he started firing on them, but Wiremu and other men with rocket launchers kept them busy while trying to avoid getting shot.
Right when it seemed like the Banshees were going to pull off over two dozen Prowlers emerged from behind the enemy line. They were packed to the brim with grunts and jackals. A couple of them exploded form sustained machine gun fire, but the rest made their way to the front and dropped off the troops clinging to them before slowly sliding backwards and forming a second wall of sorts. The brutes on the turrets started firing at our positions.
They made for very tempting targets, stationary and highly visible.
After burning through a box of 14.55x114mm APFSDS rounds I was finally spotted. Plasma rounds started hitting the edge of the roof, melting the metal and spraying bits of molten stuff around. I reloaded my rifle and fired at the brutes still on the turrets. Grunts and jackals had taken over the dead gunners and were making full use of the weapons. The troops down there were returning fire, but they were outgunned and the alien infantry. I kept firing until I saw a tank. A Daemon to be precise.
The tank had turned a corner and had received a couple of bullets for its trouble, but nothing above a pinprick. It turned and aimed at the base of the tower before slowly raising its barrel. The shot hit the ceiling next to me, blowing a huge hole on it. I grabbed the rifle and the remaining ammunition before jumping down the hole. I landed sooner than I expected, but the floor gave way under me and I found myself landing on top of a console.
"Gunny?" Wiremu asked. "What the-"
"Get down!"
Another shot was fired and this time it went through the windows before detonating against the ceiling of the control room. The explosion sent shrapnel everywhere, but luckily none of us were hit.
"Wiremu!" I shouted. "Wiremu?"
"I'm fine," he replied. "Banged up but fine."
"We have to get out of here!" I yelled, already climbing over the wrecked remains of consoles and desks to make my way to the door.
"Not without payback," he grunted.
Wiremu raised his SPANKr and fired two rockets in quick succession. He turned around to pick up a small crate filled with M19 SSMs and threw it at me. I caught it with some trouble, fumbling the ammunition box and rifle on my hands before managing to get a good grip on all of them. Lance Corporal Wiremu grabbed two of those crates and jumped over the wreckage before making it to the door. We ran down the stairs even as the Daemon pulverized the top of the control tower.
"Hold on, hold on," I ordered, stopping in front of a small window.
The window overlooked the battle in front of us. I grabbed the SRS99 and used the butt to break the glass. I positioned the barrel on the frame for support and searched for a target. I found them immediately. A brute with a fuel rod was firing while a jackal next to it made use of its beam rifle. The two shots made for clean kills.
"Move, move!" I urged Wiremu.
We reached the bottom of the control tower. The area in front of us was a massive polycrete floor, designed to support the weight of massive space liners without cracking. About five or six hundred meters away I could see ships being filled up with civilians. Even further back I could see more plasma fire flying in all directions. The spaceport was almost empty of civilians, we would be leaving soon.
"Gunny, I'm off to help there," Wiremu told me.
I nodded and took position behind one of the tower's walls, aiming at the battle. I didn't have a very good vantage from here, but I made use of my powerful rifle. Brutes and grunts with heavy weapons found themselves afraid and looking for cover. For a moment it seemed like we might be able to hold the enemy assault. Then the aliens sent their Wraiths charging forward. The tanks rammed through destroyed Shadows, Ghosts, and Prowlers, pushing them aside like toys. The Daemon switched to fire at our bunkers, it was damaged, but still in working order.
"Pavel, I need that Daemon out, it's killing us."
"We're working on it!" he yelled back. "Frank, jump pack brutes, we can't be flanked right now!"
I scanned the air, looking for the flashes of their jump packs. "It's been a while since I last duck hunted," I mumbled. "Novak, help me with those."
The brutes were highly visible targets, even if their speed and trajectory made them all but impossible to kill. I took deep breaths before firing. Three of my shots missed, but the last one hit one of the lead brutes. Novak missed all of the shots with her first mag, but on the second one she hit two of the brutes. They hit the ground right in front of our frontline and jumped again. I took two of them down before they could get speed. Novak evened it up with another two kills. She was good.
The few that landed behind our enemy lines were quickly handled. If they tried to take cover from me they were hit by Novak and the other way around.
"Good work," I told her.
"Thanks," she replied, sounding happy at the compliment. "I'm moving out, this position is becoming way too hot."
I nodded without bothering to reply. A trio of needles embedded themselves in the polycrete walls of the control tower, sending rock bits to my face. I jerked back and looked for new cover. The closest thing to me was a Scorpion tank thirty meters away. There was absolutely nothing in between it and myself other than a couple of civilian corpses. I made my mind and sprinted out of cover. Needles flew in front and behind me, missing by ridiculously small amounts of space. I ducked, rolled, and stopped right in the open to fire back. The jackal that was firing at me reached for cover, but a quarter of an inch of metal wasn't going to stop an armor piercing round that was the size of a small beer bottle.
I saw the puff of blood on the other side and chuckled with satisfaction. Of course, my sense of victory was short lived, as two Wraith mortars hit the tank I was heading towards. The first one nicked the front armor, damaging it heavily. The second one landed right on one of the threads, but the heat was enough to cause something to detonate. I ran towards the tank, the gunner was dead, half his body atomized and the other half scorched black. The driver still had vitals.
I tore the twisted metal hatch from the hinges, surprising even myself as I did so, and quickly pulled the man out of the cabin. I dragged him behind the Scorpion and placed him with his back against the tank. Half of the tanker's face was burned and one of his arms was most definitely going to be amputated. If he even lived.
"Hey, hey, you ok?" I asked. "Can you hear me?"
The man slowly nodded, dazed and confused and probably in terrible pain. "Is-uh-is the tank ok?"
I looked at it. "Can't move, but it can probably fire," I told him. I grabbed a syringe of painkillers and stabbed the man's leg with it. He visibly relaxed and took a deep breath before looking me in the eyes.
"Kill those fuckers."
I smiled. He was my kind of man. "Done." I grabbed him and pulled him slightly to the left so that the ejected shells wouldn't hit him when the tank fired. "Stay here, deep breaths. You'll be fine."
He nodded, he was already slipping into unconsciousness.
I turned around and climbed inside the tank. The firing systems were heavily damaged and some controls looked to be completely destroyed, but I could move the turret and fire.
Let me tell you something. You do not want to be near a non-trained marine firing a tank's cannon visually and with no electronic aid.
The first shot was a beautiful hit, plowing through the damaged front armor of the Daemon that had been harassing us. "Guess I have to do your own job for you, huh?" I taunted Pavel.
I then aimed at a Wraith. I missed by a good ten feet, instead the round flew back and hit a Prowler. I shrugged. It was a fair tradeoff. I adjusted my aim slightly and this time hit the Wraith's cannon, damaging it beyond repair. I was lucky that I hit there, because if I had missed or if the round had bounced off the armor the Wraith would've shot me.
Still, I decided that I had had enough of it and jumped out of the tank. The man behind was unconscious already, even despite the three smoking shell casings next to him. I grabbed him and carried him towards our frontline, slowly dropping him behind a concrete divider. My SRS99 had one magazine left, but I still had all my BR55 mags on their holsters.
A minute and four dead brutes later I found myself tossing the sniper rifle aside and running towards the frontline. Pavel was manning an HMG, firing at grunts trying to rush us.
"Hey bud," I said.
"Frank," he said gruffly. "We're preparing to pull back to the second line, you're highest rank here, give the order."
I examined the battle with care, ducking occasionally to avoid having my head blown off. To my right and left I saw my squad and marines. Most of the marines that I saw were dead, but the others were fighting professionally and giving as good as they got. The second line was a line of buildings right behind the improvised trenches and bunkers. They already had over half our troops in there, but the ones that were out here would do good to find cover. "Start pulling back," I ordered. "But we can't give those buildings. If we do then we'll be easy targets."
I was talking about the huge open space without any sort of cover in between us and the evac point.
"Castillo," Hayes came in. Damn, her voice was angelical, even despite the tone. "All the civilians are either dead or gone, pull your men back."
"We need someone to cover us, sir," I told her. "There's half a mile between us and safety."
"Of course, I already got Captain Galván to send a bunch of Tortoises your way. Do you take me for an idiot?"
"'Course not, sir. Good thinking." I spoke to the men and women here, "Fall back to the second line! We're going to be pulling back!"
Nobody questioned that order. Machine gun crews packed up their weapons while everybody else provided a wall of gunfire. Pavel unmounted the HMG and shouldered it, groaning under the weight. I took the opportunity to hit grunts and jackals trying to be heroes while Pavel ran back. I garbbed the tripod, folded it and moved back, firing as I went. Once we were all in the building the crews started deploying the guns again.
"What's the situation!" I ordered. Yes, ordered.
"Fifteen percent casualties," a marine told me. "We still have our heavy weapons and the AAA is in working order."
I nodded. "We're one tank down, but overall we're better than I expected."
"Gunnery Sergeant Castillo?"
"That's me," I replied to the voice in my radio.
"Tortoises are ready, we can't move any closer."
"Roger, what's your distance?"
"Fifty meters from your position Gunny."
"Got it, I'm sending men out."
"Hurry up."
"Ok, our carriages are here," I announced. "Wounded and non-specialized squads pull out first."
The building I was in suddenly felt a little emptier. Pavel was firing his weapon without even stopping. Even with the Gatling design I feared that he was risking an overheat. I fired occasionally, hitting the brutes that were now using our trenches for cover. Grenades rained down on the aliens, little splashes of blood emerged here and there, marking the accurate throws.
"We're in."
"Non heavy weapons pull out," I ordered.
Now Pavel and I were sharing this small building with two gunners. They were firing accurately in short bursts when compared to Pavel's spraying. He delayed and stunned enemies while the other crew took out the harder targets. I dedicated myself to shooting grunts. There were a lot of them, and the fear of their masters kept them going, firing wildly and squealing in panic and anger. When I got the clear sign from the second unit falling back I gave the order for everybody except my own squad to fall back.
The sudden decrease in numbers meant that the aliens really started gaining ground on us. Grunts were falling dead just meters from the walls of this buildings. Jackals were now forming shield phalanxes and brutes were within grenade range. It was getting too hot to wait any longer.
Banshees.
Fucking awesome.
"Banshees!" Almers yelled. "Serge!"
I heard the sound of the AAA firing. It was much louder down here. "Fall back!" I ordered. "To the APCs!"
Pavel abandoned his gun and ran away, I followed him, fire and needles trying to hit us. Novak and Beckel emerged from another building next to us, Wiremu tossed a pair of grenades before running after them. Almers and Caboose were sprinting towards the Tortoise APCs further away. Serge was trying to shoot down the Banshees with his museum piece. I ran yelling at him to get out of the goddamn seat.
A single fuel rod flew towards him. Serge jumped out, running as the plasma round curved down, guided by some unknown tracking mechanism, and exploded upon impact. The AAA was history, now only a pile of mangled metal.
Pavel stopped and ran towards Serge, who was slowly getting up. Without even requiring an order everyone stopped and went on their knees to provide covering fire. I urged Pavel while hitting two jackals.
Then I heard a thunk right next to me.
The spike grenade was the size of a small baseball bat. And it was beeping.
Huh, been a while since I last saw one of those.
Of course I didn't stay there like an idiot. I was hardwired to react to things like this. Having stun grenades thrown at me during bootcamp had left me with the closest thing that I had to a shield against grenades. Personal experience also allowed me to know precisely how much time I had to run before I had to dive. I took three long steps before jumping forward as hard as I could. The grenade blew up, sending sharp spikes in every direction. A couple of them bounced off my armor and a couple didn't, but none pierced it.
I groaned and turned around, scrambling to get up.
"Gunny!" Beckel yelled in my face. "You all right?"
"Yeah," I replied, taking his hand. "Get of my face."
"Gee, sorry."
"To the Tortoise," I ordered. "Now."
"Serge's fine," Pavel informed me before I could even ask. "Let's go."
The last Tortoise armored personnel carrier was waiting for us with the rear hatch doors open. The gun on top was firing at targets with ten round bursts, the high caliber guaranteed that each burst was a kill. A marine was firing with an MA5K at the enemies behind us. Each of us were now running towards the APC with all the speed that we could muster. Pavel all but threw Serge right before Beckel slid in. I stopped and fired at onrushing grunts while slowly walking backwards. The moment both my feet were in the tank the doors closed and we sped off.
"Status?" I asked.
Everyone patted themselves all over, checking for wounds that they might've not felt.
"Green," Wiremu said after a while.
"Excellent." I opened the line to Hayes. "El-tee, what's the ETA on the More Badass Than Thou?"
I like the name, but couldn't they have made it shorter?
"Fifteen minutes, they're slingshoting around the planet."
"Hmm," I hummed. "What's our defense plan?"
"You'll see it soon enough."
I felt the Tortoise turning and grabbed a handle to avoid sliding sideways. It was cramped in here, and Serge was still dazed from the explosion, but he wasn't complaining. The Tortoise stopped and opened its hatches to reveal the front of another APC. I exited the APC with care and saw that all of the Armadillos had been packed into a circle. There were Scorpions here and there, with their cannons aimed outside. The battalions two deployed Elephants were one next to the other in the middle. It was packed with marines. Even with Pelicans taking off with Warthogs attached to their tails and bursting out with men I could tell that a single Wraith shot inside the perimeter would be costly in both lives and…well, mostly lives.
"Castillo, you're here."
"Yes, sir," I saluted. "My squad is green and ready to go."
Lieutenant Hayes had her helmet under her arm and her hair was messy. She looked alluring.
No Frank no.
"What's with PFC Brisbois?"
"Serge? Got a little shaken up from an explosion." I looked at the Frenchman, he was standing up but using a side of the Tortoise that had gotten us here to steady himself. "Hasn't complained one bit."
"And you?"
"What about me?"
Lieutenant Hayes tapped my right shoulder, bringing the four blades embedded there to my attention. I looked at them and rolled my shoulder around, trying to see if it'd be troublesome. The four jagged spikes form the spike grenade looked oddly fitting on my shoulder armor. "Grenade. It's nothing."
Hayes shook her head. "You are too…flamboyant." The way she said the word was incredibly sexy. "Try to be less so."
"Uh, yes, sir. I don't mean to come of as a showoff."
"I never said you were. I don't care if you throw yourself of a bridge to score an upside down headshot on a hunter with a rocket launcher, but I care of you make your team follow you. Their safety is your responsibility."
"I am aware of that," I assured her. "This isn't my first command."
She sighed. "Just try and act like a decent noncom, command may see it fit to make you an officer, you'd better learn to be one."
"Yes, sir."
"Now set up your squad to defend this section of the perimeter."
I nodded. Second squad, mount up, we're going to be bringing the pain."
They took position in between the Tortoises or above them, aiming out of our defense perimeter. It was a well thought strategy, we'd be protected from everything except for an air assault or Wraith mortars. The SAM batteries on the Elephants and the missile pods granted safety against the former. The incredibly high amount of tanks and autocannons we had at our disposal guaranteed that any Wraith firing on us was basically suicidal.
The few Hornets that we had with us were out hunting for Banshees and strafing ground positions. The enemy was already deploying shields and placing their own vehicles in between them and us. They were prepared for a siege, but they didn't know that a UNSC frigate was coming here to save everybody's asses. That was bound to give them a little jolt. Already they were beginning to fire, probably thinking that they had us with our backs against the wall.
Technically they did, but the wall happened to be angry at them.
What if the frigate doesn't make it.
"Ah Francisco, you are such a depressing dick, you know." Schitzo paced back and forth in front of my sight. "You should plan for contingencies, just in case, steal a Tortoise and you just might make it."
"Shut up," Scarecrow growled. "The frigate will be here."
"I hope so…"
"Frank?" Pavel asked.
"Nothing," I said. "Ignore it."
"You ok?"
"Never better," I grunted.
Pavel didn't say anything, he knew enough about my…affliction to know what was going on. He was concerned. Oh, not necessarily for me, he knew very well that I could have a conversation while gutting aliens, but he was most definitely worried that one time that conversation would be the cause of someone's death. It was a legitimate concern. I mean, I would be pissed if I died because Pavel was talking to his imaginary friends.
"What's the first thing you're gonna do when we're back in Reach?" Almers asked. Knowing him, he was talking to Beckel.
Sure enough, Beckel replied. "Don't know, there's this new club in New Alexandria that I really want to try."
I remembered when I used to go clubbing.
"Sounds good," Almers replied. "Hey Novak, you up for some partying?"
"What's the drinking age in Viery?" Wiremu asked. "How old are you Miranda?"
"I-um, nineteen."
"Damn, fresh out of high school and bootcamp," Beckel stated. "Shave a year and a month from you and you'd be a child soldier."
"I don't understand," Novak said in confusion. "What does my age have anything to do with-"
"Ever gone into a club?" Almers asked, putting it quite bluntly.
"Um…no?"
"Is that a yes or a no?"
"No, I've never gone into a club," Miranda replied.
"Ever had a drink?" Wiremu asked. Of course he did.
"Of course I have!" she exclaimed, sounding offended at the mere notion of being thought a boring high school girl.
With looks like hers I doubted she lacked attention.
"What drink do you like the most?" Beckel pressured her for information.
I jumped in. "Why so curious? Trying to get her drunk?"
"'Course not, just trying to get to know her."
"Any reason why?" Pavel asked, joining in on the fun.
"She's a squad mate and I think I should be friends with her?" he asked, annoyed.
"You never asked me what my favorite drink was," Pavel complained.
"Didn't ask me either," Almers said. "Dick."
"Wow," Beckel groaned. "With friends like these…"
"Who said we were friends?" Pavel asked him. "Eyes open Beckel."
"I like vodka…" Novak said quietly.
The entire squad sans Caboose and Serge erupted in laughter. Well, Novak didn't laugh either. I guess only about half the squad laughed. Well, one more than half if you want to be precise. Once we had stopped laughing I assured her that I also liked Vodka for my mixed drinks.
"But I'm more of a beer and whisky man," I said.
"Tell me about it," Pavel said. Caboose chuckled.
And now the squad thought that I was an alcoholic.
"Are they wrong?" Schitzo asked.
Recovering alcoholic.
"Once an alcoholic…"
The conversation was cut short. The attack was beginning.
Plasma volleys hit the Tortoises' armor. The ceramic and titanium plates started boiling, letting out steam and hissing from the heat. The smoke interfered with my sight, but I managed to score some kills, firing sporadically and letting the gunners on the APCs and tanks do most of the heavy lifting. A couple of the vehicles exploded when shoulder mounted explosives were fired at them. I turned around to see a pair of Tortoises in flames. Several marines rushed towards them to try and save the men inside and to block the hole in the defense. Above me the Hornets were firing it all into the enemy, zigzagging like crazy to avoid being shot down. More than one pilot failed the task and was shot down.
"Three grunts, fuel rods," I called.
The grunts were gunned down immediately, on fired into the ground on reflex, vaporizing the trio. It was almost comedic to see.
I couldn't see any brutes storming our position now. They were sending the grunts and the jackals ahead. The grunts were no better than cannon fodder, the jackals did a little better, forming shield walls and moving forward at a very slow pace, a wall of bullets slowing down their pace. Further back the covvies had set turrets, they were strafing our positions with automatic fire. The turrets couldn't do much damage, but they suppressed our gunfire.
"Castillo, jackal fireteams headed your way," Hayes called.
"Take 'em out," I ordered. "Jackals are priority."
As we slowed them down, the aliens wore us down. It was a give and take, with us giving more than we were taking. So far we were doing well, but they had us surrounded and outnumbered. We were running out of time. Things started taking a turn for the worse when Spirit dropships started arriving, dropping of troops and strafing our positions. Their angle allowed them to rain fire inside our little circle. The screams were loud and they were clear. It served only to anger me.
"Badass is inbound!" a gruff voice called. "Prepare to evacuate."
The first thing that occurred to me was that Badass was a very good way to shorten the frigate's full name. The second thing to occur to me was that the ship didn't deserve that name. It was a freaking frigate, not a cruiser or carrier. Ridiculous.
After I was done pondering on ship naming traditions the Badass opened up. The frigate wasn't designed as a fire attack ship, but its point defense guns were more than a match for the puny infantry soldiers and the occasional ground vehicle.
The .50mm PDGs fired explosive rounds at the ground, the polycrete was turned into dust with the explosions. The aliens were turned into pools of blood if they were hit. All of a sudden the enemy fire all but stopped. I turned around to see the UNSC More Badass Than Thou slow down to a halt. It opened its hangar bay doors while splattering the entire enemy force that happened to be underneath it. I laughed at the thought of hundreds of aliens being flattened in between a ship and the ground.
The two Elephants started moving, the vehicles and marines in between them moving inside the hangar bay. It was going to be pretty crowded inside, but whoever tried to board the Badass would be in for a surprise.
The entire ring of defense started slowly shifting towards the ship, the aliens were only just beginning to recover from a fucking ship dropping on top of them and even then most of the aliens fired at the ship, barely scratching its armor. Only the brutes fired on us. Mostly they missed.
The sheer number of soldiers and vehicles on the ground made for a slow process, any individual marines were quickly moved out of the hangar and the vehicles were ordered into rows to allow more tanks and APCs to fit inside. The few 'Hogs that hadn't been lifted off before were put in the elevators and lifted towards other decks.
Our platoon was on the rear guard. Us and a couple other squads of marines were firing full auto, burning through our ammunition as we delayed the enemy. It shouldn't be long before we could climb on board the frigate and take our leave of this wretched planet.
"What the hell is that?" Snark asked, his voice full with shock.
I looked all around and then I saw it.
A Covenant corvette. It looked terribly small at this range, but it was even bigger than a UNSC frigate. I blinked as a dozen blue blobs screamed by. All of them collided with the Badass. The PDGs immediately switched targets and started firing away at the unshielded enemy ship. Suddenly the few of us left out here were under heavy fire from the enemy infantry. The two Tortoise APCs provided support with their autocannons and their coaxial machine guns, but it wouldn't be enough to neutralize a horde of angry aliens.
"Ship's taking off!" Hayes called. "They can't take much more!"
I could feel the engines heating up all the way down here. The Badass was going to leave. I turned around and saw two Scorpions and a Tortoise climb the ramp along with a Tortoise transport. The hangar doors started closing.
"The fuck?!" I yelled.
"They're sending Pelicans to pick us up!" Hayes yelled.
We were taking fire from the sides now, but the Pelicans only had to travel a few dozen meters from their hangars to us. Eight Pelicans slammed down on the floor, next to the remaining 'Hogs and Tortoises. The one closest to us attached its clamps to a Tortoise.
"Come on, let's go!" I yelled, it was a miracle that none of us were being hit. Hell, the frigate was already taking off.
I climbed inside the Pelican and fired wildly while the ODSTs jumped inside with me. Not all of them belonged to my squad, but that wasn't important. Before all of us were inside the Badass boosted off, taking the top off a couple of buildings as it sped away to break orbit. The Pelicans started taking off around us. One of them was shot out of the sky before it could even climb up and several others were hit with heavy fire. Ours was a lucky one, we didn't draw much fire for some reason. As soon as I stopped seeing Helljumpers on the ground I ran to the cockpit.
"Go, go, go!"
"Music to my ears!" the pilot said.
You see, the Pelican can be incredibly fast when in need. Unfortunately, with us carrying an armored personnel carrier with three men inside and half a load worth of men and women meant that the craft needed some time to gain full speed. From the cockpit I could see New Montevideo disappearing and the ground getting further away.
I patted the pilot on the shoulder and smiled, taking my helmet off. "Nice work buddy."
"What can I say?" he chuckled.
I turned to face the copilot and nodded at him too. "We good?"
"We-"
Then the Pelican shook sideways, slamming me onto the wall. For a moment I groaned in annoyance. The I realized what was happening.
"Mayday, mayday!" the pilot yelled. "This is Apple-1, we're hit, our starboard engines are in flames, I repeat, we are hit."
There was some noise on the radio that I couldn't quite make out. I pulled myself up and walked back to the cargo bay. "Strap down!" I ordered. "Tighten those belts!"
I saw my old and new squadmates as well as other Helljumpers strap down. One of them even crossed himself.
"Hey, hey!" I yelled in the copilot's ear. "What's the bird's status?"
"Not good! Banshee's on our ass, we're sending flares out, but this ship's going down!"
"Shit."
If we went down we were stuck here.
"Lieutenant," I said, communicating with Hayes. "Our Pelican's hit, we're going down."
"Shit."
"The prowler, the…uh, the…" I fumbled for the name.
"Yeah, yeah, the prowler," she urged me. "It could work, but the captain will never agree with it."
"Oh he will," I said, trying to sound sure of myself. If the captain of the ONI prowler was the spook that I expected him to be he probably knew a little bit about me. Hell, even if he didn't have any direct knowledge it was likely that one of the several officers in there did. It was our only chance.
"Hydraulics are out, the starboard engine is gone, we're going down. I repeat Apple-1 is going down!"
I was in a terrible spot for any kind of crash landing. Standing up in the cockpit. I could see the ground getting closer even as the pilot tried to gain as much speed with our remaining engines as he could. With luck we would slide on the ground instead of crashing directly down. With luck we might survive. With luck we might even get picked up.
I walked out of the cockpit and pressed my back against the wall separating the cargo bay from the cockpit. I closed my eyes and dropped my rifle. I brought my hands together over my chest and cracked my knuckles.
When I opened my eyes Schitzo was standing there in front of me. "Feet first into hell. Right?"
Dayum. Thanks to SilasWhitfield and Alshep for proofreading.
Who the hell calls a ship the More Badass Than Thou? I mean, seriously. Oh...right.
Well, here's the next chapter, I'm sorry for the delay, but there you have it. Now, I have a very important announcement to make. One of this fanfic's readers is currently writing his very own story. It is called Halo Prime and is, you guessed it, a Halo/Metroid crossover. Now, this by itself wouldn't be enough for me to make this announcement, even taking into account the excellent quality of the story. The author of the story, AbsoluteDestruction did me a big favor and gave Frank and Pavel a little cameo in the story, you should check it out, just saying.
To Brother of Death: I've apologized for the delays, and I do the best I can, but I have to admit that I have been slacking off a bit. On the rest of your comment, I don't believe that your friend has approached me to use any of his ideas, but if he (or you) did, I'm very open to suggestions. As for your first comment: worry not, answers will come in their due time, but they will come.
To graysontyoung: No, it's not the same guy.
To EveryoneElse: Thanks for reviewing guys.
I apologize for the cliffhanger but must ask of you a little favor. Think we can make it to 500 reviews with this chapter?
Stay strong.
-casquis