Chapter CXLV: Offices
May 5, 2547 (UNSC Calendar)/two years later
UNSC Flawless, in orbit above Skopje, Philippus System
"I still don't know whether it was justifiable to defend that damned building instead of civilians."- Staff Sergeant Pavel Klaus
Finally picked this little piece of crap again. It's been a long time since I last wrote, and those little accounts of Sargasso and Cyrus VII barely count. Oh well, let's get to it.
The last year was hell. I guess it should be enough to say that 2546 was not a kind year to humanity. Cyrus VII, Sargasso, and a dozen other worlds had been burned to a cinder by the Covenant. I had only fought in the first two, but it had been bad. Not to sound selfish, but on a personal level everything went to shit. Schitzo became an almost constant companion and others joined the program. That didn't do so well when talking about my personal life, but I had never performed better in combat. Talk about a double-edged sword, huh?
"I can't believe it took two whole years for me to become a PFC," Novak said quietly. Even when she was angry she was quiet.
"The UNSC wants everyone on the armed forces for as long as possible," Pavel informed her. "That's why none of us has had a promotion in a while."
"When was the last time you were promoted, Gunny?" Almers asked me.
"When I became a gunnery sergeant," I replied simply.
"Very informative, thanks Gunny," Beckel said with his characteristic dry sarcasm. "At least Wiremu got his promotion."
"Thank you," the man replied, obviously happy at having been named a full corporal. "You'll get a promotion eventually."
"Thanks a bunch," Almers said. "Very helpful. I can barely pay my bills."
"You live on a ship with everything for free half your life," Pavel said. "Sounds like a good deal."
"Except for the part where I'm constantly dodging incoming plasma fire."
"We wouldn't be Helljumpers," I started.
"If it were easy," everyone replied in unison.
"That's right." I banged the armrest loudly as I said that and everyone nodded in agreement. I was about to say something else to make everybody laugh when Hayes walked inside the briefing room. "Officer on deck!"
Lieutenant Hayes walked inside with her back straight and her helmet under her arm. "As you were." Hayes walked up to the podium as everyone sat back down.
"We've got our combat mission."
"Finally," someone grunted. "The jarheads are down there and have been fighting for almost a day."
"Be that as it may," Hayes said in a low growl. "We are only jumping now." As she spoke the holotable beside her and the screen behind lit up, displaying a huge complex, only five stories tall but occupying a large swath of land. "You are looking at the headquarters of Macedon Incorporated, subsidiary of Sinoviet Heavy Industries."
"Don't most building companies have their headquarters on Reach or Earth?" Royce asked.
"Do you really think that's an important question?" Hayes deadpanned. "As I was saying, the complex contains schematics as well as equipment and personnel experienced in the construction of UNSC combat vessels." The screen shifted to show a shipyard. "The complex also includes this shipyard, we are also supposed to protect it. Regular infantry is busy assisting in evacuation duties as well as trying to stall the Covenant, so every last Helljumper in the battlegroup will drop down to protect Macedon Inc."
"Sir, any intel on what we might be facing?" Master Sergeant Dajani asked.
"Ground forces are reporting both elites and brutes, not unheard of, but still pretty odd. I don't know if split chins and BKs are working together or if they're still segregated and frankly, I don't care."
"If they step in front of us, we kill them," Bee proclaimed boisterously.
"Exactly," the el-tee agreed. "Macedon's headquarters are currently being protected by a small Marine company from the Navarone, but they can't hold on forever, so armor up!"
"Second Squad!" I yelled even as other squad leaders called for their own men. "Move it!"
Everyone stripped down to their skivvies and put on their undersuits as fast as they could while Lieutenant Hayes gave us further intel.
"Two last things," she was saying. "Command has deemed us worthy enough to possess our very own combat AI."
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Hayes. She seemed very satisfied with the impact of her words. "That's right. Al?"
One of the holotubes suddenly showed a man dressed in a long tunic with a turban of sorts covering his face. Instead of a belt he was wearing a bandolier. I know it was a he because female AIs had an annoying tendency to sexualize their avatars. "Thank you Lieutenant," it said. The AI had a very strong Arabic accent. "I am Al-Hassani, but you can call me Al. I am a 'dumb' AI. I am programmed to assist and maximize effectiveness in small unit tactics as well as to facilitate communication and logistics. Time is of an essence here, so I won't give a detailed explanation of my functions right now."
With that, it disappeared.
"Well that was a weird speech," Miranda stated.
"Agreed," Brisbois said. In the entire time that I had known the legionnaire I don't think that I had heard him say more than three sentences outside combat situations. Even Grigori seemed a chatterbox when you compared them.
"Second Squad, pack as much ammo as you can, we might not get resupplied for a while is this goes south. Miranda, I want you to pack an SRS in addition to your regular weaponry. Apirama, take a double rocket load. Almers, Beckel, and Brisbois, you three take scopes for your MA5s, I don't plan on letting the covvie bastards get any closer than we need them to."
As I gave orders Schitzo strolled through the room, examining pieces of equipment as well as weaponry with a bored expression on his face. Thankfully, he didn't comment on my choice of words or sentence structure. It could get really annoying when that happened.
"Second Squad countoff!"
"Two," Pavel said.
"Three," Grigori echoed, his voice sounding equally bored.
"Four," Apirama said.
"Five," Beckel said.
"Six," Almers said.
"Sept," Brisbois said.
"Huit," Miranda said with a smile.
"You don't get to speak French Miri," Beckel told her jokingly. Still she appeared flustered. In almost three years as an ODST she hadn't grown out of her chronic shyness.
She could tackle an elite to the ground and stab it repeatedly, but she couldn't take a joke.
"Hey Gunny," Beckel called out. "Check it out." Beckel drew his knife and started spinning it in his hand, twirling it around his fingers and then finally having it spin a couple of times on his palm. "Not bad, eh?"
"Still got ways to go," I told him, drawing my own knife and going through the same series of tricks much faster than he had, only to end up with a ridiculously flashy spin through all of my right hand fingers before throwing it and catching it in a reverse grip. If there was something that I still prided myself in for acquiring naturally, it was my skill with the knife.
"Damn Gunny," Beckel whistled. "No wonder you pull that thing out every chance you get."
"You know," Almers started. "Out of context-"
"Shut it," Beckel interrupted.
"Smart choice," I told the man when he didn't finish his sentence. "Everyone ready?"
"We just did a countoff Frank…" Pavel reminded me.
I sighed. "Right. Pods."
"How exactly do we go?" Hayes asked from the middle of the drop room.
"We go feet first!" we loudly replied.
I climbed inside my pod, cracking my knuckles after securing my battle rifle to its designated holster. My sidearm was heavy on my thigh and grenades pulled down my webbing. I was ready to kill some bastards. My head started throbbing as the door closed from above, but the pain subsided within a few seconds. I had been getting more and more of those flash headaches lately, they didn't really do anything other than make me want to shoot something, so in this situation it might've actually been beneficial.
Red, yellow, green.
As always, my stomach lurched when we left the gravity of the ship. Below me I could see the skies of Skopje. This planet was three times as big as Earth or Reach, meaning that its atmosphere was a whole lot taller. We already were in low orbit, but it would take more than just thirty seconds to make it all the way down, increasing the chances of a malfunction in one of the pods. Not for the first time I caught myself praying unconsciously.
The first thing that I heard after we entered that mesosphere was countless radio transmissions from ground troops and civilian law enforcement. The next thing I noticed was that our distance to the ground was three hundred kilometers as opposed to a mere hundred.
"Holy shit that's a big storm," Wiremu pointed out.
I could see it, a tropical storm that was incredibly large to our left, it was too far away to cause any trouble to our pods, but it was simply enormous, covering an area the size of Eposz.
"Lieutenant, I'm picking combat chatter from the Marine unit at Macedon Headquarters, they are under heavy fire," Al-Hassani said suddenly, his voice broadcasted through all the pods.
"Sir, Second Squad can help while you secure the target," I offered.
"Ok, Third Squad and First Squad, we'll secure the west wing of the building, other ODST forces will take care of the rest."
"Second Squad, redirect to the following coordinates," I said as I used satellite imagery to locate the Marines' position.
I felt my pod shift a fraction of a degree as the temperature got higher and higher.
"I've never been on a jump this long," Pavel said weakly, he was no doubt sweating as profusely as I was.
"Almost one minute," Beckel said. "I would've thought that breaking a personal record would be more exciting."
As the large lot that was Macedon Incorporated Headquarters appeared we did some final adjustments to our trajectories and braced for impact.
The enemy unit closest to the main gate consisted of several squads of grunts commanded by a couple of elites. Our pods landed amongst them, Serge even managed to squash a little gas sucker with his pod.
As our doors opened we all emerged, firing into pre-designated fields of fire, taking out anything hostile in front of us. It was a maneuver that we had practiced several times before, even if this was only the first time we used it in combat. I could feel bullets flying a foot or two away from me, but none of them hit me. After three seconds the entire advance party was dead.
"Clear!" Miranda yelled.
"Set your booby traps," I ordered. "And head towards friendly forces."
The booby traps were similar to trip mines, but instead of producing a huge concussive and shrapnel explosion whenever someone stepped over them they just sent shrapnel whenever someone tried to use the pods for cover. It would serve to deny the opportunity of cover to the Covenant.
"Lieutenant," I called out to the man in charge of the Marine unit. "Everything all right?"
"If you consider twenty percent casualties all right then yeah," the woman replied with a husky voice. "Glad you arrived, Gunny."
I shrugged. "Sir, we have several units of Helljumpers dropping in to defend this location, you can call for evacuation, god knows you deserve it."
The lieutenant nodded and turned to her troops. "Pack up, I'm calling for extraction. Keep your guards up or I'll make sure that you stay behind."
"Second Squad, we've got the gate until more of our fellow Helljumpers decide to…jump in. See what I did there?"
Everybody groaned loudly, the Marines included, but they promptly glanced at their feet and tried to appear meek when I glared at them.
I examined the area that we would be guarding. No doubt that the Covenant would try to come through here first. There was a huge wrought iron gate that marked the main entrance to the complex, a relatively tall wall covered the offices while the shipyards themselves were only protected by chain link fences. From my position I could only see the gate and the walls surrounding it.
The entrance was two hundred meters away from the gate, and there was little to no cover in between the outer gate and the inner entrance other than a few abandoned cars and our booby-trapped pods.
The entrance to the building was like most building entrances. Huge glass windows that provided no real cover or concealment, but the Marines had set up barricades with sandbags and metal slabs. It was protectable enough and nothing short of high-explosive would be able to break down the barricades.
"Miranda, second floor, set up a nice perch, you know the rules for sniping."
She nodded and took off.
"Everyone else, bunker down here."
A Pelican arrived two minutes later, leaving us a bunch of ammunition and taking off with the exhausted and battered Marines. Second Squad was very calm, no one was saying much of anything and everybody was aiming at the gates. Smoke from the cars and dust from our pods blocked our view, gunfire and explosions were faint in the background, and every minute or so a bunch of HEVs would land hard in or around the complex. The minimap on my HUD displayed several ODST units protecting the area, but most of the recon drones had been shot down and I was willing to bet that the battlegroup and the defense fleet were having trouble.
"Enemy hostiles spotted, company strength, Grunts only," Miranda announced. "I don't see any other races."
"Whoa, back to basics then?" Pavel asked. "They haven't used wave tactics in ages."
"Not on us at the very least," I added.
"They're closing in," Miranda said pressingly. "Might want to get the-"
"When was the last time you had to face covvies using wave tactics?" Beckel asked me.
"I don't remember the last time, but I sure as hell remember the first one," I groaned. "Eden, one of the Outer Colonies."
"First deployment?" Almers asked.
"Yeah, I was the only one on my unit that got out alive, hell maybe the only one of my ship."
"I know a guy from Eden once," Apirama mentioned. "It was supposed to be stunningly beautiful, kind of like Arcadia."
"Shame," Pavel said.
"They are breaching the perimeter!" Miranda cried.
"Relax Miranda," Beckel told her. "We got this, just don't go around wasting your sniper rounds."
"I kn-whatever."
"Pavs?" I asked
"With pleasure."
His machine gun started roaring as the grunts tried to go through the gates. They had no cover other than the bodies of the ones in front of them, and even those wouldn't last long against sustained fire from Pavel's LMG.
"What rounds are you using?" I asked. "AP shredders?"
"Just shredders."
"Assault rifles, join the barrage," I ordered after taking in the information. "Do not let them get any closer than that."
Of course, that was easier said than done, especially when the Covenant seemed to have a nearly endless supply of grunts and plasma pistols. After fifteen minutes the metal barriers were starting to let out steam and I could even feel the heat through the titanium plate armor.
"If they keep coming like this we're going to run out of ammo," Almers said.
"You're right," I agreed. "Lieutenant Hayes."
"Yes Gunny?" she replied immediately.
"We might need some reinforcements, another squad should do, preferably one with several machine guns."
"We can't help right now, as you might've deduced, we're a little bit busy, I'll see if I can send one of the other ODST squads to your position."
"Thanks, sir."
I aimed down my scope and hit a trio of grunts that had made their way past the pods and were running towards a car. They all fell down to the ground, where I made sure that they were dead by shooting them again. My rifle was managing to fire constantly without any malfunctions, but at this rate it was bound to jam or overheat soon.
"They're going to overwhelm us," Wiremu warned in a low growl.
"Not just yet," Miranda said. "I'm reading friendly forces inbound, they're coming up behind you."
Sure enough, a squad composed of five Helljumpers emerged from behind the lobby and helped lay down suppressive fire.
"Thanks corporal," I told their leader. "We were starting to feel like we needed to share this party."
"My pleasure Gunny," he replied. "Little gas suckers are hitting us hard from every angle."
"What they lack in skill they make up for in numbers," Pavel said.
"Also what they lack in intelligence," Beckel added. "Or courage, dignity, tenacity, leadership. You name it."
"Just keep firing."
With our numbers bolstered we managed to keep the grunts at bay, but the booby traps on our pods had gone off and the grunts were relentless, they kept firing at us and eventually one of us would be hit. If they didn't stop sending their troops on suicidal charges we would just tire ourselves out.
"Ah-fuck!" Wiremu yelled. "I'm hit!"
"Almers, go check on him," I ordered calmly. If Wiremu had been seriously injured he wouldn't be subtle about it.
"Plasma hit your shoulder, armor absorbed most of it," Almers told the Maori Helljumper. "You're gonna get a bunch of blisters and a hell of a time moving your shoulder. Want biofoam?"
"Nah, I can handle it," he replied. "Burns like a bitch."
"Yes, that's why the injury in particular is called a burn."
"Fuck you Almers," Wiremu said, pushing him aside.
The grunts steadily advanced until they were less than ten meters away from our position, never relenting, always charging into certain death. You had to at least admire their perseverance in the face of these odds. It wasn't until they got within knifing distance of our position that they eventually stopped coming at us. One of the five additional Helljumpers bashed in the last grunt's head with his boot before we realized that we were actually safe for the moment.
"Reload," I ordered. "Fill up your magazines, jackals are up."
The only sound that was audible from that point was that of thirteen Helljumpers jamming bullets into empty magazines with what seemed to be inhuman speed. Truly it was just a question of practice.
"Jackal phalanxes moving up," Miranda warned from the second floor. "Sharpshooters behind them. Should I take them out?"
I thought about that for a second. "Yeah, start shooting them. Might as well get them before they enter their effective range."
Immediately after I gave the command a shot rang out. I had seen Miranda handle the SRS a couple of times before, the huge sniper rifle's recoil usually shook her violently, much to my (and everybody else's) amusement. Still, I couldn't complain about her aim, on a good day she could go toe to toe with Snark. Provided that Snark was on a bad day, of course.
When the jackals appeared through the gate all I could see was the bright shining shield gauntlets. None of them were firing on us yet, but everyone was keeping their heads low to avoid being hit by a marksman. They were all uncanny in their ability to snipe.
"Open up!" I ordered.
As we fired on them some of our bullets broke through, but the bird behind the one that died would take their position. The jackals slowly advanced, making use of the pods and the cars as well as their own shields to protect themselves. Unlike the dozens of grunts littering the courtyard, I could only see a pair of jackal bodies left behind. These ones were crafty.
The jackals moved forward despite our constant gunfire as well as Miranda's sniping. I was only glad that she was thinning down the sharpshooters.
When the phalanx got past the pods the sharpshooters started firing on us. We all ducked down and stopped firing as green rounds screamed past. The weird noises that the carbines made filled the air and the bullets hit the barricades. I ducked down as three separate sharpshooters aimed for my head. I was behind cover in a second, but the rounds were still uncomfortably close.
"Return fire! Return fire!" someone yelled.
I did as I was told even though no one here outranked me.
I hit a sharpshooter and it collapsed over one of its shield bearing comrades. They had gained more ground and were now as close as the grunts had gotten.
The next move I made was to smash the butt of my rifle into a jackal's face, that's how close they'd gotten. I heard bones crunch but I was already firing at a second jackal. I killed three more before the rest of my ODSTs drove back the jackals. The vultures overlapped their shields again and slowly stepped back until they reached the cars. Once they were there they started firing on us again while they overturned the cars to have better cover.
"Wraith incoming!" Miranda cried.
A muttering of shits and craps was all that anybody could do before the bright blue ball landed right in front of the barricades. The explosion vaporized a pile of sandbags and threw an ODST backwards, as far as I could tell he was still alive, two of his comrades grabbed him by either arm and dragged him back, the jackals pushed forward.
"Fall back!" I yelled. "Fall back!"
Three more Wraith mortar shots lobbed overhead, but we were already inside the building before they landed. A dozen jackals were already inside, firing wildly at us, trying to hit us. Like their bigger compatriots, the brutes, they had this annoying tendency to lose their cool and go apeshit. I had a couple of jackal-induced scars to prove it.
One of them landed on my back, clawing at my neck with its hands, trying to pierce the nomex undersuit. I turned around and landed on the reception desk, I heard the jackal's spine shatter as my weight pressed it against the corner of the desk. Its hands went limp and it slipped down to the ground, unmoving. I fired a burst at another jackal aiming at Caboose before a bright pink needle embedded itself in my chest plate. I jumped backwards as more flew above me and yanked it out a moment before it detonated. I could feel some of the shards going through my armor and immediately I felt wetness in those areas.
"Barricade the entrance!" I ordered, firing full automatic into the entrance, trying to stall the wave of jackals that were trying to come in.
Wiremu and Pavel, two of the biggest men in here jumped forward and grabbed a couple of sofas , pushing them over. Three jackals tried to jump over them, but they were all shot down. A second later someone from the support ODST squad pushed over a large wooden table. That prevented any more jackals from jumping over, but it wasn't nearly strong enough to prevent carbine rounds from punching through. As a few green rounds flew past the barricade we piled up more and more random shit until we had a veritable mountain of furniture and potted plants protecting the entrance.
"Lieutenant," I said, opening a line to Hayes. "We've been pushed back inside the lobby by jackals, we have control of it, but the outside gate is lost to us. What's the situation over there?"
"Similar, shipyards are still under friendly forces and most of the personnel have been evacuated, but we're not going to be able to hold out much longer."
"Roger, should we leave?"
"Negative Gunny, not until command tells us to."
"Copy that," I said, cutting the connection. Before much time passed I opened a new one. "Al-Hassani?"
"Please, call me Al."
"Al," I conceded. "Any ideas?"
"I see that you've already placed your men around the entrance, providing separate fields of fire to any that try to come in. Have you considered that the enemy might breach a different entrance?"
"Yes, hence the sniper on the second floor."
"Good, my only recommendation would be to increase the number of shooters on the second story."
"Thanks Al," I said. "I'll call you when I need you."
"Gunnery Sergeant," Al said, his face disappearing from the screen in my HUD.
"Corporal," I called to the leader of the other squad. "Your man?"
"His face and stomach were badly burnt, but your medic is taking care of him."
"Good. Are there any sharpshooters in your squad?"
"Negative Gunny, you asked for machine guns, you got them."
"That'll do," I said, observing the heavy M247 on his hands. "Send one of your men to join my sniper in the second floor, there are probably dozens of Covenant outside, trying to bring this barricade down, tell him to be…indiscriminate."
"Understood," he nodded, turning towards the other men in his squad, barking orders.
With the entrance barricaded and no windows nearby I ordered for most of the doors that could lead into the lobby to be closed. I only left the ones that lead straight into the building open. That way the likelihood of being flanked was drastically reduced and we could easily fall back towards another position. It was a very basic strategy, but for some reason I felt as if I was in a medieval castle.
"So, what's the plan?" Pavel asked me.
"We stay here until we are allowed to evacuate," I replied. "Not much else, really, just hold those bastards back for as long as we can."
Pavel sighed. "This is starting to get tiring."
"I know," I told him, patting his shoulder. "I know."
Pavel was about to pat my shoulder in return when he abruptly stopped, staring at the jagged spikes still protruding from my shoulder plate. "You should really take those out."
"Can't, not without breaking the plate," I told him for the eleventh time. "Besides, it's useful when tackling."
"No doubt," he agreed. "You know, I wouldn't be surprised if you decided to bring a two-handed sword into battle one day."
I laughed. "I am surprised that you don't seem to use that shotgun I bought you anymore. It was really expensive you know?"
"I know," he laughed. "Besides, we have Caboose and Beckel, another shotgun would just be dead weight."
"Maybe so, but it's still pretty awesome."
"Yeah, love firing that thing," he admitted. "Still, my gun isn't bad either, the roar is quite…empowering."
"I guess that you need to feel powerful after spending so much with your wife," I said.
A couple of the guys on my squad laughed as Pavel pushed me, but the humor was short-lived, as the barricades on the door started shaking.
"Miranda, talk to me."
"Three Phantom dropships are inbound as well as half a dozen Spirits. Most of the jackals down there are dead."
"What's the shaking then?"
"Brutes."
"I thought we were fighting elites," one of the Helljumpers form the other squad said.
"This covvie fleet isn't segregated," Beckel told him. "God knows why."
"Wiremu, climb up and see if you can take out any of the dropships," I ordered him. "Serge, can you see anything outside?"
The Frenchman was looking through a small hole in the barricade. He looked back to me and shook his head before peering through the hole once again. Less than three seconds later he jerked backwards and fell on his ass. "Daemon!"
Everyone jumped away from the barricade just before it exploded. Splinters from the huge table hit and bounced off my armor, cotton and feathers slowly floated back down and dirt from huge pots flew everywhere. I was back on my feet before anybody else. For my reaction time I got the courtesy of becoming the first target.
A brute fired at me with its spiker, I dove to the side before it could properly aim and scrambled towards a column for protection. Serge fired at the brute with his rifle, killing it after a long, sustained burst. The rest of the ODSTs were just beginning to get up and back and ready. A couple of MA5s opened on the brutes, but they were twelve and had the element of surprise with them.
"Flashbang out!" someone yelled.
The loud noise was felt even through my sealed helmet, but we took advantage of it and killed three of the brutes before the rest jumped back and deployed shield covers. Our rounds pinged off them before we stopped firing. Right now we didn't have the firepower to punch through.
"Miranda, can you drop a grenade right outside of the entrance form your position?"
"Yeah," she replied, "but I'll be exposing myself."
"Do it."
"Gunny, I don't think you heard me. I'll be exposing myself."
"Miranda, if you do not do it I swear to god I will personally go up there and throw you out of the window!"
I didn't get a reply, but three seconds later a grenade detonated behind the brutes. The detonation was followed by an increase in fire on the second floor.
The explosion itself hurt the brutes, it didn't kill them, but two of them fell to the floor, blood pouring out from countless shrapnel wounds.
"Cover me!" Pavel yelled as he emerged from cover and slammed into one of the deployable covers. The shields turned red as he impacted them, but otherwise didn't budge.
A brute tried firing over the top with a mauler, but three ODSTs hit it in the hand before it could even aim down at Pavel. When Pavel placed his M247L over the shields and started firing the brutes didn't have the same luck. They were hit by several armor piercing rounds, their thick skins and hides doing nothing to stop the depleted uranium. Three more died before the rest pulled back. One of them, however, remained behind, enraged beyond reason.
It went berserk.
"Pavel! Get out of there!" I yelled.
My friend jumped to the side just as the brute shattered the deployable cover as if it was glass. The huge ape jumped at Pavel only to be pushed back by a blast from Beckel's shotgun. Almers ducked next to Pavel and yanked him back violently. As the brute attempted to bring both its fists down on them Beckel fired again, pushing it further backwards and buying Almers more time to drag Pavel out. Everyone else then proceeded to riddle the alien with holes, killing it.
"Miranda, start sniping the officers!" I ordered. "Now!"
"I'm trying!" she yelled.
"Well try harder! Wiremu, how's your mission progressing?!"
"They're onto me, can't aim at them."
"God fucking dammit," I cursed. "Get back down here, we need more guns!" You useless fuck. "Everyone else, drag the bodies, I want a nice barricade made out of them."
As the ODSTs set up I aimed down the front gate. The brutes had set up a bunch of deployable covers and now had a veritable fortress right outside our doorstep. I could see them trying to spot Miranda, even as her rounds pierced their leaders' skulls. The little fountains of blood that accompanied the headshots were a lovely sight, morale boosting.
"Lieutenant Hayes, we have brutes on our perimeter."
"You and me both," she told me. "There are reinforcements on the way, but I don't think they're headed your way."
"And why would that be?" I asked irritably.
"Because there's nothing of strategic value on your section, you're just buying the rest of us time."
"There is something of tactical value here," I replied. "Thirteen Helljumpers."
"Mind your tone Castillo," she snapped. "And follow orders."
As she cut the line I punched a wall, muttering angrily.
"Daemon's aiming at the door again!"
I barely had time to move to the side before a plasma round flew by. I could see the bright shell fly through the air past me and hit the back wall of the lobby entrance. From what little I could tell, it didn't hit anybody or even harm anybody, but it brought the wall and a large section of the ceiling down.
"Wiremu, change of plans, take that fucker out," I said, coughing while my helmet's filters activated. "Now!"
"All right, I'm on it," he grunted.
The damage was only a semi-literal smoke screen for the brutes. A squad of them ran through the doors, firing with their grenade launchers wildly. When one of them ran past me I fired a burst at its head. It actually took two more steps before it collapsed. Another one met the same fate before the third one took notice of me and swung its huge bayonet at my head. By then it was a simple matter of taking a step back and allowing Pavel and Serge to kill the alien. Our quick reaction had surprised them, and they started falling quickly as coordinated fire hit them from all directions.
"Grab the launchers," I said, lifting one of them myself. They were incredibly heavy, but I could use the bayonet as a monopod of sorts to help aim and support the weapon.
I fired on the deployable shields as Pavel and another ODST joined me, grunting and groaning as they lifted the heavy brute shots. A couple of the brutes on the other side were hit by the explosive grenades, but the rest started returning fire before we could cause any damage.
An explosion rocked the building.
"Wiremu, you ok?"
"Daemon got a bead on me," he groaned. "I'm fine. I'm fine." He fired another rocket and I could hear the detonation in the distance. "Got that fucker, it didn't expect me to survive that."
"Now get back down here."
There was a pause before he sighed. "Right away."
"Why aren't they doing mass charges?" one of the ODSTs asked. "They would've overwhelmed us on the first try."
"Too proud to try that," his leader replied. "Don't give them any ideas."
"Gunny, I'm out of sniper rounds, getting back down."
"Understood, bring the gunner as well."
"Yes."
"Yes?" I asked. "That's a weird way to reply."
"Yes, sir?"
"No, I was just criticizing your choice of words," I told her. "Doesn't matter. Get down here."
While we switched positions and reloaded our weapons the brutes prepared for a third attempt. This time they almost succeeded. I examined the brute corpses covering the ground. They were certainly stupid, having little knowledge of tactics and almost no desire to implement them, that was the only thing keeping us alive right now, since our orders were pretty much suicidal.
"I don't get why they don't-ugh!"
I looked towards Beckel and saw that a brute stalker had managed to sneak in through the door. Beckel was currently being held in the air by the two bayonets of the brute's spiker. They were embedded halfway inside his belly. I turned and brought my rifle up, knowing that it was too late already. Even as I did that the brute tossed Beckel aside like a rag doll and aimed at me.
I got a burst before it managed to fire, but it only grabbed its shoulder before it fired again, this time the two spikes hit one of the other Helljumpers in the leg, right above the knee. He fell to the floor with a cry of pain as Pavel opened up on the stalker. Blood sprayed the walls as it fell down under sustained fire.
"How the hell did it get past us?!" Almers asked, running towards Beckel's immobile body.
"Status?" I asked.
"He's got a pulse, weak."
"Shit," I muttered, running towards him. "Prognosis."
"Not good," Almers replied hoarsely. "Blades went through several organs, he needs a hospital."
"Yeah, we're not getting that anytime soon," I said, watching as Almers poured bifoam on the wounds. "Try to keep him stable."
The Helljumper with two spikes in his leg was groaning in pain as one of his squadmates examined the wounds.
"Nothing serious," he assured his friend. "Relax and you'll be fine, you can still provide covering fire."
The wounded ODST visibly relaxed as painkillers made effect, but one could still guess that he was in terrible pain.
"Frank, we need to evacuate them," Pavel told me. "It's too dangerous here."
"And leave our position?" I asked. "If we do that we might as well put a bullet in our heads Pavel. There are a hundred brutes out there! You think we can outrun them with two wounded? One of them critical?"
"Gunny, Beckel's not going to make it unless we pull him out," Serge told me. It really spoke volumes that he had chosen to speak up for his friend.
I thought about it. "Almers, you go with the two wounded," I ordered. "Miranda?"
"Over here!" she announced from one of the doors. "Just got here, what happe- oh my god!"
"You go with them," I said. "And you," I pointed to one of the other ODSTs. You help your friend to our command post. As soon as you get there I want you all back. Everyone who's staying, we are going to be pushed back, be ready to fall back on my word."
"Yes, sir!"
When the brutes next attacked the brought down another large portion of the ceiling down with their grenade launchers. The rubble and debris barely worked for cover, but it did serve to slow down the hulking aliens as they came through. They were in difficult positions, and because of that several of them fell without any of us being hit. Pavel was making noise with his weapon and everybody else was firing full automatic, it was good that we had brought so much extra ammunition, because otherwise we would've long since ran out.
"Is that a-?"
"Chieftain!"
Wiremu fired a rocket, but the huge brute rolled to the side before swiping at my man with its hammer. Wiremu jumped up but the hammer nicked his foot, tripping him sideways. As the chieftain prepared for a killing strike I fired at it, forcing it to run for cover. Wiremu stood up and ran back to safety. The chieftain emerged again, swinging at an ODST. The man ducked underneath the blow and jumped back, firing as he did so. He managed to get to safety when Serge slashed the brute's Achilles tendon with a knife. The brute didn't fall down, instead it attempted to hit Serge, but the legionnaire was way past him already, hiding behind a column.
"Burn the fucker!"
Pavel was the first to fire, but the brute lunged towards him with his hammer, slamming his weapon out of his hands and forcing him back. I fired a burst at the chieftain, hitting its ornate helmet bur barely scratching it. It was enough to draw its attention towards me, and it swung for my head. This time I ducked as the hammer swung by before lunging forward. I hit the brute with my left shoulder, the one without any spikes on. Instead of attacking I spun around it and ran away.
This time it was Wiremu who tackled the brute. The former rugby player slammed into a ten foot tall monster with impressive speed.
The brute fell down despite what most would expect from that encounter.
At that point Wiremu bashed down on the brute's head with his rifle before the chieftain swiped at him, sending him flying backwards. Before it could get back up Serge appeared from nowhere and landed on its head with both feet. He stabbed at the brute's eyes with his knife before switching targets and going for the throat. The chieftain stopped struggling after Serge had stabbed his throat for the fifth time.
The French ODST slowly got up and dusted himself off. He looked down at the dead chieftain and kicked its helmet off. "Très bien motherfucker."
I laughed, it was the first time that I had heard Serge do a one-liner.
"Shit, another one!"
I almost exploded. Not literally, but two chieftains is bound to piss anyone off. This one was even larger than the last, carrying not one, but two fuel rods, one on either arm. It aimed right at me.
"What the-"
Then, something incredibly happened.
The brute chieftain disappeared before it could fire and vaporize me. In its place stood a Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle, commonly known as a Human Entry Vehicle, drop pod, or egg.
"Hell of an entrance," Schitzo said admiringly.
The pod's door fell down to reveal nothing short of miraculous.
"Spartan," I said in a low tone. "Spartan! You come at a helluva time," I said, swallowing my pride.
The huge freak seemed taken aback by my statements, probably surprised at the familiarity that I was addressing it with. "Gunnery Sergeant," it said in a distinctively male voice. I don't think I recognized it. "I'll just be a moment."
"Polite too," Schitzo chuckled. "Why don't you marry it."
Gunfire and plasma fire merged in the background, but I merely watched as the Spartan burned through the ranks of the brutes, killing them as easy as I could kill toddlers. His two M7 SMGs riddling through the unarmored brutes and pounding the armored officers into submission. More than once he made use of kicks and punches to kill the aliens. About halfway through his onslaught the ODSTs with me joined in on the fun, firing at the disarrayed brutes and speeding up the process. Three minutes later the entire attack force had been completely wiped out.
"Gunnery Sergeant," the Spartan said when it returned. "Are you in need of assistance?"
"Not anymore," I said, looking at the corpses.
"Gunny," Al-Hassani suddenly said. "A company-sized unit of elites is moving towards your position."
"Gunny?" the Spartan asked after I received the message, expecting my answer to change.
"Negative, we can handle them, you should help others in a more critical situations."
The Spartan looked at me closely before nodding and sprinting away.
"So they are more than propaganda," the corporal said in a quiet voice. "I always thought it was just a story."
"Well, now you know it's not," I said. "Wipe that look off your face and prepare to repel the enemy, we're in for one helluva time."
It was technically a wrong statement, seeing as his visor was polarized and I couldn't see his face, but I could guess at the wide-eyed, gaping expression with little doubt. The man was in shock. It would wash away soon enough, and he'd start hating them again, just like every other Helljumper.
"You turned away a Spartan?" Pavel asked loudly. "Are you insane?!"
"No, I'm just being nice," I replied quietly. "We can handle this, at least for some time."
I could see the familiar shapes of elite warriors moving through the outer gates, some of them had energy swords out. I examined the ammo count on my rifle and made sure that all my knives were unstrapped.
"Count your rounds," I said, echoing that old phrase that meant everything was lost. "And make them work for it."
Thanks to SilasWhitfield and Alshep for proof-reading this chapter.
So, I did another time skip. Two full years too. Many of you have been pointing out that this story needs to get to the point where we see Frank and whoever's still alive on Reach and Earth. Hey, with some (bad) luck they might even get to step foot on one of the Halos. Anyways, a lot of serious shit happened in those two years. Frank got his new handler, Frank's head got worse, Frank's squad got better, and Frank still thinks that everything revolves around him. Well, this story is about him after all. Just a warning, I'm not going to explore whatever happened in the time skip until after a couple of chapters. By a couple I mean four. Two of them involve a castle and one of them involves a cavalry charge.
Well, enough about that. This is a battle that actually happened in the Halo universe, not one that I just decided to pull off my ass. It's bound to be interesting, at least that's my opinion. This part is only the beginning, and while it isn't a strategically important battle I promise that some crazy shit will take place here. You know, just another day in the life.
I was reading through a Battlestar Galactica/Stargate SG-1 crossover and while the story is very good and it is extremely well written, she length of the chapters annoyed me. All of the chapters were 10,000+ words long. Now, I'm only saying this because some of my chapters are as long as that. I wanted to know if you guys rather I keep them that long or at the 5,000-7,000 range with a few exceptions, for example this chapter is about 7,600 words long. Anyways, just tell me what you think.
In other news, MC finally showed up in the Forward Unto Dawn miniseries. He did not disappoint, even if there was a little bit too much slow motion. Halo 4 is coming out soon! Yay!
Thank you guys for taking some time off your day to review last chapter and please do not hesitate to do it again after reading this one.
Stay strong.
-casquis