Chapter CLIV: Covvie Bowl

February 29, 2548 (UNSC Calendar)/

Water Oakley outskirts, LV-426, Zeta Reticuli System

"We are more than just special forces. We are Very Special Forces."

Already we could see the lights marking the beginning of the Covenant perimeter. Most of them came from watchtowers and high-powered guns, but I knew there would be other units watching out from the shadows. We were lucky that the heavy fighting wasn't being done here, I didn't think that the covvies were expecting us, but we still had to be careful.

A Phantom flew overhead, its searchlights off but its front turret moving about, searching for targets. Very careful.

"You know El-tee," Hoff asked, crouching next to me. "I never did ask why we are the VSF Squad."

"You didn't," I agreed.

"What does it stand for?"

"Very Special Forces," I replied. "Ready…"

"Are you sure this is a good idea El-tee?" Miranda asked me. I knew where she was, but I couldn't see her from this position.

"It is," I assured her.

"Not a very safe one," Marv said.

The Phantom disappeared over the top of some buildings and one of the searchlights on the watchtowers passed over our hiding spot before going over the high grass where Pavel's heavy weapons unit was hiding. I craned my neck to see behind me, trying to make a mental map of where the rest of the company was. They were close enough to help if anything went wrong, but right now they seemed to be awfully far away.

"Silencers on," I ordered quietly, screwing a suppressor onto my battle rifle. My pistol was already silenced and my knives didn't really make a lot of noise. "Miranda and Hoff?"

Hoff shuffled next to me and aimed at a jackal sharpshooter with his DMR before shooting me a quick nod. Miranda winked acknowledgement lights on my HUD.

"Marv, you ready?" I asked the corporal.

"Yeah," he replied.

I quickly considered the man. He was unusual in many aspects, his combat scores were almost as high as mine, higher than my own had been before augmentation. That made him a damn good trooper by my standards. His files marked him as sole survivor of his previous unit, pulled through by sheer talent alone. He didn't have the markings of PTSD even if he was quieter than most. I was glad to have him on my squad, but the shrink that evaluated him was afraid that he had mild sociopathic tendencies.

I glanced at him, armor barely showing through the thick grasses. That guy could be a paranoid schizophrenic for all I cared as long as he did his job right. Hey, I was literally the last person in the universe that could judge him based on his mental wellbeing.

"Your unit's been making quite a few supply requests," Al said, speaking to Captain Hayes. "The admiral is scoffing a lot."

"Like an EMP is going to make a dent in his armory," Hayes replied. "They only work against electronic missiles and the covvies don't use those."

"Giving a weaponized EMP to a squad is almost unprecedented. They are usually used in large-scale city assaults, not raids."

"Always a first time."

"It'll knock out every electronic device within a seven miles radius. Including ours."

Hayes sighed loudly. "Just fire the goddamned thing."

This time it was the AI who sighed. "Bombs away. EMP blast in 5…4…3…2…1…Detonation."

My entire HUD went down before a clock flickered back on. Everything other than that countdown was off. It took a couple of seconds for everything to flicker back on simultaneously. I couldn't help but notice that my ammunition count and targeting reticle weren't there. It would take a little bit longer for my weapons' electronics to come back online. I looked towards the enemy lines and saw every last light flicker and disappear completely. I heard a couple of loud crashes in the distance, hopefully dropships that were running sorties or dropping supplies.

"Go," I said, tapping Marv in the shoulder.

He and I jumped from the small ditch, still crouching and trying not to disturb the tall grass just yet. A few meters to our right Sandor and Livingston were moving in a similar tandem formation to our right.

"Fire," I ordered halfway through the watchtower.

I could barely hear the quiet clapping noises as two bullets penetrated the skulls of each jackal sharpshooter. I saw one of the birds fall over forward and land in between a pair of panicking grunts.

Marv took them both out with quick bursts from his M7S. The grunts rolled on their feet before collapsing.

"Keep moving," I said. "Livingston, Sandor, you ready to clear your building?"

"Yeah."

Marv slammed into a wall next to a metal door on our own separate building and nodded at me. I nodded back and he tapped a couple of commands on the keypad next to the door before opening it slowly.

He went in first seeing as he had the close-quarters weapon. I mostly stayed behind him as he fired short bursts into the grunts and jackals. The only noise was that of bodies hitting the ground. Four jackals and two grunts were dead before we had to break off and clear different rooms. I couldn't help but notice that my own rifle was a lot louder than his SMG. That and the BR55 wasn't caseless, which meant that the bullet casings clinked as they hit the floor. I kept on going, clearing my designated section of the house as Marv did the same with his.

I didn't call out the clear sign when I was done, I didn't want any other covvies hearing me. Instead I headed back towards our meeting point and waited for Marv to come up.

"Clear," he said. "Seven small guys, two elites."

"Eight small ones," I told him. "Move up to the window, give the all clear signal to Hoff and Miranda."

He disappeared and a minute later PFC Hoff walked inside the room with his DMR half-raised, "Man, I hate to think how we got along before radio," he said, examining a grunt corpse.

"Two world wars were fought without in-unit radio," I told him. "And plenty more conflicts too."

"Sucks for those guys," he shrugged. "Is the other fireteam good to go?"

"Yeah," Marv answered for me, climbing down the stairs. "Just got the all-clear sign from Livingston."

"Good, Pavel's squad should be moving in on our position in two minutes, the rest of the company will be following after that. We need to clear a path."

"Very Special Forces indeed," Hoff joked.

"Come on," I gestured to the door. "Let's go."

The next couple of buildings down our path were empty. They were both small businesses that had been occupied by the aliens, but recently vacated. We quickly cleared them before moving forward. Now this was the part where it got a little bit tricky. There was a wide six-lane beltway that went around the city in order to provide fast travel to its citizens. Right now that beltway threatened to expose us to anyone who cared to look.

"Hoff, you stay back here," I told him. "Cover for us."

"Got your back El-tee."

I nodded to Marv and we both hopped out of the building's window before stopping just shy of the beltway itself. There were a few abandoned cars in there, enough for us to take cover if we were spotted, but not enough to hide us completely from sharpshooters. The traffic dividers in the middle were mostly intact, primarily because polycrete was a bitch to destroy, especially with plasma weaponry. If we made it halfway through without drawing attention we would be well hidden from anyone on the other side.

"Aaand…go," I said quietly, sprinting towards the nearest car. It was riddled with plasma scorches and there was a decomposing corpse in the driver's seat. "Wait," I muttered. There was something slightly off.

"What?" Marv asked, glancing around and tightening the grip on his weapon.

"Shh," I told him. I turned around to face the position where I knew Hoff was and asked him what he saw through hand signals. I got the reply through a laser dot. Two bleeps, that meant nothing visible.

"You sure you heard something Lieutenant?" Marvin asked me.

"Yes," Schitzo said.

"Yes," I lied. "Wait."

My still-undiagnosed mental disorder paid off this time. Dull thuds were suddenly heard in the distance. They came at regular intervals until it became clear that they were footsteps. Two different sets of footsteps.

"Hunters," Marv said in realization.

I nodded. "Let's hope Livingston's fireteam doesn't try anything."

We waited patiently as the two hunters calmly passed right by us. Their footsteps shook the cars and us with them. If one of them decided to look down it would see us hiding and nothing would prevent it from shattering our bones with a quick stomp.

One of the hunters stopped.

The other one took two more steps before turning and asking something in a deep, rumbling noise. It sounded like a weapon charging up or something. The reverberations from their language shook my bones, I had to loosen up my jaw so that I wouldn't shatter my teeth. My hands tightened their grip on my rifle and I prepared myself to throw a grenade if I needed to. I just hoped Hoff had his crosshairs on the hunter's unprotected neck.

Marv shuffled slightly next to me and I patted him in the forearm, urging him to relax.

The other hunter replied before the pair resumed their patrol.

"Phew," Marvin muttered after the hunters were far away enough. "That was tense."

"It was," I agreed. "Let's move up."

We made it across the first three lanes and jumped over the barriers before sliding into cover behind another car. "You saw him?" I asked Marvin.

"Yeah. Jackal sharpshooter, third floor and second window from the right."

"Good eyesight," I complimented. "Weapon?"

He hesitated. "Carbine."

"Needle rifle," I corrected. "But close enough."

Marv shrugged slightly.

"Your mistake will cost you though. You saw that overturned trailer thirty meters to our right?"

"Pretty hard to miss."

"You're going to make a run for it."

Marv groaned and moved to the edge of the car, getting in position to start running. "Would I have been bait if I had gotten the weapon right?"

"Of course," I chuckled. "Go."

Marv jumped forward into a sprint, his gun swinging from side to side in front of him. I popped up from cover and quickly targeted the jackal shooter. It had seen Marv and was turning to aim at him. A pair of bullets to the chest quickly got it down and out. I gave Marvin a thumbs up and he ran from the truck to the building's entrance. After he gave me a thumbs up I turned towards Hoff's position and turned on my flashlight once at minimum intensity.

"Nice shooting," Marv told me as soon as I caught up to him. "Didn't even get a shot off."

"You don't have to tell me how good I am," I told him. "I'll never tell you how good you are."

"Was that a compliment?"

"Breaching."

Marvin kicked down the door and fired two bursts at recently woken up grunts. I fired at an elite that had been looking away from the door, switching to burst fire after two single shots. Marvin complemented my fire with his own SMG and we quickly brought down the elite. Marv moved to the right while I cleared the left side of the building. This one was filled with grunts. The suppressed weapons were quiet, but not completely silent. Some of the grunts woke up from my rifle's fire, but they were too confused to provide any actual resistance. When I was done and reached the stairs I switched to my sidearm. Now that one was nearly silent.

"Clear?" I asked Marv when we met up halfway through the second floor.

He nodded in reply and gestured to the set of stairs next to us. I nodded back and we opened the door before going in. The third and last floor was empty save for the still-breathing jackal.

I nodded at it with my head at Marv and he shook his head. I shrugged and drew the knife strapped to my boot before grabbing the jackal by the neck and driving the multi-colored blade through its neck and into its brain.

"Hoff should be here any minute," I said.

Exactly forty-one seconds passed before Hoff's voice was heard, quietly asking us not to shoot him, especially not in the face.

"We waiting for Heavy Weapons Squad?" Hoff asked me.

"No," I replied. "We move up. The enemy HQ should be one click away."

"Ten minutes until their electronics are back online," Hoff noted. "Think we can make it in and out?"

"In? Yeah," I said. "Out? Not so much."

"They'll notice that all their units in a straight line to their HQ have been wiped out as soon as they have communications back online," Marvin explained.

"Makes sense," Hoff admitted. "Let's get moving then."

Three blocks later we met up with Livingston's fireteam. They had been equally quiet and as effective as us. Corporal Livingston nodded at me before absorbing her squad into mine.

"See that stadium over there?" I asked. It was a rhetorical question. "Base is inside, the thing should be fortified beyond our capacity to infiltrate." I looked at the relatively large sports venue, examining its design. "There is one weak point, however. You're probably not going to like it."

My squad looked at me, their visors filled with dread at my words. More accurately, the faces behind those visors were likely filled with dread.

"Relax, it's just a storm drain."

Their shoulders visibly relaxed at my explanation.

"There should be an entrance right over there," I said. "It's the closest one to us, but as you can see, we're completely exposed to enemy fire."

"So what do we do?" Sandor asked, probably wanting some action already.

"We clear the surrounding buildings before going in?" Corporal Livingston suggested.

I smiled just as the countdown on my helmet reached zero. My visor flickered a little bit before my HUD came back online, showing everything a lot more clearly. My squad had clearly forgotten all about the EMP, because their reactions to having electronics again were amusing. The moment my HUD was back up I started getting radio communications from everybody. Seems like the regulars on the other side of town were also relieved to have radio and electronics again.

"We could clear the buildings," I admitted as I pointed my rifle at one of them. "Or we could just do…something else." I turned on the laser designator on my rifle and opened an uplink to Command. "Command this is Five Leader, target is designated, requesting immediate fire support."

"We read you FL, hold tight."

I heard the whistling of the artillery shells seconds before they lit up the entire block. All the buildings surrounding our point of entry were hit by several dozen high-explosive shells, collapsing onto themselves and taking down with them any covvies inside.

"You know El-tee, you could've told us the whole plan from the beginning," Hoff pointed out.

"For once I agree with him," Sandor said.

"Come on," I told them. "It made for a nice effect."

There were a few nods of agreement before everybody started moving towards our designated point of entry. Miranda and Marv lifted the drain cover and took a knee, aiming their weapons at the area around us. Livingston went in, followed by Sandor and then Hoff.

"Go," I told the other two.

They jumped down and I quickly followed them, making sure to cover the entrance above me.

"Helmet lights on," I ordered. "Sandor and Marvin take point. Livingston, I want you to cover our rear. Remember, drones like hiding out in spots like this one."

My team nodded in acknowledgement before they started moving up.

"Frank, you in yet?" Pavel asked me.

"We're in," I replied, happy to be able to communicate with my friend again. "How's your squad?"

"We're good, had to clear a building, but we've got a lovely vantage point on the stadium's parking lot. Just give the order and we'll hit them hard and fast."

"Any news from Caboose?"

"Still hiding out and marking targets. Those guys move fast."

"That's their job," I said. "What about the rest of the company?"

"They're preparing to strike the two AA guns. Lieutenant Weller's platoon is going to provide support for us the moment we blow up the Covenant base."

I smiled to myself. "It's so much easier to pull of shit like this when we have a hundred other Helljumpers helping, don't you agree?"

Pavel laughed on his end of the line. "Back in the day they would've had us drop right on top of the base before leaving a charge behind and then escaping the way you're going in."

"And then Marina or Zekalwe would swoop in to save the day."

"Yeah," he said. "Dangerous as it was it was also fun."

"Like parachuting with a tank."

"I still don't know how the hell you came up with that one."

I turned a corner with my team and ducked in order to avoid hitting myself on the ceiling of the storm drain. "Stroke of genius. Almost got myself killed trying to get that freaking jetpack to work properly."

"Right," he said, chuckling. "Damn, Nezarian and his rangers were always good to have."

"They were. They were."

"Shit, looks like the covvies have their power back up. I'm seeing Banshees and Spirits taking off. Wraiths haven't powered up yet, it seems."

"Activity?"

"Plenty. Can't speak for the inside, though."

The whole squad stopped under a ladder, they turned around to look at me and I nodded. One by one we climbed up the ladder before exciting. This drain in particular led to the bottom floor of the parking lot. It was within the premises, but not as close to our target as I would've liked it to be. I honestly have no idea why the covvies placed their base inside a stadium.

"Dug in, high walls, walled complex," Schitzo suggested. "Yeah, I wonder why."

Dick.

"We need to hit fast and hit hard," I told my squad. "Scans of the stadium show that the power supply for their command center is in the north end of the field, we should be able to make our way there without going through the bulk of their forces."

"Sounds easy enough," Hoff said.

"Plans like this usually do," Miranda told him. "Obviously you're new."

"Burn," Sandor commented calmly, checking the suppressor on his assault rifle. "Shall we get moving?"

"Go," I ordered.

Here we go…

We climbed to the second level of the parking lot and met up a squad of grunts led by an elite gearing up for battle. They went down incredibly fast without any armor on, but even suppressed, the gunshots were loud in the confined space of the parking lot. We moved on to the third floor and once again took down another squad. This one was a bunch of grunts and a pair of jackals with their shields hanging by their sides.

"That was loud," Livingston noted.

"War's usually like that," Marv deadpanned.

"Keep moving," I grunted. I wondered if I had been that smartass kid back in the day.

I almost groaned when I realized that I had been even worse.

"We've got a corridor," Miranda said, opening a door. "Empty to the right…and-" she jumped back as plasma hit the door, heating up the steel. "Not so much to our left."

"Did you see them?" Hoff asked.

"No, but there's a large trash container to the other side. Should stop anything short of a fuel rod."

"Ok, cover me," Hoff said.

Miranda opened the door and fired four times before returning to cover, leaving the door open. It was heavy and metallic and it could stop plasma for a while. Hoff made a run for the other side, sliding down to cover behind a green container. Once he was behind cover Sandor also dove for cover on the other side, firing as he went. The plasma fire intensified and my men were pinned down behind their container. Miranda tried to help, but they had her pinned too.

"Geez," I said, rolling my eyes and grabbing a flashbang from my webbing. I tossed it without leaving cover and yanked Miranda back behind me as it detonated. As I popped from cover I saw two elites clawing at their eyes and ears or whatever they had that passed for ears. I fired three bursts at each one before taking them out with a headshot each. "Clear."

"I guess I should've thought about that earlier," Livingston said.

"All of you should've," I told them, suddenly feeling like a kindergarten teacher scolding his students. I stood there awkwardly before urging them to move on with a shake of my head.

The outer side of the corridor was open to the elements, with a chest high railing preventing anybody from falling down. It overlooked the surrounding parking lot as well as the neighboring buildings. I could see the pale lights that belonged to the Covenant vehicles that were powering up. They were still trying to coordinate and send everybody to the frontline, that's the only reason why we weren't currently being bombed with Wraith mortars.

"Frank, we see you," Pavel said. "And so can everyone that cares to look up."

"I know," I growled in reply. "Are your guns accurate at this distance?"

"It's three hundred yards. It won't be exactly surgeon-like precision, but Lizzo can put all his mag within a square yard at this distance."

I nodded as I tried to match the name to a face. PFC Erwin Lizzo was born on Mars and was of Italian descent. He was an incredible good shot with his machine gun, but didn't really excel in anything else. "Times like this make me want Snark on the unit."

"Can't always get what you want," Pavel stated.

"Api, Beckel, and Serge were all moved up to Weller's platoon. I could've done with their help."

"Captain makes the roster," Pavel said. "There's a squad of elites on your ass."

I considered that for a minute, craning my head to try and spot the elites, but the curve of the corridor blocked them from sight. "Light them up."

"Finally some action," Pavel rumbled. "You heard the lieutenant boys!"

The sound of dozens of bullets hitting flesh behind me was almost musical. Not one of the members of my squad turned to look, instead moving forward at a fast pace with their guns ready. I could complain about them all I wanted, but they were good in a fight.

"Oh shit!" Marvin shouted from the front.

That was slightly troubling, it took quite a bit to shock him.

Then I saw the pair of hunters that had caused him to curse.

"You can see a squad on our rear but not a pair of hunters right in front of us!" I cursed at Pavel.

"They weren't there a moment ago!" he replied. "We're on it."

I rolled to the side as the lead hunter fired its fuel rod cannon. Two of my squad mates also dodged the green ray deftly. Marvin was closest to them and fired as he backpedaled, moving for a door. He had to jump away from it as the second hunter fired at him. I got back up and helped Hoff behind a purple Covenant container before joining him there myself. I heard Pavel's squad pound the two hunters from their building and left cover to fire at their now-exposed flanks. The rest of my squad was now firing at the hunters as well.

"Oh shit, oh shit," Livingston was saying even as she fired full-auto at the two hulking aliens.

The hunters didn't go down without a fight, standing next to one another to block the maximum amount of bullets coming from both directions. They kept firing at us, but the powering up of their cannons were clear telltale signs to what they intended to do. Sure it wasn't fun ducking and rolling on the hard polycrete floor, but we had two different fire angles. With enough time and the liberal application of grenades the two hunters went down.

"Yeah!" Sandor hollered, kicking one of the hunters in its orange torso, his boot digging into the worms and making a squicky noise.

"Quiet," I told him.

"El-tee, we just lit up the whole place," Miranda observed. "I think we can throw quiet down the drain."

"Lady's got a point," Hoff said.

"Fine," I groaned. "Keep moving." I seem to say that a lot…

By this point everybody knew where we were. Grunts and elites on the ground were firing wildly at us, trying to hit us with plasma pistols and rifles.

"How much further?!" Sandor asked loudly, gravel and shattered rocks hitting him all over.

"Fifty meters and we go right!" I yelled back in reply. "Move faster!"

Sandor reached the door and tackled it open. I slammed into a jackal that was attempting to open it from the other side. Marv and Livingston fired into the room, killing the other jackals inside and calling it clear. They helped Sandor up and secured the area.

"Clear and clear," Livingston said.

"Frank, two enemy platoons are converging on your position. We can delay them, but not stop all of them," Pavel warned.

"Do your best," I replied. "We're close."

"That's an ultra to our right!"

I turned to fire at the elite, its white armor and extra strong shields held my automatic fire and the elite just kept on running towards us, it activated an energy sword. It was the kind that got all pissed for no reason. With its left hand it sprayed us with plasma, nicking Livingston and almost hitting Sandor. They both rolled away from the plasma fire as Marv returned fire with his SMG. The elite's shields flickered but held.

"Frag out!" Miranda called.

The device that she threw landed right at the elite's feet, but it kicked the grenade back in our direction. It detonated about one third of the way through, sending the elite backwards and finishing off what was left of its shields. Still, the explosion was too close for anybody's comfort, and it stunned the squad.

It bought enough time for the ultra to lunge towards the nearest target from a very respectable jump distance. Even for an elite.

I barely avoided the twin points of the energy blade as it went for my chest. The rest of the elite hit me pretty damn hard and slammed me to the wall. I dropped my rifle in the tangle and instead grabbed the elite's sword hand with my own, stopping it from slashing me from groin to neck. The elite roared, spitting into my visor and trying to hit my head with its other hand. I pushed its sword hand back slightly and all of a sudden the elite fell down.

I pushed the heavy corpse away from me to reveal Livingston holding her smoking MA5.

"Whoo!" I exclaimed. "That was close." I looked at Andrea and saw that her elbow armor was steaming. "Thanks for that, you good?"

"Yeah," she said. "Didn't go through the armor."

I nodded. "Target's just down that set of stairs."

"Looks heavily guarded!" Sandor shouted from the particular set of stairs I had just mentioned. His voice was accompanies by plasma shots.

"That sounds like a plasma turret," Marv pointed out.

"Hoff, you were all state, right?"

Hoff looked at me and tilted his head. "Lieutenant, there's a big difference between a football and an explosive charge that's just shaped like a football."

"So you're telling me you couldn't throw that," I pointed at Sandor's backpack, "thirty yards?"

"If you give me a window I can sure as hell try."

"One floor up," I said. "We go into the seats and give Hoff the cover he needs."

Sandor took his rucksack off and removed the explosive from inside. It did look vaguely like a football, slightly bigger and rounder. Like a rugby ball, perhaps. Maybe we should've had Wiremu with us.

"This door leads to the crowd seats!" Miranda announced even as she kicked it down.

The six of us poured out of the door and fired at a trio of jackals that were guarding the area. I could see several dozen more all patrolling the place. Our suppressed weapons had bought us some time, but already the closest jackals were beginning to turn around to look at us. Those weren't the most important thing, however. There was a huge firebase right in the middle of the field.

"That's at least seventy yards!" Hoff complained.

"Don't forget that you can't miss the windows," Livingston said, firing at two of the closest jackals.

"You can do it buddy," Marv assured him, aiming at the seats behind us and waiting for anything to show up.

"No pressure," Miranda added, taking out two of the furthest jackals with her DMR.

Hoff groaned. "Just shut up everybody."

I smiled. "Hut, hut!"

Hoff dropped his DMR and took a small jump backwards, grabbing the bomb with both of his hands. He was a lefty, I hadn't noticed that before. He threw his arm backwards before just launching it forwards. I gotta say, it was pretty damn impressive. I hadn't considered how good you had to be in order to be scouted by the best teams in both Earth and Reach.

The bomb flew over the seats, the touchdown, the first twenty yards, and then some more before disappearing down a window-like hole on the walls.

"Huh," Sandor muttered. "Didn't think you had it in you."

Every last elite on the ground turned to look at us.

"Time to go," I said. "Chop, chop."

Now everyone knew where we were, but our escape plan was still intact. Now all we had to do was fight our way through several dozen angry aliens, bust a hole in the floor, run through a room possibly filled with more angry aliens, climb out of a window, sneak past a hundred angry aliens, and we're good.

"Pavs, is Weller's platoon moving up?"

"I gave them the go the moment you went through that door," he replied. "You good?"

"Barely."

We were running down up the stairs now. They thought we would be going down first, but no way we were that stupid. This level wasn't completely empty though, we had to take down a pair of minors and several grunts before going into another stairwell and hauling ass down. This time it was empty. Sandor and Livingston were on point, clearing the stairs before we came upon a single door.

"Open it," I said, reaching for a charge on my butt-pouch.

"A broom closet," Livingston said. "Well, the mops will be useful."

"Move," I ordered, kneeling and pushing the cleaning stuff away. I placed the plastic explosive on the corner and moved back before detonating it. "Oh, right," I said, hitting another detonator. The second explosion shook the entire stadium.

"Well. There's that," Marv said.

"Let's go," I ordered, pointing at the newly-made hole in the floor. "A short run and then we're free."

It was short and rather uneventful, by luck or some other means we didn't come across a single alien. I kept smiling to myself at our fortune, trying to forget that it was bound to get worse.

"There!" Sandor shouted, pointing at a small window. It was high enough that we had to give each other boosts before climbing out.

We were now officially in the open.

"I see you Frank," Pavel came in. "And if you step outside so will the hundred angry aliens."

"Yeah, yeah," I dismissed him. "Livingston, you can pilot a Wraith, right?"

"I've only ever done simulations," she stuttered. "I-I…I might be able to do it."

"Good, cause we need at least two Wraiths."

"What?"

"Follow me," I ordered her. "TheRest of you, cover me."

"Frank…" Pavel warned.

"Too late," I replied. "Besides, it's been a while since I pulled off shit like this."

Livingston and I ran towards the two closest Wraith tanks. Livingston hopped on top of the first one and opened the hatch as a few needles shattered on the heavy armor, missing her by inches. She wasn't even fazed, instead just jumping down the hatch. I didn't see her Wraith powering up, I was too focused on not getting shot as I got to mine.

I jumped up on the wing-like engine on the tank and climbed up before coming face to face with a surprised elite. I quickly hit it in the jaws, twisting its head sideways and almost breaking my knuckles. I raised my gun awkwardly and jammed the barrel into the elite's mouth before clicking the trigger. Three bullets burst out the back of its skull and the elite collapsed, prompting me to chuckle slightly at the bloody spectacle before climbing inside the tank.

"Well, well, well," I muttered to myself. "Simulators must've been on an older model…"

It was all familiar enough though, and the controls were similar to those of a Ghost. There was a screen in front of me, it showed everything in front of me. Right now that everything seemed like a bunch of targets.

"Oh this is going to be fun," I smiled.

I lobbed two giant balls of plasma at another Wraith close by. The first one fell short, but the second connected and wrecked the turret. I strafed sideways to avoid some small arms fire and used the coaxial guns to shoot down a squad of frightened grunts and kill their elite leader. The next mortar was directed at a fortified position consisting of a watchtower and several turret emplacements. I didn't see it, but I knew that the aliens' blood was boiling inside their veins before bursting.

I could see the appeal in piloting a tank. You feel like you're immortal.

"Frank, you've got grunts with fuel rods on your left."

One mortar shot later they were all vaporized.

"Fun, fun, fun," I said contentedly.

The next thing to go up in flames was a Shadow troop transport.

"El-tee, explosions are all good and fun," Miranda said, "but we need you to cover us as well."

"Right," I said, driving backwards and forming a wall for my squad.

They waited for Livingston to position herself on the other side and then walked in between the two heavy tanks. I was getting hit with small-arms fire from every direction, but they wouldn't melt through the armor or hurt me. It would take something heavier to bring this bad boy down.

I would know.

"Almost through El-tee," Miranda said. "We can hop the fence and be off by ourselves."

"Understood," I replied. "Why the hell am I taking orders from you?"

"Pretty girl," she reminded me.

I laughed at that as the four members of my squad jumped over the fence surrounding the stadium. I turned my Wraith around to fire at the multitude of aliens that had formed around us. They were barely attempting to take cover. Maybe they thought that if I was with my back facing to them I wasn't a threat.

Big mistake.

Livingston and I fired on the aliens, vaporizing a few and killing many more. The rest dispersed. I could vaguely hear two other larger explosions somewhere in the background as gunfire started bringing down the other aliens. A couple of rockets streaked and hit two other Wraiths and a red laser blew up another one. That was an awful lot of firepower for just one platoon. Lieutenant Weller was here with Platoon Three.

"Whadda ya know," Schitzo said, his face on the Wraith's screen. "Been a while since we were last part of an offensive."

"Been a while," I agreed.

Thanks to SilasWhitfield for proof-reading this chapter.

If Hoff's the quarterback what would that make Frank? I'm pretty sure that Miranda wouldn't accept being a cheerleader and that Sandor would be that one crazy linebacker that is kind of a dick to everyone he tackles.

I finally finished school and so far it seems like the world hasn't ended. Don't worry, there's still a couple more hours before we get our earth-shattering kaboom or our zombie apocalypse. Alien invasion works too, I guess. As I was saying, vacations. Yeah. Awesome. That means that I'll get more time to write and a lot more sleep. As you might've noticed this chapter was put up only four days after the last one as opposed to the six days that I've been keeping to for the last few updates. I'll do my best to give you more frequent updates.

I forgot one thing last chapter, the PGNML, or the mini-nuke launched from the rocket launcher, was the idea of General TheDyingTitan. Credit for the idea goes to him fully.

Don't really have much else to say. Thanks for your reviews on the last chapter and I look forward to reading your opinions on this one. Happy end of the world as we know it. Stay strong.

-casquis