Chapter CLVIII: Bambi's Final Act

March 5, 2548 (UNSC Calendar)/

Pelican Golf-07, LV-426, Zeta Reticuli System

"I could've used some rain with that fire, let's see them try and set fire to that."- Lance Corporal Takacs Sandor (unknowingly mocking 21st century artist Adele)

I couldn't keep the scowl off my face. The frown was pretty much immovable too, seeing as a scowl and a frown are both the same thing. My expression must've been scary, because none of Pavel's fellow squad mates seemed to be able to meet my angry gaze. Even Pavel himself seemed to be treating me with kid gloves.

I kept my grip on the handhold while PFC Sarah d'Arc manned the heavy machine gun aiming outside of the Pelican's cargo bay. I could see the forest fly by, occasionally showing a small clearing or a creek but mostly just trees.

"Come on Frank," Pavel was saying. "We've done plenty of crazier stuff in our day."

"Crazy yes. Stupid? Not like this."

Pavel sighed. "I know it's not the-"

"I don't care that we're doing this," I snapped. "I can handle stupid well enough. God knows I've had to in the past."

"Yeah, but then-"

"Because that bitch-" I started, catching myself before it went to far. "Because the Captain volunteered my unit for a suicide mission!"

"It's not a suicide mission," Pavel said calmly. "Not for us at least. We're perfectly qualified to do this."

"Be that as it may," I growled. "If anyone is going to volunteer my men for probable death it's going to be me."

"Don't we get a say?" Pavel asked with a small smile.

I nodded. "I would ask before doing it," I told him. "Hayes didn't even give us that courtesy."

"She's our CO," Pavel told me.

"Oh shut up," I told him. "I know full well that you're just as pissed by what she did."

He walked close to me and looked at his men. "Might be, but I don't go around badmouthing her in front of her men."

I shook my head, knowing the truth in his words but not really wanting to admit it. Hayes could've ordered us to do the mission and it would've been all right, but she had actually volunteered my unit. You can't volunteer someone for a near-suicide mission, least of all with a perfect poker face. I could still see the surprised expression on Galván's face. Even he had been shocked by it. I don't mind being ordered into my deaths, it is part of the job description. What I do mind is being made as if I volunteered to go into my death.

"Fine," I finally said. "I'll try not to badmouth my Commanding Officer in the future."

Pavel nodded and took a step back before sitting back down in between Lance Corporal Sasha Dotsenko and PFC James Ramirez. The burly Russian from Harmony and Colombian from Troy were pointedly checking the magazines on their SAWs.

I wondered why people were still referred to in regards to their ethnicity after so many years of humanity being in space. None of them had ever been to Earth yet they still had an Earth-based ethnicity. I wondered what actual Earthers would say to that.

I purposely thought about that while we moved towards our target. I could see the wing of the other Pelican containing the rest of my platoon behind us.

"There it is," Fightmaster called from the cockpit.

I walked through the cargo bay and into the cockpit, propping myself against both walls. "Damn."

"That thing is huge," Fightmaster said in agreement. "Think the elites are overcompensating for their lack of penises?"

"Could be," I chuckled.

I stopped laughing the moment after I remembered exactly what that giant ship was capable of doing. The Covenant Assault Carrier was not the first of its time I had ever seen, but I could count the number in one hand. It was a planetary occupation ship, one of those could give any colony that wasn't named Reach or Paris IV a run for its money. Right now the only reason why this entire rock hadn't collapsed under the pressure was the comparatively large UNSC fleet fighting back desperately and sheer luck.

The assault carrier had landed and immediately started unloading troops. It had made the mistake of landing within range of an Onager mass driver. The man in charge of sending toxic waste into the hot surface of Zeta Reticuli hadn't taken too kindly to his planet being invaded and in turn had shot a couple of toxic containers at the ship at a fraction of the speed of light. His aim wasn't exactly great, but it had been good enough to knock out the ship's engines. The man had been made a hero and Army troops had moved in on the Onager facility, keeping the thing aimed at the ship in case it attempted to drop its shields to deploy more troops. So far they had been successful in pushing back the few troops that the carrier dropped, but the Covenant had recently sent reinforcements, tilting the odds in their favor.

"There's the Onager," Fightmaster said, pointing at the cannon. "Odd place for a mass driver, don't you think?"

"I guess nobody wanted to be woken up by the sound every night," I shrugged in reply. "ETA?"

"Forty seconds."

I patted him in the shoulder and walked back out to the cargo bay. Already everyone was putting their helmets on and checking their magazines for obstructions. I picked up my own helmet and placed it under my arm, my BR55 slung across my back and my sidearm on its holster in my thigh. I had a particularly heavy ammunition load and I could feel the additional weight pulling me down.

"Go, go, go," I ordered as soon as the Pelican touched down. The moment we were all out Fightmaster dusted off and turned back to base. To my left I could see the other Pelican dropping the rest of my team. All of the guys on Caboose's squad were carrying large suitcases with our special payloads.

"Lieutenant!"

I turned to see an Army captain moving up towards me.

"Captain," I gave him a greeting. "What's the situation?"

"We're ready to pull back," he informed me, obviously not comfortable with the idea of abandoning the facility. "The moment we do the elites should order everyone forward, destroy the facility."

"And then the carrier begins dropping troops again," I finished. "It'll also drop its shields."

The Army captain looked around at his men. "I lost a lot of good soldiers defending this place. And now we're just leaving."

"I know how you feel Captain," I told him. I didn't tell him just how much it hurt to leave behind a whole planet and not just a small area. "What can you tell me about the complex defenses?"

"Well, obviously we have the Onager itself, helps take down Phantoms and Spirits. We've also got a pair of old Wolverines standing guard in case the covvies ever attempted to overwhelm us with air superiority. Never had to use 'em."

"Those might come in useful," I nodded. "Anything else?"

The captain shrugged. "Not really, command told us that you'd come with everything you needed."

"Gave us everything we needed too," I admitted. "Have your men finished setting up the explosives?"

"Yeah, detonator's right here," he said, offering me the device. "You click that and the complex blows sky high."

"That'll be a pleasant surprise," I smiled.

"You got the maps and pictures of the area?" he asked.

"Yeah," I replied, drumming my fingers on my helmet. "When are your men pulling out?"

He pointed at a badly battered Armadillo AFV that was having several duffels and pieces of equipment strapped to the outside. "We're just preparing the old girl. That 'Dillo saved our collective asses more times than I can count. Nobody wanted to leave her behind."

I smiled, knowing how he felt.

"Just out of curiosity," he began. "What exactly are you doing here? I know that Army Rangers have the same operational capabilities as you Helljumpers."

That drew a couple of angry glares from the nearest ODSTs. The captain pointedly ignored them and stood by his branch of the military.

"What can you do that Rangers can't?"

Had I been six or seven years younger I might've knocked his teeth in, but after having lived through so much and having fought with all kinds of men, I understood him. "Rangers are all good and well Captain, some of the bravest men I ever knew and fought with were Rangers. The only problem is that they're not as crazy as us."

The Captain coughed and shook his head slightly. "In any case, good luck then." He turned around to order some of his men to be careful with the crate they were carrying, startling them and almost making them drop it.

I smiled at his back and put my helmet on, looking at the enormous assault carrier that we were supposed to be taking out in the next couple of hours. I had spent two days preparing for this goddamned operation that I might very well die in and I hadn't even been able to see my girlfriend.

"You mean the one you cheated upon and haven't even had the decency to tell?" Schitzo asked. "Or the one you let get shot."

Shut up.

"I didn't even say anything yet," Pavel complained.

"Don't," I warned him, going along with it. He already knew how bad I had it; I didn't want to give him any reason for further worry. "Get your men ready, they're going to have to dish out the pain."

"Feel like that's our squad motto," Pavel said, cracking his neck and examining the ammo count on his M247L. "I'll get the men ready while you go over your plan and do officer stuff."

"Jealous?"

"Only of the pay Frank," he replied, walking away.

"You and Gunnery Sergeant Klaus lead a curious relationship," Al said. I had forgotten that he was in my helmet. "That's a very good picture of Corpsman Lockley."

I took the picture down from my HUD. "How would you know?"

"I can analyze appearances and compare them to preferred male tastes in female appearance. After analyzing the results I can tell that you are what other human males would call a very lucky guy."

"Yes Al, guilt him more," Schitzo laughed.

"Did I say something wrong?" Al asked, his avatar frowning. "Your brain waves spiked."

I smiled. "You didn't say anything wrong Al."

"But then why-"

"You're a smart guy Al, figure it out."

His avatar shrugged in my HUD and disappeared, no doubt off calculating some useless equations that could tell me the mass of the sun with only minimal information to begin with. Stupid super smart dumb AI. He was a mass of contradictions.

"Caboose."

"Yes, sir?"

"Have Zepeda and…O'Malley scout the area close by, tell them to stick to our planned route."

"Right away, Lieutenant."

I looked around at my Helljumpers, trying to see if there was anything else that I needed to handle. "Livingston."

"Yes, sir?"

"How's the face?"

She shrugged. "Better now, the bandages itch like hell, but apparently that way I won't have a big ugly scar covering half my face." Like most women she cared about her appearance. She was good looking; it would be a shame if this war disfigured her.

I nodded and she took off. The rest of my squad was fanning out, climbing to the walls of the complex and scouting the surrounding area while Zepeda and O'Malley disappeared into the thick foliage. Even the constant barrage hadn't been able to thin down the forest much. I don't know what kind of trees grew here, but they were all at least twenty feet thick and ten times as high. They would've reminded me of sequoias except that they had branches with large leaves extending all the way down to the ground, providing excellent cover.

"Pelicans are inbound Lieutenant," Miranda called in. "Small fleet of them."

"Army's pulling out," I said to myself. "Party's about to begin."

The Pelicans arrived and the Army guys pulled out in impressive time. They all had loads bigger than anything Marines carried into battle. I never ceased to be impressed by the different tactical mentalities of the two branches.

"Orders?" Pavel asked me.

"We slip past them," I said, reiterating the original plan. "Can't do anything for this base." I paused to look around. This place had probably been everything for the soldiers defending it. "Come on, we go out the front gate and into the creek. Keep this thing stealthy for as long as we can."

"Knowing you El-tee, that won't be long," Sandor said.

"If that wasn't true I'd have you whipped."

"Don't think you're allowed to do that anymore," he replied, chuckling.

The geography of this area was probably one of the main reasons why we were given the all clear for this mission. Or Hayes had anyways. The creek I mentioned was a little creek much like many others. The water had dug a little trench about ten feet tall and twice as wide. Normally that would've been a death trap, but this creek was surrounded by the huge trees with leafy branches that sprouted at ground level. We would practically have a ceiling above us. In theory, it would allow us to get close enough to out target to carry out our mission.

"Zepeda, O'Malley, you see anything?"

"A couple of grunt and jackal scout teams, they seem to be reporting back to base," PFC O'Malley came in.

I winced at her jarring South African accent but then smiled at the subtitles that I had set as default for her on my HUD. Every time she said something my helmet helped me transform it into something resembling understandable English.

"Want us to take 'em out?"

"Negative on that one O'Malley," I replied. "We don't want anything giving away our position just yet. Keep your eyes on them and hold your position. We're moving up."

The whole platoon left the Onager facility as the Pelicans took off. It was a short sprint towards the forest. Most of the trees closest to the Onager had the tops blown off in order to get a clear line of fire to the carrier. Perhaps that's why the man that fired the first time had missed.

The creek seemed welcoming at first, but as the branches and leaves began to thicken and block out the light, it became quite a scary place.

"Recon Squad will go up front, give your suitcases to my squad," I ordered. "Pavel, I want your men at one hundred meters distance. VSF, we go on the rear, another hundred meters between HW and us. Avoid concentrating in one point if possible; we want to keep this quiet as long as possible."

It wasn't the going in part that bothered me;it was the going out that did.

"You know," Hoff said after a while of silence. "This place reminds me of the woods outside my house. I'd go there and find nice hideouts."

"You strike me as the kind of kid that would give shit to other for finding hideouts," Sandor replied, scanning the surroundings with his MA5.

"Hey, come on!" Hoff complained. "Give me some credit. I might've been a jock but that doesn't mean I was a dick."

"Ryan, you're a dick half the time," Livingston told him. "Well, more conceited than dickish, but you get what I mean."

"Am not, besides, even if I was there's no way I'm that much of a dick."

My, my, whatever are you implying?

"Maybe you're right," Sandor admitted. "Perhaps they beat the dick out of you in boot camp."

"That would explain the high voice and bleached hair," Livingston suggested. The comment drew a huff of amusement from Marv and a scoff from Hoff.

"I do not bleach my hair," he declared adamantly. "And my voice is not high!"

"It's a little bit high," Miranda said quietly.

Hoff turned to look at her and shook his head. "High? As compared to what? Marv's baritone? He sounds like a movie villain!"

"Why are you dragging me into this?" Mobuto asked. He did have a pretty deep voice.

"And the El-tee's also got a relatively deep voice."

"I like to call it the perfect manly pitch," I said simply. "And you're not helping your case, Girly Cords."

"For fuck's sake." Hoff finally relented.

I wondered how long it would last speaking in a deeper voice. Perhaps about a week before he forgot all about this. Poor guy, he did have a pretty high-pitched voice for a man.

"Down!" I ordered suddenly, getting alarm lights from Recon Squad. "Recon, what can you tell me?"

"We've got several large enemy units heading past us. So far they haven't seen us," Caboose came in, short and to the point.

"Al, can you link up a camera from the complex to my HUD?"

"Can I- Damn right I can," he replied, making a show of being offended. "There."

A small screen appeared on the top left corner of my helmet, displaying the courtyard of the Onager facility. I kept it on my HUD, the concentration of covvie troopers would let me know when detonation would prove to be the most effective.

"Enemies coming up," Miranda whispered. "Lots of 'em."

"Down," I waved my team as I took a knee.

The elites' heavy stomping was the first thing I heard. After that I could make out the squealing form the grunts. The jackals had an uncanny ability to walk almost silently, but taking into account their weak bones and incredibly light weight it made sense. Several squads of Covenant soldiers bypassed us, the heavy foliage only allowing me to see their feet and parts of their bodies. The aliens seemed to move hesitantly, the Army unit had probably given them hell in the last few days.

"Shhh," I said, trying to calm down my team.

The parade of covvies seemed to go for quite a bit longer than necessary, but fortunately for us none of them decided to look down. They knew the creek was there, but since it hadn't presented a threat in the past it didn't present a threat now. I smiled to myself, wondering what the Covenant would think if they had a chance to analyze our actions after we blew their ship to hell.

"Covvies are past us," Caboose announced.

"We still see 'em coming," Pavel came in a second later. "Wait…the last of them are approaching."

"Wait them out," I ordered my squad.

"There's so many of them," Miranda muttered.

"Way more than a regular demolition op would need," Livingston agreed.

"Perhaps they're expecting a trap," Sandor suggested.

"There is a trap," Hoff reminded him. "But this way they'll just get more of their own killed."

"Fine by me," I shrugged. "Now quiet."

When the last of the aliens bypassed us I allowed myself to relax. I waited for an extra minute before allowing my squad to move ahead. Caboose and Pavel had already sent their men forward and were reporting no enemies.

We were careful not to make any splashes or bring any rocks down. With the water all the way to our knees, the first one was more difficult than it sounded, but if we moved slow it was easily accomplished.

"Two grunts," Caboose came in. "Moving up quickly, probably running late."

"Ha," Hoff chuckled. "Maybe the elite's will eat them."

"That's the brutes," I told him. "Ok, wait them out."

The two grunts were making a lot of noise and we heard them several dozen meters before we could see their thick legs stomping hurriedly. They must've been going a little bit too fast or stomping too hard because the dirt under their feet collapsed and they both slid down right in front of us.

For a moment I think we were more stunned than they were, but then I was lunging towards the nearest grunt. As Marvin drove a knife through the other alien's throat I found myself disarming mine instead, tossing the plasma pistol to the side.

"Quiet," I told it. "You speak English?"

The grunt's eyes were wide with panic. It was surrounded by six huge and angry humans, so there was a good reason for that. "Little."

I smiled at my fortune. Most of the grunts seemed to speak English or some other major human language to some degree. I wondered why. "What is your plan?"

The grunt looked around nervously and squealed.

"Quiet," I repeated, this time pressing my knife against its throat.

"What is your plan?"

"Destroy big gun."

"The cannon?"

"Yes, cannon. Sangheili masters want it gone."

"Know anything else?" I asked it. "What kind of forces on the carrier?"

It shook its head and I was surprised that they shared that gesture with us humans. "Very many… thousands."

"Lotta help that does us," Sandor groaned.

"I'm going to have to talk to Domingo about the usefulness of questioning grunts," I said. "Poor bastard's scared shitless."

The grunt seemed to be trying to keep up with us, no doubt our skill and mastery of the English language being too much for it to keep up with. "Not understand," it said. "What you need to know?"

"Wow, poor creature's almost pitiful," Livingston noted.

"Almost," Hoff agreed.

I sighed and pressed my knife against the grunt's throat. I pressed it pretty hard and soon enough the grunt was on its knees with both hands trying to keep the blood in. It wheezed and attempted to get away from us, but dropped before it went more than a couple of feet.

"Useless git," Sandor said, kicking at the still-dying grunt.

Marvin examined the grunt before yanking a pair of plasma grenades from its harness and placing them in his pouch. "Good thing they aren't protected by the Geneva Convention."

"Oorah," Sandor chuckled.

"Move along," I ordered. "What a waste of time."

After several more minutes of carefully wading through the creek and stopping for the occasional covvie unit I finally decided that there were enough covvies in the Onager facility to warrant blowing it up to kingdom come. I stopped and clicked the detonator twice. The sound of the explosion reached our position a few seconds later, the shockwave instants after that.

"There goes the neighborhood," Hoff joked.

"Lieutenant, we're within firing range," Caboose came in.

"Understood. Move up to the pre-designated firing position, we'll catch up with you."

Caboose and his men had already climbed out of the creek by the time Pavel's squad fanned out to form a defensive perimeter. My own squad arrived at our firing point a minute later. The creek turned into a small pool that in turn fed two different streams. Unfortunately, they hadn't eroded the ground enough to give us concealment.

"All clear, Frank," Pavel told me. "Not a single covvie within eyesight."

I reminded myself that eyesight range wasn't much considering the thick foliage. "Understood. Keep your eyes open." I quickly looked around for Caboose and waved him over. "The launchers?"

"Over there," he pointed. "Should we fire?"

"Can you see the ship?"

"Zepeda's up there," he pointed at a tree. "What do you see?"

"Assault carrier looks like it still has its shields up, nothing's coming out of the cargo bay."

Caboose pondered on that one for a second before talking. "Might be they sensed the trap, we did blow up their forces on the ground."

"They'll see it as an acceptable risk, they should start dropping troops soon. Which of your men are going to be firing?"

"Reeves, Montri, and Atkins."

"Good, send them up and tell them to wait. I want Zepeda to have his scope aimed at the ship at all times."

Caboose nodded and started ordering his men about. I watched in amusement as the three Helljumpers climbed up the trees with large rocket launchers strapped to their backs. The men climbed a lot quicker than I would've imagined they could. As soon as they were high enough they grabbed the launchers and aimed at the assault carrier. It was only a matter of time until the ship dropped its shields.

"Pavel, what can you tell me?" I asked after a few minutes.

"Nothing, no movement."

I nodded, still crouching behind a sturdy branch that must've been as thick as a hunter. These were weird trees indeed.

"Something's happening," Montri said.

I directed my attention to the screen in my HUD and noticed that the assault carrier was indeed doing something. "What the hell is it doing?"

"I don't-"

I dropped to the floor when I saw that the massive ship had fired one plasma torpedo at our direction. For a moment I thought we were dead men walking, but the torpedo kept flying past us and exploded further back. If I had to guess I'd say that it had vaporized anything within three hundred meters of the Onager cannon.

"What the hell?!" Sandor complained.

"Probably covering up their casualties," Livingston suggested.

I didn't really know what to think, only that the huge goddamned carrier had almost vaporized all of us without knowing that we were here. "Zepeda, give me a picture."

The carrier was still there, nothing seemed to have changed.

That is until the moment that hundreds of Phantoms, Spirits, and Banshees started pouring out of the massive cargo bay like a swarm.

"Shit," I said. "Fire, fire, fire!"

The moment the three missiles had been launched my men were climbing back down. The huge contrails that the rockets left behind were as big a 'we're here' sign as we could manage under the circumstances. There was no way they were going to miss our position.

"We've got fliers inbound!" Lance Corporal Atkins cried, dropping from one branch. "We need to get out of here now!"

"An accurate statement," I said. "Pavel, pull your men out, you come across anything you kill it for us. Caboose, take your men and run, we'll cover your back."

I watched as we retreated in an orderly fashion. Already I could see Banshees screaming past the canopy of the forest. They were trying to pinpoint our location, some of them were even firing blindly in an attempt to get us. The three missiles had timers on. They were supposed to attach themselves to the carrier's hull before detonating. The timers were supposed to buy us time; we would surely need a little bit of that with fifteen megaton nukes. They would vaporize anything within a five mile radius and flatten a lot more.

We had already cleared four and a half miles, the distance that we had fired from, but there was quite a ways to go before the detonation didn't prove fatal.

"Fall back to Position Alpha!" I snapped as my squad formed up and ran. "From there we'll call for support and evac."

"And if you're lucky you might get it," Schitzo told me. "Now run."

There was no need for him to tell me twice, as I could now hear the Phantoms and Banshees coming for another pass, or rather, keep on coming. Most of my platoon was already out of sight, hidden by the thick branches and the wide leafs. Despite my orders a few of the guys in my platoon had started going a little bit early. I didn't blame them for it though; everybody was running for their lives.

Marvin and Atkins were the only two Helljumpers that remained with me, although probably not by choice, Marv looked like he wanted to bolt and Atkins slipped while hopping over a branch, leaving us all three together.

"They want to bring the forest down," Pavel called from the front.

Figured out that one myself.

Plasma rounds that weren't heavy enough detonated against the upper branches, sending thousands of wood splinters in every direction. The heavier rounds cracked the branches and hit the ground, sending dirt and more splinters everywhere. Most of the enemy weaponry couldn't fire plasma that would keep stable through all those tree branches.

I could hear the Phantoms and Spirit dropships humming overhead, their cannons firing as fast as possible. The grunt gunners on the Phantom side doors were causing some trouble too, firing blindly at any sign of movement.

"Holy shit!" Atkins shouted as two lucky plasma bolts flew right past his shoulder. "Can't we call for support?!"

By that point everything was exploding, I was hopping over branches too low and sliding under branches too high. Already I could feel some of the bigger splinters embedded in my undersuit. "No support! That was the plan!" I shouted, a mortar ripping half a tree trunk and sending wooden spikes in every direction. One of them hit my visor, knocking me backwards and leaving a smudge on it.

"Ah fuck," I grunted, looking up at the rays of sunlight that leaked through the branches. "Fuck."

I rolled and pushed myself back to my feet only to have to duck immediately as another mortar hit several meters away.

"Clearing up ahead!" Pavel warned. "Going right!"

A few seconds later O'Malley came in. "Phantom dropping troops on the clearing!" she yelled it at the top of her lungs, her scream surpassing even her jarring accent.

I kept running until I spotted the edge of the clearing. Already there were a couple dozen covvies on the ground; Marvin and Atkins sprayed the closest grunts, killing five of them and sending the rest for cover. Unfortunately for me, the aliens lifted their heads just as I was passing through and fired all they had at me.

I took cover behind a thick tree trunk and waited exactly one second before tossing a grenade. I didn't get a chance to see the effects, but it bought me enough time to run past their immediate fields of fire. I didn't enjoy being the one furthest out back, but that was the way it was.

"Frank, I am getting reports from Battalion One that they have an available drone," Al said suddenly.

"Tell 'em to send it!" I told the AI.

"It's only a recon drone, no weapons capabilities."

"I'll take it," I grunted, slipping on a mossy rock and hitting the ground with my shoulder.

"Drone is in the air, it should get here in a minute or so."

Atkins and Marv became visible a few seconds later, their non-augmented bodies were peak human, but not quite as good as mine. They were both young kids, probably more athletic than I would've been without my special add-ons. So here I was, a man in his thirties, running through a forest on a moon colony while a couple hundred aliens tried to atomize me with energy weapons. I should've been sitting on a small office complaining about my boss and waiting to get back home to my beautiful wife.

But nooooooo.

"Frank, drone shows several Phantom and Spirit units dropping troops in front and around Five." Al's avatar had the tact to look worried.

"You catch that?!" I asked my platoon loudly. "Meet any enemy force with overwhelming fire, is that clear?"

"Crystal," Pavel came in. "You hear that? We're the ones with the most firepower so that's up to us!" He was talking to his squad, but he still used the platoon-wide channel. Probably trying to tell everyone that he had their backs.

"Drone is circling overhead," Al told me. "Setting camera to thermal and popping maps one everyone's HUD."

"Thanks Al," I told him, climbing over a half-fallen tree and jumping down to a low branch. I managed to keep my balance on the long branch and ran along it until it became to weak to support me. After that I jumped down to the ground, rolling to absorb some of the shock from the fall. "Tag enemies in red."

"Done," he said. A bird's eye view of the area around me replaced my nearly useless minimap, displaying my unit in as green dots and the covvies as red ones. So far they were only to our sides and back, but they were closing in and it was only a matter of time until they made contact with us.

Something's wrong.

I ducked sideways without really wanting to and three needleshit the ground to my side. I turned and shot a jackal sharpshooter in the chest with my rifle. It was at least fifty feet above me, perched on a tree branch.

"What the hell?" I asked. "Why didn't it show up?"

"My mistake Frank, jackals are ectothermic."

"Cold-blooded?" I said after figuring out the word. "But they're birds!"

"They share more traits with Earth's reptiles," he replied. "I am sorry, should've thought of that. Their temperature is that of their surrounding, that's why they didn't show up."

"Can you fix that?" I asked him, running along once again.

"Yes. Changing parameters..."

A second later several more aliens appeared, all of them were uncomfortably close to my unit. "Jackals in the trees," I warned.

My squad responded immediately, doing their best to comply with my orders of using overwhelming firepower. Several of the red dots disappeared. It would be a while before their bodies actually cooled off, but the drone was just doing that for our benefit, to avoid confusion.

Our advantage over the aliens was reduced to our drone. They hadn't put up their own air reconnaissance yet, but it was only a matter of time until our advantage was nullified.

I heard four sniper rifle cracks and saw four dots disappear, reducing the jackal's numbers to just two. A barrage of machine gun fire and one DMR shot eliminated those and returned us to relative safety, relative being used in the loosest sense of the world possible.

"The forest is catching fire," Livingston said. "They're setting fire to the trees."

A quick look into the drone's screen and I knew it was true. The Covenant had noticed that their high-heat plasma weaponry could easily ignite wood and leaves and had started taking advantage of it. It looked like they were trying to herd us towards their ground units.

"Clever fuckers," PFC Lizzo, one of Pavel's gunners, muttered.

"Pick up the pace," I ordered. "We don't want to get caught in the fire."

"Enemy squad on our two o'clock!" Pavel cried.

All of his men stopped and fired, six red points disappeared from the screen. The other four moved back and started returning fire from behind cover.

"Keep moving everybody," I ordered. "Pavel and Lizzo, you two keep them behind cover!"

The rest of the unit moved past the four remaining aliens as quick as possible while Pavel and Lizzo fired almost continuously, trying to cover the rest of Five. I looked around and saw that Marv was still the one closest to me.

"Marv, on me," I told him.

I took a sharp turn to the right and climbed a couple of branches, helping Marv behind me. Once we were at an altitude of about three feet we jumped and ran through the thick branches, moving around the enemy unit. It took half a minute to position ourselves where we could see them. Once there I ordered Pavel to stop firing and tossed a grenade at them. The two grunts were killed immediately, but Marv took out the elites with the depleted shields with quick bursts.

"Nice shooting," I told him. "Let's catch up."

As soon as we jumped down two Banshee fuel rods slammed through the branches and hit the tree next to us. The trunk blew up completely. I almost got my head impaled by a splinter the side of my leg, but by some miracle or other none of the other shards of wood went through my armor or undersuit. Marv was equally lucky, with only a single piece of wood embedding itself in the back of his armor, not punching through.

"They know where we are," he said, yanking the wood out.

"They're coming around," I said. "Run!"
Both of us ran as the two Banshees switched to regular plasma cannons and started a strafing run. I was afraid to look back, but I had no doubt that the moment I did I would see blue plasma going through all the vegetation and biting at out feet. Instead I focused on the enormous branch in front of us, it reached from my knees to about my neck. I slid under it with Marv and pulled him back when he looked like he wanted to keep running. The plasma didn't go through the thick branch and the Banshees kept on going.

"Move." I opened a line to Corporal Dana Bamber. "Bamber, can you shoot one of those Banshees down?"

"I think so," she replied in between breaths. "Which one?"

"Anyone!" I shouted, fire now almost surrounding me. "Give them a scare."

When I heard the laser I hoped that one of the Banshees was down. I examined my map and sure enough one Banshee was falling through the trees, ripping branches apart.

"Good work," I told her.

"I'm seeing elite Rangers jumping around," Corporal Dotsenko, another one of Pavel's men, said. "They're trying to get ahead of us."

"Force them to stop," I ordered. "Keep them busy, we can't afford to be surrounded."
Marv and I caught up with a couple other guys. Gals, to be precise. Both Livingston and Bamber were running alongside one another, Livingston using her assault rifle to keep Bamber safe in case she needed to use her Spartan Laser again.

"Spirit vectoring towards your location Frank," Al told me.

"Bamber," I told her. "Hit the dropship."

Bamber took a knee and aimed her Spartan Laser up. I saw Al produce a white line on the minimap that displayed where the laser would hit. As soon as she had a target she charged the weapon and fired. The powerful laser went through several branches, burning holes through them, before hitting one of the two troop compartments on the dropship. The ship pulled up to avoid further fire, its gunner firing wildly and smoke coming out of the impact area.

"Nice work," I told her, pulling her up from her kneeling position and shoving her into a run.

"Frank," Al started, "at this pace you'll be overwhelmed in five minutes."

"Then what do you suggest, Al?" I exploded at the AI.

Al took a deep breath, preparing me for the incoming suggestion. "We are approaching Bravo Point."

It took a moment to remind the location. It was a pile of rocks surrounding a cave of sorts. It was in the middle of the forest, covered on all sides by trees but relatively high when compared to the surrounding ground. It was an excellent position from which to make a last stand. "There's no need to bunker down," I told him. "If we do that we're as good as surrounded."

"There are several Longswords within striking range," Al told me. "If you can convince them to provide close support you can buy some time for the evacuation team."

"Which Longswords?" I asked, surprised at myself for actually considering it. If this didn't work all of us would be dead, if it did all of us would survive. If I refused to bunker down some of us would certainly die as more and more covvies poured out from dropships.

"Scalpel-5 through 8," Al told me.

I almost smiled. "That's Shot Glass and EC, right?"

"Those are their callsigns, yes," he told me.

"Patch me through." I spoke to my men, "Five, we might be bunkering down in Bravo Point, stand by for orders."

"This is Scalpel-5, come in."

"Batman, Five-Actual here, we need some help."

"I can see, optics show one hell of a mess down there."

"Tell me about it," I said, trying to sound as calm as possible. "Can you provide close fire support? I know that's not a Longsword's traditional role but we could really use the help."

There was a long pause. "Not all of us. I'm sending Scalpel-7 and Scalpel-8 down to your location. Do you have a strong point?"

"Something like that," I replied, smiling.

"Good, stay there and keep your heads down. ETA is four minutes."

"Thanks Batman, I owe you one."

"You do, and I won't forget it."

I cut the line. "Five, everybody head to Bravo Point."

I could see my unit change their bearings slightly to head towards our new intended destination just as another timer appeared below that of the nukes.

I hadn't noticed, but as I requested support I had lagged a little bit behind. Livingston had remained behind as Marv and Bamber moved up ahead. I started running, picking up the pace.

"El-tee, behind you!"

I rolled instinctively as Livingston fired several rounds. I turned just in time to see a jackal fall down from a tree branch and land down on the ground with a sickly crunch. I thanked her as she pulled me back up.

"That's the second time you save my life," I told her. "I need to catch up."

"Don't worry El-tee, part of the job description."

I smiled. "Right."

We ran the rest of the way, only stopping to keep some jackals off our shoulders. About fifty meters from our destination one of the Banshees that Bamber hadn't shot down decided to return, firing a fuel rod right at me and Livingston. I threw her sideways and jumped behind her as the green plasma detonated, sending dirt and wood everywhere. I jumped back up and saw that Livingston had been hit.

"Andrea, are you ok?" I asked her.

The question was a stupid one, there was a thick splinter jutting out of her chest, right below her right collarbone. Her vitals said that she was fine, but she was certainly in pain if her screams were any indication.

"Come on," I said, pulling her up and placing her over my shoulder, ignoring the piece of wood coming out below my armpit. Already there was some blood slipping down and dripping into the ground. "You'll be fine," I assured her. "But you really need to stop getting hit, seeing as you're the squad medic."
That didn't do anything to alleviate her pain, and instead her grunts seemed to get worse.

"Lieutenant, over here!"

I looked up to see PFC Ramirez crouched on a rock that I could've sworn hadn't been there earlier. He was offering me his hand.

"Thanks James, "I told him, pulling myself and Livingston up. "Where's Sutton?"

"Over there," he told me, pointing at another rock. "He's patching up d'Arc and Carver."

"Thanks," I repeated. Carrying Livingston was easier than I would've imagined. She was in very good shape. By that I mean that she was perfectly proportioned, with a nice ass and a very decent rack without being heavy. The problem was that she had this huge branch jutting out of her chest.

"Sutton," I told the man. "We've got wounded."

"I know Lieutenant," he replied, barely glancing up from a screaming Sarah d'Arc, who had been shot through the thigh with a needle or a carbine. He glanced up and examined Livingston. "Place her over there. Gently!"

He was a medic, not a doctor, he had no right to speak to me like that.

"Sure," I said, gently placing Livingston down with her back against a rock. "Take care of her."

"I will," he replied.

I could see that Pavel's squad had spread out and we now had machine guns on every point of our little rocky hill. It would've been slightly more comfortable if we had more than a dozen meters to visibility, but the trees were as thick here as they were anywhere else.

"Zepeda, can you use the drone to guide your shots through the branches?"

I got his green light.

"Do it, target larger dots."

He immediately started firing, red dots disappearing with every shot. The man was as good as they came.

"Carver, Carver!"

"Here Lieutenant."

"Where are you wounded?"

"Splinter punched through my left hand," he replied. He sounded high on meds.

"Can you fire?"

"Yes."

"Then start volleying HE rounds at troop concentrations asap," I ordered.

"Yes, sir."

I went through my platoon's roster quickly, wondering who else could damage the enemy before they actually showed up. No one had weapons with that capability at the time. Instead I ordered everyone to fire into anything that moved. It was a redundant order; we were already pushing back waves of covvie soldiers.

"Lieutenant!"

I turned to catch Caboose's shotgun.

"Give it to Sutton," he told me.

I nodded and threw the shotgun at the medic, he caught it and placed it by his side, ready to be used if any alien got too close to him or the two wounded girls. There was a rock in front of him that gave him good cover and a large boulder behind and to the sides, but an alien could still jump through and cause mayhem.

I had no time to think. An elite started firing at me with a plasma repeater. I ducked behind for cover until Hoff and one of Pavel's gunners took it out.

"Two more minutes!"

I could've sworn that the Longswords were ready. I grunted, firing at jackals on the branches. Four longest minutes of my life.

I could see that the gunners were having trouble handling the grunts and jackals on the ground, but I was too busy handling the sharpshooters in the branches. I felt like I killed jackal after jackal only for more of them to immediately show up. If I hadn't had Hoff and his DMR helping me cover the sector I might have very well gotten someone killed.

"Elite general," someone said in a deceptively calm voice. "He's got a fuel rod."

For a moment everybody in that area redirected their fire at the elite, completely ignoring everything else. The moment the general went down we knew that the enemy morale would go down and several of the grunts down below would panic. It took longer than expected, the strong energy shields holding out and allowing it to get two shots off.

"Report!" I ordered.

"We're good Lieutenant," Sandor came in. "Minor burns but we're intact."

The enemy didn't let up, a couple of Banshees strafed us once, Bamber killed one of them, discouraging further attempts. Instead they started firing at our position with Wraith mortars. At first they missed by far and even hit some of their own soldiers, but with every shot they got closer to our position.

"Ten seconds!" I yelled.

Ten seconds was not a lot of time considering the damage that two Longsword spacecraft could cause on soft targets. I managed to keep myself from ducking under cover until the timer said that we only had four seconds left before Scalpel-7 and Scalpel-8 brought home the pain.

I ducked and counted to four as slowly as I dared.

The moment I mouthed 'one' I heard the gunfire. The ventral cannons on the Longswords could fire 120mm explosive rounds and their regular M9109 ASW/AC cannons could fire 50mm rounds, also high explosive. I knew that I was hearing the gunfire after the Longswords in question had already flown past us. The bullets flew faster than the speed of sound and I had no doubt that the Longswords themselves were doing Mach 4 or 5. The programs on their craft ensured that every single bullet hit the spot it was intended to, even at supersonic speeds. If the computers could make regular rounds hit ships traveling at speeds measure in kilometers per second then this was a cakewalk for them.

I waited a few seconds and heard trees cracking and falling down. Only then did I dare look at the screen that displayed everything the drone was seeing. Every last one of the covvie soldiers in a three hundred meter radius was dead. All of the dropships had been destroyed by ship-to-ship missiles and the forest itself looked as if it had seen better days.

"Thanks Scalpel," I said, referring to both pilots. "Thanks for that."

"No problem," Scalpel-7 replied. His nickname was Rover. "Always glad to help out Helljumpers."

I didn't miss the slightly taunting tone in his voice, but considering the circumstances, I decided to ignore it.

"Good luck up there," I said.

"Likewise. Scalpel-7 out."

I sighed and sat back down, smiling.

"Frank, no need to be a…party pooper, but the nuclear devices are about to detonate."

I looked at the smaller timer on my HUD and nodded slowly. "Everyone keep their heads down," I ordered. "We move as soon as the shockwave makes it past us."

My platoon moved to the side not facing the assault carrier and we bunkered down on one of the caves that all the rocks formed, waiting out the nuclear fire that would vaporize all the aliens.

Half a minute later I heard the explosion and closed my eyes as the shockwave flew past us.

Safe.

Thanks to SilasWhitfield for proofreading this chapter.

So we have a suicide mission where nobody dies, inter service rivalry, the Covenant contributing to global warming, exo-atmospheric fighters doing strafing runs, and reckless usage of nuclear weapons. I wish I could say that I added something new and unusual to the fanfic...

Oh well, regardless of this chapter's lack of originality, I still think it turned out pretty good all things considered.

Qwerty282: I did kind of make it like this chapter was going to be much worse than expected. Sorry for teasing, bro.

Seredhras: hey, your review was a perfectly adequate one and also happened to be incredibly helpful. On the previous eighty chapters, they are kind of crappy (especially the first 20ish) and I'm the first one to admit it, you don't really have to read them, but it would probably be a good idea to skim through some of them in order to get some information that might prove important later on. On the bombshells... what can I say, i think that it's a lot better than having a bunch of ugly people on my fic ;) Also, how did you get to Aztlan on google?

cuz you asked: Been a while, you should really get a name so that I know who's ass I'm going to be driving my fist up until the rims of my watch make you shit blood. And your advice is much appreciated, bro.

NonSolus: Armored Prayer was added to my Epic Playlist the moment I listened to it, thanks man.

Colonel-Commissar2468: (on your review in 156) If I was a good drawer (I know that's not the word, but it's funny) I would've posted several stuffs on deviantart and would've done some shameless self-promotion. If i ever find a picture that matches my image of Frank I'll be sure to let you know, i can tell that this is bugging you.

To everyone else, thanks verily much for all your reviews, kind or otherwise. Little spoiler, after this battle we get to the year 2549, the year during which the Siege of Paris IV took place. As halopedia puts it, little is known about that conflict except that Sgt. Avery Johnson distinguished himself in it. That's right, you all get some Johnson badassery and I get an ambiguous conflict that I get to shape and transform into whatever I want. Fun, fun, fun.

Let me know what you thought of this chapter and stay strong.

-casquis