Chapter CLIX: Tip of the Blade

March 27, 2548 (UNSC Calendar)/three weeks later

Water Oakley, LV-426, Zeta Reticuli System

"I'm in love with whoever invented ropes."– Corporal Marvin Mobuto

"Andy!" Sandor greeted, raising his cantine. "Welcome back!"

Livingston smiled. "Why thank you Tak."

"Wow, only my mother calls me Tak."

"Good to see you Andy," Marv told her.

Andrea smiled at him. "Thanks."

"So, you're going to show us the scar?" Miri asked. "I guess it's pretty messy."

It probably was. After having lived four solid days with a piece of wood lodged through her chest and no advanced medical equipment it was bound to be.

"It will be until I get plastic surgery," she said.

"Plastic surgery?" Hoff asked. "Really? Are you a girl or a Helljumper."

"I'm both, ass," she told him. "That's why I've got more scars than you do."

"Ouch," Sandor said. "Burn."

"Oh, shut up. Getting shot is not a skill," Hoff said dismissively.

"Not a marketable one, at least," Marv somewhat agreed.

Miranda smiled. "Knowing how to get shot though, that's a skill."

Andrea grabbed the collar of her shirt and pulled sideways and down, prompting Hoff to cover his eyes and squeal like a little kid. That got a couple of laughs going. Once Andrea pulled the shirt enough I saw her scar. It was a big ugly mess of raw skin, stitches, and half-healed cut. It looked even worse than the one I had on my lower back from a similar injury, and that one had hurt like hell.

"Ouch," Sandor said again, this time meaning it. "You good?"

"I'm good," she confirmed, smiling again.

"Good to have you back Andy," I said finally. "But you really have to stop getting shot if you're going to be our medic."

"Hear, hear," Hoff cheered.

"Hey Lieutenant, do you know why we're running low on top-notch med supplies?" Andy asked me.

I shrugged. "All of the ships except for the…Screaming?"

"The Badass," Marv corrected.

"Right. Every ship but the Badass left to engage the Covenant fleet. Last I heard they're trying to outmaneuver each other before actually engaging, but the moment the battle actually starts…" I stopped talking, all of us knew how those things used to go.

"So the Navy's hogging all the supplies for themselves?"

I nodded. "They're supposed to send a couple of corvettes to resupply Water Oakley and other firebases."

The men and women in my squad seemed to nod before returning to their MREs, looking as if they wished they were eating anything else but the military rations. This city's dispenser machines had long since run out of candy bars and Army or Marines had probably repeatedly looted every candy shop. Every veteran worth his salt knew that candy bars and chips became a priced commodity during prolonged ground engagements, and this one was starting to shape up to be just that.

I took one bite of my locally grown chocolate bar and smiled at the looks I got from my men. "Enjoy that, this might be our last meal."

"You know El-tee, you can be a real dick sometimes," Miranda told me.

I raised my eyebrows at her. "I'm going to let that one pass because you served with me when I was enlisted."

"Sorry, sir," she apologized quickly, looking down and pushing her food around.

"Hey Frank," Pavel said from behind, taking another bite from his own candy bar. "Where are all your chocolate bars?" he asked my squad.

"They ate them," I told him.

Pavel did an incredible job of looking shocked. "Before what is quite possibly last meal?"

I shrugged.

"Noobs," Pavel scoffed. "All of them."

"Come on Gunny," Hoff complained. "Leave us alone."

Caboose chose that moment to walk up to us. "Lieutenant," he said formally. "The men are getting restless. When are we deploying?"

"Oh, Grigori," Pavel exclaimed. "I see you have your own chocolate bar too! What is that? Kit-Kat?"

"They still make those?" I asked.

"When did they stop?" Pavel replied half-sarcastically.

"It's some local knockoff," Caboose replied, looking a little bit confused. For him, that meant that he was completely in the dark about what was going on. "You making a list or something?"

"Nah, we're just rubbing it in their faces," I explained.

"Oh. They ate them already?"

"Come on already!" Sandor exclaimed. "Please. It's bad enough as it is that I have to eat this crap."

An outside observer might've wondered why a bunch of ODSTs would be joking around with crappy chocolate and even crappier dehydrated food. For us, the only way to vent after or before combat was to do stupid stuff, try to be as normal as possible. Pretend to be normal. It got our head off the matter at hand for long enough to keep us from going into combat depressed or thinking too much. It was better to laugh than to cry or scream. When the time came the ones that made it would fuck with the younger recruits.

"We should be deploying in a couple of hours," I said, taking the last bite of my chocolate bar. "Tell your squads to get some sleep. Full combat loads, explosive charges, the works."

Pavel and Caboose quickly took off towards their respective squads. I frowned when I saw that every squad avoided mingling with the other two if possible. Not actively avoid them of course, but they just tended to hang out with their own squad mates. It made sense, there's no doubt that you bonded more with the guys you fought side by side with. It still kind of bothered me to see them so divided.

My squad broke off and they each went their different ways. Hoff was most certainly going to meet up with one of the various girls that he had seduced using his time-proven high school charms and Marv was probably going to do something similar to him. I don't know about Andrea or Miri, but I'd like to think that they went off together. Sandor? Well, there's a good chance that he met someone as bloodthirsty as he and was off to get some pre-battle sex.

Me? Well, me too.

As per usual Hanna and I had an agreed-upon meeting place. She arrived looking suitably excited without appearing too obvious. On the other hand, I walked there with a large grin on my face that anybody who had been on more than one battle would be familiar with. I once heard someone joke that the best time to attack us would be before a major offensive, when everyone would be humping the hell out of each other.

"Hey there beautiful," I greeted.

"I love it when you call me that," she said in an unnecessarily sultry voice. "Big boy."

That actually managed to make me uncomfortable.

"Yeah…" I said. "No."

"Oh, come on!" Hanna laughed. "You get to do all the wannabe smooth, sexy comments and I can't?"

"Wannabe?"

"Wow."

I smiled. "Come on, we're on a tight schedule here." I slapped her butt as she turned and made sure that no one was watching.

Inside the building I actually came across another couple. The girl did a fine job of looking embarrassed and the guy did what any guy right out of high school would've done. He smiled, mouthed the word 'nice,' and gave me a quick fist bump. I found myself feeling accomplished despite myself.

"Wow Frank," Hanna teased, "if I didn't like you so much I would be working hard to keep your ego in check."

"Ha-ha." I deadpanned. "Look, here's our room."

Hanna opened the door and led me inside.

"Hey Frank, pass me my shirt please."

I picked up her small shirt and examined it, making a show of smelling it and appearing disgusted. "Why?"

"What do you mean why?"

"I mean, what would I gain for this?"

Hanna shrugged. "My happiness."

I smiled and tossed her the shirt back. "You know, helping you dress seems counterproductive."

"Oh, shut up!"

My smile turned to a grin and I grabbed Hanna and pulled her close for a long kiss. We held each other for a few long seconds, knowing fully well that we would be going into battle soon. Lately it had been getting worse, I used to jump without even bothering to think what would happen if any one of us died. Now it was all I thought before a fight. It spoke volumes about our relationship, but it worried me that I couldn't isolate those thoughts.

"You know what also speaks volumes about your relationship?" Schitzo asked. "That one time you had sex with a different girl."

Shut up.

"I'll never let that go."

I rubbed Hanna's arms and stepped back before giving her another quick kiss. "Come on," I said. "Don't want to be late."

"I do want to be late," she said. "But oh well."

We walked out of the building holding hands, but we immediately pulled apart as we exited. One thing was disregarding regulations, but another thing was being blatant about it.

"Hey, Lieutenant!"
"Great," Hanna muttered.

I saw Api leaving another house opposite our building, a girl already heading down the street.

"I'll see you later," Hanna told me, kissing me in the cheek. "Bye Api."

"See ya," he replied, "El-tee, how you doing?"

"Good. Better actually. Is she into the tattoos?"

"She was," he said, smiling. "Some girls find them…intriguing."

"Well, if you refuse to tell them what they mean…"

Api smiled knowingly. "Still curious then?"

"Very," I admitted. "What do they mean?"

"I'll tell you when the time is right."

I shook my head. "Whatever you say Api."

"What do you know about this operation El-tee?" he asked. "Weller's been very hush-hush about it and Bee couldn't get anything from Lieutenant Dajani."

"Did you ask Snark?"

"Whoa, honestly El-tee, I don't really want to get too close to the captain. She's a good leader, but we've seen how she gets around you and Pavel."

I sighed. "She's your commanding officer and my commanding officer. You'd do well to remember that."

"No, I know, what I meant is-"

"I know what you meant Api, but just treat her as you would any other CO, she's not a bitch to everyone."

"About that, why is she like that towards you?"

"It's a long story, past mistakes. Nothing sexual of course." Not that I would mind it…

Api nodded. "Understood, won't ask about it again."

"Thanks. Say hi to Beckel and Serge for me."

"I will El-tee, see you later."

I waved goodbye and headed towards the room that I had been assigned. As an officer, I had been assigned a relatively large room. As a junior officer, I had been assigned a partner. As far as roommates went, Domingo wasn't bad at all. He was a cool guy. I don't know if he was best friend material, but I would've certainly invited him to watch a movie and not felt awkward about it.

"Hey Frank," he greeted, already with the bottom of his undersuit on.

"Dom;" I replied, taking off my clothes for the second time in an hour. "Any action?"

"Yeah," he admitted. "But I keep having to find short girls…Man, genetics were not kind with me."

I smiled and shook my head. I wasn't stupid and with an ego the size of mine I knew how good I had it. "That blows man."

"Smaller target," he told me. "Unlike you or Wiremu. Hell, if Corporal Royce had any more shoulder he'd have trouble going through doors."

"You know, you can have height-enhancing treatments."

"Oh shut up."

I smiled and tugged at my undersuit, trying to stretch it a little bit in the parts where it was pulling on my leg hairs. After I had achieved relative comfort I pulled it up over my chest and shoulders. There was zero chance of accidentally ending up in vacuum, so I chose the version of the suit that had regular long sleeves and didn't end in gloves. I'd still put gloves on, but they wouldn't seal against vacuum.

"Does the extra weight for the grenades bother you?" I asked Domingo, pointing at the underbarrel grenade launcher his MA5 had.

"Nah. I mean, I can feel the weight, but ten of these aren't that much of a change in weight."

"Those are the 25 mike-mikes, right?"

"Yeah, compatible with the M515 and a variety of other weapon systems." He showed me one of the small explosives. "These little guys are quite useful."

I pulled out my knife from its sheath in my right boot and twirled it. "I'm more of a blade man myself."

"High explosive against sharp steel?"

"Damascus steel," I clarified.

He raised an eyebrow and smiled. "There's literally no difference other than the pretty colors Frank."

"It's treated Damascus steel."

He shrugged. "I wouldn't know about that."

"You know, I tried your interrogating grunt technique."

"Oh yeah? How'd it work out?"

"Not so well, had to execute the bastard."

He shrugged. "It happens. Here, help me out."

I groaned loudly and stood up to help Dom strap on the vest that went underneath all the heavy armor. I tightened it until he grunted and patted his shoulder. "All good, buddy."

"You know what I would like to try out?"

"No."

"One of those armors the Spartans wear."

My throat tightened. "Really?"

"Yeah, I mean. I've seen it stop damn near anything up to a fuel rod explosion."

I shook my head. "Well, I try to avoid using up my armor too much. Besides, this girl is good enough for me."

"You're telling me that if given the chance you wouldn't wear a Spartan armor?"

"If given the chance, I would do anything to avoid being associated with those freaks."

Dom nodded. "You have a point man, but I wouldn't turn down the extra protection."

I shrugged, not wanting to say anything else. I could already feel myself getting angry. This was still something that bothered me.

After both of us were in full battle armor we made sure to grab our weapons and left towards the nearest armory. Several of our men were already there, filling magazines with bullets and strapping them inside their pouches. I saw Snark juggle three of the huge sniper bullets before Bee shoved him to the side, making him drop them to the ground with a loud clatter. Snark kicked him behind the knee, making him stumble and almost fall. Both of them laughed.

"Hey Frank, catch."

I turned and quickly caught the item that Pavel threw at me. I smiled at my reflexes, forgetting for a moment what the cost of getting them had been. After catching it I took a moment to examine the magazine, for that's what it was. Still, it was no regular magazine; it was a drum magazine for my BR55. I laughed as I looked at it. One of these puppies would hold a hundred rounds inside, turning my battle rifle into a very powerful machine gun with a low rate of fire.

"Wow, where'd you find it?"

"In a box of miscellaneous equipment," Pavel told me, attaching several pouches full of ammunition to himself. "Thought you might find it interesting."

"Thanks man," I said, already pushing bullets into the mag. "It'll be useful."

If the initial part of the mission proved as tough as expected then there was no doubt I could use the continuous stream of bullets.

After I was done with all my magazines I strapped them on, making sure that the pouches were tight against my armor and that the magazines were secured. We still had some time left to go, so everybody double and triple checked their own magazines and grenades, making sure that they were as secure as possible and wouldn't snag on anything. Some of the guys were doing some last minute cleaning on their guns, trying to get their minds off of the incoming danger.

I had cleaned my rifle before my meal, it made no sense to do it again. Now all I had left to do was walk around. I wished that I had had the kind of romantic sex that lasts longer than the 'oh my gosh we might just die in the next twelve hours' kind of sex.

After a while I glanced at the clock on my datapad. I sighed and put my helmet on. "Everybody to the Pelicans."

Standing at the rear of the Pelican I could see the armored troop transports and the Marines and soldiers walking next to them. I could clearly tell which groups were Army and which were Marines by the bulkiness of their uniforms. The Army guys were carrying almost double the load of ammunition the Marines were and had backpacks with enough gear in them to survive in the harshest conditions for a week or two. The Marines, on the other hand, had a lot less bullets and if stranded in a snowy mountaintop they could only hold out for about three days before they ran out of ration bars.

We had even less supplies than our regular Marine counterparts but carried more ammunition.

It was funny how the two different branches approached similar roles with completely different philosophies. Marines would come in hitting hard and fast, taking advantage of their speed and carefully practiced maneuvers with the occasional help of artillery and armored support. The Army would pick a position in front of the enemy and just pound them into complete submission with overwhelming firepower of all kinds.

Both had their merits, I suppose.

I examined the tanks below, some of the bigger Rhino tanks were already firing their rather unconventional shells, probably hitting high-value targets as they went. Intel said that the covvies had no long-range artillery. Our mission with the assault carrier had ensured that most of the ground force's specialized supplies didn't deploy. The covvies didn't have the range to hit us yet and they'd certainly be taking some serious punishment.

"Everybody hold on to your seats!" the pilot warned.

I made sure to tighten my grip on the handhold and planted my feet on the floor. I found myself wishing that Marine were the one piloting the Pelican. Then I found myself wishing that Fightmaster's craft was designated Golf-05 instead of Golf-07. It still made me uncomfortable to trust my life in someone that I didn't know.

My deliberations were interrupted as the ship started moving from side to side, occasionally it would shake as flak detonated too close to the hull. I saw a few green explosions behind the Pelican, lighting up the sky above the battle that was only just beginning in earnest.

I examined the explosions and saw the squads of Marines and soldiers moving up slowly towards the frontline, colorful plasma and tracer rounds crisscrossed the sky, lighting it up. The moment the sun disappeared we would be in the middle of one impressive display of fireworks. I sighed and opened a private line to Pavel.

"Pavs?"

"Yeah?" he asked in a gruff voice.

"You ever think about Amber and Lav before going into battle?"

There was a long pause. "All the time."

I nodded even though he had no chance of seeing it. "How do you do it? How do you still manage to go into battle? Why aren't you back home with them?"

Pavel sighed loudly. "I'm fighting for them Frank. Every time I jump I know that I am doing my best to kill these bastards, to slow them down. If risking my life means that I get to kill a couple more covvies before they make it to Reach, then I'm damned proud to do so."

"Makes sense, I guess," I conceded. "Not a lot of sense, but enough."

Pavel laughed weakly. "Life doesn't have to make much sense. Just enough for whoever's living it."

"Spoken like a true philosopher."

"And now you managed to get me depressed before combat," he grunted. "Ass."

"Bitch," I replied. "We'll meet down there. Good luck."

I turned around to face Recon and VSF squads. Our platoon was smaller than the other four, we could divide ourselves into two Pelicans without breaking the weight limit. I considered for a moment that the weight limit was stupidly arbitrary. If this Pelican could carry a tank in addition to fifteen men, then surely it could fit twenty-four armored Marines inside. A lot of Pelicans were shot down though, maybe it was done to prevent men from dying like animals. If that was the reason, then at least it was a good one.

I tossed an imaginary ball into the center of the cargo bay's floor and the holo-bands on the ceiling lit up. "You all know what our objective is," I asserted. "The Covenant don't have as much heavy firepower as they would like…thanks to us!"

My men responded with a stomp on the floor. Their armored boots and the butts of their rifles made it sound empowering.

"Five guns," I said. "That is all they have." I paused to look at my men. "We'll bring them down."

They stomped down, this time making the sound louder.

The hologram changed, instead of displaying the wide area where the five heavy plasma cannons were it switched to zoom in on one in particular. The hologram highlighted important enemy emplacements and targets with red.

"Our target," I began again, "will be heavily protected. We can expect hundreds of enemy troops as well as fortified positions and armored support. It's going to be just our kind of poison."

My men stomped again, this time louder than last.

I allowed myself a smile of satisfaction, letting my men see it through my visor. "They don't think we can do it," I told them. "They think we're not good enough. We'll prove them wrong, and by the time we're done…" I paused for effect, dramatizing my speech like I had heard high-ranking officers do. "None will be left to tell the tale."

They all stomped, using both feet and the butt of their rifles. They kept on stomping;the rhythm speeding up until it was too fast for them to coordinate. They maintained it for a couple of seconds before they all stood up and grabbed on to the handholds above their heads. I nodded at them and turned back to face the battlefield. I could now see burnt vehicle husks and several human corpses.

"ETA fifteen seconds!" the pilot's voice boomed.

"Ready, ready!" I yelled, settling into a half-crouch, using the wall for support. The human corpses gave way to alien bodies strewn about, craters, and more Covenant destroyed vehicles. There were still some human bodies here and there, but most of the humans here were fighting fiercely.

"Five seconds," I said, checking my tacpad. "Pavel?"

"Green," he replied.

Caboose tapped my shoulder before I could ask him for his status and I nodded in reply. The ground rose up to meet us and the Pelican started shaking as it became a very large, very visible target for the ground troops.

"Go, go, go!" I yelled, jumping down to the muddy ground first. "Move!"

"Recon on me!" Caboose yelled, jumping down right behind me. "Spread out, spread out!"

The ground spread all around me, flat and scarred by battle. The plains had once been covered with golden wheat plantations that spread as far as the eye could see. Now there was little trace of them left. Craters seemed to adorn the ground every half a dozen meters, and heavy rains had further helped turn the loose dirt into a muddy nightmare.

I heard two missiles whistle over my head and saw them collide with a Banshee, turning the craft into a fiery wreck. Even as it fell down to the ground I started moving up, my men behind me in a V-shaped formation. I fired at any movement I saw, mostly grunts and jackals. Plasma of different colors flew past me, sometimes missing me by mere inches. My whole being urged me to jump into a crater, but speed was of the essence.

I kept on advancing, knowing that the regulars behind us would be pushing forward with all they had in the hope of breaking the enemy line for us and, if possible, take more land for the UNSC.

"Watch out!"

Everyone ducked as three Banshees strafed us. I realized that they weren't aiming for us when the plasma bolts hit way behind us. I turned to see three green explosions rock the wings and hull of the Pelican that had dropped us off. It raised a couple more meters before the right wing exploded. It spun wildly and crashed hard into the ground behind us. A second pass from the Banshees detonated the rest of the fuel, lighting up the Pelican in a fireball.

I suddenly found myself thankful that Fightmaster hadn't been our pilot.

Still we pressed forward, Miri, Hoff, and me took care of the Covenant soldiers directly in front of us, firing as soon as we saw them. The longer effective ranges of our weapons allowed us to clear more land while the rest of the squad fired at the sides, taking care of any alien that we missed and of those that tried to fire at us. I knew that Recon squad would be doing the same thing, their firing envelopes crossing with ours to provide cover to our side. Pavel was farther away, but they were certainly making quick progress. Two men would fire their machine guns continuously and then they'd switch when they ran out of ammunition. Carver would hit any hard targets or elite officers with his MGL before they had a chance to return fire.

"Enemy bunker!"

The Covenant picked a good place for their bunker. It faced a formation of rocks and then there was nothing but flat, exposed land for almost a hundred yards. If anyone wanted to take that bunker they'd have to go around it. The small fortress might've not had a lot of range, but it could hold the surrounding area without much trouble.

"Zepeda, take out the gunner," I ordered, pressing myself against a jagged boulder as plasma tore bits and pieces from the rock.

One shot rang out and the plasma turret went quiet.

"Move!" I yelled. "Carver, fire through the bunker slit!"

Had Carver been using any other weapon it would've been an almost impossible request, but the guided grenades in his M515 MGL easily went through and detonated inside, killing or severely wounding anything inside it.

"Marvin, on me!" I cried, sprinting ahead towards the bunker. A couple of grunts on either side of the fortification tried taking potshots at me, but the rest of squad took them down easily.

I arrived at the bunker and pressed my back against it, the slit was about a foot from my head. Marv slammed into the wall a second later, firing at an enemy behind me. He looked down and nodded. I took a knee and Marvin immediately tossed a flashbang through the opening, the moment it hit he climbed up to my shoulders and fired three quick bursts.

"Clear!" he called out.

"Move up!" I ordered the rest of the squad.

I climbed the little hill upon which the bunker rested and entered the building, double checking every elite corpse to confirm that they were dead. I entered the battlenet and marked the place as a friendly emplacement. It would keep any artillery crews from hitting it and would allow our men to use it in the future.

From this position I could see our target. The Covenant had used explosives to turn a hill into a canyon, blowing up all of the earth in the middle to provide effective cover for the gigantic plasma cannon.

Thanks to the satellite and drone surveillance we could guess where their rounds would land the moment it fired, but the incredibly large blast radius guaranteed that some of our men would fail to make it out in time. The cannons could potentially be used to continuously shell an area to keep us from going through it. The covvies weren't that desperate yet, but HIGHCOM wanted us to prevent them from even thinking about it.

As I watched the cannon two Shortsword bombers banked away from it. My eyes caught the movement and spotted the unguided bombs falling towards it. Laser emplacements immediately fired in return, heating up the bombs and destabilizing the explosive compounds inside them. The explosions that followed were large enough that I was able to actually see the shockwave, but they didn't damage the shield protecting the gun.

"Who the hell shields their artillery?" Sandor asked.

"These guys," Andrea replied.

"Obviously," Hoff added. "Still a pretty stupid waste of capital if you ask me. "Artillery should never be in a position where it could be hit."

"Ah, an ideal world," I said. "No doubt the war would've already been won."

Hoff seemed a little bit uncomfortable. "I meant-"

"I know what you meant," I cut in. "Pavel?"

"We're at Rally Point Alpha," he replied instantly.

The moment I got the confirmation I opened up a line to the artillery emplacement covering us. "This is Jaguar-Five-Actual, requesting immediate artillery support in grids Echo-Sixteen, Echo-Seventeen, Foxtrot-Sixteen, Foxtrot-Seventeen. Acknowledge."

"Acknowledged," the reply came almost instantly. "Fire support is inbound. Give them hell Jaguar." He cut the line before I could thank him.

"Ready!" I called out to my men. "Move!"

The plan had been created by Al and had been carefully reviewed several times. Al added bits and pieces even as we were carried to the frontlines. The dumb AI didn't have nearly as much processing power as a smart AI like Eliza, but it was damned intelligent and good at its job. Occasionally a red line of text would appear on my HUDs corner, warning me of a change of plan. Ideally Al would've told me in person, but he was stretched to his maximum capacity coordinating our assaults as well as the movement of troops behind us.

By the time we were on the bottom of the small hill the artillery shells had begun landing. Some of them were high-explosive, others were conventional shrapnel rounds, and a chosen few were designed to deploy the thickest kind of smoke possible. The smoke in question had been carefully designed to mask heat and electronic signatures and to stick to the ground for as long as possible, prolonging its usefulness. It was also slightly unhealthy to the Covenant races.

Rumor had it that ONI had viable biological weapons to use against the elites, jackals, grunts, and drones, but their physiology was so different that it was hard to find a mix that would prove one hundred percent deadly to all races without harming humans. These smoke rounds were somewhat of a compromise in that part, they would make most covvie races stop and cough, maybe make their eyes tear up, but that's it.

I wasn't about to complain. A black wall of smoke was already rising in front of us, hiding us from enemy eyes. Our drones marked the smoky area black in my HUD, but they marked the last known positions of Shade emplacements and enemy bunkers. Seeing as those weren't exactly what you'd call mobile, I had a fairly good idea of where they were.

"Bamber, get-"

Sometimes I forgot that I was serving with the very best that humanity had to offer. Corporal Dana Bamber didn't need an order to know what to do; she immediately targeted the Shade turret closest to us and destroyed it with her Spartan Laser, killing the gunner in the process. She immediately switched targets and blew up another turret emplacement, producing a colorful explosion that even the thick smoke wasn't able to hide completely.

"Marv, Andy, and Sandor, you take point," I said. They had the most effective close range weapons, MA5 assault rifles. "The rest of you, hang back."

"How come you don't call me by my first name?" Sandor asked me.

"'Cause I'd be too tempted to call you 'Tacky'," I informed him in a neutral tone.

He groaned. "Fair enough."

The three of them shot at anything that moved, their bullets meeting the intended target more often than not. I could see several dismembered aliens from the artillery barrage, mostly grunts and jackals, but there were a few elites here and there. I was glad that we hadn't had to face any hunters yet, they were deadly in wide, open areas. A pair or two would be guarding the cannon, but we'd worry about them when the time came.

"Shade turret," Marv called out. "Dead ahead."

"I don't see it," Andy said. "Ah, there it is."

"Distance?" I asked.

"About sixty meters," Marv replied. "I can barely see it."

"Tag its position," I told him. "Hoff, how's the arm?"

"I'm a quarterback, not a pitcher," he complained. "I might overshoot."

We all formed a circular formation while Hoff yanked two grenades from his webbing and took position. He tossed the first one in a deceptively lazy motion and before the fragmentation grenade had reached the apex of its arc the other one was also in the air, flying faster and in a straighter curve. Both of the frags hit at approximately the same time and the explosions killed the grunt gunner.

"Great, you missed," Andrea taunted.

"Did not! The gunner's dead."

"More might climb in," I said. "Quick."

We covered the distance in a minute, handling the wounded aliens carefully, making sure to approach them from behind. Miranda, Hoff, and I stopped to use our knives on them, shooting the ones that looked like they could put up a fight, mostly wounded elites.

"Lieutenant, there's a trench behind the Shade, can't see anything from here."

"Wait up," I ordered, turning over an elite with its legs missing. "There you go," I muttered to myself, yanking the two plasma grenades from their magnetic clamps. The elite's jaw moved, perhaps in a spasm, perhaps not. I still made sure to drive my knife through its throat three times in quick succession.

"Move clear of the turret," I called out, priming one of the plasma grenades. As soon as my men were in the clear I tossed one of the devices. It landed right on top of the Shade emplacement and blew up, lighting up the plasma supply and producing a smaller secondary explosion.

"No movement from the trench," Sandor reported.

"Caboose, we came across a trench."

"Same here," he replied. "We were about to jump in."

I smiled, remembering that time in the brute trenches. I had forgotten the name of the planet, Catamaran Peninsula, I remembered the place well enough. Caboose and I had knocked out a Scarab tank with Snark's help back then. I still wondered why we hadn't been issued the Colonial Cross for that. Maybe ONI didn't want one of their top-secret projects and a former insurrectionist-turned-confidant exposed to too much public attention.

"Hold up a minute," I said. "Pavel, you hear that?"

"Yeah, overhead imagery shows where the trench emerges from the smoke cloud, here, I'm sending you the zoomed picture."
I examined the live picture and saw that the trench in question appeared to bend at an angle to the frontline, leading back to a partially dug-in Covenant building. It was probably a frontline Command and Control center.

"Hmmm, why didn't they tag that as a target?" I asked.

Al responded through text almost immediately. "The building is shielded and only concentrated artillery fire will punch through. Command did not deem it worthy of wasting so much ammo on it."

I nodded slowly. "Is the shield's power source inside the building?"

"No."

"Pavel and Heavy Weapons, it's your time to shine," I said immediately. "We go in, clear this section of the trench and then you find and neutralize the power source. Recon Squad any VSF will keep on moving towards the primary target. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Pavel's reply came in. He sounded almost giddy at the opportunity of having his men blow up something sky high for the first time, honoring their secondary purpose of demolition.

"Try and make it quick," I said. "Good luck."

I turned to my men. "Andrea, what do you suggest?"

She was the second highest-ranking ODST in the squad after myself, tied with Marv. "Uh, we drop frag grenades on the trench and then jump in, Marv clears left and Sandor right, the rest of us follow."

"Why frags and not flashbangs?" Sandor asked.

"Better dead than stunned," she replied with a shrug.

I nodded. "Do it."

Miranda and Hoff had the honor of tossing the grenades. As soon as they detonated Sandor and Marv hopped inside the trench, keeping their heads down as they ran towards it. A few plasma bolts flew in their direction once they got close enough for visual contact, but they weren't terribly accurate. The moment they landed in the trench Andrea and I jumped after them. Marv and Sandor were both crouched against the trench wall that faced the enemy, allowing us to fire over their shoulders without fear of accidentally hitting them in the back of the head. I landed on a jackal's entrails. I looked down and rolled my eyes in annoyance in a natural and instinctive reaction to my bad fortune.

Jackal entrails aside we were in a good situation. The covvies around were dead and the ones that had survived were stunned and ripe for killing. Sandor and Marv's MA5 assault rifles rang continuously until they ran out of ammo. When that happened Andrea and I took over for them while they reloaded. I dispatched an elite and a jackal, keeping my bursts tight and aiming at their chests. Once the jackal collapsed Sandor resumed firing.

"Clear, clear!" came a familiar voice. The smoke was already drifting down into the trench and I couldn't quite make out the silhouette.

"Clear," Marv replied.

My HUD tagged the man as Lance Corporal Jared Reeves, the medic in Recon Squad. "Reeves, hold position here," I told him.

"Clear on this side, sir," came Marv's voice a minute later.

I turned to face Reeves and jerked my head for him to follow me. I knew that the rest of his squad would follow behind me.

Sandor and I returned to the point where we had jumped, where Miri and Hoff were aiming at the two different directions while quietly chatting.

"You can ask her out for coffee later Hoff," I said, unable to resist the opportunity. "Come on, on me."

Our four-man group kept moving until we caught up with Marv and Andrea. Yhey were both crouching behind a purple crate, fresh scorch marks still putting out smoke and a dead elite major a few meters in front of them. Only then did I notice that the rear of the trenches was designed in a way that it resembled the walls inside a Covenant corvette. The walls curved outward and had purple lights at regular intervals. Slap a ceiling on these and I could've sworn I was back inside the corvette.

"Hey El-tee," Andrea greeted.

"What have we got?"

"Two elite minors," she said. "Marv hit one of them pretty good, both legs and one arm."

"You managed to hit it in three of the four unimportant limbs?" I asked, turning to face him.

He shrugged innocently. "It takes some measure of skill to do that."

"Or rather a lack of it," Hoff suggested.

"I was being shot at, ok?"

"Shut up!" I suddenly snapped. "Caboose?"

"Headed your way," he came in.

I waited, directing my visor at Hoff and Marv, letting them know that I was glaring at them underneath it. They obviously caught the hint, because they did their best to avoid making anything that would resemble eye contact.

"Sir," Caboose reported behind me.

"Been a while since you last used that shotgun, right?"

He nodded. "I have half a mind of asking Pavel for his."

I grunted. "Bought the damn thing for him, never uses it anymore." Nobody snickered at the slightly homoerotic comment, my men all valued their lives and wellbeing. "You know what to do."

Caboose nodded again and sprinted towards the barricade that the elites were using for cover. He slammed into it in a crouch and fired over it behind cover. Immediately after firing the first shot he rose just in time to meet the uninjured elite that planned to return fire. Unlike the elite, he was actually prepared for the sudden encounter. Unlike the elite, Caboose had a weapon designed to do as much damage as possible in close quarter combat. The huge alien flew three feet backwards, a nasty hole in its chest.

Caboose peeked over the barricade and fired another round. "Hit it in the uninjured arm," he called out. "Want me to-"

"Kill it," I ordered.

Another last settled the matter.

"Ok, let's move up. Pavel's squad should be close."

They were. About fifty meters ahead of us Pavel had concentrated his squad where the main trench divided into another smaller one, the one that led directly to the Covenant command building. They were standing there with bored looks, judging from their shoulders. Two of them would fire at anything that moved in the other trench and another two kept eyes above. The rest of them had one knee on the muddy trench floor or were resting against the walls.

"Frank," Pavel greeted. "We were waiting for you." He turned towards the two men that were firing down the other trench. "Covering fire."

PFCs d'Arc and Ramirez let their SAWs rip and kept firing until every member of Recon and VSF squad had made it across. After that they stopped firing, waiting for a target to present itself.

"They have a turret," Pavel told me. "We should be able to bring it down. Air imagery doesn't show any other heavy weaponry, plenty of enemy infantry though."
I examined the drone images. "Use Carver's MGL, raise some smoke, draw their attention, keep them of our backs."

"That was the plan," Pavel told me, nodding sharply. "That all?"

"That all. Come on, let's get moving."

We cleared another hundred meter stretch of the trench without too much trouble. The smoke had made its way inside and impeded our vision, but we knew the covvies were here and they didn't expect an attack from their sides. They wouldn't realize that our gunfire wasn't coming from their fronts until it was too late.

"Preparing to move," Pavel warned.

"Get ready," I urged my men.

"Now."

"Go."

We jumped over the trench. There were no covvies directly in front of us. It made sense, why would you hide right behind a decent defensive position when you could hide in a decent defensive position? All twelve of us moved forward at a fast jog. Our movements would've looked awkward and uncomfortable to an outside watcher, but out positions made us smaller targets while maximizing our firing angles and reaction times.

"Smoke cover is about to run out," I reminded my men. "Zepeda, take out snipers and gunners, hang back if you need to. O'Malley, stay with him." I watched as the two blue dots that were my ODSTs separated from our tight formation, slowing down and drifting off to our left. The rest of us kept on moving.

"Spread out," I ordered. "And pray."

The smoke stopped rather abruptly, revealing the still-bright sky and the small hills that the covvies had blasted to provide protection for their cannons. It also revealed a couple hundred enemy soldiers.

"Shit," I cursed, jumping sideways into an elite drop pod right before several carbine rounds pinged of it. "Take cover!"

My men rolled around, some of them miraculously avoiding fire, and into cover.

"Zepeda, mark targets for us," I ordered. "I want every single enemy sharpshooter here tagged. You handle the elites."

Zepeda worked quickly, marking the jackals at a rate of two per second. After a while he stopped and instead I started hearing the incredibly loud boom of his sniper rifle. I knew for certain that every one of his shots marked the death of an elite with a long-range weapon.

"Hoff, Miri, Atkins, and Montri," I said, remembering the names of those in the two squads that had long-range weapons. "Get to work."
We knew where our targets were and Zepeda's onslaught had them looking for him and not us. At a range of about three hundred yards they were easy targets, most jackals weren't bothering with cover, simply eager to get the kill. Five of them went down almost simultaneously, another eight were killed before the rest realized what was happening and dove for cover. By that point we knew where they were and would be ready the moment they attempted to leave cover.

"Move up!" I ordered.

My men started running forward, making sure to jump inside craters or behind abandoned barricades at random intervals. The Covenant soldiers without any long range weapons did their best to hit us, but at this range their weapons weren't terribly accurate. Someone ordered the jackals to fire upon us and allowed my sharpshooters to waste three more.

"Anurak, Montri, move up," I ordered the two of them.

They lowered their rifles and immediately took off, stopping about fifty yards ahead and taking new positions, scanning for new targets.

"Miri, Hoff, you two are going to keep the jackals off our ass, ok?"

They nodded calmly and popped out of cover to keep the jackals in check.

"Zepeda?"

"Done," he replied. He didn't ask for orders, but the tone in the single word he said was enough.

"Good job, handle the officers and plasma turrets. Any heavy weapons you see I want dead." I paused. "Keep O'Malley close."

At that, Zepeda actually let out a short chuckle. O'Malley was a good-looking girl, not a lot of men would mind having her close by.

It seemed that a lot of the guys from Recon agreed with me, because the platoon battlenet was suddenly flooded with short laughs.

Battle humor aside we were making quick progress. The heavy barrage from our long-range artillery cannons as well as our Rhino tanks had made a big dent in the Covenant defenses in this area. I knew that four other similar strikes would be effectuated shortly or had already been launched to help the rest of Jaguar Company. Most likely we would compromise the location of several of our batteries as well as our tanks, but the price would be worth it.

The heavy artillery cannon in front of us fired once, a huge volt of plasma flying out of it and disappearing over my shoulder. I ignored it and kept moving forward, using the scope on my BR55 to hit unshielded targets. Everyone in the platoon with long-range weapons was doing the same thing, letting the rest of my men fire sporadically in an attempt to keep the covvies with their heads down.

"We have the power source," Pavel called in. "Planting charges."

"Status?"

Pavel hesitated. "We lost Sasha for a moment, he touched something he shouldn't and was electrocuted. We were able to revive him."
I sighed, wishing that I could rub my temples through my helmet. "Pump him full of stims, we're not in a position where we can afford to carry him out."

"Could be bad for his heart, Frank."

"I know," I said. "Do it. How long until you blow it up?"

"Charges are set, we're just waiting for a window to escape."

"Tell me when it's done," I ordered him, closing the line.

I immediately returned my full attention to the enemy forces in front of us. Their elites had been almost annihilated by Zepeda's constant firing and the few that remained struggled to contain and control the other aliens. I worked in concert with my two sharpshooters as well as Atkins and Montri to take out the rest of the elites we could see. There were bound to be a few survivors crouching behind rocks or barricades, but we could handle them later.

"Everybody move up!" I said, turning my voice into something akin to a roar. "I want that stretch of land clear right now!"

Everybody doubled their pace, staying behind cover for shorter amounts of time than before and running for even longer stretches. At that pace it wasn't long before we reached them. It was funny, I half imagined us to clash into them like horse-mounted cavalry into light infantry, but in reality it was a lot different.

My lead Helljumpers had assault rifles or M7 SMGs. They quickly dispatched the covvies in the front and jumped over whatever they were using for cover. After that out advance drastically slowed, we made sure that every last piece of alien filth near us was completely dead and unable to be a threat. The guys took good care of the aliens, dispatching them efficiently and firing an additional burst into their corpses once they dropped. The rest of us sharpshooters barely had to fire a shot.

"Good work," I told them. "Move up the hill."

If we could take the hilltop and hold it we would be facing the huge cannon from the side, giving us a truly beautiful vantage point from which to clear anything shooting at us. The only problem was that the Covenant soldiers on the other side of the hill would no doubt be doing everything in their power to stop us. Anything else would mean that the UNSC would sweep through and kill every last one of them. Facing us directly also tended to imply certain death.

Lose-lose situation for the poor suckers.

Something blew up and the voices of HW Squad flooded the battlenet. I was forced to silence them from the platoon channel and in turn opened a private line to Pavel. "What happened?"

"Nothing serious, we left just as the enemy tried to rush us and we had to blow the charges a little bit early."

That would explained the amount of 'holy shits' that I had heard.

"Good work Pavel, bring your men up here. We'll need them to hold the hill."

"We're on our way."

I looked to my side, seeing that the huge cannon was slightly taller than the artificial canyon that it had been places in. That was a relief; it saved us the need to repel any attacks from our flank. I ducked behind a medium-sized boulder as a barrage of plasma bolts hit the ground in front of me. The crackle of assault rifles was heard and someone marked a target as taken out. We were perhaps thirty meters from the top of the hill and there was no cover in between it and us. It was a perfect position for us.

Five grunts appeared over the ridge marking the top of the hill and immediately went down. Having no cover and being clearly outlined against the sky behind them they made for incredibly easy targets. I shook my head as I watched one of the grunts roll all the way to Sandor's position. He chuckled and kicked it out of his way.

From this position we fended off a couple of assaults and waited for Pavel to arrive.

"What do you need me to do?" he asked in between breaths.

"Clear the other side of the hill and keep it that way. I don't want any of your men stepping over the top."
He nodded and turned towards his panting squad and started barking orders. "Carver, set your grenades to detonate right over the hill's ridge. I want everybody with one frag in their hands and ready to throw!" He turned and nodded at me.

"Miranda, Hoff, I want the two of you halfway down the hill, shoot anything that even tries to look at us dirty!" Ideally, the rest of the UNSC Ground Forces would be engaging any Covenant that could be a threat to us, but mistakes happened.

I narrowed my eyes and started moving towards the edge of the canyon. "Sandor and Marv, move to the right, behind that large rock. Andy, you're with me over there. Caboose, I want you and Recon to spread out from there to there. We open fire on my command."

I allowed a few seconds for everyone to run and hop into position and waited until I got the go signal from Caboose. I waited an additional second, giving my men time to steel calm themselves a little and then ordered them to open fire.

The Covenant weren't idiots. They knew we were there and had prepared accordingly. They had moved several of their plasma turrets to this side and their infantry troops were behind cover and expecting targets.

My men weren't idiots either; they fired a burst and then immediately took cover when they saw the overwhelming fire in front of them.

"Shit," I cursed, ignoring the pink plasma flying a foot from my head. Grab your flashbangs and set them to burst one second after being primed. Make that one and a half," I corrected. "Toss 'em high and wait."

With luck the movement would draw the nervous eyes of the covvies and the intensely bright devices would blind a lot of the aliens. With even more luck a lot we might catch most of the gunners with their hands clawing at their eyes with our figurative follow-up punch.

"Ready? Go!"

I tossed my own explosive over my head and towards the cannon itself. Not even the noise dampeners on my helmet were able to completely block the sound of eight flashbang grenades going off at once. I ground my teeth at the pain in my ears, but pivoted out of cover all the same. I had memorized the position of two different turret emplacements and was lucky enough that both of the grunts manning the cannons were looking at the flashbangs when they went off. I barely registered several other stunned aliens around my two targets, but didn't take them into account. I fired one quick burst and before the grunt's brains were going out the back of its skull I had already fired a second burst.

Only after the rest of my platoon hit their selected targets did I realize just how fast I had done that.

Well, no reason to stop after just two kills.

The flashbangs gave us an advantage that the Covenant hadn't been expecting. We kept on firing right until every last alien below us was either dead or hiding behind something sturdy. As good as we were, we only scored two or three kills each before the rest of the aliens found safety. They still had numbers on us, but we had height and had killed all their gunners.

"Atkins, Montri, see that little grav lift that keeps the plasma turrets up?"

"Yessir."

"Yeah."

"Hit the base," I ordered. "It knocks them to the floor."

The three of us were the only ones with precision weapons participating in this particular assault. We dispatched two turrets each before the covvies realized what we were doing. At that point an elite in the golden armor of a general decided that it had had enough of our shit and emerged from cover, a fully charged plasma launcher on its right shoulder.

It fired before we could bring it down and even then it ducked back behind cover before we could kill it. The four explosives landed directly below two of my men and blew up simultaneously. A huge chunk of the cliff face cracked and started sliding down towards the bottom. Two of my men were still on that piece of land.

"Jump!" I cried, knowing that I could do nothing.

One of them managed to turn and jump, throwing his assault rifle ahead ofhim and only just grabbing the edge of the cliff. Below him his friend fell down. I caught him spreading his arms and legs to absorb the maximum amount of force and then there was a loud smack followed by a dust cloud.

"Pull him up!" someone yelled.

I saw as one of Cabooses men pulled their friend up. Several needles flew past him, barely fazing him. One of the rounds embedded itself in the ODST's left leg, right above the nook of the knee, eliciting a cry of pain.

"Reeves, look after Atkins."

"That's Reeves down there," Private Montri shouted back.

I turned to look at Livingston. "Andy, see to him," I told her in a quiet voice.

I looked back down at the settling dust cloud and saw Reeves' unmoving body down on the bottom of the canyon; it was uncomfortably close to the enemy. If there was any chance he might've survived I didn't want them firing at him just to make sure. "Keep them away from him!" I yelled loudly.

What was left of the two squads fired at two jackals that had left cover and had been closing in on Reeves, killing them instantly. Our surprising barrage forced several suddenly-eager covvies back behind cover and evened out the odds again.

"Zepeda, O'Malley, I want both of you here now!" I ordered them. "Hoff, Miri, cover them!"

I fired at anything that moved below, hitting several grunts that failed to take cover properly and killing an elite minor that attempted to return fire in a move that was either very brave or very stupid. As the elite fell a portion of the enemy's number was left leaderless. My men took out half of them before they could react and get to safety.

"Sir."

"How the hell did you get here so fast Zepeda?" I asked the sniper. He was in Andy's previous position, looking inhumanly calm.

He shrugged. I hadn't heard approach, not until the moment that he jumped into cover right behind me.

"We were already on our way when you gave us the order, sir," O'Malley explained.

I smiled at myself. I had barely had to glance at the subtitles to understand what she was saying.

"There's an elite general somewhere down there," I told the sniper. "He hurt Reeves. I want it dead yesterday."

I saw Zepeda's shoulders set in what I could only assume was resolution and he gave me a small nod. "Consider it done."

Zepeda didn't usually talk much, resorting to nods or shakes of the heads when possible and shrugs the rest of the time. For him to talk you needed to ask an incredibly complex question or manage to piss him off. I smiled at the venom in his voice.

"Quick," I repeated as he jumped back and towards a better vantage point.

At some point our battle turned into a contest. The Covenant would try to get to Reeves and we would do everything within our power to stop them. After attrition had ground their numbers down to a manageable size they were smarter about it, slowly moving forward and using leapfrog techniques. Reeves still had vitals, weak, but they were there.

"Fuck," I cursed in exasperation as an elite managed to sneak past our fields of fire and closer to the landslide.

"Lieutenant, I've got an idea," Marv said.

"Don't wait on my account."

"Two men go down, use those chunks of rock as cover and drag Reeves behind them. It gives the covvies something else to worry about and we get Jared away from them."

I examined the portion of the cliff where all that rock and dirt had slid down. The loose dirt meant that one could potentially slide down and avoid garnering too much speed, but it was still too steep. All things considered, it was possible. Granted, it was one of those ridiculously stupid plans that I might've thought of myself back in the days, but it was workable.

"Pavel, send me two of your men," I said. "It'll be brief."

He grunted, obviously not happy with the idea. "Ramirez, Lizzo, you heard the lieutenant."

I waited for the two ODSTs to arrive and ordered them to provide heavy suppressing fire with their machine guns. They nodded and I had a feeling that they were smiling at each other behind those visors. They sure loved going full-auto with their heavy support weapons.

As they started firing I moved up towards the landslide. "Caboose, Marv, you two will be going down."
Sending Caboose down wasn't a smart move, he was a squad leader and if things went to shit down there I would find myself in some trouble, but he was quite possible the best fighter in terms of skill on the whole platoon, myself not being counted, of course. God knows, Marv could've given Grigori a run for his money.

Sending my two best men down there seemed like a big risk, but if anyone could pull this off successfully it would be them. Back in the day it would've been Caboose and me or Caboose and Cam if I didn't feel like it was a particularly good day to die.

I grabbed a rope from my butt-pouch, marveling at the amount of stuff that I could keep there, and tossed it down the steep slope. "Frags, frags!"
Three loud explosions immediately responded to my orders. Caboose and Marv slid into position behind me just as I was tying the rope to a small boulder and nodded at me before grabbing hold of the thin rope. Normally, the standard-issue rope wouldn't inspire much trust, but it was a marvel of engineering and would support the weight of a Warthog if necessary.

The two men grabbed the rope and started running down the slope, disappearing from my sight. A moment later the rope shook in my hands, letting me know that they had slid down safely.

I frowned when I realized that I hadn't needed to use the rock for help. I had supported their combined weight without even realizing it. Superhuman strength was a gift, I wasn't about to deny that, but if I didn't know when it came or how to control it I could easily find myself hurting someone by accident. Not precisely good news.

Caboose's shotgun blasts brought me back to reality; I peered down and saw him take out two elites that had eagerly jumped at the opportunity of fresh victims. Marv was moving towards Reeves.

"Stop!" Andy shouted. "His spine might be injured, leave him where he is!"

Marv didn't acknowledge but switched directions and took cover behind a chunk of rock before firing on an enemy that I couldn't see.

"O'Malley, Montri, get over here, you're going down as well."

I could feel the hesitation in their voices when they replied. They were both veterans, but they were still younger and unaccustomedto the craziness that seemed to surround me. Granted, Marv didn't exactly have a big advantage on them, but he seemed to draw enough insanity on his own right.

"Go, go!" I ordered them as soon as they had grabbed the rope. Once again I held both of them by myself.

I saw them roll below and take a couple of long steps, overtaking both Caboose and Marv. They promptly dove behind crates that the covvies had piled together to defend against us and started firing on the enemy. The covvies downstairs were now being faced from two different altitude angles, complicating matter severely.

A single sniper shot rang out.

I was about to congratulate Zepeda on his good work when another two shots rang. I quickly linked to his helmet camera and saw that the elite general had two new holes right below its throat.

"Good work," I said. "Kill the cannon's crew if you can, this thing has been firing for too long."

Zepeda winked his acknowledgement light and got to work. Below, my men were making progress, already having moved up a couple dozen meters and establishing a firm hold on the ground below.

"Pavel?"

"Keep 'em a little bit longer," he told me. "The covvies here seem to have gotten the point."

I smiled. "Hoff? Miri?"

"Regulars are giving the covvies a pounding," Hoff came in.

"None of them are coming our way."

I hesitated, if an enemy force decided to try and hit us in the rear it would be a big help to have both of them there to stall them and give us an early warning.

"Miri, get over here," I ordered, compromising.

"Awww man," Hoff complained.

"Hush," Sandor said mockingly.

Various plans raced through my mind. "Sandor, your turn to go down."

"I thought you'd never ask, sir," he said.

The man was too eager by half. In peacetime he would've certainly been one of those thrill seekers that jumped out of high orbit with an oxygen mask and their underwear. Parachute optional.

As Sandor slid down Miranda arrived. I pointed her to a rock and told her to start firing on targets of opportunity.

"Andy, how's Atkins?"

"Stable," she replied. "Needle didn't hit anything big."

"Hurts like a bitch though, sir," Atkins came in.

"Relax, you'll be up and fighting in no time," I assured him.

"I think I like it here. Quite…comfortable…"

"Sedatives are taking effect. He was in pain," Andy explained.

I nodded to myself and returned to my previous position. It was only a matter of time until our combined assault secured our victory. Miri, the two gunners, and me would keep the aliens pinned behind cover and our ground team would move up and hit them at close range. The cannon had long since stopped firing, courtesy of Zepeda and his SRS. At this range, it was all but impossible for him to miss.

"Clear," Caboose said finally. "Hilltop on the opposite side still presents targets although they do not appear to be able to hit us."

"Excellent," I said. "Hold position. Pavel, who has the charges?"

"Ramirez and Lizzo," he replied.

I smiled. He had sent them both towards me when I asked for support. It was good to see that he trusted me to get things solved as quick as possible.

"Ramirez, Lizzo, you're going down to ground level, set up the charges."
"Sir," they said.

A few minutes later I had helped pull everyone back up and the legs of the artillery cannon were rigged with enough explosives to punch through the armor of a UNSC corvette. As an additional gift they had planted an extra pair of charges on the cliff opposite us.

"Everything ready?" I asked them.

They looked at each other before nodding.

"Good, detonate."

Ramirez produced a small detonator and tossed it to Lizzo, who nodded in thanks and clicked the button twice.

The force of the explosion wasn't really felt up here, but the sound was more than audible. They six different explosions made an incredibly loud noise. Half a second alter the sound of sliding rocks and land joined the collapsing artillery piece. As the cannon fell a large chunk of the canyon did too, taking many aliens down with it.

"Kill the survivors," I ordered lazily, sitting back behind a sturdy boulder and allowing myself some rest. Mission accomplished.

I smiled as I heard similar explosions to either of our sides. Platoons One and Four had accomplished their missions as well. It wasn't long before Two and Three called in to give us the good news.

Forty-five minutes later the lead elements of the UNSC assault force rolled by us, the troops mounted on the tanks and AFVs cheering us and taunting the enemy. With enough luck we could push the Covenant armies all the way back to the ocean and wipe them out completely.

The Scorpions that fired from the hilltop seemed to be eager for the opportunity.

Thanks to SilasWhitfield for proofreading this chapter.

Not much to say here, I just started school so I might be posting at slower intervals. Thanks to all of you for your reviews on previous chapters and I hope you enjoyed this one. One reviewer brought to my attention that I have been dragging this out for a little bit too long, but the problem is that I can't not drag this out. There are so many years in between important events of the Human-Covenant war that I just have to make up shit unless I do a massive timeskip. Oh, and then everything happens in less than a year.

I think I'm going to do only two more battles after this one before the Fall of Reach, and then... well, then we'll see what happens.

Stay strong.

-casquis