Chapter CLXV: Space Invaders

January 24, 2549 (UNSC Calendar)/

Udinia, Paris IV, Paris System

"The sky is falling!"–Chicken Little

"Frank, what's going on?" Katie asked. All signs of anger or frustration were gone from her voice, instead she spoke with barely concealed panic.

"Are there any shelters nearby?"

"Shelters? What kind of shelters?"

"Bomb shelters, raid shelters, a big basement will do," I told her, jerking my eyes from side to side, seeing if I could catch something through the skyscrapers.

"Katie, we're under-"

A loud explosion rocked me off my feet. I had expected the Covenant to attack the city's outskirts first, but it seemed like this time they had gone right in for the kill. The explosion was uncomfortably close to me and seconds later car alarms started going off and people started screaming.

"Oh my God," Katie whispered.

I raised my phone back to my ear, wishing that I had gotten one of those douchy earpieces with it. "Captain, are you there?"

"I'm here Castillo. The Covenant knocked out all satellites above the city, we're blind for the moment, drones are going to be in the air in two minutes, they need an additional fifteen minutes to reach the city."

"Captain, the Covenant are attacking the downtown area, they got past all the defenses, mass drivers and SAM batteries. My guess is that the EMP they used was strong enough to burn through the protective measures. So far I haven't had contact with them, but judging from the screaming…"

"Frank…" Katie said.

"Understood," Hayes replied, "the Flawless is already moving into position above the city. We'll be dropping down in about an hour. We need all the intel we can get before we jump Lieutenant."

"Got it," I said. "I'll do my best. Do I have any kind of support?"

"I'm working on that. Most of Jaguar is on board the ship at the moment, but two men are in the city right now. Lance Corporal Agnarsson form Two and Corporal Bamber from your own platoon. I'm trying to communicate with them right now, but the EMP really did a number on communications. If I can locate them I'll redirect them to your position."

"Thanks, Sir." Bee and Bamber would do. "Can you track me through my phone?"

"Yes, Al already has you pinned down, but you need to keep your phone on."

"Understood. What do you need to know?"

"Anything that might help, move towards the screaming."

"That's the Helljumper way, sir."

Hayes seemed to hesitate a little bit before speaking next. "Good luck out there, Lieutenant. Don't get yourself killed."

I smiled a little bit. "I wouldn't dream of depriving you of that pleasure, Captain. And thanks. Castillo out."

"Frank!"

"What?!" I shouted. Katie had been calling my name all throughout the conversation, but I hadn't paid her any mind. "Katie… what?"

"What's happening?"

"We're under attack by the Covenant," I told her. I pocketed my phone and put my hands on her shoulders as I met her eyes. "Listen Katie, I need you to go towards the nearest shelter you know of, can you do that?"
She nodded several times.

"Good. Here's what you do, you run all the way there and don't stop for anything. Once you're there you'll be safe. UNSC forces will repel the attack and everything will be fine."

"Frank, oh my God, I'm so scared, how can this be happening? The war isn't supposed to get here, it's supposed to-" she stopped and her eyes widened.

That was as much of a warning as the familiar high-pitched screaming.

"Down!" I yelled as I shoved Katie into the sidewalk, covering her with my own body.

Plasma cannons strafed the street, tearing through the thin metal hoods over the engines and blowing them up. Several unlucky bystanders were also hit by the fast-flying attack craft. The Banshees dropped one fuel rod bomb each before banking hard to the right and disappearing behind a building. Smoke started to go up, obstructing my view. It would also prevent any follow-up air attacks from having any degree of accuracy. Shame about the dead civvies, though.

"Katie, are you ok?"

She didn't answer. She was looking at the burnt corpse of a boy that looked fresh out of high school. His entire torso was charred and blood was seeping from the wounds. The frightening part was that his chest was slowly heaving up and down. He was still alive.

"Katie!" I shouted, slapping her as hard as I dared. "Look at me."

Her eyes snapped back into mine.

"Forget everything I just said, ok?" I told her. "Go into the diner and hide under something. You'll be safe as long as you're inside and don't make any noise."

"Ok," she said softly.

Police sirens flooded my ears, and two patrols accompanied by a heavy truck turned around the corner, stopping and unloading the cops inside. More cop cars disappeared down the other streets, going off to stall the Covenant and to rescue all the civilians they could. To protect and to serve indeed, those brave men were going to their deaths to fulfill their oaths.

"Everyone go back inside!" an amplified voice boomed. "The city is under attack by the Covenant. The UNSC Defense Forces are responding on all fronts! We need all non-combat personnel to return to the nearest building and hide, it is your best chance for survival!"
Well, he certainly wasn't sugarcoating it.

I jogged up to the nearest squad car and elbowed past a cop to meet the man who was speaking through the bullhorn.

"Someone get him out of here!" he barked.

"Lieutenant Frank Castillo, UNSC Marine Corps," I said quickly, before I had to knock out some cop. "Sir, I'm here to help."

The officer gave an order and his men stood down. "What can I do for you, Lieutenant?"

"I was on leave," I explained. "I got a call from my CO just as the lights went out. The Navy is preparing to counter-attack, but it will take some time before they can get in position to drop troops."

He nodded. "That much we know, last I heard the Army garrisons that weren't turned into molten glass were also preparing to respond to the attack, hold the enemy until the Marines could come in."

"How bad was it?"

"We're still getting a damage assessment from the city AI and other military AIs, but things weren't looking so good."

I nodded understandingly. He lived here; he probably had a family that lived here. "Officer…"

"Allen," he said.

"Officer Allen, my captain tasked me with acquiring as much intel on enemy forces as I could, do you have anything useful?"

"One big-ass spaceship," one of the officers said.

"Anything else?"

"Not really," Allen shrugged. "The Covenant spaceship let out a swarm of smaller dropships and attack craft like the ones that just came through."

"Banshees," I told him. "Fast and dangerous, but fragile. Sir, I need to borrow a vest and a rifle if you have it."

"Not two?"

I raised an eyebrow and then turned around, following his eyes. "Katie, I told you to go back inside the diner!" I yelled at her.

Allen made a noise that might've been a laugh. "She did look too pretty to be a Jarhead."

A purple beam pierced an officer's sternum and he collapsed, a gaping hole in his chest with steam coming out of it.

"Everybody down!" Allen ordered.

"Sniper!" I cried at the same time.

I yanked Katie down with me, she was breathing hard and shaking, but at least she seemed to have focused. Crowds of civilians were running past the squad cars and away from whoever had just shot at us. There were eleven cops still alive and half of them looked like they were about to shit their pants. More beams cut through some of the escaping civilians, oftentimes more than one at a time. Nobody stopped to help the fallen, instead just running for their lives. It was the smart thing to do, no matter who had been hit.

"Gun!" I shouted.

The officer closest to me tossed me his law enforcement M6 pistol and I jumped out of cover. I squinted through the smoke and spotted what I was looking for. Three jackals armed with beam rifles were walking over the roofs of cars. They were firing at the unarmed and unarmored civilians indiscriminately. I don't know why the hell they were giving away their position in order to take out useless civilians instead of preparing ambushes for police and Army units, but jackals always did have a bloodthirsty streak to them.

I fired my weapon six times, hitting each jackal twice in the chest.

"Katie, stay here," I told her, tears were streaking down her face, but at least she had stopped shaking. I turned to face two cops in armor and carrying M7 SMGs.

"You and you, with me."

They looked at each other before standing back up and walked down the street with me. I approached the jackals with the utmost care and shouldered two of the beam rifles before tossing the other one to one of the officers. "Take them back to the squad cars," I ordered. "We need to-"
Carbine rounds tore through his face and neck, killing him instantly.

"Fall back!" I shouted at the other man.

I just caught the shape of an elite before I had to duck behind a car. A beam rifle would do, but the huge sniper rifle had no stock or proper foregrip, it would be a tough shot.

"Spray him!" I yelled loudly. "Covering fire!"

The cops reacted surprisingly quickly, with the SWAT unit taking the lead and the rest of the regular officers following their example. Within a couple of seconds the elite was being hit by small arms fire all over its chest. It returned fire with its plasma rifle, and hit someone, if the screams were anything to go by. I jumped out of cover and fired one shot at it with the beam rifle. The weakened shields coupled with the astounding power that the beam rifle had tore through the elite's shields and armor. It collapsed with a hole on its side. I promptly fired another shot through its head to make sure it was dead.

"Return the beam rifles to the squad cars!" I told the SWAT man that had been pinned with me. "They're easy enough to use, look through the scope and fire. Don't fire too quickly though, they overheat."

"Yes, sir," he replied.

The man returned to the small barricade and handed one of the rifles to the regular officers, keeping one for himself. I just caught that out of the corner of my eye as I took a carbine from the dead elite, feeling sick as I did. This very weapon had killed a human less than a minute ago, but I had to swallow my dislike and heave it, taking as many spare magazines as I could fit into my pockets and shove through my belt. The cops were placing the cars in a more defensible position while the few civilians still in the street ran away.

"Lieutenant," Allen called out. "What now?"

"What were your orders?"

"To provide safety to civilians."

"That would be a lot easier if they weren't scattered all over the place," I muttered under my breath. "Ok, listen up! Here's what we do, we're going to cordon off that intersection right over there, move the cars around and make a wall if you can. The covvies were coming from over there, so they'll be running straight into us, we're going to kick their asses and send them back into their ship."

My speech didn't have a very positive reaction, but at least some of the cops seemed happy to have a plan.

"Start moving the cars, get that armored truck over there. I don't want anything getting through without being shot at all over."

"You heard him," Allen barked. "Get moving!"

The cops scattered and started shoving the cars closest to the intersection into position. The cars were all turned off, but they weren't in park, so they were easily pushed into position. They were ready before the armored truck drove in.

"Katie," I said. "Katie, I need you to go back into the diner and hide underneath a table, ok?" She nodded. "Preferably one away from any windows. Come on, I'll take you."

Katie stood up and walked with me, looking at the burnt cars and corpses with wide eyes. She held onto my arm, gripping it tightly as if she thought she would fall otherwise. Inside the diner I led her into the booth that was farther away from the door and told her to keep her head down.

"Frank, what's going to happen?"

"They sucker-punched us," I explained. "We'll organize a defense and soon after they'll all be dead."

"We're supposed to get refugees," she said, "we're not supposed to be refugees."

I could relate to that. Paris IV was a prosperous colony where the unemployment rate was close enough to zero that it made no difference. People here lived comfortable lives and it only made sense for them to believe that the war didn't apply to them. I felt that way in Reach, untouchable behind all those orbital defense platforms.

"We'll be fine," I assured her. "You'll be fine."

I walked out of the diner and joined the cops. They were just done making a ring around the intersection. I ordered the one with the beam rifle to climb to a third floor and cover us. From that position he could cover three out of four streets with relative ease and fire down the other one with just a little trouble. The rest of the officers I spread out through the ring. Even Allen seemed to have delegated his authority to me, nodding to everything I said.

"Do you have grenades?"

"Fragmentation?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"No, sorry. We've got some flashbangs though."

"That'll do," I shrugged. "Hand me a pair and give one each to some of your men. Anything else inside the truck?"

Allen pondered for a second. "A pair of small recon drones. They help when breaching apartments."

"Use them," I ordered. "And tell me if you see anything."

It took less than three minutes for the drones to spot a large force of grunts and jackals moving towards our position. They had heard the gunshots and had decided to pounce on some defenseless humans before anyone else found us.

"We've got grunts and jackals!" I shouted so that every man could hear. "Jackals are the ones with the shields, they're deadly good when it comes to aiming, grunts are weak individually, but in packs they're dangerous, and if you're careless they can gut you with their claws. Go for headshots with both of them, use flashbangs to disrupt their formation."

Once the enemy force was within range we opened fire, catching them by surprise. It went terribly. My team could've taken out half of their number in the same amount of time, my whole platoon would've killed every last alien in three seconds. The cops fired as they had been trained to, center mass shots. Three grunts and a jackal went down, but the rest quickly formed a wall of shields and protected the grunts behind them. I fired at the gaps with the carbine, but they quickly tightened the wall before I could get more than one kill.

"Flashbangs!" I ordered. "Quickly!"

Two men tossed the devices, blinding the lead jackals. The grenades fell short, but they still made enough of a bang to cause two jackals to stagger. The sniper overhead took one of them out and the other SWAT cop killed the other one with his commandeered beam rifle. The rest opened fire at the gap in the wall, hitting and wounding several grunts. The body shots were enough to bring them down but not enough to kill them.

"Keep firing!" I yelled. "Hit the birds!"

With help from our sniper we killed the rest of the jackals and took down all of the grunts.

"Why won't they surrender?" one cop asked.

"Cause we won't let them," I replied. "And they won't let us, surrender means death."

Just clearing that up.

"All right, cover me," I ordered.

The men nodded and I hopped over one of the cars, dashing towards the dead and dying covvies. I stomped the grunts that were still alive on the head and took a few of their plasma pistols before grabbing one of the needlers. I examined it before grabbing it carefully and taking it back.

"Plasma pistols, single fire, incredibly weak against most armored targets. If you keep the trigger depressed they overcharge and fire a powerful bolt, only use them that way."

"And that?" some cop asked.

I raised the needler. "This? This is mine."

After that we fended off another grunt and jackal attack, but one of the SWAT cops got hit through the neck with a needler. He staggered backwards, reaching up to his neck to grab at the pulsing crystal. He must've disturbed it a little bit too much, because a second later it went off and destroyed everything in his neck that wasn't bone, leaving a gory mess on the street.

"Shit!" one of his friends cried, jumping back. "Oh my God, oh my God."

"Snap out of it!" Allen yelled. "Eyes down range."

I nodded at him in thanks. "We can't afford to panic right now, help is coming."
We waited on that position a few more minutes.

"What the hell's that noise?" Allen asked.

"Heads down," I ordered. "Phantom dropship."

The Phantom overflew our position, strafing the armored truck and hitting one of the cops in the foot, blowing it off at the ankle. I ignored his cries of pain as the gravity lift activated. Nothing came out, but it was turned on too long for that to be a malfunction.

"Eyes open!"

My suspicions proved to be right when Allen's head was loped clean from his body by an invisible sword. I fired my carbine at the neighboring area and a couple of rounds collided with a cloaked elite. I kept on firing until the minor turned to face me. It raised its plasma rifle and roared angrily as other officers started looking around with nervous expressions. The elite got a dozen needles to the neck and face before it could fire, and I tossed the empty needler to the side.

"Wha-"

Another two cops went down, one with a slash across his chest and another one with two holes through his belly. Before any of the others could react plasma bolts appeared out of nowhere and hit another of the cops. I fired at the distorted shape and my carbine decided to run out of ammunition at that exact same moment. I nearbrained myself when the clip ejected straight back, but it was too late to reload, the elite was coming straight towards me.

I tossed the carbine at it and rolled away from it. I landed near Allen's beheaded corpse, his hand still held onto a plasma pistol. I yanked it free and quickly charged it. The elite had been going for a sword kill, because it had its rifle arm handing to its side. It barely flinched as the overcharged plasma shot overloaded his shields, instead swiping at my neck with its sword.

It wasn't a swordsman, it was probably a jumped up shit that got too excited at getting to handle a sword.

I ducked underneath the blow, drawing my knife from my belt and throwing an upwards thrust. It was a well, practiced maneuver and I had used it countless times, but it was always useful and reliable. The sharp blade cut through the unarmored neck on the alien. I did even more damage as I brutally yanked out the knife, tearing through flesh and cutting through arteries. The elite dropped both its weapons and tried to keep its blood inside its body.

The huge alien collapsed to the floor within two seconds.

My phone rang again. The cops that were still alive had looks of shock on their faces. They wouldn't fight even if an elite was standing right in front of them with a target painted on its ugly face. Instead I climbed into the armored truck and answered.

"Kind of busy Captain," I grunted.

"It wasn't easy getting a signal through to your phone," Hayes said. "Bamber and Agnarsson are one block away from your position. Sitrep?"

"I'm defending an intersection with a few cops. Dead cops now, the ones still alive are going to need some therapy if they get out of this. So far we've only come across some death squads hunting for civilians. A Phantom dropped a couple of elites on our position in attempt to disrupt out hold on the intersection. They succeeded."

"So," Al's voice chimed in. "They're mostly causing mayhem, giving their ground troops free reign, but there is some degree of organization, seeing as they sent what I can only assumed to be specialized troops into your position in order to facilitate their movements."

I shrugged. "Sounds accurate."

"Castillo, I'm going to need you to move towards Elysium Park, preliminary intel shows that the Covenant has set up a beachhead there, some SAM devices are already in position around the park, command wants us to take them out."

"I'll scout them out for you," I said.

"Good, I'll communicate with you in twenty minutes."

I waited on the armored truck until I head Bee calling out to me. "Lieutenant? Frank!"

"I'm here," I said. "What have you got for me?"

Bee tossed me a lightweight bulletproof vest and held a spare M7S SMG on his left arm. I quickly put the vest over my black t-shirt. The desert brown contrasted heavily with my shirt and it most certainly wasn't Helljumper black, but it would do. The light vestwouldn't stop even the weakest plasma shot, but it would save my life when it came to shrapnel. As soon as I was done with my vest Bee tossed me two knee guards and then an ammunition belt. I quickly strapped the belt to my waist and caught the M7S, cocking it and testing its weight.

"Where'd you get all this?" I asked.

"ONI cache," Bamber said. She was rather muscular for a woman, with well-defined biceps and triceps that her tanktop displayed. Her short hair wasn't my style, but I could appreciatethat she would forsake personal appearance for comfort and practicality. "They sure are paranoid if they have this much equipment in one of the most stable UEG worlds."

I shrugged. "That's ONI for you. Got any radios?"

"Oh, right," Bee muttered, reaching into one of his leg pouches before pulling out an ear piece with a microphone and a single piece of transparent plastic that covered one eye. It was the kind of equipment that black ops ONI operatives would use. Small, easy to hide, and useful.

I put the thing on.

"You know, there is a certain amount of badassery to this look," Bee noted. He had a point, the civilian clothing with combat boots and military equipment did look badass in its own unarmored way.

I looked up at the window where I had ordered the SWAT sniper and waved my arms. "I'm going to need you to hold this position," I shouted. "Harass enemy troops, aim for the big ones! If you're overwhelmed run, there's no shame in it."

"Y–yes, sir!" he shouted back, if a little weakly.

I turned to face Bamber. "Dana, where are we on equipment?"

"Some C-12 and a pair of old frags," she replied, tapping the pouch hanging across her shoulder. "Nothing heavy."

"Ok, stealthy it is."

"No fun that way," Bee lamented. He always did like the explosions.

I shook my head disapprovingly to remind him of the seriousness of the situation. "We need to scout out the exact position of enemy SAM emplacements in order to have the rest of Jaguar land and take them out. Out of sight, out of mind, all right? I don't want to be spotted and have a whole covvie battalion on my ass. We stay quiet unless I give the order."

"Yes, sir," they both replied.

"Ok, we head to Elysium Park. There's a couple of subway stations nearby, we'll close in through the tunnels and then walk the rest of the way on the surface."

They nodded.

"Good," I said. "On me."

I left the street being careful not to get shot through the head and praying to a God that I wasn't sure I believed in to keep Katie safe. That God had kept me safe for a long time, but it had also allowed the Covenant to butcher billions of innocent human beings. That made God something of a dick, unless of course he was just the god of humans, in which case he was obviously doing his best and managing to pull off the occasional miracle.

Food for thought, eh?

"Last time we went into the subway tunnels things didn't end too well," Bee grunted as soon as we were underground.

"What happened?" Bamber asked, curiosity filling her voice.

"El-tee?"

"Go ahead."

Bee took a deep breath and started telling the story, describing the huge crater in the middle of Catamaran City and how one of the subway tunnels rang the length of it, with parts of it occasionally exposed to the outside and to enemy fire. He narrated the events of the battle, theatrically reciting the moment that the whole tunnel rolled to the side and down the crater slope. I remembered that part well enough, being tossed around like a rag doll only to then be in the danger of being trapped underwater and drowning wasn't an experience that I wanted to repeat.

Then the Yevgeny and his Rangers saved our asses and then everybody died.

By the time Bee had reached the part in the story where they were organizing a rescue mission to get me out we were climbing back out.

"Shit," I murmured as I saw the heavy enemy movements covering the street in front of us. "There's no way we're getting past that."

"We could climb," Bamber suggested, pointing at a building right next to us.

"Did you grow wings?" I asked her.

She hesitated. "There's a zipline in Bee's backpack."

"Right, I forgot about that," Bee replied. "Thought it would be useless."

"Zipline huh…" I said. "These ONI operatives do have a penchant for the dramatic, don't they?"

"That they do," Bamber agreed.

"Ok, Dana, cover Bee and me, we'll head towards the building."

"Yes, sir."

We ran inside the building and covered Bamber as she ran to join us. After that it was a simple matter of taking one of the elevators up to the top floors. Not for the first time I wondered why the hell elevators were always the first things to return to working order when a whole city didn't have any power. I'd have to ask Camilla about that, she's the kind of person who would know.

"It's amazing how the elevator's still working," Bamber noted, echoing my thoughts.

"It's amazing how they still play crappy elevator music," Bee replied. "I mean, seriously. The Girl from Ipanema?"

"The what?"

"It's a song," I explained. "The one playing right now. Almost five hundred years old."

"More, I think," Bee replied. "I need to brush up on my dates."

"You do that," I said, watching the floor count steadily go up. "You hold movie nights in your new squad?" I asked him.

"I'd hardly call it new, I've been with it almost as long as I was with Reaper," Bee said. "But yeah, I do have movie nights sometimes."

Bamber scoffed in amusement. "You used to go to movie nights El-tee?"

I shrugged. "Sure. I liked the films."

"Are they the five hundred year old films that everyone seems to talk about?"

"Indeed," Bee confirmed, his strong Scottish accent coming out with the word. "Everybody complains about the quality, but they still return next time."

Bamber chuckled lightly. "Five hundred year old flicks. Damn."

"I have no idea how they survived that long," I said in agreement. "But I honestly can't complain."

The elevator dinged and the doors opened to reveal an immaculate reception desk to a company whose name I vaguely recalled. I think that they had something to do with money, but then again, which company doesn't?

"Dane, that window. Bee, find me some tape. Do we have rope?"

"Yeah," Bee replied. "For the zipline."

I shrugged. "It'll work."

Bee quickly pressed the zipline rope against the window and I stuck it there with scotch tape. I would've preferred some duct tape, but this was an office building. The moment the rope was safely attached to the glass window I made sure to cover as much of the window with tape as I could that way when we broke it not all of the glass would fall all the way to the street. It was simply a precautionary measure. The last thing I wanted was to turn our ziplining stunt into a shooting gallery.

"Break it," I ordered Bamber

She kicked the glass and a second later Bee yanked back the rope, dragging pretty much the entirety of the glass window back towards us. A few small chips of glass fell down, but nothing that would draw unwanted attention. The smoke from cars and explosions on the street would provide some concealment from the enemy forces on the ground.

"Fire," I told Pavel.

The zipline was shaped like a miniature one-tubed rocket launcher. Well, it would be easier to say that it was a tube with a grip. Bee shouldered it and aimed at the building across the street before firing. The sound the device made was awfully quiet when compared to the usual weapons we used. The sound that it made when it broke through the glass window on the other building was louder than I expected. Thankfully, the direction of the impact pushed most of the glass inside the building.

"Did it get a nice grip?" I asked Bee.

"Ummm, yeah, hit a support column and punched clean through."

"I wouldn't want to get hit with one of those," Dana noted.

I stood up and made sure that the end of the rope securing us to this building was nice and tight. I wouldn't want to go all Tarzan if the rope fell. Imagine slamming into a pane of glass at a speed of over fifty or sixty miles per hour. It would hurt like hell and then you'd get cuts all over the place. And then you'd die.

"Who wants to go first?" Bamber asked. "And don't give me any of that ladies first shit."

"I'll go," Bee said, grabbing one of the handholds and pulling down to make sure that it was safe. A moment after that he took a deep breath and let himself fall out of the window. I watched as he slid down the rope and a moment later I followed him myself with just my hands to keep me from falling down to my death.

Sorry, hand. The other one was busy holding on to the M7S.

Bee raised his feet to avoid hitting the floor and slid on his ass for a couple of meters before stopping and rolling out of the way. I raised them backwards and slid forward on my kneepads before slamming into the column and moving away. Bamber somehow managed to get a running landing and stopped herself just short of crashing against a desk. I wondered why people had left the safety of their buildings so quickly after the air raid sirens went off. Perhaps it's because no one wanted to be caught in a collapsing building.

"Downstairs?" Bee asked.

I nodded. "This building is directly adjacent to a big plaza and we can see the park form here. We go down and stay about five floors around ground level, do some observation and then move on."

"Elevator?" Bamber asked.

"Yeah, we stop on the tenth floor and then make our way down to our intended vantage point. We keep a tight formation, overlapping fields of fire and all that."

"SWAT style," Bamber said.

I nodded. "Pretend we're on a drug bust."

"I can do that," Bee said with a smile. "Want some background music?"

I was tempted to agree, but our earpieces wouldn't work as well as our sealed helmets. "Negative on that one. Maybe next time."

"Ok," he replied meekly. Bee looked different in civilian clothing. He had always had a flair for the dramatic, with the yellow-striped armor that had earned him his nickname, but now, dressed in a tight fitting t-shirt that showed just how much time he spent on the gym he looked like someone who could break you in half. Armored Bee could blow you up and Unarmored Bee could snap your neck. Both looks had their merits to them, but I still couldn't figure out how the hell he had managed to pull off a meek face.

We took the elevator down. This one didn't have any music, instead it was broadcasting yesterday's news on a small screen. The news seemed terribly quaint and outdated considering that we were currently under attack by an invasion force. I did manage to memorize most of the soccer scores before the elevator stopped. The time I had spent here five years ago had been spent going to the shrink, drinking, working out, and watching the local ESPN clone.

All my teams had lost, could this day get any worse?

"Sarcasm from you? No way Francisco, I thought you were all grown up," Schitzo said.

Shut up.

"I didn't say anything," Bamber whispered back a complaint.

"You were breathing too loud," I said. It was half the truth.

"Sorry," she whispered back.

I looked around the elevator lobby and then we moved out, our SMGs scanning the surrounding area for any movement. The building was completely devoid of life. It was scary how quickly it had been emptied after the sirens went off. Every floor was like that, after the second one we just kept using the stairs, closing the open emergency exits behind us to make sure we weren't caught by surprise without a warning. On the fifth floor we stopped and took our sweet time making sure that the floor was clear.

It wasn't not entirely so. Two jackals were calmly watching the activity going on down below. They didn't notice us as we slowly moved up behind them. Bee and Dana aimed at one each and then looked at me in turn and nodded. It was good to know that both of them were familiar with my methods. I approached the two jackals slowly, only realizing just how tall they were. Jackals always went hunched and were as thin as a scrawny teen. But they were tall and all muscle and sinew. No wonder they could fight on even terms with humans most of the time. Had their bones been stronger they would've surely overwhelmed any regular human being in a hand-to-hand fight.

One jackal raised its beak to sniff at something just as I drew my knife from its sheath. I calmly raised the blade and waited for the jackal to turn. The moment it did it received a slash through the neck and the other one followed suit. It was bloody but it was quick, and the two covvies stopped jerking less than a minute after I slashed them.

"Move them out of the way," I ordered. "Do any of you have a camera?"

"My cell has a camera," Bee joked, getting a handheld device from his backpack. "This should transmit high-res and thermal images to the Flawless if you link it to your own cellphone."

"Shouldn't be long before the UNSC reestablishes communications," Dana added.

I nodded in agreement and grabbed the military camera. I don't recall its name, but it was mostly used to identify assassination targets in large crowds. Right now it would transmit video and picture as soon as Hayes called my cellphone.

She wouldn't be getting a good picture. Even the hastily set up SAM site was a daunting task for even two full ODST platoons. The SAM itself was not a heavy weapon, designed only to shoot down atmospheric craft and maybe give a second thought to prowlers and corvettes, but it was dangerous enough to deny us air control on a very large area. The problem was that the Covenant knew just how valuable an asset the SAM could be and had protected it accordingly. At least a hundred grunts and jackals with half as many elites milling down on the plaza. They had already set up several barricades and a couple of watchtowers to provide cover down the streets that had access to the plaza.

"At least they didn't destroy the fountain," I muttered under my breath.

"It is a lovely fountain," Dana agreed. "That might change the moment the captain drops."

"It's just a fountain," Bee muttered.

It was. I had walked past it a hundred times when I had been here, but it had never been anything other than a pretty thing to look at. This place had been my home for a mere six months, but already I was feeling pain at seeing it burn. The covvies would pay with blood for every inch that they tried taking from us. If I had any to say in it they would pay with lots of blood.

"Scout for targets," I ordered. "And keep your eyes open for sharpshooters."

I tagged targets with the camera, all the way having an uneasy feeling that a jackal was looking for me. I had little chance to survive a beam rifle shot to the face with a helmet on, but with just my skin and bone in between my brains I was basically a paper target.

"There are three jackals on the blue building across us. Second floor, they're just talking to one another," Dana said quietly.

"Warn me if they move," I said. "Bee?"

"Nothing so far." He spoke again after a couple of seconds. "Oh shit."

"What?!"

"Look, over there, right by that UPS truck." He nervously tapped his fingers on the glass windows. "You see it?"

I quickly shifted my camera and used its incredible zooming capabilities to look at the shape that Bee had pointed. I saw two black and orange armored elites flanking a small hovering vehicle. In front of the throne-like vehicle was an elite, a general if the ostentatious armor was any indication. What seemed to be surprising was that the general appeared to be arguing with the occupant of the hovering throne.

"A prophet," Dana said in near awe. "I had never seen one before."

"Pavel killed one once," I said without thinking. "Frail things."

"They are the lead caste of the Covenant, if we could capture it…"

Bee shook his head. "We're past negotiating with these fuckers. Maybe if we kill enough of them they'd just piss off."

"Bloody unlikely," Dana replied, mimicking his accent. "We have killed enough of their number every time they decide to put boots on the ground."

"Shut up," I ordered. "We tag that as a priority target and the fancy elites too, move on."

For three more minutes we tagged every last grunt, marking them as low or high priority depending. (fragment. Depending on what?) The structures were the targets to be taken down first, with the watchtowers and heavier barricades taking priority. After that Hayes and the rest of Jaguar Company would just kill anything that moved here.

"We're done with the SAM," I said. "We need to tag anything we can on the park."

The corner of this building had a nice line of sight to Elysium Park and we could see the alien infantry that the destroyer had deployed. At this distance any movement was merely a small blur, but their numbers made sure that even the smallest movement of troops wasn't clearly visible.

"Can't see anything from her, El-tee," Bee said.

"Same thing, sir."

I shrugged and used my camera to spot and mark emplacements and high-ranking elites. The small amount of laser radiation that the camera used to mark the aliens would disappear after some time, but if the counter attack that the UNSC was planning went well every bit of information we gathered would help.

My earpiece beeped twice and Hayes came in. "Castillo, report."

"Captain," I acknowledged her. "The SAM itself is not a defensible position, simply a launcher. The plaza surrounding it though… enemy presence is substantial. I'm already sending all the specs up to you. The park itself is no task for a sole company, even our own. My recommendation would be to take out this SAM emplacement and neighboring ones with surgical strikes before pulling out and regrouping for another thrust."

"Your recommendation is dully noted," she replied.

"Shit!" Dana shouted.

I dodged sideways while hoping that whoever was shooting at me had aimed true. Of the four or five shots that shattered the windows only one would've hit me, but it would've punched through the pathetic vests that we were wearing with ease. I landed on the floor with hundreds of shattered glass pieces landing on top of me. I felt a couple of cuts on my hands and neck before I rolled away. More shots were following the first.

"What was that?!"

"One of the sharpshooters in the towers!" Dana shouted back. "We have to get out of here!"

"Castillo! Report!"

"Just a minor inconvenience, sir," I told Hayes. "I'ma have to call you back."

The call ended and I found myself at a crouching sprint while green and blue bolts hit the ceiling near the walls, igniting the paneling that protected it. Dana and Bee were already hitting the button for the elevator, the doors opened quickly and all three of us barged in.

"The covvies are going to be swarming the building," Bee noted.

"Can the zipline drag us back?"

"Yeah," Dana said. "Not quickly though."

"So we'll be hanging ducks," Bee muttered. "Quite literally."

I looked up and cracked my neck. "If we wait too long the risk will be too great," I said. "Covenant soldiers will be swarming the streets below and they'll hit us in a second."

"We still risk a hit if we go even right now," Dana said.

"Double down or nothing," Bee said, his tone half a question.

That's not even how you say that… "Do or die, more like. The Covenant will be behind us;no doubt they're swarming the building."

Dana seemed to ponder on that for a moment. "Very well then, the shooting gallery it is."

"I don't need attitude from you, Bamber," I told her. "Just do as you're told."

Dana promptly shut up and stopped complaining. The rest of the elevator trip up was made in silence.

"You know, I wish this elevator also had music," Schitzo mused. "It would make this scene much more amusing."

The comment brought no smile to my lips. In fact, I felt like punching the wall.

"Go," I ordered as soon as the elevator stopped. "Bamber, you first."

Dana ran towards the cable and grabbed on to one of the handholds. She pressed a small button on its side and it started moving back, pulling her upwards towards the other end of the rope. Bee gave her a couple of seconds before grabbing on to the rope and clicking the button.

"Listen Frank," Schitzo warned.

I turned halfway towards the direction of the elevators and heard the doors opening. "Shit."

"El-tee?"

"Bee, your weapon!"

He tossed it without question and jumped out the window, both hands holding onto for dear life.

My ears picked up the steps of at least two elites and I ducked below a cubicle. After that I heard one of them barking an order and I emerged from cover, firing both SMGs at the nearest alien. The rapid rate of fire coupled with the monstrous recoil threw my aim off. Half the rounds missed, but the sheer amount of bullets was enough to keep the elite stunned and burn through its shields. After that a simple short burst to the head did the job and the elite fell over, dead.

The other alien was not amused.

The borrowed pistol that I was using had a fresh magazine in it, but it wouldn't be enough to kill the alien. Instead I aimed for its right arm, hitting the plasma rifle it carried. Two shots left small scratches on the rounded surface, but one hit at just the right angle and the plasma rifle started leaking blue vapor. The elite tossed it and a moment later the weapon tore itself apart.

Now I was only at a monstrous disadvantage instead of an unbeatable one, but that had never stopped me before.

Knife against half a ton of muscle, it could be worse.

Then the elite drew its energy sword with a guttural laugh. The tiny, little colorful blade that I held in my hand amused it. Tiny to him no doubt, to me it was a very large blade and it would be enough for the job.

The elite charged. They always did. After all, to them I was merely an insect to be squashed by their righteous boots. Fucking assholes.

Like all elites it slashed in an attempt to separate my head from my body, but I was already moving towards it and cutting towards its unarmored throat. The shields stopped my knife. It didn't happen very often, the energy shields seemed to be fickle when it came to knives. Stabs at the neck and underside of the jaw were almost always effective, and slashing attacks to those areas tended to work too, but sometimes their goddamned shields decided to stop my blade and do their job properly.

"Fuck."

The elite slashed backwards, the energy blade cutting through the ceiling with ease. I was already out of reach, but only just. The sword then doubled back up and I jumped back as the elite tried to stab at me. It chuckled again, seemingly amused that I would put up such a fight.

"Come on!" I shouted, hitting my chest in taunt.

The elite stabbed twice and my knife bounced of the armor plates on its arm. I attempted to get inside its effective range, but I promptly found myself kicked against a cubicle. The weak walls collapsed under me, but they served to dampen the fall somewhat. I suddenly found myself in real trouble.

The elite lost no time in jumping on top of me. It stabbed at my head and missed by a breath when I rolled to the side. I quickly slashed at the small of its knee, which was located in the front of its leg. The alien roared and stumbled slightly, that bought me enough time to scramble to my feet while avoiding a pair of clumsy slashing attempts.

"Fuck you," I growled as I found myself clinging to its back and stabbing furiously at its neck. "Ha-ha! Fuck you!"

The elite fell backwards and I had the wind knocked out of me from the weight, but it sure beat being gutted by white-hot plasma.

"Lieutenant!"

"I'm fine," I replied, shoving the dead weight off me.

"Told you," Bee said cockily. "Now hurry up. Sir."

I had no need for him to tell me twice. I grabbed the SMGs and strapped them across my chest before grabbing the handhold and jumping off the building. The mechanical devices in it slowly started pulling me up. I dared not to look below, but I knew that the covvie foot soldiers would be moving up in an attempt to surround the building. It wouldn't be long before one decided to look up and spotted three silhouettes moving slowly through the air.

"Maybe they'll think us birds?" Schitzo suggested from atop a giant eagle. Sometimes I couldn't help but wonder why I could come up with shit like that, even in my subconscious.

I was left with nothing to do, just hanging a couple hundred meters from the street. A couple of colorful plasma bolts sped by me, but they were too far away to even threaten me. Shooting directly up wasn't exactly comfortable, but the distance wasn't that long when it came down to it. Within a few seconds I was surrounded by more and more heated plasma. It wasn't until a couple of needles nearly took my head off that I realized there were enemies behind us.

I spun as much as I could and wildly sprayed the space area where I had jumped from. I saw an elite and a few jackals move away in fright, they ducked on reflex, I wouldn't have hit anything while handing from one hand and firing form the hip.

"Almost there…" I heard Bee growl.

My SMG clicked empty for the second time in a minute and I cursed as the aliens started firing again. I couldn't help but thank the Higher Power that they hadn't thought about cutting the rope. Had they done that first the impact against the building might've killed me or at least severely injured me.

I felt my stomach lurch and suddenly I was in a free fall. I guess they couldn't be that stupid for long. Still, it was too late for the fall to do anything to me. I slammed into the glass window a floor below my intended goal, cracking the glass. Bee kicked at the glass and pulled himself up before I started dragging myself along the rope.

"Shit!" I cried when something sharp cut along the length of my thigh. I kicked violently and Bee pulled me up while Dana provided covering fire. The first thing I did was shove one of my two SMGs into Bee's chest and drag myself forward. My leg gave way underneath me as soon as I tried standing up and I looked down to see the wound. My jeans had been cut through by what I assumed to be a needle and the skin below had been opened. It wasn't very deep, but it was bleeding a lot and it stung like a bitch.

"Painkillers?" I asked.

"Sorry," Dana said, firing as she walked backwards. "We've got bandages and some numbing cream."

"That'll do," I said reluctantly. "Hand me the cream or whatever."

As soon as we were behind sturdy walls I lifted my jeans, wincing as they made contact with my injury. Bee rubbed the medical cream roughly over the injured area and Dana started bandaging as soon as Bee was done. She took special care to make the bandage extra tight. With their help I stood up and managed to take a couple of unsteady steps before carefully bending my leg. It hurt, but the numbing cream was actually pretty amazing. I couldn't exactly sprint, but I could jog and move around well enough.

"Castillo."

"Captain," I spoke into my mic. "News?"

"Keep your eyes up, Frank," Pavel's voice flooded my ears. "Because I am saving your ass yet again."

I couldn't see anything through the ceiling, but I could hear the pods slamming into the concrete and the gunfire that followed them. The noise increased in volume at a steady rate before it started going down again. It took all of two minutes. They had sent the entire company to take care of the SAM site. That meant that there were more ODSTs available than I had first imagined. We had a chance to make a quick and effective counter-attack.

I smiled as the screams of Covenant soldiers overwhelmed those of humans for a few minutes and allowed myself to enjoy the small victory.

Thanks to SilasWhitfield for proofreading this chapter.

Come on! Did you really think that Frank would stay unarmed for long? He's crafty like that. Unfortunately for the cops, they don't share that talent. We've got some wanky rope antics as well as Bee and Bamber, two characters who haven't gotten much screen time lately, especially the second one, 'cause she's not one of the main peoples on this fanfic. I'm glad all of you liked the last couple of chapters guys, certainly got a lot of reviews for them.

alricstrife the gangsta style thing was meant as a joke, don't take me too seriously.

the lone wolfos been a while since you last reviews, glad you still like and follow the story.

As for that concert I went to, I had a great time, but the rest of the week was filled with stuff and I didn't get too much time to write, which is why it took so long to post this chapter. I'm sorry about the delay, but some things can't be helped. One last thing, to clear something a few people pointed out in the comments. According to halopedia Johnson escaped the flood in Installation 04 out of sheer skill because he's just that badass. In fact, he's so badass that ONI had to make up an ailment just to protect his identity as an ORION candidate.

That's about all I have to say my loyal readers, so stay strong.

-casquis