Chapter CLXVIII: Cleanup

February 10, 2549 (UNSC Calendar)/two weeks later

Udinia, Paris IV, Paris System

"Cleaning up two different kinds of messes."

"This is the unit that took out that supplies convoy," I reminded my team. "Not one of them gets out alive."

They all nodded slowly, grinning diabolically behind their depolarized visors.

"You don't have to tell us twice," Sandor said.

I grinned with them, looking at each in turn. Hoff was still out of commission and would be that way for at least another week. Miri had asked to take a break from the constant missions and so I had asked Pavel to fill in for her. Snark had volunteered to take Hoff's place. It felt good to have him back on the squad. It had been a pretty long time since I had fought with him under my command.

"Let's go over it again," I said. "Caboose and Recon are going to be dropping to our right so that we don't end up shooting one another. Remember to only fire into your designated fields of fire. Friendly fire is a big risk in the opening seconds of this raid." I waited for them to nod. "That being said, the covvies know we're here and prepared accordingly, the doors are barricaded and they have positioned themselves in concentric circles, with the bigger squids in the back. It should be done quickly, all things considered."

"Enough Frank," Pavel grunted. He was probably the only person that could get away with interrupting me in this kind of situation. "We're Helljumpers for Christ's sake!"

I half expected him to start swearing in Polish or something judging by the look on his face, but Pavel was a good guy at heart. He had perfected the art of the drill sergeant face over the years, especially in the past few years where he had served as my second in command and platoon disciplinarian. To be honest, he was better at doing that than me. His short blonde hair and blue eyes gave him the evil-Russian look and he worked it for all it was worth.

"Very well then," I relented. "Double check your harnesses and move to the edge of the building."

ODST training involved a variety of different skills. We learned everything from scuba diving without vacuum suits to free climbing. We also learned to zipline from aircraft such as Hornets and Pelicans. Right now that skill would prove useful, as we would be rapelling down the wall of a small warehouse. It was at times like this that I appreciated the huge amount of possibilities that windows brought to warfare.

"Ready?" I asked after checking my own harness and cable. I waited to get the affirmative replies and looked down at the opposite side of the warehouse to nod at Grigori. "Go!"

All twelve of us jumped over the rooftop's edge. The freefall was cut short by our cables and all of us swung inwards with our feet aimed at the glass windows. They shattered as expected and only then did the cables loosen enough to bring us down to floor level. The grunts squealed as we rained gunfire upon them. A few of the jackals tried raising their shields, but they weren't expecting an attack from the windows. Most of the aliens went down in the first couple of seconds, with the few elites leading this band putting up a token resistance before they were overwhelmed by our superior numbers and firepower.

"Damn, that was easy," Pavel noted, untying his cable from his belt. "It almost wasn't fun."

"Gunny, I've yet to not have fun while killing covvies," Sandor said.

Marv chuckled and shook his head. "Look at us, the band of psychopaths."

Andy just sighed sadly before crouching to examine an elite corpse. She picked at the elite's armor before grabbing an unused plasma grenade and shoving it inside one of her pouches.

"What is that, like the fourth one?" I asked her, looking over her shoulder.

"Sixth," she corrected. "We're piling them all up on this huge crate back in Fountain FOB."

"Yeah, I've seen Marines tossing them into that thing. Any reason why?"

"Mostly they're just hoping that we capture a ridiculously large number of covvies before frying them with the grenades."

"They?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I wouldn't mind tossing a few of these myself, but so far it's only hopes and dreams. Haven't had the opportunity to throw one in yet."

"And this fuckers don't surrender," Sandor said, kicking the elite's neck. "Oh well, this'll have to do."

An experienced military man would've wondered why we weren't even bothering with clearing the warehouse, but with complete air superiority all over the city we had hundreds of UAVs flying around and giving us real-time thermal specs. The only thing that was emitting any kind of heat down here was us. Somehow the the guys had fixed that little glitch where jackals sometimes didn't show up on thermal.

"Yeah, it's clear," Atkins called from across the room.

I looked up and waved for Caboose. "A word."

Caboose walked up to me and I lead him away from the rest of the group into a nice little corner. I took of my helmet and held it between my arm and my waist, waiting for Caboose to do the same. He was wearing a black beanie under his helmet. That seemed unusual, but he always wore a black cap whenever he was out of his armor and added an extra layer whenever his helmet was actually on. I shrugged it off and gestured towards Corporal Han.

"How's he adapting?"

Caboose looked at Han quickly. "Jin's all right, as tough as any Helljumper."

"But?"

"I've got no complaints, he's a little bit green if you ask me. Certainly the greenest guy in the platoon in my opinion, but he follows orders and has the skill. Haven't had any problems with him personally, but the rest of the guys are having a hard time warming up to him."

"Any particular reason?"

Caboose seemed to consider the question for a moment, kicking at a piece of broken glass, shattering it into smaller pieces. "He's too uptight at times. The perfectly professional soldier."

"Have we really sunken that low that we consider that a bad thing?" I asked.

Caboose looked at me and actually laughed a little bit, prompting me to do the same.

"It's a weird world we live in," he said. "They'll get used to him or he'll mellow out a bit. Perhaps I need someone to get shot so that Jin can patch him up."

"Just don't shoot them yourself Grigori," I warned. "Anyways, tell the men they did a fine job, the cleanup crews are moving in.

The cleanup crews in question were a bunch of civilians that had volunteered to move the covvie bodies out of the building and to wash out the blood stains. This warehouse was actually inside the UNSC perimeter in the city, and with a couple of decently-sized outposts nearby it could be made into a refugee home to ease up the pressure on some of the other places.

The civilians were a loud and rowdy bunch. They were armored with lightweight body armor but carried no weapons. They were mostly strong, large men that could lift the bodies of the elites without too much trouble. They started with the grunts, moving the smaller aliens out of the warehouse's main entrance and piling them up one on top of the other before moving on to the jackals.

They joked and laughed while kicking at the bodies they picked up. They had a right to be angry, after all they were forced to become refugees inside their own city. The ones that were lucky enough to have kept their home were forced to share it with other civilians. Not a lot of people were happy about it, but when the UNSC asked you to do something you did it. The only ones that hadn't complied were the rebels, and now they were a dying breed, with most of them joining us against the Covenant or being left to their fate. Fucking separatists.

"You think those vests would make any difference against a plasma weapon?" Pavel asked me.

I shook my head. "It's mostly for morale," I reminded him. "Besides, they probably get to show them off to the girls back in the camps."

"About that…"

I shook my head. Pavel had been pressing me to talk about Katie. So far I hadn't said anything else, and for a while we had been too busy wiping out the Covenant survivors in the city to talk about it, but now that the downtown area and most of the key strategic zones were under our control he was finding the time to talk about more trivial things.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"But you still make visits to one particular refugee house."

It wasn't a house, it was more like several dozen rows of neat military tents, but his statement was still true. "What about it?"

"Are you–"

"No," I said, waving my hand. "No, of course not. I'm just making sure she's got everything she needs."

"I'm sure that the UNSC is giving her–whoever her is–all she needs. You don't need to keep checking on her."

"I–"

"Please don't tell me you feel guilty about the invasion," Pavel groaned.

"Of course not, I just feel responsible for her."

Pavel looked over four of the cleanup guys as they carried one of the elites out, struggling with the weight. "Was she worth it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Was the sex great?"

"Sex doesn't have anything to do with it," I said angrily.

"Oh, so you weren't kidding when you asked if you could love two women at the same time."

"I wasn't. I wish I was."

"Damn Frank, you're like a magnet for shit. Not just trouble, but shit… like really disgusting shit."

"Tell me about it," I groaned while scratching the back of my neck. "Listen, I'm not going to act on it, at least not until I know what's really going on. Not gonna tell Hanna either."

"Does she know?" Pavel asked. "I mean, about Hanna?"

"I told her I had a girlfriend."

"And?"

"And she hates me." I took a deep breath and explained everything that happened that time when I was forced to take those stupid psychiatric sessions. I went carefully through the progression of events and finally told him about the time we slept together. Pavel listened carefully and nodded occasionally to show that he was listening. After that I skipped to the time I went to her diner.

"Why'd you go?"

"Because I love her," I said. "Or I think I do."

"You don't think you love someone Frank. Only teens do that, and you've had enough relationships and sex to differentiate the feeling that they give."

"True."

"Hanna's my friend too, Frank, and I would hate seeing you hurt her."

"There's no way for me not to hurt her," I said. "I could tell her I cheated and break her heart or leave her and break her heart… Why am I such an asshole?"

"You were raised wrong?" Pavel suggested. "Hey, no offense to uncle Manuel, he sounded like on hell of a Marine and a good man, but maybe he wasn't exactly parent material."

"I know that," I told him. It wasn't easy for me to take criticism directed at a family member from someone that was outside my family. Trash-talking about your own family was all good and well, but nobody else could do it. And seeing as how I was the only remaining Castillo on this universe (sans brother, of course), I was the only one allowed to criticize my family.

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I'll come up with something."

"My advice, bury this. Bury this deep and don't mention it to Hanna ever. If you want to talk to the other girl then you can do that, but end it and then forget about it."

"But–"

"But you love her," Pavel sighed. "Yeah, yeah. And I thought I was the sentimental one."

I chuckled, trying to detract some of the seriousness of the situation. Hey, it might seem like if whining to you, but to me this was a very real, very annoying problem that had to be taken seriously.

"Pelican's arriving," Pavel said gruffly before walking away and putting his helmet back on. "Let's go."

"Hey you!" I shouted at the cleanup crew. "No souvenirs, all right? Anyone of you is found to have any Covenant tech will be imprisoned."

"And prisoners are the last people on the list that we'll save if need be," Sandor added, "so keep your hands to yourselves."

I couldn't have said it any better.

The moment we landed I headed out of the garrison and walked a couple of barracks towards the place where Katie was staying. The place was teeming with activity, with several local Army soldiers and Marines that had friends and family here checking up on them as well as a lot of jarheads from the fleet. The refugee camps had become informal markets of sorts, where we could get fancy electronic toys in exchange for a gun for self defense or ammunition. The UNSC command didn't like it, but they looked the other way. I was certain that ONI had a couple of agents in every marketplace to make sure nothing that could pose an actual danger to the war effort would be sold.

My appearance caused a small impression, drawing some staring from the younger kids and teenagers. The older men either raised eyebrows or tried not to look at me. I was flattered by the attention, with Spartans nowhere to be seen us Helljumpers were everybody's heroes. Not that we didn't deserved it, we had worked our asses to keep the people safe.

I turned past a row of tents and came up to Katie's place. I had managed to get her a tent all to her own, seeing as she didn't know anybody. Other than that I kept her out of any work lists that could put her in any danger and gotten her a datapad so that she wouldn't pluck her eyes out from boredom. She was sitting on a stool right outside the entrance to her tent, reading something on the datapad.

She looked up. "Frank. I told you not to come here anymore."

"And I said that you couldn't make me."

Katie groaned in annoyance. "You don't need to baby me."

"Think of it as penance," I replied. "For hurting you that bad."

"That bad, I was overreacting," she scoffed. "Like you could still affect me after five years."

We looked at each other for a few moments before we both burst out laughing. A couple of people passing bylooked at us weird, but we kept on laughing for a while. It was a terrible situation for both of us, for her because she still cared despite what I had done and for me because I still cared after five years of a different girlfriend. At least we took it with some humor.

"What are you laughing at?" someone called from inside the tent. "Katie? Oh! I didn't know we had visitors."

I was looking at a carbon copy of Katie. Well, perhaps not a carbon copy, but she certainly looked a lot like her.

"Sister?" I asked, examining the woman. She looked slightly younger than Katie.

"Cousin," Katie said before she could reply. "And she was just going back inside."

"Eliza," she introduced herself. "Our moms are sisters."

The last Eliza that I had known had been an impertinent smart AI. I missed her. "You do look alike," I said, placing my helmet on the ground and sitting on top of it. "Are your families fine?"

Both Katie and Eliza looked at each other with worried expressions.

"We haven't heard anything from them," Eliza said finally. "They say that it's because so many satellites were shot down, but I–"

"Where do they live?" I asked.

"All over," Katie said.

"You know, if you gave me their names I could look them up for you, see if they're fine."

Eliza's face lit up. "You could do that?"

"I can try," I said with a shrug. "No promises though."

I was knocked backwards when Eliza rushed to hug me. "Thank you, thank you so much. It has been so hard not hearing anything from them."

"Hey, anything I can do to help," I replied awkwardly, trying to get back up. Somewhere in the back of my head I was hoping that the hug had made Katie jealous.

"You never told me your name," Eliza said, stepping back.

I looked at Katie and laughed nervously. The way women were there was no doubt she knew everything about me. Everything Katie thought about me, that is. Katie looked away pointedly and sniffed loudly.

"Uh… Frank. The name's Frank."

Eliza's eyes widened and she took half a step back before crossing her arms over her chest. Her body language changed entirely and she eyed me carefully. "I didn't expect you to be so…"

Let her say handsome, please let her say handsome…

"Eliza," Katie cut in. "Why don't you get a list of all our family members?"

Eliza looked from her and back to me before sighing and shrugging. "I'll be in the tent."

"Why are you doing this?" Katie asked quietly so that her cousin couldn't hear.

"She seems like a nice girl," I said.

"Frank…"

"Sorry. I do feel bad about hurting you Katie and believe it or not, I still care about you."

She scoffed. "I don't think your girlfriend would be happy to hear that."

"No she would not," I agreed. "But it's still the truth."

"Do you expect me to forget about everything?" she asked. "About all I had to go through because of you!"

"No."

"You fucking ruined two years of my life Frank!" she shouted, drawing curious glances from all around.

Eliza picked that moment to emerge from tent. She looked around nervously and gave me a datapad. "Here's the list, it's not complete, but it should do."
I grabbed it and transferred the information to my helmet, giving the datapad back before Eliza disappeared back inside the tent.

"You hurt me Frank," Katie said angrily. "A lot."

I looked at her with an expression mirroring her own. "You don't have to like it, but that is why I'm doing this."

I slammed my rifle into its rack and kicked the wall before taking off the rest of my armor, letting it clatter to the floor. I took off the pieces that covered my thighs but kept the boots on. After that I unzipped my undersuit, tying the arms across my waist to keep it from falling down past my waist. I kicked the wall again before making sure that my belt held my pistol and a couple of spare magazines before heading out.

"Put a shirt on, Francisco," Schitzo said.

"I was about to, dick," I replied, reaching into my trunk and smelling the dirty shirts.

"What?"

"What?" I echoed.

"Did you say something?" Hoff asked me.

"Talking to myself," I grunted. "How's the leg?"

Hoff looked down and moved his right leg experimentally. He was wearing a weird-looking cast that would be kept on until whatever was left of his leg properly merged with the artificial tissue that had been implanted. The poor guy had most of his gastrocnemius and soleus, the muscles in the back of the calf, burned to cinders. The doctors had removed most of those muscles and replaced them with an artificial tissue. The funny thing is that they had run out of synthetic skin due to most skin banks having been destroyed along with most hospitals. Below the cast he would have black muscles not unlike Cam's prosthetic arm.

"It still hurts like hell," Hoff said. "The little muscle they left there is still healing and the implants have to completely merge or whatever." He rolled a football on his right hand. "I'm good enough that I can throw a football now. Wanna throw some passes, sir?"

Whatever provided distraction. "Yeah, sure."

Half the plaza was occupied by barracks and the other was empty space left that way so that the men and women could use it. A basketball court had already been set up, with a match between Army and Marines going on. People booed and cheered for their branch on the sidelines. Had it been late spring or summer there would've been a couple of inflatable pools, but instead we had people kicking around soccer balls or just sitting and talking.

Hoff stopped walking and I went on until I was far enough away that passing a football would be a comfortable exercise.

"Remember I can't walk that fast," Hoff called out as he threw the ball.

I caught the thing right over my chest. "I'll keep that in mind," I replied, throwing it back.

Like most people in this side of the galaxy, I had grown up and learned hot to pass a football. The athletic teen that my uncle had shaped me up to be had had strength and enough coordination not to miss any pass by a ludicrous distance, but it still felt pretty bad that Hoff had to hop up on his good leg in order to catch the football one handed. It hadn't even been that long a distance to pass.

"Been a while," I offered. "Gotta get back in the game."

Hoff smiled his cocky jock smile. "Sure thing, sir."

We tossed around a couple other passes. I threw most of mine straight enough, but the precision and speed that Hoff could manage with a football was nothing short of intimidating. A couple of times I jogged from side to side and had Hoff anticipate where I would be. Again, pinpoint accuracy from his arms.

"Did you ever think about joining the Marine Football Team?"

Hoff shook his head. "Considered it, but the big game always takes place on Earth and most of the guys playing there are local."

"Didn't want to visit Earth?"

He shook his head and threw another annoyingly perfect pass. "And be stuck up to my neck in people? No way, I like my personal space."

This time it was my turn to laugh. Udinia was the biggest city in the second most populated planet in all of UEG space. Hoff wasn't from this city, but by most standards this planet was as crowded as it got. I, on the other hand, was raised on Jericho VII, which happened to be a relevant colony albeit not a heavily populated one. He did have a point though, large crowds are one of my main memories from my childhood back on Earth.

"Hey Frank!" Pavel called, appearing from behind one of the barracks.

I threw the ball at him. And he threw it back to Hoff.

"I didn't know Poles could throw a football," Hoff joked teasingly.

"We don't," Pavel agreed. "We kick it."

"You mean a soccer ball."

I groaned as I caught Hoff's pass. Even after centuries of debate nobody agreed on what to call each sport. That's why most of the time I stuck to gravball or headcase. I threw another pass to Pavel before he excused himself and disappeared into our common building. From there he could record and send a message back home. It would probably have to go past countless censors and ONI personnel before it was actually delivered, but Amber and Lavvie would get it.

"Any news about your family?" I asked after a few more passes.

"Not really," he shrugged. "They keep sending me messages that they're fine. I hear that the situation's tough down there, lots of refugees coming in."

"As long as the covvies don't attack I'm sure they'll be fine. Just a little bit longer and we'll break through the siege."

Hoff nodded. "Thanks El-tee."

After a few more minutes Hoff's leg started hurting him and he had to lie down for a while. I tossed him his football back and left him in the care of two young female Marines that seemed very interested in both his ODST-issue clothing as well as his injury. I figured that if he got some attention from women then I also deserved the same. Especially after the fiasco that the meeting with Katie had been.

It didn't take long to find Hanna. Most of Battalion One had been relocated here after their defense of the suburbs. The defense of the city's outskirts was a task for the Army. Us Marines were in charge of wiping out any covvies still alive in the city. After we were done with that we would be deployed elsewhere to aid in ongoing campaigns. It should be relatively quick, especially if UNSC reinforcements got here as promised.

"Hanna," I called out to my girlfriend. "How do you do?"

"Hey Frank! Didn't you go out to clear this place or other?" she asked me, hugging me tightly. That was something that I could never get tired of.

I nodded. "It was quick, lots of intel and we had the high ground."

"Glad you killed those suckers," she said, letting go and tapping my arms. "It's been horribly boring here. Your company is the only unit that has actually left the base for combat missions."

I shrugged. "There aren't that many Covenant troops left, we can kill them the quickest."

Hanna rolled her eyes. "Modesty isn't really your thing, is it?"

"Baby, you knew what you were getting into."

"And after five years I'm still here." There was something about the way that she enunciated the time we had been going out that worried me. Sure we had had our ups and downs, but five years was still a pretty long time, and if marriage was what you had in mind…

"I wonder how Katie feels about marriage," Schitzo wondered out loud.

I ignored that as best I could, but I could still feel myself tensing up slightly.

"And I'm glad you are," I told Hanna. "But you know what would make me even gladder?"

"Sex?"

"We have been together way too long," I replied, amused. "Got a place?"

Hanna nodded with a decidedly naughty smile. "I know just the one."

Hanna led me to a building directly outside the FOB's walls. There were a few Marines manning a sandbag bunker a few dozen meters down the street and several cars were piled one next to another on the other side of the street. The building itself was empty except for perhaps a couple of snipers and a SAM on the rooftop. It was a perfectly ordinary building. A perfectly ordinary empty building.

"You know, Valentine's Day is coming up," Hanna said suddenly.

The tip of my armored boot hit the edge of the next stair and I stumbled forward. I stopped myself before I actually slammed into the floor. I pushed myself back up and looked at Hanna with a worried expression.

"Banana, you don't really expect… I mean, we're in a warzone."

Hanna shrugged. "Yeah, but things seemed to be looking up so I just–"

"Listen hon, if we have time for something, I promise I'll do my best, but I don't want to promise something and then let you down just like that."

She sighed. "I just want something in this relationship to be normal for once," she complained. "Don't worry, don't worry. I get it, the wine and candlelight dinner is pretty hard to pull off in a city under siege."

"I'll do my best, but we might not even be together four days from now."

Hanna looked away. I don't know if she was actually that affected or just acting, but it certainly worked on me.

"Listen, as soon as we get out of this place I promise I'll make it up to you. Hot air balloon and all that, ok?"

"I'll hold you to that," she told me. "What about this room?"

"As long as it's not on the floor it's fine," I said. I took a quick peek inside the room and saw that it was completely intact. A strange sight considering that the windows showed a ravaged cityscape. "Yup, this one will be fine."

"Can't another unit take this one?" Sandor complained.

I shook my head. "Not according to command."

"And meanwhile Four is still guarding that stupid Onager mass driver," Miri shook her head.

"You have to come this time," I told her. "Snark, you're coming too."

The man nodded from across the room, patting his sniper rifle and dragging his chair towards me. "What kind of mission do we get?"

"A simple one."

"Can't HW take it then?" Marv suggested, taking a shot at our second platoon squad. "I mean, if Command wants them to put up a show…"

I groaned. It had been a topic of discussion for the past couple of days. HW got to stay back here at the base, manning sandbag barricades and making the occasional trip to nearby refugee camps to boost civilian morale. Despite having the most firepower, they were probably the nicest squad in the platoon. My own squad was nice enough, but Hoff had this jock attitude that he just couldn't turn off, Sandor had been one childhood incident away from being a serial killer, and Andy was always certain that she was the smartest person in the room.

Miri and Marv were both pretty nice though.

Recon Squad… well, let's just say that sometimes they scared even me.

"HW is boosting morale," I reminded them. "Walk inside any neighboring refugee camp during your free time and you'll know what I'm talking about," I said loudly, ending the discussion before it could begin. "The mission is like the last one we did. Small covvie group holed up in a building. Note I said building and not warehouse. They've been harassing patrols and a few hours ago they killed three Marines." I paused a moment to let that sink in. "Gear up, I'll brief you on the way."

Pavel had been listening to the briefing from his bed. I had given him some time off because he had done a mission a few hours ago and because he was my friend. Mostly because he was my friend.

"You sure that Hayes' platoon can't take this one?"

"Nah," I replied. "Orders came form her directly. Her and Dajani's platoon are supporting one of the offensives on the outskirts, sans Snark, of course. They won't be back for a couple of days."

"And here I thought that they were only leaving to do the same cleanup duty we did… Nobody ever tells me anything."

I patted his head affectionately. "Just wait until you become an officer."

"And sell out? Not in this lifetime."

I laughed. Before I had gone on to become a second lieutenant I had had that same attitude towards officers. They had their use, but mostly they were just the richer variant that didn't really get muddy in the trenches.

Sometimes I like to think that I personally disproved that belief.

"I'll hold the fort for you," Pavel told me. "Make sure Hoff doesn't bring any girls here."

I scoffed. Last time he did that I just about murdered the girl for touching my stuff. Then I had her commanding officer reprimand her and assign her to picking up trash for the next week. I still threw my candy wrappings in front of her if I saw her.

Hey, nobody ever said you had to be nice to be an officer.

Fifteen minutes later two thirds of my platoon was climbing into a Pelican waiting for us. Fightmaster somehow managed to be the pilot that would fly us to our objective. While I waited for my team to climb I saw another Pelican with two squads from Platoon Three boarding it. Weller gave me a curt nod before climbing on board the Pelican. It took off a second later and I climbed inside Fightmaster's Pelican.

"Off we go Sam," I told the pilot.

"And thank you for choosing Fightmaster Express!"

"I'd totally use that airline," PFC O'Malley said. Her accent was getting a lot easier to understand.

"Quiet," I ordered. "Holo up."

The Pelican's blood tray projected a building with some damage to the lower levels. I quickly went over the details of the plan while the hologram highlighted the parts of the building where they would take place. The building conveniently flashed red whenever I highlighted a floor. Coupled with real-time thermal imagery from various drones and other equipment around the place we knew exactly how many baddies we would face as well as their positions.

"Can't Lieutenant Weller's platoon do the rappelling?" Sandor asked.

I almost exploded. "Listen all of you! I am sick and fucking annoyed by all of your whiny attitudes. Every last one of you has been complaining about the dumbest shit for the past week. I don't care about it. I don't care about any of it. I don't care that you don't like doing so many missions, I don't care that you were grazed because you didn't keep your fucking head down, and most importantly I don't care what you think. If anyone has a complaint, keep it to yourselves. If any of you complain I'll personally fuck your shit up." I paused. "Is that fucking clear?"

"Sir, yes, sir!"

"Good," I said with a nod.

After that I moved inside the cockpit, I couldn't stand looking at my platoon right then. Sam's copilot looked at me nervously before pressing a couple of random buttons and looking straight ahead. Sam on the other hand chuckled quietly and looked over his shoulder at me. He was obviously amused by my chewing out of the deadly and intimidating Helljumpers on his ship.

"They had it coming," I said, answering the unasked question.

"I'm not disputing that," Fightmaster said, "but an officer isn't supposed to threaten subordinates to fuck them up. That's the noncom's job."

"Well, my noncom is taking a nice nap at the moment."

"How is Pavel by the way?"

I shrugged. "He's all right. Pavel is always all right. He misses his wife and daughter but keeps his spirits up in the hope that he'll come back home to them."
Fightmaster was silent for a moment. "So he's not chronically depressed?"

"No."

"How long has he been fighting for?"

"Fourteen years," I replied. "He's a tough one, he is."

"Amen," he agreed. "I understand why Marines would want to off themselves before they're actually supposed to die, but it's a little selfish to do it now, don't you think?"

"Wise words," I agreed. "We're stopping on that building over there to–"

"I know, drop off your sniper. I'm not an idiot Frank, I remember."

"Right," I said, walking out of the cockpit before Fightmaster hovered over the building's rooftop. Snark and Zepeda hopped off and turned around.

"As soon as we bust through you can shoot anything you want," I told them.

Snark nodded with what was probably a smile behind his visor and tapped his oversized scope. "With this baby the covvies are going to have nowhere to hide."

I nodded and banged on the wall, signaling Sam to take off again. As we crossed the over the street I saw the other Pelican landing a couple of blocks away. Weller and her team would be linking up with a pair of Tortoise AFVs that would help the two squads under her command clear the first couple of floors.

"Double check those harnesses," I said. "Most of the grunts and jackals don't have weapons, but don't underestimate them."

"Hey, it's a lot more fun than having them shoot back," Sandor said.

"Got that one right," Atkins agreed.

"Ready?"

I got green lights from the ten men. A second later the loud cracking of gunfire came to us from the street.

"Let's go."

We jumped down the side of the building much like we had done several hours ago. The maneuver went pretty much like the last time and we slammed through the windows two floors from the rooftop. There were only a few targets for us and I didn't get to take a frightened grunt out. The few grunts on this room were all unarmed and huddling close to a methane machine.

"We go down!" I ordered.

Caboose and O'Malley took point, with Andy and Sandor right behind and the rest of us going down by twos. Most of the floors were empty, but drones were known to fail occasionally and I didn't want to risk getting attacked from behind while we were busy taking out entrenched elites.

Most of the buildings were cleared easily enough, with jackals and grunts falling before us with a lot more ease than they usually did. According to the drones all of the elites were in a lower floor. If things progressed well we could hit them from above and below along with Weller and her two squads.

"This is too easy," Montri muttered.

"It's supposed to be," Sandor reminded me. "This is just a small unit cut off from supplies and allies."

"Point taken," Montri conceded.

"It's still unnerving," Corporal Han muttered. "Half the time I've been in this unit has been spent getting shot at."

"Welcome to the outfit," Andy told him.

Several minutes later we were on the floor above the elites. There were fifteen elites in total, more than enough to give us some trouble if we weren't careful, but the odds were in our favor. That and Snark and Zepeda were clearing entire floors before we got to them.

"Weller, do you copy?"

"I was about to contact you Frank," she replied. "Got a crazy plan?"

"Not so crazy, I was going to suggest rigging the floor below the elites with explosives and then kill them when they fall down."

"Yeah, a few of my men proposed that too," she replied. "What will your squads do?"

"We go in and make sure that anybody that didn't fall gets killed. I'll have Zepeda and Snark shoot the elites, herd them into fixed positions."

"You do that, I'll start setting up the explosives as soon as you give me the word."

"Understood, Castillo out." I opened a new line to Snark. "Start shooting at the elites, if you can't hit them keep them in one fixed spot, we're gonna blow up the floor underneath them."

"Got it," he replied.

The two snipers started pounding away at the elites. Four of them fell before the rest could take cover and another two were killed before the rest actually took the sniper fire seriously. You'd think that the first four casualties would've made them realize the seriousness of the situation, but hingeheads tended to be somewhat dumb when it came to thinking of us as threats.

"Snark?"

"They're not moving."

"Weller, you're good to go."

"I'll let you know," she said. I waited patiently for a couple of minutes. "Ok we're all good."

"Form up on the stairs!" I ordered. "Wait for my order!"

I heard the blasts through the door and a second later the barking of automatic weapons fire shooting at the elites that had fallen down to the ground. My team broke through at my command and cut down one elite that had managed to avoid the fall into bloody ribbons. The elite fell through a hole with a loud crunch. And just like that it was over.

"Check the room for survivors!" I ordered. "Be thorough people!"

The room was declared clear a few seconds later. It took a minute to make sure that the rest of the floor was devoid of hostiles.

"Good work Jen," I congratulated Weller.

"Likewise, Lieutenant," she replied. "I'll be calling for evac."

"Sure thing."

I looked around and kicked at a piece of loose floor, knocking it down to the floor below us. I had fired my rifle exactly twice during the entire mission, letting my men do the heavy lifting while I barked orders at them. When it came to simple missions it was usually better to let my men do the actual killing while I hung back. I didn't appear as a micromanager that way.

"Lieutenant."

"Hey Al, good to see you again. Finally got tired of dos Santos?"

The AI's avatar shook its head and my spirits were immediately depleted. "An enemy ship got past the defenses, it is seriously damaged, but the vectors suggest that it is preparing to drop troops from orbit and into the city."

"Right now?" I asked.

"That is correct."

"Shit. What do you want us to do?"

"The enemy ship is dropping several dozen dropships right now… oh dear."

"Al…"

"Two Scarabs have been deployed from orbit. It appears that one of them is going to land very close to you."

"How close?!" I asked. I yelled at my unit to start running down the stairs and get out of the building. "Al, how close?!"

"It's landing," he said simply. A second later the whole building shuddered from a nearby impact. "Platoons One, Two, and Four are being rerouted to your position and all of Fountain FOB's complement is being alerted as we speak. I'm patching you up to Captain Galván."

"Lieutenant, I'm being informed that you are in the vicinity of one of the Scarabs?"

"I don't even know where that thing is!" I replied. "Captain, I'm in the dark here."

"Same as we are," he replied. "Listen Frank, we're moving out as soon as we can, but it's going to take a while. Klaus has already borrowed three 'Hogs and is racing towards your position as we speak. What equipment do you count with?"

"Four squads plus two Tortoise AFVs."

He groaned. "That's not going to cut it."

"Agreed."

"Just try and hold it, air support is on the way."

By the time the brief conversation was over we were already on the fourth floor. Weller and her two squads were a floor below us and the two AFVs moved out of the main street and into a small side street next to the building. I could hear the Scarab moving now, the four legs made a shitload of noise whenever they banged against the street. The gunners of the huge walker were already shooting at whatever they deemed to be worthy targets.

The Scarab walked right past the building but then it stopped and took a few steps backwards. The rear turret turned to aim at us and powered up.

"Oh boy."

Thanks to SilasWhitfield for proof-reading this chapter.

Fun, fun, fun! We start off with some easy cleanup missions and end up having to face a Scarab. Isn't life as an ODST fun?

Frank went to Katie to help and didn't expect anything in return. Gasp! Is he perhaps... a good guy? Or maybe he just wants to have a backup in case Hanna doesn't work out. Maybe Hanna's the backup in case Katie doesn't work out. Maybe he's hormonal because of the augmentations or maybe he's just actually trying to be nice. Who knows, eh? The point is that he acted like a decent guy with a girl he loves and then went back to fuck his girlfriend that he also loves.

Do I hear threesome?

Relax, I kid you. On other news, Hoff is slowly getting better and we mix up the deal a little bit with Snark thrown in the mix. I miss the guy sometimes, but I think that Zepeda is an interesting replacement. Or not, maybe you guys don't like him and are kind of assholes. Next chapter is going to be interesting even if I'm recycling the good old urban warfare trope. I want to mix it up a little, but honestly, it makes sense that the covvies would attack population centers seeing as they are waging a war of extermination.

I read your reviews and it appears like most of you guys want arctic warfare. Good call, because that is what I was going to go with anyways. Some of you have complained that people haven't died and I'll say this again: people will die, I'll just make sure that you care for them a little bit before they do. Remember when Sutton died? Remember how I spent half a chapter having him talk about his family and his dreams and hopes? Yeah, kind of like that but a little more sobtle.

While I'm on the subject of your reviews, I couldn't help but notice that we haven't broken the 1000 review mark just yet even if I did break the million words mark a chapter ago. A million words. A MILLION words. That's six zeros. Six of them. 1,000,000. Try counting to a million, it's tiring as fuck, let alone write to a million! I'm pretty proud of myself, if only I was this dedicated when it came to school. But honestly I have you guys to thank for this, for reading on and encouraging me to keep writing. For that I give you all my thanks.

And let's hope that we finally hit the 1000 review mark with this chapter. Stay strong.

-casquis