Chapter CLXXIII: Static

March 2, 2549 (UNSC Calendar)/

Caradhras Caldera Orbital Defense Generator, Paris IV, Paris System

"Stay frosty."

As the garage gates opened the snow flooded inside, covering the clean floor. There were a couple of large transports designed to move over snow and ice without breaking through it as well as several Mongooses with treads instead of rear wheels and extra wide front tires.

The ice Mongooses were a little bit wider than usual and had an abnormally large windshield. Andy, Sandor, and Marv hopped on the driver seats while Miri, Hoff, and myself on the passenger seats behind them. I secured my rifle on the holster next to my seat and made sure that my boots were firmly planted against the footholds before ordering my squad forward.

Two of Caboose's men opened the gate for us and promptly closed it as soon as we were throughLess than ten seconds later, the defense generator was gone, blocked from sight by the other buildings.

"Well this is going to be fun," Sandor muttered.

A gust of wind almost jerked me from the Mongoose and I immediately tightened my grip on the handholds. My gloves stuck to the cold bar even despite the foam around it. The temperature in here was frigid; I kept a thermometer on my HUD just so that I could constantly be amazed by how incredibly cold it was out there.

"Slow down," Andy warned. "The snow's a little bit crunchy here."

Our Mongooses were already half-buried in snow. We were only staying afloat due to the compressed snow underneath us. We slowed down regardless; the last thing we wanted was to bog down less than a hundred meters away from the base. Instead we focused on keeping watch for any covvies around us.

"Slow down," I said. "We're coming through enemy territory."

So far we didn't know where the covvie main camp was located– odds were that it was located over the crater– but we still knew where their front lines were. Right now we should be crossing directly through the trenches that they had dug. I couldn't really see more than ten feet away, but I know that I wouldn't appreciate landing into a nest full of cold and angry brutes.

"Shit," Hoff muttered. "Movement over there!"

Every head turned to the right where Hoff had pointed at and I indeed caught some movement. My eyesight was far better than theirs. I had to squint to make out the silhouette even despite my physiological advantages the snow still proved to be as effective as a smokescreen. I gently tapped Marv in the back, making him stop, and pulled out my rifle, taking careful aim at the silhouette with it. Miri and Hoff also aimed their rifles and waited for my move.

"I don't see anything," Miri said. "It could have been some bunched up snow."

"She has a point El-tee," Sandor said. "Besides, we can just skip by them and hit the Spire and the artillery piece."

I didn't move. The bunched up snow hadn't moved. Had it been what Miri suggested the strong gusts of winds would've scattered it. The silhouette seemed a little bit too motionless, but if I fired not even the snowstorm would block the sound of the gunshot completely. I wondered what the consequences would be if I fired at a pile of snow. The nearest covvies would definitely hear us, maybe they wouldn't see us, but they would know we were there. If I didn't shoot we could just return and take care of the alien later.

I fired.

The silhouette turned out to belong to a brute, because a faint roar reached my ears. A half a second later both Hoff and Miri fired at the brute. By some miracle they managed to hit the alien even though they couldn't see it very well. The brute grunted as it was hit and then fell back down before snow covered it up.

"Go, go, go," I said urgently. "No more stopping from now on, we don't want to be caught out in the open."

The three modified Mongooses took off, shooting snow out the back and we were once more on our way. Our objective wasn't that far off, maybe about six minutes on a Mongoose if this had been solid ground, but the soft powder didn't really give the vehicles much traction, that and there was the constant risk of driving over a particularly soft patch of snow and completely losing the vehicle. Equally real was the risk of falling inside an enemy trench if we weren't paying attention.

"See that pile over there?" Marv asked after a while. "It looks artificial."

"Yes," I agreed. "Could be an igloo or something similar."

"Let's just go around it," Andy said. "We can mark it for later."

"Do it," I agreed. "Go wide aro–"

"Castillo come in!" Flint suddenly cried through the radio. "They're firing that big piece of theirs again, they're aiming for the dishes!"

"Understood," I replied immediately. "We'll double time it."

Marv made the Mongoose move ever slightly faster as did Andy and Sandor. Our trio of snowmobiles made their way through the snowstorm at what seemed to be a recklessly fast speed but was probably something closer to running speed.

"We're starting to climb up," Andy muttered. "We must be close."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Spread out and be careful."

My HUD flickered slightly. "Flint, Caboose, does anyone copy?"

I got some static through my feed. "Li… the… mbard… s hurt… we ne…" And then it cut off.

"We're getting closer to the stealth pylon," Marv said coolly. "There's heavy interference."

"Tell me about it," I muttered. "How much longer until we can't climb with the Mongoose?"

Marv shrugged, but he might've just been shuddering from the cold. "Not sure, we can climb fairly high up the rim, but I'm not sure we'll need to."

"What do you mean?" I asked him.

"There," he said pointing.

I leaned over his shoulder and looked carefully. At first I saw nothing, but then there were flashing lights. Very pale, almost imperceptible, it was surprising that Marv had seen them.

"I see that," I said. "Doesn't look big enough to be a pylon."

"Might just be a command building," he suggested. "Or some sor–"

A flash of skin and fur yanked Marv from the driver's seat. I immediately jumped forward and stopped the Mongoose. I pulled my pistol and fired at the brute wrestling with Marv on the ground. Two fountains of blood blossomed from the alien's shoulder plate.

"Don't shoot," Marv said.

I obliged and a second later he climbed out from underneath the giant mass of furry muscle with a bloodied knife. "Damn animal."

"Nice job," I observed. "Knives are supposed to be my thing."

"I've picked up a trick or two, sir," he replied. "My rifle."

I pointed.

"Thanks."

"Was it dead before I shot it?" I asked him.

"Almost, but the distraction certainly helped. The thing was so busy trying to crush my skull that it didn't try to stop my hands from moving." I could almost see Marv smiling behind his visor. He rarely cracked jokes during combat, but few people could claim to have handled brutes in one on one combat. Marv now joined a very select club.

"Nicely done regardless," I complimented. I spun the Mongoose around and tagged the position in my HUD. "We move on foot, try to be as small as possible."

Marv nodded and hefted his rifle. "Let's go, sir."

I jumped off the Mongoose and my boots sunk all the way to the knees. I tried taking a step and soon enough I was thigh-deep in snow. Marv hadn't fared any better. He simply shrugged and started moving in the direction that we had been heading. I took point, not wanting to appear like a lazy bastard, and let Marv walk the little path that I carved behind me. It wasn't long before I found myself wishing that I hadn't done that. Moving through deep snow wasn't exactly the most comfortable of exercises.

"Storm's letting up," Marv noted dully.

"Only a little," I grunted. "Let's get lower in any case."

From that point on it was only harder, moving through snow is hard enough, moving through snow in a crouch is even harder. It only changed when my boot hit something solid. It didn't feel as slippery as ice, so I raised my fist and signaled Marv to stop. I crouched even lower and dug out the snow surrounding my boot. It took some effort with the wind constantly undoing my efforts, but eventually I saw that I had hit something purple.

Purple in the middle of nowhere could only mean one thing. "The Covenant."

"We're right in the middle of their camp," Marv said.

"Andy, Hoff, do you copy? Miri, Sandor?"

I got some bursts of static from Miri, but from Hoff and Sandor I didn't get anything. I repeated the message once more, this time I barely heard anything from Miri and Andy. I shrugged and stifled a curse. I just hoped that they weren't dead. I turned around to look at Marv and tilted my head slightly. He was a formidable soldier, but we didn't know what was inside the building.

"So…" he said after a while.

"Want to go in?"

Marv sighed audibly. "Sure. Breach, flash, and clear?"

"Only way I see how," I replied. "Did you bring breaching charges?"

"They didn't have any at the power plant," he apologized. "I do have some C-12."

I smiled and took the putty that he offered. "When in doubt, C-12."

"Indeed," he agreed.

I turned back around and stretched the putty as thin as I could. C-12 was designed to be highly explosive as well as stable. Very few things short of God's own hand or magic could detonate it without the help of the detonator. The explosive was also incredibly versatile, designed to do anything from punching through battle-plate to demolishing buildings.

Maybe using it to breach a comparatively thin wall was stretching its list of purposes, but I wanted to see what the powerful explosive would do.

As soon as I had a semi-circular shape I planted the detonator right in the middle. I ran back and Marv did the same. Normally we would've stayed some ten meters away from the explosive, but C-12 was notoriously lethal, and I didn't exactly want to die from concussive damage to my organs.

"Ready?" I asked.

"As ready as I'll ev–"

I hit the detonator and an incredibly loud noise flooded my ears. I looked over my shoulder just in time to see a pile of snow coming down.

"Just say yes next time," I told him. "Take point."

Marv waddled through the deep snow and disappeared down the hole that the C-12 charge had created I jumped down behind him, the sound and flash of his flashbangs already fading. As I landed snow crunched under my boots and I could see three dead grunts scattered around my feet like rag dolls. Marvin was engaging two brutes, both of which had been badly hurt by the blast. I took aim at another brute farther out and fired three bursts. On the third burst the brute raised its spiker and fired a wild shot.

I turned and twisted as the spike nearly hit me in the side. As it flew past I felt a burning pain on my side and fell to the ground. For a moment I thought I had been shot, but that wasn't it. A quick look down revealed that I was fine. I cursed loudly as more spikers flew above Marv's head.

I took a jackal out from my position, but the moment I tried to stand back up I could feel the pain again. Marv killed the rest of the covvies inside the building and then immediately turned back around to tend to me.

"Sir, are you hit?"

"No," I grunted, still in pain. "That gash in between my ribs… it's hurting like hell."

Marv nodded understandingly. "You should still be in a hospital bed."

"I'm a Helljumper," I replied, managing to get to my feet.

"But you're also human," he replied, helping me up. "Did the stitches break?"

"Probably," I said. "But I'm not about to take the suit off. Not in this cold."

I pressed my hand against my side firmly, ignoring the pain. When it didn't go away I pressed harder and harder until it was almost too much to bear. When my eyes began watering I finally released the pressure. It was a very crude technique, but the pain was now less than it had been a second ago and I tricked my body into believing that I was fine. I moved around experimentally and shrugged at Marv.

"What's this place?" he asked.

"Looks like living quarters to me," I said. "One door and a bunch of bunks. That's a methane tank for the grunts over there and a nipple thingy."

"The brutes were sharing with the grunts? Maybe the situation is better than we expected."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Or maybe they just want to eat them easily."

"Always a possibility," Marv agreed with some humor adorning his voice.

I winced as my wound throbbed and made sure that my suit was tight against it, stalling the bleeding ever so slightly. Had the wound been a little bit higher I could've administered biofoam through the tubes in the chest, but it was low enough that it wasn't considered lethal and therefore was sealed from the rest of the thoracic cavity.

"Come on," I said. "We need to keep moving. Find that pylon or that piece and blow 'em up."

"Let's go," he said, climbing back out the hole we had made. "Need help?"

I took his hand and pulled myself out of the small barracks. The snowstorm was beginning to whittle. I still couldn't see clearly at a distance greater than twenty meters, but it was a lot better than it had been a few minutes before. Well, not better for us, it just meant that we could be spotted a lot easier.

"The lights," Marv said. "It was a watchtower."

I nodded and aimed at the tower. There was no movement on the top. "Marv, move up and clear it, I'll cover you."

He made his way through the snow and climbed somewhat clumsily until the gravity lift shot him into the platform hovering above. He looked around and then have me an ok sign form his position. As I moved in I started hearing growls and barks. No doubt the brutes were ordering the smaller aliens to go back out. It didn't seem like we would have an easier job at this.

"El-tee, I see the pylon," Marv said excitedly. "Behind those two rocks over there, probably placed in a crevice."

"I see it."

That meant that anything within fifty meters could see me as well. My armor was black with some grey streaks here and there, but black wasn't a color that blended well in a Christmas-like scenario of white snow. I started moving faster as Marv jumped down from the tower and landed in the soft snow. My side throbbed and hurt every time my right foot hit the snow, but I kept moving.

"Jackals!" Marv called out.

I raised my rifle and fired one burst at each jackal. They looked miserable and had probably just been sent up to guard the gap between the two rocks Marv had pointed at. Their bodies fell back and disappeared from sight and we moved on. The snowstorm was almost completely stopped now, but the sky was still overcast. If we were lucky we could get another violent snowing to make our escape.

"Watch out," Marv warned as he started climbing down the crevice. "Pylon's right in front of us. I don't see any grunts manning the turrets."

"Good," I said, "move up."

Marv slipped on what turned out to be ice and fell right on his ass before sliding down the rest of the crevice like it was a slide. He used his feet to stop himself against one of the pylon's three legs and immediately stood up to clear the space around him. He fired one long burst and I immediately found myself sliding down to help him. I flew past him and shot a wet and bedraggled-looking brute in the face before stopping. I immediately shot at another brute that popped out from behind a rock and sent it running for cover. Marv and I brought down two grunts that tried to run away in a combined effort and then I struggled to get back up.

"Shit," I cried as my side started burning and my legs gave way underneath me. I slammed into the ice surface just as the brute jumped from behind the rock. A miracle burst took the spiker from its hands, but it didn't stop, instead raising a meaty fist and swinging it down towards my chest.

Normally it would've been a matter of sliding backwards and avoiding the clumsy blow before hitting the brute in the face with a kick and following up with a burst from my rifle. This wasn't me at my best.

My right foot slipped and I was only able to move most of the distance required. I could've compensated with my rifle, but my vision was flooded with flashing stars and red from the pain on my side. The pain was briefly redirected to my foot as the brute's fist hit my armored boot, denting it.

Marv fired a burst and the brute collapsed sideways with eight holes in its chest.

"Shit," I said again, propping myself to a seated position. "Can't keep this up much longer."

He nodded, still wary of our surroundings. "I'll climb up, clear the second floor and plant the explosives."

"I'll guard the slip-and-slide," I told him, gesturing at the icy slope. "Go."

Marv disappeared up the gravity lift and not a second later a shape slid down the slope. I aimed at it but held my fire when I realized it was someone wearing Helljumper armor. An embarrassed Sandor looked up and started reaching for his sidearm before he saw it was me. I kicked him his rifle back and he carefully stood up. A moment later Hoff slid behind him and crashed against a pile of snow.

"You hit?" Sandor asked me.

I shook my head. "Stitches opened, or something. Marv's up there."

Both Hoff and Sandor looked up at the bottom of the second floor and then back towards me. They helped me back to my feet and Hoff quickly checked the area while Sandor supported my weight. I pressed my side once again, this time pushing myself a little bit harder. As soon as my legs wobbled from the pain I released the pressure and felt marginally better again.

"Sir, shouldn't you just take some painkillers?" Hoff asked me.

I shook my head. "I'm as hopped up on those as I dare," I told him.

"And too many cloud the mind," Sandor added.

"Yes, and you wouldn't want your fearless leader high during battle, would you?"

Hoff shrugged. "Sandor gets high on combat all the time, and I still take him into battle with me… as frightening as that is."

I squeezed Sandor's back to remind him of the little talk that we'd had. "Marv?"

"Coming down!" he replied. "Charges are just about set!"

"All right," I said with a slow nod. "I might need some help to climb out. I said might!"

Sandor immediately stepped back and spread his hands apologetically. I grunted and started climbing towards the slope. I held onto the purple support leg that Marv had used to stop himself and used it to push myself into a small ridge on the rock walls. From there I started climbing, using some ropes that the jackals had left there for support. Awful nice of them for doing that. Otherwise we would've been stuck here for a while.

"I'm up," I told myself, resting just shy of the top of the big rock. "Hoff?"

"Right behind you."

I took a deep breath and pushed myself to finish the final bit. I crouched and aimed at the Covenant camp. I could now see the piles of snow scattered about in what seemed to be almost a pattern. All the way from the power plant these would just look like random piles of snow, but from here I could clearly see that they weren't natural.

I looked around the camp and suddenly wondered why it was so empty. The barracks that Marv and I blew up must've drawn some heads. And there were enough buildings in this place to house at least two hundred covvies. Maybe less if we accounted for brutes.

"Where are all the– oh shit!"

"Sir?" Hoff asked me. "What's– dear God."

From this position we could see the base, even if the lingering clouds obscured the tops of the satellite dishes. What drew our attention was the massive force of Covenant moving towards the base from one of the sides. From here it looked like they had linked up with covvies from the other side of the crater. Pavel and Jen would have to handle it.

They couldn't, they were just too badly outnumbered.

"Ok, let's clear the area," I said, sliding down the rock and into the still-fresh snow. "Come on, come on!"

Hoff, Sandor, and Marv all jumped behind me in quick succession and we all took cover behind the boulders that flanked the crevice. Marv detonated the explosives and a few pieces of stealth pylon landed in front of us, producing steam as they hit the snow.

My HUD immediately showed all the chatter from troops in the neighboring area. The first thing I did was open a line to Pavel.

"Frank, they are–"

"I know, I know," I replied. "I see them from here, how long has the attack been going on?"

"About five minutes," he replied. "Jen and her platoon stalled it with rockets and grenades, but there are just too many of them, they took the outer wall and pushed us back to the buildings."

"Casualties?"

"Not on my unit," he said. "But O'Malley was hit by shrapnel. She's unconscious and it's a head wound."

"Damn it," I said. I liked O'Malley. "Flint?"

"I don't know how the man is still alive, his men took a pounding, he only has about a platoon left, the rest of the company is dead."

"And the Army company on the other side of the complex?"

"No better." He paused. "They're breaking through Frank, we need reinforcements ASAP!"

The moment Pavel was cut off Flint opened up a line to me. "You did it, eh? Lotta good it did us."

"I know," I grunted, already moving towards Miri and Andy's markers. "Can you hold?"

"Not for long. I requested support from Command, made it extremely clear just how bad we would have it if this complex fell to the Covenant." He chuckled humorlessly. "They're sending reinforcements from orbit, should be here in less than ten."

"We'll be there as soon as we can," I assured him. "Just hold on."

"Only thing I've been doing lately…" he grunted before cutting the line.

Next I switched to the squad line. "Andy, Miri, did you locate the cannon?"

"Yeah, but it's guarded by a large pack," Andy replied immediately. "They look nervous, some look like they want to leave and kill you guys."

"Kill the leader," I said immediately.

"Sir, there's two of us and fourteen of them," Miri spoke up. "We can't really–"

"Just do it!" I snapped. "We're right behind you."

I grunted and stopped, holding my side. "Marv, Sandor, off you go. Hoff, I'm going to need your help."

The two ODSTs immediately sped up and Hoff propped me up, slinging my right arm across his shoulder. We moved marginally faster than I had been doing a moment ago, but there was almost no pain from it. I hopped through the snow as fast as I could even as saw my men engaging unseen foes. There were a couple of plasma explosions and a small blaze that promptly died out, probably from a firebomb grenade. I felt relief when I saw that my men were all still alive and well. Marv fired two more bursts and Miri killed the last brute with what I assumed was a well-placed headshot.

"Good work," I complimented.

"Sir, we only got the jump on them because they were halfway frozen," Miri said.

"I know," I replied. "Next time I don't want you questioning my orders."

She nodded.

"Didn't hear you."

"Yes, sir," Miri said firmly.

"Good."

I walked up to the cannon and examined it. It looked similar enough to a human artillery piece, except that it was something of a mix between a beam rifle and a Wraith's cannon in appearance. I quickly located the firing panel and stood behind it. The controls appeared simple enough; they were almost identical to those on a Wraith.

"Andy," I waved her over. "Hit the covvies. I'll stay here with you. Everyone else, I want you to head back to the base, provide support."

The squad broke off as Andy carefully tapped some glyphs on the control panel. The cannon moved a little to the left and then down.

"Crap," Andy cursed. "These look like readings, but I can't read hingehead."

"Well, neither can I," I told her. "We're doing this the old fashioned way."

"Spotting our own strikes, huh… I don't think gunners have done that since World War Two."

"They did it in the Second Civil War," I said, remembering a little fun fact from my history books during my time in Earth.

"Spanish or American?"

"American," I said. "Now fire."

Her first shot landed at least two hundred meters short of the Covenant and far to the right. Andy quickly adjusted accordingly and fired off another shot, this one was about three dozen meters shy of its mark, but it was lined up with the covvie advance column. I could see some disarray through my scope.

"Fire faster."

"I'm going as fast as this thing does, goddamnit!" Andy exclaimed in frustration, furiously tapping buttons. "Come on, come on…"

The next shot landed right in between a small squad, frying some and vaporizing others. After that second shot, all the following ones were hits, not all hit what she was aiming for, but she was hitting the mass of the advance regardless. The enemy started scattering and in all likelihood intensifying their attack on my men. I saw the two Mongooses moving through the giant crater at a painstakingly slow speed. I quickly redirected my attention to the enemy force and saw that while our barrage had hurt them and disarrayed their attack, it hadn't done any serious damage.

"Hit the front of their advance," I ordered. "Do it."

"I can hit the building," she warned.

"You'd better be careful then," I replied. "Fire."

Her first shot hit a space in between the outer fence and the buildings. She muttered something and fired another shot, this one hitting a couple of grunts moving through the open area. Once she got her distance calibrated she started firing left and right, occasionally shifting the distance slightly to hit the occasional target that was closer or farther away.

"Can't that thing fire any faster?" Pavel complained after a minute. "They're still flooding through!"

"Well we're trying Pavel," I snapped back. "Reinforcements are on the way."

Suddenly my HUD flickered and a small screen appeared on the upper right corner. The screen revealed a familiar face that filled my body with hope and at the same time made my stomach twist in some sort of almost unnatural hatred.

"Lieutenant Krikor Darbinian," I said, spitting the name out.

"Captain," he corrected, a big smirk on his face. "Made it into your beloved Helljumpers too. Not as bad as I thought they were, I'll give you that."

"I kind of hoped that you had run out of oxygen on that drop pod."

"Careful there," he growled. "I still outrank you. We might not be in the Inconvenience anymore, but the chain of command still has to be observed."

"That never stopped me before."

Darbinian actually shrugged. Instead of shooting back a snappy comment insulting my mother, my heritage, or the planet I lived on he just shrugged. I noted that there were some new scars on his face. The frat boy look that he had so often sported during his days in the Inconvenience was all but gone. To anybody else he would've looked like a hardened killer instead of an asshole who had a knack for shooting big, angry aliens.

"Sitrep," he ordered.

"Enemy assault force in the low hundreds," I said immediately. "Two hundred eighty would be my estimate, maybe as high as three-fifty. They are attacking the northern side of the complex. Brutes, grunts, and jackals only, they have shoulder-mounted weaponry and plasma turrets, but no vehicles."

"No support?"

"I'm seventy percent sure of it," I replied.

"Better than most odds," he admitted with another small shrug. "Friendlies?"

"One and a half ODST platoons plus two Army," I said. "We have a lot of wounded who need medical attention, myself included."

"Understood," he said, tapping something on his drop pod. "Will you need a band aid or just some disinfectant spray?"

"A stapler will do," I said, keeping a perfectly clam voice in response to his taunt. "But you can use the band aids on your men."

Darbinian laughed. "You haven't met my men," he said.

"But I have met you," I said, raising an eyebrow. "Anything else?"

"No, that's about all the information we need. Hey, did Klaus finally bite it? I don't see him sucking you off."

"He's going to be so happy to see you," I muttered. "Don't worry, I'll make sure that he doesn't rip your head off, so no need to be afraid."

Darbinian laughed again, grabbing his helmet from out of frame and putting it on. It pissed me off to see him wearing the same kind of helmet I wore. "You know," he started. "I always kind of hoped I'd get to see you die. Maybe put in some token effort to save," he made air quotes around the word, "you, but fail. This could be my chance."

"Watch your tongue Darbinian," I growled. "Because I'll cut it off."

He spread his arms in mock surrender. "If you say so, then I shall do it." He approached the camera. "Now listen to me you worthless fuck, just because you are good at killing doesn't mean you are worthy of being a Marine, let alone a Helljumper. I'll cooperate with you, but step cross the line and I'll make sure you have some sort of accident that renders you unable to walk. You catch that?"

"Sir, yes, sir," I said in the cheeriest possible tone. "I look forward to it. Maybe I can fight off that accident."

Darbinian smiled again. "I'm gonna love the look on your face when you thank me for saving your ass ten minutes from now."

I bit my tongue. I would have to thank him, if only to make it seem like he and I weren't about to strangle each other in front of our men. "You always did have a thing for my face, didn't you?"

Darbinian shook his head and polarized his visor. "On my way."

"I'll be waiting," I said as I cut the feed. "Pinche hijo de la chingada de la reputísima madre…"

Andy turned to look at me, still firing the large artillery cannon. "So, who was that?"

"You'll get to meet him soon enough."

"Doesn't sound like we'll get along." She looked at me. "Oh please, you were kicking at the snow and besides, you didn't have the helmet filter on."

I sighed. "You know Andy, sometimes I think that you're too damn smart to be a Helljumper."

"Thanks, sir," she replied, beaming.

"But then I remember that you enlisted to be one and change my mind," I finished.

She laughed. "Fair enough, sir. Fair enough… Look, here come your friends."

I followed her pointed finger all the way up. A section of the crater had been cleared up of clouds, and it was wide enough to reveal several dozen ODST drop pods plummeting towards the ground. They vapor trails behind them and the drag chutes were yanked off violently as they hit the correct altitude. For a moment there I found myself wishing that one or two pods would fail and land sideways or something, but I quickly got rid of the thought.

My HUD quickly marked the pods as 120 individual entry vehicles. I saw them flash as their booster rockets slowed them down further before slamming down into the soft, plushy, fresh snow. The heat from their ceramic shells melted through the snow and ice, raising water steam and making the whole area where they landed a large puddle. The Covenant soldiers hadn't seen them coming until the very last moment, and by that point it had been too late to do anything.

"Should I fire?" Andy asked.

I examined the battlefield before me. "Nah, someone would realize that it was on purpose."

She shrugged and chuckled slightly. "We've got your back, sir. Worry not."

I grunted something and limped back towards the lone remaining Mongoose. Once there I climbed up the passenger seat without too much difficulty and placed my rifle on the holster as Andy jumped on the driver's seat. She looked over her shoulder and waited for me to nod back at her before taking off.

The pain on my side had diminished greatly, but I still felt the blood pooled around the area and had to suppress a grunt whenever the Mongoose slid on a patch of particularly soft snow or hit a bunch of ice. The worst thing about this was that I had nobody but myself to blame. Had I been more reasonable and let Doctor Vinter keep me in the hospital for a little while longer I could've avoided all this mess. Maybe another unit would've been sent in to coordinate with Jen and Three and I could've avoided having to face Darbinian after he pulled our asses out of the fire.

That's what bothered me the most, not the pain, not the risk of death, or even the cold. What bothered me the most was that I had to thank that fucker for doing his job. That fucker in particular.

By the time Andy and I reached the power plant the battle was almost over. My men and Jen's were killing the last few covvies that had managed to get inside the buildings while Darbinian's men cleared up the Covenant corpses and made sure that the few wounded that they had would be ready to fight at a moment's notice. We drove through the black armored ODSTs without paying them a second glance. I located Darbinian with help from my HUD, but he was far enough away that getting back to my own platoon first wouldn't seem like an offense.

It would've been better if he had been closer, that way I could've just bypassed him completely and let him now that I actually meant offense.

As Miri and I stopped right outside a torn-down wall I saw four ODSTs approach us from amongst Darbinian's company. From inside the building came the sounds of a shotgun firing and a moment later I heard the all-clear come from Caboose. The man had a knack for the M90, I certainly enjoyed the show whenever he decided to take out his shotgun.

"You're gonna love this Pavel," I said. "Caboose, I want you here ASAP."

Pavel grunted and Caboose sent me an acknowledgement light. I didn't have to wait long for them to walk out and examine the ODSTs that were just finishing securing the area. Both Caboose and Pavel knew Darbinian, Pavel more personally so than Grigori.

"Fucking great," Pavel muttered. Even Caboose groaned.

The four ODSTs, the rest of my squad, finally joined up with us and stood around with us, waiting for something to happen. I jumped down from the Mongoose and steadied myself before grabbing my rifle and slinging it over me shoulder. Miri started to approach to help steady me but Hoff wisely held her back by the arm. My side was killing me, the brute that shot me promptly found itself missing its face, courtesy of Marv and his shotgun. Somehow it didn't seem like punishment enough.

"You all right?" Pavel asked me.

"Hurts," I said. "But I'll survive."

Darbinian's face appeared on my HUD. "Castillo, I want you here ASAP."

I acknowledged his order and opened up a line to Jen. "Hey Jen, you headed to Captain Darbinian?"

"Yeah, I'm on my way," she said. "Why?"

"No reason," I said. "Bring your second in command."

She chuckled. "I always do." Her laugh stopped abruptly when she remembered Micah Black. He had been her best friend for years, literally saved her life more times than she could count and now he was dead.

"Shit," I said. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize," she said. "Katsaros fills the role well."

I nodded to myself. "Well, here's to good men."

"Amen," she said. "I'll see you there."

"Caboose, Pavel, with me," I ordered. "Marv, hold down the fort will ya'?"

Marv nodded and cocked his rifle in a rather theatrical manner.

"You do realize that you just wasted a perfectly good bullet?" Sandor asked him, elbowing him in the ribs while stomping on the bullet. "Still, very impressive, cocking your gun and all that?"

"Thanks, I thought so too," Marv said. It was impressive how friendly and funny the man could be once combat was no longer a reality. "Very action movie, don't you think?"

"Oh yeah," Andy chimed in. "Dreamy."

I rolled my eyes and started walking towards Darbinian, Pavel and Caboose immediately stepped behind me, each to one side. We didn't usually walk like this, but it was useful when we wanted to give a nice impression. Three men walking like that, with scarred armors and their rifles still hot, could cause an impression. Caboose was 6'1 and Pavel just at 6'0. With the work ONI had done on me I was a bit over 6'4. Add our boots and helmets and you had three large men with armor so damaged that it stops looking unlucky and starts looking badass.

Darbinian was standing with four of his own men, presumably his platoon leaders, around him. He looked taller than before, but that was probably just the armor he was wearing. It had enough dents and scratches in it that I couldn't make myself believe that he just hid in the back.

"Shit," I muttered. "They're with the 7th."

"Hayes is from the 7th," Pavel grunted.

"And she's one of the nicer ones," Caboose added.

The 105th Shock Troopers Division was famous for its brutality. It was a reputation that I enjoyed, but sometimes came to bite me in the ass. I'm the first one to say that ODSTs are assholes by excellence. Even Miri gets all high and mighty with Marines sometimes without realizing it. We earned that right, we warned the right to brag and to be assholes simply because we are the best there is. The problem with our reputation is that some people think we would shoot a fellow jarhead or soldier for amusement. That reputation has its source in the 7th Shock Troop Battalion.

Jen was the first to talk. "Captain, thanks for the help."

Darbinian depolarized his helmet and nodded curtly.

"What she said," Caboose said, taking the hit for me.

"Been a while," Darbinian said. "Konstantinov, Klaus, Castillo."

"Darbinian," I replied in an equally dry tone. "Your men did a fine job."

One of the lieutenants nodded. "Damn right we did."

I was starting to hate these guys already.

"Give me an overview on the situation, will ya?" Darbinian asked.

I shrugged as Jen looked at me and she started explaining the situation, she went over our redeployment and the few short skirmishes that had been fought around the base before we left for the raid and the bulk of the Covenant forces attacked. Darbinian listened carefully while his lieutenants just looked around and chatted quietly with one another, occasionally letting out a snicker.

"So, you were safe from any trouble when the attack came, huh?" Darbinian said.

"To be fair–" Jen began.

"Yeah, I was," I replied drily. "If memory serves me correctly so were you."

Darbinian turned to look at me and his officers immediately tensed up, looking ready to jump me for not speaking properly to their commanding officer. I heard Caboose and Pavel tighten the grip on their guns behind them, Jen and Katsaros were confused about the whole situation, but I caught their fingers hovering towards the butts of their pistols.

I glanced in every direction and crossed my arms, both to show that I wasn't going for a weapon and that I wasn't about to back down.

Darbinian in turn uncrossed his. "Still the same impertinent asshole."

"Some things never change," I replied.

"And some do," he shot back, gesturing at his men, as if to remind me that they outnumbered us. "You'd better watch your tongue in the future, wouldn't want one of my men to think you were actually serious."

"And the Captain's men can get… defensive," one of Darbinian's men said. My HUD marked him as First Lieutenant Armando Asher, probably the company's executive officer.

"They're welcome to clear up any misunderstandings with us," Pavel said and Caboose nodded in agreement.

Asher let out a low growl before one of the other lieutenants waved him quiet. Darbinian chuckled and gestured for another of his men. The lieutenant reached into his side pouch and tossed me something.

"There's your stapler," Darbinian said after I caught it.

I looked at the thing. It was an honest-to-God surgical stapler. I examined the thing and then patted my right side softly. Darbinian might've thought it an insult, but I was actually thankful for the stapler. It would close my wound and it was almost guaranteed that it wouldn't open again. I examined the device carefully and raised it in gratitude at Darbinian. He and his cronies turned around and left even as we did the same.

"What was that?" Jen asked.

"Long story," I replied. "Maybe later, right now I've gotta staple myself shut and get some rest."

I could almost see her rolling her eyes as we walked back indoors.

Thanks to SilasWhitfield for proofreading this chapter. In addition to Silas I managed to get two brave souls to volunteer for helping me proofread this chapter. Silas won't be proofreading anything past Chapter 175, but I managed to get the two aforementioned brave souls to start helping right away. So without further ado I'd like to thank SpartaLazor and defarcher for proofreading this chapter.

Bet you didn't see that one coming. Darbinian had been out of everybody's minds for... how long? Probably a pretty long time. Well, he's back and he's even more powerful than before, not to mention that he improved in the arts of killing. I always love myself some good tension in between human forces. The war forced everyone to cooperate, but that doesn't mean that they still have to like each other. That's a thing that I don't feel like I've explored much in this fic other than with the ongoing almost-hatred between Frank and Hayes. Besides, I thought this would be fun.

This chapter has the first true arctic warfare, based myself on MW2 a little bit (you all know that level, the one with the snowmobiles). In other news, that is probably the best chapter quote I've ever come up with since I started doing chapter quotes.

All I have left to say is that things are going to get worse before this is over. A lot worse. In fact, I have to stop myself from making them too bad or otherwise Reach and Earth won't have that big an impact on you guys. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this read and look forward to your opinions in the form of reviews. Yes. Review...

Stay strong.

-casquis