Chapter CLXXIV: Of Aliens and Pricks
March 9, 2549 (UNSC Calendar)/one week later.
Caradhras Caldera Orbital Defense Generator, Paris IV, Paris System
"Humans are better at killing humans than the Covenant will ever be. For that matter we're better at killing them too."
Darbinian's men were beginning to irritate me. The man himself hadn't directly confronted me or even attempted to talk to me. He ordered us to fortify the power plant and sent me a schedule for the patrols. I couldn't help but notice that my platoon had a disproportionately higher amount of combat patrols than anybody else, but if that was the extent of his dislike I was willing to take it and feel grateful too.
His men though… how to explain…
They were stuck up, they were cocky, they were assholes. More than once they had taunted Flint's soldiers, taunting the few survivors from the two companies with insults too strong to be anything other than cruel amusement. Too often they had probed and poked at the survivors until they had snapped and attacked them. His men outnumbered us all, and the first couple of fights ended with the Army men severely beaten by the ODSTs. So far my men and Jen's had managed to keep our heads cool. I gave orders not to interact with Darbinian or his men unless expressly told to.
The other Helljumpers were beginning to notice that too, lately they had redirected their attention from the soldiers to us. After all, what's the fun in fucking with someone who snaps so easily?
Not an hour ago I had to stop an argument between Sandor and a particularly vicious sergeant. I had ignored the man but severely dressed down Sandor. I had been tempted to hit the sergeant after he taunted Sandor as he walked away, but somehow I managed not to. The incredibly humiliating dressing down that I gave him certainly helped. I had pretty much insulted him in two different languages for a period of two minutes before telling him not to fight with allied troops.
A few of my men chuckled when I left the sergeant behind, fuming, but doing that had been a mistake. That had put me in Darbinian's men radar. It didn't do well to discipline someone from a different unit in the military, but these Helljumpers would take it especially bad.
"Stop pacing around," Hoff said lazily. "Takacs, seriously, stop pacing around."
Sandor kept on walking from side to side. He was the kind of man who didn't back down from a fight, but during a heated argument he would get angry and start stuttering and would get so flustered that he'd just stop making any sense and start shaking. While I could relate to that, he was evidently pissed off because he hadn't beaten the shit out of the ODST that offended him.
"Sandor, sit down!" I snapped loudly. "You're going to make me dizzy."
He looked at me and sighed before reaching for a folding chair and opening it violently. Andy tossed him a squishy ball she had found and Sandor promptly started squeezing it to get rid of some of the tension. Andy chuckled slightly and Miri rolled her eyes.
My whole squad had commandeered one of the rooms for themselves. They managed to get most of the cushions and couches from the neighboring buildings before Darbinian's men set themselves to do the same. Andy and Marv both got a couch all to themselves in account of their higher ranks. The rest of them slept on improvised beds on the floor. Darbinian's men had dropped with full gear and therefore had no problem, but they hadn't exactly liked that we took all the actual cushions.
Pavel, Caboose and I in turn got another room to ourselves, with an old ratty sofa for each of us. It could've been worse, but the cold and occasionally failing power meant that we had to sleep in our undersuits, which made for terrible pajamas.
"El-tee," Andy said, "what can we do for you?"
I turned to face her. "Just came in to check if Sandor here hadn't decided to rip someone's head off."
"Obviously I didn't," Sandor said with a certain regret in his voice. "I can handle myself, sir."
"I'd sure hope so," I told him. "Otherwise we might find ourselves in a precarious position."
"What, you think they would frag us?" he asked with a snort.
"They just might," I assured him. "Most of those jackasses are nutjobs. Anything else?"
"Oh, sir!" Andy said, suddenly remembering something. "Those staples, ready to take them off?"
I patted my side gently. The pain from the wound itself was all but gone. There was still some tightness in the area, but the feeling that the surgical staples gave my skin was slightly uncomfortable.
"I dunno," I muttered. "It's been a week."
"For a wound that size I think it's fine, especially considering your reckless disregard for doctor's advice," she said. "Sir."
Marv snorted and Miri giggled quietly before trying to hide it with an imaginary coughing fit.
"While I do appreciate your concern. I don't think that your opinion really counts here or anywhere else. I'll remove these when I damn well want to."
"Your call El-tee," she said meekly.
"Damn right it is," I replied. "Now, if you don't ha–"
"Frank!"
I groaned, from his tone, Pavel didn't have good news.
"What?" I asked irritably, turning back around to look at my friend. "What?"
Pavel looked rather pissed, and to really piss off my friend required quite a lot of effort.
"Did you get the latest patrol schedule?"
I shook my head. "No, the longer it takes me to reply, the better."
Pavel reached into one of his pouches and gave me a crumpled piece of paper. "Look."
"I'm looking, I'm looking," I said, grabbing the thing. As my eyes scrolled through the print I started getting angry. The patrols that were supposed to walk outside the crater were all squads from my platoon. The schedule was valid for another four days, meaning that my men would be walking around in extremely hostile weather with little rest in between patrols. Darbinian could mess with me, but if he started putting my men in harm's way then he had a problem.
"That fuck," I muttered quietly.
"Can we expect some trouble?" Pavel asked.
I nodded. "Go get Grigori, Atkins, and Dotsenko," I said. They were some of my most intimidating men, and they also happened to be the most talented ones in hand-to-hand combat.
Pavel nodded and disappeared through the door, off to find the men I requested.
"Sir…" Miri began doubtfully.
"Sandor, Marv, come with me," I told them.
They immediately stood up, Sandor looking a whole lot more eager than Marvin. Both Sandor and I only had our leg armor on. I was wearing the vest that went under the big chest piece and stomach armor, but Sandor was only sporting his undersuit. Marvin was fully armored save for his helmet, which he had been using as a footrest for the past minutes. They both grabbed their MA5s and shouldered them as we left the room.
The weather had improved a lot in the past week, but I still felt the wave of cold hit my exposed face when we walked out in the open. The courtyard was filled with small tents and Darbinian's men. Some of them looked at us as we walked through them, but mostly just minded their own business. I got a bearing towards the building Darbinian had picked as his headquarters, but I hadn't gone more than halfway through when a group of three ODSTs stopped us.
"Hey lieutenant!" the one in the front called. "I want to talk to you."
"Get in line," I muttered, attempting to bull my way past him.
He stopped me, placing his hand firmly on my chest. "I'm afraid I must insist."
It took all my self-control not to break his arm into a dozen pieces. I could almost hear Sandor's gloves squeaking as he tightened his fists.
"And you are?" I asked him.
"That's a good question, sir," he said, making every word drip with contempt. "I served back in the Inconvenience."
"Good for you," I said, "you were in the escape pod that made it out?"
"One of the few survivors," he confirmed. "You still dating that pilot?"
"No. I really don't have time for this…"
"Fritz."
"Your rank."
"Corporal."
I sighed. "Listen corporal, my personal life is none of your business, now move."
He didn't. "Off to see Captain Darbinian? He was my CO, you know. Served with him for a couple of campaigns. That pretty medic you liked was in my platoon too. What was her name again?"
"Is there something you want to say, corporal?" I asked, making my voice sound deadly calm. This man was obviously building up to something, asking personal questions and not calling me sir. The two guys behind him looked giddy, as if they were expecting a fight. I would be sorry to disappoint them, if only so that they didn't get their way.
"Yes, the captain told me to tell you that he was not to be disturbed."
"Ah," I muttered. "Of course, and you have the written orders?"
"Written orders?" one of the men behind him scoffed. "We're in the twenty-sixth century."
He wasn't calling me sir either.
"Oh well, when you get those in paper you can stop me," I said, once again attempting to move past him.
"I'm afraid I must insist," he repeated threateningly.
I looked around to see that at least a dozen of the ODSTs from his company had stopped doing what they were doing and looked at us intently. The few that didn't have helmets on were sporting grins.
"All right," I said, "I see how it is." I turned around even though it pained me to do so, but these men would have a harder time stopping me if I had my whole platoon armed and armored up with me. My officer training told me that it was the smart thing to do, to avoid confrontation.
Fritz, however, wasn't done yet. "I heard that pilot girl went dike. I'm not surprised, maybe that pretty Han–"
I turned around and hit him in the visor with the most vicious, fastest, strongest punch that I had delivered in my whole life. I felt no pain when my knuckles collided with his visor, but I did hear how the ballistic plastic cracked slightly.
Fritz fell to the floor, stunned from my hit. I immediately picked him up and tossed him back down, but the soft snow he landed on meant that I wasn't doing anything other than shaking him around. As soon as he landed I took off his helmet and threw it at one of the guys behind him, knocking him to the ground. I vaguely registered Marv kicking the other ODST in the knee as Sandor approached the one I had thrown the helmet at.
I flipped Fritz around so that he was facing down and stuck his face in the snow as far down as I could. Fritz attempted to grab his MA5, but I kicked it away from him, pushing his face deeper into the snow. He struggled and tried to get out, but I was just too strong for him. When he realized that he started reaching for his pistol on his hip and I decided that I had had enough. I used my full strength to lift him back up like a rag doll and swung him about so that he smacked down with his back to the ground. I grabbed him by the collar and yanked his pistol from its holster. As soon as that was done I brought him back to his feet and positioned the high-caliber pistol next to his ear and fired eight times in quick succession.
Fritz yelled in surprise, shock, and fright as I did that. I followed up with a knee to the groin and yanked him back up before smacking him in the bridge of the nose with the pistol's grip. Doing that was supposed to be bad for a pistol, but hey, it wasn't my gun anyways.
A nasty gash appeared on his nose and blood started trickling down his ugly face. Only then did I finally calm down enough to register what was going on around me. Marv had kicked the ODST on the floor a couple of times, probably bruising his ribs and maybe even cracking them. It would be good for him, taking out his anger like that. Marv had quickly knocked his opponent to the ground and hit him with the butt of his rifle a couple of times, knocking a tooth loose. The man was now on his knees with the barrel of Marv's gun planted firmly in the back of his head.
The rest of their comrades reacted in an embarrassingly slow time. Had this event not been so surprisingly unexpected I have no doubt that the ODSTs would've swarmed us in a second.
I heard the cocking of at least a dozen different weapons and saw Sandor aim at the closest of the ODSTs before taking a couple of steps to stand next to me. A few seconds later Pavel arrived with Dotsenko and Caboose in tow, all three immediately raised their weapons at some of the other ODSTs, but if this standoff turned into a shootout we would be hopelessly outgunned.
"Miranda, Ryan, I want both of you to take positions at the windows," I heard Pavel murmur. "Andrea, alert Recon and Heavy Weapons."
If he got a reply I didn't catch it.
"Let them go asshole," one of Darbinian's ODSTs said.
"Don't think so," Sandor retorted, switching his aim to the man that had spoken.
"Put down your weapons!" I ordered. "That is a direct order!"
"Yeah, good luck," another man said, his voice betraying his nervousness.
"Let me rephrase that," I said. "Put down your weapons or I make sure that every last one of you gets a bullet in the brain!"
"Miranda, warning shot at someone's feet," Pavel murmured.
A plume of snow appeared in front of the latest man to speak and he stumbled backwards from the surprise before he started looking frantically for whoever had shot at him.
"There's more of us," he said.
"We're better," Pavel replied, cocking his heavy machine gun. I was glad that he hadn't done that before, because the noise really punctuated his statement.
"Castillo!" a voice roared. "What the hell is going on here?"
Darbinain had emerged from his command center with several men at his back. Unlike us, he was in full battle armor and gear.
"Sir," Fritz started. "I tried to tell them that you didn't want to be disturbed, but he at–"
I fired another round right next to his ear and pressed the warm tip of the pistol into the underside of his jaw.
"Liar," Dotsenko muttered, followed by some words in an offshoot of Russian.
"I think it's time you start teaching your men some respect," I growled.
"If you threaten my men–" Darbinian growled.
"I didn't threaten them," I cut in. "Well, I kind of am now," I admitted, pushing the gun tighter against Fritz' skin, "but if your men can't defend themselves in a good natured brawl without reaching for their firearms…"
"Then they don't deserve to be called Helljumpers," Caboose finished.
I noticed that none of my men were aiming at Darbinian, which was good. Things wouldn't get out of control that way, at least not any faster than they already were.
"Lieutenant, you will put down your gun or–" Darbinian began.
"Or what!" Sandor taunted.
"Or you and all your men will be charged for treason. The punishment for treason, as you all know, is death."
"Death now, death later, what's the difference?" Marv said in a perfectly calm voice.
Darbinian's jaw tightened, but eventually he sighed and waved for his men to relax. They didn't lower their guns completely, but they stopped actively threatening to blow our heads up. I looked back and nodded at my men to do the same. I released the magazine on the pistol and shoved it back into Fritz' holster before kicking him in the belly and sending him tumbling into the snow ass first.
Marv pulled his prisoner up and dusted his shoulders free of snow before turning him around and shoving him hard towards the rest of his unit.
"What happened?" Darbinian asked.
"Sir, he–"
"Shut the fuck up or I swear to God I will kill you," I said sharply. "Captain, may I?"
Darbinian nodded and I told him what had happened in a few short sentences.
"You can confirm it on his helmet camera," I said. "It's all in there."
Darbinian took off his helmet and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "This isn't how you handle things Frank…"
"I just thought I'd try speaking his language," I replied.
"You fucker," Fritz muttered.
Darbinian very calmly turned to face his man and in one swift motion clocked him right across the jaw, sending him tumbling to the snow for what must've been the eleventh time in the last minute.
"If you touch one of my men again…" he warned.
"Don't worry, I wouldn't go near them even if I was wearing a hazmat suit," I said. "Tell them to do the same and we should have no problems."
"Fair enough," he said, looking as angry as I felt. "But if th–"
He was interrupted for the third time in the span of a few seconds, but this time it was by the power plant's air raid sirens. Every last ODST (even mine) stood where they were, confused expressions on their faces.
"What the hell are you standing all there for?" Darbinian yelled.
"The fuck is making you so slow?" I shouted at the same time. "Move, move, move! Gear up for combat!"
And just like that, the Covenant put a close to the little conflict we had been having.
"Move, move, move!" I urged my men, helping Miri climb to the top of the massive volcanic crater. From this position I could see the orbital defense generator as well as a trail of black ants coming from it to my position. If I just turned around I could see the slopes of the supervolcano gently rolling downwards as far as the eye could see. "We need to hurry up!"
From what little information we had we knew that the Covenant had arrived with a force roughly equivalent to our own, but everything appeared to indicate that they had both air and armored support.
"Where the hell did they come from?" Hoff asked as he climbed the steep edge of the crater. "I seriously dislike those fuckers."
"Doesn't matter," I said. "There! You see them?"
Hoff squinted. "I think so… yeah, I see 'em."
"We'd better get a move on, I want to surprise them if we can."
Sandor was the last one of my squad to climb out. He was toting a SPANKr rocket launcher that he had borrowed from Darbinian's company during the confusion that followed the arrival of the Covenant. He had been exceptionally happy ever since he got to kick one of the other ODSTs half an hour ago. Marv also seemed in an exceptionally good mood.
To be fair, so was I.
"All ready," Sandor said.
"Let's go," I ordered. "That's our target. Satellite images show a rocky section that will slow the Covenant down and provide excellent cover for us."
"What are we waiting for then?" Miri asked and started moving down the slopes.
Moving down was harder than it looked. With fresh snow going all the way too our knees and unsteady ground beneath it we mostly rolled downhill. It was… fun. Even though I was headed to fight an enemy force with armored support it had been a very long time since I had felt this much like a kid. I had to keep myself from laughing out loud as we rolled down.
The fun never lasted. By the time we reached the boulders I had my men take cover behind the jagged rocks and did the same thing myself. As I looked back I saw the rest of my platoon headed down towards different spots in the massive mountain even as Darbinian and his men spread out to the other side. The little black dots were quite visible against the bright white snow, but maybe the glare would hide us for a while.
"Hoff, you're on lookout," I said. "I don't want any cloaked brutes getting past us."
"I'll keep my eyes open," he replied, pushing himself up to the top of his boulder. From there he kept aim on the enemy.
"Thank God we're not in the middle of a snowstorm right now," Andy muttered. "Otherwise…"
"Yeah," Miri agreed. "This way they can see us."
Andy scoffed. "And we can see them."
"Fair enough."
The covvies were advancing at a breakneck pace. That would turn out for our advantage, even if we did have less time to prepare it meant that they would be tired when they got to our positions.
"We've got elites," Hoff said.
"Come again?"
"We've got elites," he repeated.
"Damn it," I grunted. Elites would a lot tougher than brutes usually were. They weren't just crafty, they also happened to be smart. It also meant that I had to talk to Darbinian to warn him about it. "Captain, it appears we are facing elites," I said after I opened a line to him.
"Can you repeat that Second Lieutenant?"
I rolled my eyes, calling someone second lieutenant as opposed to just lieutenant couldn't have been anything but an insult. "We are facing elites captain, the not-so-big ones with four jaws, sir."
"Ah, understood. Is that how you learned to tell them apart from the other big ones?"
"It was mainly the fur, sir."
"I wouldn't expect anything else from you Castillo. Now, if you would just get your head out of your ass and start shooting at them, that would be great.
"Yes, sir," I replied.
"Orders, sir?" Miri asked.
"Wait for them to get within assault rifle range," I replied. "I want you and Hoff to take out the leaders first, I'll handle any sharpshooters I see, the rest of you can take care of the little ones. Hoff, what exactly are we facing?"
"Looks like just a couple of squads, sir. Probably scout forces."
"Excellent, we can kill them before they know what's going on."
We only had to wait for a minute and a half before my men were all within range. Marv and Sandor looked a little bit more uncomfortable at this distance than Andy, but they could all hit a bullseye at this range with no trouble or else they wouldn't be in the Shock Troopers.
"On your word, sir," Hoff stated calmly.
I carefully aimed at a particularly large jackal with a beam rifle slung across its back. "Fire."
I let out a single burst and immediately switched aim towards the two elites leading the force. Hoff and Miri quickly drained their shields and I helped take them out. The rest of my squad dispatched the grunts and other jackals with short and well-placed bursts to the chest and face. The engagement had taken a grand total of four seconds and it had left twelve dead aliens. The snow around their position took a different colors as blood pooled around their bodies.
"They know we're here now," I reminded them. "Keep your eyes open for any flanking attempts. Hoff and Miri, I want you to tell me the moment you spot any vehicles, alright?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Pavel, where's your squad?"
"Behind you and to your left, about a hundred meters or so. Grigori is… a hundred and fifty meters to your left. From here we can provide cover for both of your squads."
"Great. Do you have the Spartan Laser?"
"Not right now, I gave it to Grigori. I think that Atkins has it."
"All right, that should work well enough. We're the left end of the line, aren't we."
"Correct," he confirmed. "Darbinian staggered his unit to our right. They're not facing the covvies directly, if they attack most of their forces will hit here."
"Tell me why I volunteered for this again?" I asked.
"Because Darbinian promised to provide support and then move his company to flank the Covenant assault force."
"If this works…"
"We'll wipe them out," Pavel said. "But if it doesn't…"
"My ghost will haunt that asshole for the rest of his life," I finished.
"Fair enough."
After those first two squads the rest of the Covenant forces started being more careful. They started sending larger units with heavy weapons, but so far our cover held and our overlapping fields of fire with HW and Recon kept them bogged down.
"Won't be long before we run low on ammunition," Marv said, slapping a fresh magazine into his rifle. "We can't keep this up much longer."
I looked to my right and saw a few muzzle flashes coming from foxholes. Darbinian and his men were certainly making themselves scarce right now, but that was all part of the plan.
"He'll keep his word," I said. "Or I'll make sure to avenge you all."
"Your confidence on us is inspiring," Andy told me.
"Shit banshees!"
"Fuck, Sandor!"
We had to stop shooting as the three fliers strafed our position and banked hard to come for another pass. As they turned Pavel's squad hit them on the side, but it wasn't enough to knock them out. When they came for the second pass Sandor was ready. He fired a rocket and then took cover. The lead banshee detonated in a colorful fireball and landed amongst us, thankfully not hurting anyone.
"Shoot again!" Hoff urged him.
Sandor was already aiming at the banshee's that had gone past us. He fired his second rocket and we all watched as the pilot tried to shake off the missile. For a moment the pilot appeared to be successful, but then the rocket swung around in a tight arc and smacked into the aircraft's wing, tearing it off and sending the Banshee crashing down unto the snow. We didn't get to admire the lovely spectacle, as the Covenant had taken advantage of the distraction that the banshees had given them to try and rush our position. We found ourselves on the verge of being overwhelmed.
"You can't fall now," Darbinian came in. "We need the covvies to commit to your position!"
"Fuck, you," I replied. "Sir."
"Castillo, if your pussy-ass unit fails then we might as well say goodbye to the power plant."
"And in turn the planet," I finished. "Yeah, yeah. The weight of a world on my shoulders, got it." I cut the line and fired at an elite that had gotten dangerously close to our pile of boulders.
"Pavel, hit them!"
"We'd have to fire through you!" he shouted. "I can do it, but it's a big risk, Frank."
"Frags out," I ordered my squad. "Everyone take cover!"
My men threw the grenades at the advancing units. I barely saw a pair of grunts torn apart by the shrapnel before I ducked behind my boulder.
"Pavel, do it!"
Tracers immediately appeared in between the pointy rocks we were using for cover. I could hear bullets whistling past my head on both sides as HW Squad hit the force that was rushing us with their full might. An elite collapsed right next to me, a dozen wholes in its chest. I made myself as small a target as possible and let Pavel and his men handle it.
"Fuck!" I cried out when a bullet hit an inch from my head.
"My bad, sir," Lizzo apologized immediately.
"I expect friendly fire from the other ODSTs, Lizzo!"
"My hand, you see–" he began apologetically.
"Focus!" Pavel snapped at him. "Frank, we stop firing in three, two, one. Cease fire!"
The battlefield quieted down for a moment, the only sound of battle came from Caboose and his men.
"Come on!" I shouted, leaving my rock to shoot at the few survivors that Pavel's barrage had left. "Pavel, I owe your squad a drink!"
"We can worry about that later," he said. "You still have Banshees to take care of."
"Sandor, watch out for the birds," I said. "Grigori, what's your status?"
"Hard-pressed but holding."
"Keep it that way, we need them to think they're just about to overwhelm us."
"They always are," he replied sardonically and cut the line.
From that point on things became slightly easier. We would let them come a little too close for comfort and then start cutting them down. Most of the time we halved their numbers, killing the grunts and jackals, before the elites decided that they didn't have enough force to take us on. They'd promptly change their mind and attack us again with reinforcements, but the way they were pushing their rear units to the frontline meant that they were always on the brink of exhaustion when they finally faced us.
"We're at twenty percent on ammunition, sir," Sandor said after a particularly easy skirmish. "We can't keep this up much longer."
"Twenty percent?" I asked him.
"I'm good with math," he replied simply.
"That's not what I meant, but still, pretty impressive." I looked down and saw that I only had a few magazines left. There were empty magazines and casings at my feet. I checked my clock and was surprised by how long it had been since this started. It seemed like it had only been a few minutes.
"Darbinian, where the hell are you?"
"I can't attack now, if we do they'll still have all their armored and most of their air support!" he shouted back. "They're not committing."
"Maybe they saw through your clever strategy," I suggested.
"A possibility," he admitted, startling me. "But we don't have any other choice."
"Fuck," I cursed. "I'll see what I can do."
"Make it quick, or your men won't have any ammunition by the time this is over."
"It's their lives that concern me," I told him. "If we die because of your stupid plan…"
"It's gonna work," he assured me, an edge to his tone. "It has to."
I kicked at an empty magazine and cut the line.
"Ok, listen up," I boomed. "We need them to send their armored support and planes," I said. "From now on we only kill elites and sharpshooters. We need to scare them!"
It was a risky tactic, especially because we would have to wait until the grunts were terribly close for the elites to move up. Normally the large and proud reptilian aliens were the first ones in, but despite their twisted sense of honor and pride, they also knew when it was better to be pragmatic. After all, there was no glory in being killed by worthless vermin.
"All right," Andy sighed. "Here we go."
Our position was hit by plasma and needles, most certainly covering fire for the units that would be advancing and engaging us. We waited a lot longer than I was comfortable with, but as soon as the elites were within extreme close range we opened up. The hingeheads were surprised, our lack of response probably led them to believe we were out of ammunition. Not an unreasonable assumption, mind you, but still a mistaken one.
The lead elites were now majors clad in blood-red armor. The closest ones fell to Miri and Hoff. Despite his high opinion of himself and her almost-chronic shyness, they were both deadly marksmen and excellent soldiers. I also happened to be one of the best at what I did. The three of us hit two elites and then killed a minor before the enemy started firing on our positions. Pavel and his men provided some covering fire for us, but their pouches weren't exactly filled to the brim with ammo either.
A couple of grunts panicked and the jackals stopped their advance to form a shield wall. The elites that remained immediately made a dash for the colorful shield wall, but two more of them fell to our precision weapons in the trip. One of the elites on the ground struggled to drag itself to cover.
"Leave it there," I ordered loudly. "Hoff, keep aiming at its head. Miri, if they try to drag it to safety you and I will take the brave fucker out, got it?"
"Understood, sir," she replied.
The battlefield quieted down after Marv and Sandor took out the few grunts that hadn't run away from us. The elite minor slowly but surely dragged itself towards cover and safety. The ones behind the jackals had noticed what we were doing, because they made no effort to save their comrade. Perhaps a little but of pressure would do.
I switched my rifle to semi and fired at the snow right next to the elite's head. The gunshot made it recoil its head away and roar in both pain and frustration. After that I aimed for its leg and fired another shot at the gap in between the thigh and knee plates. This time the elite roared in agony as the bullet tore through the joint.
"Let's see if those hingeheads are the good friends you think they are," Sandor said.
And indeed, despite their failings as organic beings, the elites still had bonds of friendship. A major and a minor left the shield wall to help their wounded friend. I let them get all the way over there without firing, but the moment they reached the injured elite all three of us opened fire on the major. The alien tried to raise its plasma repeater, but it fell back from the bullet impacts before it could fire. The other minor grabbed its wounded comrade and started dragging it to safety. A couple of bullets pinged of its shields, but Miri took the cake when she shot the wounded hingehead in the head just a second before it disappeared behind the overlapped shields.
"Wow, that was cold," Andy noted.
"Psychological warfare," she replied simply. "The survivors behind the wall are gonna be pissed it was all for nothing."
"I know the feeling," Hoff said. "Gotta admit that I love inflicting it."
"Amen," Sandor echoed. "Did you see that fucker's brains splatter the other's face?"
"Gruesome," Hoff said. "But strangely satisfying."
"I'm glad you started thinking like me," Sandor replied. "There is some fun in all of this."
I rolled my eyes. "Mouths shut please. Hoff, I want you to lob a grenade over the shields, see if you can take out whatever's behind it.
"I was a quarterback," he said for the umpteenth time. "Not a pitcher." Even as he said that he lowered his rifle and yanked the last fragmentation grenade from his webbing. He took a couple of steps back and peeked out to see where the jackals were. As soon as he got his bearings he threw the explosive high up in the air.
"Look at it go," Andy said, craning her neck to look at the frag. "And it comes back down…"
The explosive landed just in front of the shields, but the shrapnel and concussive force was still enough to disable two of the shields. Sandor, Marv, and Andy immediately fired at the small gap, killing the unshielded jackal and the two on either side of it. I took advantage to pitch a grenade into the gap, throwing it as fast as I could. The explosion that followed completely disarrayed the enemy formation, and within a minute they were all dead.
"I'm down to my last two mags," Andy said.
"Same here," Sandor replied.
"Three," Marvin announced.
Hoff lifted one finger while Miri examined her pouches and then shook her head sadly.
"Well, at least we can say that we gave it our best shot."
"Sir," Caboose came in. "You've got a Wraith incoming. Those two Banshees appear to be coming from the side."
"Your side or ours?" I asked.
"They're gonna strafe both of our positions. Yep, that way." Caboose sighed for a moment before I heard detonations off to my left side.
Sandor was already raising his borrowed rocket launcher and firing at the lead flier, but the other one got within firing range before he could lock it. We were forced to turn around the rocks and expose ourselves to fire from enemy infantry as the banshee strafed the rocks with plasma cannons and two fuel rod shots. I always did hate how slow the things could go when they wanted to do the maximum amount of damage.
"Wraith!" Hoff shouted.
"Take cover!"
The blue plasma mortar landed right where I had been taking cover. I felt the heat from the explosion on my back and heard the snow melting from it. Now that I noticed, most of our pile of boulders was lacking any snow. The plasma had molten through most of it and turned it into hot water or steam. No wonder the covvies had been having trouble hitting us. Whenever they fired and missed they just provided more concealment for us.
"Lucky you," Schitzo said.
The Wraith wasn't done yet, it kept on firing and proved to be enough of a distraction that the enemy infantry started advancing again. The last remaining Banshee came for another strafing run and suddenly we found ourselves in some deep shit, as they say.
"Pavel, keep the infantry off our heads," I said. "Caboose, where the hell are you?"
"Firing at their flanks," he said, "they seem to think they can break through your position."
"Darbinian, they are committing!" I shouted.
"Hold on," he said. "We're deploying."
I held onto my rifle and loosened my knife from its sheath on my boot. It had been a really long time since I had used it, really. Maybe it was about time to get it wet with blood once again, but I really didn't want it to come down to that.
But want doesn't always get.
"Fuck, watch out!" Andy yelled, firing a long burst at something next to me. Another elite fell on top of the one that Pavel's men had taken out and I cursed. Andy jumped back behind cover as plasma bolts flew in her direction and cried out in pain. A white-clad elite appeared and I immediately tackled its legs. The elite fell on top of me, pinning my gun in between us. Fortunately, my knife was already in my hand. The ultra growled something and elbowed me in the ribs, the surgical staples dug into the skin, but the wound was almost healed and the ribs were made of titanium, so I wasn't badly hurt. After it hit me I raised my hand and brought my knife back down on its throat, cutting through the fabric covering its skin. The elite gurgled as my knife cut through its windpipe and a couple of important arteries. I carved through its muscular flesh and took a deep breath when the elite struggled. My next move was to shove it to my side.
Three needles buried themselves on the ultra's body and detonated, sending splashes of purplish blood everywhere. I yanked my pistol from its holster and fired at the grunts that had tried to kill me. I killed one of them and sent the other one tumbling downhill. I emptied the rest of my magazine on a jackal's shield and then reached for the plasma pistol attached to the ultra's thigh. My hands closed in on a grip and I aimed at another grunt that had gotten too close. I squeezed as the grunt covered its face.
The grunt opened one eye and lowered its arms, shocked that it was still alive. I was equally stunned, but then I realized that there had been no recoil and that I hadn't heard the sound of a plasma pistol firing. It was only then that I saw the twin tips of an energy sword, my energy sword, inches from the grunt's arms.
The grunt squealed in delight and raised its own weapon only for Marv to cut him down.
"Nice," he complimented. "But impractical."
I clicked on the sword's grip again and the plasma blade disappeared. I immediately dragged myself back to my feet and behind cover with Marv. My battle rifle was still underneath the huge elite ultra and I only had my pistol with two magazines for it. And the energy sword of course, but those things looked as dangerous for the user as they did for the one unlucky enough to be facing the pointy end.
"How much longer?" Marv asked.
"Until we die?" I replied, raising an eyebrow. "Ten, maybe twelve elites."
"Each?"
"Don't flatter yourself," I told him. "You might make it to six."
The next elite that made it past the rock turned to fire at us, but it met Marv's rifle. The elite recoiled from the burst as I carefully aimed the energy sword at it. The two tips cut through the shields and armor as if they weren't there, and the elite looked stunned for a second before I jerked the sword violently from side to side. The elite's burnt entrails left its belly and it collapsed to the ground, dead.
"That's one," I said.
Andy, Miri, and Sandor were all working to funnel the advancing aliens away from Marv and me while Hoff took potshots at other aliens from his position in the rear. He couldn't have much ammo left, even if he killed an alien with every shot it wouldn't be enough. Darbinian needed to make good on his word and do it fast.
"Pavel," I said.
"We're out," he said. "All you have right now is Grigori."
"We're doing our best," Caboose came in. "Darbinian's men are moving, just a little bit longer, sir."
Marv and I held. Without Miri and Sandor working with the wounded Andy we would've been overwhelmed, but the aliens had to get past the boulders to get to us and our position meant that we couldn't be flanked. Marv helped out a lot. He was handy with a knife, as the dead elite to his right testified to. His MA5 was empty now, but his pistol still had some life in it, and the two plasma rifles I was using were enough to gain us some time. I fired one until it overheated and then switched to the other. Rinse and repeat.
When another elite came, Marv stabbed its foot against the ground and fired two shots at its jaws, stunning it. I used my small backup knife to gouge its eye out and then Marv finished it off with his knife, driving it through its neck. The next elite that came swiped an energy sword at us, carving a nice, deep groove on the stone. I activated my own energy sword, but the elite easily tore it from my grip with a flick of its wrist.
I grabbed my last knife from the small of my back and crouched into a combat position. Marv threw his knife at the elite and as it raised its sword to cover itself I lunged for it. Two quick slashed to the right knee brought it down so that its face was level with mine. I smiled at it through my black visor and then brought my knife down on its head with all my strength. The blade dented the helmet and cut through the skull. Marv yanked me back to cover and now I found myself completely unarmed. My knives were all stuck on three different elites and my ammunition was all spent.
"What does that make?" Marv asked, tossing his empty pistol aside.
"Six," I said. "In between the both of us."
"Well that was disappointing," he said with a shrug.
"We're out!" Sandor shouted.
"Oh well," I sighed, looking up at the clear blue sky. "Darbinian is gonna get it."
A barrage of gunfire came from our right side, away from Caboose's position.
"Or not," Marv said tentatively.
"Darbinian kept his word," Pavel said. "They're hitting the covvies from the side!"
I heard explosions and blasts and screams, but in the end the covvies couldn't turn their line around fast enough to counter the attack of a well-trained and bloodthirsty ODST company.
The focus of the battle changed and after a few minutes of respite a small squad of ODSTs got to our position even as Pavel's and Caboose's squads joined mine. The men dropped a couple of large ammunition boxes in our midst and very grudgingly told us that they were here to help us if we needed anything.
"Cover us while we resupply," I ordered them.
The men nodded and moved downhill to protect us if the Covenant suddenly decided to attack us again.
"Andy, you got shot again?" I asked her. "Are you ok?"
She patted her thigh gingerly and shook her head. "I'm fine. The armor stopped the bolt, but it heated it up and burned into my leg. Undersuit is useless."
I smiled.
"Why does our medic keep getting shot?" Sandor complained. "Andy, you have to keep up."
She laughed weakly and started unclasping her thigh armor. She removed it with a wince and revealed that the undersuit had been burnt away underneath it. Her skin was bright pink and bloody and she had several blisters there.
"Horrible legs," Hoff said, looking over her shoulder. "A woman should always have good legs."
"Shut up," Miri said, shoving him sideways and into a patch of snow that had remained.
Hoff chuckled and got back to his feet as Andy self-administered some biofoam. She winced and clasped her fists, but otherwise managed to keep from crying out. It was a small injury, otherwise her screams would've startled everybody within two square miles.
"All right, enough ogling," I said. "Let's resupply. The battle isn't over yet."
By the time we were armed up again it mostly was. Pavel and his men broke off to find a good shooting position and Caboose kept his squad with mine. The only one of us who got a shot off was Zepeda. We all turned to look at him after we saw a wounded grunt's head explode. Zepeda just shrugged and pointedly ignored us while looking at his SRS.
"Now where the hell's Darbinian," I said to myself. As soon as I located him I started taking long strides towards him. He saw me and said a couple of quick words to one of his lieutenants, sending him away. "You took your sweet time," I said. "How ab–"
I stopped as I felt a weird feeling in my belly. I looked up at the same time as Darbinian did, evidently feeling it too. We looked up to see a small bright light in the sky. It was blue and therefore barely visible, but I could just make out the circular shape.
"It can't be…" one of Darbinian's men trailed off.
"Too close to the planet," I said. "They fucking did it."
"What is it?" Pavel asked. "What class?!"
Zepeda immediately aimed up through his scope at the thing. "Corvette."
"It's still enough to wipe us all out," Darbinian said. "All right, we need to fall back and seek shelter!"
His men started moving frantically, packing up and climbing back up the hills and towards the volcanic crater. I squinted and used my helmet to zoom in on the Covenant corvette. The blue light disappeared as it finished its slipspace jump and I found myself staring at a small black dot.
"How the hell did it make it through the defense platforms?" Caboose wondered out loud.
"If it did it means the planet is lost," Hoff replied. He had family here.
"They would've told us something!" Pavel exclaimed, outraged.
Suddenly a bright white light crossed the sky, disappearing over the horizon. The small black dot that was the corvette was covered by the light and disappeared. The Super-MAC had practically atomized the small starship with a single shot. I kept my gaze on the flaming remains that fell down to the planet.
"There it is," Marv said. "For a moment there I was scared."
I heard the sound of laughter all around me and knew that the ODSTs had thought the same thing. I smiled myself, relieved that we weren't dead just yet. The ODPs were still intact and the planet still held.
"Take your time boys," Darbinain called out loudly. "And enjoy this victory."
Just as he finished that three more bright lights appeared. Everybody stopped laughing and we all looked at the three Covenant corvettes with expectation. One of them blew up as the Super-MAC hit it. A few seconds later the second one did the same, but the third managed to position itself between the defense platform and the planet. If the MAC fired the slug would go straight through the ship and into the planet. A kinetic projectile that size flying at near-relativistic speeds towards Paris-IV meant destruction on continental scale. The corvette was safe from harm from the MACs.
"Don't celebrate just yet," I said, staring at the ship as it got bigger and bigger.
Thanks to SilasWhitfield, SpartaLazor, and defarcher for proofreading this chapter.
Highlights:
–Good-old-fashioned brawl between ODSTs and ODSTs in which ODSTs kick some serious ass. I had been wanting to do that for a while. Write that last sentence, not the brawl scene.
–Darbinian reacts with maturity beyond his previously established character. Could it have been that those years... changed him?
–Darbinian apparently sacrifices Frank and Co. but comes to the rescue at the last possible minute. Maybe he didn't change that much.
–Miranda has a really worrying psychopathic moment as does Hoff. Same goes for Sandor, but it's not as worrying coming from him.
–There's some serious mood whiplash at the end, but it turns out that their victory might've been for nothing. Oh bummer.
–I deliver an incredibly entertaining chapter.
Well, there it is folks. Chapter 174 in a nutshell. Also, good news everybody. For those of you that aren't glued to your computer for the whole day, I'll update next chapter later today. I'm going to be going on a week-long vacation (snowboarding anyone) and as such won't be able to post new chapters for a week. For those others that are actually away from your computers most of the time: feel free to ignore this fragment, by the time you read this the next chapter will probably be up.
I've got some awesome stuff planned for you guys. I think you'll enjoy the next couple of chapters.
Stay strong.
-casquis