Chapter CLXXXII: Minutos Finales

June 18, 2549 (UNSC Calendar)/

Udinia, Paris IV, Paris System

I've always wanted to fight a desperate battle against incredible odds."– Brig

Sometimes you stepped down from the Pelican with your chest out and a cocky smile on your face, other times you jumped down with grim determination and immediately crouched to avoid plasma fire, but at least once in every battle you stepped off with your head hanging low. This was one of those occasions.

I half stumbled as I let myself fall down the short gap in between the hatch and the ground. Fountain Base looked ten times as crowded as when we left. The refugee housing was still there, but plenty of improvised tents had sprung up, oftentimes in between the bigger, pre-made shelters. To move I had to walk over sleeping bags and rags that made up beds. People had to shuffle away so that we wouldn't step over them, but other than that they barely shot us a second glance.

"Looks like hell," Pavel muttered under his breath. "Smells like it too."

"We have a dozen warships in orbit and twice as many civilian transports ready to go. As soon as the swabbies get their shit together we're on a straight line to Reach."

"Well, technically–"

"Yes," I cut him off. "Not a straight line because we do multiple jumps."

"In compliance with the Cole Protocol," Pavel finished. "Yeah, yeah."

"You should know by now that I often speak figuratively."

"You must feel so special."

"For that and other reasons, namely my incredible chest-abs combo."

"Yet you're still jealous of my shoulders and arms."

I shrugged slightly. "Mine are more defined."

"Mine are wider and bigger respectively."

I leaned over towards him. "Mine are stronger."

"Cheater," he replied. "In any case, I don't think that's the important thing."

"Shooting scores?" I suggested.

"I got you on everything automatic."

"Not everything," I corrected him. "SMGs."

"Nah, beat your record two days before we deployed."

"No way, and you didn't brag about it?"

He laughed. "I wanted to get your MA5 record before, make the pain bigger."

"You ass," I said. "I can respect that."

"But I've got you on BR, SRS, DMR, and EMR."

"I have you on all kinds of machine gun up to HMGs, shotguns, and–"

"And that's it," I finished for him. "Should we go into knives?"

Pavel shook his head. "Perhaps we should go into emotional maturity. Alcoholism maybe?"

"Pathological depression?"

"Schizophrenia?"

"Ouch, low blow," I said, elbowing him in the ribs. "Let's have a boxing match to settle this."

"Settle what?"

"Who's better?"

"Frank, you're a child."

"I'm older than you are."

"Stop proving my point."

"Stop proving my point," I echoed, making a dumb voice. "Pavel, as soon as I meet up with Hayes and the Yassir I want you to take everybody to the barracks. Have them mingle with everybody for a while and then an obligatory nap. Play classical music or something, anything that might prevent nightmares."

He leaned in closer so that nobody would hear what we were discussing. "Nightmares are something that you don't get rid of easily. Not at this point."

I sighed as we emerged from the ramshackle of tents and tarps and into an open area with a few craters and tanks. Most of the Warthogs had been moved outside of the firebase and into a small adjacent area. It was relatively less guarded, but in this instance relatively meant that it only had three companies and four tanks watching over it.

My platoon moved through the open area as quickly as we could. In our current condition, with wounded and us being the most tired we had ever been, it wasn't very fast.

"Well I'll be damned!" dos Santos called out. He was wearing full armor sans helmet and had a look of weariness in his face that mirrored that on mine. The joy at seeing us momentarily made his face look better, but it wasn't enough. "Francisco Castillo! Is it good to see you and the rest of Five."

I smiled and clasped his forearm before hugging him. "Dom, it's been a long couple of months. How have you been?"

The smile slipped from his face and his eyes moved away from mine. "Not good Frank. I've never had to go through anything like this."

"Yeah," I agreed. "I've been through tough shit before, just not quite like this."

"That all of you?" he asked.

I nodded. "We have five KIAs." I shrugged as if to dismiss it, but saying those words brought back the pain of seeing my men die. "The rest of us all have some injury or other."

"I can see that, you're all helping each other up. Sandor looks particularly beaten up."

"Needle went through both the tibia and the fibula. Mended pretty well all things considered. Andy was shot, she has a very bad habit about it. The rest of them are minor injuries, but still a concern."

"You?"

I shrugged. "Not important."

"All right then. I heard some rumors about spears and swords. Any truth in those?"

"Spears only," I said, allowing myself a small smile. "The covvies did use those energy swords of theirs."

"And you won?"

"We did," I said. "Fucking Airborne finished them off, but we held the line before they arrived with their fancy bullets and shit."

"You actually ran out of ammunition?"

"Yes."

"At the same time the enemy did?"

"Yes."

"And then you dished it out with sticks and stones?"

"Well, it does sound ridiculous when you put it that way."

"Pretty crazy shit, bro." He laughed, but it sounded empty. "Hayes, Weller, and Dajani are inside."

"How bad has it been here?"

Dom ran his thumbs down the side of his chest plate. "Three casualties in my platoon, four in Wellers, and three each in One and Two. Pretty bad Frank, but not as bad as you guys had it."

"Sucks," I said simply. "But now's not the time to think or talk about it."

"Right you say," he agreed. "Come on."

I turned and jerked my head at Pavel, who nodded in return and redirected the platoon back towards the barracks we would be sleeping in. He nodded in return and started barking orders in a way that made me believe he was ready to run a marathon or two.

"Frank, good to see you!" Yas greeted as I walked inside. He gave me a half-hug and then slapped my shoulders, being careful with the one that had spikes embedded in it.

"Hey Frank," Jen said with a small smile. "Good to see you."

"You too," I replied, shoving Yas away from me playfully. "Captain."

"Lieutenant," Hayes replied in an equally flat tone. "Now that we're all here I can begin the briefing."

We straightened ourselves and clasped our hands behind our backs as good officers. Even Jen, whose face was covered in bruises from a particularly rough encounter with the Covenant made it a point to look professional and heroic. If we managed to look like that in front of our men, no matter the circumstances, they would follow us into hell.

"We lost," Hayes stated. "Plain and simple. Now that this rock is nothing special, we'll be sure to leave with as many people as possible. Command managed to round up enough starships for every last man, woman, and child in the city. With the addition Battle Group Flawless and Trafalgar there should be enough legroom to get everyone out comfortably."

"Sir?" Yas questioned. "What's our role in this?"

"The big operation is for the big boys in orbit," she replied. "We're supposed to provide ground support in case the Covenant infantry troops attempt to burst through. Same old shit."

"How long should it take?" Dom asked.

"Udinia used to have a much smaller population before the invasion, you know? Refugees from all around the planet are living here now. It'll take some time to evacuate seventeen million people."

I let out a whistle. "That's a lot of people."

"It'll take about a month to get everyone out safely," she went on, apparently not having heard me. "Some losses are expected, perhaps as many as ten percent, but that's the risk that we're taking. Command wants us to be on watch when the bigger ships are taking off, they'll be more attractive targets and therefore more likely to be shot at. We can expect some last minute deployments to take out SAMs or AA Wraiths. For now we stay with our regular schedule. Castillo, Yas can get you up to date."

"Sir," I said, acknowledging her with a nod.

Hayes walked out, taking Dom and Jen with her. Yas stayed with me for a little while and we chatted a bit. He was as glad to see me as I was to see him, but his own platoon had suffered losses, not to mention two men that wouldn't be able to fight ever again because of their wounds. Yas was tired, not as much as my men were, but the fighting here hadn't been exactly forgiving, and small teams managed to get past the perimeter every now and then, butchering civilians.

"Glad to see you in fine working order," I said, shaking his hand for the second time. "We stopped getting word from Udinia several weeks ago. All low-priority messages couldn't be delivered. I have no idea how Pavel even managed to get mail to his wife."

Yas chuckled softly. "Love finds a way," he said. "But I don't think I'm in fine working order Frank. Not up here." He tapped his head. "Nightmares and shit, man.

I've had them before, but never like this."

I nodded slowly, frowning slightly. "My advise; see a therapist as soon as possible. No, for real, I'm not kidding. It worked for me."

"You? A therapist? Really?"

I nodded. "It's a smart thing to do Yas," I assured him. "Trust me. Besides, every Helljumper is supposed to be a little crazy."

"Oorah," he agreed. "Thanks Frank. I'll see you later."

"Likewise, good luck."

Yas nodded and walked away slowly. There was a slight limp to his left leg, almost unnoticeable unless you knew the man. He had been my roommate for a few years now, and I could tell by the way he moved that his whole body was at least as sore as mine. No self-respecting ODST officer would fail to go directly into combat along with his men.

I stayed in the empty conference room for a minute more, looking at the broken holotable that had stood between the officers of Jaguar Company. We were broken men leading broken units. Strangely fitting.

"Frank?"

The voice was the most beautiful thing I had heard in years.

"Hanna?"

"Frank!"

I barely had enough time to turn around before Hanna crashed into me in what was a cross between a hug and a tackle. I immediately hugged her back and held her tightly against my body. Her hair was messy and as I breathed in it tickled my nose. I laughed and leaned back slightly, blowing air out of my nose in order to get her hair out. Hanna just held tighter against me, squeezing my ribs even through the ballistic armor and suit that I was wearing.

"It's good to see you," I said finally, hugging her tight enough to have her gasp for breath. The brief respite that bought me allowed me to out some distance between her and me and swoop down for a quick kiss. "So good to see you."

"I got some of your messages, but then they cut off radio traffic and then I heard about how bad it was over there…"

"And then?" I asked jokingly. "Relax. I'm fine and so are you, we'll be out of here in a month, you can finish your contract while on leave and that's it."

"Sounds good," she said after giving me another kiss. Hanna took a small step back and scratched a bandage on one arm. "I'm lucky to be a medic, most of us have been turned into doctors for the refugees, most patrols go out there without combat medics."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" I asked her, leaning back on the holotable.

"Is anything good nowadays?" she replied. "We're mostly helping with disease outbreaks and the occasional plasma or spiker injury. I could be doing a lot worse, especially considering how high our casualties have been."

"Yeah," I nodded. "It was pretty bad up there too."

"How many did you lose?" she asked. "After… what was his name? Atkins?"

"Yeah. Three more men. Montri, Han, and d'Arc."

"I'm sorry Frank," she said. "I didn't mean to–"

"Don't worry about it," I told her. "Hayes just gave us some time to rest and I have a great idea of how to spend it."

Hanna laughed and sighed. "Leave it to you to think of sex in this situation."

"In any situation," I corrected. "And don't get all high and mighty, when the next time I do you may be our last, I'm going to take advantage of that as much as I can."

She shrugged. "It has been pretty long since you left."

I hated when she turned on her seductive voice. Despite the comparative gap in our levels of experience prior to having actually dated, she could melt me into a puddle and get me to do anything she wanted if she just spoke a little huskier and drew out the words. Had I attempted to do that I probably would've gotten laughed at.

"Do you know a place?" I asked her, trying to appear perfectly calm and totally not desperate.

She shrugged and beckoned for me to follow her. I sighed inwardly and complied.

"I wonder what Katie would think?" Schitzo asked, skipping happily along. "Perhaps you should look for her and go say hi."

I grunted quietly and tried to get him to go away, but after he had said those words Katie was all I could think of. Even being with Hanna, alone inside a locked room I couldn't get her out of my head. I felt guilty, but not guilty enough to stop. By the time we were both done I was torn, my body felt satisfied and somewhat rested, but the rest of me felt like the shittiest human being in the universe.

"What's wrong?" Hanna asked, rolling on the mattress. "You look… hmm…"

I laughed, trying to make it sound real. "I'm sorry. Guess I'm just tired. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. First time we see each other in months and I go all shell shock on you."

She laughed, but her eyes showed worry. "Frank, you know you can talk to me about anything."

Not anything.

"Thanks," I told her. "I'm just tired."

"Frank…"

"Hanna, please," I said. "Not now."

"Ok, whatever you say."

She didn't sound angry, she just sounded sad. Her tone only served to make me feel even worse about myself. How did she end up with me? I wondered whether breaking up would be for the better. I know that she loved me and that I loved her back, but would hurting her turn out to be for the best? Damn, being a dick could be monumentally annoying. The universe had a way of catching up to you.

"I should be getting back," I said, standing up and reaching for my undersuit. "I'm sorry I'm like this. I promise I'll talk to someone as soon as we're back on Reach. Ok?"

"Ok," she said, rolling back around and reaching for her own clothes. "That means a lot to me."

We each dressed up in silence and I made sure to pack the outer armor inside the ballistic vest, leaving me with only leg armor. Hanna had left her armor behind, replacing it with a loose t-shirt and her regular fatigues. I hadn't noticed before, but she had huge bags under her eyes and her hair was messy to the point that it looked almost deliberate. She looked all the more beautiful for it.

"I love you," I told her. It felt like the truth, but it still hurt to say it.

She smiled and her face became even more beautiful. "I love you too, Frank."

I kissed her one last time before we each went our separate ways. Even if I did feel guilty and horrible inside, there was a part of me that felt happy.

"Fucking schizophrenia," Schitzo complained. "How the hell can you feel two ways at the same time?"

"How the fuck are you still here?" I replied, drawing a surprised glance from one of the nearby Marines. A quick glare fixed that.

"Easy Frank, we wouldn't want to get busted."

I wouldn't want to get busted, I corrected, emphasizing the I in the sentence.

The barracks we had been assigned to were the same ones that Dom's Platoon Four was using. The men were moving the beds and mattresses towards the walls and making more space for everybody to sleep in. The tables were covered with weapons piled on top of each other. The armors were all arranged on the special trunks, but the trunks themselves were also piled uncomfortably close to one another. It was easy to tell that we were running out of space.

"Frank, where were you?" Pavel asked, lugging a bed.

"Getting reacquainted with the missus, no doubt," Sandor called out.

I couldn't help but smile slightly, drawing boos and jeers from the rest of the men from my platoon. They had the right, of course. They had been working hard at rearranging furniture while I was getting well and thoroughly fucked. Not to mention that they had just come from over a month of heavy-duty fighting.

"Get back to work," I ordered, inflecting my tone with a small dose of humor. "The faster you finish the faster you can get those eight hours of sleep that the doctor recommends."

I had never seen my men more eager about anything.

July 3, 2549 (UNSC Calendar)/two weeks later

"Sir, can I talk to you?" Hoff asked. He sounded eager.

"Your voice sounds better, they operate on your jaw?"

"Yes, sir," he said, positively beaming. "Just yesterday."

"Huh, good for you, kid."

"Thanks, sir."

"What was that you needed to talk about?"

"Sir, you know how my family found a nice place on an evac ship?"

"Yeah, I recall you mentioning that," I replied, leaning backwards on my folding chair. "What about it."

"I finally managed to locate them, I know where they are."

"And you want to talk to them?"

"Yes," he said.

I nodded slowly and carefully. "Are they on the transports leaving today?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very well, make it quick. They might need us to do some shit or another, as per usual."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

As Hoff saluted and walked away, trying not to appear to eager, Pavel huffed.

"Nice Frank scares them," he said. "You're not usually that nice."

"You know how I feel about family," I told him.

He scoffed. "About other people's families. You yourself have mentioned that your uncle was a dick and don't look to eager to start a family."

I sighed. Lately the memories that I had about my family weren't good ones. My dad screaming at me, my mom doing the same thing. The ones involving my brother were always the worst ones, but those were immediately suppressed. I could still remember the good times. Having dinner with my mom, playing with my dad, learning to shoot with my uncle. Those were good memories, but for some reason the bad stuff was beginning to surface lately. Not that being scolded qualified as bad, but it certainly took away from that idyllic image that I often had about my early childhood.

"Frank?"

"Sorry," I apologized. "I was thinking."

"About starting a family?"

"Hell no," I replied. "You know what kind of father I would make? If I had a son nothing he did would ever be good enough for me, and if I had a daughter I would be tempted to lock her in a room and turn her into a lesbian."

"What?"

"Men are assholes Pavel. I mean, do you remember the kind of stuff we used to pull on girls on the early days?"

"Point taken," he nodded. "But women can be bitches too."

I shrugged. "You win some, you lose some."

"Frank, I can smell the bullshit coming out of your mouth. You're not making any sense."

"Yeah," I admitted. "Perhaps this much rest has messed me up somewhat."

"Worry not, three straight days with no missions or tasks is a dream that can't last for too long."

"Agreed," I said.

Pavel was proven right an hour later. My helmet beeped and I put it on. It seemed weird that most people had telephones implanted or used relatively small 'old-fashioned' devices while I was forced to use my helmet as a replacement for a cell phone. Irony aside, my helmet was an incredibly good piece of equipment, very clear sound and reception.

"Castillo here," I said.

"This is Hayes," came the captain's ridiculously attractive voice. "We're being called up for wall duty. Air assets have spotted suspicious enemy activity."

"Roger that, sir. North or south?"

"North," she replied. "Lots of ammo in case they attempt something."

I mentally cursed. Enemy movements in the north meant elites. Their forces had reached Udinia not so long ago and had begun raiding all UNSC positions within their reach. They were surprisingly effective at the task considering that their homologues in the south were vicious and violent gorillas that took every chance they could to mutilate their victims.

Well, their violence did mean that they often lost sight of the mission, making them less effective than the professional elites hitting valuable positions in our northern side.

"Discourage them from coming at us," I said. "Got it captain, I'll rouse the men immediately."

"Make it quick, lieutenant."

"Wilco," I replied. "Out."

"What's the job?" Pavel asked.

"Wall duty," I replied. "Come on, up you go."

He groaned theatrically as he pushed himself up from his chair. "Could be worse, you know. We could be doing SAM destruction, early prevention, or even assassination."

"Yeah," I nodded. "They have the Spartans doing that shit, deep behind enemy lines or so I hear."

"They don't appear to have had much success," Pavel said. "Which is actually disappointing for once. Don't get me wrong, I'm an ODST and think it's great to see them humbled a little bit, but not when the stakes are so high."

"Agreed. They need to take out Mr. Mohawk and Fancy Moves Elite."

"I call the elite Fleetmaster. With a capital F. ONI got some intel on his rank and everything, the guy was second in command of the fleet, but the leader died when the Spartans detonated a volcano right underneath his ship."

"Why the hell is he here groundside?" Pavel asked. "You don't see Admiral Patterson fighting here with the grunts."

I shrugged. "Hingeheads are weird Pavel, you should know that by now."

"Frank, don't be an asshole."

"That's don't be an asshole, sir," I corrected. "Get your squad and gear up," I ordered. "Let's get this over with."

Pavel and I were close to the barracks. He quickly got his armor on and took off to get the rest of his squad. It seemed like every time we got called up for a mission we were spread out all over the area. I should've told them to stay close by, make my job easier. Apparently my men had enough time to find themselves a willing sexual partner in this mess. I know that being an ODST gives you a huge bonus when trying to seduce a woman, but taking advantage of shell-shocked refugees seemed a little bit too much, even for me.

"What's the news, sir?" Sandor asked me. "We going out or what?"

"Wall duty," I replied. "Get dressed. You too Marvin."

"Sir," Marv said.

"Where's Andy and Miri?" I asked.

"They went to the showers."

"That's some fetish fuel right there," I noted drily.

"That's what I said," Sandor said. "I mean, it's perfectly normal for a man to–"

I waved him quiet. "Marv, go get them," I ordered. "Just tell them to get dressed."

"Where's Ryan?" he asked, moving towards the showers.

"He went to speak to his family," I said. "I'll get him in a while."

"Yes, sir."

As soon as I was done with my armor I opened a channel to Caboose. "Caboose, you got your men with you?"

"Yes, sir," he came in after a short pause. "Zepeda and O'Malley are right here with me."

"Good to go?"

"Yes, sir."

My helmet tagged them immediately as soon as they put on their helmets. The three of them were in one of the smaller control towers. For some reason Caboose kept volunteering himself and his squad to do overwatch on the tower. There were some refugees on the bottom floor, but that was about it. The tower probably had enough rooms that Miri could sneak up there every now and then, and perhaps O'Malley and Zepeda each had their own civilian partners, but I don't think that the three of them decided to stay up there for the sake of sexual escapades.

Recon Squad had lost half its number in a matter of days. Perhaps they just wanted to be alone.

I'd have to put them all for a chat with a shrink. Perhaps right after I had a talk with one myself…

"Sir?" Andy asked, coming out of the shower with just a towel on. Miranda was right behind her.

"Get dressed," I ordered. The towers seemed to be too short. "We've got wall duty."

"Yes, sir," they said. I couldn't help but notice that Miranda went beet red even despite her relatively dark skin.

"Is Platoon Three working with us?" Marv asked, placing magazines into his pouches.

"Don't think so," I said. "They're still guarding our supply drops."

"Boring job if I ever heard one," Sandor said. "They don't even get to shoot anything."

"And what's so bad about that?" Marv asked him. "Come on hurry up."

Andy and Miri were done putting on their armor by the time the three of us guys had finished with out ammunition and weapons. We waited for them to get their weapons and magazines before taking off at a light jog.

"Five, we're meeting in Sector Thirty-Three," I said. "One is going to have our left flank and Two will have our right. Standard wall duty, fire at anything that moves, don't let anything get close. Elite and jackal rangers take priority over any other target short of a tank."

"Yes, sir," came the nearly simultaneous reply.

I looked over my shoulder to confirm that Sandor had brought his SPANKr with him and nodded to myself once I saw the rocket launcher slung across his back. We made our way through the five ships that would be leaving today, calling out for the civilian refugees to get out of our way as we pushed past them. The big transports would fit several thousand people each. It wouldn't be exactly comfortable, but they would spend most of the time in cryo, so there was no need to complain.

"Ok, I want us spaced like this: sharpshooter, assault rifle, sharpshooter. Ok? If we face wave attacks do mow them down but don't stop looking for infiltration units. You all heard about that trick they pulled off five days ago in the western wall. Also, anything that even vaguely resembles a SAM will be immediately targeted and destroyed, it doesn't matter if we waste a rocket. Our job here is to protect the civilian population at any cost."

"Oorah!"

"Good, double ti–"

Something hit me really hard and I was thrown off my feet. I saw the world spin completely around before I came crashing back down on the hard polycrete surface. My vision was dotted with black dots and bright flashes even as I struggled to draw air into my lungs. I vaguely registered the sound of another explosion and one of the transports blowing up into a million pieces before something landed on top of me.

I grunted and shoved a mangled corpse off me. "Report!" I shouted, my ears ringing. "VSF count off!"

"Sir, I'm here!" Marv shouted. "Sandor's ok too."

"I'm good," Miranda said.

"Same here," Andy came in. "What the hell just happened?"

One of the transports had been hit by something or other strong enough to shred it to pieces. The shrapnel and fireball had killed pretty much everyone within fifty meters of the ship and wounded many more. The mob of people had dispersed in record time, leaving behind an uncomfortably large number of unmoving and twitching bodies.

My helmet was immediately flooded with chatter from everyone inside the firebase. I quickly gave the command for it to filter out all non-essential channels and broadcast the situation to all military channels.

"We're going to need medics down here. A lot of them."

Just as I finished saying that the screams came. A lot of the wounded civilians were only just beginning to realize just how fucked up their situation was. The shock was finally wearing off and they were now beginning to experience the full extent of their injuries.

"Sir, I'm getting distortions in the space in front of me," Marv called out.

"Test them," I ordered. "Now!"

Two shots rang out and one of the distortions flickered briefly to reveal a big elite.

"We've got Covenant inside the perimeter!" Marvin shouted, making sure to broadcast it to all channels. "Elite stealth troops moving in on the wrecked transport!"

"Take 'em out boys!" I ordered. "Fire, fire, fire!"

The elites didn't seem to be expecting such a quick reaction, but then again, we didn't expect one of our transports to be blown up from inside our own perimeter. A few of the elites fell quickly, but the rest immediately took advantage of their camouflage and faded into the smoke.

"I need some thermal imagery ASAP," I shouted into my helmet. "We've got an unknown number of enemy elites inside our perimeter. They are cloaked and appear to be attempting to destroy evacuation transports."

"Lieutenant, this is Command, we're sending birds up right now."

"Thank you sir, I recommend to immediately scan the entire firebase for hostiles."

"We're doing that right now, son. We need you to hold back those elites until we can send in armored support."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

My men were already moving up, urging the few remaining civilians to evacuate the area.

"Spread out," I ordered. "Come at them from the sides."

"Thermal's not showing anything, sir," Sandor came in.

"Too much heat interference from the wreck," Andy said.

"Pelt the area with automatic fire," I ordered. "Caboose, Pavel, how are you?"

"Frank, they're attacking the walls," Pavel came in. "Looks like the real deal."

"Starting to sound like it too," Caboose came in. "We're seeing some big movements on the north side, Daemon tanks and everything."

"Keep a lookout," I said. "We might need you to cover us in a while."

"Yes, sir."

I hated this. I hated having eight multiple conversations at once while I was being shot at by targets I couldn't see.

"Elite's making a run for it," Andrea shouted.

"Miri, take it down!"

"On it!"

An elite materialized along with half of its brain matter. It fell about thirty meters from the wreck and immediately sent to other gelatinous blobs moving back to the relative safety of the smoke cover.

"We might need a small-scale airstrike," Marv muttered.

"Agreed," Sandor said.

"Where the hell is Ryan?" Andrea asked. "We don't even know how many covvies are in there."

"Frags!" I ordered loudly. "Start throwing frags!"

The explosions were pretty loud considering the ambience noise. The attack on the walls was only just beginning to gain speed and the gunfire was also increasing in volume. A few of the explosions were hits, sending the occasional limb flying one way or another.

"We need either a firefighter brigade or mortar fire," I said. "Command, this is Lie–"

"We heard you, Lieutenant. You might want to keep your head down."

"Down!" I shouted.

The mortars started raining down upon the wreckage a few seconds later, the explosions went on for ten seconds before Command finally decided that it was enough. Ten seconds might not sound like much, but when it comes to sustained artillery fire, ten seconds can be eternal.

"Marv, Sandor, clear the wreckage. Andrea, Miranda, start pulling out any wounded."

"Yes, sir!"

"Ryan, do you read me?" I asked. "Hoff, are you there?"

No answer.

"Fuck!" He didn't take his helmet with him.

While they followed my orders I made sure that I had a channel to Pavel and another one to Hanna just in case. I set those two to be the most easily accessible ones and moved up to help clear the wreckage.

"Clear!" Sandor shouted. "Nothing here but corpses, sir!"

"Human corpses," I muttered in reply. "Where did they come from? Even cloaked they couldn't have snuck past us."

"Airdrop?" Marv suggested.

I immediately looked up.

"Command, what's the situation in the air?"

"No movement, thermal specs are coming in and… nothing."

"Could they have fooled our sensors?" Sandor asked. "It has been done before."

"Don't think so," I said.

"Back in the day people used to dig tunnels to get behind enemy fortifications," Marv said.

I froze. "Do you see anything?"

"Negative."

"Listen up everybody," I broadcast to my platoon and company. "There might be some tunneling activity, keep your eyes open."

I got a few acknowledgement lights and returned to my own business. There were no more aliens anywhere nearby, but the six dead elites were too many for a raid of this kind. An elite and a grunt would've been more than enough to sneak past and plant some explosives in one of the transport ships.

"That can't be the whole assault force," Andy said.

"Exactly what I was thinking," I said. "If they came through a tunnel there might be more waiting."

"Oh shit," Miranda said in an uncharacteristic bout of potty talk.

"Shit, evacuate the area," I shouted. "Come on, let's–"

Before I had taken four steps I was thrown from the ground for the second time in a minute. I landed hard on the ground, albeit not as painfully as the first time. Another explosion came after the incredibly loud noise that the ground collapsing underneath us had made. Several dozen tons of rock simply fell down to god knows where and pushed up a storm of dust that pretty much blocked everything from sight.

All this happened while I rolled away from my rifle and tried to get a firm grip on it again.

"What the fuck!"

"Count off!" I ordered for the second time in less than a minute.

"I'm ok," Miranda came in.

"I'm ok," Marv echoed.

"I'm ok. I'm fucked up, but ok," Sandor said.

"Likewise," Andrea checked in.

I got myself up to my feet and saw vague shadows of what was going on. A second transport had been right underneath the epicenter of the blast. The explosion had left it as useless as the one they had blown up first. A small secondary explosion broke the relative silence before alien war cries came to my ears.

"Incoming covvies!" I shouted. "Suppressing fire!"

Marv was the first one to react to my orders, quickly followed by Andy and Sandor. Miranda seemed to be taking her sweet time, and dozens of grunts were flooding through the crater in underneath the transport. The first few ones were quickly and effectively mowed down. They were too eager and didn't bother checking their surroundings, but after those first ones died the rest started firing as they went, sending us diving to the ground.

"Pavel, they're coming in through a tunnel! They out a whole fucking army inside the walls!"

"Fucking shit," he eloquently replied. "Shit, shit, shit. I can't help you Frank, they're just about flooding over the walls."

"Caboose!"

"We just finished setting up," he said. "Stan's got your back."

Sandor finished cutting down a trio of grunts and an elite's head exploded, a few seconds after that I heard the characteristic noise of Zepeda's SRS.

"Thanks, Zepeda," I said. "Elites only."

Green light.

Before too long we got reinforcements in the shape of a platoon of half-armored Marines. They placed themselves on one of the covvies' flanks. Incredibly enough we got even more reinforcements less than two minutes after that. Three battered Armadillos formed a barrier and started firing their autocannons at the mass of aliens trying to gain a foothold inside Fountain Firebase.

"Lieutenant Castillo," Hayes shouted into my helmet. "Castillo!"

"I hear you Cap," I said, reloading my rifle. "What is it?"

"Command wants the transports to take off before any more are destroyed. The Covenant are too close for comfort."

"Roger, what do you need us to do?"

"Civilian herding, they're scared and need some ass-shoving."

I grunted. "Sir, you know we can handle that, but this isn't exactly a field day down here."

"I get that, lieutenant, and Command does too. They're sending every available man to your position and need you to hurry up the evacuation process along."

"Yes, sir." I cursed. "Come on, you heard the lady," I told my squad. "Pull back, pull back."

I saw my men start moving back as Marines and soldiers flooded in the area. Despite our armored support and large numbers the covvies kept on coming. They must've had at least a hundred in the tunnels and probably even more waiting in line. This was the real deal.

"I want clear visors," I said. "We're doing police work, but stay sharp."

Tanks started rolling past us with groups of Marines behind them. I did my best to ignore them, but the sheer numbers of Marines and soldiers that they were sending to the crater could only mean that they were actually needed there more than at the walls. The two transports that were still intact were being crowded by the survivors from the destroyed starships. A few men in armor were trying to keep them from rushing in but were being overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

"Sandor, you get to be the bad guy," I said. "Make sure only civilians with valid passes get on board."

"Got it," he said.

As Sandor elbowed his way through the mob and started shouting I motioned for my squad to spread out around the civilians. They immediately started spreading out the word that the ones who were supposed to be inside the destroyed ships would get a new ship or a ride on a UNSC ship. A few made attempts to protest, but the iconic ODST helmet quickly discouraged them. Sandor, however, was the main reason that the mob started sinking back into relative peace. It was an incredible feat considering that there was a battle going on less than a kilometer from this position.

"Sir, my wife…"

"I'm sorry," I dismissed the man. "UNSC will release a list of casualties later today."

"But what if they overwhelm us?"

"They won't," I quickly replied. "Everyone not supposed to be here please return to your shelters! We need to make this quick!"

"My daughter–"

"Where are we supposed to go?"

"I can't stay here!"

"I need to get on the ship!"

"Where's my baby? Where's my son?"

The voices started coming in and I could tell that more than a few of those weren't real. I growled quietly and pushed people away from me not too gently. The moment there was enough space I raised my rifle and fired three shots in the air.

Hearing a gunfight a kilometer away was one thing, but having a rifle go off less than a dozen meters from you can be scary.

In hindsight it was probably a pretty bad decision, especially considering the fucking battle that was raging around them.

"Everybody calm down!" I boomed as loudly as my helmet's amplifiers would go. "Anybody not on the passenger list will return to camp immediately or will be charged with disorderly conduct and treason."

"You heard the big man!" Sandor said. "I'm the nice guy here, so back the fuck off if you're not supposed to be here!"

I have no idea why I wasn't beat to death or yelled at, but for some reason beyond my understanding everybody started moving in different directions. People started climbing the boarding ramps calmly and others jogged back towards the safety of the refugee camp.

"That's it, keep moving," Marv said in a calm voice. "Come on, let's go. You'll get your chance another day."

I paced back and forth, occasionally urging a person to move faster or checking a victim to see if the injuries warranted immediate medical attention. Most of the people that had made it all the way over here were good enough to walk, but I made sure to direct a few to the nearest hospital building.

"First transport is good to go," Andy said. "Captain is just waiting for the go sign."

"Relay the information to Control Tower," I ordered. "And hurry up boarding process."

"Yes, sir."

The second ship was almost twice as big as the first one, but the loading ramps were much bigger. I moved my men so that one of two of them would each be guarding one and I paced in between them to take care of whatever issues arose. The process was going quite fast and even though the battle hadn't died down it had bogged down.

"We're about 90% full," the pilot said. "A few more minutes should do it."

"Good," I said. "Report progress to Control Tower."

"Understood, el-tee."

Now I had pilots deferring to me. Next thing you know I would be in command of a battalion.

"Marv, start boarding process on the third transport," I ordered. "Lower the ramps and hurry along everybody still around here."

"Yes, sir."

The crater battle had been going on for almost an hour now, either they would cave in or we would. We still had to get this over quickly to jump back into the battle as soon as possible.

"Pavel, sitrep."

"Not good, sir," he came in, panting. "We're holding the line, but just barely. We need constant mortar support if we want to survive."

"I'll see about that. Casualties?"

"Sutton was hit," he said. "I don't think he'll make it."

I nodded. "Copy that."

I took a deep breath.

"Fuck!"

A few startled civilians looked at me and started moving quicker, but otherwise nobody said anything about my brief outburst. Sutton was the sixth casualty in my platoon so far. That was almost a third of my men dead in a year.

"Lieutenant, we're getting reports of enemy air assets on the move, I repeat, there are enemy air assets on the move."

"Copy that, Command," I said, thoughts racing through my mind. "What kind of air assets?"

"Drones are getting some interference, but it appears that there is at least ten Banshee fighters and two Spirit dropships. We've dispatched two squadrons of Hornets and are gearing up the SkyHawks to intercept."

"Got it, let's just pray they hold long enough. Castillo out."

Just when you thought things couldn't get worse…

That's when they got worse.

Someone started screaming and the crowd lost it.

I was taller than most and my armored boots added some height to that. It still didn't allow me to see just what the hell was going on. I couldn't stretch my neck to see over the crowd unless I wanted to get trampled, instead I crouched to get more stability and survive all the people trampling each other.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Cloaked elites, they started cutting anyone within arm's reach," Miri said.

"Well shoot them!"

"Too many civilians around them."

"Shoot them!" I shouted.

Two DMR shots rang out and the screaming intensified.

"Shit," Miranda muttered. "Nicked a man."

"Killed him?"

"No. Wait. The man or the elite?"

"Both."

"No and yes."

"Then you saved the man."

"There's more than one!" Sandor joined the conversation. "Looks like at least six."

I started running against the crowd, gaining perhaps three or four feet before the people started thinning out enough for me to actually make some progress. Three of the six elites were busy impaling wounded or trampled civilians while the other three were busy being killed by my men.

One of the elites fell and another picked up a corpse as a meatshield. I rolled my eyes and out three bursts through the man's neck and into the elite's chest. The alien dropped the corpse and recoiled from the impacts before Miri finished it off with a headshot.

"Behind you!"

Once again my men proved teamwork the best solution for survival in active combat.

Just as Sandor shouted out a warning I jumped forward. Even as I jumped I started turning around. A massive elite with a sword on either hand growled angrily and jumped at me, both blades going for my neck. I ducked and rolled away. For a moment I thought it was the field marshal, but the armor was different and didn't have the scratches.

"Oh shit," I said. "Zepeda?"

Red light. He didn't have a line of sight.

I fired three times in quick succession, two shots hit the elite in the arm and stalled it somewhat, but it wasn't until Sandor and Andy started hitting it with sustained fire that it tried to run away before coming to its knees. I fired the last shot, piercing its helmet and splattering its brains out the back of its head.

"Sir!"

"Hoff?" I asked myself. "What?"

"Sir!"

Ok, it was him.

"Ryan!" Sandor shouted.

I backed away from the sword-bearing elites, firing as I went, and turned around. Hoff was running towards us. With at least twenty civilians in tow.

"What?" I deadpanned.

"Sir!" he shouted for the third time. "These people have places in the second transport!"

"Well get them on board!" I shouted back. "Go!"

I quickly noticed that three civilians stayed behind with Ryan.

Shit, his family.

As soon as the last civilian climbed on board I told the pilot to take off and left the area.

"Hoff, what the fuck?"

"Sorry, sir," he quickly apologized, breathing hard. Forgot my helmet."

"At least you didn't forget your rifle… That your family?"

"Yes, sir."

I looked at the frightened Hoffs. "Pleasure making your acquaintance. You on that transport?"

"Yes," his dad said.

"Well, Mr. Hoff, we'd better start running."

The elites that we had killed moments ago hadn't come alone. Our defensive line had been broken some place or other and now large numbers of enemy infantry were flooding through. Most were going straight for the camp, but they'd have some serious firepower to contend with before they made it close. The rest of them were coming towards the last remaining transport ship.

"Move, move!" I shouted.

Hoff wouldn't let go of his mother, helping her run as fast as she could and urging her to go on. His little brother was keeping a brave face, but the fear was burning him up. His dad was calm, but he wasn't even bothering with trying to hide his fear and worry. I would've liked to meet him before this.

"Come on Ryan," Sandor urged. "Come on!"

"They're going!" he shouted back. "Let's go mom."

"I'm– I'm trying."

We made our way past a group of dead elites, only that one of them turned out to be not quite dead. The alien pushed its chest from the ground and stabbed Hoff through the back of the knee with its sword. The other blade missed him, but having a plasma sword through a major articulation is bad enough. He cried out in pain and stopped abruptly. Before anybody could do anything Hoff bashed the elite with his rifle's stock and jerked himself free of the energy sword. Andrea shot the elite in the back of the head and caught Hoff before he could collapse.

"You ok?" she asked.

"Can't walk…" he grunted.

"I'll take care of them," Sandor assured them.

"Let's go, don't stop!" I shouted, pushing his mom back in the direction of the last transport ship. "Move! He'll be fine!"

Plasma and needles started crisscrossing the air in front and around us. I pressed myself against Mrs. Hoff and made her run while crouched. Sandor did the same with Hoff's brother and Marv took care of his dad, leaving Miri and Andy to fire back at the Covenant soldiers.

"Just a little bit more," I growled when we were fifty meters away. "Don't stop now!"

Something hit me in the ankle and I fell to the ground face-first.

Don't you just love irony?

"Keep running!" I shouted, feeling the burning pain on my ankle. "Go!"

Not a second later Marv was hit in the back, right between the shoulder plates. He collapsed without a sound and this time Hoff's family did indeed start running faster.

Sandor let himself fall back to the rear and started firing at the sword-bearing elites trying to close in on him. Two of them fell and another one managed a swipe, but Sandor killed it with a burst to the face after ducking the blow. The Hoffs were the last ones climbing the platform, and as soon as they did Sandor turned around and started firing at the Covenant trying to get past him.

"Back bitches!" he yelled. "Or meet your gods!"

I'm not sure if they understood him, but they got the meaning of his words well enough. I started reaching for my rifle when I saw a huge elite in golden armor materialize twenty feet from Sandor. It activated two energy swords and started walking towards him slowly. Sandor finished off a fourth elite and reloaded. The golden elite was too close.

He ran at it and fired a short burst before placing his rifle on the way of one of the energy swords. The plasma blade got caught halfway through the MA5 and Sandor slammed into the elite in a hard tackle. He grabbed its other sword hand and reached for his sidearm. He only got two shots before the elite cut his hand off and impaled him through the chest.

"NO!"

Sandor was slumped over as the elite lifted him off the ground effortlessly. I watched in rage as Sandor reached up to his face and removed his helmet. He threw it in the elite's direction and spat at it before dying.

"Sandor!" Andy shouted. "No!"

I pushed myself to one knee as the elite carelessly threw Sandor's body aside. Andy and Miri fired at it, hitting the shields protecting it.

"You fucking asshole!" I shouted.

The elite turned around and growled in reply. Only then did I see the grooves in the armor dug there by knives. This field marshal was the same one that had faced a Spartan and gotten the better of him. It was the same one that had killed Han and Montri. It was the same one that had almost killed me.

It dropped a sword and drew a pistol. One shot was all it took to put Miranda out of commission. The blast hit her between the chest and throat, right where the armor was the thinnest. I fired a few bursts at it, but its fucking shields held for long enough. Two more elites placed themselves in between their leader and our rifles and paid for their lives with it, but by the time their bodies hit the ground the field marshal was gone.

"Andy, get Miranda," I ordered. "Go!"

The transport's engines started roaring, incinerating several Covenant troopers that had been too close to them. I limped towards Marv's limp body and picked him up with a lot less effort than it should've required before slinging him over my shoulders.

"Come on man," I murmured. "Come on."

I placed him next to Hoff, who was busy looking at the evacuation transport as it slowly gained altitude.

"They got away," he said. There were tears in his eyes. They could be of joy or of pain, but in all likelihood were a mix of both. "They got away."

Three Banshees came out of nowhere and started firing at the transport.

"No!" Hoff shouted. "No, no!"

I looked around the sky, trying to find anything that could help. When that failed I raised my rifle and started firing in a wild attempt to hit the three purple fliers. My shots did nothing of significant impact, and before a minute had gone past one of the pilots hit something important and the entire ship blew up in a magnificent fireball.

"No!" Ryan screamed. "No!"

Andy finished dragging Miranda towards us and looked up. Then she started crying

Chapter is barely proofread, I apologize for any mistakes. I also apologize for the long delay in between updates, as you know I was in New York last week and returned here to beautiful, smog-riddled Mexico City for finals week. Ain't that great? The answer (in case you were wondering) is no. It is not great. it fucking sucks. I don't usually swear in these author rants things, but I'm annoyed beyond explanation. Oh, and this was my last buffer chapter, so now I'll have to speed up my writing speed during exams week. *Groans loudly*

Well, I'm sorry about that. Now, to address some of your concerns...

A few reviewers asked why Frank and Co. didn't just steal covvie weapons. I meant for the story to make it clear that the covvies were equally low on ammo and making every effort to save their own weapons for ammo. If I failed to make that clear enough I apologize, but that's that. As for the elite's shields, they ran out of power or something. I don't think I mentioned it, but in my head the Spartans were always in the Covenant's rear, raiding and making trouble for the covvies.

And another one bites the dust.

Stay strong.

-casquis