Chapter CLXXXIX: Boots on the Ground

August 11, 2552 (UNSC Calendar)/seven months later

UNSC Camerone, Epsilon Eridani System

"Feet first into hell."

It had been a long time since I had last heard Serge so talkative. In fact, I don't think he ever was this talkative. The moment he found out what the name of the ship was he began remembering his days of pride back in the Foreign Legion. This cruiser was named after the battle that had made the Foreign Legion famous. A battle that they had lost, but Serge didn't seem to get that. No, he insisted that the Frenchmen of the 19th century had been all brave men. I didn't disagree with him there, but he didn't seem to understand that the Mexican peasant army was also made up of brave men. They had gone against a highly-trained force of elite soldiers that had been professional killers and thugs even before they had been trained. So what if the French hadn't surrendered? It only meant that they had all died.

Why wasn't there a UNSC Puebla? Or the UNSC El Paso? Both were memorable Mexican victories from the French Intervention and the Second Civil War. Stopped the best army in the world and the time and then helped the best army in the world fight another section of itself that disagreed with the way things were run.

But then there were ships named after the Alamo, Thermopylae, Tsushima and Dunkirk. I mean, those guys have my respects, but they all lost. And I'm pretty sure that the ships aren't named that way in order to commemorate the victors, because that's politically incorrect.

Sigh.

Normally I wouldn't have minded, but the way Serge walked, with his chest all puffy and an almost imperceptible smirk on his face… or maybe it was the cabin fever that was getting to me. We had been in this tin can ever since the Battle of Fumirole. It was supposed to be a short series of jumps to Reach and then some down time, but then those assholes decided that invading Sigma Octanus IV was a good idea. Then we finally got there and they were already gone.

"What's on your mind El-tee?" Miranda asked.

"I'm bored," I told her. "This ship doesn't have a simulation room like the Flawless."

"Yeah," she agreed. "But at least these Valiant class can take a pounding. I don't think we've ever been on such a powerful ship."

"She's got a point," Pavel said through his food. "I mean, I'm willing to spend my time doing boring stud like reading and watching movies if it means I have that much plating protecting me."

I sighed. "What do you know about the Battle of El Paso?"

Caboose sighed. He had been quiet throughout this lunch break.

"Well," Miri began after a slightly uncomfortable silence. "It was a battle during the Second American Civil War."

"Go on," I urged.

"Ummm, the Triumvirate was short on fuel and needed it badly, so they invaded Mexico to get it from a place near the border. The Mexican Army went around the small invasion force and attacked the larger army in El Paso."

"A great victory," I said. My uncle had often talked about it in nearly reverent tones. "So why the hell isn't there a UNSC El Paso?"

"Frank," Pavel said very calmly, "we went over this several times already. Life is not fair and the Mexican government hasn't donated enough money to warrant a ship named after a significant moment in Mexican history. Hell, there isn't a Mexican government anymore."

"That's only because you Poles have the UNSC Warsaw," I retorted lamely.

"But there aren't any ships named after Polish battles," Pavel said.

"Because there aren't any victories," Miranda said.

All three of us looked at her and she blushed furiously.

"Miri," Pavel began, "you don't have nearly enough seniority to say something like that."

"S-sorry," she apologized quickly, looking away.

"Kid does have a point though," I muttered under my breath, drawing a punch from Pavel.

"Contact the Secretary of the Navy," Pavel said. "Ask for a personal request."

I pursed my lips and considered what he was saying. "I do know Lord Hood's nephew."

Pavel coughed slightly. "You never told me about that."

"Yeah, met him in OCS."

"Huh."

"Huh indeed," I agreed. "So I could make that happen."

Pavel laughed. "If there's a UNSC El Paso by the time we win the war I will let you–"

"Have sex with your wife?" I suggested.

That got me another punch, a much harder one.

"Sorry," I apologized.

"I won't give you anything," he said finally.

"Anyways, I stand by what I said."

"Serge is really getting to you, isn't he?" Pavel asked me.

I took a big bite of my Bolognese. It was a lot better than usual, I think the UNSC renewed their catering contract with a different company. Same price, better quality they said. I'm not sure about better quality, but it was certainly better tasting.

When I didn't reply Pavel simply chuckled at my lack of an answer. For some reason or other my uncle had managed to leave two things behind; a strong sense of loyalty to the United Nations Space Command and a strong sense of loyalty to my country of origin. Those things had caused me nothing but trouble ever since I joined the Corps. Well, there was that one time when Mexico won the World Cup, but other than that I didn't really get news from the so-called homeland. It was weird that the URNA was a single state but the former countries that still made it up tried to remain their national identity despite being part of a confederation.

"It's weird that you're annoyed by this," Schitzo told me. "Think of the name of this ship as a celebration of an achievement of humanity as a whole and not of the French."

The ships alarms started blaring loudly. For five full seconds nobody said or did anything, instead we just crammed as much food as possible into our mouths.

"This is not a drill," the ship's AI said. "Battle stations. This is not a drill."

I swallowed and took a moderately large gulp to help me swallow.

"Come on, people!" I shouted. "Head to the drop room!"

My team had been isolated from the rest of the ship's small Marine complement. I'm not sure why ONI wanted it that way, but it meant that the smaller mess hall was emptied a lot quicker. My men started running towards the drop room, which coincidentally enough, was closer to this mess hall than the main one. I waited for all of my men to rush downstairs and then followed them as the blaring alarms stopped, leaving instead flashing red lights.

"Undersuits on!" I reminded my men. "Don't even consider not wearing them. Might I remind you we are in space?"

A few of my men turned and nodded in my direction, but most of them simply started taking their clothes off. I unlaced my boots and kicked them off.

"Bolivar!" I called out. "What's the situation?"

The ship's AI popped up on one of the holo-tanks. It was modeled after the famous soldier and politician that liberated much of South America from the Spaniards back in the day. I liked his uniform, even if the thick Venezuelan accent was slightly overdone. I would've preferred he speak in Spanish, but apparently not everyone spoke it.

"We received an incoming transmission from HIGHCOM just as we exited slipspace. WINTER CONTINGENCY has been declared in the Epsilon Eridani System."

Everyone went quiet. Someone even dropped a helmet.

"Reach… no, it can't happen here," Crow said. "This is–"

"Who gave you permission to stop?" I asked, trying to mask the sheer amount of feelings going through me. "This ship is still under threat and we are going to protect it. Hurry it up!"

My words seemed to make my men snap out of their haze. They resumed what they were doing with a cold determination in their eyes. I made sure to take a moment to see Pavel's reaction. He wasn't the only one with family in this planet, but he was the only one with a kid in this planet. He returned my gaze and nodded slightly before he went on ahead to finish donning his undersuit.

"Bolivar, Room-B."

"Of course, lieutenant."

I walked to the aforementioned room and the AI's holographic avatar appeared on the tanks. I couldn't help but notice that despite his artificial nature there was an almost imperceptible frown on his face. It must've taken a lot to worry an AI, especially to worry it enough for the worry to show.

"What do you know?" I asked, pulling at the undersuit. "I need everything."

The AI nodded. "You understand that there are some things even you don't have clearance for, Lieutenant," Bolivar said. As soon as I nodded he went on. "In July 24th contact with the Visegard Relay was lost, an Army unit was sent to investigate and made contact with Covenant forces."

"Shit," I cursed. "What unit?"

"A curious question," Bolivar said. "I see you have the required clearance… Spartan Noble Team. It is my understanding that you worked with them a few months ago in Fumirole."

I nodded. "Helped them take out a CCS-class battlecruiser. They lost one of their own and another Spartan lost an arm during that op."

"Oh, and I see that you also worked with two of them before they were drafted into Noble. How curious. My, my, you're file is full of very interesting stuff. I'm surprised I didn't read it earlier."

I rolled my eyes. This construct could make a million simultaneous operations and it didn't bother to read through the files of everybody on board. They are all different I guess.

"Get on with it please," I said. "What intel can you give me?"

"There are at least two corvettes hovering over Szurdok Ridge. They are backed up with numerous infantry, which indicates the presence of at least one more ship."

"Szurdok is in Viery," I said, my eyes widening with shock. Esztergom was in Viery. "What's the situation on Esztergom?"

"There are Covenant ground forces nearby, but not close enough to threaten directly. They do seem, however, to be moving away from the city. I don't have enough information right now to give you an accurate threat assessment."

"It'll have to do for now," I grunted. "Why haven't we responded?"

"We will, Army is preparing a scouting mission before they begin their assault. If everything goes according to plan then the assault will begin early tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!" I exploded. "Do you know how much can happen in a single day?"

"I am sorry lieutenant," Bolivar apologized, "but there's nothing that can be done about it."

I took a few deep breaths. "What's our role in this?"

"Due to possible Covenant presence in the system we have slowed down our approach to Reach slightly. We should arrive to the planet early tomorrow."

"And in the meantime?"

"In the meantime," Bolivar said, "we can only wait and hope that no more enemy ships show up."

"How very sad," I said. "Anything else?"

"Not really," the AI said, shrugging slightly. "I'll let you know if there are any further developments"

"Thanks Simon," I said.

I left the room to find all of my men already in their armor and with their helmet at their feet or under their arms. Nobody was saying anything, instead they were either standing by their designated pods or they were pacing about with worried frowns on their faces. Pavel looked particularly concerned with the situation, but it was understandable. They looked at me when I came out, but once it became clear that I wasn't going to reveal anything they stopped staring. I began putting on my boots, but I couldn't get the frown off my face.

"What's on your mind?" Pavel asked.

"Noble Team," I lied through my teeth.

"What about them?" Polly asked rather bluntly.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, my comment started a discussion. Most of the guys didn't really like the Spartans, but that was probably due to the fact that most of the guys here were Helljumpers. The guys from the Army didn't really care much either way. I could tell that Tank wasn't one hundred percent happy with them since he was Army Airborne, but Pitcher and Crow were mostly ambivalent. Both Lady and Preacher actually liked the Spartans, but they only started behaving like that after they realized that the Spartan program was a Navy program.

"Noble Team went through hell to save the city," Pavel said. "They lost one of their own and another one was badly hurt."

I nodded. "You don't have to like them. But you can at least respect them."

That drew the discussion on for some time, but in the end a bunch of spec ops types couldn't keep up with an argument about an outfit that was infinitely more skilled than we were. It was bad for our self-esteem.

I looked at my wrist pad. "All right! Everybody up! Up, up, up!"

Everybody got up almost immediately. The few that had been able to catch some sleep had probably been having nightmares of some sort of bad dream. Five seconds later I had nineteen sleepy faces looking at me through beady eyes. I gathered Team 7 around the large holo-table in the middle of the drop room.

"Bolivar," I said. "Bring up Viery. Real-time please."

"Of course, lieutenant," he said, complying.

The entirety of the Viery territory appeared in the table, with little flags displaying UNSC units as well as Covenant ground forces.

"Ok, listen up," I said loudly. "As you can see we're already counter attacking on all fronts, but the bulk of our forces are concentrating in the Szurdok Ridge area." As I said that the table zoomed in on that region. "The assault began about an hour ago. You can see two frigates, the Grafton and the Saratoga moving in on one of the spires." I waited a few seconds for the Grafton to fire at the spire. It looked pretty unimpressive on this holographic table.

"Is it a good idea to use MAC rounds in-atmosphere?" Dotsenko asked.

"The shot was toned down by several percents," Bolivar explained.

"Well, once the spire– holy shit!"
Everybody took an involuntary half-step backwards- Half the display was suddenly covered by a gargantuan Covenant ship. It flickered a couple of times, making me hope that it was just a mistake, but the shape was the right one. It was a supercarrier. It was nearly thirty kilometers of space superiority. That ship was large and dangerous enough to bring Reach to its knees, even with our ODPs.

The alarms started ringing again.

My men were looking up at me, but I didn't know what to say.

"Bolivar, confirm that," I sputtered after a while.

"It's real," the AI confirmed. "Excuse me, lieutenant. The entirety of my processing capabilities is needed."

The ship moved sideways fast enough that the inertial dampeners couldn't eliminate the entirety of the momentum. I gripped the table and stumbled slightly even as the ship started rumbling.

"Sir, what's going on?" Polly asked.

"Everybody inside your pods," I ordered. "Pavel, Grigori, and Mata stay with me."

My men made their way inside their pods, leaving me and my three fireteam leaders alone.

"What is it?" Pavel asked after the pods had all sealed shut.

"The Navy will make sure that that supercarrier is blown out of the sky before the week is over. That thing is just too damn dangerous."

"What's our role here?" Grigori asked. "As good as this team is we can't take down a supercarrier."

"I know, I know," I said. "Besides, we're not the only AAG team in the system, some of them are Spartan-III units."

"Great, we're not first pick," Mata muttered under his breath.

I nodded slowly and avoided looking at the holo-table. The supercarrier had blown up one of the frigates and was making it a point to fry the victorious UNSC troops in the ground as it slowly lumbered forward.

"Our planet is burning down there, Frank," Pavel said.

"We can't do anything about it," I said. "HIGHCOM will probab–"

"My family is down there!" Pavel shouted. "I can't just stay here!"

"Katie is also down there," I reminded him firmly. "Not ten blocks away from your family. We can't help them right now. The only thing we can do right now is stay put and wait for orders, ok?"

"He's got a point Klaus," Mata said. "Space traffic is certainly grounded and getting your family to a spaceport would only make it a target."

"Spaceports are usually primary targets," Grigori said. "Besides, that ship's moving away from Esztergom."

Pavel seemed to be calmed down by that last statement, he stopped frowning so hard and instead leaned slightly backwards, crossing his arms over his chest. I didn't blame him for the way he reacted. His family was down there and it probably felt even worse than I could imagine. Katie and I were finally in a good place, we were finally beginning to settle down together. I erased her image from my mind and gripped my pistol tightly.

"What about the men?" Mata asked. "Most of them have someone they care down there."

"Not just them," I said.

Mata shrugged. "Szurdok is pretty isolated, not much civilian presence there."

"So? The Army is still getting incinerated down there," Pavel said. "Aren't there any Onagers in the area?"

"An Onager against a supercarrier?" I asked. "There's no way to damage it that way."

"There are six Onager mass drivers in the area," Grigori said.

"How do you know that?" Mata asked.

I coughed slightly. I had no doubt that Grigori knew that because at one time or other the insurrectionist cell that he worked with.

"Six mass drivers firing simultaneously might be enough to deter the supercarrier from firing," Pavel said. "If it brings its shields down to shoot then one of the cannons might get a lucky hit."

"If we came up with it then Command is probably thinking about it too," I said. "We're not that smart."

"Good point," Mata said, chuckling. "So now what?"

"Nothing," I said. "We wait for orders and then fulfill them to the best of our ability. Reach is under attack. The Navy will take out that big mother of a spaceship soon enough, but it'll drop troops and materiel."

"A lot of it," Pavel said.

"We go down, fight, and keep our minds off it," I said finally. "Keep their minds off it."

Pavel nodded. I was worried about him, but at least he seemed to be back in control of himself. It was unlikely that he would stop worrying about his family until the Covenant were off the planet, but until that happen he would be perfectly functional as a Helljumper. At least that's what I was hoping.

"The ship's moving," Mata said after a while. "It's coming up."

I saw the supercarrier disappearing from the holographic display. "Zoom out." The carrier was moving up and away from the planet.

"Why is it moving?" Pavel asked.

"There's nothing left to burn," I grunted.

The hologram disappeared and was replaced by Bolivar's avatar. "Lieutenant, you have your orders."

"Finally," I said.

"You are to drop with your team down into Szurdok Ridge," the AI said. "This is a simple mission. The supercarrier dropped off most of its infantry complement before bugging off."

"Figures," Mata said.

"You and Team 7 are to drop down and eliminate any and all enemy forces you encounter."

"My kind of job," Pavel nodded.

"HVTs?" I asked.

"Currently the only explicit target you have is a Scarab walker," Bolivar said. "The rest is up to you. In addition to the destruction of enemy forces you are to link up with any UNSC forces you encounter to further your objective. We're cleaning up this mess."

"Got it," I said. "Did Bee get his laser?"

Pavel nodded. "And Tank's got a rocket launcher."

"Good. Mata, I need you to get yourself another rocket launcher."

"Yes, sir," he said, rushing to the armory.

I moved towards my pod, trying to think of anything else we might need. We all had full ammunition and equipment loads and if we gathered out explosives together we had enough to bring down an entire city block if we so chose to. C-12 was a marvel and our status as Tier One operators meant that we had constant access to the little compound. Short of a portable nuke we had enough firepower to bring down anything that we came across. I shrugged and moved inside the pod, closing the hatch.

"Men, Reach is under attack," I said on the broadcast channel, trying to come up with something better. "And we're going to clean up. We will destroy every single fucker down there and we will do it fast. This is not just any planet, this is our planet. The Covenant made the biggest mistake of their lives when they set their eyes here." I took a deep breath. "Let's go over it again. We drop and we kill everything."

"Hell yeah," Dotsenko said. "Let's do this!"

My men started whooping and hollering, getting themselves pumped up.

"How do we go?" I asked.

"We go feet first, Lieutenant!"

"Damn right," I muttered as I cracked my knuckles almost ceremonially.

My stomach lurched as we were launched off the Camerone. I looked down at Reach and saw that a large section of Viery was on fire. The fire didn't reach as far as Esztergom. The damage was mostly contained on the northeast of the continent. As we plummeted down to Reach I spotted the massive carrier that the Covenant had begun their invasion with. It wasn't because of its simply ludicrous size, it was because it appeared from underneath the clouds right at our feet.

"Go right! Go right!" I ordered, frantically redirecting my pod away from the supercarrier.

We bypassed the ship by what must've been a few hundred meters, but even as we flew past it I couldn't help but notice just how large it was. It was at least three kilometers tall, that's longer than every single UNSC ship currently in service. Its purple lights gave it a sinister appearance. I turned my eyes from it and hoped that the Camerone had gotten itself to safety. No matter how powerful that ship was, it couldn't stand up to a Covenant supercarrier.

"There's the Scarab!" I said suddenly, seeing it on my magnified screen. "I need three volunteers."

"I'll go," Ramirez said.

"Guess that means I'm up for it as well," Dotsenko added.

"I'm with them," Marv said.

"Hit the head and body only," I reminded them. "Everybody else, we aim for that little cliff over there."
We did some final adjustments to our trajectories and our pods slammed into the ground at barely survivable speeds. The seventeen of us that hadn't used our pods as kinetic projectiles spread out and secured the area. The three others had completely wrecked the walker. Not only because the main cannon on its head was useless now, but because they had killed the entirety of the crew in what must've been less than twenty seconds.

"Clear down here," Marv transmitted.

"Good work," I said. "We'll meet up there."

I set up a waypoint and looked at the rest of my men.

"Snark, Preacher. Find me something to kill," I ordered the two sharpshooters.

They nodded and moved out, leaving fifteen of us together in a tight group. I could hear gunfire and plasma fire, but what troubled me the most was that I could hear the sound of fire crackling. It must've been a pretty big fire if I could hear it and not see it. The smoke that it made was clouding my vision already, and the sky was obscured by it.

"Got something," Snark said. "Small squad."

"Handle it," I said. "We move north. I spotted what looked like enemy armored that way."

My men nodded and started moving in the direction I had pointed even as Snark and Preacher neutralized the small squad of covvies that they had spotted.

"Frank," Pavel said. "We don't have any kind of support."

"Not yet," I agreed. "But there's got to be at least a couple of tanks that survived this and this place will be covered with aircraft soon enough. For now we fend

for ourselves. We're good at that, remember?"

"Yeah," he agreed. "But after two years of having every kind of support readily available…"

I shrugged. "It's been a good couple of years," I agreed. "But this is our thing."

Pavel chuckled humorlessly and offered me his fist. I bumped it and moved up ahead. This place hadn't seen any fighting during the Army offensive, but it hadn't been far from the battle if the nearby sights were anything to go by.

"We're coming up on your left," Marv let me know.

"Roger that," I replied.

"Lady and Longworth, spread out to the right."

"Yes, sir."

I kept moving, spreading out my unit to give out the best possible cover for everybody. I was left with Serge at my side. The old legionnaire had switched to his shotgun. I don't know why he liked that thing so much, especially considering that he rarely had the chance to use it. Pavel still had his automatic shotgun, but he barely used it and in turn barely carried it for missions.

"Enemy contact," Snark said. "Two Daemon tanks plus infantry."

"Hold position," I ordered. "Mata, Tank, you're up."

"What about me?" Bee asked.

"Hold up," I said. "Move up everybody."

The two tanks that Snark had spotted were moving slowly through the scorched ground. The infantry troops surrounding them seemed to be at edge. I wouldn't blame them. They were in the single largest military complex that humanity had and seemed aware that they weren't evenly matched on the ground.

"No additional support," I noted slowly. "I takes roughly three hits to blow up one of those, right?"
Serge nodded next to me.

"Tank and Mata, I want you to target the closest Daemon. Two rockets only," I ordered. "Bee, you've got the laser. Try and see if you can hit the driver. If not, I want a follow-up rocket right on their asses. The rest of us handle the infantry."

"Ready on your go, sir," Mata said.

I aimed at an elite with a carbine on its left hand. "Go."

Three rockets slammed into the nearest Daemon tank. At this range the M19 missiles didn't have much trouble punching through the thick composite armor the tanks sported. The three missiles destroyed the armor and then proceeded to fry whoever was piloting the goddamn tank. Nearly simultaneously Bee fired at the other Daemon's midsection, melting through the armor. The man knew his job and succeeded in hitting the driver, removing the second tank from the battle for at least a couple of minutes.

I fired at the elite, who just seemed to be realizing that its two tanks were gone. It recoiled from the impacts and then fired a couple of quick shots that didn't come anywhere near my direction. I squeezed of an additional couple of bursts to kill it and then switched targets. Two jackals were trying to overlap their shields, but I got both of them before they could get close to each other. I once again switched targets, but my team had neutralized the rest of the Covenant infantry.

"Move up," I ordered. "Caboose, Serge, shotguns first. Make sure there are no survivors behind the tanks."

The two shotgun-wielding men moved quickly and turned behind the two Daemons. They fired their shotguns three times each and then Caboose tossed a grenade before taking cover. Crow moved up and finished off whatever was left behind the tank. Pitcher and Andy climbed up the Daemon that Bee had neutralized and opened the hatch.

"Frag out," Pitcher said, dropping his grenade before Andy closed the hatch again.

I smiled at the muted explosion that shook the tank.

Andy opened the hatch again and peeked in. "Three dead covvies."

"Is it usable?" I asked her.

"Not my department," she replied.

"Longworth!" I called out, "can you drive one of these?"

"In theory," he replied. "Hold up."

The man jogged towards the tank and dragged one half of an elite out of the hatch before sliding in. He gave Andy the other half, which she promptly tossed away. Bee chuckled at the sight of his handiwork.

"Nah, this thing's unusable," Longworth said. "Controls are all messed up."

I nodded. "Pitcher, blow up the cannon, will you."

"Yes, sir," he said, producing yet another fragmentation grenade. He waited for Longworth and Andy to clear the tank and tossed it down the tank's cannon. He jumped down and ran as fast as he could, letting the grenade destroy the Daemon's main offensive capability. I considered doing the same thing for the plasma turrets, but this tank couldn't move and couldn't shoot.

"A minute and fifteen seconds," Snark said, looking at his watch. "Good job kids."

"Good job," I agreed. "We keep going north."

We encountered a few small Covenant units as we moved. Most were handled rather quickly and without any inconvenience on our side, but there weren't any human forces here. Sure, there was a wrecked Hornet here and a useless Falcon there, but no survivors so far.

"Enemies up ahead," Snark came in. "Lots of them."

"Give me a number," I said.

"About a hundred or so."

"Shit," I said.

"We can't handle that many," Pavel said. "Not without a significant terrain advantage."

"I don't think we have that," Caboose said.

"We bypass them?" Mata asked. "Or we raid them?"

"Hold up hold up," Snark said. "Oh. I see two Scorpion tanks, they're moving up behind the enemy. Shit they were made."

"Snark, hit any covvies with shoulder-mounted weapons," I ordered immediately. "Tank, Mata, and Bee, you take out any armored and vehicles that they have. Move, move!"

Whenever you had two Scorpions on your side you were practically guaranteed a victory. Even if it was against a Scarab. I heard the sound of the tanks firing before I could see what was going on. The rocky terrain was a bitch to travel through, but it worked to our advantage more often than not.

I stopped short of a fall and saw that the covvies were directly in front of us, only separated by a chasm a hundred feet long. The road I now found myself in hugged the side of the ridge to my right and then curved.

"Down," I urged my men.

"Did they see us?" Miranda asked.

A single needle shard burst against the rock wall behind us.

"There's your answer," Polly said.

"Someone man that gun," I shouted, pointing at a wrecked Warthog with what appeared to be a serviceable M41 LAAG. "We need to gain a foothold there!" I pointed at the spot where the road curved back around. If we got a squad there we would be firing on the Covenant unit from two different directions and the two Scorpions would have an infinitely easier time pounding the aliens into submission.

"I got it," Pavel said. "Dotsenko, Ramirez! With me!"

"Cover them!" I shouted. "Snark, get their heads down."

"Working on it," he replied. "Preacher here keeps praying."

"I don't care what he does as long as he kills one per shot," I replied. "How are we with that Gatling?"

"I'm up," Polly said. "I got this shit."

The weapon started firing, quickly increasing its firing rate. Several grunts and a pair of elites were hit by the heavy rounds and killed almost immediately. A few of the grunts even tipped over the barrier and down into the chasm. I repressed the urge to chuckle at their comic fates and ducked back behind the polycrete barrier.

"Pavel?"

"Almost there!" he replied.

The Scorpions were now exchanging fire with a Wraith and what seemed to be six or seven plasma cannons. Snark couldn't hit them from his vantage point, but hopefully Pavel would be able to harass them long enough and give the two tanks a window to take out the unprotected gunners.

"Hit that Wraith!" Mata shouted. "Tank!"

"I'm reloading," the big man replied.

It was a couple of frantic seconds before I heard the two rockets fire and then a brief instant before they hit the Wraith, eliminating it. Pavel, Dotsenko, and Ramirez got to their intended position and started firing at the surviving Covenant soldiers. They could've stayed here, because the two Scorpions fired on the infantry with what could only be gleeful expressions. The hundred or so aliens were all dead a minute or so later.

"Pavel, meet with the tankers," I ordered. "Caboose, set up a perimeter, will you?"

"Yes, sir," he replied, immediately starting to give out orders.

I pointed at Polly and beckoned for him to come with me. He climbed down and his spot in the wrecked 'Hog was immediately replaced. Polly seemed quite content with his role in the short battle, he had taken out the most aliens and then helped us by keeping their heads down.

"That was a good one, wasn't it, El-tee?"

I nodded and smiled slightly. "Yeah it was. Happy with yourself?"

"Very," he confirmed. "Did you see the way their little heads went pop-pop-pop? I just love the LAAG."

"Everybody does, Polly," I said in agreement. "Why aren't you manning those more often?"

He chuckled. "Usually it's Gunny Klaus and those two guys."

"Yeah, Dotsenko and Ramirez do tend to hog the guns."

"Besides, driving isn't so bad."

I nodded, stepping over a fresh corpse. "It's been a while since we've had a driving mission."

"Yeah," he said. "We only do raids and behind enemy lines insertions nowadays."

"So lame," I said, prompting a chuckle.

"Frank, over here!" Pavel called out. He knew damn well I could see him. He probably just wanted me to hurry up. I rolled my eyes and moved up a little bit faster to humor him.

One of the tankers popped open the Scorpion's hatch and climbed halfway out. "Thanks for the assist."

"Likewise, Sergeant," I said. "That was some mighty good timing on your part."

"Yours as well," he replied with a chuckle. He stopped laughing abruptly. "What are you? My first guess was Helljumpers, but those two don't exactly have regulation armor on them," he pointed at Dotsenko and Ramirez, "and then you've got an Army jock here with patchwork armor."

I looked over at Polly. I hadn't really ever noticed that he had a variety of armor models on him. His vest was standard Army issue, but he had added an ODST chest-plate to it. Then you had shoulder pauldrons that I vaguely recognized as some type of experimental variant. All of it was painted in Army digital camouflage.

"What?" he asked.

"We're special forces," I told the tanker.

"You're not Spartans," he noted.

"No shit," Ramirez scoffed.

The tanker eventually shrugged. "Meh, don't care. Did you take part in the offensive?"

I shook my head. "Just dropped."

"We were heading down to the valley," the tanker said. "Prime tank terrain."

"Our orders were to clear out every Covenant fucker we saw," Ramirez said. "And you guys did that down in the valley."

"What he's saying is that you're needed up here," I said.

The tanker sighed and leaned on his hatch. "You see these two tanks right here? We're the 12th Tank Battalion. Yeah, battalion. When the offensive started there was fifty-two Scorpions with us. Now it's just us two."

"Shit," Dotsenko said.

"Listen, Sergeant," I said with a sigh. "I'm sorry. Truly, but with two Scorpions working with us…"

The sergeant nodded. "Sir, I just lost fifty friends today."

"Don't make me pull rank here," I said, feeling every bit like an ass. "I'm pretty sure that your friends would appreciate you blasting every single Covenant bastard that you can."

The sergeant nodded once again, this time more slowly. "Very well then, sir. We've got your back."

"Thanks, Sergeant," I said. "I'm going to buy you a beer once we're through with the Covenant."

"Thanks, sir."

"Turn these back around," I gestured at the tanks. "There's a fork back there that leads into the mountains. I take it you cleared this road?"

"We did," he said. "We're going to need some infantry support if we're going to go into mountain terrain."

"I've got you covered, Sarge," I said.

"I'll get the men mobilized," Pavel told me. "Mountain terrain is dangerous terrain. Especially for tanks."

"I know that," I told him. "We'll take good care of them and they'll take care of us."

He nodded and called the rest of the team to move up and join us.

"Fifty tanks," Polly muttered.

"Yeah," I said, watching the two Scorpions turn. "He didn't say if they were gone before or after that ship showed up."

"Let's hope it was after," Polly said. "Because then the covvies have some serious shit going on."

"Agreed," Ramirez said, moving closer. "You just don't walk up and take out fifty Scorpion tanks in an hour."

"Either way, whatever took them out probably lost, right? These two survived," Dotsenko said.

"Ever heard of a retreat?" Ramirez told him, pushing him sideways.

"Didn't we win? I mean, before that giant carrier showed up," Polly asked.

"Shut up," I said, rolling my eyes. The rest of the team was getting here, some of them looked particularly interested in the two big-ass tanks that we would be fighting alongside.

"Tank escort mission," I said. "We take out the threats and they take out everything else."

"My kind of mission," Bee said loudly.

"Yeah, yeah," I dismissed him. "Snark and Preacher."

"We've got point," Snark sighed. "Got it. Tell him to stop praying."

"You outrank him," I said.

"He doesn't listen," Snark complained. "Nobody takes my rank seriously."

"That's because you don't take it seriously," Payat quipped.

"See what I mean?" Snark said. "Payat's only a corporal."

I sighed. These men were the cream of the crop, but it was easy to forget that they were mostly a bunch of imbeciles that had skipped college and were only just beginning to release their inner frat boy.

"Shut up," I ordered my men. "Next one to say something stupid gets one in the back."

Pavel shook slightly. Only I knew that he was struggling to avoid laughing. "You heard him! Those tanks aren't going to protect themselves!"

"Let's move!" Caboose shouted, urging the men with him to follow.

Mata, not to be outdone, barked out orders at lightning speed.

My men might've been a bunch of idiots, but when it came to soldiering, they were the best idiots out there.

Thanks for reading this chapter.

So it begins. This chapter and the one after this are mainly introductory chapters. Not too much plot, just a whole lot of chaos and fighting. After next chapter I'll start going into the plot stuffs. There will be cameos and there will be awesome things. Right now I'm just looking to get past all this Szurdok Ridge and Viery stuff so that I can get to the tri-dimensional city fighting. I know you guys love that.

Thanks to the four of you that reviewed the last chapter. I don't think I've had a chapter with so little reviews in a long time. Guess I'm getting complacent or something. It wasn't a great chapter, but come on guys, I need my semi-weekly dose of ego boosting or I start killing off characters. I even made it so that every time you review a pop up appears telling you that I'm grateful for your continuing support. Seriously, review and check it out.

Stay strong.

-casquis