Chapter CXCIV: Schitzo of the Apes

August 17, 2552 (UNSC Calendar)/

Iskander Valley, Eposz, Reach, Epsilon Eridani System

"Sam, what about a bit of rope? You'll want it if you haven't got it."–Samwise Gamgee

Not for the first time I woke up with quite a little bit of pain. I didn't open my eyes, I don't think I could've even if I tried. I realized that I was strapped to something, most likely a Pelican chair. It took a few seconds for me to remember everything that had happened right before. Skyhook, pulse laser, incredibly long drop, Pelican caught us. That was the rough order in which things had happened. My head was throbbing and with every little thing I remembered I seemed to get a very brief flashback of the scene.

I saw myself stabbing into the floor and hanging on to my knife.

"Thank God for hardwood floors, eh?" Schitzo whispered next to my ear. "Wake up, Francisco. It's about time."

"Time for what?" I asked.

Pavel detonated a flashbang and I was blinded. I remember him telling me to jump and then there was something about a Phantom followed by a very long drop. I couldn't remember what happened next. Somehow I had made it into a Pelican, but I was probably missing a huge chunk of what had happened. Had I landed with a parachute or a jetpack? Maybe the fall hadn't been that long… I grunted and opened my eyes. The world seemed blurry and strange, but that was only until I realized that I was hanging upside down.

Upside down. Damn, Captain Flatt had picked us up!

Us… where the hell is Pavel?

"It doesn't matter right now," Schitzo said. "You gotta get moving."

"Yes." I took a deep breath. "Get moving. Evade, survive, and all that."

My helmet slowly flickered back to life, displaying some vitals that didn't look very promising and informing me that I had two broken ribs on my right side. They didn't hurt terribly bad, which meant that they were probably just small cracks. One of my arms was numb, but I could tell that it was from a hit and not from anything more serious. For a Pelican crash I had ended up quite nicely, especially when you considered that my whole seat had been thrown out of the cargo bay. I felt for my sidearm and sighed when I didn't find it there.

Wait, Pavel had it for a while… He lost his weapon in the skyhook. Or something.

I grunted and tried pulling myself up, but the straps were too tight for me to really do anything. Before undoing my straps I tilted my neck backwards and tried to measure the height I was at. It wasn't too bad, probably about five meters and easily survivable, even in my state. I began reaching for the clip when I heard a noise that sent me into high alert.

It sounded like growls. In fact, it was growls. I stopped moving and waited for my helmet to confirm my suspicions. Perhaps it was only a mountain cat of something of the sort, but in the end my helmet began translating the growls for me and confirmed that the growling belonged to brutes. I looked down again, ignoring all the blood that was going to my head, and searched for them.

"This is a waste of time," one of the brutes said.

"You know how it is," the other replied. "Pack leader tells us to do something, we do it."

"You saw the crash, nobody could've survived that, not even Mgalekgolo," the first one shot back. "I know how pesky this vermin can be, but their bodies are weak."
"They are tenacious," the second one told him.

"Yeah… like rats."

The two brutes laughed. It sounded unnaturally similar to human laughter, even if it was more animalistic. They were almost below me now, it was a miracle they hadn't noticed me yet.

"I just want this to be over with," one of them said. "Kill some humans, eat some humans, burn this planet, and then back to High Charity."

"With some luck you'll get to return to Doisac, eh?"

"Yeah," it agreed. "I want to see my close-pack again. My son should be almost as big as I am now."

"It must be his mother," the other one said, drawing a head butting that sent it sideways. "Peace," it said, rumbling with what seemed to be a low chuckle. "Let's just find their craft, it shouldn't be much farther."

"It's a miracle that it can even fly with such primitive systems," the first brute complained. "Let's go."

I had had enough of their bullshit and they were already close enough for my plan to work. I stretched my legs and slowly brought them as close to my head as I could. Their weight shifted the position of the seat slightly. I reached behind my back with one hand and pressed the belt's release button with the other. The weight of my legs made me flip so that my feet were facing down. I yanked my knife free and slammed it into the brute directly below me. The knife dug into its neck and then some. I immediately let go and landed in the soft ground behind the now-dead brute. Its companion hadn't noticed yet. I grabbed the weapon that it was holding and aimed it at the back of the other brute. The thing looked vaguely like a six-shot with no barrel, but like all brute weapons it had a brutal aspect to it.

The brute I killed fell loudly, prompting the other one to turn around. It met the blast of my stolen weapon face-first and fell backwards. I didn't stop there, instead I jumped on top of it and fired two times more, both times hitting it in the face.

I examined the weapon in my hand, it had a small bayonet facing downward right in front of the trigger guard and a circular magazine that gave it a revolver-like appearance. Judging by the kick and mess it had made it appeared to be a handheld shotgun. I rolled my shoulder, not having expected the fierce kickback of the weapon.

"Damn," I grunted.

I turned back to the brute I had killed first and blasted its head with the weapon. Both of the aliens looked like they had been completely mauled by something. I examined the weapon and fired at the dead brute one more time. The gun hissed and clicked, telling me that it was out of ammunition. I made sure to take a picture of the unfamiliar weapon with my helmet and then tossed it aside. My knife was stuck to the brute's neck, but it wasn't particularly hard to yank it out. A nice chunk of flesh came with my knife. I sighed and wiped it clean before sliding it back into my sheath. I still had three knives, but I was in unfamiliar territory by myself and with no firearms.

I looked at the other brute and saw it had been carrying a needle rifle. I approached it and hesitated slightly before grabbing it. Scarecrow had been killed by a weapon just like this one. Hell, for all I knew it had been this very same rifle that killed Scarecrow. I told myself that it was incredibly unlikely and grabbed the weapon. It was slightly over a meter long and like most Covenant weapons it didn't have a stock. I examined it and rolled my eyes at the bulky midsection it had before collapsing it and strapping it to my back. I grabbed additional ammunition from the dead brute and slung it across my chest very much like an old Mexican revolutionary. Caboose usually slung his shotgun shells across his chest like this, I could see the reason why.

"Ok, let's get moving," Schitzo said.

I nodded and started walking in the direction the brutes had been. First things first, check for survivors in the Pelican. I started moving and realized that I was climbing. If the Pelican slammed into a slope then the odds of survival decreased dramatically. My head was inundated by those thoughts for a minute or so until I saw a couple of trees with their tops torn off. I followed them and eventually found the path that the falling dropship had carved for itself. Some of the trees were scorched and some others were actually aflame.

"What happened?" I asked myself. "Falling and then what?"

"Come on Francisco," Schitzo muttered. "You don't just forget stuff like that."

I stopped and took a knee, trying to remember. If all my team was dead I wanted to know. I frowned as I remembered. There had been high winds, clouds, a sense of incredible stupidity all around me, and then it all went black. It was nothing out of the usual except for the wind. Where the hell would I find high winds like that, especially in this valley? It took me just a few seconds to figure it all out.

"I was falling," I realized. "Shit."

I kept walking, making use of cover and avoiding the carved path of trees. The climbing slope suddenly stopped and gave way to hard stone ground. I frowned slightly at the sudden change in terrain but nonetheless kept moving. About two hundred meters later my eyes widened. The valley I was in kept narrowing, but the floor below my feet disappeared into a chasm. About half a click in front of me and fifty meters below me was the Pelican, firmly wedged between the two sides of the valley.

"Holy shit," I said.

I looked around and found a little climbable path to my left. I climbed and started moving towards the Pelican, making sure to stick to the wall as much as possible. I was using what looked like a goat path. A very narrow goat path. The wall opposite me was only twenty meters away. I stopped when I saw some movement near the Pelican.

I drew the rifle and pressed myself against the cliff wall. I looked through the scope and saw two elites and a jackal right above the Pelican. They looked like they were preparing to climb down on top of it. I saw what appeared to be a rope and cursed. At this range and with this weapon I couldn't trust myself to make the shot. I began moving faster, which isn't saying a lot when you're standing on a slightly sloped trail less than a foot wide.

One of the elites started climbing down while the other held onto the rope. I stopped and aimed again. The elite on top had blue armor with several battle scars. The one in the bottom shared the rank, but its armor looked brighter and cleaner. The veteran had no doubt gotten the newbie to do the dangerous job. Very… human.

It was a disturbing thought.

I aimed at the elite on the top and fired three times, all of them hitting it in the head. It jerked backwards and its head slammed into the wall behind it. The elite slipped and fell on its ass before the rocks gave way under him. Before the elite began screaming I took out the confused jackal with a series of shots to the chest and neck. The two elites screamed bloody murder as they fell down the deep chasm. I stopped hearing their screams soon after they disappeared down the mist. The dead jackal was silent as it fell down to join them.

"Nice," I complimented myself.

I made my way to the top of the Pelican and tied one of my climbing cables to what appeared to be the most solid handhold. I took a deep breath and let myself fall down. The rope held. I smiled and slowly made my way down to the Pelican's top. Once my feet were there I stepped on it, not letting go of my rope. The Pelican didn't even creak, it was firmly wedged between the cliff. I slowly walked towards the cockpit. The windows were completely shattered, there were even a few branches sticking out. I carefully climbed inside and checked for survivors. The Pelican was trashed, but it was empty. A few of the seats in the back were missing. No doubt that mine had been one of those.

"How the hell did I get to a Pelican in the first place?" I asked myself.

I checked for any of the spare weapons or equipment and found nothing.

"Ok," I said, talking out loud to see if my theories sounded stupid. "This Pelican had at least some members of my team on it. My team is crafty, they know their shit. They grabbed everything and jumped ship. The only question remaining is…"

"How the hell did they get out of here?" Schitzo finished. "They could've climbed, but there are no veritable handholds in between here and the goat paths. Besides, the walls have a negative slope."

"Yeah," I agreed. "I'm pretty sure that they didn't jump down either."

"That's the only way out of here," Schitzo said with a small shrug. "They didn't have to jump."

"I didn't see any ropes," I said. "Wait, I was falling… They could've had jetpacks."

"A long shot," Schitzo said, "but let's assume they did. They let themselves fall and stopped short of a violent death with their jetpacks. They're in the bottom then."

"Only answer I can come up with," I said. "Anything I can do about it?"

"You can use your rope to climb back out and find yourself another way out."

"Or I can climb down," I sighed.

The Pelican had few salvageable objects in it. One of them was the standard length of cable that most Pelicans had with them. It was a length of rope precisely two thousand meters long. It couldn't have weighed more than ten pounds.

"Two thousand meters worth of rope," I grunted. "Should be enough."

Schitzo chuckled and shook his head. "What's the tallest peak in Reach?"

"Mount Ki-Adi," I said simply. "But we're not anywhere near that," I said.

"What's the tallest cliff in Reach?"

I pondered that for a few seconds. I knew this. "Sky Walls," I said. "It's three thousand meters of vertical rock. One in front of the other. One of the walls extends about a mile more than the other, but they are parallel for a while."

"Hmmm…" Schitzo hummed. "So this walls very well could be the tallest cliff in the planet."

"Come on, what are the odds?" I asked. "I mean, Verona Rupes is over twenty kilometers high."

"It is also in Sol," he said. "Where are we?"

"Reach… but where in Reach?"

"Check the computer," Schitzo instructed. "Maybe the Pelican still has functioning electronics."

"Doubtful," I said. "Still worth a shot."

The cockpit had no blood in it, something I hadn't noticed earlier. It bode good news. I activated the holotank and it flickered alive. The holographic controllers didn't work, but the buttons in the base did. I slowly shifted through the command options and eventually found one that showed my position. I clicked it and waited while the Pelican acquired some satellite data. It took longer than I expected, but the Pelican showed me the general area I was in.

"Iskander Valley," I said quietly. "Near New Alexandria… I haven't heard the name of the valley before, but I know that the Sky Walls are near New Alexandria. Just a drive away."

"Are you willing to take your chances?" Schitzo asked.

"No," I said. "I've got enough bars for a week. That ought to be enough."

Schitzo shrugged. "Suit yourself."

I said nothing and climbed back out of the cockpit and into the roof. The Pelican was still firmly wedged between the walls, but there was now a whole unit of jackals on either side of me. It took them a moment to spot me. By that point I had already sneaked back inside the Pelican.

"Tough luck," Schitzo said. "I guess jumping is the only way to go."

"I guess so," I agreed. I used one end of the rope and tied it down to the webbing on the ceiling.

Before jumping out to an uncertain fate I grabbed the rear machine gun and pushed it out. I started firing at the few jackals that I could see and then hit the edge of the goat path, sending rock flying all over the place and cutting the jackals off. If they wanted to keep moving towards me they'd have to jump. I kicked the rope down and waited for a few moments to steel myself. I grabbed the thin rope and took a deep breath before using a carabineer to attack myself to it. I took another deep breath and jumped down into the mist.

My gloves kept my hands from burning away from the friction. I tightened my grip and started sliding down a little bit slower, the occasional pink needle would fly past or smash into the rock wall on either side, but after fifteen solid seconds of sliding down they stopped firing. I held on tightly and eventually stopped my fast drop. I gripped onto the rope as tight as I could and let go at regular intervals, falling about twenty meters at a time at manageable speeds. I couldn't see much more than that with the mist, but the strategy should keep me from breaking my legs or my back.

I slid down for longer than I cared, but it wasn't very long before I hit the bottom of the cliff. I let go of the rope and saw that there was still plenty of cable left coiled up on the ground. The sight of the two splattered elites and jackal brought a small grin to my face.

"You do realize that if they had jetpacks they could've just climbed up instead of down, right?" Schitzo said, prodding one of the corpses.

"Nope," I said. "That only meant that they would've had to climb back down later on."

"If you say so."

I tugged at the rope twice and then let go. The cliff floor was practically flat, with some water dripping down the walls where the mist had condensed into water. I followed the little streams downhill and settled into a fast jog. The sheer cliff wall on the left suddenly stopped, giving way to another massive valley that slowly but surely turned into the massive metropolis that was New Alexandria.

"That's where we're headed then," I said.

The sun was beginning to raise over the ocean, casting long shadows and making me frown slightly at the brightness. I got my helmet to polarize a little bit more and slowly started walking down. There were tall and thick trees in front of me that didn't allow me to see anything. If my men were anywhere within sight I would've been able to spot them, but that was not to be.

"You see that?" Schitzo asked me.

I nodded. Two Spirit dropships were coasting along the cliff walls to my right, escorted by four Banshees. I started moving faster, but one of the Banshees broke off in pursuit. I sprinted towards the woods even as I was fired upon. Pieces of dirt and gravel hit my armored boots, but the bolts failed to hit me directly. The fast-flying Banshee screamed as it prepared for a second strafing run. I knew from experience that after the first failure they'd go into their freaky hover-mode or whatever, flying so slow that they seemed to defy the laws of physics. If the pilot missed after that then its whole species deserved to be wiped out.

Just as it let lose a green fuel rod I jumped behind a thick tree. The tree was shattered by the explosion and I was thrown forward, but I was fine and well when I landed face-first in the mud.

"Don't stop on my account," Schitzo said just as heavy plasma bolts started raining around.

I ran as fast as I could, trying to get out of sight. The woods weren't exactly dense here, but the limbs got denser the further in I went. After enough time the Banshee pilot gave up the chase and broke off. I sighed with relief but nonetheless kept on running.

I stumbled on a root and almost fell down, but I regained my balance right before I slammed into the ground. I heard creaking behind me and turned, aiming my rifle up at the sound.

"Frank."

"Pavel," I replied equally calmly. It was easy to recognize him even with the armor. I smiled and depolarized my helmet just as he did the same thing. I lowered the needle rifle and hugged my friend with one hand. "I was afraid you were dead."

"We thought you were dead," Marv said, appearing behind Pavel.

"But I knew better than that," Pavel said. "Good to see you, Frank."

"Easy on the ribs man," I said. "I think a couple might be broken."

"Whoops, sorry," he quickly apologized, taking a step back.

"Who else made it?"

"Serge, Marv, and myself," Pavel said. "Oh, and Captain Flatt, too. She's alright, she's tougher than I gave her credit for."

I shrugged. "Had to be in order to be given command over us. What about the rest of the team?"

"They all made it," he said.

I smiled. "Well, they don't call us the best for nothing. Where are they?"

"Flatt and Serge are back there," Pavel said. "We were heading north to meet up with the rest of the unit. Helmets are slightly scrambled, but from what we can gather they're with Captain Nezarian and some of the guys from 29."

"How many more made it?" I asked.

"Well, most of AAG is gone," Pavel sighed regretfully. "Our section was completely decimated and pretty much everybody in the second section was killed. The third and fourth sections managed to get most of the people out and rescue some of the guys from ours."

"How'd they do that?" I asked.

"They caught them," Pavel said. "Like they caught us."

"I hit my head, I'm a little bit blurry on the details. What exactly do you mean with the word caught?"

Pavel explained exactly what had happened in very simple and easy to understand terms. My eyes widened slightly at his explanation and I ended up shaking my head.

"Wow," I said. "Did anybody get that recorded?"

"My helmet cam was on," Pavel said. "Which reminds me… why the hell can't we talk to you on the radio?"

"My helmet was probably damaged," I said. "You know, they really should give more of a protection to the radio system in these."

"Tell me about it," Pavel grunted. "Well, let's get moving, shall we?"

I nodded. "Lead the way."

Marv took point and led us through the woods. Pavel had an SMG as opposed to his usual machine gun. Marv had managed to keep his MA5 firmly attached to his back during the fall and was now holding it loosely across his chest. We caught up with a limping Captain Flatt and Serge a little bit later.

"Well, why am I not surprised," Captain Flatt said. "Good to see you Castillo."

"Likewise," I replied. "Thanks for catching me."

"Anytime," she replied. "Are you injured?"

I nodded. "I might have a couple of broken ribs."

"And I've got a sprained ankle," she informed me dryly. "Let's link up with the rest of the AAG survivors. We'll work it from there."

One hour later we walked into a small hill/clearing where about one hundred men were gathered. There were a pair of Pelicans on the side of the hill, both of them looked like they had made a hard landing. Several of the AAG operators were lying on the ground, injured. A few heads turned to look at our group and some of them lingered on the needle rifle I carried on my back. Most of the men clearly belonged to different teams and were huddled together in small groups of no more than six or seven men. My own team was clearly fortunate to have made it out completely intact.

"Well I'll be damned," Polly said when he saw me walking towards them.

"You owe me a hundred credits," Bee told him. "Good to see you, sir."

"Likewise," I replied.

"Sir," Caboose said, stepping forward. "We don't have a lot of manpower right now, but the few stragglers that have made it here are reporting enemy troop movements in the adjacent valleys and ridges."

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I came across a pair of brutes and then two elites."

"We haven't heard anything about elites," Caboose said, "but it seems pretty obvious that they're scouting the area for an attack on New Alexandria."

"I've got friends there," Lady said simply.

"So do I," I told her. "Who's ranking officer here?"

"Captain Nezarian," Crow said.

"That would make Captain Flatt the ranking officer," I muttered to myself.

"Aren't they both captains?" he asked.

"I'm a naval captain, you idiot," Flatt told my man.

"A colonel," Marv dutifully informed Crow. "Did you really not know that?"

"Uh…"

I shook my head. "It doesn't matter. Why haven't we gotten a line to New Alexandria?"

"Brutes set up jammers and scramblers all around," Caboose said. "Plus, a few of the elites that bombed the skyhook managed to get some of our clearance codes. All of our channels are useless and we don't have any access to the new ones."

"And we can't get through the jamming on an open channel?"

"Negative, sir."

"How fast can we be on the move?"

"Us?" Caboose asked. "We could leave right now."

"But the rest of these men aren't in such fine shape," Captain Nezarian said, walking up to greet me. "Good to see you made it."

"Likewise," I said for the third time. "Captain, we have to get out of here as soon as possible. There are already Spirits and Banshees here in the valley."

"Do you have confirmation?"
I raised an eyebrow. "They fired at me."

He nodded. "Good enough for me. A lot of the men here can't walk without help. It'll be slow going. According to the limited imagery we have and some UAV surveillance there's a road five clicks from here. We'll head that way and work from there."

"Sounds good," I said.

"Your team is the only one completely intact, I need you and your men to scout and clear the area ahead."

"Will do," I said. "Snark!"

"On my way," he said, grabbing his sniper rifle and running into the woods. "Don't be too long!"

"Pavel get Predator ready, Mata, same goes for Reaper."

Both of the sergeants nodded sharply and set about rousing the men.

"Al," I said, addressing Captain Nezarian. "Sorry about your men."

He shrugged slightly and sighed. "They knew what they were signing up for."

I nodded. "Is there a way you could get me a rifle?"

"Negative Frank. Not a lot of us had our rifles on when this went down. I can give you a pistol, but that's it."

"Well. At least I'll have some human steel on me," I sighed.

Nezarian ordered one of his men to give me his pistol and then wished me good luck before I jogged to meet up with Reaper Squad. Predator and Pavel were already spread out in front of us and disappearing into the forest. Reaper would stay relatively close to one another and move quickly towards any threat that might arise. I didn't expect any real trouble, but anything could happen. Crow settled next to me and chuckled slightly.

"What?"

"You really are an impossible man to kill," he said simply.

I shook my head. "So far, but everybody dies John."

Crow shrugged. "Not everybody is killed," he argued. "I don't expect to be killed anytime soon."

"Don't jinx it," Polly said, joining us.

"Touch wood," I said. "Or knock on it. Whatever."

Crow knocked on one of the trees on his way and returned. "But sir, how did you manage to survive? Gunny made it sound like you were thrown out of the Pelican at high speeds."

"I was," I said as I began retelling the story as quickly and concisely as possible. The task soon turned into an impossible one as more and more of my men started listening in and asking questions. The kids made me feel like a grandfather telling a story. I was thirty-seven, not nearly old enough to be feeling like that. I grunted and grumbled, but I humored them and answered their questions to the best of my abilities. Bee just chuckled at the end.

"Sir, your life would make a great movie."

"I don't think so," I told him.

"Well, be sure to write your memoirs just in case," he said.

I was about to say something when Snark signaled that he had reached the road.

"It looks clear," Snark said. "Nothing left, nothing right."

"Ok, you can cross now," Andy told him, getting some of the guys to laugh.

"Wait," Snark called. "I've got a human vehicle incoming. Shit, it's an RV."

"Stop it," I ordered. "Ok, let's hurry up."

Once in the small road I saw that Snark was trying to keep the driver of the RV calm while very strongly suggesting that he go back. The man was not happy with that. He had left New Alexandria for a reason and didn't plan on going back right as it fell under attack. Pavel, Grigori, and Mata all looked at me expecting me to step up and explain in very simple terms why the man and everybody inside the RV would die if they kept going west.

"Excuse me," I said, stepping in between Snark and the driver. "Lieutenant Castillo, what seems to be the problem?"

"Your man won't let me keep driving that way," he said angrily. "He has no right to do that."

"I tried explaining WINTER CONTINGENCY to him," Snark began.

"Quiet," I said.

"Sir, will you please tell your man to step out of the way so that I can take my family to safety?" He pointed back to his RV, where I could see a woman and several other vague shapes behind the windshield.

"Listen mister…"

"Cline."

"Mr. Cline," I said. "You recognize my armor? My helmet at least?"

"Yes," he said. "I've seen your type on the propaganda vids."

"Then you must know that my type are the guys that do special operations?"

"Yeah," Cline said, crossing his arms.

"Then you must realize that I have a perfectly valid reason for telling you to turn back around and return to New Alexandria."
Cline shook his head. "I can see the enemy starships from New Alexandria, Lieutenant. There's absolutely no way that I'm going back there, not when I can escape with my family."

"I tried to explain that the evacuation ports-" Snark said.

"To hell with those!" Cline interrupted. "Like we'd have any chance of getting on a ship."

I took a deep breath. "Listen to me very closely, sir," I began slowly. "There are enemy troops all throughout this forest. A big camper like yours would make a big and easy target for their Banshees. I take it you know what a Banshee is?"

"Their gunships," he said.

"Close enough," I shrugged. "There's a small Covenant army led by brutes. More are behind the mountain ridge. In short, if you go there you and every single person inside the camper will die and probably be eaten."

Cline paled. "Th-they're going to hit the city from both sides?"

I nodded. "Yes. Now, I want you to turn your big camper back around and return to the city. There is significant military presence there, you'll have a better chance than you could ever have out here by yourself."

"You think the UNSC can handle it?" he asked earnestly.

"We've handled worse," I lied. "Sir, there are more UNSC troops in the neighboring area and we have no way to return to the city other than our own feet. I'm going to need to put some of my men in your camper and have them deliver a message."

"That's not a request, is it?"

I shook my head. "Sorry, sir."

"Ok, I'll tell my family."

I nodded and gave him a reassuring smile before turning to my men. "Preacher?"

"Yes, sir?"

I looked at him. He had his EMR and was leaning on it slightly. "Can you run?"

"Not yet," he admitted. "I can shoot as well as ever though?"

"Ok," I said, "I want you on the rooftop. Bee, same goes for you. Give Tank your laser?"

Bee moved towards the massive Army trooper and exchanges his Spartan Laser for a rocket launcher.

"Take care of it," Bee said. "She's touchy."

Tank chuckled as he eyed the energy weapon appreciatively. "Hey, once you go black…"

"Ha. Very funny," Bee replied, eyeing the scratches on the SPANKr.

I wanted to send at least one woman with the camper. Research indicated that the presence of a female seemed to comfort all age groups in most situations. Young kids saw a woman as a motherly figure of sorts, women saw her as another woman, and men thought that they couldn't be in that much danger if they were sending a woman. It was something along those lines. Our biology had ingrained us with that, we would see each other by our sex before we saw each other as anything else.

The only question was which one I should send. Miranda certainly had the friendly attitude down, she would make them all feel at ease. The only problem was that the wife would certainly feel ugly next to her. Andy would probably do a decent job even if she felt a little awkward herself, but like Miri she also happened to be more attractive than you'd expect your average Helljumper to be. Then there was Lady, who was better-looking than both of them and had no doubt never before stepped inside an RV.

"Lady, you're inside," I said.

She looked at me for the briefest of instants before releasing an almost imperceptible sigh and moving towards the camper.

"Try and keep them calm, ok?"

"Yes, sir," she replied.

"You're in charge," I told her. "I want you to get me the quickest evac possible, ok? Be a bitch."

Her helmet didn't show me her face, but I could tell that she smiled when I said that. "I can do that," Lady told me confidently.

"Don't be a bitch to the civilians, though," I said.

"I'm not an idiot, sir," she said before stepping inside the camper. Her voice carried just that tiny little bit of contempt. I didn't feel personally affronted when she spoke like that. She had just been raised to believe that she was somehow better than everybody. Coupled with near-genius IQ and above-par combat skills even in our SpecOps niche she started believing it herself, even if it was only subconscious.

"I feel like angry sex with her would be a most rewarding experience," Crow whispered next to me.

I suppressed a chuckle even when Polly didn't.

"I agree," I said. "Speak like that again and I'll tell her you said that."

Crow immediately stopped laughing and straightened his back. "Of course, sir. I apologize, sir."

Polly snorted and then promptly straightened his back when I shot him a mean glare.

"Set up a perimeter," I ordered. "I want men two hundred yards from me and your personal guarantee that nothing will get past you, ok?"

"Yes, sir!" my team replied, scrambling to comply with my orders.

Within three minutes I already had LMGs mounted, foxholes, sharpshooters in the trees, and the rest of my men were hiding around the road in ambush formation. I remained close to the road in case another vehicle approached.

"I've got friendly troops approaching," Pitcher said. "Looks like its AAG."

"Let them know we're here," I said. "Direct the wounded and have the able-bodied soldiers fill in the gaps in the perimeter."

"Yes, sir," Pitcher replied.

More and more men arrived in a steady stream. Not a lot of the wounded looked particularly bad, but there were plenty of broken bones. A few had been hit by shrapnel from the skyhook when it was attacked, but most of them had had hard landings or some trouble when they were being caught by the Pelicans. I saw one woman in particular that evidently had a shattered femur. Her leg was hanging awkwardly and there was some serious bruising showing. I had never seen a femur fracture like that. Her eyes were rolled into the back of her head and she was drooling. They must've pumped her with a near-lethal amount of painkillers in order to move her. The healthy men all looked pissed off and ready to kill anything that antagonized them. I almost wished that a covvie unit made its way here. I would have no way of stopping the AAG guys from going for leg shots or belly shots. They'd make the covvies die as slowly and painfully as possible.

I wouldn't really mind it if they did it either.

"Captain," I greeted Nezarian. "Flatt?"

"I'm here," she said from behind me. "I see you already set up."

"We're fast workers," I said. "We intercepted a civilian transport and sent it back to New Alexandria. We should have evac or at least news within three or so hours."

"Good," Flatt said. "Should we start moving?"

"Negative, ma'am," Nezarian said. "Most of our wounded have serious fractures. We can barely move them."

"Yeah, I heard the screaming," Flatt sighed. "Fine then. We bunker down here."

I nodded. "We've got a decent perimeter. We should be able to handle anything short of heavy armor. At least for a while."

Nezarian looked at me and shook his head. "Heavy armor in these forest seems like a long shot, but there's always space for air support."

"Always," I agreed.

"Well, I'm glad I'm not in the field," Captain Flatt stated flatly.

I chuckled and winced when I realized that laughing made my ribs hurt more than anything else I did. I groaned and sat down on a nice little tree stump that I had found for myself. I grabbed a branch and set myself to carving something on it with my knife. If I was going to wait then I might as well find something to keep myself busy.

A quick round of gunshots roused me an hour later. I waited to hear plasma and then sat back down when there was no return fire.

"Report," Nezarian ordered calmly on the open channel.

"Enemy patrol, eight in number. One brute, one jackals, and five grunts down."

"That only makes seven," Nezarian noted.

"We got one alive."

There was a momentary pause.

"Bring it here."

I reached Nezarian's position just as four ODSTs brought a kicking jackal with two bullet wounds on its chest. It was a miracle that the bird was still alive when you considered just how frail their were internally. Granted, they didn't seem that frail when you had to fight one hand to hand, but a bullet to the gut makes anybody frail.

"Skirmisher," one of them said as the bird suddenly started thrashing.

The jackal managed to wrest one of its arms free and used it to hit the ODST holding his other hand in the face. I took one long step towards it and swung at its beak as hard as I could with a right hook. My gloves had hard studs in the knuckles and my muscles had a classified compound in them that made them stronger. The jackal never stood a chance.

It's beak cracked.

The jackal wasn't one of the more saurian-looking ones, it was one of those with the more pointed snouts, but it was still a skirmisher and bigger than the normal vulture.

It shook its head carefully, blood dripping off its cracked snout. The skirmisher stopped struggling and looked up at me with hatred in its avian eyes. I simply took off my helmet and bared my teeth.

"Can you understand me?" I asked it. "English? Español?"

The jackal nodded slowly.

I grinned and gestured for Captain Nezarian to begin asking questions.

"A lot of my men are dead," he said, punching the alien in the gut pretty damn hard. "The few that aren't are angry."

The jackal wheezed in some air and then looked up back up at him, holding its head up defiantly. "You kill me?"

"Yes," Nezarian said. "You're as good as dead. If you tell me what you know I'll make it quick."

"I'm dead still," it hissed.

I rolled my eyes and approached it slowly. With one hand I gripped its mouth shut, being especially brutal with the crack that I had made in it. I used my other hand to press into its bullet wounds as hard as I dared. Suffice to say, I dared to press pretty damn hard. The jackal's eyes bulged and it tried to cry out in pain. I could even feel some air escaping through the crack in its snout.

"We can take our time," I said. "So answer the good captain's questions."

"Make death quick?" the jackal asked through hisses of pain.

Nezarian nodded.

"You… translator?"

Nezarian nodded once again and tapped the side of his helmet. The jackal looked up at him and began squeaking in its language. Nezarian would periodically stop it and ask a question. It went on for five straight minutes. I didn't understand what the jackal said, but I could surmise from Nezarian's questions that there was a sizeable Covenant force uncomfortably near our position. So far they didn't know we were here, but they knew we had to be nearby. Captain Nezarian sighed and patted the jackal on the shoulder.

"You all dead," it said. It wasn't a boast or a threat, it was simply a statement.

I laughed at that.

Nezarian spun around and smiled. "We are all dead, little man."

The skirmisher stood up to its full height. It was about as tall as I was even with my armored boots on. The jackal hissed something and only hunched back down when one of the ODSTs holding it down elbowed it in the ribs.

Nezarian turned to one of his men. "You have five minutes starting now. Have fun."

"Oh I will," the man said, taking off his helmet and setting it on the ground. "Hey there bitch. My name is Carl Staunton."

With that simple statement it started hitting the jackal's lower torso viciously. The jackal started crying out after the tenth blow and maybe on the thirtieth it started pleading for the beating to stop. Only a minute had gone past and already the jackal had had most of its ribs broken. It would be alive for just long enough to suffer.

I walked back to my post and looked down at the road. Four guys had carried the brute patrol leader into the road and left it there. We would probably mutilate it or something later to leave a warning and lower enemy morale.

"Ah well," Pavel said once I sat next to him. "Someone is going to be very happy for the next few hours."

"Beating the shit out of someone can be very satisfying," I said.

"You don't have to tell me that," Pavel replied with a chuckle. "Eh boys?"

"When have we ever gotten to do that to a jackal?" Polly asked.

"What are we?" I asked angrily. "War criminals? Mistreating prisoners of war?"

Everyone within earshot laughed uproariously.

The three NAPD Pelicans had been loaded up with most of the wounded. A few of the guys that could still limp and work a weapon had volunteered to stay behind and remain here and wait for the Armadillos and Scorpions to get here. The Pelicans had brought medical supplies and a radio to ensure that we'd remain in contact with New Alexandria. Command had also deemed fit to procure us with half a kilo of C-12 explosives. I couldn't help but grin at the sight of the putty. That much C-12 was enough to punch a hole in the side of a Covenant corvette. I could only imagine what Angel would've felt like with so much explosive in his hands.

"Castillo, you have a knack for explosives, don't you?" Captain Flatt asked.

"I have a knack for a lot of things."

"Modesty isn't one of them, obviously," Nezarian chuckled.

I shrugged with a small smile. "I'm good with explosives, but it's been a while since I've had to use them for large-scale demolition."

"We need to make a big-ass crater in this road," Flatt stated. "Blow it up as soon as we leave."

I nodded carefully. "Yeah, I can do that. I'd probably have an easier time if we could punch a decent-sized hole in the surface, but I can manage a nice crater."

"How big?" Flatt asked.

I did some quick calculations. "Three meters deep and about ten across. It's a rough estimate, but it should work."

"Ok, get on it," she ordered. "Command deemed it fit to leave us a pair of sledgehammers and pikes."

"Did she say what I think she said?" Snark asked.

I chuckled. "She means the actual hammers," I shouted back. "No railguns for you."

"Awww…"

"Polly, Crow, get your hammers and follow me."

The two men grunted but got up nonetheless. I signaled them to start hammering at the ground while I patiently waited for them to crack the hard polycrete. It would've been a lot easier had this road been made of old concrete, but New Alexandria was renowned for being the best at everything, even if it was back roads. After they cracked it they set to work with a pair of pickaxes and then made a small hole about three inches deep.

"That's enough," I told them. "Good work."

"Thanks," Polly huffed. "I don't want to get shot while doing manual labor."

"I don't plan on getting shot anytime soon," Crow told him.

Both Polly and I paused to look around.

"What?" Crow asked.

"Come on! You're practically begging for a sniper to hit you," Polly said.

"It's true," I agreed as I crouched and started working on the explosive. I gave the C-12 a conical shape while my two men discussed the real-life applications of movie clichés.

"Crow, if you keep saying that you don't expect to die, you'll be the first one to go," Polly insisted.

"What about you?" he shot back. "You're the youngest here plus you are black."

"Attitude trumps race," Polly insisted. "And age."

Once the explosive was nice and conical I started hollowing out the insides.

"Just because I don't expect to die every single moment–"

"Yes it does," Polly said. "Especially if you keep repeating it constantly."

I listened to them argue. The discussion was a disturbing one because of the underlying reasons they behaved like that. Polly had seen too much too quickly and hadn't escaped completely unscathed. Most of his emotions were rehearsed and unnatural. I think that the only thing he had left was his desire to behave and feel like a regular human being when he couldn't feel anything. Crow joked around and gave an aura of confidence only because he tried to. A lot of his friends had been killed when he was regular Army, perhaps he had really been confident back then, but now he just tried to give that impression because he believed that it would make him survive.

Two deeply disturbed individuals were both arguing why their respective fake personalities had more merit. To me it showed what humanity had come to because of the war. Crow should be bitching about his first boss while Polly got drunk in college yet they were both in full battle armor defending the planet they considered their home.

There were worse fates than theirs, but not many.

My helmet informed me that the Armadillos transports were approaching us. I finished setting up the charge and stood up calmly, shaking the dust off my hands and nodding with satisfactions. The armored vehicles rolled by and stopped just shy of our position. The wounded boarded first, followed by the incomplete teams and my own men. Captain Nezarian remained behind until the last of his unit had climbed inside an Armadillo and signaled for the transports to start turning. Two AAG operators in mix-matched armor moved to the side of the road and propped up two sharp branches on either side of the road. One of them was topped off with the jackal's head and the other one was topped off with the brute's. A few other guys moved the beheaded bodies and left them next to their heads before climbing into the last Armadillo.

"Ok, move back," I gave the word to Polly and Crow to get inside the Armadillo.

I moved past the vehicle and down the back right after Crow. A second before I put my feet inside I heard and saw a beam shoot past me and saw Polly fall down.

Shit.

I took a step to my left, leaving cover. I saw the trail of superheated air immediately and traced it down to a tree some five hundred meters away. Aiming was difficult without a stock, but the needle rifle was a precision weapon. I clustered all my shots within a very small area just as the Armadillo opened up with its autocannon. I reloaded and fired another magazine before the Armadillo stopped with its barrage.

I could only hope that somewhere in that mess of torn and shredded trees was the corpse of the covvie that shot my man.

Crow was leaning next to Polly, but even as he checked for vitals that his suit might've missed I knew that it was in vain. The beam had hit Polly right in the left side of his back, easily perforating the armor and making a fist-sized hole in his back before going through his heart and back out. Polly was dead.

"He's gone," Crow informed me, his voice hoarse.

I punched the Armadillos hatch.

"Get him inside," I ordered. "Let's move out."

Thank for reading this chapter.

Much like last chapter, this one had absolutely minimal proofreading, so I'm sorry for any and all mistakes that you might've found during your reading of it.

To be honest with you, I enjoyed writing this chapter very much. It has been a long time since I had Frank and Schitzo have a conversation. In fact, Frank actively avoided all things to do with his alter-ego or whatever you want to call Schitzo. To me it was because Frank wanted to forget all about his insanity and bury it deep. So is it a good or a bad thing that he can talk to Schitzo so openly? He could either be accepting the fact that there's a part of him that will never be completely sane or he could simply be losing what's left of his sanity little by little. Frank's always been a bit fucked up, but lately it seems that he's been getting better. He had a steady relationship, leads a fine team, gets along with everybody... Maybe that's just how he sees it, maybe I should write more often from different POVs to see just how Frank really is. Or maybe he's actually got it right. Anyways, we'll figure that one out later.

Frank got to go solo for a while, do a couple of badass kills and then meet up with the rest of his team. A team that is miraculously intact. I know a lot of you keep complaining about how I don't kill my characters very often. I have a unit of twenty soldiers, most of which aren't very developed and could easily be disposed off. But where's the fun in that? I mean, come on. You all know that I have to develop my characters a little bit before I kill them off, I'm kind of an amateur George RR Martin. That's the Game of Thrones guy for those of you who don't know. That's why I gave Polly a little conversation. I was going to kill him off anyways, but it seemed right to get a gleam into him before he went. Some of you have even called me out on doing that. If I make a character too sympathetic it's a sign that I'll kill him. Maybe, maybe not. To me it means that I can bluff the shit out of you guys.

I'm halfway through the first New Alexandria chapter. It starts out in the outskirts of the city and gradually moves into the skyscrapers and urban area. There'll be Noble Team, there'll be civilians, there'll be death and pain and suffering. You'll like it, I promise you that. If there's anything in particular that you'd like to see in the following chapters, anything you'd like me to do, feel free to let me know. Before I say goodbye I've got a little favor to ask: There's a TVTropes page for this fanfic, some of you may have heard of that site, some of you haven't. In any case, I'd like it if you guys took the time to go there and maybe edit it and show it some love. The more publicity my story gets, the more readers I get, the harder I have to work to satisfy you all. See? Works out for everybody.

In any case, I hope that you enjoyed reading through this moderately long chapter and I want to remind you that your reviews are always very much appreciated.

Stay strong.

-casquis