Chapter CXCVI: Walled Out

August 18, 2552 (UNSC Calendar)/

Mendez Joint Base, New Alexandria, Eposz, Reach, Epsilon Eridani System

"Oftentimes the first place that any newcomer Marine or soldier steps on is Mendez Joint Base."

"Thirty meters," I said. "Snark, Preacher, Miranda, and Longworth?"

"We've got our rifles," Snark said. "I just want to get the chance to use the Sledgehammer."

"Soon enough."

"They're coming through," Pavel warned. "I see them."

"We agreed on seven hundred meters," I said. "Let's go over the plan again. Shall we? Grigori."

"Let them reach the seven hundred meter mark, fire. Once they reach the wall we activate the minefield and we go on from there."

"See?" I asked. "It doesn't get more simple than that."

My men replied their agreement and watched as the scouts of the enemy force carefully approached. All of my men were well-hidden and only watching the approach through cameras. A few squads jumped out of the tree line and started moving towards us. The camera highlighted the pressure mines, but since they were deactivated none of the covvies were blown up. The brute-led grunts waddled and the jackals carried their heavy beam rifles.

"Well, they're certainly slow movers," Snark muttered. "I take it they know we're here?"

"They do," I confirmed. "They just don't know our numbers or location. There are drones scrambling signals."

"Good to know," Tank muttered quietly. His voice was like a rumbling tractor.

"One kilometer."

The leading squad had a brute captain and several brute ultras. They were moving ahead without a care in the world. Already more enemy units were emerging from the forest. A few Ghosts were slowly moving forward while grunts began deploying cover for the units behind them. Soon they would bring their own trench diggers and make a solid defensive line on their end of the killzone. More and more aliens were pouring out of the forest and painting the grass with different colors. I could see greens, blues, reds, and yellows. Don't forget the purple, there was an annoying amount of purple. That always happened with the Covenant.

"Eight hundred," Snark said.

"Pick your targets," I ordered. "Gunners, calibrate your guns."

"Seven fifty," Snark updated.

"Ghosts are priorities," I said. "Keep your eyes open for important targets."

"Seven hundred meters," Snark said.

I smiled. "Weapons free."

They let me fire the first shot. That's the way it usually went in ambushes. Either the team leader or a specially designated shooter fires first. Most of the time Snark and I switched, depending on the distance. Right now Snark would've had a much better chance of scoring a one shot kill, but I really wanted to fire the first shot of this battle. I zoomed in on the brute in charge of the squad closest to us and compensated ever so slightly for the distance. I squeezed the trigger slightly and three bullets flew straight out. A fraction of a second later they all punched through its thick skull and came back out. The brute toppled to the ground and the whole world exploded with noise.

Snark downed four brutes in half as many seconds while Longworth and Miri used their rifles to take out the grunt ultras before they could rally the other ones to form something threatening.

About fifty aliens died in the initial twenty seconds. They were out in the open and had absolutely nowhere to hide. A few of the guys further back managed to deploy cover or run back to safety. After every single target out in the open was killed the battle became something of a pissing contest on our side. We had the advantage of near-unlimited ammunition and a defensible position, so we basically just started firing heavily at the more distant targets.

I sighed as the covvies hid behind cover way to far back for us. There was no way that they'd stop there, but it would take them some time to get something ready. If the brutes got tired enough they'd just send the grunts in waves, try and make us run out of ammunition. Unless they were just complete idiots they'd try something else first, but you couldn't trust them to make smart decisions.

Snark and Preacher were the only ones still firing constantly. They had the weapons for it while the rest of us would have to wait for the targets to get closer. The Covenant had already set up a nice wall of deployable covers some three hundred meters from the edge of the forest and there was heavy troop movement behind those. Already they were beginning to dig some nifty little trenches. The grunts had this lawnmower kinda machines that would eat up dirt and then spit it out back. They were not nearly as effective as our trench diggers, but they would do the trick.

"I'm seeing three different chieftains," Snark said. "All of them are hammer guys."

"Ignore them," I told him. "Only prioritize them once they get past the five hundred meter mark."

"Ghosts moving up!" Crow called out.

"That's you gunners," I said. "Bee and Tank, we've got half a million rockets, make sure to use them all."

Two rockets flew from one of the towers next to the main gate and then another two followed them from the security box directly underneath. I sighed when Bee didn't use his Spartan Laser. The fuel cells for those things were a lot scarcer than I would've liked. We would expend our light-based weaponry with aircraft and Wraiths.

Four Ghosts exploded almost simultaneously. Their husks were shredded enough that they would only provide cover for a small jackal or a grunt without a particularly visible backpack.

"Whoo! Yeah!" Bee exclaimed ecstatically.

"Settle down," I said quietly. "We're in this one for the long haul."

"I fucking hate jumpers," Lady cursed. It wasn't very usual for her to curse, but once she got started she became a real potty-mouth.

"Agreed," I said, taking deep breaths.

I looked at the seven corpses. The brutes had made it close enough to our walls to hop over them a couple of times, but only now had they finally achieved their goal. Lady and I were coming back from our sixth ammunition run, so it had fallen to us to handle the little intrusion. Preacher had taken out three of them while praying and the rest of them had met their end slightly later. I reloaded my battle rifle as Lady released her empty magazine and slammed another one in.

"Nice shooting," I told her. "Bursts to the face for your two kills… Priceless."

"Thanks," she shrugged, pulling back the bolt. "You too."

I looked at my two kills, both were perfect bursts in between the eyes. I had actually taken a little bit longer with my second kill just so that I could hit him there.

"Drone, head to Tower A," I ordered the little tank UAV. "Lady?"

"On the move," she sighed, hopping tiredly to her position on one of the watchtowers.

I climbed upstairs to my position, feeling the difference in weight with every single step. I crouched for the last few steps and then pressed my back against the chest-high wall that Snark was using for cover.

"There's ammo downstairs," I told him. "I'll spot you."

"Yes, sir," he replied, handing me his sniper rifle.

I grabbed the SRS and propped it on the edge of the wall. I took one deep breath and stood up, emerging from cover. The amount of corpses didn't cease to impress me. The ground was littered with bodies all the way from the trees down to seventy meters away from the wall. An astounding majority of those bodies belonged to grunts and jackals. You didn't have to look very hard to spot a brute, but the grunts were quite obviously being used for cannon fodder and nothing else.

About three hundred or so aliens were constantly moving from their line and towards ours. They now had emplacements only two hundred meters from our position. Only our overwhelming defenses could keep them from setting up plasma cannons or heavy weaponry. Our biggest worry right now was any sniper that pretended to be a dead jackal and fatigue. Ammunition was not a problem for us, but they were throwing them at us faster than we could kill them. As soon as they started using tank and air support we would be hard pressed to push them back.

I hit a brute right in the neck. It stumbled slightly and then fell forward, trying to keep blood from coming out of its neck. I hit the second-in-command of the same squad to further disarray their advance. As soon as I had fired the two shots I ducked back behind cover and took a couple of deep breaths as random plasma bolts flew nearby.

"Squads right! We've got three squads!"

I didn't see as the Covenant soldiers were mowed down, but I heard the machine gun fire shifting towards my right. The grunts screamed when they were hit and the jackals screeched, trying to hide behind their shields. A couple of explosions boomed and I heard the sound of dirt hitting the ground. I took advantage of that moment and popped out to fire another shot at a jackal. The jackal was moving into a crater just as I shot it in the chest. The large caliber bullet tore through it with ease, pulling a huge chunk of flesh out the back.

I looked to my side and saw the automatic turrets. The M8 Automatic Defense System was nicknamed the Wolf Spider. I don't know why because it didn't resemble any of those two animals in the least. They had been a big help in dealing with light infantry forces, they could even self-repair when damaged. Despite that we had still lost four automatic turrets to concentrated plasma fire.

"I'm back," Snark let me know, carrying two bandoliers of SRS ammunition.

I handed him his rifle and grabbed my own. Just as I prepared to jump out of cover and start shooting again an explosion tore the ceiling of the watchtower. I was thrown down by the shockwave and debris, but whatever had hit the tower had only grazed it.

"I'm hit! I'm hit!" Tank cried. "Oh my god!"

I tried to wave some of the dust away as I struggled back to my feet. "What the hell was that?!"
I heard another explosion and my HUD notified me that another defense turret had been destroyed. I looked up over the damaged wall and couldn't gleam anything of value. Instead I crawled towards Tank. Half his body was underneath rubble and his left hand had been pierced by rebar.

"Shit, sir," he said, almost whimpering. "It hurts."

"It's not so bad," I assured him.

"No, not that! My leg!"

I looked down and pulled some rubble off him. He winced with every rock I moved and then cursed when he was finally able to see the damage to his leg. Yet another piece of rebar had flown through the air and hit him. The steel had punched through his armor and his thigh before coming back out and pinning him to the ground. Blood was slowly pouring out of the injury.

"I need a power saw!" I shouted. "And somebody tell me what the hell is shooting at us!"

"It's a Daemon!" Pavel called. "I can't pin down its position!"

"Shit," I cursed. "Smokescreens now!"

"Sir, those work both ways," Mata said. "We won't be able to see them coming at us."

"And we'll be protected from the Daemon," I replied. "Where the hell's that power saw?"

Andy stumbled up the last couple of steps in the stairwell and immediately went prone. Snark, Serge, and Miranda were up in the watchtower providing covering fire, but they wouldn't be able to hit anything more than one hundred meters away with the smoke. Another explosion rocked the tower, but this time the Daemon had hit the walls protecting the base.

"Anybody got a bead on it?" Pavel asked.

"I think I know where it's coming from," Bee said, "but I can't see it."

"Send a bird up," Caboose ordered him. "A UAV can paint the target for you and you can hit it with the Splaser."

"That bird won't stay up for long," Bee said.

I was only half listening to the conversation, instead I focused on the piece of rebar coming out of Tank's thigh. Andy had already poured some biofoam into the wound and was preparing the small saw. She looked at me and nodded quickly before looking back to Tank.

"This is going to hurt a lot, ok?"

Tank nodded faintly. He was losing blood.

I lifted his leg just enough for the saw to fit underneath it. Tank screamed loudly before he managed to take a couple of deep breaths. Andy started sawing through the rebar and sparks flew out as metal met metal. It took about twenty seconds for the buzz saw to completely cut through the rebar. Just then a couple of plasma bolts flew past me. One of them hit me in the back and knocked me to the ground.

"El-tee!" Andy cried out.

"I'm fine," I grunted. "Get Tank out of here!"

I dragged myself to safety as my guys intensified their covering fire. The sudden lack of wall and ceiling in one corner of the watchtower meant that we were exposed to enemy fire whenever they made it close enough to the wall.

"Are you alright?" Miri asked me, kneeling next to me.

I grunted and sat up, rolling my shoulders and tightening my back. I did that a couple of times and then took a deep breath. "Yeah, looks like I'm fine."

"Good," Miri said simply. Another explosion rocked the wall.

"UAV is up," Bee said. "I'm getting a live feed."

The flying drone tagged several dozen enemy infantrymen as it flew over them. Snark and Preacher quickly started hitting the bigger targets through the smoke, stalling the enemy advance. Bee waited patiently for the UAV to make its flyby over the forest and give him the position of the enemy Daemon. The camera feed that the UAV gave me wasn't particularly good or high quality. The bird was a disposable one that was usually sent for recon during situations like this one. More and more bolts of plasma flew at the UAV until finally it spotted the energy signature of a Daemon tank.

"Got it," Bee notified calmly before warming up his Spartan Laser.

A big red blob marked the place that the Daemon was in for Bee, cross-referencing its location with Bee's helmet and pointing it out through the thick smoke cover. Bee fired his laser and hit the tank. The UAV couldn't see the damage properly through the thick tree foliage, but it could see that it had been a solid hit. Bee didn't waste any time in a follow-up shot and warmed up his laser again. One plasma shell missed his position as the Daemon attempted to fire back, but Bee hit it a second time, finishing it off.

Just as the Daemon exploded violently so did our little UAV drone.

"Good kill, good kill," Crow complimented.

The smoke was beginning to dissipate and all conversations had died down. Usually you had at least a couple of guys chatting about some nonsense while killing aliens, but the moment Tank cried out in pain everybody focused on the battle. Hearing the biggest, toughest man in your unit cry and scream from pain hit you pretty hard.

"How is he?" I asked Andy.

"Looks like the rebar nicked his femoral," she said. "It's not severed, otherwise he'd be dead already."

"Don't talk like I can't hear you," Tank managed through shallow breathing.

I sighed. "Payat, you hear me?"

"Yeah, you need me there?" he replied through the radio.

"Negative," I told him. "What's your recommendation?"

"Bring me up to speed again," he requested.

Andy took a breath. "Rebar went through Tank's leg, punched through his femur and nicked his femoral artery."

"This is when I wished I was in a hospital," Payat sighed. "If we move him the rebar might finish cutting the artery. We can't exactly do a bypass before pulling out the piece of metal, so I'm saying you yank it out and fill him up with biofoam."

"Yank it out!" Tank exclaimed. "You're a doctor! Are you fucking kidding me?"

I nodded quickly and Andy held Tank down. Before he realized what was going on I pulled out the rebar as fast as possible. I did my best to yank it back as straightly as possible. Blood sprayed my visor and Tank screamed the loudest I had heard him scream so far.

Andy let go of his shoulders and pulled out a can of biofoam. She pressed it against the wound and then poured the entire contents of the can into it. She didn't stop until pink foam came out the other end of the wound. Tank cursed and punched at the ground with his good hand, but for the most part he manned through it. A little bit of blood seeped out through the biofoam, but everything seemed to be fine.

"Do we have a scanner?" I asked.

"Yeah," Andy said. "Let me check."

She pulled out a medical scanner and put it above Tank's leg. The device recreated the injury and displayed it in a small screen. The break was nasty, a section of the femur had completely shattered, but the femoral artery seemed to be mostly intact. The biofoam would hold the blood in and keep the circulation going. Some of the blood with inevitably seep out, making his leg feel a little numb, but it would keep him from bleeding out.

"What about his hand?" I asked.

Andrea rolled my eyes and pulled the rebar out from Tank's hand. It was a smaller piece and Tank barely winced at that. I almost rolled my eyes back at them. After he had screamed his lungs out this display of badassery probably alleviated him some.

"We're going to need you out of the way," I told him. "Andy's going to shoot you full of painkillers and you're going to move you back."

"Sir, I can still help," Tank said. "Sit me down somewhere and I can fire or man a turret."

I shook my head lightly. "Sorry Tank. The moment the adrenaline stops pumping you'll realize that your femur is completely shattered."

"What about painkillers?" he asked.

"That's part of the problem," Andy told him. "You're going to be completely under."

"Shit," Tank sighed. "Fine. Whatever's best."

I nodded at Andy and she pulled out a packet of painkillers. She quickly administered it to Tank, who just took a couple of deep breaths before his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

"Can you handle him?" I asked her.

"Yeah, thank God this tower has an elevator."

Andrea dragged Tank's unconscious body to the small elevator and then disappeared. Snark and Miri were both firing away at the covvie infantry, but far in the distance I could see that some of the trees in the forest were being brought down. It could only mean that tanks and vehicles were coming through. We had trouble handling one Daemon, let alone three at a time. So far we hadn't used any of our support, but we would be forced to use it soon.

"Ah shit," Snark muttered.

I was thrown back as an explosion rocked the tower. Pieces of ceiling fell over me, but the watchtower was obviously not the main target. Explosion after explosion shook the gate. It was made of reinforced Titanium-A, but with so much plasma and heat would get to it. The walls next to the gate were weaker than the gate itself. Shot after shot shook the walls and gate, but we could barely fire back. Bee could only fire so often and the Spartan Laser had only so many spare batteries. One of my guys had picked up a rocket launcher, but the Daemons had chaff and flares to deflect our strikes. We managed to take out one, but the enemy tanks succeeded in breaking the wall that held the gate up.

"It's going down!" Pavel shouted.

The massive metal gate slammed down into the ground with a loud clang.

"Ah shit," I grunted. "Hold the line, I'll be right back."

I climbed down the tower as fast as I could just as troops started heading towards the door. All of our automatic turrets attacked the enemy infantry and my men focused on the leaders. I ran past the open gate, ducking underneath incoming plasma fire as I did. Once through I paused to take a couple of deep breaths. The motor pool was not too far away and we had already prepared some tanks for this eventuality.

"Hurry up, Francisco," Schitzo advised. "Yours is not the only life at stake here."

He was right. My entire team as well as the four other companies defending different sectors of the wall depended on us holding the gate. If we lost this base before the civilians evacuated the western sector of the city it would be a massacre.

I jumped on top of the Scorpion tank and yanked open the hatch before sliding in. My rifle poked me and I had to remove it and put it in a holster to my right. The tiny cockpit felt confining and cramped, but there wasn't much I could do about that. The tank rumbled to life. Its powerful engine roared as I floored the accelerator I positioned the tank right behind the opening where the gate had been brought down.

"Give me targets!" I shouted, moving the turret to aim at the gap in the wall. "Prioritize!"

I fired one shell in the distance, hitting a squad of brutes. I couldn't exactly see the results this far away, but none of the four aliens got back up. A couple of plasma bolts hit the front right tread, but the tank didn't even register the impacts. I started firing the coaxial machine gun almost wildly, spraying the grunts and jackals with it. The tightly clustered squads started spreading out when they realized that they now had a fucking tank to contend with.

"Daemons are still out there," Pavel told me. "Frank, we need you to take them out!"

"Got it," I said. "We've got two more Scorpions out back, knock yourselves out."

Crow and Lady dashed out from the booths next to the collapsed gate and headed towards the motor pool. I stopped firing for just long enough as they moved in front of the tank and then I floored the accelerator again. The gate clanked when the tank rolled over it and the grunts turned and ran away. I suddenly realized just exactly how exposed I was.

"Move, move!" Snark cried out.

I turned hard to the left, barely avoiding a shell from a Daemon. The Scorpion's targeting systems immediately located the source of the shot and tagged the target. I turned the turret without letting go of the accelerator and fired at the Daemon. Another plasma shell detonated close to my front right tread, showering the tank with dirt. My own shot hit the Daemon tank right under its turret. I fired again and the Daemon appeared to be damaged enough that it couldn't keep actively working.

Bee fired his rocket launcher at another Daemon and I banked hard to the right. Covenant corpses popped and burst as the tank ran them over.

"That's a hit," Bee said.

"Finishing it off," I said, aiming and firing at a second Daemon.

My shot hit the enemy tank just as a third plasma shell flew in my direction. I barely saw it coming and managed to turn slightly, but it was too late to avoid the shot. The Scorpion stopped suddenly as my rear left treads were hit. I cursed and waited for the tank to self-assess. As soon as its systems restarted I accelerated again, narrowly missing a follow-up shot.

"How many tanks are there?" I asked out loud.

"Looks like at least two more," Snark replied. "I'm tagging them for you right now."

I grunted at the sight of two red silhouettes in the forest. "Lady, Crow?"

"On our way," Lady said.

Miranda took out a grunt with a fuel rod before it could fire at me, but another alien managed to get off a shot with its plasma launcher. The explosive stuck to my front right tread armor and exploded, tearing a large section of it apart. Miri promptly took care of the alien, hitting it three times in the neck and chest. Brutes and jackals tried pelting my tank with small arms fire, spikes and needles stuck onto the armor harmlessly, but the noise was distracting and quite frankly, aggravating.

I vaguely registered Lady and Crow driving both their Scorpions through the gap in the wall and fired at one of the Daemons. The other one, unfortunately, had gotten a bead on me. The shell hit the back of my turret, melting through the armor.

I sucked air in, expecting my own shells to detonate from the heat, but when nothing happened I turned my turret around and fired at it. The explosive round hit the strong frontal armor on the Daemon, barely scratching it. Bee helped out with additional rocket fire, but the Daemon hadn't been knocked out of the fight. Crow and Lady both were engaging the other enemy tank.

"Ah shit," I cursed softly.

I turned my tank completely around so that the hatch was facing away from the enemy. I spun the turret to aim at the Daemon, but it had already reloaded and fired at me. The tank shook and its engine died. The display told me that both the treads on the right side of the Scorpion were completely useless. It was a good exchange for an enemy tank kill. I aimed at the Daemon and fired at the exact same spot that Bee and I had targeted before. The damaged armor couldn't withstand the HEAT round and the enemy tank crashed down to the ground and then exploded.

"That's my first two tank-on-tank kills in a while," I said. "I'm dead in the water here."

"You're in the clear for now," Pavel said. "Make the most of it."

I suddenly felt like I was not the man in charge. Pavel was one of the three people that could make me feel like a child. I rarely appreciated it, particularly when it happened in front of my men.

Regardless of my feelings Pavel did have a good point. I had a big-ass tank ready to fuck things up, at least until the Covenant could field reliable anti-tank measures. Their fuel rods were certainly dangerous, but the rounds flew slow and my guys would handle those that were close enough to be a threat. I began firing indiscriminately, hitting both small and large groups alike. Brutes were torn to pieces by the explosions even as the smaller grunts were tossed around like rag dolls by the concussive forces. The jackals tried in vain to hide behind their energy shields, but few things can withstand a Scorpion tank and come out on top. Four Ghosts sped out of the forest, leaving exhaust trails behind them as they boosted. I handled the first one, sending it into a front flip as my shot detonated. Lady and Crow adjusted their aim and took out two others in a combined explosion. The Ghosts were almost completely shredded by the HEAT round. The last Ghost charged ahead, firing wildly as it went. The brute could've turned at any time, but instead it chose to meet its end as stupidly as possible.

I proceeded to strafe the forest's edge with the coaxial machine gun, occasionally letting off a shot from the main gun. Lady and Crow followed my lead, hitting the trees. Shards of wood flew everywhere, the tanks optics allowed me to see the results in detail. Wood shrapnel tore aliens apart, completely overwhelming those that had shields and utterly destroying those that didn't. A few here and there were caught in the machine gun fire while some others fell to the main gun.

The tank informed me in a cold, mechanical voice that I had burned through 75% percent of our ammunition and warned me to conserve it for the future. I duly noted the suggestion and kept firing as often as the automatic reloading system let me.

"Lieutenant," Captain Flatt checked in. "We've got reports of a large enemy air group moving towards our position! Their approach vector suggests your position as the primary target."

"Roger that, ma'am," I told her. "Are the Scythes up and running?"

"We've got six of them online already," she said, "but four others were undergoing maintenance. I have men working on them right now."

"Understood," I replied, ending the conversation. "Team-7! We've got airborne inbound!"

I could hear Pavel yelling at the men to pick up rocket launchers and keep their eyes open. I would've liked a little more time to prepare, but fifteen seconds later the three lead Banshees appeared over the treetops. They were flying fast and low. I attempted to hit them with the machine gun, but I was never much of a tanker. The tracer rounds all failed to make any kind of contact with the fliers even as more and more Banshees appeared behind the leading ones. The three front Banshees began strafing with their plasma cannons, even hitting some of their own that were close to me. Several superheated plasma bolts hit the Scorpion. I wasn't very worried by those, I knew that the armor could withstand a lot of punishment.

"More incoming!" Lady cried out.

"Move, move," I urged her and Crow.

I kept firing my machine gun at the sky, hoping for a Banshee to fly through my crosshairs. I knew that the Banshees weren't overly concerned with us, they were instead hitting the wall with their green fuel rod explosives and flying further inside the base to wreck havoc inside. It wasn't until a lucky burst took down a Banshee and an immaculately well-timed shot took out another one that I became a concern for the enemy. Bee took out a Banshee that was getting a bearing on me.

"Get out of there, sir!"

I punched open the hatch and grabbed my rifle, awkwardly pulling myself out. I had to slide back in almost immediately in order to avoid a pair of plasma bolts that nearly melted my head off.

"Fuck," I cursed, peeking carefully back up. The Banshees suddenly looked a lot bigger and numerous now that I could see all of them without needing to turn the turret around.

I pulled myself up and felt a searing pain on the inside of my arm. I grunted as my arm gave under me and I rolled down the side of the tank and into the ground. My right arm was bleeding, not too heavily, but not something to dismiss so easily. I cursed and experimentally moved it, wincing with pain as I did. Judging from the look of the injury a needle or a carbine had nicked me.

Before I could get a move on two fuel rods hit the Scorpion tank I was leaning against. The heavy explosives detonated almost simultaneously, the heat was enough to melt through the armor and detonate the fuel on the tank. I was thrown forward into the mud. All the explosives, shells, and blood had turned the dirt into nearly ankle-depth mud. Tank's dry blood on my visor was wiped away by the muddy grass.

"They're swarming me!" Crow shouted. "They're trying to open the hatch!"

I jumped back up and climbed on top of the flaming tank. It was probably a stupid move, seeing as it could blow any second. The smoke it produced, however, did give me a certain degree of concealment from the enemy sharpshooters. I quickly searched for Crow's tank. It was hard to miss the house-sized mass of death with all the brutes banging on it.

Crow violently floored the gas and managed to knock down a brute by swinging the turret violently. A moment later he hit the brakes, loosening up another brute from his tank. Despite his efforts there were still five brutes clinging into his tank. I aimed at the one banging on the hatch and hit it with a burst. The three rounds hit right where I had aimed at. The brute's right arm fell down, useless. Another two bursts to the center mass, dislodged its firm grip on the tank and it fell in between the front and rear treads, where it was dispatched with a dull pop noise. The other four brutes turned to look at the source of the fire without stopping their punching of the tank.

Crow managed to hit one with the coaxial machine gun, nearly cutting off its left leg. The three others shifted away from the turret and towards the dented hatch. I put three in the eyes of one of the brutes before a beam rifle shot from a sniper nearly beheaded me. I could feel the heat in my throat even through my undersuit. The shock made me slip on the tank and fall down to the ground. Almost immediately I heard two sniper rifle shots.

"I'm all clear," Crow said with relief. "Thanks for the assist guys."

"No problem," Snark and I said at the same time.

Crow was clear now, but I was still sixty meters away from the safety of my walls and then some, because I had traveled sideways. I was roughly three hundred meters away from the big-ass hole in our wall. It hadn't seemed like that much back when I was inside the tank, but the constant movement had pushed me away from the safety of Mendez Joint Base. I looked down and sighed. The Banshees were being dispersed by the constant Scythe AA fire, but the sheer number of enemy aircraft meant that one would spot me sooner rather than later.

"That's a pickle we find ourselves in," Schitzo sighed.

"Shit," Marv huffed. "You're too far away."

"I know," I said. "I might need some help."

"That's a new one," Andy commented. "Sir."

"Very funny," I told her. "I take it you bunch of incompetent shits can't guarantee my safety for the stretch."

"I can guarantee I'll get at least eight kills before you get killed," Snark told me. "All of them brutes."

"I can guarantee that I'll get more kills than Snark," Longworth said.

"And I'll top him off," Preacher said. "I've got the Lord on my side."

I rolled my eyes. Not only at Preacher, but at my three best marksmen. Well, Miri was my third best, right next to Longworth, but she wasn't the kind to joke about someone dying when it was a very plausibly outcome.

"I'm coming around," Lady said. "I can't go too slow, you know that."

"What's the record speed for three hundred meters?" I asked as Lady approached my position with her tank.

"I'd guess about high twenty seconds," Longworth said. "I could run it in thirty-two back in high school."

"Only Longworth," Andy said with an almost audible eye-roll.

"I'll do it in thirty," I said. "Pavel, time me."

"Frank, you're thirty-seven. Stop behaving like a child."

I laughed with the rest of the team. Pavel had a very valid point here, but his tone indicated that he wasn't really opposed to my antics.

Lady's tank rolled past right in front of me before coming into a wide u-turn, coming back around on the other side of my wrecked Scorpion tank. I strapped my rifle to my back and got into a sprinter's stance on the edge of my tank.

"Distance is three hundred and ten meters," Pavel said. "I'm only timing your three hundred, ok?"

"Ok," I said.

"Lady's coming up. Go on my mark."

"Ready," I said.

"Mark."

I sped out almost as soon as I heard him begin saying the word. Unexpectedly enough, time slowed down by a margin of magnitude. My own body seemed to react incredibly slowly. My thoughts went incredibly fast, allowing me to carefully analyze everything that my eyes could see. I noticed the two dead jackals and mutilated brute standing in my way. I could see Lady's Scorpion's treads moving ever so slowly. Dirt was thrown out the back by the tank and colorful bolts flew here and there, faster than even my own body could dodge. A red bolt made its way three meters in front of my head even as random needles shattered on the tank's armor.

Time seemed to slowly regain its normal speed with every single step, but even then the Banshee turning in order to get a bearing on Lady's tank or the squad of aliens a kilometer away seemed comically slow. I could see the enemy rounds hitting Lady's tank or flying all around me and knew that it would've been impossible for me to survive the sheer number of shots that would've been flying in my direction.

The Scorpion proved to be an invaluable barrier as it stopped all small arms fire in its tracks. I was already halfway through this, but the angle of my run exposed my back to the Covenant soldiers. I did my best to stick close to Lady, but she couldn't keep driving this slow and in a straight line for much longer. Already I could see that she was almost subconsciously drifting away in order to avoid the incoming Banshee.

"Faster," Schitzo urged.

My legs found strength and I seemed to double my speed as I jumped over corpses and craters I vaguely registered myself hitting the three hundred meter mark before my boots clanked against the toppled metal gate and I almost fell forward. I managed to hold onto our tank drone and use its weight for support as I slid behind it for cover.

"What was my time?" I asked, out of breath.

Pavel was silent for maybe half a second longer than he usually would've been. "Twenty seven point five," he said finally.

"Are you sure?" Longworth asked.

"A hundred percent," he replied.

I few of the guys on my team congratulated me. Some of them were obviously shocked. A man isn't supposed to run faster with armor, ammunition, and weapons on top of him than with shorts and running shoes. Even with the exoskeleton the ODST armor had to help us manage the weight I was still carrying several pounds of equipment. Not to mention the uneven ground with patches of grass equally spaced with patches of corpses.

Normally I would've felt elated. Don't get me wrong, I did feel a sense of elation, but it was elation at being alive. For the most part I was just confused. Even I wasn't supposed to break Olympic records in the middle of combat. Sure I could run a couple of marathons if it was a life or death situation, but when it came down to it your legs could keep you going for a long time. I was just surprised that they had gotten me across so fast.

I turned around and placed myself on all fours. The tank drone slowly moved forward as I crawled, providing cover for me even at this range. I made my way towards the watchtower, feeling the burn in my legs but not really affected by it. If my sudden burst of speed had been a heroin high, this wasn't unlike an ecstasy trip. Every color seemed more vivid than normal, my movements looked fluid and seemed to be made even before I thought about them. My rifle was unslung and ready before I even thought about it. I felt like I was inside my own head watching a more better person control my body.

Is this what it feels like? I asked myself. Fucking Spartans.

Dirt and gravel flew as mortar shots started landing all around us. My men immediately jumped down to cover and prayed for the best, leaving the automatic Wolf Spider turrets to suppress any infantry dashing towards the wall. I pressed my back against the drone and calmly reloaded my rifle. The mortar barrage stopped just as I let go of the bolt.

"They're on the wall!" Mata shouted. "Take 'em out, take 'em out!"

I stood up and fired at a platoon of jackals moving with their shields in front of them. A Banshee strafed the ground in front of them, hoping to clear out Ramirez and Dotsenko, who were moving their machine guns to cut them down. My two men jumped inside a fresh crater just in time to avoid the plasma cannons, leaving me to contend with the twenty jackals.

They were still forty meters away, but they were sprinting for all they were worth. I switched to single fire and raised my BR55. I quickly zoomed in on the legs, the only part that the jackals were leaving completely uncovered. Every single shot I fired was a hit, with a faster body and more precise movements I couldn't miss. I knocked down ten of the jackals in half as many seconds, but the rest made it through the gate.

One of the jackals ducked in order to let a massive skirmisher lunge at me over the drone. I saw it coming almost in slow motion and easily sidestepped its tackle. Before it landed I hit the jackal that had ducked for the skirmisher. I killed another one when in the time it took the skirmisher to land and begin a roll. Another skirmisher jumped at me, throwing my aim off and making me stumble. I let my rifle slid so that my left hand was holding onto the grip and drew my sidearm. I used my pistol to hit the second skirmisher before firing three times at its neck. The large caliber bullets nearly severed its head. I turned around, feeling the first skirmisher coming back. I kicked at its hand as it tried raising a plasma pistol. The alien didn't stop its assault there, instead switching its weight to its other foot and then lunging for a tackle. It never got its foot off the ground, I quickly moved my rifle in its way and stabbed with it. The tip of the barrel actually embedded itself in the bottom of the jackal's neck.

I smiled and squeezed the trigger four times in quick succession.

A couple of bursts from Pitcher cut down two of the remaining jackals while Preacher sniped the other four. Pitcher looked at me form his position and gaped for a moment.

"Not half bad, sir," he complimented.

I nodded in acknowledgement and gave the order for both Lady and Crow to fall back behind the wall, where they'd be relatively safe from the strafing Banshees. I ran sideways towards the wall. The security booths on either side of the destroyed gate were already occupied by my men with automatic weapons. Dotsenko and Ramirez jogged inside right after I ran past the door. The watchtower was not much further from my position. I jogged towards it alongside the drone. I grabbed an extra two magazines from it and put them in my ammo pouches, replacing the ones I had just used.

"Bomb!" Snark broadcast over the whole channel. "Bo-"

I watched as the wall next to the watchtower ballooned inwards. Bright white and blue light shone through the cracks for a brief moment before the light overwhelmed the wall and sent pieces of rock and rebar flying backwards. I stumbled from the shockwave and watched as a thirty meter gap appeared in our perimeter. The rubble from the wall made a small hill that would slow down infantry and make both Wraiths and Daemons vulnerable, but a massive gaping hole in a wall was still a massive gaping hole in a wall.

The gate had been brought down along with a sizeable section of the wall. Both of the main watchtowers still stood, even though one of them was no longer attached to anything.

"Castillo, enemy troops are pulling out all around the perimeter," Flatt shouted. "What the hell was that noise?"

"Bomb," I said, my bones shaken. "They brought down the wall."

"What?"

"They're going to flood through," I replied, slowly regaining my bearings. "Fuck, we'll need reinforcements. A lot of them."

Thanks for reading this chapter. Once again I have to justify myself by reminding you that this wasn't proofread.

Well, the reviews for the last chapter were pretty positive. It seems like most of you guys enjoyed reading the armory scenes and didn't exactly dislike the characterization going on. I couldn't help but notice that you don't want me to kill Pavel, so I'm going to give him more screen time. Just saying. Miranda and Andrea are both important secondary characters, so they too will get more screen time.

People are starting to get injured here. Is that fortunate or unfortunate for them? I don't know yet. The only thing that I know is that I keep promising you guys that people are going to start dying and that I intend to keep that promise and hurt your feelings while I'm at it.

As for this chapter itself. Well, there were explosions and there were more explosions. There was some death here and some death there, but mostly it consisted of our favorite SpecOps outfit blasting the shit out of the Covenant assaulters. I'm sorry that I only posted half of the battle, but the next chapter will be basically the same except that everything will be multiplied. Oh, and one more thing, Frank got Spartan speed all of a sudden. Well, maybe it was half-Spartan speed, but it didn't go away after the danger had passed. What could that possibly mean? That's up to you guys to figure out. For next chapter I promise you tanks, explosions, sledgehammer and more!

I'd also like to thank you guys for your reviews. I more than made it to the goal of twenty and that's all thanks to you. I even got a little bit of a flame war going on there. I feel like I'm somehow relevant now. Well, in any case, rest assured that I read all your reviews and appreciate every single one of them and would love to keep them coming. One a minor thing: the new Halo: Initiation series came out and it kind of invalidates my little bit with Palmer, if you remember that. Well, it was strongly implied that Palmer was leaving to become an S-IV. Let's change that to a regular SpecOps assignment so that I keep up my record of completely adhering to canon.

Thanks once again and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Stay strong.

-casquis