Chapter CXCVIII: Doctor's Orders

August 19, 2552 (UNSC Calendar)/

New Alexandria, Eposz, Reach, Epsilon Eridani System

"Contrary to popular belief, this is exactly the kind of shit that we signed up for."- Sergeant Marvin Mobuto

The city was infested with military. I could tell that most of the units here were engineering. It was easy to tell because they were in the process of fortifying the streets, taking special care to turn every intersection into a nearly indestructible fortress. Most of those fortresses would come with a decent amount of explosives in the corners in case the covvies ever took over the position.

It was hard seeing the beautiful and artistic streets being turned into angular and utilitarian defensive positions. It was even harder seeing the mass of civilians moving towards the evacuation ports by foot because their cars could no longer transit through the fortified streets. Here and there I could spot a transport station where NAPD Pelicans ferried civilians across the city, but for the most part the people walked. Some buildings had fallout shelters built into their basements and so were receiving a flux of people seeking a place to weather the storm. All in all it was a highly discouraging sight.

"How's Crow doing?" I asked.

Payat looked up to me and sighed. "He's very badly burnt. The bomb landed right next to the Scorpion, I'm surprised he's still alive. His wounds don't look particularly life-threatening, but he does have burns in over sixty percent of his body, mostly the face and torso, although both his feet are completely raw. In any case, he won't be able to fight for some time."

I looked at Crow. Payat had removed most of his armor and opened his under suit to treat the wounds. His face was a mess. There was a long, irregular burn crossing his face where the visor had melted and fallen into his face. Miraculously enough both of his eyes had been spared, but his nose and upper lip were almost completely gone. His neck, chest, shoulders, and abdomen were burnt, displaying red wounds with charred black edges. His left collarbone was visible where the skin had been burnt through. It was not a pretty sight.

"Reconstructive surgery will probably get him looking just the way he was," Payat went on. "If I had finished my medical career I would probably know one or two guys that could help out… Sorry, sorry. He's out for this one, sir."

I nodded slowly and looked back to Ramirez and Dotsenko. Both of them were very quiet, studiously avoiding the sight of their mutilated comrade lying in the blood tray. Their mechanical limbs were perfectly silent even though I kept expecting to hear whirring or mechanical noises with every small movement. My hearing was still beyond anything I had possessed before, but the artificial limbs were simply engineering marvels.

"You two ok?" I asked them.

They looked up and then at each other before nodding. They didn't look like they had been hit, but there were scorch marks on their armor. More surprisingly, they didn't have a single spare ammunition box for their SAWs. Both of them had completely used up their ammo, leaving them with only the bullets inside their current magazine. They seemed shaken up. Despite their veteran status they were both in their early twenties. They were pretty young when it came down to it.

"Pavs?"

"You know me," he said. "I just want to talk to my family."

"I'll take care of that as soon as we land."

There was an uncomfortable silence as the soldier that had hitched a ride with us said nothing and we all looked at him briefly.

"What's your name, son?" I asked him.

"Parker," he said. "Uh, Private Parker."

"Are you alright, Private parker?" I asked.

He looked up from the ground and smiled awkwardly before shaking his head. "A lot of my friends died out there, sir. They were good men."

I nodded. "Perhaps they were the lucky ones, Parker."

Pavel looked at me and frowned before shaking his head almost imperceptibly. "Is this your first time seeing combat, kid?"

"Yes, sir," Parker replied, looking at Pavel. "I was permanently assigned to base protection so I didn't really deploy anywhere."

"Well, at least you had a quiet life before this," Pavel went on. "But you're going to need to get your shit together."

"My shit is perfectly together, Gunny," Parker assured him. "Doesn't mean I have to like it, but I don't plan on dying because the wires aren't well up here." He knocked the side of his helmet.

"Spoken like a true Marine," Ramirez said approvingly.

"I'm Army," Parker reminded him. "Soldier through and through."

"Hooah," Dotsenko said, using the traditional Army slang in respect.

"Hooah," Parker echoed quietly. "Hooah."

I turned back from the rear of the Pelican and walked into the cockpit, where Marina was following another Pelican at a safe distance and a relatively slow speed. She weaved through the tight space in between the buildings without making an effort. She looked up at me and smiled underneath her big pilot helmet. Sometimes I wondered why we had broken up.

"Are you ok?" she asked me, closing the door behind me automatically.

"Didn't we clear that up?"

She rolled her eyes at me. Well, I didn't see that, but I could tell that she did. "You know what I mean. It can't feel good having so many of your guys wounded."

"Of course it doesn't feel well," I told her, sitting in the copilot's seat. "But what can I do about it? Casualties are part of war and unfortunately we're in the business of war."

"The business of war?" Marina repeated carefully.

I shrugged. "We wage war and we get paid for it," I told her.

"Well, you have a point there. Are you sure you're ok, though? I still remember how you felt after you lost Scarecrow."

I sighed. I didn't like being reminded of Scarecrow. Sutton had been a great man, perhaps one of those guys that truly deserved better than what he got. You came across good guys and cool guys and fun guys in the military, but you rarely came across people that were truly better people. Being reminded of him always made me feel like I had failed in protecting the one person that deserved it.

"Frank?"

"Sorry," I apologized quickly. "I'm fine. All of my guys will make it, even Crow and Longworth."

"Longworth? Isn't that a little bit too normal for you? I know how you like giving nicknames."

"I never gave you any nicknames."

"And I never forgave you for that," she said, chuckling. "Well, if you're ever feeling like you need to talk, I'm here."

"For the last time, Marina. Having psychologist parents doesn't make you a shrink."

"I think it does," she said. "In fact, I'm pretty sure it does."

"Thanks," I said. "Really."

"That's what friends are for," she replied.

I nodded to myself before moving out of the chair. I looked at it before leaving the cockpit. Sheppard had once been Marina's copilot, younger than all of us and pretty uncomfortable around my team he had always been kind of a little brother figure to all of us. I rarely thought about him, but he was as responsible for saving our lives as Marina had been.

"Sir," Payat said. "You were hit."

I stretched my shoulders and winced slightly. I had been hit by a plasma bolt.

"Do your job," I said reluctantly.

Payat was evidently surprised. It wasn't very often that you came across an ODST that let you work on their wounds, let alone one that was your superior officer. In fact, pretty much everybody with a non-life threatening injury refused to be treated for a certain amount of time in order to prove that they were fit to be a Marine or a soldier. It was pretty much an unspoken rule.

"Ok…" he said dubiously. "Turn around and sit down please."

I complied and Payat began treating my wound by removing the armor on my back. I winced and tightened my fists when he poured biofoam on the wound but otherwise didn't make any noise.

"Your armor's intact," Payat said. "Your undersuit looks good, some of the fibers melted, but it should probably still be airtight. Don't trust me on that one though. Well, the wound itself is a second degree burn, nothing serious, it might bother you some."

"Thanks," I said. "Now get the armor back on."

"Right away, Lieutenant."

As soon as Payat tapped my shoulders I stood back up, carefully avoiding Crow's unconscious form and sitting back down on the edge of the Pelican. This section of the city was emptier, but there were still groups of civilians moving by foot. At least it seemed like these groups consisted mostly of businessmen and women. It was easier thinking that they might die as opposed to being reminded that whole families would be massacred. The inner area was heavily fortified, with Scorpions, Warthogs, Armadillos, Tortoises, and even mobile hospitals in the form of Elephants. Some of the straighter avenues even had Rhinos on them. Below us I could see as Falcon gunships and Hornets flew considerably closer to the ground. Above us some other Pelicans flew. I even saw an Albatross slowly moving through the skyscrapers.

"Ever wonder why we name all our vehicles after animals?" I asked Pavel.

"Probably the same reason why we named all the covvie vehicles after ghosts."

"It's incredibly how many synonyms there are for the word ghost," Ramirez said.

"Well, we ran short of those when it came down to the Prowler and the Chopper," Dotsenko told him.

"Speaking of, why didn't we run into any of those?" Ramirez asked.

"Should we have?" Parker asked. "Wasn't it enough with the Ghosts and Wraiths?"

"Brute-led forces usually have different vehicles," Pavel said.

"Why?" Parker asked. "I mean, it doesn't make much sense. I know that Marines use Tortoises instead of Armadillos, but they're over eighty percent compatible."

"Covenant fleets are segregated," I said. "Brutes and elites don't mix."

"Nobody ever told me about that," Parker said.

"I thought it was common knowledge," Ramirez said. "They should teach that in basic. Brute-led and elite-led forces behave very differently during combat. We should make that common knowledge."

"Well, nobody ever told me," he complained.

A flight of Shortswords screamed overhead, shaking the windows on the buildings. I traced them with my eyes until they disappeared behind the skyscrapers. They were headed west. If someone was requesting six bomber's worth of air support simultaneously then things couldn't be going too well out there. They had bulled through our position in less than a day and we counted with enormous walls and the biggest minefield in the history of history.

"Castillo, we're headed towards the hospital," Flatt said. "I pulled some strings and called in a favor to get our wounded there."

"Thanks ma'am," I replied. "I've got a few men that could use it."

"Everybody does right now," she said. "Listen Frank, HIGHCOM is in complete disarray right now, I can't contact anybody outside Viery territory and the fleet's too busy."

"Doesn't sound too good," I sighed. "Can you contact ONI?"

"Of course I can," she said. "When all things go down ONI is still there."

"The most efficient branch of the UNSC," I said.

"Why do you make that sound like an insult?" Flatt asked me. "You are still technically ONI."

"I know," I said. "Doesn't really feel like that though."

"I know what you mean," she said. "Listen, they've given us clearance to land in the shorter of the two buildings, there should be enough space on the rooftop to get everybody off. After all the wounded are down we're moving our vehicles groundside. You can leave most of your men down in street level as well."

"Yes, ma'am," I said. "Thanks for doing this."

"I'm AAG's de-facto commanding officer, Frank. I'm with you for the long haul and I intend to keep my unit the very best I can."

I smiled. "Yes, ma'am."

Marina landed the Pelican in the park terrace. I could barely feel the landing gear hitting the rooftop. Two nurses immediately climbed inside and knelt over the Crow. Before I knew it they had already gotten an IV into his arm and were preparing a stretcher to move him out. I began climbing down, but six more nurses climbed inside and began poking and probing with scanners. I tried to shake them off.

"I'm fine," I insisted. "Please."

"No you're not, I'm seeing a second-degree burn in your back."

"It's already been treated," I told the nurse.

"Right," she scoffed. "I've seen how you jarheads apply biofoam. It's disgusting."

"Did she just call me a jarhead?" I asked Pavel, grudgingly letting the nurse take off my armor.

"I think she called all of us jarheads," he replied.

"As a soldier, I find that offensive," Parker mumbled, lifting his eyes for his own nurse.

I chuckled.

"Wow, this biofoam was actually applied correctly," my nurse said. "I'm impressed."

"Yeah, I'm a doctor," Payat said, trying to shove his own nurse away from him. "Certified and everything. Now, can you please let us down?"

"Sorry, not yet," my nurse replied. "You all have minor stress fractures, extensive bruising, scratches, cuts, and minor contusions. All of you. I don't even know how you're still standing."

"Our job's not to fall, honey," Dotsenko said.

"Did you seriously just say that?" Ramirez asked.

"I'm with James on this one," Payat said. "Can't believe you actually said those words."

"Are we done?" I asked my nurse.

"Just about. I need you to-"

I rolled my eyes and jumped down. "I'm sorry, but we're in a hurry. Pavel, on me."
I walked through the crowded rooftop, ignoring the wounded soldiers and AAG operators being carried in stretchers by nurses and doctors. Caboose walked up to me, trying to shake off a nurse treating him.

"Sir," he said. "They're taking Longworth down for surgery. Snark's getting preferential treatment. His head wound was deadlier than you'd think. Hell, the doctor didn't believe me when I told her that he had been conscious most of the ride. Tank's being moved down to get his fracture treated."

"And Lady?"

"Ah, Lady. I had the displeasure of sharing the same Pelican with her," Caboose sighed. "She was badly hurt when her tank was hit, but Payat failed to catch that."

"I'm sorry," Payat said behind me. "I was being shot at and just wanted to get her to safety."

"Most of her injuries are burns, bad ones. Right leg and arm have bad burns on them, her tendons are damaged and she's going to need extensive surgery and some implants to speed up the recovery process. Once the adrenaline wore off she realized just how much pain she was in and bitched about it the whole trip. We didn't have Andy with us so we couldn't put her under."

"I genuinely feel sorry for you," I told him.

"How's Crow?" he asked.

I shook my head. "He'll live, but it's bad. It's very bad. He won't be happy when he wakes up."

Caboose nodded slowly. "Very well. I'll take the rest of the men down. Set up around the entrance."

"Alright," I told him. "I'll meet you down there later."

Caboose nodded again. "Team-7 on my position! Move it!"

The nurse treating me still refused to let go and instead tried to get me to remove my helmet.

"Will you stop it?" I asked violently. "Listen girl, I appreciate the help, but five of my men are wounded and I'd appreciate it if you'd let me go down and see them!"

"I'm sorry," she apologized, startled. "But Doctor Vinter gave strict orders not to let anybody who hasn't been treated pass through."

My mind went to Lieutenant Commander Sigfrid Vinter, the chief medical officer on board the UNSC Flawless. I knew for a fact that the man had died on board the ship. Then I thought back to her daughter who had been studying in medical school last time I called.

"Are you talking about Doctor Astrid Vinter?"

"You know her?" the nurse asked.

"Damn right I do," I said. "Now let me talk to her and we can speed this whole process along."

The nurse looked at me before jogging off to get one of the doctors to come back here. I waited very patiently while she talked to Astrid and then pointed in my direction. Astrid, for it was indeed her, walked over towards my position and planted her feet on the ground and her fists on her hips. She had grown up quite a bit since I last saw her. She looked good, but there were lines in the corner of her eyes and she no longer looked like an idealistic college girl.

"Yes?" she said.

I took off my helmet. "Hey."

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Goddamit Frank."

"Hello to you too," I said. "Astrid I need you to let my men go through right now, I don't want to cause a scene."

"Asking for favors? You do realize that you didn't even bother showing up for my father's funeral."

I nodded and looked away from her piercing eyes. "I'm sorry," I apologized earnestly. "Sigfrid was a great man Astrid, you know that as well as I do."

"Not great enough for you, apparently."

"You know it's not like that," I said.

"Then what happened? You didn't show up and you didn't even bother with a call or even a letter."

"I'm sorry."

"What I don't understand is that you didn't even bother to show up at the funeral. A lot of people were there, Frank."

I looked back to Astrid. "There were far too many funerals for me to go to," I told her quietly. "I lost a lot of good men that were fighting under my command. I'm sorry. I've visited him a couple of times, you know. No flowers or anything, but I didn't forget about him and all he did for me."

Astrid crossed her arms and looked at me with a frown on her face. "Damn you Frank. You always did know what to say."

"Debatable," Pavel said behind me.

"Good to see you," Astrid waved at Pavel. "Come on down, but I can't have a bunch of lumbering Marines inside my hospital. I've already got enough on my hands as it is."

"We'll stay out of the way," I said. "Oh, I have a doctor on my team. An honest-to-God doctor. Certified and everything."

"Bring him down," Astrid said. "We could sure use the help."

"Payat!" Pavel shouted. "Get over here! You're going to be a doctor!"

I almost laughed at the squeals of excitement that the man made as he all but bounced towards us. He would finally fulfill his dream of being a doctor in the best hospital in the system and quite probably this end of the galaxy.

"Follow me," Astrid said, leading us into the elevators. "And please put all your weapons away. We have civilian patients here too."

"This is your rodeo," I told her. "Whatever you say goes."

Astrid nodded and walked inside the elevator with us in tow. "I'm giving members of the military priority over civilians," she said. "And trust me, there's no shortage of wounded from any side."

"Thank you for that," I told her.

She produced a small datapad and flicked through it. "You've got five serious wounded, I see. All of the procedures are relatively simple, but they will need at least a week of recovery each. As for the rest of your unit, it appears that everybody's got minor wounds of some sort or other. Normally I wouldn't let them leave the hospital for a few days, but considering the situation…"

"I need them fighting," I said.

"Yes."

"What about the seriously injured? This city is about to turn into a battleground soon, I can't have them here while that happens."

"You're right," she said. "We're already sending everybody that can be moved to Quezon and Esztergom."

"Quezon is still intact?"

"It's the planet's largest city," Astrid said. "The UNSC made sure to send a sizeable portion of their forces there."

"And Esztergom?" Pavel asked.

"I don't know much," Astrid told him, "but the city is still held by UNSC forces. There are rumors about Covenant armies encircling them, but I don't know anything. I asked some of my dad's friends from the Corps and they were also confused. Half of them didn't even answer."

"It's bad," I said, stepping out of the elevator and into an aisle full of wounded and screaming soldiers. "But we still have the advantage in numbers and personnel."

Astrid nodded, her face becoming soft for the first time since I had seen her. For one moment she looked like the scared girl I had first met in the middle of a battle. A moment later she went back to her hardened expression.

"Your men are all in this wing," she told me. "I promise you that I'll have them moved as soon as they've been operated on."

"Thanks," I said again. "Can you see that they are sent to Esztergom?"

"Why there?"

"It's a defensible city," Pavel replied.

"More likely that it'll hold longer," I said. "And more likely that it'll fall under attack sooner, which means that they'll send us there."

"That's some strange logic you've got going on, Frank," Astrid said. "But I'll do what you want."

"What are you going to do?" I asked her.

"I'm going to stay here," she replied. "The wounded are going to keep coming and they'll need help."

I shook my head. "You've got to leave as soon as possible," I told her. "Wounded may keep coming, but soon enough there won't be a way for you to leave this city and then you're as good as dead."

She shrugged. "That's what my mom said and I'm still here. You can't make me change my mind, Frank."

I sighed. "You'll regret this," I told her.

"Maybe, but I'm a doctor, it's what I do."

I nodded understandingly and turned around, signaling for Payat to approach. He seemed awed by the impressive machinery and technology that this hospital possessed. The way that the machines seamlessly integrated multi-layer scanning with tridimensional holograms was quite impressive, especially when you saw the impressive quality of the holograms. They appeared to be realer than the stuff around them. Not even the latest films had that kind of quality. Most of the machines were automatic, but they needed a doctor to program them or supervise them while they worked. Some hospitals were completely automated, working under an AI's control, but a simple glitch in the system could shut down the whole thing. That's why, when it came to it, humans are the best doctors there are.

"Look at all this," Payat said in amazement. "You've got the latest equipment available!"

"Our hospital is typically considered the best in existence," Astrid told him. "You're not up to date with the latest improvements on these machines, so I'm going to have to have you use some of the older ones. You don't mind treating trauma injuries with the older machines, do you?"

"How old are your oldest machines?" he asked her back.

"About ten years old."

"I think I'll be just fine," he replied with a big smile. "Whatever you need me to do, I'm there."

Astrid nodded in appreciation and directed him to an operating room in this same floor before turning back to Pavel and me. There were lines in the corner of her eyes. She looked way too young to have those.

"I need you out of here Frank, we're getting dozens of men every hour and need as much space as possible."

"Yes, ma'am," I replied with a courteous nod. "My men and I will be waiting outside the hospital for a little while until we get reassigned. Can you tell me as soon as my men are evacuated?"

She nodded, motioning for another doctor to wait. "Of course. I'm going to keep your man for a while, he can communicate with you."

I nodded and smiled at her much like I used to do whenever her father asked me over for dinner. "It was good seeing you, Astrid."

"Well, my dad did always say that it was hard not to like you."

"He was a smart man," I said. "Good luck."

"And you," she replied, already moving away. "Try to stay alive!"

I nodded in response even though she was already out of sight.

"A good gal, that one," Pavel noted. "Pretty eyes, too."

"You're married," I reminded him.

"The eyes do wander," he said simply. "As long as it's only the eyes it's fine."

"I know a lot of women who'd disagree," I chuckled, moving back towards the elevators. "Still, I can't help but agree with you."

"It's not like women don't look," Pavel went on. "They want to pretend that they don't but they're also hiding a little pervert inside them."

"Interesting words," I said, pushing the ground floor button and squeezing back as a bunch of nurses piled in.

Pavel made a noise as the elevator doors closed. The nurses were all sporting bloody scrubs and most of them had their arms covered with blood up to their elbows. A few of the younger ones looked almost shell-shocked while the older ones simply looked tired. It couldn't have been easy for them, especially after years of working in a nearly utopian city where crime rates were nearly non-existent and most trauma accidents didn't begin to compare to the realities of war. They also stopped talking as soon as they realized that two large Helljumpers were sharing the elevator with them. The ride down was a long one that was made even more uncomfortable by the existence of elevator music. I still don't understand why they insisted with it. Most of the times that I used an elevator I happened to be in the middle of a battle.

The elevator dinged and the nurses spilled out. We followed in their wake, noticing the soldiers with less lethal injuries. Those were kept in the lobby and told to wait, with only a few doctors and nurses attending to them, mostly just issuing painkillers and stitching up cuts where they could find them. Once we left the large lobby and walked outside into the street I was almost overwhelmed by the sheer amount of transports coming in. About half of the Pelicans belonged to the NAPD and were being used to ferry the wounded from the frontlines, but a sizeable number of the rest belonged to the Army. I could only assume that the Pelicans under UNSC Marine Corps control were being used in the frontline to ferry ammunition and able-bodied soldiers.

"I hate elevators," Pavel muttered, sidestepping a row of body bags. "I swear, every damn time I'm in one…"

"I get flashbacks," I agreed. "Avoid them as much as possible."

"Yeah," he said. "There they are." He pointed to an intersection and moved out of the way of a damaged Tortoise IFV, letting the hatch open to get the wounded out. Military vehicles surrounded the few ambulances out there, their flashing lights barely noticeable in the commotion

I saw my men standing in a street corner around Marina's Pelican. On the opposite side of the large intersection was Captain Nezarian's unit. He hadn't reported any KIAs, but there had been several wounded that would be out for the count. What stroke me most unusual was that Parker was still hanging around with my unit. He was chatting with Ramirez and Dotsenko, talking about something or other that I couldn't make out.

"Sir, word from Captain Flatt is to wait around the hospital until she gets orders. She's trying to get us back into the regular chain of command or at least make sure that everybody knows we're still alive," Caboose said.

"Good," I said, motioning for him to continue.

"What's left of AAG is at about 60% capacity. Most units received as much casualties as we did. We came out lucky without any deaths, sir."

"Well, can't complain about that one," I said, drawing a dry chuckle from Pavel. "How are we on ammunition?"

"Everybody's got regular loads of ammo except for you two," Caboose replied. "We did a little bit of trading and switching to account for our wounded. Bee still has a Spartan Laser with two extra batteries, but Tank isn't here to handle the SPANKr, so the rocket launcher is going to Sergeant Mata."

I nodded.

"Why do we call it rocket launcher?" Pavel asked suddenly.

"It's what it does," I replied. "It launches rockets."

"It launches missiles," he corrected. "They're guided."

I shrugged slightly. "You have a point," I agreed, "but I'm not about to change twenty years of habit."

"Not a lot of people would," Caboose acknowledged. "Well, as I was saying… The Sledgehammer is in the Pelican. There's not a lot of ammunition left, so there's that. We're out a sniper, but Preacher is stepping up. He upgraded his Enhanced Marksman Rifle in the armory with a heavier and longer barrel, should be able to do the job well enough."

"Where is he, by the way?"

"Inside," Caboose said, pointing at an adjoining building. "Praying."

I sighed. "Alright then. Anything else?"

"We're still at fifteen out of twenty," he said. "Could be a lot worse all things considered."

"How are the men feeling?"

"Mata is probing them right now," he said, pointing to Sergeant Roderic Mata. "From what I can tell they're tired and pissed, but not anywhere close to giving up."

"Good."

Caboose looked at me for a couple of seconds, probably waiting for me to ask another question or issue an order. When I did neither of those he took half a step back and then walked towards an empty crate of ammunition and sat down on it. I began moving towards Ramirez and Dotsenko.

"Private Parker," I said.

"Sir!" He saluted sharply.

"At ease," I waved him off after returning his salute. "What are you still doing here, private?"

"My unit, well, what's left of it, is waiting for orders around the hospital. It's a long walk there, so they'll notify me when they've got a mission."

"Understood," I said. "No injuries for you?"

"Nah," he said. "Well, they gave me a few metabolism pills or whatever you call those. They'll help my cells regenerate faster where they are damaged. They told me I should be fine by tomorrow morning."

"Yeah, we sometimes get those," Ramirez told him. "Pretty darn useful if you're fighting in rough terrain."

"Man, you elites get all the fancy toys," Parker muttered with admiration mixed with jealousy.

"That we do," I agreed.

Parker resumed his chat with Ramirez and Dotsenko, leaving me to walk around, examining the state of my men. They seemed to be fine, but I knew better than that. I had never seen my men looking more subdued. I don't think it was the wounded or even Polly's death that was weighing upon them. It was the fact that Reach, our untouchable fortress, was under siege. I got a couple of greeting from Team-7, but for the most part the men kept to themselves.

"Castillo, a word?" Captain Nezarian said.

I looked across the intersection and Nezarian waved at me. I jogged up across the fortified street and towards him. His armor was scorched badly on the left side and his arm seemed to have suffered some burns, but the man moved without showing any pain.

"How you doing, Cap?" I asked.

He looked at me and scoffed. "How do you think?"

"About as well as the rest of us?"

"Correct," he confirmed. "Not a good place for us to be in right now."

"Hospital? Or the planet?"

"Both."

I sighed. Hospitals were usually the main targets when the covvies attacked large cities. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think that our medical technology was probably more advanced than theirs. At least I never witnessed any Covenant soldiers receiving medical attention in the battlefield and over my career I had only seen a couple of elites that seemed to be wearing some sort of bandage. The grunts had to do what they could about injuries without any support from their superiors. Only the jackals had some semblance of camaraderie with their own species, often they pulled each other out of the battle in order to stop bleeding.

"Do you have a ship, Lieutenant?"

"No," I told the Captain. "I was in the Naverone before this whole thing started. I haven't had any contact with them for a couple of days now. You can't be thinking about a way out already."

"At this point we still have a chance," Nezarian asserted. "Command is sure taking their sweet time sending troops from the other side of the planet. If we got those reinforcements tomorrow I'm certain we could finish off the Covenant ground forces in a matter of days."

I nodded slowly. It seemed weird that the UNSC hadn't sent all available troops to kick out the Covenant invaders. I would've understood their mindset had the invasion been planet-wide, but the Covenant had only touched down on Viery and some of the northern territories. They were confined to a small area, sure it was the most populated region of the planet, but we still had some few million soldiers available.

"Something's gotta be wrong if we're not getting troops from the other side of the planet," he went on. "My guess is that they're jamming all communications."

"That can't be good," I said, unsure about whether to share his opinion or not. Jamming a couple of thousand satellites and radio towers was no simple matter, not even for the Covenant.

Nezarian sighed. "Anyways, I'm working on transport to Aszod in case everything goes to hell. The shipyards should still have a couple of ships being prepped there. I suggest you do the same."

"Thanks," I told him. "I'll get started on that."

Nezarian nodded and was about to say something when Captain Flatt radioed in. "Attention all AAG units, there are enemy air assets punching through our defensive lines. Our flyboys can't stop them all so it's our job to finish them off. There are several SAM emplacements all over the city, Army is taking care of fortifying those. The Marines are moving out to meet the enemy ground forces right outside the city. We're left here with a few other units. Our job is to eliminate any alien that sets foot here. I'm transmitting your respective grids right now."

I stopped to look at the map that Flatt sent me and frowned when I saw the designated names for the other units in the downtown area. We had the Sea District, the residential area surrounding the Cargo Port near the ocean. Gauntlet Team, who would be protecting the civilians moving being moved there, was defending the Cargo port itself. From there they would be moved to the orbital elevators out in the ocean.

"Gauntlet?" I asked.

"We've also got Kopis, Claymore, and Falcata," Nezarian said. "Call me a wishful thinker, but those names sound like Spartan."

I agreed with him.

"As you may have noticed," Flatt checked in again. "Some of the other units are Spartan units. The only reason we're seeing those names is because AAG is now under temporary NAVSPECWAR. That's all I have to say for now. Start moving out."

"NAVSPECWAR?" Nezarian asked. "ONI's not gonna be happy about that."

I shrugged. "Not our problem. Good luck."

"Likewise Castillo," he replied, shaking my hand.

I turned back towards my men, who were beginning to get up and lift our spare ammunition crates.

"Marina! Heat up your engines!" I shouted. "Team-7, get on board! We've got some killing to do!"

Thanks to General TheDyingTitan for proofreading this chapter.

Hey, I'm sorry for the comparatively long hiatus in between chapters. Frankly, I'm having a rough time getting used to this new school I'm going to. Worry not, socially I'm doing fine. A lot better thane expected actually, I even got myself a date for Homecoming dance. I didn't even realize that school dances were serious shit here in the USA. Oh well, I guess I still have a lot of things to get used to and movies can't always do everything for you. The problem is that I ended up with two AP classes as well as one Honors in my schedule. So far I'm not finding them particularly hard, but they do leave a lot of homework. As does Calculus. Fuck calculus. I fucking hate math enough as it is. And don't forget that I'm in the football team, which only serves to take additional time from my day but is one of the reasons why I actually entered a new school with some friends and am doing well socially. The other reason being my incredibly good looks.

Well, there's my excuse. It is also a warning of sorts, upcoming updates may be a little bit more scarce. On another non-story related note, I have figured out what my next project will be. A Halo-Mass Effect crossover. Terribly unoriginal, I know, but I think I could be unto a very original plot, at least I haven't seen anything that looks like it in this site. The kicker? It'll be an alternate timeline sequel to this fic. Frank will no longer be the main character for obvious reasons, but him and any other survivors will be supporting characters or one-shots. I'd tell you more, but we're still far from that point.

Ok. Sorry. Let's talk about this chapter, shall we? Payat finds himself in doctor heaven, Frank and Pavel bond some more, and five of the guys in Team-7 are badly hurt. Badly enough that they won't be able to fight during the Siege of New Alexandria. To me, as an author, it means that the rest of the team gets more focus time. To you it means that you don't have to remember as many names. Astrid Vinter showed up, I'm sure that at least some of you remember her or her father. Good-looking girl, if you ask me. Doctor too... a real catch. Everybody is a little depressed that they aren't kicking the covvies buts out of Reach as fast as I expected. It's to be expected, after all, they don't know how this story ends. Next chapter is going to be fairly combat heavy, I'll try to make it long and awesome for you guys, but it might be another full week before it's done.

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapters and look forward to your reviews.

Stay strong.

-casquis