Chapter CCIV: Cansancio
August 20, 2552 (UNSC Calendar)/
New Alexandria, Viery Territory, Reach, Epsilon Eridani System
"You either get tired fighting for peace, or you die."–John Lennon
A man could survive with two holes in the chest, those were my thoughts as the energy blade moved at me. Like most things, it seemed to be happening in slow motion, but there was absolutely nothing my body could do about it.
The elite's head suddenly jerked and pieces of skull, armor, muscle, and brains came out the left side of its head. The arm was still moving forward, its muscles not quite sure of what had just happened to the organ in charge. The elite started leaning slightly to the side as its legs proved unable to maintain their balance. The sword moved with the body and I rolled away. I didn't have time to think as I moved away, instead I only screamed in pain when one of the two twin tips of the energy blade pierced me in the side, a hand above my hipbone.
I had been rolling away, but I had to roll back the other side to keep the energy blade from wreaking further havoc on my torso. The elite fell with a loud thump and the energy sword automatically deactivated, making me hiss with pain. Only an inch or so had gone through the skin, but the energy sword had burned like hell.
I couldn't afford to feel pain, not now.
The other covvies were still alive and trying to kill me. I stood up once again, grabbing my battle rifle in the process. I could see Andy hopping from over the barricades while the rest of my men covered her. In her right hand she had that anti-tank grenade launcher that Pavel had told me about before the mansion drop. I could see a brief flash before something detonated against the wall above and behind my men. The ones directly underneath the explosion disappeared with the dust, but Andrea was thrown forward and hit the street headfirst.
I slid down and grabbed the grenade launcher. I aimed it in the general direction where the shell had come from; the target was easily the most prominent enemy in the neighboring area. The range was pretty extreme, but I had to try. I shot at the Daemon tank, surprised by the lack of recoil from the grenade launcher. At first I thought that the device had malfunctioned, but the explosive shot forward with the help of rocket boosters and flew straight at the Daemon tank. It hit right underneath the main cannon and nothing happened.
I grabbed Andy and put her over one shoulder, grunting as the energy sword hole felt the extra weight. The explosion came later, as the high-tech round burrowed through the armor on the Daemon with a combination of speed, extreme heat, and even drilling. The HE shell should've torn a hole the size of a hula hoop on the tank. The place where it had hit guaranteed the death of the gunner and the destruction of the main gun.
I threw Andy over the barricade and hopped with her, landing on top of Ramirez. He and Marv were dazed, but the shell fired by the Daemon had been an AT round, not designed to have a big explosive radius.
"Grass! We need to go through!"
"Patience," she said, her voice suddenly a lot calmer than it had been for the past hour. "It's all good."
I was about to shout at her when the amount of Covenant fire decreased dramatically. Six separate explosions shook the street and the sound of gunfire intensified briefly. The few of my men who hadn't been dazed by the tank firing at them returned fire. I saw a few grunts looking confused and promptly killed them, but the majority of the Covenant soldiers were now firing at their rear and sides. They were surrounded.
My mind quickly deduced the only two possible alternatives: ten Scorpions or a Spartan team. The explosions were hard to tell apart, but I hadn't heard the loud firing noise that Scorpions made when they fired.
To be honest, I preferred the Spartans.
"Who is it?" I asked Grass, firing on a panicked elite minor.
"Noble, Falcata, and Gauntlet."
"Well, aren't we fancying it up," I chuckled. "Damn."
The smoke cleared up a bit and I caught sight of Emile from Noble dispatching elites and jackals with his shotgun. The Spartan didn't seem to have any trouble with the aliens, just moving slowly through the street and not even bothering with cover. Close behind him were two members of Falcata, one of them was Eduardo-G271 and the other appeared to be Miranda-G192 if the smaller frame was anything to go by. I couldn't see the rest of the Spartans, but the results were impossible to deny, a few seconds ago we had been on the verge of death, now I was calmly looking at the battlefield as the Spartans did what amounted to mop up duty.
"Move up to the doors," Carter's voice came in.
I jerked my head in the direction of the doors and told my men to move it. Everybody seemed to be able to walk, but Ramirez and Pavel had to lean against the wall with one hand while Andy still used me for support. I reached the large doors, true to their purpose, the massive metallic slabs would be nearly impossible to plow through with anything short of anti-ship weaponry. We wouldn't want to make access to FLEETCOM too easy, would we?
Carter-A259 was standing near the doors, with Kat-B320 standing next to him. They looked even more imposing in combat than they did outside of it. Standing opposite Carter was Jonah-G012, the leader of Team Falcata, next to him was another S-III who my helmet tagged as S-G298, presumable the leader of Gauntlet.
"Commander," I greeted, letting Marv support Andy instead. "It seems like I'm going to end up owing you my mortgage at this rate."
Carter chuckled. "It was nothing."
"You too," I told Jonah and the other S-III. "Thanks."
"Just doing our job," Jonah replied.
"Lieutenant, you're hurt," Kat noted drily.
I looked down at my injury and waved my hand dismissively. "Nothing major," I assured her.
"Hey, are we going to keep saving these guys every time they fuck up?" Emile asked, walking past me. "It's getting kind of counter-productive."
I ignored the Spartan, not the least because it was one of the few beings alive that would be able to kill me without batting an eyelash. My jaw clenched at his comment, but antagonizing him openly wouldn't do me any good, especially when it was a psychopath only in it for the fun, unlike the other Spartans.
Thankfully, Carter also ignored Emile.
"If you want to thanks someone, thank Jun," Kat said. "He's the one that got the elite about to pummel you."
"Thanks Jun," I said.
"Anytime," he replied on my helmet.
"Kat, open the door, will you?" Carter asked, going back to his no-nonsense voice. "Jonah, Dan, is the area secure?"
"Yes, sir," the two S-III team leaders replied simultaneously.
"Good, then we're falling back inside. Command will send troops to take over."
A pair of Spartans materialized and joined the little circle; one of them was Kevin-G111, the gunner on Falcata.
"Lieutenant, pleasure."
"Likewise, Kev," I said, trying to act nonchalant about the impressive active camouflage that their armor systems had.
Kat had been tapping at the console next to the massive doors and after a few seconds the metal groaned and hissed as the hydraulics began putting it down slowly. The doors must've been damaged somehow, because the last time I had walked through these they had moved down almost instantaneously. Once they were down and we could walk through we were greeted by a platoon of Marines and Captain Flatt.
"Captain," I said.
She nodded at me. "Commander Carter, Holland wants to talk to you and your team."
Carter nodded and moved out, with Kat, Emile, and Jun in tow.
"Where's the other two?" Pavel asked me in a whisper.
"I don't know," I replied, worried. "I thought they were with them."
"Jonah, Team Falcata is to remain here, Dan, you and Gauntlet are to run civilian evacuation until further notice, understood?"
"Yes, ma'am," Spartan Dan-G298 said, waving his hand for his team to follow them as they turned and disappeared.
"Frank, you're with me," Captain Flatt said.
"Yes ma'am," I replied. "Seven, let's go."
"Your men can stay at the medical station if they want," Flatt said, making her suggestion very clearly an order.
"Pavs," I said, gesturing.
"Wilco," he nodded.
I walked with Captain Flatt, staying a couple of feet behind her and doing my best not to limp. As soon as the adrenaline wore off I could feel every knick and knack in my body. My hand throbbed, my shoulder screamed, and every single joint felt three times its age. I noted that Captain Flatt had an M6J Carbine slung across her back in addition to her usual pistol. Not only that, but she was wearing light armor plates on her legs and torso as well as armored boots. She was ready for action.
"Nice outfit, ma'am," I said.
"Don't get cheeky," she replied. "Everyone is wearing light armor under Admiral Freemont's orders."
"How many people are here?" I asked her. "In this complex I mean?"
"Most of FLEETCOM has been evacuated and is running on a skeleton crew, but Olympic has two thousand personnel still in it."
"That's got to be mostly non-combat personnel," I muttered. "Do we really need so many?"
"There are over a million troops in this city as of seven minutes ago," Flatt said. "We're the only source of intel and are coordinating all units in New Alexandria. We're short staffed."
"Well, I'm glad they stayed then."
Flatt walked through the courtyards; the landscaping crew had done a great job here, combining sharp angles, the steps and occasional sculpture with evenly spaced plant spaces. I'd give you a better description, but my knowledge of words falls short. Anyways, I was surprised by the lack of combat scars in the courtyards, I could see ammunition boxes, command tents, tire marks, and more signs that you would expect to see in a military base, but there weren't any scorch marks, craters, or shattered debris.
I just hoped the situation wouldn't change soon.
"Ma'am?" I asked when Flatt abruptly stopped just shy of the elevators.
"Frank, you're not gonna like what I have to say."
I snorted. "We're at war. In Reach. It can't get much worse than this."
She nodded understandingly. "It is precisely because of that that we find ourselves in an unusual situation. Namely the excess of Special Operations units."
"Excess…" I said, tasting the word in my mouth. "Ma'am, SpecOps units is something you can never have enough of."
"Command doesn't seem to be thinking it that way. Attrition has ground down the standard units to around sixty percent of their original size, but most SpecOps units have considerably less losses."
"You're not kicking us out, are you?" I asked.
"I'm not, I'm just passing the word."
"Come on, Flatt," I said. "You know damn well that short of those Spartans my team is the best combat unit in this galaxy."
"It's not a matter of skill, Frank, " she told me. "Logistics is hell right now, and the easiest way to give out missions was to make a list and do first come first served."
"You're putting us at the back of the list?" I asked. "Captain, we do our best work under pressure."
"I vouched for you," she said. "I did, but the ODSTs have a lot of pull here, and some of their men haven't seen any action yet. Rangers and Airborne also want to get into the thick of it."
"Then have them go fight alongside the jarheads," I said angrily. "Flatt, you can't make me and my men fight alongside regulars. If you put us there we're going to be about as useful as an Army squad, we can't change the flow of battle from defensive positions."
"I know!" she snapped, finally showing anger at my lack of respect. "But it is not my choice, Frank!"
"What can I do about it?" I asked her.
"Nothing," she replied. "They shut me out, and you've been draining resources pretty damn fast. Everyone is convinced that their units are the best, but everyone here happens to be an admiral. They're sending you to bolster up an Army unit on the west end of the city."
I took three deep breaths. "My men could use the break…"
Flatt straightened her spine and looked me in the eye. "I'm glad you can see the positive side."
"You know me," I said.
"Dismissed."
I saluted and did an about turn, clenching my fists.
August 22, 2552 (UNSC Calendar)/two days later
Saint Bystrík, New Alexandria, Viery Territory, Reach, Epsilon Eridani System
Saint Bystrík was a quaint little neighborhood, if by quaint you meant as high end as you could get in downtown New Alexandria. Of course, high end usually meant high raises and reflective glass windows, which in turn made this neighborhood a big target. I'm sorry, perhaps quaint wasn't the correct term at all, especially considering that the majority of the buildings here had collapsed, forming a labyrinth of debris reaching as high up as fifty meters in some places. The Army Engineers had detonated and dug and improvised defenses from that debris, building what was basically an improvised system of trenches and tunnels that were dozens of meters above street level.
In fact, right now I was taking a break on the former roof of an apartment building.
"Sir, I don't want to be a dick," Bee began.
"Then don't be," I replied lazily.
"But what the hell are we still doing here?"
"We're holding this district," I said for the umpteenth time in the day. "It is of vital importance that we don't let the Covenant pass."
"Sir," Andy jumped in. "If we're left in a static position we're basically another squad, except we have a higher hit percentage."
"Then that's what we're gonna do," I muttered, irritation creeping into my voice. My tone was enough to discourage further comments, but I could sense that my men weren't satisfied. I didn't blame them, we had been stuck here for the past two days, not doing anything particularly productive and getting countless requests from the adjoining units to provide sniper support or assists in certain jobs.
"Frank, we're seeing movement on sector… what's that building with the eagles again?" Pavel radioed in.
"I don't know," I admitted. "I feel like it might be twelve. I know the one."
"Anyways, Miranda saw what looks like a trio of jackals moving along the top of it, jumping in and out of windows."
"I don't feel like playing whack-a-mole right now," I grunted. "Andrea, who's up top right now?"
"Serge's got the SRS," she answered.
"Serge, did you catch all that?"
Green acknowledgement light.
"Knock yourself out man, get all three of them or send them back. You know the holes right?"
Green acknowledgement light.
The jackals could move inside the building with the eagles on it, but most of it was filled with debris, which meant that there were certain points where they had to jump outside a window and run down the side before hopping down another window. We had mapped those holes as fast as the Covenant could find them and soon it became a matter of whether we spotted them before they could make it to safety on the other side, bolstering the pinned Covenant company at the base of the crater.
Ah, the crater, a roughly circular area where the pileup of debris hadn't exceeded ten meters in height. It looked like a crater, hence the creative name. The difficulty of movement along its sides meant that going straight through was the shortest way. The Covenant usually went for shortest, not smartest. A hundred or so dead aliens were bleeding into the polycrete and there hadn't been another attempt to cross through since yesterday.
Serge's rifle boomed once.
Right after we had arrived a Phantom ship had been shot down right near the edge of the crater. We had rushed to occupy it before the covvies could set up snipers. Right now there was one squad inside it, using the plasma turrets as deterrents. We had used what little heavy weaponry we had to set up a nice little position in and around the enemy dropship, which now gave us the possibility to cut down anything that tried and move through the crater.
In paper, things were easy for us, but the Covenant were beginning to outnumber us. No matter how many we killed, more and more dropships began sneaking through our space defenses. Their casualty rates must've been somewhere in the high seventies, but for every platoon they dropped our initial numerical advantage was reduced.
I was still unsure about why we hadn't received reinforcements from outside Viery, but I hadn't heard anything from the other side of the planet since the invasion began. The reasons for that were all troubling, so I kept myself from thinking about it for too long.
Serge's rifle boomed a second time.
Then there was the matter of the Covenant company trapped near the edge of the crater. They were pinned down by sniper and machine gun fire, but what little air pictures we had access to showed that they were digging through the rubble in the tunnels. We had no way of knowing how fast they were progressing, but the most likely exit points were being monitored at all times. It made me a little bit uneasy knowing that they could've popped out below my feet with barely a few moments' notice.
I sighed. This assignment wasn't hard. It was tedious and boring, but it was also dangerous. A very bad combination if you ask me.
Serge's rifle rang for a third and final time.
"Good work," I said lazily. "If anybody wants to relieve him, feel free."
The fireteam members all looked at each other before Bee sighed. "I'll take next watch," he said. "Andy, look after my girl."
Andrea nodded, patting Bee's rocket launcher affectionately. That launcher in question had saved all our lives more than once. The sight of the M41 reminded me of the little grenade launcher slung across my belly and a little bit to the left, covering the hole where the elite had punched its sword through. The pain was all but gone, but the stitches and biofoam had left behind a big scar. The launcher had saved my life once before, but I suddenly felt a bit weird carrying so many different weapons. Usually I did with only my rifle, my sidearm, and my knives, but now I was burdened with a shotgun and a grenade launcher. Granted, the shotgun was just under sixty centimeters in length and fit comfortably in my lower back if I tilted it some. The grenade launcher was even shorter than that, perhaps thirty-five centimeters in length. The weight didn't bother me. I just wasn't used to the feeling of having those weapons hanging there. After using the same loadout for countless missions for two decades, the slightest changes felt… wrong.
"Lieutenant," Private Parker checked in. "Sergeant just got word of enemy dropships in the area. They might be coming this way."
"You're still around, huh?" I asked him. "Shit man. Alright, thanks."
"No problem, sir. I'll be around for a while longer."
Don't tempt fate…
"Alright men, prepare for a possible enemy incursion on this position. Unspecified number of dropships. Shooting gallery for us unless our air defenses fail and we get flanked from behind, the sides, above, and below."
"Same old, same old," Pitcher grunted.
I nodded. So far our SAMs had been outstanding, but all you needed is one slipup to get thirty covvies on our asses. Or on our heads, it depends how fast they got here.
I looked up instinctively. There were about two floors worth of polycrete above me, one of them was too unstable for anything to walk on it, but the top one was sturdy and provided an excellent view of the crater and the area around it. Bee would have a field day if they did drop troops. He had the lowest scores in all of Reaper when it came to using the SRS-99, but when he used it in combat he was as efficient as they came. Ironically enough, his kill percentage with the SRS was 97.7%. He liked to brag about it a lot, but the truth was that he had only ever needed to shoot forty-five aliens. He had only ever missed once.
Had we made fun of him when that happened.
"I'm seeing the dropships," Bee announced.
"Bee as a sniper, what have we come to," Schitzo teased.
"Ready, ready!" I shouted. "Positions!"
I moved to the windows, propping my rifle against a nice little pillow that had escaped the building collapse with only a scratch or two. It was impressive how well polycrete could hold up against wear and tear.
"Two clicks and approaching," Bee updated. "They're on an approach vector."
Andrea snorted. "Stop taking yourself so seriously."
"I'm the cold sniper," Bee said in the same calm voice. "It's my job to take myself way too seriously. Snark should do it more. Nine hundred meters."
I could see the Spirit dropships myself. There were four of them, an unpleasant number. In fact, the number four means death in Chinese cultures. I remember Preacher having mentioned something of the sort before he died.
"Yup, definitely bringing presents for us," Pitcher said. "Yay."
A little part of me liked this. The attack meant a departure from boredom. Two rockets came from the Army emplacements and hit one of the dropships, making the other respond by strafing in that general direction as they dropped their troop contingents. I was dismayed when I saw that it was mostly elites.
Bee fired, hitting a minor through the neck. The shields went down and the bullet was barely deflected. I could see the alien drop its rifle and reach for its throat as blood started spraying out. For a moment I pondered on my next move. I could kill it or I could watch it die. I sighed and fired, hitting it in the hands and going through and into the throat. It wasn't an instant kill and the alien would have enough time to realize just how dead it was.
The rest of the aliens began to fan out around the drop zone. The crater was anything but even and there were plenty of spots for them to hide. Some of them even made it to the windows that would let them get underneath some sections of the debris. I cursed as a major disappeared from sight near an area that was known to house one of those tunnels. I made a mental note and switched back to another elite. This one had been hit in the leg and was struggling to make it to cover. I cut its trip short and the alien collapsed to the ground.
"How many did we get?" I asked after a while.
"One," Bee said. "And an assist."
"One for me," Miranda announced.
"We took out two," Pavel said.
"Two for me," I replied. "If I'm doing the math right, that's six."
"Plus three that Army squads took out," Marv chimed in.
"Bringing it to a grand total of…" I said.
"Nine," Mata said. He didn't sigh, but I could feel him holding the annoyance back.
"Which means that there's roughly eighty-one aliens that made it safely to cover before being cut down. If I ever have the misfortune to witness something as pathetic as this again, I will personally knock each and every one of you out. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Now kill those fuckers before we find ourselves in trouble. I've had enough of your lazy shit."
Perhaps it was unfair to them. The elites did get to cover pretty fast and my men did try to hit them, but I knew that they were better than that. Even at this range Pitcher should've gotten at least a hit, not to mention Marv and Serge not getting any kills. Disproportionate or not, they would try that much harder. Pavel liked to joke that they all saw me as the father that was never proud of them. I liked to think of them as the younger siblings that were never quite good enough for the older one. Luckily, I had never had to deal with an older brother that was the best at everything. Quite the opposite, if memory serves me right.
"Movement, movement!"
"Coming up on the left!"
"Watch for snipers," I warned. "Bee, that's you. Miri, you too."
"Yes, sir," they replied, aiming at the opposite side of the crater.
The battle settled into a comfortable pattern. The covvies would advance slowly with fire maneuvering, occasionally getting help from the others trapped on the other end of the crater. We had never had this many aliens in the crater at once, but the machine guns the Army had were handling them quite well, leaving us to finish them off whenever they made a mistake.
It became a standard attrition firefight, something that my squad wasn't really used to. We would fight hard and go for the quick knockout. I don't think I recall any fight where I just told my men to conserve ammunition and let the covvies go. The way we worked we liked to cause panic and have our location remain vague. Here we were defending a well-established position and would remain here for a week or however long they wanted us to stay here.
I killed an elite as it tried to dash through ten meters of open ground. Idiot.
"Lieutenant, there's a pair of elites close to our position," Private Parker radioed in. "We can't hit them from here and they're within grenade range. Marking their position."
"I see them," I replied. "Pavel?"
"Scaring them now," he said simply.
I watched as Pavs fired a long, sustained burst right into the edge of the pile they were using for cover. One of the elites shuffled away from it just enough that Parker and his squad could put a dozen holes in it. The other one in turn instinctively jerked away from its dead comrade, where it met a swift end at the hands of a combined barrage from Miranda and myself.
Idiot.
We must've cut their numbers by a third before they started moving back away from us. It frustrated me that we would have to let many of them go, but Bee racked up his kill count as they reached the far end of the crater, putting the fear of God in them.
"Good work people," I said finally. "Keep your eyes peeled. They won't take defeat nicely."
And sure enough, before ten minutes had passed the Covenant were coming at us again, this time hiding behind a wall of grunts and jackals. Cannon fodder in the purest sense of the word. I shook my head and began shooting.
"Sir," Bee said. "We-"
Whatever he was going to say next was silenced by the massive explosion that hit the crashed Phantom. Every single soldier that had been taking cover there or within ten meters of it had been completely vaporized. My eyes got spots on them and my ears started ringing as the piles of debris rumbled and groaned from the shockwave. Before I could even recover a second explosion sent me back to the ground. I groaned and bitched with the rest of my men, but it wasn't until Bee checked in again that I realized just how bad it was.
"Shit, they got through! They got through!"
"Got through where?" I asked. "What the hell, Bee?"
"They got through the Navy, there's one, no two, no three! There's three, no shit, it's four Covenant corvettes, there's four of them."
"Fucking shit," I said cleverly. "Wha–"
This time the explosions came from behind. They must've been at least half a click off, but the result was very clear. The SAM sites that were protecting this whole section of the city had been taken out.
"I'm seeing dropships incoming from front and back!" Bee shouted. "Screw it. I'm bailing."
"Stay in your fucking spot," I said, jumping back to my feet. "Parker, we need to fall back! We need to fall back!"
"They're in our positions, sir!" he shouted. "We're already moving back! Third Squad was overwhelmed, they're hitting Second with fuel rods. Ah shit!"
I cursed and waved for my men to begin moving back.
"Pavel, get the hell out of there!" I shouted. "Rally Point Alpha!"
Alpha was seventy meters behind our position, but the nature of Saint Bystrík's collapsed buildings made the trip a zigzagging madness through tunnels and trenches cleared by the Army engineers. We moved fast but kept our guards up, clearing every corner as we would an enemy occupied building.
"Down, down!" I shouted.
Two Ghosts sped over the edges of the debris trench, flying directly over us without noticing.
"Enemy presence to our right," Caboose said. "Be alert!"
"Grigori, Serge, Marv, switch to shotguns!"
Their weapons made a satisfactory noise when they cocked them.
A Phantom flew overhead but failed to see us moving through the debris, but it became evident that our position was all but lost.
"Parker, Parker, do you copy?"
"Yes, sir," the shaken private replied. "Only three of my squad made it out, we've got elites right on our ass!"
"Where are you headed?" I asked.
"Charlie, Charlie!" Private Parker. "Shit, they're closing in!"
"Ramirez and Dotsenko, give 'em a hand," I ordered. "Go!"
The two guys broke off from the group, taking a small tunnel to our left. The tunnel would lead them to the emergency stairs of a building, from there they would climb down two floors and then move underneath the rubble before coming up behind Charlie.
"Sir, watch out!"
Two elites jumped down into the trench, holding plasma rifles. They seemed at least partially surprised to come head to head with such a large group, but we were equally shocked at their sudden presence. I pressed myself to the side and raised my rifle only for the lead elite to kick it back down. Before it could aim at me I pushed the plasma rifle up, flinching as two shots flew right past my hand. The other elite was partially blocked by our struggle, it couldn't bring its weapon up before Marv and Serge both blasted it. I struggled with the other elite for a second before Andrea crashed her shoulder into it, getting it away from me. I swung my rifle at the elite's wrist, making it drop its weapon. Andrea dropped to the floor and Miranda fired five quick shots with her DMR. I was angry, so I got in her way and swung my rifle at the elite's head. It's jaw cracked and it fell to its knees. A knee strike had it on its back. From there I jumped on top of it and bashed its head in with six or seven hits.
"I am fucking sick of this shit," I muttered. "Move!"
My men seemed to stare at me for a second before they resumed their run. Alpha was just two turns away. From there we would have sniper support and access to the old underground system.
"Down!"
Another group of Ghosts streaked past just above our heads. This time it appeared like one of them saw us.
"Pitcher, did it see us?" I asked.
He climbed a bit and peeked over the edge of the trench. "It's coming around!"
"Mata, be ready!"
The sergeant nodded and drew the small grenade launcher that he kept.
"Turn the corner, turn the corner!" Pavel shouted. "Go, go!"
The Ghost came in at a sharp angle, it just barely fit inside the trench, but as soon as it cleared the edges Mata fired. The anti-tank grenade launcher was completely overkill on the scout vehicle. The explosive tore through the front section of the Ghost, punched a hole in the elite driving it, and detonated about three meters behind it, destroying the back of the Ghost.
"Shit, Phantom!"
"Alpha's compromised, Alpha's compromised!" I shouted. "Shit, shit, shit. Move to Charlie!"
"Sir, we've got enemy infantry left, right, and center," Ramirez checked in. "Are you coming in from the east?"
"Negative, negative, we're coming in from the south," I said. "Holy fucking hell!"
A massive explosion threw everybody off their feet. I looked around, but the trench was turning into a tunnel as the debris piled up higher and higher. I ducked underneath a floor and slid down a wall. The glass windows cracked under my feet, but if they gave I would just fall down an inch or so before hitting more rock.
"Watch your feet!" I warned.
"El-tee, we could use that assist right about yesterday!" Ramirez shouted.
The sound of their SAWs was getting louder, but not even the debris surrounding us could drown the sound of plasma, needle, and carbine fire. A small explosion that could only belong to a plasma grenade rocked the little tunnel.
"Coming through, coming through!" I shouted twice right before hopping out of the tunnel and into Rally Point Charlie. "Right, right, right!"
Pavel came up behind me as I fired straight ahead at the aliens trying to outflank Ramirez and Dotsenko from the left while he fired at the ones whose flank we had just hit. I hit an elite with drained shields and took out two jackals before I had to move to the left and take cover. Pavel sprayed while everybody else moved up. My men knew better than to throw grenades in this giant mountain of debris. The polycrete had held for a long time, but a single explosion could bring everything down in an instant.
"Shifting left," Pavel called out. "Cover me."
"You heard him!" I shouted. "Fire, fire, fire!"
"Moving up, moving up!" Marv called out. "Serge, with me!"
The two of them moved under the cover of our fire and stopped right on the opposite side of a pile that two elites were using for cover. The two men fired blindly over the top, but with two shotguns in such a small space, it would've been a small miracle for the covvies if they missed.
"Move up!" I ordered. "Miri, keep their heads down!"
The firefight lasted maybe ten more seconds before surprise and overwhelming firepower eliminated the Covenant presence in Rally Point Charlie. From there the only thing to do was to move back until we made contact with troops from the 11th and we could either pull out or make a stand in our secondary line of defense.
"Can you contact Grass?" Pavel asked.
"Trying," I said. There was heavy interference, probably courtesy of the corvettes. "Not for now. It might take a few minutes."
Pavel gave a quick nod and sank into step with me. Our secondary line should have been holding up well even if the Covenant had managed to drop troops all around them. In fact, I fully expected all the corridors to still be open to transit for the frontline units. As soon as we made it out of Bystrík and into actual pavement I saw just how right I had been. Three smoking dropships had made hard landings and there were countless Covenant corpses littering our surroundings. Most of them had limbs blown off, the obvious mark of SRS-99 fire.
"Hello boys," a vaguely familiar voice radioed in. "Tough day, eh?"
"Tell me about it," I replied to the sniper. "You got us?"
"We got you," she confirmed. "Where's the rest?"
"We're all that's left," I said. It was just my unit and two Army troopers, one of them was Parker. "They came in from all sides."
"Shit," the sniper muttered. "Alright, move it up. They've been dropping troops constantly for the past fifteen minutes."
"You heard the lady," I said. "Double time it."
I kept wondering how the hell we would take down those corvettes. One of them was certainly manageable. I had heard of a couple of situations where long-range artillery had been used to bring down single corvettes, but mostly we deterred them with SAM presence. The newer models were designed to mess with the laser point defense systems, giving multiple signatures per missile. It was a nifty little piece of work, taking full advantage of our electronic warfare superiority. From what little I knew of the Covenant's AIs, they were outclassed even by our dumb AIs by exponential factors. Come to think of it, I had seen all that they had to offer less than five years after I first fought them. They certainly weren't innovative, that's for sure.
"Alright, looks like you have a small group approaching from behind," the sniper said. "We can handle them, don't stop moving."
"Thanks for the heads up," I replied.
I saw the trail of smoke appear before I heard the shot. Even at this distance it was uncomfortably loud, reminding me of one of the many reasons why snipers had to constantly switch positions. A second later another shot followed the first.
"They're staying back, but you'd better hurry it up."
By this point we could hardly move any faster without breaking into a full on sprint. So that's exactly what I ordered my men to do, yelling at them for being so damn slow when they failed to meet my standards.
As we ran I looked up, one of the corvettes was almost directly overhead. It wasn't hard to tell that it was moving into position. I winced as I felt the static electricity. The ship fired a single shot. The explosion was followed by the sound of a building collapsing, a loud sound that I had become all too familiar with. It came from the north side of the city. There were still around a million civilians in that area, awaiting evacuation.
"Shit," Pitcher grunted, realizing how many people must've died.
"Shit, down!" Pavel warned. "Down!"
His warning came too late for us to do anything about it. The corvette fired a second shot, this one was coming straight in our direction. I backpedaled furiously as I saw the plasma torpedo hit the building where the snipers that were covering us had set up shop. The plasma burned through the polycrete and the metal with barely slowing down. The explosion only happened after the plasma had gone in several meters. It was big enough to throw me backwards and into the ground.
"We… we," I muttered, shaking my head. "We still have- We still have them on our ass!" I cursed as I struggled to get to my feet, the world shaking as the building came down. "The dust will cover us."
I helped Andy up and then gave a shaken Mata a hand. As soon as everybody was up I found myself doing something that I would've never expected to do. I found myself running into a falling skyscraper.
"What the hell took you so long?" I shouted at the Pelican as it approached. Behind me, the Covenant kept firing. Pavel fired wildly, buying just enough time for Ramirez to limp into cover, pressing his hand against his leg.
Ramirez tripped over his wounded leg and Dotsenko leaped forward to catch him and drag him into cover. Mata leaped over to their position, firing at the phalanx of jackals.
"Hurry the fuck up!" I shouted at Marina.
"I'm doing my best!" she replied angrily, spinning her ship around and slamming the rear into the edge of the rooftop.
Marv was the first one in, grabbing a hold of the door turret and depressing the trigger buttons. The machine gun roared as everybody else dove in. Mata and Ramirez were the last ones in. As soon as they were inside the Pelican I sat back down on the edge of the hatch door and kept firing. Miranda grabbed the back of my vest so that I wouldn't slide down and propped her rifle on my shoulder. I gave the command for my helmet to block out outside noise and gave her a go sign. We fired alongside Marv, hitting angry elites and scared grunts. Quite a few fell to the ground, but in the end they realized that they just wouldn't be able to take us out.
"Alright, we're good," I said, perhaps a bit too loudly. "Help me up."
Miranda dragged me back a bit before I jumped to my feet and sat back down inside the Pelican. She was breathing heavily. In fact, everyone was breathing heavy. It was a miracle that our only casualty was Ramirez' leg. Even Parker and his colleague had made it out without any problem.
"Olympic is about to fall under attack," Marina said. "A few dozen personnel evacuated, but everybody there is needed."
"Anything new?" I asked her. "Grass barely got my position before we were cut off."
"Other SpecOps teams are pulling back. I think a few of the S-III teams are being shifted to civilian evacuation and containment."
"Why the hell aren't we pushing back against the corvettes?" I asked. "We should be running counter-ops right about yesterday."
"Command is waiting this one out," Grass said. "I have no idea why, but they wouldn't stop offensive action against something this big unless they had a good reason."
I snorted. "Come on Grass. When was the last time the brass made a smart decision?"
"Frank, really?"
I snorted again. "There are four corvettes hovering above this city. If they're not shooting them out of the sky for a reason, then it better be something that could win this battle or end this war. We don't take those out and we're gone."
"Have a little faith," Grass said. "I'm redirecting you to the executive pads on the tower, ok? Flatt is having an emergency meeting."
"Alright," I replied, deciding to ignore the fact that she didn't want to argue. "See you in a few."
This time Marina sped through the street at a speed that could best be described as reckless. The banking Pelican sent our bodies from side to side and front and back with each turn, but there was no longer any area that could be considered safe. If you were flying, you were a target. This time we weren't targeted, something that I was thankful for, the last thing I wanted was another hard landing and fractured collarbone. My shoulder was still a little bit stiff, but a lot more mobile than before.
"Approaching,"
Marina spun the Pelican around as she usually did, having the rear hatch facing the entrance to the building. Nobody was waiting for us on the landing pad and the wind howled as we jumped out of the Pelican. Ramirez struggled up to his feet and was helped down by Dotsenko and Serge. He winced with every step he took and blood was pouring freely out of the wound.
"Come on," I said. "Let's get inside."
A civilian contractor welcomed us into the building. He looked like a professional to me, but the guy was obviously not used to the large scale combat that we lived by.
"Right this way," he grunted. "Any injuries?"
"Just the one," Pavel said, pointing to Ramirez. "He can handle it for now."
"It burns," Ramirez said calmly. "It feels like it went through a bunch of muscle."
"No shit," Bee said. "What else could it go through?"
"Bone, tendon, skin, blood vessels, connective tissue," Andrea suggested offhandedly. "But yeah, mostly muscle."
Grass was sitting in a large conference room that had been stripped of most of its furniture. The only thing remaining was a large holotank pressed against a corner and a large leather chair. There were a couple of ammunition boxes and a small table with papers on them. In the middle of the room was Grass, looking at the monitors on the wall, the top of her undersuit tied around her waist, revealing a sweaty tank top and her ODST tattoo on the back of her left shoulder.
"Grass," I greeted.
"There's an infirmary just at the end of the hall," she said, tapping commands into one of the consoles. "The rest of the guys can take a break in the dorms. Just two doors down."
"Pavel, stay," I said. "Grigori, make sure they get some rest."
"Yes, lieutenant."
Grass finally turned around. Her face was shiny from sweat and her hair was beyond messy. This from the girl that put on makeup before she did combat drops. The only reason she would let herself go that much was obvious, coordinating several different units at a time probably left her no time for breaks. Still, Grass was the most attractive woman I knew; even in this state she looked… desirable. I focused instead on the part of her arm that melded seamlessly into the black prosthetic she had for a right arm. It looked almost like a normal arm would, except for the carbon black color.
"You look like shit," I greeted.
Pavel snorted.
"You're not looking too sharp yourself," she replied. Grass turned and grabbed, of all things, a handheld mirror. She tossed it.
I took off my helmet and looked at my face.
"Ouch," I muttered. My eyes looked haggard and my cheeks were sunken. The appearance was somewhat mitigated by my ever-growing beard, but I was a step away from looking like a corpse. "A week of normal food and I'll be back to normal."
"A day of rest," Pavel said. "That's all I'm asking for."
"It's gonna have to wait," Grass said.
"Stims can only carry us so far," I told her. "Cam, we're going to need rest at some point."
"Not today," she replied. "Those four corvettes, they're a game changer Frank. New Alexandria is key, there are four orbital elevators, two spaceports, f–"
"Yes, military bases, civilian population, and more," I said. "What are we going to do about it?"
"Civilian evacuation is paramount," she said.
"Wonder why that changed," Pavel muttered.
He was right. I had rarely known the UNSC to prioritize civilian evacuation over military victories. The Inner Colonies were already bursting full of refugees from all the worlds that the Covenant had glassed. Reach was no different, but it had managed to go through the population boom better than others. Paris IV hadn't weathered nicely and the colonies in Sol most certainly weren't going through this catastrophe all that nicely. Already some of the colonies towards the Perseus Arm of the galaxy were receiving an influx of refugees. The terraforming colonies must've been making a shitload of credits.
"Flatt wants to talk," I said. "Where is she?"
"Right here, Lieutenant."
"Captain," I greeted, turning around to meet her face to face. "Good to see you."
She nodded. Captain Flatt looked as tired as I felt. She was wearing some sort of variant of the Marine armor without a helmet. I did notice that she had an ODST undersuit, but the armor was vastly outdated. Perhaps forty or so years old. It reminded me of the model that they used back in the Harvest Campaign, the one that you saw so often in the films because they had been phased out so suddenly. They were as cheap as props if not more.
"What's the plan of action?" Pavel asked her.
"No offensive actions," she said. "Word comes straight from the top, we are to act defensively only."
"Bullshit," I snapped.
"Yes," she said. "But those are the orders. I have a feeling that they're planning something Frank, we have a few hundred Spartans on the planet as of this moment. Nobody is stupid enough not to use them."
"They have a reason," Grass added.
"We just have to hope it's good enough," Captain Flatt said. "Until then, you and Captain Nezarian will help defend this tower."
"He's still alive?" I asked. "How's his unit?"
"Same as yours," Captain Flatt replied with a shrug.
"Good," I said. "That's good."
"What are our assets, ma'am?" Pavel asked.
"FLEETCOM was allotted a total of sixteen Falcons and thirteen Hornets for air support. Tanks… we don't have more tanks. Camilla?"
Grass cleared her throat. "We've got thirty Warthogs to help cover the whole perimeter, twenty-two of those are regular LAAG models, seven are Gauss 'Hogs, and the last one is a missile 'Hog. We're good on turrets, air defenses, ammunition, and everything else that we might need. Medical supplies are running a little low, but they should last for a day or two."
"Who else is on defense?" I asked.
"We've got Badger Company on defense, they're Marines. Army has 3rd Company," Grass explained.
"What about Navy and Air Force?" I asked. "Don't they have token units?"
"Our Para Rescue company was slated to do an op five minutes ago," Grass said. "They were from the 1001st Special Operations Wing, 1st STS."
"They have a good reputation," I noted. "Where are they?"
"We lost contact with them," Grass shrugged. "MIA, most likely KIA."
"Navy?"
"There was a NAVSPECWAR team here," Grass said. "They were killed in the opening days of the battle. Command knows that this place is important, but not nearly enough to warrant a battalion for our defense."
I raised my eyebrow. "That sounds stupid. If we want to keep fighting this battle, then this place is important."
"All units are dragging out ground combat," Flatt explained in a patronizing voice. "This building is the epicenter of the ground we hold, but since we can't make an impermeable perimeter, some forces need to be dedicated to defend FLEETCOM HQ. There will be attacks here, Frank, but we'll be facing small, elite units trying to decapitate us."
"It makes sense," Pavel told me. "And we could use the break."
I chuckled. "What break? You know damn well what she means by small and elite units. She means elite units alright, but small isn't an appropriate adjective."
Captain Flatt looked at me without an expression.
"When do you need us down there?" I asked.
"As soon as possible," she replied. "Badger and 3rd are spread thin around the walls. There are some other Army units defending the outside of the walls, but you saw what happened. That little probing attack almost got through."
Again, Flatt wasn't using the term little in the right context. There had to be at least a couple of companies right on our asses in addition to the Daemon and Wraith tanks. That little probe had nearly cost us our lives. The kicker was that the moment that we made it to safety they sent us back out. Now that this place was no longer safe they were keeping us in.
"Give us a few hours," I told Flatt. "Ramirez isn't in any condition to move right now and my men are so full pumped of stims that their bodies will break apart soon. They can't go on without sleep much longer. Same for me."
"You look like shit," Flatt agreed, "but considerably better than your partner here."
Pavel shook his head. "I want to sleep ma'am. I want to sleep really bad."
"Go," I told him. "I'll catch up."
I looked to Grass and Flatt. There was a haze beginning to form around the edge of my vision, they looked worried, Grass more so than Captain Flatt, but they both had a concerned expression on their face. I blinked repeatedly and the haze faded but nonetheless began creeping back in.
"How long have you gone without sleep?" Grass asked.
"At least two days," I said, rubbing my eyes. "I had trouble falling asleep."
"Give him tranquilizers," Flatt ordered. "We'll bring you back."
Suddenly my legs felt very weak.
"Ok," I said quietly. "That sounds... nice."
Thanks to Colonel-Commissar2468 and General TheDyingTitan for proofreading this chapter.
Well, this was a lot shorter than usual, but still an enjoyable length I hope. At some point in this chapter I realized that Frank was going through way too much shit. Granted, we have the miracles of modern medicine on their side, especially when it comes to lacerations, punctures, and even bone breaks, but a single man can't stave off fatigue and tiredness for all eternity, even if he's Frank.
Other than that? Well, Grass in a tanktop though. She's sexy as hell man. Yeah... Anyhow, Reach is finally getting to everyone, and there's still a couple of weeks to go. Dun-dun-duuuun. Hey, next chapter is either gonna be super long or divided into two, but it's gonna be fun. As long as your definition of fun is the same as mine, that is.
Thanks to all of those who reviewed, but my personal philosophy boils down to: you can't have enough reviews. So yeah, click the hell out of that button and write words and shit.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter ladies and gents.
Stay strong
-casquis