Chapter CCVII: Hace Frío
August 25, 2552 (UNSC Calendar)/
Esztergom (Ezhtergom), Viery Territory, Reach, Epsilon Eridani System
"Estoy celoso de tu papá porque tu mamá esta buenísima."
"We're not going back to New Alexandria, are we?" Bee asked as he traced a group of Air Force Pararescue moving towards a Pelican.
"No," I said. "We've got better things to do than S&R."
"Even if Noble-"
"Yes," I interrupted him. "Even then."
I counted my men again, stopping at fourteen before adding myself in to make fifteen. It was weird, having a bigger squad than I had had just a few days ago, but less men alive. With the wounded back in the fray things seemed better, but four men had been lost in New Alexandria and they would not come back.
I sighed and checked my rifle for the seventh time while I waited.
"When's Grass gonna come back?" Longworth asked.
"You don't get to call her Grass," Snark said as he paced behind him.
"When's Cam gonna come back?" Longworth asked, deferring to Snark's seniority.
"I don't know," I growled. "She said it's be twenty minutes. It has been twenty minutes. She should be here anytime now."
Indeed, Grass came back thirty seconds behind schedule. Not bad.
"What are we doing, Cam?" Pavel asked her, standing up and using his M247L as a cane.
"We've got some transmissions of Covenant units in the Highlands," Grass said, planting her hands on her hips. "They're coming earlier than we thought they would. Air recon shows heavy troop movements leaving New Alexandria by land."
"Search and destroy?" I asked.
"Yes," she said. "Units are being sent out all throughout the Highlands to see if we can eliminate the enemy units. So far we don't have a reason to believe that there's anything other than infantry in the area, but they could get some good intel on us if they manage to get closer."
I nodded slowly to myself. The Highlands was an area that was considerably higher than the surrounding area, as its name would appear to indicate. It wasn't a ridge, or a series of hills, but instead the crust of the planet had risen higher in that area. High enough that experts advised at least a few days of not doing anything to acclimate to the thin air. It was a beautiful place, with plenty of good places to go skiing if you so desired. The southeastern end of highlands was a Titanium rich area, even by the standards of this planet. The metallic spikes that punched through the rock could be seen on a clear day from the top of a few skyscrapers in Esztergom.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"Here," Grass replied, pulling out a paper map. "Western Highlands."
"Oh, pretty," Andy said.
"And cold," I muttered. "Search and destroy?"
"Search and destroy," Grass confirmed for the second time. "Long range combat patrol, you guys know the deal."
"Everybody packed for three days?" I asked.
"Yessir."
"Good," I replied. "The first person to ask somebody else for a ration bar gets a punch in the gut."
Lady, Bee, and Tank all got up and moved towards the tent we'd been assigned, presumably filling their rucksacks with MREs or ration bars. I shook my head and gave the word for my team to move out into Marina's Pelican. With fifteen of us it would be a little bit cramped, but Marina would get us there quickly.
"Let's go, let's go!" I shouted at the three men that had grabbed additional food. "We're wasting daylight. Move!"
I smacked the back of Tank's head as he climbed in and jumped inside myself. Marina closed the hatch and we were off, leaving Esztergom behind once again.
"Good evening ladies and gentlemen," Marina's voice woke us up. "It is my distinct pleasure to announce that we are three minutes from our destination, please strap your seatbelts, or don't, whatever. I'm not the boss of you."
"Alright," I groaned, slapping my thighs. "Get up!"
I walked inside the cockpit while Pavel sorted the men out and saw the patches of snow that covered most of the tundra-type ecosystem. A lone tree stood here and there, growing despite the scarce nutrients. Further back I could see the tips of the mountains of Szurdok Ridge, several dozen miles in the distance.
"We're doing two drop points," I told Marina, placing my hand on her shoulder. "Pavel's taking one fireteam, drop him off on Mt. 4961."
"Adjusting," she replied simply, bearing towards one of the two mountains that overlooked the rest of our search area.
The rear hatch opened and I could hear the wind blowing and the chill permeating through my undersuit before it automatically acclimated to a more comfortable temperature. Pavel hopped off the Pelican with Caboose, Bee, Andrea, Marv, Pitcher, and Serge in tow.
"The rest of us to Mt. 5001," I told her.
"Alrighty, Frank," she replied with a short nod. "Hey."
"Yeah?"
"Stay safe."
"I will," I promised, giving her shoulder a soft squeeze. "Don't miss me too much.
"I'll try," she shot back as I left the cockpit.
Marina had left the hatch often and I looked down at the scree, piles of jagged and broken rock that piled down the sides of the mountains. I noted that a single misstep could result in a broken ankle. Our boots negated that risk for the most part, but a broken ankle was better than a snapped knee if your foot got caught in between two rocks.
"You have reached your destination," Marina said. "Thanks for flying Riding Hood Air."
I smiled and shouted at my men to get out of the Pelican, hopping off behind Lady.
I watched as Marina flew off and made sure to point my helmet's camera in her direction for a nice, long take. It was a beautiful view. I could see pretty much all of the highlands, snow and all. This high up there was more snow than below, but the peaks weren't completely covered yet. It was still late summer in Reach, and these latitudes got a good degree of heat from Epsilon Eridani.
"Now what, sir?" Longworth asked.
"Hold up," I told him, looking in the direction of Mt. 4961.
Pavel flashed a red laser in our direction three times and I returned the favor with my green laser targeter.
"Good on radio contact?" I asked.
"Loud and clear, Frank," Pavel replied. "Checking with Command… Grass is coming through A-ok as well."
"Good," I replied. "Grass, copy?"
"Copy, Frank."
"Alright, we're good to go," I told Pavel. "Twelve hours should be enough, we meet on Waypoint Alpha."
"See you there," Pavel replied, cutting the line.
I looked at my fireteam. Eight men, one of them Snark, a world-class sniper.
"We're going to need you on sniper duty," I told him. "Real sniper duty. Can you do without a partner?"
"Yes, sir," Snark replied without even pausing to consider.
"Alright then," I told him. "You're not gonna be shooting, I just want you scoping out the terrain."
Snark nodded.
"Pick a spot," I told him. "I leave that to you."
Snark looked in the direction of Waypoint Alpha twelve miles from our position and then back to me. He nodded and began climbing down, the cue for the rest of us to start doing the same. High-speed winds buffeted us as we carefully moved down the side of the mountain. We were at 5000 meters above sea level, but the prominence of this mountain was a little bit less than 1000 meters. From here we would be able to spot anything moving in the wide open land and would then move onto the next area through a sharp ridge about 500 meters below our current position. I hated thinking about the difference in altitude, because moving 300 meters up could mean anything from advancing a couple of feet or several dozen miles. The sharp inclines in this area meant that we wouldn't be moving incredibly long distances.
I looked down at the jagged rocks before every step, making sure that the snow wouldn't make me slip. Whenever I felt the wind picking up I would steel myself for the gusts that could knock me down any moment. It made for relatively slow progress, but I was certain that few units would've been able to move at our pace in a situation like this.
"I'm staying here, Lieutenant," Snark let me know, settling down in a false peak. "Good spot, can see everything for miles."
"Alright," I told him. "Anything you see."
"I'll let you know. It's my job after all."
"Damn right," I agreed. "Everyone else, stop slacking."
"You know, sir," Longworth began, "sometimes I feel like this is just a continuation of bootcamp, with you and Master Sergeant competing for the title of meanest asshole."
"Well, if it's still a competition then I'm obviously not trying hard enough," I said, getting a chuckle from Lady.
"Something to say, Natasha?" I asked her.
"No, sir. It just feels like Marines bitch about a lot of things."
A year ago I would've taken that jab at face value because a year ago she would've been stupid enough to think that she could've gotten away with it, but our lone Navy Special Warfare Operator had matured some in the last months.
"I doubt you could've made it through Helljumper Factory," Longworth told her.
"Look at these swabbies," Tank told Crow. "Bitching about their vacation spots. While us Army guys haul ass."
"What did we do to deserve this?" Crow replied, shaking his head in mock disappointment.
Conversation sprung up as everybody tried to argue about which bootcamp was the worst. I had a clear bias, but at the same time I knew damn well that getting in the ODST was a good deal harder than getting into any other special operations branch. That is not necessarily because you had to be more skilled, but because the training methods were so sadistic. If someone died during Helljumper training they would leave the body there in the mud until the rest of the recruits finished the drill. In my opinion, the main difference between all camps or whatever you want to call them is that the ODST instructors just didn't give a shit about the trainees. A Ranger drill sergeant might be as much of a hardass as Gabuka had been back in the day, but if he saw that you were about to die from dehydration he would stop you, Gabuka would just keep going and you would either stop to live or keep going until your body collapsed and organ systems failed.
I shook my head at the memories of blacking out during long runs. At first we had run without any gear to weed out the weak. Then we ran with standard combat gear, maybe throw a rucksack on some unlucky recruit that smiled too much or didn't smile enough. Then we ran with full survival gear. Finally we were made to fill our rucksacks with iron-heavy rocks and march with double ammunition load. If we did any slower than we would've without any gear on then we had to go again.
My class had been a good one. Sergeant Gabuka himself had grudgingly admitted that. Only two deaths during the whole period of training. Two deaths still meant two deaths, and out of the initial members less than one percent made it to graduation day.
ODST training was designed to break you like no other special operations branch did. Then the drill sergeants would shape you into a warrior that could fight off anything that the enemy could throw at him. Most guys were stable enough in the head that their personalities remained mostly unchanged, but anyone that said he went through bootcamp and came out the same is a liar. Everyone changes in bootcamp, whether it be for the ODST, the Army Rangers or the Airborne, or Navy Special Warfare, bootcamp changed everyone. Then it was just a matter of innate talent that took you that extra step to become the elite of the elite.
Lady had made it here even though she was a self-entitled bitch. Longworth had made it here even though he was convinced that nobody would ever match up to him in any aspect, making excuses for when that failed. Tank had made it here through sheer determination to survive. Crow was now a member of the AAG because he had never given up on any task, even when his unit had. Andrea and Miranda, nearly polar opposites on the outside, but both of them were still deeply insecure about their position in this elite unit. Oftentimes I wondered why they did that when time after time they proved their value. Then there was Snark, he had joined in order to leave the streets, to get a roof over his head and a hot meal on the plate, then he decided that he liked shooting things from far away and pushed himself to become better and better until he finally became the best. Sasha Dotsenko, he had just lost his best friend and had become machine-like, talking sparingly and often lost in thought, but he was still functioning and would fight until the bitter end. All these men were above what anybody could expect of a human being and all of them deserved better than this hell that they were going through.
For a moment I wondered what they would think of me if I used my pull to get everyone shipped out of Reach and discharged. With my contacts in the intelligence community I could probably make it happen, send them all to live off their days in some dense city on Earth or a distant colony and to hell with the rest of humanity.
"They would love it," Schitzo said in a neutral tone. I couldn't detect sarcasm, but I felt like there was some there.
I dismissed those thoughts. They felt like there was no hope, and hope, as painful as it was, was the one thing that kept us going. Hope that one day the last grunt would twitch in the ground dead and the last elite would growl in defiance as some kid blasted its face off with a shotgun.
Reach burning made it damn hard to cling on to hope.
The skies were clear, which was lucky for us. No hail or snow or any kind of precipitation would hamper our travel. The more we climbed down the less of an incline we had to deal with. No longer we were using our hands and sliding down, we were instead stepping down with long and careful steps.
"Watch out for this rock," Miranda warned as she stepped off a bobbing boulder.
"Start spreading out," I said. "Dotsenko, you're hanging back to provide suppression."
"Yes, sir," the man replied.
We maintained about fifty meters distance between each other and the conversation slowly died down. We could still communicate through our radios, but we had to be on the lookout for Covenant units. According to Grass, the enemy scout units had last been spotted in this area. The boulders and rocks didn't appear to provide much cover from a distance, but once you realized just how large they were you became apprehensive, eyes peeled in order to spot movement.
A rock clacked about 300 meters down the mountainside. The whole team stopped and aimed in that direction. Nobody moved.
"Mountain goat?" Longworth asked.
"I don't think they live this high up," Lady told him.
"It could be nothing," Miri muttered.
"Crow, move down," I gave the word. "I'm with you."
"Yessir."
The two of us slowly walked down, not taking our rifles from the direction where the rocks had clacked. The fact that the noise had come from behind a large boulder only made things tenser. As soon as we reached the boulder I climbed over it while Crow moved around it, hand pressed against it. He looked at me and nodded that he was ready. I gave a finger count and closed my fist, giving the signal for both of us to move.
There was nothing on the other side.
"Clear," I called. "Nothing here. Let's keep moving."
"I hate scares like that," Crow muttered as I jumped next to him.
"Better than coming across something," I told him.
"True, but I still don't like it."
"Stop bitching, soldier," I told him. "And get back in line."
Crow started going back to his spot and I did the same thing. My fireteam climbed down to catch up to us and move faster. Waypoint Alpha was still far off, and this mountain terrain was a bitch to travel through.
"Contact," Snark reported. "Get down!"
Everybody ducked, going for the biggest boulder and trying to get behind it. We had the high ground, a serious tactical advantage, but if we couldn't hit first then we would just be made. Our armors were all appropriately camouflaged for this terrain with shades of black and grey, but the constant use had chipped a lot of the paint away, leaving us with patches of silver titanium here and there.
"Put your head down," I urged Crow.
"I can't," he muttered. "The rock is loose."
"Don't move," I growled. "Snark, what do you see?"
"Three jackals, looks like a scout team. One mile out."
"Don't shoot," I told him. "Patch me through."
"Roger."
A small screen appeared on my HUD and displayed three jackals, all of them with needle rifles. They didn't seem to care a lot about their movement, jumping up and down the rocks and squawking at one another as loudly as possible. Well, that's what I assumed from the way that their beaks were moving. For a moment I wondered what they were talking about, maybe bitching about their bitches back home. It seemed like a reasonable thing for soldiers to talk about.
"Snark, move a little bit to the right."
"Looks like a trail of some sort," Snark said, moving his scope to aim at the direction the jackals had come from. "The cliff won't let me see anything."
"Wait ten," I gave the word. If nothing happened then we'd move down with Snark covering our backs and then Miri and I would take out the jackals with silencers on. We didn't want a massive noise echoing all over these cliffs.
"Sir," Crow said.
I looked in his direction, he was propping himself up with his right hand only. If he laid on his back the boulder would come down rolling, if he moved up a simple look in this direction would reveal his position.
"Hold on," I ordered.
"I can't," he replied. "Shit, it hurts."
It was an incredibly uncomfortable position, holding his whole body weight with just his left triceps. He couldn't even lock his elbow or use his other arm to sustain the weight.
"Shit, shit, shit," I muttered. "Miri, silencers on, move down."
"Yessir," she replied.
I quickly screwed my silencer into my BR55 and got up; the jackals weren't looking in our direction, but it was a huge risk we were taking. I didn't want them firing and I certainly didn't want Snark to shoot his behemoth of a rifle. I moved past Crow's position just as his arm gave way. He crashed on the rock and the small boulder wobbled on the brink of falling down before it rolled downhill. I cursed as I completely left cover.
The range was extreme for my rifle, especially while standing up and on the move, but I couldn't wait.
The jackals' turned their beaks in our direction.
I fired.
The shots flew high as I overcompensated. It was only then that the jackals truly realized what was going on and brought their weapons up. Miranda fired twice, hitting the closest jackal in the chest. I fired a second burst, this time adjusting properly for the distance. I got it in the shoulder and then Miranda finished it off while I hit the other one in the stomach before it could hit me. A final burst took out the final jackal as it writhed in agony. We couldn't afford them radioing their situation.
"Shit," I muttered as the silenced snaps echoed through the mountains. "Everybody move down! We need to hide the bodies."
"Frank, was that you?" Pavel asked.
"Yeah," I replied. "Silenced."
"Shit."
"Yeah. There's aliens in the area, they probably know we're here."
"Roger that, getting dangerous."
I rushed down the mountain, Longworth moving as fast as he could behind me. We were the two fastest guys in the fireteam and at this point we wanted to get those bodies out of sight as soon as possible.
"Three hundred meters," I said. "Let's go Longworth."
"I don't want to break my neck, sir," he said.
"Tough luck, everyone else wants that," Miri joked.
We reached the jackals just as Snark gave the word that the rest of their unit was coming up. There were at least five elites with carbines and plasma repeaters turning the corner. Longworth and I tossed the jackal corpses behind a boulder and pressed tightly against it as the rest of my team ducked behind cover. Snark gave me an ok as soon as he had the lead elite in his crosshairs.
"Five elites," I whispered in Longworth's ear.
"One jackal," Snark said.
"Keep that one alive," I told Longworth. "Keep one elite up if you can. Snark, I want you to take out the leader. Dotsenko, spray them and draw their attention. Longworth and I'll handle the rest."
"Yes, sir," the two men replied.
Dotsenko was about five hundred meters behind our position, ready to go with his SAW. Snark was even further back, perhaps over a mile behind us. It worried me slightly that I could see myself in his scope as he aimed at the lead elite, a major carrying a plasma repeater. The other four elites were all minors, but they appeared to have been through battle more than a couple of times. The jackal behind them was of the skirmisher variety, but it carried with it a beam rifle.
"On you," I told my sniper.
His scope snapped up slightly and I eliminated it from my HUD. A second later the bullet slammed into the lead elite's head. The major was suddenly left headless, falling down as the boom of the SRS finally caught up to the bullet. Dotsenko opened up on the enemy patrol at a rate of 900 rounds per minute. I pressed Longworth's chest and pushed him against the rock. The elites were perhaps eight feet from our position, but we needed Sasha to pummel their shields some more before we came out.
I slowly positioned my rifle in the ground against the rock and reached for the shotgun in the small of my back.
"Stop!" I shouted.
The machine gun fire stopped immediately and both Longworth and I left cover. He fired upon the skirmisher that we wanted alive, aiming for its lower body in order to keep it from firing at the team with its beam rifle. I blasted the closest elite in the chest, knocking its shields out of commission. My second shot hit another elite, knocking it to the ground before I returned to the first one, killing it. Longworth finished the elite that I had targeted second before pummeling the third and fourth elites with surprise flank fire. The shields were weakened and failed quickly, giving me a good window to fire on them with my shotgun. One of them received a shell's worth of buckshot to the chest, the other to the left knee.
"Pistol!" I ordered.
Longworth dropped his rifle and pulled out his sidearm, mirroring my movements. He moved towards the wounded jackal, keeping his pistol trained on it. I did the same with the elite, firing two shots at its right hand and then another to its left wrist, leaving it completely defenseless. I kicked the carbine away from the elite's vicinity and then yanked its plasma pistol from the magnetic holster on the thigh. The elite roared, but with one leg all but useless it could barely move before hitting the ground again.
"Stay down!" I shouted, firing a warning shot. "Down!"
Elites tended to commit ritual suicide when captured, and most of the hingeheads tended to have energy daggers built into the forearm armor. I came down hard on its right wrist, pinning it against the ground with my boot while Longworth flipped the struggling skirmisher over and pressed his knee against its neck, pulling out the cuffs. I wondered for a moment why on earth he had those on him in this situation but opted to keep my mouth shut. As soon as he had the jackal tied up he came to my aid and secured the elite's left arm against the hard, rocky ground.
"You're clear," Snark announced. "Nice work."
"Everybody move down," I ordered. "Miri and Dotsenko, secure that corner for me. Lady and Crow, help secure the perimeter. Tank, I'm going to need you."
"I ain't six-eleven worth of muscle for nothing, sir."
I smiled. At that height he was probably less than six inches shorter the elite at my feet. Tank jumped into the elite's chest, knees first and got close to it, depolarizing his visor and giving it a threatening grin.
"Hello, pretty," he said, laughing as the elite snapped its jaws back at him. We cuffed one hand first before turning it around and cuffing the other one while
Longworth moved to guard the jackal. Tank and I disarmed the elite, removing the forearm guards with liberal use of knives. When we were done the elite had several little cuts marking its arms and a lot of reasons to be pissed.
"I don't often get to do questioning," I said to the elite. "That's why I like to make it last." There was no reply from the elite. "You understand me, squid?"
The elite looked up at me. "Just kill me and be done with it human. Its shameful enough that you managed to capture me."
I smiled, picking up both its native language and the translation in my helmet. I briefly wondered if they made the translator voices out of a single black man with a deep baritone, because the elites always had voices that made me jealous. The jackals, on the other hand, had voices that made them sound very much like the birds they were.
"My name is Lieutenant Castillo," I told him. "Kind of a midpoint between your ultras and your majors."
"Don't compare yourself to us, vermin!"
"Perhaps more like an ultra," I went on, "but the unit I command is so small because they are the best."
The elite snorted.
"We got you, didn't I?" I asked, crouching next to it and taking my helmet off. "Listen, how old are you?"
"Four full cycles."
I laughed loudly and insolently. "I have no idea what the fuck that means, you hear me?"
The elite growled but said nothing.
My grin disappeared and turned into a frown. I put my shotgun back in its holster and brought my knife back out, displaying the multi-colored patterns of the blade. Three twirls and I gripped it with the tip facing out. The elite's eyes traced the movements of the blade involuntarily, but nobody liked the idea of having a knife used on you.
"Longworth! Bring that bird here!"
The jackal hissed and complained, but it struggled in vain with two bullets in its right leg and one in its left. It was a miracle it could still move those two limbs all things considered.
"What's this bird's name?" I asked.
"Nizk," the elite said.
"It's Jeet," the jackal hissed back.
"Watch your tongue, imbecile!" the elite growled.
"What for? We're both dead."
"He's right," I said with a small nod. "I'm going to kill you both."
The elite laughed. "You tell me this and think that I will talk! Bah, you only reveal your stupidity."
I looked at Jeet. "Care to illustrate your superior?"
"He can make our deaths as long and painful as he wishes."
The elite growled angrily but said nothing. Instead it looked at me and I gave it a shrug, apologizing for the whole situation. I waved Tank over and nodded. The massive man delivered a kick to the elite's jaw, drawing a solid amount of blood and cracking the thin armor plates covering it.
The elite remained silent still, but it couldn't completely suppress the pain.
Tank went on, kicking it in the ribs, face, and upper arms, occasionally stepping on one of the bullet wounds. The elite took the punishment with surprising dignity, but after thirty seconds of silence it started letting out noises of pain. Tank went at it until the elite started crying out. Eventually it gave the word for us to stop.
"You're supposed to ask a question first," Jeet noted, earning a rifle butt to the face, courtesy of Longworth.
"You think I don't know what I'm doing?" I asked it, crouching next to it. "Are you trying to tell me how to do my job?"
The jackal furiously shook its head.
"Good," I smiled at it, driving the tip of my knife into its left leg, a few inches from the bullet hole. "I like you."
"What do you want to know?" the jackal asked.
"Silence!" the elite shouted. "I order you to shut your mouth, you filthy pirate!"
Tank backhanded the elite.
"I want to know the exact positions of all your units in this area," I said. "I want to know how your little group divided itself up and where the rest of you filthy fucks are soiling this planet."
It was a carefully worded question. It gave the impression that I already knew how many covvies were here and also appeared to indicate that we had them completely outnumbered and outgunned. The elite seemed to be relatively new in this business, but the jackal knew exactly what was going on and played it to his advantage.
"The Sangheili divided us into four groups and split those into two patrols each," the jackal said.
That's about eighty total…
"And I assume your mission was to-"
"Traitor! Heretic!" the elite shouted. "You will pay for thi-"
"I hate being interrupted!" I yelled into the elite's face, driving my knife three times in quick succession into its right leg, the one riddled with buckshot. The elite cried out loudly, but it certainly stopped annoying me.
"We were to move forward towards your nest-city, identify artillery positions and tag them for initial targeting. Any other information we could gleam from your defenses would be valuable."
"It's a reasonable mission, wouldn't you agree, Longworth?"
"Seems like a good plan," he agreed.
"Anything else you want to let us know?" I asked it. "Anything at all?"
The jackal looked at me and then at the miserable elite to its right. Jeet seemed to be considering the possibilities before he spoke. "I gave you something already, I want something in return."
"You're in no position to make demands, you little shit," I growled, gripping its throat tightly.
"You'll like this one," it croaked. "Promise."
"Do tell," I said, loosening my grip.
"I want to see this one suffer for a bit before you kill him."
"How about I shoot you and promise you I'll torture it for a while?"
"You wouldn't waste your time," the jackal said. "If I tell you everything he knows then there's no sense in torture."
I nodded slowly. "You have a good point."
"So?" It asked.
I sighed. "Two minutes is all you get. And it better be good or I might just take some time to torture you as well."
The jackal nodded.
Tank yanked the elite's armor off and then drew his own knife, driving it deep into the alien's flesh just above the waistline. The elite cried out as Tank began punching with his meaty fists. I had sparred with the Army soldier before and it was probably one of the worst experiences you could go to. He was as big as they came without any genetic therapy and had enough muscle on him that he didn't appear lanky. He was about 370 pounds of muscle and could put enough power behind those punches to kill a lesser man.
By the way, I won all the sparring matches that I went against him, just putting that out there.
Tank didn't hold back and soon I could hear the sound of ribs snapping.
"Stop," I said.
I grabbed my knife from the elite's leg and yanked it out only to sink it halfway into the alien's stomach. A quick maneuver later and the elite had been gutted from one side of the torso to the other. This one drew the loudest cry yet. It only became worse as the alien's intestines started coming out.
"Go ahead," I told Tank.
"Why?" Longworth asked the jackal.
"Because he sent my friends to their deaths," the jackal replied. "And because their kind repels me."
"Hey, me too," I said. "Your kind disgusts me as well. Especially when you eat my kind." With that I showed it my bloodied knife and pressed it against its chest.
"Nothing personal," the jackal said, struggling to get away from my blade. "We don't do it by choice, we never get the rations we need."
"I've heard that one before," I said.
"I swear! The Jiralhanae keep the fat ones, we have to eat what we can!"
I turned to Longworth as Tank worked on the elite. "You ever try jackal?"
"Nah, but I sure do love chicken."
"We would have to cook it though," I said. "I hear raw meat can make you sick."
"You humans always upset stomachs," the jackal growled.
I laughed. "Well, consider it a final fuck you from our part, eh?"
With those words I pressed the knife through the jackal's left shoulder.
"Poor choice of words, bird," I growled. "Now speak, unless you want me to strangle you with your intestines."
Once I said that Tank stopped hitting the elite and drove his knife through its throat.
"Speak, bird."
The jackal then said everything and anything that it deemed important. It gave us the exact number of troops in the area and their intended patrol routes. As soon as I had extracted every bit of information about the scout unit I began asking broader questions. I wanted to know how many battalions were moving from New Alexandria, whether they were led by brutes or by elites, if they had long-range artillery or Scarab walkers. The news was not good, but it could be worse. This battle would be a slugging match between two sledgehammers and we'd have the advantage of a fortified position.
We always seemed to have that advantage and it never did any good.
"You done?" I asked the bird after fifteen minutes of questioning.
"Yes," it said in English.
I nodded at it and shot it through the head before putting my helmet back on.
"That was good, Frank," Grass came in. "Got a lot of usable information."
"That's my job," I replied. "Wait, actually, that's yours."
"And you just made it easier, thanks."
"You're really making it hard for me to be arrogant here," I complained.
"I know you too well," Grass said simply. "In fact, I know you well enough that telling you to get back on the move would be redundant, wouldn't it?"
Yes, I was already signaling for my men to regroup and start heading towards Waypoint Alpha again. Grass chuckled on the other end of the line and said her goodbyes before cutting the conversation. I grouped my men together and gave them a quick set of instructions to stay in groups of two at thirty-meter intervals. I wanted them to be able to protect one another but I didn't want an upstart grunt to take everybody out with a single grenade.
"Let's go," I said. "Ten miles."
"Don't," Pavel grunted. "Not a word."
"I won't say anything," I promised, eyeing up his blood-soaked armor. It wasn't just splashed, it was actually soaked. "Ok, sorry, what happened?"
"Elite almost got me," he grumbled. "It pinned me against the ground and Marv had to slice its throat open to get it off me."
"Giving our gunny an impromptu shower," Bee finished for him.
I chuckled and shook my head in disbelief. When they contacted me saying that they had found a Covenant unit I didn't expect much trouble, but seeing Pavel like this was a surprise. Thankfully it wasn't one that had become unpleasant.
"Alright, we've got four hours of sleep," I said. "Pavel, fix 'em up."
I moved towards a hole between two boulders as Pavel ordered everybody to go to sleep. He made the rosters for keeping guard at random and promptly looked for his own comfort spot. I smiled when I realized that the space between the boulders was covered with soft dirt. I rubbed my butt into it to find that sweet spot and promptly fell asleep.
"Wake up, wake up!"
I looked at my mission clock first. Three hours had passed since I fell asleep.
Not too bad…
"Phantoms and Spirits overhead!" Andrea shouted. "Shit!"
"Get down!"
I stayed where I was, letting all the plasma wash across the boulders. I heard the familiar sound of heavy plasma rounds hitting rock and tightened myself into a ball, wishing that my men would stay safe. The onslaught only lasted a few seconds and then the humming of dropships became more distant. Only then did I peek my head out, cursing at their numbers.
"Grass, Grass, do you copy?"
"I'm here," she replied after a few moments.
"We've got fifty or so enemy dropships moving towards Esztergom at low speeds and low altitudes. Are you seeing them right now?"
"Negative Frank," she replied, sounding concerned. "There's nothing on the sensors. Radar's coming clean too."
"Shit Grass, I'm seeing them right here!"
"Satellites aren't showing anything… fuck."
"They got through to our system," I said.
Grass breathed in. "We're going to have to purge everything simultaneously. That means we'll be exposed for a solid hour."
"You've got a few minutes to give a warning," I said. "Send intercepting craft to get the dropships and additional units to pick us up."
"Alright," she said, muttering too herself as she tapped at her console. "Marina's on her way. It'll take a while."
"We'll stay on the move," I told her. "Good luck down there."
"Good luck up there," she replied. "Shit. Over and out."
I cursed as Pavel told me that everyone was fine. He seemed surprised by my reaction, but I quickly explained the situation to him and he soon was feeling as concerned as I was. The rest of my men were still angrily yapping about how close the plasma had been to them, but the moment I gave the word they all shut up. I ordered a quick march over the ridge, dreading those long minutes where anybody looking from either side could spot us.
"Snark," I said. "Why the hell didn't you warn us?"
No answer.
"Snark!"
"Sorry, sir," he apologized. "I got sloppy, they dropped troops on the other side of the mountain, rounded up on my ass. I got most of them."
"Are you good?"
"Mostly," he said. "Got nicked in the left side. Didn't go through the armor but I've got some burns."
"Ok, stay in contact, we'll get to you once Marina picks us up."
"Yes, sir," he said.
I shook my head, separating Snark from us had served no purpose. He hadn't been able to warn us of the incoming dropships and now he was a liability to the whole unit. Hovering a Pelican on the side of a mountain is hard to miss, even if you don't have absolutely any sensors, the echo would draw your attention and then you'd just have to look in that direction. You wouldn't even have to see it to know it was there.
"Oscar Mike," Pitcher shouted, chuckling at his own joke. Nobody said Oscar Mike anymore…
Twenty minutes into our march Grass communicated with us to update me on the situation.
"They had Seraphs in the air," she said after I asked for news. "We took out about ten percent of their numbers, but they've landed outside the city."
"Shit."
"Shit indeed," she agreed. "Marina can't come pick you up, instead I sent out three Falcons and three Hornets."
"What an unusual combination," I deadpanned.
"Hey, don't bitch about it," she shot back. "More firepower."
"Less speed. Not to mention comfort."
"I remember when once upon a time my CO told me to stop complaining about superficial things like that."
"Sounds like a handsome guy," I said. "Any other news?"
"Negative, Frank."
I shook my head and waved for my men to move faster. We were already approaching the tree line, once we were there we could start moving at a more reasonable pace and take a couple of minutes to rest our legs. The highlands didn't have a lot of trees, but this area was one of the only spots with dense forest. It wasn't particularly large, we could cross it in a few hours, but with the gunships coming in to pick us up we wouldn't have to. I gave the word for my men to hold positions near a good landing area. It was a tedious wait, but the Falcons couldn't fly as fast as a Pelican could.
"I hear something," Pitcher muttered. "Sounds like rotors."
"Yeah," I agreed, nodding. "Good ears."
The Falcons landed in the small clearing in front of us as soon as I gave them our position. Pavel boarded one and immediately everybody spread themselves out. The Falcons once again looked like they had been through a lot. As I walked in front of one of the VTOLs I thought I saw Emily Hardwick piloting the craft, but I turned and a flash of light blocked sight of anything inside the cockpit. I kept moving and jumped up into one of the Hornets. Pitcher joined me on the other side.
"Alright, we've got a man in the mountains," I told the pilot through my radio. "We need to pick him up."
"We'll have to divide the group," the pilot replied. "Three and three, we wouldn't want to be caught unawares."
"Alright," I said. "We've got no time to waste."
The Falcons took a bearing towards the city while the three Hornets instead aimed back towards the mountains. Caboose was on one of the passenger seats in the Hornet that would pick up Snark while Dotsenko and Lady sat in the other one with their legs dangling as the Hornet sped off. I made sure to secure my armor to the harness and my rifle to myself. The Hornets could move damn fast if they tilted their rotors straight ahead. Stupid things looked unwieldy but were in fact terribly fast and maneuverable.
It wasn't a nice ride, but we had all gone through it a few times. Especially Caboose and I. I simply tried to ignore the wobbling and jagged rocks underneath me, but I was surprised at the velocity with which we reached the peak. By that point we had warned Snark of our plans and he simply jumped into the Hornet, making it wobble a little bit. He grunted in complaint at the lack of space as he secured himself with cable, but other than token bitching he said nothing else.
"Come on," I gave the word to the pilots. "We're already missing the first wave."
"I'm doing my best," the pilot replied simply.
I squinted at the three Falcons way off in the distance. I didn't like having my team so separated, especially when we had only joined after such a long time apart. I shook those thoughts away and instead focused on planning. Enough Covenant forces had gotten through that they could establish a nice position. I knew that if we didn't counter attack quickly and with extreme prejudice then we wouldn't be able to prevent them from landing additional troops. The way our defenses were placed around the city we still had a decent chance to push out the Covenant from their landing positions. The Covenant would have no trouble with using their dropships as gunships, which made them twice as dangerous.
"Sir, where are we coming in?" Pitcher asked me, shuffling slowly to the back of the passenger platform.
"Same place we landed," I replied. "Grass will let us know if we're needed."
"We're not jumping right into it?"
"Not unless they need us too, Pitcher," I told him.
I could feel the man's nod even if I couldn't see it. Directly in front of me was another Hornet with Dotsenko and Lady in it. Lady was looking back at the two mountains, her rifle slung across her back and both her hands tightly gripping the small handholds. I didn't blame her for feeling uneasy, Hornets were feeble craft at best and the two passenger seats were completely and utterly terrifying, especially at these speeds.
The rocky ground below us was soon covered by tall grasses. The highlands were a nice place, even if they were a dreary one. We flew through a solid wall of mist that left us all completely soaked. I was thankful for my full-fingered gloves. The pilot slowed down some as we navigated another set of jagged cliffs before the highlands finally became sloping plains that would lead us into Esztergom.
"What's the ETA?" I asked our pilot.
"An hour and a half I think," he replied. "We're getting unconfirmed reports of Banshee sightings. We can't afford to be caught in the open."
"Why are they unconfirmed?" Pitcher asked, echoing my thoughts.
"Not sure," the pilot replied. "Most of the scouts have been pulled back. The few remaining are probably moving back to rally points and be evacuated to defend the city."
"Aren't we deploying any troops behind the enemy?" Pitcher asked.
"I wouldn't know," the pilot replied.
"Grass, copy?"
"I'm here, Frank," she said.
"What's the plan of action right now?"
"Army is securing the civilian population, fortifying our secondary lines. They're not too happy about playing police duty, but the Marine detachment was in the best position to engage. They're securing the outer perimeter and slowing down the Covenant."
"How's the fight going?"
"No large-scale engagements so far," Grass said. "They landed away from our outer line of defense, but they picked their position well. We're shifting troops to meet them when they do attack."
"Are they not moving yet?"
"No, they do appear to be forming up, however," Grass said. "Seems like they have a pre-planned strategy. Very eighteen hundreds if you ask me."
"Don't underestimate them," I said. "If we slugged it out like they did in the nineteenth century we'd be losing every fight."
"Aren't we already?" she asked. She sighed. "Frank, the covvies are a threat right now, but they won't be able to get past our line, not with the numbers they have right now."
"I trust your judgment on this on this one, Grass," I told her. "We'll see you later."
"Stay safe, Frank."
"I never do."
By the time the conversation was over we had passed through the fogbank. Esztergom should have been close enough. I couldn't see it from here, but very far off in the distance I could make out the smoggy haze that hovered over the city. I squinted hard, trying to make out anything that looked like it might be purple. It would've been easier if I knew where they had landed, but I couldn't use my scope to pinpoint their location.
"You got them?" I asked Snark.
"I'm working on it," he said. There was a ten minute pause. "Might have them. The hills are blocking my sight."
"Doesn't matter," I said, "we're not going to be fighting in this one anyways."
"Why'd they pull us out then?" Caboose asked.
"They didn't need us any longer," I said with a mental shrug. "We found their scouts. The Covenant probably decided that their scouts weren't needed either and attacked early."
"Makes sense," Lady said, inching back into her seat.
"There they are," Snark said. "Damn, that's some weird formation."
I aimed where he was pointing at. The scope on my battle rifle was not nearly as powerful as the Oracle scope on his SRS, but I was able to spot the purple armor glinting. They were arranged in a curious formation, with the dropships nowhere to be seen while a dozen or so Wraiths spread out.
"Is our artillery in position?" I asked.
"Don't know," Caboose muttered. "I know we're low on long range guns right now. Might be moving them."
"No missile artillery left?"
"Most of it was used in New Alexandria," he told me. "The rest is spread too thin."
"How the hell do we have anything spread too thin? This is Reach, you can see a soldier any way you look at."
"They're killing us too fast," Caboose growled.
"We just need to kill them faster then," Pitcher said. "I think we're doing a fairly decent job at it so far."
I shook my head. Nobody could see me but Lady and she said nothing. Either way it wasn't my place to think about the larger picture. We in AAG-7 were glorified grunts. Sure, we might be able to tip the balance in a fight and maybe even make a difference in the long run, but our job was to fight whatever Command told us to fight and do it as effectively as possible. No matter how angry that made me at times, it was all we were. Grunts.
"Sucks, doesn't it?" Schitzo asked.
I sighed as the Hornets banked to the left in order to avoid any possible AA defenses that the Covenant had set up. Their AA capabilities left much to be desired, but whenever they brought in appropriate SAM emplacements then they could be as dangerous as ours. I tightened my grip on the handholds and gripped my rifle tightly as I secured it to my back once again.
"Frank, we're almost landing," Pavel checked in. "I just called the girls. They're nervous, but they're finally letting them in. Looks like we might evacuate now."
"How's the situation in orbit?" I asked him.
"Can't gather much information right now, but it seems like the Navy would be willing to sacrifice a couple of ships to punch holes in the Covenant blockade."
"Do you know if the transports are flying straight up?"
"Doesn't look like it. Might go a couple thousand miles before leaving the atmosphere," Pavel told me. "South would be my best guess. Maybe southwest."
"Alright, we're going to be there in a few. Start asking questions, I need to know as much as possible right now."
Sure, I was only a grunt, but I was still a glorified one. I had a little bit of pull when it came to what missions I got. I always wanted the most important ones.
"Yes, sir," he said in the tone he always used when he called me sir.
"Alright then," I muttered to myself. "Looks like we're done for a few hours at least."
We hit the city's outskirts before it all went to shit.
The pilot started swearing and gave us a heads up to hold on tight. Five Banshees appeared from above and behind. I cursed when I saw them and realized that they had been cloaked and waiting to position themselves above us. It was only by miracle that their camouflage had failed or been jammed. I wondered if we had any disruptor equipment in place briefly before they started firing. The pilots knew their shit because the moment the Banshees opened up I felt the G-forces on my body as we dodged. Bolts of blue streaked past, missing my by inches. I rolled on the small platform and reached for my rifle, gripping it tightly while I looped my hand underneath the handhold. I caught a flash of the Hornet that Lady and Dotsenko were sharing as I struggled to aim at the rapidly shifting Banshees. They still had a good position on us, but the Hornet pilots were moving very fast, keeping them twisting and turning.
I squeezed the trigger, missing by a solid ten meters. I cursed and activated my thermal sight. The Banshee was a big orange blob against a cool background, but every bullet that flew streaked brightly against the backdrop, allowing me to see where exactly they were hitting. It didn't take long for me to get an understanding of how my bullets were being affected by the movement, but I needed a test shot before firing for real every time and at the rate the pilot was swerving I barely had any chances to aim, let alone fire. If any bullet hit it was more out of luck than anything.
"Can't hit anything like this!" Pitcher complained from the other side.
"I'm going low!" the pilot announced.
"Where are the other Hornets?" I asked.
"We broke off!" the pilot replied hastily. "I'm leading them to our AA envelope!"
"You might want to climb up then!" I shouted back.
"They won't reveal the position of our SAMs for a Hornet!"
The pilot had a point. A Hornet was… well, it was like comparing saving a hornet when you could keep the whales from going extinct.
In these case the hornet was the Hornet and the whales was humanity at a large. Or maybe the Covenant dropships. In which case it was a bad metaphor in the first place. A more appropriate one would be comparing killing a baby cub when you could get the lion.
Maybe animal metaphors weren't the way to go here.
"Shit, shit, shit!"
The pilot banked hard, dodging a bright green fuel rod. I saw the explosive curve upwards to chase us, but its detonation was strong enough to send pieces of housing flying my way. I jerked backwards as bricks hit me in the chest, making me lose grip of my rifle. I managed to snag it with my legs, but another sharp turn and the rifle was gone.
"Fuck!" I cursed.
"You ok, El-tee?" Pitcher asked.
"I'm fine," I said, starting to feel the bruise form in my chest.
"Hold on!" the pilot shouted loudly. The Hornet twisted yet another time and I was almost ripped from it. I could certainly feel the effect on my organs and thanked God for my armor. A turn like that could've liquefied my organs.
We started climbing up way faster than I thought would've been possible for a Hornet. It was easy to forget how fast these VTOLs could go when they looked so damn ugly. The cars started getting smaller and smaller, but the size of the Banshee remained constant. The bolts that it fired got bigger and bigger before they flew past us. The pilot was doing an excellent job.
It was not enough.
Two consecutive bolts hit the right rotor right above me. I turned my head as pieces of molten metal flew my way. The Hornet sputtered and slowed down, giving the Banshee the opportunity to hit us a few more times, damaging the rear armor and port of the Hornet. I toyed with the idea of jumping and landing on the Banshee, but before my brain dismissed that as a complete idiocy the Banshee had sped past us and the cars were no longer getting smaller. Quite the opposite in fact.
"Lost power on right side," the pilot announced, his voice no longer panicky. He knew exactly what was going to happen and wanted to give us the best chance.
"No thrust on the rear. Left rotor is in fine working order."
The Hornet spun completely around and we flipped several times before we managed to stabilize the position of the craft so that the bottom was facing down.
"I'm slowing down as much as possible," he informed calmly. "Losing altitude, I'm redirecting energy to the rear turbine."
We were falling too fast. Even with the left rotor working to spin us down bottom first. If he managed to activate the rear engine then we would start moving forward and slow down our fall just enough. The pilot would slam into a building twice as fast, but Pitcher and me would be able to be launched forward. If we compressed into a ball our armor would provide a small chance for us to survive the impact.
Small being the key word. Small is being generous. Small was optimistic.
"Impact in ten."
I undid the cable that was securing me to the Hornet.
"Five!"
Well, not everybody can stay calm in the face of imminent death. I'd have to make sure I found out what his name was if I made it. Write a letter to his mother.
The Hornet burst forward violently as the rear turbine finally started working. The front of the Hornet hit the top of a rooftop, flipping it forward. I held on as hard as I could, but the combined forces of gravity and my own muscle strength tore the handhold from its hinges. I briefly thought it very improper engineering before I saw another rooftop fly at me an alarming speed. I hit it hard, bounced and hit it hard again.
Thanks to Colonel-Commissar2468 and General TheDyingTitan for proofreading this chapter.
Ah, he's fine. You all know it.
The delay in posting time was largely due to my incredibly bad decision to leave all my college essays for this month. I've been insanely busy with applications and only just managed to squeeze this chapter in a couple of weeks. It's been the longest in between updates for a pretty long time. I usually get to warn you guys before I do something like this or am on vacation without any internet. I think that using my future as an excuse is still pretty valid though. Other personal stuff about me that you're not interested in: I broke things off with my "girlfriend" but it doesn't matter cause another girl expressed her interest in my body and we're going out. Fucking coach cut me from the basketball team and I am trying to be as objective as possible here, but he didn't do it because the other players were more skilled. I've been hitting the gym though... yeah, I try not to be that douche that brags about it, but sometimes you can't help it.
Questions that need answering: Lavanya, Katie, and Amber weren't in New Alexandria, they are in Esztergom, a different city in Reach, so they didn't evacuate with the ships that we see in the game. Any other doubts as to timeline? No? Great.
ravemonster: happy belated birthday, hope it was a great one. I don't condone the use of drugs, except yes. Hope it was good.
To everyone else, my sincerest apologies for the delay, but you can expect another similar delay after this one. Enjoy the holidays, spend time with your families, masturbate vigorously, and be happy. If you're from a place that doesn't have Christmas vacations then I still wish you an incredibly awesome few days. Unless you're from the Galapagos. Fuck the Galapagos. If I don't make it in time: Happy New Year!
Stay strong.
-casquis