Chapter CCIX: Math and Blood
August 25, 2552 (UNSC Calendar)/
Esztergom (Ezhtergom), Viery Territory, Reach, Epsilon Eridani System
Gunnery Sergeant Pavel Klaus
"As a NCO, people expect you to be an asshole. As an NCO serving directly under a monumental asshole, the pressures of the job become a little too much."
"I hate it when this happens."
"It happens way too often," Grigori muttered in agreement.
"Longworth, give me something good!" I snapped.
"Nothing, Gunny," he replied. "I can't get through to either of them."
I cursed and kicked an empty can of cola. Some brand called Pepsi or something weird like that. It was just my luck to be in charge of this bunch of conceited, arrogant bastards. Grigori I could work with, Miranda, Andy, and Snark were fine. The rest of the men were just growing to be more and more in love with themselves. Even Bee.
Those bastards.
"Marv, did you get the information?"
"Yes I did, Gunny."
"Do tell," I urged him irritably.
"The Covenant set up a gigantic network of drone jammers. They're hovering over the land that they are holding as well as the contested neighborhoods. Apparently they act as jammers and transmitters. They block us out and keep their conversations safe without need for encryption."
"Why haven't they moved them over here?" Lady asked, crossing her arms.
"We still have some counter measures, but not enough to take down the small fleet that they have unless we wipe the ground with their asses," Marv replied.
Grigori shook his head almost imperceptibly. From the way Marv painted the situation it wouldn't be easy. From what I knew, it would be fucking impossible. The Navy was already punching the Covenant fleet out of the way, but they would come back and there was nothing we could do about the SAMs that they were setting up in the outskirts of the city. The evacuation ships were going out slowly, but they needed our anti-missile batteries for protection while they left the atmosphere. I didn't even know if Amber and Lavanya had made it out yet.
"Fucking Christ…" I muttered.
"So what's the plan?" Bee asked me.
"We stay here and wait for Grass," I replied. "Nothing else we can do."
"What about the lieutenant?" Snark asked, leaning on his rifle.
Tank shifted uncomfortably while Dotsenko rolled his neck around.
"You saw what happened," Lady told him. "We all did."
"We've all seen him come out from worst things," Bee said. "I've seen him cheat death more times than I can count."
"That's true," Snark agreed. "You've only known El-tee for a while. Back in the day we called him Sarge."
"Regardless," Lady went on. "Are we going to try search and rescue?"
I sat down and sighed. Frank was my best friend, but crashing from a Hornet at that speed was nearly impossible to survive. I would've said it was completely impossible, but I knew Frank. He always found a way. This time was different though, he always checked in soon after. It was only a short scare when things like this happened. And they happened too damn often.
"No," I said finally. "There's no use in going to no-man's-land. Command wants to level the whole place, even if Frank made it… They're gonna level my fucking house. My goddamned dog is in there."
"Relax, Gunny," Snark said.
I noticed that he didn't try to convince me that my fucking dog would make it out alive. When the UNSC Artillery Corps were told to bring the pain they made sure to set a new standard for using that phrase. I had seen nice green meadows turned into muddy pits with no trace of grass in little under five minutes. Our artillery could bring down Covenant corvettes or take out an elite field marshal sixty kilometers away with a non-explosive shell. They were damn good and were probably one of the few units that everybody treated with the utmost respect. Unfortunately, it is highly complicated to provide danger close covering fire when in the middle of a high-intensity firefight with anti-personnel shells, which is why we rarely called them in to provide support in that kind of close range scenario.
The fact that the Army kept the corps for their large-scale operations didn't help much either.
"They're beginning in around five minutes," Tank said. "They're only targeting the buildings, right?"
"And making a certain number of holes to keep tanks from coming in," Lady added. "Not exactly apocalypse type scenario, but that whole neighborhood is going down."
I growled.
"It's the only way to stop the Covenant advancing troops in time," Caboose told me, placing his hand on my shoulder. "I know it's your home, but your family is safe. At least you have that."
I nodded and sighed. I hated it when Frank wasn't commanding the unit. I was an angry person, but when I stood next to him I felt like the voice of reason. Well, it was hard to not feel like the voice of reason around this bunch of cerebrally impaired jackasses. Longworth was pacing around, trying to look cool while he did so. Lady somehow managed to give of the impression that she was that hot girl in high school that everybody hated but everybody wanted. Frankly I was a little impressed, she had the attitude down to an art. Everybody else was sitting down or leaning against a wall, but their positions were just a little bit unnatural.
I crossed my arms, trying to ignore the fact that I also instinctively adopted a cool pose. Being in this alpha environment really played havoc with your mind.
"Alright, alright," I relented, stretching my neck and wincing as I heard a particularly loud crack. "Frank is MIA."
"Again," Bumblebee muttered.
"As is Pitcher," I went on. "That leaves us with thirteen on our little squad."
"Not the noblest of numbers," Crow said.
I looked at the man and was thankful for the bandages covering his face. Most of the skin had melted and was now left hanging. The doctors hadn't had time to give him any kind of reconstructive surgery and had only managed to keep the skin from blocking the eyes and nostrils. His mouth was well enough, but I think that he wasn't able to open it completely, explaining his slightly different voice. I hoped that he made it; I would hate to die with a face that wasn't my own.
"There is no chance for any S and R mission, at least for the immediate future. I want everyone with full ammunition loads. Andrea, you're in charge of getting us biofoam and medical supplies, Lady, I want you to get stims and see if you can secure a box of MREs while you're at it."
"Sending the pretty ladies to do the hard work, I see," Miranda said in a perfectly neutral tone.
I rolled my eyes.
"You'll get to do both next time," I assured her.
Women and their inferiority complexes. Of the three women in the squad, Miranda was probably the one that I was most attracted to. She had that slightly dark skin that some Balkans tended to have. I remember a girl from my high school back in Poland…
But I digress, even if both Lady and Andy could've scored perfect tens I only sent them and not Miranda because they could keep eye contact in and be bitches when they needed to. Miranda was just too sweet for her own good.
"Ammunition?" Tank asked, hefting his battle rifle by the stock and stretching his back. Damn, every time I got used to his size I looked at him again and realized just how insanely big the man was. The fact that he was black and had an uncomfortably mean face didn't help much either.
"Ammunition shouldn't be a problem," I told him. "Grass can procure that for us as can Captain Flatt."
"Where are they, by the way?" Dotsenko asked.
I looked at him curiously. He had spoken very little since Ramirez had been killed. A few days ago Sasha had been all smiles and jokes. A great guy to have alongside you in a battle. Now he was just scowls and mutterings. Frankly, it was beginning to annoy me, but Frank specifically told me to let him deal with his pain. It wasn't every day you lost your best friend.
I looked towards my neighborhood, several kilometers away.
If Frank had somehow survived that fucking Hornet crash he would need to be extremely lucky to find reliable cover during the barrage that was to come soon. It pained me, but this was as close to death as Frank had ever been. He had survived far more things than any human being had a right to. My brush with death had come when a jackal sniper fired a beam through my body, but after that I hadn't been in any serious life-threatening circumstances. By that I mean that my injuries were never too severe. Life-threatening circumstances come in my job description.
Frank had been slammed against a tree branch that went through his back, has his back slashed open, received spikes to the back, brute chieftain stomping his chest, that rebar that went millimeters from his femoral artery, and recently he received an energy sword through his left kidney. I knew he had some superhuman shit going on, but I was surprised the man could still function.
I shook my head to myself and sat down on the floor. Frank might be dead, but it was not a sure thing and I could deal with the loss later.
Shit, I don't want to tell Katie… Or Liz for that matter.
I wondered who would take it worse. Katie loved Frank with all her heart, but Liz had some sort of infatuation with him too. She knew that her older cousin had a very real thing with Frank and would never make a move, but even if there wasn't anything romantic between them I think she still loved him for all he did for them back in Paris IV. I used to think that Frank's girl troubles weren't really troubles since he always had pretty women lining up to give him a nice little fuck or two, but a few years of maturity and seeing the effect that they had on his personal life I decided that I was perfectly fine not being able to talk my way into sleeping with any woman I desired.
The poor man actively encouraged every girl that he came across before some part of him decided that he was being too much of an asshole and stopped, leaving the girl in question confused and angry.
I'm pretty sure that both Andrea and Lady had some serious crush on him at some point.
I scoffed at my own thoughts, drawing a look from Serge and Caboose.
"I don't know where Grass or Flatt are," I said finally. "Flatt should be coordinating whatever is left of the AAG and Grass was working on getting us all a ship in case we have to evacuate."
"We're not leaving, are we?" Lady asked, for once losing her bitchy façade. "I mean, Viery might be a lost cause, and that's a bit of a stretch, but the rest of Reach is still untouched."
I nodded. "That is true, but losing Viery means that the covvies can set up anti-ship cannons, denying us the space above. After that it's only a matter of time. We have to push them out now."
"He's right," Caboose said, rubbing his left thigh. "Viery is too big to afford to lose. They have numbers enough to fight us to a stalemate and their ships are damned hard to kill."
"So we might as well give up then?" Lady pressured him.
"Don't you have something to do?" I asked her. "Andrea, I don't see you moving your ass either."
"Sorry Gunny," they both apologized, straightening their backs.
Being in charge had its perks.
I closed my eyes when the artillery guns started firing and did my best to ignore the repeated booms and the distant explosions. Once they finally subsided I allowed myself to open my eyes, knowing that my home and everything in it were gone. I had worked very hard for everything inside my home, it was sad to know that it was all gone. Gunny had been a great dog, too. I would have to thank Frank. Frank was probably dead too. The strike had brought down all the buildings and all the streets had been hit. Either his body was a bunch of bloody ribbons or his limbs were.
Fuck.
"Pavel."
I looked up at Grass and stood up.
"What?"
"Captain Flatt is working on securing us planetary extraction."
"Anything promising?"
She nodded. "Rumor has it that some ship that was supposed to do a secret mission is parked at Aszod. That's one possibility."
"Do I know the ship in question?"
Grass shrugged. "UNSC Pillar of Autumn."
I frowned, the name sounded familiar. "Isn't that a Halcyon?"
"Yes," she said. "It was re-commissioned in 2550. Flatt couldn't find much more than that."
"Really? I thought she had all sorts of security clearance."
"She does," Grass confirmed. "And so do I, but the operation that the Autumn was supposed to perform appears to be all kinds of top secret."
"What's the name of the op?" I asked out of curiosity.
"RED FLAG."
"Nope, doesn't ring a bell," I admitted. "Have you tried asking Team Falcata?"
"They're unavailable right now," she said. "They have them working on the frontlines."
"Those guys don't get tired, do they?"
Grass smiled and shook her head. "Not really. Kind of like Frank, aren't they?"
"More than you know," I told her, smiling to show that I was joking.
Grass held her own smile for a second before she looked in the direction of my neighborhood, the last spot where Frank had been seen alive. I knew she cared for Frank, even after being in different units and her going to a desk job we had all remained good friends. I regretted not keeping in touch with her more often. Reaper had truly been something special.
Most of Reaper was still alive, but it wasn't the same. Whatever magic we had was gone. Sutton's death was the beginning, but the breakup of the group came later. When Angel decided to disappear we finally became something else.
Look at me, reminiscing like an old man. I hadn't even hit forty and I was beginning to think like I was into my eleventh decade of life. No, no, I still had at least eighty more years to go before I became a senile wreck. I was barely done with the first third of my life, I still had at least one decades of being able to school young kids in what it was to be a soldier and a decade more before my body started giving up on me. Modern medicine and technology would keep me a badass motherfucker for as long as possible.
"What's the other option?" I asked her.
"Not an option in particular," Grass said, snapping out of her small trance. "There's another shipyard where two or three frigates are bound to land."
"Kartal?" I asked.
"Yes."
"I didn't know that place was still running."
She shrugged. "Did you know that Kartal is a neighborhood in Budapest that used to be a small town?"
"No Cam," I said. "I didn't know that."
"Well, now you do."
She smiled a little bit, but she was worried. Damn it, I was worried too. I didn't want Frank dying, it was the last thing we needed. If he died then the whole fucking team would collapse. Well, maybe not, but it would be a serious hit to morale. We had all seen him walk on water.
"What's our next step?" I asked.
"Army is taking the brunt of the Covenant charge," she told me. "They're slowing them down and making them pay for it, Marines are moving back and preparing kill zones. The Army guys are ready to fall back quickly and lure the Covenant in before fortifying the inner lines of the city, letting the Marines duke it out for a while. Things are chaotic right now, we have little to no reliable intel and our drones are being shot down at an alarming rate. It's all we can do to keep their drones from invading our airspace."
"So we sit back and wait?"
"Yes," she said. "We both know that your skills are being wasted in a battle like this."
"It's never stopped the brass before," I reminded her.
She rolled her eyes. "Stop bitching."
I laughed. "Once upon a time that would've gotten you night watch duty."
Grass smiled, this time more genuinely. "Once upon a time you were my superior."
"I'm pretty sure that I still am," I reminded her.
Grass smiled and shrugged. She really had a killer smile that one. When Frank first showed me the dossiers of what would become Reaper I had refused to believe that he had picked her out of merit alone. She certainly proved that she could pull weight in any military unit and more. Now she proved that she was probably worth more outside of the battlefield than in it. Cam had an IQ that rivaled that of most geniuses currently alive.
And they had her shooting aliens or running errands.
Well, as far as us simple grunts were concerned.
"Hey, Gunny, think there's a chance we'll get the opportunity to go and see if Gunny or Pitcher made it?" Marv asked.
I looked up at him and then glanced at Grass. "I don't know, kid. You saw how it was."
"Gunny, I'm sure that Marina could drop us off there. El-tee and Pitcher should be either dead relatively close to the Hornet or they are alive," Bee said.
I pursed my lips. "It's dangerous out there."
"That's why we need to hurry up," Marv chimed back in. "If there's any way at all that El-tee is alive then we should get him. He's done the same for all of us."
I sighed and stood up. "Very well then, I'll talk to Marina. The girls should be back with the supplies soon. Marina can drop us off for a quick search op."
"You just said that there was no way we could do search and rescue, do you remember that?" Grigori asked me, leaning on his MA5K to stand up. Despite his words he didn't appear to be complaining much. Everybody loved the El-tee for reasons that still escape me.
The guys were smiling by the time Andy and Lady showed up. When we told her what the plan was they started smiling too. Marina had parked her Pelican next to the rest of our remaining air assets. It was a short walk from our position, a couple of clicks from the spaceport. As I walked I thought for the eleventh time just how lucky we were that city planners made sure to pack all important buildings close together in pre-planned cities. Esztergom had its spaceport, airport, MagLev station as well as government buildings in a very small radius. They had been set up when the city was first built.
I could've done with a full-sized military base to serve as a stronghold, but we'd have to do with the original small outpost that was as old as the city itself.
"Think Marina is going to be up for it?" Bee asked out loud.
"Of course she is," Tank replied. "She owes El-tee."
I snorted. "Marina is the only person that Frank owes to."
"I've saved his life," Longworth noted calmly.
"And how many times has he done the same for you?" Miri asked him.
He shrugged.
"Looks like you owe him," I said.
Snark stopped walking and looked up.
Everybody else followed after him and spread out slightly, preparing their weapons for action. Snark was an amazing sniper, and that meant that he had to have superior senses to most. His sight was amazing, but his hearing didn't lag far behind Frank's bat ears.
"I hear it," Marv said a second later.
The raid sirens started wailing.
"Ah, fuck."
Six Phantoms uncloaked about three hundred meters to our left, hovering above a short building. Triple-A opened up on them with AP ammunition, but the Phantoms were here to drop troops. Several squads of what looked like brutes jumped out as the Phantoms fired wildly at anything they could hit before they were brought down. Five of the dropships were put in the ground before ten seconds had passed, but the brutes had jumped out in time.
"How do they keep doing that?" Snark asked irritably.
"Snark, I want you up top!" I shouted. "Tank, you're on sharpshooter duty with him. Everyone else, on me!"
And just like that we abandoned the mission to find Frank, Pitcher or whatever was left of them.
"Spread out!" I ordered. "Grass, you with us?"
"For old time's sake," she answered.
Grass was clad in a very light armor and had even taken off most of the unnecessary parts. She wouldn't survive a single hit, not to mention the fact that she had no helmet, instead only sporting a small earpiece with a small screen over her left eye. She had an M7 SMG with her, not the deadliest of weapons, but us ODSTs favored it for a reason.
"Grigori, take the west wing!"
"Andy, Longworth, Dotsenko, Serge, Crow! On me!"
I was left with Lady, Miri, Marv, Bee and Grass and we broke off to the left. Already there was some heavy gunfire coming from inside the building, letting us know that we hadn't been caught completely unawares. Our first order of business would be to clear this building as fast as possible and prevent it from being used as a beachhead. Grass was frantically yelling into her mouthpiece, trying to get birds up in the air and redirecting our few surviving drones overhead to get thermal imagery. She must've been doing something right, because within a couple of seconds we got a small screen on our HUD showing us the enemy's position.
"Move, move, move!" a voice came from the stairwell.
"Soldier!" I stopped the man that busted out. "What's the status?"
"We took out a few of them, but they outnumber us!"
"Move up!" I shouted to my small squad. "You with us?"
The soldier and his men looked at each other before nodding and flipping themselves around. We climbed up the emergency stairs and caught the charging brutes by surprise. They expected a retreating squad, not two attacking ones.
"Suppressing fire right!" I shouted, spraying the whole right quadrant, keeping the stream of bullets over the heads of my men. "Targets dead ahead!"
I covered for Lady and Grass, leaving Marv and Miri to cover my slow advance. The other squad of soldiers moved up on the left and center, throwing grenades. It was always fun to see grenades detonate indoors, but the large room was big enough that we weren't in direct danger. Unfortunately, the cubicles and desks minimized the spread of shrapnel, making the grenades less effective.
"Jackals advancing!"
"Switching left!" I boomed.
I stopped the jackals dead in their tracks and then kept them from moving forward with short bursts, buying precious seconds for Lady to move up to their side in order to get an angle on their arms or legs. As soon as she hit the one on the edge Marv popped from cover and helped take it out. Miri and Grass laid out the one next to it and let me finish the other two as their wall collapsed. Grunts started advancing, meeting our wall of bullets.
"Keep moving!" a soldier shouted.
We had moved halfway through the room, but the lack of brutes was worrying me. There were a fair number of them, but I had seen the Phantoms drop a larger amount of dumb apes on the rooftop.
"Snark here, they're setting up fortifications on the roof."
"Can you hit them?" I asked.
"Negative," he admitted. "Not immediately at least. There's two jackals that are keeping me from getting a good shot. I sent Tank on a distraction run, should be around a minute."
"Take care of it," I ordered.
"Left corner, left corner!"
Dotsenko sprayed that area, hitting the cubicles and cutting down the short walls, sending pieces of polymer and paper everywhere. The squad of soldiers reloaded their weapons simultaneously when the last brute was brought down as my men moved up through the door.
"Grigori, news?"
"Nothing too heavy," he said. "Why isn't Snark providing support?"
"Two jackals."
"Ah."
With that we ended the conversation and moved up the next floor.
The climb was quick and bloody. One of the soldiers got herself killed when she forgot to take cover before reloading, but for the most part our advance could not be denied. We moved quickly and efficiently. The soldiers slowed us down a little bit, but for not being trained for this kind of breach and clear scenarios they were doing just fine. We all stopped right before the stairwell that led to the rooftop.
"Grigori, what's your position?"
"Sixth floor," he said. "One more."
"We're going ahead without you," I told him.
"Roger."
"Snark?"
"On it."
"Grass, can you get me real time?"
"Got them."
I saw the small screen pop into my HUD and let my men arrange themselves in a breaching formation. I motioned for the soldiers to form up behind us and positioned myself behind Dotsenko and tapped him on the shoulder.
"I can take the chieftain," Snark said immediately after two faint booms reached my ears. "Give me the word."
"Go," I said.
I heard two more booms, but by that point Marv had kicked the door open and was moving to the left, making space for Lady and Dotsenko to advance. I waited for Dotsenko to pivot to the right and Lady to take a knee before moving forward at a walking speed, firing at the closest brute in my quadrant. Grass moved up behind me, using my body as a shield and firing over my left shoulder, stunning the other three aliens in my sector long enough for me to switch my attention to them.
Snark fired as we moved, helping us by taking out the brutes farther away from our position. Grigori's unit kicked down the door on the other end of the rooftop, catching the aliens from behind and taking out a dozen of them before they could take cover. The soldiers advanced to either of our sides and began moving forward.
"We take turns," I told Grigori. "Give the word when you're about to fire so that we can take cover."
Friendly fire was no funny business.
We used the covvie fortifications to our advantage and with Snark and Tank's help we quickly cleansed the rooftop of any filth.
"You've got two grunts left," Snark said. "I'll leave them to you."
"Move up," I said. "Two grunts."
I began moving towards a weird antenna that the Covenant had set up. It looked like one of their regular communication antennas, but it was pulsing. Might have to destroy it for good measure.
I caught a flash of movement and saw a grunt clad in black armor running. I aimed at it, but the little bastard fired twice at me before I could get a bead on it. One shot hit me in the chest before I managed to squeeze the trigger and get off a nice burst. The grunt was in the air when the bullets hit its chest, its hand reached for the spire, hitting what appeared to be a console at its base.
"Shit."
The spire glowed and emitted a light blue pulse.
My HUD went haywire for a few seconds before disappearing.
"Shit."
Electronic warfare was a complicated matter. Our weapons and helmets were typically hardened against that kind of attacks, but the covvies were by no means stupid, and every now and then they'd find a way to bypass our measure. Whenever that happened we'd upgrade and move on, but they'd manage to get past them at unpredictable intervals. An EMP meant a hard restart for all UNSC gear. It took less than thirty seconds for vital systems like radars and SAMs, radio contact was iffy, but it could usually be reestablished in less than ten minutes.
You only needed five seconds to put a hundred dropships past our anti-air envelopes.
"Shit," I said for a third time.
"What the hell was that?" a soldier asked.
"That was them winning the battle," Lady informed him.
For being such a bitch she was pretty smart.
"What's she saying, Gunny?" Bee asked.
He, on the other hand…
"That pulse just took down all our electronics," Grass explained. "It was definitely part of a coordinated strike."
"We took them down early," I said. "Maybe we ruined it."
"Don't think so, they must've had ships on standby," Grigori said.
"What now?" Snark radioed himself into the conversation.
"Meet in the rotunda," I said. "Grass, where's Captain Flatt?"
"Follow me," she said.
"We'll meet on her position, take orders. Grass, can you establish radio contact?"
"I'm trying," she answered. "I'll let you know."
"Alright, everybody move out!"
I hated when it all collapsed. It was when the battle really started taking its toll. I had been doing this long enough to be used to it, but fighting in an obscure mountain range in order to secure a key pass is very different from fighting in a large city, let alone your home. Every battle had that one time when everything started breaking apart. You could always tell. Frank and I had the distinction of having been present for numerous moments. Most soldiers fought and died without even being part of the key fight, Frank and I and the men of Team 7 were trained to fight there.
It wasn't fun. If we had moved two seconds faster we would've succeeded. If I had hit that grunt we still would've had a chance.
"Get down!"
I ducked just as plasma torpedoes began landing to our left. Normally those would be taken out with laser, destabilizing the magnetic fields and letting the plasma fizzle out into vapor before getting anywhere remotely close to UNSC troops or assets. They were so effective that the Covenant had stopped using them altogether. They kept them in backup, but rarely did we get the opportunity to see them in action. I hated to see those things go to work, they were not nearly as accurate or deadly as our own artillery corps, but they came damned close.
"Move up!" I shouted. "They're firing to the left of our position!"
We moved as far to the right as possible and advanced behind Grass. She was just short of a sprint, but I didn't blame her. A single misfired torpedo or a change of target and we would have hell raining all around us.
"I just got through to Flatt!" Grass shouted over the barrage and explosions. "They're deploying everything!"
"Who's they?" I asked, instinctively ducking after a nearby detonation.
"The Covenant, they're pushing all they've got past our lines…" She paused and I could tell that she was listening to what Flatt was saying on the other end of the line. "The 1st and 67th are using their pods and launchers to bring down as many as they can. Our air wing is deploying and we've got tanks moving to the most likely landing positions. Command is decentralizing everything."
"They're going to turn this into a fucking free-for-all," Grigori muttered with an uncharacteristically high amount of emotion in his voice.
Grass nodded in response. "No chance for an organized retreat that way, but there's a small opportunity that we'll come out on top, save the city."
"And then what?" I muttered quietly to myself. This strategy guaranteed at least half a million casualties if what Grasss was saying was true. With 500,000 dead we could hardly mount a successful defense of the city, even if we took out the million plus estimated soldiers that the Covenant had at their disposal. In all likelihood we were looking at 750,000 dead men and women in the next five hours, and that's not taking the civilians into account.
"It's going to be a bloodbath," Miri said.
"They're sending a large armored battalion to defend the spaceport, but everyone else is on its own," Grass told me.
"Let's move," I shouted. "Marina has a Pelican and it's waiting for us."
"And then?" Longworth asked.
"And then we do whatever the hell I decide to do," I told him. "Let's go, take point."
Longworth nodded and moved ahead as everyone settled into formation. We were closer than we would've been on a forest or field, but still far enough away from each other that a small explosive would not wipe out more than two of us. I was near the front of the formation, leaving Dotsenko and his SAW to cover our rear from any rushing assaults.
"Airfield is two hundred meters in front of us," Longworth said. "No movement."
"Dropships haven't made it this far yet," Grass said. "Our manned AAA is keeping them on their toes, slowing them down."
"Let's get moving," I gave the word. The last thing I wanted was for Phantoms to begin firebombing the Pelicans on the ground.
Longworth led the way and we moved without really checking our corners. Snark kept his head snapping from side to side while searching for movement and Grass was engaged in a frantic and cryptic conversation with Captain Flatt. The rest of the guys were quiet, for the past couple of days it had seemed like we might've been able to stand our ground here in Esztergom, but the recent events had proved us wrong. They were just too numerous, too implacable.
"Grass, can you patch me to Marina?" I asked after checking my radio. "I'm not getting anything."
"On it," she answered.
The chain link gates were conspicuously abandoned, but there was plenty of movement on the part of pilots and mechanics on the ground. Most of the Pelicans were shut down, but a couple of them had their engines on and were likely waiting for ground personnel to hop inside before bailing. Say what you say about military aviation, but they did what you expected them to.
"Where's Marina?" I asked.
"Patching through…"
"Pavel, is that you?" Marina asked me.
"The one," I confirmed. "Where are you?"
"Line H," she said. "My bird's still down, but I'm working on it… Do you have any news about Frank?"
"Not yet," I told her. "We're headed your way."
I overheard some of the aviation people shouting at each other and asking for tools and gear. A few of the Army foot soldiers were standing guard on top of the dropships with launchers on their shoulders and an eye on the horizon. People were packing some serious heat into the Pelicans, moving additional missile pods and fuel tanks on the wings. The pilots were expecting some serious air combat and in all likelihood wanted to have the option of bailing and making a run for it. Last I heard Tribute was still held by UNSC forces. It might be an option.
"Pavel, over here!"
I jogged to Marina and waited for her to say something.
"What?" she asked.
"You're the boss here," I told her. "What's the sitrep?"
"Hard restart is almost done," she said. "My girl's got a full ammo load right now. She's ready for anything. What's the plan?"
"I was thinking of falling back to the spaceport," I said. "It's going to be the only reliable stronghold."
"What about Frank?" she asked.
"Marina…"
"I won't believe he's dead until I see a body," she said adamantly.
"I can't risk their lives like that, it's the last thing Frank would want."
"This is Frank we're talking about," she replied. "How many-"
"Marina, we can't," I said firmly. "Frank's Hornet fell in no-man's-land."
"I wouldn't have gotten my sorry ass shot down," Marina grunted. "If I had been there…"
"But you weren't," I told her. "Through no fault of your own. If Frank is somehow alive then it is up to him."
"If anyone can make it, it's him."
It was strange, to see her so adamantly sure that Frank was alive. Out of our little trio, Marina was usually the one that I'd call the most grounded in reality. She was the most normal person, although for some reason she had never settled into what you would call a normal life.
"When can we move?" I asked her.
"Should be good to go," she said, moving inside the cockpit.
"Everybody in!" I shouted. "Let's go!"
The moment I put my boot on the cargo bay the Pelican next to ours blew up.
"Get in!" Marina shouted.
She pulled her ship up, narrowly avoiding a torpedo from a Seraph. I almost fell backwards, but Tank and Dotsenko grabbed my arm and pulled me back inside as Marv moved towards the rear door gun and pulled back the slide as Marina began banking furiously.
"I've got two Banshees!" she shouted. "Ready!"
She spun the Pelican and gave Marv an opening. I fired my M247L from my position, joining his barrage and taking down the lead flier, driving the other away. Marv took it down before it could escape his field of fire. The second Banshee exploded in a fireball as Marina began pulling up at uncomfortably fast speeds. I strapped myself in and gripped my weapon tightly.
"I've got a Seraph tailing me!" she warned. "Hold on!"
The G-forces that followed were enough to make my stomach churn. Marv let go of the gun, but he had harnessed himself in when Marina gave out a warning. His body thrashed before slamming into the rooftop, where he managed to grab onto the netting. Marina spun her Pelican one more time before stabilizing it and breaking. It was a horrible sensation, especially when the ship was fully vertical. She rolled on the horizontal axis so that we were upside down and then spun a couple of times before hitting the thrusters. I heard the missile pods firing and soon after the rumbling of the forward cannon.
"I've got a blip on our six," Marina announced, all cool and collected.
"Marv!"
He let go and landed on the floor in a three-point stance. He grabbed the gun and started looking for something to fire at, but we had made it up into the clouds and the darkness wasn't helping.
"I see it!" Snark shouted. "At your three, around twenty degrees!"
Marv began firing even as he moved the gun, letting the tracers light up the night sky as they coursed through the clouds. Soon enough he pinpointed the Banshee chasing us and had it putting out smoke in a few seconds. The pilot disengaged and took off before he could destroy it, but it assured our survival.
"Marina, where are we?" I asked.
"Not where we want to," she answered. "Shit, I'm heading to ground level, we're out in the open here."
Even that simple task wasn't simple. Two AA torpedoes had to be avoided and we were almost caught in a flak explosion before Marina finally managed to get below the buildings and stabilize our altitude at about one hundred feet from the ground.
"What now?" Crow asked.
"We stick to the plan," I said. "It'll be slow, but we'll get there."
Marina flew slowly, flanking damaged buildings and occasionally speeding up in order to avoid shoulder-mounted rockets. The spaceport was pretty distant, but we couldn't afford to move higher and faster. Even then we were making good progress, but the buildings crowded around us and the turns left us exposed at the intersections.
"Captain Flatt made it to the spaceport," Grass said suddenly. "Captain Nezarian's team was with her."
"What's their status?" I asked. They were the only team remaining in the once-great AAG.
"They're at about thirty percent," Grass said. "Not good. Nezarian is still alive, though."
"Then they're doing better than we are," Lady said.
Nobody argued with her, the more time that passed the more likely it was that my best friend was dead.
"Pavs, I'm getting transmissions from a Marine platoon," Marina shouted from the cockpit. "They're fortifying an apartment building."
"We can't stop for them," I replied. "The spaceport is our best shot at making it through the next day."
"I'm getting more transmissions… heavy Covenant presence in front and to our left," Grass informed us. "Looks like they're making a move for the spaceport."
"Fuck," I cursed.
I knew my family was first in line to evacuate, but it didn't hurt to confirm if they had made it out. After the first dozen ships the Covenant had started shooting down the others with ground-based weaponry. It wasn't enough that they torched the place, they wanted to slaughter everyone here too.
"Alright, stop with the Marines," I ordered. "Might as well bunker down."
"Understood," Marina said, turning the Pelican to a narrow side street and decreasing her altitude.
"Now what?" Lady asked.
"We wait," I told her. "Now we wait."
"Snark, tell me we're good."
There was silence on the other end of the line. "I couldn't get them all."
"Shit. We're made," I announced. "We best get ready!"
There was a collective groan from my men and the rag tag bunch of Marines, soldiers, and even Air Force personnel. They all cocked the bolts on their rifles and started moving towards their designated defensive positions. Out of the two hundred fifty men we had Snark was our only sniper. There were more designated marksmen, but no SRS-99 rifles. I wanted to blame him for letting that patrol get away, but I knew it wasn't his fault. At least not entirely his.
"Do we have a plan two?" Grigori asked me quietly, checking the magazine on his carbine.
I nodded. "Marina's sticking with us. Some of the Hornet pilots are going to hang back in case they need to evacuate."
"So what, we save like twenty two people tops?" he asked.
"Tops," I confirmed. "It's better than making a useless last stand here."
"I hate free-for-alls," Caboose grunted.
"We usually win at those," I reminded him, heaving my heavy machine gun.
"And then we can be kings ruling over this pile of rubble."
I sighed. He was right.
"Let's go," I ordered. "Don't want to be late to the party."
"And Frank?"
I looked down and tapped my foot twice.
"He's dead, Grigori. We all know it."
He looked at me and sighed. It was the closest to sad I had ever seen him to sadness. It made me feel like giving up.
"Alright," he said.
"That was my last rocket!" Bee shouted. "Cover me!"
"Covering fire!" I yelled, firing my machine gun and letting everybody join me.
Bee rushed through the narrow street, throwing his missile launcher to the side and pulling out his assault rifle. He fired blindly, aiming over his head as needles shattered at his feet. Tank reached out and yanked him into cover, slamming him into the wall. Snark fired twice at a brute that had gone berserk, needing both shots to take the crazed beast out.
"I'm running low, Gunny," he informed me.
"Prioritize targets," I ordered.
"We're way past that."
I growled. "How's the west flank?"
"Army guys are holding," Grass said, "But they're getting hit hard."
"Did they take care of their Daemons?"
"It's not the tanks," she said. "Covvies moved a plasma cannon unit to their sector."
"Tank! I need you and Marv to provide some support to the Army guys!"
"On it, Gunny!" he shouted, letting Bee cover his spot.
Marv slid back behind a small debris trench and started running back behind the relative safety of the apartment complex. I strafed two grunt squads to keep them from firing as my men exposed themselves. Two grunts died in the barrage, but the rest of the covvies had us outnumbered. Unless we could come up with a quick solution to that one surviving Daemon we'd need to pull out the Hornets. Those were our hidden aces, nobody wanted to reveal those just yet.
"Marines are falling back to their second line!" Grass announced. "They've got two Locusts!"
"What?" I asked. "Fuck! I can't spare any more men."
"Pavel, I'm bringing the Hornets out," Grass said. "Or we're losing the whole platoon right now."
"Do it," I told her. "This is about to get worse."
Brute after brute came in to replace those that had died. Grunts and jackals stepped over the bodies of their dead comrades without slowing down. They were heavily packed before the small gap in between us and them, needing deployable covers to link their positions together into a line of sorts. We had gotten by with Snark's sniper work, targeting chieftains and captains and letting the lower ranked brutes fight for the leadership, but there were just too many covvies waiting for the word to go. If they rushed we'd have to fall back inside the buildings.
"Gunny, any tips for taking out the Daemon?" Marv asked.
"Daemons have sensors right next to the barrel," Grass answered for me. "They're self-healing, but if you keep them down for long enough we might get a shot."
"You're the boss-lady," Marv said.
"We could do with Hoff right about now," I said to myself.
"Why is that?" Andrea asked me.
"You remember his arm, don't you?"
She chuckled a little bit. "Grenade into the barrel?"
"He could nail that shot at forty yards nine times out of ten," I said. "And that's confirmed."
"Miss that guy," Andrea admitted. "I miss them all."
"Don't get all weepy on me," Miri told her. "Not now."
"Miranda taking the initiative," Andy said. "I like it."
"Chyeah," Miri scoffed, killing a jackal.
A minute later I ordered my men to fall back into our second line.
"This is not going well, Grass," I told her.
"The Hornets just took out the Locusts," she said. "That's gonna earn some attention."
"This is attrition," I said. "Pure and simple. We don't have the materiel to win this."
"What are you suggesting?"
"Wait for a lull," I told her. "Marina and the Hornets get packed up with people and blast their way through their perimeter. Hover for twenty seconds, killing anything that moves and buying time for the rest of the guys to make a run for it."
"You're telling me that you want a hundred and forty men, some of them wounded, to try and break through the siege. On foot."
"The wounded stay," I told her. "We can rig the place to collapse."
"We can put the wounded on the Pelican," she began.
"And take them where?" I asked her. "How many wounded do we have? That can't move."
"Ten."
"Criticals?"
"In current conditions?" she asked. "Three."
"Alright, so it's only seven men I'm leaving to die," I told her. "Spread the word."
"Pavel, it's too early to-"
"Which is why we have the best chance now," I said. "Begin preparations."
There was a brief pause. "Right away."
I sighed. She knew it just as well as I did. If we held out for longer we would get more casualties and would still need to attempt a last minute charge to escape. If we did it right now it would be a lot more likely that we would succeed and more men would make it past the siege to fight another day. It seemed brutal, risking heavy casualties and leaving behind the wounded as death traps, but it was the best solution. Either we lose a high percentage of our men now, in the space of one minute, or we lose almost all of them over the next two hours. It was math, pure and simple.
We're close to home.
Yeah, I answered to myself.
I began wondering whether it would be a viable option to make a move to my neighborhood. It was a lot closer here, and it was in all likelihood in the direction where we would attempt to break through. The artillery barrage had destroyed anything there and made it tactically useless. It was still a strategic location, but you might as well just try and take the surrounding neighborhoods. Besides, the UNSC had given up on that particular point of interest when they ordered it firebombed. We might even see if we could find Frank's body.
I could feel my eyes watering.
"Goddammit, Frank," I muttered, clenching my fist. "I can't throw away lives like you do."
It was true. The lost lives weighed heavily upon Frank, but he wasn't wired like the rest of us, he could live through it. Already I was beginning to wonder whether those seven men that I would force to remain behind had families that were expecting them back.
They probably did. We all had families.
Even Frank, had his brother. Fuck, now I'd have to track him down.
"They all said yes," Grass checked in. "Not a lot of arguing."
"They're not idiots," I said. "And neither are you."
"Doesn't mean I have to like it," she said, a bit snappishly too.
"Just be ready," I told her. "We're going to be heading to my old house."
"Figured. Any ideas?"
"There's the old subway station," I told her. "It should be at least partially covered by debris, so it will make a nice hiding spot."
"And the tunnels?" she asked me.
"We'll save some explosives."
"I don't think we can spare many. We're bringing three buildings down as it is."
"Frank was good at that kind of thing, wasn't he?" I asked her.
"So was Angel for that matter. Even better than Frank."
I laughed. "Few people are better than Frank at anything."
"Makes me feel special," Snark cut in.
I shook my head. "Just be ready to evacuate, alright?"
Six minutes later we got our opening. I was hopping into Marina's Pelican just as the Hornets began emptying their missile reserves on the enemy positions. All our surviving men rushed out in a crazy charge. The sheer audacity of it had the covvies confused for the first few seconds, buying time for the men at the front of the rush to make it to their positions and open up on them. The enemies on our sides caught up soon and began opening fire on their exposed flanks. I did my best to suppress any enemy fire from the Pelican, but even with the Anvil missiles and the two Hornets giving it everything they had we couldn't stop every alien from firing. When all was said and done we had lost eighty-seven men, over half our number.
"Let's go," I said to Marina. "They're good to go, it's an hour long trip to the subway station."
I looked at the line of dead bodies trailing all the way back to the apartment complex as Marina sped off. I clenched my eyes shut after they disappeared behind a building. Almost ninety men had died so that fifty could make it out. It was a good trade. It was the best trade we could've gotten under these circumstances. There was no way I could've saved them all, or even more than fifty. People looking back on this would call my decision a smart one, the only decision that could've been taken. It was that or risk worse casualties. No other option.
The sound of the explosives going off reached my ears a few seconds later, dull and muted by the distance.
Maybe we could come across Frank and Pitcher, get some closure. Yeah, some closure would be nice.
Thanks to Colonel-Commissar2468 and General TheDyingTitan for proofreading this chapter.
Sorry for the delay, but I've been busier than expected in real life. I'll try to be a bit quicker, but I can't promise you guys anything. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. A bit different, wasn't it.
Still haven't gotten closure on that cliffhanger... Like you don't know what's going to be the outcome.
Members of the AAG-7 that are still alive: Frank, Pavel, Caboose, Bumblebee, Snark, Serge, Miranda, Marvin, Andrea, Dotsenko, Crow, Tank, Lady, and Longworth. Tell me who your favorites are and they might survive. Or not, I guess it depends on my mood.
Stay strong.
-casquis