The Life

by casquis

The Great War was a long one, millions made it, more didn't. Frank is an ODST, a human just like us, that has managed to survive the most grueling battles for years. With so much experience under his belt he has some amazing stories to tell. This are the life stories of an immature, not-all-in-there, and talented Marine just living, fighting, and being plain badass during the war.

212. Hoc Habet

Chapter CCXII: Hoc Habet

August 30, 2552 (UNSC Calendar)/

Viery Territory, Reach, Epsilon Eridani Territory

---

"Vae victis."- Brennus

---

I paced around the back of the Pelican nervously. I had been high on victory a few hours ago, we had just made it safely through the worst meat grinder in the history of warfare and came out on top, but it looked like it was going to be for nothing. The orbital defense generators were likely targets and hard to defend.

"We're ten minutes out," Marina's voice echoed through the silent compartment.

Bee's death had finally hit us all.

"Ready," I muttered. "We're headed towards ODG Facility A-331 and will be working to defend it. There's a-"

"Frank, I've got Grass and Admiral Whitcomb," Marina interrupted.

"Danforth Whitcomb?" I asked.

"The one and only," Marina replied.

"Patch them through."

"Admiral, pleasure," I greeted. "What can I do for you?"

"I'll be brief, Lieutenant," a vaguely familiar gruff voice replied. "Your friend here has briefed me on your team's qualifications and expertise. I find myself in need of a unit to pick up very important materiel."

I nodded slowly. "Sir, we're en route to defend an ODG right now, I'm not sure what could be important enough that-"

"Listen son, it is more important," he cut me off. "Besides, Miss Seppa tells me that you were en route to A-331."

"That is correct, Admiral," I said.

"Well, the unit I sent to gather the materiel had to go to A-331, so you have that covered."

There was an explosion in the background.

"Sir, what about yourself?" I asked.

"I'll survive this," Whitcomb assured me.

"Understood admiral, we'll secure that materiel."

"That you will, El-tee, I'll send additional instructions your way."

With that he signed off.

"What the hell was that, Grass?" I asked angrily. "What the hell is Whitcomb doing asking us to secure his pet project?"

"Sorry Frank," she said. "Wait, didn't he pin a medal on you?"

"That was fifteen years ago," I said dismissively. "He doesn't even know who I am. That doesn't matter. What the hell, Grass?"

"Frank, HIGHCOM was hit. No survivors."

"Shit. Does that mean Whitcomb is the ranking officer on the planet?" I asked her. "A fucking vice admiral in our military hub? Fuck that."

I could see Grass rolling her eyes. "Alright, his pet project, as you called it, is actually pretty important. Ever heard of a NOVA bomb?"

"What, Starship Troopers? Bee would be proud."

"Frank…"

I sighed. "Yeah, the name rings a bell. Might've seen a folder with that codeword on it. What is it?"

"Well, it's basically the same thing that the Nova bomb in Starship Troopers is," Grass said.

I paused. "A planet cracker? We have a viable planet cracker? Do you know what that means?"

"Of course I know what that means!" she exclaimed. "It means that if we can deploy those in space we can change the tide of the battle in a matter of instants."

"Those? As in more than one?"

"That is correct. Your job is to secure them. There are Covenant units near the ONI facility they're housed in and you know that those are like catnip for them.

They'll definitely make a move on them."

"We'll hold them off," I assured her. "Any chance we can still win this I'll take."

"Good luck, Frank," she said. "This is important."

No shit.

"I might be meeting you there later," she went on. "To… help handle matters."

"Yes ma'am," I said very sarcastically. "Over and out."

"What was that all about?" Marina asked me.

"Top secret shit," I grunted. "They want us help move some nukes that can turn the tide of the battle."

"And this is actually legit?"

I nodded. "I don't think Whitcomb is the kind to lie to himself like that. At least from what I've heard of the man."

"Great strategist, isn't he?" Marina asked. "Kinda sucks for him that he'll never outdo Admiral Cole."

"May he rest in peace," I interjected briefly.

"Or Lord Hood for that matter," Marina went on without a pause. "Well, he can rest knowing that he was the third best officer the UNSC Navy had to offer."

"Officer? I asked, "maybe just admiral. There are plenty of lower-ranking officers around."

"If you say so," she shrugged. "Ok, I just got the new coordinates. Should be twenty minutes."

The Pelican tilted a little bit as she corrected her course and we sped through Reach's sky, breaking the sound barrier. We only flew for seventeen minutes before the cockpit started blaring with dozens of different alarms as we were targeted with lasers, radar, and an endless amount of rays on all ends of the light spectrum. I could recognize the alarm that told us we were being targeted as well as the one that said we already had torpedoes on our trail.

"Buckle up!" Marina shouted. "Now!"

I dashed for an empty seat, only just making it before she banked up as hard as she could. I was slammed into the wall, with my leg hitting Lady's recently concussed head. I barely heard her complaining before the aircraft jerked violently, this time from a direct impact.

"What the hell was that, Marina?" Pavel asked. "Marina?"

"Right wing," she replied. "Shut up."

I could feel us falling slightly to our right, but we hadn't slowed down the slightest. We began spinning suddenly and the edge of my vision began growing dark as the g-forces started hurting the blood flow to my head. We stopped spinning suddenly and slowed down abruptly before dropping. I couldn't see the ground from the small window in the rear hatch, so there was absolutely no point of reference other than the sky. My helmet banged against the wall behind me and I finally had enough consciousness to buckle my upper body completely. The aircraft was shaking violently from the impact we had taken, but the twists and turns that Marina was pulling off were completely insane.

"What the hell is going on out there?" Crow asked, on the verge of panic.

He almost got an answer when a small explosion took out half the rear hatch. The explosive decompression yanked one of the empty ammunition boxes from the webbing on the ceiling and hit Dotsenko, knocking him out cold.

"Hold him!" I shouted. "Make sure he stays there!"

I could see dozens of tiny torpedoes following us at alarming speeds. They seemed to be circling each other for some sort of dramatic effect that nobody ever got to see. Chaff and specially designed debris was flying out of the Pelican's tail section. Some of the small torpedoes flew at those, hitting them and exploding harmlessly, but still more came at us. The smaller ones were joined by bigger torpedoes that zoomed at us even faster, but before I could see anything else Marina began doing her fancy shit again and I struggled just to keep my eyes inside their sockets.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck," someone shouted.

"Calm your shit!" I heard myself scream.

Things started getting loud, the wind flowed in through the hole in the back and soon enough there were other smaller holes in the floor and ceiling of the Pelican too. The Covenants rarely used AAA, but when they did it was almost as deadly as their torpedoes. I opened my eyes and focused for long enough to see that none of my men had been hit. Grass was screaming something into my ear, but an explosion drowned out her words. A section of the Pelican's tail was torn from the rest of the craft and soon we were careening towards the ground.

"Marina!" I shouted.

"Lost both rear thrusters," she called out perfectly calm. "Right wing thruster is damaged and nonresponsive. I can land us."

She was lying.

I had known her for over fifteen years and she was lying through her teeth. I don't know why she lied, but Marina was scared and that was something that never happened when she was piloting her Pelican.

I had known fear before, hell, I practically lived in that state. I had learned to embrace that fear and push it deep back into the corner of my mind. I would constantly fear death, failure, or seeing my friends and family killed. It was something that I was used to, but for some reason this moment hit me hard. I felt myself shaking even despite the Pelican tumbling down.

Marina was doing her best, she was using the left wing thruster at full capacity in order to slow down our fall. If we came down we had a higher chance of survival at an angle. The troop bay of the Pelican was built much like a roll cage, the walls and floor might shred, but it would remain structurally solid under all but the worst of impacts. With us strapped down as we were, we were more likely to survive a violent impact if we rolled instead of just slammed down.

The Pelican was moving almost sideways, I could picture Marina straining to hold the craft in place despite the various alarms and warning that told her she was compromising the ship. The fucking Pelican was already completely useless.

"Prepare for impact!" Marina called out, her voice still perfectly calm. "Eight hundred meters! Seven, six hundred!"

The speed at which we were falling slowed down a little bit if her warnings were anything to go by, but it didn't seem like it would be enough.

"Impa-"

A loud noise cut Marina off and I felt myself jerking violently forward. The straps securing my upper body were torn from the Pelican's wall and I felt the belt around my waist dig in hard before I lost any notion of what was up and what was down. I felt a flailing arm hit my neck and then something collide against my chest, pushing my head back into the wall. I tried opening my eyes and all I saw was my men struggling to hold on to their straps before another spin sent my head into the back of the Pelican and everything went black.

---

I came back soon. Couldn't have been more than thirty seconds. The Pelican was still rocking gently. My hearing came back first. I could hear the sound of fuel or coolant leaking as well as the crackling of sparks and flames. As I slowly regained my vision I got up. I was concussed as fuck.

"Belt," I told myself.

The last thing I expected was to fall into the Pelican's ceiling when I unbuckled myself, but that impact made me regain at least some of my orientation.

"Fuck," I said.

My ears started hurting from all the noise and before I could know it I felt bile rising up my throat. I barely had enough time to pull my helmet upwards before throwing up all over my chest and arm. I groaned with disgust and spat twice more before rolling in my stomach and looking up. All of my men were still strapped to their seats except for Serge, who appeared to have been thrown off the buckles.

"Anyone up?" I managed to slur.

"Present," Lady said weakly. "I can't feel my legs."

"Try wiggling," I said.

She did and I saw them move.

"You're good," I told her.

I moved slowly, pushing myself to one knee and then putting myself on my feet. The world seemed to twist and turn and the Pelican being upside down didn't help. I slowly moved towards Lady and helped her climb down. She was anything but gracious as she made her way down. There was a little bit of blood coming from her calf, but I thought it prudent not to make a big deal of it, especially if she hadn't done the same already.

"Check on Serge," I ordered. "Wait for the rest to wake up."

She nodded and got to her feet. Bitch that she might have been, she was still firmly in the top 200 deadliest human beings in the galaxy. Lady steadied herself and moved her arms experimentally before making sure that her pistol was still on her thigh and then moved to the back to get Serge.

I moved in the opposite direction, towards Marina.

The cockpit was dark, the glass was almost completely covered by dirt and the lights that usually illuminated it were all dark. I turned on my helmet flashlights and ducked before moving inside, stepping on the ballistic glass cockpit. Marina was not moving, but she was still firmly strapped to her chair.

"Frank, is that you?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said.

I moved a bit closer only to see that one of the bars that crossed the cockpit windows had broken from its frame and had dug straight through the middle of her chest, coming back out the other side of the seat.

"Shit, huh?"

"Shit," I agreed, trying to keep tears from forming in my eyes. "I'll get you out in a moment."

"No you won't," she said. "We have no power tools to cut this with. It went through my heart, at least partially."

"Does it hurt?" I asked her.

"Like a motherfucker," she managed.

"I'll miss you."

"Odds are we'll meet in a couple of days."

I shook my head. "I don't think we're going to the same place."

She looked at me. "You're better than you think."

I shook my head again. "Don't go. You can't leave me here."

She laughed, it was a surreal and almost harmonious sound. "As a matter of fact I can. It is in my job description. We drop you off and leave. You know the motto."

"We deliver," I said.

"We de-"

And then she was gone. Fifteen years of my life gone just like that.

Her helmet was still on her head, but the visor had been slid up. At least she had closed her eyes halfway through the conversation. The last thing I would've wanted was to have to look into those eyes as I closed them.

"Lady, give me a sitrep," I called out, my voice hoarse.

"Everyone's alive," she said. "Serge is still unconscious and everyone else is coming to."

"I need you to scout out and establish a safe zone."

"Is Marina…"

"Go outside," I repeated.

I looked at her dead body for a few seconds. There was no way that I could get her body out without any power tools. I pressed my eyes shut hard before taking a deep breath and reaching for her neck. It was hard, especially when I felt her skin through my gloves. Hundreds of memories hit me at once and then they all seemed to just vanish when I yanked her dogtags.

Just another number. Another KIA.

"Alright," I muttered to myself. "Alright, alright."

"Frank," Pavel greeted me at the entrance to the cockpit. "You ok?"

I nodded. "Want to pay your respects?"

He looked at me for a second before ducking underneath the entrance and disappearing inside the cockpit. I looked at a shaken up Caboose, who managed to focus long enough to gently shake his head at me. He had respected Marina as a pilot and a colleague, but she had never been his friend. The rest of the guys hadn't gotten to know her too well, most of them just thought of her as our pilot ever since we got here. It had only been about a month for them.

"Who are the most able right now?" I asked.

Marv and Longworth threw their hands up, prompting me to roll up my eyes. They were so annoyingly good at everything they did that sometimes I wondered if everyone else saw me like that.

"I want you two to move out with Lady and establish a perimeter. Dotsenko and Crow, drag Serge to the edge. Andy, think you can man the machine gun?"

"If I can flip it sideways then it'll be fine," she said weakly.

"Miri, how are you feeling?"

"Weak," she admitted. "I… I… damn."

"How far are we from the ONI facility?" I asked.

"I'm looking that up right now," Snark chimed in, cradling his ruined SRS between his hands. "Five clicks. She got us close… Sir, mind if I-"

"Go ahead," I told him, gesturing towards the cockpit. "Grass, Grass, do you copy? This is Lieutenant Castillo, AAG-7, does anyone copy?"

There was only static.

"Try the backups," Andy suggested.

"This is Lieutenant Castillo, AAG-7, does anyone copy? I repeat, this is Lieutenant Francisco Cas-"

"Frank!"

"Grass, that you?" I asked. "Grass?"

"Frank, you're coming through, but I can't hear you!"

"Grass, you're a bit patchy," I replied "You're patchy. Grass? Can you- Grass!"

"…ment!"

I waited.

"Frank?"

"Better," I told her. "Some static there. We were shot down. Marina is KIA, one wounded, unconscious. A few concussions but we should be ready for action soon."

"Copy that, Frank. I'm sending a relief team from the ONI facility, they should be there within ten minutes. Sorry about Marina, she was a good friend to us all."

"Yeah," I told her. "Tell the relief team to bring something for concussions and headaches. We can't afford to go through the symptoms right now."

"Will do," she said. "Frank, I'll need to talk to you in three or four hours, alright? It's important."

"Understood," I replied. "Thanks for the assist."

"So we're getting help?" Crow asked.

"We are," I confirmed. "Ten minutes."

At that point the concussion really started hitting me. It felt unusual, almost like I was drunk and couldn't completely focus, but at the same time I had one of the most horrible headaches that I had ever had. I'd have to be scanned for confirmation that my brain wasn't swelling. The rest of my men were in similar shape, some slightly better than me and Miri was plain funny to look at.

"Sir, three Warthogs," Lady reported.

"Signal them," I said. "They're getting us out."

A minute later a duo of bag-eyed Marines jumped into our wrecked Pelican and helped us out. Outside we were assisted by a civilian doctor. The man seemed tired, but he didn't appear nervous at all to be treating us here in the open. I wondered what kind of stuff he had witnessed already. All of us were scanned and then given some pills from orange prescription bottles. Civilian bottles.

"What are those?" Snark asked.

"New thing," the doctor said. "Designed specifically for gravball and football athletes. You give it to them after a hard hit to the head and it tricks the brain into reducing the swelling. Really quite fancy."

I grabbed a couple of pills and eyed them before swallowing them.

"How do they work?" Dotsenko asked. It had been a while since I had last heard him speak without being prompted to.

The doctor smiled and waited for my gunner to swallow the pills. "Nanobots."

I winced and tightened my jaw, knowing that tiny little robots were racing towards my head. That was the last place I wanted nanobots.

"Fuck," Lady muttered, making involuntary gagging noises.

"Calm down," I muttered despite my own misgivings. "Everyone on a 'Hog, we still have our own part to play."

"The pills should do their thing in five minutes. After that you're scot free, maybe some residual headaches over the next two days."

"I'll take it," Pavel said.

"Sir, the pilot?" one of the Marines asked.

"Dead," I said.

"Should we take the body?"

I shook my head. "She'll be fine."

"Yes, sir."

I hopped on board the closest Warthog's passenger seat and looked at the Pelican, eyeing the white inscription naming it Little Lamb.

---

The ONI facility had been hit recently. Nothing too bad, concentrated Banshee bombardment near the main gate and some minor artillery damage all around that same side. The two towers on either side of the gate had been almost demolished, but they still stood high enough that they'd provide a decent vantage point. Unlike Mendez Base, this place was built into the mountains around it, which meant that we had a pretty respectable high ground to three of our sides. I could see the crash site of the Pelican, in the small valley below. It didn't take an expert to tell that Marina getting us there and making all of us survive that shitstorm had taken skill beyond anything normal.

"We're not prepared to deal with a large scale assault," the Marine driver told me. "There's just two platoons assigned here and we received heavy casualties during the opening bombardment. They targeted us almost exclusively."

"Were you all clustered at the towers?" I asked.

She nodded. "Bad tactical decision. It cost us."

"What about the packages?"

"They're large, Lieutenant. Most of them were several clicks underground in armored bunkers. Not that those would do any good if the rumors are true."

"Don't worry," I said. "The only way those will explode is if someone makes them."

"I know," she said. "I'm worried someone will decide that's a good idea."

She had a good point.

"Do you have any details on how they're going to be moved?" I asked. "This wasn't supposed to be our job."

"We're working on moving a small fleet of Elephants up here. Air transports are too risky and the warheads are too large for anything smaller than a Pod or two Albatrosses."

"One warhead per Elephant?" I asked. "Those things must be huge!"

"They are," she said. "And the road is too narrow for two Elephants, so it'll be one up and one down for the last ten kilometers."

"That'll be slow going," I muttered. "Will your unit be evacuating?" I asked.

She nodded slowly. "Halfway through. Captain mentioned something about us pulling out before he was killed."

"I'll talk to command, make sure," I told her. "Otherwise we're good for now."

"Yes, sir. This should be your stop."

"Thanks. Pavel, get everyone in defensive positions. I want Snark watching that valley and a guarantee that nobody will climb up that cliff."

"Right away," he replied. "You heard him! Spread out, Dotsenko, you get that tower!"

My men spread out rapidly and I began moving towards the base's entrance. There was a large building built outside the rock face, but there was also a large cave right next to it, perfectly round and very evidently not natural. At the edge of the cave stood a single, massive, silver cylinder. It was the largest nuclear device that I had ever seen, and I had seen explosives with yields of 500 Megatons.

I whistled and crossed my arms.

"She's a beauty, isn't she?" a man in a lab coat said as he approached me. "Nine nuclear fusion warheads of the highest yield-"

"Highest yield?" I asked, cutting his info dump halfway through.

"Oh yes, they use a very complicated process that allows their yield to exceed ten teratons, give or take a couple. Anyways, the warheads are encased in lithium triteride."

"Is that a real thing?" I asked.

"We made it one," the scientist went on, unfazed. "The material contains the blast for just a split second and then multiplies it a hundredfold."

"Are you talking petatons here?" I asked.

He nodded.

Suddenly I felt the urge to get on the nearest spaceship and dip. Not just the planet, the whole system.

"Awesome, aren't they?" he asked. "In the biblical sense of the word."

"Awe inspiring indeed," I said. "Has one ever been used?"

He shook his head. "No."

"Well doc, that might change soon."

"How did you know I was a doctor?" he asked.

"You seem to be the scientist in charge of a top secret ONI project, if you don't have several PhDs I will shoot myself in the foot."

"Well, looks like you won't have to do that."

"Are there any other members of your team still here?" I asked him.

"No, all of them evacuated a few hours ago."

"Why are you still here then?"

"Someone has to see the handling of these babies," he replied simply. "I'll be the last man out. Or thirteenth to last if your men will go after me."

"Thirteenth to last, huh?" I asked, looking at my men.

"Were there more than twelve of you?" he asked.

"We were twenty a month ago."

"I'm sorry," he said. "My family was in New Alexandria."

"Did they-"

"No, their transport ship was shot down," he sighed sadly. "I might be joining them soon, but I'll make sure I get all these puppies shipped out and ready for action. I even wrote my wife and kids' names on a few of them."

"Nice touch," I noted. "If these… puppies, are nearly as destructive as I think they are, they'll be well avenged."

"That's pretty much all I can do now," he admitted. "Anyways, let's talk about happier things. Like how to operate the carts and cranes that will move the bombs. They are mostly automated, but our AI went offline, so we can expect some glitches."

I nodded and listened as he explained the operation of the complicated pieces of equipment in detail. It was enough of a distraction that I didn't think of Marina once until the first Elephant arrived in the base.

"Alright, let's make this fast!" I shouted. I barked some orders to my men while the massive bomb slowly moved forward. The Elephant buckled under the weight of the explosive, but it turned around in the center of the base before heading back down the road. The first bomb had been moved up without a hitch. Despite the initial success, I could tell that the following ones wouldn't be as easy; what limited recon we had available to us was easy to read. The regiments that were attacking ODG Facility A-331 had splintered off some platoons and they were fanning out in our direction. It wouldn't be tough for us here in the base, but the Elephants might run into some trouble.

The next Elephant showed up, this time with three soldiers on board. Each was manning one of the machine guns in the front or sides. They eyed the explosive as it was lowered into the vehicles and then made sure that their weapons were good to go as the Elephant turned back around and headed down the mountain road.

"How much longer?" Pavel asked me.

"We might get three of those off if we're lucky," I replied. "After that the Elephants are going to be harassed. I might assign Snark and Miri to climb down and up as guard duty."

"On foot?"

"Nah, on board the Elephants, they can make the switch down the road."

Pavel hummed for a bit. "I guess it's better than nothing. What about an attack here?"

"They don't have the numbers," I said. "Not yet. Unless those regiments decided they want to give us some shit, we'll be fine."

True to my expectations the next two NOVAs were moved without any major incidents, but I was beginning to pick up distress signals. After the breather that Esztergom had provided, we were now once again desperately falling back. I was behind our own lines, but the main battle sites were getting closer and closer by the minute. Already I could see massive fires in the distance, lighting up the sky behind the mountains. So far no Covenant ships were moving into position, but if the ODGs were knocked offline then that'd change soon.

"I hope the Navy is giving them hell," Crow muttered.

"They are," Pavel assured him. "They always do."

The next Elephant showed up amidst plasma and gunfire. The left side was full of black scorch marks and chips where needles had hit, but the three men manning the guns were alive and well.

"Snark, Miranda, you're on guard duty," I ordered. "Up and down."

The two of them rushed through the base and climbed on board the Elephant just as the next Nova bomb was placed there. The vehicle slowly rumbled past me and I waved a salute at my men in there, who nodded back. It didn't take more than a couple of minutes for plasma fire to reach my ears, quickly followed by a loud bang from Snark's rifle.

"Sir, you've got a squad of elites headed up the road," Snark checked in. "Be ready."

"Dotsenko, that's you," I told him. "Longworth, help him dispatch them."

They waited a little bit too much for my comfort, but the elites were tricked into thinking that the base was abandoned. Once they were close Dotsenko fired on them draining their shields and killing half of them before Longworth had to jump in with the assist. The elites weren't typically this sloppy, but something told me that we wouldn't get a break like this one again. The road up here had no cover to speak of and there were no trees in the vicinity, but the next time they came they wouldn't expose themselves like that.

"You bet your ass they won't."

I turned to look at Schitzo.

And here I thought you were gone…

"You know better than that," he sighed. "Nobody in your life is really gone unless they're dead. Me, your mother, Layla… your brother."

I have no brother.

"Whatever works," he shrugged. "Heads up."

"Get down!"

It was a heavy shell, there was no other possibility. The explosion threw me back before I could jump down. It tore a massive chunk of the cliff face and nearly blocked the entrance to the cave. There was still a way out for the NOVAs, but it had been awfully close to making this whole mission a failure. A second later another shell landed in the middle of the facility's courtyard, nearly killing the doctor.

"Where's it coming from?" I asked. "Grass, Grass, do you copy?"

"Shit… I'm working on it. Keep your heads down."

The bombardment went down for ten solid minutes while Grass took care of it. It was fortunate that the gunners were targeting the base itself almost exclusively. The entrance to the cave remained unblocked and untargeted and the courtyard only received two more impacts. I wondered why the gunners behind that artillery piece weren't hitting the road up to the base in order to block the road. It seemed pretty plausible that the elites just wanted to kill the survivors in order to get themselves a little piece of glory, but in all likelihood they hadn't really noticed the Novas being moved into the Elephants.

"You should be good," Grass said. "Relatively speaking, there are three Spirit dropships moving at you."

"Bee. Shit. Who's got rockets?" I asked.

"That'd be me," Crow replied. "What do you need?"

"We have three Spirits inbound, I want at least one of them dead before it gets here."

"Consider it done, lieutenant."

Crow was no artist like Bee, but he got the lead Spirit to crash down a click away from our position. The other two responded with a barrage of plasma on his position, heating up the rocks around him as he took cover. Small arms fire peppered the dropships as they approached, but they didn't seem affected at all. One of them circled around the base before dropping a platoon of troops right in our midst while the other one instead dropped its troops near the entrance.

"Don't let them take the gate!" I shouted. "Pavel, it's on you and Sasha!"

"We'll handle them," he said. "Just cover our backs."

"Everyone, on me!" I ordered. "Doc, stay down!"

The enemy was fast, taking cover in the craters and moving towards the caves. Longworth and I hit the ones running towards the cave before they made it, stopping them from entrenching themselves and disrupting the machines that moved the bombs. An elite in white armor commanded this platoon, barking orders in that piss poor excuse for a language. I targeted it almost exclusively, but being ugly didn't mean you were a bad fighter.

The Covenant inside the base outnumbered us and we didn't have the luxury of our machine guns. However, we had them nearly surrounded and also had the advantage of high ground and defensive positions. The craters provided cover, but they also meant that they were trapped in there. Slowly but surely we bagan killing them, starting with careless grunts and then graduating to elites and jackals. The platoon was almost eradicated after five minutes.

"We're nearly there," Snark radioed in. "Just a bit more and I'll have the platoon outside within range."

"About time," Pavel growled. "We can't get around those rocks."

The sounds of my man's sniper rifle was clearly heard in the back of my head, but the surviving covvies inside the base were beginning to get desperate, taking bigger risks. One of the Marines got hit in the back of the leg as he moved to a flanking position. Serge only managed to drag him behind cover before a plasma grenade nearly killed them both.

"Come on!" Marv growled, frustrated.

We started liberally using grenades by that point. It took a lot more than I would've liked but a few minutes later we were all moving towards the main gate and helping finish off the enemy platoon. They had been trapped between out gates and the Elephant, meaning that they had absolutely no place to run. Despite their disadvantageous situation they didn't give up. They couldn't give up. We wouldn't have let them.

"Get the next bomb up," I said briskly. "Grass, we're going to need more bang."

"I know," she replied. "I'm doing the best I can, things are deteriorating very quickly Frank…"

"Is that what you wanted to talk about?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "Flatt and I got a way out of the planet for your team. The UNSC Obsidian."

"Sounds like a prowler," I said.

"Stealth frigate," she corrected. "Basically a big prowler."

"Where is it?"

"It's planetside, for repairs," she said. "Flatt knows the captain, they can get us out."

"How long?"

"Before the day is over," Grass said.

"And the battle? How's it looking?" I asked.

"We've lost, Frank. The battle is all but over."

I sighed softly. "We'll finish this one."

"Just what I thought," she said. "I'll arrange for a Pelican with extra supplies to head there. Might throw in a little gift too."

"Thanks. Over and out."

The day was only halfway done at this point, and even despite the orange color in the distance, it was still a clear and beautiful day that hid the chaos that was going on outside the atmosphere. A lone cloud colored the sky. There was smoke and dust impeding my vision, but if you looked up at just the right angle you would not be able to tell that you were in the middle of a warzone.

"Next Elephant," Pavel said. "Move it around!"

The Nova was placed on the vehicle just like the ones that had come before it. It seemed almost routine except for the scorch marks in one side. The next ones would show up with the same damage on them, and it would only get worse from there.

"What did Grass want to talk about?" Pavel asked.

"Our way out of the planet," I said calmly. "Battle is lost, all that's left is to bloody their noses."

"I won't settle for anything less than braking their knees."

"That's what I like to hear," I told him. "Either way, Grass and Flatt got us a stealth frigate, the UNSC Obsidian. Heard of it?"

"Nah," he shook his at me across the base. "Probably one of those fancy hybrids."

"Should have viable prowler technology at least," I said. "Grass will confirm more later."

"Now what?"

"What do you mean what?" I asked. "We fight, we kill, we enjoy ourselves a little bit. Same as we always do."

"And then?"

"Hopefully, we'll meet the girls at Earth, otherwise we're going to have to track them down to whatever colony they went to."

"What makes you think we're headed for Earth after this?"

"Home plate baby, that's the last stop."

"It's been a while," he muttered. "Too many years."

"More for me," I said in agreement. "The closest I've been to it was during bootcamp. Mars."

"It'll be sweet," he sighed. "I haven't seen my parents in years. My mom is going to kill me."

"I…"

"What are you going to do?" he asked. "Are you visiting?"

"What's the point?" I asked. "I haven't seen my mom in over thirty five years. It's just going to make me depressed."

"Whatever you do," Pavel began. "Just don't fuck it up."

"And here I thought you were going to say something sweet, you fuck."

Pavel chuckled and made an obscene gesture at me before reloading his machine gun. The rest of the guys looked in my direction, but by this point they were used to Pavel and I having private conversations. Caboose and Snark knew that we were talking about things that really weren't any of their business, or we were talking about things that concerned their lives. There really was nothing in the middle when we made our conversations private.

"Sir, Lieutenant," the doc came up to me. "Not to sound like an untrained and inexperienced civilian, but how much longer is that going to take?"

"As long as it has to, sir," I told him. "My job is to make sure these NOVAs get out of this place and wherever Command wants them to go."

"Off of the planet, most likely," the man said.

"You never told me your name, doc."

"Doc will do," he said. "Everyone calls me that."

"Doc it is then. You should've gotten out when you had the chance."

"Misguided feeling of duty?" he asked. "I'm not the only civilian that stayed either."

"The actual doctor," I nodded. "The one with the nanobots."

"He gave you those?" Doc asked. "Damn, weird shit, huh?"

"Yeah," I agreed. "My head doesn't hurt at all."

He smiled. "Technology."

"Tell me about it," I muttered, looking at the next Nova bomb making its way up the cave entrance. "Listen Doc, get you and your other real doctor buddy to safety, you are not needed here at this moment. Any wounded we have will be sent your way. Our medics can handle the rest."

"Alright then."

"We'll keep you safe," I promised.

---

"One more!" Marv shouted. He had begun shouting more often during battle. I don't know whether that marked the beginning of his mental downfall or something else, but he was as effective a fighter as he had always been.

He was right, however. There was one more Nova bomb to move. One more Elephant transport to protect and we would be good. We had done an excellent job, a job that wouldn't have been possible without the four platoons that were sent here as reinforcements or the toys that Grass brought with her. I had been surprised to see her in the Pelican. I had been more surprised by the fact that Sam Fightmaster had been piloting the Pelican itself. When Grass hopped off the blood tray and pulled back the bolt on her MA5 with a cocky smile, I just about creamed my pants.

Kidding.

"Get those pods over here!" I ordered. "Crow, double time it. Now!"

"How the fuck did they sneak a Scarab in here?" someone cursed.

"Fire right!"

"Left, left!"

Snark's shots rang out, only a faint boom above a multitude of similar noises. The courtyard was covered with Covenant corpses, but there were more than enough dead humans in there as well. I fired a long burst at a grunt, hitting it in the leg and waist. It struggled to move as two other grunts grabbed its arms and began dragging it. I let them take a couple of steps before switching to single fire and tapping them in the back of the head. The grunts were highly trained, disciplined and brave, however, that made them predictable. It meant that they had survived a few battles together and would not abandon comrades to their deaths. Unfortunately for them, they were still grunts, and that meant that I was a million times more skilled than any of them could ever hope to be.

"Bang, bang," Schitzo shouted. "Motherfucker!"

I rolled my eyes before diving from one crater into a pile of sandbags. Longworth was just a few feet from me and gave me a nod. I nodded back and he fired three shots from his BR55. I shuffled into a more comfortable position and fired onto the hunters moving up the trail. The Elephant was already inside and Andrea was working to lower the Nova manually. By manually I mean she was using a crane, but she had to operate it.

"Get me some heavy fire on those hunters!"

Our heavy fire consisted of several HMG machine guns, but we couldn't afford to expose our most valuable weapons while there was a Scarab slowly moving up the valley. We would have to take it out before even considering letting the Elephant make the trip down. It was easier said than done when the thing self-repaired every time we took down their legs. The Scarab kept moving forward, firing on our lines every time its gun cooled down.

"I've got a shot lined up," Crow called out. "I'm going to need some suppression!"

"We'll provide," Dotsenko called back out. "Give the word!"

Shit was getting loud. I could begin to feel my reflexes slowing down a little bit. It was too much distraction for perfect concentration. These things got to you. This, and the battle in Esztergom.

"Shit, shit, shit."

I didn't even know who was saying what by this point.

"Grass, what's the deadline?" Caboose asked.

"Deadline is as soon as we take out that Scarab we can move our asses!" she shouted back, firing at a pair of jackals. "Take those hunters out!"

"Fire, fire, fire!"

I popped up and fired with the rest of the men and women in this line. Most of those people were Marines from the reinforcement platoons, but nobody had any heavy weapons. The hunters simply crouched behind their massive metal shields and took the punishment like champs. The fire volume was enough that they had to slow down, however. I aimed at the exposed bits and pieces of armor. Everybody did, we weren't amateurs or idiots here. The hunters could normally trust their armor, but they had both taken a few grenades during the tortuous climb up the road. It wound down to just how good the armor protecting their feet was. Turned out it wasn't good enough to take that many bullets. The closest hunter suddenly stumbled as its leg armor gave up and a few dozen bullets destroyed the eels underneath. A second later it fell on its face and exposed the fleshy orange neck, where several well-trained Marines then proceeded to put bullets into.

Then the other one roared and things got simultaneously intense and easier.

It fired on our positions, disregarding its own safety. Here is when things became matter of luck. It didn't target me, which meant I didn't get killed. It burned three Marines before it was put down, but the damage to our lines was done and the covvies behind were now rushing, using the various pieces of vehicle debris for cover.

"Three hours ago this place was almost beautiful," Lady complained.

"Three hours ago you were still a bitch," Snark reminded her.

Lady would've replied, but the cliff face in front of us exploded as the Scarab fired its main gun, raining down tons and tons of rock down upon us. A few Marines made a run for it before they were buried alive and the Elephant pilot struggled to move the massive vehicle before its rear was trapped underneath the rock. I saw one girl get hit in the head with a heavy rock before she was buried, but the rest of her squad mates made it alive.

The blast from the Scarab was immediately followed by two squads of elite rangers jumping upon us. We couldn't afford to target them actively and instead provided covering fire as Crow aimed our missile pod. He fired eight missiles in quick succession, five of which hit the Scarab's cannon before the flaps could cover it. The damage was heavy, and it wouldn't be able to self-repair for at least a couple of hours. Now we only had the tail cannon to focus on.

"Don't let them surround us!" Pavel shouted. "Hit the elites, goddamnit!"

The rangers landed amongst us and went to work. They were in a near suicide mission, exposed and surrounded by us, but they had the advantage of shields and superior armor. They began firing upon the closest Marines and a few of my men. I did my best to actively target the ones gunning for members of AAG-7, not even regretting leaving other people to die. Longworth and I brought down three elites in as many seconds, promptly drawing the attention of the rest of the squad. We would've been in trouble had Marv not thrown a grenade in their midst, killing one and wounding the two others.

Dotsenko then finished them off, saving our asses and giving us the opportunity to target the other squad. Things were hot, but we still had a decent chance to get out of here alive.

"We need to get that NOVA moving, Frank," Grass said. "And soon."

"Well, we might want to get that Scarab down first," I shouted.

"Anyone up for boarding action?" Marv asked.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Get some of those jump jets off the elites."

"Wha- seriously?" Lady asked.

"Now!"

A few men moved towards the dead elites and began yanking the jump jets from the armor. It wouldn't have been my first choice under most circumstances, but recent tests had shown that it was possible to commandeer and use those. Grass had certainly taken a crash course on it and I had gone over the paper a few times, but I had certainly never practiced with them. Hopefully the human-made jump jets would be similar enough that I'd know how to handle them.

"Grass, Marv, Caboose, and me," I said. "We'll need to draw in the Scarab a bit more and then jump to our deaths."

"When you put it like that…" Marv sighed.

The jump jets were incredibly big and bulky for our frames. Not to mention heavy. I was certain that at least one of us would overshoot on the first try, but we had no choice if we wanted to take the Scarab. It wouldn't get close enough that we would be able to board it and now that it knew we could hurt it it would be more careful about shooting at us. And everybody was now actively targeting Crow and his missile pod.

"Ready when you are," Grass said.

"I'll make sure to record this," Pavel said. "Andy, you've got a good perspective, make sure everyone can see how they crash and burn to their deaths."

"Will do, Gunny."

"We'll be fine," I assured him. "We always are."

"That's becoming more and more of a lie every time you say it," he muttered.

I shrugged.

"Ready," Caboose said.

"Ready," Marv echoed.

"Ok, Scarab's that way and I assume you all know at least the theory of these jetpacks. Land, clear, destroy. Should be simple," I said, making sure the jetpack was tight enough to my body that I wouldn't suddenly find myself falling down into the hard rocks of the valley floor without a rocket strapped to my back.

"Simple is nev-" Marv didn't finish his sentence, he must've tapped the button that activated the jetpack and found himself flying upwards at an increasingly dangerous speed.

"Cover us!" I shouted, following after him.

My head was pushed to my chest before I could get control of the jetpack. It was way more sensitive to my movement and a light tap would send me a lot further than the UNSC ones, but it was the same concept. We reached the top of our arc and I grabbed my battle rifle with my left hand, controlling my descent with my right. Marv landed first, rolling to absorb some of the shock from the hard impact. The elite jump jet was dislodged from his back a moment later and he opened fire on two grunts and an elite.

I landed on an elite coming up behind Marv, both feet on its back. The elite fell, its rifle dug into its stomach and fired once. The plasma dissipated against the metal floor, but I landed with several thousand pounds of strength on its back. Its armor might've helped absorb some of the shock, but I completely obliterated its back. I cursed myself when I felt my ankle almost giving, but a light tap on the jetpack slowed me down just enough. I turned around and sprayed a jackal and a grunt, sending the grunt tumbling down the side of the Scarab. The jackal bunkered down behind its shield, but I walked towards it and kicked it against the floor before stomping twice.

My helmet marked the location of my allies on the Scarab. We had all landed on the combat platform and were clearing the sides while moving towards the center. We'd have to wait for Caboose to come down to take point. He would shotgun the shit out of the interior and pave the way for us.

"Lower right side clear," Grass called out.

"Working on lower left," I replied.

"Top clear," Caboose said. "Moving to the ramp."

"Front is clear," Marv said. "Joining Caboose."

I fired four quick bursts at an elite moving towards me, the fourth one hit the neck and chest, sending it tumbling down. I almost fell out of the Scarab when the walker moved suddenly, but I managed to hold on to a turret emplacement. I grunted and pushed myself back inside the Scarab before moving towards the ramp, where Marv and Caboose were waiting for me. Grass appeared on the other side and gave me a nod which I then redirected to Caboose.

"Breaching," he said simply, raising his shotgun.

He blasted cartridges into the ramp at least six times in two seconds, firing pretty damn fast. I could tell the difference when the pellets hit metal or flesh, and there was not a single ping coming from the interior of the Scarab. Marv moved second with me third and Grass fourth. We were barely doing any mop up duty, seeing as Caboose handled nearly everything by himself. Marv threw a grenade and that was that.

Once you were inside a Scarab things were easy. A grenade or two and that shit was done. Not that hard at all.

When you talked to a tanker about it he would fume and growl angrily. A single Scarab was worth around ten Scorpions, maybe five if it was one of the smaller ones. A well-trained tanker could take out a small Scarab with just another Scorpion for help, but well-trained often meant experienced and grizzled as well, which meant only veterans of Scarab conflicts would be efficient fighting Scarabs. The thing is, Scarabs didn't often leave survivors, especially if you happened to be in a tank.

"Scarab down," I radioed in to Pavel. "Board the Elephant, that shit's our way out of here."

"Will do," he said. "Shouldn't have trouble fitting everybody in…"

"Silver lining," I replied, equally cynical in my tone. "We'll jump back your way."

My men moved back out, leaving me to set a small brick of explosives on the control panel. I always carried some plastic explosives with me, ever since my young days I had possessed a certain knack for demolitions. Normally I would've shaped all the charges, but Angel was simply magical with them, which meant that I had slackened during the times he was in Reaper, after that I had a multitude of men that were almost as good as I was and could take that role in a dedicated way.

It always felt good to mold that clay into something that would be effective, but today I just had to set it against the wall and the damage would be done.

"And there we go," Schitzo said. "Can I do the honors?"

You're not physically able to hold the detonator.

"A man can dream."

I moved out of the Scarab's interior. Marv and Caboose were already strapping on their jetpacks and were looking eager to go. Grass threw me mine, but just as I reached to catch it a blast threw me to the floor. A second later the Scarab groaned and began toppling sideways. Three Seraphs screamed overhead before hitting the ONI facility with plasma bombs. I grabbed into something and pushed myself to my feet, but the jetpack had disappeared. Suddenly I was tackled by Grass and we were taking off. I hugged her tight, but then found myself going back down towards the ground.

It was a short fall, thankfully, and both Grass and I hit at a good angle. By that I mean that we didn't slam down as hard as we thought we would, but I had the wind knocked out of me and almost blacked out from the pain.

"El-tee, watch out!"

I looked up to see the Scarab sliding through the rock and towards us. I immediately found myself trying to outrun the thing before catching myself for committing the standard action movies error and trying to outrun the rolling rock. I switched to a diagonal run and then jumped sideways when I was near the very end of the Scarab. I looked down to the walker as it slid a few more meters and then finally slowed down.

"Grass?"

"Over here," she coughed. "Close one."

I moved in the direction of her voice and helped pull her up from the ground. The facility was at least eight hundred meters away from us and there were enemies in between. We weren't going to get there and get that NOVA away in time.

"Up for a run?" I asked Grass.

"Do I have an alternative?"

"Nope, I'm giving you a direct order."

She chuckled despite our precarious situation. "You always did like doing that."

We set into a quick run towards the bottom of the valley. There were some shrubs there that would provide concealment. It would be better if we reached them before anyone was smart enough to look at the Scarab and see if there had been any survivors. That's assuming that they weren't still thinking friendly fire had just taken out their most powerful asset.

"Pavel, we're on foot," I said. "We'll meet you later."

"Where?"

"Bottom of the road is tentative first option," I told him. "I'll see if Grass can get Fightmaster to risk his hide and get us earlier."

"Not likely," Grass chimed in. "He's supposed to pick up AAG-7 and take them to the Obsidian."

"Alright then, I'll figure something out," I said finally, watching as the Elephant slowly rolled down the distant road, plasma peppering its sides. "I always do."

"Hurry up, Frank," Pavel growled. "I mean it."

"I will," I promised. "Come on, Cam. We don't want to be left behind."

"Nope. Not at all."

---

"Twenty clicks," I said. "That's the distance we have to cover."

"Over mountain terrain," Grass added, heaving heavily. "We don't have the time, Frank."

I nodded. She was right. The mountains had been covered with Covenant units trying to hunt down human survivors for the past two hours. We had been forced to cease any radio contact with my team after they left Camp Independence, leaving one of the NOVAs in Vice Admiral Whitcomb's possession. Why the man would want one of those for personal use was beyond me, I had a hard time believing that he would detonate it even in the event of a total loss against the Covenant, but I wasn't in any position to question him.

"Our fleet's gone by now," Grass went on as we settled into a fast jog. "Gone gone."

"Think the Obsidian will wait?" I asked her.

"They will," she said. "But they're a stealth frigate, not a prowler. Their stealth systems aren't nearly as effective as those. At some point they're going to have to bail."

"And we don't have the time to make the journey on foot," I repeated. "We need a vehicle."

"Nothing but wilderness between us and the ship," she told me. "We know that."

"We'll come across something," I said, not really believing my own words.

Two minutes later something came across us. Grass was nearly decapitated by an elite, but she dropped just in time for the energy sword to miss her. I fired at the recently uncloaked elite, hitting it with two bursts before it camouflaged again and disappeared. Grass got up and pressed her back against mine, raising her assault rifle and cursing in three different Slavic languages.

"Shh," I hissed.

We heard the stomping of hooves and turned towards the sound. I fired as soon as I saw the shimmering, with Grass following my lead. The elite seemed surprised to have been made so early, but it charged on nonetheless. I kicked Grass whilst simultaneously pushing myself out of the way of the charging elite. We both spun and shot at its back, killing it.

"Keep moving," I said, pulling Grass back to her feet. "It's not alone."

In our haste we almost left the cover of the forest and fell down a sudden drop in the terrain. I stopped myself and jumped behind a tree. Several elites and grunts were climbing the rocky ascent towards our direction, leaving behind a Daemon tank and a few jackals to protect it.

"Something came along, eh?" Grass said.

"Can you drive that?" I asked.

"Yes."

Now we had the matter of taking out two platoons and disabling the crew of the tank without rendering it useless. They made things too easy for us.

"Grenade?" I asked her.

"Just two left."

"One for me," I muttered. "Alright, here goes."

I grabbed the grenade and threw it as hard as possible, going through the short trees and hopefully escaping the notice of the Covenant. With my added strength it should've gone at least seventy meters, maybe a little bit less. The grenade detonated far away from our position, giving the Covenant another sound to move towards. Grass and I patiently waited for a few very tense seconds while the covvies slowly changed their direction and began speeding towards the detonation, hoping to catch us with our pants down.

That left four jackals and an elite guarding the Daemon tank. It should be simple enough.

"You take the two on the left," I said quietly. "I'll hit the elite first."

"Roger that," Grass acknowledged, pressing a fresh magazine into her rifle. "What about the tank?"

"Front hatch is open," I pointed out. "Fire everything you have into it. Try and avoid hitting the console."

"Easier said than done," she muttered. "Tanks are cramped… Ready?"

"Ready," I said. "On my lead."

I zeroed in on the elite leading the jackals and then squeezed the trigger. I moved out of cover before firing again and was running downhill as I fired my third and fourth bursts. The last one knocked the elite down, where a quick follow-up burst killed it. Grass had taken out two jackals in the same amount of time and was moving her rifle to hit a third one. I fired at the remaining bird, hitting it in the chest, going through the thin armor like it was paper. The infantry protecting the Daemon were gone, but we still had a tank to contend with. Those weren't usually easy to kill, but fortunately, we weren't trying to destroy this one.

"I'm taking the hatch!" Grass shouted, jumping at the tank. "Cover me!"

I slowed myself down a little bit before jumping up to the rear section of the Daemon and slowly climbing. The driver realized something was up and began moving, but I already had a good grip and could move to the top of the turret. Grass began firing into the open hatch, keeping her armored boot as a safeguard to keep it from closing. I grabbed the top hatch and pulled; surprisingly enough, it opened. I mentally shrugged before firing into it, targeting the elite gunner. It tried to draw a plasma pistol, but there was no way for it to survive.

I grabbed it by the armpits and pulled it out with some effort before hopping in. I had no idea how to control the turret, but in here I was protected up to my chest and could duck under cover at any time.

"Frank, there's still an elite in there!" Grass warned.

"What? Shit."

I looked down and saw that the turret was connected to the main body of the tank. One dead elite was slumped over in its seat, but another one was pressed tightly against a wall, out of Grass' reach and aiming a plasma pistol up the hatch to keep her from getting the angle she needed to kill it. The elite saw me at the same time I saw it. We both fired at each other, but my bullets hit first, throwing its aim off. Despite the minor advantage it was pretty much impossible to miss, and a plasma bolt caught me right above the left knee before I could take out the elite.

"Shit. Cocksucker!"

I growled and sat down, clutching the wound, putting pressure on the area around it. The pain was intense, but I swallowed it down with another growl and pushed myself back to my feet after grabbing my battle rifle.

"Frank, you ok?"

"I'm fine," I said. "Get this shit moving!"

"I'm putting out the turret."

"What?"

Before she could explain herself a small compartment opened up and a plasma cannon appeared next to the hatch. I raised an eyebrow, wondering why someone would keep the cannon under cover as opposed to just leaving it up at all times, but instead of asking I simply clutched the twin grips and aimed at the edge of the forest that we had just left. Just in time too, the platoons were just beginning to realize what the hell had happened and were rushing to defend the tank.

I fired as grunts and jackals poured out of cover, the superheated plasma boiled the flesh away from their bones, killing them as fast as they came out. The elites lasted slightly longer with their shields, but the cannon burned through those easily enough. I ducked as the gun overheated, instead bringing up my battle rifle to keep the covvies on their toes.

"Grass!"

"Give me a moment," she shouted back. "Almost got it."

The Daemon had slammed into the ground when Grass killed the elite pilot, but it whirred and came alive once again, floating up and making that familiar humming noise.

"Show time," she said.

The entire turret spun slowly, sending the advancing covvies retreating in order to get away of the blast radius.

"Frank, I'll need you to fire."

"How do I do that?" I asked.

She sent me an image. A diagram of the gunner's station filled with tags of what button did what. I gave it a quick read and rolled my eyes before sitting down in the oversized elite seat. A small screen displayed the ground outside, with a targeting reticle pointing the exact spot where the plasma shell would hit. I waited an extra couple of seconds for Grass to spin the turret and then fired, taking out a whole squad of retreating Covvies.

Empowering.

"I'll need you to personally handle the turret while I drive this thing," Grass said, sending me another diagram. "Should be simple. Like a videogame."

She really wasn't lying. UNSC engineers and designers tried to make everything as easy to handle as possible. Tanks were no exception, they tended to be a lot more complicated than your standard sedan, but everybody in the military could make a Scorpion move without crashing into a building if they had to. Even some swabbies had the training for that. The Covenant appeared to follow a similar mentality when it came to building their tanks. A simple joystick moved the turret and cannon while a smaller one was used for fine-tuning when you needed to hit something that was a few miles away.

I moved it around and experimented with it for a few minutes, leaving Grass to do the driving.

"Ok, from cartographical maps of the area… it should be a fifty click trip around, we have to go through several mountains. No tunnels and only a couple of bridges."

"Do we want to avoid those?" I asked her.

"One of them," she admitted. "The other we might be able to power through."

"Do we have IFF?" I asked. "We could just sneak by."

"Maybe," she said. "They'll try to contact us though. Our translators will do their job, but we don't know Sangheili."

"What if we just speak plain English?" I asked. "Hope that they don't notice it's a translator?"

"And if they notice?"

"We have a tank."

"Better than nothing," Grass said. "Did you know that pound for pound a Scorpion is more powerful than a Daemon?"

"Why don't we make them bigger then?" I asked her.

She chuckled. "Scorpions are pretty massive, Frank. Especially when they're not those lame ones with downsized guns."

I nodded to myself. Lately we had been coming across several Scorpions with 90mm cannons as opposed to the standard bigger ones. Not to say that 90mm of high-tech tungsten weren't appreciated, but if you had to pick between 90 and 140 you would certainly pick the latter. The UNSC was just so massive that it took a very long time to standardize something, not to mention that it was a logistical hell for the bureaucrats too.

I looked at the screens, watching Reach rush past us. The screens on the tank were of incredibly high definition. Nothing that would've made me drool, but they were better than the ones on the Scorpion. Everything was there in high detail with incredibly clarity. It made looking at the landscape just a little bit harder, knowing that in a few hours everything would be burning. It already was hard… seeing the beautiful base hills covered with corpses and craters. We passed hundreds of dead humans, civilian and military alike, in the first few minutes. The Covenant had evidently paid the price, leaving behind countless bodies and wrecked vehicles, but the odds were decidedly against us.

"How can we be outnumbered?" I asked. "Here. In Reach."

"We were always outnumbered," Grass replied. "We're just one race. They're an alliance of many and they're all more advanced than we are. At least as a collective they are… Stories with odds like these don't have happy endings, not in real life."

"So what happens when we lose?" I asked.

I could see Grass shrugged. "It'll take time, eradicating a species is hard work. Earth will not fall without a fight, and maybe someone will escape, hide, and survive."

"And that's that," I muttered. "I dislike this… I do not plan on going out with anything less than a magnificent bang."

Grass laughed. "I wouldn't expect anything less, Frank. And we just might get your chance."

I looked at one of my screens to see that a Scarab, one of the smaller ones, walking slowly in an interception course. I heated up the cannon while Grass tensed up, not changing our direction. Hopefully nobody would think twice of the bloodstains on the side of our Daemon and the infantry on board wouldn't say anything to us.

"We just need to make it to that corner," Grass said. "Once there we should be good."

Silence.

"They're trying to contact us," she sighed. "Here goes."

"Greetings brothers," the deep rumbling voice of an elite came in. "Why is your assault carriage not headed towards the frontlines?"
I looked at Grass. "Sell it."

"Greetings," she replied. "Our main gun was rendered useless by those vermin, we are getting repairs before rushing back to battle."

Silence.

"Of course," the elite replied. "Have a speedy journey."

"Thanks, brother," Grass said, barely able to contain her relief.

A second later a second voice contacted us. I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference, but our translators could. "Brother, the main body of our forces was cut off by the human retreat. If you keep heading in that direction you will have to go through them."

"A challenge!" Grass exclaimed, eyeing me. "Thanks for the warning, brother." She turned towards me. "Ready the cannon."

"If I may ask, what unit are you with?"

Grass said nothing for five seconds.

"Brother?" the elite probed, its voice containing a bit of an edge.

"Apologies, I did not hear your question," she stalled.

I looked at the screens and saw that three elites were standing at the front of the Scarab, eyeing our Daemon as moved towards the next hill and relative safety. The walker's rear gun was now tracking us.

"What unit are you with?" it repeated.

I looked at Grass and nodded.

"Asymmetrical Action Group, Team-7, Office of Naval Intelligence, UNSC."

"Oorah, motherfucker," I added for good measure.

I barely caught the elite's order to fire on us as I spun the turret. I fired at the three elites. They were merely five hundred meters away. Practically knife-range for a tank like this one. The plasma shell hit in their midst, incinerating them all. At the same time Grass strafed sideways, narrowly avoiding the opening of the Scarab's blast, but the rest of the superheated plasma scorched the side of our Daemon. I saw the walker begin to open the flaps covering its main cannon as the rear gun cooled down.

"Come on, come on," I urged my own gun. "Fire, fire, fire!"

I tapped furiously until the shell left, hitting one of the knee joints at a slight angle. The Scarab buckled slightly and we disappeared behind the hill before it could get a second shot off. Evidently, the surviving officers on board the Scarab weren't about to let a measly tank like ours spit in their face and leave. The walker began chasing after us. As fast as we moved, we had to zigzag around the hills, following the road that had been cut through them. The Scarab just plowed through, climbing the steep hills and completely bypassing the short cliffs that deterred us from going in a straight line.

"Got a plan?" Grass asked me.

"You're the tank commander," I deflected. "Hit the knees, that's what we're supposed to do."

"Fuck it," she said. "I'm transmitting on an open channel."

I glanced at the screen that showed the top of the Scarab slowly gaining on us. "We're dead either way," I said with a shrug. "Knock yourself out."

"Transmitting to any and all UNSC units," Grass began. "This is Operative Camilla Seppa with AAG-7. We are currently on a hijacked Daemon tank and have a Scarab on our tail. Is there anybody within range that can provide assistance?"

I knew that even as she spoke every Covenant unit in the area was picking up the unsecured transmission and pinpointing our location. The Scarab would do the same and try that much harder to get to us first.

Grass waited a second before repeating the message with slightly more urgency in her voice.

"Copy that Operative," a scratchy voice came in. "We're going in for the assist."

"Roger, thanks. Can you identify?" Grass asked.

"Team Falcata."

"Well, the world is small indeed," Schitzo noted.

I patched myself into the conversation. "Jonah, is that you?" I asked. "This is Lieutenant Castillo."

"Negative on that, El-tee. Jonah is MIA, this is Eduardo."

"Copy," I said. "Good to hear from you."

"Likewise El-tee. We'll see you in a few."

Despite the assurance of help we didn't stop moving. I kept trying to land a hit on the Scarab while the Grass banked around corners furiously. However, the hills and cliffs weren't eternal, and less than six minutes after we had gone in we came to the end. Grass accelerated, trying to gain as much open ground between us and the Scarab in order to be able to move out of the way of the plasma streams. I turned the turret around and aimed at the walker. My first blast bounced right off the side, hitting above the leg joint. I cursed and aimed again, trying to compensate for our movement and the distance.

"Go right!" I screamed.

The stream hit the ground just to our immediate left and I could feel the entire Daemon tilting sideways as the explosion lifted us. I fired another shot, this one bouncing off the top of the Scarab before detonating against the column that held the rear gun. The shell did almost nothing against the hard armor, leaving a big dent that did us absolutely no good.

"Coming in hard," Eduardo-G271's voice announced.

I barely caught sight of three objects slamming into the top of the Scarab. A few seconds later the walker stopped moving as its energy core was overheated. The Scarab started making loud noises and several aliens jumped off the side, trying to avoid death by incineration. I considered shooting them all with the main cannon, but I remembered that I had a ring-mounted plasma cannon just above me and proceeded to use it.

The range was nearly eight hundred meters, but since every round was a tracer when it came to plasma weaponry, I had relative success. The three Spartans of Team Falcata helped finish the job before signaling to meet up with us. Grass turned the Daemon around and sped towards them while they did the same.

"Good to see you, sir," Eduardo said. "Shame it couldn't be under less dramatic circumstances."

"You did good, kid," I told him. "You and your team. Where's the sniper… Alex?"

"She was hit in the head," he said. "Knocked unconscious. Hasn't woken up yet, but if she's not dead then she'll soldier through it."

"Good, good." I didn't ask about Jonah. "Need a ride?"

"I was just about to ask, sir. We're moving towards the Obsidian. It is my understanding that you are headed there as well?"

"Correct," I confirmed. "Hop on."

I slid back down the hatch, making room for Eduardo to man the weapon that I had just been using. Miranda-G192 climbed down the front hatch and moved the dead elite from its seat, taking the place of what I assumed was the radio operator while Kevin-G111 stood in that same hatch, manning our other heavy plasma cannon. I noticed that the main gun on the Daemon just narrowly went above his head. I wouldn't want to be smacking him every time I moved to aim.

"Grass, let's roll."

We sped again, this time taking full advantage of the small plain in between mountains. Technically speaking we were moving to a different mountain ridge, but the two were so close that it made more sense to consider them one unique geological feature. Reach had some amazing mountain formations, and this wasn't the exception. I looked at the screens that showed the massive mountain in front of us but made sure to pay careful mind to the foothills at the bottom that we'd have to move through before going around the mountain.

"I'm not detecting any aircraft inbound," Miranda said after a while. "We've been cut off from the battle net, but I mapped out the last known location of Covenant forces."

"We'll have to punch through at least two of those," Grass said. "From the information I'm getting here it seems like there's nothing larger than a platoon."

"Think they'll be able to predict our moves?" Eduardo asked.

"Elites aren't dumb," I acknowledged. "But we only have enough time to take the direct route and can't really afford to move through any other road. They are twice as protected as this one."

"True," Eduardo admitted.

"Did you know that tanks were originally invented to bypass enemy trenches and troops?" Grass asked.

I raised an eyebrow. "I'm a bit sketchy on my history, but I'm calling bullshit on that."

"She's right," Eduardo chimed in. "World War One."

I shrugged. "Oh we-"

A heavy shell hit us right in the front. I vaguely registered Kevin ducking before I felt the hit and a blast of heat came in through the open hatches. A second later Eduardo climbed down and sealed the hatch above me as Grass began to strafe sideways at ever changing speeds.

"Where did that come from?" I asked.

"I've got an eye on two Daemons," Miranda-G192 said. "Tagging them."

"I got them," I replied. "Ah shit."

Another shell flew past us, this time nicking our side and hitting the ground behind us, detonating harmlessly. I ignored the blast and aimed at the Daemon on the left, zooming in until it looked like I was no more than twenty meters away. I zoomed back out a little bit so I could see where my shell flew in case I missed. I fired my first shot, the explosive hit. It was a direct hit too, not a glancing shot. I raised an eyebrow in incredulity.

"Minimal drop," Miranda reported. "They are moving towards us at a speed of 42 kilometers per hour. Wind is a negligible factor."

I nodded to myself and fired again at the same time the first enemy Daemon did the same.

Grass couldn't do anything, but the enemy blast missed just as my shot connected. It hit a little bit higher than I had intended it to, but that was a small miracle by itself. The plasma shell lodged itself between the turret and the main body of the tank, detonating viciously and tearing the bearings that let the turret spin apart. The tank could still fire and move, but it couldn't aim. It was, for all intents and purposes, useless.

The other tank was still a threat though, and Grass was forced to turn in order to present it our side. The armor there was marginally weaker, but we couldn't risk another frontal hit, not with the firepower that the Daemons packed. The other gunner fired and hit us dead center. Sparks and fire started coming from my left side, but Eduardo promptly handled those, leaving me to focus on hitting the enemy. I aimed and fired, but out movement threw my aim off and I hit the bottom of the tank. The wind-like structure that houses fuel and thrusters was heavily armored, but not as much as the main body itself. The plasma shell went through most of the armor before exploding, hitting the top of a thruster system. The Daemon was still perfectly serviceable, but the tip of its left side was carving a small groove on the ground and it most definitely tilted sideways.

"We need a solid hit, Frank!" Grass shouted.

"I'm working on it," I grunted, adjusting my aim and calculating for the speed at which we were moving. I fired just as the enemy did the same and braced myself for impact.

Both shells missed by a hair.

"Goddamn," Kevin muttered.

It was a few tense seconds as the Daemon self-loaded a new plasma shell into the cannon. Near silence dominated the interior of our commandeered tank and I can only imagine that the same went for the other one. I had to try my luck and aim for the turret instead of the main body of the other Daemon. I fired, once again it was at the same time as the other Daemon.

"Brace for impact."

We were hit and our screens went blind for a second, not letting me confirm the hit. When they came back online I saw that I had hit my intended target and that the enemy Daemon now had a useless cannon. I whooped before aiming at it again and finishing it off. The other Daemon tank had been struggling to aim at us, but with no way to account for increase or decrease, it had no success. It began turning away to retreat a little bit too late and my shell caught it in the weak rear, tearing through the armor protecting the energy core and exploding the whole thing in a magnificent fireball.

"What's the sitrep?" Grass asked after the second Daemon was down.

"Front and left armor is compromised," I said. "Our left thrusters are only at 50% power, but we can still do a decent speed. Weapons are hot and intact, but I wouldn't recommend presenting our left flank to anything heavier than a plasma repeater."

"Roger that," Grass acknowledged, correcting our course and heading towards a gap between two small, sharpish hills.

We successfully avoided any enemy contact for the next hour and a half. It took hiding and long detours, but we weren't made a single time. Despite our success, time was running short, and it soon became clear that with the amount of Covenant troops on the planet, we wouldn't be able to avoid them all as we approached the shipyard. Especially as we approached the shipyard.

"Eight kilometers from the moment we touch on the highway," Grass said after several minutes of silence. "It's going to be crowded."

"Try moving through the enemy," Eduardo suggested. "Stealth it up."

"At least for a little bit," I said. "Spartans, I need one or two of you outside with your camouflage on. Can you run alongside us?"

"If you keep it at thirty miles we should be able to handle it," Eduardo said.

"Alright, go," I ordered them. "There are handholds on the sides… but you already know that."

Eduardo chuckled. "We make it a point to be experts in all things Covenant."

I nodded and watched as he and Kevin jumped out, their legs becoming almost invisible before they completely left the tank. Miranda moved from her spot at the communications station to the front turret but made sure to keep her head under cover.

"Let's go," I told Grass. "Home stretch."

"Home stretch," she said, assenting. "Moving to thirty miles per hour."

I felt the Daemon accelerate slightly as we began advancing. It was eight kilometers of moving in a straight line. We could manage to move through half of those without being made, holding our fire and completely ignoring any infantry in front of us. Eduardo and Kevin would handle anybody that decided to get too curious about our damaged Daemon. I couldn't see them through the screens, but my helmet identified them as standing directly behind the wings of the tank and just to the side. They must've been running really fast.

The first platoon of Covenant soldiers we encountered let us pass without any comment. Some of the grunts even cheered and pumped their fists up in a decidedly human gesture. I ignored the urge to kill them all and let Grass do the driving. I couldn't hear any of the exterior noise inside the tank, but I knew that the closer we got to the shipyards we'd be in more danger. I didn't want to meet my end taking a rocket from Crow.

"Don't worry," Grass said, as if reading my mind. "We'll make sure they understand what side we are on before we get there."
We advanced slowly, but there were no immediate incidents. We only got into trouble when an elite ultra commanding a squad of rangers stood in the middle of the road raised a hand to stop us. I cursed in Spanish and tightened my fists in preparation for a battle. The ultra moved toward us and jumped on the wind before climbing towards the hatch in the front. Spartan Miranda readied her combat knife.

The ultra opened the door and before it could react it was dragged inside and its throat slit so violently that the head was only secured to the rest of the body by the spine itself. The squad of rangers took a few moments to realize what had happened, and before they could react they were set upon by two invisible enemies. I have to admit that I enjoyed the sight of heads being lopped off and throats being slit.

"Speed up," Eduardo said. "We'll hold onto the tank."

Grass complied and advanced to a speed of fifty miles per hour, or at least whatever the approximate in Covenant units of measure was. It would be a minute before the nearest unit realized what we had done and another few minutes before they managed to pinpoint our Daemon as the perpetrator. By that time we would have hopefully crossed the gates and be on our merry way to Earth.

"Frank, you see them?"

"Yeah, two Daemons and a Wraith," I acknowledged. "They're engaging the outer wall of the shipyard."

"Are we within range?" she asked. She knew damn well we were, she was just asking if I felt confident enough that I would hit them.

"I don't see why not," I replied. "Aiming."

I targeted the armor that protected the power core of the Wraith and did some calculations as to our speed. We were moving straight at them and the Daemon didn't appear to be moving at all. Since there was no change in altitude it should've been a dream shot.

And it was. I might've not been a trained tanker, but I could move a joystick and click a button. The Covenant had designed this to be simple enough for a grunt to handle and it didn't get much simpler than that. The target exploded, the entire main section was turned into a giant fragmentation device, shredding through at least four aliens that were standing within ten meters. The explosion was completely unexpected and I grinned when I realized that the other Daemon and the Wraith hadn't realized where they were getting shot at.

"Alright, round two," I said.

My next shot hit slightly to the left of where I wanted. The Daemon tank could hardly not notice us after that. It began turning its turret and main body in an attempt to shield itself from a second shot, but the Covenant tank couldn't completely forget about the very well-trained forces defending the shipyard. Two SPANKr missiles slammed into the side of the Daemon, leaving it dead in the ground and open for a second shot from my cannon.

Feel free to make a penis joke.

Now our other main threat was the last Wraith.

The mortar tanks of the Covenant, despite their bulky appearance and more than deadly cannon, were relative weaklings when you put them side by side with a Daemon main battle tank. The pilot must've been incredibly confused, and not wanting to expose its vulnerable rear to the defenders, chose to keep firing at them. To be fair to the alien driving that thing, there was absolutely nothing it could've done to survive that situation. Its cannon was dislodged from the main body and flew up at least thirty feet before coming back down with a dull noise.

"One click," Grass announced. "Almost there."

"Infantry units concentrating at the gate," Miranda-G192 said.

"Firing," I replied.

Tiny little alien bodies flew everywhere as I fired the heavy plasma cannon into their midst. Miranda took the opportunity to hop on the front turret and start firing on the infantry as well. A few plasma bolts started flying in our direction, but they were cut down almost immediately. I was willing to bet that the Covenant were hating every second of this more than any Marine ever would. You didn't go into battle expecting your own tanks to start firing at you from behind while going against a veritable fortress.

"Pavel, do you read? This is Grass, Pavel?"

"Copy that, holy shit! We thought you had been cut off!" Pavel shouted. "We're opening the gates!"

So he was alive too. Good news for us.

"Fifty meters," Grass said.

And that's when we were hit. Hard.

The Daemon stopped moving and stalled, hitting the road and digging into it before stopping abruptly. I hit my head against one of the screens, leaving me dazed for a couple of seconds.

"Out, out!" I ordered. "We'll run!"

I climbed out as hurriedly as I could, ignoring the needles that nearly took my head off. I slipped and fell down the front of the tank before hitting the road. I groaned and got to my feet, taking one step before falling on my face. I had magically forgotten about the plasma bolt that had hit me in the leg. I cursed and complained, but Spartan Kevin picked me up and helped me walk. He was carrying most of our weight.

Two plasma shots hit him in the back when we were twenty meters away from the gate, but he kept moving.

"Shoot the bastards," I ordered. "I can walk."

"Yes, sir," Kevin thanked me.

I leaned on my good foot and hopped forward, falling into Andrea and Serge as they rushed out to meet us. They carried me towards the gate while the three Spartans provided deadly covering fire. Grass sped past us and took cover to the side of the gates while Pavel and Dotsenko fired from the defense towers on either side, not letting up one bit.

Then Andrea got hit.

I almost fell down as the support disappeared. Serge soldiered on and pushed me all the way to safety before going back out without pausing for an instant. The three Spartans were forming a triangle around Andrea, killing anything that dared show its head. Serge moved towards Andy, who didn't appear to be moving and had smoke coming out of her back, before taking a glancing hit on the shoulder. He grunted but said nothing as he threw Andy over his shoulders and began the march back.

I was watching all this happen from behind cover, fumbling with my rifle to get it up and help provide covering fire. I screamed like a madman when I saw the blue orb arching towards them. Serge couldn't do anything even as everybody began screaming at them. I barely registered Spartan Eduardo turn his head around and begin moving towards them before the grenade landed right on Andrea's waist.

"No!" Pavel shouted.

The detonation threw Serge twenty feet forward and completely obliterated Andrea in a bloody blue explosion. I cursed in both Spanish and English and moved towards Serge's body before anyone could stop me. He was evidently still alive, but his legs were gone below the knee as was most of his back. I could see his spine and ribs.

"Shit," Schitzo said, turning away from the sight.

"Serge, Serge, can you hear me?" I asked. "Serge!"

He weakly tilted his head to face me. "Merde."

"He's gone, Frank!" Pavel cried. "We have to fall back to the ship. There's a division coming our way."

"Shit, shit, fuck," I cursed, looking in the direction of the explosion crater. "Alright, let's fall back. Close the gates and fall back!"

We started jogging, with Dotsenko helping me move on my injured leg as we abandoned the planet and left behind so many dead friends.

"We're going home, Francisco. We're going home."

---

Thanks to Colonel-Commissar2468 and General TheDyingTitan for proofreading this chapter.

Well, that's that. Reach is past us now and so are several of our beloved characters. I'll let you rant about it in the comments and smile a little bit while I go over them. War is hell, or so I hear. It was hard to kill three guys and get rid of one so suddenly, especially after I had lived with them for two years of my life. I created those characters, in the case of Marv I just gave him personality traits, but everyone else was straight from my imagination. It takes a bit more than you'd expect to just kill of someone, especially if it's not glorious at all.

cew1088: I'm not a big anime watcher, perhaps I've watched about six seasons total, but Jormungand is one of the ones I've watched.

Mike: I "played" cornerback, but for all intents and purposes I warmed the bench.

Fucking Rant: Ah, a Halo purist I see. Personally, I liked Halo 4 and yes, even Spartan Ops. To be honest though, I enjoyed the plot more than the gameplay itself.

Ultimate idiot: Good to hear from you. I feel like you've been with this story for the longest time.

Mobspawner: I added as many vehicles as I dared into this battle, but the Mantis is a post-war creation and Halopedia says that the Lich was so overwhelmingly powerful that it wasn't properly documented until the end of the war because there were rarely any survivors. Plus, it was probably very rare too.

To everyone else who reviews, rest assured that I go over every single one of your words, wether they are nice or not, and they help me be a little better for the next chapter. I'll try and speed up next chapter, but sometimes life gets in the way of my writing. Little side note, you might want to translate the latin title and quote, got them from a quote dictionary my gramps gave to me. Very interesting book.

That'll be all for now I guess. Stay strong.

-casquis