Chapter CCXIX: Foursome
November 2, 2552 (UNSC Calendar)/
Quarantine Zone, Delta Halo [orbiting Substance], Coelest System
"And then there were four."
I could've used some music right about then, if only to distract myself a little bit. I had several days' worth of music stored in my helmet; most of the songs in there were ancient and courtesy of Bee. He had stored a lot of different music in there and I just hadn't been able to bring myself to listen to it since his passing. Some epic songs here and there yes, but not the other lists that he had told me I should listen to. There were some very specific playlists such as "Summer 2017 Hits" and some other vague ones like "Rap-2." With Bee it could be anything. I scrolled through the options while we emerged on the other side.
Surprisingly enough, my boots crunched down on a layer of snow.
"Great," Longworth muttered.
Nobody else voiced their annoyance, but I did sigh a little bit louder than usual before hopping on the Warthog and slowly rolling forward. I had expected at least a little bit of respite, but the Flood wasn't about to give us an inch. Dozens of infection forms came from all directions, surprising a few unprepared Marines before we returned fire. No combat forms yet, but it was only a matter of time until we came across those. I kept one hand on the wheel and the other on the butt of my pistol. The lack of a windshield meant that both Snark and I felt more exposed than we would've liked, but it doesn't get any more exposed than a Warthog when it comes down to vehicles.
I looked back at the two trucks and confirmed that they were not being attacked just yet before I resumed my slow advance. Johnson was barking orders like crazy and Keyes kept an impassive face. I wondered whether she was cold, but then I remembered that naval officers get incredibly fancy uniforms that control the body temperature. Her face would be a bit cold, but the rest of her considerably attractive body would be just fine. Johnson's squad wasn't as close to Keyes as mine was, but they were very obviously protecting her, standing in a semi-circle and providing a wall of flesh between her and any would-be attacker.
"Commander, maybe you'd like a Marine uniform?" I suggested. "You stand out."
Keyes looked in my direction but kept moving forward.
"There's no time to stop," she replied.
"As you wish ma'am," I said, shrugging to Snark who just shrugged back.
"There they come!" Johnson shouted. "Give them a taste of lead!"
The shrieks were frightening. Very frightening. I shivered and it was bad enough that I knew Snark had spotted it. It wasn't because of the cold. Caboose spooled the machine gun and began firing on the assaulters, joining the rest of the Marines. Several combat forms fell after we opened fire, but the survivors returned fire in a mixture of plasma and gunfire. I heard a few rounds ping off the hood of our 'Hog and saw others scorch it. I kept an impassive face, but several Marines had been hit in the barrage. We were out in the open and didn't have the best of cover.
I cursed when I saw rockets and green fuel rods flying towards a Scorpion, but it was too late. The explosives hit and did exactly what they were designed to. The turret flew up and sideways as the ammo cooked up.
"Snark!"
He fired his rifle, hitting at least one of the two combat forms that fired, but the other one slid back into cover before he could hit. Snark cursed at the missed opportunity as well as the pain in the back of his neck. Caboose fired at the Flood. I drove forward, staying close to Keyes and Johnson.
"Shit, they're blocking our way," I said. "Johnson!"
"I see them!" he replied. "Stacker, Banks, this one's on you!"
The two lead squads began moving forward, opening a path through the ocean of Flood forms trying to eat them.
"Proceed to the objective, we'll hold out as long as we can!" Stacker shouted, firing at a carrier form. The creature exploded and sent a single infection form flying at Stacker. "Get it off me!" he shouted, dropping his rifle
"Suppressive fire, suppressive fire!" Sergeant Banks ordered his men.
Keyes started running, with Crow and Lady keeping pace with her easily. She looked ridiculously small next to either of my men, but particularly Crow. I suddenly realized that we were not doing too well, the Flood was outnumbering us heavily now.
"Doorway!" I shouted as soon as I spotted it. The terrain became hostile, turning into two walls that narrowed until they came together at a doorway, making this whole area a sealed sector. "Get to it!"
Our forces moved forward, with Banks and Stacker keeping the Flood from getting too close. Our tanks helped, but the Flood didn't seem to be afraid of them and they were now targeting them with shoulder-mounted weaponry. It was only through luck and Snark's eyes that we kept all of our tanks as they moved towards and through the door. One by one I saw the Marines make their way past.
"Johnson, take her for now," I said.
Keyes and Johnson disappeared through the giant doorway, as did most of my men. I kept the Warthog near the door, but provided covering fire, hopping out to aim my battle rifle with more ease. Snark shot down combat forms, hitting the red tendrils with every shot. I wasn't as accurate as he was, missing more than I would've liked as the Flood jumped around. Sergeant Stacker and Sergeant Banks' squads began falling back slowly, firing at carefully timed intervals so that everybody could reload.
Suddenly a barrage of plasma flew our way, killing four of Banks' men and two of Stacker's. I nearly lost my head, but I fired back.
"Are those Covenant?" Keyes asked.
"Negative ma'am! They are not Covenant!" Stacker replied.
Combat and infection forms started jumping down the wall and behind the Marines. To my surprise, they moved towards the doorway and not to the exposed men.
"Cover that doorway!" I shouted at Caboose.
He turned his whole body and fired at the oncoming group, heavily thinning their tanks but exposing the battered two squads to the larger group. I was forced to abandon them and join Caboose, leaving only Snark to protect them. Normally it would've been more than enough, but the infection forms were a factor that we weren't used to, and if they got to you it usually meant that you were dead. Snark had been miraculously saved, but obviously he wasn't in top shape and the wound in his neck was much deeper than we had first thought.
I glanced at him. He was in pain.
"Snark?"
"It hurts, El-tee, more than before."
"We'll take a look when we can," I said. "Bear through it."
"Not like I have much of a choice," he growled.
Combat forms came at us by the dozens, concentrating on the Scorpions and jumping in massive leaps that made it nearly impossible to target them. We only had two flamethrowers, but the men manning those were the victims of a disproportionate amount of attention. They could only fire briefly before they were forced to dive for cover. We were doing a fairly decent job at keeping them safe, but we couldn't keep them like that forever, especially if they killed more of our tanks.
"Johnson, we can't take this much longer," I said. "We need a new strategy."
A Scorpion blew up as if to drive my point across.
"Understood," Johnson growled.
It was no longer just us, the Covenant had entered the race a little bit late, but they were there. I could hear Wraiths firing and other heavy plasma weaponry. If it had been firing on us it might've been the Flood, but that battle was taking place away from us, over the cliffs, perhaps a mile or two to our side. I saw several blue orbs streak upwards and collide with a Sentinel ship. I say ship because it looked like a ship and was floating several hundred meters above the surface. The whole thing came crashing down in flames to our right before exploding.
"The Covenant will divert some of the attention from us," Keyes said. "We have to keep moving forward!"
"Ma'am," I began. "I really must protest."
"Duly noted," she replied. "Move forward!"
The Marines cried out, voices hoarse and tired, but they complied. Many left cover to push forward, getting shot in the process. Nonetheless our advance proved to be fruitful as we pushed the Flood back and finally came into open ground. Open ground is almost a literal saying here, as the area that we came into was full of holes that apparently had no bottom. Rock arches acted as bridges, connecting several of them.
"There's a structure on the other side!" Grass called out.
"That's our objective then," I replied. "Move, ah shit!"
Brute spikes hit the seat next to my head, hot and glowing. I ducked as more spikes flew my way, failing to hit the interior of the Warthog.
"Are those Flood?" I asked.
"Negative!" Caboose shouted back. "We've got brutes!"
Great.
I had never seen anything like this. A Sentinel would fire at a squad of Marines only for a combat form to knock it down. The Marines would thank the Flood by shooting it dead and would then fall under brute shot fire, diving for cover or being blown up. Our tanks were now wasting ammunition like there was no tomorrow, firing AP rounds into grunts and clusters of infection forms. For many of the tankers there would be no tomorrow.
"Enforcer!"
For a moment all three organic factions redirected their attention at the gigantic robot. A squad of brutes shot down one of its arm-like appendages, exposing themselves for long enough that Snark could kill three of them with well-placed headshots. A squad of Flood forms moved up, firing pistols and plasma rifle at its front shields, making them pulse. One of our tanks aimed up, taking several pulse laser hits in the process before firing and taking out the Enforcer's shields.
Caboose fired at it, joined by at least three different races.
The enforcer went down and Flood forms immediately used its wreckage for cover, firing on one of our front squads.
"Commander, stay down!" Lady shouted, pulling her by the shoulder into the snow.
Keyes tried to get up again, but Dotsenko pushed her face into the snow and fired his SAW one-handed at two brute combat forms that jumped down at their position. He braced for an impact but Lady kicked the brute's waist, knocking it sideways and right into Johnson's crosshairs. A burst was all it took and the empty carcass collapsed.
"Perez! Make sure it can't get back up!"
A Marine ran forward and stomped the brute's head viciously. I heard crunching and cracking as Perez stomped on the dead brute viciously, reducing the torso to a gory mess. Standard operating procedure, it seemed.
"Commander, maybe it's best if you hop on the Warthog," Johnson suggested.
Keyes seemed unsure, but after a moment she nodded and began heading towards us, moving from cover to cover with my two men right behind her. They stopped behind a boulder away from us.
"Go," Dotsenko told her, popping to provide covering fire.
Lady began moving with her, but a combat form landed on her back, pushing into the ground.
"Shit," Snark muttered.
The combat form was about to kill Lady when Snark popped the little tendrils in its chest, but three more landed next to it and began chasing Keyes. Dotsenko turned around just in time to avoid a swipe and roll away. Snark popped one target right before it got to Keyes and then fired twice at another just as it jumped. I pulled my pistol out when I saw that it was going to land in the Warthog. It came down on the hood, rocking us forward. I fired at it, but it was putting its clawed arm in front for protection. Snark inched backwards, but he instinctively recoiled forward as his injured neck pressed against the seat.
The human combat form swiped at him. The blow was hard enough that it tore him from the Warthog and into the snow headfirst. I didn't hear a crack, but I could feel it.
Caboose and I opened up at the combat form, hitting it with enough lead to leave it useless for anything other than… well, useless.
Keyes came at the car right after Dotsenko killed the combat form engaging him and dragged Lady back behind the boulder.
"Caboose, cover me!" I shouted.
I hopped off and began moving towards Snark, but several brute shots fired at me, exploding at my feet and sending me backpedalling before falling on my ass. On the other side I saw Dotsenko steel himself as he sprinted towards Snark, sliding in the snow. Caboose fired at the brutes, killing one or two of them.
"He's dead, sir!"
"Fuck!" I shouted, punching the snow. I punched it again. "Get him over here!"
Dotsenko grabbed Snark's leg and unceremoniously dragged his body through the snow and behind cover.
"The neck," he said. "Broken."
I nodded and gestured for him to be placed in the back of the 'Hog.
"The Flood are not touching him," I said. "Commander, are you alright?"
"I'm alright, Lieutenant."
I nodded. "Lady?"
"Conscious but in pain, might've broken her collarbone."
"Let's pick her up," I said.
We drove across the gap and behind the boulder, where Lady was able to hop into the back of the Warthog by her own power. We stayed there as Johnson's men and my own squad moved sideways to our position, letting the rest of the Marines do the heavy lifting. A Pelican flew, firing its entire payload at enemy infantry in the ground before dropping down a Scorpion tank and taking off like a bat out of hell.
The additional Scorpion allowed the Marines to move to the structure and secure it.
"Snark?" Pavel asked.
"Dead," I said.
Grass turned to look at me. "Really?"
I nodded.
"Shit."
And then there were four. Reaper was dwindling.
"Commander, the door is ours," Johnson said. "We should move."
"Let's go," Keyes said, propping herself up on the Warthog.
And so we moved forward.
Keyes remained silent, but her eyes had a kind of determination that you rarely saw. She was going to get to the Library and do all she had to achieve her objective. Her SMG hadn't been used much, but she had certainly pulled her weight. For a naval officer, that is. Johnson and his men were doing well too, managing to keep up with my own squad. At times it seemed like everybody was trying to keep up with Johnson. The man had a ridiculous accuracy with his battle rifle. I don't think I had seen him miss a shot yet.
I wished he had been closer when Snark was killed, maybe he could've saved him. I should've been able to do that. The combat form was right there, less than a meter in front of me and I hadn't been able to kill it in time.
I clenched my fists around the worn wheel and took a deep breath just as we crossed the next door. Now we were indoors, going through tunnels. I wasn't happy about this, but the Flood would have less maneuvering room and there weren't any vents or other small passageways from which they could go all xenomorph on us.
"I want eyes front and back!" Johnson shouted. "Warthogs in the front and back! Move your asses!"
There were less than a hundred Marines left now. A Scorpion had been left behind to cover the entrance. The man was none too happy about his role, but he would die before any Flood filth made it through the door. We had been decimated and then some, but we were Marines.
"Semper Fi, motherfucker," Schitzo said.
Just in time too.
The hallway in front of us was suddenly crowded with hundreds of little infection forms. Nobody hesitated even for a second and we began popping them and torching them. The sound of gunfire vibrated from the angular walls and back, making this tunnel the loudest little hole in the Halo. Carrier forms and combat forms began pouring in as well, but we didn't slow down. Our lead Warthog took a pounding and the driver was forced to duck behind the dashboard after the passenger was killed, but he kept inching forward, providing cover for the men behind. The Warthog behind and to the side did the same. Two gunners was something very difficult to beat in a narrow hallway, but the dozens of Marines behind them made it all but impossible. The ground I was driving over soon became a bit slippery as it was covered with brown liquid. A few men muttered disgustedly and yet others complained as the smell of burnt fuel from the flamethrower flooded their nostrils.
"There's the exit!" someone shouted.
A little push was all it took to kill the rest of the Flood in the hallway. Just as we began pouring out we heard the sound of the Scorpion firing its main cannon behind us. Johnson cursed and shouted for everyone to hurry. Once we were all out he set two of his men to locking the door. I watched as they struggled to understand the alien mechanism before slapping a universal lock on it. The UNSC device could shut down any electric doors that it was familiar with or understood. Basically it meant that if it could access it then it would be shut down.
The door glowed a faint red.
"Huh," I muttered.
"Technology's a wonderful thing," Johnson said. "Now what are we going to do about that?"
I looked at the massive chasm that was separating us from the library. The cliff had an ominous fog filling it and looked more scary than anything nature would make. There was only about fifty meters of flat ground before the cliff. There was cursing and complaining. I began wondering how many men we could transport on our Pelicans and how dangerous it would be, but a few scouts spotted a structure hidden around a slight bend to our right, only a kilometer away, no hostiles in view.
Yeah right.
"It looks like there's cables of some sort," one of the Marines said.
"Are you sure about that?" Johnson asked her. "Like a gondola?"
"There was a structure that seemed to be separate from the docks."
"So a gondola?"
"Yes, Sergeant Major."
"Then that's where we're going," Keyes said, standing up on the seat in my Warthog. "Let's go, we're short on time!"
Everybody stood up, pushing themselves up from the snowy ground and sighing tiredly. Several Marines left bloodstains where they had been sitting down and more needed help to get up. I couldn't fail but notice that we had lost one of our trucks along with all the dead and wounded that had been thrown on board. The other one was still in working order, but that's being generous.
"One tank, four Warthogs, and a truck that's only good for carrying bodies," Pavel said. "We've been in worse shape, I guess."
"Have we?" Grass asked. "I don't think I recall a situation that comes close to this."
"Reach was bad," Longworth noted.
"Well, so is Earth for that matter," Lady said.
"And the faster we're done here the faster we can get back to fight," I told them. "Focus on the mission."
My men grumbled yessirs and moved forward. Like the rest of the Marines we kept moving. As soon as we made it around the little bend we saw the gondola that the scouts had mentioned. It was large, at least a hundred meters high. I wasn't looking forward to climbing on that thing if it was supposed to move across that canyon of doom.
"Commander," I said as we drove forward. "Can we get the Pelicans to move us across?"
"Johnson's working on it, Lieutenant. The Covenant and Flood have ways to shoot us down so we're evaluating our options."
"Yes ma'am," I said.
"I'm sorry about your man, Lieutenant."
"So am I, Commander. So am I."
I turned my head to look at Lady. She was walking just fine, but her left arm was hanging limply to her side. A medic would've improvised a cast for her, but all of our medics had already been killed. Our battalion had been reduced to a few dozen men. No squad of ODSTs had escaped without casualties and most had suffered over 50% losses. The Marines had fared even worse, with most squads completely obliterated and the survivors forced to fight in ragtag groups full of wounded men.
A Pelican flew overhead. At first I thought it was going to drop supplies or pick up the wounded, but it just kept flying, as if it hadn't seen us. Johnson gave orders for one of his men to train a SPANKr on it and we waited patiently. The Pelican seemed unsure of where to go even as Johnson warned everybody not to make contact.
Then it stopped and hovered in place, turning around. It faced our direction, letting us see its frontal side in all of its glory. Military designers oftentimes made their vehicles as practical and useful as possible, but there was an unspoken rule that called for a design that would make you crap your pants. Our Warthogs were scary-looking, our Scorpions were scary-looking, our Pelicans were no different. They were even scarier when you realized that they had anti-tank missiles and a massive gun that could take out pretty much anything you could produce.
"Fire," Johnson ordered his man.
Three missiles flew forward as two Marines fired. The Pelican strafed sideways and opened fire on us. Its flying was erratic, but nonetheless two Marines were hit by the heavy caliber bullets. Even a glancing impact from one of those would be enough to kill you. The two Marines weren't lucky enough to survive, having been hit in their midsection.
The Pelican received all three impacts to the right wing, taking it out and prompting it to start spiraling down into the ground rapidly.
"Shit," I said. "Flood?"
"Looks like it," Caboose muttered in reply. "Shit."
I hated it when he swore. That's when I knew things were bad.
"Taxman, Taxman, do you copy? Taxman, are you there?"
The channel opened up, but all I heard was gunfire. Shit.
"Taxman!" I repeated.
For a moment there I was thankful Marina was dead. If she wasn't I just knew she would've found herself here and would have to fight those monsters. I didn't want that for her.
"I'm here!" he shouted. "Lieutenant, somebody brought them back! They're in the ship!"
"Fuck, Commander, did you hear that?" I asked Keyes.
"Copy that," she replied, sounding angry. "There's nothing we can do. Damn."
"That's an understatement," I said.
No ship, no way out of this hell.
"Taxman, get out of there," I said. "Tell all Pelican pilots to evacuate."
"I'm not sure there are any pilots left," he said. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, they're closing on my girl."
"Get out of there," I said. "We're going to need your Pelican soon."
"Launching now El-tee, this is bad."
He wasn't losing his cool despite the situation, well, at least his voice seemed calm even when his words were not. I heard some movement and vaguely familiar noises. As I looked up towards the In Amber Clad I saw the grey clouds only just managing to make out the outline of the frigate. I couldn't see anything from here, it certainly didn't appear that the sailors in there were going through a hell that was quite possibly worse than ours as the Flood tried to make it to the bridge. It would've been a tough situation without the Marine complement on board, with all able-bodied men down here… well, it wasn't very likely that we'd find survivors.
"Ma'am," I said.
"First the Library," Keyes replied. "We'll worry about my ship after that."
"Understood."
Taxman reported saying that he would set down away from our position and would fly up when we had reached the gondola. He was our only air asset so far and Keyes didn't feel like risking our only possible way out of this place.
"Sentinels," Caboose growled, spooling the turret. "Sentinels!"
Sentinels indeed. A veritable fleet of them accompanied by three Enforcers. We fired first, but they fired hard. Our Scorpion took out one of the Enforcers before the bulk of the missiles reached it. It got a third shot off and knocked out the shields on a second one before exploding in the fireball. The wounded Marines that had been using it for transports didn't have better luck.
Dozens of beams shot out, hitting men and women as they tried to take cover. Crow hefted his rocket launcher and fired the two missiles at the Enforcer, taking it out before it could fire a second volley of missiles. Only then did we start firing back on the smaller sentinels, trying to get them while they were bulked together and before they got amongst us, making our heavy machine guns as effective as possible. I was left to move around in erratic patterns while Caboose fired the machine gun.
"Get Keyes to safety!" Johnson shouted. "The truck!"
I spun around, the tires slipping in the snow. Caboose grunted at the violent shaking and cursed as a beam burned his arm slightly. He was lucky it wasn't burned off. I sped towards the truck just as a beam melted through the side window and killed the driver, stopping it short. I put the Warthog behind the truck, leaving Caboose a little firing room and hopping off to bolster his firepower.
"Stay behind the tires ma'am," I told Keyes. "We'll handle this."
"Like hell I will," she said, moving to the edge of the truck and firing at the sentinels with her M7 SMG.
I rolled my eyes. "Try to keep your head down ma'am."
My squad was close by, just a couple dozen meters away and taking cover behind a boulder formation. Dotsenko and Pavel were doing most of the heavy lifting, taking out Sentinel formations with sustained fire. They were the only two men left with machine guns in the whole unit and they had to assist every other Marine still alive and fighting.
"Flood!"
I saw the combat forms just as they started coming down. The lead elements of their assault force smashed down the Sentinels closest to us, saving our asses and providing perfect targets. The second wave landed amongst our positions, making a mess of things and throwing our fields of fire completely off.
"Time to get moving!" Johnson shouted. "Let's haul ass!"
I climbed on the passenger side of the truck and shoved the dead Marine out the other side. I'd rather deal with one more Flood form than have all those wounded in the back die. Keyes hopped on the passenger seat and I rolled forward, leaving Caboose exposed. Dotsenko and Crow began moving towards the Warthog in order to get Caboose out of there, but halfway through a blue Sentinel beam fell upon them. Dotsenko was hit, but he put his right arm up and used the prosthetic to block the beam. He cursed as the beam heated the metal but he couldn't move before someone took out the Sentinel. Crow switched to his carbine and did it, but not before the prosthetic arm had been melted off.
"Shit," Dotsenko muttered, examining the metallic stump. "I guess I'm driving."
Crow nodded and pulled him up again. Dotsenko struggled to hold the SAW properly with only one hand, eventually using his shortened metal stump to help aim it up as he ran. He slung it over his shoulder and hopped in the driver's seat. If he couldn't fire from the passenger seat then he was useless, but he could at least drive one handed.
Not the best idea for a combat driver, mind you.
I followed the Warthog, maneuvering the large truck as best as I could. Red beams flew at me and I had to shove Keyes' head under the dashboard to avoid one of them. I swerved hard to the left and almost tipped the truck over to avoid a missile from a combat form. Caboose took the threat out, but more Flood jumped up and landed on the truck.
"Commander!" I shouted, swerving from side to side in order to get rid of them.
She said nothing as she grabbed her SMG and fired at the two combat forms mounted on the hood, spraying brown fluid everywhere. She then leaned out and fired at the roof of the truck, trying to see if she could hit anything. I positioned the truck parallel to the Warthog and Caboose began firing, bullets whizzing right above our heads.
"You're clear!" he shouted.
"Get back in here, Commander!" I told Keyes, dragging her by the belt as Sentinels began firing at us again.
"Lieutenant, watch out!" she shouted.
A Sentinel flew straight at me, nearly crushing me against the seat behind me. I managed to avoid it, but I had to dodge sideways. The only way to go was out of the truck.
Let me put this in context. We were moving at 40 or 50 miles per hour on uneven terrain with an abyss to our left. The door swung open as I dodged the Sentinel battering ram, leaving me hanging above the bottomless pit as the truck kept speeding on snowy ground with no one at the wheel.
"Keyes!" I shouted, forgetting all about protocol.
She reached over the crashed Sentinel and swerved to the right, slamming the door closed and forcing me to open it again. I was now relatively safe, but the truck was slowing down and the Flood was catching up. Most of the Marines were already dead or had made it to the gondolas along with Johnson. I was wondering how they made it there so quickly as I tried to get the piece of wreckage off the driver's seat in order to get there.
"It's stuck!" I shouted.
"Hold the wheel," Keyes ordered.
I reached around the broken windshield and did as I was told. She then began kicking at the Sentinel until she managed to dislodge the metal from the seat and send it tumbling out the window. By that point we had almost slowed down to a complete stop and Dotsenko had stopped the Warthog to provide cover for us. Only one hundred meters to go and we'd be relatively safe behind a defensible position.
"Get in!" Keyes shouted.
I was already flooring the pedal when she finished saying that and my head slammed back against the seat cushion as we accelerated. Caboose fired at the approaching waves of Flood forms as best as he could, but they were beginning to catch up and climb on board of the Warthog. I cursed repeatedly, I couldn't help them.
"Dotsenko, you can't bring those into the dock," I said.
"Understood," he replied. "Crow, Sarge, take them out!"
It's not like they weren't trying, because they were, but there was just no way that they could take out the swarm of creatures that was boarding the Warthog. Dotsenko could barely afford to let go of the wheel to fight off infection forms and Crow was bashing away at the smaller monsters with all his limbs while Caboose filled the bigger ones with lead.
"I can drive the car off the cliff, sir!" Dotsenko said.
"That's hardly necessary, Sasha," I told him.
"Slow down a bit, lure them and drive off the edge. Jump out right before, obviously."
I frowned. Keyes and I were already there. Safe.
"Do it."
"Ok, everybody re-"
I only saw what happened because I was moving towards them to provide covering fire. Dotsenko's body jerked before his head fell on the wheel and the Warthog began moving to the side, slowing down.
"Oh hell no!" Crow shouted.
Dotsenko fell out the side, his body crushed by the rear tire as he landed on the snow. A wave of infection forms hid his body from view.
"Covering fire!" I shouted, "Pavel!"
We opened up, but it was hard to hit anything. The Flood was too close to Caboose and Crow and the Warthog had slowed down too much.
"Shit, shit, shit," I grunted. "Longworth!"
"I'm with you El-tee!" he replied, rushing forward before I even had to order him to do it.
The two of us ran through the snow, firing as we went. Caboose was still dutifully manning the LAAG on the Warthog as Crow tossed infection forms in all possible directions and stomped down on an ever-growing mass of brown. He was firing with his pistol in one hand and the MA5K on the other. A combat form jumped up at him and knocked him down, but a flurry of bullets flew through the Flood form and it went limp, a gigantic mess was all that remained of the midsection.
"I'm dry!" Caboose shouted.
"Get over here!"
"I'll hold them!" Crow screamed, struggling to his feet as dozens of little tendrils slashed and probed through his undersuit, trying to find a way to his skin and through. "Run!"
I saw Crow get to his feet, barely managing to do that under the weight of all the Flood on top of him. He took three steps, firing his pistol at random directions but hitting something every single time. I hated having to look at this, but I knew what was going to happen. I barely saw the first grenade land on the ground next to him. I didn't see the other two he managed to activate, but I did see his body torn into a million pieces as the detonations sent shrapnel flying everywhere, decimating the Flood that had been crowding around him and making a big dent in their numbers. Four combat forms were killed alongside the dozens of infection forms nearby.
Caboose was limping, clutching his side. The bullet injury was still there and wouldn't go away just yet, but my man wouldn't stop fighting until his body gave up. If I knew Grigori, then that wouldn't happen anytime soon.
"Castillo, get back in here!" Johnson shouted.
"Frank! Hurry!"
A wall of lead and depleted uranium covered the three of us as we retreated back to safety, Caboose leaving a trail of blood as Longworth and I helped him move through the snow. We moved past a pair of large Marines flanking the small entrance. My men were manning the waist-high walls that served as a natural defense.
"Did you get Sasha?" I asked Miranda.
She aimed down her sight and shook her head.
"Get him."
She fired.
I nodded as she sighed sadly.
"Load up, Marines!" Johnson shouted. "It's the home stretch!"
Groans abounded, but there were only a few men left to shout. Johnson's squad had only four men now. McKenzie, Perez, a girl named Knight, and Johnson himself. AAG-7 had been reduced to… shit. Seven men.
Shit.
I was still up and running, Pavel, Caboose, Longworth, Miri, and Lady remained as well as Grass. We had Miri as a sharpshooter, but nobody here was a heavy weapons specialist. Pavel could handle suppressing fire, Caboose and Longworth could fight and both Grass and Lady were skilled enough to do what they were needed to. Shit.
"Frank?"
"Yeah?" I asked.
Grass was looking at me, slightly concerned. I looked down at her hand and took the trio of magazines for my battle rifle before taking them and putting them in my empty pouches.
"Hell of a day, eh?" I asked her.
"Yeah," she agreed. "If you had told me zombies were a thing a few hours ago…"
"Bee would've had a blast," I told her.
"Yeah," she said. "I miss him."
"I do too," I admitted.
Grass sighed and checked the ammo counter on her rifle. She shook her head slightly and moved up to a position in the short wall, ready for anything that the universe threw at us. I looked at Pavel, who just gave me a quick nod before returning to his own business. Johnson and Keyes were arguing with each other until finally Johnson relented.
"Lieutenant," he said. "Taxman is on his way to this position. The commander and I will be moving up ahead in the gondola alongside most of the forces we have left. Your men and a few others will remain here, secure our way out. If worst comes to worst, you'll have to pick us up on the other side."
Flying across the canyon didn't seem like a particularly good idea with all the Sentinels going around.
"Anything else?" I asked. I was too tired to point out the imbecility of splitting up in this situation. Any other day it would've made sense, but not today.
"Negative, Lieutenant," Johnson said. "Taxman's got a few crates of ammunition, but that's all there is."
I nodded. We had been burning through ammunition like crazy. Right now we had a surplus of rifles and other weapons taken from dead Marines, but nobody had died without spending more than two thirds of their ammunition. The wounded were working on transferring the bullets to other magazines in order to fill them up and reduce the need to reload. I estimated that with some luck we'd have two thirds of a load with all the ammo that was left. Not enough by a long shot, but with Taxman's drop we might get enough ammo to last several hours.
"Any estimate on how long we'll be waiting?" I asked.
He shook his head. "We're still trying to get this damned thing moving, but you should expect at least an hour of wait."
"Lovely," I said. "You take off as soon as Taxman gets here?"
"Correct," he said, pointing up. "There he comes."
"Intact too," I noted. "Isn't that a thing…"
"Indeed," Johnson agreed. "Frank, I expect you to hold this place at all costs."
"And I expect you to get whatever is so important that you've sacrificed the whole complement on this ship."
He nodded.
"Johnson," I continued. "I have six men to keep alive. If I don't hear from you I'm bailing."
He looked as if he was about to begin chastising me but then he examined the tired, scared, and even crying Marines all around us. "Very well. We'll radio in when we get there, when we get the objective, and on our way back."
"That should do it," I said. "And Johnson?"
"Yeah?"
I offered my hand and he shook it.
"It' has been an honor," I told him.
He laughed. "Ha! I still owe you a second boxing match, don't I? My first victory wasn't overwhelming enough."
I smiled back. "Good luck, Sergeant Major. You're gonna need it."
He nodded, all seriousness now. "First, Third, and Eighth Squads! On your feet! Tonight you become heroes!"
More than half of the men needed help being put back on their feet. Some of them refused to get up, crying and clutching their knees until someone slapped them hard or kicked them. Nobody wanted to go, but in the end even the traumatized Marines knew that they had to get out of here. The few that remained behind at the dock would be the ones fending wave after wave of Flood and Sentinels with a canyon at our backs and nowhere to go.
Not to say their situation was any better, but there were only so many places from which the enemy could jump at their gondola.
Marines moved heavy machine guns to the gondola and set them up around as everyone else took positions. Some carried barricades from the truck and put them in certain weak spots, but for the most part they left the majority of the barricades to our group. We're the ones that needed to turn this place into a fortress. Something that would not happen any time soon, and especially not with our supplies.
"Where do you want everybody?" Pavel asked me.
"I want the truck with its back against the cliff," I said.
"In case we need to drive away?"
"In case we are overwhelmed. I'm not letting the dead be taken by the Flood."
He nodded.
"I want heavy machine gun fire on the top and back. Those walls will pack the Flood tightly if they want to come at us. I still want a dedicated pair of eyes tracing the top in case they make their way up and decide to jump down at us. All grenades should be put in a crate and then spread out along the perimeter. Taxman is coming in and we can use his rear gun to complement our fire. How many men do we have available?"
"Us seven and an ODST squad and a regular squad for a total of twenty," he replied.
"Should be good enough. They can come at us from two places, front through the cliff or our right where we came from. Both directions have little cover for them."
"We couldn't ask for a better killing field," Pavel told me.
I nodded.
"You with me, Pavs?" I asked him.
He smiled and nodded, offering his hand. I clasped it and pressed my shoulder to his, hugging him.
"Always," he replied. "Frank… If anything happens."
I rolled my eyes.
"If anything happens. Take care of them."
"I will," I said. "That's a promise."
"Good, because putting Lavanya through college is gonna be a pain in the ass."
"I'll be sure to break some knees if anyone tries to date her," I said. "But I don't plan on doing that alone."
"Well, hopefully you won't have to," he said, smiling.
"Watch the gap!" someone shouted.
The gondola began moving. I realized only how large that thing was when it distanced itself from us. The thing was over a hundred meters tall and half again as wide. It fit all of our troops there and then some. We could've put a couple of tanks in there and had some space left over. I looked at it as it went away, grinding and scratching as it moved through the old metallic bearings that kept it in place. I also noticed that it was moving with the help of some antigravity device, seeing as there were no cables to which it held onto.
"Hear that?" Pavel said. "Plasma."
"The covvies are catching up," Miranda added. "There's another gondola a few hundred meters further up."
"It's gonna be close…" Longworth declared.
"It'll suck for them when Johnson kicks their asses," Caboose told them. "Now back to your positions."
Twenty men against whatever they threw at us. We'd have to split up evenly, with ten men watching over each side that we could be hit from. The main entrance had high walls on either side that looked like they had once been a tunnel and the side had a cliff and an abyss. Small blessing in a very bad situation.
Screeching and whirring came from the other gondola, far away from us. I climbed up and zoomed into the structure. I spotted an elite or two moving behind a wall before loud screeching and roaring forced me to redirect my attention to the more dangerous enemy. The Flood had presumably taken out the majority of the Sentinels now, seeing as the flying robots hadn't made their presence known for a long time now.
"They're coming on our right flank!"
And coming they were. Dozens of combat forms jumped from the top of the cliff down into the snow that we had come through. I could almost hear the crunching as they came down around the flaming Warthog. The few corpses that hadn't been consumed by the Flood were quickly reanimated by infection forms and joined the assault on our position. Pavel opened up first, quickly followed by everyone else defending the right flank. Taxman raised his Pelican and pivoted so that the rear was facing the attackers. He quickly moved from the cockpit to the rear and began firing with his chaingun, tearing through the fleshy wall that was coming at us.
"Don't let them get within leaping distance!" I shouted. "Combat forms are a priority target, the little ones can wait."
Everyone had enough common sense to do that, but I still felt the need to let them know. The popping noises from the small infection forms joined the roars of anger coming from the combat forms. I hated the fact that they were mostly humans with some elites and brutes. Most of the attackers were grossly disfigured, but the armor plating that the Flood had grown around was very effective in protecting the infection forms. The ODSTs that had been infected were even harder to kill, taking several bursts just to crack through the chest plate alone.
"If you can't kill 'em take out their legs!"
It was a reasonably effective tactic, albeit only good for delaying them. They seemed to just cure themselves from any bullet wounds that came.
"Pavel, do we have flamers?" I asked.
"I think there's one left," he said. "Man in the truck."
"I got it," Longworth said. "Lady, cover my sector."
Longworth took off after tossing his DMR to Lady and rushed through the enemy gunfire, keeping his head covered. Once in the truck he rifled through the bodies until he found the man carrying the flamethrower. He cursed as he was forced to rustle through the straps and hefted the heavy backpack himself before coming back out, carrying the whole thing in his arms.
"Take your time, son," an ODST said, laying out suppressing fire.
Longworth set down the backpack and only barely aimed the business end before firing. The stream of flammable fluid shot out, catching fire and creating a firestorm. The fire landed on snow, rock, Flood, and stuck there. It took a few seconds for the Combat forms to be completely consumed by the flames, but after they collapsed it was guaranteed that they would not get back up again. After a quick two second burst the assault on our right flank had completely stopped and the few survivors were taken out as they stubbornly kept moving towards us.
"Front side!"
"Taxman!" I shouted. "Shift fire!"
He moved back to his Pelican's cockpit and moved it back to its original position. Longworth shouldered the backpack and moved to the front as Pavel began opening up on the Flood forms. Tracers illuminated the darkness, allowing us to see as chunks of flesh were torn from the Flood form. All twenty of us participated in the defense, with Pavel and Taxman doing most of the work for us. Caboose kept pressing his injury and grunting in Russian. Longworth had become a primary target and had already been nicked twice in the left arm by gunfire. The rest of the men were in relatively good shape, but a few had been hit in non-vital areas.
"I'm getting some brute forms!"
I aimed at two brutes, two deformed brutes, and fired. The one I shot recoiled backwards as a hole the size of a grapefruit suddenly appeared on its chest. The other one began rushing forward to meet the same fate. The first one quickly hopped back to its feet as an infection form climbed into the cavity. I kept firing at the second one, reducing the corpse to uselessness. It cost me a full magazine, but I took it out of the game.
"I'm not hearing enough grenades, men!" I said. "Target clusters!"
Sure enough two grenades flew out, clearing a whole section of the canyon. Flood fluids flew everywhere, painting the walls brown and yellow with some dried blood in there for good measure. It was truly a disgusting sight, not because of how unrecognizable everything was, but because there was still enough to recognize what had once been a human organ.
"They're jumping down!"
The Marine that gave the warning was crushed as a combat form landed on his shoulders, breaking his neck and back. The Flood looked down and then straight at me, roaring. I wasted no time in putting a burst through its chest, but four more had already jumped down. Grass was the first to come to the rescue, but before she could shoot the combat forms jumped at us, crowding us. Her assault rifle was batted aside and she was forced to draw her machete. The large knife was sharp and she knew how to wield it. Add the power of a prosthetic and she could cut through pretty much anything. She did just that as she severed the claws from the combat form nearest to her while reaching for her sidearm to finish it off.
I fired full auto at the forms approaching me, hitting its belly and chest but missing the tendrils that I was aiming for. The Flood screeched and swiped at me, I ducked and stabbed the thing with the barrel of my gun. I squeezed the trigger of the gun until it ran dry before throwing down the corpse and stomping on its chest. I caught sight of Grass decapitating a brute form and then stabbing down through the shoulder and halfway to the belly. The tendrils shook violently before Grass pulled out the machete and stabbed them repeatedly.
The last form had taken advantage of the two of us being focused on the first three and attacked two Marines. The first one was unlucky enough to be hit in the head by a swipe from those claws. I could hear the neck snapping all the way over here, but the other Marine emptied his magazine at the combat form's chest and kept going even after the thing fell to the floor, avenging his friend and making sure it couldn't be used against us.
"Grass, throw them down the cliff," I ordered. "Can you do that?"
"Yes, sir!" she shouted, grabbing the arms of the combat forms and dragging them through the grey floor, leaving fluid trails behind her.
"Longworth, torch them!"
"My pleasure."
He raised the flamethrower and fired. The weapon was quite possibly the best choice to fight any enemy in this situation. Pair the high walls with the narrow canyon and you had a deathtrap. Throw in a little bit of magic fire and you had something badass enough to make a movie out of it. The sticky fluid stuck to walls, floor, and flesh as it landed. The fire shined brightly even as the Flood roared and screeched in anger more than any pain. Little pops were heard as the gasses in the bodies were ignited and the infection forms were destroyed. You could tell them apart by the exact nature of the sound.
"Cease fire!" I ordered. "Reload!"
"Stay ready!" Pavel shouted. "Keep those eyes open!"
I followed my own advice and reloaded my rifle. Two ODSTs dragged an ammunition box out of the Pelican past Taxman and began filling empty magazines with bullets with speed that came from years of practice. Bullets hit the ground when their shaking hands missed, but they were filling magazines at a rate of two every two minutes. I know because we only had two minutes of respite before they had to return to firing.
"Pavel, you good?" I asked my friend, slapping his shoulder.
"Grazed," he said. "Didn't break the skin, but I'm gonna bruise."
"Where?"
He slapped his left leg lightly. I could see the groove in the thigh armor that the bullet had left, but the armor was still relatively intact. Another hit there might succeed in fragmenting the plates, but heat weapons would theoretically still be dissipated by the titanium. Theoretically.
"How about you?" he asked.
"Still no hits," I said. "I'm going to try to keep it that way."
"I thought you liked scars."
"I liked showing them off," I said. "Katie doesn't like it when I get new scars."
"Yeah, Amber's the same way with that. I bet that Eliza does like them though."
I rolled my eyes. We were in this fucked up situation and Pavel still had time to tease me about Katie's younger cousin. I don't know whether she still had a crush on me, but she certainly acted like that sometimes. I think she was just giving me a hard time, she always seemed to have one guy or another at her heels if Katie's word was anything close to reliable.
"Think they're safe?" he asked.
"They have to be," I replied. "Our girls are fine."
"I'm scared, Frank," he admitted. "What if we go back and they're not there? What if we don't go back at all?"
"We always go back," I said. "You and I, as long as we stick together, we're always going to go back."
He looked at me and nodded. That was all he had to do. We had been together for longer than any two people had a right to. He was my family, more than my uncle, more than my father, my brother, and certainly my mother. Pavel was a brother in all but blood. He had saved my life countless times and I had done the same for him. I was never worried for him, I knew him well enough that he would be able to handle any situation that was thrown his way with ease and even flair. In the back of my head I knew that if things were bad enough that he would die then I would be there with him, but it was never a thought I have much time to.
But now I was afraid. I was afraid for him, for Grass, for the squad, for myself, and even Caboose. I didn't want anyone else to die, but Reaper was dwindling, I couldn't take it if more of them went down. Snark had died just an hour ago, killed by a monstrosity few could fathom in real life. Dotsenko and Crow had gone down too, fighting and kicking as they died. I knew that Snark's death would hit me hard soon, but I didn't know whether it would overwhelm the pain of having lost Dotsenko and Crow or if those two would just make it even worse.
For a moment there I wished that I didn't make it out so that I wouldn't have to deal with the real world.
"This is not our time," Schitzo said, "but this is our real world. And in my world, we fight."
"In my world, we fight," I agreed. "We fight! Listen up, men! The Flood are not about to stop, but if we can make them pause for a moment again and again they'll realize that nobody messes with the UNSC Marine Corps! Nobody messes with badasses like you and me; if they do, they will get their fucking asses kicked. We've got ammo, a defensible position, and a Pelican with us. Bigger battles have been won with less."
A screech came through the front approach.
"A man once asked his men if they wanted to live forever and I'm asking you that question once again. Hold this line. Let Keyes get what she wants and you will be heroes. Only one thing is more important than Earth and that is humanity."
The roars were getting louder.
"Survive this fucking clusterfuck and you will all be saviors of humanity, living and in the flesh."
That was a lie, ONI would cover this shit up as soon as the sun rose, but they didn't need to think about that right now.
"Oorah?" I finished.
"Oorah!"
"Now let's kill some fuckers!" Pavel shouted.
If there was any time to capitalize on the situation with music, then this was it. I was going to hit my traditional go-to epic music playlist, but for some reason I decided to play one of the playlists that Bee had left me before he died. Rap. I had listened to some of that and it was either a hit or miss for me. It was empowering most of the times. Bee claimed that it was the best music for a workout, but I had not really acquired the taste for it.
Flood began coming out of the smoke just as my helmet was connected to the loudspeakers on the Pelican. Someone hit something and then a lot of people hit a lot of somethings. A chorus started harmonizing and a man quickly joined them, speaking to an invisible audience or to himself. Schitzo raised an eyebrow at that one, but the beat was certainly matching the mood. We were going to kick ass and we were going to be damn good at it too. Nothing was going to stop us now.
Who can catch lightning in a bottle? Set fire to water?
The rap started strong and loud, the loudspeakers on the Pelican filled the gondola dock with noise and a few Marines whooped as they began firing at the Flood, thinning their numbers as they came. Gunfire and explosions almost managed to drown the music, but everyone was playing it in their helmets now. They might've not enjoyed the music, but they could not deny the power that it carried.
The music was good and all, but there was a shitload of Flood mass coming at us.
"Pavel, keep your eye on the right," I told him. "Taxman, ready to shift fire."
The combat forms dropped only to get back up again and the infection forms rushed through the floor and walls, using their mass to stop our bullets from killing the more dangerous combat forms. Plasma and gunfire started flying at us, severely reducing our capacity to fire back at them and sending several men diving for cover. I was almost hit as a bullet pinged off the floor in front of me and bounced between my legs. I steeled myself and fired back.
"Should I light them up?" Longworth asked.
We were low on fuel.
"Hold it!" I ordered.
I mentally shook my head at having to fulfill one of the worst war movie clichés and held my hand up, giving the signal to hold.
"They're getting closer, sir!" Longworth shouted back, playing along unknowingly.
"Hold!"
They were getting closer indeed. Less than fifty meters. Forty now.
"Hold!"
Twenty… ten…
"Fire!"
The poor combat forms that were in the front were thrown back by the fluid and then were burned completely through. The jet of fire was one single solid stream of death that burned through the first line and the second and third without pausing. The flammable jelly did not start spreading out until the fifty meter mark, but by that point everything in front of us had been lit up. The biomass would act as fuel, severely hampering the transit ability of the infection forms.
"Burn the fuckers!" someone shouted. "Let them burn!"
They were getting crispy alright, but the smell wasn't that strange yet appealing smell that came from burn flesh, it smelled like rot. It was bad enough that I had to activate my helmet's filters. Some of the Marines gagged visibly as the smell got more intense, but they would have no time to get used to it before the second wave showed up, almost as if nothing had happened to the first.
We kept firing, it's not like we had anything else to do.
"Castillo, we made it across," Johnson suddenly checked in. "There's a Phantom flying in the area, got a few of our men… we might need to risk that pickup."
"I'll tell Taxman," I said. "We're still holding this position."
"Keep holding," he said, signing off.
Combat forms leaped past our first line of defense. Caboose stepped up with his shotgun, limping from the gunshot wound in his belly. He blasted two combat forms down into the ground as the third one sprayed a Marine in the back, killing her. More of the Flood kept moving at us, with a wave of carriers waddling our way. They burst and sent veritable oceans of infection forms our way.
"The flamethrower's dry!" Longworth shouted.
"Move back!" I ordered. "Move back to secondary line!"
The secondary line was a bunch of ornamental walls that were behind the first line. It wasn't anything close to being something we could call a line, but it was all we had.
"We haven't had any attacks from the right flank," Pavel said. "Suspicious."
I agreed. "Longworth, Lady, do we have explosives?"
"Nothing too large." Lady was having a bit of trouble covering her sector, but the ODSTs still alive were doing even worse. "What are you thinking?"
We could blow the narrow entrance at the front or take down the cliff walls to our right. Either option would block the assault route and allow us to focus on one side only. The narrow entrance funneled them in, the right corridor in between the cliff walls didn't. If they started pushing large numbers of attackers through there we'd be in more trouble.
"Blow the rocks on the right side," I ordered. "Hurry!"
They took off a moment after getting the explosives. We were forced to fall back and sacrifice our first line completely after they left, leaving us with fewer men. Miranda even had to cover them with her DMR, taking out the occasional infection form while they climbed and planted the explosives. They did a horrible job of it, but the explosion would bring down enough rocks to block our right flank.
"Kinda funny how we're trapping ourselves here, eh," Schitzo suggested.
"Oh fuck off," I replied.
"Where's the detonator stick?" Longworth asked.
"What?" Lady replied.
There was a collective groan. It might've even been humorous if men weren't dying.
"Miranda!"
"I'm on it!"
I watched as she grabbed a pouch of detonator sticks and dashed out of cover to give them to Longworth and Lady. She stomped on an infection form and avoided three others as she rushed. I would've covered her, but we were on the edge of being overrun. I caught glimpses of Miranda maneuvering through the snow, but I was distracted by the enemy.
"Here, hand me those!"
"No don't drop them!"
"Hurry the fuck up!" Pavel shouted.
"Lieutenant, we've got enemies coming on the right!" Taxman screamed, his voice hoarse. "Tell your men to hurry up!"
"Almost there!" Longworth called back.
"Hurry up," Lady told him. "Adrian!"
"I'll catch up," he said. "Go!"
I turned to look at Miranda and Lady as they ran back, leaving Longworth behind to finish the job. Dozens of Flood combat forms were approaching, firing at him as they ran. Longworth cursed but otherwise finished the job, letting himself fall down and rolling backwards to absorb the force. He cursed again and got up, limping away from the explosives that had been set in the cliffs. He fired blindly at the attackers behind him, missing by a mile and then some. A bullet hit him in the back of the leg. I saw as the round exited right above his knee, trailing blood behind it. Longworth grunted and fell down, pushing himself back up and using his battle rifle as a crutch of sorts.
"Blow the fucking charges!" he shouted.
He was still within range.
"Hold!" I told Lady. "On my word!"
I was firing at the front and eyeing the right. The last thing I wanted was to screw up both. I sighed and stopped shooting, instead focusing on the wave of Flood jumping and leaping from our right flank. Longworth was hopping on his good leg and leaning on the BR55 HB. He was bending the barrel, any more damage and the gun would be useless.
The Flood was less than ten meters behind him.
"Fuck it. Blow it up!" I shouted.
Lady clicked on the detonator before I finished giving the order. I could see the shockwave push snowflakes and air out of the way. The Flood was less fortunate, with some of them being thrown over the edge of the cliff before the fireball engulfed those within range. The sound of the explosion was almost drowned out by sound of the rocks falling, but I kept looking at Longworth as he struggled to move forward on his good leg. Eventually he fell over forwards, knocked down by the shockwave.
Miranda and Lady sprang into action, they doubled back, with Lady moving faster and Miranda firing at the few Flood survivors as she ran. She hit every single target at a running speed with just a single shot, prompting me to raise an eyebrow. Lady grabbed Longworth and picked him up, spraying at a trio of infection forms with her assault rifle. Longworth groaned again but kept moving.
When the dust cleared I saw that our little foray had worked. Now we only had to focus on the front, paying minimal attention to the right flank.
"Keep shooting!" I ordered loudly. "Come on!"
We were firing at an unstoppable enemy, hitting them with everything we had and still failing to kill them all. Our numbers were slowly but surely being chipped away and the Flood could just pick up whatever body was still useful. Infection forms would distract us, make us backpedal, and reanimate corpses without a second thought. We had more wounded men than healthy ones. The Marines were almost completely gone now. Caboose was grunting loudly after every shot, pressing his hand against his side. Longworth had sat down in the Pelican, firing from a seating position as his leg put out drops of blood.
"What the hell is playing?" Pavel asked, reloading his machine gun.
Human beings in a mob.
What's a mob to a king? What's a king to a god?
What's a god to a non-believer who don't believe in anything?
A quick look to my HUD told me the name of the artist and the song, but before I could shout it out to Pavel a rocket launcher-toting Flood combat form landed a little bit too close for comfort and fired. The shot flew straight at the Pelican.
Longworth ducked down and rolled, Taxman jumped out of the way, but he was too late. The explosion hit the magnetic clamps that would carry vehicles or cargo in the tail section, close to one of the thrusters. The explosion engulfed Taxman and destroyed the machine gun in the rear, leaving us without one of our crucial sources of firepower. Taxman's corpse landed a mangled mess while Longworth struggled to keep moving away. The Pelican seemed to be in working order, but it would have to be kept that way.
"Kill it!"
Everybody was now looking at the rocket enemy, it didn't take long for the former Marine to be reduced to paste. With smoke coming out of the Pelican and with the speakers damaged I had to shut down the music. The relative silence was disturbing at first, but soon I forgot about Bee's playlist and focused on fighting for my life. My rifle was a bit awkward now, we were too close to the enemy for comfort. I backpedaled slowly, trying to remain behind cover, but that was becoming scarcer every second.
"Frank, we're in the Index Room," Johnson said. "We're down to four men here. I'm going to need that Pelican exfiltration."
"Just say when, Johnson," I replied. "We're hard-pressed here, too!"
"Keyes is getting the objective, McKenzie and Perez should be able to secure an exit."
"There was a gondola full of Covenant troops behind you," I reminded him.
"They went through a tunnel with Flood, their numbers should be thinned out significantly. Still I'll keep my eyes open. Shit, Keyes is about to do something stupid. Ten minutes Frank."
"If you don't call we're bailing in fifteen," I said. "Good luck."
Fifteen minutes. We could do that.
The Flood attack slowed down a bit. Looks like they finally ran out of corpses to throw at us and instead focused on keeping us on our toes, firing from the hard-fought ground that they had taken. They even took cover and provided suppressing fire as they advanced. Our own numbers were terribly depleted, with two of my men wounded and all but one of the Marines dead. Two other ODSTs were healthy and two others were wounded beyond any fighting capacity. We put those two in the blood tray of the Pelican, but they'd die soon if they didn't receive medical attention.
"How are you, Grass?" I asked.
"Good," she replied. "Tired."
"Still know how to pilot this shit?"
"Please, you know I can pilot any vehicle that you put in front of me."
"Good, because way things are looking we might need to highjack a Phantom out of here."
She sighed. "Not a good idea, Frank. You have any idea how difficult that's going to be?"
"We were made by surviving difficult," I reminded her. "You lost an arm and you're still here, fighting. A little thing like losing my ship never stopped me before and it's not going to stop me now."
"That might be the case for you," she said. "But not everyone here can survive what you do."
I fired at a combat form that remained out of cover for too long, taking out the tendrils. I aimed at it and killed two swarms of infection forms before one of them got past me and moved the corpse back behind cover, prompting a sigh.
"We'll survive, Grass. We always do."
"Not all of us," she replied.
A bullet hit me in the neck. I fell on my ass and put my hand to the left side of my neck as blood sprayed out. I cursed and pressed hard, feeling the sting from the bullet. It took me a few seconds to mentally check to see if I could still breathe and a few others to wiggle my toes, make sure I hadn't suffered a spinal injury. Grass dove to my position and pulled out a piece of fabric, torn fatigues from the look of it, and started wrapping it around my neck.
"Too tight," I said.
"It has to be. Missed big arteries it looks like, but there's a shitload of blood going to your head."
"Think I don't know that," I muttered. "Ah!"
"Easy," she said. "Pavel, lay down suppressing fire!"
"What's going on?" I asked. "Grass, what's happening?"
The increased sound of gunfire was enough of an indicator. The last Marine was hit in the chest by blue plasma bolts before falling down. Miri grabbed his body and dragged it back beyond the range of any combat forms as Caboose blasted away at the enemy with his shotgun. We were out of explosives, grenades, and flamethrower fuel. Our ammunition was dangerously depleted and the Pelican's rear gun was done for. Johnson had asked for two more minutes and I was going to give them to him.
"Right side of the wall, right side!"
I was left to press down on the wet bandage with one hand while using my right knee to prop my rifle up. Things were getting too bad for my taste and when Johnson failed to check in after ten minutes I began panicking.
"Five minutes!" I shouted. "Ready!"
The gunfire was dying down. The Flood was beginning to catch up and we were reduced to shooting the ones that were a direct threat. The bodies were beginning to pile up on the entrance and inside. Snow hit us from the side as a strange wind picked up and plasma and gunfire landed all around us. One of the ODSTs was killed when a combat form hit him hard enough to break his back before he was swarmed by infection forms. Caboose was blasting away with his shotgun and switching out to an assault rifle, letting Longworth do the reloading.
"That's fifteen minutes," Grass said.
"Johnson, what the hell's the situation?" I asked. "Johnson, do you copy?"
"Shit," Pavel said.
"Johnson? Keyes, Commander Keyes?" I went on. "Avery! Where the hell are you?"
There was no reply. None at all.
"Shit, shit, shit," I said. "Fuck it, let's get out of here. Humanity can go fuck itself. Everyone fall back!"
It was like Christmas. Every single survivor dashed backwards, forgetting almost everything they had learned about orderly retreats. Pavel sprayed everything that moved while Grass got the Pelican going. I helped Longworth stumble into cover and extended my arm to the other ODST survivor, but the man was hit in the back by a brute shot projectile, covering me with blood and gore. I fell backwards, more than a little disturbed as Grass took off. Pavel grabbed the back of my vest and secured me as we took off hard.
There were seven survivors plus the two wounded ODSTs. There was only seven of us and in all likelihood we were all that was left of the UNSC In Amber Clad in this little circle of hell.
Thanks to Colonel-Commissar2468 and General TheDyingTitan for proofreading this chapter.
So that happened. Sorry for the delay, all I can say is that I've been very busy with sex and all that manly stuff. All hot girls too. I'm literally banging the hotest girls in school at least three times a day. Just kidding, except not. Before, during, and after finals.
Thanks to everybody for reading and reviewing, you know that I take your questions, comments, and concerns very seriously and will usually take the time to reply to them or even work them into my story. I'm cool like that I guess. Winky face. Anyways, other than the apology for the insanely long delay in updating I don't really have much to say.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Stay strong.
-casquis