Chapter CCXXVII: I'm All That's Left
November 16, 2552 (UNSC Calendar)/
Barmal Province, Afghanistan, Earth, Sol System
"I'm all that's left."
I didn't expect it to take long and it didn't. In fact, I would've been surprised if Tarkov had a higher clearance than me. The ONI operative came back from the cockpit with a slightly bemused look on his face.
"So?" Pavel prompted.
"You check out," he announced, surprising no one. "This is the situation. A convoy carrying vital cargo was en route to Sector Six, but it was attacked by large number of enemy troops and it is currently pinned down. The situation is getting worse by the minute."
"What do you want us to do?" I asked. It was a question that I found myself asking far too often and liberally. It usually ended with us knee deep in somebody else's shit with a comically small mop to clean it up.
"There's an ODST detachment already with the convoy. Their mission is to tag a vital target to the UNSC."
"Nature of the target?" Grass asked.
"It's a Covenant ship," the operative said, leaning into the side of the Pelican, checking his datapad as if to assure himself.
"It and its escorts broke through the entire Navy detachment sent to stop them and destroyed the ODPs in the immediate vicinity."
"Why are we tagging the ship?" I asked. Not an important question, but it was curious that infantry was being sent to tag a ship that was presumably being tracked by any and all sensors on this side of the planet.
"The ship itself is of secondary importance. There is a UNSC asset onboard the enemy ship."
I raised my eyebrows.
"Who's the lucky bastard?" Pavel asked in a voice that sounded more like a grunt than anything else. He was curious now.
"Sierra-117," the ONI operative replied.
I whistled in dry amusement.
"Damn," Miranda said simply. "How'd he end up there."
The ONI man shrugged. "Beyond my paycheck."
"Alright, what do we have to work with?" I asked, back to business.
"ODST troops from the 2nd," he said. "You have the 3rd Unit, platoon strength as well as a battalion of Marines to back you up. Situation might've deteriorated but we were badly outnumbered even before this. Sector Six had a couple of Army squads defending the relays, but they're most likely gone. You've got armor in the form of Tortoises and one Scorpion. No Warthogs or Mongooses, but we're working on that."
"Ok. Why do you want us there'" I asked. "Why the backup?"
The man finally sat down. "The UNSC doesn't have access to many designators in this part of the globe, there was only one we could track down, but we still don't have hands on it. We lost contact with the team carrying it and need to find the designator before our window closes. You'll help hold off the Covenant while the designator is retrieved or if worst comes to worst you'll retrieve it and tag the target yourselves."
"Understood," I said.
"Lieutenant, this is a mission that may secure the fate of the entire galaxy."
Those were big words that felt ominous on my shoulders. A few months ago I might've snorted, but after Delta Halo I knew that there were things out there that we had no way of understanding. The galaxy was bigger than humanity, and if this man was using the former instead of the latter, I was inclined to believe that what we were about to jump into was indeed a big fucking deal.
"We're closing in," the pilot warned calmly.
"You're in," the ONI man said. "Best of luck."
I nodded in appreciation.
The hatch opened and the operator grabbed the machine gun. My men positioned themselves to exit the Pelican at a run if we needed to. We had all replenished our ammunition and grenades and drank copious amounts of water in order to stay hydrated. First we'd feel regretful because the nerves would make us feel like we were about to piss ourselves, but we'd come to appreciate the extra H2O in our systems sooner rather than later.
"Alright, go!"
I couldn't see as much of the battlefield from my position, but it didn't look very good. The UNSC Convoy had been a fairly large group of vehicles in standard convoy formation with light vehicles in the ends getting heavier towards the middle and a couple of Elephants at the center. The two Elephants were still functional from the looks of it and had been placed in a wedge formation as defensive walls with a small gap in the middle so the lone Scorpion tank that had survived the assault could be put to use.
The bulk of the survivors were taking cover behind and around the Elephants, but there were several fireteams and individuals that hadn't made it to cover and were using polycrete walls and destroyed vehicles as cover.
"This place looks like a fucking labyrinth," I muttered as I hopped down.
Plasma hit the ground in front of us, prompting Miranda to shoot towards the source of the fire. She hit and wounded a brute, sending it back into cover and clutching its chest. I could hear the enemy growling, they were getting a lot closer.
"Sir, are you it?" an ODST sergeant asked.
"We're it," I shouted back.
"Fuck it," he replied. "I have a team working on breaking through the walls and out of Sector Six to pick up the designator, they're doing their best."
"Where do you need us?" I asked.
"Help hold the line for now," he replied. "Things will change soon enough."
So far it was pretty standard. It was our job. We held the line. We had been doing this for over a decade now. It was not a fun job, but there were certain advantages to being in a defensive position as opposed to a straight offense. Sure, if we remembered the fact that we were usually defending entire planets against a homicidal alliance we would realize that the position was not so enviable, but from a purely tactical standpoint we often had advantages.
"Ok, spread out," I ordered. "Keep it simple for now, we'll see how it develops."
It developed and it developed quicky. No more than two seconds passed after I finished that sentence before two explosions landed on the closest Elephant. I failed to see the proper result, but the secondary detonations sent me flying backwards and slamming into another Marine and knocking her into the ground. I looked up only for a dozen or so fuel rod explosions to send tons of dirt flying into the air just a mere handful of meters from my position.
"Stay down!" I cried at the Marine, who had curled up into a ball in an attempt to minimize her profile as much as possible.
Someone was returning fire, but I could not really look up as the Banshees were strafing with their plasma cannons now. I followed the example of the girl and curled into a tight ball, making myself as small as possible. One bolt hit the ground right in front of my face, sending heated pieces of dirt into my visor. I heard the next bolt hit the ground behind me, but the sound that came right after was a cry of pain.
I turned on my stomach to look at the Marine, clutching a stump where her leg had once been. She was screaming to hell and back, trying to stop the blood flow.
"Somebody get a medic!"
I jumped over her body and helped press down on the messy stump, looking at what was left of her foot ten feet away in the other direction. She bit her tongue and cursed, but it was all for naught as a moment later another Banshee strafed the same area, this time hitting her right in the head and vaporizing everything above her neck. I recoiled away from the impact, blood spraying my visor.
"Shit, shit," I cursed, firing at the Banshee as it sped past us. "Who has rockets?"
"We're firing as soon as we can, sir!" a voice replied.
"Get a man on those guns!"
"I can't, there's a sniper!"
"Why the fu-"
"Medic!"
Pavel roared a set of orders and my men fanned out to the edge of the destroyed Elephant, attempting to hold the advance that was sure to come. There were various walls on the other side, many of which were severely damaged, but the Covenant would have no shortage of cover on the other side.
It dawned on me just how fucked the situation was.
"I'm scared," Schitzo said. He looked younger.
Ah shit.
I moved up towards the Elephant. There was a bunch of sections missing and fire was boiling out of the front of the vehicle, but the back was very much intact. I moved up along with a couple of Marines and opened the firing holes. We all made it a point to ignore the charred pieces of meat encased in molten metal that had once been human bodies. I was thankful that my helmet blocked the pungent smell, because it was not pleasant when you enjoyed the smell of charred meat that was coming from your dead friends.
"Edge of that wall, brutes are moving up," I said. "Target the edge, hit them in the head."
"They're coming in droves!"
"That's not my fucking problem," I said. "Do your job!"
"Frank!"
"I'm here, Pavs," I said. "What's the deal with those Banshees?"
"Nothing we can do about them?"
"What about ONI guy?"
"Oscar 6 can't provide direct support, sir," a Marine next to me said. "They're with Bravo Team."
"Who the fuck is Bravo?" I asked.
"Squad sent out to retrieve the package," he told me. "They've been silent for a while."
"Ah fuck," I cursed. "If they're dead?"
"We just send someone else."
"Why don't we send the fucking tank and all of our fucking men?" I asked politely.
"They outnumber us too badly. We'd be fucked before we made it halfway through."
"Shit be going down," another Marine said.
There was some light chuckling, but it all died down the moment a Daemon shell punctured the weakened Elephant armor and broke the man that had made the joke in half, spraying us all with blood.
"Tank!" I shouted. "Watch out for the fucking tank!"
"Grenade out!"
"Someone keep an eye on the walls!"
People were shouting too many things. Too many things were going down at once. The Banshees were still circling, attempting to get a straight angle for a run while a group of Marines with SAWs shot at them if they looked like they were coming our way. They did not have enough ammunition or numbers to keep it up for long, especially with the limited rocket reserve that we appeared to have. The other Elephant still had a functional LAAG and an M247H, but the gunners were too busy keeping the onslaught of grunts and jackals on their side suppressed to be of any real use against the Banshees.
"What are their numbers?" I asked.
"Anywhere between three hundred and four thousand," the Marine replied. "I'm leaning towards the latter."
"What's your name, Marine?" I asked him, firing at a brute that tried to move past the closest wall.
"Scottlee, sir."
"Where's the leadership? I thought this was a battalion."
"It was," he agreed. "They hit us really bad. They planned this one very thoroughly and our own recon dropped the ball. Every field officer was killed in the opening salvo, half our men were casualties within the first ten seconds. We barely got out of the killzone alive. The 3rd Unit really pulled through for us, they got us out of the ambush and across to high ground, but they lost a third of their number in the process."
"Sounds bad," I told Scottlee, firing at movement through a stack of smoke. "Keep suppressive fire near that column."
"Aye, aye, sir."
"Frank, we're burning through our ammunition fast," Pavel said. "We need to transition somewhere else."
"No can do," Scottlee told me. "Target is coming up south of us, we need the high ground to have a guarantee of spotting it."
"What angle?" Grass asked.
"I have no fucking clue."
"Well, we're not staying here," I asserted. "We need to start moving back and soon."
"Sir, I really must insist-" Scottlee began, but he was cut off as yet another explosion rocked the Elephant, engulfing another unlucky Marine in a cloud of shrapnel that tore him to bloody ribbons.
"Move that Elephant backwards!" I ordered. "Scorpion, hug its movement."
There was some confusion as the vehicles prepared to move, but soon enough the Marines were standing behind the massive pieces of cover and preparing to move backwards towards the walls. This place was a fucking maze. It looked like a paintball arena. It played to both our advantage and our disadvantage.
Mostly disadvantage it seemed.
"Plug that gap over there with the Elephant," I ordered. "I want HE suppressive fire all along that wall. Give me some fireworks."
The squad leaders immediately started barking the appropriate orders, efficiently dividing the surviving Marines and ODSTs into effective units. I watched as the volume of fire changed direction while slightly increasing and began moving backwards, Scottlee and I the two survivors from the Elephant. I let the Marine pass me and waited for my squad to get inside the flaming vehicle before they caught up with me.
They looked dusty, but other than that none of them had been hit.
"Hey, sir?" Scottlee called out. "We're losing our cover pretty soon."
"Don't worry, we're getting a move on," I replied. "Isn't that right, Miri?"
"Yes, si-"
She stopped suddenly as a spike protruded from her belly. She took a step back before three others appeared right over her hip, moving closer towards her chest. She fell on her ass as a giant shimmering shape glowed. The brute stalker didn't have a prayer as Pavel, Caboose, and I laid into it. The alien was left without a head and half a chest within a second.
"Miranda!" Caboose shouted, moving towards her.
"I'm fine," she groaned weakly.
"Sir!"
Scottlee was interrupted in a similar manner, but he managed to get his rifle in between the Spiker and himself. His battle rifle was left useless as the second stalker swiped at him with the twin bayonets. I turned just in time to see the Marine block the strike, costing him his foothold and exposing his back. By that point I had jumped onto the brute's back and was pulling back on its helmet. It took only a moment to drop my rifle and grab my knife from behind my back. I stuck it deep in the brute's throat and yanked to the side. Blood sprayed all around me as the brute reached up, trying to hold the fluid in.
"Move out," I huffed, picking up my rifle and securing my knife. "Miranda?"
"I'm fine," she repeated.
"Losing blood," Caboose told me. "Fast."
"Let's get her out of here," I ordered. "Move behind the Scorpion, let's go!"
Caboose dragged Miranda by her armpits, letting Grass pick up her feet as they moved behind the tank, taking cover. When the Elephant began moving they were forced to hustle up in order to keep up, but soon enough a medic approached them with a stretcher. Miranda was strapped to it in a matter of seconds and then taken away by the medic and another random Marine. I could see Scottlee moving up through the dust that the Elephant was raising and soon enough blue and green bolts began cutting through the cover or the dust cloud.
"Wall is clear!" someone shouted.
"Set up around the edge," I ordered. "Who was in charge before I got here?"
"Nobody, sir! Platoon leader left with Bravo Team."
"So this be fucked up," I muttered. "Move around the back! Make sure we can't be flanked. I want thermal lookouts, no stalkers get past us, alright?"
Two different sergeants nodded at my order. There were only four ODST survivors in this unit, all of them appeared to have taken the brunt of the fighting if the state of their armor was anything to go by.
"Where the fuck is Bravo?" I asked. "We need to get the package!"
"Sir, they're gone," Scottlee said. "They've been silent for a while."
"That means there's hostiles behind us," Grass said.
"I know," Pavel growled.
"Keep suppressing fire," I ordered, losing some of my coherence.
I took long strides towards the position of the four ODSTs. Their group looked much like ours, battered and beaten, but nowhere near broken.
"Who's in charge here?" I asked.
"Me, sir," one Corporal T. Rymann said. "What can I do for-"
He stopped mid-sentence as an explosion rocked the wall. Two of his men fell to the ground from the impact but quickly regained their footing.
"How long ago did Bravo leave?" I asked.
"Bravo Team?" he asked. "Bravo Actual took them around two hours ago. They're either well and fully dead or jerking off while walking backwards."
"KIA it is," I muttered. "I need you and your men to take over the mission."
"Roger that, sir," he replied. "We were about to go do that anyways."
"Good, hurry it up. Constant radio contact with Oscar 6 or us, understood?"
"Yes, sir," he said, looking at his rifle and checking the slide. "Hartley, you have that backup tracking device?"
"Right here, sir," a private replied, showing the device.
"We're all set, sir," Corporal Rymann said.
"Grab what you need," I said. "And get a move on."
"Yes, sir."
The four troopers grabbed ammunition from inside the Elephant, letting a squad of Marines take over their position. I tracked them with my eyes as they began moving away from the wall. Banshees flew overhead, one of them exploded as a missile caught up to it and came crashing down close to the Elephant. I kept my eyes on Rymann and his men, Alpha Team, as they disappeared from the minimap.
I turned around and walked into the Elephant, looking for Miranda.
"How is she?" I asked the medic.
"Not good," the woman replied. "She's unconscious and losing a lot of blood. We need supplies if we want to keep her alive."
"She'll pull through," I said. "She always does. Make sure she's comfortable."
"This is the best I can do, sir."
"Make sure she doesn't die, then," I told her angrily. "Pavel!"
"Yeah?"
"What's the outlook?"
"Grim, we're barely managing to keep them back, if they hit the Scorpion…"
"We'll see what happens then."
It was a firefight like many others. One side moves, the other side not so much. It was the most standard a firefight could get. We were even buying time for an important objective to be fulfilled before we moved out. It was, however, a firefight of absolute and total desperation. Everyone here knew exactly what the mission was and as such knew the stakes. I doubt there was a human being in this universe that hadn't heard of the exploits of Spartans, ONI had made sure of that. John-117, known as Master Chief to humanity at large. Soldier, hero, legend… He was humanity's best hope and right now it seemed he was humanity's only hope.
Everyone here would die before we gave up.
Nobody here had even seen the Master Chief in person, but they were ready to give their lives for a man that was probably more machine than flesh. A man that was never seen without armour, a man that never spoke or bothered to say anything. Still, he inspired. ONI propaganda or not, that man inspired. He was a legend, worthy of having his name said before Achilles, Hercules, Gilgamesh, and the legendary warriors of old. Except he was very real and so was the threat he was fighting.
Everyone here would die before we gave up. But we didn't all need to die.
"You in the tank, I want you to fuck shit up, as they say."
"I was told to conserve ammunition, sir."
"Light up every fucker you see," I told him. "You have no shortage of 7.62mm. Save explosives for squads and vehicles. Do not let up. What we need now is time."
"Roger that, sir."
"Frank, what are we doing?" Pavel asked.
"We're making sure that we get out of this alive," I said.
"We've done worse," he told me.
"Barely," I said. "Just barely."
He turned to look at the battlefield in front of us. "It doesn't look that bad, does it?"
"It doesn't," I agreed. "But it is, you know it."
He sighed. "I just wish I could've seen Amber one more time."
"You'll get to do that," I promised him.
"We don't even know if they're alive."
I paused before answering. He was right. I was scared of that myself.
"They're fine," I said. "And we have to survive if we want to see them again."
He gave me a quick nod and returned to his position, bracing himself for the battle to come. The Marines were giving it their all, firing at a near constant rate in order to keep the brutes from swarming us. Despite our best efforts we weren't getting too many kills, the walls were a huge advantage to both sides, but it seemed like the small gap in between them would keep us safe for the time being.
"They're not letting up, sir!"
"Then neither are we!" I barked back. "No one moves from their position!"
I climbed to the top of the Elephant, taking position near one of the gunners and surveying the area. We had a pretty good view of the walls where the brutes were taking cover, but the gunners were too busy fending off Banshees to actually do much about the infantry. I took a couple of pot shots, hitting two brutes and managing to kill one of them before unseen sharpshooters targetted my position.
"They're not dumb," the gunner said, spooling his LAAG as a trio of Banshees turned for a strafing vector.
"I wish they were," I said.
The three Banshees began firing early, landing some inaccurate shots all over the place. The gunner kept his cool and only started firing when he knew he had a killshot guaranteed. One of the Banshees went down in flames and the other two broke off, one of them putting out a fair amount of smoke.
We were not doing terribly bad, but this was not a good situation. We were in one of our outposts, but nowhere near an armory. There was a single Pelican helping our cause and it was not on our specific sector of the battle. Oscar 6 was likely way up in the sky, tracking Alpha Team or moving about in order to get Alpha Team a vehicle or heavier weapons.
"Bravo-23 is KIA," Corporal Rymann reported calmly. "We're pressing forward."
"Copy that," I acknowledged. "Pavel, redirect to that third grid, will ya?"
"Roger."
We managed to be consistent for a fair amount of time as Alpha Team closed in on the target. Pavel was doing a superb job in handling the fire on the ground level while Grass coordinated the Scorpion and sharpshooters to take out any threat to the tank. Grigori mostly remained close to the Elephant while bolstering the wall, pointing out targets to the Marines and leading by example. We were doing a lot of work for four individuals, but we were used to this.
"Oscar 6, Oscar 6, do you copy?" I asked. "What's the status on support or reinforcements?"
"We've acquired one Warthog, Reaper-Actual," the ONI operative replied almost immediately. "It's not for you, however."
"No incoming support?" I asked.
"I'm afraid not. Radio contact outside of here is blocked by jammers."
"Well fuck," I muttered. "Keep trying, will you?"
"That's basically all I'm doing, El-tee."
I climbed into the Elephant's cockpit. The glass window was stronger than most titanium compounds, but it was really hard to see through the glass now that multiple plasma shots had melted it into looking more opaque than not. The embedded spikes weren't being particularly helpful either. I crouched a bit and looked through one of the corners, making out a little bit of movement behind one of the closest walls. I called it in and watched as tracer fire hit their position, sending bits of rock over the Covenant troops. Someone managed to land a grenade behind cover and took out at least three brutes while destroying a solid portion of the wall.
I smiled and moved back to the roof to fire at brutes. The gunner was getting rattled, the Banshees were making it extremely difficult for him to target them and he was beginning to run low on ammunition. I could tell that his arms were going completely numb from all the shaking on the gun, but still he held his position, nearly coverless except for a small column and the shields that protected his chest and face.
"Grass, where are we at rockets?" I asked.
"Six," she said. "No, seven."
"Seven rockets," I repeated to myself. "With some luck that will be seven dead Banshees."
"They do say seven is a lucky number," Grass agreed.
"Sir, there's a Phantom incoming," the gunner reported calmly.
"Target the front cannon," I ordered. "Caboose, fire at its side gunner as it moves past us."
"We're letting it through?" a random Marine asked.
"Yes we are," I said.
The Phantom was moving fast, but the pilot seemed to have the intention of strafing us as it moved above. Unluckily for that asshole, our gunner was a crackshot. He put a nice and long burst within his target area and there was a minor explosion as the plasma supply ignited and destroyed the front cannon. The Phantom sped up, predictably. It tried to give the side gunners a better firing angle, but we were prepared for that. I looked up and fired from cover at the brute on the side gun, shooting through its neck and watching it tumble over before it could get a single shot out. On the ground, Caboose and his men pummeled the other gunner, but they had less of an angle and they lost one man to a couple of plasma shots.
"Good work," I said, watching the Phantom speed away.
Well, now we had one more threat behind us and Alpha Team had more shit to get through. I trusted Oscar 6 to guide them through the terrain and towards their objective because if they didn't get there we'd have to go on a mad rush in order to find the designator. It was certainly plausible, but we weren't going to hold much longer as it was and if my men left the Marines then they'd collapse a lot sooner. It would not be pleasant to have a couple of Covenant battalions on our asses without any cover or possibility to return fire. There was also the matter of Miranda…
"They're using jump jet troops!"
I sighed. This was gonna suck.
"Watch for incoming!" I cried out. "You! Stay on the Banshees!"
"Sir, but-"
"I'll cover your ass," I assured the gunner.
I stood up, firing at the surging jetpack brutes in full automatic fire. I did everything possible to draw fire my way instead of the man on the gun. My recklessness paid off, allowing him to shoot down two Banshees that got too eager on their approach vectors while most of the brutes went for me. I killed two of them before they came down, but another two landed on the roof. I shot at the one closest to the gunner, taking it out with a burst to the face. The other one grabbed the barrel of my rifle and pushed it away before I could fire. I immediately let go of my right arm as I pulled with my left. The brute didn't let go on instinct, but it extended its arm enough that I was able to put five bullets on its armpit with my sidearm. The brute roared in anger, giving me a very large hole to put three more bullets in, spraying brains all over the roof.
"Damn…"
"Keep shooting," I growled, turning to the side to fire at the brutes that had landed amongst my troops.
It was hard to see what was going on with all the chaos, but a brute was a brute and they were sufficiently distinct from Marines that I could target them properly. I was supremely confident in my abilities. I knew that when push came to shove my own augmented features would pull through for me and those that I was protecting. Time slowed down just enough and my arms moved more accurately. It was not something that I could control, but I knew when it was coming and when it came it truly helped.
The only risk here was that one of my bullets would go through the brutes and hit a Marine behind. It was unlikely, considering just how much trouble regular firearms had with brutes as it was, but these unarmored brutes were a bit more likely to have bullets go through them than their power armoured counterparts. I exhaled and fired.
First target went down easily. Brute with little armour. The gaps were big and accessible. As the alien went down I was already firing at another one. This one had just skewered an unfortunate Marine and was on the receiving end of an assault rifle burst from a comrade of the deceased.
"Everybody drop!" Pavel's voice boomed loudly.
Two full squads of Marines complied with his order. A wonderful display of trust for a man that they had met scant minutes earlier. I watched Pavel spray the brutes at waist level and stun them, allowing me to take out the ones he didn't with precise head shots. A couple of the Marines on the ground contributed with quick bursts as they turned around. When Pavel's little stunt was over nine brutes had died.
I ran across to the other side of the Elephant's roof and watched Caboose blast a nice little hole through a brute that landed in front of him before dispatching two others with his shotgun. I got one of the assaulters off the back of one of the Marines with two bursts before killing a late arrival with a shot to the hip followed by a burst through the neck.
"Sir, there are Banshees incoming!"
"Do your best," I said. "Grass?"
"We'll need to break out the SPANKrs," she said after a brief pause.
"You, shoot," I ordered the gunner. "Down there! You three, get your SAWs on those fliers ASAP!"
The three machine gunners struggled to move up the frontline, joining the Scorpion's coaxial gun in targeting the Banshees. The tank took down two of the craft, one with its main gun, an incredible feat in its own right and the other with the machine gun. The tank kept firing, dispersing the left flank of the flight formation while the SAW gunners pummeled the center alongside the gunner on the Elephant. I fired in vain, trying to up the pressure on the birds before they were close enough for accurate fuel rod blasts.
"Move back!" I shouted at the Scorpion driver. "Get out of there!"
It didn't take a master strategist to see what the primary threat was. The Covenant were evidently getting annoyed by the Scorpion's nearly endless onslaught and they were obviously trying to take it out first. The tanker knew this, but had held his positions as per my orders. When I gave him the possibility to find some security he immediately floored the reverse, narrowly avoiding no less than three fuel rods. The Scorpion fired, missing the Banshees by a wide margin as they screamed overhead.
"They're coming back around!"
Of course they were.
I ignored the Banshees at my back, instead letting the gunners handle it. I heard the sound of one rocket being fired but kept my eyes front. Two brutes tried to make a dash for our line, but I promptly brought them down. I finally was forced into cover by suppressive fire. I turned just in time to see the surviving Banshees hit the Scorpion with two fuel rods. One of the fliers was shot down and slammed into the tank, totaling it in a fireball that consumed four Marines, killing three of them and prompting the screaming survivor to pull out a sidearm in an attempt to commit suicide only for the fire to kill him first.
I averted my eyes, a death like that was something I did not want to think about.
"Fill the gap," I ordered. "We hold for as long as we can."
"Sir, we can't hold them back without any-"
"We hold!" I barked. "Don't you understand what is at stake here?!"
"We hold, sir," the Marine replied. "Fill the gap! Give me a fire curtain on that corner!"
Corporal Rymann kept giving periodic updates on his unit's situation. With only three men they were moving quite a bit slower than I would've liked, especially as there appeared to be greater numbers of brutes behind our lines than we would've expected.
"Pavel, help patch up that hole," I said. "Actually, scratch that, Caboose, you're up."
"Where do you want me?" Pavel asked.
"Fill in for him," I said. "Watch out for sharpshooters."
"Sir! They're flying wide!"
I looked at the gunner in slight confusion before catching two Banshees moving past us way in the distance. They were completely bypassing us. Normally that wouldn't have made sense, as they actually needed to physically take us down if they wanted their infantry to get through. It didn't make sense unless they knew there were other valuable targets behind us.
"Think they picked up our chatter?" I asked. It was an open question.
"It's almost certain, sir," Scottlee said. "They came at us hard for a reason."
"Fuck," I said. "Alpha Team, Alpha Team, do you copy?"
"This is Bravo-21," Rymann replied. "We copy."
"You've got troop movements your way. Expect heavier resistance."
"Copy that, sir."
The brutes were becoming increasingly violent, but they were still displaying tactical genius that I would have never expected from their like. Four of them advanced, throwing out a bubble shield that landed halfway through the open ground and hid inside for a few brief seconds. The rest of the brutes still behind the walls then opened up with an overwhelming barrage of spikes, plasma, and needles that forced even our gunner to redirect fire that way. I fired a couple of bursts, but the firepower was too much to actually leave cover.
"Caboose!"
"I got them!"
I looked down the Elephant to see Caboose move up, pumping a shell into his shotgun and raising it just in time for a large brute to jump over the tank. The brute didn't even get to raise its weapon before Caboose put a shell's worth of buckshot through its mouth. The blood had barely fallen into the ground when a second and third emerged from the smoke. He took one of them out with a blast to the chest, but the other one dodged the full brunt of the buckshot, instead taking a blow to the leg. Even as the brute fell on its knee it fired a burst of spikes at Caboose, most of them missed, but one of them landed square on his chest. Caboose fired another blast and the brute's head and then fell on his ass.
"Are you alright?" I asked, keeping an eye on the fourth brute as two Marines overwhelmed it with sustained fire.
"I think so," he replied. "Doesn't seem like it made it past the armor. Hurts like a motherfucker."
The medic chick grabbed him and nearly had to drag my stunned underling behind cover to start removing his armor and check for injuries. She effectively cleared him and then sawed off the spike to give him more mobility before returning the chest plate to him. I picked off a brute major with a grenade launcher, hitting it a few times in the neck before it finally went down. I was beginning to draw too much attention to myself and the gunner was starting to pay for it. I heard him cry out and turned my head to see a spike go clean through his thigh.
"Fuck! I'm fine, I'm fine." He fired at a very specific point. "Missed the femur."
I paid attention to him and frowned slightly. There was a lot of blood.
"And it hit the femoral," I said. "Get over here!"
He looked down. "Shit."
The man let go of the gun and started moving my way as I prepared a biofoam can. The gunner stumbled, his leg obviously hurting as life literally poured out of it. His face was looking very pale and I wasn't sure whether it was the blood loss or the panic. He only needed to take a couple of steps to get here, but right before he got to me he got shot straight through the helmet.
He dropped down neatly, blood coming out of his head and leg.
"I'm taking the gun!" I shouted. "I need a sharpshooter up here!"
"On my way up, sir!" Scottlee called out. "Cover me!"
It was an open request, but the majority of the men within earshot complied with the request. I pulled back the lever on the LAAG just as the staccato of gunshots increased. I aimed at a brute and fired a short burst, popping its head off. Three more brutes hopped over that same spot, absorbing an unhealthy amount of the bullets I was firing at them before collapsing halfway through the no-man's-land. I heaved the gun so it was aiming up and fired at an incoming Banshee. I needed to use my helmet's zoom capabilities to help take it down, but it wasn't hard to kill the craft as it came in a straight line.
"I'm here, sir!"
"Take care of those two wall corners," I ordered Scottlee. "Get their heads down."
"Yes, sir!"
"Caboose?"
"It's good," he said. "I'm waiting for the next attempt."
The next attempt turned into one continuous wave as the brutes used their superior numbers and firepower in a hybrid swarming technique, firing an insane amount of material our way while they moved. They mostly succeeded in suppressing the vital targets, leaving the Marines on the ground to handle the ones jumping over the tank. Caboose was doing most of the work, killing several of them with single shots to the upper chest and having a nice little pile of corpses obstructing the way for the next ones to come. Grass was firing sideways, on the edge of hitting the Marines but never quite seeming to miss her actual targets.
"Phantoms incoming. Shit, get down!"
No sooner than I had uttered those words did the Phantom turn sideways to present a brute chieftain with a fuel rod. I fired a quick burst, but there were already several green shells flying this way. I pretty much tackled Scottlee into the interior of the Elephant, slamming into the second level before rolling down into the bottom, nearly landing on top of a body bag.
The explosion sent bits and pieces of molten metal flying over the injured.
"The gun is done," Pavel said.
"We need to handle that chieftain," I said. "Keep pestering it."
"Copy that," Grass said.
"Force it down," Pavel told her.
It was easier said than done, but Grass worked out a clever strategy involving a rocket and a timed grenade shot. I had to throw the grenade, nobody else was strong or accurate enough to make the shot. I threw it just as the Phantom banked to avoid the missile. It landed inside and detonated. The chieftain jumped out from the ship covered in smoke and flames before the missile spun around and hit the damaged Phantom near the engines in the back, bringing it down crashing.
The Phantom tore down a section of our wall, but it plugged it all the same. Pavel and his Marines were forced to deal with the chieftain as it landed amongst them. I caught a glimpse of a poor woman being thrown several dozen feet into open ground by the chieftain before Pavel surprised it from behind. The chieftain found a barrel jammed into its gaping mouth. I winced, imagining just how painful that must've been in and of itself, but my concern disappeared when the chieftain's head did the same.
"We need to move back," the medic told me. "The wounded are all beyond my help and we're getting pounded hard out here."
"Are the wounded dead?" I asked.
"Most of them. Two are about to die. Your injured is stable but unconscious."
"Conscious?"
"Sir, you can't ask them-"
"I can and I will," I cut her off. "Give them one rifle each."
"Sir."
"Pavel, start preparing to move back. Scottlee, grab a squad and go with him. Grass and Caboose, you're going to hold the gap, just the two of you. The rest of you, form up in a half circle, we're going to be moving back pretty fucking fast."
I walked inside the Elephant again and moved towards Miranda and carefully cradled her up. I began moving backwards to find a nice place to put her in before ordering the retreat. I didn't get to see the men go through the maneuver, but the radio chatter kept me updated. Pavel and his squad was slightly behind me, but I was basically in the open at this point. I finally emerged from the maze-like system of walls into an open area. It was around a hundred meters wide and the same length. In the middle was a bunch of banged up dividers with two dead brutes. I ran towards it and hopped over, sliding Miranda into a sitting position next to a few dead Afghan soldiers. I checked them for ammunition only to confirm that Rymann or the team sent before him had already stripped them of it. The brutes still had their spikers there. I was about to run back when Miranda woke up.
"You ok?" I asked.
"Yeah," she said weakly. "What-"
"Bad things," I said. "We're falling back. I want you to wait here and play dead, alright?"
She looked at the spike on her stomach. "Shouldn't be too hard."
"Not at all," I agreed. "I'll be back."
"Frank."
"What?"
"There."
I turned my neck and saw that one of the brutes had a mauler pistol strapped to its belt. I smiled and grabbed the thing, holstering it on my left thigh and shoving the spare ammunition into my empty pouches.
"Stay strong," she told me.
"Don't I always?"
She smiled and I hopped back out of the circle. I came across my men nearly three hundred meters from that position. They were holding a position around seventy meters back from out original starting spot. I noted that our numbers had gone down, but the position was highly defensible. Relatively speaking that is.
"Bravo 21, you copy?" I asked. "Give me a sitrep."
"Copy, sir. We're a bit stuck, brute squads managed to flank us, but we're getting through them."
"We don't have the luxury of time," I told them.
"True," Oscar 6 said, jumping into the conversation. "The re-entry time has been calculated."
"Is it an approximate?" I asked as the clock appeared on the top of my HUD.
"Negative. Not unless the ship backtracks in the middle of atmospheric re-entry."
"Twenty-two minutes," I said. "You'd better haul ass, Alpha Team."
"We live on that," Corporal Rymann replied.
Pavel walked up to me. "We lost a couple of men in the process. Grass and Caboose are up front, he was grazed by a plasma pistol. Ribs. Armor held."
"He's taking a beating."
"We all are," Pavel told me, pointing at several Marines standing tall while they bled.
I nodded slowly. "Good job, men! The Master Chief is about twenty minutes away from making landfall on this beautiful clump of rocks. We will hold for every last second until our mission is accomplished. Then I will buy twenty cases of your choice beer."
"Probably won't need to buy more than a couple," Scottlee said, drawing some dry chuckles.
"Probably," I admitted with a small shrug. "You'll definitely be getting medals."
"What good will they be?" someone asked grumpily.
"They'll be good enough that someone will be reading what exactly you did to save the planet and the human race. The fact that there'll be someone alive to actually give them to you, dead or alive, should be good enough," I replied. "Oorah?"
"Oorah."
"Let's make them fuckers pay in blood, shall we?"
"Comes in the job description," Pavel agreed. "Let's go!"
The brutes had moved fast, stampeding against our positions. Their speed and numbers meant that we failed to contain some of them, but for the most part we dealt with them. I helped move a large brute off of a wounded Marine and then fired down range, hitting two brutes as they moved and sending them back to cover. I kept an eye on their position before ducking back down as a flurry of plasma flew at me. Banshees were not flying overhead, but they could only hit us from a certain angle with walls both in front and behind us. They weren't very eager to come at us, especially after we thinned their numbers significantly.
"There's only a few Banshees in the area," Oscar 8 reported. "But the enemy ground presence is still significant."
"Copy that," I acknowledged.
Pavel looked at me and we both shrugged.
It was more difficult than it had been, but the brutes no longer had the advantage of a wide battlefield. They had to go through the narrow gaps between the walls and we had to hold them back. It would've been a lot easier for us if the walls had extended miles in either direction, but we needed to make absolutely sure that we weren't flanked. I sent two squads out to either side to make sure, but there was still the risk of the brutes going even further to the sides. If they came at us straight from behind we'd likely see them coming first, but it would not be a pleasant experience. I realized that my throat was getting hoarse from barking so many orders, but I was not the only one. Everyone was crying out enemy positions, status, or calling for help. The brutes were taking casualties, but so were we.
"We can't hold much longer like this, sir!" the corpsman shouted. As soon as she said this an explosion sent pieces of wall towards her and she disappeared underneath it.
"Coney!" Scottlee shouted. "Someone get her out of there!"
"Cover them!" I ordered, pushing Pavel's shoulder in that direction. "Grass, hold that gap!"
"I can't hold every fucking gap!" she shouted back.
"Well you're going to fucking hold that one!" I told her. "Move!"
She switched positions just as I advanced to the edge of the wall, pointing at two Marines to follow me. I stopped and then fired at two brutes, taking one down and helping bring the second one to its knees alongside one of the two Marines. The brutes weren't dead, but follow-up bursts quickly took care of that. I covered one of the Marines and sent him to the other side.
"Tough day, sir?" the other one asked me, reloading her rifle.
"Just another day at the office," I told her. "Lay some suppressive fire on that right wall, will you?"
"Top or side?"
"Side."
We switched positions and I prepared a grenade while she took a deep breath. She began firing on the wall while a couple of spikes passed her, embedding themselves in the wall behind us. I threw the grenade at brutes, lobbing it over their walls and then switching back to my rifle to see if any wounded brutes stumbled out. None did, but there was a nice little patch of blood that hadn't been there before. A solid chunk of the wall had been destroyed and Pavel flooded that hole with his machine gun. Caboose was striving to push back a foursome of brutes that were using a heavy plasma cannon to pummel our position as they moved forward, dragging the weapon with them. I would've helped, but they were outside of my range and a jackal was making good use of its carbine to keep us from actually having a decent field of fire.
"Somebody take that bird down!" Pavel called out. "I'm firing on its position!"
"We could use some support right about now," Schitzo told me.
The time for big battles already passed.
"The skirmish that saved the world…" he mulled it over. "It does have a nice ring to it."
Maybe…
"Think our names will be written down somewhere?" Pavel asked.
"Rymann's will probably be there somewhere," I said. "But aren't ours already pretty historical?"
"Damn right," he agreed.
"I'm sure we'll sneak into a textbook or war book," Grass said. "Maybe even a documentary."
I laughed. "When do you think ONI will declassify everything?"
"Twenty years?"
"Sounds good," I agreed.
"I think more," Pavel said. "But hopefully I'll be able to see myself on the big screen."
A brute captain with a brute shot walked through the gap, firing on our position. We were forced to move away from the edges of the wall to avoid the explosions, more than likely giving away this wall to the Covenant. Pavel ordered his men to fall back and Grass led them several walls back. I did the same, radioing the squads protecting our flanks to fall back on our position. One of the squad was set upon by brutes on their way here and only one man made it back, torn and bloodied with his left arm reduced to bloody tatters.
"Get him help," I ordered Corpsman Coney. "ASAP."
"Right away, sir!"
"Are there more jump jet troops?" Grass asked.
"I don't think so," Caboose replied. "But they're hoping over the walls, crossing the distances between."
"That's why we have shotguns," I told him. "Let them come."
"Within reason," he grumbled back, pushing three shells into his shotgun.
Three Banshees screamed overhead, shaking me as they flew by. I followed them with my eyes until they disappeared and then just fired at a brute that peeked out. The bullets bounced off its helmet and it darted back into cover. I did the same thing and reloaded my rifle, making sure I still had some ammunition on me. I'd have to dig into my pistol soon and then my borrowed mauler would be seeing some use.
"It's just me and Bravo-22 now, sir," Corporal Rymann reported. "We're close to the target now."
"We're counting on you, Alpha Team," I said.
"Two hundred meters," Oscar 8 told them. "Brute presence is significant."
"Roger that."
"On our end of things…" Pavel said, pointing at a duo of brute captains carrying their grenade launchers "Get back!"
I looked up at the clock, we still had 16 minutes to go. It seemed like a whole fucking lifetime had passed since the last time I had checked it, but the seconds were moving and they were sure as hell taking their time. Alpha Team only had two members in it, so it was more like Alpha Fireteam now, but those two had a task that was simpler than its consequences would imply.
"Back to the next line!" I shouted, spit coming out of my mouth and into my visor. "Get those-"
Two Banshees had approached without anybody actually seeing them come at us. It was understandable but unforgivable. They both fired into our midst and the fuel rods alone engulfed eight men, killing all of them. Two others were killed in the strafing run, losing limbs and having giant holes torn through their bodies. I was slammed into the ground and knocked my head on a rock, dizzying my already beaten skull. I looked up to see brutes already moving in, killing even more Marines. Pavel grabbed a dazed Caboose and pulled him by the scruff, saving him from a brute shot that sent them both careening to the ground. I fired at the brute as it approached, killing it with a well-placed shot to the neck. I tried to get to my feet, but another ape fired on my position, sending me on a roll.
"Frank, behind you!"
Grass was great at warnings, she had this sense of perception that allowed her to see most of the things going on in the battlefield. It is one of the main reasons she was such a great fighter and an incredible strategist. This time her warning had little use, but it was the brute that fucked up. I have no idea how it got there without me seeing it, but the hit on the head might've had to do something with it. I barely felt the brute's stomp as it grazed my side and slid off the armor. I had to restrain the urge to smile as I dug my knife through its foot and into the ground before drawing the mauler and putting one single shell through the underside of the brute's jaw.
The alien collapsed and I rolled to avoid it, grabbing my knife and rifle as I dashed towards cover.
"Damn, sir. You alright?" Scottlee asked, helping me behind cover. "Want Coney to check you over?"
"I'm fine. Pavel, report."
"We're safe," he said. "To your right."
He waved at me from a different position.
"Alpha, what's your status?"
There was no direct response, but Rymann clicked a green acknowledgement light.
"Fifteen meters ahead, turn right!"
"You got Banshees moving in on your position, Team Two!" Pavel warned.
"Team Two?" I asked.
He shrugged.
"Scottlee, what's the backup plan?"
"There's a bunker deeper inside Sector Six, sir!" he replied. "After we were ambushed we were planning to go there and wait for extraction."
"But?"
"But shit happens," he shrugged.
"Watch out for brutes, Alpha Team," Pavel advised again.
"How far away is that bunker?" I asked.
"One click," Scottlee informed me. "It's doable, but we can't sprint it, we need a holding team to cover us."
"We'll start heading that way as soon as they have the package," I said. "Everyone catch that?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Bingo. Got it!" Private Hartley said. "Package retrieved, need immediate evac, over. Package retrieved."
"Roger that, Team Two. Warthog inbound," Oscar 8 said.
Pavel pointedly looked at me when the pilot used the same designation that he did, drawing a dry laugh from me. I ordered to contain the brute advance while we started moving back. The Marines were doing an excellent job, but their skills weren't as polished as ours and with every burst that they missed we were closer to running dry and failing Alpha Team's mission.
"Frank, are you alright?" Grass asked, patting my shoulder after I took cover to reload.
"Yeah," I said. "You?"
"Long as you're still alive," she told me. "I…"
I smiled at her and gave her a light headbutt. "What?"
She smiled back.
"We're fine," I assured her. "We always are."
She put her artificial arm up and wiggled her fingers, the black fabric seeming unnatural.
"Almost always," I corrected.
Her eyes were pretty. They were a little bit like Katie's in that you were drawn to them.
I still didn't even know if she was alive.
"What?" she asked me, this time her tone concerned.
I shrugged. "We'll worry about that later."
"Yes, sir," she said.
"Pavs?"
"Yeah?"
"What are you at?"
"Two boxes left," he said. "Pistol is full and I grabbed a bandolier of MA5 ammo so all I need is a rifle."
"Pick one up now," I said. "You're going to be burning through a lot of ammunition."
"Aye, aye, captain."
"Scottlee, cover him some, will you?"
"Yessir."
"Caboose, I want you on the back, there's enemy presence on our rear. Clear them out."
"On it, El-tee."
I liked giving orders. I was good at it and my orders were usually good. I could've retired from active combat and lived to be a fat and lazy drill sergeant. I could've had some semblance of stability while still shaping humanity's finest into the heroes that we needed them to be. I could've started a family with Katie and had five or six little critters running around the house, dominating every sport they tried and getting every girl they wanted. I would not have girls, of course, I don't believe I could handle them dating. Hell, I got protective of girls I barely knew because I was easily jealous.
"You just want everything to yourself," Schitzo said. "Take a look at Cam, for example."
Shut up.
"Lieutenant, Bravo-22 got hit," the ONI operator reported.
"Can't he suck it up?"
"Negative, he needs a medic."
I paused for a solid five seconds.
"Castillo?"
"Alright, Scottlee, take the rest of the Marines," I said. "Head towards the bunker and hold off the brutes while Alpha gets to you, we'll hold them here."
"Sir, you-"
"Do it," I ordered. "And make one hell of a sprint for it."
"We'll make it, sir."
"Expect opposition," I said, "there's enemy troops all around us, do not lose your focus."
"Of course not, Lieutenant," Scottlee assured me. "Marines! Form up on me!"
"Sir-" Corpsman Coney began.
"Go," I ordered. "They need your expertise. Now!"
The Marines were prepared to leave in no time, formed up and providing virtually no support to help hold the line. I gave them the order to leave one last time, Pavel went loud to provide a degree of cover and a multitude of grenades were tossed into known enemy positions as the last of Reaper Squad prepared for their deaths.
"Just fight hard," I said simply. "We'll fall back to Miri when we have to."
"Yes, sir," Caboose replied.
Pavel and Grass just looked at me and each other before hefting up their weapons. Pavel had his machine gun and was about to run out of ammunition, but he had several magazines for the assault rifle that he had picked up, Grass had stocked up on ammo as well, but she only had about half a standard combat load, enough to keep her alive for fifteen minutes in this environment. Caboose had a third of his shotgun shells still available and maybe half of his magazines, leaving me with just six magazines for my battle rifle.
We all had pistols with spare magazines as well, but those were effectively firecrackers to the brutes. At least until they tore us apart and their blood lust disappeared, revealing the dozens of holes in their body.
"Oh well," Schitzo muttered. "It's been a good run."
Why are you so sure we're going to die? We've faced worse.
"Maybe, but you've always had support."
I've always been alone, Pavel, me, and the rest of the universe against us two.
"You've always had support," he reaffirmed. "Aztlan was an exception, and even then you had a place to go to and guaranteed evac. Paris IV was big, but the UNSC was always by your side, same with Reach and everything else."
It's like surviving the apocalypse only to be killed by a robber.
"Precisely."
I'm not dying. Not today. Nobody is.
"Let's go!"
The brutes had sensed weakness and it had their blood boiling. They realized that there were now only four of us and a hundred of them. Easy kills. Dozens of them hopped over the walls, ready to come at us. We could not take them all out at once, but Pavel hit so many of them in the legs that the assault briefly faltered before we were forced to fall back into the walls right behind us. Brutes came in through the gap, eating buckshot and depleted uranium left and right, but they moved faster than we could kill them and their weapons were still deadly. Blast after blast of plasma hit the wall I was behind and spike grenades landed past it, forcing me or any of my men to toss it back into the brutes.
"Twelve minutes," Oscar-6 checked in.
"What does that mean for us?" Pavel asked, tossing aside his trusty M247L machine gun for what was the last time he would ever fire it.
"It means twelve minutes," I replied, resolute.
"Watch out!" Grass cried.
An explosion sent pieces of wall everywhere, I tumbled backwards but somehow managed to retain my balance. It was lucky, as two brutes came through the rubble and dust a second later. I shot them both with a quick burst, stunning them but not killing them. Grass laid out some suppressive fire, sending one of them scampering back behind cover and putting the other one on the ground for good. Caboose helped me behind cover and fired his shotgun blindly to the other side of the wall. The brute survivor grunted as the buckshot hit it and then died as Caboose fired again.
"Fuck!" Caboose shouted, dropping his shotgun.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Nothing," he growled, showing me his left hand, it was missing the pinky and ring fingers. He pulled out his MA5K and kept shooting.
"Next wall is twenty meters out," I said. "Different angle."
"Who designed this fucking labyrinth?" Pavel asked.
"The person I will personally thank for our survival," Grass replied.
"Or our death," Pavel countered. "They have just as much cover as we do."
"Sir, explosives?" Caboose asked me.
"One block," I replied. "As always."
"Set it here, blow the wall, deny them cover and gain some time."
I nodded and produced my personal C-12 putty and spread it into as small pieces as I could while keeping it functional. I only had enough for three different spots, but it should be enough to bring a large section of the wall down. The section that mattered at least.
"Detonators?" he asked.
"It's coded to a frequency," I said. "No need for physical detonators."
I set them all up, running down the wall and plastering them against it. We would be able to wait for the brutes to take cover and then hopefully get a few of them in the blast. It wasn't a bad idea, but it would only buy us a couple of minutes at the most.
"You done, Frank?" Pavel asked, firing perfectly timed bursts at brutes I couldn't see.
"Yeah!" I replied, grabbing my battle rifle. "We moving?"
"Just about!"
I fired from my wall, crouching underneath Caboose and ignoring the occasional empty casing that landed on my helmet or shoulders. Everybody was bleeding, both us and the enemy. There were at least a dozen dead brutes on the ground and several other wounded were trying to move away from the battle. We mostly ignored those, saving our ammunition for the real threats. It wasn't until two brutes holding a large piece of Warthog hood moved up, using the metal as cover, that we were forced to back down. Plasma fire followed us all the way to the next wall, nearly blasting my right leg off and almost hitting Grass square in the back. We made it safely, all four of us taking cover behind the same wall.
"What's it look like?" I asked.
"They're setting up behind," Grass said.
I detonated the explosives, sending shockwaves everywhere and producing a rain of light debris that banged against the wall we were using as cover. I peeked out and saw that the entire section of wall that I had rigged was gone and there were three shallow craters on the ground. Brute bodies and body parts were visible.
"Nice," I complimented myself. "Pavel, Caboose, cross over to the other side, we'll cover for you."
The two of them moved out, taking advantage of the confusion as Grass and I targeted the dazed brutes, easily taking down seven or eight before they reacted and fired back. We reloaded and set to work.
"So?" she asked.
"So what?"
"So what's next?"
"We'll go to Miranda," I told her. "There we hold, wait for Alpha Team to do their shit and come pick us up."
"Is it defensible?"
"As much as it can be in here," I told her, firing at an advancing brute major before it could shoot its brute shot. "Hold your position, I'll go around and try to flank them."
"Be careful," she said.
I ran parallel to the wall and then took a hard right, bringing up my rifle. The wall ended and there was another tall sction preventing me from actually flanking the brutes, but this was a very advantageous angle for me to shoot at. I could fire at one side of the opening with near impunity and had excellent view of all the open ground.
"Here we go," I said, switching to single fire.
I aimed carefully and drilled one brute through the unprotected portion of its head. One single bullet was all it took. The one next to it couldn't even wipe the blood off its face before it met the same fate. Three others were quickly killed before I took cover, letting them try and figure it out. I could probably not stretch this for long, but another shooting session could be pulled off without giving away my position. But that was very hopeful.
Normally this situation wouldn't have been entirely out of our control, but we were on our own and the brutes were more than willing to die to get through. Usually we could've kept them pinned down for hours, but they really wanted to stop Alpha. I kept wondering how they knew what our mission was, but at this point it really didn't matter.
I wonder what happened to Torkham and Tarkov…
Brutes came in to fill the spots that I had just left empty. I waited a few seconds for them to get comfortable in their firing positions before aiming carefully and taking out two large specimens. The third spotted me and fired on my position, but I was faster than it and managed to kill it right as plasma hit the ground in front of me. I stood up and propped myself against the wall, bracing myself for the incoming fire. At least the brute firepower was now divided on two spots and one of the sides that they were attacking from was completely exposed to my flanking fire.
"Keep them there!" Pavel shouted.
I popped in and out of cover, hitting and wounding some brutes while taking heavy fire. I stopped shooting when I heard grunts on the other side of the wall that kept me from doing a full flanking maneuver. I slid towards that and pressed my ear against it. Once I realized brutes were there I prepared a grenade, but before I could throw it I heard a dull thunk.
I wasn't exactly sure what it was, but I backpedaled violently as the wall exploded in my direction. The rubble hitting me promptly had my fat ass sitting down on the ground as two brute captains emerged from the spot where that wall had once been. I threw my grenade as hard as possible, hitting the frontmost brute in the face and breaking something. Unfortunately, I had not primed the device, but it sent the brutes diving for cover. I fired from the ground, hitting the furthest brute in the legs and waist. The other one got up and fired at me, but I rolled avoiding four spikes and firing back, sending it reeling backwards towards the wall and looking for cover. I furiously dragged myself backwards while trying to hit the brute in the ground with panicked and inaccurate bursts. I missed completely, still trying to find any degree of cover that I knew wasn't there.
"Pavel, lay down some fire over here!" I shouted.
"On it!"
A stream of bullets started hitting the wall, completely missing the brutes but keeping them on their toes. I dropped my rifle as it clicked empty and drew the borrowed mauler. I aimed at the brute on the ground and fired, the buckshot hit it dead in the forehead, destroying any trace of face or helmet. The other brute was moving behind cover, but I managed to hit it in the back before it made it to safety.
"That's good!" I thanked Pavel as I dashed forward.
The brute was in evident pain, but the armor on its back had kept it alive. I drew my pistol and kicked it in the ribs before putting one bullet in the back of its neck. As I got back up two overcharged plasma shots hit the wall above me. I looked right and fired my pistol instinctively. My shots missed, but the brute firing ducked behind cover. I holstered my mauler and put both hands on the pistol, aiming at the spot through the small scope. The brute popped out again and ate two rounds that completely unhinged its jaw from the rest of the skull and then fell on its ass. A final bullet took care of that matter.
"I'm heading back," I said. "Hold on until I get there."
"Easier said than done," Pavel growled.
"Suck it up," I replied, grabbing my rifle from the ground as I sprinted back around the walls. The rest of Reaper was taking a lot of fire and there were several brutes chasing me, forcing me to fire at them after every corner in order to gain more ground. I managed to kill one and wound a pair of unarmored brute minors, but they were moving a lot faster than I could run.
"Grass, I'm going to be needing some precision fire from you!" I said. "I'll stick to the right side!"
"What?"
I've got brutes on my ass!"
"Copy."
I turned the last corner and gave the word to Grass. I moved to the right, right in the open ground, but the brutes would be coming closer to the left. Grass pivoted and fired continuously, the bullets whistling right past my head and brutes growling behind my back. I reached Grass and turned around, shooting past her as Pavel and Grigori moved to the last wall before we needed to link up with Miranda. I gave her the word to move as I reloaded, pinning down the brutes behind the corner and backpedaling to the last wall before we reached the divider circle where I had placed Miranda in.
"What about it, huh?" Grass asked me.
"Blaze of glory, babe," I replied. "In't that right, Pavs?"
"Sure is, El-tee, sir!"
"Caboose?"
"Blaze of glory," he agreed.
I don't think I had ever seen my men fight better, with more grit and accuracy, than they were fighting right now. They burned through their ammunition with deadly precision and efficiency, not wasting a single round. Brutes fell and didn't get back up, those that did were promptly put back down. Caboose was ignoring his missing fingers and the pain in his chest. Everybody was bleeding from some place or other, but we still fired.
"You ok?" I asked Grass after she bit back a curse.
"Yeah, hit my fake limb. Can't move my thumb."
"You'll have to make it work," I told her. "We're almost there."
"I know, I know."
Pavel was on his right knee, shooting at three brutes that were using the Warthog hood. He hit them all in the legs and let them stay there for a bit, waiting for others to come help. Caboose shot mostly at the shoulder joint, hitting his target every time. It was a good feeling, seeing my men give it their everything and come out so strong.
"Fall back," I said calmly. "Fall back."
Pavel and Grass provided cover while we moved back to Miranda's position. Caboose and I ran as fast as we could, vaulting over the dividers and approaching Miranda. Her hand had stopped putting pressure on her wounds and was instead resting further down her belly. The three spikes were still there, dull and wicked-looking. A rather large pool of blood had collected around her and her head was tilted slightly sideways.
"Miranda," I snapped at her.
Caboose removed her helmet and grabbed her face, struggling to get his gloved fingers to find a pulse while smearing blood from his wounds on her pale face. Her eyes were wide open and had a glassy look to them.
"She's gone," I said. "Grigori…"
"I know," he replied, grabbing his carbine and checking the ammunition count.
"Twenty-four plus thirty-two," he told me. "Then I'm on pistol rounds."
"Not too bad," I lied.
Pavel and Grass vaulted over. They looked at us before glancing towards Miranda before slowly shaking their heads. Grass had barely gotten to know her, but Pavel was hit by her loss as hard as Caboose and I.
"Three magazines," Grass said.
"Two," Pavel told me.
"Three for me," I said. "Mauler and pistol. Grenades?"
"Three," Caboose said.
"One," Grass added.
Pavel just shrugged. For once in his life it didn't seem like his shoulders were being dislocated as he did that. It was kind of disturbing. He looked so tired.
"Alright, get ready," I said.
Oscar 6 and Alpha Team were exchanging some chatter, things didn't seem to be going too well on their end either, but at this point it was too late to really do anything for them. We were now fighting for our lives. Even if we had wanted to abandon the mission we wouldn't have been able to survive without fighting. We had to kill them all now. We probably didn't even have enough rounds for that. Whole pack of brutes, probably raised from their beds to stage a hasty ambush from the looks of it, but they were brutes nonetheless and they were still deadly foes.
"See that?" Grass asked.
I looked up where she was pointing to see what looked like a meteorite. Well, that was our ship. Not a graceful reentry, but something that big and sturdy didn't really need to come at a good angle.
"Watch out!"
Pavel and Caboose put down four brutes that barreled out of cover before the rest wisened up. I heard growling and barking, but it didn't take a translator to know that they were moving around the wall in order to get through to the opening to our left. A few were able to cross to the other side without being killed and soon enough we were being flanked to our right as well. It wouldn't take much for them to put some troops behind us and then we'd be in some serious trouble.
"I'm burning through this!" Pavel shouted. "Reloading!"
"Give me some cover!" Grass called out.
"Throw those frags!" I ordered. "Left side, left side!"
The fire was getting intense and desperate, much like ours. A spike grenade landed inside the circle of dividers. Pavel grabbed it and threw it back where it came from. Grass shot, spraying three brutes' legs and taking two down. The other had to be put down by Caboose.
"I'm out," Pavel grunted, drawing his pistol. "Shit."
"Make them count," I told him.
"Headshots only," he said. "Haven't used this baby in ages."
"I'm done," Caboose said seconds later, throwing his carbine to the ground and pulling out his own pistol. He pulled back the slide and began firing with nary a word. I was the next to run out of ammunition, pulling my pistol out and hitting as many brutes as I could while keeping the mauler ready for when they came close. I could take out three or four with that thing before they realized, especially if they swarmed us in their blood rage.
"Out," Grass said finally.
"Welcome to the club," I told her.
"Glad to be here," she replied.
"That was a lie," Pavel said.
She shrugged and then fired.
It was a bit sad, but we got a few of them down. The brutes were beginning to thin out, but they still outnumbered us pretty badly.
"Draw them close," I said finally. "Bayonets ready and I'll put the mauler to good use."
They complied without a complaint. The first three brutes to hop over lost their faces to the power of the mauler. The fourth took two shots to put down and the fifth lasted a bit more, but it still ended up dead. After that one more vaulted as I reloaded, but Grass stuck it in the leg with her bayonet and brought it down. There Caboose stabbed through the back of its neck before moving out of the way of a burst of plasma.
Pavel still had some pistol ammo and was putting it to good use, discouraging the brutes from moving our way. I fired at his targets with the mauler, scattering a squad and killing the captain leading it.
"Good job," he said, patting my back.
"You know how I am," I said. "The very best."
"The very best," he agreed. "We always made a pretty good team."
"The very best," I repeated.
"I'm going to miss you," he said.
"We'll see each other," I promised him. "No matter where. We'll wait for Amber, Lavvie, and Katie to catch up with us. While they do it will just be us boys."
Pavel grinned. "Sounds like-"
November 17, 2552 (UNSC Calendar)/
Sector Six, Afghanistan, Earth, Sol System
Master Sergeant Pavel Klaus
"How many do you think we're at, Pavs?" Frank asked me.
"What?" I asked, dazed. I could barely make out his silhouette, the sun on his back.
"I'm thinking about twenty each," he said. "It might be a bit conservative, but better to err on the side of caution, right?"
"What are you doing?" I asked as I felt him move his hands on my legs.
"Hey, did the chief already separate?"
"Wha-?" I muttered. "I can't see the ship. Never mind, he did. I see two falling objects."
"Humanity is saved," Frank said, not a touch of sarcasm in his voice. It was very surprising.
"Where are-"
"Shhh," he cut me off.
"Why aren't you wearing a helmet?"
His face was not terribly beaten up compared to other times. There was a nasty gash right on his forehead that was bleeding, but it seemed like he had landed face first on the dirt ground because that entire side looked more dirty than bloody. On the other side he had a nice bruise on his cheekbone where the padding had probably pushed too hard into his face. Sweat and blood were competing for the most abundant fluid on his head. That is not necessarily a bad thing, Frank was not a terribly heavy sweater.
"Old thing is useless," he told me, pointing at his helmet, cracked visor and all. "Yours isn't much better."
I suddenly realized that I was looking at Frank through a hole in my visor. My HUD was completely gone and it had me lost for a couple of seconds. I shook my head and coughed.
"What are you doing?"
"Camilla and Grigori are unconscious," he told me, his voice now serious. "She lost her arm, the fake one, thankfully. Grigori… well, he might not make it, but he doesn't seem to be on the verge of dying."
"Ok…" I said, still not fully understanding everything.
Frank peeked above the divider and promptly ducked back. "There's two chieftains."
"Shit."
"Yeah," he agreed. "There's one round left in my mauler."
"That won't cut it," I said.
"Pavs, I don't want you to panic, ok?"
"What?"
I suddenly realized that Frank was standing in a very awkward position. He had one leg completely across my waist and the other one was underneath him on the other side. He looked like a douchy college kid that was trying to hump my face in an attempt to get attention. He carefully moved his leg back until he was crouching regularly next to me. His eyes met mine and I slowly moved my line of sight down to my legs.
When I saw is when I started feeling the pain.
"It hurts," I said, swallowing and tightening both hands into fists.
"I patched the left one as best I could," Frank said. "The right one… well, it'll hurt later."
I looked down to see but there was no bandage stopping the bleeding.
"I used the muzzle of the mauler," he explained. "Tried to cauterize the arteries."
"The fuck?!"
He shrugged and smiled. "Used the barrels of the pistols, rifles, everything. Worked better than expected, we had been firing almost non-stop."
"Frank!"
"You won't bleed out," he assured me. "You won't die. And right now that's all that matters."
"There's two chieftains out there," I shouted. "We are going to die."
"Not if I can help it," he said, drawing his colorful knife from his boot.
"Frank…"
"I was built for this," he said with a shrug. "What else is there after this for me?"
"Earth will need you," I pleaded.
"Right now it's you three that need me," Frank countered. "I might not die. Still, make that shot count. I'm fairly sure I can take at least one. They won't be able to resist the challenge." He looked back at his helmet. "I wish I could video this one. It'll be good."
"Wait for someone!"
He shook his head. "I'm all that's left."
With that he hopped over.
"Frank!"
"Life goes on Pavel!" he shouted. "And so will you."