Battered Bastards of Ida
Chapter Four: Modstand Fortress
February 20th, 2527
"I was pretty much rendered useless on account of a lost leg during 3rd Battalion's jaunt in the mountain range on Harvest. The Modstand Fortress, we called it. We were in those damn mountains for what felt like an eternity with little to no rations, no ammo, no reinforcements, nothing. That was where we really hit our lowest point in the Harvest Campaign.
But that damn Lieutenant made every second spent in those mountains look like garrison duty. He always took things in stride, including the devastating defeat at Gladsheim. It was just another event that unfolded before him. At the time, we felt like we were goners. He carried us the whole way. Even the enlisted marines who didn't know of him until the Gladsheim retreat relied upon him." Comment From the Interview of Gunnery Sergeant Jaymes Zientalla; Wounded Member of 3rd Battalion After the Gladsheim Defeat.
It had been two days since Second Lieutenant Nikolai Cross, who had been in temporary command of the Battered Bastards of Ida, led two hundred and twenty one combatants and wounded personnel away from the ruins of Gladsheim after a surprise Covenant attack that wiped out all officers of the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Marine Regiment, 17th Marine Division in one fell swoop.
With Cross as the only remaining officer, the twenty two year old had led sixty two wounded and one hundred and fifty nine uninjured combatants out of the Gladsheim combat zone. He chose to march them into the Modstand Mountain Range in hopes of hiding out and fighting the Covenant using irregular warfare tactics until reinforcements arrived. If reinforcements arrived.
The battered column still lost people, however. Five wounded personnel died during the two day march into the mountain range, but the rest made it relatively unscathed. Once there, the two hundred and sixteen remaining members of 3rd Battalion sheltered themselves within a cave system that ran through the Modstand Mountain of which the mountain range was named after.
Said cave system had housed a large scale mining operating within it, leaving the remnants of 3rd Battalion with good cover from the snowy conditions that were found in the mountain range.
The remnant force from 3rd Battalion had arrived mere hours ago and already were setting up living quarters to house the surviving members of 3rd Battalion for a long term stay within the cave system. Cross, unlike many others, didn't rest. Not for a second. There was too much to coordinate, especially for a lowly Second Lieutenant with a single day of combat experience under his belt.
But, he kept a calm demeanor at all times. Cross was careful not to snap when he was asked the same question multiple times, he encouraged the men and women who were already on the brink of exhaustion to continue, just for a little while longer. When he wasn't doing that, he was assigning the few senior NCO's who were uninjured tasks to complete.
Master Gunnery Sergeant Terrance was the senior most enlisted man and was Cross' go to man when he needed advice for management and placement, but Staff Sergeant Westin was the Lieutenant's true crutch. Westin kept the troops working, while Terrance guided and advised. It was a setup that Cross depended on. He was left with very little in the way of senior NCO's, while inexperienced Privates seemed to make up the brunt of his force.
Cross knew he would work with what he had. With the Meals, Ready-To-Eat and ammo that had been pooled together into a central location, jokingly dubbed the 7.62 Mess Hall by the marines due to it being both the Battalion's food store and ammo cache, 3rd Battalion could theoretically holdout for two months if they limited each marine to a single 1,100 calorie meal a day.
What the two hundred and sixteen marines lacked most was the clothing necessary to beat the cold temperatures found on the mountain. The best they could do to stave off the cold was light open flames, leaving the mine shaft hazy from smoke. Cross didn't mind the smoke. It helped heat the abandoned mine, to a degree.
The ad-hoc unit of men and women were doing the best they could with what they had. It wasn't much, but it was something.
Currently, Cross was organizing a vanguard to ensure that the marines wouldn't be cornered without warning. Several handheld radios had been scrounged up for use, adding to the unit's backpack radio and allowing communication without the use of messengers. The Lieutenant had gathered a force of six marines, including a sniper and spotter team, to act as a recon force.
Corporal Hagar had, at some point, retrieved a SRS99C-S2 AM Sniper Rifle, leaving him as the ad-hoc group's designated sniper. Lance Corporal Isaac Jackson, Private First Class Spencer Jensen, and Privates Lucas Matthues, Nicole Barden, and Erik Sullivan had volunteered to join Hagar's team. Cross was in the process of giving them their orders.
"Hagar, find a place to set up yourself and Jensen. You'll act as the recon portion of the team. You see anything that so much as looks alien, you get on the squawk box ASAP. Jackson will take the rest of you and act as a quick reaction force in case Covenant are spotted by Hagar and Jensen. Until that moment, you'll station yourself outside of the mine shaft's entrance. Nothing comes in or out without my express say so. Each section leader of the team will take a handheld radio. Don't break radio silence unless there are Elites banging on my front door." Cross paused, handing Hagar and Jackson the only two handheld radios. "Questions?" He looked at each member of the team, before nodding. "Get it done." He ordered, sending the team off to perform their duty.
"Sir, don't you believe a large QRF is needed?" Master Gunnery Sergeant Terrance questioned, hobbling beside Cross as the Lieutenant continued onto the next crisis that was sure to be unfolding.
"The closest marines inside the mine are meters away, Master Guns. Besides, if the Covenant come stamping around on our front door, we won't have enough time to evacuate. This is the best we have right now. It's a shitty situation, but it's my call. We've got nowhere left to run, so we make this the end of the line." Cross explained, dismissing Terrance's grievance. "See how the corpsmen are doing in the sickbay. If they need anything, bring it to me so I can try and scrounge it up." The Lieutenant ordered, sending Terrance hobbling away.
Cross entered the makeshift dugout that was currently being used as the unit's headquarters. The HQ really only housed Cross' bunk and the backpack radio, which Cross would now carry at all times in case the recon team called in. In the meantime, Cross would scan through different frequencies in search of any sign of UNSC. He wasn't optimistic, but last he knew the 6th Army Aviation Battalion was still active somewhere, as was the 9th Marine Mechanized Regiment. 2nd Battalion was also still active in the Plains of Ida, though he didn't know their status. Any one of those elements may transmit at any time, looking for surviving UNSC members, just as Cross would do.
The Lieutenant, however, severely doubted they would break silence, in fear of alerting the Covenant to their location. For now, 3rd Battalion was on its own.