Chapter 28: Svenson
"Target that thing's joints!" Simone shouted from the driver seat. "We need to immobilise it!"
The Scarab stomped toward the approaching warthogs, destroying one and melting its occupants with its beam, and causing another to explode into pieces by stepping on it. Svenson and the other gunners did as Simone ordered, they aimed for the joints on the Scarab's legs and fired.
The massive siege engine let out what sounded like a mechanical scream, as if the thing was actually a living creature rather than a Covenant vehicle. Maybe it was a living creature, Svenson didn't know. This was his first time seeing a Scarab up close, let alone fighting one. He didn't even know if they could be destroyed by a few warthogs, but it was better to at least try.
On each side of the Scarab sat a Grunt commandeering a plasma cannon, which bolstered the thing's firepower significantly. Svenson's warthog was peppered with blasts from the plasma cannons, each shot burning a hole into the vehicle's armour. One nearly hit Svenson in the head, but he was saved by the turret's shield protecting him.
Simone drove around the back of the Scarab, and Ezekiel fired a grenade into the back entrance. The Grunt manning the back entrance's plasma cannon looked down at the grenade just before it exploded, killing it and a pair of Jackals that were standing next to it. Svenson switched his target from the Scarab's joints to the next plasma cannon, and the turret's bullets ripped through the Grunt manning it. Another warthog took out the third gunner.
"Come on, that thing's gotta come down some time now," Ezekiel said.
"We don't have any heavy weapons," Simone said. "It's gonna take a while to chew through all that armour."
"I've got a heavy weapon," Ezekiel said. The massive Spartan stood up in his seat, holding onto the top of the warthog's windshield to keep his balance. "Get me close."
"This is a really bad idea," Simone sighed.
"Exactly, so let's do it!"
"You might want to hold onto something, Svenson," Simone called to the back.
"I'm holding on as tight as I can!" Svenson shouted back to Simone. "Didn't plan on letting go!"
The Scarab tore another warthog in half with its beam, and slowly turned to face their warthog. Simone drove straight towards it as its beam charged up again, and he ended up directly underneath the Scarab. The thing began to move away, but Simone stayed below it, and slowly inched closer to one of the legs that had suffered the most damage.
The Scarab raised the leg and attempted to slam it down on top of them, but Simone swerved around it. Each time the Scarab tried to crush them, Simone was able to move them out of the way right before it happened. Svenson figured now was a good time to keep shooting at the leg, to weaken it just a bit further.
"Alright, this is as close as we're gonna get," Simone said. "Make this count."
"Hold your fire, Marine," Ezekiel said. He attached his grenade launcher to his hip and attempted to crack his knuckles again, though he let out a disappointed sigh when he remembered he couldn't. Svenson did as the Spartan said, and made sure his fingers weren't anywhere near the turret's triggers.
"We've got more Phantoms incoming!" one of the troopers shouted over comms.
Sure enough, when Svenson looked up he saw a trio of Phantoms landing in a courtyard nearby. Each of them fired on the group of warthogs with their plasma cannons, and they managed to tear one of the warthogs apart. They all dropped squads of Elites, Grunts, and Jackals that quickly joined in the fight.
"All hogs break off," Simone ordered. "Take out those Covie reinforcements. We'll handle the Scarab."
"Just us?" Svenson asked.
"Yeah," Simone replied. "We can take it on our own."
Ezekiel finally made his move, and he jumped out of the seat of the warthog. For the weight and bulkiness of the Spartan's armour, it was surprising how high the Spartan could jump. He grabbed onto the side of the Scarab's leg, and climbed his way up with his suit's magnetic gloves. The Scarab continued to try and crush Svenson and Simone, but Simone was able to dodge the thing's legs each time.
Every time one of the legs came down Svenson got that near-death feeling again, where everything slowed down, and everything became much clearer. At this point he was going to die of a heart attack before even getting shot. He decided he would make himself useful while Ezekiel worked on immobilising the Scarab, and he aimed at the approaching squads of Covenant soldiers.
One warthog ran an Elite over, and another slammed into a Grunt. Svenson aimed for one of the Elites and fired, tearing its shields away and ripping its body apart in seconds. The warthog's chaingun was designed to shoot down enemy air vehicles, so the effects of it on a living being's body were devastating. His bullets tore through a Grunt, and ignited its backpack full of methane, causing it to violently explode.
A Jackal opened fire on them with a plasma pistol, which didn't do much to the hog. It was torn down by another warthog gunner the next instant. Svenson looked away for a second to see what Ezekiel was doing. The Spartan was attached to the Scarab's leg, and he was in the process of placing an explosive on the damaged joint. Svenson wondered how he even got the idea to do that.
The Scarab pulled back and crashed through one of the buildings next to Firebase Veles, and it managed to even shake Ezekiel off. It retreated towards another row of buildings, crashing through those as well to make sure that the Spartan wasn't on it anymore. Ezekiel landed hard on the ground, but he quickly got back to his feet.
"Simone, damn thing shook me off," Ezekiel called to them.
"I saw, I'm on my way. Is the explosive set?" Simone asked.
"Affirmative, detonating it now."
An explosion went off at the leg's joint, tearing the leg in two. The Scarab stumbled backward as the rest of its legs weren't able to hold up its weight. Its beam cannon turned towards them as they stopped to pick up Ezekiel, and it began charging up once more.
"Get the hell in!" Simone shouted.
Ezekiel hopped into the passenger seat without a word, and Simone managed to narrowly avoid the incoming beam from the Scarab as he drove them away.
"That thing is still alive," Ezekiel said.
"Yeah, I see that," Simone retorted.
Though this was Svenson's first time fighting a Scarab, he was taught extensively in how to target their weak points. He had been trained in defeating Scarabs despite the fact that fighting one was near-suicide for a single UNSC Marine. He figured the Spartans knew how to as well, but Svenson wanted to be the one to do it.
More Phantoms launched out of the cruiser and descended all over the city, they would be overrun soon. Now was his chance to prove himself to the Spartans, to feel like he had actually accomplished something. Or he would die trying, and he wouldn't be that upset if he did.
"Get me to the Scarab and I'll take it out," Svenson said.
"Are you out of your mind?" Simone asked.
"We took out the gunners and a bunch of its crew," Svenson replied. "I can handle myself. These troopers are gonna need your help holding off those Covenant reinforcements. You'll be more useful there."
"He's got a point," Ezekiel said with a shrug.
The Scarab fired another beam at them, but Simone drove them behind a building before it could hit them. The beam cut through the building's ground floor, causing the rest of it to topple as they entered another city block.
"Damnit, Svenson," Simone sighed. "Fine. You're getting one shot to jump on that thing as we drive past."
"That's all I need," Svenson said.
Svenson lowered the turret, and he braced himself to jump. Simone came up behind the Scarab, and Svenson jumped out of the warthog just as they got close to it. He grabbed onto a handhold on the side of the Scarab and took a deep breath as he climbed onto its upper deck. He watched Simone drive away and join the others in their fight to hold off the reinforcements, the two Spartans would be significantly more useful there.
As soon as Svenson got onto the upper deck he was met with a Jackal that seemed very surprised to see him there. It was so surprised that Svenson had time to grab his assault rifle and gun it down before it could fight back. A pair of Grunts then came from the door to the Scarab's lower deck, and he gunned them down as well. He quickly slapped a fresh magazine into his rifle before he remembered where the Scarab's power core was. Destroying that was all he needed to do to finish the Scarab for good.
The Scarab let out what sounded like a mechanical whine, and it slowly began to move. It began dragging itself forward with its remaining legs, making a grinding sound that was significantly more annoying than the whining. Svenson stumbled as the thing moved, and as he made his way to the power core in the thing's rear.
Unfortunately for Svenson, there was an Elite waiting next to the power core. One that was actually expecting him, as it had heard his gunshots from earlier. The Elite lunged at him, tackling him and pinning him to a wall. Svenson dropped his assault rifle, and reached for his combat knife as the wind was knocked out of him. The Elite grabbed him by the neck and roared, pulling him back and slamming him into the wall again.
Svenson managed to unsheathe his knife, and he slammed it into the Elite's hip, causing it to stumble back and yelp in surprise. The Elite reached for its plasma rifle, but Svenson ran towards it and stabbed it in the leg. When it fell down, he pulled the knife out and jammed its blade into the back of the Elite's neck.
He dropped the knife and fell to the floor, breathing heavily while he stared at the now dead Elite in front of him. It had happened so fast, but he was still so surprised that he had managed to kill an Elite by himself in close quarters. There wasn't time to dwell on it, he needed to take that Scarab down now.
The power core was shielded, and Svenson's bullets bounced off it when he tried to shoot it. Rather than risk hurting himself, Svenson grabbed the dead Elite's plasma rifle. It was much bigger in his hands than it was in an Elite's, and it was just as heavy as it looked. But he pointed it at the shield, and pulled the trigger.
The shield absorbed each shot from the plasma rifle, but the heat eventually caused it to overload and fail. Now he was faced with the power core itself, and he kept firing. Each shot melted into the power core, he kept shooting until the plasma rifle overheated and burned his hands. He dropped the plasma rifle and took a grenade from his belt, which he shoved into the hole created by the plasma rounds.
He quickly ran for cover, and the explosion was enough to destroy the core. An alarm blared from the Scarab, and smaller explosions began to rock the entire thing. He sprinted for the place where he had climbed up, and he climbed back down as quickly as he could. He fell over as soon as he hit the ground, dropping his assault rifle next to him. When he got to his feet and started running again, he realised that he had forgotten to pick the rifle up. There wasn't time to pick it back up, he needed to get as far away from the Scarab as possible.
The explosion lit up the entire city in a brilliant blinding blue light, and it threw Svenson onto the ground. It was deafening, and showered the area with burning debris. Svenson was glad none of it hit him, and he was glad that he had actually succeeded in destroying the Scarab. He huddled on the ground, protecting himself from any debris that might hit him, and he let out a sigh of relief once it was over.
"Svenson? Svenson, come in," Simone said over comms.
"I'm here," Svenson said breathlessly, he hadn't even realised that he was out of breath.
"Sonofabitch, you did it," Simone said excitedly.
"I knew you had it in you!" Ezekiel joined in. "Great work."
"Now get over here, there's still Covies to deal with," Simone ordered.
"Alright, I'm on my way," Svenson said.
He pushed himself back onto his feet, and spotted the courtyard where the Spartans were fighting. He slid his M6C sidearm out of its holster as he made his way over. It wasn't much, but it was better than not having a gun.
Several troopers were taking cover behind a destroyed bus while Simone and Ezekiel took on the Covenant up close. Svenson joined the troopers, and fired through the bus's windows at a pair of Jackals while Simone took an Elite down, and Ezekiel went after a group of Grunts. The fighting in the courtyard was pretty much over as soon as Svenson got there, and soon there weren't any Covenant left. He moved to join up with the Spartans again, but then he received a call from Nagata.
"Svenson, come in, are you there?" Nagata asked.
"Here, sir," Svenson replied quickly, not wanting to keep the Sergeant waiting.
"What the hell is going on over there? That explosion lit up the whole damn city!"
"Just blew up a Scarab, sir," Svenson said, acting like it wasn't that big of a deal. "But it took out our air defences, and now Covenant are landing all over the city."
"Alright, we're falling back to you. Just hold your position," Nagata ordered.
"Yes sir."
Svenson heard the same droning that he had heard just before the Covenant cruiser appeared above the city. When he looked in the distance, he saw the CAS-class carrier, the one leading the assault. The ship was impossibly huge, half of it wasn't even visible through the layer of clouds in the sky. And I thought the cruisers were big.
"Looks like things are about to get much worse," Ezekiel said as he turned to watch the carrier.
The carrier slowly hovered over the city, launching more and more drop pods all over the place. Some drop pods crashed through the few intact buildings remaining in the city, others landed in the outskirts where most of the fighting was still taking place. Some of the drop pods even landed in the forests and jungles outside the city.
Svenson noticed that the carrier was headed in the direction of the mountain where they had discovered the planet's secret. He was about to inform Nagata before he heard the sound of an approaching warthog, and he saw her riding in the back of it. Nagata, Rosenfeld, and several other troopers hopped out of the back of the transport hog.
"I'll be damned," Nagata said as she looked out at the remains of the Scarab. "You really did take down a Scarab."
"Looks like Veles didn't fare well," Rosenfeld commented as she looked at the melted and collapsed remains of the firebase across the street.
"No, sir," Simone replied. "The Scarab tore the base apart."
Before anyone else could speak, they were all suddenly deafened. The entire sky was darkened as a massive beam of energy shot out of the ground in the distance, and it cut the Covenant carrier clean in half. Svenson's ears were left ringing, and he could see that everyone else was just as startled as him, including the Spartans.
"What the…" Ezekiel said breathlessly.
The two halves of the carrier crashed next to the mountain in the distance. The cruiser that was sitting above them took off and left, probably because it didn't want to get shot down next. All the troopers around them began cheering, even though nobody knew what happened. Whatever the hell it was that happened most likely signified that they had won, that in a rare move they had beaten the Covenant.
Nagata received a call on her radio, and she quickly answered it. The look on her face told Svenson that she already had an idea of what happened, and he did too. He heard William's voice over the radio, the scientist sounded very excited.
"Ma'am!" William shouted. "I was just able to communicate with the intelligence! It just destroyed one of the Covenant ships!"
"Yeah, we saw," Nagata said, she was still in awe. "What the hell else is this planet hiding from us?"
"No clue, not yet. The intelligence… I haven't been able to contact it again since the ship got shot down. I don't know where it went, and I don't know if I'll be able to speak with it again."
"I don't think you need to, that thing might have just saved us."
"Think it's safe to leave yet?"
"No, there's still Covenant in the city. Once they're dealt with we'll come get you, and call in the Tigershark for evac."
"Sounds good. I'll keep trying to communicate with this thing, just let me know when it's safe to get out of here."
Nagata dropped the connection. All they had to do now was clean up the rest of the Covenant, and the reinforcements that the carrier just launched. With the Spartans on their side, it would be easy. And if the 'intelligence' that William talked about was able to continue shooting down the Covenant ships in orbit, then they had pretty much just won the battle.
Every engagement Svenson had been in before had been a devastating loss for humanity, so being the winning side for once was an overwhelmingly good feeling. He even managed to smile a bit. Nagata turned away as she got another call on her radio. Svenson heard the voice of a trooper on the other side.
"Sir, the Covenant in our sector have been dealt with," the trooper said, "but a couple of drop pods landed near us. Neither of them are opening. We checked with the other teams that had drop pods land near them and they're saying the same thing."
"Well don't give the Covies any chances," Nagata said. "Blow them up and be done with it."
"Yes sir," the trooper replied. They went silent for a few minutes as they approached one of the drop pods, Svenson could hear them setting explosives around it. Then came the sound of a metallic crack. "Drop pods are opening! Wait a… What the hell is that?"
"Trooper, report," Nagata ordered.
"We've got a hell of a lot of contacts, they're not like any Covenant I've seen!" gunfire sounded in the background of the call, drowning out most of the trooper's words. "Nevermind, they're not Covenant! I Repeat, they're not Covenant! I don't know what the hell these things are!"
Svenson felt his skin grow cold. His body became limp, and it took all his strength to not collapse on the ground. His biggest, and worst nightmare was becoming real. He recognised the blood curdling shrill that came across the radio, he heard the panicking troopers shouting 'Get it off me!' to each other. Several distress calls came in from all over the city and the outskirts, all of them confirming what was happening. The Flood was there on New Tampa.
"Svenson?" Nagata asked. When he didn't respond, she shouted. "Svenson!"
Svenson looked at Nagata. He didn't need to say anything for her to know what was going on. She could see it in his eyes that he knew this enemy was the Flood, and that they were all in grave danger.
"We need to leave," Svenson said. "Right now."
Nagata nodded. "Alright everyone mount up! We're getting the hell out of here right now!"
"Sergeant, what's going on?" Simone asked.
"Something real nasty is coming this way," Nagata said. "We need to get off this planet ASAP."
"Think you can be a little clearer?"
"You heard about what happened on Alpha Halo?" Nagata asked.
"All I know is that it's classified," Simone said.
"Well the shit that's coming for us right now is the reason it's classified. Now get your ass in a hog and get to the southern side of the city now."
"I'm sending out a message for everyone to get there," Rosenfeld said. "Since the airspace is clear now, I'll get our birds on the way."
"I'll send the signal to the Tigershark," Nagata said. "Hopefully they're still around to hear us."
Another shrill sounded in the distance as everyone was in the process of boarding a warthog, this one was much closer. Svenson hopped on the turret on the back of Simone's warthog again, and he turned toward the sound. He saw movement coming from the direction of the destroyed Scarab. Lots of movement.
"Incoming!" a trooper shouted.
"Take them down!" Nagata ordered. "And get us the hell out of here!"
Svenson and the other gunners opened fire. The Flood forms were too far away for Svenson to see clearly, but his mind was flashing back to Alpha Halo with each one he killed. So far there weren't any infected humans, only a horde of the small balloon-like infection forms. Simone and the others drove away from the courtyard, and toward the southern side of the city where Rosenfeld was ordering the other UNSC forces to gather.
More Flood forms began to jump over the crumbling buildings, they were coming from every direction now. Svenson saw an infected Army trooper jump over one building, and then he saw two more behind it. All he saw now was Fireteam Delta, he remembered watching the infectors land on top of Lopes and Faraday, and having to kill them after they had gotten infected.
"Svenson! Open fire, damnit!" Simone shouted from the driver's seat.
Ezekiel leaned out from the passenger side and fired a grenade at the approaching Flood forms. Svenson realised he hadn't been shooting at all, and that he had been back on Alpha Halo for a moment.
"Sorry!" Svenson shouted back.
He opened fire at the approaching horde, ripping through each approaching form with ease. The chaingun was so powerful that it tore the infected bodies to pieces, leaving them so they couldn't be brought back by the infectors. He was thankful to have the chaingun now, though he could've used it back on Alpha Halo.
Ezekiel fired another grenade, taking out an entire horde of infection forms with it while Svenson gunned down the infected troopers. In the hordes he started seeing infected Covenant, Elites, Grunts, and Jackals, all twisted in horrifying ways. That wasn't something he wished on them, no matter what they did to humanity. Nobody deserved the fate of being infected by the Flood.
"Hold up here!" Nagata ordered as they approached a plaza in the southern side of the city. "This is where the evac will come pick us up."
Simone slowed the warthog down alongside the others as they continued firing on the Flood forms that chased them. The warthogs were soon put into a defensive line at the entrance to the plaza where they could use their chainguns to hold off anyone coming from any direction.
"Svenson! With me!" Nagata shouted.
"I'll take the gun," Simone said as he left the driver's seat.
Svenson reluctantly let go of the gun, and let Simone take it. He and Nagata retreated into the plaza, away from the gunfire so they could talk.
"These things are the Flood, right?" Nagata asked.
"Yes," Svenson said quickly. "They're the Flood, I know it."
"Then… What do we do?" Nagata asked.
Svenson could see the fear on Nagata's face, the panic in her voice. It was a little demoralising to see that in his superior, but how else was someone supposed to act in this situation? The Flood were so much of a threat on Alpha Halo that the ring had to be destroyed in order to defeat them, and Svenson wasn't sure if they had the means to destroy the entire planet.
"We need to run, as far as we can," Svenson said. "And nuke the entire surface from orbit. That's the only way we're defeating them."
"Damn," Nagata sighed. "I was afraid you'd say something like that."
"It's the only way," Svenson said.
"If we try nuking the hell out of this planet we might end up like that carrier. I'm not sure that's gonna be an option."
"Then get William to tell that intelligence about what's going on, maybe it can help."
Nagata nodded, and stepped aside to try contacting William. The defensive line of warthogs stopped firing as the assault of Flood forms died down.
"God damn," Nagata cursed. "Something is jamming comms. I was just able to contact the Tigershark a few minutes ago."
Comms are down? That didn't make any sense. Even if there were Covenant left in the city, they wouldn't be jamming their comms if they wanted to survive. Svenson took a step back, and looked up at the sky where the assault carrier once was. That carrier had purposely shot those drop pods filled with Flood forms at them, they didn't come from some underground facility like on Alpha Halo.
The Covenant had just weaponised the Flood against them, and Svenson had a bad feeling that they would do it again.