Well, that took a lot longer than it should have. Really hit a wall writing this chapter for some reason, not sure if it's perfect but at some point you have to start putting words on (virtual paper). If I ever take another pass at this story after I finish it maybe this chapter will be first in line. Anyway, at least my time fruitlessly thinking about the plot of this story while trying to write this chapter did give me an idea for how to resolve a plotline I'd opened up in early chapters. Anyway, here it is.
Standard copyright disclaimer: I do not own Halo or any associated media, characters, or settings which are properties of 343 or Bungie. This is a work of fanfiction written purely for entertainment and not for monetary gain.
0600, 6 December 2549
Concord, Human Outer Colony
Chac Lon shivered as he pulled his coat tighter around himself. "Gods, if I was in charge of the Covenant I'd just let the humans keep the worlds like this. Ice is for keeping water cold, not living in."
"Quiet, you damned hatchling. I know for a fact you've been through colder and you didn't die." Shim Vol, standing next to him, was unimpressed by Chac Lon's complaining. She did seem to be handling the cold a bit better than the other T'vaoan, even if she was also shivering a bit.
Most of the planet of Concord was covered in ice and snow; the polar regions were a featureless wasteland aside from the few mountain peaks tall enough to poke through the ice. Near the equator, though, was a small area warm enough for unfrozen oceans and plant life to exist. But even in those regions, the climate could hardly be called 'tropical'. Especially compared to Eayn.
Yesterday, Chac Lon and his kig-yar were deployed to a makeshift site in the northern part of the Caravelle region of Concord, consisting of a cluster of tents surrounding a requisitioned mining site. The accommodations were definitely poor, but Chac Lon's kig-yar and the other UNSC forces there only spent a single night there. Now, they were preparing for their part in Operation: KICKBACK. The Covenant battlecruiser was just below the horizon, but the glow of its lights and the fighting around it had still been visible from here the night before.
Their next step would be to deploy much closer to the frontlines. UNSC forces on the planet had managed to fight the Covenant to a standstill on the ground. How much of that was due to the UNSC having parity or the Covenant playing conservative until more orbital support arrived was an open question. Intelligence said this Covenant force was led mostly by jiralhanae, so likely the former.
The kig-yar had been made aware that they would be fighting jiralhanae. Most of them were unconcerned, jiralhanae were a known quantity, and most didn't harbor a special hate for them. Chac Lon did. Six years ago, he would have worked himself into a fury, let the hate build until it consumed him. Now, he knew better. It took an immense effort, but the hate was at the back of his mind, not the front. With it contained, Chac Lon was a more effective leader, and a more effective killer.
"Hey! Jackal! Your turn on the Pelican!" The yell of a UNSC soldier woke Chac Lon from his thoughts, as he made his way onto the waiting Pelican. The kig-yar and humans at staging at this site would take a dozen Pelicans to the jumpoff point on the northern edge of the combat area, a mere sixty kilometers from the hovering battlecruiser. Hopefully the UNSC had done their job whittling down the Covenant ship's fighter complement.
The Pelicans lifted into the sky, headed south. For the first few minutes, the flight was uneventful. Chac Lon's Pelican was near the front of the formation, with the rest following in a loose formation behind. Above and behind the formation of pair of unusual, small aircraft slid into a position behind the Pelicans. After wracking his brain for a few moments, he recognized it as an F-99 drone fighter. Its presence made him feel a bit better, hopefully they would dissuade any less aggressive Banshee or Seraph pilots from attacking the transports.
Out the open rear ramp he saw the tundra of Concord passing by below. Large expanses of grass, lichen, and small ponds separated a few widely spread buildings, though as they continued south the density of human settlements gradually increased. Soon there were clusters of houses, and what looked like farms and ranches.
Suddenly, both the F-99s lit their afterburners and broke away from the transports. Seconds later, the Pelican dipped and rolled as Chac Lon instinctively grabbed the edge of his seat. Some of the other kig-yar in the passenger compartment swore, and Chac Lon was about to curse the pilot when he saw beads of blue plasma flying past. Banshees.
Four of the Covenant fighters screamed past, as the Pelican continued to duck and weave. A Pelican was hit by fire from three Banshees, rolling over and starting a dive to the ground before exploding in a massive ball of flame and smoke seconds later. Chac Lon prayed it was only human soldiers on that one, and wished his needle rifle wasn't stored out of reach. As the Banshees came around for a second pass, the UNSC gunner in the rear of the Pelican sprayed fire at them, but hit nothing as the transport continued jinking.
One Banshee vanished in a puff of bluish plasma as an F-99 rolled in behind it and executed the unaware pilot. Another Pelican was hit, taking hits to one of the engines and the cargo compartment. Chac Lon watched as it briefly caught fire, before the damaged engine activated its fire suppression system. The damaged Pelican fell into the center of the formation, trailing black smoke and scorched but still flying.
Finally, the roller coaster ride stopped as the Pelican settled back into level flight, and the F-99s dropped back into formation. Slowly, a crippled Banshee tumbled to the ground behind the formation, shattering into pieces as it hit the tundra below. None of the kig-yar in the Pelican saw it, but the F-99s managed to destroy three of the four Banshees attacking the flight. The fourth's jiralhanae pilot decided he could better serve the Covenant by living to fight another day and broke off the attack. Once he got far enough away from the Pelicans, the dumb AIs aboard the F-99s determined that staying close to the transports was a higher priority and let him flee.
Fortunately, no further Covenant patrols harassed the UNSC flight, and they made it safely to their destination. Now a mere 10 kilometers from the loosely drawn front line, the sounds of combat were audible to the south. After they set down, Chac Lon took stock of his company. (They'd been designated 'Yankee' again. Either Korhonen was making some joke he didn't get, or he just felt like reusing the name from Levosia.) He was relieved to find that none of them had been on the Pelican that exploded with no survivors. Sadly, three kig-yar had been injured on the other Pelican that got hit. It remained to be seen whether they would survive.
After disembarking from the Pelican, Chac Lon assembled his kig-yar at the corner of the tarmac. His kig-yar were again divided into squads, this time seven of them. Chac Lon would be in command, Shim Vol his number two, and other trusted kig-yar in charge of the other five squads. They hadn't been given detailed assignments yet, but he figured that it would be a lot like last time. The kig-yar would do spot for heavier human forces, take shots at any high-value targets they could, and use their mobility to get in position and keep from dying. Unlike on Levosia, they'd be on offense this time, not on defense.
As he organized his gear, Chac Lon heard a familiar voice.
"Listen up Marines! Soldiers! Everyone else." Sergeant Johnson briefly made eye contact with the kig-yar as he said the last words. "The Covenant was dumb enough to park one of their big, fancy spaceships over our planet, and we're not going to let it leave!"
Sergeant Johnson paused, then continued. "Now some of you might be worried about all those brutes in between us and that ship. But those monkeys die to a bullet in the head just like any other alien! And I happened to bring along ninety millimeters of H-E spewing, divine intervention!" He pointed at a line of Scorpion tanks, visible in a hangar behind him. That got a cheer from the assembled UNSC soldiers. Chac Lon wasn't quite as enthusiastic, but he definitely wasn't going to complain armored support.
"Isn't that the human from Levosia?" Shim Vol asked Chac Lon, as Johnson continued his motivational speech. "The other humans seem to like him."
"Yes, it is." Chac Lon responded. "Korhonen mentioned he's been fighting since the Covenant first attacked humanity."
"Really has motivation to fight, then. Surprised he hasn't gone insane."
Chac Lon agreed with that. Even the thought of fighting a war against the Covenant for more than twenty years was exhausting; he had heard hushed whispers from sangheili and other kig-yar about the humans' tenacity, but it was different seeing it in person.
Tenacity alone wouldn't win the war against the Covenant. But for now, taking out this ship and a whole bunch of jiralhanae with it would be a start.
0800, 6 December 2549
Concord, Human Outer Colony
"Put us down here, pilot."
"I've got my orders, jackal, and they don't come from you."
The conifer-covered hillock passed below the pair of Falcons as they flew south at low altitude. Chac Lon's squad, Yankee 1, was split between the two tilt rotor craft. The formation already overflew a couple places Chac Lon thought would be a good place for his squad to hole up. Each time the human pilot ignored his request to land. Evidently command wanted them somewhere specific.
Several kilometers back, the main UNSC push was starting. Hundreds of soldiers and Marines, supported by tanks and ground attack drones, assaulted the Covenant front line. After a few days of inactivity along a quiet part of their perimeter, the Covenant forces in this area had grown complacent. The humans pushed through their initial defenses easily; unggoy and kig-yar routed, while the jiralhanae stood and fought. Most of them were soon dead. A few held on to their positions, hunkering down until the lead human elements passed them by, then causing problems behind the line.
"Alright, we're getting close. Get ready!" The pilot called over the intercom. Ahead was a small cluster of buildings on a small rise, a house and a few outbuildings, about a kilometer away from the 'main' gravel road. Plasma scorching was visible on the walls, and the windows were cracked or shattered. As the Falcons began their descent, and the kig-yar prepared to jump out, a small group of unggoy appeared out of the main building. Immediately, all three Falcons opened up with their chin-mounted autocannons, sending high-explosive rounds at the Covenant troops and peppering the buildings. The unggoy never had a chance.
Once the Falcon dropped to a height of a few meters and slowed to a crawl, Chac Lon and the rest of his kig-yar jumped. Landing, he immediately sank up almost up to his knees in the wet, peaty soil. Grimacing, he extracted himself, and ran the short distance to the house. The bodies of half a dozen unggoy were strewn about outside, all clearly dead. Pushing inside he saw an unconscious kig-yar lying on the floor near the doorway; likely he was the leader of this group of unggoy. Nudging him, Chac Lon saw he was unconscious; judging by his wounds he would soon be dead. Indeed, as Chac Lon watched, the Covenant kig-yar exhaled a final breath and stopped moving.
The T'vaoan continued through the house, closely followed by two of his squadmates. The next room looked like the kitchen; dishes were strewn about from collapsed cabinets, and the refrigerator hung open, food spoiling inside. There was no sign yet of the human inhabitants, not even any blood splatters. Had they escaped before the Covenant arrived?
Turning the corner into the hallway, Chac Lon saw a single unggoy. It was clearly injured, oozing blue blood from multiple wounds across its body. Seeing the kig-yar approaching, the unggoy gazed it him uncomprehendingly, trying to decide whether Chac Lon was friend or foe. For a brief moment, Chac Lon made eye contact with the wounded unggoy. Then, he drew his pistol and fired twice, putting two rounds through the unggoy's face.
After a minute the rest of the squad reported that the area was clear. The unggoy Chac Lon shot had been the only living Covenant in the immediate area. Immediately, without prompting, the kig-yar began dragging the bodies into one of the outbuildings. If another Covenant force showed up to investigate, a bunch of unggoy corpses out in the open would be a sure sign something had gone wrong.
The next task was to set up a good observation position. Likely the Covenant would use the gravel road to move reinforcements up to counter the UNSC attack to the north. The road led to the main Covenant position to the south, sandwiched between the UNSC forces to the north and the besieged human city of Malakhit. Getting eyes on that would be critical, but they'd also have to watch to make sure nobody was trying to sneak around the other side. The tundra in this part of Concord was quite passable for vehicles, especially Covenant designs that hovered instead of riding on wheels or tracks.
Aside from the main house, the complex Yankee 1 occupied had a few other buildings: a rusted, metal-sided building that looked like it had been a mechanic's shop at one point (a rusting tractor was still tucked in a back corner), a storage building filled with bags of grain, and a few other sheds, water tanks, and other structures that weren't much use beyond providing cover. The house had a large, expansive attic, with a few windows looking toward the road. A good place for observation, Chac Lon and two others would set up there. The mechanic shop was missing entire panels from the roof, but the framework was intact enough that another couple kig-yar could perch in the rafters.
Chac Lon had thought the storage building full of grain would be another good observation spot. The report from the kig-yar who actually looked at the place killed that idea. The air was foul with fumes from rotting grain, and the kig-yar reported that she could feel the building shift when she put her weight on one of the supports. Instead, Chac Lon was sending the last three to a small ridgeline about a hundred meters away. A few rocks and bushes along the top gave decent cover and concealment, and as a bonus it would let them get shots on the side of anyone coming up the path to the house. The house, other buildings, and ridgeline were laid out in a kinked line at about a 45 degree angle. Over the years Chac Lon had developed an instinct for picking out good ambush spots, but hearing it formally explained as the "L-shaped ambush" from UNSC soldiers the past few weeks gave a bit more insight. Gods willing if the Covenant decided to investigate their position they'd stick to their normal, stupid tactics. (And only send a few at a time. Kig-yar weren't demons, no matter how good their tactics were taking on multiple packs of jiralhanae at once would be a tall order.)
It was not even an hour until the first sign of Covenant reinforcements appeared. The group on the ridgeline outside saw them first; three massive Umbra transports, escorted by a gaggle of Spectres and jiralhanae on Choppers. Together there had to be close to a hundred Covenant in the convoy. Hopefully it was mostly unggoy inside the Umbras. Seeing such large vehicles 'in the wild' was uncommon; for internal security on Eayn and T'vao the Covenant used the lighter Shadows more often. In any case, this would have to be called in to the UNSC.
"Citadel actual, this is Yankee 1."
"Yankee 1, go ahead."
"Yankee 1 has visual on estimated one hundred Covenant, three heavy transports, roughly 10 lighter vehicles. Estimate 10 brutes, remainder grunts and jackals."
"Copy that Yankee 1, confirm no elites?"
"Confirm, no elites spotted." That wasinteresting. Even on operations where jiralhanae did the majority of the heavy lifting, there were still a couple sangheili around to actually be in charge. Maybe they were all back on the ship?
"Roger that, Yankee 1. Keep your eyes open and report any further Covenant forces."
Chac Lon acknowledged the last transmission, and settled back in to watch the enemy convoy go by. In the distance, he could faintly hear the sound of human artillery firing; he couldn't tell whether it was actual artillery or tanks engaging the Covenant directly. Chac Lon knew little about armored combat, but had known enough to avoid Covenant Wraiths at all costs back when he was operating as a pirate. (Kvet, probably the most technically inclined of the kig-yar on his crew, had gone on at length about the perceived faults of the Wraith and human Scorpion a few weeks ago when they were on Ballast, but Chac Lon zoned out of the conversation soon after it started.)
Suddenly, part of the trailing end of the convoy broke off and started heading up the dirt path toward Yankee 1. A single Chopper, with a pair of Spectres following. Chac Lon looked through the scope of his needle rifle, going to maximum zoom. A jiralhanae was driving the Chopper, and both the Spectres. Two kig-yar and four unggoy made up the passengers of the Spectres.
Chac Lon nudged the two kig-yar in the attic with him and pointed at the lead jiralhanae, before switching on his helmet radio. Though useless for communicating at long range, for situations like this it was perfect. Its electromagnetic signature was small enough that the Covenant would have to be almost on top of them to pick them up, and it picked up sound well enough he could keep his voice low.
"Zep, Thac, you have visual on Covenant approaching?"
"Got them."
"In my sights, Chac. Ready to fire."
"Jiralhanae first, then the unggoy in the turrets. Wait until the jiralhanae dismount long as they don't see us."
The small Covenant force continued its approach up the path, following the dirt track is it lazily curved through the landscape. That they were following the road even though they could have glided over the terrain nearby hopefully was an indicator that they weren't expecting trouble. As it was, there was no sign that the jiralhanae knew they had nine kig-yar aiming at them.
Passing a small wire fence, the three Covenant vehicles slowed to a stop, roughly fifty meters away from the house. Resisting the urge to shoot at one of the jiralhanae, Chac Lon settled his aimpoint on the abdomen of one of the unggoy manning a Spectre turret. It swiveled the mounted plasma cannon around aimlessly, oblivious.
The lead jiralhanae dismounted from the Chopper, took two steps, and sniffed the air. Turning, it yelled something to other two jiralhanae, as it unholstered its spiker. Had it seen the kig-yar watching them, or smelled the bodies of the dead unggoy piled in a building nearby? It didn't matter. Within seconds of the jiralhanae pulling out its weapon, two beams of light pierced its face, killing it instantly. Two other kig-yar fired their beam rifles at the other jiralhanae, both scoring hits. One died immediately like his comrade, the other was hit in the neck and took almost a minute to die.
Chac Lon held down the trigger on his needle rifle, letting the recoil drive his aimpoint higher. His first round hit the unggoy in the stomach, the second in the chest, the third in the face. The unggoy let loose a gurgling scream for a fraction of a second before the needles reacted, reducing it to a cloud of pink vapor. Quickly, the T'vaoan zoomed out and looked for another target. Two of the jiralhanae were dead, and the third was clearly dying. A second beam rifle shot eliminated one of the enemy kig-yar, Chac Lon aimed at the other as it fled, desperately trying to cover its head. A single needle through the back of the skull dropped it.
There was a moment of silence as the last of the Covenant unggoy fell to the guns of Chac Lon's squad. Then, Chac Lon quickly called the entire squad to the ground floor of the house.
"We need to move. Now." Chac Lon hissed. "Even jiralhanae aren't stupid enough to ignore that one of their squads went silent as soon as they checked on this house. We've got minutes if that before there's dozens of them here."
"See those trees off to the southeast? We could head there." Thac Vol pointed at a stand of conifers on a small bluff a kilometer and a half away. "Should still have line of sight on the road like the humans want, and we can take those vehicles too." She waved her hand at the Covenant vehicles sitting outside.
"Do any of you know how to drive that thing? I damn well don't." Chac Lon pointed at the Chopper. The assembled kig-yar were silent; apparently none of them could either. "Steal a couple grenades off the unggoy and scuttle the thing. I'll just hang off the side of that Spectre. Actually, everyone grab anything useful off these idiots you can find. Quickly."
As Chac Lon searched the bodies of the Covenant kig-yar, his squadmates hauled the inert bodies of the unggoy out of the Spectres, carelessly dumping them on the ground below. A minute later, as the Chopper exploded, the hijacked Spectres were already speeding away from the human settlement.
0900, 6 December 2549
Concord, Human Outer Colony
Several kilometers to the west of the city of Malakhit and the hovering battlecruiser Portent of Storms, Noble team prepared to engage the enemy. Driving their Warthogs to the front lines, they had already mopped up a few stray Covenant left behind by the main UNSC attack, but they would soon be facing much tougher opposition.
Malakhit was the main human settlement in the area, and had been unlucky enough to come under heavy Covenant attack early in the invasion of Concord. UNSC forces on the ground were strong enough to prevent a rout and complete loss of the city, but the Covenant still held much of Malakhit. Worse, they had it almost completely surrounded, leaving thousands of civilians trapped. A few were able to escape through more porous Covenant lines in the jagged mountains immediately south of the city, but most of the survivors were near the UNSC strongpoint centered on the Malakhit airport. UNSC artillery and AA fire, combined with fighter support from elsewhere on the planet, kept the airport relatively safe so far. Most importantly, five massive Egret transport craft sat hidden inside reinforced hangars, untouched so far. The airspace was still far too hot for them to climb out of the protective AA bubble, but as soon as it was clear they would be ready to run for space. Each one could carry more than six hundred civilians away from the planet.
But right now, the Covenant was mounting a hard push the AA guns and artillery emplacements that defended the airport. Stopping them would be up to Noble team.
"Contact left! Six Locusts!" Carter calmly yelled, pointing at a group of Covenant walkers approaching. The repurposed excavation vehicles packed quite a punch, and had torn through the first line of UNSC fortifications in this sector.
"Six, Seven, with me! We'll slow them down, Two, Four, Five, you're the killers."
"With pleasure." Jorge, Noble Five, responded, hefting a rocket launcher. Both Jorge and Emile loaded up with heavy weapons after the reports of Locusts came in. The Covenant vehicles were tough, but nothing like the massive Scarabs the Covenant sometimes deployed. A few hits from the rockets would be enough to crack them.
Kat, Emile, and Jorge sped away in a Warthog, moving to outflank the approaching Locusts. For that to work, Carter, Thom, and Michelle would have to distract the Covenant walkers. The three Spartans took cover behind vegetation as the first Locust stomped through a house about a hundred meters away. About two squads of brutes, grunts, and jackals followed, scanning for humans. None of them saw the well-hidden Spartans until they opened fire.
Carter and Michelle opened fire with their marksman's rifles; Carter engaged one of the brutes, putting multiple rounds into his neck and upper chest while Michelle went for the softer targets, dropping three grunts in less than two seconds. Thom, as usual, was being more aggressive; he ran forward with his assault rifle, closing half the distance and killing one of the jackals before throwing two grenades into the cluster of Covenant troops. The explosions killed the rest of the grunts and the other jackal, leaving only a brute alive on the ground. But now the Locust was aware of them.
The machine stopped its advance and slowly turned to face the Spartans as the three of them ran for cover. Even in armor, a shot from the Locust's beam would be devastating. The purple-colored machine was about to fire when a sudden explosion erupted on the back of the turret, tearing off huge chunks of metal and sending the walker stumbling. A second rocket hit a second later, and the Locust collapsed to the ground as the entire turret disappeared in a flash of smoke and plasma.
"Good kill, good kill! Going after the second one!" Jorge and Emile's rockets had been perfectly aimed, and had diverted the attention of the Locusts away from Carter and his team. The second Locust seemingly froze, its turret moving back and forth as the operator tried to decide which team of Spartans to engage. His indecision would be the death of him, as another two rockets blew three legs off the machine, sending it falling and crushing half a squad of Covenant beneath it.
At this point, the rest of the Locusts decided that the rocket-wielding Spartans were, in fact, the biggest threat. All four Locusts turned to follow the Spartans, as they sped away in their Warthog. Plasma cannon fire streaked toward the vehicle, but Kat's unpredictable driving was good enough to evade any hits. Chasing after the Spartans, the Locusts and a good chunk of the Covenant force dissolved into a loose gaggle, more concerned with killing the 'demons' than continuing their offensive. More importantly, they were headed away from the human AA guns.
A few of the Covenant did have enough discipline to keep pushing toward their objective. A few hundred meters away, Carter could see some of the brutes trying to corral their forces, witnessing one brutally club a pair of jackals who tried to chase the fleeing Spartans instead of continuing toward the AA guns. The brief breakdown in discipline gave Noble Team an opening, and they made the most of it; nearly a squad worth of Covenant was dead before they realized the Spartans were shooting at them again. This delay and the distraction provided by the Spartans also gave the UNSC enough time to rush a platoon of regular troops into the area, filling the hole in the line torn open by the Covenant's initial attack.
Even with those reinforcements the UNSC's situation was still precarious. The four surviving Locusts had turned back toward their objective, and were advancing again. A squad of UNSC soldiers spent too long in the open and was spotted by two of the Locusts; they were vaporized almost instantly by superheated plasma from the walkers. Amidst the screaming, the Covenant didn't realize that Jorge, Emile, and Kat had returned and were behind them. They soon realized, as another salvo of rockets slammed into the back of the trailing Locust and blew it to pieces.
Doing their best to capitalize on the advantage, the Spartans fired another pair of rockets. But the driver of the Locust they were targeting had good reflexes (or was just lucky), and narrowly sidestepped the missiles. It even managed to dodge one of the next shots; the one rocket that did hit crippled one of the Locust's legs but didn't kill it. Finally, another salvo from the Spartans took down the walker. But there was bad news; the team only had two rockets left, only enough for a single Locust at most. And there were two left.
Even as the other team of Spartans fired their last rockets at a Locust, Carter was trying to work out how to destroy the last one. Before he figured it out, Thom had his own idea. Sprinting forward, Noble Six ran toward the last Locust, taking down a few grunts and jackals with his assault rifle as he dodged a shot from the Locust's cannon.
Groaning at his teammate's foolhardy attack, Carter gestured for Michelle to help him cover Thom as the Spartan raced toward the Locust. The blue-colored Spartan was definitely attracting a lot of attention, but his enhanced reflexes and training let Thom dodge all the shots from the loose gaggle of grunts and jackals near the Locust. Barely pausing to scoop up a handful of plasma grenades, Noble Six leapt up and grabbed onto a gap in the Locust's armor, narrowly avoiding death as Carter dispatched a pair of brutes as they were about to shoot at the Spartan.
Hanging from one hand, Thom began to climb up the Locust. A brute lunged in, swiping at him with the blades of his spiker. Thom dodged, and landed a brutal kick on the brute's head that sent it staggering, bleeding from a shattered jaw. Reaching with his right hand, Noble Six pulled himself up even with the cockpit of the Locust. With his other hand, he quickly primed the three plasma grenades he had picked up and jammed them into the guts of the walker. Then, he jumped.
The Spartan was barely clear of the machine when the plasma grenades detonated, igniting a massive secondary explosion as the Locust's engine lost containment. For a moment, Thom disappeared as the fireball blossomed outward. Then, he tumbled free, armor trailing thin wisps of smoke. For a moment, Carter feared the worst as he sprinted toward his fallen teammate.
When Carter reached him, Thom was already sitting up and drawing his weapon. Michelle, following close behind Carter, saved Thom the trouble of killing the last few Covenant. With the Locusts gone (and more than a dozen of them dead as the last one exploded), the Covenant force's morale was shattered, and they broke into a retreat barely more organized than a rout.
"Thom, you fucking idiot, one of these days you aren't going to survive playing hero like that." Carter said, looking over his teammate. While his armor was severely scorched and he was likely bruised all over, Thom seemed outwardly fine. Except for the fact that his lower right leg was bent nearly 45 degrees halfway between the knee and ankle.
"This normal for him?" Michelle wryly asked. Carter nodded. It wasn't the first time he'd pulled a stunt like this, and probably not the last. Well, maybe this time would be the one Holland would knock some sense into him. Hopefully before a hunter or brute decided to.
1030, 6 December 2549
Concord, Human Outer Colony
"I can smell them, too, brother, but how do you know it was not our kig-yar, or a bunch of humans?"
Cetarus appreciated his pack brother's skepticism, but he'd already explained this once. No matter.
"You see, this captain clearly died from needle fire, but these unggoy here? Human bullets. And when we go inside, see these footprints here?" Cetarus pointed out a line of kig-yar tracks in the peaty soil outside. "There are the same shape in the dust in the attic. I can show you if you'd like."
Timorum, the other jiralhanae, laughed. "I do not think it would be a good idea put all my weight on such flimsy wood. I will trust what you saw."
Cetarus continued pointing at few bullet casings lying at the base of the human building. "Finally, these casing here; it is the same type as used by the humans in their long range rifles. Likely what any traitor kig-yar would use."
"I am convinced." Timorum clapped his younger packmate on the shoulder. "Good work. I will let the chieftain know that the traitors are here."
