The Crow loomed over the edge, staring down at the drop, then shook her head, "I'll take the long way up. I'm not a Fallschirmjaeger member..." turning to Elster. The hotheaded Engineer Replika snorted and took her helmet off, offering a small smile and a nod. She watched Six walk up to them with only two Jetpacks, before tossing Elster one. The girl mounted it onto her armor's back, letting it link systems.
She looked to the Crow and said, "Then take care of the Civvies with the Marines."
"And play nice," Six ordered her, before elbowing Elster in the shoulder gently. The girl nodded and turned to the Crow, who hummed and sighed, shoulders sagging. She replied with an affirmative nod back, before checking her rifle as the sound of packs' thrusters powering on came out, a roar of fuel being spent. Crow looked up, watching the Spartan, Elster and the Bullfrogs leaping across chasms with courage and gusto.
She sighed, then turned toward the Marines in the room and said, "I'm with you, I guess..." flashing them a toothy grin. The men, though wary, nodded to her and showed her to follow along toward the Civilians. Entering the lobby, the young Crow found herself facing dozens of people who seemed very much afraid. Above them, the Corvette of the Covenant armadas kept pouring plasma down on various UNSC positions across the city.
Feeling the ground beneath her feet shake, she sighed and looked around at the Civvies again. A family caught her eye, three children and their mother. The father, it seemed, was the Marine comforting them. His wife wept as she caressed his cheek while the children, two girls and a boy, held onto the father for dear life. She hummed, clicked her tongue and marched up to the Marines at the front of the lobby, taking cover behind a rather large plant pot.
One of the few Army Troopers present in the place crouched beside her and shouldered his DMR, murmuring, "Can't believe the rumors about fembots were real..." as he scoped in one of the entryways. Crow hummed and chose not to answer to him, simply casting a sideways glance at the man. He hummed, shook his head and waited as the ground below them shook again, nearly throwing off her aim. A few of the civvies yelped in surprise at the hits, but most stayed calm.
The Trooper looked to Crow and asked her, "Aren't you and that other one, Elster, from the same country?"
Crow huffed and flipped up the iron sights of the rifle, stating, "Yes, we are..." annoyed. Why'd she even have to answer a Gestalt soldier anyhow? Weren't they usually the ones who died first in this entire mess of a war? And what the hell was the Lieutenant as far as people went? Honestly, the amount of shit that Crow had to deal with right now was not pleasant. Hell, she didn't even have a nickname yet.
The Marine also seemed to have taken the hint and gone quiet. The Army troopers hummed, with one of them tossing an earpiece to the girl. She clipped it to her ear and turned it on, listening to Elster and the Lieutenant as they advanced, rifles chugging away as they fought and killed aliens. She should've taken the goddamn Jetpack and joined them, honestly. This was gonna be boring.
Just as that thought finished airing itself out of her brain, a needle round snapped by her ear, shaking her to her core. It slammed into the wall, embedded itself there and detonated, showering the ground with micro-fragments of purple crystalline material. With eyes still wide, the Crow stared down the monster that had fired. An Elite decloaked in front of her, followed by a squadron of Grunts and several more of its siblings.
She shook her head, clearing her block, before grinning with sharp teeth. She called out to her newfound comrades, "Targets! KILL'EM ALL!" before opening fire. The first ape to charge her seemed to be aiming dead for her ass. Easy kill, she thought as she stood to her foot pads and lit it up. She started moving, drawing her knife and making sure it was still sharp by slitting the throat of one of the stout chittering creatures escorting the Brutes.
The fluorescent blue blood stained the warmachine female's face as she surged forward, meeting the first Brute head-on as the infantrymen of gestalt origin around her gained some degree of confidence to join. The Civilians themselves cowered behind cover, as they should. They'd just be in the way of the trained killers keeping them alive in this clusterfuck.
She eyed another Brute. The beast eyed her as well. She stood up. It prepared its strange pistol with the two shanks at the front. She slung her MA37 onto her back, drew her pistol and knife and grinned, before the two manic creatures charged headlong at each-other. The girl fired the high-caliber pistol under the cover of her Marine 'comrades', before sliding under a swing from the beast's fist, sidestepping a slam-down with the blades of the weapon and putting the barrel of the pistol to its chin.
She shot twice, its strange helmet flung off its head as it collapsed to the floor. Crow, however, didn't expect what came next. A heavy-duty hammer swung from her left. She could barely dodge it in time, but it did ring her bell by striking the plant pot right next to her, not to mention sending bits and pieces of marble, metal and dirt all around as if a concussive blast paired with grenade shrapnel. It pinged off her Titanium chest-plate and a chunk embedded into her hip, though not deep enough to cause any lasting damage.
She grunted, however, then charged at the beast, slamming into its belly and feeling as if she'd hit an electric fence, considering the electric shock coursing through her body. Before long, she swept the leg of the beast, but found herself taking the brunt of the massive hammer's pommel to the face. It damn near broke a couple of her teeth and did succeed in sending her back, staggered.
Two soldiers beside her took bolts from another beast's Spiker, one of them pinned to the wall with a spike clean through his throat. The other lay on the floor, writhing, only able to watch the beast that shot him approaching. She shifted her aim, drawing her pistol despite her own dizziness, then she shot. Two bullets hit the thick hide of the monster, causing it to turn toward her.
She looked up and watched the hammer come down for her head. Rolling out of the way, she felt the air knocked out of her artificial lungs, her biomech heart starting to pum erratically. She quickly doubled over, standing to her feet and skidding to a halt as she aimed the pistol, then emptied the magazine into the Brute that'd charged her with the hammer. Another Brute flanked her, meanwhile.
The hammer brute was still alive and charging headlong at her, its armor glimmering gold under the blasts of Covenant plasma cannons. She grit her teeth, drew her assault rifle and took a knee, turning to the flanking Brute and running from the hammer main. Casings clattered to the floor as the rifle chattered, bullets piercing the hide. One lucky shot nailed the flanking Brute in the eye, sending it toppling over. A glowing spike flew by her cheek from one of its siblings
The hammer-wielding Brute charging her suddenly dropped dead, only for a shot to ring out. She looked over to the right to see Elster and the Lieutenant, the latter carrying a DMR as they advanced to join the defense. The Lieutenant called out, "Civilians and wounded in the elevator first. Elster, keep them safe. Crow, up front!" and turned to her. The riflewoman grinned and rushed up to their side.
"Took your sweet time, Herr Leutnant!" She then quipped as the surviving Marines and Troopers formed a perimeter around the elevator, Civilians filing in behind them, carrying their wounded and the wounded Marines. Those who could still walk entered the elevator and provided cover from there, until the last man boarded. The Spartan gave a tap on Elster and Crow's shoulders and pulled out a grenade, thumbing the pin out and priming it. He threw it toward the leading Brute, letting the grenade do the rest of the work as they entered the elevator.
Elster hit the button for the top floor, the ovoid elevator's doors closing shut behind them. Elster sighed and seemingly wiped sweat off her brow on instinct. She looked to Crow and said, "Not bad, for one of your types..." which garnered a grin out of her once more. The Crow, however, looked out of habit to the Lieutenant, who gave a nod of approval as well.
"She can listen to orders and shoot well, sir," A Marine Sergeant quipped, "I think she'll do fine... Just keep the creepy fucking smiles to yourself..."
"No promises," She grinned. She then turned toward the other side of the elevator, back to the doors, and watched them go up higher and higher. New Alexandria was a massive city, even if most of it was walkable. The buildings rose high into the sky, high enough for some to be 'tapped' by the Corvettes up above as they flew, scraping their sides and breaking multiple windows while their plasma batteries continued to rain hell down on the city.
Six hummed as he listened to the radio calls, then looked to Elster and Crow and told them, "We'll have a Falcon waiting for us next to the Pelicans. Local com's redirecting us to the Starport to protect an outbound flight of civvie craft heading out of the city. Afterward, they'll help us RV with Noble... Hell, we made record time by sheer luck, courtesy of splitting up."
"And that right there's why I'll never take a fucking jetpack..." Murmured the Crow as she checked her rifle. She hummed, then walked over to the window and stared down at the river, where UNSC PT Boats and drones ran interference between the massive Civilian Spaceport and advancing enemy units, gatling cannons lighting up the sky with tracers to keep Banshees away. She could barely make out the Civvies being loaded beside the massive T-shaped transport ships.
A Marine commented, "Fuckers are hitting my home... Hope command don't expect me to run away..." as he scratched the top of his left arm. The Spartan and girls saw the man had a prosthetic limb and several burn scars. He looked to them and said, "Spartan, sir. I'm... A Reach Native," his accent obviously Hungarian, local. Six nodded, slinging his rifle onto his back as the elevator reached the top.
"You got one helluva fight ahead of you," Crow smirked, "Ya really not planning to ditch, Gestalt?"
"The fuck would I ditch for?" He shot back, glaring at Crow as they walked off through the rooftop atrium, which was lined with wounded Civilians and Marines being tended to and awaiting Evac. A few Marines guided the wounded to the sides as Pelican dropships landed in the open-air landing pad up a flight of stairs and dead ahead. The plants in the dozens of pots were burned and shattered glass littered the corners of the atrium, alongside hundreds of body bags.
"Just sayin'," She shrugged, "I, the Leutnant and maybe that LSTR unit can handle the heat. You normal Gestalts are squishy enough as is."
He growled, "Shut it. Even if I'm squishy, I'll go down swinging at these Covvie bastards fur even remotely trying to burn my home..."
She nodded, then hit him in the shoulder and said, "If only more of you Gestalt types were like this fucker in my world, the Imps might've had one helluva run for their money while trying to take Vineta from us." Which, well, the Marine felt was a bit of a backhanded compliment. He nodded to her and didn't add anything to it. Elster, meanwhile, shook her head and sighed.
"Excuse her, corporal," She said, taking her helmet off, "Crows aren't particularly the brightest bulb in the chandelier..."
"Heh. It's fine, ma'am. I heard worse from off-planet Refugees, to be honest," He replied, slinging his rifle, a DMR, onto his back, "Got into a couple scuffles about it myself..." And he motioned to a scar on his neck, "Cut me with a switchblade, one of the fuckers did..." which made Elster wince as they walked up the stairwell. A pair of other Marines trailed behind them, one of them carrying a missile launcher despite her size.
The group made it up to the Landing Pad, where three Pelicans were being loaded while several more approached from the distance. One Falcon, as promised, with a nose-mounted 40mm autocannon and side-mounted grenade launchers, waited for them. The pilot had kept the bird's engines hot. Six looked to Elster and gave her a pat on the back, then motioned to the vehicle.
The Spartan, Replikas and the Marine Designated Marksman boarded the vehicle, Elster manning the left-side grenade launcher while Six took the right. The Marine and Crow were on the seats, with a fifth joining them aboard being a Corpsman. Said corpsman gave a spin of her hand to the pilot and the VTOL's engines roared, flames jutting out of the nozzles behind the turboprops as it lifted off, then turned and dipped its nose down for a fast descent.
The Marine and Corpsman held on tightly, while Elster and Six gripped onto the side-mounted guns as Six patched the radio through and said, "Lieutenant Grey, this is Noble Six. I'm en-route with a Fireteam to your position near by the Docks to provide aid in reactivating Air Defenses. Be advised, we'll be coming in hot..." as he swung his Grenade Launcher right about thirty degrees and aimed at the enemy Banshee closing in for the kill. He let off three grenades, two of which directly impacted the Banshee's canopy and detonated, shattering the flyer.
"Copy that, Noble. God bless you. We need every ounce of help we can get here... To all evacuation craft off of NA Starport, we've got incoming reinforcements and will reactivate the Air Defense Net momentarily. Stand-by for confirmation of the all-clear." The UNSC Army officer in charge of AirDef nearby the Port called out. Elster swept the grenade launcher over twelve degrees to the left and angled it three down as the helicopter flew parallel with the river, then fired a grenade, keeping the button pressed.
An EM blast splayed out from the grenade's detonation, spraying the Banshee she targeted with shrapnel. One of its engines coughed, before both died to the EM blast. It careened left and crashed into the river as the Marine and Crow opened up with their rifles toward any other enemy craft. Plasma rounds shot past the pilot's cockpit, some striking the top of the bird's fuselage as it flew by the Port, giving them a clear view of the crowds evacuating aboard the UNSC's few remaining transports.
More grenades and rounds flew as the aircraft swung around a rocky beach, where Covenant troops had landed in droves, nearby a terraced area with a building at the rear which presumably served as the UNSC's command area before the Covvies took it over. Swinging the bird around just as a Transport radioed in, "UNSC Air Defense Command, this is Transport Three-Charlie, I can't wait any longer! We are full and have to leave now!" the group watched...
"Negative, Three-Charlie, stand by for a bit longer!" The man replied. The group watched the ship's engines power on. The first of three transports lifted off, turning to its left to try and leave... Before one of the plasma turrets of one of the three ships above tracked it. Two boulders of plasma smacked into its rear, sending the aircraft on a doomed course down to the bottom of the sea floor, even as the captain of the civvie ship called Mayday.
"... Fuck," The Marine swore, "Bastards..."
"We'll make'em pay, Corporal..." Six noted as the helicopter swung in for landing by the beach. He climbed to Elster's side and took a knee, waving to the officer on the deck. The man nodded in greeting, saluted and watched as the small fire-team descended from the Falcon, with the Corpsman immediately heading to tend to the wounded Army troopers and help their medic.
Elster looked forward as Six talked to the Lieutenant in charge of the unit, Grey. A more light shade of dark skin, an officer's cap and a shotgun. The man sat in the middle of Covenant plasma fire like it was nothing as he talked to the Spartan, who was much the same. Taking cover behind the rocks, Elster and the Crow stared forward at the position they were supposed to take. Three missile batteries, each located on higher ground. Anti-ship missiles, obviously, going by the size. Beside them, the Corpsman tended to an Army soldier, whispering to him.
Crow hummed, "It'll be Uphill, every way... Fuckin' A to the Army for losing the High Ground..."
"Not like you haven't dealt with worse on Vineta," Elster quipped, shouldering her rifle while the Designated Marksman that'd come with them was taking potshots at Jackal Skirmishers, who were, in turn, firing back with their own needle rifles. Crow snorted and gave Elster a slap on the back to confirm. Elster, meanwhile, turned to Six and waved him over.
The Spartan joined them behind the rock, taking cover and aiming his DMR before firing and nailing a Jackal. He leaned back forward and said, "We'll have to re-sync the tubes to the central controls..." before pointing toward the central building, "Up in there. Sole door open's gonna be the one with the overwatch pos. Elster, you take the Army and the Marine and start activating the sync in the missiles. I and Crow will punch down the middle."
"You got it," Elster nodded.
"Sure thing!" Crow affirmed jovially. Six nodded, then rallied the Army and Marines up, checked his ammo and gave the signal.
Elster burst out of cover, rallying the Platoon behind her as they pushed forward in a blitz toward the first ASM Battery. Her gun roared first, nailing a Brute and a pair of Grunts with a full burst. The Brute doubled over from the hit, giving ample time for the Reach Native Marine to snipe its hat clean off. The other UNSC troops followed closely, taking cover behind wrecked and overturned Warthogs, behind rocks, behind railings and metal damaged by the battle, to provide cover for Elster as she went to the first missile pod.
Jumping over an in-built flowerbed and landing with her feet on the metal floor of the promenade, the girl ran toward the gun and hit the sync button, taking cover as plasma and needles flew her way. Her shields flashed, flared and died as a burst of plasma from an Elite's repeater washed over her, forcing her back into cover. One of her SPI suit's plates was hit and damaged, while another tanked a Needle, causing it to shatter on impact.
"Fucking hell..." Elster swore to herself. She pulled two grenades off her belt, primed and threw both with one hand, causing the Covvies to scatter. She motioned for her team to move forward, putting lead into heads as they did so. Several Grunts tried to counter them, alongside a Phalanx of Jackals with shields, but the Reach-born Marine was quick to throw a Frag at them after cooking it for a few seconds.
The frag shattered the phalanx, providing ample opportunity that the understrength fireteam soon exploited, taking them and their Grunt escorts out with flashes of gunfire and, some times, stomping their heads in. They all focused fire on a pair of Elites next, hosing the bastards down and filling them with enough lead to replace a good chunk of their bone structure.
Elster finally noted the name of the Reach Native on her HUD. 'Nemeth'. It lacked a diacritic on the rearmost letter, but the young man was bearing the rank of Corporal, obviously. And, upon quickly pulling up a short service profile, Elster found him to be quite a developed soldier. She gave him a nod as they pushed onto and activated the second anti-air piece. Elster radioed in to Six, "We have two pieces up! Moving onto the last!"
"Copy. We've almost cleared the place out here, though the Crow took a hit..." Six replied over Radio, "See you downstairs once the missiles are hot."
"Rog. Seven, out," She replied as they pushed together. The Marines all threw Grenades at the next enemy position, which included a Shade Turret. The flashes and rumbles of grenade detonations shook the ground, shrapnel tearing through Grunts and even stripping an elite of its shields. Bullets flew, a needle round caught an Army trooper in the chest and sent him tumbling forward, while another wounded the Hungarian. He grunted and kept on going, even as the small needle exploded in his hip.
They blitzed the enemy position, emptying entire magazines and taking the lives of the dozen remaining aliens in the area. As the gunfire died down on all sides of the battlefield, Elster approached the last missile tube and patched it into the correct freq, then sighed deeply and radioed, "Six. We're green here... Fire at will..." only to receive a humm of confirmation and the click of several buttons.
The missile systems all turned toward the enemy ships, each tracking one, before firing their volleys, covering a good chunk of the promenade and beach in the smoke of exhaust. Each missile arched, dodging enemy defensive fire, only to slam into the maws of the Corvettes. Six shots each tore plating and caused azure and scarlet fires to burst from the hulls of the enemy's ships.
"This is Charlie Transport Unit... We're taking off. Thanks for the cover, Spartan, Troopers... Godspeed," The captain of one of the surviving ships spoke as they took off and flew toward the horizon, past the massive stalks of orbital freight elevators, the same type of which had brought Elster and Ariane down to the planet so many weeks ago. Elster hummed and watched as Pelicans came in to evacuate the wounded, before hearing the radio crackle to life as Six walked up to her.
"... Six, Seven, this is Noble Five! Do you hear me?" Jorge's voice resolved as the com unscrambled.
Six nodded to Elster, who smiled briefly, then listened in. The male Spartan answered, "Five, this is Six and Seven. We're alive... Good to hear your voice," as he slid his rifle onto his back. Elster shot a glance back toward Nemeth and gave him a salute, to which the Hungarian corporal replied with a smile and a nod. He boarded the Pelican for the wounded.
"Good to hear you two alive, as well! Hah, we'd half thought you went up with the Supercarrier..." Jorge was obviously happy to hear them, but the bitter aftertaste of disappointment could be felt behind each word. "... I'm sorry, you two. We should probably have figured the Covenant would send a bigger Fleet the moment they realized how important Reach is..."
"It's fine, Jorge... We're sorry about this, too..." Elster sighed.
"It's alright, Els." He replied, obviously worried, but hiding it very well, being a Spartan and all. He relayed to them, "We're sending a bird to pick you up at those coords. You stand by there. Boss is gonna want to talk to you about some upcoming op while we're still in the city. See you up here. Five, out," And the radio cut just as Six pulled out a flare and activated it, tossing it in front of them.
Oh, boy...