Outskirts of Toulouse Petit
Nouvelle Roussillon Region, Paris IV
15 August 2549
1223J

Four Days after start of Covenant Invasion

There was dirt between her fingers. Just like there was three days ago, when she was tossing the last handful of dirt onto her grandmother's grave. Her Nana. The one who had taken her in when her parents had been killed by the Covenant so many years ago. The one who had been there to comfort every bruise, scrap, and cut she had received growing up. The one with whom she had a scream match with when she first decided she was joining the Marine Corps. The one who had sat by her bed all night long to sooth her nightmares after she had returned after her first combat tour, sick to her stomach at all the horrors she had seen. The one who had stuck by her side, through thick and thin, always remaining supportive, always showing her love.

The one who was gone, having passed away in her sleep due to old age less than a week ago. In this day and age, with the Covenant approaching from one side and the Insurrectionist advancing from the other, such a peaceful death was almost unheard of. Yet, somehow, that didn't make things any easier for River.

Her Nana was dead. And with it, the last remaining link River had with the civilian world.

In some ways, this made things easier: as a UNSC Marine Corps infantry officer, it was always a balancing act between the mission, and retaining enough of herself to return to her family. But now that her family was gone, she was free to dedicate her life solely to the destruction of humanity's enemies. As a warrior, she should have been happy. But as a person…

"INCOMING!"

River automatically rolled to the right at the telltale sound of an incoming fuel rod cannon blast, only to discover – to her horror - that she had been laying on top of an elevated stretcher. Unable to stop herself, she plummeted straight down to the ground, landing hard against the cold metal floor. Pain exploded from somewhere around her abdomen region, and a shriek of agony was ripped from her lips.

Inhaling violently through her nostrils, she wrapped her arms around her stomach, only for them to come back bloody. Fighting through the pain, River was just barely able to make out the wet bandage dressing the wound on her left side that had been ripped open in the fall. Spying a can of biofoam sitting innocently in its mounting bracket on the wall next to her head, River grabbed it and without regards to the consequences, jammed the tip into her body and pulled the lever.

At once, the sensation of a thousand ants crawling just beneath her skin flooded her veins, but that feeling was quickly followed by a wave of soothing cool. River bit her lip and let out a small groan of relief, reveling in the sensation, as she tried to piece together the sequence of events that resulted in her being here. What was the last thing she remembered? She recalled being granted shore leave in order to return to her home planet of Paris IV, in order to say goodbye to her Nana when…

The Covenant had invaded!

The events came back to her in a flash. A day before she was scheduled to return to her unit, a Covenant fleet had dropped into the system and started attacking. Away from her company, her Marines, and her weapons, instead of fighting, River had opted to try and rescue as many of her childhood neighbors as possible. She had been in a building when… something hit it, causing it to collapse, with her still inside. And that was the last thing she remembered.

Obviously she had survived the building collapse and been rescued from the rubble, but from the sounds of gunfire just outside the door, she was definitely in a 'out of the frying pan' type of situation. Whatever was going on, she needed to get a handle on it. Now.

Staggering to her feet and ignore the pain that came as a result, River shambled towards the nearest door. As she did, she abruptly realized she was in a vehicle, specifically an M88 "Bison" APC, primarily used by the UNSC Army as a rear echelon support vehicle. Given the multitude of medical equipment and stretchers scattered around, this particular vehicle was probably the ambulance variant.

Tripping over empty medical kits and kicking away bloody bandages, River slammed her hand down on the emergency release, causing the rear ramp to drop open -

- and found herself in the fire. All around her, a fierce battle was raging as UNSC personnel clad in Army fatigues were taking cover behind a series of armored vehicles arranged in a convoy configuration, shooting in the three o'clock direction of the column as a steady barrage of plasma fire came streaking in. River's military mind snapped into overdrive, immediately recognizing that she was stuck in a military convoy that had been ambushed as not only were many of the vehicles nothing more than smoldering wrecks, the very Bison she'd regained conscious in had clearly hit a mine as the front half of the vehicle had been shredded, and its remaining tires set on fire.

Furthermore, it was painfully obvious that whoever was running this convoy had no idea what they were doing, as none of the Soldiers were fighting in any sort of coordinated manner. Just in front of her, three Soldiers were taking cover behind a Warthog troop transport. One of the Soldiers was cowering behind the front tire, while the other two Soldiers were sharing cover behind the rear tires. Occasionally, one of them would lean out and fire their rifles wildly on full auto in the direction of the Covenant before swapping places with the other to reload. However, even as River watched, one of the Soldiers made the amateurish mistake of moving too far out of cover, and before River could shout out a warning…

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Even with the roar of gunfire, River could hear the Soldier scream in pain as they were struck in the lower abdomen by plasma! Without thinking, River darted forward in their direction – grimacing as every step jostled her side - allowing her to hear the other Soldier cry out, "Oh my God! Luke! Hang on, I'm coming!"

The other Soldier promptly tossed their rifle to the side and began attempting to drag the struggling Luke back behind cover, but either they were too weak or Luke was too heavy, or a combination of both, as they couldn't get far. At no point did the third Soldier cowering behind the front tires lift a finger to help out, and as River shuffled by, she could see that was because the Soldier was sitting there with their eyes wide open in shock, rocking back and forth, barely responding to anything happening around them.

Without a word, River threw herself into action. Ignoring the pain in her side, she grabbed Luke by his arm and helped the other Soldier drag him behind the Warthog before casting a critical eye over the man's wound. River was no corpsman, but she had seen enough battle wounds to know how bad this one was as not only had the plasma burned right through Luke's armor, it had also caused third degree burns to the flesh underneath.

"Hang on, Luke!" the other Soldier was screaming. "You're gonna be okay!"

"Hey!" River yelled at her. "He's going to need a medic!"

"I am a medic!" the other Soldier retorted, before sheepishly clarifying, "Or, at least, I'm in the Army's Medical Service! I'm a sixty-eight Charlie; a nurse! PFC Shoshana Tal, Forward Surgical Team, 363rd Combat Support Hospital, 29th Medical Brigade!"

River shook her head.

"Stop talking to me, and focus on him!" she snarled. "Break out that man's IFAK and get some biofoam on his wound! Let's get him stabilized first!"

Tal let out a startled yelp, before hurriedly moving to obey River's orders. As she applied the biofoam, River ripped out the med kit from its standard place inside the Warthog and quickly rummaged through it. She found an autoinjector loaded with a pre-drawn dose of what she recognized as pain killers, of which she immediately jammed into Luke's thigh. Within a few moments, Luke had calmed down enough to allow Tal to cover his wound. As soon as he was stable –

"Captain River Akweks, Weaps Company, 1/12th Marines. No, DON'T SALUTE!" River barked as Tal's hand automatically started to fly up to her forehead. "What the hell happened here!?"

"I don't know, ma'am!" Tal called back. "We were pulling out of Toulouse Petit with Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, XI Infantry Corps, when all hell broke loose! Things just started exploding, the vehicle in front of us stopped, and next I know, we're taking fire from all directions!"

"Who's in charge here!?"

"Not a clue, ma'am! Luke- I mean, PFC Williams tried the radio a few minutes ago, but I think we're being jammed because we couldn't get a signal out! Not even static!"

"Who's your commanding officer?"

"Major Margó Polonskaya, but, uh…"

Tal jerked her thumb at the catatonic Soldier and for the first time, River noticed the golden oak leaf insignia on the woman's chest.

"Great," River scoffed.

"INCOMING!"

There was a scream from somewhere towards the rear of the convoy, a split second before a Warthog loaded with ammunition took a direct hit from a fuel rod cannon, causing the vehicle to go up like a thermonuclear bomb. The explosion sent shockwaves up and down the entire convoy, knocking River and Tal off their feet and involuntarily, River let out a gasp of pain, the edges of her vision going dark for a few moments as the movement jostled her wound. Then, the blanket of pain temporarily receded, and River blinked to see Tal's worried face looming over hers.

"Captain, you're hurt! You're wounded! You need immediate medical treatment!"

"No," River grunted, shoving Tal's hands away as she attempted to treat her. "I need to get this column moving, before we're all killed."

"With all due respect, ma'am, but you can barely stand!"

"I noticed," River growled as she attempted to sit upright. Then, Tal's earlier words came stumbling back to her. "Hey, you said you're a nurse, right?"

"I'm a practical nurse, not a registered one!"

River waved her hands impatiently. "I don't know the difference, and I don't really care! But you have access to drugs, yeah? Do you have Rumbledrug?"

"What?"

"Do. You. Have. Rumbledrug. Yes or no?" River agitatedly repeated.

"Yes! But, ma'am, to take Rumbledrug in your current state- "

"Listen to me, Marine!" River snapped as she grabbed Tal by the front of her vest and pulled her closer until they were face to face. "If I don't get this convoy moving and out of this kill zone in the next few minutes, everybody here is going to die! Do you understand? Now, give it to me."

Tal didn't respond; she just reached into one of the pouches on her belt and pulled out a small plastic case, from which she revealed a syringe and a small plastic bottle.

"Give me half a dose, Soldier" River ordered as Tal began to draw from the bottle. "I'm not trying to do anything crazy, I just need enough to remain mobile, at least long enough to unfuck this convoy."

Tal reached over and stabbed River in the arm with the syringe, but just as she was about to thumb the plunger, she paused. "Ma'am, I just want to warn you that- "

River grabbed Tal's hand and jammed down on the plunger herself.

Immediately, River's body seized up and she just barely remembered to keep breathing as lava surged through her body. The sensation was shocking, excruciating, and exhilarating, all at the same time, and she found herself glad that she was only receiving half a dose because there was no way in hell she would have been able to survive a full one.

"…Captain? Captain, can you hear me?"

Tal's face swarmed back into view.

"Get these two onto the Warthog, and prepare to move out," River commanded as she surged to her feet. The pain in her side was gone, or at least masked enough that moving no longer hurt. In fact, River felt reborn, as if her soul had been transferred into a brand new body, one that had never seen injury or wear. "As soon as you hear my call sign – Eagle Actual – get behind the wheel and floor it. I'm moving to the front of the convoy; stand by on my mark to give me covering fire."

"Wait, Cap- "

"MARK!"

River took off running. She sprinted towards the front of the convoy, running past so many burning Warthogs, Bisons, Wolverines, and other random Army vehicles. As she ran, she caught various snippets of the many Soldiers in the convoy; some were ineffectively firing their weapons at the Covenant, trying to reduce the amount of murderous fire pouring in; some were yelling in their radios, trying to get someone to tell them what to do; while others were just like Polonskaya, just sitting there waiting to die while their comrades fought to defend them.

Who the hell was in charge of this convoy, and what the hell were they doing?

Clearing the top of a hill, River immediately spotted a Wolverine command vehicle – easily identifiable by the several antenna sticking out from the roof - sitting near the front of the convoy, and she angled her feet towards it. As she drew near, she spotted a cluster of a little over half a dozen Soldiers huddled in the half-track's shadow, and it took her a moment to realize every single one of them was ranked colonel or higher. This had to be Corps headquarters.

She threw herself onto the ground beside them, and it became instantly evident why the convoy was stuck in place: instead of actually getting up and providing guidance to their men, every single field grade and general officer was too preoccupied with yelling into their radios, which meant not only were they leaving their men high and dry, they were also bogging down the radio channels and making it impossible to organize any sort of coordinated defense.

"What the hell is going on here!?" River exclaimed before she could really think about it. Her shout made the assembled group jump, but before anyone of them could recover, River barged on ahead. "Who's in charge here?"

"Uh, it should be Major General Bekdil, but she was wounded in the initial volley," one of the officers, some full bird colonel, volunteered.

"Where's the deputy commander?"

"He's KIA!"

"Then who's in charge now?"

The assembled officers awkwardly glanced at each other, but no one said a word. Finally, the same colonel from before said, "We're… trying to figure that out right now. We've been trying to reach CENTCOM for guidance, but- "

"Are you fucking kidding me, we don't have time for that bullshit!" River exploded. "This entire convoy is about to get overrun, and all of you idiots are sitting here with your dicks in your hand! We got to get this column on the move before the Covenant come in and murder us all! You!" She jabbed a finger at who looked like the head medical officer. "You've got wounded men and women all along the line! Get them loaded up and ready to move, because we're not leaving them behind!"

"You!" she jabbed a finger at an officer with an Army Signal Corps insignia. "Clear the airwaves and set up a dedicated channel for the convoy; make sure every vehicle that's still running can hear me the moment I give the order to move! In the meantime, whichever one of you is the head of engineering, get to the front of the convoy and figure out what the hell is blocking us! Then do whatever you have to: push, crush, or blow up whatever's in the way, just make sure our route is clear! Who's the artillery officer here!?"

The Colonel who spoke up earlier awkwardly raised his hand. "That would be me."

River reached out and grabbed his collar as she leaned out from around the Wolverine. "See that tree line about a two hundred meters away? That's where most of the Covenant fire is coming from! Call in whatever fire support you can get your hands on, and ripple the shit out of those trees!"

"Understood!"

"The rest of you," she roared, "get your men to stop wasting ammo, and to start concentrating their fire! Tell them to keep an ear out for call sign 'Eagle Actual,' and be ready to move out at a moment's notice! We're getting out of here, all of us! Now, go! Now!"

Belatedly, it occurred to River that she didn't actually have any authority to give these men any orders as not only were they Army officers and she, a Marine, but they also all outranked her by several grades. However, one thing she had learned over the years about her Marines was that because they had been indoctrinated since Boot Camp to follow orders, once they received a direct one – especially when under fire – they had a tendency to automatically obey it, even if it wasn't coming from a person of authority. River was amused to note that same rule apparently applied to staff officers as high as the corps level, as not a single one of these colonels or generals stopped to ask who this crazy, wounded lady who wasn't even wearing a uniform was; they moved, without hesitation, to follow her orders.

"This is why if you want to get shit done, you send a Marine to do it," she growled under her breath.

Orders given, there was only one thing left to do: survive long enough for them to get implement. Looking around, she spotted a dead Soldier slumped against the front tire of the Wolverine. Not only was the woman roughly her size, the body also had the dual-silver bar insignia of a captain.

"Sorry, Captain," River said apologetically as she relieved the corpse of her vest and helmet, "but I kind of need this right now. I'll make sure to honor your sacrifice by killing as many Split-Lips as I can."

Securing her newly acquired helmet, she glanced around and spotted an abandoned MA37 rifle lying on the ground. Gathering as many mags as she could off the fallen Soldier, she rose up and mounted her rifle onto the hood of the Wolverine, and started scanning the tree line for targets.

By now, with full-bird colonels and generals running up and down the line, the UNSC's defense was finally coming together, and Covenant ambush positions were starting to see concentrated gunfire. If River was in charge of the Covie forces, it would have been about this moment when she would have started floating the idea of withdraw. But fortunately, she wasn't ugly enough to be a Split-Lip because as expected, instead of retreating to fight another day, the Covenant began doubling down on their attack.

The glinting of white armor caught River's attention, the exact shade matching what she remembered Elite Ultra's wearing, and she realized there was a good chance she was looking at the enemy commander of the ambush.

"Cocky bastard," she whispered under breath as she flicked the selector switch to semi. She took a few deep breaths and released them slowly in order to calm herself down long enough to stabilize her aim –

- and then she pulled the trigger.

Bullet casings ricocheted off the windshield before rolling off and onto the ground and downrange, the Elite flinched as their personal shield's lit up. But rather than seek cover, the Elite looked around wildly before immediately locking eyes with River, and even through irons, she could see the snarl that twisted the Elite's face as they lift a carbine and –

Radioactive green spikes stared began slamming against the side of the Wolverine with loud thunks, but River didn't so much as flinch, even as one speared the hood right beside her, spraying her with metal splinters. Gritting her teeth, she continued to gently squeeze the trigger, pumping out rounds at a steady rate and watched as the Elite's return fire become more and more erratic as each one of River's bullets slammed home.

And yet, despite all this, the Elite still refused to seek cover, standing upright and firing as if they were on a range somewhere, as opposed to being locked in a deadly gun duel. Under different circumstances, River might have even admired the alien's bravery, but as it were, all she wanted was for the stupid Elite to die already.

Of course, River wasn't capable of disabling an Elite Ultra's shields by herself with only an assault rifle, but fortunately she wasn't the only one shooting. Even as she reflexively ducked as a carbine shot passed overhead within a few centimeters of her head, a gunner on a Bison two vehicles behind her abruptly opened up, saturating the Elite's position with .50 cal SLAP rounds. With tracers ricocheting all over the place, River barely managed to catch sight of the Ultra's shields blinking out of existence a split second before the Elite finally decided to seek cover.

"Fuck," River muttered as she kept her sights trained on the spot the Elite disappeared from. "Peek again, motherfucker. Go ahead, I know you want to. Come on… do it!"

Her trained eyes spotted movement, a moment before the Ultra raised its head, shields shimmering like a mirage as they attempted to recharge, and River grinned.

"Got you," she taunted as she began to pick up the slack on her trigger.

"CAPTAIN!"

River was a split second too slow to pull the Soldier who unexpectedly ran up to her to safety. There was a flash of green and the Soldier was sent crashing to the ground, screaming, as they were speared through the shoulder.

"Dammit!" River snarled as she hastily fired off a burst but the Elite, content with the one shot that had connected, had already disappeared from sight.

Swearing violently under her breath, River hurriedly ducked into cover as a fresh wave of plasma saturated her area. Ignoring the acrid smell of ozone filling her nostrils, River hauled the wounded Soldier upright into a seated position and began accessing the damage. Tearing open the man's sleeve, she gave the wound a cursory scan before reaching down to his IFAK to pull out some biofoam. All the while, the Soldier continued to scream his head.

"Oh, God! It hurts! Aghhh!" he was saying. "Am I going to die?"

"Calm down!" River snapped. "You're not going to die; you're going to be fine! Just don't look at it!"

Ripping open a field dressing and slapping it over the biofoam to keep it in place, she yanked out an autoinjector. "Alright, hold on, here come the painkillers!"

The Soldier tensed as she jabbed him in the leg, but she could tell the moment the drugs kicked in as he immediately relaxed.

"You're okay!" she told him, and he nodded in agreement, before focusing in on her borrowed rank insignia.

"Hey! You Eagle Actual?" he asked, panting.

"Yeah!"

"Colonel Blazek sent me to find you, ma'am! He said the road is clear!" the Soldier reported, handing River a radio.

"Well, that's good and all, but we're not going anywhere until our fire support comes in!" River yelled back.

Just then, the shriek of rockets filled the air, and River looked up to see half a dozen rockets passing by overhead, headed in the direction of the Covenant. They quickly reached their apex but instead of plummeting to the ground as expected, panels on each of the rockets opened up, and hundreds of grenade-sized bomblets began spraying out. They all hit the ground roughly at the same time a split second before all of them simultaneously exploded.

The results were spectacular, to say the least.

The entire tree line was instantly shredded as if someone had fired a massive shotgun at the ground and virtually all incoming Covenant fire ceased. Surveying the destruction from afar, on one hand, River couldn't help but muse that perhaps the Army had taken her words just a bit too literally as she watched the explosions seem to ripple through the trees; on the other, if this was the type of firepower a full-bird colonel could call in, then she couldn't wait to get promoted.

In the temporary lull that formed following the wake of the explosions, River grabbed her radio. "Eagle Actual to all Victors: push, push, push! Push out of the kill zone! Now!"

Dropping the radio, she yanked the wounded Soldier to his feet and shoved him in the direction of the Wolverine's steering wheel. "Get in there and drive."

"But I'm shot!"

"You're going to be a lot worse if you don't!" River warned as the incoming Covenant fire began to pick up once more as they started to recover from their shock. "You and everybody else in this convoy! DRIVE!"

The half-track's engines roared to life as the vehicle surged forward, quickly followed by the rest of the convoy.

"Come on, let's go, let's go! Hurry it up!" River urged as vehicle after vehicle started limping past her. The honking of a horn caught her attention and she looked up to see PFC Tal pulling up with her Warthog. Without waiting for her to come to a complete stop, River grabbed a hold of the Warthog and tossed herself into the rear, biting back a scream as she felt something tear in her abdomen area.

"Private, drive!" she rasped out as she dropped onto the floor beside Luke's prone body.

"Ma'am, are you alright?" Tal yelled back even as she jammed down on the accelerator.

"You think you can handle the situation from here?" River asked in lieu of a response.

"I think so? Why?"

"Because I think I'm going to pass out now," River airily told her.

"Wha- wait, Captain -!"

The world went dark.


General Notes

In the Halo Wars games, there is a vehicle called the "M9 'Wolverine' Main Anti-Aircraft Tank" which is a half-track that mounts a multiple launch rocket system that fires short ranged surface-to-air missiles. The closet, real-life equivalent - at least in US service – would probably be the AN/TWQ-1 Avenger mounted on a Humvee.

For the purpose of my stories though, I'm treating the Wolverine as a class of half-tracks that is capable of mounting different weapons for different roles, similar to how half-tracks were used in real life during WW2 by both the Americans and the Germans. For example, the base model Wolverine would just be an APC, but mounting the "M260 multiple launch rocket system" (canon designation) could turn it either into a self-propelled SHORAD battery or a MLRS battery depending on what sort of munitions you load into it.

And, yes, I am aware as to the reasons why the half-track design completely disappeared after WW2, but this exist in canon so I'm using it.