Unfortunately I didn't get much writing done this week, ran into a bad case of writer's block (and was sick for a few days) and didn't even get 2,000 words. Lucky thing I've tried to keep a bit of a buffer. Hopefully next week will be more productive.
As always, reviews and comments are appreciated.
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.
0700 Local, 16 August 2549
Collins, Levosia, 26 Draconis System
After dealing with the survivors of the crashed Phantom, Yankee 1 continued toward the Covenant landing site. By now, they were on the ground in force. And it was apparent how bad it was going for the UNSC and the locals.
"This is Bravo 2, I've lost contact with Bravo 1 and Bravo 3, falling back!"
"Oh God, they tore right through us, I'm the only one left, oh God!"
"Pelican Charlie 244, I'm hit and losing altitude! I'm going to try and bring her down on the riverfront!"
"This is Delta platoon, we stalled them at the bridge but we've taken 40% casualties already! I don't know how much longer we can hold them!"
"All units, this is Echo 5, reporting high value target, possible Zealot class."
That last one caught Chac Lon's interest. "Hey, what's the bounty on that Zealot?"
"Focus on the mission, Yankee." The annoyed voice that responded sounded familiar to Chac Lon. Probably Korhonen or Smitson. (He would've easily recognized Johnson's voice even with how crackly the signal was.)
It took the kig-yar barely five minutes to cover the first two kilometers to the Covenant landing site. From there, it got more difficult. The frigate had stopped its bombardment, but it left blocks of twisted and smoldering buildings. Along with the acrid smell of chemicals and burning plastic, Chac Lon smelled burning. Not the first time he'd encountered that scent. Suddenly, for the briefest moments, images of Eayn and T'vao burning flashed through his mind. He shuddered as a wave of fear passed over him.
Shaking off the unpleasant thoughts, Chac Lon turned to his squadmate. "Vashk, call up Thac Vol and her team. See if they've got an idea for getting eyes on the Covenant landing spot." Captain Korhonen (after some suggestion from Chac Lon) had put Thac Vol in command of Yankee 2. They were the closest squad of kig-yar to Chac Lon's Yankee 1 when they deployed last night, and with luck would also have made it to the burned area.
"Yankee 2, this is Yankee 1, what is your location relative to Covenant landing site?" Hopefully UNSC encryption was up to par.
"Yankee 1, we are 500 meters east, have visual on site. Switch to reserve frequency?"
Vashk Rom tossed the radio to Chac Lon. "Affirmative, switch to reserve frequency." Before they deployed, Chac Lon had gotten to talk to the other squad leaders in Force Yankee, and they came up with the idea of a backup frequency where they could talk in kig-yar. Korhonen and ONI were probably listening anyway, but at least they would have privacy from the rest of the humans.
"How's your squad holding up?" Chac Lon spoke in kig-yar.
"No action yet, they're getting a bit restless. You run into anyone?"
"Took out some cripples from that Phantom that went down, none of us even got hit. You have eyes on the landing area?"
"Not entirely, can see the Liches and Phantoms but need to get up higher to see through the smoke." Thac Vol paused. "You know, this is my first time seeing this shit."
Chac Lon thought back to when he had fought the Covenant before. He'd fought small squads on asteroids in remote systems, narrowly evaded patrolling cruisers, and been burned half to death on salvage operations. But he'd never actually been on the other end of a large scale operation like the invasion of a planet. "Same here. At least they aren't going straight to glassing. Looks like the humans are getting their eggs cracked."
Thac Vol laughed grimly. "Better them than us. Hope they don't make it to the artifact at least."
"If they get through all the unggoy Shaon Tol will beat the shit out of them." That got a laugh from both the kig-yar. Shaon Tol was an archaeologist first, but she''d killed more than a few humans and Covenant. (Not to mention a couple male kig-yar on the Phantom Chance that had scars from trying to get flirty with her.)
"I see a building near you, the one with three radio towers on top. Should give you a good line of sight to the landing area."
Chac Lon scanned the area around him, and after a bit saw the building Thac Vol mentioned. It was a bit to the west of them, and looked like it was in decent shape, even if the windows were shattered and exterior was singed.
"I see it, heading over there. Anything I should know about in the landing area?"
"Biggest threat is two platforms, two snipers in each, plus some unggoy on turrets. Three or four pairs of mgalekgolo, but they probably won't bother you at that distance. Decent amount of sangheili."
"Any Zealot sightings?"
"Nah, must have left before we showed up."
"I'll keep an eye out." Chac Lon and his squad made their way to the building. From the inside, it had clearly been an office building before the Covenant attack, but it was now abandoned. A few small fires smoldered from burning papers and other objects, and the kig-yar had to carefully step around broken glass from the destroyed windows. At least there wasn't any blood, so the humans had probably made it out before the frigate started its bombardment.
The door to the roof was jammed shut, so Chac Lon directed his squad to spread out on the top two floors of the structure. (The damage to the outside meant that the kig-yar could simply jump from one floor to another, instead of having to take the stairs.)
From here he could see the landing site. Chac Lon switched back to the regular frequency. "Yankee 1 and Yankee 2 have visual on landing site. Three pairs of hunters, some elites, and jackal snipers in those hovering platforms. One Lich and three Phantoms left hovering there."
"Roger that, Yankee. Do you have visual on any Covenant ground vehicles?"
Chac Lon scanned the area through the scope of his needle rifle. "Couple unoccupied Ghosts, nothing else."
"Understood, Yankee, continue observation and engage at your discretion."
Back to the private frequency. "Snipers first, you take the north tower, I'll get the southern one."
"Got it, counting down from twelve."
The Covenant kig-yar were about 400 meters away; not outside the range of Chac Lon's needle rifle, but he'd let his squadmates with beam rifles take the shot. He lined up his scope on the torso of a sangheili; gods willing the confusion after the snipers took their shots would let him get some shots in.
Seconds later, the sound of six beams split the air. Three of the snipers toppled off their floating platforms, dead before they hit the ground. The fourth lived long enough to die on impact with the concrete below.
The Covenant at the landing site looked around wildly, trying to pinpoint the source of the shots. Doubtless they weren't prepared to come under attack here, let alone from Covenant weaponry. The sangheili major in Chac Lon's sights had the presence of mind to dive for cover after the fourth needle hit him, saving his shields from collapsing. Another major nearby wasn't so lucky; Thac Vol was quick enough to reacquire him as a target and send a shot through his left eye, putting him down for good.
Grumbling as his target dodged away, Chac Lon switched his fire to the unggoy. Unshielded and slow moving, they were easier targets. The T'vaoan aimed at a cluster milling around in the open and frantically screaming for help. He simply held down the trigger, sending needles into the cluster of unggoy. As he did, he somewhat registered a return shot from a surviving Covenant sniper. It missed one of his squadmates by a few feet, in the process revealing its own position. A shot to the torso ended the threat from her.
By now, though, the Covenant were recovering from the initial shock. A group of sangheili crouched down behind a line of supply crates, firing their plasma rifles at the buildings where Yankee 1 and Yankee 2 were hiding. Not to score hits, but to make the kig-yar keep their head down. The bigger issue was the mgalekgolo. Virtually immune to fire from the the needle rifles and carbines the kig-yar carrier, even a beam rifle would take many shots to knock them down. So, they were untouched by the kig-yar attack. And now they were aiming at Yankee 1.
One of the kig-yar saw the green glow from the mgalekgolos' arms a split second before they fired, and called out a warning. Frantically, they jumped back from the face of the building, as four glowing green projectiles slammed into the kig-yars' hiding spot. Chac Lon avoided being hit, but still felt the intense pulse of heat as mgalekgolos' attack impacted.
"That's it, time to leave! Everyone, fourth floor!" He rushed for a nearby stairwell as the mgalekgolo fired again, torching even more of the building. In the stairwell, he jumped down two flights of stairs, covering the distance in seconds.
The rest of the squad arrived momentarily. Thankfully, all nine had survived. A few had been singed or had minor cuts from shrapnel, but one T'vaoan had burns on his legs and back. He wasn't in danger of dying, but he was clearly in pain and couldn't keep up with the rest of the squad. The problem was, they couldn't get evacuated from here; even after picking off the Covenant snipers and a few sangheili and unggoy, it was still way too hot. Chac Lon thought for a few moments, before sending the wounded kig-yar and a healthy squadmate to make their way to a safer area a few blocks to the west. It would cut his squad down to seven, but hopefully they'd be able to evacuate, or at least stay hidden from Covenant forces.
His thoughts were interrupted by a howling noise outside, and the building suddenly shook.
"Banshees!" One of the kig-yar cried, as a pair of the craft looped around and came back for another pass. This time, they aimed lower, spraying plasma into the windows only a floor above where Chac Lon's squad was hiding. The plasma and heat from the Banshee's ignited the debris spread throughout the building that hadn't already been set afire. The damaged remains of the fire suppression system tried to stop it; the sprinklers on the lower floors did nothing but dampen the hiding kig-yar's feathers.
Clearly it was time to leave. "Everyone out, now! Ground floor, across the street!" Chac Lon yelled, waving his arms. He keyed the radio as his squad ran downstairs, the injured T'vaoan carried by two of his squadmates. "Yankee 1 under fire from hunters and Banshees, relocating."
"Roger Yankee 1, state number of Banshees and hunters."
"At least two and four, got a couple elites and jackals."
"Copy that Yankee 1, be advised evac unavailable at this time."
"Understood. Yankee 1 out." Good thing only one of us is hurt.
The interior of their fallback point also looked like some type of office building; evidently the Covenant had landed in the commercial district of Collins. Chac Lon led his squad back behind a deserted reception area into some offices. From the signage on the wall this was the office of some financial services company or bank; a couple other kig-yar also noticed as they started rooting through desks looking for human currency. Chac Lon paid them no mind, he wasn't going to begrudge anyone the opportunity to get a bit of salvage. And if the humans had left anything behind it probably wasn't that important anyway.
He turned to the burned T'vaoan, now propped against a chair after being carried in by two of his squadmates. "Hey Faal, how you holding up?"
"This med gel is good stuff, can almost pretend like it doesn't hurt." Faal Nar weakly gestured at his legs. "Be pretty mad if I die fighting for a bunch of humans. Bit funny, though."
"Zep says you'll live. Think you're done for today, though." Chac Lon poised. "Speaking of fighting for humans, heard anything from your sister?"
"Last I talked to her she was deployed at the other end of human space. That was before all this shit started, though."
"Still, far enough away the Covenant couldn't have moved her over here since then. I hope." Not a small number of Chac Lon's crew had cousins or siblings serving with the Covenant. Some were true believers, most wanted something a bit more stable than the life of a pirate or salvager.
Faal Nar continued. "Besides, her unit was under command of jiralhanae, haven't seen them around here." He saw Chac Lon tense at the mention of the other species. "Sorry."
"No, no, don't worry about it. Say a prayer for her though." The other T'vaoan nodded. "Humans are getting their faces kicked in too bad to airlift you out, you and somebody else find a spot to hole up and stay safe." Chac Lon turned to the squad, and pointed at one of the other kig-yar. "Loiti, you go help Faal Nar find somewhere safe a bit west of here. Stay low and keep yourselves out of trouble. And here." Chac Lon tossed him a spare transponder. "Maybe the humans will kill the Banshees and they'll be able to take him out to get patched up for real."
"Sounds good, boss." The other kig-yar nodded in agreement, before going over to Faal Nar and gingerly lifting him upright. The T'vaoan grimaced, squawking a few curses before the two hobbled out the back of the room.
With that over with, Chac Lon realized he should check in with Thac Vol and her squad. Hopefully they hadn't gotten stomped to paste by a bunch of mgalekgolo. He keyed up the private channel. "Hey Thac Vol, you all still alive."
"Yeah, looks like you all took the heat. We went quiet for a bit and looks like the split-lips got bored. Still got eyes on the landing site."
"That's good, we moved across the street and it doesn't look like anyone followed. Heard from anyone else?"
"Other two squads were off north of here, haven't run into anyone yet. Sounds like the Covenant are really pushing for the relic."
"Think that's what the humans were expecting. Hope they're ready."
"At least the unggoy can bail them out if it goes too bad." That got a laugh from both kig-yar.
The thought of the humans having to rely on the unggoy for their salvation was pretty funny. To be fair, unggoy in his crew were decent fighters, especially compared to the ones serving the Covenant. And, if Chac Lon was being honest with himself, there was a lot of overlap between the smartest unggoy and stupidest kig-yar.
0820 Local, 16 August 2549
Collins, Levosia, 26 Draconis System
For both the UNSC and the Covenant, the battle was going poorly. The Covenant had nearly total air superiority; any movement of UNSC forces was by foot or in the smaller, more agile Falcons that could dart between buildings. They had also inflicted horrendous losses on militia units and the civilians unlucky enough to still be within the combat zone. Most importantly, the lead Covenant elements were barely half a kilometer away from the governor's building and the prize within.
But it was there the humans stopped them, at least for now. The first attempt by the Covenant to force their way into the building ran headlong into human fortifications manned by regular UNSC Army troops. A sangheili ultra led a charge to break the human's morale, only to step on a concealed stack of mines and lose both his legs. Nearly a dozen of his compatriots, along with a pair of mgalekgolo (and many unggoy and kig-yar), died before they gave up on the attack. After that, they'd retreated back to plan a more measured assault, leaving a no-man's land between the UNSC and Covenant forces.
The Covenant's difficulties didn't end there. The local militia had somehow managed to not only get their hands on a battery of 24th century vintage self-propelled artillery, but sight it in on the Covenant frigate hanging over the city and hit it with sporadic fire. The 175mm rounds weren't doing much damage (even when they hit), and the fire rate was abysmal since the militia relocated after firing a few rounds, but it was still infuriating to the shipmaster aboard the Magnificent Lightning. His Banshees had managed to hunt down a couple of the guns, but he'd been forced to pull them off to support the fight in the city as the Covenant forces bogged down and their air support was whittled away.
More immediately concerning was the sniper fire hitting the leading elements. As the survivors of the failed charge fell back to Covenant lines under covering fire from the few Spectres and Wraiths they'd brought along, snipers on the governor's building began taking shots at important Covenant targets. Many sangheili had fallen, including another pair of ultras. The Zealot, 'Zufamee, narrowly avoided death after barely dodging a shot that clipped his shields.
Their own snipers were faring the worst, though. The humans were targeting the kig-yar with a vengeance; most of the Covenant snipers didn't manage to get more than a single shot off before they fell dead. (And most of those shots they did get off either missed or hit decoys, blowing holes through empty helmets and body armor.) With their own snipers dead, the Covenant was forced to resort to blind firing to suppress the UNSC shooters. This helped a bit, but the Covenant forces still had to hide behind cover or risk getting a new hole in their head.
A few of the kig-yar and sangheili were killed by fire from human sniper rifles, but the majority of the dead fell to shots from beam rifles. Odd. Either the humans had salvaged the weapons at some point, or something more nefarious was going on.
Despite this, the Covenant still had a firm hold on a corridor leading back to their landing site. And after their initial failure, 'Zufamee directed his sangheili to send out small parties to find routes to flank the human position. The target building was part of a large complex of other offices, and with luck there would be interior walkways or maintenance tunnels that would get them behind the human positions.
Meanwhile, Chac Lon and his squad had also moved closer to the governor's building. After the strafing attack by the Banshees they'd moved northwestward toward the main concentration of human forces, listening on the radio as the UNSC consolidated their defenses around the governor's building. Chac Lon wondered how many of the humans knew about the artifact in the basement, or that it was rigged to a twenty kiloton fission bomb.
So far they'd avoided running into any humans, aside from another small group of civilians hiding out in a collapsed house. Like the ones from earlier, they just stayed silent when the kig-yar tried to talk to them. Chac Lon couldn't blame them. He was more worried about running into the UNSC and getting shot at by them. The ODSTs and people like Johnson's Marines could be relied on not to shoot his kig-yar, but the militia might not, even with the friendly transponder and armbands that had hastily been tied around their left arms. Idly he wondered how the unggoy were holding up. Chac Lon didn't like unggoy (no kig-yar did), but he didn't see the point of being cruel to them for the sake of cruelty. They had seemed to be getting on with the humans well enough back at Camp Teton. Virtually all of the unggoy inside the main complex of buildings around the governor's office, serving as a final line of defense with the Marines in there.
Some of the other squads of kig-yar hadn't been so lucky. "All units, Yankee 3, heavy contact two kilometers east of city center."
"Yankee 1 here, what's going on?" Chac Lon was about to switch to the private channel, but realized this might actually be relevant to the humans.
"Ran into a bunch of sang- elites inside, went to crap. Four dead, damn methane-sucker blew himself up and got two of my people."
"Yankee 3, are you still in contact?" An unknown human, probably a UNSC Army officer, cut in.
"Negative, holed up on a roof a couple streets away, see how bad we got tore up. Split lips gave up following after my sniper put a hole in one of their heads."
"Keep yourself safe, three." Chac Lon turned off the radio for a moment and hissed angrily, squeezing his hand into a fist. He knew in his head there'd be casualties in a heavyweight fight like this, but still. And two kig-yar getting killed by a suicide unggoy of all things!
His thoughts were interrupted a minute later as the radio came on again. "Yankee 1, this is command. Militia unit Kilo 6 went out of contact three minutes ago after coming under fire. Last known position was four hundred meters west of your position. Marine units are en-route, but command needs eyes on."
"Copy that, command. On our way." The T'vaoan chirped to get his squad's attention. "Looks like the humans need us to get them out of the fire! Let's get moving!"
"Any idea what we're up against?" Zep Yan asked.
"Command didn't say, human unit's militia so could be anything from a couple unggoy to a whole lance of sangheili. Stay spread out, move fast."
Before the kig-yar made it even halfway to the position of the human militia unit they already could hear fighting. The sounds of plasma fire mixed with the lower-pitched noise of human gunfire. Chac Lon couldn't tell who was winning just from the sound, but the fighting was clearly intense.
The first enemy they encountered was a pair of kig-yar, watching from a third-floor balcony. One of his squadmates saw them first and hissed out a warning. Chac Lon crouched behind a parked car and raised his needle rifle. As he did, the Covenant kig-yar saw him. But it hesitated, staring at Chac Lon and his squad in confusion. Trying to figure out if we're Covenant or not. Good thing we're not wearing human armor. Chac Lon thought. At this distance, they could pass as Covenant, at least for a few moments.
Chac Lon looked through his needle rifle's scope, aiming at the kig-yar's hand through the cutout in his shield. He exhaled, and fired, just as another of his squad shot at the second kig-yar. The needle speared the Covenant soldier's hand, demolishing the limb down to the forearm. Dropping his shield and weapon, the kig-yar screeched out warning before he was silenced a second later.
"Now they know we're here! Zep, Vashk, with me, rest of you, flank around a few buildings down and hit them from the other side!" Chac Lon shouted, pointing at the building where the Covenant kig-yar had been perched.
Jumping to a second-story window, Chac Lon grabbed a ledge and pulled himself inside. The other two T'vaoans followed. They were in a bedroom; this time the humans had taken the time to tidy up the place before evacuating. The bed was made, clothes were hung up, everything looked surprisingly neat for an active combat zone. Silently, he gestured to the door of the room, and crept through it. The doorway led to a hallway, then a kitchen and dining area. This was also cleaner and tidier than he expected; only the sounds of combat feet away gave any indication of the fight going on. Chac Lon noticed bottles of human alcohol sitting out on the table. He made a mental note to grab them after the fight if he had the chance; that kind of stuff was always good for bartering.
The next doorway was jammed shut. Chac Lon forced it open, and for the first time saw the fight outside. Moving out onto the balcony, he saw a small group of human militia was pinned down further down the street, hiding behind hastily erected barricades and wrecked vehicles. More than a squad's worth of bodies lay in the street, the horrific injuries from plasma fire obvious. The Covenant had also suffered casualties, Chac Lon saw at least four or five dead unggoy and at least one sangheili lying in the street motionless.
One house to the right were the Covenant forces. A pair of sangheili stood behind a row of shrubs, firing their plasma rifles in the general direction of the humans, forcing them to keep their heads down. A third, carrying a concussion rifle, directed a lance of unggoy and kig-yar that advanced upon the humans. He was obviously the leader.
As Chac Lon watched, gunshots rang out from one of the other buildings across the street, sending one of the unggoy toppling over. The two sangheili switched their fire; Chac Lon caught only a brief glimpse of the human as he ducked away from the blue plasma that splashed near him.
The T'vaoan was dimly aware of his two squadmates advancing past him as he aimed his rifle at one of the advancing kig-yar. A single shot to the head put it down, and got the rest of the kig-yar frantically looking around in confusion as they tried to find the source of the shot. As the Covenant formation fell apart, the humans took advantage; a pair of militiamen stood up above the barricade and emptied their assault rifles into the kig-yar and unggoy. Two more unggoy and a kig-yar fell, as the rest broke and ran back to cover. As they did, they ran across Chac Lon's gunsights; the T'vaoan claimed two more unggoy, one vanishing in a pink explosion as the projectiles from the needle rifle interacted with each other. One of his squadmates took down another of the kig-yar.
As Chac Lon reloaded, he briefly made eye contact with one of the human militiamen. For a moment, he saw the human's eyes widen in shock, as the militiaman fumbled with an empty magazine.
Out of the corner of his right eye, Chac Lon saw a flash of movement. As he whipped his head around, he saw to his horror that it was the sangheili commander, charging at him with shoulder lowered. Only his natural reflexes saved him; by the time the sangheili crashed into him he was already springing off the balcony. The impact as the sangheili hit him was brutal; if not for the T'vaoan's armor and the bushes he landed in it would have been much worse. Even so, Chac Lon ended up dazed and sprawled on his back on the street below, barely keeping a hold on his rifle.
Vashk Rom had been standing standing only feet away from Chac Lon, and the sangheili commander turned his attention to him next. As the sangheili regained his footing, the T'vaoan raised his carbine and fired, hitting the sangheili with a burst of shots. But his shields held, and the sangheili sprinted forward, igniting his energy sword. As Chac Lon and Zep Yan watched, the sangheili slashed Vashk across the throat, severing his head in a single stroke.
"Run! Go!" Chac Lon shouted, as he pushed himself upright and fired off a poorly aimed burst at the sangheili commander. None of his shots hit, but he did manage to attract the Covenant officer's attention. Turning toward Chac Lon, it growled and jumped down to the street. Striding toward the kig-yar, the sangheili regarded him contemptuously as it approached him, sword ready.
"Honorless cur! That you would fight alongside these filth!" The sangheili shouted. "I will take immense pleasure in cutting you down myself!"
"Catch me, split lip." Chac Lon replied, standing upright. He was shaking off the shock from the hit earlier, and he knew he could outrun the sangheili. As long as he could avoid a hit from the concussion rifle the sangheili was carrying.
Chac Lon was turning to run as he saw a small greenish sphere fly between him and the sangheili. Grenade! Abandoning the plan to run, the T'vaoan simply jumped away as hard as he could, throwing himself toward the side of the road. For the second time in only a few moments, he was jarred by a massive impact as he landed shoulder-first on a piece of concrete debris.
The detonation wasn't the loudest thing Chac Lon ever heard, but it was up there. The T'vaoan squawked involuntarily as he was hit by a spray of metal fragments and gravel. His armor protected him from the worst, but all across his right side were minor cuts and abrasions where debris found gaps in his protection. Groaning, he dragged himself behind a wrecked vehicle and pulled himself to a sitting position.
The sangheili's shields took the brunt of the blast, flaring brightly before winking out. Enraged, the sangheili turned toward the source of the grenade; half a squad of militiamen advancing out of a nearby house. Roaring a challenge, the sangheili charged at the humans, preparing to cut them down as it had the kig-yar moments before. It ran headlong into a hail of 7.62mm bullets, making it only half a dozen steps before collapsing in a bloody heap. The other two lower-ranking sangheili, and the few surviving Covenant unggoy and kig-yar wisely decided now would be a good time for them to leave.
Chac Lon only had a few seconds to register all this before he was roughly grabbed from behind and shoved onto his back. Looking up, he saw the muzzle of a human assault rifle inches from his face, as a boot was roughly planted onto his chest.
"Dude, wait, the IFF says UNSC!"
"It's a fucking jackal you idiot!"
"It was shooting at that elite, maybe it's friendly?"
"Like fuck it is! Why shouldn't I just kill it?"
"Because if you do a bunch of my friends are going to put a hole in your heads." Chac Lon interjected. At least he hoped the rest of his squad had arrived.
"Shut the fuck up, turkey!" The militiaman shouted as he dug his heel in deeper.
"Look, it knows English too. Maybe this is some secret special-ops shit? The LT did say there was some weird stuff going on, maybe this is it?" The other militiaman replied. He seemed unconvinced that the kig-yar at his feet was an immediate threat.
"Hold your fire, troopers!" Thankfully, a new arrival resolved the situation. "This one's on our side!" Chac Lon turned his head and saw Sergeant Johnson at leading a squad of Marines toward their position.
The militiaman removed his boot from Chac Lon's chest and moved the rifle out of his face, though he still kept it pointed at the kig-yar. Chac Lon slowly moved to a sitting position, then stood up, hissing in pain as he did. It didn't feel like there was any permanent damage, but the wounds he had taken hurt like hell.
"Thanks, sergeant." He turned to the confused militia squad standing nearby. "And thanks for getting that sangheili."
"The what – oh." One of the militiamen took a second to translate the species name.
Another one cut in, gesturing at the corpse of the sangheili commander. "Fucker cut through us like butter, got our platoon leader and the sergeant too." She paused, turning to Sergeant Johnson. "I'm Corporal Gomez, looks like I'm the highest ranking one left of this platoon." Another pause, as she pointed at Chac Lon. "What's the deal with this guy? Jackals fighting for us now?"
"Just a couple of them. It's a long story." Johnson replied.
"And I'm sure none of us are cleared for it." The corporal replied. "Hate to admit it, turkey, but that was pretty ballsy of you taking on that elite like that. You were a good distraction."
The T'vaoan hesitated for a moment, trying to figure out Gomez's tone. "I've killed them before, I'll kill them again."
A few of the humans chuckled at that. "So why you fighting on our side, jackal? Finally get a guilty conscience over all the shit your people have been doing?" There was more than a hint of anger in the corporal's voice.
Chac Lon was unfazed. "Me and the Covenant have been on bad terms for a while. Let's just say I did something a bit ago that will get them really mad at me when they find out."
"Was it killing a bunch of these assholes?" One of the militiamen nudged the dead sangheili's body with his foot. "Pretty cool if it was."
Chac Lon was about to reply when Johnson ended the conversation. "Listen up, troopers! I've got a convoy of Warthogs headed here to evac you to the rear. Sky's still too hot for a Pelican." That got some grumbling from the troopers. "Hey, I'm not Santa Claus! Command wants you formed up with survivors from Kilo 3 and Kilo 4, hogs will give you a couple more minutes of rest."
Johnson turned to Chac Lon and the rest of the kig-yar, who had arrived in the past minute. "Yankee 1, you good to fight? You're coming with me." That got a few curses from his Marines. "Gonna hit the Covenant in their weak spot, cut off the lead elements from the landing site. Might even capture some of the bastards."