Engagement ranges in some parts of Malevelon were longer than normal, mostly due to the hills poking over the treeline. It was where Farkas and his men made their next stand, at a FOB deployed on the top of Hill Number 097, a Hill that protected the road leading to an important MSR of both the Helldivers and UNSC Marines, as a battalion of Bots advanced from down below. Mortar sentries tracked targets spotted by the Helldivers and their Marine allies, thumping away HE shells at the enemy's advancing force.
Overhead, UNSC aircraft struck like hammers against other advancing enemy units, the other elements defending the various hills engaging the enemy's advance forces with disregard. UNSC troops on the next Hill over from them fired into the mist with dumbfire missiles and rocket launchers while waiting for Reinforcements. Malevelon was Hell still. SEAF troops lay dead in the trenches around the FOB, their comrades fighting by the Helldivers simply because the 'Special' SEAF troops that dropped into Hell reinforced them.
It was honestly rather strange to see guys that were sometimes twice their age, firing assault weapons at the advancing automaton threat like the enemy was not the most dangerous damn thing this side of the Orion Arm. The Bots had slaughtered at least a Division's worth of men since Malevelon became a hotbed for combat, not to mention however many Helldivers they'd managed to kill.
He calmly watched a Longsword glide in, drop a precision-guided bomb in the distance, then power its fusion engines and fly away like it wasn't even in the AO, all while enemy anti-air fired flak and missiles at it. He sighed deeply, walked over to one of the Trenches and patted a SEAF rifleman on the shoulder, causing the young man to yelp and jump. He was a future Helldiver candidate, probably at eighteen, maybe nineteen years of age.
Sitting down in the trench and watching the tracers going back and forth, the man hummed a tune and loaded rounds from half-empty magazines to other half-empty magazines, leaving the plastics in a dump pouch somewhere on his person while loading the ones with full loads into his chest rig and looking outward. He lifted his AR-23 and shouldered it, peering down the scope at the silhouettes and red eyes below.
The drone of a gunship's engines filled his ears. He looked up to see a UNSC Pelican firing its 40mm cannon into the mist below, explosions causing several enemy eyes to wink out of existence as it touched down. It spewed out a platoon of Marine riflemen meant to reinforce the area and dropped something entirely different to them. A bipedal machine uncurled as its pilot boarded it. Armed with a four-tube guided missile launcher on its left arm and a Gatling cannon on its right, the massive warmachine stood on two articulated legs and walked forward, colored the dark-green of the UNSC Marine Corps.
One Sergeant-Major Avery J. Johnson jumped into the Trench, shotgun at the ready and cigar between his lips, then looked upon the Veteran Helldiver and inquired, "You Chief Farkas?" to which he simply nodded. Johnson extended his hand and said, "Sergeant-Major AJ Johnson. We'll be your new pals here on Hill Ninety-One, 'till evac's called..." only to pause as the six-barrel cannon on their walker revved and began spitting out lead in a long, loud and harsh chainsaw-like burp.
Farkas looked up at the mech and watched the spotlight mounted to the front of its boxy, rotating 'turret' hull light up. He looked to Johnson and asked, "What the hell is that thing?" because it almost, point for point, resembled the EXO-45 Prototypes he'd seen when assigned to Guard Duty on Tien Kwan. Bipedal, armored mechs with heavy weaponry mounted to their arms.
"We call it a Mantis," Johnson grinned as he sat down in front of Farkas, peering over the parapet of the trench and shouldering his shotgun. The Marines moved up with equipment unloaded from the back of the Pelican. Machine guns, mortars, AT weapons and the likes were set up around the FOB as the 'Bots started firing back at them again, the sharp snaps of their weaponry ringing over their heads.
The Pelican lifted off after dropping off the supplies, the 40mm autocannon opening up again with explosive ammo that caused several more hostile mechs to wink off the motion trackers. The young SEAF infantryman sat down in the trench, watching their allied aircraft take off and head out to Orbit, with Johnson commenting, "Pretty cool, huh? We saw y'all's shuttles, too. The PELICAN squadrons, heh."
"Your air assets are named the same, right?" Farkas asked, leaning against the edge of the Trench. The man nodded, then showed Farkas to wait as the cannon revved up and fired again, the tracers lighting the darkness of the mist ahead, followed by a full four-shot volley from the missile launcher tracking the enemy's advancing heavy mechanoid units. Stuff like Hulks and Devastators almost seemed like child's play to this thing.
Farkas wanted one, honestly. Those damn prototypes couldn't come soon enough to help them. He ducked, however, when a Devastator appeared out of the mist and fired its cannon at it. A golden, translucent blanket shone, the round shattering against it as the Mantis swiveled about and aimed for the Devastator. The cannon spun up again and spat out armor piercing punishment against the Devastator, cratering its armor and shattering its body, sending it tumbling back.
The Mantis stepped over the trench line and fired another full volley of missiles in a forty-five degree arc as the Marines, 'Divers and SEAF Infantry lit up the Bots with their own armaments. Johnson commented, "Damn commiebots ain't realized you don't mess with the Big Green Killing Machine!" and laughed as he pumped four slugs into another Devastator charging from the right.
Heh. Farkas liked that one. 'Commiebots'. He might actually start using it. He switched his rifle to semi-automatic and started shooting for headshots now, aiming for whatever pair of red eyes he could see glowing in the fog. Meanwhile, the machine fighting beside them was taking the brunt of enemy fire, its shields flaring, but not dying. The SEAF infantryman beside Johnson asked, "That thing has shields?!"
"A lot of our gear does nowadays!" The Sergeant replied as he knelt to reload his shotgun behind cover. The Marines and SEAF troops behind him let loose rifle volleys and their own shotgun shells. Overhead, the air suddenly exploded with a hardy shockwave. Farkas grinned behind his helmet, then watched five Hellpods touch down in the middle of the base, disgorging Sergeant Veratti and her squad.
She lifted her hand and started calling up a stratagem, before throwing the blue-shining beacon in front of her. She drew what looked to be a massive automatic shotgun and started letting loose with it, spent shotgun shells clacking onto the floor as the rest of her squad summoned their own weapon stratagems. The medic lifted up her medical kit and jumped into the trench as a Marine took a bullet to the helmet that really rang his bell. Beside her, her rifleman partner jumped in, firing what looked to be a Stalwart light machine gun at the enemy.
Their AT gunner lifted his recoilless rifle and jumped into the trench, reloading his own shotgun. Sergeant Veratti jumped in as well and said, "Sergeant Johnson! Seems I can't get rid of you!"
"Teamwork makes the dream work, Sarge!" He grinned and nodded, then looked over to see the AT Gunner heft his launcher and aim toward a larger enemy Mech. The thumping footsteps of the heavier enemy machines filled the air, with the AT Gunner firing, the backblast kicking up mud and debris. He nailed the leading heavy mech dead in its scarlet-shining vision port, cratering the armor with the HEAT shell.
He knelt and reloaded the launcher as more fire rained down on the enemy. Alessia jumped from her position and ran toward the gunner, taking his backpack and slinging her weapon onto her back as she started loading for him. She patted him on the shoulder and said, "Keep it steady, Tomas! We need your shots to hit!" before looking back and calling out, "Radomar! Loader!"
The other Helldiver nodded and moved up, taking the backpack form her, setting it off to the side and preparing the next shell for the launcher. He patted Tomas, their AT launcher, and said, "Backblast clear, brother! Hit'em!" before the launcher coughed out smoke from the rear and the shell left the front, striking another enemy Devastator dead-center.
The Mantis itself continued firing until the barrels of its gun glowed scarlet. It marched forward and delivered a hardy kick from one of its two hydraulic legs, crushing several 'Bots with one hit and staggering a Hulk. A squad of Berserkers appeared from the darkness, their eyes, bodies and chainsaw arms glowing red in the fog. Johnson stood up and met the first Bot bastard with a shotgun blast square to the head, staggering it.
Two Marines joined him, firing on the Robot's joints and laying the hate down through Armor Piercing might. Farkas also joined in, while Alessia fired her shotgun at the next few bastards coming in, watching as the shot rounds tore through the bastards' plate and joints like a hot knife through someone's skin. The bots collapsed and dropped to the floor, oil staining the Marines', 'Divers and SEAF Infantry's clothes.
A SEAF infantry gal laughed maniacally as she laid into the enemy with her own long-barrel MG, while Alessia looked over to her with a grin. She knelt and reloaded her Breaker shotgun, then set it aside and pulled out a Stratagem Beacon. She radioed, "Eagle-1, hope you don't lose your bird this time! Calling in Cluster Strike!" before she finished tapping in the order on ther TACPAD. Taking a few steps back, the girl cocked her hand back, aimed and threw the Beacon right into the mist.
"Heh. Don't worry, boss! Delivering Liberty with a side of Danger Close!" Eagle-1 replied joyfully. She dived down onto the target area, dumping several cluster munitions that opened up above the Bot battalion advancing on them. The sparkling rain of projectiles detonated in a wave up ahead while the Eagle pilot banked up incredibly harshly, dumping flares from the sides of her plane like it was going outta style. The first missile fired her way missed, as did a dozen others while she flew back to their ship.
"I heard she got shot outta the sky on your last op!" Johnson quipped as he watched Alessia load her shotgun. She nodded, slammed the magazine home and racked the bolt, then stood and pellets began to spew. He told her, "Also heard one of our Spartans was on-station to save her ass from some rumors! Dunno if it's real!" but he did know it was, he thought. He'd spoken to Noble Six through com, what with the man being behind enemy lines to sow some chaos.
"According to her, yeah! Your SOF is really antisocial!" Alessia quipped as she listened to the Stalwart LMG beside her going off like a chainsaw. Someone must've upped its fire rate, considering she saw the barrel of the weapon glowing from overuse. Sighing, she knelt and called in another strike, tossing the beacon farther ahead and watching as Eagle-1 came down diagonally, bombs dropping in the crowd of Bots ahead, oil, scrap parts and shrapnel scattering around the field.
"That's how Spartans are!" Johnson quipped, climbing onto the trench front and slamming the butt of his shotgun into the face of another Bot before pumping it full of Lead. He drew his pistol off of his thigh and shot a Devastator as it was charging him with its shield, nailing it dead in the head twice and shattering its CPU. The insides of the bot burst ablaze, Johnson grinning, only to pause as another swung for him.
He ducked under the swing, pointed the pistol at the Devastator's exposed belly and filled it full of lead. One of his Marines snapped off a shot from her sniper and nailed it in the head, then looked overhead as their Pelican Gunships returned on-station and opened up with their autocannons and rocket pods into the fog surrounding the high-rising hilltop FOBs.
The Mantis slowly began to pull back as its ammunition reserves dried, with the Marines, Helldivers and SEAF being left alone to defend the position. Alessia tapped the SEAF rifleman beside her on the shoulder and asked, "Do we have any local artillery emplacements that can help us!?" only for the man to point to one of the rear Hills, where a SEAF gun battery resided, barrel pointed at the sky.
"Frequency 22,5! Call them u-" The man got cut off by his head exploding from a Bot Trooper's round. Bot Rocket infantry came up next, firing their missiles toward the defensive positions. The Sergeant took cover as her comrades engaged, MGs and rifles roaring, then linked with the com system, utilizing a quick bypass to directly link it to her Super Destroyer.
She blinked, then said, "Okay, first in the tube's a NUKE!" which caused Johnson to blank. She peered over their cover as bullets zipped over their heads, noting the mass of Bots heading their way, then sighed deeply and radioed, "All units, be advised, Danger Close nuclear strike incoming!" before priming the beacon and throwing it as far into the enemy line as possible.
The heavy artillery piece in the rear visibly rotated, then fired, the massive nuclear shell arcing up into the sky, then letting gravity take over. It turned, warhead facing downward as the shell itself made calculations for where to land. Johnson gave one hand signal to his men and they ducked in cover as the shell finally came down, a yellow warhead with a CBRN warning sign on it.
When it touched down and the fuse lit, the detonation shook the very core of the many soldiers' souls and nearly knocked the Mantis off of its own two feet, as well as causing the UNSC Dropships to shake and lose balance for a moment. The radioactive shockwave caused their geiger counters to click, but due to the relatively low yield of the tactical weapon, that radiation dissipated quickly.
Standing up, Alessia looked over at the battlefield as the mist and radioactive smoke began to dissipate, but saw no more red eyes in the dark. Not close to them, anyway, she thought as she reloaded her shotgun and checked how many she had left. Out of the seven she had on her when they landed, plus the resupplies, she was down to five mags for the shotgun.
She yelped, however, when a Bot Trooper with its arm torn off pounced on her and screeched something in whatever language they spoke, pinning her to the floor in front of her men. A dozen more Troopers, heavily damaged but alive, jumped into battle, some of them armed with melee weapons that were directly grafted onto their machine arms. One took a swing at Johnson, who barely dodged and planted the butt of his shotgun in its face, which sent it falling backward. He stomped its head in, racked the pump of his shotgun and fired at two more, before moving to Alessia, who was fighting against the Mech with her bare firsts, and pulling it off of her
She drew her sidearm and put half her magazine into the machine, sending it sliding down the wall of the trench. Johnson offered her a hand and asked, "You broken, Sergeant!?" which got a laugh out of her as she took it, feeling herself hoisted to her feet. Holstering her pistol, she was soon handed her auto-shotgun back by Johnson and nodded in thanks.
"I'll be alright, Sarge. Let's get these tin cans out of our damn trenches!" She spoke, then racked the bolt handle of her shotgun, feeding a fresh shell from the magazine into the chamber. They aimed their weapons and engaged, two Marines and a trio of SEAF infantry dying beside them as the melee mechs gutted them. A new slew of Berserkers charged over the hill next, one catching a Marine center mass and lifting him off the floor, cutting him in half as he screamed bloody murder.
Both Johnson and Alessia laid into the machine, putting slug and buckshot into the machine's body and joints until it fell, dead and silent. The two then aimed for two more mechs that jumped over the hill and into the trenches. The Marines and Helldivers supporting them focused fire, spilling the oil and parts of the machines onto the floor with thunder and ripping metal echoing across the lines.
Gunships finally managed to open fire while the Mantis, now rearmed, stomped forward and joined in, gun spooling and letting loose a stream of lead against the advancing melee units. A flare lanced up into the sky, burning scarlet, which signaled enemy dropships to come in. The spindly machines rolled forward, their pilots disregarding their own safety to drop troops on each side of the hill, splitting the defense before they were shot out of the sky. Eagle-1 dived in again, firing her autocannons to greet the enemy, strafing a gunship and shooting it out of the sky.
She dropped her extra bombs around the base despite no request from the Helldivers below, then swiveled about and dumped even more flares as enemy anti-air tried to put her out of work again. However, before she could veer, she heard a click of a com, then saw that her RWR no longer picked up a target lock from the enemy's AirDef. She smirked and whispered to herself, "Guess I still have a Guardian Angel of my own, eh? Thanks, Six..." as she veered back toward the Destroyer.
She paused, however, when she saw Pods dropping from the UNSC Cruiser in orbit. Pods that weren't their own...
5th Orbital Assault Battalion, 105th ODST Division
Operation SPEARBREAKER
Day 08
The thundering flak around her pod didn't unease her whatsoever. She gripped tightly onto the control sticks of her Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle. In the corner of her eyes, through the pod's glass, she could make out both her hundred brethren and the returning aircraft of their newfound allies. This was her twelfth drop this operation, meaning her twelfth drop behind Automaton lines and her twelfth drop into the shit-infested jungle down below.
She braced as the re-entry's wisps of fire vanished from below her pod, then felt the air knocked out of her lungs as the SOEIV slammed against the muddy floor. She hit the releases and watched the explosive decoupling of the door send it flying into an Automaton unit. Jumping out of the Pod, she felt her boots dig into the mud as she grabbed her Jackhammer AT Launcher and shouldered it.
The 5th's newfound job was the delaying action against Mech units and thinning their numbers out so they didn't crash like a tidal wave against the tightening defenses formed by both them and Super Earth's somewhat lackluster military. She took cover behind a Tree as her supporting element, riflemen, SAW gunners and two men carrying Spartan Lasers, advanced to join her. They were a Heavy Weapons Section, a bit of an Ad-Hoc formation of troops bearing the heavy load of the 5th's Anti-Everything loadout.
The Laser-bearers spotted a patrol bearing two Hulks and a tank and immediately got to work. The whirr of their laser weapons charging filled the air as the rest of the group engaged escorting infantry, with the woman in charge of the ad-hoc formation hefting her own launcher and aiming at the enemy tank. When the first scarlet beam lanced out and drilled a hole into the armor of a Hulk, her two missiles shot out and struck the side of the enemy tank, setting it ablaze almost immediately.
The machinegunners opened fire on advancing Bot infantry, one of them managing to snipe the enemy Commissar before it could call for reinforcements. Beside them, standard riflemen pushed forward, some firing their underbarrel grenade launchers at the enemy formations. This was the way the ODSTs were set to operate, fast and hard attacks, Only Death Stopped Them.
Still... it wasn't like they wouldn't face casualties. A Devastator that was able to turn around in time put a burst of autocannon fire down-range and caught three of her men in the volley, killing two and severely injuring another. She moved up beside the wounded soldier, dragged him into cover, then fired the next missile in her tube at the bastard, nailing it dead-center and causing it to stagger.
A burst from a Spartan Laser cut the machine in half, sending it tumbling to the floor alongside the trees behind it. The woman reloaded her launcher, slamming the top down and letting the tubes rotate into place before aiming at another Hulk and firing a missile right for its glowing red eyes as it charged at her, feet thundering, the saw arm cutting through a tree that was in the way.
When the rocket struck, the machine staggered. The HEAT warhead dug a crater into its face, shattering the optical sensors and killing whatever was interred within the Dreadnought. It collapsed to the floor and now provided cover for her, the Corpsman advancing to help the one wounded survivor and the platoon of troops and heavy weapon specialists moving up with their guns and launchers.
They were cutting down the middle of the enemy's advance, stalling multiple enemy units and allowing other UNSC troops to get into position and stabilize the damn front, but the Bots were coming out of the woodwork, just like the Innies Grandpappy had told her about from during TREBUCHET. It was a pain to spot them and engage them properly, but they were making it work thanks to VISR and the BattleNet.
She marked a target for an airstrike and it wasn't long after that a Longsword dropped a precision-guided bomb from on high, the strike landing dead center on the enemy's position. The few Helldivers that were probably watching this from afar were wondering when the hell the UNSC had deployed a walking barrage to wipe the enemy out, or at least stall them enough.
She checked her wristwatch and spoke, "Baseplate, Ilmen. Passed checkpoint Bravo. Heading for Charlie and EVAC now, request gunships on station to cover the retreat, Ilmen Actual out..." before she slung her launcher onto her back and pulled her rifle off the forward sling mount, engaging Bot Troopers, missile Troopers and melee Troopers with her own bullets. She slammed the butt of her rifle against the maw of one of the bots, snapping its spindly neck and sending it to the floor, before she shot multiple.
Ahead, Pelicans swung in low, firing missile pods and cannons as, in the distance, the enemy's SAM site detonated in a flash. Thank God for Spartans, the ODST thought ironically as she surged forward, urging her troops on to the LZ with waves of her hand. Before long, the entire task force, save two dead men, made it onto the Blood Trays of the Pelicans. A fifteen minute deep strike and they still had enough ammo to go in for seconds.
She sighed, activated her radio and said, "UNSC Appalachia, this is lieutenant Erika Staub, callsign Ilmen Actual. Mission accomplished, we're RTB," before taking her helmet off and shaking her head, letting her short blonde hair breathe as her blue eyes scanned the Blood Tray. She noted the two empty seats in front of her, licked her lips and murmured to herself, "I hope they recovered the bodies..."
One job well done, she thought to herself, despite the losses.