Casimir City Shopping Center parking garage, downtown Casimir Metro, Casimir Island, Reach
August 29, 2552, 26:13 hours
Reach was on the teetering edge... and about to fall, most of her orbital defenses long gone, the Navy now in the process of evacuating as many people and assets as humanly possible. Of her 9 Orbital Elevators 2 remained, whilst one still stood unhindered, the last one was under siege from ground forces, and the Covies were not holding back.
"Hold the line! Whatever it takes!" an Army Colonel shouted into his comms, he was getting reports that the Covenant had made landfall on the southern tip of Casimir Island and were heading north at an alarming pace to cut off the evacuation of the Casimir Metro area. Casimir so far had been ignored by the Covenant, as being the smallest city on Reach, not to mention being separated by hundreds of kilometers of ocean from the main continent. They came down hard on New Alexandria, Esztergom, and Sopron.
The rest of his command staff and troopers around him exchanged nervous glances, they could see the writing on the wall.
"Nguyen, get me command!" the man bellowed at the young Lieutenant next to him, poor kid, the old Colonel pitied him, fresh out of the Academy and about to die a horrible death on his first deployment.
"Yes, sir!" the kid stuttered out but all he got was static "I can't raise 'em, sir, we're either being jammed or-"
"Or they're gone. Fuck!" the Colonel slammed his helmet on the holotank "Petra! What do we got?"
At the mention of her name, the young A.I. focused a small fraction of her almost infinite multitasking ability to pay attention to the man who was now in charge of the slowly crumbling defensive lines south of Casimir City.
She materialized on the edge of the holotank, her hands behind her back, her expression a strong mix of very concerned and very pissed off.
"Zir, zhe Covenant are pressing our zouthern lines in every sector, zhe center is dangerously close to collapsing. I recommend retasking Fleet assets for a direct fire mission."
"We can't, we need those birds to help with the evacuation, there's still tens of thousands of people in the city, and I'm NOT gonna abandon 'em!" he drawled in his southern URNA accent.
"Zir, zhe ships above zhat are still capable of taking on people are at capacity or soon will be, and zhe time frame we have left will not allow us to evacuate everyone, a flight of Pelicans at zhis point will make no difference for zhem, but it will make a big one for our boys and girls in Sectors 3, and 4. Especially if zhey take out zhe main bridge over zhe Tisza river."
"God damn it." Colonel Ferretti breathed as he hung his head, holding himself up with the edge of the table, weighed down by the hard decisions he had to make. Slowly whiping his balding head of sweat with his gloved, dusty hand he looked Petra in the eyes and gave a small nod.
At once Petra raised her right hand to her ear and looked up, as if looking through 5 meters of concrete and steel, and hundreds of kilometers of empty sky, to see the ships and warships waiting in orbit, that were punishing any Covenant straggler who dared to fly into their engagement zone.
"Request immediate re-tasking of a flight of Pelicans for a fire-mission. Target coordinates sent." a second later Petra nodded to the Colonel "Done, sir. That should buy us a few hours."
"Yeah, before the Covenant do decide that we're worth the damn effort. Bastards. Tell our boys to hold on, help is on the way. They should pull back here, Petőfi Square, reinforce it as best they can and dig in their heels. Should form a nice bottleneck at the rail tunnel, give our Scorpions a clean field of fire from the overlooking hill north of it."
"Consider it done, zir." a moment later "I have confirmation, zir, zhey will hold as long as zhey have to."
"Anything else?" the Colonel asked turning to his Comm officer.
"The lines are holding, sir. Nothing from the boys upstairs, they say it's eerily quiet, but they're ready to go. Slipspace drives are spooled up, as are the MACs and M58 pods, point defenses standing by, all systems slaved to the ships' respective A.I.s. Longsword flights are keeping a good CAP around the Navy and civvie ships. Evacuation is proceeding well with all haste, no riots or panic stampedes so far at the tether, or anywhere else in the city for that matter. Our only problem, sir, the Captains are reporting that they simply don't have enough room for everyone, not even if the Navy starts dumping their vehicle bays." the young 23 year old officer huffed at his station, data on his screen going by. He wanted to say more, but didn't want to impact anyone's morale.
"We'll cross that bridge when we'll get to it, son. For now, let's just count our few and small blessings. Fuckers coulda just rolled in with a dozen battlecruisers, blown through our lines, I don't put it past Brute captains, that's for sure, cause it would've cost 'em dearly. But these bastards are being way too cautious for my taste, whoever's in command on their end is probably the sharpest tool in their shed. But I'm pretty sure Admiral Stanforth upstairs is smelling the same BS I'm whiffin' down here. So stay on your toes, heads on swivels. We gotta stay sharp and alert. Jackie?"
"Sir?"
"Put on a fresh batch o' coffee. And take some out to the boys as well." a few officers smiled and chuckled.
"Yes, sir." the man replied with a smile of his own.
"So no fuckups, God knows how many innocent souls are dependin' on us. So let's get this done by the numbers." Ferretti finished off with his savage determination in his voice that bordered on righteous fury, a source of unending courage and energy that everyone under Colonel Ferretti's command drank from copiously. The man made you feel like you could walk on water.
A chorus of 'Yes, sir.'-s and 'Yes, Colonel.'-s went up in the CP from everyone, human and A.I. alike. The man then turned to the little mint-green / cyan A.I. standing on the holotank next to the tactical map.
"Thank God for you, Petra, I sure am glad you're with us in this shitmixer."
The young A.I. puffed out her chest and smiled "Wouldn't be anywhere else, zhan right 'ere, Colonel."
Ferretti gave her a small smile before a slightly curious expression came over his face asking "How's your partner in crime doin'? Haven't heard a peep from him in 12 hours, should we be concerned?"
Petra took a moment, as if focusing on something "Spartan Alpha Zero Six Two is currently engaged with a Company-sized element of Elites and Brutes at the old docks on the western edge of zhe city." she replied, a small smirk a few seconds later gracing her angelic features "No, make that Platoon-size, at least, that's what's left of zhe bastards."
Everyone in the makeshift CP just went wide-eyed.
"Holy shit." the Colonel slowly drawled, clearly impressed.
"No wonder our Battalion in Sectors 1 and 2 haven't had any contact with the enemy for half a day, Jesus." Lt. Nguyen breathed with astonishment, and slight fear.
"Aaand they're dead." Petra added as she saw the last red dot wink out on the super soldier's motion tracker. She just rocked on her heels back and forth in amusement.
And was happy that the UNSC's satellites above zhem in geosynchronous orbit were still up and running, zhey eased her own worries, allowing her to keep tabs on him. Make sure he was all right, didn't need anything, and especially- updating him with zhe unfolding tactical and strategic situation. Letting him know in what areas the Covenant had landed south, or especially- west and south-west of the city. After having served together for 7 months she had grown very fond of him, very protective of him, and he was equally happy to be paired with her. IIIs were stoic, but they weren't as closed off as IIs, at least that's what she gleamed from service records, psych evals and data exchanges with other A.I. that had been attached to Spartans or Spartan units. He had no trouble with talking, making friends, be that fellow Spartans, or Marines, Troopers, Sailors, and it made him stronger for it in her personal opinion.
Echo Team had been split up on zhe 12th of February after zhe stint zhe Insurrection had pulled on Harmony, zhem and Gauntlet Team as well. It was decided zhat Spartans were very much needed on major worlds along zhe Covenant's invasion corridor, zhey couldn't have an entire group clumped up on just one planet, no, so to make sure zhey weren't left deaf, dumb, and blind like on Harmony when the enemy came knocking, they'd be ready. So zhey were split, many were now flying solo. Except for Noble, of course, Holland dug in like an Alabama tick, as zhe North Americans like to say, when it came to Noble, and since he had good will with the brass, zhey decided to listen to his recommendation, as he strongly believed that whilst a single Spartan was nigh unstopable, a group of them were an act of God.
The loss of Thom on Fumirole was a blow to many who knew 'im, especially to Carter and Kat, but to Tom as well, with whom he had a good raport, both of them being surviving members of Alpha Company. They always joked, you say patato, I say potato. You say Thom, I say Tom. The few moments of levity in a Spartan's life.
Petőfi Square, Casimir City
33 minutes later
"There, over there!" a Staff Sergeant indicated with his hand "10-o-clock! Redirect fire!" screaming over comms as the rippling sound of gunfire drowned out everything else. The night sky suddenly illuminated by a bright burst from above the dark clouds, giving the Troopers a good view of the incoming Covies. The rain was pouring hard now, no longer the pitter patter that was at noon.
His squad mates further down the line along with two M41s did as instructed, and with the rest of the Battalion engaged the fresh wave of Grunts and Jackals as they poured out from the underground railway's tunnel exit. It was an open field, the grass still green and lush. With the bridge having been blown to shit by Pelicans, it gave the Covies the bright idea to use the underground rail system to get into the city. Fortunately the Army boys were no slouches, and made sure that theirs would be the only other usable exit in the system, the lines heading further north into the city had been paid visit earlier in the day by EOD teams who rigged them to blow. At which point not even God could get through 'em.
"Little shids really don't know vhen to give up, do dey?!" shouted a barely 18 year old Private in heavily accented English on the second M41 "A retkes kurva anyátok!" she cursed in her native tongue and let loose another long burst, turning a few Jackals into fish bait "Baszódj meg, te szopós!" she all but screamed at the top of her lungs, spittle flying from her mouth, holding down the trigger for a second even longer burst.
"I swear to God, Reach girls are insane." commented one Trooper down the line under his breath just loud enough for his best friend to hear him. His green eyes surveying the line as he quickly reloaded his rifle. Mirth clearly in his voice.
"Nah, it's Hungarians, ve're all insane." grinned the man next to him, his DMR singing in reply to a few stray plasma shots that fortunately went wide.
The entire line and second line slightly above and behind them kept firing continously as more and more Covenant troops started to pour out from the tunnel.
The faint occasional THUNK-THUNK from Czechtown Hill meant the Scorpions had arrived and joined the fray, splashing bigger concentrations of Covies with Canister rounds.
The hastily erected barricades doing their job of not only stemming the tide and bottlenecking the enemy, but also providing decent cover for the Troopers. But, they were slowly taking losses, they've been holding the line for the better part of 27 hours, they were exhausted, angry, hungry, and when you're tired, that's when you start making mistakes, reaction time goes out the fucking window.
"God, give me coffee, at this point I'd take coffee over 50 cruisers." intoned a man with a humorous voice not far behind them, a few chuckles could be heard in the small lull in all the fighting.
They knew, they all knew, relief wasn't coming, no cavalry riding in at the last minute to pull their asses out of the fire. No, if there was to be a miracle, then they'd have to create one themselves.
Silence fell on the line, nothing but the patter of rain, fog from the sea moving in further obscuring their vision, thank God for NVGs many of them thought. The occasional patter of boots on concrete that was littered with puddles, big and small could be heard, the sound of squelching boots, a few coughs here and there, the rigid silence of anticipation. Men and women bringing up ammo, many reloading, the girl on the M41 reloading as well, hooking up a fresh 1000-round belt to her beloved 'Heartbreaker' as she had labelled her HMG. The guy on the second M41 of their section doing so as well after seeing her do it.
Someone started singing an old folk song somwhere on the second line as the rain continued to pour in the dead of night.
"Tavaszi szél vizet áraszt, virágom, virágom,
Minden madár társat választ, virágom, virágom."
And someone else took up the song with her:
"Hát én immár kit válasszak, virágom, virágom,
Te engemet, és én tégedet, virágom, virágom."
Only for the creative souls to be stifled by their Sergeant yelling at them to shut the ever-loving-fuck up, you fucking lovebirds.
"Hey, Michael!" the HMG gunner-girl whisper-yelled toward the green-eyed soldier down the line to her right. He looked up from his throne in the mud, passing a chocolate bar to his battle buddy.
"What is it, Sophie?"
"It's Zsófi!" she corrected for what was probably the hundreth time "Zs, Zs, Zs! Like je m'apelle in French!" but her bright blue eyes were filled with humor.
"Sorry, Soph, we don't speak surrender from where I'm from!"
"You wound me!" someone could be heard shouting from down the line in a slight URNA-French accent. Troopers laughed, shit-eating grins in the dark.
"You got any more Turul bars?" she asked hopefully, pushing her sweat and rain drenched blonde hair away from her eyes as she kept one on the line, her right hand on the weapon, finger straight and above the trigger.
"Nah, just gave my last nougat-filled goodness to Péter. Don't think he'll be giving it up, though." he said pointing with his thumb at the man in question as he stuffed an entire chocolate bar in his face like it was his last meal on God's green Reach.
"Hey! Share vith dhe class, fuckface!" Zsófi yelled and threw an empty water bottle at him "Ha anyád tudná, hogy mekkora seggfej vagy!"
"Wha-? I was hungry!" he replied indignantly as chocolate-colored drool dripped out of his mouth.
Suddenly, there was a large blast from the left flank, men and women screamed as they were engulfed in bright blue blobs of plasma as 4 Wraiths emerged from the tunnel, they were slowly and methodically demolishing their left flank.
"Who the fuck had the bright-fucking idea to keep that fucking tunnel open?!" Michael asked no one in particular as he hopped back on the line and went full auto.
Zsófi on the M41 just had enough time to squeeze off a long burst before she went wide eyed and turned, jumping away from the platform 2 seconds before the entire rig exploded in blue flame. Landing hard on her side, the wind knocked out of her, she wheezed and coughed for air but still managed to shout "Get some fucking Spankers up here! Ve need some fucking Span-" and that was her last word in this world as an energy sword impaled her head, a prong emerging from her forehead, another from her mouth, burning her head black, filling the air with the faint smell of burned meat and hair, and not a moment later an invisible foot kicked her lifeless body away.
"Cloaked Elites on the line!" a Trooper shouted almost immediately and everyone doubled their efforts as cloaked Elites meant one thing, and one thing only: this was a major push.
"Frags! Frags! Frags!" the Sarge shouted and two dozen or so balls of hate flew over the line. The loud ripple of THUNKs echoed between the buildings around them like a long crack of lightning.
One of the Wraiths exploded suddenly, followed rapidly by the second and last, as the M808Bs had joined the dance once more, and brought their armor piercing tungsten friends to the shindig. They kept firing but Covies pouring out of the tunnel now were a flood instead of a trickle, and many of them were going everywhere not just straight at them, meaning they'd be surrounded in no time if they didn't do something radically good or radically stupid.
This was it. And just at that very second the Comms crackled for unit commanders all over the City.
"All units, this is Colonel Ferretti! Protocol Overlord is in effect, I repeat, Overlord is in effect! Fall back! Fall back to rally points Beta and Gamma! Alpha is overrun! The ships in orbit have been engaged! Our window is closing fast! Fall back!"
The moment had arrived, and not a second sooner the last of the Wraiths had exploded in a shower of metal and blue flame, the MBTs up on the hill had switched to canister rounds and HE rounds once more to shred the swarming Covie infantry, this was fish in a barrell. The sheer amount of firepower those 4 Scorpions unleashed staggered the Covenant horde, 2 of them switched fire to the tunnel entrance itself, hoping to trigger a chain collapse, but it would've taken too long to achieve.
The troopers below in the square certainly didn't have that kinda time.
Their Lieutentant Colonel, a woman in her 44th year, by the name of Mary Ellen Spear switched a moment later to Battalion comms "This is it, shit kickers and shit sniffers!" in her sweet British accent "We're falling back to Gamma! Move your arses! Dunkirk! Dunkirk!" and left her makeshift CP, grabbing what portable gear they could, an Lt. part of her command staff setting a block of C-12 to scrub any sensitive materials.
She grabbed her freshly promoted young XO by the left forearm to quickly get his attention "Follow us out with section 2, Eddie, and Jesus, get that looked at!"
The man in question only gave the gash above his left eye a quick directional glance before nodding once and falling in next to her "And I had dinner plans for tonight, what a bitch."
Platoon leaders and Squad leaders took up the call, and passed it down the line to the kiddies like a game of 20th century telephone.
"Fall back! Fall back!" their own Sergeant shouted, yanking a Trooper up off the ground by the hem of her trousers, the poor kid had a flabbergasted expression on her face after having been knocked on her ass by an explosion. Giving her a solid shove northward her Sarge yelled at the top of his lungs "Today, ladies! Fucking today!"
The Troopers, as trained professionals, hard-core motherfuckers, bastards that would make Satan shit himself with fear started pulling back in only what could be described as controlled chaos. Leapfrogging northward. Covering each other, hard pats on shoulders and helmets, God's love tap to move your ass, whilst pouring fire into any opening they could see behind them, even managing to down several eager cloaked Elites with concentrated fire.
"You're not completely invisible, sugartits!" someone shouted from the other side of an overturned car.
The sudden burst of lead induced tickling gave the Covies a pause to contemplate their place in the universe, enough time for the boys and girls in green and khaki to pull back to their vehicles and mount up. A few Troopers unfortunately weren't so lucky, pour enough shit in any given direction and some of it will stick. One Trooper received an entire string of Spiker rounds to his back, as if he was collecting the whole set, whilst another soldier fell to a Jackal sniper.
"Mount up! We're getting the fuck outta Dodge, sweethearts!" Lt. Col. Spear shouted over the roar of gunfire as she jumped into the shotgun seat of the second vehicle, her driver flooring it with the other vehicles as soon as the lead vehicle took off. The gunners in the rear elements' Warthogs turned 180, pouring lead death back towards the barricades, the Scorpions popping smoke canisters with accurate fire down unto the north-bound highway to cover their retreat.
The overwhelming majority of the southern, western, and eastern outskirts of the city had been abandoned for a solid two weeks now. The civilian population taking up refuge in underground bunkers, metro lines, rail lines, any place that was a hop and fucking skip away from the orbital elevator and space-born docks. After 27 years of war, even dogs knew the drill. So there was no reason to stay back and occupy any part of the city, even for a little while, cause enacting Overlord meant that you had less than an hour to get your shit stowed for some off-world rocketing fun.
As for the troopers holding the 6 southern sectors? Not all were so lucky, but Lt. Col. Spear's boys and girls were luckier than most. This was considered one of the more successful contact breaks of the day. Hell, the entire defense campaign.
In orbit of Casimir
Casimir Station at the same time
-THUNK- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 -THUNK-
The entire station vibrated as the SMAC of the Erőd-class ODP fired in rapid succession, Lt. Petrovski, the Weapons Officer all but jumped from his seat "Good kill! Good kill!" he shouted as a CCS-class was split in half by two- quick, consecutive tungsten rods from God. Its reactor overloading after 2-3 secondary explosions, obliterating the two halves of the ship in a bright light that lit up the Heavens.
"Good job, son." the Station commander intoned "You and Cheshire make quite a team" as he also nodded to the station's resident smart A.I. "Inform the Rommel and Mont Blanc to shake a tail feather and get a move on! I don't know how longer we can keep this up. We've already gotten reports of Covenant forces closing in on the Orbital Generators..."
"Yes, sir." Cheshire nodded "Scopes are clear for now- "SLIPSACE RUPTURES DETECTED! Multiple pings below the Orbital Defense Grid!" the A.I. had panic in his voice.
Claxons started blaring all across Casimir Station, lights switched automatically to red everywhere now, not just the CIC.
"Initiate Protocol Overlord, Cheshire. Befo-"
"Boarding craft! And lots of 'em!" Comms announced.
"Overlord enacted, commander! Ground forces confirm as well!"
"All hands, this is the Commander! Prepare to repell boarders! Cheshire, take control of the PDCs!"
"They're not headed for us, sir! They're headed for the elevator!" Comms corrected with worry in his voice.
"My God..." a woman breathed at one of the consoles as she stared horrified at the main screen. They were everywhere. A massive fleet, dozens of ships, most of them heading straight for the surface, a few down to the outskirts of Casimir. No doubt to deploy massive waves of infantry and armor.
"There's still ships tethered to it, taking on refugees, there must be hundreds, if not thousands of people on the tether alone." Cheshire reported, clear concern in his voice as his cat form sat on the holotank.
"Redirect PDCs, if any of those boarding craft stray into your kill-zone, engage." the Commander said over his shoulder "Now, get me a target."
"Sir, I have an idea. If the ships are not gonna come at us, then might I suggest we reorient Casimir's SMAC, and target the ones heading for the surface?"
"Out of the question, Cheshire!" the Commander all but bellowed "The damage to Reach could be catastro-"
"Sir, Reach has all but fallen. They've already glassed huge swaths of the Viery Territory and are headed for the arctic regions to more than likely melt the ice caps and flood the coastal areas, drowning thundreds of thousands if not millions. If we are to buy time for the people on the ground... I see few other options, sir. This might swing things slightly back into our favor. Give us the window we need to get as many people off the planet as possible." the cat replied with his posh accent.
The Commander could only fall in his chair "God forgive us." breathed out slowly, giving his consent.
"Reorienting." Nav added at once.
"Weapons. I have a target for you." Cheshire added "Sir, with your permission?"
"Do it." the Commander said, some manner of confidence coming back into his voice.
"Yes, sir. Weapons, I'm relaying coordinates. Covenant shields are less effective in atmosphere. I can easily calculate the charge on the SMAC, sir, that will surely criple, if not flat out destroy that CAS-class, and have a minimal impact on the ground below it."
"Coordinates locked in, Commander!" Weapons stated "248.3 kilometers south-south-west of Casimir City. Nothing around for dozens of kms, middle of nowhere." he finished turning to his commanding officer, hopeful determination in his eyes.
The Commander unbuckled his crash webbing and stood to his feet, walked over to Weapons and looked up, up at the planet that has been his home... his family's home for 22 years. His wife was from Reach, she would always jest that she didn't hold it against him that he wasn't. Right now he wanted nothing more than to hold her, kiss her, hear her say how much she loved him, how she was sorry for burning the lasagna for the 20th time. Being pregnant gave her some weird food cravings.
God, he missed her. Missed both of them.
By the time he was pulled back to the present moment by the Weapons officer's questioning voice there were tears running down his face.
Fucking bastards deserved to burn in Hell.
"FIRE!"