"Well, fuck..." Rosie sighed and rubbed her eyes.
"Gotta be shitting me, boss," Ivanov stated, "They're here?"
Tyuule chewed on her lower lip, then sighed, "This is not good..."
"Yeah. Fuckin' Sapien Sunrise..." Richard replied. The situation grew even more dangerous, now that the allied force knew there might've been Insurrectionists among the forces of the enemy. He spoke, "Doc Halsey's going to check on the Convoy right now, see what's what and if there's anyone still alive. If not, they've got the Helmet Cams to make sense of the shit that happened there... 'Till then, we gotta be ready. Start setting up even more defenses and make sure you turn each gate into a killzone."
He stood to his feet and grabbed his rifle, swinging it onto his back The others nodded and departed, with Torres and Itami lagging behind to talk to Richard. Torres himself asked first, "What're we looking at here? Something like Afghan? Iraq? Because I'm not sure I'm too fond of either option, considering what the hell happens in those theaters on the daily..."
"Oh, don't worry," Richard voiced with a hint of sarcasm behind his words, "Innies are far more coordinated than your average Jihadi Joe with an AK and a dream of a big ol' Caliphate..." as they walked out into the halls. He waved the Princess over as he packed his kit, then sighed and looked to the now-afraid Torres, stating, "They're dangerous, like any insurgency. They also have access to our weaponry and are apparently stealing Russian vics."
"Well, shit..." Torres sighed.
Itami replied, "We should be on the lookout. Maybe we'll wake up with a bunch of them at the gates soon..." in a murmur. He thumbed his radio and said, "Attention, all HITMAN units, prepare for enemy assault to contain actually capable firearm wielders. We may be seeing an enemy Insurrectionist force that's fought against the UNSC before among the army's ranks..."
Piña marched up to them, asking, "What is wrong...?"
"Well, the enemy may be getting some experienced new fighters in those reinforcements they're sending..." Richard explained calmly as they walked, "Which means we'll either need to engage them now, while they're waiting, or get ourselves dug in prim and proper for them to come to us. Eitherway, we're gonna be fighting around and, if they breach the gates, in the city."
"Concerning as the enemy reinforcements are, now... It would be preferable to stay inside," Piña explained. She continued, "If we attack, it will be seen as an act of aggression, which may get me and my Knights incarcerated. This way, we can play up us being 'unwilling' participants in this battle. The defense, I mean," as they walked over together. Richard hummed, then nodded, impressed, before elbowing Torres gently and giving him a thumbs-up. Torres clapped an open hand on his helmet, ringing his bell a bit in reply, while Itami smiled.
The Princess seemed confused. She sighed and said, "I will go wake up the Countess, so she may be ready for the upcoming battle, too."
"We'll leave a squad of four to guard the citadel, just in case the enemy actually manages to break through," Torres offered before the group split, with the Lieutenants walking outside. He stopped and sniffed the air, feeling the distant scent of smoke as they marched on forward. Of course, the enemy was cooking their food while waiting for backup. He suddenly felt a pit in his own gut, now that he realized the enemy was on their way.
Tyuule had run outside, stopping Richard by putting a hand on his shoulder and asking, "May we talk, Richard?" as she looked at him. She requested, "Alone..."
He nodded, then waved to the fellas. Both of them grinned, then waved back and stepped off. Richard rolled his eyes, then looked to Tyuule and asked, "What's the matter, Tyuule?" to which she showed him to follow her. Sure, there was probably a lot to be said about the current situation they found themselves in. Delilah and the other Warrior Bunnies of the platoon were sat on the rooftops, it looked like, as snipers and QRF alongside the Abrams. Still, the fucking things going on right now would make anyone question their sanity.
"Everything alright?" He asked again as they walked back inside.
She nodded, then said, "I just need a short briefing on these Insurrectionists, just so I can inform my girls on how to best deal with them..." as they stopped in the middle of the hallway. Richard nodded. Understandably enough, she would want to know about the Insurrection and how it affected mankind. She had gotten a short history lesson in regards to the Covenant and some bits about the Innies.
"What do you wanna know?" He asked, shifting his rifle over to under his arm.
"You called them 'Sapien Sunrise'. What are they?" She raised a brow.
He hummed, then replied, "A human supremacist group that views any sort of talks with aliens, no matter their pedigree, as betraying the sacrifices made by our men and women in combat. They're made up of disgruntled colonist refugees and military men and women that left the UNSC when we brokered a deal with the Arbiter and the Sangheilli. The fact we helped the Elites in their civil war also stoked a few more people, some of which I knew since the start of my service, to join Sapien Sunrise post-war."
"I see..." She narrowed her lips, "They must hate us..."
He shrugged, "Because they never met'cha."
She smiled, blushing, then stated, "A bit quick on the flirts."
He chuckled, "Just stating facts, ma'am."
The girl chuckled, then raised a brow and said, "Are we, perhaps, a bit too busy flirting instead of preparing for the fight?" and she looked over past him. She blushed as she saw Shino and Rosie grinning. She looked away, to which Richard raised a brow. He looked back to see the Tomboy and the Sergeant laughing aloud. He crossed his arms to his chest and shook his head.
"Right," Richard hummed, then said, "Let's go. We have to prep for the battle ahead."
The woman nodded and the two left the building again, each going to their post. The Princess had gone with Itami and Torres to the top of the North Gate, in front of which the imps were mustering. Richard himself joined them up top, leaning onto one of the 'teeth' poking out of the wall. In the distance, the thumping of marching feet and drums echoed. He sighed and said, "There comes the enemy's cavalry..."
Before long, the enemy's units emerged from their tents, too, carrying their equipment. Old UNSC rifles intermixed with plate armor and swords and mage robes and staves. They lined up in regiments and began their march to the beating of drums, moving to surround the city as Ivanov and the other SAW Gunners on the wall scoped them in. Ivanov himself murmured, "Eto snova my.." as he racked the bolt of his weapon, feeding a fresh round into the LMG.
Over the horizon, appeared the next branch of the enemy army. The supposed reinforcements also poured in at a fast march, with Ikari reporting, "I'm scoping in now... See about a platoon's worth of enemy infantry that looks professional enough. MA37s, XBR-45 battle rifle prototypes, M392 DMRs that are lacking scopes, plus a bunch of surplus SRS-95/99s... Second platoon also spotted, similar loadouts, plus a trio of Jackhammers and at least twenty rounds, HEAT ammo."
"That's gonna fucking suck," Torres voiced, kneeling beside the sniper and shouldering his own M4. Ivanov and Taylor both hummed in agreement as they silently thumbed the safeties of their guns to off, switching the weapons to full auto.
"Keep your spacing," Itami voiced as he pulled out his own binoculars, "If they fire those Jackhammers at us, we might lose a few too many people..."
"I'm also worried about the tank and our vics, Itami," Torres hummed as he looked to his friend. "Getting hit by an RPG is bad enough, what with getting pulverized into a thousand, thousand tiny pieces, but I feel like getting hit by an anti-tank missile while inside the tank would get exponentially worse than either you, or I could imagine. First target's gonna be the Jackhammers if they send them forward first."
"Fair," Itami replied, mutedly afraid.
Torres sighed, then stood to his feet as the enemy commander approached the gate under escort. The American Lieutenant showed their gunners and snipers to stay calm as he watched the enemy fighters spread out in formation around the city and the man approached, before putting his foot up on the corner of the battlement he was on and asking, "What's your business today, Imp?"
He smiled, smug, as he replied, "I came here to ask you one more time to surrender, soldier. You and your people would fare worse against us than you can imagine. Especially now that two hundred of our finest allies have joined us on this front-" and he took a step back as Torres spat in front of him. The American Marine scowled at the man below him.
"You mean a bunch of Innie cowards with stolen kit and the balls to spread it around your fucking posse?" He shot back, which garnered a grin out of Richard, who stepped up beside him, arms crossed and wrapped around his MA40. He gave a mock salute to the Insurrectionist troops down below just as Tyuule, the Princess and the others joined. The Insurrection soldiers all glared daggers at the Marines and SDF.
"Go home, Impie soldiers, go on home!" Richard partially sang, "We'll fucking melt you if you get close to these walls! And that goes double for you traitor motherfuckers!" before he lifted his rifle. He grinned, looking to his friends and to the Princess, before glaring at the bastard down below and stating, "We won't surrender to your archetype, Imp. Ain't no way we're making that mistake."
The Imperial seemed disappointed as he looked up to the Princess and her Knights, then sighed and nodded, "Then, die with the rest of this city..." before walking away. The rest of the army continued its surrounding maneuver around the city itself. The officer turned around and lifted his hand, but didn't get far enough to it before the first bullet rang out and his head got turned into mist.
Everyone looked stunned for a moment, with the Lieutenants turning toward Ikari. She said, "Shoot first... Ask questions later..." as she shouldered her weapon and aimed for the next officer. The return fire was stuttered, a staccato volley of assault weapon fire that came from an Insurrectionist platoon, which the gang was soon to fire back upon with all weapons.
Richard swore and said, "God dammit, Ikari... Fuck it!" before radioing in, "ALL UNITS, ENEMY HAS BEEN ENGAGED! FIRE AT WILL!" before the chatter of assault weapons began in earnest, a rumbling thunder of UNSC Marine weaponry firing and being responded to by magic, bows, arrows and the enemy's own guns. Disorganized, now that one of their officers was shot before they could make it to their positions.
This was gonna be one hell of a fucking fight to tell about to the reinforcements. If they even survived long enough for them to arrive, that was. He wondered just how far Halsey's purported reinforcements were and how soon the fucking charge through the Battlefield would begin to secure the two MSRs and link up here, in Italica. Said wondering probably helped little as the man fired bursts from his MA40...
Location of HITMAN-2's ambush site, around the same time.
Two Cobra Helicopters flew above, alongside the rolling Convoy belonging to the US section of the UN task force, callsign ROLLER-1. Doctor Halsey was aboard the leading Humvee, wearing a vest and helmet belonging to the Marines. She was rolling with 1-2-Actual aboard their vehicle. Mounted on the Humvee's Mark 19 grenade MG was a young man of German-American descent. In front of her, riding shotgun, was a Jewish-American, driving the vehicle was a bog-standard Southerner Yankee and to her left was a gunner of similar pedigree to the driver, hoisting his M249 MG up on the window.
"Jesus fucking Christ..." The Master Sergeant, the man sitting shotgun, whispered as he held his M4A1 close, "This is a fucking massacre..."
"They got hit hard, fucking hell..." Murmured the driver as they rolled parallel to the rearmost vehicle wreck in the ambushed convoy. He hummed, then handed the Master Sergeant the radio transmitter and said, "Brad, we got a call. Company Com... Reapers are in the air and lookin' over us, but command wants to hear from the NCOs that we made it safe."
He nodded, "Thanks, Ray..." before pulling the mic and murmuring to himself, "Swear to God, didn't think I'd be fucking back in a Humvee after all this time..." and clicking the transmit button, "Alnus, ROLLER-1-2-Actual is on the horn. We've made it to the ambush site and it's just like the images:a massacre... Send traffic," as the vehicles pulled up alongside and around the destroyed convoy.
Halsey hummed, then said, "Endearing situation... I need to dismount, check the dead and wounded."
"Gonna be honest with you, doc, this shit don't look like there's many wounded," The driver replied as he hefted his own M4. He quipped, "Least they gave us actual optics this time. You guys remember Nasiriyah? Couldn't see or shoot shit with the fuckin' irons on this old girl... Well, we could, but I feel like I like the ACOGs more and more, now. Makes me feel like a sniper."
"Ray... Shut up," Sighed the squadron commander, which garnered a short-lived smile out of the Doctor as the scent of death and burning flesh finally struck her. Master Sergeant looked back and spoke over com, "All ROLLER Victors, this is ROLLER-1-2 Actual, dismount and set up a perimeter. Ready up to help Doctor Halsey search the place for wounded and keep close by her. Bastards that did this to the Ruskies and Chinese may still be around. ROLLER-1-2 Actual, out..." as calmly as he could. He popped open his door and ordered, "Get that gun aimed at the treeline. Range is about... Three, maybe four hundred meters..."
As Halsey got out, she heard the muted screech of the steel turret traversing on its rollers. The Marine angled the weapon to be able to practically give indirect fire into the treeline. She hummed and walked up the berm, onto the road where the still-burning, blackened wrecks of Warthogs and support vehicles resided. She noted in her mind that there were missing vehicles, including one of the BTRs, as she walked past some of the transports, covering her mouth.
The Master Sergeant was following close behind her, rifle in one hand. He spoke, "All due respect, doc, what should my Marines be expecting in this place? First RECON wasn't designed as a meetup unit and we didn't expect to get deployed this quickly when we arrived through the Gate," all while he watched Halsey examine the corpses of the UNSC Marines. She checked a man's pulse.
"Master Sergeant, do you know what an Insurrectionist is?" She inquired as she closed the eyes of the dead Marine, before retrieving a chip from his helmet and sliding it into her chest rig. She stood to her feet and turned to the man, stating, "You've faced similar units in Iraq. The Fedayeen, I believe. Irregulars commanded by regular elites, part of the more elite enemy forces."
She turned to him fully, stating, "Expect that, but worse... The Sapien Sunrise Insurrection Movement is being lead by UNSC deserters from all branches. They have been gaining some considerable support within the Colonies that were passed up by the Covenant, but still witnessed the destruction in places like Reach. Their training is somewhat beyond normal rebels..."
"And they've got the wannabe Romans supporting them," The Driver added, keeping his rifle pointed toward the treeline. Halsey nodded as she turned toward the field. This place was once a crop field, full of corn and grain and the likes. Now, it was a burnt pile of ash, where corpses, both burned and not, resided. Ray, the driver, sighed and said, "This is some bullshit, doc..."
"I know, Corporal," She sighed, crossing her arms to her chest, "I'd suggest deploying a squad of Marines into the Trees. Make sure the enemy isn't around and scoping us in. If we are, it might give some time for the UNSC QRF I requested to arrive here, too..."
"Was just about to order it, ma'am, thanks..." Master Sergeant sighed, then radioed in, "ROLLER 1-Actual, be advised:doctor Halsey requested we deploy a squad of Marines into the tree line to make sure we aren't being watched. UNSC QRF is also en-route to assist, in case we get engaged."
"Copy, ROLLER-1-2. Request cleared," The captain of the unit, Fick, replied. With a wave of his hand, the Master Sergeant ordered forward a squad of five Marines, including the Squad Automatic Weapon carrier the had aboard their vehicle, toward the treeline. The Cobras hovered above, flying around and around, keeping their thermal cams on target, specifically on the forests themselves, while the MQ-9s above simply maintained 'orbit'.
Halsey was checking the dead and helping the Corpsmen stack them up properly, each in their own row, respective to their unit and country of origin. She also retrieved the helmet camera chips from the Marines that had been killed. There were dozens of bodies to sort through, some of which had been nigh-unrecognizably burnt. It was almost painful to have to sift through the wreckage.
Halsey sighed, then sat herself down on the berm, looking out at the Marines that were searching through the treeline, while choppers above hovered on-station. The rest of the USMC forces in the area maintained the perimeter, keeping their eyes open as the Master Sergeant and his boys talked on com with the commanders of their joint force. Russians and Chinese were glad to recover their soldiers, the first casualties the two countries have had in a while.
Ray, the driver, approached and sat himself down next to the doctor, stating, "Y'know, doc, I never thought I'd see the day where we actually met an alternate universe counterpart to ourselves. Doubly so I didn't see this shit coming, you folks being here. Big fan of the games, by the way," as he popped open a can of what seemed to be energy pills.
"Thank you, Corporal..." She replied with a sigh, "I didn't expect the Insurrection to be a problem here, however."
"Yeah, they seem like assholes... Last I heard of'em was playing Reach," He quipped, grinning.
"A forty-year-old man playing videogames. How odd is it to you, Corporal?" Halsey inquired, half-jokingly. Ray snorted, then took a big swig of his bottle of water, before capping it and setting it back into his ruck. Halsey herself wasn't sure how she felt about her own tenuous position, being almost in her seventieth year of life right now and still undertaking some of the most stressful work ever.
He replied smugly, "I was a sweet, young thirty-something while going through it myself, doc. RTOs have to do something to keep busy when we're not being asked to bust our asses for the Corps. Still can't believe I signed up for this shit again, though... Plus, I figured I was going to teach the kids about it. Who knew we were gonna live to meet the very characters we played as, though?"
Halsey hummed, then partially smiled, "Indeed..."
She snapped her gaze over to the right as she heard one of the Marines call out, "WE GOT LIVE ONES!" before she jumped to her feet and ran over. She saw Corpsmen pulling a pair of Marines up by the collars. UNSC, two of them. She stopped in front of the men, noting that one of'em had a sucking chest wound that he'd barely patched up with Biofoam. She sighed, then plucked up the man's radio.
Switching to the UNSC frequency, she spoke, "This is Halsey to REAPER Convoy, we've discovered survivors. In need of immediate CASEVAC at ambush site. Send the Pelicans ahead if you have to, one of the injured is in critical condition," before she pulled her own IFAK off her back and started treating the man. She patted him on the shoulder and said, "Relax, Corporal Amit, you'll be fine. You'll walk this off back at base."
"Ma'am," He nodded, though he groaned from the pain.
"How the fuck did he survive a chest wound like that...?" Inquired another of the First RECON Marines, sat beside the man on the berm, "That foam in his chest...?" all the while Halsey worked on at least trying to locate the bullet through the foam. She pinged something with a pair of medical pliers, then nodded and tried to gently remove it through the foam while applying extra.
"Biofoam, Marine..." Halsey replied, tossing the round onto the floor, "Even a sucking chest wound can be covered by it like it's glue..."
The other Marine spoke, "Sorry, ma'am... Motherfuckers came at us from the forest, hit like a goddamn hammer."
"Not your fault, private. Intelligence didn't account for a possible insurrectionist presence on the planet..." Halsey murmured, somewhat pissed at herself as she sealed up the last of the wound with biofoam, then checked the boy's vitals via her tablet. She spoke, "Corporal Amit's stable, though his condition might deteriorate if our Pelicans don't arrive in time..." and she paused as she heard the thunder of the aircraft's engines. She hummed, looking up, then stated, "Speak of the Devils..."
The Master Sergeant spoke over the radio, "All ROLLER Elements, be advised, friendly CASEVAC is coming. Prepare to assist in aiding the evacuation of wounded back to their FOB..." as he and Ray approached the doctor. The man took a knee beside the wounded Marine and the woman as they were loading the two Wounded, plus a few extra, on stretchers. He spoke to Halsey directly, "Didn't think we'd be seeing your birds, either..."
Halsey nodded, watching as the massive transports rolled in, one of them bearing a scarlet cross on a white square in front, near the cockpit. A platoon of medics filed out of the vehicle as more and more calls for living Marines came in. In total, the UNSC and the UN had recovered about a dozen living men and women, with only half that in terms of living UN soldiery, some of which were so badly wounded, the UNSC said they'd be treating them at their shock trauma unit. Halsey, meanwhile, was on the radio of the Pelican with the Navy up above, as well as with John and his team.
BLUE would be going on a hunt, soon as their job near the enemy capital was done. Until then, Halsey heard over the radio the call of both the UNSC and UN forces being organized and deploying as per program. She sighed, sitting herself down in the blood tray of the Pelican and watching as First RECON hauled the dead with them onto their transports, covering the worst of them with white tarps.
... The Innies would pay.