Skies over Syracuse
Akhaia Province, Actium
25 May 2545
0631
PFC Astrid Rasmussen
1st Battalion Tactical Group, 15th PIR, 3rd Airborne Division
Southern Front - Rear
The Needle cannon projectile slammed into the rear of the Pelican and exploded just as the ramp opened, sending Astrid stumbling back into her fellow troopers. As her visor returned to translucency, she looked back to see half the ramp - as well as the Pelican's crew chief - were gone, and smoke was violently trailing from the two rear engines while the Vampire that fired the shot whipped by overhead, with one of their escort SkyHawks in hot pursuit. Automatically, she turned to Enver to scream 'Holy shit!' but before she could get a single word out, Sergeant Hanzo was already in her face, bellowing, "GET OUT! GET THE FUCK OUT BEFORE THAT DAMN VAMPIRE COMES AROUND AGAIN!" and next thing Astrid knew, she was getting shoved straight out the back of the damaged Pelican with the rest of her chalk following close behind.
Despite her inelegant exit from the aircraft, Astrid instinctively went spread-eagle before she even consciously realized she was in freefall. She started to look around for the rest of her chalk when there was a tremendous boom overhead and she looked up to see one of the Pelicans bursting into flames as it took a direct hit to the cockpit. Instantly, the aerocraft lurched out of formation and began plummeting towards the ground.
Towards her.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Astrid yelped even as Hanzo screamed, "Head's up! Scatter!"
Tucking her arms against her side, Astrid threw herself into a dive, trying to get out of the path of the crashing Pelican, but it was plunging towards the ground faster than she was and despite her best attempts to angle herself away from the flight path, the whine of jet engines rapidly filled her ears and without thinking, she threw a glance over her shoulder only for her eyes to widen as the Pelican started plowing right through her chalk.
"Oh shit, oh shit- WAHH-zzzzttt…"
The scream as one of her chalkmates was hit by the out of control Pelican was mercifully cut off at the source, but the reprieve was only momentary as Astrid realized she was next in line to get splattered, and she did her best to tuck her limbs in even closer to her body to try and gain even more speed but she had already reached terminal velocity and there was nothing she could do but –
"ASTRID!"
She could hear Enver screaming her name over the radio but all sound was quickly drowned by the roar of straining jet engines and Astrid subconsciously opened her mouth to let out a scream of terror -
KABOOM!
The shockwave slammed into her first, throwing her head over heels while white noise filled her ears as her Air Assault helmet automatically sealed to protect her hearing but her visor remained clear, allowing her to see the flaming debris that raced right past her on either side, and as she tailspun through the air, she looked back to see the Pelican had exploded in mid-air, throwing the small chalk of paratroopers in all directions. With acceleration forces pressing against her body from all sides, Astrid struggled to re-assume a proper dive posture, only to immediately be forced to bring her legs up to her chest to avoid getting hit by a large chunk of the destroy Pelican as it passed right beneath her, missing her legs by mere millimeters…
"Paratroopers, activate your wingsuits!"
Astrid instinctively obeyed, triggering her wingsuit, the webbing under her armpits and between her legs immediately expanding and she abruptly lurched as they caught the wind, the deacceleration making her feel like her organs were threatening to get ripped out from her body. But at the very least, she had stopped spinning, allowing her to righten herself and assume a proper skydiving stance…
"Holy FUCK!" she yelled, now that she had a moment to breath.
"Astrid! Are you alright!?" she heard Enver frantically yelling.
"I think I'm okay!" Astrid yelled back, turning to give Enver a thumbs up, only to find she was completely alone in the air. "Hey, where the fuck is everybody!?"
"Goddamn explosion knocking everyone the fuck away from each other!" Hanzo immediately answered, sounding strained. "Chalk has been scattered! We're not gonna make it to the DZ together as a unit, and it'll be too difficult to try and link up here! Troopers! Everyone head for the ground, we'll rendezvous at the rally point!"
"Copy!" Astrid responded, and immediately moved to active the altimeter on her HUD. With their tight parachute formation gone and scattered to the winds, she was going to have to rely on her own knowledge and experience to determine when she would have to pop her chute, instead of relying on Hanzo's call.
Atmospheric temperatures abruptly plummeted and ice started forming on her visor as she plunged through the snow-clouds that blanketed over the battlefield, but goosebumps didn't start forming until she emerged out the other side and watched as Syracuse blossom out from underneath her. The city stretched across the horizon, covering the entire ground. Massive plumes of black smoke rose into the air, blanketing the entire megalopolis in a haze as fighting between the UNSC defenders and the Covenant invaders continued, unabated, even with the arrival of reinforcements. As the view of the city steadily filled her HUD, jagged skyscrapers reached into the sky towards her like metal claws attempting to pluck her from the air, and at the rate she was falling, it wasn't long before she found herself passing between them.
"Mini-map," she spat at her computer as she went eagle-spread, allowing her suit's webbing to expand once more and bring her dive under control as she flew between the towers, following the roads to avoid crashing into any of the buildings. Her helmet's miniature map expanded from the bottom left corner, and she quickly looked for the drop zone. "Rasmussen to Watanabe: hey, I'm five blocks from the DZ and closing fast!"
"Copy," Hanzo immediately replied. "Watch your back though, this place is crawling with Covies."
"Yeah, I see that!" Astrid yelled back just as she flew over a small group of figures crowding on the road below her. She was traveling too fast to catch more than a glimpse of them, but it wasn't hard to work out who they were as two weeks into the Battle of Action, most of the civilians had already been evacuated while no one had expected the alien invaders to punch through the Teutoburg Line as quickly as they did, leaving only one possibility: the Covenant. "Shit, I've been spotted!"
And indeed she had as she could see the figures on the ground looking up and pointing in her direction before they started running after her wake. They wouldn't be able to catch up with her, moving as fast as she was, but she didn't doubt alarms were spreading across the city right now.
"Can't worry about it now, just get to the DZ!"
"Copy!"
Her HUD suddenly flashed red as she neared the vicinity of the drop zone.
"PULL, PULL, PULL!"
Astrid yanked on her ripcord, feeling her body lurch as her parachute spat out from her backpack and expanded, slowing her descent from near terminal velocity to a paltry twenty klicks per hour. She scanned the ground, looking for a relatively open piece of flat ground to land on, but instead, she spotted a team of Grunts emerging from around the corner.
"Fuck!" she yelped as the Grunts looked up and immediately began yelling and pointing as they pulled out their plasma pistols…
FWOOZ!
The first missed her by a mile – fortunately, she was only facing Grunts, all of whom were notorious for their terrible aim. But as she drifted closer and closer to the ground, she would become more and more of an easier target. Not only that, but other Covenant like Brutes and Jackals – who were infamous sharpshooters – would soon be arriving, and when they did, she'd be dead. She couldn't hover up here any longer.
"Shit, this is gonna suck," Astrid muttered to herself as she activated her TACPAD –
- and had her chute retract back into her pack.
Her heart leapt to her throat as she plummeted the last ten meters to the ground, falling faster than the Grunts could aim. She hit the ground with a thud despite the pile of slushy snow she had been aiming for and a grunt of pain involuntarily escaped her lips as a tsunami of pain lanced straight up spine, stealing her breath away and leaving her struggling to maintain consciousness. Unfortunately, the Covenant had no plans to give her anytime to recover as she could hear the Grunts calling out to one another as they ran towards her.
"Oh, fuck off already!" she gritted out as she grabbed a grenade off her belt and hurtled in the direction of the Covenant. There was a moment's pause then –
"AIEEEE! BIG BADA BOOM!"
The terrified scream of the Grunt was cut off by the dull thud of the explosion. She doubted she had actually managed to kill any of them, but that wasn't the point, the point was to buy her time to rip open her IFAK, pull out an autoinjector of painkillers, and jam it into her thigh.
There was a mute hiss as the medicine was injected directly into her veins but she couldn't for the drugs to kick in. Instead, she tossed the now empty device away and grabbed her rifle before erupting from the snowbank, gun blazing.
Her first shot was pure luck. Firing while in mid-motion meant she had yet to stabilize her aim but somehow, her first round found its way into the lead Grunt's head, burrowing itself right between the alien's eyes. The Grunt toppled over backwards with nary a sound, and sent the remainder scrambling for cover as Astrid frantically unloaded on them, trying desperately to gun down as many of them as she could before they made it into cover. Unfortunately, she only managed to hit and wound – not kill – one other Grunt before the remaining three dove behind a long abandoned car covered in snow, and all of a sudden, the shoe was on the other foot and it was Astrid scrambling to find cover as the Grunts quickly moved to return fire.
Pulling the trigger as fast as she could to maintain the initiative for as long as possible, Astrid rapidly backpedaled, glancing over her shoulder to make sure she was lined up with the small pickup parked on the other side of the street. She reached the truck just as her rifle clicked empty, and without hesitating, she threw herself backwards, landing heavily on the hood and immediately rolling off into cover, just as the Grunts emerged and started returning fire.
Pressing her back against the front wheel well, Astrid hurriedly reloaded, yanking back on the charging handle and watching as the ammo counter shot back up to "32." Gripping her weapon, she winced as plasma sprayed the other side of the vehicle, shattering the windows and melting holes into the aluminum body. The roof of the cab started sagging as a bolt smashed into the frame – warping the metal – and she jerked as the truck jumped a few centimeters into the air, a plasma bolt hitting one of the tires and causing it to explode with a tremendous bang. Plasma had low penetration qualities just in general, but crouched behind the engine block, Astrid was about as safe as she could be. Alternatively though, she couldn't move, least she get hit by plasma spalling.
She waited as the plasma began to taper off before, rather abruptly, it ended.
"Unggoy, warut'o, warut'o!" she heard one of the Grunts command, followed by the scrambling of footsteps.
Throwing all caution to the wind, Astrid glanced under the truck to see one of the Grunts had emerged and was cautiously advancing towards her, while the other two had remained behind cover, halfheartedly pointing their plasma pistol in her direction. Astrid immediately saw her chance.
She threw herself onto the ground onto her side, only for vision to go momentarily black as pain shot up and down her spine and as it cleared, she saw the Grunt screeching in alarm as it ran back for cover, and Astrid hastily stuck her rifle under the truck and opened fire.
BAMBAMBAM!
The Grunt screamed in pain as it collapsed to the ground, Astrid's bullets having chewed right through the alien's feet and legs. Sobbing and crying, the creature pitifully dragged itself across the road, desperately reaching towards its comrades for help, but it never arrived as Astrid put a bullet through the Grunt's head, splattering the road was blood and brain tissue. Then she was hastily withdrawing her rifle and scrambling upright as plasma started flying once again, the two remaining Grunts bellowing in anger as they blindly fired their weapons at her.
Pressing her back her cover, Astrid waited with forced patience for the Grunts' pistols to overheat, which shouldn't take long given the rate at which they were firing. As she waited, she found herself counting: one two three, one two three, one two three…
The incoming fire abruptly stopped and Astrid immediately rose up, finding her first target and-
THUNK! THUNK! FWOOZ!
"Fucking shit!"
Astrid instantly ducked as two purple needles embedded themselves into the hood of the truck right next to her, and she frantically looked around only to spot a Skirmisher – torso half sticking out from a fourth story window – with a Needle rifle pointed right at her, and Astrid jerked to the side as a third needle lanced right through the aluminum, almost skewering her in the head. At the same time, a fresh volley of plasma came flying in as the window for Astrid to engaged closed, and she was left pinned down behind the pickup truck, unable to do anything but cower there as the vehicle steadily began to disintegrate around her…
"ASTRID! CATCH!" Enver abruptly yelled and Astrid instinctively dropped her rifle and reached out to catch the multishot grenade launcher Enver had hurtled in her direction from a nearby back alley…
"TAKE OUT THAT THREAT IN THE WINDOW!" Astrid yelled and Enver immediately stuck her SAW around the corner and started shooting. Glass and metal splinters rained down on the ground as bullets saturated the window frame, forcing the Skirmisher to withdraw least he get shot and allowing Astrid the chance to stand up, aim, and –
THUMPTHUMPTHUMP!
Astrid fire three grenades in rapid succession straight into the car the Grunts were hiding behind, blowing it up and killing the aliens, giving them no chance to run. As the flaming wreck sagged to the ground, Astrid angled the launcher upwards and fired off the remaining cylinders. The room the Skirmisher had been in immediately blew out, sending an avalanche of glass and metal to the ground below.
Taking a moment to glanced up and down the street to make sure the area was clear, Astrid ducked back down and started reloading.
Two people immediately joined her behind the vehicle and a quick glance at their tags on her HUD revealed it was Enver and Hanzo.
"Dude, where the fuck have you guys been!?" Astrid demanded to know before either of them had a chance to say anything. "I've been fighting the entire damn Covenant Army by myself, holy fuck!"
"We were retrieving our heavy weapons, including your damn grenade launcher," Hanzo snapped back, gesturing at both the XM510 grenade launcher in Astrid's hands, as well as the M76 SRAAW RPG he and Enver had strapped to their backs. "You're welcome, by the way. What's your status?"
"Had to cut my chute early to avoid getting shot and I think I fucked up my back a bit," Astrid admitted as she accepted the bandoliers of 40mm grenades Enver offered her. "I took an injection, but it still hurts like a son of a bitch."
"Enver, take a look."
Enver immediately attached her SAW to her back, and Astrid scooted around to let her remove her backplate.
"Yeah, there's definitely some swelling here," Enver reported, and Astrid couldn't help but flinch as she felt Enver poke the spot in question, causing a spike of pain. "How far did you drop?"
"Ten meters. At least," Astrid replied through gritted teeth. Both Enver and Hanzo hissed in sympathy. "Tried to land in a pile of snow; it didn't really help."
"You do a PLF when landing?" Hanzo demanded to know.
"Of course I fucking did," Astrid snapped, feeling slightly offended. "What the fuck do you think I am, some shitty Straight Leg!?"
"Well, you definitely did something," Enver interrupted before Hanzo could retort. "I don't know, spinal compression, slipped disc, something like that?"
"Can you fix it?"
"'Can I - !?' You guys remember I'm not a combat medic, right?" Enver snapped. "I'm an eleven bang bang who just so happened to take a forty hour TC3 course. And this may come as a surprise to you fuckers, but that does not magically turn me into a full-fledged medical doctor. Best I can do is give you something to mask the pain, but you keep moving around, you gonna run the risk of some permanent damage to your back."
"That sounds like a future me problem. Do it," Astrid immediately insisted and beside her, she could sense Hanzo turning towards her.
"You sure?" he asked.
"I don't have a fucking choice, do I? This place is crawling with Covies and I can't sit here cowering all day because then I'm really fucked."
There was a hiss and Astrid's back instantly went numb.
"There, it's done," Enver reported as she helped Astrid put her armor back together and Astrid experimentally twisted her torso around, taking note of the fact she could now do so without flinching. "What's the plan, Boss?"
"Same as it was before: hook up with Task Force Tapsoba, purge the northern half of the city of any Covenant forces, and hold the bridges so the ammo keeps flowing and V and X Corps have a path of retreat in case shit hits the fan."
"As if it hasn't already," Enver muttered.
"All in all, all in an honest day's work, huh guys?" Astrid sarcastically commented as she hefted her freshly loaded rifle, grenade launcher firmly attached to her back. "We waiting on anyone else?"
"Unfortunately, plan has gone to shit which means the rule of LGOP is in effect."
Astrid and Enver immediately nodded in understand.
"Say less, Sergeant," Enver replied, speaking for both of them.
"Good. You guys ready?"
"Ready."
"Airborne."
"Then I'm on point. Rasmussen, cover our six. Move out!"
They took off running in the direction of the northern half of the city, towards the sound of guns. As they ran, Astrid found herself wincing with every step; not because she was in pain, but because she couldn't stop thinking about how every time her foot hit the ground, she was potentially messing up her back even more. She wasn't interested in becoming a cripple before she had even turned twenty-five, dammit!
At the same time, until the Covenant were stopped and she could find a proper medic to check in with, there wasn't anything she could do about it, so she forced herself to think about something else, mainly their current situation. Their briefing had painted a dire picture: Covenant armies pouring through the widening breach in the Teutoburg Line, UNSC Army falling back in disarray, and the Colonial Militia scrambling to form a defensive line along the banks of the Mannerheim River, a task made far more difficult due to the sheer number of casualties the Leg units had been taking over the last couple of weeks. But that's why the 3rd was getting sent in: help secure the city before they lost a major strongpoint on the river.
Without warning, Hanzo raised a closed fist and Astrid immediately dropped down to one knee, rifle pointed outwards.
"What's up?" Enver asked before Astrid could.
"We're two blocks away from the RV with Tapsoba," was all Hanzo's had to say as he gestured in the direction they were headed and Astrid immediately picked up on the problem: the sound of fighting was even more intense in front of them than anywhere else around them.
Enver knelt on the ground beside her as the three of them immediately consolidated without prompting. "They engaged?"
"Sounds like it," Astrid murmured, wishing they had some recon drones in the air, but Covenant had aircraft were everywhere. "How, though? Ain't TF-Tapsoba supposed to consist a couple of Wolverines, Warthogs, and a platoon of Militiamen? Surely the Covies haven't pushed enough troops into the city to tackle on a unit of that size and firepower."
"Don't forget though, with all these skyscrapers and this built up concrete jungle… lot of verticality and limited sightlines, 'specially if you're in a vic. Plus, most of the 80th's casualties have been among their infantry, so most of those militiamen are probably POGs who barely know to fire their rifle straight," Enver pointed out, gesturing at the buildings surrounding them.
"Great. Not only are these guys cunt munchers, they're also POGs. Just what we need."
"Well, we're not going to figure it out by sitting here all day, speculating," Hanzo interrupted before pointed at the skyscraper in front of them. "We were supposed to RV with Tapsoba in Torunn Square; according to the map, the lobby on the thirteenth floor should give us sightlines. We get up there, assess the situation, and provide support by fire if necessary. Let's go."
They took off running. Entering the building, they were pleased to find there was still power, allowing them to use the elevator instead of having to climb thirteen stories worth of stairs. With a soft chime, the elevator deposited them on the thirteenth story lobby. Before the attack, the place would have probably been a rather relaxing place to hang out, with floor to roof windows, comfortable looking couches, coffee tables, and even a couple of plant walls. Now though? At some point a majority of the windows had been blown out – probably by the air raids the Covies had been running since the first week - exposing the level to the elements and leaving anything covered in a small layer of snow, leaving the place looking cold and dead.
Walking up to the north windows and taking pains not to accidentally slip and fall out, as one, the three of them looked down into the square. Immediately it was apparent a UNSC unit was under attack. Occupying the center of the square were a dozen vehicles, half of which were already destroyed and on fire. Meanwhile, bright green and blue bolts of plasma rained down on the unit from all sides, leaving them pinned down and unable to move.
"Yeah, that's them alright; that's Tapsoba," Hanzo immediately declared.
"Shit, they're about to get overrun. We gotta get down there and help out," Astrid urged.
"Sure, I agree, but with only three of us, we got to do this smart. Can't just rush in."
"There!" Enver abruptly yelled, pointing. "That Chopper on the northwest platform. It's acting as the Covies' base of fire. We take that out, we cut the Covie's fire in half."
"MG nest too, fifth floor, southwest building," Astrid noted. "Looks like a couple of plasma cannons and a fuel rod."
"Fuckers move fast."
"Based on the outgoing fire, there might be another MG nest at the base of the building in front of us," Hanzo noted, and Astrid looked, but she couldn't see an angle.
"We don't have a shot, even with my 510," she pointed out.
"No. But if we take out the two other positions, we can do a BASE jump, loop around the building, land next to the nest, and take it out with hand grenades."
"Well that's bold," Enver commented, sounding impressed. "Risky as hell, but bold."
Astrid playfully nudged her. "Come on, Azra, what's life without a bit of risk?"
"Longer," Enver deadpanned.
"Well, shit, Corporal, I don't know about you, but I didn't join the Airborne just to sit back and watch everyone else do all the fighting," Astrid retorted.
"Enough guys," Hanzo barked, "here's the plan: Private, you and I take out that Chopper with the SRAAWs. Corporal, suppress that nest in the upper window until Rasmussen can take it out with grenades. Once both threats are neutralized, each of us fire off a full magazine into the mass below, then we jump down to the other nest below and destroy it with frags. Rally with Tapsoba, mop up the rest of the Covies, then proceed with our original mission. Check?"
"Check." "Check."
"Pile up some of this snow to mask our muzzle flashes and cut down on the dust picked up by the rocket blasts. We're not staying here for long, but I don't want the Covies looking in our direction when we jump down. Go."
Astrid immediately jumped into action. Grabbing the SRAAW off Enver's back, she took a moment to help move a table for Enver to set up her SAW on before hefting the rocket launcher onto her shoulder and took aim.
"Everyone ready?" Hanzo asked from beside her. Astrid nodded. "Engage in three, two, one… EXECUTE!"
"ON THE WAY!" Astrid screamed as she pulled the trigger, sending the 110mm HEAT warhead straight down. The SRAAW's rear granule countermass eliminated most of the rocket's backblast and prevented the paratroopers from getting cooked alive, but the rocket blast still made Astrid feel like she was getting kicked in the stomach.
Astrid was too well trained to waste time watching her rocket travel downrange, even if it was tempting. Tossing the now useless tube away, she seized her grenade launcher and turned to the MG nest which Enver was already suppressing, her M739 SAW merrily blazing away and sending the Covenant gunners diving for cover. Taking a brief second to aim, she fired one grenade, readjusted, then quickly fired three more times.
THUMPTHUMPTHUMP.
The grenades soared through the air and Astrid waited until all three had landed among the nest before releasing the trigger and allowing the grenades to simultaneous explode. The entire front of the building exploded outwards, taking the Covenant soldiers with them, and the subsequent EMP from her grenades would have disabled any other plasma weapon that might have survived the initial blast.
"Shift fire! Azra, shift fire!" Astrid yelled at Enver before leaning forward to aim downwards, just as a ping appeared on her HUD.
"Rasmussen! Brute Commander, on the ping! Volley fire, you and I!" Hanzo ordered, lifting the leaf sights on his rifle's underbarrel grenade launcher. "Fire!"
THUMP. THUMP.
Two grenades flew through the air and the Brute commander disappeared in a gory explosion. Spotting a small phalanx of Jackals nearby, Astrid fired her last grenade at them before grabbing her rifle and quickly sweeping the battlefield with burst fire, not really aiming for individual targets but doing her best to further disrupt the Covenant's defensive formation.
"I'm out!" Enver cried.
"Me too," Astrid reported as her ammo counter flashed red.
"Reload, and get ready to jump."
Astrid hurriedly tossed her empty mag into her dump pouch as she and the others hastily reloaded. Pulling out her grenade launcher, Astrid yanked open the breech and began the lengthy process of filling all six cylinders with new grenades.
"Astrid, here!"
Astrid cocked the launcher in Enver's direction as Enver yanked a couple of grenades from Astrid's bandolier and dropped them into their proper cylinders. Between the two of them, they were able to cut the reload time down by half, and Astrid moved to attach both her weapons to her back before ripping her empty bandolier off her shoulders and tossing it to the floor.
"Ready?" Hanzo asked and without waiting for a response, yelled, "Enver, go!"
Enver took off in a running start and hurtled herself out of the open windows without hesitation and Astrid glanced over the side to see her parachute successfully deploying.
"Rasmussen, go!"
Astrid took a couple of steps back before sprinting forward and launching herself outside. She immediately began falling, but she waited to pull on her ripcord until she was confident she was far enough away from the building her chute wouldn't snag on any protrusions. She couldn't stop herself from wincing as she felt the chute pull on her back, but fortunately there wasn't any pain, and she reached up to grab the risers so she could try and weave between the buildings, trying to mask her approach from the Covenant as she glided the remaining two blocks to Torunn square.
As she approached the ground, she yanked on her risers, causing her chute to flare and allowing her to hit the ground running. Smacking the button to retract her chute, she threw herself into a roll, joining Enver in taking cover behind a flower bed platform at the base of some steps and behind her, she could hear Hanzo joining her. Above them, Astrid could hear the Covenant machine gun nest blazing away from the entrance of the building. Somehow, the Covenant didn't notice the Troopers' approach, but it was only a matter of time.
"Grenades," Hanzo barked and Astrid hurriedly yanked out her last remaining fragmentation grenade. Thumbing the activation lever, she cocked her arm back and hurtled it.
"FRAG OUT!" she yelled in unison with her teammates.
There was a slight pause as the grenades landed, then –
BOOM! BOOMBOOM!
The grenades exploded in rapid succession causing a cloud of dust to envelop them, and the sound of debris hitting the pavement around her filled her ears.
"Take that building, take that building!"
Astrid surged to her feet and charged up the staircase, rifle in the low-ready position. The dust from the explosions was just beginning to settle, revealing the wounded and staggering forms of the Covenant soldiers and she didn't hesitate, opening fire on the first Covenant soldier she saw.
The first Grunt collapsed back onto the ground as she hit it with a hammer pair. Beside it, a Jackal weakly tried to raise its plasma pistol but Astrid put a round through the alien's head before it could fire off a single shot. Advancing in a line with Hanzo and Enver to her right, they slowed walked into the lobby, shooting anything that moved.
"DIE-"BAM!
Astrid couldn't stop herself from flinching as she felt the heavy calibre round passing right over her shoulder before she was forced to hastily jump out of the way to avoid getting crushed by the bulky body of the Brute Minor that pitched face forward onto the ground, sans a head. Staring at the body – more specifically, staring at the massive cleaver like knife the Brute had been swinging at her head – Astrid glanced over her shoulder at the smoking barrel of the fifty calibre machine gun mounted on one of the Wolverine halftracks pointed in her direction.
Forcing herself to exhale, Astrid slowly raised her hand and waved her thanks, and watched as the turret slowly bob up and down in acknowledgement.
"Lobby clear!" Hanzo yelled and Astrid took another breath yelling back, "Clear here!"
Hanzo nodded before gesturing for them to regroup. Throw one last glance around the room to make sure all the non-humans were dead, Astrid jogged over to Hanzo and as she did, she sensed Enver joining her.
"You okay?" she asked heard Enver ask.
"Fucking Covenant fucks," was all Astrid could think of to say.
"I suppose I can't really argue against that, can I?"
Gesturing at the dead Brute lying on the ground, Astrid sheepishly added, "Guess I gotta take back what I said about the POG Legs, huh?"
"Give it some time. I'm sure you'll find a reason to go back to disparaging them soon enough."
Flipping her off, Astrid stepped back out into the square and warily glanced around, but the firefight had ended with all the Covenant attackers dead, and the surviving soldiers of TF-Tapsoba were already moving to secure the area. There weren't as many standing as she would have liked. Her attention though was soon drawn to the halftrack that had saved her, where a figure was beginning to emerge from the commander's seat.
"Enver," Hanzo called out, catching Astrid's attention, and she watched as he removed his helmet. "Go see if you can restock our ammo supply. You." He pointed at Astrid. "Take a seat, give your back a rest."
"With all due respect, Sergeant, but I'm feeling fine," Astrid immediately replied.
"Yeah, I don't… I don't really give a fuck. We still got plenty of fighting ahead of us, Private, and I rather you preserve your strength for as long as possible, as opposed to preserving your ego." He paused, and gave Astrid a considering look. "But if it makes you feel better, you could pretend you're keeping an eye out for… I dunno, sharpshooters or something, while I'm interfacing with this dude."
And before she could protest further, Hanzo turned and walked over to the vehicle commander.
Realizing she didn't really have an option of fighting, Astrid sighed and looked for a spot that wasn't completely covered in snow. Pulling out her empty mag and some loose rounds, she began repacking them as she listened to Hanzo converse with the other man.
"3rd Airborne?" the commander asked as Hanzo approached.
"Yeah. Staff Sergeant Watanabe Hanzo. With me are Corporal Azra Enver and PFC Astrid Rasmussen," Hanzo replied. "You Tapsoba?"
"That's correct, Sergeant: Major Kader Tapsoba, Task Force Tapsoba, 80th Rifle Division. Thank you for your help."
Astrid could see Hanzo giving a negligent shrug. "That's what we're here for, sir."
"Nevertheless, and not to diminish your efforts," Tapsoba continued, "I was under the impression I was getting reinforced by an entire squad of paratroopers. Where's the rest of your men, Sergeant?"
"I could say the same thing about you," Hanzo immediately retorted. "Sir. What the hell happened?"
Tapsoba let out a loud sigh and agitatedly rubbed the stubble on his chin. "We're a group of individual augmentees who either volunteered or got voluntold for combat service. Our mission was to escort a bunch of engineers and help them begin setting up defenses on the MSR. Guess the Covies had the same idea as us, only, they got here before we did."
"You guys don't have a screening force set up?"
"We do; Division deployed whatever's left of our rifle companies out, but they're spread pretty thin. And, with the spotty comms coverage and lack of surveillance aircraft because of the crowded airspace…" Tapsoba replied with a sigh. "Well, if anyone broke through, we wouldn't know about it until we literally ran into them. Which, we obviously did."
"But," Tapsoba continued with a negligent shrug, "as you say, Sergeant, that's why you're here, yes?"
"Yeah…" Hanzo mutely replied. "Let's get to it then?"
Taking that as her cue, Astrid climbed to her feet with a groan. As the now unified task force set about to begin their objectives, Astrid could only hope the frontline would hold out long enough for them to dig in.
XM510 Multishot grenade launcher: this is a canon weapon whose first and only appearance to date has been in Halo Wars. As the name states, it is a multishot grenade launcher based on the real world Milkor MGL (known as the M32 MGL in the USMC service,) though in this story, I'm basing it of the Norinco LG4. The LG4 is a Chinese copy of the MGL, with one notable difference: the LG4 uses a gas operated system to rotate the cylinders, meaning operators don't have to rewind the cylinders back up as part of the reloading process.
M76 SRAAW: this is not a canon weapon. In my headcanon, it's basically a Halo version of the IRL Panzerfaust 3. The name "SRAAW" stands for "short-range anti-armor weapon," which is what AT4s are called in the Irish Defense Force, as per Wikipedia.
General Notes
The automatic retracting and repacking parachute is an idea I borrowed from the 2009 Star Trek film. In the film, Kirk uses it in order to land on the Romulan drilling platform when fighting over planet Vulcan.
The wingsuit insertion was influenced by the 2011 film, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, specifically, NEST's insertion into Decepticon-occupied Chicago.
Two main goals for this chapter:
1) I wanted to depict a wingsuit insertion to show how, as a division under the Army's Rapid Response Corps (explanation in chapter 18,) the 3rd Airborne Division is better trained and better equipped compared to even other airborne divisions like the 222nd (from Missing in Action)
2) I wanted to point out that paradrops are actually pretty dangerous, even under the best of circumstances, and one of the arguments against large, division sized paratrooper forces (like that of the USA 82nd Airborne Division or even Russia's VDV) is the high injury rate paratroopers suffer during air drops, even in training – soldiers can and do die during these events.
This chapter was originally going to be longer, with a bridge fight, but I decided since I had already accomplished my goals for this chapter, not to bother; sometimes, less is more, as they say.