2LT Daniel Codey
KABOOM. KABOOM. KABOOM.
The ground shook with explosions as the battalion's 81mm medium mortars pummeled the town while smaller 60mm mortars laid a smoke screen across the entire field. The hiss and snap of 7.62mm rounds from weapons company's allocated Gimpys laying suppressing fire were punctuated by the occasional woosh of 102mm HEAT rockets flying by overhead. Lanes of fire had been clearly marked on all of his men's HUDs, mission objectives had been set, and bayonets had been mounted. Everything that could have been done to make their hundred and fifty meter dash across open ground safer, had been done. Yet, why did it still feel like Codey was leading his men straight into the jaws of death?
Unfortunately, it was long past time to think about it.
"COMPANY! ATTACK! FORWARD!" Codey yelled at the top of his lungs as he dashed across the muddy field. In one hand he carried his rifle while with his other, he waved forward, urging his men on.
"KEEP IT TIGHT, GENTLEMEN! WATCH THOSE FIRING LANES! MAKE SURE YOU DON'T GET SCHWACKED IN THE BACK BY FRIENDLY FIRE!" Codey heard Sergeant Fuchs yell from somewhere off to his left.
"KEEP MOVING! KEEP MOVING!" Codey bellowed in return.
His legs burning, Codey continued to charge forward. All around him, his men followed suit, their boots thumping against the ground, their mouths hanging open as they hollered out war cries and curses, and their bodies creating small eddies as they rushed through the smoke. The town loomed ahead of them, looking picturesque as hell, but Codey knew it was nothing but a façade; after all, how picturesque could a town full of fucking Covies really be?
"FORWARD! KEEP MOVING! LET'S GO MEN!"
Codey glanced at his HUD. Halfway there, and still no movement from the Covenant. Codey couldn't help but start to feel a lot more optimistic about this entire thing. Maybe the covering fire actually did work. Maybe the Covenant forces had retreat in the face of the violence of their attack; or better yet, maybe they were all dead. Maybe this attack was going to a walk in the -
"KHOBU!"
A guttural cry split the air. And then, all hell broke loose.
FWOOZFWOOZFWOOZCRACKSNAPSWOOSHHISSBOOM!
It was like the gates of Hell were suddenly thrown open as a literal tsunami of fire was thrown straight at his men: plasma bolts, Spiker rounds, Needler fire, carbine projectiles, beam rifle particle lances and more came smashing into the front ranks of his men. In less than half a second, over a dozen of his men were instantly killed in action. Not wounded. Killed.
"DOWN, DOWN, DOWN!" someone yelled, one that Codey instinctively echoed, horrified by what he was seeing.
"GET DOWN! GET DOWN!" he bellowed, throwing himself to the ground. "GET! ON! THE GROUND!"
He landed heavily in the dirt as projectiles whizzed over his head, embedded themselves into the ground besides him, or outright exploded in his face. How he managed to avoid getting hurt or even killed, he had no idea only that it couldn't last forever; frantically, he crawled around on the ground, looking for cover until – like magic – a ditch large enough for him to fit in appeared out of the fog and without hesitation, he threw himself inside. Almost immediately, three Spiker rounds embedded themselves into the lip of the ditch, but failed to penetrate.
"GET DOWN!" he urged his men. "FIND SOME COVER, FIND SOME COVER!"
His troops began throwing themselves into the ditch beside him, and he scrambled to try and make room. There was a loud thud and a scream as one of them was hit and toppled over, collapsing right on top of Codey.
"MEDIC!" he screamed. "Hang on, Trooper, you're gonna be okay! MEDIC! I NEED A MEDIC!"
A medic quickly appeared, taking the casualty off his hands and he looked around wildly. "GET TO COVER! GET TO COVER RIGHT NOW!"
"Fuck…!" he heard one of his men scream as he landed in the ditch and Codey looked up to see it was Sergeant Fuchs.
"Sergeant Fuchs!" he screamed, flinching as a plasma bolt exploded overhead. "Sergeant Fuchs! How many of the Troopers have made it!?"
"How the fuck should I know!?" Fuchs raged. "Can't be that many! I told you this was a bad fucking plan, but you didn't listen!"
"Sergeant, now's not the effing time!" Codey shot back, just as angrily. "COME ON, COME ON! GET IN THE GODDAMN HOLE!"
"COME ON, YOU GODDAMN, LIMP-DICK, FUCKING MOUTH BREATHERS!" Fuchs screamed from beside him. "GET YOUR ASSES INTO THE THIS DITCH, NOW!"
"TAKE COVER! TAKE COVER!" Codey frustratingly yelled, only to see one of his men get hit by a plasma bolt which set off the fragmentation grenades he was carrying, causing him to simply blow up. "Fuck! We got to move! Otherwise we're going to get pinned down, if we haven't already!"
"Hey, you're the genius that got us into this place!"
Codey gritted his teeth. "I'm asking if you have any ideas, Sergeant."
"I had an idea: I wanted to flank these motherfuckers! You're the dumbass that wanted to attack a fortified Covenant position head-on!"
"How could we have flanked them!? The entire fucking town is surrounded by open fields!"
Their argument was abruptly interrupted by a loud shrieking overhead, and they both looked up to see two plasma mortars slamming into the ground nearby.
"Great," Fuchs drily commented, as burning dirt and molten lava landed on their heads. "Now they've got us zeroed."
Realizing he couldn't sit here any longer arguing, Codey made a snap decision. "Alright, fine! We'll do it your way, Sergeant! This ditch continues to our left; why don't you take half the platoon and try to flank around on the left! I'll set up a couple of SAWs here, and draw their fire! Once you've launched your attack and divided the Covenant's attention, I'll hit 'em head on with my section!"
"Finally!" Fuchs snapped. "That's the first lick of sense you've made all day! Give me a few minute head start, then start laying into them!"
"Fine! PRIVATES BOYLE AND WEXLER! BRING UP THE SAW!" Codey roared.
"My guys! With me!"
Codey ducked his head as Fuchs took off running down the trench, followed by roughly half the Soldiers still standing. Meanwhile, he noticed Boyle and Wexler running up to him with their SAWs in hand.
"Set up right here!" Codey ordered as they extended their bipods and planted themselves onto the ground. "Suppressing fire on my mark!"
He glanced around, trying to see if Fuchs was ready, but given the way the ditch curved as well as the murderous plasma fire still pouring in, he couldn't spot him and figured he had given Fuchs enough time. "COVERING FIRE! COVERING FIRE!"
RATATATATATA!
Both Boyle and Wexler's SAWs began spitting out bullets, firing back at where the plasma was most concentrated.
"FIRE! FIRE!" Codey roared at the rest of the men remaining in the ditch. "Get your rifles up! COVERING FIRE!"
Popping his rifle up, Codey began unloading down range, trying to set an example for his men. For their part, the Covenant didn't seem to be all that impressed as plasma and spikes and needles continued to pour in, with some hitting the ground just centimeters away from Codey's face.
"FIRE!" Codey urged as he ducked to reload. A Soldier next to him let out a death grunt as he was struck in the face and thrown backwards into the ditch. "KEEP YOUR HEADS DOWN, BUT CONTINUE FIRING!"
"On the right!" he heard Wexler yelling at Boyle.
"Loading!" Boyle yelled in response.
Codey frantically looked around, trying to figure out how far Fuchs had made it or even if he had launched his attack yet, as the Covie's incoming fire had yet to noticeably abate. And he needed to launch his attack soon; he didn't know how many of his men he had lost already, but with half of the survivors gone to support Fuchs's flanking run, he didn't have a lot of guns left. And he was losing more every second that passed without Fuchs's distraction.
Mortars detonated all around the trench and for a brief moment, Codey wondered what the hell battalion was doing, allowing the Covenant to fire unimpeded, when his radio suddenly sprang to life.
"Lieutenant!"
Codey grabbed his mic. "This is Codey, go ahead!"
"LT, this is Fuchs: Covies either knew we were coming or saw us moving, because they positioned a couple of plasma turrets right where we were going to attack! The boys are getting cut to pieces; need you to attack, right now!"
Codey didn't need to hear anymore.
"ATTACK!" he bellowed at his men. "ATTACK! GET OUT OF THE DITCH AND ATTACK! EVERYONE, ATTACK! PUSH UP, PUSH UP!"
Digging his hands and feet into the loose dirt, Codey scrambled out of the ditch.
"FOLLOW ME!" he urged as Covenant fire raining down all around him. "GET YOURSELVES OUT OF THE DITCH AND ATTACK!"
Some of his men followed suit, only to immediately cut down, but Codey barely noticed as he reached down to help some of his guys out.
"Get on your goddamn feet!" he yelled at one man, only for that Trooper to immediately take a bolt to the face and collapse. "Shit! FORWARD! FORWARD! MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!"
"Stop."
And just like that, time seemed to come to a compete standstill as everything froze. Codey looked around, puzzled, only to immediately recoil as he turned around and came face to face with a gleaming green plasma bolt, frozen in mid-air, on a collision course with his head. If things hadn't ended when they did, he would have been dead.
Without warning, the air in front of him seemed to shimmer, and out of nowhere, a man just appeared. Appearance-wise, the man didn't seem to be all that special: he was an East-Asian man of average height and features. Not too bulky, nor was he too thin either. He had one of those generic faces a person would see in passing on the street and not think twice about. He was wearing UNSC Army fatigues, but aside from a UNSC Army "TRADOC" patch on his left shoulder, and a unit "deployment patch" on his right, there were no other accoutrements.
The most notable features of the man were the fact his right hand and arm were obviously fake and – more importantly for Codey's purposes – the man was wearing a black baseball cap that had the three chevron insignia of an Army buck sergeant and a basic parachutist badge pinned to the front, indicating the man's status as a UNSC Army Airborne School instructor.
"Fuck," Codey muttered to himself as his class instructor, Sergeant Moss Shen, just stared at him with a neutral expression on his face. "Sergeant, if I could- "
Shen held up a single finger, and Codey immediately shut up.
"I have to say, Lieutenant," Shen began in a deceivingly calm voice. "I've been here for almost a year and a half now, and I've never seen a platoon get wiped out as fast as I just saw today. In fact, I just talking to the other Black Hats and… you might have just broken a record." He cocked his head. "If I recall correctly, the very first day you were here at this school, you told me you were planning on breaking records. Well, congratulations, Lieutenant: you've succeeded. I'm just not sure these were the records you were hoping to break."
Codey couldn't help but wince. At no point did Shen raise his voice or change his inflection, but somehow, that made his words all the more cutting. His only saving grace was that because they were still in the simulator, Codey was the only who could hear what Shen was saying, something that Shen seemed to realize because he abruptly yelled out, "End simulation!"
The battlefield instantly dissolved before his very eyes, and Codey blinked as he removed the VR set from head and stood up from his recliner-like chair. All around him, the men and women of "Blue Platoon" were following suit, including the ones who Codey had seen get "killed" only a few moments ago.
"So," Shen began from the instructor's balcony that overlooked the entire simulator room. "That didn't go to plan."
There were a couple of mute chuckles at the blatant understatement, but from the most part, everyone seemed too upset at their complete failure inside the simulator.
"So," Shen continued, pacing back and forth and clapping his hands together as he asked, "What. Went. Wrong?"
"Well, if the Lieutenant had just- " Fuchs immediately began to say, but Shen held up a finger.
"Ah. I see there's been a slight misunderstanding here, Sergeant Fuchs: you thought I was actually asking for your opinion. That is my fault, that is a miscommunication on my part, I should have been more clear. So, allow let to be more clear." Shen turned to look Fuchs straight in the eye and for the first time so far, the room actually got to see how irritated he actually was. "Shut the fuck up. I'm speaking right now."
Fuchs immediately shut his mouth.
"Now," Shen continued as if Fuchs hadn't said anything. "From what I just saw, it seems like a lot of you don't actually seem to understand why you are here, so let me try and explain it in another way: you people are here because you have all expressed an interest in joining the Airborne Forces. What are the Airborne Forces? The Airborne Forces are the expeditionary forces of the UNSC Army. We're the Army's 'rapid reaction' 'shock troops' if you will. Anytime there's an incident anywhere in the galaxy, we're the Army's first choice to respond because we'll get there faster and more efficiently than any other unit in the Army. And we accomplish that by being a light infantry unit."
"And for those of you who aren't paying attention, the operative word of that sentence is 'light.' Light," Shen emphasised. "As in, we have no armor, no firepower,and no tactical mobility. The only thing we have is whatever we can carry on our shoulders. That's it."
"So, what does that mean in reality? That means: we cannot afford to get pinned down under any circumstances. Because the moment we do, we lose whatever advantages we have. The moment we do, the enemy will surround us, and will cut us to pieces. Because – and this may come as a surprise to some of you – but a human body is not capable of standing up to a plasma shot or even a fuel rod cannon blast in the same way as a tank or even an IFV can."
"So, what does that mean? That means, when you commit to a force of action, you don't fucking stop halfway through your attack and start to question what you are doing. The time for questions and debate is before the attack begins. Not after. Once the attack beings, you commit; you don't stop, you don't hesitate because once you do, you get pinned down. And what happens when you get pinned down?"
Shen paused, and it took a moment for everyone to realize that was an actual question he was asking.
"You die?" Wexler hesitantly answered, and Shen immediately pointed at him in approval.
"You die," he confirmed. "That's point number one. Number two of things I want to address: for those of you who don't know your military history, the most famous airborne infantry unit in history – the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the former United States Army – had a motto: 'Currahee,' which was Cherokee meaning 'Stand Alone.' And while the 506th PIR may have owned that motto, in truth, it could have been applied to any Airborne unit in history. Because, trust me, the moment you get dropped into the shit, you. Will. Be. Alone."
For a moment, Shen's face had a haunted look to it, and Codey couldn't help but wonder what sort of horrors his instructor had seen. But then, Shen quickly shook it off.
"Alone, at least, aside from the other stupid son of bitches that thought jumping out of a perfectly good airplane was a good idea," he joked, causing a few of the Troopers to chuckle. "My point is, I don't give a shit who you are. I don't care if you're an engineering officer- " he glanced at Codey "- a former Marine turned Army MP – " he glanced at Fuchs "- or a couple of infantrymen – " he glanced at Wexler and Boyle "- the moment you graduate from this place, you will be a paratrooper. And the moment you get dropped into the shit, the only other person you'd be able to depend on is another paratrooper. So learn how to deal. Because fuck if there'll anybody else to depend on."
Shen fell silent, and for a moment, the air seemed almost charged. Then he cleared his throat and the moment was gone. "Right. Well, Red Platoon is rotating through the simulator in five minutes, so let's retreat back to the classroom and go over in detail exactly what went wrong and how to fix it. Lieutenant Codey?"
Codey snapped to attention. "Yes, Sergeant?"
"Your platoon."
"Airborne, Sergeant!" Codey barked, then spun around smartly on one heel. "Platoon!"
All the Troopers in the room immediately snapped to attention.
"Fall in and form two columns! Dress, right!" Codey commanded and waited until his men had gotten themselves sorted. "Platoon, left, FACE!"
As one, his entire platoon turned to face the doors, and Codey quickly joined the formation, with Shen behind him.
"Forward… MARCH!"
They began marching towards the door in formation. The doors automatically opened as they approached, and they quickly left the building and out into the open. As they did, someone abruptly started singing a song that was quickly joined by the rest of the platoon:
"We… pull the risers,
We fall up on the grass,
We never land upon our feet,
We always hit our ass.
Highty tighty Christ almighty,
Who the hell are we?
ZIM ZAM GODDAM,
We're Airborne infantry!"
As they marched across the parade grounds towards the classrooms, they approached a series of flagpoles. The largest one was carrying the flag of the UNSC, of course, but the rest of the flagpoles were displaying the unit flags of the various airborne divisions still in active service, out in the field, fighting for Humanity against the Covenant. As they marched passed, Codey couldn't help but subtly glance at them, wondering which of them he would eventually join. This was the one thing he had wanted all his life, to become an airborne paratrooper. And he was so close. All he had to do was make it through this course and then-
- he could join the rest of Humanity's heroes in the annals of history.
General Notes
Three guesses to which popular science fiction series I borrowed the names from. Really couldn't think of any other names and once I started, I thought it was too amusing to change.
So, my original plan for this chapter was I was going to write a prequel involving the main character from chapter 2, revolving around her time as a Marine Corps officer cadet going through Infantry Officer Course, hence the focus on a simulated battle. Before I had even started though, I realized I could actually merge it better with my pre-established universe if I had it revolve around my main Halo OC's – Moss Shen – time as an Airborne School instructor, though I thought it would be more interesting to have it from one of the student's perspective. Unfortunately, as far as I'm aware, US Army Airborne School (which this chapter is based on) isn't actually a combat school per se, and does no combat training whatsoever. That being said, I figured an easy in-universe explanation for the change would be that because the war against the Covenant is so bloody, the UNSC military decided to introduce more combat training scenarios in all schools, just so they could make up for the general lack of experiences soldiers.
As far as the ending goes, I realize it's a bit cheesy and forced, but I figured this would be the only opportunity to actually include one of the airborne marching songs. The version of lyrics I used come from Band of Brothers as by now, it's probably the most well known exactly because of that show.
As far as the combat simulation goes, it was inspired by two pieces of media:
- the attack on Foy scene from HBO's Band of Brothers, Episode 7 "The Breaking Point" from 2001
and
- the battle of Walcheren Causeway from Netflix's The Forgotten Battle (De Slag om de Schelde) from 2020