The battle continues...
We're almost done with our foray on Actium. Second to last chapter.
City of Byzas
Thracia Province, Actium
25 May 2545
1321
Gunnery Sergeant Topan Mashadi,
Co. A from 1/506th Tank Rgt, attached to RCT-12, 6th MEB
Northern Front (Marine Corps Sector)
"Ares-1! On your left, head's up! SHE COMING DOWN!"
"Driver, forward!" Topan roared and he could tell the exact moment Mageba jammed down on the accelerator as he could hear the fuel injectors opening up all the way and causing the RPMs on their engine to surge with extra power, allowing their sixty tonne M808C "Scorpion" to leap forward the three meters they needed to barely clear the way as the building they had been driving past – weakened by two weeks of near-constant bombardment from both the Covenant and the UNSC – finally decided to collapse.
A loud roar filled the air as the building hit the ground with enough force, Topan found even the Scorpion was rattling, and he grimaced as he heard chunks of debris bouncing off his tank, some of which were able to find their way in-between the bars of their rear slat armor and hit the plating directly.
Tapping his foot against the ground, Topan impatiently waited for the majority of the dust to clear before swiveling his CITV around to assess the damage. He let a vicious snarl at what he saw: the building had collapsed directly into the middle of the street and while it looked like all Scorpions and Marines had managed to stay clear, the road was effectively blocked. His tank – Typhon – had made it; but Hurricanrana, Biggus Dickus, and about a third of their accompanying Marine riflemen had not and were now cut off from the rest of the assaulting force by a sizable barrier.
He grabbed his mic. "2, this is 1: come in."
"This is 2, go ahead."
"What's your situation?"
"We managed to avoid taking any serious damage from that collapse, but now I'm staring at this giant fucking wall in my way. We'll probably be able to make our way through it, but it's going to take some time. What are your orders, over."
"Wait one, break. Ares to Marjah Actual, come in."
"Ares, Marjah: what the fuck was that?" the voice of Captain Zayac Hnatiuk, CO, M/3/12 MarReg, demanded to know.
"A building collapsed, sir, cut the fucking road right in half. I made it, but anyone behind me didn't."
"Goddamnit," Hnatiuk growled. "Any casualties?"
"Negative, none from what I can tell; looks like everyone was able to make it clear. What are your orders, over."
"Tell Marjah-3 Actual she's in charge now. She's to take charge of whoever was cut off from us, and find another way around. In the meantime, the rest of us will proceed with the mission, over."
Topan felt a smirk grace his face as he relayed Hnatiuk's orders, and it wasn't long before the column resumed their advance through the shattered city, as the sound of one of the Covenant's heaviest offensives in the Actium campaign so far continued to echo around them.
While the Army may have been content to just sit back and take such an attack up their ass, Lieutenant General Athena Miles, commander of all Northern Front forces, had decided – in true Marine fashion – that instead, this was the perfect time to launch a counteroffensive of her own, and had ordered her reserves to advance through the outskirts of Byzas to try and outflank the attacking Covie bastards. As a member of the 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade who had arrived four days after the start of the invasion and thus too late to actually do anything except sit there and wait and watch as countless Marine casualties streamed past him without any chance of doing something about it, Topan had endorsed such an attack wholeheartedly. There was no way, some stupid-ass building was going to stop them from doing what they came here for.
"Driver, forward!" Topan commanded as he finished relying Hnatiuk's orders. "Follow the infantry as they continue their advance!"
"Wait, Gunny, are we really still continuing with the attack?" Mageba asked, sounding incredulous, even as he shifted their Scorpion into gear.
Topan glared at the back of Mageba's head. "Of course. Why the fuck wouldn't we?"
"We just lost a third of the entire battalion without having even seen a single Covenant soldier," Mageba noted.
"We didn't lose anything," Topan snapped. "They're just delayed. They'll catch up."
"But," Mageba persisted, despite the clear warning in Topan's voice, "we don't even know what we're driving into because Colonel Pyszková didn't want the Covies to know we were coming, so she didn't deploy any recon and- "
"How the fuck did a motherfucker like you make it to E-3!?" Topan interrupted. "No, scratch that actually: how did a shitstain like you make it through Boot Camp!? You know, back in my Corps, the DIs would have beaten the shit out of you, pussy-talk like that. If not them, then the damn recruits would have given you a blanket party!"
"What?" Mageba had the audacity to sound indignant. "Gunny, I'm not saying I ain't gonna fight, I'm just saying- "
"Lance Corporal, shut the fuck up," Topan barked. "Goddamn, I knew it was going to be bad when I heard I was getting a driver from battalion, but I didn't realize it was this bad. Shit, boy, we gotta lot of work to do on you, but don't you worry: by the end of this campaign – one way or another – I will make you believe! Now, shut the fuck up and drive."
Mageba thankfully didn't respond.
"Goddamn Boots these days," Topan muttered to himself as he checked his controls for damage, not caring Mageba could hear him - the problem with all crew members being stuffed into an armored capsule within the tank hull. "Fucking hate the Covies for forcing the Corps to lower our recruitment standards."
"Oh, that's why we gotta hate the Covies, huh Gunny?" Mageba snarkily commented, sarcasm dripping from every word. "'Cause they forced the Marine Corps to lower their standards, and not because of the fucking billions of innocent people they've murder in their two decade rampage through Humanity, huh?"
Topan snarled and opened his mouth, but was forced to abort his verbal evisceration of Mageba when gunfire abruptly rang out from somewhere in front of them, and the radio waves began exploding with reports of, "CONTACT!"
"Alright, here we fucking go," Topan announced with hungry anticipation, turning his attention to the task at hand. "Driver: halt! Hold here, out of sight until the Crunchies call us forward in support."
"Copy: holding."
Typhon lurched to a stop and Topan eagerly flicked the safety off his trigger as the fighting in front of them increasingly grew in intensity.
"God. Goddamn Crunchies better not wait too late to call for support this time," Topan growled. "I can't fucking wait to shoot an inhuman motherfucker in the face."
"At least you can shoot back, Gunny," Mageba groused. "Best I can hope for is to run some dumbass over."
"We all gotta start somewhere, Lance Corporal," Topan distractedly replied. "I've been where you are; yeah, it sucks, but trust me, it's worth it in the end."
"As you say, Gunny."
The conversation quickly tapered off as Topan turned his focus to the radio, trying to figure out what the hell was going on in front of them. From what he was hearing, the vanguard of the company had run into a group of Elites who had immediately blown their load like a bunch of virgins about to have sex for the first time instead of waiting for the majority of Marines to walk into their kill zone. Good for the company as a whole, sucks for the guys on point.
Still, a group of Elites – even inexperienced ones – was not something to scoff at, and with RCT-12 not having done any recon – a mistake, in Topan's opinion, not that he was going to admit that to Mageba – meant there was no way of knowing just how many bad guys were in front of them, at least not until the Marines killed them all. Which meant, the call for tank support would be coming just about… now.
"Ares, Marjah," Hnatiuk began over the radio, sounding distracted and in the background, Topan could hear the roar of several dozen rifles simultaneously getting fired. "We've run into heavy Covenant resistance, and we need some direct fire support, over."
"Finally," Topan hissed, even before Hnatiuk had finished speaking. "Driver, forward! Let's get into the shit!"
Despite his earlier reluctance, it seemed Mageba needed no other prompting as he immediately put the pedal to the metal, flooring the tank. Perhaps the thought of his fellow Marines being in trouble lit a fire under his ass? Maybe he wasn't completely hopeless.
As the Scorpion rolled down the street, navpoints began appearing on Topan's HUD.
"Ares, marking enemy targets in terms of priority," Hnatiuk declared. "Target one is some sort of Covenant pillbox located inside the basement of a multi-storied building; many need more than one shell! Target two is an enemy sniper located somewhere in the upper levels! We're also going to need smoke cover so the corpsmen can extract our wounded point men!"
"Copy!" Topan replied as he grabbed the gunnery station controls and began programing the warheads for the first few multi-purpose shells they had in their autoloader; point detonation delay for the pillbox, airburst for the sniper, whereas the smoke would come from their 66mm smoke grenade launchers. "We're on our way, ETA, fifteen seconds!"
Their tank sped down the road to the front of the column, dodging around the various wrecks that blocked the road; the city of Byzas had been the site of heavy fighting from the start of the invasion, having been ground zero for the Covenant landings. Because of that, the road was covered in destroyed vehicles, both UNSC and Covenant; as well as massive craters from the liberal use of artillery by both sides, granting attackers plenty of cover to choose from as they made their assault, but also providing defenders plenty of places for ambush.
"Here we go!" Topan yelled as they began to turn the corner. "Driver, HALT!"
CLANKCLANKCLANK!
The sound of high-velocity plasma bolts slamming into the side of the Scorpion echoed through the capsule, the Covenant reflexively opening fire on the new UNSC target before they realized what it was, and Topan took a moment to imagine the expression on the Covies' face when they finally registered they were firing at a tank before grabbing his controls and panning the turret around in the direction the of their first target.
"Round one! ON THE WAY!" he roared, then pulled the trigger.
The entire tank shook as their M512 smoothbore high-velocity cannon recoiled, sending a 90mm high-explosive multi-purpose tracer shell down the street at a little over eight hundred and sixty meters per second. The shell smashed into the building the Covies were using as a strongpoint, through the wall and into the building proper before exploding. Fire and smoke immediately began pouring from the pillbox, but Topan could tell the position was still up.
"Round two! ON THE WAY!"
Their cannon recoiled again, and the explosion of the shell echoed through the city. This time, the entire front of the building collapsed and while the building was left standing, the basement was buried until a literal ton of rubble.
"Fuck yeah!" Mageba cheered from his seat, and Topan felt himself grinning like a maniac.
"Oh, we ain't done yet," he cackled, swiveling the turret around so that it was point at where Hnatiuk had indicated the sniper was located. "ON THE WAY!"
The shell flew straight up to the top of the building and detonated in midair, showering the rooftop with fragmentation. Topan had no idea of the sniper was still up there, but if they were, they were having a really bad day right now.
Switching over to his coax, Topan gave the area a couple of good squirts, even as he reached out with his free hand to trigger the smoke launchers.
THUNK!
Eight smoke canisters were immediately launched from the tank, flying a good thirty meters away before exploding, filling the area with dark gray smoke.
"Marjah, get your people out of there!" Topan yelled over the radio. "We'll cover!"
"Copy. Corpsmen! Get the wounded out! I want them up in the air and back to base in ten minutes! Ares, cover up!"
Keeping his finger on the trigger, Topan watched through the walls of the tank using his distributed aperture system as Marines rushed forward, some moving to secure the destroyed pillbox, others to recover the dead and wound, allowing Topan to release the trigger and lean back in his seat.
"This is why I became a tanker," he heard Mageba mutter.
"Fuckin' A, man," Topan replied.
"Move up, Marines!" he heard Hnatiuk order over the radio. "Covies definitely know we're coming now, so we gotta maintain our pressure! Ares, want you on point up the southeast street, see if we can't bait any more fire! Let's move!"
"Copy," Topan replied. "Driver, hang a left and forward! Keep your eyes peeled!"
"Don't need to tell me twice, Gunny!"
They punched through the smoke and plowed down the street. As they passed by the burning pillbox, he heard Mageba spit and snarl, "Rest in pieces, you motherfuckers."
"Don't spit in my tank," was all Topan said.
They slowly inched down the road, keeping their eyes peeled for more Covenant contacts. Topan slowly panned the turret left to right, searching for-
KADUSHHH! BOOM!
"Contact, front!" Mageba screamed as a fuel rod slammed into their upper glacis plate.
"Driver, forward! Get us behind that Grizzly for cover!" Topan roared as he opened fire with the coax, Mageba struggling to get their Scorpion in cover behind the burnt out carcass of what used to be a UNSC Army Grizzly tank. All around them, the infantry was scrambling to find cover so they could return fire as plasma once against rained down all around them. "Contact, front! Second story window!"
"Take out the threat in the window!" he heard Hnatiuk yell, and out of the corner of his eye, Topan noticed one of the Marines charging forward with a Jackhammer on his shoulder.
"Rocket!" he yelled and the 102mm rocket slammed into the Elite with the fuel rod, blowing it up and buying Topan enough time to bring his cannon to bear, just as two new Elites emerged from a nearby alleyway with concussion rifles in hand.
"Git sum, motherfuckers," Topan snarled, and sent a high-explosive shell into the mouth of the alley.
In the meantime, Mageba had been working on positioning their tank into a pseudo hull down position behind the wreck, allowing Topan to continue shooting without worrying about getting hit by fuel rods.
"Contact, nine o'clock high, plasma cannon in the window!" Mageba warned as plasma fire raked down from above as the Covenant gunners attempted to gun down the infantry.
"I see it! On the way!"
Another roar and a hail of masonry and other debris was crashing down onto the ground. But unlike earlier where one or two shells had instantly ended the firefight, these shells only seemed to piss the Covenant off.
"Incoming, fuel rod, right side!" one of the infantry yelled and Topan panned to the right just in time to see the green streak come flying in. Fortunately it struck the Grizzly – sending shards of metal in all directions – allowing Topan to return fire with his coax.
"Fuck!" he heard Mageba yelp as a plasma bolt splattered against one of his backup vision ports. "Goddammit, I wish I had a fucking gun to shoot back with!"
"Forget that! Get ready to advance!" Topan snapped.
"Actual, this is 2: looks like the Covenant are breaking contact and falling back," one of the platoon commanders suddenly reported. "Do we pursue?"
"Hell fucking yeah," Hnatiuk snarled. "Smoke the bastards out."
"You hear that?" Topan yelled as the infantry began moving up the street under the cover of his suppressing fire. "Driver, forward!"
"Hang on, is that wise?"
"The fuck do you mean is that wise!? It's our fucking job! We see the enemy, we kill the enemy!"
"I just mean it's a pretty classic maneuver to draw enemy armor deep into an urban environment, then fucking schwack them from behind where their armor is weakest," Mageba protested.
"Don't lecture me on tank tactics, Lance Corporal! I've been doing this shit for years! And no, we ain't going to roll into an ambush, that's why we got all these Crunchies surrounding us! They'll lead the way and sniff out any ambushes before they can happen. And even if we did get hit and surrounded, at least they'll have us right where we want 'em! Now, fucking drive!"
Mageba gunned the engine, not even bothering to drive around the Grizzly, just plowing straight into it and shoving it out of the way with a loud shriek of metal and a shower of sparks. Being on the foot, the infantry had a slightly easier time picking their way through the rubble, allowing them advance ahead of the Scorpion.
At this point, bullets and plasma were crisscrossing the street at a frantic rate, almost as if the Covenant in this sector had finally woken to the Marine counterattack on their flank. Which was fine by Topan as that would hopefully force the Covies to divert some of their troops from the main attack currently smashing into the battered Marines of 9 MEF.
"Ares, Marjah," Hnatiuk suddenly said. "Covenant are falling back to their fortifications at the square. Kill zone is kinda open, so we need your tank up front for cover, over."
"Copy," Topan replied. "We got artillery, air support, anything? For tasking?"
"Affirmative. Six inchers are gonna pound the defenses while battalion mortars will smoke out the square. We just need you to act as our mobile bunker, at least until we get closer."
"Understood." Topan quickly lowered his radio and glanced at Mageba. "You got all that, Lance Corporal?"
"Aye, Gunny!"
"Crunchies gonna be using us for cover, so watch where you drive, otherwise, you're gonna discover why we call 'em 'crunchies!'"
"Yeah, I get it!" Mageba retorted, sounding annoyed.
"We'll see then, won't we? Right stick!"
They turned the next corner, and Topan found himself facing the square. Overhead, the whine of 152mm artillery shells could be heard.
"Form up, form up! Form the fuck up!"
Topan glanced at his rear camera to see the infantry stacking up behind the Scorpion. "Driver, forward! Take it slow, make sure we don't outrun our support!"
They slowly began to advance, but the moment they entered the square, the Covenant immediately began firing. Topan grimaced as he counted muzzle flashes from at least five different turrets. Targeting one of them, he fired off a stream of tracers from his coax. "Marjah, Ares: give me a line to the cannon cockers. They're shooting too far; they gotta drop their aim!"
"And where the fuck is our smoke!" he snarled as a plasma bolt glanced off their front right track pod.
BOOM! BOOM!
81mm mortars began exploding overhead, showering the square with dark gray smoke, obscuring the Covenant's vision and allowing the Marines to advance, unimpeded. Fortunately, Topan had already mapped out where most of the Covenant's positions were, and was still able to rain down fire on them.
"Driver, push us up to the center of the square where that fountain is!" Topan ordered between cannon blasts. "We'll be able to drop the Crunchies off, then hang about providing cover."
"Cop- "
KABOOOOMMMM!
Topan was nearly thrown out of his seat as an explosion ripped through the tank! Alarms immediately began sounding and the Scorpion grounded to a halt as Mageba's foot slipped off the accelerator. At the same time, all the infantry taking cover behind them were knocked onto their asses as the shockwave shoved them over.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WAS THAT!?" Topan roared as he tried to figure out what happened.
"WE HIT SOMETHING! A MINE OR SOMETHING!"
"THE FUCK YOU DO THAT FOR!?"
"ITS NOT LIKE I DID IT ON PURPOSE, GUNNY! FUCK! FRONT RIGHT TRACK POD IS FUCKED!"
"WE STILL MOBILE!?"
"YES!"
Topan immediately grabbed his radio. "Marjah, Ares: we just got tracked! Need you boys to clear out so we can back up!"
"Understood! Marines! Deploy!"
Topan anxiously waited for the Crunchies to get the hell out of the way, but then movement from the left caught his attention, and he turned to see two Elites with fuel rod guns emerging from the smoke. "Shit! CONTACT LEFT!"
He tried to swing the turret around, but it was too late. There were two green flashes, the violent shaking of an explosion, and the Scorpion rumbled to a halt once more, this time for good.
"Fuck! Rear left track pod is dead! We're fucking mobility killed!"
"Motherfucking shit!" Topan raged, grabbing his radio. "Marjah, Ares: we are full mobility killed, I say again, we are dead in the water!"
"Covies are gonna be swarming this vehicle!"
"They already are! Contact, right!"
A trio of Elite minors burst out from the smoke, plasma rifles blazing. The Marines standing there moved to engage them, but the Elites brushed through them like they weren't even there and as they got closer, Topan could see they were carrying plasma limpet charges.
"Fuck!" he yelped as he spun the turret around and immediately fired a shell at them. The shell missed, but it did force them to find cover, giving their infantry support a chance to engage again. "This fucking tank is gonna draw the fire of every Covenant gun in a five klick radius! We gotta get mobile again! Get the repair kit and see if you can't get at least one track up and running!"
"I'm on it!" Mageba replied, popping open the capsule hatch, only to let out a loud shriek as a plasma bolt struck the edge. "Son of a!"
"Get the fuck out there!"
"Pop some smoke, dammit!"
Topan growled as he jammed on their dispensers. "That's all the ready smoke we got! Hurry it up!"
Mageba moved to open the hatch once more, only for three more bolt to strike the top. "Fuck! Fuck!"
"Come on, Devil Dog! Move your ass!" Topan yelled as he fired an extended machine gun burst through the smoke and glanced around the capsule, only to find he'd been yelling at himself as Mageba was already gone.
"Fucking ballsy motherfucker," he couldn't help but admire.
CLANK CLANK!
More rounds struck the size of the tank and Topan hastily brought the turret around.
"On the way!" he screamed, then fired a shell and watched a severed Elite arm – concussion rifle still in hand – go flying up through the smoke into air. "Fuck you!"
CLANK!
A fuel rod exploded against the left side of the turret, destroying the external camera there and leaving that angle opaque; flicking on his targeting screen, Topan jammed his control stick to the left, swiftly bring the turret around and fired his coax blindly into the smoke. The return fire was astonishing, as volleys from near half a dozen different weapons came flying in, all of which splashed harmlessly against the Scorpion's armor, but went to show just how many Covenant soldiers were closing in.
"Qasr, this is Marjah: got Covenant Elites closing in from all directions, need you to bring it in close. Drop sixty and fire for effect!"
With the sound of mortars coming in close, their infantry support doing their best to find cover – either behind or around the tank – and shoot back, Topan had barely enough time to grab his radio and yell, "Mageba, give me a sitrep!"
"Left rear pod is fucked!" he bluntly replied. "Even if the track hadn't been melted into slag, half the bogies are gone and the return wheel is in pieces! We would need a full on maintenance team to fix this!"
"Then get your ass back in here now! You can't do anything more!"
Seeing an Elite with another fuel rod gun dive behind a nearby car for cover, Topan fired a shell next to it, trying to hit the alien with the splash as Mageba clicked his radio in acknowledgment. He saw him clambering on board and Topan hurriedly rotated the turret so he didn't hit his driver with the muzzle blast as he fired the cannon once more and waited for Mageba to drop back into the vehicle, but it never occurred: instead, he noticed Mageba diving behind their pintle-mounted infantry heavy machine gun that was positioned on top of the crew compartment.
"The hell are you doing, Marine!?" he roared.
"I told you, Gunny: I want a fucking gun to shoot back with!"
And with that, Topan watched with astonishment as Mageba started shooting.
The .50 cal opened up, sending a stream of tracers out and immediately attracting the attention of all the Covenant in the area. Sitting on an elevated platform with no cover – not even a gun shield - to use but the very gun itself, the infantry HMG was probably the most exposed position on the entire vehicle. Yet, despite the near misses and the rounds ricocheting just off the rim of the turret ring, Mageba sat there - unflinching – firing controlled burst at every Elite that tried to approach.
"Holy shit," Topan muttered to himself, more impressed than he cared to admit by the sheer stoicism Mageba was demonstrating at the moment; he refused to go so far as to call it bravery because Mageba's actions were rather reckless and stupid, but in the same vein, absolutely necessary.
"Gunny! I don't know what you're fucking planning, but I can't help but feel you're trying to make me do all the work!"
Topan jumped and with a start, he realized he had been so distracted by Mageba, he had inadvertently stopped shooting, and he moved to quickly rectify that. By now the Covenant were attacking en masse and not only that, they were working the flanks, trying to envelop the Marines from the rear. Meanwhile on the UNSC side, it was getting dangerously close to every Marine for themselves. They need to get organized, now.
"Captain Hnatiuk, this Gunnery Sergeant Mashadi: I need you to pull your Marines back!" Topan yelled into the radio, grimacing as he watched one of the infantrymen accidentally eat a fuel rod that had been aimed at the tank instead. The explosion wounded two other Marines and left nothing describable of the original victim. "Captain, pull back, now!"
Nothing but static answered him. "Captain Hnatiuk, do you read!? Motherfucker!"
Topan yanked his mic away from his mouth and turned his full attention back to his turret. He had no idea what happened to Hnatiuk – if he was down or the radio was – but despite them being less than five meters apart, there was no other way Topan could reach him. Not when they were taking such concentrated amounts of fire.
An Elite Major came charging at them, welding two plasma rifles akimbo style. Topan turned to engage but Mageba got there first, hitting the Elite with a full thirty round burst from his .50 cal, taking the Elite's shield and quickly after, his life. Panning to the right instead, Topan flinched as a fuel rod flew right over their main turret, missing by mere centimeters, and he fired a shell in response, seeing the explosion rip through the ground but not getting any confirmation of a kill. He moved to follow up with a burst from his coax, but his attention was pulled to the left when a shell hit the tank's front left track pod – damaging the mud guard – however before he could turn his turret, one of the infantrymen was already firing on the Elite, disabling the alien's shield with several burst from his battle rifle. Topan started to turn away to find something else to shoot at, only for the Marine to immediately get gunned down by a Needler welding Elite Minor, with the Marine vanishing in violent pink explosion after being riddled by an entire magazine of Blamite. Topan fired a shell in turn, hitting the Minor dead center in the chest, causing the creature to essentially explode as the shell passed through the relatively fragile torso without exploding.
"What's the plan here, Gunny!?" Mageba yelled over the radio.
"Just keep shooting, just keeping shooting!" Topan yelled back.
"We can't keep this up forever though! We need a plan of action!"
"With the Typhon tracked, our options are limited!"
"Then we might have to consider abandoning ship!"
Topan grimaced, though it wouldn't be the first time he would have to abandon a tank. "Most of the fire is coming from that building! I can take it out with the main cannon, but only if you and the Crunchies keep these damn fuel rod teams off me!"
"Understood! We'll do our best!"
As if to prove his point, Mageba abruptly swung his gun left to right, sweeping the entire field with gunfire. At the same time, he noticed their infantry support moving out to form a rough semicircle around the tank, to cover all avenues of approach, and giving him the opportunity to focus fire on the largest threat.
Resetting the fuzes to all his shells to PDD, Topan began unloading on the building.
"ON THE WAY!"
BOOM!
The plasma turret on the third floor, left side, was blown to smithereens as the shell hit it. The Covenant returned fire with fuel rod but fortunately it fell short of the tank, hitting the wreck of a nearby car instead.
"ON THE WAY!"
BOOM!
Elite sharpshooters firing down on the infantry from the edge of the rooftop disappeared in a messy explosion of blood and gore as the parapet they were taking cover behind blew up in their faces. The return fire sprayed Topan's turret for a few seconds before a lucky bolt found its way into the barrel of hos coax, destroying it and causing him to snarl in frustration.
"ON THE WAY!"
BOOM!
Another plasma turret disappeared in an explosion, though this one failed to kill anyone as the Elites manning the gun had seen the shell coming and immediately abandoned their position. Topan tracked them and was just about to lob a shell their way when a fuel rod shot slammed into the main turret ring, jamming it.
"Fuck!" he yelled. At least he could still elevate and lower the barrel, allowing him to continue his bombardment of the building. "ON THE- "
BOOM!
Two explosions simultaneously ripped through the building from the north and northwest, respectively. For a moment, the fighting seemed to be put on pause as all assembled parties looked around to see where those shots had come from, only for two new Scorpions to emerge into the square, each leading a platoon of Marine infantrymen of their own.
"Oh, shit! That's the Hurricanrana! And Biggus Dickus!" Topan cheered, recognizing the two other Scorpions in his platoon. "We're saved!"
A cheer broke out among his Marines as Hurricanrana and Biggus Dickus grounded to a halt and began bombarding the Covenant strongpoint with renewed vigor. At the same time, their infantry support dashed out from behind them and began sweeping across the square, engaging the Covenant forces in close combat. Seeing this, Topan felt relaxing ever do slightly for the first time since the fight began.
His radio abruptly came to life.
"Well, well, well," the voice of Sergeant Baarasma, commander of Hurricanrana, sounded over his radio. "Look whose ass needed saving. Again."
"Fuck you man," Topan retorted with no real heat as Mageba came sliding back into the compartment. "What's this 'saving' BS you're talking about? Me and my driver had this situation well under control. Ain't that right, Lance Corporal?"
"Damn straight, Gunny," Mageba emphatically said.
"Oh god, you've converted another," Baarasma replied with a dramatic sigh.
"Marine Corps, oorah! Greatest propaganda machine since before Humanity was unified, huh?" Topan said with a chuckle. "Anyways, since you guys have finally deemed it worth to show up, I suppose I could put you to work: sweep up the rest of the Covies, then hold the far end of the square. Gonna get some wrench dogs here, get Typhon back up and running. Then, we'll show the Covies how real men fight. Oorah?"
"Oorah, Gunny."
The line fell silent and Topan leaned back in his chair. There was a host of things he needed to do right now but he wanted a moment to gather his bearings.
As well as apologize.
"Well," he began, "never let it be said Gunnery Sergeant Topan Mashadi ain't man enough to admit when he's wrong. Seems like I did you dirty, Kid; turns out, you ain't so bad. So, that's on me."
He waited a few moments for Mageba to acknowledge his words but to his minor irritation, Mageba didn't even seem to be paying attention, making Topan kick him. "Lance Corporal Mageba. SIPHO! You hear me!?"
Mageba gave a start. "Wha-? Oh yeah, sorry Gunny, I appreciate it. Think nothing about it."
Topan cocked his head. "You alright, Marine? You need a corpsman or something?"
"What? No, I'm all good, Gunny, I was just thinkin'."
"Yeah?" Topan said as he reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, offering one to Mageba. "'Bout what?"
"Was it just me, or were all the Covies attacking us Elites?"
Topan took a moment to think that over and to his surprise, he realized Mageba was right. "Well, shit: you ain't wrong."
Mageba nodded. "Which begs the question: if all the Elites are here –
- then where the hell are all the rest of the Covenant?"
General Notes
I had written an infantry/tank combined arms assault way back in Missing in Action from the perspective of the foot soldier; for this chapter, I figured I would switch it up a bit and show it from the perspective of the tanker. I made them Marines because I haven't really done much with the Marine Corps in my work, but also because I wanted to discuss the:
M808 Scorpion: I think the Scorpion might very well be the most controversial vehicle in the entire Halo universe. Just about every single aspect of the vehicle has been debated over by people who are far more knowledgeable in this subject matter than I am. So, I'm not going to try and argue for and against the Scorpion. What I'm attempting to do here is create a possible lore explanation for some of the design choices the UNSC may have considered when they created the Scorpion in the first place.
When it comes to military acquisitions, equipment is usually selected to fit around a specific doctrine, as opposed to its specific technical attributes. In other words, militaries don't usually choose a piece of equipment because it's the "best" of it's type, because it best fit's the military's doctrine. So then – assuming the UNSC even remotely works similar to real-world militaries – what sort of doctrine or role does the Scorpion fit? And based on the tank's technical aspects, personally I think the Scorpion fits that of an infantry tank or assault gun role.
During the first half of WW2, both the French and British had what they called "infantry tanks," or tanks that were specifically designed to work in close conjuncture with foot mobile infantry. This was in contrast to "cruiser tanks" which were designed to work in conjunction with other armored elements to perform breakout and exploitation roles. Usually, infantry tanks were characterized by their heavy armor (which resulted in slower speeds,) and more of a howitzer type main armament instead of a high-velocity cannon as they were expected to be firing more high-explosive shells against bunkers, light vehicles, and large clusters of enemy infantry rather than armored piercing ones against other tanks.
If we consider the Scorpion tank in this context, some of the vehicle's features seem to make more sense: its quad-track allows for better cross-country mobility, allowing it to keep up with the infantry it's supposed to be supporting in rougher terrain than other vehicle might allow while also providing for the possibility of tank desant while on long road marches, as shown in the games; its 90mm cannon is "good enough" against most targets like bunkers and lightly armored vehicles while also allowing greater magazine depth compared to larger caliber cannons which also facilitates logistics, something light infantry units usually lack; its two man crew becomes less of a detriment if they're expecting to be surrounded by infantry who can be used to help spot targets; and the fixed frontal arch of their machine guns won't matter if most of their targets are in front of them as most of the time, the tanks won't be called forward until the leading infantry running to enemy standpoints.
Admittedly, the official name of the Scorpion is that of "main battle tank," which implies a certain role. However because there is no internationally agreed naming convention for military equipment, the name for military equipment can get rather muddled. Sometimes this is a result of a mistranslation (the Chinese military is known in English as the "The People's Liberation Army" and includes the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, and is referred to as such because the Chinese word for "military" directly translates to "army," leading to some seemingly convoluted names like: "The People's Liberation Army Navy Marine Corps;) tradition (the US Army's 1st Cavalry Division doesn't ride into battle on horses, their "10th Mountain Division" isn't trained for mountain warfare, and the famous 101st Airborne Division" hasn't been a paratrooper unit since the 60's, but all retain their name for historical purposes;) or politics (Japan famously classifies their aircraft carriers as "helicopter destroyers" because their constitution forbids them from having military equipment whose primary purpose is that of attacking another country. As per the Japanese government's interpretation, aircraft carriers are one such equipment.)
Even within the Halo universe, names can be muddled: in canon, there exist a vehicle known as the "SP42 'Cobra' main battle tank." Yet, despite being designated as an MBT, it is a 6x6 wheeled, light armored vehicle, sharing more similarities with Italy's B1 Centauro or France's AMX-10 RC wheeled fighting reconnaissance vehicle, rather than any tank in history that has been classified as an MBT.
That isn't to say this vehicle isn't without its flaws, nor do I think this is anything close to what Bungie had in mind when they designed the vehicle (they were clearly going for an iconic looking vehicle, as opposed to a realistic one,) but I don't think the tank is as bad as some people make it out to be. It's not perfect, but it just might potentially fit within the UNSC Marine Corps' TTP.
