The Convoy rolled ever-forward, Marines and SDF troops keeping their eyes open as they pushed through a small village. Children waved at the passing motorcade of armored vehicles, while the parents kept them close, seemingly afraid of the rolling armor. With Richard looking over the SAT map they had received from UNSC stores, Torres and Itami looked left and right while Kurata drove. He hummed, then said, "We're rolling past Village Number Five. Zero hostiles are located in this village, as per images visible from the Wombat of retreating Imperial units. First larger city should be coming into view within thirty minutes."
"This is HITMAN-3-1 to all HITMAN-3 victors," Itami spoke into the Radio, "First city is thirty mikes out. Be ready for possible engagement with enemy sentries defending the place," and he grabbed his Howa rifle. He racked the bolt, feeding a fresh round into the chamber, then fiddled with the safety, keeping the barrel pointed at the floor of the transport to not pop one off into someone by mistake.
Various noises of preparation echoed, weapons being loaded and the three less-armed local women seemingly preparing themselves mentally in case there would be enemy contact in the city. As they exited the village, Torres commented, "Strange. You'd think they'd be going Scorched Earth and torching any village within a few miles of the nearest cities..."
Richard supposed, "Maybe they didn't get to announce withdrawals..."
"Dunno, boss, the air force would've rung their bells pretty hard near the Front Line," Rosie replied as she crawled up to the front, shotgun slung on her back and on safe. She looked at the ass of the Abrams, then added, "Y'know, part of me's glad we got Abrams tanks with us. Somehow, they have an aesthetic that beats even our Scorpions as far as looks go."
"Each to their own opinion, Sergeant," Tyuule replied with a smile as she checked her rifle and blades, "I am quite fond of the UNSC's battle tank designs," words which seemed to surprise the girls ahead. Tuka and Lelei were still learning English and Japanese when they boarded the transport. Rory realized that it would have probably been a good idea to provide them the ability to understand and speak the language, and she did.
Rosie chuckled, then explained herself, "I know, I know, ma'am. Not sayin' the Scorpion or the Grizzly are ugly, don't get me wrong, but I just like the multi-crew stuff more. Has to do with my gramps working in a museum which had a bunch of old tank models before the Covvies glassed our home. Must be a helluvan experience, living, eating and bleeding in the same bloody machine as three others, manning the damn thing, keeping it running and just shooting the shit when not in combat. And then shooting the holy shit out of people with a big fucking gun."
"I like not having swamp-ass myself, but the big gun is a positive, agreed..." Torres quipped, then he chuckled, "Though they did add AC with the latest redesign of the Abrams."
"Swamp-ass remains a problem in any enclosed space, honestly," Richard laughed, leaning back into his seat, "Especially when it's over thirty degrees out there," and that got a raised brow from Torres. Richard sighed, then said, "We use non-Freedom units in Space, man. That's Thirty Celsius, so basically very hot if you take into account things like high humidity and all."
"That's not what I'm looking at. You fucking think Thirty's bad?" Torres smirked, "Try forty-five plus Celsius. Texas weather during the Summer's a bitch."
"Christ," Richard winced, then waved it off, stating rather clearly, "No fucking thank you. I'd rather freeze my ass off on an Arctic assignment than burn alive in the middle of Texas at high noon."
"You enjoy the cold more, lieutenant Samuels?" Rory smiled.
"I'm just saying, Rory, I grew up in the hotter regions of my home planet. I like it when it's cold out. Hell, give me a winter snowstorm, a cup of hot cocoa and a fireplace that's got a fire in it and I'll find it better than the freaking mid-day summer heat when you gotta gather crops," He chuckled, "Swear, I had sunburn on my back every single day when I was fourteen..."
"You were a farmer, Richard?" Tyuule seemed shocked by the revelation. He looked back, flashed a proud grin and nodded.
"Fed a lot of the population of our small planetside town, not to mention my entire family with my parents and sisters before the Covenant came swinging by our planet," He replied. Turning to Itami, Torres and Kurata, he said, "Had like six sisters. Being the only boy in that fucking mess was a funny thing in and of itself. Not to mention I was the runt of the litter..."
"Christ, man, tell your parents to put a cork on it," Rosie laughed, while Tyuule covered her mouth as she, too, stifled a chuckle. Richard elbowed Rosie in the gut, but chuckled too, as the girl let out a groan of pain.
"How are your sisters?" Lelei inquired, trying to find something to get involved in the conversation as well.
He looked at her, then smiled and said, "Eldest's a captain aboard a Frigate. We keep in touch, though Swabbie Sister isn't particularly too keen on not blowing up shit with the MAC. She's fun. Youngest sister, who's only a year my senior, is currently working with some big-shot Prime-Time news company back on Earth. Pretty sure that, if this place becomes big enough news, we may see her around, seeing as she became a field reporter just recently. I sent her a postcard. The others are just doing various jobs. One other's in the Corps, but she's out fighting various Covenant splinter groups."
"Hope she's staying safe," Tuka added, then looked forward as they rolled out from the hilly areas and onto a flatter section of the territories of the Empire's thralls.
"Hey, maybe she'll also get reassigned here for a break," Torres commented, "Is she hot, though?"
Richard snorted and slammed a fist into the man's shoulder. Gently, of course. His reply, however, was spoken through the laughter, "She's married, you cunt. And I doubt she'd go for a Texan who may as well be her grandfather in the timeline sense..."
Torres rolled his eyes, "Whatever, man. Any of them not married?"
"Oh, she's the only one that's married," He chuckled, then added calmly, "But she and I are gonna kick your ass if you try to go for any of the others. Same for the eldest, unless she takes a liking to ya and you don't mind riding outdated Navy Equipment. Admittedly, she's in her late thirties, nearing her forties, but that's not really a problem for you, is it, Torres?"
Torres shrugged, "Hey, I don't mind it. You two take the piss out of each-other often, though?"
"Swabbie versus Jarhead, combined with her always teasing the youngest of us does that to a man, I assume," Itami quipped, to which Richard gave him a thumbs up and a nod of approval, like he'd just gotten the answer to a real difficult test. Youji hummed, then chuckled and said, "Must be nice to have siblings. I'm a lone child, so there's always been this inkling feeling of jealousy when I hear of families with a lot of kids."
"It's a blessing and a curse," Replied Kuribayashi as she looked forward, "Not gonna lie, Lieutenant, my sister and I get along, but she really didn't like my choice to go Military."
"Any particular reason whyyy-" It seemed Richard took a moment to realize that these were the Japanese he was talking to. In fact, the people who would have problems with the military. In Japan, there were those who disliked and/or tried to hide the crimes of the Empire and the unapologetic sons of bitches, at least per most political analyses from the outside. There was no in-between. So, of course, someone like Shino Kuribayashi might've been seen as part of the latter group if she chose to willingly join the SDF.
"Uh-huh," Kuribayashi nodded, grinning smugly.
Richard sighed, then looked forward. He pulled his tablet from his chest rig and opened it up, linking it to the Wombat drone orbiting them and panning the camera across the convoy, from rear to front. Once he saw their vehicle, he paused on it for a moment, then hummed and chuckled, before panning the cam past the Abrams tank belonging to Misfit. Ahead of them, there was the larger town. An unfortified city through which a paved road ran. Beside said road were several 'arteries', several other roads in fact, each with houses on the sides. The main boulevard itself, which was the road leading into and out of the seemingly large population center, was occupied on the sides by stores and stands.
Richard hummed, then turned on the thermal sights of the cam and zoomed in. He spoke, "I see the problem with the town ahead... There's nobody on the streets. Civvies are inside the buildings, though. Can see them via thermal..." and he thumbed the safety to off. He looked to the other two officers aboard and asked them, "What do you guys think? Infantry dismounts from the transports and provides a screen, clears us a path through town and acts as first responders if anything fires at us?"
His fellow COs nodded, to which he picked up the Radio and said, "This is HITMAN-3-1, to all HITMAN-3 elements. We will halt and dismount the infantry from the transports, at which point I will be taking command of the platoons as we push into the town and pull security as the convoy passes through. We are to clear the town and, if engaged, fight our way out toward our target outpost."
He grabbed his equipment and watched as every other soldier with a gun except for Torres, Itami and Kurata dismounted with him. He turned back to his fellow Lieutenants, gave a thumbs up and said "I'll be back aboard before you know it..." flashing a grin. Beside him, Tyuule nodded approvingly as the rest of the infantry units joined up with them. He looked around and said to all soldiers, US, UNSC and SDF, "Switch to radio frequency 3,01 for Short Range and follow me in. Staggered formations, move as squads and keep your eyes and ears wide open."
"Yessir!" The whole group of soldiers replied loudly. The Lieutenant nodded, then took his own mixed platoon in, which included not just the Third's troopers, but also Kuribayashi, Kurokawa and some of the Bunny Warriors. Tyuule lead the others forward, each taking a side of the road. The squadrons advanced in staggered columns, several feet apart from each-other just in case as they pushed through and into the town. Roman-style buildings greeted them on each flank and down each road they passed by.
Richard and two others covered Misfit's tank on the right side, while Tyuulle and her girls took the left. Each man and woman swept around the place with their guns and eyes, watching windows and doors in case an enemy unit decided to peer through and try their luck. Nothing was gonna get past them, especially not since the infantry stretched from the front to the rear of the Convoy and there were still enough of'em in a spot to really make someone's day a living Bullet Hell game. Tensely, the squadrons crept forward beside the vehicles...
Civilians stared fearfully at the advancing troops, clearly in awe at what must've been magic to them. Some units branched out halfway into the side streets and the other boulevard as the groups reached the middle of the road. Lelei, Rory and Tuka could really only watch as their guardians moved forth through the town, keeping their eyes peeled and weapons at the ready like soldiers who had seen this kind of action before.
Lelei sighed, then leaned herself against the wood and steel of the bench she was sat on in the transport. She closed her eyes, murmuring, "Show us in passing what comes to threaten us, o' Gods of Knowledge..." before pausing, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on-end. Rory noticed the fine movements of the girl and the minor detail changes in her otherwise-impassive face.
Lelei gasped, then stood to her feet and jumped out of the back of the slow-moving vehicle, stunning both Tuka and Rory, who followed. Lelei ran forward to Richard, crying out, "Lieutenant! LIEUTENANT!" with distress. She saw Richard turn to face her, confused, before a ball of scarlet fire flew past the man and washed the Abrams battle tank behind him and his unit, scorching the plates.
Rory and Tuka gasped as they saw the strike, charging up with Lelei now. The young girl slid to a halt and spoke to Richard, "Mages! The enemy ambushes us with Mages! I can feel the magical output of my brethren out there! There's at least a full unit of around twenty mages spread out around the city!" as she prepared her own spells, the blue, flame-like gem on top of her staff glimmering blue.
"Fuck!" Richard swore as he dragged himself into cover, "With me! Misfit!" He spoke over Radio, "Status!"
"Tank's outside's a bit cooked, but she'll survive. Give us a fucking target!" Edward seemed quite angry, as did his boys over the com.
"Hold fire for now, Ed! We got a metric shit-ton of civilians between us and them!" Torres called out over the com, "This is HITMAN-3-1 to all vics, find cover behind the buildings! Any remaining infantry, dismount, dismount, dismount!" and he and Itami jumped out of the transport, each with their rifles brandished and off safe as they hauled ass up to Richard.
"Do we have a bead on where that fireball came from?" Inquired Itami as he took cover behind the tank.
"Just know it came from the right side!" Kurokawa replied, gripping her Howa rifle close.
"You said you can feel'em, right, kid?" Inquired Richard, just as a second Fireball flew past their cover, igniting the road and shattering a few windows in the process. Lelei nodded, to which Richard pulled out a map of the town as provided by SAT imaging and superimposed it with the best image they had from the orbiting Wombat and extended it to the girl, "Point their general locations out on a map. We'll fan out into teams, search and destroy up close and personal."
Lelei nodded, then looked over the map. She put her index finger on one spot and a small scarlet dot appeared, which somewhat surprised her. Following that up, she put her finger at another point and yet another dot appeared. She repeated this ad nauseam until all twenty mages were spotted, then said, "Those locations are as accurate as I can give them..."
He nodded, then thumbed the 'copy' function of the datapad and cried out, "Tyuule!" To the Warrior Bunnies on the other side. The queen looked to him and lifted her own tablet, to which he nodded and sent the message across. Upon receiving it, she gave a nod and ordered her girls and the other units beside her forward just as a flurry of fireballs arched down upon the Convoy, some missing, others being far too close for comfort. One even struck close enough to a Marine to singe her boots.
He flicked his Radio on and said, "All HITMAN Elements, divide into platoons which have at least one UNSC Marine with a working HUD or tablet! I am sending the possible coordinates of enemy Mage forces as presented by our resident magician, miss La Lalena! We're gonna smoke these sons-of-bitches out and do it while making sure we don't kill any civvies, Hoo'rah!?"
"HOO'RAH!" Cheered the Marines and the SDF. Kuribayashi grinned proudly, shouldering her rifle and taking point in Itami's unit, which now contained Kurata, the rest of THIRD RECON and Rory herself. Richard and his team waited for the next volley to be sent out as the Abrams turned its body to face the attacks from the right. A volley of fireballs washed over the fighting vehicle and Edward audibly swore because of the heat.
Richard nodded to his team and pushed out, assault rifle raised. Following behind him, his chunk of the clearing force pushed forth under leadership of the Marines, Itami and Torres. He ducked as a volley of arrows flew over their heads and struck the tank and some of the Marines who lagged behind. Richard didn't even hesitate when the first Imp tried to reload.
His assault rifle roared, bullets ripping through the air, armor plating and through into the flesh of the first man he spotted. Beside him, Kuribayashi and Itami opened up, single-shot, with their battle rifles, two more men winding up with bullets in their skulls or chests. A tongue of flame lashed out at the Marines again, but Rosie was quick to spot the bastard that was trying to cook them. He was atop a building, second floor window.
She pointed him out to Ikari, who dropped onto her belly, shouldered her sniper and fired within the span of three seconds, splattering the man's brains against whatever was behind him. Torres and two of his Marines pushed toward the building, following the contrail of the bullet, then kicked the door in. Inside, an Imperial soldier drew his sword and charged him, but he managed to parry with his M4A1, tossing the bastard's weapon aside and slamming the butt of his weapon against the Imp's chin, staggering him enough for him and his boys to fill the bastard full of lead and repaint a wall with his guts.
Torres pushed up to the second floor with his Marines after thoroughly clearing the first with the aid of assault rifles and grenades. Another frag flew up the stairs and detonated, followed by the officer and his two Marines storming the top. The only thing they found up there was the headless corpse of the mage that Richard's sniper had taken out.
He spoke over radio, "Building One clear, hostile mage KIA! We're comin' out!"
On the other side of town, meanwhile, Tyuule and her girls slaughtered Imperial soldiers with impunity, with Delilah guiding the crew via her HUD and utilizing her oversized sword to gut the enemy's forces. Tyuule spoke, "Nearing objective area. Delilah, take a team of three, breach and clear. Wipe them out, but watch out for civilians... Everyone else, we push on to the next building and kill the Mages there so we can support Delilah and her team's leapfrogging. Copy?"
"Roger!" The troops replied.
"Uukhai!" Delilah grinned, then ordered, "Shera, Kallen, with me!" as she deviated to the right, kicking the first door down and firing her SMG. A body in armor collapsed with a hard thunk against the wood floor, followed by the thunderclap of armored boots pushing through as Delilah's support team marched in. Muzzle flashes filtered through the windows of the building in the corner of Tyuule's eyes.
She gasped and rolled to the side as a flash-fire lashed out. One of the Marines belonging to the UNSC rank and file got caught in the blast. He dropped to the floor, screaming in agony, but managed to roll around and stop the fire from burning him alive. Torres's medic had been with them and she managed to drag the boy out of the line of fire, but that was a nasty first casualty to have.
She grit her teeth and shoulder-checked the next building over, from where the fire had come, just as a crossbow bolt clipped the tip of her ear. She growled, then pushed through and raised her rifle as a first contact, an Imperial soldier carrying a sheathed sword, appeared. Without hesitation and with no emotion on her face but anger, Tyuule lit the man up.
Following her in, another Warrior Bunny pushed to Tyuule's side and slammed against that Imperial swordsman's bow-wielding friend, planting the tip and the rest of her blade through his chest and pinning him to the floor, before twisting the blade and removing it with a sickening slashing sound. She pulled out her Magnum and fired twice to the right next, just as Tyuule punted someone in the gonads and then hit him with an uppercut from the butt of her rifle, shattering his skull due to the increased strength of the Warrior Bunny physique.
One of Torres' Marines had witnessed the clean entrance and now watched the queen and her royal guard push up the stairs. The screams of two mages filtered out through the gunfire, as well as the flashes of the weapons, before Tyuule and her team descended again, leaving two of theirs to provide cover just as Delilah rejoined their ranks with the other two Warrior Bunnies, blood staining her uniform.
Tyuule paused just enough to look with concern at her second-in-command, but Delilah clarified, "Not my blood..." As she hefted her Kukri. From it, congealing mixed blood from the victims dripped onto the floor, a shade darker than normal human blood. She spoke, "One of the Mages was a beast-man, surprisingly... Now, shall we keep pushing, ladies and gentlemen?"
"Yes," Tyuule nodded, then motioned to a trio of SDF troops to clear out the next building over, then turned on her radio and said, "Second, third, fourth and fifth mages killed! We are pushing for the others on our side as we speak!" and she swallowed empty as she saw the Medic drawing her right hand across her throat. She closed the wounded young man's eyes for the last time and Tyuule felt her heart sink as she said, "We have one Casualty..."
... Back with Richard, Torres and Itami, the lattermost of the group negotiated a stairwell, firing up at a squad of entrenched Imperials as Kuribayashi fiddled with a grenade. Upstairs, however, the crying of a child echoed, to which Itami said, "No grenades, Kuribayashi! We got civilians in the line of fire!" then ducked and reloaded his rifle, dropping the empty mag among the spent brass on the floor.
"We gotta push, then! Else, the mage upstairs may just kill more of our boys!" Kuribayashi shot back as Tomita came in with Rosie and a pair of Marines carrying shotguns. Itami shook his head and Kuribayashi clarified, "Civvies upstairs! Boss fears collateral!" before all of them stopped, stunned, as Rory charged inside. Despite her frame and the weapon she carried, the woman managed to agilely clamber up the stairs in three long strides...
And upstairs, the screams of the damned filled the air. A droplet of blood fell from the top of the stairs onto Kuribayashi's face as the screams grew fewer in number, then died down to just the child inside the room. Kuribayashi paused, stunned, as she saw Rory marching down the stairs, a smile on her face as her lower lip gloss had turned purple, blood staining her face, hands and the blade of her halberd.
"Jesus..." Torres murmured as he, too, walked in.
Rory simply smiled as she led the young man, whom they had all just noticed was beside her, out to the dining room. She marched out, turned to them and said, "Should we not continue, gentlemen?" And she giggled with a degree of murderous glee, "Emroy demands more blood sacrifices of the cowards who hide behind civilians..." to which Torres and Itami looked to one-another, with the latter starting to sweat profusely after Rory had winked at him specifically, in a flirtatious way of all things.
Kuribayashi snorted, then reported, "Mages six, seven, eight, nine and ten are KIA. They're bunching up to up their firepower, so be careful, folks!" and she stood up, marching out to join Rory, Richard and the others. Torres, Itami and the team that were still inside marched out while Richard's team's corpsman checked on the young man the Imperials had used as hostage.
"One through thirteen are also KIA! The dumbasses tried running out of the town hall! Gunned them and their escorting Imperial garrison down as well, counting about twenty bodies!" Ivanov reported over the radio, his Machine Gun's thunderous greetings roaring on in the background. Richard replied with a short congratulation and acknowledgement while he and Rosie linked up again.
Lelei and Tuka watched the fights from afar, with the latter showing the tell-tale signs of awe and fear. Her mouth was wide open and her blue eyes shimmered, fearful, as they watched the mechanical precision with which the modern militaries cleared out the target area. Lelei, meanwhile, simply regarded them with genuine awe. That a military force moved this cohesively, this rapidly and this professionally was an amazing sight to behold, especially since they did not utilize the line and melee combat tactics of the Empire.
They watched the Apostle of Emroy dance with her blade, cutting into the lines of Imperials coming in for melee with ease. They watched Richard, Torres and Itami work cohesively, they and their squads pushing through every house, moment by moment, eliminating enemies while ensuring the safety of the civilians inside. It was methodical, cold and somewhat cruel. Certainly, swordfighting up close and personal seemed far more cruel to a mage and an Elf, seeing as they had seen and heard of this warfare, but...
There was something about your life being ended in an instant by an errant little piece of lead smaller than the size of your thumb that was terrifying to the girl.
Reports filtered into the radios of the Marines beside the girls, of the last few Imperial troops and their Mages dying. The enemy had tried to take their main battle tank out first. Instead, they merely pissed its crew off. Now, as number nineteen among the Mages dropped, number twenty was all that was left. Lelei watched as a squad of Marines, including the Lieutenants, surrounded the enemy...
She gasped as she recognized the blue cape and design of the mage. She ran toward the line, past the bodies of Imperial troops and through the scent of charred flesh and blood, stopping only as she saw the mage, a young man with black hair and silver eyes, holding forward a grenade, one of advanced humanity's many strange, almost magical weapons, in his right hand. With his left, he held a beast-girl about her age as a hostage.
"Drop the fucking grenade, kid!" Richard warned, eyes locked onto the boy's head.
"Do we have a shot...?" Murmured Kuribayashi.
"Too close..." Torres replied, angry. Lelei looked the boy over, noting that, yes, he was in fact a fellow Rondel student, though one of the younger ones, newcomers to the realm of magic. He trembled uneasily, eyeing them. He barked at them in their local language, Imperial Basic, as some had called it, pushing the grenade left and right while the girl he held by the throat wailed, crying for help. He tightened the grip around her neck to try and shut her up.
"Kid, don't do this," Torres remarked, "You've got a long life ahead of you. Just leave the grenade and the girl..." As he scoped in his head, which was partly obscured by the young girl's. Lelei stepped forward, through the crowd, to which Torres said, "Hey, mage girl, get back to safety, that grenade has a nasty ran..." he then paused, seeing the stunned Lelei looking at the Mage. And the young man, too, froze as he saw her.
"Felix...?" She almost seemed to beg.
"Lelei..." The boy replied, eyes wide. He grit his teeth, then yelled something at them that none understood but the girl, anger behind every word. She replied to him, seemingly begging him to stop, but he didn't listen. She staggered as he jabbed an accusatory finger her way, then lifted the grenade, for but a moment shifting just enough as Lelei begged him again to stop...
With a snap, the boy had a new hole between his eyes and the wall behind was stained red. With wide eyes, the young man stared at Lelei, mouthing, "Traitor..." as he collapsed and let the crying girl go. Richard scrambled forward and grabbed the grenade from his hand, then checked it over and gave an all clear. Lelei, meanwhile, simply stood there, stunned.
She looked to where the shot had come from and saw Kuribayashi, her rifle's barrel still smoking. She lowered it, her face impassive. Her only signs of emotion for what she had just done being a slight tremble and a blink as she looked to the shocked Lelei and set the rifle on safe. The SDF soldier stuttered, apologetic, "I'm sorry... He was about to... He would've..." while the others policed the equipment on the boys.
Lelei nodded slowly, but understandingly at the SDF soldier, then tugged at the collar of her own robes as Kuribayashi let out a sigh. The corpse of the young man lay there, sprawled across the floor, a single bullet hole in-between his eyes. She closed her eyes and looked away, feeling her heart sink as Rory and Tuka came to check on her. Rory simply stated, "I am sorry for the loss of one of your fellow mages, Lelei La Lalena... But the Empire seems to have co-opted him to fight... As it has many of your fellows"
"I know..." She murmured, "I know..."
"Then take solace in knowing he goes to the afterlife now, rather than fearing for his life when the UNSC or the UN unleash their force in full," Rory spoke, clamping a hand on Lelei's shoulder and squeezing firmly. Lelei nodded, then sighed and turned away. Save for the bullet holes in the walls, shattered glass and the corpses of the dead, the city had been left relatively untouched, thank the maker. There was a silver lining.
Richard took a knee beside the boy, lifting his robe, then drew an M7 SMG from a hip holster. It was folded up into its compact mode. He said, "M7 SMG and three full mags. Damn surprised he didn't use it..." As he lifted it and handed it to Rosie. He closed the young man's eyes, then gently laid his body down and covered it with a white tarp, before shaking his eyes and stating, "Then again... Wherever they're getting this kit from, the people aren't teaching'em to use it."
"Fuck me..." Sighed Rosie, "Kuribayashi actually looked pretty bad, El-Tee..."
"She'll walk it off. This is war, after all," He replied sadly, then stood up, "Let's go. We have another town to clear before the main crossroads one..."
"Aye," Replied the crew, all turning for the convoy...
This was gonna be a pain to report to Halsey...