A9 to C9

(Alpha Nine to Copper 9)

Chapter 7: Dutch

UNSC Corporal Taylor 'Dutch' Miles

Vickers Memorial Bridge

3 Hours After Drop

Taking refuge inside of an old city bus, Dutch and a squadron of Marines found themselves right in the middle of an Order pincer attack. A hasty defensive line was established by the remaining UNSC forces, Dutch being part of a QRF meant to defend either side of the bridge before a plan could be formulated to break the Order's encirclement. An ODST rushed into the bus and banged his fist against the metal chassis to bring attention to him. Most of the Marines, despite their advanced armor and clothing, were still shivering under Copper 9's harsh environment.

"Rear Guard A's been compromised. They've got some kind of heavy armor moving up. We're needed up at the line."

A Marine sergeant raised to his feet and slammed the butt of his shotgun down on the floor.

"You heard the man, let's get a move on Marines! Go! Go! Go!"

The remaining Marines piled out of the bus and began to make their way down to the line, followed by their team leader. Dutch followed right behind them, only to slow down when passing the ODST who delivered the message.

"Hartwell."

Dutch nodded towards Hartwell.

"Dutch, good to see you, bud."

Hartwell gave Dutch a pat on the shoulder, before following him out of the bus and linking up with the QRF as they made their way across the various defensive emplacements towards the 'front line'

Before they could even get halfway to their destination. Some of the advancing Marines were cut down by autocannon fire from above. Dashing for cover, the UNSC forces realized it came from some kind of light aircraft hovering near the bridge. Fitting only one single Pawn pilot, the vehicle didn't even seem to feature any sort of driver protection. Just a seat with the controls, weapon systems and a pair of VTOL jets keeping the craft aloft. It oddly resembled the Open Frame 92/EVA 'Booster Frame' that the UNSC used mostly for their Spartan Program. Particularly on a mission to rescue Dr. Catherine Halsey from a Covenant assault carrier.

The Pawn piloting the craft meanwhile was just laughing to himself as he cut down more and more advancing soldiers. Though keeping a distance from the bridge for obvious reasons.

Hartwell leaned out from his hiding spot and fired a few experimental shots at the 'Mosquito' as they were quickly nicknaming it. The bullets seemed to fizzle out, before a ripple of yellow energy became visible for a split second.

"It's got energy shields! Marines! Keep your asses in the dark and wait for further orders!"

The Marine sergeant from earlier shouted to his squad, before approaching Hartwell, keeping himself in cover, cringing whenever another volley came in.

"Our guys at the front don't have time for us to be jacking around with getting harassed by CAS. I'm open to suggestions!"

Looking down the bridge, Hartwell spotted an overturned 'Gauss' Warthog, still intact with some minor scratches here and there.

"Keep that bird off of us and If we can get that Warthog back into operation, we'll get the skies cleared up again."

The Marine sergeant took notice of the Warthog and nodded, before signaling to his team to listen up.

"Marines! Not but a klick down the bridge there's an overturned Warthog with enough firepower to knock that SOB out of the sky, shield or no shield. I need 5 of you to move with Corporal Miles and Hartwell and I need the rest to stay here and keep that bird occupied!"
5 Marines stood and approached Dutch and Hartwell. With the team assembled, the Marines began to open fire towards the Mosquito, dealing no damage, but absolutely scaring the daylights out of the Pawn operating it. Who turned and opened fire on them, leaving Dutch's team to sprint across the open areas of the bridge towards the Warthog. Once the team reached their objective, they all began to lift up on the side of the Warthog in an attempt to flip it back over once more. Noticing the movement, the Mosquito turned and opened fire on the group, some shots managing to strike some of the Marines, killing some and wounding others. Noticing this from afar, the Marine Sergeant ordered 3 more Marines to replace the ones that had been killed and to attempt a rescue on the wounded. Grabbing an assault rifle from one of his soldiers, the sergeant rushed out from cover and began peppering the Mosquito with suppressive fire. The pilot, now divided between 3 targets, gritted his artificial teeth, yanking on the control stick and moving himself away from the bridge entirely to get away from the gunfire.

By that point in time, the Warthog had been flipped over, Dutch leapt into the driver's seat and Hartwell boarded the gauss cannon, a female Marine wielding a sniper rifle clambered into the passenger's seat. Setting off down the bridge, with the Marines now moving up, Dutch swerved around the ruined cars, the Warthog's tires sliding across the frozen concrete with each sharp turn. Just then, the Mosquito once again crested over the bridge, now completely focused on Dutch, beginning to rain down autocannon fire, though missing due to not leading his shots. Hartwell and the female Marine began to open fire on the craft, the pilot began evasive maneuvers, though some sniper shots managed to strike the craft, barely being stopped by the craft's energy shields. With a string of profanity, the pilot began to fly back towards the end of the bridge to relative safety. Only for a well placed shot by Hartwell to rip the Mosquito's right turbine off and setting the craft ablaze from the fuel spilling out from the severed fuel lines, some of which setting the pilot's clothes on fire. The craft was sent into a death spin. The pilot frantically unbuckled himself and leapt from his seat, though evidently forgetting that he did not possess a parachute and slammed against the side of the bridge, knocking his head clean off and sending his body careening down towards the ice below, alongside the now burning wreck of his vehicle.

"Good shooting, Helljumper! I could see that bastard burning from back here! The way's cleared boys and girls, double time it for the line! Keep low in case another one of those birds shows up!"

The Marine sergeant cheered over the radio, the remaining QRF began to make their way down the bridge with Dutch providing some forward assistance in case there was another ambush from above. Nearing the defensive line, which was already covered with various emplacements the UNSC had established in case the first line was breached at the end of the bridge. The female Marine tapped her fist against the chassis of the Warthog and shouted for Dutch to stop, dismounting, she made her way onto the top of a rusted bus and set herself up with a decent view of the ongoing offensive, though with the snowstorm, she mostly had to rely on the thermals on her scope.

The line was mostly composed of cars hastily moved into a defensive wall, alongside sandbags deployed here and there by the Marines and what few gun nests established that they could. Though with the line looking downwards towards the Order's advance, the UNSC had somewhat of an advantage. Dutch could see various Pawns moving into a series of toll booths at the end of the bridge, establishing a small supply route and moving soldiers up to the front, all mostly commanded by Enforcers. Though Hartwell's information about heavy armor seemed to be true. Moving up towards the defensive line was a hulking beast of a machine. Standing at around 8 feet tall, the machine resembled that of a sumo-wrestler in its frame. Covered in heavy armor and bearing some kind of heavy cannon on its arm, Dutch could barely see the standard egg shaped head and LED eyes behind a heavy, ballistic mask, Dutch wasn't sure if the machine was being piloted by a Pawn, or some new configuration of them much like the Enforcers were.

Turning the gauss cannon towards the armored mech, Hartwell fired a shot, though the machine raised its plate covered arm and managed to absorb most of the shot, though in the process destroying whatever armor it had on its arm and exposing the servos underneath. Using a set of jet boosters in its feet, the machine launched forward into the defensive line, shrugging off everything thrown at it and ripped through the UNSC forces, delivering melee strikes from its massive fists that injured or killed anyone that it hit. Hartwell attempted to fire another gauss shot, though the rotating cylinder designed to feed more slugs to the cannon seemed to jam. Hartwell frantically attempted to fix the jam, though the mech quickly noticed and capitalized, ramming the Warthog and sending it flying backwards, with Dutch bailing out of the driver's seat, though Hartwell was sent flying too. Dutch struggled to his feet as Order forces closed in on his location, having already overwhelmed the majority of the UNSC forces, who were now in a full retreat, some remaining behind to hold the Order off as long as possible.

The heavy mech stomped towards Dutch as the cornered ODST continued to pepper the armored beast with fire from his Assault Rifle, figuring if he was about to die, he would at least die on his feet. Before the mech could rip Dutch in half, a sniper bullet slammed into the back of its head, destroying most of the armor protecting the machine's head. The female Marine, who had been busy picking off whomever she could from the advancing Order troops, racked another round and fired again, mostly to get the mech's attention on her. Turning around, the mech raised its cannon arm at the sniper, electricity began to arc between the cannon's magnetic coils, seeing this, the sniper frantically racked another round before grabbing whatever she could and leaping off the bus for safety. A loud thundering boom sounded off when the mech's cannon fired off a tungsten slug at several times the speed of sound towards the bus, the round practically tore the bus in half and left a smoldering crater in the area where it impacted behind the now decimated bus. Dutch could hear some kind of automatic clicking within the cannon, likely loading another round, without sparing so much as another second, he leapt onto the mech's back, holding onto a set of handles and beginning to fire random shots into what he assumed to be any spot that didn't have armor. The mech began to cry out and attempt to get Dutch off its back, though its arms couldn't reach him and any attempt for his comrades to shoot Dutch off failed due to the mech's thick frame.

Crawling up to the mech's head, Dutch managed to rip whatever was left of the mech's face mask off, exposing its egg shaped head, all it could really do was stare at him with a pair of crimson, LED eyes in pure hatred.

"GET OFF!" It shouted at Dutch, who responded by sinking his combat knife into the mech's face, shattering the screen and rendering it blind, though somehow not killing it. It screamed out in pain, thrashing about wildly and stumbling backwards, the erratic movement finally managing to hurl Dutch off, right into the concrete wall against the edge of the bridge, though thankfully wearing his helmet, the impact still knocked Dutch out cold. Hartwell, who had survived the Warthog being thrown across the bridge, had managed to crawl out from the wreckage at around this time and noticed Dutch's incapacitation, alongside the mech finally falling to the ground, dead. Though with the advancing Order forces, he wasn't able to get to him without the possibility of being overrun himself. Frantically looking around and noticing the remaining UNSC forces falling back, he seemed to be running low on options…

"This is Pelican INDIA 553 hailing UNSC forces engaged on the respond if you can read me."

A Pelican dropship streaked overhead through the storm, its spotlights searching for a place to set down, choosing to land near the center of the bridge.

"All UNSC personnel operating in this AO, fall back to us and prepare for evacuation, direct orders from Colonel Baxter."

Colonel Baxter? So there was contact with UNSC High Command after all! Reinvigorated with the fact that this wasn't a last stand. The defenders of both ends of the bridge began to pull back to the evacuation zone, prioritizing mostly wounded personnel first and holding off the Order as long as possible. Though with the line slowly being pushed back, Hartwell was unable to rush to Dutch's aid. He slammed his fist against the concrete floor. Cursing at himself. Watching a set of Enforcers rush up to Dutch and begin to detain him alongside the other Marines left behind, though most seemed privy to fighting to the bitter end.

Rushing back towards the center of the bridge, being joined by the Marine sniper along the way. The remaining forces converged at the evacuation and the sniper opted to remain until the last batch of soldiers could be evacuated, though it was uncertain if the Pelican could even return if the Order took full control of the bridge.

"We still have some of our guys on their side of the bridge. One of them is an ODST from Alpha-Nine." Hartwell explained to the soldiers aboard the Pelican, though it was made clear that there wasn't much they could do at this point.

With the Order now within sight of the evacuation zone, it was now or never and It was clear as day that the Pelican couldn't evacuate the remaining soldiers on the bridge. Hartwell was urged to board the Pelican himself, despite his protests. With the last evacuation group loaded up, the Pelican took off from the doomed bridge and began to head northward. The last thing Hartwell could see from the doomed defenders was the Order finally breaking through the line. Though several massive explosions, visible faintly in the fog, seemed to indicate that the Marines did not go down without a fight.

The flight was brief, and before Hartwell knew it, the Pelican was on approach to what looked to be an airport nearby the river where the UNSC remnant forces had established something of a forward operating base. Upon landing, the wounded soldiers were carted off towards the terminal area, as was everyone else present for debriefing, Hartwell even being requested by Colonel Baxter to report on all that he had seen thus far.

"We don't know anything beyond what you've seen, trooper. The Prophet of Regret decided to make a hasty jump out of the city and before we knew it…we were here. We can't make contact with HIGHCOMM. Something about this planet is blocking all of our radio communications. I've seen blizzards far worse than this, so It can't be the weather. We've been reduced to short range communications and even then that's spotty at best."

Colonel Baxter stood before a group of officers, including that of Hartwell, now standing in a makeshift command room.

"These machines we've been encountering do not match any sort of design records we have. From the survivors we've interrogated. They don't seem to know anything about us either. Nothing about the UNSC, nothing about even the Covenant. They even seem to claim that this planet, which the locals refer to as 'Copper 9' is, for all intents and purposes, on Earth's doorstep. No records of that planet in our archives either, nothing of a JCJenson company either. Now this could very well be some form of a disinformation campaign but…with every prisoner we take, the story seems to stay the same. With that being said, our current priority, besides establishing a fortified position here, Is to get our radio communications up and running again so we can let any survivors know where to go. We need all the manpower we can get. After that, we'll need to establish contact with any UNSC assets outside or within Copper 9's orbit. As of right now, we will be exercising a defensive priority against the 'Order' until further notice…currently, our attempts to engage in any sort of diplomacy have failed."

Colonel Baxter then turned to Hartwell, who had been standing at attention the whole time during the briefing.

"Sergeant Hartwell, I am promoting you to Staff Sergeant and you are now the acting commander of Squad Gator."

Hartwell saluted Colonel Baxter, who returned the gesture.

"Permission to speak, Colonel?"

"Permission granted, Staff Sergeant."

"During our evacuation, several Marines and an ODST from Alpha-Nine were taken prisoner. Sir."

"That portion of the city, as far as we're aware, is under full Order control, there's nothing we can do in our current position to mount a rescue operation. I wish there was more we could do, Staff Sergeant. Make your way to the barracks, get yourself some chow and get some sleep, you'll be briefed later on in the night with further information. You're dismissed."

Hartwell once again saluted, before turning and departing from the command post, making his way towards the makeshift barracks established nearby the main terminal of the airport. Already, it was obvious of the UNSC's presence here with fortified, prefab structures dotting the area and defenses here and there. On the way, he took notice of a group of Pawns busy building up a sandbag wall, and a pair of Marines were keeping watch of them. One of the Pawns rubbed their forehead with the back of their hand, despite not sweating, before turning to one of the Marines.

"Do we get a break?"

The Marine guard tapped the top of his shotgun and shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't talk to me. Get back to work."

The Pawn seemed ready to say something else, though a female Pawn standing next to him placed her hand on his shoulder and shook her head, urging him to just drop it and get back to his duties.

Upon reaching the barracks, Hartwell approached a random bed, among many of the old, worn out beds, removing his helmet and placing it on the floor next to the bed, he laid down with his armor still on, glancing down at a data pad on his wrist and setting a time for 2 hours in the future before settling in for rest.

—-

The Rookie, upon reviewing what data he could from the data pad, finally took notice of the fact that the data pad he was holding was registered to "Staff Sergeant Francis Hartwell"

Before he could view more, his motion tracker alerted him, again to fast movements outside of the building…damnit, one of those Disassembly Drones was out there again…wasting little precious time, the Rookie quietly slunk out of the building and disappeared into the snowy night…

To be continued