It wasn't long after the mass deployment of forces that the troops arrayed engaged Raptures in battle. Platoons of Marines supported by armor and artillery slowly began to encroach on Modernia's territories, the thunderclap of railguns echoing across the valleys and dunes as rippling lighting coursed through the air, following ferromagnetic projectiles to their targets.
The Railguns of the tanks ripped through the heavier Rapture units with surprising ease, tearing off their mobility assisting limbs or destroying weapons while the screening infantry put down both the medium and small-sized Combat Unit Raptures from behind the cover of armor. Oryxes, meanwhile, provided troop transport to close the pocket.
Obviously, the Raptures wouldn't just sit out and wait to be encircled, not while they had a capable commander like Modernia around. If reports were to be believed, Chatterbox might also have been present in the AO, which meant that the Raptures had more processing power to combine and counter. A Wombat Drone watched a squadron of Raptures arrayed meters apart to avoid the worst of the Kodiak 152mm artillery cannons' barrages, strike a UNSC force's side.
Nikkes mounted in APCs and trucks jumped out, taking cover beside a berm and firing their enhanced firearms at the enemy, while Marines set up crew-served weapons like Anti-Tank Guided Missiles or manned the top-mounted fifty-caliber machine guns on the Saddlebacks and Warthogs, raking the area ahead.
Had this been any other war from the Old Days, the UNSC could swear they were fighting a peer enemy who was capable of coordinating their own armored forces to counter such encirclement attempts. The officers in charge, supported by Special Purpose and MP Nikkes, however, fought like hell for every speck of sand under their boots, their desert camouflage BDUs and armors blending seemingly enough to confuse the targeting sensors of some of the enemy machines.
Radio chatter echoed various calls for support. Kodiak artillery, emplaced at the MODERNITY Op HQ, rang loud, the high-caliber guns' shells arcing in and striking Rapture Formations. The Raptures' own artillery, though unable of counter-battery fire, laid hell down upon the UNSC troops present, quadrupedal Rapture MLRS units firing volleys at wide areas to hamper troop and armor movement.
Textbook modern combined arms warfare. Maneuver, counter-maneuver, move, counter-move, attack and counter-attack. The Heretic in charge of these hostile machines was nothing if not capable of commanding her pawns to fight and she must've had unlimited numbers of them. Baselard-class fighters escorted the Wombats, which were used either as targeting systems for the artillery, or support platforms themselves, armed with racks of guided missiles and bombs.
The Baselards themselves, small two-crew fighters armed with 30mm rotary cannons and two ARCHER missiles each, flew in formation with the birds, providing screening for the enemy's own smaller drone-sized assets. One Baselard's radar tracked a large contact. The WSO utilized his display to lock the missiles, then got the all-clear from the pilot to fire.
One ARCHER decoupled from the undercarriage and lanced forward at high speed, picking out the target via its massive radar cross-section and switching its systems accordingly. When it approached, its optical tracker caught sight of a massive, bulbous, turtle-like floating craft with a burning red eye where its head should've been.
It aimed for the eye and struck like a hammer blow, shattering the machine in a hot blaze and raining shrapnel on the smaller escorting drones, taking several of them out and severely damaging others, to the point one nosedived into the ground after its antigravity systems had been blown out by the shards of hot metal.
Reporting a kill, the pilot then requested to peel off and deal with the rest of the enemy's units just as they, too, were getting in range to fire their own projectiles. Small micro-missiles with enough punch to break through the hull and damage internals. He got permission, with the WSO stating, "Switching to guns. All yours, Hound."
The pilot nodded, then jerked the stick right and up, moving to dodge the tracking micro-missiles while dumping flares and chaff. He didn't know if those would fool the weapons' internal sensors, but he didn't really care, due to a simple fact:Some Baselards, in lieu of the better Broadswords and Sabres, were receiving fighter-sized energy shields to mitigate possible damage. One such fighter was luckily his own.
Losing pilots in a conflict that was anything but conventional would not only be a waste of resources, but the loss of experience, of combat capability and strength. Time to train new pilots, build new craft and fit them with all they needed, was something the NUEG and UNSC couldn't exactly risk. With that in mind, the pilot banked into a sharp, eight-G turn to the left, coming in on the enemy's drones from the side.
He eyed them, letting the trail on his HUD envelop them from closest to farthest before he squeezed the trigger. He heard the motors of the twin rotary cannons spool, heard the ammo being fed, then felt the hull of his bird shake violently. The twin cannons fired bursts, one tracer every fourth round. Their firing rate had been reduced to a total of four thousand rounds per minute, something manageable for the engine.
Even so, the sensation that rippled through the hull, a violent shake, like a tin can being hit by a hammer, caused the pilot and co-pilot great stress, not to talk about the physical stress on the air asset. It was why they fired, at most, in one second bursts. Even so, with the half-second burst he let out now, the rounds struck true, visible by half-a-dozen of the remaining drones falling out of the sky in pieces.
Meanwhile, at a lower level in the air, half-a-dozen Pelican gunships moved to help tighten the noose, too, their nose-mounted chainguns and wing-attached ATGM racks clearing swathes of land, despite Rapture AAA fire. They were staying close to the advancing formations from the two-thousand-strong Brigade elements.
On board Echo Four-Nineteen, Alyosha, Chief, Blue Team, the Luckies and Counters hung on tight, listening to the gunfight outside and watching tracers zip by the canopy of the Pelican while Carol turned back and said, "ETA to LZ is twenty seconds! Pack your gear, boys and girls! This is as far as you paid!"
"Put it on the Lieutenant's tab!" Joked Alyosha as he stood up, grabbing the plasma rifle off of his back. Anis snorted at the joke, while Carol laughed as she gently descended, her co-pilot and currently temporary gunner still laying into the Rapture formation nearby. They felt the vehicle shake with each thump of the cannon, all while it swung in to touch down.
Rapi checked the earpiece she'd been given, which also connected to and displayed on the HUD connected to her optical sensors. She slammed home a magazine for her rifle, racked the bolt, then made sure she had a grenade loaded in the tube before they departed. Anis had made sure to load her launcher, while Neon, ever giddy to see how UNSC weapons work, had also loaded fresh 8ga. Rounds into her shotgun.
"Catch ya on the flipside, Neon!" Pinne grinned as she loaded her own AP slugs into her shotgun. The heavy weapons lover grinned and nodded, before the Pelican's rear hatch opened and the teams dismounted. As soon as they got out into the morning sun of the South-Western Deserts, they were greeted by gunfire. The Pelican took off and turned on its axis and the pilots fired missiles and guns to thin out the enemy line ahead.
Moving up behind the berm of an old, destroyed road, the Teams took cover beside, surprisingly enough, Absolute. Eunhwa sniped at the enemy, her rifle ringing loudly with the modifications done to make it into a mini-railgun. She noticed the Spartans and said, "Squirt, the Chief and their little teams are here," as she racked the bolt home, a deadpan as usual.
Vesti waved as she loaded rounds into her recoilless rifle, smiling, while Emma was a bit too busy laying down covering fire for a platoon of Marines dragging the wounded out from an overturned and damaged Saddleback. Rapture rounds zipped over their heads, mixing in neatly with the enemy's own particle beams.
Each member of Absolute now donned similar armor to Rapi's. Emma had the heaviest one of the lot, a powered exoskeleton with armor plating layered on top of it and a large enough shoulder pad to provide her head cover. On her back, she had an ammo backpack that meant she didn't need to continuously slap new drums in.
She smiled at the others as she let the barrels cool, though, with teams of Nikkes and Marines around them firing back at enemy units. Alyosha and Chief took cover beside the girls, with Rapi not far behind. As she poked out and fired a burst from her rifle, she asked Eunhwa, "What're we looking at here!?"
"These bastards are coming in waves," The girl replied as she ducked to reload. Rapi noticed that there were no casings attached to the bullets, meaning the magazine was only as big as it needed to be to house the rounds and the overcharged batteries meant for the weapon to fire. The two's eyes met and Eunhwa continued, "The entire desert area ahead is thick with them. They're concentrated around the ruins of a village."
"We'll deal with it," Chief spoke as he slid a grenade into the under-barrel attachment of his MA40, aiming it with the Smartscope sight and launching it into a crowd of Raptures. A few rounds struck his shields, causing them to flare while Cortana fired her own weapons at the Raptures. The lead Spartan looked at Alyosha and said, "Care to test it, sir?"
Alyosha grinned, then nodded and shouldered the plasma weapon, flipping on its power source proper and activating the valves and connection ports. As far as Doctor Halsey mentioned, it was supposed to be like a Covenant ship's plasma lance, miniaturized and aided by Nikke-based technology to fire properly. It had a Core and the magnetic coils were reinforced with Goddessium to mitigate overheat alongside the coolant system.
He saw his suit engage the crosshair attached to the Smartscope, systems fully connecting to the weapon. Shouldering it and aiming through the SmartScope, the young man locked onto the biggest Command Rapture, a Lord-class, type 'Vulcan'. It almost looked like a Thermite, if a little more armored and armed.
It aimed its own rifles at Alyosha as the man zeroed in on it. The rifle began to charge as bursts from the other smaller Raptures rippled past him. Chief, the Blues, Luckies, Absolute and Counters fired back, taking the escorting swarm apart piece by piece and waiting for the Commander to deal with their leader unit. Electrical current arced between the two boons of the weapon…
When he squeezed the trigger, the beam, a blindingly bright azure lance, shot out of the maw of the gun, the ionizing gas ripping through the air and heating it to the point where it boiled, too. When it struck the Rapture, it hit the core, heated it to the point it became liquid, then punched clean through the rest of the machine and turned the sand behind it into glass.
Eys wide, he spoke, "Holy shit," in a whisper. He thumbed the cooling button and let the superheated steam of evaporating water exit the gun while more coolant rushed forward to, well… Cool the gun. He watched it cool for a sec, then said, "Saving combat report…" as he watched the Swarm of Raptures collapse in on itself, dead after their Lord was destroyed.
Neon cheered, laughing heartily as she said, "FIREPOWER! FIREPOWER! FIREPOWER!" while Anis smirked at that. She knelt, loaded a few more rockets in her launcher, then spun the tube and sighed deeply. Rapi lowered her rifle, then breathed a deep sigh, before looking at Alyosha, nodding in approval.
"So, that's what max setting does on that thing," Kelly chuckled as she racked the pump, a spent shell, still smoking, falling out of the gun. She told Alyosha, "Might wanna switch to a lower setting. It has burst-fire, y'know?" with a smirk. She started reloading her shotgun as they walked over to the Convoy, noting a couple of dead Marines and Nikkes.
Depressing, but expected in a combat scenario. They watched the Convoy pack the bodies and allow a Pelican to retrieve and take them back to base, before Alyosha walked up to the Lieutenant and told him, "We're gonna hitch a ride with you folks to help close the pocket. With that done, Modernia really won't have anywhere left to run to."
"Alright," The Marine nodded, then waved the rest of his crews aboard. He pointed to an Oryx and said, "That's your ride, sir," with a general calm.
Rio whined, "Man, I didn't even get to pop off a round," in a mumble, before they moved toward the vehicle. She looked at the others and said to them, "At least you girls get to shoot. This thing is hefty and takes a while to-" before ducking as a glancing bullet struck her helmet. A distant Rapture Sniper of some kind had fired at her.
So, the Product-08 did the only sensible thing she could. She shouldered her Stanchion, aimed and, as it was charging, squeezed the trigger. A surge of electricity passed through her arms and through the gun, before a thundering roar escaped the muzzle and the electromagnetically-propelled high-caliber round left the chamber.
Fired on overcharge, the weapon slightly bucked in the woman's hands, all while her eyes grew wide as saucers as she watched the round rip through the air. When it struck, the Sniper Rapture pretty much ceased existing altogether from the impact, turned into what one would presume was plasma or a thin mist. Rio stared for a second, then burst into laughter and said, "HOLY SHIT, THAT'S FREAKING AWESOME!"
The Commander, Blues and Chief watched her check the weapon over as she climbed aboard, a grin on her face. She and Neon high-fived, then she turned to Rapi, who, though she wore a small smile, shook her head slightly. The Sniper rolled her eyes, then looked at Delta, whose own rifle had been modified to fit magnetic capabilities, making the barrel somewhat thicker.
The woman looked up, her desert camouflage uniform with shorts and short sleeves finally fitting, tattoo visible on her shoulder, as she set up her scope. She cracked a small smile, too, then paused as she saw Rio offer her fist. Knowing very well what that was, she bumped it, which made Rio pump her fist, grinning.
"Good to know she's getting along," Syuen commented as she reloaded her SMG and looked over her shield. It'd taken some damage, but was still serviceable. She scratched her chin, then looked over at the gunner in the turret, watching him track something. Seconds later, the muffled thump of the Autocannon echoed, spent casings falling. The bu-thwomp of a detaching ATGM filled the hold, rocket motor growling loudly, but muffled by the hull. Seconds later, it vanished.
The Commander reported with a strange amount of calm, "Target destroyed. Another at eleven o'clock," and the turret's electric motor whirred, the partition of metal separating the troop compartment from the turret swiveling into place. The 30mm autocannon began barking again, which was surprisingly soothing for most of the Nikkes aboard… Of course, as they travelled to their target area, discussion was bound to spring up.
"Look, I'm tellin' ya, Rapi," Pinne spoke as she looked over at the XO, all while patting Signal's head to soothe her instead, "The water got a lot better in our showers after the UNSC took over. No more chilly water or, hell, running out mid-shower," then she peered over at a screen displaying the outside via cameras.
"While I fully understand what you mean… We got used to it," The girl admitted, leaning forward and hugging her rifle. A faint red tinge appeared on her cheeks as she cast a glance over at the Commander, who had taken his helmet off. He cracked a smile at that, while Kelly let out a chuckle that was muffled by her helmet.
Cortana whispered, "Sure, ya did. More likelihood of running into Alyosha naked that way," which caused her, Pinne, Layla and Sammy to all burst into hollering laughs. Delta shook her head, covering her own mouth, while Anis and Neon both blushed. Either they'd never thought of that, or they just got exposed. The Commander wasn't as oblivious to it, either, blushing a little and averting his gaze.
Fred looked at the Chief and asked, "Are they usually this rowdy?"
"Yeah," He replied. Even through the gruff voice and attempt at a deadpan, the three other Spartans detected some fondness behind the ever-stoic facade of the Hero of Mankind. Fred nodded approvingly at that, while Kelly and Linda gently bumped fists behind Fred's back. They'd been used to not really operating together the past few days.
And Sam? Well, Sam was along for the ride and enjoying it. He gave a gentle elbow in the shoulder to John, who turned his gaze toward him. The blonde Spartan gave a thumbs up to his old friend and active commander, which the man replied to in kind. Cortana smiled, then said, "Man, am I glad we're all back…"
"You're not the only ones," Alyosha quipped, chuckling, "Taking on large-scale military ops was a pipe dream for any Commander back in the day. And here we are, coordinating and fighting basically an enemy general…" then he paused and checked the TAC-PAD on his wrist as it glowed. He tapped a few buttons and murmured, "And speak of said general, the OP we're heading to now just reported heavy attacks by Rapture units."
"It's a major crossroad," Chief leaned back, "I'd be surprised if Modernia didn't know that."
"It's the Crossroad out of the AO," Cortana spoke as she looked over the maps via a holographic display emitter. She zoomed in, watching live footage from Drones as the troops there, a mechanized infantry platoon, fought from behind the cover of the cross-intersection's berm. Hull-down Oryxes and M810s fired at a slew of advancing enemy units. She told them, "That's a big enough Rapture force for a Tyrant to be leading it…"
… So, where was the Tyrant?
The answer didn't have to wait long as the Commander cried out, "HOLY FUCKING SHIT, BLACKWATCH LEAD, WATCH LEFT-" and a thundering explosion rattled the convoy. The gunner turned the turret to meet the incoming enemy, the gun starting to fire. The Commander barked over the com, "Command, this is Blackwatch convoy, en-route to reinforce Checkpoint Waterfront! Convoy has been ambushed! CONFIRMING PRESENCE OF TYRANT-CLASS RAPTURE CHATTERBOX! ALL DRIVERS, REVERSE! GUNNERS, ENGAGE!"
Both squads perked up at that. Alyosha slid his helmet back onto his head, suddenly dead serious, as he barked, "Commander, halt the vehicle! We're out here!" to which the man looked back, concerned. He sighed and nodded, then ordered the halt. Alyosha hit the back hatch opening button, then led the way out of the vehicle, weapon up.
As they scrambled out of the vehicle, the Counters and Lucky Strikes saw it:Chatterbox, stomping his way out of the fire of the destroyed leading Saddleback, teeth bared in its inhuman grin, eyes glowing. It spoke, "... And here I thought striking this convoy was going to be just another cleaning operation…" as it stopped, leaving room between him and them.
The gunner of the Oryx let loose, 30mm APFSDS rounds striking the body of the monster. It didn't take long for the team to notice, however, that the bastard had gained quite a lot of armor, to the point the rounds were harmlessly striking the plate. Some embedded themselves, others ricocheted. They were doing damage, but not enough. It laughed at them, then said, "My Queen upgraded me. It'll take more than some peashooters to-"
It staggered as a burst of plasma rounds struck its armor. Alyosha scoffed and said, "Sorry, monologues aren't my favorites," before shouldering the plasma rifle and firing again, causing the monster to growl, then roar furiously, charging its shoulder mounted, organic-looking missile launcher tubes.
Rapi barked, "Encounter!" as she loaded AP rounds into her rifle. The bastard still had exposed flesh spots, including those missile pods. She fired her grenade launcher first, starting to move while the Commander kept up firing bursts from his plasma weapon. Chief, Blue and the Luckies surged forward, too, moving to its sides to flank and surround it.
Missiles arced from its shoulders, forcing Alyosha to dodge as he laid into it with plasma. He was making sure he didn't overheat the weapon, but, quite honestly, he'd take it at this point. He considered switching back to the beam mode that basically cored a Rapture combat unit in one shot, but didn't have the time.
Pinne, Rapi and Neon flanked the creature, firing into its sides and back, aiming dead-on for exposed parts of its body as plasma melted through the armor. It swung its right arm at them and struck Neon, who was too close for comfort, sending her flying into Rapi's arms. Anis, meanwhile, grit her teeth and fired three rounds into the monster's back, causing it to stagger under the weight of their blasts.
Sammy and Layla fired toward its eyes, their ARs chattering as they moved together. As the tanks rolled up behind the crews, firing their MGs and trying to get a lock-on on the giant Gorilla to shoot it, it was moving too erratically to shoot for the railguns. Absolute had also dismounted from their transport and were trying to assist, Eunhwa slamming the bolt of her rifle home and firing a half-charge round that sheared an armor plate off the monster's shoulder.
Venti growled, eyes glowing as she shouldered her recoilless and fired a cluster round at the monster, causing it to stagger. Emma, meanwhile, deployed healing nanomachines while firing her Minigun at its face, forcing it to use its right arm to shield itself. It roared in anger, the weapons grafted onto its fists visibly arcing with electricity and charging.
Moments later, it swept its hand around, a beam of energy striking just above the heads of the entire formation of Nikkes, forcing them to duck and cease firing while gutting a tank and one of the Saddlebacks that was trying to come in and help. A round roared past its head and destroyed one of its missile launchers, with another destroying the other and scraping its helmet.
Delta and Rio watched the beast angrily swing toward Kelly as she charged, the girl narrowly avoiding being pancaked as she fired her shotgun. It blunted Fred's attack, though, by backhanding him and sending him flying into the wreck of the first Saddleback it'd hit as it ran forward. Linda's own Stanchion roared and struck the helmet, ripping it clean off and revealing its pulsating flesh.
It roared in anger again, "ENOUGH!" only for a volley of missiles to land all around them. It turned on its feet, then booked it out of the AO while the teams were busy trying to dodge the Rapture missile barrage. When all was said and done, the Beast had escaped, the coward it was, while leaving three destroyed vehicles and mild damage to the team, plus a few dead.
"Coward keeps running," Alyosha mumbled as he stood up. He engaged the cooling of his rifle, then switched it to beam mode and stowed it on his back. He grabbed his pistol off his hip and said, "I'm gonna keep the weapon for him. Deal with him myself," before he watched a Pelican swing by and drop TALOS and Kilo off. They still needed to go and tie the proverbial noose around Modernia's HQ now.
It would be done, soon…
