Chapter V
Planet Iridanus, Polaris System
2300 21 January 2540
Downtown Rubidard, Delfanus
I had walked around a bit suiting up, grabbing some extra clips, and picking up anything else I needed. I still carried around my souvenir store, but I’m still not sure what it’s going to do in the end for me, but I decided that I’d rather have ‘em and not use ‘em, than to need them when I don’t have them. I received a message to go to the staging area in about a half an hour, so I strolled over there. The General already began the briefing to all of the soldiers, marine, army, Daemons, or whatnot.
“All right men, we are to fight to the fiercest. We’re not going to go half-assed around the battlefield. Any forces we have available will be put into combat and used wholly. We cannot spare to lose this battle, for this battle decides who will win over this planet! We will push as far as we can into the direction of the Covenant Frigate looming over the city and distract it, to give Zulu enough time. All right, suit up, men.”
Garza called together our company.
“Bravo! We are spearheading the assault through the fields of white snow, and we will turn them fluorescent blue and purple, or whatever the hell comes out of the freakshows.”
“Yes, SIR!” the chorus of soldiers screamed.
“Move out.”
I linked up with my platoon to prepare for the battle.
“Think we’ll get that ship?” I asked.
“Hell yeah. Zulu is one of the best we have. No doubt they’ll get it.” grunted Diaz.
Everyone else was silent. We were at the doorstop of death.
*****
“CHARGE!!!!!”
A major general just led the charge with sword raised, and everyone moved forward like a mass of ants. A minute went by with silence. Where was the enemy? Another moment went by without much change. Then the silence broke with longswords roaring overhead, zooming to drop their payloads on enemy defenses. About halfway through the square, hell started to break loose. Wraith shots were incoming and Shades on top of buildings started to pepper our forces. We were all nearing a hill to take cover on.
“Harper!” Gilbert yelled, “We are to cover that hill and hold position there! We’ll receive further instruction once we have the area held.”
“Aye!”
It didn’t take long to hunker down on the hill. I turned to peer over the crest, What the!?! Two Spetcres floated overhead less than an inch from my head, bursting with plasma fire mowing down a couple of Antimon soldiers behind. All of a sudden, a gauss shot rang out and shredded through the pilot and the rest of the vehicle all the way out the back side. The explosion threw the gunner and passenger elites off and pieces from the ship into them. The other Spectre killed the passenger of the warthog, but was boarded by several soldiers hungering for revenge. It was all over for the enemy within a couple of seconds, pistol shots to the head to ensure mortality. The empty Spectre was filled with the boarders and the battle raged on. I turned to peer over the hill once again, and noticed that the Covenant had dug into and fortified surrounding hills and placed plasma turrent within.
“Gilbert! Contact CP, the covies dug pretty nifty anthills at Foxtrot, Golf, and Hotel Romeo 10.” I ordered.
“Aye!”
While Gilbert contacted command, I noticed that the covies took up defenses on the plateaus and hills, but had failed to set up at the acropolis at the northeast side of Every Square.
“General, sir!”
“Yes, sergeant?” replied Garza.
“The covies haven’t set up at Juliet-Romeo 11 yet.”
A brief period of silence followed.
“Good eyes, Harper. I’ll get the 441st on it right away.”
The Antimon 441st Airborne covered our right flank, but some of them bled into our area. Though we Daemons spearheaded the middle, we were blended in with what was left of the Delfan Defense Force, who was also to cover our left flank in the square. Beyond the square though, we supposedly had the flanks acquired already from the previous night.
Two more Longswords soared overhead once again and dropped their payload onto the fortified hills.
“Roger, Roger. Daemons, your present was delivered, over.” a pilot communicated.
Because the hills have been hollowed out to form forward barracks, they easily collapsed during the raid. We then had a clear shot up the middle. Thinking that the hills would have stopped us, there wasn’t much of a Covenant defense network behind.
“GO! GO! GO!” yelled Czaja.
Whoever was on the hill humped over it and we streamed toward the next one 500 meters away. A fast attack group came to stall us. 20 Ghosts, 5 Spectres, and 10 Banshees. Three SPNKr rockets streak across at the vehicles, and a barrage of seven more came. Explosions lit up the oncoming vehicles and six ghosts, a spectre, and a banshee were destroyed by either direct hits or flung by the subsequent explosion. One unlucky ghost was blinded by the smoke and rammed into wraith debris. Ten ghosts started strafing us while four of them charged into our ranks, forcing their way through. Meanwhile, the spectres were creating a wall of fire to halt our approach and the banshees were throwing fuel rods to effectively pin us. Our group went prone, but a soldier came up to me, crouching.
“Sir, what do we do!?!”
He didn’t seem much older than 18.
“Get down!”
“What?”
“I said GET—“
At that moment, spectre fire sprayed him with piecing shots through the torso, and a ghost shot clipped him in the shoulder to drop him in the floor. ***! I took another look around. Seven Ghosts, three Spectres, and six Banshees. A line of troops ahead of me were taking the brunt of the fire. I had to do something…
“HQ, we need support at Golf-Romeo 10 NOW!!”
“Don’t get you panties up in a bunch; helos inbound on your position. ETA 2minutes.” a pilot stated.
“We don’t have two minutes!!!”
Just then four warthogs rounded the hill, one of them gauss, and opened fire. They were careful to swerve around troops, but the fire they dodge sometimes struck the soldier the ‘hogs avoided. A scorpion tank rolled up on the crest to provide heavy support. The ‘hogs and ghosts tried to outmaneuver each other, but the rotating turrets gave the upper hand to the UNSC. Two Spectres broke off from suppressing fire to even the battle, though one of them was the target of a tank round and all that was left were plasma flames. Suppressing spectre fire reflected off the armor of the Scorpion and bounced harmlessly into the air. Driving like madmen, a warthog and a spectre collided, and LAAG rounds ignited by the flames spurted out like shrapnel. The ammo shredded a Spectre passenger and a Ghost pilot, not to mention obliterating whoever was on the warthog. A banshee descended toward the scorpion, landing a direct fuel rod hit. Scorpion top armor started to liquefy, but it spewed machine gun fire as a reply. The banshee started to spark, but a moment later a destroyed fuel cell discharged and the banshee completely disintegrated behind a veil of white flash. Another SPNKr rocket lead a banshee and intercepted it flawlessly. 2 Warthogs, 1 Scorpion against 4 Ghosts, 2 Spectres, and 4 Banshees. Spoke too soon, Damn! A banshee dropped a fuel shot and the Scorpion blew into flames and smoke; Another ran down the gauss’hog and hailed plasma upon it. Everyone onboard was scorched. The remaining ‘hog, knowing it was outgunned, audaciously made a move toward the suppressing spectre while the gunner finished off the other. Before impact, the passenger and gunner abandoned the vehicle while the driver kept the pedal to the metal. The suppressing spectre was broadsided with only a moment’s notice. Nearly extricated of fire, we proceeded to lay down cover fire for the ‘hog passengers. A ghost was overwhelmed by gunfire, and a streaking SPNKr destroyed another; a third rushed a Marine after discombobulating his partner. The solo Marine threw a grenade in front of him and hit the dirt. The clueless ghost ran over as it blew, and the debris flew upward. Banshees floating above as if they were vultures circling their prey were caught off guard as Sparrowhawks strafed every which way in front of us. Chain guns roaring, missles screaming, everything was being fired upon indiscriminately. Several moments later, the helos emptied their entire payload and returned to base for refilling, leaving behind destruction in which nothing was left standing.
“There ya go Daemon. Good hunting.”
Our attack force continued to advance forward to the hill ahead. While passing the area where the vehicle shootout had occurred, something underneath the wreckage stirred. I had my rifle at the ready and kicked away the debris.
“Ugh…”
There lay the surviving Marine with an arm missing.
“Glad to see you’re alive, soldier.”
“Glad to be alive.”
“HQ, we need Medevac at Golf-Romeo 10; he’s missing an arm, but he’s still breathing and conscious.”
“Copy that, sergeant. We’re on our way.”
I performed First-Aid and gave him a flare to flag the helo.
“Need a cig?” I offered.
“Yeah, thanks man. Anyone else alive?”
“Nope. You’re the only one that made it through hell and back alive. Take care man. The helo should be here in a couple.”
“Thanks man.”
I strolled to the crest of the hill and awaited to find out what line of myriad Covenant will try to stop us next.
"...You might think I'm losing my mind, but I will shy away from the specifics..."
gamertag: path090