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Legion of Honor by Brocktree
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legion of Honor - part 1: Holding Si Bhet
Date: 13 December 2003, 2:18 AM
Legion of Honor
Part 1: Holding Si Bhet
After the fall of Lunar Three and Lunar Five only one hospitable planet remained in the system. The United Nations Space Command deemed this system vital and demanded it be protected at all costs. Therefore, the largest mass movement of military personnel and vehicles began in 2553. More than six million soldiers were brought in by an innumerable amount of transports. Approximately half a million tanks, three hundred thousand bombers and half a million tons of ordinance were shipped in monthly to keep up the defense and stave off skirmishes presented by the Covenant. All manner of battleships, frigates and cruisers orbited the planet to defend against a glassing.
* * *
The fluorescent lights flickered in the prefabricated base headquarters of the 375th division. Colonel Ferrye, in charge of the entire division, stood bent over a digital map on his desk. The map displayed photo-realistic terrain and real-time friendly and enemy troop movement in the area. The entire 1st and 3rd armies were engaged in a seven-mile long firefight in the fields of Si Bhet. Both sides had at least three million troops engaging in the fight. The Covenant was trying to break through human resistance.
The Covenant army was comprised of some of the most elite types of soldiers in the known galaxy. Elites, the field commanders and standard officers boasted full body shielding; not that they would need it, one elite is stronger than two ODST's. The bird-like Jackal made up for its frailty with the large energy shield it toted around on its arm. Hunters were massive in size(they ere able cut down two to three soldiers with a single swipe of the arm) but lacked proper intelligence to think for it's own. Grunts were the "cannon- fodder", the ones that were expendable in battle. These little creatures were only dangerous if massed into a frenzied mob.
The Covenant forces occupied the north and west quadrants of Lunar Four's only continent. The humans controlled the east quadrant and were currently fighting the Covenant for control of the south area.
Covenant forces had already surrounded elements of the twelfth army and continued a firefight with the 1st and 3rd armies in Si Bhet. The Covenant pounded away at the 12th while they were encircled. Unending plasma mortar attacks and daily raids began thinning out their ranks fast.
This, thought Ferrye, was becoming a serious problem. If the 12th goes under, then the Covenant has a straight march to HQ. He watched the battle at Si Bhet, focusing on Able Company. They had somehow slipped to the end of the firing line and crossed into enemy territory.
They seemed to be making progress when, out of nowhere, five KIA's in the same instant. Then another four. Within seconds more than half the Company had been picked clean, the others were turning tail and retreating. A holotransparent message appeared above the map.
ABLE COMPANY TOO MANY KIA
--- PULLING OUT
Ferrye wasn't surprised by the message, "Lieutenant Foley?"
"Sir?"
"Get me a direct line to Company A."
"On I, Sir." The soldier replied. There followed a brief hiss, then a crackle.
"Sergeant Evanson, reporting." Came a voice on the opposite end.
"Sergeant, this is Colonel Ferrye, what is Able Company's status?"
"We took a beating, Sir. 1st and 2nd platoons have been decimated. We have four survivors from both platoons combined. Third platoon is at half strength, twenty men, Sir. I'm afraid we won't be able to fight with this many soldiers."
The Colonel looked at the men in the room who were staring at the map. Everyone was tired; no one had slept right in months. Pulling off a company, no matter how many men were in it, was nearly suicidal.
"Sergeant, turn those men around. Tell your Lieutenant-"
"We don't have a Lieutenant, Sir. He was melted by a mortar; he is on the bottom of our boots, Sir."
Ferrye hung his head, his hands clutched the table, "I'm sorry, son, but we need every soldier we can get to fight. Turn around and get on that line." All the officers in the room looked away from him, returning to their tasks.
"Sir. Yes Sir." Sergeant Evanson responded, his voice hollow and detached.
The connection closed. Ferrye slammed his against his hand against the table so hard that it shook. He turned around, opened the door, walked into his office, and slammed the door behind him.
* * *
Sergeant Evanson looked at his battle-weary squad. Two men had missing skin on their arms, covered only by white pieces of cloth. Another man had a large bloody stump where his hand used to be, before it melted away by a plasma shot. And lastly, Private Hackman lay on the ground writhing and screaming in pain and agony. A needle had penetrated into the side of his skull and exploded, blowing away a chunk of his brain. The rest of it was severely damaged and left uncovered by skin or skull.
"We move out", Evanson called out, back to the front-lines." The men turned to him, horror on some faces, and blank passiveness on others. "And for God's sake," Evanson added, "Someone help Hackman."
Private Decater upholstered his pistol, said his condolences and praise (You're lucky to be getting out of this, man) to Hackman, and then shot him once through the head.
As they walked grimly back down the hill from which they had just run up a stray UNSC artillery shell whirled in and thunked into the ground not five feet from where Evanson was standing. There was no explosion or flash of light, just a smoking canister lodged in the earth.
A dud.
* * *
The entire forest was on fire. Flames arced high above the tree line, visible for tens of miles. Evanson's platoon along with the other company members trudged across open terrain on their approach to the MLR (main Line of Resistance). Many of the men grew pale and sickly, on the ground were liquefied soldiers, Covenant and all types of plants. The light-titanium boots of paratroopers were the only solid mass in the ooze.
The mixture went up to their ankles. It felt to them like walking through egg yolk because of how runny it was. It also varied in color from the skin of a human to the blue blood of a Covenant.
To be able to walk through an ankle deep deposit of melted brothers in arms took amounts of courage and bravery that no civilian could ever even imagine. Every man who had to have the guts to endure it would remember that mile long walk in the dead of night forever.
* * *
A sentry saw Evanson and called out to him. Behind the sentry Evanson could see tracers and bolts of plasma crossing every which way on the battlefield.
He crept up to the sentry's position, a flare lit up the pitch-black area. From this position Evanson could see the entire battlefield. Covenant troops were emplaced in a trench half a mile across the field, into the opposite patch of forest. UNSC mortars battered away at the encampments but doing little harm if not aimed directly into trench. Human soldiers lay prone behind the hedgerow, firing away at the Covenant. The most amazing spectacle, however, was the light show put on by the streams of plasma bolts and tracer bullets crossing the field.
"Sir, Private Conway, I'm part of Dog Company, 375th.. What company are you with, Sir?" The Sentry asked. Evanson's men stood up and started taking potshots at exposed Covenant heads. "We're with Able, or what's left of it. Twenty men strong ready to hold position where ever we're needed."
"Roger that, Sir. We could use an extra tea-aaghh!" A plasma bolt smacked right into the sentry's face. Instantly the skin on his face melted. He attempted to scream but the shock was too great as his left eye liquefied and ran down what remained of his face. A message appeared on Evanson's Heads-Up Display:
ALL UNSC PERSONNEL ENGAGED IN THE
SI BHET SECTOR ARE ORDERED TO
CHARGE COVENANT LINES. AIR STRIKE
WILL COMMENCE ATTACK WITH BOMBARDMENT
Three plasma bolts struck a tree two feet from his position, "All right, men, when you here the shriekers go by, we charge the Covies, is that understood?"
"Sir, yes, Sir!" They replied in unison, firing their weapons. A piece of heavy artillery erupted into action just off to their right, each shot creating a ring of thunder and a deep rumble in the ground. A steady thrum became audible off to the east.
Suddenly all artillery ceased fire and a loud shriek of jet engines flared above them. Just as suddenly as they had come, the bombers were two miles away, their ordinance falling to the target. Huge bouts of fire rose up behind the Covenant tree line. Laces of plasma interlocked with the fire showing that they had hit directly on enemy mortars. "All right, men, enemy mortars are disabled, go!" Colonel Ferrye commed to every soldier.
* * *
Sergeant Evanson's heart began pounding loud in his ears. Everything seemed to move half as fast, as if in water. He held up his hand above his head and called out at the top of his lungs, "Able Company - CHARGE!" and he ran headlong into no-man's land.
Bullets whizzed by him as he ran. Ran as fast as he could get his body to go. He didn't breathe or think about anything else besides getting to that trench.
He ran straight past plasma bolts and tracer rounds, faster than any other man on the field. He would also be the first on to engage the Covenant head-to-head.
A grunt popped up. It saw Evanson ten feet from itself and began running in the opposite direction; he sighted his weapon, and then fired. The trio of bullets smashed the back skull of the alien and it crumpled to the ground.
As he approached the trench, Evanson pulled a fragmentation grenade from his belt and pulled the pin. He sighted a blue armored elite directly in front of him. He tossed the grenade full into the aliens face and it exploded.
The wave of heat hit first and burned out the creature's eyes and mouth. One hundredth of a second later the plume of flame incinerated the its helmet and face. Lastly the concussion ripped the elite's head right off of its shoulders; spraying bits of spine and neck everywhere.
Evanson jumped into the trench and began pumping all the aliens next to him full of lead. Ten seconds later the rest of the company jumped I right after him and formed a tight arc, alternatively firing at any alien that moved. As he gazed left and right Evanson could see other UNSC soldiers hopping the hedgerow and killing anything on the other side.
Another elite, a red one, jumped in at them only to be cut to ribbons by half the platoon. The company's machine gun squad set up their machine guns and began mowing down the incoming wave of Covenant reinforcements. Above them, the sky became clouded with fighters from both races. The only way of knowing where a craft was by the wing lights. Thus, there were many collisions; Flaming ships would fall to the ground crushing and killing warriors from both sides.
A secondary wave of Covenant soldiers charged at them through the sparse woods, but they were completely unprepared for what hit them.
The 71st bomber wing shrieked across the sky for another run. This time, hundreds of thousands of tiny carpet bombs blanketed the incoming tide. Blue napalm was dropped after, covering the area in thick blue liquid that instantly incinerated anything organic before burning out five minutes after touching the oxygen in the air. Almost al the Covenant forces disintegrated in the death storm.
Evanson watched as the survivors limped off the battlefield only to be picked off by UNSC soldiers. The 1st army received more orders: move up and seize Covenant weapons, strongholds and vehicles in the area. Able Company was responsible for taking back the city of Pets Setal, an Oceanside town three miles west of their current position.
* * *
They had done it, prevented the enemy from penetrating friendly territory. Now the UNSC had the advantage and would push as many men as possible into the north. The only problem was, both sides had lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers in that four-day battle.
Evanson checked his HUD again; two more messages appeared:
Matthew Evanson is hereby awarded the
title of Captain of Able Company, 67th
regiment of the 375th division, the Bronze
Star and Medal of Honor for bravery in
Leading the charge at 0200 at Si Bhet.
Able Company will receive forty replacements
soldiers as of March 17, 2554.
Good, Thought Evanson, replacements in two days. But for now, we need to take back that town.
And so the newly appointed Captain moved his troops out at first light to take the city of Pets Setal.
Legion of Honor - part 2: Essence of Camaraderie /Chapter 1
Date: 16 December 2003, 11:42 PM
Part 2: Essence of Camaraderie
When Captain Evanson stepped into the clearing he saw what happens to human cities that come under occupation under the Covenant: devastation. Very few blocks on the main road were left with most its buildings standing. Smoke rose up in columns from off in the distant, small dots indicating banshees were also visible to the East. He stepped forward, letting making footfall slow and deliberate on a metal traffic sign on the deserted road, which was torn up in several places from grenades and mortar rounds. He spied around for the town center. It would be a good place to set up company HQ for this operation; that is, after the Covenant leave the town.
Evanson signaled his men to hold their fire; they needed to recon the area before engaging in firefights. He called over Private First Class William Harkins, the company's best sniper with the best vision. He pointed to a six-story office building, I'm going to need you to get to the top floor of that building. Do not get on the roof in case those banshee patrols swing by this way, understood?"
"Sir, yes, Sir!" Harkins replied as he slinked into the shadows of the buildings on his way to the lookout. A private from the first platoon suddenly crumpled to the ground; a hollowed out hole clear through the sides of his head.
"Snipers!" Another man yelled. The entire block erupted with micro plasma bolts. Instantly five other men fell to the ground. Evanson started yelling, "Move! Move! Get to that alley!" He grabbed soldiers and started throwing them into the alley behind the toy store.
Everyone quickly pulled themselves together and awaited the imminent Covenant force, but none came. Evanson started to get anxious. Surely there should have been some infantry attack, He thought, the Covenant are not renown for letting their enemies walk away.
He decided to take initiative against the snipers in the buildings. He called forward two squads, one assault and the other mortar team. They were quickly briefed on the location of the sniper nests that Evanson took note of in the quick retreat.
The first nest was in the blown out second story of the local doctor's office, another on the roof of the "PetCare" store across the street from the first emplacement and the final nest was located five stores down in the blown out lobby window.
PFC Ronald Taylor moved up to the edge of the building's wall. The man behind him hunkered down on one knee and lobbed a grenade from hi M22 rifle's attachment canister. The grenade sailed high into the air and detonated seconds later.
At the detonation, taking full effect of the surprise of the grenade, Taylor ran into the street toting his SPNKR launcher and unleashed a rocket at nest number one. The two Elites had precious few seconds of life left, then the rocket exploded on the ceiling of the level beneath them. The floor exploded sending heat, flame and bits of wood tearing through both bodies. Taylor rolled back behind the building dodging two sniper shots, which penetrated deep into the concrete road.
Two mortar tubes were calibrated to knock out the remaining nests. Mortar teams have access to the GPS system, which was available to all planets with orbiting UNSC vessels. Trajectory algorithms automatically adjusted attitude, velocity and distance to help zero in on the targets.
Three smoke grenades were tossed to create a screen for the mortar teams to hide behind while in the middle of the road. The men ran out, set down their mortars tubes and dropped the rounds in. Two synchronous thumps rocked the area and both mortars were ejected from their tubes. After the smoke passed, two large craters replaced the sniper nests.
The company moved out slowly, guns at the ready, all fingers on their trigger. Evanson gave out orders, "Alright, company, listen up. I need Martin, Dean and Coffman to secure those sniper spots. Bring me the salvageable weapons and any other equipment you find.
"Yes, Sir!" They replied, each picking two men to accompany them.
A voice crackled on Evanson's radio, "...Sir, I'm in position. The town looks pretty deserted, I see only three patrols, twelve grunts each, led by an Elite." Momentary Silence followed then, "Wait, Sir, you have incoming! A full patrol is inbound to your position, be advised."
* * *
A blue Elite casually marched down the ruined street, twelve exhausted grunts in his wake. They were of the lucky ones, the warriors not to be burned or maimed by the humans. They had hit them with a terrible, devastating but necessary weapon. Most warriors in this region had been burned alive by the thousands.
Not me, Thought the Elite, I didn't die like those other fools. He turned a corner and standing in the street was a lone human soldier looking around nervously, his gun by his side. The elite drew back around the corner, knocking over a few grunts as he did so. They started to yelp in anger when the elite hit one over the head with his rifle. They all went silent as the elite growled with obvious pleasure, "Fresh meat."
The elite jumped back around the corner and onto the street while growling like a maniac. The grunts behind him followed suit. The soldier jumped back in surprise and ran into the alley, the elite right behind him.
Suddenly, bullets began pinging off his shields until eventually it broke. The elite stared in a state of shock, not expecting to run into twenty humans. He felt a bullet penetrate through each knee and leave large exit wounds as the bullets tore through. Before he could act two more bullets completely blew away both elbows. The elite crumpled to the ground as twelve grunts, screaming like children, came charging in to attack suddenly stopped.
Evanson stepped carefully forward, his gun pointed directly in the lead grunt's face, the grunt's legs shaking uncontrollably. "Drop your weapons." He ordered. It took a second before the grunt's translator software kicked in. They were confused; surrender had never really been an option to them before. The head grunt let his weapon clatter to the ground then he himself dropped. In a matter of seconds every grunt mimicked the first, all of them quivering on the cool cement.
Well, Evanson thought, this ought to be interesting. I've got twelve grunt POW's here and one incapacitated elite lying on the ground. He walked over to the elite and gave it a small nudge with his foot. It let out a deep growl.
"Well, buddy, looks like you won't ever be walking again, will you? Even if you could heal enough to hobble, your human hunting days are over." Evanson taunted. The elite just let out a low mumble.
"Okay, men, let's get this trash into that doctor's building over there, or what's left of it. We can get some local information from these guys and some answers from my good friend here." He grabbed the elites limp arm and began pulling the entire creature with him as it screamed in agonizing pain. The grunts were quietly marched into the building. All of them watching their captain getting dragged by his useless arm like eager children, hiding smiles deep within themselves.
* * *
Evanson leaned over into the elite's face. It was bound to a chair in one of the observation rooms the town doctors used to use. Two other soldiers stood fast by the door in case any trouble erupted from their captor
(Note that all conversations between elite, grunt and human are done through built in translators)
"All right, now. If you cooperate I can hand you over to my superiors with minimal harm done to you, otherwise we are going to have a little 'fun'. The kind of fun where we beat the answers out of you with anything that comes to hand, got that?" Evanson said with a heavy voice. The elite laughed and looked him in the eye, "Listen, human, do what you feel is necessary but I will never betray the Prophets or our Order." It then spat in Evanson's face.
He drew a pistol from his belt and pressed it hard against the elite's bare head. Its shield had been deactivated minutes before, "I want you to tell me why your kind has waged this most unholy of wars and I want to know who these "Forerunner" are." The elite whipped its head to the side and slammed the pistol against the seat. It then clamped its four mandibles down on Evanson's hand that held the weapon; blood spewed out from his the hand as he pulled it free. The other two soldiers leveled their weapons and shot the elite three times through the back of the chair. Purple blood splattered on the far wall.
Evanson gripped his bleeding hand and swiftly paced around the room while blood spilled all over the floor. "Someone get me some bandages." He said in a calm voice. One of the soldier's took out a swab bandage and helped Evanson stop the bleeding.
He walked out of the room, careful not two hit his hand on anything, and left the two privates to pick up the elite's corpse and dispose of it. He hated elites. Hated them more than any other species of covenant. They were merciless and found no guilt in killing millions of civilians in firing lines. Time to go interrogate the grunts, He thought to himself with a sigh, this ought to be fun.
When he walked into the slightly larger room where the twelve grunts walked around aimlessly, he couldn't help but manage a slight grin. They were like kids, the smallest and least intelligent species of the Covenant. They had almost seemed too willing to surrender when the humans took them in.
Evanson addressed the lead grunt, "Do I need to call more support in here or will you guys cooperate with me on this?" The grunt stared at him for a moment, then responded, "We are more than happy to do whatever you say. You are not of the elite people. You will not harm us for speaking aloud when not told to do so. For this, I am thank you for saving my squad from that elite pestilence."
Evanson could hardly believe a word he was hearing. He always believed that all Covenant were bad and fighting together for a common cause they all believe in; not that the elites were enslaving any species they met and forced them to fight.
He decided to ask a question, "Do your kind believe that the extermination of my race is just?" The grunt lowered his eyes and spoke in a quiet voice, as if afraid someone would here him, "We do not like the will of the prophets. We think they are evil beings just like the elites and the Royal Guardians. We do not live to fight, but we live to share peace with our fellow species on our own home world. We are not fit to travel to different planets. But the elites do not care; they have us dead for talking about the home world. This is how they scare us into fighting, killing us, making examples."
A roll of thunder shook the floor. Outside the sky had darkened to a near black. Heavy rain began pounding throughout the city. Evanson stood up and began to leave the room, "Stay here, we will be right outside this door. Don't dare try to escape or you will be shot on the spot."
The grunt replied in a high spirit, "Do not worry, we will stay right here."
* * *
Evanson walked outside and addressed PFC Taylor who guarded the entrance with private Donnager, "Anything to report, Private?"
"No, Sir. Everything is just fine, although this pouring rain is making it difficult to see anything more than two blocks away." The Captain looked him over then turned to watch the torrential downpour, "keep up the good work."
Suddenly, Evanson caught the site of tan battle fatigues, then out of the rain came eleven more. These were the men Evanson had sent out to retrieve salvageable equipment from the wrecked sniper's nests. Martin led the way up the stairs, "we're back, Sir. We got some goodies that I will show you inside." Evanson led the way back into one of the waiting rooms.
"First, we recovered three Covenant sniper rifles. These truly are amazing weapons. It has a 100x zoom lens and can be configured to allow auto-aim by the computer inside the gun. It shoots balls of plasma the size of a fingernail and is loaded with small cartridges with thirty shots each into the side of the boot of the gun." Martin held up the weapon and loaded a cartridge in the side. The actual weapon was a luminous purple and boasted a short stock and long thin barrel. A horizontal blast guard protected the zoom and on-gun HUD.
"We also found a dozen plasma grenades, three fully charged rifles and a plasma bomb with enough power to make a keg of C4 look like a fire cracker." He handed each item over to Evanson who inspected every piece. He then grabbed a Covenant sniper rifle and loaded four cartridges into it, "Now, we need to take back this town."
* * *
Legion of Honor - part 2:Essence of Camaraderie /Chapter 2
Date: 16 February 2005, 12:22 AM
Section 2
In order to neutralize the Covenant in the town, A-company needed to construct a simple, but effective, bait and trap scenario. All elites, hunters and jackals had to be killed otherwise they might present a danger to the soldiers, even if captured. Grunts on the other hand could be virtually left alone unless they fire a direct shot on a soldier.
Twin machine gun nests were placed at the end of a cul-de-sac block up in the nooks of buildings running parallel to the broad street. Four snipers, three with Covenant rifles and one with the standard issue army sniper rifle were perched on various rooftops around the circled street. A heavy mortar detachment set up two blocks from the cul-de-sac, their turrets zeroed in on the prime attack location. Grenadiers and the poor bloody frontline troopers hid behind various overturned cars, pillars and other barricades along the street. Third squad was the bait and planned to grab Covenant attention of the sentries who would then raise an alarm at the headquarters, whose position was revealed to them by the grunt POW's. Evanson nearly went completely pale when he learned how many units of ground support the Covenant had here in the town. Then he remembered the grenades and high explosives his team had recovered, the tanks wouldn't be a problem. The plan was pretty straightforward but all Evanson had were eighteen men, hardly enough to defeat even a company of crack Covenant troops. He was going to need a miracle and a bit of luck.
* * *
Everyone sat in their place, ready to fight as soon as the bait ran back with the Covenant on their tails. Some were visibly nervous as they checked and rechecked weapons and ammo supplies others still were determined to kill anything that crossed into their crosshairs, but they all had one thing in common, they all had the sinking feeling that this was a last stand.
Third squad pumped themselves up for their mission. The squad comprised of five of the company's best fighters and recon soldiers, all easily the fastest in the company and for the moment, the most armored. Each man armed himself with an M22 assault rifle, three fragmentation grenades and a single plasma grenade. All which was located at the weapon cache and company HQ on the main floor of the city's bank. Evanson put his most trusted man in charge of third squad, PFC Taylor.
The Captain ordered that the heavy plasma bomb be placed inside the building the Covenant armor must pass by in order to be within range of the company's position. He needed to make sure the tanks were not allowed to loose a single shot at them, which alone could scrap the entire operation. All together the humans had two advantages: they planned for this fight and would be set up an the most effective way a stronghold defense could be and the street in which they would fight was only so wide and it would be hard for tanks and infantry men to try and get into the fight.
Evanson called out to Taylor from behind his column, "All right, third squad, move out and catch us some nice Covenant. Attract as much attention as possible without getting yourselves killed. Don't engage; just run back here as fast as possible."
"Sir, yes Sir!" The men called back in unison
The Captain watched as his men made their way down the street, then lost sight of them as they rounded a corner.
* * *
Taylor peeked around the corner and saw an empty, desolate street. Jesus, He thought, the moment we actually want to run into those Covies none are anywhere in sight! He quickly waved the rest of the squad forward and they moved up the street cautiously.
A sharp crack ripped through the saturating silence that had engulfed the men and a bullet crashed through the windshield of the car they were in front of. Suddenly a machine gun opened up a hail of bullets on the helpless squad and concrete flew up all around them. Taylor began hopping around, trying to dodge the bullets and finally dove behind an overturned car followed by the rest of his men.
A deep voice yelled out, "Who the hell are you guys?"
Taylor peeked his head over the trunk of the car, "Able company, from the 37th, who are you?"
"Dog, with the 501st."
"Jesus Christ, you guys almost killed us!" Taylor yelled angrily to the lone voice.
"You scared the holy hell out of us! We've had Covies pass by all day."
Taylor stood up slowly and spotted the company that lay hidden in a burned out building. He called up his squad and they formed close behind him.
"How many men do you have with you?" Taylor yelled up.
"Almost seventy-five. Wait just a moment, our Captain is coming down to speak with you guys."
Taylor looked around impatiently, they needed to get moving now; but an extra company helping would definitely beef up the mere twenty or so guys in the stronghold area right now. Captain Evanson would be more than happy for the extra men; they would need all the help they could get.
A tall, burly man walked casually down the wrecked stairs and out into the street. He had a spark of confidence in his eye and his arms looked as large around as tree trunks. He strode over to Taylor and looked down at him. The Captain extended his hand which met with Taylor's in a firm handshake. The two stood and stared at each other for what seemed minutes.
Finally the Captain spoke, "You boys from Able?"
"Yes, Sir. The rest of our company or what's left of it is two blocks over from here. They're waiting for us to lead the Covies into their guarded cul-de-sac: we're the bait."
The Captain laughed, "Sounds like an amateur plan to me. Who's leading your Op?"
Taylor swallowed back his anger at the Captain for his insults to his CO, "Newly appointed Captain Evanson, Sir."
Another soldier stepped forward, a Staff Sergeant by the look of his arm patch, and spoke quietly to the Captain, "Captain Harkins, SatCOM has detected two units of Covenant troops heading toward this town. More than three hundred troops as well as a full complement of armor support. No aircraft have been spotted yet. I advise we bug out now before we get roasted in here.
Harkins looked up to the sky, "We can't leave these boys here all by themselves to defend this town, can we?"
Taylor suppressed a smile; he never thought that the Captain would volunteer to help defend the stronghold.
The Captain looked down at Taylor and grinned widely, "Show us the way, Son."
* * *
Captain Evanson took a long swig of coffee from his canteen and swished it around in his mouth before swallowing it. He grew worried, he had less then twenty men to fight off hundreds maybe thousands of Covenant troops. He didn't like to show any kind of apprehension or fear in front of his men, but this time Evanson couldn't hold it in. His hand shook crazily as he took another sip from the rattling canteen.
Out by the street a deep thudding dully reached Evanson's ears. He dropped the canteen and raised his rifle. A sharp whistle from a nearby sentry sounded and every man brought his weapon to battle ready stance. The Captain noticed for the first time the darkening sky and the large dark clouds blanketing the sky.
Private Sydney from third squad ran as fast as he could from around the corner. He slowed down once he spotted the Captain and made his way towards him.
"Sir, we ran across Dog Company with the 501st. They are seventy-five men strong and are headed this way now with the rest of third squad. The bad news is that we spotted two full units of Covie troops, plus armor. "
Evanson nodded, "well, looks like we're in for a fight then."
The marching grew louder and louder until finally eighty soldiers marched into the cul-de-sac with a 501st banner waving broadly in the setting sun. The banner depicted a puma surrounded by a field of grass; the puma looked ready to pounce on an unsuspecting prey.
Captain Harkins marched up to Captain Evanson and saluted, "We wish to aid you in the defense of this town."
Evanson, face as hard as stone replied, "We are going to need every man we can possibly get."
* * *
The plan was changed slightly to accommodate for the influx of reinforcements. Nests and barriers were quickly constructed in the street and near the buildings to provide cover for soldiers. The original bait plan was scrapped and a new one was put together. Instead of sending out men, they would simply fire off all the flares they could find to draw the aliens' attentions. They found every color imaginable and set them all up in a rigging of twenty shoots connected to a single fuse so they would all fire off at the exact same time. This would hopefully draw the attention of the Covenant forces massing at the edge of the city.
Evanson and Harkins gathered the soldiers up to brief them on the new plan.
Evanson started, "Listen up, everyone, we have nearly one hundred soldiers here; the Covies have nearly two thousand, not including armor."
"Sounds fair to me, Sir!" A voice from the crowd yelled.
Evanson chuckled slightly, then his face hardened again, "If we are going to hold this city, we need every one of you to be at your best. Keep your head clear, think things through. We are going to be hard-pressed in here, no escape routes. If we die, we die together. Is that understood?"
"Sir, yes Sir!" A roar of voices shouted in unison.
The Captain continued, "We lost contact with HQ about ten hours ago; the Covenant have jammed all our freqs. All we have access to the satellite images beamed to us from our friends in space. All right, then, everyone to your positions, the flares fire in fifteen minutes!"
Harkins walked over to Evanson, "You think we can actually take these Covies on?"
Evanson started walking, Harkins followed, "Between you and me, Captain, I've seen entire company's of Marine's get laid to waste by a handful of Covenant soldiers. I've seen marines crack; ball up and start crying their eyes out and yelling for their mommas. I even saw a marine get sliced in two by one of those sword carrying elites."
Harkins stood still, "We don't have a chance then?"
Evanson smirked, "Well, we're not marine's now are we?"
Harkins laughed and scooped up his assault rifle, "Jesus Christ, your going to get us all killed, you know that?"
"Not today." Captain Evanson replied as he locked a magazine into his rifle. "Everyone ready?" He asked, and then buttoned the flare launcher.
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