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Ryan Caen: Ch. 4: Games Played and Won
Posted By: Myth
Date: 21 December 2008, 9:20 am
Read/Post Comments
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August 2552:
SAN PABLO, TYRUS II: ERANADI XII
504th ODST Pathfinders
CS: Bravo
ATTACHED: ONI SOE Unit
The final Covenant anti-air emplacement was perched on the crown of a sports stadium dome. Caen and the ODSTs observed from a flooded rooftop, which had collapsed into building below in some sections.
Jones was the eye of the squad right now, watching the avian Jackals stalking the balconies of the stadium's face. The snub-nosed Type-52 plasma cannons decorated the stadium's battlements as well. Shade heavy turrets were set protecting the AA gun itself, making a direct assault impossible. Jones groaned quietly as he reported his findings.
Mackenzie unclipped his D-DACT from his chest plate and faced the small device towards the sky. The COM terminal acted as a satellite direct beam transmitter and began to try and contact the Valhalla .
"Command this is Bravo, requesting directive, over." Mackenzie rasped into the mic.
"Bravo, this is Op Command, what's your situation?" Dawes asked from orbit.
"Command, 'C' battery is heavily fortified, over." Mackenzie said, watching the Covenant troopers patrolling along the stadium walls.
"Affirmative on that, Bravo. Your decision, can you neutralize the battery?"
Gunnery Sergeant Lincoln Mackenzie met the gazes of the others. He knew his Marines, and even Caen, would rush the structure, and die trying, if need be, to take down the battery. "…Negative, Command. Covenant strength is too much for us to deal with this one…"
"Your in luck, Gunny. We would've passed out of contact if you waited a few more minutes. Keep your heads down, Marine. Sky-fire's coming down in ten."
The storming skies broke open to a super-heated kinetic round burned a path through the clouds, revealing a glimpse of the stars above. The MAC round landed directly on top of the 'C' gun, and continued through the stadium, deep into the foundation below.
The entire stadium was obliterated, the remaining superstructure sinking into the crater made by the MAC's blast. "Command, Bravo reports a kill on Charlie. Repeat, 'C' battery is down."
"Alright, CSAR bird is on its way to give you a lift." Dawes drawled over the COM.
"Sir? Did you make contact with Alpha?" Caen asked, looking to the skies, which had closed and filled again with the Tyran rain clouds.
"…Negative, on Alpha, Lieutenant. No contact."
"…Acknowledged."
The Marines watched the streets below carefully. Apart from a Phantom and a pair of Banshees inspecting wreckage, nothing of consequence happened until the Combat Search And Rescue bird descended on the rooftop and lifted them into the skies.
Caen strapped into the troopbay's jump seats and exhaled as the CSAR Pelican raced back into the clouds, and then to orbit. The dropship soared through the vacuum until it intercepted the crippled Valhalla .
The UNSC Destroyer was less than a shadow of its former self. The entire port side of the ship was molten slag, no doubt leaving half the crew dead. Caen shuddered as his view of the exterior of the Valhalla disappeared as the launch bay surrounded him. The CSAR touched down and released its Marines.
The three ODSTs removed their helmets and stalked towards the armories to return their gear and grab some sleep before the next patrol. Caen stood on the deck of the hanger, slightly confused at what he was to be doing. His commanding officer was dead, and the mission was scrubbed. As far as the ONI officer was concerned, his usefulness as an intelligence officer was nil.
A naval Petty Officer informed him, however, that his duties were far from complete. The NCO instructed him to report to the Command Deck for debriefing, immediately. Lieutenant Caen complied, winding through the ship's corridors and emerged at the Bridge checkpoint a few minutes later.
A fire-team of shock troopers stood with MA5 rifles at their shoulders guarded the blast doors leading into the Command Deck. The Master Sergeant waved him in, relaxing somewhat.
Caen entered the dilapidated Bridge, looking in horror at the amount of destruction the area had suffered. Deanda spotted him and directed him off the Bridge to the briefing room situated aft of the deck. The lieutenant saluted and obeyed, walking past another pair of ODST sentries, he entered the conference room. A long oak table dominated the room, with three other officers already seated. One of them was Major Mikhail Il'ych Alexandrov, now his commanding officer since Colonel Pavel Ivanovich Luechenko's death several hours beforehand. The two ONI agents had both had relatives in the intelligence business as far back as the Soviet KGB. Caen saluted the older agent and turned to the two others. One was the ODST commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Cunningham, and the other was the Commander of the Valhalla 's Air Group, Captain Richard Brackenbury.
The Marine and Naval officers saluted him lazily and returned to their reports. Caen took his seat and waited for the remainder of the command crew to enter. Captain Deanda and Lieutenant Dawes finished the set, taking their seats and addressing the group.
Alexandrov spoke first. "I believe it is time that you learned the extent of our mission here." The ONI officer said; his voice flavored with a St. Petersburg accent, a relatively common one throughout the UNSC.
"Indeed." Brackenbury commented not without a little contempt.
The spook ignored him. "The Covenant are interested in something one of our covert branches discovered beneath Mt. Aires. Some sort of relic that falls into the characteristics as the one the found on Sigma Octanus a few years back, that we believe is of great importance to the Covenant… there is a bunker underneath the mountain where our agents are holed up.
"Our initial objective was to get inside and extract the relic before the Covenant got to it first… since the Covenant has three battalions on the ground with an entire Carrier Air Group over the city will make it difficult to do so." Alexandrov sat back down, leaving the conversation open to the other members.
"My boys are a little shorthanded since our boxing match with the Covenant heavy hitters. We don't have the numbers for a ground assault." Cunningham observed grimly.
"We only lost a fraction of the Air Group, I can lead the squadron planet side and knockout the carrier's point defenses, and send the Hornets in to hit the infantry on the ground." Brackenbury suggested.
"My Marines can ride shotgun with the Hornets to make the grab once the sentries are taken care of." Cunningham added, happy to involve his Marines in the process.
"The Longswords are the only thing we have that can punch out the Carrier's point guns, and we lost Commander Golden's wing during the first battle." Deanda said to his aviator counterpart.
"Yes, I suppose it would require a bit of effort on my part."
"EMP." Caen said quietly.
"What was that, Lieutenant Caen?" Alexandrov asked, interested.
"We would need to drop an EMP charge right above the Carrier, the blast will knock out their shields for a short time, and our Longswords race in and hammer bastards." Caen said, impressed by the idea.
"If their shields are gone, we could land my Marines inside the carrier and rig a Shiva to blow their asses back into orbit…" Cunningham mused.
"Colonel, you know that it would be near impossible to extract your men from the carrier, even if you managed to land them there." Deanda pointed out.
"I'd only be taking volunteers, Captain." Cunningham said, resting his hand on his M6 for emphasis.
"On any other circumstance I would not approve the op, but since the carrier will finish us off after its done on the surface, I think this is our last chance… Brackenbury, you're willing to lead the Longsword wing?"
"Of course, Deanda."
"Cunningham, put together your boarding party and your Special Ops team to extract the relic." Deanda ordered.
"What if the teams on the ground can't get to the relic in time?" Cunningham asked; he would need to know the specifics when he briefed his men.
"They'll blow the mountain and deny the relic to the Covenant Forces or die trying." Deanda ordered.
Cunningham smiled. "I wouldn't have it any other way, sir."
Brackenbury stood and left the room to assemble his pilots. Cunningham followed to choose his teams. Caen stood away from the table and pursued the Lieutenant Colonel.
"Colonel Cunningham!" He said.
"Yes, Lieutenant?"
"I'd like to be attached to the team retrieving the relic, sir. I wouldn't feel right sending your men to finish what we started." Caen said apologetically.
The Marine Officer considered it for a moment. "...You understand that my Marines will be in charge down there, and ONI rank doesn't translate any better than a recruit when you're in the field…you still sure you want in?"
"Of course, sir. I've never trusted anyone more than your Marines, sir." Caen replied, standing at attention.
"Fine, Caen, I'll attach you to Bravo again, without Hayes we're a man short anyway. Don't let me down."
"Not a chance, sir."
ORBIT ABOVE TYRUS II, ERANADI XII
UNSCN Valhalla
STARBOARD LAUNCH HANGER
Alpha Longsword Wing would be led by Captain Brackenbury, and would hit first. Alpha consisted of twelve C709 Longsword Interceptors. The Interceptors would fire guided munitions at the point defense turrets along the carrier's hull and neutralize them for the later wings to complete their duties.
Bravo Assault Wing would be lead by Commander Healy, and would consist of six AV-14 Hornets and twelve Sparrowhawk gunships. ODST 'Bravo' platoon would deploy from the Hornets once they had cleared an LZ.
Charlie Assault Wing would be led by Lieutenant Colonel Cunningham, and would be made up of a D77H-TCI Pelican and a pair of AV-14 Hornets. The Marines would be piloting the Pelican, mainly to make sure it was still there when they were done with their job on the carrier, and the Hornets would attempt to protect them from Covenant fighters.
Delta Support Wing would consist of a pair of CSAR birds, a feeble gesture at trying to recover the probable loss of friendly aircraft to the surface.
Caen strode to the Hornet he was assigned to and looked it over. The landing skids had been modified to mount a M41 LAAG cannon on either skid, so that its passengers could defend against the more agile Banshees from ambushing the AV-14. The Navy pilot nodded to him and took his seat in the cockpit. His name was stenciled into the canopy of the craft. LT. KENNEN, M.
Caen attached the tether to his belt and cinched it tight. Corporal Jones acknowledged him and strapped in as well. There were only two Marines assigned to each Hornet, and only eight of the twelve Marines were going in for the relic, since the rest were needed to keep the Covenant off their backs while they searched the bunker.
Mackenzie and another ODST were strapped in on the AV-14 next to them; Mackenzie gave him a thumb's up. The other members of the 504th tethered themselves to their Hornets and secured their pressure suits.
The Valhalla would be entering the atmosphere directly over the carrier to deploy the EMP and its Air Group. Caen watched as the CSAR teams suited up as well, members of Echo Platoon that made up the search and rescue teams. Cunningham and his volunteers were loading a pair of Shiva nukes into the troopbay of their Pelican.
Alpha Wing was already outside, following the destroyer through orbit, ready to strike the second the shields of the carrier collapsed. Every aircraft's engines flared to life, preparing to speed out of the hanger bay the second the signal was given.
The EMP charge was fired directly into spine of the carrier, detonating immediately, knocking out a flight of Banshees patrolling their airspace. The carrier was too large to be knocked out of the air, but, as Caen predicted, the shield flickered and disappeared.
"Shield's are down, we are go! Go! Go!"
The Longswords raced down towards the carrier, firing their ordnance of ASGM-10 missiles at the point defense cannons bristling along the carrier's hull. The heavy missiles converted a pair of the defense cannons to slag in seconds, and another flew apart as a set of lighter rockets slammed into it.
Seraph fighters raced skywards to engage the Longswords before they did any more damage to their mother ship. The Interceptors broke formation and opened fire with their 110mm rotary cannons, ripping the Seraph vanguard to ribbons. As the Longswords engaged the Seraphs and the last of the point cannons, Bravo and Charlie deployed.
Bravo raced towards the surface, strafing the plazas below with gunfire. Caen couldn't hear the screams of the Covenant infantry below but knew them to be there. Caen watched as the heavy turrets tore the troops apart. A flight of Banshees sprung into the air to engage the Hornet wing.
The Sparrowhawks sped forward maneuvering around the slower Banshees and firing into their cockpits with precision gunfire. Caen gripped the handles of the M41 LAAG turret and mashed the firing studs, watching a line of tracers chase away a Banshee flier. He heard Jones's gun roar to life as well, and the answering plasma explosion of a Banshee, now spiraling towards the streets below.
"Enemy triple-A coming up hot! Take 'em out!" The Wing Commander ordered. The Hornets and Sparrowhawks strafed the Wraith artillery tanks, firing guided munitions at them, engulfing them in ice blue flames.
Caen watched as Mackenzie's Hornet fell into formation adjacent to theirs. He could see the armored form of the Sergeant firing the LAAG on the skid. Two violet forms streaked in from above the other Hornet, firing a salvo of plasma bolts directly into the cockpit of Mackenzie's AV-14.
Caen cried out in grief as the Hornet burst into flames and dropped like a rock to the roof of a building below, exploding with another blinding flash. Two more Hornets and a Sparrowhawk fell to plasma fire in the following minutes.
"Hang on, boys!" Lieutenant Kennen barked as he banked the Hornet down towards the surface, avoiding plasma bursts from a passing Banshee. Kennen depressed the triggers of the tri-barreled cannons on the Hornet's wingtips, gutting a column of Covenant support craft lining the streets.
A Sparrowhawk formed up on their wing to take Mackenzie's place, firing a salvo of 102mm HEAT missiles, splashing two Banshees to the flooded surface. The Sparrowhawk pilot turned his head towards him and spoke into the COM.
"Kennen, put your Marines dirt-side, now!" Just as he finished his instruction, the Sparrowhawk erupted in flame and exploded in mid-air.
Caen had no idea how many aircraft in Bravo were still flying, but he knew they had lost nearly half of their Air Group just en route to the main objective. "Alright boys, clear the zone, I'm putting' you on the ground." Kennen warned. The Hornet's nose sunk towards the streets, its weapons blazing, cutting away Covenant Infantry moving for the AV-14 fighter.
The Hornet paused a meter above the pavement and Caen shed his harness and leapt to the ground, immediately falling to his stomach. The familiar pound of the rainfall immediately threw his senses into clarity. Jones crashed down beside him. Kennen's Hornet climbed into the air, clawing for altitude to avoid the Covenant small-arms fire.
Two more Hornets dispatched more Marines behind them and lifted off, one of them taking a direct fuel rod hit. The craft hung in the air for a moment and then crashed back to the surface. Caen advanced with the other five Helljumpers who had survived the insertion. Their weapons flashed in the darkness as they moved forward, the screams of their enemies filling the air before them.
The Sparrowhawks hovered above, spraying the areas ahead with their rotary cannons. The base of Mount Aires appeared out of the gloom, a gaping hole torn into its side from the Covenant dig crews.
The Covenant defenders retreated into the mountain to seek shelter from the human air support. Caen shot a pair of Jackals in the back and pursued, the Marines at his flank.
The shock troopers entered the mountain behind the Covenant, cutting down a pair of Grunts attempting to hide from their human adversaries. Caen fell back to allow the Marines to lead the way. They black-clad warriors advanced with professional ease, moving forward one at a time, covering each other carefully.
The Covenant seemed to have disappeared, swallowed by the mountain's gaping maw. Gradually the rough walls of the tunnel gave way to a paneled corridor not unlike those of the Valhalla .
They encountered a several Covenant corpses and continued, until impeded by a sealed blast door adorned with the Office of Naval Intelligence crest. Jones threw a glance at Caen.
"What do you think, Caen?" He asked, resting his MA5 on his shoulder.
"I'm not sure…" Caen advanced towards the door, and upon doing so, the barrier slid away. A flash of plasma illuminated the darkness below, quickly streaking towards them. A Private standing a few feet from Jones crumpled to the ground, perforated through the chest and head by bolts of energy.
The rest of the squad opened fire into the darkened hallway beyond. A low wail reported that the way was clear a moment later. Caen activated the night vision setting on his HUD and peered down the corridor. The figure of a mangled Elite lay propped against a wall, twenty yards down the hall.
Bravo Team continued to skirmish against Covenant defenders deeper and deeper into the mountain until finally reaching the site the aliens had been after. The ONI complex was state of the art; a full team of scientists had been scheduled when the installation was active, along with a squad of field agents and even a pair of Colonels from High Command.
The ODST team had finally reached the Ops Center of the complex, where the bodies of a dozen Covenant soldiers lay strewn about, in pools of violet and cobalt. Ericsson and Sterling had paid the price as well, the two ODSTs lying still at the doorway of the room.
Now only Jones and Sergeant Major Liam Chrisden were left alive of the Marine Bravo Team. Caen cast a fleeting thought for Colonel Cunningham's men aboard the carrier, and if they had even survived the drop.
In the center of the control room lay the relic, set in its Forerunner-esque casing, surrounded by cutting tools and other devices. It appeared that the ONI team had tried to remove it from the stand, for better research, but had failed and built the complex around it for study. Caen gazed down at the floor, noticing the bodies of a pair of gray-clad ONI agents, mangled by plasma burns, lying at the base of the relic.
"We're clear, Sarge." Jones said quietly.
"Alright, it looks like we won't be moving this thing, so set the nuke and lets get the hell out of here." Chrisden ordered, indistinguishable from Jones, apart from the red squad leader markings on his epaulets.
Jones slid the straps of his pack off his shoulders and extracted the C-12 shaped charges and passed them to Caen and Chrisden. The explosives were set along the supports of the control room, and when they went off, would essentially collapse this section of the mountain, burying the relic from the Covenant.
"Okay, let's get the hell away from here, Sarge you got the detonators?" Jones asked.
"Yeah, go." The three humans retreated from the ONI complex, towards the surface.
The base of Mount Aires was now a sprawling battlefield. A loose ring of HEV pods created a perimeter around the excavation site, their ODSTs holding back wave upon wave of Covenant infantry. Sparrowhawks orbited the site, aiding the Marines with air superiority.
One Marine Sergeant turned to look towards and them and shouted to his platoon. "Bravo is clear!"
"Hoo-rah!" A few shouted enthusiastically. Gunfire illuminated the night with golden flashes, and plasma danced back towards them with white-hot bolts of deadly intentions.
"Delta Wing, this is Kilo Platoon, we have Bravo and are ready for extraction over!" The Kilo Sergeant barked into his COM.
Caen barely heard the CSAR pilot's reply, deafened by his own MA5 bursts. A moment later, a charred Pelican coasted out of the clouds, two Sparrowhawks forming up on her wings, chasing a Banshee flier away from her. The Pelican dropped to the surface, the Marines of Kilo Platoon and the survivors of Bravo filing aboard, finding a seat wherever they could.
The CSAR struggled for altitude and finally limped away from the battle. Chrisden sat next to Caen at the door of the dropship, looking back down at Aires. He depressed the detonator and watched as dust and debris shot forth from the tunnel the Covenant had created. Seconds later the entire mountain shifted and collapsed in on itself, blanketing San Pablo in dust, blinding the Covenant infantry units.
Caen watched from the ramp as the surviving pilots of Alpha Wing swarmed over the carrier, harassing its fighters, buying time for Charlie Platoon inside to finish their objective.
Suddenly flames shot forth from the mouth of the carrier, along with a series of secondary explosions. A blackened Pelican sped out of the conflagration, its engines spewing black smoke. The 77H clawed for altitude until it was just too much for the engines. The Pelican spiraled in its death throes towards the surface, and skidded off the rooftops until finally crashing through the heart of a skyscraper and lodging itself inside.
"All Wings, fall back, repeat all Wings disengage!" Brackenbury ordered over the COM. The last four Longswords peeled away from the carrier and raced skywards, followed by the two Sparrowhawks from Bravo. The second CSAR bird ascended as well, materializing from the clouds of dust that hid the surface.
The Air Group streaked into the hangers of the Valhalla just as the blinding flash engulfed the Covenant Assault Carrier. The reactivated shielding harnessed the nuclear blast within itself, literally gutting the craft before it hit the surface only a mile below.
The carrier's husk crashed to San Pablo with a ground-shaking tremor that flattened an entire district of the Northern Sector. The Air Group survivors and the Marines of Kilo, Bravo and Echo stood at the ledge of the open hanger, gazing down at the victory they had accomplished, and at the cost it had come. Caen stood among them as they saluted the comrades who had died on the surface, fighting an impossible adversary and emerging the victor.
The Covenant Carrier Confession's Price now lay defeated as a monument to the fighting spirit of the men and women of the UNSCN Valhalla . Hundreds were dead. Mackenzie, Hayes, Todd, Haley, Ericsson, Sterling, the pilots of almost an entire Air Group, half the crew of the Valhalla , Delta Team…Caen shivered at the scale at which this victory had come.
Maybe Caen didn't know why the Covenant had dedicated a battle group to a single relic, or why hundreds of UNSC personnel had died defending it from them, but they had denied the Covenant their objective, and took from them everything that they had. It was a victory of the likes the UNSC had not seen nearly enough of.
Another flight of CSAR birds were warming their engines, preparing to search for survivors. Jones was already boarding one of them. Caen's head throbbed and cried out for rest. No. Caen secured his helmet and leapt aboard the nearest Pelican and again descended into the war-torn city. Alpha was still down there somewhere, and until every last Marine was accounted for, he would not abandon them.
One of the Marines next to him slapped his shoulder and nodded at him. Caen smiled under his visor and looked out towards the shrinking Valhalla as the clouds of dust swallowed the dropship and his next objective began.
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