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Those who have read Eyes of an ODST: First Battle of Earth will recogonize this as the sequal. if you have not read it yet i suggjest you do. I am continuing these stories now as a series after a 3 mounth pause. therefore im not sure if this story will appear as part of a series. in any case this is a continuation. and i do intend on making more chapters.


Eyes of an ODST: The Last Raid

"Alright men stay quiet we've only got one shot at this." The sergeant brought us back to the task at hand. Hours after the covenant cruiser had jumped out of the city and a huge explosion wiped almost everyone out. The marines realized that the covenant in the area no longer had anyone in overall command. The sergeant felt obligated to throw some annoyance their way. With the added confusion of not having a leader the covenant seemed vulnerable to raids, so with the seventy or so hell jumpers left the sergeant banded them together and set up shop in a recently evacuated town. For the next few days we conducted several raids. The raids targeted ammo depots, troop barracks and digging equipment, although it was on a small scale the sergeant figured it was better then sitting by waiting for Covie to come back.
"First squad, stay here and provide us with some cover, do not fire until I give the order. Second squad, move up on the left and plant the charges near the woods then find some higher ground, overlap first squad's field of fire and reduce the enemy, third squad will be with me, we will head through the gate and plant our charges on the ammo dumps, the drop ships will land in LZ 5 to pick us up and in LZ 3 to pick up squads one and two." He waited for the orders to sink in before whispering,
"Go." With that the men sprang into action and hustled over to their positions.
"Sir, charges are set, on your mark."
"Mark." A large explosion following a huge flame came into view, the marine lines erupted in a storm of fire, grunts and brutes alike were caught in the open by well aimed shots, and first squad breeched the wire. I clutched my battle rifle tight and followed the sergeant, we moved quickly through the camp placing the charges on several crates of ammo,
"Sergeant It's a trap! Phantoms inbound!" a trio of phantoms emerged from a low hill a few hundred feet away; the plasma fire engulfed the marine platoon.
"Marines fall back to LZ 5 I'm blowing the charges, I've already called for evac, lets move quickly." We needed no further encouragement. As the Phantoms neared the Depot they came into a low hover dispatching infantry into the jungle, the brutes and grunts along with the Phantom focused on first squad, the men never had a chance to run, I did not look behind me, I only ran, I used everything I could find as a form of cover, only to have it blasted away by what became a carpet of superheated gas. Me and my squad finally made it to the LZ with half our number dead or missing, there to meet us was a half a dozen 2nd squad members.
"Let's get the hell outta here." The eleven marines piled into the drop ship; seconds later it lifted out of the jungle and sped away toward our base.
"Phew that was close." Said one marine, but Jackson was not so convinced.
"Stow that talk soldier, there is a reason the pelicans were already in route."
"Sir, what do you mean?"
"Bravo base is under attack. With any luck we will get there in time to save the town"
"With eleven marines, sir?"
"Eleven hell jumpers, Private"
I sat there with a blank face; there really was no end to this. The covenant were never going away. I had always thought that some mysterious force would protect us, and that humanity would somehow see this through, but I guess that is the stuff of legends, we were in reality now, we were in hell.
Aside from a few remarks, the next five minutes was silent, and then the sounds of battle came once more.
"This is pelican echo 352 calling bravo base what is your status?"
"Oh thank God, we need your help, we've got brutes and grunts inside the wire, a little counter fire would be nice."
"Rodger ill do what I can with what little ammo I have, please mark your position with purple smoke," a pause came over the radio then the pilot spoke again. "Rodger we are inbound." The hull of the Pelican shuddered as rockets were fired; the chin mounted cannon blanketed the advancing troops.
"Good, make more passes they are beginning to falter"
"Ammo is low, ill make another pass then drop off what marines are remaining. Hang on men." The pelican made several violent turns and flew over the covenant again, this pass had much less ammo involved, however, it had the added bonus of hell jumpers.
"Ok marines lets move out." as the rear hatch opened the gunner fired into the advancing grunts, and suppressed several brutes in the buildings, the previous Pelican runs caused a good number of covies to take cover, making the debarkation of marines much easier. I dove behind a wrecked car just as my feet hit the ground, the marines were just barely holding on but the covenant assault was clearly losing steam,
"Ok echo 352 we are gonna need one more pass, can you do that?"
"I'm not sure how much ammo I have left, ill see what I can do"
"Ok marines let em have It." as the covenant tried one last charge the marines fired into the advancing grunts, marines snipers made short work of the brutes firing down from the buildings.
"Pelican, focus on the buildings we can handle the grunts."
"Rodger, stand by." The pelican came about and loosed half dozen rockets into the only standing building. Rockets collided with the building, the already weak structure collapsed, with their base of fire severely weakened; the few dozen grunts stood little chance, and the entrenched marines massacred the unsupported foes. After a few minutes of fruitless charges, the grunts dispersed and the remaining brutes led the grunts into a full retreat.
"Marines clear the bodies and salvage what ammo you can. You can bet your asses they'll be back." Jackson emerged from the rubble to try to access the situation.
"Okay corporal, on me" I watched the scrappy 2nd in command trot out to the sergeant, I counted only twenty three marines left, and from the looks of it we were now without air support. They talked for a few minutes then called us all around to them.
"Ok, here it is"- the sergeant was interrupted by a frantic call
"Get down, wraith shots incoming." I dove into the nearest building. I saw the sergeant and a few others dive into the opposite side, the ground then shook from the impact. I planted my face into the ground, my hands over my head, the dull thumps seems to burry me in sound, I heard screams of dieing men, the barrage was intense, I felt as if everything was in slow motion, we were in an earthquake, buildings collapsed, streets were turned to glass, men were vaporized by huge balls of fire. Minutes later the barrage ended.
"Recover men! Grab what you have and fall in on me."
"Corporal where is the sergeant?" I found myself asking.
"He's dead son,"
My world turned upside down, the sergeant had been my leader, his bravery had inspired me, he gave me hope even with the possibility of human extinction staring me in the face. I felt not only sad, I felt a wave of anger rush over me, the covenant had taken everything from me, they killed my family, they glassed my home, now they killed the one man who game me hope. I had nothing left, nothing but vengeance, my life no longer mattered, I was not a man, I was a statistic. I swore that in my own little way, I would make those alien bastards pay.
"I'm not one to give up, and even if I was, our pelican is low on fuel and out of ammo, we won't make if far if we run."
"What will we do corporal?"
"We fight, if we do this right we can hold out, maybe there is no point in resisting, but I don't care, it sure beats the hell out of dieing out in the open because we decided to make a break for it in our drop ship."
"Amen" I heard myself say, my fear was gone, I did not fear death anymore, I had nothing to live for, I wanted only to kill.
"Ok men, the private here will be working our last two rockets, I want half of the fourteen of the rest of you to go to the left and the other half go to the right. This is the town center so all roads converge here. One road is already blocked so the other roads will utilized the wraiths the covenant will bring as a road block. The two sides will then catch them in crossfire as the position of the rubble will funnel them into the "killing zone" which is this intersection. I want you men to stack as much C4 as you can find into those buildings behind the intersection, those brutes are gonna send the grunts as cannon fodder while they hide in the cover slowly wearing us down, at least I hope so, that seems to be their tendency. On my mark we will blow it up. If all else fails and we are being over run, the survivors will make their final stand on the tops of these steps, so, any questions?" No one spoke. "Ok let's move." I surveyed the rubble ahead, the "killing zone," was the 3-way intersection. It had a road facing toward the steps of the town hall, and another road running perpendicular to the previously mentioned one. The two machine gun nests were piles of rubble created by previously destroyed buildings; the .50 cals were being set up. In the 50 meters between the intersection and the steps to the town hall the marines were using the rubble to create small bunkers to add some cover and slow the covenant progress.
"Private, help us with these charges will ya?" I awoke from my daze and wheeled around to the trio of jet black armored figures holding a sack of C4 charges.
"Right behind ya." I walked with them to the row of buildings three meters back from the perpendicular road. We set the charges up at five meter intervals.
"So ya think we've got a shot?" I inquired
"Unless they come with a light company or decide to pass us by then I don't believe so. But we can give them one hell of a run."
"That's for-." I was interrupted buy the sound of rumbling, I walked out of the line of houses to get a better look, and a wraith followed by infantry was making its way down the road.
"Damn here they come, go warn the others." At that I sprang into action, I ran towards the town hall, up to the corporal.
"Sir they're coming sir."
"Warn the others, now." I sprinted around the courtyard till all were accounted for, then I ran to my nest to prepare for our final stand.
I sat still next to the corporal, it seemed as if this was it, we were going to live or die depending on what transpired here. "Steady," I heard over the comm "hold till the rockets fly." I held my breath, the wraith came into view. I ducked down hoping it had not seen me,
"Rockets away," the twin tails of exhaust signaled their approach, the wraith took the rockets from the top hatch, it exploded in an immense fireball.
"Open fire" the corporals words were followed by the ignition of fourteen battle rifles, the exposed grunts were shocked into inaction making them easy targets, more then two dozen were gunned down before they could take cover, the .50 cals weaved a path of death back and forth across the row of buildings parallel to our position about 25 meters away.
"They are advancing both sides up the middle." The grunts had to move 2 at a time as they flooded past the wraith, the combined fire from both .50 cals cut them down, I set the rifle to full auto and painted a circle around the column of grunts. The brutes seemed to have collected themselves and began to fire back. Carbine bolts and brute shot grenades peppered the area. 2 marines next to me fell. The grunts began to congregate at the base of the rubble pile from which we were firing; they began to get grenades into the nest,
"All marines displace, gunners cover us from the town hall everyone else get to a foxhole."
The plasma explosions tore 2 more marines apart. I fled before any others could explode. The corporal took the .50 cal down the pile. I ran as fast as could, the heat of the plasma could be felt even from a clean miss, the grunts now had the nest in their control and were firing down on the fleeing marines. I stopped to take cover in some rubble and fired back. A trio of grunts was overwhelmed by the bullets, but many others took their places. I ducked down to avoid the fire and ran in a crouch back to the next bunker. I peeked up to see the grunts in pursuit, the stopped to fire their pistols. I ducked in time to avoid several pink needles that were aimed at three marines holed up behind me. One was hit in the chest, a few seconds later the needle exploded tearing open his torso. I pulled the pin on three of my grenades, without looking I lobbed them back over my head. Three thumps brought me up with my rifle at the ready. Some grunts were dead, but the balance of them survived, I sprayed the area with my rifle, grunts fell over, I pulled the pin on my last grenade and tossed it, I then turned and ran to the marines in the rubble behind me, as I got there I was greeted warmly.
"Glad to have you with us, lets get these bastards,"
"Over there, brutes!" the thick hide monstrosities were flooding up the center street, despite the two .50 cals they were closing in on the town hall,
"Ah, shit, in a few minutes our gunners will be dead, those brute shot grenades are nasty."
"get some grenades on those grunts," I said "that will give us some time to thin out the brutes" my words must have made sense, the two marines loosed several grenades one after another in to the approaching grunts, I sighted two brutes taking cover behind a car, I held the trigger, aiming for their heads, the bullets perforated their skulls downing them quickly, I changed clips and fired at my next target, after killing four they began to catch on, a few of them trained to me, I found myself dodging a brute shot grenade, as it happened, a hot sizzle rushed past my head. A black armored figure slumped down beside me, soon after, a blue orb attached to another figure above me, I ran from him and dived out of the way just in time to avoid the explosion that signaled his demise. I ran from the rubble, I did not even bother looking back or firing my weapon at the enemy. I made a beeline for the town hall. I paused at the base of the stair case and shouted over the comm.
"I'm coming up the stairs cover me."
"I got ya private c'mon up." I hustled up the stairs, plasma fire and needles flew all around me. It was amazing that I didn't get hit. I dove towards the pile of rubble the corporal was sitting behind; he was spraying the field ahead with the .50 cal trying his best to lay down suppressing fire. Even though about five dozen grunts and over a dozen brutes had been slain over half of the covenant force remained, and we were down to only 3 men.
"Private, get on the other gun it's our only chance at keeping those bastards off us." I ran over to the gun, I quickly picked up the back end and pulled the trigger, I swayed the gun back and forth across the field. Firing in short bursts to prevent overheating. The crossfire was intense, I had to duck several times to avoid getting hit, I noticed the ammo was running low, I felt as if my life was on a timer, and from the looks of it not much remained. I felt a sudden pain in my shoulder I grabbed it and fell over. A lucky shot caught me, as I fell over I saw multiple plasma grenades fall around the corporal, he was cornered by them, the grenades detonated as he tried to escape, engulfing him in a blue flame. Without anymore resistance the covenant could walk right up to me. I expected any moment now to see a large hairy creature round the corner, bent on my extermination. Suddenly I heard a loud bang, followed by several more. Then the steady rat-tat-tat, sound of machine guns began to grow. I looked up for a moment and saw a half dozen pelicans in the area supported by hornet close air support craft. Rockets blanketed the covenant attackers. A pair of drop ships swooped in dispatching marine's right at the base of the steps, they ran up to me
"Private are you ok?" I removed my helmet and looked him in the face, I contemplated his words, then responded
"No sir, I'm pretty damn far from ok."

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