CHAPTER 18
SURFACE OF HARVEST: SOUTHERN POLAR REGION
Chief Petty Officer Margaret 053, since designated SPARTAN Black Team leader "Black One" slowly moved through a breezed blizzard as soon as the Pelican touched the solid ice, "I'm on point, Two, hold the left, Four, Rear flank, Otto, you the right. Let's go meet some aliens."
"Can't wait!" Roma sarcastically cheered joyously in TEAMCOM
Margaret keeled on her knee and tugged at the protective carapace release, the protective casing fell apart and she extracted the Warhead itself, a smaller egg-like shape containing an explosive yield of a megaton. at the front was a touchscreen including the priming code, which had already been prescribed in her HUD.
"FURY CLASS NUCLEAR DEVICE SECURED" it read, as she latched it onto a magnetic plate directly over her Suits power pack.
"Move out, Black, keep it tight, least 'till we know exactly what they're capable of"
Three of the electronic acknowledgement lights in the TEAMCOM monitor on her Visorplate winked a neon green.
She inspected her Battle Rifle as she moved forward, tugging the bolt, checking the magazine release and the safety system. satisfied, she made her left hand into a slicing motion, and they dispersed like shadows in the blizzard, she also checked via her Helmets onboard computer on the status of the warhead, she raised the rifle to a steady combat stance, Black Team mimicked her pace as they moved through the cold and dark blizzard, she'd speculated that it would have been cold enough to freeze her solid without the adjusting gel layer constantly regulating the temperature and fit of the battle armour, the computer on-board connected with her thoughts and responded with a more accurate prediction of extreme hypothermia and frostbite.
She felt uncomfortable with the computer, but it helped her leverage MJOLNIR, even if it felt there was another inside the suit, like a ghost in the cogs of the machine.
"No one survived?" Otto asked
"A few farmers, some militiamen and a couple of marines" Roma answered "they sure gave 'em hell, from what I read on the reports. You ever try to read them yourself, Otto?
"Nah, it's mostly just telling me what the Covenant's got as toys." Otto replied
it was mostly silent, as they made their way through the snow, Victor piled a handful of it and smeared it across their tracks. Otto was now rear guard.
After arriving across an elevated hill. Otto activated the zoom function on his MJOLNIR, as he crouched down into a prone position to avoid detection, the others did the same.
The ash ridden sky and the barely-breaking sun were blotted out by the belly of a massive alien mothership, a purple glow emanated from it's inner gut and onto a purple, curved platform some thousand meters downrange, directly vertical to the mothership.
a horde of dog-like aliens ONI was calling grunts hauled materials across the landscape, with saurian autonomous "elites" standing guard as fewer as the grunts, measuring to at least a thousand of the grunts, possibly 30 or more elites.
"nice setup they've got goin' on here" Otto said, "shame we're gonna blow it all up"
"Hold it, Three" Margaret said, "don't lose the fuse. We need to smoke out the welcome party."
"Yeah, how we do that?"
she smiled beneath her helmet and turned her opaque silver visor to Victor's own. He was standing at alert carry with the S2-AM
"Four, set up shop here, me, three and two will head to the landing zone, start sending shots when I give a target. Keep your head down whilst your at it."
"Right away, Black One" Victor said, he extracted the S2-AM Sniper Rifle, patted the scope and set up in a prone position. he gave a green light in TEAMCOM after.
"Two, Three, with me."
"Thousands of those grunts and forty elites, probably more, maybe even more with what's inside that ship." Roma said
"I think I'm beginning like those odds" Otto was likely smiling the way Margaret had always liked about him.
After sliding down the face of the cliff and landing onto the ice, She took point and made visual contact with the enemy. He signalled it in his HUD as a few grunts strode by, Margaret could see they were hauling some sort of explosive.
"Black One, the little ones are hauling some sort of explosive devoces, my best guess is that we light 'em up and it'll turn the area into a powder keg."
"copy, target the explosives the little ones are carrying, we'll mop up what's left of the crowd."
"Copy, Black One" Victor said, "Firing"
Four muffled shots followed by a terrific blooming explosion flume of magenta, killing and maiming grunts, perhaps hundreds more scattered in terror.
Margaret, Otto and Roma let loose, dozens of the grunts fell in mere moments in a barrage of weapon-fire.
Margaret took point, gunning down two more grunts with three bursts from her rifle. Somewhere in the blizzard, a muffled snap and an Elite went down minus it's head and neck in a large puddle of purple blood.
After the barrage of weapon-fire died down, they took a short few-second break to reload. Margaret made a gesture with her hand as a fist, then an open palm and sent it down, instructing her squad to spread out, she made her hand into a wedge shape towards the orbiting ship above them.
"They don't seem that tough!" Otto proclaimed
"Be fair to 'em, they weren't expecting us" Roma replied
Victor sent more rounds into the horde, detonating more plasma batteries and sending more grunts flying in simultaneous directions, often in pieces.
The Elites angrily roared at their underlings, some began to mount forward facing plasma cannons, others squabbled to the front with their C shaped Plasma pistols, a few wielding an exotic weapon firing pink explosive shards, that ONI now dubbed a "Needler".
"Cut it out, you two!" Margaret said over the COM I think the little ones trying to build some sort of turret, Three?"
"On it, Boss"
Otto limbered the Rocket launcher and aimed for the grunt turret constructing lances, he fired and the entire setup vanished under exploding plasma batteries, alien gore, smoke and the ensuing blizzard.
a whine and later several shard like explosive bolts smashed against Margaret's armour, a warning alarm blared in her HUD, and only had a quick time with an elite wielding the weapon with the same glowing shards extruding from the top. The elite rose to fire, but Margaret was quicker, and put the elite down in a flurry of battle rifle burst fire, overlapping, penetrating and breaking shields.
She snapped and traced the weapon fire to the grunts trying to shoot back at her, which she snapped and cut them down in a few quick bursts.
"Black One, I have my eyes on some sort of flier craft. Swooping down to your location"
"Banshees, watch the sky team! Three, send some Jackhammers up high if you see them!"
"It'll be a pleasure, Boss!"
Victor was still up high, often taking a single or another shot and snagging an elite or grunt dead, the sheer lethality Victor had with the rifle reminded her of how to send the enemy scattering.
Victor may have been trying to track a target or he was reloading, either way he never saw it coming, a neon green bolt smashed into where he had been above the canyon, the entire mound collapsed into a heap of ice.
"Four! Victor!" Margaret cried out
Victor gave no response, but he flared the red signal in TEAMCOM, telling the squad to retreat.
The same flier described flew overhead, but erupted into a fireball as Otto lobbed a 105mm rocket at the flier.
"Two, Three, lure the rest of the bastards over to us! Get the C-12 and Lotus mines and scatter them across the ice walls. Make quick!"
Otto and Roma flashed green in TEAMCOM and moved to carry out the task. Margaret rushed towards Victor, laying in a heap of ice, clutching on to an M6D, she couldn't find the S2 sniper rifle
"Leave me, Ma'am, I screwed up" he grunted in regret.
"It's okay, Four. Don't feel too bad, you had a good run before you got put on your can!"
Victor gave a humoured grunt as Margaret hefted him over her
"Two, Three! I want a twenty on the party poppers!"
"Secured, Boss."
"I can still shoot straight, Ma'am."
He wasn't wrong, Victor was a damn near impeccable shot, only one over could outsnipe him. And right now, she'd need every last gun.
"Obviously, Four. I recall you not needing legs to shoot!" she humoured him,
She set him down towards the furthest edge from the Covenant advance and swapped out her Battle Rifle for Victor's sidearm, he'd do better with it than the M6D, despite the overall power of the handgun and range capability, he only had three clips. He'd lost his kit-bag on the plummet down.
"I'm pinning the kit-bag to your ass next time, Four!"
"Lovely" he gave a pained grunt and cupped the BR into a straightforward position.
Roma and Otto ran back, "Watch this!" he said, eager to present his magnum opus to the alien reinforcements.
"Fire in the hole!" he yelled, and thumbed down on a C-12 detonator, half the aliens vanished, the other were still there, charging at them.
"Aww! Dammit!" he grunted. "Botched, Boss
"I'll take it, Three."
Otto faced her and held out his MA5B to her, she took it confused
"Three, what are you doing?"
"I'm gonna pop the pinata, Maggie! I'll catch up"
"No, Otto! That ain't happening!"
"Trust me, Ma'am. I'll make it back"
Damn him, he'd already snapped off the fury off her mount
she glared into his faceplate, expecting him to reconsider.
"Otto?"
"We haven't got time, all of you get clear!" He cried out,
"Damn it, Three!" Roma yelled
"Yeah, miss you too, Rom'"