Halo: Fireteam Phoenix

Chapter 15: Towerfall

The night had rolled in fast. Stark gloom was a shock to the system after the comparatively glowing dusk. As the battle raged on, ever closer to a conclusion, the sun sank behind the last remnants of the ruined city. Chances were almost certain they wouldn't survive the night. "Lads, keep going! Up up up!" Mitchell's mind faded in the numb, monotonous climb. How had it come to this?First, they had passed along that same god-forsaken lane, again. The spartan dragged them across the death-trap and they entered the plaza. More covenant than he'd ever seen in his life had arrived and cut down Irons immediately. The numbers issue resolved when they had found Felix and started up the path they were now on.The plaza had filled with covenant. Bodies pushed through every doorway, every avenue like a flood. Plan A-blitz through with the tank-had gone straight out the window. With their only exit blocked by an armada of covenant, they had ditched the tank and were planning on catching a ride to the frigate from the roof. That meant reaching the roof alive. Only, mid-climb, Ball revealed she was abandoning them. Even so, with no rhyme nor reason, Marie had been insistent they carry on. So they had.Marie muttered, still running. Always running. "Richard, what is the situation on the frigate?""It's terrible. She's leaving without you. Get to that rooftop.""Are you certain you will arrive in time?""I have to try."From his radio, she heard the vicious explosions of plasma shells all around. Marie held her breath. When he coughed and spoke again, she gasped a joyous breath. "I can make it. I can make it, and the commander won't leave us both. I know it." He sounded certain enough to her. Then she stopped. "You disobeyed the commander?""I didn't have a choice, Marie. Aaron is another city away, I could rescue you, so I chose to.""You disobeyed orders to save me? Over the others?" Marie felt faint, she leaned against a wall to recover her composure. This wasn't happening. It wasn't right. She hadn't wanted this, this was what Sarah had warned against. The fool! "I'm telling you, I can get you both. We have time!""No, I am telling you! Ordering, in fact. Go save the lieutenant commander.""Fuck orders! I didn't listen to Sarah, why should I listen to you?""It was not this when you obeyed my orders over the LC on the carrier!""That's different and you know it! There are more lives at stake here. More than just our lives, spartan lives.""Spartan lives? Are we no longer human?""You know what I mean. These people have lives to return to. Homes, husbands, daughters, brothers.""Richard, please. Save Aaron.""And leave those people with you? You know they're worth more than orders, Marie." Damn him. Damn him to hell and back, she'd kill him if she ever saw him again. He was right. "Get them out of here," She whispered, defeated. "Take them, and go get 2."Eric saw her lagging behind. "Keep up, lieutenant. We need you with us." He saw her wave him on, and he looked at the pack of people walking away. A few soldiers glanced between the fleeing pack and Eric. He shook his head, calling his men over. The traumatised Mitchell was all he had left. It had been a long time since he had lost men. You never got used to it. "We need to help her up." They each took an arm and tried to raise her. She stayed put. He snapped his head down to glare at her and, through his anger, he didn't notice her head jut up, ever so slightly. She had heard something.That something was a swarm of banshees. The horrible wail of their thrusters carried through the din of the massacre they had called a battle. They burped fuel rod blasts into the skyscraper. It trembled from the force like a leaf in wind. Now, toxic green energy ripped through the building in a nightmare heat, rivulets of molten steel rushing down the walls like blood. What felt like a printer blindsided Eric, and he hit the floor like a stone. Mitchell was unable to comprehend what had happened. Without really realising it, he saw the covenant down the hall firing into the civilians. Even there, with the violence so close, so visceral, so real, he was not really taking it in. Bodies erupted in smoking showers of scorched flesh. Plasma burned away clothing and skin, leaving charred black bones. Brutes came down on them with the fury of a fighter, tearing limbs. Blood. So much blood. Like rain. Like so much falling rain.His trance shattered when bricks, falling more like hail than rain, smashed all around him. One crunched into his helmet and shattered it in two. He staggered down, his ears ringing, but Mitchell was alive. Conscious, awake, alive. "No fucking way." He held the multitudinous shards of powdery black plastic in his hands. Marie pulled him to his feet. "Go help them!" She pointed at the people in disarray, burning under a torrent of plasma. He tried to reach Felix, sword drawn and elbow deep in a grunt's gut. At least someone was prepared.Eric was now conscious again, and aware of Marie dragging him. He rolled from her grip and looked across the hall. He heard another death wail of bombers, and held back tears as the onrush of rubble sliced open the walls and collapsed their route to the civilians and the roof. "Where do we go?" He lamented, pulling at the amassed stone. It didn't budge.Marie looked around, glimpsing a small bridge spanning across the chasm of the plaza. "There. We shall drop a few floors and have direct access to the bridge." She broke the window with a single stomp of her mighty boot and clambered the pair onto the window cleaning platform. "This won't hold!" Eric protested, following her nonetheless. Mitchell and another marine stared in disbelief, but followed nonetheless.It rattled as they descended. Eric had his eyes glued shut, whispering prayers. Occasionally, the platform dropped a huge distances, only barely slowing to a reasonable descent. As the platform reached the bridge, it creaked. Eric's eyes opened and he rushed forward, pushing past the others for the solid ground of the bridge. It was a long, thin stretch of marble. The edges joining the respective buildings flowed into the stonework like water. Across the bridge, a coloured red strip broke the solid white construction. Plant pots, benches, bins and streetlights lined the walkway. It was, so far, untouched by the conflict. That is, aside from the combatants occupying it.Evidently, a trio of jump-pack brutes had predicted their short cut. The three apes flew, tossing fiery grenades across the bridge. They lit up like a napalm bonfire, sticky orange flames running along the marble. It consumed the cold stonework like dry grass, pulling closer to the soldiers. Eric prepared to run through the fierce conflagration. As one foot stepped in, agony burst through his body. His sooty black trouser leg was smoking already, the ends glowing like a funeral pyre. He put the next foot in, hardly touching the floor for a nanosecond before he propelled himself through the flames, onto the marble. As the others followed, he lay on the marble, coughing from the murky smoke. All of a sudden, a brute leapt through his own diversion, wreathed in flames. It seemed the flames only succeeded in enraging the brute, even as it torched the fur on its arms. A blow to the chest sent Eric flying to the edge. He slid over, only holding on with a single burned hand. Marie threw a punch that the brute dodged without flinching, tossing her aside. The marine looked to Eric, who slid his pistol to the exhausted man. The marine fired off four shots into the stomach of the Brute, which dropped to its knee, bleeding heavily.Mitchell saw the opportunity and leapt onto its back, stabbing at it with his blade. The flames licked round the fur and caught Mitchell's trousers. The brute let out a terrible roar, reaching behind itself to grasp Mitchell. He screamed as two powerful limbs threw him, over the brute's head. He slammed into the marble floor, cracking it on impact. The bloody smear that was Mitchell had exposed, broken bones, white as the broken marble. The brute raised a leg to demolish Mitchell's skull when the marine sliced at the brute with his own spiker.Once again, a growl erupted from the brute's throat, stirring Eric to action. Seeing an enraged, burning, bleeding brute pin a marine to the floor abated his grogginess. It did nothing for the pained, winded feeling in his chest. Nor for the fact he was still hanging over an abyss."Someone, help me! HELP!" The marine gurgled, the brute sank its great fangs into his neck. Bathing itself in the blood now spurting from the gurgling soldier's exposed veins, the brute cheered. This victory revitalised the berserker, which charged towards Marie for vengeance. She hadn't been paying attention. She unknowingly drew the ire of the wounded brute when she fired her final shots into the other two orbiting brutes. She'd hardly processed her excellent shots when a force like a train smashed her aside. Looming over her like death itself, the brute's mouth dripped a foul mix of blood and saliva. Grunting like a warthog, it padded forward, shaking its head in fury. Before it could enact the urge to rip her limb from limb, it felt a prick in its chest. Looking down, a human form had rocketed forward, through the flames. Felix dove through the flames, his sword in hand. Propelled by his boosters, he was dripping with covenant blood. He added to it, driving the blade through the brute's heart as it reached Marie. As the corpse went limp, Felix locked his legs, holding the brute upright. "As much as I love back problems, this isn't ideal. Get out of there!"Marie pulled herself from the impact zone and scooped the battered Eric onto the bridge. As soon as Marie was clear, Felix drew his sword out of the corpse, stepped out of the drop zone, and sheathed it. "Come on," Felix said, heaving Eric over his broad shoulders. His eyes searched for the door at the end of the bridge.Whilst the others had dealt with the brutes, Felix had remained on the near side of the flames, cutting down their other pursuers. Even so, more would follow. "Final stretch!" Eric grasped the railing, blistering his hand on the hot metal. He screamed in pain, losing his footing. Felix turned, stopping only for a second. "Come on! We have to go, before the floor falls out from under our feet!" Eric grunted, pushing himself to his feet. They stumbled along the corridor, finally reaching the stairway to the roof. "Never thought I'd be so happy to see stairs," Felix muttered.They left the stairwell new people, energised by the thought of an escape. War had cracked the roof, littered with civilians and soldiers alike. Back across the plaza, their original group of evacuees waved at them. A second marble bridge stretched across between the towers. At different levels, the six towers were connected by a tangled web of marble bridges. The people crossed the bridge. They looked defeated. Each and every one. Eric himself felt defeated. They were dead. All of them. Mitchell was gone. Ryan was gone. Irons was gone. How long since he had lost soldiers? A long time. The feeling felt familiar, yet cruel and chilling. Even though the roof was packed with life, he felt utterly alone, like he hadn't in years. Briefly, he considered throwing himself from that roof. He was so high, the ground so torn with war, he couldn't see the ground. All he could see was night mist and the fog of war. He was glad when a fresh pelican swooped in to land, ready to evacuate the terrified populace.Eric and Deuce safely clambered aboard Richard's pelican. Just as Marie and Felix moved to cross and board, a banshee flew over, spraying at them. The duo dropped to the floor. The bridge shook once more. The pelican's engine spluttered as it left the bridge, whining from the stress of the sudden departure. "I'll swoop round and pick you up!" "You're overloaded already. Go, Richard. That's an order!" Marie fired her pistol at the banshee. "That's not good!" Felix shouted over the painful noise of the pelican. A battlecruiser rushed over them, the dull roar drowning out any sound. Once more, the tremors shook the platform. "Marie, I promise you. I'll come back!" "Understood," Marie replied. In a low voice, she added, "I hope you do."The onslaught of aliens finally passed through the fire and flames below. They flooded the building, ready to exercise genocide on, presumably, abandoned, defenceless civilians. Felix was an unforeseen prerogative. Unforeseen, that was, until he brained a dumbstruck grunt with the flat of his hand. Then, he was very much seen. By a kill squad of high ranking aliens. He drew his sword, his revolver in his other hand, emptying the cylinder into his foes.The battle on the rooftop raged on for a while, prolonged by the human exhaustion and poor equipment. Felix dealt with the covenant quick. No fanfare, no action. Death and destruction to the alien foes. As it seemingly drew to a close, Richard returned with a hail of lead and a triumphant cry over the radio. "I told you!" He swung the vehicle round, scraping against the roof as he did so. As the pelican swept along, crushing covenant under the hull. As Richard pulled off the stunt, a Special operations elite clambered up the cargo bay. A hungry sword in its hand, it swept into the cockpit.Marie saw it happen. Distracted by another, separate elite, she couldn't stop him. "Richard, behind y-" Pained screams cut her off. The spine-chilling noise followed the pelican sinking, careening towards her. "Richard! No!" She stood on the centre of the bridge, her jaw wide open. The moving missile slammed into the bridge. The marble span snapped in two with a horrendous maelstrom of rubble. Stone stained ruby red in the ashy glow of a glassing beam fell into the maelstrom below.Felix saw her dive away, and he thought he heard her weep. With the dead piled high, many swept from the rooftop, only one foe remained. A towering elite Ultra, clad in white armour and gripping an energy sword. It said something in Sangheili that Marie didn't understand, but Felix did. Without taking his eyes from the elite, he nodded, circling the elite. "Marie, this sounds crazy, but let this happen.""What?" Her voice sounded faint. Her mind elsewhere, she struggled to understand the concept."He say's I'm worthy. He wanted a duel. Honour dictates I face him. Alone. But if I win, I win his all his possessions. Namely, a banshee. We have a ride home." A shockwave spread through the floor, continuing long past its given right. Out all across the city, buildings started toppling like so many blades of grass. The bridge began to shake, pieces falling rapidly into the chasm below. Her eyes fell on the battlecruiser. From the belly of the beast, a crimson beam of energy smashed into the ground. It tossed up glass and stone and fire and death. Whirlwinds of fury snatched at structures, toppling them without mercy. Marie sobbed as she broke her eyes away, turning to see the mercenary duelling the elite. Felix cried out while parrying a blow, stunning the elite. Pressing the advantage, he cut through the alien's defence. His victory seemed certain and his strikes grew clumsy, until he took a blow to the stomach that felt as if his lungs exploded. He stumbled back. Felix felt his lungs burning and his heart pound. He had to end this, now. He was tired, the elite was not. Setting his grip, he fell upon the elite with an intensity that grew with the power of the beams melting the city. Their glow shone ever brighter. It was a dark glow, one of death and malice. It drained shadows, did not cast them. Here, amongst all these dead, he would die for nothing. He wouldn't die here.Felix stepped away from a punishing blow, slicing the elite on the ankles. The alien responded by roaring, swinging wildly with it fists and sword. The sudden display of ferocity took Felix aback.He hardly dodged the blow, nimbly rolling aside. This time the elite saw it coming. It stuck out its sword and caught Felix's. Felix dropped his weapon and slid across the floor towards the edge of the bridge. Swearing, he tried to slow his slide to the abyss. Whilst still in motion, he regained his footing. In a sudden, unexpected move, he raced forward at incredible speed. As he did so, he grasped the hilt of his sword and pulled it in close. He rocketed round like a figure skater and was upon the elite in a second. With incredible speed, the Felix's blow bypassed the elite's guard. It was a heavy, leaping strike. Felix leapt in the air, drawing back his arm as he did so. The thruster on his back powered him down to impact. Momentum and his muscled arm thrust the razor-sharp edge of the sword through the air. He ended with the blade poking out of the neck of his foe. The dead alien slid from the sword to the floor, viscous blood pooling like tar. If you had blinked you would have missed it.Luckily, Marie didn't blink. She saw it all. She saw Felix snap up the hilt of the energy sword. A trophy, of sorts. He staggered towards her, holding his gut as blood gushed through his fingers. "I see a banshee," he said."I see why you're a mercenary," Marie said. Her eyes didn't leave the marble. "You dealt with that elite well. A pity it wasn't sooner.""I'm sorry. I really am." He paused, brushing her arm. "He seemed a good man, but if we stay we'll only end up joining him."The battlecruiser began to fire its main cannon onto the river below. The effect was that of a major tectonic event. The ground below erupted in scarlet showers. Plumes of rubble flew into the air, turning to glowing orange liquid glass as they did so. The deluge of scalding debris spread as the beam focused onto the ground. As the pair huddled onto the straining banshee, the building toppled. New Belgrade had fallen.