//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: Contact Harvest // by CommanderApplejack //------------------------------// "...The only way they'll detect us now is if we start singing the Russian national anthem." -Jeff 'Joker' Monreau After the briefing, I alongside the other crusaders had gotten a warthog and traveled to one of the strong points that lay adjacent to the part of the city that was still in Covenant hands and after performing a final check on our gear we headed out into the city. Silently moving up the skyscraper we could hear the constant firing of artillery as the UNSC was pounding Covenant positions in an attempt to push the aliens out of the city. After reaching the top of the building we made a sweep of the roof while Sweetie scoped out the rooves of adjacent skyscrapers to see if they had any jackal snipers on them. "Scoots, get the rope across." Apple Bloom ordered as we finished checking the roof. I immediately pulled out a launcher from under my backpack, the device having been designed to fire a long rope with a grappling hook on the end over long distances. Setting up the device took me about ten seconds flat... well... more like twenty but still in a relatively quick time before firing the device, the rope being flung across the gap towards a skyscraper on the Covenant side of the city. "Line secure," I reported as I checked if the grappling hook had got a hold of something, and secured it on our side. Apple Bloom went ahead and started moving across, the journey between the two skyscrapers being among the most dangerous part of the mission as hanging between the building would leave us open to any fire from jackal snipers. Luckily for the four of us, we made it to the other side without being spotted by any enemy forces. Looking down at the streets below the sight of occasional streams of tracers followed by the sound of machinegun fire, though those sounds were often drowned out by the constant harassing barrage of artillery fire the UNSC army was throwing at the Covenant side of the city, it was a wonder the skyscraper we were standing on was still standing though I guess that was probably because it was standing too close to our own forces. Brass wouldn't want to risk collapsing a skyscraper on top of their own lines. Ana meanwhile had broken open one of the roof's emergency exits, the four of us swiftly moving into the relative safety of the building. "Do you have the claymores, Sarge?" Sweetie asked as we had made it halfway down the skyscraper, the sniper would stay behind to give them long range cover if they required it. "Got 'em right here," Bloom responded as she passed the explosives on to our the sniper who was going to use them as an early warning system just in case Covenant troops approached her from the rear. "Thanks, you three get moving. I'll have your back." Sweetie thanked as she positioned her rifle on a tripod, we nodded and left the sniper to do her thing. The three of us who remained moved down the stairs of the tower very slowly as to avoid getting heard by any potential covenant footsoldiers. Contact with Sweetie by this point would require us to break radio silence which would also give away the fact that they were operating behind enemy lines. Eventually, we reached the point of the tower where one of the adjacent buildings was attached to the tower. Ana used a window cutter to silently remove a window out of our way so we could get onto the adjacent roof. Ana took point with Apple Bloom going second and me as the rear guard. We slowly moved from cover to cover, constantly observing our direct surroundings and buildings for enemy contacts. We continued to stalk forward until Ana suddenly held up her hand and immediately jumped into cover, something both me and Apple Bloom did as well since we didn't want to be caught by what Ana had seen. The rough sound of a jackal told both Bloom and me exactly why our human friend had jumped behind cover. Apple Bloom silently drew her combat knife just as the jackal had passed our position but, luckily, hadn't noticed us. My friend slowly stalked closer to the alien with her non-reflective combat knife in reverse grip right up to the point she was only an arm's length away from the alien. That was the moment the stupid bird finally realized there was something behind him and swiftly turned around, not that it mattered as Bloom's knife was already descending on the previously unsuspecting alien. The sharp blade lodging itself into the neck of the alien who let out a gurgling sound and collapsed onto the ground in a growing pool of its own blood. Apple Bloom seemed to freeze up for a moment as she looked at the fallen corpse, something we definitely didn't have time for, but came back to her senses pretty quickly. "We're on the clock now, if he's found to be missin' we'll have every single one of the local forces on our flanks." "Better that we make some good ground then," I replied, Apple Bloom nodding and motioning for us to continue on our way. Another terrifying hour of dodging Covenant forces later we finally reached the coordinates intel had suggested our unknown objective would be located. The large open square was buzzing with life as it seemed to be an enemy rally point. "Ana, go check it out," Apple Bloom ordered our human friend who saluted and crawled to the edge of the roof where she used a fiberoptic camera to look at the assembled forces below. While Ana was busy setting up her camera I looked back at the tower Sweetie had set herself up. Our sniper had the most boring and simultaneously most terrifying job out of all of us, she would have to wait until we were done or got detected by the Covenant forces, all the while being unable to warn us over the radio if she saw something we didn't. Needless to say I wasn't envious of my friend's job in the slightest. "I'm online, Sarg... Holy shit, what the hell is that?" Ana said as a feed appeared in the corner of my visor, the square was indeed filled with Covenant soldiers but that wasn't what drew my attention. What did was the massive machine that stood within the enemy ranks, a four-legged purple walker that seemed to have a massive plasma cannon mounted as its head. "Damn thing looks a bit like one of those Egyptian scarabs," Ana stated half-mindedly as she panned around the camera to get a good look at the rest of the square. "A what now?" Apple Bloom asked confused of what her subordinate was talking about, though I was also slightly interested. "Oh, sorry, it's an insect that lived on Earth. I think the walker looks a bit like it," Ana clarified, giving us some understanding of what she meant. Apple Bloom chuckled for a moment, "Congrats Ana, you just decided on that thing's designation." The sarge was right as the UNSC's naming convention made it so that the first to spot a new enemy would be the one to name it. "Now let's get the hell out of here, the spook's were quite adamant that we only did recon and wouldn't engage directly." Ana immediately obeyed and packed up her camera, crawling back over to us where she could safely get up without being spotted. We stealthily moved back over the roof as to avoid any possible contact but stopped as we felt the building we were on shaking and a loud sound coming from the square. "What in tarnation?" Apple Bloom said as another vibration went through the structure accompanied with the same loud sound... and another one... and another one. The sarge jerked back to look at the direction of the square as we all realized what was happening. "Damnit, they're starting another attack!" "Bloom, if they break the front lines here, they'll have a straight shot at FOB Anvil," I stated, "There are two companies of men and women down there, they won't stand a chance if that thing catches them by surprise." "And how do you suppose we take that thing down? Maybe you haven't noticed but there's three of us and a fucking army of them!" Ana countered my point and Apple Bloom seemed to agree with her assessment. "She's right Scoots, we ain't got no knowledge on how to take that thing down." She told me as we heard the machine turning the corner of the street and slowly making its way into no man's land towards our front lines. "Come on, Bloom, it's a new enemy machine. Until someone kills the damned thing no-one will know how to kill it, someone has to be the first!" I argued, if Bloom still wouldn't go after the newly named scarab I'd listen to her but that was something I really hoped wouldn't happen. The sarge thought for a moment longer but then cursed. "Damnit. What do you propose, Scoots?" She finally asked, a smile forming under my helmet. "We have rappelling equipment with us, we can use the overhang half a click back to drop down and board the thing. We might not have the explosives to completely destroy the damned thing, but if we place them on the inside we can blow up the control circuits from within and cripple it. When we do, It'll probably be close enough to our own lines for us to dismount and book it to safety." The plan was simple, though extremely dangerous. We would have to board the machine, which was undoubtedly very well guarded, then take out its control systems which they had no idea of how they looked and then hope we were close enough to our friendly lines to avoid getting killed by the covenant's supporting troops. "Ana, you in?" Bloom asked, our human friend nodding. "Oorah, Sarge. Let's go save our guys!" she responded, the three of us leaving all pretenses of stealth behind as we started sprinting towards the overhang. We weren't detected immediately but none of us really ever doubted that we would be spotted at some point. We even made it to the overhang itself but that was when our luck ran out. An elite along with a squad of grunts had taken a position on the overhang, presumably to watch the Scarab go by but that also meant that they would hinder our plan to rappel down from that position. "Sweetie, we are no longer running recon, we're going to take the approaching machine out!" Apple Bloom shouted into her radio. Our sniper didn't waste any time and not a moment after the elite on the overhang was hit by the hypersonic projectile from Sweetie's sniper rifle, ripping it apart. "I had already guessed that when the three of you idiots started running," She bluntly stated, "But hey, I won't have to put myself in the line of fire here. I have you covered but the moment you enter that thing I can only prevent more of the bastards from getting into there." "Understood, we're going in," Apple Bloom responded, the Scarab was making much faster progress than we had anticipated and if we were going to board it we would have to jump that very second. both I and Ana had attached our ropes to something on the roof and were ready to descend. "Feet first into hell!" I shouted as I jumped over the edge and rapidly went down to the rope, smashing down with a bang on the Scarab's roof. The three of us slowly advancing down the ramp onto what we presumed to be the upper deck. A grunt peaked its head around the corner and squeaked but before he could scream a bullet tore through its skull. Not wasting any time we burst upon the upper deck and surprised the grunts and lone elite that stood there, Bloom took a single shot at the elite with her shotgun and took down its shield while Ana and I fired upon the grunts. The second shot from AB's shotgun tore the elite's chest open and downed it. Within six seconds the firefight was over giving us the control of the upper deck. "I'm taking point. Ana, on my back, Scoot's take the rear," Bloom ordered as we walked down the ramp, our weapons raised and at the ready. "Grenades, bounce them off the walls so we don't have any surprises when we turn the corner." Bloom crouched down as Ana and I both primed one of our frags and tossed them over her head at the wall, the small devices bouncing off the wall and into the lower level of the Scarab. BOOM! The double explosion was accompanied by screams from grunts as they presumably were hit by the shrapnel. "Ana, Scoots take the right!" Bloom shouted at us as she turned around the left corner. We saw multiple elites in various states of shock at our arrival, all except their commanding officer. Guess that's something we have to fix, won't we? I opened fire on the lead officer first as he lit an energy sword and charged. He only made it halfway as the grenades had taken out a good portion of his shields and our combined fire was simply too much for it. The other two fell quickly after as they had been standing even closer to the blast. Ultimately, this too was a short fight, simply because they hadn't expected to be boarded. "Scootaloo, Ana, secure the upper deck. I'm going to place demolition charges." Bloom told us as she pulled her explosives from her back. Ana and I quickly went back up and took covering positions at the top. To our surprise, even though no-one was controlling the Scarab, the machine was still moving forward. "Hey, are you three done yet? I think the ground troops are starting to get suspicious of why their walker isn't firing on our lines." Sweetie called in, the shots from her rifle in the background as she continued to pick off enemies. "Bloom's planting charges, we're blowing her the moment we get close enough..." A bolt of plasma struck the floor in front of us and sizzled away, "FUCK, we're made! Contacts on the roof!" A group of shielded jackals were firing down on our position with their plasma pistols. Responding in kind, we opened fire on them and with Sweetie's help, we swiftly eliminated them one by one. "The walker just walked out of my line of sight. I'm breaking off, good luck and see you three on base. Out." Sweetie reported, she would return to our own lines the same way we had come in the first place. Now with the walker steaming to our own lines, it was being peppered by machinegun fire and other explosive projectiles. We were almost in front of them as Apple Bloom came running back up to the upper deck. "Charges set! How close are we to our lines?!" she immediately asked. "Pretty much on top of them!" Ana told the sarge. Bloom didn't waste any time sprinting to the front of the Scarab and pulled out a detonator. "Brace yerself!" Bloom shouted as she held onto the craft and pushed the trigger on the detonator. A loud boom accompanied by a large plume of fire came from the rap that lead out of the walker's control room. The effects were immediate as the legs stopped moving and the Scarab slowly tumbled forward, the machine letting out a very unnatural shriek. A cheer rose from the UNSC lines as the large machine was downed but quickly died down again as they got to work eliminating the Covenant troops that were now without mechanized support. "Ah don't know 'bout you girls but I'm quite certain we got them spooks enough intel now," Apple Bloom said after getting up from being thrown around by the fallen machine. "Come on, let's go surprise our guys down there." We followed Bloom as she jumped over the front of the machine and slid down its armor to the street below, the automatic fire from our front lines having pushed back the aliens far enough for us to make it to their lines. "That. was. Awesome!" I laughed as I caught my breath after having reached the safety of our own lines. "Enjoy it because I don't really want to do anything like that again for a while," Ana replied as she was gasping for air herself. Bloom on the other hand immediately started firing on the covenant stragglers who hadn't retreated. We helped clean up the final few enemies that hadn't retreated from the scene before acquiring a warthog and making our way back to HQ to report to our ONI superiors.