Contact Harvest

by CommanderApplejack

Chapter 11

May God have mercy on my enemies,
because I won't.
-General Patton

Snow and ash fell from the sky, cold winds blowing over the little forward outpost I was standing watch over. The hot temperatures the planet had suffered in previous months was now nowhere to be found as the ash clouds from all of the burned earth blocked out the sun. The smell of death was also everywhere, were it from the dead wildlife or combatants, there wasn’t anywhere left where you could escape from it…

It was hell.

I swept my gaze back over the burned plain in front of me with my night vision, checking if there wasn’t any suspicious movement behind the wrecks of vehicles. A Covenant warship had crashed a couple of clicks away from the outpost we were in and had been a rallying point for covenant forces since the start of the invasion. Right now men were amassing positions further back so an assault could be carried out on the vessel and blow it into nuclear slag which meant I along with the rest of the Crusaders had the pleasure of acting as forward scouts to map out enemy gun emplacements that would need to be destroyed.

“Anything out there Bloom?” I twitched and looked at Scootaloo, she had bags under her eyes as she’d taken the previous watch but couldn’t get to sleep after, too many nightmares, so she’d just propped herself against the outer barrier with her battle rifle in her arms while cradling herself in her own wings for some extra warmth.

“Nothin’ of note, they haven’t even sent them grunts out here to harass us today,” I replied as I returned my gaze out over the battlefield.

“Must have gotten wind that we’re planning something big, keeping them back so that they can defend their dugouts,” Scootaloo surmised in surprise, an assessment I couldn’t help but feel she was right in.

I itched for another cigar as I reached for one of the pockets on my armor but was once again reminded that after leaving for this outpost the supply of them had swiftly dwindled to zero. Grumbling, I closed the pocket again and returned to my task of observation.

“How do you think Shimmer is doing?” Scootaloo suddenly asked, we hadn’t heard from the other pony turned human in a couple of months but she’d at least been doing well last time we’d heard from her.

“Dunno, probably workin’ weapon dev with Section Three. She did say she had a breakthrough in her magic research though so that might be somethin’ else she’s workin’ on,” I answered lazily.

“Sounds about right. She’s probably just like Twilight in that way.” Scootaloo chuckled as she made her comparison between the redhead and the studious alicorn. “That egghead is probably never going to forgive herself after she figures out what happened to us...”

“Hey, it was kinda our fault fer bein’ somewhere where we weren’t supposed to,” I countered to Scootaloo’s amusement as she snorted.

“Like that ever stopped her from blaming herself in the past.”

“Ah guess yer right in that one,” I had to admit, Twi would probably feel really guilty about it even though it was definitely our own fault for getting stuck here. “Ah wonder what mah sis and brother are going to say when they find out.”

“AJ’s going to freak, Big Mac… well, I’m not sure,” Scootaloo said as she imagined my family’s reaction.

“Yer probably right about AJ, though that might also be true fer Mac. He can be quite the talker if he’s got somethin’ worth saying.” I looked down at Scootaloo and smirked. “Now Rainbow on the other hand...”

“Oh, she’s going to be terrified at first and then stalk me around and milk me for all of the stories I can tell,” Scootaloo chuckled and grinned back up at me. “I’ll at least be able to claim I’m about twenty percent cooler than her after that.”

I laughed, shaking my head as I savored the moment. Happiness was a scarce thing out here on this planet which ate it whole.

“Think we’ll finally get to go on leave after this? We’ve been going for almost eight months straight, a couple of exceptions of course but I don’t think I can take this much longer.” Scootaloo told me as she turned to look at me with teary eyes. “All the death is getting to me, Bloom. All of the marines that get hit by something which I couldn’t save… It’s eating me from the inside out.” I felt a cold spike drive into my heart as Scootaloo looked at me with the most pained and haunted look I’d ever seen.

She’s right, we can’t continue like this… if our leave is rejected then I’ll just have to take drastic measures.

“I’ll make sure to get it done Scoots,” I told her, seeing Ana approach in the corner of my eye.

“Morning Sarge, your watch is up, I’ll take over from here,” She said, taking a position next to me, allowing me to leave the post I’d been seated for a good while.

“Thanks, see ya at sunrise Ana. We’re going to catch a couple z’s before we need to get goin’.” I told the only real human of our group before helping Scootaloo off of the ground and towards our little hideout where we were camping out so we could get at least some rest before the coming operation.

“Why us, Sir?” I asked as we had just gotten our mission briefing. In front of us laid a tactical nuke which we'd been instructed to bring into the crashed Covenant ship and arm for detonation.

“Because your squad has an amount of luck that's bordering the supernatural, sergeant… Something the strange attribute of your medic reinforces.” Scootaloo's wings twitched as the officer singled her out. The pegasus having long since stopped giving a shit about what the other soldiers thought about them and showed them liberally, the squad's reputation among the marines made them famous and feared enough to keep the nosy elements at bay.

“Understood, we'll get it done.” I saluted and picked up the weapon of mass destruction, leaving the briefing room with the rest of us.

“Sometimes I get the feeling that they're just throwing shit at us to see how much we can take, but this is flat out a suicide mission,” Ana grumbled as we made our way to our warthog where we would wait for zero hour which was fast approaching. It would be a swift attack on the encampment around the wreck, we'd hit them hard and plant the nuke and get the hell out of dodge before they'd be able to respond in force.

I was having doubts it would work too...

“And we're the only idiots stupid enough to go do it,” Sweetie agreed looking at me with a look that practically screamed at me to explain why we'd accepted this mission.

“Y’all know that that ship has to be destroyed, it’s been the staging ground for a few too many assaults on our positions. We’d be able to knock back their operation fer hundreds of miles,” I argued, knowing that they’d follow me anywhere regardless but I wasn’t about to leave their concerns. Out of the four of us, only Scootaloo really didn’t look all that worried, her mask of confidence firmly back in place.

“Yeah, we’re going to kick them right where it hurts this time! No stupid boring recon for once!” She exclaimed, Sweetie rolling her eyes in response.

“What’s wrong with a bit of recon? Can’t handle the simplest task possible, Scoots?” She smirked, jabbing back at the pegasus.

“Hey, whenever I get an elite in my sights I’m going to pull that trigger, not watch how it gets off on kicking down a bunch of grunts,” she shrugged and stuck her tongue out at Sweetie in good fun. They soon arrived at their modified warthog and started loading ammo and equipment onto it. It wasn’t too different from the regular hogs other than some extra armor plates that had been welded over the craft to shield us better and the turret was mounted on the frame above the driver and passenger seat to allow a fourth passenger in the back. It did reduce the arc our vehicle could shoot to the front and side only but we could take a lot more gear and ammo and passengers while keeping our firepower relatively intact.

“Look girls, Ah’ve put our squad in fer leave after this op. We get through this and we’re going to return to Reach for some serious rest. We’ll be back but not before a good while of RnR,” I told them as we finished checking all of our equipment and we lounged in and around the vehicle.

“You did?” Ana said surprised, “I guess we’ve been here for a long while haven’t we?”

“We’ve been two months overdue for our rotation off world, I think we’ve earned it. I’m only sorry for the poor sods that have to pick up our slack while we’re gone,” Sweetie sighed, her eyes closed as she lay on the hood and windshield of the warthog.

“They’ll get used to it, we’re only one squad.” Scootaloo laughed at my comment.

“One squad that’s done the work of an entire company of regular marines,” the former pegasus pointed out with a cocky smirk. “We’re awesome like that!”

“Careful there Scoots, an ego that big will make for a pretty large target to shoot at,” Sweetie shot at the pegasus, drawing a snort of amusement out of Ana. Scootaloo huffed in annoyance but couldn’t find a retort to shoot back. I then looked at the mission timer, finding it getting close to zero.

“Alright, cut the chatter. Let’s get out there and hook up with the marines.” The others immediately donned their helmets, their visors turning opaque as their systems activated. An aura of seriousness immediately radiated from my subordinates as they focussed, they knew their tasks and would perform to their utmost best of ability.

Scootaloo mounted the chain gun at the back while Ana took the wheel, I sat down in the passenger’s seat and Sweetie took place at the back with an LMG in her hands instead of the usual sniper rifle that now sat on her back. I’d designated her to be our heavy fire support since I’d have to run the nuke and the low fire rate of the sniper wouldn’t be useful in our current task regardless.

The warthog’s engine roared to life as Ana drove it out towards the rest of the assembled vehicles with their crews that were anxiously waiting for the go signal. Some of their eyes fell on our very distinct warthog as we parked in the center of the formation, they surely knew of the ordinance we were carrying with us on this trip as they avoided our vehicle. Though that might also be the fault of Scootaloo who was stretching her wings while checking the chain gun’s operation.

And then, after a couple more minutes, the timer reached zero followed by a single codeword through the radio network and all of the warthogs roared to life. Each and every vehicle got into formation as we made our way off the base and lined up on the wasteland in the direction of the crashed Covenant ship, splitting up into three separate forces to hit the base from different directions.

“Contacts! Three o’clock, one click, Banshees!” The shout came over the radio as one of the gunners spotted the incoming aerial bogies. The edge of the right flank of our formation opened up immediately, sending blazing hot trails towards the enemy craft and lighting them up as the armor-piercing rounds shredded their systems.

“HA! Take that, stupid jackasses!” Scootaloo laughed even though she hadn’t fired a single round at the aircraft, keeping her chain gun aimed straight to the front where the covenant had entrenched themselves. Artillery fire could be seen impacting the ground ahead as they targeted the scouted hardpoints of the Covenant battle line, mounds of dirt and dust shooting up dozens of meters into the air as the shells impacted.

“Eleven o’clock, Wraiths!” I called out as I saw the purple tanks in the distance which had managed to escape the short but vicious artillery bombardment.

“Copy that!” Scootaloo called out, swirling around the turret and opening up. The brightly lit up stream of lead flying across the open plain to chip away at one of the vehicles armor. At first it did little more than tickle the purple tank which happily lobbed plasma bolts into our formation, vaporizing warthogs each time one of the bolts hit, but eventually all the punishment got through the tough outer shells of the two tanks and ripped the internals apart. “Wraiths neutralized!”

The crashed Covenant ship was now within two clicks of our charge and we could see the panic in the encampment surrounding it, grunts rushing about and getting in the way of one another as they scrambled around but that’s where our good news ended. “Sarge, they've put up anti vehicle barricades, there’s no way the formation can reach the ship!”

I cursed as Scootaloo pointed this out to me from her elevated position, we needed to reach the base of the ship at the least to get the maximum effect from the nuclear bomb. We really needed to get close to that ship… “How far is it by foot to the hull of that crashed ship!?”

“Are you insane?!” Sweety immediately exclaimed from out back, holding on tightly as to not be flung off.

“I think about half a click!” Scootaloo replied, disregarding the exclamation that came from behind her. “Should be doable!”

“Doable?! Bloom that’s half a click filled with enemy forces!” Sweetie countered again. “Even with marine support those are horrendous odds!”

“We will only have limited warthog support for a good part of that, Sarge!” Ana chipped in as she broke the outer defensive line with the rest of the formation.

“We’re doin’ it, this place needs to be wiped out if we are to relieve some pressure on this part of the front!” I shouted, opening my line to the radio network. “Crusader 1-1 to all, form a defensive perimeter around our hog at the anti-vehicle barrier and dismount. We’re going in on foot!”

There were some calls of acknowledgement that came from the other sergeants but I could hear the hesitation in their voices.

No matter, they’ll keep us covered in there.

Ana slammed on the breaks just before reaching the barrier, coming to a stop just before the obstacles, hitting a couple of grunts who didn’t get out of the way in time.

“Andrews, take over the chain gun from Firewing! Belle, Firewing, on me!” I jumped from the ‘hog, seeing a couple of grunts who had aimed their plasma pistols towards us as we stopped. A couple of quick shells shredded the little bastards without too much issue before we sprinted onto the barricaded part of the base.

Tracers whizzed past us as gunners from the other hogs started clearing our path and the couple of gauss cannon mounted ‘hogs spread more confusion by blowing up random parts of the camp. Plasma bolts flew overhead and past us in the other direction as we ran at full sprint to the hull of the crashed ship, coming to a skidding halt behind a dirt mound against the hull of the ship.

“You two okay?!” I asked as I pulled the nuke off my back and placed it against the hull and started shutting off it’s safety.

“Got grazed, nothing serious!” Sweetie replied placing down the LMG and fired a burst, not as much fire from the hogs reached this far back, only a single stream of fire consistently reached this far out. Scootaloo picked targets with her battle rifle, mostly picking the hard targets that couldn’t be mowed down by the LMG.

Heh, usually it’s the other way around. I chuckled internally as the timer on the bomb lit up. Covering the nuke with some dirt would make it a little less obvious when the covies would become nosy about what we were doing here. “Nuke set!”

“Hell yeah!” Scootaloo laughed as she plucked a grenade from her belt and lobbed it out at the troops that had started surrounding them, taking out a bunch of shield jackals.

“Alright, we’re moving back! We’re on a timer now!” I shouted as I lobbed more grenades over our little covered position. It gave us the tiniest of windows to sprint out guns blazing, as we sprinted back the same way we came.

“Sarge there’s armor coming in! This position is untenable!” Ana called in over the radio, “We’re starting to lose too many of our own!”

We were still too far away from the hogs as we constantly had to take cover and take out groups of enemies that were trying to block our retreat. “We’re thirty seconds out, hold position!”

I heard a pained scream come from behind just in time to see Sweetie fall to the ground, her armor smoking and glowing green from the plasma that’d hit it.

“SWEETIE!” Scootaloo roared coming to a stop, more plasma flew overhead as we went back for her motionless body. The medical readings from my hud indicated that she was still alive but the way her heart rate was spiking up wasn’t good. Being out of time I simply placed my shotgun on my back and grabbed the LMG instead, wielding it in one hand while dragging Sweetie along with the other.

“Crusader 1-2 is down!” I called out as I let the LMG pump out a constant stream of lead before as I dragged my friend the final distance back to the hogs.

“WRAITH!” One of the marines called out as I could see the purple tank approach our position, the remaining gauss cannon opened up on the heavy armor but it was able to get two arcing shots off plasma headed our way.

That’s aimed right for us!

“Get off the hog!” I shouted at Ana who didn’t need to be told twice while I tried getting out of the way. Heat washed over my back as I tried shielding Sweetie, pieces of metal from our hog flung in every direction as it was utterly obliterated.

I felt something hit my left arm briefly followed by an immense amount of pain right before I too blacked out.

Comments

[umbreon1234]

It feel a lot longer than a month since the last chapter came out

[Tempestus]

Hang in there Crusaders!

[Venerable Ro]

Oh dear. Fragging wraiths.

[Crystonian]

10207547
Yeah, I hate them too. Sometimes worse than Hunter's and Sniper Jackals that you can never find intill your fifth death by them

[CommanderApplejack]

10212148
Nothing is as bad as Sniper Jackals, change my mind.

[CrossoverFanficReader]

“Look girls, Ah’ve put our squad in fer leave after this op. We get through this and we’re going to return to Reach for some serious rest. We’ll be back but not before a good while of RnR,” I told them as we finished checking all of our equipment and we lounged in and around the vehicle.

Alright, i know it hasn't reached that point in the timeline yet but come on, i *can't* be the only person thinking it..

[DarthRevan12345]

10472871
It’s way to early the CMC were fighting on harvest at one point a campaign that ended in early 2531 and the battle of reach started at the end of 2552 a full 21 maybe even 22 years after so there’s no way in hell for them to see that battle

[Xblaster]

10648324
Yet, anyways
We don't know just how long they're gonna stay or have to