Red Letter Days/Chapter Four

Previous Chapter: Chapter Three: Tactical Superiority
Chapter Four: New Kids in Town
:Vega Ceti System
:UN colony: Second Base
:Pvt. 1st class Leonard Schaeffer
:Raiding Garmed City Bank
The next twenty minutes had gone easily enough, the marines stormed the front of the building, or at least the remains of it. Each man moved with a sharp elegance that showed both fear and drilled precision. Every man was tense and ready, at least the marines from 1st platoon who led them all inside. The marines of second and third platoon were more lax, second had only encountered some men with old rifles and thus were much more relaxed. Third platoon had encountered no one, so they moved with absolute casualness, they had a hint of fear in their mind... yet none of them knew true fear. The fear that roots in a mans head when he almost dies and stays there till they day they pass on. Schaeffer had that, nibbling at the back of his skull and so did the entire platoon. Every man was changed when the firsts shots rang out, and although they did not know it, they were completely different then the platoons following them. They had seen war.
But such matters were trivial at the moment, this was a war, and a war had to be fought. The lobby was clear, body parts were strewn about. The fire department had managed to clear out most of it before they could get there but were scared off by some warning shots after they finished fighting the fire. The lieutenant quickly barked for some sergeant or another to do this and that and before long, everyone was moving. Third platoon was to secure the lobby and the plaza outside and await further orders, second platoon would secure the building while first would be making a bee line to the top where the heat signatures were found.
Schaeffer cursed under his breath, the lieutenant was pushing them harder then he had to. He just wanted to sit down and find a book to read, Sergeant Atterson was yelling at some one to 'tie his fucking laces' and the platoon was waiting a moment for a Lance Corporal named 'Red' to piss in a corner and Schaeffer stepped up to the sergeant, hoping to ask why exactly they were being pushed so hard. "We are moving because we are better." Was all the sergeant said, Schaeffer frowned.
"But we just lost how many men again? The one guy was shot off the turret, and the other was-"
"I know how many we lost, Newbie. But look at third platoon, they would sprint into an ambush if they think it would earn them a medal. And Lieutenant Galbrieth and Sunny are both horrible at their jobs. Why would LT B let them fuck up the most important part of the op..?" He took a breath, yelled something at some one and then finished, "...you know, if you used that thick skull to be a marine instead of bitching you might manage to get a promotion some day." Schaeffer sighed and turned away, the platoon was taking a moment as the lieutenant argued with TACCOM, demanding more info on what he was getting into. 
Schaeffer plopped down on the scorched desk that was once the center of the building. There used to be a large statue of a lion he thought, but it was mostly blasted away. The long table stretched around the statue in a circle and the once fine mahogany was simply blasted to black. It was a shame, such well made woods were rare on planets like Second Base, who's only trees were rather rugged and not fit for finer woods. The tile floor may have been clean and polished, but many of the tiles were blown away by the explosion, in the back of the floor was a large crater. The explosion had such force that it had blown away the front wall of the lobby away, nearly forty feet away. Schaeffer felt the churning in his stomach grow more rough as he stared at a puddle of blood behind the desk.
Looking away, he looked around again. A once fine chandelier was smashed across the floor, two staircases went around the lobby in a winding manner before meeting at a balcony in the back that led in deeper. If one followed it they would find an elevator, some one yelled the wires were cut. The stairway and balcony had steel railings that went nicely with the white tiles, and a light blue glass prevented anyone from sliding under. The glass wasn't much however, a person who wanted to go under could do so easily by simply breaking it, the explosion had left only small portions of the glass remaining on each frame.
"Shit stain! Get off the desk and stop jacking off, we are moving!" Shouted Smi- Venendez. Schaeffer glanced over and sighed, time having moved faster than he expected. As he glanced outside, he saw gray storm clouds slowly making their way to them. Judging from the temperature, it would be snowing by midday. Schaeffer made sure his assault rifle was ready one last time and jogged in with his fireteam, at a shout from the lieutenant, the squads were soon splitting up, and at a shout from Atterson, the fireteams were soon splitting up.
Atterson was with them, being first team. The others were in adjacent hallways but were close enough that their occasional blips of conversation could be mutely heard when Schaeffer pressed up close enough to a wall. They moved carefully, more so than when they entered the building. The chances of an ambush in this part of the building was much higher than anywhere else and he was truly scared of every small pile of papers or discarded item. Lord knew what exactly where the rebels could decide to stash an IED.
But they moved uneventfully, before long, they found themselves at a large staircase closer to the back of the building. The squads converged on the location, unable to find another staircase, and they were soon moving up. They had many floors to cover, and their rifles were always pointing at the ceiling.
By the fifth floor, Schaeffer felt a glimmer of sweat on his brow. By the tenth, he was panting a bit, by the fifteenth, he felt his legs would fall off. They needed to get to the twenty first story, the roof, where UAV's were telling them the rebels had brought their captive.
The fun of an easy but exhausting trip up the stairwell was cut short when they heard a ping and saw a grenade dropping from one of the stairwells. The grenade smacked the floor and rolled to Schaeffer's feet, he only had a half a moment to think when Monroe dived back and sent them both flailing down the stairwell. Schaeffer felt his back connect with Mackenzie's front and then every man on the stairwell was yelling and falling back. It seemed not a second later that the grenade detonated, and Schaeffer's ears were filled with a deafening bang. Schaeffer... or Mackenzie for that matter, slammed into the concrete floor hard. They were lucky not to have snapped anyone's neck or their own for that matter on the trip down. Just as Schaeffer was about to take a breath of air, Monroe slammed into him and fell to his side.
Schaeffer let out the air in his lungs and gasped desperately, the pain in his shoulder flaring back up at the sudden force of Monroe's body. As his senses came back to him, he heard the cracking of gunfire and saw some figures leaning over the stairwell above them. They had no cover, and Schaeffer was scrambling away as soon as he found his breath again. Atterson screamed for a private named Massih to use his grenade launcher, and soon the marine was firing the explosive at the staircase three stories above them. There was an explosion and the concrete crumbled, the stairs breaking away. A body fell, the man screaming, before slamming into the railing with a sickening crunch and flipping back over to the floor below.
The rebels scattered away like rats and the stairway crumbled concrete down onto their helmets. When they were satisfied that there was no one else coming, Red stood up from his crouched position behind a railing and reloaded a rifle, before slipping off his helmet and rubbing the sweat from his brow. Schaeffer could see why they called him red now, his hair was a strawberry red, hardly dark and short enough to be regulation. The man dusted his hands and spoke casually, as if they hadn't almost died.
"Well it looks like that guy had a tumble." Was all he said, as casual as if he was referencing some rumor he heard in passing. Schaeffer frowned a bit at his Russian accent, or Rukevitch, the two being nearly identical to his ears. He had only heard a few in his life, Russian really only being common in the inner colonies. He decided not to ask. 
"Yeah, wonder if he snapped his spine..." asked Massih, her tan skin in heavy contrast to the pale features of Red.
"Yeah, I wonder if you chuckle fucks will shut up so we can get moving again." Snapped Atterson. Shaking his head, he went over to Monroe and frowned.
"You shoved me down the stair ass hole." Was all he said, rubbing his sides which were sore from the fall. Monroe narrowed his eyes.
"I am sorry I didn't let the grenade fuck you over." Monroe said, before spitting at his feet. Schaeffer opened his mouth to say something but closed it again, he was right he realized. Taking a breath, he prepared to apologize when Monroe told him to go away. Sighing, he walked over to Mackenzie, who simply growled for having almost broken his rib. The lieutenant was screaming at everyone to start moving again, and soon they were off. They avoided the stairs this time, instead walking onto the closest floor they could. They didn't want to risk the crumbling pieces of concrete giving way under them.
"Alpha Actual, Alpha Actual, this is police sniper team call sign Viper. We have three hornets in the air, sniper teams are at the ready and scanning the building. Over." The lieutenant nodded his head and he heard the captain confirm through the radio. The lieutenant raised his gun again and slipped into the hallway that the stairwell led into, the rest of them followed suit.
"First squad, take the left until you find a stairwell, second, right, third squad, hold the stairs. Move, move, move." The men scrambled to follow his orders, Gaffer yelled for his men to follow him and they slipped to the left, Schaeffer ended up just behind Monroe and Venendez who were behind Sergeant Atterson. Glancing back for a moment, he saw the rest of the squad close behind.
The hallway was scattered with papers and chairs but was otherwise left fairly unscathed from the bomb. To their right were a row of windows and to the left were glass walls and doors that showed several office. Schaeffer found himself staring out at the bustling city below. One of the hornets he heard about over the radio came flying up, less than half a mile away from the building. It was painted black, with GPD stamped on the side to show it belonged to the Garmed Police Department. Men in black gear sat on both seats of the vehicle, rifles in hand. In the distance, over the bustle of the city, he heard car alarms and police sirens going off.
A pang of nervousness shot up him again as he remembered the police telling them the way was clear. He quickly shook his head and kept moving, trying to keep his head clea-
"CITIZENS OF GARMED, AND ALL FOREIGN INVADERS." The voice broke through his radio and he heard it through the cities intercoms as well. The squad slowed to a halt. 
"Who the hell is that?" Asked Hooch.
"Oh god how did this nut get on the radio..." asked Corporal Cameron.
"THE UNSC HAS SHACKLED YOU, FORCING YOU TO SLAVE AWAY SO THAT EARTH MAY SEE A HIGHER INCOME. YOU ARE OVERWORKED AND UNDERFED, POLICE BRUTALLY BEAT YOU IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET AND NOW THEY SEND THE MILITARY TO OPPRESS YOU FURTHER."
"Oh what the hell is this shit." The lieutenant asked over the radio.
"Maybe he's a-" Monroe was cut off when a bullet cut through the back of his neck, Schaeffer closed his eyes and glanced away from reflex as blood splattered his face, landing in his mouth, in his eyes. Monroe didn't make any noise, Schaeffer just saw his head wobble back, the spine broken and then his body slump to the side. Schaeffer simply gasped and felt his stomach churning when another bullet flew out and tore through the top of his helmet. Schaeffer fell to the ground.
There was screaming all around as the police snipers opened fire on them. The man on the radio continued.
"WE MUST RISE AGAINST THE INVADERS, FOR THEY ARE A FORCE OF EVIL. GOOD POLICE OFFICERS, MEN WHO SERVE YOU! HAVE RISEN UP AGAINST THE UNSC DOGS. RISE UP WITH US, AND HELP US DESTROY THESE MEN, AND ALLOW US TO TASTE TRUE FREEDOM." Atterson shouted over the radio that they were taking fire, looking up, Schaeffer saw double doors swing open to reveal a small group of men with rifles. They quickly fell into what cover they could and sprayed them. Miller was sprinting to cover when a bullet tore through his shoulder, sending him spinning to the floor. Schaeffer closed his eyes, then opened them again. He had to do something.
The rebels had ignored him, assuming he was another dead body, but he knew it would not last. Schaeffer found his feet and dived across the hallway, into the office he had fallen in. A bullet whizzed by his ear as he did. Inside, Masih was pushing a desk out the door to act as cover.
"This is second squad. We are taking god damned heavy fire from police forces and insurgents. Need some one to take down these hornets, over." Atterson's voice was crisp over the radio, the sergeant must be in some damn good cover he thought.
"Alpha 2, this is Breaker Actual, once again this is Breaker Actual. Repeat, you have police snipers firing on you?" Schaeffer crawled over to where Miller was writing in pain and quickly stripped off his own medical kit. Miller was groaning in pain, Schaeffer just wished he would appreciate he wasn't Monroe right now. Schaeffer took out his combat knife and cut away the cloth holding Millers shoulder. The man would not stop writhing. The world seemed to blur as Schaeffer's hands moved across the mans body, pulling out pieces of the bullet and bandaging him, all while the table they were behind exploded from the sniper fire.
"Once again, police are hostile. They have opened fire and I have two men down, I need some sort of fire support over."
"FIGHT. FIGHT THE OPPRESSORS. THE CITY HALL HAS BEEN TAKEN, THE MILITARY IS FALLING APART. RISE UP PEOPLE OF GARMED." In the distance he saw smoke start rising from the city, the bustle of the city seemed to have stopped.
"Will some one shut that loon up and get me some air support here." He heard the lieutenant ask over the radio, gunfire evident in the background.
"Rodger that Alpha One, we have two nearby hornets from your insertion. Sending them out." Schaeffer cursed and checked his rifle, his hands shaking and making it hard for him to make sure the ammo was all there. Satisfied, he patted Miller on the shoulder and then leaned out of cover.
Most of the marines were huddled down, so were the insurgents. The rebels seemed content to let the snipers pick them off and Schaeffer was dully aware of the fact that if he moved his head an inch higher, he would lose more than the tip of his helmet. Carefully, he leaned to his right and sighted and insurgent firing a light machine gun, attempting to keep them pinned. A deep breath, a bullet whining past his ear, the sound of Monroe's body gurgling blood to his right, the squeeze of the trigger and the rifle pounding his shoulder. The insurgent yelped and fell over, his right eye exploding into a red and gory mist.
"Good job Newbie!" Shouted Hooch. Schaeffer simply gulped and slumped down. He just killed a man.
"Second squad, this is Quirky, you have hornet support over." Schaeffer briefly wondered who Quirky was, until he saw the two military hornets flying over to meet the police. Schaeffer was about to breath a breath of relief when two other hornets rose up. Schaeffer recalled the lieutenant telling them about how some were stolen.
"Second squad! We have confirmed bogey's on our tail! We can not give support! Over!" He heard Atterson curse a storm from the back.
"SAY GOODBYE TO THE SECOND BASE FEDERAL RESERVE. SAY GOODBYE TO THE RECRUITING STATION. TO THE CITY BANK." Schaeffer frowned when he heard an explosion in the distance, then another, then another. Much closer. The building shook as a floor or two under them detonated, then it shook again as the floor above theirs did the same. The police hornet started to push out when suddenly Quirky fly back up, one of his rotors flaming. The hornet attempted to fire off a shot, but one of the snipers fired first and Schaeffer was able to make out blood splatter across Quirky's cockpit. The hornet spun briefly, before slamming into the police hornet. The sniper who killed Quirky screamed as the propeller crushed him, then sent him god knows how far down.
The police hornet briefly attempted to regain control, shaken by the military hornet, when the debris from the floor above them flew out, the wall simply falling off. The hornet barely moved a foot before a concrete slab slammed into it. Destroying the vehicle.
"Oh FUCK this guy. Switch to backup channels, I am sick of thi-" The lieutenant was cut off by Red.
"Negative sir, just checked, he is on the backup channels too. And the backup backups." The lieutenant cursed and the radio cut out. Atterson was screaming orders, when there was a sudden creaking noise above them.
"Ah hell." Was all he managed to get out before the roof gave way. The floor above theirs collapsing from the damage of the explosion. Floor tiles, scorched wood planks fell as steel supports buckled and collapsed. The rebels screamed as concrete slabs broke through their skulls, the marines were lucky enough that the ceiling didn't simply fall like it did for the rebels. Instead, pieces of it slammed down around them. Schaeffer found himself thanking god, taking off his helmet to wipe the sweat from his brow. He realized how stupid that was and quickly went to put it back on. Atterson shouted for them to move up while the innies were down, and they rushed to follow his orders.
“Let's go, before this place collapses! Cameron! You and Hooch drag Miller and Monroe back to third squad! Move!”
”Breaker Actual to all UNSC forces in Garmed, police have opened fire on marines across the city. Civilians are arming themselves. Al l UNSC forces are to fall back to the Garmed City Hospital to regroup and rearm. We are going to turn it into a forward operating base. I repeat, all units besides 3rdrCompany, move to Garmed City Hospital immediately.”
”Er... Breaker Actual. This is Alpha Actual. Are you telling me we are stranded here?” The captain sounded both pissed and annoyed. Trying not to focus on the conversation, Schaeffer struggled up and ran down the hallway with the rest of the squad, ignoring the aching in his arm. A few rebels were still alive, trying to free themselves from the rubble. They were swiftly shot.
”Alpha Actual, this is Breaker Actual. I got messages going straight from the tippy top about this. You need to get that VIP no matter what. Over.”
”Alpha One, this is second squad. We have found a stairwell sir.” Atterson climbed over the rubble and past the door the rebels came through. Peaking in behind him, Schaeffer saw a concrete stairwell leading up, slightly damaged from the explosion.
”Roger that second squad. We are taking heavy fire on the west side, we will be unable to send you aid. Get to the roof ASAP. TACSAT is telling me that there are six plus hostiles, plus the VIP up there. We got more moving around the building and third platoon is starting to take some hits. You need to get him ASAP.” The sergeant sighed and yelled for them to form up.
”WE MUST REMOVE THE UNSC FROM GARMED, WE MUST THROW AWAY THE SHACKLES. THEN WE SHALL RISE AGAINST THEM. JOIN ME PEOPLE. FIGHT FOR FREEDOM.” As Schaeffer climbed the stairs behind Atterson, the remains of the squad behind him. He felt a nervousness in his gut. The day had gone horribly so far, and now he knew it was somehow going to get worse.
After climbing without a fight, they found themselves outside a set of double doors at the very top of the stairwell.
“Newbie, Pejo, Griffith. On me.” The four marines quickly took positions on the door, Schaeffer had to sigh as he realized he was going to be the one breaching it. The other four marines leaned against the wall of the stairs, waiting for them to move in. Atterson raised four fingers, lowering one every second.
“Breach!” Schaeffer's training kicked in, he pushed off the wall, braced himself and slammed his shoulder into the door. Schaeffer slid out and dived behind a vent. The rest of the squad ran out, finding cover themselves. The rebels did not shoot.
“Surrender scum! Surrender or else the agent dies!” Schaeffer peaked out of cover, so did the rest of them. The rebels were in their own cover, besides their leader whom Schaeffer assumed to be the one who had been screaming for the last ten minutes. In front of him, on his knees, was an ash covered man in a tattered business suit, he had been beaten to a pulp.
”Citizens of Garmed! The military has sent their agents into your homes, into your government and your banks! Their agents have attempted to sway the people who own them, away from our righteous cause! But no more!” The man glanced at them one more time, making sure they were not surrendering. He seemed unafraid. ”Now he dies!”
”Smoke the bastard!” The squad opened fire, Schaeffer aiming for the mans chest. But it was too late however, the sidearm he had pressed into the VIP's head fired, and blood and brains splattered across the roof. The leader was quickly gunned down too, and a few grenades and hundreds of rounds later, so were his friends. A moment after, the lieutenant and first squad slammed through the double doors on the opposite side of the roof. He took one look at Atterson, then at the dead VIP, then cursed.
”Breaker Actual to Alpha One. We are preparing transport for the VI-”
”Negative Breaker Actual... we lost him.” The lieutenant shook his head and pressed his fingers into the bridge of his nose. Schaeffer was dimly aware of the ever growing amount of fires around the city, and the distant sound of gunfire and police sirens. It had begun.
”God damn it Alpha One. That guy was our last shot at stopping this.” The lieutenant cursed. The captain and Breaker argued it out over the radio.
”Alpha Three to Alpha One! We got hostiles swarming us down here!”
”Roger that Summers. I will get that UAV drone to spot you out.” The lieutenant called TACCOM again, and the bored operator at the orbital station started telling them numbers. Schaeffer found a vent to sit on as the squad milled around, the sounds of battle in the distance were getting louder. He saw an explosion ripple out in the distance, all the way over at the space elevator. But he didn't see any real damage to it. Way out in the sky, he saw the three UNSC ships docked to the station. He had a feeling they would be called upon before too long.
”Alpha Actual to third company. We are moving out, drops ships are moving in to drag us out of here. Shortswords are close by and have scared off those pelicans, for now. Just sit tight an-”
The captain was cut off by a quite urgent sounding message from TACCOM
"”Attention ground and o-orbital teams. Unknown warships have entered the system, class and shape are I have no fucking idea. They are making a beeline for the planet... possible... alien's found. All assets are to follow Protocol 3C, I repeat-”"
The man stopped, and the marines all glanced at each other, confused. Schaeffer slowly got off the vent and checked his rifle again, it sounded like the innies sent their navy. Schaeffer just wanted to read a book and catch some sleep, but it sounded like he wouldn't get either for a long time.
”Alright, form up I want everyo-” the captains voice was cut out, the radios going blank. The marines glanced at each other again when a moment later the ground began to rumble. A massive purple ship seemed to be lowering itself into atmosphere, despite being miles in the air, it was still taking up most of the skyline.
Venendez and Mackenzie stepped up next to him, staring at it. So did Masih, Griffith and Riley. The entire platoon had their eyes on the sky. The fighting around the city seemed to have stopped.
Schaeffer wished he had slept on the ride.
Next Chapter: Chapter 5: Goodbye Wall Street
Category:Red Letter Days