New Alexandria, Eposz

August 23, 2552 13:37 Hours

The camera feed flickers with static as a slowly approaching Spartan comes limbing into view

"You still in there?" Scar asked, lightly kicking the legs of her Commander

"Wish I wasn't." The commander replied, before turning his head to the right and seeing  scattered wreckage of both the Savannah and numerous fighters

"C'mon, we need to move." Scar said, holding out her hand before her Commander takes it and gets lifted up

"Let's head East. New Alexandria is nearby."

"We should hurry then, the civilians need to be evacuated." The commander replied, both limping as fast as possible while helping each other along

Time skip 1 hour

"The city looks relatively intact at the moment. Let's regroup with the UNSC." Scar said, jumping onto a rooftop and descending down the nearby stairs

Reaper follows, examining the destruction and bodies of both civilians and UNSC before picking up a sniper from a fallen trooper while Scar takes a shotgun

"Fall back!" A distant voice is heard yelling in a panicked manner

"There's too many! Cover the civvies!" Another voice is heard before both spartans sprinted down the corridor and around a corner where a group of brute are found, pinning down a small fire team of troopers with civilians nearby

"Move, we'll cover you!" Scar yelled towards the civilians, before sprinting up another stair case and jumping off a balcony, before landing behind all the brutes all the while Reaper shot the brute captain wielding a concussion rifle, killing him

"Spartans?! Oh hell yeah!" One enthusiastic trooper exclaimed, while Scar stabbed one brute in the back and shot the brute in front of him, using the stabbed brute as cover

The now raging brute group focus on the spartans, giving the troopers an opportunity to help the civilians fall back into a building

After Reaper fires his third shot, he places the sniper on his back before grabbing a plasma repeater and laying down support for Scar, who has also run out of ammo, and is now wielding a brute spiker when the last brutes are killed from three different snipers

The comms crackle to life again "Commander. Long time no see." A familiar voice is heard

"Vinnie? What the hell are you doing here? Where are you?" Reaper replied

"Not just me. As for what I'm doing here, our squad followed Noble to New Alexandria to support in evacuating the civilians. Rix is with me. We're across the way. We've secured this location. Move up to us."

"On our way. Alright, everyone listen up! Troopers, you're with us for the time being, the mission remains unchanged. Evacuate the civilians. I'll be providing sniper support along with the others. You boys follow Scar here and push through the buildings. Understood?" Reaper told, before the group of troopers replied with affirmation

"You three, keep behind the civilians, and you stay in the front with me. Let's fall out." Scar ordered, before being giving shotgun shells from a trooper, who Scar thanks and proceeds to reload

Time skip 10 minutes

"Ground is clear, you're free to move up." The commander told, before being hugged from behind "Hm?" It was Vinnie and Rix

"Good to have you back, sir. It's been hell the past few days..... I won't lie..... I've become depressed. And Rix became a bit lonely without ya."

"It's good to see y'all too. But now's not the time for a family reunion, we've got a job to do." Reaper answered in a serious tone without skipping a beat

"Understood."

"I'm moving inside this building, keep the troopers and civvies covered while I secure it." Scar told, as she is seen jogging into the doorway and checking both corners before turning right and slowing moving out of view

"Where's the others?"

"On the other side of the city, they're finishing up the evacuation there before moving out to a safe location." Vinnie replied

"Sir, we've got lots of incoming movement. Multiple inbound phantoms." The trooper with a sniper reported, before looking down to the group below "They don't have much cover. We either get them into one of these buildings or we risk leaving the in the open." He continued

"Damnit. If we get them to move to Scar, we'll be cut off, but if we move them into our building, Scar will be cut off. And if we leave them down there, everyone is cut off." The commander processed out loud

"What if we divide them down the middle? The civilians and two troopers come into our building and the other two troopers go across the way into Scar's building? We can sandwich the enemies?" Vinnie suggested

"That could work. But we need to hope they don't land on the roofs too." The trooper responded

"Let's do it. Troopers move the civvies into our building while two of you follow up with Scar immediately." Reaper ordered, watching the hurried movement below, in a span of 30 seconds, the trap is ready

"One more thing, the three of you move down a floor and go into a room with enough windows for you to fire out of. I'm gonna stay up here to trick them." Reaper told, pulling out his plasma repeater before the other three fall out to the nearby door and enter

"Six inbound phantoms. Two spirits and four banshees." Reaper processed, watching the inbound covenant before three phantoms, a spirit and two banshees break off and go deeper into the city "Three phantoms, one spirit and two banshees. This will be significantly easier, but still hell."

(The beginning time was unintentional, but I am glad it happened.)