Halo: Man and Machine - Chapter 17

As I left the garage, I got a better view of the city than I had in the chaos of the drop. Paris had changed little since the early 20th century, from what I had been able to gather from the documentaries I had seen on the world wars. Once again, it seemed, the City of Life was being threatened by a force of darkness.
	“Jenn! Give me a waypoint to the nearest pod and put the rest on my map! Pronto!”
	“Got it! First one is only 200 meters out. Take a left and it'll be straight ahead!”
	The blue inverted square that appeared on my HUD marked the pod as being Barnes. It looked like he was in the middle of the street, totally exposed. I didn't have much time. Spartans are damn fast, but it would seem like an eternity to someone trapped inside a pod with a bunch of xenos trying to kill you on the other side. But soon enough, I was at the crash site.
	Barnes had dropped in the middle of a long stairway in what had been a row of quaint white houses, now charred black by the drop's explosion. I activated my cloaking device and went prone on the white fencing overlooking the pod, sliding my barrel through one of the slits.
	A Brute Chieftain covered in gold armor was motioning for a squad of grunts to come over towards the pod, probably to have them do the dirty work of prying it open. He looked different than Brutes I had seen before. His armor was different and seemed to cover more of his body. Maybe the Brutes got an upgrade when they betrayed the Elites? It made no difference to me. My 7.62mm HVAP round would kill him in one shot if I aimed at the eye. I squeezed the trigger, and instinctively switched to the skull of a grunt with a Needler knowing that the Brute would go down.
	Except he didn't. He growled only in agitation as a shifting blue force-field appeared around him. My position now compromised to the only effective combatant, I got up and moved forward as he fired in the direction of my muzzle blast. Shit! I thought. Since fucking when do Brutes have shielding?
	I charged at him, wanting to take the pressure off Barnes and forcing him to focus on me. Running down the steps, I emptied the rest of my mag center mass, just barely bringing his shields down. Enraged and out of ammunition as well, he charged me, swinging blindly with the blades of his Spiker. He missed, and I slid underneath him drawing my knife in one fluid motion. In an instant, I jumped up on his back, stabbing my knife in spine. He let out a quiet gasp before falling to the ground, paralyzed. I drew my pistol, and popped the now fleeing grunts in quick secession. Looking back down to the Brute, I decided to end his life quickly. I retrieved my knife, raised my foot and stomped down on his head. The force of the armor and my strength popped his head like a ripe tomato, spraying the reddish- blue Jiralhanae blood all over my armor. The immediate area secured, I went over to Barnes's pod.
	“Hey Barnes! Area's secure. Pop the locks.”
	“Alright, stay back. Let's pop this bitch open,” He said, motioning for me to clear the area.
	The explosive bolts on the pod shot the door open, sending it flying until it collided with the remains of a classical marble fountain. Barnes climbed out of his pod, chambered a round in his pistol, and loaded his sniper rifle. I did the same and topped off my weapons.
	“Thanks for assist back there. Again.”
	“No problem, man. You ready?”
	He nodded.
	“Alright, Jenn, can you give us a waypoint to the next pod?”
	“Affirmative. Looks like the rest managed to drop in one place. Near L'Arc de Triomphe. We're only two kilometers from it now. Marking them on your HUD.”
	“Streets are clogged with deserted cars. Looks like we're going to have to hoof it. Also, send the co-ordinates of the drop to Barnes, as well as any tactical information moving forward.”
	“You got it hun,” she said, prompting a small chuckle from Barnes as we ran towards the rest of the Marines. We normally wouldn't have rushed into a situation like this, but the lack of time demanded it.
	“Must be nice having an AI,” he remarked.
	“Yeah, almost like having your girlfriend as a handler or something.”
	“No, really. Would have taken 5 minutes to plot out the location at least, and that would have been assuming you have a TACPAD or something. We'll be there in the time that it would have taken to figure out where they are I mean.”
	“I guess it's not quite like anything in the world, really. Being paired with an AI, I mean. It's certainly different than working with a handler or even an AI without the tether.”
	“Yeah, I bet. By the way, don't you think it was weird that Brute had shielding? Never seen that before.”
	“Me neither,” I replied. “We'll investigate it later when we have the time.”
	“10-4 chief.”
	Moving down Avenue Foch, we heard the gunfire that had previously blended into the background become louder and louder. As we reached the end of the street, we saw the remnants of a Covenant platoon being whittled down in quick succession by my Marines, who had rallied around the Arc. Strangely, the handful of remaining brutes seemed to lack the armor that the Chieftain before had.
	“Barnes, let's set up a sniping position right here. Those fuckers are exposed to us. They'll have nowhere else to run.”
	“Sounds good to me” he said, taking cover behind a car and extending his bipod as I set up next to him.
	“Take the first shot and focus on the big guys. I'll deal with the small fry.”
	“Copy.”
	Barnes steadied his rifle and squeezed off his SRS-99. The round impacted the Brute closest to us in the side of the heart, sending a sizable chunk of his flesh out of his body and covering the Jackal next to him in his blood. Before the Kig-Yar could react, I sent a round into his neck. The xeno fell to the ground, grasping at his neck as he bled out. We unleashed a salvo of lead into the attackers, felling them one by one, only pausing to reload. Barnes sniped the last Brute, exploding his head with a colorful display of flesh.
	“Gamma 2, cease fire. All hostiles eliminated.”
	“Jake, that you?” Pulowski said as we arrived at their makeshift position.
	“Nah, just some another 7 foot supersoldier. You guys all right?”
	“Not exactly sir. Martinez took a hit from a Carbine. He's stable, but I think he's out of the fight.”
	“Shit,” murmered Barnes as he ran towards his fellow ODST. I followed suit.
	The grenadier was leaning against one of the pillars, cluching his arm in pain.
	“Hey, sorry sir. Didn't mean to get shot. I don't think I'll be able to carry on like this.”
	“That's fine, Martinez. You did what you could. We'll get you to a FOB and you'll get some R&R, how 'bout that?”
	“Sounds good LT.” he said with a dry cough.
	“Don't sweat it helljumper. You'll be back in the fight in no time, trust me.” I added with a light pat on the arm.
	“Thanks Spartan. Don't feel so bad now.”
	“I want Pulowski to take over as grenadier. That alright with you?” I asked
	“'Course,” he said with a nod.
	“Gotcha. Pulowski! Come over here.” I yelled.
	“What's up sir?” he asked.
	“I'm assigning you as squad grenadier.”
	“Copy that sir.”
	“Here kid,” Martinez said as he took of his grenade bandolier and handed his M319 to the Marine.
	“Uh, thanks,” he replied sheepishly. “So Jake, got a plan?”
	“Yep. Marines! Form up on me!”
	The Marines (plus Kor) quickly formed a semi-circle around me. Despite being only a few minutes yet drop, their previously uniforms were now dirty from the fight, covered in dust and dirt. I supposed I was the worst offender, with half my body covered in Jiralhanae bodily fluids.
	“Alright, listen up. Information has been spotty at best since the Covenant invaded. We're going to find the nearest FOB and see what the fuck is actually going on over here, and try to get our buddy Martinez some help. We're going to take our time and walk down the backstreets in two formations, one on each side of the road. Space out about 5 meters from the man in front of you. I don't want half my squad dying to a single grenade. Everyone got it?”
	A series of murmured yeses and nods told me all we needed to as Jenn automatically pointed out the closest Forward Operating Base on my TACPAD. It looked to be inside the Louvre. It made sense, the Louvre could be condensed into a relatively small area to guard, was underground, and also provided access to a decent portion of the city in it's entirety. I once heard that it would take more than a lifetime to see every piece of art, even if you only looked at them for a few seconds each.
	Moving out, I decided the best course of action would be to travel on foot. Being only about 4 kilometers away, we could run to it and make it there in about 20 minutes, counting on the slower Marines. But the Champs Elysees would be prime ambush territory, so I decided to take the relatively less traveled roads. It would be longer, but ultimately safer.
	About 50 minutes later, we arrived at the North entrance. A rather sizable Army roadblock greeted us, sanbagged into a small entrance that only a person or two could fit through. A mounted AIE-486H Minigun and the M68 ALIM Gauss Cannon flanked either said, with around 10 Marines standing on guard anxiously.
	“Friendlies coming through!” I hollered over to them as we made our way over to the checkpoint. Startled, they raised their rifles at the all of us, then started yelling in French as they saw Kor, focusing their aim on him.
	“Easy now! He's with us. Don't shoot! Ne tirez pas!” It took them a few seconds, but they wearily lowered their rifles and allowed us to pass inside the courtyard.
	“Since when do you speak French?” Jenn asked quizically.
	“In the program, we all had to learn a variety of languages. One of those was French.”
	“We should speak sometime. I haven't had a good partner to talk about in in...well ever really. It's my one of my favorite language.”
	“Sure, I'd like that. I haven't been able to practice it much either, so be warned it might be a bit rusty.” I said with a grin. However, that smile soon faded as I saw the remains of Earth's cultural center.
	The Louvre's famous glass pyramid had been shattered, leaving only a fraction of it's frame still standing. The smoldering remains of a Phantom was crashed into one of the walls of the palace, and one of the towers had been destroyed. Bullet holes and plasma burns marred what was left.
	Jenn sighed. “You know, I always wanted to visit here. I hope they got the artwork out.”
	“Me too. If we make it out of this, we can go once they rebuild. They always have.”
	“Thanks Jake. That means a lot to me.”
	“I know it would. It'd mean a lot to me too.”
	I saw two Marines wave over to us, presumably indicating where the entrance to the command center was. With the main entrance destroyed, we went through one of the entrances located in the palace. The sight that greeted us as we walked down the stairs was by no means reassuring.