The marines assembled quickly; there were ten of them, not counting Jaeger. Jaeger had a very nervous look on his face and it caused the rest of the marines to look a bit anxious as well. Certainly, it did nothing to calm Roki or Joe, who were much less battle hardened than these marines.
"Ready when you are." Roki said, trying and failing to disguise the panic in his voice. Truthfully, none of them were really ready because all of them knew that some of them would die. Jaeger apparently decided that now would be a good time to at least try to get his men to not hate their life choices.
"Alright men, here's what's going to happen. We're going to open that shuttle bay door and fight our way to Commander Shepard. We are to make sure that we keep these two," he pointed to Joe and Roki, "alive by any means necessary. Now, I don't pretend to know what all of you signed up for. But, if killing Cerberus scum and saving millions of lives wasn't one of the reasons, I can't say I want to know." The spirit of the troops lifted noticeably; Jaeger seemed to have got to them.
"Now, I want two men on either side of the door as we open it. If it's clear, we move out. If there's Cerberus... we'll just have to fight our way through. I want diamond formation; eyes 360. We can't be surrounded; we can't stop moving. Positions!"
Everyone got into position, with some of the marines practically dragging Joe and Roki to where they thought would be the safest location. Within moments, the doors opened. The four marines stationed around it peered diligently in all directions; seeing nothing. Joe thought it was the longest minute of his life. An all-clear was said as they moved onto the exposed landing pad; they got into formation and began jogging toward their objective.
Naturally, everyone knew that this was too easy. About one quarter of the way through the landing pad, they heard a strange sound. Within about twenty seconds, they knew the cause: six Cerberus Assault Troopers jetpacked their way onto the pad. Gunfire broke out on every side; there were two in front of them, two to the left of them, and two to the right. The assault troopers didn't have cover, but their armor was definitely superior to what the Marines had.
The cacophony of bullets filled the air as all the guns fired out of sync. Joe was shuffling, trying to keep his fire as steady as possible while keeping up with the pace. Joe glanced around; the two assault troopers who were in front of them had already been killed. Joe figured that Jaeger had ordered some focus fire in order to make sure they had a clear route to the goal. They increased their pace to a practical run; Joe noticed one marine dead on the ground.
They reached the entrance to the base, taking cover with three remaining assault troopers shooting at them. Joe hadn't previously noticed they'd killed a third one. "Logan, Jimenez, you two stay here." Jaeger looked at Logan's grenade launcher. "Collateral damage is acceptable. Understood? Good. Hold them off. The rest of us, we have to continue!"
The group, three fewer now than when they began, continued down a narrow hallway. As soon as the first man turned a corner, a grenade was thrown and a hail of gunfire erupted. The man was immediately killed. A marine took a position on the corner and threw two grenades, one right after the other, down the hallway. The explosions seemed to shake the floor, yet Cerberus kept up its suppressing fire. They had to think up a solution quick.
Joe spoke up. "We could blow this wall with thermite; create a path into another room. What's this hallway look like?"
"A string of offices!" yelled the marine holding the corner
"We could go office to office, clearing the way of Cerberus. Instead of fighting on their terms."
"Bryant, you're the demolitions expert. You got thermite?"
"Never leave home without it"
"Then get to work."
Bryant applied the thermite to the wall; it looked like gray glue as he applied it into a large rectangle. He told everyone to clear a few feet as a safety protocol; then, with a press of a button, the wall exploded in one burst of energy, yet the explosion only actually affected the wall. There was a space between that wall and the next room, for some reason. Bryant got about setting up a second thermite detonation. Jaeger and another marine stood on either side of the first exploded wall with a grenade in hand.
Bryant stepped back behind Jaeger; as soon as the wall exploded, Jaeger and the marine threw the grenades in.As soon as they exploded, all the marines except for the one holding the corner rushed into the room and quickly dispatched of the Cerberus forces, who were dazed, confused, or dead. If any of them appeared dead, well, they received an extra shot into their skull just to be sure. They advanced down multiple rooms that way, rendering Cerberus's defensive positions useless. If the Cerberus soldiers in the hallway turned to defend themselves, then the marine still back at the corner had an easy shot.
The soldiers at the end of the hallway fell back to the last room before the elevator. It was a large room, with lots of cover in the form of crates and reinforced railings. It seemed that there were at least twenty-five Cerberus soldiers in the room. The marines, Joe, and Roki took up positions in cover. Jaeger sent half of the marines to attack via their right flank while he led the other half along the left flank.
The fighting was intense. It was an extreme challenge to aim for a shot due to the amount of bullets flying through the air at any given time. Joe completely lost track of Roki due to being so involved in ensuring that he himself stayed alive. The Marines fought valiantly despite being outnumbered; Cerberus troops were dying despite their best efforts. It was around this time that the Marine to Joe's left was shot in the head and instantly died. Joe was certain that his heart dropped into his stomach. He saw Jaeger mumble "Damn it all" under his breath.
Cerberus's soldiers, perhaps not realizing the objective of the marines, abandoned the left flank. They took up stronger defensive positions covering the flank which prevented cross-fire from the right flank. The marines on the right flank re-positioned near Jaeger.
The elevator was a few feet away from them, but was in the open and exposed. "Okay, I want two smoke grenades between Cerberus and that elevator. As soon as the smoke goes out, I'll make a run and call the elevator. Every soldier needs to lay down heavy suppressing fire. Okay. Smoke... deploy!" Two of the marines threw smoke grenades; another, perhaps acting on his own initiative, threw a flashbang stun grenade. All the marines realized this and shielded their eyes.
As the smoke deployed, Jaeger made a bid for the elevator. The flashbang erupted; seconds later, all the marines, Joe, and Roki fired at the soldiers in a vast hail of bullets. They ducked their heads, but there were a few who took shots into the smoke knowing something had to be going on. Jaeger pressed the button and made a desperate dive for cover. Joe noticed a bullethole in his shoulder producing generous amounts of blood.
"Damn those bastards! Okay, Joe, Roki, as soon as that elevator comes down, you run for it. Half of my marines will go with you. The rest of us will cover..." he said, before coughing up blood. Joe hadn't noticed a second bullethole in his right pectoral. "you." Joe wasn't satisfied that half of the remaining marines really meant there would only be three of them. The doors opened; the marines opened fire in another attempt to suppress Cerberus. The three escorts got up and opened fire as well; Joe and Roki made a break for the elevator as Cerberus was distracted. They shot from the elevator at the troops as the marines rushed in. They quickly pressed the button, and started their descent.
Joe hesitated to think about how much further they had to go.
