ODST RED ALERT part 16

"The hallway was wide enough for the consumers, who used to gather here, to pass through without any major incident. Now, it was filled with a different type of consumer, hundreds of Falling. It was quiet, bar the occasional moan. However that noise was soon replaced with a distant roar. It was drawing closer. Suddenly, lights illuminated the dimly lit hallway, followed by a shower of bullet rain, riddling most of the Falling in its path. Those who were lucky enough to survive met their fate under the hoofs of these mighty beasts that called them pray..."
"What are you talking about?" Delta shouted to Assrak above the noise of the turret machine gun raining fire on the Falling around them as Irish ploughed through the ones in front of them.
"A though came to me while I was under the rubble before you pulled me out. If I got out of there, I would have to write all of these events up here down. It would make a great story." Assrak told him.
"Mat, I know you like to make stories but let's be realistic, who would want to read something like that?" Delta replied.
"I have to agree with Delta." Irish said after he pulled off a massive power slide. "Besides, he's a better author. If anyone should do a story on this, it should be him."
"That's not fair! It was my idea!"
"Yeah, but you would probably make up stuff to make you look good. I would tell everything as it is."
"Even every gory detail?"
"Yes, every gory detail."
"Fine, you do it." Assrak said, obviously depressed. "Was still my idea so I get the credit."
"Sorry to tell you this but I've been doing a journal while we were up here and I was planning on basing a story on this ."
"What? Oh man, now I won't make enough for..." Assrak stopped in midsentence.
"Enough for what?" Irish asked as he ran over another Falling.
"It's nothing, just forget I said anything."
"Mathew, what are saving up for?" Delta said looking at him funny.
"Oh no." Assrak said with a hint of fear in his voice. "You're not...you're not..."
"Yes I am."
"Wait, what are you doing Delta?" Irish asked.
"Oh man. Why do you always have to give me the look?"
"Because I know it always works." Delta said over Irish's screams of laughter.
"The look? You serious? We used to use that on the new recruits to get them to behave." Irish said in-between laughs and screams from the Falling he killed.
"Yeah, laugh it up. While I'm the still scared by "the look" at least I can drive to an L.Z without driving off a ledge." Assrak said pointing at the safety railing that they were nearing, rapidly. Irish was just able to turn away from it.
"That was close." Delta said.
"What was that?" ECHO 23, the last remaining ECHO member, asked over the radio.
"Irish took his eyes off the road and we nearly went over." Delta responded.
"How'd that happen? I thought he was a good driver?" ALPHA 12, one of the four remaining APLHA members, asked.
"I was giving the look to Assrak." Delta cocked his head as if he was trying to get away from his radio as he was met with the laughter of the remaining ODSTs, Marines and Kiara. "Now what are you saving up for Mathew?"
"I can't say. If I do she'll kill me."
"She?" Irish and Delta said in unison. Then it hit them. "You're not..."
"No! Not yet anyway."
"Well we can figure out what to wear when we get back to Earth. Right now there are Falling that are just begging to be slaughtered." Irish concluded.
"Here, here." Delta responded as he pulled the trigger, unleashing a new wave of hell on his victims just centimetres below him.

The convoy of about twenty warthogs, mainly troop carrier variants (BOX warthogs) arrived at the place where they had landed and split from ALPHA, OMEGA and ECHO. They parked up, the seven turret warthogs at the rear to eliminate any Falling that tried to attack them while they waited for extraction.
"Do you want me to close the Security Door?" Thea asked Irish.
"That would help us defend until the Pelicans get here. Go and close them. We'll protect you while you do that." Irish said as he started to position the warthogs to repel any Falling that tried to charge them. Thea input the close command and the door began to close, very slowly. Suddenly, they heard screaming coming up the hallway, followed by gunfire and someone barking orders. "Thea wait. SOMEONE GET A LIGHT DOWN THERE!" Irish ordered. As soon as he said that, Assrak fired a flare down the hallway. With it now illuminated, they could see a group of civilians running up towards them with an ODST behind them, firing at the Falling pursuing him. "COVERING FIRE!!!" Irish bellowed as he clambered into a warthog's driver seat. "Delta, man the gun. Let's go see who we have here." Before Delta was fully on, Irish had rammed the accelerator to the ground and was charging towards the ODST. They zoomed past the civilians as they were a few meters from the Security Door. Irish pulled up next to the ODST and beckoned him into the passage side while Delta rained a flurry of bullets at the oncoming Falling. When the ODST was in, they raced back up towards the Security Door only to find it nearly closed. Irish pushed the Warthog to its limits and just managed to get through before the door closed, scraping off some of the paint. When the warthog stopped, everyone got out and the new ODST was identified.
"Hunter?" Delta asked.
"Good to see you again, Lieutenant." Hunter replied shaking his hand.
"Hunter, I thought you were dead. Why were you not responding to my com. messages?" Irish asked.
"Yeah, sorry about that but my radio malfunctioned. All I could do was pick up com. chatter. That's how I knew to come here." Just as Hunter finished, lights appeared from outside the docking bay. The Pelicans had arrived.
"Extraction's here, everyone move." Irish ordered. As the remaining Marines and ODSTs directed the civilians towards the Pelicans, the Station began to shake and move, causing everyone to fall to the ground. Even the Pelicans slid a little. "What was that?"
"Oh no..." Delta said from a nearby terminal.
"What's wrong?" Kiara asked.
"The Elevator connecting the Station to Earth has just been severed and the emergency boosters have been activated. The Orbital Elevator is now on a collision course with the Earth."
"That's good. It means that the Station will burn up on re-entry and all the Falling will be killed." Irish said.
"Not if the shield's still up." Delta typed in another command to check Station Systems. "Which it still is."
"Well...I guess that we'll just have to nuke the crash site to destroy the Falling threat." Irish said.
"Or, we could disable the shield, causing the Station to burn up on re-entry." Delta suggested.
"Not an option. Our job's done, now we have to leave. We'll nuke the crash site."
"Uh, Captain?" Hunter said. "There's not enough room in the Pelicans."
"What?"
"With my group of survivors, we're literally squeezing them into each Pelican."
"How many people will be left behind?"
"By our calculations, four civilians or..."
"Two ODSTs in Mark VI armour." Delta said. "When would another Pelican be here?"
"ONI's scrambling one now but...three hours."
"Delta, how much time do we have until the Station hits the atmosphere?"
"Three and a half hours."
"If we vacate our seats in the Pelican, you can fit more people in and we can disable the shield before the next Pelican gets here." Irish said to Hunter. Before he could protest, Kiara and Assrak had beaten him to the mark.
"If you stay, then we all should stay." Assrak said.
"We would be able to disable to shield quicker if it was just the two of us." Delta replied. "Besides, you're in no state to crawl through vents and to fight off hordes of Falling."
"But..."
"Assrak. Get back to Earth." Delta said to him. "That's an order."
"Yes Sir." Assrak said, reluctantly and started to limp back to the Pelicans.
"Why do you have to stay?" Kiara said to him.
"I grew up on this station. It's my home, and now it's in the hands of a parasite. If I can't get it back, I'll destroy it. I'll be fine. I have Irish at my back after all." She embraced him tightly.
"You come back alive, ok?" She said as she moved towards the Pelicans. When everyone was onboard, they lifted off and returned to Earth.
"Now that we are all alone and they are out of com. range, tell me your true reason for wanting to destroy this place before it hits the Earth?" Irish asked. Delta staggered back, he wasn't expecting Irish to ask something like that. "Well?"
He took a deep breath and told Irish everything.