The Legions of the Hierarchy were hot on the heels of all troops retreating past the Adams River. It was a fighting retreat as the Graysons and their group joined up with elements of Armor and Infantry from across all battle lines. The distant Paladin and Kodiak artillery cannons let loose 152mm shells toward the enemy to halt them, while tracers lit the night sky as fighter-bombers swept in to try and delay the enemy as much as possible.

The Adams Riverbed was visible from where they were. Once a half-kilometer-wide and nine kilometer deep body of water that flowed continuously across the center of the Continent, dividing it in two, it had been dammed into a reservoir for electric power, as one knew, not long after the Colony was founded. The Dam was visible in the distance, lit up by the emergency lights and the lights of Warthog FAVs that the Army Corps of Engineers had used to get to it.

The riverbed had walls which were sloped with a thirty degree descending angle, the little water that still flowed down the middle being shallow enough to ford even with the smallest UNSC Vehicles. Sarah and Carla, however, watched an M910A1 Bridgelayer deploying that which the armor, vehicles, civilians and infantry would use to cross to the safety of the other end.

Carla knew the basics of the plan:The Army Corps of Engineers had rigged the Dam to blow up and shut the valves, meaning even what little water was flowing now was gonna dry out until they set off the charges. The UNSC would be continuing on a fighting retreat to the river across all fronts, even past the estuaries and various tributaries of the river itself, drawing the Turian Front Line into the riverbed itself to drown them all. From there on, the Army would prepare to cross back whenever reinforcements arrived, if they did, and fight the Turians in asymmetric warfare.

It was a crude plan, but it would hopefully work. Carla watched the fireworks of one of their Aerospace fighters taking fire from a pair of Featherhead air assets trailing it, their cannons flashing. The pilot's wingman swept in, his rotary cannon ripping through the two birds in two consistent, consecutive and deadly 1-second bursts of high-explosive 25mm ammunition.

She spoke, "Hope this gets them to back off of us..."

"Any bloody breathing room's fuckin' fine to me at this point," Sarah mumbled, rubbing her arm. The young woman had been pulled into reinforcing a couple of other ambushes and IED drops along the way to their crossing point here and Carla had seen the bandage wrapped around her shoulder. Someone dear to her had apparently died in the fighting, too. A sibling that was in the military.

Carla worried about her own siblings, too. They were suffering casualties while retreating. God only knew what would happen to them when they came to retake New Warsaw from the ETs. She wanted to comfort Sarah, but the Colonel barked, "All troops, bridge is down! MOVE!" as the bridgelayer's motors stopped screeching and its tracks grinded against the rocks and sand below. It backed away and out of the way of the other vehicles.

A trio of Oryx transports rolled over, one of them being an ambulance configuration. Sun Devils aimed at the heavens, their quad forties aiming at whatever the radars tracked as hostile for the moment. Carla sighed deeply as she and Sarah walked over toward the bridge, crossing it on the side as the armor rolled over. Maria, meanwhile, stopped to talk to the officer. Though the girls were too far away to hear, they both saw the two seemingly shake hands.

The woman then looked at Carla and gave a half-hearted, sad-looking smile that send a chill up the young girl's spine. Sarah had noticed it, too, then said, "Car, we gotta move..." before leading the way. She asked the Grayson youngster, "Whaddaya think your mom and the Colonel are planning? Don't seem too good for her well-being if you catch my cold..."

"I don't know," Carla admitted, feeling her heart race, "I don't know and I'm worried about it..."

As they crossed over to the other side and climbed up to the top of the slope, they watched a pair of Militiamen setting up machine gun nests within the shrub, putting up sandbags and defensive barriers and the likes. A single tank's tracks veered off left. The railgun barrel of the Scorpion poked out from amidst the trees, turret scanning the area ahead with its multitude of optical and thermal sensors.

She paused and asked a Militiaman, "What the hell's going on?"

"One unit's gonna be staying behind to hold the line. This is the only fordable point within a five mile radius and the Turians know it," The man replied as he hefted two boxes of ammunition for one of the MG nests. He was an elderly man, a Quarian with a bit of grey facial hair and a bald head, one of his eyes milky white. He smiled and said, "We know the river's gonna overflow at first..."

"That's suicide!" Sarah balked, "Who th'fuck came up with this batshit insane idea!?"

"I did..." Maria's voice came to them, apologetic. Carla swiveled about, eyes wide as she looked at her mother. She walked up the slope and told them, "Our unit's going to hold the line. Someone has to keep the Turian Legion pinned here so we can thin them out. Twelve other crossing points have also been leaked to the Turians hours ago. Twelve other allied units, nine of which are Militia, will be holding position."

"Our... Mom, no!" Carla yelled.

"Carrie," The woman frowned, "Listen-"

"No! You're not doing this!" Her daughter snapped, grabbing her by the hands, "C'mon! We're pushing past this river! We can find another way to stop the Featherh-"Only to stagger as her mother (gently) yanked her hands out of her daughter's grip, causing her to stagger. Sarah stared with wide eyes at the exchange, while Carla turned about and grit her teeth. She, however, couldn't hold it in, screaming, "Are you insane!? WHAT ABOUT DAD?! WHAT ABOUT MY SISTERS?! WHAT'RE THEY GONNA SAY WHEN WE TELL THEM WHAT YOU VOLUNTEERED FOR?!"

"Carla!" Her mother barked back, staring her daughter down. She grabbed the girl by her collar and pulled her close, speaking clearly as she stared into her little baby-girl's eyes, her heart already ripping itself apart in her chest as she spoke, "This is bigger than a single family! We let these bird fuckers win and god only knows what they'll do to the League! We fled our homes once and, by God, I will not fucking do so again!"

"THE WAR WITH THE COVENANT ENDED TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BEAR THE WEIGHT OF SINS FROM FAMILY WE'VE NEVER FUCKING MET?!" The girl screamed back, grabbing her mom's hand and trying to unclench it from her collar. She teared up, "Why do we have to pay for the Covenant's fucking sins!? Why do we have to..." And she hanged her head, before anger bubbled up again, "Why do I have to lose you for this...!? We can always rebuild-" only to yelp as her mother shook her.

"There will be no rebuilding... Not if the Citadel fucking neuters us! The Reapers will come and we will all be fucking dead, Carrie!" The woman replied, pulling her close enough to feel her daughter's warm breath on her neck, "I want you to have a future. You and your sisters, soldiers as they are... You have Rael, you have so many more people waiting for you out there! And I want you to have a home to go back to!"

"We still have time to-" The girl's voice cracked.

"No..." Maria sighed deeply, "We don't. Look at me, Carrie," and tears welled in her eyes. Her daughter averted her gaze at first, tears running down her cheeks, dirtied by the battles they'd fought on the run for nearly an entire week and a half. However, she relented, looking at her mother, whose eyes were also clouded by tears. The woman let go of her collar and set her hands on the girl's arms instead, stating, "There are times in history where some must make great sacrifices to ensure that those who follow will live to finish what they started and so that all generations after may live free of those same burdens... This is our burden. The Graysons of today have to bear the weight of a War we didn't want, so that whoever comes next can win against the Reaper threat and so that they and their children might then thrive..."

"... My life has lead up to this moment. From the moment I've learned of the sacrifices our great grandmothers and great grandfathers made, fighting the Great War and coming here to rebuild, both..." She wiped the tears of her daughter, then breathed shakily, "You and your sisters are the thing I'm most proud of. It's why I want us to win this war... So you can live and carry us onward in whatever you're going to create with Rael."

"Mom..." The girl covered her mouth, her own emotional dam threatening to break, "I'm scared..."

"I know, hon..." The woman smiled wryly, "Me, too..." then she caressed her daughter's cheek and spoke softly, "But you're a Grayson. You're a pioneer," before putting her balled fist to the girl's chest. Her daughter took her hand as she spoke, "And I fully trust you to win this for us... For me, for your dad and for everyone else these Featherheads took. But you won't be able to do that unless we hold the line here."

She then hugged her daughter tightly, letting her start weeping in her mother's shoulder as she pat her head. She whispered, her own voice cracking, "I love you, baby-girl. My little summer rose... I know you and Rael'll do great, so... Make me some nice Grandkids I can watch from heaven, 'kay?" before taking a step back as her daughter slowly started to break down. Wiping tears from her own eyes this time and steeling herself, she nodded to Sarah and said, "Get my daughter outta here, corporal."

"Ma'am," The girl replied, her own voice a little shaky as she took Carla by the wrist, taking her to one of the trucks to board it. Maria simply waved goodbye, then turned to face the Colonel as he approached. He sighed deeply, looking at the two girls loading up with the wounded in the truck and beginning to drive away. Carla curled up, only casting another passing glance at her mother before she vanished behind the forest.

Maria and the Colonel exchanged looks and a momentary silence settled between them. He offered her a hand, which she shook, wearing a weak smile all the while. He told her, "It's been an honor... Major..." and he let go of her hand. She gasped, looking at her palm, to see two gold Oak Leaf pins. He snapped a salute and said, "I figured that the person who's willing to throw herself into the jaws of death for us deserves a rank upgrade... Are you sure you don't want to retreat with us?"

"... Someone has to keep the Militia in order," She stated, looking at the young and old holding the line so that the Army may pull through, their last few vehicles now fording the small river via the bridge. When they crossed to a safe distance, the Bridgelayer crossed and retrieved its equipment, slowly folding it back on top of the modified Scorpion hull and rolling up the slope. She said, "Sir... Keep them safe."

"I'll do my damnedest, but we both know Carla's too much like you two," He smirked. Maria chuckled sadly, then turned about and snapped a salute at her officer. He saluted back, then told her, "Give them hell for every inch, Major," and walked over to a Saddleback, climbing into it and rolling off with the convoy. A Sun Devil rolled up next to the Scorpion and traversed the guns vertically.

She sighed deeply, shook off any and every bit of concern and fear she could, drew her rifle and ran up to the forwardmost trench, a zig-zagging series of holes in the dirt. She joined the elderly machine gunner, who asked, "Any words of comfort for us now, Major Grayson?" as he shouldered his LMG. In the distance, pillars of black smoke rose as the Defoliator tanks of the forwardmost Turian advance burned away the Jungle.

She turned on her radio and said, "I'm not one for long-winded speeches, boys and girls, so I'll say it bluntly. Even if we don't make it out of here? For every single soldier we've lost fighting the Batarians and fighting here, for every single soul currently being beaten down and marched upon by their steel-toed boots in the occupation of New Warsaw and for our glorious ancestors, may God rest their souls... We stop these bird fucks here AT ALL COSTS!"

"OORAH!" The soldiers cheered, before gazing down the length of their weapons' ironsights, the tank itself audibly traversing its turret to pick a future first target. The Sun Devil watched the heavens for enemy gunships, while other AT Elements, Militiamen with Anti-Tank Jackhammer launchers, hefted their weapons and crouched amidst mounds of dirt and uprooted grass being used as makeshift camouflage.

Above, clouds bloomed as if out of thin air, the sky growing black. Embers began falling around the soldiers, burning remnants of the destroyed natural life of the planet. The choking, acrid smell of whatever flamer fuel they used rolled up to them, causing one of the militiamen to vomit off to the side, though he still kept his gaze down the scope of his SRS-100.

Maria checked her radio, hearing that the Army Corps of Engineers was nearly done with the bombs. They transmitted the arming frequencies to her detonator and kept a copy for backup. Good, they were ready to also make the ultimate sacrifice. And it wasn't long before they would have to, as the flames of the Turians' immolation machines billowed out from amidst the treeline ahead. An area 200 meters across of grass, shrub and tree burned away in an instant, followed by the terrifying silhouettes of Turian armor appearing through the orange tongues of fire.

She heard the magnetic rifle, the Stanchion, shift for a moment. She barked in a low voice, "Not yet...! Wait 'till their first tank makes it to the riverbed..." before shouldering her rifle. The sniper nodded, aiming toward the leading piece of armor, a Defoliator with its tanks exposed, heat sinks billowing steam outward. The Scorpion behind them locked onto the center tank in the Formation, a transport vehicle hauling what looked to be ammunition. The tank driver shifted his ammo to HEAT and gripped tightly the controls of his vehicle, finger hovering over the trigger when his crosshair fully settled.

Maria's mind raced to the faces of her family, of her friends. She pat the gunner beside her on the back and whispered across the com, "Steady... Steady..." as she shouldered her own rifle, "Steady..." she watched the enemy tank approach the midpoint, preparing to ford the line ahead with a few troop transports. She spoke again, "Steady," and licked a bead of sweat off her brow. Only when the front of the enemy tank's tracks hit the sea, did she bark, "FIRE! FIRE! FIRE AT WILL! WASTE THE FUCKERS!"

The thunderclap of an overcharged Stanchion filled the air, the leading Defoliator tank being struck by a 14,5mm dart of depleted uranium in a ferrous sabot. The round punctured the top-most, largest tank of fuel for the vehicle's fire-spewing muzzle, causing the spark that caused the very air around that tank to glow for a very brief moment.

The subsequent explosion seemed to shatter said glow like a glass castle hit by one hypersonic pebble. The detonation that ensued daisychained, the heat and shockwave rippling throughout the Turian lines, heating two of the transports beside it to boiling point and following up by somehow over-pressuring a tank's ammunition into detonating prematurely, entirely shattering the Turians' forward line in a boiling-hot tsunami.

Whatever crews of scout infantry were outside were vaporized nigh-immediately by the blast, while the Militiamen of New Warsaw found themselves lucky to be in cover. Though their ears rang, they managed to follow up the fire, the entire treeline they were using as cover, stripped of vegetation and left with only half-broken palm trunks and trenches, erupted in a volley of tracer fire.

The tank's own rail cannon bellowed next, the 120mm APFSDS round cutting through the air like a burning-hot lance of light. It struck the rearmost defoliator, causing another similar detonation to the previous which caused a stagger in the Turians' other forces advancing. In the distance, near the Crop Fields and various other points along the river's flow, similar gunfire erupted.

Though she had her left eardrum blown out by the blast and was now bleeding from said ear, Maria let loose her assault weapon's full might. Spent 7,62mm casings piled at her and her riflemens' feet as the Turians scrambled for the cover of armor. Their own tanks returned fire, hitting the slope below the defenders. Shrapnel tore through one man, too far ahead for his own good, and the shockwave slammed a couple of the soldiers back.

The tank was destroyed moments later by the Scorpion's main gun. The Sun Devil, seeing no enemy targets of opportunity in the Air, rolled forward and opened up with its own autocannons, rippling 40mm shells tearing through the forward Turian line as they tried to engage the League's troops from the trees or attempt to push forward. Their troops were being cut down as they ran down toward the destroyed vehicles, trying to use the husks for protective positions. Some made it, others saw the glassed soil where the lead Defoliator had been.

Tracers were exchanged between the two sides, arcing flashes of scarlet that struck the soil and bounced high. Gunships overhead finally flew in, giving targets to the Sun Devil that weren't the infantry it was chopping to pieces. The crewman driving it aimed high and opened fire, rounds tearing through the enemy's kinetic barriers at first, before cratering the armor. One of two gunships in a pair lost a stabilizer and began to spin out of control while the other opened fire with its autocannons.

Several Militia soldiers were turned to mist by the cannon fire, but others returned fire. Jackhammers streaked high into the sky, contrails amidst the rain that now began to pour down on them all. Soil turned to mud below the feet of both the entrenched defenders and the attackers. Their tanks slogged through the mud, firing back with machine guns and cannons at the enemy force, while the Scorpion picked off anything it could.

Turian infantry pushed on through regardless, wading through the waist-high water while firing their weapons, pressing the advantage and throwing smoke grenades to try and disrupt the enemy's line of sight. Despite that, the UNSC continued firing. MG Barrels warped and were exchanged, their destroyed brethren tossed into the mud to cool off forever. Blood stained soil, washed away in the rain or made the very water of the tiny creek ahead into a dark red.

Another trio of Gunships appeared from the left, emerging from the treeline. One fired a pair of missiles at the Scorpion and Sun Devil. The Devil managed to somehow shoot its assailant out of the air, though, cutting through two gunships before a third ripped into it with its own autocannon. The tank, meanwhile, took a heat against its shields, which shattered, followed by volleys of fire from the advancing Turian tanks ahead.

It replied with its main gun again, the very sky seemingly cracking every time it fired. Turian vehicles piled into the riverbed, scattering and firing into the enemy's positions. Craters formed where some trenches had once been and Militiamen around her perished, but Maria Grayson, Major of the UNSC, held the line, firing her gun until the magazine was spent, reloading and firing again.

The dead were scavenged for ammunition by their comrades, with final players said in a murmur as they went back to firing. Mud was stained by human and Quarian blood alike in the trenches and defensive positions, which the troops shifted from to avoid enemy artillery fire and the Gunships' sweeping assaults with their cannons. The tank fired once more, a HEAT shell striking a Turian transport and forcing it to disgorge its platoon of infantry.

"CHRIST, IT MUST BE THE WHOLE TURIAN ARMY-" Complained a Militiaman before he got shot in the throat, collapsed and died on the spot. His wife, who was amidst the soldiers, retrieved ammunition from his belt, her tears mixing with the mud, dirt and soot. Maria swore quietly to herself while watching her Machine Gunner empty his fifth box and switch out his third superheated barrel, steam wafting off the white-glowing weapon barrel as raindrops fell upon it.

She ducked into cover, pressing her back against the cold mud wall of her trench, reloaded her rifle, then stood up, only to gasp and empty a full magazine into a Turian that had crawled up the hill, his armor covered by mud. She cut him down with her full burst, quickly reloaded and found she only had two magazines left, then checked her pistol and ammo for that, of which she still had plenty.

"TURIANS, COMING UP THE SLOPE!" Warned a male Quarian. He drew a shotgun, stood up and started firing down over the edge of the slope at Turian troops as they advanced. Beside them, the tank's gun fired, shattered and two missiles from a Gunship ripped the tank itself in half in such quick succession that it stunned even Major Grayson, who sighed, then started lobbing fragmentation grenades downhill.

More and more troops poured into the line, Turians making it uphill regardless of the casualties while the Gunships kept the Human and Quarian soldiers, the few survivors, pinned enough that the Turians were now jumping into their trenches with Omni-Blades and Shotguns. She slammed against one with the full weight of her body, pinning him on the muddy trench wall and filling him full of her mag. She called out, "LAST MAG!" As she changed to the last one and drew her pistol.

She wouldn't get to fire the last mag of her Assault Rifle, though, as it was cut in half in her hand. She aimed, snapped off a shot clean through the head of the bastard that took her rifle and drew her combat knife, stabbing, shooting and killing back-to-back with her Militia, while the Turians worked to surround them. Blood pooled at their feet, staining the ground scarlet and black...

Still, as valiant as the resistance of the soldiers had been, it was bound to end. Behind Maria, her MG gunner collapsed, shot to death by a platoon of Turians focusing fire on him. To her left, two more of her soldiers were cut down by arm-mounted Omni-Blades, while, in front of her, a Turian officer aimed his heavy pistol at her. She snapped hers up at him and both of them shot at the same time, twice...

The Turian fell, dead, while Maria collapsed into the trench, two bullet holes clean through her already-damaged breastplate. Her breathing ragged, she listened to the Engineers speaking, "This is BOMBERMAN ACTUAL, Turian strike teams are breaching the Dam, but the bomb emplacement and synchronization is complete... Major, if you're still alive, they're all yours. For Earth and All Her Colonies..."

For a moment, Maria heard them fighting as the Turians breached. She smiled a little as blood foamed at the corners of her mouth, her vision slipping. She stared up at the sky as warm rain washed her face. She tried to take a deep breath, but coughed blood as a squad of Turians surrounded her. Sliding her hand under her armor, she felt the bullet wounds and the warmth of her own blood.

She'd soon be going into shock. She already could barely hear the Turians speaking. She felt for the detonator underneath the armor and was happy to feel the cool plastic. She looked up at the leading Turian, who knelt in front of her and spoke something to her. A short laugh escaped her lips, however. It wasn't him that she was focused on. She could see behind him the faces of her family. Her husband, her daughters, all of them, and their beloved family friends, the Zorahs.

She smiled, seeing all of them... Carla herself included... Give her a nod of approval and salute her. It was then that her hearing cleared and she heard the Turian officer state, "Call your troops back and surrender, Major. We don't want to have to do this whole game of cat and mouse..." all while the pleas of the Army Engineers echoed over her communication system.

"... Surrender...?" she managed to utter ,weak and tired as she was. She grinned, her teeth red with her own blood, then said, "Don't you know, Featherhead...? The League don't surrender!" before pulling out the Detonator. The Turian, a Centurion, stepped back, his eyes wide with surprise as the woman clicked the button, the com going quiet and her hand, limp...

Moments later, in the distance, the Dam began to crack. A dozen internal explosions shattered the inner supports and the water mains and valves. At first, the dam's internals seemed to collapse in on themselves, but, then, three powerful explosions shattered that illusion, the dam itself exploding outward in a jet of water that moved at incredible speeds. It washed over the wider jungle around the riverbed.

The Turians at all defensive positions, regardless of if they'd overwhelmed the League's defenses in the area, did not get to withdraw in time. From the top of the reservoir down to the flatlands where crops had once been and where the husks of both sides' armored vehicles lay while the Turians advanced, water rushed down and washed it all away, the riverbed flooding thanks to both the sudden explosion of water and the massive tropical storm.

As if God let the Flood come one more time, this time to save the defenders of Man and Quarian, Adams River washed away the Turians' advance and a third of the Legion employed to complete the Race to the Sea. Debris flowed into the planetary ocean alongside the corpses of both invader and the defender, sending ripples into an otherwise calm isthmus...

A truly pyrrhic victory...