Frontlines

Story
Date: January 10th, 2586 Time: 3:00 AM

"Take cover! The UNSC are in the city!" yelled one of the conscripts before he was ripped apart by a Scorpion's 90mm gun. The troops near him were in shellshock, most of whom were fresh conscripts into the war. One, who had a package of C-12, sprinted ahead of the UNSC tank column, and planted it in the road. Detonating it while they moved over it two of the 5 Scorpions were blown to bits.

Up in the air, a battle was still raging between the warriors of the sky. Murphy was in his Mustang II, and had been in a dogfight with some hotshot UNSC Skyhawk pilot. Finally, after about 10 minutes of high G turns, the UNSC pilot slipped up, and fell right into Murphy's gunsights. The Chief Warrant fired his twin 20mm rotary cannons, and sent the Skyhawk plummeting into the now burning city.

Over the emergency radio frequency all troops heard "This is General Augustus Autumn. New Washington is now a frontline city.  Repeat, New Washington is a frontline city.  Initiate plan PALADIN." Now Murphy had free reign over what to blow up to slow the UNSC advance. First he chose the four main bridges leading into the city, dumping whatever and whoever was on them into the water. But this operation only lasted about 2 days, before the troops had to retreat to make sure that they would live to fight another day.