M6: Battle for Refuge (Ground)

[Huka]

Field Master Til 'Muramai
The Ruins of the Covenant Central Ground Command

Finally life started to return. Til find time and time again he was a warrior. Not a solitary hunter, but the leader of a hunting pack. Since the moment he step onto the battlefield, he was a leader to warriors of all kinds.

He could notice the little details in his unit; from the nervous and shifty to the broken and spirited. Turning after giving his orders on patrols, he saw a female Kig-yar trying to distance herself from the pit wisely. If Rex's mercenaries didn't just yank her down to the labor below, she must have apart of Q'ai's returning group, and then his good eye jolted to the side. Seeing another Kig-yar, it took a moment with everything going on, but he recognized him as one of the thieves that tried to take his gear.

The Field Master was about to address him when another of the avians suddenly threw himself at his feet.

Needless to say, Til was utterly surprised, shocked, and abit amused. Followed with disgust as his nostrils flared at the stench of human filthy water. Curling his fingers to grab, he forgot he lost his cape and despite himself, missed such a seemingly-meaningless material of noble egoism and superiority. Cocking his head like the begger before him, the Zealot instantly recognized the devotee before him. "Cad..." He said, low and quiet at first, suddenly feeling wary. "Raise."

Lifting his clawed hand up in midair to further gesture his command. He waited until the order was obey. "Your individual sins is my only concern;" Pause to that sink in before speaking again, 'If I recall, you didn't come to the summons that I ordered units ago correct?" He questioned with his poisonous eye staring deep into Cad's soul.

He ignored any further interruptions till he was done with the Kig-yar. Even as the Jiralhanae finally found the holy light deep in a tomb, their hearts and spirits started to soar as their bloodied fingers and dirty claws started to dig even more excitedly, throwing boulders and debris in a frenzied wildness that managed to hit a few of their fellow punished, much to their ire.

Kig-yar Scavenger Fiv
North Covenant Camp (Zero's area)

Morning finally broke up for the traveling disobediences but it was all worth it after climbing over a near mountain of rumble and caught sight of a controlled camp. A Sangheili camp! "Ha, told you." Fiv said to his skeptical comrades after their orders from the crazy Zealot and their near death from some ordiance bombing. The Crocodilian Kig-yar looked at the camp in careful caution; somehow they managed to get a gated post from the Human population, probably one of their law enforcements. Greatly surprised that the Sangheili was actually making use of the native defenses instead of disdainly scoffing it as mere distractions like most. Well fortified too, looking like it was creche-big.


"They must been apart of the northern vanguard..." Another whispered. Nodding in agreement, Fiv unconsciously rubbed on his cheek, eager to get this skirmish done and get off this stupid rainy world, thankfully it was just a drizzle now.

"Come on." He instructed and lead the front with the others on either side of him in a short-legged V formation. Lifting his hands up to signal he was of good intention, he called out in the Ki-yar dialect of Sangheili like most servants of the Covenant, "We're here on orders from the Field Master!" Waiting for the guards to acknowledge this, Fiv continued, "We need you fine warriors to head for the old artifact site, he ordering a meeting there."

"Do you take us for fools, scavenger?" One of the guards questioned, lifting his needle rifle threatening. While the others halted a moment, Fiv stepped forward once, "You and I both know I would stupid to convince a entire troop for a possible Jiralhanae trap without getting maimed. If you don't believe me, let me speak with your commander and I will deliver proof."

The guards glanced at each other for a second and the senior of them jerked his head, "Approach and keep your arms raised. If you try anything, you'll lose a limb." Smiling at the gambit, Fiv and his comrades crept forward in a moderate speed to look less suspicious and had to handle a couple rooks of security searching.

[SuperCommando]

Silas-009
Gold One
Refuge, Planet Hope
Behind enemy lines

From his perch at the corner of the rooftop, Silas observed the three men dash through the smoke, across the street, and safely into the parking garage. He could hear the bloodthirsty snarls of the oncoming Brutes as they closed in from the alley. Glancing over his shoulder, he could see the alien apes surge forward, weapons blazing. It was time to throw them for a loop.

With one hand still supporting the rocket launcher on his shoulder, he used the other to prime a frag grenade and drop it over the side of the building to land in the Brutes’ path. He could hear deep, guttural cries of alarm as they noticed the explosive and undoubtedly dove away from the ensuing detonation, but the Spartan didn’t bother to watch the results. As soon as the grenade left his hand, he had already turned his attention to sowing further seeds of disruption.

Zeroing in on the entrance of the parking building SSgt. Blacklock and the others already escaped through, he opened fire with the M41. The launcher boomed as it blasted a 102mm HEAT shaped charge across the street, impacting the divider of the parking building’s entrance and collapsing it in a spew of rubble. Silas then quickly switched targets and releasing another rocket, blowing out a storefront several buildings away. Now having expended the launcher’s ammunition capacity, he hurled his other hand grenade into the doorway of the next door café before snatching up his assault rifle and unloading it at the Brute pack.

To the Brutes, it would be chaos. Or at least that was the intention. Silas imagined that if he was one of the enemy, eagerly chasing after some human stragglers only to suddenly lose them in a cloud of smoke, have explosions go off next to you and all around you, and look around only to find multiple collapsed entrances all while under fire from above, it would be pretty confusing. He also knew that Brutes had a tendency to be easily angered and frustrated, which he deliberately tried to exploit. All this was to give the others the best chance to escape, but now that he had thoroughly disoriented the enemy it was time to get the hell out of dodge as well.

Silas ducked low, nearly putting his chest to the floor as spiker rounds zipped past.

“Time to go,” he said to Dani. He shuffled backwards away from the corner of the rooftop, dragging his stuff with him. He didn’t bother reloading either his emptied rocket launcher or assault rifle, opting instead to hurriedly sling the MA5, re-strap the M41 to his backpack, throw it back on, and get moving.

Silas turned and ran the way he and Dani came from, essentially the exact opposite direction Blacklock and the others went. Next to the door he burst through earlier, there was a staircase leading up to another tier of the building. It was a small area with nothing but an air conditioning unit, but across a short gap to the next building was a fire escape. It was child’s play for Silas to dash towards the end of the roof, shove off the ledge and jump the gap, hurdle the fire escape railing, and proceed up to the next rooftop. As he was mid-leap, he noticed the ground below was literally covered in a sea of Covenant. That other large wave of enemies must have finally arrived.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t mask the clatter of his freerunning. Some of the Brutes below noticed the noise over their heads and began to open fire at Silas and Dani. Luckily they didn’t have far to go to get to the top of the fire escape – if they had taken any longer to get there, they’d both surely be pincushions by now. He hoped Dani wasn’t hit, in that short period of time he personally had way too many close calls.

As soon as they reached the roof, Silas turned south and sprinted to the end of the building. Now they were traveling parallel to the direction he instructed Blacklock to take. With their higher pace, the Spartan’s plan was to overtake the allies, then cut through the buildings so that both groups should meet up without too much hassle and then be on their way back to camp at the office complex together.

At the end of the roof, Silas deftly leapt from the edge, dropped to the neighboring rooftop one story below, hit the floor with a roll, shot to his feet, and kept right on going. Progress across the rooftops was already proving faster and more efficient than the Brutes on the ground who had to weave around the buildings and past obstacles like fences and debris. He could still hear them desperately shooting after the escaping Spartans, but as the noise of gunfire began to dwindle he knew they were breaking away. He decided to run near the side of the building for a moment to check on the pursuers’ progress.

Bad idea.

As he craned his neck to look back, he saw a distant enemy with a Brute Shot arcing explosive projectiles in his direction. Silas began to swerve away from the ledge, but the mid-flight salvo had already begun crashing down around him. Most of the shots were either too low or too high to be any threat, but one lucky shot impacted the edge of the building right in front of him, causing the floor to collapse directly underfoot.

Silas slipped sideways off the building as his leg dropped out from under him. The shattered edge of the roof shot up at his face as he fell, and although he managed to turn his head to avoid faceplanting into it, the side of his Marine Corps standard issue helmet still connected with enough force to stun him and make him see stars. The impact sent him spiraling wildly as he began his three story plummet.

Beneath him were the remains of a collapsed nearby building. The large flat shards of concrete formed a natural wall about a story below him, and although disoriented Silas still retained just enough spacial awareness to impact the pile and roll off the side opposite of the approaching Brutes. After tumbling uncontrollably down the nearly vertical pile, his body slammed into a dumpster, bounced off, and then rolled into the street before finally coming to a rest… directly in front of a squad of ODSTs.

For a little bit, Silas didn’t get up. That drop had been one helluva doozy, even for someone with augmented bones and musculature. He wasn’t even sure where he was, but as his eye focused he could tell from the ODSTs’ body language that they obviously didn’t expect a guy in Marine armor to come falling out of nowhere.

“Uhhn… Don’t… go that way…” he groaned by way of greeting.

Before anyone could offer to help him up, a very battered Silas staggered to his feet by himself. Glancing at the mountain of rubble he just fell from, he judged that it would be difficult for the Brutes to traverse. All the same, he didn’t wait around to see how long it would take for them to scale it. With a little wave to the ODSTs indicating they should follow, he resumed pushing south. The Spartan started out hobbling and breathing hard, but slowly began to shake it off. By the time Dani found a way down and caught up, they were once again moving at a decent run.

There was no time for words. They zigzagged through buildings and alleys, working their way towards where Silas anticipated Blacklock and the Marines had gone. At one point, Silas almost ran right past a seemingly unobtrusive alleyway, but noticed something glowing green from within and doubled back to look.

“This way,” he panted. He snatched up the green flare at the foot of the entrance to a bomb shelter, grumbling to himself as he did so. He descended into the underground bunker, where sure enough he found the others waiting.

“Thought I said to keep moving,” Silas mumbled as he ducked inside. It wasn’t the greatest tactical choice to leave a bright signal outside your hiding spot either, but everything worked out okay in the end so he didn’t press the issue. In fact, he was grateful to have a place to hunker down and rest for a moment. Looked like they found some civilians in need of rescue too.

With everyone inside, Silas plopped onto a bench and dabbed his face with his neck scarf. The shemagh was damp from the drizzle outside, but at least it was something to get the moisture off his face and the black metal cap that sealed his left eye socket.

“What’s our status? Is everyone okay?” he asked out loud to the whole group. Once everyone sounded off, he finally got a chance to introduce himself.

“I’m Chief Petty Officer Silas, naval special warfare. Callsign Gold One.” He explained. He almost said ‘SPARTAN-009’ like usual, but given the circumstances didn’t feel that was relevant right now, so he stuck to just using his actual name. He then gestured to his sister-in-arms in her ODST armor. “This is my teammate, Dani. As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, there’s been a total communication blackout between the ground and the fleet since this whole operation began. Command is getting rightfully worried, so they sent us in to investigate. So… anyone care to fill us in on what’s been going on down here?”

[HollowSaber]

: Corporal Jake Furrow :
: Task Force 77, Nova Squad :

: Condition :
Mobile
Wounded

: Location :
Covenant Territory
Artifact Area

: Objective :
Find the
Artifact

: Tags :
HollowSaber

A low, chilled breath escaped from the ODST’s lips as he leaned gently against the wall to his right. It was cold where he was on the elevated floor; it was cold, windy, and wet. His most recent previous missions were hot, sweaty, and tropical, so it made staying in one, open spot like he was at a little more difficult to be comfortable in due to the drastic change. However, he was coping fairly well compared to how some of the Covenant soldiers looked to be. He shivered here and there, but every few minutes his armor’s regulatory systems would kick in and warm his body back up before turning back off. It was a bit tiring to go from hot to cold, hot to cold, cold to hot, but it actually kept him from falling asleep as well. Even though he was well rested before the drop, he had been a lot more active than usual this time around. With all of the running and gunning compared to his regular lying and spotting, Jake was actually a little fatigued. A nap would have been amazing right then. Yet, the Covenant was much more important than sneaking in some shut eye and his armor was far too distracting.

The Alien force was much more alive than the UNSC forces, from what Jake had seen and heard, which make him extremely uneasy. Even with the airstrike, the alien forces were still fairly substantial and in addition to that; more seemed to be coming out of the rubble every few minutes. The fact that the Covenant were regrouping with such mass, and were still able to hold a decent perimeter made Jake wonder; even if the UNSC could attack, would they be able to do anything? From where Jake was looking, he doubted that the scattered UNSC force could even put a dent in the alien force. Although, that was if they simply attacked in one direction. Using guerrilla warfare in the crumbling city would prove highly effective, but that was to be seen. Whoever the UNSC ground commander was, Jake hoped he wasn’t an idiot. If he was, then a slaughterfest was just a few moments ahead. Thankfully, Jake had his eyes on the prize. Worrying about failure was for failures.

Taking in a deep breath, as if he was a smoker inhaling from a cigarette, Jake stretched his shoulders and his chest before placing his right forearm down on the floor. With very cautious motions, the soldier lowered himself down and popped his head out just a few inches over the edge of the building so he could see down below. He sat there for a moment, watching the Brutes move stones and continue to dig towards the artifact. It was entertaining to see the Convenant hierarchy in action and even more exciting to learn that the Elites and Brutes were fighting each other just as they were fighting the Humans. If that was true, than Jake would use that to his advantage at some point. The thoughts brought a smirk to the Trooper’s face.

Yet, just as quickly as the smile appeared; it vanished. As he scanned the area, making mental and physical notes of the changes if there were any, the group of buggers which he had seen earlier on lifted off the floor and headed straight towards him. He froze. The alien creatures showed no signs of knowing where he was but they continued to head up. Maybe they had done so as to mask their true intent? No. If Jake had been discovered, than he knew that Elites would be storming the stairs and snipers would have the windows on lockdown. There was no doubt about that, so he kept still. The Trooper’s neck locked and his breathing slowed as he stared at the group of buggers floating up the side of the building. He didn’t breathe again, for almost a minute, until they finally turned and dove into a lower floor; two floors below to be exact. That wasn’t the end though.

The instant the buggers disappeared, a door opened across the floor Jake was on, forcing him to act. The Trooper barely had time to refill his lungs before he was impolitely coerced to move away from his corner and into one of the few standing cubicles nearby. Though, regret washed over him as he slipped beneath the desk which was there; he couldn’t see anything now. What didn’t help was the fact that he had to leave his sniper rifle, pencil, and notepad behind in the open as to keep from getting caught by the intruder, or intruders. The door which had been popped was to his right thirty meters and across the room at a diagonal of ten. In short, whoever just walked in would see his equipment very, very easily should they walk and turn the correct way. For Jake, that was more than enough reason to take a risk. Risks seemed to be all he was taking today; not lives. That wasn’t a bad thing, but it was tiring beyond hell.

Pulling his pistol off his thigh, Jake moved out from underneath the desk very slowly and moved up to the edge of his cubicle. His eyes were fixed on the water pools on the floor from where some of the rain had come in. They acted like mirrors; very poor mirrors. From there, he listened… At first, he heard footsteps, multiples of them, moving through the room just beyond the thin walls of his hiding place. Unexpectedly; they were light, purposed, and steady. Not a single noise was made inappropriately. It was as if they were hunting something... That made Jake hesitate. Had he been found? Were the buggers just decoys? The Trooper nipped his lip at the thought of being captured and glanced at his pistol. He had twelve rounds in the clip, one he would have to save just in case. He would rather die than be captured by the Alien scum.

“Do or die…” Jake squeezed the handle of his pistol and peeked out cautiously as his mind was set. What he saw made him freeze in place. There, across the room and not even twenty feet away, three Elites clad in silver equipment stood with a mix of both human and alien weapons their hands and on their bodies; assault rifles for two, a battle rifle for the third, and plasma rifles on all three. Such a sight made Jake tense up. It seemed that human weapons were much more useful and even the honorable Elites were using them. Though he would rather be hit with a human round than a super hot plasma blob.

The Elites moved forward to the edge of the building, all three peering out into the open area below as if they were scouting the zone just as Jake had. However, they rumbled quietly in their own tongues and looked to be searching for something, not just looking. From the way they looked, they were dissecting the area in front of them with a lot of care, and it was frightening. Jake had little time and now was probably his best chance, if not his only chance, to do something. So, he laid down.

Slowly, carefully, and quietly, Jake inched his way across the floor towards his items that he had previously abandoned. His black armor blended with the dark floor due to a lack of light and he used that to his advantage as he steadily made his way back to his rifle. It lay there, down on its side beside the wall in the dark, and just out of reach. Jake kept his eyes on the Elites, moving only when they seemed focused on something or spoke. Silence was key, as timing his movement was even more important. The thirty seconds it took for him to move close enough to his rifle felt like an hour, but after that he didn’t waste any time. His arm extended slowly, he gripped onto the butt of the weapon, and he lifted it slightly off the floor before dragging it carefully back to him. As he brought his closer, Jake put two hands on the weapon and was able to lift it completely.

“Hah?” Shit.

Looking towards the Elites, he saw one of them looking at him; directly at him. At first, the Elite looked confused, as if he was questioning what he saw. The look in the Elite’s eyes was filled with question as he eyed Jake. It was like it was the alien’s first time ever seeing a human being, but that lasted only for a second.

“RAH!” Yanking his rifle in as the Elite realized what he was looking at, Jake pulled it to his shoulder, steadied it, and fired. From the near point blank range, the round shot through the air and drilled the alien in its helmet before it could react. The round tore straight through armor, bone, flesh, bone, and metal before popping out and slamming into the skull of the Covenant Warrior’s partner. The two Elites dropped to the floor, one of them nearly rolling out the window as he fell limp. The third Elite ducked out of the way and moved behind the few cubicles off to the right where Jake couldn’t shoot. Lucky bastard, but not for long. Jake hissed at the movement and reached to the barrel of his sniper, adjusting the silencer on it to ensure it was still on correctly. His shot had been muffled, but it still cracked a little through the room. There was no doubt that if there was someone in the vicinity, they would have heard it. Jake would have to be quick.

As he slid his sniper across the floor and under the desk he once hid behind, Jake pulled his pistol off the floor where he had dropped it in exchange for the heavier weapon. Lifting it up, Jake raised to a standing position and moved along the cubicle walls. Keeping the windows far away to his left, the Trooper moved forward slowly and carefully towards where the Elite was most likely hiding. From the size of the creature, taking it on in a fist fight would be almost impossible. Jake was no SPARTAN, so he would have to be crafty. He had fought these things before with blades and watched the life drain from several. He wouldn’t fail now.

Or not.

As he broke the corner, pistol raised, he was surprised to see that the Elite was gone. Jake quivered for a moment, confused at the sight. Where had he---Wait. SIlver armor. He wasn’t gone. That meant…

Ping~

Suddenly, Jake’s VISR mode returned to him and activated itself, as he had left it on when he cut out before. Upon use, the outline of a massive figure appeared in front of him several paces away. The Trooper’s eyes opened wide at the sight, but then narrowed quickly. Immediately, the Trooper pulled the trigger, his silenced pistol firing off multiple rounds into the large body in front of him. The cloaked Elite snarled and quickly moved to the left as it was struck twice. Its arms moved, and Jake dove to the right as the battle rifle cracked into the air. It was unsilenced, and the shots rang out loudly through the room and into the open air beyond the building. Jake cursed at the sound and rolled to a knee. Quickly, he leveled his pistol on the Elite’s upper torso and unloaded. In another second, the beast tripped and began to fall down to the floor. The battle rifle it held went off one more time, releasing a final barrage of three shots. One round went by harmlessly, a second grazed Jake’s left side, and the third struck the Trooper in his left thigh. Heat and pain flooded into Jake’s system, almost paralyzing him from the feeling but he resisted falling to the floor.

“Karma.” Jake groaned and put his pistol on the floor. Quickly, Jake pulled off his helmet, pulled his backpack off, dropped it, and then ripped the middle compartment open. He was losing blood and that round in him was a bitch of an itch. Due to the gunfire from the Elite, Jake could almost guarantee that company was on the way; he needed to act fast.

As he pulled a pair of thin-nosed pliers he once used for preparing explosives and a box of matches out of his bag, Jake readied his mind for the coming trial. Jake propped himself against the cubicle behind him and lay his leg straight out in front of him. He lit one of the matches he had and took in a deep breath as he looked at his wound. It wasn’t bad for the most part aside from there being a hole in him and the bullet wasn’t extremely deep. In the pocket he had been struck in, Jake had left an extra piece of hard candy to last him the mission. That, of course, was gone now but it had served as a bit of a shield. Just enough to keep the bullet from digging too deep. Blood was in the way, but Jake could see it glimmering there in his flesh. He reached to his right, grabbed a piece of wood that had fallen from the ceiling, stuck it between his teeth and tightened his stomach.

The pain was excruciating and Jake’s vision blurred a little as he dug the pliers into his body. He felt like screaming, but he held it in. Blood was everywhere, and he pushed the pliers deeper. Then, he felt a little bump. He whimpered at the feeling, spread the pliers, and grabbed. His conscious faded and Jake nearly fell over, but he breathed. Steadily, Jake kept himself awake and aware as he began to pull. It hurt, It hurt a lot. So fucking much. As he pulled and began to remove the pliers, it only hurt more. The wound spread a little because of the pliers and he could feel his stomach tighten. Then, the tool popped free with the precious cargo. The round was in one piece but it was coated in a thick lining of red, as were the nose of the pliers. Jake leaned back a little in relief for a moment, but he wasn’t done.

Dropping the pliers and the bullet just to his side, Jake pressed his hand onto the wound with all of his might. He put out the match, reached back into his back as he squeezed his leg tighter, and pulled out a can of biofoam. With a flick, he popped off the top and released his wound for a moment. He was losing a lot of blood and nearly felt like he was going to fall over, but Jake continued to breath and kept himself calm. Once the can was prepped, Jake stuffed the nozzle into his wound and squeezed the trigger. Ants flooded into his leg as the space filler pushed into the wound. The wood dropped from the man’s mouth as he opened it and groaned in pain, but he wished he had kept it in. Pain filled him once more as the foam reached the brim of the wound and the Trooper’s teeth slammed together.

Jake pulled the can away from his leg, reset it, and slipped it back into his back before pulling out the cloth bandage roll he kept there. He wrapped the black cloth as tightly as possible around his mid thigh, wrenching it down as to keep pressure on it at all times. He tied the knot on the inside of his leg and pulled on the two edges, ensuring that it was tight enough. Then, he wrapped some around his torso as to cover up the cut that another round had caused. He hurt, bad, and he felt like he was going to die right then and there but he couldn’t rest. His leg was patched up for the most part and he could move it, which meant so could he. With haste, Jake tossed all of his emergency medical equipment into his bag and pulled it back over his shoulders. Before getting up, Jake grabbed the bullet he had pulled out of himself from the floor and pocketed it, and then pulled his helmet back on. He holstered his pistol and began to crawl across the room towards the Elite with the battle rifle.

Before the LED went out due to a loss of power and reactivation of the EMP, Jake read that the rifle had twenty rounds left in the clip. That was enough to satisfy the Trooper so he took it and began to use it as a crutch to help him stand. At first, Jake was on the verge of falling over again. He stumbled a little bit to his left where he was hit but then he shoved the rifle onto the floor to stabilize. Taking in a breath, Jake hobbled forward to the cubicle at the end of the hall and dropped to his knees carefully. He retrieved his sniper rifle, strapped it over his shoulder, and then crawled over to get his pencil and notepad. With his stuff gathered, Jake returned to his feet and moved to the stairwell.

As he reached for the door, Jake’s leg gave out, causing the Trooper to fall forward. He nearly smashed into the thing. If it hadn’t been for the doorknob, he most certainly would have. With a hard twist, Jake turned the knob, pulled the door open, and slipped into the stairwell. Very carefully and quietly, the Trooper pulled the door back closed and began to make his way north. The Covenant would be behind him, heading towards the sound of the gunfire and there was no doubt that they would be sweeping the floors. Well, if they were smart they would. So moving up was all Jake could do. He would find a place to hide for now. Some place safer than that floor.

Fight for those you never see...

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

[Armory]

Sergeant Johnathan Miller   

Vitals: Heart Rate returning to normal levels

Time Zone: 24:08 Hours Refuge Planetary Time

Location: 4th Avenue Alleyway Parking Garage Complex, Refuge City

Current Mission: Awaiting Rescue....


Miller slid the metal down firmly before flicking on the flashlight attached to his firearm, it's beam cutting through the darkness. He could hear Ingram rummaging around the room as he gave the place a quick once over. Nothing of importance seemed to be found here other that some beaten up cars. "Sir I think we should get moving or those apes are going to be up our asses fast...." He muttered as he looked around the place as Ingram gave a whistle while admiring a car in the complex. The room was as quiet as a funeral parlor as he moved through following the Staff Sergeant as the made their way through the building. However the staff sergeant moved his way to what looked to be a bunker as Miller watched as he swung the door open before throwing down a green flare. Ingram gave a glance at the flare and pointed to the Staff Sergeant silently raising an eyebrow, but Miller simply waved him off.

The stairs down into the bunker were winding as the maneuvered their way into the pillbox like room only to find just one other surprise waiting for them. Five civie's were piled into the room each one of them looking just about scared half to death at the fighting going on around them. Miller remained silent as he knelt down next to the piles of the dead before simply standing and moving on his way to the side wall of the room. However none of them would get a much needed break as the sound of footsteps brought Miller right back into combat mode only to see the marines that had saved them come walking down the stairs accompanied by a squadron of ODST's. Miller watched them tiredly as he leaned against the cold stone wall sounding off his status as Ingram slid down to a sitting position next to the civie's. The sergeant waited before one of the marine's who by just his size alone looked to be one of those SPARTAN's spoke up asking for a recap of everything that had happened.

"Sir, Sergeant Miller....." He said as he stood up straight before continuing with the recap. "After we dropped in a couple of hours ago sir we were hit by some massive EMP wave the Covie's set off and it fried pretty much every goddamn thing down here. After that everything went bat shit down here as it was for a while every man for himself until we had some order restored here under Colonel Killinger though Staff Sergeant Wolf, his spotter and my gunner Corporal Ingram were split up from him during a firefight with some apes....we lost a good man on the way here due to a grenade sir....." Miller paused before hanging his head "Other than that we're seemingly all that's left." He wrapped up his report before looking at the two marines that had saved them, 'So things could really be turning around for us...' he couldn't help thinking as he awaited their response.

[MrKill]

Frazer has granted the authority for me to initiate a time skip!


Six hours have passed, it is now the crack of dawn and roughly 0600 hours UNSC Time - but heavy weathers approach as the sky to the 'arbitrary' west are dark. The Marines, ODSTs and SPARTANs have regrouped at Colonel Killinger and Captain Sorelson's location and have since come up with a plan. The UNSC will be staging an assault on the artifact!

The Marines also established a new command post just outside of the Covenant patrols...

Meanwhile, on a distant research base on the lone habitable moon (One of three by Refuge) a civilian research scientist 'accidentally' activated a significant radiology spike from a command device controlling the forerunner EMP device on Refuge. The radiation emitted by the command device is lethal, killing the scientist immediately and as a result the EMP device on Refuge's surface has returned to full strength (No more lapses).

The Covenant forces, after thwarting the Brute mutiny attempt, have regrouped around said artifact and successfully dug it up. However, with no air support or vessels to transport it off world it remains stationary.

[MrKill]

Colonel Johnathon B'Sheau Killinger
Seventh Marines
More alive than ever before..

The crack of dawn, good. John thought, standing over a map held down by two magnum magazines. The plan was good. Not the best, but good. The Officers and NCOs that had regrouped with the Marines were all waiting for him to speak, so he chose the moment to remain quiet for a minute. The UNSC Forces had gathered during the night, increasing thrice the number Second Lieutenant McRaven said hours before. Effectively, with out the wounded that couldn't move and the men needed to protect them, the Colonel had roughly two hundred ten devil dogs, troopers and SPARTANs to work with...

"Alright, ladies." The Colonel started, "Thanks to McRaven's work during the night we've got some invaluable intel to work with. The Covenant are digging something up, anyone want to know what it is? Stop, let me tell you what it is!" The Colonel shouted, but not too loud. "The Covenant worked all night for us digging up their graves. We're going to do them the favor and honor that commitment to death by killing every last bastard that opposes our advance!"

He needed to increase moral, hopefully that was a start.

"The squid-lip, methane sucking, 'raptor looking mother fuckers will come to learn how good we truly can be when a proper plan is in place and the thought of redemption on our minds. This isn't revenge, people! This is redeeming ourselves from a pathetic deployment. We were all trained in EMP scenarios, now we're going to utilize that training." The Colonel said.

"We've got a tactical situation we'd be stupid to pass up. The sun rise is approaching, we're going to move with it. We've got four platoons worth of men and runners to supply information to other platoons. Since we're short officers, I'll be leading one myself. Okay," Killinger stopped and took a breath. "First and fourth platoons will be marching out towards this location. There will be collapsed buildings, tons of debris and probably unstable terrain because of it. The UNSC bombed the area and gave us the advantage by knocking down all the tall buildings."

John pointed towards an area just East of the artifact.

"Second and third platoons will be five hundred meters across from them," Killinger said. He pointed towards another area and tapped it to emphasize the position. "This creates a cross fire with a blinding sun behind us. According to recon reports, these two areas are collapsed buildings. They should over a lot of cover and firing positions but I must remind everyone that it will likely be highly unstable."

Killinger sighed softly, "Snipers from all four platoons will provide fire on the Elites in order to take them out the quickest, while Marines and Troopers with rockets will fire at ranks of Grunts, Jackals and anything else that isn't human. The rest of us will provide suppressing fire until the Covenant are effectively out matched before we advance. Our goal is the artifact they've dug up... but I wouldn't mind anyone did some.. burying."

"The Covenant shield systems aren't working, and neither are their plasma based weapons. All you'll have to worry about is projectile firearms the Covenant employ. Those are needle rifles, those brute grenade launchers, spikers - those sort of things. We'll probably have more weapons firing than they will. However, before we launch this operation, any questions?"

[Huka]

Field Master Til Je'at Ra'ha 'Muramai 
The Heart of the Covenant Established Territory 

Another obstacle to the Journey 

 The Field Master stood on a sturdy and properly built platform to help him oversee and announce to the present soldiers before him; at best two and a half creches of loyal warriors and formerly-renegade fools who regained their senses and loyalty to their same deities and seers. While his armor was still functional to handle another handful of skirmishes without its technological developments, the Sangheili commander had the Jiralhanae forgeman crafting him a new sturdy helmet from the remnants of one of the foolhardy Captains'. It took several cycles of hard pounding and excessive heat from a Ghost's engines to supply the formerly abandoned forges but now it rest under his muscular arm, ready to protect its new master at the given time. 

 For the first time in a long period, Til had his scarred face bared for all of the surviving-and present- sect to see; a heavily scarred mortal who've fought and survived countless campaigns throughout his life for the glory and preservation of the Covenant and unquestioned loyalty to the Gods. His sole jaded eye stared at every face; Sangheili, Unggoy, Kig-yar, Jiralhanae. Where most were present to his summons with proper unofficial promotions and rearrangement to restore hierarchy, he wisely kept the Kig-yar sentries out in constant patrol and awareness from the roofs and streets. They were the most numerous in the sect at the time being and they had the proper attributes and training to work appropriately to threats and uninvited guests as the humans would say. 

 His mandibles clicked abit nervously when he heard the reports of one of his stealth units being murdered with a T'vaoan hunting group immediately giving chase to a human scout. The last thing he needed was that infiltrator reporting back to its masters. However, in that small tick of wariness, Til inhaled and dashed it aside to keep his fortitude before his troops. Despite the hope-crushing restoration of the Artifact's power (ironic, yes), the Field Master kept his will strong and knew he had the necessary piece in this dangerous game. Staring down at the large metallic relic resting by a defensible building where two lances of Sangheili stood guard with stoic bloodlust, all armed with functioning and fully-loading needle rifles, and augmented with shaped Wraith tank skins as barriers and clear views to snipe. Gods he wished it was deactivated right now, he felt a bit naked without his energy blades to cleave through armor and flesh like wheat. 

 "Sire." The young Jiralhanae, who have been working as his assistant, approached at a respectable distance from the platform. Eyes nervously look at the silent massive pair of armor standing on either side of the black spectre of a Sangheili under the platform's shade, cold eyes staring like death waiting on the mere twitch of aggression. The Field Master looked down at him and nodded in acknowledgement before stepping forward in two large steps. All attention was on him now. 

 "Brothers and sisters of the Covenant..." He began, loosely using sisters due to the sparse few of the gender in the Covenant military for any race, excluding the matron-dominant Kig-yar and Sangheili clans. "We are coming to the threshold of this holy quest. Once more, we stand on the tipping side of the battle, like on our abandonment rotations past, we are further handicapped without the use of our gifted technologies against the barbarism of the Human interlopers. Splitted by foolishness and misguided ambitions, we're weaker than we should, and wounds cut that draw the Humans to our border like predators to prey. They wait and plot for our demise while we stand useless and vulnerable without a fleet or modern defense." 

 Despite his crackling voice, he remained stern and strong with the fatherly comradeship that he always shared with the sect, letting his words sink in. Watching every reaction and feeling the atmosphere around them, the Field Master continued his flow, 

 "If, and when, they come; they will have rain of needles and stone fall upon their head for every step they take. For every turn their dirty war-machine take, they will be crushed by the weight of our conjoined faith and when they bring themselves from their cowardice to meet our faces; bloodied and wounded from our resolve, they will meet their end with our blades, talons and claws! They will know, as the Gods mercilessly test us again and again, we will raise above it all and crush their heresy under boot like vermin!

Never shiver in the cold of their shadow, Never bow your heads in submission to them, Never poison a hint of doubt to victory, Never run in terror!

Stand and fight! Even if you have no real faith to the Divines or to the Prophets, fight for yourselves and the promise of a tomorrow!" He roared, growing more passionate and powerful with each word. His free hand lifted and clenching tight enough to feel his talons threatening to pierce through his palm while his body burned in his reverent speech. "If any of you falter and break now, then we have lost! Ready all of the training you've struggled through to get here. You aren't just a soldier of the Covenant to be thrown infront of the tank fire! You are the Sect of Lamenting Consecration! You are the chosen elite, every last one of you! Act like it and we will prevail to the last! For every death, more of our enemies will fall!" 

The listening crowds roared and sounded off in agreement, fists and native chants rang throughout the city, singing off the restoring faith and passions amongst the typical soldiers. Til didn't know if the more single-minded or elite thought as much in his speech but he prayed they all fell to gain the similar rise of morale. He needed every bit of it to prepare for what is coming. Lifting his helmet up, the Field Master slid it down over his face. While certainly of Jiralhanae design, the heat swooped and smoothed the angles out to craft a unique appearance with the V-shaped extensions into a sharp swoop and scratched runes depicting strength, honor, and chiefdom around the head. 

Thrusting his claws out in a thematic rise of his arms, the Field Master roared out to join in the war choir that spurted the chanters even more before flattening his hands out, signaling a lessening of voices. "Take your stations and keep valiance for all. Remember your training and work as a unit! Make Reticence and the Prophets proud of their choice!" 

 With that, the soldiers disbursed and left Til alone for the most part in his thoughts and plots. If they fail in their holy mission, the Gods will know they fought their hardest, and any who falter to Humanity's tricks, may the Gods have mercy on them when that bullet rip the back of their head.
 

[Faclan]

SSA-012 - Yanme'e Swarm
Ready to fight with the few that remain.

The five sleeping Yanme'e had been started awake when shouting and gunshots sounded beneath them. The Bigs groggily flipped down off the ceiling and try to get ready and give chase before the sounds died away. They were too exhausted to try it even though they wanted to. Wanted to serve the Master and murder the Humans for their lost Swarm members. But the sounds soon died away and they slowly returned to sleep to prepare for the last stand.

They were much better after they awoke, though the Ultra was still greatly displeased that the Artifacts field was still active, and were soon to be joyous as well as one of the scout teams had found a pinned Engineer in the rubble. But still, the swarm had been cut down by half with the rest of them either dead or still buried to die a slow and painful death - alone. This made them all melancholy but they were soon brought into focus again by the Ultra as they all flew down to land near the Field Master for his speech.

It made them even more focused as they stood up tall and proud during the speech. Most of them had dust clinging to their exoskeletons or smears and burn scores over them but they could still fly, repair, and most importantly fight. Once the speech was finished they crouched down into a more comfortable standing position and awaited the Field Master's word. The Ultra stepping forward a little as she bowed her head low to the ground.

"We have been reduced by half Master, but we stand ready to see this mission through." It was a simple observation of their current situation in the clicking Yanme'e dialect - a few more of them likely to fall before they were extracted as there was no doubt in the Yanme'es mind that their brothers in the Covenant would return to take them from this Hell Hole.


Cad - Kig-Yar Major
Waiting with his reformed and resupplied file and own lance now.

The zealots Kig-Yar has been pleasantly pleased when Til had not decapitated him where he knelt awaiting judgment for failing to respond to the summons. He had been ready to accept that fate should the blade fall but if he would be given more time to serve and prove himself them he would take it. But after he had explained that he and what remained of his file had barely escaped the Humans, the flood, and even tried to Hunt down some humans but had been unsuccessful the Filed Master had not only spared him but commended him on making it back.

Soon after Til had cut the bounds on his hands and welcomed him back before giving him command of an entire lance of troops while also resupplying his own smaller file. Nas had been welcomed back and pleased to see both him and Pad alive but Kot, the former scavenger turned back to the Faith, had been added to fill the spot left by Kop. With his file reinforced he was also given command of a four soldier file of three Unggoy and another Kig-Yar. Despite his disheveled appearance and odor he had been the most pleased he had been the entire mission and once making sure all of his new troops were supplied he had let them rest while he went to a more secluded spot to try and clean himself up a little and also have an extended prayer to thank The Gods for this fortunate turn of events.

By the time the Field Master's speech had rolled around he smelt slightly better and had also reunited with his Jiralhanae battle brother Garatus - both of them swapping tales about their mission so far after being pleased that the other had survived as well. He had also been introduced to Garatus's uncle Eugenius who seemed pleased to meet Cad and had told Garatus that he could see why Cad had been accepted into the Pack as well. This was also good as he stood beside Garatus with his new lance and listened to the speech. It was truly inspiring to one of the Faith such as he, and he screeched with the rest of the loyal Kig-Yar at its conclusion as he started to move out to his assigned station. He wondered if Garatus would be near-by as he made sure his untracking Needler was ready and his crystal saber, just a nice looking blade now, in hand as he awaited the Heathens to try and break the line. Pad and Nas were beside him as Kot rested his Jiralhanae heavy pistol, that he had told Cad and Garatus that he would continue to use the honor the Major who had saved him, on a piece of ruble to be able to fire it more accurately as they all watched


Eugenius - Jiralhanae Advisor
Making some recordings and standing ready.

After the business with Cad was sorted out, Eugine actually impressed that the tales were confirmed with this particular dinner on legs being able to survive out in the bombed city for so long - moved him up to an ally instead as he was still trying to slowly get over his prejudice. Once his nephew and Cad had moved off Eugine found his way over to the artifact as he seated himself on the lip of the crater, set his staff down, and pulled out his battered and dirty notebook before flipping to the page where he had recorded about the artifact beforehand. Ignoring the glares he was receiving from the traitorous Jiralhanae and Kig-Yar he scribed in what had changed about the Artifact - what seemed damaged about it and how it looked as if it was not only still functioning but actually stronger now that a bomb had been dropped on it. Quite an impressive bit of technology to just be dirty after that.

He left when he finished recording and moved over to rest and eat before it was time for the Field Masters speech. It was uplifting to the old ape as well as he roared with his Nephew and pounded his chest to show his support. When it was time to disperse to their stations one of Garatus's troops tried to head him off, in earshot of Garatus, telling him that he should hang back because of his age. The youngin received a solid crack in the side of the head from Eugines staff before he shoved his way past and stood beside his Nephew, staff moved to his bad hand while he pulled out his pistol in his good and nodded at Garatus.

"We all stand together Nephew, young and old through the trails thrown at us." He said with a good strong tone to his voice showing his determination.

(Hopefully alright BetaW for Cad and Eugines bit and with Kot honoring the memory and such .)

[HollowSaber]

: Corporal Jake Furrow :
: Task Force 77, Nova Squad :

: Condition :
Mobile
Wounded

: Location :
Covenant Territory
Artifact Area

: Objective :
Get the hell
out

: Tags :
HollowSaber
Huka

The thirtieth floor was the third to last floor Jake could enter without having to blow out the door knob and he did so without much care for who was on the other side. There could have been a legion of Covenant waiting, but he needed to stop. Rather than slowly open the door, he simply grabbed the knob, twisted, shoved the door open with his shoulder and fell inside onto his chest. The Trooper’s leg hurt and he was tired, so very tired. He could barely stand after climbing all those stairs, but he was happy that he had reached where he had in such a short amount of time. The higher floor was a little more intact due to the walls being made of more than drywall, but it was still a mess most likely due to the flurry of activity when people were told to evacuate. From a glance around, the floor was something of a lawyers office. There was a big entrance way with two names spliced together with a hyphen between them; Robinson-Jones. Below the name was a secretary's desk which curved around to the left where the hallway continued.

Jake grumbled to himself at the sight of another freaking hallway but he forced himself to his feet; more walking. Standing for the Trooper was almost impossible but he managed, barely, and closed the door. Using the battle rifle like a crutch, Jake hobbled up the hallway and towards the desk. As he walked, the soldier took a little less pressure off his rifle and more onto his leg. When the time came, Jake would need to be able to run and he would have to use his rifle as such. Getting himself to walk on both legs without a crutch was probably the most important thing to his survival now, and he would have to do it quick. The biofoam was doing its job with filling the wound so he wasn’t losing a lot of blood. In addition to that, the cloth he had wrapped around his leg was keeping it pressurized. The wound would need stitching soon; very soon. However, he needed to find a way to do such a thing. As he turned to the left around the front desk and looked at the array of small offices, finding a medical kit would be impossible. It looked as if he would need to get a little crafty again.

Moving on along, Jake continued up the hallway and groaned as his leg throbbed in pain. He clenched his teeth together and continued to lessen the pressure on his rifle until he could stand almost on his own. Then, as he turned a corner to walk down another hallway, he lifted the battle rifle into his arms. He wasn’t ready. His leg gave out some but he stomped hard onto his right leg and grabbed onto the long rod-doorpusher to his left, saving himself from another trip to the floor. Stabilized, he stood upright and walked a little more carefully. Though, he didn’t use the battle rifle anymore. He held back the groans of pain and continued to look into the rooms he passed by. There had to be something he could use. Anything to seal the wound. Glue? Tape? Maybe an old jacket where he could pull some thread from? Hell, he would use a stapler if he needed to. No, that would just end with his leg ripping open. The thought of that happening and phantom feeling made the man shudder. Ow.

As he reached the end of the few lawyer rooms, the Trooper figured it would be best to wait on getting himself patched up. He would have to get back to a medic for anything better than biofoam. Thankfully, the foam would last for just that. He had two cans of the foam and approximately three uses out of each due to the size of his wound. If it broke down and his body absorbed it, he could simply refill the wound again. Maybe, if he was lucky, it would stop bleeding. He couldn’t feel any drippage and his bandage wasn’t soaked with blood so that was a good sign. Although with each step he could feel the gap and could feel the biofoam in it. It was so weird.

A heavy sigh dropped like a bomb from the Trooper’s chest as he continued to walk through the floor. Rather than find a corner to hide in the soldier stayed on his feet, afraid that he wouldn’t be able to stand again if he sat down on the floor. As he walked, he progressively got better at moving. The pain became a little more tolerable and he could lift the battle rifle to his shoulder without any problems. He even tried steadying and planting himself as if he was going to fire, but he never pulled the trigger. Doing so would be beyond stupid. Yet, he was tired and walking only made him feel even more so. The Covenant were everywhere and they were most likely coming to get him. If they knew he was in the building, he wanted to be ready for them. Part of him wanted to sit down and hide somewhere, but the wound in his leg would give him away to the more nose-sensitive aliens. No matter where he hid, Jake would be found. So, it was only a matter of time. And with that in mind, Jake searched the floor for any entrances as well as exits.

For the most part the only doors he could find opened to either closets, utility areas, bathrooms, and other offices. Even the corner doors which he believed to be tower stairs. The only other option he could use beyond the front stairs where he came in then… was the elevator shaft. The trooper stood in front of those massive doors and stared at them. He could see his discontented figure in the metallic reflection he saw there and he probably would have kicked those doors if it wasn’t for his leg. They were mocking him, but also challenging him. He needed to get those open as well as another set on another floor. No, wait. No he didn’t. He just needed to get the ones in front of him open. The man grumbled to himself at the thought and looked around for something he could use as a wedge. He didn’t have a crowbar in his back pocket, but he did see something in one of the utility closets; a fire axe.

It wasn’t the best tool to use in the situation he was in, but it would work. After retrieving the tool, the trooper placed the head into the slit between the doors and twirled a small hammer in his hand. When he was ready, the ODST began to pry the two massive doors apart, slowly creating a gap in them by bashing the axehead into the slit. However, with every bang, he knew full well the noise was echoing down into the shaft. But he didn’t care. The noise was so loud and bounced off so many things that pinpointing his location was near to impossible unless the Covenant were right below him. So he kept banging. With every hard swing, he took a harder breath. After four swings, the Axehead was able to hold itself into the doors and Jake could see a little inside. He kept swinging though, bashing the hammer against the axehead harder and harder until it was nearly at its limit. Then, he pulled it out of the gap and slid himself between the doors to the best of his ability. Slowly and carefully, the Trooper pushed the doors even further apart until he was able to fit between them. He didn’t need to open the doors completely, just enough to fit, so he refused to do more work than necessary. After that, he looked into the dark shaft.

Inside, there were no lights. Only darkness awaited the soldier beyond the room he was in. However because of the light he could see the elevator cables just a few feet out of reach. They weren’t marked with the floors or anything but they had another purpose Jake could use them for. Tilting his head up, Jake grinned. The soldier dropped his bag and rifles beside the elevator before pulling out his length of rope. He attached one end of the rope to a nearby pillar and secured the line, then he tossed the rest into the shaft. Hooking himself to the line, Jake leaned back and began to lower himself into the darkness below. Very, very carefully the ODST walked against the side of the pitch black shaft and dived into the empty pit. Using his right heel, the trooper very gently clicked it against the wall. Solid metal answered him with almost every step he took. Yet, after a short while, the click echoed.

Tapping twice more, the ODST confirmed his location and then lowered himself a little further before locking himself into place on his rapple. Swinging close, Jake propped himself against the shaft wall and rubbed his hands against it. After a bit of feeling, he came across a seam that stretched from his foot to just above his head; bingo. The Trooper reached into the pouch that dangled just above his backside and pulled out a small piece of plastic explosives. He took off a small piece, maybe four inches of one of his ten inch strips, and then stuck it against the seam. With that set, he put the remaining explosive back into the pouch and pulled out one end of his wire spindle. It was a little difficult to fiddle with the thing, but he was able to finally attach the two ends into the explosive after a little wrestling. Halfway done, the Trooper began to throw wire off the spindle and into the shaft. He didn’t know how much he needed but he had enough to do the distance three times over and he only needed to do it once. Jake unspun the thing for almost ten seconds before finally stowing the spindle back into the pouch. The wire wasn’t cut yet, but it was pretty much ready.

Now, he had to go back up. The soldier grit his teeth and gripped onto his rope tight. Pulling his left injured leg back out of the way, Jake used his right leg and both hands to steadily help him ascend back up the object he had so easily come down on. Fatigue set in quick and the man was forced to take multiple breaks, but he kept himself moving as best as he could until finally, he could see the light. The Trooper slammed his right hand onto the lip of the floor above where he had dropped down to and then pulled himself up high enough so he could put his left hand down. Soon thereafter, and once his right foot was done squabbling with the wall so he could get a grip on it, Jake was back on his floor. He dropped carefully onto his left knee and pulled his wire spindle out of his back pouch. Finally having both hands free, and the ability to see again, Jake began to wind in the extra wire he didn’t need; there was a lot of that.

Able to finally be able to put just enough wire down, Jake moved a little away from the elevator and pulled out a button-switch from the pouch. Cutting the wire once he had enough, the soldier stripped both ends on the switch and the wire that connected to his explosive. But, before he connected them, Jake pulled out a tester in the pouch. He hooked the switch to the tester and after pressing the red button, the little light came on as circuit from the two batteries inside the switch was finished. A curt nod of approval by the Trooper followed. He disconnected the tester and connected the button to the two wires which fed into his explosive and then set the switch off to the side. Quickly, the man gathered his things and pulled the rope out of the shaft. He left the rapple clip on it and put the rope just beside the entrance to the shaft.

Bam, done.

Finished with his first job, Jake pulled the battle rifle he held up to his shoulder and made his way back up towards where the front entrance was. However, just as he turned the corner from where the shaft was and to where he could get to the desk; two Jackals and one of the more ugly looking bird-creatures appeared. The Jackals were armed with human rifles, while their strange friend held a Covenant needle weapon. Christmas had come early…

They snarled to each other, but then one perked up and looked to his left in time to see Jake steady his rifle. The Trooper pulled the trigger gently, easing onto the lever as he sent a three-round burst into the creature’s skull. Shifting left, he fired again, and then shifted once more to finish the trio off. Before they could engage him, the three bodies of the aliens dropped to the floor. Jake hissed and began backing away, but he couldn’t get far before another Jackal appeared. Jake squeezed the trigger, striking the alien in its torso and throat. The next alien was smarter and didn’t simply jump out into the hallway. Instead, it peaked around and fired a wild shot towards the Trooper. Jake couldn’t dodge as well as he used to, but he was able to shift to his right as to throw off the alien’s aim. His own was displaced, but he was able to get it back faster; striking the alien in the rifle with one round and the next two in its skull. The body fell to the side, landing flat in the middle of the hallway.

Rumbling to himself in annoyance, Jake ducked back behind the corner and knelt down gently. There, he steadied the end of his weapon against the wall. Another one of the dark haired Jackals appeared, but it dropped to the floor swiftly after as Jake pelted it with two bursts. They were a little more study than their frail brethren, but a headshot put them down just the same. As much as Jake wanted to stay and chat, he only dropped one more Jackal before pulling from the corner. Swiftly, he headed to the pillar and pulled his detonator close. He used the pillar as cover as he attached himself to the rope, then he lifted his rifle back up.

Needles sprayed from the corner and flew both passed the pillar and into the tall barrier itself. One needle scrapped Jake’s shoulder but the armored gear protected him from harm. When the bursts let up for a split second, Jake popped his rifle out and leaned a little. The first burst he let out drilled one of the dark haired Jackals in the leg, causing it to stumble. The next two dropped two more bodies. Satisfied, Jake hit the pretty red button; a split second later and the floor shook as the explosive charge blew a hole in the elevator shaft. At that same moment, the elevator itself dropped from its held point above. It let out the loud sound of a train cart flying by as it descended down into the dark shaft. As Jake opened fire on the group chasing him once more, he quickly began to back towards the elevator shaft. He put down another gray haired beast and wounded two others before his battle rifle clicked; empty. No matter, he was at the door.

Kicking his right foot back, he dropped the rope into the shaft and slipped down after it. Swiftly, the ODST dropped from one floor to the next, slipping into the one he had just blown open. The elevator shaft doors hadn’t been blasted apart like Jake had hoped, but a large hole had appeared in the middle of them that gave him access. Access was all he needed. He didn’t have time to waste though and quickly ran to his right, almost hopping as he moved. The area was a maze of hallways but he didn’t have much to think about. He just needed to go right and follow the wall as much as possible. When he reached the tower door, he grabbed the knob and twisted, shoving it open hard as if preparing for something to be there.

As the door opened, Jake’s pistol was pulled from his holster. He had a few rounds left in the magazine so as he moved, he naturally felt where the next one was as his clothes brushed against his body. The Trooper could heard hissing and squawking coming from above, but he could also hear it coming from below. The echoing sounds disoriented the soldier a little, but he kept moving as he descended. Pain rushed through his veins just as fast as the adrenaline did, causing him to wince and groan as his thigh throbbed. The Trooper felt like he was going to die, but he had to keep moving.

Before he collided with the voices from below, Jake pulled open a door and then closed it gently. After, he turned to his left and hobbled quickly along the backwall and around the corner to the otherside. Glass scattered along the floor and the Trooper forced his body to pick up speed. The Covenant were coming and if he was captured, death was certain. As he kicked off and jumped out of the window of the building, Jake made his decision. He grunted hard as he pushed off his right leg and flung himself into the air, jumping towards the building directly across from where he was; it was time to backtrack…

* * *
Time Skip: +6 Hours
* * *

Planting his back against the wall in the alleyway he stood in, Jake heaved air, sucking it in hard as he gasped for oxygen, air, or anything that could keep him alive. His left leg burned and his muscles ached. Those aliens fucks were everywhere! And the city was like a damned maze! The ODST had been weaving between buildings, avoiding contact with the hitsquad for the most part but he was forced into a few confrontations after stumbling around the wrong corner. He was even forced to pick up one of the Covenant rifles. It was long, slender, armed with pink needles, and heavy. The soldier had gone through three of them because of how many times he had clashed with his foes but no matter how many he used, they kept coming. Jake knew he wasn’t killing all of them but he was focusing on the big ones; Jake called them Jumpers.

The Jackals were frail and backed off after a bit of pushing, but the Jumpers were vicious. Jake was almost forced to draw his knife a few times because of how determined they were at getting close to him. However, that was how he was getting his rifles. They were come at him hard and fast enough that their dead bodies would fling forward and the weapons would skid into his reach, or at least close enough for him to fight to. It was as if he was at war with the whole Covenant army, and they weren’t giving up. What he wouldn’t give for a new leg right now.

Yet, he didn’t have one. Instead, Jake had to pull out his first can of biofoam and pushed the end of it into the hole he had made in the cloth holding his wound shut. The second of three hole-fills had nearly finished breaking up so it was time for him to clog the hole again, and this time was probably going to be the last if he wasn’t careful. The bleeding near the entrance of his wound had stopped for the most part but the internal bleeding was something he worried about a little more. Holding that off was a constant worry for him. With no rest, his body was on the verge of breaking. He needed to get away from these aliens.

“Hisstku!” Speak of the devil…

The Trooper grunted and stuffed the biofoam can back into his bag before slinging said bag over his shoulders again. Lifting the needle rifle he held to his left, the Trooper began to back away slowly. Suddenly, one of the Jackals appeared with its own rifle raised. Jake fired first, drilling the creature in the left shoulder. A second shot pelted the beast in the side of its throat. After his shot, Jake turned around his heels and broke out of the alleyway. The instant he did so, needles and bullets sprayed at him from his right and from above, forcing the soldier to turn immediately left. Upon turning, the Trooper kept rotating and turned into the broken window of a store. Well, he more like fell into it as the small wall caught the ODST off guard. As he fell, the man used his left arm to keep himself from smashing into the floor and rolled over his body to the right onto his stomach. From there, he pushed back up to his knees and grabbed the needle rifle again. Moving quickly, Jake moved through the building and out the back door, ducking into the alley again before heading to his right.

Bastard Covenant...

Fight for those you never see...

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

[BetaWülf]

Jiralhanae Captain Garatus

Garatus had been excited to see Cad alive and well, and had embraced him in a bearhug after Til had shown him mercy and a Just pardon for the crimes of his kin, luckily no ribs were broken in this hug(lets just say Jiralhanae hugs can prove deadly to smaller beings on occasion). He was glad Cad and Eugenius got along well enough, it seemed like he wouldn't have to worry about coming home to his best friend being served as the main course.

Garatus hurried over to the crowd as Field Master Til was about to give a speech, Garatus was very eager to hear their commanders words. Garatus found the speech utterly inspiring and when the crowd erupted in cheer Garatus's fist flew into the air and he howled Zealously. Others of his Pack did the same though in many different ways. Some roared or howled, others chanted in their native tongue. The wildest jumped up and down and flailed their arms wildly, while the more mild ones simply beat the arms against the earth. Altogether a joyful congregation of the Covenants faithful, and the uplift they needed.

Garatus, after the speech had ended and everyone was returning to their post, paused when he heard a younger Jiralhanae utter some regrettable words to Eugenius. A far too familiar crack resounded in the immediate area and the young soldier stumbled off as Eugenius shoved past him. After Eugenius spoke Garatus nodded and smiled.

"And we shall continue to stand strong together and overcome the obstacles ahead of us" Garatus said proud and resolutely.

Garatus found that four of his catapults had survived and ordered them moved further up the hill from the barricades so they could be properly aimed and not as exposed to damage as they would be if they were down past the cover. He continued with his commands by having the heretic Jiralhanae gather all the rocks they had unearthed or could find loose and stack them in piles nearer to the barricades so any who were lacking ammunition would have something to pelt and maim the enemy with. Then two pairs of scouts were sent out to get a handle on how far out the Humans were now that they could focus on them instead of the rebels.

Then the rest of the Pack was allowed to rest, they mostly just sprawled out in heaps out of the way, while the most energetic Pack members were cooking Humans and wild animals for everyone(Sangheili, Unggoy, Kig-yar and Yanme'e included) to feast on so they weren't all starving to death. Once all his commands were being carried out Garatus sighed and walked over to where Cad was, he was so relieved Cad had survived. He stopped next to his friend and just plopped down next to him, leaning back against a pile of rubble that was conveniently armchair shaped(at least after Garatus's weight flattened out his asses position).

"My dear Cad, thank the Gods you survived this far," Garatus said resting a hand on Cad's shoulder,"or else I would have no ones ear hole to speak into right now" he finished with a chuckle.

"Tell me more of the hardships you endured, I wish to hear everything" Garatus said hoping to know more about what poor Cad had dealt with.

Jiralhanae Blacksmith Bahtarus

Bahtarus wiped the sweat from his forehead as he pounded the heated metal into a sword blade with his hammer, hopefully his wares would start selling soon. He stopped his work when he noticed everyone gathering to hear the Field Masters speech. He joined in the back of the crowd and watched as Til stepped forward with the helmet Bahtarus had forged for him on. A fine helmet if he did say so himself, he had etched runes into it denoting Til's status and charged no fee for its crafting, as he wanted to put the bad blood between the two in the past.

He may not have actually known Til but he knew he felt he was an honorless scavenger who was only in it for the money, but that was certainly untrue. Bahtarus was a jaded old man now who had devoted his best years to the Covenant Army, and was imprisoned without even so much as a trial to prove his innocence(which he was) so he had some resentment. All the money he earned went back home to his family is why he didn't do anything for free. His years of incarceration had left his mate destitute and they had been robbed of the chance to have children beforehand, so now he worked. All his anger, resent and hate was channeled into his work, he forged rage.

[Huka]

T'vaoan Murmillo Lik
Hunting his quarry

Jumping through a window with a light thump, Lik scanned through the room; the last possible spot of the earlier fire fight that practically shouted 'come get me'. Stepping along the room, passing the odd 'cells' of offices. So small and insignificant, Lik would think these were used as some kind of technical labor for the more smarter criminals but he wasn't hunting for that. He was looking for...there, near another window.

His feet clicked a few spent ammunition shells in his path, Lik found the first bit of evidence of what he was dealing with; one of three dead Sangheili. From the mere look of their armor, they were members of the Council of Masters' precious spies and saboteurs. Seems they couldn't trust the Zealots in handling the situation since the Supercarrier incident anymore. Kicking the body once to make sure it was dead, the Murmillo hissed in quiet disdain and checked on the wounds. One was killed with 'clean' headshot with...a pistol round. Angling his head, Lik noticed more messy counterpart laying out with a bloody hole from what could have been the same round from the way things were angled. Were killed no more than a quarter-unit ago. Sangheili spies, antithesis of their beloved doctrines and these fools weren't good at their job. Always make some kind of error.

Standing up and stepping over the dead spy's human rifle, Lik took a few strides before halting suddenly. His yellow eyes scanned around the room again, slowly creeping for cover until he could hear the hustled breathing. Cocking his raptor head and dark copper-tipped mane of feathers erecting on all side in curiosity, the T'vaoan saw another Sangheili. He was laying in the open, gripping at his oozing wounds. Stepping towards him, Lik almost thought he was dead until he made another labored breath. Looking down into the larger creature's large eyes, on the brink of death and still fighting the undefeated enemy of all mortals. Kneeling down slowly, the Murmillo whispered, "Where are they?"

The spy's mandibles moved but no words came, his lungs were punctured but all of the pain was numbed into an annoyingly burning itch that could never be scratched. He needed a healer but no typical Sangheili would allow such a thing, especially from a Kig-yar doctor. So he could only aim his eyes to a nearby door and pointed, "One." Then he finally expired with a gurgled last breath.

"Lik." A voice whispered and the Murmillo didn't need to turn to answer. He had a full fighter file in his command, experienced troops who had the command of mainstream Kig-yar lances but he had little doubt what will happen to them if they are chasing what he think they are. Looking around, the hunter narrowed his dark-keen eyes and stared at the small puddle of dark blood, accompanied with a pair of grippers and a single bullet. "It's wounded." Lik mumbled and that alone made him smile with a slow lick of his teeth-rimmed beak.

"Go to the surrounding two sentries and alarm them of a single human. We will not let it escape with any vital information that could jeopardize the defenses." He ordered with a hushed whisper, enough for the closest of the majors to hear. Nodding fast, the four leapt out of their entry points and immediately did as commanded. Efficiency and speed was key and there is no one better to do this but T'vaoan.

Walking towards the door and opened its knob with a slow twist, Lik peered inside to find a staircase, and looked side to side until he noticed a very vague boot print from sticky Sangheili blood before looking up the stairs.

Spending his time stalking and following after a cooling trail, the Murmillo knew that the human was in the upper levels or might have roped down somewhere along the wall but from examining, there wasn't some support to the latter claim. Suddenly a particularly loud banging noise caught his attention...sounds like it was above him. Tilting his head and looked over a metallic elevator doorway, he crept out as the banging continued. Pressing a taloned hand onto the doors, he listened again and waited for the next banging to come. When it did, it took about five ticks for the vibrations to reach this door with a pinch of a shudder.

Hissing out eagerly, Lik sprinted quick along the floors but the mess of human architecture and fashion sense slowed down his progress. Snapping his head to every which direction with annoyance, humans had a labyrinthine complexity to their buildings and it proved difficult. Stopping a moment and hissing out a cloud of cool air, the man-hunter referenced the lower levels' elevator and followed it that until he found what he was looking for with the doors crudely pried open with deep axe wounds. Wide enough to a smaller creature to slip through like a scrub grub on a ship.

There was only way but down now.

Seeing his hunt coming to a end, the Murmillo had no suicidal intention of going after the human in that dark shaft. At this conclusion, Lik grabbed a lying hammer and threw it through a window before leaping through with a incredible length, catching the edge of a window on the other side of the street. Hanging by the powerful grip of his talons and supported with his feet, the Murmillo shrieked out under the cover of rain.

Then the real fun began...

***


The human was a crafty and skilled creature to say the least. It took Lik a while to get a good look of it from the roofs- a Imp and from the look of its equipment, a experienced infiltrator; capable of slipping in and out. If they weren't a marked species, Lik would hire one for his cell. He observed and watched the sizable force practically throw themselves at the human. If that blasted EMP pulse wasn't interfering, the Kig-yar would have a much better chance with their shield bucklers, never mind the use of plasma weaponry.

While the human tried to escape, Lik made sure it didn't get a good sense of direction in the maze of its own territory. The Kig-yar worked in a hit-and-run fashion, losing a couple and withdrawing again. Giving it a sense of progress and illusion of a greater force than it was, the harassing force were practically playing with their prey in this regard but it was necessary. This wasn't a typical human and it had to be whittled down, even if it took the past six units.

Shrieking a plan, the Murmillo bounced through along the hunt with his fellow T'vaoan subtly guiding their quarrel through the narrow streets. They could it weakening with each kill and that will be their mark. Leaping over a building the Imp vanished in after killing a younger Kig-yar,the esteemed hunter fell from the sky and infront of the human the second it turned to its right in an alley.

Faster than the wounded human, he slapped the stolen needle rifle back down in its lift and gave a vicious head-butt to the Imp's visor. Using the recoil as a proper distraction, the Murmillo flicked out a long dirk and needler from his person before aiming his blade just under the helmet and pressing under the unprotected jaw with a warning pressure while the partnering needler aimed for the stomach. No where near as fatigued as his quarry and all the more eager to deliver a 'crippling punishment' for any wrong move.

Soon enough the surviving two of his T'vaoan majors and several others began to surround the human menacingly, in a universal meaning of 'Game Over'. Lik let this sink in before nodding to a subordinate, who gladly knocked the human in the back of its head with the butte of his new rifle for all its trouble.

-
Weapons Master Phun 'Tatinee
Artifact Site
Working on Taboos

Sitting in a makeshift tent from the fabric of human plastic and spears as support, the sect's long-time female weapon master sat down grouchily on one of the multitude of weapons; from Covenant standards to Jiralhanae clanky yet refined tastes to...Human forbidden weapons.

Well...not truly forbidden but rather distasted to the kin of being practically virus carriers, now revoked in the thought by the Field Master of all people. After a long discussion and good logic from a Zealot, Til allowed Phun to start to restore any found weapons. While Covenant and Jiralhanae was easy, it was a delicious challenge to work on the alien gear but had some reference from the Jiralhanae primitive works and texts from scavenged colonial human police stations to work from.

With four Unggoy working as meager assistants, it was rather difficult and made the female miss her old Huragok team very badly. They would maximize her output and make things so much easier...with these newbloods, they were certainly of the heavy labor mindset instead of the intricate artistry of weapon perfection. So Phun just had them neatly organize weapons between piles and make absolute certainly they were away from her workshop, consist of human items and scavenged things from her work place before the accursed rebellion and bombing. Fixing on a standardized rifle used by the human aggressors, Phum had tinkered with these multiple times and made sure everything was in place before checking on its ammunition chambers for cleanliness and its ballistic holders were filled with the right ammunition.

Reliable and easily handled weapons with little kicks in a Sangheili's hand despite their small frame. At least she didn't have to handle one of those damnable little pistols, even she could manipulate those little things without messing something up. After trying out a few bursts on a makeshift dummy, the Weapon Master nodded and flicked a switch that kept the safety on. "Place this in the pile and deliver the weapons to Creche Commander 'Natrumee's troops for distribution." She ordered to one of the runners. Nodding, the strong-bodied Unggoy hefted the heavy container of weapons; seven rifles, two marksman rifles, five spikers, and three maulers, and jogged off. "Careful!" She called out before just waving the problem away and returned to continue her work. Covering her mandibles with her thick clothed veil with little slits for her nostrils, the Weapon Master continued her tiresome work with the thought of a nice hepta-cycle*; a nice cleansing, good mess-hall food with some imported fruits and a simple arum to puzzle through in the cool privacy of her quarters.

Aah, the life of a Weapon master.

---

*Hepta-cycle: The Covenant timing of a week.

[RiddL]

Staff Sergeant Kai (Wolf) Blacklock

Resupplied, Refreshed and ready for Revenge

Kai raised his voice, "Sir I have an Idea, the sewer system hasn't collapsed in on itself, and I doubt it ever will, but a small strike team and maybe a Spartan may be able to go underneath the Covenant forces and flank them, breaking their morale and making them overextend themselves on two fronts. If you think about it, the bombing run has destroyed the buildings but it has also made the Covenant gain more cover if their smart enough. The Covenant would also be making the best of what they could scavenge so they may fire on us with human weaponry and try to confuse us into thinking its friendly fire. With permission sir, I volunteer to lead a Fireteam through the sewers and behind enemy lines, cause chaos within their ranks and if possible, try to destroy that fucking device that's causing the blackout, Colonel." Kai finished and hearing some of the men at the back yelling in agreement.

[MrKill]

Colonel Johnathon B'Sheau Killinger
Seventh Marines
Wounded In Action

John listed to the Staff Sergeants plan but ultimately he had to decline. If he remembered correctly the ODST was a sniper, and he needed the snipers with the company of Marines about to embark on a dangerous mission likely to result in casualties. The snipers were the tip of the iceburg on this operation, and John was relying on them to take out hostile leadership - along with the tougher opponents just as Elites.

The Staff Sergeants plan wasn't that bad, admittedly, and perhaps the SPARTANs could utilize the underground network as a group to get behind the Covenant line and cause some... general disturbance. It just wasn't a wise idea to break up the two hundred Marines and Army Troopers they did have. They'd be hitting a defensive position and they were going to need as much suppression fire as they could muster.

"I'm going to have to say no, Staff Sergeant. I need, assuming you're also a sniper, marksmen and snipers with the four platoons so we can take down high value targets. The prettier the color, the higher ranking the elite is. Aim for the gold ones, if you see them. Those are typically equal to, say, my rank." John replied, dismissing the idea. He glanced at Silias and gave him a slight nod as an indication if he wanted to do it he could. John would much prefer to keep the super soldiers, but they were lethal with or without a armed company.

"If there are no more questions, we're moving out!"

---

Forty minutes of walking through rubble, stench of dead and decaying bodies, spent bronze and god knows what just to get to their staging area. All four platoons converged on the location, before second and third parted ways according to the plan. Dawn was still approaching, the sun light hadn't come out yet but it was crisping on the edge of the horizon.

"Let's get to the AO double time," A Sergeant barked. "We're loosing the night."

Obviously light had come, but the shadows remained stretching over the majority of the road still. While the sky was brightening, the roads were dark. The Marines, grimy and filthy, slipped into the blackness as two hundred Marines marched towards the area of operations for this specific strategy. John, while not at the lead of the platoon, found himself trailing first squad while Sergeant First Class Nibex - a UNSC Army NCO - lead the mixed squad of Army Troopers and Marines (Including the infamous ODSTs) down a wide ally. A tight point, but little happened at the team emerged on the road which lead straight towards the Covenant staging ground.

First Platoon slid along the buildings, while forth platoon crossed the road and covered the other side and copied First Platoons actions. John quickly found himself at the lead of the platoon using his binoculars to scan the road ahead of him. It was clear, so John waived the platoon down the road.

"Sir," the Sergeant First Class said. "If you don't mind me asking, but where are you from?"

John grinned, "Reach. New Alexandria born and raised. Yourself?"

"I'm a Jericho I boy, sir."

"Whoa, I thought they stripped the first Jericho clean hundreds of years ago."

"Nope, small settlement. Self supporting."

"Jericho was the colony that ruled out any type of monetary currency system, right?"

"Correct, sir. In twenty four seventy two the Jericho I government phased out the credit system. We worked for what we earned. We were a small agricultural planet anyways. For example; electricity. You worked for a day to earn a day of electricity along with other items such as food, clothing and what not."

"That was, what, seventy five years ago? History to you, so what about now?"

"Powerful agricultural planet mostly automated by harvesters. I have a small cabin by the lake front closest to the space port. Worth a million credits if I were to sell it."

John raised his eyebrows. A million credits. "I thought you couldn't sell a building on a planet with no currency system," John said. "You have kids?"

"Yes sir, a daughter back on Jericho I. The currency system was brought back when the war started, unfortunately."

"How'd you manage up on this planet then?"

The Sergeant First Class softly chuckled, "I took the post."

John understood.

Someone at the point of the platoon halted the advance, breaking the conversation short and ushering the Colonel and SFC to the front of the platoon. John noticed a Lance Corporal had halted the platoon and gave them the rundown. Apparently he saw a Covenant scouting team. Two grunts, maybe a Jackal. The SFC hand signed to stay quiet and the word was passed trough the ranks, including the platoon on the opposite side of the street. John went prone and crawled forward, ignoring the pain from his broken ribs. Pain was temporary and he needed to see for himself. By the time he crawled up a hill of concrete debris and pulled out his binoculars the Covenant scouting team had returned.

One Elite, one Jackal and two Grunts. John waived for a sniper - with a suppressor - to come closer. The Marine Sniper, carrying the generic standard issued weapon, took up position next to the Colonel. Some pieces of the rubble slid down the small hill but the long barrel protruded out of the rubble pile. John whispered for the sniper to take out the Elite first.

The quiet muffled shot rang out, the .57 cartridge hit the rubble and the snap from the weapons cycle echo'd once in the still air. The Elite dropped, nearly headless, and by the time the Jackal could react properly it was being flung back two meters from another .57 round hitting it in the chest. The sniper made quick work of the two Grunts, rolled over to his back and carelessly dropped the magazine while simalteniously slipping a new one into the weapons magazine well.

Killinger had to admit, it was impressive. However, the targets were only two hundred or so meters down the road. It was easy work for a rifle that could hit two miles fairly easily, but none the less that be one less scout reporting back to the Covenant leadership and the Marines were almost knocking on their doors anyways. Another five minutes and two hundred Marines - with a five hundred meter cross fire - would be suppressing the Covenant line.

The SFC waived his squad forward and they slowly crept up the road, policed the fallen soldiers weapons and grenades, and gave the platoons waiting for his signal the all clear. The SFC never stopped however, and had his squad cover an ally the enemy could potentially flank from. Killinger hooked his thumb over his shoulder and pointed towards a city bus. The SFC regrouped quickly, nodded and continued forward.

Forth platoon continued forward, but first platoon covered the Sergeant First Class and his men push the multiple ton vehicle in place. They rigged the top with a trip mine that would detonate an explosive in case pesky intruders wanted to flank them. Once the deed was done, the Colonel and his platoon he was leading regrouped with forth platoon. The ambush position was directly ahead now, and many Marines and Army Troopers had already begun crawling into position.

The Colonel went right, scaling up a fallen two story building. He reached the top and peered over the edge, the sunlight now shining upon the devistation left by the UNSCs bombing run. The creator was massive, and gave the Marines an extremely good firing point. The artifact was located in a heavily defended building with what appeared to be scavenged defenses.

The runner from second platoon startled a Private First Class, but the man reported the Marines were ready. Colonel Killinger fired a red flare high into the sky. In near unison, the company of two hundred ten Marines, Army Troopers, ODSTs and hopefully SPARTANs opened fire. The hail of bullets, ranging from .50 AE magnum rounds to 110 MM chain gun positions, hit the Covenant Troops like a brick wall... And the Covenant were caught in a deadly cross fire. Their 'warriors' started to fall.

The battle for the artifact had just begun.

(Note: UNSC Offensive is firing from higher grounds, superior cover and with a general suppression effect. It will be challenging to 'return fire')

[HollowSaber]

: Corporal Jake Furrow :
: Task Force 77, Nova Squad :

: Condition :
Captured
Wounded

: Location :
Covenant Territory
Artifact Area

: Objective :
Hold Steady

: Tags :
HollowSaber
Huka

Just as he curved around the corner and out the backdoor, Jake immediately wheeled back on his body and stopped in his tracks. A body moved in front of him and dropped down directly in his path, cutting him off from further advancement . With his rifle lowered, Jake’s initial instinct was to lower his shoulder. However his leg wouldn’t allow such a thing, forcing Jake to fall back on the rifle in his hands. Just as he started to pull the weapon up, the figure before him moved and struck the top of the weapon. The sudden impact caused Jake’s grip to loosen. His tired hands weren’t able to catch the heavy object and it slipped right out from his fingers. Free from his clutches, the Covenant weapon clattered there, right in front of his feet, and Jake stared down at it in surprise. Fatigue dropped on him like a rock and Jake’s mind was in the process of catching up with his current actions when the creature slammed its head into his visor. The Trooper winced at the impact and leaned back a little, standing straight up once more from the hit. It wasn’t a vicious impact and Jake wasn’t dazed, but it was a serious surprise and Jake found himself staring down at the creature; it was one of those Jumper things. Oh shit it was one of those jumper things.

Jake immediately took a step back, ready to brace for an assault but instead was met with a knife to his throat. How crude. Though, he didn’t blame the creature as the Trooper was on the verge of grabbing his own. If it wasn’t for the needle weapon in his stomach, Jake would have attacked the bastard creature. The only thing which held Jake back was the risk of further injury and most likely death, as the Trooper caught sight of multiple other alien creatures converging on his location. It was quite surprising that he had lasted this long and in his condition, so he was proud of himself for getting this far but it seemed to be the end of the road. The man clenched his teeth and surveyed his surroundings slowly while keeping his head locked as to not get himself cut. A moment later, it all went black.

* * *

“Ah… damn it…” Jake thought to himself as he slowly began to awaken from his black world of sleep, or whatever state that could be considered sleep. He felt weak, his leg burned, and his head was light. He groaned in discomfort and shook his head slowly, twisting it back and forth as he blinked beneath his black visor. There wasn’t much light where he was so it was difficult to get a gauge on his surroundings, but the distant sunlight which peeked through the shattered windows illuminated enough for the ODST to know that he was at least on ground level, and it also showed that he was surrounded by Covenant.

“Well this… this is not good.” Jake blinked several times as he dropped his head, returning to his lazy state of resting for a moment. He closed his eyes and took in a slow breath, tugging very slightly on his legs and arms. He didn’t pull very hard as to not hurt himself just in case, but it was enough for him to learn that he wasn’t going anywhere fast for the moment. When he opened his eyes again and checked his ankles, he learned that he was held to the wall by metal. Grumbling softly, Jake closed his eyes again and slowly pulled himself up against the wall rather than let himself hang off it. It was more comfortable that was as there was no drag on his leg. Looking to his right, he saw an Elite standing there with his arms crossed, most likely standing guard. Yea, he wasn’t getting out of this easily.

Looking away from the guard to his left, the ODST saw a pile of his stuff. He didn’t exactly know what was still in his bag, nor did he care. What he did care about was the sniper rifle which lay there. It was good that he still had it, even if it was nearby. If he lost that, Jake would probably end his own carrier. That rifle had been through just as much as he had, and every mark on it had a story. Such stories made Jake proud to call himself an ODST, and right now, seeing that rifle was like a glimmer of hope. The soldier took in a deep breath and let himself relax, leaning back against the wall as he closed his eyes. It was time to wait.

Fight for those you never see...

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

[Huka]

Field Master Til Je'at Ra'ha 'Muramai
'Prison Quarter'
Learn and Conquer

Til stepped through the first set of Kig-yar guards at the entrance of his makeshift prison after a report on humans sighted in the east, a one-story tall building that was once some kind of store before the Covenant's invasion and later bombing. Thankfully it had only two exits and both were guarded, even if his prison do find a way to escape out of its bonds, there would be a couple soldiers to subdue it again. Stepping into the 'cell', the Sangheili looked at the appointed guard and clicked his lower mandible to his helmet's guard. Nodding, the Minor stepped out to rejoin the others into the position.

Alone with the troublesome creature, Til took a moment to observe it. A Male Imp and from the report, a skilled one. Maybe if he wanted to interrogate it, he'll see how well its masters have conditioned it to Muram torture...so far none in previous accounts. Angling his helmed head, the Zealot took a few strides to the collected gear and simply pushed the Imp's helmet aside before picking through until he found papers inside. Grabbing gingerly with his fingertips, he read on the scripts and sketches. "Your commanders were confident to send you into our presence, Human..." He finally said, speaking with a fluent language common amongst their kind. "But now, you are ours."

With that, he began to tear anything related to the area into shreds with simple pulls of his powerful muscles, and let the rest of the paper fall back into the pouch. Stepping back towards the Imp, Til's good eye studied to the creature before him for a moment again. "There are very few human units that have proven a challenge for us...and only one to prove as much as an annoyance."

Suddenly a large clawed hand snatched out like a viper and wrapped its long fingers around the human's bare neck tight as the Field Master growled viciously. "I recognize you from previous reports and sighting, Sniper. You and your brothers' constant interference will be rewarded today! I could easily kill you right now but you have a greater purpose."

Staring into the human's eyes and slowly loosening his squeeze, Til was vividly reminded of Ripa. The fool, just like his cousin. Snorting out in disgust and anger but his eyes gleamed with malicious glee, it didn't go away when he heard the vivid firing out. The sound of roaring explosions and later numerous firearms raining down on the crater site. Suddenly a Kig-yar rushed into the room, "Field Master! They're here and past the defenses."

Turning his head at the panicking avian, Til sniffed once, unconcerned with the deaths of the several Jiralhanae standing outside in a convincing guarding manner while others of the more defensible soldiers ran for cover. This was their reward for betrayal to the Sangheili leadership and lack of conviction in their redeeming digging. "Signal the snipers and creches. We are closing the ring." He ordered casually.

***

T'vaoan Murmillo Lik
Standing at Signal A

Crouching low on top of the few standing several story buildings near the craters with a handful of throat-slitted humans, Lik looked at his new sniper rifle. The humans had such cumbersome weapons but they certainly had good firepower to give the Covenant trouble. After being complimented by the Zealot on a good job and new duties as one of the sniper leaders, the Murmillo looked at his fellow Kig-yar armed with mixed of needle and human rifles, all abit nervous but eager to get some revenge to the soft-skins.

Out of the whole experience since the human sighting, Lik thanked whatever deity protected him from being in the bomb run. Humans and their ordinance!

Lifting himself out of cover when the shooting started after watching some humans roll their war-machines alone signaling the trap. Reminding himself of the scope, Lik aimed to the farthest human lance with his lance picking their targets...and fired the signaling shot!

Seeing the mixture of loud sniper reports, another Kig-yar sniping perch on the opposite end took its side of firepower in suppression. Following to this same route, one by one a ring of sniping fire was crafted but it was only the tip of the Covenant vengeance.

The ring worked as a signal to the rest of the Covenant forces to bring out the humans to their view and understand of their position while killing and suppressing as best as the snipers can, while Jiralhanae catapults began hurling rocks on heavy weapons and selected kill-zones. The infantry themselves started to use their taken territory of stable buildings and rubble  as good cover and engage in firefight and melee brutality for the humans they run into. Thus Til's ring was a vengeful reminder of their entrapment on that insect-infested world many milestones past. The embarrassment of these two battles will be paid in blood.

[MrKill]

Colonel Johnathon B'Sheau Killinger
Seventh Marines
... In combat

"Incoming!" John screamed, sliding down the hill as debris launched from makeshift catapults hit the rubble he was hiding on. A Marine sniper shifted, fired and John saw the silhouette of a Covenant sniper fall from a roofs building. The Marines were already suffering casualties, but they were inflicting them too. Marines scrambled for cover, slid down the embankment, and suppressed the new targets that had appeared.

"Snipers!" A Marine called out, firing a MK280 GPLMG towards the area to suppress that specific location. The man crouched down next to a desk, needles impacting the steel frame moments later. John produced his binoculars and scanned the roof tops. Surely, there were enough snipers to whittle down the platoon but not enough to kill them all before the Marines routed the attempt. John wondered how second and third platoons were fairing, but it didn't matter.

John rolled over towards what used to be a wall, making sure his head was down from the oncoming fire. Sure enough needles ricochetted off and disintegrated against the thick material. "Get those mortars firing on the catapults!" John screamed as another load of rocks smashed into the Marines tangled line. Two Marines set up the bulky, heavy mortar and prepped to fire. A shell launched from the device, a ranging shot. It exploded harmlessly in the creator.

The next round was closer, hitting a buildings support beam. A section of it collapsed and rolled away from the buildings foundation. Before the forth round could launch from the device, a sniper took the mortars loader out. Another Marine fearlessly took his place. Everyone knew the importance about the smoothbore arching weapons. The third round from the mortar took out one of the brute catapults and both men scrambled to cover moments later.

The rat-tat-tat reports of the Marine weapons, followed by another thump from the mortar launching another shell, and grenades detonating by their cover only solidified the desperation the battle had warranted. Both sides weren't only fighting for a way off the planet, but the UNSC couldn't allow the Covenant to actually have something they wanted in the first place. They left the UNSC pocket groups of survivors alone for the most part, as far as the Colonel could tell.

"Mortars hit!" Someone screamed. A huge chunk of debris had landed on the weapon, bending it significantly. The Mortars crew took out a second emplacement. Two Marines, however, were killed when the mortar was destroyed. Killinger immediately felt the ping of regret for the men under the rubble, but he had to focus on what was happening.

"40MM's up! One blue and red flares. Hopefully the fleet's still listening!" The Colonel ordered, and two 40 MM flares rocketed towards the building the artifact was located. They landed short, of course, but the general principle of 'Close only applies to horse shoes and hand grenades' also applied to a 50 MM MLA strike from orbit.

John watched a Marines head blow up, the body slump down and stay still. That wasn't a needle, that was a UNSC sniper round. "They using our munitions! Heads up!" John said, but he expected it. Half the UNSC expected it. The Covenant weapons weren't working so it was common sense a military force would use what ever they could to kill their enemies, be it their fist or enemy weapons!

An elite, a particular nosy one, appeared to Johns right. Two Marines immediately turned but were gunned down by its needle rifle. John barely had time to pull out his M6D and - thanks to the lack of personal shields - blew the creatures brain out... onto the grunts it was leading behind them. John fired his side arm until the slide locked back indicating the weapon was empty.

The Covenant, wielding UNSC weaponry, opened fire on the Marines line and nearly the Colonel himself. A Marine with a M247 gunned the rest of the Covenant warriors down, a total of four grunts and an elite. There were more nearby, and it was about to get intense.

[Armory]

Sergeant Johnathan Miller

Vitals: Heart Rate levels at increased amounts suggesting nervousness.



Time Zone: 03:17 Hours Refuge Planetary Time



Location: UNSC Rally Point, Refuge City



Current Mission: Getting prepared for living hell.



Miller kept his head down as the battle lines seemed to grow with the last surges of UNSC trooper who were arriving by the minute. After the Spartans had saved his ass from that Baby Kong swarm he wasn't to ready to go right back into the scrap, but duty did call and Miller was not going to turn and run here. The UNSC troops had taken cover behind what little they had as the Colonel briefed them on what exactly they were about to do. The sounds around them were eerily silent as the men knew what they were about to do. Their charge would take them straight into Covenant lines as the Colonel worked hard to rally the men earning a combined cheer from the surviving tankers of Anvil that were present. He pulled his gun to a ready position as the Colonel went on to elaborate on the plan. They were going to have to buy enough time for the support in the skies above to release hell down on Covenant positions. All they'd have to do is to keep the Covie's head's down long enough for the guns aboard the UNSC fleet could fire on the Covenant positions.

He remained silent as the conversation between the Colonel and Kai the staff sergeant he had survived the brute attack with struck up the conversation of infiltrating enemy lines. The request was turned down due to the fact so little men were available and that the Sergeant would find better use elsewhere on the battlefield. Miller remained silent as the Colonel gave the last parting words for the matter as the place seemed to go silent. 

Miller brought his rifle up before loading a fresh clip and cambering a fresh round. It was time for the final push and the UNSC was putting everything they had into it. Miller moved up into rank with the other soldiers about to push forward. The men and women left were giving their last few talks with the other members of their units knowing that this might be the last time they saw them. The scene was almost saddening as Miller gave Ingram a slap of the shoulder pad "With you to the end of the line."

"Same here man.." Miller could hear his gunner trail off as he watched him load his weapon and seemingly ready himself for what was about to happen. The troops slowly filed into their firing positions as Miller sat behind a concrete barricade keeping himself low and out of sight, however hell was about to break loose as sniper rounds made impact nearby causing the troopers in the area to cling to cover for dear life firing off a few suppressing shots every now and then. Suddenly a shape seemed to come hurtling out of the sky before impacting with a car nearby crushing it complete.

"They've got fucking artillery of their own..." Miller could hear Ingram snarl over the gunfire as he pulled himself up taking a few shots at the enemy before dropping back behind cover.

Miller slowly took a deep breath before pulling himself from behind cover and unloading on a spider hole in the distance only to dive to the ground in order to dodge the incoming death that would soon follow as he heard the top of the barricade shatter as the round tore right on through causing him to swear. Before moving his to a safer spot on the barricade that allowed him to be less exposed as artillery rained down causing a cloud of destruction around him. It was going to be one hell of a long day.

---

Sangheili Major Vel 'Katolai       

 

Vitals: Seemingly fine, but still battered from battles before.

Time Zone: 03:17 Hours Refuge Planetary Time

Location: North Side Industry Building, Covenant Battlements

Current Mission: Defend the relic at all costs.

The sounds of battle being joined brought Vel back to what seemed to be the final battle. His lances had taken up positions around the large building along with the few other lances. The human building was a somewhat box like structure that was large enough that it took about a good six or seven lances to hold it down. However what it did offer was a somewhat elevated vantage point being a building of three floors and it's structure had not taken enough damage to be structurally unstable, but even the one could see small holes in gaps in the walls were they had collapsed or been blown open by flying debris. Vel paced the area his troops were assigned to which seemed to be a human office space on the second floor. They had threw together a makeshift spider holes using human desks and other objects and rubble to offer cover as the windows had been blown out during the blast.

Vel began his ceremonial check on each member of the lances under his command offered a word of encouragement here and there though in a way he could feel morale among the Covenant was starting to waver. In truth humans had never been much threat in small numbers to Sangheili, but now the playing field had been changed in some twist of fate as it would only take a quick few bursts to cut down even a Zealot. He turned to the two minors along with him before giving each of them a slight nod, a silent signal to ready the lances for battle. It was time to see who the Forerunners favored. 

      

[Faclan]

SSA-012 - Yanme'e Swarm
Following the Master and awaiting commands.

As the preparations were made the refreshed, at least in terms of sleep and energy, following close by the Master as they held their new Jiralhanae weapons they had been given so they could fight when the time arose. Their broken plasma weapons were still in holsters on their person in case the dampening field fell. But for now their new weapons would do as whatever spare ammo they could find were on their bandoliers as well. They followed Til into the prison where they watched him interact with the Black armored Human.

For their part they stood at the Field Masters side, hissed and clicked their mandibles, and held their weapons pointed at the human to be threatening until the fighting started outside. They waited until Til left, one of the swarm taking a swipe at the Human and just narrowly missing his head with the Spiker blades before leaving. Once outside they waited beside Til as the final battle began, the Swarm able to see that the Humans had a height advantage - but they would still have to get through the Covenant line to reach the artifact.


Cad - Kig-Yar Major and Eugine - Jiralhanae Advisor.
Trying to hold the line.

Turning to Garatus as the last preparations were made Cad shrugged a bit as he checked his Needler again to be sure it was loaded and he had all his canisters still attached to his chest rig. "Not much more to tell Brother," Cad of course meant this in a camaraderie sense as they were different species but they had both been through a lot together so far. "When the Holy Artifact was activated my file was forced to leap off the bridge, Kop was lost as he was executed by the Humans we had been chasing. After that we grouped up with Web and barely survived the flood. We went across the rooftops to try and hunt down a Human hostage as we knew they were around in force but the flooding and bomb dropping stopped us. I nearly drowned when the bomb dropped but was saved once more by Web. After that we just slowly slunk back here to be here to protect the Gods artifact in a last stance." Turning to his brother he drew himself up to his full height and nodded. "And those Heathens out there will have to pry it from our dead claws, we won't let the Gods down by letting one of their holy artifacts fall into their clutches." He said with conviction as the battle began.

Cad and his new lance did what they could to try and keep the elevated Humans pinned and to avoid their gunfire - but some of them started to fall as very accurate fire was directed their way. With no person shield Cad and the other Kig-Yar had to use conventional cover and just try to duck out and fire compared to being able to see what they were shooting. Some of the Humans were falling but it was hard to ignore that their position was advantageous and arms more numerous as more and more Covenant warriors were falling. Growling in anger Cad, and Kot who was beside him, kept trying to make accurate shots from their cover. Kot was proving himself to be a very capable shot with his Jiralhanae pistol as Garatus's uncle fired from beside them - the Elder showing that he wasn't useless as he fired as well at the horde of Humans.

Throwing his broken grenade Cad was able to spook two Humans out of cover but the rest stayed behind, those two hit but only one killed before they made it back to other cover. Slipping a new canister into his Needler as Kot and Eugine also reloaded they grit their teeth and kept trying to fire back as the bullets whizzed past them; Cad's left arm and shirt cut up badly as a large round impacted nearby and sent shard slicing across it, Kot taking a hit to his armored thigh as he staggered a little before returning fire, and Eugine taking a hit to his bad arm as he bellowed and spent the last of his current canister fanning his weapon toward the Human ranks before ducking behind cover to reload again.

[HollowSaber]

*: Due to members having issues with reading my posts because of my template, I have made a very easy modification which allows my post to continue rather than cut off and scroll. This change has been enacted on all of my posts with a template so if you missed a post because you could not read it, feel free to go back and take a look. Some were turned into Walls of Text, but I would rather have those than have my posts unreadable. --Saber :*

: Corporal Jake Furrow :
: Task Force 77, Nova Squad :

: Condition :
Captured
Wounded

: Location :
Covenant Territory
Artifact Area

: Objective :
Hold Steady

: Tags :
HollowSaber
Huka

A gentle hiss of air escaped Jake’s mouth as he rested against the wall. He was asleep, for the most part, and was quietly taking as much time to recuperate as possible. Hanging on the wall was a little uncomfortable but he had slept in much worse conditions. Avoiding duties on the ship came with a price at times, but his lovely naps always made getting yelled at worth it. Jake was always well-rested and ready to fight for days if he needed to. Though, he was learning to spend time shooting as well. At first, the Trooper had focused on sleeping and ignored his duties as a soldier. After his marksman score dropped by two points after he tested himself, Jake never let that happen again. Time management was what he needed and he did a lot of that now. Sleeping while being captured was one of those “time management” things. If he wanted to escape, he needed to be on his game. And yet, he wished he hadn’t dozed off.

Not long after he actually fell asleep, footsteps and movement caused Jake to snap to. He was a little fatigued still from his running, but the light sleep helped and he became more alert to his surroundings. The Elite to his right was still standing there, alert and grumbling as he had been before. As Jake stared at that creature, the footsteps which awoke him grew louder and sure enough; another figure walked into the area. From his armor, Jake could easily see that it was one of the Elites he had seen earlier while he was surveying the zone. As strange as it was to see such a large beast, Jake wasn’t surprised in the least. After only a motion from the new shiny face, the Guard left; the new face was a superior as the ODST had expected. The Covenant designated their leaders with armor it seemed, and that simple interaction was a prime example of it.

Jake wiggled around a little bit and made himself as comfortable as he could get as his eyes shifted from the new Elite to the group of Buggers which followed it. They were the same insects which had flown into the building Jake had been hiding in beside the artifact. Their presence was probably the most surprising, but the Trooper’s mind didn’t linger on them for to long. The movement of the Elite caught his eye; it was reading through his notebook it seemed and promptly destroyed its contents. That was no surprise, and Jake simply closed his eyes and let his mind replay what he had seen. He had gained quite a bit of information from just watching the Covenant and noted much of it down, but the most important pieces he kept in his mind just in case his notebook ended up in the wrong hands; Insurrectionists and Civilians were always a problem.

And yet, after all of his time monitoring and lingering around the Covenant, Jake didn’t expect the Elite to actually speak to him. The ODST’s ears perked up a little and he opened his eyes again as he listened to the alien speak. The words actually made him chuckle and smile. His current superiors confident in him? That was new. Jake had talked to plenty of superiors and he had been given a lot of praise for his work. However, he hadn’t even seen his current leader’s face let alone get an order from the person. If it wasn’t for his past experience, Jake would probably be where that gunfire was. It was also because of his experience which kept him alive.

“My superiors are far too afraid to let me do what I do.” Jake chuckled to himself and slowly looked up towards the Elite as it approached him. The massive creature towered over Jake, but he had been face to face with the species plenty of times. Fear wasn’t a word he would describe the feeling in his stomach. If he wasn’t bound, Jake would have probably punched the beast in the jaw. Although Jake didn’t hate them either. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Even as the creature placed it claw on his neck, Jake leaned forward towards the Elite and snarled between his teeth; he wished the bastard would have done it, but from his words Jake was more than another body. It also seemed like Jake’s reputation was greater than he imagined. He was worth the Elite’s breath, as well as his touch, which seemed to be a delicacy in the Covenant ranks. It made Jake a little happy he had killed so many of the freaks. Maybe that was also why the Buggers refused to stop pointing their guns at him, or why there was a decent sized force of Jackals and Jumpers after him.

Slowly, the grip around his neck loosened and Jake leaned back against the wall. He rumbled a little in his throat and adjusted his eyes to look at another new face; it was a Jackal, and it looked distressed. Unlike the Elite, the alien spoke in its own language that Jake couldn’t understand. From its look though, as well as the time of its appearance, its words probably had something to do with the fighting. Jake pushed it off though. After seeing what he had seen, Jake wondered what the UNSC would bring to the table. They were outmatched unless they had some super secret plan or some heavy firepower up their sleeve. In addition to that, Jake doubted they had the numbers to take on such a large force. It was a little saddening to hear his allies coming in, but he would remain patient.

“But they are bold.” Jake muttered as he accepted the fact that the UNSC had obviously moved. From what he had seen, there had been zero reconnaissance done other than Jake’s moving around and the ODST had never returned with any information. How they prepared for an attack was beyond him, so he only hoped that they didn’t fail miserably and all die. Jake still needed a large enough distraction to get out.

“Too bold.” Another chuckle made Jake smirk a little before he shut his eyes. He was about to ask the Elite what the beast wanted from him, but Jake chose silence over interaction. Such a question wasn’t worth speaking as he would find out soon. Whatever it was, Jake doubted he would have a choice in the matter. For now, he would play the mind game.

Fight for those you never see...

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

[RiddL]

Staff Sergeant Kai (Wolf) Blacklock

Supporting where necessary.

Kai watched the battle through his scope and stayed on his belly as he looked at some of the other snipers, "Don't waste ammo guys, only shoot what you can hit." He advised as he applied pressure to the trigger and let off a round, absolutely destroying the head of a brute and sending gore all around, he saw a mortar round nearly hit a marine and realized it was Miller. "Open up on the mortar crews, or this battle will be a short one" He yelled as he readjusted his aim and started firing on the Brutes in control of the mortars. The men started to release a barrage of sniper fire until all the Brutes out of cover were nothing more.

Silence befell the snipers as they rained death on the Covenant. Kai looked down and saw Colonel Killinger fighting and a jackal aiming down its sights, trying to get a good fix on him, Kai got to his feet and aimed down his sights and let off a single round which tore through the jackals chest and continued on to hit a Grunt and the bullet lodged inside the aliens body. "No one fucks with the Wolf of Reach or his pack" He said to noone in particular as he reloaded and moved further forwards towards the fighting.

[MorpheusDavol]

Loken Gnash

Situation: Meeting friendlies

Condition: Worn but battle ready

Loken watched Viktor step up to indemnity himself as the squad leader, he had no objections with this considering he was the leader and in charge, he just turned examining the room with his rifle pointed down slightly. He looked to Kyle to see what his friend would think, heir her all Kyle did was shrug holding his SAW with a sheepish look. Seemed Kyle wasn't to sure about the situation either. Loken then finally turned back to the squad leader and the other two they had just met.

"My people and I are fine, no causality or injuries. However we did encounter some Yanee Bugs and managed to get a near perfect set of Covvie tools." He informed them before motioning to himself. "I'm Staff Sergeant Viktor Romanov." He explained motioning to everyone to introduce themselves.

"Corporal Loken Gnash." Loken answered next looking around as he saw Marco step forward to introduce himself, his shotgun pointed to the ground.

"Sergeant Marco Castel." Marco replied with a grunt before stepping back showing his rather crude introduction.

"Corporal Jon drasken." A man that held a SMG replied, he looked to be a field medic by the look of the medic kit on his leg.

"Lance Corporeal Maria Braken." The only female of the group introduced giving a nod.

"Lance Corporeal Kyle Jones." The clearly heavy of the group, while not overly big he certainly looked like he played rugby or football in his youth. Perhaps even a wrestler.

"Private first class Neck Dencon." The averaged sized man replied, he looked around muttering a few things about how he wished he had a working tac pad. He seemed to be a techie.

"Private First Class Alex Mendex and Private Nathan Mackie." The final pair introduced themselves, one holding a sniper and the other a DMR, they looks to be a spotter and marksman pair.

[Armory]

Sergeant Johnathan Miller 

Vitals: Heart Rate levels at increased amounts suggesting nervousness combat.

Time Zone: 03:25 Hours Refuge Planetary Time

Location: UNSC Battle Lines, Refuge City

Current Mission: Pin down Covenant Defenders.

The sounds of the artillery got closer as the Sergeant as he made a motion for Ingram to follow him to a safer place as cover was getting torn to bits. However before he could a whistling sound filled the air as Miller looked up only to find a half of ton of concrete falling out of the sky towards him. "Oh sh...." was all he had time to say before he felt Ingram tackle with a running start him knocking both of them out of the way as a table sized chunk slammed into the ground were he once was standing.

"Holy shit man...." he could hear Ingram cough as his gunner got to his feet before hauling Millers ass out of the dirt.
 
Miller gave a quick nodded before giving Ingram a pat on the shoulder. "You saved my ass there bud." He said before his mind feel back on getting to a safer peace of cover.They moved off quickly in a sprint before reaching the main area. He could see the area in which Colonel was stationed in be waving Ingram along through the fog of war. Miller ducked ever now and then as the crack of sniper fire in the area sent him behind cover. The smell of smoke lingered in the air as he slowly made his way through the maze of rubble.

The tanker kicked away a bit of rubble to make his way through the battlements as the sounds of gunfire blazed around him. They were soon coming across Killinger's group towards the middle of the battle lines. He moved over to the Colonel before quick giving a "Sir" to grab his attention before giving a quick field report as the bullets flew over head.

"Sir we are getting the shit kicked out of us by that Brute artillery how long until we get the mortars up sir?!" He said having to raise his voice of the loud noise echoing around him as he pulled his hand to his helmet off of reflex before tightening the chin strap and looking back at the Colonel hoping to get the mortars up and running as soon as possible. 
    

[CTWDaBearJew]

//**SITREP - 25281-25369-BM : 2/153@7/7**//
Asset(s): 2LT McRaven, Benjamin Ian - Platoon Leader, 2/153 ODST 
Location: Covenant Zone, Artifact Location - Refuge City, Refuge Colony
Current Mission: Strike on Artifact/Covenant Zone

The hours long tactical movement from the Office Complex on the far side of the city, into the Covenant zone had taken it's toll on the Marines, Soldiers and ODST who comprised the attacking force. But that didn't matter, the ODST of Second Platoon were emplaced taking the lull as a chance to rest in, on, and around the debris that made up their cover and concealment thanks to the two massive bombs the Navy had dropped in an attempt to kill what ever the Covenant had dug up and was causing all their problems. 

Ian was one of those, his helmet off tucked into a small crevice in the fallen debris; in one hand a power bar, the other a canteen of water. Looking around he checked on his platoon, all but a small handful who'd survived the drop and finally linked up with the assembled forces amassed there. He hadn't been with the platoon long, but he'd come to care for them as if they were his brothers and sisters, hell even his own kid. 

The sound of armor scraping on rocks pulled him back to reality, he took another bite of the bar as he looked at his SNCO scrambling up to his position.

"Everyones laid in Sir, were ready to go; I got CJ on the mortars, they're as zeroed as possible at this point. Biz is gonna do the corrections."

Ian nodded, and returned his canteen to its case. "Thanks Sargent, lets hope it gets us off this rock."

"Oorah to that," Huston replied, he paused as a red flare kicked high into the air, "Here we go Sir."

Grabbing his helmet, he slammed it onto his head as the rest of Second Platoon opened fire and the solid thump from the two 130mm mortars reverberated through the rubble. Pulling his BR55 into his shoulder he began to fire down on the Covenant.

....

[Huka]

Field Master Til 'Muramai
Prison Quarter
Human flares...never good

The Zealot glanced at the human with his good eye, very cautious but intrigued. Fear was hardly something to enter a Sangheili veteran's heart in the heat of battle, only the unperceived and failure had that kind of effect on them. For the proper-minded anyway and Til still bore his commanding specialty strong like a boulder to a rushing river. From the crashes of the positioned catapult ammunition, he knew his plan was working for the most part at least for now. Pulling out his hooked blade-for the mere advantage of hooking the human if it tried to escape with its long length and end-the Muram Zealot pressed the hilt to the Imp's neck firmly to keep it in place and controlled in the threat of crushing its windpipe (and leave it to endure a very painful death of slow suffocation) while his free hand reached from its long arm to start undoing its bounds like flexible weights while his Yanme'e kept a stern watch to fire on any aggression.

When it was complete and punishing any noncooperation with a painful nerve strike from his knuckles on unarmored parts of the wounded body, Til picked the human up by the back of its collar and started to escort it outside to hold the ravaging battle. The fire have lessened onto the crater and towards the Artifact's defensive position, ammunition pinging off the formidable Wraith armor and the two of the stationed Sangheili warriors returning fire with human sniper rifles before quickly returning back to cover before they get more damage than needed.

When he moved for the back of the building, Til looked up fast when odd colored smoke appeared to pepper over the position. It took him three good heartbeats to release those were flares, often a signal used by humans. While he still didn't understand all of the colors' meanings, he nevertheless knew it was bad from previous experience. "All, move out of the area!" He ordered.

The stationed Sangheili looked at Til as if he just cursed them in a Jiralhanae language and he returned the dumbfounded looks with a violent and powerfully inputted voice that truly burned his lungs, the mere closeness of it hurt his ears abit, nevermind the human's, "Do as I command or die as useless as plasma-strapped Unggoy!"

After some concerned looks, the guards did as commanded, slicking away towards the back of the building with Til jerking and guiding his prisoner onwards to the waiting lances that were kept for the Zealot's security. They had to move fast or whatever the humans were calling might just kill them all. The relentless, ignorant creatures!
 
 Moving through the better streets with his first group of the security waiting, the Field Master sniffed the scent of blood...the Spirits whispered frantically and he moved accordingly.

(OOC: Since having Jake touch the Artifact is a bust, have some people try to take the ODST back. Or bring in Gold.)


Major Labus 'Adantee
Battle of the Eastern Human Groups

"For the Covenant!" The field-promoted 'Adantee roared out in righteous, and personal, fury before leading the rain of bullets, needles, and Jiralhanae firearms upon his selected prey; the piece of a Human creche numbering about two lances. The humans were successful in sneaking along the Covenant's seeming-lost grounds but the Field Master was coordinated and prepared for their weakness. With so few Ultras and many lower-ranked, some special command was given to the first handful of arrivals, and Labus was amongst them. Armed with his dual spikers, the Sangheili managed to turn a couple humans into a pin-cushion before hiding back into cover when the vengeful returned fire. Using practiced fluidity, he swiped and reloaded before hearing the loud cracks of human sniper rifles blowing off their former masters' head and limbs from Jhao's sniper team in a neighboring building. Streets were a dangerous place to be and these humans will suffer for it. The ones in alleys were harder and more dangerous to pin and chase down.

" 'Crolunee, keep your men in cover!" Labus ordered, his voice breaking through the roar of firearms and watched the accused Minor quickly duck back before he lost his face to an armor-piercing round. "Demon flares!"

As one, the window-positioned troops pulled out their first of collected human grenades before tossing it over their head with various strengths. Sparse screams of pain and surprise caught their ear but knew better than to poke their heads out, excluding one of the Unggoy who lost the top of his head in a gory mess from what sounded like one of the human's marksman rifles. At least his death came a sacrifice. "Careful and keep low!" Labus ordered before arming another grenade, waiting for that precise moment. "Fire!"

The lance shot out blindly at first to suppress before the more skilled took the risk to aim properly, gunning down the remaining visible fighters.

"Clear!" Jhao called out. Slowly pulling out of cover, Labus looked for any casualties on his level, no one but the Unggoy. Good yet bad at the same time; they needed everyone to keep the fight. "Lower level, check for any useful weapons and ammunition!" He called out from the window, "Upper level, watch their back. We'll be moving in to help with the rest of the sect soon."
Hopefully the survivors of their attackers will run into Kig-yar sniping fire elsewhere.

The ordered lance crept out into the dawning open with eyes on all sides while Labus' present warriors aiming for any disturbance. The handful of body gifted a few new rifles including one of their fast repeaters, several of their ammunition cases, and belts of grenades. It got a little easier using the enemy's equipment but hardly enjoyable, many of the Sangheili hoped to get nice baths after this traumatic experience and hoped the Field Master who rationalize his authority of using such heretical weapons. For those using Jiralhanae weapons, it was more on the knowledge of using the weapons that murdered their comrades-in-arms.

Swooping on a handmade cup of collected rain water, Labus looked down at it for a moment before drinking it in one tilted gulp. Good enough for a Sangheili warrior in the heat of battle! "Prepare to move!" He instructed before striding towards the metallic stairs of the building's side entrance, abit afraid that his weight would collapse its stability.

[BetaWülf]

Jiralhanae Captain Garatus
Location: The Artifact
The battle has begun!

Garatus nodded as he listened to Cad answer his question, it sounded like a very unpleasant adventure to Garatus, he was proud of Cad for rising above the challenges set before him. "I am sorry you lost one of your comrades Cad" Garatus with a respectful nod.

Before Garatus could say anything else bullets were flying about and Cad delivered quite the motivational speech before going to battle. Garatus leapt from his position and ran as fast as he could and dove into cover. He crawled across the ground into a small concrete structure, a parking garaged that had all but one of the stories blown off, leaving thick heaps of rubble laying all around the single remaining story making it decently safe. Garatus took a deep breath before poking his head out let out a rallying howl to gather the Jiralhanae.

His pack had been nearby when the battle began, the majority were unscathed but a few had minor injuries and two had died in the initial assault. Quite a few of the former rebel Jiralhanae rallied to the call as well, they'd have a use for the time being even though they were inferior in Garatus's eyes. Garatus looked out long enough to see one of his catapults go down, he cursed and stomped his foot at this, those weren't that easy to make! He paused for a moment trying to think of a plan for them, then he peered out again and caught site of some good targets. They were near to the Northern section of the ring of UNSC forces, and they needed to take the fight to them.

After a brief huddle of barking and grunting in their native tongue the Jiralhanae had a plan and the time to act was upon them. The former rebels were in the very front except for Garatus who headed the group, he may have decided to use the rebels as meat shields for his loyal packs safety, but he'd run the distance exposed. They charged forward roaring and yelling battle cries of all sorts, the former rebels in the front. Bullets ripped through several of the front most Jiralhanae but soon enough the pack was upon them and leaping over the rise into their ranks. Some simply landed on the Humans and crushed them while others fired bursts of Spiker, Impaler or Mauler rounds into the enemy.

Garatus had his combat knife in one hand and his other empty, using his fist and claws to fight. He stabbed one through the gut then punched another in the face, the head shattering in sticky chunks all around. The attack was incredibly aggressive and driven and the Humans weren't as good at unarmed or close quarters combat so the Jiralhanae were doing fairly well and were making a dent in the Northern section of the ring. Garatus decapitated another Human by ripping its head from its shoulders with his teeth, but pulled the Spiker rifle from his thigh as the fun couldn't take over the objective.

[MrKill]

(OOC: I was going to try a template after talking to Saber, but I decided against it. It's not ready.. yet)

Colonel Johnathan B'Sheau Killinger
Seventh Marines
Engaging!

"Sergeant," The Colonel greeted the new comer. "We took out two of their makeshift catapults. Our mortar was taken out and the crew killed, we're waiting on second and third platoon to light them up now." John said, fingering his magnums magazine release. The empty mag clattered down the debris, and the new magazine slid into place. The slide snapped forward and chambered the new round.

John holstered it and shouldered one of the many variants of the MA5 series of rifles he plucked up on the way, with about eleven magazines of extra ammunition to spare. Though, he had a feeling he'd be handing them out to Marines soon. The Veteran Marine looked up and shook his head. The building, at least that specific section, wasn't satisfyingly stable enough to climb up and get a good view of the area.

What made things worse was the two platoons worth of men were starting to get swamped by Covenant Forces. Fortunately, the center was now clear from any Covenant Forces that remained and the Marine snipers apparently finished picking off the Covenant snipers. John could only hear the reports from nearby snipers, so the Covenant marksmen must have pulled back or were dead.

But, to the grounds right, the Covenant were coming.

"First Platoon, shift your attention right. Second, keep the middle secure! Move!" The Colonel ordered, standing to his feet and shifting his weight accordingly to the buildings debris. He took position behind a collapsed wall, peeking over the side as the barks, growls and chirps of various Covenant species grew louder, mixed with assault rifle fire and screams from both sides.

But what happened next was unexpected, and it both relieved and worried the Colonel. The ground rumbled, loud explosive shock-waves struck the debris pile and the ground was gorged from kinetic strikes. Above, high in the sky, one UNSC ship was responding to the flare system GOLD had brought with them. John didn't care which one it was, who commanded it or the status of the UNSC Navy. He wouldn't trade anything to see what he was watching.

MLA rounds, and lots of them, struck the general area with enough force to make creators the size of a small house. Dirt flew into the air, and the rounds walked with precision where the two 40MM smokes had detonated. A house crumbled under the firepower, another pile of debris shifted and rolled into the creator that the bomb made, some pieces flying away as a round struck near the general area.

"Cover!" John screamed, realizing that the strike could send wild debris towards the Marines. Despite the very real, human made earth quake that was happening the Covenant still decided to press forward. John, inaccurately, fired his magnum at a stumbling Jackal. His cover shifted, collapsed and the Colonel slide down the embankment slightly. The wall struck the debris with a sound cracking crunch.

The general effect of the MLA strike is to destroy the Artifact, I suggest if anyone is still in that building (And a PC) to get out.

[RiddL]

Staff Sergeant Kai (Wolf) Blacklock

Out of ammo

Kai ran for cover and narrowly avoided a piece of cement roughly the size of a tire that hit where his head was.
He put his rifle against his shoulder and applied pressure to the trigger *click* it went and Kai realised that he was in trouble.
 
"Oh shit!" He exclaimed as he dropped the rifle and pulled out his sidearm he watched as a piece of cement hit a marine and kill him instantly, Kai ran to his body and relieved the marine of his shotgun and his dogtags, "Rest well" He said as he ran towards the fighting once more, he jumped over a dead Brute and saw a small round hole in the ground, "You beauty" Kai said as he ran to the sewer entrance, he slid to the entrance, slipping in and landing with an audible thud. He turned and saw a grunt there cowering, Kai walked up to hit and aimed the shotgun at his face and pulled the trigger *BANG* the sound of the trigger echoed as the Grunts head exploded and covered Kai in its blood, "No prisoners, asshole" Kai ran and felt the ground vibrate as another MLA round strike the ground. He took a left and found the next entrance to the sewers.

He climbed up the ladder and slowly opened the manhole entrance, shotgun at the ready, he saw that he was near the front of the battle, "Friendly coming up!" Kai yelled as he came up. He watched as one marine was cut down by a Brute with a DMR and Kai rushed over, pumping the shotgun and aiming at the brute, he got with in 10 metres when the monkey noticed him and it turned to shoot, but kai was quicker, he pulled the trigger and felt the recoil hit him and slow him down a little. The brute on the other hand put a hand to its chest where the shotgun had hit it and yelled in a battlecry, throwing the DMR to the ground and charging at him, Kai turned and ran back when another MLA round hit behind the Brute and threw them both forwards, the Brute was killed almost instantly as it hit one of the walls.

Kai was luckier, he was thrown through a window and into a Jakal trying to get behind the Marines and flank them. Kai reached for his knife and stabbed the the jackal in the breast 3 times to make sure he had killed it before picking himself up and making his way to another manhole, but to his dismay an Elite stood there and Kai, losing his shotgun from the blast, was all but unarmed, but then he had an idea, and quickly pulled his flare gun from his pocket and aimed it at the Elite and fired, a hot flare hit it square in the face and it flailed backwards the flare in its face blinding it, he sprinted past it and dived for cover and saw a face he recognised, "Colonel Killinger, Fancy seeing you here" He said with a smile as he wiped blood from his face.

[Armory]

Sangheili Major Vel 'Katolai

Vitals: Seemingly fine, but still battered from battles before.

Time Zone: 03:23 Hours Refuge Planetary Time

Location: North Side Industry Building, Covenant Battlements

Current Mission: Defend the relic at all costs.

Vel moved among his troops as they continued to fire down on the humans who were apparently pulling out a full on assault on the Covenant defenses. The major's mind couldn't help but wonder what exactly the humans were planning to do. It seemed they kept their distance instead of slowly pressing an advance. The elite was silent as the mortar rounds could be heard making impact in the distance. He then paused,what could they be waiting for... he though of the bombing earlier before looking skyward. The fleets of the mighty Covenant were not so easily defeated he knew, but he had seen humans pull out a miracle before. The major stood in silence as the gunfire around him echoed throughout the building as he moved among him battle lines directing his troops. "Continue to fire on those human mortars or they will make short work of our trench lines!!" He barked over the noise as he brought his weapon to the ready.

The elite opened fire on the troops below. The rounds struck one marine as the others ducked behind their cover as Vel moved to his own piece of cover as bullets went flying past were he once stood. Still the elite mind couldn't help, but move back to the what the humans were planning. Sudden the appearance of flares bathed a area in light and Vel's eyes scanned the area...most of the artillery had went silent...that could mean one thing! "EVERYONE OUT NOW!!!!" He snarled at the top of his lungs forcing the defenders out of the building before taking off in a sprint to safety as the area seemed to take on a eerie silence as he took off across the open ground shouting for others to fall back. 

It would be long before he pulled himself from the crater and was now getting a safe distance from the site. Something in the back of his mind told him to keep on going at all costs a thought which he happily obliged. He looked back to see more fleeing Covenant troops coming his way in a mass exodus from the crater. Vel continued to push on hoping to find the Field Marshall or any other fellow defender to either confirm or deny his suspicions.   

[HollowSaber]

: Corporal Jake Furrow :
: Task Force 77, Nova Squad :

: Condition :
Fleeing
Wounded

: Location :
Covenant Territory
Artifact Area

: Objective :
RUN!

: Tags :
HollowSaber
Huka

Jake reopened his eyes after letting himself relax for a few seconds and felt the edge of a knife settle on his throat. The Trooper didn’t flinch at the feeling and looked at the Elite as the massive creature began to unbind him. Oh, so now he was being let go? Bullshit. The man grumbled at the feeling of the binds coming off and glanced over at his equipment before looking back at the Buggers pointing at him. The soldier considered punching the Elite in the throat and making a run for his stuff, but there were far to many guns in the room. One misstep and he would be filled with needles and bullets. Unlike he usually would have, Jake dropped to the floor and remained still. He glanced up at the Elite and wiggled his jaw a little in thought, but then began to walk awkwardly as his collar was tugged on.

Without his helmet the light from the sun flooded into the ODST’s unprotected eyes, blinding him completely. He winced a little and staggered as he tried to remain upright because of how obnoxious the Elite’s grip was. After a few moments, he was able to open his eyes up and got a decent view of the area around him. What he saw was no surprise. Compared to how the zone was before, the area he was being dragged through was completely different. Covenant blood was splattered everywhere, with bodies all over the place. Human bullet markings were scattered around in the walls, on the ground, and in bodies. After taking a few steps, Jake heard zipping. He looked to his side in the direction of where the noise came from to see human forces hunkered down on top of a few buildings. In the concrete all around them were needles and ballistic impact points; so the Covenant really were using Human weapons… Those Elites were just flukes.

“Interesting…” Jake thought before he felt a hard tug, forcing him to walk away from the building, his friendlies, and the… two.. flares… Oh god, flares. Jake hated flares. Old style signal things and they could have meant a number of things. At first, Jake thought they meant just to focus fire, but as Jake was yanked forward further and further away; he noticed he wasn’t being shot at enough for that to be right. At that moment, the Elite who was dragging Jake along bellowed out some noise in its own tongue; an order most likely seeing as the other aliens responded. There was a moment of pause between the Elites, and Jake looked at them, confused. What did he say?

After a moment of hesitation from the Elite underlings, a loud yell from the Elite make Jake wince. By god that was a disgustingly bad noise and Jake’s ears stung a little from it. He didn’t have long to complain though before being tugged forward again towards the back of the building. It didn’t take long before Jake completely lost sight of his allies and he was once again surrounded by Covenant forces. They stunk with mixes of nasty musts and smells and things which Jake could not describe. The glares he received weren’t anymore pleasant either, but the Trooper kept walking as they moved out of his, and the Elite’s, path. It wasn’t long before they were back out onto the streets and moving away from the artifact area. Shit.

They were moving quick, quicker than usual, and Jake was stumbling around a little as his collar continued to be tugged. What didn’t help was a familiar noise… cracking, a boom, and then a sharp whistle. Jake glanced over his shoulder towards the previous zone; light, dust, and windows shattering. The ODST clenched his teeth and shut his eyes. Then, he breathed out… First, the ground shook...

SMACK

The shockwave from the orbital bombardment slammed into Jake’s back like a truck impact. Even with the Elite behind him, it wasn’t directly behind him and his body was thrown forward anyways. The massive shaking of the ground caused him to lose his footing and the man found himself falling towards the ground within seconds after being hit in the back. Opening his eyes as he fell, Jake extended his hands and started to run. His palms hit the asphalt and he snapped into a roll. All around him, the Covenant were just as equally unprepared and were stumbling about. In the few seconds he had, Jake popped up to his feet, turned to his left, and bolted towards the closest alleyway.

Reaching down, Jake scooped up a needle rifle one of the security Jackals had dropped and then snagged a container off his waist. The Trooper pulled the lever on the container and turned around, throwing it into the center of the Covenant group as they began to recover. The grenade’s internal clock hit one second...

“Banger.” The Trooper narrowed his eyes on the Elite which had been holding him, stealing one last look at the creature before turning away from his grenade. It blasted open, an extremly high pitched and disorienting noise expanding from its insides combined with a blinding flash of light.

Slipping into the alleyway under the cover of his distraction, the Trooper ran as fast as he could, limping slightly as the bullet wound in his leg impeded him from a full sprint. He glanced over his shoulder as he crossed the middle of the alley and pulled a frag grenade off his other hip. The man pressed the button on the top to trigger the explosive device and then stopped running for only a second so he could throw it back towards the other entrance. With that done, Jake turned around his heels, bolted to the exit, and turned left towards the Artifact zone. Lifting the needle rifle up, the ODST was ready to face the unfriendly alien freak shows again. Seeing none, he shot across the street and ran up the street towards the sight of a few buildings hitting the ground. His captors hadn’t got far from the zone, so Jake could already see the effects of the orbital strike, but he was still far enough from his allies.

“Damn it!” The ODST barked as he glanced over his shoulder to see that he already had some company. Not good. He wasn’t even close to the front line. Sure, he could probably be seen but he was way to out of range for normal assault rifles.

“Trooper!” Snapping forward, Jake turned around and lifted his rifle to his shoulder. He was ready to squeeze the trigger, but he held fast. Instead he saw a familiar color; black. All black. The human form standing there, almost two blocks away, waved his arm frantically in an attempt to coax the already-sprinting Trooper to run faster. Jake was relieved to see one man, but that’s all he was; one man.

Turning around as he ran forward, Jake leveled his rifle and opened fire on the Covenant force behind him. He didn’t shoot to kill, but shot to discourage. Due to his limp and movement, Jake’s accuracy was pathetic. He fought with all of his strength to keep his core steady, but his stomach ached and his arms were tired. Feeling fatigued was an understatement and Jake doubted he would be able to keep moving for much longer.

“Raptor Squad, open fire!” Curious, Jake looked forward. He saw the ODST move behind a car and then noticed movement, a lot of movement, in buildings on both sides of the street. Bodies appeared from inside the rooms and rifles popped out from over the crests of the rooftops. A moment later, human and covenant rounds rained down around Jake and behind him. The Trooper ducked his head instinctively and looked behind him. Holy crap.

“Keep moving, soldier! Almost there!” The Trooper from before continued to wave Jake towards him as he fired his assault rifle. Jake rumbled and was about to yell back at him when a rocket launcher blasted off from a rooftop, slamming into the middle of the street behind him. THEY HAD ROCKETS?!

“My god…” Jake muttered as he crossed the last intersection before reaching friendly territory again. The ODST by the car stood up a little more and moved forward, approaching Jake steadily as to cut the distance down.

“Lieutenant! Friendly recovered!” The soldier shouted over the noise of gunfire as he placed a hand on Jake’s shoulder.
“Welcome back, dumbass!”

Fight for those you never see...

Coded By Saber of L33T T3@M

[Huka]

Field Master Til Je'at Ra'ha 'Muramai
Expected Troubles


Snarling out when the kinetic force of the raining ammunition smacked against his broad back, Til nearly stumbled over and stomped a clawed foot down to keep stability but he lost a grip on his prisoner, moving to grab for him before seeing something clank by his soldiers. He blinked once before immediately spinning his upper body away with his armed limb shielding his face from the blast of flash and noise.

Counting to two, the Sangheili lept forward once like a feral prowler and looked at where his prey was just at. Gone naturally when they use it and most of the security was stunned. "Chase him down!" He ordered while already on the move into the alleyway in a hard sprint, seeing his prey running with a wounded limp. The fool really think he could get far from him with that?

If he was younger or egostic, Til would be laughing...and get himself blown to bits by the bouncing grenade rolling towards his feet. Coiling his powerful legs, the Sangheili lept high and caught the railing of a side-staircase with his hookblade. Using the momentum, incoming grenade blast and his acrobatics to flip up onto the weakening stair as the metal bent under his weight. To a lesser, one would have thought he was vaporized in the explosion. Getting on the roof, he signaled for the lances to close the human on the other side before stealthily taking the roofs.


Slowing into a rough stop as he heard another voice calling out to his prisoner. Looking around swiftly, the Field Master sees the security finally trying to catch up with it. Instead of joining, he simply switched his blade for his needle rifle and checked on the ammunition before watching the lances engage in an ambush of Imps. Lifting his weapon and good cover to hide himself, the Muram hunter took aim and speared down a couple of the black-garbed elites, missing a smart individual and managed to cripple its knee instead. However, it was enough to give the rest of his soldiers a good place to take cover while the more eager and foolish were gunned down.


He signaled to one of the sniper perches from afar with a T'vaoan-like call before aiming down at the running prison. One of the Kig-yar Snipers looked down at the given target and had a evil smirk on his beak before pulling out the special prize of each perch, a fully-armed rocket launcher.


Taking aim, the Sniper hissed before firing and nearly lost foot as the rocket was sent sailing through the air, but missed by a few units. No matter, his usefulness ended anyway. Taking his loss and putting his attention on a new gain; ending this heretics! Jumping through a nearby window in a crash and tumbling into a full circling sprint through buildings and alleys while the two factions combated.

Actually as he drew in on the first of the Imp across his way, Til felt a rush of excitement for the first time since the Artifact's activation. The Zealot lifted his rifle and fired three more needles, easily zipping two of the three through one of the Humans' face-plated helmets and the third impaled under a second's arm. "What the-!? Contact!" The closest of the wounded, and killed, cried before nearly eight hundred pounds of Sangheilian muscle and metal crashed into him with a face-grabbing slam that warped metal under the vicious attack. The body spasmed and twitch but Til didn't need to enjoy his righteous glee as he snapped his attention on the four others near him.

"What is kind of Elite!?"

Til hurled the body and distracted the four long enough to fire his needle rifle ffrom the hip, more to maim than straight kill, as he pulled his Xirsas Blade out of its sheath. The silver blade extended from its compact form and gleamed with a sinster shine in the dawn's light. "I am Til 'Muramai, you interferring fools and you will all die for it!" He roared in their language and the sheer shock of knowing an alien actually could speak their language have the Zealot the needed second to close the gasp in one spinning lunge before a massive boot came crashing on one of the Imp's visor, scattering it into bits and nearly snapped the soft-bodied creature's neck. Following the momentum, Til swooped his upper body in a low arch and detacted another's leg from the knee with his singing blade before letting his other leg lift him into a vertical barrel-roll behind a civilian bench of good cushion and wooden frame, temporarily saving him from a barrel of tri-bursts, seeing a few nicks on his thoracic cage.

Snapping his body right, the Field Master planted both feet on the back and shot them out, sending the light bench spiraling at the human. Already at the aiming on his side with one hand, Til caught the Imp getting up from a wise dodge...and left itself open to a quill to the throat.

He remained sitting and watched it grasp at the crystalline projectile in a suffocating gurgle, fall on its knees in its weakening attempt to pull it out before falling face-first, spearing the fragile piece even deeper as it popped, ensuring a fatality.


Tracing his eyes slowly and waiting-almost hoping-for more to rush in, Til found his area cleared and got up with his rifle aimmed for any surprises. He didn't know many Imps were out there, they were good at sneaking around and hiding for opportune times but he was eager to eliminate each one.

Looking across to another building, Til narrowed his sights and shot another of the Imp in the forehead while they shot at his warriors, shouting out to them, "Retreat for now, return to Field Master 'Xirsasai!" As the order was heard, the Field Master himself slowly vanishing, dragging one of the bodies with him. The human elite have escaped Til on this day but it might be the last...