Mission 2: Crew Expendable (Ground Ops)

[maxii1]

Harry looked towards the rest of Gamma, and their newly assigned fellow fighters.
“I’ll take point with one of the teams, whose feeling lucky?"
He grinned as he toyed with his pistol in his hands.

He looked as Alpha Platoon had already started moving towards the objective, then back to the men he would lead. "Okay, fall in behind me" he sighed, looking towards Joe and Evan with a shrug.
"Check your flanks at all time, I ain't going to tell you how to fight, the academy should have seen to that..." his mumbling trailed away.

Excitement was building up in the young Spartan, he was ready for battle, eager for it in fact. He quickened his pace.

[lopez]

The Spartans began with a quick pace so Golf was at a fast jog. "Everyone watch your flanks as he said, never show a weak spot in our line," he said to his squad as they ran in an arrowhead formation. They were close to the three spartans when they got a little tired and slowed down a bit but not to much that they would never catch up to the Spartans.

[elando]

Captain Andrew Hallam

System: Gilese 876, Planet: Lethe

En-route to Target Hades

"Shouldn't be far now..." Hallam said. They'd walked about a mile so far, but they still had 3 more to go. The arid heat from the many volcanoes bore down on the platoon as it trudged through the wasteland towards their objective.

Suddenly Hallam held up his fist, causing the platoon to halt immediately. Slowly, He falttened out his hand and lowered it, signaling the platoon to crouch. "D'you see that..." Hallam whispered to Sergeant Pink, pointing ahead. "Wait for it. Look there! Did you see it?" Hallam said, pointing again. "Yeah..." Pink replied. "It's just a flash of light though. Isn't much but could be a Covenant patrol, you know how they like to wear their shiney armour and all that..." "Oi, Thurlow, pass me that sniper rifle." Hallam said, accepting the rifle from his squad mate.

Looking down the sights, Hallam honed in on the distant target. "Yep." He said. "Thats a patrol alright, pritty big one two. I'd say about three Elites backed up by probably twenty Grunts and ten Jackels or so. Nothing we can't handle but certainly going to put us at risk." He waved over to Corporal Deiran and the rest of the platoon.

"Alright, we've got two options here. We can either sneak around them or attack these wankers. Both are gonna cost us time but it means that we either deal with them now but risk exposing ourselves if they call for reinforcements or we leave them for if they mount a counter attack but still risk them finding our tracks in the dust..." Hallam said. "Any suggestions?"

[daeron]

^{Louis Bernard
Zeta Squad}

The Squad went behind the first Spartan who was taking point, they followed fast, and ready, looking around at everything that was moving with a swift, fast loook.

"Wherever you want us to go,sir, it's an honour to serve with you," Bernard said.

[cut67]

Suddenly an attack pelican with and orange and black pilot behind the controls flew in running his mini gun and blowing away a pack of hunters. He then hovered and spoke over the radio. "This is Lt.Cut67 Im a sniper/pilot reporting for duty!" He then thrusted to the left and shot a missile right at a wraith. He then landed and opened the cargo bay with medical supplies and ammo. "If you want in get in!"

(( Disregard this post, he hasn't even had a character profile put up for approval, let alone completely going against the work of almost everybody else in the thread. Cut, you've got to have a profile approved in the character section before you can RP, okay? - Useful ))

What my esteemed colleague here has failed to point out is that the post and its poster are completely retarded... This tawt will be banned and his post left here as a reminder.

-Elando

[xxshadowspartanxx]

OOC. You shouldn't judge people based on one post. I haven't seen everything this jerk has posted so I do not know much of him, but I don't really think he should be banned so readily.... Just my two cents. I've always stuck up for people and give newbies benefit of the doubt. Sorry.

Before I'd deleted the posts, he had spammed about 5 other topics with similar stuff to this so the decission wasn't taken just on one post. I usually give people 2 or 3 chances but after seeing what he posted previously I thought it nessecary to ban him outright.

Hope that clears things up.

-Elando

It certainly does. My bad. Thanks.

-Swan

[SuperCommando]

(OOC: Sorry in advance for the long post. They won’t all be like this, I just had to set the scene and get caught up as far as the story is concerned.)

SPARTAN-009 (Silas)

System: Gilese 876, Planet: Lethe

En-route to UNSC Task Force LZ

Damn it… Not now…

The Spartan pressed his belly to the dirt and willed his incredibly battle-scarred MJOLNIR armor to look like a rock. The little mound of rocky earth he hid behind rose just high enough to conceal him if he lay prone behind it, and not far beyond the other side was a rather sizable Covenant patrol.

From fleeting glimpses over the rise, SPARTAN-009, Silas, was able to count roughly thirty hostiles. The general surrounding area was rather empty and barren, with only a few scattered rocks and boulders of various sizes to mix up the landscape. Further off to the southwest was a huge field of large jagged rocks that would be excellent cover… if it weren’t so far away. Silas cursed himself again for not bolting for it when he had the chance.


Mere hours after UNSC Intelligence plotted the course of the Covenant Assault Carrier to Lethe here in the Gilese 876 system, ONI selected him for the high-risk of helping the recon team investigate the ground situation. After three months recovering from the ultimate mission-gone-wrong and recently returned to active duty, the Spartan was scrambled swiftly due to the short timeframe. He was deployed onto the volcanic world to perform a preemptive reconnaissance of the Covenant patrol patterns.

Equipped with freshly manufactured ordnance courtesy of ONI: A BR55 Battle Rifle, M90 shotgun, two frag grenades, ammo out the wazoo, and HUD recording software, he spent the last forty-two hours spying on Covenant troop movements.

After making his final recon of the target, he began to make his to the landing zone to link up with the Task Force when he encountered a little problem.

Or rather, roughly thirty little problems.

He had to stop and hide from this large patrol, and it didn’t look like they were going anywhere soon. He was trapped. With Target Hades behind him and this patrol in front, there was nowhere to go if he wished to remain undetected.
At first, he decided to wait for the patrol to pass by. Bad idea. They were taking their time as they investigated the area. Why? Did they anticipate an attack? How? Surely they’d be suspecting one, but so soon? Silas didn’t have the time to ponder the Covenant’s motives. They were in his way, he was in a hurry, and the attack they may or may not be waiting for was set to come sooner rather then later, so he decided to act.

Silas rolled onto his side, exposing a long, thin pouch on his tactical harness, from which he extracted a sound suppressor. He threaded the silencer onto the muzzle of his Battle rifle. The weapon was also equipped with a laser sight for easy target acquisition in CQB, but right now he did not want the light to give away his position, so he let the accessory remain deactivated.

The Spartan looked off to the side. The dust barely stirred, meaning there was little to no wind. No need to worry about aim compensation. Satisfied, he crept up just until he could barely sight over the mound with his BR.

Silas grinned. The enemy formation was fairly tight. That would make taking them out a bit easier. But still, he would only get off so many shots until they located his position. They could simply look at which direction the bodies fell from. And precisely what he DIDN’T want right now was them to discover where he was.

So he stayed one step ahead of them.

Silas targeted a Jackal. He had seen Marines drain entire AR magazines at the avian creatures, only to watch their rounds bounce harmlessly off their portable energy shields. Now those shields gave him the advantage. If he aimed carefully, he could plot ricochet trajectories off their shields into the other Covenant soldiers, and the aliens would have no idea where the shots were coming from if their troops started falling over in all different directions.

He selected a few Jackals throughout the patrol whose shields were suitably positioned to provide the most likely chance of hitting something with a ricochet. An Elite, quite a few Grunts, and a couple other jackals were soon to have no idea what hit them.

Silas had to act now, before anyone moved out of position. He resolved to firing as much as he felt possible without risking detection, then he’d lob in a grenade to maximize the chaos and prevent anyone from thinking to look for him. By then, there should be few enough guns shooting at him to make a direct attack possible.

The Spartan brushed his thumb over the fire selector, switching from SAFE to BURST, racked back the charging handle, and took a deep breath.

Pfffttt! Pfffttt! Pfffttt!

Pfffttt! Pfffttt! Pfffttt!

Pfffttt! Pfffttt! Pfffttt!

Nine casings flew from his gun into the dust as a trio of muffled three-round bursts collided with an energy shield and bounced into the crowd of Covenant. He quickly targeted a different Jackal, imagining the path of each bullet as a red line deflecting from the shield to the heads of other Covenant. The neural interface networking his nervous system to the MJOLNIR armor processed his thoughts and translated them into motion nearly as fast as he could think them.

Pfffttt! Pfffttt! Pfffttt!

Pfffttt! Pfffttt! Pfffttt!

The Covenant were starting to realize their fellows were falling all around them. An uproar of angry alien voices began to rise, and they started to scramble to avoid being gunned down by the unseen marksman. Silas readjusted his aim yet again.

Pfffttt! Pfffttt! Pfffttt!

Pfffttt! Pfffttt! Pfffttt!

He followed his last shots by ripping a frag from his harness and lobbing it high into the sky, arcing it so that it came down right in the middle of the patrol from directly above. Unless someone was actively looking up or it landed on someone’s head, nobody would notice the little rock-like shape on the ground until it was too late.

Silas was on the move the instant the explosive was out of his hand. As a rule, you NEVER maintained position after shooting. You always reposition to keep the enemy guessing where you’ll be next. Unpredictability was key, strategy paramount, and control crucial to gaining the upper hand on a larger enemy force like this.

He sprinted for a neighboring dune, this one with a rock on it, and slid behind cover. With luck, nobody would notice him and he would be able to continue to stealthily harass the patrol until there was nothing left.

[monkeyjoe14]

OOC: Shiiiiiit! Aww, man I haven't posted in the longest fucking time!

ODST Sergeant Redsont

Redsont stood with the other soldiers waiting for some one to make a disicion. He stared at the assault carrier through the dust and it seemed distorted. He figured it was because of the heat wavering and forming a mirage. He noticed Fred was sleeping nugded him awake.

"Bad time for a nap", Redsont told him.

"Sorry, Sarge not much sleep since the op started six hours ago", Fred said.

"Your always sleeping on the job", Redsont snapped at him as he hoisted Fred up.

Spartan 173 - Joe

Joe moved swiftly across the terrain with his SMGs extended out in front of him. He saw the carrier above the which meant the grav lift was nearby. He took cover behind a rock and spoke through an encrypted channel.

"Sir, almost in position waiting on your signal", Joe spoke to Hallam.

"I'm gonna start shouting if you don't start shooting something soon", Chuchill said angrily.

Joe ignored Churchill's threat and waited for Hallam to respond back.

[Deleted]

February 28th, 2531

Planet Tethe

Pious Charity, Bridge

Major Domo Keta Dutolee, Covenant

Keta nodded, “Sorry to bother you your excellency, I will return to my station. Thank you for your time.”

Keta saluted once again, and left the room. He sighed and wondered what his troops had been doing with all this time, and he hoped no one had been killed in his absence. He continued on his long walk back to the Gravity Lift room.

[Soulstep]

Corporal Andrew Deiran Indigo Squad En Route to Target Hades, Left Flank

Andrew crouched near Captain Hallam, going over the possiblities in his head. More likely than not, if they attacked the patrol would get a message off to the ship, while trying to sneak by could be just as disasterous. He cast a glance behind, noticing the ONI operative was following them. "Great," he muttered, as a roar erupted from up ahead. Andrew wheeled around and squinted over at the patrol, as several fell dead. "The hell..." he whispered, as the unmistakeable sound of a frag grenade reached their ears. Andrew turned to the Captain. "Sir, with all due respect, I think that decision's been made for us."

[inhert]

Lieutenant Samuel “Murph” Murphy

Surface of Lethe

In a position over looking the Grav Lift below Pious Charity

The Covenant defending the Grav lift below the Assault Carrier had seemed to consolidate their defenses. As Murph lay in his hide and watched the Covenant defenders conducted business unaware of the impending UNSC attack.

A chirp in his helmet alerted Mruph to an incoming text message from Jester. Explosion to my 6.

Murph felt a shiver echo through his body, thing might go rock-and-roll earlier then expected. Combined with Murph’s shiver was a tightening of the Camo blanket that Murph shared with his teammate Axe, no doubt Axe saw the text on his own HUD. How far Murph responded to Jester’s text message.

Mile/2 Jester’s response came. With the response Murph pulled up the overhead map that was recently downloaded. The location of Jester’s explosion was close to if not the same as that of the SPARTAN that the SOG had inserted with.

Ignoring a text conversation that had developed between South and Jester over the cause of the explosion Murph sent a text message directly to the SPARTAN, SILAS, explosion at your loc report.

When Murph send his message he felt Axe nudging him, looking up from his wrist mounted keyboard Murph could see Covenant moving quickly around the Grav Lift. They must be going to investigate the explosion, Murph thought. Murph send a second text message to Silas, Hostiles moving to you, investigating explo

[elando]

Captain Andrew Hallam

System: Gilese 876, Planet: Lethe

En-route to Target Hades

"Sir, with all due respect, I think that decision's been made for us." Said the Corporal. "Shit, bloody trigger happy Spartans..." Hallam replied. "Alright, move in, take down that patrol." As Hallam got up and advanced towards the patrol, rifle raised, using the cover of the various rocks and boulders that littered the land scape four shots rang out from Private Thurlow's sniper rifle. Up ahead three of the already dwindling number of patrol members fell.

In the distance he could see and hear the Spartan firing on the patrol until the last one fell. No doubt this would compromise the mission but they were so close it hardly mattered. As the platoon jogged over to the Spartan he emerged from cover and saluted Hallam. "Sir, Spartan 009 reporting in." The Spartan said. "Nice of you to ruin the element of suprise Petty Officer... Wheres the rest of your squad?" Hallam said, eyeing up the Spartan as the rest of the platoon recovered the enemy weapons and attempted to hide the bodies as best they could. That, however, was easier said than done in a barren wasteland such as this...

[SuperCommando]

SPARTAN-009 (Silas)

System: Gilese 876, Planet: Lethe

Site of Covenant patrol

After cleaning up the remaining hostiles and liking up with Hallam’s platoon, Silas gave the Captain a quick but respectful salute. He couldn’t see the ODST’s facial expression through his visor, but he couldn’t shake the feeling they were getting off to a rocky start. Ruined the element of surprise? Silas thought, given the distance to the target and the planet’s volcanic nature, any sound of his frag would be causally dismissed as natural seismic activity. Then he received a text from Lt. Murphy demanding a SITREP, which confirmed that was not the case. Shit… He wondered how long everyone would be on his ass about this. The Spartan quickly put it out of his mind. He did not care. And with everyone in position or nearly there, it hardly mattered anyway.

Silas quickly responded to the Lieutenant’s text message: Engaged and neutralized large enemy patrol with Alpha. Assault to begin soon.

“Where’s the rest of your squad?” Captain Hallam asked.

“Sir,” Silas replied. “I inserted with the SOG, but I’m operating alone.”

A small beep in his helmet. Another text message. Hostiles moving to you, investigating explo

Interesting… And perfect timing, too. That means there would be less resistance on-site when the Task Force assaulted Target Hades. He wondered what the investigating force’s unit strength was. He had an Idea…

He sent another text to Lt. Murphy: Roger, recon. How many? Then He turned back to Hallam.

“Captain, A Covenant unit is inbound to investigate. Requesting permission to hold here and engage. I’ll keep them off your ass while you and the Task Force storm Hades.”

He drew his shotgun and pumped it, just for emphasis.

[lopez]

Golf squad ran up and checked the bodies of the downed Covenant soldiers and only kill a few. They all made a perimeter around everybody and watched the surounding in case of a counter-attack. "Sarge, did he say that he came alone?" asked Josh. "Yeah I heard him say that. What of it?" "Well, who is ordering him to help us?" "I wouldn't know, I would bet that Captain Hallam knows." "Ok." They all continued to watch the surrounding.

EDIT: wow i disregard this post, please ignore it.

[dusty]

(Ok Caster Dusty doesn’t lead this team. It's Staff sergeant Williams, but cause he is an NPC, and more importantly the job was assigned to you, you lead the platoon.)

"Corporal Zanba, Sergeant Redsont, sound off, and form up."

The squad all moved as one body to where he was. 8 made his opinion known quickly.
"Corporal Zanba does not lead this squad. I do."
The squad looked at him, and then went back to what they were doing.
The squad was arrayed around him waiting. While they did so they occupied themselves.
Kendra was drawing a simple picture of flowers in the dust with her finger. Simple as they were, they were also beautiful.
Dusty scooped up a handful of the red Dust and stood looking at it. It quickly blew away when he opened his hand.
Tom asked a question to no one in particular. "Why do we have to be Bravo? We're on the outside and we're going to be flanked and we're all going to die!"
Dusty looked at him. "We're part of Bravo, because Hallem hates you Tom. Its simple"
8 had vacated the Area to talk on the radio attached to Vincent's back. It allowed Dusty and Tom to continue their conversation.
"Who do you think hates Me more? Hallem, or 8?"
Dusty looked at him and appeared to be thinking deeply.
"I think they hate you equally. Although hallem isn't part of the 42nd, so his chances of meeting 8 before are slim, they had to have been drawn together by their hatred of you. So Hallem assigns our squad to be in a hellhole, and 8 gives the order that kills you. Like telling you to charge over the crator by yourself, while pointing a handgun at your face."
Tom looked at him.
"Makes sense. I can believe that"
Because 8 would have heard it over comms, the conversation was had out loud, so anyone nearby, who wasn’t busy yelling at a radio could have heard it. But 8 had finished and returned to earshot, and the conversation was done.
They sat in silence some more. Tom was the one that spoke again.
"I Hope Alpha and Charlie draw alot of attention. We Aren’t shock troopers. We're commandos"
Dusty looked at him.
"Shock troopers is part of our name"
"Only cause O.D.C. would have sounded stupid!"

[nex]

'Crash' had kept back during the firefight, but now he crept cautiously through the corpses of the covenant patrol, his SMG tightly gripped in his hands. When he was satisfied that the area was secure, he removed the strap, and the firing bolt from the rifle and left the gun leaning against a rock.

He continued to look amongst the bodies untill he saw what he was looking for: A covenant carbine rifle. Adjusting the rifle strap, he managed to hook the carbine around himself, after checking the ammo levels. It was sizeably larger than the SMG, but he felt more comfortable using it.

He collected some extra ammo, before inspecting the shield gauntlet of a jackal. It was no use, it had been damaged in the attack. And he wouldn't trust any he'd find, in case they failed when he needed them.

He moved up alongside Captain Hallam, and the green giant that was the Spartan.
“- keep them off your ass while you and the Task Force storm Hades.”
"Sir, I have a better suggestion" he interjected.
"The covenant are heading this way. If we retreat due south, we can lure a signifcant proportion of them away from gravity lift. Then we can establish an appropriate ambush. The spartan can play the rabbit, and get them to follow him from this mess." He finished his last point gesturing to the patrol around him.

[inhert]

Lieutenant Samuel “Murph” Murphy

Surface of Lethe

In a position over looking the Grav Lift below Pious Charity

Murph watched the Covenant around the grav lift carefully taking not of who seemed to stay and who seemed to leave to investigate Silas’ attack. After watching the defenders around the grav lift Murph noticed that a number of Brutes were leading a pack of grunts away from the grav lift. Murph typed what he saw into his keyboard, 6 Brutes and 12 Grunts from the grav lift, unkown if Jackals are moving from rim and sent it to Silas

rdy up, assault to start soon Murph typed to his team members hiding elsewhere in the crater. Acknowledgement that the other SOG members came when Axe started to shift his body to move his rifle, Murph also shifted but to reach for the Rocket launcher that lay next to him. Bumping his hand into the fore grip of the rocket launcher Murph moved his hand to his back pack and pulled a small box with a trigger on it. Placing the box on the ground in front of his helmet Murph pressed a button on the box and a red light flickered on.

[xxshadowspartanxx]

((OOCForgive my lateness, but aside from the person whose characters I am charged with cammanding not posting at all, the library is about to close. Dx I'm going to post tomorrow my Elites' responses to (investigate) the explosion.))

[caster]

OOC: Tired of some of my stuff being ignored....So....Enjoy your mortal wounds.

Executive Officer Shri T'ova

System: Gilese 876, Planet: Lethe

Assault Carrier Pious Charity, Bridge

Shri T'ova watched the Major depart after their talk. The major would accept his command, because that is the way of things. Shri found it more useful for his men....and woman as it were.....To follow his logic.

Kal spoke then. "Sub-Master....Further interference from the ridge, there is some static interference but it recently started effecting our data mines. Code is not ours..."

Shri T'ova looked to the Fleet Liaison officer, listening to the report. "Also, the science team you sent to study the volcanic geyser to the south just flat-lined. Catharsis is sending a small detachment to check on them. He believes the high radiation fried their communicators."

Shri stood from the command chair. "Harden all approaches. Activate the Laser Turrets, post sniper and heavy elements at the hangers and set up the pre-sighted artillery trajectories."

The order was carried out post haste.

----------APPROACHES-------------

The brute team heading towards the Human group would stop and return post haste to the narrow passages leading to the gravity lift. These natural fatal funnels had been pre-sighted by Wraiths which had been moved to the hanger bays and placed at the lip of the bays. They couldn't operate on the ground, but the arching fire could be used as stationary artillery pieces, their position on board gave them wide over-watch on the approaches.

Portable shields activated throughout the gully providing heavily entrenched areas troops could hold off. Humans who made it through the fatal funnels would immediately run into lines of infantry in entrenched. Natural cover points had been destroyed, leaving nothing but open killing ground. They would walk into a death-trap, the obvious options being to retreat back into the funnel and risk being blown apart by the wraith shots, or attempt to storm the entrenched brutes....Either would result in high casualties.

The Laser Turrets near the top of the gravity lift hummed to life. They targeted the two places where the interference had been pinged at. Simultaneously, the lasers fired wide arcs of plasma on the two spots.....Would the interference stop...? It would either trigger volcanic activity or destroy human spies....Shri could only hope the latter was what would happen. ((That's you Samuel Murphy. Both your teams are targeted and plasma will fire in moments. Very, very little time to react - I'm not sure how your guys will escape. Thank Silas.))

The third ring would wait for enemy contacts then make a retreat through the funnels to the trenches. It should goad the humans into a chase towards the ship...

-----------------

Shri headed towards the gravity lift, a snarl leaving his throat as he walked. He had hoped their had been more time, but too many coincidences were happening now....The humans must be at their door.

Cpl. Leon Carson - 1MSOB27

System: Gilese 876, Planet: Lethe

Landing Zone

Samson nodded towards 8. Echo lead the team off towards the right flank. That's when the text status message appeared in Carson's heads up display. "Fuckin' SPARTAN's.....ONI trained my ass.....We're in terrible positioning to have tipped our fucking hats. Let's hope the Covenant haven't noticed in all this volcanic activity."

"Shut up, Corporal." Sergeant Koopman stated quietly. "You're on point."

Carson moved up to the front of the group. Renters was at his side but slightly behind him and off to the left. Renters' and likewise Longs guns weren't any good unless they already lost the element of surprised. The larger LMG's couldn't have reliable suppressors added. Carson swept the rising hill in front of them. They were on the fringes of the crater leading to the gravity lift. Carson stopped and studied for a moment. He didn't like having to travel through the narrow corridors between the rock.....If the SPARTAN's had compromised them, this would be a giant shit sandwich and everyone was about to take a bite....

[dusty]

Dusty recieved the message on his HUD. 8 had pre configured messages of importance like this, to only arrive to the squad leaders. So only Dusty, Oreo, and 8 received it. Dusty looked at 8 who nodded no.
He knew they were more then likely about to walk into a death trap, and wasn't going to tell the rest of the squad.

He nodded yes, and then as subtle as he could be, forwarded the message to the rest of the squad, and adding at the end 'Don't bring it up, 8 doesn’t want you guys to know'

8 stopped his team for a moment and gathered them around him. Although if ambushed the team would be killed in seconds, he spoke quickly, and in whispers so the comms couldn’t be picked up.

"New fire teams for this. Dusty, you and Tom are the Anti-tank team. Hit wraiths with rockets. Or heavily populated enemy positions. Pressley, take Valdez as your feeder. Set up an over watch position and give suppressing fire. Amy, Oreo is your spotter. Do the same as Pressley. Everyone else is with me. We're the assault team. We'll leap frog up."

the whole squad nodded, and generally separated into their predestined team to make the movements quicker, and waited.

[Soulstep]

Corporal Andrew Deiran Indigo Squad En Route to Target Hades West Approach

Andrew dragged one of the grunts behind a decent sized rock, before overhearing the platoon higher-ups discussing what to do. Shaking his head, he jogged over to them.

"Sir, I disagree. If the covies find us, they'll be ready. Our only chance, as I see it, is to start the attack now. Have the rest of 1st Company begin the assault, while we work our way there the best we can. If we wait too long and the mission gets fucked because of it, I wouldn't be suprised if the brass just nukes the place."

Andrew jerked his head around as plasma fire sounded in the distance. "Sweet Jesus..." he whispered, eyes wide open.

[SuperCommando]

SPARTAN-009 (Silas)

System: Gilese 876, Planet: Lethe

Site of Covenant patrol

“Grrr!!!” Silas angrily smashed his armored fist into the side of a nearby rock, causing the top half to explode into dusty fragments.

Damn it! The unmistakable sound of distant plasma turrets firing caused an awful feeling of dread to tighten his guts. That was Lt. Murphy’s position! He felt like shit. It was all his damn fault… if only he had been just a little more fucking careful…

“Sir!” he said urgently to Captain Hallam. “With all due respect, I have to go. Now! Lieutenant Murphy needs support. I cannot allow those men to die, sir!” This time, his plan wasn’t a suggestion.

“I need a rocket launcher!” the Spartan barked at Alpha platoon. He prayed somebody had one they were willing to spare.

[inhert]

]

Lieutenant Samuel “Murph” Murphy

Surface of Lethe

The Crater Rim

Jester pulled his sniper rifle from his side and readjusted himself to look down the scope. As the scope focused on the grav lift Jester saw the plasma turrets power up, and one of them point to him. The Covenant must have been able to figure out their locations from the transmission of the recent text.

“We need to move, NOW!” Murph yelled over the team line. Through the scope Jester watched as the Grunt manning the turret pointing in his direction rest his move its hand toward the triggers. Jester did not think instinct to over. There were four turrets that were about to fire, four shots in the sniper rifle, and four squeezes of Jester finger on the trigger. Four loud bangs echoed throughout the crater as four Grunts sitting at their Plasma turrets exploded from the shock of a 14.5mm sabot round penetrating their heads.

“Leave it, lets go” Jester proclaimed as he pushed him self up from the hot rocky ground, Yellow who had been already halve hunched over, next to Jester, did the same. Jester and Yellow pulled their nano-weave blankets close to their bodies and made a run for the rim of the crater, as an explosion echoed through the crater.

With Plasma fire landing around them, Murph and Axe had just stood from their hide when four shots echoed around the crater. Looking at each other Murph and Axe knew the shot came from Jester. Axe dropped to his knee and leveled his BR-55 to the grav lift. Murph also dropped to his knee but picked up the rocket launcher he had left where his hide had been. He did not have time to aim the launcher, Murph only pointed it in the general direction of one of the turrets an pulled the trigger , after the rocket was away rockets were away Murphy dropped the launcher and both he and Axe raced toward the rim of the crater.

The rocket hit the turret that Murph pointed it at and the plasma turret exploded in a combination of green fire and harsh black smoke. At the same time as the explosion Clay and South stopped in their half crouch.

“Shit.” Both the men said as they watched the smoke from the turret explosion and the defenders of the grav lift hurry around in confusion. Adding to the confusion inside the crater Clay and South watched arcs of the crater erupted in fire. Murph had detonated the C-12 charges that the SOG had placed as they snuck into their hides. The landslides caused by the explosions caused more confusion as the volcanic rocks of the crater slide down the sides of the crater.

Clay and South did not have time to acknowledge the landslides or Covenant defenders around the grav lift. The two men only ran up the side of the crater to the lip, but Clay and South did not get to the rim. In their rush to get away from their hide their nano-weave blankets had slipped off leaving both of them visible as they ran up the crater. Running up the side of the crater, now visible, Clay and South were bound to be spotted, and they were.

A Brute scanning the crater line caught two human shapes moving up to the crater rim. Action had to be taken; this Brute looked around him and noticed a Grunt with a fuel-rod-gun within arms reach. Looking back up at the humans running up the crater, the Brute grabbed the fuel-rod-gun grunt and all. The Grunt still had the handle of the fuel-rod-gun when the Brute squeezed the trigger. A large bolt of Green plasma shot from the yellow gun to the ground right behind the two humans.

Murph stood at the rim of the crater and tossed the now useless detonator aside, “Teams two and three Status.” Murph said into his radio.

“Team two here, Yellow and I are at the rim” Jester was the first to respond.

“Team three, Clay, South report.” Murph tried again.

The first sign of life from Clay and South was a pained grunt, “Murph, its Clay. We got hit. I’m ok. But South he’s hurt. He landed bad, paralyzed, need help.” Murph heard Clay and looked around the far end of the crater, his teammates were over there and needed his help.

[lopez]

Golf continued to keep up with the Spartans but it got harder every step of the way as it was hot as hell on this planet. Lopez looked spoked ot the leading Spartan "Sir, could we walk or jog at a slower pace, me and my men are running out of fuel? I'm very soory if it's not what you want but it's the damn planet being too hot."

[zim565]

Flores walked next to his team, suddenly he heard something into the distance, a faint echo, could it be? Nah...no one would start the "surprise" attack with out letting the others know...right?. The he started hearing all the chatter around him...a Spartan...he heard Carson and start to understand why ODSTs and Spartans didn't got along.

Suddenly he felt the fear again, the battle was starting, he started breathing faster and faster, he grabbed his rifle and with out thinking about it, he ran next to Carson and Renters.

Then he started hearing explosions...plasma ones? he wasn't sure, he then spoke to Renters

"Hey Renters...what the hell is going on? We never received to order to attack!? Now what?! Carson? Lyons?

[dusty]

Dusty heard the man yelling nearby. He jogged over to Flores, along with Renters, and Carson.

He whispered "Hey, can you guys keep it down. And that’s not the only reason I came over. I wanted to introduce myself. If we're fighting together, might as well know who we're fighting with. I’m Corporal Eric Zanba, but I’m called Dusty."

He waved Tom over, who took over the conversation. "I’m Tom, pleasure to meet ya. Is this guy yelling cause he's a new guy? Don't worry new guy. Dying isn't unpleasant. Or so I’ve been told."" Tom laughed a bit, and then pointed out the rest of the squad and who they were.

"Allright Dusty you play nice with the other team, and make sure they'll help us if 8 gets off his meds."

With that Tom did a crouching jog back to Foxtrot.

[xxshadowspartanxx]

Na'arui 'Keshkralee could feel the ground nearby tremble; his eardrums felt the soft ring of a boom in the distance. Immiately, this drew his attention as he lifted his head up and stopped in his tracks.

"You useless incompetent oaf! I will have your head for this when we are done, If Shri T'ova does not!" He said to the Ultra who was ordered to accompany him.

Na'arui, after a few moments of silence and stillness, ripped out his energy sword and slowly began to walk forward, stiffly. As he went further, he began to speed up, until finally about ten meters away, he began making running strides. On his back was slung his UNSC Sniper Rifle. The Brutes around him looked in utter confusion at the striding Elite in white armor carrying a Human projectile weapon and running madly towards the explosion.

Now, the turrets around him were powering up, and Na'arui knew something was not right. He entered an unusual blank phase; that of an utter killing machine. It was unusual for him to enter this state of mind, but it had happened before, this time, out of anxiety of an impending attack.

Na'arui had an interesting taste for bloodshed, that he supressed often behind his calm, levelheaded rationalizing personality. But it was unfortunate for any Marines that stood against him today. Now, he was almost directly over the area which there was an unusual explosion. He was alone, and he didn't even look around, but forward, waiting... for his prey to appear right before his eyes.

Whatever he didn't carve to scarlet ribbons, he would pump into them a face-full of anti-materie'l at nearly point-blank range.

[inhert]

Lieutenant Samuel “Murph” Murphy

Surface of Lethe

The Crater Rim

Murph looked around the crater from his position on the rim of the crater. The point defense pods on the bottom of the started to glow green. Stand next to his comrade Axe noticed the purple glow form the point defense systems, Murph surveyed other part of the crater and didn’t notice the weapons.

“L-T, we have a slight problem.” Axe said nudging Murph under his ghille suit. Murph took the nudge and looked up to the bottom of the Assault Carrier, trouble was brewing.

“We gotta move. But first we need to talk to Recon 5-7.” Murph said as he kneeled and raised his SMG to his shoulder.

Axe slumped down also and straightened the antenna on his back pack. For the first time in their whole time planet side SOG-A had direct voice communication with the ONI prowler Recon 5-7. The radio link in Axe’s helmet sprung to life. “Recon 5-7, Red Wing” Axe spoke into the now open encrypted direct comm link.

“Go for Recon 5-7.” The operator aboard the Prowler responded.

“Ground situation compromised. Assault Carrier has readied underside Point defense system. Ground defenses have tightened; an assault at this point would be catastrophic. Update ground commanders on situation.” Axe relayed the situation on the ground to the Prowler.

“Will do” The radio operator again responded.

Axe looked to Murph and finished the SOG’s message, “We are going E-and-E, we have two combat ineffective, priority’s on their rescue.”

The radio operator responded with an okay as Axe turned off his radio pack and looked to Murph. “Team Two link up with me and we will move to Team Three’s position.” No response came form Jester and Yellow but they were on the move. Murph again looked along the rim of the crater but this time he noticed the head of a Jackal amidst the volcanic rock.

“Jackal.” Murph whispered to Axe who spun around to also see the Jackal. The Jackal couldn’t see Murph and Axe as long as they stayed under their ghille blankets, that is if they stayed on. They power for their ghille blankets began to fail leaving the two men under matte grey blankets.

[caster]

Executive Officer Shri T'ova

System: Gilese 876, Planet: Lethe

Assault Carrier Pious Charity, Bridge

Shri T'ova entered the gravity lift bay. Multiple warriors stood ready, behind the stationary shields, more on the upper scaffolding. The mood had changed considerably.

Shri didn't want to believe that the humans had found them. They were too close to fixing the engines and limping away. Catharsis' voice blared in the battle-net link.

"We think we killed one of their vermin. My men want to chase them down."

"No, they will come to us....Don't leave the cover of the crater, stay in positions." Shri T'ova's reply was harsher spoken than he wanted to.

Jackal Sniper; Yak

System: Gilese 876, Planet: Lethe

Ridge Around the Gravity Lift, next to Samuel Murphy

Yak had been startled by the activation of the point defense lasers, then again by the reaction of the infantry surrounding the gravity lift.

Yak had been focused on the group below, and had only noticed the orange blur moving to his right before it disappeared. As Yak moved to the opposite ridge side, he knocked over the small disc shaped rock. It made a metal ping as it hit the rocks, and the top dish part of the rock fell away from the rest of it and rolled down the hill.....

Yak stood at the ridge of the crater, Plasma Pistol charged and rumbling in his hand. Nothing but dust and rocks.....Until the gray slab morphed before him. Yak pushed the pistol towards the thing, but didn't fire. He wasn't sure what he was looking at, he'd not seen something like this before....Surely the heat was playing with him.

The plasma pistol indicated it had locked on a target, and would track to it if Yak fired, but in his curiosity and stupor he continued to watch the gray thing before him.

[OOC: Heat exhaustion +1...It gives you some wiggle room, although that plasma bolt will seek out your squishy flesh and burn you. You're move Sam. ]

Cpl. Leon Carson - 1MSOB27

System: Gilese 876, Planet: Lethe

Landing Zone

Carson looked to Flores as he ran up to the rest of the group. Carson sighed lightly for spooking the Rookie. "Good plans never survive contact with the enemy." Carson repeated the age old military maxim. Renters smacked the Rookie's shoulder then gave him a thumbs up.

Staff Sergeant Samson broadcast over the Tactical channel. "Stick to the plan for now."

Carson spoke up over the same channel. "Sir, with respect. I don't think we should push through here. You saw the read-outs like I did. If they think we are coming, this is a fatal funnel. I'd project total loss of forces within ten minutes depending on the terrain beyond."

Sergeant Koopman looked to Carson. "What do you think, Carson."

"Well, at this point, I would say we could scale the ridge and attack down on them. If those explosions were from mounted defenses we are gonna be screwed. But if it was infantry mobile heavy guns, we would have angle of suppression on them. It depends on what they have on the other side of this fuckin' shit." Carson pointed his thumb to the rise of the crater.

Koopman nodded and looked to Sergeant Samson who was on the radio. "Hallem, Samson. We could hear that over here, what's the plan now?"

Carson looked to Dusty as he trotted up and introduced himself. Carson nodded, "I'm Carson, big idiot there is Renters...Scared little girl there is Flores, not such a scared little girl there is Lyons...." Carson pointed out the whole team attaching their names as appropriate. "....Good to meet you, Dusty." Carson finally closed then looked back towards the crevice they were supposed to use on their stealthy approach.

[nex]

Crash could hear the explosions in the distance. It had unsettled everyone around them. Whilst they were still debating a suitable course of action, he heard the crackle of the Recon team's comms. They were hailing the prowler, but he'd still managed to pick it up. As had Hallam by the looks of things.

“Recon 5-7, Red Wing"
“Ground situation compromised. Assault Carrier has readied underside Point defense system. Ground defenses have tightened; an assault at this point would be catastrophic. Update ground commanders on situation.”
“We are going E-and-E, we have two combat ineffective, priority’s on their rescue.”

Dammit. Now the covenant were prepared. He could see the Captain was still debating how to proceed. They all were. Something had to be decided. And quickly. The longer they left things, the more time the covenant had to bulster their defences and repair the ship. Breaking a Narrow-Beam relay device, he entered a message on his PDA, and sent it to where he hoped the Mirage Task Force was still in orbit.

"This is Warrent Officer Colsten, confirm Ground Op is a no-go at this time. Recommendation and Requisition as follows.
Request: Updated Imagery of target zone. Detail defence locations.
Request: Heavy Weapon Drop, due NE of current position.
Recommendation: Heavy Weapons strike at defences would increase chance of success with little damage done to cruiser.

It's your call. But be advised, ground forces cannot proceed at current time."


He would defend his imprompt action later, but for now the fleet had to be advised of the current situation.