Mission 2: Crew Expendable (Ground Ops)

[Soulstep]

Corporal Andrew Deiran Indigo Squad Target Hades Western Approach

“Indigo, this is Sierra zero zero nine. Supply drop confirmed. We’ve got M247s and M99s. Need me to bring any ordnance to your position?”

"Uhh, roger that, sir. We could use one of those M247s, we'll move up and use it to buy the rest of the platoon time," Andrew replied to the SPARTAN, pulling Sarah out of the crater, as the rest pushed themselves up. He watched 2 pelicans descend down close to the grav-lift, plasma fire scorching the sides.

"Adam! You'll be on the M247! Everyone else watch the sides when we go in!" he ordered to the team, as he turned to where the SPARTAN was rooting through the weapon drop. "Sir, looks like the party's started," he said over the comm, referring to at once Captain Hallam, Silas and the ONI spook.

[SuperCommando]

SPARTAN-009 (Silas)

West of Target Hades

Moving to rim of crater

“Acknowledged, Indigo. One M247. Be up in a minute.”

Silas dug two of the machine guns and their ammo out from the pods, one for Indigo squad, and one for himself. The firepower of the M99s were tempting, and he’d surely be able to put one to good use, but it was likely his role would keep him in the front lines. It was best just to leave the high-power rifles to someone who’d make the best use of the weapon’s range.

With practiced ease, Silas connected a box magazine to each M247, lifted the feed trays of both heavy guns, and fed the belt of ammo from the mags into the weapons. After loading the GPMGs, he double-timed it up the slope of the crater with a gun under each arm and the spare magazines in each hand to where Indigo was waiting.

On his way up, however, he made sure to take a widely curving route. He had not forgotten that curious blip on his motion tracker from before. There had been no activity since, but he gave the area a wide berth just in case. Things were moving quickly and there was no time to stop and play hide and seek.

At the top of the crater, he slowed to a brisk walk and nodded to Corporal Andrew and his men, laying their M247 and the extra magazine on the ground for whoever wanted to take it. He then moved to kneel down at the rim of the crater.

“That’s a lot of dust…” the Spartan muttered out loud, gazing around at the brown clouds that still hung swirling in the air, reducing the gargantuan Covenant Assault Carrier above to a shadowy outline. He kept wary, looking all around in case any enemy lurked nearby.

[dusty]

The Members of Foxtrot slowly pulled themselves out of the hole they were in and powered on their suits.
Tom spoke "Bit of an over reaction huh sarge?"
8 Cracked his neck and looked at him. "Well we thought we were gonna be nuked. Would you have liked to be standing in the open and get nuked?"
"I guess not"
"Right."

8 listened to his radio and responded "Yeah we're ready to make the assault. I already went over a plan with my team."

The squad crouched at the edge, and 8 whispered. "Team 1 set up there" Amy and Oreo nodded and moved to the edge, and started to set up the sniper rifle.
"Team 2 there" Pressly and Valdez nodded and moved over about 15 feet, and set up the LMG.
"Team 3 right here" Dusty nodded and laid down in the dust and placed his rocket launched next to him. Tom placed the spares next to him. They laid down a tarp over them and covered it with Dust.
Dusty removed a pair of binoculars and started looking through them. He handed them to Tom. Oreo and Valdez were probably doing they same thing right now, finding targets.
8 spoke again into the radio "When it starts, we're going to sprint into the creator and grab as much distance as we can, without firing. Don’t fire until i give the order"

Everyone was ready. They just waited now.

[nex]

When the news of the Orbital assistance had crackled through his headset, Crash had taken shelter within a cutting of rocks pillars. Crouching down, and using his legs to push off from the far side, he position himself out of sight.

He was hoping the added safety of the tall rocks would offer him some additional protection, considering the stripped down flight suit he was wearing.

He'd pulled the Carbine tight against his chest by the makeshift strap and begun the systematic shut down of his electronic equipment. His PDA itself had a titanium shell, but he was taking no chances. Covering his face with his arms he waited. He didn't have to wait long as a sudden roar seemed to fill the space around him. The ground seemed to shake as a shape past overhead, casting the area briefly in shadow. He looked up and breifly glimpsed the shape of a frigate.

He heard the sounds of the the Ship's MAC fire. The sound itself was deafening. The earth shook more than it was already.

He glanced up into the distance as the shields flickered and buffetted on the covenant carrier before succumbing to the barrage of destruction and collapsing. The ship listed dangerously to one side as it lost power, before managing to right itself before it hit the ground.

As the frigate faded into the distance another two shadows flew overhead, somewhat slower; Pelicans. They slowed, before releasing a barrage of supply pods and proceeding west.

From what he gathered on the comms, they were heading to extract SOG-A, before making the main drop. He stretched, gathered his gear, and made his way out of his hidey-hole. He paused only to turn his PDA back on and check for any damage.

The scattered pods from the supply drop were all around him. As were various members of platoons, switching their light weaponry for something with more of an impact.

Offhandly, he caught up to a platoon that was still milling about.

"Soldier. Advise you take your platoon and head North-East. Secure that Pelican's dropzone and signal it in. Make sure that the final supplies are unloaded and distributed accordingly. See if the other approaches would like something from the drop."

He walked off without waiting for a response. He didn't want to give the grunt the oppertunity to object. Afterall, he couldn't order people about. He could just...advise them.

"...looks like the party's started"

He looked around, and quickly jogged to keep up with the rest, raising his looted carbine to his arms.

((OOC: If anyone wants to do that last part, they're welcome to it. (Might have some better guns to grab )))

[inhert]

Lieutenant Samuel “Murph” Murphy

Surface of Lethe

The Crater Rim

Looking at the tight space of the back of the Pelican Murph know it would be a tight squeeze. But laying South across the side seats of the Pelican allowed the soldier to be laid out flat. The rest of SOG-A forced them selves in the empty space of the Pelican which was for now at the front of the bay near the cockpit. With the team aboard they could have a slight breather.

"GO" Muprh hollered hoping the crew would hear him. "REMIND ME TO BUY THESE GUYS A ROUND TOO" he added this time directed to his team members.

As the SOG-A members laughed Jester was the only one to comment on Murphs method of thanking their rescuers, "I THINK THEY'RE COVERED WHEN YOU BUY THE CREW OF THE FRIG A ROUND."

"WELL I'LL BUY THESE GUYS TWO ROUND." Murph hollered as Pelican began to lift off.

[usefuldave]

D77-TC ‘Echo-Two-Four’, performing combat extraction of SOG-A, Lethe.

[/u] [/center]

The waiting was the hard part as the special-operations team scrambled into the Pelican and over the strapped down munitions. For all they knew, at any moment they would get zapped by weaponry capable of caulking a starship unless they stepped on it. And step on it Nicholson did, as soon as who he assumed was the unit’s CO virtually screamed in his ear that everyone was onboard.

The repeating-thud of Echo-Two-Five’s 70mm could be heard even through the whine of Two-Four’s lift engines getting the hell out of what could at any moment turn into a plasma filled killzone. With all the racket, normally he could’ve been excused for missing out on possible rewards of beer and booze, but not when they’re shouting about it.

Frank would’ve said something at first, but he doubted they would hear him over their own volume-deaf conversation about just how much they would reward people, even if the amount involved seemed a little over the top, and that drew a comment for sure.

“Wait, you’re going to buy the entire crew of the Welrod a round?”

His words were punctuated by the smack of Two-Four’s own 70mm cannon as he strafed a suspicious looking position, just in case. The triple-snarl of high-velocity rockets igniting and the crump of high-explosives rang through the airframe as Two-Five also turned healthy paranoia into lethal force.

That seemed to be the end of it, as Frank’s finger released the trigger and Two-Five’s underslung followed suit, the noise level decreasing appreciably as the Pelicans throttled down now that they were safe from direct fire. The little off-shoot of their run was complete, and finally they could get on with what they had been deployed from the Welrod for.

The flight down to Alpha wasn’t anything special really, not that any of the crewmembers would have wanted it any different, as thanks to the Covenant’s technological superiority, anything that made it ‘special’ also had a chance of getting them killed.

A slight-flare up, and the Pelican touched down beside the transponders for Alpha-Company’s O-group, which fortunately turned out to be not too far from the cargo-pods. With Two-Five touching down beside them, the back-hatch was opened, buckles came off and the crew could finally get to unloading the slightly-delayed supply drop, that was if they could squeeze their way past the SOG team of course.

Supply Drop Complete.

Cargo Pods:

8 x M247 GPMG, 800 rounds each.
2 x M99 SASR, 40 rounds each.

Pelican Bays:

4 x FURY Tac-Nuke
8 x M19 SSM, 4 rounds each
4 x C12 'Damage Pack'
2 x crate of C7 canisters (12 x 500ml cans per crate)
1 x LAU-65D AGM, 32 rounds
1 x M7057 DP, 2 fuel cannisters
6 x Stretcher, standard issue medical.
1 x Medical personnel, human.

[maxii1]

Harry 152
Crater Rim
Main Entrance of Covenant Vessel

Spartan 152 and the rest of Charlie Platoon moved up towards the crater, a purple glow emanated from the gravity lift.
It would be well guarded, that was to be expected, but the covenant where focused on battling the flanking move that Alpha was performing.
‘Well, time to readjust their attention’ thought Harry with a grin as he called to Bernard and Lopez over the radio:

“Move your fire teams here, they’re to provide us with over watch and give covering fire”

“What about our assault teams?” asked one of the squad leaders as they moved towards the rim of the crater, gazing down at the unaware Covenant.
“We assault” stated Harry.

He quickly pulled out his PDA and pinged the local area, checking for friendly units; a few stray fighters where nearby.
The Spartan quickly messaged all of the nearby fighters.

//Message Incoming: Assault on Grav-Lift commencing, either support the attack or return to your own mission. G2.

He had signed the message as G2, Gamma Two. It meant that the rest of the UNSC Personal knew that the transmission was coming from a Spartan, someone who knew what they where doing.

OOC: Reading this I gather that some people are nearing the Rim of the Crater, thats the main enterance marked on the mission two map.
As the 2nd in command of Charlie Platoon, I am acting in command of this attack, unless Spartan: G1 wants to reassume it.

So if you want to have a part in the attack either join the fire teams in providing support or join the assualt force and make yourself known to my character.

[zim565]

Flores smiled inside his helmet as Renters accepted the bet. He looked behind the wall where he was hiding and slowly looked into the dust, just a big brown wall. The sensors inside his helmet could not help him this time, he turned on the infrareds and look around, he could see a little better...not a lot but better was better after all.

He checked his rifle and count his ammunition, then he stood up and walked behind Carson, they were going inside the dust after all. If they survived he was the guy who had a good idea, if not he was going to be the guy who send them to their dusty death. He raised his shoulders and slowly start walking behind Carson.

He felt the dust hitting his helmet and his entire body, Carson was probably 1 meter in front of him and he was having problems following him.

"Carson we really need to stick together if not we will get lost and scattered, someone can finish next to a Covenant patrol without even noticing it"

Flores look behind him he could barely identify Renters.

"Renters I want mexican when we get home...by the way somebody got some chips? For some reason I want some"

He was nervous again, the zero visibility was something he had not expected at least he wanted to see when he got shot. Slowly they marched into the storm.

"Lyons you still with us? I wanted to ask you.." Flores suddenly stopped, his sensors had detected something for a moment and disappeared. "Carson...I got something 10 o´clock"

[daeron]

"Johnson, Belote, Rookie move over. Locke keep us guarded. Parron with me. Lets move," Bernard replied over their comlink. The teams moved into positioning with Locke keeping watch over with his sniper.

"Ready."

((Flesh this out abit, seriously. We have no idea who or where you are beyond random names with no context. )) - Useful

[lopez]

"Sir. OK everyone with me", he said as he jogged over to the Spartan. He nodded to the Spartans orders. "OK you heard him, take a position, and prepare to provide cover for the assault teams." They all nodded and moved to a good position and took a knee. They were all gazing at the luminous purple glow. "It's beautiful", sayed Eugene. Everyone looked at him, confused. "Doc, your kidding right?" asked Bull. He thought about what he said. "Yes, yes I was." "Good answer," Lopez said smiling.

George was shaking his head grinning at what the Doc said as je watched over at the Gravity lift with everyone else.

[inhert]

Lieutenant Samuel “Murph” Murphy

Surface of Lethe

Pelican Echo-Two-Four

The back of the Pelican was a tight space shared by the team members of SOG-A and the weapon’s crates for the ground troops. To fit in the Pelican Murph pressed himself up against the separator wall between the cockpit and the Pelican bay. For Murph he could only feel the slight vibrations of the Pelican 70mm. Standing in his position up against the separator Murph realized he heard a metallic thud that accompanied the vibrations.

“Wait, you’re going to buy the entire crew of the Welrod a round?” Echo-Two-Four’s pilot’s question punctuated it, Murph’s hearing had returned.

“Yeah after that crazy stunt they deserve a round.” Murph responded to the Pilot’s question in a normal level voice, “And you and your crew deserve two rounds for picking us up.”

The Pelican touched done at what Murph only though was the closest position to Alpha-Company. As the doors opened the crew of the Pelican began attempting to unload the supply crates.

“Jester, Axe, Clay, let’s help get those crates to out of the Pelican.” Murph barked to his SOG-A teammates, “South don’t go no-where.” His order prompted a thumbs-up from the paralyzed South who was laid out on the seats of the Pelican.

All four of the standing SOG-A members helped moved the crates out of the back of the Pelican. Looking around at the Marines around the Pelican Murph saw the rush for the now available weapons.

Now that SOG-A had linked up with Alpha-company, Murph’s only consideration was to contact Captian Hallam. Grabbing the nearest Marine Murph asked the Marine where Captain Hallam was.

((OOC: Elando take over the Marine and tell my guys where Hallam is.))

[caster]

Cpl. Leon Carson - 1MSOB27

System: Gilese 876, Planet: Lethe

Eastern Approach to Target Hades

Carson was listening to Flores[/b]. "Roger on your contact." Carson replied. Carson fired four bursts towards the contact. His silenced rifle whispers against the powerful winds pushing through the tight corridors.

Carson squinted before the green flash blasted by him. "CONTACTS LEFT!"

Several red glowing spikes filtered through the haze towards the combat team. Carson started returning fire through the dust. After a moment Renters tapped Carson's shoulder. Carson dropped to a knee and Renters' opened up over the top of Carson's head with the LMG. The rest of the team filtered out, Carson checked the tac map. They were just at the interior edge of the crater. All natural cover had been removed form the area. They were in a perfect kill zone. There element of surprised had been lost now, the only saving grace was the dust storm still blowing through the area.

Carson removed the tac-map from his screen. "PUSH THROUGH THE DUST! PUSH!" Renters' gun stopped tanging and the hot shells stopped hitting Carsons' armor. After receiving a tap on the head, Carson sprinted forward into the dust. Green, blue, and red plasma streaked through the dust creating colored trails as it burned and ionized the dirt. The high pitched pangs of the Brute spikers could be heard as they impacted. Carson moved in a straight line, not the typical tactical approach, but speed was the value on the killing field. Carson slammed into the Covenant shield. He looked to either side and realized the Covenant had stacked them shoulder to shoulder. They had cover, the humans didn't. Smart bastards. Carson looked to either side as Lyon's then Samson hit the shields low. Carson nodded to Samson.

"Echo-One-Actual to all Bravo-Victors, shift right along the phase line and clear those contacts!" Samson ordered both Williams (8) and Sergeant Redsont[/b].

Carson looked around frantically for a moment then saw Flores[/color] next to Renters down to his right. Carson gave Samson the thumbs up and moved down the line of Echo squad to where Flores[/color] and Renters were. He checked them both before moving down the line. Carson checked his ammo counter as he got to the end of the shield phalanx. "Frags over!" Carson yelled and Echo squad popped grenades dumping them behind the shield.

A series of yelps and growls were heard before several ear blasting thumps. Luckily the helmets filtered out all but the concussion. Directly after the blast Carson was first around the relative safety of the shield line. A jackal laid at Carson's feet reaching out for what Carson could only guess what was help. Carson stomped past the creature bringing his rifle to bear. A Brute was dropped to a knee, blood matting its fur. None of the grunts had survived the large blast. Carson squeezed the trigger two times and the six rounds punched through the creatures thick skull. The hulking beast lumped over against the opposite embankment of the trench.

The team needed to filter through the trenches towards the gravity lift. Hopefully they could take out some shooters that were covering the other approaches. Carson dropped the magazine and replaced it. The movement was executed cleanly. With the weapon now charged Carson proceeded forward through the trench.

"Williams, we're moving around the left, you take the right! Redsont base of fire from this location!"

[Dutch]

Corporal Jonathan L. Fisher
Crater rim
Main entrance to Covenant vessel

Corporal Jonathan L. Fisher was crazy. And most likely in the events about to unfold within the upcoming few minutes, he was most likely dead. How e would die was anyones guess, mainly his. But he was quite positive it would have something to do with super heated plama. Maybe an elites plasma rifle would fry him like the chicken he ate back on Earth, or maybe his insides might be liquified by a radiation bolt from a carbine. Maybe some jackal sniper would pop his head open like a melon. Or maybe some lumbering hunter would hit him with that ungodly large gun and turn him to soup.

There were plenty of other ways of course, stuck by a grunt, shanked by a brute or fried by a banshee, but it was best not to think about them, especially when he was overlooking all of those likely causes of death. He was overlooking the queer looking purple gravity lift which drifted the covenant aliens and their gear to and from the crate where it landed. Above himl haning in the sky like some extremely weird looking whale, was the covenant assault carrier which scared the living piss out him. Here he was, ungodly close to dozens of hostile aliens that had every intention to kill him for the sake of a handful of tattoed rocks.

Yep, he was crazy. That's why he was a helljumper wasn't it, he was crazy. Who wasn't? No sane person jumped out of spacecraft during the middle of a massive battle with MAC shells and plasma blazing everywhere in a pod the size of a coffin, through the atmosphere getting hot enough to cook a goose, hitting the ground an unsafe speeds and emerging from the coffin, and ironicaly, getting killed usually. At least they got to take a pelican this time around and not the HEV hot seat. Still, it was crazy.

He looked around him, checking the others out. On his left side was a fellow ODST, his friend-or-foe tags ID'd him as PFC O'Connor, J. He turned to him, and nodded without word. Fisher did likewise, he'd probably never see this O'Connor again. He turned to his right, a marine. A gril called Private Lavern, A. He looked past her, and saw the star of the show, FoF ID'd him as SPARTAN 152. A spartan, go figure. Pretty much a friggin' walking tank with his honkin' big armour and freaky looking helmet and all. He'd been told that he and the rest of the soldiers were getting ready to attack the lift itself whiel getting covering fire from the fireteams. Now he was just waiting for the order to go, for the order to attack. Like standing in front of the firing squad waiting for the order to fire.

He checked over himself, making usre his weapons were good and ready to go. He had four frag grenades around his waste, plus two plasma grenades he'd snagged off a dead grunt. They were all in order and working. He examined his main weapon, the MA5B assault rifle he traded his supressed SMG for. It had a full clip indicated by both digital ammunition counter and a manual check. He clipped it to his back and reached down for the silenced magnum he'd kept. It was fully loaded, as indicated by the see through slot in the handle, and it's silencer was in good condition. He snapped it back on his waist, good to go. He took a deep breath, ready to go to battle at a moments notice.

He knew h'ed probably, actually he was sure he'd definately die, but he'd make sure to go out swinging. No use beggin' for mercy from those murderous monsters out there, he'd seen what happened to those who had. Not a pretty sight. He whipped out his combat knife, Leslie, and started sharpening it with a chunk of metal he'd found. The sound of metal grating agaisnt metal comforted him, it sounded like it was reassuring him, promising the cut the throat of any covenant bastard who got too close. His tense muscles relaxed a bit, comforted by his now comforted mind.
He was ready to go.

[darkblood]

Corporal Sean"Bloody"Cormac Solas Squad Supply Drop Zone

After following Alpha Company to the Crater and after enduring the awe inspiring performance of the frigate, Solas squad had decided to make use of the Supply drop. Moving toward the supplies for some more useful weapons.

Bloody had been the first to reach the drop and had already started searching through the contents of it. He looked back and waited for the rest of Solas squad.He opened the Squad Comm and spoke. "Alright looks as though there's been a change of plans, look through the drop and select another weapon, something that might make a dent in the covenant than our M7s's and Silenced BR55's , Ooh-Rah?"

The other ODST's of Solas responded with a simple nod or in Lance Corporal Kyla"Siv"Siver's case an Ooh-Rah of her own. Bloody then turned back to searching through the drop, as did the rest of Solas squad. He searched through the equipment, finding a GPMG, and one Rocket launcher. Perfect he thought. He then lifted the GPMG and rocket launcher into his arms and called Private First Class Rey"RC"Cito over to him.

He nodded to the GPMG and rocket launcher in his hands and spoke into the Comm. "Make good use of these RC." he handed them off and RC nodded turning away with the new weapons.

He then turned to Private First Class Cole"Cosp"Spayer, who was busing himself checking his silenced BR55."I Expect you will make good use of that once we get inside the ship." Cosp chuckled through the Comm before replying."That is if we get into the ship."

"Yeah thats just wishful thinking." Bloody finished looking at the rest of the squad, who had it seemed refitted and were ready. It was Private Nick"Nikky"Bloemer who caught his eye.

The private was holding what appeared to be a canister the size and shape of an over inflated Football. "What's that Nikky?" Bloody asked moving closer.

Nikky who was rather new to Solas squad and the ODST's for that matter replied openly so that everyone around them or near could hear on the Comm. " Sir It's a Fury TacNuke" he said indicating the word Fury printed along the side. " Now what use could this have?" Nikky finished saying handing the TacNuke to Bloody who looked it over for a moment.

"Nikky, when a TacNuke comes into play, there are many, many uses..." Bloody responded a small smile etching itself on his face unseen to other by the blue visor. "..Or in out case when a couple TacNukes come into play." he said looking down at a case containing one more Fury TacNuke.


(For future referance, there's no need to highlight your own NPCs. People might get confused and think you are referancing another player.) - SuperCommando

And there isn't any BR-55s at all in the supply drop. I've added the list too the post as well as the OOC thread and the actual thread requesting the supply drop to clear things up. It wasn't too give a few people a change of weaponry, just to provide armaments capable of supporting the assault into the crater and onto the AC. - Useful

(Edited to the specifications of you guys ^^)

[SuperCommando]

SPARTAN-009 (Silas)

West of Target Hades

Crater ridge

"Sir It's a Fury TacNuke. Now what use could this have?"

The comm chatter caught the Spartan’s attention. Silas turned away from the inner crater, still clouded with dust, and gazed back down to the supply drop site with his HUD’s zoom feature. Echo flight had safely returned from extracting Lt. Murphy’s SOG-A and was unloading the rest of the ordnance, and the figures of soldiers could be seen gearing up for the pending assault. One of the teams must have discovered one of the hand-portable tactical nuclear weapons included with the cache.

He quickly flipped through readouts on his HUD and found the TACMAP display. Using it to cross-reference FOF tags with the men at the site, he identified the ODST handing over one of the nukes to a teammate: PVT. BLOEMER/SOLAS SQUAD. He keyed the radio frequency and hailed the team.

“This is SPARTAN zero zero nine to Solas, I’ll take that FURY off your hands. RV at my position at the crater’s ridge.”

Silas took another glance at the swirling mass of dust obscuring the massive crater, the purple glow of the grav lift bleeding through. Even now, it appeared the dust was beginning to settle a bit. It wasn’t going to last forever. If the task force wanted to use this cloud for concealment, they needed to follow Bravo’s example and move out soon. Real soon.

“Step on it, troopers.”

[darkblood]

Corporal Sean"Bloody"Cormac Solas Squad Supply Drop Zone

Bloody turned the TacNuke over in his hands before a voice cut into the Comm “This is SPARTAN zero zero nine to Solas, I’ll take that FURY off your hands. RV at my position at the crater’s ridge.” He looked to Nikky who just shrugged and then radioed his response."Roger that spartan, En route to your position." he turned grabbing the second FURY out of the case.

"Siv come over here, I have something for you." Siv turned and jogged over."Sir?" He held out the second FURY to her and replied."Carry that, we might need a back up plan." She nodded and placed the FURY in her pack then waited for orders.

"Alright Solas Squad, we are to RV with Spartan 009 on the crater rim and Deliver one of these FURY's. Now lets get out there and kick some ass Solas!" The team Ooh-Rahed before turning towards the crater and setting out in the direction of Silas.

Everyone Excluding Cosp and RC had their standard weaponry. M7s's and M6C SOCOM pistols. Cosp had a silenced BR55 and RC had a GPMG and M19 SSM, All in all it was looking to be a good load out.

"I hope to hell you know what you're going to do with this spartan" Bloody muttered in his helmet. It was close to the real assault, everyone it seemed was getting edgy.

[elando]

Captain Andrew Hallam Ground Command Squad Crater Ridge

As he stood on the ridge, surveying the troops, Andrew waved his hand above his head, indicating he wanted some silence. When the rabble quietened down he spoke. "Alright, as far as we know the fly boys managed to shake up that AC quite a bit. Initial reports suggest that its weaponry is down, as are the turrets defending the crater." He shifted his weight a bit and then pointed towards the crater. "Now, the Frigate managed to get some of its archer missiles past the shields and into the crater, we don't know what its like down there but I can safely say that it will of at least shaken up any split lip bastards inside. I expect a heavy firefight but we can take this thing. I've had reports of troops being seen traveling up the grav lift, my guess is that they've evac'd about half of their ground units in an attempt to better defend the AC."

He jogged down the ridge and stopped by the supply drop, picking up a fury as he did so. "I'm sure all of you are wondering just what the hell this little baby is." He said, pointing to the Fury. "This, is a Fury TacNuke. Now it may look like a fun little grenade but this SOB has a blast radius of about a Kilometer. Thats 1 megaton of explosives in the palm of your hand." Walking over to Corporal Cormac he snatched the other Fury out of his hand as Cormic gave another to 009.

"I'm handing these out to designated members of the assault teams. I do not want these being set off without my permission. These arn't grenades, they're Tactical warheads which are designed to take out a large military installation." He said, handing one of the grenades to Sergeant Pink, another to Lieutenant Murphy and the final one to Spartan 152. "I trust you to use them only when nessecary. If they detonate inside the AC it'll bring the whole thing down no problem. As for use on the ground, you better plant it a long way off and bring some sunglasses because its gonna make one hell of a boom."

Trudging up the side of the ridge again he addressed the troops for a final time. "Right, we're expecting heavy resistance, keep low, don't take any risks and get the job done. We need to capture that Grav lift and secure the area before we can move on. Lets get to it." Grabbing up his battle rifle he pointed to the Spartans.

"Spartans! You're first in line to assault! Get a fucking move on! Go Go Go!" He shouted.

[Soulstep]

Corporal Andrew Deiran Indigo Squad Crater Ridge

"Alright Marines, let's get some suppressing fire on that crater!" Andrew ordered, as he and his team moved into position. "Adam, we'll cover you while you get that thing set up!"

"Gotcha sir!" Adam said, hefting the MG on his shoulder. The squad stopped just before the rim, as Adam deployed the gun. Andrew peered beyond a rock, spotting what was left of the covenant forces on alert. "On my signal, open fire," he whispered, holding out an empty hand, fingers outstretched. He silently counted down.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

Adam squeezed the trigger, a tongue of flame leaping from the weapon as the rest of the squad, and nearby troops also opened fire. A milling group of grunts were quickly scythed apart, the Elite in command raising his carbine before high-calibre rounds tore through his shields and ripped ragged chunks out of his chest. The startled enemies dived for cover.

Andrew sighted down on an exposed jackal sniper, and fired off a series of extended bursts, many of the shots impacting into the dust, but a few hitting their target, causing the vulture-like alien to painfully flinch. Readjusting his aim, Andrew fired off another burst, taking the hostile down.

[inhert]

Lieutenant Samuel “Murph” Murphy

Surface of Lethe

Lip of the Crater

Lieutenant Murphy looked at the hand-grenade sized nuclear weapon in his hand. Holding the ironically small weapon in his hands Murph became fearful of what it is capable of. There where very few places on his person to put the Fury, most of them were on his chest. If he put the Fury in any of the pouches on his front a direct hit may start spewing radiation. The best place for the Fury is out of the line of fire, on his back, in his butt-pack. Stowing the Fury Murph hoped that he didn’t have to use the Fury, and he didn’t fall.

“Get outta here, and get him to a Med-bay.” Murph said to the closet crew member of Pelican Echo-Two-Four, Serina Handel. The him was a reference to South who lay paralyzed on seats in the back of the Pelican. SOG-A would be joining the Assault on the Grav lift one man down and close to a state of extreme fatigue form their extended recon on the planet.

As the weapon crates were pick over by the Marines, Murph noticed that none of them were taking the LAU-65D, which could prove very useful in softening up the covenant defenders of the Grav lift. Striding up to the crates he pulled the LAU out of its crate, “Red Wing on me.” Murph called his team to attention as he shifted the heavy launcher in his grip.

“Jester grab the rest of the Missiles for this puppy and stick with me well provide as much far support until the Marines get danger closer.” As Murph continued Jester started to take the four LAU magazines form the crate. “Axe, Clay, Yellow. Follow Silas in and back him up on the assault, me and Jester will join you when we can’t hit ’em with the LAU anymore.” The three SOG-A member looked form Murph to Silas waiting for the SPARTAN to tell them to move out.

With SOG-A once again split up Jester and Murph joined the rest of the Marines as the walked to the lip of the crater. As the two men reached the crater Indigo squad had opened fire on a Covenant squad by the Grav Lift. Other Covenant around the Grav lift started to react to the Marine with blue and purple projectiles. This is as good at a time as ever, Murph thought to himself hefting the LAU in his hands. The weapon had to be loaded and Jester had anticipated this and handed the waiting Mruph a LAU magazine. The LAU magazine was the cone tip of the LAU with a cylinder that housed the missile. Locking the magazine into place the Murph flipped the safety and diamond reticule of the LAU popped into his HUD. Murph could light-up eight targets for the missiles, and he choose the Plasma-Turrets first then covenant troops close by the turrets to round out the first eight missiles. When the targets locked Muph pulled the trigger and held it for the twenty seconds that it took for the eight missiles to clear their tubes.

The Missiles raced toward their designated targets and in no time they were dropping onto the turrets. Four turrets exploded into an acidic blue smoke, they were silenced for the remainder of the assault. The four other missiles for the LAU decimated four unlucky Grunts who had been unlucky enough to be standing in the same general area as the Turrets.

Murph reloaded the LAU magazine as next to him Jester began sighting Grunts as they run around the platform of the Grav lift. Pulling the trigger of the sniper rifle one of the Grunts exploded from the 14.5mm round from his sniper rifle. The empty shell casing slap off of Murph’s leg as he readied the LAU for a second barrage. Other Marines had been joining the firing line at the lip of the crater, the assault was finally beginning.

[SuperCommando]

SPARTAN-009 (Silas)

Assaulting Target Hades

Grav lift crater

Silas accepted the FURY and stuffed it into the biggest pouch he had on his tac harness, a bag on the size of a small satchel located behind his left hip. He was just finishing tightening the bulging pack when Captain Hallam finally gave the green light.

"Spartans! You're first in line to assault! Get a fucking move on! Go Go Go!"

“Axe, Clay, Yellow. Follow Silas in and back him up on the assault, me and Jester will join you when we can’t hit ’em with the LAU anymore.” Lieutenant Murphy ordered.

Silas nodded appreciatively at SOG-A’s support. “Thank you, Lieutenant. Red Wing, on me! We’re moving out!” The Spartan took point, rushing slightly ahead of them. He trusted LT. Murphy’s men to know what they were doing and fall in around his wake, but not so close as to accidentally get caught by fire aimed for him. He hefted his M247 to his shoulder. In his hands, the machine gun looked like a gigantic monster assault rifle held by the gigantic soldier.

Silas sped past Indigo Squad as they lit up the crater, pouring suppressive fire downrange. He hopped into the crater. Fiery-colored dirt and rock along the inside slope crumbled beneath his bulk as he half-slid half-ran down into the slowly dissipating cloud of dust.

His motion tracker picked them up just before he saw them materialize through the swirling particles – a small group of enemy contacts ahead. Silas immediately slid into a crouch, sighting down his weapon, and opened up on the Grunt-shaped figures. The machine gun roared as a torrent of fire shredded them with shocking ease. Two quick follow-up bursts cleared them out.

Enemy return fire was beginning to pick up now, but whether it was aimed for him or simply at the general direction of all the suppressive fire, he couldn’t tell. He resumed his charge, waving for the SOG-A members to continue. They had to keep moving.

As they pressed further, it grew ever more increasingly apparent to Silas that there was nothing to see in the fog-like dust aside from the occasional Covenant soldier, which he and Red Wing would quickly gun down. There was no scenery to the landscape down here – the Covenant must have cleared all natural cover, leaving nothing but an open killzone. Yet there was not much by way of enemy troops here, either. The answer to his puzzle quickly manifested itself in the form of a nearby glow ahead. Ducking past flashes of colored light, he skidded right in front of a long, defiant row of energy shield barriers. Ah, so that was their game, huh?

“Red Wing, energy shield barricade ahead.” Silas reported. “Not gonna let that stop us, are we?”

[inhert]

SOG-A (Red Wing)

Surface of Lethe

The Crater

Axe, Clay and Yellow were running two steps behind Silas when the SPARTAN stopped at his discovery of the energy shield wall. Yellow had been running full tilt on as the foursome butchered their way across the crater and as a result the SOG operator could not stop with ease. With all of the momentum he had Yellow tried to stop and tumbled into a dust cloud at the base of one of the energy shields.

“You okay, Kid?” Clay asked Yellow as the youngest member of SOG. Yellow only responded with a Grunt as he spun himself in the red dust of Lethe.

“I think, I can. Yeah, I can reroute this thing and shut it down.” Yellow commented as he started to remove the only removable part of the energy shield’s transmitter. Pulling what he though was the face plate of the transmitter Yellow found only a second plate that appeared to be mounted with intricate Covenant screws.

Axe watched with frustration as Yellow took out his knife in a fool-hearted attempt to unscrew the screws of the second plate. Given the lull of the combat the more time spent rerouting the wires of the energy shield the Covenant forces had more time to recover form the LAU strikes form Murph.

“Kid, I got a quicker way.” Axe uttered as he upholstered his sidearm.

“Give me a tick and I got it” Yellow said the frustration clear in his voice.

Axe did not care how long Yellow thought it would take him to get the transmitter apart, there was an easier way an it involved the fifty caliber round of his M6. Stepped behind a energy shield one away from the one Yellow was insistent on working on.

A sharp crack of Axe’s M6 rang out and the transmitter exploded and the energy flashed away. The proximity of the M6 to his head startled Yellow who jumped to his feet and retreated to an energy shield on the other side of the defaced transmitter, which exploded from a round from Axe’s M6.

“You, are a Dick!” Yellow hollered at Axe who stood across a two energy shield wide gap in the shield wall. Axe began to formulate a reply as a purple bullet from a Type-52 Carbine hit his energy shield. The Jackel who fired his Carbine at Axe lined up a second shot on the human when three rounds from a Human BR55 penetrated his neck, cheek and forehead.

Yellow stepped back into the cover of his energy shield after killing the Jackel that had tried to harass Axe. “Your welcome Duke Dickerton.” Yellow hollered once again to Axe.

“Have you ever heard of Occam’s Razor?” Axe asked his younger comrade.

“Oakham’s what?”

“Occam’s Razor!”
“No.”

“When you hear hoof beats, what do you think is making them?”

Yellow paused to adjust to what he believed was the stupidity of Axe’s point, “Horses.”

“Exactly!”

“Exactly what?” Two plasma bolts form a ballsy grunt slammed into the energy Yellow was hiding behind.

“You think Horses and not Zebras!” Axe responded stepping out and firing a burst from his assault rifle to send the Grunt to a heavenly plain of existence.

“That’s the stupidest shit, I have ever heard! What do Zebra’s haft to do with you shooting the transmitter?”

“I’ll tell ya later.” Axe said stepping from the cover of his energy shield to fire of another burst.

[SuperCommando]

SPARTAN-009 (Silas)

Assaulting Target Hades

Grav lift crater

The Jackal’s portable energy shield shimmered as it deflected the first few rounds of Silas’s short burst, but the Spartan walked his fire into the notch in the side of the shield it used to shoot out from. The avian alien squawked as its hand was blown apart. When it staggered in pain, unintentionally lowering the shield, Silas fired another short burst into its chest to finish it off.

Silas crouched in the dust, covering Red Wing as they breached the energy shield wall. He swiftly and proficiently picked off the occasional Grunt or Jackal who appeared to challenge them, but they lacked any real organization. The majority of the Covenant forces were dug in beyond the shields. So far, the suppressive fire from Indigo squad and Lieutenant Murphy’s missile barrage had done an excellent job keeping the heat off Red Wing and himself, but he realized that things were going to get much harder once they pass the shield wall. He briefly wondered how the other assault teams were doing. If nothing else, he could always hope that all the trouble being stirred up over here might divert and split the Covies’ attention and make it easier for everyone else.

A gap in the shield wall behind him sparked and died as Red Wing concluded their work. Axe and Yellow flanked the gap, firing in. Silas spun around, adding his own bursts to the crossfire. Sure enough, the enhanced concentration of enemies was evidenced by a greater amount of bodies laying sprawled in the dust beyond the wall – remnants from the Welrod’s strafing run, he guessed.

“Silas to Murphy, we’re through the wall,” he reported to the LT, keeping him posted on their progress.

Roughly thirty feet ahead was a small natural ditch in the rocky ground running perpendicular to them. It was the first available cover beyond the wall, making it the ideal next destination on the way to the lift platform. Small setback, though… it was already held by Brutes. The gargantuan fearsome beasts had noticed their wall’s defeat and bellowed with rage at the offending humans. The pack looked too large to take on directly. Silas hit the dirt, dropping to his stomach as a storm of streaking red plasma and whistling spikes flew through the gap in the shields, some peppering the dirt around him. He returned fire with a long spray from his machine gun to keep them suppressed as much as he could.

“Lieutenant,” he radioed Murphy again, raising his voice above the gunfire in the background. “We’re pinned down by multiple entrenched contacts. Cannot advance. Requesting fire support at this position…”

With a series of rapid eye blinks, Silas quickly pinpointed the location of the ditch on the TACMAP and sent the location to Lieutenant Murphy, displaying a red objective marker on his HUD. Hopefully, he’d be able to use the LAU to clear out all those Brutes, or at least soften them up to the point it’d be possible to storm the ditch themselves.

“Get ready to move on my mark…” Silas announced to Red Wing.

[maxii1]

Harry 152


Harry 152 grinned as he looked at the Nuclear Weapon that he had in his hand, he placed it back on his belt and reminded himself not to mistake it for an average grenade. Even his body armour with its shielding would not save him from that.

“So we make up the first attack wave” he spoke to the other Spartans, noticing new additions other than Gamma Team.

“Suits me” he added as he checked his assault rifle, looking to where the marines and other fighters had set up to provide support from the relative safety of the crater rim.


As he made his way down the crater he had unloaded all 64 rounds into a Brute, its armour deflecting the majority away to ricochet into smaller targets like the grunts, purple blood congealing on the floor causing the Spartan’s feet to stick to the floor. The Brute growled and returned fire at Harry who quickly slammed the butt of his weapon into the creatures head, it fell down and a few stamps where enough to ensure that the Brute stayed there.

Harry was about to reload when another Brute accosted him; he went for his pistol, a lot quicker than reloading, but the Brute was upon him now and swung a fist into the Spartans head, causing him to lose balance.
Harry levelled his pistol towards the creature that stood over him, a final act of defiance in the face of death; he started to unload the clip.
The Brute chortled as he prepared to slice at the Spartan with his Spiker, when he suddenly collapsed, a vapour trail showing a sniper had fired at the beast. Harry quickly got onto his feet and gestured a salute towards the marine for saving his life before pressing on to join 009 at the ditch.

[Dutch]

Fisher could see the troops preparing to attack the un-suspecting Covenant in the crater below. he sighed, and slid his knife back into it's sheath. Grabbing his MA5B assault rifle, he checked it again to make sure it was good to go and combat ready, there was ntohing worse than your gun jamming or malfunctioning some way in the middle ofa battle, especially a battle with space aliens firing plasma all around.

Well, there was one worse thing of course. There always was something worse, for example he could get killed. And worse than that was being captured, and thne worse than that was tortured, and so on and on. Fisher wondered if he would survive, probably not. Not that he was a pessimist or anything, but he just really doubted he'd walk away from a fight like that, what with the aliens, plasma guns, explosions, and of course there was that fricking scary spaceship hovering above them like some big mean killer death space whale.

Oh how weird his life had become. Hewas living out the ultimate sci-fi geeks dream. An bad-ass looking shock trooper with wicked machien guns next to a walking tank of a man holding a nuclear bomb about to attack an alien army intent on destroying all of man kind. Well, if he died at least it would be incredibly awesome sounding in the histroy books. If there were any humans alive ot read the histroy books, or write for that matter.

His jumbled thoguhts were interupted by the oh-to familiar metallic clatter of assault rifles. His head whipepd around, assesing the situation. Yep, it had begun. The fire teams had opened up, giving out cover fire so the main assault team could, well, assault. Oh yeah, he was on the assault team. The Spartan who had been near him was suddenly quite aways away, in fact so were all the other marines and ODSTs. With a shock of realization, he recognized it was time to attack. He racked his rifles slide to chamber a round, and started his descent into hell.

The assorted Covenant aliens were stil lrather dazed by the attack, but were recovering and fighting back quickly. Fisher raised his MA5B and leveled the reticule on his HUD on a nearby jackals who's back was turned. He held down the trigger for a oment, and watched as flames spat lead slugs from the barrel, followed by the nice sight of the Jackal falling dead with a violet spray of blood and an alien scream. He swiviled his sights and fired another burst, blowing a grunt clena off his feet. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw an overcharge plasma bolt building up, and hit the mud. The overcharhed round expelled and flew over his head by two feet, raising blisters his back. He sighed in despair, and roleld t ohis right, got up and fired at his attacker.

Damn, the 7.62 rounds sparked off the jackals shield, and the alien was gettingeady to shoot again. He grabbed a plasma grenade off his belt, and pressed the primer on it. Immediatly the thing started to glow bright blue in a manner which nearly convicned him of the barracks rumors of sterilty there on the spot. With a moments hesitation, he cocked his hand and threw. The blue sphere traveled through the air and landed five feet behind the Jackal. Apparently the bird looking aline didn't see it in the heat of battle, because it made no attempt to move. It stood there for a moment, then the bomb detonated and vaporized the alien and overloaded it's shield generator.

Fisher grinned briefly, then switched targets. He'd heard stories of heroic marines taking down elites single handedly, but as most heroes ened up dead in five seconds, Fisher was perfectly happy to blow down the little guys liek grunts.
Too bad the red Elite in front of him thought the same way. He saw the alien, a scarce twenty feet away, perform what looked liek a growl with it's disgusting mandibles and start to charge him, clearing hellbent on breaking open his helmet and skull with the suprisingly tough plasma rifle in its claws. Fisher naturaly backed up, aiming the MA5B at the alie and holding down the trigger. The aliens shields flared and sparkeded, but held. With his other hand Fisher grabbed his magnum and started pouring the .50 rounds at the elite. With only one hand, the rifles spray started to miss but with the magnum rounds, the shields finally popped.

The alien kept coming though, clearly possesed by the thought of his dead body. Fisher was highly opposed to this possibility, so he kept shooting. His rifle clacked empty on 00, but the magnum kept it up. Then with three bullets left, one hit the creature in the forehead, blowing a hoel through it's helemt, skin and bone and tearing apart it's brains. A faint meter from his feet, the creature dropped dead. Fisher breathed a sigh of relief, and started to reload his rifle with shaking hands. That'd be one to tell the kids. A plasma bolt sizzling by his head reminded him he may not have any kids at the end of this war.

[inhert]

SOG-A (Red Wing)

Surface of Lethe

The Crater

Silas to Murphy, we’re through the wall Murph received Silas’s message and was surprised at the speed Silas and the other three members of SOG-A were moving to the Grav lift. Then the second message from Silas came, Lieutenant, We’re pinned down by multiple entrenched contacts. Cannot advance. Requesting fire support at this position…. A red diamond appeared on Murph’s HUD, that’s where the Covenants who had Silas and the SOG members pinned down. Murph gave the LAU cylinder magazine a final twist into position and highlighted Silas’s target with the reticule of the LAU.

“On the way!” Murph hollered as he held the trigger of LAU to send all eight missiles out of the tubes and on their way down range to ruin the day of some unsuspecting Covenant troops. A single barrage of eight missile might not be enough to suppresses the Covenant, so Murph slammed the magazine from its unlock position and pulled the cylinder form the launcher. As fast as he could Murph worked the third magazine into its place in the launcher.

“Round two. On the way!” Murph hollered again warning Silas, Axe, Clay and Yellow to keep their heads down. Eight more missiles shot from the LAU and lit their motors as they raced to the cluster of Covenant. With three magazines fired from the LAU Murph had only one magazine of LAU missiles remaining.

“Jester, get set we’re joining Silas in the push.” Murph said his teammate lying next to him. Jester nodded and shifted to a kneel hearing the order from Murph. Handing the LAU to the nearest empty handed Marine Murph stood and headed back to the weapons crates.

At the crate Murph rummaged over what was not taken, find that much of the C-12 and C-7 spray wasn’t taken Murph took four of each and stuffed them into his pouches. Jester walked up to Murph and watched him stuffing the explosives into his pockets, “Ready boss.”

“Okay Silas, Jester and I are on our way to you. We have C-12 and seven if we need to crack the A-C.” Finishing the message Murph followed by Jester sprinted off to where Silas and the three other SOG-A members where.

[lopez]

As they watched troops move closer and closer to the grav lift, they realised they would fall behind everyone. "Ok, we've done all we can from this position, we need to move closer and support the nearest group of marines." They each stood up and moved down the small hill they were on. They ran upon a small group of marines that were pinned down and in need of help. They got dug into the little cover there and opened fire on the bigger targets. There were few brutes, mainly just jackels with their energy shields making t difficult to kill. "Hey thanks for helping out", said one marine. "Hey it's no problem, just doing my job" replied George.

Since Golf squad began to help the small covie force was becoming out gunned. The last brute fell to the ground and lay motionless. The jackels began to run away but left themselves wide open to finish off. Lopez looked at the grav lift and knew that marines and Spartans were inside doing damage so that means his mission wasn't yet over.

[SuperCommando]

SPARTAN-009 (Silas)

Assaulting Target Hades

Grav lift crater

“On the way!” Murphy announced.

Silas continued to spray heavy automatic fire at the Brutes holding the ditch, suppressing them until the first round of explosive rain came roaring down. Debris clouds of dirt and rock flew up, some even making it all the way to impact his visor and make him blink. The barrage had the desired effect, though, and began to rip away at the tough aliens’ numbers. A few of them went flipping through the air; others were knocked off their feet. Surprisingly, more of them got up than Silas had imagined. Others simply took a load of shrapnel in their furry hides and kept on shooting.

Brutes… fitting name.

“Round two. On the way!” came the second warning.

Silas rolled to his right to avoid a spiky retaliation as the Brutes started regrouping… only for them to be hit by Lieutenant Murphy’s second salvo. Sometime during the concussive fireworks, a near-identical armored figure came sliding through the dust beside him. FOF tag identified the fellow super-soldier as SPARTAN-152

Harry. The name flashed into Silas’s mind. A lifetime ago during training on Reach, all the Spartan trainees had come to know each other to some degree, like an extended family. Although because Harry was almost always grouped into different teams than Silas, he did not know the other Spartan too well, but a Spartan was still a brother. He remembered from glimpses at the mission roster during briefing that there were other Spartans assigned to this op, but he had been always been so focused on the task at hand he never had the time to imagine a reunion.

Silas looked over to Harry, pointing at his own eyes and tracing a little “u” underneath. The Spartan smiley face symbol – the closest thing he had to offer as a heartfelt greeting.

Suddenly, his attention was captured by the final dying thumps of the missile detonations. The majority of the Brutes had been blown to fuzzy bits by now, and the rest were wounded and dazed. This was their chance to take the ditch. There was burst of radio chatter from Lieutenant Murphy, “Okay Silas, Jester and I are on our way to you. We have C-12 and seven if we need to crack the A-C.”

“Roger that, Lieutenant,” he replied.

He looked back to the other Spartan, “Ready for this, Harry?”

Then turning to Axe, Clay, and Yellow, he got to his feet and called, “Here we go Red Wing… Mark!”

Silas exploded into a sprint for the ditch with Harry and Red Wing, machine gun blazing.

[maxii1]

Harry 152

Harry breathed a sigh of relief as he reached the ditch, it felt good to be fighting on a large scale, en masse with his brothers in arms.
“Silas, I was born ready” he grinned, as he leaned over and tapped 009 on the shoulder, a gentle squeeze.

He reloaded his weapons and cooked off a grenade throwing it towards the enemy and then followed Silas, with his Assault Rifle.

[Soulstep]

Corporal Andrew Deiran Indigo Squad Crater Rim

The 5 guns from Indigo kept blazing away at the remaining Covenant, forcing them into easy-to-kill groups for the assault groups. Andrew stepped away from the rim and reloaded, taking a moment to breathe before opening fire again.

Returning to the rim, he sighted down on a Brute that was shoving Grunts into the open, growling at them to return fire. Pulling the trigger, he watched as his bullets pinged off the Brute's armour. "Adam, Brute at 11 o'clock!" he shouted, and the gunner complied, a hail of bullets overwhelming its defences and killing the Bravo Kilo.

Searching for a new target, Andrew noticed an Elite off to the far left aiming at the squad. "Sniper!" he screamed, jumping back away from the rim. The rest of Indigo quickly followed.

Except for Ben.

Ben turned, his SMG still firing at the Grunts he was aiming at. A beam rifle shot lanced out towards him, and he had a split second to register the flash before it struck him between the eyes.

Andrew watched in horror as Ben slumped over the crater rim, sliding down the dusty rock before coming to rest beside a Jackal corpse.

Indigo stood there still for a moment, as the shock sank in. "Shit..." Adam breathed, as Andrew shook his head.

"We knew something like this would happen. He knew it too," he sighed, before looking up. "But right now there are still guys down there. Tom, Adam, pin down that sniper. Sarah, you're with me, lets go," he said more firmly, before running to the crater rim, and dropping down, Sarah behind him.

[Dutch]

Corporal Jonathan Fisher
Assaulting target Hades
Gravity lift crater

Fisher heard the sizzling plasma bolt before he saw it. Good thing too, if he did see it he would be dead. He hit the ground in an instinctual roll, stood back up and hosed his attackers with hot lead. The MA5B clattered in its loud metallic voice and spat the ammunition at the trio of grunts. The front two stiffened and fell to the ground, brilliant blue blood pouring out of the neat little holes in their chests. The other one let loose a terrified shriek, and ran off. Fisher ignored it; there were bigger fish to fry. Or in this case, bigger aliens to blast.

Fisher could see the spartans, yeah another one had popped out of nowhere, FoF tagged him as Silas 009. He was with the other one, blazing away with their weapons and taking a significant toll on the helpless aliens. An elite caught hit by their combined fire and momentarily froze. Its shields blazed silver then died. The elite crumpled as the hail of rounds shredded the rest of the alien, armour and all. Fisher moved a bit closer to them, actually quite a bit closer to them. He sighed a jackal with its back turned, and dropped it with a hail of bullets. His rifle clacked on empty, and he popped it out. He fumbled around for a second, and then grabbed another magazine. He slid it into place, and it locked in with a satisfying click. He racked the slide, chambering the first round and checked for a target. There, behind the Spartan a few meters to his left, the one called Silas. A jackal with an overcharged plasma pistol was taking aim, pointing the jerking, shaking weapon at the Spartans back. Without thinking Fishers rifle snapped up and fired. Thirteen bullets hit the aliens neck, torso and abdomen, killing it immediately. The it fell, and discharged its load.

The burning ball of emerald fire blazed past the head of Silas 009, a mere foot and a half. Fisher sighed in relief, and checked around the battle. It seemed to be going well; the fire teams on the ridge were herding the aliens into kill zones, and seemed to be taking no losses. What an ironic observation, for around that moment a violet spear of light flashed out from the edge of the battle and burnt a hole through one of the fire team members. Fishers head snapped around, tracking the beam. There, he could see a jackal on the edge of the battle hiding behind a pair of the oddly purple covenant supply crates. Its rifle was steaming from a recent discharge and it looked ready to fire again. Running forward, Fisher got within nine yards and pulled out a frag grenade. He pulled the pin and activated. Then his held it in a throwing position for two seconds, allowing it to ‘cook.’ He then quickly proceeded to hurl it at the jackal snipers location, and watched it hit the ground ten feet from the alien. There was a second’s pause, then a blast of fiery thunder which promptly tore the jackal to shreds of alien flesh. Fisher grinned, and brought his rifle up to firing position again. The plasma fire was getting less and less, saying this battle would soon be over.
Who knew, maybe he would survive after all.