Through The Battle

[ward]

((OOC: This RP is open to all the Marine players and their NPCs. The beginning is just kind of an introduction at base. Things'll heat up soon.))

1300 Hours, February 10th, 2528 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \
Mandalian Mountain Range, Edda Super-continent,
Epsilon Indi System, Planet Harvest

Wind chilled Gunnery Sergeant Michael Ward to the bone as he tried to cover himself up as best he could. He and the other Marines had donned their winter fatigues and their armor was almost completely covered in sticky snow. Visibility was terrible out in the mountains of Harvest and it didn't help that the planet had been glassed so many times that it was difficult to tell what was snow and what was fallout from the glassing.

Either way he didn't really care. He just wished he had been assigned somewhere more... temperate. The Covenant had been gathering in the area for some unknown reason and command had ordered his platoon, as well as some other Marine units, into the area to act as a stopgap to the Covenant's advancement. Normally he wouldn't be so opposed to said objectives; however, due to the weather forecasts the only support they were going to get was artillery. Aerial units had been denied permission to enter the area.

So that meant they were practically on their own out there. He sighed and stood up, wrapping the scarf around his face tightly and making his way towards the center of their base camp. He ran into several Marines of whom he didn't recognize. All he knew was they weren't from his unit and that's all he cared about. After several minutes he reached the barracks tent for his platoon and entered.

Some of the Marines were playing card games or just sitting around trying to stay warm. With no heating systems for the interior of the tents, it was just as cold inside as it was outside. It made everyone uncomfortable and made it difficult to sleep at night. He took a seat across from Sergeant Burns, whose head was slack. He was obviously asleep, his arms crossed across his chest, sitting upright with his eyelids shut.

Michael chuckled and then looked over at PO2 Hartley who was in a corner reading yet another book. He shook his head and said, "Doc, what're you reading?" The corpsman looked up at him as if he had forgotten where he was. It took him a moment to recover before he replied, "a book."

Ward chuckled. "I'd have never guessed," he said sarcastically, "what's it about?"

Hartley sighed and crawled over to the gunnery sergeant, the book open in his grasp. He laid it down on the table so that Ward could see its contents. Judging by the pictures he could already tell it was a medical book. However, he shuddered as he realized what the pictures were of. "You're fuckin' weird, man."

Hartley laughed and said, "not as weird as you, Gunnery Sergeant." Ward looked at him, his face expressionless. The look on Hartley's face was nothing but purely hilarious as all the color drained from his face and he tried to apologize for what he said. Michael immediately interjected.

"Relax, Doc," he said calmly, "I'm just messing with you." Hartley visibly relaxed and sighed in relief. Ward chuckled while shaking his head and patting the man on the shoulder. Hartley was a really swell kid who had joined to pay the bills for his medical schooling. He really wasn't the type of person who'd you expect to be in the military and the truth was, he probably shouldn't have been. War changed people and the corpsman had definitely seen his fair share of it.

But no. He didn't seem to let it get to him, which was admirable and astonishing to Ward. No matter how much hardship you threw at him he always seemed to shrug it off and just push on. He was truly one the boys in his book and none of the Marines in the platoon disputed that fact. To them, he was a Marine.

Before the gunnery sergeant could speak with the corpsman further, the familiar voice of Private First Class Dawson echoed across the tent. Ward turned around in his seat to face the man as he approached him.

"Tell me somethin', Gunny," he began as he sat down next to Ward. "Why the hell can't we ever defend someplace nice? Like a village full of chicks in bikinis. Why do we always gotta be ordered to the ass-ends of the universe, surrounded by retarded officers who talk about how glorious this shit is? I'm freezin' my fucking ass off. Somehow I don't think that's glorious."

Ward's face creased into a wide grin and he shook his head several times at the Marine. Dawson was a man that held his opinions on the tip of his tongue. God forbid anyone ever get him to start ranting. He would talk about the most pointless things for hours and hours if given the chance. He was truly a colorful individual.

"Maybe you should file a complaint," Ward stated nonchalantly. The look on Dawson's face made him wish he hadn't said that.

"Sure thing Gunny!" he said with mock inspiration, "I'll file it under Kiss My Ass and see what the REMs think!"

[aaron010]

A strong gust of wind picks up the snow stuffed atmosphere into an icey blast that creeps across the peak and down the side of the mountain range. The pack snow begins to shift and crumble from a force which is not the wind.

A Pelican dropship roars across the top of the peak, sucking away the pack snow in an unescapeable shockwave, sprinking it to join the rest of the snow that already dominates the air. The Pelican races towards it's LZ. Unusually light it only carries it's spacecraft crew and one other, white cladden warrior dressed like the snow with a smock of snow white rags covering his entire body over his body armour suit. A complete, modern arctic warfare ghille suit that disperses heat away from the body in order to maintain a 'cool profile' to help avoid detection from thermal imaging. He even sports white balistic eye protection which is non-reflective. Pieces of snow-white rags have been neatly twisted around the frame to help break up the outline.

No outline, no profile....total stealth.

PFC Mark Hatcher cocks a round into a snow-ghilled SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle. His XBR55 Battle Rifle is ghilled up too along with the rest of his equipment in his dropbag which is also ghilled. An aircrewman inside snaps him a short look before drawing a glare back from Mark. "Being a former ODST has it's uses...." said Mark, comfortably caressing his sniper rifle. The aircrewman looked away and resumed his duty of scanning for enemy threats which was easier said than done in these conditions.

"20 seconds" announes the pilot. The internal drop bay darkened and Mark stands up, his drop bag on a white teather attached to his weist. He approaches the drop bay door which opens up to reveal the Pelican decending at an extremely fast rate.

"GO! GO! GO!". The crewman shouts while punching straight hand signals off of the Pelican.

Mark launches himself off of the back of the Pelican and immediately takes cover, bringing his sniper rifle to bear and he begins to scan an arc of defence before training his eyes onto another arc of defence. The Pelican didn't hang around, it shot back up into the air just as quickly as it had rapidly decended. No pilot in their right mind would want to sit around in hostile territory, especially in these conditions, they had barely made it in as all other air support was restricted. Mark had hoped they would get out as quick as they came in, he didn't need anymore attention being drawn to himself.

The sound of the Pelicans engins got fainter and fainter. The snow that was kicked up from the engines is still setting back down on Mark who at the moment, looks like any other area of snow.
After waiting another thirty seconds to make sure there were no snipers, he draws his knees up quickly and exploads off into a jog, dragging his drop bag with him throw the thickly layered snow. He knows he has to move fast. The last minute he spent checking his arcs took up vital time, he had to get away from the drop off point in case an enemy had seen the Pelican decend.

Still taking cover on the side of the mountain, GSgt Ward and his men were stood-to, despite the deteriorating conditions, like all good Marines. Tactically rotating shifts on sentry and like all other Marines, keeping the banter flowing to keep up morale. Ward left the relative warmth of the tent to go and check on the sentries he had posted outside to keep them secure.

Opening up a secure COM line he asks for a report. All report back no sightings of any sort and spend more time telling him how baltic it is, drawing many laughs over the COM waves from multiple callsigns listening in. Again, the banter kept on flowing. The area they were scanning was a vast open plain, similar to that which many of the Marines had seen on nature programmes. Vast expanses of snow and very little life. If anything was coming they were sure they could pick it up with their variety of tracking and visual equipment they had at their disposal.

Hatcher pressed on, he had been going for nearly an hour now and was sure he was in sight of his RV with Wards unit. Still going up an incline he dropped to his torso and dragged his body along the soft, snow covered rock side. Using his hand he burrowed a hole through an area of relief that the wind had made a dome of snow over. He made sure he carefully dug out an even width and just enough height for him to crawl into. The cold wind had frozen a lot of the snow solid, so the outer shell would hold and wouldn't collapse on him as he hollowed out a hide for himself in the soft, powdery centre.
Once he had finished, he dragged his dropbag up to his side, allowing some snow to fall where he had just been to cover his tracks, although with the amount of snow falling from the sky, he judged any footprints he made would fill within ten minutes or so. Sliding his hand onto his chest he carefully unsheathed his combat knife and began to cut out a slit through the other end of the dome so he had an arc of fire and could observe out onto the open plain.

Quickly finishing he moved up his sniper rifle so the end of the barrel was only just inside the hole he had made. Pressing his shoulder into the butt stock he rested his cheek down on the guard and looked through the scope. There they were. Ward's marines on sentry, 1,658meters out. He moved with patience, he moved with composure, carefully turning his body with the rifle, again surveying the terrain in front of him, checking for enemy snipers or any sign of activity.

He would have to flank Wards Marines. Having no COM's was a serious kick in the arse but he was grabbed at short notice and told to get his gear squared away as he was needed to reinforce entrenched marines in hostile territory.

If he approached in the open, Ward's unit might open up on him and shred him to bits before they could identify him as a friendly. And he wasn't about to go walking across waving his hands in the air either. He couldn't be sure that Ward's men weren't being watched, this was after all enemy territory. Mark slid back and brought his rifle and dropbag back out of the hide he had quickly dug for himself. He gently pushed the snow back and allowed the relief to cave in on itself, with a little help of course. Making it look like the wind had pushed it down.

Looking around, the snow seemed to be getting heavier. Delightful. His tracks would be covered and he could bug out. He quickly made his way back down the rocky incline, backtracking on his own footsteps so if anyone did manage to track him, they would run into nothing once more. It took more time but it had to be done. Confusing any pursuers was just as important to any survival or escape and evasion than it was to get rounds down and kill an enemy. Moving off to the far side of the incline he made his way around the vast open areas until his line of sight was running parallel with theirs so the sentires would have to turn a full 90 degrees if they were to spot him.

Before long he was 180 degree's behind them and he made his way toward them in a zig-zagged formation, hoping to God that they hadn't laid any mines behind their area. This was his best shot at avoiding them, not taking straight paths of approach.

Ward came back out 20 minutes later to personally go to each sentry location and check them out himself. Once he was done he told each of them that they had thirty minutes left and made his way back to the tent.

"Semper Fi Marines!!!" carried in the wind. Ward raised his rifle, he couldn't be sure. He looked far to his right, about 200meters behind where he had made camp. Mark stood up with his sniper rifle and waved. Two more marines ran over to Ward's positon and raised their rifles. "Keep'em up, he could be hostile" Ward barked at his marines, not sure of what to make of the situation. "Come closer, slowly.....marine...". By now two more men from the sentry positions approached and flanked Mark, moving behind him and following him down.

"Identify yourself!" Ward barked again.

"PFC Mark Hatcher ... Long Range Reconnaissance Group, reporting for duty as ordered Gunny. The Battle group sent me to assist you here. Authorisation code MIKE-645-PAPA-ZULU-2000". He cradles his sniper rifle in his arms.

"In future, bring correct COM's with you, I almost blew your fuckin'head off" Ward calmly said. Mark just smirked and nodded. Ward knew someone at High Command had sent him otherwise he could not have known those codes because they changed them at random and he sure as hell could always use an extra pair of hands, the more the merrier. "This way..." Ward gestured him forward to the tent. The sentries went back onto their posts and began chatting amongst themselves.

Ward and Hatcher entered the tent, having constant COM's the entire unit had heard his arrival and they were already facing the enterence with their weapons secured in their hands. However they didn't expect to see a completly ghilled snow-man carrying a snow ghilled sniper rifle and drop bag. Mark took off his snow white balistic eyewear and pulled down his facemask to his chin.

Ward spoke with authority "This is PFC Mark Hatcher from the LRRG...former ODST if I recall" Mark's eyes drfted onto Wards who was looking directly at him. Ward continued... "He's been sent to reinforce us here."

[ward]

Gunnery Sergeant Michael Ward was more than a little put off by PFC Hatcher's arrival. Under normal circumstances he would have probably shot first and asked questions later, but considering that he had sentries outside and that target identification was crucial in this type of environment, he had kept his finger off the trigger.

Still, the bastard was lucky. The others inside the tent just seemed to shrug at his presence. He was just another addition to the team and one that looked somewhat inexperienced, albeit good at exercising what he was trained to do. Dawson piped up and said, "what's up, newbie?"

Before anyone could respond, an explosion resounded across the landscape, nearly drowned out by the sound of the prevailing winds. It was a wonder anyone had heard it. The Marines jumped to their feet and began grabbing their weapons and ammunition. Ward had a feeling that explosion wasn't accidental nor caused by friendlies.

Moments later he heard the reports of rifles and the screams of Marines outside. He cursed under his breath and picked up an MA5B Assault Rifle from off the floor and brought it up to chest level. He stepped outside to see what was going on and instead had to side step as an Elite tried to take a swipe at him with an energy sword. Everyone trained their weapons on the alien and unleashed a barrage that mulched the fucker before it could even react.

"Command, this is Overlord Five Actual; be advised: we've got contact! Covenant are assaulting the outpost, over!"

[dementedspartan]

1507 Hours, February 10th, 2528 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
Mandalian Mountain Range, Edda Super-continent,
Epsilon Indi System

Onboard Pelican-3002, heading out of the Indi system. The co-pilot walked into the back of the Pelican, where Corporal Jenkins squad sat.
"Sir, we have received a message from command saying Marines on Planet Harvest need assistance.” Muttered the Co-Pilot.
“Shit, isn’t that a Snow planet? I forgot my Woolly’s.” Moaned Brad.
PFC Williams chuckled and said “I guess we better mount up.”
The Co-pilot walked back to his seat. About 10 minutes later. “This is a General Announcement, we are entering the atmosphere, I predict another 20 minutes until touchdown.”
Corporal Jenkins cocked his MA5B and grabbed an MG6 off a rack in the Pelican, Brad loaded his Sniper and checked the sight whilst the rest of the quad sat braced for landing. Touchdown. The door opened, the squad poured out, the Pelican made a quick exit. John turned around, he looked at the Outpost. What he saw were Brutes and Elites and Grunts all fighting the remaining UNSC at the Outpost.

A soldier screamed to John “Turn around!”
John turned around and a Grunt was running at him with some form of knife. John fired at it’s head, and the Grunt fell to the ground bleeding heavily. John turned to concentrate on the battle, most of his squad had joined Ward and the survivors of his team in fighting off the Covenant, Brad stayed near him along with the soldier that alerted him of the Grunts presence. That soldier is Private Scott. John ran over to Scott, he told him to follow him, John ran over to the rest of his squad. The firefight was frightening at the least, dead bodies of UNSC and Covenant scattered the ground, an Elite ran towards a Marine trampling him then it started running towards Private Norgoate. Norgate fired at the oncoming Elite, it barely scratched it’s armour, it was getting closer when John and Scott heard a shot ring past there heads. They looked at the Elite, it was crumpled on the floor, crippled. John looked up and saw PFC Mark Hatcher, he shouted “Thanks!” Up to him. John ran over to the soldier that got trampled and took his place defending the outpost.

[frits191]

2nd lieutenant - James Connor
Pelican Charlie 324

"Get the hell outa here!!!" Max Jelled at James.
"I'm working on it!" jelled James while he tried to get his pelican from the ground.
Max opened the door and looked straight at Jack.
"Are they away??" Jack made a sign with his hands that it was all clear and grabbed the outer turret.
Max went back to the cockpit.
"where clear to go"
"You don't have to say that twice"
The pelican quickly flew away.
James knew they weren't out of this mess yet.
When he looked back to the ground he saw something, it looked like a flash.
Suddenly an alarm went of.
"Missile!!!"
Before James could react something made a hole in the hull of the pelican.
"Where hit, Where hit!!!" James jelled over the com.
"I can't get control!!" James was trying to get control over the bird.
"Where going down, I repeat where going down!!!"
Jack sat on a chair in the back, he knew this would probably be the last time he had flown.
James watched helpless as the ground came close then, everything went black.

[dementedspartan]

“Incoming!” Screamed a Marine, Conner’s Pelican came crashing down to the ground. Snow and parts of the Pelican flew everywhere hitting enemy and ally alike.
“Man Down!!!” Screamed another Marine, the Medic ran on but got smashed in by a Brute. The Covenant started to overcome the UNSC, the UNSC started to fall back, still firing at the Covenant wherever possible, a few more Elites, Grunts and Brutes fell. But not enough, finally the order was screamed to retreat by Gunnery Sergeant Ward. The remaining UNSC Marines started running over to the crashed Pelican for cover.

[aaron010]

Hatcher quickly strung his sniper rifle across his back and brought his XBR55 Battle Rifle up to his shoulder, dropping down on his left knee as he does so. The chaos os the sudden attack exploding all around him, interlocking arcs of rounds and enemy plasma fire criss-cross in the air and the environment. Pressing his rifle firmly into his shoulder and training his right eye on multiple incomming targets that he sights through the rifles optical scope. He turns his head ninty degrees to a nine o'clock position, his weapon moving in motion with him. "CONTACT LEFT!! Two hundred meters!!!" He depresses the trigger and lets off small bursts of rounds at individual Grunts who are stampeding towards their position in a desperate attempt to overrun them en masse.

A further eight marines come running over, drop down on one knee and start to take down the charging Grunts.

"RAPID FIRE!!!!" screams Hatcher and the Marines open up with a wall of rounds that tear through the enemies lines, however not nearly enough to put a dent in them. "Gunny Ward this is Hatcher over, have made contact with large enemy forces on our nine o'clock. We need HMG support now over!". A wash of static surges through the COM as Mark continues to get the rounds down. His rifle bursts once more and then reads 00. Mark screams "MAGAZINE!" as the empty one drops out and he swiftly replaces it with a live one, shoving it into the stock and pulling the reciever back. He takes aim once again and continues with the engagement.

The COM crackled to life with a heavy breathed and irritated Gunny Ward; "Hatcher, be advised more enemy hostiles advancing now on our three o'clock. Enemy infiltrators have been neutralised and we are now focusing our attention at stonewalling their advance. We're down to 56% combat effectiveness. Their first surprise attack got more than I expected! I have CENTCOM launching some precision guided whoop-ass in less than three minutes but we've got to hold them off before they do. I've despatched three HMG teams to your location, copy over?!".

"I copy Gunny. I have seen no enemy armour on the move yet and the enemy hasn't broken contact. We've now got Jackal's backing up the Grunts approaching this location, I'm expecting inbound Elites any moment as well. Will CENTCOM be hitting us?"

"We'll hold them off as long as possible The second we loose contact with CENTCOM I think they'll assume we've been overrun and hit this position as well. I'm keen to avoid a blue on blue Hatcher! So make sure you fuckin hold them off! Fight'till the last man! You got that Hatcher?!"

"Roger that Gunny! Count on it! Out!"

The COM goes dead and Hatcher breaks contact and moves down the line. During the conversation another thirty marines had joined them on Ward's order and brought extra ammunition and equipment up the line with them. This helped them create a fire support group to keep the enemy supressed with their assualt rifles and six M19 SSM Rocket Launcher's a.k.a 'Jackhammers'.

Hatcher taps another marine who had gone prone in some dead ground to get a better firing angle, he unsheathed his sniper rifle as he did so. "Private Scott right?". The Marine nodded and looked at Hatcher with his sniper rifle again. "I'm going to need you to watch this sector with me. Keep your eyes on a good arc of fire and watch the surrounding area for infiltrators." "Roger, what are you going to be doing?" replied Scott. "I'm going to hit those fuckin Jackal's directing the dumb Grunts. I'm sure there's more Elites there too". Scott gave a satisfying nod, replenished his depleted magazine and took aim.

Hatcher, pressed himself down into what was now turning into mud due to the heat from the plasma which had melted the snow and took aim. He cocked an armour piercing round into the chamber and began to classify targets of importance in his head. Despite the overwhelming noise, Scott and Hatcher still heard the HMG teams arrive. Poorly secured gear clattering off of their survival suits and the Vulcan chain guns they had brought with them which were mounted on a tripod system to allow them to be transported along with crates and crates of spare link to feed 'old faithful' as it peppered an enemy.

The HMG teams spread out thirty meters apart and set-up with seconds. Ranging targets they opened up and saturated the baron landscape with armour piercing rounds which created a total kill zone and in-turn gave them a thousand meter buffer zone by mowing down Grunts in their hundreds, forcing them and the Jackals to move back into dead ground and keep their heads down. Every marine that wasn't using a heavy weapon seased fire and then went about securing more ammunition for a prolonged engagement. The Vulcan's kept the enemy at bay with short to medium bursts, interlocking their arcs of fire. Marines fired off Jackhammer missles into exposed lines, creating explosive diameters full of flying enemy debris that consisted off Jackal and Grunt body parts and burned plasma weapons.

Scott wondered how Hatcher had kept so calm when the enemy had rushed toward him when he was on his own. So he asked him. "What the fuck man, why didn't you fall back when the enemy charged you en masse?" Without taking his eye off of the rifle scope, Hatcher pulled back part of his already torn fatigues and revealed his ODST branch Helljumper tattoo which had been proudly stained onto his arm and then moved his hand back onto another magazine which he had ready to replace one he already had loaded and fully expected to deplete. Scott looked away and watched his arc of fire.

Boom. The rifle kicked back into Hatchers shoulder. He exhaled and every so slightly moved the barrel of the rifle to the right and took aim once again. "Target down. Lead Jackal destroyed."

[aaron010]

A wash of heat and the pressure of a back-blast surged from the entrenched marines. The Jackhammer missile proudly nose dived towards it's target with a fury few UNSC ground weapons could match. Impacting directly beneath what little remained of the Covenant ground advance on the Marine's nine o'clock. Three o'clock was still in a heavy contact which felt like it was being played out right next to the ears of the marines at nine o'clock.

The missile impacted creating a brightly lit explosive diameter that vaporised Grunts and Jackals and left survivors in a severe state of shock, making them wonder around aimlessly. What passed for their eardrums, had probably been completely blown out. A simultaneous whoop from Hatcher's entrenched position erupted with shouts of "YEAAAA!! GET SOME BABY!!!" and "FUCKIN'AVE IT!!!" with lots of fist pumping. The Vulcan's took down the last standing Covenant.

"This isn't over...." said Hatcher as he sighted what he thought were walking Rhino's at an extreme range. "Yeah they'll be back, the Covenant never retreat" replied Scott, acceptance in his voice.

The COM crackled to life again. "This is Gunny Ward, Danger close in five seconds at three o'clock.". Every Marines pressed themselves as much as they could into the dirt, covered their ears over their helmets and waited for the inevitable.

The heat washed over them and made the skin feel like it had spent a week exposed to the desert sun. What followed was the loudest explosion Hatcher had certainly heard in his entire career as an ODST and with the Corps. The explosions from the missiles seemed to set the whole horizon on fire and the shockwave itself made it feel like the planet itself was splitting in half. The rumbling didn't stop for a further minute. Ward's entire position was showered with mud and debris. His eyes glazed up at the sky through his protective eye-ware to see multiple secondaries skyrocket themselves into the air and beyond. It looked like hell itself had just arrived and this was it's grand entrance displayed in a cataclysmic inferno.

The rumbling gradually faded away and the marines raised their heads back up. "Ward, this is Hatcher over. Was that a FURY Tac Nuke the Navy just launched?!". Static over the com..... Back over at Ward's position, he had heard the message and replied "Standby, over". He and the other marines slid themselves up from the dead ground, still in prone positions and peered over the top. Ward surveyed what the Navy had done. For as far as he could see in any direction , right up to the horizon line, everything had been totally obliterated. All that remained was pure scorched dirt and a few amber glowing fires from the intense heat that had charred the ground. "Hatcher this is Ward over, enemy advance has been neutralized. Someone up there did their math right with this strike.... I've never seen anything like it but by God I'm glad they did. My snipers and heavy weapons teams will keep watch for more activity. I'm dispatching teams now to sow in Lotus Anti-Tank mines so IF they come back...we'll be ready, copy over?"

Long static filled the COM line...."You may want to get those mines sown asap Gunny....because we've got more trouble...and I mean MORE." replied Hatcher. Ward lept up from his position and directed his marines with a flurry of hand signals followed by swift orders to carry out what he had just said. He raced the fifty meters back over to Hatcher's position. Finding marines there they pointed him out in further dead ground next to Private Scott. Ward ran over and hit the deck next to them. "Now what Hatcher?"

Mark exhaled..."Brutes Gunny...a whole battalion..maybe more. Closing steadily". Wards concerned expression completely dropped and the colour drained from his face. "Three thousand meters and closing...and Gunny, they're moving tactically and they've got some heavy gear with them..armour too....Wraith tanks. I estimate we have five minutes before they're ready to attack, it doesn't look like they're in a rush...Brutes are always confident Gunny, trust me I know."

Gunny very slowly exhaled, closed his eyes and re-assumed command of his conscience and drilled himself back into his previous state of mind and opened his eyes. "We're gonna need air support now... The crashed pelican is fucked but I think we can salvage the Vulcan cannons and the ammo. We're gonna need them!". Ward jumped into action and hit the COM "Everyone listen up...we have Brutes, I repeat, Brutes in battalion strength approaching on our three o'clock with armour. I want every man here to stand and fight until his last breath. We must!!! Hold this position until I give the order to break contact and bug out for the hills on the far side of the valley! Nobody leaves until I give the order, IS THAT CLEAR?!" A resounding "OORRRAAHHHH!" up-roared from Wards marines.

He was proud of them all but being proud wouldn't keep them all alive. He knew this was a battle they would be very, very lucky to win. Every Marine has ammunition and gear distributed accordingly and some set to work on the downed Pelican to retrieve the extra firepower.

Just how much luck would they need, would soon be revealed.

[aaron010]

An exhaled breath of condensed warm air left Hatcher's lungs and appeared from his mouth, merging with the baltic winds that hounded the plateau mercilessly.

The Brutes continued their steady advance, their combined blood-curdling roars echoing from the distance.

Still observing through his scope, formations of Brutes were backed up with line after line of Wraith tanks. Their sickly dark purple skins just coming into view. "We need to bug out...now" said Hatcher, with dogged determination. Scott shot Hatcher an unfaithful look "But Gunny sai" he was cut short with Mark's knife-edged interuption "TO HELL with what Gunny said. Listen to me, these are good men here and I'm not going to stand here and WASTE lives for the sake of it. The second those Wraith's are in range we're fucked, we can't hold out and you know it Private." Scott said nothing and returned to scanning his arc of fire.

Hatcher jumped up bringing his sniper rifle with him and ran for Gunny Ward's position back at three o'clock as he directed marines around. "Gunny?". "What is it now Hatcher?!" replied a frustrated Ward. "Gunny there's too many...they're backed up with collumns of Wraith tanks. We can't hold out and you know it."

Ward turned to face Hatcher fully and walked closer, his nose almost touching Hatcher's. "Are you questioning my orders and my authority for that matter?". "No sir, you know it's going to be a waste of lives. If I were here with my old squad of ODST's Gunny, we'd bug out and use hit and run tactics if he had to. We wouldn't stay when it's stacked against us, especially here on an open mountain range. It's not like there's civilians to defend...." replied Hatcher.

Gunny looked hard into Hatcher's eye. "Naaa...you ain't a coward I can see that. Who ever heard of a coward ODST..no one. I've lost contact with the fleet, this damn weather isn't helping. Either that of the Covenant are jamming our transmissions. The CO back up at CENTCOM reached out to me and made me promise to hold this corner...."

"Gunny....we're here...not them".

Torn between loyalty to his men and obeying orders entrusted to him by faithful commanding officers Ward weighed one side heavier than the rest and hit the COM on broadcast to every marine.

"Listen up, we're bugging out. I want everything strapped down here and ready for remote detonation. Everything else that doesn't go boom we're bringing with us. Take only what you need because we can't afford to move slow, copy marines"

Another resounding "ooorraahhh" lifted into the air and Ward's marines went to work on the second biggest explosion the mountainside would ever see.

[dementedspartan]

John aimed his gun at the oncoming forces, getting closer and closer, when his radio crackled into life. "Listen up, we're bugging out. I want everything strapped down here and ready for remote detonation. Everything else that doesn't go boom we're bringing with us. Take only what you need because we can't afford to move slow, copy marines" Him and the rest of the Marines replied, as Marines should, "Oooooorrraaaahhhhh!" The marines were moving over to the crashed Pelican and the supply tent to grab as much explosives as possible, John ran over to the supply tent and grabbed a C-12 SC and placed it on the concrete ground.


The Marine on lookout with binoculars, noted that the Covenant Wraiths were almost in range, that just made the Marines move faster. By the time the expolsives were used up, the base was covered in them.

[ward]

((OOC: Just alerting you guys that I'll have a post up soon. RL has been kicking me hard so I've been very inactive. Sorry.))

[aaron010]

Hatcher ran as fast as he could up and down the nine o'clock flank, making marines move quicker and quicker as the impending enemy advance would soon swollow them up with no escape. The marines laced the position with Lotus anti-tank mines and connected them to all the remotely detonated C-12 damage packs, making sure they partially buried them in the soaking wet soil from the melted snow. Going from marine to marine he collected as much individual C-12 cubes as he could and inter-connected them ontop of other anti-tank mines and smeared the pulpy wet, black soil with his hands all over the connections so they were covered from sight. He wanted to be sure everything that went boom, exploded.

A marine approached Ward "The Jackhammers?". "Keep those, we'll need them" said Gunny Ward and he then moved his men onto the rear and tasked them with leading the fighting patrol of 68 marines back down onto the charred landscape below and out over the valley to make for the safety of the next evacuated town eight miles away that was in the shadow of the mountain side. Hatcher stayed behind and moved to Ward's position as the marines set out jogging down what remained of the incline that dipped down to the black valley below.

With all the ordenance buried and rigged to blow by remote detonation, Mark and Michael then began taking as much of the .50 cal ammunition from the Vulcan cannons and littering it all over their evacuated position as fast as they could, knowing that once the initial explosion was set off, the .50 cal rounds spread about would make one hell of a fragmentation. Nightmare would easily be an understatement. This pleased Mark as they could deal a nasty blow to the Brute's but no smile surfaced. This was real life and death, not some fucking movie where the good guys always win and walk out through the smoke half naked and with cheesey grins. They'd be lucky to make it out of this one alive and Mark had begun to accept that. If he was going to die though, he'd take as many of the enemy down as he could before he did. No way was he going down as a man who bottled it at the critical moment. He sensed Ward's attitude was the same.

"Hey Hatch, come here a second" said Ward calmly. Mark approached and Gunny looked at him hard in the eyes. Knowing time was short Mark hastily said "What's up Gunny?", sprinking some .50 cal rounds down by their feet.

"I need to know something..." A loud roar echoed even closer now, Ward and Hatcher moved to the back of the three o'clock position so they were well out of sight. Hatcher looked back at Ward's eyes after looking in the direction of the roar. "I need to know that I can count on you... I need to know that if I make a decision then you'll execute my orders. Now I'm not saying you don't have a voice but I've heard what you did to your previous CO when you were a Shock Trooper. The last thing I need is for you to get pissed off because you think I've given you a bulshit order. If you ever come looking for a fight with me then by God I'll give you all you want." Ward's eyes spoke novels of determination and pride.

Hatcher never broke eye contact and could see the grit that consumed Ward. This man was nails and Mark knew it. "I dunno what you heard Gunny, but I did what I had to do. A lot of my good friends...brothers, were killed because an incompetant arse hole wanted some medals and I've still got the scars from his fuck-wit decision that was reckless...as far as we're concerned Gunny, your leadership is the only thing I have total confidence in and I will execute your orders to the absolute best of my ability."

Ward nodded, "don't think that because you were an ODST that I won't kick your ass, because I will." smirking.

Hatcher smiled "Roger that Gunny". "We need to go, Brute scouts will be on us any minute now" barked Gunny. They both set off running down the incline and back onto the open plain. Gunny hit the COM "Marines keep moving and set up a force assault on that town. We'll meet you on the other side. Sgt Burns will get you into position. Hatcher and I will wait and detonate the welcome package we've set up, out"

"Ward, this is Burns over?" Instead of replying Ward clicked once for his response over the COM. "Gunny, we'll assault the town and clear some componds, set up a forward gun line and wait for you. I'll get Dawson on the comms, see if the Fleet can get someone down here to extract us, over?". Ward replied quickly "Yea, roger that, get it done asap, out". Gunny had pushed his legs hard to keep up with Mark. ODST's were renowned for their extreme battle fitness and Mark was no exception. Ward's pride kicked in, no way was an ODST carrying his fighting order, an XBR55 and a sniper rifle get the better of him by running faster. Gunny matched his pace and together they began to cover the ground at a good pace. Ward hadn't run so fast for a while and it felt good again to get some air burning in his lungs again.

Ward thrusted his left arm out making a straight hand signal for some relief in the terrain on their eleven o'clock at two hundred meters. Moving quickly the covered the ground and dived into the small decline that cave them perfect cover. Panting heavily they both pressed themselves into the charred earth. Hatcher chuckled under his breath as he unsheathed his sniper rifle again. "Whats so funny Hatch??". "Oh it's nothing Gunny, I just had eyes on you from this position when I approached!" Mark said back, quite pleased with himself. "You got eyes on the position now" said Gunny Ward as Hatcher again, pressed himself into the dirt and shouldered the rifle comfortably again. "Roger that Gunny...eyes on."

Ward lay comfortably next to him for another minute before Mark silently moved his fingers forward with his free hand, indicating he had a target. "Brute scouts and they're all over the position...and if I'm not mistaken...yeahp...here comes a Wraith..standby.". "Ward produced a a range finder from his body armours incorporated pouches and was now seeing what Hatcher was. "C'mon you fuckers...just a little more" Ward said with nail biting anticipation.

The Brutes had completely over-run the position. Many lurched around, sniffing the deck and picking up single .50 cal rounds, snorting at them and then dropping them back to the soil. Wraith tanks swarmed all around and the Brute War Chieftain stamps triumphantly across the abandoned position. Holding his fuel rod gun in the air he roars and extends his arm forward in the same direction that Ward's marines went.

They have the scent of humans now.

Cool, calm and collected as ever, Hatcher chambers a round. "Gunny, they're moving to our position and if I know Brutes...they have our scent so we won't be able to out-run them for long." Ward checks the range; "two thousand meters...that'll have to do". He unclips the remote detonator from his belt and clicks off the safety, pressing down on the red arming switch before he applies pressure to the trigger.

"They're moving down the hill towards us and there's a lot of them. I count eight Wraiths so far Gunny". Hatchers keen eye still fixed on the scope.

Ward's expression looked fierce and steely-eyed. "Eat shit" he said with complete disdain as the detonator made a satisfying click.

The explosion tore up the abandoned position and a hurricane of fire, over-pressure and shrapnal overwhelmingly engulfed the Brutes on the hill which vapourised and tore up every single Brute that was caught up in the initial fifty meter diameter. The shockwave pushed itself outwards making Hatcher and Ward duck down for cover as .50 cal rounds zipped over their heads, partially still ignited from the inferno caused by the C-12 and anti-tank mines. Every Wraith tank was torn to shreds and the charged plasma generators inside that provided the weapons systems multipled the explosive yield and added to the heat.

The flames from secondary explosions from within the diameter were a multicolour of blue, purple, blinding white and orange from the super-heated human-covenant combined combustion.

"Target's down" Hatcher said satisfied. "We've got to move now" Ward replied quickly. The two collected themselves and their equipment, crawled out of the hide and darted off first in a half-crouch and then back into a full-sprint with all their gear on. The flames and flying debris had only just started to dissipate when they moved off. The sound from the explosion sounded like it was roaring off into the distance for miles as the two ran to catch up with the rest of the marines. "Burns this is Ward over, we're en route to your location, e.t.a fifteen minutes, out!"


Hatcher and Ward disappeared into the distance. Back up on the abandoned position, four more Wraith tanks moved up onto the horizon backed up with another fifty Brutes led by a Brute Cheiftain carrying a huge Gravity Hammer. As it trampled along it came across half of the the War Cheiftain's head-dress. Using it's massive feet it stepped down and crushed what remained of the peppered and charred head-dress, snorting with satisfaction and advanacing. The other Chieftain had obviously been a threat so he eliminated him without having to fight. As crazy and beserker-fueled Brutes could be, they were also very conniving creatures and will do anything to gain the upper hand.

This Cheiftain knew human tactics well. He was smart. And he was very, very dangerous. He also loved the taste of human flesh.....

[aaron010]

Aug 28, 2010 19:21:11 GMT -6 Ward, J. said:

((OOC: Just alerting you guys that I'll have a post up soon. RL has been kicking me hard so I've been very inactive. Sorry.))

No worries mate. I was off for about two weeks as well as I had some IRL to get squared away and I didn't have the time to post. PM inbound fella.

[aaron010]

Hatcher pushed his legs hard. A constant cycle of pumping muscles and forcing air into his lungs which would then go into his blood stream to supply the muscles with the oxygen they needed to work, followed by a powerful exhale from his lungs which was condensed with moisture from his body, forming a white puff in front of his face as the warm, de-oxygenated air from his lungs comes into contact with the cold air from the environment around him. The cycle was then continually repeated.

Information streamed from the environment around him and into his brain via his ears, eyes and nose. Tactically moving was not a luxury he and Ward could afford at the present moment. Not with Brutes and their armour bearing down on them and the rest of the marines Ward had assumed command of after enemy infiltrators had launched a surprised attack on them. They had to run for their lives and re-group where they had sufficient cover.

"Gunny Ward this is Burns, come in over?". Ward clicked his com on the run and said nothing, waiting for the response. A response he hoped would be good news. "We've got no contact, I repeat, no contact with the Fleet over. Dawson reckons the Fleets splash down of some heavy whoop-ass was that of a similar projectile to a Fury-Tac nuke which could explain why our COM's are a mess....low yield EMP Gunny. We're on our own for now, copy so far, over?"

Hatcher half turned and caught Gunny's eyes as he looked across at Mark while they were running. Ward looked away just as Hatcher did and replied. "Roger that Burns. Get ready to fight. We should be on your location in about five minutes, out!".

The Marines that had secured the abandoned town set about on the commands on Sgt. Burns. An observation post was put in a the rest of the marines dug in for some guerrilla warfare. They kicked doors in and went from building to building as fast as they could to procure household supplies to make a stand. Marines adapt and improvise, they're trained to make-do with whatever they have at their disposal and to use it in the most effective way. For most of the marines in the town, they relished the chance to get stuck in with some tooth and nail grinding contacts with an enemy that had been slaughtering the human race by the billions. Most had given up on fear all together and instead they found acceptance. If they were going to die then so be it.

A heavy foot thundered into the mud, followed by a blast of exhaled breath that stunk of rotting meat. A Brute scout moved up with his pack of eight. These weren't ordinary Brutes, they were Stalkers. They packed Brute Shot's which were grenade launchers and had Brute Plasma Rifle Variants for close quarters combat. Most dangerously of all though, they used Active Camouflage so they could sneak in and tear their enemies to shreds quickly. This Chieftain commanding them certainly knew how to get the drop on humans. Humans were always at their weakest with what they could not see. What they could not see they didn't understand and what they did not understand, they feared. The Chieftain wanted his victims to fear him, he wanted his victims to shriek with terror before he sunk his jagged, dirty claws deep into their soft flesh and tore them to pieces. He would not rest until he had found the humans and killed them all.

A private lay perfectly still amongst five other marines on the roof of an abandoned hardware building that sat right at the edge of the town. He peered through his binoculars and caught sight on two figures running quickly in their direction. Hitting the COM quickly he said "Sergeant Burns, I have eyes on two inbound personnel. It's Gunny Ward and PFC Hatcher. Coming in at our twelve o'clock. E.T.A thirty seconds". Just as Burns went to reach for his com it quirked to life. "Burns, this is Ward over, we're coming in at your twelve o'clock, don't open fire, out."

Hatcher and Ward screamed into the town and came to a dead stop. They had been running flat out since they left the hide position, both were gasping for air but both didn't stop to rest. As Burns came out from an open doorway from a building Hatcher approached him quickly and asked where he had put the sentries so he could snipe. Burns reassured Hatcher and more importantly Ward, on what they had done. He brought up a holo-pad and produced a tactical simulation and began pointing out what the defences were, they were noted as Point-1, Point-2 and so on. While Gunny Ward and Hatcher were busy bugging out, Burns had the marines dig in miniature trenches and load them with frag grenades and knives, forks and other pieces of cutlery which they had found in peoples homes from their kitchens. Others were acquired from restaurants and stores that littered the small abandoned town. Marines had never looted like it before but then again, marines had never needed to loot like that before either. This was a tactical situation with the odds stacked heavily against them. Finding a way to win was all that mattered.

They had created several of these pockets all around the town and they had built up several lines of them so they could retreat back through the town knowing they had fail-safes connected to separate remote detonations at half-mile intervals. Outside the town they had also dug in several pockets which marines positioned up high had control of detonating. Each pocket was assigned to a different section covering a different arc of fire which could be detonated on Wards order, or if the Brutes got too close, the Corporals and Privates would do it themselves. To add to this, they had also constructed a spider-web of trip wires that had two grenades attached to them each. Brutes were large and because they have a large surface area they are always extremely vulnerable to the age-odd trip wire trap.

Humans could be just as efficient at killing and maiming as Brutes were.

To deal with the armour the marines had looted huge bottles of compressed gas and strapped more grenades to them. Burns had quietly thanked Ward for giving the order to take as much gear as they could carry with them. Thankfully every marine took grenades by the bag-full. What was left was dispersed around the marines to use at their own discretion. Hatcher was impressed, he knew the marines could handle themselves well but he didn't think the UNSC had trained marines with more counter-insurgency tactics, that was what the ODST's took care of, something he was highly proficient in himself. Burns finished his brief and finished uploading it to Ward's and Hatchers tac-maps and holo-pads so they could go-over it again if they needed to.

Ward quickly gathered his Sgt's and Cpl's together for a tactical meeting. The gathered around and formed a close circle with Ward in the middle, they removed their combat helmets and listened closely. Hatcher stayed in the background and listened in to what Ward had to say. "Good job Burns. We'll hold them off, retreating from Point-1 which is twenty meters up the road at the edge of the town". He produced the tac-map on a holo-pad and went over the plan again.

"From there on we'll hold out for as long as possible. But it is imperative that we suck these fuckers into each line when we fall-back. If they suspect a trap they'll try and flank us faster. So to avoid that we need to keep all our sharpshooters shooting and moving as fast as possible. If we keep their heads down, they're less likely to want to flank or to discover flanking routes and they'll only be able to move forward. Brutes aren't stupid but if they think they have the momentum, they'll keep pressing. That's how we suck them in. We do as much damage as possible then fall back to Point-2. The sharpshooters will fall back past us thirty meters to our rear. They'll keep us updated with constant over watch and it'll allow them to keep harassing their lines with sniper fire."
"Brutes aren't afraid of humans so they'll take the bait and charge us head on. Fire team leaders, make sure your brief your men again when we're done. Make sure they understand the golden rule here: Move fast, or die. Now, once we've got the Point-2 we'll suck them in again, retreat and the sharpshooters will detonate the pockets and fall-back." Ward ran his hand vertically up three thick lines that went through the holographic map of the town. "Now we're lucky here, the town is only five miles from end-to-end and these are the three main roads that run right down the center, the rest is based on s grid system, it's very simple and easy to defend which is why we're spider-webbed trip-wires at random and at choke points all along these roads and in between so it'll give the Brutes something to think about if they try to venture off of the main routes. Because eventually they'll hit a few in any direction. So either way, they're fucked."

"Now, we continue this process all the way back to Point-8. I understand Sergeant Burns didn't have enough without depleting all of the guy's grenades. That's ok. This is the best shot we have and I for one am really impressed at what you've done here while I've been away."

Corporal Bow raises up his hand catching Wards attention with a nod from his head. "Gunny, estimated enemy numbers?". "Why don't you ask PFC Hatcher...behind you." Hatcher looked at Bow who turned to face him waiting for an answer. "I can't say for sure but I reckon we're looking at somewhere in the region of fifty to eighty Brutes left. And I'd say at least six Wraiths. But I can't say for sure, we had to bug out before they caught up to us" said Hatcher. "There's your answer Bow. I agree with his assessment there. Mr. Former ODST better be worth his weight, especially now" Ward said smirking. Hatcher laughed and nodded sarcastically which got the rest of them chuckling a bit, bringing smiles to where there was none. "Right, that's the drill. Any questions?" barked Ward.

Silence filled the air and every man there looked steely-eyed with solid determination. "Lets get it done gentlemen! Oorah?!" shouted Ward. "OORAHHH!" Hatcher, the Sgt's and Cpl's shot back. Then they dispersed back to their teams. Ward approached Hatcher and placed his left hand on his shoulder. "You know, I think we can actually do this...did you ever read about a historical battle called 'The Alamo'?". Mark nodded with understanding. "Well, this is our Alamo..and when they write about us into history...they'll say our Alamo...was on fuckin amphetamines!" said Ward smirking. "Fuckin'right..see you on the other side Gunny" replied Hatcher. Ward nodded as Hatcher placed on his combat helmet and ran up to the marines at Point-1 on the center main road to make ready for a fight.

The evening sun had managed to surface and show it's light, only a slight cold breeze remained in the air. The marines were ready. An hour had passed since the briefing and everyone was squared away and ready to fight. Mark lay pressed to the cold concrete roof along with nine other marines who were all privates. Ward had given him command of the marines there as there weren't enough Lance Corporals or Corporals left to do the job. Hatcher had met one of the marines before, Private Scott. Because of this he asked Scott to spot for him. They both set about knocking out part of the concrete wall that encased the roof like an outer lip. Mark lay with his sniper rifle just further back from the wall so the barrel wasn't sticking out and so he had a slim but wide arc of fire to pick off targets with, his XBR55 was loaded and ready to fire next to him. Scott lay next to him but closer to the wall with a set of spotting range finders that had adjustments to them so he could peer them just over the lip of the outer wall and scan the open landscape without giving away his position or present his own body as a target.

Ward had dug in further back with other marines. His own unit was spaced out along the three main roads, mainly on the left and right hand main roads, watching the flanks and waiting.

Whispering Scott said "I think I got something Hatch....I'm ranging....two hundred fifty meters, twenty five degrees east on your one o'clock." Hatcher slowly turned his body ever so slightly to the right as he kept his eye on the scope. But he couldn't see anything. He waited for another twenty seconds as Scott continued to whisper information to him at what he thought he was seeing. "Got it, on target....can't be sure if it's just the wind though Scott...".

What Hatcher and Scott thought they saw suddenly jerked to the right. A massive explosion hammered into Hatchers position, shattering away some of the outer lip from the roof creating a cloud of dust and debris. As this happened Mark simultaneously shouted "FFFUUUUUCCKKKKIIINNNN'EELLLLLLLLL!!!" from the sheer shock of almost being hit as he turned his head away from the flying dust and debris. The sniper rifle had slipped from his hands and Scott flew back onto the deck from the over-pressure of the explosion and was quite disorientated. Hatcher scrambled to his knees and brought his XBR55 up to his shoulder and opened fire around the are where the smoke trail was. As he did this he shouted "CONTACT FRONT!!!! TWO HUNDRED FIFTY METERS!!! OPEN FIRE!!!".

The COM operator at his position jumped on and broadcasted to all the marines that they were in a contact. Marines at Hatchers position opened up with rapid fire at the trails of smoke that appeared at random, some flying over their positions and some slamming into the building walls. Scott collected himself from being completely stunned. He was lucky to have been alive, any closer and he would have been blown to pieces. Scott was enraged and brought up his MA5B and started to engage, gritting his teeth as he fired off bursts of rounds.

Scott had a knack for noticing where these targets were and he started to shout of target designations on fields of fire hoping to trap them within criss-crossed arcs of fire. It worked and the Stalker Brutes Active Camouflage failed as they began to get peppered with rounds. Two dropped from concentrated fire the second their active camo failed. "Hatch this is Ward over, sit-rep now!" Mark hit the COM while he was still engaging the Brutes. "Gunny, we've returned fire after Stalker Brutes initiated contact with us. We're handling it. This was just a recon patrol, out."

Mark ducked back down, ejected the depleted magazine and shoved in another one, forward assisted a round into the chamber and put it down by his knees. He grabbed his sniper rifle by the barrel and dragged it up rather sloppily but he was in a rush. Moving just to his right he unclicked a bipod and rested it on what remained of the outer wall. Another Brute went down as it's active camo failed and another one tried to bug out. Most of the marines were calling a cease-fire from their positions, wanting to conserve ammunition. However a pissed-off Private Scott had other ideas.

He fired an accurate burst into it's back which made the huge Brute tumble forward and growl with searing-hot fury. Hatcher ranged the Brute with his sniper rifle and took aim. The Brute turned to fire it's plasma pistol and Scott shot another accurate burst into it's knee which made it fall down hard onto it's other knee. The Brute threw the plasma pistol down in a bloodlust-fury and roared as loud as it could, blood flicking off of it's tongue as it jerked it's head upwards revealing a full set of razor sharp teeth, finally leveling it's head while still roaring and standing back up.

An even more pissed-off Hatcher lined up the cross-hairs onto it's open mouth. Boooom.

The round snapped through the air and intercepted the back of the Brutes jaw through it's open blood-clotted mouth, creating an exit wound which resulted in the top half of the Brutes enormous bear-like head to come flying off. Hatcher had only just felt the recoil in his shoulder while half of the Brutes head was still flying to the mud below. It's heavy, lifeless body spurted blood at awkward angles into the air before finally collapsing into a crumpled heap on the deck.

There were no whoops or fist pumping cries this time. Only silence after the contact and marines quickly darting back and forth, making ready for the next wave. Scott fired a small burst into the Brutes heaped body on the floor. Hatcher placed his hand on his shoulder. "It's dead Scott. I know you're pissed off but they surprised us all. We'll make sure it doesn't happen again...ok?". Private Scott looked at Mark and just nodded. The marines on the roof checked their ammunition and set back up into position again. Hatcher brought his sniper rifle down again and handed Scott his set of target locator's as Private Scott's were too damaged after the impact from the Brutes grenade launchers. Hatcher set back up to snipe with Private Scott spotting once again. Every marine making the best possible use of the remaining cover; making sure they couldn't be seen.

Meanwhile, slightly further back Gunny Ward made sure everyone was ok over the COM's and began to contemplate running to each position to make sure. However Sgt. Burns advised him not to break from his position in case of sudden attack, something Ward and his marines knew could very well happen anyway.

On the horizon, around eight hundred meters away, Wraith Tanks appeared from the shadow of the hills with Brutes marching in a tactical formation around them. "Hatch..you got this, eight hundred meters and closing, west on our eleven o'clock" whispered Scott. "On target" coldly replied Hatcher, he was in his own personal zone now. His warrior mind-set had completely taken over. He was ready for a fight to the death. The COM fired to life on everyones frequency, "Gunny, this is Hatcher. I have eyes on enemy. Six Wraith tanks and I count fifty Brutes moving in formation, at seven hundred ninety five meters and closing. They're well spread out and headed right this way. E.T.A five minutes...they're being cautious."

"Roger, nobody fires until I give the order. We wait until they're in our kill zone and we attack them on our terms. Nobody engages. We need to conserve the Jackhammer's so keep your heads down and let them come into our killing zone...stay frosty marines" said Ward over the COM.

The last stand was about to begin........

[aaron010]

The Brutes continued their advance. Mark looked around and could see some of the marines on the roof start to breath a bit heavier. He dragged his arm back and hit his COM. "Gunny this is Hatcher, over?". "Go ahead" Ward said back. "Gunny, if you can spare a couple of marines from your position then I have an idea.". The COM remained silent for another twenty seconds. "This better be worth it Hatch, make it fast!" crackled Ward. "Gunny, get two marines to bug out to the nearest food store. They'll be able to find it on their tac maps. Tell them to grab as many bags of sugar, cleaning rags and bottles of spirits that they can and bring them back to your position asap!".

The COM went dead and then buzzed to life once again. "Hahaa....yeah I know what you're doing now, roger that Hatch. I've despatched two marines now with two burgens. Although if there is any hover-carts about I'm sure they'll use them as well!".

"The Covenant love burning our worlds once they've destroyed us...well, I'm up for repaying them now..when they get back make sure they quarter fill each bottle with sugar..once that sticks, it'll be like fuckin napalm and it'll burn the living shit out of them. Get ready for the smell of burning Brutes Gunny!" Hatcher said, humour filled his voice as he cut off the COM.

The marines at his position were nodding and smiling now. Everyone wanted to launch one of these hand-held projectiles right into a Brute and watch the beast burn and cry out from the pain. Private Scott's expression remained the same...pissed off..and ready to kill.

[ward]

Things had grown from bad to worse in a manner of minutes. Now, about an hour later, they had fallen back into a small town and were about to hold off against a sizable Covenant force. Brutes were the bulk of the force, supported by artillery and light assault vehicles. This was going to be tough and not something he had wanted to have happen.

But there was nothing he could. Hatcher had been doing alright during the mission. He had racked quite a few kills, but had been somewhat insubordinate. He could understand where the man was coming from, but such insubordination could cause trouble in the future. Either way he seemed to be a nice fit within the unit. Now if the man would just stop calling him 'sir', everything would be peachy.

"Overlord Five Actual to Hatcher, be advised: Dawson and Phan have retrieved the materials. They'll be sending them your way, over."

He knew the man would regard that as good news. It was no secret that the Marines were quickly running out of options and ammo was starting to be scarce amongst the unit. He looked at the other Marines who seemed determined to hold out, but occasionally he would spot a few that looked less than enthused by their current predicament. He couldn't blame them. He didn't like what was happening either.

But what could they do? They had been effectively ambushed by the Covenant and now they were on the run. As far as anyone was concerned, this was a last ditch effort at survival. If they faltered here there wouldn't be any turning back. Retreat was not an option at the moment.

Nor did it seem it was going to be an option at all.

Looking to his left and his right he saw nothing but his men, their weapons trained in the direction that the Covenant would eventually emerge from. They all wanted to live and none of them wanted to be sent home in a body bag or be butchered by the savages that had been so correctly labeled as Brutes. Michael snatched his own rifle up and slammed a fresh magazine into the receiver, pulling the charger handle back and loading a round into the chamber. He was locked and loaded with the safety on off.

He sighed heavily and prepared for the inevitable. However, that came sooner than he had anticipated as the faint shriek of a Banshee's engines resounded through the town, followed by the chime of their plasma cannons. Ward held the "talk" button down on his microphone and shouted "Banshee's incoming, three 'o clock and closing fast!"

Four of the fliers zoomed overhead and fired their secondary weapon, a fuel rod round crashing into a building and lighting it in flames. Two Marines collapsed to the ground, both brutally impaled with shrapnel from the resultant explosion. Hartley glanced at Ward pleadingly and he nodded back at him. The corpsman quickly ran over and began tending to the two wounded men as best he could. He had his job to do, Ward had his.

Noticing Dawson come running down the road with Phan by his side was almost a relief. They rushed over to his position and slid across the snow, ramming into the sandbag in front of the Gunny. Dawson turned and grinned at him evilly. "Hatcher was fucking stoked man! Look what I got, guys!" Dawson tossed the Marines the bottles, each of them grabbing them from midair and examining them closely. They looked harmless; however, everyone knew just how destructive they could be.

The Banshee's scream wrenched everyones attention from the bottles and towards the sky. Phan immediately ran over and hefted her rocket launcher up onto her muscular shoulders, taking aim on the nearest flier. "Back blast clear!" she shouted before launching a rocket into the sky. It sped upwards towards the aircraft and slammed into its nose, engulfing it in both smoke and flames.

Moments later its carcass slowly fell and slammed into the rooftop of a nearby building. It screeched across the roof before momentum kicked in and it finally ceased moving. The Marines cheered while others brought their small arms into play. Their last stand had finally begun.

[dementedspartan]

"Check your ammo, you don't wanna run out at a time like this." Announced Corporal Jenkins, John could hear the clicking of cocking guns and ammo being reloaded. Scattered around their position were the bodies of 4 dead Brutes, he looked around at his squad; Corporal Jenkins was looking out at the open entrance to the town, where he could see small images of Wraiths, PFC Williams was below them, inside the building they were standing ontop of. Lance Corporal Harrison was on a building behind them with the rest of the Snipers and Private Scott had been temporarily moved to Hatchers squad.


Suddenly Private Scott was on the Open Channel: "Movement 50 metres to the right!" All the men in the squad turned and looked, bullets were spraying across the ground some hitting the Brutes and taking down their cloaks but most of which missed. "WE HAVE BEEN FOUND!!!!" Screamed a Brute Cheiftan, it took everyone by surprise, to the right of the small town, 30 Brutes appeared from their cloaks. All the Marines fire was concentrated on the Brutes, many of them fell but more than 15 of them survived, the Brutes charged towards the buildings and the cover made by the Marines.

[aaron010]

Ward seized the COM's "BLOW THE FIRST POCKETS AND FALL BACK NOW!!"

Hatcher and the other marines stationed on the buildings grabbed the detonators from their vests, released the safety and squeezed.

The pockets erupted into an armada of shrapnel, fire and shattering pressure. The Wraith tanks lifted from the concussive force and detonated, adding to the yield which super-heated the already high powered blast full of plasma. Marines on the buildings dived for cover as the force slammed into their entrenched positions and shattered the concrete like hand crumbling a soft biscuit. Marines fell down hard and some were instantly killed from flying shrapnel and some from being crushed under the concrete.

The force was so strong that Ward hugged his helmet tight to stop what he thought was his skull shaking underneath his skin. The inevitable cry went out over the COM's and through the air. "CORPSMAN!!!!! CORPSMAN!!!!!!". With so many call-signs in chaos Ward acted swiftly. The Brutes had spread themselves out well and it was hard to tell how many had actually died from the blast.

Private Scott collected himself from off of the deck. Hatcher lay beside him, momentarily semi-conscious. Private Scott ran over to him and looked into his eyes shouting. Hatcher half-opened his eyes and saw a blurry outline of Private Scott and a feint echo in his head that he couldn't make out. A loud ringing in his ears began to form as his vision partially cleared so he could make out what was in front of his eyes. His helmet had been knocked off of his head and was laying in the background with the rubble, scratched and partially dented from the impact of debris.

Hatcher's eyes cleared which was followed by a his hearing which returned like a race-car flying past spectators on a race-track. It felt like the whole world was cracking around him and he squinted his eyes and gritted his teeth as his ears pressurized themselves again to a normal state of balance. Private Scott's soundless mouth suddenly came to life. "HATCH!! HATCH!! YOU ALRIGHT?!" Private Scott looked forward past Hatch and made fast snapping hand signals with his right hand to his position while shouting "CORPSMAN!!".

Mark came to his senses and sat up, gritting his teeth. His hands suddenly clamped to his body, checking everything was still in the same place, paying particular attention to his groin as he gave the thousand yard stare while he checked himself over. Hartley came tramping over with his heavy medical gear and dropped down to his knees beside Hatcher. As he did this, Mark came around and resumed his steely-eyed look.

"Doc I'm alright, I'm alright, I'm back in this..." Hatcher dragged himself off of the floor and tapped Hartley on the shoulder. Hartley nodded and swiftly ran to the next casualty to administer life-saving treatment. Hatcher walked to the pile of debris which had been a building and put his helmet back on. Securing it tight again, he brought his XRB55 around from his back to bare. "Thanks Scott, I owe you one...". Private Scott nodded and raised up his MA5B Assault Rifle. He then ran over to some fallen marines and continued along with Hartley with the casualties that were still alive.

Hatcher turned and saw Ward moving up the road towards him. Directing marines to pull the rest back to Point-2. Ward caught eyes with Hatcher and screamed at him. "WHY THE F*CK ARE YOU STANDING THERE HATCH?! MOVE IT!!!". Hatcher sprang into action and picked up an injured marine across his shoulders into a fireman's carry. He then began his sprint back to Point-2 with the casualty across his shoulders. He cursed at himself for his drop in professionalism, he promised himself that he wouldn't let it happen again.

Behind him Hatcher heard the marines open up with a wall of fire at incoming Brutes. Taking cover by a dark alley Mark noticed a crouched marine with his rifle raised up in a covering flank. Mark ran over to the marines and passed him over the casualty, telling him to make it back to Point-2 as he needs emergency aid. The marine responded and took the casualty. Hatcher ran back up the main road with his XBR55 raised. His blood stained armour was soaked from the injured marines wounds.

Ward had his marines in a tactical retreat. Twenty in all slipped into fire-teams and retreated under fire. Two teams of five went down on one knee and put down suppressing fire while another two teams of five ran past them. They then after five meters, turned and spun around, dropping on one knee each they returned the compliment as the other two fire-teams ran past. Hatcher caught up and joined in with Ward's team, making six marines.

Up the road, Brutes emerged from the debris, clambering over the tops and seeking the nearest available cover as they opened up with grenade launchers, spikers and plasma rifles, infuriated at the marines surprise attack. The marines continued their tactical retreat as they moved back to Point-2 and now had the Brutes sucked in as they started to run further distances between the points where they gave covering fire. Ward hit his COM and contacted the other main roads. Marines reported back in that the Brutes were taking the bait and coming right at them but they were struggling to hold them off long enough to suck them down the roads and into the next ambush. Ward tells them to stick at it and make it happen.

Going off the COM ward looks above him and see's the designated marksmen up high on roofs, running back further and taking pot-shots at will to slow the Brutes down. Ward's ICOM crackles to life again. "Gunny, this is Burns, Point-2 is under attack from Banshee's. Returning fire but I think we're going to have to bug out into the buildings so they don't discover our ambush". Ward panted heavily and thought it through as he ran. Clicking the COM back on he said "Roger Burns, make it happen, we're en route. E.T.A two minutes, out."

Hatcher could see SPNKr missiles thrust themselves triumphantly into the air towards the two Banshee's that harassed their position. One was hit and exploded into white-hot debris and the other one bugged out into the distance. He listened into the ICOM again "Gunny this is Burns over, threat neutralized, forming back up now, out".

The Brutes had caused casualties but not because of their actions but due to the marines over-readiness. The Brutes were yet to yield their terrorfying nature as they were sucked into the next ambush like the marines had planned.

[dementedspartan]

"Hold" whispered Corporal Jenkins, the remaining Marines in and on the building crouched aiming towards the entrance. When suddenly a Corpsman came running towards our position he told Corporal Jenkins he needed 2 men to assist the Corpsmen because several Medics were killed by Brutes. Jenkins volenteered John and PFC Fletcher. We ran forwards towards the "Front Line." When we reached the area where the Corpsmen were and the casualties were lying, we were given bio foam and a Medical Pack and Scanner. Fletcher moved over to an injured Corporal tending to his wounds and John started to bandage up a Marine.

[hollowsaber]

((Nickles, you need to go make a character. kthnx))

[aaron010]

Ward and his section plus Hatcher come scrambling back into Point-2, still under heavy fire they jump into an indentation in the road which the marines had dug-out to provide a wall of cover. Immediately they re-sighted their rifles down-range towards and advancing Brutes and opened fire as the last section came running back into Point-2. The crack of shots from sharpshooters snapped over-head and kept the Brutes at bay. Ward knew the Wraiths couldn't fit down the main road's without risking an ambush but that never usually stopped them. What was different about this? Did the Brutes know it was a trap? Did they even know humans were capable of such thinking?

Either way, Ward didn't like it and he suspected many of the marines there were thinking along the same lines.

Plasma fire zipping over his head, hitting concrete behind him leaving savage charred marks, Ward his the ICOM again, "Burns this is Ward, The Brutes may have found a way around our flanks, copy over?". Burns came out from an adjacent building next to the dug-out and takes cover next to Ward. "Don't worry Gunny, we've trip-wired this place tight. It'll be hell for them to flank us." Ward wasn't convinced and told Burns to remain vigilant and on the look out for infiltrators.

Hatcher fired a concentrated burst from his XRB55 right into a charging Brutes throat. The Brutes head snapped back from the force bust it kept on charging without slowing. Hatcher's eyes widened in disbelief and then sharpened again, determined to take down the Brute. He unclipped a fragmentation grenade from his battle rip and pulled the arming pin. With a quick toss over his shoulder he screamed "GRENADE!!" as it bounced perfectly into the Brutes path. Marines near-by quickly ducked down as the inevitable 'THWUMP!!!' rocked the near-by positions from the concussive force. The grenade itself hand landed right in front of the Brute and detonated, the over-pressure throwing the Brute back off of it's feet and littering it's body with shrapnel. The Brute hit the deck in a heavy heap, lifeless. The marines put their heads back up and a few fired a few single shots into it's head to make sure it was dead.

Launched grenades slammed into Hatchers position as Brutes took to the fight more aggressively and they were openly going through their own drills of fire and maneuver while maintaining their berserker type attitude of ruthlessness. Sharpshooters attempted to put them down but the overwhelming volley of grenades launched at them made the shooters bug out to find other positions. The situation was becoming just as grim on the two other main roads where Brutes had attacked with more force, attempting to flank from both sides. Ward's plan was not going well.

"FIRE FOR TEN SECONDS!! RAPID FIRE!!!" Ward screamed as he hit the ICOM and every marine opened up with everything they had at the Brutes. "Take Cover!!" he barked again down the ICOM as he grabbed the second set of detonators. Ward didn't slow for a second. He squeezed and set off the second pocket which annihilated Point-2 from the force of the explosion, killing the small pack of charging Brutes. The marines became partially buried again from the debris of the road and buildings. Ward forced himself back-up onto his knees along with Burns and Hatcher. "Gunny we can't hold all these positions, we're going to run out of ammunition!" shouted Hatcher, everyones ears were still partially ringing from the explosion.

Ward hit the ICOM "Squad leaders, fall back to the last Point. You have Weapons Free all the way to that point. If anyone falls behind, we can't go back for them, we'll see you there. Ward out!"

Marines began their tactical move back to the last Point and seemed to be moving far quicker than they originally had planned.

"Gunny....." said Hatcher, as strong sense of urgency filled his voice. Ward turned and instantly locked eyes with it. Three hundred meters down the main road, standing ontop of the piled rubble that littered the streets, the Brute Chieftain stood tall, menacing and carrying the largest Gravity Hammer Ward and Hatcher had ever seen. Around him, two Wraith tanks and at least another twenty Brutes with various other deadly weapons. The Chieftain roared and the Brutes charged in front of the advancing Wraith tank.

"GO GO GO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ward lept from his position along with the other marines. As they did this plasma, spiker and grenade launched fire slammed into their position, killing many marines. Ward, Burns and Hatcher didn't look back. Along with them, seven other marines had survived the initial onslaught. They instantly went into two fire teams and started moving by cover fire. The marines emptying entire magazines and charging Brutes as they desperately made a run for it. Grenades were thrown to slow down a charging enemy but it didn't seem to work.

Hatcher could have sworn that he could hear the Brutes shouting amongst themselves, savouring the meals to come. Ward hit the ICOM again to Dawson. "Dawson this is Hatcher over, tell me we can reach the FLEETCOM?!" Static hissed over the ICOM. Ward dropped down to one knee with Hatcher right beside him, both returning fire as Burns and the other four marines in his fire team ran past their position to the rear. Ward's magazine crackled, empty. He dropped the empty magazine out of the rifle and replaced it with a new one. "MOVE!!!" erupted from his vocal chords as he and Hatcher sprinted off back down the road past Burns and his marines to set up another covering fire position.

The COM crackled to life "Gunny, it's Dawson, FLEET's on the COM but it's going to take a little while before any air support get's down here. They couldn't say when but they said they would get us some asap!". Ward clicked once to say he had recieved the communication.

A huge explosion rocked the main road fifty meters ahead of them and sent a huge heat wave slamming into the marines making their skin tingle. Plasma Mortar fire. The marines used the cover of the inbound Plasma Mortar to keep running. They knew the Brutes wouldn't advance on their position while the plasma was landing near-by.

"This is going to get messy Gunny, I hope they made enough of the cocktails. Let's burn these fuckers the second they get close enough!" shouted Hatcher as they ran along. "It's the Chieftain I'm concerned about, we need to take him out" Ward shouted back as they ran for their lives down the main road. They could only guess how many would make it back to the last point.

[aaron010]

((OOC: To all who it concerns, I'm busy IRL at the moment but I will be able to post another reply to the mission very soon. Ciao!))

[dementedspartan]

"Heavy fire!!!" Screamed a Marine.
"Keep down! Get to cover!!!" Shouted another.
Plasma Mortar fire rained down on the fast retreating marines, Jenkins squad had almost been completely demolished apart from PFC Williams, Private Norgate and another Marine. But it didn't matter, they just had to get back to the last position, hold it and wait for air support. John just hoped to god they came soon, he saw those Brutes, and the Wraiths, and as far as he was concerned they weren't going to stop for much.

John grabbed his remaining Frag and threw as far as he could towards the Brutes about 50m down the road. He thought he got one but it was probably his head playing tricks on him. Anyway, it seemed Jenkins' squad was the rearguard, the first to go when the Loyalists catch up. Suddenly when John looked up, in the distance, maybe 30km away he though he saw heavy smoke and expolsions in the sky. He thought, just maybe the UNSC were trying to get through.

[dementedspartan]

"This is not good" Whispered Corporal Jenkins, "This is not good."
The entire force of Marines turned around, as did the Brutes. Near the demolished base in the distance, a Scarab Tank crashed down a mountain side into the valley.
"Holy crap." Said Gunny Ward, he pressed his ICOM and screamed: "Keep moving! The further we get away from that the better!"
The Scarab started firing, and even from this distance it shot was deadly killing several Marines. Norgate started running faster to get to the front of the pack.
"Gunny?"
"What?!"
"I have an ide........"
A plasma mortar hit Norgate taking him down with Gunny and another Marine.

John woke, his vision was fuzzy, his hearing impaired, he looked around, lying near him was the corpse of a dead Marine and the body of Gunnery Sergeant Ward, ahead in the distance was the fast retreating remnents of the Marine force. The ground shook as the Scarab passed over him, as that happened Gunny woke up, immediately he grabbed his leg in pain as John noticed the large plasma burn on his leg. John sat up and reached for Gunny's radio as it crackled into life.

"This is Gold 21 ..... Were having trouble getting ........ through but were coming sooner ....... than you think. Brace ..... for impact guys."

John grabbed the med-kit he luckily still had on him and went over to Ward. John scanned his leg, it turned out he had 1st degree plasma burns on 80% of his left leg. John looked into the kit and found an injector gun and some liquid marked Pain Killer. He injected it into his left leg and immediately Ward looked less in pain than before.

Suddenly the ground shook and the air felt weird, John looked up to see a sight he never ever expected or though was possible, but it happened. A UNSC frigate headed down from the sky, several parts were burning and on fire, as it descended, John grabed Gunny's radio and spoke to the pilot: "We'll need some covering fire, you could start with the Scarab, then the Wraiths."
"Wraiths and a Scarab?! Something sure must've happened there."
"Sure did mate."
The frigates guns turned and fired at the Scarab, destroying it soon enough. The the guns turned towards the Wraiths which were now about 20m away from the few survivors. It fired destorying the Wraiths and killing many Brutes. The pilot got back on the radio:
"We need an LZ, over." Ward grabbed the radio and said "This is Gunnery Sergeant Ward, I think the Valley is big enough, out."
"Roger that, we are inbound."
"Hey Marine, I never caught your name."
"Norgate, Private Norgate."
"Good job Norgate, now go and get me some Medics."
"Yes sir."
John started running towards the town and towards the Frigate, the Frigate had put some Scorpions and a couple Warthogs on the ground to finish off the survivors. A transport Warthog started coming John's way and John flagged it down. He told the driver he had injured and he picked up Gunny and took him back to the Frigate.

[frits191]

It was dark...
He couldn't see anything.
He wondered, am I dead?
he looked at his leg and the pain brought him back to reality.
James was in his pelican, and he didn't know how long he had been there.
"Max?" "Jack?"
"Over here"
He also heard another voice from behind the pelican.
He wanted to say something but a loud noise made it impossible to hear it.
He heard voices, people talking.
He also heard gunshots.
A big piece of the pelican moved, daylight...
Somebody came to him and asked if he was alright.
He barely stood up and tried to walk to the Whartog that was picking them up.
"What happened?"
The soldier replied: "Believe me, you don't want to know"

[Kenny]

(James, aaron010 was banned, and the last time DementedSpartan was on was Oct. 24.)

[frits191]

(Ow, didn't noticed)

[tellos]

[yeah if you wanti n on secondary missions need to use a approved PC and talk to the GM for it. Usualy better to0 get in as it starts.]

[dementedspartan]

(Sorry guys, I got bored with RP, but i'm back.)

[dementedspartan]

Prt. Norgate reached the Frigate in his Warthog, he got out along with the other Marines and Ward. They got inside the Frigate and got Ward to the Medical Bay. The Marines had also taked several Unggoys and Jiralhaneas prisoner. The Marines then regrouped and gathered in the Cargo Bay of the Frigate. Ward was addressing the Marines in a sort of de-breifing. Norgate and the others got moved out of there to a different side of Harvest to continue fighting the Covenant.