Mission 3: A Long Road Ahead

[z]

Rakath

The Ultra merely motioned to Nhar.
"Should we not get moving, my friend? I am ready for combat."

Looking down at his duel rifles he thought for a moment. "I should have taken a repeater, but oh well." The elite gave something similar to a human "shrug". Spreading out his jaws, in a usual motion in a way of a stretch, the Ultra turned his head away from the other Elites and watched the troops move by, awaiting to be given the order.

Mira

"Get in Jonas, we have work to do." After sayng such, she was given an answer on the COM.

Looking back and seeing the Warthogs pass Mira responded. "Aye, on the way." She looked back at her men and nodded, after Jonas was settled in she drove off down the road to keep up with the Captain.

"Jonas, pass my launcher up here will ya'?"
Cole gave a smirk and made a smart ass comment. "Unless your too much of a pushover to get too close to her, Corporal."

Abby then got up, holding on to the outside of the warthog and hit Cole in the back of his helmet, speaking in her Russian accent. "Do not pester him, Old man..."
This only made Ben and Joesph laugh.
"Gonna let your girlfriend stand up for you Jonas?"

And with a glare from Abby, Ben was quiet... Joesph on the other hand was still laughing until Mira slammed her fist into the outside of the warthog snd spoke. "I WILL pull this jeep over and bend all you over my knee with a paddle." It wa s Mira's joke, on how she was one of the most mature ones in the squad.

[Wax™]

Private Dean 'Coxy' Cox
ALPHA Squad, Reaper Platoon
Mounted, EN;ROUTE To city gates.

Coxy sat there idle in the rear seat of a transport variant Warthog, he looked around through his ODST Visor at his other team-mates, he was not sure if he was going to fit in here with this elite team of ODST, for one he had never seen combat a day in his life not even a true Covenant, he had only ever seen them on moral clips to let the people know the UNSC are winning the war, mind you he did have the highest score on every single one of his marksman ship tests, but that was the only plus, he looked to Jackson, the teams 'other' sniper, who was sitting closest to Coxy.

"Hey!... Do uhh... Do we have a plan?" Coxy paused and looked at his sniper. "Where we are gonnah set up? I feel like im going to screw up!" Coxy leaned against the railing of the Warthog's rear seats as he waited for a responce from Jackson.

[z]

Jackson turned his head slightly and looked at Cox.

"If you miss a Target, i will get it..." Jackson said is cold and bluntly, sniper in his arm he looked up to Lucy whom was sitting comfortably sitting the front of the Warthog.
"So Cox, ya know them vids you saw in basic, about how the Covenant are easy kills and we're winning the war?" Lucy said, looking back at him. "Pile of bullcrap... The Covenant are a pain in the ass, The biggest pain in the ass has to be the Elites, when theres a few of them that is. Though even just one can wipe out a squad of us ODSTs..." Lucy shook her head a bit.

"Jackson will fill you in on the others when you two set up, no time now... Oh, and Cox, this is Isin." he motioned to the LT in the drivers seat. "Consider him your pimp.."

[hollowsaber]

Time; 0225
Bracknell Command Center; Main Briefing Room

“Sir, the Covenant have been sighted near other Outposts in the Western Sector..” The up brought a sour look to the General’s face, and he couldn’t help but feel a twist in his stomach. It was confirmed then..

The map in front of the General flickered and showed several purple dots where Covenant sightings had occurred; all to the left side of the area. They had spread from Greenland’s area to up towards Sheffield. The Covenant were quick, stealthy, and disciplined. Their efficiency would topple the cities if left untouched… and at the moment they were completely open.

“Give the order.” The General sighed and began to rub the bridge on his nose.
“We need to counter them. Best way to do that is to beat ‘em back. Are the Artillery Units in place?” The General raised his hand and pointed to a small line that had been labeled just outside the walls of the cities.

“No sir, they are still trying to get through the streets. Shall we send transport?”

“Yes. Get Scorpion to get them. Airlift them up and get them out those gates. How about the Peregrines? Do we have the skies?” General moved his finger to the area they needed Air Superiority.

“The Squadron is handling themselves well, and we will have control very soon. Though, we’ve lost one of them, and the downed pilot’s situation is unknown. We assume he is alive because we have eyes watching his beacon and it’s moving towards Glasgow.” The advisor nodded towards a Navy Officer who was tracing his finger and doing math calculations. He was predicting how far the pilot’s beacon was, how fast he was moving, as well as where he was going.

“Send a unit to go get him immediately. If we can’t get someone on foot, get a squad on a Pelican. Bring him home. Lieutenant Rutherford!” The General called out to the Officer, making the man jump a little as he sat at attention.

“Sir!”

“Get on the radio, send a unit to get that pilot.”

“Yes sir!”

“Gentlemen! Get on the radio! Update the locations on the map! Have our units spread out and intercept the Covenant! Push them back and get them the fuck away from these cities!”

“Yes sir!” The Officers responded, forwarding the message.

(UNSCs may now free roam in the forest and Outposts. Do not let the Covenant reach the cities!)

Time; 0225
Covenant Base; 50km from Outpost Greenland

“Zealot, they humans have engaged us in several areas! Many units are still waiting to move out. Shall we send the emergency order?” Ultra Yundalee called from his console, growling to himself as he saw many units halting and engaging the humans on the gridded screen in front of him.

“Send the call! All units are to invade the human’s cities! Have a lance clear a path for our vehicles! Once we have a foot within the gates we will send in heavier artillery to assist!” The Field General stood and marched to the open window.

“Our Warriors will crush the humans! Let them draw their blades and do what they do best! Fight! By the word of the Prophets, and the will of the gods! We will crush the humans! FOR THE JOURNEY!” The Zealot raised his fist in anger.

“FOR THE COVENANT!” The others retorted.


“Ramieree, call for my Phantom and my Warriors. I’m going to the frontlines.” The room fell silent as all of the officers looked up at him.

“Z-zealot but we—“

“I will not sit back and watch from afar. WE were born to fight. I will send orders from the field. Now call for my phantom!” The Zealot stomped across the room to his throne and pulled his two swords onto his hips, then hilted his plasma rifles onto his thighs just above the swords.

“And I will not dishonor my family…” The Zealot growled low, almost to himself.

“Yes, Zealot. Your Phantom is on the way..”

“Send the message to our warriors that I will be joining them…” The Zealot turned and marched out of the door, his golden armor shining in the light as he left.

The room was silent as the officers all looked to each other.

“Now what?” One of them called out in question.

“We continue. Send the message to the Legion!” One of the Ultras called out.

“All units are to engage any and all Human forces! We will take these cities and the blood of the humans will run by our swords! Our Field General will be on the front lines with his Honor Guardsmen! The gods will shine on us, this day, my brothers! For the Journey!”

“For the Journey!” The officers echoed as they began to send the message to all of the units.

(Covenant are now free to roam as well. Take the city my brothers, and kill any human who dares to stand against you!)

[kuran]

((OOC: It should be noted that the orange speak is what others say to me, i'm just doing that cause that seems to be the norm...))

Lance Corporal Joseph Lenov
Eclipse Platoon
Main Gate

Joseph sighed deeply and turned to look at the dingy bar one last time. Damned if he knew how he'd landed up there.

He climbed into the warthog, taking what little room there was next to Abbey. "Morning Corporal." he said politely. He busied himself checking his rifle, making sure that it was clean and ready to fire.

"So Sergeant," he asked Mira,"Where are we headed today?"

Corporal James Beaufort,
Fireteam Raptor,ODST
Phase-line November

James' head felt like it was about to explode as a burst of static crackled over his comms at full volume. He had just enough time to turn it down before a voice came over.

"Fireteam Raptor, this is Captain Lloyd. I don't care why or how you thought forging ahead on your own was a good idea. You hoof your asses back to the gates now to rendezvous with the rest of the platoon, understood? Lloyd out."

James shook his head, wishing for a moment that they had stayed at the bar. The rest of the fireteam looked at him quizzicaly.

"Well that didn't' work..."

He keyed a connection with the Captain, and cleared his throat. "Order acknowledged sir." He looked back towards the city and, after a moment of focusing, saw what looked like the gates of the city opening, though he couldn't be sure. "Sir, requesting permission to hold current position. We are dug in at November, and it wouldn't be right to give our trench away to some lazy marines."

He closed his eyes and shook his head as he remembered who he was talking to.

[Martial Virtue]

Captain Sierra Lloyd

Sierra was getting inundated with updates as the 'Hog raced through the terrain, rapidly changing now from asphalt streets to a packed dirt road through the forest. They'd have to steer clear of the obviously trafficked areas like this one from now on. It was the perfect place to set down and make the rest of the trek to November on foot, just a klick or so ahead. She knew she needed to unload the snipers before the enemy saw as well.

The Marine captain glanced up from her TACPAD and issued the order. "Marines, listen up! This is our drop-off point! All Warthogs are to halt immediately and start unloading personnel!" She quickly switched channels to hail her XO. "James?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"Where's my heavy weapons? Are you close to our location yet?"

"On our way, Captain. We're a couple klicks behind but we'll be there in a few. ETA is three minutes."

Sierra sighed. Three minutes was a long time to leave November unmanned. From what she could tell with the constantly updated battlefield info she was receiving on her TACPAD, the enemy was moving much faster. She needed to get the platoons that were already here deployed. They'd just have to hold out until the heavy weapons showed up.

She hefted her battle rifle as she dismounted, turning to the sniper team who'd been in the 'Hog with her. "Jovanovich, you got it. Your team's on the forward recon. Better get moving, and let me know when you're in place. Landcaster, same goes for your team. Move out on the opposite side. Go."

Captain Lloyd took a moment to glance ahead. The jungle was getting thicker from here on out. It wouldn't have been easy - maybe impossible - to get the Warthogs past this point anyway. She took in a deep breath and addressed the company again. "Alpha, Lloyd. I want first platoon sticking with me while your platoon leader brings up the heavy weapons. We're going to fortify the left flank of November ourselves for now and hold out. ETA is three minutes.

"Second platoon, I need you spaced out down the lines on the right. We need to have access to Glasgow completely shut so the enemy doesn't get through. I'll be sending two squads from third platoon as well as our additional heavy weapons detachment your way once they get up here, since your line covers a wider area than first platoon. First will get the remaining two heavy weapons squads. Be ready for anything, Marines.

"Now, if there's no questions, we need to get moving."

It was then that the captain had another idea. She opened a COM to the sergeant who'd hailed her earlier. "Sergeant Gray, this is Captain Lloyd. If you want to keep tagging along with us to November, we could really use the added firepower."

[Wax™]

Sergeant Jason Bowers

Sergeant Bowers slowly eased off the accelerator of the Warthog as Seirra's hog began to slow down, as the forward hog began to studder to a halt, Bowers did the same by pushing gently against the brake at first and then a little harder till it came to a complete stop, Bowers hauled himself out of his warthog and initiated the company wide TEAMCOM Since there was not really a lower frequency to access.

"Unload Delta... First Squad fall in behind me followed by Second Squad followed by Third Squad... Spread out in a file slash collumn formation..." Jason paused to lean back into his Warthog so as to retreive his battlerifle he then shut off his COM and jogged over to Captain Seirra once he was set, he approached the woman and gave a unformal two finger salute.

"Captain... Delta is ready I have atleast twelve men strong with me ma'am... Where do you want us?"

((All my men are NPC's unless you want your Corporal to be udner my command Martial... If so she/he can lead second squad and Corporal Claire Hunt (Medic) can be on stand-by for the platoon))

[Dutch]

Sometimes Fisher just wanted to scream. And this was definitely one of those times. Stuck in the middle of Glascow with what was apparently the entire bloody enemy army, forget who the enemy was, he was righteously pissed off. That and he had no ride and had just been transferred to under the command of Captain Lloyd, Captain Dylan Lloyd.

The traffic didn’t make anything better of course, when every UNSC trooper is called into action and out of the city, congestion was only a matter of when. And when was now obviously, seeing as Fisher was now stuck in the back of a troop hog with a pile of other ODSTs and marines. He’d checked his weapons over a dozen times already and now all he could do was stew in his own frustration at the lineup stretching before him.

Thank god for traffic eventually getting everything sorted out though, after five minutes he was being whisked through the city to the city gates, and from there onto phase-line November way the hell out of the city. The hog finally pulled up in front of a gathering of troopers and Fisher hopped out, gun in hand. Now he merely had to deduce where the hell he was supposed to go. He was now under the command of Second Lieutenant Howard, which didn’t tell him much. He sighed in frustration, this was too damn annoying.

As if on cue, a man marked Second Lieutenant Howard came out of the crowd, Fisher ran up and saluted.

“Sir, Corporal Fisher reporting for duty, I was just transferred to your command.”

[Martial Virtue]

Captain Dylan Lloyd

The ride to the gates of Glasgow took a bit longer than Dylan would have liked. He gave the order to halt to his platoon once they'd gotten there, smirking slightly to himself when he saw the way was already opened. Sierra and her Marines had reached the area first.

"So we did get upstaged by the regulars after all, huh, sir?" the tall, lanky ODST beside him said. He smacked a gloved hand against Dylan's back. "Gonna try to outshine your wife again?"

Dylan flashed a rare grin at his best buddy, Staff Sergeant Isaiah Fedder, who was in charge of second squad. "You betcha. Let's get these Helljumpers organized and we'll see where we can fill some gaps on the lines."

Before Captain Lloyd could get to that, though, his COM chirped. Dylan's HUD informed him it was from the rogue Fireteam Raptor, outside the gates.

"Order acknowledged sir." There was a momentary pause. "Sir, requesting permission to hold current position. We are dug in at November, and it wouldn't be right to give our trench away to some lazy marines."

Staff Sergeant Fedder noted Lloyd's change in demeanor immediately, and placed a hand on one of his shoulders. Beneath his raised faceplate, he could see the Helljumper captain turning red from anger.

"Dylan, come on, man. Calm down and give the kid some slack. He's new," Fedder said. "And if I may add, sir, it might even be useful for us to have a fireteam forward of the rest of us. Think of it as our own personal OP."

Captain Lloyd didn't answer his friend, but instead roughly shoved off his grip on his shoulder. That "kid" had just indirectly insulted Sierra, on top of being way ahead of where he should have been. Of course that made Dylan mad.

But then he took in a deep breath, steadying his voice before he replied to the ODST hailing him. Dylan didn't like acting like a jerk. He hadn't been this way before his months of captivity with the Innies. He knew he needed to fight the changes that had caused in him as much as he could, or he'd lose himself to it.

Addressing the fireteam again, the ODST captain replied, "If those Marines were so lazy, son, they wouldn't be ahead of us right now, would they?" Lloyd sighed. "But if your fireteam remains there, we'll have the better vantage point. We could use that. Stay there for now then, and be sure you're dug in well. I don't want you tipping off our position to the enemy, whoever that might be. Keep low, but see if you can scout things out for the rest of the platoon while you're at it."

[Deleted]

Redsont sat in the driver seat of the warthog while with his team. When they got the order to move out, they grabbed the two hogs they had earlier and set out. Unfortunately Pat had failed to empty his fluid back at base. So here they were, waiting for him to finish up in the woods.

"ODST, best of the best, and you still can't hold your fluids during a fight?", Redsont yelled.

"When nature calls, nature calls.", Pat replied.

"Just hurry it up will ya! The main force just went out to secure ground. We need to catch up ASAP!", Ed told them.

"We aren't going with the main force." Redsont told Ed.

"What?", Ed asked in confusion.

"The main force has already set up a defense and secured the cities. Now all that's left is to wait for the covenant.", Redsont informed.

"So instead sitting and waiting, we're gonna go and hit them first?", Desmond asked already knowing the answer.

"Yeah and the forest to the south will be wear we set a trap. One big enough to take out plenty of them covie bastards.", Redsont informed.

"What you have in mind?", Pat asked as he returned to the hog and climbed into the passanger seat.

"How much C-7 are you carrying?", Redsont asked in return.

And with that, everyone in the group had an expression of joy or shock, but none of said a word. Redsont looked at each one before revving the warthog's engine.

"Than it's settled, let's move out.", Redsont ordered and both hogs drove off towards the forest.

[Martial Virtue]

Second Lieutenant Laura Howard

Standing a few 'Hogs away from her CO, Second Lieutenant Laura Howard had just dismounted from her own vehicle. As she was getting her squad of Helljumpers gathered up while awaiting Captain Lloyd's orders, a newcomer showed up. He was a corporal, and seemed a little peeved at how long things were taking to get set up.

Couldn't agree more, Lieutenant Howard thought to herself. We can thank whatever enemy decided to grace us with their presence this evening for attacking when most of us were either hitting the bars or fast asleep.

She spared the ODST corporal a glance as he saluted her.

“Sir, Corporal Fisher reporting for duty, I was just transferred to your command.”

Howard grinned as she raised her tinted visor, so he could see her face. "Great. They send me a replacement who can't tell the difference between a man or a woman. This should be good." She kept the good-natured expression on her face to let the corporal know she was joking. "Don't worry about it, Fisher. Just sit tight for now while we see what the captain wants from us."

[Spartan 999]

First Lieutenant Isin Herald

Isin snorted as Lucy introduced him as Cox's "pimp", his eyes darting around the road.

"Yeah, you can say that." Isin said, before whipping the Hog in a near nintey-degree turn that slammed everyone against the side of the vehicle. "Sorry, shortcut. I think."

Major Domo Khaz Qalurai

[/center]

Khaz readied his weapons, newly acquired Concussion Rifle gleaming on his back while he clutched a Focus Rifle. Plasma Rifles were holstered just below his Energy Sword hilt, while a bandolier holding several plasma grenades crossed his chest. He turned to look at the others, nodding in satisfaction.

"My lance is ready and waiting." Khaz said, looking at Nhar with steady eyes. "Your orders?"

[Dutch]

Damn. Fisher thought as he saw the face of his new CO. But thankfully, she just waved it off pretty easily and told him to hang on while the Captain made his choice. Fisher let loose a slight grin beneath his visor, this new officer didn't seem so bad. And he hoped she wasn't the type to take off with Fisher's drunken sergeant to god-knows-where. Unlike Zaborowski.

"Yes ma'am." He saluted, then asked. "Ma'am, who's my team going to be?" He said in regards to his future fire team.





((Fisher's a corporal, so maybe just grab a few PFCs and shove them under his command))

[kuran]

Lance Corporal Jonas Schultheiss
Eclipse Platoon
Main Gate


Jonas looked around the cramped confines of the 'hog, spotted the rocket launcher, and hefted the heavy tube, shoving it forward and between the two front seats.

"Gonna let your girlfriend stand up for you Jonas?"


Jonas shook his head slowly,"I don't see why not, she's a better shot than you...Old man."


Corporal James Beaufort,
Fireteam Raptor,ODST
Phase-line November


James closed his eyes and listened intently to the voice in his head.

"If those Marines were so lazy, son, they wouldn't be ahead of us right now, would they?" An audible sigh broke the pause,"But if your fireteam remains there, we'll have the better vantage point. We could use that. Stay there for now then, and be sure you're dug in well. I don't want you tipping off our position to the enemy, whoever that might be. Keep low, but see if you can scout things out for the rest of the platoon while you're at it."

James nodded to himself, "Yes sir, commencing scout operations."

He cut the connection, and addressed his team. "Megan, Lenov, scout ahead for half a klick, I want you back at the first sign of anything wrong. Anything at all damnit."

With a pair of "Yes, sir!"s, they moved out, leaving James alone in the small trench with Mcalister, the team's new guy.

[Huka]

MAJOR DOMO TIL 'MURAMEE

In their marching, the Covenant legion began to split into more wide-spreading creches, with Til's lance moving as one of the several advancement teams.

Jumping from a small hill, Til grunted as he looked with a weary eye for any unusual detail in the forest landscape. Skor was nearby with the same look with the Unggoy scattered about, with less detail-seeking talents, and were weary of being shot, and reliable Sufang was in the trees with his optical visor zooming in and out, searching for his prey with his needle rifle in his claws.
As Til scanned in a rocked area, Sufang's voice hissed in his earpiece, "Excellency, I smell Humans nearby." "Good, I am itching fro a battle." He whispered before hearing a distant snap.

[hollowsaber]

First Lieutenant Alexander 'Famine' Farence
Somewhere in the Forest.

Alex breathed heavily, gasping for air as he leaned back against the mossy bark of a thick tree. The mud beneath his feet was unsettling, and he almost slipped from just standing. He was never trained for this environment; the air was heavy and humid, trees were within feet of each other, bushes almost as high as his head, and mud almost a half-a-foot deep. Sympathy for the men on the ground festered in Alex’s head, what these guys went through was a lot worse then what he had to do.

“Command? You there? This is Famine, do you copy?” Alex spoke slowly into his radio channel, but no matter what he tried, it was all static. Maybe it was just his receiver, was he still transmitting?

Maybe he wasn’t transmitting at all… Maybe his beacon was gone as well. That couldn’t be. Alex glanced down and he could see the beacon still flashing on his hip. It had to be transmitting still! Should he just wait? Maybe the UNSC were already coming for him… Unless… No… They couldn’t have abandoned him.

Now that he thought about it, Alex didn’t even know where he was going. He had lost all sense of direction and time. The canopy was to thick, he couldn’t see the sky to tell if the moon had moved. This had to be the worst place to crash in…

“CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME?!?!” Alex yelled, his voice echoing through the empty forest. His heart dropped as he heard a growl somewhere nearby… then the sound of an energy sword being activated…

That… wasn’t good…

[Spartan 999]

Special Operations Officer Sorsa Xirsasai

[/center]

As Sorsa moved with his lance through the trees, an unexpected shout echoed through the trees. Looking at each other briefly, Intervention wasted no time in sprinting for what was undoubtedly a human call. It was some distance away, but they would reach it...eventually...

[Wax™]

Sergeant Jason Bowers
Delta Destroyers, 1st Platoon
City gates, Just outside Glasgow

Sierra seemed to be too busy to even respond to the Sergeant, Bowers just shrugged and walked off his three squads following all behind, Jason held up a closed fist and turned around, he then held up one finger and waved it over his head calling for an O-Group of his fireteam, soon enough around thirteen men and women gathered around Bowers.

"Alright... Let's wait out and find out ou---" Bowers was interrupted by one of his Privates, Eric Blith.

"Sir... Do you hear that" Blith said looking around.

Bowers stopped talking, he only managed to hear the last part of what sounded like a distress call without the COM's.
"...HEAR ME!"
Is all Bower's heard before turning to face the forrest in what he thought was the direction of the scream, he squinted before pressing a button on the side of his helmet, seconds later his monocle eye peice moved down from inside his helmet and zoomed into place over Bower's left eye, it was then he saw a small blip through the monocle, a distress beacon signal and it was a fare while away.

"Alright Marines... I am picking up a distress beacon... Lock and load and get ready to move out" Bowers turned back and looked over to Captain Sierra who was dishing out orders and organizing her troops, Bowers waved his arm to her before peaking over the company wide TEAMCOM.

"Captain ma'am... I have picked up a distress beacon a few or so klicks from our position in the woods, permission to locate and escort our boy home?" Bowers turned off TEAMCOM but kept the receiver channel open so as to hear what she said, without even waiting for a designated order, Bowers began to organize his troops.

"Alright men we are going to go bring our boy home, now formations, First squad fall in behind me in a basic delta diamond formation, Second Squad cover the left flank in a diagonalformation moving out to the left, Third Squad cover right flank in a diagonal formation moving out to the right... Ooh-rah marines" Bowers nodded at all of his Marines who formed their formations before slowly moving into the Jungle, where they started moving in the jungle was still relatively clear so the Captain and other troops would easily see the thirteen or so man fireteam walking into the slowly dense forrest, for now it was basic dirt and small shrubs, Bowers fell in to the Diamond formation at the very back, all three formations together formed an arrow without the line.

[Deleted]

Redsont and his men arrived at the end of the forest, each member had a brick of explosive in their hands. They had simply planned to go in and lay a trap to blow the place up, but there had been a slight unforseen change in plans.

“CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME?!?!”

"That doesn't sound good.", Fred pointed out.

"Obviously.", Redsont aknowledged, "Desmond and John, your with me. Fred, take Ed and Pat to place the explosives. Remember, stay in cover and don't engage anything unless it engages you. Meet up here in five."

With that the group split up to set the trap and investigate the noise. Redsont led his group through the woods to a slight clearing he also saw a single person. The guy looked like a pilot and had made a bad landing in the woods. It meant this guy just landed in a hell of a bad spot but it also gave redsont an idea. He slowly left the cover of bushes and trees to greet the man.

"ODST Sergeant Redsont, identify yourself and turn around slowly.", Redsont ordered.

The guy might be a pilot, but he was also in the middle of nowhere with potential covenant approaching.

"Sarge, this is Desmond, two of the six charges are set.", Desmond spoke over the com.

Redsont acknowledged with a simple click of the com. Telling his team he ran into something and to hurry themselves up. In the distance, Redsont could hear the breaking of twigs and branches. Something was heading this way, something that Redsont was sure he could handle with only three men and a pilot.

[Daenerys Targaryen]

Lance Corporal Victoria Landcaster
Main Gates
Following Orders

I had been a long ride, listening to Nickolai and India go on and on compared to the usual silence found between Chase and Victoria made for a very one sided conversation. If this wasn't enough her com's were flooded by the constant barking of orders from the Captain, responses, and her barking back even more orders. Then around this time Nickolai mentioned that both of the sniper teams should leave out on recon.. it was something she could do.. something that might actualy keep her alive. The lighted up city at night would not do much to hide the large marine forces grouping at the gate... but if the numbers were as large as reported... it still wasn't enough. This R&R allowance was completely stupid, half of the marines were drunk and more then half of the officers probably slept through their alerts.

Victoria was suprised to be jerked from her thoughts as the warthog halted.. a thick black jungle lie ahead of them. This was their stop aparantly.. since the Captain was ordering everyone to get out of their hogs now. "Jovanovich, you got it. Your team's on the forward recon. Better get moving, and let me know when you're in place. Landcaster, same goes for your team. Move out on the opposite side. Go." Came the Captains orders as she moved her equipment from the hog.

"Yes ma'am." Victoria responded, hefting her sniper from her back to rest in the crook of her arm, Chase doing the same for his DMR. Well.. it was time to go.. So without more then another word Victoria and chase walked into the thick blackness of the jungle, the exact opposite from were India and Nickolai were headed. She waved a small good-bye, unsure if it would be lost in the black, to the two before the sniper teams faded into the black forest. It was as if they were thrown into space.. the only thing reasuring their travel was the soft squishing of the wet floor underneath them.. being lost quickly within the dense botanic world. They would not be heard sneaking through the thick nest of trees and ferns at least.. so with a simple switch to night vision in her HUD so she continued to move.

Sergeant David Williams ODST
Main Gates

David let out a small morbid huff as the rest of the platoon began to show up at the gates. His sqaud, consisting of fire team Jade, Ruby, and Sapphire were all ready for battle. The jungle lie ahead of them, leaving a small distance of a high grassed plane to bridge the gap. "Captain Lloyd, this is Sergeant Williams. We've made it to the main ga-" David paused to break up a small argument between a marine and ODST. "Sorry for the cut-off Captain, fire teams Jade, Ruby, and Sapphire are waiting at the main gates and ready for your orders", he reported, hoping his Captain, Dylan Lloyd, would give him something to do soon.

Petty Officer Dani-047
Heading to Bracknell Command

A small sigh passed through the lips of Dani-047 as she moved through the lighted streets, she had only recently made her way down the orbital elevators hours before the frantic UNSCS Ares jumped out of system. Now she had orders to make it to Bracknell command ASAP, so there she went, her boots clomping on the cement under her. She was a newer member in Gold Team and had no idea were the rest of her team had gone, though she had her suspisions that Silas had not made it off of the ship.

Lieutenant Aspen Jade Watts
Flying over Bracknell

Scorpion Sqaudren had imidiate orders to aide in the clearing of November, she was ready for battle and pumped for it too when orders came that artillery units needed transportation. "Fuck Dan, looks like we are turning around fore now." Aspen called back, before jerking her yoke to the right sending the pelican toward a circling position over Bracknell. "This is Zulu-24, which boys want their big toys picked up first?" She called out into the comm's channels, hoping to get a waypoint.

[Spartan 999]

Petty Officer Jethro-097

[/center]

As Jethro walked along, he noticed another Spartan about thirty meters in front of him. His HUD identified her as Petty Officer Dani-047.

He made a beeline straight for the other Spartan, managing to stay quiet enough that she didn't hear him until he was right behind her. When Dani turned to see who was following her, Jethro gave a mock two-fingered salute.

"Hey Dani." Jethro said, unconsciously falling into step with the female Spartan. "Long time, eh?"

[Martial Virtue]

Second Lieutenant Laura Howard

"Ma'am, who's my team going to be?" the newcomer, Corporal Fisher, asked expectantly.

“I’ve got the perfect pair for you, Corporal. Coming right up.” Second Lieutenant Howard waved over two PFCs who were unloading from yet another ‘Hog. “Rhodes! Mossley! Move your asses, you’ve got a new fireteam leader!” Once the male and female Helljumpers approached, Howard grinned again. “There you go, Fisher. You can take tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum here.”

“The LT’s just kidding,” PFC Rhodes offered with a slight smile. “She loves us.”

Howard let out a snort as she folded her arms across her chestplate. “Aw," she remarked in an exaggerated tone. "It’s cute that you think so, Private, but you know you’re only kidding yourselves.” She turned back to face Fisher, expression suddenly all business. “Anyway. We need to get you three moving. Hopefully the captain’s done taking his sweet time issuing orders now.”

Captain Dylan Lloyd

Now that he was done dealing with the problem child of his platoon, Dylan was able to feel a little more at ease. Maybe things would work out for the better this way. Maybe they’d get a heads up before whatever was out in the forest rolled in to oppose them. Maybe his luck would actually hold out for once.

"Captain Lloyd, this is Sergeant Williams. We've made it to the main ga-" a voice said over the COM. Dylan strained to listen, thinking it might be static interference that was causing the break.

"Say again, Sergeant?"

The reply came a minute or so later. "Sorry for the cut-off Captain, fire teams Jade, Ruby, and Sapphire are waiting at the main gates and ready for your orders."

"Got it. Hold tight for one more second, Williams. Orders are coming your way now."

Quickly pushing his previous thoughts to the back of his mind, knowing they’d do no good at this point in time, Dylan gripped his MA37 and opened a platoon-wide channel as his squad leaders continued to assemble the Helljumpers. “Platoon, Captain Lloyd. As you can tell, it looks like the regulars have moved in ahead of us. And we can’t have that. So now we’re going to move ahead of them. We’re going to be the spearhead of the Glasgow defense; we’ll take the inverted ‘V’ of November at the forward-most point of the line, in the center. Let’s not let anything break through.”

Dylan cut the connection after he’d finished speaking and then turned to Staff Sergeant Fedder, who was still standing nearby. “Sergeant, hail Sierra for me. Let her know we’re going to be passing through her lines and not to shoot.”

Fedder nodded, shrugging off the ODST captain’s gruff manner earlier. “Right away, sir.”

Captain Sierra Lloyd

Sierra was so wrapped up in preparations for the company that she missed Sergeant Bowers’ hail until his voice flooded the COM again.

"Captain ma'am... I have picked up a distress beacon a few or so klicks from our position in the woods, permission to locate and escort our boy home?"

The Marine captain paused a moment before keying her COM. That was going to leave her one squad short. But the airman who'd went down needed the help, and she couldn't ignore that. Sierra sighed. “I heard that, too, Sergeant. You may take your leave. Bring that pilot back safe – and your team.”

Just as soon as she thought everything was set up and she could get moving into the forest herself with first platoon, however, another crackle of the radio resounded in her helmet.

“Ma’am, Staff Sergeant Fedder from the ODST outfit. The other Captain Lloyd asked me to give you a heads-up.”

Sierra couldn’t help but smirk a little. “Did he now?” She knew what this was about. Dylan wasn’t about to let his Helljumpers take a backseat position to her Marines.

“Yes, ma’am. He wanted to warn you that our platoon will be moving through your lines shortly to fortify the head of the defense, at the tip of November phase-line. He wanted you to let your Marines know so that there’s no friendly fire going on.”

No, Sierra thought to herself, still smirking. He wanted to rub it in my face.

Before she replied to Fedder, she switched channels to address her company. “Marines, be advised, we’ve got ODSTs coming up on our six. Hold your fire.” Then she returned to her previous conversation. “Very well, Sergeant. Consider your message acknowledged. And now you can give Dylan mine: it’s on.”

Corporal Cassie Thompson

Cassie hadn’t been in a campaign this big in a long time. She’d spent most of her brief R&R at the bar, drinking with a few of her fellow Marines – though not too much. If there was one thing she was learning about her new company CO, it was that the woman was no-nonsense when it came to her troops. She’d given the order to restrict the alcohol intake to two drinks, and dammit if everyone hadn’t kept to that. Everyone but the three who were going to come to regret it when they were court-martialed. The captain was running a disciplined show.

Corporal Thompson didn’t have much time to think beyond that. She was just pulling her M7 off her shoulder when her more immediate superior, Sergeant Bowers, shouted orders through the COM.

"Alright men we are going to go bring our boy home, now formations, First squad fall in behind me in a basic delta diamond formation, Second Squad cover the left flank in a diagonal formation moving out to the left, Third Squad cover right flank in a diagonal formation moving out to the right... Ooh-rah marines"

“Understood, Sarge,” Cassie replied. She turned to face second squad. Her squad now. She swallowed. This was going to be her first test as leader of anything. “Squad, you heard the man. Let’s move.”

[Daenerys Targaryen]

Petty Officer Dani-047

Dani-047 let out a small laugh of acknowlagment at Jethro's mocking salute. Finally a member of Gold Team had found her, she remembered this Spartan boy fondly, as she did for all other Spartans.. she of course grew up with them.

"Hey Dani." Jethro said, follwing her now. "Long time, eh?" He said almost casualy as if they had only recently been apart and ran into each other.

"Long time indeed" She offered, picking up her pace. "So.. who are we facing.. Covies?" She asked, feeling out of the loop by Commands brief orders.

[Wax™]

Sergeant Jason Bowers
DELTA DESTROYERS, 1st Platoon
Locating crashed Pilot

Marine Sergeant Bowers tred carefully through the thick forrest, it annoyed him how thick the forrest was, it was always causing his arrow-head formation to split apart and reform itself and every time it happened his Fireteam did a shit part of forming itself back together, how hard was it to fix a four man squad back into a fireteam formation, Bowers was leading the formation at the tip of the 'arrow' or 'spear' behind him at the back of First Squads diamon was Corporal Claire hunt, the fireteams medic, she was put in the safest position, Bowers put up a closed fist and crouched, his fireteam slowly doing the same, their soft tramps on fallen leaves and sticks ceased to a halt, Bowers raised his BR55HB SR Battle Rifle and looked through the scope, up ahead was a clearing and in there he saw two shadows and in there he heard on speak.

"ODST Sergeant Redsont, identify yourself and turn around slowly."

"Fuck" Bowers muttered and looked to Corporal Cassie Thompson, the newest addition to Delta.

"Thompson..." Bowers looked at her before pointing to a fallen log. "...Get your squad to that log and take cover behind it..." He then turned to Speirs squad "...Speirs... Move to thoes rocks and get your squad to take cover behind them... My squad take cover behind the trees to our twelve... GO!" Bowers muttered this through team COM, if the three squads did as he said, they would have perfect cover and a perfect defense scenario, once in range Bowers hooked into the COM for the ODST Infront.

"Sergeant Redsont... This is Marine Sergeant Bowers... From Delta... My fourteen man fireteam has you covered at your six, hold your fire to your six... Over"

Bowers turned his head to Corporal Thompson.

"Cassie... Watch that ODST and the shadow he is talking to..." Without turning off the COM between the team he muttered something more. "...Let's hope to fuck that's the pilot"

[hollowsaber]

First Lieutenant Alexander 'Famine' Farence
Somewhere in the Forest.

The second he heard a ruffle in the bushes, Alex brought his pistol 'round and all he saw was a shadow. A sudden pulse surged through and Alex unloaded, firing a trio of Armor-Piercing rounds at the figure before his head seemed to go blank. Mud kicked out and the pilot took off, darting into the trees back towards where he thought he had crashed. There would be safety there maybe. I mean, that explosion couldn't have destroyed everything could it? Maybe the UNSC was there already!

"Crap, crap, crap!" The pilot slipped and turned his fall into a skid, slithering under a low branch before slamming his palm into the mud. It sank a few inches but just enough for him to regain his balance.

Pistol in his other hand, the pilot slipped into a bush and looked at his hip to the transmittor. This thing was going to bring problems, and he wasn't mobile for more than 10 minutes at least before someone tried to come up behind him. He reached down and yanked it from his clothes and thrusted the small box into the mud, burring it deep.

"Good enough." Alex whispered. He'd have to link up with some Units face-to-face... now what was that echo he was told to use...?

A sudden movement in the brush alerted Alex. His ears perked, adrenaline rushed, and his eyes widened. Slowly, he slipped back into the bushes and moved away from the transmitter. As fast as he could, Alex slithered through the forest towards the sound of his fellow pilots. That sound would put him right where the UNSC would be going. It was better chance than running around randomly.

[Spartan 999]

Petty Officer Jethro-097

"Long time indeed. So...who are we facing...Covies?"

Jethro nodded. "Yeah. Seems that way from the radio chatter I picked up. Apparently a pilot was also shot down, too."

He depolarized the visor.

"So, how's life treated you in the past few years?" Jethro said, his crimson and sea-foam blue eyes looking into Dani's as they strode to the ONI building.

[Huka]

MAJOR DOMO TIL 'MURAMEE

Hearing the sudden human cry, Til growled and thrown his fist out into a immediate 'forward'. His excitement already to seep, the Major Domo rushed into the frontline for first shot. Skor was close behind and the Unggoy were having trouble following.

[Martial Virtue]

Corporal Cassie Thompson

Corporal Thompson kept her submachine gun ready in her hands, but with the barrel aimed low for now. There were no contacts yet up ahead that she could see, or hear, or that her helmet's HUD could pick up. Besides, creeping through the forest in front of her was her new sergeant. She didn't want his first impressions of her to be bad ones, so she kept to herself and tried to remember her training.

At twenty-three years old now, she'd been through only one hairy campaign before this. It had changed her forever. She loved her job, minus all the time spent away from loved ones, but it made her realize some things. Like the fact that she wanted to make it back home to her two younger brothers and her fiancé Mason - the three men in her life who were her rock through everything. She missed her brothers a lot. She missed Mason. She didn't want this to be her last mission ever.

Stop, she told herself then. She was scared of what they might find there in the forest, but she'd never been the type to let it get to her so much. That intensified the young corporal's feeling that something about this rescue mission was just a little...off. She could feel it, and she knew it was bad news. But there wasn't much she could do about that now.

Cassie came out of her reverie when she saw Sergeant Bowers pause a few meters up ahead. She turned to her squad and signaled them to get low as well. Then a voice came out through the surrounding trees.

"ODST Sergeant Redsont, identify yourself and turn around slowly."

The corporal didn't have time to process much more after that. Tightening her grip on her M7 as she held the weapon close to her chest and concentrated on taking in deep, even breaths, she heard her own sergeant issue her an order over the COM.

"Thompson." Sergeant Bowers pointed to a felled tree. "Get your squad to that log and take cover behind it."

Cassie nodded. "Moving, Sarge." Cautiously she got up from her crouched position, wary of the voice she heard. There seemed to be some sort of encounter going on up ahead that she couldn't quite see. She hoped it was the pilot, so they could get the hell back with the rest of the company, where they'd be safer. Strength in numbers, she thought.

Just as soon as she'd gotten herself and her squad in position, though, Bowers was on the COM again after issuing more orders to the rest of the team and hailing the Helljumper they'd heard.

"Cassie," he said, "Watch that ODST and the shadow he is talking to."

"On it," Thompson responded.

"Let's hope to Fuck that's the pilot."

Exactly what I was thinking, the corporal thought to herself as she crouched behind the log with her squad, waiting to see how it would all play out.

That's when she heard the gunshots.

[Deleted]

Redsont was lucky the man was experiencing shock and fright or might have actually hit Redsont. The first bullet wizzed by his helmet. The second shot hit the tree a meter to his left. By then, Redsont was rolling to the side trying to escape the fire but only heard one other shot go off.

"Sergeant Redsont... This is Marine Sergeant Bowers... From Delta... My fourteen man fireteam has you covered at your six, hold your fire to your six... Over"

Someone was talking to him on the radio. He also had his team probably ready to shoot at the pilot. He immediatly clicked on his com and started yelling.

"Hold your fire, hold your fire! Friendly fire from pilot! I repeat, friendly fire so hold your fire.", Redsont yelled while looking for the pilot.

When he saw the pilot had ran he looked to where the voice on the com said it was. He could make out several shadows and his squad was on the other side.

"Friendlies in the area, hold your fire. Desmond, John, come out slow so our friends here don't light us up. I recommend you guys do the same. We have a friendly who just decided to make things complicated.", Redsont explained.

"Sarge, we have the charges planted, we heard gunfire, is everything all right?", Fred's voice came over the com.

"Yeah, we're good, found our noise source. Downed pilot, just ran off into the woods like a maniac. Make your way to our position ASAP. We just turned this into a search and rescue.", Redsont ordered.

[Bippwatt]

(Sorry for the long absence. Apparently when I'm here, it goes nowhere and when I'm not, it goes everywhere.)

Nikolai slid into the mud just on the edge of a ridge.

"Alright. I think this is good. You got the high-power binoculars?"

"'Course I do. Don't I always?", Idina said as she slid into the mud on his right.

He grabbed them as she passed them over to her and he brought them to his eyes.

"Alright. I see...nothing. Thermal unit, if you please."

"Roger." She passed over the attachment and he clipped it onto the front of the binoculars and activated it. When he looked again, there were a whole bunch of contacts.

"Bloody hell! Where did they get the transport for an army like this?" He passed the scopes over to Idina and as she looked, Nikolai unlimbered his sniper rifle and set the bipod up just on the edge of the drop off.

"Ouch. That seems overkillish."

"Tell me about it.", Nikolai seconded. "See if you can find some moss or something to cover us up with. We're gonna be awhile. Then, take both of our relays and set them up back there. The first about a hundred meters back and the next one about twice that."

"Got it. Be back in a jiffy."

A few minutes later, she returned, carrying an arm load of moss and grass. Several minutes of detail work and they were both entirely covered in the outline shattering effect of the foliage. Even the barrel of Nikolai's rifle got a healthy coating of moss. To anyone passing by, it would look like a branch of some tree that had died and begun growing moss on it.

"Alright. Testing radio." He clicked the radio, and watched the Covenant hoard through the scope of his rifle carefully.

"Good, radio is secure.", he said as there was no reaction. "Now, I'll give the Captain a text message. Much harder to pick up, text transmissions."

He pulled out a small pad and typed up a quite sitrep for the Captain.


Jovanovich here - We're in position about 6 klicks west north west of Glasgow. We have the enemy in sight. Enemy is confirmed as Covenant. Confirmed as Covenant.

We're are now hunkered down and awaiting further orders.We can stay here can snipe them as they come forward, or we can fall back now and reinforce the line.

Jovanovich out.

Once he finished it, he compressed it and sent it on it's way to Captain Lloyd.

"Hurry up and wait.", he quipped.

Then, he saw them. "Crap. I take that back. We have tangos. Moving fast."

He lined up a shot and breathed easily. "Not today, buddy. Not today." He slowly squeezed the trigger. The suppressed shot puffed out downrange at the overeager Elite Major Domo.

He opened the comm channel, almost instantly following his text message. "Captain, we've got tangos!"

He settled back to his task and he and Idina began their day's work.