M4.5

[Dufflepud]

M4.5

Map key:
-Orange is the Kig-Yar start point
-Black is walls
-Yellow is UNSC position fortified with sandbags/barricades or other deployed cover
-Green circle is a UNSC mounted MG
-Green line is an unlocked door
-Red line is a welded shut door (needs to be breached)
-Central room w/ three MGs is the bridge
-Map will be updated as mission goes on

The UNSC weapons platoon of 36 men that has been stationed aboard the Covenant supercarrier has holed up in an extremely well fortified position both on the bridge and the rooms surrounding it. Hundreds of Kig-Yar troops are attempting to take the bridge from them. They will succeed, but at great cost. With MGs, LMGs, and rocket launchers, the human forces may well take a dozen of the enemy for each life they lose.




Skirmisher Mercenary Captain Xet
Covenant Supercarrier
Assaulting the Bridge

As the doors opened and the first Kig-Yar troops cautiously stepped through the portal into the next length of hallway, they were almost instantly cut down in a spray of violet gore. The chatter of machine gun fire erupted, and Xet barely had time to activate his shield gauntlet before the first rounds began to slam into him. The other survivors of the front line activated their shields as well, and a rough phalanx formed in the doorway as the humans continued to pummel his forces.


"Form ranks!" Xet managed to order over the din of the suddenly raucous battle. If the humans could afford to place a fortified MG position in this first hallway, then he didn't want to know what they would have on the actual bridge. For a "zero opposition takeover," this was a pretty volatile situation!

(Note to all players: This mission will be a test run for a multitude of new mission features, including staff updates on events that occur. In M5 these will be posted every two pages, but due to the narrow focus of this side mission I will be posting one every page. Also, for all Kig-Yar players, you may fire at the humans as much as you like, and even kill one here and there, but a fortified position may only be destroyed in a staff update. Thank you.)

[BasedGoody]

Jake 'Goody' Goodchild
PFC
Doorway to position to the LEFT of the bridge

Goody stood guard, DMR in hand. It was silent for a while, and Milk leaned up against the doorway, twirling his rifle. The silent knowing  of death lingered in the air, but it all seemed quiet. Milk and Goody were standing guard outside their team's position. The rifleman stared into the empty room, and towards the welded shut door in front of them. Sweat has long since piled into a puddle on his brow and upper lip. Suddenly Milk shuttered, and held his Assault Rifle firm.

"You hear something?" Goody quivered.

"N-no. But I thought I did." The Private replied. Goody nodded, but still wandered forward towards the shut door, and pressed his ear against it. Nothing. A small wave of relief came over him, as he would survive an extra few minutes. The PFC kept wandering around, eventually stepping back next to Milk. More silence. Goody didn't mind it, as his thoughts racing around were almost too much to handle. Why couldn't he have just left? Why did they want to be the heros? Why did he have to die today? They kept racing until he felt a rumble, and the scratching of feet. 

"Oh no." Were the only words to escape Goody's mouth before he heard the explosion of a oor, and machinegun fire. Screams of Jackals pierced the air, and Milk burst through the door back to the fortification. Goody followed, and looked into the worried eyes of his teammates, except for Arby, who still seemed strong and determined. The rifleman shut the door, and dove over sandbags, sliding next to their leader. More gunfire in the air, it was faint considering all the doors and walls blocking sound, but it was still noticeable, and extremely demoralizing.

"As you can tell, the birds are here. First line is still up as far as sound can tell." Goody explained, never taking his eyes off the doors. 

[SuperCommando]

First Lieutenant Sean Carter
9th Weapons Platoon, TF77
Covenant Supercarrier, The Bridge
--------------------------------------------------

Quietly grunting to himself as a sharp twinge of pain coursed though the side of his face, the UNSCMC officer resisted the urge to touch his wound. As commander of the only platoon left onboard the captured Covenant supercarrier, he had to maintain a strong example. It was unnerving enough to be alone and unsupported on this alien vessel, but also the sheer size of the supercarrier meant there were countless places for the enemy to hide. There was always a chance that a survivor from the previous battle could be lurking in the dim purple passageways, or that reinforcements could show up before the rest of TF77 returned. Until then, everyone had to be extra cautious. Suspense like that had a way of fraying people’s nerves, especially after what these men had already been though.

Lt. Carter paced the bridge, double-checking the fortifications left behind by Captain Killinger and the soldiers who now manned them. The battle to capture this ship had been both bloody and exhausting. The lieutenant himself was wounded by a Jackal who tried to claw his left eye out, and would have succeeded had it not been for the sharpshooting of his good friend and trusty sergeant, Derek Graceland. Luckily the corpsman got him bandaged up and back on his feet, just narrowly avoiding a medevac. But UNSC Marines are as tough as you can get. 9th Platoon got the job to stay behind because of their reputation for being dedicated, reliable, and hard to kill.

It had now been several hours since the platoon holed up in here, and suddenly their worst fear had been realized. The uneasy stillness was broken as distant gunfire reverberated through the ship, commencing the second battle in a row today. The sound immediately caused a stir among the men on the bridge.

Nodding in acknowledgement to the Private who came racing in from the next room over, Lt. Carter quickly got on the radio with his squad leaders. “This is nine-one actual to Alpha and Bravo squads, situation report, now!”

[TinCanHitman]

Sgt.Derek Graceland

First fortification 

“This is nine-one actual to Alpha and Bravo squads, situation report, now!”

Derek fired off a burst from his BR55, causing one of the raptors to collapse, gurgling blood. He then flipped back around so his fire team could also spray out the door. Spray wasn't the proper term, it was controlled fire, but fully automatic, not so much aiming, as filling the space.

"This is Graceland, we've got mother fuckers coming in hot, sug- GOD DAMMIT PRIVATE." Derek was suddenly distracted as one of his marines dropped a live grenade on accident. Lucky enough for him the corporal that was in charge of said private managed to swat it forward down the hall at the onslaught. He popped out and around the door frame to take cover behind the barricade directly in front of him. He grabbed one of his marines.

"Get on that gun. Suppressing fire!" he popped up and fired several more bursts, dropping more of the alien soldiers.

[Deleted]

Corporal Xavier West
CSO SuperCarrier
First Defensive Line

"Well hot damn, some fucking action!" Xavier swore as the ripple of gunshot reports flooded the corridor; the machine gun at the end of the corridor pivoted slightly so the gunner could get an angle at the door to unload a deadly barrage of lead. Xavier rolled to his feet and pushed himself up with his arm strength, bent down to grab his MK280 Light Machine Gun and chuckled as he slung the weapons strap over his back and swung the weapon behind him.

He made room for his primary rifle.

A SRS99AM Anti-Material Sniper Rifle. The Corporal was a sniper, nothing more, but carrying a Sniper Rifle on a ship with a M6D as a backup made no sense at all, so Xavier managed to acquire a light machine gun with four box magazines as a reserve. With the battle for the ship just recently ending, weapons and ammo were everywhere. Sections of an entire hallway near the engine room were dusted over with bronze and blood.

Technically, Xavier didn't have a fire-team to command. Instead, with his spotter being killed in the latest operation as they tried to recon the area ahead, he was a lone NCO of Zulu, a team that was to be abandoned after the mission due to high casualties but never happened as Captain Killinger left him stationed on the ship, assigning him to this specific platoon.

Xavier jumped over the defensive barricade, which consisted of sandbags, deploy-able barricades and other minor things. It was a 'build your own' barricade, Xavier though. He positioned himself on the left side of the machine gun and steadied his sniper rifle, taking a breath through his nostrils to mentally steady the pace for himself.

Grenades were chucked, Marines were spraying into the door way and a Sergeant barked out an order. An order which was understood by another man, as he beat Xavier to the punch before the sniper could shift positions.

He didn't even want the gun anyways.

As soon as the Marines cleared the line of sight, Xavier had a clean shot at his position through the door. The powerful .57 CAL round would go right through an elites shielding system, pop a jackals arm mounted shield and even destroy one of their vehicles in a single shot, like a ghost - depending on where the round struck, of course.

Xavier pulled the trigger, the large rifle jolted back into his shoulder, the cartridge from the weapon ringing off the ground. Through the scope, a birds head exploded; covering the door frame with it's particularly colored blood.

[Arbiter124]

Lance Corporal Arby
ODST

Arby was on both feet, Role leaning with his LMG on one knee and his second in command on the other side. His face was hardened. He showed no signs of happiness or excitment. His heart had dropped at that first explosion, but he showed no sign of it. In the panicking whispers of his allies, the Corporal had to be the source of their morale. He had to be.

"Role," Arby started, looking towards the subordinate ODST. "Make sure that thing is up and running. You may need to blow some heads." Role gave an arrogant smile, and turned to the doorway. 

Arby then turned to his top gun. "This is it. We're going to show these Skirmies who's boss." He said, grinning slightly.

He felt the claws of death grabbing at him.

There was no escape.

[TinCanHitman]

 Chur'R Xin

Supper Carrier

Xin cawed out as he fired his Dart Rifle, skewering a human to the wall. The aliens red blood pooled on the purple floor, staining it with the lesser beings life. Xin was with his honor guard, having cut through the ceiling of the ship and entering quickly. He had a Dart Rifle, four boarding pistoles, and a cutlass. He wore his jacket and hat, but had a standard harness under it.

Xin stepped out from cover and fired several darts in rapid succession, hitting a few humans and causing them fall. He spun back behind cover and blind fired, hitting nothing, but still keeping suppressing fire. This fight would be bloody, but the prize would be worth it.

[Deleted]

Boarding Mistress Jkas

Jkas snarled. Behind her, the two files of Kig-yar under her command stiffened, frightened both by the snarl and by the sounds of the Humans. But mostly by the snarl.

Jkas, for her part, mulled the situation over carefully. To attack with her two files, without backup, outnumbered and outgunned against a fortified Human embarcade would be foolish—but still! She gnashed her beak. It was so very hard to resist the urge to cry out for battle to be joined—to throw her soldier’s lives and her own into the fray.

She calmed herself. She had not gotten this far through rash decisions. No! She would wait. Wait for reinforcements…or for the Humans to come to her.

[BasedGoody]

PFC. 'Goody'
Room left of bridge

Goody watched Role fiddle with the MG before nodding, and sitting back. The light gunfire still stopped any silence, and the PFC clutched his DMR in fear. He had not taken his eyes off the doorway since he got in, he knew the second they wandered off the birds would charge in. He started tapping the barrel of his weapon rhythmically to stop from the agonizing wait, and put his mind on other things. Slowly, he turned his head to ask Arby a question.

"So, how do you think this'll end?" He asked, afraid of the answer. His head snapped back to the door, waiting for his leader to talk again.

[Arbiter124]

Lance Corporal Arby

Arby shrugged, clutching his battle rifle with anticipation. 

"I don't know, Goods. I don't know."

Yes you do.

Arby shook the voice out of his head again. It kept nagging at him, calling to him. He tried to ignore it, but it's not like it was a simple task. He still, made no eye contact, kept his helmet on and stared at the door, standing tall as a source of confidence for his squad.

Yes you do...

[Huka]

Creche Mistress Deg

 Striding into the Supercarrier, looking at the rare sight of the Covenant's most prized ship class behind her faceplate, Creche Mistress Deg led her ilk through the hall towards the site of battle. The reports of firearms, war-cries and death throes can be heard easily, and the female Kig-yar instinctively laid a taloned hand on one of her energy cutlasses. If it wasn't for her harness of a Covenant-aligned Kig-yar officer and arsenal, she would have been mistaken for a ambassador or a courtesan. 

 The latter was much more true. 

 As she looked at Creche Mistress Jkas' marauders stepped ahead, the Pirate mistress angled her head to see her trusted second-in-command and enforcer, Lui Mai. A tall and sinewy Skirmisher with the tattered shadow of a fish-scaled robe and the battle-scarred armor of a Covenant-funded Murmillo. Armor that she claimed from a foolish Skirmisher who thought he could conquer any female, including her. However, by the end of the night, she left his room with the armor, a necklace of teeth and feathers, and a bloody knife. Like her Mistress, she was adorned with a multitude of boarding pistols and daggers, energy bucklers on both of her wrists.

 "Mistress..." She called with a cool hiss, catching her leader's attention, "What is your command?" "Let the others weaken the Humans...kill the rest." Deg simply said. Lui shook her masked head and called to the other lance leaders, telling them of their Mistress's command and the lances were quickly readied on their coming marauding and pillaging.