Installation 04 [IC/Closed]

[Transoxthraxia]

“Look, I-“ He stopped for a second, trying to read the console. “Look it’s in some kind of weird, alien language. It’s completely different than the other one. It’s just so confusing. Wonderful, but confusing.” As he said that, the Hunters had fired their Fuel Rod Guns towards the tower, which had impacted upon it, radiating heat towards the three survivors. Hampson let out a groan, and then pulled himself up, looking down towards the effective use of the grenade. “Thanks, soldier.” He said, in his rough voice. “Yeah, fortunately, I think I’ll be fine. What’s going on up there?” Lying on the ground, having been pulled to safety, shouting to the already panicky crewman, desperately trying to reverse what he had done. “I’m trying, it won’t budge I’m-“ As the poor man was about to repeat what he had just said, he had pressed on a button, and the large beam of light which had been impeding them, disappeared, little to the knowledge of the Covenant troops, who had instead chosen to focus their attention on the Humans, rather than their surroundings. To escape, however, the three humans would have to go down the way they came, before they could cross the deep artificial gap.

Hampson struggled to get up, but his arms couldn’t lift himself. “Argh-“ Hampson groaned. “Agh, fuck, I don’t know what’s wrong with me…” He tried to lift himself once more, and after doing so, found out that he couldn’t move his legs. The Covenant forces once again worked up the audacity to try and assault the ramp, but were quickly shown that the survivors weren’t ready to give up yet. Jorivoj carefully tread towards the wounded Sergeant, and picked him up. Hampson, his MA5B in his right hand, reached into his left breast pocket with his left hand, and pulled out a carton of cigarettes. He flipped open the top, and pulled one out with his mouth, before lighting it. They were the self-lighting ones, the newfangled devices. He then tried to put them back into his pocket, but dropped them by accident. Jorivoj went to pick them up, but Hampson shook his head. “Alright, we need to get out of here, but it doesn’t particularly look like I can walk, does it?” He said, in between puffs. He then laughed a sick, convulsive laugh. “It’s kind of stupid that we’ve gone through all this to die here.” He paused, as another Fuel Rod Volley hit the tower, shaking the structure. “Alright, Jorivoj, you’re gonna carry me down to the bottom of the tower, and then drop me. I’ll cover the two of you as you make a run towards the exit, past the depression.” The look in his eyes clearly appeared as if he didn’t want to do it. Jorivoj looked towards Joshua. “Do we really have another choice?” The poor man said. “Honestly, they need you much more than they need me, Spartan.” He said.

Before waiting for consent from Hampson’s Spartan companion, he nodded towards the crewman, who slung Hampson’s right arm around his shoulder and carried the sergeant, his assault rifle now in his left hand, down the ramp, the wounded sergeant firing sporadically to keep the lesser Covenant at bay. “Here!” He shouted towards the crewman, who then slumped him against the back of the ramp. “Go!” He yelled, before unleashing a hail of 7.62x51mm lead towards the Hunter and the surviving Covenant.

[Glaswegistan]

Joshua knew Hampsons plan wasn't a great one. It wasn't even a good plan, it was however, the best plan that the group had for anyone making it out of that terrible cavern alive. The tactician in Joshua agreed that Hampson, likely crippled for life by plasma burns to the spine (assuming he survived his wounds), was the logical choice to be used to draw enemy fire as he was the only remaining combat-ineffective member of the group; Smith was still limp outside, Joshua didn't have high hopes for his survival. The tactician in Joshua knew that leaving a wounded marine, possibly two, was the most sensible course of action. Joshua, however, did not agree with his tactical faculties; leaving a man, or men behind to die went against everything he'd been taught as part of the military tradition of the UNSC.

He didn't have time to object, of course. Almost as soon as the plan was formulated it was underway, Jorivoj was carrying the Sergeant downhill and Joshua left all notions of objection at the top of the ramp as he dashed to cover Jorivoj and Hampsons descent. The rush of motion downhill, the wealth of targets, the little heads of grunts being emptied, one by one; the battle sobered Joshua. From the moment Joshua left cover, the moral circumstance of his situation was of no concern, any changes to the plan that Hampson had laid out would jeopardize the lives of all three men. The green haze of dissipating fuel rod plasma surrounded the ramp, with little but luck and the Hunters lacking a good mechanism with which to sight their weapons keeping Joshua and Jorivoj from death.

"Here!" Joshua heard Hampson shout, and not long after the thunder of Hampsons own gunfire intensified, an unending din in contrast to Joshua's own short bursts. Hampson had no need to conserve ammunition. Joshua hit the bottom of the ramp and kept running, aiming and firing as he went. As he moved further away from the majority of the Covenant he half-turned, twisting his torso to aim behind him as he ran.

"Get ahead, I can draw more fire" Joshua barked back to Jorivoj, aiming another burst towards the nearer of the two hunters as he did so. Jorivoj sounded like a fast runner, as by the time Joshua had finished yelling at the crewman, the rapid footsteps sounded as if he were at least halfway towards the depression. Much to Joshua's surprise, his own fire apparently had an effect on one of the armoured behemoths that had made the past hours of his life decidedly uncomfortable. A spark on the blue casing just beneath the creatures left shoulder was not unusual, however the spurt of orange goo from the creatures abdomen was new; a lucky ricochet in all probability. Obviously pained, the creature staggered, using its shield for support. Joshua then heard Hampsons own commands, roared at the Spartan from across the cavern; "Get a goddamn move on!"

He did.

As Jorivoj cleared the depression in front of him, Joshua kicked into a full sprint. Only the ghost the elite major had rode in on could hope to be faster than a Spartan at full sprint, even a Spartan-III, and within seconds Joshua had caught up with the crewman.

"Keep running, don't look back"

[The Floating Island of the Sleeping God]

Cameron had taken back both of his rifles, human and alien, after exiting the ship. He listened patiently to Keyes's speech, eager to hunt down more covenant technology. "If there's any really deadly alien stuff at the cache that we haven't seen before, dibs." he called to the other Spartans as they went to prepare. He didn't have anything he especially needed at the moment. His suit was unscarred by the fight, and he noticed no dents or scratches that weren't there before as he pulled it off with the aid of a technician. He had a good feeling about their newest assignment.

[Transoxthraxia]

The Inordinate Odds

The Mission

The Captain nodded, acknowledging the questions of the Spartans, addressing each one of them, one by one. Starting with the sniper, whose name was, he was pretty sure, Kolby, he stated, “Well, soldier, we’re not quite sure yet. The defenses are, presumably fairly dense. But it’s located in the midst of a swamp, which does not favour heavy firepower. They won’t be able to get any of the big guns in there as they usually do in other terrains. So, we’re not expecting any heavy machinery north of Shade Turrets.” The ONI Spook had met his gaze, and, despite the fact that he was wearing a helmet, it was pretty clear that he wasn’t looking away. “The idea is that we punch a hole into their defenses, get into the cache, take what we need, and get out of there before they’re able to respond to it. So, to answer your question, Spartan,” He avoided using his name to make sure that he didn’t have it wrong. “Kind of. We’re going in guns blazing, but getting the hell out of there before the Covenant knows what hit them.” He nodded, before swinging his head back towards the second question, from a Spartan whose pyromania seemed only to be matched by her irrepressible, somewhat unnerving, disposition. Cortana had told the Captain of her, and to watch her psych profile quite carefully.

“Kaya, is it?” He asked, sure of her name, this time. “The armoury is still being set up, but because of the priority of this mission, you, and the rest of Fire Team Sierra, as well as our rearguard, is being given special access to what we’ve been able to drag with us out of the Autumn so far. Lieutenant McKay and Major Silva are preparing a raid for more supplies, but until then, it’s limited. But don’t let that stop you. Remember, what we may have found is imperative to our success in this ring, and, perhaps, this war.” He stated. At this point, the ONI spook dismissed himself from the room, forcefully moving aside Kolby as he left.

Looking scornfully at the unserious Spartan, who had called ‘dibs’ on whatever they found, the Captain spoke again. “We leave as soon as possible. As we speak, the Master Chief and the A.I Cortana are leading a large strike team towards what we believe will be the key to the greater weapon that this ring holds. By the time that they’re complete, we should be too. We’re leaving in half an hour, people, so meet by the Landing Pads in thirty minutes. Stock up on ammunition, food, water, whatever you need. Dismissed.” He said to the party, before he and his two guards began to make their way back up to the surface of the butte.

---

Khloe had arrived in the armoury, which wasn’t too far from where they had met the Captain on the surface of the butte. It was essentially the literal interpretation of an ammo dump. Anything that people couldn’t carry, they dumped here. It wasn’t very organized, but there were a few people being directed by a particularly loud and unnerving African-American sergeant trying to clean it all up. Khloe looked around for what she wanted, and when the sergeant tried to stop her, she briefly explained her situation and that she needed to get some ammunition before the Captain Keyes had to come over here himself and lecture the sergeant about what was going on. He stayed out of her way after that. She pulled out three fresh magazines for her MA5K, which was important, since ammunition packages for it were pretty scarce. The rest of her ammunition situation wasn’t too bad, so she held off on the rest of it, leaving some for others, of course.

[Volvek]

"Yes sir, my name is Kaya." Kaya replied to the Captain after he mentioned her name in a question form, "Thank you sir." She continued after he told her about the ammunition storage. After that though, she followed Khloe in to the ammunition storage and was amused how she told the barking Sergeant the situation then backed off. She pulled back on her MA5B's magazine release and pulled the half empty magazine out then dropped it on the floor. She picked up a fresh, fully loaded magazine and slapped it in to the magazine well before sliding the magazine release forward, locking the sixty round magazine. She picked up another one and put it in an ammo pouch stacked on top of another magazine. She then pulled out her bare M41 and opened it, then pulled a pair of pre-loaded tubes on to the weapon and secured them. She pushed a yellow button on the side of the launcher, and the two tubes rotated slowly showing that they were ready to fire. She nodded and slung the "Spanker" before grabbing two more pairs of pre-loaded tubes and storing them then finished by grabbing a pair of fragmentation grenades before leaving the room, waiting for Khloe and the others.

[Galdius]

Cassie was scared.

In the grand scheme of things, this was her first true combat operation, outside of the escape pod landing and the limited time she spent during the evacuation on the pillar of autumn, she was as green as the grass on circumstance which was no doubt going to be turned into ashes and glass by the covenant horde after they finished with the once beautiful planet of reach. It was bleak thought, knowing that her home planet was almost certainly going to suffer the same fate that had happened to reach. But Cassie had to block out of the thoughts of her home planet and concentrate on operation. At the briefing, she had been informed by the sergeant in command that the detachment she served with would be providing the rear security for Fire Team Sierra and some Spartans as they secured a powerful weapon cache that covenant were storing in the swamp, which seemed like a rather unusual place to store powerful and vital equipment, considering that the swamp would make it difficult to move in heavy reinforcements in the event of a raid or an attack. Cassie had a bad feeling about the operation, but then again, she wasn't exactly experienced in warfare or even sure of her own instincts, and it no doubt her nerves getting the better of her.


Cassie and the majority of group was already geared up, they didn't even get a chance to get out of the heavy metal plates of armor, meaning that they were ready to grab ammunition for the operation. the rear guard headed into the room which contained the ammo dump and the first thing Cassie saw was a small group of Spartans standing in the distinctive MJOLNIR Armor, whom almost towered over all others in the room. she had seen the propaganda vid's that the UNSC put into circulation and heard the stories from her fellow marines on how they were unstoppable super soldiers that ate the convent ground forces for breakfast, but she never stood in the same room as one or and had never seen one in the flesh. They looked almost robotic in there large metallic armor, far from human in fact, but they didn't look invincible as some believed with almost mythical status. "Alright Maggots!" The Sergeant in command of rear guard barked, bringing the group to a halt. "Grab some ammo and be ready to hustle in five, I want everyone geared with some fresh mags!" And with that, the group quickly began to scavenge what they could from the disorganized pile of ammo and equipment. Cassie wasted no time and quickly grabbed what she could, taking three sixty round magazines for her MA5B and a single M9 High-Explosive Dual-Purpose grenade placing them within her various pouches that rested along her BDU's webbing and armor, leaving some from the others that needed ammunition.

[Ubaria]

Kobly stumbled out of the way as the ONI agent barged past, Kolby simply smirked and stared at him as he exited the room, turning to the others as he walked out of site. "What's his problem?" He mumbled, mostly to himself, the sound muffled by the helmet. Keyes exited the room not long after, leaving the Spartans to scavenge what ammunition they could from the cache not far away. As he entered, the room was literally a tip, crates upon crates with the odd magazine pile dumped on the top, some crates had spilled over leaving rounds strewn across the floor, weapons were stacked in an unordered fashion against the walls and boxes they had been unloaded from, Kolby began to sift through the piles of mags for Sniper rifle ammo, he had a mag and a half left from their previous encounter, as well as some 'Special' rounds in a shoulder pouch, these rounds were Kolby's own creation, high explosive and Armour piercing, not field tested or even permitted for use by the UNSC, but nobody had challenged him thus far. They could take out a Wraith with a well enough placed shot, however he only used them for special occasions, as they were in short supply.

Kolby wandered through the mass of weapons and assorted paraphernalia, rifle cradled and laid across his forearms, he managed to pick up 3 more Sniper Rifle magazines, fully loaded luckily, as well as a fragmentation grenade and two smoke grenades, he slotted them into the various pouches before moving on. Not long after, a group of Marines entered through the same door, picking up what was left.

[Communist Androids]

Elliot G-272
As much as Elliot wanted to go exploring the base, he figured it might be more prudent to actually pick up some ammo first. A half hour wasn't exactly a lot of time. As he made he way to the ammo dump, Elliot saw many of his fellow Spartans, either already leaving or finding their own assorted ammo. Well, great minds think alike. Elliot thought as he approached the pile of assorted ammunition. Luckily he hadn't used much in their encounter with the Covenant, he just wanted to replace what he'd used. As he searched for a M7 magazine and a few for his M6D, he began humming to himself. He wasn't completely sure if it a tune he'd heard before or just whatever came to mind, and really he didn't care. After he had picked up what he was looking for and disposed of his partially used magazines, Elliot went to go wait by the landing pads. He could always explore after he spent a few hours running around having firefights in a swamp. Best time for exploration, really.

[Transoxthraxia]

“Come here, you buggers!” Cried Hampson, whose cries were rapidly becoming fainter and fainter as the two survivors ran. Apart from a few plasma shots, the two of them were lucky enough that the Sergeant had attracted most of the fire. It was as they were making their way to the next door that they heard the rattle of assault rifle fire fall silent. Jorivoj took only but a second to look back, but he kept running, which was, probably more than the crewman had ever ran, or even intended to run, ever in his life. But his survival was paramount, and his body of secondary importance, at this point in time.

---

The two of them had been lucky enough to escape their Covenant Pursuers, at least, for the moment, but Jorivoj was slowing down. His body could only take so much. Luckily, as they continued down the dark, foggy, and, to say it plainly, musky, corridor that resembled the one that they came from, the two of them began to feel as if they were lost. It seemed to swing forever in one direction, and then the other, finally coming to a large T-shaped intersection. To their left was a massive ramp that faced downwards, into a dark tunnel, whose lighting was nearly impossible to make out through the purple fog that had permeated most of these underground caverns. To their front, lay more caverns, but, for the first time since they had entered into the tunnels, wind could be felt and heard, as a distant moan. Jorivoj, always the follower, turned to the Spartan. So, sir? What do we do now?

The update for the rest of the Spartans in coming soon, I promise.

[Transoxthraxia]

A Stalk Through the Woods

As the Spartans and their marine counterparts refuelled and rearmed, they eventually all met upon the farthest end of the butte, which was considered the landing pad for all of the Pelicans and other airborne personnel. Currently, there were two Pelicans docked there, one of them Victor-933, which is where the Spartans would ride, as well as Victor-398, where the members of Second Squad would ride. The two of them stood docked side by side, the pilots casually slumped by the backs of them, chatting like nothing was wrong. Khloe grit her teeth as she saw this image. She understood that there were various ways to deal with stress and loss, but it still gave her a bad taste in her mouth to see two people talking in such a friendly way with the way that the warzone was around them. Despite this, however, she sauntered up towards the two of them, and dropped her assault rifle. The two pilots quickly fell silent, the imposing figure that stood in front of them making both of them utterly quiet. She looked at one, and then the other. “When are we leaving?” She said in a grim voice. “When the captain gives the word, ma’am.” The first one said, a little unnerved by her tone. “Okay. Be ready when he does.” She said, with a veiled, semi-threatening tone.

As she turned, there were already more and more people gathering at the landing pads. Most of them were marines, decked out in full, protective gear and armed to the teeth, with so many guns on them you could practically hear the guns rattle as they bounced off one another. This was Second Squad, which would make up the rest of the sortie to the weapons cache. One of the marines, decked up in his full battle dress, sternly marched towards Khloe, armed with the infamous MA5B. He saluted the Spartan, and then spoke. “Greetings, ma’am, I’m Corporal Lovik, I’ve been put in charge of Second Squad for this mission. We’ll be guarding your asses while you kick the Covenant’s, ma’am.” The Corporal had an odd charm about him, as if he had the perfect mix of in-line organization and sternness and a dash of insubordination. She decided that she liked him. Not that that mattered much. She nodded, not letting the smile on her face get in the way of her tone. “Very well. Good to meet you, Corporal, hope that you’ll do a good enough job that we won’t find ourselves with Covvies biting our backs. Have you seen the captain?” She then changed the subject. Lovik was a corporal, which meant that, in the higher order of things, he wasn’t really supposed to be commanding anything larger than a fireteam. But Keyes broke the rules, frequently. If he put a man at a post, that man would be the best damn man for the post in a three-thousand light year radius. “Haven’t, no, but-“ Before he could continue, the Captain merged from the camp, solitary, lacking the two guards that he had before. He still wore his full dress uniform, and carried with him a Pistol. He approached, and as he did so, those that were gathered all saluted, including Khloe, doing so as she slung her MA5K over her back. “At ease.” He said in his commanding voice. As Keyes walked towards B-312, Khloe noticed a number of the other Spartans gathering around the landing bay. “You’ve been a damned good resource for the UNSC in the past. But you’re still human under that. Some may forget that, but I don’t.” He said to the commanding Spartan. “Your resume is prestigious, for sure. Your mental capacities…” He trailed off. “The psyche file directly orders that you never be put in the position of a commander. But, after what I’ve heard from in Reach, and how you delivered the Package to me in stellar time, I think that that psyche report is completely invalid. You're the leader of Fire Team Sierra, and a damned fine one. Come on, Spartan, we need to get moving.”

---

Soon enough, Khloe, the Captain, and the rest of Fire Team Sierra, which included G-272 Elliot, A-252 Kolby, as well as the Spartan Cameron and the ONI Spook, boarded the dropship Victor-933, and the entirety of Second Squad piled into Victor-938, which was Victor-933’s “twin”. Included in second squad was Corporal Cassie Fitzgerald, who was to command a smaller subset of Second Squad. The two pelicans took off from the butte, with both of their payloads fresh and ready, eager and willing. From the bay of Victor-938, which contained Second Squad, Fire Team Sierra’s backup. Here, Corporal Lovik stood as the CO, or Commanding Officer, which disregarded his actual rank of Corporal due to the Captain’s provisions granted to him as the commander of Second Squad. During the flight, the Pelican’s bay doors closed, and the bay was stable, allowing for Lovik to approach, and then sit next to, Corporal Fitzgerald. “Corporal, you’ll be put in command of Fire Team Beta. Within, you’ll be in command of Private First Class Vaine, Private Kappus, as well as Private Megalos. Once we get boots on the ground, watch yourself, since I’m not sure what we’ll be seeing down there.”

---

The swamp was extremely foggy. Even from above, as both Pelican’s bay doors opened, it was hard to make out the shapes of the foliage and fauna below, if there was any of the latter. There were noises, dozens of them, all of them competing for the ears of the Humans who flew in their ships above the cacophony of the swamp below. Everything seemed to be glowing with a sickly green light, as if it was supercharged with vomit. “The location of the Covenant Weapons Cache should be somewhere around here. I can feel their presence.” The Captain, said, before turning towards Victor-933’s cabin, notifying the pilots to set them down. As they did so, Victor-933 descended first, allowing Fire Team Sierra and the Captain to disembark from the dropship, before the Captain turned towards the Pelican once more. He raised his right arm and made a circling motion, telling the dropship to circle until he radioed in. “Two hours, no more.” He told the Pelican pilot. Soon after, Second Squad made landfall from Victor-938. “Touchdown!” Yelled Lovik, before jumping five meters onto the ground.

Once everybody was out, they gathered around Keyes. “Alright, the Swamp’s foggy, but we’ve got our eyes in the sky, they’ve said that they’ve spotted a facility this way.” He nodded towards a small path that led into the swamp, though it was too hard to make out what was past that. “Let’s move Marines!” he shouted, “Second Squad, fifteen meters behind us. We don’t want our rearguard biting our heels.

They started off, but soon enough, they passed all sorts of weird sites. First, a small group of Grunts, and Jackals, gathered around a bunch of covenant containers, evidently completely empty. While Khloe and a few of the others lined up shots, they fled at the sight of the Human force, fleeing back towards the facility. “Notifying the others?” The ONI operative asked, openly, the first time that he had spoken since the mission had started. “Not likely. I’ve never seen them just… Turn tail and run before. Not without the death of a superior, which I haven’t even seen around.” Khloe responded. “Captain, something’s wrong here.” The captain turned towards the Spartan. “Duly noted, Commander, but if they’re running, we have the advantage. Press on.” Khloe turned to look towards Kolby, and muted a shrug towards him.

Soon enough, they could hear scrambled Covenant radio chatter, emanating from a source not too far away. Khloe was already uneasy, but as the crashed Spirit Dropship came into view her stomach started churning. “We don’t have any units around here in patrols… What the hell did this?” She asked no one in particular. A wild animal responded, a high and quite piercing “woop!” noise was made from one of the trees above the crashed dropship. “Fuck that.” She said, sighing, after having brought her MA5K to bear towards the creature. “Let’s go, Spartan.” Keyes told her, sternly. Soon enough, they reached the entrance to the facility. There was no one to meet them, Human nor Covenant.

[Galdius]

After her and the unit she served in got the necessary munitions and supplies for the operation, Cassie followed the second squad out of the makeshift ammo dump, listening to the sound of the clatter as slinged weapons bounced off armor and other weapons as hauled ass towards the landing pads. where the two pelicans rested idlely. Cassie quickly joined the others as they gathered around the second pelican, designated as Victor-398. She watched as the squads commander, corporal Lovik, who had been appointed in a position that was above his rank, moved forward to explain the situation to the spartan in command on how they would be watching the Spartans rear. Normally such matters would make her a bit uneasy, lower ranked soldiers put in positioned usually filled with much higher ranked soldiers, but the reassuring factor that captain key's had appointed him himself, which made her a lot less nervous. and on that thought, captain key's entered the landing pad.

speak of the devil and in he walks.

Cassie and the other marines quickly snapped to into formation and attention just as they had been drilled and done many times before and held that position, waiting for the captain to say the word, whom was still strangely in his full dress uniform.

"At ease."

She and the rest did as commanded and quietly stood at ease as captain key's walked over to the spartan in command before he started to address her. From what she could gather, he spoke of her prestigious record and how she been a damn good resource for the UNSC, but as he began to seemingly trail off, that's when she began to become slightly uneasy. the mentioning of the psyche file wasn't exactly a good thing to hear when you were about to drop into a potential hot zone with this said super soldier to your front, but then again, there was nothing she could do about it, the last thing she needed to be doing was to be stepping on the toes of a spartan. intact, there was one thing she could do, stop eves dropping on conversations not intended for her hearing, something that she desperately needed to stop doing for her own sake.

Eventually, the order to pile into the drop ship was issued, and the squad quickly obliged, climbing in and started taking seats inside the massive bird which took off once the payload and be loaded in, Cassie positioned herself near the middle of the ship, taking a seat next to Private Kappus. As the doors sealed up and the general atmosphere inside the pelican quickly became.... boisterous, as most of the marines were eager to kick some covenant ass and stick it to them. various jokes were cracked and small talk was initiated between the ranks as pelican proceeded to the LZ. Cassie remained mostly quiet as usual up until the point were corporal lovik came up to tell her the good news, taking the empty seat next to her to explain the situation.

"Corporal, you’ll be put in command of Fire Team Beta."

Cassie quietly nodded in acknowledgment to Lovik's decision to put her command of the second squad. She had done various squad drills during her time within boot but had never done it outside of that, it was a lot pressure being put in command like this but she was sure that it was nothing that she couldn't handle. "Yes sir." Cassie acknowledged as Lovik continued notifying her of whom she'd be in command of, luckily for her, she knew most of them, which would make things a lot easier for her. "I'll keep my eyes and ears open, won't let you down sir." She concluded, making a casual two figure salute as Lovik concluded just as the pelican quickly began to come close to the drop zone, the doors opening, showing off a rather impressive yet foggy swamp nothing like she'd ever seen before. With that, the pelicans started to offload the payloads. drop ship Victor-933 descended first, dropping off the captain and fire team sierra before Victor-938 moved in, descending down.

"Touch down!" Corporal Lovik yelled as he jumped of the drop ship and he was quickly followed by the rest of the marines in an almost single file. Cassie moved towards the edge and made the five meter leap from the drop ship, descending feet first into the foggy swamp as her senses was hit was a concoction of rather unusual smells, sights and sounds. her mind quickly went into over drive as she began to check over her surroundings as a feeling of primal unease began to creep up on her. "Vaine, Kappus, Megalos." She commanded to her squad over the communications as continued on, keeping a good fifteen meter distance away from the fire team sierra at the command of captain key's. "On me, wedge formation with a five meter spacing, keep your head on a swivel and look alive." Cassie continued to move, scanning her unusual surroundings as she began to witness more and more unusual sights as they got closer and closer to the entrance of the facility, but with each step, she continued to get more and more on edge. the lack of defenses worried her, if this weapon was so powerful then what was with the complete lack of covenant forces? She would have expected to have gotten into some sort of engagement by now and her squad seemingly were thinking the same. "I hate to be that guy, I've got a bad feeling about this, fitz." A nervous voice came over the squad comm's, its Vaine, one of the marines under her command. "Your not the only one." She concurred back over the comms, something wasn't right, she could feel it right down to her bones. "Stay frosty, Vaine."

[Volvek]

As soon as the Pelican dropped down low enough for the troops to disembark, Kaya jumped out, landing in an ankle deep mud puddle. "Ah.. Shit.." She said aloud over the communications, "Great way to start a mission.." She continued to gripe as she stepped out of the puddle and shook her boots one at a time as if she'd shake off the grime and filth that now covered her boots up to her mid calf.

She then brought her MA5B to her shoulder and followed closely to Keyes and Khoe. She laughed s the Grunts scurried away, making her feel powerful. Even though she truly was, like any other Spartan. Then they came upon a downed Spirit, the more common Covenant troop carrier that looked like a giant flying purple tuning fork. "Ha, serves them right. Covenant bastards." Kaya said and kicked the side of the ship while the others proceeded not too far to an almost abandoned looking structure.

[Ubaria]

Swinging down low over the swamp, an unfamiliar stench managed to creep through the helmet, it was a mix between decaying bodies and rotten food. Mist shrouded the swamp floor making the drop look much more daunting as the Pelican bay slowly revealed the murky surroundings, out of the mist were silhouettes of twisted branches, massive leaves and jagged rocks, dotted all about the place. This was a massive contrast from the rest of the ring they had seen, which had mostly been pristine and aesthetically pleasing with the rolling green grass, slate cliffs and sparkling blue waters, this was the complete opposite palette. Nevertheless, the Spartans and Marines aboard the Pelicans had a job to do, no matter the terrain. Kolby made a quick assessment of their surroundings through the scope of the rifle, picking up nothing of importance, thermal sights were useless too as whatever the mist was, it was giving off a shimmering heat signature. "Thermal's got nothing" Kolby muttered to the rest.

As the first squad of Spartans hit the ground, the water around them splashed in unison as they all impacted one after the other, Kolby was last out, the murky water splashing up onto his visor, he wiped it off and proceeded to the rest of the group, who were preparing to move out. Proceeding through the swamp, foliage got thicker and thicker, as did the air around them, which seemed to be thick with moisture, however they were not the only ones occupying this place. Grunts formed a huddle up ahead, but upon seeing the approaching human foe, fled in a frenzied rush the other way. The ONI spook took no notice and decided to press on, glancing over to Khloe who shrugged, Kolby simply shook his head back as if to say 'I don't know either'.

Not much later they came across a downed Spirit dropship, completely annihilated by the looks of it. None of the UNSC birds they currently possessed had enough firepower to inflict this much damage, maybe it had crashed because of a mechanical fault? By the looks of the group they all doubted it, everyone was more concerned that up to now, there had been little to no resistance, and now, even they were at the gates of the facility, nobody was greeting them.

"This ain't right" Kolby remarked, bringing his rifle up so the top of his scope met his sightline, ready for whatever might ambush them.

[Communist Androids]

Elliot G-272
Elliot, alongside his other Spartans, boarded Victor-933. Choosing a seat at random, he was quiet the entire flight over. When the Pelican landed, he hopped out and followed along with the rest of the group, pistol in hand. While Elliot preferred his M7, it wasn't useful in nearly as many situations as the pistol. It helped that the M6D actually had some form of range and stopping power.

The sight of the grunts was rather unsettling. The swamp already had an oppressive atmosphere, it was not a fun place to be. Usually even grunts would fight enemy when they encountered enemies, these just ran. Something had them terrified. It could have just been that the grunts were a bit jumpy and scared, but that idea was chased away by the crashed Spirit. Kolby said it best, something was certainly wrong here. Considering where they were heading, they were probably going to find out what. Elliot was still considering whether or not that was a good thing. Probably not but there was always a possibility. Either way he was on his guard, there were still Covenant around and potentially another group that has the ability to down a Spirit and scare the crap out of some grunts. This was going to be an interesting mission, that's for sure.

[Transoxthraxia]

As they got to the mouth of the Forerunner Containment Facility, Khloe had a look around. She wasn’t the only one in her Fire Team to be unnerved by the lack of an actual Covenant presence, but the Captain seemed adamant to press on. The entrance to the cache, which had been spotted by Victor-933 just a few minutes before, was on a little bit of a hill. Once Sierra and Second Squad had climbed the hill, Khloe had taken a look around. It was the trademark Covenant defense; two Shade Turrets, Energy Defense Shields, and a bunch of weapon crates, all of their rectangular shapes opened and used. The only thing was, Khloe noted, was that all of the defenses were facing inwards, towards the entrance of the facility. The Captain continued to march into the facility, but Khloe, as well as the rest of the team, stopped. “Captain, these Shade turrets are pointed inwards, the shields too. And plus… It looks like no one’s here, despite the opened weapon crates. It seems impossible, but it looks like they were trying to stop something from getting out, rather than anyone getting in.” At that point the ONI Spook spoke up. “Lock it down, Spartan, the Captain’s orders say that we must-“ Before he could continue, the Captain had turned, and looked towards Khloe. “Soldier, what is within this facility could turn the tide of the war, that’s what I was told, by a Covenant Major himself. I can ask him again, real nice, if you want me to. But what’s within there is a great power that we need to secure; if the Covenant gets their hands on it, it’ll be too late. Earth, humanity, it’ll all be doomed. Stop me if I’m exaggerating. Soldier, I’m telling you to follow me into this structure, and that’s an order.” Khloe considered it a moment. She could leave, disappear, but then be hunted, perhaps for the very little bit of her life she had left before the Covenant found her first. But, she followed orders. “Alright.” She waved Fire Team Sierra forward. “Keep frosty, everyone.” She saddled up to Kolby, who had also expressed his discomfort with the ambiance of the whole mission. “I think something’s down there. Whatever it is, the Covenant are scared of it, and that means we should be too. Watch yourself.” She said, before moving forwards to join the Captain.

Soon, everybody had piled into the entrance of the Facility. It was constructed with the same material every other Forerunner creation had been so far on the ring, and thusly was metallic and cold in construction. The room that they stood was roughly four men high, and about thirty meters both length and width-wise. In the center lay a lift of sorts, at least, what appeared to be one that led deeper into the facility. With nowhere else to go, it looked as if that was the way to go. The Captain turned, and surveyed the situation. “Alright, Fire Team Sierra, you’re with me on the lift. Once we get down, we’ll send it back up to you. Lovik, detach a fire team to watch the entrance, while the rest of Second Squad follows us down.” CO Lovik nodded his head. “Sir.” Keyes walked out onto the lift. It was oddly shaped, but symmetrical, the majority of it covered in a thick glass pane that allowed a view into the shaft that would lead them deeper into the facility. “Tech Specialist, can you operate these controls?” The ONI Spook, along with the rest of the Spartans, boarded the lift, it seeming to be able to take all of their weight. “I think so.” The ONI man said. “It looks as if these are just standard…” He pressed a button on a pad that was nearby the elevator, and it started to descend. “That works.” He said, curtly, nodding towards the Captain.

---

Descent

As the elevator hummed to a stop, a plasma bolt just nearly missed the ONI Spook’s head, before impacting onto a support beam for the elevator. The room that they had descended into was quite similar to the one they had just been in, except there was a small alcove that most likely led to a larger room. Emerging from that alcove at the sound of the lift, was a Covenant lance, full of Grunts and a couple Jackals, yet notably missing an Elite. They were all armed with Plasma Pistols, though the Fire Team was exposed, with little cover. “Captain!” Yelled B-312. She ran into a position just in front of the captain so as to block any incoming fire towards him. Aiming down the sights of her MA5K, she took aim at a Grunt, letting loose a burst of hot lead, which imploded the little alien’s skull, before sending him flying back. The ONI Spook, as well as the rest of the team, piled off of the elevator, and he sent it back up to Second Squad's position.

---

As the firefight erupted below, Second Squad could hear the ensuing chaos, but could do nothing about it. Lovik assigned one of his fire teams to watch the entrance, and as the lift came up, he, as well as the rest of the Marines got on it. "Fitz! Get your damn team moving!" He yelled to the green Corporal.

[Ubaria]

Above the prow of the hill lay the doorway to the facility. Instantly noticeable was the presence of covenant emplacements, abandoned at that. Even stranger was that their positioning indicated that rather than covering the outside, they were covering the inside as if to suggest they were preventing something exiting. Everbody looked uneasy at the situation that was developing, things were becoming stranger by the minute, nothing happening.

Even as they ventured inside, there was a lingering silence in the air, only broken by the clanking of boots on the metallic silver floor. Inside was like nothing ever seen before, the rooms were perfect in architecture, both the walls and the floor were all constructed out of engraved silver metal with glass highlights, from within shone a blueish glow, contributing to the overall hue of the room. Everyone was feeling the growing uncertainty as to the purpose of the building, or what lay inside, the ONI spook obviously knew more than he was letting on, that was typical ONI for you. Khloe expressed her concerns, what everyone was thinking basically to which the Captain replied with a stern lecture, Khloe then proceeded over to Kolby, who leaned in as she muttered in his ear.

“I think something’s down there. Whatever it is, the Covenant are scared of it, and that means we should be too. Watch yourself.”

"Agreed, this spook knows something, something big..." He muttered back, trailing off as they all approached the elevator doors. Working the elevator was simple, a glowing holographic touchpad allowed for easy navigation and in no time the elevator was dropping down into what looked like an abyss, whirring as it went. Kolby was just about to dose off to the strangely hypnotic tone of the elevator when he was almost struck by a flying plasma bolt, the doors had opened to reveal a group of Covenant, some Grunts and Jackals had heard the team approaching and had scrambled to intercept. Kolby quickly raised his rifle and reeled of a shot without even checking the scope, it clipped a Grunt and ricocheted away with a ping. Screw it, this wasn't a long range fight anyway.

Moving forward Kolby slung his rifle over his back, and drew his SMG in one smooth continuous maneuver, darting infront of the ONI agent and off to the right to exit the killbox which was the elevator, letting off a burst of lead from his SMG right into a Jackals face as it tried to block with its shield arm to no avail. "Someone frag these suckers!" Kolby yelled whilst providing suppressing fire.

[Glaswegistan]

As the gunfire faded into the distance, then faded into echoes, the Spartan and the crewman found themselves distanced from the prospect of immediate physical danger, but still in an uncomfortable and alien world, one not meant for them. Jorivoj was slowing down, whilst Joshua was yet to even break a sweat, Joshua thought about offering to carry the crewman, but then Jorivoj seemed to gain a second wind from somewhere and sped back up; either way, Joshua wasn't going to lose another comrade if he could help it.

After the first hour or so of running, the sounds of the Covenant sounded distant, by the time Jorivoj and Joshua had run for two hours, the Covenant weren't even audible, although by the time the two men decided to slow down of their own accord rather than the buckling will of Jorivoj's legs, they found themselves at a crossroads.

"So, sir? What do we do now?" Jorivoj asked, obviously trying to mask how badly out of breath he was. Joshua was surprised the crewman had managed to keep up at all.

"Honestly?" Joshua began, intending to follow through with the ever-trustworthy response of 'fucked if I know', before he realized that he was the closest thing to a leader in the situation he found himself in.

Fuck

"...I dunno what it feels like outside the helmet, but it sounds like there's a slight breeze coming from that way" he nodded to his direct front, trying to ignore the sounds that he felt sounded a bit too close to someone moaning for him to be fully comfortable with picking that corridor as his route.

"...Unless you want to head left, I'm thinking we head straight ahead; try to see if there's an exit. The sooner we get topside again, the sooner we can see if anyone else from the Autumn is still alive, then hopefully link back up with them; that sound like a plan?"

[Volvek]

"Roger that!" Kaya yelled as she ran for cover behind the same cover that Kolby had ran to. She set her MA5B down and pulled out one of her fragmentation grenades. "Cover me!" She yelled and pulled the pin and weighted for a few seconds before running out of cover and tossing the grenade among the ranks of the enemy, "Fire in the hole!" She yelled as the plasma fire shifted toward her. Her shields absorbed most of it but she quickly dove behind cover as she heard her shield sirens beeping. She couldn't help but smile at the sound of the explosion and the screams of the victims she had blasted, shredded and incinerated. She got up, picking her MA5B as she did and peeked out to see the floor and walls were painted with purple and bright blue blood. "Heh heh heh.. Very nice.." She said more to herself. Her devious laughing was quite accommodating to the skull carved on her face plate.

[Communist Androids]

Elliot G-272
Everything about the facility made Elliot want to leave. He had no intentions of doing so, especially after Keyes gave his lecture, but that didn't make the Spartan like it. Despite his attempts to not let the atmosphere get to him, he couldn't ignore it. Still, he soldiered on in silence, at least trying not to outwardly show his hesitance. They had a job to do, and Elliot wouldn't be a Spartan if he just ran whenever things got a bit creepy.

Alongside everyone else, Elliot boarded the lift. He found it rather interesting that the ONI spook seemed to immediately know how to operate it. Another case of command keeping the grunts in the dark, most likely. Then again, it wasn't his job to know things, Elliot's job was to kill things. When the lift stopped and they were fired upon, Elliot immediately raised his pistol and took a few slightly aimed shots. He had almost thought they wouldn't have to fight any covenant down here, but of course that was too much to hope for. The enemy forces were luckily rather lackluster, however, and with this many Spartans in this little space he might not even need to take cover, but that would be a stupid risk to take. Rather than stand out in the open, Elliot found himself a small piece of cover. Better than nothing. From there he began taking aimed shots, hoping to conserve as much ammo as possible. Whatever was down here, Elliot would feel much more comfortable around it if he still had a full magazine by the end.

[Galdius]

The closer Cassie got to the strange structure the more unnerved she became, and with the sights of shade turrets, the energy shields, and abandoned, empty munition crate's which were facing inwards towards the building rather outwards into the swamp wasn't exactly making her any more at ease, not to mention the complete lack of forces manning the said defenses. Whatever was on guard duty had abandoned their post, something that she would never imagine covenant forces doing with a "Powerful" weapon. Either whatever was inside must be something really nasty or they were about to walk into a rather well-formed trap, and Cassie wasn't exactly too hot on finding out which one it was, but captain keyes, the officer in command, was of course, very insistent on going in. Not wanting to take a bullet to the face from her own kind, She led her squad inside the large cold and metallic structure and immediately ordered them to spread out a little, as the room around thirty meters in size. everyone from Fire Team Sierra was seemly gathering around a large but rather unusually shaped thick glass elevator in the center of the room.

"Alright, Fire Team Sierra, you’re with me on the lift. Once we get down, we’ll send it back up to you. Lovik, detach a fire team to watch the entrance, while the rest of Second Squad follows us down."

Everyone from fire team sierra quickly began piling into the elevator, before it rapidly descended down the shaft into the facility. She couldn't say she envied fire team sierra, whatever was down there they would have to face first and if there was a hostile force was waiting for them down there, they were bound to take some sort of casualties. A silence filled the room as the wait for the elevator to be sent back up up again, but silence was quickly broken from echo the energy weapons and small arms fire coming from down the shaft. it sounded like utter chaos down there, and they stuck waiting for a fucking elevator, being as useless as wet gunpowder. But after an anxious few seconds of waiting which seemed like minutes, the elevator came back up as the battle continued to rage on down below.

"Fitz! Get your damn team moving!"

Cassie and her team got aboard and awaited for the elevator to descend into a battle of unknown proportions, for all she knew, they could be descending into an absolute cluster-fuck.

[The Floating Island of the Sleeping God]

There wasn't a lot of cover between the fire team and the leaderless lance. That didn't bother Cameron. He had brought his own cover. A repossessed energy shield clamped to his left bracer, he crouched behind the iridescent green wall it projected. The other Spartans were taking out aliens as quickly as he could get a bead on them. He began moving to the side, hoping to flank the remaining aliens. He had expected more open spaces, bringing along a pair of mid-ranged rifles, and his M7 had neither the accuracy nor the stopping power to be of much use against enemies with shields. So, he went tactical, making a strategic movement rather than trying to outgun the opponents. The fight, it seemed, was already halfway to being won. He intended to make certain that it was.

[Transoxthraxia]

Fire Team Sierra and Second Squad

As the lift came down once more to reveal that Second Squad had followed the Fire Team down deeper into the structure, it was revealed that the Spartans had made short work of the flimsy Covenant defenders. Violet and Cyan blood painted the walls as if someone had thrown it there from a bucket. The frags, lead, and everything in between had made short work of the already demoralized Covenant. B-312 stepped away from the Captain, examining the bodies of the fallen. “Captain, when was the last time you saw a Covenant Lance, without leadership? I mean, technically those Jackals looked in charge, but I haven’t seen a single Elite yet.” She said skeptically, continuing to weave in between the mangled Covenant bodies.
“They’re probably guarding key locations, Warrant Officer.” The ONI troop spoke, before walking in front of the Spartan, brushing past her like he had done with Kolby, after which he received a cold stare from the Spartan that could be felt from under the helmet. “Carry on, Spartan.” The Captain said, waving her forward. “Second Squad, fifteen meters behind, you know the drill. Post fire teams at key entrances.” Lovik nodded. B-312 and the rest of Sierra accompanied the captain into the back of the alcove, which had revealed a previously hidden door. It was forerunner in construction, and was nearly pentagonal, with two green lights on each side of the door denoting that it was open. As B-312 approached, it opened up, allowing for passage into a much larger room. The room was rectangular as well, and the UNSC personnel stood on the upper floor of the two, which was really only a catwalk that ran around the perimeter of the room, that was interrupted roughly in the middle by two large columns.

The lower floor was rectangular as well, but seemed to have a dent that ran along the entire length of the room in the middle of it that seemed to act as a sort of drain. There were doors on both the opposite end of the second floor, and two more doors below. Below stood another smaller grouping of Covenant troops, three Jackals, who seemed to be standing guard outside the right-side door of the lower floor. Keyes levelled his pistol, aiming silently at the Jackals who had just turned towards the sound of the door opening, before firing, making the Jackal in the center’s head explode into violet mist. He aimed at the second, but it had gotten its shield to bear in time. That was rapidly solved by a quick toss of a grenade, thrown by the ONI Spook, in between the two surviving Jackals. It exploded, and their bodies flew like ragdolls. The captain turned to the Spook. “What now?” The man responded. “I-I don’t know. This layout’s never been seen before, I don’t really know what’s where. I’m assuming it wouldn’t exactly be fun to get down there, however, so I’m willing to bet there’s another way to the other side…” He began moving towards a panel that stood at the edge of their part of the catwalk, designed in a similar fashion to the one that had commanded the lift, Second Squad right behind them. He pressed a button, and a thick blue bridge made seemingly out of light appeared, uniting the two ends of the catwalk.

B-312 was the first to test it. She set her heavy boot on it first, and it made a sort of springy, metallic sound. She then stomped on it. No response. Then, moving to stand on it, she gestured to the rest of the fire team to move forward.

---

Fire Team Sierra and Second Squad met up once again at the far end of the light bridge. It had led to an identical room, which had a lift that led deeper into the facility. “Alright, so here’s the plan. Lovik, you and your troops should stay here, make sure that no Covenant reinforcements get down here without us knowing.” The CO nodded to the Captain’s orders. “And the rest of us, Fire Team Sierra, we’ll take this lift down one more level and continue the search. We’ll radio back once we’ve found what we’re looking for, but, unless you encounter hostiles, or we find the weapons, there is to be complete radio silence. Does everybody understand?” There were a few node amongst the crowd gathered. “Good. Let’s get moving, then.” Sierra piled upon the second lift, and the ONI man pressed the panel that would lead them to within the deeper parts of the facility. As they disappeared, Lovik, Fitzgerald, and the rest of Second Squad watched them descend.

As they were out of sight, Lovik turned towards the Marines that he had been left in charge of. “Alright, you heard the orders. We’re to sit here and hold tight, blasting off any Covvies that come within range of us. We’ll set up a perimeter around this catwalk, make sure that nothing gets between us and that lift.” He turned towards Fitzgerald. “Corporal, I want your troops front and center watching that catwalk. Anything moves, you make sure it doesn’t for long.” He nodded to the female corporal, before turning his back, and putting his right hand to his ear, activating his radio line with the fire team that they had left on the floor above. “Fire Team Delta, do you copy?” There was radio static that could be heard from outside his helmet, most notably by the Marines around him, including PFC Vaine and Corporal Fitzgerald. “Fire Team Delta, respond.” Another few seconds of radio silence. Lovik then turned towards the light bridge, having stood facing away from it. “Alright, we’ve got some alarm bells sounding. Keep alert, we don’t know what we’re expecting.”

Lovik stalked away from Fitzgerald and Vaine, who had been quite close to the two of them throughout their exchange. “Looks like we may be in for some heat sooner than we’d thought, huh Corporal?” The young medic said to Fitzgerald, her coarse, but distinctly female voice said.

---

The lift that held Fire Team Sierra was descending them into hell, they just didn’t know it yet. As they got out of the elevator, they followed a similar layout that there had been in the first chamber that they had been in, with the catwalks and lower floor. However here the light bridge was flickering on and off, clearly a mark that it had been damaged. There was a clear way down, a few Covenant Weapons’ Crates stacked upon one another to make a natural stairway down. They followed it to the lower floor, and there one could see clear signs of a struggle. While the room was notably absent of bodies, there was Cyan blood that was smeared upon the right-hand side walls, and a violet colour, mixed with some ominous, puke-green coloured goo flowing into the central drain of the room. There were two doors within the room, but one of them looked busted, an attempt to open it from the inside failed, some of the door facing towards the Fire Team, and other parts of it laying on the floor in front of it. The other door, which was currently smeared in the blood of more-than-likely deceased Grunts, still had the green glowing lights, denoting the fact that it was unlocked.

After following the door through a narrow corridor that went around in a square manner they came out into a large atrium that was similar in dimensions to the room that they had just previously been in, but was architecturally very different. In the middle of the room lay a large contraption, as if a skylight had been enlarged and forced all the way to the ground, but it had been replaced with glass, that had been broken through in a large struggle. From it fell bits of grey-green. There was a second floor to the room, similar to the first, but it appeared inaccessible. On the opposite side of the large skylight lay a gruesome sight. Amongst a pool of violet-blue blood, plasma scarring, and a large amount of alien innards, lay an Elite. In one corner of the room was a small fire, and much of the room was covered in plasma scarring. Fire Team Sierra gathered around the Elite.

Khloe kicked the body, causing its innards to jumble within its body, its chest cavity having a massive hole in it, as if a giant fist had punched into it, and then tore out its intestines. “I think it’s dead, Spartan.” Keyes said, referencing the fact that Khloe had just kicked it. “There’s your Elite, then.” Said the ONI Spook, a tone of smug satisfaction coming from under his helmet. “Yeah?” Khloe asked. “What the fuck do you think did this to it?” Her tone raising to the point of anger, something she hadn’t expressed in a very long time. “Friendly fire?” The ONI Spook offered. “Friendly fucking fire is right,” Khloe said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Have you ever seen a plasma weapon that-“ Keyes interrupted the two of them. “Lock it down, both of you, before I get the both of you court marshalled and I personally pull both of your heads off.”

Taking a moment to calm down, Khloe then spoke once more. “Black-Ops, this thing was a baddie. Check it out, black armour. Whatever got it seemed to have gotten it… Well, pretty good. What the hell is a Covenant Black-Ops personnel doing here?” Keyes stood for a moment. “Forget about this friend of yours,” He said, nodding towards the body. “We’re probably close. Sierra, I want you to be ready for anything, you understand me?” The captain asked the Fire Team, his patience clearing frayed.

[Ubaria]

The fighting ceased almost as quickly as it had started, the Fragmentation grenades were the finisher which cut the remainder into ribbons, slinging a fountain of purple blood against the walls and floor like a morbid Jackson Pollok painting. Kolby stood up from his cover and turned over his SMG, estimating he had only expended around half a magazine or so, he holstered it on the magnetic hip holster and wandered into the pile of mangled corpses, turning around when Khloe mentioned about the lack of Elite command. ONI always had its way of keeping its secrets, this particular ONI spook seemed to just reply with evasive comments and stated nothing more. More and more this situation started to look awfully suspicious, but Kolby kept quiet.

The group moved on in through a previously hidden doorway into an even larger room, same kind of setup except they were up high, overlooking a lower level where there were a group of Jackles by a doorway, conversing in guttural clicks, however they ceased talking and span around at the sound of the doors closing behind Fireteam Sierra. Kolby was about to draw his rifle when a shot rang out, splattering one of the Jackals. Kolby turned to see the ONI spook pitch a grenade into the rest, catapulting them several feet across the room. At least he was good for something. Again he approached a console near the edge of the walkway they were on and tapped a button, bringing up a blue beam across the room seemingly from thin air. It seemed like some sort of bridge, and Khloe was the first to weight test it, a few firm stomps confirmed it was solid and so the group proceeded across, including the other Fireteam that was posted behind them.

Once everyone had crossed, they moved to another elevator. Instructions were clear, Sierra were to move in the elevator again whilst the others covered their backs, practically the same plan as last time. Everyone hauled into the elevator and were carted downwards again, deeper into the complex labyrinth of silver metallic rooms and blue bridges. Upon arrival, the scene was a gruesome and disturbing one. It appeared in the center of the room was a cylindrical glass tube that had been smashed somehow, across that were blood streaks across the wall, alien of course, as well as a strange green residue. Plasma damage littered the room indicating some sort of struggle, with what remained a mystery. Everyones attention was bought to the sight of a dead Elite slumped in the corner, instantly visible was the gaping hole in its abdomen, which exposed its organs. Kolby crouched next to the corpse as Khloe kicked it slightly, its organs jiggled about and gave off a sickening squelch. Kolby wondered what could have the raw power to disembowel an Elite, obviously there were plasma scorches around the room, but this was no Plasma wound, it seemed that something must have literally ripped its insides out, and whatever did that was still around, as there were no other bodies to speak of.

Kolby turned away to see Khloe being sternly lectured by the Captain after an argument with the Spook. Kolby straightened up and drew his SMG, keeping it lowered by his side. Everyone was now on edge, things were getting stranger by the minute, and as Khloe pointed out, the dead Elite in the corner was Spec Ops. What were Spec Ops Covenant doing down here? Probably the same reason all the Spartans were. As they prepared to move out, Kolby shot the ONI officer a glare, which he must have sensed as he turned around and met his stare for a moment before turning around again.

[Galdius]

Cassie kept her weapon trained on the opening as the elevator descended into a room filed with the fresh scent of burnt flesh and spent ammunition, the colorful blood of the covenant, plasma burns and bullet holes decorated the rooms walls, almost as if someone had decided to do some impromptu redecorating with a couple of fragmentation grenades and some aliens corpses. Stepping off the platform with her MA5B in a low ready stance, it was pretty damn clear that the Spartans had made short work of whatever resistance they had come into and they certainly didn't need the assistance of the second squad. Following the orders the captain, she and the squad stuck a good fifteen meters behind the fire team as they continued to descend deeper into the base, weaving past the mangled and misshapen bodies of jackals and grunts into the next room. It seemed the deeper they got into the facility the more interesting and strange it became, which in turn added to her to her ever growing anxiety in the back of head as the situation become more and more surreal, something clearly wasn't right, the way the operation had played out so far wasn't right.

as soon the fire team entered a large room on the second floor, a fire fight broke out but ended strangely in a matter of seconds with few precise strikes. Everything seemed too easy for a raid for a powerful weapon, a complete lack of resistance, the shade turrets and defenses pointing inwards, where was the rest of the covvies? the question continued to was bouncing back and forth in her head like a ping pong ball. Why was it so damn easy? Eventually Cassie stopping thinking about it and turned her attention to the rather strangle bridge with seemed to be made out of a blue light, almost like a holograph. After the extensive testing on the rather interesting "light bridge", the group of marines and Spartans crossed it, which led to another elevator. But without really thinking it over, they quickly boarded it and after the button was pressed, it took them deeper into the facility. It was beginning to seem like the place was going to go on forever, as if it was just a maze of rooms and corridors, light bridges and elevators.

“Corporal, I want your troops front and center watching that catwalk. Anything moves, you make sure it doesn't for long."

"On it like a bonnet." Cassie replied, hearing her orders loud and clear. "Alright you heard him, get into fire positions along the catwalk and keep your eyes on that elevator." She ordered signaling her fire team into firing positions which overlooked the light bridge, anything that would attempt to cross the bridge would be met with various arc's of lead and easily suppressed by the collective automatic fire from the MA5B's, but soon, the room was eerily quiet once more.

“Fire Team Delta, do you copy?”

The sound of Lovik voice echoing over the communications broke the said silence as he tried to haul the topside team but the squad was surprisingly only met with the sound of static interference, the creeping feeling of unease was now back in full force. The thoughts of worse which remained in the back of her head were now all the way at the front, gnawing away at her already wearing confidence and self reassurance that every thing was going to be fine, that she was just being her overly worrying, greenhorn self.

The second hail over the communications network was again, met with the unnerving sound of static.

“Alright, we’ve got some alarm bells sounding. Keep alert, we don’t know what we’re expecting.”

Cassie watched over the elevator was worried eyes, hoping that it was just a fault with communications or some other stupid reason like that. She felt trapped and rather claustrophobic now, if the covvies had managed to take over the entrance, they would have nowhere to fall back to and would no doubt in up stuck in the large maze of corridors and strange rooms. Cassie quickly steeled herself, dismissing the negative thoughts as best she could. They had the initiative and the ball was ultimately in her squads court, anything that would be coming down that elevator would be hit with a barrage of bullets first, and the only way they were getting to them was across the bridge.

“Looks like we may be in for some heat sooner than we’d thought, huh Corporal?”

Cassie turned her head towards the young medic, Vaine, as she began to start talking about combat.

"Starting to look that way." Cassie replied with a hint of nervousness in her voice. unlike Vaine's rather thickly and rough voice, Cassie's was rather soft and silvery, so much so that she'd have a hard time intimidating anyone without screaming at the top of her lungs. "But we've got the initiative, anything coming down that elevator is going to wish they didn't." She added, mustering up some bravery and confidence. "Lets hope they find what they are looking for soon, somethings not right about this fuckin' place."

[Communist Androids]

Elliot G-272
The fight with the Covenant had been nothing short of disappointing. Everything would be a lot nicer if they just had a big fight with some aliens, blamed the weird occurrences on coincidence, found a giant weapon, and left. Instead they got a tiny skirmish and even more questions that needed answers. Meanwhile the ONI spook seemed to be spending every moment he wasn't diligently working being a complete ass, which did nothing to lighten the mood. At least Elliot got to smirk when they entered the large rectangular room and the guy had to admit he had no clue what was what, at least in this room specifically. That also meant that everyone on the team by extension had no clue where they are, but there's a silver lining in everything.

The ride down the lift was unsurprisingly silent. While leaving the Marines behind them meant they'd have less manpower to fight anything further up, it would still be nice to know they wouldn't get shot at from behind. Getting flanked was generally bad, so Elliot was willing to call that a good tactical decision. The makeshift stairway down was rather convenient, though. It was nice to see some bit of luck on their side, all things considered. The one utterly destroyed door and the other bloodied one did a good job of dampening Elliot's momentary rise in spirits, but at this point what was one creepy room to another? Seen one, seen them all.

And then there was the next room, fit with a broken skylight thing, a great deal of blood and viscera, and a dead Black-Ops Elite. Wow, this mission just keeps getting better. Elliot thought sarcastically. The ONI guy acting like an douche again wasn't much of a surprise, at this point the Spartan was getting rather adept at just tuning him out and pretending he wasn't there. Instead he just took a look at the body himself. That hole in it's body less unnerved the Spartan and more made him wish he had a gun that could do that. When Keyes told everyone to be ready, G-272 piped up immediately. "Loud and clear, sir." He said, his tone much calmer than he was, as he gave his pistol a once over, just in case. When going up against an unknown foe with unknown power in a creepy ancient alien facility, it helped if your gun worked properly. He did the same to the SMG, might as well while they're waiting. Not like it could do any harm.