HRP reboot - Chapter 2: On the Run

Jaryd looked over at Siri, putting on the face of a small child with new toy. "Fuck yeah! What kinda toys we taking from the Unics? What are the specs of the Pelican? When can I see it? Does it have torpedoes? I bet it has torpedoes." After a moment he was just playing it up for laughs, mainly for himself with some consideration for the others.

Becky was about to object when she saw the logic to why she should stay on the ship. "Okay... Well as long as you din't confine me to a clean, fancy room I am fine" She had been afraid to touch half of the thing she had seen so far. The world she had grown up from was poor and even the UNSC forces stationed there where poorly equipped and armed, some of the things on this ship just left her in awe.

Emma battled through the snow, determined to make it to the rendezvous point. She ignored the logic to sit and wait in the building till the blizzard had past, she was going to regroup and Emma would do so regardless of any mere snow fall. Her armour was rapidly losing the battle against the cold winds and freezing snow... Suddenly her hud flickered as if it was struggling to maintained itself. The hud battled on, flickering like a candle in a strong wind before finally spluttering and disappearing all together.
She yelled loudly through chattering teeth. "Oh no! Oh hell no!" Without a hud, her visor was little more than a protective piece of clear material. With no hud she could not find where she wanted to go, where she had to go. This was beyond bad. Yet she ignored the logic to fall back and wait for the storm to pass, to dig shelter or return to the one she knew existed. Squaring her shoulders she resumed her frozen journey, hunched over against the driving snow that pounded her and the howling winds that snapped at her. Both robbed what little warmth she had. "F.. F... Foward" Emma said defiantly through chattering teeth, her grenade launcher shaking in hands that felt like they where formed of the purest ice.

Daniel was trudging along through the blizzard, whatever trails he left swiftly being covered by the snow. He tried once more with the radio, just in a moment of hope. "This is Dragon squad leader Sergeant Lampert, anyone out there over?" Silence. "Repeat this is Daniel Lampert, is anyone out there over?" Then, a voice began to crackle through over the radio. It was very low, even with the volume at its maximum level, and broken up. But he heard an all too familiar voice. "Je..us..ucking.....ris.....Da....iel! Th...is Chri.....o yo.....ead ove....?" Emboldened by the voice, he spoke again. "Say again, did not read you! This is Daniel Lampert of Dragon Squad, who is this over?" Soon though, he saw a shape move towards him. It was dark, but vaguely humanoid. And then the voice spoke again, clearer this time. "I said," the figure nearly screamed over the radio, "That this is Chris, you beautiful son of a bitch!" Chris yelled in barely restrained joy as she jogged towards him through the snow and wind.

Marcus continued to blaze a trail through the blizzard, the wind howling in his helmet like an angry animal. One thing Marcus was glad for, was that his armor systems were still holding, despite the fall that he took in the pod. Every system, except for VISR, seems to be down to line of sight at this point. Of course, he was only kidding himself...sightlines were almost nonexistent. Then, a crackle on his radio cut through the white noise. "Any...out...ere? Hello...th...is...Jo... An...ody......ead?" Marcus boosted the signal, "Jose...come in...this is Marcus. Do you copy?"

He then hoped that the medic had heard him in this mess.

Emma could not receive any transmissions due to the fact her armour had basically failed, the cold freezing the equipment. She found her pace rapidly decreasing as she ran out of strength and energy to keep going, despite the endless desire to battle onwards. She began to make her way down a slope when her boots lost their grip on the loose snow and she skidded down the slope. "Wooah!" She yelled before crashing to a halt, impacting face first in the snow. "Aw man... Come on Emma you've got to get up" She whispered to herself, forcing her cold body to lift her head up. She spied her weapon and reached for it with her right hand. She gripped the barrel and pulled the weapon to her, before getting up onto one knee.
She brushed the snow off of it and taking a deep breath made herself stand up. The slope that she had fallen down provided some shelter from both the wind and the snow, a brief respite really but one she desperately had needed. She began to move not even knowing if she was heading in the right direction any more or if anyone was nearby, she had no choice in the matter. If she stayed still long enough the cold would sap what little strength remained and extinguish her defiance that burned so brightly inside her. "Well at least this beats being in a stockade..." She muttered to herself softly.

"Right... hidden programs..."

I move over to where Marik was.

"How may Covie ships we got?"

let me check

=goes over data on a nearby screen=

in the area we heading to about less then a dozen spirits

"Ha ha, good to see you Chris!" Daniel yelled as he himself jogged towards her. They stopped when they were a few feet from each other, and looked each other over. Both had frost forming on their armor, which wasn't good and they both knew it. "Please tell me you found shelter," he asked her, to which she rolled her eyes inside her helmet. "If I did," she said, "would I be out here freezing my ass like you?" "I'd like to think so," he responded.

It took a bit, but finally the Long and Dark December reached ATLANTICA base, and soon was moored next to it. As the Marines were herded off by Michael and Lina, Rika had finally broken from her daze, to some extent, and was following Saoirse around like a child would follow their mother. The woman mostly ignored her, but kept her close.
The poor girl...

Requiem chimed on Jaryd's comm.
"We're here. Go check for the toys on the manifest and move everything we can use to the December. I talked a few civilians into helping us, so you'll have help. The rest are in the mess getting some food; raid ATLANTICA's food stores as well. It was stocked to last a year at least."

"Yeah well I don't. Been wandering around in the snow for an hour I think." She checked her map. Granted, it wasn't reading anything in real time; the two dots shown were the rally point, and her landing point. She had to think for a moment before she realized that right now, her current position, along with Daniels, was at least halfway to the rally point. All they had to do now was follow the compass, the same way they both had been doing already.

Some of the Marines were cheering, thinking they had won the small battle. As the group cheered a few wraith's tore through the buildings that they were around. Beginning to fire upon the clumpedd group of Marines.

As they fired, legs, and blood, and arms, and bone flew every which way. Splattering onto some of the men. After killing the group, the wraiths moved towards the pelicans that had wounded and civilians aboard. Kyle ran towards the one Gerry was in, as he got into the pilot seat, John yelled towards him to come back. But it was to late. As Kyle lifted it from the ground, the wraith shot at one of the wings, blowing it up. The pelican came down hard, nose first. It began to catch on fire, only some of the civilians made out, and ran for cover. Everyone else was given rocket launchers, and destroyed the Wraiths.

After the waves of troops stoppped, Doc looked through the crashed Pelican for any sign of Kyle or Gerry. He walked out of the smoldering heap of junk, with two dogtags.

Gerry Lancaster
Corporal - Unsc ODST
Achilles Squad
Heavy Specialist

Kyle Graham
Sargent - Unsc ODST
Achilles Squad
Marksman Specialist

Emma stopped walking, pausing briefly to catch her breath. There had to be a better way than just hoping blind luck and being immensely stubborn to regroup. She thought of a plan, risking as it was simple and it was very simple. The grenade launcher had two modes, a standard one where it would detonate after so many seconds and a more complicated mode where the round did not detonate till after the trigger was released... This caused a small blast that could stun vehicles and rob elites of their shields.
The plan was this, fire a grenade round into the sky and detonate it, hopefully any UNSC forces nearby might see it and head towards it, like a flare. It was not like she had anything to lose anyway. She aimed the launcher up and squeezed the trigger with a frozen finger. The weapon bucked shooting a round skyward. Emma slowly, softly counted to five whispering each word as if she was afraid that she might be heard. At five she released the trigger and a small blast appeared in the sky for a few seconds before vanishing.

Jaryd replied and started heading for the access ports. "Roger that, any idea how many are gonna help me and when I get to play with my new toys? You can imagine I am quite eager." His voice sounded...normal. As if he was talking to a person, not an AI, and he didn't have his usual snip or quips while talking to Requiem, like he respected the AI's view of him and opinion.

Lin shivered some more in her hole, though from the looks of things outside the blizzard was starting to die down a bit. That was good, it meant she cold get out soon.

John took the dogtags from Doc, and looked at them. A tear fell from his eye, no one saw it for he had his helmet on. He had been working with them for many a years, now they just vanish. Like a ghost, he was in pain, but kept his cool. He radioed in, "This is Master Sargent Do'Tree to the UNSC Hornet... I have two KIA's down here... And only two squadmates left."

Yang heard the message, he knew how much those men ment to John, "This is Captain Yang..." He didn't know what else to say, all he could think of was for them to keep going with there mission, "Proceed with mission...Get all of the remaining Civilians to the ship immediately, and search for more. We'll keep scanning the area for you."

John looked down, Doc put his hand on his shoulder. Barnes stood there, not knowing what to say or do. "Doc, Barnes... Get me a comm to the December... I want to talk to them... I want to know why they left."

While Lin was shivering in her hole and Daniel and Chris were walking together, the last member of Dragon Squad, Ozren, was lost and on his own. As he trudged through the snow, he made note of how the wind seemed to be slowing, and with that reduction in speed the amount of snow covering his vision began to reduce. He was able to see much better now, and what was more.......the radios were now able to get a signal. "Guys? Hello? This is Ozren, anyone there?" As he called into the radio, his foot fell onto the ground......and through the roof of Lin's snow hole. The roof collapsed, bringing him down with it, and he gave a shout of surprise. For her part, Lin, who was already curled up on the floor of her tiny cave longing for a warm bed, gave a yelp of pain and surprise when she felt Ozren's foot, along with the rest of his weight, land on her shoulder.

"JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!" she yelled, recoiling from the pain while at the same time reaching for her gun. She stopped though when she saw the ODST uniform. "Identify!" she barked, to which Ozren depolarized his visor, a shocked look evident on his face. "Jesus Lin, it's me. Oz!"

Emma sighed, that had been a waste of a round. She began to move once more, hoping that her armour might warm up and then begin to function properly. If she could restore radio contact when the equipment warmed up then perhaps she might be able to find where the fight was at. Till then Emma found herself enjoying the freedom the the wide, open ice cold snow fields, anything beats a small, cramped dark cell... Even if she was slowly getting frustrated due to her being unable to find the action. Due to her visor being down she had no clue how close she was to actual friendlies or that she was slowly making her way away from them.

"Oz? What the hell, why are you crashing into my cave?" Lin asked, somewhere between shocked and angry. "Not like I fucking planned it Lin! Been stumbling out in a fucking blizzard, no clue where the fuck I've been going!" He climbed off her, scooting back to the other side of the now cramped cave. It was much harder to do, considering his current gear. "Jesus, you grabbed a rocket launcher?" Lin said, holstering her pistol. Ozren grinned a little. "Well I am the demo-man. It seemed only right I grab the rocket launcher." He unstrapped the weapon from over his shoulder, allowing him to get more comfortable. At the same time, both their radios crackled, and Daniel's voice came through.

"Lin, Ozren? You guys there? Respond, that's an order," they both heard Daniel shout over the radio, to which Lin just sagged back against the wall. "Of fucking finally....."

The Spear of Independence emerged from slipspace, the rogue UNSC frigate moving swiftly towards the planet of Athera almost akin to a Carrion Crow. How Anna and the AI Canis had discovered about the Covenant attack on the planet was a mystery, wrapped in secrecy. The arrival of The Spear of Independence was not a good sign, there was no doubt that they weren't there to help, merely loot and scavenge. Anna walked onto the bridge, clad in a looted ODST EVA suit that she had scavenged from a destroyed UNSC frigate. The ship's long ranged sensors where down, damaged from a run in with a UNSC frigate. Normally Anna would have insisted on caution and stealth but no UNSC warship could have missed their entry.  So the ship accelerated with all speed towards the planet, a tactic Canis approved of. "It's about time we get back to the fight Ma'am" He said as his hologram appeared. He was dressed as a Spartan Red Cloak warrior, he flickered every so often. A sad reminder of the AI's age and how he was slowly dying... If a machine could die. Reaper Team, a unit of "Rogue Spartans" had slowly been wilted down one by one with members lost, killed or captured. Anna was the last, as far as she knew and her one Spartan vendetta against the UNSC was still fought with cunning, grace and skill. "Canis, activate weapon systems, prime the main gun" Anna commanded, sliding her helmet into place, completely protected from space. There was a noticeable pause before Canis responded. "Yes Ma'am, arming weapons.. Archer missile pods have been depleted" The Spear of Independence had ravaged UNSC shipping for many months claiming countless ships. Considering the ship's small armament  this was quite a feat and was testament to Anna's skill at naval engagements. However... Such victories had damaged the ship and exhausted supplies, leaving the warship vulnerable to attack.

=the ship eventually makes it to a point in low atmo and stays there while trying to verify the situation in the area when the sensor alerted the ship to the incoming ship=

we got company and signal matches that of a rogue ship that's been hunting unsc shipping lines

The Spear of Independence made it's way into the atmosphere. It could not detect any UNSC ships so Anna was making preparations to land on the surface and loot some of the abandoned UNSC bases or armouries in the hope of resupplying the small frigate.

looks like they can't detect us cloaked and seems there sensors are down so lets give them a suprise welcome

=activates the appropriate controls and targets the rogue frigate=

firing emp cannon

=fires the emp cannon which hits the frigate dead on causing major damage and it's systems to start fail including engines=

they going down!

The Spear of Independence shook violently as it's systems crash. "I... We have lost multiple systems... Su.. Supected EMP.... O..." Most of what Canis said was lost amidst a tide of static and jarred words. Anna staggered and clamped herself into a chair and braced herself for the crash. The small frigate plummeted from the sky like the wrath of an angry god. "System... Brace for... Ostile..." Canis still tried to speak even though his words where hard to decipher. A small Covenant base had been set up, so far undetected by UNSC forces, it was calm and peaceful... The aliens going about their business of fortifying when suddenly the Spear of Independence smashed to Earth, crushing vehicles, alien structures and splattering any covvie not fast enough to get away. The craft came to a halt, smouldering, while dozens of grunts and brutes surrounded the downed ship. The dust settled and at first it looked like Anna had been killed on impact. Then... A sign of life a hatch exploded from the ship and was followed by the bark of a DMR, grunts collapsed as they where felled by head shots. Spartan III Anna emerged into the light, rifle blazing. The brutes enraged roared, charged forward along with their grunt meat shields, weapons firing. Spikes, needles and plasma bolts rained down around Anna who calmly continued to keep firing, killing alien after alien with calm precision.

(Kira)

I opened my messages, having been notified that there were several unread.

Message 1:

That was troubling, ODSTs and a Spartan? I was worried about Dávid, if something that required Spartans, then he could be in danger.
He's a big boy now, Kira, I thought, A Marine, no less. He'll be fine.

Rather than dwell on the matter, I continued.

Message 2:

I smiled, Kitti was always so cheerful. She was still such a child sometimes, but soon she'd be a higher rank than me.
I'll never get to serve under her... I thought, But maybe I could get Dávid onto her ship...

With a sigh, I opened my last message.

Message 3:

I could tell who this was from.
They want him arrested? All because he hasn't met their expectations? I thought, An arrest like this could effectively end his career... But that's not for me to decide. Taking my pistol, I stepped out of my quarters and spoke to Wynter.
"Wynter, inform Captain Richards I need to speak with him. Urgently."

"Of course, lieutenant." She replied a moment later, "The Captain is on the bridge. He hopes you have a good reason for this."

we got em and they ain't going anywhere so for now lets focus on the covenent

=manevuers the sip into a concealed area and lands it=

ok we're set lets go

With her adrenaline pumping, Anna did not realise how badly injured she had been from the crash until her suit rebooted. Her visor flashed with warnings, a collapsed lung, four broken ribs and a ruptured spleen where some of the many injuries. Her DMR clacked empty and she tossed it aside, drawing her shotgun swiftly firing it, knocking a brute backwards into his comrades. Anna slowly backed away into the crashed Spear of Independence. She excelled at fighting onboard ships, this fight would be no different. A brute major fired his spiker at her, most of the shots missed, one however rammed home into her torso. Anna gasped and fired her shotgun twice, the buckshot cutting the brute down. She backed into the ship, reloading as she went. "Canis activate the distress beacon, message to all Insurrectionist forces requesting immediate back up location this transmission, repeat it" The AI muttered something in reply, however Anna had no time to reply as she staggered her way down a corridor, a dozen brutes and at least four dozen grunts in pursuit. She slid behind a crate as plasma fire rained down around her. The spike in her was blood slicked and taking a deep breath she pulled it free. Hot crimson poured out of the wound, however there was no time to relax or heal up. "Well... This is it then" She muttered holding her shotgun in her right hand and her plasma pistol in her left. She counted to three in her head before emerging out of cover. "For freedom!" She yelled at the top of her voice, there was no doubt in her mind that this was the end. The last fight, final ride... At least she would not die a slave to the UNSC, once she lived for the UNSC, today she died for herself. The brutes, the grunts.. They where simply just another thing to kill.

I grabbed a few new weapons from our little armory and began checking them over, before moving out. I geared myself with C-12 explosives in a shock-proof case on my lower back, a DMR rifle on my back, an M6C pistol on my hip and a silenced BR-55. Now armed to the teeth, I turned to Marik.

"What's the game plan? If they got any AA guns on the ground we could try and take control of one, or just destroy it. Or maybe take our chances at a Covenant FOB, neutralizing a valuable area that the Covies control."

Lin immediately responded to Daniel's broadcast. "Dan, it's Lin. I'm stuck in a foxhole with Oz; what's your situation?" Daniel traded a look with Chris before speaking. "Situation is good, for the moment. Blizzard's dying down, so radios are back up, clearly. I'm getting data from the comsats.......our boys in orbit are putting up a fight, but it's mostly cat and mouse right now. Ground forces are gathered north of us, and we're close actually. I'll try and establish communications, but for now lock onto my signal, and come find me."

During this span of time, Marcus and Doc had managed to meet up, both men happy to see that they had made it out of the drop alive. They blindly made their way to the RV point, the compass barely helping either of them. Marcus, noticing that the blizzard was dying down a bit, tried raising the rest of Wolf Squad on the long range comm. Jose interrupted him by saying, "Hey, amigo, I'm getting comsat signals from upstairs. Thunder and the rest of the group are putting up a helluva fight." Marcus breathed a sigh of relief, "Well...that's some good news."

Marcus then raised Wolf, hoping he could something from the radio, "Wolf Squad...anyone read, over?" Marcus then heard a collective sigh of relief on the other end, "Damn good to hear your voice, sarge. It's Lily, holed up with Mitchell, fuck if I know where we are. What's you situation?" Marcus traded a brief glance with Jose before speaking, "Situation's a bit better than before. Blizzard is dying down, so radio are working just fine. Ground forces are gathered northeast of our location, and we're pretty damn close. I'll try to see if I can get on the horn with them; but for now, just lock onto my signal and come find me in this mess."

Marcus was hoping Dragon was fairing just as well.

Barnes came back with some radio supplies he could salvage. It wasn't much but he could patch him through,"Alright Sarge, your patched through!"
John cleared his throat, his voice a bit horsey, "This is Master Sargent John Do'Tree of the UNSC Hornet... hopefully that won't change... But I would like to speak to the CO. Or the who is incharge, I have a few questions I would liked answered before I can't speak anymore."
As John talked to them, Doc was treating the wounded and Barnes was radioing other units. It was a tough day the hadn't been won just yet.

"Roger that sir, we're on our way. Over and out." Lin stood up, looking down at Ozren. "Come on Ozzie, let's go while the going is good." He nodded, and stood up, brushing off some of the snow and ice. Courtesy of the hole he created from his entrance, when they stood up they were actually waist deep in the hole. All they needed to do was push aside rest of the snow around the entrance and they were good to move. Which they did.

"Okay," Daniel said, cutting the transmission and looking at Chris. "We're getting the band back together, so why don't we just sit tight for now." If he could see past her polarized visor, he'd have seen her frown. "Yeah," she responded. "Let's stand around in the cold and freeze our asses off some more. That's a great idea."

Anna tossed her plasma pistol aside, the weapon overheating. With a blast from a shotgun she sent a grunt flipping backwards into a wall, her shotgun clicked empty. A brute rushed towards her firing, she felt a burning sensation as something punch into her chest. Roaring she lunged forward and felt a soft crunched as shotgun's stock made contact with the brute's head. It yowled, spitting blood as it staggered back, by now Anna had reversed her hold on the shotgun and brought the stock down on the brute's head like a club. The creature went down with a wet thud and did not stir again. Dropping the shotgun, she picked up the fallen brute's mauler just as she took three spike rounds into her right hand side. She gasped in agony and turned firing the mauler cutting down the vile alien who had fired the shots. She found herself falling to her knees, firing the mauler in her left while her right tried to remove the spikes from her body. Brutes, Grunts, Jackals... They seemed to be everywhere, it was then that she received worrying news from Canis. "Ma'am... I... Cannot shut down... Memory... Locations of other world, navi..." The AI's words where lost to static and she continued to fire, fighting on even though the aliens swarmed her. Anna must have passed out briefly as the next thing she realised was that she was outside the ship, lying on her side. Two Brute majors forced her up and onto her knees, one tore off her helmet with a big fuzzy paw. Through bleary, agony filled eyes Anna could see that she was surrounded by Covenant who formed a circle around her and her two guards. Suddenly the crowd parted and a Brute Chieftain strode forward holding a hammer in one thick paw, he approached her before gripping it tightly in both hands. Anna narrowed her eyes and said in defiance. "One day... Someone like me will kill you and your whole fucking Covenant!" She spat in the Brute's face, who roared and prepared to bring the hammer back to swing down. Defiant to the end that was Anna.

"Well we can always walk towards them and save some time..." Daniel responded, much to Chris' amusement. "Nah," she said. "I just enjoy messing with you." His whole posture was a scowl as he looked at her, and it only made her chuckle some more.

Lin and Oz continued on through the snow, and with the blizzard dying down, they were soon treated to a nice view of the sky. Pale blue dotted with white clouds painted the sky, and on the western horizon was the dull orange glow of the sun, low in the sky and making ready to set. If it wasn't for the fact that thee were Covenant forces out to kill them on Waltari, it would have made for a great picture.

I racked a round into my BR55.

"Improvise as we go, I can do that."

I exit the ship, stepping onto the dirt.

"Let's get moving."

=gets a notices on his hud=

dam that rogue ship still intact and if we don't get there and purge it the covies will find earth and even more colonies

=takes off running in that direction=

It wasn't long before Lin and Oz finally came within sight of Daniel and Chris. There was no joyous slow motion running though. No, Daniel and Chris simply stood there and waited for the other two to reach them. Once together, they began marching together for the rally point, in silence.

It had beena few hours since the Long and Dark December had linked with station ATLANTICA. Saoirse had directed Jaryd to his new toys while she went to go check on Rika.

She had found her still in shellshock. Not even a kiss to the forehead woke her up.

Saoirse went about her business, and soon found herself facing some civilians with Michael.
"They got insisntant." He shrugged.
"Ma'am, I'm Jim. We wanted to know if you needed any help."
Frowning, Saoirse crossed her arms. "Jim. I'm going to be blunt. We're rebels. We ran away and saved you because it was right. So really, we just need you to cooperate. I have a million things to do, so please. Just stay with your families and we'll get you to the UNSC."

She left the speechless men there, and Michael began to herd them back.
"Jaryd, Saoirse here. Status on the Pelican? Happen to have more then one prototype?"

Jaryd replied back, the sound of a welder going off in the background. "Well, ma'am, this is actually quite a brilliant machine. Two layers of armor with a space between allowing ballasts to be stored in there and help it function as a submarine. Missiles were replaced with torpedoes, the chaingun with a retractable harpoon launcher, and I think a depth charge launcher in the back. As for more then one uhm..." Jaryd slid out from under the machine and looked around the hanger bay, turning off the welder. All around him were skeletons, hulks of pelicans in various states of working and non working, but only one complete, which was the one he was standing near. "Define more than one."

"A complete one. Does the Pelican have any guns for space or above water combat? And is there any other we can complete?" Saoirse replied.

"In order, no, no, yes kinda, and I think so I'll need to check." The welder sound shuts off. "All but one in here is in the category of 'eeeh it kinda looks like it if you lean back and squint.'"

=had after considerable amount of time made it to a hill overlooking the downed ship and crushed base and was looking through the scope of his rifle he'd just set up before seeing something=

we got a problem involcing a chieftan about to execute someone can't tell from here given distance but looks to be a spartan,as for what type can't say,lemme zoom in little more

=uses his huds zoom as well and gets a clear picture=

definately a spartan going to take the shot

=fires the rifle and hopes that the round hits the target dead on=

Anna stared at the brute, her eyes burning with cold hatred. She was not going to beg for her life or give the enemy the satisfaction of her looking away. Suddenly the Brute Chieftain's head exploded, the Brutes holding her made the error of relaxing their guard, relaxing their grip briefly. Fighting through the pain, she slipped her right arm free and drew her knife plunging into the side of the Brute holding her left. Now free she pulled a spike grenade from the Brute on her left and threw it at the Brute to her right, who by now had turned towards her roaring. He flinched when struck by the grenade, but Anna was already moving or at least attempting to. The grenade detonated, the blast killing both Brutes and knocking Anna to the floor. Her vision swam and she struggled to get back up, she had to get up, get moving. If the Covenant didn't kill her then the UNSC might... Death was not something she wished to embrace just yet.

target down lets move

=gets up restores zoom settings back to normal before starting down the hill=

When Dragon team came within sight of the rally point, and they saw Pelicans taking off, they immediately attempted to contact the base. "Rally Point Alpha this is Dragon Team, do you read?" A voice from the other end immediately responded. "Copy Dragon Team we read you over. Good to see some more Helljumpers survived, we're going to need all the help we can get. Come on in, get some food in you and we'll fill you in." Daniel couldn't help but grin. "Roger that Alpha, moving in now."

Saoirse sighed.
"Start cannabalizing. I'll see if any mechanics are part of the civilians."

Once Dragon reached the rally point, they were soon given the cliff notes of the current situation: the battle in orbit wasn't going well. Surviving ships were forced to run, and were attempting to hide behind the moon. Or at least, they were running around it and away from the Covie ships. In the meantime, ground forces were regaining their mobility, now that the blizzard was ending. Pelicans carrying vehicles and personnel were being sent to the frontlines in an attempt to secure strategic locations, and establish footholds in areas that had been lost.

When they were ready, Dragon's new mission was to board a pelican and drop down in the northern sector and assist the Marines trying to retake a communications array.

The boys got the rest of the civilians on the pelicans and on to the UNSC Hornet. All civilians were to be in the living quarters of the ship. Not much was said to them, only that they needed to just stay down. The rest of the Marines, and ODSTs were still boots on the ground to report anything planet side. Some were just wanting to go back to the ship, others not so much.

John got off the radio, thinking it over and over again, if it is really a good idea to leave and convince the rest to leave... but then again, he would be betraying the very thing he wants to protect.

Doc still treated the wounded, not showing emotion or stress after picking up the two dog tags from the burning wreckage. It was how he dealt with shock, and the loss of friends. It wasn't the best way to deal with it but it was the only way he knew how to.

Barnes, the newest member, wasn't sure how to feel, considering he had some problems with both of them, it was confusing to say the least.

Jaryd nodded. "Affirmative. I'll get to gutting, you organize the sleepover. Jaryd out." He cut off his comms and went back to welding and understanding the mechanics and machinery of the pelican, partly to know how to make the others work more, and partly to just know how it worked.

I had waited for Marik to take the shot and once he had, I moved down the hill behind him.

"With all these covies and UNSC seeming to show up, this might end up being a head-on battle, rather than what we usually do."