HRP reboot - Chapter 3: Freedom's Bell

=was observing the covenenats positions=

hey dan we got any of those telemetry probes or black widow satellites online at all?

"Roger that sir," Taylor said, squeezing the trigger and sending a high-speed armor piercing round whizzing through the air. For the briefest of moments, the shields on the Elites flared before collapsing, and the back of their head exploded in a mixture of blood, bits of skin and bone and even fragments of the helmet flying out as the body collapsed. The Grunts yelped in fear and surprise, high-pitched barks sounding from behind their gas masks. Some turned their backs on the fallen Elite, running back to base. They never noticed the humans circling them, holding guns on them. The SMG's fired, suppressed shots barely audible as they tore through the Grunts, armor and skin alike. It lasted all of three seconds, and no alarm was sounded. When the last Grunt fell, Helix moved on.

It took time.
Oracion was jurry rigged with whatever the two ships had on hand. Renegades and allies workedt ogether, working hard to ensure the Mako-class corvette was ready. And an hour later, she found it as ready as they possibly could be. The Long and Dark December assisted with takeoff, and onboard the Oracion stood Fireteam Blaze, and onboard December was the reserve crew. Stations manned, Requiem was ready.
"Okay Oracion. We'll draw them away and leave it open. Get Blaze onto the planet, that's all we need." Requiem paused, then finally spoke.
"Alright. Let's go."

The two entered Slipspace.
"Alright everyone. Good luck."

Special Operations Office Dosze 'Taydumee patrolled through the ship, examining his men and soldiers slowly, ensuring all were prepared. Before long, he took his place at the head, and opened up his comm with Rha'.

"Awaiting command, Shipmaster."

-

Rha' folded his arms, watching as a few more T'vaoan and Unggoy finally filled the last transport vessel. With the six ships prepared, Rha' turned and made his way to the nearest door out of the hangar, followed by his Commandos. He expected Set and Dosze to have qualms about this, but all would be explained in due time.
He activated his comm, and prepared his troops for their mission.

"We are about to embark on a mission to reclaim an artefact of the Ancients. Two of our DX-class ships will deploy and locate a nearby base of operations, in the unlikely event that we are unable to fulfil our duty. The other four dropships will take us to the precise location of the artefact - a human facility. From there, Special Operations Officer Dosze 'Taydumee and Commando Set will lead the initial assault to cripple the human defenders that dare desecrate the artefact. As soon as that task is complete, my Commandos and I will join the fray, and clean up what is left. Is everything understood?"

The ships and their personnel all acknowledged, and slowly, each one began to rise off of the hangar floor, and make its way down to the surface of the planet.
He had hope in the Commando, and the Special Operations Officer. But hope was rarely enough these days.

-

"We've got one left."

There was barely any warning; all Daniel saw ahead of him, puffs of dirt and dust shooting into the air in time to impressions forming in the ground. "Cloaker!" he shouted, firing his SMG in the direction of the footsteps. Bullets pinged off the shields of the cloaked Elite, disrupting the cloaking field and revealing the towering alien, holding an Energy Sword and coming straight for Daniel. Trevor jumped between them as the Elite swung his sword, and caught the blade on the side of his torso. His armor boiled as the plasma cleanly cut through it and the wearer like butter. Not stopping there, the Elite roared and grabbed Trevors top half, before flinging it like a missile at Elizabeth. He hit her like bag of bricks and she lost her balance, tumbling to the ground under the weight of the torso. Mark and Daniel aimed their guns again at the Elite and fired, but the alien retreated, cloak reactivating as it vanished.

"Man down!" Daniel shouted. Mark rallied on him, while Liz pushed Trevor's dead corpse off her. Randall and his team came a minute later, while Taylor and her team tried to find the cloaked Elite. "I don't see anything," she said. "Keep me posted Taylor. And keep your eyes open Helix, no telling if that was the only one."

Lindsey failed to duck in time from the gunner's return fire. Three rounds caught her in the chest, sending her sprawling onto her back. She tried to call out that she was hit, but spat a mouthful of blood onto the inside of her visor.

--Victoria--

"Shit, medic!" Lin shouted as she sat with her back to the rubble, staring at Lindsey on her back. "Cover me!" Phillip said as he pulled a canister of biofoam out from his satchel. He ran for Lindsey before sliding on the ground, ducking beneath the bullets that were flying, and then inserting the nozzle of the canister into the bullet holes. The foam shot out of the nozzle and into the wound, expanding and sealing the hole before he moved to the next hole. "Not sure how much this will help, I'd need better equipment to know for sure," Phillip said as he worked.

--Covenant Outpost World--

The attack of the Elite suddenly put the whole platoon on edge, even as they continued forward. It made them regroup and gather together in a tighter formation than before, and perhaps that was a good thing: the Elite had triggered the alarm, and reinforcements arrived in the form of six squads of Grunts and Jackals, though no Elites could be seen. "Sniper team, take out those Jackals. Rest of Helix, take out those Grunts with controlled bursts!" Daniel shouted.

Lindsey stiffened as what felt like a thousand fire ants burning through her body overid the pain from the injuries. She tried to speak but just coughed each movement sent liquid agony pouring through her body. All Lindsey could think about was great, more medals for injuries.

--Victoria--

"Phillip, stay with her and keep her alive. No one is dying today," Lin shouted. "Chris, grab that grenade launcher and take down that gunner now!" Chris nodded, crawling for the fallen launcher as bullets chipped away at the small amount of cover they had. She grabbed the weapon, making sure it was loaded with a fresh round. She waited for a pause in the gunfire, before leaning over, taking a risk, and shouting "Fire in the hole!" and squeezing the trigger. The grenade flew through the air and hit the ground at the rear of the Warthog by the gunner and rocking the vehicle violently. It threw their aim wide as they fired, rounds peppering the wall, and Lin peered down the sights of her DMR as she followed them. Her training as a marksman took over, and she squeezed off a shot and took out the gunner with a headshot. "Push forward!" she said.

--Covenant Outpost World--

It became a firefight, and while brief it was violent. The snipers took out the Jackals, pinpoint shots hitting them through the gaps in the shields, while the rest of Helix used quick bursts to rip through the Grunts armor and flesh.

Dan shook his head, thinking for a long while.

"It'd be hard... And I don't know if we'd be able to do it without them knowing."
He looked at the probe, making sure it was still in working condition.

"Can you get in contact with any of the bases or stations down on the planet? We need to know what's happening."

--Covenant Outpost World--

They may not have been Spartans, but Helix handled the firefight very well with no casualties (save Trevor) while the Covenant meat shields were torn apart by the hail of bullets. When the last Grunt had fallen, Helix advanced forward, though Daniel stopped them by the fallen troops. "Grab what you can; weapons, grenades. Hell, grab some of those Jackal shields, see if we can get them to work." Removing one of the gauntlets from a Jackals arm, Markov pressed one of the buttons and a round energye shield snapped into formation. Another press of the button, and it turned off. "Looks like it still works. Shiny," Liz said as she clamped one of the gauntlets on. It was a bit heavy, bulky even, but it was a tolerable inconvenience.

--Victoria--

With the APC disarmed, Dragon and Griffin squads pushed forward, though Phillip remained behind with Lindsey to make sure she didn't bleed out.

Set's ships were among the first to make the landing on the human world. His commandos were ready, they were dropped off at various locations predetermined by Set for maximum tactical effect, and minimal risk for detection.

Lindsey groaned quietly, it hurt to breath. Well hurt was a massive understatement, agonising would have been more suitable for it, agonisingly painful. She lay on her back still, sprawled out on the ground. She didn't want to die, not yet... Not like this lying on her back in the dirt on some forsaken jungle.

-Victoria-

Within the walls of the rebel base, there was a larger than anticipated number of enemy soldiers. The odds were still good though at least; after all, ever ODST had more training and experience than the rebels here, most of them either farmers or factory workers who only had enough training to not shoot themselves. Dragon and Griffin squad pushed forward to the motionless APC, hunkering down behind the vehicle and taking out targets with bursts of gunfire and grenades.

-Outpost World-

With the shield gauntlets equipped, Helix continued forward. However it was clear that the base was alerted to their presence, as Taylor saw through her scope. Two of the large entrance doors in the side of the base opened, and a few more squads of Grunts began moving out, while two Skirmisher teams, hefting large beam rifles, moved to take sniping positions. "Sir, got a pair of snipers moving to takea few potshots at you, and Grunt teams moving to intercept."

"Roger that Taylor," Daniel said. "Take down those snipers while we push on through those Grunts."

As the ships came down into the large, relatively clear opening within the forest, Rha' lead his own forces to the long starboard side drop bay. Though all were prepped, only four bays would be required - three pods per bay, ten Commandos and two Huragok. Of course, this meant one bay would need to be wasted momentarily to deploy Rha' on his own, but he was more than used too it by now.

"Shipmaster, what of this one?"

Rha' looked down the bays and noticed one drop pod already prepped for deployment. He brushed it off, looking at his Commandos.
"That is nothing to concern yourselves with. Simply ready yourselves for deployment."
With that, they all followed his words as law, and began to fill the pods one by one, and begin the long wait.
Rha' stood, alone now, and contacted his field commanders.

"Commando Set, Special Operations Officer Dosze, what is the progress of the landing?"

The Special Operations Officer was first to respond, the sound of wind rushing by in the background.
"The forward base has already been established, Shipmaster. Forward and Rear legion are moving out to begin the assault on the base."

Rha' shut off his comm and took a deep breath, as he held the hilt of his blade tight, thinking.
Before long, a lone Huragok wafted by, meddling with machinery as always, a pair of Unggoy watching it close.

"You, Unggoy."

The smallest of the two jumped in fear, shaking in his armour. He clearly had not expected to be addressed by the Shipmaster.

"Bring me 'Zamittaree's blade."

--Covenant Outpost World--

Without further need for an order, Taylor and her team fired, taking down some of the Skirmishers. One escaped and got into position, bringing it's beam rifle to bear. Right as Taylor lined up the sight and pulled the trigger, so did the Skirmisher. The bullet hit its chest right the beam rifle fired, and the shot went wide of the intended target but still hit a member of Helix, Henry Lark, in the leg. He screamed as he went down, smoke rising from the hole in his suit. There was a hole there, the material of his suit melted around and over it, along with the flesh, muscle and bone of his leg in a tight line. "Man down!" someone shouted, a medic heading for Henry while the platoon advanced forward.

let me take care of it

=starts the cycles=

hopefully we can get comms set up fast

Dosze stepped away from the Phantom, flanked by two other Special Operations Sangheili from his own assault team. He intended to split his force of fifteen into five teams of three, with his second in command leading a different team. One of the teams was to neutralise the bases' communications, which would mean that no human reinforcements would be able to arrive. He barked a command to an officer, who nodded and left to carry it out. Dosze and his Sangheili climbed aboard a Spectre, and set out to the human outpost.

--Covenant Outpost World--

With the snipers down, it gave the rest of Helix more room to overwhelm to Grunts and mow them down. While the medic tended to Henry, the rest of the platoon pushed forward to the base. Finally reaching one of the large doors, Randall moved forward on Daniel's orders to deploy a C-12 charge on the door. Everyone moved back, and he thumbed the detonation trigger; a roar of thunder, smoke and fire erupted from the door as it was blown to pieces.

With a motley collection of the survivors of Paradiso's garrison, the Long and Dark December was in the center of the formation. With one destroyer with a failing reactor, four frigates and two corvettes besides Oracion, Requiem was actually smirking.
"Just enough." His voice echoed.

"The plan is simple. December and the majority of the fleet will engage the enemy fleet in a game of hit and run. But that is not how we save the planet." he paused. "My Spartans, codenamed Blaze, will be onboard the Oracion. Our target is the ONI base in the south - it has Forerunner artifacts. Our science officer, Saoirse Monroe, was captured by the Covenant. She has studied Forerunner with ONI. That's where she'll be. Now, since none of you can get the covenant, none of us can get Saoirse, we have to work together."
"So." The destroyer captain was actually the XO, Commander Ponds. "We have to fight a fleet."
"Yes. But we have one thing going for us. They are mostly corvettes and frigates. Which means we can mostly disable their fleet with nukes, if not downright destroy them."
"I still don -"
"We fly by the planet and rain every single ODST we have down at that base. We take and hold until help arrives."
"How do we know help is coming?"
"I told Saoirse's father, Admiral Monroe, ten minutes ago that she's here."
"That...is affective."

The fleet began to transfer all their ODSTs to a select few frigates and the Oracion. The plan was to drop and fight, with the Oracion going in low to help with fire support. This will not be easy and will be the single most crazy thing we've ever done since stealing this ship."
"That's comforting."
"Good. Thirty minutes until Slipspace. Transfer and strap them in. If you got tanks, you got anything, send them to the designated ships."

--Victoria--

"Griffin, Chris and I will stay here and suppress. Flank and fire!" Lin shouted. Griffin wasn't thrilled to being given orders by someone who wasn't their CO. Still, at least they weren't the ones getting fired on, so they followed the plan and moved to the side while Lin and Chris fired on the rebels, drawing their attention. It gave Griffin the opening they needed to pop out of cover and fire on the rebel troopers, cutting them down with bullets. "Alright, we're clear! Phillip bring Lindsey here and get her under cover now!" Phillip did just that, dragging Lindsey to the wreck of the APC and making sure she was safely behind it. "How you doing?" he asked.

--Covenant Outpost World--

With the opening made, Helix took a moment to better organize itself; Taylor and her sniper team would remain at their position, keeping an eye out for any reinforcements. Henry was also being carried back to their position, along with two people that helped him over while the medic remained with the rest of Helix. Liz took point, Daniel and Mark backing her up while the platoon split into squads of three per fork they ran into.

Lindsey groaned as she was dragged across to the wreck of the APC for cover. "Ah... H... Hurts like hell" She whispered her voice tight with raw pain. While the biofoam would help keep her together long enough for her to see a Doctor, however she would need to see a Doctor at some point.

--Victoria--

"Well think of that as a good sign," Phillip said. "Pain means you're still alive." Lin and Chris gathered close, covering Phil and Lindsey while Griffin continued forward.

"Still doesn't hurt as bad as losing my arm" Lindsey pointed at out with a weak sense if humour. This would probably get her another medal for being injured in a combat zone, if she got any more of those medals she could start selling them either that or a collection. "When we getting out of here?"

--Victoria--

"As soon as the area is secured," Lin said. "We need to find any intel located on site, along with any VIP's. Anyone with intel on possible traitors in the UNSC."

"Just shoot them that works on everything" Lindsey muttered deciding to keep her thoughts on traitors to herself.

"We'll save that for their execution," Chris said. "For now, we poke and prod them until they spill the beans."

"That... Sounds like a waste of time... Especially when I have three bullets in me" She avoided laughing however knowing that would probably be more painful than actually losing her arm. "Just shoot them all and let god or the clean up crew sought them out... Whoever really does that"

"Yeah well which is more important?" Chris asked. "Because if there are still elements of the Innies in the UNSC we need them out now before they can dig in too deep or damage our ability to fight the Covenant."

There wasn't really time to keep the conversation going, as more gunfire cut the conversation short, bullets pinging off the APC.

"Right now I'd rate our survival as far more important and afterwards when we all make it back I'd still rate our survival as more important" Lindsey responded ignoring the bullets pinging off the APC and the rounds kicking up puffs of dust and dirt, barely a few centimetres from her feet.

"Well nice to meet someone with their priorities in order," Phillip said as he turned and fired off rounds from his SMG. Griffin hailed Lin, and she immediately said "Alright Dragon, Griffin managed to hack base schematics and located two locations: a server room, and VIP quarters. They're going for the server room, we need to take the VIPs." Chris looked att her like she was nuts. "You crazy? We can't try and kidnap VIPs with Lindsey like this. If they're guarded we need at least three people and someone needs to keep her out of trouble."

"I got my smg no need to worry about me I'll hold down the wreck... Go get them and make it count" Lindsey encourage, resting her smg across her lap. "I mean it... I will be fine" She suppressed the urge to cough, knowing full well the agony that it would bring.

"Dammit...." Lin growled. "Chris, Phil, get her secured in the APC; it's got armor enough to keep her covered while giving her a decent foxhole." Chris and Phil both got an arm under Lindsey's armpits, lifting her up before putting her in the APC. Chris went a step further and buckled her in with a seatbelt. "Safety first Lindsey," she said with a tone of humor.

Lindsey cried out as she was lifted up, clutching her injury as they did so. She saw being buckled in as unnecessary but could see the humour in it. "I'll keep the meter running so don't take all day"

--Victoria--

"Just make sure not to charge us too much," Lin said before she, and the rest of Dragon, headed for a doorway to the base interior. The schematics were relayed to her VISR, the blueprints serving as a map and the compass on the top of her screen pointing to the VIPs.

--Covenant Outpost World--

Daniel's squad advanced through the base, keeping an eye out for any more Covenant. Oddly enough, they got more charter from the rest of Helix about encounters with security Grunts. When they turned the corner though, they came face to face with something really unexpected.

Fallen wrote:

As the ships came down into the large, relatively clear opening within the forest, Rha' lead his own forces to the long starboard side drop bay. Though all were prepped, only four bays would be required - three pods per bay, ten Commandos and two Huragok. Of course, this meant one bay would need to be wasted momentarily to deploy Rha' on his own, but he was more than used too it by now.

"Shipmaster, what of this one?"

Rha' looked down the bays and noticed one drop pod already prepped for deployment. He brushed it off, looking at his Commandos.
"That is nothing to concern yourselves with. Simply ready yourselves for deployment."
With that, they all followed his words as law, and began to fill the pods one by one, and begin the long wait.
Rha' stood, alone now, and contacted his field commanders.

"Commando Set, Special Operations Officer Dosze, what is the progress of the landing?"

The Special Operations Officer was first to respond, the sound of wind rushing by in the background.
"The forward base has already been established, Shipmaster. Forward and Rear legion are moving out to begin the assault on the base."

Rha' shut off his comm and took a deep breath, as he held the hilt of his blade tight, thinking.
Before long, a lone Huragok wafted by, meddling with machinery as always, a pair of Unggoy watching it close.

"You, Unggoy."

The smallest of the two jumped in fear, shaking in his armour. He clearly had not expected to be addressed by the Shipmaster.

"Bring me 'Zamittaree's blade."

Rha' buzzed in Set's earpiece. "We're setting up position now, the humans won't know what hit them."

--Victoria--

Dragon stormed the facility, Chris in the lead. They went down the hall, took a right and up two flights of stairs before they met resistance. A squad of Innie soldiers were at the end of the hall in front of a door, practically entrenched as they fired their assault rifles at Dragon. "Fuck take cover!" Lin shouted. They dove behind bits of the wall that jutted out like ridges, bullets ripping off chunks of concrete and tearing through steel. "Cover won't last long.....dammit!" Chris said.

--Covenant Outpost--

The alien was unarmed, at least that was the way it looked. To Daniel, it resembled a jellyfish or a Man O' War, the way its main body floated over the floor with tentacles hanging below. Some were at work on an opened panel, rapidly moving across the circuitry. It clicked and chirped, oblivious to the humans as it worked, before Liz moved to shoot and Daniel pushed her gun up and away saying "No!"

Kristy wrote:

Dosze stepped away from the Phantom, flanked by two other Special Operations Sangheili from his own assault team. He intended to split his force of fifteen into five teams of three, with his second in command leading a different team. One of the teams was to neutralise the bases' communications, which would mean that no human reinforcements would be able to arrive. He barked a command to an officer, who nodded and left to carry it out. Dosze and his Sangheili climbed aboard a Spectre, and set out to the human outpost.

With a nod, Dosze's team entered the human base through their own entry point, all three of them cloaked with Energy swords in their hands. A human maintenance worker was the first to die, he had unknowingly walked into the centre of the team, at which point Dosze had sent his Sword through his chest.
"Shipmaster," Dosze said into his comms, "My assault force has infiltrated the human outpost, we are moving to eliminate their defences,"

The Shipmaster nodded to himself, glad to hear such progress.

"Good. Ensure all anti-air fortifications are disabled before proceeding with the full scale bloodshed."

Rha' watched the pods. Each locked, and prepared, the Sangheili within likely saying their battle hymns as the time ticked on. Finally, the sound of footsteps rang through the silent hall, as the Ultra looked up, only to be greeted by the last thing he wished to see.

"What do you want, Jiralhanae?"

The Chieftain was silent as he tossed something at Rha' who caught it, and watched the hairy brute wander off again, snickering loudly as they so often did.
The Sangheili felt the blade hilt in his hand. He had to hope they'd gotten it off of one of the guards then, because if they'd managed to break into his quarters, he'd have a bigger problem than he first thought.

Rha' turned back, and opened communion with the other Shipmasters. Never a bad thing to see how the battle was faring.

-Victoria-

"Grenade out!" Phillip shouted, lobbing a grenade down the hall to the Rebels. They scattered as it exploded, killing two as shrapnel tore into them while stunning the rest. Lin turned the corner with her DMR, popping one in the head while Chris took out the rest with her SMG.

The Warthog that Lindsey had been in was empty, an smg spent lay on the stirred up ground, several slain Rebels lay scattered around the vehicle like the toys of a careless child. A scuffed ODST helmet lay a few meters from the hog, a pair of dragged boot marks stopped at a random point in the dirt, a clear indication of a hidden tunnel entrance. One thing was certain, Lindsey was now MIA.

--Victoria--

With the hallway cleared, Dragon pushed forward to the door. What was odd, was how this door seemed to be made not of metal but wood, and it signified how old the base was. Phillip took a small snake-camera, easing it under the door to spot two more rebel soldiers armed with assault rifles, and about four people dressed in plainclothes. Relaying the positions to his squad via the VISR, he then moved back as Chris planted an explosive charge on the door to breach. Lin swapped her DMR for a pistol, and counted down "3....2....1, go!" Chris thumbed the detonation trigger, and the door exploded inward, the sound and pulverized bits of the door stunning the occupants inside. Chris and Phillip rounded the corner into the room, VISR's active and painting targets for them as they took them out with burst gunfire. When the shooting was done, the threats were dead and the VIP's were shaken, but alive. Griffon squad came in, and aided in the securing of the targets while Lin radioed for an evac. The rest of the base was more or less cleared, and at the very least there was no threat of AA. The Pelican was closing fast, and Lin tried to radio for Lindsey.....but there was no response. She tried again a few times, and even went back to the warthog, and all she found was her helmet and drag marks. Her team-member was missing.....and she wasn't going to leave anyone behind. Not again.

"Dragon Lead to Pelican, take Griffon and Falcon squads with you along with the VIP. Shark, your with Dragon, we've got a missing squad-mate that needs recovering." The sound of agreements went through her helmet. Nobody wanted to leave people behind, especially since there was always a risk of that same person having intel extracted from them. The pelican landed, with the two squads loading the VIPs into the bay while Dragon and Shark followed the drag marks in the ground to where they abruptly stopped in the dirt. "Tunnel?" Chris asked, and Lin nodded. Kneeling down she started to slowly brush away the dirt at the end of the tracks, and found the edge of a panel. "Okay, check your weapons; our POW is without helmet, so she'll probably be easy to miss." Chris chortled a little and said "Ma'am, she has a robot arm. Hard to miss that." Tilting her head a little in agreement, Lin still had her pistol drawn as she moved to the other side of the door and slowly opened it enough for an expert from Shark to check for any traps. Finding none, Lin pulled it the rest of the way open, and they slowly moved down. Chris took point, shotgun up front along with Shark's own close-quarters specialist. They had to crouch down as they moved, Lin and another taking up the rear with their mid-range weapons. They just prayed that Lindsey was still alive.

--Covenant Outpost World--

"What the hell?" Liz snarled at Daniel, who was looking at the Engineer before them. Rarely seen in the field, these floating marvels were the backbone of the Covenant's science and engineering. Capable of fixing close to anything, and taking all kinds of machinery apart, ONI believed they also were akin to supercomputers, on a biological scale. Marines and ODST's had standing orders to acquire any Engineers found, and the presence of this engineer made the current mission....complicated. They could still get the data they needed, and blow the place to hell however.....however ONI would probably kill them or some form of punishment for failing to try and get the Engineer out. "Dammit.....squad two, reroute to my position. We have a VIP that needs protection."

Lindsey groaned as she came to, her hands where held tightly behind her back, the wrists bound with a wire. She had no clue that she had been dragged through a long tunnel, Lindsey was in the middle of a colonial village. It hurt to move, breathing was still agonising but pain was good that meant she was still alive. Yet... Being an ODST in enemy hands wasn't a good thing.
Lindsey was in the centre of the village, forcing her head to the left she saw one of the Rebels holding a light machine gun. But past that, a river with several boats one of which looked heavily armed.
"The scum is awake Sir" He grunted pointing the barrel at Lindsey who turned her head to the right hearing new voices. "Always good to have a live prisoner I am sure that she will have plenty of intelligence for us" A tall, well built Germanic voice declared. "Load her onto the boats with the rest of the supplies we need to get going in case the fascist scum come searching for her"
"Yes sir"
"It would not be good for us to lose her so soon after finding her in our vehicle" He chuckled darkly before barking a bunch of orders to his rebel soldiers. The Rebels where moving shop, taking everything. Lindsey did not have the energy to speak, but silently she vowed to not say a thing, she would not even give them her name. The Rebel with the LMG pointed to two nearby soldiers who grabbed her by the arms roughly, causing her to gasp involuntarily from pain. "Get her on the boat do not let her get away"

The village was heavily guarded with Rebels and sympathetic colonists who were armed and ready for combat. However the majority of those armed where round the boats, loading supplies onto them. They would be ready to go in half an hour, though Lindsey would not know this, she did not even know if her squad was alive or for that matter looking for her.

Dragon and Shark so far encountered no problems, and started to pick up speed. Running down the tunnel, they reached the end, a stairway before them like one to a cellar or basement. Phillip took the lead, and through the seam of the door wormed his snake-cam through. There were.....a lot of targets, in a village by the looks of it. "Dragon Lead to Fast and Hard actual, we've located a member of my team in an Innie village. I've....kinda lost count of enemy numbers here, and we need backup."

"Dragon Lead this is Fast and Hard, evac the area and we'll perform an orbital strike. Can't risk the enemy getting their hands on one of our own." Lin gawked at...well, nothing since she couldn't actually see who was speaking but she gawked all the same. "Negative, we don't do our enemy's job and kill off our own. We get them out of harms way," she said. The tone of the voice turned angry, and said "You are violating a direct order Dragon Lead. Evac now or you will be blast--" Lin cut them off, and said "Sorry sir we've been spotted!" Hoping they bought the lie, she looked to Phillip and Chris, who both nodded and opened the door with a shove. Popping out with her DMR, she took aim and fired a shot, the round flying through the air and impacting into the side of an Innie's head. Chris and Phillip came up behind her, weapons firing as they caught more of their enemy off guard, and Shark poured out. A firefight was underway.

"Ambush! Get the stuff on the boats! Kill those pigs!" Came the cry of the Germanic officer before opening fire with his assault rifle. Rebels scattered opening fire in seemingly all directions, the civilian members panicked and dropped their loads sprinting onto the boats. The boat that Lindsey was on happened to be a converted boat, armour bolted onto it's side with several mounted weapons. She was shoved roughly into the hold. The guards entered, locking the door behind her.
"Do we go?" One asked.
"No we wait for the stuff to be loaded"
"But what if their ODSTs?"
"Then we will kill them we stay until the Captain orders us to go" Came the response.

The Captain happened to be the large Germanic officer, firing his assault rifle and clearly the one in charge here. He barked out orders and threats with equal measure.

=had finally got the sat online and was monitoring everything to make sure it was running perfectly=

"dan are you able to get any word out to the unsc to try and warn them?"

Dragon and Shark pushed through, away from the killbox that was the hole. Pushing to the nearest house, they broke through the door and checked for hostiles while three of their number held the door. More shots were fired, and Lin looked out the window as she tried to find where they might be keeping Lindsey. The house was opposite the river, and she spotted the boats, and said "There, that's where she is!" She ducked right as more shots hit the window, and she barked out orders. "Shark, we need a path to those boats. I need your sharpshooter to help me take out the snipers. Chris, Phillip go with the rest of Shark and punch through to the boats!"

There were no green lights, but the rest of the group got the message. Shark's sniper took up position by the window with Lin, while two more member of Shark hung back with their assault rifles. They'd need to lay down suppressing fire to help the forward team, which was gathered by the door. Chris took point as she charged through the door, Phillip and the rest of Shark behind her. Lin and her partner began firing, taking out the gunmen on the rooftops while the guys with the assault rifles fired shredder rounds to keep the ground forces down.

An assault rifle round caught the captain in the head and he tumbled to the floor lifeless. With his death the rebels completely collapsed, they still fought furiously however. Even if some of them kept slipping away, taking their chances in the jungle.
The boat that held Lindsey began to move, the driver giving into his fear and deciding that now was a very good time to leave. The armoured boat was not fast, so it pulled away from the dock slowly, the two twin barrelled deck mounted machine guns spitting out death, killing more of their own then the ODSTs. Lindsey could not do anything to help her friends, she just sat on the floor propped against a wall, while three rebels fired out of the windows.