Fireteam Viper: Prologue

Bridge to ODST Team Sahara, the intercom of the UNSC She Looks So Perfect blared, Prepare to drop in five.

I looked up from my seatagainst the wall of the drop bay at the speaker in the corner. Sighing, I closed the book and put it into the pocket of my BDU, protected underneath my breastplate.
"You heard him," I said loudly to the room, "Get ready for final briefing."

Eliza bounced off of her seat and over to the captain.

"Come on..."

She drawled the second o out, punctuating her impatience.

"Roger that." Marcus said to Winter before putting his helmet on, he then turned to Jackson or Jack, he couldn't remember. "Hey you ready for this man."

"Arr, yea I'm ready" he said just noticing Marcus talking to him

"Thats good." he said before checking his shotgun had enough shells in it, he leaned against a wall and began to check.

Emma looked around the room, and then back to the data pad, reading about some news of the still unpleasant relations between the Covenant and UNSC. Emma seemed to be one of the few veterans of the war that genuinely enjoyed seeing the Sangheili and a few of the other races trying to get along with the humans, it made her feel happier than she'd ever been in combat, that was for damn sure.

With a heavy groan, she stood and put on her helmet after tucking the pad into one of her covered pockets. She picked up her DMR and 'Xia', her old, worn, but amazingly effective rifle, and made her way to Katherine, ready for final briefing.

Emma smiled at her CO, nodding. "I think this is gonna be fun." Her Australian accent rang clear through her helmet.

"Ready to win yet another war." Juliet replied with her thick French accent. She already had her helmet on, she disliked the Covenant, always had. The aliens where still the main enemy in her eyes, they always would be. Juliet could never make her peace with them.

She slapped a magazine into her assault rifle as she made her way over to the Covenant. Despite appearances, Juliet did not hail from Earth rather a colony with a heavy European influence. However, with her deep rooted hatred of the Covenant as well as for all the aliens that still made it up, it was rather clear that her home didn't make it unscathed from the conflict.

"Give me an alien to shoot, consider it dead." She muttered, resting her left hand on top of her rifle.

"Prepare? More like 'wait'." Nikola stated with half-hearted impatience. His fingers drummed on his rifle, following the inconsistent beat of the song playing in his helmet. The most agonizing part of being sent on a mission was not the mission itself, but the period of time before the mission. The wait, the briefing. The mission itself was seldom something to worry about. "The sooner we do this, the better, ma'am." Nikola called over to Winter.

(Note, Everyone now has a rank on the character thread.)

"Not Covenant this time, Gallois," I said, "Innies. Coming out of the woodwork from what I heard." I tapped a button on the table, bringing up a holographic map of the area. "LZ is here," I told them, highlighting an area with a red circle, "Once we've regrouped, we're meeting one of ONI's strike teams here," I highlighted another area, "Fireteam Viper. We're their support for storming the Innie base. Mission objectives are to assist, and in the event they fail, we finish the mission. Questions?"

"Viper, Cap? I've never heard of a bloody Viper team."

Eliza was pretty clued in on most ODST divisions. She had friends in all of them, being as chatty as she was.

"Neither have I. They're an ONI team." I answered Eliza, "You know how they are with their secrets."

Eliza shrugged.

"I don't like being thrown in with unknowns, Cap."

"I'm alright as long as I get to stab something Cap" Marcus said, remembering a time when he had a fight with an elite over what was better in melee, He respected the elites and their way of fighting, he heard that once they let an solider live just because he showed his worth. Good times.

Juliet nodded though she didn't seemed too pleased with the concept of having to fight Innies. "Will we have air support?" Always worth asking, usually it had been a no but it never hurt to be hopeful and inquire.
"It doesn't matter either way the Innies will be defeated same as always."

"Since when have we ever gotten air support?" I asked sarcastically, "Alright, that's all the time we've got. Get to your pods, Sahara."

Eliza strolled to her pod and checked the weapons were secure in their holders. She pulled her helmet on and sat down in her chair, bouncing with anticipation.

Marcus went and sat into his pod and secured his shotgun into the holder, checking a pocket of his BDU for his shotgun shells he counted and put them back into the same pocket, securing himself into the pod. "This is the one part I hate."

Juliet smiled, no air support same as always, she walked over to her pod and secured her assault rifle before taking a seat and securing herself inside of it. She did what she usually did before drop, which involved her muttering a short prayer in French to every deity she could imagine, one of them would hopefully make the chute work... If not well she would beat her team down to the planet.

Emma didn't care much for the briefings. After years of fighting, she just zoned out whenever the briefing was taking place, and just did what came naturally when the fighting began. She followed orders perfectly, so she would just do whatever the upper ranks told her.

For now, Emma was thinking of going back to Earth after the mission, maybe buy the team a night on the town. She had her own reasons, but it'd be fun to bring everyone else along. Maybe.

I strapped my weapons into my pod, making sure they were secure before I got in myself. I went over everything in my pod. Checked all of my communications, all of the displays, and strapped myself in. On one screen, I could see Eliza, on the other, Emma. The door of my pod closed, and I could feel butterflies in my stomach. The final countdown began, the three short beeps warning us of the drop, and then I was falling. Past the hull of the ship, out into space. I could see the planet below us, it looked almost peaceful, like there wasn't a terrorist headquarters down there.

"I hate this part"  Marcus said as the pod shot down into space, he felt sick again but kept his stomach, looking over the computers he noticed Winter just waiting. He knew she was ready for this and hell, he trusted her to lead him on the battle field more than any other Captain he knew. He turned on the coms to a few of his squad mates. "Alright boys and girls you ready for this."

Emma closed her eyes, feeling the winds of the world sweep over her pod. She'd always believed that if you remained as one with your drop, you'd always land exactly where you were most needed. As she relaxed her body, she could feel everything around her. The rifle tucked away to her left, the DMR to her right, the mechanics and the parachute within the pod itself.

And finally, she felt the lurch. The same lurch every ODST felt when they hit a very specific, very personal point in the drop. She opened her eyes and for a moment tensed up, before taking a long deep breath and looking at her screens. She saw helmets, and didn't bother to see who she was looking at. All she cared about was the sky, the earth, her connections to the universe.

"I love this part."

Eliza was in heaven. She joined for the feeling of joy and adrenaline that only an ODST could experience. Falling through space and sky in that pod. Feeling the tremors of the atmosphere. It excited her, made her impatient. She watched the black fade to blue, to white, to green, felt the thud. Felt her helmet shake on her head. Felt the entire impact run through her body.

She popped the door open as quickly as she could, feeling the need to cheer and run around. She did neither of these however, pulling her weapons out behind her.

Juliet meanwhile let out a stream of curses in a mixture of French and English. To say she hated being in the pod was an understatement, she despised being in it. Fortunately, an ODST was never in their pod for very long. The impact of her chute opening shook her causing another expletive. Within seconds she hit the ground with a bone jarring thud, before suffering a series of impacts as her pod rolled before coming to rest on it's side.

Disorientated, it took her a moment before she popped her hatch off. She crawled out, dragging her rifle with her feeling ever so slightly sick. Well, at least she was alive.

I'd sped up near the ground, following protocol by landing first. As a command pod, my SOEIV had extra communications equipment.
"Sound off," I ordered over the comms, "Sahara Lead, on the ground."

A thud and the sound of air escaping a tight space as Emma popped the hatch, and elegantly made her way out. She didn't even seem to grab her weapons, they were just in her hands. This was where she was most comfortable, on the ground, ready for anything.

By the time she was down, a few others had already made it planet side. She could see not too far away the Captain, and as she ordered, quickly responded over her radio.

"Corporal Emma Rose, on the ground, ma'am."

"Oh-no on the ground and mobile, ma'am. Await-en orders." Nikola radioed in. Looking around he said to himself, "Feels like one o' them trials by fire. This'll be fun. fun fun fun." before taking his guns out of the drop pod.

"Well crikey, Emma, looks like we're in the outback, feel like home t'you?" he chuckled using his best mock-australian accent.

(If I'm not here to post, and you say something like, "shut-up" just say that I laughed in response, but otherwise shut-up.)

Juliet groaned feeling like she was about to throw up. "I am on the ground ma'am... Not feeling too well." The landing had been a little bit rough, she struggled to resist the urge to vomit. Why, why can these things not make a soft landing?
"Give me a second." She took off of her helmet and wretched violently. Juliet wiped her hand on the back of her gauntlet before putting her helmet back on. "I am good now... Oscar mike to you."

"Sahara 2 reporting in."

Eliza bounced her way over to Winters and the rest of the squad

Marcus knew he was getting close to the ground thank god for that but he still had to feel the force of impact. 3,2,1. The thud was just like last time. Popping the hatch he got his weapons and checked his knife for any damage, as soon as he was sure, he looked around his surroundings, he was on a hill and there was a pod that didn't land too great south to him with an ODST outside. "This is private Weston and I am on the ground." he said to his coms while moving towards the the ODST he saw.

"Alright," I answered them all, "Everyone fall in on me." I crouched on one knee, scanning the trees with my Battle Rifle across my knee. Innies were all sneaky bastards, they'd creep up on you like a ghost, before they blew your head off. "We need to move a couple of klicks north to the rendezvous with Viper. Emma, lead the way. Move out."

Emma ignored Nicholas, laughing internally at his feigned attempt at comedy, rather than at the actual comedy itself. By the time she met up with the Captain and everyone else, it seemed a plan was already in motion.

She held her rifle tight, loving the weight, the texture, the everything - there was something mystical about a sniper rifle, and this one in particular touched Emma in a very spiritual way; it was the same one she'd had during the course of the Human-Covenant War, while defending the invaded cites of Earth. It was hers, and no one else's.

Picking herself up, Emma raised her rifle and made her way forward, keeping her eyes darting to every rock, every crevice, every tree, anything or anywhere an Innie could be hiding, a mine could be planted, or a trap could be set. It wouldn't be good to have someone lose their leg before they even saw an Innie.

Juliet took up position near the rear of the group as they moved out, she scanned the environment around her carefully. She hadn't had much experience fighting the Innies as a guerilla force, most of the time she clashed with them had been in conventional battles, rather than search and destroy. Booby traps where a rarity.

It was probably why she failed to notice the two pieces of stick rammed into the ground at an angle, a marker warning of a booby trap. Juliet had drifted slightly to the right of the formation, taking position up on the flank, here her right foot caught a wire, trigger a trap. A branch of a native tree had been pulled back, hidden among it's leaves where short, sharpened spikes. It was a trap designed to injure more than to kill, to delay an enemy force while they dealt with the victim in the trap.

The spikes puncture her armour and buried deep into Juliet's right hand side of her chest. She yelled in agony, struggling to free herself from the fiendish trap.

Marcus had stayed up front of the group because he was useless unless he was close, still he had his shotgun in his left while he carried his magnum in his shooting hand so he could be useful. He continued on with the squad until he heard a contraption activate followed by a pained yell, he turned to his right only to see Julie in a trap. "Bollocks, hold on Julie." he yelled as he rushed over to her.

Juliet dropped her rifle and struggled in-vainly to free herself from the contraption. She screamed in pain as her struggles moved the branch, she couldn't free herself and the noise from all the thrashing about combined with the screaming would alert any nearby Innie to someone being caught in one of their traps.

"Son of a bitch," I cursed, turning my head to face Juliet, "Everyone down! Now!" I ordered, dropping into a crouch and moving over to Juliet. I started stripping her armour to get to the wound, "Someone get her helmet off!" I ordered, pulling the armour away.

Marcus was already at her helmet and pulled it off as lightly as he could, trying not to cause too much pain. he took it off and joked. "Well, your still a sight for sore eyes Julie" with that British accent of his.

Emma remained in her position on one knee, scoping out the area, standing watch while they dealt with Julie. She didn't know or care about the medic stuff, let along the supportive stuff. It wasn't something she was really used too.

Juliet screamed, not caring about how much sound she made only that she was freed from the booby trap. Her own struggles did more to impede the efforts of her team mates than actually help them.
"Get this... The fuck out of me!" She cursed.

He changed from his British accent to his own voice, Australian. "Juliet you gotta quiet down and stay still okey, it may hurt but bloody hell your making it a pain to get you out." he looked at the trap and realised what they were dealing with. "Oh, this gonna sting a little, Cap want me to pull."

"Oh, this just got interesting." Nikola growled to himself. He moved over to Juliet, the fallen compatriot, and put his hand over her mouth, to muffle her agony. "That kind've screamin' ain't good for these ops, little missy."

Juliet had been about to let out another scream when Nikola placed her hand over her mouth, muffling the scream. Pain filled her eyes and she glared at her team mates seemingly to say 'Get this thing out of me right now!' Juliet had stopped trying to struggle free of the trap, she needed her team mates to get the whip trap out of her.

"Arr fuck should I pull it out or do we need." Marcus was confused now, so he just placed his hands near the spikes that held Julie and started to pull on the log away from her. "Someone drag her away from them." he yelled as quietly as possible

Emma looked over her shoulder, frowning as the team seemed to just watch Juliet struggle in pain. She moved away from her spot, putting down 'Xia' nearby before grabbing the canister of Biofoam - she didn't know who had it, but whoever it was didn't have it now.

"Deep breath."

Slowly, gently, Emma began to remove the trap from Juliet, sliding it out with as much grace as possible. Once they were out, she quickly inserted the biofoam injector, squeezing as the thick, numbing gel filled out the cracks in the wound and entered her wounds.

"That's going to sting."

Now the pain of the spikes had been great, but the sharp sting of biofoam in her wounds her even more. Juliet lay on the ground, still in terrible pain however she was no longer attached to a tree via some Innies' clever idea.

Emma turned around, dropping the canister at Julies feet, quickly picking 'Xia' back up and resuming her post, making sure no Innies had heard anything. No footprints, no upturned leaves... everything seemed okay. She turned on her VISR, just in case.

Nope. All good.

"Julie isn't going to be able to last long - that foam wont last more than a few hours."

"Alright, on your feet," Nikola said as he grabbed Juliet's arm to pull her up. "We can't sit around forever, we've a mission afterall."

"This is why I like t cut things instead of trying to fix cuts" Marcus said to himself quietly as everyone calmed down. he moved back to his area and returning to his routine. Bloody better hurry and finish this mission. 

Juliet let out a hiss of pain as she was pulled up by Nikola, despite the painkillers in the biofoam her wound still throbbed. Moving slowly she picked her helmet and assault rifle back up, putting her helmet back on.
She had to agree with Emma, this would last only for a few hours, after which her wounds would start bleeding again. They needed to end the mission before that, yet with her injury her mobility was severely decreased. The squad would be forced to go at the pace that Juliet could manage, it was either that or they left her behind, but ODSTs never left anyone behind. Not if they could help it.

Eliza sidled over to Winters as soon as she'd back away from the squad.

"Cap. We can't carry on with her. She'll get us all killed."

Eliza said it in the quietest voice she could.

"Hey Julie if you need I can carry you." Marcus said towards her, he was sure he could carry her and continue at a walking pace or at least just slower than walking pace. No man or women is gonna get left behide on my watch, not again.

"What are we going to do?" I replied to Eliza, lowering my voice to the same volume as hers, "We can't just leave her, and we've got no support until we link up with Viper." I stopped, sighing. Everything went wrong if ONI were involved.