Fireteam Viper: Prologue

I glanced at Nikola, having no need to reply to his smartarse comments and focused on Juliet.
"You're going to have to go back if your wound is that bad," I said, looking at her holding it in pain. "Rose, take Juliet out and find somewhere you can give us sniper cover."

Eliza raised her eyebrows behind her visor and gave a small sigh. Already we were splitting up, the whole mission had a vibe that Eliza didn't like about it. On the ship, she'd been excited to drop and get into the action, but as soon as the Spartans showed up she'd had a feeling.

Eliza shifted her launchers weight on her shoulder and moved up on queue. Too silent.

Marcus moved up on queue but kept quiet he couldn't afford to talk just incase they were ambushed.

For a few heart beats it appeared Juliet might argue but reluctantly she agreed. She didn't want to split the team up, who knew what dangers they might face here nor did Juliet desire to argue with the captain in the middle of a hostile location.
The pain was unbearable and it took all of her willpower to not lean on the nearby wall for support.

With Juliet and Emma heading back the way we came, I pressed forwards, clearing buildings as we went. Absolutely no resistance. After the second empty building, I radioed the Spartan team.
"Viper-Lead, this is Sahara-Lead. This place seems empty, advise?"
"Move to link-up ASAP, Sahara-lead, we've got something."
"You heard 'em, Sahara. Move out."

We went in silence now, the buildings were mostly empty, which was only adding to the ominous sound of the Spartan's voice. We made it to the link up, staying in cover until I had a visual on the Spartans. I saw them approaching and made to wave at them. I stopped when I heard a vaguely familiar whirring sound. I followed it to the source, and almost threw up in my mouth.
"Is that a fucking Vulture?!" I shouted as it aimed its weapons at the base and us, "Fall back!"

"Oh Shit!" Marcus said as he saw the vulture he turned to the way they came and ran before turning past a building and waiting for his team.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck...!" Nikola yelled as fell back with the captain and the rest of the team.

"Oh fuck me!" Juliet shouted seeing the Vulture, fortunetly she was already a distance away from it since she had been ordered to withdraw from the facility. But not enough to be completely safe. The rest of her team, save the unfortunate soul who had been stuck escorting her out was down there, completely at risk of being creamed by the Vulture. Her heart clenched with concern for her comrades.

Emma frowned, getting down on one knee next to Juliet.

"Keep calm, don't want your condition to get any worse. And keep an eye out for any more of them, don't think we could handle two."

Emma took a deep breath, steadying herself before taking a shot. It hit the cockpit, but bounced off one of the titanium supports. Emma swore loudly, and prepared to take a second shot.

I tripped over my own feet in my haste to get away. Glancing over my shoulder, I felt like I was staring death in the face, something I'd done a lot of while leading Sahara, and as always, I was terrified. The Vulture's weapons were turned on us, missiles and machine guns both. The next minute, I was being thrown against a wall that started to collapse around me, dust and debris blocking the view of my squad. My ears were ringing, but I could make out machine gun fire. I was aching all over, but it wasn't as painful as I thought. I didn't move for what seemed like days, until I could no longer hear the Vulture.

Eliza crouched behind a low cut wall as debris sprayed all around her in slow motion. This was where she was calmest, strangely enough. She watched the squad dive for cover and Winters run. Dimming the noise coming from external sources, she played Moonlight Sonata through a single line comm routed back to herself. Technically, the armour didn't support musical playback but she'd managed to get a tech guy to piggy back the files on some of the mission intel through her VISR system.

Thank god for Darrell. She let herself drift into the music, watching the gunshots kick up dirt all around their cover positions. She closed her eyes at one point, letting herself enjoy the moment more. The wall sprayed chunks of brick, but it was thick enough to hold. And then the Vulture went and Eliza opened her eyes again.

I sat up, mortar falling off of my armour as I moved. My leg was bleeding, but it didn't hurt much. I glanced around at the remains of the base. The building I had hit was gone, and I could see that a large part of the other side of the base was destroyed. I looked towards my squad, I saw Eliza and I was about to call out when I saw Jackson's body, both his legs missing, and riddled with holes from the 30mm cannons. I could make out Nikola and Marcus as well as Eliza now, both seemed to be alive, at least.

Nikola pushed himself up from the ground, dirt and debris falling off of him. "Woo-wee," He exclaimed, his ears were still ringing from the blast. "I could use a drink after that."

Eliza stood up and looked around. 7 dead. Christ. This mission was fucked. She fell back onto her arse. Even the Spartans were down. All of them.

Eliza pulled her helmet off and threw it away. She placed her head in her hands and just stared at the ground.

Emma watched through the scope as the Vulture departed. She fired two final rounds into its rear, but neither did anything more than dent the craft. She looked down at what was once the base. She scanned the area slowly, looking through the scope in silence. Her stomach turned over as she spotted the dead SPARTAN team, strewn alongside the remains of the other dead.

"Shit..."

Marcus was next to the same building that Winters hit and had some rubble fall on him. Pushing it off with ease he looked around and saw his comrades that survived before seeing the spartan team. Coughing he finally found his voice. "Hey guys the dogs got put down. I am taking one of their weapons." he said as he made his way over to the fallen Spartans.

Eliza jumped up and punched Marcus as he bent to one of the weapons. She picked her helmet up and threw it at him.

"Show some respect. I didn't like them either, but they were still people."

She spat on the ground in front of Marcus and stared at him in disgust.

"I know they were people but they are dead now and we might as well use what we can so we don't join them." Marcus shot right back as he clipped his shotgun on his back and picked up a battle rifle. "They could be sending foot soldiers to make sure we are on the ground dead or to try and put us there" he said sternly.

Nikola made his way over to the Captain. "Well Ma'am, things got interesting real quick, didn't they?"

"So when you're lay there with half your chest blown off, I should just loot you?"

Eliza pulled her AR off of the magnetic clips on her back and pointed it at him.

"Put the stuff down. You have weapons still in working order, don't you?"

"He kept still before turning towards Eli as he liked to call her. "Yea, when I'm dead loot me for my blade, my ammo, because you might just need it and yes I have working weapons but while I may be a dead-shot I can't keep using a magnum forever until I get close enough. Use what you can to survive." He said to her as he couched down to the dead spartan. "Rest in peace."

"My god..." Juliet whispered before muttered something inaudible under her breath which probably was a short prayer to whatever God or being watch over Spartans and ODSTs.

"Eliza, stand down. Marcus, drop it." I ordered, taking my own helmet off. There was a trickle of blood running down my face. "Show some fucking respect or you'll be getting shipped back to which ever gutter the Navy found you in. Looting bodies is not what ODSTs do." I was not in the mood for his shit right now, two of my men were dead, as were seven others.

"This is Sahara-Lead to Fireteam Viper, anyone read?" I asked, but I was met only with static. I closed my eyes, sighing. "We need to move."

"Fucken hell." Marcus said as he placed the battle rifle on the dead spartans chest and moved his hand to rest on the gun. He then stood up while picking Eli's helmet off the ground and handing it to her. "Sorry, next time I see a weapon on the ground I will leave it alone no matter what."

I took two steps towards Marcus, leaving my rifle on the ground. As soon as I was close enough, I landed my fist squarely on his jaw, sending him to the ground.
"Don't ever get cocky with me, or anyone else in this squad," I said through gritted teeth. "that attitude only going to put our lives in danger, in which case I am legally allowed to shoot you. Am I understood, Private?"

Eliza snatched her helmet up from where Marcus had dropped it after being punched. She spat before putting it back on.

"Now what, Winters?"

"We need to move out. Get their tags, this mission's over."

After a few minutes of gathering up dog tags, some of which had been broken and thrown away from the bodies, and some that we simply couldn't find, we started to move out. I'd radioed Emma and Juliet, telling them to rendezvous with us in the forest. It was a long hike to the pick up, but we had to do it.

Marcus was cracking his neck while they walked, sharpening his knife for the amount of people they just lost. Not the first time I've been threatened like that, sure as hell won't be the last.

Eliza hadn't fired a single shot. They'd seen one hostile. And now there was an entire team of Spartans dead.

Christ. Now they were just going to turn tail and run. They had no idea what their mission objective was or why they were here.

I dropped to the ground at the clearing that served as our pick up location and replaced the bandages on my leg. It didn't hurt anymore, but it had been a pain to hike all this way.
"Any other branch of the Navy'd get a years' worth of shore leave," I said to nobody in particular, "We'll be fighting more innies within the week." I hadn't relaxed though, we were still in hostile territory; a ground assault now would probably wipe us out. "So, Gunnery Sergeant Thorn," I said, mock formality in my voice, "You didn't have a chance to tell me how that date went."

Eliza pulled herself up into a nearby tree and settled onto a branch.

"Like you don't already know. Prigs caught you on the cameras."

Nikola kept his wits to himself while the captain and Eliza bantered.

"Well maybe you should've just told m-" I stopped, my head snapping around to the treeline. I dived forwards, grabbing my rifle. "Contact, Front-" I started, stopping again as I registered what I was seeing. Two Spartans, Viper-Lead and Viper-Three by their armour, though Viper-Three was limp, being dragged along by his commander. I rushed forwards to them, elated that they had managed to survive, but also concerned about their wounds. Viper-Three was very obviously dead, and Lead was injured, bleeding through her armour. It would be fatal if she didn't get attention soon.

She whispered in my ear, telling me what their mission had been. I understood immediately. Why a Spartan team had been deployed, all the secrecy. It meant that this was a serious threat to the UNSC.
"Everyone, form a perimeter," I said, "Eliza." I didn't speak, the look on my face saying more than words could. I twitched my head away from the rest of the squad. "I need to talk to you."

Eliza watched the Spartan limp out of the brush with it's dead friend. Under the visor, she grimaced. Catching Winter's look, she hopped down from the branch,

"Someone see what they can do for that Spartan."

She walked off to the side, under a little cut in the nearby rock formation.

I held my helmet under my arm and followed Eliza to the rocks.
"I have to go back." I said to her, fighting the urge to vomit; back at the base was the last place I wanted to be.

She depolarized her visor.

"What?!"

Practically hissing at Winter.

"No way. We need to evac."

"The Innies are planning a massive bioterrorism attack that could kill millions. ONI sent Viper here for intel on it. We can't leave without it," I paused, not sure how to word what I was about to say. "And I'm not dragging everyone back. We need this LZ secure."

"If ONI want the intel, they can send us in with more. We've just lost an entire squad of Spartans. We need more boots on the ground here."

I shook my head at her.

"You're not going Winter"

"I'm the one in charge, Gunnery Sergeant," I said, "I'm going to get the intel, then upload it to your mission data. You're going to make sure that everyone else gets out alive."

"Don't pull rank on me now, Kath. We've been through too much for that. You were there in the training program. We know what those Spartans can do. There's no way we can do this without them."

"Sorry, Eliza. If you're not going to do it as a friend, you're doing it as a soldier. If we don't get that intel, innocent people are going to die. One ODST is worth a lot less than that." I said, reaching to my neck. I pulled my tags off, holding them out to her. "If I can't get back..."

Eliza took the tags, polarized her visor again and strode off back to the squad.

"Weston, Rose, Ohno. I want a 20 metre perimeter up."

She stood there for a second.

"Now." She yelled.

I unslung my battle rifle slowly. It was unsilenced, and was liable to get me killed if I used it. I drew my M6S, checking for any damage I might have missed. There wasn't any. I almost wished there was, so that I'd have a reason to delay. I took a look at my team, the glaring absence of Jackson and O'Brian sending a pang of sadness and guilt through me. I turned to the trees, pulling my helmet over my head as I set off jogging.

"You know, part of me feels like this is unnecessary melodrama." Nikola said as he moved towards a position on the perimeter.

"You know, no-one asked for an opinion. Radio silence." Eliza snapped back at Nikola.

"She could have had at least on of us helping her." Marcus said as he climbed a tree to get a vantage point and a drop on any innie bastard was unlucky enough to move under him. "Whos looking after the spartan?"

Emma turned on her comm, looking down at the group, sort of not sure what's going on. "Uhm, can anyone down there give us a sitrep?"

"Marcus here Em, we have an injured spartan, a Eli is ordering us so winters must be missing and a perimeter to keep innies out, anything else needed to know?" Marcus said to his comms as he sat in a opening in the tree that was V shaped.

"Excuse me. When I say radio silence. I mean radio silence. That's a fucking order. "

Eliza stared at them all. What the fuck were they doing.

Marcus decided to turn off his comms unless he bring Eli's anger. "bloody hell someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed." he muttered to himself and looked out to the forest for any movement, his vantage point gave him some cover plus good sights on any movement down below.