Fireteam Viper: Prologue

"I'm fine." Juliet muttered through gritted teeth. "It's Juliet not Julie." She disliked her squads nickname for her but there was nothing that she could do about it, except voice her disgust about it.
Her pace became slower as she watched the ground with great vigilance, concerned that she might run into yet another booby trap.

Eliza unpolarized her faceplate and gave Winters a dark look.

"The biofoam isn't going to last. She's not combat ready. And quite frankly, I don't want to die because a member of the squad can't cover their own back."

Eliza lowered her launcher.

"Stick her with a single guard. Send evac back after we link up with Viper."

Emma let out a low sigh as she moved ahead a bit, not looking away from the coming stretch, watching for even the moving of a leaf. She didn't want to get involved with the aspects of the squad right now, she wanted to get to the designated rendezvous point before that.

And so, that's what she'd do. Without another word, she continued on, leading the team further ahead. Waiting around wouldn't help the issue.

I sighed,
"You're probably right," I said, "She probably wouldn't even survive the walk." I shook my head and looked around at the squad. I'd need Emma, Nicholas and Eliza with me. They had the most firepower. "Marcus," I said, "Take Julie and find somewhere to hole up until we can get EVAC back to you." I had another can of biofoam in my pack, which I took out. "Here," I said, praying to God that I wasn't going to need this later, "Take this. Use it if you need too. Don't get seen."

"Everyone else, move out." I ordered.

Juliet unpolorised her visor opening her mouth to object but realised that Winter's was right. "Here take my hacking tool you might need it." She held it out to Nicholas, though she had no idea if her team mates possessed the same skill that she did with it.
It would do little good if the team needed it and it remained with her and Marcus. "Go get them."

"Will-do." Nikola said, as he put the tool in one of his pouches. "Stay frosty." He said with a smile and a wink to Juliet, behind un-polarized visor. Then he left her with Marcus.

Eliza gave a nod to Winters then strolled over to Juliet.

"Them's the breaks, kid."

Spoiler:

The rest of the hike through the jungle was uneventful, besides a few weapons being raised at the wildlife when we thought they were Innies. Thankfully, there were no more casualties. We came to a clearing, which according to my HUD, was where we were supposed to meet with Viper, though I couldn't see anyone.
"Alright," I said to the remainder of my team, "Spread out into the clearing. Watch for movement."

Eliza spread her body underneath the largest log she could find and covered herself with bracken. She poked the edge of her launcher out

"So Juliet should we find a nice cave or hold up at our pods" Marcus said checking on her, he had the biofoam in his pack and was sharpening his knife with his sharpening stone.

"Those where are orders yes find somewhere to hold up and await evac." She knew why she had been left behind , but she didn't feel good about being left behind no one would or ever could feel good about it. "We should be careful in case of traps or Innies."

" a'creepin' and a'crawlin' ma'am." Responded Nikola. As he crouched.

"I know, I know, don't need two injured people looking after each other. Are you sure you don't want me to carry you, piggy back or something." Marcus said back to her, he was a little disappointed that he didn't get to call that ONI team a bunch of dogs but someone had to look after Julie and he was only good at stabbing things and sometimes sniping, he hated sniper rifles but he was good with them, heck even good with a spartan laser and he wasn't even meant to use such.

Juliet shot him a look, she would move under her own power. "Yes I am fine." She answered him determinedly, hoping that he would not ask if she desired to be carried any more. "Let's move out before someone unfriendly finds us out here." She began to trek back heading towards their dropzone. It seemed like a good place to wait for evac and their might be a cave or something to hold up in there.

"Ok that's good" Marcus said as he followed, his best chance was to hope she remembered the way back or else he would be lost already.

My rifle was raised, following my eyes as I scanned around. We were in incredible danger, exposed and vulnerable in a hostile zone. There was a tree near the middle of the clearing, its trunk was thick enough to make decent cover and the bottom was surronded by a tangle of roots and other plants to make hiding easy. As I neared it, I moved at a jog to reach it sooner, snapping some twigs under my boot. I felt something tighten on my leg, before it was pulled out from under me.
"Fuck!", I shouted on reflex as the snare hung me upside down. I reached for my knife to cut the rope with, but found I couldn't reach high enough.

Eliza raised her hand and waved Nikola to cut Winters down, keeping her eyes scanning around the area.

Before anyone had a chance to cut me down, I spotted movement. From in the tree I could see the grass being pressed down. I could see it in about five other places. I went for my pistol opening my mouth to call it out, though my thoughts were racing about the of Covenant being here. It was too late, though. They all decloaked with a weapon already on each of my squad. They weren't Elites, though, they looked like humans, encased in armour.
Spartans. I realised to myself as I moved my hand away from my pistol. I'd only seen one once before, but these ones looked different, wearing different styles and colours of armour.

"Uh, they can see our friendly signatures, right?" Nikola said, moving closer to the captain.

Emma sighed gently, lowering her own gun and looking to the other members of the squad. It'd probably be better to let them do the talking - if this was indeed Fireteam Viper as she suspected, she only hoped they knew that they were getting ODST support.

"Hi," I said, blinking in shock at the sudden appearance of the Spartans, "ODST Team Sahara, reporting for duty. We've got two men further back, one is wounded. We've treated her with Biofoam." I told them, giving them Juliet's waypoint. The Spartan in the front, clad in a dark green suit of armour that blended with the background, turned to one of their men.
"Go pick up the wounded man. We'll leave her at our camp." He said. The Spartan left, heading back the way we had come from. "I presume you're Captain Winters?" He asked me.
"Reporting for duty-" I didn't know his rank, so I resorted to just "Spartan."
"Cut her down." He said to one of his men, who effortlessly jumped onto a branch, holding himself up with one arm as he cut me down.

Juliet moved slowly, wary of causing herself any further injury. The terrain could easily hold Innies lying in ambush.
"Stay sharp... I've got a bad feeling about this."

"What do you think I've been doing." Marcus said back to her, keeping an eye on any movement they came across but right now all it had been was a few native wildlife and their was one snare trap but he avoided it and decided to keep quiet. "You know I kinda miss the chance to whistle to this ONI team and say, here doggies." Marcus said to her again with a laugh at the end.

"Relaxing by the the poolside with a cold drink." She snapped irritably.

"Its too bad I thought I would get to stab something" he said right back to her in a joyful tone.

"If you get close enough they might just use superior fire power and their weight of numbers against..." She trailed off as they entered a clearing. The birds had fallen quiet which was odd, almost as if they where expecting something. "Shhh..." Juliet whispered. "Back up quietly and we'll skirt around this."
Suddenly from the other side of the clearing, a machinegun opened up, the bullets whizzing past the pair of ODSTs'. Juliet dived to the ground for cover, letting out as gasp of pain from her wound.

She fired off a burst with her assault rifle, but other Innies opened up from cover to. If they had waited a while longer both ODSTs would have been slaughtered in the clearing by their fire.
"Sahara Lead we've been attacked. Trying to disengage." Juliet called through her radio, firing off of another burst with her rifle.

Marcus dove to his left and took cover behide a tree, pulling out his Magnum he opened fire to where he saw the gun fire come from and retook cover. "This is why I would like to have an assault or DMR as well as my shotgun because I have no range with it." Marcus said to Juliet while he dropped his shotgun, it was no good at this range. 

He waited for the firing to stop from the initial attack and again left cover and opened fire seeing their initial attacker hit the ground he retook his cover. "Julie, one tango down."

Juliet didn't get a chance to respond. One of the machine gunners jerked backwards with an "Urg" noise, as a knife was jammed into his throat. His spotter didn't stand a chance either, as the same knife flew through the air and buried itself in his face. The other innies were trying to recover, though a few bursts from the Spartans' assault rifle cut them down.
"Viper-Lead, this is Viper-Two. I'm with the ODSTs, over."
"Copy that, Viper-Two, move them to our campsite and wait for further instructions."

"Damn, who let the dogs out." Marcus said at the display of the suited up solider. "I guess your that ONI team we heard nothing about."

"Glad your on our side." Juliet added, slowly getting up onto on knee. She had no idea what rank the Spartan held so frowned slightly behind her visor.

"So, what now?" Nikola asked, waiting for something to happen.

"We head back to our camp and formulate a plan." The lead Spartan said, moving out with her squad. I had my own squad follow them, and we arrived at the camp site, if it could be called that, consisting of nothing more than a ditch underneath the thick undergrowth.

Juliet and Marcus arrived later, with the former being carried over one shoulder by the Spartan. He put her a little farther away from the group, where he gave her wound some proper-first aid.

"I gave up telling him that I could walk in the end." Juliet muttered, grumbling to herself seemingly stung by the indignity of having to be carried when injured. At least the team was back together, although the Spartan's bed side manner left a lot to be desired off. What with the helmet, it felt more like a machine was applying first aid that what might be a real live person, a human.
Quietly, under her breath so only the Spartan could hear and not her squad mates she whispered. "Thanks."

Marcus arrived, shotgun on back, magnum on waist and knife and sharpening stone in hand. He was pretty sure is knife was sharper than it had been in a while so he putted away both knife and stone before moving to his captain. "So, you guys run into trouble or was it just us and who are the badass suited up guys because they knows how to use a knife." Marcus said to her while sitting down.

The Spartan tending to Juliet nodded in response, telling her not to worry about it.

"No trouble," I told Marcus, "But as you can see, we've met with Viper."

"All right," Viper Squad's leader announced, "Listen in, because I'm only going through this once. In about ten minutes, we're heading north into the Innie base, entering over the southern wall. Orders are kill on sight, snatch any intel you find, and take out any vehicles you see. Sahara, you're heading up the east side, until you reach the northern most building, then regroup with us at the northern gate. We'll be clearing the buildings on the left. Questions?"

"What intel do we have on the base?" Nikola piped up.

"What you've been told," The leader answered, "I was told that Sahara would be able to operate with minimal intel."

"We can," I answered, defending my team, "Sahara are the best troopers I've dropped with. We can do it."

"Never hurts to know more." Nikola said quietly, to himself. "Ready when you are, Captain."

"I'm in too." Juliet piped up she intended to not miss out on the battle if possible.

"Roger that cap" Marcus said as he grabbed his shotgun

"If you think you can." I said to Juliet, before I turned back to the Spartan. "Ready when you are, Spartan."

We moved out in silence, the Spartans leading the way. At the gate, their leader nodded to me as she lifted the gate up near the bottom, allowing me to move through. My team followed, then his team.
"Link up at the center." He reminded me, as the Spartan team moved out.
"Roger that." I said, leading my own team to the other side of the base.

"So cap what type of KOS is it, stealthy or guns blazing because I can do the former." Marcus said as he kept his head low and eyes ahead and on the ground hoping they haven't set any traps here.

"So, how about that weather, eh?" Nikola chuckled as they walked around the base.

Emma just stayed quite, as she had for most of the situation so far. She trusted SPARTANs from ONI just as much as she trusted any other soldier - they were as capable of evil shit as anyone else. The only difference is that they did it better.

She looked at Nick as he tried to strike up conversation, then looked up at the sky. She shrugged.

Eliza had stayed pretty quiet too. She didn't trust the Spartans at all. Why would they need them? She sidled up close to Winters and spoke quietly.

"Cap? I don't trust this. There's got to be a priority target in there if they've sent Spartans."

"I know. As usual spooks won't tell anyone anything." I said to Eliza as a leant around a corner with my rifle raised, scanning for innies. "Try to keep it quiet till we have to go loud, Marcus." I said, flicking my hand to signal the next trooper to move to the next corner.

"I can do that." Marcus grabbed his shotgun with his left hand before pulling out his knife

It was really quiet, at least to Emma. When she snapped back to reality, she spotted the Captains hand movement and moved into position at the corner, holding her rifle tight in her hands. This wouldn't really be good in close quarters, but hey, she could probably work some butt magic.

Nikola filed up on the captain, "so, how fun do you think today will be, eh?" he asked.

Juliet brought up the rear of the team, her rifle held tightly in her left hand while her right was clamped tightly against the wound site. It still was agonising and if this had been on any other operation by all rights Juliet probably would have been evacuated to a medical hospital.
"Don't worry I'm still here." Juliet whispered, her voice tight with pain.