HRP - Theta Company - Act I - Operation: Grasping Maw

Skippy remained crouched in the corner of the supply room as the remains of the squad came in and decloaked. Once the all clear was sounded, she decloaked herself, pushing off the wall and walking towards them. There was barely a squad between them, and they were a mess.

"Who's in charge?"

Stepping forward, Molly said "I am. Molly." She then followed up with the signature Spartan smile, her two fingers wiped across her faceplate. "Glad to see we're not the only ones left. What's the status of your squad?"

Skippy gave her a half hearted shrug.

"Theyre still near their entry point. Some resistance, I guess. There's two server rooms that we need to get into and enact Cole Protocol. We'll split this squad in half. I'll take 4 and you take other 4."

"That'll work," Molly said. "Greer, Lin, Reznov and Jay, you're with her. The rest are with me." The occupants of Remnant didn't exactly seem thrilled....but they divided up into their assigned groups. "Radio silence?" Molly asked Skippy.

"Unless it's important. Then give me a single line comm channel."

She cloaked her armour again and motioned for the four to follow her, giving Molly a goodbye smile motion as she left through the North door. It opened up to a lobby area, only two floors below the server room they needed to hit. It seemed the stairs at the far end were under guard at the moment, a small pack of grunts. Nothing to hard to deal with. She motioned to Jay and Lin to flank to the right whilst she, Reznov and Greer took the left

I nodded to Nikki as he finished giving out his orders and crept into the room. I raised my rifle, silencer still attatched, and took aim at the sniper. One well-aimed burst was all I'd need, then I'd open fire on the rest of the squad. I waited for Nikki and his newly formed fireteam to move in to position, keeping my rifle trained on the bird-like alien. If it showed any signs that it had seen one of us, I'd drop it, regardless of whether or not the fireteam was in position.

Jake stayed quiet as Rosie's made her gestures about the upcoming Aliens and when he saw Nikki's signal for fire team Jake slowly lowered Lily to lean against the wall with a single finger to his lips to gesture quiet. Moving away, Jake would get his Rifle comfortably in his hands as he stood behind Nikki and waited for his time to shoot. It was grunts then the split Jaw first unless he thought of another plan, until then Jake would wait patiently orders

Molly and her group, comprised of Spartans Hector, Jordan, Ted and Bianca, went for the second server. Taking a different route, they went deeper into the facility with Molly up front as the silent scout. Pausing at the sound of a door opening, they were like statues as their camo systems remained active; a small group of Jackals was walking out from the door, some of them carrying what looked like belongings of the people that worked here. One of them even had a magnum dangling from the hip, all of them squawking in their avian tongue. She debated putting them down, but opted against it as the aliens went further in, not even looking behind them and noticing the guns aimed at them. It would have been so easy.....but it carried too much risk.

Nikki activated his camouflage and moved forward. Slowly stepping forward. Nikki signaled for them to split up and get behind cover.

Lizzie dropped the plasma rifle, the group wouldn't appreciate her using an unsuppressed weapon when they were still trying to be sneaky. Not that it would matter once the aliens started to return fire, unless they were fortunate to kill them all in their opening volley.
Lizzie took cover behind a desk, taking aim at the Covenant, her finger hovering over the trigger. All she needed now was the signal to open fire.

Jake moved forward and took cover behind a bench of some sort, waiting for the signal to open fire from Nikki. One, two, three, four, five. Jake began to count his heartbeats while he waited. Taking aim at the grunts to be extra ready.

Moving even slower, the group headed down the hall as they followed the Jackals. Apparently, they were going in the same direction, which made Molly wonder if the Jackals actually planned to steal the servers. Wouldn't have been much good to them, they didn't seem the tech savy type.

The orders came and went and she found herself crouching down behind a divider with her camouflage on. The silencer attached to her weapon that is now aimed down on her target. She has visual of two of the Grunts and the Elite from her cover and the looming threat of the sniping jackal was something she couldn't help but fear. She couldn't see its exact location from her position, but she has to put trust in Rosie to take it out.

She waits for the order.

Crossing the threshold of the next room, Molly and her team found themselves in the server room, a large space with high ceilings. She couldn't quite feel it through her armor, but the room was still cool, the air inside staying low to accommodate the requirements of the servers. The Jackals she and her team were following were there, attempting to get into the servers for valuable scrap. That or the information inside, she wasn't sure. Either way, they were a target now, so she whispered "Keep it quiet."

Everyone switched to their silencers, taking careful aim before firing. Muffled pops reverberated through the room, and the Jackals were taken down as bullets tore into their skulls or chests. They dropped, collected junk cluttering to the floor. "Get their shield gauntlets," Molly whispered. "Could come in handy."

I slowed my breathing as I prepared to take my shot, if I missed, we'd take casualties. I brought my finger to the trigger, and pulled it back until I felt some resistance. I exhaled, my aim steadying as I brought the foresight to rest on the Sniper's head. I squeezed the trigger, sending a burst of 7.62mm rounds flying towards the Jackal, and they ripped their way through its head. I stood up from cover, opening fire on the remaining aliens.

When Rosie fired and the sniper went down, Nikki leveled his weapon and opened up on the grunts. Giving the signal for the others to do the same.

Jake waited quietly with his rifle aimed at the grunts and when he heard the first volley of rounds followed by Nikki's, Jake did what any normal spartan would do and began to fire at the grunts.

Lizzie sighted in the Elite closest to her, opening fire upon the signal. Her rounds sparked harmlessly off of the alien's shield. The alien warrior returned fire in a wild burst. Unfortunately, one of it's rounds happened to be right on the money, it struck her left hand, burning through the gauntlet, flesh, bone and muscle. The Spartan ducked behind cover, gritting her teeth trying not to yell out in pain. "I'm hit." She said over the radio, her damaged hand hidden from view by her currently healthy one.

As Molly and her squad recovered and attached the Jackal shield gauntlets, they all heard a voice break out over the radio. Human, female, and announcing they had been hit. She knew that radio silence was key to success.....but dammit, they--she--had lost too many fellow Spartans. Not. One. More. "Hector, Jordan and Bianca--stay here and carry out Cole Protocol on the servers. Ted, you're with me." The three of the nodded, breaking off as Molly and Ted headed out. "Position?" she demanded over the radio.

She followed her comrades lead and fired on the Grunts. Aiming for the one left standing. That's when she saw the Elite's shields begin to spark and a shot was fired off in retaliation. The words "I'm hit" enter her ears. She dares to not look back and instead switches her sights to the Elite once the Grunt had dropped. They couldn't stop this volley. They had to continue firing until they could aid their comrade.

The group killed the grunts and peppered the elites shields until they and their charge died. The grunts and the jackal were dead. Area clear, for now. Nikki signalled with his hands for his fireteam to regroup on him.

She moves up to Nikki's position, crouches down and reloads her weapon. After which, she looks to where the rest of the squad is. Hoping one of them is tending to their wounded squad mate. It's out of her hands, however. She waits for further orders.

I turned around, I'd heard Lizzie say she'd been hit. With three injured Spartans, I wasn't sure how much farther we'd make it without another death.

I checked her myself from afar. It was just her hand, but that meant she wouldn't be able to aim a rifle properly.
"Jake. Check her." I ordered, biting my lip as I watched out for any Covenant reinforcements; if we kept delaying like this, we were going to get ambushed.

"Repeat, your position?" Molly whispered over the comm as she and Ted kept moving, though rather aimless. It was really just moving back down the hall they came from.

As Molly and Ted moved down the hallway, Ted paused at a door they had to head through. He quickly scanned the room, before turning back to Molly.
"Clea-" He started, before an energy sword was thrust through his chest by a cloaked Elite. Tossing the dead Spartan aside, the Elite charged forwards, roaring as he swung his sword in a long downwards arc.

"Shit!" Molly yelped, immediately rolling to the side and out of the sword's path. Coming out of it, her SMG came up and she opened fire on the Elite, hoping to drop its shields and then the Elite itself.

The opening burst of fire pinged off of the Elite's shields. He growled loudly, a Sangheili point-defence gauntlet activating on his arm; deflecting the remainder of the rounds harmlessly. He swung his sword horizontally towards Molly's neck.

Ducking under the blow, Molly kept her distance from the Elite as she moved back down the hall, still firing in bursts.

Lizzie's hand was agonisingly, she didn't want to move her right hand to reveal to herself the extent of the damage.

Jake moved over to Lizzie after Rosie's orders to check on her. His eyes scanning over the hand or at least what he could see of the hand. "Lizzie, I know your a big girl but I need to look at the hand to asses the damage. Plasma is nothing pretty." Jake said as he kept his eyes on her. He wouldn't force her to show him the damage unless he needed to see it. that or orders state he would open her hand and look at the plasma burnt hand.

Most of the bullets pinged harmlessly against the Elite's shield as he approached. He raised his sword again, swinging downwards as he charged at Molly.

Skippy gave the signal after everyone had moved into position and within a second, all four Spartans had a knife in their respective grunts neck. They dragged the bodies off to the side and headed up the staircase to the third floor. From there, they headed North, coming to their server room without any more issues. A quick type on the keyboard and the team left the room with Skippy in a furious mood. She opened a comm line with Rosie.

"You free? We need to link up and get to extraction."

"Lizzie's hit, we can't take any more casualties." I answered Skippy. She didn't seem happy. "What's happened?" This mission had been disaster after disaster.

"Nothing. Missions completed. We need to reach extraction and signal the fall back to the rest of the Comapny. If you can't move, we'll head to you. There's four of us here. What's your location?"

"We're in what looks like an office, close to our entry point. Can you see anything like that on the map?"

"It's a fucking ONI office. Are you serious?"

Skippy rolled her eyes in her helmet. The fireteam needed to get moving, so at the very least Skippy got them headed in the general direction of Karma's planned extra point.

Lizzie grimaced and reluctantly moved her hand covering it away, allowing Jake a chance to see the mangled horror of burnt flesh, seared bone joined with melted bits of SPI armour. It was a truly terrible sight to behold.
Try as she might, the spartan could not tear her eyes away from the nightmare that had become her left hand.

Jake reeled back a little from the hand before peering at it a little more. "So. Um. Rosie. We have any Bio-foam or um something." Jake said, not able to tear his eyes away from the mess. Thank god Chris died when he got stuck by that plasma. I couldn't even imagine what he would look like. "We need to cool this and bandage so yea. Fun part isn't over yet Liz."

Molly couldn't duck right or left, the narrow hall limiting her to desperation: she charged forward, getting within the arc of the sword in time to avoid the blade as it hissed above her. Now up close to the alien, she didn't bother trying to shoot it. Instead she primed one of her last grenades and dropped it at the Elite's feet before darting around it, dashing down the hall behind them.

"It is bad." Lizzie whispered stating the obvious her voice thick with pain and worry. She might lose the hand all together, judging just from appearances it certainly looked that way.
She saw no way that anyone might be able to save it.

"Um. Is it bad?" Jake said with a small unsure laugh. "Besides a little bone poking here and their and melted flesh... you might need a new one." Jake said, not daring to touch it.

"I... I don't think we get issued new ones." She managed to tear her gaze away from the horrendous injury.

"Yea. I was thinking the same thing. Maybe a cybernetics? Maybe." Jake said as he looked away from her hand and held his gun in both directions that Covvies could come from. "Rosie we might want to leave soon. This position isn't the best and we still have a mission to do."

Lizzie didn't say anything, despite the pain the worry that she might not be able to remain a Spartan if there was no suitable alternative. She gripped up her weapon, deciding to leave her looted plasma rifle behind.

One

Her legs pumped under her, the dull heavy thump of the Elite's boots sounding clear behind her.

Two

It growled and said something in it's alien tongue, drowned out in her helmet by her heavy panting.

Three

Her vision impaired, visor fogged up from her rapid breathing, the hallway already dark. A faint glow from behind her as the Elite's energy sword grew closer.

Four

Then the glow was drowned out by a bright flash of light from behind them both as the grenade she had dropped exploded, a wave of concussive force funneled by the hall in two directions, and one of them was her own. Heat, an invisible wave of concussive force and pieces of shrapnel came rocketing down the hall, and in a strange way the Elite saved her life. His body caught the brunt of the blast, shrapnel and the concussive force now draining his shield. More pieces went whizzing by like bullets, digging into the walls. One of the shards struck Molly in the back of her leg, her SPI armor's ballistic gel managing to keep it from going too deep. Sad bit was, it didn't stop it from going in, the sharp pointed piece of metal managing to embed itself in her leg, still hot and cauterizing the wound. With a cry she fell down, rolling into it and on her back as she brought her gun back up--going on half empty--and opened fire on the Elite.

When the Elite's shield finally dropped, he didn't retreat, instead relying on his point defence gauntlet to reflect kill shots. With a roar, he swung his sword upwards, cleaving through Molly's left arm, severing it completely. The swing had left him open, however, and the fire from Molly's weapon sprayed upwards as the sword finished its arc, shredding through the Elite's head.

Molly screamed in pain as her arm was removed, but she could only shove the pain to the side as the Elite fell, dead. Its death was enough of a balm for her hurt, and on the bright side she wouldn't bleed out; benefits of plasma weapons was that at least they removed the possibility of dying from loss of blood.

"This is Molly," she rasped over her comm to the rest of her squad. "Ted's dead, and I'm severely wounded."

"Rosie, what's our next move?" Nikki looked to Rosie for leadership.

I don't know the extraction point, I realised as Nikki spoke. "Skippy," I said over the comms, "We were never told the extraction plan."

I flicked a few hand signals to Nikki. Take two, watch our perimeter. We couldn't move without an objective. Chances are we'd be taking the wrong direction.

Nikki signalled to Evangeline and Jake to move out and establish a perimeter. The worst scenario would be that the aliens decide to take notice of us.