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

She notices Rosie's hand flick and nods.

So far, so good. We've got the numbers and a possible drop on anything. We just have to make sure we don't lose our composure if something comes up. We can get out of this. We... have to get out of this.

Nikki stacked up on the north door. Taking the enemy by surprise?

I peeked into the hallway, exposing as little of myself as possible. Two Elites lumbered down the hall, talking in their alien language. Through hand signals, I told the squad about the Elites, and motioned for them to follow me. I moved into the hallway, staying low, until I reached the corner at the far end, with the enemy's back still facing me. I raised my rifle, training it on the pair of Elites in case we were made, and opened my comms.
"Next, move."

Jake watched Rosie's hand signals after the tense moment, two elites and he couldn't help much with Lily on his shoulders.. Was she even still alive? Jake wanted to check but he also didn't, he wanted the chance that she was still alive to remain until they left. Even if she was dead and he was just lumbering a dead body around. He could only hope she was alive. So he would stay back while he waited for those who could deal with any bugger that came their way.

A knot begins to form in Eva's throat and the sound of her own heart beat echoes in her ears. She swallows nervously and makes a quick and quiet movement to Rosie's location. She heaves a quiet sigh as much of the metaphorical weight is brought off. The Elites seemed to not notice her movement. She brings her rifle up and aims down while flicking her thumb up to indicate her trip was fine.

"Next," I said, hesitating as the Elites paused for a few seconds, "Go."

Hesitation is the death of a soldier on the battlefield. Straight out of a textbook. When Rosie said "Go." Nikki stepped as softly and as quickly as he could. His heart was pounding in his chest. Even when he joined Eva on the other side, he still felt it pounding. He knew that no matter how loud his heart sounded to him, he was the only one who could hear it. Knowing that did nothing to comfort him.

It felt like my heart had stopped when one of the Elites glanced behind him as Nikki was crossing. It wasn't walking, and even before any indication of discovery had been given, I was squeezing the trigger of my rifle back. The Elite turned away again, and I started breathing again, loosening my pull on the trigger.
"Next-" I said, stopping when the other Elite turned and stopped. I kept my rifle trained on the Elites, motioning for Nikki and Evangeline to do the same.

Nikki dropped into a crouch and peeked around the corner. Camouflage active, gun trained on one of the aliens.

Evangeline takes a deep breath and crouches down. Her camouflage up and running perfectly well and even with this knowledge, she is still afraid. One slight hiccup and she could be dead. She leans out a bit further and finds the Elites in the sights of the rifle. Her finger shakes as if an earthquake is going on.

I had to make a choice, if I pulled the trigger now, Evangeline and Nikki would open fire, and maybe we'd kill them. If I waited, they'd either open fire or keep moving. If they opened fire first, we'd probably take casualties.

I whispered "Open fire," and pulled the trigger.

Evangeline hears the words and her hovering finger slams down on the trigger. A hail of bullets are sent flying towards the Elites.

Jake pressed against the wall as he heard the notes of open fire, if they started to take fire he would have to place Lily down so he could help. "Come on guys."

Nikki pulled the trigger back and a wall of metal flew towards the elites. but he also made sure he had an escape path if the elites fired at him. All he need do is roll to the side.

The recoil shifts Eva's aim slightly, of course, so she must do what she can to keep the weapon aimed at one of the two Elites. She keeps her focus on the Elite on the right as the weapon continues to fire and the ammunition continues to deplete. Soon, she'll have to duck back around the corner to reload her weapon.

Hopefully this puts up enough suppression for one of the others to hurry up over here or help us at least.

Their shields flared under the fire, both of them turning and reaching for their weapons. By the time their shields dropped, they had their weapons trained on us. The left Elite fell before he return fire, but the other got several shots off. Most of the bolts missed, but one struck me in the shoulder, sending my rifle spraying upwards.

With one of the opposing forces felled, Eva must make a split decision. Her rifle is now void of any ammunition, however, her sidearm is still primed and ready to be fired. As she sees Rosie being struck by a plasma bolt, she quickly decides to holster her rifle and she brings out her pistol. She stays crouched and begins firing at the remaining Elite. She can't afford to distract herself with Rosie's current well being, she must focus on the looming threat.

These beasts can be felled they can be beaten.

Evangelin's first pistol round struck the Elite in the head, plastering the walls in purple blood and brains.

The pain from the plasma bolt was excruciating, I'd been shot before, but only with ballistic weapons. They hurt, but the burning plasma was a hundred times worse. Thankfully, the single bolt of plasma wasn't enough to completely destroy my arm. Aside from my damaged armour and some serious burning to my arm, I was fine. Good enough to keep moving. Nothing serious. Trying to mentally block out the pain and pull myself together, I stood up.
"Tango down. Move forward."

Eva gulps as the Elite falls to the ground, its blood and brains splattered on the wall. She can't help but feel herself begin to laugh quietly to herself. Not that the situation was humorous, but all that they had gone through had been building up and now, finally, she has a bit of time to release what had been built up. She hears the command and looks to Rosie, then her eyes drift down to the damaged section of her armor. She says nothing, but nods and follows her orders. Continuing to the hangar.

I took a deep breath, my arm still searing with white-hot pain. It wasn't going to slow us down. I took my place at the front of the squad and kept moving towards the hangar.

Eva allows the others to pass in front of her before allowing herself to move. She felt better, but only slightly after her little laughing fit. As if she could take on the rest of the mission without missing a beat. She tries to reign in this newly found confidence as they continued their path to the hangar. She cannot help but wonder how the other team is faring on their end. She decides it would be best to allow that team to worry about their own lives would be the only thing she can do at this point.

When Rosie said "Tango down" Nikki moved forward. He reloaded his gun and kept on the look-out for aliens.

Jay had been quiet for the whole time, following the squad for her own survival. She wondered how the remnants of her own squad were faring. They hadn't heard from them for a while now. She felt the boiling rush of tears to her eyes as she considered the fact that they might be lying dead, whilst she wasn't there with them

Thankfully, the rest of our journey didn't take long and we encountered little resistance. I bit my tongue as I thought about what that might mean for the other squads, I couldn't think about that now. The hangar was ahead. Do we wait for the others or keep going? I thought. I couldn't be indecisive now. We were probably at around an 80% death rate, so most of the survivors were here. I halted the squad.

Seconds were starting to add up, and every second made it less likely we'd get out. I crouched, sneaking in to the hangar, staying as unnoticable as possible. The hangar was much larger than I'd expected, and thankfully, a single phantom was still docked, with only a horde of aliens in our way. There was no point counting them, we were far, far outnumbered, but we needed to get through. I returned to the squad, trying not to think about what was about to happen.
"We're outnumbered. Push through, we're taking their phantom." I looked to Lily, still unconscious, and checked her pulse. I couldn't tell. She might have still been alive, but after this push, she'd be dead anyway. "Leave Lily here."

We're pushing through? Eva tries to peek ahead of her position and sees quite a few of The Covenant's forces blocking their path. We're pushing through that? She nods quickly, her actions betraying her thoughts and feelings. Leaving Lily behind will be the best for them and she probably died during the trip to the hangar, anyway. She was only dead weight to them, but no one wanted to leave her because of the chance that she was alive. Even now it is difficult to just leave one of their own behind. Eva bites her lower lip nervously and checks her ammunition count and finds she is out on her rifle. She shifts and equips her pistol again.

"If we hide her body, she'll have a fighting chance to get out alive. If she recovers."

"She's not going to recover." I said to Nikki. My chest felt tight and hollow, but I had to face facts. Chris, Jared, Skippy and now Lily were dead, under my command. If I'd been more agressive taking out the group that killed Chris, he'd be alive. If I'd been more aggressive fighting the hunters, Jared, Skippy and Lily would be alive. I noticed my hands were shaking. Not good. I needed to look like I was capable. I reloaded my rifle, taking whatever was spare on Lily's corpse. "Ready?"

Eva nods once more against her feelings. "R-ready" She replies just as quickly. The adrenaline has consumed her actions and she is now working through survival instinct alone. She sees the end goal and she will be damned if she dies along the way. "L-let's get on with it."

"Straight to the Phantom. Take out as many of the aliens as you can. Nobody stops until we're in the Phantom," I said, "If you go down, you're on you're own until we've secured it."

Eva understands why Rosie is so adamant about rushing in, but the only way to go is to go forward and there is no turning back. The screams and the cries of the fallen will ring with no one to answer them, but the survivors will continue to fight in their memory until their last breath. "W-we have to carry the memories of our friends with us to battle. W-we need to go now." She says looking at the horde of Covenant. One quickly turning it's head to their relative location, though she is unsure if it saw anything. Her hands grip the pistol in tension.

Hard, fast, and no looking back. Nikki would reflect on this later. Now was a time to get out. 

He took a quick inventory of what he had. Grenades, ammo, weird plasma grenades from the dead alien. He was all set. He remember what the exterior of a phantom looked like. They would have to board through the center ring thing, where the gravity lift is. Unless the side door flaps are open.  Nikki envisioned what the next few moments would have. He closed his eyes and steeled himself. "Ready."

"Go," I ordered, sprinting through the door to the hangar. Lead by example. The Elite that had turned to us as we were preparing, thankfully, hadn't seen us until I'd ran in. It turned, raising its weapon, but never got a chance to fire. I slammed my shoulder into its waist, sending both of us falling to the ground floor of the hangar.

Eva's legs move on their own in a sprint and her eyes watch as Rosie falls with one of the Elites. She brings her pistol up as the rest of the aliens stand at attention from the noise and fires uncoordinated shots into any of the aliens she sees. One Jackal reacts too slowly and it's brain is penetrated by one of these bullets. She hopes she can outrun the inevitable hail of plasma as her legs pump to the Phantom.

The Elite landed beneath me, having been taken by surprise, and the impact dropped its shields. As we landed, I drew my knife and thrust it into the Elite's skull twice. Confident it was dead, I pushed myself away from the corpse and continued running.

Rosie fell and Nikki ran past her. Shooting at any alien that looked like they were going to shoot him. Running, Nikki was now closest to the phantom goal.

There's no looking back for Eva. Her friends could be dying and she wouldn't know. The reverberation of sound fills her ears, blocking out any other sound. She sees Nikki rush ahead of her and slightly feels relief that, so far, one of her friends is alright. She shifts her vision around and sees an Elite running towards her, Energy Sword drawn. She lets out a yell and runs at it. It swings the sword so it slashes upward, but she dodges left quickly and retaliates with a strong right hook, impacting the armored head, the shield breaking. She raises her pistol up and aims it at the head and fires two rounds into it.

I saw several of my squadmates rush past me, Nikki, Eva and then Jeremy. Nikki pulled ahead as Eva engaged an Elite. As I started running again, I saw Jeremy get hit, a large, pink spike sticking out of his throat. He grasped at it, panicked, before it exploded.

The humanoid alien drops back onto the cold floor of the hangar the blue blood pouring from the fatal areas. She looks around to get a layout on where her squad is placed. Just as she does so, she sees Jeremy fall with a pink spike gouging his throat. An extravagant blast of blue light comes from somewhere, no doubt a grenade. As the combination of the light and her looking at Jeremy's body trying desperately to get the spike out, her stress level peaks once more. She tries to rip her eyes from Jeremy, but cannot. She can only imagine the immense pain and struggle he is going through. The imagining stops, however, as the spike explodes. Her eyes finally leave Jeremy and she continues her quest to the Phantom, giggling as she goes.

Nikki, Eva, Jake, Izzie, Jay. I thought to myself. More than half of the squad had died under my command. I pushed on, emptying my magazine into the Jackal marksmen above us as I did. I paused as I reached the phantom, taking a moment to check on Jay and Jake. Jay was almost here, with Jake behind her. I caught something in my peripheral vision, a slight disturbance in the air. I tried to shout, but my voice broke as an Energy sword crashed down through Jake's arm.

Eva reaches the Phantom shortly after Rosie does. She turns and immediately sees Jake's arm be severed from his body. Another spike of terror in this seemingly never ending roller coaster of constant death and injury. She raises for her pistol instinctively and tries to fire after raising it up to be level with the Elite, but is only greeted with the depressing clicks of a gun that has run dry on ammunition.

"W-we need to get in the Phantom, w-we need to get out of here." She forces herself to speak, through a huge lump in her throat.

"GOGOGOGO!!" Jay screamed at the Spartans who had stopped outside the Phantom ahead of her. She didn't understand why they had stopped. ON her next step, something heavy fell into her back and she rolled with it forwards.

It was Jake, oddly missing an arm. Jay didn't understand what had happened but it didn't matter. She needed to get up and reach that Phantom or die.

I opened my mouth to speak, taking cover behind a blue-purple barrier the Covenant had set up. I could still see Jake, trying to fight off the Elite. I raised my rifle to fire and-
*Click* Empty. I reloaded, slamming the magazine into my rifle as quickly as I could, when I raised it again, I saw Jake take an Energy dagger to the stomach. The Elite kicked him, and Jake landed several feet away, facing me. He crawled forwards, dragging himself with his remaining arm, before the Elite put its boot against his spine, pinning him. It lowered the blade of it's Energy sword to his neck and cut sideways.

I saw Jay go down, and the Elite turn to engage her.
"Nikki, Eva, secure the Phantom!" I opened fire on the Elite.

Still shaking, she holsters her pistol and runs around to the ventral doors which were luckily left open.  She looks around for any hostiles that may be hiding away in the dropship, her shaking hand going for her knife. Once she checks the troop bay, she makes her way into the pilot's bay. Nothing comes her way, so she runs back to the nearest plasma canon and begins firing at the covenant making their way to the group.

"T-the ship is c-clear! Let's go!" She shouts as she fires.

The Elite flinched as its shield dropped, giving Jay time to get away. With the fire coming from Eva's plasma cannon, the Covenant trying to close the gap were either killed or forced into cover. Izzie slipped and fell as she neared the Phantom, but she was close enough that I could drag her into the gravity lift with me.

I didn't say a word to anyone when I reached the Phatom's interior, moving straight for the cockpit and throwing my helmet to the floor. We took off, some of the Covenant force taking potshots at the Phantom, to little effect.

Jay scrambled up, jumping on the outstretched wing of the Phantom as it lifted off the ground. She held onto the ceiling and added her own rifle fire to the plasma cannons.

Izzie thought that her life was over when she fell near the phantom. The Spartan by now was utterly exhausted, her left hand burning agonisingly. She had also taken a round on her right thigh, she lay propped up against the interior of the phantom, feeling no triumph that she and the rest of the surviving Spartans had appeared to escape the enemy, only pain and a deep sense of loss for all those who did not make it this far.

I closed the sides of the Phantom as soon as we were clear, and thankfully, nothing shot us down. I flew us away from the Covenant fleet, waiting until it was almost out of sight before I flew any higher. The Prowler we had arrived on found us almost as soon as I transmitted a UNSC signal, and soon we were being flown back home. Colonel Swain had specifically asked that the debriefing be done in person. For the duration of the journey, we were confined to our quarters. Being let out only once we'd arrived.

Eva sits on her bed and looks like a small child sized ball with her hands and legs coming close to her body. She slowly rocks back and forth as she tries to desperately remove the images of the prior battle from her head. She had gotten out and she had maintained her goal of not dying, but to what end? The images of her friend's corpses flash over and over. She acted strong at the beginning of the mission, but she didn't actually think they would lose anyone. Now that the mission was complete, she has nothing to focus her mind on except for the carnage.

For the majority of the trip, Jay sat on her bed. She rose five times a day. Three meals, two toilet breaks and one hour of exercise. She didn't think about what had happened or who might have survived. She didn't consider how many of her family she might have lost. As far as she was concerned, the mission didn't happen.

She kept her mind busy. Constantly running simulations over and over and over in her head every single minute of the day. Until her door slid open and there wasn't a meal waiting for her for once.

I had been let out of my room exactly once during the trip; to give my shoulder medical attention. The only crew I had seen were the medical crew and my escort, and the other spartans were all, presumably, locked in quarters.
End of Act I

Act II - Sedran Rebellion
Colonel Swain met us at the hangar. He returned our salute slowly, looking at us with something like pity.
"Operation Grasping Maw was a complete success." He said, "You operated well under the circumstances, and you are all being awarded Purple Hearts for your actions, as are all of your fallen comrades.
"Squads Shield, Hunter, Aether,-" He listed every squad except Ralei and Hammer other squads "Are all Missing in Action, presumed dead. The others have been confirmed Killed in Action by your own helmet cams."