The name of the HRP goes here

"So, Teria and Andrea," Peter noted. "Two Spartans and a Marine....sounds like the set-up to a bad joke." Shaking his head, he looked to Andrea and said "I'm still new to the situation; are there any vehicles? Something to get us off planet?"

"Well, you might have been stationed here like I was, but I don't remember seeing you around. You could check some of the computers here for any information that you'll need." Andrea says to Teria. She then turns to face Corbin and shrugs. There might be something in the hanger or the garage, but I have no idea. I've been postponing on checking them due to it being just me around here." She lets what she just said linger in the air for a moment before seemingly deciding that was a good enough excuse.

Taking that all in, Peter took a moment to think, trying to think of what to say. "Well," he said, "we should check the hangars first, see if there's a working bird. At least find out if we have an exit plan."

She continued to walk, only at a slightly faster pace this time. Her leg still slowed her down, but there wasn't much she could do about that at the moment. She knew she needed to regroup with friendly forces, but where they might be was a complete myster-
"This is ... distress call for anyone ... hear this me...age. If you...e seeking ref... cent attack, ... way to Gamma Base. Expect Cove... lers."

Gamma base. She rolled the name around in her head. It seemed familiar. Taking a knee behind a wall, she looked at the UGPS mounted on her wrist.
Or she would have, if she still had an arm. After momentarily pausing as she reminded herself of her current injuries, she opened her TACMAP, her vision being covered by a map of the surrounding area. She found the coordinates of Gamma base, and set a waypoint for herself. Just over one kilometer away. She took a deep breath and set off again.

"I think it'd also help if we could see without our headlamps. The power got hit about an hour or so ago, leaving a lot of this place dead. If we can get the backup generators back on, it can tell any other survivors of this attack that we're alive and it can also tell the Covies that there are people who aren't going to go down without a fight. Andrea says, putting the plan she had been trying to accomplish by herself out in the open for the others to consider.

Peter was a bit uncomfortable with that idea, saying "Look I know you two are Spartans and all but....we've got no idea how many more Covies are out there. Should we really let them know where we are, because I doubt my luck will hold out against another Wraith."

"It's holding out so far, isn't it?" Teria asks, putting his helmet back on with a little hiss. "I'd offer to get the generators working but I'm kind of just playing things by ear at the moment. I don't even know why...this works." he says, gesturing at his rifle and armor set.

"I've lasted a long time here in the dark, it's starting to get a bit bland to me, if I'm honest." Andrea says an excuse to Corbin. "And you've gone through the training, Teria. You don't need to know how something works to work it. It's all reflexes." She taps her own helmet. "It's been ingrained in your head on how it all works, so even if you bump your head really hard, you're not going to forget it all." She stands up, "I can handle the generators if you guys want to splinter off and scout the hangers."

Glancing at Teria, Peter shrugged and said "Ah what the hell, let's go for it."

Teria nodded. "You're the closest thing to commander we've got, so yes ma'am." Came his response. The spartan pulled out his assault rifle again and checked that it was loaded. "Ready when you are, sir." He said to Corbin.

"Ah god, no need to call me sir," Peter said sarcastically. "Gonna make me blush." Loading a fresh magazine into the rifle, he looked at the Spartan and said "You want point?"

Teria nods. "Just point me in the direction."

"Alright," Peter said. Sending the nav marker to Teria's HUD, he said "Should be popping up now."

Andrea smiles under her helmet at the jolly cooperation that was unfolding before her, "Alright, you two have fun and don't let the bastards get the drop on you." She leaves them these final words before running out of the doorway she had used to enter the mess hall. She sets up a quick waypoint for herself to the generator room as she enters the hallway. She checks both ends before heading right.

Hopefully I find some more soldiers to recruit as I'm doing this. The generator room isn't as large as the hangers by any stretch, but the opportunity to get surrounded is greater. She thinks to herself.

As soon as Teria got the navmarker he knew where to go. Or at least maybe knew. He started in the most likely direction, the exit closest to the marker. "Come on, lets go see what we can find. Here's hoping for some good news, eh?"

"Yeah, like something with a slip-space drive," Peter muttered, following the Spartan out. The best they might find though, in his cynical mind, was a pelican. Something with faster than light capabilities though would have been a literal godsend.

It didn't take too long for her to arrive at Gamma base, all things considered, taking her just over twenty-five minutes. She slowed down once the base came into sight, knowing that in the worst-case scenario, whatever UNSC forces were there had already been wiped out, and there were aliens waiting to kill anyone survivors that arrived. Slipping in through a damaged wall section and keeping the the shadows, her black armour blending well against the darkness, she slowly moved through the base, checking each room she passed.

"That would be the best case scenario for sure. Though personally I would settle for a Hornet or Vulture. Just something to help secure the skies. Covie weapons usually arc....right?" Teria wasn't too sure, though he sure said things that made sense and were true, in his mind he didn't actually know. Or at least he didn't think he knew. Maybe Andrea was right, he knew everything thanks to training but he just couldn't access it.

"Artillery weapons sure," Peter said. "Though their banshees are no laughing matter. Damn things are angels of death."

"Banshees...describe them to me? I feel like I can remember something." The spartan picked his way over some debris, part of the wall caving in, and if the scorch and blood marks were any indication a suicide grunt went off. Took half of a marine with it.

"Damn you must have really taken a hit to the head," the Corporal said. "Banshees, Covenant aircraft that look like some kind of giant bug. Stubby wings on the sides, bulbous green head.....oh and they shoot out a high speed stream of plasma. And when they're not doing that, they fire...well, plasma bombs, I guess? Big, green, make a loud boom and leave a scorch mark where your friends used to be." Stepping over some rubble, he found just how different the grace was between him and the Spartan, as he lost his footing on a loose piece of concrete and tripped to the side.

Laying on the ground for a moment, he felt nothing but raw anger in his gut, rising out as he screamed "Fuck! Fucking fucking fuck!" Getting up, he took a moment to vent as he kicked another small piece of concrete and growled through clenched teeth "Fuck this war, fuck this planet, and fuck these fucking alien.....FUCKS!"

"Fairly certain you should calm down, sir." Teria replied, stopping and turning to help the marine up. The brief description rang some kind of bell, but he was having a hard time getting the information to come to the front. He could picture it, a hazy mess of purple and green but it just wouldn't come clearly.

"Sorry," Peter snapped. "Just.....I knew some of the guys in my platoon. And seeing them get mowed down like that...." he said, trailing off. A distant fire, still burning somehow caught his eye as he said "It wasn't even a fight. Just....it was just slaughter."

"From what I'm seeing it wasn't just a slaughter. Some of the 'fucking alien fucks' as you called them died as well. I wouldn't devalue that, sir. Are you injured?"

"Nah I'm good," he said, making sure he wasn't gonna trip over more concrete. "And I don't mean this, Teria. I mean when my platoon wound up on the wrong end of the Covie tanks. That was the slaughter." Looking around, praying his rant didn't draw attention, he said "Come on, let's get moving. Still got a job to do, right?"

"I'm still sure they killed a few." Teria replied, nodding to the last statement and starting off again, gun ready but not raised. He would check his motion tracker now and then, blips appearing in an off and on pattern that made him question if they were real contacts or just phantom echoes

Andrea marches through the halls and rooms of the decimated base as she had done for the past few hours. Like a guardian of the dead, assuring their safe passage through to the other side. The silence disturbs her and her brain begins to make up strange machinations and ambience to fill the void. She stops here and there to calm herself. To tell herself the things she believes are real are made up. A betrayal of her own brain. She checks her motion tracker and sees a dot appear, moving at a slow pace.

Work with me here, brain. Stop telling me things are real when they're not. She thinks to herself. But what if it is real this time. She slows her pace and stops just before a sharp turn. She begins to frantically turn her headlamp on and off. Hoping whatever it is would respond.

Yeah whatever, Peter thought, following the Spartan. He kept an eye out for any hostiles, though it was dark outside, night crawling in and no moon to shine light upon them. Even if it made them impossible to spot, the same could be said of the Covies.

He picked a rifle up from one of the dead humans lay around, salvaged as much ammunition and grenades as he could, fitting them into the slots on his black armour.

It was the armour that saved your life.

He remembered now. A little bit at least. Not what happened, but why he was here. And who should be here with him.

Where is she? Were we that far separated?

He decided to make sure this building was clear first and strode further down the hallway. A flash of gold caught his eye and a glance with the flashlight read the word GAMMA.

She froze, seeing the corridor up ahead light up several times as a light flashed. It hadn't been doing that when she entered, so an outside force was causing it and with her motion sensor offline, she couldn't pinpoint where the contact was, or if there even were any. Silently, she raised her pistol and moved forwards, staying low and moving at a snail's pace. At the corner, she paused, steadying herself before stepping out, her pistol leveled at head height.

Andrea sees the form emerge from the corner and raises her DMR accordingly. The light from her headlamp gleans off of the black armor and she breathes a sigh of relief as she looks the body over to make sure it's human. She brings down her rifle oce satisfied and waves to the newcomer.

"Welcome to Gamma." She says in her most welcoming voice.

He read the word. It struck some dissonant chord of memory in his mind. He almost shivered as he felt the cold creep slowly up his spine. Shaking his arms to dispel the feeling, he continued walking on down the corridor before coming to a junction. He took the left path, the solitary sound of his footsteps echoing softly after him in the oppressive silence of the building.

"State your name, rank and service number." She demanded, not lowering her pistol from the other Spartan. Her voice sounded robotic, even to her own ears, and devoid of any emotion, even moreso than usual for a Spartan.

"Major Andrea Faulkner, 189." Andrea complies, "What about you?" She asks, before noticing the newcomers injury. Injury is an understatement, however, since it appears as though she had lost her left arm. She counts her graces she didn't have to go through whatever the newcomer went through to lose it.

The silence let slip the voices in the distance. Then they were gone. Lost in the darkness of the corridors that he inhabited. The building twisted the acoustics here, making it sound as though your own footsteps were coming from in front of you.

He stopped walking, and half a second later the echo of footsteps stopped too. It was slight. Almost imperceptible, but there it was. It sounded as though there was someone else in the corridor with him, approaching him.

Just an echo

He resumed his walk, and the echos of his footsteps resumed too. He reckoned the echo ahead was around thirty meters away, yet it seemed to be getting closer too. Again, he stopped and again, half a second later, the sounds stopped too. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was something in the darkness watching, yet his flashlight when shone around showed nothing.

Step, step, step.
Step, step, step.

The more he walked, the closer the sound seemed to come from in front. He kept his light off, hoping that whatever it was that was approaching wouldn't be hostile.

Twenty meters.
Ten meters.

He stopped. Half a second. The sound stopped. He swallowed hard and the chill rose through his spine again. He felt like he wanted to turn and run, run away from this hallway and the darkness and whatever it was that was following his footsteps so perfectly.

You're a Spartan.

And that was that. Spartans weren't afraid of the dark. They weren't afraid of anything. He took a deep breath in, savouring the dust in the air that meant his armour's filters weren't working properly, and ventured forwards.

Five meters.

Four meters

Three meters

Two meters

One meter.

He halted. Surely,if something was there, he'd be able to hear them breathing. He flicked his flashlight on, yet nothing was stood in front of him. This made him relax again.

When his flashlight went out, the panic set it. There was an oppressive feeling all around him now, eminating from a spot just a single meter away that he knew contained nothing but empty space. Yet all the same, his training kicked in. He released three bursts into the darkness ahead of him, turned and ran as fast as he could all the way back to the junction.

"Operative Luka-B029." She answered immediately. She paused after speaking, glancing around the area. "Is this location secure?" She asked, snapping her face back to Andrea.

The sound of gunfire echoed in the area, bringing Peter down into a crouch. "Where'd that come from?" he asked Teria. Trying his radio, he spoke quietly "Hey Andrea, it's Corbin. Just heard gunfire out here; you?"

Andrea did hear the gunfire as it broke the eerie silence and then the question from Corbin. She takes a nervous gulp. "So, that wasn't you guys?" She asks through comms to Corbin. She looks to Luka, "Not as secure as I'd like it, Luka." She clenches her right fist and lightly bangs it against her leg. "I've got a couple of guys scouting the hangers for transport and we're hear. I guess my distress signal caught another ear." She says, giving Luka a quick rundown of the objectives. "Are you well enough to help me investigate the gunfire?" She asks, she didn't know the extent of her damage, but if she made it to Gamma despite it all, she might be a good help.

Luka thought for a moment, considering Andrea's question.
"My combat effectiveness should be around 75%. It's just a scratch. Has your unit secured offworld transport yet?"

Well.....means there's another survivor, right? They're just shooting at something.....shit, Peter thought, looking at Teria. "Come on....if Andrea needed help, she'd have called for it right?"

Andrea puts one finger up to Luka, asking her to give Andrea one second as she calls for Corbin on comms, "Corbin, don't worry about the gunfire. It sounded closer to me and our new friend here. Have you and Teria made it to the hangers yet?"

He made it back to the junction and took the other path this time. He slowed his pace to a walk and calmed himself down, reloading the rifle he had picked up from the dead marine. He was going to stay the hell away from the tunnel he had just left.

"Still walking, but we're about to get there now," Corbin said. "And what the hell, 'new friend?'"

"You'll meet her" Andrea responds without giving much more information. The silence had returned after the burst of gunfire and there was nothing else left after. If there was a fight, either the person managed to hit their mark, or their target managed to get the better of them. Of course, she hopes for the first scenario just to increase their numbers even more. "75% you say, Luka? I'll take that over zero. It sounded like it came from behind us, let's go." She raises her DMR and sets out back the way she came.

Luka followed behind Andrea, switching on her own helmet's flashlight. With support, and another Spartan to boot, she was much more confident in her chances should they encounter hostiles. She kept her pistol raised as she followed behind, her eyes scanning the area in front of her.

Andrea had passed a hallway between leaving the mess hall and coming up to the turn where Luka and her had met. She believes she heard the gunfire from behind her at that point, so she is willing to bet that hallway will be the location of their new friend. To break up the silence and to quicken the time to get to the hallway, she asks, "How'd you lose the arm? Was it during the attack?"

The duo got to the hangar without much incident. Which was dandy, seeing as how on the inside, that was a different story. Crap, Corbin thought, crouched behind a knocked over crate. It looked like another patrol of Grunts. Either they were looking for survivors, or hoping to salvage nav data for Earth and the other colonies. Well....at least there's a Spartan with me, he thought hopefully.

Teria didn't add much to the conversation, his mind still trying to get the image of the banshee to come to the front. He had been following Corbin out of reaction, until the sight of grunts out in the hanger snapped him back to reality. He raised his gun up. "How good of a shot are you?"

Luka thought about it, trying to relive the moments before she had been knocked unconscious. Parts of it came up, there were explosions, plasma, fire spewing out from the UNSC Hellbringers, and then-
She stopped thinking.
"That information is classified." She answered flatly.

"Decent enough," Corbin whispered. "Not what I'm worried about though.....it's the Covies we don't see that worry me."