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"Roger that Lieutenant."

He moved to a position in the bay where he could get everyone's attention.

"Everyone listen up! ETA for EVAC is 3 minutes. Our status is now Yellow. Your orders are to Fire on the CO's or the XO's Command. Get ready to get out of here boys." He called to everyone.

The heat of a laser passed by Karr's leg, missing him by inches. With the normal worried reflex, he jumped out of the way.

"Where did they all come from?!" Called one of the Marines on the AP turret.

Karr couldn't reply, his focus was through his Sniper's scope at the ruby red center of the robotic being. Now taking position behind a peice of scrap from the Pelican, he could stay safe for the small moment that he could find a weakness.

He muttered under is breath as the red dot finally began to glow at one of the marines.

That was his opportunity. Karr sruck his finger against the trigger; a sharp recoil followed. Through the sight, he could see the sentinal fall to the ground, twitching and convulsing as its circuts began to malfunction.

"NEW TARGET! NEW TARGET!" He barked over the repeated gunfire. "The red dot is the weakpoint when they begin to fire! Repeat: The firing mechanisim is the weakspot. FIRE WHEN GLOWING!"

As the cloud of three-pronged machines descended onto the marines clustered for evacuation, Lee's voice shouted over the SQUAD-COM words he had hoped he wouldn't have to say.
"OPEN FIRE!!! Give'em everything you've got, marines!"
His battle rifle shook in his hands, the signature staccato burst of gunfire followed by an electric scraping noise as a gold shield temporarily covered the sentinel he had been aiming at. Lee cursed under his breath as he grabbed Ashton's inert body and leapt sideways in time to escape the scarlet scalpel of light that would have skewered him where he stood. Quickly hobbling behind the corner of a few crates, the Captain noticed the lack of turret fire mixed in with the sounds of lasers and projectiles flying around the bay.
"Get those turrets firing! I want AA cover, NOW!"
The lack of turret fire continued for another few seconds, and Lee peeked over the crates, still lugging Ashton's body with him. He spotted Warren nearby, asking for a plan. Good, Lee had already gotten one.
"Sergeant Warren, get over here!"

Kelly flinched as another scarlet beam of destruction flashed past her faceplate. Quickly spinning around, she spotted the sentinel that had fired charging for another shot and squeezed the trigger of her made-for-spartans sidearm. The barrel almost leapt out of her hand, straining against the Mjollnir armor's artificially enhanced strength as she held on tighter to the pistol grip.
A single round of high-caliber explosive-packed ammunition flew from the end of the pistol at impossible speed, neatly puncturing the globe in the center of the sentinel's form. The redness of the sphere seemed to flicker for a moment, before finally turning a bright greenish-yellow and shattering from the inside.
The resulting metallic husk fell, crashing through one of it's companions and thoroughly incapacitating it as well. Kelly ran in time to dodge another beam, and was satisfied to see another five sentinels fall to marine and spartan gunfire. True, the marines were only responsible for two of the destroyed machines, but they didn't have the firepower Fred and Team Saber had discovered in Onyx's ONI Castle complex. In comparison to their pistols, the marines were wielding garden hoses that spewed fruit punch. Her face almost formed a smile. She'd have to remember that one. Another red beam crossed her path, and she weaved back into the fight.

Lance Corporal Dansmith, you remember how I said there wasn't yet a firefight?
Well, I recall it part of a larger parlay, but yes. Why, am I not going to like what you're gonna say?
Most likely not, though I have a bit of good news at the end of it.
Well, good things, like ignorance, never last forever. Alright, shoot. Am I gonna die in a coma, or what?
Not if I have anything to do with it, and I have a rather large part in this. I can temporarily jolt your brain into consiousness, but I cannot guarantee any prolonged wakefulness. Unforseen side-effects may still linger from a sudden lift from REM unconsiousness, but if you don't want to be as useless as a shotgun in a sniper match, I think your options are limited to just the one.
Ashton mulled this over.. he had a shot at becoming awake again, but he had no idea what the situation "out there" was like, nor if he would even be able to face it. But, as Angel said, he had little choice. It was either that, or die from some stray shot that he could have crawled out of the way of.
Alright, Angel. Shock and awe, lets bring me out of this damnable coma.
-----
"GHAAA!!! HOLY BRUTE BALLS!!!!!" Ashton's body straightened like a board, then went momentarily limp as his overtaxed muscles gave way to lactic acid buildup. They quickly recovered, and his head felt like it weighed about as much as a heavy cruiser.

He was vaguely aware of fellow marines near him, but he hardly paid them any mind: he was strangely and intensely focused on his surroundings, and his own survival.

Panting as he rolled onto an elbow, Dansmith looked around, not at all pleased with the contents of his current Hell. A solid wall of the cursed sentinels was only barely visible past his cover behind the crates, and he could see black bodies of fried marines and carbonized bone. The debris from armor, men, and weapons littered the floor. The whole room reeked of burnt flesh and piss, as the marines' body fluids leaked form their dead and shocked corpses. He lazily but suredly staggered over to an AA turret nearby, and only half-confidently activated the weapon's switches.... Odd, he remembered having been briefed and trained on the weapon, but it felt like the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: he couldn't recall precisely what he needed. He decided to wing it, and jammed down both buttons on either twin handles, and depressed each trigger with a satisfying "click!".

A torrent of orange-hot bullets streamed from the muzzle, a deafening roar filling the din of battle. One after another, the golden energy shields of the advanced robotic flyers overloaded and popped, followed closely in their failure by the falling wreckage of the destroyed sentinel to whom each shield belonged. He screamed an incoherent babble, still strangely dizzy from only just having woken up. His adrenaline and testosterone levels were running high, but he did not bother to stim himself back into balance: the chemicals acted as good local anisthetics, dulling the pain from his face and chest, where he had impacted the Forerunner terminal, fusing himself with the Angel fragment. The burns that covered his upper body throbbed, but he ignored their persistence: either he did that, or he died while wallowing in the luxury of pain.

"Christianson! Chester! Lay on Fire! I need some cover!" Karr yelled behind the position he was in. His back was up against the section of Pelican, he reloaded the rifle with another of his 9 clips of Armor Peircing rounds.

Slapping the cartrage in and racking the bolt; the Sergeant booked it across the bay, laser fire followed as he dove for another section of desembodied Pelican armor as his cover.

In his mind, he knew he wasn't safe for long. And his feelings were correct.
Slowly, like a lion in a field hunting for its prey, a sentinal swooped infront of Karr; his back rested against the Pelican armor.

For a moment, it seemed to stop... analyzing the data from the footsolider for later study. Its optical sensors recorded everything, including the suprised look on the organism's face.

Anthony swore under his breath. "Oh hell no." While he reached around his back for his pistol, the 'eye' of the sentinal began to glow. And with lightning reflexes, Anthony pulled his HE pistol out, unloading 3 rounds into its 'face' and sending it flying; a trail of sparks followed in its confused waltz.

Still in somewhat of a shock, Anthony slowly reholstered his pistol, and re-drew his rifle.

"Able red, Able red; Rescue party Beta, this is XO First Sergeant Karr. We're taking a shitload from these flying bastards. I need an ETA pronto. Over?" He said into his COM.

"Understood sir" Warren said as he jumped over the crates and held his BR close tight. When he landed blood flew out of his legs, but he ignored the pain and moved forward. He ran to Seth's location and threw himself to a ground and skidded beside Seth. "Lucy, I'm home" Warren pulled himself up from the metal ground and took cover with his leader, "So whats the plan" Warren said, trying his best to not cough his guts up.

Henry moved over to his location, and the Captain let loose a rocket, dusting a clump of sentinels. "We're taking over those turrents!" He informed Henry, "Let's move!"


Keeping low Seth dashed out from under the cover of the crates and began to run as fast as his legs would carry him. He could hear the corridors being drowned out by gunfire, yells, and a frightening "bzzzzzt" of the Sentinel's weapons.

Heat splashed across the side of his face, the Sentinel beam passed him, but did not follow. Seth brought up his BR55 and fired briefly into a clump of sentinels, that surprisingly seemed to dwindle much faster than they should. Over the radio he heard Karr. If the time was appropriate Seth would grin.

Reaching Dansmith Seth slapped the man twice on the shoulder and shouted in his ear and over the COM to be heard and not drowned out by the firefight, "Dansmith, fall back to the Captain's location! We've got you covered!"

Seth stepped up and took Dansmith's place--the man looked worse for wear...and was conscious, but the how and why didn't matter right now. "Henry, get on the other Turret!"

Over the COM Seth heard Karr, "Get in contact with that Evac Karr, Henry and I have a handle on this for now!"

Seth held on to the handles tight, pointed the nozzle at a group of Sentinels pressing down the Hallway to Marines and opened fire.

Frustrated, Karr slapped a new magazine into his rifle and slung it around his back. Replacing it, with his BR55. The tri-shot burst drflected off sheilds and connected with metal.

"Repeating last transmittion; Able Red Able red! This is Able Company XO First Sergeant Anthony Karr. Able is taking supressive fire from the enemy. I need an ETA NOW DAMNIT! MY PEOPLE ARE DYING!"