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James and his squad stood in total silence, as he had ordered the stuck together. The three man squad stood in a ring and mostly waited for the officers to finish up their collaborating. James was wearing a pair of black sunglasses, that weren’t really sunglasses. He had found a older helmet on the pelican and stripped the HUD display of it and refitted it into his own helmet. His sunglasses were now basically apart of his helmet now. Especially since he took of the sides and fixed them on to the front part of his helmet. Mitchell had actually done a pretty good job, but he probably would have been worse of if he didn't have techie help him out with it.

James checked watched various videos that were streaming across different channels. What caught his eye the most was a single transmission that was from a Recon Squad scouting out the Covenant forces. Mitchell watched the video until in ended with the death of the entire squad. James caught the glimpse of a brute standing over a dead marine's body at least until the brute smashed the marine's helmet with a mighty stomp.

James took the M90 off of his waist and checked it. He mostly was worried about ammo, he could only carry what was in the weapon, he just didn't have the room for anymore ammo. James then fitted it securely back into place, where it would rest somberly until he needed to kill something. Mitchell had his MA5C still slung over his shoulder; he loved the weapon and had confidence in it. James got out of his crouch and adjusted. Mitchell pulled his M6G free from its holster and checked it. Green, he pulled back the slide, he needed it ready for when he needed it.

The other two marines checked they're weapons as well. They all looked just as fit for combat. James approved of the diagnostics, it was better to be safe than sorry some said. James had the urge to smoke; he reached into his service pack and pulled out the carton. James checked it, it was still three quarters full. James decided he would stop smoking, or at least for now. It just go in the way during battle, plus it just took up the very limited space in his service pack. James dropped them to the deck and crushed the pack with his boot; the lighter was in the pack so he killed two bird with one stone. James at least had a little room to carry some M90 ammo now.

James, in a way missed the s**t. He had grown so accustomed to it that it felt wrong not to be in it. The adrenaline rush you got from narrowly dodging a brute, and the pumping a couple of rounds in his head was so invigorating that he almost missed not being shot at. James also missed being in a squad. More than anything he loved being in a squad. Mitchell wondered what happened to Capt. Exeter, James shook the thoughts out of his head and waited patiently with his squad for the next order.

'Dammit..' Being the XO of Wolf squad was a.. Responsibility, even though he hadn't seen his 'boys' for a bit. They're quads got mixed up, and none of them had died. That was good wasn't it? That was just fine.

Winter was sitting, empty handled. Fiddling with nothing to pass the time but flicking through his HUD as Shelly decided to keep on her relentless comments. Sometimes he loathed the gals personality but Shelly was Shelly and he'd never give her up. She was worth as much as a soldier, he'd take a bullet for her. That was a strange thought, taking a round for a AI? Something thats on a chip, he'd chuckle to himself but decided against it.

In curiosity he flipped up his squad.

Wolf Squad
CO: Lee, Xiang H. [Cpt] CS - Wasp
XO: Smith, Winter D. M. [MstGySgt] CS - Winter
Medic: Jeaux, LeCaw[Cpl] CS - Wok
Medic: Prog, Renald [LcCpl] CS - Worship
Demo: McAllen, Antonio [Sgt] CS - Wolfgang
Support: Kruzich, Dazereth [LcCpl] CS - War Saw
Marksman: Spencer, Jessenia [Pvt] CS - Wright
Combat: Tedesco, Elias A. [SSgt] CS - Won
Combat: Maverick, Drei [Cpl] CS - Witch
Combat: O'Connor, Patric [Pvt] CS - Wake

In the upper right of his screen he scrolled, ranks, name, and position flickering down. Winter at the top, dammit. That was a bit annoying. Being up there. What the man would give to be back with some ODST's, but marines, they were good. They were braver but they just weren't the same..

There was something that pushed them forward though. What was that? What they were fighting for. They fought for Earth, they're home world. They were on it. The enemy, the Covenant. They'd send them back to their heathen gods. Crippled, mangled, and destroyed. Once and for all.

They fought for a lot. Unconsciously he checked hi flanks, a pair of eyes checking left and right, rear view camera coming to life. Nothing. Marines. Buds, mates, blokes, humans. Winter wanted to step to, grab his shotgun and flick the safety off and blow some Covenant a**. They're arses had been on this planet for far to long!

"Oy, I'll blow your four jaws away, you little buggers intoxicated by methane, I'll blow you to pieces. I'm going to throw you off my mother Earth." It was just to himself, but Shelly heard.

A chuckle, a ladies chuckle. "Nice accent." Said a black haired girl, cute within her white bed dress. Holding her book of flames as usual. He hadn't noticed the accent, it came during a few rounds of beer or at will. Or emotion. She knew he'd thinking, but now she knew of what. "Good job kid, we'll kick their asses."

It wasn't everyday Shelly said something like that, and the smiling figured flickered away. She was like a human. In fact.. To human. He knew why, but wasn't that his secret? It was.

"Well.. Thanks for the... Input." A chuckle from himself, the old man didn't do that much. Well old wasn't that old. Thirty, something. But he still looked like he was in his early twenties. A defier of science and the human body. From a child his body was run on full gear and always in perfect shape. Still was. Body parts had been replaced and all that time in slipspace maybe had something to do with. He felt like he was twenty, at the peak of his existence. No aching muscles not even something start to feel strange. Well he was only thirty. Not for another ten years he would feel a single difference the docs had told him, the big ones in the fancy spaceships. Well as long as he didn't smoke or die, Winter never planned on doing either of those and had achieved not doing so. Something to be proud about huh?

Shelly broke his concentration. His thoughts. "Your welcome. Kid. What am I going to do with you reckless kids? Or kid.."

"I don't know hon. You'll just have to deal and watch my back."

"I can do that."

"Lance Corporal Jono," he'd opened a simple private calm, "I'll see ya later mate. Your dismissed. We dropped the antennas, thanks." COM silence returned. That peaceful silence, where it was only him and the las who lived in his head, Shelly. He gladly excepted the moment of silence, replying to Anthony with a simple green blip of a light. The A'Ok. Strapping his shotgun from his back he marched on after the ODST. A simple look across the barrel of the shotty, a check of the ammo bandoleer, a hidden grin spread across his face.

"Time to save a Major I guess." He sounded disgruntled, he wasn't. Just why did the b*****d have to down himself? Oh wait.. The dammed Covenant, hopefully for this he'd be able to spill some blue blood. Get the shotty to work and then yell a hell'ya for the corps.

Well.. Anthony was another man in black, a wicked grin reappeared. This might be.. Fun.

"Ok, here's the plan, Winter, your gonna go with 5 from L squad and move up. Mitchell, your going to be our Medic for the time being. Everyone else, were moving hard up the middle; now Winter you and your units are going to stay atleast 5 meters from us, acting as our perimeter defence, or base of fire. Now from what I have, they landed at an old Dam facility. It looks to me as if a battle had taken place before. We're huffing it half of the way, calling in Evac when we get in. Oorah?"

"So far it sounds good Karr" said the Commander standing up from the cold metal chair. He had hastily grabbed it earlier and plopped it down before him. Now he lazily reached over and pulled the strap of his Battle Rifle, lifting it off the ground and slinging it over his shoulder. Michael took in a deep breath for a moment, but when the rank smell of dead incarcerated flesh flooded his nostrils he gagged. Worst off he envisioned his squad being massacred by the flood on Theta Halo. He could only wonder, did God have a plan for him or was he just lucky?

The Marines of L-Squad all loaded onto the Pelican. Right now, air traffic was busy due to the Marines coming in for the new plan called 'PLOWSHARE'. The plan was to take the remaining marines, and have them set up a defensive parameter around the coast line, so eventually, the Marines from the 301st, and the 105th could break through. Anthony knew it was a fat chance, but going down fighting was better than sitting around with a stick up his a**.

Insted of the regular pilot, Anthony climbed into the seat. Anthony knew what to do, his dad was a navy pilot before him. Naturally, his father was sore when he signed up for Marine Basic.

He dawned the usual apparel, jet black, scuffed armor no helmet, the sash like cloth he wore around his neck from Foxhole one, and the headset for Pelican operators.

"Lima Nine-Nine-Three to tower, how's the traffic today Corpsman? "

"Copy that Lima Nine-Nine-Three. CWO, your clear on the west side, continue up through sector Bravo 1-6 and you should find the Pelican. I still have a reading on the Major. Transferring now."

"Copy that, flight patter in effect and we are heading off."

The gravity shifted in his stomach as the Pelican took off. Yellow clamps from the decking released and the pelican began its assent to the sky above.
To an onlooker, someone would say Foxhole 2 looked like a scavenger feast with all the Pelicans overhead.

Anthony switched to the overhead Speakers in the cabin. 'Ok, marines here's the deal. We're heading into Bravo 8, rumored to be light resistance. We're rescuing a major. Gunny, I brought you along so you could lead. I'll be watching from above. Mission is, mark LZ and target by strobe. Pick your leaders and move in the way you want. I tricked you so you could get some leadership experience. Overhead support is available. TACMAP uploaded to your TEAMCOM. Oorah Marines."

He switched to all Broadband frequencies."UNSC Major Lipton, this is D77-TC Pelican Gunship Lima Nine-Nine-Three within Bravo sector 3, inbound onto your location in 20. Do you copy over?"

Anthony gave a slight laugh. "Take Co-Pilot for a second, I have a story for you."

The gunny followed the order and sat down, dawning a headset.

"Back on Belfast, I head rumor of this guy, Name Lieutenant Michael Brennan. Now, I know this guy was like, high intence Black Ops. But what I didn't know, was what him and his team could do.
Now the story goes, Brennan and his 7 man squad, took over a Covie Crusier without the help of Spartans or anything.
I belive the story too. I mean, hell, from what that Lieutenant had, he sure kicked some a**."

He quirked a smile at the NonCom. "Son, you'll get your tine, and right now, your gonna prove it. Bring this sonofabitch home and lets get on with this war."

Clicking a few controls. He signaled the Gunny to huff it back in the cabin."Ok, Marines we're landing Cold in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... GO GO GO GO! "

Lipton didn't respond to the inquiry. He didn't want to. He wanted to rest. They had his SOS beacon, they could find him. One thing kept gnawing at the back of his mind. What had knocked his Pelican out of the air? It felt like a concussion weapon. But that made no sense. The Covenant didn't use Concussion weapons. He checked the access panel near the rear hatch and found that most of the items inside were still intact. Most importantly, the memory chips for the rear-facing cameras. He removed all of them and slipped one into the slot in the back of his helmet. A small window appeared on his HUD and the film started playing.

He watched himself and the survivors that left Voi with him climb aboard the Pelican and watched the Take-off. The chief had really done a number on that Scarab. ROMEO 8 was flying steadily when a slipspace rupture opened about 300 miles out and about 1000 miles above. From it came a CCS class Covenant battle-cruiser. The thing was badly damaged, with chunks falling off and impacting all over the place. Smoke billowed out from its engines, and it looked almost like the hull was breathing. There was a strange vomit-colored substance staining the exterior in some places, especially around the launch bays on the underside. The ship did not float gracefully like every other Covenant ship he had seen, but broke in two as it fell toward Voi. The forward section of the ship impacted directly with the city, sending up an enormous wall of dirt and smoke. The rear portion continued and overshot Voi by about a kilometer before impacting deep in the African jungle.

Lipton removed the chip and took off his helmet. The air tasted like blood, dirt, and fuel cells. He sighed and looked about the cabin. Everyone looked to be dead. He couldn't be sure until a Corpsman had come to investigate, but as far as he could tell they were either too wounded to be moved or no longer among the living. His gaze fell to his boots and he began to review the days events in his mind. Things were not going well for humanity. That much was obvious. The Covenant had laid waste to everything and ventured beyond Earth, there was only one Spartan left, or at least only one that he knew of. Even a Spartan had limits. He stood, walked to the rear hatch and grabbed the emergency release. He pulled on the lever and the door opened. The D77H-TCI was a somewhat aged bird of war. When the war with the Covenant started they were brand new. Even still, there were a number of the older model Pelicans still in service.

Sunlight filled the cabin and he stepped outside. The jungle was hot and humid, making him sweat almost instantly within his armor. He wiped his forehead with a gloved hand and gazed up at the glowing blue sphere. He would follow the Covenant, he would see this through to the end. Sure there were still Covenant on Earth, but not in the numbers that there had been. They had all gone into the sphere. He put on a tactical headset and held his helmet in his left hand.

"Lima Niner-Niner-Three this is Major Lipton, E Company 105th. I'm waiting for you. I think there might be a few more survivors in the wreckage but they're too wounded for me to administer medical assistance."

He paused and looked down at the memory chips in his right hand.

"I've got something that command might want to see."

He cut the link and turned on his IR flare, which would allow the UNSC birds overhead to spot him without giving away his location.