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BBVVVDEEEEWWWWWW... Another shot lanced from the Covenant AA gun, though all Echo 376 felt was the heat and wind from the covenant laser. The ship rocked and tilted towards port, the near-miss melting off the ceramic alloys and paint that skinned the Pelican. Their left wing was now bare: operational, but bare.

"Just a bit o' turbulance, marines! We're --OOFF!" The ship rocked as another near miss made them all thank whoever was watching over them. "We're nearing the LZ! Five, four, three, two, one, mark!" The warthog and mongoose bikes dropped from the engine-pod platform, and the troop bay opened...

A sweeping vista of rot and death, glass and fire, presented itself to Alpha-Able. Not a tree stood in this area, and all but the sturdiest buildings lay in rubble. Far in the distance, Jackals' energy shields and glowing plasma bolts lit up the darkening sky, as coulds of ash and soot swept in from deeper inland.

"My God..." Sergeant Dansmith whispered to himself: this was no home, this was a graveyard. Another marine, Ivan, a devout Christian and their weapons specialist, turned to Dansmith.
"No, not God. This is the work of the Devil, comrade." Not sure about his own religious standings, Ashton conceded that if there was a Devil, this would not look dissimilar from his domain. And here they were, charging in headlong.

The Platoon Leaders organized their men, and ordered certain marines into the transport 'hogs, while others mounted the Mongoose bikes. Dansmith and about half of Alpha were left walking, but it was just as well. The vehicles were just bigger targets to shoot at, from the Covenant's point of view.

"Sir, look!" Far in the distance, Covenant artillery and long-range bombardments had spotted their men. Blue and white streaks rose into the sky, a dull rumbling echoeing through the lands as the hot, dry air stung at their throats.

"Get to cover!!" Alpha's PL shouted, and they all bolted and drove for a nearby split-level parking garage. Mosst of the building's upper structures had collapsed upon one another, but the lower levels remained relatively intact. "Move, Move, Move!!" The PL stood at the doorway, waving in Alpha. The warthog made it inside, as well as one of th mongooses. Ashton, the last Mongoose, and about ten others from Alpha, did not.

vvvvv....-BBBRRROOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!! The first plasma bolt struck, followed quickly by another, then three more. First to their 12, then at their 9. The Mongoose blasted apart, sending its occupants flying. At their 2'oclock, a support structure for the parking garage was hit by a sixth plasma artillery, and the weakened structure began to moan and creak.

"Get out of there!" Ashton cried to the men and women of Alpha, who saw the supports of their 4-story-tall cover begin to fail. "RUN!" Most of able began running out, but some gan deeper down, hoping to get far enough below to escape being crushed. None of them did.

A seventh, and for most of Alpha, the final, artillery shell fell upon the garage, and the whole thing descended in a cloud of dust, concrete, metal, and bodies. A few let out short screams as they realized they would not make it, but before the building finished settling, all was quiet. Ashton looked up to see their Pelican make a u-turn, to try to pick up the survivors and get them to rejoin a larger platoon. They never made it, either.

A pair of hunters marched up the street, cannon barrels leveled with the swooping Pelican dropship. The loosed their beams, and each struck the cockpit of the pelicans. Over their Platoon channels, the remainder of Alpha-Able heard quick, painful screams, then static as the Pelican carrened towards them, not under its own power.

"Hit the deck! Move, move, move!" Ashton dove to the side, but Ivan was caught by a fallen power pole. He screamed as the Pelican crashed onto him, the metal ans heated glass spraying every which-way as the wings fell from the wrecked transport. Running as fast as he could, Ashton reached Ivan, who had miraculously survived. He reached in past the glass and began digging him out, while a small flight of buggers zeroed in on them.

"Leave me! Leave me, comrade! You shuold not die, too!" Ivan waved him off, but Ashton slugged his friend in the face, knocking him out. "Not a snowball's chance in hell of that, Ivan." He mumbled, finally prizing the crippled man from under the wreckage. The buggers had them all in their sights now, and it was time to move.

Pulling Ivan into a partially-collapsed building, a Private rushed up and helped hoist the man, and together the remaining 10 soldiers of Alpha-Able scurried towards a relatively-safe back lot. "We need help, over. Any other UNSC personnel, respond." Dansmith called, hoping to God that the company-wide transmission got thrugh to anyone who was still alive.

Catherine was just barely hearing all of the chatter over her radio, against the loud intense shaking of her pod. A lot of it was cut and mangled but she made out some key words. s**t the op is not going well. My first active duty in a long time and its all going to hell!
“Did you hear all of that Commander?” Catherine had to shout into her radio to even just barely hear herself, “Looks like they’re getting pretty scattered down there sir!” I will defend earth and all of her Colonies. Catherine started repeating her oath to herself mentally to calm herself.

He looked around. "Sir, I'm camping out behind a grave. 6 dead marines, I tagged em, and right now, I'm taking position just next to em. I dont see anything. But from the route, I think you guys should start heading up to my position. I'm closer to the base according to the sand-tables. Hold on a sec..."

He walked over to the corpses and switched on one of their Homing beacons.

"Follow the beacon, I'll be waiting."

Seth nodded, as his HUD picked up the beacon, he turned it into a NAV marker and set it to the rest of his Squad’s HUDs. “Lock and load boys, the Mission Leader’s waiting—we’re moving out.”

The eleven other Marines gathered their gear and some extra stuff from the troop bay. Schnell packed up the satellite COM and put it on his back, Mavericks and Richardson brought rockets and extra grenades, some heavy explosives, Jameson would have to be their medic. Davis, another Corporal and rather diminutive in appearance, slid a Sniper Rifle out of its place and readied it faster than Seth recalled ever seeing a gun being assembled. The others carried standard equipment.

Seth clicked the safety off of his BR55 “Let’s move out Marines.” He said as they took up their positions and headed out towards Karr’s location.

Warren heard a screech from above, A very loud screech. "Banshee" Warren cursed. He ran across the ground zig-zagging trying to not make himself a clear target. He heard the banshee getting closer and he could here it's plasma cannons begin to fire. He dashed across the ground and he looked behind him for a split second. The Banshee fired a fuel rod cannon shot at Warren. He jumped to the side and did a barrel roll across the ground and the ground behind him exploded in boiling hot plasma. He recovered from the role and began to fun again. "Some body help!" Warren yelled randomly into the air.

Mendez, at the moment, was screwed. His pelican barely made the drop and was dropped seconds after lifting off. Most of his marines had survived, but had lost the Lieutenant in command of the platoon. Keying his COM, Mendez radioed in. "This is Warrant Officer Mendez, and for the moment, commander of Able-Foxtrot. Our pelicans are down, and we are in the need of immediate-" He was cut off by a plasma bolt that whizzed through the air and hit the COM pack he was radioing from. Looking in that direction, Mendez saw a line of advancing Covenant, along with four Brute "Jumpers" with jetpacks. "Son...of....a....b***h..." Immediately, the Marines opened fire and sent a wall of steel downrange. Running back to the crashed Pelican, Mendez was lucky enough to find an undamaged SPKR Rocket Launcher. Sprinting back to the platoon, he leveled the launcher and cocked off rounds from both tubes.

Suddenly a 6th banshee flew over Alpha-Able position, and it opened fire on the other banshee's destroying 2 of them and the other 3 broke flank. "Thats how you do it" Warren yelled while piloting the banshee. He turned around and opened fire on another banshee and shot it down. The machine screamed as it flew into the earth. Suddenly a fuel rod cannon blast caught him from below. A hunter pair fired at the Banshee and Warren began losing altitude. "Time to go" Warren said as he jumped out of the burning banshee and watched it crash into the ground and explode. Luckily the banshee crashed beside a the Hunter pair and the explosion killed one of them. The 2nd Hunter enraged by there partner's defeat charged Warren. Warren threw both his flag grenades at the same time and they both exploded in front of the hunter. The Hunter yelled in pain and Warren snuck around behind the creature and opened fire with his rifle at the Giant Alien's back. The Hunter fell over onto the ground and it broke up into lots eel like creatures.

Warren caught up with Alpha-Able and saw Ashton leading the pack. "So where are we going? " He said simply.