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"Copy that Lieutenant, I have you tagged and I'm on my way." he said, and packed up his 'campsite' (Which was only the COM relay and the Rifle)

He jogged over to the position, where he met the Lieutenant and the 11 other Marines. Everyone looked ok, but Karr was still frustrated about the mission.

"Well, here is the way I see it sir." he said as he slammed his back against the wall next to the Lieutenant. "Our first objective is stricken because of a faulty landing. So we need to hit a secondary objective. Has everyone gotten some rest?"

Kyle awoke in the pelican. He looked around as the warning alarm flashed. He could smell smoke and hear far off explosions. He sat up on the strecher and looked around. His bird crashed, killing everyone but him. He took the Captain's BR55.

Kyle jumped down out of the pelican. He shook off his dazed feeling and walked around a moment. His vision was blurred by the sun as it hit the open field around him. He looked around as his head began to spin. He clenched his weapon tighter as he began to come to completely. He turned around and saw a mongoose sitting far off from the crash. He notice the bent and crippled cargo holders on the pelican's mid section.

Kyle walked over to the mongoose and looked it over. He flipped it over and got on it. He turned it on and revved the engine a few times, "Hmm....I think I know where I am......" He looked around and then turned on his UNSC tactical mapp. His visor filled with different images and a matter of other items. He drove off towards a landing bay where pelicans pic up cargo for missions. He drove off to the station and reached it in about a half and hour.

The landing pad was empty except for a few scattered crates and a some warthog parts. Kyle pulled up to it and went down the stairs next to the pad's opening hatches. He opened the bulkhead and stepped inside. He stared at the cargo. He took a deep breath, "Oly oly oly oxen." Marines rose from behind the cargo, "Who you with?"

"Charlie two. I was assigned to protect the city center but we pulled out. We were almost annihilated. In that situation the word overrun lost much of it's meaning."

"We're the last of Beta's boys. A bird was coming in three days ago after the center fell to give us a wounded guy and some men. We were gonna leave on that bir-"

"Wait what about a bird and the center?"

"A bird was coming from the city with Charlie marines and a wounded sharpshooter."

"Well I'd be your woundee. And as for the bird.....Gone."

"Great."

"Yeah. So what can we do to get to the Crow's Nest?"

"Use some warthogs."

"Alright then. Let's get 'em going."

"Alright. Wait top side. Obreski go with him."

Kyle went up top to the pad and stood waiting for the wart hogs. They came up one by one. He and the other marines got in and they began their drive to the Crow's Nest.

--- One Day Ago ---

When was Dr. Hermann going to release him? Lee sat on the bare metal floor, his back against the wall, as he waited for someone to release him from the unnaturally clean white room. He had slept a few hours, even eaten a meal a nervous looking nurse had brought him through the single mechanical door leading out of the room. Ignorant of the preparations being made outside of the examination room, the Captain continued to wait...

[[ Behind the One-Way Mirror ]]

Dr. Alfred Hermann smiled as he reviewed the tests results on the latest tissue samples. Finally, after so many years of searching, he had found one. Dozens of ships, enough tours of duty to fill a celebrated medical journal, twenty years and a demotion from ONI-funded surgical research to regular UNSC medical staff later, and he had finally found someone special. Someone unique.

Hermann laughed loudly, as his staff continued to avoid his gaze and murmur amongst themselves. They disappointed him with their lack of enthusiasm, of desire to learn, to analyze, to understand. Their paltry normal minds couldn't grasp the importance of what they had discovered here. No. Nobody but he knew that they were observing the after-effects of a previous ONI project, the sins of the previous generation making indelible marks on their children. His ideas for the radical reinvention and improvement of the human race had been rejected, but some of his work had obviously been used nonetheless. If only ONI had had the guts to tell him he had been right all along.

Staring through the glass, the man that sat against the wall incited this time not only a spark of excitement, but also anger. How could they not have seen his brilliance? How could both Ackerson and Parangosky not realize his foresight, his prophecization of the future, and then summarily dismiss his theories in favor of that Halsey womans'? He had made no effort to see her when she had come on the passenger list, and had spared no thought as she disappeared along with her aberrant children. To the woman who had ruined his life, he would give no thought. All she brought into his mind was violence and chaos.

Peering closer at the structure of the strange cell he was observing, what he was referring to as a self-replicating proto-stem cell, he watched as it quickly bonded with the cell next to it and copied it's form and function. In the petri dish, one could slowly see a few layers of skin growing under what had been a single flake of the Captain's scalp. If this type of regeneration could be harvested, put to use for the rest of mankind, they wouldn't have to fear disease, injury or even death. Potentially, if administered regularly, one could maintain a body forever, in a constant state of youth and health otherwise impossible. Alfred snickered as he thought about what he was going to do. He needed a larger sample. He needed to know if growing an entire organ was possible. He wanted to take a kidney.

"Alright, nurse Ingrid, if you would anesthetize the patient, please? We're going to perform an organ removal."

The nurse looked at him, unwilling to believe what he had just said.
"But, the patient has just recovered. You said we were keeping him here to make sure his condition didn't degrade due into cancerous growth."

Hermann barked a laugh. "Nonsense, Ingrid. I am the Head Surgeon, and what I am doing is for the good of humanity. Now get in there and administer some chloroform. Science waits for no one."

"Doctor, I don't know what to say... I can't do this. You've gone mad."

The nurse was about to leave the room when suddenly, a gunshot rang loud enough that Lee woke up and disappeared from Hermann's field of vision. Ingrid's body then collapsed to the floor, a smoking hole neatly puncturing her chest. An expression of total surprise slipped from her face as it went slack with shock, and the slow pool of blood marred her otherwise clean blond hair.

"You should have listened to me, Ingrid. Then you would have liv-"
Hermann was cut off as his throat suddenly filled with foaming bubbles. The technician who had jabbed the biofoam applicator into the Head Surgeon's windpipe backed up a few steps, and a second dead body hit the floor within fifteen seconds of the first one. Panting, the technician began screaming as he ran out of the observation room.

"Sickening."
The cellular specialist on duty hit the door release, opening Lee's chamber.
"Nurse Whitman, clean things up over here while I give the Captain my report. We've wasted too much of his time already."

Mendez and his group had just finished wiping up the last of the Covenant. Suddenly, a Marine wiht his HUD flashing ran up to him. "Sir, i've got a bead on one of Able's personal transponders. He's about one and a half klicks to our East, but it hasn't moved in a while. Should we check it out?" A murmur went out among the men, echoing the same question. Mendez as the acting CO, decided to move. "Grab everything you can, COM packs, weapons, ammunition, everything. You all learned to carry heavy loads, so this should be easy." As two marines moved to remove the Pelican's turret, Mendez waved them off. "We're going to have to move quickly. I'd like to have it, but I can't risk moving that slowly." As the Marines packed up, they regrouped and moved out.

Warren noticed Ashton wasn't listening to his order's as usual, and this would get annoying, fast. "Ashton, Take the group around the...." He looked to see a giant Scarab heading in there direction. "Aw, valid point. Will go around" Warren lead the group of marines around the covenant scout party and towards the signal of the beacon. It was true he didn't have a COM or mission map, but lucky for him his secondary skill was navigating. He gripped his rifle tight and they ran down the beaten path.

The soon arrived to meet up with Seth's and Anthony's position. "Hello, sir's" Warren said as he lead the marines down the path. " Is this all the Marines left?" Warren said as he approached Seth and Anthony.

Lipton had left the Monterey before she reached Earth. The ship filled with refugees had rendezvoused with an aging Destroyer, and a portion of the Belfast survivors were offloaded to help ease the load and allow for the crew of the Monterey to have a little more "leg room". Of course, once they got to Earth none of that mattered much. The Covenant were back. Lipton had been reunited with Easy, although most if not all of it was now made of replacements. At least some of the original men were still there. All of the platoon leaders had died, although most of the NCOs had made it through. Now they were Platoon leaders and their enlisted boys had become the NCOs. Promotions for everybody. When they found out that "Lip" was still alive, there had been some celebration, but nothing much. He had been through the same training as the rest of them, and he knew them each like a brother of sorts. 1st Lieutenant Stillman had been the first to notice something was very wrong when the flotilla reached the Sol system. The UNSC E-band was going crazy, it seemed like everyone was trying to make themselves heard. The ones who had lived through the battle of Belfast had been filled with an unwanted sense of nostalgia. Their moods had turned somber as they remembered fallen comrades. Of course, this referred to most all of them. No human was unaware of the Covenant's attack on their home. Every human had felt the tendrils of fear stabbing at their heart. Extinction had become a disturbingly real possibility.

Easy had been one of the first units in. Lipton wanted to get straight to the fight. This also meant that they had dibs on the HEVs, which were a Helljumper's best friend, aside from their weapon of choice. The pre-jump inspection had gone well. Everyone had their weapons and knew their orders. Lipton had his BR55HB-SR, his MA5C-ICWS, and his M6G. It was rather silly that most people had the notion that a soldier could only carry two weapons. Two rifles maybe, but a sidearm was light enough that it didn't matter much. Of course, you could barely see his body armor beneath the ammunition pouches. He had the maximum safe number of magazines for each weapon, plus two grenades and a standard field survival kit. In other words, he was a true ODST, packing for every possible outcome.

The drop had been great fun. Captain Simmons, the company's intelligence officer had set up Easy's unofficial anthem. It was a rock tune that fit nicely with the ODST creed. Of course, once the HEVs were out of the drop tubes, the s**t hit the fan. It always did. One stick was eaten by Covenant AA fire, another lost two HEVs. 18 dead before touching the ground. When the pods hit the ground the Helljumpers came out with guns blazing. Their drop had placed them in hot territory. Brutes were everywhere, and Easy's job was to secure a forward CP that could be used to land supplies without forcing the men and women stationed at Crow's Nest to divert even more resources to ensuring that every supply drop and route was properly guarded. So far, they were dug in deep and not coming out. Lipton had wisely chosen their drop site on top of an old SAM site with a large closed gate and a bunker complex. The Brutes couldn't muster enough of a force to break through the ODST's defences. At least not yet. The walls were high enough to make sure that nothing would climb over, and they had turrets deployed at regular intervals. They were the big .50 cal Anti-Everything guns, but the smaller and more portable infantry version of the M247 .30 cal general purpose machine gun. The smaller guns were great in that they didn't need a big case to carry them, just two guys, one to hold the gun, the other to hold the bi-pod.

The marksmen were also doing their job well. The SRS99D was one hell of a rifle. 14.5mm rounds tore through the Brutes that weren't killed by the sheets of .30 caliber fire or the small arms fire from the other ODSTs. As of yet Lipton had not given the secure signal, because they hadn't killed everything, but they had neutralized two Covenant AA guns just by directing fire. The occasional ammunition drop was nice, and it let them hold out for far longer than expected. Eventually the Brute offensive had simply collapsed. Once the Bravo Kilos had run out of Grunts to use for cannon fodder, they had made a final kamikaze charge, and were torn to shreds. Easy had their landing zone.

The fort was overgrown with jungle foliage, but nothing that couldn't be cleared away, and it was large enough for a sizable force. More importantly though, was that it had direct access to the com hard lines. In the event that the global satellite network was jammed or disrupted, the short wave transmitters and fiber optic cables would be a huge asset in the defense of Earth. Lipton was sitting in the central building with Simmons. The Captain had taken inventory of the usable supplies within the base and had already inspected the perimeter. Now he and the Major were discussing the option of creating jungle outposts that could be used to fight the Brutes without drawing orbital attention. Contact with Crow's Nest had not been established yet, but contact with FLEETCOM had been accomplished.

The remaining men in Easy were doing their best to fortify what they could and prepare for another assault, which was more than likely. Lipton and his men had secured a landing zone for offloading Marine regulars without endangering the Pelicans and had created a fortified rendezvous point within in the jungle. The Major and the Captain were staring at a bank of monitors attached to the wall. Most of the bases electronics had been reactivated by its new inhabitants. A satellite image of the facility and the surrounding bush was displayed beneath an overlay of current troop positions both human and Covenant, known paths through the jungle, and a map of the fields of fire provided by the .30 cal turrets they had set up. The other screens displayed tactical information as well as seismic activity and the weather.

"Any word from on high?" The major asked while staring at the center screen.

"Nope. But as soon as we hear something you'll be the first to know Bill." Simmons said with a yawn.

"See if you can't get in touch with any of the nearby units and their CO's. I want an idea of how we're doing. Short-wave communications only. I don't want the Covenant shoving their air power up our backsides."

"Yes Sir."

Capt. Simmons nodded as Maj. Lipton left the room and headed further into the complex. He stood in an old atrium and watched dead leaves fall from an enormous tree, now grown through the holes in the glass ceiling. This was a beautiful spot, and he had to wonder at why it was deserted so long ago.

A lone Pelican slowly perched itself on the sandy grounds. The destination was clear, as a squad of Marines jumped out of the plane. Lead by Cpl. Drei Maverck.

"Alright men. We're going to take this one step at a time. Valley by valley, hill by hill. Keep your eyes forward and move." Drei ordered. His response was a heart, "Hoorah!" from his men.

Minutes into their walk, as the Pelican flew away, a plasma shell slammed into the ground nearby. Drei cursed as he and his men threw themselves behind the cover of a sandy hill. F**k...They waited for the Pelican to leave before attacking...How could I have been so stupid? Drei thought as he peered up over the hill. He spotted a Brute on a plasma cannon with four Grunts around him.

Drei held up five fingers, signifying five Covenant. Then he held up one to signify that one was a Brute. Another shell crashed into the ground, kicking sand and dirt into their faces. One soldier's legs were completely buried. Two Marines had to dig him out. "Open fire!" Drei shouted poking up from behind the hill.

All the Marines stood up and let their rifles roar. Most of the shots were misses, but two of the Grunts were taken out. Just as the Brute began to fire another shell, the men ducked back under cover. "We're never going to get them head on. I want all of you to open fire again and take out as many Grunts as possible. Pvt. Mackey, your with me. We're going to flank way around left and hit them hard. Got it!" Drei shouted springing to his feet. He darted through the thick sand and along the wide array of hills and mounds that covered the area. They had a few close calls with plasma shells, but nothing to extreme.

As Drei and the Private peered over a mound of dirt, they watched the last two Grunts fall. Then they made a run for it. Dashing through the sand, they flanked the Brute on his gun and opened fire from behind him. They destroyed his spine and neck, and sent the Brute falling into a puddle of his own blood. Drei kicked him and made sure he was dead. Drei held a thumbs up to signal his men...

Warren flew backwards as an explosion landed about 2 meter's away from him and the shock wave knocked him off his feet. He hit the ground hard and then he rolled across the ground and into some cover. "Damn, that really hurt." Warren complained as he sat there against a rock, that he was using as cover. Warren vision started to fade, but he fought to stay awake. Explosions continued in the back ground and Warren gripped his rifle tight.

As soon as he got his right mind back he peeked over the rock and opened fire in the direction of the enemy, he wasn't sure if he was hitting anything, but the more suppressing fire they could muster the better.