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Aboard the Shanghelii Heavy Cruiser, Heart of the Blade: Low orbit over Earth.
Tenth Age of Deceit and Shame, Royal Calendar of Shanghelios

"We can't hold out any longer! Too many-- Ungh! Too many levels breached-- We've- we've lost most our crew already! Ensign, ramming speed! Argh-We have to... We're- We're taking those bastards out with us!!" The honorable and badly injured Shipmaster of the Human frigate, the For the Kill, broadcast his final message across all Shanghelii Battle Channels and FLEETCOMM Frequencies. Observing the doomed, flaming, and venting ship's final course correction, Shipmaster Quan-Vrek extended his sword-hand, hammerfist-style, and slowly rotated it up and in, so that he ended the ceremonial gesture with his fist near and palm facing his head. He held this pose as the For the Kill crashed into a weakened Jiralhanae super-carrier, diving into the ship's sub-structure and finally contacting with it's foe's Engine reactor: the two detonated in a silent display of pure white and sparkling bits, which quickly faded as the cold of space overtook and consumed the heat of the explosion with greed. The transmission from the Human ship went dead, and the view quickly changed from the remaining static to a prognosis of all the ships in Heart of the Blade's battlegroup.

"Honor their deaths, Weaponmaster, and fire at will. Full power to the Engines, Helmsmaster, and bring us about to face to present the lateral lines to the Jiralhanae battle groups. Hangarmaster, I want our Scarab pilot teams in the void as soon as possible, and have them concentrate their fire on the nearest Jiralhanae Frigate!" Quan-Vrek turned back to and re-mounted his chair, which wobbled only slightly as it compensated for his bulk and armor. On his screen, he watched with pride as the flight of more than 50 Scarab Fighters swarmed out of the Foreside hangar and coalesced in pulsating formations upon the silverey blue Jiralhanae frigate. At first, its shields repelled the tiny craft's fire. Unfortunately, Heart of the Blade was also providing accompanying fire, and together the firepower assaulting the Jiralhanae ship was over 10 times greater than the firepower aboard Quan-Vrek's ship.

The command bridge of the Jiralhanae ship appeared in their Holo-tank, and the engraged Jiralhanae Shipmaster bellowed into their faces as, behind him in the hologram, his command bridge began spewing molten metal and plasma as multiple hull breaches created cracks in their decks.
The atmosphere began to vent from the Jiralhanae's bridge, evident from the small weapons and lighter crew members beginning to move about slightly erradicallty as the winds picked up. Soon, most all of the members on the enemy's bridge were grabing their throats and sucking at nothing, but somehow the Shipmaster of their ship managed to mainain his bellow. It was not until the internal plasma coils burst, melting his face and cutting him to ribbons, did the enemy Shipmaster finally know the meaning of "silence". On screen, and not a moment later, the frigate detonated, and the explosion from the small-but-potent ship engulfed three other sub-carriers, as well as four of Quan-Vrek's own Scarab fighters. Again, brothers sorely missed.

The audio-units in the bridge crackled to life:
"Hot damn, scratch those bitches off the list! Good timing, Shipmaster, your help here is greatly appreciated!" The overjoyed (a common battle mistake among fresh soldiers) Human Shipmaster gave an odd gesture, one where he placed his hand, extended flat as a blade, up near and above his right eye, as if he were blocking the sun from blinding him. A most strange greeting, but Quan-Vrek akwardly returned the motion in kind.
"It was no trouble, Human. They were just as likely to die at my hands as that of my lasers: I would have dispatched of them regardless."
Just then, a proximity klaxon blared throughout the ship, and numerous Huragok engineers began scrambling frantically for something to grab on to near their stations.
"Status!?" Quan-Vrek bellowed, at which his XO replied,
"Sir! A cloaked Jiralhanae vessel, sir! It's going to ram us!"
No sooner had the Shanghelii finished his sentence, did Quan-Vrek get thrown from his feet and slammed against the bulkhead of his Nav-Officer's station, spilling a gout of his blood against the man's armor and holo-projectors. Holding his broken side, he hobbled back to his feet, and was nearly back into his command chair when the ship began to vibrate and shake.

The Heart of the Blade was falling to Earth from low orbit, couresy of the kamikazee Jiralhanae ship.

Anthony sat in wait against the ground. His torso armor scraped against the fresh dirt that pasted the ground. The scope of his rifle was focused dead ahead on a single point, that if he was right, would soon reveal his enemy.

The tension in his arm rose as it rested next to the rifle. It began to involuntarily twitch and quiver as he waited for the oncoming Brutes.

“Morrel, what is your status?” He called over the TEAMCOM. On his TEAMCOM, he saw Private Davis Morrel’s marker about 10 yards from his position, laying low in a scrap pile with Private Alex Daniels and the newly appointed COM officer, Corporal Kevin Myers.

“All clear on this end sir. Waiting for your command.” Morrel replied.

Anthony clicked the ‘auto-response’ to beep twice for acknowledged.

To his left, he spotted 3 more marines, laying low as his spotters. He took his eye away from the sight to give them hand signals.

He flashed them 3 fingers, then sliced the air with a sideways motion; followed by his hand making a path pointing forward at a building 5 meters to his left.

The 3 of them gave a simultaneous thumbs up and moved over to the position he instructed, leaving a dust cloud in their wake.

Focusing his attention back on his scope, the crosshairs revealed 5 brutes, and almost a platoon mixed of Grunts, and Jackals. Anthony could see the Chieftain, dressed in golden clad armor, wielding what Marines have come to know as the ‘crush-o-matic.’ The Hammer it grasped in its hands emitted a blue pulse of energy from its head, probably the gravity defying technology that it uses to cause everything to go flying when it his something.

Anthony clicked the scope down a notch and scooped the bottom of the stock in his free hand to follow the Brute Chieftain’s movements. The crosshairs continued to follow its head as it barked orders at the lower ranked creatures. The scurried off to their commander’s orders.

Anthony quickly clicked the TEAMCOM battle status to Yellow: Prepare to fire.

His finger fluttered around the trigger, itching to release the round into the Chieftain’s skull. But his mind eased the sensation, waiting for the opportunity.

The Chieftain swung its head violently as it argued with the subordinates, roaring its authority and informing them of his rank. Suddenly, it brought its golden armored head to front, and stared down the stock of the S2-AM Sniper Rifle into Anthony’s scope. Anthony could almost see the bloodshot vessels in the creature’s eyes. It was about to roar the order to fire at the humans he now knew were waiting at the bottom of the hill; but it was silenced by the itching feeling in the First Sergeant’s finger. The round lodged itself into the monstrous beast’s jaw, and exited through the back of its skull, causing a cocktail of blood and bone to shower the Brute behind it.

The gold clad beast fell with a ground shuttering thud. And the TEAMCOM status turned to Red: FIRE AT WILL.

Automatic and strained machine gun fire ripped through the desert setting. Rounds found their way into feathery and furred flesh as they entered into the body, and left it just as easily as it entered.

“Morrel, you and the other’s move up. All units advance, covering fire from the rear. Lieutenant, see if you can come around to where I am and hold. I need the LTD (Laser Tagging Designator) prepped and ready to go.” He opened the COM to Myers. “Myers, get me a Warthog at Alpha-Charlie-Zero-Zero-One. Designated by NAV. Ping Foxhole one to my COM.”

“Roger that Sergeant.” Myers replied.

A second later, his COM light blipped green for successful ping.

“Able Red Able Red. Foxhole one this is Drop team Bravo-One-One-Six. Pelican Down, about a click away from Alpha Charlie-One-Zero-Six. Under fire from Covenant Platoon. We need a mobile here STAT. Drop on Plus-One-Strike-Green-Priority APLHA, bring in on bearing Orange-Six-Six-One-Niner. Drop on Alpha Charlie-Zero-Zero-One, Bravo-One-One-Six out.”

(Conj, your post above needs to be edited.)

Seth heard Karr and nodded to himself, "Alright, Dansmith-Henry the rest of you we're moving around to Karr's location."

Seth arranged the remaining men in the squad, they were pressed up against the side of a building, Karr was close by, two buildings away... But there was a lot of open ground between there and here.

Seth peeked around the corner and saw a pack of Covenant and a Wraith tank, it looked like their leader had been taken out, they were scattered.

Seth saw a group of Jackal and Grunts looking nervous around the dead body of their Chieftain slowly backing up to form a tighter group around the Wraith tank. The Jackals seemed to be excluding the Grunts from the protective circle.

Seth primed a grenade and exposed a small amount of himself when throwing it.
The grenade left a smoke trail as it went through the air, landing, bouncing once right at the Jackal's feet. Too short to kill the Jackals, but it still landed behind the excluded Grunts, and most Grunts carried Plasma Grenades with them...

Sure enough there was a loud explosion of the Fragmentation Grenade, followed by high pitched cries from the lowly Covenant and secondary plasma explosions.

"Move!" Seth yelled signaling the Marines in the squad, the smoke from the grenades would hopefully blind the Wraith tank and the chaos would distract the remaining Brutes enough that Seth and the other Marines could make it across the street unmolested.

The Marines in the Squad began to run as fast as they could across the square Seth was the last one, as he ran he could hear a few roars from the remaining brutes and charging up of plasma.

Crouching low against the new building Seth COM'd into Karr, "We're just behind your position Karr." Seth signaled the other Marines to move in through the building to get to Karr's location. "We've got you covered."

"Why me" All Warren could think of as he got into position and his sniper was ready. He took aim with it and locked onto a blue armored brute. The Brute seemed to be taunting grunts and the grunts were jabbering back at the brute in turn. "It's like a family moment" Warren joked. "In position" Warren said over the com. He was a horrible sniper, and he would probably miss this shot, but he'll let them find that out the hard way. He heard banshee's screeching not far from them and he almost chocked on his spit. Why did the UNSC never have any good anti-air defense, he thought to himself.

"Roger that." He said. And let off another round into the face of a Grunt.

His nerves went to their peak as he fired off more rounds. He could see and hear the shreaking of the Banshee's over head, but then another sound came, this one was more familiar, this one, was the sound of a 20Cal Belly Chaingun from a Pelican.

"This is Echo-Six-One-Five. Did someone call in a Hog?" His COM spoke, and from the heaven's, a Warthog fell.

"Copy, this is Bravo One-One-Six, Your gonna have some cargo in a second. Wait for LZ Clearance..."

He switched his COM to his TEAMCOM. "Alright Marines, lets clear this place, Lieutenant, you have the wheel, Dansmith, your in passanger. Morrel, take your group and clear the left. Rymarr, you clear right."

He slung his rife around his shoulder and hopped on the M41 LAAG. Waiting for its triple barrels to begin their rotaition, he primed the rounds, releaced the safety, and unleashed a flurry of rounds from the monsterous gun into the enemy.

"Myers, Ping my COM on a Global frequancy."
"Roger." Replied the Corporal. The Green light came a second after.

"All CO's and XO's, this is Bravo One-One-Six, any sighting on the package?"

"Copy One-One-Six, this is Two-Six-Eight, we have him moving on course Niner-One-Zero in the Yellow. He's coming in hot. He'll be by the 4th NAV in 3 clicks. Over?"

"Coming back Two-Six-Eight. We are en-route to NAV 6. One-One-Six out."
He called over to Dansmith. "DANSMITH! Grab the LTD and get in! We gotta move!" He pulled the trigger again and let loos a torrent of fire.

The thunderous report from the M41 LAAG .41cal Drum-fed chaingun jarred his teeth, and the pebbles on the ground near him were bouncing up and around, dancing slowly away from the Warthog. Dansmith steeled himself for the charge to the exposed Warthog. Running as fast as he could from cover, he quickly paused to grab the LTD, and was severely punished for his break in stride: a Brute placed a Spiker round into his foot and another into his left shoulder, but they were mostly glanced away from him by his generous armor. Mostly.

Blood spurted from his shoulder as the shard grazed his skin, opening a tear along the lateral side of his shoulder.
"AARRGH!!" He cried, but hobbled on, taking faster steps with his broken foot, and did his best to jump in the Jeep, and sat the LTD between his legs on the floor. Trigger-happy Karr was still going stir-crazy on the LAAG's main turret, and Dansmith returned like kind to the Brute that shot him, by resting his BR55 on the frame of the Warthog, and giving the beast a 3-round burst from his rifle, right into the eye. Down for the count.

He quickly stimmed himself with some local anesthetic, and soon he could do nothing but put full faith that his leg and shoulder were still there, for he could not feel them at all. He watched from the corner of his eye as the Lieutenant hopped in the Driver's-side, and the tired ate dirt as they spun out, looking for traction. They finally grabbed.

Nick entered the bombed out building in hopes to find more marines since he had been separated from the rest of his squad. He saw another marine who was clearly a higher rank than him so he let his gun dangle by its strap and saluted and said "Nick savage private first class of the UNSC awaiting orders sir!"