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Nicked opened a COM channel hoping he could connect to Able "Is this Sergeant Dansmith?" nick said as he closed in on the ravine. " Think is Nick savage private first class im your air support at the moment." Nick said firing at some brutes at the edge of the ravine.

"Alright warren lets go." Nick veered away from the ravine shot Two rockets at the banshee bringing it to the ground with a satisfying Boom. Then headed towards the drop ships firing a few rounds of rockets and bullets into their hull's to grab there attention then flying away from the ravine.

( ok see ya tomorrow this is last post)

"s**t! Karr What-" The hog took a hard hit from a Brute Shot sending it veering to the right.
Seth looked back and saw Karr on the ground, a few yards away. "What the hell does he-" then, like watching a train wreck, slowly a large armored Brute Chieftain approached him. It was a colossus, dwarfing the First Sergeant in it's shadow.

The Brute began to ready it's hammer. Seth could picture what was about to happen, he could see in his minds eye the beast smashing Karr to pieces with that gargantuan mallet. "My a**!"

Seth slammed the Hog into second, the wheels kicked up dirt, the RPM started going off the chart, he threw it into third--the hog began speeding back towards the fallen Karr. "Dansmith, hold on!"

The Hog tore it's way--backtracking, their speed began to rise, 40, 50...

The Brute Chieftain raised it's hammer to it's peak- it smiled, it's mouth was salivating with anticipation - Karr closed his eyes.

BAM

The hog came screeching to a halt, the large bodied brute's form left a large dent in the front of the vehicle. It's Body skidded and fell a few yards away.

Seth stood up awkwardly in his seat and unslung his BR55 leveling it at the Brute Chieftain's body which now began to stir, dazed the beast raised it's head. Seth let loose two three round bursts that drilled into the monster's skull.
Dropping it, dead.

"Open your Eyes Karr!" Seth ordered the Marine, "Get in the back-- there's no easy way out here Marine." Seth's heart was pounding more than usual. That had been way too close.

In the distance he could hear the enemy fire that had been on pause for a moment while they changed course, begin to rally and refocus on their current location.
"Let's Move it!" He yelled slumping back down into the drivers seat and revving the engine.

Warren felt a enormous wave of heat hit him, as a plasma bolt from a covenant drop ship flew past the hornet. He looked at his mission map and saw the Hog had stopped moving. "Seth!, what the hell's happening down here, we can only buy you so much time" Warren yelled into his com. Nick had done a good job piloting the hornet so far, but these ships were going to shoot them down at this rate. Warren felt more heat wash over him, as plasma bolts continued to fire from the drop ship.

--- Present Time, UNSC Monterey ---

A satisfying snapping sound echoed throughout the HEV ready area as straps were tightened and hermetic seals adjusted for space readiness. Three men, all veterans of Able company's ill-fated expedition to Installation 79 and fresh out of intensive care, stood facing the coffin-sized drop pods that sometimes became what almost every soldier feared.
A slow, painful death.
But the three men now standing were resolute in their mission. ICESTORM may have started without them, but there was no reason for them to stay behind when everyone else was deploying to save their home planet. Earth, scarred as it was, was still the home of the human race and the best hope for humanity's survival. Corporal Hughes wasn't a native of earth, and as such he probably cared less for it than the other two men in the prep area, but the blood that had kept him alive and the spare kidney the Med Bay had in cold storage had been taken from Earth. Without them, he would have had to wait a possibly fatal two more days as the med bay's strained flash cloning facilities produced a new organ for him. Sergeant Simmons was a typical north american, his love for the ancient principles of Freedom and Equality dominating most of his actions and thoughts, and the arm he nearly lost had just finished mending in time for the operation. And the third man, Captain Lee, was there not only because he cared for the men of his battalion down below, but because he had burning questions that needed to be answered.
The sound of weapons being stashed into the drop pods echoed slightly as the three men finalized their preparations. It was going to be a long day... Trudging through the bodies of the covenant they slew.

The hiss of the hatches closing was enhanced in the ODST Lee was wearing for this mission. It wasn't often he wore the ODST armor, and he preferred the freedom of movement of his standard marine armor suit, but right now he had a choice between ODST armor coupled with survival in case of a breach in the HEV's life support systems, or dying from explosive decompression in a coffin without oxygen. Knowing full well which choice he had to make, Lee chinned the com mike in his helmet and clicked it off. Each of them knew what they had to do, and if they were going to die in the descent they weren't going to burden each other with their death cries.
The cycling airlocks underneath his pod clanked into position, and the next feeling Lee experienced was that of abrupt acceleration as he was shot towards earth's atmosphere at impossibly fast speeds...

During the trip, Lee continuously checked on Able's situation. He watched in horror and disbelief as Lieutenant Seth was forced to leave Sergeant Karr behind, and a passing pair of banshees casually shot down the Hornet that had been covering Karr until that point. He continued to watch as Sergeant Warren pulled a bleeding, unconscious private out of the wreckage and attempted to rejoin the Master Sergeant. A nearby squad of brutes was about to end the three marine's collective lives when suddenly two squad's worth of marines burst forth from the industrial complexes lining the area and decimated the covenant forces. Lee only changed observation point when he saw a marine officer directing the men to grab the two crash survivors and retreat back into the safety of the factory mazes, unwillingly leaving Karr's fate unknown but not having the time to keep on watching. Two Phantom dropships were dropping forces farther in the area, one having set down due to minor hull damage and the other following suit as it's wingman. Apparently Brutes were beginning to understand the value of having someone to watch their back...
The rest of Able, which he knew from reports as having been dispersed at the beginning of the operation, was now holding up inside of a small residential and commercial complex near a more vegetative area of the New Mombasan soil. Quickly identifying the twenty or so marines still alive, he made note that none of them were above the rank of Private First Class. However, outside the complex, a Scarab was mucking about and generally destroying any UNSC opposition not smart enough to stay hidden. This was going to change.

Checking one last time, he made sure his drop coordinates were precise, triangulated and coordinated with the telemetric data from the last pelican's passage, and checked the status of Companies Baker through Item and was satisfied to see most of them had made it to Fox Hole One. Asking himself almost whimsically, Lee wondered why Able, even when reorganized, seemed to be the company that saw the most trouble. After this, the boys would all deserve a nice long break.
A countdown started on his screen, and Lee focused his attention on the screen showing what lay directly beneath the HEV. The Scarab began to come into focus, first as a small purple speck, then suddenly increasing in size into a fully fledged armored walker. He braced for impact as the HEV's ripped through the purple metal, superheated pods impacting into the Scarab's hull and destroying the machine's structural integrity. Kicking open the hatch, the three marines promptly exited the HEVs guns blazing.

Warren sat there looking at the ground, he felt horrible, and he had failed in his duty. The Scarab from earlier killed a chuck of Able's marines, Karr was close to death, the hornet had crashed, and it was up to Seth and Ashton now. He sat down against a wall and looked up, he held his rifle in hand. He stared at the ceiling for a long time, and now was starting to wonder if he even deserved his rank. Wonder whats there position now, he asked himself. Many marines there were just sitting there, and no one was really talking. He couldn't blame any of them thou.

Karr began to regain his strength, his mind focused back into play. Propping himself up, he called in on his COM. "Tango Tango this is Bravo One-One-Six." he coughed from the smoke that penitrated his lungs, "LTD under fire. Repeat, LTD Under fire." He coughed again and regained his footing, standing up but arching his back so he was below the dust cloud.
"Requesting Able Six-Six-One, Commence HAMMERDOWN sequence. Priority Alpha. Positioning Strike Five Red, Plus Nine Green, Charlie, One-One-Nine-One. Repeat: Requesting Able Six-Six-One, Commence HAMMERDOWN sequence. Priority Alpha. Positioning Strike Five Red, Plus Nine Green, Charlie, One-One-Nine-One."

His HUD suddenly blipped a countdown timer : 20:00:00

Anthony clicked his COM to TEAMCOM; moving sluggishly through the field of fire where hie finally rested against an old section of building.

"Able Red, Able Red, all units report in. Here's the deal boys, we have 20 minutes to tag the chief, and get out of here. HAMMERDOWN has commenced, and the area i ls about to be Zero-ed. Get your asses in gear and start moving. Lieutenant, get yourself and Dansmith over here now." He unholstered his pistol, and began shooting it across the way. "Get the LTD over here too! STAT!"

Looking up in the sky, he could see the fireball, almost in range...

The pain.... He couldn't.. THINK! Think, Dammit, think! You've been hit harder than... than... this?
Dansmith? DANSMITH! His face contorted, but the numbness felt so good... to loose it all, to just forget...
The world spun, and he vomited blood. Blackness.

... Ashton?! Wake up, you lazy s**t, you're going to die!!
Angel... It hurts, I couldn't even stim myseslf, it hurt so bad... I think I'm done for. I'm sorry.
Like Hell you are! You're not dying on me, Marine, whether you want to or not! You don't have a say in this!
No, Angel, I think my time is-- "AAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"
Full system re-boot, with a little electro-static shock on the side. That'll be twelve bucks.
Through clenched teeth- "AARRGH! HRRRGH! Ah-ah, you b***h!! Do you have any idea how much that hurt?!"
Haha, love you too, quitter. Now, get back in the game! We've got a target to laze!

The first thing Ashton noticed, aside from the sensation of his head being on fire, was the copious amount of red that was lining his area of the hog. He slowly reached out towards it, but the hog bounced and jounced, so his hand did, too. He missed, and instead wiped off the blood from his... leg? Looking down, he realized where it was all coming from.
Him.

At the sight of it, he realized he was quite pained. Instant regret at being alive shot through him as the sight of the spike frightened him. The blood was still coming out at a fairly fast pace, and didn't seem like slowing down. A small, shrill beeping sound broke him from his bone-white trance:
TARGET IN RANGE
Looking up, the firey black and orange smear dominated the sky, trailing behind it a massive tail of dist, ash, and debris.