Halo: We Are ODST {IC}{M}

[Q]

Talgott's machine gun bursts weren't particularly accurate, but it did help to suppress the gruntling hordes. The warthogs in pursuit of the LT's could mop up easy. Just when he was semi-comfortably rattling his LAAG, the LT pedaled the hog over an incline and right into covie overmight.

From then on, it was more holding-on-to-the-turret than any actual shooting, but Pvt. Talgott managed to hang on - until the chieftain arrived.

A moment later he got flung into a hill, his left arm crackling on impact. He'd already lost his pistol earlier, but now his assault rifle was gone as well. As pretty-colored plasma trails flew over his head, he demagged the grenade launcher from his backpack.

Talgott felt disorientated. He had flown off quite a bit and the plasma mortar had rearranged the geography since his last memory. He slowly began traversing the war-scarred fields on his hands and knees, trying to remain unseen. If he were to be spotted, his nade launcher would do him little good; he needed another weapon.

"Radio!?" "Radio!!!"

A peek over the next muddy hill confirmed his suspicions that the LT's luck was running out. The hammer-wielding chieftain approached the crashed warthog, dragging the carcass of their late passenger behind him. Talgott's eyes widened. He could do little to prevent his CO from certain death; the splash damage of his launcher would send the already-burning hog sky-high, along with his new commander-in-chief. Call it affection or PTSD from the last time something like this happened, but Talgott couldn't stand idly by - not again.

So instead, he threw a flare just between the warthog and the brute. It emitted a orange-ish smoketrail. The beast looked up at Talgott and threw the marine's carcass at the warthog before charging at the lone ODST. This prompted Radio to book it, bigtime. As he hurled through the muddy fields, he hit his comm-piece.

"Talgott to Fletcher, Talgott to Fletcher!"
"LT's down, need backup, over!"
Radio stumbled over a grunt corpse.
"At the flare, Jumper!"
He fired a poorly-aimed grenade at the chieftain in pursuit, to no avail.
"Oh boy-oh boy!"
And instinctively kept on running away from hammered death.

[Dnafein]

Shen moved across the forts battlements his DMR seeming to fire randomly. Every shot hit its mark and altered the flow of the covenant attacking. The change was nothing major, it usually slowed or pushed them towards the reinforcements flanking them. Johnny could be heard across the fort, barking insults and offering insight.

Coming to a stop he watched a group of M12 FAVs race across the battlefield. His eyes followed one that pulled away into a jump, and directly into the path of a hammer wielding brute. Shen winced as the hammer collided, his hand balling into a fist. Adjusting the magnification of his visor, the ODST saw the trapped lieutenant. “Ah fuck…” He muttered.

Slinging his DMR he barked, “Gunny get on the wall.” The gunners mate didn't wait for a response before stepping off the battlements. His M7S’ came up in his hands, even as his pack fired stopping his descent from ending poorly. The odst started running as soon as his feet hit the ground, his pack kicking into a light hover mode.

The ODST ran full tilt towards the flare that appeared near the downed Warthog. Each stride covering hundreds of feet. Raijin hit the ground next to the flare and spun. His eyes scanned the jeep, seeing the officer was alright, Shen darted after the brute and its intended victim.

Sprinting after them, Johnny leapt into the air as the distance closed. He crashed down onto the back of the brute causing its swing to go wide. His submachine guns pressed firmly to the back of the aliens skull. Squeezing both triggers Johnny unloaded point blank, emptying the magazines. As the brute collapsed Johnny straightened, standing on its back. He smiled behind the visor at the soldier it had been chasing. “Mind if i crash in?”

[Q]

Talgott graciously nodded at Raijin while he kicked the chieftain's carcass.

"Thanks, jumper!" He waved his hand from his helmet. "You with Fletcher?"

As they made their way back to the hog, Talgott was eyeing at Raijin's SMG's. He could use one, but he didn't wanna bother the clearly dedicated and superior ODST with battlefield weapon swaps.

Radio's next strain of thought concerned the LT. In his brief time as an ODST, he'd made a habit of losing his CO's. Now, this one was a lot more lenient than his last. He'd better make sure she was okay.

[MidKnight]

Wolf looked up to see a soldier on top of a dead Brute. She smiled and slightly scoffed at his comment. "You can crash the party for all I care." She finally said. Looking to where she was stuck. Her sidearm strap was attached to a piece of metal. Thankfully it didn't pierce into her leg otherwise there would have been a problematic. She pulled on it a couple times before reaching for her knife and slice through the strap. She finally gets out of the vehicle with her main weapon dropping on the ground. "Damn." She muttered.

She takes her helmet off revealing her face to the other soldier. There was blood on the side of her head indicating there was a minor cut somewhere on her head. Checking her helmet and finds a few dents and a couple of scratch marks. "Lieutenant Wolf ODST." She introduced her herself. "We got tanks on the other side of the fort taking out heavy units and allies taking on the middle." She looked around and leans again'st the wrecked hog. "Once the skies are clear we'll get supplies in and medical shuttles enroute." She placed her helmet back on and looked to the officer. "For now we better clear this hot zone before it becomes our graveyard." Turning her attention to Radio. "If Fletcher ain't answering his comms then we're gonna have to assume he's KIA. This is starting to become a hell of a fight now." She picked up her weapon and checked the chamber. "What's the situation with the fort?" She asked.

[Dnafein]

Johnny watched the young ODST kick the dead brute. Shaking his head at the question put to him Shen said. “Who the fuck is Fletcher?”

Heading towards the hog he hoped that the survivor at least made sense. He smiled behind his visor at her party comment. His hidden smile turned into a look of confusion when she removed her helmet. Where had he seen that face?

Recognition donned as she introduced herself. “Puppy? Holy fuck, look at you. All grown up and into a proper officer now. The boss is gonna be disappointed, he had hopes for you. Still glad to see you got off that rock alright.”

His hand waved her question away. “The Alamo holds, it'll fucking hold right up until the only human breathing is that fucking coward. And those bastards,” He hooked a thumb directing it in the general direction of the nearest conflict. “Will have nightmares if they try to take it.”

“Are you the reinforcements then?” He asked.

[Q]

Talgott was casually looking around the battlefield. The fight seemed to have died down a bit, at least on this side of the fort. He'd better find a weapon.

Through the rummage of the crashed warthog, he found the late marine's Battle Rifle. Its barrel might have gone a bit dented, but Talgott was certain it still fired to a some-what accurate degree. Right?

"TRRRR!"

"Sorry, blue shots!"
Three rounds impacted right on target on the chieftain's carcass. Raising his hand in the air, Radio apologized for his lacking trigger discipline afterwards but he could hardly care about his peers' opinions, let alone UNSC regulations. He just wanted to get back home and play that saxophone...

...Until a vaguely-familiar sound rang from behind the next hill. Talgott looked up from his daydream, ignoring whatever his superiors were talking about. What could that hum be?

[MidKnight]

She chuckled a moment after taking a little breather and realized what he said to her. "Nobody has called me that since boot camp." She gives him a gentle punch on his shoulder. "But call me that again and I'll drag you into a Pod." She smirked. Her attention looked around to see the field. "We have more troops arriving soon but the skies aren't clear yet. Enemy ships still giving us a hard time even with the Swords of Sanghelios."

Wolf looked at Radio as though he spotted something or heard a familiar sound. Her attention slowly turned the opposite hill and spotted a shining Wraith hovering over the hill and fired a mortar round. "As shit take cover!!!" She hollered and looked for a place to duck. The ground shook with explosion and dirt flow in the sky. Some of the dirt covered Wolf and a small pebble hit the top of her helmet. "Damn uglies won't give up wont they?" She growled softly and looked to Shen. "Come on Chubbs!!!" She hollered. "I know you got a surprise up your sleeve!"

[Dnafein]

Shen turned as the Lieutenant shouted the order to take cover. His eyes tracked the rise of the mortar shot. Keying his pack he pushed away from the mortars impact location. As his feet touched down he sprinted away from the tank. “Be a target.” He yelled in response to Wolf's question.

He barreled down on the chieftain's corpse, his hand stretched down as he scooped up the hammer. Johnny skipped as he switched directions. Barreling towards the tank, he shifted his grip on the hammer.

As he closed he leapt, switching the pack from its hover assist to full blast. The hell jumper propelled into the air; His hand pushed against the lever and Shen felt as if the hammer pushed against the earth. He smiled behind his visor, as he reached the peak of his arc.

Johnny flipped, swinging the hammer. His jump pack pushing him towards the tank below. His fingers closed over the hammer's switch; Shen plummeted building speed as he fell. The hammer struck the hovertank like a thunderclap. The armor on the hatch dented under the impact.

The switch released as the hammer hit, pushing everything away from the hammer. Shen found this as a relief, as the forming plasma shot was forced back into the tank. Johnny's eyes grew wide, and he sprinted away from the tank; He'd seen what has happened when super charged plasma is introduced to uncharged plasma.

The brute piloting the tank snarled as his head rang from the impact. His eyes moved to the fleeing ODST and laughed, oblivious to the warning alarms. The pilot spun the tank to fire upon the human jamming his fingers down on the trigger. The alarms rang louder as the tanks computer tried to warn the Jiralhanae of it's impending doom.

The pilot hit the trigger again, in frustration before it turned it's eyes to the control panel. Finally noticing the alarms the Brute rushed to escape; Finding himself trapped by the hatch pressing against it's frame. Slamming its massive frame against the hatch the Jiralhanae panicked. The hatch finally gave and the Brute roared in triumph, as the tank overloaded and exploded.

Shen slid to a stop as the tank erupted. Need to get me one of those. Johnny thought before turning towards the Lieutenant. “Who the fuck you calling Chubbs?”

[Q]

"Wow."

Talgott tilted his head at the exploding wraith. He had been firing potshots into the back engine from long range, as his training instructed. It seems there were other schools of thought. Around them, the elites pushed trailed the covenant as they fled away from the fort.

"Can we take a break now, LT?" He stretched out his limbs. "I think my arm's broken."

[MidKnight]

The remaining officers and leaders of Swords of Sanghelios gathered in the main command center. Captain Wolf took her helmet off and brushed her hair. "Alright, we got the numbers of our wounded. Only half of them in the infirmary and the other half in the morgue." She placed one hand on the holo-table. "Sergeant Lowe was the statues of our team?" She looked to her second in command.

"Spark and Kelly are KIA ma'am. Spark was found with his sword in his hand and a Brute next to his body. Kelly was found inside a tank that was hit by a mortar round."

She exhaled hard and looked to the others. "Shen I might need some troops to help us with the science facility. We'll do our best to get supplies in but word is the fleet is still engaged with enemy air support." She looked to the edge of the table and noticed an AI was sitting down. "And...who are you?"

"They call me "Ghost" mainly because I like to observe people."

Wolf looked to Shen for a moment and shook her head. "Okay so what is the situation with the fort?"

"What's left of the turrets are functioning at full capacity. Troops are down by forty percent. And supplies are at minimum." The AI looked to Shen. "What's left of them."

The leader of the Elite stepped forward. 'Vurumai growls softly. "You done well to keep the base intact. Despite the wall is ready to crumble down and yet you manage to keep it up. You earned my respect human. I will help with the science facility in order to keep the Covenant forces from activating the ring once more."

"Guess we need is vehicles. Any tanks left operational?" Wolf asked around.

"A few." Lowe responded.

"Anything else?" She looked around.