HRP - Theta Company - Act I - Operation: Grasping Maw

I stopped before I entered the doorway, sticking only my head through at first. A few guards had been stationed inside, and thanks to my low stance and almost invisible head, they didn't see me. I slipped back and turned to the others. Not wanting to risk making any noise, I signalled with my hands. Three enemies, Nikki and Chris move up.

Jake had activated his stealth unit and stayed close to his squad as they moved though to their objective. His mind was thinking and his heads were steady for whatever would appear. He didn't have the time to be the tiniest bit freaked or afraid. Not today. Now he would wait for orders from Rose as Chris and Nikki would move in, at least from what he saw of gestures.

She would take Karma's six in case anything would decide to sneak up on them. She had activated the stealth system and followed the rest of Karma. She would stop, and kneel down when they approached their next stop. Watching the signals the self appointed leader gave. Three enemies shouldn't be too much trouble, but anything is possible with these freaks of nature. Hellbent on the eradication of human life.

Skippy reached the area under where the base was. I had turned out to be a rather large cavern. She could hear sounds coming from down one of passages. Grunts and groans. A voice, human, called out in the dark and she followed.

Seeing the hand signals from Rosie, Chris didn't even nod as he followed the order, advancing forward and keeping his eyes peeled for more of the Covies. A Jackal appeared, the bipedal vulture hefting a carbine and scanning for a target; a quick burst with his shredder rounds, and the birdlike alien was reduced to quivering hamburger.

Nikki moved forward and lined up, ready to take the shot on one or more of the three enemies Rosie had seen. Until Chris opened up on one of the Covenant. Alerted now, Nikki opened fire on the Covenant Rosie had seen.

Chris had jumped the gun and now the entire squad was in danger; despite being equipped with silencers, our rifles still made a lot of noise and without all three of us opening fire at once, the bullets pinged harmlessly off of an Elites' energy shield. The split-jaw barked some orders and dropped a plasma grenade at Chris' feet. I pulled Nikki away from the door, being unable to reach Chris. I screamed to my squad to get back and the grenade detonated, sending Chris flying through the air.

Jake got back at Rosie's order's and aimed his battle rifle at the door. "Come on Chris. Come on." Jake said with a little worry in his voice for his friend, his finger felt a little trigger happy if anything came though the door that looked the slightest bit alien.

Shadow, Kristy's character is named Rosie.

She heard the gunfire from Chris, and the subsequent actions that had taken place. Following what Rosie had said and getting a bit farther back. It only truly got real once she had seen Chris's body fly into her field of view. It had all happened so fast. One part of her feels sorry for him. Another part tells her this is what he gets for misreading orders. She just shakes her head and gets ready for the enemy.

Nikki heard the grenade hit the floor and looked over to it. Before he could react proper Rosie pulled him from the door. Chris went flying off his feet. Nikki reloaded his gun and said. "Should I cover or check on Chris?"

"Get Chris," I nodded to Nikki, before turning to another Spartan, "Evangeline, I'm going to throw a grenade. Move in and clear up afterwards."

She moves up closer to the entryway and gives a nod.

"Roger"

She tries to remain as calm as she can. Losing another comrade didn't affect her. It was her losing her own life that made her heart spike a little.

Nikki, peered through the doorway first and then ducked back as a hail of plasma fire came at him.He took one breath and then bolted towards Chris.

I took a step towards the edge of the door and tossed a frag grenade through, ducking back into cover once it'd left my hand. As it detonated, I nodded to Evangeline.

At the nod, she bolts through the entryway. She catches sight of the Elite, damaged by the surprise grenade. She takes aim and fires a clip into it, the Elite's blood flying in many directions. The next alien to get into her sights was a lonely Grunt. Balls of blue light appear in its hands as it begins to rush her. She does a quick reload before firing at the Grunt's head. She turns and makes a dash behind the entryway before the plasma grenades go off.

There wasn't much that could be done for Chris; the heat and intense plasma from the grenade explosion had melted parts of his armor like hot wax, burning his skin and even through it. Vitals going crazy, he only had a few brief moments of life left before he flatlined, dead.

KIA

"Move in." I ordered, stepping into the building with my rifle raised, scanning the room as I entered, before eventually being trained on the other door.

As the tunnel rounded off into more of a hallway, with metal ground, Skippy realised that there might be a way up after all. Still, with no functioning equipment other than her weapons, she was going into an enemy occupied zone blind. She followed the groaning sounds and the voice until it lead to a room. There were two ONI personnel there. One lay against the wall with half of his legs missing. Skippy winced.

Jake moved in after Rosie, his eyes on Chris's body as they moved past. Only you Jake, would be hungry after a briefing involving the Covenant. Those words spoke though his head as he kept his gun primed and ready, stepping into the building and keeping his gun aimed at possible entry points for the Covenant. "They'll fucking pay for what they did."

Izzie moved in with the rest of the squad, keeping her smg raised, in case any more aliens decided to show up. "Damn them." She muttered quietly when she passed the disgusting corpses of the covenant.
She had been uncharacteristically quiet on the mission so far, usually Izzie conversed quite a lot with the squad before missions, though those were training exercises. Not the real thing. Izzie paused next to the Elite, deciding to steal the split jaw's weapon. He, she, it wasn't going to use it now and besides, it always happened to be handy to be in the possession of extra fire power. Okay so it wouldn't help with the stealth aspect of their mission, but that brief fire fight might have alerted the enemy to their presence.

She awkwardly carried both weapons, though if she wanted to fire either with any degree of accuracy, Izzie would have no option but to drop one.

Nikki checked Chris' body for vital signs and found none. The armor had been burned and the portions nearest the grenade vaporized. There was burnt flesh - Nikki could smell it. Chris was dead. "Chris is gone." Nikki informed Rosie, moving into the room where the aliens had been.

She held her position by the door until Nikki came through. She follows and returns to her place at Karma's six. The news of Chris's death comes and goes. She hadn't thought he would have survived, if she were to be honest. They would just need to keep a level head and continue on with the mission.

As Skippy watched the two ONI staff, a chattering noise came from one of the adjoining halls. The two ONI guys began screaming as a grunt squad came into the room and opened up on them. Skippy watched from the shadows as the skin melted away from the plasma, thankful for her camo system and the low light level. Once the squad was done, they headed back the way they had come and Skippy followed, whispering a short apology to the mutilated corpses as she passed them. She needed to find her squad.

"Understood." I replied curtly to Nikki. Chris had been my friend, so I felt a tinge of pain at his death. I surpressed it, keeping my emotions at a reasonable level; the mission came first. "Move through the facility, quietly. Jake, help Lily."

"Yea." Jake said as he moved to help Lily move and keep up. He didn't want to know Chris was dead yet, but it only made him more angry. They'll pay. he thought as he would allow Lily to shift weight on him and then continuing to move on.

"Right." Nikki nodded. "I'm going to go this way." We'll cover more ground if we split up. Jeez Chris, why'd you have to open up on a covvy like that, you exposed yourself to the enemy.

Izzie kept quiet, it sucked to lose a squad mate she hoped that Karma wouldn't suffer any further members killed in action. She decided to follow Rosie rather than splitting up from the squad.

"No," I said to Nikki, "We stay together. Move towards the control tower, that's our objective."

but if we stay together we're a bigger target. "Ok," Nikki returned to the group. "where are our other guys attacking the base from?"

"Frontal assault." I answered. The other squads had probably taken more casualties than us, I didn't even want to think about Rickers, fighting on a Covenant ship. I cut communications and ordered silence as we moved further into the facility.

Skippy followed the squad through a series of hallways until they reached an office area. She ducked into one of the adjoining rooms and began searching through the few dead workers there. Her luck was out but in one of the desks, she managed to get ahold of a boot polishing brush. She spent the next few risky minutes taking apart her helmet and cleaning the systems of all the dust from the cave in, hiding every time a patrol passed nearby.

When she was finished, she clasped her helmet back on to find her stealth systems engage, her IFF tag pop up along with around 300 more in a northern direction. Her HUD came flickering back on and she noticed the jam in her rifle, able to now fix it and thanking the gods that she didn't open on those grunts earlier

Something flashed up on my HUD and I paused from surprise mid-step. I ordered the squad to a halt with a hand signal, and opened a private comm channel with Skippy.
"Skippy? Come in, are you still alive?"

"As if a bad drop could keep me down. I'm further in than you guys, they've got patrols and they're executing survivors down here."

Skippy answered Rosie in hushed tones, unable to risk a patrol overhearing.

Why did Rosie stop? Nikki tapped on Rosie's shoulder before dropping down to one knee gun at the ready.

Izzie halted with her comrades, she wondered what the hold up was, yet decided not to inquire. Instead she elected to keep a vigilant watch for any Covenant.
She still couldn't believe Chris was gone, damn, she hoped that he would be their last casualty. The Spartan was relieved however that their squad leader had survived the drop, she was one tough SOB so her survival had never really been in question.

"Chris is dead, Lily and Jared are wounded. Proceed to your location?" I asked Skippy, tapping my helmet in response to Nikki.

"Negative. Continue on with your objective. I'll work my way to the server room from here."

Skippy closed the comm channel and approached the door to the room. Once there, she slowly leaned out and sure the coast was clear, made her way down the hall.

Nikki nodded in response. A familiar IFF appeared: Skippy -. So she lives.

I flicked my hand forward, the signal to move forwards, and moved ahead quickly and quietly. The Covenant more than likely knew we were here, and they definitely knew that they were under attack, so there was no point in trying to infiltrate anymore.

Skippy pulled a map of the base up, checking her position on it. Turns out that Ralei and Hammer squad were close to her, having come in a different way to Karma. She quickly switched to their channel as she continued her skulk down the corridor.

"Ralei, Hammer. I got separated on drop. Mind if I link up with you guys?"

"There's not much left of both," Molly responded over her comm. The fighting on the way to the base had been brutal, nearly decimating both squads. When the dust had settled....she was the highest ranking one, so she ended up getting the survivors to regroup together. "Right now though, that's an affirmative on linking up." She cast a glance back to her fellow Spartans; some soot marks and scratches on their armor, burn marks on others. It was gonna mess with their photo-reactive panels something fierce, but partial stealth was better than nothing. "You guys doing any better than us?"

Let's not get hasty now. Nikki moved forward a half-step behind Rosie. Every step brought them closer to the object. Every step also brought them deeper into peril.

Jake followed his squad as they moved best he could. Didn't help he was helping Lily but he didn't mind, just meant he had to focus on something else other then his friends death. And the fact that at any moment they could come under fire from Covvie bastards.

"Wouldn't know. Haven't seen them since the ship. Only just got comms back on. There's a storage room a few hallways north of you. Rendezvous there."

Skippy closed the comm and ducked into a crevice in the hall as a patrol passed on by, again thanking her camo systems.

Right 'o, Molly thought as the comm went silent. She waved her hand, gesturing for her squad to get moving. The armor was in a state of constant change, the panels keeping up with the movements to give an accurate camo-scheme, but even then she worried something might see them.

Lizzie kept a vigilant eye out for any Covenant, the last thing they needed was to walk into an ambush.

Skippy managed to reach the supply room, only a hallway away from her, without any issues. There, sh settled in and waited for the remains of Ralei and Hammer to join her. It sounded bad and if Ralei and Hammer had been hit that hard, how were the main company fairing...

Molly and......Remnant squad, as she decided to call the personally, had no issue getting to the meet point; all the Covies were either outside, or further in the base. It didn't mean they let themselves get sloppy about it, but they managed to get there quicker than expected. Walking through the storage room first, Molly raised her SMG and got in a crouch before she disabled her camo. Then she whistled, the age old Spartan all clear of 'olly o;ly oxen free.'

I passed through a door, and froze in my tracks, sticking out my hand and stopping Nikki from following me through. The Covenant guards here hadn't seen me; they were pre-occupied with fortifying the door they were guarding. I crept backwards, keeping my rifle trained on the group, and ducked back to my squad. With a series of hand gestures, I told the squad about the five of them, consisting of an Elite, three Grunts, and a Jackal sniper at the other end of the long corridoor. My thoughts were flying as I gave them the information, thinking about the various outcomes of attacking head on, or trying the sneak through.

I nudged Nikki, a private comm opening between us, and gave my orders.
"I'll take out the sniper. Pick a fireteam to take out the rest."

Five aliens. unaware of our position. One split-jaw, three gas-heads, one vulture with overwatch. Nikki took note of the surroundings. They were by a door. A grenade would do considerable damage - but the explosion might alert others to their position within the building. We had silencers, we could equip them - lowering their damage output but reducing noise.

Nikki looked behind him at who could cover him if he decided to approach the squad. He was physically weaker than the aliens, so going stealth with physical attacks would be less than optimal. Guns it was. Nikki signalled to Evangeline, Jake, and Jared. They would be his fireteam. He signalled to dispatch the grunts first, and then the elite. Their combined fire would take down the shields fast and get him out of the picture. Rosie would, Nikki thought, join in when the sniper was down. we could use some of the office supplies as cover - though it won't last long. We need to move quickly into positions and have clear shots on the grunts before taking on the split-jaw. Hopefully Rosie takes out that sniper quickly - or if we coordinate, we could make some noise that covers the gunshot that kills the vulture, and that'll distract the split jaw enough for us to quietly take out the grunts, and then we could ambush the big guy...