HRP reboot - Chapter 2: On the Run

"You okay?" Lin asked.

the UNSC began evacuating civilians, filling dropships with them to be carried to transport shuttles and evacuated offworld. Daniel and Chris managed to rendezvous with the UNSC, and after confirming their identities and ranks, were given better weapons, a communicator, and even some decent armor that was aboard a pelican. Armed and outfitted, the two ODST's set out to find Lin....wherever she was.

Rha' slammed someone up against the wall, knocking them down, in what he assumed was unconsciousness. The Ultra cleared out the entire second level, his Sangheili and Kig-Yar joining by him before long, some already heading upstairs.
"Sangheili, hold this level. Kig-Yar, form a defensive. We're cleaning this tower out."
The forces all obeyed as Rha' lead his men upstairs, pushing anyone in his path underfoot, hearing the bolts of plasma from his soldiers burst off and burn into the unfortunate enemies.

"Grah! Ultra! Taydumee! Answer me now!"
Rha' answered the contact, snarling as he recognized the voice. The Jiralhanae War Chieftain, Daryus.
"What is it you are calling for, Jiralhanae?"
As the Covenant made it to the second level, the Kig-Yar ran by their commander, cleaning out the rooms of cowering civilians with ease.
"We are being pinned by the humans! We need your aid!"
Rha' laughed to himself, grinning as Sangheili do.
"Good luck then, Daryus. I am busy."
And with that, the conversation ended, as Rha' looked down at his returning Kig-Yar.
"This level is secured?"
They all nodded.

Rha' went up alone to the next level, holding the deactivated hilt of his Type-1 Energy Weapon/Sword. He saw a few humans before him, cowering in fear, and in one single punch he put them down. He made no check if they were alive or not - in his experience, it went either way with humans.
"Any humans still within this tower should surrender now or give up their lives!"
Of course, Rha' did not tell them that any who surrender would be executed. It was simply easier and more efficient this way.

Her pistol snapped up at the voice but she lowered it seeing her new squad mates. "I was afraid you guys had left the party for me to deal with only" She slid on a riot helmet and slid a few clips of magnum ammo into her pocket. "Reporting for duty" Lindsey informed them, since they outranked her she waited for them to come up with the orders and a plan. She had been just following her own until that is Lindsey rejoined her squad.
The sound of water splashing in the fountain outside the station was oddly comforting even if it was nearly drowned out by the roar of battle.

"Yeah, but I'm about ready to just rip this dress off and go in my underwear. I'd probably move faster sadly." She said. "See any maps of the building?"

"Up here?" Lin looked around though she stayed close. "Nada. What's the eta on that pelican of yours?"

"It's currently having to go through buildings. Has a Banshee on it right now, but the UNSC's arrived so it should be able to make it soon." She grimaced. "Let's hurry..."

"Yo what's the plan?" She inquired itching to be out fighting. Lindsey was always willing to put herself at risk, it was her nature. Her father was the same except he was even more reckless with it. She scanned the roof tops nervously, vigilantly watching out for snipers. Lindsey wanted to go do something, she wanted to help fight or protect the civilians yet she had to stay with her squad, she had to wait for them to decide something.
After all she was just a private.

"We have to try and contact Lin, pray she's alive," Daniel said as they moved down a vacant street. Most of the fighting was being contained to the center of the city but like all things, it was subject to change. He tried the radio again, checking for either Lin or even.....well, the December's frequency. If Siri was here, they were bound to be close by.

"Understood" She replied quietly with a smile. For Lindsey it was good to get back into the action once more. She lived for the battle, rather than the relative peace brought by R and R. It was in her genes and her blood. Battle was something she had to face, at least with her squad their survival rate went up collectively.

"Long and Dark December, this Daniel Lampert of Dragon Squad, are you there? I know Saorise is on Cesaro and she's got one of my people. Can you connect me to her?" he yelled into the radio.

"Wait who is this Saorise? An ONI operative?" She questioned, Lindsey of course not knowing anything about Siri or the Long and Dark December.

"This is Long and Dark December to Daniel Lambert. We are in contact with her. Our Pelican is en-route to extract her from an office building downtown. Hold position and the Pelican will pick you up afterwords. December is going to move soon." Was Requiem's response.

Siri opened the next door. "Halfway there Lin...Halfway there."

A line of human corpses scattered the level, as Rha' grimaced to himself. The Kig-Yar bickered as they poked at a few of the dead humans, before their Sangheili commander barked down to them, making them seize up in shock.
"We are climbing higher. One of you report to the Sangheili and order them up here. They will clean the floors while I make for the highest point of this structure in hopes of-"
The comms overtook him, and the Sangheili growled innumerably.

"Ultra, the systems defences are pushing us out! We've been hacking way longer than we should be! What do we do?"
The Sangheili blinked, surprised the hacking was still taking place. He looked at the Kig-Yar and one of them ran down to gather soldiers as he made his way up the stairs.
"Simply continue your work. It should not be too difficult."
The comm was shut down by Rha' again, who took every step with as much force as he could. The sound of the heavy slow thumping, the drums of war, reverberated through the tower. In two sparks of blue light, the Sangheili activated his Type-1 Energy Weapon/Sword and his Type-4 Energy Weapon/Dagger, the blue blades shimmering in the darkness.

That level was silent. No one there was stupid enough to fight him. He continued to climb up and up, shocked by how few men and women were actually brave enough to fight against him.
Before long, he heard noises overhead. The noises of people moving and talking, compared to the utter silence of the cowering forms that littered the building.
"Perfect... I'm in need of a good fight."

Jaryd almost decked the ODST right then and there. "Are you kidding me? Ar- are you really kidding me? You have to be kidding me." "I'm not kidding you freak." The man said. Jaryd's face was rage filled, only hidden from his helmet he had slotted on at the moment for convenience rather than any actual need. "You honestly think, I need this armor to be anything. Do you even know what it does?" "Yes, it gives you your strength, speed, endurance, and overall makes up for your deficiencies of being a pale little shit." "I'm sorry, and what are you?" "I'm a grade-A human who drops out of orbit for a living." He replied. Jaryd almost punched him again. "No, actually, what you are is a man who spent 18 or so years of his life living in some cushy little house on a planet, saw some fighting up in the sky and heard about it over the news, tried to run away, was conscripted, and tried to hide his fear from dying by jumping into a risky and dangerous piece of scrap so if he did die, he'd have a noble and glorious excuse." Jaryd said. A few nearby civilians stopped and looked at the pair of them. "What you don't understand," Jaryd continued. "Is that this suit holds in a soldier trained from the age of 6 up until I was 21 or something to fight and kill and maim and torture. I was raised to be an amazing killing machine, and I'm damn good at it." HIs tone was extremely angry, and he leaned in over the ODST. "And I don't expect an arrogant dumbass of a human to understand that." Everything was stock still and quiet as Jaryd snapped at the man. "Now, I'm going to go, and leave you and the rest of you shits to the hands of the Covies." Jaryd said, looking around at the Civies that were watching. He walked off, heading towards the workshop to look for sanctuary from everybody around him.

I lean over the edge of the building, looking down at the Covenant forces storming the office building. I imitate headshotting a few grunts with my pistol, but otherwise being glad that the Covies decided to raid the next building over. I look at the last living member of my group, probably not going to live for much longer though. A carbine round through the jugular does that to a man. I sit down next to my patient and close his eyes as I grab his dog tags and add them to my growing amount on my own necklace.

Set had been sent on the mission of trying to get that damned City AI offline. He was with the other Kig-Yar who had been sent on the mission. His men were at one of the portals, working to hack the AI.

Set hefted his Type-31 Rifle and looked through the scope, down the street. The Portal the skirmishers were using to disable the AI was at a bus stop, and Set did not want any unwanted visitors.

"Jaryd! Stop fighting!" Michael yelled. "We need this ship fully operational! So ODST, put a cork in it. I need everyone ready for heavy fighting. The Covenant are here and Saoirse is not. Rika has a Pelican inbound, so suit up, arm up, and get ready to kick ass."

Siri grimaced. "When we get out of here, I'm not walking for a week. My feet gotta be blistered."

"Are you fucking kidding me? Geez I knew you were soft but not that fucking soft," Lin muttered under her breath.

"Seriously? Hold position? In this?" Daniel said into the radio. "We might as well slit our own throats, we'd be better off staying on the move before we get pinned down."

"I was a stripper for awhile Lin, cut me some slack." Siri growled.

"Fine." Requiem snapped. "If you end up being left behind because we can't find you or get to your position, it's your fault." The line cut.

"If we get out of this, not only am I going to make up for lost time in bed, but I am so putting you through the grinder in training," Lin snapped back. "Come on, where the hell is that pelican? We couldn't just call for a police issued one?"

Daniel said a naughty word before the line went dead.

"Fine." Siri snapped back. "Let's just forget I have no fucking shoes! And no we couldn't; I don't trust Police-issued vessels when they need them for other uses." She grimaced, typing. "I'm closing the doors behind us. Take a moment please."

Rha' continued his march, finally hearing the sounds of plasma and screams as his Sangheili began to purge the building. There was something extra special about killing every last human, he'd learnt that. Though he had little love for killing those who were unarmed and innocent, at the same time leaving a planet with no life left that had not even been glassed was so... fulfilling, especially for the Covenant.

The Sangheili slammed his foot against a charging human wielding what resembled a sitting device used by humans. The man curled up, clutching his chest, likely feeling the broken cage that had once guarded his now punctured organs. One swipe was all it took to put the attacked out of his misery.
"You are all far too weak to try such a thing as that."
Noises began to billow up the staircase, and Rha' turned to see the blue harnesses of his subordinates, who all continued to breath heavily, their Type-25 Directed Energy Rifles and Type-51 Directed Energy Rifle/Improveds all cooling down for a moment.

"Follow me. Secure each level as we rise."

The unit marcher higher and higher, clearing level after level, each time deploying a Kig-Yar and a Sangheili to watch the staircase and, in the case of the Kig-Yar, to take place at the windows to fire down at the enemy.
Before long, Rha' could heat the voices again that had escaped him. He roared, his voice loud and carried through the building.

"You cannot escape the Great Journey! Surrender and you may feel our generosity!"

"This is what I say to your great journey motherfucker." Siri closed the nearest fire door, cutting off Rha' and his forces. "Ok, time to move faster!" She said.

"Move where? We're fucking cornered!" Lin yelled.

"Fuck off Michael!" Jaryd yelled back, giving his ally the universal symbol that he was number 1, and continued towards his workshop to tinker and fix.

I grab the comms set off of the dead soldier, slowly and gently. I start searching for any UNSC frequencies, hopefully a pelican, or even a spartan, will be in the area. It's getting loud over there.

Rha' charged up as the human retorted back at him, driving him over the edge. The rest of these humans were simply firewood, scattered and easy, but she was his prey. She and any humans that went with her. He would make sure they felt a very special kind of pain.

Rha' looked at the door for a moment, scanning it, before simply ramming his Type-1 Energy Weapon/Sword deep into the smooth surface, melting and cutting away it before he gave it a hard kick, sending the remaining chunks flying back.

"You will all die, heretics. Every last one of you."

The Sangheili activated their active camouflage and slowly made way behind the humans, the only sight of them being the bright blue of the Type-1 Energy Weapon/Sword and the Type-4 Energy Weapon/Dagger.
with his eyes, Rha' could see them ahead, the humans, running for their lives. They were good at that, it seemed. This war was almost entirely just the Covenant chasing the humans to each of their planets, and then cleansing them entirely.

This was no different.

"Well then! We shoot until Rika arrives!" She said. "The roof has to be close..."
Siri checked her handheld terminal. "yeah, one floor away. Stairs are over there! RUN!"

Michael growled. "Fine! Fuck off and just hide! You fucking coward! Your teammates...our friends are in danger, the Covenant are invading this world, and you just want to hide in your workshop? While Siri is out there without any fucking armor, without us? She's the reason you're free from the UNSC you son of a bitch!"

Dragging Siri, Lin ran for the hills up the stairs though she prayed to god that the Covies would search one floor at a time and not go straight to the top. Reaching the roof exit, she broke the glass around the fire axe box and grabbed the weapon, before shoving Siri out the door and shutting it behind them. "Okay.....we're screwed. Wanna jump and deny them the satisfaction?"

"I'd rather make a last stand and wait for Rika." Siri admitted. "She's two minutes out. The UNSC Hornets finally managed to draw attention." She made sure her sidearm was ready. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid time?"

I hear the racket and I look over to the neighboring building, I see two people standing on the top of the roof. I fight my conscience, it won and I backed away from the lip and I called myself crazy, ran and jumped the gap between the buildings. I land hard and roll a few feet from the edge of the building.

"Friends? Friends don't bring others to warzones, esspecilly when we Aren't Equipped For Combat! Hell, I don't know even know if we even really sea worthy!" Jaryd said marching up to him. "Hide? Hell fucking yes because that's all we're good for right now in this GODDAMNED WAR! Compared to everything else out there we are a tiny little gnat trying to fly away before getting swatted down into the ground!" He yelled, uncaring who else was listening or watching. "We have limited resources, and we decide to take on more people who we have to feed and take care of! WE CAN"T DO THIS SHIT AND YET WE DO IT ANYWAY! How am I the only person to see this!"

"What the fuck is that?" Lin asked.

Daniel and Chris were busy avoiding a Covenant patrol, grunts and an elite stalking by as they hid behind several cars. It wasn't worth it to attack them, not now.

Past every room, up each level, the Sangheili scanned for their prey. Five Sangheili, all watching, hunting, sniffing, growling, clutching, as they hunted for the cowards that ran so quickly from them. Rha' was used to humans running, but normally there was some fight. Something, anything.

But not from these humans. No wild gunfire, no sporadic grenades thrown but not activated. Absolutely nothing. In a way, it made Rha' sad knowing his prey would die so unfulfilled in their lives. How could someone live if they could not ensure an honourable death?

Before long, they'd reached what looked like the top level. A single elevated door and a level of almost nothing on it. Rha' looked at his unit and shook his head. They all acknowledged and made their way back down. This was his fight. And his alone.
The Sangheili walked over to the door, pushing it for a moment. Locked. Likely mechanical, to ensure no one without clearance could get to the top level, though that didn't occur to Rha'. The Ultra raised his leg, and with one devastating kick, the door went flying, before tumbling off the edge of the building.

Looking out from the darkness, he deactivated his cloak, stepping into the open.
"It is time."

"You really suck at old movies." Siri muttered. Then the door came down, and Siri turned.
"Full clips. Think we can take him?"

Michael waved his hand. "Fuck off then. We'll drop you off with a 'Hog at the warf before we pick up Rika and the others. Go on. We don't fucking need you, if you won't stand with us." He began walking away.

Lin, who had hid near the door and out of sight, swung the fire axe in an arc and hit the first Elite that came through the door, the broad sharpened head impacting its midsection. The shield stopped it cold though, but she let it drop to reach for her pistol, moving back as she fired off two rounds.

Siri cracked off three rounds. "Lin, get away!" She cried. She reached back and pressed button, signalling all the nearby drones...but only a few came around.
"There!" She pointed out, and they either flew or moved quickly towards the elite.

"Right, and let this machine fall apart under who's maintenance, yours? How long would it take you to refill an archer pod? Repair the MAC cannon? What if a subsystem's circuitry fries out, you know how to fix it one handed? Right, didn't think so. You seem to forget to let me remind you." Jaryd said, cutting off Michael with his arm. "I don't give the least of shits about anybody here, I only care about Requiem and this glorious piece of tech we are standing in right now. So, you know what, if you manage to get this wonderful contruction of humanity out of here, or put it in harm's way, then I'll fight until my muscles give out, because machines are the only things worth saving in this fucking universe." He snarls from behind his mask before taking his arm back.

I sprained my ankle on the jump. I grip my ankle and swear silently as I watch one of the women attack a elite.

MOVEMENT.

Set's eyes narrowed and his body poised. Humans rounded the corner in one of their land vehicles. Set fired three shots from his Type-31 Rifle. Each of the purple crystals embedded themselves in the vehicle, and the land vehicle swerved. Set fired three more times, breaking the glass, an hitting one of the inhabitants. A few more shots into the side of the vehicle, and the shards exploded.

Rha' stopped, looking down at the human that had struck at him. The weapon seemed like some sort of sharpened plank of wood, thought there was evidently metal on it. It meant little though, as the shield flickered for a moment, a dark gold colour as they fought to remain up.
Not that they needed to, for in the next moment Rha' grabbed the human by the head and threw it back across the roof, snarling and biting as he stepped forward.

"Embrace the honour of death!"

As the bullets pinged off of his shield, Rha' could feel the terror emanating from his prey, as he began to run forward, weapon raised up in the air. In one swing he could cut them both down, ending their miserable dishonourable lives.
He swiped at the cleaning drones that rushed at him, knocking them away with ease, though they did manage to slow him down.

Siri fired three more shots into the Elite's chest. "Fuckfuckfuck!"

That was when the roar of a dropship was heard, and a modified Pelican came over the edge. It turned, and the ramp lowered near the edge. Glancing back, Siri emptied her clip. "Hurry Lin!"

Flying back, Lin landed on her back and the wind was knocked out of her. She rolled, and brought her gun up to fire shot after shot at the Elite, emptying the magazine. Then the dropship arrived, and she made a break for it as Siri yelled for her to run, praying she was close behind.

Siri chucked her empty gun at the Elite and turned to run as Lina started to pull the chaingun down, ready to gun the bastard down. "Hurry up dammit!"

The side of the car blew open, and the vehicle crashed into the side of a building. As the humans fought to get out of the Vehicle, Set killed them one by one with his Type-25 Directed Energy Pistol.

I look at the pelican and grimace, I would not make it in time. Bad idea conscience. "Shit." I say and look around, I start limping for the fire escape, luckily it was behind me.

Jumping into the Pelican, Lin saw one of the Spartans aboard and turned to see if Siri was aboard yet. "Come on, run!"

The humans were running again! And as they ran for their transport, the Demon onboard readying itself, Rha' felt as he and victory ran side by side, only one of them would win this race. They ran, the humans ahead, faster than Rha' had expected for two simple human civilians.

But Rha' was faster.

The Sangheili leapt forward, grabbing one of the humans and rolling with her before quickly springing to his feet, holding her up against him, Type-1 Energy Weapon/Sword and Type-4 Energy Weapon/Dagger both held at her neck. If the Demon dared try anything, then it would cost the life of this human.

He looked at the large dropship, and noticed that there were no reinforcements here. Only evacuations. He had won, though only barely.
"Run then, humans! Run!"

Siri cried out. Feeling the blade's heat, she whimpered.
"Lin! I love you! No matter what I love you! Keep her safe Lina, you keep her safe!"

The Pelican began to move away. Lina grabbed Lin. "There's nothing you can do. Just wait...just wait..."

"NOOO!!!" Lin screamed as they flew away. The bulkhead closed, and she slammed her fists against it. "NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!"