HRP reboot - Chapter 2: On the Run

I've been jumped around from squad to squad ever since I left the academy. Today, I spent 2 hours holding up a police station 50 miles behind the covenant front lines for an AI to extract some data with a squad that I'd only known for 15 minutes previously. All of that squad currently lie in pieces around that station. There's no more ODST squads in this sector, and to be quite honest. I don't really feel like dying today. So if it's all well and good with you, I'd rather be on the extraction team so that I can live to get off of this backwater planet and into another squad who I might finally be able to actually bond with before they all have their numerous bodily parts splattered against my face.

Josie gave the AI a tight lipped stare.

Daniel did his best not to chuckle, though behind the visor he did grin slightly. "Talk about hell. Josie was it?" he asked.

Yes, sir.

Josie respectfully saluted the person who had addressed her.

"At ease," Daniel said after he returned the salute. "I'm Second Lieutenant Daniel Lampert, formerly of Dragon squad. Sorry for the hell you've been through Josie, but with all due respect, you're a Helljumper. Time to show it."

Pull my record. I think I've shown it more than enough times. Sir. I belong in the infiltration team.

There was no way Josie was backing down. She'd been through a lot of shit today, and she wasn't going to let it be for nothing either.

Grinning again, Daniel couldn't help but nod slightly. "Well one of my people is down currently, and hate to say it but they're not right for this mission. Probably be a liability actually, so in all likelihood I'm going to have an opening in my squad. Feel up for it?"

Without a single doubt in my mind, Sir. Do you need me for anything right now?

In all truth, she'd like to try to catch ten minutes more rest, but it was unlikely now she'd been accepted. It didn't bother her though

"At the moment, no. Hell with everything we've been through my people didn't even get a chance to eat, and a tired hungry trooper is as much a liability to me as a wounded one. For now, get some rest, including food if you need it. If not, you can help prepare for the mission; ammo, weapons, explosives, everything we're going to need for an attack on a Covie ship."

=thinks for a moment=

other then that i got no ideas

Dan bobbed his head softly.

"It's a start."

There's was a pause in the conversation for a moment.

"Any idea what's next? we gonna check in with command, or not?"

"Hm."

Dan chewed more of his food.

"Wonder if they can signal us from where we are."

"Daniel." Requiem moved closer. "I know she may be a liability, but are you really goi g to stand up to her? She does have more balls then half the ODSTs here." He looked to Josie. "I will have one of the ODSTs onboard stay to help direct our civilian crew. I know you mean well for Lin, Daniel...but even I, a disembodied computer program of high intelligence that cannot feel real pain, feel fear when that woman is going into hell for Saoirse."

His posture, nor his tone, did not waver once, as he spoke calmly to Requiem in his helmet, his voice sealed from Josie with the helmet secured. "Believe me, I know how she gets. Which is why I don't want her on the mission. With the way she feels about Saorise, and how driven she's going to be, it's going to cloud her judgement, maybe endanger the team and that's not something I want to risk."

"I know." He sighed. "It is your choice. But God give you balls of iron; Lin was gifted with cojones od pure fucking granite."

"Well I've stared her down enough times Rec-room. Trust me, I'll manage just fine," Daniel said, not caring he had given the AI a nickname.

"Requiem. The song sung at a priest's funeral. Not Rec-room. I control the atmospheric controls." He threatened indifferently.

Dan finished off the MRE then set the bag aside and stood up, walking to where his DMR was on its rack.

"Guess a little time off never hurts, though."

"And I'm the guy who can keep Lin from tearing you a new one," Daniel said.

"Uh-huh. If you think so." Requiem said. "If she rips you a new one, I get Chris. That ok?" The AI said straight-faced.

"Yeah you're not her type. She likes guys who can actually keep it up," Daniel said. He wondered how long the banter would last, since they were rudely ignoring Josie after all.

=thinks to himself=

i was told by the AI earlier there could be a covenent vehicle depot we could always go raid it and by raid i mean take vital intel and blow the rest up

=stands up=

we'd get something to do covies lose so win win what do ya say?

"And you can?" Requiem switched to the bridge speakers.
"Any questions Josie?" He asked.

"Keep tabs on it. I need a little shut-eye before we jump onto a Covie station."

Dan walked to the door.

"Wake me in a few hours."

He headed to his bunk and rested for some time.

Yoshino wrote:

Skye walked into her quarters and stopped, dropping her bag onto the floor. There were three bunk beds in here, but only her's was used anymore. This had originally been her's, Oliver's, and Neil's quarters, but with the two of them dead, it was empty. She opened her footlocker, and after a bit of rummaging, she took out a small box, containing two needles. One was filled with 009127-PX, and the other 009927-DG. She had to take one injection of each every three days.

She bound her arm, and jammed the 009927-DG needle into her arm, injecting the drug before repeating with the 009127-PX.

Skye sighed and stared at the bottom of the top bunk as she lay on her own. Her arm throbbed slightly where she had injected the drugs, but she was used to it. It was a small price compared to how much more efficient it had made her in combat, she thought, but sat around on a ship made it go to waste, not that she minded resting either.

Rha' took heavy steps down the plated halls of the ship, the purple and blue hue calming him for a moment. He'd been called to answer to the Minister of Exaction, the same San 'Shyuum who had command over the Fleet of Consequential Victory, the same one that had besieged Cesaro, though the San 'Shyuum was far away on his own ship, safe from the combat since the Covenant had claimed victory. As the San 'Shyuum had said, Rha' was risking a great many things by breaking such an important code of the Covenant, keeping a human prisoner.
But the Minister knew that if the human was indeed as smart as Rha' made her seem, then she would provide invaluable to finding the home of these humans.

Rha' heard the doors open before him, blinking for a moment and sighing as he looked down the brig. Many empty cells, as always. There was a single Unggoy, picking at the floor, who had tried to sell a large number of vehicles from the fleet to pirates - apparently the Unggoy expected the fleet would fail in it's attack.
Those who had conspired with him were already long gone, their punishment far more severe thanks to Rha' pulling the strings for him.

"Kig-Yar? What are they doing..."

Rha' made way over to the far cell, seeing a group of Kig-Yar circled around something. It didn't take much before the Sangheili heard the whimpering of his human captive. In a flash the Ultra charged at the Kig-Yar, who heard him and began to try and flee, knowing full well the crime they had committed.

Rha' grabbed the first one by the arm, hurling him into the back wall, the sound of breaking bones reverberating for a moment before the terrifying screeching of the Kig-Yar overpowered it. Rha' grabbed another, who was trying to grab the dropped cutlass. The Sangheili pulled the creature up and proceeded to hurl it against the final Kig-Yar, cowering in the back of the cell, and as their bodies collided he looked down at the human, sighing.

"I cannot say I am sorry for this, as you are deserving of such torture, but I am sorry that my soldiers disobeyed my order."

Rha' let out a slight sigh, followed by a growl as he made way for the controls of the shields. As he did, he heard very faintly the sound of footsteps. Rha' spun on the spot, his hand slamming into the face of the Kig-Yar, snapping his neck in an instant. Apparently he needed to talk to Set about these troops.
A few moments later, the shields were up, and Rha' looked over his shoulder at the Unggoy that came into the brig lazily. He'd called them in for cleanup, and as always they didn't seem too against it. Despite not wanting to initiate any hostilities, Rha' had learnt that the little conflicts that plagued the Covenant could be used to ones advantage.

A few hours later, Dan quickly sat up and took a sharp breath. He wasn't sure what made him wake up so abruptly. Dan didn't even strip his armor when he went to sleep. Too much trouble putting it back on. He spoke to Marik through the comms.

"Alright. What's the plan?"

=was relaxing in his bunk when he got the comm so responds=

we're going to try and see if we can't steal a fighter from the covenent while denying them an outpost

Dan cracked his neck.

"What's the point of stealing a fighter?"

Dan could see why a Seraph might come in handy. But only if it wasn't too difficult to get a hold of.

"Alright, how far are we from our destination?"

"On it."

Dan rushed to the armory and loaded up his weapons. Seeing as this was gonna probably be a close quarters op, he only grabbed his Battle rifle and a pistol. He loaded up on C-12 charges, frag grenades and ammo.

=gets up and heads to the armor and loads up on a dmr,his pistol and a couple claymore mines for infantry=

i'm gonna go grab a moray and we can use that to take out the base

=heads to the area the space mines are located=

Dan nodded, confirming what Marik had said. He finished loading his gear and moved to the bridge.

=gets to the storage area and lifts up one of the mines and attaches it to his back armor and heads to the bridge=

yeah this thing is a bit heavier then i expected but i think can handle it,so do we wanna steal ship then blow up base or blow up base first and hope to abmush a fighter returning?

"If we steal a ship first we might alert them. I think destroying the base is a little more important than grabbing a fighter. Better to take that risk than the alternative."

"Sounds like a plan."

Dan made sure he had all his gear in check.

"Let's do this."

"Don't suppose we have a plan on how we're getting on board? or are we just gonna fly close enough so we can jump on?"

"You ain't gonna get any complain' from me."

Dan waited for the AI to touchdown the ship on the surface.

=IRIS lands the ship and preps to open the airlock and voices a countdown=

5.4.3.2.1

=airlock opens on 1 and marik takes off into a full sprint towards the outpost=

Dan made sure his armor was airtight before the airlock opened. Once it did, Dan took off running right behind Marik.

=continues running and makes it to the base in 4 minutes 55 seconds=

made it what about you dan?

Dan tapped on Marik's shoulder, identifying his presence.

"Let's get in here."

Dan grabbed some C-12 from his person.

"Might need this to open a door."

good idea it would be rude to enter without knocking

=steps to the side=

after you

Dan planted the explosives on the door. He looked at the top of his HUD that showed how much air he had left. Only about a minute and a half.

He moved away from the door.

"Clear."

With a click of a detonator, the outpost had a new hole in it. Dan flashed a green light on both their HUDs, signing it was clear to go.