July 26th, 2552, 11:20 Hrs
Sword Base, Babd Catha Ice Shelf, Eposz
Reach, Epsilon Eridani system
-Brimstone Team-
Jake-A384 leapt for cover as the wave of superheated plasma rolled over him, before taking careful aim with his battle rifle at the pack of grunts waddling along in front of him. He took a few precise shots to their alien heads to kill them all, before unloading the rest of his magazine into the elite, silencing its howls of rage in its alien tongue. However, before Jake could consider basking in this small victory, his attention was caught by the roars of another elite, charging at him, its mandibles contorted into a vicious grin, energy sword in hand. With this new threat bearing down on him, Jake drew his sidearm, ready to teach this elite why charging a Spartan was unwise. Class was cancelled however when the crack of a sniper rifle from his left blew the Elite's head apart. With this threat out of the picture, Jake Reloaded his rifle, taking stock of surveying the body-strewn courtyard.
"What, no thank you?" Came a soft voice over Teamcom; one he instantly recognised. Instinctively, he turned around, in time to see Beth-A173, his team's second in command and one of his oldest friends step towards him, sniper rifle still smoking.
"I could've handled it," he jokingly replied, but from her posture, he could see she wasn't in a joking mood. "Alright, thank you for killing that elite," he admitted after a moment's pause.
"You're welcome," she said, giving him a quick pat on the shoulder as she passed. Even though he couldn't see her face behind her helmet, he just knew she was loving the fact she'd had to save his ass, and not for the first time. Of course, that was the moment that Teamcom erupted with the sounds of his other two teammates arguing. He sighed, knowing he was going to have to break this up, again.
"Zoe, Mason, what the fuck are you arguing about this time?" he growled over Teamcom, in a voice, he reserved for giving telling-offs.
"Zoe's just mad I won a hundred-credit bet to see who'd kill the most hinge-heads," replied Mason-B219, gloating.
"Oh, shut up, will you? It wasn't even a real bet" retorted Zoe-B264.
"Oh for fuck's sake. Mason, quit gloating; Zoe, don't be an arse and cough it up -you'd make him pay if you won, wouldn't you? Now knock it off, you two got that?" He bellowed over Teamcom.
"Got it, boss", they simultaneously replied.
Beth sighed, listening to Jake try to knock some sense into Mason and Zoe, for what seemed to be the billionth time. They had been together in Brimstone team for nearly five years, even longer if you included their time with their previous team, and they were argued like little children every chance that they got. Harmless, but loud and very annoying.
"Brimstone Team this is Sword Control, come in." Chirped her helmet's radio, snapping Beth back to the present.
"Sword Control, this is Brimstone Two, the western courtyard is clear, all Spartans are green, over." Beth quickly replied, in her usual soft-spoken voice.
"Copy that, Brimstone Two. Brimstone, we need you to proceed over to the air base and assist Jericho team with cleaning up any remaining Covenant forces," replied Control.
"Sword Control this is Brimstone One, what's the status of the eastern courtyard?" Jake interjected, taking over the conversation.
"Covenant forces in the eastern courtyard are being held back by Marines on-site. Noble team is being deployed to retake the area and secure the base interior, as well as any facilities to the East." Sword Control answered.
"Copy that, Control. Moving to retake the air base, Brimstone out." Responded Jake, gesturing to Zoe and Mason who were in the middle of yet another argument.
July 26th, 2552, 11:28 Hrs
Air Base Delta, Babd Catha Ice Shelf, Eposz
Reach, Epsilon Eridani system
-Brimstone Team-
Mason smiled, cutting down an elite without even breaking his stride, as he ran across the runway with a trail of bodies in his wake. Covenant plasma fire licked at his heels, but he could see his target ahead, a Hunter was pinning down an unfortunate squad of marines, and he'd been ordered to change that. Mason pumped his shotgun and primed a grenade, before leaping onto the Hunter's back. A blast from his shotgun blew away it's armour plating and allowed him to jam his grenade inside the worm colony that gave the hunter its monstrous form before he leapt away just as the grenade went off. The explosion covering the area with burning worms and orange blood, as the remains fell to the ground in a smoking heap; but Mason knew he couldn't savour this victory just yet. Hunters always worked in pairs and killing one had just pissed its friend off, so it would be pretty focused solely on killing him. This was a good thing, however, while it was doing its best to blast apart his cover, it had turned to face him, leaving its back exposed to Zoe, who was at that moment, making her own entrance. Unlike Mason, Zoe opted to ram her grenade into the Hunter's back, leaping off moments before it detonated, cutting down the monster, before effortlessly rolling behind the same piece of cover as Mason.
"About bloody time! What kept you?" Asked Mason, cutting down an approaching elite with his shotgun.
"Had to deal with another uninvited guest," Zoe replied, concentrating on getting a lock on the Banshee above them with her rocket launcher.
"Zoe, Mason - what's the status of those hunters?" Jake asked over Teamcom.
"Hunters are down, and it looks like our guests are running out of steam," Mason replied, lobbing a grenade into a pack of grunts, savouring the satisfying squeal of a grunt carried into the air by the explosion of its methane pack.
"Copy that," Jake replied. He was busy slitting the throat of an elite who'd run out of friends, before sticking a plasma grenade on the nearest grunt and kicking the squealing alien into the rest of its pack, like an oversized football which blew the group to pieces, leaving no survivors.
"Both of you hold your position, keep an eye on nearby friendlies - I'll link up with Jericho," Jake added, diving for cover before silencing the Jackal snipers who'd dared to target him.
"Got it, boss," came Mason's reply, as two green acknowledgement lights lit up his heads-up display.
Jake knew they'd be okay on their own. Even though there seemed to be no end to their bickering, it had been decided long ago that keeping the two together was a good idea, as they were unbeatable when paired up together. What people couldn't decide on was if they were watching each others' backs out of mutual respect, or if it was simply so that they could keep their rivalry going.
"Beth, cover me - I'm going to make a push for Jericho's position. How does it look from up there?" Jake asked, glancing up to the hangar roof where Beth had set herself up.
"Looks good, other than the four-" Beth paused, followed by a crack of her rifle, "-make that three elites. They're in cover, but I'm sure you can fix that," she continued.
"Ok, moving, 3, 2, 1, mark." Jake darted from cover and made his run, followed quickly by two rapid sniper shots at the two elites who, distracted by the Spartan charging at them, had forgotten the presence of the Sniper, who'd just blown their comrade's head apart. The third, however, wasn't as forgetful and kept its head down, staying in cover - although all it took was a grenade from Jake to coax it out to let Beth finish their drawn-out firefight. But that plan, like everything else, was interrupted by a sudden, massive explosion further up the runway.
July 26th, 2552, 11:30 Hrs
Air Base Delta, Babd Catha Ice Shelf, Eposz
Reach, Epsilon Eridani system
-Jericho Team-
Chrissie-B278 hit the ground hard, all she could remember was someone shout 'INCOMING!' and then there was the explosion which had thrown her nearly 40 feet from where she'd been seconds before. She tried to stand but was forced down by the huge foot of an elite which stood over her with an evil grin on its alien face and an energy sword in its raised hand as it prepared to strike. Suddenly, there was a flash of grey and black as nearly half a ton of Spartan and MJOLNIR armour came crashing into the left side of the elite, bowling it over and forcing it to drop its energy sword which fell harmlessly to the ground and extinguished harmlessly, followed seconds later by the life of the elite which had once wielded it.
"You ok?" asked Jake as he turned and hauled himself off of the elites corpse removing the knife he'd buried in its neck.
"Yeah I'm good" replied Chrissie, as she hauled herself off the ground.
"Where's the rest of your team?" Jake asked, handing Chrissie her fallen rifle.
"Dylan and Gwen are set up in Hangar C, keeping the Longswords protected, Roz and Lucas are trying to get the AA guns back online, and I was trying to assist a marine squad" Chrissie answered, looking at a crater, now full of bodies that had once been Marines.
"Well, command wants the runway clear so we can deal with that Corvette and my teams already engaged" Jake added, as he picked up the fallen energy sword, checked it and threw it to one side.
"So since our teams are busy, I guess that means it's just us two" Chrissie added, as she checked her ammo.
"Yep" replied Jake, as he began to relieve the elite's corpse of its plasma grenades.
"I'll let my team know what's happening" pausing to change over to Jericho's Teamcom frequency.
"Dylan, Gwen stay where you are, Me and Jake, are going to clear the runway for command, so have those Longswords ready to go as so as the runway is clear," Chrissie explained followed by two green acknowledgement lights from Dylan and Gwen.
"You ready?" asked Jake as he slid a fresh clip into his battle rifle.
"Always!" Chrissie replied as she cocked her rifle as the pair began to run towards the firefight taking place on the base's main runway.
July 26th, 2552, 11:35 Hrs
Air Base Delta, Hanger C, Babd Catha Ice Shelf, Eposz
Reach, Epsilon Eridani system
-Jericho Team-
Dylan-B224 couldn't help but let out a sadistic laugh as he blew the head off of another elite who'd dared attempt to cross his kill zone, its body falling amongst the growing sea of alien corpses that had formed since he'd taken his current position.
"Gwen, what's the status of the Longsword's?" Dylan asked without taking his eye off the scope.
"There armed and ready to go, we're just waiting on Chris and Jake" replied Gwen-B161 as she busied herself with filling the wound on an unfortunate marines chest with Biofoam to hold his insides in until he could be operated on by a surgeon.
"Speaking of which," Dylan muttered as he shifted his aim to observe Chrissie and Jake as they double-teamed the large group of Covenant troops currently occupying the runway. "Chris could you please hurry up, we're waiting for you," Dylan reported sarcastically over Teamcom,
"Shut up Dylan you're not helping!" angrily barked Chrissie as she smashed a grunt's head in with the butt of her rifle before unloading the rest of her clip into its friends.
"Yeah and while you're at it, why don't you use that big rifle of yours and do something constructive with it, perhaps blow these fuckers heads off!" Jake spat as he narrowly dodged a stab from an elite major's energy sword, which had been aimed at Jake's' throat.
"Fine, but only because you asked so nicely," replied Dylan before proceeding to shoot the major in the head.
"Thank you," gasped Jake, both to Dylan for killing the major and to the Major itself who had graciously left him an energy sword for him to put to good use, that use being the violation of the heads belonging to a pack of grunts who'd waddled a bit too close for their own good.
"You're welcome," Dylan smirked as he watched the massacre from afar and couldn't help smiling as a grunt's head went sailing into the air as Jake butchered the disgusting little aliens.
"This is Jericho 3, to all UNSC forces, the air defence guns are back online," announced Lucas-A186 over the radio, followed by the staccato of heavy machine gun fire as the point air defence guns across the base roared into life, ruthlessly gunning down any covenant aircraft in range.
"About time, what kept you?" asked Gwen as she joined Dylan near the hangar door whilst Dylan watched as the last of the grunts on the runway decided to make a run for it.
"Hey it wasn't an easy fix," answered Lucas, as Jake signalled for a nearby group of marines to move up and move the body's that had piled up during the firefight, whilst Chrissie cut down the fleeing Grunts.
"Yes it was, just you couldn't find the fuse box!" broke in Rosenda-A344 slyly as they both jogged into view closely followed by Brimstone team.
"Knock it off you lot!" interrupted Chrissie as she jogged over followed by Jake.
"Sword control this is Brimstone 1 the runway is clear of hostiles and it is safe to launch, over," Jake spoke over the command frequency whilst Chrissie gestured for Gwen and Dylan to get the hangar doors open.
"Copy that Brimstone 1, get those Longswords airborne as quickly as possible. Noble team has almost cleared sword base of air-based threats, so once they're gone we can push that Corvette out for the orbital defence guns to take a shot. Good work out there Spartans" sword control replied.
Author's note
Hey so this is my first ever piece I've actually had the courage to upload, so any feedback and reviews are welcome, there will be more coming but I can't say when.
(Edit- This chapter has been edited so that it isn't as 'Awful as it used to be' big thanks to Soup-duds from the Halo Fanon group, who helped salvage it. (Hopefully more revised chapters will follow).