"Hang on, Marines!" The pilot of the Pelican yelled. "Looks like the LZ's a hard drop!"
Corporal Perez gripped the top of the drop ship's troop bay. Once the Pelican hit the drop altitude, he'd be cut down almost instantly. The fact that his issue was an SMG didn't console him any further.
Sergeant Banks, Lieutenant Forman, Corporal Mckenzie, all of them got seats. He envied them. Mckenzie got lucky; the other two were at the back because they were the highest ranking.
To take his mind off of his imminent doom, he surveyed the area. There were two bridges across two roads, crossing like a tic-tac-toe board. There were several Elites, with Jackals in front, forming an efficient defensive arc with their shields. He primed a grenade and tossed it down. It got blown by the turbulence of the outward engines, and didn't even get close to the arc.
"Damn." Perez groaned, seeing just how much a grenade was worth.
"Perez, don't even think about trying that again!" Mckenzie growled.
The two were friends, but the tension of the mission they'd been assigned dissuaded them from talking almost completely.
The Pelican drifted over the top of a large, multi-floored building, at the large deck.
"Almost at altitude!" the pilot called over the speaker. "There! Hit 'em hard! Jump time!"
Perez unslung his SMG and leapt. Strangely enough, the Covenant didn't fire. Mckenzie and Banks jumped, but as Forman started his jump, he caught a slug from a Covenant Carbine and fell.
Clever Elites; they had waited until the lower-ranking troops up front had dropped, then fired on the higher ranking troops that went down last.
Forman was dead before he hit the ground. Sergeant Banks immediately assumed control, and ordered the snipers to set up and keep the Covenant's heads down.
Immediately, priority number one was getting the building secure. Perez was ordered, along with Mckenzie and some other Marines, to sweep the stairs and lower floors.
"Why are we always given the hard parts?" Perez groaned. Mckenzie turned.
"They don't want to lose their higher ranking officers, so they send us ground pounders to do the dirty work."
They went down the stairs to the balcony. Perez saw something, then felt his gun get heavier. He looked down. A plasma grenade had stuck to his SMG!
"LOOK OUT!" He screamed, hurling it to the side. It flew just outside of detonation range and exploded, a forceful blue cloud of white heat and alien gas. He and his team broke for the nearby door, as the horde opened fire.