Frederic-104 stood near the base of the mountain, trying to see through the trees to the top. James walked up next to him.
"So Fred, what's the plan?" Fred glanced at the other Spartan and thought for a moment, then said,
"Well, I guess they're not giving us any choice but to go straight up after them. Get Will and Anton, tell them to scout ahead for any traps John or Kurt might've set for us. I'll get everybody else. We're heading out in ten."
James nodded and sprinted off into the forest surrounding them, and Fred collected the others:Isaac, Cal, Li, and Grace-five of their team had been taken out in an ambush set by John earlier in the training session- and they all gathered at the base of the hill.
"If they see anything one of them will stay there and the other will search for a way around." James said to Fred as they moved up the mountainside. Fred nodded and continued walking, slowly scanning every inch of the terrain ahead of him.
Suddenly, Anton and Will came careening down the forest yelling out to get back, firing the TTR rounds from the S6 handguns each candidate had been equipped with for the training round blindly behind them. Fred ordered everyone to retreat. He nodded to James and they both went to either side of the retreating Spartans and climbed high into trees, covering themselves on the way up. They waited for a few moments, then saw a few of the other candidates-Fred recognized them as members of Kurt's team- following close behind them, armed with captured MA5Bs loaded with TTR rounds. Dang, he thought, they got one of the care packages. James looked at him and Fred held up three fingers, two, one, then closed his hand into a fist as the other Spartans nearly ran right between them.
Fred and James leaped from the trees and landed in front of the opposing candidates. Fred grabbed the barrel of the nearest Spartan-Joshua- and smashed the gun back, hitting Joshua in the gut with his weapon. Joshua let go of the gun and doubled over, and Fred put a TTR round into his side, slapping on the sticky green "kill" flag. Alice jumped at Fred, swinging a fist that connected with his jaw. Fred ducked her kick and grabbed her leg, pulling her down to her knees and putting a stun round into her leg with his S6. He punched at Joseph, which he ducked, then sent a hard kick at his abdomen, which Joseph nimbly avoided with a spin and jump backwards. Fred took his captured MA5B and swung the butt of the rifle at Joseph, connecting with his shoulder, spinning him around until Fred flipped the gun around and fired a third round into his chest, slapping a final flag onto his back. He looked up, watching for another enemy, but merely saw James slapping one of his flags onto Malcom's chest, then-as an afterthought- he pulled the flag off Malcom's chest and put it on his face. He sent James down to get the others, then set about policing the weapons of each of the enemies he had just faced off against.
He bent down to pick up a magazine from Joshua, who glared at him angrily, unable to do anything but that, and Fred gave him a less than gentle pat on the face and smirked at him. He stood quickly, and the TTR round flew right where his face had previously been. He dove backwards, falling to the ground and three more of the projectiles flew towards his last position. He scrambled backwards and took cover behind a large tree, pulling himself in so he was completely behind the tree. He heard the dull thuds as several rounds hit the tree, then he popped out and fired in the general direction he heard the shots coming from. He ducked back behind as someone shot from a different direction, nearly hitting him in the head. He saw James leading the rest of their team up the hill and tried to yell out to him to stop, but before he could James was hit six times in the chest from a fully automatic rifle. James's hands flew to his chest flew and he fell backwards, Grace catching him and the team scattered among the trees. Fred saw two recruits chasing Anton and fired, one of them falling instantly and the other being brought down by Anton. He adjusted behind the tree to see the enemy around him, then pulled back quickly to avoid being hit by two TTR projectiles speeding toward him.
He looked back at his team, scattered among the trees and being hunted by superior firepower, then he remembered the stack of MA5Bs and S6's he'd taken from the six that he and James had faced. He knew he had to get to those weapons, though they were far off, and get them to his Spartans. He steeled himself, then leaped from his tree cover and rolled through the trees. He heard the TTR hitting things all around him, but through some force of nature-or luck-they did not hit him. He stood to a crouch, running through the forest until he was near the clearing he and James had fought the other half of the team they were now pitted against. He dove low-grabbing the neat stack of weapons and magazines he had made earlier-and ended up on the other side of the clearing.
Will and Isaac crouched near, returning fire with their pistols into a bush ahead of him. He tossed each of them an MA5B and three magazines, then through hand symbols asked Where are the others? Isaac answered with three fingers sliding over an open palm. Unknown. Fred bit his lip, then nodded. He looked through the forest, trying to see any of his squad, until he saw Grace and Li trying to revive a wounded James. Fred made a chopping motion with his right hand over his left, then made a half circle with his arm Cover me. Will nodded and released the bolt on his newly acquired MA5B assault rifle, tensing for the attack. Fred held up three fingers, dropped one, two, then held a closed fist. The two Spartan trainees stood at the same time, Fred sprinting toward Grace and Li, Isaac and Will firing into the surrounding trees, causing the enemy Spartans to drop down and cover.
Fred made it to Grace and Li and handed them each an assault rifle and three clips, then checked James. He would spasm occasionally, but the concoction of chemicals in the TTR bullets had already done its work, and James was officially ?ead He shook his head at Grace and Li, and they nodded, knowing what Fred meant. Fred looked for Anton and Cal, then noticed Anton appearing out of the forest, holding two MA5Bs at the hip and firing them simultaneously, laughing crazily. He scanned the woods for Cal, but couldn't find her. He pointed two fingers at his eyes, then made a sweeping motion with his hand, telling them to keep their eyes open for anything. He still had two assault rifles and six magazines, so he gave each of the Spartans beside him an extra clip and handed Grace one of the extra rifles. He ejected the magazine from the last rifle, then stood and threw it as hard as he could down the mountain. If we can't have it, they sure as heck won't. He thought to himself. Li picked up James and slung him over his shoulder, then gave Fred a thumbs up. Fred and Grace went ahead, covering Li as he carried James. Fred looked through the trees and saw someone, though he couldn't tell who exactly, he knew it was no one on his team. He fired at the silhouette and knew he hit, because the body fell to the ground and twitched. They made it to Isaac and Will, who Anton had also reached, and ordered everyone to report their kill counts. Li put James down and said he hadn't shot anyone, Anton reported one, Isaac and Will had one each, and Grace didn't have any. Fred scanned the trees for enemies, then noticed one person fleeing from his battle group.
He ordered Grace and Li after them-though they both returned minutes later with no success- then told everyone to start looking for Cal. After a few minutes Will shouted out that he'd found her, and when Fred made it to her he saw her covered in the green paint of Kurt's team. Fred quickly tallied all of the kills the Spartan recruits had. There were seven "dead" from his team, ten from Kurt's team, but he didn't know the status of John's team. They hadn't encountered them since the ambush that had taken out more than a third of his team, but he tallied the two they'd managed to get before retreating into the equation. That came out with 19 of 35 Spartans. Kurt had probably taken out more of John's team, but Fred wasn't about to count on that. Maybe Kurt had decided to attack Fred's team first so he wouldn't have to deal with them while tracking John. Sent Grace and Anton out to scout, wanting to know when the next assault would come. In ten minutes they had returned with nothing and Fred decided to hunt after the two survivors of Kurt's team.
They followed their trail for nearly an hour before Anton yelled out that there a warning. Fred's team dropped into a cover position, making a full circle, and watched the trees until Grace heard a crack in the trees above. She spun upward and fired at full automatic, TTR painting the trees above, as bullets rained down on them. Fred looked up and saw Jerome jumping from one tree to the other-and shot him mid way between the two. Jerome came crashing down to the forest floor, along with Sheila and Mike. Anton stood, firing into the trees above wildly, and cried out as a blue splash of paint appeared on his lower calf. He fell to the ground, continuously firing, until three more rounds hit him in rapid succession on the chest and right arm.
"Pull back! Everybody pull back!" Fred shouted to his team, but none of them could move without being killed immediately. Isaac fired upwards and Victor and Maria tumbled to the ground with red paint covering them. "Everyone, defensive retreat! Go, go, go!" Fred yelled to his team, and they ran. Grace lingered for a moment, then cried out when she was hit in the back. She struggled to crawl over the ground-Li and Isaac stooped to pick her up-but Li was brought down by splashes of blue traveling up his leg to the back of his neck, then a round got Grace in the head. Isaac dropped Grace's arm and ran, knowing she was dead and their was nothing he could do for her, and Fred and Will turned and fired at the enemy targeting him. They finally turned-tale and ran when Isaac reached them, and put as much distance between Blue Team and themselves as they could without giving out.
That night, Will stayed up for first shift and as Fred drifted off into a half-sleep, he thought to himself, Great, down to three members and Blue is after us. This is gonna be heck of a training session.