Author's Note:

Welcome to the world of Blood, Lead, and Survival which takes place in the late-mid human covenant war, centering around one marine, his close friends, and his squad and their various adventures throughout the remainder of the war. This is indeed my first time writing, but, however, I am not afraid of criticism, so fire away! If you have any suggestions/ideas you wish to share with me, please private message me through the provided platform. Most stories of mine will be updated weekly or bi-weekly unless a specific time is rather turbulent. Hope you enjoy this story, hopefully there will be more in the future.

The platoon commander stood at the very front of the room, hair shaven down well below regulation standards, regularly gesturing to the board beside him. Jacob DeGarmo watched him intently from the back corner of the room. He and the rest of 7th squad were to be deployed within the next two or three hours to the surface of a planet believed to hold tactical and strategic significance to the UNSC. Their mission was to set up and guard a firebase as well as a research center to run various diagnostics on the planet and its surroundings. As the presentation drew to a close, Jacob internalized the geographical features being read and shown on the board, Hill 1, Hill 2, Hill 3, river, valley, rock outcropping - he paused as he neared the last feature - and the dropzone. The dropzone was dead center in the middle of a grass plain with sparse cover around it. Seeing this, one of his close friends, Private Mateo Martinez leaned over and whispered, "Looks like the logistics team hasn't heard of a word called 'cover'. Right man?". Jacob tilted his head slightly and said in a hushed yet incredibly sarcastic voice, "Whaddya mean Mateo? There's so much cover, you could hide Natalie's entire ego in there!". An elbow shot out from the seat next to him and jabbed him in the ribcage. "That's Corporal Thorburn to you, asshole", Natalie jokingly whispered.

The presentation ended shortly after, everyone filing off into their respective squads. Jacob, Mateo, and Natalie slowly made their way towards the leader of 7th squad, Sergeant Ryleigh Duval. The trio walked over and made sure to salute Sgt. Duval, as she was notorious for being one of the more strict squad leaders. "Alright 7th squad," Sgt. Duval said, "you all have five minutes of free time before you gear up and regroup in hangar 8, pad 21. I expect everyone to be on time, this means you, Lance Corporal Fierro." Heads turned to face the young, reckless marine. "Yeah, come on Nolan!", Jacob playfully jabbed. Sgt. Duval interjected, "Enough, DeGarmo. You marines know what I expect, nothing but the best. Squad dismissed."

Jacob, Mateo, and Natalie walked along the long hallway in the direction of the armory, Natalie in the front and Jacob and Mateo behind. "Really man? I thought the movie was waaaay better than the book", Mateo practically screamed. "Come on, everyone knows the book was better!" "What? The book was just written better!" said Jacob and Natalie at the same time. They reached the armory and Natalie, being a corporal, split off to take command of her fireteam. Mateo and Jacob made their way to find corporal Jordan Bousaid, their fireteam leader. Jordan and Mateo both grabbed assault rifles, and Jacob grabbed his signature DMR. Across the room he could see fireteam 1, lead by corporal Liam Owens, which contained PFC Brooklyn Macey, who was rather shy and introverted, Pvt. William Corey, who was also mildly introverted, and of course Lance Corporal Nolan Fierro, toting the usual SAW. Halfway to the hangar fireteam 1 and Jacob's fireteam (fireteam 2) met up with fireteam 3, which happened to be lead by Natalie Thorburn. Under her command were PFC Owen Church, a very introverted and very young marine, who spoke rarely and zoned out often, PFC Skylar Klossner, the tough woman of the team who could beat pretty much anything into a pulp, and last but not least, pvt. Avery Holzmann. Avery was the squad sniper who spent much of her not-so-copious free time reading old magazines or random books from the ship's library. Naturally, the Mateo, Jacob, and Natalie trio wanted to include Avery, but she usually stayed away from them, telling others behind their backs that they were too "rambunctious" for her taste. The entirety of 7th squad save for Sgt. Duval made their way into hangar 8 and up to pad 21 where a battle-ready pelican as well as Sgt. Duval awaited them. "Alright marines", started Sgt. Duval, "you got most of what you need to know back in the briefing room. All I need to tell you is when we touch down, we and 12th squad are in charge of securing the drop zone during and after the setup of the FOB. Any questions?". The marines were silent except for a few shakes of the head or replies of "No, sir". "Good" Sgt. Duval bellowed, "Move it on out, marines!"

The pelican shook as it entered the atmosphere, gently rattling and swaying like a light boat ride. The marines were mostly silent, save for Fierro, who was making odd guttural noises whenever the ship trembled. A few minutes later, Duval gave the command that they were nearing the DZ. 7th squad stood up, lining up in decreasing number according to fireteam. The pelican jerked upwards sharply, signaling that they had arrived. The ramp lowered to the ground, softly thumping down in the thick grass. First out was Owens, Fierro, Macey, and Corey of fireteam 1, followed by Busaid, Jacob, and Mateo of fireteam 2, then Natalie, Church, Klossner, and Avery Holzmann from fireteam 3 with Sgt. Duval being last off the ramp. The three fireteams stopped for a moment, letting Duval retake the lead. Each marine carefully surveyed the pristine landscape. To the east and west were tall, snow capped mountain ranges, leading to a break in the north, where there appeared to be a small shimmering lake stretching off into the distance. 7th squad's view of the south was abruptly cut off by the pelican of 12th squad as well as 13th squad, who were there as an extra security measure. The engineers and scientists arrived a few minutes later after the all clear signal was given, dropping their firebase/research center in the middle of the semicircle of pelicans. In the middle of soaking in their surroundings, a message came through on the comlink, "Destruction of Hope to all ground forces at research base 01; a small covenant patrol is heading your way from the south, send a team to neutralize the threat and if possible locate the source of the threat. Destruction of Hope out". Due to an agreement reached just after the briefing, it was 7th squad who would be sent to deal with the threat of an enemy patrol. They all geared up and hiked a few miles south and took up defensive positions amongst a custer of boulders and trees.

"Are you guys ready?", asked Jacob in a low voice with a hint of excitement. He was holed up behind a rock with Natalie, Mateo, and Church. "Yeah man, we're gonna take 'em all out!", said Mateo who then proceeded to quietly high-five Jacob. Natalie quietly interjected, "I don't see any yet, do you guys?". Jacob looked out across the open plains before them. He scanned for a moment and did a double take when he saw a faint glimmer. He looked at it for a couple seconds before an energy sword materialized out of the air. "Active Camo!" he hollered as he fired a shot from his DMR right into where the hand would be. If he hit it right, the force of the bullet would compress the shields as well as any fingers underneath it. He must have hit it right, because a deafening roar echoed around the area and an elite appeared next to the freshly dropped energy sword. The elite was about to reach for its plasma rifle when, at Natalie's command, the assault rifle rounds of herself, Church, and Klossner came at the elite in a wave, easily overloading its shields and tearing medium sized holes in its chest, causing it to drop backwards. Upon seeing their comrade fall to the ground in a flurry of purple, five more camouflaged elites appeared, two with needlers, one with a carbine, and the other two with plasma rifles. The ensuing battle was an absolutely deafening cacophony of sounds, the steady drum of assault rifles, the sharp crack of Avery's sniper rifle, and the loud and rapid chatter of Fierro's SAW filled the air with each weapon's deadly song. A .50 caliber sniper round first hit an elite in the head, and because his shields had been degraded by a few assault rifle magazines, the round shredded its way through the elite's face, bending the metal of the helmet on its way out. Jacob focused his fire on the chest of the elite with the carbine, and with the help of Natalie, blasted away the elite's shields. Jacob's DMR rounds impacted the alien's chest, making holes in the armor run with purple blood. The elite staggered backwards, inadvertently falling upon its ally. Seeing and taking advantage of this, Fierro swiveled his gun and emptied half a magazine into the neck and head of the elite, effectively rendering it a pulp. This left two elites, who began to group together and retreat. Natalie yelled a command and Church shouldered a rocket launcher. Jacob watched as the rocket sailed from the barrel of the launcher, leaving a snowy white vapor trail as it went. The rocket slammed into the ground near the feet of the two elites, killing one and knocking the other one off its feet. The other elite made the horrible, grievous, bloody mistake of getting back up. No sooner than it had gotten to its knees than it was hit by the entirety of 7th squad. The assault rifles, Jacob's DMR, Fierro's SAW, Avery's sniper rifle, even Church's rocket launcher. The various calibers and types of ammunition slammed into the elite all at once, effectively giving the fight to the marines. Aside from a few cuts and bruises, 7th squad was fine, and returned to base. That night they received their bunking arrangements, bunked up with Owens were Fierro, Corey, and Church, with Bousaid were Macey and Klossner, and with Jacob were Martinez, Natalie, and Avery Holzmann. Duval got her own officer's quarters, but nobody was complaining. The marines ate a quick meal at the mess hall and then began to bed down for the night, wondering and dreaming what the next few weeks held.