Everything was quiet, except for the deep breaths of the rookie nearby. It was his first mission with Phoenix, he was scared, after all, the moment the trigger was pulled, Phoenix was the enemy. The rookie knew nothing about the sniper with him. He just had the Phoenix logo on his back, and OSCI was all that he had labelled.
The mission was simple, assassinate the new General of the UNSC. He was supposedly corrupt, Phoenix was a team who had to do the things other teams couldn't. If a good guy had to die, then Phoenix had to do it, and take the heat for the killing. They had a reputation for breaking the rules, but this would make them enemies of the whole human race.
A call came into the radio 'Osci, there's been a delay, target only just left the building, you have to wait another fifteen minutes.'
'Copy that Derv, get to the extraction point, if we aren't there in 30 minutes, leave.'
The sniper put the rifle down and took a seat. "Well rookie, we have some time to kill, how about you tell me about yourself."
"Well I don't know what to say, my name is Reid, I was part of Dream, before you guys asked me to join."
"What was it like there?"
"Scary, because you know that it's already a shitstorm if they have to call in ODSTs. Every mission could be that one where even ODSTs can't make a difference... Somehow Dream has never gotten that mission."
"You do realize that The Dream Team is here, in one of the ships above the planet, to protect the General for his speech."
"Yeah, that's why they sent me, if I can't kill a member of Dream, then I don't belong on Phoenix."
"We aren't the bad guys Reid, you shouldn't kill a member of Dream unless you have no choice, shoot them in the leg, take their gun, then continue the mission. Only the General should have to die."
"That isn't what Liam told me, he said that Phoenix needs to know if I can do what is necessary to complete the mission."
"He means playing the bad guy, not being the bad guy. You will find Phoenix has a very low kill ratio for combat."
Reid didn't fully understand, but rather than ask questions, he decided to sit back and relax, they would have to run soon. He looked around the jungle area, the moon was behind the clouds, there was no need to hide, you could barely see anything. Unless you had an ODST helmet with night vision. Reid wondered if Osci would be ok without a helmet, most had argued that going from ODST to marine was a downgrade, but Phoenix were some of the best out there, and they had a Spartan on their team, surely Osci would have a helmet if he needed one.
Osci picked up the sniper rifle and mounted it on the rock, the rifle had night vision, but it didn't look like Osci was using that either. "Trucks are pulling up, I can see the target. As soon as you here this thing fire, run."
Reid put on his ODST helmet, grabbed his silenced SMG and waited patiently.