I do not own Halo or any rights to the series, this is only a fiction following an idea that a friend of mine had when we we're playing through the series. Much of the characters are of personal acquaintances from around my work place and friends of mine from back home. I hope you enjoy and let's add another chapter to the cycle for the second coming of war in the universe of Halo.

The seconds ticked by in my head as I waited for a response. Just as I was about to attempt again, I heard, "Fox one hears you Fox three, I've got one wounded, one dead." Someone said, it wasn't Cole, was he the one dead? It wasn't unheard of, but this wasn't what I had in mind for my guys when it came to a quick drop and retreat.

"What's your location?"

"about a click and a half south west from drop location."

"Stay put, we're on our way, activate waypoint beacon for squad HUD"

Even if this was one of Cole's new guys, they'd know the ins and outs of their HUD functions, so they could set it if need be.

My waypoint moved and read at nearly a one and a quarter click to my east and north.

"Done, what's your ETA?"

"Five minutes max." I stated and began moving, "Lets move guys." I said in the mic to my team.

As I finished speaking I heard the higher pitched voice of Mac, "Purdue? Shit, everyone went dark for a while, and we got pulled into a holding pattern since I wouldn't let the pilot leave you guys down there."

"Mac?" I asked to confirm I wasn't hearing things

"Who else?"

"Shit, do you know why the Spartans took off without us?"

"No, but they have been set in a new drop point, putting them closer to their objective. Apparently the beacon was only a distraction, the objective is further north of Cole's crew."

"Good, I'd hate to see us be the only ones to actually do something here."

"Purdue, calm down."

"I will after I tend to the rest of the squad, two down on Cole's team."

"Shit, I'll get a Medevac on the way."

I gave a click to confirm, as my team and I continued to the waypoint team one made for us to get there. Continuing on, we skirted along the clearing following the straightest way we could, "Stay out of the open, I don't want to walk up on another patrol."

I opened up the team so we could have a better chance of not being spotted as a whole. Moving in a diamond Esq formation, with Patt in the lead, the two new ones on the left and right, and myself between the two and back ever so slightly. We came closer and were hearing shots, moderately frequent coming from ahead.

"Fox three, this is Fox one, we're taking heavy fire, we need to move." I heard the frantic voice of the man who came on earlier.

"Fox three here, we're half a click out and heading your way, draw them west, we'll take the rest from there." I said giving the signal to pick up the speed.

"Fox one, Fox two inbound hot with your support. Watch your heads."

Mac said the last bit before I heard the bird streak in overhead, the rotor blades washing the ground with leaves, sticks and wind. I heard the buzz of it's three guns opening up, as well as the guns the passengers were using. "Let's go kiddos, we're missing the party."

I said as Patt gave the signal that he spotted them. "Fifteen hostiles, all front."

"close dispersion, Patt, I'm coming up to you." I said as I picked up my own speed. Smith and Alphabet closed in to our sides. "let's ease the pressure. Go."

As I gave the order, in a broken unison the four of us moved forward, opening fire on the militants. The ones immediately to our front began to fall, the first three in rapid succession with more going down as we advanced. As we seemed to have got a foothold in the line for our squadmates, I pointed Smith and Patt to our right, to keep pressure off of the team behind us.

"Get your asses up here, we have you covered." I said into the receiver.

One of the ODSTs looked to us before waving the rest of his team over our way. I glanced to him before checking off his armor as one of the guys who was a new ODST, Petreovitch, but had been apart of the corps during the war. He stood hauling the body of Cole, it was as I feared, the insane mother fucker I knew since the beginning was now gone, having survived the war, he died in a time of "peace". The ODST carrying him then turned to engage in the firefight to help his team get up. The one other standing man hauled the wounded man over his back into a fireman's carry, the wounded man lay mostly still, with low energy movements happening from him, barely putting his hand at the other ODST's back.

I gave the signal for my team to continue the advance while the others were coming our way. The one carrying the wounded man, that I could now see his tag on his chest identifying him as Walker, our lance that had been on a couple drops with our team, came up first and set his man down, I looked to him and asked, "What's he got?"

"Gun shot wound, right flank." He said as he began putting pressure on the wounded man's side.

I smacked Patt's arm saying I was peeling off, then said, "Take my place" Walker nodded and peeled off putting his rifle on the firing line. I hooked my rifle on my back and checked my squadmate, looking for an exit wound. The exit wound came out at an angle from the entry, to his outside. I looked to him, "You'll be alright Yao" I said while reading his chest plate. I continued with the statement saying, "the bullet missed anything vital, you just took one hell of a stinger." I took out the bio-foam canister from my easy access kit on the side of my bag. Putting the nozzle to the entry wound. "This is going to hurt." He gave a nod and I activated it, hearing him shout from the inside of his helmet as his head fell back. I pulled the canister out and discarded it after using it up. He quickly came about himself and breathed easier.

I hauled him to his feet, "Stay at my ass, we're going to get you and Cole out of here."

"All due respect corporal, but I'm staying with my squad, I'm not out of this yet." Yao said slightly labored.

"You're not getting an easy ticket, we're all going to get out of here ASAP." I said before Petreovitch got Cole's body back to us. "Vitch, We need you to fireman carry him, We're backing off to the clearing." He nodded before picking the lifeless body and bloody armor off the ground. I put my hand to my ear, "Any Station, Any Station, this is Marlbro Two, does anyone copy?"

"Marlbro Two, this is Slavedriver, we hear you loud and clear." I heard on the channel, the Gunney answering the hail for contact.

"Slavedriver, Marlbro one is at half capacity, one Kilo, one walking Whiskey. How copy?" I said indicating we had one killed in action and a second wounded, but walking. I flinched as I heard the snap of a bullet fly passed my head, I returned fire with a quick burst of semiautomatic fire.

"Read you loud and clear Marlbro two. We're sending out a Medevac for your casualties. Pop smoke on location for drop point, ETA, five mikes." Gunney replied.

"Copy that Slavedriver, Marlbro two out." I said before switching channels to my squad's channel, "Patt, you take Yao and start making it back to the drop point, we need to get there post haste. Walker, Vitch, give him cover. Smith, Alphabet, you're on me." I said, and the five others began doing as they were told. Patt lifted Yao to his feet before putting him in a fireman's carry while the two from Cole's team held suppressing fire for him. I did the same for Cole while my two did the same, "Walker, take charge of the bounding, everyone is coming back."

"You got it Corporal." Walker said to me before stating, "Smith, drop back, call out once you set."

I started trotting at Patt's side, drawing my side arm. "How you two holdin up?"

"Fuck you Purdue." Patt said before saying, "Yao, two right." Yao popped up his sub-machine gun, leveling in a quick aim before firing a burst then another, receiving some fire back.

Patt lifted his side arm and began to return fire. I leveled my own pistol and fired rounds at the muzzle flashes in front of us. "Reloading!" Yao called out as he dropped the SMG to his hip using his quick release to load the mag into his pistol. He pulled the fire arm up and began firing again.

The fire intensified and I ducked down lowering Cole while I knelt, Patt dropped down with Yao, I put my hand to my ear, "Walker, where are you guys? We're getting pinned over here."

Walker came over. "We've got an issue, we're taking heavy fire too."

"Son of a bitch, hunker down." I said before selecting channels and hailing Slavedriver, "Slavedriver, Marlbro two here, Both ground elements immobile, be advised, hard contact held by both ground elements, requesting immediate air support."

"Marlbro two, this is Osiris, that's a negative on air support, ground air defense has been ramped up, I advise you move three clicks east, Extract point moving to lapse in air defense grid."

"Negative, we won't make it to the extract, both Marlbro ground elements are pinned down."

"Patt, down!" I shouted as I saw the vapor trail from in front of us.

I dropped and swapped to my battle rifle, firing in rapid succession.

Patt started up, pulling a phosphorous grenade from his belt. "Fire in the hole!" He said as he lobbed it, dropping to his face.

"Say again Marlbro two" Osiris said as I reloaded.

"Marlbro can not continue, all ground elements pinned down." I said before ducking my head after a round wizzed by.

"We can give orbital fire support, but it's limited support we can give, we have incoming hostile vessels." Osiris stated. "We'll start our bombardment in three mikes, get your team together and broadcast your location."

I dropped lower before firing off another burst, then swapping my channel I called out to the rest of our ground element, "Walker, you've got three mikes, get to me and Patt, there's going to be a hell of a fireworks show."

"Got it, we're on our way." He said through the hail of bullets and explosions that I heard from his microphone.

"Just get over here, we'll all die together." I said in regards to knowing exactly who was on the horn. I glanced over to Patt and he was setting up his defensive position to hold tight.

I started to see my squad's tags on my motion tracker and move slowly back to my position. As they came up they formed up into the loose defensive grid, keeping enough space between each other. I started broadcasting our signal I saw a green light flicker on my display and I called out, "Everybody down!"

I heard the shells shriek before I dropped to my chest, the impacts of the shells lifted and jarred my body against the ground, and I just prayed to myself that my squad was going to be still there after the earth shattering barrage of depleted uranium, lead and copper was finished. As the bombardment ended I picked up my head up, looking around with my ears ringing deftly. My sight came back with my equilibrium. My visor was spider webbing with hundreds of cracks and fractures throughout the polarized face mask.

Once I heard something beyond ringing and my heartbeat I called out, "How is everyone?" I waited a second then called out again. Nothing, I drug myself up and began looking around, not able to see much through the dust and debris kicked into the air by the shelling.