UNSC Ship Prime Meridian
In Subspace, Pursuing Covenant Ship
"Alright marines, get out of the drop pods," Dune shouted, banging the nose of his battle rifle on the walls of the drop pods.
The ODSTs got out of their pods one at a time.
"What's up Searge, what are our orders?" Wolowicz inquired looking at Dune.
"And why in the world are we chasing after a Covenant ship?" Ian added in, with slight irritation.
"Yeah, that doesn't seem to be the smartest thing in the world to do," Hunt agreed, rubbing his head as he stepped out of his drop pod.
"I have no idea," Dune admitted, "but you know how the captain is. She knows what she's doing. What we need to worry about is getting to the cargo bay. While we're in subspace we're supposed to be down there patrolling for any Covvie bastards that might still be hiding onboard,"
"So that means we're meeting up with Davis right?" Giles said with a slight annoyed tone being hid behind the joy she held towards the prospect of running into more Covenant.
"Yeah," Dune said slightly exasperated, "She was helping out some swabbies down there, so we'll be meeting up with her."
They all began to walk down the corridors leading to the cargo bay, with their weapons at the ready. Each of them was ready for an elite to hop out from behind a doorway at any given moment. If an onlooker didn't know the training an ODST went through, particularly this band, they would have never guessed that they would have been any semblance of ready, however. They trotted along at an average pace, with guns at their hips, except for Mike, who carried his S2 at eye level, looking in the scope. He spent a large amount of time learning how to run with his rifle at the ready. It has been rumored that even traipsing long at a good speed he could still nail an elite between the eyes from the max distance that an S2 scope would show. He made a point to try to push his limits of sniping at any given opportunity, but this theory had never been tested. Right now, the team was just worried about his abilities in close range sniping, which at the current moment, had proven to be superb. Soon they came up to the doors leading to the cargo bay. While the rest of the team looked down either end of the corridor, considering the area potentially still hot with contacts, Dune tried to thumb the door open. It didn't work. He looked around and realized why.
"Damn, they locked the door down to keep out any more Covvies," Dune cursed, "This is going to take a second to override, Flynn, get on it, Giles watch with me this way, Wolowicz and Hunt get the other."
They did as he ordered and Ian went to the console at the side of the door and began to fiddle with it. The ODSTs watched impatiently towards either end of the corridor, not wanting to get flanked and trapped by a couple of elites who saw the situation as an opportunity to easily take out a few humans. All of them kept their eyes peeled, they knew there was a reason this door was locked. Suddenly they heard a sparking noise and the sound of a door sliding open.
"Got it!" Flynn shouted happily just as a shot of charged plasma shot right above Hunt's head.
"Shit!" Rick screamed ducking and firing his SMGs randomly in the direction the shot came from.
The sound of a grunt screaming and dropping was heard, followed by the familiar sound of and elite yelling "Wort wort wort!" As soon as the grunt that fired the initial shot had died two elites rounded either end of the corridor and opened fire with dual plasma rifles on the trapped ODST's.
"Through the door!" Dune barked.
Before Dune had even gotten the order completely out he and his team had already gone through the door into the expansive cargo bay. Quickly thumbing the door shut behind them, hoping to buy a few needed seconds, Dune began to run across the bay towards a pile of cargo crates.
"Get over here and take cover!" Dune ordered as he skidded to a halt beside them and herded the rest of the group behind the crates.
Soon the entire group was hiding behind the crates except Dune, who dove behind them just as a plasma burst crackled through where he had just been previously standing. The four elites filed through the door, covering the crates with varied bursts of alternating plasma fire, which is all the team could see before ducking behind the crates before getting fried with the ensuing plasma fire.
"Shit!" Rick yelled, "how the hell are we supposed to shoot back?"
"That's the idea you idiot," Wolowicz shot back at him, "It's hard to die when you aren't getting shot at."
"Quite the chatter," Dune yelled, "Giles, Hunt, send some grenades over."
As he finished the order, he, Allison, and Rick lobbed grenades over the crates and heard the sound of a couple of frags and a plasma grenade going off, followed by a cease in the plasma fire.
"Mike, go!" Dune ordered.
Wolowicz shot up suddenly with his S2 at the ready and suddenly four shots were heard going off. Just as soon as the shots went off they heard the sound of two elites yelling, a jackal screaming in pain and a grunt dropping. Mike shot down again right before searing plasma scorched the air where he had just been.
"How many are left?" Dune asked quickly just as Mike got back behind cover.
"Two elites, and a jackal are all that's left," Mike reported.
Just then a plasma grenade streaked overhead and landed on some barrels that were sitting opposite of them.
"Cover!" Dune yelled.
Just as they all covered their heads the grenade went off sending the barrels flying.
"Damn it, we need to finish this!" Dune yelled in frustration.
Just as soon as he said it, Giles shot up really quickly, taking advantage of a momentary break in the plasma fire to chuck her last plasma grenade. It stuck to the jackal who began to run around screaming. Just then Giles ducked down.
"Cover!" she screamed.
Just then the stuck jackal went flying over head, thrown by one of the elites and exploded in mid air above them. Before they could respond in any way the cover fire started up again, keeping them down.
"How much ammo can they have left in those things?" Ian yelled, obviously irritated at the situation.
Suddenly they heard the sound of a warthog starting up down the cargo bay, accompanied by the sound of screeching tires. The plasma fire turned from them for the moment and they suddenly heard the elites yelling in pain before they were cut off by the sound of a crash. A barrel flew overhead and landed just beyond them. After a quick hand sign telling the rest of the team to stand down, Dune stood up slowly, his battle rifle at the ready.
"Hey hot stuff, need a ride?" inquired Lance Corporal Shayla Davis.
Shayla was a bit of a wildcard in their unit. She was the medic, but she could fire weapons and was trained in the operation of almost any vehicle that the UNSC had access to. Her shorter length blond hair barely met the regulation for length for women, in fact defying it by a half an inch. She had feelings for Dune, which he didn't reciprocate as far as anyone knew.
"Davis," Dune said sighing in an exasperated tone.
"Davis!" Ian yelled standing up hurriedly and rushing towards her, "As beautiful as always my lovely."
"That's nice, Flynn," she said, dismounting the warthog and walking straight past Ian towards Dune.
"Davis," Giles said coldly, standing up, "good job."
"Yeah no kidding," Rick said, referencing the elites who now more closely looked like purple skid marks than sentient alien entities.
"Nice to see you as always," she said to her CO, ignoring all the others.
"Good timing," Dune said, not even trying to hide the exasperation in his voice.
"So what are you all doing down here?" she said, glancing around and motioning for the naval officers to come out of hiding now that the fight was over.
"Our orders are to patrol down here for any Covenant still left on board," Dune replied looking around, "and Giles could use a little help more properly treating a shoulder wound she got."
"I'm fine," Giles said coldly.
"She get hurt rushing into combat again?" Davis asked in a tone that broadcasted a lack of caring to all present.
There was come confliction between Giles and Davis. No one quite knew what it was, but they didn't get along very well. They never actively got into a fight, and they both followed orders to a T, even if it meant working together, but the conflict remained none the less.
"Help out Giles, and you let her," he said to Allison, "that's an order. The rest of us are going to start patrolling down here, though I think we already found your infestation."
He pointed with his battle rifle to the road kill underneath the warthog.
"Davis once you're done with Giles, make sure none of the swabbies are hurt, Flynn and Wolowicz, keep an eye on the door. Giles, you're going to help Davis once you're done getting patched up. Rick, you're on general patrol with me," Dune said.
As they went about their assigned tasks suddenly the in-ship com snapped on.
"Everyone brace for the jump to end, we're about to hit real space again," Captain North reported.
"Well, looks like we're finally going to get to figure out where we're going," Ian said to himself.