Location: New Mombasa, Kenya, East Africa, EARTH.
Timestamp: October 23rd 2552. 11:15 hours.
Unit ID: Shay'est (Female, 6'1") Sangheili, Minor Domo.
Shay'est heard singing from down the hall, and walked quickly to the door that the boys walked through earlier. This caused her to become somewhat concerned that they had lost their minds, and half expected one to come back coated in the other's blood.
She was quite relieved to find that the two walked back together, side by side and both still intact. She walked over to welcome back Jacob and asked if it was he that was singing earlier, and what it was. "Is that the marching song of your whole army?"
"Oh no, that one's just for us ODST marines. The proper UNSC one goes something like…" Jacob cleared his throat, as did the other boys.
"When I die please bury me deep! An MA5 down by my feet!"
"Don't cry for me, don't shed a tear!" David joined in "Just pack my box with PT gear!"
"'Cuz one early morning 'bout zero-five!" Martin also contributed his voice, making the whole remainder of their squad together singing the marching song "The ground will rumble there'll be lightning in the sky! Don't you worry, don't come undone!"
"It's just my ghost on a PT run!" Even the rookie joined in for the last line.
A few moments of silence passed as the group of marines looked at each other and all sighed with nostalgia. Trying to remember the cadence was the hardest part of their military career. One could argue even more gruelling than the drills they did.
The team made their way up a stair case that lead to a short hallway, the floor tiles broken and destroyed, the walls falling apart, much like the rest of the building. But one door in the hall was still left shut, untouched by the battle scarring the building had faced. Conveniently enough, this was the security office they were seeking.
Jacob turned to David and Shay'est stopped in her tracks. "Sir, would you like the pleasure of unlocking this door for us?" he asked, bowing forward and pointing with his left arm toward the door, much like welcoming someone into a room.
"It would be my pleasure." David replied, holstering his weapon. He took a step back, followed by a quick step forward, and putting as much force as he could into a kick, placed beside the door handle, blasting the door open. After his kick however, David groaned and recoiled down, gripping his damaged knee, which it seemed he had just done more damage to.
Jacob laughed. "Good ol' Danger Dave the Tank, always thinking things through." He scoffed sarcastically. David chuckled through his pain and Jacob turned away, walking into the room, shaking his head. Jacob was followed by Martin and Thel. Shay'est lifted David's arm over hers, and acted as his crutch, helping him into the room after them.
Martin quickly got to work inspecting the equipment. He tinkered with keys, assessed the monitors that were still in one piece and got to work finding the security footage from before the place went into lockdown. He began scouring the video until something happened.
The team stood around for a few minutes assessing the damage to the room. Shay'est propped David up against the wall and also looked around, close to Jacob's side. Aside from a single spiker round that had come through the window that overlooked the lobby area they were in moments before, and impaled itself into the ceiling, the room was more or less okay. Sure, there was electrical equipment everywhere from the shockwave of whatever blast took place, but it was still structurally sound.
Martin jumped back in his seat suddenly, obviously witnessing something he wasn't expecting, before exclaiming "There!" and leaping back to his keyboard, and rewinding the footage. All life in the room crowded around the screen, gathered in close together to see what happened.
The footage revealed a team of ODST marines and regular marines, holed up in the lobby where the elevators were, surrounded by brutes and drones that were moving in hard and fast. Both sides of the struggle were losing units left right and centre, but they kept on fighting. The audio was heavily distorted, but Martin stopped it and rewound it because he picked up on something. He leaned in closely to listen to the playback.
"What did they say?" Jacob asked.
"Sounded like arm the charges…" Martin kept listening. "Then another guy said he thought they were to protect the building…" he continued interpreting for the video. "Then the first guy again, said he had orders to deny enemy access to all files…"
He sat back in his chair. "Enemy started cutting through the doors…"
They all looked closely to see how it played out, but the Rookie quickly cut off their focus. "Those are my guys." He said pointing at the screen.
"How can you tell?" Martin asked, moving his head to the right, as though he was about to turn to the rookie, but not looking away from the screen.
"I recognize them. That means there's a good chance they're still alive somewhere… I have to go look for them." The rookie said, walking for the door.
"You can't be serious…" Said David, still leaning up against the wall, by the door. "You're not going to hang around with us?"
"Sorry sir, but you know as well as I do that a marine never abandons his unit." Rookie replied, giving the captain a salute. "Wish you all luck sir."
"You too buddy." David returned his salute, staying leant up against the wall. "You too." He said as the marine walked away.
The rest of the group looked back at the footage. The marines were airlifted from the back by a pelican. "Well," said Martin, "Looks like we've gotten all we needed." He stood up from his chair and stretched. "Time to head off guys?"
"Looks that way." Jacob replied. "We got a new buddy, lost him, and now we're off looking for a pelican."
"Why don't we go with him? He seems alright." Martin raised his gun, and pointed it down toward the lobby, indicating they should follow the Rookie.
"Nah, he is more of a lone wolf. We'd end up slowing him down or getting in his way. He can sort himself out." Jacob replied, before walking for the door, stopping in front of David. "In this place, nobody can afford any kind of inconvenience." He said with a wink. "Unless they can manage it like a hard ass." He said, nudging David's shoulder.
Shay'est took David's arm again to help him down the stairs they climbed, but half way down the stairs, they heard a loud humming noise from the open balcony.
"Phantom inbound! They're dropping units!" Yelled Martin from ahead of the pack. "Run for the door!"
We're back, baby! ;D
Hello ladies and gentlemen. Sorry for my long absence, but I've had a lot going on and have only just now found some time to sit myself down and write.
I've just finished my semester of study, and my hard as hell exams. I didn't do great but hey, I did my best and that's what matters. Anyway, I finished study and then almost as soon as it was over, I had to jump into a full weekend convention. 3 days of Supanova. That's what took up my last few days. As well as a 21st party. Every night. for the past few nights. I'm pretty exhausted.
Anyway, I got a chapter out for you as you have all been craving so badly. I hope you did enjoy it!
Please remember to as always leave a review and I'll keep writing :)
