Unknown Compound in the Jungles of Indonesia, Southwest Asia
Laying the butt of the battle rifle against his shoulder, Adrian peered through the scope, waiting for the buyer to exit the vehicle so he could take out both targets within seconds. Normally he'd be worried about a BR55 having enough punch to take out an assassination target but given that he wasn't trying to pop a Sangheili captain or a low-ranking San Shyuum Minister, he wasn't scared. Hell, if anything he would be worried if some random humans had armor good enough to stop a three-round burst from a BR.
Moving the crosshairs to the occupant that stepped out of the vehicle, they were a lanky figure with slicked back blonde hair that was a start contrast to the muted dirt of concrete of the environment around him.
"Targets in sight…Get ready Barbie."
There was a still few moments before his rifle barked off two short bursts, one for both targets. Each eruption of gunfire landed clearly hit the side of their heads, the high-powered semi-armor piercing rounds tore through the skulls of the targets with sickening ease. A single shot for each would've been sufficient but an ODST never leaves even the faintest uncertainty. Watching the side of their heads pop like balloons left little doubt that both targets were as dead as one could get. In time with Adrian's shooting, Liam swiped across the TACPAD mounted on his wrist causing a roaring explosion to occur miles away from where they stood. A massive ball of fire tore into the air as the thunderous shockwave carried all the way to the compound.
"Goodbye AA cannons." Liam quipped. "Vickers how's our extraction looking?"
"Not great, there's one hell of a tropical storm coming from the sea. If you guys don't haul ass as fast as you can, you'll be on your own till it clears."
"Wonderful." Adrian grumbled as he ducked behind the waist high wall, hoping he wasn't seen and that it would by them a few extra seconds to get out of there. But as every officer worth their salt will say, never expect anything to go your way.
Bullets slammed against the concrete wall facing the exterior as shouts filtered through the window, soon followed by a blaring alarm that drowned out all the voices. Tossing the chrome case holding their final objective into a Kevlar-woven duffel bag, Adrian slung the carrier around his neck as Barbie took point, shotgun locked and loaded. Barbie held up his open hand once he got to the top of the stairs, waiting for the problem downstairs to deal with itself. Little more than a second afterwards the whole building shook as poof of dust and debris flew out from stairwell, the Antilon mines having made short work of the poor bastards that made their way through the doors.
Liam quickly stepped down the staircase, the bark of his shotgun echoing through the tight walls as he cleared anyone else foolish enough to pose a threat. Adrian followed suite, briefly glancing over the carnage they caused. A dozen bodies laid across the ground, half the bodies shredded beyond recognition from the mines and the other half laying with a gaping hole in their chest from Liam's gun, who was presently pressed up against the door leading outside. Through the other door, Adrian spied someone taking aim but didn't give them a chance to fire as he quickly downed the enemy with a shot from his rifle. Realizing time was of the essence, Liam quickly kicked the door open and swept the outside area they'd just used as their entrance. Seeing no hostiles, he dashed across the way, Adrian kept watch until he'd clearly made it to safety at which point Liam watched and Adrian sprinted across the makeshift dirt road. Behind him screaming rang out, followed by gunfire as a few stray rounds whizzed passed him. Liam switched to his machine gun and opened fire, but Adrian could also feel a handful of lucky shots ricochet off his backplate. The force of the rounds caused him to stumble to the ground, he turned his stagger into a roll but was still more exposed than he would have liked.
Blindly firing behind him, he jumped through the hole in the fence they had made took cover behind a thick tree. Aiming form behind his cover, he could see several armed hostiles making their way out of the building, taking shots at those that left themselves open, he managed to down a few before splinters started to fly. Some of the goons had wised up and tried to flank them, instead of coming through the building they went around it. Shifting his body away from the shrapnel, he fired a few more blind shots in the general direction of the flankers before calling out to Liam over.
"We've done all we can, let's try to lose them in the jungle on the way to our evac!"
Firing a few more bursts to cover for Liam, he soon turned, following after his teammate as he discarded the empty magazine from his battle rifle. Grabbing a fresh magazine from his hip, he slammed the ammo into his rifle and drew the bolt back to chamber a new round. The two ducked and weaved through the trees as gunfire continued to scream behind them, chewing through the thick wooden trunks sending debris flying. Every now and then Adrian would hear a ping off Barbie's armor or feel something ricochet off his own.
Sliding a bit down a muddy hill, the trees in front of them appeared to thin the closer they got, likely meaning there was some sort of makeshift road that would put them out in the open. Any decision to be made was promptly cut off as a blinding beam of white light appeared a ways down the road, cutting through the darkness like a hot knife. His visor automatically darkened in reaction to keep himself from being blinded but it still caused them both to stumble to a stop for a brief moment.
"What the fuck is that?" Liam yelled.
As the light came closer so too an audible growl become louder, from a muffled snarl to a deafening roar as a his VISR outlined a heavily armored vehicle moving towards them. It looked like a Kodiak from back home but instead of being on their side it was out to put them in the ground.
"APC! HIT THE DECK" Adrian bellowed as he ran in the opposite direction while diving to the ground, presumably as Liam did the same.
The faint sound of an electric motor whirring up could be heard before it was just as quickly snuffed out by the screaming of a heavy machine gun firing in their general direction. All around them vegetation was shredded to a pulp with trees falling over like pins in a bowling alley, they slowly crawled into a nearby ditch to offer some sliver of protection, but they needed to cross that road and turning around wasn't an option.
"I've got an idea, keep it busy and draw it's attention away from me." Barbie screamed over the thunderous cacophony of noise. "Buy me some time!"
Adrian simply nodded as he took a deep breath and popped up from their minuscule cover to start shooting the APC. His rounds might get lucky and make a dent but for the most part he wouldn't be surprised if that thing would leave her with only scratches. Despite that, the machine stopped for the briefest of seconds before whipping itself over to his direction.
"For fucks sake." He swore.
Laying as prone as he could into the muddy earth, bullets flew all around him, digging up chunks of dirt and covering him in the freshly torn up ground. As his RADAR he could see Liam moving further by the second and he hoped the Aussie would do whatever he planned as soon as possible. They needed to be at the extraction point by now and the people behind them wouldn't magically wait for the APC to be done.
Crawling along the rut for a few feet to get away from the spray of bullets, his head slammed to the ground with a painful whip. Flipping onto his back he saw a solider standing atop the hill he'd come down just minutes ago armed with a handgun pointing directly at him. Quickly bringing his battle rifle to bare, he pulled the trigger letting forth a burst of bullets that riddled the man. His limp body fell forward and tumbled down the hill, landing unceremoniously in a crumpled heap near Adrian's feet. Swearing he moved his hand to the back of his head to feel a slight indentation where the small arms fire had nailed him.
"Barbie when the fuck is your plan happening." He spit out as he spotted a group of two crest the hill a few meters down the way. Lining up a target threw the scope, he popped off a shot on both that hit center mass sending a red mist into the air.
"Just…about…" Through the comms Adrian could hear a metal hatch groaning open before shouts in Indonesian filled the mic before being promptly silenced by the blast of Liam's shotgun. "APC secure, get your ass over here."
Getting out of the ditch, he ran towards the bright light as the turret changed its focus from him to those chasing him. Clearing the tree line, he hoped onto the front of the vehicle and spotted closed hatch with a splatter of blood surrounding it. Throwing it open he slid himself through it, hitting the floor with a wet squelch he saw the entire floor was covered in blood and gore with a trio of bodies piled towards the back. Looking towards the front he saw Liam in the driver's seat as he begun flipping a number of switches.
"Think a maid service will take a house call?" Adrian quipped as he sat down in the seat next to Barbie.
"The blood might be a bit much." Liam replied as he slammed the pedal for the APC, it lurched forward as the engine revved, the tires briefly spinning in the mud before gaining traction and tearing across the dirt road. With Barbie behind the wheel, Adrian took up use of the remote turret, scanning the environment around them for any hostiles which so far was kept to a minimum.
"Vickers this is Marauder, we've got a vehicle and are hauling ass as fast as this tin bucket will take us."
"You're pressing your luck but it's manageable, how's the situation on the ground? We can't risk a hot landing in this bird."
"Crystal cl-"
"Enemy vehicle dead ahead!" Liam shouted.
Adrian swore for what felt like the millionth time as he cut comms with Vickers, sure enough there was a barebones transport armed with a HMG waiting dead center of the road, it was similar to a warthog, but more box shaped. Swirling his own turret around to the front, he let it rip with after a slight wind-up, the rounds tore through the thinly armored vehicle leaving it like swiss-cheese as flames started to spurt from it. Their vehicle rocked violent as a loud blast sounded off even inside the vehicle. Circling the turret, he saw an enemy standing between a pair of trees armed with a single shot rocket launcher, Not letting the man even get a chance to stand, Adrian fired a quick burst of the machine gun turning the man to paste as the rounds meant for piercing other vehicles tore through the flesh with sickening ease. The sound of ricocheting bullets echoed through the interior of the APC as tried to avoid the enemy fire pelting them from behind.
"You boys still alive?"
"Aye, but we've got some company." Liam responded.
"Shit. The storms closing in fast and we don't have the time to wait for you to clear your attackers. Sorry lads but you're going to have to find a place to hunker down until the storm passes and the heat dies down."
"Well that's just wonderful, though I can't say I blame them." Adrian exhaled as he saw a trio of enemy vehicles behind them through the electronic view screen. Trying to focus the drivers was difficult, the road was becoming increasingly jarring and every second it seemed as it more gunfire was joining the fray.
"Clear the targets we do have; I'll pull into the jungle and we'll find a nook to settle into." Liam instructed.
"On it."
Ignoring his previous method to conserve the limited ammo they had, Adrian let loose. Sweeping all three driving canopies with heavy fire in a side-to-side spread. The first driver slumped to the side, pulling the steering wheel with him and causing him to collide with one of the other vehicles, wrecking them both. The final vehicle went out in a blaze, one of his shots must've nicked the gas line as a small puff of fire erupted in the interior, roasting all the enemies stuck within. As if reading his mind, Liam turned the APC from the road and into the trees, pushing the vehicle as far as he could through the foliage until they slammed into a stump more stubborn than they were. Not wasting anytime, the duo made their way out of the APC, chuckling as they saw the clear path of destruction they left behind.
"Think they'll notice?"
"If not that, then maybe the smoking APC will alert them."
"The further the better it is."
Sliding off the metal vehicle to the ground, Adrian landed with a plop as his feet sunk into a watery sludge. Looking up through the canopy above, he could barely make out a swirling mass of clouds through the pitch-black void of night. Heavy rain seemed to pound his armor like pellets from every direction, trees began to whip as the wind picked up speed, their leaves snapping in the squall. This was only the beginning, from Vickers accounts this weather was only going to get worse which in a way made it better for them, no matter how hard it was for them to travel it would be even harder for their pursuers. Hearing Liam land next to him, he motioned finger with a flicker of his hand and Barbie nodded. Fingers loosely off their triggers the two made their way through the natural labyrinth, walking with enough speed to put some distance from their last known location but carefully enough to avoid brining on any unwanted attention.
After what felt like a half an hour of travel, Liam whispered to Adrian through the comms, "I think I spotted something."
Adrian immediately stopped, bring battle rifle to his shoulder as he scanned the environment, "What did you see?"
"A place to hide out."
Adrian slightly lowered the rifle but kept his finger hovering over the trigger. Turning back to Liam, he followed the Aussie to a rocky outcropping erupting from the dirt and saw what his comrade did. A small entrance, about a meter wide and even shorter height wise, but obscure and far from the beaten past, at least it'd be cozy. Adrian slid his rifle over his shoulder as he walked to the cave only to be stopped by Liam's hand.
"Are you crazy man?"
"What?"
He could feel the exasperation radiate from the Aussie as he put his hand to his helmet, "You have to check a random fucking hole in the middle of the jungle, especially in the black of night. Anything could call it home; I'd expect you colony kids to have firs hand experience with this shit." To which Adrian simply shrugged, Liam scoffed, "Fucking cunts everywhere, leave it to the Aussie because 'oh Australia's so dangerous and wild and crazy, let's leave him with all the sense'. Rest of the group can barely scrape together two functioning brain cells, you're lucky I love the squad you know."
Adrian rolled his eyes at his friend's exaggerated exasperation, "Love you too bud, now if you don't mind doing whatever it is you're good at."
"Other than patching your ass up." Liam muttered under his breath as he flicked on a flashlight attached to the side of his shotgun. "It seems…clear…"
"But?"
"But…it might go deeper than I can see. Hold on." Grabbing a fistful of rocks from the ground, he tossed them deep into the cave, making sure they ricochet off the walls. Adrian scanned the environment around them, growing increasingly nervous with every extra second they sent out in the open. "Oh ho what do we have here."
Adrian turned his attention to Liam, "Jesus there's actually something in there?"
"I can hear it and- Holy fucking shit that things huge!" Liam jumped back a bit as Adrian peered into the tight cave to see by all accounts, a huge fucking lizard. It was easily two meters in lengths, maybe more with its body low to the ground but it must've weighed damn near a hundred pounds. Before he could respond, Liam pumped the aforementioned lizard with two solid rounds of UNSC buckshot stopping the thing dead cold in its tracks.
"Hell, what a creature." Adrian whistled out in low appreciation.
"You only say that cause you've never seen one. That fuck is a Komodo Dragon, vicious little bastards with infectious salvia that can leave you dead after a fucking nibble." Liam put heavy emphasis on the last bit. "I know it's teeth could never actually puncture our armor." As if to prove his point he knocked on his titanium alloy chest plate, "But fuck if the fear isn't still there."
Liam crawled into the hole, shotgun at the ready for any further surprises. Instead of immediately following his comrade in, Adrian grabbed a large branch from nearby and wiped any trace of their footprints for a few meters out. The storm would've taken care any trail on its own, but he was paranoid and always figured better safe than sorry. Tossing the wooden branch as far to the side as he could, he made his way back to the nook, squeezing in next to Barbie as the Aussie moved a few large rocks to partially cover up the entrance. It wasn't much but it's better than nothing.
Both lying flat on the ground, with little room above them, Adrian gingerly reached around and pulled forward the ballistic bag holding their main target. Pulling he chrome case from the bag, he carefully put it in front of him so Liam could just as easily see what they'd risked their life for. There was a bulky sealed lock over the hatch, preventing unauthorized opening that left Adrian more than a bit miffed. Before he could even think of how to start cracking the electronic lock, Barbie swiftly pulled out his silenced SOCOM and fire a shot through the side of the bulky lock. The armor-piercing round passed easily through and ricocheted off the cave floor with a spark.
"You fucking idiot." Adrian slapped the back of Liam's helmet.
"What it worked didn't it?"
"Weren't you just bitching about common sense? One degree to the left and that bullet would've gone through the damn case and not just the lock."
"You can thank me when you open it."
Adrian stared dumbfounded at his comrade, "It really is a miracle ODSTs don't have a higher fatality rate."
With that he had to begrudgingly admit that the case opened with ease, with the first crack a faint purple light began to fill the tiny cave, bathing everything in an ethereal glow. Throwing the lid open revealed the clearly Covenant technology in all its glory.
"Covvie tech, here?" Liam wondered.
"Yeah, happens surprisingly often." Adrian mused as he looked over the piece, he hadn't seen this exact piece before, but it was similar enough to another Covenant staple that it was hard to guess what it was. "It's a plasma battery, far smaller than the ones we see on the frontlines but those are to supply whole battalions. This looks like it might be for a single squad or even personal use."
"These idiots don't even know what they have, only that they can sell it for profit." Liam spat out. "Christ if a stray bullet nicked this thing, we wouldn't be much more than puddles of goo."
"Yeah, crazy huh?"
"Alright you little shit." Liam briefly joked, "But more importantly, what now?"
"Now we wait for the storm to pass and hope when we fill out for evac they don't shoot the plasma battery."
"Oh joy, and if we get hungry, we have some fresh meat to grill." Liam said sarcastically.
"I'm not eating that."
"Afraid to live a little? A bit of buckshot only adds to the flavor and texture."
Adrian sighed as he checked the time through his HUD, two hours on the mission that could've been over already, moving into a more comfortable position he lamented the situation, "Christ how long is this storm going to last…"
.