The 15 Spec Ops Marines trudge over the hill around the shallow but wide crater left by the downed Battlecruiser.
"Damn, I don't know if I would WANT to survive that" Mac states stepping over a piece of debris.
"Pessimist" another soldier mutters
"What's that hum?" Kidd asks.
A few seconds later a UNSC Dropship spins around the clearing of trees and begins hovering over the ground near the Marines.
"Ooookay people lets move back, I don't know what this is" Collins ordered.
The Ship touched down and a medic hoped out.
"Staff Sergeant Collins?"
"Yeah"
"Command tells us you have wounded, we're here to bring them out"
The medic tells Collins while handing him a paper giving them permission to relieve the Sniper and the other three men injured.
Collins calls out to the Marines and two men with bandaged arms, and chest walk forward. Another who is a lot worse is hauled on to the Dropship with a makeshift stretcher. Collins signs the paper.
"Lieutenant we only have 11 men left, from 20. Five dead four injured. What the hell do we do now? We're sorely outnumbered and outgunned, we can't possibly complete the mission." Collins reported to the Medic.
"I know, I don't like it either, but Command is stubborn, and Command thinks you can get a bit farther at least. I'm a medic Sergeant, I know what's could happen..."
"If you don't mind hanging around Sergeant, two more Dropships will be around in approximately 15 minutes, bringing supplies and reinforcements." The Medic said.
"What do we do about the Cruiser?" Collins asks.
"Command's going to take care of it, they want you to keep moving after your reinforcements arrive.""What's happening? Why isn't the Dropship taking the wounded back yet?" Mac asked Emanuel.
"I don't know, think I heard one of 'em say reinforcements." Emanuel said while still looking forward trying to make out as much as possible.
"What? More men to get killed? This is fucked, we can't do anything here, why not just blast the downed Dropships from space?"
"Planetary bombardment is used for Genocide Mac, it's HIGHLY in-accurate, because when they do it, they don't care what they blast, as long as it dies."
Two more Dropships whipped around from the same way the first had, spun in the air and touched down all in one maneuver. Three soldiers hopped out of each and marched over to Sergeant Collins where they introduced themselves, their rank, names and jobs. No one salutes in the field. A sniper could be watching to see who's in charge, ready to wax them.
"Christ" muttered Zach who hadn't said a word yet today.
"The Slaughterhouse isn't sated?" He said angrily. The Marines sometimes called Command the Slaughterhouse because half the Commanders there had never seen combat and just got their rank for a few battles won by luck against the Koslovics.
Good leaders were hard to come by these days. All the good ones tried to be heroes and ended up having bricks buried for them. The good Generals were all shot down in their 'Airborne Command Centers, or bombed to dust and ashes somewhere else.
About a half-hour later the marines were marching through the muck again, brushing away leaves and forcing their way through the forest. It was damned hot, compared to the day of freezing rain though it was great. Great to have the sun beating down on you, when you already smell like shit and are tired as hell, the flack jackets, boots, helmets and extra gear didn't help much for the Marines either.
Mac was walking in the middle of the group when it happened.
"When do you think they'll come and pick us up? Realize how dumb all this is," he asked to anyone listening.
"Stop bitching, we all want to but that only makes things worse" a Scout responded.
"Yeah I guess." Mac admitted not wanting to bother the much larger Marine, especially in such shity conditions.
CRACK
"So -," Mac started.
His helmet flew off and he fell back into the dirt as blood started pouring from a bullet hole right between his eyes.
CRACK
Another shot went off, this one going under Collins' rifle and punching into the mud.
"SNIPERS!" Emanuel yelled.
A flury of colourfull words erupted from the crowd of already pissed off Marines.
Kidd took out his binoculars and started looking everywhere all at once. Zach set his rifle from three burst shots to one, attached a scope and crawled over to Kidd's position.
Until now the six new 'Rines had kept completely silent. Now they were whispering things from one side of the team to the other. Collins joined them as they planned what to do.
Emanuel hears a rustling behind him, he looks over a log as a Koslovic pulls a rifle with a bayonet back and gets ready to stab, Emanuel whips out his pistol and fires three round into the mans chest and 2 in his forehead. All within 4 seconds.
"There", Kidd's expert 'spy eye' spots a shiny object in the bushed on a hill above. Zach looks through his scope in the direction Kidd is secretly pointing. Knowing the enemy could be watching him.
"Okay you neo Commie bastard" Zach whispers.
Kidd calls over to Collins,
"Sir...we got an enemy Sniper up there."
Collins knew what Kidd was asking,
He nodds.
CRACK
Zach fires on the enemy sniper with his assault rifle. He switches to full automatic and pins the trigger. Bullets tear up the Sniper's location as blood and dirt shoot into the air where the shots land.
"Nice...nice" Kidd whispers.
Zach bulls the clip out and replaces it.
"Think there are any more?"
"Mmm Hmm," Kidd takes out his survival knife and carves a third line into his rifle's 'Kill count'.
"I'm going out" He drops his backpack and crawls out of the group of Marines. He crawls towards a very thick tree. Stands up, spins around and fires three shots.
He calmly walks back to the group.
"Clear."
No one questions Kidd. No one can question him. If he says everyone is dead, everyone is very dead.
The 'Rines get up, pack up and keep moving after burying Mac as best as they can.
"Try not to think about it." Collins says to those who have never been in the field before."So how's your morning been?" Kidd says to Zach.