Hello all! This is my first story so please read & review and don't hold any punches in your reviews. All characters are copyrighted by their respective owners.
Gambit
"Contact, twenty meters south southwest of my position. Modified light patrol, one Elite, about a dozen or so Grunts.", crackled a voice over the comm.
The Master Chief motioned for his team to stop. They had gotten very lucky so far only having encountered one other light patrol of Grunts. The Chief considered his options. He could either stop and order his team into hiding and hope that they could avoid detection, but that left the problem of an enemy patrol at their backs. His other option was to eliminate the patrol now and risk them sending another patrol after the first went missing for a while. Since they ideally wouldn't be here for a while, he chose the latter and started giving the orders.
"Linda, get on some high ground and take out that Elite. Everyone else, we're on crowd control. No explosives, silenced weapons only."
As one Spartan separated from the group and found a healthy looking tree, the rest threaded silencers into their modified MA5B assault rifles. Once Linda found a good spot, she flashed a signal laser, a small laser only visible to the Spartan's enhanced vision, on the Elite. A few seconds ticked by and a single shot rang out. The Elite's head turned into a rather odd looking fountain of gore as the armor-piercing round tore through helmet and skull without regard. The Grunts looked around in confusion firing at random spots, hopng to hit something. The Spartans opened fire and the Grunts fell one-by-one to the precise fire of the Spartan's weapons.
"That looks like it", remarked SPARTAN-065, Joe. The remaining four Spartans made no additional comments as they trekked deeper into the forest brush.
"Chief, you may want to take a look at this."
The Chief didn't like the tone in his point man's, SPARTAN-055 James, voice and ordered the rest of the Spartans to take up guard positions. He stepped carefully to where James had left a nav marker and peeked through the foliage. What he saw almost caused him to gasp. Grunts as far as the eye could see, easily ten thousand strong, guarded the target building that the Spartans had been ordered to destroy. Nearest to the building, small sheilded huts where the Elites resided, formed a small town. A little farther from the building was the Jackal dwellings forming what the Chief would imagine to be a bulls-eye around the building. The Chief had never seen so much Covenant in one place, at one time. He looked east and west and saw a possible entrance.
"Linda, Fred, take up sniper positions with a clear view of the landing field. Everyone else, I hope you remember the piloting drill that the ONI spooks ran us through. We skirt the perimeter and try to reach the Banshees in that landing area. If you get separated flash a signal laser and we'll try to get to you."
As the Spartans started moving, the Chief took one more look at the army massed before him. They seemed relatively relaxed, which meant that the Elites weren't as strict in contolling the Grunts and Jackals as he had seen at other Covenant bases. That, he thought, had to work in their favor.
As they got closer, he saw signal lasers flash on the Grunts in plasma turrents guarding the Banshees. When he was right next to the landing area, he flashed his own signal laser on a Banshee. Four shots rang out and the Grunts on the turrents drooped over, dead. The Chief charged out toward the Banshee he had lasered and got in. Moments later the rest of his team had gotten in the Banshees and finished off the remaining unpiloted Banshees. Scores of Grunts and Jackals fell to their own technology as the Spartans sowed confusion among their ranks with well-placed shots. after about an hour of heavy fighting, the last of the Grunts fell to the ground and the Spartans landed and started for the building.