Albert looked around searching for an indication as to where the Prophet of Denial was. He prepared his sword, turned a corner and found himself looking at a group of brutes all holding brute shots. Bringing his sword up, he dodged a barrage of grenades, jumped and kicked off of a wall, holding his arm outstretched. This move decapitated a brute, slashed the guts out of another, cut into a chest of one and wounded three more. He changed to an acquired brute shot and with the bladed end, cut a hole in a brute, then shoved the barrel into the hole and fired. He put a barrel to another brute's head and shot through the skull, and then pulled his sword back out. He threw the Brute Shot at a brute that was going to go berserk. He finished off the rest with a well placed fragmentation grenade and a few fatal lunges. He saw his Prophet and sniped it right in the heart.
Daniel's search for the Prophet of Shame was over. He knew shooting at it would do no good and so he gunned down its guarding sentinels and a pair of elite forerunners. He crossed the distance from him to the Prophet in an instant and jumped over and behind it. He smashed its floating device with a pistol whip and shot it in the skull.
Nick had taught the Prophet of Remembrance that it should not live in the past. He had seen it being guarded by Guilty Spark 343 and a pair of hunters and had sniped the hunters immediately. He got his shot lined up against the Prophet but 343 had taken the hit instead and deflected it. He jumped and rolled towards the two, blasted the Prophet's head off with a shotgun blast and grabbed guilty spark. He injected a program from Cortana into its "brain," giving her total control over it. She made it fly back to her and Chief outside.
Andrew saw the Prophet of Acceptance surrounded by over fifty grunts. He tossed a concussion grenade which knocked many grunts down and disabled the anti-grav device the Prophet was sitting on. "ACCEPT THIS!" he shouted as he fired his rocket launcher—18 rounds in less than five seconds, so fast it almost qualified as semi automatic.
"Dan, Andy, Albert, Nick, do you read me?" Master Chief asked over the com. Four blue acknowledgment lights winked on. "Good. I'm glad that you guys are done, come back outside and we'll blow this place to kingdom come" Blue acknowledgment lights again.
The four Spartans went to the main hall, roughly twenty yards from the exit. They met up and then opened the door.
Nick stepped forward first and saw a large group of covenant elites, grunts, and jackals, forerunner elites, grunts, and jackals as well as a large group of brutes and hunters. There were a few flood infection forms in crates being carried in by large cat-like creatures. Larger than brutes but smaller than hunters, they were furred and carried long rifles that looked similar to human sniper rifles but were technologically advanced. They had orange beaks that split into 4 parts, top right, top left, bottom right and bottom left. They had long claws on their four arms that seemed able to crush skulls with a flick of the wrist. Cortana, seeing this through a live feed instantly designated them Jaguars and named their guns Jaguar Claws for lack of a better name.
Deciding that it would be best to duck back and wait for a plan than charge in, Nick quickly but quietly closed the door and told the others about what he saw.
"Best plan would be for us to trick them into fighting each other. A bunch get taken out and we get to see what the deal is on the Jaguars," Albert said.
"Naw, man. We fire a shot in from a rocket launcher to cripple them, then knock them down with concussion grenades. We go in and finish the job with other stuff…"Andrew replied.
"We should take 'em out sniper style," Nick said.
"I don't care, lets just get it over with so I can get some food, I'm hungry!" Dan exclaimed.
"Alright. Albert, try to do your plan, but Andrew, you get ready with those rockets, give Dan a few concussion grenades. I'll climb up that wall to the balcony and snipe them out after we get a good plan going." Nick compromised. As he finished talking, they heard a group of grunts coming over towards them.
"Perfect way to start this plan. Piss them off, and open the door, a stray bullet will go into the room, we throw them in, close the door and watch through the window. The Jaguars tear up the grunts and we get a bunch of our opponents taken out. Halfway through, Andy, you smash that window and fire through it. Nick, you climb that wall and try to test the Jaguar's armor. I'll come with you. Dan, it' your job to get those grunts through the door. Also, I want you to take out any flood that might come out of this battle." Albert said.
"Great plan but who made you team leader?" Andy asked.
"Just do it! BREAK!"
The grunts walked through the halls in a triple file line and columns of four with a grunt in gold armor leading them. They all were armed with plasma pistols, but the leader held a pair of needlers. They marched through until they saw Dan holding his magnum leveled at their head level. He shot a person in the first line (AN not the leader) right in the head and it dropped. Plasma shot from its gun as it went down, and it singed the leader as well as the person next to it. A few scattered but many dropped to crouches to fire at him. He ducked behind a wall and pretended to run away, they saw the door slightly open and ran through it searching for him.
Dan slammed the door behind him and shot the cowards who hadn't gone in. He busted a window and with a relieved plasma pistol, overcharged a blast that his a Jaguar square in the chest. It took the hit and seemed to be surprised at such a betrayal. It charged at the grunts, beheading two elites on his way by. He tore every grunt to shreds in nothing flat. The brutes and elites seemed to feel this was the right thing to do, but the elites were mad about the death of their two beheaded comrades. The hunters, grunts and jackals were pissed that the grunts were killed. The other Jaguars seemed bored by the entire thing. Then, all hell broke loose.
The hunters, grunts and jackals were on one side, the Jaguars and Brutes on another and the elites all alone. The HGJ team had the advantage in size, the JB team had strength and the elites were screwed, even though nobody had any real problem with them. Andrew was ready to fire at any given moment, but wanted to wait until the fight got underway so that people would be too consumed in their fight to worry about him. Albert and Nick were in no such predicament and as soon as the first shot broke out (120 crystaline needles into a Jaguar's head which was enough, barely, to put it down) they opened up with the snipers, concentrating on Jaguars but aiming at the Hunters as well.
Dan tossed a few concussion grenades in for good measure to knock down a hunter and three elites as well as two brutes. He then switched to the battle rife to finish them off. A black jaguar saw him and dove at the window, with its claws outstretched. It hit the wall but stuck in with its claws, putting its head through the window and snapping at him. A sniper shot was placed in its neck, a seemingly weak spot in its armored bodysuit and it dropped. The other Jaguars, alerted of his presence, were annoyed at the passing of one of their own, but were preoccupied. Two, however opened fire with their Jaguar claws. Three shots fired out with one pull of the trigger and stuck into the wall. They then exploded in a small burst of flame, much like a needler but only with black blades an a red explosion. The Jaguar on the left managed to get one of its shots to stick into Dan's shoulder armor. It seemed to go through his shields like a hot knife through butter, leaving a hole which was instantly rejuvenated. The bullet, however still stuck into him, and when it blew up, it hurt like hell. He crouched down and ripped open a medpack, opened his visor revealing his grotesque face (I'm only kidding) and popped the pill. He healed instantly and then got up, pulled out his dual magnums and blasted the hell out of the asshole who shot him.
Nick and Albert were wreaking havoc on the hunters and Jags. The sniper shots seemed to penetrate the armor in the joints, and the Jags wore no helmets. However, the Jags themselves seemed quite durable, as they could withstand repeated shots to the stomach. Only shots to the head, neck, or heart would be guaranteed to put them down for good, but they had a weak spot where the solar plexus would be (right under your ribs, where they meet) that put them down for roughly a minute. Also, you could restrict their movements by hitting them in that spot, they seemed to have weak nerves, and the solar plexus was their core. If you hit them in the arm, they wouldn't be able to move it for a minute, a leg went the same way. They preferred fighting hand to hand (to hand to hand in their case) but were adept at firing their scoped Jaguar claws. They could also fire four single handed weapons at once if they had to.
"They're almost done, we should be finished with this fight within five minutes," Andrew said over the com.
"You're right, but there might be a problem," Nick said.
"What's that?" Dan asked.
"Um…look out the window," Nick said. As they watched, the remaining Jaguars, ten, threw down their guns, sprang to and from every enemy around and killed them. Five jumped up to the balcony where Nick and Albert were and five busted down the door to Andrew and Dan. The Jaguars advanced on the Spartans, who, though outnumbered, were confident. That is, until the Jaguars split themselves into two, creating twenty targets total. Even then, they weren't too upset by the entire spectacle. That is, until the Jaguars attacked.