Augus Memorial Skybridge, Utgard, Harvest, Epsilon Indi System
"For the time we've got to breathe, I gotta ask. What the hell is going on?" Yu asked as Angela, Richter, and himself sat in in a relatively quiet stretch of the makeshift trenches. "Portals and armor I've never seen, though out of all the places to appear I don't know why you'd choose this place."
"Like ONI would ever give clearance to grunts." Richter snorted as he washed his grime covered face.
Angela sat opposite of the two, her mind racing to try and come up with an answer that would keep questions to a minimum, but the comment made by the taller of the duo gave her an idea. She had a vague recollection of that term, ONI, Adrian called them…spooks? All black-ops intelligence and hush hush operations, it remined her a lot of Blackwatch but with more government sanctioning. The main thing and at this moment the important thing she remembered; ONI answered only to themselves.
"Unfortunately, your friend is correct, there's not much I can say." Angela said with as much stoicism as he could muster given the circumstances, "Though off the record I'll say this, I don't have a damn clue more than you."
Yu raised his eyes at that, "Not often you hear ONI being caught with their pants down."
Angela gave a non-committal shrug, "Getting here was a mistake, and now…well…" She trailed off uncertainly.
"Yeah you're caught in the middle of a raging shitshow – only thing we can do really is tell you to go up the chain of command, maybe you'll get some guidance eventually but given the current state of things, who knows." Richter said.
"How bad is it? Outside of here I mean."
"Bout the same on every front I reckon, right now though it's impossible to get supplies planet side. Our fleets been flinging themselves against the Covenant for ages, sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, but whatever the outcome the fighting doesn't stop. The few attempts to ferry things down end up getting blasted by covvie interceptors, likewise for trying to get wounded off planet, they'll just get blasted before they break atmosphere."
"So, all these poor souls…" She motioned towards the dozen or so quickly constructed prefab medical structures that were filled to the brim with wounded to the point that some non-critical injuries were being placed outside for like of space.
"Stuck here, same as you are until we get air supremacy or are forced to evacuate."
"Scheisse." She swore, a rare act but as the initial shock began to wear off and the frustration at her helpless in such a situation began to overwhelm her. "I won't stay trapped in this hole like a helpless animal." She mumbled under her breath. It was only now that she noticed that despite the relative peace around them, it was only an immediate quiet, if she listened to the sounds carried by the wind war was constant, never a break in the fighting at any one moment. It struck here at that moment the scale of this war that Adrian espoused, if every battlefield had multiple fronts, and this city alone had multiple battles raging at once with likely a dozen more cities across the planet all fighting as well scaled up to an entire galaxy. It's no wonder than that casualty list would rack up so quickly, a fact that grimly gave Angela somewhere to put her determination.
"I'm a registered doctor you know, not just in title but practice." Ziegler mentioned, catching the attention of the two marines, her recollection of Adrian's stories helping to piece together her story, "I was a wartime surgeon during the insurrection." Not exactly a lie, during the Omnic Crisis she volunteered her services where they were needed and oftentimes it took her to the bloodiest battles across the globe. After the war and after Overwatch she'd continued that, going to war-torn countries to offer what little help she could. Obviously the scale and score of the insurrection was different but she couldn't just stand idly by waiting to be saved, besides if she was alone here she needed time to think; she'd always done better under pressure anyway.
Yu chuckled to himself, "If you're offering your services – well, I don't think anyone will mind. Normally there'd probably be some protocol to go through but fuck we need all the help we can get."
As the three of them stood up, the ground lightly shook as a massive explosion rocked the earth, ways off in the distant a faint plume of fire and smoke rose into the sky. A couple soldiers tossed half-interested glances its way, but most went on as if nothing had happened.
Richter snorted with derision, "Won't want to be those poor fucks."
"Would anyone still be alive after that?" Angela questioned.
"Doubtful, but even if they were that's outside of our area, we gotta focus on those dying right here before we can afford to go out helping others."
Adrian wheezed as he stepped forward, his fractured ribs almost definitely broken now, stumbling forward he landed on his hands and knees. Taking a few deep breaths as his filters went into overdrive, the amount of dust in the air would be a health hazard for just about anyone else. Staring down at the ground as he took a couple seconds to himself, a noticed a massive shard of glass embedded in the armor pauldron upon his wrist. Gingerly pulling it out, he tossed it to the side, not entirely comprehending how close to that could've been to being imbedded somewhere fatal. As his breathing started to calm, he remembered the comm chatter from the company of marines still in the dark about what's going on.
"Inferno 1-1, this is Lance Corporal Adrian Kasporov…" He hesitated, in his time he was a part of the 5th Shock Troops Battalion of the 105th Expeditionary Unit, but in this time, he knew absolutely nothing. If his battalion was in Harvest then he'd be an outlier with no records, how would he explain that he claimed to be a part of them but wouldn't officially be enlisted for another eight years? And if his battalion wasn't stationed here, and he ran into an officer who knew his shit, how was he going to explain that? Aliza didn't care enough, and he doubted these marines would either, but what about if he made it out of here, lots of fucking problems and no easy solution. For now he'd play it vague and hoped they cared more about serving then get pinpoint facts, "…Shock Battalion, what's your status."
"ODSTs? God damn that's a welcome sight. We're fine for now but apparently Covenant chatter is lighting up the area."
"So they're probably going to send in a squad or two to figure out what the hell is going on. We got any evac planned?"
"Aye, but it'll be hot minute, long enough for the first wave of Covenant to get here."
"Fuck…alright rally on my position. With the smoke and dust clogging up the sky we have an advantage, we'll hold our until evac. Also put your rebreathers on, won't be able to breathe a damn thing in this gunk."
"Roger that. Be there soon."
As the comm clicked off, Adrian immediately switched over back to the private channels, "Aliza!" He called, awaiting a response, any response. "Come on I thought Spartans couldn't die?" Silence reigned around him save for the sound of crackling fires and crumbling walls.
A faint crackling on the channel caught his attention, before he could say anything he realized that the sound he thought was crumbling walls was actually shifting rubble. Through the haze of destruction, he could see a mound of steel and concrete rising and falling, like a beating heart. Speeding up his limping, he began to heft what chunks of debris he could despite every protest his body was screaming. Eventually he cleared enough to see dark green, dented and scratched to living hell but there and moving. From behind he could hear the footfalls of the other marines, without saying a word the company ran up beside him to do the same. It didn't take long for them toss enough rubble for Aliza to stand on her own, they must have moved at least half a ton of shit, a true testament to the practically inhuman strength of Spartans and their Mjolnir armor.
The spartan stood with such grace and ease you never would've thought that an entire factory had just collapsed on top of her, she stared at Adrian for a second before turning her attention to the other marines, "Are you Pari's company of marines."
One spoke up, based on the voice probably the one Adrian had spoken to over the radio, "That's right ma'am, Corporal Kaori Iwasaki." The woman saluted; her face was obscured by the standard UNSC rebreather as was the rest of the company on Adrian's urging. "I doubt your friend here has had the time to fill you in, but we've got covvies incoming. Don't know how many but we have to hold off and clear them out, otherwise the pelicans can't land for evac."
Overhead a phantom's engines could be heard cutting through the sky though it couldn't be seen, "Take cover in the ruin of the factory, they'll probably try to land as far from the heart of the smoke as they can. We'll lie in wait and draw them in, with any luck our surprise will catch them out guard and make them easier to pick off."
"Roger." Iwasaki snapped another salute before turning to the marines, "You heard the Spartans, move your asses! I don't want to be able to fucking catch a glimpse of you moving." The company hauled ass inwards towards the factory leaving the Imp and the Demon together.
Adrian depolarized his visor shooting a surprised look towards Aliza, "You got buried by a building, ain't no way even a spartan is good after that."
"I'm still in fighting condition."
"Are you in a livable condition? Hell I was hauling ass out of there and I still feel like I'm on the verge of dying."
"Maybe you should get stronger." Adrian almost choked at the surprising jest from the stoic giant, or at least he hoped it was a jest. "Come on, we've got covvies to clear out."
She began to move forward with Adrian trailing, "What about your partner? Any word on her part?"
Aliza was silent for a few seconds, "No. Her vitals are still showing but they're fluctuating, I haven't heard anything from her yet."
"Well you know what they says, Spartans are only ever missing in action, which means they can be found." Adrian patted her on the shoulder, or rather tried to, but the height difference meant he ended up more so tapping the very back of her collarbone. He also immediately regretted the action as his hand met solid titanium polymer causing him to swear quietly, despite his loose demeanor he knew how hard it was to have a comrade missing, though Spartans were a different breed he couldn't imagine they were fine losing any squadmates.
"You're not how I imagined an ODST." Aliza said without looking at him.
"The fact I'm not entirely suicidal probably has something to do with that." Neither said anything more after that as they entered the remains of the once massive factory. At end Adrian saw a couple dozen marines crouched down behind makeshift pieces of cover. Jogging forwards, he took a spot in between a pair of marines and placed his DMR on top of a piece of twisted steel sticking out of the ground. Tossing a quick glance behind him he saw that a pile of rubble about two stories tall was mounted two soldiers, hefting sizeable M247 Machine Gun on top of the top of the pile; they threw a thumbs up to the corporal when they got it in a stable position.
Turning his attention back to the incoming covenant forces, he waited with bated breath as he peered through the scope of his rifle. It was a tense few moments with absolute silence on their end, wind whipped by throwing the already smog choked air into a furious frenzy. After what felt like an hour of anxiousness agony, the sounds of footsteps became clearly heard as a silhouette slowly started to become visible. To everyone's credit they kept their silence despite the surprise and dread of what appeared. The expectancy of a few grunts or jackals with a small contingent of elites was quickly crushed as the hulking, terrifying form of a brute began to materialize in front of them with another handful of brutes appearing behind the one in the lead.
Usually, Brutes and Elites operated in separate campaigns, it was rare for them to overlap as they were often seen as having sperate specialties within the Covenant. However rare it was didn't mean it was impossible, and in a campaign dragging on for five long years, well it's not much a surprise that the Covenant might start to send in the bloodthirsty pack animals to try and quicken the pace. It's probably for the same reason that elites weren't sent to scout out whatever went wrong, the brutes were sent to do what they do best, slaughter whatever they got a scent up. Which right now would be several dozen humans, more than an ample feast for the ape beasts.
Plans had changed, while grunts and jackals would be easy picking at such close range, brutes were best kept at range, meaning that shit just hit the fan.
"SUPRESSING FIRE!" The LMG roared to life as it laid down a stream of bullets, the lead Brute took the initial barrage surpassingly well but quickly fell to the overwhelming storm of fire. Chunks of flesh were ripped off as it staggered forward against the hail of bullets, slivers of bone became visible as the sustained fire tore the muscle from its skeleton. Eventually it felt to the ground with a splat of gore as the LMG team shifted its aim to keeping the brutes in back in cover.
A guttural roars came from deep in the haze, loud enough to be heard even over the steady stream of LMG fire. Adrian's body tensed in anticipation but only a single brute minor charged from in front of them, its weapon discarded as bloodlust filled it's mind. Despite its rage the combined fire of the UNSC forces quickly had it hit with the dirt, it's bullet riddled body falling to the dirt. Before he could take a second to breathe, a scream accompanied by a splatter emanated from his direct left. Turning he saw a spiker round piercing the jaw of the marine that'd been stationed right by him, the jagged metal spike practically sheared off the soldier's mandible leaving it hanging on by a few stringy tendons. They fell to the ground, writhing in agony soon followed by Adrian as a storm of spiker rounds flew overhead moments later. The second marine he'd wedged himself between slumped against the rubble as a trial of spikes ran up the side of their ribcage.
"Contact! Nine o'clock!" Adrian yelled over the comm. He passed a glance towards the poor marine lying next to him, her writhing having since ceased and her eyes glossed over. Rolling to a new piece of cover, he peaked over to where they'd been flanked but could barely make out anything in the distance. The brutes were too far out for local radar to be any use. They were blind in the fucking water while a pack of apex predators that relied more on scent then sight stalked around them.
Adrenaline rushed through his veins as his instincts kicked in, this was hell, but it's home.
"Is there anything to sedate this man for the love of God?" Angela shouted as she attempted to hold down the army sergeant thrashing beneath her, his guts practically heaving themselves out after a plasma grenade melted his armor and eviscerated his skin. One elbow was placed on the man's sternum while her free arm was elbow deep in blood as she futile attempted to keep his intestines are close to inside his body as possible.
"The only poly-sue we have is at the other triage center." An assistant explained.
"Then get some!" Angela shouted as a barrage of mortar fire landed only a hundred meters from their position. It was horrifyingly easy to get the medical position she had, despite initial reservations from the few remining medical personnel and local officers, it had only taken a renewed push by the Covenant and the fact that she knew more than basic first aid to convince them that she was truthful in one regard.
Though in all honesty she couldn't blame them, seeing up close and personnel how drained every resource was on top of how exhausted all the field surgeons were, it wasn't too surprising. People were dying by the dozens every minute and there simply wasn't enough aid to go around, let alone enough quailed medics to be able to tend to everyone. Triage didn't even begin to cover this, level black patients – those unlikely to survive – couldn't even be given palliative treatment to ease their suffering, they simply couldn't give supplies that were needed elsewhere. The dark silver-lining was that the lack of supplies meant she didn't have to guess at medications she wasn't familiar with. Things like bone-knitting polymer, chorotazine, hypodermal mesh sealants, or polypseudomorphine, were all unfamiliar to her. While she could make educated guesses, especially with regards to the latter, dosages and implementations was something she needed time to study, and time was most definitely something she didn't have. The few medical supplies they did have were either understandable enough, such as polymerized hemoglobin, a constant in her world as well, like morphine, or so strictly regulated that administering it was handled by her assistants in carefully watched dosages as was done with polypseudomorphine also referred to as poly-sue. Which to she assumed was some sort of heavy anesthetic using morphine as a base but restricted for more serious cases such as the man crying in agony in her arms.
Another round of artillery fire rocked the earth as the prefab medical building shuttered under the force of the explosion immediately followed by a few unfortunate souls beings dragged in by their elbows as they screamed in wretched pain. Half a man's body was blackened flesh with boiling metal dripping of his body like water, he wouldn't survive the next hour nor would he receive anything to ease his pain. Another was immobile from the waist down, it wasn't that she was missing her legs, no they were still attached, only it was clear to see that the bones inside had been ground to dust and the muscles practically shredded to uselessness. More injured marines were brought in soon after, far too many for her alone to get too even with the assistants by her side. Of all the people under her care, it seemed unlikely that many would survive.
It was a living nightmare that seemed it would never end.
Adrian scrambled backwards as a brute's foot stomped the ground he just been occupying, it roared in anger as the battle around them raged. Quickly drawing his knife, Adrian rolled behind the ape and sliced the back of its heels bringing it down to its knees. Not wasting a second, he swiftly brought his DMR to bare and fired a pointblank shot into the brute's skull. The burst through its head with ease, spraying the ground with gore as the beast compared to the side. Wiping the viscera from his helmet, he was almost brought to the ground as a half of a human corpse sheared in two practically wrapped itself around him. Immediately turning, he saw the other half being held in the air by a brute – a runt by their standards, probably glorying its first kill.
"Fucking animals." He swore, pulling a grenade from his belt, he yanked out the spin and quickly tossed it towards the narrow-focused alien. Shouldering the rifle, he shot the grenade mid-air as it soared by the brute's head, the resulting explosion ripping the skin from the brute's ferally grinning face like tearing wallpaper out of room. The creature stumbled back with a ferocious cry, when the smoke cleared it stood standing with the flesh completely torn from its face, white bone and stretched muscles stared back at him as the skull of the brute was easily visible. It's eyes wide as its eyelids no longer existed, it stood for a second longer before falling backwards as Adrian put it down with a bullet through its gullet.
"That all you got?" He spat the words with revulsion and a hint of arrogance, outnumbered, outgunned, and fighting for his life, it was an absolute shitshow, but he couldn't help the flash of addictive adrenaline that coursed through his veins. Dashing behind a piece of crumbling wall, he popped out to pepper a brute major harassing a trio of marines on the far end of the factory ruins. Unfortunately, not fast enough as the major pulled the trigger on its mauler, shredding the chest plate of the nearest soldier and turning their upper torso into paste. A luckily shot hit home in-between the armor of its helmet and collar, sparring the remaining marines from its wrath but focusing its attention on Adrian. Like a shadow, Aliza appeared from seemingly nothing, practically a blur she batted the mauler to the side as the brute pulled the trigger. The shattered bolt went wide of Adrian, but a number of razor-sharp fractures sliced his right forearm and hand as the edge of the weapon spread nicked him. In the time it took him to duck back behind cover, Aliza snapped the brute's arm, kicked it's leg inwards with a crunch causing the bone to spear out the back, and shoved the mauler down its throat before pulling the trigger.
He would've appreciated such a deft display of covvie killing more had he not been gritting his teeth as he pulled shards of metal out from between the webbing of his fingers. Tossing out the last of the serious injuries, he spared a glance towards the LMG team that had been laying down a constant stream of harassment that managed to keep the brute horde thin enough for the company of marines to deal with. That didn't last much longer as a spike grenade was thrown from far down range, landing with surprising accuracy that ended with the death of the companies suppression team. The spike-riddled corpses rolled down the mound of debris, hitting the ground with an unceremonious flop soon followed by their M247 machine gun. Shoving the DMR onto his back, he rushed out of cover and through the battlefield towards the heavy hitting weapon, sliding over an abandoned conveyor, he hit the ground running as he closed the last meter. Stretching his arms outwards, his fingers brushed the metal of the weapon before immediately losing contact as Adrian was sent soaring to the side by a hairy palm. He slammed into a reinforced wall with a crack, he wasn't sure if it was the concrete or his bone giving out – crumpling to the ground he struggled to breath as his lungs screamed. Sparing enough energy to glance upwards, he saw a Brute Chieftain standing where he'd been. Armed with a gravity hammer, Adrian was glad it wasn't used on him otherwise he wouldn't be more than splattering on the wall. Trying to push himself he couldn't muster the strength, his body needed oxygen, but his lungs were crying out in pain.
Struggling to reach behind him, he barely managed to get ahold of his DMR only to find that the crunch was probably from the gun that had seen better days. The bolt was jammed into the receiver, the was worthless as the frames had been completely shattered, and the magazine releases was permanently smashed. Pushing himself from his knees to sitting on his ass, he drew his pistol, firing off a few quick shots to trivial effect as the rounds only dented the Chieftain's reinforced armor. It grinned at Adrian's futile attempts to survive but lost its humor when Adrian chucked the gun itself at its face, hitting the brute with a decent thud. It snarled in annoyance while Adrian let out a faint wheeze of enjoyment. The annoyance grew as a hail of bullets pelted it from behind, turning their combined attention Adrian grinned as he saw Corporal Kaori Iwasaki hefting the LMG in her arms with ease. Faint droplets of blood hit the ground as rounds punctured the Chieftain's thick armor and hide. The brute charged her with its gravity hammer, raising it high before bringing it down with a thunderous clap. Iwasaki managed to evade the blow for the most part, only stumbling as the shockwave reverberated heavily. That small hiccup was all the Chieftain needed to quickly swing the bladed backend of the hammer from its grounded position and through Kaori's leg. The limb went flying through the air sending a pirouette of blood twirling about with Iwasaki falling to the ground. To her immense credit she didn't let up off the trigger even once. Bleeding out on the dirt she kept the barrage of bullets flying against the Chieftain until he rose one heavy armored boot and slammed it down on Kaori's head with a crunch. Chunks of bone, blood, and brains splatted under its foot as the LMG finally went quiet.
The brute turned, dragging the gravity hammer across the factory floor with each step causing a squelching sound to ring through the air. Marching closer to Adrian it seemed to relish in the moment, understanding the very clear power dynamic between the two of them. That didn't last long though until Adrian did the one thing you're not supposed to do with brutes, look them dead in the eyes. Brutes were primitive beasts despite their association with the Covenant, to his limited understanding they were uplifted by the prophets to be a strong arm of the Covenant forces or something along those lines. The point was they'd never had much of a social evolution that most species do and, in many ways, acted how you would assume a feral animal to. Brutes relished in the fear they caused, partially because they had a very hierarchical society, anything other than fear or obedience was considered a challenge to authority. So when Adrian ripped his helmet off, stared the Chieftain straight in the eyes, and tossed his helmet as one final insult, it enraged the overgrown ape to no end. It quickly slammed it's gravity hammer into the ground, cracking the concrete floor with ease and sending reverberations through Adrian laying on his back a few meters away. Stepping closer, it snarled as it raised its hammer once more, except this time when it brought it down it never made contact with the ground.
As if she simply forced herself into existence, Aliza appeared from a blur with both hands wrapped around the upper shaft of the gravity hammer. Despite the immense strength it must take to catch a such an attack, she made it look unbelievably easy, as if she wasn't even straining herself and was merely inconvenienced.
"You just had to open your mouth." She sounded through his comms.
"Guess I'm more alike to other ODSTs in that way, don't know when to keep my trap closed."
Hands still gripped on the hammer; Aliza reared her head back before ramming into full force into the Chieftain's face. The decorative helmet it wore snapped in half as it reeled backwards, both hands flying up to its face instinctively, giving Aliza full control of the infamous brute weapon. She immediately swung the hammer around herself before stepping forwards letting it make full contact with the chest of the Chieftain, easily denting it's thick armor and sending it sliding back across the floor. The brute roared in a blood rage as charged forward with surprising speed, far faster than either Adrian or Aliza expected and before she could bring the hammer down upon it, it shoulder slammed into her at full speed. The weapon dropped on the spot as it carried her straight into one of the few standing walls with astounding force that collapsed the wall on top of them both. Within seconds the Brute came bellowing out from the rubble with a standard UNSC blade jammed into its eye with Aliza flipping her way over the brute and putting space between the two.
With significant effort Adrian pushed himself, with the Brute solely focused on dealing with a Spartan it allowed him the time he needed to steady himself on both feet. Limping as fast as he could towards the gravity hammer, he glanced towards the two dueling every now to little change. They dished out damage with frightening speed and took the blows with an even scarier ease though he didn't know how much longer Aliza could keep that up. Catching her attention, she seemed to understand what he was going for and slowly began to shift the position of the flight closer to Adrian. Bending over despite his torso's agony, he gripped the handle of the hammer with both hands and started to lift making a surprising amount of effort on his first try. It was heavy that wasn't in question, but it was still a bit lighter than he'd anticipated. Instead of something immovable by the hands of most human, it was more akin to an extremely lopsided dumbbell, as if some idiots put two-hundred pounds worth of weights on one end. He couldn't do much more than lift it of the ground an inch at most, but he'd didn't need it for much else.
As the skirmish drew closer to Adrian, he took a few deep breaths before putting the last bits of bis energy into hefting the hammer he did the only thing he could with a hammer of such size. Following in Aliza's footsteps he spun the thing around albiet with far less grace and control and instead looking more like a stumbling toddler. When the Chieftain came within a meter of Adrian and started to realize what might be happening, it was already too late as the head of the hammer smashed into the back of the Brute's leg. The force easily pulverizing all the bone to dust as it didn't so much bend, but rather looked like a loose sleeve flapping in the wind. The Brute fell to the ground in agony as a sound Adrian had never heard emanated from its mouth, maybe the closest thing he'd ever heard to an alien crying. Taking the hammer from his hands, Adrian stumbled to the floor as the last bits of adrenaline wore off and overexerted body had no more energy to spare. Aliza ruthlessly finished off the alien with a final swing of the weapon to the dead center of its back. The sound of its spine snapping reverberated throughout the ruined factory before it was replaced with a much quieter sound as Aliza flipped the hammer to its bladed end and decapitated the brute like a medieval executioner. Around them silenced reigned, the dust and smoke had largely settled and there didn't appear to be any more signs of immediate covvie reinforcements.
Throwing the alien weapon to the side, Aliza turned to see Adrian laid flat on his back panting like a dog out in the sun. Grabbing his helmet off the ground, she held it out for him. Adrian limply grabbed it but didn't wear it, he wasn't sure he had the energy. In the span of twenty-four hours, he'd gotten a beating like he hadn't received in years.
"Can you walk?" Aliza questioned.
"That's…a great question." Before he could figure out the answer, he was swept off the ground as Aliza picked him up in her arms.
"Holy – you know if this is how all damsels in distress are saved then honestly this is pretty nice. Gotta say though you're not exactly how I imagined my knight in shing armor." He jested to the Spartan, her dark green armor barely visible under the plethora of guts, grime, and dust. The free carrying was absolutely worth it, not the least of all because he genuinely wasn't sure if he could make his muscles move more than an inch right now.
It didn't take long for the handful of surviving Marines to regroup in the center, from two dozen to half a dozen, it seemed a pyrrhic victory from the best perspective. As Aliza gently let him to the ground, Adrian's legs barely felt stable underneath him, but he'd managed if he didn't move much. Their evac pelican sounded above them before slowly lowering itself right in front of them with an open hatch. As the wounded and battle-weary marines boarded, Adrian inched his way forwards until he noticed that one gargantuan Spartan wasn't following suit.
Turning he saw her checking several weapons she'd collected from the dead marines as well as gathering what ammunition she could.
"You know they'll supply us back at the FOB?" He mentioned.
"I won't be going back immediately."
That stunned Adrian, Spartans were seemed immortal but after the day they'd had she wouldn't be for much longer, "What's so important that's keeping you here, another order?"
"No, my partner is still out there somewhere. I don't leave my comrades to die."
Adrian grit his teeth in frustration, she was being obtuse, irrational, and foolish…key traits that made some of the best ODSTs. Glancing back to the pelican, he waved his hand in a negative fashion to the nearest marine who relayed it to the pilot. Turning as the pelican began to lift off, Adrian inched his way back towards Aliza, his breathing labored and every step feeling like rods of red-hot iron were being jammed through his legs, he threw his helmet on and stuck out his hand in expectance.
"Well better give me something too, preferably with less kick than the DMR, I don't know if my body can handle that right now."
She stopped her methodical process, turning to face him, "What are you doing?"
"Like you said, can't leave a comrade to die right? Besides you're just a suicidal as me, gotta have two of us to keep each other alive." They stared at each other a bit longer with no words being traded before Adrian broke the silence, "Alright come one, I know how hard it is to lose people close to you, weighs you down unless you feel like something can be done about it. Now let's get Pari so she can know how ridiculous you're being right now, by the end of this I'll probably end up paralyzed for the rest of my life."
She handed him a weapon in silence, not saying anything, not that Adrian expected much, she wasn't exactly chatty when they were both in peak performance. Looking over the skeletal form of the MA37 assault rifle, he threw it over his shoulder as she also handed him an early version of the M7 caseless submachine gun. Comparable to the one he used to have, but not silenced and a bit thinner in some places but it felt similar enough that it shouldn't be much a problem to get accustomed to.
"Adrian." His head snapped up, he wasn't sure she'd called him by his name at all yet, "Thanks." She said it coolly but considering she was a Spartan he considered it a great compliment.
"No worries, but uhh – think I could catch another ride? If I move another inch, I think my legs will shattered like glass."