p id="docs-internal-guid-4e3f651b-1f17-c6ed-6557-130b1c3f41f3" dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Foreign Planet/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Day 1/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"At least, she was certain it wasn't Requiem. A city sprawled out before her, steel I-beams sticking straight up from the ground and into the sky like the remains of some long dead mighty beast. A few structures still stood tall but were either listing heavily to the side or were leaning against their neighbors. A wave of dust rolled through the Spartan's immediate area, kicking up small dust devils in its wake. Dirt particles clattered softly off of her armor plating as both soldier and AI surveyed their surroundings. That's when it hit her./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"There was no bird sound. No animal noises, air traffic, nothing but the wind. This city was dead./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Something about that fact set her teeth on edge. It wasn't as if she hadn't walked through dead and decaying cities before but this… Something about this was different. Just then she heard the portal at her back ripple with energy. The commander threw a glance at it over her shoulder as a snap of electricity could be heard from within. It was time to go. Not sparing what may have been her last chance to get back home, she took off running in an attempt to place enough distance between her and whatever hostiles might come tumbling through. If it had been guaranteed that nothing would happen to her person, Auri might have risked jumping back in. But now? There were too many unknown variables and who knew if it'd take her right back to the facility let alone the right planet if it dropped her off here./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She'd revisit that thought later after she dealt with any stragglers coming right after her. The Spartan didn't have to wait long. Moments before the portal collapsed and winked out of existence, it shuddered violently as two Crawlers leapt out onto the dirt the commander had vacated seconds before. She ducked behind a dilapidated wall and dropped into a low crouch before peering out into the open street. The Crawlers shook after whatever lingering effects from the portal. The commander watched as one seemingly sniffed the air, trying to pick up her scent. Both quadrupeds snapped their heads back toward the black swirling mass as a third Crawler sailed through its opening. It crashed right into the closest creature and both smashed into the dirt with mechanical protests filling the air. Right on its heels followed a Promethean Commander who landed gracefully mere steps away from the increasingly destabilizing portal. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A loud crack broke the silence further then as the portal shivered then flickered twice. It seemed another Knight was attempting to dive through to the other side but right as it got half its body out of the portal's entrance, the portal shut down and shut down hard, snapping the Promethean in half. Its piercing digital wail of agony could be heard throughout the dead city, disturbing what little wildlife remained in hiding. Dirt and debris were thrown into the air as the portal collapsed, stranding them all. Auri felt her heart lurch a little response but she shoved the feeling aside. She'd attempt to contact her team once she was relatively safe. For now, she waited. Nothing else was going to come through that portal and there were only four enemies for her to tackle. Keeping one eye on her motion tracker, the Four eased up out of her crouch and began to quietly search for higher ground. She still boasted her SRS99-S5 AM sniper rifle which clung to the mag mount on her back. Wielded effectively, one could reach out and touch just about anything, and anyone, in range and then some./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"An old office building to her right looked viable and the commander stepped through its lobby, mindful of the glass that littered the floor. Everything, inside and out, seemed to be covered in dirt, coating it all in a drab brownish-gray tone. As the Four traversed further inside did she discovered multiple footprints that disrupted the dust on the tile flooring. Office chairs and equipment were strewn about the place as if the inhabitants had left in a hurry and most everything that had once been valuable had been picked clean. Auri kneeled down to one grouping of footprints that were mixed with what had to be old blood then drag marks could be spotted further down a corridor that led to two sets of elevators. At the far end, she saw a body, its palms turned upward and head leaning to the left side. Even with it missing its shirt, she couldn't tell if it was a man or a young woman. Either way, it seemed like they had been viciously attacked, their blood splattering the nearby walls./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Trailing away from the body were more bloody footprints. These ones, however, struck the Spartan as odd as they didn't resemble that of a human's. It seemed maybe closer to that of a Jackal's? The front of it had three stubby toes that ended in sharp points. Multiple footprints converged on one of the elevators, its doors ajar and interior an inky black. Her skin crawled briefly, imagining the assailants hidden inside but, again, the blood covering the walls and the floor was closer to a shade of dark brown than bright red. More than likely they had long since moved on. All the same, she'd keep an ear to the ground. Leaving the body behind, she scoured the place for an intact set of stairs to the upper floors as there was no way in hell she was trusting the lifts. Besides, it was pretty clear power was shut off to the area some time ago./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"With one last cursory look around, the Spartan pursed her lips before quietly taking her leave back the way she came. The right side of the lobby showcased a whole section of a collapsed ceiling preventing her from further investigating that area. She turned her attention to the left and was rewarded with a partially wrecked staircase past the corridor housing the broken elevators. Casting a quick glance over her shoulder at the street outside, the Four picked up her pace. Even the Promethean and company hadn't located her yet didn't mean they wouldn't eventually. For now, she still had the element of surprise. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Approaching the stairwell, Auri set her rifle back against its mag mount on her back and placed a hand on the lowest step which stopped at her chest. She placed a little pressure on the wood and heard it creak slightly in response. There was really no other way to get up to the next level and it seemed like it might hold her weight if she moved fast enough. Without further ado, Auri levered herself up off the floor. One hand shot up to grip the bannister just above her head after getting a knee under her person. A small smile ghosted her lips at the small victory when a louder crack sounded./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Ah hell!/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The Four resorted to scrambling forward up the next several steps on her hands and knees knowing that placing her weight on one stair would probably make it all collapse faster. It took only a few seconds before she rested on the second level. That had to have been noisy as hell and, with her luck, it might've caught her enemies' attention. She got to her feet in one fluid motion and, once she was sure this next level wouldn't suddenly break under her, Auri moved past the upturned cubicles and the papers scattered all about the place in search of a window that opened to the street below. More than a handful had been boarded up with rotting wood but, farther down, light spilled from the broken blinds. A curtain rod had been pulled off the wall and the heavy fabric laid in a large heap below the windows. It didn't take her long to cross the room and she shoved the blinds to the side, keeping an ear out for anything. Her rifle rested against the wall in front of her as Auri pushed the window up. It fought her briefly before finally giving way. Fresher air drifted in and dust particles slowly danced in the light as she knelt down and placed her rifle's tripod on the windowsill./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The window gave her a good view of the street below as well as a large intersection a ways down but so far, the Promethean hadn't wandered into view just yet. It was still hanging out around the edges of her motion tracker. Pulling back from her scope, the Four scanned the buildings around her, looking for a better perch, when an ear piercing screeching tore through her level causing the commander to whip around in a low crouch. She brought her rifle up to bear immediately just as the remaining glass behind her shattered. The shards bounced harmlessly off her shields and clattered to the carpet right as she located the source of the wailing. The creature had clambered up on top of a file cabinet from the duct work that could be seen through patches in the ceiling. It almost reminded her of Unggoy but without the methane tanks. Seconds later, more began crawling out from the holes in either side of the walls or fell through the ceiling. The wailer leapt down to the floor and was gunning for her. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Without a second thought, Auri cranked a leg back and punted the thing several feet where it bounced face first off an old computer. That gave her enough time to switch weapons. Her side arm made short work of the first three that tried to yank her legs out from under her. She then backhanded another that leapt at her helmet from a desk. She spun around on her heels as it got to its feet and got a bullet through the eyes as a result. A heavy weight suddenly fell on her back, making the commander stagger forward a few steps. One of the little bastards had gotten the drop on her and she could hear its teeth knocking hard against her helmet as it attempted to chew its way through her armor plating. Another followed suit and the pair tried driving her into a desk where another barked eagerly and jumped at her face. She barely managed to catch the damned thing. Spittle covered her face plate as it gnashed its jaws together with audible clacking./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hands wrapped around its neck, the Spartan squeezed tight as she could and it soon went limp. Tossing the body aside, she tried to shake herself like a dog but couldn't loosen their grip. Her shields were steadily dropping as the creatures continued to bang and snap on her suit. They were trying to crack her open like a damned nut and if more jumped onto her, they'd succeed. Her fingers gripped one's leg and she pulled downward. Dropping the shoulder it was clinging to, Auri angled herself at a nearby wall and charged. The thing let out a garbled cry of pain as its spine snapped in two and fell off her body. The other clambered around on her back, knowing she was searching like hell for it. Auri stood up then bent her body backwards, reaching her arms back as far as she could before finally latching onto an arm. She didn't hesitate as she launched the creature forward and into another wall. It bounced off the unforgiving surface with nothing more than a grunt before slumping to the side./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A hand went to the holster on her thigh and grabbed at empty air; she must've dropped her pistol during the scuffle. Switching out to her assault rifle, she fired off short controlled bursts into the stragglers when her AI piped up./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Commander, I'm picking up gunfire coming from the street outside!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""In a minute! I don't /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"need/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" these little pricks trying to hammer my helmet in again," she said through her teeth. Another Grunt-like creature tried to jump at her once more but, just as she ducked, it went sailing through a window. It shattered the leftover glass and smacked into a burnt out car below, snapping its neck on the frame. "Fuck me." The commander let her breath out in a rush before striding to the window to survey the street. Sure enough, she could hear the short staccato beat of gunfire sounding off nearby. Then the digital warcry of the Promethean Commander primed its cannon and lobbed the glowing orange energy at… something. Whatever was attacking them was out of range for now. Hardlight projectiles spat out from the Crawlers' mouth as they strafed back and forth in front of their leader when an odd looking object was tossed into their vicinity. Seconds later it detonated, crippling one Crawler and dropping the other. The Promethean roared in anger then blinked out of existence in a flash of blue light. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It reappeared out of view of the Spartan who leaned a little ways out of the window, lips pursed in apprehension. If the locals weren't friendly then her odds making it here weren't very favorable. While she would've liked to continue her survey of the skirmish, and the Promethean's attackers, she had to move on as the sky grew more orange as the planet's star dipped closer to the horizon. At that rate, she'd have maybe another hour or two before the city was cloaked in darkness. Dropping back into the room, Auri swapped mags for her assault rifle, located her discarded pistol and pushed farther into the building. She nudged the dead bodies of the creatures that had attacked her. Only one was still alive until she caved its skull in. Upon closer inspection of one beside it revealed wicked looking teeth and stubby arms. She briefly glanced down at its feet and wondered if these creatures had been responsible for what happened in the elevator hallway some time ago. At least they were relatively easy to kill unless they overwhelmed you./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The fight outside still continued as she searched around for roof access. It soon became apparent that her best option would be to jump onto the next lower structure's roof. Faint contacts skated across the edges of her radar as the Spartan launched herself out what used to be a window at the far end of the office. She tucked into a combat roll to disperse the impact and came up onto her feet. She continued on in a loping jog to the next rooftop as Noesis analyzed the footage from her fight earlier with those things in the office while also keeping tabs on the Promethean's group. The second complex provided her with access to the lower floors. The manual lock was easily broken and the Spartan crept cautiously down the stairwell. She plunged into blackness as the door shut behind her. She activated the vision feature on her HUD and the interior took on a dark green hue./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Thus far, it seemed like no one was home but so did the last place and she wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. Once she reached the bottom it was clear this place had housed old apartments. Furniture was strewn about everywhere haphazardly and more than a few walls were either broken completely or had person sized holes punched through them. The dying sunlight leaked in through what had to have been bullet holes. Just before she thumbed off her night vision given there was enough light to see by, something in the shadows at the far end of the corridor she was in stirred. The commander raised her AR, aiming it at whatever was staring at her. It, albeit briefly, seemed just as puzzled about her as she was with it, before it bellowed loudly and brought a gun up to bear. It managed to squeeze off a few lucky shots which connected with her suit before she dove into a nearby room for cover. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"More than one pair of footsteps could be heard gunning for her. One of the bipeds entered the doorway and was met with a flurry of bullets. It brought up an arm in an attempt to ward off the worst of it but went down with a gurgle. Two more quickly filled the gap and fired on the Four's position. Auri ducked down behind the old mattress that had been shoved to one side and pulled one of her few remaining frags from her belt. She hit the activator and rolled it into their midst before hitting the deck moments before it detonated. Shrapnel and wood pelted her back plating. More contacts lit up her tracker, plenty more than she would've cared for, and she was backed into a corner. For the moment, those things seemed to be a bit smarter than their smaller counterparts and were treating her with caution. That bought her enough time to search for a way out. The wall behind her seemed to be weak enough that it might just give way with a few well placed kicks./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Cocking back her right leg, she launched her foot through the rotting wood. Several planks cracked and two fell out onto the street below but didn't collapse immediately. It took one more good hit before a hole big enough for her to slide out through opened up. It was a small mistake but she hadn't scanned the area right outside as she slid feet first down onto the asphalt. Luckily she was only three stories up but it still knocked the wind out of her. It also didn't help that she hit a ground car before smacking into the street. Auri let out a small grunt of pain, shook her head, and sent a glance upward. Those creatures were peering through the hole she made, clearly looking for a way to get down to her. Not wanting to stick around long enough to see what they'd come up with, the Spartan hauled herself up and grimaced. Sure her shields took the brunt of the fall but she was probably going to have a bruised tailbone by the end of this./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"After checking to see if her weapons were still intact, the commander hurried down the road in the opposite direction of the earlier firefight when her COMM started to buzz with activity. It was mostly filled with static and the signal was weak but, sure enough, she heard what had to be a human voice on the other line./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm already working on strengthening our COMM signal but this place isn't giving me much to work with," came her AI./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Keep trying." Right before the commander was about to open up a new COMM channel, she paused. What if whoever was on the other turned out to be just as hostile as those creatures that had just attacked her? Well, if they proved themselves hostile, she'd take them out if necessary and hopefully locate some intel on another friendly faction in the area. If they weren't then they could help her in getting back to where she needed to be. It was a risk she was going to have to take. She continued down the street at a brisk jog before keying up a channel, hoping Noesis would be able to broaden their signal range./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ghost Actual to unknown station, please acknowledge. I repeat, Ghost Actual to the last unit on this frequency, respond. Over."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The commander waited a few seconds before attempting again. More static responded moments later but she couldn't make a word they were saying, only that they were trying to reply./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ghost Actual to unknown station, say again. Over." Motion in the bottom left hand corner of her HUD caught her attention as contacts ghost across the edge of her radar. She glanced over in the general direction where the contact was moving and she saw nothing. At least not yet. Those things were no doubt tailing her and the skirmish that had been carrying on well behind her had finally died out. The Promethean had either killed them or it'd been dropped. Her lips pulled into a thin line and the knot in her gut tightened. She was about to have a full fledged fight on her hands sooner than she'd like./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Right before the Spartan was about to repeat her transmission, a man's voice broke through at last. Static could still be heard in the background as her AI continued to tweak their signal./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""KR Six-Four to Ghost Actual, please identify yourself. Over." The voice was firm, professional and… sounded just as puzzled as Auri felt but relief at hearing another person's voice overrode her confusion./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ghost Actual to KR Six-Four, this is UNSC Spartan Commander Rachel Auri. Requesting immediate backup at my location. I've got an unknown number of hostiles hot on my ass and not enough ." More contacts began to move into the surrounding buildings as several of those ape-like bipedal creatures readied themselves to pounce. In the distance, she could've sworn she heard the steady beats of a chopper so hopefully the pilot was close./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Uh, copy that, Ghost Actual." There came a sound like the mic was being muffled but not completely for she could still faintly hear them say, "The fuck's 'UNSC'? Who the fuck is this and how the hell did they get a hold of us?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The response to their question couldn't be heard but the explosive sigh from the pilot was picked up. "Accent ain't Gorasni so, think she's worth it? LZ's bound to be hot with Locust and it could be a trap. Yeah… Yeah. Fine." While the commander could understand their caution and concern, they needed to make a decision now. As she was momentarily distracted, a trio of blips moved hard and fast toward her location. A loud snarl snapped the Spartan out of her reverie and she whipped around to be greeted with one of those things grinning wickedly at her and her shields flared as she came under fire. She choked out an angry curse as she retaliated, squeezing off a short controlled burst from her AR before ducking under a swing from another. Before she straightened up, Auri fired into the second's leg, effectively wounding it, before dropping one of her precious few frag grenades into their midst./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She jerked back in time as the explosive detonated, throwing up a wall of dirt. No doubt the pilot could hear the commotion over the open channel. "KR Six-Four to Ghost Actual, pop smoke. We're diverting a team to your location. ETA, five minutes. Can you hold out? Over." /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah," the Four grunted, "but if you could tell your boys to hurry, I'd greatly appreciate it. Popping smoke now!" She managed to put enough distance between her and the creatures to grab at her kit for an emergency flare and thumbed the activator before tossing it to the side. Almost instantaneously, green smoke began to billow out into the air. Upon seeing this, the creatures redoubled their effort when the ground began to shake violently as two massive Stalks erupted from underground. They pulsed a sickly yellow as bulges inflated beneath the skin. Auri watched in horror as the bulges burst open with an audible pop. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Spilling out onto the ground were mutated bipeds. Yellow bioluminescence glowed brightly throughout their bodies as more were deployed. Their skin was charred black and they immediately engaged the creatures that were tangling with the Spartan. Revulsion warred with the fear that flowed through the woman's body and her skin crawled. She wasn't even aware she was muttering to herself when the pilot's voice called out loudly through the channel./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ghost Actual, say again. What's goin' on over there?!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""They're… Fuck. I don't know. Yellow glowing… things. They just popped out of this massive Stalk two hundred yards away and they're attacking these ape-like bipeds that have been tailing me."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Fuck. Okay. Ghost, you need ta get outta there. Now. More Lambent are bound to be on the way. Squad's a couple minutes out from the smoke. KR Seven-Five is moving in to evac you all outta there. You'll have to clear the LZ enough for pick up. Just hang tight, got it?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Wilco!" With that, the connection dropped and the Spartan began to disengage from the fight. The ape bipeds she'd been initially fighting - Locust? - clearly seemed to be uneasy as the Lambent cut down their forces with malicious intent. Two more Stalks broke through the asphalt as a third rammed through the apartment complex Auri had vacated minutes earlier. The building swayed a little as the foundation gradually grew more unstable and soon collapsed in on itself, bringing the Stalk down with it. A minor victory but one that wouldn't last long with the way this fight was going. The Locust had two larger personnel wielding what had to be grenade launchers into the Lambent. Two Lambent detonated rather explosively, spilling a corrosive agent onto an unfortunate Locust which cried out in pain before succumbing to its wounds./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A small squad of Locust that had been taking potshots at their glowing adversaries quickly caught sight of the retreating Spartan and shifted focus to their original target. Auri activated her hardlight shield and fired her AR one handed as she fell back. A lucky flurry of bullets managed to knock one of the Locusts into the dirt when something metallic fell at the woman's feet. She instantly recognized it as a grenade similar to one that had taken out the Crawlers and slammed her shield down on the ground in an attempt to stave off the worst of the explosion. The concussive blast rammed into the shield, which had already been glowing a worrying shade of orange, and it sent Auri tumbling back a few meters./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"While the defensive attachment took most of the damage, she was still more than a bit dazed. The device had overheated and had already deactivated as she started coming to her senses. Her suit's shields were only at twenty five percent and her assault rifle had been knocked from her grasp. Noesis had cried out, urging her Spartan to get up, as Lambent converged on her location. Auri spied her assault rifle a couple meters off to her left out of immediate reach and unholstered her sidearm to fire on the closest glowing thing when a hulk of a person ran across her field of vision, their shoulder dropped down to ram into the Lambent. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The thing roared in anger before it tumbled head over heels. A flurry of bullets followed soon after and it barfed out more corrosive fluid as it exploded. A man's whoop of joy sounded off along with more gunfire coming from just behind her. The trooper that had saved her from an acid fueled death turned around to reveal an award winning smile. He was an African American middle aged man who jogged over to offer the commander a hand up like she was an old friend. He hauled her up without much of an issue./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Woo, baby! That was a close call. Too close if you ask me," he remarked over the din of the fight and they both moved into cover where he then asked, "You Ghost Actual, right? Private Augustus Cole, ma'am. Me an' Hotel Squad are gonna get you outta here. Transport's four minutes out. We gotta get the LZ clear first. Last thing we all need is one of these Glowies hitching a ride. You ain't hurt, are you?" Auri shook her head as she took the time to swap mags for her rifle. If she struck this Cole as odd looking, the man merely took it in stride, knowing there'd be an explanation later./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm good," she replied, thumbing on her external speakers; just like with the pilot, she was a mite bit grateful these guys spoke English. "Let's knock these assholes back and get out of here." As much as the commander wanted to pepper the man with questions, they'd have to wait till their lives weren't in immediate danger. There was a temporary break in their skirmish as the soldiers had to switch out mags and began pushing the Glowies and remaining Locust slowly back. Off in the distance, the gradual steady beat of chopper blades could be heard as their transport grew closer and, soon enough, she could spot the bulky thing high in the sky./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""KR Seven-Five, I've got eyes on friendlies," came a woman's voice over the COMM channel. "Keep your heads down, folks. Lemme soften them up for ya." That was all the warning they got as the frontal chain gun loudly erupted, mowing down hostiles in the immediate area. After about fifteen seconds, the gun powered off and the squad was able to worm out what was left of the hostile force attacking the Spartan. Once the landing zone was finally secured, KR Seven-Five began her descent. The Raven bounced briefly on its landing gear before the pilot swung open the side doors to allow them admittance. The rotator blades continued to spin overhead as she waited for her crew to get situated. As the commander stepped foot inside, the pilot leaned out around her seat./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're that Ghost Actual Six-Four was yellin' about, yeah?" At Auri's nod, Seven-Five let out a short bark of laughter. "Damn, we ain't never seen someone like you. Thought it was a damned trap. You're lucky we were in the area otherwise you'd probably be lunchmeat for those assholes out there. Command's gonna shit their pants when they see you. 'Least Prescott would, if he was even still around." Once everyone was secured inside and blades began to spin up faster, the Four finally got a decent look at the troopers around her. Save for Cole, the other four soldiers wore helmets with dark blue goggles in place. The rest of the armor was dark gray, almost black, with blue on front. On their chest plates were two large circular seals that seemed to hold the whole thing in place. Along their shoulders and backs soft blue light emitted, lighting up their seats. They were no doubt examining her as much as she was them./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Once they were finally off the ground, the Four let out a quiet sigh of relief and leaned her helmet back against the headrest. Seven-Five was right. She was beyond lucky they were close at hand and that they were willing enough to give her a lift./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Their armor permutations aren't matching up to anything I have in my database," her AI murmured quietly in her ear./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I know. They don't seem to be Innies. At least they certainly don't act like it. They have enough firepower to bring me down," Auri replied via their private channel. She eyed one trooper's primary weapon that looked wicked as all get out. What had to be a chainsaw blade beneath the weapon still had bits of gore and some blood clinging to the sharp points. If these somehow were a robust squad of Insurrectionist forces then she just dropped herself into their open arms. Yet, Six-Four's muffled conversation with another crew member flicked back through her mind. Even the Innies clearly knew the UNSC and who and what they represented. As soon as the commander located whoever was in charge, she was going to get questions answered. For now, she'd enjoy the ride./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It didn't last long./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Roughly ten minutes into their flight back to the troopers' base of operations, their transport listed to the right. Heavily. Cole, who had been sitting on her left side, gripped his seat tightly and thumbed on his own communications channel./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey, what's goin' on up there?" The other soldiers were already alert, knowing something was clearly wrong./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Diverting to a different route. Six-Four's got eyes on a damned Brumak with a small contingent of Locust headin' down main street. Guess they caught wind of the fight earlier and wanted to investigate. So far, seems like they've heard us but don't have eyes in the sky. We should be good getting back to the /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sovereign/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;". Till then, sit tight and- Oh shit!" That was all the warning they got when the Raven jerked hard to the right, narrowing avoiding an incoming projectile. One of Cole's hands snapped up to brace himself against the commander's shoulder to keep from smacking his head into her armor as he, the Spartan and other Gears held on for dear life. Auri ground her teeth together and, as their transport swung around, she caught a glimpse of whatever it was that was impeding their progress./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It was massive. And very clearly pissed./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Talk to me, Seven-Five!" Cole called out, his voice straining a bit./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""'Nother fuckin' Brumak! Tryin' to shake it but it's got a damned lock on us. Brace for evasive maneuvers!" A series of creative curses flew over their COMM link as the pilot shifted their Raven this way and that when the back end of it shook violently. Metal screeched loudly and bits of shrapnel pinged off the hull. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""We're hit! Brace brace brace! Oh hell!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The front end dipped forward dangerously as Seven-Five fought for control of the dying bird, attempting to level out so they'd skim along the belly when crash landing. Seconds later, they knocked into a nearby building, crumbling it to the ground. The rotator blades had given up at that point, having been shattered to pieces after that glancing hit with an old hotel. They landed belly down on top of another abandoned place and skidded another several meters until the cockpit was hanging off the edge. Right as Auri thought their ride had come to an end, she threw a look over her shoulder at the cockpit just in time to see the street below fill up the windshield. The roof they'd landed on was unstable and had begun to collapse in on itself. Their transport dipped forward and tumbled to the ground on its side. Two Gears had been shaken loose upon impact and one laid on his back on top of one of the side doors. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The metal groaned all around them as the bird finally settled down. The harness keeping her attached to her seat dug hard into her shoulders as Auri shook her head and slowly looked about the interior. Supplies not tied down by webbing had been thrown about the cabin. Broken shards of glass littered the floor, seats and troopers who were starting to come around themselves. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Okay… Sound off. Who's not dead?" she called out as the Four went to carefully unbuckle herself. A small host of collective moans of pain was all the response she got as the Gears got situated. Most had some bumps and bruises but were relatively unharmed. Auri looked back over to Cole who had a small cut bleeding on the left side of his forehead which he wiped at with an old rag. She'd depolarized her blue visor so he could actually see the woman inside the suit. If he was taken aback that she was just human, he took it in stride just like everything else. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm good. Get this bird opened up while I go check on the pilot," he said as their gazes met. "We need to get movin' ASAP." He grunted a little as he moved before stepping around the Spartan, checking on one trooper who waved him off on his way over to Seven-Five. The other soldiers were getting on okay as they took stock of what supplies survived the crash while Auri balanced herself on the sides of one bench of seats as the side door they hadn't landed on was well above her head. She reached up to grab hold of the latch and tested it. It seemed like it was still in good shape so she threw it back. It took another push before she got the thing open finally./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Overhead, she could see a large trail of black smoke billowing into the sky from the back of their bird. Cole was right. They needed to get moving sooner rather than later. There was no doubt that hostiles were on the move toward their location. After taking stock of her own weaponry, Auri knelt down from her perch in time to see Seven-Five, minus her helmet, stepping out from the cockpit with Cole in tow./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Let's grab what we can then get the hell outta here," the pilot said before spitting out a globule of blood. She holstered her snub nosed pistol on her thigh then grabbed some gear and handed it over to the commander. Auri took it and lifted up and out of the bird's exterior before lifting herself out as well. It took them all a few minutes before the Spartan, with Cole's help, hoisted the remaining Gears out. Gear secured in bags or on their armor, they hopped off the Raven./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I already radioed Six-Four. He said we're close enough to the coast for a boat to swing by and grab us," the pilot announced as she raked a hand through a rat's nest of brown curls that had drifted into her face. "It's about a half mile to the East from here but that Brumak might be in the way between us and rescue."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're kidding me, yeah?" balked one Gear who then let out a frustrated sigh as Seven-Five shook her head. "This guy's been nothin' but bad luck since we got 'im onboard," he continued, gesturing angrily at the commander. Her visor had polarized since they'd exited the Raven, hiding her expression from view. Her back stiffened in response and before she opened her mouth to reply, Cole easily stepped in./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey now, baby. This ain't nothing but a minor setback, here. Nothing's stopping the Coletrain. Within the next hour, we'll be kicking back on /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sovereign /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"with a nice cold drink."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Sign me the hell up for that. I heard Stephenson's squad managed to secure a good batch of supplies last time they went out so maybe they actually snagged some decent alcohol," one of the female Gears remarked, the tension abating a little. The Four caught Cole's eye and he gave her a quick wink as they picked up the pace; that man was starting to become a favorite of hers now with his quick charm and smart wit. She really hoped this faction wasn't somehow secretly a terrorist organization after all the trouble she went to seek out help. A few quiet minutes passed before Auri strode to the front of the group and stuck her arm out to slow them down./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What's-?" a Gear started to say when the Spartan made a quick cutting motion across her neck with a hand, the universal signal to shut it. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Detected movement up ahead. Off to the left," she said softly, eyes scanning their surroundings. "I also think I'm picking up that - what'd you call it? A Brumak?- yeah, that. It hasn't popped up on my radar but it sounds like it isn't too far off./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""There should be a street to the right. Not that first one we're comin' up to. The one after it," Seven-Five murmured. "That one should take us to an inlet that'll spit us out onto the beach. A boat should be getting close now."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Then we double time it, people," Cole said just as quietly. "The sooner we get to the beach, the sooner we're back on safer ground. Baird's gonna shit himself when he sees you." That last bit was directed at the Four who shot him a questioning look to which the big man just chuckled in response. Their conversation dropped there as the soldiers jogged through one intersection, staying sharp. This close to rescue they couldn't afford to drop their guard now. They soon came up on the street Seven-Five had indicated and, sure enough, turning right down the road, it deadended at a small bit of beach. Off in the distance, roughly five minutes away, was a motor boat speeding their way./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The group collectively picked up their pace, waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it did. Without warning, three Stalks burst up from the sand, spewing Lambent cannon fodder from blisters oozing up from below. Gunfire here would no doubt catch the Locusts' attention and, thus, the Brumak's. They were going to get very popular in a matter of seconds. Auri stepped in front of two of the Gears caught off guard from the attack and deployed her hardlight shield to absorb the brunt of the hail of bullets thrown their way. Her COMM crackled to life as another voice entered the channel./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hang in there, Cole. We're a minute out from your location. Just keep ''em off us as we get close!" Sparing a brief glance seaward revealed some sort of patrol gunboat speeding their way. There were two soldiers aboard, one manning the controls. Another was behind a turret which kicked on soon as it was able to./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yo Dom! About damned time, baby!" Cole called out with a relieved grin on his face before he turned around to gun down a Lambent that had gotten too close for comfort. They pushed slowly toward the water and soon the waves lapped at their legs. Auri had to deactivate her portable shield for the moment as it recharged and settled in to mow down hostiles with her AR all the while keeping herself in between the worst of it and the soldiers behind her; it didn't seem like their suits were equipped with shield generators and wouldn't last long under sustained fire. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah! We- Oh shit. Brumak! Get aboard now!" Dom yelled as he pulled the boat alongside the sandbar, quickly pulling the soldiers out of the water. A massive creature, something that was a cross between a mutant rabid pug and Tyrannosaurus-Rex came lumbering into view. And it was wielding what looked to be miniguns on either arm and a… rail gun on its back. Auri's eyes widened in disbelief at the sight of the thing. The boat's minigun spun up, immediately cutting down the stragglers on the beach, as the troopers hauled ass onto the boat with the commander being the last to hop up. Cole and Dom hoisted her out of the water. The pair share a brief look as Dom manned the controls once more./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I better get an explanation about all this later," was all he said as he threw the boat into gear and swung them around. A large wake kicked up as they sped as quickly as possible away from shore. Cole waved him off when he turned shoreward and let out a curse./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's getting ready to fire. Hold onto somethin'!" Sure enough, the large gun on the Brumak's back launched a mortar their way. It fell just a few feet short, sendings spray of seawater onto the boat./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Shit. That was too close," Seven-Five exclaimed as she went to stand by the controls. "Can't this thing go any faster?!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""If we go any faster, we'll blow the engine and then we'll be dead in the water dealing with polyps," Dom replied, straining to keep the frustration from his tone. "Come on, sweetheart. Just get us out of range…"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's priming again!" the other Gear on the turret called out. A loud boom sounded and another wave erupted from their left. This one was only two feet off and the impact sent the boat reeling./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Damn it! It's almost got us dialed in! Come on. Where's our damned air support?" Dom asked as he looked about them./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Nearest Raven won't make it in time. Six-Four's still trying to get away from the first Brumak he spotted," their pilot replied. If that thing on the shore fired again, they'd be beyond screwed and help was too far away. Auri double checked the cooldown on her shield attachment and saw it was glowing a soft blue indicating it was ready to be deployed. She glanced back over to the beach and could hear the creature roar in anger as it dealt with both the fleeing troopers and Lambent at its feet. A long, low sigh escaped her and she walked toward the end of the boat and stood next to Cole, gently knocking the back of her hand against his shoulder./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm about to do something really stupid but… it might get us out of range of that thing. Just… catch me if I wind up careening off into the water," she said and stopped about a foot and a half from the edge of their transport./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Wait. Catch you? What're you…?" The puzzled look on his face would've been comical had it not been for their current circumstances. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Trust me," was all the response he got as the commander tensed like she was going to run off into the water. Thumbing off her external speakers, she prepped the shield attachment. It could withstand direct impacts from a tank. It could take mortar from that rail gun, right?/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Noesis, were you able to project where the next shell will land?" Auri asked, her body filling with apprehension. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yes." A small display popped up on her HUD displaying their patrol boat and where it was compared to the shoreline. "If it launches within the next thirty seconds, the shell will directly impact the boat."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Okay… This is stupid but… Okay. Reroute nonessential suit power to the hardlight shield and count me. We've only got one shot at this and we have to make this count."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Rerouting power now. Once the shell impacts your shield, your suit's personal shields will drop in an attempt to absorb the blast. Get ready to jump in three. Two. One…"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Far away on shore, the Brumak lumbered around on the sands, swiping left and right at the Lambent and tore down one of the three Stalks still deploying more cannon fodder into its midst. Acid byproduct from the dead was slowly eating at its flesh which further enraged it. As did the fleeing Gears. Using its last mortar in an attempt to capsize the patrol boat, the Brumak leaned forward and primed its gun before pulling the trigger. The thing lurched back upon launch, having been thrown off balance enough for Lambent to begin hopping onto its back to wreck even more chaos./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The shell went flying off, singing into the air at an incredible rate of speed, and was closing in scarily fast when the back end of the boat dipped downward as the Gears' newest companion leapt upward. A flash of blue erupted in front of her body as she jumped at least eight feet into the air and six feet out and away from the boat in order to intercept the projectile. It slammed into the front of the shield a split second later and the commander had enough sense to swing it to the side in a batting motion, flinging the shell into the water. The impact knocked the wind from her lungs and sure enough blew out her suit's shields and overheated her hardlight attachment. She fell backward and nearly onto Cole and another trooper that had caught her just in time before she hit the ocean./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A geyser of water billowed upward as the mortar shell slammed just meters away, dousing them all with another coat of seawater. While the commander was aware the troopers around her were exclaiming loudly, she couldn't hear much past the ringing in her ears. When she was certain she could stand unaided, Auri shook out her left arm, cursing under her breath. Even though the portable shield took the brunt of the hit, it still jarred the hell out of her arm all the way up into her shoulder. She was going to be sore for the next couple of days, that much was certain. Noesis was busy returning her suit back to its normal settings as the Four leaned back against a supply crate. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey, man, you good?" Cole asked. "How the hell did you know to time it like that? Like damn."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'd like to know that, too," came Dom as he cast a look back at the pair. The Spartan threw her head back, letting some of the tension go now that they were well out of range. "But it'll have to wait because I'm sure our new friend is just as tired as we are. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sovereign's/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" twenty minutes out so get comfortable but not complacent. Last I heard they hadn't run into any Lambent but don't hold your breath."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Now that they were under a constant threat of death and violence, Auri was finally able to get a better look at the man. Just like the other Gears, Dom was a solidly built man. Not nearly as big as Cole but he could've almost passed for a Spartan. A full dark beard covered the lower half of his face and a sweatband kept most of his black hair well out of his eyes. His armor was similar to the other troopers. The only difference was that it was covered in more dings and scratches. He no doubt went through hell and back again. As Dom shifted in place, she caught a glimpse of a large tattoo on his upper bicep. It looked like a set of angel wings enveloping something but she couldn't get a good view of it and now really wasn't the time to pester /br /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"One of the Gears cracked open a crate on the other side of the boat and handed out a couple canteens of water along with what resembled ration bars which were quickly divvied out. Cole plucked two of each out of the air that were tossed his way and offered them to the Spartan. Auri reached up and twisted her helmet to the side, breaking the seal from her suit with a soft hiss. She pulled her head piece off and tucked it under one arm before taking one of the proffered waters. She downed it quickly and hung her head back in relief./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Thank you, Private. That was… very much needed," Auri said with a grin. She felt a bit giddy after managing to pull off that ballsey stunt but she knew it was mostly from the leftover adrenaline in her system. She was going to be damned sore in the morning but it was worth it saving these soldiers' lives./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Cole let out a snort of laughter, his grin mirroring hers, as he downed his own canteen in one gulp. "No shit it was needed, baby. And damn. Here I thought you were some robot chick operatin' that suit. You are human, right?" Beneath the humor in his voice was a bit of concern./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm as human as you are beneath all this plating," the commander replied before taking one of the ration bars and nearly shoving it into her mouth. Oh,she was definitely going to be paying for all this come morning. The big man let out another short laugh and shook his head before casting a look back the way they came. The sounds of battle on the shore were beginning to dim the further out to see they got out to sea. At least it seemed, for the moment, that they were relatively safe and getting closer to the /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sovereign. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The massive warship came into view and there was a flurry of activity on the outer deck. A Raven could be seen coming into dock which their pilot confirmed was KR Six-Four. The rest of the soldiers got comfortable and settled in for the ride, their mission soon to be over. br /br /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Then came the hard part. How on earth was the commander going to explain all of this to their superiors? /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Day 1/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"At least, she was certain it wasn't Requiem. A city sprawled out before her, steel I-beams sticking straight up from the ground and into the sky like the remains of some long dead mighty beast. A few structures still stood tall but were either listing heavily to the side or were leaning against their neighbors. A wave of dust rolled through the Spartan's immediate area, kicking up small dust devils in its wake. Dirt particles clattered softly off of her armor plating as both soldier and AI surveyed their surroundings. That's when it hit her./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"There was no bird sound. No animal noises, air traffic, nothing but the wind. This city was dead./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Something about that fact set her teeth on edge. It wasn't as if she hadn't walked through dead and decaying cities before but this… Something about this was different. Just then she heard the portal at her back ripple with energy. The commander threw a glance at it over her shoulder as a snap of electricity could be heard from within. It was time to go. Not sparing what may have been her last chance to get back home, she took off running in an attempt to place enough distance between her and whatever hostiles might come tumbling through. If it had been guaranteed that nothing would happen to her person, Auri might have risked jumping back in. But now? There were too many unknown variables and who knew if it'd take her right back to the facility let alone the right planet if it dropped her off here./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She'd revisit that thought later after she dealt with any stragglers coming right after her. The Spartan didn't have to wait long. Moments before the portal collapsed and winked out of existence, it shuddered violently as two Crawlers leapt out onto the dirt the commander had vacated seconds before. She ducked behind a dilapidated wall and dropped into a low crouch before peering out into the open street. The Crawlers shook after whatever lingering effects from the portal. The commander watched as one seemingly sniffed the air, trying to pick up her scent. Both quadrupeds snapped their heads back toward the black swirling mass as a third Crawler sailed through its opening. It crashed right into the closest creature and both smashed into the dirt with mechanical protests filling the air. Right on its heels followed a Promethean Commander who landed gracefully mere steps away from the increasingly destabilizing portal. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A loud crack broke the silence further then as the portal shivered then flickered twice. It seemed another Knight was attempting to dive through to the other side but right as it got half its body out of the portal's entrance, the portal shut down and shut down hard, snapping the Promethean in half. Its piercing digital wail of agony could be heard throughout the dead city, disturbing what little wildlife remained in hiding. Dirt and debris were thrown into the air as the portal collapsed, stranding them all. Auri felt her heart lurch a little response but she shoved the feeling aside. She'd attempt to contact her team once she was relatively safe. For now, she waited. Nothing else was going to come through that portal and there were only four enemies for her to tackle. Keeping one eye on her motion tracker, the Four eased up out of her crouch and began to quietly search for higher ground. She still boasted her SRS99-S5 AM sniper rifle which clung to the mag mount on her back. Wielded effectively, one could reach out and touch just about anything, and anyone, in range and then some./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"An old office building to her right looked viable and the commander stepped through its lobby, mindful of the glass that littered the floor. Everything, inside and out, seemed to be covered in dirt, coating it all in a drab brownish-gray tone. As the Four traversed further inside did she discovered multiple footprints that disrupted the dust on the tile flooring. Office chairs and equipment were strewn about the place as if the inhabitants had left in a hurry and most everything that had once been valuable had been picked clean. Auri kneeled down to one grouping of footprints that were mixed with what had to be old blood then drag marks could be spotted further down a corridor that led to two sets of elevators. At the far end, she saw a body, its palms turned upward and head leaning to the left side. Even with it missing its shirt, she couldn't tell if it was a man or a young woman. Either way, it seemed like they had been viciously attacked, their blood splattering the nearby walls./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Trailing away from the body were more bloody footprints. These ones, however, struck the Spartan as odd as they didn't resemble that of a human's. It seemed maybe closer to that of a Jackal's? The front of it had three stubby toes that ended in sharp points. Multiple footprints converged on one of the elevators, its doors ajar and interior an inky black. Her skin crawled briefly, imagining the assailants hidden inside but, again, the blood covering the walls and the floor was closer to a shade of dark brown than bright red. More than likely they had long since moved on. All the same, she'd keep an ear to the ground. Leaving the body behind, she scoured the place for an intact set of stairs to the upper floors as there was no way in hell she was trusting the lifts. Besides, it was pretty clear power was shut off to the area some time ago./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"With one last cursory look around, the Spartan pursed her lips before quietly taking her leave back the way she came. The right side of the lobby showcased a whole section of a collapsed ceiling preventing her from further investigating that area. She turned her attention to the left and was rewarded with a partially wrecked staircase past the corridor housing the broken elevators. Casting a quick glance over her shoulder at the street outside, the Four picked up her pace. Even the Promethean and company hadn't located her yet didn't mean they wouldn't eventually. For now, she still had the element of surprise. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Approaching the stairwell, Auri set her rifle back against its mag mount on her back and placed a hand on the lowest step which stopped at her chest. She placed a little pressure on the wood and heard it creak slightly in response. There was really no other way to get up to the next level and it seemed like it might hold her weight if she moved fast enough. Without further ado, Auri levered herself up off the floor. One hand shot up to grip the bannister just above her head after getting a knee under her person. A small smile ghosted her lips at the small victory when a louder crack sounded./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Ah hell!/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The Four resorted to scrambling forward up the next several steps on her hands and knees knowing that placing her weight on one stair would probably make it all collapse faster. It took only a few seconds before she rested on the second level. That had to have been noisy as hell and, with her luck, it might've caught her enemies' attention. She got to her feet in one fluid motion and, once she was sure this next level wouldn't suddenly break under her, Auri moved past the upturned cubicles and the papers scattered all about the place in search of a window that opened to the street below. More than a handful had been boarded up with rotting wood but, farther down, light spilled from the broken blinds. A curtain rod had been pulled off the wall and the heavy fabric laid in a large heap below the windows. It didn't take her long to cross the room and she shoved the blinds to the side, keeping an ear out for anything. Her rifle rested against the wall in front of her as Auri pushed the window up. It fought her briefly before finally giving way. Fresher air drifted in and dust particles slowly danced in the light as she knelt down and placed her rifle's tripod on the windowsill./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The window gave her a good view of the street below as well as a large intersection a ways down but so far, the Promethean hadn't wandered into view just yet. It was still hanging out around the edges of her motion tracker. Pulling back from her scope, the Four scanned the buildings around her, looking for a better perch, when an ear piercing screeching tore through her level causing the commander to whip around in a low crouch. She brought her rifle up to bear immediately just as the remaining glass behind her shattered. The shards bounced harmlessly off her shields and clattered to the carpet right as she located the source of the wailing. The creature had clambered up on top of a file cabinet from the duct work that could be seen through patches in the ceiling. It almost reminded her of Unggoy but without the methane tanks. Seconds later, more began crawling out from the holes in either side of the walls or fell through the ceiling. The wailer leapt down to the floor and was gunning for her. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Without a second thought, Auri cranked a leg back and punted the thing several feet where it bounced face first off an old computer. That gave her enough time to switch weapons. Her side arm made short work of the first three that tried to yank her legs out from under her. She then backhanded another that leapt at her helmet from a desk. She spun around on her heels as it got to its feet and got a bullet through the eyes as a result. A heavy weight suddenly fell on her back, making the commander stagger forward a few steps. One of the little bastards had gotten the drop on her and she could hear its teeth knocking hard against her helmet as it attempted to chew its way through her armor plating. Another followed suit and the pair tried driving her into a desk where another barked eagerly and jumped at her face. She barely managed to catch the damned thing. Spittle covered her face plate as it gnashed its jaws together with audible clacking./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Hands wrapped around its neck, the Spartan squeezed tight as she could and it soon went limp. Tossing the body aside, she tried to shake herself like a dog but couldn't loosen their grip. Her shields were steadily dropping as the creatures continued to bang and snap on her suit. They were trying to crack her open like a damned nut and if more jumped onto her, they'd succeed. Her fingers gripped one's leg and she pulled downward. Dropping the shoulder it was clinging to, Auri angled herself at a nearby wall and charged. The thing let out a garbled cry of pain as its spine snapped in two and fell off her body. The other clambered around on her back, knowing she was searching like hell for it. Auri stood up then bent her body backwards, reaching her arms back as far as she could before finally latching onto an arm. She didn't hesitate as she launched the creature forward and into another wall. It bounced off the unforgiving surface with nothing more than a grunt before slumping to the side./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A hand went to the holster on her thigh and grabbed at empty air; she must've dropped her pistol during the scuffle. Switching out to her assault rifle, she fired off short controlled bursts into the stragglers when her AI piped up./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Commander, I'm picking up gunfire coming from the street outside!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""In a minute! I don't /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"need/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" these little pricks trying to hammer my helmet in again," she said through her teeth. Another Grunt-like creature tried to jump at her once more but, just as she ducked, it went sailing through a window. It shattered the leftover glass and smacked into a burnt out car below, snapping its neck on the frame. "Fuck me." The commander let her breath out in a rush before striding to the window to survey the street. Sure enough, she could hear the short staccato beat of gunfire sounding off nearby. Then the digital warcry of the Promethean Commander primed its cannon and lobbed the glowing orange energy at… something. Whatever was attacking them was out of range for now. Hardlight projectiles spat out from the Crawlers' mouth as they strafed back and forth in front of their leader when an odd looking object was tossed into their vicinity. Seconds later it detonated, crippling one Crawler and dropping the other. The Promethean roared in anger then blinked out of existence in a flash of blue light. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It reappeared out of view of the Spartan who leaned a little ways out of the window, lips pursed in apprehension. If the locals weren't friendly then her odds making it here weren't very favorable. While she would've liked to continue her survey of the skirmish, and the Promethean's attackers, she had to move on as the sky grew more orange as the planet's star dipped closer to the horizon. At that rate, she'd have maybe another hour or two before the city was cloaked in darkness. Dropping back into the room, Auri swapped mags for her assault rifle, located her discarded pistol and pushed farther into the building. She nudged the dead bodies of the creatures that had attacked her. Only one was still alive until she caved its skull in. Upon closer inspection of one beside it revealed wicked looking teeth and stubby arms. She briefly glanced down at its feet and wondered if these creatures had been responsible for what happened in the elevator hallway some time ago. At least they were relatively easy to kill unless they overwhelmed you./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The fight outside still continued as she searched around for roof access. It soon became apparent that her best option would be to jump onto the next lower structure's roof. Faint contacts skated across the edges of her radar as the Spartan launched herself out what used to be a window at the far end of the office. She tucked into a combat roll to disperse the impact and came up onto her feet. She continued on in a loping jog to the next rooftop as Noesis analyzed the footage from her fight earlier with those things in the office while also keeping tabs on the Promethean's group. The second complex provided her with access to the lower floors. The manual lock was easily broken and the Spartan crept cautiously down the stairwell. She plunged into blackness as the door shut behind her. She activated the vision feature on her HUD and the interior took on a dark green hue./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Thus far, it seemed like no one was home but so did the last place and she wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. Once she reached the bottom it was clear this place had housed old apartments. Furniture was strewn about everywhere haphazardly and more than a few walls were either broken completely or had person sized holes punched through them. The dying sunlight leaked in through what had to have been bullet holes. Just before she thumbed off her night vision given there was enough light to see by, something in the shadows at the far end of the corridor she was in stirred. The commander raised her AR, aiming it at whatever was staring at her. It, albeit briefly, seemed just as puzzled about her as she was with it, before it bellowed loudly and brought a gun up to bear. It managed to squeeze off a few lucky shots which connected with her suit before she dove into a nearby room for cover. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"More than one pair of footsteps could be heard gunning for her. One of the bipeds entered the doorway and was met with a flurry of bullets. It brought up an arm in an attempt to ward off the worst of it but went down with a gurgle. Two more quickly filled the gap and fired on the Four's position. Auri ducked down behind the old mattress that had been shoved to one side and pulled one of her few remaining frags from her belt. She hit the activator and rolled it into their midst before hitting the deck moments before it detonated. Shrapnel and wood pelted her back plating. More contacts lit up her tracker, plenty more than she would've cared for, and she was backed into a corner. For the moment, those things seemed to be a bit smarter than their smaller counterparts and were treating her with caution. That bought her enough time to search for a way out. The wall behind her seemed to be weak enough that it might just give way with a few well placed kicks./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Cocking back her right leg, she launched her foot through the rotting wood. Several planks cracked and two fell out onto the street below but didn't collapse immediately. It took one more good hit before a hole big enough for her to slide out through opened up. It was a small mistake but she hadn't scanned the area right outside as she slid feet first down onto the asphalt. Luckily she was only three stories up but it still knocked the wind out of her. It also didn't help that she hit a ground car before smacking into the street. Auri let out a small grunt of pain, shook her head, and sent a glance upward. Those creatures were peering through the hole she made, clearly looking for a way to get down to her. Not wanting to stick around long enough to see what they'd come up with, the Spartan hauled herself up and grimaced. Sure her shields took the brunt of the fall but she was probably going to have a bruised tailbone by the end of this./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"After checking to see if her weapons were still intact, the commander hurried down the road in the opposite direction of the earlier firefight when her COMM started to buzz with activity. It was mostly filled with static and the signal was weak but, sure enough, she heard what had to be a human voice on the other line./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm already working on strengthening our COMM signal but this place isn't giving me much to work with," came her AI./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Keep trying." Right before the commander was about to open up a new COMM channel, she paused. What if whoever was on the other turned out to be just as hostile as those creatures that had just attacked her? Well, if they proved themselves hostile, she'd take them out if necessary and hopefully locate some intel on another friendly faction in the area. If they weren't then they could help her in getting back to where she needed to be. It was a risk she was going to have to take. She continued down the street at a brisk jog before keying up a channel, hoping Noesis would be able to broaden their signal range./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ghost Actual to unknown station, please acknowledge. I repeat, Ghost Actual to the last unit on this frequency, respond. Over."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The commander waited a few seconds before attempting again. More static responded moments later but she couldn't make a word they were saying, only that they were trying to reply./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ghost Actual to unknown station, say again. Over." Motion in the bottom left hand corner of her HUD caught her attention as contacts ghost across the edge of her radar. She glanced over in the general direction where the contact was moving and she saw nothing. At least not yet. Those things were no doubt tailing her and the skirmish that had been carrying on well behind her had finally died out. The Promethean had either killed them or it'd been dropped. Her lips pulled into a thin line and the knot in her gut tightened. She was about to have a full fledged fight on her hands sooner than she'd like./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Right before the Spartan was about to repeat her transmission, a man's voice broke through at last. Static could still be heard in the background as her AI continued to tweak their signal./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""KR Six-Four to Ghost Actual, please identify yourself. Over." The voice was firm, professional and… sounded just as puzzled as Auri felt but relief at hearing another person's voice overrode her confusion./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ghost Actual to KR Six-Four, this is UNSC Spartan Commander Rachel Auri. Requesting immediate backup at my location. I've got an unknown number of hostiles hot on my ass and not enough ." More contacts began to move into the surrounding buildings as several of those ape-like bipedal creatures readied themselves to pounce. In the distance, she could've sworn she heard the steady beats of a chopper so hopefully the pilot was close./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Uh, copy that, Ghost Actual." There came a sound like the mic was being muffled but not completely for she could still faintly hear them say, "The fuck's 'UNSC'? Who the fuck is this and how the hell did they get a hold of us?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The response to their question couldn't be heard but the explosive sigh from the pilot was picked up. "Accent ain't Gorasni so, think she's worth it? LZ's bound to be hot with Locust and it could be a trap. Yeah… Yeah. Fine." While the commander could understand their caution and concern, they needed to make a decision now. As she was momentarily distracted, a trio of blips moved hard and fast toward her location. A loud snarl snapped the Spartan out of her reverie and she whipped around to be greeted with one of those things grinning wickedly at her and her shields flared as she came under fire. She choked out an angry curse as she retaliated, squeezing off a short controlled burst from her AR before ducking under a swing from another. Before she straightened up, Auri fired into the second's leg, effectively wounding it, before dropping one of her precious few frag grenades into their midst./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"She jerked back in time as the explosive detonated, throwing up a wall of dirt. No doubt the pilot could hear the commotion over the open channel. "KR Six-Four to Ghost Actual, pop smoke. We're diverting a team to your location. ETA, five minutes. Can you hold out? Over." /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah," the Four grunted, "but if you could tell your boys to hurry, I'd greatly appreciate it. Popping smoke now!" She managed to put enough distance between her and the creatures to grab at her kit for an emergency flare and thumbed the activator before tossing it to the side. Almost instantaneously, green smoke began to billow out into the air. Upon seeing this, the creatures redoubled their effort when the ground began to shake violently as two massive Stalks erupted from underground. They pulsed a sickly yellow as bulges inflated beneath the skin. Auri watched in horror as the bulges burst open with an audible pop. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Spilling out onto the ground were mutated bipeds. Yellow bioluminescence glowed brightly throughout their bodies as more were deployed. Their skin was charred black and they immediately engaged the creatures that were tangling with the Spartan. Revulsion warred with the fear that flowed through the woman's body and her skin crawled. She wasn't even aware she was muttering to herself when the pilot's voice called out loudly through the channel./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Ghost Actual, say again. What's goin' on over there?!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""They're… Fuck. I don't know. Yellow glowing… things. They just popped out of this massive Stalk two hundred yards away and they're attacking these ape-like bipeds that have been tailing me."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Fuck. Okay. Ghost, you need ta get outta there. Now. More Lambent are bound to be on the way. Squad's a couple minutes out from the smoke. KR Seven-Five is moving in to evac you all outta there. You'll have to clear the LZ enough for pick up. Just hang tight, got it?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Wilco!" With that, the connection dropped and the Spartan began to disengage from the fight. The ape bipeds she'd been initially fighting - Locust? - clearly seemed to be uneasy as the Lambent cut down their forces with malicious intent. Two more Stalks broke through the asphalt as a third rammed through the apartment complex Auri had vacated minutes earlier. The building swayed a little as the foundation gradually grew more unstable and soon collapsed in on itself, bringing the Stalk down with it. A minor victory but one that wouldn't last long with the way this fight was going. The Locust had two larger personnel wielding what had to be grenade launchers into the Lambent. Two Lambent detonated rather explosively, spilling a corrosive agent onto an unfortunate Locust which cried out in pain before succumbing to its wounds./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A small squad of Locust that had been taking potshots at their glowing adversaries quickly caught sight of the retreating Spartan and shifted focus to their original target. Auri activated her hardlight shield and fired her AR one handed as she fell back. A lucky flurry of bullets managed to knock one of the Locusts into the dirt when something metallic fell at the woman's feet. She instantly recognized it as a grenade similar to one that had taken out the Crawlers and slammed her shield down on the ground in an attempt to stave off the worst of the explosion. The concussive blast rammed into the shield, which had already been glowing a worrying shade of orange, and it sent Auri tumbling back a few meters./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"While the defensive attachment took most of the damage, she was still more than a bit dazed. The device had overheated and had already deactivated as she started coming to her senses. Her suit's shields were only at twenty five percent and her assault rifle had been knocked from her grasp. Noesis had cried out, urging her Spartan to get up, as Lambent converged on her location. Auri spied her assault rifle a couple meters off to her left out of immediate reach and unholstered her sidearm to fire on the closest glowing thing when a hulk of a person ran across her field of vision, their shoulder dropped down to ram into the Lambent. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The thing roared in anger before it tumbled head over heels. A flurry of bullets followed soon after and it barfed out more corrosive fluid as it exploded. A man's whoop of joy sounded off along with more gunfire coming from just behind her. The trooper that had saved her from an acid fueled death turned around to reveal an award winning smile. He was an African American middle aged man who jogged over to offer the commander a hand up like she was an old friend. He hauled her up without much of an issue./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Woo, baby! That was a close call. Too close if you ask me," he remarked over the din of the fight and they both moved into cover where he then asked, "You Ghost Actual, right? Private Augustus Cole, ma'am. Me an' Hotel Squad are gonna get you outta here. Transport's four minutes out. We gotta get the LZ clear first. Last thing we all need is one of these Glowies hitching a ride. You ain't hurt, are you?" Auri shook her head as she took the time to swap mags for her rifle. If she struck this Cole as odd looking, the man merely took it in stride, knowing there'd be an explanation later./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm good," she replied, thumbing on her external speakers; just like with the pilot, she was a mite bit grateful these guys spoke English. "Let's knock these assholes back and get out of here." As much as the commander wanted to pepper the man with questions, they'd have to wait till their lives weren't in immediate danger. There was a temporary break in their skirmish as the soldiers had to switch out mags and began pushing the Glowies and remaining Locust slowly back. Off in the distance, the gradual steady beat of chopper blades could be heard as their transport grew closer and, soon enough, she could spot the bulky thing high in the sky./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""KR Seven-Five, I've got eyes on friendlies," came a woman's voice over the COMM channel. "Keep your heads down, folks. Lemme soften them up for ya." That was all the warning they got as the frontal chain gun loudly erupted, mowing down hostiles in the immediate area. After about fifteen seconds, the gun powered off and the squad was able to worm out what was left of the hostile force attacking the Spartan. Once the landing zone was finally secured, KR Seven-Five began her descent. The Raven bounced briefly on its landing gear before the pilot swung open the side doors to allow them admittance. The rotator blades continued to spin overhead as she waited for her crew to get situated. As the commander stepped foot inside, the pilot leaned out around her seat./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're that Ghost Actual Six-Four was yellin' about, yeah?" At Auri's nod, Seven-Five let out a short bark of laughter. "Damn, we ain't never seen someone like you. Thought it was a damned trap. You're lucky we were in the area otherwise you'd probably be lunchmeat for those assholes out there. Command's gonna shit their pants when they see you. 'Least Prescott would, if he was even still around." Once everyone was secured inside and blades began to spin up faster, the Four finally got a decent look at the troopers around her. Save for Cole, the other four soldiers wore helmets with dark blue goggles in place. The rest of the armor was dark gray, almost black, with blue on front. On their chest plates were two large circular seals that seemed to hold the whole thing in place. Along their shoulders and backs soft blue light emitted, lighting up their seats. They were no doubt examining her as much as she was them./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Once they were finally off the ground, the Four let out a quiet sigh of relief and leaned her helmet back against the headrest. Seven-Five was right. She was beyond lucky they were close at hand and that they were willing enough to give her a lift./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Their armor permutations aren't matching up to anything I have in my database," her AI murmured quietly in her ear./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I know. They don't seem to be Innies. At least they certainly don't act like it. They have enough firepower to bring me down," Auri replied via their private channel. She eyed one trooper's primary weapon that looked wicked as all get out. What had to be a chainsaw blade beneath the weapon still had bits of gore and some blood clinging to the sharp points. If these somehow were a robust squad of Insurrectionist forces then she just dropped herself into their open arms. Yet, Six-Four's muffled conversation with another crew member flicked back through her mind. Even the Innies clearly knew the UNSC and who and what they represented. As soon as the commander located whoever was in charge, she was going to get questions answered. For now, she'd enjoy the ride./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It didn't last long./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Roughly ten minutes into their flight back to the troopers' base of operations, their transport listed to the right. Heavily. Cole, who had been sitting on her left side, gripped his seat tightly and thumbed on his own communications channel./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey, what's goin' on up there?" The other soldiers were already alert, knowing something was clearly wrong./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Diverting to a different route. Six-Four's got eyes on a damned Brumak with a small contingent of Locust headin' down main street. Guess they caught wind of the fight earlier and wanted to investigate. So far, seems like they've heard us but don't have eyes in the sky. We should be good getting back to the /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sovereign/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;". Till then, sit tight and- Oh shit!" That was all the warning they got when the Raven jerked hard to the right, narrowing avoiding an incoming projectile. One of Cole's hands snapped up to brace himself against the commander's shoulder to keep from smacking his head into her armor as he, the Spartan and other Gears held on for dear life. Auri ground her teeth together and, as their transport swung around, she caught a glimpse of whatever it was that was impeding their progress./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"It was massive. And very clearly pissed./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Talk to me, Seven-Five!" Cole called out, his voice straining a bit./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""'Nother fuckin' Brumak! Tryin' to shake it but it's got a damned lock on us. Brace for evasive maneuvers!" A series of creative curses flew over their COMM link as the pilot shifted their Raven this way and that when the back end of it shook violently. Metal screeched loudly and bits of shrapnel pinged off the hull. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""We're hit! Brace brace brace! Oh hell!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The front end dipped forward dangerously as Seven-Five fought for control of the dying bird, attempting to level out so they'd skim along the belly when crash landing. Seconds later, they knocked into a nearby building, crumbling it to the ground. The rotator blades had given up at that point, having been shattered to pieces after that glancing hit with an old hotel. They landed belly down on top of another abandoned place and skidded another several meters until the cockpit was hanging off the edge. Right as Auri thought their ride had come to an end, she threw a look over her shoulder at the cockpit just in time to see the street below fill up the windshield. The roof they'd landed on was unstable and had begun to collapse in on itself. Their transport dipped forward and tumbled to the ground on its side. Two Gears had been shaken loose upon impact and one laid on his back on top of one of the side doors. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The metal groaned all around them as the bird finally settled down. The harness keeping her attached to her seat dug hard into her shoulders as Auri shook her head and slowly looked about the interior. Supplies not tied down by webbing had been thrown about the cabin. Broken shards of glass littered the floor, seats and troopers who were starting to come around themselves. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Okay… Sound off. Who's not dead?" she called out as the Four went to carefully unbuckle herself. A small host of collective moans of pain was all the response she got as the Gears got situated. Most had some bumps and bruises but were relatively unharmed. Auri looked back over to Cole who had a small cut bleeding on the left side of his forehead which he wiped at with an old rag. She'd depolarized her blue visor so he could actually see the woman inside the suit. If he was taken aback that she was just human, he took it in stride just like everything else. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm good. Get this bird opened up while I go check on the pilot," he said as their gazes met. "We need to get movin' ASAP." He grunted a little as he moved before stepping around the Spartan, checking on one trooper who waved him off on his way over to Seven-Five. The other soldiers were getting on okay as they took stock of what supplies survived the crash while Auri balanced herself on the sides of one bench of seats as the side door they hadn't landed on was well above her head. She reached up to grab hold of the latch and tested it. It seemed like it was still in good shape so she threw it back. It took another push before she got the thing open finally./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Overhead, she could see a large trail of black smoke billowing into the sky from the back of their bird. Cole was right. They needed to get moving sooner rather than later. There was no doubt that hostiles were on the move toward their location. After taking stock of her own weaponry, Auri knelt down from her perch in time to see Seven-Five, minus her helmet, stepping out from the cockpit with Cole in tow./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Let's grab what we can then get the hell outta here," the pilot said before spitting out a globule of blood. She holstered her snub nosed pistol on her thigh then grabbed some gear and handed it over to the commander. Auri took it and lifted up and out of the bird's exterior before lifting herself out as well. It took them all a few minutes before the Spartan, with Cole's help, hoisted the remaining Gears out. Gear secured in bags or on their armor, they hopped off the Raven./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I already radioed Six-Four. He said we're close enough to the coast for a boat to swing by and grab us," the pilot announced as she raked a hand through a rat's nest of brown curls that had drifted into her face. "It's about a half mile to the East from here but that Brumak might be in the way between us and rescue."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're kidding me, yeah?" balked one Gear who then let out a frustrated sigh as Seven-Five shook her head. "This guy's been nothin' but bad luck since we got 'im onboard," he continued, gesturing angrily at the commander. Her visor had polarized since they'd exited the Raven, hiding her expression from view. Her back stiffened in response and before she opened her mouth to reply, Cole easily stepped in./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey now, baby. This ain't nothing but a minor setback, here. Nothing's stopping the Coletrain. Within the next hour, we'll be kicking back on /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sovereign /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"with a nice cold drink."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Sign me the hell up for that. I heard Stephenson's squad managed to secure a good batch of supplies last time they went out so maybe they actually snagged some decent alcohol," one of the female Gears remarked, the tension abating a little. The Four caught Cole's eye and he gave her a quick wink as they picked up the pace; that man was starting to become a favorite of hers now with his quick charm and smart wit. She really hoped this faction wasn't somehow secretly a terrorist organization after all the trouble she went to seek out help. A few quiet minutes passed before Auri strode to the front of the group and stuck her arm out to slow them down./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What's-?" a Gear started to say when the Spartan made a quick cutting motion across her neck with a hand, the universal signal to shut it. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Detected movement up ahead. Off to the left," she said softly, eyes scanning their surroundings. "I also think I'm picking up that - what'd you call it? A Brumak?- yeah, that. It hasn't popped up on my radar but it sounds like it isn't too far off./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""There should be a street to the right. Not that first one we're comin' up to. The one after it," Seven-Five murmured. "That one should take us to an inlet that'll spit us out onto the beach. A boat should be getting close now."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Then we double time it, people," Cole said just as quietly. "The sooner we get to the beach, the sooner we're back on safer ground. Baird's gonna shit himself when he sees you." That last bit was directed at the Four who shot him a questioning look to which the big man just chuckled in response. Their conversation dropped there as the soldiers jogged through one intersection, staying sharp. This close to rescue they couldn't afford to drop their guard now. They soon came up on the street Seven-Five had indicated and, sure enough, turning right down the road, it deadended at a small bit of beach. Off in the distance, roughly five minutes away, was a motor boat speeding their way./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The group collectively picked up their pace, waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it did. Without warning, three Stalks burst up from the sand, spewing Lambent cannon fodder from blisters oozing up from below. Gunfire here would no doubt catch the Locusts' attention and, thus, the Brumak's. They were going to get very popular in a matter of seconds. Auri stepped in front of two of the Gears caught off guard from the attack and deployed her hardlight shield to absorb the brunt of the hail of bullets thrown their way. Her COMM crackled to life as another voice entered the channel./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hang in there, Cole. We're a minute out from your location. Just keep ''em off us as we get close!" Sparing a brief glance seaward revealed some sort of patrol gunboat speeding their way. There were two soldiers aboard, one manning the controls. Another was behind a turret which kicked on soon as it was able to./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yo Dom! About damned time, baby!" Cole called out with a relieved grin on his face before he turned around to gun down a Lambent that had gotten too close for comfort. They pushed slowly toward the water and soon the waves lapped at their legs. Auri had to deactivate her portable shield for the moment as it recharged and settled in to mow down hostiles with her AR all the while keeping herself in between the worst of it and the soldiers behind her; it didn't seem like their suits were equipped with shield generators and wouldn't last long under sustained fire. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yeah! We- Oh shit. Brumak! Get aboard now!" Dom yelled as he pulled the boat alongside the sandbar, quickly pulling the soldiers out of the water. A massive creature, something that was a cross between a mutant rabid pug and Tyrannosaurus-Rex came lumbering into view. And it was wielding what looked to be miniguns on either arm and a… rail gun on its back. Auri's eyes widened in disbelief at the sight of the thing. The boat's minigun spun up, immediately cutting down the stragglers on the beach, as the troopers hauled ass onto the boat with the commander being the last to hop up. Cole and Dom hoisted her out of the water. The pair share a brief look as Dom manned the controls once more./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I better get an explanation about all this later," was all he said as he threw the boat into gear and swung them around. A large wake kicked up as they sped as quickly as possible away from shore. Cole waved him off when he turned shoreward and let out a curse./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's getting ready to fire. Hold onto somethin'!" Sure enough, the large gun on the Brumak's back launched a mortar their way. It fell just a few feet short, sendings spray of seawater onto the boat./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Shit. That was too close," Seven-Five exclaimed as she went to stand by the controls. "Can't this thing go any faster?!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""If we go any faster, we'll blow the engine and then we'll be dead in the water dealing with polyps," Dom replied, straining to keep the frustration from his tone. "Come on, sweetheart. Just get us out of range…"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""It's priming again!" the other Gear on the turret called out. A loud boom sounded and another wave erupted from their left. This one was only two feet off and the impact sent the boat reeling./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Damn it! It's almost got us dialed in! Come on. Where's our damned air support?" Dom asked as he looked about them./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Nearest Raven won't make it in time. Six-Four's still trying to get away from the first Brumak he spotted," their pilot replied. If that thing on the shore fired again, they'd be beyond screwed and help was too far away. Auri double checked the cooldown on her shield attachment and saw it was glowing a soft blue indicating it was ready to be deployed. She glanced back over to the beach and could hear the creature roar in anger as it dealt with both the fleeing troopers and Lambent at its feet. A long, low sigh escaped her and she walked toward the end of the boat and stood next to Cole, gently knocking the back of her hand against his shoulder./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm about to do something really stupid but… it might get us out of range of that thing. Just… catch me if I wind up careening off into the water," she said and stopped about a foot and a half from the edge of their transport./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Wait. Catch you? What're you…?" The puzzled look on his face would've been comical had it not been for their current circumstances. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Trust me," was all the response he got as the commander tensed like she was going to run off into the water. Thumbing off her external speakers, she prepped the shield attachment. It could withstand direct impacts from a tank. It could take mortar from that rail gun, right?/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Noesis, were you able to project where the next shell will land?" Auri asked, her body filling with apprehension. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Yes." A small display popped up on her HUD displaying their patrol boat and where it was compared to the shoreline. "If it launches within the next thirty seconds, the shell will directly impact the boat."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Okay… This is stupid but… Okay. Reroute nonessential suit power to the hardlight shield and count me. We've only got one shot at this and we have to make this count."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Rerouting power now. Once the shell impacts your shield, your suit's personal shields will drop in an attempt to absorb the blast. Get ready to jump in three. Two. One…"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Far away on shore, the Brumak lumbered around on the sands, swiping left and right at the Lambent and tore down one of the three Stalks still deploying more cannon fodder into its midst. Acid byproduct from the dead was slowly eating at its flesh which further enraged it. As did the fleeing Gears. Using its last mortar in an attempt to capsize the patrol boat, the Brumak leaned forward and primed its gun before pulling the trigger. The thing lurched back upon launch, having been thrown off balance enough for Lambent to begin hopping onto its back to wreck even more chaos./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The shell went flying off, singing into the air at an incredible rate of speed, and was closing in scarily fast when the back end of the boat dipped downward as the Gears' newest companion leapt upward. A flash of blue erupted in front of her body as she jumped at least eight feet into the air and six feet out and away from the boat in order to intercept the projectile. It slammed into the front of the shield a split second later and the commander had enough sense to swing it to the side in a batting motion, flinging the shell into the water. The impact knocked the wind from her lungs and sure enough blew out her suit's shields and overheated her hardlight attachment. She fell backward and nearly onto Cole and another trooper that had caught her just in time before she hit the ocean./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"A geyser of water billowed upward as the mortar shell slammed just meters away, dousing them all with another coat of seawater. While the commander was aware the troopers around her were exclaiming loudly, she couldn't hear much past the ringing in her ears. When she was certain she could stand unaided, Auri shook out her left arm, cursing under her breath. Even though the portable shield took the brunt of the hit, it still jarred the hell out of her arm all the way up into her shoulder. She was going to be sore for the next couple of days, that much was certain. Noesis was busy returning her suit back to its normal settings as the Four leaned back against a supply crate. /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Hey, man, you good?" Cole asked. "How the hell did you know to time it like that? Like damn."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'd like to know that, too," came Dom as he cast a look back at the pair. The Spartan threw her head back, letting some of the tension go now that they were well out of range. "But it'll have to wait because I'm sure our new friend is just as tired as we are. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sovereign's/spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;" twenty minutes out so get comfortable but not complacent. Last I heard they hadn't run into any Lambent but don't hold your breath."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Now that they were under a constant threat of death and violence, Auri was finally able to get a better look at the man. Just like the other Gears, Dom was a solidly built man. Not nearly as big as Cole but he could've almost passed for a Spartan. A full dark beard covered the lower half of his face and a sweatband kept most of his black hair well out of his eyes. His armor was similar to the other troopers. The only difference was that it was covered in more dings and scratches. He no doubt went through hell and back again. As Dom shifted in place, she caught a glimpse of a large tattoo on his upper bicep. It looked like a set of angel wings enveloping something but she couldn't get a good view of it and now really wasn't the time to pester /br /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"One of the Gears cracked open a crate on the other side of the boat and handed out a couple canteens of water along with what resembled ration bars which were quickly divvied out. Cole plucked two of each out of the air that were tossed his way and offered them to the Spartan. Auri reached up and twisted her helmet to the side, breaking the seal from her suit with a soft hiss. She pulled her head piece off and tucked it under one arm before taking one of the proffered waters. She downed it quickly and hung her head back in relief./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Thank you, Private. That was… very much needed," Auri said with a grin. She felt a bit giddy after managing to pull off that ballsey stunt but she knew it was mostly from the leftover adrenaline in her system. She was going to be damned sore in the morning but it was worth it saving these soldiers' lives./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Cole let out a snort of laughter, his grin mirroring hers, as he downed his own canteen in one gulp. "No shit it was needed, baby. And damn. Here I thought you were some robot chick operatin' that suit. You are human, right?" Beneath the humor in his voice was a bit of concern./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""I'm as human as you are beneath all this plating," the commander replied before taking one of the ration bars and nearly shoving it into her mouth. Oh,she was definitely going to be paying for all this come morning. The big man let out another short laugh and shook his head before casting a look back the way they came. The sounds of battle on the shore were beginning to dim the further out to see they got out to sea. At least it seemed, for the moment, that they were relatively safe and getting closer to the /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Sovereign. /spanspan style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The massive warship came into view and there was a flurry of activity on the outer deck. A Raven could be seen coming into dock which their pilot confirmed was KR Six-Four. The rest of the soldiers got comfortable and settled in for the ride, their mission soon to be over. br /br /span/p
p dir="ltr" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Then came the hard part. How on earth was the commander going to explain all of this to their superiors? /span/p
