They all replied in unsion "No sir". Their commander just nodded before giving the marines a signal to follow him. The group the commander had came with was considerably smaller than Oliver's group with only six men in total.

The commander, deciding to explain the objective told them "Were going to find out where that smoke is coming, as that's where any activity probably is. Nothing else men, just keep your eyes peeled."

The men switched back into a combat ready mode, tredding carefully to avoid possible detection if anyone was there. The marines had split up into three groups to save time but were still only a building away from each other.

Their journey was short with a couple twist and turns around the place. The three groups emerged out of the narrow corridors into a large open area with the forest continuing at the end of the space. It was mostly devoid of any objects and was most likely the spot where the pelicans would have landed if they had not been shot down.

The only other notable thing, the thing they had been searching for, was the source of the smoke. It was a stomach churning sight, and a good few marines certainly felt like emptying the contents of their stomach.

In a large pile at the centre of the landing zone was a large pile of burning bodies and ash. The flames were dying and most of the bodies were just ash but around the edges were chared bones and skeletons, some with bits of flesh still clinging on.

Nearly every man had almost immediately looked away in digust but some were frozen like deer in the headlights, unable to move in shock.

A very panicky marine spoke up through the almost dead silence. "I-I ain't staying around when they come back!".

And with that he dropped the rifle he was holding in pure panick and bolted off in the direction they had come. The commander was about to angrily shout at him but was interrupted by an almost silent crystal whizzing past him and straight into the back of the panicky marine's head, popping it like a party popper.

Evey single man was horrified by the scene before them, but soon realised gawking wasn't going to solve any problems and they tried to run behind some barricades and sandbags a little bit to the left of their current position.

Unfortunately, another marine was picked off by another incredibly accurate shot to the stomach. He lay on the ground in a pool of his own blood, slowly dying. He screamed and shouted incomprehensible words that sounding like he was pleading with someone. He was left by the enemy and his own team and soon the shouts went silent.

Out of the shadows emerged a large covenant force moving in on their position in a semi circle. The enemy troops were comprised of sixteen sangheili aswell as four skirmishers, the skirmisher opting to stick to the shadows of the forest.

Simultaneously the elites opened fire with plasma weapons on the marines. The marines, in shock, were pinned down. The commander ordered them to fire back. Not actually sticking their heads up from behind cover, they raised whatever weapon they had over their heads and started firing blindly.

They didn't hit many elites and the ones they did were stopped from doing any damage because of the shields the elites always had, but it did make them reconsider charging head on. They took cover behind some cargo crates but were not as cautious as the marines in terms of looking at the battlefield.

The covenant fire momentarily slowed, giving the marines a chance to see what they were dealing with. Two eager looking elite minors had not followed suit with the rest of their comrades and were still charging in the wide open area towards the shaken marines.

Guns automatically opened fire like a chorus of death that shred through the oncoming enemy. The other elites saw this and used the distraction to their advantage. They sent another barrage of plasma towards the men, killing one and clipping another in the neck, the plasma searing at his skin. The soldiers was out of the battle for now but was still saveable.

Oliver stopped firing his rifle and slung it over his shoulder and immediately after rushed over to the fallen man. The man was screaming in agony and Oliver could smell the burning flesh. His training kicked in and he instinctively got to work treating the wound. Luckily, the shot had just grazed the side of his neck, and while in the process of treating the injury, Oliver stole a quick glance towards the battlefield. He noticed an elite ultra that looked similar to the one that had helped him. It appeared to be a bit behind the crates, not really interested in the battle.

Oliver didn't think much of it and let the thought go to his subconscious, and was quickly back to helping the soldier, who hadn't noticed Oliver loss of attention towards helping him.

Oliver had done all he could do for him on the field, and left him propped up against a barricade. He returned to his original position, pressed up against some sandbags. He glanced at the battlefield and saw that the elites were still behind the crates but had regained their composure. The skirmishers didn't allow anyone to easily survey the battlefield but being on a relatively flat plain as a sniper behind your own teammates makes it that much harder.

The two sides were locked in a standstill, neither were going to give up ground easily and although if the elites just charge directly at the marines they would most likely pull off a victory, but not at the cost of a good few sangheili.

The firing from the covenant side suddenly stopped. Oliver poked his head up a little over the sandbag and saw two glowing blue plasma grenades being hurled towards their position. Before he could say anything, before anyone could say anything, the two grenades landing and immediately stuck to the grounds. A loud pop and a crackling sound was made, followed by the screams of multiple men.

Oliver let out a held breath, thankful he hadn't been hit severely by either of the two grenades. He heard the sound of elites charging their position. He looked around the area and noticed there were bodies and pools of blood in the two spots where the grenades had went off.

He looked again towards the battlefield. The elites were rapidly closing in on their position, but he didn't do anything. He just stared at them, not feeling anything but the wind on his face.

"Soldier! Soldier? Can you hear me? Fall back!"

He felt a hand on his shoulder and then he was running through the tents and buildings alongside Isaac. The sounds of plasma weapons and gunfire were getting further and further away but they still weren't in the clear yet.

Oliver was focusing too much on his breathing and running that he almost ran into Isaac who had suddenly stopped at a corner. He looked towards what had caused his friend to stop and saw an elite utlra just standing there a couple of metres away.

Isaac reached for his magnum as he had left his sniper rifle. The elite didn't reach for the plasma rifle at it's side, it simply did nothing. Isaac was aiming his magnum at the elite with shaky hands.

After a moment the elite piped up and said one word.

"Go."

The elite turned and started walking away from the two frozen marines.

"Come on. Let's go!", Oliver eventually said to Isaac.

Isaac nodded and they were back into a run. The sounds of war were dying down as they got closer and closer to the forest. After another minute or so of running they emerged out of the thicket of tents and continued running through the forest.

They came to a stop beside a fallen tree and sat down on it beside each other, huffing and panting after the run.

"Why did... why did the elite let us go without a fight?", Isaac asked, being extremely confused and surprised at the actions of the elite.

Oliver, partially lying responded saying "I don't know", unsure himself why the elite continued to help him. He didn't trust her that much as it seemed very odd for an elite to just not want to fight and to even go as far as helping.

Isaac sighed and took a deep breath of air, then taking a long drink, gulping it down extremely quickly. He suddenly spat out the water in surprise and started coughing a little before pointing ahead and happily exclaiming, "Look! There's the remainder of our platoon!".

'At least were not alone out here in the woods', Oliver thought.

"Come on, lets catch up to them!".

I Supah I: Really means a lot to mean that I actually inspire someone to keep writing. Wow, that's amazing. I really like your story as well, keep up the great work on your story.

Real Plasma: Thank you so much for reviewing every chapter and saying such nice things. It's great motivation

Kivdon: Thanks again.

Gigglemeyumyums: I'm glad you like my story!