Sean sat in his drop pod and placed his assault rifle in the weapon holder. His squad sat in pods on his left and right. Sean felt jittery in his pod; he preferred his feet touching good old solid earth.
All the pods moved, they were brought out to the bay. Then the bay floor opened and there was space, and their final destination. The pods juttered slightly then there was a grinding and the pods were propelled towards the planet surface. Sean's stomach rushed up as the pod flew to the planets atmosphere. The pod jolted and shuddered as it broke the planet's atmosphere.
Then water streaked the window of the pod, Sean looked out to see a Covenant carrier just over the city, then a MAC round pounded into the side of the ship. It's shields wavered then failed, but the ship was pushed backwards, into the path of some drop pods.
Chris's voice came through the COM marred by static "Covenant cruiser directly. Below me. Not enough time to change trajectory. Angling slightly. Taking these bastards with me".
There was a pause, Sean seen several ships impact on the top of the ship, they went through the hull due to it's lack of shields. Then was a huge blue, white explosion and the carrier was gone, Chris's work probably.
Sean's pod shook violently as the explosion sent out shockwaves through the sky, he rocked around in his seat. Outside the tall forms of skyscrapers rushed passed the window, then there was the most violent jolt that there had been the whole ride, Sean nearly broke the harness as it struggled to hold the MJOLNIR armour in place.
The window of the drop pod was facing the ground, as was the door. The door separated but the pod still lay in the same position. Sean put his feet on the door and heaved the drop pod off of him; it rolled off to the side on his right. Sean held the pod still and took his assault rifle out of the weapon holder and looked around, levelling his weapon.
It was dark, but Sean's special eyesight allowed him to see in the dark, all Spartans could. He was standing in a large crater made by his drop pod; Around him was a road with buildings on either side.
Sean opened a squad COM "this is Terra squad leader report in"
A voice replied "this in Niall reporting in"
There was a large amount of static, then "this is David reporting in"
Good, Sean thought, at least those two had gotten down in one piece, as for Chris; there would be time to grieve later.
Sean set a waypoint on his squad's HUDs and began to move, keeping his assault rifle ready. He glanced round a corner and seen a group of grunts and jackals being led by three elites. Sean counted them off, ten grunts, six jackals and three elites.
He primed a fragmentation grenade and three it in their midst, the elites and two jackals rolled out of the way, the rest were blown apart. The explosion was magnified by the grunts methane tanks also exploding and the jackals were off their feet.
Sean took advantage of their surprise spraying the two jackals before they could raise their shields. The elites started to shot him; they took cover behind a car and opened fire. Sean ducked back behind the wall; his ammo counter read twenty-three. He breathed in, then he rolled out from behind the wall and opened fire on a blue armoured elite, the creatures shields sparked then failed and was mowed over by armour piercing rounds. Another blue armoured elite rolled out from behind the car and fired a series of pink needles into him. Sean rolled forward and fired his assault rifle, again the shields sparked and failed, but then Sean read the ammo counter, zero.
He drew his sidearm and fired, the elite was hit in the centre of the mouth, blood exploded from the back of it's head. The needles the elite had fired exploded draining his shields three quarters down.
The final elite jumped over the car, he wore crimson armour and moved with much more prowesses so Sean guessed that he had more experience. The elite drew a crystalline sword and charged at him. The elite slashed and Sean sidestepped then he ducked, then he pushed himself forward, bowling the elite over. It dropped the sword, which immediately disengaged, Sean then grappled with it, they stood there, two opposing forces pressing against one another. The elite pushed his face inches away from Sean. Sean, thinking of nothing else, head butted the elite. The elite fell back, shields sparking; Sean picked it up and began to deliver quick but powerful punches into the elite. Finally the elite coughed up purple blood onto Sean's armour and he delivered a quick magnum bullet to its face.
Sean stared around, his first Covenant attack; he thought it went rather well. Sean then continued to make his way to the waypoint. He was careful to avoid as many Covenant as possible before meeting with his squad.
Sean made it to the waypoint, which was inside a building, he followed a narrow corridor, and the lights were flickering overhead making it hard for his eyes to adjust. Sean rounded another corner into yet another narrow corridor. He moved along it and went through the last set of automatic doors and he reached his waypoint.
He looked round and he seen David, Niall and Chris. The nodded to him as he approached.
"How was the landings?" he asked
"Awesome" David said
Sean nodded, and then he noticed something, just out of the corner of his eye. He turned and watched the spot. The air was fuzzy; he drew his sidearm and fired. The bullet bounced off a shield.
The elite that was in camouflage was revealed, seven more were also revealed. They drew their swords. He heard the crimson armoured elite through his translation software.
Conar spoke to the demon; his sword pointed at its chest "drop your weapons demon". The demon threw down its weapon and sidearm. Conar gestured for his brothers to pick up the weapons. Then led the troupe out with the demons as their hostages. He couldn't fathom the profits and engineers interest in the technologies of these humans. They walked through the streets, past the unggoy, kig'yar and other sangheli towards the prison chambers.
Conar showed the legiko guards his rank and they let him past. They put the demons in their prison cell, stripped them of their armour and rose door shielding to maximum level. Then he exited, a satisfied smirk on his face.
Sean stared, as the elite that brought them to their prison left; it almost looked like it was smirking. He stared around trying to figure a way out of this; they had no weapons, no armour and no way out.. He sighed and hoped that they would find a way out.
David punched the shielding of the door, even with his strength the shield stayed strong. Niall sat, silently watching the guards outside. Sean stared out as well, hatred in his eyes.
Night fell around the campsite, the area outside the Spartans cell darkened. Then there was an explosion.
"That was a jackhammer launcher" David said, Niall and Sean stared outside. The elite guards had gone to see the commotion. There was a sound of two shotgun blasts, then a spray of SMG fire, an elite roared somewhere, and then all was quiet.
A Spartan appeared on the opposite side of the of the shield.
"Hey Jack" he called "we got survivors" the Spartan stared at them, "one sec guys, stand back". The Spartan drew one of the crystalline swords and slashed the control panel. It sparked, then the shields powered down.
Another Spartan appeared next to the Spartan with the sword. The Spartan held a battle rifle.
"Good work Troy, George will have the pelican here in two minutes"
"Great Jack" Troy looked at the three other Spartans. "We have armour and weapons for you boys back at base, this your first encounter?"
Terra nodded.
"I remember mine"
"Troy!" a shout came "come on we're dustin off now".
Troy waved his hand "Come on"
Together the Spartans boarded the pelican. They stared at one another.
"So" Jack said "where are you best?"
"Range, sniper" Niall said
"Explosives" David said
"And you?" Troy said to Sean
"Medium to close" he replied
"Did your squad leader survive?" Jack said
David and Niall nodded to Sean.
"You can take command" Troy said "our squad leaders died"
Sean nodded.
"Don't worry" Jack said "you'll do fine"
A voice came from the cockpit "touch down in three, two, one and we're down"
The Spartans stood up and George came through from the cockpit. Sean noticed something about these three Spartans, their armour wasn't the regulation green, they must have been special Spartans, black ops or something. The three led them out of the pelican. It was just a street, then Troy pushed a switch and a super-intendent supply cash opened up.
Inside were all manner of weapons, human and Covenant. Troy walked in and knocked on the metal wall three times then sharply twice more. A panel opened up and another Spartan came out.
"Who are these?" the new Spartan nodded to Sean, Niall and David.
"This" Troy said "is Terra squad from…." He stared at the three.
"The ghosts of reach" Sean said
"Come on Ed" Jack said, "let us in and we can get these guys some armour".
Ed nodded and stepped aside. The Spartans entered. Inside the room was small, but laid up against the wall were random pieces of armour, very few matched. Ed walked to the wall.
"Let's get you guys fitted" Ed said
"Where did you guys get this armour?" Niall asked
"These are all that's left of our squads" Troy said solemnly
"So we had better put them to good use" Ed said.