Somewhere on Installation 00 (the Ark)
Gunnery Sergeant Hemin, Leroy J.
December 11, 2552
7th Shock Troops Battalion, 105 Helljumper Division
Orbital Drop Shock Trooper of the UNSC Marine Corps
The space battle overhead between the Elites and Brutes was going in the favor of the Elites with what we heard over the com. But our battle on land, this strange land outside the galaxy was not going in favor of the humans. Our Pelican crashed-landed and myself and three Marines were the only survivors. I was in command… again.
"Where do we go from here?" asked the youngest trooper.
I responded by saying, "Shut the hell up and just keep your eyes forward. We're looking for the rally point for the Dawn. From there we're going to try and find something called the Silent Cartographer with the Chief."
"Is that it," said the young one chuckling a bit. I looked at him with anger and distress signaling to him that now wasn't a good time to start something messy.
According to the map, which was salvaged from the Pelican, the Chief was somewhere these large hills to the right of us. I held up the "move forward" sign and at that same moment a group of floating mechanical beings came out of a hole in the mountain side. I remembered what they were called and also remembered that the floating smart-mouth named 343 something told the group that they were friendlies. But the armed men around me most likely did not remember that because they had their weapons cocked and locked and aimed at these so-called Sentinels.
"Hold your fire, you goddamn idiots," I said, "They're friendlies, remember?"
They breathed a sigh of relief and we went on our merry way towards the Master Chief.
Pre-landing zone, occupied by Covenant, of the UNSC Frigate Forward Unto Dawn
Gunnery Sergeant Hemin, Leroy J.
December 11, 2552
7th Shock Troops Battalion, 105 Helljumper Division
Orbital Drop Shock Trooper of the UNSC Marine Corps
"We can't take much more of this," said Commander Miranda Keyes aboard the Dawn. They were engaged above the Ark while we were trying to make battle plans to take a Covenant base as a landing site for the Dawn. We had met up with the Chief at around 0800 hours.
"I'll take the right. You take the left," said the Chief.
"But there's twice as many on the right," one of my Marines said.
"You're right. They won't expect that," said the Chief, "but all we need is that site for the Dawn to land.
We started towards the left and fired our sniper rifles first at the Jackals on the watch towers. One by one, they fell. The Chief jumped onto a Wraith and put a fragmentation grenade in it while the Arbiter sliced Brutes and their Choppers with his energy sword.
We used our captured Ghosts to run over the remaining Brutes on the left by the watch tower. One of our guys was in a Ghost and it was blown up by a Chopper's hydrogen weapons.
Our main objective was to destroy the three Anti-Air Wraiths that were preventing the Dawn to land. We saw the Chief get on the gravity well of the second watchtower and assassinate the Grunts and Jackals on it. Immediately after that, a Brute fired up his plasma turret. The Chief easily took the bastard down with his battle rifle. The rest of the Brutes then opened fire on him.
I could see Sierra-117's shields trying to recharge but to no avail. At that point we opened fire for use of cover for the Chief while he and the Arbiter made their ways onto the AA Wraiths. The cover was successful with both soldiers putting plasma grenades into the Wraiths, destroying the vehicles, and having their personal shields recharged.
In the last leg of the skirmish, any humans and Elites present charged onto the hill and killed the remaining Brutes and Grunts with the loss of one human killed by a mauler to the throat. That one human was the youngest guy who survived the pelican crash with me in the beginning of our battle on the Ark.
I looked up as the Dawn went into atmosphere and heard some of the soldiers asking if the ship was rated for atmosphere. It appears it was.