First off, I gotta apologize for the super long delay. There were so many factors for it, I'm not even gonna list them. However, here it is, Chapter eight.

I personally don't really like this chapter, but I had to move on to get rid of the writers block. Besides, the study of hospital politics and structure is actually very time consuming. whodathunkit?

I still need to hear who your favorites are! Anon comments on my story and on my blog are enabled so you don't have to login or make an account to contribute. Please, read and review! Reviews are like fuel to keep me writing.

Alrighty, that all I can think of for right now. Hope you guys like this next installment. I own nothing, but my oc's personalitys.

"Are you injured mate?"

Raines glanced down at the blood dripping from the inside of his thigh. "Scratch."

"Yeah, uh, scratches don't require stitches. That's what you're looking at."

The sniper looked at him. "You want to set up med bay right here then doc? We'll ask the cannibalistic freaks to wait while you work."

"Don't make me shoot you." Leth dug in his cargo pocket, and pulled out a bio bandage. "Slap this on there. I'll get to you when this is over."

The medic rolled off his back into a crouch. Raines was still on one knee when he placed the bandage.

"If I get in to that bloody bank, I'm going to box someone's ears in."

If I had the ammo, it would be tempting… Raines thought to himself.

Someone looked out the window at them. Leth gave them the one finger salute. He paused though. There was arguing inside. It looked, and sounded, like Bret's wife was highly upset over something. She kept screeching and pointing towards the two ODST's on the adjacent roof. His attention was drawn to other things however, when the fire of Raines's handgun invaded his ears.

"We can't stay here." Raines scanned the neighboring buildings. "I can get over there."

"Oh god, no. We're supposed to be helping them. If you go, leave your guns."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" He shot another Reaver.

"You'll be fine. Might wanna hurry. We've got some friends down there."

"I'm not leaving my guns."

"I don't trust you. Won't it be easier to jump without the rifle anyway?"

The sniper looked at the path he had picked out. It wasn't roof to roof like before. Leth was right. "I'll leave Kate." What was he going to use it for in CQB anyway?

The medic sighed, and Raines could almost hear him roll his eyes.

"If you kill any of them I'm telling mom."

"You're certain? Cooper I swear to god I'll run you down and back over you several times if you're bullshitting me."

"That wouldn't be very Christian."

"I'll repent later. What is the AI's call sign?" For the love of god give us some good luck today…

"Sarge, you're going to shit bricks.."

"Who the fuck is it?" He jerked the wheel in frustration. Ross yelped in the back at the sudden direction change.

"It's Cortana… We found them."

"Are you fucking with me? By all that I hold dear-"

"I shit you not Sergeant. Tatsuo said they are on one of the inbound ships, and will arrive shortly. The Chief is alive and kicking."

"Then let's make sure we stay that way."

"Roger that."

Manning let hope grip him, but not too tightly. He had learned a long time ago that one should always only believe none of what they hear, and half of what they see. Finding the Chief and making sure he was alive and well was only part of the task at hand.

The road was dusty and unpaved. The Warthog made huge dust clouds as it moved. This only attracted the attention of another skiff however. Manning pointed out the third one, and Ross quickly whined.

"I'm not a Spartan dammit, I can only shoot one rocket at a time, unless you'd like me to flatulate at them, though I'm not sure the effect that will have."

"We aren't equipped to survive that biological attack. Just take it out before it takes us out!"

Ross stuffed the rocket in the launcher and whistled a tune, as usual. He aimed, and pulled the trigger. "Heeeeeeeeeeeeere's JOHNNY!" He sang with delight.

The trail of smoke arched, and collided with the skiff. He moved his rear end around, dancing in the seat, and singing, " Dum dum dum, Another one bites the dust…"

"You are not right." Manning muttered. He contacted Cooper. "Cooper, head towards the bank. Back them up. We'll be there shortly. There's one more skiff I want gone."

"Roger that."

Staccato firing gave the sergeant an idea of their location. It wasn't too far off.

"You got one more rocket left, right?"

"Yep."

"Don't miss please."

Ross feigned insult. "UH! I'm hurt! How could you ever think such a thing?"

John was quick about putting his armor back on. It felt good to have it pieced back together. He always felt somewhat naked without it. Through sheer determination he did it by himself, and that was no easy task. But years of being in the field tended to make anyone, especially the Spartans, self sufficient.

"Someone's in a rush. Or are you just happy to see some UNSC personnel?"

"Both." John brought the suit online, and checked out the status. It needed some attention, but nothing too serious. It would do, he was sure of it. It wasn't the worst condition his equipment had ever been in.

"Well, don't forget me." She placed her hands on her hips expectantly. He grinned ever so slightly, before sliding the helmet back on. The familiar hiss and snugness of it was comforting. He tugged Cortana's chip out of the holo base and inserted it into the back of his head. The familiar icy cold slid over him, and it instantly felt like old times.

"It's good to be back."

"Let's go see where we stand."

John exited his room, remembering to duck down even further. He was slightly taller in the armor. Heading up the stairs, and making a direct route for the bridge, John began running though his mind, all the possibilities of the situation. Would the ship the ODST's arrived on be flight worthy back to UNSC space? What was the situation like back home? How would he be received by the Helljumpers?

The ODST's had always had issues with the Spartans. It was something that John was not quick to forget. Vivid memories stood out there. He made his way up the stairs and came out into the back hall. He could hear Kaylee in the engine room, and when she called to him, he turned. The usual pause that came with the appearance of the armor settled in air.

She was wide eyed. John recognized it as fear, but it wasn't because of him.

"You gonna go down there and fight?"

He nodded. "The Captain is on the bridge?" It was more of a question than a statement.

"Um yeah. He should be."

John said nothing, and headed forward again. A mission was at hand, and nothing would break his focus. His long strides brought him to the bridge quickly. He could hear voices arguing. One belonged to the man they called Jayne, and the other was the Captain. Apparently Jayne was highly opposed to heading to the planet. Whether or not the Captain had changed his mind was not clear, but John would do anything to get down to the planet's surface. There wasn't much anyone on the ship could do to stop him.

The first mate, and the pilot were visible from the door, and Zoe saw him coming. Her face never changed expression, except to raise an eyebrow. The room grew silent when he entered it. Another reaction he had grown accustomed to. No one said anything, and John wasn't in the mood to wait for them to find their voices.

"I need to get down to that planet."

"What lit the fire under yer back end?" The Captain looked him over with cautious eyes.

"The signal of another UNSC AI was detected and contacted. The contact with this AI is my main objective for the moment."

"You…. Got friends on that go se rock?"

"The presence of the AI was picked up by Cortana. A group of ODST's crash landed somewhere not far from your current destination recently. It is imperative I link up with them."

"How in the Guai did you get that?"

Cortana put in her thoughts, and used John's external speakers as a conduit. "You may not be grasping just how superior out technology is to yours Captain Reynolds. Where ever it is you have set your destination, there are seven ODST's involved in possible conflict with hostiles. When we get closer I'll be able to tell you their exact status."

They glanced inquisitively at him after hearing the AI's voice. If they were curious enough to ask any questions, not one voiced them.

"Well good ..for you." The Captain said. It seemed he had nothing else to say. Jayne scoffed.

"Mr. Big and Bad is all eager to go into battle with them Reavers. We'll see how much you like it when we land and you get to meet'em."

John knew this man's type. The UNSC was full of them. They had a tendency to run off at the mouth and bristle at anything or one that could be a challenge for them. Feeding into the bait for arguments was never wise or productive. Instead, he turned his helmet donned head towards the Captain again.

"I have no need for you to land, for me to exit this ship."

Mal looked at him blankly. "Oh…..kay..How exactly are ya planning your exit?"

"Airborne if necessary. How long till arrival?" His voice was monotone. He could have been preparing to do something as mundane as taking out the trash.

"We'll be breaking atmo in five mintues." Wash announced.

"I'll be in the cargo bay." John said in a gravelly deep tone. He intended to collect his weapon.

"What in the hell is takin place on my ship?" Mal looked to Zoë and Wash. She was silent and he shrugged, looking for the proper words.

"I'll tell you what. You takin in strays again has got us in another situation. Since when did dancing straight into Reaver attacks fit on our gorram list of things to do? Yall don't remember the last time we did this number?"

"I'd be inclined to agree with Jayne, but a lot's changed over the last year. People are fightin back. The Alliance might have tried coverin up what happened on Miranda, but they've put more patrols out on the border and rim." Zoe interjected.

"People out here are tired of getting gnawed on at one end by Reavers and the other by the Alliance. Somethin's gotta give and when they push back it'll be against the first one they stand any kind of a chance against." Wash added.

"No one stands a chance against ruttin Reavers."

Mal never took his eyes off the floor. "We did. The Cordon Virgis colony did, and if reports are to be believed, they won. Heavy losses to be had. This ain't the first I've heard of this neither. Reports do filter in off the cortex, for those quick enough to gobble 'em 'fore the Alliance wipes the system. If there be one thing we should have all learned by now, it's that you never underestimate anyone, specially folk pushed to their limit."

"I give it ten minutes till we're on our target site Mal. Anyone who's going better git. I'm getting another wave from Karyn. She said we've got several ship fulls of men. Three more are about ten minutes out and will break atmo shortly after us."

"Sounds like a plan."

"One we're all too often stuck in." Jayne mumbled.

Mal moved swiftly past Zoe as Serenity trembled with the physical stress of re-entry. "Get ready. There's imminent violence in the foreseeable future." His movement down the corridors was multi-tasked with orders. He wanted Kaylee in the engine room, and Simon on standby for treating the wounded survivors…if there were any. River was nowhere to be seen for the moment.

The Captain paused, and began asking Simon if he had seen the Chief walk by, but a flash of green armor and a gold visor answered his question prematurely. It had come from the cargo bay, exactly where the impromptu passenger had claimed he would be. Mal was curiously reminded of his distrustful nature. He never seemed to take much notice to this before, but for some reason it seemed to traverse to the focal point of his attention. He'd have to consider giving that thought more of his attention at a later time, when guns and death weren't involved.

Master Chief was not the only person in the cargo bay either. Jayne was preparing his array of weaponry on the opposite side. He had kept a distance from the odd soldier, and was still sending predatory scowls in that direction. Light footfalls on the catwalk told Mal that Zoe had entered the bay.

Wash was going to drop them with Karyn's mercs and get the ship out of harm's way. He started to rig up the rip cables. They would slide down and out of Serenity, and Wash would never have to land. Clicks and snaps of harnesses came from Zoe and Jayne. Mal looked from the Chief, to the box of equipment the harnesses had been pulled from and shrugged. There was no way he'd fit.

The Chiefs only reaction was, "I won't need it anyway."

Wash came over the speaker. "We're commin up on the mark people. Get ready. It'll be bumpy."

Zoe methodically placed her weapons and rigged herself up. The look in her eyes was cold and focused. Mal shimmied his coat on over the rigging and hefted the automatic weapon Jayne handed him. The larger merc slung his beloved gun, dubbed Vera, across his chest and muttered something about them all dying in mandarin.

The Captain could feel the decent through the vibrations, but was distracted because of watching the Chief. The man had made no move to grab any extra weapons from the ships cache, and had settled only for his handgun, and the odd rifle Jayne had become so found of. Mal's curiosity was further peaked when the man simply slapped it onto his back and the weapon stayed put. Must be some kind of magnet system in the armor.

He walked calmly towards the fourth and only cable that had not be rigged up to a harness, and calmly wrapped his hand around it. Mal and the others stood at the ready, faces set. The airlock doors opens, and all was bright and windy.

Dawkins barreled around a corner, rolling the hog and bringing it upright successively. Cooper wiped sand and grit off of his visor, and Smith uttered curses in the turret.

"Don't do that again man."

"Haha."

They were coming upon the bank once again, and could see the surge of Reavers assaulting the building. Smith wasted no time firing into them, and mowing down dozens instantly.

"We can't stay still, we'll get overrun quick." Dawkins muttered.

"Keep makin passes. Might be able to draw some away too."

Cooper slapped more ammunition into his rifle and cracked his knuckles. Tatsuo and Cortana were in communication with one another, and feeding information back to him. The Chief was alive, and was apparently about to arrive with a small force of fighters. It was almost too good to be true, and it was hard not to chalk it up to just pure luck. He could almost feel them handing him his discharge papers. After this mission the stop-loss would be lifted. It had been a long war, and Cooper was more than happy to put it behind him and move on.

They careened around a corner and thumped over bodies. Cooper was brought out of his thoughts when a snarling and thumps echoed all too closely in his ears.

Raines had to pick out a less than conventional path. One rooftop over, he was slightly closer to the southern wall of the bank. The buildings sides were not smooth. Stones stuck out at odd angles, and support beams created the perfect ledges and grips. Doc Leth had taken cover behind a smoke stack, but had the rifle ready.

He took several steps back, judging the distance one last time before pumping his long legs forwards. He built as much speed as possible first, and launched his body off the edge. Kevin almost felt as though he was flying. It never lasted though. The feeling of freedom and release always came to a crashing halt when reality(and gravity) forced him back down. He hit the side of the building grabbed for a handhold.

He cursed the armor he was wearing, as it made the going more difficult and clumsy. There was a window not far, and he started to climb towards it. Leth spoke to him through the comm.

"Looking good so far, you nimble bastard."

Raines grunted in response.

Voice's reverberated from inside. He recognized one as the woman that had been pulled up from the basement. She was fighting with someone one. He caught the words 'ladder' and 'help them'. Normally he'd gather all the information possible, but losing grip was a bad issue at the moment. Fear jumped in his chest when bullets pelted the nearby wall.

Keep moving, He mentally yelled. The familiar sound of the rifle cracking off a shot told him the Doc had taken something down, or at least shot at it.

The window was close, with in arms reach. The opening was small, and he'd break through the glass going in…

The crescendo of shattering glass drew the attention of everyone in the room. The reaction at seeing one of the individuals in the strange black armor was one of shock. Raines rolled to his feet and drew his gun. He cut right to the point.

"Extend the ladder out now."

The room was dark, and strewn with haphazardly thrown items. The man and his family were situated in the corner, and the wife looked as though she'd been face to face with whomever was in charge. That man in question was not as slow to draw as the others.

The pistol was already out of its holster and halfway up when the troopers magnum barked in reply. The bullet ripped through the guys forearm, and passed through the other side cleanly. He dropped the pistol and cradled the injury, shouting in disbelief. Metallic clicks sounded off the drawing of more fire arms. Blood began staining his coat.

Raines repeated himself, ignoring the extreme twist of annoyance at having to do so. "Extend it now, or I'll kill one or more of you."

The woman stomped her foot. "Just do it! Him an the others saved my family, and dammed if I'll see'm shown this kind of gratitude."

The wounded man nodded his head and several others went to move the contraption. Raines hit his comm.

"It's coming Doc."

"And ain't a moment too soon."

The black iron ladder extended. It was a shoddy bridge, but no means of crossing looked better at the moment.

It didn't take long for Leth to crawl in, kicking his med bag forward first. The shorter man tossed Raines the rifle back, and quickly drew the shotgun, just for good measure. He looked around, and snickered.

"Wow. No one's dead. You should get a prize for that."

"Blow me." The sniper responded, grinning through a depolarized visor despite himself.

The man with the bullet wound was not happy. His arm was soaked in blood. The rest of the room still had their fire arms pointed at the troopers. The medic looked over at his partner. Raines could almost see the look on his face. He shrugged in return.

Leth bent down to give the guy a bandage and stop the bleeding. Biofoam fizzed out of its canister with a hiss. As he was tending the wound, he asked the man what happened to the Sherriff.

Some one spit chewing tobacco out the window and muttered, " Dead. Got shot 'n left outside. Almos' like yall."

Raines couldn't help be disgusted at the people around him. Their regard for each other was almost nonexistent, and anyone else was just fucked. Poor combat skills and a complete lack of any sort of courage. Natural selection should be allowed to run its course here. The squad had no business interfering, at least not with the adults… kids were a separate story..

Now I'm just treading into bad philosophical territory…

That thought process was push aside, and he focused his attention on the gunfire. Men were at the windows firing their guns like children on a fun shoot. His sigh was almost audible. In an unforgiving and downright rude manner, he yanked a hunting rifle out of the wielders hands. The man protested, but was silenced immediately by a "Shut up." from the even tenor tone of the sniper.

Steady cracks emanated from the gun and cut through the air, each one accentuated by the dropping of a body. The rifle was practically a dinosaur: each round had to be chambered by bolt action. But it was an accurate shot, iron sights or not.

A dust cloud several streets down told him were Cooper was. Another pass with the turret would help them out.

"Hey Doc, when you're done patching that cretin, another semi accurate shot would be nice." Raines cracked on the Doc's shooting.

"How bout I semi shove my foot up your ass?"

Leth was actually an exceptional shot. The team just had a habit of harassing each other. He didn't join his fellow trooper though. Loud bangs and crashes could be heard downstairs.

"Oh, sounds like we have guests." He pumped in the new shells and took off for the stairs.

Over the gun fire, screams and explosions, Raines thought he could hear engines. He briefly paused between shots. A glance over the shoulder revealed the stairs to the next floor. He moved to them quickly, within several strides.

The stairwell went right to the top floor and up to the roof. The sniper followed them all the way. The hatch opened, and the roar of engines was louder.

The white panned out and Mal's vision slowly returned to normal. The landscape of Lilac passed below them quickly. The dry , unforgiving countryside was nothing but a mottled blur. It made him slightly dizzy to stare at it. He re-adjusted his grip on the rope and continued to look out of the hatch, just not at the ground. Jayne was making sure all his weapons were in place. Zoe had a ghost of a grin on her otherwise determined, stoic expression.

At the right of the hatch opening a Reaver skiff crossed into view. A bead of adrenaline pumped into Mal's system. He could feel his heart pound into his chest wall. What could have possibly made him think this was a good idea?

The skiff didn't have too much time to gain ground on them. Mal would have thought his eyes were deceiving him when he saw the vapor trail. It looked like it could be a rocket. When the impact occurred his thoughts were confirmed.

The projectile collided with the cockpit of the skiff. Immediately it careened out of control, and soared over several buildings to finally crash into what looked like a large warehouse. Mal looked over at Jayne and yelled "What did that?"

The large merc shrugged, but the captain felt a heavy tapping on his shoulder. It was the Master Chief and he pointed to a dark spot moving through the buildings, kicking up dust clouds.

The Chief knew the form as soon as he saw it. M12 light recon vehicle, more commonly known as a Warthog. He could spot two people in it with his vision.

"It's good to see UNSC personnel. It's been far too long." Cortana said into his ear.

"Agreed." He practically growled in response. His voice hadn't gotten any better. Cryo without the gel might have done some permanent damage.

Mal glanced over his shoulder at the moving vehicle, and then back to the chief. "Your people?"

John nodded.

Serenity pulled ahead of the moving Hog, and the four people at the hatch could feel it slowing. Mal whirled his hand around his head, and they backed out. At the same time Wash slowed the ship down just enough.

Zoe was the first out, but the Chief surpassed her distance quickly. Weighing around a ton in the armor, he zipped down the line quickly and unceremoniously. Where the others went considerably slower to avoid injury, he slammed quickly into solid earth, quite literally hitting the ground running.

Whatever the people here were fighting attacked him in droves. They fired guns, and several lunged with sharpened knives. He never bothered to hesitate. His shields flared up in the small dust cloud surrounding him, and each of them was dropped with a rapid fire to the head.

Around him more gun wielding people landed out of their vehicles. Some of the ships landed, some dropped passengers like Serenity was doing. It didn't matter though, because the Chief was first.

The dust cloud was visible coming down the road, but that wasn't the only thing that approached him.

It looked human, by all accounts, but it was mutilated and feral. Without a second thought, John dropped it with a double shot to the head. He moved forward and downed two more.

His shields flashed a warning. Something had shot him, and a glance to the right revealed his next target. It was off to side, almost completely hidden. But there wasn't much that could get past his HUD detection.

Mal's attention was definitely caught when a swirling orange tinted aura surrounded the Chief, directly after he was shot. What kind of tech was this guy equipped with?

More than two dozen of Karyn's men had touched ground with them, and started firing immediately. The red haired, bossy woman was with them and carrying a nasty looking automatic rifle. She paused for a moment, taking in the work the Chief was doing. She said nothing, but raised an inquiring eyebrow at Mal.

The weapons began firing in a chorus of bursts. The group stuck together, mowing down anything that came at them. Master Chief didn't want to wait though. The Warthog was moving at them, and his comm clicked on. The deep steady voice of one of the ODST's piped in.

"Master Chief ? This is Sgt. Liam Manning of Phoenix Squad Rescue based off the UNSC Soto Cano. Do you copy?"

"Copy Sergeant. It's good to see you."

"We have a visual Chief. Need a ride?"

The Warthog barreled toward him. The Spartan stood right in its trajectory, but at the last minute the driver hit the e-brake and it skidded to halt in front of him.

The group of merc's looked on curiously, but never stopped firing. The vehicle was odd, as were the two passengers occupying it. But the green armored man waltzed right up, unfazed.

He looked down at the two troopers seated and said, "What's the situation?"

The passenger holding the rocket launcher answered." Killin cannibalistic pysco's Sir."

"Quiet Ross. Trying to keep the civilians alive Chief. We crashed a few miles outside of town."

John nodded. "We'll deal with that later. We'll help these people first." He gripped the side of the hog and pulled himself into the back of the Warthog. He noticed the turret was empty, but he could sill fire his assault rifle.

Mal observed the encounter curiously. The Chief spoke with the men for only a moment before hopping in the vehicle. The guys inside were wearing black armor and helmets. They had to be the ODST's Cortana had spoken about. The captains thoughts were interrupted by Cortana's voice snaking in through his comm.

"We're heading right to where the civie's are Captain."

He didn't wan to ask how she got into his comm, but it only added to his suspicions about her. "Fine. Yer funerals."

The thought of disregarding what his eyes were showing him never once crossed his mind. Kevin Raines had one of the best set's of peepers in the UNSC. So when he caught glimpses of the green armor on the back of the hog, he knew they had completed the mission, if only partially. The Master Chief was alive.

"Doc, we have the package. Manning and Ross have him."

"Holy shit balls, yer serious mate?"

"How often do I jest?"

"Point taken. Then let's finish this joke of a battle and get our bloody arses back to the Tam."

Reavers were attempting to flank the building defenders. Raines fired on them, as quickly as the archaic rifle would allow. When one smashed in a window, it was met with a shotgun blast the sniper was sure belonged to Leth.

The waves were more frequent, but not nearly as large, and no less vicious. Every time he dropped one, two more took its place. It was like they were fighting a bunch of grunts, only more dangerous. He barely heard the door moving behind him, and whirled around with the rifle at the ready.

A kid that couldn't have been older than thirteen threw his hands up. Almost as old as I was….."Don't shoot me! I brought more ammo!" True to his word, there were two dirty brown bags hanging off his hips. There was also another rifle slung idly on his back.

Raines lowered the gun. "Fine. Can you shoot?"

"Not all that well.." The kid stared nervously into the polarized visor covering the troopers head.

"You load the guns and when I yell that I'm out, hand me a full one. If this is too hard get your ass back inside right now." The kid nodded a silent understanding. How is it the children in the place have more of a spine than the adults?

Snarling drew his attention, and he fired three more shots.

"I'm out!"

The kids reaction time was decent, and the freshly loaded second rifle was quickly in his hands. The empty one got passed off. When Raines got up and ran to another edge of the building, the kid was quick to follow. Again, he had at least a grudging respect for the more ballsy youth. The adolescent was doing what he could to help the little crap hole that was his community. The adults were bordering too contemptuously coward like for Raines's liking.

Bodies littered the streets, though it wasn't just the townsfolk layin around. Reaver corpses sat in the dirt, riddled with bullet holes. Those ODTS's as they had been called, certainly did quite the job, Mal found himself admitting. It didn't take away from the horror that is always left in the wake of Reavers. Just seeing the mutilated corpses of the townsfolk was enough to invoke the rage anew inside him. This was the Alliance's fault. Why weren't they here helping to clean up their own damn mess?

The mercenary force found it making its way towards the bank fairly quickly. The few Reaver ships in the area had been shot down, and it was now just a matter of cleaning out the town. Strength in numbers proved its truth and virtue. Anytime a threat came down upon the gaggle of soldiers for hire, it was cut down with speed. The real fight would be where the rest of the cannibals had gathered. Zoe spotted another of the vehicles the Master Chief had climbed into, cross the street opening ahead of them. It drove past, and fired a large caliber turret rifle at something out of sight. A red spray gave a tell tale sign to anyone paying a bit of attention. Gravel and sand crunched over her feet, and Serenity's first mate maintained a position at the front. She had a personal vendetta against the Reavers. They had almost cost her the most important person in her life over a year ago.

The small town might have resembled a small war zone, but it was a far cry from how people used to behave in these situations. Whole colonies and settlements would be lost to Reaver raids. Since the Miranda wave years ago, people had begun fighting back, and defending their homes.

The sounds of gunfire told them they were close. Sunlight flashed off that green armor once again, and Mal focused on the Chief again. One of the vehicles had become stationary, and was firing into the salivating freaks. The other four were firing, using the vehicles for cover. The Spartan, was a different story. He didn't stay behind on what could have been the front line.

He sprinted forward, cracked one across the head, snapping it's neck with the force of the blow. Then he fired his weapon in short bursts to the torso.

The Reavers fired back, hitting dead on target. Then that orangish aura flared back up, and the Chief acted as though it never happened. The man was a wrecking crew. He plowed through the gruesome raiders like a bulldozers.

The captain glanced around, and took in his surroundings. People were inside the rugged brick building, firing out. There was a hint of movement on the roof, and another guy in the black armor stood up there, firing down onto his targets.

He looked over at Zoe and Jayne. "I almost feel as though we ain't needed."

"Them's good at Reaver killin. Aughta hire'm out to the rim worlds. Make some good coin."

"I guess there never is too much gold for Jayne."

Something among the already too familiar screams caught his attention. With his long legs, Raines was across the roof quickly. It was the side of the building that had the rigged up fire escape. Reavers had scaled a part of the wall, and broken out one of the second story windows. Through the shattered portal, they were dragging out a teenage boy. The jagged glass shredded his skin and left smears of blood. The Reavers bit into his face, and their nails raked open his flesh. He screamed bloody murder, with tears in his eyes, and begged for someone to help him.

The trooper pumped the bolt action rifle faster than he would have thought possible. He was sure the thing was going to jam. Four dropped, but the kid was already too far out of the window. Hands from the inside tried to late to attempt to pull him back in.

Just as he had predicted, the damned archaic fire arm jammed. He muttered a swear word, and had the urge to smack himself for what he was about to do. The bolt action gun was tossed over his shoulder, and his legs swung over the side of the building.

Leth heard the kid scream. He pushed his way towards the doors in the back, loading shells into the 12 gauge.

There was no polite, timid opening. They were kicked open violently, and any Reaver standing behind or beyond them was gunned down. More shells were loaded in. He rounded the corner.

"Doc! Get the kid!" He bolted his head up and saw Raines leap down onto the top of the rigged fire escape, three stories up. At the same time, a boy that looked in his teens dropped out of the second story window. The Reavers moved to swarm.

Leth gunned down three, and ran forward.

Raines dropped down to the next level, and then the next in succession with cat like grace. When a Reaver dove for the boy, the sniper dropped a third time, directly on top of it. It felt like something had smacked the side of his helmet with a baseball bat. A vibration ran along the ride side of his head, like someone was carving a line. He recognized it as a bullet. The snarling mass of teeth and sharp implements below him fought to stand. A bullet to the head from a magnum stopped that.

The kid was bloodied up pretty badly, and Leth drug him off by the arms. They barely had a fraction of a second to breath before the alley way was being swarmed again.

P-p-p-p-p--p-p-p-p-pop.

"Told you I'd be savin your heathen asses one way or the other." Cooper gave them a thumbs up.

Leth banged on the doors, and threatened to blow it off the hinges if they didn't open up. When they opened in a somewhat safe embrace, he pushed the boy in and shut it. Enough of this spilt up shit. It was time to join up with the squad.

Raines picked himself up quickly, and grabbed one of the automatic rifles from the Reavers corpse. He fired at the freaks, and ran out to regroup. The scene that greeted him was so changed from only moments ago, it was scarcely believable. No sense dwelling on it at the moment however.

Encounters with the Covenant and Flood had been far worse than anything this place had to throw at him. Whatever these things were might be feral, relentless, and extremely dangerous, but they were still human biologically. This meant they would die like regular humans. Four received bullets to the head, another rushed in close, and got back handed. John could feel his fist sinking into its face as his solid hammer of a hand crushed the flesh and bone together. No need to let that body go to waste. He gripped it up before it hit the ground, and launched the corpse into two other Reavers. The resulting damage could have been considered an improvement on their looks. When he kicked out, his boot connected with another in a sickening wet crunch.

It was almost like smacking rag dolls out of the way. Their guns and cruel blades did nothing to Spartans armor. Between John and the seven ODST's, it was a blood bath. These were hardened soldiers, used to dealing with homicidal aliens with superior technology and tactics. This was a chicken shoot, especially with them all together, especially with the chief. Anything in their path was gunned down with a singular ruthlessness, similar to what the Reavers had dispensed to the residents.

The townsfolk were in a sort of shock. They weren't quite sure what to make of the chief. Even more so were they unsure how to process the Reaver slaughter that was happening before them. The ODST's had cut them down, the Master Chief was pulverizing them.

The climax of the battle had been reached, and was running course. Like every battle, story or symphony, it would begin to wind to a close.

Stray shots cleared out the last of the living Reavers. Emerging from the side of the building, were the two ODST's that had previously been defending it. One had a shotgun shouldered, and the other a magnum drawn. A sniper rifle hung off the back of the second. Another went to greet them. John looked on, but his HUD showed no signs of anything hostile in the immediate area.

"Oy, Doc, you guys good?"

"Peachy Coop."

Moving behind them was the force of people that had arrived with the Chief. When a Reaver jumped from the shadows, they dropped it before the thing could ever fire a shot or raise a blade. They spread out and began searching for stragglers. Manning studied them with a quick glance. They were dressed similar to the towns people, only more prepared for a fire fight. Some of them carried impressive looking weaponry, including one particularly disgruntled looking big man.

The Sergeant slapped in new rounds for his rifle, and moved out from behind the Hog towards the Chief. He was no longer the highest rank, and all orders would now have to come from the Spartan realistically, if the man wanted to enforce it.

"Orders Chief?"

The Spartan barely glanced down at him. "We'll pause here. I'm not picking up anymore hostiles. Recharge your weapons, and we'll move soon."

Manning nodded. Before he walked off, one of the group broke away, and was heading towards the Chief. A man and a woman flanked him. Hid long brown coat swayed with each step, showing the guns holstered on his person. The automatic in his hands was at the ready.

The Spartan turned to him.

"Found yer boys, didja?" The brown coat asked.

Manning looked at the Chief. "Allies? Help?"

The Chief nodded, and Manning held his black gloved hand out. "Sgt. Manning, 105th 82nd Helljumpers."

"Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity."

Manning hesitated, his hand almost moving to salute position. Reynolds quickly rectified the issue. "Not military, just a transport ship."

The hand went down. "Transport ships don't usually have armed crew Captain Reynolds, unless it's time of war."

The woman to the side answered. "They do here, if you're smart and wanna keep your ship."

"Fair enough."

"We'll clear out any remain'n Reavers and get all them proper things out of the way in a bit."

The Chief nodded. He had been about to suggest it anyway. The ODST's must have been paying attention. They shouldered their weapons and looked for orders.

"Well, the Sergeant seems friendly enough." Cortana remarked in his ear. John didn't reply. He was slightly wary of the Helljumpers regardless. There was bad blood between them and the Spartans, and he seriously doubted four years had seen a change in that. He charged the assault rifle and hand motioned for them to move.

Ok, hope you liked it. Don't forget to vist my blog for updates. I haven't posted ina while, but I will soon. I have some OC sketches that need to be put up. ;) Oh, and any questions asked on here, will be answered there if not at the tops of the new chapters.