Both ODSTs looked around for whatever had spooked the pilot, but it was Greg who saw it first when he looked behind them to see another Phantom hovering over the opposite end of the field, near the building they had fled, mere moments before. Not only that, but it was carrying something underneath it. Greg immediately recognized it as a Wraith, a plasma mortar tank commonly used by Covenant Ground Forces, and one of the most feared weapons on the battlefield, second only to a Scarab.
"PHANTOM! BEHIND YOU! IT'S CARRYING A WRAITH!" shouted Greg, changing course toward the big hill he'd assassinated a Hunter from, earlier.
Jason saw the Phantom and followed Greg, still carrying the MREs, now that he'd most likely need them.
The Pelican lifted back up into the air and turned toward the Phantom to get a lock on it, but by that time, plasma was already inbound toward the turtle shaped dropship. It all happened so quickly that the pilot didn't have time to react and the dropship took a beating from the super heated energy beams that exploded like grenades upon impact with the Pelican's side. One of the engines was hit and the dropship lurched. The pilot fought to regain control of it while it spun wildly. The Marine manning the chain gun in the rear troop bay, Corporal Tyler Nixon, watched the Covenant Phantom slide into view as the dropship continued spinning and fired the turret as accurately as he could at the floating menace responsible for his aircraft's current predicament.
(-)
On the Phantom, a Grunt Spec Op named Forstair held one arm above his eyes to shield them from the sunlight that poured in as the bay doors opened before him, doubling as a platform from which his team would descend to the human homeworld's surface to begin cleansing it, but just as it opened up, Forstair glanced up to see a human dropship across the field. He remembered it being refered to as a Pelican, except this one was smoking and spinning slowly. Being an experienced veteran like all other Spec Ops, Forstair knew right away that one of its engines had been hit, judging from the smoke, and it would most likely crash, which was why it was spinning. The fact that it was spinning slowly meant that the Pelican's Pilot was trying to regain control of it, and doing a pretty good job, too. What he did not expect, however, was for the gunner at the rear to make one last sweeping attack at his team as he spun by.
No sooner had the troop bay doors opened when a wall of lead smashed through several of Forstair's teammates, ripping holes in their suits that leaked blood and liquid methane. For a moment, Forstair was too shocked to say or do anything. He'd seen plenty of action during the past three years, had watched plenty of good men on both sides die, but this was an entirely new experience, seeing his teammates, some of which he'd known for a while, get shredded like meat in a grinder, right next to him. Most of them collapsed where they'd stood only moments before, while a few near the outside rolled out the bay doors and hit the dirt below, unmoving. Forstair felt himself for any wounds, doubting that he'd made it out unscathed, but to his astonishment, he found nothing. Several of his remaining teammates also checked themselves for wounds, but found none, except for his partner, Giggin, who was clutching his wrist where a bullet had severed his hand.
"Kenny, you bandage Giggin's arm," ordered Forstair as he got on the Plasma Turret, whose Gunner had since fallen out of the dropship, and aimed it at the Pelican, as its cockpit spun into view.
He squeezed the trigger and was nearly blinded by the bright flashes coming out of the barrel as the explosive plasma rounds flew toward the target.
(-)
Back on the Pelican, the Pilot, Lt Foster Nowak, had just gotten the bird steadied when the Phantom came back into view and he saw its side turret light up and ducked down just in time to avoid being hit in the face by shattered glass as the beams hit his windshield. He quickly tilted the joystick to the right, making the Pelican move in the same direction, and then moved the drop ship upward to get out of the gunner's range. It was then that he noticed a warm sensation on his left shoulder and looked to see it covered in melted glass. His windshield had been designed to withstand high temperatures, but a direct hit from a plasma beam had blown it to pieces, and even melted parts of it, some of which had dripped onto his shoulder, and he would have been in more pain than he could ever imagine, had it not been for his armor vest. He wiped the substance off his shoulder and moved the Pelican toward the hill where the ODSTs were taking cover.
"I'm gonna set this thing down behind the hill. Wait for me there," he radioed.
"Copy that," acknowledged Greg.
(-)
"Pile out!" barked the Brute Chieftain.
The Unggoy onboard were the first to go. Forstair landed on his two feet and then fell on his arms to absorb the shock since the Pilot had insisted on dropping them off at such an unreasonable height (at least for an Unggoy). He and the rest of the Unggoy under his command then spread out to make way for the Jiralhanae behind them who had no trouble landing, followed by the Pack Chieftain himself, who bent down upon landing, and then stood upright, clutching his Gravity Hammer triumphantly. To anyone else, it would have appeared he was showing off, but an experienced Covenant soldier knew that by holding his hammer in such a manner, the Chieftain was actually showing his dominance to keep his pack in line, much like a father showing his belt to keep his children from misbehaving.
The Chieftain pointed to the main building in front of them.
"I want this structure secure. Make sure there are no infidels left inside!" he barked,
Forstair activated his suit's camouflage, turning himself partially invisible. Humans couldn't see him, but Unggoy, Kig Yar, and Sangheili all had much more sensitive eyes and could easily make out the shimmers in the air made by cloaked figures, so he had no trouble seeing his comrades after they had activated their cloak suits. The Jiralhanae, on the other hand, had eyes that were on par with those of humans, and couldn't see themselves anymore than a human could, which made it tempting for lesser Unggoy to do things they normally couldn't do when the Jiralhanae were watching them, like making obscene gestures at the big apes. Forstair had to stifle a laugh as he watched his fellow Unngoy flicking the birdy, shaking their tushies, and making nah-nah signs with their hands at the Brutes who had no idea anything out of the ordinary was happening since they seemed to think active camouflage was equally hard for everyone to see.
Small cracks of plasma discharge caught Forstair's attention and he looked up to see the Phantom using its Plasma Turrets. The balls of plasma soared toward the human Pelican.
(-)
Onboard the Pelican, Cpl Nixon watched the Phantom's cannons light up and knew right away that his team was in trouble.
"Incoming plasma!" he shouted at the pilot.
Upon hearing this, Foster turned the Pelican to the left to shield his crew from the lethal beams, but this cost him both left engines which were completely destroyed by the horizontal rain of fire. The Pelican spun wildly as it descended rapidly. Nixon lost his balance and hung onto the chain gun to avoid falling out, but his grip wasn't strong enough and he was ripped from the Pelican before any of the other Marines could grab him, and landed in the weeds below, rolling several feet before blacking out. Foster fought to regain control of it, but knew it was a losing battle this time. The Pelican went down behind the big hill and everything went dark as a crash like thunder rang through Foster's ears.