I'm back!
You can run in terror now.
Sorry I haven't updated in a while - long story.
Authors Note: There are going to be several people who probably will hate this – but I'm lengthening one period of time in the original HALO 2 plot line, this comes just before the pelican drop with the warthog.
Also- don't ask me why I included the song lyrics (which aren't mine), it just worked out that way.
Verya
On with the fic everyone!
"Admiral," the call came in over the intercom, "Admiral, wake up!" Two minutes the door opened and a Sanghelli stepped in. "Admiral, ma'am, wake up." Brigid opened her eyes and sat up, looking at the midshipman.
"What is it?" She asked, rubbing her eyes.
"There's a HALO," he said, turning on the light, "This one is surrounded by the Covenant fleet."
"Which Fleet?" Brigid asked.
"Just a smaller group of ships, not even a fleet." The male replied, giving her a tunic and trousers. "But the entire fleet is on its way, even High Charity." That woke Brigid up, she was walking onto the bridge less than two minutes later.
"Status?" Brigid asked.
"We're in geosync orbit on the dark side of the planet," Maika said, "Covenant scans are focused towards the ring and I'm picking up a UNSC signal from one of their cruisers, In Amber Clad. From my data, it's commanded by Commander Miranda Keys, daughter of the late hero from HALO."
"Based on our current position," Oska said, "We can launch our dropships now and make it down to the ring without being noticed, as long as we keep a low profile on the network."
"Can't use the prophets as an excuse," Brigid said, "They're here to rebuke us. Ok, load up the troops, we're going down there. Essential personnal only to remain behind, have the transmitters ready if you guys have to bail and make sure you scramble the code on the dropships for friendly enemy trackers."
"Ma'am," Maika said, "Keying in orders to the engineers now."
"Oska," Brigid said, "Keep us in geosync orbit and low profile, with luck the Covenant will keep all their attention on the ring and not the other side of this giant. Work with Maika and see if you can do anything to mask our presence."
"Getting done," Oska said. "Ma'am, permission to accompany the regular troops on this mission."
"Denied," Brigid said, she stepped closer to the Sangheli. "Oska, I need you to stay here and remain in control of the two ships and wait for the third. When our group is complete you can land your dropships, ok?" Oska nodded and started to key in the several commands that would get the troops to where they needed to go. Brigid turned and went over her armor one more time, she knew that this battle would be different. Before their engagements had all been low profile, this one there would be battles where they would have to go in fighting. Brigid went to her dropship when all her weapons were strapped on and met Ja'naço there.
"Brigid," he said, "You ready for this one?"
"Yeah," Brigid said, "I've seen worse battles than what they may put me through here. I'm just worried, the only thing these guys have had close to real battle is what we went through right before the Earth mission. This one won't be like anything they've ever faced, they're to used to victory and not used enough to defeat. Our last victory was perfect, no casualties on our side, I'm worried that it got to their heads and chances are that not all of our banshees will even make it to the ground."
"The new Covenant policy is shoot first and ask questions later." Ja'naço said, "I received a message from a friend on High Chairity that they've been repressing the Sangheli, and the Brutes are gaining power in Covenant Society."
"Conflict helps," Brigid said, "It keeps our moral high and theirs low." They strapped into the dropship and Brigid took the pilots chair as they detached from the ship and formed up with Jo's dropships.
"Hey girl," Jo said, "Brian just looked at their stragedy, and it's a pretty good defensive grid they have around the rings. They're going to tear us apart if we try and sneak past."
"We'll have to go in full throttle," Brian said, his image splitting the screen with Jo's, "Try and get as many dropships thorugh as possible, there's no room for sneaking on this op."
"Ok," Brigid said, "We'll go in silent until the very last second, and then our engines at full throttle to get through. Can you get me a trajectory that will get us through in the least amount of time." Brigid switched to coded speech. "And I need to know what our losses will be."
"Here's your flight plan," Brian said, and also switched to their code. "And I really don't know, we could come through unscathed and we could loose half our ships." Brigid nodded.
"Any contact with the UNSC ship that crashed here?" Brigid asked.
"No," Jo replied, "We've been trying to open a chanel, but they're running dark." Brigid nodded.
"We're wasting time," she said, "Set your course plans and lets get moving, silent running from now on." Brigid flashed the keys that would command the troops in the back of the shaip to remain quiet and silence all communicators until further notice. Brigid tapped her vents and maneuvered her ship on the correct trajectory. They were moving slower than she would have liked, but they were within pinging distance of the Covenant fleet. One of the ships appeared on her viewscreen and she cursed silently in her helmet, the tension in thea 1w3 ship was so thick you could cut it with a knife. They must not have been seen because the ship continued to move and scan the surface of the ring. Ja'naço opened a private channel under static cover to mask his words from scans.
"Tha's a scouting ship," he said, "They must have sent him ahead to asses the situation. We have to get down there now if we're going to be fo any help." While Brigid had been listening to Ja'naço a small shuttle going from one ship to the next noticed them and two Covenant cruisers prepped their guns.
"Brigid," Jo said, "They're priming!"
"Full burners!" Brigid yelled into the pilot intercom chanel, "Give it everything you've got and get to the surface! Now!" The tail end of every drop ship glowed like a firefly as their engines went from zero to full in mere seconds. What had been a slow ride turned into a sprint for survival as the Covenant weapons fired. Two dropships were insinarated and Brigid flinched, they had not even gotten down to the planet yet. The third cruiser that had passed them earlier was coming about and also preparing to fire. "Over-burn engines," Brigid commanded, "And just land the damn things, we'll find each other later, Admiral McClain out!" Brigid hit a key and music began to pour over the loudspeaker in every ship, the Resistance Battle song pumped through the hulls and alien voices sang through the song, Brigid only hoped it was eough to get them to the surface without focusing on their dead companions.
She turnedback to her controls and let the music guide her movements, her hands lighta s feathers on the delicate controls of the hybrid dropships. She dodged incoming plasma fire and saw her engine warning light come on, she ignored it and turned the alarm off. Out of nowhere a scarab fighter group came and opened fire on the dropships. Ja'naço had already ordered the cannons manned and half the scarab force was depleased as nearly sixty dropships silmulatneously opened their cannons on the group.
Jo pulled ahead and began to lead the descent into the rings atmosphere, still destroying scarabs on the way down. Brigid noticed a small clusted in front of her and knew that she could not easily blast through them. So she punched her underbelly thrusters and her port thrusters at the same time. The result was a gut-wrenching turn that barrel-rolled them over the group of fighers and adestroyed three with combined fire from their cannons. The rest were destroyed with fire from the other ships and Brigid righted the ship after Jo's again. The atmosphere ride was rough and they were bumping against air pockets the whole way down. Brigid and Jo leveled out their ships, Ja'naço switched one of the view panels to their aft cameras so they could keep an eye on the rest of their crew.
Soon the room cooled from its heated entry and they found a place to land. Twenty Resistance dropships had managed to stay together, and Brigid could see that the others were not far away. She brought her commaner's vew up on her HUD and looked at what she had left, five dropships had been destroyed on the way down and six more were out of her scanners range. Brigid grit her jaw, she hoped the other ships were just on the other side of the ring instead of what she feared. Brigid engaged the security protocols and unhooked her harness.
"Hey," Killjoy said, "Guess what, I can't enter the network of this HALO."
"What?" Brigid asked, stunned.
"That other AI I met earlier is here," she said, "And I don't want her in my systems, looks like you're going to have to find your own maps on this one."
"Ok," Brigid said, she walked out into the snow and looked as it fell from the sky. "Where is the nearest Covenant force?"
"We're not even close to their dropzone," Killjoy said, "And I wouldn't suggest taking these birds up again, the Covenant have you flagged for destruction and we still haven't been able to get contact with the humans."
"Looks like we're legging it," Brigid said, "Jo, get your transports unlatched form the dropships, we're driving."
"Yes Ma'am," Jo said, it was not long before all the crew were aboard different vehicles. Hunters took the large, flatbed like, hover craft that could support them. Grunts were also stations on those with large cannons. The rest of the group filled in stolen ghosts, old warthogs from Revenge, and shrikes. Brigid smirked as she manned the turret on a warthog, Jo was driving and Brian was in the passenger seat with a cannon over his shoulder. They were a ragtag group. Brigid raised her hand and waved it foreword.
The group powered their engines and started moving in their normal, fast moving formation. Shrikes and ghosts circles the group as warthogs and flatbeds served as heavy support, three ghosts were scouting ahead for enemy troops in the snow and they began to drive towards the beaches and battle. The group was silent the entire three hour trip, a few people had some cadences going, but none of them took for long. Brigid's helmet dipped slightly, no one was talking because they were all thinking about what was going to happen. Brigid knew that contact between the Covenant and the Resistance had grown, family members were contacting each other and the groups were growing closer. Everyone there knew that it was only a matter of time before the larger splits started to happen. The snow gently gave way to a temperate climate and the sun shined down over the group.
"Banshee's, 6 o'clock high!" someone called, "Flying away from us, it's a scout."
"Jam his transmissions," Brian said, "Open fire, shoot him down."
"To late," Maika said, "He has a report of enemy troops at our location, they don't know how many and are sending a retaliation force of three phantoms with two squads of banshees." The one scout banshee fell to the ground.
"Lock and load!" Brigid called out, "Here they come." She thought a moment as the force cleared the mountain and the banshees accelerated towards them. She selected something on her arm and music began to pound over the suit intercom, it was the song that all the Valkyries swore by.
No one else
Will help us to get through
So by ourselves
We'll know just what to do
We are connected,
We'll never be alone
We walk together,
Forever down that road
Several people began to sing along with the song, and it helped the group grow in confidence. She saw one grunt who had never shown anything close to confidence jump foreword on a flatbed and fire his cannon towards an approaching banshee, the shot was dead on and took out the pilot, the ship spiraled out of control and crashed into a phantom, wounding the craft in the process. Brigid smiled and aimed her rail gun at the wounded phantom.
You and I
Will share all that we know
So close your eyes
And just let yourself go
We are connected,
We'll never be alone
We walk together,
Forever down that road
"Cannons, focus fire on the banshees," Brigid ordered, "Everyone else, focus on the phantoms turrets and then the ships themselves." Cheers echoed over the song as each machine hit the ground, smoke turned the sky black and surely sent out a signal to anyone with eyes.
And if you fall behind,
and don't know what to do
I promise I'll be waiting there for you...
"They know we're here," Jo said, "What do you say we let them know a little faster." Brigid smiled.
"Activate overdrives!" She said, shouting over the roar of the engines, "Let's get to those beaches." Brigid's warthog kicked into overdrive and she hung onto the turret in order to keep from flying off the platform. Jo took the lead of the formation as the ghosts switched over to their boost engines and then surged ahead.
Follow me into a better day
We'll be alright,
no matter what they say
We are connected,
We'll never be alone
We walk together,
Forever down that road
They reached the beaches of HALO and saw a pelican crashed in the sand, several marines trying to hold off a wave of Covenant forces.
"Marine Unit," Brian shouted into the radio, "These are the Valkyries, the cavalry has arrived, please duck and cover."
"Ghosts, circle around and flank them," Brigid ordered, "Warthogs, branch out and give the cannons a clear shot at that tank." It didn't take long for the two tanks to be destroyed and the rest of the Covenant wiped out. Brigid got off her warthog and walked up to the stunned and shaken marines. "Sergeant, who is in charge here."
"Lieutenant's wounded," he said, shakey, "I guess I am." Brigid nodded.
"Medic's, disperses and do what you can," Jo said, "Admiral, permission to place a flatbed with the medics to take care of the wounded, both human and Resistance."
"Ma'am," Pasada said over the radio, "Brian's ship has arrived and I'm sending down the command crew for the ground."
"Perfect timing," Brigid said, "Here's our coordinates, we'll be there in an hour and a half. Have the team there about ten minutes after that to set up a rapid removal base, we'll have to evac quickly if they figure out how to activate this before we stop them."
"Acknowledged," Pasada said, "That gives us enough time to rest the other crew, they worked through two standard days to get here."
"Hoo-rah," Brian said. "That's my crew, extra beer when we're done with this mission."
"Speaking of which," Brigid said as they continued the trawl, "What about his beach head, we're going to need a supply drop."
"You've got some troops that you'll have to take on in a ground battle without the cannons because of the unstable rock formations surrounding the beach," Maika said, "The good news is that the Covenant can't used cannons either."
"What about grenades?" Jo asked.
"Those are fine," Maika said, "I'll set the robot drop to land your supplies about a klick away, you can pick them up on your way there."
"You rock," Brigid said.
"You know it," Maika said. She signed off the radio and the Marine in the passenger seat looked very confused.
"So…" he said, "Why are you riding with the Covenant?"
"Because they're not the Covenant," Brigid said, "They're the Resistance to the Covenant, you can tell 'cause we're the ones in green."
"Much like you're marine force," Ja'naço said, driving up next to them, "Brigid, we're going to have to ditch this machinery before we get to the beachhead and the best place to set up HQ. Chances are we're going to be seen, where are we going to leave this stuff."
"Under the camo nets," Brigid replied, "They're ready, and we'll leave a few guards. We should keep the marines with us until we can return them to UNSC."
"Agreed," Jo said, engaging the hand break and drifting around a curve in the beach. "In the meantime, I think that's our drop." Brigid looked up and saw the streak of jets across the sky, heading for a position close to the horizon. Brigid raised a hand to her helmet and zoomed in on the object, it had the Resistance emblem on the hull.
"That's it," Brigid said, "Looks like she gave us some goodies."
"Cool," Jo said, "Ja'naço, take two flatbeds and pick up the supplies, meet us 500 meters away from the HQ sights and we'll ride up."
"Rolling thunder?" Ja'naço asked as he signaled out two flatbeds and headed for the drop point.
"Probably," Brigid replied. "Do you have a better idea?"
"Nope," Ja'naço said, "See you 500 from start." Brigid winked her acknowledgement light on her HUD and flexed her hand, scanning the sky for any other Covenant forces. They got to the rendezvous first and waited for Ja'naço to arrive as they went over the plan
"OK," Brigid said, making a quick map in the sand, "Jo, take the vehicles and prepare their hiding place, meet me back here when you're done."
"We have the supplies," Ja'naço said, "Everything is in place."
"Good," Brigid said, "Marines, I'm going to ask you guys to stay back here at command and help our forces coordinate." The marines looked at her and the sergeant started to speak up, Brigid raised an armored hand. "I know you want a piece of the Covenant as much as we do, but you guys are not part of my forces and I don't want any mix-ups once we get you back to UNSC command. Don't worry, my staff will be helping you."
"It's not that much of a battle," Brian said, "I'd say two platoon waves, and I opened the supplies, we have some recreation material for the off guys."
"Not the second wave," Brigid said, "I don't want them going in like that, we can have some once the first wave comes back and we have HQ set up."
"We ready?" Jo asked, also returning, "Vehicles are stowed and guards posted in active camouflage. You'd only find them if you ran into them."
"Good," Brigid said, kicking out the map, "Staff, set up a quick CP here and pick your marines. Valkyries, fall in!" A quick formation was assembled before her in combined teams of grunts, Sanghelli, and Hunters. Brigid smiled, the one weakness of the Covenant was that they never fought together, the Valkyries would die for each other. Yap-Tak stood in front of his elite squad, ready to kick ass and take names. Brigid surruptiously lowered a fist and he pounded it as she went by, Brian smiled and also pounded with his friend, taking in place in front of his unit. "Ok everyone, you know your jobs, two standard waves, move!" They converged into their two seprate waves and stood at rest, waiting for their scouts to get back. They did not have to wait long until the three scouts returned with memorized plans of the Covenant force below.
"Standard phantom strike team," Lonahsha said, adjusting her drawing of the emplacements below. "Grunts lined up, two shades, a squad of jackals on sniper detail, a Brute team, and a squad of Sanghelli. Most of them are veteran rank and a few have zealot armor, looks like a Prophet was on one of the carriers."
"They have their shades planted against the cliff wall for cover," Mænga said, also adding his own observations to the picture. "We can send in a team to take them out from here." He drew a quick arrow in the dirt. "Then they can take charge and launch an attack against the forces themselves."
"Most of the action is around this Brute here," Paita added. "He seems to be high up in their society, I heard the name Atarus over my speaker, it is close to Tarturus and could be a relation to the Brute Chieftain."
"That makes him a payday for our troops," Brian said, "Where are the snipers?"
"Two are here on the cliff," Paita said, "And the others are among the boulders near the Brute Captain, and he has a Brute shot."
"Lovely," Jo said.
"Brian," Brigid continued, "Do you think Yap-Tak is ready to test his squad to take out that captain."
"Give him sniper support and they're be commander-less in a minute," Brian replied, "I never thought that they'd work so hard for a grunt, but he's got the best team here."
"Perfect," Brigid said, "Have our snipers deploy on either side of the bowl and among these rocks, take out the cliff snipers and shade operators to ease our passage. Everyone else, deploy here, here, and here." She drew arrows wrote the unit distinction next to them. "We'll have this wrapped up in ten minutes tops."
"Sounds good," Jo said, stamping out the plan as Brigid stood.
"Lock and load," Brigid said, "Our signal is when the snipers see everyone is in place and begin firing. Second wave will come in three minutes after first round, first wave will withdraw thirty time units after that, we'll wrap up the battle in six minutes. Any questions?" There were none. "Take charge of your units and kick Covenant ass."
"Yes Ma'am," her commanders replied and went back to their formations. Brigid took her place at the head of her wave and smiled back at Jo, who would lead the second. Brigid zoomed in on her HUD and kept an eye on Brian's progress, waiting for the signal that would start the battle. On the bottom left hand of her HUD she saw a 3:30 minutes timer waiting to count down. She saw Brian level his sniper rifle and removed the zoom on her HUD. The off units were busy setting up behind her and working on security for the HQ center they were setting up, mainly having to tear it down and retract all their forces, and any other forces they could find, should the HALO begin to activate.
Brigid had no more time to wait, Brian checked all positions and fired the first shot at the middle shade in the cluster. The rest of the Covenant forces were quick to react, but the other snipers had already taken out the rest of their shade forces. Brigid saw Yap Tak's squad surge foreword for the Brute leader. Brigid stayed back for a moment and looked around at the strike team, she saw a lurking force over the south ridge waiting for them. Brigid quickly called up her team and charged down the hill, sniping as she ran. She knew that if the force reached the main bulk of the Resistance they would be taken off guard and loose more men then they wanted to.
She slung her sniper rifle and drew a sword with her left hand, her right occupied by a grenade. She lobbed the projectile twenty yards and saw several other plasma grenades follow. The charge did not halt as the blue white explosions killed many of the advancing Covenant forces. Brigid drew her plasma pistol and opened up on the charging Brutes, she saw Jo leave command to her XO and charge foreword with her Hunter squad. Brigid and Jo turned the corner after slaughtering the charging forces to find three phantoms with full Brute support units ready to fire upon them. The leader shouted something in their home language and Brigid dove for the ground, the Sangehlli next to her went down and she heard a sharp cry over the intercom.
"Jo!" Brigid called as the hail of fire stopped. "Where are you?" Brigid grabbed the Sanghelli next to her and dragged him behind an outcropping to check his vitals. She turned and saw Jo laying on the ground, her hunter brothers looking down on her unconscious form. Brigid quickly ran foreword and dragged Jo backwards, as she did Jo's hunter brothers charged and fought like they never had before. The plasma had gotten through her shield layer, but the deadly projectile had done nothing more than scorch her armor. Then again, her brothers didn't know that. The opposing forces were quickly rendered to nothing more than a pile of corpses on the shore. Brigid sat Jo up and started treating the Sanghelli that she had dragged out of the way.
"Hey," Jo said, as she became conscious, "How're we doing?"
"Few complications," Brigid said, signaling two hunters over, "Carry these two back to HQ." The second wave had deployed and the first wave was beginning their retreat, Brigid slung her weapon over her shoulder and began to double-time along side the jogging creatures.
"I don't need to be carried," Jo protested.
"Shut up," her brother said, Brigid could not see his shoulder insignia. "You're hurt, and you're going to the medic, I don't care what you say." Brigid smirked as Jo was forced to surrender to the larger creature as he carried her away from battle. She watched Jo safely to the medical facility and then walked over to the main area above the battle where many of the marines were standing. She removed her helmet.
"Hello," Brigid said. The marines flinched, but she didn't care right then. "Nice view isn't it?" One of the corporals nodded.
"Hey kid," Ja'naço said, setting down a barrel. "Can I tempt you?"
"I'll have one," Brigid said, taking a red cup from one of the aides walking around and offering more to the marines. "Beer?" The marines looked at the cup and then back at Brigid as she poured herself one out of the keg.
"You have beer?" The corporal asked. Brigid nodded as she drank. "You brought BEER to a battlefield?!"
"Sure," Brian said, walking up and offering Brigid something out of a white and blue paper bag. "Popcorn?"
"Ok!" another said, "What the fuck… you guys bring beer and popcorn to a battle." Brigid nodded. "How do you pop the popcorn?" (I apologize, but I just find this image funny) Brian took out a fresh bag of popcorn from his pack while Brigid filled the beer cups and he held it over his super-charged plasma pistol. In thirty second the marines were sitting on a rock enjoying beer and popcorn, the first sign of home they'd had in a long time.
"I have one question," the corporal said, "Why the fuck were we ever fighting you guys?" Brigid laughed and finished the drink, walking over to Oska as he landed the command crew.
"Admiral," he said, "All non-essential personnel from the three ships have landed on HALO and are going about the usual means of preventing its activation. Though report are coming in of more difficulty because our forces are spread so thin and we have to avoid both the Covenant and the Humans."
"Right," Brigid said, "Speaking of humans, have we gotten any signals from UNSC forces where we could drop these marines off." Oska turned and motioned the question on to Maika.
"We have a few UNSC pod signals here," she said, "At these ruins, but I'm not picked up anything else strong enough to go after. I suggest a small detachment should be deployed with a human to return them."
"I'll go," Brigid said, "We'll take three squads, five warthogs, three ghosts, and a flatbed. That should protect us if anything comes along."
"Yap-Tak reports mission successful," Ja'naço reported, "He is requesting to escort us while we ferry the humans back to their people."
"Brian," Brigid said over the intercom, "Have any trouble with me borrowing Yap-Tak?"
"Nope."
"Cool," Brigid turned to Ja'naço and nodded. "We're leaving in five, make sure our troops are ready to deploy at a moment's notice, we may have to haul ass back here if they activate this thing."
"Ma'am," one marine said as they loaded into different transports, "Wouldn't it be safer than to use one of the phantoms as salvage?"
"And be shot down the moment your people see us?" Ja'naço asked, "I'll pass on that experience, but you can go ahead if you feel like it." The marine shut his mouth and got on the flatbed next to his fellow marines.
"Let's go," Brigid said, "Jo and Brian, I'll rendezvous with you back here in a few hours."
"Luck ma'am," Brian said, taking his own unit off to go see what they could do about the library.
"Take care of yourself," Jo said, leading her own troops to salvage the battlefield and contact the team in orbit. Brigid winked her acknowledgement light and got into her warthog, Yap-Tak sat beside her with a cannon and a Sanghelli who she couldn't identify was behind on the turret, scanning the sky for any Covenant patrols. Brigid knew that they were lucky not to encounter any, the fleet had been small enough that they did not have enough scouting ships to blanket the area with phantoms.
"Encampment ahead," the Sanghelli said, "Near the ruins, they are taking defensive positions."
"There's human drop-pods all over the place," Yap-Tak said, lowering his binoculars. "It's definitely UNSC forces up there."
"Get me a radio broadcast on their channel," Brigid commanded, signaling for the column to slow down. "Encampment, this is Admiral McClain broadcasting on all UNSC channels to the encampment beyond, please respond, over."
"Unknown Unit, this is encampment," a voice sounded over the radio, "What is your purpose of approaching this camp and why do you travel with them, over."
"Lock in the signal," Brigid said, Yap-Tak did so quickly and nodded at her, signaling that they were isolated and no one else could overhear. "Encampment, Admiral, we are a peaceful force, some of your forces were found up the beach and we'd like to return them, permission to approach, over."
"Names," the voice sounded again, ignoring radio protocol.
"Marines," Brigid said, "Sound off over the radio." Each marine sounded off his name and serial number in perfect English and the sergeant relayed the situation as it happened. "Good enough for you?"
"Permission granted," the voice said. Across the way the man at the radio turned and accessed the team intercom. "Stand down." He turned back to the approaching column and zoomed in on their leader, a shock rode through his system as he confirmed what he saw. He could not believe what he saw even though it was right before his eyes.
The sun had passed directly overhead of them, and it was turning into late afternoon as the Resistance forces pulled into the ruins, it appeared as though the UNSC forces had all pulled inside. Brigid stood up in her warthog and signaled everyone to disembark, but to keep the marines back in case it was an ambush. Ja'naço was immediately by her side, Brigid sensed that he was tense.
"What do you think Ja'naço," Brigid said, "Ambush?"
"I think they're just confused," he replied, "But that wouldn't be the first time confusion led to disaster."
"True," Brigid said, she strapped her rifle to her back and turned on her helmet light. "Let's check it out, everyone else stay back." Brigid and Ja'naço flanked the door into the ruins and Brigid inched around the corner and shined her light from side to side, there was no one there. She signaled Ja'anço to stay behind her, but he could not fit inside the door without iving away their position.
"Can't follow you," he said, "Not quietly. You signal me if anything goes wrong and I'll knock down the ceiling."
"See you soon," Brigid said. She crouched and checked the hallway to her left, it was clear, the only other option was upstairs. She kept herself close to the wall as the shadows hid her and turned off her light. There was nothing directly around the corner, but she had no idea how the structure could honeycomb into the mountain. She turned the corner and saw the marines lying low to avoid her initial scans, their commander knew what he was doing. "I see you," she said, "You can lower your weapons."
"Not just yet," the same voice she heard on the radio said, "You have some explaining to do."
"Why I'm riding with Sanghelli and Hunters, etc?" She stood up on the landing and waited for her light shields to adjust, the next moment her jaw was hanging open in her helmet.
"No," the voice replied, inside a very similar helmet with green armor encasing him, "Why you're wearing that armor?" It was a Spartan, and he had a Jackhammer pointed directly at her head.
Well - I'm writing the next chapter now so it should be up soon.
Sorry about the cliffie.
Please review- I'll write more soon.
Verya