042 scarred

Character: ODSS

The rain beat down on the base, having fallen steadily since the day before. The fields surrounding the area had turned into a muddy mess, which was the only thing that was holding back the Covenant. They had stopped attacking after the mud had slowed them down enough to the point where the marines had only to fire forward and they'd be cut down. Silence had fallen over the area, giving the soldiers a moment of peace.

Peter sat at the edge of the protective sandbags, watching the forest in the distance for any sign of enemies. The rest of the team sat on the soggy ground, weapons under blankets to try to keep them clean and free of jamming. The mud may have deterred the Covenant, but they were persistent and it would only be a matter of time before they returned. And when they did they would likely have more vehicles, and maybe some stationary guns.

"You are a moron," Tobias grumbled. "Who doesn't know an overcharged plasma pistol when they see it? It's a ball of glowing green light. How do you miss that?"

"You miss it when you're trying to stab a Jackal in the face," Tym countered, checking over the armor on his forearm. The metal was burnt a bit from the plasma. "Sorry I was showing you how it's properly done."

"Properly done? Wow, you really are an idiot." Tobias shook his head. "If you'd done it properly you would have been able to pull the blade from the Jackal, avoided the shot, and stabbed the Grunt."

"Why not just shoot both of them," Matthew spoke up. "If you were in a position to kill a Jackal with a knife then you could kill it with a pistol, and could have easily killed the Grunt. Why make it complicated?"

"Have you not figured that out?" James cut in. "They look to make it more difficult. They always go for assassinations rather than just shooting an enemy." He slid the last bullet of a round into a magazine. They were salvaging whatever ammunition they could to avoid having to talk to the scientist inside the base again.

"That's just stupid. You should be making things easier, like by running them over," Luke reasoned. "It's still a challenge to hit them, but less dangerous than using a knife."

"Unless there's an overcharged plasma pistol and a group of Grunts ready to throw grenades," Max interjected. "Then you become a ball of fire and it becomes more dangerous than using a knife."

"Obviously I need to teach you more stealth techniques. If it had been me, I would have killed the Grunt first which would have left the Jackal free to kill without threat." David checked a hole in his suit that was a bit bloody, looking for a wound.

"Yeah, well I didn't see the Grunt," Tym snapped. "It was only near me because it was running from Ms. Elite-targeter." He motioned toward Emily.

"Someone had to focus on the real threat," Emily snarled, flinching a bit as Edward continued to stitch up a wound. "If you kill the Elites the Grunts go running, leaving only the Jackals as a threat. You need to work from the top down."

"Unless there's a hunter, then you kill that first." Edward was leaning a bit over the wound to try to give himself some shelter from the rain to work. "Though are we talking about the hierarchy of command, or strength?"

"I'm talking about threat-level," Emily answered. "Hunters are the highest threat, Elites, Drones, Jackals, and then Grunts. That's just logic."

"Actually, logically speaking the ships are the highest threat," Patrick interjected. "Though I honestly think that the Engineers are the bigger threat. Those things are a pain in the ass."

"They aren't that hard to kill." Peter didn't look up from his scope. "A head-shot kills them like everything else."

"You can also use an overcharged plasma pistol to overload them and kill them. You can't tell me that they are more of a threat than an Elite with one of those swords." Luke spoke up and Patrick scowled at his teammate. "I mean you can break through Jackal's shields, Hunters are slow and easy to avoid, but Elites are fast and smart. And with those light swords they're deadly. How many of us have been scarred by an attack from an Elite? Now how many have been attacked by an Engineer or have been scarred by a Hunter?"

"Hey, Hunters can be dangerous," James spoke up. The soldiers laughed at the unspoken joke. "Not to mention those shields can hurt."

"Tell me about it," Tobias grumbled. "Stupid Elite."

"Honestly aren't Wraiths the worst thing to have to face? Vehicles are much more annoying," David argued. "Always have to keep your eyes and ears out for the damn things."

"They aren't that hard. Just overcharge them and steal the damn things." Luke patted the plasma pistol he had on his hip. He often had one to be sure that he could EMP any enemy.

"Revenant," Peter spoke up from his look out position.

"Well they are the hell-spawn of a Ghost and a Wraith," Luke admitted. "Though I wouldn't call them the most dangerous enemy."

"No you idiot, I mean Revenant inbound, several of them." Peter moved down from his spot. "I think at least two Wraiths and some Ghosts. Seems they realized the mud can't slow you down if you hover over it."

"I call keeping one of the Wraiths," Luke stated, grinning before he polarized his visor.

Tym and Tobias looked to each other and nodded. "Luke, Peter, you take one Wraith. Emily, Edward, take the other." The two pairs nodded.

"Everyone else pick your poison, steal it, and when we've killed everything we don't own we'll see if you can do doughnuts with anti-gravity vehicles." The ODSS all nodded. "All right, marines, lets kick some Covie ass!"