'Bush fires will happen again. Make your plan to survive at . now to make your plan to survive. Or if you live in an area outside of South Australia, talk to your local CFS, Fire Brigade or Emergency Service unit to make your plan today.'

I'm writing that because I just heard from a mate in the CFS (Country Fire Service) that his house just burned down, to a fire he was fighting. Imagine hearing that your house is gone, lost to a bush fire. Now imagine watching it burn down as a person who could have stopped it. As a newly made member of the SASES (South Australian State Emergency Service) I will be doing a small part to help preventing bush fires and various other emergencies, and it feels right to just put this message out there to anyone to help them. And if you live in an area that has a volunteer emergency force, please consider volunteering, because not only do you meet mates for life and help the community in a big way, it also looks bloody good on a resume, especially with the military. Anyway, enough of that, read on and enjoy.

Chapter 5: Where demons rise, angels will fall

The kind of headache I woke with one one that could be compared to a jackhammer. I felt my head pound every second as I rolled to my side, groaning. My eyes took several minutes to adjust, trying to see clearly again and my throat was drying than the Mojave. I tried to sit up, taking much longer than usual and my eyes finnaly began to see clearly again. I looked around, I will still in the engine room and so was the rest of my team. As they began to go through the process of getting back to working order I went to get up, having trouble for a moment before being able to stand. My legs felt weak and stiff, but I was able to walk.

It was at this moment I saw the admiral, lying face first on the ground next to the control panel. I walked up to him, every step helping towards getting me back to normal and I knelt down next to him, feeling parts of my body creak for a moment. His eyes were glazed over and his mouth dry. Dead before he even hit the ground. I looked up towards the control panel. It seemed intact, but a red light seemed to be flickering on and off from it. I then turned my head towards the screens. 'Location: Unknown. Jump drive status: Destroyed. Jump rating: Semi-successful.'

"Well it seems we were in that 1%." I turned around to face the source of the voice. It was Barry. Him and the others were up on their feet.

"Ya. Question is where to." A short moment later the radio came to life, with Captain Hardy on the other end. "Raven, this is Havoc. Are you guys ok down there?"

"Ya, we're fine." I said, looking at my teammates and getting nods of approval. "What about you guys? And the rest of the ship?"

I heard a sigh of relief on her end before she started speaking once more. "Well it's a miracle. We only had one injury and it's a sprained ankle so everyone is technically fine. As soon as you are able get up to the bridge, we need to discuss our next course of action."

With that the radio died out. I turned to my team. "Get his body out an airlock. But no disgracing it, we're not like them." I looked at the lifeless body of the elite and heard a collective "Yes, sir." amongst the team.

I turned around and started walking towards the door. I looked at Barry as I went by. "Barry, with me." He gave me a quick nod and began to follow. We were only a few meters down the hall when an armed group of marines went running down the hallway with equipment in tow. It looked like base building materials. I turned to Barry who shrugged and motioned for us to keep moving.

We soon reached the bridge and it's crew were frantically moving about, trying to make heads or tails of the current situation. I soon found the Captain who gave us a warm smile as we entered. "Glad you could join us lieutenant." Siris also appeared and gave us a happy bark.

"A dog?" I forgot Barry hadn't seen him yet. "ONI project. People like dogs, raises morale or some crap." "Ah."

"Gentlemen, may we continue." I gave the captain a quick nod. "Right. Well reports say the jump drive is dead. As we exited the jump it's reactor core imploded, causing the whole thing to melt down and become irreparable. We are so bloody lucky however, as it was contained to the point of the reactor not destroying everything in a one hundred kilometre radius."

"And the good news?" I asked in response. "That was the 'best' news Lieutenant. We also have no fucking clue where we are."

She then began to walk towards the viewing window from the ships bridge. Outside we saw a planet, earth like in appearance but it's countries no where near the same as ours. "We tried to track our path from Reach, but it seems as if the path was cut off halfway, meaning we have no idea where we are, no idea what's on that planet, which I should inform you is our best chance of survival at this moment, and no way of getting in contact with the UNSC."

"What do you mean the planet is our best chance of survival?" The Captain gave me a look that indicated something good. "For the last ten minutes I've had Siris scan it's surface. Not only is the gravity the same as earths, but it also has a stable atmosphere, meaning air, vegetation, fauna and best of all, people."

"People?" "Yes, civilisation." The Captain said in response. "We've found dozens of small settlements around the planet, along with a few major ones. Seems as if we have stumbled upon a new race. Or possibly, one of the lost colonies."

I looked back towards the planet, scanning it for a moment. The planet itself was only half the size of earth, but it's appearance could possibly fool someone who hadn't seen it in a long time. "What now?" I said, turning back to the Captain. "Well, you and your team, plus a group of marines will land on the surface and help set up an FOB. From that FOB we will have you scout out the nearest settlement and report back to us. If you feel the need to investigate closer, feel free. But just remember, this isn't a UNSC owned planet, we have next to no authority here. If you need to defend yourselves, do so, but if you can try not to kill anyone unless you absolutely have to, got it?"

I have her a quick nod. "Yes, ma'am. We'll get ready right away." As began walking towards the door with Barry the Captain stopped me. "If this race is friendly, tell me, we may be able to strike up an agreement that would benefit us both." "Yes, ma'am." With that Barry and myself began walking towards the hangar, eager to get underway.

The journey down to the planet was a rough one, much bumpier than anticipated. But once we broke through the cloud barrier it was quite smooth. Several pelicans, including one holding base supplies were heading down to the planet, more specifically to one of the large countries. It's surface seemed to be in an equivilent of spring time, as the weather and vegetation colouring seemed to match.

After ten minutes of flying I moved up to the pilots cockpit to see what was taking so long. As I entered I saw a large patch of empty ground, which the pilot them commented on. "That's where we'll be landing. Once we get you guys and the marines planet side we'll be returning to the Tip of the Spear in order to bring down more supplies."

I gave a sign of acknowledgement and went back into the passenger area of the drop ship. A moment later the door opened and the planet became closer and closer as we descended towards the ground. Once the drop ship made contact my team and the marines with us disembarked, just in time to see several other pelicans hit the ground with their passengers disembarking. One of the drop ships didn't have anyone, but had three large boxes that contained the supplies we would need to construct the FOB.

I turned around to face my team and began giving orders. "Sam, Franklin, you two go help those marines set up the buildings. Barry, communications. Katy, you and I will start doing quick recon around this opening. Got it?" I saw nods all around and each member began to move off to begin their specific tasks.

"Found anything yet?" "Negative. Thermals are clean excluding ours and small, woodland animals." Both Katy and myself had been scouting out a five kilometre radius from the FOB. So far we'd found next to nothing other than evidence of a possible larger creature.

"Alright, let's start packing it up. I want to get back so we can get something to eat." I turned to Katy who didn't respond. "Katy?" Still nothing. I saw she was laying on the ground looking out through a gap in the trees. I knew she'd seen something odd, so I layed down next to her and pulled my binos out. "Bearing?"

"115. Large animal. Looks like a bear, but with very odd colouration and very long claws." I adjusted my view to said bearing and saw the animal in question. It was large, bigger than a bear. It had a base colour of jet black with white and red accents to it. I looked at the face and saw the eyes had a blood red colour to them, which led down to the claws. They were razor sharp by the look of it, and reaching two metres in length.

"I don't want to get caught by that thing." "Ya, well adjust sight to bearing 210, range, about 423 meters. First tree you see." I moved my sights again, seeing the tree in question. It looked normal enough, had the green leaf texture and bark was brown, but with a large chunk missing from it.

"Looks like a 50. cal ripped through that." "That's be more than a 50. cal." I turned to Katy as she continued to explain. "That tree is a good... two metres thick. Sure, a 50. cal would tear through it, but it would never do something that big. That's chunk is way to large. If anything you would need a bullet the size of an old era artillery shell to do that. Or something with enough force behind it to tear through six tanks and a hillux."

"What the hell is a hillux, Katy?" She chuckled slightly before getting up and packing up her gear. "Old car, think Toyota made them? My dad found one and fixed it up before he shipped off. Cost him a fortune too, seeing as the parts are as rare as a good ration pack. " We started walking back to the base. "Your parents do anything like that with you?"

I shook my head. "Na, never knew them. At least not personally. They were both marines, my dad an ODST. I lived with my grandfather for a time, he was marine as well during the Innie wars. As soon as my parents died he started making plans to make me into an ODST, like my dad. I didn't argue." As we continued walking we could hear the leaves rustling around us.

"But a few weeks after they were KIA, he had a heart attack and I was orphaned. A few days later the UNSC picked me up. Because my dad was an ODST they would do me one better than ODST's. Then I found myself in the SP-III training camp, trying to make myself as equal to my father as possible." Katy didn't say much after that. All she could manage was a low 'wow' amongst herself.

We made it back to base with no problems, and found it to be much farther along than anticipated. Even had a small sign up most likely made by Franklin. 'Camp megaton', only a demo man could make a name like that.

We walked through a small gate with a metal fence attached to it, doing a full rotation of the base before meeting the other end. There was also a few guard posts that were being manned, and the marines gave us nods as we walked through. We soon found ourselves in the centre of the FOB, which is where the command building was located.

We walked inside to find the rest of raven gathered round a communication station with Hardy's face on a screen. Barry motioned for us to approach and we could hear her voice soon enough. "-progress on the base is amazing. You lot have done some good work. But it's not over just yet. Siris has been scanning the area beyond the short recon teams and has found some movement. Human in nature, so I'd like Raven to go out there and recon it. If nothing is found move to a vantage point two clicks north and gets eyes on a small town and large castle like structure and report in what you find. Havoc out." Soon enough, the radio died away.

"You heard her boss. We have five hours before we need to start the recon, and it's only noon on this planet. I'd say we get a little rest before we get a move on." I thought about it for a moment, before agreeing with him.

"Sounds like a good plan. I'd kill for some shut eye." Franklin said this while pushing past us to his living quarters, with Katy and Sam in tow. I turned back to Barry. "Did Hardy say anything else?" He shrugged his shoulders. "We just reported the status of the base and she assigned us that task, nothing more." I gave him a quick nod and turned around, heading towards the same building as the rest of Raven.

"So what do you think we'll find out here boss? Members of the planets race?" I turned to Franklin during our trek through the late day sun. "Well that's what we're thinking. Hardy did say the movement was human in nature, whatever that means."

It was Katy's turn to give her input. "Maybe a camp? Or just some kids playing." "Maybe." I said in response. "Maybe. Well it is our job to find out, so let's keep moving while it's still daylight." The rest of the hike was rather quiet, other than the odd joke, comment or sound from nature. And on occasion we found some tracks that may have come from the creature we had seen earlier, that kept us alert.

We soon found ourselves close to the target area, which was a clearing in the middle of a large wooden area. As I took a knee the rest of my team followed suite. I turned my head around to face them. "Alright, the target area is two hundred meters up ahead. I want to move up in a line formation with me in the centre, from there we will check our designated sectors of the clearing twice before doing a full search of the area. Got it?" The entire team gave me signs of approval, and before I knew it we had lined up with weapons raised and had begun moving towards the target zone.

As we closed into the twenty metre mark we slowed slightly, as we now had visual of the clearing. Someone had obviously been here. There was a dead fireplace that still looked warm with embers, moved logs for seating, holes in the ground from possible tents and, surprisingly, an empty ration pack. We got closer and entered the clearing ourselves. I did a quick scan of the middle of the area a few times before looking a full one-eighty to try and pick up what had happened here.

The rest of Raven did the same, lowering their weapons and starting to look around. It was not two minutes of looking around at the stuff I had seen earlier before Barry called out my name. "Boss, over here!" I quickly jogged over to his location, kneeling down next to him.

"What did you find?" He pointed down at the ground and my eyes followed. What was sitting there was not one, but at least two dozen round. 5.56 in nature, but looked to be possible hollow point. "Whoever was here, was either military, or very well equipped hunters. My money is on the first option." I picked up one of the rounds as he said this, inspecting it. There was a small A on the back of the round, along with some initials for something. "S.D.C? What do you think that means?"

"Something... Defence Corps? Could be the company that makes them, or the initials of the unit. Either way, we should take them, have them inspected." I nodded in agreement and began gathering everything I could before standing.

I searched around for a few moments longer before stepping on something hard and metallic in the ground. I moved my foot to see what appeared to be a steel peg. Possibly for a tent. I continued to move on only to look up to see something reflective in the treeline to my front. I started to move closer, making the distance between the trees and myself one hundred meters.

A split second later I saw what the reflection was. A long range rifle being held by a soldier wearing silver looking armour. "Contact! Treeline to the west!" I screamed this as I started sprinting back to the other side of the clearing, only to have rounds begin to fly over my head. I skidded to a halt behind a log that had been used as a seat as the rest of my team found their own cover.

The log over to my right had Sam reloading his DMR behind it. "What's with these guys!?" He shouted over the rifle firing going over our heads. "No clue!" I shouted in response, before activating my squad radio. "Raven, weapons free, but try to injure, not kill. We don't know who or what these guys are, and we are technically trespassing. Aim for joints, weapons and equipment. Anything to make them less effective in combat without causing serious injury."

Without needing to hear an affirm I popped up from my log and aimed my rifle at the nearest soldier. Seeing that the enemy had come into the clearing I was able to quickly take a mental note after some quick cover fire before ducking back down. They totalled ten, normal squad size. Armour seemed to be a metal of some sort, rather thin however, sniper and DMR could penetrate in one shot. Their weapons seemed to resemble ours, to an extent. A majority of them were armed with what appeared to be assault rifles, but one had the long range and was taking pot shots. Some of them also had small backpacks with small antenna. Most likely used for communications.

I also noticed something else, that was very crucial. They were terrible shots, seeing as I had to sprint back to cover for at least one hundred meters, they missed every shot. And I ran in a straight line down the middle, so it should have been simple. They also fired in full auto, no burst shots, which was making their already sloppy aim worse.

I popped back up again, seeing the man with the long range rifle. I quickly adjusted my sights and let off five rounds into his weapon. It's sparked slightly as the rounds penetrated and as he tried to fire, it failed. One down, nine to go, or at least six. The rest of my team had been busy, Katy taking out one of the enemies radios and rifles. Sam doing the same thing, Franklin threw a stun grenade and took out another rifle just before the others came back from the SG's effect, and Barry was just about to engage one of them in hand to hand combat.

I took this moment to move closer, popping up from behind cover I shot at another rifle, taking it out only for Katy to shoot his radio pack. After that I rushed one, who seemed to begin to panic and drop his weapon. As he did so I stopped kicked his feet out from under him and shot the man to my right's weapon. This caused enough panic amongst these men to force them into a retreat. They all rushed back to where they came from, the other side of the clearing.

As my team watched them run off I begin to give new orders. "Raven, gather up weapons and equipment research. Anything you can find we take, then we are moving back to the FOB, double time. They know we're here now, and we certainly haven't made a good first impression, so the last thing I want if for our new friends to know where we live. Get to it!"

Without a moment to spare my orders were carried out. Rifles were collected, radio packs gathered and anything else left behind by us. We were out of the clearing in a minute flat, moving at a slow jog to the FOB, un-aware we were already being followed.

We entered the base a short while later, with weapons on our backs and our armour dirty and worn. The gate opened to us, and we quickly jogged inside. I stopped next to the marine working the gate as I passed. "Put the base on medium alert. Be aware of anything approaching the base. Anyone who leaves on patrol or recon, tell them to radio in every ten minutes." "Yes, sir." The marine responded, radioing in to his superior to pass on the orders.

I joined my team in the comms room, setting down the gear I had gathered on a nearby table before Barry activated a line to Hardy. "Raven, good to hear from you." "Likewise Havoc." I said in response. "Have we got a story for you."

Rather long chapter. Holiday went well, back feeling fresh and well, and ready to keep writing when my wind down time comes along. I mentioned it before but I'll say it again. Quality of this story is what I write during the hour I use to wind down to fall asleep, and I'm also far from being a decent writer, so any and all criticism is helpful. And don't hold back on being picky, I get enough shits from my mates so I can take a jab. Also, I may or may not do a vote on OCXWinter shit, because that was originally for a lady friend who loved the idea of winter being all emotional and stuff, and wants it to happen for this. However, I'll leave it to you guys if you want a vote done. Anyway, have a good one and stay safe out there.