NMPD HEADQUARTERS
3 HOURS AFTER DROP
A blast door leading outside the building slid open to reveal two ODSTs crouched low and weapons raised. The first, a Gunnery Sergeant Buck, was garbed in standard ODST gear with a CQC chest plate and armed with an MA5C assault rifle. While the other was clad in blue armor with an I/O marksman helmet and armed with an SRS-99D-Series 2 sniper rifle.
"Clear?" Buck as he moved out from the door to check their blind spot.
"Yeah, We're good." Was Romeo's reply as they came out of their crouch and moved in to secure the area. As they did that, Buck triggered his com and hailed the last member of his squad.
"Hey, Rookie." He called as he tapped the com-module on the side of his head. Worry was welling in his voice. "You out there? Respond! That's an order!" He continued to reach the helipad stretched from the building itself.
"Give it up, Gunny. Even if he ain't dead, he's lost in that soup." Romeo said with a sigh as he followed close to his commanding officer. "Our coms can't cut through that."
Buck sighed in annoyance as he looked towards Romeo as he walked down the steps. "Oh, give up, huh? What if it were you down there?"
Romeo just shrugged his shoulders as he walked by. "Just saying, I ain't dead."
"Oh, you're a piece of work, Romeo," Buck muttered under his breath as they watched the police variant of the pelican coming in to land on their landing pad. "Welcome aboard, Ladies!" The voice of Mickey came over their coms as the craft slowed and landed. "First stop anywhere but here."
As they were about to land, a pair of Covenant Banshees came around from behind the building. Their plasma cannons and bombs stitched the pad before one of their plasma missiles struck the pelican and threw it off the pad. Fortunately, Romeo and Buck were missed by the barrage by diving to the ground. Getting to their feet they watched as their escape was barely able to right itself fire and smoke trailing from one of its engines. They could hear the panicked shouts of the pilots, Mickey and Dutch as the NMPD pelican tried to escape its pursuers over the coms as they got to their feet and fired at the rear of the Banshees.
~~N~~
Summer Rose was having such a great dream when she was startled awake by the sounds of an almighty crash. Her instincts caused her to react without thinking, rolling onto her stomach she drew Thorn from its magnetic holster from the small of her back where it unfolded into full form as she brought it before her the butt resting on her shoulder while it chambered a fresh twenty-two millimeter round into its chamber to finish off its transformation.
Scanning her surroundings as she got to her feet. Summer found herself surrounded by office cubicles. Gingerly making her way to a nearby window, she found herself staring in awe at the view before her. Spanning as far as she could see, there was an ocean of orange clouds of towering buildings far bigger than any she had ever seen- like islands in the vast ocean. Switching her rifle for precision sniping was as simple as attaching a scope to the top of her rifle.
Taking a knee she watched a strange, purple craft being escorted by a pair of smaller, more nimble ones. Suddenly Summer felt a jolt of bad intention behind her, using her semblance she disappeared from the window as it shattered from bolts of green plasma and hot rods of steel.
Appearing on the threat's right she was surprised to see a whole force of aliens pointing their weapons her way and speaking in a strange language. Acting quickly, she pointed Thorn their way before pulling the trigger. Expecting her rifle to bark and buck against her shoulder, she was not expecting it to let out a pitiful click. "Huh?" Was all she could say before being forced behind cover after taking a glancing hit from one of the alien's weapons. "Damn," she hissed in pain, grateful that her aura took the brunt of the hit, though it did burn a hole into her favorite cloak. "That fucken hurt!"
Thinking that it was a jam, she ejected the round from the chamber. She quickly leaned out of cover and pulled the trigger, only for her rifle to not work again. Using her semblance once again to get to a more whole cover, she ejected the whole box magazine, for a spare box she had on hand and slapped it into the mag-well. Watching the bronze-shelled rounds feed into her rifle before it chambered. Test Firing against the wall, she smiled when it barked, and a hole the size of both her fists appeared on the wall before her. Leaning out of dwindling cover, she fired her rifle smiling as it bucked against her shoulder and barked its announcement. She watched as the 25 mm rounds punched holes into the small socky ones with gas masks on their faces and bird-looking ones carrying shields, while the bearing-like alien's shields flared before meeting their demise as well.
Letting her finger off the trigger she inspected her handiwork finding that all of the aliens had been killed splattering their blood against the far wall. After liberating their curious weapons and explosives, Summer returned to where she hid to find the box magazine she had replaced. Opening its hatch, she picked up the silvery round only to find after removing the bullet that the Ignis dust was nothing more than just sand while the Gale core within the bullet was a polished emerald. "That proves it." She says dumping the now useless rounds from the box before she stowed it in a pouch at the small of her back. "I'm not anywhere close to home."
That's when she heard the sound of gunfire and explosions from above, thinking that there should be someone fighting a few floors above. Leaving the spent shells, mauled corpses, and worthless rounds behind her, she disappeared in a flurry of white roses.
~N~
The dying moans and cries from the Covenant as mounted machine guns, missile launchers, and Spartan lasers held wave after wave of Covenant forces. All seemed to be going in the ODST's favor until a Phantom barreled through the hail of gunfire to drop off a Brute Chieftain onto the deck.
"Chieftain!" Buck shouted over the coms as Chieftain swung its mighty gravity hammer into an NMPD officer sending him flying over the edge of the building. He then turned his attention to Romeo as a round from his sniper rifle broke his shield, but missed his head and instead took its headpiece from his head. The Chieftain roared as he swung his gravity hammer into the sniper.
Though Romeo had enough time to move out of the hammer's way, the produced shockwave threw him into a pillar. Stunned, Romeo could not react in time to the chieftain bringing down the bladed side of the hammer down onto him. He only had enough time to bring his sniper rifle before him, softening the blow enough for the tip to punch through his breastplate and lung. This came at the cost of rendering his rifle useless as its barrel and firing mechanisms were bent beyond repair.
Pulling the bent rifle from its hammer, it roared in victory as it threw the ruined rifle over the edge of the building and reeled back to drive the final nail in Romeo's coffin. He braced for death as time seemed to slow for him, as a single white rose petal fluttered past him. This seemed to open the gates and a torrent of roses to rush by the stunned team then reformed into a young woman dressed in a red-accented black dress and black thigh-high socks, a white hooded cloak with a red inner fluttered behind her while her red-soled boots were driven into the chest of the chieftain causing it to stagger back a few paces. Using the chieftain as a springboard, she landed before the downed ODST a massive black and red rifle which the woman held easily in one hand. The chieftain growled at the interloper only for the woman to smirk before the woman raised an offhand finger upwards causing the chieftain to lose his footing and fly into the air. The woman then pointed downwards with the chieftain following the direction of her finger causing it to crash into prefab flooring cratering it beneath its bulk.
"Had enough?" The woman's gentle voice surprised them as the woman spoke in fluent English. The chieftain growled in anger and let out a roar in a blind rage as it charged her a glowing aura shining across its body. This earned a quirked brow from the woman as she ducked beneath the hammer's swing, coming back up and pulling the trigger. To the ODST's surprise, they were expecting the ratatat of an assault rifle, instead, the deafening bark of an autocannon announced its presence followed by six more barks. The impacts knocked the Chieftain back, and the overcharged shield strained against the force from the high-powered rounds. Letting off the trigger, the woman saw her after work.
Though still standing, the Chieftain seemed to stagger on its feet. Sparks arched across its body from the overloaded overshield, while its hammer was reduced to a ruined shaft. The Chieftain roared with rage as it charged, discarding the shaft, and reared back to punch.
Only for said punch to hit nothing but air as the woman once again changed into a torrent of white rose petals and reformed behind the Chieftain, her rifle aimed at Brute's head. The final crack of her rifle announced the death of the Chieftain. Its headless body stood briefly still before collapsing to the grated floor. For the most part, it was silent with only the crackle of shorting wires and the rasping gasps from their injured teammate.
"How bad is it?" Asked Buck as he and Mickey tended to their downed comrade.
"Ugh… Not good…" Groaned Romeo as he checked his wound, finding blood coating his hand.
"We're getting you out," Buck assured with a hand on his shoulder.
"Not by air we're not," Mickey grumbles gesturing to the ruined dropship. Buck gave Romeo's shoulder an assuring squeeze before leaving Mickey to tend to Romeo's savior. He found her squatting down and curiously poking the headless Chieftain's side. Her hood is down showing her gentle toned skin and red highlighted, black hair. The most interesting feature she possessed was a pair of piercing silver irises eyes. Dutch was not far from her, though his SMG was held low, yet it was at an angle that he would put a few rounds into the unknown woman's head before she could do anything not to his liking.