The autocannons of the two Falcons thundered, raking the Covenant forces and their transports and digging holes through purple-hued armor plating. The ODSTs below appeared out of cover, two carrying Jackhammers. The missiles lanced out of the tubes, tracking Covenant Banshees as they attempted to turn and welcome the Air Support themselves. One missile detonated like a flak burst, spraying shrapnel all across a Banshee's belly and causing one of its engines to sputter and die. The antigrav system, now unbalanced, sent it careening into a brother. The other struck dead center, vaporizing the bird.
Elster banked and broke formation from the Gunny, sweeping in and letting loose a torrent of explosive rounds toward the Covenant nearby the LZ. She then swept over and fired bursts at another pair of Banshees while her side-gunners let loose concurrent streams of rounds from their own guns. Buck radioed, "Two, left!" before both Falcons swung about and engaged, their autocannons thundering rapidly like lightning during a summer storm.
Another pair of Banshees exploded as the Pelican the pair had escorted swung in to recover the ODSTs. A sniper shot rang out and another Banshee banked surprisingly hard left, then slammed into the side of a building and clean through a window. Elster eyes the sniper below, a man with a custom set of ODST Armor, as he and the others boarded the aircraft. Buck called, "Thanks for the cover, Elster. See you Earthside."
"No problem, Gunny. God be with you," She replied, which garnered a snort from the man and a murmur about 'God being on vacation', then swung about, "This is Noble Seven, departing off Grid 219-222, am currently Northbound, heading back into the city... Kat, if you can hear me, I'm gonna need approximate coordinates for where Six and his unit are..."
"Roger, patching the coordinates into your NAV now," Kat replied, overly cautious. She was probably making sure the Covvies weren't tracking the com as the Replika dipped down and flew in lower, near the cloud cover below them, keeping an eye out in the mist of the towers below for any other possible hostiles. She radioed to her gunners, requesting that they keep an eye out as well, before taking a short left around one of the towers belonging to the Hospital.
Her HUD picked up a new target approaching. She zeroed in on it and shifted her aim, before a burst of plasma washed over her canopy. The glass crackled and popped, but didn't shatter as the hot plasma bolts struck. She swiveled her bird, showing the armor as she aimed the cannon. One burst left the barrel and the Banshee's bulbous forward hull blossomed and exploded outward, its sensor suite inoperative as it dived.
Not dead, but out of action. Elster kept her eyes peeled and heard the chatter of her gunners' MGs as well, watching as scarlet tracers dotted the night sky and lit the clouds around them, passing through. Bullets pinged off the hull of a Banshee, AP rounds piercing the belly again as it lanced upward, breaching through said clouds. A plasma conduit caught fire and the bird's engines failed.
The TEAMBIO of one of the gunners flatlined and Elster saw plasma in the corner of her eyes. A second Banshee appeared on the right side, its cannons still shimmering scarlet after firing. She gasped as she saw the corpse of the right gunner slumped over onto his weapon. She grit her teeth and said, "Stand by, Private. I'm gonna bring us in for landing as soon as I find them..."
Her HUD's NAV pointed toward Club Errera, at the top of one of the high-rises. She pulled up on the stick and brought herself and the Falcon up. More plasma bolts struck the top of the aircraft and warnings began to blare in the cockpit. The Falcon's engines sputtered, its rotors slowing for just a sec and causing them to dip in altitude. Elster countered this as best she could, the aircraft regaining altitude control and lifting up toward the club. She eyed the enemy flyer as it passed above her, just out of the firing arc of her cannon.
It swept in for another strike, plasma rounds piercing the heated upper hull and causing one of the thrusters to pop and explode. The Helicopter dipped again, but they were close. She tried to bring it about and fired a burst next to the Banshee to deter it while her sole remaining machine gunner tried firing back as well. The Covenant air asset veered hard left, dodging the burst that went wide, before bringing its nose about again and charging its fuel rod cannon.
Elster gasped, watching the burning emerald glow form at the barrel, then called out, "CORPORAL! JUMP!" just as the weapon fired.
Thankfully, the two were level and next to Errera's landing pad. The Trooper jumped first, grabbing onto the side of the pad and hanging there for a good minute, trying to avoid the blades of the chopper. Elster popped open her canopy... Then felt the heat prickling at her bio-components, her outer polyethylene layer boiling with the armor as an emerald blast boiled and melted the chopper.
Her shields overloaded and broke as she landed on the platform, rolling like a barrel to the left. She drew her pistol and aimed it at the banshee, before firing once, twice, three times and proceeding to empty her entire magazine into it. She must've hit one of the antigrav pods, because the aircraft dipped, turned and boosted away at maximum speed. She grit her teeth, felt her back and saw that, no, thankfully her SPI Armor hadn't melted.
She then scrambled to her feet as she saw the trooper still hanging there, then ran up to him and grabbed him by the wrist, calling out to him, "I gotcha!" and dragging him up. The man panted, breathing a sigh of relief and wiping the sweat off his brow. She told him, "Good legs..." before scanning the skies as she racked the slide on her pistol. A round fed from the fresh magazine she had slapped in mid-run.
She also noticed Six's chopper to the right, damaged and scarred by plasma... But flyable.
"Thanks," The boy replied, his voice tinged with a light accent and the heavy breathing. He was olive-skinned, probably of another ethnic group.
"Corporal Asher, right?" She asked him as she helped him to his feet and handed him his assault rifle off the floor. He nodded, to which Elster patted him on the shoulder and said, "C'mon, Jim. I'm thinking I'm gonna need the backup..." before depolarizing her visor and offering the young man a smile. He nodded to her, racked the bolt of his AR and followed along, seemingly eager for action.
Elster radioed, "Six, this is Seven. I'm on Errera's landing pad... You good?"
Static and white noise played over her com. She swore to herself. They must've been pinned down by something. She radioed to Kat, boosting to maximum, and stated, "Two, this is Seven, Errera Jammer is not down yet. I think Six got held up by something..." and Kat's reply came in scrambled as well. Though it was an affirmative. With a sigh, she radioed, "Proceeding to assist... Out."
"Take it we're alone?" The rifleman asked. She nodded.
"For now... Hoping a Spartan and a fellow Replika are inside..." She shot back, then murmured to herself, "Can't believe I called her that, but, oh well..." as they pushed forward, rifles up and scanning their sectors. Errera was strangely 'orange', considering the doors with LEDs that slid apart and revealed a two-prong hallway. Both of them took the right-hand door, entering into a massive, multi-level dance floor area with a bar in the far back.
And gunfire intermixed with the beats, obviously. The DJ was dead on the controls. The green fire of a plasma pistol's shots still burned on his back.
Down below, at the base of the illuminated dance floor above which a holographic chandelier with a massive disco ball hanged, she saw Six taking cover as a Fuel Rod shot slammed into said floor, boiling away glass and the lights below that illuminated the Spartan and the Troopers in emerald. The Crow was beside him, firing up at the enemy with a 7,62 LMG she'd acquired from somewhere.
Up top, the lumbering forms of a Hunter pair hid in the darkness, illuminated only by the bursts of plasma from the Covenant Elites around them and their own rare shots with the Fuel Rod cannons. The jammer pulsed behind the beasts and Elster's com shrilled with static, her visor and senses temporarily in chaos. She shook off the effects, showed the corporal to follow along and quickly descended toward the Army Troops, Six and Crow.
Crow took cover as she reloaded the LMG with a box magazine, just in time to see her descending. She yelled, "Took your sweet fucking time!" before a yelp escaped her mouth as another emerald blast boiled the air, their rad counters spiking, then calming. Jim marched up to a pair of troopers and patted them on the shoulder, then opened fire with his AR toward the Elites.
"Good to know you missed me," Elster clapped back sardonically, grinning behind her helmet. "Status," she then asked the two of them as she grabbed a grenade launcher off the floor. Beside crow, a Medic tended to a wounded Soldier, the grenadier. She reloaded one grenade into the tube, then looked to Six as he shouldered an SRS-99/99 Sniper Rifle.
"Elites came out of camouflage just as we wiped out a platoon of Grunts and the Brutes guarding the top floors. They funneled us in and pushed us back down here, away from the jammer and the pair of Hunters... Jammer's next to the bar if you feel like grabbing a drink," He quipped rather calmly as he scoped in an Elite with a Sniper. The rifle rang out and one Elite's hat flew clean off its head. He turned to her as he dropped the empty magazine to the floor, next to two others and a bunch of spent casings, before slamming in a fresh one, racking the bolt and stating, "Rita nearly got domed, too."
"Needle rifle round pinged off my fucking skull," She stated, pointing at the scratch on her synth-skin, right on the temple, then called back, to Six "And don't call me that shit, LT." annoyed.
"I like the name," He shot back. Elster snorted, while the Crow... Pouted? Elster ignored that for her own sanity and Six's.
She asked, "What's the plan, then?"
"Well, if we can take out the Elites..." And he motioned to the figures slinking around in the Dark, probably trying to flank them, "We can advance, though that leaves the Hunters... Any idea on how to deal with'em? Cuz 40-mike-mike won't do much unless you plant it center-mass into that eel colony," before he scoped in an Elite and knocked its hat off as well, alongside a good half of its face.
Elster hummed, then said, "I take right, you take left, then we pincer the Hunters?"
"Sounds good," Six replied, then slung his sniper onto his back, grabbing the MA37 and checking it over. Elster gave a hand signal to the Crow and a couple of Troopers, Jim included... Then did something she remembered she could do. She winked her status light red for one second. As a Fuel Rod shot over their heads and hit the pedestal and console where the DJ's corpse was, vaporizing both in a bright flash, she winked it gold, then, as the first Elite appeared on top of one of the pillars, she flashed it green.
The Spartans and their escorting comrades burst out of cover in full-on sprints, Elster emptying an entire magazine into the Elite with the Needle Rifle at the top. She wanted to draw her pistol, but the Trooper beside her snapped off a DMR shot mid-run that sent the hinge-jaw tumbling over onto the ground, its neck cracking as it impacted the glass floor head-first. The smaller Trooper cheered, her Russian accent preposterous, "Fuck yes! Eat shit, Suka!"
She ducked as a bolt of plasma hit just inches short of her head, then turned around and threw a pair of plasma grenades off the floor toward the target. One actually stuck to the Elite and detonated, taking its leg clean off and washing it in radiation. Elster charged up the stairs, rifle forward. She reloaded the weapon and fired bursts at Elite Minor-ranked troops, before body-slamming one into a wall, which shattered its shields.
She planted the barrel of her rifle into its stomach and let loose a flurry of rounds that tore through its gut, muscles, intestines and the spine spattering the wall behind in a purple hue, masked by the shadows in the club. She turned to the right and lifted her pistol, watching as Jim stepped up and fired an overcharged plasma pistol at the Elite. Its shields flared and died, with Elster following up with a headshot from the pistol.
She grabbed the grenade launcher off her belt next and lobbed a frag the way of the lumbering monstrosity ahead. The detonation sent shrapnel into the eel colony and made the emerald bolt of hatred shoot wide from its cannon, hitting one of the holographic emitters on the vaulted ceiling. As Crow charged up the stairs and opened fire to distract the beast, Elster called out to her, "Bounding assault! Cover each-other as we move! That means you, too, Rita!"
"Fuck you, Elster!" The girl replied, though with a hearty laugh, "Ya got it!"
The Spartan, meanwhile, danced around the enemy's shots with his half of the platoon. Plasma bolts struck where he'd been moments ago while he pushed forward. Grabbing a shotgun off the floor from next to a dead Army Trooper, the man started pumping the remaining shells into a pair of Elites ahead. Once the weapon clicked empty, Six had closed distance and drowned the enemy's shields.
One of the Elites brought its overheated plasma rifle down on him, but the Spartan blocked it with the shotgun and pushed it aside, before pumping outward and tossing both weapons aside. The Elite tried to activate his energy dagger and slash at the Spartan, but Six pumped both legs and pushed himself back, before slamming an elbow into the Elite's buddy and stabbing it in the throat with his knife.
The troopers with him pelted the other Elite with rounds, his shields flashing azure and deactivating. Bullets pierced the thick hide of the reptile-like hunchback. Purple blood pooled at his feet as he collapsed to the floor in a heap. The Spartan twisted his blade in the other Elite's throat, brought it downward and split his airway open, before yanking the blade out.
He looked over to Elster and her troop, then over to his own target. He balled a fist and motioned for the Army Troopers to take cover, then charged the hulking titan of alien steel and eels, sliding underneath its legs as it swung at him with its massive shield arm, before stopping against a wall with his feet and drawing the pistol. He aimed the gun and put several fifty-caliber pistol rounds into the monster's back, sending it into a furious rage.
It swiveled about and swung the shield in a low sweep, digging into the floor with it and damn near taking the Spartan's head off. Six, however, rolled out of the way, pounced to his feet and charged the tank once again. He sidestepped another downward slash from the beast's shield arm, grabbed onto one of the sensory spines poking out of the back armor and found purchase hanging onto it.
It started bucking like an angry bull at a rodeo, forcing Six to dig his boots into its alloy legs and pelvis to hold on as it wildly swung. A bullet ricocheted close to his head, the Spartan turning to see Elster, the Crow and their Army Troopers engaging the beast's pair with their rifles. She gave one hand signal to the Crow and both girls hefted plasma grenades, throwing them onto the beast's midsection before pulling back.
Six pulled a frag off his belt, primed it and slammed it into the beast's exposed abdomen, before jumping off, skidding back and murmuring something to himself. It turned, aimed and charged its fuel rod gun, then orange eels exploded outward, splitting the beast in half and spraying fluorescent orange blood onto the floor. Synchronized with it, the two plasma grenades washed its mate in radiation and boiling-hot plasma before it could so much as roar.
With both beasts dead, orange blood and dying eels spilling from their insides, the Spartan, Replikas and Army Troopers met in the middle, with Elster panting and stating, "I really fucking hate these things..." before stomping an Eel out as it crawled toward her. Six snorted and gave an approving nod, before stepping off toward the jammer. Rita, the Crow, snorted as she watched him insert the commands and take a step back.
Several pulses came in increasingly-rapid succession before the device detonated in a bright blue flash, causing the Troopers to close their eyes, Elster to polarize her visor and the Crow to turn away. The static that rang in the background of their coms cleared, with Six tapping the side of his helmet, holstering his rifle and stating, "Two, this is Six. I and Seven rendezvoused. Last Jammer is down."
Elster looked to the Troopers and paused. She waved to one of them, a Lieutenant, and asked her, "Did we fight together?"
"I think so, ma'am. Back in SWORD maybe? I know Katja was there alongside a couple other people," The young woman gave a nod. She had Asian traits, but seemed like a combo between Caucasian and SEA. The name of her IFF read 'LEE'. She was a Lieutenant, so Elster kind of snapped a salute, to which she replied in kind and shook her head, "No need. Thanks for saving our collective Bacon."
"No kidding," Jim snorted, "I think I'd still be falling if she didn't grab me off the side of the landing pad."
"Christ, Jim, always getting into trouble..." Quipped the woman. She sighed, "Now, to find a way off this roof and to an Evac site-" She paused, then put her hand to her ear. She replied, "Copy, command. Tango Platoon's active. We're down to fifty-three percent combat effectiveness, however we're ready to answer any call to arms... The Generators? Roger. Will we be meeting other Platoons?" and she smiled, "Copy. Copy that, sir. We're waiting for evac on at Club Errera. Spartans just helped us bust the Com Jammer. Roger."
"Take it you got new orders, as well?" Six asked.
"Yessir," She replied, "They'll be evaccing us out of NA and moving us to help defend the planetside generators for the orbital MAC Platforms. Command doesn't want those falling any time soon, so it'll be our job to keep them secure... Afterward, we'll see. Space is thick with the bastards, though," And she gave a sad smile. Almost as if she was aware this remained a one-way job. "At least, I'll be seeing my friends one last time before we all inevitably die."
He nodded, "Take care, Lieutenant. And chin up... Maybe we'll make it."
"Heh... Yeah," She sighed. The Spartan and Replikas led the way out of Club Errera just as a Pelican touched down at the landing pad. They took the Falcon, while the Army Troopers boarded the Pelican and left for other, more distant and untouched parts of New Alexandria. Elster sighed, meanwhile, leaning back against the seat while holding onto the Machine Gun.
"Helluva night, huh?" Rita turned toward her, "You look like you've seen some shit."
"Got singed by a Banshee's Fuel Rod Gun..." She replied, "It was fucking close."
Crow snorted, "Ouch. Lucky fuck."
"Wouldn't call getting washed in green shit radiation lucky, Rita," She shot back, causing the woman to frown, before her odd grin returned. The girl shook her head and chuckled, before sighing and tuning into the radio. Dead ahead of them, among smaller burning towers, lay what was left of ONI's Headquarters. Their target and a surprisingly untouched building.
The Falcon moved toward the landing pad that slid out, with Kat noting to them, "Whatever you did out there, Six and Seven, it sure knocked the air out of the enemy's lungs. The assets putting pressure on us here were removed... Welcome home..." just as they touched down. Moments later, the pad itself retracted into the wide, elevated hangar, which contained a multitude of other vehicles, still packing for evacuation for the last remaining ONI Assets in town... Sans the Spartans.
Six jumped out of the Falcon's pilot seat just as his comrades dismounted, then took his helmet off and shook his head. He ran his hand over his buzzcut hair, then looked over to Elster and a seemingly-stunned Crow. Elster took her own helmet off, revealing minor burns on her facial structure, plus a couple of missing patches of skin that revealed the inner workings of her face. Her armor had the scars of battle, as well. Her back was singed and a bit darkened by the blasts of Fuel Rod guns, while the front bore a multitude of pockmarks and wounds from plasma and needle weapons that hit while her shield was thin.
Six looked to the Crow, blinked, then asked, "What's with her?"
Elster had to take a moment to see it. The usual boisterous attitude, crafty smile and evil gaze were replaced with a look of surprise and Elster swore she could see a twinge of a blush on the face of the Replika. She blinked and shrugged, choosing, yet again, to ignore the possibilities. Six sighed and said, "Right. C'mon..." then led the two off the landing pad and into the building...
An elevator ride up to an upper floor later, the Spartan walked to the sight of a damaged atrium area. To their left was a handrail over which they could see the other floors and offices. Around them were doors to top floor offices, some of which were open, the offices themselves ransacked and destroyed, presumably by ONI, so as to leave no intel to the Covenant.
From the ceiling hanged a Banshee flyer that Elster recognized, considering the dozen holes in its belly. It had careened into and broken the top-most window, then caught itself in the wiring above. It now hanged, lifeless, a spatter of purple blood dripping from its hull onto the floor below, in a pool off to the side. Sat in the wider Atrium, behind one of the larger windows of the place, was all of Noble.
Emile was the first they saw, the man sitting next to Jorge and cleaning his knife. Jorge himself sat, staring at his helmet with an impassive gaze. Afterward came Carter, the man gazing out the window while sat next to Kat, who was working on splicing into a console to get some comms going, going by the headsets resting around her, each meticulously taken apart so that they may provide spare parts for the makeshift relay.
Finally, Jun was sat on the railing near the massive window, gazing down a pair of binoculars. He murmured, "Look at this place. Used to be the crown jewel..." before hearing the crackle of glass under heel of MJOLNIR boots and turning to see who had arrived. He smiled, his three-arrows tattoo wrinkling with his cheek as he called out jovially, "Hey! You made it!"
"Not for a lack of the Covvies trying to murder us," Elster replied, rubbing the back of her neck.
"Heh, ain't that how it usually is," Jorge commented. The trio turned to see him actually smiling at them, having set his helmet aside. He stood up and walked to them, adding, "Glad to see you two made it. We were starting to get worried after we hadn't had contact those last couple days. You kids nearly gave us all a bit of a heart attack..." before putting hand son both their shoulders and squeezing them in his usual friendly manner.
"Took us a while to trek into an area that had signal," Six replied, offering a smile back, "Sorry."
Carter shot back, "All that matters is that Noble's not understrength, Six. Glad to have you both back..." before eyeing the Crow, "As for you..."
She gave another mock salute, grinning wildly. Elster told them, "That's Rita. Our Crow." while grinning.
"Hey, I didn't-!"
The Crow wanted to protest, but Six said, "Rita's been mighty useful, sir... For one hell of a crazy shock trooper, she's helped us a bunch when we were out in the morning in NA..." which caused the girl to shrink, cheeks a twinge red again. Elster blinked, looked over to Rita again. She fiddled with her thumbs and Elster's eyes shot wide, to the point she tapped Six on the shoulder and showed him to follow.
Stepping off to the side, Elster asked awkwardly, "What did you do to her?"
"Nothing...?" Six shrugged, looking at the Crow as she seemed to take a moment and snap out of her stupor. She sat herself down next to Emile, bragging about something or other. He told her, "She seems the same old lunatic we met in the morning to me..." and the unconvinced Elster walked back with him to the group. Emile looked to Elster expectantly, to which she told him, "She gutted a bunch of Brutes with her knife on the way here, so I think she's right up your alley..."
Emile snorted, "Sure sounds like it, Seven. She's a gal after our own taste."
"Yeah. And once she learned to take orders," Six looked to her, "She actually was quite good at the job."
Another blush from the Crow and some unusual shyness cinched it. Elster scoffed, grabbed Six by the collar much to the surprise of the gang and dragged him out of earshot, before telling him, "You poor, poor fuck..." and pointing at Rita, only to clarify to a confused-looking Noble Six, "She imprinted on you, you idiot!" and let out a short giggle, "She must've seen the stunts you pulled a couple times too many. It's how Geiers take command of them, by showing surprising strength and capacity of command..."
"And...?" Six quirked a brow up at her, "What do you mean, imprinted...?"
She chuckled, "Brother, you're in for a world of fun... She likes you," then patted him on the shoulder and sidestepped him, walking to Carter. Six blinked, confused, then turned to watch her leave. Turning back to the Crow as she got into a bragging match with Emile, he blinked again, totally confused, scratched the top of his head again, then sighed and marched up to Jun.
"Hell of a sight..." The LST Replika stated as she walked up to Carter, all while looking around at the damage sustained by ONI's HQ.
Carter nodded, "ONI HQ being a ghost town... Yeah," then he turned to her, "You doing good, Elster?"
She shrugged, "... Worried, sir..." before looking to him, visible concern in those blue eyes, which looked more human than when Carter had first seen them. Almost too human for a machine like her, he thought, only to remember this was the same girl who had fallen in love with her crewmate and made sure their ship made it all the way here. He gave an understanding nod.
"All of us are, Sergeant," He told her, "Best we can do is keep pushing forward..."
"Can we talk to HighCom? Get her off this rock with doctor Halsey...?"
"Don't know... It's not in our prerogative to put requests out to ONI..." He replied, scratched the back of his neck, then calmly added, "If we get proper coms back, you can try and put in a req for it, but I doubt they'll listen. CASTLE is too important to abandon for the moment and there's rumors of a meet nearby UNSC HighCom for all available Spartan teams going on a major operation. That doesn't include us."
"Doesn't include Gauntlet, Red and Echo teams either, sir... Rumors true?" Jun looked back, "That they put them on civilian evac duties?"
"Those are senior level communiques," Carter replied annoyedly, turning a glare toward Kat. Jun snorted and looked back through the binocs.
She shrugged, "I hear what I hear..." as she worked on the console with a pair of plyers, removing shrapnel, "Point is why put Spartans on defensive deployments...?" before the entire room broke into an unspoken quiet, Elster and Rita noticing this immediately. They tensed, wondering the same. Why put teams of elite killers out into combat duties they had no business attending when they could be sabotaging enemy supply lines, or destroying staging points, or... Anything? Anything to slow this down even more?
To slow down Armaggedon?
Carter inquired, "You asking me if we're losing...?"
Kat's reply was grim, sending Elster's mechanical heart sinking. "I know we're losing..." She stated, turning to Jorge, who, despite trying his best to maintain professionalism and his usual calm, had to look away. She looked back to Carter and demanded, "I want to know if we've lost..." as she turned back to working. Carter blinked, letting out a deep, defeated sigh.
"I need that link to SATCOM, Kat," He switched the subject.
She shot back, "Chasing it... This console's got more shrapnel in it than transceivers..."
Elster sighed and approached Six and Jun. The two gave her apologetic looks as she leaned against the railing Jun was sat atop, simply staring out into the wider city. The distant flashes of Covenant Cruisers' excavation beams lit the area beyond the mountains, the void and thunder of artillery thumping even through the walls, muffled by them. The death throes of a world and here Elster was, witnessing them from Ground Zero. She asked in a murmur, "How'd Cruisers get through if Orbit's still fighting...?" really not wanting to know the answer...
"Some ships slip through," Jun replied, however, "Ain't the first time it's happened."
"Ain't that a pain...?" She murmured, a rhetorical question.
Six nodded, "Aye..." Before humming and looking to Elster, "It'll be fine. Doctor Halsey's one tough nut... And Ariane? Well, if she's anything like you describe her, she'll be alright."
Elster gave a half-hearted smile to Six, then nodded. All of them turned around as Kat called out, "I got signal!" and turned to the Commander. A faint trickle of static echoed over, with Kat stating, "It's patchy, but it's there..." before blinking, "Wait. Colonel Holland, hailing us! What's he doing on an open channel...?" as the entire group tensed and turned their attention toward her. All save for Jun.
"Let's hear it," Carter ordered.
"... Along the southwest quadrant of the City. Sierra 259, if you're receiving this, I'm authorizing override of radio security protocols to link with this channel..." Holland's voice sounded worried. The entire Spartan team exchanged glances, with Carter stepping up toward Kat. The girl lifted an earpiece and looked at her commander.
"How long for a secure channel?" He demanded
She shrugged, "Can't guarantee secure anymore."
"Could Covenant trace it to us?"
"I could..."
A moment of hesitation could cost them either their lives or next mission. He nodded to her, to which she handed him the headset and told him, "Keep it brief..." before grabbing her datapad and activating sensors, just in case. ONI had a bunch of security protocols, cameras and the likes installed all across the place, so the paranoid bastards gave them ample warning with this stuff.
As the Commander went to talk, Elster tensed, feeling prickles in her synthetic skin, her eyesight blurring. She rubbed her eyes, then turned to the Crow to see a similar reaction. Rita stood to her feet and a chill shot up both girls' spines. Jun leaned forward, peering through his binoculars, "Movement... Covenant vehicles vacating the area. And they're in a hurry."
"How often you see Covenant retreat for no reason...?" Emile asked, an edge to his voice. Jorge slid his helmet on as well...
Elster did, too, trying to activate her armor's shields.
Six put his helmet back on, before a collective chill hit the group, Kat yelling out, "Radiation flare! Big! Forty million Roentgen!" as she tapped her device. She tossed it aside and stood to her feet, looking to Carter. The man turned to his technician with a question, before calling out, "Atomic excitement scrambled the signal! Ninety million now!" as she read out the data.
"Source?" Carter demanded as Rita stood up, too, drawing her rifle.
"Airborne!" Kat shot back, then her eyes widened, "CLOSE!"
"How close?!" Elster barked. Her entire world seemed to shatter, her vision going dark for a moment as a charging energy weapon whirred. A great gust of wind shattered the window behind the young woman, spraying the place with glass and shrapnel. She turned back as her vision slowly returned, only to see the flare of a Covenant Cruiser's excavation beam as it lanced down at the Earth below. The beam glared red, washing the room in its evil light...
"THAT CLOSE!" Kat replied, fear palpable. She and the other Spartans scrambled, with Six and Elster helping Kat up to her feet as she grabbed her helmet and slid it on her head. The eight-person group ran toward the elevators in the back as radiation continued to prick at them. They entered them, with Kat looking to see she was with a worried Six and Elster in the same glass elevator. She asked them, "First glassing...?" before getting a nod. She replied weakly, "Yeah, me too... Don't worry, though, I got it," as she hit the button to activate the elevator, nearly missing the second time, and put her helmet on. She activated her datapad again and said, "Our best bet is a fallout bunker on sublevel two, ninety-six meters east of our current pos... We get orders from Holland, sir?"
"Two orders, one being for Elster," Carter replied over com, surprising the Replika. He told them, "She's taking the next Pelican out to HIGHCOM. Doctor Halsey's requested her presence for the big op we all know is coming. RED FLAG..." before sighing deeply. He looked to the four members of his team on the same elevator as him, then told the group, "NOBLE's going to SWORD."
"SWORD?!" Jun demanded, "Covenant own it now!"
"Which is why they want us for a Torch And Burn op," He replied as the elevator reached the sublevel, doors opening, "Keep doctor Halsey's data from falling into enemy hands..."
"If the data hasn't fallen already..." Kat sighed deeply.
Carter shrugged, watching as their elevator arrived, too, "Maybe! But word is the Covenant's still looking for something!"
Kat, Six, Elster and Crowe pushed off, beginning their sprint as Kat complained, "Where does he get off calling a demolition a priority o-"
Time seemed to slow for Rita, the newly-named Crow. She heard the distant whirr of antigravity engines get closer, even through the hubbub and rattle of the plasma beam coming down on the city. She craned her head left as time around her did slow to a crawl. Through the hole in the wall above, through which azure light streamed, a nose came first, blotting said light out. Then, it resolved into a Covenant Phantom, the manta-like drop-ship's side door opening to reveal an Elite in gold armor.
He aimed a Needle Rifle toward Kat and Six. Rita's heart skipped a single beat, before she charged forward, time regaining its usual speed around her as she called out to them, "LOOK OUT!" just as the needle rifle hissed. A needle punched through her shoulder, sending her tumbling to the floor. Though where her shoulder was when she took the hit, would've been Kat's head.
The two Spartans stumbled forward alongside Elster, all three stopping as they saw Rita drop to her stomach, holding onto her shoulder. The other Replika of the group scowled, drawing her pistol and firing up blindly at the elites as she charged to grab her. Six gave one hand signal to his team and five assault rifles and an MG let loose toward the Covenant dropship as it waved off, the Elite general scowling at them.
Elster picked up Crow and demanded, "You alive!?"
"Yeah!" Rita growled, "Fuck me, that smarts, though!"
"C'mon! C'mon! Get in!" Carter barked, waving them forward. All members of NOBLE entered the bunker, the thick bulkhead doors closing behind them. Adrenaline that coursed through the veins of the Spartans began to dissipate, while Elster set the Crow down and pulled her repair pack out. Rita still had one repair spray and a bunch of plasters on her. She used a pair of self-sealing plasters on the shoulder and gave an approving nod, before slumping down beside her and taking her helmet off.
Rita heaved, then smirked, "Thanks, Elster."
"Don't mention it..." She replied, then gave a smile and a nod. She nudged the Crow's shoulder with her elbow, before she slowly and steadily went on to laugh. At first, it was a slow, simple, weirdly tense laugh. Only moments later, over half a minute of laughter, did it become a boisterous, joyous laugh of disbelief. A laugh in which Rita joined, while the Spartans simply smiled at them and the Civilians stared with muted awe. Six took his helmet off and shook his head, chuckling, too...
Three days later, SAR arrived as the Spartans and Replikas exited out into the world once more, to see a river of molten glass. Elster stared out at it, not filled with fear, but with determination. Three days in the darkness allowed her to think things through. She would get Ariane off this rock as soon as she could, get her to Earth... And keep her safe that way.
As she boarded the Pelican heading for FLEETCOM, she turned to Noble Team and called out, "Commander, sir!" causing him and the others to turn toward her. She offered him a kind smile, then snapped a crisp salute, "I'll see you soon! Take care of yourselves, Noble! It's been a bloody honor!" which got salutes and smiles back out of several of them. She then called out, "And Rita!" which made the Crow turn, before telling her, "Take care of the El-Tee, big girl."
She gave a faint smile, her lips shielding her teeth this time, then saluted, "You fuck'em up out there, too, Itou!"
"It's Elster... But yeah, see you..." She smirked, then waved goodbye, boarding the Pelican and nodding to the Marine staff aboard. It lifted off, taking off toward FLEETCOM and boosting forward. Sat down in the rearmost seat, Elster stared outward at the skeletons of the city's buildings, boiling and bending still under the stress and heat of the burned soil, plasma scarring a still-fresh reminder...
... They'd make it. They had to. All of them...