Will flew back like a ragdoll, tumbling over and over as he flew. He scoffed, powered the thrusters in his new armor, then, with three puffs, he aligned himself to be upright and, upon touching down onto the ground, he dug his hand and heels into the sand, sliding to a halt beside a pair of MBTs. Kilo stormed up beside him, powering up TALOS's energy shield as a neutron beam fired by a very, very angry Chatterbox struck.
The Mech's head turned back and both he and Kilo asked in unison, "Are you alright?!" though Kilo's was contrastingly more concerned about the Spartan than TALOS, who was a bit busy trying to hold off their common enemy. Will stood up and gave a nod. He then drew a rocket launcher off of his back and sidestepped the mech before giving them a quick 'thanks'.
His shields flared back to life as he surged forward into the battle line. The two Scorpions and one Grizzly behind him fired their main cannons, canister shells ripping through a formation of much more lightly-armored swarming Raptures, mission-killing or outright destroying them. Will, meanwhile, hefted his launcher up to his shoulder and aimed.
Two rockets shot out of the twin barrels of the Jackhammer and sped toward Chatterbox. The angry beast seemed to notice them, swinging his left arm high and cutting the weapons down with a blast of the beams that replaced his hand. Will took the blast as an opportunity, jumping and tucking in his legs as he adjusted his aim.
In unison with Chief throwing a punch, Will delivered two Titanium and Goddessium-reinforced boots to the monster's face, ripping teeth out of it and sending it staggering it back. It roared in anger at them, then called out, "I will END YOU BOTH!" only to stagger as several high-explosive autocannon rounds struck it, chipping away armor.
Daniel teased from aboard PALAIMON, "You're gonna have to keep your eyes open first things first, bud! Commander, he's all yours!" and he took a step back, letting Alyosha step forward with his plasma rifle, which had fully charged. The beam lanced out, burning bright with the fury of a small sun as it struck the body of the monster, forcing it to take a step back and reassess its strategy.
Explosions blossomed across the field as UNSC aerospace Fighter-Bombers dropped payload after payload of guided munitions from safe altitudes right onto enemy targets. Alyosha watched several platoons of heavier Rapture mechs get blasted to pieces by the bombs, only to roll out of the way as a volley of missiles struck where he'd been.
The Rapture MLRS that had fired those missiles soon got a taste of its own medicine, with Anis levelling her launcher at it and dumping the full six missiles in her rotating magazine. The impacts shattered the enemy machine and several of its brethren, but not before they could fire their own missiles out of the tubes.
Anis called out, "Neon! Rapi! Rio! Stella, MOVE!"
She gasped, however, when she saw Stella rush forward, pelt Chatterbox with bullets as it, too, prepared to launch the multitude of missiles from its organic-looking back-mounted launchers, then rushed toward an allied position. She dropped the spent magazine from her SMG and slotted in a fresh one, threw it onto the magnetic lock on her back, then jumped into a foxhole.
Inside, a wounded Marine clasped at the stump of his left leg, from which blood poured. He told her, "Sons of bitches got me, doc!"
"You'll be fine, Marine," She replied as she pulled out her medical kit and started cauterizing and bandaging. She took the man's hands into hers so he wouldn't protest, then looked at one of his buddies as he jumped into the trench, firing a UNSC standard machine gun toward a horde of advancing Raptures. She requested, "Can you hold him down for a second? I have to apply a tourniquet and it's going to hurt," to which the man sighed and nodded. With one hand, he held onto the MG, firing it wildly, while with the other, he pinned down his mate.
Rapi joined them in the impromptu foxhole, firing her own underbarrel launcher right into the form of Chatterbox, which staggered him enough to give both Kilo and Daniel enough purchase to deliver two more heavyweight punches into the monster's chest, cracking the regenerating armor plate and sending it staggering back.
It growled, wanting to leave again, but seemed to take to its habit quite well.
That was to say, Snow White had acquired the bastard with her rifle, crying her usual battle cry as she fired. The anti-ship shell sped out of the rifled barrel of Seven Dwarves like a bat out of hell and struck the monster's arm dead on, ripping it off and further travelling into the beast's insides. It spat out acrid black blood, before stumbling to try and get into cover.
Swarms more Rapture war machines poured onto the battlefield as Daniel cheered, calling out, "That's right, you bastard! RUN!" only to let out an "OHSHIT-" as a Rapture quadrupedal bumrushed him and slammed against his shield. The thunder of Rio's railgun ripping the thing in half, however, caused the young man to yelp.
Rio grinned, then sang jokingly, "What can I say, except, you're welcome~!" … only to have to duck and scream as a bullet rang her bell by striking her helmet. It had thankfully ricocheted off, but that had certainly put the fear of God into the young revived sharpshooter. She took her helmet off and looked at the hole drilled just an inch too high to pen her brain pan and let out a short, awkward laugh, pale as bone.
Rapi jumped in with Stella, whose hands were bloody, before she looked upon the damage sustained. She looked at Rio, cracked a small smirk and said, "Perhaps that's a message from God to only listen to music, not perform it," which, though Rapi soon realized it could've been hurtful for the young woman, instead caused her to let out an actual, genuine laugh.
"Fuck you, too, Rapi," She quipped, bumping the girl's fist with her shoulder. She put the damaged helmet back on and lifted her rifle, turning her aim for Chatterbox as it ran away again. She aimed specifically for its leg, charging the weapon and only firing the high-speed dart of ferromagnetic material when the charge reached One-oh-One Percent.
A neat little 'fuck you' to the Rapture, too. Just enough power to tingle his balls a bit harder.
When the dart left the barrel, it punched through several dozen Raptures without stopping, electrical arcs flowing around the whirlwind left by the bullet. Then, it struck the monster's stumpy leg, sending it tumbling forward. It groaned, then roared in anger, or to summon its comrades. Several larger Raptures soon formed a perimeter around it, picking it up and carrying it away.
Balls of light and fire struck the Rapture Frontline, Rapunzel rushing forward in full battle-dress and calling out, "BY THE LIGHT OF THE LORD!" as she raised an energy shield just before a volley of missiles struck around them, protecting the forward line. Delta moved up behind her, side-by-side with Snow, and both fired their snipers at the enemy.
Signal, meanwhile, sat beside the Chief, coordinating artillery strikes calmly, her voice surprisingly steady as she said, "... Mark at zero-four-four five-five-two. Adjust and fire marking shot," before watching the first shell, a tracer, land dead center among several Raptures. She smiled and said, "On the mark! Good effect! Fire at will!"
Chief nodded to the girl, giving her a gentle pat on the head which made her giggle, before he and Cortana rushed forward to join Pinne, Sammy and Layla. Pinne dumped shell after shell into the smaller formations of mechs, while Layla beside her reloaded her AR and chuckled. Sammy, meanwhile, was coordinating with the rest of their troops nearby through hand signals.
She looked at Signal, then gave the girl several hand signals that he soon realized were for calling gunship support. He nodded, rallying up Blue Team and moving over to support the Rookie and Matis as they advanced deeper and deeper down the roads. A Marine vehicle to their right exploded, taking the lives of several men as the supporting elements turned to engage.
Signal, meanwhile, spoke, "This is LUCKY STRIKE and COUNTERS, requesting CAS just due North of our current position. Any Gunships on site that can answer the call, please do! It's gonna be DANGER CLOSE!" before she stood up and fired a burst from her SMG at a suicide drone that was charging the team. Sidestepping the gunfire, Scarlet surged forward with her blade, cutting one of the creatures in half.
"LUCKY STRIKE Actual, this is BUTCHER 2-1, copy your last. Times three Sparrowhawks and times one Vulture en-route. Keep your heads down," The pilots replied. Overhead, the four craft flew, engines loudly roaring as they moved forth. Rippling fire swept the battlefield ahead as high-caliber miniguns and cannons ripped through the forward enemy lines.
A volley of missiles spewed out from the back of the Vulture gunship, the multi-launch system on the back working overtime as the barrage exploded several enemy formations. Beams laced the sky as anti-air batteries and enemy air assets engaged them next, bursts of energy cutting into the armor plates of the craft. One of the Sparrowhawks ahead shot a laser beam out from its own nose-mounted energy cannon, which cut one of the AA gun Raptures in half.
The gunships orbited above allied positions, heavy cannons and missile batteries raining hell down upon the Raptures while the Marines, ODSTs and Spartans maintained the grinding advance side-by-side with the armor. Chief watched Will immediately body-check a larger shield-bearing Rapture, slam it to the floor, then climb on top of it and rip its eye out.
The group advanced deeper into a small, abandoned town's ruins, pushing the Raptures into a tighter and tighter perimeter. A missile flew overhead from the enemy's side and struck the rear, destroying one of the Grizzly MBTs just as Chief was about to rally the others. Sammy sighed, seeing that, then stated, "This is far too easy…"
"Don't jinx us now, for God's sake!" Rio called out as she drew a pair of M6 pistols and started firing, only to yelp and duck as a round skimmed the crumbling wall of the house she was using as cover. A Rapture beam cut through the top of the building, burning away plaster, rotting material and whatever else held the roof up, causing it to collapse and kick up a cloud of dust.
Coughing, Delta said, "You did kind of just jinx us, Sam," before shouldering her rifle and blasting apart the Rapture that had just fired at them. Neon followed up by charging in, blasting her shotgun and cheering. Delta and Rapi exchanged a quick look of concern, then both looked to the Commander, who sighed deeply.
"I'll go cover her," He said with mild humor as he moved through the dust clouds. He fired his weapon at any Rapture he caught sight of until he finally managed to catch up to Neon. He pulled her into cover behind an overturned, damaged armored vehicle just as a burst of rounds from a nearby Rapture with twin machine guns struck, the rounds ringing against the armor plate of the vehicle.
He poked out and fired back at it, then said to Neon, "You might not wanna rush forward, eh?"
"Sorry, Master. Was just trying to distract them for our tanks to get through," The girl replied. She heard movement to their right and paused as, through the house right next to them, burst a Rapture heavy unit. She yelled, lifting the shotgun by pure instinct and blasting the machine apart with repeated shots to its core.
A burst of SMG fire caught its escorts, too, with Syuen rushing forward. Alyosha asked, "Where've you been?" only to pause as he saw she'd sustained damage, her eyes wide. Right, they'd sent her to scout ahead, he recalled, with her shield and weapon. Just as Chief and the others reached them, a volley of high-yield missiles struck behind them, destroying several UNSC support vehicles and tanks.
"You were saying about things being too easy!?" Rio barked at Sam, who rolled her eyes. She shouldered her rifle and poked out, only to bark out a sharp and very loud, "HOLY SHIT!"
When the team looked up, they couldn't help but gasp, eyes widening at the sight. A gigantic, humanoid mech gently floated down, its wing-mounted launchers reloading for a second volley. The pilot, clearly Modernia, had the energy weapon in her right arm charging as she spoke teasingly, "You've all been very mean to my little compatriot. It's time for payback…"
The Ark
Noble Team advanced down the road, toward the inner areas of what was once the slums of the Ark again. Although one could not exactly call them Slums anymore, considering the buildings currently rising in the midst of the place. They could see where the old Partition walls had been, too, as they waded through the place, with the marks of the massive doors that were once part of the wall itself as a clear-cut tell they were 'crossing the border' so to speak.
That and the checkpoint, which was manned by Nikkes bearing the NUEG's emblems all over. They all saluted the group as they passed by in a staggered column, only to pause as they saw who was following them through. Underworld Queen and Perilous Siege were not far behind, with the latter's leader, D, wrapped up comfily in her hood and cloak, her weapons barely visible beneath it.
The guards were a little less jovial and friendly after that, going back to their posts and keeping their eyes open. Once they passed through the Checkpoint with the clearances and stuff they had acquired, Rosanna asked, "Remind me why we're going toward a medical clinic the UNSC set up here? It's not like the doctors would be Heavenly Ascension."
As the clinic emerged ahead, an old building that was currently undergoing renovation, now also bearing the Red Cross on it. Its windows were actively being replaced by workers from the Spirit of Fire SeaBee complement as the teams walked up. There were also several armored vehicles guarding the entrance and a line forming at the reception.
Carter replied, "Because we got reports from the doctors here that one of their own went missing on a house call. We're grabbing the house number from the Front Desk and then moving out to search the place…" before leading the way inside, weapon drawn. Several of the staff gasped, while Rosanna couldn't help but grin as she saw the locals suddenly back away, kids and all.
Approaching the front desk, the Spartan said, "We're the team sent to investigate your missing doctor."
"Address is right here," The Staff member spoke, offering him a paper over the counter. He nodded in thanks, then showed the team to move it out. Rosanna blinked, having thought they'd have to extort that information out of the person at the counter. Turned out that, nope, they'd just give it up for free. Honestly, though, she probably should've figured that was the case. It was one of their medics that went missing, so they'd probably want an elite fireteam to get him back.
Carter then asked, "Anything we should know?"
"He was working on an infection one of the 'former', quote-unquote," The Nurse made the air quotes, "Heavenly Ascension members got on one of his prosthetic cyberlimbs. Those things don't do much but look cool in several cases, but I'd be wary. Some of the more illegal mods in this place could punch through Marine armor…"
"We'll keep our eyes and options open," Kat replied slyly, audibly racking the bolt of her pistol. Rosanna grinned at that, while D nodded and K also… Kind of cracked a bit of a manic grin as she readied her own weapons. With one wave of his hand, Carter sent the team out, bidding a quick goodbye.
Rosenda stepped out first, stating, "If push comes to shove, I'm shooting him with that grenade launcher we brought," as Emile followed her out. He handed her the tubular weapon, which had multiple attachment points and a holographic ranging scope attached to it, to which she nodded and said, "Thanks."
"Don't mention it, big girl," The shotgunner replied, drawing his own weapon off his back. Jorge beside them let out a laugh, while Thom simply shook his head, MA40 at the ready. Jun looked at Carter, shrugging as if asking a question and tilting his head toward the rooftops. The Commander of the team gave a nod, to which Jun, in his infinite wisdom, powered on a jetpack he'd brought for the investigation and jumped to the top.
"Sniper cover," Sakura whispered, then asked, "Does your comrade mind if I join him up there?"
"I don't!" Jun called out over the com, "Could use a second pair of eyes up here anyways," only for the woman to crack a proud smirk. She dropped her cloak and jacket, leaving herself in only a tight-suit of some kind with several pouches attached to a rig. She pulled a grapple hook from the belt, started spinning it and threw it up high.
Jun caught it and placed it somewhere where it'd stay steady, to which Sakura gave a nod of thanks and began climbing. Moran grinned, stating, "She's always a bit of a show-off when she wants to be, eh?" before shouldering her rifle. An amused Rosanna let out a chuckle at that, before looking at Carter and tilting her head toward the inner areas of the former slum.
The man nodded. With several motions of his hand, the squad split up into a wedge formation, keeping a certain level of distance as they pushed into the housing areas of the place, weapons drawn. Though the 'slum' of the former Outer Rim was looking better and better, what with construction work and various civilian contractors already rebuilding and refurbishing the various buildings for the locals' safe use, there were still signs of this place's old form.
Ramshackle buildings made of corrugated steel sitting in alleys amongst the taller habitation blocs, muddy floors that were dug up and paved yet, hanging wires and broken neon flickering with what little electricity still coursed through this place. In the distance, loomed the shadow of the place's power plant, a building surrounded by scaffolding all around.
The Ark was also far more 'organized' when it came to their road building. They built in square blocs, with straight roads, intersections and such other means of fluidizing traffic. Here, considering most of the Outer Rim had been foot-paths despite its wide radius, the roads wound, danced, split and reconnected at points that made no real sense beyond some ease of access for someone who ran that specific area of the slums.
Carter looked back and asked Rosanna, "Do you and the rest of your team know many of the local territory bosses?"
"We worked with a few of'em to provide food and water in this place," Rosanna replied as she held her own high-caliber Tommy Gun replica close, making sure the bolt was locked back and the next round would safely feed. A shiver visibly ran up her spine as her right foot and shoe landed in a muddy hole. She scoffed, looked at it, then mumbled, "That's gonna take forever to clean…"
"You could've just stayed home," Moran quipped as they walked, unbothered by the fact her colorful floral dress was getting stained up to the 'ankle' area. She had boots, compared to Rosanna and Sakura was keeping her distance from the ground by traversing the rooftops with Jun. They passed by some of the people living in the places currently being renovated.
Though most cowered at the sight of elite combat teams of Nikkes and Spartans, the children stared with a certain degree of awe at them, cute little eyes wide. A few of the girls smiled as they saw Moran and Rosanna, both of whom smiled back and waved, each in their own specific way. Rosanna whispered, "No… I don't think I could've."
Moran's smile grew a little, "Yeah… Fair enough."
D said to them, "You two do realize we are being tracked, correct?"
"Oh, we saw the HA rat a while ago," Rosanna quipped, casting a glance back into the crowd of people working in the area. Some of the UNSC Marines present must've also noticed him. And it was then that she also noticed that Jun and Sakura were tracking the man through the scopes of their rifles. She hummed and told D, "You wanna deal with him?"
"He hasn't shown outward hostility to us yet," She replied, though the audible tapping of her fingers against the polymer frame of her submachine gun reached Rosanna. K, meanwhile, twirled her bladeguns around a bit with a smirk on her face, casting glances back at the man with bared 'fangs'. He seemed to understand the message, however.
As they arrived at the still dilapidated house, something like a Frankenstein's monster home of various materials that looked ready to crumble, they found a Mongoose painted in white, bearing medical emblems, plsu two Marine-manned Mongooses. Carter turned toward Jun, who gave a thumbs up as he and Sakura seemingly picked the windows they were using as targets, before the Spartans rallied up.
Pushing up to the plywood door, they stacked up by each side and Emile quickly checked the door for explosives. The front windows were barricaded, meaning no peeking inside. When Emile gave the all-clear, Carter tested the handle and saw it was open. Pushing it, he scanned the hallway ahead, a broken mess with fallen-over pictures, shattered glass and even a burst of automatic fire in one of the walls.
Carter spoke, "Push in," and Emile kicked the door in first, so to speak, shotgun up as they pushed into the house. Moving into both the living room and the kitchen, which sat opposite each-other, they only found more signs of struggle and blood smears. The living room had an overturned and damaged, ramshackle-looking table made of plywood and destroyed chairs of similar material.
The kitchen, meanwhile, looked like a hurricane had passed through, several of the plates, now shards on the floor. Emile's boots crackled against them as he advanced, calling out, "Clear! Advancing to the next room!" and pushing forward, through an archway while making sure they weren't stepping on any tripwires.
As they pushed through, the teams reunited in the center, moving out to the rear of the house. Within the last room on this floor, they all paused, with Moran whispering, "Oh, God…" as they stopped. Ahead of them lay a gruesome scene:The four Marines that had been escorting the doctor, dead. They'd had their necks snapped, or were outright shot, with one of the corpses laying sprawled across a dirty couch, while another headless one hanged over a half-open hatch.
"Tunnels," Carter spoke as he moved up to the hatch, lifting it up and off the corpse. Thom moved the Marine's corpse over to the side, then sighed deeply as he looked at his boss. As the others formed a perimeter, the pair looked down into the tunnel below, aiming their flashlights inside. The man put his hand up to his ear and said, "Command, we've discovered access to a series of underground tunnels, possibly maintenance. Can you pull any schematics?"
Rosanna knelt beside the tunnel and whispered, "I think our dear friend EH used to use these things to smuggle people and equipment around the Outer Rim," before she peered in, too. She looked up at Moran and said, "Whaddaya think? Should we give her a call before this further deteriorates? Last I heard she's with the CG now…"
"Could work," The woman replied, keeping her rifle pointed into the tunnel. Noticing the looks the Spartans were giving them, Moran said, "We know the 'leader' of Heavenly Ascension. Elysion Harper, also known as EH to Ingrid," and she sighed deeply, "Though, again, last we heard of her? She was trying to get certain Heavenly Ascension members pardoned by the NUEG, specifically because they wanted to join in as a counter-insurgency unit."
That was definitely not gonna backfire at all, Carter thought.
