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ONI Installation 3317,
Dameon 3

      The Lt. Commander looked around; the building was quiet except for the occasional chatter on the COM. He couldn't help but wonder why, why the Spartans were here, why were they even here.

      He looked over at O'Connor, who had perspiration visibly forming on his forehead "O'Connor, you doing alright?" O'Connor looked up at him "Sir, I'm fine but seeing people die so fast, it's just so un-natural" Ghost nodded, "I understand but-"The COM chirped to life "Lt. Commander, this is Peterson. Looks like our Spartan pals are knocking on the door, your orders sir?"

      Ghost pondered the mission parameters inside his head; he went over them and his own morals. "Let them in and activate your PSCS. I'll greet them here; do not fire on them what so ever."

      Bryant chimed in "Sir, that goes against our mission parameters the brass and ONI set up for us, no one is to enter, that's it".

      Ghost was visibly annoyed now; it tinged in his voice "Bryant, do not disobey my orders. This mission is under my command and I give the god damn orders, is that clear?" He sighed and stood up, stretching his legs, satisfied that he kept this problem under control.

      The pair of Spartans moved to the tree line and peered to the left, then right. Once John decided it was all clear he stood, slowly. James stood as well and gave John a thumb's up as he slammed a new clip home. John signaled to stack up and move in a train formation along the perimeter of the base. He took point while James turned his back to John and promptly began to backpedal as he covered their six. They soon reached a section of the perimeter that had been breeched, and they stepped over the fallen bits of reinforced concrete. They both held tightly together in their formation and continued to the main complex. John slowed his pace and came to the edge of the main entrance. James whom compensated for the change of pace had stopped and knelt, rifle at the ready. John opened a COM channel and spoke,

       "Take a position on the opposite side of me, get ready to enter and clear"
James did as he was told and moved slowly, silently, to the opposite side John was on. John holstered his pistol and brought his rifle up against his chest, barrel pointing up. He leaned and looked out of the corner of his eye and then slid back to an upright position, he gave the (on me) symbol, which are two fingers pointed at the eyes. Then he signaled for them to move in, both rolled to their sides and hugged the walls in a stagger formation. James was exactly one meter behind John and moved with squared shoulders, letting his rifle be his eyes. They reached the end of the hallway leading into the heart of the complex. John raised his arm parallel with the ground, bent at the elbow with his hand in a fist, and James stopped. John then pushed his hand down as if he were easing an object into place. Spotting the sudden movement James crouched low.

      "What is it Chief?" James said. John widened his stance so he could crouch lower and slowly scanned the room. In the room there was a large computer mainframe with brightly light screens, but what seemed to be aloof to John was the odd placement of items such as chairs and tables, or what was left of them. The room was littered with bodies, both covenant and human, even more out of place were the bullet shells at his feet. They were larger then the standard issue MA5B which fires 7.62 rounds.

      John said quietly "The room... it's not ... well, look!"
He picked a round up from the floor and James looked at it. John did not turn to face him in case any trouble sprang up. "Notice anything about it?"

      James thought for a moment. "Its not standard issue and it doesn't have the burn marks of ball powder," he answered.

       "Looks like we aren't alone in here" whispered John. James turned to check their six; he glanced at his motion tracker

      Bryant moved up towards the entrance, her PSCS active and working fine. Ghost's COM crackled again, it wasn't anyone from his squad. "Bryant, this is ODST 1, follow the mission parameters and stop the Spartans from entering. Ghost might have command, but we need you to stick to ONI's primary directive on this mission. He has compromised the mission; do not listen to his orders." Ghost activated his COM "Go fuck off ODST 1! If I catch you I am going to rip your head off and use it as a fucking ashtray! . . . Bryant . . . respond and hold your position!"

      There was no response on the COM channel. "Peterson... Greer. Anyone respond, what's going on?" The COM channel was dead. Ghost glanced up at his team's biosigns. Greer and Peterson were alive, but he assumed them to be unconscious; while Bryant was awake which meant one thing, trouble. He hit his COM. "Ortega, Taylor, Carlyle return to the Command Center and hold from there. O'Connor you're with me"

      Peterson's biosign went green. "Peterson, stop Bryant before she does something stupid, she must be heading towards the main entrance. STOP HER!" He made sure to put emphasis on the last two words.

      He and O'Connor began to run, his COM blared one last time "ODST 1 under heavy fire, pulling back farther into our building. Lost contact with ODST 2, we are in deep shit".

       "There movement!" said James. He leaned backwards and used the wall as a brace to roll around and aim into the room before him. John adjusted his stance to get a more solid posture and clicked on his helmet's speaker and threw a challenge

      Bryant leveled her CP-01 at the intruders and without giving a second thought, opened fire on the Spartans. A round ricocheted off the floor mere inches from John. James opened fire at their invisible foe and choked out,

       "Contacts... cloaked Elites!" At this point John switched to IR viewing, and almost fired. He stopped for a fraction of a second, only because a lucky round from James' rifle caught their mystery assailant in the chest, and shields flared.

       "It's a human! ...Not an Elite!" yelled John. But it was in vain, James already centered on the chest of the still invisible person, before they could return fire. Bryant's arms raced to the large wound on her chest, her eyes widened with the stare of a thousand miles. The only people alive who knew this look is battle hardened Marines. She began to fall back, but subconsciously stepped to keep her balance. This attempt failed and she hit the wall with a definitive thud and slumped leaving a frothy thick and blotted trail of blood as her body reached the floor. "Check fire, check fire, triggers on lock!" shouted John once more.

      James had already spent his magazine and was reaching for a fresh one but stopped on command. He nodded to John and then rose up and scanned the room. "Left is clear," said James

       "Right is clear," said John as he moved next to James whom at this point was inserting a full magazine into the stock of his rifle.

      O'Connor pulled ahead of Ghost, just ever so slightly as the sound of a rifle discharged. They both knew what had happened but didn't say a word. They toggled their PSCSs and stopped at the corner of the corridor connected to main entryway. Ghost, with his rifle shouldered, peered around the corner and took in the sight. There were two Spartans at the end of the hall, looking down at the body of Bryant who in turn had a large hole in her chest.

      Ghost hit his COM and set it Peterson's private COM "Peterson, shut off your PSCS. We'll come around the corner and show ourselves too."

      He looked at O'Connor and shut off his PSCS, his body once more being visible to the naked eye. Soon after O'Connor was visible also, they both raised shouldered their rifles and went around the corner into the complete view of the Spartans. Peterson appeared on the other side, crouching against the corner with her Sniper Rifle raised and aimed. Ghost lowered his rifle and walked alone towards the Spartans, raising his visor in the process.

       "Lower your weapons, we are not here to kill you. We are ONI, just on a mission. What happened a minute ago was uneventful but I did not order it, I regret what I did have to order though." He stared towards the faceless visors on the Spartans, wondering what was going through their heads.

      The Master Chief knew all well that there had to be more, so the sudden appearance of the two soldiers was of no surprise. He merely stood there with a calm finger on the trigger of his rifle. James who was not to take any chances waited for it to be as quiet as possible before he loudly clicked the safety off.

      John opened a COM with him "Safety that weapon, I gave you an order"

      James winced at the sharpness in John's voice, and reluctantly clicked the safety on. He lowered his rifle very slowly; it was obvious he was uncomfortable.

      "What is going on here" demanded John as he nearly yelled through his speakers.

      Ghost winced at the sound of the safety being clicked off. He couldn't tell what it was but, didn't damn dare show it. Peterson was the only Ace in the draw, she could take out one of them is anything went wrong. If the situation went sour Ghost knew he would be the first to die.

       "We are here on a classified mission, what just happened was a conflict between morals and mission designated parameters. She... was for the mission." said Ghost, with a cool and calm tone.

      John glanced down at the dead Sgt. though he did not crane his neck, he just moved his eyes. As John brought his eyes up he met Ghost's stare dead on and he had a feeling Ghost knew just where to look. He gathered his thoughts and spoke.

       "We really don't have time to stand here and chat away our mission; we will help you to the extraction zone. Till then get you're sniper off us and we will hold the main entrance. Our com channel is D band."

      Ghost nodded and looked toward Peterson, "You and O'Connor drag Greer back to the command center" He paused for a brief second before raising Smith. "Smith how is that file extraction and deletion coming along?" He waited, and then his COM crackled

       "Sir, there is a bitchy A.I. in the system... hold on..." There was a sound of weapons discharge over the COM. "Correction sir... there was a bitchy A.I. in the system. Give me ten more minutes, if I can't finish it, then I'll activate the self destruct" He gritted his teeth at the sound of that idea.

       "Understood Smith. Taylor, Ortega go recon, find out what in the hell happened to those damned ODST squads. Carlyle get ready to treat Greer, we are bringing him in. said Ghost. He paused making sure to say the next few words loud and clear, "Give me updates on all accounts, I don't want to keep the Spartans waiting too long. We've got ten minutes, and then we'll bug out" Ghost shut his COM off as Peterson and O'Connor passed him.

      John and James melted into the shadows of the room on opposite sides. They angled each other as to not take friendly fire, the one main hazard while flanking an enemy. Suddenly their COM crackled to life,

       "Red Team, this is Blue leader . . . we *phhshhh* ing heavy fire . . . maintained severe *pphhshshhh* falling back on your location" Fred's transmition barely got through. It was enough to complicate things however; John thought for a moment and then opened a COM on all freq.

       "ONI you have five minutes I repeat, only five minutes, Blue team is falling back and they are hot with contacts, advise we begin to move out" John gave a series of hand signals to James, whom nodded and disappeared out of the room and headed out the main entrance.

      Ghost turned and jogged up the hall, moving past his two subordinates and headed towards the Command Center. As he approached, everyone except for Smith had taken a position outside the Command Center facing the opposite way as him. Immediately his Motion Tracker blared with hundreds of contacts, the base was crawling with the Covenant.

      He approached his men and kneeled down near them and spoke loudly enough for them to hear "What's the situation, where did the Covenant come from?"

      Taylor replied without even showing any notice towards his CO "Sir, it looks like as when ODST 1 and 2 were overran that the motion tracker began to blare. I'd say that they are slowly making their way here, even though there are fewer contacts in the general area of ODST1's position."

      Suddenly as if on cue, there were weapon reports down one of the halls. Three ODST ran out into their field of view, stopping and firing at something down the hall. One of them took a plasma bolt to the face and dropped, it was the remnants of ODST 1. The others ran towards the Black Ops squad, Ghost and his men leveled their rifles.

      The first to round the corner was an Elite. Ghost, Taylor, Addison, and Ortega fired, their rifles spitting forth death at their foe. The Elite's shields flared and died, the rounds tearing through its armored hide as if it was paper. Behind him, Carlyle met up with Peterson and O'Connor as they carried the unconscious Greer between them. A pair of Grunts wandered into Ghost's sights also, soon shredded by the squad's combined fire. Then all hell broke lose as a quartet of Elites along with at least ten Grunts rounded the corner, weapons blaring.

      The Black Ops's shields flared and held as the plasma connected or skimmed by them, they returned the fire with their rifles firing in a full auto fusillade. Grunts screamed and fell; some fired and hid behind other's corpses. One of the Elites immediately went down and the others continuously fired. Peterson and O'Connor soon joined in the fray; white contrails soon filled the air along with the plasma and rifle rounds.

      Ghost took a couple of hits, his shields flared and died. Another plasma bolt from one of the Covenant's plasma weapons connected with his armor plating, sizzling as it melted through the hardened layer. Ghost grunted as even another plasma bolt burned through the armor on his chest and into the flesh beneath. His MA6B, the newer Marine standard weapon now, spat forth EX rounds and quickly ate through a Grunt's armor. Exploding as each round connected, killing the Grunt rather messily. Soon the small skirmish had ended; the Covenant's corpses lay strewn across the corridor. Bullet and Plasma scoring pocket marked the corridor, but no human's had fallen. Some of Ghost's team was hurt as he was, but miraculously no one was dead.

      He hit his COM "Black Ops, hold this corridor till Smith has completed what he is doing. ODSTs, set up defensive positions along the Black Ops and hold this position along with them. Smith, hurry your ass up, I don't want to get shot too many times more" He shut off the COM and reloaded his rifle, wondering how the Spartans were doing.

      This currently deemed fair by the now complete Spartan outfit, Fred, Kelly, and Linda. They all made their way to the compound safely. What surprised John was he saw eight marines left from Kilo Squad, Collins included.

      The eight marines were in a line abreast formation, as they fell back the last marine would stand and run to the man behind him and tap his shoulder. This signaled for that marine to stand and repeat the process as the man who tapped him knelt and fired. It was the standard tactical retreat pattern.

      John searched and found a damaged Warthog; he salvaged a chain gun from that very wreckage and was promptly using it quite liberally. Grunts and their Elite commanders fell as he provided cover fire for the marines.

      Linda found herself a perch between to massive tree trunks. The tree covered her with its dense foliage but switched to IR viewing and had begun to pick away at the Covenant ranks. Fred and Kelly had drawn the fire away from the marines. The help wasn't very necessary, they were doing well without any help, but the Marines had appreciated it though.

       "There is a breech here in the perimeter we can bottle neck these bastards if we move now!" shouted Fred as he tagged the map with a NAV point.

      John began a slow lumber that which you could equate to a hunter, never pausing as he kept moving, just as Covenant fell from weapons fire left and right. Then four Elites came from nowhere jumping the walls. John saw them just in time as he threw the chain gun down and ran for cover. Plasma bolts scorched the spot where he had once stood, melting the strewn chain gun in the intense heat. The Elites fired on John and plasma bolts hit him a couple times, flaring and dissipating across his shields, but his shields had only drained a little. He didn't look back; he knew if he could circle the Elites around, Linda would surely see them. After another five seconds of running he realized there was no more Plasma chasing him.

      Linda chimed in over the COM "You can say good bye to your bug problem Chief"

       "That was close," he thought, when he realized that he was meters away from the NAV point that Fred had set up. John fell forward with outstretched arms as if he were doing a push up. He caught himself and then lowered more till he was laying prone on the hard earth. He unclipped the last two-frag grenades from his belt and laid them on the ground in front of him. His motion tracker was alive and pulsing almost completely red. Plasma fire became more concentrated towards the breeched section of the perimeter as Fred, Kelly, and all eight marines ran through.

      Without breaking stride Fred and Kelly angled away from the center of the breach by 45 degrees, spun about and took up firing positions.

      Smith tapped furiously on the keyboard, watching the numbers and symbols scroll by. His face showed signs on stress, sweat beaded his face, but he never took his eyes off the monitor in front of him. A sparking computer console near him showed the masterpiece of his deactivation of the A.I. His rifle lay propped against the table at which he sat. The COM chattered and sputtered static, he could hear the sounds of the battle outside and knew time was short.

      He spent part of his time trying to get around all the firewalls and security protocols that were set up before the base had fallen. Computer code scrolled across the screen, another monitor showed the progress of a program running. He toggled a control on the holographic pad near him and warning symbols and signs appeared, he continued forward with his task. The pad flashed and changed, it showed a count down from 00:15:00. He closed the pad and stood up, locking his gauntlets on his armor.

      He hit his COM "Sir, I couldn't get all the files. We have fifteen minutes and then this whole base goes" He shut it off and picked up his rifle, he activated his PSCS.



(I hope you enjoyed this part, please post comments after you read this. We spent time thinking and correcting, so I hope it was worth it. Thanks)

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