Tifa & Ezio

[Elario Luminus]

The air was stifling hot on this planet as normal; thick and heavy. Such is the weather on Sera. The weather would have provided for an abundance in flora and fauna, however, which was always a good thing. Buildings always had the native plants inside them, made the inhabitants seem more environmentalist. The only sound to ever come out was either of its peaceful residents, or of the wildlife.

That isn't what it was like now.

There were pillars of smoke, thick, heavy, black smoke from the forests and buildings here. The air wasn't only hot with humidity, but also hot with the ever-constant fire of super-heated plasma and projectile fire. The only sound heard was one of constant warfare; screams, roars, gunfire, explosions, human and alien vehicles, and more of the same.

Of course, it was a situation like this that a Spartan felt most at home.

Keeping a firm hold on his Battle Rifle, Kylar vaulted the remains of a wall, then skidded to a prone position behind another, lower, wall. Peaking his head over, he checked the battle zone. There were countless dead, most of them human casualties. He inwardly winced as he saw many of them were standard-issue Marines. Squads of ODSTs were scattered across the field, doing their very best to keep the advancing Covenant at bay. Banshees screeched across the skies. Elites were carving apart soldiers. It looked grim.

Kylar looked back at where he came from, and gestured for his only teammate left to come over ASAP.

[Tifa Lockhart]

They called her sigma, simply because she hated her real name and that was her call-sign. Or it had been her squads call-sign in any case. They'd dropped in with Kylar as a support squad back at the LZ, after a number of unfortunate encounters she was all that remained, though not completely unscathed. Her side was packed full with medical foam to stop the bleeding, but she'd not faltered even a step.
Staying crouched low she moved forward at the SPARTAN's biding, vaulting the wall as he had to land easily by his side.
"Slaughter-house." Her voice crackled from behind a silver-blast shield visor that wrapped around 180 degrees of her head. It was surprisingly deep for a woman, and distinctively accented with something European. "What's the plan?" She rotated her shoulders slightly, keeping a firm grip on her Shotgun, which was loaded to exploding point and itching at her trigger finger.

[Elario Luminus]

Kylar made sure Sigma had gotten to him safely before he himself got up to check again. Thinking about 'the plan' brought up his mission objectives in his HUD.

- Rescue any surviving UNSC forces from Covenant advance.
- Find precious cargo inside enemy munitions base.
- Destroy enemy munitions base.
- Retreat back to rally point BRAVO for extraction.

Kylar sent the information to Sigma's HUD, then pointed to the nearest ODST squad, about two kilometres from their position.
'We're headed for them first. Ready?' he asked his partner as he checked his Battle and Assault Rifles.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Sigma quickly rifled through the details he'd sent her before nodding with conviction.
"I'm with you." She replied, raising her Shotgun into the ready position as she waited for his signal to go.

[Elario Luminus]

Kylar watched the field quickly, waiting for the opportune moment to leave their cover.
'Wait...wait...GO!'
He sprinted out of cover with the speed of a Spartan, always checking his motion tracker for any nearby enemy units. The ODSTs he was headed for saw him coming, and their squad leader barked out orders for covering fire. Kylar dove into their cover and the leader gave a curt nod.
'Colonel Rojas, acting Squad Leader for ODST Squad Alpha. Damn glad to see you here, sir. We've been pinned down for almost an hour now.'
Kylar nodded, acknowledging the thanks while he looked over the rest of them team. Two were wounded, one was dead, and the other five were just weary, but looked like they had plenty of fight left in them. But that was Helljumpers for you; it was hard to get them to give up.
'We're here to get you out, Colonel. But first, we need a hand with the primary objectives.'

[Tifa Lockhart]

Sigma bolted out across the field on Kylar's signal, keeping crouched low as she advanced in order to avoid the enemy fire. She was much slower than the SPARTAN - for obvious reasons mostly - her wounds also slowing her down a fraction. She vaulted into the ODSTs shelter a few seconds behind the SPARTAN. She knew some of the Alpha-squad guys, so they greeted her wearily. She clasped hands quickly with a few of them before turning to face Kylar, ready for more action.

[Elario Luminus]

Kylar checked behind Sigma as she came into cover to make sure she wasn't being shot at, then turned back to the ODST squad when he was satisfied.
'Right. Two of your men are going to take the wounded back to base; there, they'll radio for medevac and hold their position. You, and the rest of your team will be coming with us. We're launching a counter-attack on the Covenant munitions base. As you know, there are other Helljumper teams out there. We'll be saving them one at a time, and two members from each team will take the wounded back each time. When we get to the munitions base, there's something ONI wants us to take before we level the structure.'
'We gonna kill every mother truckin' alien out there, sir?' One of the ODSTs asked hopefully. Kylar nodded. 'Awesome. I'm in for the assault.'
Kylar sent the mission objectives to Rojas, who turned and quickly selected the medevac team. While they got sorted, the wounded handed over their rifles and ammo. One of them grabbed the tags from the dead ODST before they were rushed out of cover. Watching them go to make sure they got to cover safely, Kylar wished he could have given more than just two active soldiers to protect them. But sometimes you had to make sacrifices. That's called spending lives, as opposed to wasting them. he turned over to the rest of the team.
'Right, we only have one shot at this. We'll split up into two groups. I'll take three of you, and head around the left side of the battle. Sigma, I'm appointing you team leader of Bravo; go around the right side. Make sure you follow mission parameters, and make sure nothing behind is alive if it's alien. Ready? Go!'
Kylar burst out of cover, three ODSTs behind him, all firing in the direction of their Elite oppressors.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Sigma snapped into a neat salute when the SPARTAN gave her the instructions, and immediately her and her squad were powering off in their allocated direction, weapons blazing. It didn't take long to encounter the first few squads of ODSTs, and she followed orders by sending two soldiers back with the wounded each time. Despite the loss of troops her team was growing considerably, it seemed causalities were surprisingly low.
No one complained, and no further injuries occurred, weapons were blazing and aliens were dying with a precision only a squad of fully trained Helljumpers could manage.
Pretty soon they were coming up on the munitions building, she made sure to keep an eye out for the SPARTAN and his team as they crept closer to the well fortified building.

[Elario Luminus]

What went well for Sigma went well for Kylar. In no time he and his assembled team were heading towards the munitions building. Spotting something, just a quick flash, on his motion tracker, Kylar urged the ODSTs onward, while he peeled off towards where he saw the dot. Activating his Stalker pack, he shimmered into near-complete invisibility, and made sure the radar jammer was working. Luckily, he and presumably his quarry had motion trackers, and the jammer only worked on enemy trackers. Keeping a slow moving pace, Kylar quickly found what he was looking for. A Zealot Elite was hanging over the doorway of the munitions building, energy sword at the ready, and it was just activating his cloak. Kylar sprinted up behind the Elite fast enough that it had no idea what just hit it and knocked it to the ground. He punched it in the head, then pulled out his knife to stab it in the neck, but it aimed a wild swing behind it, which threw Kylar off its shoulders.

The knife went blade first into the ground just near Kylar's hand. The Elite approached him, growling softly, and made to impale him with the Energy Sword, but Kylar quickly kicked it in the leg, forcing it to its knees. He grabbed the knife, turned around, quickly aimed, and flicked the knife right into the Elites eye, killing it. Sighing, the Spartan got up, dusted himself off and retrieved his knife back. He wiped it on the leather palm of his glove, then sheathed it again.

Kylar dropped down to the entrance and deactivated the Stalker pack.
'Right, we all here? All good? Let's go.'

[Tifa Lockhart]

Sigma had been watching Kylar's little scuffle quite interestedly, secretly filing the sight away so that she might learn from it. She liked learning, other than fighting it was her favourite thing in the world. Though she was interested in learning just about anything, fighting techniques were one of her favourite pieces of knowledge to gather.
"All here, sir." She replied, everyone moving to follow the SPARTAN as he suggested for them to move on. She brought up the mission briefing again briefly to remind herself.

[Elario Luminus]

Kylar knew that the base must be full of Covenant, and so he moved quickly, but quietly and carefully. He had the team in a staggered double-file line, keeping at least three metres between each two soldiers. It didn't take long for him to spot the first guard; three Major Domo Elites. Their glistening maroon armour had a dull glow from the low-set lights inside. They wielded Carbine rifles. Kylar put a fist up, halting the progress of the team.
'Three tangos around the corner. Carbine riles, Major Domos. Sigma, you take the one on the left. The other two are mine.'
He screwed a silencer onto the end of his Battle Rifle, and took aim on the centre Elite.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Sigma moved forward, switching her shotgun for the battle-rifle of her nearest comrade and efficiently attaching the silencer. She got the elite in her sights, finger poised over the trigger. She quickly made the calculations, believing that she could take out all three herself, but she had been strictly informed not to show off, so she waited patiently for Kylar's signal to take the shot.

[Elario Luminus]

Kylar nodded slightly, and shot two bursts at his targets. The barrel coughed silently, and the bullets caught the Elites with their shields down, hitting each in the head. They slumped to the ground quick.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Sigma took her targets down as effortlessly as Kylar had, lowering her weapon and glancing over at him once the elites lay dead, their purple blood pooling around them.

[Elario Luminus]

Satisfied with the efficiency, Kylar started moving down towards the first main doorway. Putting his back against the wall, he took a fibre optic cable from his suit and slipped it around the corner, taking a look at what was ahead. The device took several images, then retracted back into his suit. Taking a quick look through the images, the suits in-built AI was able to build a rough map of the structure, and any heat signatures inside. From what he saw, there were LOTS of rooms, and even more Covenant. The Spartan sighed inwardly and turned to motion Colonel Rojas and Sigma up to him.