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After skulking around the city for a good hour Eagle had secured an area and laid multiple booby traps around himself. He dared 1 radio transmission. "All UNSC forces in New Alexandria, this is Falcon, renamed Eagle. package secure, in grid 15-34. Radio before entering area. Retrieval is Priority Zulu"

Bane felt the humans fire and dropped his needle rifle. He had something they wouldn't expect. He shouldered the massive gun, and let a round fly, a warning shot. He felt assualt rifle rounds trickle off from around him. The man was to far away to do any major damage, but he didn't want a lack of shields in this fight. Aimed to the right and fired off two more rounds, hitting near the man with the assault rifle.

Icewolf was almost upon him now, and bane took the chance to let two more rounds fly. He popped out the spent clip and dropped the weapon. He ripped the sword from his belt and lunged at the man, but the spartan ducked, and fired a shot into Banes stomach, but his shield held. Bane slashed at him again, but the man was quicker than he expected. Channeling all of his hate, Bane kicked the man in the chest, sending the man 10 feet back, but the spartan stood up and was on his own offencive. The knife moved quickly, but Bane targeted the knife, knowing that he could break the spartans weapon.

Icewolfs knife cut into Banes left arm, drawing a trickled of purple blood, but Bane wielded his sword in his right. This was going to be a long battle.

(Hope youre not trying to kill my character. Its not time yet. Im assuming this is just another encounter between our characters.)

The elite had snuck up on the patrol. Conrad was ripped from the car and thrown to the ground. In dazed confusion he watched one of his Marines getted ripped to shreds by the Elites sword. "This is Colonel Blackwood, calling Petty officer Conrad. You are immediatly recalled to homebase under charges of suspect..." Icewolfs voice cut off over the radio as Conrad lay on the ground.

The Marine didnt have time to think about the world of **** he was about to be in. He stood up to face the persistent Elite. He could see he had done a number on him. Along with the horrific scars to match Conrad's the elites face had suffered major burns. Conrad looked around for his Assault Gun but it was too far off for him to go for. For a moment the two rivals just stood there, looking each other in the eye. Conrad shouted his warcry and rushed the elite, his prosthetic claws at the ready.

(lets just saw Falcon comes in right after my post above. Meaning that I was getting owned until he showed up.)

Cool, I don"t want to kill, just establish a good rivalry.

Kenny concealed himself in a pile of rubble one the shooting started, and he stayed there, immobile, muttering to himself. He spent several minutes watching the firefight. It started to turn in the covenants favor, (I think) and he knew he had to do something. His eyes swiveled, and landed on an elite who stood triumphant over a downed marine. He pried himself from cover, and crept toward them. His pistol had been confiscated, so instead, he wield a chunk of concrete, half a foot in length. Finally, he was in striking distance of the elite. He took three running steps and landed on its back, hooting "Beware the Jabberwock my son!" and then slammed the concrete onto its head. The strike had no effect but to stun the elite, and Kenny was quickly thrown free, into the side of a building. He stood shakily, and faced the elite. "The jaws that bite, the claws that catch" he whispered, drawing himself to full height.
(Is that any good?)

Was that me?

(Yeah thats fine. Good post. Yes blood. that was you.)

Conrad lay on the ground beaten to a pulp and looking up in dazed amazement at the spectacle. A civvie was taking on a Sangheli warrior with nothing but a chunk of concrete. He was losing though. The Elite was about to smoke the crazy bugger.

Conrad couldent tell if it was strength, adrenaline, or stuborness that allowed him to get up. Maybe it was a bit of all three. "Hey ugly!" The elite turned towards him. "Pick on someone who can defend themselves huh?" The elite laughed manically and took a step forward.

Conrad prayed for the first time in his life. Dear god, if there is one, please save me.

His call was answered. Maybe there was a god.

Syrath threw the human to the ground and began to slowly sink his Energy blade into his right arm with a black glee, he withdrew it in a twisting fashion dropping the pathetic being to the ground, coughing up phlegm and blood that splattered on the ground and snarled at Conrad with even greater glee as he prepared for a fight.

(Tsk tsk reaper no chaos aspect here thankyou)

Eagle loosed a charged plasma bolt at the elite between the two civilians and the alien's shields overloaded. "Fight someone your own size!" he shouted as he pulled up his bullet hose (SMG) and sent a stream of bullets at the elite. "Leave this place, or you will stay here in a puddle of your own blood." The bullets pinged off the Elite's armor but a good fifth of them found purchase in the alien's skin.

Conrad was really sure what was going on. He knew he was bleeding all over. But he felt no pain. Blood was trickling out of his nose and mouth and his robot arm was twisted and mangeled.

A spartan had managed to fight off the Elite. The armored angel then stuck conrad full of pain killers and foam. Then the nearly dead Marine blacked out.

Eagle picked up the bloodied marine and threw him over his shoulder. He looked at the civilian and the man got up to his feet. "Can you walk? If you can then follow me." Activating his radio he said "This is Eagle,I have two men with me. One Conrad, he is incapacitated but stable, and one person I don't know who, he is a civi. Requesting evac. Any Falcons or Hornets near by?"

"Beware the Jubjub bird," he said to the spartan, staring off in the direction the elite had fled, "And shun the frumious Bandersnatch," He fell in line behind the marine, and in a few moments, a horned buzzed in over them, slowing to a landing. Kenny stared at it, mouth agape. "He took his vorpal sword..."

Blackwood ducked under a heavy blow from the elite, he had wounded him, but not overly. The energy sword whistled through the air and Icewolf saw his opening, he moved forwards, planting his pistol into the Elites right armpit and pulled the trigger.

The elites shields held but he was knocked off his feet from the concussive force of the point blank shot. Blackwood leapt forwards intending to finish the fight, but a foot caught him in midair. The eilte had kicked up at him and Icewolf felt himself sprawing on the tarmac. He rolled to the side instinctivley and felt the armour on his left shoulder heat up as the energy sword embedded into the ground not half an inch from it. Blackwood lashed out with his foot kicking the hand clutching the sword and the Elite felt back howling in outrage. Blackwoodwent to tear the energy swor dout of the ground but he felt a massiv impct in his gut and went flying. His hsield had held but only jsut as the Feul rod had struck the ground next to him. He tumbled across the tarmac and groaned coughing into his visor as he stood. The elite had charged forwards but Icewolf planted his blade in the Covenant's gut tearing upwards with a vicous swipe and then kicking the alien off the blade. He tried to follow up with a pistol round but the bleeding general had already smashed the gun out of his hand with a powerful backhand. ICewolf ducked under second swin before trying to slam his weapon down on the elites neck, Kicking the Alien's feet out as he did so. The Elite fell and Icewolf went with him tring to inch his blade closer to the Elites throat as it had caught his arm with a brawny hand.

Icewolf felt the armour on his suit begin to crack as the Elite crushed the servos, Icewolf groped blindly at his belt with his hadn and brought a grenade out, kicing himself sideways and charging the plasma grenade he stuck it to the ground and then rolled the pair so that the Eilite's back was next to the grenade. But they kept rolling and when the grenade went off Icewolf felt himself flying through the air for the second time in so many minutes still locked in the deadly embrace with the elite as the tow umbled arcoss the ground from the force of the explosion. The elite finally lost his grip and the two smashed along the tarmac finally oming toa rest up against the side of the road, some twenty metres from each other. Between them was the energy sword still plunged into the ground. Icewolf stood and tried to drop the knife to free his right hand but the elite had crushed the servo's in his wrist preventing him from flexing his hand. He instead drew his AR as the Elite did the same with his Needle rifle, The two with no shields across from each other. THe elite crippled in the Gut and Icewolf with his hand in a death grip. He shouted across to the Alien.
"It's over coveneant, niether of us have the strength to continue this. We are battered and exhausted. If either one of us shoots both will die. Niether of us want that."

Syrath stared blankly, he grabbed onto the knife and threw it too the ground and spat at the Spartan, picking up his Energy Sword he deactivated it and growled as the Spartan moved back. The Sangheili moved forward and pointed towards the two humans;

"Next time..... I will give you no mercy Daemon and human, I shall purge your race! But I promise you a single reminder of my presence."

Pulling out a Plasma Grenade, the Zealot lobbed it at the building behind the two and chuckled darkly before cloaking and departing into the shadows as the plasma exploded and causing the building to buckle, he darted away as blue shards of plasma spread throughout the area;

"This is Syrath to Omega Shadow 3, I need pickup immediately, and prepare a Banshee bombing run and move on to the next area, and the next! Burn everything!"

(The Explosion can't kill you, nor am I trying. But I can't just keep retreating, Zealots and any other Elites see it as majorly dishonorable.)

" You fight like an elite human, viciously, and I like that. This will not be the last encounter we will have, and I will fufill my promise that I made at the ONI building" After that Bane let out a groan and began to walk over to his sword. Instead of trying to tear it free from the concrete he simply deactivated it and slid the handle into his belt.
Into his mic he heard Sryath order the bombing of the sectors. Damn fool was he trying to get himself killed? "I need two squads, equip ones ship with ammo and a few med-kits and shield battery's.

Icewolf sank back against the wall several blocks from the site of his battle with the elite, his armour's self repair had finally allowed him to steah his blade adn he was coughing blood onto the tarmac, the feul rod had broken something. It would heal, but it would take a few more minutes. Icewolf realised that he had probably just fought and lived through a battle that should have killed him. He staggered to his feet to see the banshess approaching. He growled and started to sprint for the HQ, His DMR and AR relaoded and clipped to their respective points in the grav harness and his pistol in its thigh holster, he put everything including his armour's sprint function into making it back to HQ befor ethe bombs struck.

He made it, just. The buidling was already shaking with the concussive force of the blasts, Icewolf had locked the position of the Eagle and Petty officer Conrad on his system and was having the rest of his remaining troops grab what they could and get into the pelican. They took off just as the building collapsed, And several banshees were wiped out by the pelican's heavy chain gun. Icewolf spotted the Eagle and The officer and dropped down on a grav cord to get them. A separate grav cord for the Eagle and he grabbed Conrad. The pelican's winch hauled them up and they were away, a dozen marines, three odst's and two spartan's. It was going to be a tense flight,.

Pete coughed. He had survived the bombardment. He looked around, checking fr his squad mates. Only 2 of them remained. 'Mike, Liz, you allright?' he said, before he coughed again. As response Mike put on his fingers, speaking for both of them. 'Good. Seems the rest of us managed to escape. Your com still working? 'Cause mine certainly isn't.' he said, putting of his helmet. 'Check the area for survivors.'

"Hey Icewolf, you look beat. Care to see what was in then locker?" Eagle took out the case and opened it up. Inside were 25 grenades. "These things right here are EMP grenades. They shortcircuit armor,guns,vehicles whatever you want becomes a statue. How should we hand them out?"

Icewolf slumps agaisnt the side of the pelican and handles one of the grenades gingerly.
"These will come in handy. The elite General who is leading most of these forces seems to have it in for me. I'll take two."
he takes the grenades and slips them into his nearest tactical pouch.
"The covenant are swarming through here. The winter contingency has been activated. Im sure you know what that means."

When the bombing started, Kenny was gone once again, skittering off into the shadows, and leaving the soldiers behind. He made his way North in solitude, but kept his eye on the sky.

(when I said Elephant I mean Pelican.)

Conrad woke up in a hospital bed. Where am I? He winced with pain as the his surroundings shook. An orderly stumbled over to the bed. He examined Conrad and shined a light in his eyes. The blood soaked orderly called up to the ceiling. "Icewolf! Hes concious!" Conrad then knew where he was. He was on an Elephant. And they were moving. Fast.

To Conrad the Spartan seemed more intimidating outside of his armor than in it. He walked over to Conrad's bed briskly. "Good morning Conrad. It is now 3:55 AM." Conrad didnt say anything. "You are obvioulsy aware of the fact that you are singlehandedly responsible for the death of many UNSC personal." "Yes sir." The Spartan didnt say anything for a few moments. Which made it even worse for Conrad. He knew that he was being looked right through. "If this were any other situation I would have you executed... But the circumstances are different. You did kill a large amount of Covenant in the process and you retrieved a good half of the ammo in that building." Conrad waited for more of the lecture. It didnt come. "You are now revoked of Officer priveleges. You will still command a squad. But if anything like this ever happens again you will be executed. Are we clear?" "Yes sir." "Good. I had the doctors patch you up good. I expect you walking by 7 AM and ready to fight at 8 AM." The spartan walked back up the stairs. "Great..." Conrad muttered "Just great."

(*^Read, Pelican^*)

Icewolf was disturbed at how easy it was for them to travel overland. They had travelled a good third of the distance already, but they were running out of feul. Soon they would have to go one foot. And then they would be at the covenant's mercy....

'No survivors sir.'
'Then get the hell out of this place. There are civilian evac ships on the airfield. We could contact the rest of the force.'

Conrad and his team quickly hopped off of the Pelican and took a five foot drop into the rippling muck of a swamp. Conrad winced as he sunk into the muck. He looked like a human patchwork of stitched flesh and he hoped not of those stitches tore. The night was alive with the sound of countless organisms chirping and squawking from the commotion the Pelican had caused. There mission was to scout out the area for covenant threats. The following day Infantry would come in behind them and begin the search for more fuel. Conrad turned on his night vision optics and scanned his overgrown and mangled surroundings with his Assault Gun at the ready.

Conrad was thinking about his briefing earlier. Icewolf had told him to go alone. Obviously a punishment for his decision earlier. And Conrad didnt have a problem with that. He was trained for recon. But to his suprise his original team of ODSTs and a few other Marines caught in the blast actually volunteered. No one ever volunteered under normal military circumstances. But then again these were not normal circumstances.

They had been sloshing through the swamp for about 2 hours. The squad came upon a small lake. There were purple lights glowing from around the shore line. Conrad had everyone hit the dirt. The teams sniper set her Sniper Rifle. Conrad examined the covenant outpost with a pair of binoculars. "great..." Conrad muttered "Looks like the parties about to get started."

Icewolf was watching the action through the link of his armour's AI to the ODST leader. He spoke clearly through the radio into Conrad's ear
"Marine, Report before engaging. You do not have clearance for a firefight at this time. Recon the area and report."

Eagle shifted slightly in the church tower. He felt t was his nest and spent most of his R&R time there. Eagle peered over the city scale and saw the same sight as 100 times before. Eagle looked down and took his helmet ofd. His long Gaelic hair falling from his helmet and his facial tattoo prominantly blue on a good portion of his face. Eagle took a dring of water and ate an MRE then put his helmet back on. He fel he saw movement and looked up and stayed perfectly sti. He saw a purple color in thuins when he heard a whiz and one of the needles flew past his tower completely. The second two hit the pole closest the jackals. Eagle reported in "Contact at grid 11-83 by 93-21"

"Marine, Report before engaging. You do not have clearance for a firefight at this time. Recon the area and report." Conrad realized that as he peered through his binoculars at the Covenant forces. They were building some kind of structure on the shore. Conrad didnt know if the covenant could teleport troops from orbit, but he guessed anything was possible.

There were grunts and elites patrolling the shores along with towering hunters. There were also several vehicles on the shore. If this was only a fraction of what the covenant had, they were in trouble. Conrad reported his findings to Icewolf in the air.

Icewolf rubbed his forehead in frustration, problem after problem.
"Do not engage Recon leader, repeat do not engage. Pull back and get to the LZ We will assist if seen.