"We recieved reports of covenant forces at Sector 8. Once you retrieve any intel there, head there pronto and clear house." the familiar voice of Sgt. Johnson rang over the intercom. "Roger that sir" the dark voice of Blaze spoke out, affirming his new mission on the lost planet of Reach. It's been only a few days since they were first dropped and several years since the planet fell to covenant forces. Blaze was one of those spartans who did things the way he felt was right, no matter if it was against protocol. Regardless, any spartan mission was his mission and he'd be damned if he were to fail one. As the leader of the Dusk Spider Clan, Blaze is more easily resembled as a great leader. Looking around the sabotaged base, they're appeared to be nothing in sight. Until, a noise burst the silence and a little dimming light was showing under the rubble. Digging out the rubble, it revealed to be a plasma grenade. Leaping back, the plasma grenade set off, blowing up half the wall, Blaze crouched on the other side of the building, perfectly safe. "Bloody covenant....." he grumbled, anger obvious in his tone. As he dusted himself off, he looked at his Tactical GPS pad on his wrist, and pressing a few buttons, a holographic map showed. "There's the rest of the group. I might as well regroup with them" he stated. With that, he jumped out the blown-up wall and started walking towards the other spartans on the deserted planet.

The Spartan known as Crux stood alone atop a twisted heap of glass that had once been a communications antenna. Dust and ash whipped past his visor; kicked up from the dry lake by the dramatic climate collapse driven by the ongoing covenant glassing campaign. The vibration of distant plasma rending the earth shook his teeth and gave him a headache. Why were the Covenant so destructive? They had the planet; why destroy it? Crux didn't know.

The thoughtful man clicked his back teeth together and opened a private channel to his boss and fellow Spartan, Lt. Colonel Blaze.

"LT, this is Sierra Four-one-oh with an update. My pod let me down in sector 7, about four klicks north of your last transmitted position. I'm hunkered down in a dry lakebed, the area has been baked into a salt flat. Surveys show a high concentration of magnetic ore only a few hundred feet down. It should disguise our presence from covenant sensors; I recommend we set up base camp on my position. The other Spartans are converging on me as I speak. If you don't recieve this message, I'm sending encrypted coordinates over UNSC band 54.555. Similar coordinates have been dispatched to the other teams. We'll all get together and have a meet-and-greet, and the see about Johnson's orders. Crux out."

With the message sent, Crux sat down in the shade to wait. There was nothing to do but review the mission one more time. He started on page one of his orders...

Alex's vision came back to him slowly. He twisted his head around to inspect his SOEIV. The door had blasted open, and the main CPU was still online. Looked as if the other Spartans were active...

After undoing the harness, Alex grabbed his rifle and attempted to stand up.His balence wasn't too shaken, and he was able to move out of the capsule. It was dark out here... wasn't the mission meant to land in daylight? He began checking the area was clear, and in the process noticed a bright... hole.

Ah. Entry through a building. May explain the blackout. Alex opened his Tacpad. The building's blueprints came up fine, but the timecode had reset. While he tried to get a location, the radio came online and spouted some garble. Great. At least he could track the signal. 2 clicks away in a lakebed. He went back and checked the building, a pumping station. 'Can't be too far to the lake then' he thought optimistically.

Alex closed the Tacpad and moved back into the wrecked pod. He took his grenade launcher and supplies, before making his way out of the station. While moving, he opened a signal. "Team, this is Romeo-Three-Eighty Eight. My pod crashed through a building and I blacked out. Requesting confirmation on current time and team status. Moving towards closest confirmed Spartan at recieved coordinates. Over." As he finished he came to a bulkhead door, and began turning the valve to open it.

Listening in over his headset, he relayed in his head what his fellow team member informed him about. "Heh, looks like the new guy is looking for a promotion" he spoke to himself, followed by a slight chuckle as he began following the coordinates sent by Crux. Walking along, he soon came across two grunts, investigating a red-painted mongoose. Slowly pulling his DMR up, he focused on the one, and pulled the trigger. BOOM! One head on the list, and wasting no time, a slight jerk to the right and two headless grunts now laid dead near the mongoose. "Grunts....got to love their uselessness...." he replied as he kicked the bodies out of his way, walking over to the mongoose. As he got on, he reached below the steering wheel and with a few messing of the wires, he hotwired the mongoose as it roared with life. With that, he drove off. After much time driving across the planet, he finally reached his destination. Getting off the mongoose, he looked around, spotting Crux and advanced over to him. "Crux, good to see you're still alive. What's the situation?" he asked, greeting him first with a salute and then pulling out the map on his tacpad in case Crux needed a map for further explanation.

(Just for the record, the 2 grunts that Blaze killed were just random grunts, not anyone's characters)

Crux sat bolt upright at the sound of a familiar voice in his ear. The commo package in his helmet snagged the signal and latched on tight, automatically opening a channel to the sender. Crux pursed his lips and wondered if a second message in thirty minutes would push his luck with whatever Covenant spooks might be listening.

The green communications light in his HUD pulsed eagerly, but he waved it away with a double-blink. His patience would keep; the others would be fine without any hand-holding. They were Spartans after all. Still, he decided to put a kettle on. A little java would keep his companions in high spirits when they arrived.

_________________________________________________________________

Nary a moment later, a gruff snarl announced the approach of a UNSC mongoose. Despite his familiarity with the noise, he still raised his SMG toward the sound until his HUD confirmed the visitor as a friendly.

Only when the skittish vehicle bounced over the dunes and into the lake bed did he recognize the Lieutenant. The soldier dismounted stylishly and marched over to the makeshift lean-to that Crux had been using for concealment.

The two exchanged salutes.

"Crux, good to see you're still alive. What's the situation?" Blaze asked calmly. He unhooked the Tacpad from his forearm and offered it to Crux for inspection.

"I'm glad to see you too" Crux ginned. "As for the situation, when we were coming down from orbit, I spotted some Covie Triple-A out in the wasteland . Now, either the Covenant has taken up landscaping, or they've got some kind of dig site underway." He glanced down at the dirt. "It's not my place, sir, but I'd bet dollars to dimes that it's our target. I can show you where it is on the map."

Blaze nodded slowly.

Crux took it as permission to continue.

"Also," he added, "I've made contact with Alex, or rather, he's made contact with me. He's en-route now, but I don't know about the others, sir."

He nodded to the DMR in the Lieutenant Colonel's hands which now read '13'.

"I see you've been making friends?"

Skream

Skream was shooting down the last of a pack of Brute's with her Needle Rifle, an easy task even when you aren't using it. "Stupid apes." After she was done she was called in to join Crux and the rest, a Warthog drove up and she rode passenger in it, meeting up with Crux. "Good to see you again." she said while putting her prized Needle Rifle on her back.

The sound of their last human captive finally died to whimpering, signifying that its mind was, at long last, broken. "This one took forever, great leader," said one of the six brutes, Shadowed Soul's most favored above all. "Yes," he responded with a slight smile in his voice, "The human was a most wonderful adversary." Looking over his shoulder, he could see several of the jackals poking at the limp body of the wide eyed human. "Let the others have their fun," he said waving at the body, "We should begin to move out anyways." A thought suddenly crossed his mind, "How are we on supplies?"

The brute looked at him as though he was crazed, seeing the thought as plain as day. "We're nearly out of our rations. The jackals and grunts are starting to look tasty." A sudden grin erupted on his face, a grin filled with filed teeth.

Shadowed Soul merely nodded towards the human, then towards the other group of broken humans. "Have the jackals and grunts eat a human. We need to see if they'll survive ingesting them. If not?" He shrugged his shoulders, not caring much for them. He turned his back on the brute, signifying its dismissal from his presence. He felt the brute grunt and move away, then heard it bark orders at the jackals, ordering them to tear into one of the humans. Grinning slightly, he turned to watch as the small group of jackals attack a human, tearing its flesh from the body, then wolfing it down hungrily.

Moments passed without much of an incident; none of the jackals fell dead. "Tear the humans apart," he called down to them, "Section their meat from their bones, and gather everyone together. Tell them," he took off his helmet, revealing his crazed eyes, "Tell them that we feast, and hunt tonight."

Crash landed on the surface of Reach and separated from his team. He turned on his radio "Command this is Senior Chief Petty Officer Crash. I've been split from my team and I've got a small Covenant force on the hill near me." In truth it was a small army of about 100 soldiers and mixed calvary units. "Senior Chief Petty Officer Crash this is Command. Continue with caution and try not to let the Covenant forces detect you." Crash thought about his orders and how hard it was going to be then he replied "Roger that Command. Senior Chief Petty Officer Crash out."

Crash switched his radio channel to his team channel. "This is Crash," he said "can anyone hear me." He figured he would stay quite and listen for any response from his team.

Sorence was in deep space around Reach. He looked with eagerness onto the devistated planet from the Covenent Supercarrier. It was always his dream to join the Covenent, and he finally did. He was a minor who graduated at the lowest of his class, but he really didn't care. He just wanted to be awesome like those he heard about back at his home.

As he was fiddling with his plasma repeater, a grunt walked up to him. "It's time for you to get down there." The grunt said in its high voice. It had a very bored expression printed across his face. He obviously didn't want to walk around telling people where to go.

"Ok!" Sorence said, turning around, hand on the trigger. He shot several rounds into the grunt. "Oh....." He said looking down on the grunt, then poking it with his finger. He looked around to make sure no one saw what he did. "Phew, I'm safe. Hoping no one saw that." As he said it, an Elite Zealot emerged from the shadows. Looking onto Sorence with a unsatisfied expression. "Not my fault! He shot himself! He did it all!" Sorence exclaimed with a guilty look written all over his face.

"How you got into the army I have no idea. How you got into my squad I have no idea. One thing I do know is I'm going to suffer with you, aren't I?" The Zealot said looking down onto Sorence. While Sorence was just 6', the Zealot was over 7' 2''. He was wearing all silver armor and was armed with duel energy swords on his thighs and carried a plasma turret on his back. "If I'm stuck with you, I got to know your name, private."

With a smile spread on his face, completely misunderstanding the previous statements the Zealot said, Sorence answerd, "My name is Sorence sir! And I can't wait to work with you and your squad! In fact, we can be fighting buddies!"

The Zealot put his hand to his face, shaking it in a disproving fasion. "Well... Sorence. I feel you're gonna be a huge sore on me and the rest of my team. So, I'm going to call you Sore from now on, and you shall respond to that. You are going to call me sir, and call everyone else on the team sir. Understand?" The Zealot said to Sorence.

"Yes sir!" Sorence said

"Now follow me to the landing bay so we can take off in our Phantom." The Zealot said walking. "And if you say fighting buddies one more time, I'm going to toss your ass to the nearest Spartian camp and not look back."

Sorence nodded and began to follow him in the huge supercarrier. They wandered throughout the halls of the ship while Sorence learned a bit about the Zealot. His name was Zeph. He has fought on Reach four times so far, wiping out vast numbers of Spartians. He became well known throughout the camps, and if anyone saw him, they would abandon their posts and run. He has the highest bounty on his head with over six billion credits. He also learned that the team he joined was one of the best strike teams in the covenent.

They soon arrived at the landing bay and boarded the Phantom. On the ship, there were 4 grunts, 2 jackels, 2 brutes, and 1 hunter. The grunts and a various assortment of weapons scattered around them. The jackels were armed with needle rifles and plasma pistols. The Brutes had Gravity hammers and Spikers. And the hunter was different from most. Instead of the slow and damaging blaster, in its place he had four plasma turrets that were all controlled by him. Sorence looked down on his weapons. A needler and a plasma repeater. Saying to himself, "Heh, guess I'm original huh?"

The phantom soon left ground and began to head to Reach. Sorence began to listen to group chatter in the hold, which he was cut off from. He was in the cargo bay.

Palip sat amidst a pile of highly-volatile fusion coils with the disinterested calm of one resigned to being cannon fodder. His job was to make sure that they didn't jostle each other on the trip to the surface, but he didn't much care. He was far more interested in the gibbering conversation between his three nipple-mates.

They were all new additions to this strike team; replacing the previous team of Unggoy after a disastrous friendly-fire incident. He'd known the three grunts for the better part of a cycle now. Mukip, Sardin and Palpa were the closest thing he had to friends, and he was their leader.

Now, they were studying the other occupants of the hold and discussing them in a decidedly crude manner. They hadn't had the time to get to know the other members of the strike team, so the jackals became 'Stink' and 'Stank', the brutes: 'Meat' and 'Rock'. The hunter just looked menacing; it was left alone.

There was one other occupant on the Phantom that had Palip intrigued, a Minor Elite who had merely passed through the passenger bay on his way to the cargo hold. Palip hadn't seen him since. Perhaps he was meditating? Palip fervently wished that he could be a servant of the High Prophets like the Elites were.

The Phantom jarred suddenly as it passed through Reach's atmosphere. Palip almost gagged on his methane hose as he felt the coil beneath him vibrate to life and hum ominously. Quickly, he jammed his large thumb down on the override switch and sent the pod dormant again.

"Yikes!" he chirped. "Hey, Palpa! Get over here and watch pod, I have to talk to pilot!"

The other grunt ambled over and nudged the coil back into allignment. Palpa grumbled his way aft to the pilot's cabin and poked his mask inside to yell at him for being careless.

"Hey! What the big idea, huh?" he yelled in his most menacing tone.

To his horror, the pilot, a Sangheili Major, turned to look with malice in his eyes.

"Yes, Unggoy?" he snarled.

"E-eep! Excellency!" Palip squeaked.

Twelve seconds later, Palip found himself locked in the cargo hold.

Sorence had his ear pressed to the door when he heard some yelling in the room next to him. Before he knew it, a grunt was thrown into the cargo bay. Sorence tilted his head in confusion, poking the grunt that just entered. "Hey, what are you doing back here, littl-" Sorence caught himself on that word. He remembered Zeph told him to call all other by sir. "Sir why are you back here sir?!" Sorence said, going to attention.

(Talk to Sorence here before the event transpires if you feel like it)

All that was in the cargo bay was crates full of supplies, some extra rounds of ammo, and a human device that he remembered from the trainning as "Bison" (Warthog). All of a sudden, the ship began to shake, rocking back and forth. Jumping onto a crate, he said "Hey! Look what I can d-" Sorence lost his balance and hit a button on the side of the ship. Looking below, he saw the hanger bay door open. "Not my fault." He had to think fast, so he grabbed the grunt and tossed him into the "Bison." They weren't that far from the ground, about 100 feet or so. The "Bison" bounced off the hard rockey ground and Sorence fell out of the driver's seat. As he looked up, he saw the phantom fade from view.

He sat up and began to look around him. All the cargo bay's cargo had fallen out with them. "Well, our first mission together. We have to find the ship. We can be battle buddies!"

Alex stepped out the door and took his first steps on Reach soil. As he checked the area was clear, he noticed the landscape. The pumping station was about 100 meters from the lakebed, which now looked like that place in Botswana where he had trained, with fields around it's shore. Or what were fields. Although some grasses remained, the area was so barren... And the sky... Stories had been told of the day Reach fell, and it looked like the sky hadn't changed since. Alex froze in horror. What if the Covenent had taken Earth? Would they do this do it, drain any trace of life from the surface?

After staring around for a few minutes, Alex walked down to the lakebed. The ground was dry and rigid, and even with his training, it was hard to keep balence. At the lakebed's edge, he activated his scanner. There was some activity on the horizon. Hopefully it wasn't a Covenent trap... Alex jumped down onto the bed and began running towards the coordinates. A twenty minute run after blacking out... this'll be fun.

A falcon hovered down from the air above and it slowly drifted to the earth. Dust was dispersed across the ground in to a soil cloud as a man stepped out of the side. "You called?" Shift asked, standing beside Blaze. "We have a fully geared and working Falcon here if you need it." A Marine stepped out and saluted Blaze. "And A pilot, too" He sat down on the edge of the Falcon. "So, your call, whats our first assignment" he asked Blaze, knowing that the Sergeant had informed Blaze of what to do.

"Eat the damn human and like it," Shadowed Soul growled at the resisting jackal, and forced the hunk of human flesh into its face and down its throat. He watched as it struggled to breathe, and ultimately suffocated on the roasted human meat. Its death brought a dark chuckle from himself and several of the brutes, but brought only terror to the rest of the jackal, even the grunt, community. He was not about to let one slight of insubordination slip, as it would make him appear weak to everyone around him. Turning his head towards the others, he watched, with a sly grin, that they began to wolf down the meat, each one grimacing as they did so.

"Great leader," came the voice of one of the brutes, and as he turned towards it, he noticed that it was wearing its heavy armor and hammer. "Yes Ushon?" His question seemed stressed, but still held a hit of malice and contempt in it. Of which, he was quite sure, that they could all hear it.

"Great leader, our objective awaits." Shadowed Soul nodded his head, and placed his helmet back on. The objective, his mind sneered, it always awaits. The objective, his mind recalled, was to secure a landing zone for the fleet which was scheduled to arrive within the next few turns of the human's sun. However, no one ever specified where the landing zone was to be, which made him grin evilly in his helmet. "Come, Ushon," he called to the brute, "Make sure everyone is geared and ready. We march now." He leaped down from his perch above the camp, and retrieved his carbine and energy sword from a wide eyed jackal, the though of gutting it crossed his mind. No, there is no need to terrorize them yet, his grin appeared again, we've yet to encounter any sort of force, just yet.

Moments later, he noticed that everyone stared in his direction, awaiting his orders. Lifting up his carbine, he shouldered it and holstered his sword, "Listen up maggots," he growled, "Our objective is the heart of the city," A cube appeared in his other hand, and, upon pressing it, a holographic map projected above it. It seemed to be the map of the city, and a red dot in its center appeared. On the edge of the map, a blue light flickered, signifying their position. "The blue light is us, and the red is our destination," he said, glaring at the jackals and grunts, "We are to secure it as quickly as possible, and signal the armada so that they may begin the invasion." The holo-map vanished, and was placed into a pouch at his side, "I must repeat that this is our highest priority, but," his sneer crept into his voice again, "None of the leaders said anything about not having a little fun in the process." Chuckles from the two hammer wielding brutes washed over the rest, along with the crazed laughter of their leader.

"Check your weapons," Shadowed Soul called out to them, and he could hear several unique noises as many weapons began to open their ammunition containers, then shut with a snap. "Lets move out," his hand touched a small orb over his waist, and he vanished from sight, as did the rest of his small squad. He knew that it would only last a few hours, but also knew that he had only a few human days before the armada appears, and would rather not be caught up in its bombardment.

When Crash came across the 2 Spartans it was Blaze and another. Upon noticing Blaze he snapped to attention and rendered a salute. After Blaze returned the salute Jack asked "Sir, where are our other team members." Quickly looking to the other Spartan. "And not to be rude Spartan but what is your rank so that I may address you as such?" He was sure having 2 conversations would annoy his C-O but he was in a rush to find the rest of his team.

Blaze and Crux were standing over a holographic map when things began to happen very fast. From over the dunes came the deep triple-thump of a Falcon's rotors struggling in the gritty air.

Crux watched in silent horror as the aircraft approached on a straight landing path right toward where they were standing. He began making mental notes on the best evacuation route from the dusty bowl. Every Covie in the area now knew exactly where to look if they wanted to find the intruding Spartans. All they had to do was follow the noise.

The Falcon made a single circular pass before touching down, skids sinking into the soft sand. Crux approached the craft angrily, ready to give the pilot a piece of his mind, but Blaze restrained him with a hand on the shoulder. From the troop bay, a white-armored Spartan emerged and took his first steps on the foreign soil. Crux thought he recognized the man: Alpha-Oh-Forty-Three, a SPARTAN III not assigned to any unit. His reputation preceded him; a motivated lone wolf with a chip on his shoulder and a flair for revenge.

"You called?" the newcomer asked, standing beside Blaze. "We have a fully geared and working Falcon here if you need it." A Marine stepped out and saluted Blaze. "And A pilot, too" He sat down on the edge of the Falcon. "So, your call, whats our first assignment" he asked Blaze.

Blaze stepped forward to answer, but at that moment, another sound was heard. The mean growl of a warthog signaled its approach.

Crux left the two senior Spartans to chat, and approached the oncoming vehicle. We're accruing quite a motor pool here, he thought.

The battered vehicle rolled up to reveal a haggard and exhausted marine in the driver's seat; no doubt the survivor of many months of desperate guerilla combat. Next to him was a face he recognized though; the female Spartan called Skream.

Despite his solitary nature, Crux would be lying if he said he wasn't glad to see her again.

"Ma'am, welcome to the party" he greeted.

"Good to see you again," she said while putting her prized Needle Rifle on her back.

"Likewise ma'am. C'mon, let's get you situated."

He nodded his thanks to the Marine and gestured him to the shade of the lean-to. The man was happy to oblige.

Crux turned and noticed yet another Spartan standing with Blaze and Shift.

"They're just coming out of the woodwork today" he explained to Skream. "Let's get over there and see what the plan is.

"I?" Shift said, returning a gaze to the Spartan.
"Well, I am officially a Major, but I haven't used that title in a while, mostly working alone"
"Oh and apologies for the racked, my driver is a little-"
Shift grinned under his helmet and asked the Jack. "And you are?"

Not paying attention to the arrivals appearing at the site, Alex kept running towards them. He still didn't feel too good, and the fatigue wasn't helping. When he finally arrived at the site, he slowed down and looked arou- hang on, a Mon- A War-- A Falcon?! He'd just ran two clicks to get here, and they get a Falcon? He eyed the marine pilot. Great. Spend all that time as an ODST and they forget your piloting skills. No matter. No marine would be flying him anywhere.

Alex turned his attention to the Spartans. Blaze, Crux, Shift, Skream, and one he hadn't met... They were all his superiors, and deep in conversation. Best not bother them, speak when spoken to and all that. Alex leaned up the nose of the Falcon, so the Marine was blocked from the cockpit, and began trying to clean salt off his armour.

"Senior Chief Petty Officer, Crash, Sir." ((previous name incorrect, 2 characters on the same type of roleplay)) He quickly rendered a salute to the Major. When it was returned he continued. "I'm the SPDR 2, I'm the team Pointman. Pleasure to make you acquaintance Sir." Turning back to Blaze "Sir, when can we go take kick some Covenant backside? I'm itching for some revenge."

Snip, Triple post due to lagg.

Snip, Triple post due to lagg.

"Thank you, Officer, now are we going to sit round all day or blow up some Covenant?" The Major asked before tapping his hand to his EVA helmet in salute.
The Major asked, pulling out a DMR and loading it with bullets.
Shift then nodded to the pilot whom pulled out a crate.
The crate was packed with Fragmentation Grenades and ammunition for most of the weapons the team aquiered.

Kneeling down, Blaze was surrounded by his fellow spartans. "Alright, so Crux explained part of our objective. Johnson sent me the coordinates for the closest covenant base from our current location. I took the liberty of placing it on the GPS. From what recon I have done thus far, any covenant forces within a 300 yard radius would most likely be heading back" Blaze began to explain. Tapping the GPS on his tacpad, it zoomed in to the covenant base. "As you can see here, we have 2 ways of entering the base. The main route and the back entrance. Now, the front entrance is expected to be flooded with covenant. Due to the open terrain, flying a falcon would be trouble" he continued, eyeing the falcon. "However, it's probably best that we keep it here since the magnetic field here can jam their radars and keep this base safe. Now, we'll send 2 groups in. Each group will be accompanied by a superior officer as well as a few other spartans. The powerhouses will help clear out most of the covenant in the front, meanwhile any remaining spartans will work their way through the back. If all works out, we'll be able to destroy the generator and take down the base" Blaze finished his plan, all the while pointing to crucial points on the hologram on where to go and where the enemy would lie. "Any questions?" Blaze asked, eager to hear some feedback on their current plan.