Snippet #1841083

Once it was clear that Commander Titus had touched down, the plan had initiated itself. Daniel took his team and split up from Leonard's in order to cover more ground. It took them a couple of minutes just to get to their starting sweeping point, from there it was simply a mess trying to get anywhere. Collapsed buildings, fractured ground, and debris covered every square inch of the ruins, and even amidst that, there were still some buildings standing tall. A optimist would look at it and say that they are standing because of their construction and integrity, a realist would look at them and say they were another hazard just waiting to happen. Daniel waved his finger around in a circle, signalling everyone to fall in. They all complied without a further word, and Daniel took a small breath.

First time being a squad commander...let's do this. Daniel thought to himself as he slowly started making his way through the city. He could have gone faster using his jetpack, but his team didn't have that luxury and every waking moment he missed being a part of the Demons. Still, he had to make do, and was pleased that everyone was keeping up with him surprisingly well save for the odd time Tia would stop and seem to be slightly out of breath. Daniel chalked it up to being the first mission back, it was that way for a lot of people.

They had been travelling for quite a ways now, and were almost at the meet up point when things started to take a change for the worse. As Daniel's team moved forward, clearing whatever buildings they passed as they did, gunfire erupted West of their position. Daniel looked over in that direction, but couldn't make out anything other than the fact that either the Victory's second fire team or Titus's team was spending a lot of ammunition.

"Lieutenant!" Carly yelled, and Daniel whirled around quickly, his rifle raised. About twenty yards off, obscured by dust and debris, stood one lone husk. The creature looked at them, and reared it's head back giving off a scream that sounded like nails on a tin can. Suddenly, husks started crawling out from everywhere. In front of them rushed a small horde, and as Daniel looked around, lights started to come from the buildings they had just secured.

"360 degree coverage now!" Daniel yelled as they all went back to back and watched as the incoming horde started to press in on them. Soon, they were expending ammunition as quickly as they were taking breaths. Daniel made every shot count, dropping husk after husk, but they still pressed on. Where did all these come from? This is way more than 13. Daniel thought to himself as the horde got ever closer. Daniel quickly looked to Carly and pointed back in the direction they were heading. "Carly, make us a path!"

"Understood!" She yelled as she broke formation and lead the charge through the horde. Her commando armour allowed her to take a bit more punishment than Daniel's, whose armour previous to now relied a lot on shields. Carly proved her worth by punishing any husk that got within range and bashing a few out of the way with her shoulders. Nerita jumped in every so often with a biotic push that would send a few husks flying. Tia seemed to be handling herself, allowing her bionic arm to do most of the work.

Just when it seemed possible they may simply run their way out of this situation, the ground beneath them began to shake. Fuck, why now!? Daniel thought to himself as they all struggled to keep themselves upright as they ran. Luckily, the husks were having the same problem and the earthquake was throwing them off their feet as well. However, up ahead was the greater challenge.

Just a few yards away, the ground started to crack and open up as the earthquake continued. Even the short distance that they were away, it was opening quickly. Carly was in the lead, and she didn't slow as she approached the makeshift cliff. She sprinted as hard as she could, and when she was close enough, made a jump over the ever widening gap. The others were a few feet away yet, and already the jump was reaching six feet and continuing to expand at a frightening speed. Tia was the next over, her foot slipping near the edge but pulling herself up anyways. Daniel and Nerita both jumped at the same time, and Daniel made the choice to look down as he did so.

The drop was easily a few stories, definitely enough to kill them. Daniel made it over, and quickly did another standing jump as the earth gave away beneath him. Nerita landed, and started to tilt backwards when Carly reached back and grabbed her by the collar of her armour and yanked her back onto solid ground. The gap started to slow as the earthquake passed, and finally stopped at ten feet wide. The husks ran up to them, but simply ran into the fissure in the ground rather than try to jump it. "No chances, wipe them out!" Daniel stated as the entire team opened up with their weapons on the remaining husks. It was only a couple minutes longer before the rest were either dead on the ground or fallen into the crack in the earth.

"There's not enough bodies." Nerita stated as she looked down into the fissure. "Some of them must have broke off and entered the buildings."

"Alright, another complication for getting back." Daniel stated as they looked around them quickly. They seemed to be secure for the moment, but that would never last so long as the husks kept appearing like they did. Daniel was about to order them on when a voice came in over the radio.

"Lieutenant Harrens? This is Overwatch, please respond." Daniel took a couple paces away from everyone.

"Lieutenant Harrens here. Go ahead Overwatch." Daniel replied, and was greeted with Kelly's voice.

"Lieutenant, we've just gotten word from Commander Titus that the researchers are under attack from an unknown number of husks. I'm ordering Lieutenant O'Ryan's team to head back to help with the defence of the installation." Daniel nodded subconsciously.

"Understood." Daniel stated.

"Along with this Lieutenant, it appears that Commander Titus's team has been pinned down by husks near the artifact that seems to be causing the mass husk infestation. You are to attempt to relieve and assist Commander Titus with best speed. I'm marking his location on your HUD now." Daniel took a moment to read the map, the grimaced inside his helmet.

"Husk central, understood ma'am. Do you have a suggestion for a flanking or overwatch position?"

"Negative, the terrain is throwing off our charts with each earthquake, you're going to have to improvise Lieutenant. Overwatch out." Kelly cut the connection, and Daniel wasted no time raising Lieutenant O'Ryan.

"Did you get those orders Lieutenant?"

"Yes I did sir. We're moving now. Good luck." Leonard replied before cutting the connection. Daniel gave a small sigh, realizing that he had been right one again with nothing being as easy as it seemed. He turned back towards everyone.

"Change of plans, Commander Titus is pinned down, we're being ordered to move in and relieve. Let's go." Nerita gave a huff, but aside from that, there was nothing else said among them as they all ran as fast as they could to where Titus and his team were supposedly pinned down.

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It took them a few minutes to reach the last known whereabouts of Titus's team, and from there they simply followed the gunfire. Daniel was the first to round the corner, and the moment he did, he simply stopped. In front of him, crowding the staircase leading up to some scaffolding around the Reaper artifact, was the biggest horde of husks he had ever seen. What was worse, was that they were all ground level with them. They had yet to be noticed, but Daniel didn't waste any time as he ran instead of firing. The others followed him as he got to a semi-defensible position atop of some rubble. The husks would be hard pressed to climb it without getting shot right away.

"Suppressing fire, bring the heat off of Commander Titus!" Daniel yelled as he stood and unloaded his rifle into the husks. Immediately a good chunk of the husks broke off in order to attack their new found enemies. They rushed towards the position, being cut down as quickly as they ran, only to be replaced by two more husks. Daniel and his team managed to keep this up for about a minute before the husks actually managed to reach them, and they were forced to fire and fight at the same time. Daniel smashed the butt of his rifle into one of the husks, and kicked it off of the rubble much like the Spartans kicked the Persians into their pit. Nerita seemed to be getting swarmed by three or four husks, but before Daniel could turn to help Nerita pulsed with biotic energy and threw all of the husks off of her in a brilliant display of electric blue. She started panting, and took a moment to catch her breath before returning to the fight.

Carly was dual wielding her assault rifle and Carnifex pistol now, seeming to have taken the best parts of her training and amplified them as she maintained accuracy for both weapons despite the obvious weight disadvantage. Tia was finishing up a battle with a husk by the looks of it, punching her bionic limb into it's skull and flattening it. Despite their minor victories, it wouldn't be long before they themselves were overrun. Daniel looked around for a possible escape route when it hit him. Just a few feet away was a two story building that, while looking ready to fall, was still standing.

"Everyone, boosters to the top of that building! Do it now!" Daniel gave covering fire as one by one they managed to fire off their jets and make it to the top of the building. Daniel was the last one away, wanting to make sure the team made it first, and just as he was about to boost away, a husk grabbed his leg and was drawn into the air with him. His trajectory was thrown off as he kicked and punched at the attached husk. Finally it dropped to the ground, but by the time he looked up he flew through an open window and slammed against the roof of the interior. He dropped down hard, his assault rifle escaping his grasp and sliding several feet away. He brought himself to his knees as he fought to regain his breath, and finally stood up. He quickly ran over and grabbed his gun, and only then did he hear the moans from the other side of the room.

The husks were climbing up the side of the building and had entered through one of the many windows. Daniel fired some more rounds as he quickly ran to the nearest window and looked down. Sure enough, the horde they had been just fighting was clawing it's way up the building. One reached over the lip, and Daniel gave a swift kick that sent it flying down and taking a couple with it. Without any more hesitation, he jumped out of the window and boosted to the top of the building. There Carly, Nerita, annd Tia were all spread out over the roof trying to cover the walls from the approaching husks.

"What do we do? There are too many!" Carly stated as she fired some more.

"We hold until either the horde dies out or Titus finds an opening. We managed to draw at least half of them away, it should by them some time!" Daniel said as he took a firing position.

"What if neither happens?" Nerita asked, her tone as cold as ice. Daniel shot one husk off of the side of the building before looking over at her.

"We didn't survive the SIC Titan to die to some mechanical zombies Nerita! I will be damned before I let us die in this situation." Daniel stated with such conviction that it caught Nerita off guard. She simply nodded, and went back to firing at the zombies. Daniel looked off towards Titus's team, hoping they would find a way out of their situation before things escalated. One thing was for sure, Daniel meant what he said.

He wasn't going to die here today, none of them were.