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UNSC Colony Dijon
City of Lyon
LZ Bravo Zulu
Nine and a half clicks from downtown.

"Sir!" screamed a Private right in his face.
       The Colonel reacted swiftly, reaching for his holster, his sidearm was gone however. It would be of no use; there was not a single enemy nearby only his shattered Head Quarters.
       "Colonel, they just shelled the HQ to oblivion," said Private Carl Finch relieved to see his CO alive, with a calm tone he informed the Colonel of the grave situation, "Colonel, the entire Task Force staff is dead, I thought you were dead too," the Private took a deep breath, "I can't find Captain Muller."
       "Say what p-f-c?"
       "Covenant may make their move soon, we need you to stay focused like always sir," said impatiently the Private.
       Lieutenant Colonel Peyton West, commander of First Battalion, Third Marines stood up. His Command Post got hit by Covenant artillery while he took a nap; the roof of the house was gone, evaporated by Covenant plasma fired by Wraiths in indirect mode. He checked him self for injuries, looking for traces of blood on his uniform, finding nothing but dust.
       "Fuck sir, fucking react!"
       The Colonel paid no attention to the rudeness of the private, "give me a SITREP Marine," said the Colonel as he stood, scanning every inch of the destroyed building.
       "Our radio is gone," the Private signaled through a window, a large hole was on the position were the antenna had been, "our field radios are no good contacting HQ, the Covenant are jamming every comm. equipment we have, that antenna was the only thing hooking up us with Almighty."
       "Ok son, is anyone pulling security?" as grabbed Finch's hand and pulled to stand, "what is the situation around the CP?"
       "Well... sir... they-"
       "Fuck Private, follow me," the Colonel grabbed an assault rifle of the ground, a hand was still attached to the handle, and walked out of the house by a hole in the wall nearby, the situation outside in the large pentagonal square was not pretty, hundreds of men were running around, hurling ammunition and supplies from the burning caches to a safe zone. Every structure was either fire or destroyed.
       He looked around, trying to find an officer that could tell him the general situation. He stuck to the wall on his right, walking very low to avoid snipers. He walked by the aid station, Medics were lining wounded soldiers and assisting them by the gravity of their wounds. He crawled to one of them and tapped him in the head.
       "Son is there an officer around here?" the Medic turned around, he was a civilian assigned to the Battalion by the Navy, his white face showed no feel.
       "Sorry sir," he said as he returned to work on the wounded, "maybe further down the road."
       "right," the colonel kept walking; a battle was going down in the south-eastern perimeter, sounds of explosions and machineguns were audible all over the perimeter. Finch was about to open his mouth, West stopped him, "not my problem to lead that battle, I have to regain control of the Battalion." He spotted a young lieutenant by a Warthog in the southernmost corner. He approached him by the back, a corporal next to the officer warned him of his presence and he turned around and nodded, not saluting by the growing fear of Covenant snipers.
       "Sir, Lieutenant Miller, First Platoon, A Company."
       "At ease," he said as he nodded back, "SITREP please."
       The lieutenant sighed, "my platoon is further down the road, they have no contact. I lost a squad during insertion when their Pelican was shoot down, together with my platoon sergeant and my XO."
       The Colonel nodded, "how about the rest of the Battalion."
       "I was just about to ask you," said sarcastically, "sir."
       "Roger," said the Colonel, "where is the CO of Alpha?"
       "Last I saw him he was looking for him," he signaled Private Finch, "he was really pissed."
[quote] The Colonel needed to get word to topside about his Battalion's situation, "Il need to contact my XO who should be by B Company area of Operations," the Colonel said with his characteristic candor and eloquence, "any word on them?"
       "They just got charged by some Grunts," the Lieutenant grabbed his personal pad and placed it over the passenger seat of the vehicle, the pressed the icons on the screen until he got the window he wanted,, "the Covenant destroyed the uplink, this is the last update I've got."
       The map showed Bravo Company perimeters on a townhouses condominium a bare five kilometers to the north, they showed them on very tight formation in several buildings in the triangular condominium, the Grunts were in a disturbingly large conglomeration of red dots in every flank.
       "Well, I'll need to get some one down there and see if they have comm.," he said in a tone the lieutenant understood perfectly.
       "Sure thing sir, I'll send the vehicle to contact them," he tapped the Warthog, "we'll contact them sir. You need to square things here."

City of Lyon
Unknown location
0.2Km from Crash site of Dash 13 and Slash 42

"Fire the dam thing," screamed Lieutenant Walsh at Private Thomas who struggled to pinpoint the window with the laser designator on the Jackhammer launcher.
       "Bad laze, bad laze!" screamed Thomas. The Jackals sniper or snipers were very well concealed on a building a kilometer away. Thomas was trying to lock the missiles on a window were a the Snipers were laying fire on the Marines position, Covenant jamming interfered with the laser designator on the missile. Thomas was left with a single option, aim manually but it was a difficult and long shot.
       "Fuck it, just fire it!" Bradley screamed as he in a baby shaped position on a ditch was pinned down, the ditch was formed by Lieutenant Walsh with a satchel charge.
       Although Thomas was not a good soldier, he was a good fighter. He was not rattled by the situation, nor for the accurate Covenant fire or the scream of his comrades. He waited for that exact moment where the reticule aligned with the window. He squeezed the trigger at that right moment, bump and a soft recoil indicated that the two missiles were ejected from the launcher.

       Whoosh.

       Their boosters ignited ten meters away from, Thomas was immediately surrounded by white smoke, he ducked behind a pile, in time to avoid the suppressive fire from the covenant Snipers; the missiles streaked at supersonic speeds to the two windows.
       You see this a hundred times in training, but never so beautiful, thought Bradley in the ditch.
       The target of the missiles was a two floors building that was tall enough to give the Covenant a good vantage point on the attacked the street. The first missile struck the building on the roof, a large chunk of it disappeared under the explosion; it did not inflict the damage required. The second rocket miraculously entered the window, the one oh two millimeter warhead detonated when it hit a wall, the effects of the explosion were a relieving sight from the Marines position, every window let out a cloud of rubble and fire, a Jackals body was visible as it left the window on fire.
       "Boom! Oh yea!" screamed Ensign Chance as he watched it from the second floor of a building in the street, at the same level of the fire team.
       "Oh fuck I'm a god!" screamed Thomas.
       Bradley laughed uncontrollably, "thank you 'bert!" he crawled to a safer position in the ditch.
       The celebration did not last long, a combination of needles and plasma beams opened up from adjacent buildings of the one that was just blown up, heating the environment around them.
       "Here we go!" said Bradley as he took cover on the ditch and fired his rifle randomly down the street. The Marines held the northern most corner of the street where the Pelican crashed, it was now under attack by over one hundred Covenant creatures, held only by eight battle hardened Marines.

Loitering over the City of Lyon
Joint UNSC Forces Command TOC

"Sir, we just lost contact with First Battalion," said the Regiment Operations Officer.
       "Are they overrun?" asked the Commander of Third Marines, Colonel Dan Harley, he was ashamed to ask this question, it was his job to now that. The last time he checked the tactical Map the battalion had been facing probing, not assault. He was busy trying to find a LZ for his second force, Task Force 2-3 Marines. He started the war with four Battalions, in they previous fight they had been depleted, he had now only two in strength, he formed then and shipped them out.
       "I don't think so," the Officer signaled him to walk to the map, witch he did, "we have contact with almost everyone, but A Company signal is gone. Not only that but Covenant jamming is awfully good, if we don't take out those jammers we will eventually loose communications with the units in the field that doe not have broadband sat link radios."
       He looked at the map, Lieutenant Colonel West plan was simple, and he had set them up in a square shaped Perimeter, with one Company in each corner and one on the center.
       "We can't move our Companies on the perimeter," if he did a gap would open on the perimeter, a gap the Covenant would certainly exploit, "send some Air on them."
       "We can't fleet is busy engaging a new Covenant fleet. And our SkyHawks and Pelicans are too slow to fly over the city."
       "Ok," the Colonel was now worried, "we are going to send Armor into the city, tell them to prepare."
       "Sir," the Colonel new what his Operations Officer was going to say, Armor with out infantry cannot survive in an urban environment.
       "I know," he interrupted, "but we have no choice, get one LAR and two Tanks ready to move."


City of Lyon
Objective Foxtrot
103rd ODST Platoon Area of Operations

The Jackal ran to cover to no use, a massive twenty mike mike round struck him in the head and it fell dead. A grave yard of Covenant creatures littered the one beautiful avenue; this part of the city was the most Luxurious of it all, large buildings with good penthouses with Helipads. The Perfect zone for an air assault, except of course that it was infested by Covenant, poor recon and bad intelligence was a receipt for this disaster. The LZ came under a heavy charge right after they landed. The Helljumpers held their ground at the cost of half of the platoon.
       There was only a survivor on Corporal Wayne Everton's fire team; Private Pryor who was on the upper floor, covering the street with the sniper rifle, the rest of his fire team was ripped to pieces next to him in the large lobby of the building. Down by the road there was another team under Lieutenant Carol Roy of twenty, they were holding the target building, they had just fought of a Covenant attack, taking one more casualty.
       "Lima-Lima one-two, check in over." called the Lieutenant.
       "Roger ma'am," Everton was relieved to hear a friendly voice.
       "Corporal, we can't move," she was interrupted by a burst of a machinegun, "try to find friendly forces, they should be to the south," she was again interrupted by an explosion, "and report, try and get some support, we wi-" a major firefight erupted, audible by bare ears "-go and fucking do it Corporal, out!"
       Everton froze for a second before resuming, "Pryor, we are moving out!"
       "Roger!" was heard from over the building.
       The Helljumper ran down into the stairs, and met Everton in the luxurious lobby of the small building; both men turned on their data pads and looked for the coordinates.
       "That's seven clicks away," said Pryor.
       "Uh-hmm," said Everton as he thought of the best route to proceed, according to his situational awareness screen on his HMD he saw the direct path blocked by a large, cohesive force of the Covenant, there was not much to think about it, he plotted the necessary waypoints on the pad and uploaded them to Pryor's data pad, "we will take the long route."
       "Ok," said Pryor, "I would say go straight in," he smiled, "but I have no say about it."
       "Roger pal," said Everton.

       Beep, Beep.

       Two steady beeps sounded in Everton's helmet, the motion tracker detected movement on the rear of the building. With no orders need Pryor ran through the stairs he took down to the third floor of the building. Everton walked with his rifle at the ready to the back of the building, he went into a baggage room through a room hidden behind the counter of the immense lobby. This contingency plan was built by the sergeant, who was vaporized by needles in the first fight. Everton found his position, the emergency fire door behind the building, the motion tracker showed nothing. He inserted the fiber optic probe under the door, nothing to be seen, he moved it around for while, finding nothing.
       "Clear," said Everton.
       "Not quite, I just saw air move by a car on the opposite street," replied Pryor.
       Oh fuck, cloakers, he had a very bad experience at the Lyon woods with them, they slaughtered his platoon.
       "Ok, you know the drill," Everton had come up with this plan to counter the camouflaged Elites, he would throw a grenade to reveal the Elite's position, draw fire to allow a second men or team take them out.
       "Roger," said Pryor.
       He slowly placed his hand on the door knob; he readied a grenade with his other hand. He rapidly pulled the knob, the emergency door sung open, the pressurized gas on the mark of the door were released, opening the door on a swift movement, the fire alarm sounded scaring the Elites outside the room, he threw the grenade out. The four Elites watched in surprise how the small rock landed in front of them. Everton covered him self behind the wall next to the door just in time to avoid the blast of the explosion, it shook the ground, dust and debris raised from the explosion entered the room. Everton removed the safety, six shots and a volley of plasma fire; Everton activated his TIS by hitting a button on the right side of his helmet, he removed the safety of the gun, he peeked right, he found an Elite running right towards the door, the dust and the heat generated from the explosion revealed its position. Everton aimed at the center of the beast, he pulled the trigger of his submachine gun, the Elite stood no chance, and it fell dead on the ground.
       "Report!" he screamed as he took cover again.
       "I took three down, good job on the last one," reported Pryor.
       Everton sighed relieved, that feeling would not last for long.

       Beep, Beep, Beep... the motion tracker on the front of the building went berserk.

       "Move Pryor," Everton said calmly, "MOVE!"

City of Lyon
Between LZ Bravo Zulu and LZ Bravo X-Ray
Eleven clicks from downtown.

They had been going on for nine minutes, they had not met any covenant during the short trip, the digital display showed the speed of witch the vehicle moved, 120mph. Fox may have not been the best soldier, but he sure knew how to drive. "Where did you learn how to drive Marine?" asked Sergeant Defoe.
       "Video games!" said the private joyfully, "sir!"
       "Good to now," the Sergeant said calmly, still worried, "LZ should be to the right of the next corner." The mission was to link up with Second Battalion and inform the situation, so far, there was no indication that the objective could not be achieved. Fox reduced the speed for the tight turn, the vehicle turned right.

       "Oh fuck!" screamed the Sergeant.

       A Covenant roadblock was in the middle of the street. A Wraith lay flat on the ground. "Oh my God, floor it!" the sergeant screamed as he pulled his sidearm and aimed it to Elite who noticed the vehicle, he pulled the trigger. The muzzle blast alerted the entire Covenant in the roadblock. Three bullets hit the Elite in the chest, for a reason unknown to both men its shield was down, the three bullets toured into the chest sending blue blood over a sleeping Grunt. The vehicle accelerated away, the building in the corner received absorbed the plasma blows desperately fired by the Covenant.
       "Go, go, go!" screamed the sergeant as he climbed into the rear to man the chain gun.

City of Lyon
Unknown location
0.2Km from Crash site of Dash 13 and Slash 42

"That window private!" screamed the Lieutenant he was pinned down, unable to move by a spray of plasma over his ditch; the battle was so fierce that he was not heard by Thomas.
       "Hmm?" grunted Thomas to Bradley, who could not hear the Lieutenant.
       "I think he wants you to hit that building," he signaled to the building Thomas just fired a Jackhammer at.
       "Oh, sure, that's smart." He knelt into the firing position, this time there was not jamming, he painted the window, and the range was immediately entered into the targeting computer in the rocket. He squeezed the trigger; building took two more hits and collapsed, slowly the Covenant diminished and ceased.
       The lieutenant slowly raised his head, he watched in anger how Thomas failed to destroy de desired building "Fuck dumb ass, the other building," the lieutenant did not know that it was a good thing what Thomas involuntarily did.

City of Lyon
Unknown location
0.7Km from Crash site of Dash 13 and Slash 42.

Fabian watched through the window how the building took two more hits and crumbled. Who in the resistance could have that fire power? He turned around and headed for the basement. He found the four older men playing cards, not worried by the massive detonation, "excuse me," said Fabian in a shy tone.
       "Speak up my boy," say the eldest of the men.
       "Oh, well, I think you should see this."

       "Dang, someone has some serious fireworks back there," said the UNSC Captain.
       "I don't know who has that kind of power," said Francois, "it is not one of us."
       "I was a rocket that's for sure," said Fabian, "the explosion was red, not blue."
       "No RPG that big around here," said Pierre.
       "Ok," said the older men as he looked at Francois, "remember those aircrafts that passed overhead a while ago?"
       "Pelicans," said Captain Ellis "couldn't have landed near here?"
       The five men looked at each other, they all understood the situation. "I will go to see what is happening."

City of Lyon
Unknown location
Crash site of Dash 13 and Slash 42

"That was not the building meathead!"
       "Might be," said Thomas intimidated, "but when I blew the sucker to hell they all ran away!"
       "Shit head," said the Lieutenant, "you blew it," he sighed, "We don't have the ammo to go pounding everything we can."
       "Oh," said Thomas regretfully, "still it was fucking amazing."
       "Call me stupid," said Private Zambrano.
       "Asshole," said Thomas, the team holding the Northern perimeter laughed, even Zambrano.
       "But isn't it weird that Covenant retreated like that?" finished Zambrano.
       "That's right," said Lieutenant Walsh, "I need a volunteer to find out what happened."
       An unexpected person did, "I will," said Ensign Roy Chance.
       "Dude, how could you, you are an amateur," said Bradley.
       "Alright expert," said Lieutenant Walsh, "you are going with him."

Twenty five minutes later

Bradley placed two of his fingers in front of his eyes; he spotted movement from the rubble in the building parallel of the one that Thomas destroyed. The green Ensign chanced nodded; he was Covering Bradley's six o' clock.
       "Move right, seven meters, set up there and prepare to fall back," Bradley whispered, "scaled retreat on my go."
       "Roger," said Chance, a trace of fear in his voice.
       Bradley knelt and scanned the source of movement; he turned the Thermal imager, and scanned the rubble with his sight, "Oh my god," he looked at Chance with a face of disbelief, "it's one of us."
       Bradley stood out of cover. He walked forward with his rifle at the ready, still ready to fight if what he saw was wrong.
       "You can come out," said Bradley. A head popped a whole to the building.
       "Oh, am I glad to see a fellow Marine," said old men.
       "Oh shit," Bradley laughed, "you are on."
       The elder men hugged Bradley, who in a weird moved hugged back. "Sir, go fetch for the Lieutenant."

City of Lyon
Unknown location
0.2Km Crash site of Dash 13 and Slash 42

"Ok, this is it," said the leader of the bunch at Bradley. Five men in total, not the thousands Bradley had hoped for. They were still an interesting gathering, a shoot down pilot, a man who looked one hundred years of age, two police officers and a kid. How they survived? Anyone guess. Apparently the old men went looking for the source of the explosion that detonated the building, some balls for an old man.
       "Nice set up you guys have here," said Bradley, he hoped for a kind reply.
       "Ok," said Pierre, "that's it!" he barked, "why is there only one of you?"
       "Yes where is the Division that was supposed to take this place?" asked the Captain impatiently.
       "Not a division, a regiment," said Bradley sarcastically, "they are somewhere by a Church to the east from here," Bradley sighted, embarrassed by the awkward situation, "we were going there also but a bastard rammed right into us and we crashed, sorry but we are not the relieve force."
       "Now that is great," said Fabian, for the first time with out fear on his voice.
       "Oh Fabi," said the old man with his gentle tone, "at least the people in the Church area are ok."
       "Survivors?" asked Francois in a suspicious tone, like if he was hiding something.
       "Don't know our radio is down."
       "Ok, we will not argue anymore," Bradley said with authority, "you will come with me to our perimeter, you will be safe there, I promise."

The walk from the hideout went with out a scratch, the Covenant retreated from the area, or it seemed, after Thomas blasted a building to hell. The Lieutenant was waiting for the men were Bradley had met the resistance fighter.
       "Nice to see you guys alive!" said the Lieutenant happily as he fearlessly stood from his concealed position in a ditch formed by debris and rubble.
       The column of five came appeared surprised by the emotion showed by the officer.
       "Lieutenant, tell me what is your status?" asked Captain Ellis ending the uncharacteristic happiness of the Officer.
       "Oh," the Lieutenant showed his serious face and stopped walking, as he did five more men popped out of their hiding places, "we have fifteen able bodies, eleven KIA and about twenty wounded. We have a perimeter set up but we have no radio. A crew chief is trying to fix one of the Pelican broadband sat links."
       "I think I can help with that."
       The Lieutenant smiled again at the survivors, "Thomas, take this men to the crash site, give them everything they want, take care of them."
       Thomas smiled, he hugged the little boy, "sure thing boss," he let got of the kid and smiled, "follow me men, we are going to the crib."

City of Lyon
0.5Km from LZ Bravo X-Ray
Thirteen clicks from downtown.

The sergeant pulled the butterfly triggers on the chain gun; the shells shattered a window and the incoming fire stopped, they had taken sporadic fire on the way up.
       "Hunter, eleven o' clock!" screamed the Private driving the vehicle. The sergeant stepped on the right pedal bellow the gun, the circular base of the gun traversed until it was aligned with the beast. The sergeant pulled the trigger, over five hundred rounds of fifty millimeters raced to the beast in a matter of seconds, the beast interlocked its arms, covering him self from the bullets.
       "Where is the other one?" asked the Private.
       "Fuck if I know!"
       The other Hunter of the pair hid in a building, waiting for the precise movement where the vehicle was with in its sights. The sergeant suddenly found him self rolling uncontrollably in the air, he saw the street how the other Hunter destroyed the wall and walked out into the street, and then he saw the sky. Its clean air free of the smog, it felt like a rush of happiness after hell, he was flying like a bird, the temperature drastically diminished, and the blisters in his body stopped aching. Then it was all black.

       The sergeant woke up in a unknown room, he was dizzy enough to not care, he tired to move his hand but it did not move. He raised his head from the comfortable pillow, he watched in horror how his hand was gone, and his leg was strapped with a cast. His body was filled with bandages, his left arm was immobilized. He tried to scream but he couldn't, he was now in the real hell.
       Major Isabel Corrido had come to the room as soon as she heard that some men from A Company had come here by vehicle. The medic attending both men stood and saluted as she entered the room, "they are both stable but real banged up."
       "Wake them up," she said. The Corporal injected a green paste into their IVs, both slowly they regained consciousness.
       The sergeant woke up, he was again in the same room in the same condition, this time, he really screamed, he closed his eyes as he did.
       Oh my god why me! I do not deserve this... he felt a cold hand grab him by the arms, oh no, what is this, he saw then the face of a soldier right in front of him, his mouth was moving but he couldn't hear him, he stopped yielding, "Where am I?".
       "CP of Bravo Company," said the voice of woman next to him, "how are you feeling?"
       The gentle voice made him fell relaxed and safe, "like shit, why am I like this?"        "You were in an accident," she said as she placed her nice, cold hand on his forehead, "you came here from LZ Bravo Zulu."
       He then knew what was happening and why was he there, "Alpha Co is out of comm. I was dispatched here to inform of the terrible situation. I have a message on my data pad for you ma'am."
       The sergeant took a deep breath, his brain overloaded, even with the drugs, he went into dreamland.
       "Roger that sergeant," she grabbed the data pad and looked at the sergeant, "you will rest know," she checked the sergeant gear on table next to the bed, she avoided the personal things, she grabbed his datapad.

       The Major walked out of the room and took the stairs to the basement; there the whole staff was working, coordinating communications and logistics, it was the TOC.
       She sat on a chair on a corner, a table with some mugs and canteen was next to him, the table was away from everybody and took out the sergeant data pad, the message was already on the screen. The message described the tactical and logistical situation of the Marines at LZ Bravo Zulu.
       "Comm. patch me through to Almighty," the drama in her voice was terrifying for the Marines at the CP.
       "Roger ma'am," said the radio operator. He typed some commands into his console; he turned around to face the mayor and tossed her the phone.

City of Lyon
Unknown location
5.1Km Crash site of Dash 13 and Slash 42
4.2Km from Objective Foxtrot


The Helljumpers were lucky to escape. A whole Covenant Company trailing them a few hundred meters away, some smart ass in the Covenant chain of command had the idea of use the cloakers as a distraction, while they were fighting in the rear they stormed the front. They ran away from the fancy building just in time, Pryor had the brilliant idea to plant a lotus mine and a couple of satchel charges on the rear exit. Some pore Jackal activated the mine setting of a spectacular mushroom explosion, he bought them at least half an hour. They now where near their target, the crash site of the Pelican that inserted them, they were safely resting in a house that was far away from the heavy urban terrain where they were inserted into the city, it was in a peaceful semi-rural neighborhood located on a ridge.
       "Clear front," said Everton through his radio set.
       "Cl.... ear," the Covenant jamming of UNSC communications was incredibly effective, but now it was heavier than before. Everton turned around and walked to Pryor who was on a bedroom of the rural house, he was cleaning the bore of his rifle, he tapped him in the shoulder and nodded, Everton and him walked to the large living room, they crawled to a uncommonly large window, they took cover just bellow it, he activated his gun mounted camera.
       "How 'bout if you peek," said Pryor.
       He activated the camera by pressing the button on the digital display above the receiver, the HMD now showed what the muzzle of the rifle saw. He slowly raised his sub-machinegun on the window above him.
       "Oh my god," said Everton, "Covenant encampment."
       He kept scanning right, "oh shit," the expression of his mouth was all that that Pryor needed to know.
       There was large mass grave. "Oh my god," Everton raised his head mounted display and stared at Pryor who was kneeling next to him, "You take a look."
       Pryor did not say thing moved his rifle and watched the camera, he turned around and burped. Everton kept scanning, the camp was on a children's playground. Six massive plasma turrets, a vehicle park with Wraith and Ghosts, tents and he spotted what looked like an antenna on a large box.
       "Oh my god," said Everton, he looked at Pryor with a smile on his face.
       "If you like this crap you are sick," Pryor said.
       "I think I found a jamming device," Everton raised his HMD and grabbed his data pad, he went to the Covenant equipment information screen. He scrolled down until he found what he was looking for: ECM Device Classified as: "Noise", he clicked on it. The picture was taken on the woods; he uploaded the device information into his battle computer. He zoomed on the device and took a photograph of the device using his muzzle camera; the advanced software matched both pictures.
       He turned around and smiled, "jackpot!"

Two hours later
City of Lyon
Unknown location
Crash site of Dash 13 and Slash 42

The night came swiftly, David Bradley slept in the ditch embraced by the darkness that flooded the street, another worry for the sentries a few meters away from him.
       Machinegun and plasma fire erupted nearby. Bradley immediately knelt with his rifle at the ready, he lowered his HMD and enabled the NVG, "Thomas are you near?"
       "Yes," his voice came from a well concealed position on the second floor of a building a pair of meters parallel from Bradley's ditch. For Bradley's surprise there was no direct fire on his position, he moved closer to the front of the ditch, and then set him self in good firing position covering the wide street, for his surprise there were no firefights in his street.
       "Thomas, who's shooting?"
       "I don't know," said Thomas, Bradley could hear him moving from side to side, scanning different sides of the street, "Lieutenant is coming."
       The Lieutenant heard the entire racket, he ran to the position of the North perimeter, accompanied by three more men, raising the fighting strength of the team to nine.
       The Lieutenant walked to Bradley's position with his head low, he gently entered the ditch and crawled next to him behind the cover with his rifle aiming down the street, "who's firing?"
       "No one in this position as far as I know," said Bradley with uncertainty, "I think is nearby."
       "Sure is son," said the familiar voice of Corporal Matt Perry.
       "Who's guarding the front?" asked the Lieutenant.
       "Malone," said Bradley, "he is hiding under some debris ahead."
       "Roger," the Lieutenant took a second to think, "go and ask him if he had seen anything."

Two hours later
City of Lyon
Unknown location
0.3Km from the crash site of Dash 13 and Slash 42

       "Target, Jackal by the rubble at eleven," informed Pryor, he fired a twenty mike mike round to the bird, the bullet literally cut the sniper in half, "its down."
       "Roger," said Everton as he fired at a position were a Grunt just showed his head, he emptied a drum magazine of two hundred rounds in cyclic mode in less than three seconds, he was rewarded with multiple scream of pains of several Grunts, "loading."
       The floor shook beneath them in intervals of two seconds; they knew exactly what it was, Hunters were nearby.
       In an unexpected move, twenty Grunts poured out of several buildings at the same time, it was a coordinated attack that placed the Helljumpers in a no win situation, the Grunts positioned themselves in defiladed positions on the rubble scattered through the street.
       "Pull out, scaled and blow retreat," ordered Everton. He fired a magazine into the Grunts, who returned fire indiscriminately down the street; Pryor took the last Lotus mine from his satchel and placed it in the ground.
       "It's up!"
       "Back now," said calmly Everton. As Pryor stood two plasma bolts struck him in the back.
       He collapsed into the ground. Everton did not move, the pulled a smoke grenade and threw it in front of the wreckage. Using the cover of the smoke he crawled and pulled Pryor to the left, he walked further down the street, a typical street with bus stops and advertisements sings, until he found a diner with its door opened, he carried Pryor in and placed him behind the food counter.
       "I'll be back," said Everton to Pryor who silently nodded.
       He ran out of the store and continued to run down the road, he was rattled when the heavy detonation of the Lotus mine occurred, he turned around and saw pieces of several Grunts scattered in the street. He found a good vantage point in a trash can, he set him self on a firing position. He waited for the Covenant creatures to show up.

       "Wort," screamed an Elite.

       Three Jackals strafed left until they were at the center of the street, their shields at the ready. They scanned the street; they were unable to see Everton who from the concealed position prepared for the kill. He slowly turned his head and looked for a fallback position whew he would go after the shot; there was a three car crash a bare fifteen meters behind him. Perfect. He relaxed; he removed the safety of the machinegun mounted grenade launcher, he aimed at the center of the reticule into the Jackal in the center of the trio. Sweat poured from his forehead, he placed his finger on the trigger and prepared to pull it. He did not do it, a column of Grunts moved around the corner and into the street; they stuck to the wall on the right side. The barrel of a sniper rifle slowly moved around the corner, he expected a Jackal but instead he got the least he wanted to see, an Elite.
       He immediately took cover behind the large iron trashcan, he took a deep breath, and he cleaned the sweat of his forehead with his forearm. He was now outnumbered and outgunned. He activated his muzzle camera, even though it would be hard to fire this way it was better than to do it with your head exposed at an Elite with a sniper rifle; he slowly rotated his machinegun on the right side of the trash can, the Covenant squad was slowly advancing down the road, the was Elite giving orders behind the shields of the Jackals. He would have to take him out first, he slowly waited for the right moment, and once the reticule aligned with the shield of the Jackal in the center he pulled the trigger. The sixty mike mike Heavy Explosive Dual Purpose grenade traveled the thirty five meters in less than half of a second; the grenade struck the shield of the unaware Jackal. The explosion created a cloud of smoke that avoided him to see what happened; Everton turned his thermal imager on. He saw the Elite still standing using his arm to administrate pressure on a large wound on his chest. The Jackal on the center had vanished, the other two landed far away, it had been a good shot.
       The Elite barked something incredibly loud, the Grunts opened fire randomly down the street, a form of inaccurate suppressive fire. Everton had to finish the Elite of before falling back, he turned into a kneeling position, and he aimed through the advanced sight straight into the Elite chest. The Elite was staring straight at him, they both fired at the same time. Everton did not let go of the trigger until the gun automatically stopped firing, the Elite whose shield was down immediately collapsed and landed on a pool of his own blood.
       Everton smiled, he knelt back into cover, he slowly lowered his body, with no warning he collapsed on the street. He started to breath uncontrollably, he started to check him self for wounds, he found no sings of damage in his armor, he moved his hand to remove the HMD, he saw his hand covered in blood.
       He raised his head and saw two holes on the iron trash dump, he looked at his abdomen, a small hole that hard was to see was on his right part of his stomach, and it was a clean wound. The beam went straight in and out, he was lucky to be alive.
       He turned around until he was upside down, he crawled to his fall back point. The Grunts panicked at the lost of their leader, they covered with their retreat with barks and screams of panic, Everton didn't even turned around, there was no need, he had to get to the fall back point before the next waves of enemy showed up.
       He got behind the car crash, pulled on and ornament on the hood of one car to knelt, witch he did. Everton aimed his machinegun down the street, scanning with his sight.
       He saw how the characteristic fuel road gun of a hunter popped from the corner, he immediately threw him self on the ground. The beast threw a dozen plasma beams in every direction, parts of building collapsed, bricks flew over the street, debris filled the air, which was what these huge Behemoths did in every encounter with the UNSC, and they destroyed and killed everything on their paths.
       Everton popped his head over the car; two hunters were slowly advancing down the street, flowed by a Company of Covenant creatures. Right behind the large Hunters a Golden Elite walked in the typical position of battle, contracted with both arms forward, a massive energy sword in his right arm. Everton would do a last thing for the UNSC, he would kill an enemy leader and get the dead of a true Helljumper, if he was today to die, he would bring as many shitheads as he could with him. He centered the sight on the Elite, he placed his finger on the trigger, he smiled before pulling it, and it was a good feeling to know that you will kill an enemy leader, he pulled the trigger.

       Click.

       The battle stress, the wounds, the tiredness, the excitement took the toll in the worst situation. He forgot to load the launcher. Through the sight he saw how the Elite's mandibles contracted in the form of a smile, Everton was screwed.
       Everton was thrown away by the shockwave of the first detonation. A series of explosions followed the shockwave, he landed on his back, the only thing he could do was to stare at the sky, and ironically there was no sky to be seen, only a cloud of dust.
       He could only hear the loud explosions and the hissing wind through his ears The seconds passed, though they felt like hours, Everton didn't mind, he knew there was nothing he could do, only to wait and see.

       He didn't know how much time he had been asleep when he woke up, the cloud of dirt was still in the air, reducing visibility to five meters. His machinegun was missing, the sling was cut and the gun had flown away, he did not saw it around him, he pulled his side arm from the holster and aimed forward, he walked again until he was behind the cover of the last remaining car, the other two were nothing more that a burning skeleton.
       The quiet was the worst thing, he did not know what to expect, he pressed the button on his helmet to activate the thermal, and it was broke. He heard footsteps, he aimed forward A Jackal covering him self with his shield walked directly into him, and he killed it with a round of .450.

       "Who the fuck is shooting!" screamed a voice.
       "Not us ell-tee," screamed another voice behind him, "is coming from the street!"
       "Oh, he's alive!" screamed the voice of the Lieutenant, "we are from Alpha from Third Marines, and we are coming out!"
       A Marine appeared out of the cloud of smoke, the first Everton did was to read the name tag, BRADLEY.
       "Its ok trooper, you are with us now."

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