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Just to avoid confusion: The Shadow Ops team 1 was invented by Agent Shade, as he wrote a story about them. After reading it, i asked him if i was allowed to use that military unit in my story too. He gave me a yes, so don't bother making posts saying i "stole" his concept.

Shadow Ops team 2:

Balrog: Assault expert
pref. weapon: MA5B Assault Rifle

Lucifer: Assault and Rocket expert
pref. weapon: Dual MP-15 SMGs

Dragon: Support expert
pref. weapon: MG294-C Machine Gun

Katana: Sword wielding specialist
pref. weapon: Dual 'Razor' plasma blades

Ecstasy: Assault and Medical expert
pref. weapon: MA7B Battle Rifle

Crosshair: Sniper expert
pref. weapon: M98-5 40mm Sniper Rifle (sabot)

Shadowrunner: Infiltration specialist, equipped with cloaking device
pref. weapon: S2 AM Sniper Rifle

They formed two columns as they moved out, Master Chief and Lucifer were the spearheads. Slowly, over time, the covenant cruiser grew in size. About half way to the cruiser Lucifer suddenly raised his fist as a loud rumble in the ground could be heard. Everybody took cover each side of the road, blue team with Master Chief on one side and red team with Shadowrunner on the other. A covenant patrol of 12 grunts and 4 elites, backed up by 2 Shadows moved along the road. There were also 3 Jackals at either flank of the convoy. Chief quietly spoke into his radio: "Ok, when i stand up Red team waits for 2 seconds, and then tosses 2 grenades at the Jackals. After that you start to mow them down. Shadowrunner, when we start moving over here try to shoot out the drivers of those Shadows"

"Roger" came Lucifers voice over the radio. Shadowrunner agreed: "Let's turn them upside down"

Master chief then turned towards blue team. "When i give the order Crosshair will shoot out the gunners on the Shadows, Ecstasy you're on me. Katana try to make short work of those Elites."

The air was tense as the convoy slowly advanced. Now it was right between the 2 fireteams. Chief stood up, and started firing his battle rifle at random Grunts. 2 seconds went by, while the convoy came to a stop and 1 of the Grunts yelled: "The Devil! It's the Devil!". On the other side of the road Lucifer shouted: "READY FRAGS!... THROW!". Two large explosions on the flanks took out 4 of the Jackals. Chief fired off two more shots and radioed: "Initiate second phase! Ecstasy follow me!" while red team was mowing down the grunts, blue team came out of hiding and Katana headed straight for the Elites, who were still confused and in complete disarray, he took a few shots but the shield rejected them. The two snipers quickly dispatched of the Shadows' drivers and gunners and Dragon's MG294-C made the Grunts look like swiss cheese.

Katana was now at the Elites as Chief and Ecstasy started hunting the remaining Jackals and Grunts. He dispatched of the first Elite by driving his sword sideways through it's stomach and out on the other side, effectively cutting it in 2 pieces. He spinned around and stepped backwards while lunging his other sword into the next Elite's chest plate, Shadowrunner sniped the third while Katana cut the head off the last Elite with both of his swords.

Lucifer yelled as a Plasma Grenade flew towards the middle of red teamm, Lucifer and Balrog rolled to the left while Dragon and Shadowrunner evaded by moving right. Balrog pulled out his Carbine and gave the Grunt that threw the grenade a clean headshot. It was the last of the convoy to die. The group assembled at the center of the road, while looking at the until 30 seconds ago mighty convoy. Master Chief was hard to impress, but this assault made him drop his jaw.

As they got closer to the cruiser Chief decided to send Shadowrunner ahead to scout things out. He activated his comouflage and disappeared into the air. The rest of the group marched on. It didn't take long before Shadowrunners voice could be heard over the radio: "Sir, they've established themselves around the grav-lift. I can count 6 Shade gun turrets and several fixed shields, let's say 30+ of grunts and about 15 Elites; 8 Blue, 5 Red, and 2 Gold. They might have more in places i can't see. I've got visual on a couple of Hunters too. They have also got some light patrolling in the streets around the lift. It's not going to be a walk in the woods, sir"

"How strong are these patrols?"

"They're nothing to worry about, as long as they don't get on our back when we attack. From what i've been able to spot they mainly consist of Jackals, approximately 7 of them."

"How many patrols would you suggest?"

"About 6-8 sir, they pass my spotting place every 1,5 minutes. They walk and look casual"

Master Chief was worried, but not afraid. These Shadow Ops troops certainly were capable of doing their job in A+ style. "Ok, when a patrol passes we go for it. We've got less than 1 minute, since the patrols will no doubt hear when we move in, so they will come in running. Red team goes straight for it, Katana you're with them. The rest of blue remains behind to provide fire support. Me and Shadowrunner will watch our backs in case the Jackals enter the party too soon. MOVE OUT!" They all ran a couple of blocks down the street to an intersection, and concealed themselves, waiting for the next patrol to pass.

"Shadowrunner here, you've got a patrol inbound"

The Jackals walked past them. All of a sudden Master Chief could hear a Warthog racing down the street. Chief looked behind him and saw a machinegun Warthog with 3 marines heading for the covenant patrol. Master Chief shouted in the radio: "All teams, plan override! Repeat, plan override! Get that patrol with their pants down!" Dragon, true to his name, let loose a devastating arc of fire at the Jackals. It got 3 of them in the back, but the rest turned around and deflected his barrage. Lucifer brought out his SPNKR-2 Rocket Launcher and fired a rocket into the center of the patrol. All remaining Jackals flew into the air, dead. The marines riding the Warthog stopped, they thought everybody in this part of the city had been wiped out. Master Chief ran towards them. He knew the entire base camp had heard the shooting and would be swarming them in a matter of minutes.

"Sargeant Henderson reporting in, SIR!" the driver unmounted and saluted.

"At ease, sargeant"

Henderson gazed as Shadow Ops team 2 headed down the road to meet them.

Master Chief sounded glad, though the surprise attack was lost: "There is a gravity lift just a few hundred meters from here. We were about to ambush them, but when you headed down the street we had no chice but to deal with their patrols and loose the element of surprise. They will be right on top of us in a few minutes. We have to set up an ambush for thier counter-attack."

"We will make them wish they never were born" Sargeant Henderson said.

"This is Shadowrunner! I've got hostiles on the move here! Lots of 'em! I can see at least 5 Ghosts and 2 Shadows backing them up. We've got incoming Hunters and Brutes too!"

Master Chief thought for a second or two. "Ok Sargeant, move your squad down the road and hold fire. When i give you the order, hit the gas and flank them." Master Chief noticed he had a sniper rifle on his back "Does any of your men have experience in driving a Warthog?"

"Yes sir, they both have"

"Good, when you are in waiting position let one of your men take the wheel and and take the passenger seat. Unmount when you're at the corner of the intersection. Shoot the Ghosts' pilots from the rear or side, we can't get them from the front. Shadow Ops, go into position in one side of the road, snipers take cover on the crater further down the road... OK LET'S MOVE IT! GO GO GO!"

Everybody rushed into position.The Shadow Ops members took cover on one side of the road a while after the intersection. Shadowrunner and Crosshair took cover in the crater in the road a bit farther down the street. Master Chief took hiding at the intersection in the hope of sorrounding the enemy together with the Warthog. "Try to shoot only the occupants of the Ghosts. we will just waste ammo trying to shoot the Ghosts themselves"

"This is sargeant Henderson, we're in position and i'm in the passenger seat. Waiting for go-code!"

The covenant assault team moved past the intersection. It was a large force, but in disarray since they had been sent out on short notice. Chief could count it to 5 Ghosts, 2 Shadows, 2 Hunters, at least 20 Grunts, some of them in black armor, 8 Blue Elites and 3 Red."NOW! MOVE! ALL TEAMS OPEN FIRE! Lucifer! give the Elites a grenade to chew on!"

His orders had instant effect; Lucifer shouted as he landed a grenade in the center of the Elites' formation. 1 of the Red and 3 of the Blue died. Some of the others had their shields consumed by the blast. Master Chief saw the lights of the Warthog come online as it rumbled down the street with 3 die-hard marines onboard. Then Chief witnessed the covenant ranks confusion as a bullet from Crosshairs' 40mm sabot sniper penetrated the front armor of a Hunter, and exit it in the killzone on it's back. It collapsed on the spot. Shadowrunner threw a Plasma Grenade on one of the advancing Grunts. As Grunts go, it was stupid; it ran towards his buddies while yelling "GET IT OFFA ME!!!" The explosion took at least 6 Grunts down the drain. He then headshotted a driver in a Ghost as it turned around to attack the Shadow Ops at the side of the road.

Master Chief came out of hiding, weapon raised and ready. He fired off 5 shots with his battle rifle before the Warthog made a handbrake turn around the corner. Henderson disembarked and got into position. He picked off 2 of the Ghosts' drivers.

Balrog headed into battle followed by Lucifer, Dragon, Ecstasy and Katana. The Carbine was once again put to good use; Balrog shot both the occupants of a Shadow in the head. They all held their positions a while from the enemy and spread out to evade the oncoming strayshots from the confused Elites. Katana, though, rushed into battle. Dragon took a hit in the leg "MEDIC!" Ecstasy headed to him and pulled him behind a Ghost without driver. Shadowrunner shot the driver in the Ghost that hit Dragon. Ecstasy took out his MA7B and fired off an entire clip towards the Elites. Katana was now at the Elites and started having fun. Meanwhile Master Chief and the Warthog rushed into the backs of the enemy. Lucifer had his attention on the Grunts, they soon lay dead on top of another as the combined strength of two MP-15s came down on them.

The Warthog shot the second Shadow. The internal nanomachines repaired the damage by using matter from the 2 occupants. The marines watched as they gradually went to an unconcius state and eventually died.

The firepower of the Warthog, Master Chief and Katana gutted the elites into a pile of bodies. Katana finished the last Elite off as Crosshair shot the second Hunter. Just then Hendersons rifle released a round and the last Ghost's driver fell off with a hole through his head.

It was over within 60 seconds.

"All teams, status report!" Master Chief radioed

"We've got Dragon wounded. It will take a short while before the nanomachines are finished repairing his leg, it's not very complicated" Ecstasy said.

These guys really had some advanced technology in their backpacks.

"We're all fine down here in the hole" Crosshair said.

The marines from the Warthog felt a little bad, but that was because a few hits to the Warthog had made the nanomachines there rebuild the damage with the marines' cells. It was only momentarily, and soon they were all ready to move out.

They moved towards the gravity lift slowly, while Shadowrunner scouted ahead. "Chief, i have visual on the enemy's forces. They have recalled some of their Spec Ops Elites with swords from the city, as far as i can see they got 10-15 of them. I can see 8-10 brutes being briefed by a Gold Elite. They're also sending the cruiser's reserve troops down... OH SHIT! 4 Hunters just came down through the lift! The longer we wait to attack, the harder it will be to do so... Hmmm, a troop bus just arrived with 10 Jackals, they're setting up a line formation to block this entry to the base. I'd say we should use another road as our approach... There is a road at grid Echo-74 leading in to a relatively undefended part of the base."

Master Chief liked the idea: "Ok, it's on the other side of the base, so we will have to move quick team! Shadowrunner, you stay here and give us intel" The marines got into the Warthog and drove slowly besides the single column of Master Chief and Shadow Ops team 2. They moved fast, and about 3 minutes later they arrived at the intersection where the road into the base lay open to them.

"Shadowrunner here, the enemy have moved forces into the base from the cruiser. It looks there are quite a lot of enemies... And quite a lot is just about every fireteam on that cruiser. Do you really want to do this without air support?"

"Yes i do, we can't ask for additional bomber support now, they're busy taking out artillery around the city"

"Ok, sir, when you say so. But be careful right?"

Master Chief briefed by radio "Remember, this is a surprise attack. No one fires a single round until i say so, or if you are under heavy fire, got it?"

A number of voices came through the radio: "Yes sir"

"Right, let's move it up! Balrog, Dragon, on me! Lucifer, Katana, Ecstasy, go right! Henderson, you go up the middle. Crosshair, stay back and prepare to target Hunters and high-ranked Elites. Sadowrunner, if you got a clear shot on a Hunter's back, do it. Remember only to open fire when i say so!"

They moved in. When all the members of the squad were clear of the buildings, Chief shouted: "OPEN FIRE, OPEN FIRE! GO, GO, GO!" They caught them on the opposite side of what the covenant expected, but they quickly reorganized to move against them.

Balrog switched to his M90 Shotgun and charged as Dragon and Chief covered him. The M90's mighty power made for a devastating offensive. He took out 5 Blue Elites and 2 Reds before he retreated to reload. He had taken a few hits to his torso, but nothing serious. A Hunter cut off his way. As a reflex, Dragon pulled out his M6D pistol and took aim as fast as he could. He pressed the trigger, but missed the killzone by a few inches. Balrog quickly stuck his shotgun to the head of the Hunter and pulled the trigger. The hunter was left crippled by the blast, and gave Dragon time to take a good aim at the killzone. The second round left the pistol, and the Hunter froze and dropped to the ground like an empty sack. Dragon holstered his pistol and once again the MG294-C roared. Balrog made a home run, but got hit in the back.

The marines in the Warthog raced across the base and ran over whatever forces were in it's way, while the gunner and passenger made bullets fill the air. They got to the other side of the base and shot half of the Jackal blockade in the back before they turned around. The jeep ran over the rest of them. The driver then turned it around to ambush the forces now attacking Lucifer, Katana and Ecstasy.

On the contrary of his normal role in combat, Katana was staying back and using his M6D pistol. A charge against the huge number of enemies attacking them would be suicide, the crossfire would cut him to shreds. Shadowrunner took a shot and got a Hunter. Lucifer saw this was the chance for Katana to make a charge. He ordered Ecstasy and Katana to use their grenades, and soon 3 grenades were inbound to the covenant ranks. As they flew, Lucifer pulled out his SPNKR-2 and let off a rocket. The combined firepower of 3 grenades and a rocket blew up parts the front line, wich made the covenant experience a moment of disorder while they regrouped. Katana stood up and ran, while holstering his pistol. He pulled out both of his Razors and activated them, a sharp sound emitted as the green blades grew out of the handles. He was almost at their front troops now, they started to recover from the shock of the granades and began shooting at him. But it was too late, Katana reached the front of the amassed covenant soldiers and ripped them apart.

2 shots echoed throughout the battle, Crosshair made a Hunter and a Spec Ops Elite fall to the ground. He had been firing almost constantl since he moved in, he had counted 7 Hunters and more than 20 Elites. He was good at sniping, and he knew that. He quickly zoomed out to get a better overview of the battle. A Gold Elite was charging against Master Chief and his squad. 0,8 seconds later it was on the ground, it's head blown apart by the massive 40mm bullet. Again he zoomed out, and zoomed in again on a Hunter. He activated the heatvision in his custom version of the almost legendary PRISM ClairVoyance(R) scope with 30x zoom. He could clearly see the Hunter's killzone in the scope. Yet another shell casing left the chamber as Crosshair fired his rifle, instantly killing the Hunter.

The marines in the Warthog had it easy: The amassed covenant was unable to evade the jeep because they stood in a very tight formation. The machinegun on the back was red hot from the amount of self-replicating ammunition that was fired during the raid. Having no problems in horsepower the Warthog grinded it's way through the covenant.

Katana had no idea how many Grunts and Jackals he had killed by now. It was a number exceeding 40 he was sure. But he knew he had killed 8 Blue Elites, 13 Spec Ops with swords and a single Gold. Spinning his way through the covenant ranks he found himself confronted with a Brute. It tried to hit him with it's massive fist, but Katana cut the arm off before it could do so. He then stuck his sword right through it's head. The sword even came out the other side. The brute fell to the ground.

Master Chief and his squad didn't encounter very much resistance, so he ordered Dragon to support Lucifer, Katana and Ecstasy. Dragon ran the 12 meters over to the other front, lied down, and pulled the trigger. Lucifer who had switched to his MA5B long ago to conserve ammo for his MP-15s switched back to do as much damage as possible. The resulting rain of bullets made Katana's job much easier as they took out nearly a third of the covenant in the following 10 seconds.

The marine on the passenger seat threw a grenade into the enemy ranks. It took 4 Elites out. This made the covenant very aware of the jeep and the passenger was seriously hit in his chest. the radio yelled: "This is Henderson, we might have a KIA here! He needs urgent medical attention!"

"Report in with Ecstasy, he's the medic around here"

The Warthog immidiately changed direction and headed for Lucifer, Ecstasy and Dragon. They arrived without further serious injury, the gunner did take a small hit to his leg, but he could still walk when they arrived at Ecstasy. The wounded marine was unconcius, Ecstasy looked at him with fear in his eyes. The entire chest was black from the plasma hits he had taken, he also had a number of scattered plasma marks around his body. Luckily his head was intact. Ecstasy called for an evac ship with ammo supplies to stand by until they had cleared the ground of hostiles. He brought out his nanomachine module. He opened it and placed a tube over the chest of the marine. He flipped a couple of buttons and then something that looked like dirty water came out of the tube, it wasn't water but billions of nanomachines, wich began to reconstruct his chest. His heart began beating again, and slowly the wound started to heal. But the marine was still on the border between life and death. Henderson looked at the marine and qiuetly said: "Hold on there, Versconte, hang on..." He then looked up with eyes full of hate and sorrow. His teeth was visible as his lips retracted in an expression that would make even a Hunter afraid of what was to come. He threw himself into the the small trench-like hole where Dragon and Lucifer were still firing off. Lucifer had switched back to his MA5B. Henderson took his MA5B too, mostly because he had no bigger gun. He fired on full auto into a group of 12 Grunts trying to flank them. A few seconds later they were all lying down in a pool of blood. The second marine with a wounded leg looked at Versconte, then at the sargeant. He too got into the trench.

Shadowrunner took out the last Hunter he could see and then shot the driver of a Ghost. Crosshair had no more targets of opertunity on sight. Katana and his support was taking out the last bit of covenant forces.

The Pelican flew in, it quickly touched down and Versconte got carried in by the second marine and Henderson. The pilots threw out a weapons cache and then took off towards a hospital.

Master Chief and Shadow Ops team 2 gathered right next to the gravity lift. Chief brought the weapons cache with him. Shadowrunner was there too. Ecstasy was healing Balrog. In the previous 3 minutes they had taken out most of the troops on the cruiser, witch was about 180 Grunts, 100 Jackals, 60 Elites, 35 Brutes and 12 Hunters. They needed a moment of relaxation before moving into the cruiser. Master Chief looked up at the cruiser hovering 200 meters above where he was now.

The weapons cache made them able to restock their ammo to full before moving into the beast. 10 minutes after they were refreshed and ready to move on. They walked onto the pad of the gravity lift, waiting for it to lift them up. Then gravity ceased to exist as they were pulled into the 'Illuminated Path'...

--To be continued

By: Shadowrunner
"My name may be Shadow... But i'm far deadlier than such a thing

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