Lupus IV, Operation: Fish in a Barrel

[Shaide]

Shaide shifted her unconscious colleague, scowling at how stupid the Captain had been to test this new transportation system on Ashke. All of a sudden she doubled over coughing, accidentally dropping Ash in the process.

Junketsu quickly turned the helmet's air filters on.

After a few final coughs, Shaide smiled behind her faceplate, "Thanks, Jun. This place absolutely stinks."

Jun laughed, "I realised. Are Ashke's filters on?"

"They're never off."

Shaide nudged Ash's shoulder with the toe of her right boot, then threw him over her shoulders again and broke into a medium speed run, searching for cover all the while. There could be Brutes anywhere, but worse was she could be in a sniper's sights at that very moment. Beam Rifles were not easy to avoid being hit by.

Ready to leap behind the nearest rock at any moment, she kept one eye on her motion tracker and the other down range. She was never going to forget the one most important lesson she had learned in her entire time in training - machines break, eyes don't. There was also the problem of how to keep Ashke from getting hurt. It was hard enough to keep herself from being hit, but she had to rise to the challenge of keeping a second entity safe as well.

She was good at keeping a team safe, but when the second entity was unconscious, as was Ashke, it was all the more difficult.

Shaide spotted a relatively shallow cave in the cliff wall, deep enough that enemies could hide in the shadows but not so deep that a well-placed plasma grenade would not clear it out. Lucky she had four of the things. She armed one of the four plasma grenades she was carrying and sidearmed it into the cave.

"Three... Two... One."

The sound of dying Brutes, Jackals and Grunts filled the air as a blue explosion shot out of the cave. Running inside, Shaide dropped Ashke rather unceremoniously onto the rock floor and levelled her Assault Rifle, preparing for a long haul defending her position.

It wasn't long before her first potential foe appeared, silhouetted against the sky, standing at the mouth of the cave.

"You there! Identify yourself or face the consequences. Be you friend or foe? Beware he who wishes to attack, as- oh, forget it. If you want to attack, you'll probably die. If, however, you want to be of some use to the UNSC for the time being, I would suggest you identify yourself," Shaide imitated Ashke's voice near-perfectly, ensuring that no enemy would assume she was weak for being female, "I am armed to the teeth, as are all UNSC soldiers, and I'm trained to kill. Watch your step."

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Okay, Rhydian, you can bring in Flaredrake if you want. Shaide will refer to him as such, although I know he doesn't like it much. Which team will he join for the paintball tournament? If you want him to participate you will have to decide by the time it starts.

[Rhydian]

The silhouette let out a slight grunt, sounding very human, and a pair of huge, somewhat bat-like wings unfolded from below its shoulders.

Stepping into the shadows of the cave, the thing, whatever it was, revealed itself. Someone who had not seen, or heard of, pictures of dragons, or even stories for that matter, would have said this entity was a cross between a bat, some sort of reptile, and a human. Those that had, however, would instantly recognise that this was some sort of half, maybe even three-quarters, draconic humanoid, maybe evolved or genetically engineered from humans themselves. This thing stood at exactly four metres tall.

Also, it seemded to be clad in gleaming cobalt (a sort of blue-tinted silver colour, I believe), which, clearly, was bare metal. Glowing slits in certain places, mainly the joints, where clever articulation made sure that there were only tiny gaps between plates, while still allowing unimpeded movement, indicated some sort of energy shield. Metal guards were clamped tightly to the leading edges of the wings, and on them, also, were glowing shield projectors. Golden metal, brighter than any real gold, decorated the armour.

Reaching up to the reflective, gold faceplate, it flipped it up, revealing a second faceplate, this one clear. The reflective, gold one was a blast shield. Inside the helmet was darkness, the only visible feature of the thing was a pair of glowing, red eyes, which almost immediately cooled to green, then flared golden for a moment.

Snapping down the blast shield as its eyes turned orange, it whirled, both hands drawing pistols.

A Brute charged at the Spartans, only to fall, dead, at Shaide's feet when a bolt of energy, a pulse laser, erupted from the first creature's pistol and hit the Brute directly in the ear.

Holstering the pistols, the creature crouched, and some sort of rifle appeared in its hands in a flare of light and a crackling sound.

Glancing over its shoulder, the creature spoke for the first time, "My name is Benjamin Flaredrake, My rank is Admiral... Or, equivalent for you might be... President? No, I'm not that high-ranked. Chief of Defence... Or is that Army or Navy? Never mind. Whatever your rank is, Spartan, I'm of superior rank. I used to command the most elite fighting force in the galaxy, the Draconus. I'm Bonded to a dragon named Wildfyre... He's not here on the physical plane, though. OK now I'm rambling. I just... Never mind. I'm over five hundred... I'm far older than any Dragonmaster in the current generation... Hmm? That's odd..."

Glancing over its shoulder, Benjamin pulled a cartridge from the bottom of its weapon, then, looking quickly inside it, snorted disgustedly, and it dissappeared in a flare of white light. Another appeared moments later and, after a quick check, that elicited a pleased nod, the new cartridge was slid home. The weapon reacted by humming, and a small LED flickered on.

Glancing over its shoulder it growled, "I'm male, but I've already got a wife. Now, take care of- of..."

He stoppd, and seemed to peer down the scope attatched to the weapon.

"Great. We've got incoming ground forces. I'll pin them down with my Chain Blaster Rifle, you get grenades, or whatever heavy ordinance you're packing, into them."

With that, he opened fire, sending a rapid stream of laser pulses downrange at the advancing column of Brutes, Jackals, and Grunts. When one Jackal raised its shield, three bolts immediately slammed into it, then a fourth hit the Jackal as the shield collapsed. The Jackal keeled over backwards, a hole neatly drilled into its forehead.

[Shaide]

Shaide stared at the unknown creature, "What are you doing here? Here of all places! Who in their right mind would come here? Except of course soldiers on missions."

Still imitating Ashke's voice, she continued, "Lupus Four is in the middle of Brute territory. How could anyone forget what happened here the year before last?"

She gave a bitter laugh, "So many losses, it was a miracle all the Spartans got out alive. Those losses will be avenged in time, I can guarantee you that. The sheer numbers of Brutes here even then, while this was still a UNSC-held world, was mind-boggling."

She picked up the dead Brute's explosives and considered taking its weapon, but decided against it. Covenant technology, although superior to UNSC tech, was something she did not trust.

"Unbelievable, isn't it, that we agreed to come here?"

It was something Ashke would never say, but Shaide thought it fit with the situation. She had the feeling she wouldn't be able to trick the newcomer for much longer, if any longer at all, because she was just too feminine in her behaviour. Spartan to Spartan, it was easy to tell who was who, but very few outsiders could tell one Spartan from another whilst the Spartans in question were in armour. In dress uniform, of course, was a totally different story.

"By the way, I'm not taking orders from anyone outside the UNSC. Ever. Not even you. Whatever your rank."

She sneezed without warning, sounding very feminine. The game was up.

"Damn," she muttered, no longer pretending to be Ash, "Oh well. No-one in their right mind would ever underestimate a Spartan, though. Especially not the top-ranked Spartan of Blue Team. I am, yes, the somewhat legendary Master Chief Petty Officer Shaide, which makes me the top-ranked Spartan."

Ashke stirred, and Shaide was at his side in no time.

"Jun, get me the stats on this new kind of explosive that Brute was carrying. I want to see what this puppy can do."

An oddly disembodied male voice echoed around the cave, "Yes, Chief. Scanning the explosive now."

Shaide smiled behind her faceplate, "Good. I'll deal with the Jackals in the middle of that enemy formation. Flaredrake, can you handle the Brutes in back? If we take out their backup, the Grunts should break ranks and run. They panic easy, but don't expect them to. The Brutes always have a trick up their sleeves. I can throw right out to the back, but I don't want to get this explosive too far and miss altogether, so I'm taking the middle."

Ashke sat up, "I'll take out the Grunts in front, then. Any more of those things?"

Shaide handed him the one in her hand, "I have three more, but one of them at least has to go back to the spooks in ONI."

Finally noticing Flaredrake, Ash frowned, "Who's that?"

[Rhydian]

"Draconus Admiral Benjamin Flaredrake." He growled, "Human, Dragonmaster shapeshifter. I'm in my Dragonmaster form, before you jump to any conclusions."

Turning his attention back to the plan at hand, he braced his Chain Blaster rifle on a rock, still sending out a continuous stream of laser pulses, and, with a flick of the wrist, made a device similar to a demolition explosive appear there.

He armed it, but didn't activate the timer...

With a well-aimed throw, he placed it right at the Brute Chieftain's feet.

The Brute stooped and picked it up, curious.

The Dragonmaster activated the timer, five seconds.

On all three of their HUDs a five second countdown started.

[Shaide]

Shaide's was a three second countdown. Her throw was perfectly timed, and a Jackal picked up the explosive. Just as it recognised the device, Ashke threw his and all three explosives detonated.

"Alright, now to mop up any survivors," Shaide then turned her attention to Ash, "You stay in here. Any questions?"

Ash saluted, "No, ma'am!"

"What did I tell you," Shaide laughed, "About calling me ma'am?"

"Not to do it? Sorry, Chief."

"Will you shut up and work on establishing contact with the Captain? Jun's busy working out a strategy to get the Brutes off this planet, so it's up to you."

Ash nodded, but said nothing. Shaide knew this to be because of the order she had just given him, but to anyone else the reason for this sudden silence would be totally unknown because she had sent it over an encrypted - and closed - COM channel.

A number of surviving Grunts broke ranks and ran, just as Shaide had expected, but many more just kept on advancing.

"They've got a trick up their collective sleeve, and I don't want to wait around and find out. Ash, grab that Brute plasma rifle and throw it over here. I'm ditching my pistol for it for the time being."

"Chief?"

"Best to use their tech against them than ours."

"Yes, Chief."

Shaide caught the weapon with two fingers, displaying an uncanny knack for catching almost anything. Ashke's throw had been one of the worst she had ever seen. Ever. But she still caught it.

"You could have thrown it at me rather than at that rock," Shaide pointed off to her left and laughed at Ash's shift in position, "I'm not going to eat you out over it, silly!

Ash forced himself to laugh along with his CO, "I know that. I was testing you."

"Uh, yeah. Shut up and get to work."

"Yes, Chief."

"I said shut up."

Ash nodded, signalling that he was sorry. Shaide laughed at him again and he gave up.

----------------

Shaide and Ash are pretty good friends, but they do still have their odd disagreements like the next Spartan.

[Rhydian]

The Dragonmaster unclipped somethign from his belt and tossed it onto the ground behind him.

Immediately, somethign started to form in the air above it.

"Proto-Crafter pod. Don't touch what it's building, it's not solid just yet, you might end up with your hand as part of the Flyboy I'm building."

With another crackle, he "dumped" his Chain Blaster Rifle, and creasted something larger, more threatening in appearance.

With a clank and a thud, he deployed what looked like a pulse laser version of a heavy machine gun, but it had three handles, plus somethign to hold onto on the top.

Jamming his fingers down onto the firing studs, the Draconus sent a stream of larger, more deadly-looking red laser bolts zooming downrange. The Chain Blaster Rifle had been a brrrr sound... the Heavy Chain Blaster's roar was quite distinctive, and loud.

A glance behind him cofirm what he'd suspected from the fact that the crackling sound had stopped.

The Heavy Chain Blaster stopped roaring and vanished, as Ben dashed to the gunner's turret, retrieving the Proto-Crafter pod as he did so.

"Get into the driver's seat, up the front under the canopy. Driving this is just like driving a car, or a Warthog. You've got your brakes on the left, accelerator on the right, and a steering wheel. Be careful though, it's sensitive. And don't worry about rolling unless we get hit." To forstall any questions about the turret, he growled, "The gun's a standard Medium Chain Blaster. Only thing different, is that it doesn't have a charging lever. And what it fires."

[Shaide]

OOC. Wow. We forgot about the calendar leaving mission time. I suppose this mission time didn't work the way I wanted it to... Oh well.

Everyone's missions are successful. I'm going to make these mission forums read-only archives.