Jeff dropped to one knee, the empty clip from his battle rifle falling to the floor with a clatter. He shoved in another one, reloading the rifle. Looking down the sights he aimed at some kig-yar trying to shoot their pointy heads over their shields. All he had to do was distract the enemy while the Spartans went through with their plan. He would have tossed a grenade in behind the small aliens, getting past the shield problem, but one of the Hunters was too close.

Moving closer Jeff slung his battle rifle on his back and took out his Assault Rifle, spraying bursts at the enemy. It wasn't too accurate but it accomplished what he wanted.

yusnak was moving from cover to cover trying to get a good possition on his target, the assault leader, or at least the one who looked like they were giveing the commands. after hearing logan oder a charge he though this would be the perfect time to take him out, if he timed it right the enemy would be in enough confusion so that the attack scatter them, or atleast disstracted them long enough to get a sisable chunk killed.

find a spot on the ceiling beind and outcrop and sticking to it with his claws yusnak takes aim and waits concentrates on his breathing, and as his crosshair falls naturaly on the target he takes the shot, clean though the leaders eye and ducks back into cover as a volly of plasma fire hits the wall behind him.

Austin waved his hand forward as the dead Jiralhanae leader hit the ground.

"Charge!"

He replaced the battle rifle with his weapon of choice, a shotgun, magnetized to the back of his armor. He and Rolm sprinted forward, Marius and Brutus behind them.

Rolm crashed into them, roaring a Sangheilian battlecry, and smashed a pair of Kig-Yar into the floor, before tackling a Jiralhanae and savagely clubbing it with his plasma rifle.

Austin crushed one Kig-Yar with his boot, before killing another one with a blast from his shotgun. Two Jiralhanae roared and countercharged him, but received shotgun blasts to the face for their troubles.

Marius and Brutus growled, as they flung helpless Kig-Yar aside, and engaged in brutal fistfights and wrestling matches with their loyalist counterparts.

The remaining loyalists who had not been killed in the charge were disoriented or occupied, easy pickings for a sniper.

Rolm cont to beat the brute on the floor with his rifle. Slaming down more and more until the blood stop flying out every time he hit him. He growl, cover in blood from the savage beating he stood up. Tossing the rifle aside seeing it was broken from being use as a club. "A savage can not beat a true warrior...." He said as he kicks the dead brute and grips his carbine. By the time he was finish with the brute, everyone would have been killed, but he still kept his weapon out ready for more to come.

Marius and Brutus began an unfair 2-1 fight vs a former comrade, he was shouting horrible insults, calling them traitors, human lover, going so far to insult their mothers. Marius took notice to the insult toward his mother and threw a punch, the brute recoiled and before he could recover Brutus smashed the but of a gun into his face, the helmet flew off and the Brute went into a rampage, he charged and Marius and knocked him over. Marius was helpless to the rampaging brute because the only thing that can overpower a brute is one on a rampage, blood flew from Marius's face as he struggled to escape the grip of the Brute.

yusnak seeing the devestation caused by the charge and began picking off straglers with his carbine when he saw marius being overpowered by the enemy jiralhanae

tried to fire a shot into his head but a quiet click told him the clip was empty.

damn! not enough time to reload... better make this quick

yusnak flew over landed on the brutes back and spat acid on to the back of his skull, flew up before the brute could hit him in his raging spasms and then using flying down fast his slamd his claw into the brutes exposed skull , weakend from the acid straight into his brain.

"come brother" yusnak said as he wiped of the innards of the brutes skull onto his corpes "there is more work to be done."

Alright, Logan thought, time to live up to the Covenant's nickname for me.

Indeed, he did just that. The Colossus ran full sprint, easily a meter ahead of all the rest, his long legs carrying him faster than some slower vehicles could move. He didn't pause when he kicked a kig-yar's shield with enough force to throw it against a wall, destroying it's entire body, didn't stop when he simply stepped on an unggoy, which all but disappeared beneath his boot. The whole way, he opened fire with the brute shot on a group of jiralhanae, who were in disarray because of the assault rifle fire. He did not slow down at all until he reached the group, leading off with a horizontal slash with the large bayonet attachment on the brute shot, cleaving a low-ranking brute's head in half. In the heat of battle, he had failed to realize the brute shot was now empty, having squeezed it's trigger to no effect, he tossed it aside. Then, the real fun began.

A lunge kick crushed one brute's internal organs beneath it's rib cage and sent it falling heavily back into two of it's comrades, one of which righted itself only to find a frighteningly large, gauntleted fist sailing at it's head. The punch was not full strength, or else the beast's life would have ended at that moment. Instead, it reeled, semi-conscious, until Logan snatched it's falling plasma rifle out of mid-air and fired four bolts into it's chest. It's torso slightly hollowed out and smoldering, the beast fell, definitely dead now. A low, swift spinning kick shattered the third brute's kneecap and shin. It fell forward onto that knee, roaring in pain and rage. It looked up with hatred in it's eyes at it's assailant. Logan lifted his foot and let his body weight fall forward, his boot catching the brute in the face, driving it's head down to the floor, where Logan's full body weight crushed it instantly.

Logan looked around. The one thing he saw that remained of the firefight was Rolm mercilessly beating another jiralhanae's head flat. Not saying a word, Logan walked the remaining twenty meters to the group of towering plasma tanks.

Four large pipes ran from these tanks, and smaller pipes fed by the four mainlines forked off in every direction. These fed hundreds of refueling stations that would service every one of the millions of ships and vehicles resting here until the order to join Truth on the way to Earth, in search of the Ark. That is, before the arrival of this new alliance.

Logan set the Shiva directly in the middle of the formation of tanks. The Shiva was about the shape of a fat football, but almost three times as big. A pad on top held a readout and a small keypad. Logan hit a few keys to arm the bomb. A small red indicator light started flashing, indicating armed status.

"Get ready to go, everyone. Six minute countdown starts in five..."

As Logan counted down, he hit a few more keys. When he reached zero, the readout started the countdown, '6:00,' '5:59,'...

"Alright, let's move, Now! Nearest hangar bay is one point five clicks away!"

That said, Logan ran.

Rolm took off running after hearing the commander order. he only carry with him his carbine as seeing his plasma sniper wouldn't work for this situation. He kept his carbine ready and aim as he ran for the hanger. A few grunts were running down the hall and he took aim and fire, getting a head shot of one grunts, and shooting the tank of the second, causing a small explosion that kill the third and final grunt. As he start to get on board, a brute leading a few jackals open fire, Rolm got hit in the side as he growl and threw a plasma grenade while who ever was on the ship return fire. The grenade landed on a jackal face, which made him blind and run into the brute, blowing both up and clearing a path for anyone else who fell behind, or got lost while running to the hanger.

Kopaka wrenched his shield from the wall and the Brute fell unceremoniously to the floor. He turned and ran after the Spartan, Logara right next to him. Despite the shots taken, Logara moved as well as before, but several worms dropped dead on the ground as he moved.

Their long strides kept them almost at pace with the leaders. They each sprayed cannon fire along each side of them, now that there was some room to spare. Several blue gouts of flame appeared when a Grunt burned, as well as the showers of sparks that came with a Jackal shield overloading.

Jak turned and ran as hard as he could. He wasn't able to match Rolms and the Colossus's speed but able to keep them in site. He noticed a couple of unggoy off to the side aiming their plasma pistols at the group. Jak grinned a them with malice in his eyes and the little creatures nearly fell over them selves trying to get away. Jak chuckled at their fear, they still remember who what happened to them when they angered one of his kind. Usually several of the unggoy ended up on the Kig-yars dinner plates.

Austin sprinted off towards the hanger, passing Jak and getting to a rate close to that of Rolm and Logan.

Been too long since I ran like this, Kelly would be disappointed.

He sped up, racing towards the hanger with his allies.

Jeff ran, trying to at least remain close the others. He couldn't match the speed of the Spartans, or most of the Aliens. It wasn't because he was out of shape or anything, he was actually quite fit for a human of his age, it was that the others had a built in advantage over him. He pushed himself to the limit, his lungs burning but he couldn't afford to stop.

Jeff had put away both of his weapons, knowing they would only hinder his running. The only thing the ODST focused on was the group ahead of him and running like he had never run before. He didn't look behind him, and only glanced to the sides to make sure he wouldn't run into anything coming down a side hallway. There was a bomb behind him, and a mental countdown timer ticked away in his head. It was a rush but Jeff would be happy once it was over. He just had to keep running.

yusnak run jumped into flight, rushing straight for the ship, with his natural flight and his more direct path, he easily caught up to logan, gaining a the lead for a moment he doged in coming fire from some grunts droped a plasma grenade as he flew over and was gone before they knew what happend.

mission complete, all thats left now is to survive

Logan reached the dropship first, followed a footstep later by Austin, Rolm, and Yusnak.

"Rolm, get this thing ready for liftoff. Austin, help me cover the others."

Kopaka and Logara arrived a moment later, and took the liberty of turning around and forming a phalanx with their shields in front of Logan and Austin. The started firing around their shields.

"No! Some of those brutes have spikers, don't take the risk of exposing your weak spots."

The two obediently hunkered down behind their overlapping shields, a very effective barrier against enemy fire. But the others definitely needed help. The whole ship yard was onto them now. The general confusion meant that hostile response was slow, but all the same, the fleeing Allies were now being surrounded by Covenant forces, shooting at their backs. The two spartans lobbed frag grenades. Their training, which had been pounded into their bones over the course of years, caused them to think of the same great tactics at the same time. The two grenades bounced past Jeff's running feet and detonated with perfect timing, killing a few kig-yar and unggoy and one jiralhanae, and kicking up a cloud of smoke and debris. Logan drilled targets with his battle rifle while Austin strafed the closing hostiles with suppressing fire from his assault rifle. Despite all this, Covenant forces were closing on all sides in the open hangar. Then, from the corner of his left eye, Logan saw a blue streak curve from behind him into a group of brutes where an bright blue explosion went off a moment later. This was followed immediately by plasma rifle fire, which worked in perfect unison with Austin's assault rifle fire.

"Demon! I have come to your aid. The ship is ready for take off and the drone is manning the controls."

Logan kept firing until everyone was onboard. He stepped into the grav lift, activated right after Rolm had gotten it running and in the air.

"Alright, that's everyone! Get this thing into orbit!"

The phantom's engines vibrated and the dropship took off as Logan's HUD read '0:55'. Logan watched the shipyard shrink in the distance as the timer counted down. Austin's voice rang out as Logan's HUD read '0:04'.

"Logan, we're clear. We've reached optimal altitude."

Just as Austin finished his sentence, Logan's HUD reached '0:00' and a relatively small mushroom cloud appeared in the middle of the shipyard, still just close enough to make out clearly. The visible shockwave tore through the facility and the ships docked there. About two seconds after the initial detonation, the ruptured plasma tanks unleashed their fury and a dome of plasma expanded rapidly throughout the facility. Bright blue and violently turbulent, the gas-liquid consumed all. Logan thought it looked exactly like a regular plasma grenade and was forced to remind himself of the scale of this. The destruction was incredible, the death toll was catastrophic. As the shipyard, now a glowing blue crater, faded from view around the edge of the planet, Logan smiled. Today had seen a great victory for humanity.

When the battle ship that had brought them here had picked them up, Logan dismissed the others to mess, they must be very hungry. He went to his quarters and shed his Mark VI armor, changing into Navy dress fatigues. When he was done, he joined the others.

yusnak having reterived his meal looked for somewhere too sit, though he would normaly eat anlone or those of his own kind because the way yanme'e injest can be found discusting to most other species of the former covenant. However he thought it would be prudent to eat with a human, no one really trusts one another so proving they could get a long might help.
Though not as high ranking as an elite hopefully the message would get across.

he saw austin eating alone and went over to join him.

"today was a good victory demon" the voice of his translator unit calm and emotionless as ever. "let us eat in celebration" he said sitting down

Rolm wonder in the cafe. He waits in line to get his food and eat. He felt good about today victory. The battle had left him hungry, both in his stomach and for more battles as that. He might not fully enjoy this team, but he respect most of them at least for being true warriors. He move up in the line, being behind one of the primitive apes, not sure which one but didn't care. As long as the ape got his food and left him alone.

Having been given a 'spartan tray', a particularly large tray meant specifically for the task of feeding the largest - and hungriest - warriors in human history, laden with chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes both covered in gravy and peas, Logan sat at the table with his squadmates. He sat, naturally, to Austin's left.

Logan and Austin were only slightly less impressive without their power armor on. They were still tall, still muscular, still clearly superior to most in combat. The absence of their helmets revealed them to look shockingly young. In reality, they were in their late thirties by now. They looked so young because they had graduated the SPARTAN program at the age of twelve, and had spent a great deal of their lives in cryosleep since then. They, like all their fellow Spartans, were in their late thirties and had aged physically to about twenty. Thoroughly happy after such a successful mission, Logan struck up conversation with his friend and comrade of about thirty years.

"Man, I tell ya. Kelly would have been waiting for us for like a minute if she were there. "

Austin nodded at Yusnak, before turning to Logan.

"Yeah-"

He thought of something.

"I wonder where she is? Last time I checked the database she was MIA, both officially and unofficially."

Logan's face fell.

"I think.... I think she was on Reach... with the others..."

It was then that Logan thought once again, as he always inevitably did eventually, about Kristal. He knew for a fact that she was on Reach when it had gotten glassed. And they had been in love...

Austin looked down at his food.

"Well, John got away. The rest of blue team could have too."

"Yeah. Yeah, maybe. Kristal, though... she was on the surface when th-"

He couldn't say 'when they glassed it.' He looked sideways at Rolm while he wasn't looking, a touch of hatred in his eyes. By all counts, it was downright likely that he had been in that very same fleet. The one responsible for her death.

Rolm got the elite tray, sniffing the food as he growl. He walk to a table and sat down by himself. He didn't wear his armor, but had on a dark reddish robe on. He felt as if someone was giving him a glare, but dismiss it as one of the primitive apes looking at him. He wish he wasn't the only elite on this team, it left him out number from the monkeys to the humans..he didn't like it but had no choice in the matter. It was his job to get the missions down, and destroy the prophets and the covenant, not fight with his so call allies. He started eating the meal while keeping to himself.

Jeff grabbed a tray of food and moved to a table near the others. He was still wearing his black suit, minus the helmet of course, and he was still feeling the effects of the run. His shoulder burned where a stray plasma shot had hit him, it was bandaged over top of his armour. It had only glanced him, and was easy to shrug off.

Still slightly shaking from the adrenaline he began to eat the food on his tray. He wasn't really paying attention to the food because he wasn't really hungry. He was eating because he knew he had to, there was no taste to the food as he shovelled it into his mouth.

Jeff was ignorant to his surroundings and he was almost half done his food before he noticed that he was sitting across the table from the Elite. He paused his fork halfway to his mouth. The Elite was glaring across the table at him, staring him down and clearly unhappy that Jeff was sitting across from him. Jeff opened his mouth, half tempted to try and start conversation, but thought against and made a move to get up from the table.

Rolm nodded as the human left. Smart move he thought. He didn't care if no one like him on the team. He was a elite, the best of the best. The only better warrior that only he could thought of were the demons...and they are nearly dead due to his race. He smiles a bit, saving the feeling in it. Even though he hated the demons, he respected them. They fight like his race but were on the losing side, and still be able to beat the odds some how. But it did not matter, they were nearly dead, and his race was still strong. He finish his meal and took his tray up. After that he stared to leave, passing the demons table on his way out.

Austin noticed Rolm was about to pass the table, and combined with the look in Logans eyes, he should probably do something.

"But enough about that, do you know what our next mission will be?"

He impaled a large chunk of steak, with a helping of gravy on it, on his fork and stuffed it in his mouth.

Logan stared ahead, tears building in his empty eyes. He whispered something almost incomprehensible.

"I love you..." He cleared his throat then and spoke up. "No. We're currently on standby, on the way to Earth, since it's our only planet left Command doesn't want us so far away. But they don't have a mission for us yet."

Austin swallowed the food in his mouth, before sipping some water.

"So, what did you think about our team performance?"

"For the most part, the team did pretty good. But, there's one guy who's performance was kinda lacking."

As Logan finished his sentance, he eyed Austin pointedly. Then, a smile broke out on his face. He was joking around again, the moment of pain was past.

Austin grinned.

"I was busy protecting the guy with the nuke, I know he can't take care of him self."

He then remembered something.

"We're heading to Earth, you said? You think we'll get to fight with John?"

"i dont mean to interupt but, i've head his name a few times now, but who is this john you speak off? you seem to admire him greatly."

Austin looked at Yusnak, and then noticed the buglike aliens method of eating.

"Uh..."

He blinked, before remembering the question.

"John?"

Austin grinned, and looked at Logan.

"Should I tell him, or do you want to?"

Rolm exit the cafe, heading towards his room to be alone. He wonder what their mission will be and when. Eager to get more vengence on the prophets and their pet soldiers who follow blindly. He sigh, they were like that once, but no more. They were free from the prophets rule. He enter his room and close it. Kneeling in the center and started to meditate to relax and calm his nerves. He was to eager for more fighting and blood of their enemies.

Logan swallowed a bite of steak.

"John is the Master Chief. You call all of us 'demon' but he is 'The Demon,' the reason for the Covenant calling us that. You heard Rolm say earlier that the destruction of the first ring was the largest loss in Covenant history. John was the one who destroyed it, the leader Rolm spoke of."

"then im glad such a fighter will be on our side" yusnak made the yanme'e equivielnt of a smile and took another gulp of his meal