Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Thanks." Lipton said with a wry chuckle. He took Antares' hand and eased into the building. It was dark, but not pitch-black. The building opened up more toward the higher floors. Then it hit him, they were in the Ivory Tower. The former home and headquarters of the media mogul, Lance O'Donnell. It wasn't major, but at least it explained the building's connection to the subway tunnels.

[elsewhere]

Taylor peeked out from under the overpass that ran in front of the old Voi theater, the Phantom that had tailed them was gone. Spartans 103 and 104 moved out at a brisk pace. The waypoint indicating the location of the other two Spartans had suddenly and quickly moved, which led to the obvious conclusion that they were in some sort of vehicle.

Gunfire erupted from an alleyway as a group of Marines and mixed Covenant poured out into the street. The two Spartans suddenly found themselves engaged in combat. Nothing hard for two of their caliber, but a welcome break from the monotony of running. Suddenly, and without warning the air sizzled and popped. The fighting stopped as all of the combatants looked up. The Covenant Assault Carrier was moving. The UNSC frigate In Amber Clad increased speed to match the much larger ship's velocity. Something appeared off the bow of the Covenant vessel. It looked like a slipspace rupture. Suddenly the world went white. When the sound of the explosion and the light from the sudden tear in space/time subsided there seemed to be nothing but dust and echoes left. Where there once had been a Space Elevator and much of New Mombasa there was now a smoking crater. Then came the after effect. The Space Elevator, no longer anchored to the ground, fell with tremendous force, crushing anything below it. Bits and pieces littered the continent and planet. Then, as suddenly as it stopped the fighting began again. The two Spartans were able to slip away from the small entanglement and continue on to their objective.

As Mendez and his team exited the tunnel, they were just in time to see the slipspace rupture off the Covenant carrier's bow. "BACK IN THE TUNNEL!! FIND ANY CRAWLSPACE AND GET THERE!!!!" A blinding explosion rocked the tunnel, shaking half of the concrete from it's supports, crushing the covenant troops in the open. As suddenly as the actual explosion came, the shockwave ripped through everything in the area, throwing ten ton blocks of metal and concrete through the air. Mendez was slammed backwards into a wall and knocked unconcious. "LIEUTENANT!!!" One of the marines knelt beside him and checked his vitals. "HE'S OK!!" Struggling to get his mind to think straight, Mendez shook his head. He stuttered out a single word. "Damn...." After a few minutes of painful thinking, he stood up and addressed his remaining soldiers. "All right, we've got less of the covenant battle group on our a** now, let's scavenge what we can and pick up survivors."

(Blech, I ran out of ideas for running and fighting.)

Something made the world shake. Lipton didn't know what it was and plainly didn't care to. The light filtering down from the glass roof suddenly became unbearably bright and the building shook violently on its supports. He braced himself on a pillar for support and made his way quickly to the entrance to the subway system. This building was about to come down and he wasn't going to be inside when it did.
"Antares, move it! This building isn't gonna hold up much longer!"
He used the butt of his rifle to break the padlock on the door to the lower levels and kicked the door open. He turned on the flashlight attached to the rifle and hurried downstairs. It was a race against time now. He could hear glass breaking above them, which wasn't a good thing. All around him things were going to hell, pipes exploded and power lines split. Dust fell from the ceiling as the world seemed to shake apart.

((All hail me, for I have returned. PS: DAMN YOU ALL! You guys got far. >.> I was too busy getting a tan...))

UNSC Territory : New Mombasa
1400 Hours/1.3 Miles from Drop Zone Beta-Alpha-Gamma-November
Date log: September 23rd, 2552
________________________________________________________

Private Evan Richards peered over his shoulder while keeping his back on the pile of wreckage that seperated him from the slime-like plasma bolts that were pinning his team down.
Earlier, back at the main dropzone, a SOS was recovered from a UNSC Pelican that had caught Covenant A-A Fire, and crash landed somewhere outside their area. Thats when Richards was hand selected for a Recon team to find the deleric and save the crew.

Another bonesplitting jolt came from directally behind the wreckage. His back slamed hard onto a pipe, but he ignored it.
Bringing his rifle to position, he shifted his boots underhim so he could slowly raise himself to get a better view of the battle, but another Fuel Rod Blast knocked him on his a**.

Evan, who became dizzy after the previous blast, heard a slight ringing in his ears. A second later, he could make out Sergeant Colbern voice as he called in their position to the base a mile behind their position.
"Dropzone, this is Recon team Lima-One-One, we are taking heavy resistance from Covenant Forc-" Another round struck the building above them, causing debris to fall, but not enough for injury. Colbern's voice continued to flourish in Evan's ears, his voice was drenched in fear.
"REPEAT! This is Recon team Lima-One-One, we are under heavy suppressive fire. We can not move on."
Plasma fire rained just above Richards' head, pelting Colbern. He fell limp like a worm, motionless. His frantic voice silenced.
Evan repositioned himself against the wreckage belly down in a prone position, his rifle at ready.
Infront of him, Corpral Ed Jones was leaning against a pillar attempting to take cover from the angry swarm of suppressing fire that was bearing down on them
Richards caught one last look at him, kneeling behind that pillar, before a howl of energy and a brilliant flash of green light blinded him, the afterimage of the Corperal was lightly etched into his eyes as he closed his eyes from impulse.
He shrank back down, no part was visable to the enemy. The same ringing filled his ears, and now his head. His eyes opened, and the sunlight seemed to burn as he blinked repeatedly. Dots swarmed his vision, but shen it cleared, he positioned himself so he could see the Corpral... or what was left of him.
A large black smoldering crater was all that was left. he had been disinegrated by the blast, nothing, not even a finger was left behind.

Evan's mind seemed to go white from fear. Every instinct, every training lesson, everything... nulled. Fear seemed to command control over his vocal chords and limbs, as he screamed at the top of his lungs, "FALL BACK DAMNIT!" And began to run in a high speed run, away from the battle. Rank didn't matter to him at this point.
Sensation then took over his back. A burning, stining sensation. It hurt alot, but the Private was numb to the pain from the fear of dying. His knee's gave way, and time seemed to slow as his body began desending towards the pavement. he could see a streak of plasma rush past him, as the horizon began slowly moving up. The Private finally helt his face hit the ground, and then all went black....

He was dead.

UNSC Territory : New Mombasa
1409 Hours/Unknown location/Pelican Crashsite
Date log: September 23rd, 2552
___________________________________________________

The 6 marines who survived the crash gathered within the wreckage. All kneeling, weapons at ready. The stench of fear filled the cabin, as they all sit in wait of what was to betroth apon them, within the coming minutes... They sat, they waited, silence seemed to cling to them like a scared child...

...The command counsil in the main cockpit began to flash.

( We didn't go that far I don't think. )

[ En route to NAV markers. ]
Spartan-108 felt compelled to go to the site of the s[ace elevator crash, but knew it wasn't smart, and listened to Kelly's words.
Logan felt irritated when Kelly began to give her orders, seeing how he was higher ranked then her, but let it slide. He hadn't activated his FoF tag the entire time he was here, and he doubted that the UNSC would of went to the trouble of updating his ranking status. "Understood. Spartan-087, only to inform you, I was taken from duty, then my rank had been increased quite considerably. Captain of the UNSC Leviathan." he said over a private COM to Kelly. Then, immediately after speaking to his 'sister', he keyed into a COM with one more person before contacting Spartan-256.
"Desperado, come in."
"Captain, where in the hell are you at?"
"Sorry Desperado, I shouldn't say. Just try to get Segafe to me. You still have the data pad I hope."
Moments of silence, then a small reply. "Sir, yes sir. Segafe just relayed your NAVpoints to us. On our way."
"Desperado, have Segafe relay those to Spartan-256. Spartan-108, out."
After a few moments of checking, he finally got a COM to Spartan-256, though perhaps not encrypted, he spoke anyways, as the message was short.
"Spartan-256, go to the NAV markers that will show on your HUD soon. Spartan-108, going to radio silence."
Logan continued to finger the trigger, waiting for any opposition.

[ Trailing the Spectre. Lost sight of it, heading to NAVmarkers now. ]

"Sergeant, hold your position, get to cover, we'll contact you in a moment."
Baal said to the man, before patting him on the shoulder, and moved like shadows with the rest of Team Nobody, after they disappeared, not too far from the Sergeant. The lone group of ODST's holed themselves into a building that had Covenant snipers on the top.
Morgan was thinking on what to do, when he got a message.
"Desperado, come in."
"Captain, where in the hell are you at?"
"Sorry Desperado, I shouldn't say. Just try to get Segafe to me. You still have the data pad I hope."
Morgan bolted upright, looking around as he heard a barrage of gunfire, then Diablo sliding down a rappel line through a crushed hole in the ceiling, and shell casing falling in behind him. A reward of blood spraying through the air, then the crimson liquid slowly ran into the building, onto the spot where Danny had just landed. Half a second later, the dead bodies of Covenant fell through the small hole. And the barrel of Mephisto's rifle hovering about. Morgan seemed did not seem phased, and turned back to the window, watching the street below where the Spectre had been not to long ago. "Sir, yes sir. Segafe just relayed your NAVpoints to us. On our way."
"Desperado, have Segafe relay those to Spartan-256. Spartan-108, out."
After his conversation, Team Nobody got out of their formation, and went to the streets of New Mombasa, traversing the landscape best they could. Sergeant Glenn Graves wouldn't be far from them.
"Sergeant, we're footing it again, c'mon." Baal called over the SquadCOM to Glenn. Jacoby had taken it upon himself to talk to the Sergeant for the rest of the team.

"What now, Second Lt.?" Jason asked as he looked at the far side of the alley. He was hoping that the Covenant wouldn't trap them, but then again they were easily taken care of. It was just the sheer numbers that worried him.