Fireteam Glory

[RedThree]

Fireteam Glory Part 136
Booth woke up to a commotion. She had fallen asleep last night as she had been watching the entrance to the large Covenant encampment. Clearing the fog from her mind, she remembered that she had seen several Shadow transports leave the night before. They had disappeared into the jungle before she could see who and what was onboard. She had fallen asleep shortly after that, so she had missed any other potential convoys or patrols leaving. There was shouting from behind her, which drew her attention. It was a little distant, but it sounded like a fight had broken out. She turned around and saw several Covenant Brutes struggling with human prisoners in one of the other pens. Cass walked up to her left, and Santos was on her right.
“What’s going on, gunnery sergeant?” Booth asked Cass, who was staring intently at the brawl occurring in front of them.
Cass gestured at the Brutes. “They came over just a few minutes ago and began inspecting the prisoners before trying to grab one. The rest of the people in there jumped them when they tried to do that and, by the looks of it, the Brutes are winning.
Booth looked back to the fight, seeing now that several people now lay on the ground curled up in pain or restrained by Brutes. She could see that a couple of them were wearing military fatigues. One person seemed to be putting up a real fight, having been grabbed by two Brutes. She watched as the mysterious person was dragged out of the pen kicking and screaming, then was taken to the edge of the encampment. There was a large gathering of Brutes nearby, which she saw was led by the massive War Chieftain. When the Brutes had arrived at the entrance, they let the prisoner go as they began to bark and howl. They fired their weapons at the ground near the person’s feet and sent them sprinting into the jungle. The War Chieftain’s pack of Brutes began to snarl as they stomped their feet and fired their weapons into the air, but they stayed in formation behind their leader. After ten loud minutes of Brute howls had passed, the War Chieftain barked a single gruff order and led the pack forward in a ravenous tide of bloodlust and rage. They ran into the jungle screaming and whooping, spreading out as they vanished into the trees.
Booth looked at Cass and Santos, who shared her look of shock and anger. “They’re holding us as prey for hunting games.” Booth said as she looked back to the jungle. “We’re going to be used as game for a hunt.” She knew that the Brutes were cruel and primitive in their actions, but this was new to her.
Cass recomposed herself with a more stern face. “It would seem like it. That means we have limited time to figure out a plan to get out of here, and get everyone else out at the same time.”
“Do you think they’re going to take more than one a day?” Santos was still staring at the jungle when he asked the question.
Booth could see a hint of true fear in his eyes, which meant he was terrified of the thought. “We’ll just have to wait and see, as much as I hate to say that.”
A faint and eerie howl echoed across the jungle, sending shivers down their spines.
Looking for an excuse to ignore the distressing new development, Booth looked over to where Teresa had gone to sleep the night before. She was still there, tucked into her knees and laying in the mud. Walking over and sitting down next to the sleeping medic, Booth lightly reached across and shook Teresa by the shoulder.
“Hey, wake up.” She whispered gently as Teresa began to stir a little. “Get up, come on.”
Teresa mumbled a little and sat up, stretching her arms high into the arm with a small sigh. “Good morning, Elizabeth.” Teresa said meekly as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “Where are we?”
Booth quickly ran all the possible ways to answer that question through her head, but a good answer didn’t come to mind. “Well, we’re certainly not where we want to be. That’s for sure.”
Teresa’s eyes sharpened a little and she looked at Booth with a small amount of confusion. “What do you mean? Wait… I remember, I think.” Teresa’s face shifted to sadness and pain. “Ivanoff… Lawrence… the Brutes.” Her voice became a little weaker and raspy as she swallowed a lump in her throat.
Booth looked down and away. “Yeah, I know. But we can’t worry about that right now. We’re trying to come up with a plan to get out of here, and we’re going to need you to be ready to go.”
Teresa looked at her with a mixture of panic, anger, and remorse. “How can I not think about Lawrence and Ivanoff? We lost two of our friends just last night and you want me to not think about it?” Her tone had gained a bitter edge as her anger grew. “We’re trapped in a Brute slaughterhouse and I’m supposed to just roll with whatever death wish of a plan you come up with!?”
“Teresa, just wait a-” Booth tried to respond.
“No!” Teresa snapped. “There’s no point! We have no weapons, no food, no supplies, and we’re deep in hostile territory! Even if we made it past these energy barriers, we’d be cut down by those towers before we could even grab weapons!”
Booth tried to think of a response, but suddenly shouting began behind her. She turned around and saw that Kip had walked over to the rest of the group and was in a shouting match with Santos. Moving to see what the ruckus was about, she didn’t stay to watch Teresa sit back down and glare at her before breaking down into sobs once again.
“What’s going on here!?” Booth yelled at the two bickering men.
“Oh my piloting skills were the problem, were they!?” Kip shouted at Santos, face twisted in rage. “Because you sure were helpful strapped in the backseat doing jack all!”
“I never said that, you airhead!” Santos screamed back in reply. “You came over here in a bad mood and I jokingly asked if you had hit your head on the way down!”
“I did hit my head on the way down, along with injuring my arm! So thanks for asking!” Kip’s face was red with anger. “And by the way, your medic did nothing to remedy that! She just sat there crying while my arm felt like it was on fire!”
“She just lost two of her squadmates! Lay off of the doctor!” Santos angrily hissed.
“What do you think I’m going through!?” Kip roared. “I lost one of my closest friends yesterday! How do you think that’s affecting me!”
“Oh, I have no clue how it could be affecting you.” Santos said sarcastically. “Please, enlighten me!”
Booth tried to step in before things got two out of hand. “Will you two knuckleheads shut up?” She glared at both of them. “We’re all going through a lot right now, but this is not the way to handle it!”
Kip redirected his anger at her. “Of course you would say that! You sniper types are all the same, so disconnected from anything resembling an emotion!”
Booth knew not to take the insult personally, but her mouth moved faster than her brain and she retaliated before she could stop herself. “At least I do hard work, flyboy!” Immediately realizing what she had done, she tried to correct the mistake. “Wait, I didn’t mean-”
But the damage had already been done. Kip was furious and took a swing at Booth, which she quickly leaped away from. She dodged a few more hits while trying to reason with the man. Before she could go for a move to put a stop to Kip’s attacks, Santos stepped in. He charged Kip from the side and tackled him, sending them both crashing into the mud. Santos ended up on top and immediately moved on his advantage, landing several blows on Kip’s face. Kip quickly kicked Santos off and stood up, getting ready for the next attack. Booth looked at Cass, who was already sneaking up on Santos from behind. By now, the fight had drawn the attention of several Brute guards, who were now shouting and cheering the fight on in their alien tongue. Booth moved into position, watching for Cass’s signal. When Cas gave the signal, they leaped onto their targets at the same time, placing them into a headlock in Booth’s case and grabbed one under the arms in Cass’s case. Santos responded to Cass’s sudden ambush by trying to smash the back of his head into her face. Cass saw the attack coming and quickly spun Santos around so he was facing her, knocking him to the floor with a single punch to the face. Booth knocked Kip out by doing the same, but not before he got into a position to elbow her in the gut. When she let go of the unconscious man, she doubled over in pain for a minute.
The Brutes were still snarling and whooping, but many had stopped when the fight seemingly ended. Booth looked up and stared at all of the massive aliens looking back at her. She hated them, she couldn’t wait to get out of this cage and kill them for taking pleasure in the prisoners’ suffering. One Brute standing behind the wall she was next to growled at her, revealing its massive yellowed tusks. She stared harshly, not intimidated by the display, until the Brute got bored and left. When the Brute had left her sight, she turned her vision to Cass, who was checking to make sure they hadn’t done any serious damage to Kip or Santos. The pain in her midsection was fading now, so she stood up and walked over to Cass. All the while, she thought about how they were honestly going to be able to escape, if they would all kill each other or be used for the hunting games before they could even try to escape. No matter how she looked at it, she didn’t see a lot of good in the situation.

Lawrence looked at the trees surrounding him. They were a lush green color, far different from the duller greens of the evergreens in the Northwest where he lived.
He stopped for a moment. Just the thought of home sent his mind racing like mad, drowning in so many different thoughts that it was hard to even tell what he was trying to think about. He wondered if Seattle had been attacked by the Covenant yet, if his parents had followed his instruction and retreated to the old vacation home when the news of a Covenant attack broke. He knew his father was a serious believer in the strength of the UNSC military, so he knew there was a chance that they were still at the apartment waiting for any communication from him.
“I can’t even know if they’re safe.” he said to himself angrily. “I’m stranded in a jungle with no communication, no food, and nothing to defend myself with! My team’s scattered and Ivanoff is…” the sentence got caught in his throat. Ivanoff’s death was still fresh in his mind, and he couldn’t think about it without having to stop himself from starting to cry a little. His gloves were still stained dark crimson from Ivanoff’s hands. Still, it did remind him of something else. He checked his backpack and found the small box Ivanoff had given him. It was still intact, at least from the outside. Opening the box, he gently took out the old photograph of Ivanoff, his wife, and his daughter. The picture was still in good condition, which relieved him a little. Their smiling faces seemed to speak to him, like they were telling him to keep going. He decided to take the advice.
“I’ll make sure your sacrifice wasn’t in vain, Ivanoff.” he said as he put the photograph back into the box and put it in his backpack. Pushing aside the panicked thoughts in his mind, he refocused on where he was. The smoke was very close now, to the point he could faintly smell it. From the black columns rising into the sky, Lawrence could tell that a large fire had been ignited at the crash site. He figured that he could make the rest of the journey through the jungle now.
“The only problem is,” he thought to himself as he inspected the river,“how do I get across?” He was on the wrong side of the water, meaning he would either need to swim across or find another path. The current looked like it was gentle enough, but even with drowning not being a concern, he didn’t know if he wanted to get his gear wet again. Further down, he saw a part of the river where it looked like it got a little shallower. There were large rocks peeking out from the water’s surface, which would allow him to get across with taking another swim. Quickly running over to the rocks, he saw that the river only went up to his knees.
“It’s not ideal, but it’ll have to do.” He put his feet into the water, his body tingling a little as the cold water shocked his warm body. The jungle was humid, which had made him miserably hot and sweaty. He would happily invite a chance to cool himself off a little. The current got a little stronger when he got in up to his knees, so he used the rocks as supports to keep himself upright. When he reached the other side, he stopped for a moment to drink from his canteen. It was halfway empty now, but it was so hot that he was constantly thirsty. He also felt his stomach growling again. He was out of MREs, so he hoped that the Pelican still had some food in it or that he could catch up with the rest of Glory quickly. The beautiful, lush undergrowth was nearly up to his waist when he entered the jungle, and the tree canopy overhead blocked a lot of sunlight, leaving the forest floor somewhat dim.
“Well, I guess I had better get going.” He said to no one as he went deeper into the jungle. “Might as well be ready for trouble.” He said, taking his combat knife out of its sheath. He slowly began to make his way west, towards the crash site. If all went well, he figured he could be there in about forty-five minutes.
Trying to keep himself in high spirits, he said something he thought would be encouraging. “Just stay focused, find the team and don’t worry about anything else. We’ll all be okay if I can just find them.” It did make him feel a little better, but still he had a small seed of doubt within himself.

[SrgtGreen]

Manhunt

I hope they get sent out and hunted. That would be amazing.

[RedThree]

Fireteam Glory Part 137
Lawrence had spent the last thirty minutes jogging through the jungle, sweat now soaking through parts of his uniform. He wanted to spend as little time as he could getting to the crash so he could figure out what to do next. The smell of smoke was getting stronger all the time, so he knew he was going in the right direction still. Slowly making his way through thick clumps of undergrowth and climbing over large rocks, Lawrence finally came to a flatter part of the jungle.
Large trees covered in green moss rose into the air, thin rays of light peeking through the canopy. Looking around, he found himself in the remains of a battle. Covenant bodies were scattered across the forest floor, the shine of their armor catching the sun’s rays and seeming to glow faintly. Slowly walking forwards, he came to the corpse of a large Brute laying on the ground. It was wearing blue-violet armor and seemed to be missing its head. When Lawrence looked closer he saw that the head was still there, most of it anyways. The stench quickly hit his nose and he gagged at the sour smell of decay coming from the Brute.
Lawrence shook the nauseous feeling out of himself. “Looks like a sniper rifle did this.” he said, looked back at the head wound. “Only thing that could crack a melon like this open.” He quickly found the Brute’s discarded weapon and took it. “You certainly won’t be using it anymore.” he remarked to the body.
It was one of the Spiker weapons they used, a large gun with two deadly blades mounted near the barrel. He quickly found the trigger, a small ring that was a little too big for his finger, and where the ammunition would be loaded. The gun weighed a little more than the rifles he was used to carrying. It was nearly the same size too. He debated about keeping the weapon, opting to search a little more for something that might be a little easier to use. There were a few more bodies nearby, so he went over to them to see if the aliens had anything useful. To his surprise, he found a carbine laying by a dead Jackal. Picking it up, he found it to be even heavier than the Spiker.
“Well, I’ve seen both of these weapons in action.” Lawrence murmured as he inspected both weapons. “The carbine would be a lot better for engaging at long range, and the Brutes can’t seem to get a straight shot with their spike guns, so I guess I’ll go with the carbine?”
Scavenging what ammunition he could from the Jackal, he found himself with three small, cylindrical magazines. He had no clue how many shots one of the magazines held, but the weapon seemed to display a hologram that denoted the number of shots until empty. The magazine currently loaded was about half-empty going by the display. He put the spare magazines onto his belt and cast the Spiker to his side, locating the cabine’s trigger and deciding on a comfortable way to hold the alien weapon. Moving on from the bodies, Lawrence moved further into the jungle and towards where he thought the crash would be. The calm ambiance of the jungle was suddenly joined by alien chatter in the distance. When he heard that, Lawrence leaped into the dense thicket nearby. Concealed within the bushes, he listened again and deduced that the sounds were coming from his left, in the direction of the crash.
Crawling through the undergrowth, careful to make as little noise as possible, Lawrence reached a point where he could look out of the bushes and see the crashed Pelican. The area was scorched and covered in craters from explosions. Small fires burned, presumably weakened by a night’s worth of rain. The Pelican was in bad shape, the back engine on the left having been completely torn off along with the landing gear. It sat awkwardly in a deep ditch it had dug when it went down.
Lawrence didn’t get a chance to look at the troop bay, as a small patrol consisting of Jackals and Grunts had approached the Pelican from the right side. He watched as they conducted a sweep of the area before screeching into the trees. He heard the rumble of anti-gravity drives, then saw a Shadow troop transport push down a few of the smaller trees as it entered the clearing. There was only a small force aboard the vehicle, only a couple more Grunts and a large Brute. The Shadow stopped and shut down its drives. When it had parked, its driver, a Jackal, and the passengers departed to join the small patrol. Lawrence carefully moved to a different position, finding some nearby rocks to crawl behind. The Brute was barking orders to the rest of the Covenant soldiers when he sat up and peaked around the corner of the large, grey stone he had taken position behind. They were simply gathering the bodies and weapons of their fallen comrades, the Grunts divided into three pairs while the Brute stayed back with the Jackals serving as guards around the area. Watching where they were going, Lawrence counted three Jackals with the Brute, bringing the total number of Covenant soldiers up to ten. Again hiding himself fully behind the rock, he quickly searched through his pack looking for anything else that could be useful. The only thing in there other than survival gear was the energy sword he had taken off of one of the Elites they had found within the city.
“Must’ve stuffed it in here not thinking about it. Not particularly helpful anyways.” he thought with dismay. “I don’t even know the first thing about regular swords.”
He set it back inside of his bag and put the bag on his back, looking for any other options. Not far from where he was sitting lay a discarded assault rifle. Looking over his shoulder quickly, he got low to the ground and slowly crawled to the weapon. Taking it, he quickly retreated back to the spot he had been hiding. Inspecting it, he saw that it was still in good condition and would hopefully still fire. The ammo counter’s screen came to life, showing that the magazine still contained 15 rounds.
A plan quickly formed in his mind. Acting out the first phase, Lawrence snuck back into the undergrowth and moved around to the front of the Pelican and climbed onto the cockpit. Crawling across the spine of the ship, Lawrence spotted a Jackal not far from where he needed one to be. He quickly slid back down to the ground by the cockpit and got into position. He hid behind the severed top of a tree and picked up a small rock next to him, tossing it in the Jackal’s direction before ducking down and out of sight. The rock hit the Jackal on the shoulder, causing it to make a sound of surprise as it spun around to find the attacker. It slowly walked over to the log, sweeping both directions with its plasma pistol. Lawrence began to whimper slightly, trying to make it seem like he was injured or afraid. The trick worked, Lawrence listening as the Jackal cackled in glee at the thought of helpless prey. Lawrence readied his combat knife.
As the Jackal came around the log, weapon down as it was confident in the idea of an easy kill, Lawrence sprung forward. He drove the knife deep into the Jackal’s throat and held its beak shut to prevent it from screaming. He dragged it behind the log as he finished it with a strike into the temple. The Jackal had several plasma grenades on its belt along with the plasma pistol, all of which Lawrence took.
Next, Lawrence moved back up onto the Pelican and surveyed the positions of each enemy. The Grunts had brought plenty of weapons to the Shadow and set the bodies into a pile on the side, where a Jackal was working to peel the armor off of the bodies to also load onto the Shadow. The Grunts were deep in the jungle now, too far to respond quickly to Lawrence’s plan when he made his move. He took out the plasma pistol and held down the trigger, watching a large orb of energy begin to grow within the weapon. The pistol began to shake as the system overcharged and Lawrence had trouble lining up a shot on the Brute. Luckily, he didn’t have to, as when he let go of the trigger the green orb flew straight towards the Brute and landed center mass. The bolt fried the power armor the Brute was wearing and stunned it as electricity ran through its body. Lawrence switched to the assault rifle, downing both Jackals with accurate bursts of fire before they could return fire. As he began to set his sights on the Brute, several grenade-like projectiles shot past the edge of the Pelican’s tail. Lawrence leaped back as one impacted with the tail and blew a hole in it. He heard an enraged roar from below, then watched as the Brute leaped high into the air towards the Pelican. Stumbling backwards in shock, Lawrence fell off of the Pelican and landed in the dirt below. His pack hadn’t been properly closed earlier, so many of the contents came spilling out around him. He was scrambling to his feet when the Brute walked in view, standing on the Pelican and looking down at him; snarling as it tossed aside its weapon. The Brute leaped again, intending to fall on him and crush him. Lawrence looked for anything to defend himself with, but both of his guns had bounced away. Blindly reaching around him, he felt his grip tighten around a handle that was somewhat large for a human hand. His finger quickly settled on the activation switch and he rolled to the side. Managing to just barely dodge the killing blow, Lawrence heard the hiss of igniting gases and brought a glowing blade down upon the Brute’s neck. There was a moment of silence as Lawrence lay there, amazed at the fact that he was alive. He stood up, letting go of the handle. He could hear the frightened chatter of Grunts approaching and he picked up the carbine he had dropped to engage them. Getting into a crouched position, he waited until the first Grunts waddled into view before firing. By the time the first pair was down, the second carelessly came around the corner. The last two ran away in different directions, screaming in an alien tongue. He heard one shout something in English, quickly identifying it as the one running to the east. Gunning the other one down, Lawrence ran after the last Grunt.
“Freeze!” Lawrence shouted, hoping the alien had enough of an understanding of human language to know what that meant.
To his surprise, the Grunt immediately dropped to the ground with its hands covering its head. “Please no shoot!” it shouted in a high-pitched voice. “No shoot!”
Lawrence walked over to it and grabbed it by the arms, standing on its right leg as he pulled the Grunt up. He moved the Grunt so it could see the Pelican.
“You know anything about where the people inside this ship went? Were you hunting them?” he asked the alien in a gruff tone.
“We only come to scavenge for leader!” the Grunt shouted. “We capture humans here last night after big fight!”
Lawrence didn’t like the sound of that. “How many? And where did you take them?”
The Grunt was panicking, trying to come up with the answer. “That way!” The Grunt pointed to the east. “We take them there!” It seemed to take reassurance in the idea, suddenly turning to a more mocking tone. “But you never get there! Many guns kill you before you even get inside! Or maybe I kill you first!”
Lawrence realized that the Grunt had activated two plasma grenades on its belt. With only seconds to react, he kicked the Grunt to the floor and ran as fast as he could away from the alien. The Grunt dropped the grenades when it slammed into the ground, which activated the explosive. Lawrence was tossed into the air by the shockwave and he landed on a rock. The impact knocked him out where he lay, hidden within the bushes and rocks.

[JoeFilms]

Wait so is this or is it not Fireteam Glory?

[RedThree]

Wait so is this or is it not Fireteam Glory?

I should probably change the name once more, given that the collaboration side of this has died.

[SrgtGreen]

I should probably change the name once more, given that the collaboration side of this has died.

I miss the other authors. Although it made the story a bit more chaotic, it was also more interesting. I loved seeing an event from all the different perspectives.

I remember the character lists with living, dead, MIA and how that unnamed broadsword (was it a broadsword?) pilot was on it forever.

[RedThree]

I should probably change the name once more, given that the collaboration side of this has died.

I miss the other authors. Although it made the story a bit more chaotic, it was also more interesting. I loved seeing an event from all the different perspectives.

I remember the character lists with living, dead, MIA and how that unnamed broadsword (was it a broadsword?) pilot was on it forever.

Ah, Anvil 2-2! I remember that old bird like it was yesterday! That Longsword saved a lot of lives at the Kibal Yards, including Glory.

[81Ceta_Deta]

I have 6 parts to read :/

I'll read them rn

[RedThree]

I have 6 parts to read :/

I'll read them rn

Well, I hope you enjoy!

[81Ceta_Deta]

I have 6 parts to read :/

I'll read them rn

Well, I hope you enjoy!

Only read 2 but i plan to finish them soon. Very very impressive