On My Orders

T

Tenchi-Roku

Guest
Original poster
Name: Spartan 259/ Radd

Rank: Captain

Age: 26

Appearance:reach_23046737_Medium.jpg

Specialty: Assualt, Recon, and enginerring.

Other Info: Unknown


It was mid-morning, the sun was nearly finished setting behind the hills. As darkness made it's quick sweet across the sundered battleground, two spartans were hiding among the area. Spartan 259, also known as Captain, took potion at the top of a mountain area scoping out the covenant as they stand waiting foe them. "I've got a spot on 63 of them, Elites, Zealot and ranger classes."

He zoomed in closer to angle an accurate shot, his sniper rifle was aching to put of an Elite's skull cap. The positioning of his shot wasable to take three in one, leaving one elite confused and open for a quiet knife kill. Captain activated his active camo and switched to his comms. "You ready for this Recruit?" he said, edging his finger to the trigger.
 
Name: Spartan 023/ Iliana

Age:23

Appearance:
View attachment 6084

Specialty: Sidearm, Assistance, Close Combat

Other Info: None As Of Now.

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"Huh?"

The Spartan female inserted the last clip into her pistol and she adjusted her satchel. She had to admit, she wasn't paying attention to a thing the spartan in front of her was saying. How disrespectful... She opened her mouth to apologize, but she thought twice about it and closed it once more. He would've scolded her if she would've apologized. Iliana adjusted the sights on her helmet and looked out over the cliff. She didn't see anything. Was she supposed to?

"Captain...is there's something I'm supposed to be...doing?"she asked nervously, crouching low to him. She scanned all of his movements. His finger was placed dutifully on the trigger but when she looked out at the horizon, nothing crossed her sights. Dammit, Iliana...pay attention!
 
"Listen close", he said calmly. The Captain pointed over between the rocks, just above a clearing were three elites, ranger class. he marked them on the radar, so that Recruit wouldn't go in blind. "I want you to move in slowly from behind, stay cloaked and make the kill quiet. Can you handle that?" he asked feeling concerned. The Captain was never comfortable with sending her into battle while not next to her, but as long as he could see the female he'd be ok. The male spartan pulled back on the loading stock as he turned on his night vision. "Stay sharp.." he whispered. "Ok, get down there, I'll keep you covered from here. They won't hear my shots from this far out."


The Spartan layed his body down on the hard surface andset the rifle up on it's bipod. He'd never miss a shot if she was in danger, evntually it became a job to protect her. But he didn't mind, it was fun. He gazed through his recon helmet into the scope with a perfect two in one headshot. All he needed now was for the Recruit to get into position.
 
"Right."she said before quickly making her way down the edge of the crevice as silently as possible. Her primary choice for armor was a tactical sprint function; something that allowed her to keep her feet pumping when energy, adrenaline, and all else failed her. There had even been a time where she ran out of sheer will power, but as long as she could run, the state she was in when she did wasn't important to her.

As she made her way down, she silently scolded herself for the lack of attention when she was in the presence of her Captain. He was a strong man, that Spartan. Made Captain for a reason, she guessed. As many times as the two of them had been on missions, never once did she open her mouth to ask him of his past trials and battles. He never was much of a mean captain at that. In fact, he might have been one of the most sincere authoritative men Iliana had ever met. A red flag went up in her head when she first discovered that fact. He could be venmous: nice at first appearance, then he would strike back with harsh words or a strict order.

...or he could just be sincere.

Iliana snaked her way around a group of trees, doing her best to quietly extract the knife from her satchel without alerting the elites. They may be aliens, but they weren't dumb. Oh no. That was the very last thing one could say about the Sanghelli. She had been in enough brawls with them to know that the beast knew EXACTLY what they were doing. She wasn't about to put it past her that they could recognize the sound of a knife unsheathing so she kept her distance, awaiting a signal.
 
Past the trees Captain could see his apprentice making perfect progress on the enemy's positions. She made precise steps and quiet movements, better than any soldier he'd seen. Adda girl", he whispered. When she got into position on the elites, it was the perfect timing for them to initiate. He was worried about a miss fire or worried about an unwanted even. If anything ever went wrong Recruit always picked up where he left off with a kill. She was the best partner he'd been paired with, and stayed that way ever since he realized it. Recruit isn't just his best soldier, but she's also his deadliest. whether she looks innocent, that doesn't mean she'll kill you.

"Prepare yourself", he said as he prepared his trigger finger. The elites lined up thier heads and the third turned his back to Iliana as predicted, the plan had fallen into order perfectly. "Get ready", he uttered, "3.. 2...1..". BANG. His rifle fired off and struck down, the two elites leaving behind that last one. "He's yours take him.", he quickened.
 
Is it looking at me?

Iliana stopped all movement when she saw a Ranger's head turn towards her direction. It was very hard for her to tell whether the elite was looking at her, behind her, around, above, below. The helmet made it damn near impossible to see anything through the highly tinted helmet. She had an idea to flex her fingers and prepare to strike but something told her to wait. Maybe it was intuition. Maybe it was her guts. Maybe it was--BANG.

The fire was all the order she need, for as soon as it went off, Iliana crouched in a low position and pounced on the Ranger at full force, throwing all of her weight, including the knife, around its neck. he began to gradually slide down because of the shields Dammit. The elite writhed in anger, throwing its arms up to grab at her waist. Iliana held tightly, sinking the small dagger into the side of its neck, holding on with all of the strength she had.
 
"Good work." said Captain, the spartan mounted his sniper onto his back and pulled a silenced smg from his utility bag. "I'm on my way down, stay put." Radd vaulted himself down to the Recruit silently, keeping his eyes open for surrounding enemies or signs of an ambush. So far the coast was clear, clear as crystal. His armored boots cruched against the grass, his limbs were tightly held in a prepared position. He watched from meters away how the elite slowly died at the mercy of her knife. All he could do or say was an awkward whistle.


As he walked up on his apprentice he stomped his foot on the ranger's head and released three smg shots in the head, just for good measure. "Nice work", he complimented, Radd layed the smg on his right thigh holster as he dragged the body off to the side. The body plopped against a bolder, nearly making a noise, but unnoticable to the Sangheli's ears. The male Spartan crouched down and got into a sprinting position as he handed his rifle to the Recruit, "I need you to spot me, I'll take out some the reinforcements. If another tries to strike me, take em."

He slid the blade from it's holster and grppied it firmly in his palm, he lined it up with his forearm and grinned under his helmet. "Lets do it.", he said as he looked back at her nodding.
 
Wait....what?

Iliana's gaze darted from the rifle, to her crouched captain, and back to the rifle again.

"S-sir...I..." She let the sentence trail off to avoid sounding pathetic in front of her higher officer. But then again, the Spartan had to be out of his mind! A rifle? In the hands of a recruit? Iliana instantly felt the full weight of the weapon when he dropped it in her hands that were still caked with the elite's blood. Great. First time holding his rifle and i get it dirty. Iliana slapped the side of her thigh in punishment, something she always did on a regular, but was careful to make it as discreet as possible. The last thing she wanted was for anyone, especially Captain, to see her physically punish herself in that manor.

"Let's do it."

Iliana's head snapped to him instantly, an embarrassed blush coming to her cheeks when he nodded to her. She hadn't been paying attention to a thing he was saying! Again!

"Sir...?"she asked feebly.
 
"Hmm.." he mumbled. From the sound of her voice, she seemed to be worried about firing the weapon. She might have been new, but she was a pretty good shot already. He hadn't been hit by her yet, so it was easy to trust her with such a weapon. "Its just like a pistol, just bigger, stronger, and better range."

"Stay calm, ok?" he whispered, "Just aim down the scope and take deep breath, breathe out and fire." He made a slick smile under his helmet, the thought of her feeling worried was expected, but it was still a bit funny to him. The Spartan male aimed his eyes forward and jot into a sprinting stance, holding out his knife to his side. "On your go.." he smoothed. He was ready for her initiate the shot, giving him the signal.

 
She had so many questions to ask him, but absolutely no time to do so. Exactly what was she firing at here? If it was just like a pistol, then why did it feel so heavy in her hands? What if she missed? What if she didn't miss and hit him instead? Iliana bit her bottom lip through her helmet, looking down at Captain who was crouched and ready to go. I mean, ready to GO. The spartan was hunched on his bold legs with the knife pulled out and wavered in the air, ready to cut the first thing he spotted. He was as poised as a covenant, though clearly 10 times smarter, faster, and less capable to die then one of them. Thing was, he was ready....and would react on her mark.

On her go...

Iliana bit down harder on her lip until she was sure she could taste blood. The anxiety of the situation was greater than she thought she was, but her training didn't teach her to bail out. It didn't teacher her to fire a rifle either, but something things have to be learned the hard way.

"Sir...if I may ask...."Iliana stopped before she said anything more, hearing a rustle through a dense foliage some hundred meters to the northwest. In quick reflex, she pulled the rifle to her shoulder and peered out of the scope. The view was phenomenal compared to that of a pistol, but with a high price of course. The rustle happened again and in the same moment, Iliana snapped her gun towards the bush, closed one eye and gracefully pulled the trigger. BANG! The recoil snapped her shoulder back, but she regained her composure just as quickly. The result of the shot was a soft thump to the ground, signifying a slumped carcass. Iliana waited patiently for her Captain to move.
 
"Now your gettin it Recruit" he shouted as he launched himself forward, his blood instantly started pumping as the shot went off. His boots kicked up the dirt as his feet shreded the land beneath the Spartan's feet. The wind made silent whistles against his metal plating, streams of air appeared as he picked up speed. If seen by the human eye you'd only see a flash of white speeding past you before dropping dead. The Captain lunged himself forward and breezed the edge of his knife across a Zealot's throat. Two rangers quickly tried to react, but Captain stabbed one between the eyes and opened fire on the other with his silenced smg. He recovered from the struggle and started pressing further and further into the enemy lines.


The Spartan ran up a ramped part of the mountain that seemed to have a mile high drop that peeked over a covenant camp. Breaking off into a full sprint he put two fingers to his head activating his comms; "Whatch and learn Recruit", he smerked. As he came up to the top of the ramping, he readied his knife and reloaded his weapon. Radd made a quick grunt as he dived from the top, positioning his body straight forward like a comet. Half way down Captain flipped once into a sky diving position, with his knife in his right hand. Below him was an unfocussed elite, it looked up at him; right before he was pounced on and stabbed in the back of the head. Captain recovered from his hard landing and kept moving on. Coming up on two enemies, he dove into a roll behind a bolder about his size, and as he rolled he flipped out his smg and aimed forward. He shot half the clip on one and stunned the other; due to it's shield system. The stunned elite almost hit the ground, but the Spartan charged forward and finished it with a crack to the head with his gun.

Three covenant were left. Still sprinting his way through the Captain pointed his gun over to his right; as he passed up an enemy he made a quick pull of the trigger and popped his head. In a quick flash, he gappled another elite from behind and snapped it's neck. Radd's movements had to be leathal and quick, if he hesitated now it'd be fatal. On the last two opposing enemies, the Captain snikered under his helmet; he held the blade tighter than the last few times, preparing for a move he'd used only once before. "Here's something I'll teach you soon.." mumbled the soldier. He leaped forward 10 feet at the first Sangheli and drove the knife deeply into it's skull; the force propelled him into swinging his body in circle. As he came to a stop, the blade slipped out of the elite's head and the Captain threw the knife into the other enemy's thraot.

"Bull's eye"
 
Iliana wished her helmet was off so she could rub her eye to confirm that she was, indeed, watching what she thought she was watching. As soon as the shot was fired from her rifle, Captain took off on a maniacal covenant-killing-frenzy. His moves were so quickly placed and smoothly set out, she wasn't surprised if he knew every move he was going to make 5 moves ahead of time. Iliana lowered the rifle to get a better look his actions. That was the hard part. Keeping up with him was like trying to get a good glimpse at wind: damn near impossible.

The covenant were falling fast. Scratch that. The elites were falling fast. Elites. Captain took off in a run with nothing but a silenced smg and a knife....to a horde of elites. Iliana wasn't so sure if he had the element of surprise due to the loud, ear-splitting fire of the rifle she placed before he ran off. Not that it mattered. The elites barely saw him coming before it was too late.

Finally, tossing the knife into the throat of the last elite, the grounds were silenced with nothing but the rustle of leaves. Iliana put down the rifle and placed it gingerly against a boulder. She made sure it was upright:the last thing she wanted was for it to fall in misfire in a bad direction. Taking her time, she made her way over to her captain, and, not to her surprise, he didn't have a scratch on him.

"Remind me again why i'm here, sir?"she joked, standing at attention in front of him.



 
"Because I won't step foot into battles without you." he replied, retrieving his knife. The blood flicked against the ground as he slid it between his fingers and thumb. Captain placed the blade back in the holster off to the side off his left breast. He glared over to her general direction, waving his hands to signal the coast was clear.

"You've been my best soldier since our first mission, I doubt I'd ever leave on one with out you." he added. Radd took the open amount of time he had to look into his tact-pad for further objectives. It showed a 3D scale of the area, displaying everything for detail to detail. At the moment nothing showed up, it was just clear. A few miles up were some enemies, but it was all safe havens from their direction.

"Regroup with me, we need to make another plan."
 
"Sir!"she replied, dutifully snapping a salute. Through her helmet, her nose was wrinkled in confusion. The Captain was starting to treat her like some sort of equal. Yes, they were both Spartans and both had an equal duty to the planet, but the ranking was completely different. Not to mention that their skills were on higher levels from one another. She had just graduated from the academy (if you can call it an gradation.) Her skills were flawless in close combat, side arm weilding, and tactical pursuit, but there was one flaw in the entire thing. Her skills...were too high for her rank. Though she was announced the highest graduating recruit, the word recruit was a dense understatement,

Is that what he sees in me? she asked herself, looking at the tact pad along with him. Her captain must see past the notes and scores and actually looked at her abilities and skills themselves. Suddenly, she found herself blushing. Had she just been complimented by her higher officer? Before she could dwell further on the thought, he told her to regroup with him.

"Wait, sir. Before we do that, shouldn't we observe the damage of the fallen covenant? They could hold something of value to the UNSC. I understand that all of our searching methods come up failed, just like the other battalions, but it couldn't hurt to double check....right, sir?"she asked.
 
Captain grinned under his helmet, he almost didn't think anything about examining the fallen for damage reports. He always thought, if they get stronger he'll beat them even harder. A saying he followed for a while now, it kept him going strong for every mission, but this looked like a really good idea. "Great idea Recruit, good looking out." he complimented, placing his hand on her shoulder. "I'll search the left, you take the right. If anything happens or you find something, call for me, I don't want anything to happen to you out here." he concerned. The area may have been emty, but Covenant are no joke. You could destroy an army and be confronted by a fleet, or ambushed out of nowhere. Every fighting day on the planet was always "sleep with one eye open" situtions. So the decision of search and report was the best idea at the time, you could never be to careful.


As he searched along the corpses, his armored hands were coverd in their purple blood, no signs of new weapons, data, or Intel for that matter. He'd even searched the data bases from the equipment, all of it containing the same information and programing. Radd tried encrypting it but came up short to just leads; never something dead on the mark. He'd almost given up on the other bodies, til he noticed one of the elites he killed was holding something. the object was slim with a metallic silver coloration, it's shaping was an hexagon. At first he thought it was a piece of metal, but as he picked it up to examine, a tranquil blue screen opened up and revealed one of their leaders.... A prophet, the Prophet of Decimation.

Seconds later it played back a recording:

Despair humans, despair and fester in your pettie attemps to save your world. You act according to your way of honor, acting as Heretics to the Great Journey, refusing the devine fate of your planet. You shall burn with your planet, your loved ones to dust, and homes in ashes. Not even your greatest warriors shall live to creep their way back to salvation. The Gods have deemed your destruction as immenant, and I AM THEIR WEAPON!!!


As the transmission ended, the Captain felt strained of his mental strength. how the Prophet deemed the destruction of their planet so soon to come, it made him wonder. How much time do they really have left?
 
Dead body. Dead body. Dead body. Grass. Dead body. Dead body. Aaannndd....dead body.

Iliana took her helmet off as she vaulted over the last elite that was lying sprawled on the beautiful grass of Reach. She would've been chewed out if she took it off in front of Captain. You never reveal your face on your own accord in front of your higher officer. Iliana learned that quickly, though the action wasn't a hard one to accomplish. She didn't want him to see her face anyhow. He had already, but Iliana never held contact with him. When she did, she felt that he wanted her to run laps or do something productive. So the helmet was a plus.

But it was just too damn hot out there so she took it off. Even though she was the one to make the suggestion about scavenging information from the fallen covenant, she didn't have any confidence that they would actually find something. And that was slowly starting to prove true, because she sat on a boulder with absolutely nothing new.The only intel was that they were officially dead. Well, news enough to me.

The sun beat down on her golden peach hair, making it appear lighter. It was still wrapped in a tight bun, so that her hair wasn't falling off her shoulders through the helmet. In all actuality, all females are supposed to cut their hair short when they are made Spartan's, but Iliana was an exception. Her trainers and First Sargents were so impressed with her skills, they figured a little thing like her hair wouldn't be a problem, just as long as she kept it pinned up. Iliana ran a hand down the back of her neck, feeling tiny droplets of perspiration in return. Though she enjoyed training and killing the scum covenant, she wanted nothing more than to be back in her barracks, staring at the ceiling and mulling over her life.
 
Captain gripped the device firmly in his hands, feeling fearful of the prophet's words. They have the ability to fight back, but how long can they really last? That very question continuosly ran through his mind stressing his confidence almost to depression. But he knew that no matter the power of the enemy, you always have a fighting chance, and for him, failure was not an option. The male spartan slowly walked up on recruit and sat next to her, under his helmet he was smiling at the fact that she took off her helmet; and at how she didn't notice him sitting there, watching her wipe her kneck.

He held up his hand holding the device, "This is Intel for Naval Intelligance to look at, we need to bring it back to them after we finish up here." he ordered, they had enough time in the night to eliminate the remaining covenant. And as long as they stayed unseen they'd be fine. He came to his feet and went to retrieve his rifle, as he reloaded it, he the humming sound of what he thought was a phantom.

"Oh shit.."

Radd quickly returned to his tact pad to see the scaling and determine an advantage point (cause a phantom against two could be fatal to both) and found that the remaining enemies were abord it. But the reason why was a mystery to him. Were they searching for them? Did they know that him and Recruit were all ready there? It was undetermined for the moment, but taking a chance and waiting isn't the solution. before they spotted the two, Captain reached out and pulled Iliana over behind a few bolders. They were big enough to hide the two of them, so it was the best cover at the moment. As elites started dropping from the ship, he held his weapons close but his perspective firmly on his partner.

"You have my back, I've got your" , he grinned under his helmet.
 
"This is Intel for Naval Intelliga--"

Iliana let out a soft meep! as Captain suddenly began talking to the side of her. She wasn't aware that he was near her at all, so to hear his voice was a shock beyond all else. Iliana squeezed the helmet that was wedged tightly in her hands. A dark blush of embarrassment fled up to her cheeks. He see's me! Iliana's eyes slowly slid over to his. All of the talk about Naval Intelligance went straight through one ear and out of the other. Once again, for the third time that day, the recruit didn't pay attention to a word her captain said. It's partially his fault, she thought, for sneaking up on me. Captain held up a small metalic device and suddenly, her interest perked. It was clearly covenant forged and looked to be very important.

Scooting over, back still against a rock, Iliana leaned forward to get a closer look at the device. If she wasn't mistaken...it looked to be like some kind of recorder. So, there was valuable damage report after all...She feared for what the device might have said. The contents of any covenant artifacts were a mystery and some mysteries deserved to be left alone. Iliana, though as curious as she was, trusted the intentions of her captain. He didn't once open his mouth about what the recording said, and she knew he had listened to it. She couldn't quite see his face through the deep tint of his helmet, but by the way his movements grew sharper and more precise, she could tell he was on edge.

Captain on edge equals future danger.

Just as the thought zipped through her mind, the familiar hum of a phantom also zipped through her ears. Instantly on alert, Iliana's head snapped to the sky. To no surprise, she was correct about the hum. Above them hovered a giant, purple, covenant phantom. No doubt carrying elites, the ship was oddly close to her and Captain's current destination. What are they doing here...? Before Iliana could inform her Captain on the current progression of the enemy ships, she was whipped by the hand and pinned behind a rock. Iliana stiffened, looking at Captain with wide, orange eyes. Captain, on the other hand, only crouched, prepared for the up coming battle.

"The two of us can handle more elites...but with this device we have, we have to take some kind of precaution. I doubt that we're both going to run up, and--"

"EET FIEH'HIEL ECTU ZINZAN'IE!!!" Suddenly, Iliana was grabbed roughly by her hair and yanked out from behind the rock. The yank snapped her head back and a burst of white lights instantly popped through her eyes. Disoriented, she knew that an elite was the cause of her current capture, so she flailed against her enemy, feet kicking wildly in the air. The vision of her eyes didn't return and that already put her at an disadvantage. Not to mention that she was hovered in the air by a single elite hand.

"MIET LEN'DSUR!"

"Captain! The legs!"she shouted, continuously flailing against the elite. Once Captain obliged to her order, she had a plan on how to get rid of the rest.
 
A rush of rage shot through Radd's body, watching an elite snatch her away like that turned on a switch in his mind, setting off feelings of no mercy. As Iliana shouted for his help, only half of the sentence passed into his ears, right before he struck his foot down on the elite's knee, snapping it back in the opposite direction. While the foul creature cried in pain, Captain grabbed the head of the enemy and smashed it's skull against the rock. Deep inside the Captain he felt a sense of satisfaction from hearing the alien's skull shatter at his strength, he was always controlling of his power, but would snap if his Recruit was ever hurt.

Before they'd attracted more attention, he lifted her onto his back, with her arms around his neck, and her legs gripping his waist. Immediately after he had her in place, Captain sprinted off into a secured part of the area, it had plenty of trees and lots of cover, so it was an ideal place to hide... atleast for the moment. Radd set Iliana down with her head propped up on his utility, it acted as a pillow, so he could check if she was alright. Moving her on her side with her back facing him, he started to notice why she was flailing so much, when the elite snatched her back she hit her head against the rock , it wasn't bleeding much just a few dropps, but even a little blood to Captain wasn't acceptable. Radd had to hold his anger in for the moment, they were out numbered and with possible wounded, they needed a plan and fast.

In critical situations, Radd would sometimes lose it, never knew why, it just all went black whenever theses things would happen. The chances of him thinking of a plan was always 2 out of 10. Recruit was always there to help him though, but she was hurt, even if she let nothing like that stop her before, Captain would always say she shouldn't move. But from what she was saying earlier she had a plan already.

"Just relax OK? What are my options?"
 
"Options. Right."she said aloud, fingering the gash on the side of her head. She hadn't realized that she got hit that hard by the rock, but at that moment, she was all adrenaline and no pain. She looked back on the encounter, remembering the fierce growl that escaped out of Captain's mouth when he sent his foot flying straight into the "knee" of the elite, who happened to be nothing but a Minor.

Iliana's eyes shut when she heard the crunching sound, feeling as if a cold liquid had traveled down her spine. The sound was horrific and that wasn't even half of it. She also had to endure the gargle of screams that escaped the elite's throats and the smashing of its skull seconds later. Iliana didn't even have enough time to fall to the ground before Captain grabbed her and whipped her off into.... safety? They both arrived at a cluster of trees, but that didn't matter too much. She was almost positive that the remaining covenant knew they were there.

"Alright, I was thinking that a full frontal assault would be insane."she said. After waiting a minute for him to retort (which he didn't do) she continued on. "The covenant are clearly aware that we have something they want back. Fighting is dangerous. But keeping them alive is also a bad idea. Long ranged is our only option. Close combat would basically be suicide." she finished, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. She was basically making it known that she would probably be completely useless. Close combat was her area of expertise, and long range? She left that into the hands of Captain. She feared for all life on the opposite end of his scope.

"I'll hold on to the device, sir."she exclaimed, holding her hand out to take the covenant recorder from him. This small device was more important than her life, and she would die protecting it. Iliana always went into battle knowing that she may not come out of it alive. The mission always came first, no matter what.

"I suggest we scale this terrain to give you a better view. If that's...alright with you, sir."she added quickly, sliding her orange eyes over to where she believed his eyes were behind the helmet.