--GREY TEAM--

Jarno:

Jarno tipped his helmet towards the dead men, turning and leading towards where Johan and walked off. The fighting and shooting had died down, for a bit. It would only take a few seconds for another all out firefight.

As he continued to lead the young woman down the forest path Johan's voice crackled on his commlink.

Johan:

"Jarno, come back here." I said quickly, leaning over the angry Geoffrey. The Lieutenant Colonel stood behind me. I trusted him enough to be at least looking around the place. He had found something, what looked like to me a kind of metal grate, a bunker entrance. I pulled my helmet off, pressing my left hand's index finger into my commlink.

"Looks like our Spartan friends were sent here for something important" I whispered to both Geoffrey and Jarno. The kid cursed bitterly as I grabbed a bandage from his Medicine kit. On the side of the small bag I could read the words "This is for YOU for when YOU get hit" stamped on it. His helmet was removed, by himself. Bad instinct. Of course when you get shot your natural instinct is to tear off your helmet, it restricts your ability to look at your wounds, (by design I've always thought).

"Is it bad?" He asked, his skin pale, sweat beading on his forehead.

"Ja, they took your leg clean off," I said with a smirk. The young man blanched, "Relax, I'm just kidding." He nodded stiffly, trying to look over his too thick chest plate at the wound, which I was already quickly wrapping up. It wasn't a very good job, our field medic was inside the Warthog's driver seat dead right now after all. But the suit did it's job, the bullet had barely penetrated, if I wanted to I could have yanked the fragments out with my knife.

"You'll be fine." I said flashing a lighthearted smile. Geoffrey's eyes shown with contempt, he blamed me, despite the shot came from the Spartan's actions. I crossed my eyes, and pointed the now bloody (his blood) right hand of mine to the rank symbol on my chest piece. He looked down, defeated. I patted him on the shoulder and replaced my helmet before standing back up.

"With all due respect," I said, picking my words carefully, "Are you taking us with you?" I was curious, but not too hopeful in the chances. It was more likely for my actions in following my gut I'd be reprimanded, but for doing it to a Spartan, I guessed the charges would follow through.

Something in my gut burned though, a need to know what they were after.

As soon as she heard the call for a rendezvous she leaned back and slung her rifle over her shoulder. With a small push of her arms she was off the branch and falling through the air towards the ground where she hit with a 'thump'. Her legs easily absorbed the shock from the fall.
Without missing a beat she started towards the direction the rest of her team and the ODST had gone. It took her a couple minutes to reach the area she had been covering but when she did, she noticed that Mia and her ODST guard had left while she was running towards them.
This annoyed her slightly. Still, at least the Engineer wasn't on her own.

Emilia double-checked the vehicles and then moved on into the tree line to find where the rest of her team were going. The location tracking feature of her HUD helped locate Samuel, Fletcher, and the newest addition the Major she had not yet fully been acquainted with.
With the trained speed of her legs and the enhancements given to her by her armor, she found that she was close to the others in no time.

"Sir, I'm approaching your position. Hold your fire." The final bit of her transmission was really just for protocol. It was very hard to mistake a Spartan for the enemy. Even with her somewhat smaller size she was still proportionally larger than a regular human by a good amount.
"I'm afraid Fletcher and the ODST left before I could reach them. If they aren't there yet then they will be soon." she added as she pushed through a bush and emerged a few hundred yards away from where she could see the towering figure of their leader.

I was in the process of re-equiping, but I was interrupted. By a voice that I wasn't in the best mood to hear right now. The same ODST that has spoken to me as if he had authority over me and he 'deserved' to know why he was here. The same ODST that then, left me and his squadmate after specific orders not to. Maybe if he hadn't left, his friend wouldn't have had to have been shot. I turned to face the man that was speaking to me now. A slight smile parted my lips. Shortly after though, I let out a light chuckle at the ODST. "Cocky son of a bitch aren't you?" My eyes lowered and I dropped my helmet and weapons back on the ground.

I slowly began to walk towards him, my knuckles were stiff. So I began flexing them while in step. Adrenaline easy came rushing back through my veins. I tried my best to hold back against lashing out against this man, but I couldn't just stand by and let him repeatedly disrespect me like this. You don't get ranks by standing around and letting people step all over you. Especially if they are lower than you. Some people, you just have to teach respect the hard way.

I had reached him now and I stood over him. My head cocked to the side slightly as I looked at him. How small he was. How vunerable. My hands shot up and gripped his vest roughly, pulling him up a bit. I spoke to him now, my voice was dark and empty, "So. Now. This is the third time you have disrespected a Spartan. One of a tremendously higher rank than you." I glanced at Geoffry shortly." You got your squadmate hurt. And now. Now, you come at me, like you deserve ANY answers for why you were on a simple patrol route. And you managed to fuck that up too!" I shook my head, my eyes shutting simultaneously.

My knee lifted intanstly. I controlled myself enough not to rupture anything or cause any internal bleeding, but it was enough. I held him up as his legs went limp and I brought his face closer to mine, lowering my voice for the first few words. "No. I won't be bringing you with me." I changed my view slowly as I heard more approach us. I dropped the Johan as Mia and her guard entered my view. My voice raised, so it would reach our new guests. "Because apparently, ODST don't follow orders so well!"

My attention changed to Mia, who was following the ODST. "So. Sergeant Fletcher. You thought you would just break protocol? Don't worry. I'm sure the marine drove a hard arguement..." But knowing her, she probably just followed him willingly. She's proven to be a bit more naieve than I had originally seemed. "That's two strikes today Buzzbox. You're on thin ice soldier."

As I was turning back to gather my things again, the Scout's voice cracked over the comm again. I was wondering what had happened to him. "Major. Fire a flare, I'll be sending two ODST to guard it. Come back when they make it." I clipped on my smg and assault rifle into their respective places before sliding on my helmet and turning to face the ODST that came with Mia. "Since you've shown such great responsiblity when assigned to guard something, you will be guarding the exit of this base. Bring your hurt friend with you as well. He won't be able to help us in there." I said, motioning to the entrance.

I walked back to the stubborn one while waiting on Noon and the Major to get here. "You would be smart to accept my orders as law when we are in the field soldier. I might not be as....easy...on you next time. Oh, and if you were attempting to cover our 'flanks', as you said, you would have ran backwards or to either of our sides. Which would have allowed me to have seen you when you ran. But since I didn't, that would only leave forward. Try for a better excuse next time."

I now walked past him, to the entrance of the base as I waited for everyone to arrive. Yeah, sure. Some would say that was a bit harsh. But there is no room on a team for unassigned lone wolves. Those people get your team hurt. Or killed. You do the job assigned to you and everyone does their part. That way, operations run smoothly.

When you are in the field, there is no room for mistakes. And if traditional consequences aren't enough. You have to improvise to get shit done. That's simply what I did, adapted to the situation at hand. Improvised.

Mia flushed. "My apologies, Sir. I followed him after we heard a commotion. Two strikes? This wasn't starting out well at all. "I have the tracker you wanted, Sir." Mia said, holding it up. She was hoping to save herself somewhat. She felt extremely embarrassed and felt like glaring at the ODST she followed, but it wasn't his fault. To her, he seemed entertaining and reckless, and being her naive, shy self, she fell for his ways and followed him like a puppy. Anything to get away from the dead man. That, and the fear of her teammates lives made her walk. Was she that much of a coward? She should have stayed at the Warthog. Stupid girl.

I looked up and nodded to Fletcher as she brought the tracker I asked to make and I pulled her over separately. "Thank you. At least you made it before you decided to leave." I paused and let out a slow breath as I began to calm down. "Why did you go against my orders and follow that man? You are a Spartan. It's about damn time you acted like it." My comment ending as I pressed a rough finger against her chest.

Mia backed up at Griffin's words. "I'm... I'm sorry, Sir. We heard distress and I followed him to see if my team was okay. It won't happen again, Sir." he was right. It's about time she acted like a Spartan, but that was easier said than done with her personality, fears, and knowledge. She didn't want to anger Griffin. She felt extremely unsure about this man. He was her superior. He was obviously just trying to do his job as fairly as possible, but Mia just couldn't warm up to him.

She heard distress and came to check it out? "Mia. You fixed our comm links. Why wouldn't you have just called it in?" I asked, a bit perplexed at her reasoning. I thought it had seemed obvious, but I guess her enexperiance causes her to be uneasy and makes her trust others too easily. I could tell she was starting to step back I wasn't sure if it was fear or feeling of just being uneasy. I sighed and looked away for a moment. "Hit me. Hit me as hard as you can. That's an order. Just....not anywhere below the belt ok?" I wanted her to let out any frustrations she had. Whether it be fear or anger or whatever. Just for her to let it out. Her emotions can't be allowed to jepordize the mission. Whether it be hesitation or bull-headedness. I could tell she would probably be wary of it, so I looked at her directly, again. "Just do it."

"I... I didn't think." And that was pretty obvious. Mia hadn't realized that the obvious thing to do in a situation like that would be to use the comms. The ODST had been sent to guard her while she work, so in a way, she had assumed that Griffin trusted that she was in good hands or he wouldn't have left her with him. At least... she hoped that he would never leave her with something he didn't trust or was potentially dangerous. As someone of such a high rank, he should care for his team, right? After all, when working together, his team is there to make sure he doesn't get hurt.

When Griffin sighed, Mia felt ashamed she had let him down. But his next words shocked her and she looked up, wide-eyed and startled. "Sir?" This was a direct order, even though it was absurd. She didn't want to hit him. She didn't think she was able to even if angered. She was embarrassed at herself, not upset with him. He could have been a little fairer with her, but that was no warrant for her to hit him. "But Sir..." She wasn't sure what to do. Disobey a direct order, or do something painful and against her personality to her superior. In the end, she opted for a compromise and hoped she could get away with it, although she doubted that she could. Raising her right arm, she punched him rather lightly in his shoulder as though she had claimed a VW bug in a childish game. She closed her eyes and winced at what would come next.

I looked up at the Spartan. The vest had protected well.

"All those drugs ain't so good at keeping your rage in?" I spat, defiant, "Flanks? It's a forest." I muttered, the foliage covers all ground, flanks after even in front of us, around the bend, behind fallen logs. I was trained for this, Spartan and their generalized training. Staying here? Before the Spartans had shown up, the ODST were trusted to do the rough jobs, we were trained for this.

And I've never been one for orders. I tapped my wrist while looking at the Spartan. Tick-tock.

"Johan, smart guy, annoyed one of the test tubes." Jarno said, helping me up, "Still picking you up after the bullies rattle you?" He had departed the younger woman's company now.

"The bullies usually didn't have enough drugs pumping through them to send them into Beserker rage." I muttered, standing now, staring at the Spartan.

"Spartans in first? ODST where?" I asked Jarno quickly.
He gestured to the larger CO of the Spartan's.

"Looks like we're guarding. The two of us."

"And me?" I asked, perplexed. Though I knew the confusion was just a quiet rage I battled to keep down. I dislike being manhandled. While I accept that I stepped out of line, that's what I do. I'm not going to fall under another department for guidance. I was selected to ODST not only for my ability, but for my hardheadedness. When someone needed something near suicidal done, I do it. And I do it alone. It's what I specialize in, generlization.

A military prodigy. Unfortunately one terrible at following orders. I smiled reflexly, remembering Reach, fighting insurrections. Instead of running with the squad, I dropped down low, flanked around, and dropped a hand grenade inside a generator room. That night the ODST drop troops couldn't be spotted, the lights had been hit, and repairs useless.

"Want to risk asking him Warrant Officer?" Jarno smiled, his voice snapping me out of my own justifications. I clenched my jaw. Court marshal me then, I could use the break from service.

Geoffrey quietly glared at me. I needn't turn around, I could feel his gaze. Orders weren't my thing.

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

The woman hit him in the shoulder.

I halted, watching. It was a light hit - especially for a Spartan - II evidently she missed her daily testosterone injections. I felt I was intruding.

The man seemed to not react to the blow. I stopped and leaned against the tree. I looked down at my scuffed armor, the gray-black camouflage covered in mud and blood.

I lifted my head, and removed my helmet, looking out towards the two Spartans.I decided to keep a silent watch.

The big one was an idiot, but the younger woman seemed to be as out of place as Marine. And we've all heard the mortality rates of Marines when Spartan's show up.

They forget all so easily they aren't normal soldiers. They're the legends. Built to kill. We're the grunts, whereas once we were the elite. I'm not about to complain about fallen pride (I knew Jarno did that) I was neutral about Spartans.

I've just worked beside enough of them to know how easily they forget they're not engineered to be the heroes the propaganda paints them as.

They're engineered to do the impossible missions. Spartan II's have death records pre-made as "MIA". I've seen Gods die among normal soldiers, I seen what happens when they die in field.

I looked back up towards the two, the girl was now sheepishly looking down. I lowered my eyes and replaced my helmet, not wanting to embarrass her.

"Sir." I said quickly, "The field officer would like to know his position, sir."

This was quite a strange scene to come back to. There was an ODST leaned up against a tree with a wound in his leg, there were bodies strewn here and there, and Mia had just given Samuel a hit on the shoulder. Everything most definitely confused Noon as she approached the group and for the first time came within a few feet of the men that she had been covering from her position. Briefly she wondered which had been the one she had spoken to.
For now though it looked like something was happening between Mia and Samuel, so she decided against intruding on..whatever was going on.

So instead she moved and crouched down for a moment, checking over her weapon and the items attached to her belt. A quick inventory check before going into the enemy base sounded like a good idea.
For a moment the Captain looked up at the ODST units and then back down at the weapon in her hands. Now that the Active Camouflage had been deactivated she knew that she was open to their judgment. Though they had little grounds to judge her with beyond her voice and her appearance. Black armor, deep purple shoulder plate, and skull engraved helmet.

Emilia opened a private channel to the Lieutenant Colonel's communication link.
"What is the hold up, sir? I'm afraid I've missed the majority of the drama." she spoke in a quiet tone. This was a good part of the reason she was a sniper. She preferred to work alone than have to deal with the complications of working with a team.
Then again, she didn't really have to deal with anything. Her job was to watch over the others and kill the enemy.

ooc - Sorry guys. I was away for the weekend, and I just got back an hour ago.

bic - "Sir." It was all Danny replied. He was a very simple guy. If someone asks you to do something, especially a soldier of a higher rank, you do it. Simple.

Danny grabbed a flare from his belt. His current position wasn't too far away from the others, so the use of a flare gun was pointless. He snapped the flare and dropped it on the ground as green sparks shot out from it. He waited for the two ODST's to arrive before he made off to the team. Danny was actually rather curious to see what the base would look like and what was hidden inside of it.

ooc: is everyone in this still here?

Ooc: Let's do this thing!

Ooc: Yeah, I should have sometime to Role-play, are starting where we left off? I have to reread a lot of stuff.

ooc: From that post I just made, yes

Ooc: Sorry sorry, I'll post hold on... Tomorrow. Promise. Sorry.

ooc: I'd be down to continue so I'll get a reply in tomorrow as well, after my exam.

Ooc - Sorry Brandon, quick recap. What exactly is going on? Are you talking with me and...?

ooc: You should be on the way back to regroup once the two marines get to you. Then everyone is following me in.

ooc - Okay, then I'll follow everyone's lead since I'm waiting.

Samuel's face turned to slight disgust as Mia's attempt at a punch barely jarred him. He shook his head slightly before leaning towards her quickly, shoving her shoulder roughly before speaking. "Get your head in the game before you do something that gets someone killed!" A scowl came across his face, but decided not to continue baring down on the young soldier.

He turned and headed towards the metal door that was found in the ground earlier. Stopping at the entrance, he placed his right hand on his magnum and responded to Noon. "An underground base was found, Captain. We are now getting into proper position to infiltrate it." He turned around to face the four that were closer to him. The two lower ranking marines were out and on their way to the exit door. "You four are coming with me...I've decided to keep you close instead little ODST. Hopefully you won't need me to get a leash issued to us. However, it's about time we found out what our little friends are hiding down there..." Samuel then moved to check all of his gear until his light lit up blue. Turning, he removed his assault rifle from his back slot and held it up at the ready.

Colonel Griffin stepped over the raise entrance in the threshold of the door and walked in. His metal boots clanking on the cold, hard floor. Immediately a long hallway came into his field of vision. The floor now turned into a metal grate, he continued walking though passing many doors that seemed to be sleeping quarters for the guards. He continued this pace until he passed through a door that brought him to what looked like some sort of factory. He stopped walking and began to take in all the movements going on in here. It all looked like some alien tech, at least prototype UNSC equipment and weapons he's never laid eyes on. Samuel tightened his grip on his rifle and turned to head down the stairs to his left to get to the floor level of this factory. "We need to lock this place down and keep your eyes open for some sort of administrative room. We need to find the guy running this place..."

Ooc: Hey might I join this one? it's 2am sooo I'll put some character info up tomorow

Ooc: i'd like to join as well. Maybe a random medic or something picked up on the way?

Cathrine Bolt

Basic-
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Rank: Special Operations Master Corpral (SOMcpl)
Ethnic: Caucasian
Skin color: pale
Scar: slash from center chest to left shoulder blade
Height: 6'9"
Build: Other than a spartan set of muscles looks "model like" out of armour
Weight: 210lbs
Hair (color/style): Shoulder length blond
Eyes: Nyon purple

About Character -
Sexuality: Straight
Personality: Like all spartans has seen her share of fighting, and her share of loss. She keeps a positive attitude around others and always keeps track of the task at hand although by herself her mind tends to wander while she performs manual tasks. A bit of a jack of all trades, she tinkers with equipment as well as armaments, she reads combat tactical assessments, and she has enough medical training to take care of another. Though all this she learned for herself, by herself. Not used to working in teams she only knows enough to do private ops and gets stubborn when she needs to awknoledge someone is better at something than her.

Starting weapons: BR, a shotgun and a particularly large combat knife.
Starting gear: belt that's been retrofitted to hold extra grenades instead of a side arm. general purpose black hat toolkit (used as a portable jack-in and hack device which can also be used a locator beacon).

Spoiler:

out of armour (not exact but you get the picture)

Spoiler:

Ooc: you all do realize that spartans finish training at age 14 and a 16 year old would be physically and also (mostly) mentally at the human age of just over 20.