--GREY TEAM--

"The damned waiting." I whispered to myself. We hadn't moved in close to fifteen minutes, and there was no response via commlink. There wasn't any response. They must have found our frequency and culled it somehow. Which would mean either highly trained men, or a very specialized facility of some kind. Neither of which would bode well for a decimated ODST squad equipped for light Reconnaissance.

"Sir," Geoffrey said finally, breaking the eerily silence, "Why haven't they just circled around? They obviously outnumber us.

"Either they don't know the land, or they're protecting something."

"Or we're sport." Jarno spat, disgusted by the Major's silence on the issue, and or now dead communications systems.

I looked over to Jarno, smiling despite the situation under my helmet, "Þá erum við að gefa þeim Hel," (Then we give them Hell) I said through half smiling/half gritted teeth. Jarno obviously couldn't see my face, but he could tell from my tone that I smiled bitterly. He let out a bitter chortle in response.

"Alright. When we gonna send 'em to Hel's frozen gates?" He asked, his voice sobering after the grim mirth.

"Frozen? You trying to be vikings or something?" Geoffrey asked.

"Yeah." Came Jarno's instant dead serious reply. He and I looked at eachother and gave a slight uneasy laugh.

"My CO and his friend are fucking crazy."

"Hoo-rah." I growled towards the American. He beat his chest plate, evidently missing out on my mocking his heritage for mocking mine. Nevertheless, I returned the gesture. Jarno repeated the movement on the opposite side of me. What a fucking mess, I thought to myself.

As if Geoffery had read my mind he followed his peering glance into the field with an mocking toned voice: "... Fuckin' 'Hold tight'."

Ooc: Gah, a day's work and I miss so much!

Bic: Mia jumped as she heard Noon's voice echo around her helmet. She girl was a lot tougher than Mia had realized. By no means could Mia shoot a toothpick from any distance, so any threats she could make against these bullies seemed petty and insufficient compared to the other two. It wasn't as though being able to disarm a bomb would be much use in an offensive attack.

The plane swooped low into the atmosphere and finally landed. Mia unstrapped herself from her seat and placed a hand on the outer hull of the ship to steady herself as she got out of the plane. She stroked her hand across the metal shell. She'd miss this grand machine and hoped that she would survive whatever awaited her out there to be able to come back to this beauty. That being said, this planet was quite beautiful itself. The colours were so strange in their combination to her eyes. She other two walked forward clutching at their weapons, but Mia felt more comfortable with her hands free. She didn't want to risk shooting when unnecessary, and the tiniest glimmer of movement might trigger a fright response from her. Over her training, Mia had grown braver, but this was a real mission and she was unaware how she would react.

Once everyone had finally gathered with me, almost like clockwork, one of the ODST held two fingers to his comm. He spoke to me soon after an audible, "Yes, sir.", was heard. "The CO of this base, Zeta Malus, has told me to let you know one of your team members has already arrived, briefed and is on his way to scout the target area. Sir." I glanced at my companions, before looking back to the trooper. "I believe you might have the wrong Spartans soldier. All of Grey Team is here...." I glanced over him as I saw Black Team all hopping onto mongooses and I pointed in their direction. "Maybe you're looking for them?" He shook his head without even glancing, "No, sir. I'm sorry if you are confused, but we were ordered to contact Grey Team as soon as you landed."

I couldn't help but think something was fishy here. I didn't want to put my team in danger like this, however it didn't seem like we had much choice. This was our only lead to our target and I'm deciding to take it!

I nodded to the trooper, "Thank you for the information private." They both saluted and made off someplace else. I was now gazing upon what looked like, a brand new warthog. I guess they brought this here for us. I turned to face my team, "Well. Looks like we are going for a ride ladies!" Details from the radio transmission scrolled across my HUD. "Alright. Fletcher, you're driving. Noon, get your rilfe ready and take shotgun." Looked to the gunner of the vehicle as I paused. "I'm taking gunner."

After finishing my orders, I immediatly turned on my heels and headed for the back of the jeep, calling out to Mia as I went. "We're headed south. Look for a dirt road that leads into a forest. We'll find what we're looking for somewhere in there." I jumped, hooking my fingers around the handle of the gun and hoisting myself up. I looked back to the two, once I was settled and pulled back the chamber. Allowing the ammo belt to be able to start feeding into the gun.

"Well....What are ya'll waitin for?!"

Mia rushed over to the Warthog that griffin had settled himself upon. "Yes, Sir!" She replied and jumped into the driver's seat. This was not her favourite form of transportation, but this vehicle would suffice and she had enough experience with it to control anything that went wrong. Mia waited for Noon to join them while she started the engine and looked around. Highlighted on the inside of her visor was a tiny compass. South was to their right. She couldn't see a dirt road from here but trusted Griffin's orders to find one.

She wondered who this new member of the Grey Team was. As far as gender went, Griffin was outnumbered. Was this new member strict, harsh, nervous? What were their specialities? Well, Mia would soon find out.

Emilia waited for the exchange between her team leader and the ODST to come to a close before she moved again. Spending the idle time glancing around at her surroundings. She wondered what kind of enemy they were going to come up against here. Most likely rogue humans. The alien race, the Covenant, were not the kind to leave a base like this untouched. They were quick to destroy anything and everything that stood in one place for too long.
Rogue humans meant relatively easy targets for her and her rifle. One round from her anti-material rifle would put a hole in a man the size of a basket ball.

Samuel ordered them into the Warthog in front of them and she moved to climb into the position she had been assigned to. With a little grunt she pulled herself into the passenger seat of the vehicle and settled down with a sigh.
She didn't mind ground vehicles as much as she minded the air vehicles like Pelicans, Hornets, and the likes.

Her eyes scanned the area ahead before she glanced down at the weapon slung over the front of her body. Noon's hand came up to pull back the bolt and chamber one of the powerful rounds into her weapon.
"Locked and loaded. If I spot anything you guys better be ready for a bang. This baby is loud up close." she said with a bit of a cheerful tone. It was the truth though. At times even she would find herself with a ringing in her ears after firing too many rounds.

Danny rode south on his Mongoose. His armor had turned into deep greens and browns to blend in. "You're target was lost somewhere in this visinity soldier," a voice spoke to Danny. "Sir," was all Danny replied as he slowed to a stop. "Just a click away solider. Oh, and it appears the rest of your team has arrived. But for now, keep your focus on the mission. You need to scout the area and rescue our stranded solider. Over," the voice cut out with a small feedback sound before silence.

Before heading out further, Danny covered his Mongoose with a few leafs and foliage. Satisfyed with his camouflage, Danny set out. "It would be nice to know what exactly I'm up against and who I'm looking for," Danny mumbled to himself. After a few minutes of silence, Danny tried to contact base. "The area is clear so far, but no sign of our target, over." Silence. Danny tired again. Same response; silence. "I don't like the sound of that," he partially joked with himself. A hand rested on one of his guns as he continued to explore the area.

Mia didn't like the idea of sitting so close to Noon's apparently loud weapon, but she had little choice in the matter. Hopefully her helmet would offer some sound protection. "Ready?" She reved the engine and began to drive. The surface of this planet was more rugged than she had expected and the Warthog lurched unpleasantly over bumps and potholes and around corners. Following her instructions, she headed south and continued to drive in a single direction, her eyes peeled for any sort of trail. She hoped her driving didn't discourage the other two. She was a confidant driver and tended to speed slightly and take more than the usual risks. In this case, she figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

Up ahead was a scatter of trees indicating that a mass, probably a forest, was nearby. As well as these strange red and silver ferns, a dirt road, as told, was to their left and banking south-east. Trusting that this was the path to take, she veered the vehicle onto the road and followed it smoothly. She didn't know how long this path was, and if they came across anything dangerous, she trusted that she would be defended with the help of her team-mates, but if need be, she could fire a weapon and drive simultaneously from this position.

One thing that I did like about the warthog was its driveabilty. Yes, it just about absorbed every dent in the ground. However, this is what made it enjoyable to me. Especially riding gunner. My knees bent repeatedly, causing the barrel to aim at the sky. At some points even coming off the ground completely. A grin appeared under my visor as we reconnected with the ground after launching off of a seemingly small hill, but again, the responssivness makes it not so small.

It seemed like a good bit of a ride, before seeing any real gathering of the red and white vegitation. Even longer until finding the dirt road in question. I slightly hoped those troops were still alive, but honestly even more that those men haven't ruined our chances of getting to him.

A good two or three miles went by, driving down this seemingly 'in the middle of nowhere' road. Other than the fact that the flora seemed to like it here. As it was getting thicker and thicker the farther in we went. The crazy color combination reflecting off of my brand new armor. Just as I began to think this was the wrong road though, I saw something way off in the distance. A good 'nother mile and half down the road. A black blotch. Almost resembling another vehicle. But whatever it was, I was going to check it out before heading any further. It could be a turret. Or even a trap setup to ambush us. But why would they be expecting us?

I began beating on the cross bar over Mia's head, "Whoa. Hey, stop. I think I see something up ahead." I looked to Noon, "Scope it out for us, Noon."

After a little while longer of driving, Mia heard tapping above her head and was ordered to halt. Hitting the breaks, she stopped the Warthog and looked around. This place was rather barren of sentient life, but there was indeed something up ahead, she just didn't know what. If Griffin hadn't said anything, Mia may not have stopped, as she was paying too much attention to the thrill of driving. Once Griffin had given his orders to Noon, Mia looked over at her companion for answers. She hoped that whatever lay ahead wasn't some enemy contraption, or anyone responsible for it.

Most of the ride was smooth give or take a few moments where the Warthog actually took to the air though those moments could hardly be felt while in the passenger seat. Being in the gunners position was a completely different story though. She doubted that Samuel minded. As of yet he seemed like the kind of Spartan who would enjoy a good bumpy ride.
Soon enough though there came a tapping from above and his voice came over the channel, telling Mia to stop the vehicle. The Captain had been keeping her eyes on the surroundings as opposed to ahead. So now as she gazed forward she saw the object in the distance.

"You got it sir." she replied quickly as she climbed out of the Warthog and moved to crouch down right where they had stopped in the middle of the road. The scope of her rifle came up to just an inch away from her visor as she looked through it.
It took her a sweep of her crosshairs to fully evaluate the situation going on down the road. Had they been enemies she would have been able to pick them off with ease. However they wore tactical ODST suits.
"There is a single vehicle, disabled by the looks of it. Five friendly units in total. Three taking cover and two KIA by the lack of movement."
She adjusted the magnification of her scope by one more level, turning it to two out of five.
"Looks like a sniper rifle round by the nature of the damage" she lowered her weapon and stood before turning to look up at the Samuel.

"I'd like to proceed from here on foot, if I may. This sniper is no novice. I wouldn't venture too close in this vehicle."
She reached up to her shoulder to pull the belt of grenades from it, laying them down in the seat she had ridden in to get there.
"If you could try to get a comms link up with them I'd like to get a sitrep from their side. I need to know where the rounds came from."
The shy Spartan that both Mia and Samuel had seen on the ship was gone. This was the true marksman that lay within Emilia. This side of her was what gained her the right to wear the helmet with the skull design carved into the front of it.
"Permission, sir?" she asked while slinging her weapon over her shoulder.

I turned, letting go the tight grip I had had on the turret. I had become so used to squeezing it so I wouldn't fall off, it kind of felt weird to let go. I lept from my postion on gunner and hit the ground behind Noon. The hog bouncing with the sudden release of weight. I nodded to her and cleared my visor. "Permission granted for lone ops Captain; but the radio will be more of a difficult matter. You see, I've been attempting to connect with Command since we found the road. However, there is never a response. I'm gunna say it's safe to guess there is a jammer somewhere." I smiled through my visor. "And what does a jammer usually mean? Hidden bases."

I began to casually survey our surroundings, just before our AI guide appeared in front of my face. "Sir. Maybe I could be off some assistance?"

"Oh. I forgot about you, Alto. I'm an idiot!" I paused to take his chip out of my helmet so I could view him in the terminal in my palm. "What do you suggest?"

His arms crossed at the small of his back. "I would suggest creating a short range transmitter, that runs OUT of your pack. That way, transfer of signals couldn't be blocked. Since we are already inside the jamming radius." He spoke in a very matter of factly tone.

"Hm. Do you think you could actually pull that off Alto?" I asked, taken aback by the way that actually seemed so simple.

He looked away for a moment before responding, "I am hurt that you doubt my ability to handle such a trivial task." He paused, "Replace me in your helmet please."

I inserted the chip back into the slot on the rear of my helmet. I could feel a bit of fuzz building in my brain. It was a really creepy feeling. I usually didn't work with AI because of that. Knowing something is completely connected to you in everyway? Accessing everything you can and more. Like you are just a box of files? No thanks. I'll pass.

"It is done."

"Thank you Alto." I popped my backpack off and subsequently handed it to Emilia. "There you go Noon. Let them know reinforcements are on the way to rendevous with them as well." I paused, "You might wanna look for some high ground if you can. Good luck Noon. Come back to us safe." My visor faded back to black and I jogged to the other side of the hog. I slapped the hood before waving Mia to me. "Let's move out, Buzzbox. Just stay behind me. I'll handle any threats if we run into them." With that, I turned and headed about half a mile into the treeline and started on my way to the ODST at a fairly quick pace.

Emilia looked up at her squad leader as he spoke to her, granting her permission to move on her own. However he told her that getting the ODST on the radio would be a little bit less of a given. She nodded her head slightly at this revelation. Not knowing where the rounds were coming from would prove to be a bit of a problem. To the point where she may have needed one of them to move out of cover as bait for the sniper so that she would be able to spot him. Spartan or not this sniper was going to be well concealed through this thick brush.
Suddenly the teams A.I. spoke up and announced that he get something practical sorted out.

Samuel worked out getting the transmitter working with Alto as Noon brought her scope back up to watch the stranded men. If any of them got hit while they were waiting she was going to be upset.
His voice broke the short silence and he held his pack out for her to take. Telling her to tell the ODST that reinforcements were on the way.
She nodded her head as she pulled the bag on and adjusted it so that it fit her body.
"Will do sir. I'll be back before you know it." she spoke quietly as she stood up.

After making sure she had everything she needed she began off into the undergrowth at a fast pace, moving through the brush as carefully as she could. Just as she disappeared into the brush her active-camouflage turned on and she disappeared completely from view aside from a very slight sheen around her outline when she bumped into something. She knew that she needed to find somewhere to set up. Preferably on higher ground but only if she could find some. Otherwise she just needed somewhere that she could get a clear line of sight to the vehicle and the ODST.

It took her a few minutes but she found exactly what she was looking for. There was a hill that rose a good twenty feet above the otherwise flat surrounding area. She slowed her pace and turned her head to face the direction that she knew the pinned unit was in. She continued to walk until she found an area that she could set up in with a perfect line of sight.
She laid down and steadied her weapon with its bi-pod.

Aimed down her sights she was once again greeted by the visual of the three men in ODST armor. They had not yet moved. This was when she began to radio them.
"ODST units this is WhiteSkull, WhiteSkull to ODST units. Do you copy?" she said into the microphone in her helmet and waited for a few seconds before continuing.
"Friendly Spartans are enroute to your location however I have taken up an overwatch position. I have you in my sights. Can you give me a general sitrep? I need to know where the rounds came from."
She spoke while adjusting her sights and making the needed calculations for a shot at this distance.
Being a mile away from the ODST meant that the enemy sniper could be up to two miles away from her current position.

Mia didn't like this. Something was wrong and she needed to speak up now before it was too late. "Permission to speak freely, sir?" Mia asked Griffin. She was amazed at the capability of AIs and found them incredibly useful, but they were still a computer generated being and she didn't entirely trust their judgement.

The team needed to communicate, especially as Noon was now venturing off alone, and depending on the strength and distance of the blocker, a more complex AI like Alto could theoretically bi-pass the code wall and generate electrical pulses hidden within the system to reverse the effects of a blocked signal. However, and Mia feared that Griffin was unaware of this, it would mean that their communicative channels would no longer be private without some serious software tampering. Mia had experience in this field before, but perhaps her introverted demeanour caused others in her presence to forget about her computational abilities. If their signal was blocked, while she gathered it was due to the fact that Alto had been able to reverse the effects, that meant that an enemy was nearby and could now listen in to any conversations they may have. perhaps this was an ambush within their technical surveillance.

I heard Mia speak up over comms while we were dashing through the woods. I lept over logs, pushed small trees and limbs out of my way. Almost forgetting to pull out a gun. I decided on the silenced smg for now. I didn't want to fully annouce our pressence just yet. She asked for pression to speak. "Permisson granted Sergeant."

As I had closed the distance quite a bit by now, I slowed to a quick walk. Suveying the area as I went.

Deciding it was safer not to use the shared communication device, Mia turned off the signal on her end and gestured to Griffin to do the same. She was unsure about exposing herself to the atmosphere of this planet, but was fairly confidant that he could hear her if she spoke loud enough. She explained the errors of reversing the blocking effects to his, revelling her strong suspicions that whomever had blocked their communicative signal could theoretically be listening to their conversations on an open airline, instead of a private channel. She also offered her support in solving this issue, but wanted to hear Griffin's thought on the matter before her attempt. If she had the permission, the task shouldn't be too hard, she just needed to be careful while speaking with the com-line during her work. Her only real worry was how they were going to warn Noon, whom had now proceeded on her private mission down the dirt road.

I stopped running and turned to face Mia. Clearing my visor as you could hear my slightly audible breath. I turned off my comm radio as well. "I'm not sure how it works, but I don't think Alto would put us in intentional danger..."

Speaking of him, made him appear in front of my face. "Captain. Please understand that I can anylze the type of jamming transmission that is being used based on how our personal channel still works, but we can't contact anyone outside. This means they must be using a class 3 epsilon bubble shaped field that only blocks incoming and outgoing transmissions. Instead of scrambling inside the raidius. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to communicate with eachother using anything but two-way radios."

I ended up blanking out a couple times throught the conversation between the two. I was utterly lost I must say... I spoke to Mia once I assumed Alto was finished for now. "Well. Assuming that you are right Fletcher. How would you suggest fixing it? You don't want to use our personal channel for fear of someone listening in, so you have no way of knowing where she is to edit the transmitter." I reclipped my weapon, but still remained vigilant. It was never safe to completely let your guard down in unknown territory.

Danny travelled down the forest for a while now. Sometimes on paths, sometimes not. The foliage changed, as did his armour to accommodate. If the information that Danny got was correct, then he sound be approaching dangerous territory shortly. Danny placed a hand on his gun and waited.

Suddenly, he heard voices. Danny stopped and surveyed his surroundings. It wasn't until later that Danny realized it was his com-line. He had gotten used to the blocked signal, so he wasn't expecting the voices. "Sir, Daniel McKarthy of team grey, scout, sir," Danny spoke quietly into the group. "I had orders to move ahead and find the location of our targets. I have yet to make visual, but the targets should be close. The terrain seems to be 'normal' compared to others, and the threat of which we're facing has yet to make itself clear. Further information will be provided once I'm aware of it, sir," Danny talked to the team, though directed it at the leader. He wasn't sure how long they've been in the area, so any bit of information that Danny could provide, he did.

Mia hoped Griffin hadn't underestimated her. Perhaps that was the reason why Noon had the face of a skull on the fron of her helmet. She was rather intimidating at times, perhaps she didn't want to be underestimated, herself. Mia reached into the case on her back and pulled out what looked like a boxy remote. "With this, Sir." Mia began to explain to him. "It picks up transmissions within a certain radius, depending on various conditions, and I'm fairly confidant that this device can aid me in knowing whether or not I have succeeded in retaining a private communications system within the Grey Team. Actually executing the issue is slightly different and requires my own personal skill, but it shouldn't be too difficult. My only concern is Noon attempting to contact us from her distance while I lower the defences. The outcome of this should be successful and will only take a few moments. Our exposure to any enemy transissions should be no greater than the amount that was temporarily uncovered when your AI reversed the system, so not very high at all, but of course, I can't guarantee my timing. It may take me a little over 20 seconds to accomplish, which I appreciate, Sir, isn't ideal. Then again, in any other circumstance, it could take me well over a minute and our defensive could be lowered substantially more, so I'm grateful for the shorter time." She really hoped that Griffin knew what she was talking about. Mia didn't want to take the risk of not trying this. The risk of not making this attempt could be far greater.

An obvious chuckle left my mouth. Between these two, they are really good at making me feel completely ignorant. I shook my head with a sigh, "If you think that'll work. By all means go ahead." I could hear a slight groan come from Alto. I rolled my eyes as a slight smile appeared on my face for a short moment. AI's feeling jealousy? Who would have thought.

As she was waiting for a reply from the ODST unit, who were still taking cover in a ditch on the other side of her scope, she heard a voice in her earpiece. At first she thought that it was the ODST replying to her call out on the radio however the reply wasn't quite what she had expected. It took her a moment to realize that someone completely different was speaking to her. Though by the way that they used the word 'sir' she doubted that the person had really been speaking to her.
Still she was obliged to answer as the others were not in the position to.

"Spartan Daniel McKarthy, this is WhiteSkull. The squad leader does not have transmission reception capabilities at this moment. Where is your current location?" she spoke in a quiet voice as she scanned the tree line in front of the ODST with her crosshairs. Either the sniper had moved or he really was waiting for the men in cover to move or make a mistake.
He was well hidden that was for sure.

"Thank you, Sir." Mia said and smiled gratefully. She was rather impressed by AIs, but judged them not to have pure imagination, nor creativity, a skill that she believed was essential to many tasked assigned to her as an engineer. In some ways, she was an artist, and she failed to see how an AI to recreate such things through an artificial personality. AIs, after all, were artificially intelligent beings.

"If I may?" Mia gestured to the device in her hand and began to scan their communications channel for any interference.
The amount of static energy was slightly higher than usually, which means she would have to temporarily lower the defence systems in order to strengthen the private line. Proceeding to do this, she silently prayed that Noon was not attempting to contact them, and also hoped that whomever was in control of the code wall would not do the same to each other.

"Almost done, Sir." Mia stated, guessing that Griffin would like to be notified on her progress. Using the same code wall that blocked their devices initially, Mia reversed the effects, like Alto had done to re-block the signal through a different source. Their defences were now not completely offline, but most definitely weakened. Using her own invented technology, Mia send out a firewall that resembled a virus. This would both prevent the Grey Team's communication channels from receiving all related viruses, not unlike that of a vaccine, but also weakening the code wall owners, which mia presumed her enemies. She hoped this would cause permanent damage to them, but even if it was only temporary, but the time their systems returned, the Grey Team would be well in the clear and virtually undetectable. For all the 'enemy' knew, the Grey Team's devices would still be on a public channel. However, Mia wasn't entirely sure that the 'enemy' was aware of this opening in the first place. It was far better to be safe than sorry, and with the attack of her homemade virus, she was fighting fire with fire. Once Mia had sent out the remainders of the virus and covered her team's channel with a protective anti-virus software, all she needed to do now was close the connection to a private system. Easy. As long as Noon or their 'enemies' said absolutely nothing.
"Almost..."

:The Guards:

Spoiler:

"Ja." I said quickly, hearing a woman's voice over the radio. I looked off the right. Geoffery, leaned around the corner, peaking out for some form of movement. I Hadn't heard any sound of motors. The helmet's HUD and reception must have been acting up again. I looked to Jarno, "Spartans."

"About Goddamn time! We get to see the kids in action." Jarno shouted, beating his chestplate once more.

My heart began to rush with anticipation, Spartan units were the bets of the best, (aside from us in my opinion, we grew our training without being giants, but that might be the voice of the short boy who was pushed around in grade school speaking up).

"Ja," I repeated again, this time louder, I gripped the rifle in my hand, lifting 'er up to my shoulder, "Sniper in the distance, we're the only ones left. Sounds like a few with DMR's in the brush west of the Warthog." Now, to just wait for the woman's voice to respond.

"This is what the Major sent?" asked the young man, pulling back towards me. Off beside me Jarno shrugged.

"No idea, just keep your head low, they go first, then we can make a break for it."

"Yes sir!"

"Christ, I can't wait to move my legs." I grumbled to Jarno, who was bending and unbending his kinked legs as I was.

Emilia felt relief when she heard the voice of a man in her earpiece and saw movement on the other side of her scope. She was happy to know that Alto's plan had worked and she could communicate with the stranded ODST units.
Now she just waited to hear his report on the downed units and the direction in which the shots had come from. When he spoke again and identified a direction she moved her scope so that it was aimed in the direction he had specified. It took her a moment but the men were still there. Well hidden but they were there. She could see their outlines in the brush. They were waiting for the ODST units to make a mistake.

"Hang tight. I've got them. Hold for damage reports." she spoke into the microphone as she took a few slow breaths, centering her scope on one of the figures.
Her finger brushed over the trigger and she held her breath. 1 second..2 seconds..3 seconds.
She pulled the trigger on 3 only to be graced by the recoil of her weapon and the suppressed 'thud' the round made as it left the barrel.
Even though there was an integrated suppressor on the end of the barrel the sound still echoed from the large caliber of the round that it fired.

"Hit." she said as she fired again at her next target. He too exploded into a mist of red and his body fell to the ground in a heap.
"Hit." Another round and another body fell to the ground amongst the brush.
"Hit." A third round tore through flesh and a short scream filled the air however it was very quickly cut off by the life draining out of the third enemy.
Finally all that was left was the sniper that she had been informed of. This one was well hidden.

"I wouldn't venture to far out into the open, guys, this one is a good shot." She said as she pulled a smoke grenade from a pouch on her waist. The Captain pulled the pin and threw the grenade off to her side, watching the area closely as the grenade exploded into a cloud of smoke.
She saw movement and she smiled. He had turned suddenly to check the smoke cloud with his scope. He had been spooked by the sudden death of his allies. Amateur mistake.
The round flew true and she saw a shape of leaves suddenly collapse onto the ground. Not a bad disguise for someone who didn't have Active Camouflage the way she did.
"He's down."

Yelling, followed by more yelling. I looked over the hood of the Warthog.

Movement, a Guerrilla-styled Ghillie sprinting for cover. I raised my rifle to take the shot, the scope zooming in on the contours of leaves on his back, three shots, grouped around the upper chest, hopefully striking a lung or similar organ. Then he just dropped with a muffled yell. Echoing in the distance was a suppressed rifle. I smiled under my helmet. She killed most of the group without so much as a few seconds inbetween.

"Fucking Test Tube soldiers." Jarno muttered.

I heard her voice, cool and collected. Typical Spartan II.

"He's down."

"Ja, I see that. Keep your eyes open Spartan, there might be more." I warned, lifting myself up, surveying the clearing, and treeline surrounding us. Ahead along the dirtpath, nothing moved, and once more, the forest was silent.