Sword and Shield

Story
7/18/67.15:00

"SPARTAN-297, reporting for duty sir." Gabriel gave out a salute then paused to receive his directives. His CO had been staring deeply into the monitor of his computer and sighed once he had had his fill of rambling data. He turned to face Gabriel.

"SPARTAN, your orders are fairly simple. You're being deployed to an insurgent base to see what information can be gathered that's useful to the UNSC. Take prisoners if you can, and make sure that those who aren't apprehended are terminated. Now, it's a highly populated area, so make sure that your team knows to fire each bullet carefully; it goes without saying that we don't want civilian casualties. Those are your orders, move out."

The super-soldier responded quickly with a "yes sir" before journeying back to where his team stood in the camp. They had been listening in on the meeting through head sets within their helmets, and gave him a short nod before packing into the pelican. As it took off, the group began discussing tactics.

"Right," Gabriel started. "Luna, when we get there, you go through the front with Remy. I'll break into the back with Jill, and Luther will be coming through the side with Marcus. If there isn't a side or back, we'll see if there's a top."

"No." Luna had been nodding until he referenced accessing an upper entrance. "If you go through the roof, you'll be sitting ducks on those wires, and if you drop to fight on the ground with us then things'll get too crowded. We're good at aiming, but not that good." She thought for a moment, then continued. "I'm thinking we go in and spread outward from there. If we disperse, we won't be in eachother's way. How's that sound?"

"Good. Now, I say we try that if there are no other entrances. We're going in blind, so entering and attacking in the same general area may be a very bad idea; we don't know what these guys have in store for us. Be careful."