User:Rollersox/Halo: Dead Winter

Prologue: Eternal Spring
0555 hours, June 14, 2563 (Military Calendar)

Simon-D318, Shawn-D317, Kai-D007, and Aaron-D045 walked through the thick swampy marshlands of Juke II, the Insurrectionist-controlled UNSC planet. Simon waved his team, Team Warhorse ahead, his MA7K shortened assault rifle close at hand. The bullpup carbine had improved polyhedral grooving, so the range of the weapon would be longer.

"Got a contact," whispered Shawn through his transmission through TEAMCOM.

His figure framed inside the SPI Mark III armor stopped, and he held up a hand, flashing the SPARTAN-III "unknown ahead, wait" signal. He crept forward, and a burst of accurate gunfire from a BR55 battle rifle ricocheted off the superhardened plates of the Mark III. Shawn activated the prototype energy shields fitted onto the new SPI model. The prototype energy shields were generated from a small battery pack on the back of the armor, and cost much more cheaper than the MJOLNIR energy shields because of its energy-saving load-out.

"Snipers up there," Shawn motioned quietly.

Simon nodded and placed a long-range barrel onto the MA7K. He aimed carefully, zooming in with his visor. There they were--a four-man team, two spotters, two snipers, one with a BR55 and the other with a SRS99C-S2 AMB sniper rifle.

A muffled cough and the man with the BR55 battle rifle fell, a soft shot from Aaron's sniper rifle, and the sniper fell. Then the spotters knocked aside their telescopes and pulled out MA5C assault rifles, and began firing. Simon activated his low-power energy shield and calmly marked the first spotter. A 7.58mm round sprayed blood outward from the spotter's head, and the MA5C dropped off the low overhanging "cliff."