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. Hammer answered back with a shot of his own that knocked the jackal off of his perch on a catwalk down the street. His body laid limp on the asphalt about 200 yards from Anna. Hammer then descended down, while Anna covered the building across with her Jackhammer launcher.
Once Hammer had regrouped to her side, they did an inventory check. Anna had 2 rockets left, and 10 reloads for her fuel-rod gun that already had a full clip inside. She also produced three plasma grenades, and two frag grenades as well. Hammer had 14 shots left in his satchel for his S2 rifle, no grenades, and a SMG with 8 full clips of ammo, and a half-spent clip loaded into the gun itself.
"We need to get to the RZ," said Hammer, repacking his satchel and hanging his SMG on his side clips. "Lets go," said Anna, and they began trotting down the street, careful to avoid covenant patrols. They had to move down street, to an old parking garage, the RZ, where they were to make their escape. About 1000 feet away from the RZ, Hammer and Anna ducked into the shadows. A phantom flew around the corner, barely missing them as they ducked out of view.
They both knew....phantoms meant drops, and drops meant trouble. They had to hurry if they were going to escape without any problems. Hammer shouldered his S2, and unclipped his SMG, quickly replacing the old clip with a fresh one from his satchel, "I'll take point." "Ok," said Anna, as she shouldered her M19 too, and unslung her fuel-rod gun. They crept along the buildings side until they came up to the corner turning to the parking garage. Hammer set the SMG down, pulled out his spotters scope from one of the equipment pouches on his vest, and wired the scope to his OPSAT with an optic cable, that way he can peek around the corner without actually peeking his head around.
"Nothing that I can see," he said after a minute.
"Nothing on my motion sensor either.....think we can risk it?," said Anna.
"I don't think we have a choice. We need to get out of here, as in like 10 minutes ago," said Hammer, obviously uncomfortable with the fact of not being able to take another way around.
"C'mon, lets be quick," he said as he crept around the corner, and brandished his SMG again. Anna followed behind him, on her toes, ready for anything. About twenty yards from the entrance to the parking garage, Hammer stopped dead in his tracks.
"What is it?," said Anna, but his eyes were wide, and he couldn't say anything. When Anna looked forward again, she saw what the problem was, and she hoped that they weren't real. Two blue, spiney hunters, weapons charging, stepped from either side of the entrance.
"Holy crap!," yelled Hammer as he started backing away from the monstrous creatures. They raised their weapons, eager to blow away the human scum.
"Hey Ogres'!! Knock knock!!," came a voice over the COM., that Anna and Hammer both knew as their third teammate, Ken. From the second story came resounding shots from the gauss turret of a warthog. The magnetic-accelerator cannon started pegging the hunters position, and one shot cracked the sheilding plate on the right hunters arm.
"You like that poodoo breaths!!," Ken yelled as he pounded the enemy with shot after shot. The hunters were forced back inside the garage by Kens suppressive fire, allowing Hammer and Anna to sneak up the fire escape on the side of the garage. One hunter decided to see if he could get a shot off at Ken, and was rewarded with a solid cannon shot to the head. Orange blood came trickling down from its now mutilated neck, and the hunter fell to the ground, its hard armor thudding on the cement. With its bond brother lying dead on the street, the other hunter let out a howl of vengence, and began charging up the parking garage.
"I assume you don't want to play with him anymore?," Hammer said to Ken, as he exchanged places with Ken, so Ken could drive.
"Nah, maybe tomorrow. Give him some time to recover over losing," Ken said, starting the vehicle, and reversing back.
"Would you two shut up, and get us out of here," said Anna, who had climbed into the passenger seat. Suddenly, a radioactive beam impacted on the ceiling above them, blowing out the concrete on the next level. The hunter had come up on the other side of the garage, and fired wildly in a rage.
"Theres' no going that way. I think I have to agree with Anna on this one, Ken." Ken spun the vehicle around, and drove staight away from the hunter.
"Lets go fishing," said Ken, with alittle bit of joy in his voice, "is he following us?"
Another blast landed alittle ahead of the warthog, on Anna's side.
"Son of a bitch," she cursed, and returned fire with her fuel-rod gun. "I'll take that as a yes," said Ken. Hammer opened up the gauss turret on the hunter, but Ken told him to stop firing. "We'll need the ammo along the way," Ken told him.
"So how do you plan to kill the threat behind us? You want us to voodoo it?," said Hammer.
"Trust me," was Kens reply.
The hunter, now charging at the racing warthog with full speed, was completely furious now that he had been fired at again. He shot erratically, not even aiming, sometimes incinerating the sides of cars, or the concrete support columns. Ken gunned the engine as fast as he could to put more distance between them and the hunter. He drove straight for the edge without turning away. Anna, and Hammer both looked at him puzzled, wondering if he was just playing, then freaked out as they realized where Ken was going, but it was too late. The warthog burst from the second story of the building, and landed in the street with a loud crash! Ken tried to keep from loosing it, but was unable to keep the tires grounded, and the warthog rolled, throwing all three of them from their seats onto the hard street.
"What the hell was that about," Anna said as she rose to her feet, retreiving her weapons.
"Look," said Ken, and they all three looked to where the warthog had blitzed out of the side of the building. The hunter stood on the edge, howling in rage, and charging his weapon. "Good-bye poodoo head," said Ken as he produced a detonator from his vest, and pushed the button.
The sound of six Lotus anti-tank mines, detonating on the ground floor support columns, dround out all sound around them, and the hunter was crushed by the weight of the building coming down on top of him. Ken looked back at his teammates, both of which had smiles across their faces. "That goes hard!!".......... Ken was starting to become impatient. He had heard the explosions that could only be Annas' M19 Jackahammer, followed by what had become the now farmiliar crack of Hammers S2 sniper rifle, but the question playing at his mind was....where were they? They weren't late, Ken knew that, but they weren't exactly early either. Thats what Ken liked, a job ahead of schedule to avoid "snags."
To a Spartan, problems were solvable, glitches were fixable, and difficulties were avoidable...but "snags" was something completely random, something that they couldn't train for, or be educated in. He knew it was just his own anxiety, but he was ready to get back to base, back to his quarters, and to have Anna safe again. He knew if anyone could take care of herself, it was Anna. She was as tough as they come, easily one of the best Spartans in the group, but it didn't stop the sour feeling in his stomach. They all had grown-up together in a small town on the east side of this very city. He'd traveled the world over with them, and losing one of them...one of his team...was like loosing his right arm. Yes, he was more protective over Anna than he'd like to have admit, but he couldn't help it. Hammer had been on more solo-op missions than they had, partially because he had asked for them, and Ken knew that as tough as it was getting out there, Hammer would fight to the last, and somehow pull through on top. He knew the same was true for Anna as well, but it gave him no comfort.
His thoughts were suddenly cut short by the sight of a covenant phantom appear from over the roof tops. He was well hidden in the shadows of the second story of the parking garage, and the warthog was unnoticable between the row of other vehicles...at least, if they had noticed it, they paid it no attention, since there was obviously no one to operate it.

"Boy are they in for a surprise," Ken thought. He knew he would win any ground attempt at storming the garage complex, thanks to his six lotus anti-tank mine insurance plan. Any chance of him being overrun, and he would jump down the fire escape, find some cover, and blow them all to hell. He checked his BR55 battle-rifle. Everything appeared ok, and his ammo screen read "36" -- fully loaded. He had four more clips inside his satchel, but had traded his back-up weapon for two extra grenade belts, bringing his total grenade arsenal to twelve M9 explosives. He had also made sure the M68 gauss cannon on the warthog was fully loaded, and calibrated before leaving base. Now, he was ready. Whatever came off that phantom, wasn't going to survive. He cocked back his rifle, slid out of the shadows, along the side wall to the front, and peered over to see the enemy....nothing.
The only thing present, besides the gentle breeze blowing through the street, was the sound of the phantom slowly making its way north in a search pattern. "All that excitement for nothing." Trailing off his last thought came a resounding explosion of another Jackhammer round, as well as a cracking shot of a sniper rifle that identified Hammer doing some covering, and of course -- Anna was blowing stuff up again. The sound came from all the way down the street, yet Ken could see broken debris, and pieces of what used to be, from what Ken could tell, a jackal that was standing at the wrong place at the wrong time, come scattering out infront of the parking garage. Ken almost caught a laugh out of Annas' handy-work, but soon another thought caught his attention that wasn't funny at all.

The phantom. It was coming back, heading toward Annas' & Hammers' position. He wished he could radio after them, give them some sort of warning, but that would be suicide, as the phantom would lock onto his signal, and track him down. Luckily, it didn't have a good enough pin-point on where the explosion came from, as it started a search pattern right over the garage. Now it was Kens turn to be discrete, as he ducked back down behind the wall. The phantom continued searching for about five or six minutes, when it finally came to a halt. Ken knew he couldn't miss out on any surprises the phantom had, so he attached an optic camera to his OPSAT lens, and slid it over the wall. From down the grav-beam of the phantom, came two behemoths clad in blue armor. Hunters.
"Party time," Ken thought to himself. He was about to unplug his optics when he barely notice something....a wire. He took a closer look, and saw that it was another optic camera just like his own. That was his team, he knew it, but they didn't have a good angle of the entrance. There was no way they were going to be able to see the hunters standing there from his position. Ken had to do something.

"Well, fortune favors the foolish," he said to himself. He stood up, ran over to the warthog, and loaded the gauss cannon. Hammer had done exactly what Ken knew he would do. The two hunters were now staring down both Hammer, and Anna.
"Here we go!," "Hey Ogres'!! Knock Knock!!" He opened up the gauss cannon, and barraged the hunter closest to Hammer. After a few well placed shots, the hunters retreated to just inside the entrance. Hammer and Anna were able to make their way around to the side, and come up Kens' insuranced exit, the fire escape. Ken kept firing. Eventually, one poked its body out to try and fire up at Ken. "Oh no you don't!!," Ken thought, as he impaled the hunter with a cannon round to the head. The other hunter went into a rage, and began charging up the garage. "Oh stopping being such a whining pansy," he joked to himself, as Hammer switched spots with him in the gauss turret, and Ken slid behind the wheel.

He looked over at Anna, thankful to have her beside him again. She climbed into the passenger side, and glanced over at him. She was worried, yes, but Ken could tell she was thankful to have the team back together, and Ken there with her. Ken hit the accelerator, just in enough time to escape the brunt of debris from a blast directly over them. The hunter had surfaced, and was out for their blood, and Ken had no intention of granting its wish. He floored the accelerator as Hammer opened up the gauss turret anew.
"Hold off Hammer, We'll need the ammo later," Ken told him. All he heard over the growling engine, was Hammer say something about "threat" and "voodoo," which he wondered how in the world the two words could be put together. Returning his focus back on escaping, "Trust Me!!," was all Ken could reply with. He knew that covenant reinforcements would scout out the garage, since a human had been seen occupying it, and he didn't want to give the covenant another strategic advantage point by having them occupy it. His insurance plan would take care of that. "Is he still back there?," Ken wondered.

The answer came with another explosion to their right. "I'll take that as a yes." Ken knew the only exit they could take wouldn't really be an exit. If they drove out normally, they'd have to go straight past the hunter, and staight to their deaths. Resolute now, he gunned the engine. "C'mon, just let me get far enough away and BOOM!!," he silently hoped. He knew his team, especially Anna, would wring his neck later for this stunt, but there was no turning back. He rammed the warthog through the second story bracer walls, and landed in the street. He was tempted to let out a "Yee-Haw!!," something that would be very uncommon for him, but he soon realized that was out of the question as the warthogs tires bounced awkwardly from the rough landing, and the vehicle lurched over on one side.
"Ahh crap," was all Ken could think of as the warthog rolled, ejecting the three of them out onto the street. When the haze cleared from his vision, his team regrouped themselves, and he stood and pulled for the detonator for the lotuses. When he looked back, watching from the breach in the wall, stood the hunter, charging his weapon for a long-shot blast...but his time had run out. "Good-bye poodoo head," Ken said, with a smirk on his face, as he detonated the lotus mines, and watched the alien hulk get crushed under the collapsing structure. He looked back at Hammer and Anna, both with smile on their faces. "That goes hard," he said. Hammer recollected his scattered arsenal. "Nice. We really need to be more careful about leaving you alone with the explosives," said Hammer. "Why? He'll just blow things up out there too," Anna teased, happy to have a break for a few minutes.
After recollecting their various armaments, they walked over to the rolled warthog. "We got to flip it back. Personally, I don't feel like walking all the way back to base one step at a time," Ken said. "If we all braced the right side with something, we could roll it back," Ken thought aloud. "Nah. We'd never have the leverage without our MJOLNIR armor, and we haven't been fitted for that yet," Hammer said, obviously upset with having to be the one with the negative point of view. "So then what do you suggest," Ken replied, knowing that Hammer was right, "I don't see another means of transportation." Anna crouched down and sat behind a wall, removing her helmet.
"You alright?," asked Ken, his concern showing through his voice.
"Yeah, I'll be alright," She said with a little bit of a flinch.
Ken and Hammer both caught it, and knew she wasn't telling everything. "Ok, whats up?," Hammer asked her, "What are you hiding?"
She knew she couldn't lie to her team, they knew her too well. She turned to one side, revealing a gash in her armor where it had been penetrated. The wound wasn't deep, but the armor was making it worse. It had been sheared into her side, and with every move she made, the deeper it got. "Why didn't you say something?," Ken growled.

"Because I didn't want you worried about me," Anna admitted in a soft voice, "its not bad anyway, just a little uncomfortable."
"Either way, your armor needs to come off. Take off your vest, and unclip your chest plate before that metal makes it any worse," Hammer said.
She nodded and unzipped her vest off, then Ken helped her unclip her chest armor plating, and gently pull if off of her. Hammer dug through his satchel, and pulled a can of bio-foam, and a mild wake-stim. He walked over to Anna, gently put the nozzle against the gash, and sprayed the fuzzing contents into her wound. It quickly expanded, hardened, and sealed up her cut. She flinich when it hardened, and was a little disoriented, but it sealed up nicely, until they could get back to base. Of course, his team had performed, and received that treatment many of times.
"Thanks," Anna said anyway, leaning against Ken.
He smiled at her. There was no need for her gratitude. He was just simply doing his job, but he never minded a "thank you" from his team.....his friends. He turned his attentions to his own self. He was tired, sleep depraved, and even fatigued. He quickly popped the med-stim into his arm...that should hold him until he could rest.

Without warning, a noise came from the sky. He couldn't tell whether the phantom had returned, or if it was a slow flying banshee. Fully alert now, either by the alarming sound, or the med-stim, he motioned Ken to get Anna out of there, and pointed to an ally way. Anna shook her head, picked up her Jackhammer, and took cover behind a stack of crates about thirty yards behind Hammers position. Ken cocked his BR55, jogged to Hammers left about eight yards, and waited in the shadows.
"Sometimes I really wished I outranked them," Hammer thought.
He checked his S2 ammo. A full clip, and seven rounds was all he had to work with. He didn't have his SMG anymore. He had lost it when Ken rolled the warthog, although it couldn't have gone far...all the weapons had fallen within a few yards of the warthog. He could go look for it, but that risked exposing his position. Either way, he wasn't going to be able to do much with a total of eleven shots from a S2 sniper rifle versus any air support the covenant had. The noise was descending now, and finally Hammer was able to identify what it was. He let out a sigh of relief.

"You guys need a lift?," came the marines voice through the COM. The three came out of the shadows, and watched as the heavy pelican descended, and leveled out. Mounting a .50 caliber rifle in the back, stood a Corporal with a gold comet insignia on his left shoulder patch -- an ODST. They were the best of the best when it came to marines. Damn good fighters, and determined to win in any situation. Unfortunately, one obstacle they couldn't best were Spartans, and because of that, they resented them. Hammer had seen them in action. In his micro-G trainging on board the Orbital Defense Platform Cyprus, He and Ken had taken down a squad of ODST's in a match of King of the Hill. The match lasted for 3 days. Hammer had remembered coming away with two bruised ribs, which wasn't a small thing for someone to accomplish against a Spartan. Their bodies were genetically reinforced, so for someone to bruise his rib cage was quite the accomplishment. Then again, they had used the front of a pelican to hit him with. Either way, the Corporal didn't look like he had a problem with the three Spartans boarding the pelican. The three of them boarded, but as Ken and Anna harnessed themselves in, Hammer went to speak to the pilot.
"Thanks for the lift," he said, noticing her rank, "Warrant Officer."
A dark haired woman looked up at him through her NAV. visor, and smiled.
"Always nice to help a Spartan," she said.
Hammer was ready to leave, and eager to get some sleep.
"Do you know th-," the Warrant Officer cut him off. "Don't worry about it sir, we have orders to extract your team, and take you to Ellington Field. From there you will be debreifed. I also was told to inform you that you are being sent to HighCom. in Sydney at 2000 hours."

Hammer shot a double-take at the Warrant Officer, "HighCom.? Australia? Did they tell you anything else?"
The pilot looked confused, and said, "Yeah, I was told to tell you two words: Spartan weapon." Suddenly it clicked in Hammers mind. They were finalizing the Spartan-III's training, and were about to "officially" send the Spartan-III's to war....all of them....

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