joshua made his way to his pod, making sure to pick up his DMR before departing. He equipped his pod with his weaponry and got into the pod, they were a bit smaller than the last time he had been in one of those. He did a quick pre drop test and turned on his com unit, "This is spartan J-029 ready to drop on your orders command" He scraped a smile when he heard the lieutenant's words, He kept off the coms keeping to regulation, he double checked the co-ords and planned his route. he held on to his straps and readied himself for the rush of adrenalin that would be to come.

As all the pods were lowered, Knight begun to type in his NAV-Comm That displayed the ONI Research Facility, and a large open field. This displayed across all of the Pod's VISOR system, indicating that the field was the optimal landing zone for the pods.

"Head up people, our target is the ONI Research Facility in New Li'maria. there are large, open plains that will be our best chance of safely landing. Bonus points if you hit a Moa." Knight broadcasted.

With his speech over, a small countdown begun from five. And once Zero flashed across the board, the pods were dropped. There was a bit of a knock as the Pod left the artificial gravity of the Blade's Edge and a slight graceful emptiness as the pods glided through empty space. The pods were in a perfectly even formation. It was almost peaceful. That was until several MAC shots skimmed past their pods and Avalon taking remote control over their flight computer so they were literally chasing the shell.

The shield would flash before them before quickly dissolving again, then the abrupt rumbling on entering orbit of the planet.

As the pod entered the planets atmosphere it began to shake slightly not enough to throw it off course but enough to give a normal Marine a slight bit of Nausea. as the pod got a bit closer to the drop zone the Radar to the right of Jones began lighting up with little Dots. "Spartan Jones to Blades Edge. Ive got quite a few blips on my motion tracker. Hello. Hello? Anyone?" obviously the comms from the planet to the blades edge wasnt strong enough. they would have to establish a Forward Operating Base if they wanted a cleared signal. "Spartan Jones to Spartan's Josh-029, W-114 and Edwards. Anyone else picking up Hostiles on there Motion tracker"

Josh felt the turbulence of the atmospheric entry and saw the sheild close behind him, it seems that for once the odds were in his favour. "This Is Spartan -029, Blade's Edge do you read?" there was no reply except the distorted noise of radio traffic. Josh looked to his sensors as the message came through "This is Joshua I'm receiving you sir, I'm reading multiple hostile readings also, could be glitch from entering the shield, Could be what's messing with our comms. I'm preparing for the worst," Joshua tried to contact the blade's Edge again but it yielded no response He started a recording "This is Spartan 029 reporting to blade's edge in the dark, we are seeing multiple hostile at our drop location we are preparing for the worst Joshua out."

Only short wave signal were being received by each other, all contact with the Blade's Edge had been lost once they entered the shield.

Knight's pod crashed in a dense muddy field, the rain was pouring down as if the region was being hit by a hurricane. Visibility, even with sensory aids was limited to about 200ft. Knight waited inside his pod as it sunk slightly into the wet mud. He thought it was the safest option until everyone else had landed, or crashed depending on the case.

"This is W-114, report drop status." He ordered.

"Edwards receiving, reading you one by five. I've also got multiple hostile readings, could be interference, out." Angels signal was static-filled and unclear at best. "Blade's Edge, this is Lieutenant Edwards, do you read? We have multiple hostile readings and we are preparing for an offensive landing. Possible interference from the shield, over."

After three attempted communications with the Blade's Edge and no response, Angel assumed they would not have comms with command until some sort of radio way-station was set up. She re-opened the channel between the pods, sending out another message "Looks like we're going to have to live without command for a while boys. I repeat, this mission is in the dark until further notice. Edwards out." She looked out the tiny window of her pod, now able to see landscape forms and noticed she was still somewhat on course, whatever that meant.

Angel's pod crashed down hard into a hill, rolling down and wrecking most of the exterior of the pod. She looked out the window as the newest transmission came in. "Angel-144, drop status landed. Condition, yellow. My door is jammed into the ground. Requesting assistance, over." She sounded slightly panicked, her breathing heavy and muffled. In the pod, it was pitch black until she flicked on her headlamp to examine her situation.

Just as the good colonel finished strapping himself in the sensation of the pod's release hit him at full force, his stomach nearly turning inside out. That brief instant of weightlessness before the fall was always the worst and the human closed his eyes against it, muscles tightening as the unfamiliar feeling of tension rushed through his every muscle. The magnetic clamps disengaged and the pod dropped abruptly, dropping the officer and all his disorientation into the atmosphere.

It was a good minute or so from drop to landing and as his pod penetrated the barrier Morrel shuddered at the sensation. No matter how many drops one engaged in it was always the same, you never quite got used to how brutal pod travel was. But just as the ordeal began it was already over. Orbital drops were swift, especially since one was riding in a massive metal crate which accelerated past terminal velocity nigh-instantaneously. As the ground neared the main chute and counter-thrusters activated and again the colonel felt the abuse. The experience was like being in a head-on collusion going three times the speed limit. The interior of the pod lurched against its boltings and the package at the colonel's feet nearly came loose. Hitting the ground was even worse and by the time the restraints disengaged Morrel was seriously wondering if he'd broken anything.

Miraculously the pod's door engaged and with a loud 'hiss' the metal tub opened, ejecting its occupant forward and onto his knees. Morrel stayed there only a second as his mind re-oriented itself to the feeling of level ground and proper gravity. As soon as he was on his feet the colonel secured his weapons from the pod and sent out a all-comm to the team. "Fire team quantum this is colonel Morrel. I've made landfall. I want all of you to form up on my pod as soon as you're able, I've got a little something for the team to take care of." Cutting the transmission the colonel turned to look back at the pod, eyes narrowing as they finally came to rest upon the mystery item. Staring back at the officer with the same lifeless stare was the shell of a HAVOK tactical nuke, ONI's little insurance policy. If the UNSC couldn't have what was planet-side, no one could.

Joshua's pod landed straight down into a dense hillside tree line, upon checking the integrity he found he was fine. "This is joshua reporting in, drop status is green, proceeding to move on to Spartan 144's position now." He popped the casing of his pod and dropped out from the 15ft high tree. He set Angel's pod as a way point and made his way there, He turned on the light on his DMR and made his way to her pod, He was about 1km out from her position. He couldn't see far so he kept on his feet having no clue what could jump out around him. He made his way to her pod without any trouble, "spartan 144 this is Joshua, I'm going to roll your pod over, Stay still, so the door doesn't blow off." with a heave he rolled the pod onto it's back. Upon righting the pod he tried opening the pod door. It tried to fire open but the pistons wouldn't fire. The pod door was damaged beyond relief there was no way it was coming off without some force against it. He went around the front of the pod and grabbed hold of the pod door putting his right leg on it as a ballast and yanked it off throwing it behind him, He reached his hand out towards her, "are you alright spartan?"

"Roger that Angel-144, W-114 inbound." Knight announced as he forcefully punched the manual door releases. Seconds after, a whips hissing flowed from the pod and moments after the door flew from its casing with great force and landed in a ditch. Knight peeled himself from his seat and jumped out, sinking a good foot into the mud that might as well been quick-sand. He quickly undocked his two Z-110s and holstered them to his thighs and pulled out his Z-130,which he kept ready.

As he ploughed through the mud had had received the Colonel's, a bit disgruntled by his sudden commands although it was he who was in charge of this operation. Knight looked at his HUD that were giving off hundreds if not thousands of hostile movements, however there was no bio-sigs nor and other indication of hostiles.
"Knight here, looks like the energy field powering the shield is interfering with our motion trackers, stay alert." Knight recommended as he continued to Angel's pod.

Jones pod landed fairly close to Angels pod, it wasnt his best landing in a pod as he had hit a Moa. the pod was unbalanced so it fell straight onto the pod doors face "Spartans Knight, Edwards and Josh. i am in need of Assistance. i hit a moa and the pod landed funny its on its face. i cant get out." he punched a small button on the seat "Ive set the distress beacon off, should come up as a Green marker on your HUD. Im going radio silent till you guys get here incase of any Hostiles. Jones Out" Jones pressed a button on the pods seat that started an audio recording in his helmet. "Spartan Luke-237. This may be my final recording. my drop pod has landed face down and i am unable to get out. I dont know if there are any hostiles in the area so this may be the last time you here from me. to who ever finds this recording along with me then please keep the tradition going. Spartans never die their just missing in action"

Edwards reached out and took his hand after releasing the locks that restrained her to the seat and pulled herself upright. She looked to Joshua with a nod, uttering a quiet thanks. Whether it was her quiet nature or humiliation that kept her quiet was unknown, but she quickly grabbed the long sniper rifle from the pod and began to move toward Jones' distress beacon.

"Iris, scan for non human life forms with a 500m radius of my position. Notify me on completion." She kept walking, her pistol drawn and held in ready position as she did. "Spartan 114, this is Angel 144, I am free and moving towards Spartan Jones' position now. Over."

"Roger that Angel-114, regrouping with the Colonel. Meet you there." Knight answered as he continued to make his was to the Colonel.

After a long, enduring hike, Knight arrived at the aid destination and greeted Morrell.
"So what's this task, sir. We really need to press on to the facility."

As the mission's commanding officer Morrel was technically in charge, but as the mission's head NCO Knight also had a say. Their relationship was meant to be complimentary, not caustic, the officer handling the overall tactical objective, leading and commanding, while the NCO took care of the execution and led the troops in battle. For the moment the relationship between the two, human and Spartan, was holding, though how much longer this strained interaction could last was questionable.

"Good to see you Spartan." Morrel greeted knight as he approached, wasting little time in directing the Spartan towards their surprise package. "It wasn't my choice to bring it along but I agree with the ONI higher-ups. This is something that couldn't be mentioned in the briefing but if this facility falls into enemy hands we're to enact Cole Protocol as is regulation. I'm sure to understand what that means." Even though the Sangheili and most other covenant races knew the location of Earth it didn't mean the UNSC was allowing itself to become an open book. Secret facilities were secret for a reason. "Task the HAVOK out to one of your Spartans when they arrive, then we'll press on to the facility."

Joshua acknowledged the thanks and left to the rendezvous point, he thought that with a rifle that size angel could take pretty good care of herself. after a short jog he made it once again with no hostiles. He greeted his COs with a salute "Spartan 029 reporting sir," he paused for a moment examining the nuke, "Sir i apologize if i'm out of line; but what the hell are we going to do with a nuke in a research facility," of course he knew what it was there, It was classic ONI if all else fails blow it up, He just wanted to hear his CO say it, if the commander doesn't believe in the orders then they aren't good orders. He respected Knight to make the right call what ever it was going to be.

Knight was taken aback a bit by the weapon that the Colonel had brought but it was too late now, and rather than arguing he merely picked up the HAVOC and sealed to his lower back.

"I'll carry it, I wouldn't ask anyone in my team to carry such a weapon." He proclaimed. He quickly radioed in for everyone to fall in ASAP.

After a few minutes of walking, a shimmer from her headlamp caught her eye. Jones' drop pod. She smirked under her mask and jogged over, clipping her Magnum to her right thigh. The drop pod was partially sunken into the mud and would prove difficult to move, but she had to try. Angel mumbled to Iris quietly before looking back to the drop pod "Spartan Jones this is Angel, I am at your position and I'm about to move the pod. Stay where you are. Out."

The pod groaned and screeched as she rolled it slowly onto its back, the door now facing upwards. Angel unclipped her Magnum from her hip, pistol whipping the manual release to unjam it, then yanking the door off as it released. She looked down into the pod at Jones, a small smirk growing under her helmet "Wakey wakey, no time for napping." She laughed and offered her hand to Jones.

Jones looked up to Angel with her hand outstretched "Thanks Angel, wait no i didnt mean it like that. just Thank you" he said grabbing her hand and climbing out. he grabbed his DMR and his magnum from the pod before turning back to Angel "so Lieutenant we should probably get moving"

"Spartan 114, this is Angel. I've picked up Jones and we're both on our way to your position. Out." She looked to Jones and nodded, trudging on through the soft, damp ground.

Upon arrival she saw the infamous HAVOC nuke on 114's person, and while she was a little taken back, she said nothing on the topic. "Edwards reporting. Where are we going from here?"

"Edwards reporting. Where are we going from here?"

The colonel watched as the rest of fire team quantum assembled, eyes slowly shifting between each of the armored figures. At times it was hard to believe there was really a human underneath each of the suits. "Now that we're on the ground Spartan Knight is going to lead our team in a recon of the facility. Just make sure you don't break anything in there." The colonel's dry humor was likely lost on the soldiers. Despite his words any one of the Spartans was almost certainly more agile and careful than he was even on his best days. Looking over to Knight, "Well Spartan?"

As Jones joined angel and the others with the colonel he looked back over to the drop pods in the distance. if they needed back up down here theyd need to get that shield offline. "Knight, Just a suggestion maybe we should find the controls or atleast a powersource for that shield. i mean what if theres wounded we cant leave them here to die"