Eryx had only one of his handguns drawn as he moved from the Pelican, signaling the team through hand movements to follow in formation. His guard was up, drives active. Anything that moved above a certain speed would trigger his enhancement immediately to slow it down. He stayed on the recommended path that he'd reviewed on the way in, any deviation wasn't needed unless the situation changed. "Stay close." He mutters, his suit calibrating not to trigger off of the distant flashes and drop pods. Fireteam Quantum has entered the AO, moving to recover the Spartan IV armor. Requesting remote activation of the suits distress beacon for detailed targeting."

"Negative Fireteam Quantum. The beacons will show up for the Insurrectionists as well. we need to get there first. The ODSTs are held up in the train station just south of your position, they will take you to the last known location. you should be able to find them from there." the voice of Lasky said over the Radio.

"Listen Eryx if i know anything about Lasky from the time ive served under him its that he refuses to take any action that may jeopardise the mission or the squad" Casey said tapping him on the shoulder as she walked out the Pelican, battlerifle out and assault rifle on her back.

Browning stepped from the Pelican, clicking off the safety on his own battle rifle. As his helmet adjusted to the light conditions, it also activated the HUD zoom. He connected to the local radio channel

They're right. I'm seeing railcars a half klick from us, bearing one seven eight. Suggest switching to encrypted channel. I'm also going to request now to take point.

Brownings HUD switched back to standard view range before he turned to look at his fellow fire team members. Once on a secure channel they'd be able to share a feed of what they're seeing. He'd have to insist on that.

Casey turned to look at the squad. they had to link up the ODSTs and fast if they wanted to find the armour. "Squad Leader we should probably get moving, dont want to leave the Helljumpers waiting eh?"

"Sometimes you have to choose between the mission and the squad." He responds as he draws back, allowing Browning to take point as his weapon was better equipped for the task. They would move towards the ODST's in the tunnels below, his arm raised and ready to fire at any time, he didn't rely on ODST's to stay alive during open combat like this. "One of them can be replaced."

Casey brought up the squads rear, watching the roof tops for any signs of insurrectionists. "lets get a move on Gentlemen those ODSTs arent gonna wait all day"

Blackburn looked around, trying to see any areas that could hold an ambush waiting for them. "This place screams ambush..." Blackburn said as he gripped his DMR a bit harder. He rubbed the trigger of his weapon, ready to shoot if necessary. He looked at Eryx, knowing that he'd probably make him go scout around. He hoped this wasn't the case and remained silent to avoid being forced to look for the enemy.

Browning kept himself a few paces ahead of the squad. He'd pinged them all with the encrypted channel, and had opened a feed direct from his HUD so they saw exactly what he did. He moved slowly, watching the buildings for movement. It was fairly quiet, leading him to assume the "innies", as they where known through the UNSC, had moved on. At least he hoped so. Still, he refused to let his guard down fully. That was a gift both the helljumpers and ONI had taught him. Rule one, expect a fight. ONI taught him rule two, make it on your terms. For that reason, he kept his battle rifle clean and well oiled, now with his finger on the trigger. He was ready for the worst to come.

Moving along the street was quiet work, but it was direct, and easy to ambush, so occasionally he'd poke into some of the smaller buildings, just ensuring they didn't recieve the chance to pour out behind them. Still nothing. It was about halfway, as they started nearing the edge, that he saw the glint of light reflected from one of the upper floors of a tall building. He sprinted to crouch next to a car shortly before him, holding up his hand as a fist, indicating they stop.

Tell me you saw that Casey...

"CONTACT, HIGH LEFT. GET TO COVER.Casey shouted spotting the glint aswell. She ducked behind the car with Browning. She fired a clip of her BR rounds at the enemy hoping to suppress them till the others got to cover. "Browning we need to take that guy out. we should assualt the building while Eryx and Blackburn suppress them"

Blackburn heard Browning and quickly looked around, trying to catch a look at the glint he saw. He didn't see the initial glint, but looked out for any more. He stayed silent, no wanting to fully blow their cover. As he stopped from Browning's clenched fist, he quickly turned to Casey's voice as she called out to warn of the contact. Blackburn heard he was to provide suppression fire and nodded "Firing!" Blackburn announced, firing rounds where Casey had fired.

Agreed

He strapped his battle rifle to his back, drawing his M7S SMG. Flicking the safety, drawing the chamber back and checking the sight was aligned. Satisfied, he nodded

Okay. Blackburn, Eryx. Supressing fire, no explosives. We have unconfirmed contacts in there. Possible civies. Survey, then act. We do this on our terms, then we link up with the helljumpers. Agreed?

He sat with his back to the car, awaiting the teams approval. He took a deep breath, preparing for a sprint to the doorway.

Casey reloaded the BR and quickly nodded to Browning. "On my mark we move. three. two. one. MARK" She fired two barrages of the BR then ran to the door of the building and waited until Browning made it there too

As soon as the first casing from Caseys rifle clinked against the floor, browning was up, sprinting towards the doorway, his armour assisting, pushing him on. Roughly half way, he dropped, skidding behind a car and laying down a line of suppressing fire himself, before joining her at the doorway. He kicked the door in, his boot causing it to fly off its hinges and into the room a few metres. He quickly scanned, looking around with his SMG before calling across the comm channel

Clear

He kept an eye on the stairway, waiting for Casey to move up

"Moving, keep me covered"she said as she entered after Browning. She kept her BR aimed up through the stairway. As she reached the first floor she yelled back down "Clear first, breaching room. move to second". She kicked in the door on the first floor. It was a small apartment, maybe only one person living in there. She checked the entire living room there were still plates with food on the table. Then she heard a cough from the bathroom. she made her way over to the door and slowly opened it. A family sat in their huddled together. A mother, two young boys and a dog lay their as they looked at what they thought would be their end. "Damnit, ok. its not safe here for you. You need to leave."

"Wait, you are not going to kill us?"the mother asked. she clearly looked frightened and Casey's job was not to terrorise civilians. "No no no, im here to help but right now you guys need to get out of here. Browning im sending down three civvies and a dog. Ill move to secure the rest of the building. make sure they're safe"

Eryx stayed outside when they entered the building, these rebels couldn't live to be in the way of this operation. His helmet had triggered, he was adjusting to trajectory and firing paths of the rounds as well as enemy movement as his module had kicked in. He walked calmly towards the enemy, they were on the one side right now after all. Bullets landed around him as he aimed the handgun up, firing controlled shots at the enemy position to punch through the material with inference on the location of enemy vitals on the other side.

Blackburn was taking most of the missed shots aimed at Eryx. He was crouched behind a car as bullets nailed the metal. Blackburn would peek out every so often, firing back at the hostiles. However, he ceased fire when he saw Eryx almost nonchalantly walk towards the gunfire with only a pistol. Blackburn was a bit confused and felt a bit inferior to the team. He began firing again, trying to suppress the enemy.

"Eryx. Civilians coming out get them to safety" Casey said into the comms as the moved the civilians to the stairs and motioned for them to leave. she began to walk up the next few flights of stairs nothing being in the other rooms until she reached the top. she slowly opened the door but was quickly tackled to the floor. a knife was pointed at her chest and a man across the room pointed a gun at her head. There were ODSTs in here. it didnt make sense. they were said to be in the subway down the street. "Sorry mam' we had to pull out of the subway. the Innies overran us and pushed us back to here. we only fired on you as we assumed they had found the spartan armour and had come to attack us."

Eryx, Blackburn. See if you can hail the pelican. Civies are coming out now. Get them to one of the secured buildings

As Browning ascended, moving towards Casey, he heard the exchange. He silently entered the room, placing the muzzle of his SMG against the ODST's head, his battle rifle in his left hand pointed at the other trooper

Stand down helljumper, that's an order

He glanced at Casey. As a Spartan she'd likely be able to shrug off minor injuries, but he didn't want to rely upon wounded backup.

Squad lead, we need a can of biofoam up here. I'll comence a visual med check momentarily, as soon as I'm happy there's no threat here.

He looked at the helljumpers, clearly directing the last bit at them

Blackburn reloaded his weapon, believing Eryx had finished the rest of them off. He then turned to Browning, nodding at the order given. He radioed in for a pelican, receiving the same answer of "We can't get there now". Blackburn sighed and looked to Eryx, hoping he could convince someone to give them a pelican. Blackburn then stood on a car, keeping lookout in case more helljumpers were nearby.

"Command, Eryx of Fireteam Quantum requesting civilian transport from the AO, drop zone will be potentially hot. We'll be clearing it shortly." Eryx reported, keeping the channel open to let the team as well as the ODST's know they were to check the previously hostile position, for now he kept his gun high and sensors on alert status. "Civilians, you're to remain at this posifion until the support craft arrives, put injured and young to the front. We need to keep moving on our objective."