A/N: So Campaign evolved is out...
My reaction:
==================================================================
(3rd Pov)
"We can beat these guys, Cal," Daisy said as she fired another burst of 7.62x51 rounds down the corridor in front of her.
Cal nodded, saying nothing; instead, she squeezed the trigger of her DMR, slamming another bullet through a Grunt's methane breather. The dull green ammo counter below the screen turned to a goose egg, and instinctively Cal hit the mag release, dropping another magazine to a small pile she had been making at her feet.
She peeked back from the doorway she stood only to find an orange glow erupt from the corner of the hall in front of her- "Spike grenade incoming!" she warned Daisy the moment the glowing baseball bat-sized shrapnel grenade came soaring through the air.
It landed, embedding itself into the wall beside Daisy with its machete-sized barbs. Daisy acted fast, grabbing the slender shaft above the tail quills and yanking it out of the wall. In the same action, as if she were throwing a hatchet returned the grenade to its sender, where it plopped down just behind the corridor's corner.
BANG
FING-FING-FING
An explosion erupted, and yellow glowing pieces of tungsten ricochetted at random vectors in the corridor. A few came back, slamming themselves into the wall in view of Daisy and Cal.
Unspokenly, they both moved up to the corner that Daisy had delivered the grenade to.
Daisy heard the clicking of Jackal's footsteps as she approached and the stomps of Brute's paws. 'Flash,' she thought, and Mjolnir answered. Immediately on Cal's HUD, a prompt for Daisy's name appeared with the word FLASH beside it.
Cal took out a flash grenade at the same time Daisy's HUD lit up with a green check mark in acknowledgement. Feet away from the hall, Cal thumbed the grenade's primer before tossing it against the far wall. Both Daisy's and Cal's helmets shifted for a split second to allow no light to pass through the visor.
POP
After bouncing twice, the grenade detonated just as the two Spartans swung into the hallway. Daisy dropped down into a crouch as Cal remained standing a step or two behind her.
The enemies clawed at their eyes as their retinas burned from the abrupt flash. It was especially bad for the Jackals with their bird-like eyes.
Daisy's burst shattered the first Brute's shields before stitching rounds across its chest. The second barely had time to raise its Spiker before taking a face full of lead.
A Jackal tried to bring its shield gauntlet up, but it was far too late.
Cal fired a bullet, blowing a hole through its hand before the second tore through the small helmet.
Daisy pivoted toward the last Brute, firing until it crashed into the wall hard enough to shake dust from the ceiling. The two reloaded before glancing around at each doorway, and they shared a Clear notification in each other's HUD.
Silence returned almost as quickly as it had vanished.
Then everything went dark; all light vanished in the halls. The helmet lights on the pair's Mjolnir ignited. Daisy looked around, giving a nod to Cal.
"David, the lights are out down here. Anything you can do?" Daisy figured she would ask; fighting in the dark wasn't something she particularly enjoyed.
The transmission came from David quickly. He spoke briefly, as if he was in the middle of doing something important, "A-ffirm got someone chasing the lead, over and out."
Daisy got the point of what he was trying to say and looked over, shaking her head, to which Cal nodded. They were stuck in the dark for the time being; an unspoken sentence carried by a simple gesture of the head between the two comrades.
BZZZZ
Cal took a step before pausing and looking around the hall slowly with her helmet light. Daisy also stopped just a few steps ahead of her, curious, but trusting Cal's deduction skills.
Cal heard what she felt was the vibration of the air, like a buzzing sound. It sounded familiar, not dissimilar to the sound of old failing electrical equipment that you'd find in any given building. Yet, her instincts told her that this sound was different.
She shouldered her DMR cautiously when her head snapped to the ceiling above her.
BANG-BING-THUMP
The vents rattled as the sound of something making its way through them echoed into the hall. The sound came from every vent in their vicinity. By now Daisy had even leveled at another one of the vibrating vents that shook.
Cal thought for a brief moment, piecing together the facts in front of her, while at the same time the buzzing grew louder and the vents sounded as if they would be shaken apart as they violently thrashed in the ceiling.
Then it clicked.
"Buggers!" she said as she dove for a doorway with a buffer of space between it and the vents. Daisy did the same, heading for the opposite side of the hall only for the vent covers to pop off, clattering to the floor as Yanme'e flooded the hall from the vents.
======================================================================
(Jenkins Pov)
Click-Click-Click
My combat boots clicked against the floor as I sprinted down the hallway with the rest of the ODST detachment.
"Huff-Huff-Huff," I breathed heavily in my helmet as I kept pace with the other three moving in a pack.
"Two grunts, ahead," the lead ODST spoke in between breaths.
ZZZZZT
ZZZZZT
Two sprays of suppressed fire erupted, pelting the grunts, spitting out blue blood as we sprinted right by them. I realized quickly after we exited the vents that speed was the name of the game. Right now the entire task force was stuck in a death trap, and every moment they were cornered was another moment that a grunt could get lucky with a plasma bolt or a sticky.
CA-CHINK
A blast door came down in front of us, stopping us mid-stride.
"Damn it!," the leader of my group said before turning to me. "Rookie, hurry your ass up and pick that lock," he said as I ran over and swiped the key card, opening the door.
"Tangos, take cover!" I ducked as a sudden spike round came at me, looking to take my head off.
I fell to the ground and scrambled for my BR off of my back. Meanwhile, I saw jackals and grunts pushing through the doorway toward my teammates.
SNAP-SNAP-SNAP
A burst of my suppressed BR ripped through the air, tearing into the side of a Jackal's throat as he stood behind his shield gauntlet, oblivious to my position against the wall beside them.
'Got one!' I couldn't help but think as I realized it was my first kill in combat as a member of the UNSC.
RAHHHHH
I nearly pulled a muscle in my neck as I looked toward the roaring Brute that was rushing toward me, his hand raised with his spiker coming down toward me.
'Shit!' I nearly jumped out of my skin as I rolled out of the way just in time to see the weapon slam down into the spot I had been slicing cleanly into the flooring.
The next moment, I was suddenly kicked across the room into the opposite wall as if I was a soccer ball. "Ahf!" I wheezed as my back slammed into the solid wall.
"Brute! Cut em down!" I breathed a slight sigh of relief as I looked over to see the Jackals and grunts dealt with and the other three engaging the giant ape with their SMGs.
Its shield flickered as it turned toward the other ODSTs. It marched toward them, firing spikes too which they backpedaled, fanning out and quickly dodging incoming volleys of glowing tungsten.
"Hey Rookie, give us a hand would you!?"
"Right!" Hearing the call from one of the ODSTs, I realized I had been sitting there while they were fighting for their lives.
I reached over, grabbing my BR. 33 popped up on the ammo counter as I began pelting the Brutes back. It yelled as it began to rush toward the nearest ODST; its shield was down, and now purple blood was drawn from every shot.
Even so, with the thickness of its muscle and fur, none of the shots were fatal.
'What do they feed these things?' I thought as I changed my target and began firing at the base of its skull.
The first burst knocked off its blue mask, sending it clattering against the wall. The next landed firmly against the back of its skull, staggering the alien but not putting it down
I looked down 3 left in my mag. 'Here goes nothing,' I paused, taking a split second longer before firing my final burst. The three bullets flew through the air before entering the Brute's body just below the base of its skull.
As if unplugged, the Brute froze up before tumbling forward, face-planting in front of the rest of my teammates.
"Nice shooting, rookie."