In the Jungle, The Mighty Jungle (Open to Rebel & UNSC)

[Jupitor]

Setting: Wet rain forest, heavy trees with very few walking tracks. The ground is sludge, making travel difficult and uncomfortable. The forest is located on the Asian Continent, the country name is unimportant.

Plot: Rebels have taken up residence in the forests, using the natural habitat as a base. Whereabouts they hide, ONI has been unable to determine.

The Rebels have been silent for almost a good year, they have broken this silence by taking the Earth Senator as a hostage in a bloody gun battle. They demand a sum of several million for his return.

The UNSC, sticking to their policy of not bending over for terrorists, have arranged for a crack team of UNSC soldiers to enter the forest. They are to locate the base of the Rebels, and rescue the Senator. Due to the nature of the habitat, Spartan suits are ill-equipped for the marshy ground and thus shall not feature in this thread wearing standard Spartan armour.

Rebels are to lead UNSC forces away from their base. They are to fight a battle that suits them. The Rebels are out-manned and most likely out-armed, they must avoid a direct battle. The Rebels aim to send a message to the public.

[Mars_Windu]

Jaina hated Black Ops. more than anything. For one, a single snag meant a double clusterfuck, and, assuming the mission could still be carried out, they'd be rushed. That meant she couldn't savor the good stuff in between. But she'd been requested for this mission (polite term for "you'll go or we'll shoot you", given her current circumstances), and her opinion meant little, if anything.

For some reason, she'd been forced to leave her Mjolnir powersuit behind at the base, something she was sure that ONI spook had had something to do with. She guessed they wanted her dead. They'd be sorely disappointed; she still had her Stanchion rifle and her customized S2. Piss poor odds for the rebels…

There were at least five other marines along with her in the stealth pelican. All of them wore balaclavas that covered their entire faces, leaving their only their eyes visible. She assumed the pilot was also armed, as stealth pelican pilots were usually ODSTs with a flight helmet. Nothing about this mission seemed right. She'd have to go with the flow though; she didn't want ONI sending her on a suicide mission after this one..

[Jupitor]

Where the rebel's actual allegiance stood no one quite knew. In fact, ONI had absolutely no idea who was running this particular faction or what their history was. All they knew was that the Rebels had a senator and they were in these jungles. And only because they'd been able to get a general area from the transmission they'd sent demanding a ransom.

On a hill that could almost be called a mountain, towards the fringe of the jungle, a man wearing camouflage lay still, keeping an eye on the skies. He held a pair of binoculars in his hands, being very careful not to let them reflect against the sun. At the sighting of the pelican dropping from the clouds he very slowly activated his radio and notified the others in the region. The games had begun.

OOC: When you said stealth pelican I've assumed that you meant undetectable on the radar. I apologise if you did indeed mean invisible stealth technology, if it's important just ask and I'll change it. :]

[Mars_Windu]

The Pelican landed quietly in a small clearing in the forest. The pilot killed the engines immediately, and the Spartan, followed by the six man squad, each exited the pelican quietly. Invisible to radar or no, the pelican still emitted heat signatures, and the Mk. 1 eyeball could spot it quite easily as well. They had to assume that their approach had been detected, and they had to act fast.

She unslung her S2 AM sniper rifle, customized to hold a 6 round mag instead of the usual four rounds. The VISR system kicked in immediately, highlighting the entire space around the landing site. Everything was yellow; nothing worth noting.

Satisfied, she lowered her gun and moved forward, taking point. It was an odd thing to do when one was a sniper, but she had an ongoing feud with marines and odsts, and she wasn't about to let them best her, especially now, that she was without her armor, and they were technically on even terms. The game was on…

00C: yes i meant radar stealth, not invisible stealth.

[Jupitor]

The rebel on duty with the binoculars took out a paper map and a pencil and circled a grid using the distance he'd taken from the binoculars. Getting on the radio once more, he let his cohorts know where the Pelican had set down. It didn't take much longer, a couple of seconds, for the mortar to fire. The rebels had already determined where the most likely LZ's were for pelicans and had suitably prepared. They'd also considered the different insertion tactics that the UNSC could employ, they'd ruled drop pods as unlikely, they weren't exactly the most pinpoint accurate devices. In the forest, any pod that missed its target suddenly had a vastly lowered statistic of life expectancy.

A barrage of mismatched mortar weaponry cascaded through the sky from a small patch of swampland a few kilometres north east. It included human made mortar rounds as well as fuel round mortars. The UNSC may have had an almost unlimited resources and manpower, but the rebels had had a very long time to prepare for the battle. And they'd already taken the upper hand.

The mortar barrage came down where it was intended, right onto the pelican in the LZ and the surrounding area. A few of them missed their target by a long shot, but the majority were on target.

The mortar crews quickly and efficiently packed up their weapons and moved to fade away from the swampy area.


OOC: I'm going to just keep this plot moving like I have been so far. I don't really have any characters able to jump into this RP without screwing up personal storylines.

Actually, I might jump in with a UNSC dude.

And finally, this could continue over several threads in a plot arc. So don't be too disappointed if the results a little bit one sided. I'm still planning stuff, :)

[In Amber Clad]

"Hey pretty baby with the high heels on, you give me fever like I've never, ever known. You're just a product of lovli-"

The ancient song playing through the speaker system stopped as a transmission came in. Reports of engaging the enemy. Mortar fire.

The red-coloured, metal-encased behemoth of a human being jumped to his feet, whistling as he locked his two Magnums into place. Strapping an Assault Rifle to his back, he launched from where he was standing at a considerable pace, picking up speed as he sprinted towards the nearest lookout. He jumped several ravines and navigated through several patches of gigantic boulders and thick rainforest before finally coming to a stop.

He dropped to his stomach next to the soldier with the binoculars and used his HUD to zoom in on the area that the soldier had motioned to.

"How many? What armament? What affiliation?" he asked, excited.

[Jupitor]

"Jesus Christ," The man swore as the Spartan jumped down beside him. "Ugh, you're a tool. You know that you could have compromised my position by doing that, right?" He didn't move throughout any of this though. Better only the Spartan being seen than both of them. Might give him an advantage.

"One pelican, wasn't picked up on the Radar. Landed at this grid marker. Could have had as much as ten soldiers in it. I can't give you any more because I don't have anything more."

He paused, "You know that you're gonna get stuck in these jungles wearing that armour. Right? It'll bog you down as bad as your mothers toilets." He sighed, "We've already bombarded them with mortars, Pelican hasn't taken off yet so it's possible that we took it down. No idea about casualties at this point."

"We have open paths, if you can call them that, leading off from that clearing going off in these directions." He marked the paths with the pencil on the map. "Though they might not even be an indication of where they go. They might decide to go through the jungle, tough trip but possible."

"My guess is they'll head towards where the mortars fired. I sure hope so." He gave a short laugh.

- _ -

"Incoming!" One of the soldiers yelled as the screech of mortar rounds filled the air. Hertz dived into the shrubs surrounded by trees, instinctively going for the area that would give him the best cover. The sounds of exploding artillery sent his ears ringing, and he tried to push his body further into the ground. Fuck...we haven't even been here for a minute.

When the exploding rounds stopped landing on their position, Hertz found himself able to pick himself up from the shrubs. He took a very sharp intake of breath when he noticed the large piece of shrapnel embedded in the tree just above where his head had been. Shit.

He looked around for the Spartan who was leading the operation, and any possible injured who needed his help. Whether the pelican was destroyed or not, he didn't think to check.

[Mars_Windu]

"Well…there goes that exit…" Jaina muttered under her breath. ONI made the most piss poor stealth technology she'd ever seen. She'd often said neon lights and fireworks were stealthier than an ONI shadow pelican. Meh, she'd still been through worse…

"Zulu team, this is Sierra-327. Flash the green light if you're okay, amber if you're wounded," she quietly muttered into her headset. It was an uncomfortable reminder of not having her damned armor. She missed it. She felt naked.

8 green lights flashed in her HUD; one more remained dark. He was likely dead…

"Zulu team, this is Sierra-327. Head out, attack pattern Delta five. Silencers only; don't engage unless absolutely necessary," she ordered quietly.

Green lights flashed in her hud; ODSTs were good soldiers with good training, though inferior to her in terms of strength and speed. It wouldn't matter though; as soon as she'd rescued the damned senator, she's be back on the frontlines of the war, killing aliens, not some rebels whom thought they were fighting for some 'noble' cause (they were probably just angry kids who's mothers had never loved them. boo hoo).

She silenced her custom S2 sniper, the one she'd called 'Zero'. She'd recently finished working on this baby, and was anxious to use it. Jaina fervently hoped some stupid rebel gave her an excuse to make some noise…

[GruntyBalboa]

The other Spartan on the mission moved out from cover, glancing back at the ruined remains of the Pelican. Spartan-191, though Jainas superior in terms of rank, was more than happy to allow her to have command of this mission. The ONI officers had already seen fit to hold their armor for them... Friggin' jungle.

The HAVOK armor on the ODSTs had shrugged off most of the damage, save for a small piece of shrapnel that had slashed the throat of one of the troops. Out of his Mjolnir armor, 191 could pass for a large human, if not for the scars. He knelt over the dead ODST and pulled the ammunition magazines out of the mans vest, passing them around to the other troops. A quick press, twist, and yank saw the dead soldiers MA5C disassembled, the barrel bent in half and discarded. The M6C was tossed to one of the other troops.

"Harcourt's dead, ma'am. Weapons and ammo have been stripped and passed around." 191 said, tracing the trajectory of the explosions. "They seem to know we're coming..."

[Mars_Windu]

"Grab his tag and anything useful from his body. Don't leave anything behind…" she ordered him, unconcerned about the death. Casualties didn't surprise her, given ONI's history of ill prepared battle plans. What really surprised her though was how quickly the rebels had reacted to their presence. Was there a saboteur in the group? Or was their stealthed pelican just…not good enough? She dismissed those thoughts; theoretical whatifs had no place in a soldier's head, especially when the fighting could break out at any moment.

She was about to start a conversation with -191, but then remembered she'd issued a radio-silence order. She'd look like a total hypocrite if she didn't follow her own order, and she couldn't have that. Instead, Jaina flicked a switch on her helmet, and a loud, heavy metal tune started playing from her helmet's speakers. The ODST's armor had better speakers than her Mjolnir. Funny how Spartan's had the better technology…

00C: when does this take place?

[swords315]

Trip took a moment to look around. The jungle was pretty, a good reminder of what he was fighting for... Peaceful.

His thoughts raced to more tactical ones as he jumped left to avoid a large splinter.

"Okay, head out of the clouds, idiot," he muttered to himself.

He looked around again, this time more tactically.

The hell did all these Spartans come from? His eyes hit one, wearing armor beside two of his unarmored fellows. Trip groaned. His armor was bright red. It was a dark green jungle, for Christ's sake...

[cienade]

Entreri decided it was about time to move when the roof collapsed on him. He'd been in this godforsaken hole for three days now, and his mental list of games, rhymes, and ability to remain interested in solitaire had faded. As the first mortar struck, a half kilo ahead of him, it shook something in the thatched roof covering his 5 foot hiding hole, and the entire damn thing, along with an ample amount of water and fetid undergrowth, sloshed into him.

Extricating himself from the mess, Entreri reached into a nearby tree, and grabbed a shovel. Ten minutes later his weapons were on the ground in front of him, dissassembled, and Entreri deeply engaged in cleaning them. It took a half an hour for him to feel comfortable with his .47 Sniper, his two, now silenced and firing normal projectiles, HE pistols, and his energy swords, which apparently hadn't been affected by the water and mud at all. His bulletproof suit, and cloak were soaked, however, so Entreri had to drop them. Moving along in just a Tac-vest and pants, bare arms straining with exertion, the Rebel assassin began to launch himself after his quarry.

Artemis had been placed behind what had been agreed upon as one of five likely LZ's. He'd decided on this spot, as it gave him the best time on all five points, if sacrificing a faster reaction on a single points. Good idea, too; he would've picked the wrong LZ. Artemis had three options at this point; shadow the group, attempting to harry their backside and run away. Shadow them without engaging, and wait for the most opportune attack moment. Sprint his ass approximately 5 kilometers at a 45' angle to their approach, and sit in his tree stand, in a particularly large tree.
Artemis decided on the second option. Born and raised in the forests of Praetor 1, Entreri could only think of two things that moved more quietly than he did.

Mute birds and the wind.

[Mars_Windu]

"Head first into hell… / No way out as far as i can tell… /" blared through her speakers. She softly headbanged, enjoying the music. Darkest Blade had always been a favorite of hers.

It was hard to believe that so much time had passed since Gold team had been dissolved. ONI had really outdone themselves, screwing the S-II like that. NavSpecWar had agreed Gold was still lethal, even without Alex. But they'd still gone on and dissolved them. But she didn't mind. All she wanted was to help humanity…and get more headshots than Linda.

A rebel patrol was up ahead; her VISR outlined the three red figures on her HUD. She signaled her squad to stand by, and unslung her silenced S2. Three quick coughs, they all dropped to the ground, silently. Beat that, Linda…

"Check their bodies. Anything we can use, take it," she ordered.

[GruntyBalboa]

191 folded out of the shadows for a split second, pulling the bodies back with him. He was well out of practice, that much was obvious... Sitting behind... Well, wherever or whatever he'd been behind had obviously made him slightly rusty... But still... He quickly stripped the bodies, demolishing the usability of the guns that weren't worth carrying... Leaving them with a pair of ivory handled M6Cs and a shotgun...

He knelt down and frisked over the man, pulling out what looked to be a set of dog-tags. Curious, he pulled back the mans shirt, exposing a tattoo on the mans arm. Closer inspection showed similar markings on the other two as well...

He slid in next to one of the ODSTs, causing the man to jump slightly, before handing off the weapons and ammunition. He moved up behind Jaina and tapped her on the back, waiting for her to turn the music down. He frowned slightly at the lack of professionalism, but kept his visor polarized, preventing her from seeing.

"Ex-Military. Certain weapons seem to be military issue, serial numbers filed off..."

[Mars_Windu]

"Ex military? Didn't seem like it; they handled themselves like civilians…" Jaina told him, still not lowering her music. It didn't matter whom she was speaking too; when Darkest Blade came up, the world was of no importance to her.

She brought a TacMap. of the region, and scanned it. They were about half a klick away from the rebel base. That would take them -she ran the equations through her head- an hour at most, assuming they ran into enemy resistance.

"You've dealt with Insurrectionists more than I, Sam. What do you think we can expect?" Jaina asked, depolarizing her visor. She even turned down her music, albeit slightly; the last thing she wanted to do was walk into a fucking deathtrap…