ARES:Gods of War

Hunting Ground

Deployment had come once more, with the Spartan and Commander leading their respective teams in two marching columns, weapons at the ready as they walked through what was now the valley of manmade mountains. Tall buildings rose all around them, the remnants of Humanity's fighting forces also visible all around. Dead tanks, shattered armored cars and crashed helicopters littered streets and rooftops respectively, next to the dead civilian cars and the rubble and debris left over from the fighting.

Some parts of it reminded Chief of New Mombasa. The tall, modern-looking buildings, the damage, the scars of fires that'd long ago been snuffed out. The sole difference here was the natural overgrowth in the AO. Vines hanged off the buildings or crawled up the sides of the concrete, grass poking out from among cracks in the road, all served to remind the platoon that they did not own the surface anymore.

Cortana voiced, "Detecting higher concentrations of Alva particles around..." as they continued their advance. Chief halted his side of the column and motioned for Delta to move ahead. The girl nodded, donning a grey and green camouflage cape and taking off in a sprint. Alyosha turned toward the Spartan with furrowed brows and confusion streaking across his face. Chief replied by showing him to wait a minute, while Cortana added, "We're linked to their radio and telecom systems, by the way."

The Chief advanced up to the front of the column alongside his mass-production Nikkes and Signal, then took a knee behind a broken-down car husk as he scanned the area. The Commander and his team seemed to follow suit, finding good cover as they went and making sure they weren't too close together. Rapi and Alyosha stood close to the Chief, though, with another Product acting as a secondary sniper, backup for Delta.

Chief then looked over to Mihara and Yuni, both of whom seemed surprisingly serious compared to how they acted when he met them. He had to assume that they'd gotten it through their thick skulls that they were not supposed to be enemies, especially not because of someone like Syuen. Cortana told him, "I'm trying to pull up any data I can find on Chatterbox, but parts of Missilis's database are locked down a little tight. Whatever we have's not enough to identify it."

Chief quickly deactivated external speakers and told her, "Keep trying..." before turning to the Commander, reactivating the speakers and asking, "Any intel given to us by Missilis on Chatterbox, sir?"

"None yet," The man shrugged, "We just know it's a Tyrant-class. That's it..."

Chief usually liked a little more intel with his intel. He sighed and nodded, before scanning the area. Faint silhouettes played in the corners of his eyes, notably the silhouettes of people walking, talking and the likes. It seemed that the city they were in, whichever it was, was a ghost town in both a literal and figurative sense. Chief was tense, more-so than usual, because the enemy they were fighting had the capability to turn him into what was tantamount to a microwaved meal.

Delta popped up from the side of a building and waved the group forward. At that, the Spartan took the lead alongside her, Mihara and Yuni, rifle up and at the ready. Mihara looked over to the Spartan's firearm and commented, "A bit light for what we're doing here..." as she readied her own assault weapon, an overly-complicated-looking AR-pattern rifle that fired higher-caliber rounds than what most ARs were usually chambered in.

The Spartan hummed and kept up the advance, rifle at the ready. Signal had moved in quickly behind them, hauling the backpack with the radio transmitter that'd allow them to call up support. The little girl carrying an SMG and an entire com suite with her hummed as she took a knee beside the Chief, the Commander advancing up to them and seemingly forgetting he was not armored, nor equipped to deal with a possible attack.

Mihara sighed, then looked to Yuni and showed her to wait, before moving behind Chief and telling him, "I apologize for the way I and Yuni introduced ourselves to you. It wasn't exactly a pleasant experience for us either, considering I woke up with a pistol shoved in my face after my nerves got one mean feedback loop... I have to ask how you did that, by the way."