We're Going Home(Retsu & winterscreed)

[Retsu]

It wasn't supposed to happen like this. A simple Search and Destroy gone very wrong which resulted in four dead Marines and two MIA Spartans. Intel even said that they covies would be small in numbers, but how wrong it was. Two Spartans accompanied by four Marines were flown via Pelicans a couple clicks away from the target. These two Spartans knew each other quite well as they had served together plenty of times and it was shown that they much rather preferred to work as a group. They both did well in solo OPs, but the records clearly showed that their combat skills skyrocketed when together. Lieutenants Cyrus, codename Tear, and Carmella, codename Tink, were sent on this mission mostly as support. The Marines were more suited to destroy the target, but that didn't mean they were of lower rank and out of command. Quite the opposite, they were the commanding officers on this mission, and kept everything going smoothly until that damned ambush. As they began approaching the target, Cyrus' radar began picking up some bogies, but it wasn't just a couple like they had been facing before. It immediately filled up with hundreds of dots and he wasn't the only one who noticed it as Carmella said the same thing. Suddenly, one of the Marines let out a scream of pain and everyone turned to see a plasma sword piercing through him "Shit." was the word on everyone's mind as they began opening fire. The elite that killed a Marine was quickly dispatched, but that seemed to be the signal for everyone else. They were attacked by a whole platoon of covenant which managed to push their back. It was a brutal and the two spartans knew that they were going to have to pull back. Cyrus had one of the Marines radio for emergency evac and it was a miracle that he could do it before having his head blown by a sniper.

The remaining two Marines and Spartans fought back as hard as they could and retreated when possible. Soon enough though, both Marines were dead and evac wasn't even close. Cyrus and Carmella fought as bravely as they could, but were quickly overwhelmed and captured. Both fought their captors and tried to break free until knocked out and forcibly brought along. Cyrus' final thought was that he felt lucky there wasn't an AI in his head, or the entire UNSC would be in grave danger. When he woke up, he found himself plasma chained in front of an audience and Carmella was chained right next to him. They both knew there was no escape from their bonds, so they both just accepted their fates and waited. He counted his lucky stars that they both had to be subjected to torture resistance training as not only were they stripped of their armor, but the elites and brutes took great pleasure in putting them through Hell by torture. They tried getting information out of the two, but they only gave up the big four "Name, Cyrus Jenn, rank, lieutenant, serial number, 434952, date of birth, July 15th 2530," this obviously annoyed their captors and soon they just gave up and threw them into their cells.

Cyrus would be lying if he said that his body wasn't in pain, and as he woke up again for the second time. His body only hurt worse as he found himself in a cell. It wasn't very roomy and clearly his was already occupied at one point because there was some blood in the corner "Yeesh, would of taken some dumpy motel over this shit any day. Bet they probably would make better food than anything these covies got," he looked out from the bars and couldn't see anyone else at first. He did have a headache, but that was the least of his concerns "Damn, looks like they separated us, but I do have to applaud them for that. It'd be a dumb move otherwise," he sighed and just rested up against the bars "Never thought this would be my end though. I always thought I would go down in a blaze of glory taking a whole bunch of those alien bastards with me," he chuckled "Maybe I could even be spewing some cool one liners as I do it," talking to himself like this was keeping his spirits up for the time being, but he did wonder how far it would go "Instead, I'm going to die in a fucking cell. These bastards really know how to crush a man's dreams."

 

[winterscreed]

They had told them that it a simple Search and Destroy. They could have never been more wrong. It did not help that the supplies they were given were for a search and destroy, not a full-on attack like they had succumbed to. Carmella Cervantez had been sent in with her partner, Liutenant Cyrus Jenn, and four Marines. A small group; one that was incapable of taking on, much less surviving, an ambush. It started off as a normal Search and Destroy. They killed a few Grunts and some Elites. At the beginning, everything was fine. Carmella, codename Tink, had thought this was easy. But then as they progressed, something caught her eye on the radar. Apparently it caught Cyrus' too. At first, the radar was clear, but then she noticed red dots on the edges. The dots soon formed a swarm. She swore under her breath. But just as they noticed that, a plasma sword stabbed through one of the Marines and thuen all Hell broke loose. The fight was over before it began. A Marine radioed to Evac but they were too far away to get there on time and just as he had finished, he had been killed as well with a sniper through the head.

In what seemed like, to Carmella, only a few seconds, the Marines were dead and her and her partner were the only ones left. Not that she went down without a fight. Even when her gun had been taken, she fought tooth and nail until they had to knock her out using brute force. Apparently, the Covenant was getting more intelligent.

When she came to, she was bond by plasma chains next to Cyrus. She had been stripped of her armor, making her feel weak, insecure. And that was when the torture started. Thankfully, she had been put through rigorous training and only gave them four answers. "Name: Carmella Cervantez, Rank: Liutenant, Serial Number: 567146, Date of Birth: October 31, 2529." After hours of pure Hell, the Covenant, frustrated that they were getting nowhere, shoved them into cells.

Carmella came to again and looked around her cell. Her black hair had come undone from its ponytail and was all dark curls and waves. Being without her armor made her feel naked, exposed. Why couldn't they have just killed her? But she kept herself calm as she looked at Cyrus. Apparently, they had kept him alive too, but why? What was so important about them?

At his comment, she let out a weak laugh. "Since when the hell have those things gotten that smart?" She asked. "Usually they just run and slaughter. This was planned...." While her partner talked to keep himself going, the woman lapsed into silence. She withdrew into herself. It was her way of coping.

 

[Retsu]

At least the banter wasn't going to stop anytime soon "They've always been smart, but they usually don't take prisoners, so that's what's confusing to me," unlike the female Spartans, all the males had to get buzz cuts and only now you could see Cyrus' brown hair starting to grow back to it's normal short length, but he began studying Carmella as if he had never seen her before. In fact, neither of them had ever seen each other without their armor on and he had to admit that she was quite cute. Course, he would never say this to her, but that didn't mean he couldn't think it. He looked around their cell block again and didn't even notice a guard watching them which was pretty dumb. At the end of the hall was what looked like a control panel, and he assumed that it probably unlocked the cells. He then studied the bars of the cells and they looked to be well suited for most not to be able to slip through. You would have to be pretty skinny to do so, and his muscular physique would definitely not fit though. Carmella, however, she might be able to slip though "I don't know about you, but I do not plan on being here for very long. It's only a matter of time before they off us and I still have a lot of fight left in me," he said with a grin.

They had plenty of time to plan our an escape method, but Cyrus wanted to go for the dream first "Unless you can fit through these bars, we gotta find some way to trick a covie into freeing at least one of us. It's going to be pretty hard to fight without an armor and especially if they decide to draw their weapon on us," Cyrus had always been the more tactical person of this two man team. He almost always had a plan for every situation as well as a back-up plan incase things went wrong. However, he was not expecting them to ambush such a small group, so he didn't plan for such "Are you well enough to fight if your cell is opened?"

 

[winterscreed]

Carmella looked up at him as he spoke. "Yeah. Something just doesn't feel right about this whole thing," she admitted to him. "The ambush now this. It doesn't add up."

Carmella took the time to look at Cyrus. This was the first time she had seen him without his armor on. She was petite, but had curves. And she was short. The name Tink was fitting for her, it seemed. Her grey eyes then flitted around the dungeons. She nodded in agreement. "We need to get out of here."

Carmella turned back to him after observing the dungeons. "First of all, I could probably get halfway out then get stuck. Second, that control panel might be a window. They could be watching us." While Cyrus was tactical, Carmella was logical. It was a combination that worked, though. If he had a flaw in his plan, she would point it out. Especially if it was a risky idea.

At his next question, she nodded. "I'm a bit beat up, but I can manage."

 

[Retsu]

He had to think a little more about all of this, but he really didn't have much to go on considering their options. After a while, he just sighed "Then I guess we have no other choice. We both have to attract the attention of a guard and whoever gets freed needs to fight, and protect the other until we can both secure weapons," he didn't know how all this would go and for all he knew; Cyrus was just going to kill them both, but he would rather be dead than be a torture toy for the covenant "You ready?" and after she confirmed, he began leading by making a bunch of noise, calling a guard, and even calling them every word in the book of insults to grab their attention. He was worried that they would send a brute in as a guard which would indeed be suicide for the both of them as brutes were tough enough even with spartan armor. Thankfully, the guard was only an elite and a minor one at that which should be easy to take down. Cyrus spotted a plasma rifle and two grenades on his person which would help a bit more than a plasma pistol. He looked towards Carmella and nodded as the elite had gone for her first Come on, you covenant bastard. Set her free and get your ass kicked! he was very confident in her fighting prowess even without her armor on, but wished that he was the elite's target because he was closer to the control panel, and could free her if he somehow managed to incapacitate the elite.

 

[winterscreed]

Carmella stood up then, revealing how short she actually was. She was only a mere five foot and looked nothing like the fighter and Spartan she was. She nodded in agreement as he said his next idea. It was risky, yes, but she would rather die trying to escape than die in captivity.

"Ready," she confirmed. She insulted and taunted the guards as well. As the door opened, she feared it would be a Brute, but luckily it was a low-level Elite. She watched as the Elite moved to her cell. She made herself look as harmless as possible. It had been a while since she had used her looks and size to help her, but her instincts had kicked in.

Carmella's cage was unlocked and the Elite grabbed her. She let him grab her and shove her out of the cage. His grip was a death grip and she winced before aiming a punch into the creature's gut. It did not do much damage, but it winced. She used her size to her advantage as she rolled out of the way.

 

[Retsu]

When the Elite grabbed her, Cyrus instantly became worried that she didn't have the strength to fight, but then she punched it in the gut and it winced "His weapon!" he shouted at her through the bars and could only hope that she could take it in time. Of course, her second option would be to free him so they could both fight the Elite, but then she would put herself at risk of getting shot, and most likely killed. However, she could also bring the Elite over towards him, and he could use the thin bars to pull on his legs and make the Elite fall to the ground, and maybe even take the plasma rifle from him. Sadly, it was all up to her what she would do as giving her suggestions during the fight would make her lose concentration and would clue the Elite in on their plans as they made them.

 

[winterscreed]

She heard Cyrus scream about his weapon and she grabbed for it quickly. The Elite moved out of the way, finally gaining his ground again, making the woman swear under her breath softly. Carmella braced herself, watching as the Elite moved closer to her. She backed up, positioning herself right next to Cyrus' cage. The Elite moved in blind rage and got in front of the cage, eyes focused only on her. It seemed to be ignoring the male in the cage, deeming that he was not a threat.

 

[Retsu]

That was a big mistake. Cyrus would never know if Carmella meant to do this or if it just so happened, but he hardly had time to think as he quickly grabbed the Elite's legs. Using his strength, he forced the Elite to the ground and thanked the Heavens above that his weapon was in reach. Cyrus quickly grabbed it off his belt and kicked himself backwards as he fired shots into the Elite. The heated plasma quickly cut through his shields and it wasn't long until the Elite laid dead in front of his cage "Nice work, Tink. Now let me out of this damn cage, so we can get off this ship."

 

[winterscreed]

(I worked overtime yesterday. Ten hours of billing and refunds.)

Carmella watched as her partner took over from there. She had not meant to move that close to him, but it seemed to have worked to her advantage anyway. Watching as Cyrus took over and quickly dispatched the Elite with a few shots from its own plasma gun. She went to the control room and immediately unlocked Cyrus' cage.

"Okay, Tear. You're all good." She walked back into the dungeon and looked at him. "It's so fucking weird being without our armor. And I bet the damn things destroyed them."

 

[Retsu]

He happily climbed out of the cage when it was opened and dusted himself off a bit "Don't say that. We don't know if they did for sure, and there's always a chance they have it locked up or something. Let's try and capture a Grunt, scare the little thing half to death, and see if he can take us to a weapons locker or storage," he didn't know how much energy this rifle had sense he didn't have his visor to connect to it's battery, so he just had to guess "Alright, stay behind me and low," once Carmella fell in, Cyrus advanced towards the exit and watched as it opened up into a huge room. Neither of them had ever been inside a covenant ship before, so this startled him a bit "Well, they certainly like big," he said with a chuckle before moving into cover and checking their surroundings.

"Clear," he advanced forward until he heard footsteps. Quickly pulling Carmella behind a crate. He looked to see what it was and was relieved to see another minor Elite. He then did the hand signals for what he saw and what he wanted her to do 'One Elitle. Minor. Wait till passes. Choke out."