Awakening in the stars

As the pelican flew over the burning city Jamie wished that he could be down there helping but he knew that he needed to be present for what was next as it would take everything to get through the long night ahead. As the pelicans bay door opened he snapped out of his thought as he jumped out behind Six and Jorge with Carter there to greet them.

As Six was the closest Carter addressed him first "Your report will have to wait, Lieutenant. The Covenant are jamming all comms to Command. Kat needs your help running a counter-op." without waiting for a reply Carter turned and walked towards a pair of falcons that were nearby with one taking off "It's good to have you all back but Jorg is gonna have to stay behind with us Jamie you go with Six and listen to what Kat needs you to do." Carter continued Jamie nodded to him and Jorge before walking to the falcon with Six

As Six and Jamie walked to the falcon Kats voice came over the comm "Get your wings back on, Lieutenant. You're flying this Falcon." with that Six jumped into the pilots seat while Jamie took one of the gunner seats with a marine on the other one with a second sitting in between. As Six went through the pre-flight checklist Kat continued talking "Here's the situation. Covenant have deployed multiple long ranged comm jammers at high-rises across the city. We can't hear Holland, and he can't hear us. We're totally cut off. Trooper squads have been trying to take the jammers out, but the Covies have dug in tight. When I confirm targets, I need you to hit them - hard." Jamie snorted despite himself still feeling human despite all the things he had seen in this new life. "Oh, and don't fall in love with my voice. The closer you are to the jammer, the worse our reception is going to get. Kat out." with that there was silence, save for the collapsing burning buildings, with gun and plasma fire being drowned out by the rain.

Soon after they had taken off Kats voice returned "Stand by, Six... One of our Trooper squads went silent after the hospital got hit. I'll mark the location. Complete their mission, and take out that jammer." with that they were off, with Jamie and the marines taking down any banshees that tried tailing them so that Six could fly uninterrupted. As they reached the hospital and touched down Jamie quickly jumped out of the falcon with Six right behind him as they entered the hospital lobby they were quick to notice half a dozen sleeping grunts scattered about and without a sound they took them all out. 

Taking out the last one Jamie heard a faint clicking noise coming from the open space next to him, and looking out he saw an engineer along with several grunts, jackals and a pair of brute majors with a majority of them shielded by the engineer, waving Six over he pointed at the engineer then he and Six moved around the dead grunts looking for plasma grenades. As they found a pair of a grunt major they heard the brutes far below yelling something before hearing several jackals squawk and start going up the stairs, without wasting time they ran over to the end and primed their plasma grenades and tossed them down where they stuck to the engineers armor.

Without stopping to admire their work the two spartans ran for the stairs making it down two flights as they heard the engineer freak out before the loud BOOM of two grenades went off, as they made it halfway down the third flight they finally met the jackals that had been going up and without thinking they opened up on them taking them by surprise before blowing past their corpses. As they flew down the last flight of stairs they saw that the engineer in its panic had taken out one of the brutes with the other still trying to corral the frightened grunts as they ran every which way. Taking advantage of the chaos Jamie and Six opened up taking out the brutes first which threw the grunts into an even bigger frenzy making them easy to pick off.

As they walked through the room and made it too the other side they picked up chatter on the comm "Contacts, two at ten o'clock! I'll hold them off 'til you can get to the other side!" "Through that doorway! Move, move, move!" picking up speed they entered the hospitals concourse where a large pack of brutes led by a chieftain were about to take out a squad of marines, leaping into action Jamie threw a grenade that landed among a cluster of brutes before he and Six opened up on the rest. The grenade went off taking three brutes with it as Jamie and Six took down another two before they focuses their fire on the brute chieftain as it roared at them and tried to charge at them but before they could move out of the way its shield finally gave out and a marine behind it jumped out of cover and blasted it in the back of the head killing it.

As the two spartans stepped over the brute bodies and made their way over to the signal jammer one of the marines came up to them "Thanks for the assist, Spartans. Jammer's right over here." as they went over to it Jamie noticed another engineer floating above and tossed a grenade onto it while Six overloaded the jammer, causing both to go up in flames. "Noble Two to Noble Six and Noble Seven: I'm showing the hospital jammer offline - nice work. Soon as you can, I need you back in your Falcon." as they started walking past the bodies on the concourse back to the lobby they suddenly heard several jumpacks and were greeted by a squad of Elite Rangers as they opened up with plasma repeaters.

Jamie and Six dove for cover as plasma bolts flew by them alerting the marines as well "We've got jumpers!" "Damn! Look at 'em move!" two yelled out as the spartans got to work filling the elites with lead and beating those that got too close, with the help of the marines they killed the last of the rangers before heading back to the lobby where a pack of skirmishers were waiting for them and they were being led by an elite Ultra.

Without a word the marines opened fire on the skirmishers as Jamie and Six focused down the Ultra that was wielding dual plasma rifles. With a roar it charged at them firing plasma at the two spartans as they fired their assault rifles right back at it once it reached them it swung its right arm at Six which he dodged under while reloading as Jamie threw a straight punch at the creatures mid section drawing its attention as it tried to backhand him. Barely moving out of the way Jamie quickly reloaded as Six engaged the Ultra in melee before Jamie slammed his assault rifle across the creatures back staggering it when Six hit it square in the jaw with an uppercut that sent it to the floor. Getting back up it snarled at them before drawing its plasma sword and with a fierce warcry it lunged at them quickly putting them two spartans on the back foot as they had to avoid getting hit by the plasma blade that would cut through their shield, armor and flesh, but before it could do any damage the marines suddenly turned and fired on it forcing it to dodge as its shield was steadily lowered, looking around Jamie saw that all the skirmishers had been killed as well as one of the marines before turning his attention back to the Ultra who was now trying to charge at the marines but before he could intervene Six tackled the beast to the ground wrestling with it trying to get the sword out of its grasp.

Somehow succeeding in disarming the Ultra Six flung the deactivated sword to Jamie right before the Ultra flung him off and across the room with a roar, wasting no time Jamie lunged for the sword before the elite could and activated it just as the elite was almost on top of him and with one swift motion Jamie plunged the sword right into the elites chest before letting go and delivering one final uppercut causing the massive elite to hit the ground hard, this time it didn't get up.

As he got his barings and helped Six off the floor one of the marines came over to them "We're good here, sir you can head back to your bird." he said with Jamie nodding to him before he and Six made their way back up to the falcon on the landing pad with both of them having to use a medpack due to the fierceness of the elite Ultra. Getting back to the pad Jamie and Six got back into their seats before taking off. As they left the hospital a large covenant starship flew overhead causing a building to collapse as they watched the covenant ship stopped on the far side of the city and paused before igniting its excavation laser, assisting the other two ships already there to glass the city.

As they watching in grim silence the radio lit up "Mayday! Mayday! 7 Delta 19 to all UNSC forces!" came a frantic voice as Kat responded "What's your status, 19?" : "We found the jammer, but we're getting hit! Request immediate assistance! Sinoviet Center is-arggh!" the mans voice was cut off "You still with me, 19? 7-Delta 19, do you copy?" kat called out but there was no response even after another two attempts to hail them.

 "Six, I'm uploading coordinates now - get to Sinoviet Center. Help those troopers if you can, but get that jammer offline either way." Kat said finally as Six started going to the center. Jamie remembered how in the game there was a bug ambush waiting for them so he called out to Six "This might be an ambush." he said calmly over their private channel to not alarm the marines with them who were busy shooting at a banshee that had tried to get close Six merely nodded.

As they reached the Sinoviet center Jamie spotted several grunts milling about as did the marines as they swung their turrets around as much as they could to open up on the grunts who were out in the open, after only being able to take out a few Six landed and Jamie hopped out the back as they ran up the stairs to pick off the last of the grunts as they reached the stair Kats voice returned "Noble Two to Noble Six and Seven, I'm still getting nothing from those troopers. You may have to take care of this jammer yourself.", once they reached the top however they saw that the grunts weren't alone as there were several brutes around as well, spotting a jackal sniper in the far corner as well. Six must have noticed as well as he switched his assault rifle for his DMR and with a nod they jumped into action with Six quickly killing the sniper before giving Jamie covering fire as he rushed towards the brutes at eh top of the stairs.

One of the brutes tried to swing at Jamie who calmly flipped it over his head as the brute was at the top of the stairs with Jamie right below it giving Six the chance to kill it as it hit the stairs as Jamie opened up on the two brutes further up. As Jamie killed one Six hit the other as well and silence returned other than the chaos outside. As Jamie waited for Six to reach him Kat came on the comm again "Six,Seven, I'm accessing building schematics. There's an elevator on the North landing."

As they reach the elevator and take them up to the jammer Jamie looks out and sees the city of New Alexandria burning with fires everywhere and building collapsing or looking damn close. As they reach the right floor and step out of the elevator they are immediately met with silence, nothing is heard not even air vents can be heard. As they slowly looked around Kat spoke on the comm "Schematics show alternate routes to either sides." looking closer they can see two corridors and moving as one they take the left one.

Going through the corridor the only thing that they hear is their own footsteps at the corridor slants down and they come across several dead troopers "You're close to the jammer. Destroy it." Kat says over the comm as they make it to the bottom and come face to face with the jammer, Six steps forwards to overload it while Jamie looks around at all the dead troopers waiting for the ambush he knows is going to happen. As the jammer finally blew up and Six returned a swarm of drones suddenly appeared out of nowhere "It's a trap! Get the hell out of there!" Kat yelled on the comm as the two spartans ran for the elevator dodging plasma bolts and claws before they reached the elevator and took it back down the tower "Thermal looks clear for now, return to your Falcon and stand by for instructions.".

As they reached the falcon and got back on it a voice come over the comm "Whiskey 39, requesting immediate assistance!" with Kat quickly replying "Copy, 39. Go ahead." "Just picked up some evacuees, but we're surrounded by long-range Shade turrets!" "Solid copy, 39. Lieutenant, proceed to the waypoint and eliminate those Shade turrets." with that Six took off and flew over to the waypoint. Reaching it Jamie and the trooper in the other turret opened up on the shade turrets that the covenant had set up while Six did the same with the falcons cannon. As they finished up with the turrets they watched as the pelican flew off "Path looks clear, Spartan. Much obliged."

Not getting any rest the radio went off again "1 Alpha 3 to Command: Covies got us pinned down on a rooftop. We need help, pronto! Uploading waypoint now, over." "Copy, 1 Alpha 3. Noble Six, proceed to waypoint and give those troopers a hand." speeding over to the waypoint Jamie gunned down a banshee that had gotten to close for comfort before he and the other gunner opened up on brutes that had the troopers pinned down tearing through them with ease, "We're clear. Thanks for the help, Sierra!" the man said as one of the troopers down below waved up at them.

 As they watch the troopers get picked up by a pelican the radio picks up more chatter "This is Foxtrot 21, on the DNBM Financial Tower! Anybody out there?" "Copy, 21. Go ahead." "We got Hunters tearing us a new one!" "Hang on. Noble Six, uploading coordinates." Six books it over to the waypoint and starts laying into the backs of the hunters with the falcons cannon while Jamie and the gunner keep curious banshees away. Not long after that the hunters are dead and a pelican comes to pick up the troopers they were harassing "Thanks a million, Sierra! Thought we were dead for sure."

 "Six, Covies brought out a mobile jammer to mess with our short-range. Sending you the waypoint; go deal with it." And deal with it they did as Six descended upon the covenant with the cannon blazing, shredding through brutes, grunts and elites all the same while Jamie and the gunner destroyed the jammer.

Almost immediately after the jammer goes up in flames the radio sounds "Command: this is Gunnery Sergeant Buck with the 11th ODST, over." "Copy, Gunnery Sergeant. Go ahead." "My guys got caught in a firefight in the Nomolos Tower, roof collapsed. I gotta get over there and get them out." "Solid copy. Noble Six will escort your Falcon to the tower." with that they were off, Jamie noticed that more of the city had burn and there were a few more buildings missing, he also noted with a bit of worry that the covenant ships that had been glassing the area were starting to get closer than they should. Before he could ponder this more they reached where Buck needed to be and his falcon split off "I owe you one, Spartan... I'll see you in hell."

"4 Charlie 27 to Command: request immediate assistance!" "Go ahead, 27." "We're at the Vyrant Telecom tower! Got Hunters between us and the jammer!" "Copy, 27 - help is on the way. Noble Six, I'm sending you coordinates for the Vyrant tower. Go get those Troopers unstuck." Six flew over to the tower while Jamie kept an eye out for banshees while calming his mind, since this was the last jammer before they got called back to ONI HQ and Jamie didn't plan on letting Kat die. "This is the last jammer, Six. You're almost there." Kat tell them as they land and run inside, Jamie and Six turn on their night vision due to how dark the club is and very quickly see two pairs of hunters, one next to the signal jammer and the other attacking a group of troopers on the lower level. Leaping into action Jamie goes for a discarded rocket launcher on the floor while Six tosses a plasma grenade that he had stashed somewhere as the troopers notice them "Over here, Spartan. Thanks for the hand, almost out of ammo. Jammer's on the upper level."

Just in time Jamie picks up the rocket launcher just as Sixs grenade goes off killing one of the hunters causing the other to go into a rage as it charges Six trying to bash him with its shield. Jamie waves at Six to move before he aims at the hunters exposed back and pulls the trigger with Six barely diving out of the way as the raging hunter dies in a ball of fire and blood. Reloading quickly Jamie turns to the troopers "Get all your grenades and toss them behind the hunters on the upper level." he tells them before he and Six take on the hunter to the right of the jammer with Six baiting it to charge at him before he dove out of the way behind a pillar as a rocket from Jamie slammed into the hunters back killing it.

Sensing its bond-brothers death the other hunter lets out a roar before charging at them, it doesn't make it far though as the troopers jump out of cover and throw several frag grenades as well as two plasma grenades that they found at the raging hunter. With a loud boom the grenades all go off with such force and brightness that it takes Jamies helmet a second to fix its optics before he could look at what remains of the hunter, a lump of charred orange flesh and slag metal where there used to be armor, and somehow the force from the grenades was so much that it flung the hunter a good 4 meters from the impact.

As Jamie overloaded the jammer and regrouped with Six, Kat came over the radio again "Jammer offline. Well done, Noble Seven head back to your Falcon." nodding to the troopers as they left Jamie and Six had just made it back to the falcon and managed to hear the radio "Noble Two to Noble Leader. All jammers are down." "Solid copy, Noble Two. New orders: all personnel are to be evacuated from ONI HQ. Say confirm." "Confirm, ONI tower evacu--!" a loud BOOM interrupted Kat followed by static "Noble Two! Noble Two, sitrep!" "Covies are hitting the HQ in force! They must have zeroed my signal!" "Get that evac started!" "Roger that. Noble Six, get over here and cover our evac Pelicans. I need you overhead, now!"

Not wasting any time Six flew over to the ONI HQ with both Six, Jamie and the other gunner shooting down any banshees that were going the same direction that they were. Reaching the tower they saw it was swarmed by covenant banshees and phantoms "Command, this is Whiskey 35. I've got my eyes on six long range Shade turrets in the vicinity of the ONI tower. Making life pretty tough on our evac birds!" "Copy, Whiskey 35. Noble Six, take out those heavy Shades." Six flew by the shade turrets filling them full of lead as the gunners kept the sides safe "That's one." Six drops sharply in altitude as a pair of banshees stray to close while Jamie aim at them and fires while Six moves onto the next turret "Another Shade turret down."

Out of the corner of his eye Jamie sees a pelican take of from the tower through the hole that they were starting to make "Noble Six, lose those other Shade turrets so the Pelicans can get out of here." more banshees were now paying attention to them with a phantom starting to turn towards them as Six took out two turrets that were close to each other "That's the fourth Shade." another pelican took off with the pilot shouting a quick thanks before taking off as Six swings around to take on the pack of banshees that are harassing them as the gunners start to focus on the phantom that is now flying towards them. Quickly taking care of the banshees Six starts to strafe around the phantom still firing the cannon as the phantoms slow turning speed made it an easier target than the nimble banshees that they had already shot down.

As the phantom finally went down in a blaze of plasma fire Six turned his attention to the last two shade turrets and swiftly dealt with them. "Whiskey 37, you may proceed with evac." "Solid copy, Command. Appreciate the help." and with that the last pelican was away and the evac was successful. "Noble Six,Noble Seven you are two steely-eyed Spartans. I'm extending the landing pad now. Its good to have you back, Lieutenants.". Six lands the falcon and Jamie steels his self and hopes that he can prevent the tragedy that is about to happen. 

As Six and Jamie enter the tower they eventually find the rest of Noble Team, Kat is fixing what appears to be a comm unit with her helmet on the floor next to her with Jun standing over by the large window with a pair of binoculars with Emile sitting on the ground not far from him sharpening his kukri and Jorge and Carter are standing next to a banshee that had crashed into the building and had gotten tangled up in cables and wires. 

Jun puts down his binoculars and sighs "Look at this place. Used to be the crown jewel... Not anymore." noticing the two new spartans arrival he faces them "Hey, you made it." "It's a regular family reunion..." Emile says sarcastically still sharpening his knife. Not paying him any mind Jamie is about to tell Carter about the approaching covenant ships when Jun beats him to it "Sir, that true about Gauntlet, Red and Echo Teams assigned to civilian evac ops?" without missing a beat "Those are senior-level communiques..." Carter says annoyed already facing Kat knowing that it was her "I hear what I hear. Point is, why put Spartans on defensive deployments?" she says trying to defend herself while still working on the comm unit.

Knowing that time was of the essence Jamie interrupts them "I love arguing just as much as the next person but there is a trio of covenant ships glassing the city and they are now getting closer." he says raising his voice as everyone is now very focused on him "you're out of line Seven." Carter says "He's not wrong though we've got movement multiple covenant vehicles vacating the area...and they're in a hurry." Juan said while looking out the window again "How often do you see Covenant retreat for no reason?" Emile asked as he put his knife away and started to get up "I think we are about to get hit." Jamie said but before anyone else could say anything the comm unit in Kats hand goes beeps "Colonel Holland. Hailing us! What's he doing on an open channel?" Kat says in surprise "Let's hear it." Carter says as Colonel Hollands garbled voice fills the room "--near the southwest quadrant of the city, over? Sierra Two-Five-Nine, if you are receiving, I am authorizing override of radio security protocols to link with this channel." 

Carter turn to Kat and asks "How long for a secure link?" "I can't guarantee secure anymore." she says grimly as hollands voice keeps talking "Could the Covenant trace it to us?" Carter asks again "I could." Kats says as Holland comes on again "Noble Leader, this is a Priority One hail. If you are receiving, acknowledge immediately." Kat picks up the the communicator and hands it to Carter "keep it brief. she says before he takes it "Carter here... Yes, sir."

As Carter talks to holland Jamie goes over to Jun with Kat joining "Look for any radiation spikes they usually go real high before they start." he says to Kat as she starts looking into it "You ever been glassed before?" Jun asked looking at him "No but I've seen it happened enough times to know when its time to leave." when Kat shouts "Radiation flare! Big! Forty million roentgens!" as Carter comes over in a hurry "Just lost Holland. What's going on?" "Atomic excitement scrambled the signal. Ninety million now!" Jamie starts for the elevator with Six and Jun moving towards him as well "We need to get underground fast we're about to get glassed." he says with Carter asking incredulously "How do you know?" before the window behind them explodes as a massive plasma blast shatters the window and send powerful air waves through the room the push and almost knock over the spartans "Thats how." Jamie say as he runs towards the stunned Kat pulling her to her feet as she puts on her helmet with Carter putting his on as he, Jun and Emile get into one of the elevators with Jamie, Six Kat and Jorge cramming into the last one as Jamie pushes the button to send them down the first time.

Kat turns to Six "First glassing? Me too. Don't worry, I'm on it. Our best option is a fallout bunker on Sublevel 2, ninety-six metres northeast. We get orders from Holland, sir?" she says before addressing Carter. "We're being redeployed to SWORD Base." he says calmly, that seems to tick of Jun as he shouts "Sword?! Covenant own it now!" "Which is why they want us for a torch-and-burn op. Keep Dr. Halsey's excavation data from falling into enemy hands." Carter says still calm. 

As the first elevator reaches the bottom Carter, Jun and Emile sprint across not noticing the phantom that spotted them though the collapsed roof "If it hasn't already." Kat says sarcastically as their elevator reaches the bottom, Maybe, but according to Holland, the Covenant are still hunting for something."Carter says as he and the others reach the bunker as the rest get out of the elevator. As they are running Kat keeps talking while Jamie looks up at the phantom and sees the elite start to take aim "Where does he get off calling a demolition op Priority One--" Kat doesn't get to finish as Jamie tackles her from behind as a needle hit the ground right where she was a second ago "Sniper, in a phantom above!" Jorge yells as he and Six open up on the elite who ducks into the phantom. Jamie quickly picks himself up and drags Kat up as the phantom above them flies away.

"Come on! Come on! Get in!" Carter yells at them so Jamie still dragging the dazed Kat runs towards them, seeing that Jorge and Six are still lagging behind Jun all but screams at them "Let's go, come on!" that seems to jolt them as they run over as well. As they all make it in and catch their breathe they and the civilians inside watch the door slowly close "Close the doors! Faster!" and man in the back yells as the heat from the plasma starts to reach them just as the doors close. 

Jamie sighs in relief despite himself as he managed to save another spartan of Noble team but before he can congratulate himself more he hears someone clear their throat "You can let go now Seven." Kat says as Jamie looks down and notices that he had never let go of her hand after dragging her into the bunker, letting go he watches as Kat shakes her hand and flexes it "You were holding on pretty tight there Seven." She says in a teasing tone as they along with the rest of Noble team and the civilians move deeper into the bunker "Sorry." he quietly says as the walk behind Six "Didn't say I didn't like it." Kat says before catching up with Jorge and Jamie has to pause and recover from the mental flashbang that just hit him. Apparently not hearing him behind him Six turns around and looks at Jamie who swears he can feel the cocked eyebrow even behind the helmet as Six just looks at him. "What you wanna hold my hand?" Jamie says to Six as he starts walking again with Six just shaking his head and following behind him.

SOME TIME LATER

As Jun leads the way out from the bunker Noble team pauses momentarily to take is the devastation, fire everywhere with lava where there used to be roads and craters dotting the landscape with building either knocked over or shorn in two. As Jun throws out a signal flare out into the open civilians continue to stare at all the spartans and feel safe with them here despite the devastation around them, though none of them notice that two of the spartans are noticeably closer than the rest are as a pelican comes down to where Jun threw down the flair. As Jamie moves towards the pelican with Six and Kat beside him he freezes for a split second as his private comm goes off and he hears the voice of Captain Magun of the Everchanging "Hey man its Magnus, we need to talk, I'll be waiting for you with Dr.Halsey."

A:N sorry this took so long im a really bad procrastinator ;P anyway hope you liked it let me know what color or design is should make Jamies armor, rn is just basic green mjolnir armor that the master chief wears but thats too basic for me so let me know what you think