<em><strong>Meanwhile at the same time half a world away in New Mombasa, Africa..</strong></em><br/><br/><em>"kzzz...they've got me cornered and I'm low on ammo..kzzzk..if you can hear me I'm on sublevel 9..kzzz...."</em><br/><br/>The ODST crept through the bowels of the Mega City's seventh sub-level, following their ONI squad leader's last known position, and he still had two sub-levels more to go to get to Captain Dare. Two sub-levels filled with Covenant. So far, he'd been fortunate as "Rookie" tracked his team through New Mombasa. He'd come across mostly street patrols, which had mostly consisted of two Brutes, four Grunts, and maybe a pair of Jackal Snipers. That wasn't to say that he'd had it easy. He'd come face to face with death more times than he could count on this mystery mission, and from the look of Romeo's sniper rifle that he found hung on a telephone line, none of the squad had had it easy. Ofcourse, he'd approached his brushes with death with his customary stoicism, silence, brushed it off and pushed on. A couple hours later he was on the 9th sub-level after fighting through a horde of Drones, or "Buggers", as the Marines liked to call them, Brutes, Grunts, and Jackals. The confines of the sub-level had definitely made things interesting, as there was little to no room to move very far. Fortunately, there had been cover, support pillars, massive computer towers, and concrete work stations.<br/><br/>Taking a quick security check of his surroundings, the ODST backed up to the sealed door slowly, and nonchalantly knocked on the steel hatch. A second later, he was greeted by a pretty blonde and a magnum pointed at his helmet. Her eyes went wide with surprise, as she slowly lowered the gun from his head "It's you..I thought..nevermind" he saw disappointment in her eyes for a second but, she masked it well as she briefly looked away from his visor "what was your name again?" As usual he didn't answer. A second later something moved further down the hall, both of them raised their weapons in a flash. "Inside! Now!" Captain Veronica Dare ordered, Rookie didn't argue. They walked further into the Data Center "this way and keep quiet" this again from Dare "some idiots blew the building at the top of the shaft, and woke the whole hive."<br/><br/>Rookie rolled his eyes though he was careful not to move his head. Like he'd ever had a problem keeping quiet.<br/><br/><br/><em><strong>Meanwhile at exactly the same time halfway across the world in New York City, New York on 40th street..</strong></em><br/><br/><em><strong>Gladiator0161</strong></em><br/><br/><em>"This is Lieutenant Stacy of the 110nth air force squadron, we have two confirmed jammer kills. Repeat. Two com jammer kills. Enjoy the radio traffic everybody!"</em><br/><br/><em>"This is Admiral Bane of the Hercules. Good job son, now get up here and join the fight, we've got more of those Covenant bastards trying to get past what remains of the blockade and we need all the help we can get.</em><br/><br/><em>"Rodger that Admiral, on our way.</em><br/><br/>Somewhere within the inky blackness of Spartan 0161's consciousness, he heard the radio traffic over his helmet's communicae receiver but, the only indication that it had even registered with him was a light shift of position on the bed. He was awake but, his eyes were so heavy they didn't want to open. His arms and legs felt like lead weights. Hell, his body in general was just heavy with exhaustion. It was only through pure determination that he even managed to open his eyes again after a half hour nap, and resist the nearly overpowering urge to fall right back asleep. Feeling something stuck in his arm, he begrudgingly lifted his arm to get a blurry look at whatever the object was. Gingerly he felt along his naked forearm and felt something like plastic embedded in his arm. His eyes snapped open and he bolted upright, his training and instincts kicking into overdrive at what his brain perceived as a threat. His blue eyes locked onto the IV needle and followed the plastic line connected to the needle to the bag, remembered where he was, and laid down again.<br/><br/>Only then did he notice the startled medic beside him, clutching some kind of electronic pad to her chest "sorry" he said casually, as if it was nothing. After taking a moment to get comfortable, he noted that his helmet was relaying coms traffic and picked it up to listen in. It sounded as if the fleet were in a hell of a firefight up there. He looked to the medic who was once again looking at her pad, though she was now doing so at the foot of his bed "So, what's our prognosis doc?" he asked as lightly as his deep voice would allow.<br/><br/>"Don't you want to know what your diagnosis is first?" she asked looking up at him, a confused expression on her face.<br/><br/>"Dehydration, starvation, exhaustion, light concussion, beat all to hell, and one hell of a headache" Gladiator said lightly waving the diagnosis away as if it hardly mattered.<br/>"Uh..yeah, but, there's more.." she started.<br/>"Anything broken or that's gonna keep me outta the fight beyond a few hours of bed rest and some food?"<br/>"Well..I dunno. That depends" she said crossing her arms over her chest.<br/>"On what?" the Spartan said placing his helmet back on his head and flipping through the com frequencies, and stopping on one that was looping a distress signal.<br/>"On whether you and your men are going to follow the doctor's orders" she said rolling her eyes.<br/>"You and these guys from the Hercules? Admiral Bane send you?" Gladiator asked trying to sit up.<br/>"Y'know, for a guy with a concussion, you're pretty sharp" she said sarcastically making the huge Spartan chuckle. Soon his head was spinning though from sitting up, and he had to settle back down onto the bed.<br/>"Might wanna add dizziness to that list for me" he said lightly.<br/>"Great idea genius" she said shaking her head and fiddling with her pocket until she found a small bottle of pills and handed them to him "here. Take two of these now, and two every couple of hours. Now, get some rest. That's an order."<br/>"I will, but, after I sort this distress call, get a location, and check up on my team" Gladiator said curtly, leaving no room for discussion as she set a couple bottles of water down on the small folding end table next to his bed.<br/>Giving a frustrated sigh, the doctor turned around and just shook her head "Spartans."<br/><br/>Gladiator ignored her and bore into his COM systems as he attempted to track down the source of the distress signal, and amplify it. Despite the Covenant COM Jammers being reduced in number, the COMs were still a mess as UNSC forces transmitted just about everything over different COM frequencies. He heard everything from backup requests, to ammunition statuses, to force deployments over the TACCOM line, to the cries of the dying. War was horrible in every way but, it's what the Spartans were made for. In actuality the whole thing barely phased him anymore. If anything, the fact that such horrible conditions barely phased him worried him more than anything. Shrugging off those particular thoughts, he renewed his efforts in tracking down the distress signal's source. It was blasting over every COM frequency but, he could barely make it out with all the noise. Finally, he found a channel and was able to hear the entire thing for the first time.<br/><br/><em>“Uh…Mayday.  Mayday.  Mayday.  This is Ashley Foster…PFC Foster.  I’m en route from Grand Central in Manhattan across the bridge to the bunker Middle Village.  I’ve not come across any hostiles yet, but any help would be appreciated.”</em><br/><br/>Calling up the Mega City's A.I. the Spartan II had it track the whereabouts of one PFC Foster, starting with the Middle Village bunker, and working it's way back to her last known position using the various security cameras in the city. Within seconds he had her on his HUD, a live feed being displayed for him from a diner across the street from the shop she was currently curled up in. He recognized her immediately after the camera zoomed in on her shocked and terrified face. He'd spotted her making her way through the streets sometime earlier. Noticing the edge of a COM pad in the pocket of her red vest, he smiled.<br/><br/>"PFC Foster, this is Sierra zero one six one. Turn to TACCOM frequency two five nine and await instructions. Over," Gladiator waited a moment, looked at his live feed and then repeated his message just in case she was too emotionally distraught to catch it the first time. It was clear from the way she curled her body away from the Elite laying on the shattered remains of the counter, and the expression on her face that she was civilian, not a soldier. The fact that she'd managed to kill four Grunts and their Elite commander impressed him greatly. Most people just ran, cowered, or were paralyzed with fear upon sight of the aliens of the Covenant, they didn't fight them and win usually. It occurred to him then that she must have had atleast some training with firearms "Repeat, this is Sierra zero one six one calling PFC Ashley Foster. Turn to TAC COM frequency two five nine and await instructions. Over."<br/><br/>Turning his coms over to his SQUADCOM frequency he said "Gladiator to Shana, Sling, Sierra 435, and 636. Sit rep! Anyone still alive out there?"<br/><br/><em><strong>Gunnery Sergeant Desmonde "Sling" Rockwell</strong></em><br/><em><strong>Loc: Mall Emergency Medical Room, New York City, New York</strong></em><br/><br/>Sling looked at the Marine as she reluctantly took his knife and ripped open his pants at the knee.<em>This is gonna hurt like hell</em>he thought as he tried to mentally prepare himself for his last minute "surgery". He gritted his teeth as Shana's hand massaged the skin over his knee cap, searching for the bone shard lodged in his knee. When she found it, he groaned through his gritted teeth but, nodded his head to her to continue. As she stabbed his knife into his knee and worked it under the cap so she could have room to remove the shard, he cried the most painful ear piercing cry he'd ever made. Sweat beaded on his forehead as his body threatened to go into shock. He could feel his life's blood pouring down his calf and pooling under his leg as she dropped the knife, pulled the bone shard out, and filled the hole she'd made with biofoam, or what remained. As the biofoam began to cool his bleeding knee and numb it, he gritted his teeth and laid back with a loud sigh, and letting out the breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding.<br/><br/>A moment later, he nodded at the Private as he reported that it was just his sergeant, and two others fighting up there. Trembling a little from the pain, he nodded and said "Thanks Shana..now..get your ass up that shaft and help our boys out. Sounds like they could use back up." Looking to the private once more he said "You private..come here."<br/><br/>The Private did as he was told, coming within a few feet of the ODST making Sling smile through a grimace "Closer". The man looked reluctant but, eventually did so, standing beside the wounded ODST. Grabbing him roughly by the collar of his uniform Sling brought the young man's face up to his own "I so much as hear that I screamed like a girl outta you, or any of your buddies..I'm gonna find you and cut off your balls with my knife and then, I'm gonna feed them to one of those squid faces out there. Understood?"<br/><br/>Seeing O'Brian's eyes go wide and then nod quickly a few seconds later was priceless. He smiled and said "Good, now get up there and help them out. I'll be up shortly" he said grabbing his two remaining weapons, his Mauler, and his trusty M6C/SOCOM pistol, then laying back to gather his strength for a minute.<br/><br/>