Gladiator nodded to Valkyrie's order "Rodger that, ready when you are" a moment later they carefully rounded the corner, starting slow and then picking up speed. They skidded right past the lieutenant and Gladiator opened up the mounted chain turret, cutting down a row of Grunts, and their Elite commanders, as Valkyrie smashed a Sangheili warrior that tried to block their path. Suddenly an Elite jumped onto the driver's side and punched Valkyrie in the side of the head. Valkyrie shook it off cursing and leapt onto the Elite, removing the alien and herself from the vehicle before Gladiator could swivel the turret around and cut it down.<br/><br/>Seeing Valkyrie had things in hand, he continued to man the turret as the Warthog rolled slowly along cutting down whatever alien was stupid enough to raise it's ugly head. Plasma pinged off the vehicle but, the cover fire from the army grunts behind him did alot to discourage the alien's return fire. Gladiator looked to his radar off the corner of his eye and spotted movement. Suddenly every instinct told him to duck. An Elite's energy sword sizzled overhead bare centimeters where his head had been a split second ago. Gladiator swiveled the gun around trying to get away from the deadly energy weapon, the turret's barrel slammed against the Elite's side unbalancing it and knocking it off the Warthog. Swinging the turret around so that it faced the front of the 'hog again, he pulled the DMR rifle from his thigh and while keeping ahold of the turret grip with one hand turned, set one foot securely on the edge of the bed, and put two bullets into the recovering Sangheili warrior. The vehicle jounced as something heavy landed on it, and the Gladiator heard the distinctive<em>snap-hiss</em>of another Energy Sword coming to life.  He turned just in time to see a Elite in red armor crouched on the cab, one two toed foot resting on the windshield's frame, and the other on the bar separating the driver's seat and passenger's seat. It roared at him, it's four pronged mouth opening wide to reveal sharp single rowed yellow teeth. Gladiator hunkered down, raising the barrel of the turret just as the Elite stepped forward in preparation to strike, and pulled the trigger. The turret's high powered ammunition made mince meat out of the Elite's chest, spraying purple blood into the air, creating a purple mist as the blood was evaporated due to the heat from the high powered bullets ripping past. The aliens corpse was ripped in half from the chest up as gravity took hold and pulled the corpse down as the Spartan continued to fire.<br/><br/>Gladiator could feel his blood pressure spike along with his adrenaline, as it again dawned on him how close to death he'd come just then. He shook his head and cleared his mind, continuing to fire at the remaining aliens as he turned the turret left, right, up and down, firing at every alien that moved in short controlled streams, as he felt himself drift into the familiar numbing "zone". Soon the Warthog slowed to a stop, and gently bumped against the side of a building. Everything went quiet a moment later, except for a ringing in Gladiator's ears from the onrush of his body's reaction to his latest of near death experiences. Time seemed to slow but, the ringing in his head was constant. Before he knew it, Valkyrie was there climbing back into the blood drenched driver's seat. Only then did it dawn on him that she had said something a couple of minutes ago. He took a glance at the carnage in the street, the mixing colors of alien and human blood, and the sheer amount of bodies that littered the street, alien and human alike. He looked back to Valkyrie as a final shot rang down the street from one of the soldier's magnum side arms, the sound itself seeming to shake him back into reality. Gladiator cleared his throat "sorry Valkyrie, did you say something?"<br/><br/><strong>"Daaaamn Spartans!"</strong>the voice of an obviously impressed army grunt rang out over his headset<strong>"I'm glad you're on our side!"</strong><br/><br/>"Glad you enjoyed the show" Gladiator said, a small smile coming to his lips, one that he didn't quite feel due to the amount of civilian deaths around them "now get those civilians to safety before more Covvies show up." He rested a moment against the mounted turret as Valkyrie turned the 'hog around, letting his lungs fill with air and his heart slow, before stepping off the turret station. Walking over to the covered dumpster, he raised the lid and carefully retrieved their unconscious team member, and fastened him back into the passenger seat. The exhaustion and hunger was beginning to get to him again, up until now, he'd been able to ignore it. Now, he didn't know how much longer he'd be able to survive without some food and some sleep if they kept this pace up. His stomach growled, futilely reminding him of how much he needed food to replace all the energy he'd expended since he'd started this mission. The little bit that he'd had during the mission hadn't been nearly enough. With his head pounding due to a lack of nutrition and an over expenditure of energy, his thoughts were in a fog. Everything except their current mission, and their surviving team members was hazy now. He walked back to the turret station on the Warthog and climbed back in, taking a firm hold on the trigger guards. Gladiator looked around to confirm that there were no living enemies, and that the army soldiers were back on their way again. They were.<br/><br/>Gladiator nodded to Valkyrie "let's go."