Noble 7

The Major jogged and caught up with Kat, Six, and Seven waiting for him at the door.

When the four walked through as a group, it automatically hissed open and gave them a wide side view of Carter, Jun, Jorge, and Warren in a shootout against a a team of Jackals spread out in a line with two on either side of a twisted bronze statue. Behind them was a pair of orange-armored Elite Majors, who instead chose to strafe back and forth while shooting as opposed to trying their luck behind the scarce cover the statue and Jackals provided.

Seven threw down a drop shield between the two warring groups. It effectively bridged the gap, and he and Six used said bridge to engage one of the Jackal pairs hand-to-hand. Kat moved to backup Carter and the others, so Burke stayed put outside the door and carefully pied around the blue energy dome. Once he had a clear shot on the two Jackals on the right side, he checked his right and left just in case one of the Marines had come up the elevator and was now suddenly behind him. They weren't.

All good.

"Clear!" he yelled.

Stance solid, he fired off a rocket that exploded against the wall next to the birdlike creatures. As the smoke cleared all he could see was a massive char mark on the wall and the Jackals flailing through the air. All other the Spartans in attendance instantly closed in on the two Elite Majors.

Burke left dirty work to them and jogged over to his second-in-command, ODST Captain Warren.

"Where's the rest of Whiskey?" he asked.

Warren nodded to the room on their right, the outside of which was stained by the punch of Burke's rocket.

"I sent them upstairs to help out Emile," he explained."But they got hit by a small lance maybe a few minutes after I gave the order. We were too pinned down out here to get to them."

Burke heard Carter instructing the others after the Elites were neutralized.

"Six, get to the top floor and assist Emile. Jorge, Seven, make sure she gets there."

"Depend on it." Jorge told him

The three of them headed out and Burke turned back to Warren, saying, "I can get them unstuck, though I may need to borrow a few after."

"They're yours to borrow," Warren replied.

Burke grinned as he clasped a hand on his friend's shoulder, then moved into the room on they right. It was noisy with activity inside. He could hear automatic gunfire, yelling, plasma-based weapons discharging and high pitched squeals.

He'd decided to keep the spent launcher, in case he happened to find some of extra rockets, but switched over to his magnum. Burke ducked low and slowly walked up a ramp leading into the room (they were all over to accommodate the physically impaired), and continued in a crouch to stay hidden from sight.

Then without warning, about halfway up the ramp, he stood. Only his pistol, outstretched arms, and head were exposed, and he fired twice. Two bullets, two headshots, two dead Grunts.

He saw a couple of ODSTs taking cover behind a decoratively transparent support beam. It was fairly easy to distinguish who Warren was. Like the rest of Whiskey-One, his chest plate and helmet stripe were orange, but his shoulder cauldrons were red instead of black. However, discerning the identities of the others took sorting through the more subtle cues and clues.

Colonel Holland loved using Burke for various black operations and off-the-books missions. Holland couldn't send the Spartan Noble team in on every single job; ONI would throw a hissy fit. But using the Major and a squadron of ODSTs would raise no undue concern. Major Burke had handpicked each of these ODSTs, including Warren. He knew which clues and cues to look for.

He knew which one was Daniel by the large open scar in his chest plate. He'd been standing right there when it happened. But he'd worked with these guys enough times to know that the other one was Eric. Anyone else would have said something upon Burke's approach, but not him. Eric was the quiet one. Daniel was sitting up against the support beam while his squad mate filled the open wound with biofoam.

"Where are the others?" Burke asked them.

Busy Eric, without looking up, nodded to the side and answered, "In there, boss."

He left them there and continued into the adjacent room. There, he saw Melissa and David standing triumphantly over a few alien corpses. David was toeing a dead Elite corpse with his foot.

"Looks like you guys won the fight," Burke said to them.

Melissa shook her head and responded, "For now. Fight's not over yet."