The Tables have turned. (Open)

[Faclan]

Teo Poq - T'vaoan Murmillo
Mostly ruined city of Lemarcha, in some sights
Hopefully not waiting for death.

With the air now thick of the smell of more burning metal and now also tacky upholstery the bolts and runners holding down the back bench seat of the Human vehicle were finally melted through. Finally they could get the other Unggoy free and then get to some cover. Since they were all still alive. So far. And so supposedly hadn't be spotted yet - the trigger Humans weren't known for their patience and ability to give up a possible target.

Or at least thats what most of the four at the car had seen in their experience.

"Good, now on three life it up before tilting it back, we don't want to crush his arm with the chair." The Unggoy nodded as Teo crouched down and got a handle on the bottom of the bench, squinting at how close he was to the slowly cooling melted runners, and the back of it. Making sure the Unggoy on the other side was ready too he was about to start counting when he saw Laz's head snap to the side. Licking his beak a bit Teo hoped they weren't about to get riddled with bullets as he kept his position but quietly cheeped over the popping of metals and fires.

"How many n' pink or blue?" Pink being the Humans obviously.

"Didn't see boss...just saw something green above the front of that car." He pointed out the one in question, if Ward had found another way to see around or under it he would see the T'vaoan minor pointing right at his cover as it clicked and hissed. Glancing at it and then back at Laz the Murmillo could see that Laz wanted to go. Run and leap the car, rush the opponent before they could fire at them first or call for backup. And while Teo would normally be running with to ensure the safety of his troops right now they couldn't risk it. A firefight now would ensure they were found by the Humans, and if they killed one they would have no chance of keeping their lives...but if it was an enemy they were already seen, already spotted. More Humans would be arriving and their chance of escape was now very low. Even if they tried to sneak off they would be followed and rooted out. Gods why did he try to help these Unggoy?!

"Kig-Yar?" The Unggoy's squeaked out as Teo kept crouching there.

"Boss?" Laz added, starting to edge toward the vehicle to get with some needlin and clawing before Teo finally spoke up.

"No...leave it. They haven't fired at us yet and if it was a Human they had time to get a bead on any of us. 1, 2, 3." He grunted and lifted with the Unggoy as he continued. "They could be alone and scared, or are giving us a chance to give up. But no firefight has started and I don't want to be the one who shot first tonight. Keep watch and try to stay behind some cover but they have the advantage. I don't want us to get massacred." Laz nodded as he kept his eyes on the car hiding the Human and scooted back and around to behind a vehicle himself and in some cover at least.

The Unggoy had been freed during his little speel and Teo helped him out of his side of the car. The Unggoy was missing his pistol and his arm had a decent cut in it from being trapped but he seemed fine besides. And thanked Teo with a squeak as he got to his feet. The Murmillo handing the Unggoy his pistol - leaving the Murmillo weaponless besides his combat knife - and nodded as he asked where they were going? Teo licking his beak again as he glanced toward where the Human had been seen before replying.

"Nowhere yet, get behind some cover. We need to wait to see what this one does as if we go back to our little base now they will know where it is and follow us to our injured."

The newly freed Unggoy didn't look like he liked that idea but nodded and the three beside the car soon found cover behind it or with Laz. Waiting to see what would happen.

Teo silently cursing himself for his slow decision making up to this point and now doubly angry with himself that he haddn't taken Laz's pistol for himself as he was now unarmed and Laz was behind the other car...

(So Teo and one Unggoy behind the former trap car, and Laz and the other Unggoy closer to Wards car. Liking the devlopment Teo is having being shoved into high stress leadership :>)

[Winters, R.]

Raven was all alone right now, but her past and fears made it seem to her like the whole planet was in such a twisted and ruined landscape, with her being the only person on the planet. She moved forways slowly, climbing and crawling over the hills of debris and going from cover to cover, scanning the area every few seconds. She was scared... hell... terrified actually. All her life she was trained for this, trained to kill the enemy.
But she had killed humans only... not the much stronger, heavier and larger freaks. She actually had no idea what her reaction would be on meeting one face to face. She did not know that she would find out soon enught. 
As moved to the location that she was given as a meeting point, she was slowly moveing next to a wall, when her eyes suddenly caut something way up ahead. She checked her HUD to find out if it was anybody from the team. She grunted in worry, as she understood that her team was over a click out from her location. On realizing this, she  intantly went into a crouch and froze. Either she was starting to really halucinate apart from her flashbacks... or there really was some motion up ahead. She raised her rifle and looked into the scope. She let out a low grunt as she saw it. Threght her scope, she did infact see motion, and that motion was what seemed to be a Convenant unit. Her heart rate doubled as she ralized this and instinctively took her eye off the scope and scanned the area with her eyes. She also listened very carefully, for anything that might be unusual, for a few lond seconds. Only the creepy sounds of the fires, and the wind blowing. She reached up to her radio and pushed the talk button. " Visual contact on my location... target is most likely injured. Engage or hold position? " She wispered into her radio, hoping that the comm in her area was able to be heard.
She subbenly head a single garbled noise. She raised her rifle to where she heard the noise from and made her way towards it. She stopped just a few wards from it, mostly in great fear. She did not show it apart from her heavy breathing and her very tight grip on her rifle. Lucky for her it had a silencer on it, as she sure as damn hell did not want to giver her position away.
Suddenly the freak of a convenant slowly stood up, making her already fast heard rate triple, and was towering over the already tall Raven. If somebody would be reading her vital stats over the personal HUD, they would probably thing that she was having a heart attack. In truth, she actually was fairly close to it. Raven cursed in a low voice but was paralized from fear. As she stared at the visibly badly injured enemy, her training finally gave way threght the fear. Her fear turned to anger and then to fury! It made her far stronger. She saw flashes of the last time that she was this close to the real enemy, but her anger somehow overcame the otherwise momentary stun thes flashes had on her.
" Animal! " She let out a bark of anger and raised her rifle, preparing to use the entire clip it the brute took just another step towards her. It just stoop there, probably thinking of the chances of survival. Raven took a single step forward, to show that she would damn stand her ground! She was also waiting for possible orders and was hoping to get one in seconds or she would open fire.

[Davis, E.]

Davis now had his team assembled, but Winters was still out in the open. He did a quick check on her position on his HUD map when her voice barked across the TEAMCOM net. Davis knew immediately what had to happen. It was time to play hero and let his team do their job.

"I'm going to get Winters," he hissed to Furby. "Take the shot on my mark. The three of your should be good to take them on. Hopefully I'll draw their attention elsewhere with my exit."

With that he rolled away from cover and sprinted across the open ground back towards Winters location. Hopefully she would still be alive when he got there. With a quick mental command he pulled up her helmet cam to get a view of her target. A wounded Jackal stood frozen still in her view and Davis knew things would turn out fine. He didn't slow though, knowing he couldn't leave the marine out in the world alone. Not now.

"OPEN FIRE," he barked across the TEAMCOM channel, waiting to hear the sound of rifles in return. 

[Ward, J.]

Jon sighed with relief when the IFF identifiers for his team appeared on his HUD. They were a few meters behind him and, though he didn't look back to check, knew they were probably about to set up firing positions to engage the Covenant troops ahead of him. So far the Covenant had made no attempt to engage him, which made him believe he still maintained the element of surprise.

The private turned around and peeked out from around the vehicle, his rifle not quite yet at the ready. From his vantage point he could see that the Covenant had managed to free the entrapped Grunts, and seemed to be assuming a defensive posture, spreading out. He wasn't sure whether or not that was just a tactical choice by whomever was in command or if the bastards had actually discovered the presence of the humans just a few dozen meters away from their position.

"I think they know we are here," he muttered aloud to himself. Before he could key his radio to warn the rest of the team that they may have just walked into some type of trap, the voice of Corporal Davis blared through his headset, barking orders.

"OPEN FIRE!"

Ward immediately stood up from behind the Capri and snapped his weapon onto the closest target, his aim assisted by the crosshairs on his HUD linked to the MA5B's electronic suite. The head of one of the Grunts just barely poked out from behind a vehicle close to his position. Jon paused to ensure his aim was perfect before dropping his right index finger to the trigger, giving it a brief squeeze.

The rifle bucked against his shoulder as it loosed a single round that sped across the open expense at lightning speed. Florescent blue blood exploded out the back of the Grunt's skull, splattering all across the hood and windshield of an abandoned vehicle behind them. The alien's legs gave out, and it slumped to the ground, lying on its methane tank.

He turned his aim onto the vehicle that the Grunt had attempted to conceal itself behind and opened fire in short-controlled bursts, attempting to keep whichever of the aliens that had hidden behind it suppressed, and perhaps even hopefully scare it out from cover. The rounds bounced harmlessly off the vehicle, ricocheting in several directions. Ward didn't care, however. If he could keep the enemy suppressed for long enough, either Furby or Avery would have the perfect opportunity to flank them and destroy them.

"Suppressing!"

[Furby, J.]

"Ready for this, dude?"

Lance Corporal Avery lay next to Furby, his M247 propped up on its bipod, ready to be fired. The machine gunner cocked his head to the side to look at Jayson, a crooked grin splayed across his dark features. "Mary and I are always ready."

Jayson pulled his face away from the ACOG he had been peering through and glanced at his friend, a look of perplexion written in his expression. "I thought you named her Sally?" he said.

"Who cares?"

The lance corporal shrugged, deciding it wasn't important, and looked back through his battle rifle's scope. Several meters downrange was a Jackal and a Grunt that had moved behind the vehicle that the pair of Grunts had been trapped inside, the designated marksmen's crosshairs settled squarely on the avian creature's dome. His finger rested just above the trigger guard, awaiting the order to let loose hot lead upon the enemy.

"I'm going to get Winters," biased Corporal Davis to the DM. "Take the shot on my mark. Hopefully I'll draw their attention elsewhere with my exit."

He nodded. "Roger, Corporal."

With that, Davis sprinted off in the opposite direction, making his way to the position of Private Winters. Ever since the woman had joined the unit, Furby had found himself weary of her. Her outward appearance was rather typical of a Marine, but as time had passed and he had interacted with her on a deeper level, he found her to be a bit unstable. Maybe even a bit batshit crazy.

There had been several occasions where he had spoken with her that she had suddenly trailed off mid-sentence, as if pulled into some type of memory, before suddenly bouncing back like nothing had happened. Furby questioned whether or not she was mentally fit to be in a combat unit. The Marine Corps often gave its personnel a wide berth in the psychological department due to how badly they were hurting for able-bodied men and women, but there were still some things that they could not just turn a blind eye to.

Cataloging the thought for later review, Jayson focused on the task at hand as the order from Corporal Davis blared in his ears. He paused a split-second to ensure that his crosshairs were on target and then squeezed the trigger.

BANG! The report of the rifle echoed through the empty, war-torn streets of the city. Furby watched with twisted satisfaction as the Jackal's brains ventilated out the back of its cranium, mixed with dark purple blood. The Grunt beside the Jackal shrieked in surprise and terror, ducking down behind the vehicle in unbridled terror.

Beside Jayson, Lance Corporal Avery opened up with his machine gun, firing short, controlled bursts in the Covenant's direction. Two aliens were left out of the original four, but Furby kept his eyes open. There was no telling how many more Covenant may have been in the area, and there was still the distinct possibility that they had just walked themselves into a very elaborate, well thought out trap. I'll be happy when these assholes are dead, he thought.

[Faclan]

Teo Poq - T'vaoan Murmillo
Lemarcha Street, being fired upon
Sitting quietly.

"Stay down you fool, we don't know if that Human was alone!" Teo hissed at the Unggoy beside him who was peaking over the car toward where Laz had said he saw the Human. But the Unggoy just grunted and raised up his pistol to have it ready. The Murmillo hissing a bit at the situation they were in...if it was more than one they were truely stuffed like the space chicken he was often called. Well thats what it sounded like from the tiny bit of their language he had picked up. Teo clenching and unclenching his claws as he debated weather trying to fall back now when they had a moment. But it was soon clearly too late.

The Unggoy right beside him was the first causality, half of his head blown off and spraying Teo with his blue blood as it fell back on him. The Murmillo momentarily shocked that the Humans would fire first...but, he reasoned as he shoved the body off him and grabbed the now un-owned plasma pistol, he likely would have done the same.

"Die you shit apes!"

The needle fire from Teos old rifle was barely able to fire two before he was shot...Laz was shot. His old friend, dead. Teo staring through the shattered windows in disbelief as Laz toppled backwards with feathers and blood spewing out behind him. The gunfire mostly ignored as Laz's body crumpled on the ground.

The second Unggoy screamed in fear as two of them were killed and took off running, but was likely gunned down as soon as he left the cover. But Teo was still mostly behind it, having ducked back down after seeing his friend die and look down at the pistol he was holding. It was just him now...against at least two Humans with weapons trained and suppressing him. Teo twitching a little as he reached up to the side of his head, running on automatic to try and key his radio. Call for support, backup, report that he was under fire. But his claws just grabbed at empty air as his helmet had been broken earlier. No help was going to come for him. He was alone.

He should try and fight...take revenge. That was he was trained to do by his own people and from the Covenant. Giving up was not acceptable. It was a betrayal of his clans honor and the Covenant. But the Murmillo had no fight left tonight. Not after all that had happened in addition to his injuries.

The Humans only seeing a plasma pistol slide out from behind the car where the last alien was as Teo sat with his back against the vehicle, just sitting quietly and looking at the ground between his feet - expecting that he would be getting executed shortly.

[Winters, R.]

As Raven was standing there, with the freak towering over her, she glared at it, looking at its injuries. They luckily seemed harsh enught for it to have a great setback in preformance... but even at that Raven did not underestimate it. She compared this situation to a injured animal... it was probably the most dangerous and unpredictable right now.

She head the order in her helmet comm and raised her rifle to aim. The hulkling monster also attacked, rucking towards her. She leaped sideways, to avoid being sort of run over. She landed with a hard thud, and aimed again. She opened fire as she sprang up as fast as she could and glared at her bullets where only draining its Energy Shield. She heard somebody talk about her and frowned. She was not a damsel in distress... but as she glanced back at the Convenant scout, she smirked.

She suddenly heard a shot echoing in the distance. Her enemy paused momenterally, glancing towards where the echo came from. But During this moment, it also took out a large device, an energy blade. Raven retreated somewhat. She grabbed one of her grenades, unpinned it at tossed it towards it. She then, rushed to the nearest cover. She leaped over a burned out wheck of a car, and ducked behind it, just as the grenade exploded. She smirked as she could head the Energy shield flicker and die. She glanced out from her cover and grew wied eyed as she saw that her target was running wards her cover. She raised her rifle just enught to be able to shoot at her enemy. She emptied her clip and carefully glanced out of the cover. Her target was still standing, but even more sevierly injured. It let out a scream of rage and marched at her. She froze at the site of the freak, towering over her.

It sent a hard back hand smack towards Raven, but she luckily managed to dodge backwards. She leaped backwards, grabbed the hoister of her combat knife. She opened it and yanked out her knife.

"You die now!" she barked as she started slashing and stabbing it. She however gut another puch to her gug. She gasped for air as she was knocked backwards, back onto the wreckage. She however saw that its energy blade was just a yard away from her reach. Her air was knocked out of her and she slowly crawled to the weapon.

She grabbed it and lifted it, being pretty heavy and large. She however, remembered how to use it, from her childhood. She would never forget, hot a weapon was used against her parents.

Raven activated the energy blade and thrusted it in a wide motion slashing the armor and its guts open, finally killing it. She grabbed his neck, choking it as hard as she could and glared into its dieing eyes. "Tell the others I said hello!" she spat in anger and her mouth moved into a cruel half smile just before her enemy died. 

  

[Davis, E.]

Davis heard the gunfire from both directions and kept his pace up to close with Private Winters. The concussion of a grenade echoed loud in his ears as he turned a gutted street corner and closed in on the waypoint he had set up in his HUD. He could only hope she had thrown that on purpose and that it hadn’t cooked off from a plasma round. Her vitals were jumping around like crazy, but everything was still stable, which was slightly reassuring. He would get there to her, of that he had no doubt.

It was another block, which was less than a minute at his current speed, and he broke out into an open space that was well covered with rubble, bodies, and signs of Covenant. Davis made a quick scan before striding out towards the center to collect the lone Private. He finally rounded the husk of a car to find her triumphantly choking a Jackal whose insides were spread on the ground at her feet. The fact that she was holding the dead alien up at all was impressive, or perhaps a testament to how much of its insides were now out. Davis walked up cautiously, unsure of the mental state of his fellow marine.

“Private,” he said loud enough to get her attention. “I think you got him. Now stop playing with that thing so we can get with the others. It’s not wise to stay out here without more backup.”

With only a moment of hesitation to make sure she was following, he turned back towards the path he had come down. Now that they were together, he wasn’t nearly so ready to dart across danger. With a quick hand signal, he motioned her across the street so they could cover each other easier. It was all he needed now to have some grunt only playing dead with a plasma grenade to take them both out. Cowardly creatures. Davis couldn’t stand them for that reason.

“When we get back to the team,” he said quietly, “We may be in the midst of some fighting. Make sure you’re loaded up and ready to start prioritizing targets.”

[Ward, J.]

Ward continued to lay down a steady stream of lead, suppressing the small team of Covenant soldiers up ahead. He'd managed to take down a Grunt and Furby had snagged a Jackal, leaving two out of the original four left to contend with. The two remaining had stuck to their cover much to his surprise. Covenant troops were usually foolishly stubborn and brave, willing to leap out from behind hard cover to engage the enemy in mutual combat.

Sometimes the tactic worked, but rarely against the Marines of Oscar Company. Jon turned his eyes away from down range, looking over at Lance Corporal's Furby and Avery. "Why aren't they shooting back?"

"'Cuz we got 'em suppressed, dumbass," Avery replied without looking at him. Ward frowned, shaking his head. The Covenant rarely cared whether they were under heavy fire or outnumbered. Aggressiveness was the standard play in their playbook, and he was surprised he was not seeing that here.

"I'm gonna move up," he shouted back at them, "and try to flank them!"

"What?!" Lance Corporal Furby shouted with incredulity. "You're gonna do what, Jonny?!"

Ward ignored him. He'd already made up his mind. Right now they had the advantage, but the Covenant may have called for reinforcements, and that's why the team in front of them wasn't putting up much of a fight. It would make for an elaborate and well put together trap; and frankly, Ward did not look forward to the idea of being ambushes by a numerically superior force.

First Team was good, but they weren't that good.

"Moving!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs. He didn't wait for a response, jumping up and bolting down the debris-ridden sidewalk to the right. Jon kept his rifle at the ready, the barrel pointed at the spot where the one Jackal had taken cover. As he approached he spotted another Grunt bolt out from cover in a panicked frenzy.

He grinned. "Got'cha," the point man murmured to his himself as he squeezed the trigger. The Grunt slammed to the ground face first, blood oozing out of a new orifice in its throat. It rolled around on the ground for a few seconds before becoming still as the life drained out of its body onto the dust and soot covered street.

Ward turned his attention back to the vehicle that the Jackal had ducked behind and approached it cautiously, his finger hovering over the trigger. Suddenly, a plasma pistol slid out from behind the vehicle, stopping a few inches short of Ward's boot. He glanced down at it for a moment before returning his attention to the vehicle.

With a deep breath, he stepped around the side of the vehicle and trained his rifle on the hunkered down alien. "DON'T FUCKING MOVE!"

[Faclan]

Teo Poq - T'vaoan Murmillo
Lemarcha Street, being fired upon
Good job.

Only glancing to the side when the Unggoy gargled out a scream and soon after died Teo returned to looking at the debris covered asphalt of the street. He really was alone now. With the Humans rapidly approaching. His mind was screaming at him to get up and fight, or try and leap away, but it was having a hard time penetrating the solemn sludge that was all around him now. Which in addition to the likely head injury he took when the bombs dropped and the smaller bruises and cuts made him continue to sit.

But finally, just before the Human rounded the corner, he managed to at least do one thing that his mind was telling him to do - and that was to take out his serrated Kig-Yar combat knife from its sheath on his thigh. But it was only lightly held in his hand. Able to be seen by the Human as it was held in his left hand which was facing him.

The T'vaoan in banged and damaged Murmillo armor was probably a pretty pitiful sight as it sat there, armed with only a knife and now looking at the rifle that was leveled at him. No rage or hissing but just a neutral expression as its eyes stared down the barrel and then at the Humans eyes. Not making any move to attack and still just holding the blade as it did what was commanded and didn't move - though it was hard to tell if it understood what was actually said.

"Congratulations, you won with all your shouting and overwhelming odds - now take your sunk victory..." Teo grunted out in hisses and cheeps as he kept watching the Marine.

Unlikely the Human understood that either.

[Davis, E.]

(Sorry for the wait)
Davis hurried back towards his team with Winters in tow. The Private had done well in holding her own against a foe that had been known to be troublesome. A grenade seemed like overkill to him, but it had been effective and he wasn’t about to nitpick. She had survived where many a marine had been killed. That made her ok in his book. The two of them were now able to move more methodically, and quickly, across the blasted terrain, ensuring that they weren’t easily surprised.

Davis’s thoughts, and mini-map, turned towards the remainder of his team. The sounds of sustained gunfire could still be heard, and more importantly, his team was all still in one piece. However, he could see they had shifted, with Fox now moving to a flanking position. It was a gutsy move, and one he likely would have ordered, but he felt uncomfortable without the words having left his mouth.

“What do you have their Fox,” he called over the TEAMCOM, “Don’t leave us in the dark here. 2-3 Whiskey and I should be coming up on your six in two mikes.”

Davis took another look around them. The bombs had done their work. He felt like they were truly in a no man’s land, pockmarked with craters and scattered with debris. They had made the Covenant pay this time, and he felt no remorse about it.

[Faclan]

(Cheep all?)

[Furby, J.]

Furby and Avery ceased firing as Ward rounded the enemy's position and put down a Grunt that tried to flee. By his count there was only one Covenant soldier left -- the other Jackal -- and to continue firing now would only be a waste of ammunition. Ammunition that they were in short supply of and would need for later if they encountered any further Covenant survivors in the area. He hated to admit it but they were in between a rock and a hard place until they were able to regroup with friendly forces and resupply.

The Lance Corporal turned and looked at Avery, whom kept his machine gun pointed in the direction of the lone Covenant soldier that hid behind cover. If the bastard popped up to take a shot at anyone, the machine gunner would have him dead to rights, and Furby knew it. The sound of Private Ward's voice echoed down the deserted street, and it was all that Furby needed to hear to know that the point man would need back-up. Ward was trying to take a prisoner, the crazy bastard.

Jayson tilted his head in Ward's direction while locking eyes with Avery. The machine gunner nodded, acknowledging the silent order, and the two stepped out from cover and moved towards the confrontation ahead of them. Furby kept his battle rifle trained on the Jackal's chest as he approached, his finger hovering over the trigger. He almost wanted the alien to make a move just so he could pulverize the bastard himself. A single round of nine-point-five millimeter would be enough to put the bird down for good.

Furby gestured back at Avery to hold position and pull security while he rounded the vehicle, carefully maneuvering to keep himself out of range of the alien in case it tried to move in for an attack. The last thing he needed was to have to fight off a Jackal in hand-to-hand combat. While they were relatively weak, their sharp talons and even sharper teeth were surprisingly effective weapons against Marines, and he's seen the end result of CQC with the slender aliens.

Glancing down, the Lance Corporal noticed the energy dagger gripped tightly in the alien's hands as it squawked something unintelligible at Ward. Jayson brought his finger down on the trigger but did not squeeze it as he screamed, "Jonny! It's got a knife!"

[Wilkas, G.]

Part of Wilkas' mind appeared to click into gear again, though everything still seemed blurry and difficult for her to focus on. She was not sure why but found herself holding the radio's headset. She looked down at it for a while, as if confused by its function or how it ended up in her grasp. Grace spoke before she was aware of it. "H... Hello?" Her voice sounded weird in her head, distant. "Where is everyone?" A tiny part of her distantly recalled something about military protocol. If only she remembered what exactly it involved.

[Ward, J.]

Ward glared at the alien with intensity, his weapon still drawn on its chest. If it even looked at him wrong, he intended to unload the remainder of his magazine into it, and call it a day. He'd seen Jackals in action before and knew that they could move with the swiftness and precision of a tiger pouncing on its prey. He did not intend on falling victim to such an ambush.

He had a fiancé to come home to, after all.

"Get on the ground," he shouted, gesturing with his hand for it to lay down. The likelihood that it spoke or understood UEG basic (English) was slim to none, but he suspected that it could understand simple hand gestures. Or maybe it wouldn't, and then he'd have to either force it on the ground or shoot it. There were no qualms with either option on his part.

"Jonny! It's got a knife!" Lance Corporal Furby screamed with alarm. Jon's finger slid over the trigger and he took a step back from the alien. The words of his drill instructors rang through his head as he continued to stare the creature down. "Twenty-one feet. Twenty-one feet is all I need to gut you freaks with a knife. If you're within twenty-one feet, weapon or no, you're dead."

"Let's shoot this motherfucker!" Avery bellowed angrily, obviously itching to let loose with his M247. Ward shook his head and continued to glare at the alien. The realization hit him that he had just shaken his head at a Marine two ranks his senior, but at the moment, he didn't care. The bastard had had him dead to rights and hadn't seized the moment, so that meant it was as unwilling to be killed as he was unwilling to put it down without a good reason.

Not that it being a genocidal alien wasn't a good enough reason, because it was, but his instincts were telling him not to. It wasn't exactly something he could explain, or at least, it wasn't very easy to put to words, and he didn't exactly have the time to do it anyway. "Put the weapon down!"