Project Britannia: Fellowship

==Summary==
After the leader of Alpha Helljumpers is killed during an insurrectionist raid, a new member is suddenly introduced and pushed into command of the squad.
==Prologue==
A Solitary ODST, clad in what appeared to be more lightweight, yet weakened blue and gold CQB armour, stood upon a cliff, sniper rifle in hand. He was looking upon a large, dark grey base, 9 hectares in size. It had two pillars sticking up beside the large entrance with a sniper tower upon each. THere were more sniper towers around the base, but most were unarmed. The CQB-clad ODST took note of this and had supplied his team with weapons that could take out a whole military. A female ODST, clad in an aqua and teal variation on the Military Police armour, stepped up to him. "Our squad have scanned the area, there are no points off-base where they could snipe us," she reported. The male ODST looked at her and nodded. "I've got a plan. You, Manchester, Liverpool and Antrim will raid the base. Birmingham, Halifax, Armagh and I will flank them," he replied. She nodded.
She was Lanera Young and she was a member of the Alpha Helljumpers, commanded by 'London'. Her codename was Newtownabbey. Her attitude normally switched between laid back and anxious on a regular basis, although when on a mission her personality seemed to completely change to a serious, determined and competitive form, setting herself personal targets and goals. London himself was always in mission mode, never raising his mouth for a smile. Lanera was irritated by the fact that he would be commanding even off of the battlefield, seeming almost stuck-up. Little did she know that this would be the last time she would have to deal with this.
After rallying her squad, sending the flankers over to London to deal with, she wielded her battle rifle and looked at the base. There were two snipers, stood atop their camping spots. She put her foot down and began to run towards the base, her ODSTs quickly catching on and following. The snipers quickly noticed and zoomed in, preparing to snipe. Lanera quickly raised her battle rifle and shot both of them down, the bodies dropping to the sides of the base as she ran through the open gate, running straight towards a large hangar, where two warthogs were located. The insurrectionists had quickly scrambled into red alert, two jumping into the warthog and driving forwards quickly. the four assaulters jumping to cover, quickly chucking frag grenades in the direction of the vehicle. It was flipped over, the front plate flying off and hitting against the hangar wall, the Insurrectionists, stumbling out. Before they could react, bullets barraged their heads as they slowly fell back down to the ground permanently. Ten more insurrectionists rushed up to the team, guns raised in a circle. One spoke, "Put down your guns and surrender now," when all of a sudden, a sniper shot came out of nowhere and killed three of them with one bullet. The other four members were stood upon the cliff they were initially stationed, Lanera's team shooting down the rest of the Insurrectionists. They quickly rushed into the base, shooting down enemies on their threes, pushing their way into the base. Inside, two turrets were raised. Lanera murmured, "god damnit," before quickly rushing in between the two turrets, which were both aimed and firing at her, narrowly missing her. She dropped her second frag grenade at her feet and blew both the turrets to the side, shooting down the two Insurrectionists who had deployed them before they could react to their turrets going sky high. A squad of Insurrectionists ran in, but Lanera had the advantage, already having her weapons raised and her finger on the trigger, blasting them all down with her team cooperating. They rushed into the next room, where two more Insurrectionists were positioned, although they went down as easily as the last. Suddenly, Alpha heard a turret rev up, looking at the doorway in front of them and seeing a musclebound insurrectionist ready to fire a constant wave of bullets. before they could shoot him, they were forced to dive for cover, Lanera swearing under her breath and noticing something even worse-two more machine gun weilders had walked in, now covering the narrow room in all angles.
Two insurrections stood guard at the back entrance, looking at eachother, unaware of what was about to hit them. Two bullets went through their heads, London sliding down a sloped part of the cliff, his team following. He kicked open the door, striding in and filling the room with bullets from his assault rifle, killing the Insurrectionists in the room easily. His team followed, Opening the next room door and chucking two grenades in, causing a smoke shield to appear. Once again, bullets filled the room, London stepping out of the smoke and reloading. The next room door was open, three Insurrectionists standing there with machine gun bullets filling the room. The members of the team, minus Halifax, silently snuck up and drew their knives, each stabbing the Insurrectionists in the back of the neck at the same time. Lanera, on the other side, pointed behind the flanking team, who turned around and seen another ten insurrectionists rush in. They started to blast their magnums, shooting down their enemies easily and turning back, Lanera and her team running over to join the flankers. Suddenly, the room the invading team were in previously was filled with enemies. London looked at Lanera. "Get your team out of here," he stated, the latter reluctantly rushing out of the room. London went into armour lock as grenades, bullets and rockets were tossed at him, turning ineffective almost immediately. He stayed in armour lock, surrounded by Insurrectionists ready to shoot him once he came out, but they were suddenly caught in a frag grenade blast-London had dropped a grenade below himself right before going into lock, expecting exactly this. As soon as he went out of armour lock, he rushed into the room, frag grenades tossed and bullets mowing down enemies. He got into the middle and went into armour lock once more, rockets being fired at him once again-however, the insurrectionists didn't realise that the rockets would be deflected and ended up blowing up a great portion of their team easily. However, more of them kept on rushing in, until eventually London was far too exhausted to fight them off anymore. With two frag grenades in hand, he ran up to the rocket soldier and stuffed the grenades in the launcher, gripping the Insurrectionist's hand tight as to make sure he didn't dispose of it. The grenades went off, detonating the rockets around them and causing destruction in the room. London's limp body collapsed to the ground, his chestplate leaking blood and shards of his visor covering his pale face.
Lanera, in the lower levels of the base, took out C4 charges and filled a control room with them, dead bodies surrounding her. She pulled out the detonator, ready to blow it whenever the room was filled with London's killers. The six other ODSTs began to fire, holding them off. She pulled out a bubble shield, tossing it to the ground and activating it. She let off the detonator. The C4 charges blew, sending the entire base sky high. The insurrectionists were all obliterated, rubble flying everywhere. The smoke from the detonation faded away, The team walking from their cover whenever they spotted a dim golden shimmer. She ran over to it... London? She quickly removed his helmet, looking down at his body. Taking a second to mourn him silently, she took his dog tags and put them above her own, picking up his body. she activated her comm channel. "A-Alpha squad to U-UNSC Athenian, we have complete the mission, t-the Insurrectionists are down. I repeat, the insurrectionists are down," she said in a trembling voice.
==Chapter 1==
Lanera sat on the side of her bunk helmetless, her hair brown, wavy and long, with ringlets surrounding it, reaching to her lower back. She had dark blue eyes and pale skin. Her hand was trembling as she looked at the dogtags. Suddenly, her bunkroom door opened.
"Hey, Lanera, is it?", asked the sudden intruder. Lanera simply nodded. "I've been given the name London and introduced to your group."
Lanera looked up at him and, in a quiet yet hatred-filled voice, stated, "you're not London."
London shook his head. "I'm not the London you knew, no. I'm his replacement. I was told to take those dogtags from you, so if you could, uh, just give them over," he requested. Reaching out for them, Lanera quickly grabbed his wrist and shoved it into his stomach.
"They're mine," she snapped, keeping a tight grip on the chain. London simply sat himself down beside her, putting his hand on hers gently.
"My name is Michael, you don't have to call me London casually," he stated. Lanera nodded and loosened her grip on the dogtags, looking down at the floor by this point.
Michael looked at her, she was clearly holding off tears. He squeezed her hand gently. "Team mates die in missions," he said. "It happens to every squad once. It, uh, happened in my last squad."
One year ago, Michael was equipped in the standard ODST outfit. Six drop pods landed in a forested area. One was shot down by a Phantom before impact. The shards were flung around the skies and the body impacted with a loud crunch, held together only by the armour plating. Out of one of the pods a tearing up male, only 17 years old, emerged and rushed over to the body, screaming about his brother's death. He took the dog tags and SMGs from the body, beginning to shoot down Jackals wildly, tears blocking his vision.
Now, Michael was equipped in London's outfit and was comforting Lanera in a weak voice, who was looking at him glassy-eyed. "I joined the military to explore space, you know. I, er, ended up witnessing two deaths."
One year ago, a 17 year old spread bullets around a forest and killed every Jackal in sight. He didn't consider that there would be snipers in his blind rage, however. Ten consecutive shots from a carbine caused him to collapse to the ground and die with an excrutiatingly painful stinging in his back, numbing the blood loss.
Now, Michael was smirking awkwardly, as if to say, "You've just got to take it in your stride" (although it looked more like he was saying "It's scary as all hell.")
One year ago, Michael was storming a forest. He rushed through, killing a multitude of snipers, before coming across a body with two sets of dog tags. He took them off and held them tight, before coming to his senses and figuring that something killed them. All of a sudden, he jumped for cover and pulled out his DMR, looking at the 17 year old's body direction. the marks were directly on the body's back and it was facing north east. Michael quickly looked out and zoomed in with his DMR, shooting a solitary hidden Jackal down.
Now, Lanera had her arms wrapped around Michael, who was feeling a little awkward about this, although he accepted it. Before he had any more time to comfort Lanera, the ship began to shake, a red light filling the room and a voice stating, "life support systems capability at 67%. Artificial Gravity disabled for more power to life support. Hull compromised. Please evacuate ship im-". It conked out, static replacing it's voice. Lanera glanced at Michael before practically jumping up, Michael rushing up and grabbing up a magnum, Lanera following. They rushed out of the room in graceful motions, slow and almost drifting across the steel ground, their armour the only thing stopping them from floating away. They rushed out of the room, their squad (who were having more difficulties controlling themselves than London and Newtownabbey) spotting their commander and following his lead. Upon reaching the docking bay, they were met with a Sangheili officer, surrounded by five grunts. London jumped, beginning to float mid-air and firing two magnum shots through an unggoy's mask. The rest of the team all fired upon the grunts, killing them almost immediately. Michael grabbed the officer's head, throwing a punch into it's stomach before being thrown back and slamming on the ground, floating up. Lanera quickly spotted this and rushed at the officer, punching it in the stomach and swerving around it's counter-attack, kicking it in the knee and pulling back it's head, throwing a punch into it's neck and causing it to scream. London quickly joined the fight once again-just in time as Lanera was held up by the throat-and threw two punches into the Officer's chin and jumped above it, landing on the ceiling and pushing himself off it, slamming down on the Elite's arm and freeing Lanera, who almost immediately stomped on the back of the Officer. It quickly recovered, however, and tossed London and Newtownabbey away. Antrim and Halifax quickly rushed in to support, throwing two elbows into the Officer's chestplate and, finally, two magnum shots through it's mouth. The group quickly recovered, rushing into the corvette that had docked.
==Chapter 2==
Lanera wrapped her hand around the pistol in her holster. It was too quiet. The rest of the team was unconcerned, but she was too paranoid. She had to be thankful Michael was standing by her side. As the team reached a door, Michael looked back at Halifax and pointed at the control panel. The latter walked up to it and placed a remote-detonated EMP charge over the panel, stepping back and detonating it. As the panel crackled a familiar green, the door was forced open, the team drawing their arms and stepping in. The room seemed empty and black. Lanera wasn't the only paranoid one anymore. Suddenly, the lights flickered on. They were in a circular room with three levels, each having five doors on them. On each level, two sniper jackals exited the doors and readied their aim. Something was wrong, though. Neither force dared shoot. Suddenly, Antrim heard a loud clang as the door in front of the noise opened up and revealed two hunters, walking out single-file. They all readied their weapons as another two doors opened, four elite minors exiting. The two remaining doors were slung open, two zealots exiting each. Then, upon the top level, another elite zealot exited and began to shout, in a booming voice.
"LET THE GAMES BEGIN!"
The snipers started fire first. They first disbanded the team by opening fire in between them. Birmingham and Manchester stared at the hunters. Antrim and Halifax stared at the Elite minors. Antrim and Halifax stared at a set of zealots, Lanera and Michael also. Before anyone could react, they were grabbed by their opponent Covenant. First up were the hunters. They let go of the two ODSTs and charged, Birmingham and Manchester jumping out of the way and opening fire on their backs. They quickly swung around and fired plasma bolts. although they both jumped, Manchester was scorched on the foot and slammed back to the ground. However, from the ground, he managed to toss a plasma grenade between the two Hunters, who were caught in the explosion and stumbled away. Before they could react, Birmingham had already sent a frag grenade after the plasma and opened fire once again. Manchester managed to just about get back to his feet and join in on the fire. Thus, the Hunters were felled rather quickly.
Both Elite Minors stripped their opponents of all weapons but an energy sword, to face them. Then, they let go of Antrim and Halifax, who drew their energy swords. Unlike Sangheili, they were untrained, but they were forced to use them. Therefore, they drew the swords and slashed at the minors, who used their own swords to block the hits. However, they did not consider that the two ODSTs also had their fists at their disposal. The two both threw a punch, distracting the minors whilst they managed to throw a sword through their chest. The minors were felled.
Finally, it was the Zealots' time to fight. Michael and Lanera were tossed to the ground, without even energy swords. Meanwhilst, the Zealots were armed to the teeth with swords, plasma pistols, carbines and plasma grenades. Lanera took on her enemy first. Almost immediately, the Zealot pulled out his plasma pistol and fired a full blast, Lanera dodging it and falling straight into a trap, standing on a plasma grenade as it stuck to her foot. Frantically, she tugged it off and threw it back with just enough force to loosen it. the Zealot simply pulled out it's carbine, shooting the grenade out of the air and firing a secret plasma pistol shot, causing Lanera to momentarily lock down. That moment, however, gave the zealot enough time to rush at her and punch straight through her visor. as the glass shattered into her face, she quickly ripped off the helmet and smacked the zealot's head with it, ripping his carbine out of his hand and firing it straight through it's mouth.
Now it was Michael's turn. He was assigned as the leader of the team for the reason. Quietly and swiftly, he rushed at his zealot and threw two punches. the Zealot quickly drew his energy sword and swung it. Michael, however, quickly grabbed onto the handle and forced it to stop. Pressing the button to deactivate it, he kicked the zealot away and drew the sword, now in his own hand. Rushing at the Zealot, he swung it into it's chest, damaging it heavily, although he was forced to deactivate the sword. That didn't matter now, though. He simply shoved the sword towards the zealot's mouth and drew it at the last second, stabbing the Elite straight through the head. Although he had made his defeat, one thing intrigued him. How had he defeated it that easily?
As everyone armed up once again, they looked up. The snipers had still not fired. Instead, the Zealot walked back out and reappeared in the same door the hunters had emerged from. "Enjoy the easy pickings?"
The eight quickly drew their weapons. "Why did you let us defeat them so easily?," questioned Michael.
The zealot let out a deep laugh and drew his energy sword. "I was providing you with a starter. Now it's time for a proper battle, don't you think?"