RP:Losing Hope/Content

1
Both military and Covenant aircraft made way for the UNSC Eternal Peacekeeper, as it lowered itself into the atmosphere at a surprising speed. The captain of the Peacekeeper understood how little time he had to deploy the ship's entire supply of marines and Spartan supersoldiers to the surface before the Covenant recognized his presence. He also knew that he was partaking in a self-assigned suicide mission, however, he felt that it was for the best. After all, ONI Section Zero had assigned him to trail the a curious Covenant fleet all the way from Reach to discover which UNSC colony they planned to invade next. Now it was time to fight. He had already sent a transmission every UNSC starship within a decent range of the planet. The colony that he would be ready to defend with his life? Hope, and in many opinions, it was among the most wonderful and beautiful worlds colonized by the United Nations Space Command. It was a fairly new planet with a bright future. How could he just sit back and watch as the Covenant destroy it?

Three atmospheric deployment platforms slowly lowered themselves from the underside of the Peacekeeper before coming to an abrupt halt. Each pad contained some Spartans along with multiple Falcons and Phoenix aircraft, each filled to maximum capacity with marines. They couldn't believe how packed the sky was with battling aircraft. The UNSC military force already stationed on Hope was definitely a force to be reckoned with. "Marines! On the count of five, get your aircraft off this pad and make getting to the surface your top priority," commanded Spartan Rowan-090 before turning and whispering to the Spartan standing beside him, "Riley, you'll take the jump with me. You've got your jet pack right?" After giving Riley a pat on the back, he realized that he was wrong. "Shit," Rowan muttered, "Hijack a banshee or something then..." "Sure." Riley responded. It was foolish of him to leave his jet pack on Reach, but he knew that he'd manage. "Five!" Rowan began, "Fo-" Within a split-second a flaming banshee crashed and screeched across the pad behind them, hitting a Falcon and taking it over the edge along with itself. Rowan turned back in horror, "Now!"

Rowan and Riley fell so fast that it became impossible to keep an eye on the marines. Riley slammed back-first into a banshee and slid down it's hood, jumped, and gripped the turret on the underside of a Covenant Spirit dropship as Rowan continued downward. The turret swayed back and forth, attempting loosen Riley's grip. Finally, a Phoenix maneuvered itself a few meters underneath the Spirit, unknowingly providing a place for Riley to land. To the surprise of the Phoenix's passengers, a large thump and the roof caving inward indicated an invader. Riley swung himself inside. "To the surface!" The marines gave each other a surprised look. The Phoenix began it's decent. Meanwhile, Rowan's suit began to ignite as the result of the speed of his fall. Rowan attempted to activate his jet pack, and to his horror, it was on fire. Rowan spread out his arms and legs. He never took falling lessons before, but he knew enough to arch his body to slow down his fall. Rowan hit the ground. The force of the impact knocked Rowan unto his back. The fire went out. Rowan lay sprawled out on the surface. Dizzy and disoriented, Rowan watched as a Covenant Supercarrier decloacked itself directly above the Peacekeeper and activated it's ventral energy projector. The plasma cut through the Peacekeeper and all of the fighting aircraft (human and Covenant) below it like butter. Rowan blacked out. --  Chris  talk   blog  19:08, November 29, 2010 (UTC)

2
Rear Admiral Torkamentov and the crew on the bridge watched in horror as the Covenant Supercarrier obliterated the UNSC Eternal Peacekeeper. They had jumped into the system after recieving the distress call just to arrive in time to see this. "They're going to pay for that," muttered his XO, Alexander Mulgrew. "I agree. Now let us get to the part where we make them pay," replied Torkamentov, "Put me on FleetCom." "You're good to go, sir," replied one of the bridge crew. 'This is Rear Admiral Nikolai Torkamentov to all ships in the area. As of 1530 hours, I am taking command of this fleet. We are going to make those Covenant bastards pay for messing with us. All ships move into attack formation. Launch all fighters. Commodore, tell me what we have got to work with." "Well, sir. Obviously, we have us. We have also detected a Halcyon class cruiser among other things. In all, we have 12 ships of various models, not including the defense forces already around Hope." Torkamentov nodded as he looked at the viewscreen. "Send a message to Earth. Tell them what I am about to do. Then move in for the attack."

A slight hum went through the ship as the UNSC Siren's Call accelerated toward the Covenant fleet as fighter craft disgorged themselves from the ship. "Fire a nuclear missile barrage. One round. All pods." Outside the ships, missiles flew out of over 60 Archer missile pods and accelerated toward the Covenant fleet. On the bridge, "Sir. Covenant have engaged countermeasures." "Very well. Initiate the Shadow Drive. Make them have a lot more problems." Covenant plasma fire continued to shoot at the missiles, but their aim became more erratic, almost like they were shooting at nothing. Mulgerew lookwed at a datapad he was holding, and said " The Sadow Drive is operating within normal parameters. Battle damage has not had an adverse effect on it." Torkamentov grinned. He was glad that ONI had chosen his ship to test the shaodw Drive. A device that could fool Covenant sensors into thinking there was a lot more of somethinfg than there really was, was useful in times like this. With the sound of a whump, nearly 15 missiles detonated within the Covenant fleet. Torkamentov grinned as he said, "MAC guns, fire on the Covenant Supercarrier. Show them that we mean business. If the nukes didn't show that already." As the sound of gun discharges filled the ship, a bridge crewman turned to Torkamentov. "Sir, we have Covenant fighters inbound!" Now Torkamentov began to become concerned. "Defense guns, take them out. And order all launched fighters to engage. This is the flagship. We cannot lose it! And I will not lose thuis fight!"

With the sound of gunfire filling the system as the relief fleet engaged the Covenant invaders, the slaughter became a battle, and the fight was on. Azecreth 12:41, November 29, 2010 (UTC)

3
As the elite minor Kahulara readied for battle, the Covenant ship named Resurrection transporting him approached the planet Hope. Another battle came so soon even after surviving the Battle of Reach. When the ship reached the planet, the Sangheili minor was in the hangar climbing into his assigned Spirit Dropship ready for anything coming his way. The Covenant ship he had been put under cloak because the fleet master of the Resurrection had realized suprisingly, a human ship had been following them all this time unnoticed, but now the enemy ship had lost visual on them, and this was a great advantage for the Covenant side.

His mission was to get to the surface of the planet and meet up with other Covenant forces, then wait for more orders. He didn't really care about his squad, which was just a pack of unggoy, he thought of the unngoy as cowards, and he would always rather fight alone, unless he was working with other Sangheili. Also in the spirit was another squad of Unggoy and a Sangheili minor, the almost identical groups rarely talked but when they did, spoke in 3 different languages,the two Sangheili spoke in, obviously Sangheili, and the unggoy spoke in their native language, mixed with human languages. There was no Covenant translation software aboard the dropship, so the two different species couldn't understand eachother. Kahulara's only friend he had on Reach had died. It was by the hand of one of the demons, he had avenged his comrade, and slayed the demon with his best friend's own Type-1 energy sword. He still had the blade, on his side at that very moment, he also had a type-51 carbine on his back, one of his weapons of choice.

As the spirit left the hangar of their ship, acompanied by 2 other dropships, they saw the Resurrection decloak, and unleash it's main weapon on the ship below, the blinding plasma struck the human ship and sliced it in half. Large groups of human dropships and ODST pods fled the scene descending to the surface. New orders came in, and the fleet master's voice flooded into the Spirit "All type-25s follow the remains of the human ship onto the planet, once at the crash site, kill any survivors, and destroy any humans foolish enough searching for survivors." The ship changed course and followed the falling remains of the ship.

4
Matthew-123 and Ryder-K231 waited for Morales to land. Matthew sadly watched the UNSC Eternal Peacekeeper as it fell apart. Ryder walked impatiently waiting for Morales. "What is taking the old geezer to drop? He weights more than me." "Maybe he caught a Falcon or a Phoenix." suggested Matthew, all though his heart wasn't really in the statement.

"Matt? You OK?" Ryder said after pausing his walking.

"Those Covenant turds are going to pay for this. They're going to hell, Matt-style!" Matt took out his grenade launcher and gripped it in the hardest grip Matthew had ever done.

Before Ryder could say anything, the voice of Morales came out of the blue, with a Phoenix on it's tail.

"Hey,boys. Need a lift?"

"About time you showed up." huffed Ryder. "My feet got cold, standing there." "Good to see you too, Ryder." Morales said in his Sarcastic tone.

"Where's our destination, Morales?" Matthew said with a grave tone.

" We're on look-out duty. Some Spartans are still on the field. We are the rescue team."

"Not this again!" Ryder whined.

"Who's missing, Morales?" Matthew asked.

"Rowan." Morales said in a sad tone.

-Therider Rides Alone 19:09, November 29, 2010 (UTC)

5
Moore exited the cryo tube as the door's lifted open. He had always hated cryo, for one he had always hated flying whether in space or in atmosphere. Reaching for a towel handed to him by a techinician he looked at his squad, who had already been awoken.

"Rise and shine sleeping beauty." He heard the unmistakable latin voice of Staff Sergeant "Tequilla" Ramirez.

"Yeah, it's you boys who make me want to crawl out of my cold as hell coffin. Now shut it smartass." Moore quickly remarked back. "Benson, sitrep."

"Well sir." Benson started.

"Yes."

"Well we're in orbit over Hope, some little backwater colony. Appearantly Covies are attacking full force and by my guess it's not gonna last the week."

"So I take it we made it off Reach trouble free?"

"Yes sir. No problems getting off. Just problems here."

"Great." Moore started. "I'm in cryo for a few days and without me everything has gone to hell. Can't you idiots do anything?" He sarcasticly asked then returned his voice to a more serious tone. "How long have we been here?"

"About two hours in orbit. Sir."

"And you didn't wake me? What you sick sons-of-bitches been staring at me naked in cryo the past two hours? Ah...fuck it I don't want your answer. Yankee, get ready for combat get the other platoon geared up and those sailor boys, I mean marines ready to go in hot."

"Yes sir."

"And also where in hell did you put my uniform?"

"In the armory sir."

"Excellent. Dismissed." Moore finished as he moved to retrieve his uniform and weapons from the ship's armory.

After about ten minutes of getting outfitted, Moore was fully geared up with his rifle slung over his back.

"Benson." He asked over his comm.

"Yes sir?" The british voice replied.

"Status?"

"Everyone's ready sir."

"Excellent. I'm going to the bridge to talk to the CO, that one russkie for orders. Hang tight out." Moore finished and disconnected as he proceeded to the bridge.

"No way in hell i'm missing this fight." He muttered to himself as he stepped onto the bridge.

6
"One . . . Two . . . Now!"

Rowan's early signal caused Pvt. Erik Quinn to be a half-second late hitting his HEV's release. It was a good thing, too, as the violet hull of a Banshee fighter shot beneath him just before he was accelerated away from the Eternal Peacekeeper and toward Hope's surface. Less than twenty meters away, another pod dropping from the 'Peacekeeper collided with the Banshee, the force of the explosion rocking him violently.

Quinn wasn't sure what had happened. Coming out of cryo an hour ago, he'd heard the ship had exited Slipspace at Hope and had immediately been attacked by single ship fighters. Not long after, an evacuation was called, and Erik was stuffed into an ODST pod waiting for the Spartan's signal to go from half a ship away.

What mattered now was stabilizing his pod before he lost control. Grabbing the analog sticks on either side of him, he angled away from the rest of his platoon to avoid any mid-air collisions as they dived through a dogfight between UNSC Falcons and Longswords up against Banshees and Seraphs swarming the Peacekeeper. His taut nerves started to relax as the shaking stopped, and he leveled out. But just as he did, a light coming from seemingly everywhere blinded him and an explosion shook his teeth.

His visor polarized, letting him see the fading beam that had impaled the Peacekeeper. The ship was gone, he could see it begin to fall to Hope's surface alongside him. Quinn decided he didn't want to be crushed by it, and angled farther away to look for a safe landing zone.

A city street provided one, and Quinn took it. With the metal parachute and reentry jets slowing his fall, he made a clean landing on the blacktop, and his ride was over. He took a moment to relax, after about thirty seconds being on the knife's edge of death.

A scream struck fear into him as the snarling mug of a Covenant Elite appeared before his pod window. Erik fumbled for his weapons, as the light of an energy sword sprang from its hand. Quinn punched the door release almost accidentally. It blew the door from its frame, impacting the alien hard enough to spray blood across it. Flying thirty feet over the pavement, the jumble of body and metal glanced off a parked car and lay in the street. The Elite's broken corpse was still.

Erik exhaled, counting himself lucky a second time. Removing the MA5C from its bracket and checking the BR55 on his back, he took his first footsteps on Hope's solid ground and went to look for friendlies.

7
Needless to say, Luc was pissed. First,the Warthog he was riding on Reach was ambushed, with him bareley escaping alive. Then, he was forced to board the Eternal Peacekeeper in order to survive, and now this happens. "Look on the bright side, at least I get to see my home planet again". Luc says to himself as he boards a Falcon preparing to take off. Delicately placing the Fury on his lap, he prepares himself for the worst. All around, intense air to air combat could be seen, with both sides taking heavy losses. A Falcon next to them takes off, only to get it's right rotor hit by plasma fire from a banshee, burning as it spirals down towards the surface of Hope.Hearing Rowan's signal on his helmet's com system, he looks to the Falcon's pilot and shouts "What the hell are you waiting for, take off already"! The pilot hurriedly nods and the Falcon takes off, not a moment too soon either, for seconds later the Eternal Peacekeeper was skewered by a beam of plasma, courtesy of a Covenant Supercarrier.

Meanwhile, over Reach, Robert Garcia, captian of the UNSC Grapes of Wrath sighs in releif as the Pillar of Autumn manages to escape. He then orders a retreat. "What, we're not going after them"? asked first officer Morgan. "Nope. Our first priorities are repairs and medical treatment for the wounded aboard. Robert answered. "I want a damage report in less than 20 minutes, until then, I'll be in my quarters". With that, Robert turned around and started to exit the bridge. Suddenly, the ship's radio operator, Maxim Jackovitch, spoke up. "Sir,we're getting a transmission from the Halycon class cruiser, Eternal Peacekeeper! Apparently, the colony Hope is under attack, and their captian is asking any ships in range for help"! Robert then turns around. "hm... in that case, prepare to make the slipspace jump to Hope, continue repairs in the meantime". after saying this, he finally exits the bridge to get some rest before yet another battle.

Back on Hope, Luc exits the Falcon as soon as it touches down, using his MJOLNIR armor's magnetic plates to attach the Fury to his back. " Okay, I made it to the surface.. Now to regroup with the rest of the forces that dropped from the Peacekeeper". Luc cocks his M6 magnum pistol and MA5C assault rifle.After that, he heads out, following a road.

TheivingFan 03:53, November 29, 2010 (UTC)

8
The Phantom Dropship flew across the plains of Hope. It's countryside was like rows of lush green fields and woods. The Phantom passed a group of trees, the wind blowing them into the holes of the doors. Truly, Hope was a beautiful place to be, Tir-D-yar felt like vomiting over the beauty. He sat in his seat, thinking of the Battle of Reach, in which he gloriously slain a SPARTAN-III during its closing hours. He thought of the desolate wasteland that the planet had become, and smiled in delight. "Kig-Yar, keep your eyes on the prize!" his Sangheili commander barked. Tir returned to his senses and went to speak back, however he stopped himself. Tir looked at his fellow Kig-Yar. Except for himself, Bur-T-der, Kol-R-ah and Yor-D-ser, all the Kig-Yar held the primitive plasma pistols and the shield gauntlet. Tir often thought of this as suicide, to hold a shield infront of the cowardly Sangheili. Truly, the Sangheili were cowards, hiding behind the Unggoy and the Kig-Yar until the spotlight hits them. The phantom passed a nearby farm. The Unggoy loaded their needlers; one needle at a time. One of the Unggoy spoke to Tir, "You die, moment we land."

Tir stared at the Unggoy, "Don't be so sure, pathetic creature. I ain't dying for a long time."

The Sangheili growled, silencing the Unggoy.

A marine sat at his post, and faintly seen the Phantom, "Sarge?"

The Phantom slowly moved over another farmhouse. Suddenly, a rocket slammed against the Phantom's engine. It's interior began to shake madly. Several of the Unggoy were literally flung out of their seats. The pilot's panicked voice bellowed, "Everybody, get off the dropship. Through the gravity lift. Now!"

Tir knelt down, and leapt through the hole. He fell swiftly, and crashed into the bushes. Bur, Kol and Yor landed into the bushes beside him. The rustling of the bushes echoed across the farms as the four Kig-Yar crawled away. The rest of the file dropped down; all of them were exposed to whatever was out there. The Phantom spluttered, azure flames flying everywhere. The Phantom was engulfed by flames. The pilot made a quiet prayer to himself. The Phantom exploded sending shrapnel across the fields. The flames hit the pilot first, ripping apart his armour and burning his flesh. The wreckage then splattered his burning body, sending him flying backwards (towards the group). The fire spread as the wind blew sparks across the fields. The Sangheili commander stood up and walked towards the Cock-pit's wreckage. The pilot lay limp, as only his skeleton remained. One Unggoy then fell to the floor, dead. The group turned his body around, and a large bullet hole had permeated his flesh. The group looked into the distance. Several other Unggoy fell. Tir noticed that the first victim was the Unggoy who told him that he would die first. However, Tir smiled in a small vengeance. The group fired into the distance. Emerald and Torquoise bolts flew through the air. Human bullets retaliated and a firefight ensued. "Jackals, go forwards," the Sangheili commanded. The six Jackals charged, two of them being killed before they even established a plasma barricade. Suicide Mission... Tir thought to himself.

"Should we help them?" Kol asked.

"No," Tir anwsered, "We could survive instead."

All the Kig-Yar fell, soon followed by the Unggoy. Enraged, the Sangheili pulled out an Energy Sword and charged. "We have to help him!" Yor shouted rushing out of the bushes.

"No you fool!" Bur-T-der called. The Sangheili was quickly fired upon, his shields flickered. The sustained fire disabled his shields and slain the Elite. Yor grabbed a Energy Shield and fired into the distance. A rocket flew right towards his head, and the upper half of Yor's body was obliterated in a hail of flesh.

"So, what now?" Kol asked.

Tir hesitated, but anwsered, "We survive, that's all we need to do."

--Gruntijackal, the impending demise draws near 16:47, November 29, 2010 (UTC)

9
Shouji gripped the warden's M6 magnum and put his hand on the cold metal trigger as the squad of three ODST soldiers walked past his hiding spot in the shadows of the dark prison corridor. It was empty, all the inmates had ran into the town when the Covenant attacked and Shouji had from his cell snapped the neck of the guard carrying the keyes to his entire cellblock when his back was turned.

But Shouji had proceeded to the office of the obese and cruel warden, who had insulted Shouji with labor and had insulted proud Samurai lineage of the Komoro family, of which Shouji was a member. With the guards nightstick Shouji killed the warden and took his magnum which was hidden inside his desk.

But Komoro knew that it was only a matter of time before the UNSC sent in soldiers to investigate the prison, it was a high security one known as the Jason Borgaff Penitentiary or the JBP to most, it was appearantly named for a former police commisoner. It was a single reinforced concrete square building surrounded by a square wall perimeter that could survive multiple blasts from a Covenant wraith tank. Turrets could be mounted from the roof to shoot down air support, guard towers could be used as excellent sniper positions, the wall could be traversed easily and infantry and turrets could be placed, and the building was also defendable from infantry. That plus only one entrance in that enemy armor could not easily fit through, and there was no chance the UNSC wouldn't want to fortify it to help defend the town.

Knowing this, Shouji had but to wait for the soldiers to come and ambush them. The UNSC would send scouts in first then a main force. Shouji would kill them and take a uniform, the UNSC wouldn't bother confirming his story or identification as they would soon be desperate for help.

As the last of three ODSTs passed him, Shouji holstered the gun and snuck up behind the last one and snapped his neck. The soldier made a grunt of pain before dying. This noise forced the other two to turn around.

Shouji quickly pulled the Magnum and shot the first ODST straight in his visor and the other by a stroke of luck had his assault rifle shot from his hand. Thanking his ancestors for the luck of his bullet, Komoro took aim and hit the last ODST, who was fleeing in the back of the head, the bullet moved through his helmet and into his skull, killing him in a splatter of crimson blood.

After twenty minutes of changing into the last ODST's armor, as he was of the highest rank, a Staff Sergeant. Komoro used duct tape to patch up the magnum round, rendering the hole invisible under the silver tape and had written 'Komoro' on his helmet with a marker.

He had been sentenced to life for his dealings with the Yakuza, working as a hitman before joining the Marines to evade arrest, only be arrested later. His case had made big news, but there was no chance even if any soldier had seen him on the news being brought to court he would remember as it was twelve years ago and as long as the ODST visor hid his prison tatoo of a green dragon, the logo of one of Hope's most violent gangs which adorned his face no one would know he was an inmate.

With his disguise Komoro would be able to hopefully get transport in a UNSC evac ship and maybe even a pardon if he killed some covenant with his new MA37. He continued these thoughts as he walked down the town's deserted streets until he eyed a lone ODST who appeared to have dropped away from his unit. Searching most likely for friendly forces.

"Trooper. Over here!" Shouji yelled to him.

10
"This is Hellbringer oh seventy-one of Covert ops platoon eight aboard a civilian transport ship. We are headed to Hope." Said Jason, a UNSC hellbringer. "Jason, glad you got out alright." "You and us both, Jake, now tell me how a spartan took control of frigate coms." "I pulled some strings. Not everyday we lose a major UNSC planet." Jason paused for a moment, "Hopefully you're right..." The ship's radar screens started flashing, and the frigate swayed abruptly. Spartan Jake-093 ran over to a window, only to find a Covenant Corvette, sitting in wait for the UNSC Eye of Providence's response. "We've been followed! The captain probably already made the order to jump, looks like we're getting cut short old friend." Jake ended the transmission. The starship shook again.

"What did Jason say?" Miranda asked Jake as they ran. "They got out alright. Two hellbringers and a marine tend to be able to fight off a few Covenant." Jake responded smirking at the thought of it. A marine strode around the corner, "Captain's ordered for evac!" Miranda was surprised, "Evacuation! To where!" "Hades, a moon of Epitadeus b. We're already in orbit. Hurry, the ODSTs have already took the drop, and we don't have much time at all!" "Heh, than thy really are plunging feet first into hell for once." Miranda sneered. Jake had to admit that he was caught off guard by the Corvette, "Ready a Pelican, we leave in ten minutes." A blast of plasma shook the hull. "Five."

"How are we doing on the load, Randy?" Jake asked the marine as he aproached the gun rack against the Hangar wall. Spartans, marines, and ship personnel were busy climbing into their own pelicans and albatrosses. "Ammo loaded, supplies in." the marine began "All we need to do is harness the Hog and were out." Another spartan stepped out of the Pelican. "Load your guns, guys, we may be on Hades for a while." Edward, added, trying to sound humored by everything that was taking place. He failed miserably. The two men picked up their guns, Jake held an M6D magnum with M225 rounds in his right hand, and a DMR in the left. Ed, with an MA37 assult riffle and an M90 shotgun, choose effectivity over elegance. Red lights flashed overhead. A large explosion, and crumbling walls indicated that the Providence had already fell victim to the Covenant. The hull was evidently breached, and all doors, had begun to slide shut automatically, slowly and tauntingly. Many dropships began their exit, fearing that they might become trapped in the hangar.

"Get in the Pelican we've got the Hog hooked up!" Randy yelled. Everybody flooded the pelican, except Randy who was the pilot. "Just a moment till we hit the atmosphere" Randy said nervously. The two spartans stood inside the blood tray, Miranda sat loading magazines. The ship slowly dropped down towards Hades, the Eye lay lifeless, broken into three pieces, as the Corvette loomed closer. The air of accomplishment soon wore-off, as plasma blasts claimed multiple Pelicans and Albatrosses. Those who managed to avoid the threat of the Covenant were demolished by the debris of the eye. Soon enough, they were all alone.

The land lay dark, the Pelican hushed, and all crew members stayed in the blood bay, awaiting the safer daylight.

--TheMerciless 22:58, November 29, 2010 (UTC)

11
Luc had been traveling for hours now, walking down a highway the road connected to. "Damnit! How the hell could I have forgotten to pack any rations!" he gripes, hungry. As he continues walking, he sees two humanoid shapes in the distance. Luc then jumps a patch of woods bordering the highway. "hmm... lets get a closer look" he whispers to himself. As he draws nearer, he sees it is two spartans. "Finally, someone freindly, Hey"! he shouts, stepping out of the trees.

On the Grapes of Wrath, Captian Garcia was pleased with how fast repairs to the hull and weapons system were completed. " Propulsion systems are at 100 percent, all hull breaches have been sealed and most have been re-armored, and all weapons systems, save one archer pod are back online Sir".head Engineer Tonya Hendricks happily reports. "Good, is the ship ready to make the jump to Hope"? Garcia asks "Yes sir"! Tonya relplies. "Good. start counting down, we're jumping in ten minutes". he replies, standing up.

A short while later, the Grapes of Wrath disappears from the Epsilon Eridani system.

TheivingFan 00:26, November 30, 2010 (UTC)

12
Moore listened to the chatter on the pelican's radio as it flew into the planet.

"This is Holocaust 5-6 we are taking heavy fire." Yelled the rough voice of a marine as plasma fired echoed in the background.

"Kilo 2-3 this is Red Ryder, flight of two Longswords bearing archer missiles hang tight and get to cover." Said the calm voice of a bomber pilot.

"Juliet Tango this is Swamp Fox we are inbound to reinforce your position. Over." Said the voice of a young man, likely a lieutenent fresh out of officer candidate school.

"This is Shadow Strike 6-48 we have lost grid Sierra Madros and Grid Ontario North over." A man of what sounded to be of African descent said calmly.

"This is Joker 56-9 the Covenant have broken through our defenses falling back to rally point Romeo Lima." Yelled a clearly scared marine.

"Command, Eagel Eye-7 can confirm death of colonial militia units twelve, ten, eight, and six at Bluffer's Peak. Over." A recon scout reported in.

"Son of a cunt." Moore said aloud to the pilot as screams of terror and reports of heavy losses continued to come in. "Shut that damn thing off." Moore eventually ordered the pilot, sick of hearing of death and despair.

The orders had been simple, extract a vital asset, Dr. Robert Hallmay, an ONI scientist from a small city. By the sounds of it the brass had wanted him out safe and alive and had deployed ODST units to do so, but they had failed to respond and so Mulgrew had sent him and his flight of now five pelicans to extract him from an ONI research facility in a small city.

Moore took a handheld radio and walked to the back of the bird observing the city as he flew over it.

"All units." He said into the mike. "This is First Sergeant Dennis Moore, UNSC Centurions. We are on a priority mission from ONI. Under orders of Commodore Mulgrew all units in the surrounding area are now under my jurisdiction. All units move to meet me at point Kilo-Quebec." He said referencing a tactical map of the area. "Moore out."

"So sarge where's Kilo-Quebec?" Asked PFC Travis.

"At a clearing in some park." Moore replied. Looking out the open back he saw soldiers moving around on the ground, by the looks of them unorganized.

Moore was cut short when the pelicans landed in a park.

"Just like Central Park back home." He whispered to himself, noting it's beauty. He unslung his MA5 and reloaded the gun. "Men get ready." He yelled.

13
A Phoenix lowered itself to a few feet above the ground, it's twin turbofan engines calmed slightly. A soft thump broke the silence, Riley-G659 walked forward and waved back to the marines. The Phoenix took back to the skies, as Riley walked forward, kneeled down, and pulled Rowan-090's helmet from his head. "Wakey, wakey, sleeping beauty," Riley taunted. This was sure to wake up the old man. It always got his attention. "Riley!" Rowan woke up, "Wait, how could you find me in all of this confusion?" "Simple, just looked for the flaming Spartan who forgot to activate his jet pack."

Before Rowan could explain, another Spartan ran out of the brush. "God, it's Luc." Rowan muttered, recovering from his unconscious sleep. "Luc! You made it!" Riley gave the incoming Spartan a low-five. Rowan decided to continue his rest. Riley smiled, "So glad we could regroup! For a second I though that we were the only survivors of the dive!" "Heh, I know what you mean!" Luc began, "A group of Spartans doing an ODST's job!" Riley laughed. Even half-dazed Rowan managed to cough up a muffled one.

Luc starred behind Riley in horror, "It looks like we have another thing to take care of now, though." Riley was surprised "What do you mean?!" Behind him strode a large Covenant Scarab paying them no attention. Directly behind it, lied five or six massive Covenant Spires, and in the center lied the behemoth that dwarfed them all. Only one word could describe such a thing. it was a Covenant Super-Spire. --  Chris  talk   blog  01:35, November 30, 2010 (UTC)

14
The Pod shuddered violently as it impacted the ground, and again as it burst open. Eoj 'Labasee jumped out of the pod, and found himself on a landing pad amid the the ruins of a human spaceport. The pad was smeared with human gore; Jiralhanae shock troops had already killed most of the civilians. The ground shook as three more pods struck the pavement. From two of them came a pair of 'Labasee's subordinates; Major Domo Xer 'Niatpacee and Minor Krad 'Thaedee. 'Niatpacee walked over to the third pod, a weapons cache, and punched in a code, opening the pod with a metallic click.

"Sir," growled 'Niatpacee. The Ultra walked over to pod and took a look at its contents. Two Type-33 GMLs. Nothing unusual there. But under the Needlers was a pyrimdal object that pulsed with faint blue light. A scanning device.

"But that means..." said 'Thaedee. There was no need to say more. The fleet had found an artifact on the planet. And the fact they wanted a team of three Sangheili regulars to find it meant something was very wrong.

A.O.A., Administrator of Ace Combat Fanon 03:35, November 30, 2010 (UTC)

15
Quinn had spent at least ten minutes wandering the streets. In that time he'd seen or heard from no one, except an occasional stream of frantic calls for evac or backup without giving coordinates. Echoes of distant gunfire resounded against the walls of this abandoned concrete jungle, never lasting long.

Once again, he stood at an intersection, without a clue as to where he was going. Blast it, if he kept this up he'd be walking in circles.

"Well . . . left is right, and right is wrong."

Turning onto a street the name of which was in a language he couldn't read, Erik spotted the large, dark hulk of a drop pod laying half-buried in the sidewalk. Noting the door still fixed to the pod, he ran over to see if someone was trapped inside.

He first laid a hand on it, only to recoil from the heat still emanating from the ceramic layer. Maybe it had snapped its umbrella, or was just too close to that Supercarrier's beam. Knowing what he'd find, he still turned on his FOF tagging in his helmet. Sure enough, the trooper inside was dead, the heart moniter flatlined.

Shaking his head, he stepped away from it and sadly back to his aimless walk, when a yell reached his ears through the helmet's audio equipment. "Trooper. Over here!"

Snapping his head sideways, Erik sighted a man in ODST ballistic armor, waving to him from the next intersection. Quinn booked it across and joined him by a car.

"Holy shit." Quinn said, glad not to be alone anymore. "I thought I was the last one out here." He removed the bucket from his head and unscrewed the lid of his canteen, enjoying the cool liquid. He offered some to the man with Shouji written on his helmet, but he refused. Quinn muttered, "Supercarrier. Goddamn. Just when things are bad enough they throw that at us, and who knows what it's carrying."

He got another look at the trooper. "Shouji a nickname?"

Shouji felt a slight panic, but forced it down easily. "Yeah . . . how'd you know?"

"Your Friend Or Foe tag reads Sherman." he laughed. "I'd take Shouji over Sherman any day."

Shouji laughed it off with him, but still wanted to get off the planet. "Our unit have any extraction coming?"

Erik thought about it. "I don't think many others made it down . . . they were supposed to radio us when we had the package." He stood up, replacing the canteen on his side. "I guess the orders still stand. Find Dr. Robert Hallmay, get him out."

"You mean we're going deeper into the aliens' territory?" Shouji asked. This was the exact opposite of what he wanted.

"Yeah . . . it sucks."

Luck hadn't improved for either of them very much, but at the least they each had an extra gun at their backs. And more allies must be ahead, somewhere.

Far out from the city, the Covenant landing zone had been put into place quickly and without notice from human forces so far. The supercarrier above had even dropped a Scarab tank from its belly while the invasion spires below recieved large numbers of Wraith mortar and anti-air tanks. Hundreds of foot troops had landed already, and hundreds more would be on their way. Ghosts patrolled along miles of perimeter, watching for any scouts that might give away their element of surprise.

On the ring platform of the central spire's top, a Jiralhanae stood watching the battalions of Unggoy march out from under the teleportation recievers, heading to assemble for their Sangheili masters. His fur was silver-gray, marking him as an alpha male, though not the white of an Alpha Pack Chieftain like Tartarus. One massive paw was locked around a staff, with ornate designs of his people's culture wrought into it.

"Parthius." An Elite said, joining him to survey the holy soldiers. Though this one had used his true name as an honorific, Parthius still resented his kind for making his people fight their war.

"What is it you have to say, Sangheili?" he rumbled in his deep voice.

“Your shock troops have cleansed the city once, but after they returned here their soldiers reclaimed it. . .”

Parthius clenched his teeth. This would only give the snake-necks more reason to criticize him.

“ . . . though they are few and disorganized for now, next time you should remind them to hold their ground until we relieve them, and lead them yourself.”

As the Sangheili returned inside, Parthius noted he had conveniently forgotten that the Sangheili Shipmaster had ordered him to stay, and for his Brutes to return after cleansing the city. He kept from rebuking him, though. He’d heard stories of this Sangheili, his brothers called him Scarface, and it would be wiser to leave him alone.

16
Shouji continued walking with the ODST, calming down from the terror attack he had recieved when the trooper saw his IFF.

"So trooper, what's your name?" Shouji asked.

"Private Erik Quinn 22nd Squad, I was on Reach when it fell." He replied.

Shouji nodded.

"Alright Private. I'm Staff Sergeant Sherman, but call me Shouji, I was on Harvest 11th ODST. Nasty stuff. Now the package we have any clue on where he is or how to get him?"

"No." Replied Quinn.

"Alright then I guess we just-" Shouji was cut off when a New York accented voice filled the two troopers headsets.

"All units." The voice said into the mike. "This is First Sergeant Dennis Moore, UNSC Centurions. We are on a priority mission from ONI. Under orders of Commodore Mulgrew all units in the surrounding area are now under my jurisdiction. All units move to meet me at point Kilo-Quebec. Moore out."

"Well. Quinn said. "I guess we just found out."

"Agreed. Let's move out." Shouji replied pulling out a tactical map of the area.

"Kilo-Quebec." Shouji said. "That's about half a mile out. And if it's an ONI op. Then it's probably Hallmay."

"Alright." Quinn said. "Let's move."

The two started moving through the city. Oddly enough Covenant forces were at none. Shouji knew this meant that they were most likely preparing for an attack. There was no doubt in his mind the Covenant had something big planned for this city. Shouji could feel it as the two men arrived in the park.

Five pelicans were on the ground and at least two platoons were on the ground. Shouji eyed around four warthogs equipped with a chain gun turret and a gauss hog. About seven mongoose ATVs were also in the area. And to compliment, Shouji eyed a Scorpion Tank.

"Whoa. Helljumpers." Shouji heard a militia soldier say in awe as the two entered the camp.

"This way." Shouji said to Quinn as he led him to a small table where a man in UNSC Army clothing with a Centurion patch was looking at a map of the area and planning troop movements. This had to be the First Sergeant Moore.

"Sir." Shouji said to the man, easily six foot eight as he turned around. "Staff Sergeant Sherman, 11th ODST reporting for orders." He said.

Moore looked at him. "Sergeant, here's the plan. Hallmay lives in a small estate house on the outskirts of town, where recon is picking up alot of activity. Now the good doctor has fortified himself and a squad of ODSTs who found him. However they are pinned down inside the estate. We are going to break the siege and then use 'Ye-Olde Angry Bitch" Moore said pointing to the tank. "Don't ask about the name, I'm not sure myself. Now anyways Ye Olde Bitch over there is going to be our way to break into the doc's concrete estate house which he has sealed. Then we get him and extract him via warthog to grid Papa-Bravo where a Pelican will be waiting. Our main objective is to make sure that tank reaches the estate. Radio communications with Hallmay show him to be paranoid and unwilling to leave. Now I don't care if Hallmark is the most insane man in the galaxy. ONI wants him out alive and unharmed. And for this operation ONI signs our paychecks Savy?" Moore asked.

"Yes sir." Shouji replied.

"Good now tell your men the plan. We move out in twenty minutes." Moore said. "Dismissed."

17
The 2 Sangheili talked on the short ride down to Hope. Kahulara's old squad had been killed on Reach and he was the only survivor of his team. This were his new comrades and he just met them. His Ultra, Fratoro `Gytlic, was said to be Ruthless, and showed no mercy to the humans. The Sangheili standing on the other side of the spirit was known as Huam `Judech, was said to be a very religous individual. The ultra was in one of the other 2 phantoms, along with the other unggoy and Kig-Yar. The Fleet Master's ship had docked at the Super Spire and the fleet master had exited the ship into the spire to further plan the invasion. Orders came in telling them after the recon they had to return to the spire for more orders. The 3 spirits circled down beside the remains of the human ship once it was safe. There was a huge crater where it had crashed. Kahulara gripped his type-51 carbine firmly ready for anything when the spirit opened, he and all the others jumped onto the dirt, and the spirit hovered away to where its use was needed elsewhere.

The The Sanghieli ultra, leader of the group motioned to split up, 4 squads to go all around the perimeter, and 2 through the middle of the split ship. Most of them didn't even beleive there were going to be any survivors, but the higher ranks wanted to make sure EVERY human on the planet was wiped out, there was also the possibility of a human regroup or a hideout there. The squads scattered, swiftly, and silently investigating. After satisfied nothing was around, or in the ship, the scattered troops regrouped. Suddenly, they heard something in the wreckage. A spartan stumbled out of one of the sides of the wreckage unarmed, and vulnerable. His, used to be green armour, had been burned completely black, and damaged. The ultra yelled "Demon!". The human super soldier tripped and clumsily fell on his face, Fratoro walked over swiftly, and mercilessly executed the demon screaming "All unbeleivers must d-", and at the exact same moment, the ultra had been interrupted by a crack of gunfire and a trail of smoke coming from nowhere into the head of the ultra. He dropped to the ground motionless, and dead.

Looking back from where the trail of smoke, was Platoon of marines firing their ballistic weapons towards the Covenant force. The jackals had alread activated their energy sheilds and avanced towards the enemy. The unggoy panicked and and shot rapidly in random directions like cowards. Kahulara kept his calm, aim, and shot at the marines with his carbine. The Sangheili and unggoy advanced up closer to the marines penetrating their armour with plasma. Plasma and bullets rushed through the air. Multiple unggoy and Kig-Yar had dropped to the ground, but the marines casualties out numbered theirs. The un-beleivers shot at the elites but their shields only flickered at the bullets. Kahulara was sprayed at with the last marine, the rounds just bounced off his shields as he activated his energy sword and swiftly sliced through the marine, "For the covenant!". The fire fight was over in less than a minute, before the human taskforce could even retreat. At the top of the crater in the distance they could see the spire, and the carnage all around it. CYC10N3 06:08, November 30, 2010 (UTC)

18
'Labasee reached into the pod and gingerly removed the glowing device. As soon as his fingers contacted the violet metal alloy, a myriad of maps and topographical overlays burst into life on his HUD. Such an instrument was normally restricted to no less than a Zealot. The Elite stared at it in wonder.

'Niatpacee and 'Thaedee grabbed the needlers. Xer holstered the weapon and pulled out his trusty Type-51 Carbine.

Loud thuds echoed nearby. Xer immediately went into a hyperfocused state, as he always did in in anticipation of a fight, ready for anything. He scanned the ruins for the enemy.

"There," his powerful muscles tensed, preparing to pull the trigger; to draw first blood. 'Labasee nudged the barrel of the carbine down. "No, we have been given a mission, and that mission comes first." Xer grumbled a grudging acknowledgement.

In the distance one of the humans pointed. They began to sprint at the trio, and opened fire.

"Move!" 'Labasee ordered. They broke into a run. But something roared overhead.

A human dropship cut off the Elites, and from its troop hold came a demon.

A.O.A., Administrator of Ace Combat Fanon 08:23, November 30, 2010 (UTC)

19
Morning dawned on the eighth platoon as they emerged from the pelican, tired and battle worn. "Pull out the supplies," Jake said. "We gotta get setup." The spartan donned his helmet, standing high above the marines, except Ed who stood an inch above himself. The team set up an emergency shelter; stringing a buckmesh sheet from their ship to a nearby cave. They set up a light in the back of the small cave, placing the two footlockers along the walls; one with ammo, one with supplies. Time passed as the team went over possible plans. "How much food and water?" Ed asked Randy, who had been rummaging through the supplies. "A good two to three weeks at most. Plus water filters and a hunting crossbow." "Bow ain't gonna help us now. This place don't have any animal life." Ed said. "We can use it for other things, or at least I can." Randy said, he usually went unnarmed. The crossbow had a lot of ammo, plus a pump action shotgun built into the front below the bow. "Miranda, how about ammo?" Jake asked, working on an armor mounted weapon on his left hand. It worked by loading a small handleless spike into a slot, locking into place and being launched by a spring with the push of a button. On the underside of his opposite forearm he had a small double barreled shotgun, loaded by pulling back the pump and fired by a simmilar push button mechanism. "Enough for a small army. Few grenades though. It will take a little improvision, though." She stated. Jake fired his new 'ballistic wrist' at the wall, penetrating a good three inches into the dirt. "Got improvision covered." Miranda's brother, Ed pulled a magnum out of the bin, loading a mag and tossing it to Randy. "M225 rounds, blow your head out your ass if you use 'em wrong." He joked, trying once again to lighten the situation. "They any good? He asked. Jake looked at him. "Good enough for me." "We should scout the area, see what kind of place we got ourselves on. Miranda, check the intel map for any high points around our position. I marked our position in red." Ed said, placing his helmet on his head.

Base of Mt. Persephone (1 mi), three hundred yards from their pelican, troop transport warthog nicknamed "Lucifer" The hog drove over the obstacles, slowly but surely crawling up the mountain. The marines lay quiet, the only sounds made by their loyal hog. "we..are...here." Randy said. Everybody got out and walked over to the small forehead of the mountain, looking out over at the large plain that covered this part of the natural satelite. The view horrified them. The UNSC Eye of Providence lay in pieces across the land, along with many destroyed or damaged ODST pods. The team laid down on the mointaintop, using long distance optics to watch the land more closely. Minutes passed and the land stayed still, until a pod shook. The door flew off, kicked by an ODST survivor. The man stumbled, throwing his helmet to the ground and walked forward. A plasma mortar flew over the far hills, crashing into the man and killing him. The platoon watched in horror as the previously sighted corvette loomed over the hills, accompanied by two Spirit troop transports who flew over to the wreckage, dropping many elites that swarmed the area in search of survivors. Jake looked up at the corvette. "We...are...fucked." --TheMerciless 15:18, November 30, 2010 (UTC)

20
'Thaedee hesitated. It was a mistake. The green beast saw him as the most vulnerable target, and leaped. 'Thaedee cried out indignantly as the demon swung its primitive knife across his belly. Xer lashed out with his plasma daggers, but the Demon pulled out his rifle and rammed the butt into 'Niatpacee's sternum, knocking the wind out of him. Krad began to recover, but the monster prepared to attack again.

Quickly, 'Labasee ran up to the human and punched its head as hard as he could. Its golden visor shattered in a bloody mess. It jumped onto Eoj, reaching for its knife. But there was a flash of pink, and the demon stopped, crying out in pain. It slumped down. 'Thaedee had shot it with his needler.

Xer stomped on its arm, crushing it and pinning the demon. He roared in its face, then plunged his dagger into its helmet.

"Look," said 'Thaedee, pointing.

Several Wraiths had appeared in the distance. They waved their arms, but something felt wrong.

All of a sudden, the Wraiths fired at them. A.O.A., Administrator of Ace Combat Fanon 16:10, November 30, 2010 (UTC)

21
Torkamentov usually loved battles. The feel of his behemoth of a ship roaring into the fight, with it's humungous firepower, and all enemy vessels fleeing before it. However, this wasn't one of those times. The Covenant kept fighting, and were even threatening to surround his smaller force of ships. It also didn't help that many of the ships he had to work with still had battle damage from the battle at Reach. As the Siren's Call fired it's MAC guns at a Covenant Corvette that was attempting to get behind the UNSC force, the ship took fire from one of the Covenant Cruisers. On the bridge, reports came fast, loud, and furious as the battle progressed. “Sir. Damage from that last enemy salvo was minimal, slight damage n the rear compartments of Deck18. We can hold of on repairing it until after the battle.” “Good. Keep firing on that Corvette. We don't want them to surround us. Have someone keep that Cruiser off us until we can finish the job here.”

Torkamentov paced the bridge back and forth, as he tried to figure out a way to turn the battle in his favor, but he wasn't coming up with anything. He just hoped right now that the enemy would make a mistake he could exploit. He wasn't going to use his special cargo yet. Not here around Hope. Another message came through on FleetCom. “Sir, we're picking up an influx of chatter from ground forces on Hope. Apparently the Covenant invasion fleet has dropped spires all over Hope. They seem to be focusing efforts on Icaria, where it seems they have dropped an oversized Spire, for the mass deployment of ground forces.” “Dang it,” said Torkamentov, “We don't have time for this. Things are moving too fast, and we don't have enough forces to go around. Tell them we will assist when we finish up here.”

Another salvo from the cruiser impacted on the hull of the Siren's Call, and explosive decompression resulted in the areas behind the impact points. “ Sir, we have hull breaches on Deck 4. Moderate damage, dispatching repair crews to patch it up. Also, the radar dish has taken hits and is non operational.” Torkamentov watched as Mulgrew's face paled upon hearing that news. “Oh, shit. The Shadow Drive was routed through the radar dish to transmit signals to the Covenant sensors and computers. With it non operational, the Shadow Drive is useless. I could try a bypass and have it go from the Communication's array, as a piggyback on our normal communications, but we won't be able to send line of sight communications. It will have to be all around, and then even our ships will be affected.” “Well, fix it. We will just have to advise hem with lasers before we use it.” “It isn't that simple, Sir. Since this was a prototype secret project, we have I isolated from the main computer network. That means I can't bypass it from the bridge. An the guys who push the buttons down there don't now how to do something like this. I'll have to go and reroute it myself,” said Mulgrew. Torkamentov nodded. “OK, go to it. We need that Drive running again ASAP.” Mulgrew nodded a she ran out of the bridge.

As Torkamentov waited for Mulgrew to report back, he noticed something strange was going on, which the bridge crew hadn't noticed for some reason. “Hey, why have they stopped shooting at us?” “Unknown, Sir. Maybe they are busy.” “Unlikely. What the hell is going on out there?” Torkamentov looked out the window to see the stars, and the battle raging around him. He saw something that looked strange. Closer examination revealed what it was. “Shoot!. Put me on Shipwide....This is Torkamentov. All crew, head to the nearest armory to obtain weapons. We are about to be boarded!.” Torkamentov wondered about Mulgrew as he settled into his chair, but turned his thought away. Mulgrew was probably already at the Shadow Drive. He would be fine. With that thought, Torkamentov turned his attention toward saving his ship, and beating these Covenant SOB's. Azecreth 20:58, November 30, 2010 (UTC)

22
"Somthing tells me those aren't natural." Luc says, eyeing the Scarab as he fishes around in one of his ammo compartments. "Hmm.... ah here they are." he grins, fishing out several small canisters of C7 Foaming explosive. "First thing's first..we have to take out that Scarab before it sees us.

Meanwhile, the Grapes of Wrath was bustling with activity while in slipspace, contrary to the usual near silent hulk with only a skeleton crew to perform basic matinence. Repairs were still being made, the Sabres were being armed, their pilots cramming so many hours in the sims, Robert actually had to start rationing time between the squadrons. "Hm... we're only a day away now.." mutters Robert, leaning back in his chair." I just hope the forces already there can hang on until we arrive".

--TheivingFan 21:49, November 30, 2010 (UTC)

23
Within seconds, the Covenant Scarab lie flaming, motionless on the ground. Luc turned back in satisfaction. Rowan still sat with his back against the rock, watching unexcitedly as the fiery debris rolled around in the dirt. "You certainly made quick work of that Scarab." Rowan began, "It's a damn shame there are so many more guarding the Spires down that hill." Luc walked over to Rowan, kneeled down, and offered Rowan a quick sip from his canteen. He gratefully accepted and jugged down at least one-quarter of the bottle's contents.

"Thanks, pal." Rowan handed the canteen back to Luc, and after a short coughing fit, he continued, "I'll remember that as the best water I've ever tasted." Luc grabbed Rowan by the hand and pulled him to his feet. "You're welcome." Luc responded calmly, before placing the canteen back into his "tactical trauma kit case", which was built into his left leg armor. "Well, it looks like we have another seeming impossible objective to complete don't we?" said Riley in a sarcastic tone.

Rowan starred back at the gargantuan Spire before responding, "I've seen regular Covenant Spires on Reach, but I've never seen anything like that large one in the center of that formation." Luc turned to Riley and then back to Rowan, "The Spires placed at Szurdok Ridge on Reach were utilized as cloaking devices, used to keep the Covenant supercarrier Long Night of Solace invisible and off of radar. I can estimate that the energy generated by all of the regular Spires dropped onto this continent alone would be enough to keep the entire Covenant fleet invisible!" Riley and Rowan could tell that he was onto something. "Well what do you think they'd need all of that energy for? After all, the only Covenant ship that I've seen them cloak throughout this entire battle so-far was that supercarrier." "Well I fear that with the Covenant's new Super-Spire active, that they'd have enough power to keep that supercarrier cloaked from anywhere within the range of this entire planet!" With a look of enlightenment, Riley questioned, "So that is the reason why they've began their invasion on the small and isolated continent of Icaria!?" Luc confirmed these suspicions with a nod.

They all looked up to observe the wild dogfight taking place above their heads. The supercarrier was no where in sight. --  Chris  talk   blog  22:31, November 30, 2010 (UTC)

24
Matthew-123 and Ryder- K231 saw the scarab's explosion first. "Look!" said Matthew, "That's the biggest explosion I have ever seen!" Ryder scoffed. "Eh, I've seen better on Arcadia." Morales looked over, "Better than some high-powered 'crackers I have at home!" Matt was confused, "You have Crackers that explode? Awesome!"

"No, not like that. I mean-" Ryder interrupted " Ladies and Gentle-marines, we have now arrived at the Scarab site. And look, we have some friends waiting for us!" Morales positioned the Phoenix beside Rowan, Riley and Luc. They each looked up at the Phoenix and grinned. "All aboard the Phoenix Express!" Morales said in his usual happy tone. -Therider Rides Alone 01:12, December 1, 2010 (UTC)

"Well I'll be damned!" Rowan muttered under his breath. Riley turned to Luc, "More survivors, and Spartans two!" Luc stared at the incoming Phoenix, "This should be interesting. Hey guys! Think you could take us to those Spires over there?" Matt grinned, "Heh, where else would we be taking you!"

25
The trio scattered.

Xer leaped onto one of the Wraiths, and tore off the door. He hopped inside, prepared to strike.

But the pilot was dead.

*****

'Thaedee's sprint slowed to a limp. He was losing too much blood.

He came across a dead marine sitting in a pool of blood. It was a ghastly sight. Spikes protruded from its chest, and its face was frozen in a grotesque expression of pure terror. In it's right hand was a rocket launcher.

He hefted the weapon over his shoulder, albeit reluctantly. He zoomed in on the nearest Wraith. He took a deep breath, steadied his hands, and fired.

A.O.A., Administrator of Ace Combat Fanon 03:24, December 1, 2010 (UTC)

26
Turok stood valiant in even death's face as he was branded a traitor by his own friend. He received the Mark of Shame soon after.He wasn't hanged, as was the fate of most of the Sanghelli. He was spaded to wander Hope until it's last day.

As he exited the Spire, he saw an odd sight. A "Phoenix"(as the humans called it)was heading towards his direction. Turok tried to run back inside to warn the others, but it was too late. The phoenix had arrived and with it, five demons jumped out of the phoenix.

27
Mulgrew looked around nervously as he pulled out his M6K Handgun. He had just heard Torkamentov's announcement, and while the odds were slim that the Covenant would penetrate this far into the ship, it never hurt to be prepared. He had had to take detours around damaged areas in order to get to the Shadow Drive control center, so he wasn't yet in the process of fixing it. Fortunately, he was close there now. He broke into a run, turned a corner, and saw that he was down the hall from his destination. As he entered the room, he saw that the guards were gone. "Hmmm, they probably went to repel the boarders," siad Mulgrew to himself as he began worlk on rerouting the Shadow Drive, "but you think that they would stay here. I mean, the covenant probably don't know about this place, but it is a high priority target. If the Covenant could get here, and figure out what this thing is, then they would probably destroy it, and we would be in a tough situation." He cleared his mind, and contrinued working.

He was almost done, when he heard a noise out in the hallway. He peeked his head out to look, and saw 2 marines backing around the corner. They saw his, and ran over. "Is there anything we use in this room for cover? The Covenant are right behind us." Mulgrew looked around, and pointed to a table and some chairs. "Well, there's this stuff, "he replied. "All right," said the marine on the left, "You and me will move the table into the hallway. Jones, keep the Covenant from coming up too soon." "Yes sir," replied Jones as he ducked back around the corner, firing his battle rifle as he went. Mulgrew and the other marine dragged the table out of the room, and turned it on it's side. They had just finished when they heard Jones grunt in pain. The Covenant soldiers ran around the corner, and the remaining marine started shooting at them while crouched behind the table. Mulgrew stood firing range style, and started shotoing at their heads. The marine looked at him like he was an idiot, and pulled hmdown behind the table just before a plasma burst went through the space where Mulgrew's head was. "Watch it, you dang fool! Don't be a hero," said the marine gruffly as he resumed fire. Mulgrew nodded, and put his pistol on the table and resumed shooting.

After a tense 7 minute gunfight, the Covenant that had tried to storm them were all dead. Mulgrew walked down he hall, pausing every so often to put a bullet into the head of a Covenant body. The marine looked at him and said, " You did good. Who are you anyway?" Mulgrew smiled and said, "I'm Commodore Alexander Mulgrew, the ship's XO. Also known as your boss." The marine paled a bit, remembering how he had called Mulgrew a dang fool, but then brightened up. "It's a good thing I grabbed you, then. We wouldn't want to lose you." Mulgrew nodded, and returned to the Shadow Drive control room, and finished his work.

With that done, he got on the radio. "Mulgrew to bridge. The rerouting is complete." "Good," replied Torkamentov, "Any trouble down there?": Mulgrew looked back at the blood-covered hallway, and said, "No, sir. Nothing I couldn't handle." "Good. Well, stay down there. We're going to need the Shadow Drive soon." "Why," asked Mulgrew. "The Covenant fleet almost has us surrounded. We're falling back to Epitadeus b, in order to get a better position, and enact emergency repairs." Azecreth 20:22, December 1, 2010 (UTC)

28
Rowan, Riley, and Luc sat in the back seats of the phoenix quietly, trying to relax for the last few minutes that they could. The Spire formation wasn't nearly as distant as it was when they were picked up. "Let's work out a plan." Riley began. It was the first serious sounding comment to come out of his mouth since the initial drop. Everyone knew that as the Spire grew closer, the more threatening it appeared, and the Spartans just about couldn't take much more. Patrolling scarabs and enemy wraiths constantly fired plasma mortar at them, good thing Morales was such a good pilot. "Okay then." Rowan finally responded to Rilley's query, "Matthew, Ryder, Luc. I'd like you to stay with Riley for this mission. I assume that you all are already aware of your goal, to deactivate the Super-Spire's shields, making it vulnerable, at that point, just about any of our ship's MAC cannons should do the trick. After that, the suppercarrier will be unable to leave this continent undetected." Matt was concerned, "Sure, but what about you?" "I'll stay here with Morales. We'll keep a safe distance and provide you with intel. Once the shields are deactivated, I will probably only have a few seconds to retrieve you all, so act quickly." Riley grinned underneath his helmet. "Sir, yes sir."

The wail of a banshee echoed through the phoenix. By the sound of it, they could tell that it was closing in on them. The banshee zoomed forward, and was now right beside them. In a split second, Rowan stretched his arm outward, aiming at the banshee with an assault rifle. The enemy fell back for a second, before catching up again on the opposite side. Luc, stood up from his seat and dived at the banshee. The banshee rolled towards the side in an attempt to knock him off. One hand slipped. Before being allowed to regain his balance, another sideways flip swung him to the opposite side once more. "Bastards!" Riley turned towards the banshee, aimed his shotgun carefully, and fired, smashing it's left wing. Luc turned his head back towards the phoenix and managed the word, "Thanks," before being shaken abruptly by the banshees unsteadiness. With newfound strength, he placed his other arm on the roof of the banshee and ripped off it's hood. The Elite inside lifted himself from the cockpit. The thrusters stopped, and Luc, froze in terror as the Elite soared out, leaving him to swing out of control. The banshee began to fall behind once more. After an abrupt three-sixty, he slammed his foot hard against the swirling mass, and leaped himself towards the phoenix. he swung his hands. he missed. Before he could fall, Rowan leaped outwards and grabbed his arm. The phoenix came to a halt. Rowan pulled Luc back in. Luc was surprised, "Thanks man!" Rowan nodded his head, "Anytime. Well so much for a restful journey..." They were there.

Meanwhile, the Grapes of Wrath was just about to exit slipspace "All crew, battlestations." Captain Robert ordered, sitting reclining back into his soft captains chair on the bridge. A few seconds later, the ship was plunged once again, into normal space. Outside of the glass, Robert could see two space banshees, that would have zoomed directly through the battleship's current position, abruptly roll out of the way. "Launch a group of four Sabres for reconnaissance," Robert continued, staring at the planet sitting only about thirty-kilometers away. Somehow he knew this would be a very long battle... --  Chris  talk   blog  22:33, December 1, 2010 (UTC)

29
"Xer, incoming!"

He leaped out of the Wraith, which exploded before he even reached the ground. A rocket struck a second Wraith, and the ensuing explosion sent a peice of debris through the hull of a third. Another rocket destroyed the remaining Wraith.

"What in the name of the Heirarchs was that?"

A bloodied 'Thaedee limped out of the shadows, rocket launcher in hand. "So uncivilized," he remarked as he tossed the weapon aside.

"There was nothing piloting those-" Xer began.

"Hey! Last time I checked, I counted as something!"

Startled, the Elites twisted around, and found themselves staring into the glowing blue eye of a Monitor.

A.O.A., Administrator of Ace Combat Fanon 20:51, December 1, 2010 (UTC)

30
"Sir, there's a Marathon-class cruiser retreating, but it's being pursued by a large Covenant force"! Maxim yelled."hm.. Move to come between the Marathon class and covenant ships, let's cover their retreat"."Also, try to contact them". Robert then turned to face Guy Montag, the ship's "smart" AI. or rather, he turned to face the monitor that was displaying "him". "Bring the MAC turrets around, start firing once we're in range". "I'm already woking on it Captian Guy replied in a neutral tone." --TheivingFan 21:25, December 1, 2010 (UTC)

31
Turok tried to grab for his weapon, but felt his skin. He was naked. Turok looked for a weapon near by. He picked up a half-used plasma pistol. Not the best weapon, but when used right, a force to be reckoned with.

As Turok began to fire, One demon looked over. "Oh, dude, put some pants on, it's immodest!"

The moment Ryder said that, Turok fired a charged shot at the back of Riley's head.

-Therider Rides Alone 23:14, December 1, 2010 (UTC)

32
Jothu surveys the carnage around him. Flame licked still-glowing debris from the buildings toppled by the plasma bombardment. Overhead, a few Banshees shriek past, chasing after a few human aircraft. He dismisses them with little thought – they were not his concern.

“First lance! Move forward! Scour this wretched infestation – leave no filthy hovel unsearched!”

His warriors move with fluid efficiency, each honed by years of hard training and harder fighting. House-to-house searches reveal nothing more than a few straggler civilians who were quickly cut down, and a few abandoned pets. The artillery has done its job, but too effectively – his objective depends on there being survivors.

The Covenant invasion of this world was, in most respects, unremarkable – slaughter, bombardment, a pitiful counterattack by the humans, and finally ended in their cowardly evacuation and the final destruction of their now or soon-to-be lifeless cities and homes. And in that regard, the Raak’ezh warrior crèche were happy to fulfil their task of rendering this world a lifeless rock. But their orders came down directly from the Prophets, and their goal was not quantity – it was quality.

Field Master Jothu ‘Fazhezhee strides across this battlefield, littered with strewn debris and flaming wreckage, cloak billowing in his wake, gold and black armour alternately seeming divine and demonic. It is an image he cultivates, and it has served him well. Upon this place, he appears as some vengeful emissary of the Prophets unyielding wrath – and that is because he is.

“Excellency! A survivor!”

He turns, and sees a warrior dragging out a human warrior, a “mareen,” the smaller creature kicking and punching wildly, screaming obscenities at them. He smiles.

It shall soon learn that silence is a virtue that it should embrace.

“Halt there.”

The warrior stops, confused, but keeps his grip. The human, momentarily confused, redoubles its efforts to escape. Jothu considers allowing it to, letting his warriors hunt it down – if there is no further sport to be gained from this town, then they would welcome the hunt as any warrior should. He decides against it – to fulfil his orders, he would need professionalism. He would allow them to battle later - now was a time for cold, calm decisions.

He made one.

“Be still human,” he says, his mouth contorting uncomfortable around the human syllables. “Resist and you shall feel pain.”

The creature shouts something at him. He is unfamiliar with the word, but the inflection was enough – defiance, obviously intended as insult, and perhaps a last act of desperation.

Good. A little life in the thing.

The warrior cuffs the human around the head, not a damaging blow, but enough to daze it. It is dragged to its knees, allowed to sit as it is interrogates. Jothu crouches before it, holding its chin in his hands, forcing it to look at him.

“You shall talk. And I shall listen.”

The creature resists for hours. But Jothu knows patience, and his warriors have a skill with the blade that is unparalleled. The human is not killed. His fate is much worse. But he talks, eventually, and he divulges all he knows.

It is precisely what Jothu needs.

He straightens, dusting his armour of the dust that has settled upon it. He smiles at the human, nodding to the warrior that still has a vice-grip on the creatures neck. He lets go, the human sent sprawling into the dirt and ash. The warrior pauses, and then stomps – not a mortal blow, but bones crack and the creature’s face is ground into the dust.

“Serve as an example to those who defy the will of the Gods,” Jothu says, as the warrior now kneels down, extending a small energy dagger.

The screaming is heard all throughout the town as a hush settles upon it. It is the first human noise in hours, and it is music to his ears.

“Let all who see you know you for what you are – a heretic of the Gods, a betrayer of your own kind, and an accursed coward, too jealous of the living to die with honour.”

The creature moans in agony, but Jothu knows that it shall live – at least, for a while. Human artillery and gunfire can be heard in the distance – if, as he fully expects, the humans manage to retake this small Covenant victory, then the “mareen” shall be found. And the symbol carved upon its back shall be seen by all, and inspire terror in those who know its meaning.

His aide-de-camp strides over the cluttered street, kicking aside a small childs toy as he does so. “What news, excellency?”

“Exactly as was foretold by the Prophets. They are here.”

Frath ‘Klorvatemee smiles in expectation. “Good. Slaughtering women and children is no task for Zealots.”

Jothu nods. “There shall be foes worthy of us soon enough, Frath. That I can guarantee.”

The Raak’ezh are here to kill, but not in the numbers expected of other Covenant units. They are a crèche, numbering no more than seventy, but their prey is far more worthy than the weak and pathetic vermin that futilely try to defend their homes and bases – for as heretical as the humans are, they have warriors that more than rival those of the Covenant. Warriors who struck terror into the hearts of even the mighty Sangheili. Warriors who had personally slaughtered thousands of Covenant, perhaps even millions.

Demons.

It was those warriors that the Raak’ezh were here for. They would track them, and they would hunt them. And at the very end, they would kill them.

Jothu’s warriors were Demon killers.

A phantom is deployed from the creche’s corvette, the Relentless Pursuit. The town burns as they depart, hammered by human artillery shells. They are too late – there are none of the Covenant’s warriors still present to kill. He knows now that there are human Demons here, what they call “Spartans”. His orders come from the Prophets, and are a holy declaration by the gods.

Let their will be done.

Specops306 02:39, December 2, 2010 (UTC)

33
The UNSC Iridescent Wyvern, a small frigate carrying heavy amounts of troops, had arrived on Hope when the battle had begun, and had been fighting ever since. Now, it was in deep trouble. Two thrusters taken out, sections 4 and 7 compromised and locked down. There were still marines in cryo chambers in those sections, but no one would go to get them.

All stations were on high alert. Cryo Chamber 12, containing Sgt. Isaac Long, was being evacuated. Chambers 11 and 15 were part of the compromised sections, and the rest had been evacuated, troops heading for anywhere but the Wyvern in Bumblebee lifepods. The alarms blared, red lights cast on Isaac's face. His chamber opened, and he slowly opened his eyes, his brown hair long from the months in Cryo sleep. He looked down at his nude body, and then looked around, watching troops running for the armory in their BDUs and undergarments. As Isaac looked at the cryo pods around him, he found that his squadmates, ODSTs, were gone.

Isaac saw a crewman run up to him, and throw him his black kevlar, leather coated briefs, lined with urban camo on the arms. He put on the one piece, and stepped down, tripping on his titanium toed boots. He put them on, and fell to the ground as the frigate shook viciously, throwing the nearby crewman face-first onto a cryo pod. Isaac stumbled, and then got back up, running through the door. The When the door closed, he heard a deafening noise, and turned around to see a crewman running towards the door, a massive explosion rushing towards him.

The crewman didn't make it, and as the flames cleared, Isaac saw the massive hole torn in the cryo chamber, coolant leaking in from engineering.

Isaac turned and ran for the elevator, quickly arriving at it. He opened it, and saw that there was no elevator, but only a shaft, the steel cable frayed and torn at the end, a crumpled elevator a few hundred feet below. There was also a crumpled body, a UNSC troop who had desperately tried to jump from, apparently, an adjacent elevator door a level up.

Isaac turned once more and ran to the cafeteria area, though he turned around when he saw UNSC troops running, as a blue flame engulfed the corridor behind.

Isaac looked at them, and yelled.

"How the hell do I get to the ODST drop room!?", he screamed, as he felt a liquid on his head, a pipe leaking coolant.

One of the troops, an emblem on the inside of his HUD readout showing Sergeant, spoke.

"The elevator's out!?", the Sergeant asked.

Isaac nodded.

The sergeant turned and ran for the shaft, jumping and hitting the cable. He squirmed for a moment, grabbing hold, and slid down. When he reached the end of the cable, the Sergeant put his feet against one of the closed doors, and pushed backwards, reaching one hand for the parallel door. He grabbed hold, and started climbing down.

The other troops followed, the last one throwing his gloves to Isaac, so he wouldn't burn the skin off of his hands sliding down. Isaac put the gloves on, and slid down the rope, quickly grabbing hold of the wall.

He clambered down to the elevator, Hell's Waiting Room, and followed the troops through the hallways to a small version of a Drop Room. Isaac opened a locker via thumbprint, and grabbed his armor, putting it on. He finally grabbed his reinforced ODST Helmet, looked at it for a moment, striped red like his armor, with red detailing, and then he put it on, de-polarizing his visor. There was only one pod left, though.

The three troops looked at Isaac, and nodded. He stepped over to the armory, grabbing his MA5B and M6D, and then he got into the rightmost pod. The three troops where standing farther over, near the holo-table. The last he saw of them was there, in that room, as the pod door closed over him, the pod turning around slowly. As the view of them disappeared, he had a feeling the three troops would have seen the last other person in the world. And then Isaac felt the bump of the release on his pod, as he slowly went down and out of the Frigate. The third and fourth thrusters went down, and with a final plasma torpedo from a nearby cruiser, the ship was torn in half, an explosion filling the black abyss of space, turning it a hue of bright red and blue. Quickly it dissipated thanks to the lack of oxygen, but it was already too late for the Iridescent Wyvern, and Isaac had made it out just in time.

34
The roar of diesel engines broke the silence of the inner city as First Sergeant Moore's convoy cut across in the direction of their target. Two of the four chaingun-equipped Warthogs, the Big Green and Hyena, followed one another with Ye Olde Angry Bitch rumbling behind them. The Gauss 'hog, an ancient wreck nicknamed FUBAR, was their rearguard watching the sky for any prowling Banshees.

Though there were a solid number of Pelicans, with the tight streets they couldn't provide good air support, and the vehicles would have to dash through the streets to their destination, avoiding the Covenant foot patrols. But Ye Olde had forced the LRVs to keep at her pace. To keep nimble, they moved in single file to get around abandoned cars or rubble heaps, though the tank just rolled over most of these.

Erik stood on the Hyena's gun turret, and spun up the Anti-Air Gun as a lance of Grunts waddled out of an alley. They had caught sight of Big Green and fired a handful of green pistol bolts into it as it rolled by. Erik pressed the firing studs and felt the jeep shake as 50-calibur rounds punched out of the barrels and into the small aliens. Caught in the open, they all fell to the cannonfire within the span of four seconds Erik had to fire on them. He hung on as Hyena swerved around a broken Ghost hull, cruising at a speed the tank could match.

It was just six blocks till the Doctor's house should be in view, and the sounds of heavy Covenant equipment had already reached them.

Moore’s voice came over the channel, filling his helmet. "Green and Hyena, split up and flank whatever hostiles you get sight of. We've only got one good salvo before they know we're here, so FUBAR, move up aside the tank, we'll give them a volley."

Each vehicle's driver acknowledged, and Erik felt the jeep shift before it turned down a sidestreet. Now he could hear the light weapons, sounded like plasma rifles and the whistle of needlers. Hyena slowed to a stop just before the end of the alley, the engine idling quietly. Quinn stretched away from the chaingun's controls to get a view of the enemy.

Elites looked even more imposing compared with the short, plump Grunts scattered around them. But what really had him worried was the Wraith tank, hovering just above the street. It was sending mortars over the complex’s wall, trying to soften up the enemy trapped inside before the infantry got through. He’d seen one of those burn through a Warthog like so much paper. But he could only sit and wait.

After thirty seconds of fidgeting his sweaty hands on the gun’s control, his speaker crackled. “Open fire, all units!”

The Hyena jumped forward, shaking Erik, but as they rolled into the street, he saw a pair of flashes arc over the ground behind the Wraith just before the gauss round and tungsten shell impacted the Wraith’s exposed rear. The pearlescent armor broke like glass, and secondary explosions ripped through its plating.

Though awestruck for a half-second, Erik pressed in the firing studs and unloaded a hail of lead into the confused infantry formations.

35
"I'd suggest you leave. The Headmaster doesn't allow intruders."

"Intruders? You must be mistaken."

"That is highly unlikely. I do not make mistakes while functioning normally, and my last diagnostic was sparkling."

"What about the human vandals?" Xer was getting exceedingly frustrated.

"The Reclaimers are not vandals. What would make you think such a ridiculous thing?"

That was it. Xer ignited his energy dagger.

"Xer, don-"

"Hey, what are you doing?" He grabbed the monitor. "Unhand me! This is a direct violation of protoc-" Xer jammed the dagger into its eye.

"Nooooooooooooooo!!!"

A.O.A., Administrator of Ace Combat Fanon 04:32, December 2, 2010 (UTC)

36
The SOEIV pods were uncomfortable, cramped, and hot. Julie-B224 was glad of the powered armour she wore – it certainly beat regular ODST gear, and even the Mark II Semi-Powered Armour she and her team were used to wearing.

Exactly how the decision had been made didn’t really matter. The fact remained that the MJOLNIR Armour, iconic of the SPARTAN-II class supersoldiers, had finally been approved for deployment amongst other supersoldier units. How many Spartan-IIIs were using the system? How many of them actually had the Mark IV, rather than the superior Mark V? Both were questions she was curious to find the answers to, but they could wait.

Right now, she was focussed on surviving.

SOEIVs were often nicknamed “flying coffins” by Helljumpers, thoroughly earned their nickname. They were designed to be disposable, and for that reason the UNSC was hesitant about making it worth recovering – meaning that its systems were all off-the-shelf technology, years out of date, using scrap metal. And right now, Julie’s was spinning out of control.

One of the rockets had blown early on – a piece of micro-debris had struck it, sending the pod on a spiral course. He had immediately reacted – interfaced her armour with the pod, accessing the RCS thruster controls, hoping to offset the spin with momentum from the other directional assistant thrusters. It meant she’d be a flying brick in the atmosphere, where they were normally needed, but she’d at least be getting there. She had to hope it would be in one piece.

The controls were clunky, and she swore at the ONI chickenshit R&D REMF who had designed it. It just wasn’t enough to stall her crash – she was straightening out, slowly and steadily, but not enough, not fast enough.

The pod started to shake now as it hit Hope’s atmosphere, orange plasma glowing outside of the windshield. It rattled as flaming atmosphere roared past, and went into a full uncontrolled spin, her reflexes too slow to account for the variables she needed to counter.

She screamed in frustration and fury as her pod barrelled in fury, and in defiance as the g-forces overwhelmed her, and she blacked out.

Reginald-B302 hit the ground running. He didn’t wait for the charges to blow the hatch off – he tore through it as it it were paper, emerging like some monstrous butterfly from its chrysalis.

Maybe that was a good metaphor. New armour, a new start – time for a change.

He could see the action from here. Not directly – if that were the case, he’d probably be taking fire right now. But off in the distance, he could see smoke rising from a nearby battlefield, both the black, acrid smoke of UNSC ballistics and the whispy blue/red haze of Covenant plasma. He could even hear the faint echoing reverberation of weapons discharges, human and alien rifles exchanging fire.

This world wasn’t very heavily defended. Truth be told, it was one of the UNSC’s smaller colonies, with a light garrison of UNSC Army troopers. As far as Reginald knew, that garrison had fallen quickly, the troopers desperately evacuating the colonists as the Covenant swept through their positions. The UNSC had sent in a response group, determined to halt the Covenant’s momentum here – with Reach lost, both sides had been dealt devastating blows, but the Covenant still presumably had exponentially more resources at its disposal than humanity did.

Well, he’d do his best. And he’d try not to have too much fun while he did so.

There was another streak of fire that his helmet display highlighted – one of his teammates, Erin, heading to the nearby landing zone. He frowned as the mapping and tracking gear failed to register the other member of Baselard Team, Julie, but put that out of his mind – he needed to focus on the mission.

He leaned into his pod, grabbing an MA5B assault rifle, a pair of M7 submachine guns, and strapped an M41 surface-to-surface missile launcher across his back. He envied his team mates, who had been issued the Mark V – until enough suits could be manufactured to outfit other Spartan-III’s, he would have to make do with his Mark IV Grenadier variant. It still had shields, and it also made him appear larger than he was, a physical presence that few could argue with. It just irked him that he’d been passed over for better tech. A lot of things irked him.

The horizon was glowing, a deep amber – fires off in the distance lit the sky. He hoped by the time he and Erin got to them, there’d be enough Covenant for him too.

Just her luck. Of all the damn places to land, her damn pod had to land on top of a damn Covenant armoured formation.

The Covenant company had scattered as her pod had come barrelling down out of the sky, trailing fire and smoke behind it, skipped a couple times across the landscape, and finally come to a grinding crunching halt up against one of their Wraith tanks. The hatch blew off its hinges, landing somewhere nearby – she heard another crunch and a squeal, and hoped it had crushed something.

She couldn’t stay here. Not in the middle of a bunch of Wraith tanks, which would be training their artillery right on her pod now.

She jumped up, swinging herself out of the pod, and sprinted as the first plasma volley hit, sending up a glowing shower of molten earth that settled in a burning rain around the vehicles.

Erin-B016 gripped the submachineguns clamped to her thigh holsters, aimed one in each hand, and pumped rounds out at the infantry troops scurrying to engage her. She ducked and rolled underneath a plasma pistol charge, sweeping the enemy Jackal with a burst that caught it below the shield, cutting through its legs. It fell screaming, and another shot put it out of her misery. She changed direction, sliding for a moment as her momentum carried her on, and sprinted at a right angle – a plasma mortar slammed into the ground, catching the Jackal squad in its blast radius, and sending her sprawling.

Damn. Damn, damn, damn!

She raised her pistol, aiming precise shots at the infantry as they rushed forward, selecting targets carefully even in the split second it took her – Jackals found themselves spun around from the force of impact, grunts dropped even as they charged burst shots, letting the charges careen into their fellow Covenant, and she even managed to catch one of their leaders, a hulking and shaggy Brute, with headshots, knocking the metal plate that served as a helmet off and putting one between its eyes.

There were too many, though. She’d managed to take out a squad with friendly fire, and less than a dozen – that still left most of the company to deal with.

Well, if she was going to die, then it would be a good death. She slammed a second magazine into the receiver, and raised it.

What happened next was not what she had expected. What should have happened was that she went down, guns blazing to the last round, vaporised by plasma but taking down the whole company with her. But sometimes history doesn’t go as expected, and fate throws people a joker card – and this joker card took the form of a tonne of metal, crashing down into the midst of the enemy, throwing up a wave of shattered metal, hissing clouds of plasma, and flaming chunks of meat and bone.

It didn’t wipe them out. But it did enough. It caused a distraction, and right now that was all Erin needed.

She picked herself up, still firing at the dazed and confused survivors, marking the biggest threat as her target – the Wraith. Right now, her firearms were useless against the hulking monstrosity, but she did have grenades – and if she could put them into one of the hatches, then it was all hers.

The Wraith had a gunner, who brought the Type-52 plasma cannon to bear on her – she felt a couple of shots deflect off her shields, weaved left and right making herself a tougher target – but she had always been fast, and she closed the distance rapidly, executing the gunner with a quick shot to the head.

The Wraith’s driver must have realised it was now without a close-range defender, because it tried to back up – too slow. Far too slow.

She grabbed a handhold, hauling herself up and on top of the wraith. She could hear the driver, a Grunt, shriek in panic and try to keep the hatch shut – a useless gesture. She ripped the metal plate off, thrust the grenade in, and dived.

There was a pause, and she could still hear the pilot screaming in horror – and then a thunderous detonation, a flash of blue/purple as the tank’s plasma banks went up, and a shower of debris splattered around her, a few chunks ricocheting off her shields.

She could hear panicked screams, now. And despite all expectations, they weren’t hers.

She hauled herself up to her feet, and saw gunfire split the rapidly darkening night as somebody clambered out of the still-steaming SOEIV pod. Evidently they were having fun out there – tracer rounds split the inky night sky, and flashes of light marked the detonation of fragmentation and flash-bang grenades. A few Grunts had already decided they’d had enough, turned, and run straight into another source of terror for them – the familiar shape of Reginald-B302 and he sprayed them with 5mm caseless SMG fire.

She could hear a Brute roaring somewhere out there, but was unsure who was engaging it – Reginald had knelt down onto a struggling Jackal, combat knife gripped firmly against its throat, decapitating the squawking saurian. She raised her own pistol at a Jackal aiming a charged plasma pistol at her, catching the little hollow of the shield, the round punching a hole in its wrist, leaving it dangling from a stump of bone. It cried out as it dropped the weapon, stumbling back – Reginald raised his own weapon, and the noise soon stopped.

In fact, the area was now silent, except for distant thundering artillery and missile fire.

Reginald stood, wiping a splash of Jackal blood from his visor, and gripped her hand, dragging her to her feet. She swept her hand in the traditional Spartan smile gesture.

“Good to see you, Reggie. Where’s Julie?”

“Buggered if I know,” Reginald said. “Her tracer isn’t registering.”

The possibility that their team leader hadn’t made it dirt-side went unsaid, but they both thought it. She put it to one side, deciding to focus on the here-and-now.

“So, who’s our mysterious benefactor?” she asked, nodding to the newcomer.

Or, at least, nodding at where they had been. They must have faded back into the shadows already, because even with augmented sight and hearing neither her nor Reggie had heard them leave.

It had been a Spartan, that much was certain – the distinctive Mark V MJOLNIR was a dead give away. They were also taller than any Spartan-III she had ever met, and their armour had been dark green – beyond that, she felt unsure of details.

“Not a very friendly way to say hello,” she huffed.

Reggie shrugged. “Its not like we needed his help. Come on, we’re needed in the town.”

The two Spartans gathered as much salvageable weaponry as their suits could hold, and set off again towards the nearest settlement, where great fires raged and turned the low-lying clouds amber.

“So it was a ‘he’?”

“Oh, shut up.”

Specops306 07:55, December 2, 2010 (UTC)

37
Torkamentov listened in amazement as he was informed that an Avenger class Battleship had exited slipspace and was joining the batle. Quickly, Torkamentov realized what rthis meant for the battle situation. He dirwected his comm operator to answer their hails. "Tell them that we thnak them for their assistance. We seem to have tied up a good portion of their assault fleet, and if they could help us destroy it, then we would be happy. They can also use those fancy Shiva antimatter nukes. Tell them that we have Project Deceptive shadows on board. If he doesn't have ONI clearance, then tell him that we have a device that will make his 8 missiles seem like a lot more. But just in case, he should fire off some nukes with the other missiles, to lessen the odds of them being hit." Torkamentov got on the radio to Mulgrew. "Prepare to activate the Shadow Drive. we got an Avenger Class that's going to need it." Mulgrew replied, "Ready to go sir. Just give me the signal." Torkamentov nodded to himsself. "All right," he said, "Once those missiles go off, do a 180 and take us back into the fight. Those Covenant SOB's aren't going to know what hit them." Azecreth 12:46, December 2, 2010 (UTC)