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Outer Ridges of the Sol System, 0900 hours, Covenant flagship God's will, One standard week later



Herrome stood on the control deck by himself going over the plans in which the all-knowing High Prophet of truth had beset upon him. Take my battalion down, secure drop zone, destroy human generator #1, and await further reinforcements. Simple.

The Human race must have been the dumbest race his kind has ever fought and conquered. Their primitive detection systems could not even see their obsever ships they sent in a few days ago.

The observers showed that there approximately 32 orbital guns, with more being built. Herrome estimated that an additional 4 would be built by the time the Armada arrives. It would make no difference, however. His would crush those pathetic interlopers.

Just as Herrome was finishing his thoughts, a rival of his entered the control deck. The brute Tartarus walked up and stood face to face with the lower ranking elite. "Ha! Why do you still stand here, Herrome? Shouldn't you be down with the other grunts getting a food nipple?" "Watch your tongue, Tartarus", Herrome said, "You may best me in rank, but you still cannot beat me in combat." Tartarus spat at the ground next to Herrome. "Your pathetic, you know that? If it wasn't for the council's blind faith in your kind, this war would have been over cycles ago. If we were deployed into combat, those human's with shields would not be living today, and would not have defeated my brother!"

"Get out of my face, Tartarus, before this gets ugly" Herrome said as several more Elite's took up position around Tartarus. "You fools think you can take me? Well come on then, take your best shot." Just as they were about to lunge, a voice was heard behind them.

"ENOUGH! I will not have my best soldiers tearing at each others throats." The voice came from a Prophet, hovering down from the control platform. "Herrome, get your soldiers ready for deployment. Once we have engaged the interloper's forces, you will be deployed. Same procedure as the last time." "Of course, my excellency" Herrome said. He gathered his Elites and left the bridge. "Tartarus, come closer" the Prophet said. "Yes, my grace." In a low whisper the Prophet talked to him.

"I cannot afford to lose you now. Once our plan has been set in motion, then you can have your chance at Herrome, and any other pathetic Elite you want too. But right now we need him. Do you understand?" "Of course, my grace" Tartarus replied. "Gather your pilots and get ready to escort the dropships" the Prophet said before he turned away and floated back up to the control platform.


September 23, 2552, 1450 hours, Aboard the Destroyer Noah's ark, in orbit around Reach.

In the week that had passed, the Chief and his fellow Spartans had finally gotten some well deserved R&R, but now it was time to take the butter from duck. Now that they had received their new armor, they could withstand almost twice the damage they could before. Now all they had to do was wait.

The deadline Cortana set at HighCom had come, and there was still no sign of the Covenant battlegroup. "Lieutenant Rodriguez, is there anything new the Mars orbiter sensors are picking up?" Captain James asked. "Negative, Sir" Rodriguez replied. "Its been the same for the last 5 hours, and I hope it stays that way." "So do I Lieutenant, so do I." James muttered.

Aboard the human carrier Nostromo, Fred and Linda stood on the bridge, also waiting for detection of the Covenant battlegroup. "Fred, do you actually think that we are going to lose today" Linda asked without turning to him. "I try not to think about that scenario. Even if they beat us in space," Fred said and turned to her and continued "They still have to beat us on the ground". Linda nodded and they both walked off the bridge. They rode the elevator down to the hangar and Fred contacted the chief aboard the Destroyer. "Chief, Linda and I are going down to the surface to rendezvous with Will at point omega."

"Affirmative" The Chief replied, paused, and continued, "I'm going to stay here and keep an eye out. I'll give you the heads up when they show up. Good luck." "You too, Chief, you too."

About 5 mintues later alarms begin to go off within the Noah's ark. "Captain, sensors have located Covenant Warships exiting slipspace at sector 3-7-4-56." Weapons officer Johnson screamed out. "How many?" Captain James asked. "Preliminary reports have picked up 250 + Covenant warships with more entering the system." Johnson replied.

My god, 250 and more ships? There is no way in h- . His thoughts were cut off when another alarm went off. "Sir," shouted Lieutenant Rodriguez, "Report just in states that all ships take up defensive positions around the orbital MACs, four ships per gun." James stayed quiet for a second, as if thinking of a way out of this mess, and then began talking again. "Ensign Washington, ETA till Covenant Armada collides with mine field." "ETA 43 seconds, sir" the Ensign replied. "Total number of enemy ships?" James asked. "525 enemy ships, sir" the Ensign replied, calm as ever. All the while the Master Chief had been standing there on the bridge, listening to what was going on.
Even if the Covenant made direct contact with the 70 or so nuclear bombs, there still would be enough of their ships to decimate the Humans rag-tag fleet. Just then, a bright light filled the view port. Dozens of Nuclear bombs went off simultaneously, with their bright explosions engulfing the Covenant Armada. After several minutes of this, the explosions subsided and revealed what was left of the Covenant group.

"Cortana, give me status on the Covenant battlegroup" James shouted. "One moment, sir" Cortana replied, "Sir, approximately half of their fleet has been destroyed or disabled, meaning there are about 260 ships remaining." Cheers erupted on the bridge of the Noah's ark. Even though the Covenant could still win with their amount, the playing field had been evened greatly. The MC couldn't even resist from cheering.

However, that all stopped the second every single Covenant ships disappeared. "Wha, what happened?" muttered Lieutenant Rodriguez. "Cortana, where did those ships go?" asked James. "They jumped into slipspace, coordinates are...". Cortana stopped in midsentence. "....right behind us." All of the Covenant ships began to materialize within and behind the human battlegroups. Some began to deploy dropships, while others charged their plasma turrets. The ones with the charged turrets opened fire on the human fleet.

September 23, 2552, 1460 hours, Covenant Flagship God's Will


Doromee fumed with anger as he watched as nearly half of his fleet was destroyed. Doromee was the highest-ranking Elite soldier in the Covenant army, and held all command over Covenant ground and space forces. He outranked nearly every single Prophet, with the only exception being the leader of the Covenant, The High Prophet of truth. Now, after snapping the neck of the jackal in charge of the radar and detection station, had to figure out a way to counter the primates bold move.

"Zabrak, send out a message to our entire fleet, giving them jump coordinates behind the humans fleet" Doromee shouted. The jackal felt a lump in his throat. "B-but sir, the human planet is dangerously close to that destination. We may end up inside the plan-". A roar by Doromee cut off Zabrak. "Just do it. We did not steal this technology for nothing." "Y-yes, sir" Zabrak said in fear. In unison, the entire fleet warped in space and a few seconds later, were behind the human vessels.

"Janga, aim turrets 3 and 5 at the nearest human battleship. Islamee, order the carriers to start deploying their ground troops. Also, send the destroyer Arcadia and carrier Ring of death to take up low orbit over the human's major cities. Let our presence be known." In unison, all the deck officers shouted "Yes, sir!" Doromee's ships turrets fired its plasma turrets at the nearest Human ship, followed by another half a dozen Covenant destroyers. The human cruiser Colorado was torn in half by a volley of plasma. Other human ships began to get the same fate.

Doromee, pleased with their first volley, grabbed his plasma sword, and attached it to his gold armor. "Islamee", he said to his XO, "You are in charge of the fleet until I return. I have complete faith in you my brother. Remember, do not fire on the planet until we retrieve the final artifact." "Of course, Doromee." With that, Doromee turned and left with his squad of elites.

In response to the Covenants first volley, the 33 orbital MAC guns turned, and each fired three rounds, the first one taking their shields down, and the other two completely decimated their targets. Herrome's dropship began its descent to Earth, along with 2300 other dropships accompanied with Seraph fighters. "Incoming human fighters, Seraphs take up defensive positions" shouted Herrome over the com. Tartarus heard the elites voice, and even though he should have let him die there and then, he followed the orders given by the Prophet. Human fighters began firing their projectiles, and the Seraphs began to have a dogfight with them to keep them away from the dropships.

Tartarus tailed down one human fighter. The vessel began to engage a dropship while dodging the dropships fire. Tartarus locked on and fired two plasma torpedoes, that followed the vessel to its doom. With the human vessels eliminated, and the humans being distracted by the larger Covenant ships, the dropships and fighters continued the descent relatively unbothered.

"Damage Report!" shouted Captain James. "Sir, we been hit in the midsection by another Covenant torpedo. One more, sir, and were done for." The Captain then caught a glimpse a Covenant destroyer in the viewport. "Cortana, give me status on our MAC guns" James said. "MAC cannons one and two operational. #3 has been destroyed" replied Cortana. "Give me firing solutions for the Covenant destroyer in front of us." "Yes, sir". The MAC cannons charged and fired a single round each, pulverizing the Covenant destroyer. The captain chuckled as he watched the ship burn.

"Sir," Cortana said, "We are receiving an incoming transmission from Admiral Hoods ship. Putting him through." A burst of static could be heard over the COM, then Admiral Hoods voice. "To all human battleships, we have located their Command Cruiser, we believe if that ship is taken out, their ranks will crumble. All ships are to locate and destroy this ship, I repeat, all-" Hood was cut off. The Admiral's ship was in plain view of the Noah's ark viewport. Captain James watched as a gigantic plasma torpedo came out of nowhere and struck Hoods ship, tearing it to pieces.

James looked at the source of the blast and saw it. A huge Covenant flagship, probably about 10 miles long and 5 miles wide hovered below his ship. The MC saw it too, and that popped an idea into his head. "Captain, I can board that ship and end all of this now" John said, reassuringly. "And just how exactly do you plan this, stunt, Master Chief?" James asked. "A zero-gee drop, sir. With Cortana's help of course."

"If you were any other soldier I would have told you to go to hell. But your not, and I believe you're the only person who can pull this off." James turned, yanked Cortana, and gave the chip to the Chief. "Good luck, Chief. You're going to need it." "Thank you, sir." The Chief ran off the deck. "So Chief. How exactly do you plan to pull this off?" "I have no clue. I was hoping you would tell me." The Chief made it down to the armory, picked up a MA-5B assault rifle, along with 4 grenades, a shotgun for close work, and a fury tactical nuke. "Cortana, we should be able, to get into the ship the second before they fire their turrets. Remember, they have to lower their shields first to fire. All I need you to do is tell me when" The Chief said as he loaded his rifle and strapped on the grenades and rode the elevator down to the fighter bay.

"You do know, Chief, this will require me to guess a little here" Cortana chimed in. "Just do what you have to do to get the job done, Cortana." The Chief walked in to the fighter bay and walked towards a large structure in the center of the bay. He pressed the button to release the bay's doors and walked around the structure and planted himself against it. He could feel the air around him being sucked out of the bay, the pressure growing. "What if we miss?" Cortana asked. "I won't" John replied. "Now, Chief!" The Spartan pushed off the wall and into the void, falling directly towards Earth.

At that moment, John thought Cortana had just got himself killed. The Covenant cruiser slowly crawled into view, however. John could not help but be in shock at the size of the ship. The cruiser's turrets heated, and fired a bolt straight up towards James ship. The Master Chief turned his head just as the blast passed him by only 250 yards away. It impacted James ship on the underside, tearing it two. "The Captain!" Cortana screamed. "Focus Cortana. I need you on this mission" The Chief replied. "Of course, Chief. Impact with Covenant flagship, ETA 2 minutes."

John began to take in his surroundings quickly. Plasma blasts from various Covenant ships flew throughout the void. Human ships fired their MAC cannons while others launched their Archer missiles. Seraphs and Longswords chased each other in and out of the chaos and wreckage. The Covenant flagship that the Chief was bearing down on fired another volley of plasma - this time to one of the orbital guns - that liquefied its target. No UNSC vessel could even begin to sniff this ship.
If the Chief did not accomplish his mission, The fleet wouldn't stand a chance.

"40 seconds, Chief" Cortana chimed in. The Chief secured his rifle and other weapons, and began to prepare himself to land on the ships surface. "10 seconds to impact, Chief." The ships weapon heated and began to receive an eerie orange-red glow. "3...2...1, Impact!" Milliseconds before John hit the ships shields, they disappeared, allowing John to impact the ships hull. Because of the zero-gee enviroment, his landing went off with out a hitch. "Cortana, give me maps to access ways and engineering tunnels, ASAP" The Chief said as he secured himself to the hull and the ships shields flared on again. "One moment, Chief." Cortana replied. "There," A NAV point showed up on his HUD, nearly 25 meters away, "That hatch leads to access tunnel that will land you in a corridor that, according to my sensors, is relatively void of any Covenant, with the exception of a few engineers." "Good," the Chief replied as he made his way toward the hatch, "We don't want to make a ruckus just yet."

The Chief reached the hatch and began to weld it open. He slid down the vent, and landed with a thud in the tunnel. "Which way Cortana?" "Left, go straight for 40 feet, then make a right and you should run into the corridor." John moved fast, knowing that he needed every second he could get.

He reached the corridor and Cortana activated his motion tracker. "All clear, Chief." John moved out into the open. This ships was just like the other Covenant ships he's been on. Purple smothered the hallways. There was a door at each end of the corridor. "Cortana, I want to get to the bridge, plant the nuke, get to the docking bay and leave. I want the quickest route." Before she had a chance to answer the door at the left end opened, revealing a pair of jackals and a Red Elite. Both parties looked at each other for a second, like neither of them had any idea what was going on.

John saw the elite began to make a motion for his plasma rifle, and John was quicker. He fired 5 rounds from his MA-5B rifle directly at the Elites head, the Elite dropping dead before it could defend itself. The Jackals placed their shields in fronts of them, protecting their bodies. The Jackals fired their plasma pistols at their target. John ducked and rolled and rolled a frag right up to their shields. The Jackals saw it, but could do nothing about it. As they turned and ran the grenade exploded, the shrapnel impaling their exposed, fragile bodies.
A dozen grunts and 3 more elites rounded the corner from the same door, apparently hearing the previous fierfight. The Chief let out a sigh. "Let's get this party started" The Chief said as he opened up on his enemies.


1900 hours, September 23rd, 2552, Earth generator complex #3, 3 miles outside Chicago, Illinois

There were numerous orbital gun facilities around the planet. However Complex #3 was the most important. It controlled 19 of the 33 MAC guns, and if this complex went down, then so did many of the human's hopes. Fred, Linda, and Will were all stationed here along with a battalion of ODST's and marines. There were an additional 5,000 marines and armor in Chicago is reinforcements were needed. However it had been quiet for the first few hours of the battle. Reports had been coming in all the time on the battle above. Rumor was going around that the UNSC fleet might actually win.

That all changed when Fred caught a glimpse of a Covenant destroyer taking up position over Chicago. "Lieutenant Jackson, take your squad and move to position Alpha, hold that position until further notice," Fred said in to the COM. Since himself and the Spartans were the highest-ranking soldiers within a 5-mile radius, they had ground command. "Will, take a platoon of ODST's and the 34th armored division and defend this road hear," Fred said as he pointed to a map displaying as one of the major roads that connected the complex with Chicago.
Fred walked over to the radar station, where an officer awaited to give him news. "Whats the problem, private?" Fred asked. "Sir, We have detected multiple Covenant dropships on approach. They split up from a larger group, each heading to different parts of the world" the private replied. "Good job private. Notify me of anymore updates." Fred knew he had to do something about those dropships. If they landed, than his Forces could easily be overwhelmed. Fred locked and loaded his shotgun.

"What are you doing, sir?" Linda asked. "The soldiers are going to need our help to fend off the Covenant. And that" Fred said as he pointed towards the Covenant Destroyer, "Could wipe us all out with one shot. I don't know why they haven't yet, but I'm not standing around here to find out. Listen, Linda. 235 Covnenant dropships are on approach from the north, and that Destroyer has already started sending down troops. You are going to take Charlie Company and position yourself here. Take down as many dropships as you can and kill as many of those sons of bitches as possible. When you begin to get overwhelmed, fall back to the generator complex and fortify the defenses. I'm going to take Bravo and Alpha squadrons and assault that destroyer."

"Are you sure that is a good idea, Fred?" I'll use the same plan I used on Reach" Fred replied as he grabbed a tactical nuke from a container. "Don't worry about my part. Make sure you get as many of those dropships out of the sky. That's an order." "Yes, Sir" Linda replied, knowing that both of their missions were suicide ones. But those were the missions were the Spartans did their best.
Linda went down to the perimeter and rounded up her forces, while Fred hopped in a Warthog with two other marines and drove off. Fred needed to get into the city quick because the longer that Covenant destroyer was there, then the better the chances that their base and the generators. The Warthog sped past the front gates, followed by many other Warthogs, ATVs, and Scorpion tanks.

Overhead, 4 pelicans flew in front and lead the way. "Spartan, this is Lieutenant Rogers, pilot of Echo-320, Alpha squadron. Where's the dropzone?" "Lieutenant, you will drop off your troops around the Chicago industrial area. The area is too hot for you to bring them any closer. The marines are then to move on foot, through the city towards the Covenants gravitational lift, and provide support as me and my teams rig the ship to blow. Understood Lieutenant?" "Crystal, clear, sir!" The eccentric pilot responded.

The soldier driving Fred's warthog was a young PFC called Walton. "Private" yelled Fred, "You know how to use one of these?" Fred said as he pointed to the chain gun he was manning while at the same time screaming to get his voice heard over the pelicans engines. "Sir, no sir!" replied the private. "Well, son, you better learn quick, cause I'm driving." Fred ordered Walton to pull over and switched with him. Fred stepped on the breaks shooting out ahead of the rest of the convoy.

Corporal Hicks sat inside the Pelican along with the rest of Alpha squadron. He checked and double-checked his MA-5B and submachine guns. Sergeant Jones could be heard screaming out the orders to his team. Rogers, the pilot of their dropship, then came in over the com. "LZ is hot, Sgt. Its going to be rough. Go get'em marines!" The dropship descended on the dropzone, and numerous plasma bolt entered the compartment. The dropship hit the ground and Alpha squadron jumped ship. "Lets move marines! We got a job to do!" screamed the Sgt. They hadn't entered a war-zone. They had entered hell. The city must have not been evacuated, as there were hundreds of dead civilians on the streets. Small groups of marines defended minor outposts, and plasma bolts filled the air from every direction. Shortly, the large group garnered attention from an Elite squadron. The 9 elites began firing on the group. Hicks opened fire with his rifle, putting down a blue elite. "Die bitches!" shouted a gung-ho private behind him as he fired on the leader of the group, a gold elite. The entire clip of the private's rifle didn't even begin to take out his shields, and the elite opened fire with his rifle. The private was dead before he hit the ground.

The elite then targeted Hicks. Hicks saw the movement, tucked, and rolled behind a half destroyed wall as plasma fire pelted his tracks. "Grenade!" Hicks threw out a grenade that landed right between the Elites legs. The Elite was caught off guard but still was able to roll away and avoid the brunt of the blast. The damage he did take was just enough for Hicks though. Hicks rolled out of his cover and unloaded his rifle on the Elite, dropping him. Hicks slapped in a fresh clip and fired on the last Elite alive who was busy with two other marines. After the carnage was over, he realized that, with the exception of two privates, the entire squad was killed.

"We're all dead, man! Its over we don't stand a chance against these guys!" shouted one of the privates still alive. "Stow that, marine! We are still alive, so we still have a mission to accomplish!" Hicks paused for a second to take in the situation. "Private, I want a weapons and ammo check, now." He turned to the other distraught private. "Check explosives, COMs, and recover anything we're going to need from the dead. Then be ready to move out. We have..." Hicks stopped to look at his mission clock. "20 minutes to set up position at the gravity lift, which is half a klick away from here. Lets move!" The marines packed up their equipment and began jogging through the war-torn area. They ran past many fights between the Covenant and marines and ignored cries for help. There was a bigger objective at hand.

Meanwhile, Bravo team was not faring any better. Their dropship was shot down during the descent, and only 5 marines made it off alive. They were holed up about 110 yards away from the gravity lift. Sgt. Johnson, who was leader of Bravo squadron, was fighting like hell to keep off the waves and waves of covenant soldiers. "Come on you bastards" Johnson shouted as he put a round into the neck of a hunter, "You gotta throw more at me than this shit!" The other marines under his command could do nothing but watch in amazement at how the Sergeant took out every covenant who aimed at him. This put hope and inspired the marines to fight harder even than before.

Fred's convoy also ran into their fair share of problems. 3 of the five warthogs had been disintegrated by Banshee plasma fire, but other than that they were on time. Hicks group finally made it to the grav lift directly across from Sergeant Johnson squad, who was under heavy attack. The Covenant didn't detect Hick's group, and it cost them. "Private," said Hicks, "Arm the Jackhammer and fire at the center of their formation. Then focus and on the grav lift until the Spartan his squad arrive." The private armed the Jackhammer, and fired directly at their formation. It impacted and blew dozens of Covenant body parts all over the lift. "Thanks for the help, Corporal!" shouted the Sgt. "No problem, sarge. Lets focus on the lift."

Fred's group finally arrived at the lift and the vehicles took up position around the lift. 15 elites came down from the grav lift and opened fire upon the vehicles. One round from the Scorpion shut their ass up. "Alpha and Bravo, provide covering fire for me while I set the nuke to blow. When I'm done, get your Asses on the Warthog's and tanks so we can hightail it outta here" Fred said into his COM. Fred began a dead run towards the lift as another legion of Covenant troop stormed down. These Covenant soldiers had never seen a human warrior charge them without fear. Fred helped them make their decision by snapping a few of their necks.

Fred stepped on the ramp of the lift, set the timer for 4 minutes on the nuke, and launched it up into the ship. The marines had just gotten done wiping up the last group of Covies when Fred ordered everyone aboard. "Move, marines, we don't have all day." The marines jumped aboard the Warthogs and the Scorpion, and sped off. Halfway thru the city, the nuke blew within the ship. The ships shield took the brunt of the blast, but quickly died out and ship part came crashing down on the city. Fred dodged wreckage from above, and in no time the convoy was out of the city. Fred and the marines let out a huge cheer of success as they watched the remains of the destroyer fall to the ground, burning.

A burst of static came on Fred's COM, followed by explosions, automatic fire, and a voice. It was Will. "Under heavy attack by Covenant ground forces, repeat, reinforcements at Generator complex #3 are requested."

Fred could see the Generator complex from where they were. Linda and her squad had given them hell. He could tell by the dozens upon dozens of dropships strewn out across the landscape, but it apparently was not enough. Dozens of Banshee fliers circled the perimeter. One was shot out of the air. An explosion came from within the complex, followed by distant human screams. Fred turned to his marines. "We're not done yet."

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