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Chapter Five: Part One: Joining a Party

Aboard the Covenant battle cruiser Agony and Retaliation, heading for planet 25O311bx, nicknamed Perambulate.
Year 2553, January 15th, 2015 hours.

      "What's the status at Perambulate?" Cortana asked.

      "From the messages that we have picked up from the Forerunners, it seems as if something that can match Halo in power exists there. They've been searching for it a long time, but haven't found it. The Blood Faction has shown some interest in the planet, and has been fighting the Forerunners for nearly a day, trying to reveal the source of power. We'll have to take control of the area, and see to it that this unknown power remains unused." Awacar answered.

      "How many fighters are down there?" the Master Chief wondered.

Awacar:
      "I've got reports that tell me that there is more that 50 000 Betrayers on the surface, where we will land there are almost 7 000 betrayers that are capable of attacking us within half an hour. I haven't got any reports about the number of Forerunners in the area, but they're clearly many enough to keep the Blood Faction away."

      The Covenant battle cruiser went down into the atmosphere of Perambulate, flyed over the planets surface and let the drop ships fly the infantry down to ground. It was cold here, with snowflakes that - in extreme amounts - slowly singled down through the air and made the field of sight smaller, much smaller.

      Since this was the south pole of the planet, a snowfall might not have been too strange here, but there was one thing that was: the Humans had landed on Perambulate too, probably trying to use the source of power instead of the now destroyed Halos, which the Humans must have felt that they've been cheated at. Apparently, the Betrayers was totally unknowing of the fact that the Humans knew of this source of power, and seemed to not be on their alert when MC heard that a wave of attack washed over them.

      Covenant forces had now taken ground, and had to walk approximately five hundred meters on the snowy field to get into firing range. There was a thing that heavily slowed them down: a cover of snow, two feet thick. Master Chief could imagine that the Betrayer Grunts must have been easy targets, and from the frequently heard sounds of Human screams, it almost seemed as if the Elites didn't take notice of the thick, white mass, and just ran through the snow. The battle must have been impressive, and from an intense yellow light, MC could tell that the Humans attacked Banshees with their Scorpions.

      They walked through the snow, and suddenly, the Banshees were on their way. Awacar pulled out a rod cannon and took two of them out, but there was still five remaining. In a desperated attempt, one of the Grunts threw a grenade at the Banshees. Of course, it didn't hit, but it was near. A few Hunters stood there and fired as fast as they could, but they did only take out two more of the purple terrors that attacked from the air.

      The Banshees turned away, just to return, and get an advantage of distance. The three Banshees, all of them firing their plasma cannons, created a V-formaition. As they got closer, they fired their fuel rods, and when they were above the army of Covenant, they split up, each one flying solo and firing at will. Thousands of plasma rifle shots were fired at the Banshees, which were shot down before they had a chance to escape the messy battlefield that they created. Finally, the sky was cleared of enemies, and the Covenant could continue, having losses from the beginning already.

      "Shhh! Keep it quiet." Awacar said harshly.

      All the forces obeyed, and not a single sound was heard.

Awacar:
      "Are all the Betrayers gone? Is there any other explanation to the fact that I don't hear anything?"

      "No, there isn't. They must have walked on after they won over the Humans. They're probably prioritasing the Forerunners and their source of power higher." Cortana replied.

      Again, the infantry was on the move, and when they got to the former battleground, the snow was colored red, almost more clearly than the dusk that was turning into night. Black tracks and darkly colored craters were also seen in the snow, evidences that proved the heavy advantage that the Betrayers had, despite the Humans good use of grenades. MC manned a Warthog, and five others were manned by the Covenant. Somehow, the Scorpions must have been transported away, and the Chief suspected that they were in use of the Betrayers.

      "Master Chief! You'll lead the Warthogs, but you aren't allowed to get out of my sight. Defend us at the ground and take out heavy infantry! By the way, I want volunteers at the cannons and in the side seats, you'll do more good there that on ground." Awacar ordered before they walked on, passing a narrow passage, and getting to a valley where the Blood Faction fought the Forerunners. Four Scorpion tanks had been commandeered by the Betrayers, as well as ten Warthogs. A small valley had a big, white bridge of stone that went to one side of the valley to another was displayed to the Covenant forces, but doon the snowfall increased in intensity, and not even the bridge could be seen.

      There was Forerunners on the bridge, covering their own that was fighting on the ground. To keep the Forerunners up there busy, a team of Banshees had been ordered to fire at them constantly, but since the heavy snowfall decimated the sight so heavily, they almost never hit. Still, no forces had the ability to watch trough the snow, resulting in numerous detonations placed on the wrong place from both sides. The battlefield was ready for an advancement from the Covenant.

      It started off great; the Warthogs drove down from one edge of the valley, supported by rod cannons. The massacre of Betrayers started.

      At first, it went pretty good, when tons of Betrayers fell by the chain guns mounted to the warthogs, or were smashed by the same vehicles. Awacar frequently got reports from the battlefield, and felt that it was time for Covenant infantry to move in on foot. The forces slaughtered the pieces of resistance that could be found. It started very good, but this was about to change.

      Report after report came in to Awacar, who slowly started to realize what was happening.

      "I want everyone to retreat, and I want you to do it ASAP!" Awacar ordered, and lowly thereafter, the reports of losses reached him more frequently.

      "Abort the previous order, just keep in motion, never stop, and never move in the same direction for more than three seconds. Warthog drivers, floor it, and hit as many Betrayers possible when you're at it. You that have manned the chain guns, please, point them at the heaven and fire, doesn't matter if you don't see anythin else than falling snow, keep shooting anyway." Awacar ordered.

      Suddenly, no more reports of losses were coming in, the fight went on and the mysterious disappearing of forces stopped.

      Out on the battlefield it was horrible, no one saw more than fifteen meters away, and the ones that drove the warthogs drove at random, and when the Betrayers was heard all the 'hogs were there to smash some resistance. MC had killed a Hunter this way, three Elites and eight Brutes. The metal on the Warthog was now covered with blood in three different colours, and the Master Chief got wounded when he got it there. Now, there were no Betrayers near that was still alive.

      "Are we going for the Forerunners now?", Master Chief asked via comm. link.

      "No, get back here, but don't move straight, the Dactyls are still in the air." Awacar said as an answer.

Master Chief:
      "Expect us to be there within two minutes."

      As Master Chief had said, they were back before the two minutes. All the Covenant forces now picked up their plasma sniper rifles and started to shoot Dactyls and Forerunners, who could sometimes be seen through the falling snow. Three Dactyls fell by the rays of the plasma snipers, but the Covenant knew that it wasn't enough; they had to take more Dactyls out of action.

      "The Master Chief and I will act as decoy and try to bring some of those beasts to ground. Is anyone with us?" Awacar asked before twelve Hunters and eighteen Brutes approached him.

      The team of thirty two might not be seen as decoy by Human eyes, but in the opinion of two, co-operating Dactyls it is barely worth the time. A Dactyl attacked on his own, and approached in gliding flight. As it got closer, it tried to attack with its jaws, and the Dactyl kept them as far apart as it could. Before its attack would fall, the Dactyl uttered a roar, which was noticed by two Hunters, who turned around, saw the flying beast and fired. They both hit perfectly, right at the palate. The killed creature crashed into the ground and didn't kill anything.

Awacar:
      "A small step, but still a step in the right direction. I estimate that there are five more Dactyls somewhere above us, and we need all of them at ground before we can continue."

      "Sorry to disappoint you, Awacar, but there are only four Dactyls in the area. There were five, but we shot one down recently." an Elite told Awacar via comm. link.

      "Thanks, but focus your firepower at the bridge for now, we'll be having more trouble with them later." Awacar said in gratefulness.

      "Aye, copy. Lets meet here when the threat from above is neutralized." the Elite said.

Awacar:
      "Yes, out."

      Now, two Dactyls worked together to reach their goal: to clean the area of hostiles. They flew above the Covenant, and fired their rod cannons, forcing the Covenant to get away. As the Dactyls continued, their decoy was forced closer and closer to the mountain walls that limited the valley. They got to the wall, and when the two beasts fired their rod cannons as they flew closer, and the Covenant was trapped.

      "What are we waiting for? A hit? Return fire!" Awacar ordered.

      A hail of plasma shots was fired at the location from which the fuel rod cells approached. The Chief used a grenade launcher and shot three grenades, one towards one of them, and two at the other. None of these hit their targets, since he only saw the snow. Suddenly, a large but vague figure appeared in the front of Master Chief, he knew that it was one of the Dactyls. He shot his last grenade at it, but the creature easily saw the blue-glowing grenade and evaded it almost easier.

      "I'm out of grenades! Hunters, you have a target at ten o' clock." Master Chief said as he switched his now worthless grenade launcher to a plasma rifle.

Awacar:
      "Don't shoot straight at it, shoot somewhere near it, else way, it'll just evade the shots."

      All of the Hunters looked up to see their enemy, charged their weapons and fired twice without aiming. The result was a spread swarm of fuel rod gun shots that approached the Dactyl, a swarm that he couldn't evade. Four shots hit him, one at a wing, one at the neck, and two at its snake-like body. A second later, it was on ground, colouring the snow blue with its blood.

      The other Dactyl was spotted, and shortly thereafter, a massive using of plasma rifles were started. Glowing shots were fired from Awacar, Master chief, and all of the Brutes. The chosen enemy escaped the shots and flew away for a few seconds, returning thereafter, using its firearm as mad.

      "Keep in motion, never stop, and fire at will! I want that thing dead before he gets another try to attack us!" Awacar demanded.

      Every last member of the team fired their weapon, but very few shots hit what they should have hit. A Hunter and three Brutes fell by the rod gun of their opponent, but after that Awacar - with all of his power - threw a grenade towards the Dactyl, and the grenade attached to the belly of the beast. It detonated, but the Dactyl was just wounded, but it had so much trouble to fly that it became an easy target. As several hundred plasma shots burned their way through the creatures flesh, it lost its capability to live, and smashed lifeless into the ground.

      "Awacar to sniping team, Awacar to sniping team, do you copy?" Awacar yelled into the comm. link.

      "Loud and clear, repeat, loud and clear. What's the status down there?" the leader of the team asked.

      "Four lost, ten wounded. We took out two Dactyls. Do you have any status on the two remaining? Over." Awacar wondered.

      "We have status on one of them, it was killed by the Forerunners as it flew over the bridge. The other one was spotted half a minute ago at twelve o' clock, four hundred and seventy meters from your position. It is very difficult to determine where it is now, though. By the way, the Forerunners have made a few Banshees into garbage, and we've took out several Engineers and Commandos. We'd like to ask you to take out a Banshee or three, since we've got serious problem with those bastards here." the team leader said.

Awacar:
      "We're on it, out."

      "Thanks, out." the sniper team leader replied.

      A move to the middle of the valley was initiated by the decoy-force, and on the way, a Banshee that was off its guard was simply shot down.
      When they reached the target location, another Banshee appeared, but now it was the vehicle that attacked first. Two Hunters were killed, and two Brutes were wounded when the flying vehicle attacked. Awacar saw a grenade launcher, picked it up and fired two grenades at the Banshee. They exploded, and so did the purple thing they were attached to.

Sniper team leader:
      "Awacar, we're asking for permission to join you. There isn't any Banshee in the air, the Forerunners handled that thing for us. We took the last Dactyl out ourselves. How's your status?"

      "We've got two new losses on our hands, but we will make it. You have your permission to join." Awacar replied.

      "We've got reports that the Forerunners will appear in the other end of the valley in a minute, and that more Betrayers are being sent here." the team leader informed.

      "We'll take care of the problem when it appears, and we welcome our reuniting. Out." Awacar told the Elite at the other end of the comm. link.

      The two teams became one, half a minute later, and now they were on the move for the other end of the valley. They could see the light of weapons firing as they got closer to the location where the Forerunners where. Apparently, a few Betrayer drop ships were trying to take ground, without any obvious result. Two of them were shot down, and the remaining three had to fly away in order to temporarily escape the faith of their likes. They decided to take control of a little hill nearly hundred meters away.

      An attack on the Forerunners was started by the Covenant. Master Chief engaged a Commando, fired sixteen rounds towards the throat of its enemy, but he had to fire eleven more to kill it. At the same time, a vast number of Engineers attacked Awacar and a lot of other Elites.

Master Chief:
      "Show them how your swords looks at close range, nothing else needs to be done, just show your swords."

      Many Engineers came forth in a wave of destruction, firing their grenade launchers frequently. When the Elites got their eyes on the grenades, they skllfully evaded them, almost without losing any speed. They were as some sort of liquid, just graciously flowing aside when a plasma charge appeared. They approached the Engineers, and as they ran, one sword per Elite was activated. The swords started to glow brightly as you - in a fissure between the massive clouds - could see the sun set below the horizon, and the shadow of night devouring the landscape. The Elites swinged their swords, and many of the Engineers vehicles detonated, but sadly, they took many enemies with them. Awacar decided to bring more of them down, and he began to run, raised his fist, jumped, and when he nearly touched ground, smashed his fist into the cheek of an Engineer. It lost its balance, fell sideways and landed gently in the snow. Awacar activated his sword, and slowly pushed it through the throat of his fallen enemy.
      He picked the grenade launcher that belonged to the Engineer up, and fired a shot at two enemies that were close to each other. A detonation was heard, and two screams followed.

      A sound that couldn't be mistaken - the sound of a Betrayer drop ship - was getting closer, and Awacar kept an eye on it. Exactly when it opened its hatches, he fired a grenade off. It hit at the right arm of an Elite, and the detonation brought another Elite and a Grunt to their deaths. While he let a team of Grunts take care of the remaining Betrayers, he wondered how to use his last grenade. Yet an Engineer approached him, but wasn't close enough to fire. Awacar looked at the battleground when a really high-risk operation was being formed in his mind. If he could just get on the other side of those two drop ships it would work. Now he ran, fast, nothing would stop him from making it. The two drop ships started to sink down as he passed them, it wasn't difficult, he didn't thought that it would be. It almost went to easy, now Awacar was forced to run even further. On his way, Elites stood and tried to stop him, and he was forced to activate the sword while holding the launcher in one hand. He ran, sliced Elites apart on the middle, and finally he could get to a place where he was able to shoot. The Engineer that followed him was under the drop ships when it was exposed to heavy fire from Blood Faction members already on ground.
      A night that was darker than the deepest holes, and tons of falling snow in the way of sight didn't make the job of aiming easier for Awacar, but somehow he would get his fired grenade in the little space that was between the drop ships. Shot after shot found its way to the Engineer, but he died when the fired grenade was in the air, Awacar knew this, it was a part of his plan. The grenade attached to the belly of the creature, and as it exploded, so did the other five grenades that the Engineer wore, plus a vehicle. This happened as the drop ships tried to land their troops, but they were thrown away by the chain reaction, and all the infanrty that they carried fell precipitately to the ground, and could easily be handled by Covenant and Forerunner forces.

      Awacar picked up grenades as he walked through the area later, but while he was on this, Master Chief and a quite big team of Hunters engaged a trio of Bio-tanks on a somehow large distance. A discharge made out of fuel rod cells from the Covenant and Bio-tanks using the second barrel of their weapon. One of the Forerunners changed its type of fire to the slower, but way heavier first barrel shots, that in power stand unmatched on the battlefield. A change of tactics was needed among the Chief and the Hunters, so he went for a Sniper. Master Chief quickly took one out with his rod cannon, and used the plasma sniper that the creature had to make one of the Bio-tanks weapons unusable. It showed that Master Chief made it more than unusable, he made it detonate, taking one of his enemies out, and wounding another one. The one that used first barrel shots was still unharmed, and it sent three Hunters to their deaths. Fuel rod cells now streamed out of the rod cannons that the Hunters had, killing the wounded Bio-tank.
      Colours now changed on the weapon of the Bio-tank, and the Chief could tell that it switched shots type, but he didn't know to what type of shots. Soonly, he would get his answer, the Forerunner changed to quick shots. It hit two Hunters in their orange zones, and they were instantly taken out. Master Chief thereafter shot the creature in its ankle with the sniper rifle, wounding it and decreasing its ability to move, but not killing it. Instead, a Hunter got to avenge his fallen comrades, and put a rod cell right at the chest of the Forerunner.

      "The battlefield reports are getting critical, I expect that the status here won't get better when the Forerunners become more, reinforcements are on their way to the Forerunners. The Betrayers are flying in constantly, and we're becoming decimated here. Awacar, get reinforcements here!" Cortana informated in panic, as she saw enormous blasts in the Covenant controlled are of the valley.

      "To beam reinforcements down here isn't physicaly possible, since the ground is sloping everywhere. Flying infantry down here via drop ships can't be made without 95% losses, the aerospace above us is totally controlled by the Forerunners, we'll just have to wait until we get to the next area and hope that it gets better there." Awacar replied as he drew his sword through the belly of a Commando, and thereafter saw five betrayer drop ships fly in a straight line, going down for landing between him and hundreds of Forerunners.

To Be Continued...

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