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Halo: Left Behind

Chapter 3: War Is Hell

War is hell, but that's not the half of it, because war is...

-Unkown Soldier

Harvest Colony

Edge of system space 2527

October 9th

28 hours since start of conflict

The small prowler slipped into the system. There were only three occupants aboard the stealth craft. The leader of the small group was named John, or as non-spartans knew him, the Master Chief. John sat on a crate in the prowler's hold, going over his MJLONIR Mark V for the hundredth time. It was better than the IV but not by much. Yet it did have energy shielding, a concept that was strange to him. From what he had gathered on Reach, the race they had discovered and aligned with had access to such technology.

These anthropomorphic aliens had a smaller area of control, a small system of planets, but almost all could support life. Despite their inferior size, they did have some pretty advanced gear. In any case, he could appreciate having a shield system installed in the suit. It enhanced his effectiveness in battle. And so he concluded that the armor was functioning and the emitters were in working order.

"You know I could have done that for you." A playful feminine voice filled his helmet.

John sighed and grunted, responding in a gruff tone. "Perhaps, but I prefer to do things myself."

That voice was none other than his new traveling companion and assistant. Cortana was a hyper advanced artificial intelligence system, with the capability of hacking into most anything and had a treasure trove of knowledge in her storage matrix. Doctor Halsey had personally given her to him on Reach before their departure. She had said that Cortana would be a valuable asset and a vital member to his team.

John had grudgingly taken her.

He preferred to work exclusively with his brothers and sisters. But the good doctor had been quite insistent. So far all Cortana had done was worm her way into his brain and talked to him. And John was not much of a talker.

"Come now, we are supposed to be a team John. Work with me here." The AI groaned. She was trying to meet him halfway but he was quite stubborn.

The Master Chief considered what she said. It would be more efficient that way. "Fine, you can take over armor diagnostics." He conceded. That would leave him more time to focus on the mission anyways.

A sigh whispered out in response and Cortana muttered. "Well at least it's a start."

The Chief ignored that and rose from his seated position to march out of the hold to head up to the bridge. They should just be arriving in system now or at least close by.

"The ship has exited slipspace, and is moving towards the planet." Cortana interjected with a smug tone.

How she knew that he wanted to know that, he could not tell. So instead of asking he continued up to the bridge, hitching on an elevator and shortly arriving afterwards. Inside the bridge were two large figures enclosed in large and bulky olive drab armor similar to his. They were Sam and Kelly, his closest friends.

Samuel-034 was a large man, bigger than the Chief himself by a full head. He was also one of the more outgoing and sociable spartans, more prone to joking around then any of them. When his helmet was off, he had pale skin, sandy blonde hair, and bright green eyes. He used to have tan skin but long lengths in armor changed that. At first back when they had been training, John had desired to work alone, ignoring any others in his drive to succeed and to become the best. But after a few hard lessons he learned that going solo was not always the smartest thing to do.

Standing next to Sam was Kelly-087. She had a lightning quick wit and dashed even faster. She was recorded at the fastest human to have ever lived. She had been fast before the augmentation, but now she was a speed demon. She has brown hair and blue eyes with a pale complexation that all spartans developed. Her job on the team was to bait enemies and lead them into traps where John and Sam could pick them off. Her profession earned her nomination as team 'rabbit'.

The Chief stopped in the middle of the room and looked to his two friends. Sam's helmet bobbed in greeting and Kelly spoke up. "We just arrived at Harvest. And from the look of things, it's good we came when we did."

"What's the situation?" John inquired as he strode to stop near his comrades.

Sam responded in a grim tone. "It looks like alien ships engaged the fleet, we can't tell from sensor range how many, but we do know that the fleet got pounded. We know that 85 ships were here before we left Reach, but now sensors are only picking up 62. There is a veritable graveyard of scrap in orbit, not all of the materials read as terrestrial which means are boys in the fleet gave as they got."

John nodded as he listened and cleared his throat. "Alright then, bring the prowler to the fleet, let's get a superior report from them, we need to find out what's going on."

"John, I enhanced the sensors and found something....interesting." Cortana added as the prowler began to glide forwards to its destination. Kelly and Sam turned interestedly to hear what the AI had to say. "There are five unknown contacts hovering over the northern hemisphere, one of them is very big. If I'm right, and I always am, it is 28.1 kilometers long exactly."

Kelly whistled softly. "That is one huge ship."

Sam shook his head. 'That can't be good, that means that the enemy got past the fleet, and they are mostly likely launching an invasion even now. We need to get moving."

John agreed. "Sam's correct, the sooner we get there the faster we can gather more information. We need to find out as much about this threat as possible. We need data."

"I can help on that front John." Cortana chipped in. "I am picking up a lot of chatter, but I have to decrypt it first. Once I get through I can see about possible getting a codex on their language and maybe even translate it."

John was surprised and began to rethink the value of having an AI with them. "Sounds like an excellent plan."

The AI let out a small giggle. "See, I told you we'd make a good team."

John found himself rolling his eyes as they neared the fleet. But, he did have to hand it to the AI...no, her.

In transit to Harvest

8thHybrid Fleet

Great Fox

2 hours till arrival

Krystal sat on one of the many patted chair on the bridge of The Great Fox. As she sat, she gazed at the swirling multihued space outside the viewport in boredom and shot nerves. For the past twenty hours they had been traveling in this strange way. When they rendezvoused with the fleet the huge portal opened and they went through. Since then there was nothing really to do, everything was taken care off they were just along for the ride.

So that gave the vixen plenty of time to think about Liam. And that was why Krystal was so nervous. She wanted to know what he was doing at the moment. Did he even think about her? It had been so long since she had seen him. Was he even still the same man she had fallen in love with?

With a huff, the vixen stood up and turned to head back to her room. But she saw Miyu enter and look to her with a small smile. The lynx headed over and leaned on the wall close by. "So, how are ya holding up Krys?" She asked with her customary feline grin.

Krystal shrugged. "Pretty good, I'm just worried about when I finally get to see him." She turned to face the viewport and folded her furred arms and added softly. "What if he is still mad at me?"

Miyu chuckled and absently scratched a fuzzy cheek. "Nah, he doesn't seem like the type to hold bad feelings. Besides, I know that he will be just as happy to see you as you will be to see him."

"I hope you are right." Krystal muttered, turning back to face her friend.

"Pssh." Miyu scoffed, waiving a paw in the air. "I usually am."

Krystal giggled and smiled. "Sure Miyu."

Both girls giggled and Miyu wrapped a paw around her friend's shoulder. "Yep, know let's go get something to eat. Fox told me we are close and it's always best to fill up before a mission."

Krystal nodded and they both left the empty bridge, heading down to the mess. On the way they ran into Falco and Slippy. The pair was walking distractedly, talking to each other.

"Hey guys!" Miyu yowled in greeting.

"Hi!" Slippy replied equally cheerful. Falco simply grunted, not interested in talking to Miyu. He was still a little sore about the trick she pulled on him. It had involved a feral chicken and quite a few eggs. And it still sent Miyu giggling every time she thought about it. Falco still did not see the genius of it and so was still somewhat grumpy.

"Where are you two off to?? Miyu inquired curiously.

"Well Falco and I were off to the ship's armory, Fox wanted us to get ready. He told us to check on our equipment and prepare to move it out. Falco is here to do all the heavy lifting. Slippy beamed and patted him on shoulder, in which the avian responded by lightly socking his friend and grumbling quietly.

Miyu and Krystal bid the busy duo goodbye and continued their journey. Both were glad they didn't have to do such a tedious task. After that conversation it did not take long to arrive at the mess. Inside, Fox, Fay, and Peppy were sitting at a table and chatting quietly while finishing up a meal.

Fox looked up upon hearing the door open and smiled widely, signaling both girls to head over. They swiftly complied, grabbing food from the converter and taking seats at the table. "Putting Falco and Slippy to work eh?" Miyu said with amusement lingering on her voice.

Fox chuckled. "Yeah, someone has to keep everything working and in order, and having others do it is part of the luxuries a leader has....ah delegation, I love it."

The table erupted into laughter and they spent the remainder of the meal talking amongst each other. The team was in good spirits. They had all been down for a while, but now things were starting to look up.

As they continued to talk and time passed, Falco and Slippy came in, Slippy sweating and Falco panting tiredly. Both were covered in oils and grease. Instantly, Falco's eyes locked onto Fox and he gave an exceedingly unhappy look. The bird and toad grabbed food and slowly sat down at the table. "Never again, Fox!" Falco squawked, bearing down upon his food with fervent hunger. "An hour, do you hear me! An hour of cleaning blasters and reflectors! I am a merc Fox, not a mechanic!"

"Aw, you did a pretty good job Falco, don't beat yourself up." Slippy added with a grin, wolfing down a plate of corndogs rapidly.

Falco twisted sharply to glare at Slippy, in which the toad only laughed. It did not help that they all laughed to, even Fay who usually refrained from bagging on others. Against such numbers he grumbled and focused on eating his food, giving dirty glances throughout the meal.

The team waited until the new arrivals finished, and cleaned up before heading to the bridge. From what they had been told by the commander of the fleet, the portal should be reaching its end around this time. They made it back to the bridge with plenty of time to spare. Inside, they all took their usual seats and Fox took the captain's chair. It was times like this that made them miss ROB. The robot had to be sent off a few months ago to get upgraded, and he had not been fixed in time to come with them.

That left Peppy to be the temporary replacement. "We should be coming in any moment Fox." The old hare warned as he glanced down at the equipment in front of him.

True to form, they slipped out of the portal. Ahead of them were the fifteen hybrid ships of the 8th fleet. And ahead of them, laid their destination, Harvest...Liam's homeworld, somewhere down there, their friend waited.

As they pulled closer to the planet they noticed an odd thing, it was glowing a dull orange, even from this vast distance. "What's going on?" Fox asked Peppy. He was pretty sure that was not normal.

Peppy looked down at his instruments and seemed shocked, taking a long time to responds. "The Great Fox is picking up high concentrations of heat and a low amounts of oxygen...the planet's burning Fox, the entire globe."

That silenced the team, and a short time later a voice came in over the ship's comms system. It was the leader of the Hybrid fleet, Rear Admiral Laura Burns. Her voice was grim. "Surviving elements of the 3rd fleet have just transmitted grave news." From the sound of it she was addressing the entire fleet. "Harvest's orbital defenses have fallen. The enemy is powerful, more than we could have imagined. They broke past the fleet and launched an invasion force. Over the course of twenty six hours they have laid siege to the defenders. The fleet has lost all contact with the planet; all they know for certain is that it has not fallen yet. Casualty projections have not been drawn up...but it is suspected that they are high. We are to regroup with the remaining 3rd fleet and wait until contact can be reestablished with the forces on the ground."

The Admiral cut the call and the fleet began to move, heading to high orbit above Harvest. The Great Fox followed after them, with a worried crew. "Jeez." Falco muttered softly. "And here I thought this was going to be easy."

Fox was frowning and had a paw on his chin as he thoughtfully studied the planet. This was not looking good for anyone. But his friend was down there and he was going to find him.

Krystal and Miyu shared frightened looks. The gods only knew what was going on down there, and Liam was in the thick of it. They knew he was. That was his home, and he would be doing everything he could to defend it, just as anyone else would. No one even considered the fact that he might be dead.

And so they regrouped with the other fleet and waited hoping that somehow, they would hear from the people on the surface.

**********

The fields of Harvest burned.

Liam gazed at the flaming ruin of his homeworld through his HUD as thick soiled clouds of smoke blackened the sky. It had been only a day since the enemy arrived and already they had reaped so much destruction. Everything took on a grey appearance and there was a thick film of ash coating everything. It took less than fifteen hours for the defenses to fall. Liam had lost all contact with other UNSC forces. The artillery went silent hours ago and the last longsword he spotted was fighting a losing battle with those teardrop shaped fighters. He had seen countless marines die, armor melting under the cruel plasma weapons of this alien army. His ammo reserves were borderline exhausted and his armor had received innumerable gouges and scorch marks. So far it was holding, but if he did not find a way to get it repaired soon, he would not last.

The guttural growling, hooting, and vile squawks of his hated foes dragged him out of his stupor. He shifted his helmet marginally to see a column of infantry walking down the main thoroughfare leading deeper into the city. At their head were six of those large reptilians, a dozen of the shield bearers marched behind them, and a horde of those little explosive bastards trailed behind disorderly.

Liam watched the contingent march by from his positon on the side of the road. He was covered in ash and propped against the wall, hiding in plain sight. The column was no more than fifty feet from him as they polluted his homeworld's dirt with their alien claws.

The Centurion slowly raised his rifle.

As the column began to pass a collection of vehicles on the side of the road they detonated, spraying fiery shrapnel and disorientating the column. A dozen of those backpack dwarfs were killed in the blast and many more were mangled. The shields of those avian creatures protected most of them from the explosion, but a few were mangled and the rest's shields were shattered. The large reptilians suffered no losses, their barriers holding.

In the midst of the confusion, the building all along the road were suddenly full of noise and light as dozens of weapons called out their hatred, the marines inside springing the carefully laid trap.

The huge reptilians were trying to maintain order and regroup their column when Liam began to move. The Centurion bolted up from his position and his weapon roared as he sent the 50.caliber energized shells snarling towards their targets. Two of the saurian died as they were punctured by the lethal rounds, spewing their purplish lifeblood and growling in rage even as they bled out. Liam charged at the large beasts as the hidden marines covered him from the shield creatures and tank lackeys.

With the weight of a truck, Liam slammed into the first saurian, shattering its protective barrier and throwing it violently to the ground. Even as he impacted his first foe he brought his heavy assault rifle crashing into the side of a red armored one, crushing the breath out of it and making it hunch over.

Dropping his gun, he grabbed the hilt at his side and thumbed the switch, a snap-hiss kissed the air and the huge energy blade erupted from its container. With a silent snarl he flipped the hilt and plunged the sword down, impaling the collapsed alien. It gurgled and coughed up blood as its innards were boiled. As Liam relished in his victory, his HUD flickered and he was disorientated as an object smashed into his head, whipping around he saw that he had been bashed by the butt of a weapon. The force of the blow had been immense as his shields lurched down 70%. Reacting fast he ducked another swing and pulled his blade out from his first foe to swing into the next one. The blade skidded off but its shields broke in a flash of light and it staggered backwards, howling hatefully at him.

Liam leaned backwards and pulled out his magnum, firing the entire clip into the creature, its howl cut off as it collapsed to its knees, clutching its stomach as blood poured from numerous holes in its armor.

The Centurion dived forwards as he heard the familiar crackle of their swords and barely evaded a powerful swing by a white armored beast. It growled out an obvious challenge and backed up slightly.

Liam eyed it and tossed his pistol to the ground, wielding his sword in one gauntlet.

The alien nodded respectfully and brought the blade up in a salute and guard move. After that the duel began, both members sizing their opponent up. The battle had stopped around them as the last foe was slain, but no one interfered with their duel. This was a matter of honor. Suddenly, the alien's eyes flashed and it lunged forward, swiping down speedily. Liam vaulted back and the sword hummed as it missed. It recovered, lunging upwards suddenly. Caught off guard the Centurion barely managed to catch it on his blade, both weapons crackling upon contact. The duel continued for many minutes, both contenders fighting no holds barred, shields flickered and the air whispered as shear misses cleft it. But even as the swordfight progressed it neared its conclusion.

Bringing up his left fist, Liam slammed his powerful gauntlet into the side of his enemy's torso, damaging the shields and stunning it. Yet as he carried his blade down in a death stroke it rolled backwards and Liam's sword sunk into the paved road, hissing as the ground around it liquefied. The alien struck, making Liam abandoned his weapon to stumble backwards and avoid the lethal strike, it sparked of his shielded breastplate and dropped them completely.

Sensing victory the alien charged forwards, howling an ear splitting warcry. Its cerulean pronged blade was aimed straight at his chest. Liam narrowly shifted to the left with his enhanced reflexes, sending the blade past its mark by inches. Liam wrapped its sword arm in a restricting lock as he curled his arm over the alien's own. With his left fist he slammed plated limb into its head repeatedly until its shields ruptured, still he kept hitting until he felt bone shatter and flesh split. Eventually he stopped and backed up.

The alien fell to its knees and looked up in defeat, its mandibles were broken and one eye was forever closed. As purplish blood leaked down its face it nodded, conceding defeat. It gave him one last look that he understood, despite their vast differences. Liam nodded and turned away, grabbing his sword and ripping it from the ground. The alien nodded agreeably as The Centurion walked back over, standing behind it. The saurian looked over its shoulder at him and barked rapidly in its language. For the first time, he found he wished he understood what it was saying. After it finished talking, it turned away and bowed its head after one last nod. Slowly and respectfully, he raised his sword high in the air, azure blade humming quietly in the bloody and body strewn roadway. Gripping it in both gauntlets, he brought it down and to the right as powerfully as he could. The saurian's head was sliced clean off, rolling to the side as the body slumped to the ground. Liam stared at the body and brought his sword up to his helm in a salute before shutting it off and returning it to its resting place on his waist.

Once the deed was done marines filled out from every which way, emerging from cover behind walls, buildings, and cars. They numbered only twenty, having lost many in the past hours. One of them, a red haired fellow, walked over to the fallen alien and hawked, ready to spit on the corpse. Before he could, Liam drew his sword lighting fast and activated it, bring it to stop millimeters from the marine's throat.

As it hovered, the man gulped, swallowing his saliva and backing away quickly. The message was clear; they would not dishonor the lifeless body. The alien had fought with honor and deserved it in death. With that taken care of, the marines wandered off to rummage. Although Liam did allow them to scavenge the equipment from the enemy, taking those energy shields from the avians and weapons from all the bodies. As they looted, Liam crouched down softly by the alien swordsman and took the sword from his grip. When he did, he grabbed both its hands and placed them on its chest in repose, setting the hilt on top. When done, he gave it one last look before walking away to join his men.

This had only been one small fight in a huge battle spanning the globe. The last communication from the fleet was that UNSC forces were in retreat all across it. Cities fell and the world burned. The civilian populous was being massacred, apparently the aliens did not care if they fought or not. Liam was deathly afraid for his family, he had not seen them since the invasion started and he had no idea where they were, he would have headed to the farm stead but could not abandon his brothers and sisters in arms. So instead he had taken time to ask Samus to get them, not easy to do if you are mute. Thankfully the ONI man promised he would and last he had seen, Samus took a force of militia backed by Sergeant Johnson and headed over to the farmstead he had called home. But that had been sixteen hours ago when comms were still up and the fighting was still fierce, and there was no telling if any of them were still alive after all this time.

It was a very unpleasant thought that Liam did not want to entertain. So he did his best to not think about it too hard and just assume that they were alive and well. The marines called out, ready to move, and Liam nodded. He picked a random direction and they took it. All mapping systems were down and so were long ranged comms. So all they could really do is walk around, hide, and fight. There was no way to communicate with any form of command and short range radios only worked so well, the ashy skies and shifting weather patterns contributing to its unreliability. The last group he had seen was a scorpion convoy, but it had been blasted apart by a mass infantry charge and strafing run, these marines were all that was left from that larger force. Since then they had tried to keep small, hiding and fighting. The irony did not escape them that they were acting much like the insurrectionists. But the enemy was too technologically advanced to fight on even footing; the only success was when they were outnumbered or outmaneuvered. In fact, these aliens seemed so confident that they did not do much in the way of tactics.

Liam raised a closed fist, halting his little army. His tracker picked up contacts near the far wall of the freeway they were crossing. He waived his arm downwards and the marines scattered, taking cover behind the plentiful amount of vehicles littering the causeway. Once they were in cover he advanced stealthy to the wall. It worried the Centurion that these dots were a pair and alone. So far they had only encounter the aliens in huge war-parties. But this duo were alone, and he could hear them shuffling around on the other side of the tall barrier. Silently racking the bolt of his rifle and chambering the next lethal round, Liam reached the wall, it standing a few feet taller than him. Slowly he used one gauntlet to pull himself up to peer down the other side. Standing there was two of the biggest mother-fuckers he had ever seen in his entire life.

Both behemoths were covered in thick blue plating, with the absences of armor on their joints and lower back. The places uncovered almost seemed to glow with orange light and...withered. Indeed their skin seemed to be a living mass of tentacles or perhaps worms. One lumbering arm was a massive gunmetal grey tower shield that looked thick and heavy enough to bitch-slap a scorpion battle tank. The other arm had a menacing glowing cannon graphed to it, replacing whatever limb may have been there before. Its back was populated by a forest of razor sharp spines that could most likely chew through steel and flesh with equal ease. These two tanks were standing side-by-side, and did not talk. But he did notice an odd thrumming filling the air around them.

Liam lowered down from the wall and backed away slowly, he did not want to have to tango with those bad boys in this condition. There was no way e could protect the marines and himself and enemy reinforcements will be sure to arrive with the racket the battle would make. So instead he regrouped with his team and made a quiet gesture with his left hand. The marines nodded frightfully and followed after him as quietly as they could. If there was something that even the giant warrior did not think they should fight, then discretion was probably the best option they had.

It was not until they were far, far away that they resumed making any sort of noise. A few klicks down the highway, a lance of energy popped out alarmingly from a nearby building and snapped against Liam's heavyweight shields. They dropped a full 50% and he jolted the barrel of his gun to the window of the tall shop and painted it with gunfire, blasting huge pockets in the wall. As soon as the shot was heard his soldiers joined the attack, adding their larger volume of fire to his own and sought cover.

Another energy beam shot out from the opposite side of the highway and a marine cried out in pain as it hacked straight into his armor and deep into his side. His run turned into a stumble and he collapsed to the floor in a pained heap as his armor clattered loudly against the paved road.

Liam spotted this and quickly dashed over to the fallen man, grabbing him by the collar of his armor and heaving him behind his bulk. Seconds later an additional beam of energy brushed with his right knee-guard dropping his shields down to 13%, the location the marine had been occupying before the Centurion had pulled him back. Liam swiveled his rifle to send the shooter into hiding as he pulled the wounded soldier into cover. He set the man down and two other marines sought to help him. But there was not much they could do, the medic was pinned down to the left three cars down, as could be seen by his white and green armor.

Again, a beam ruptured out from the building and blazed straight though a young female marine's breastplate, killing her instantly. Liam growled, at this pace they would all die out here. Liam enhanced his vision with the HUD and zoomed in on the left building. Inside he could see a shadow standing a few feet deep in the room. A crosshair popped up on the HUD and allowed him to aim his rifle at a greater distance. He centered the sights on the upper torso of the hidden figure and pulled the trigger in a short burst. A trio of rounds snarled out of his massive weapon and whipped straight to their target. The shadowy figure twitched and the room was suddenly darker, covered in blood. Using the same tactic he switched to the other building and cut down the other attacker. Soon the sound of gunfire died down and the marines came out of hiding. The now one short group went to the fallen women's body and pulled her tags. Unfortunately they were also forced to police her ammo, considering that they needed every bullet. It was not a nice thing, but they needed it to continue fighting. As ammunition was redistributed amongst the marines, Liam walked over to the man who had been shot.

As he approached and got a better look he almost recoiled in shock. Take away the dirt, ash, and grim, and he would be the spitting image of his deceased brother. The kid had short blonde hair peeking out from his open helmet and his eyes were a hauntingly familiar blue. "Thanks for saving me sir." The young marine said as he looked up at the large warrior. The medic made it to the marine and was doing what he could. But Liam could already tell that he would live. The armor reduced much of the power behind the shot and it did not hit anything vital in its trajectory. At the sound of his voice, he did flinch slightly. The kid even sounded like him. Liam nodded at the marine slowly and turned to walk away. It pained him to think he had been able to save that kid, but not his own brother. He signaled the group to continue and led them onwards down the highway, keeping a better eye out for snipers. As he walked, he was forcefully drawn to the thought of his family. It galled him that he had no idea what condition they were in or if they were indeed still alive. It was soul crushing, the uncertainty he was plagued by. Grunting, he squeezed his rifle and stepped over a melted tire. What they needed was to restore communications with the rest of their scattered forces. Without the means to direct their army, they could not effectively wage war.

"Sir! I'm picking up a scattered radio transmission." The marine with the large comms unit on his back called out excitedly.

Liam shifted to look at the middle aged fellow with glasses. He beckoned him closer and the soldier jogged over, continuing his report.

"It's coming from a few klicks somewhere north, northwest of our current position. Most of it is garbled, but I think you should hear it." The man explained as he fiddled with the comms device he lugged on his back.

Liam nodded and the man shifted a few dials and a static female voice cut in and out of the air. "To....UNSC fo....es t.......r this message, we have dis.....red the e...y jam.... ...ice. A.......t building. We .....fire, need....tance." It stopped after that, repeating a few seconds afterwards.

"That's it sir. I can't fix it up anymore. Should we check it out?" The radio operator inquired.

Liam thought it over and nodded. If whoever these people, they needed help. He signaled for his soldiers to fall out and they began a lite jog taking an off ramp of the freeway.

A few klicks away

Spartan Blue team

Utgard Municipal Building

John ducked under a hail of plasma fire, the shots soaring over his head to bake the far wall. After they stopped he popped over the hole in the building to fire out with his MA5B assault rifle. The small group of tank backed creatures he aimed at fell in a heap under his deadly fusillade. One of them exploded, knocking down a shield bearing avian. He put that down as well with a clean headshot.

"Cortana, did your call for help go through?" The spartan demanded as he switched his aim to pin down one of those large mandibled enemies. The beast rolled into cover and retaliated swiftly making him duck.

"Perhaps....I boosted our signal, but we are so close to the jammer that I don't know for sure if it went through." She replied uncertainly.

"Did it go through?" Sam called out on the radio from his position outside the building. He was holding the front doors so they were not overrun. Kelly was manning the stairs to the first floor while John took the high ground.

It had been a few hours since they managed to get to Harvest, groundside. The mission did not start off well. The pelican they had taken had been shot down by the enemy fighter craft and Kelly had an injured leg. So her speed was greatly reduced. Sam's breastplate was cracked and so were his ribs. John himself only had a sprained wrist. They had quickly inflated the gel layers in their suits and that had reduced their injuries considerably. After that they had fought through the city, while Cortana hacked into the enemy's battlenet. She did not have a complete grasp of their language yet, but she did manage to pinpoint the location of a comms jammer. So that's why they were inside the municipal building. The comms jammer was a few blocks down but they had been pinned in here when a few dropships arrived. Since then only more enemies streamed in from all over and the bodies were beginning to pile up... and their ammo was being depleted. If this kept up they would be down to their fist and training before long.

"Unknown, for now keep them away from the building." John answered as he released a spent clip from his rifle and slammed home a new one, racking the bolt.

"Affirmative....although we can probably take em by ourselves." Sam muttered as he pulled the pin on a grenade and tossed it behind a shield phalanx. The explosive detonated and sent alien body parts all across the courtyard.

"Stow it spartan." John ordered, finally managing to bring down the alien he had been fighting with. Its shields dropping under a barrage of 7.62mm FMJ rounds before burying into its flesh. It snarled softly and fell to the floor sending its gun skidding. He only had a clip and a half left for his rifle.

That gave John an idea. "Sam, toss me that rifle."

The other spartan nodded and prepped two fragmentation grenades; he tossed them and used the explosion to grab that rifle and another one that had been lying by nearby in a pile of purple blood.

As he ran back he threw the gun up into the room John was firing out of. The spartan caught the weapon mid-flight and looked it over. It was blue and had a symmetrical oblong top and bottom. The center of the weapon was like a sword grip and fit in his gauntlet surprisingly well. "Cortana..." He muttered.

He heard a sigh. "Need my help now John? Okay, from what I gather this is a plasma based weapon. The trigger is the grip, squeeze it and rounds should come out. It is actually pretty simple." She exclaimed in surprise.

The spartan nodded and aimed it at an enemy. One of those short and stubby creatures was lugging itself into cover after being chased by a burst of rifle fire from Sam. He aimed it in the critter's direction and squeezed. Light issued forth from the weapon and glided across the battlefield to slam into the backpacked creature. Its tank began to boil away and it yapped in panic before exploding. "Hmm...no recoil." John commented apathetically as he looked at the weapon again.

He hosed down the area in front of him, and almost dropped the weapon when it began to hiss and emit a vaporous blue gas.

"Oh, and it is prone to overheating." Cortana announced with a giggle.

The spartan grunted and waited till it began to cool down before firing again. "Kelly what's your status?" John saw blue plasma fire emit from Sam's location, meaning he had also found out how to fire the alien rifle.

"Amber, I can move, but not very fast." She responded grimly. She did not like that her leg had been wounded. "I can still fight John." The female spartan said stiffly. Kelly was not happy with being sent to the proverbial side lines.

John sighed. "Provide Sam with support."

"Right away Chief." She responded quickly, and soon the volume of fire on the lower level increased. In response the inexhaustible advance of their alien enemy slowed to a crawl. A little over a hundred bodies lay strewn from the many entrances of the courtyard all the way to the steps of their building. They fight ferociously for another hour. The enemy seemed endless and all three spartans were down to using the alien weapons, securing several rifles from the dead. They were out of UNSC munitions completely, having spent their entire arsenal. But the enemy still had not reached the building, and it seemed that they never would, except for one thing.

"John, we have a problem." Sam warned.

The Chief looked in the direction of his fellow spartan and a saw a strange purple vehicle bash its way into the plaza. It hovered several feet of the ground and made a continuous humming noise. It had glossy wings branching from either side and atop its smooth hull was a strange device that glowed with ominous light. Sitting in an gunner's seat inside the main chassis of the tank was a reptilian, holding a large weapon mounted to the hull. The tank's bulbous weapon on the top moved with the vehicle itself as it angled towards the two olive drab armored figures holding the front entrance.

Quickly, John winked the red acknowledgment lights on his HUD and the two other spartans quickly moved to dash inside. Not a moment too soon as the strange vehicle vomited a massive spherical orb from its main mount and the deadly sphere went up into the air and then hurtled down, exploding where the spartans had just been standing. The floor melted under the intense heat and John could feel the got blast of concussive force from his position on the second story.

That hover tank would drastically change the course of the battle. It would incinerate any cover they had and the enemy could come in at their leisure. None of the spartans had any explosives left that could hope to damage it. Perhaps if two could lay down cover fire one could sprint over to disable it somehow or even commander the vehicle. The best for this was obviously Kelly, but her injury prevented that from happening. It was a suicide mission anyways, there was little chance the spartan that went on it would come out intact. The area was still heavily populated by enemy ground forces.

As the Chief tried to figure out what to do, Cortana cut in excitedly. "John, I'm picking up multiple signals close by, UNSC IFFs!"

Not long after her announcement, rifle fire emerged from the north side of the plaza. John could see the grey armored forms of UNSC marines as they trickled in and ambushed the enemy forces. One had a rocket launcher propped on their shoulder and there was a roar and whoosh as a rocket soared from its den, trailing black exhaust. The missile impacted the side of the enemy tank, causing it to lurch to the side and its next shot flung wide into the air. The side of its hull was caved in and it listed to the side as one of the devices keeping it afloat was destroyed.

As the marines exchanged fire with the aliens, a large black armored figure came in from behind them. In their hands was a massive rifle that barked loudly and shot out red bolts that impact amongst the enemy formations. The volume of fire the weapon emitted was enough to suppress many of the larger reptilian aliens and managed to make the bird-like ones with shields seek cover behind their energy barriers.

John studied the armored figure closely. He knew that no other spartans were slotted to deploy on Harvest, nor did the armor and weapons match known MJOLNIR and UNSC equipment. "Cortana, who is that?" He asked the AI, thinking that if anyone knew about that person she would.

She hummed. "Give me a moment to access ONI's records....and I'm in." She replied smugly before continuing. "It appears that ONI has been working on an adjoining program side-to-side with the spartans. They're called centurions, from what I'm reading they are more for frontline warfare, think part ODST, part bipedal tank. Wow....this is pretty ambitious even for the office." She muttered as she read more of the once heavily classified and encrypted documents.

John grunted and watched as this Centurion ran past the enemy under the marines' covering fire and leapt atop the alien tank. As they landed heavily, bringing it down almost to the ground, they slammed a fist into the hull and left a grenade inside. Jumping off, the soldier rolled behind a low concrete barrier and the tank detonated spraying liquid plasma and spewing black smoke.

The warrior pulled up from his cover and fired off more rounds from his strange rifle. John noticed that it easily punched through the shielding of the large reptilians and penetrated their strange armor. As he was making his observations he had been putting down aliens swiftly and lethally with his MA5B. In the deadly trifecta of crossfire from the hyper lethal spartan and his cohorts, vengeful marines, and the accurate centurion, the alien forces were eventually defeated. Once the battle zone had been cleared of hostiles, the marines entered the plaza and reorganized with their leader, the black armored centurion.

John stepped out from the building with Sam supporting a limping Kelly; the trio converged with the other UNSC assets and stopped in front of the centurion. The Master Chief could easily tell what gender lay under the armor as he had many years of experience with being surrounded by people covered in it. The man was about the same size as Sam, making him an exceptionally tall individual. His armor was thicker, far more bulky than MJOLNIR and his helm was not at all similar. In his hand was a weapon that looked fearsome. At his side was a large magnum and what looked to be a sword hilt.

"Identify yourself." The Master Chief ordered.

The armored soldier remained silent before bringing his left gauntlet to his throat and tapping three times and made a cutting motion while shaking his helmet negatively.

"I guess he can't speak." Cortana muttered.

The mute warrior tapped on the top left of his breastplate and the Chief focused on what was written there. It simply had Atlas-01 stenciled on the right pectoral plate. Then he tapped on the emblem on his right pauldron, that of the office of naval intelligence.

The Chief took all of this in at the span of a millisecond and nodded in understanding. The warrior suddenly tilted his helm up and locked his large rifle onto his back. He brought up his right bracer and opened some sort of tactical pad. Using his left gauntlet he tapped something out and held it out for the spartans to see in big black blocky text on a blue bright green screen.

We are here to help. My marines picked up your call for assistance. It was short and to the point.

As the four armored warriors began to "talk" the marines searched the area, making sure all the aliens were in fact dead, and grabbing more of their strange weapons as their own arsenal ran dry. Once they were done the leading party was ready to move out. They had explained how they got here and Atlas had told them how the battle had gone. It was not looking good for Harvest. Even if they won it would take a lot to return it to its former glory.

The spartans told him about the jammer and they all agreed on heading to take it out. With the device destroyed they would be able to contact the fleet and the other ground forces. If they could coordinate a strike on the massive alien ship, they should be able to land a serious blow and hopefully turn the tide of this war. Since the spartans knew the direction of the jammer, the centurion handed strategic control over to them.

It took some time for the group of UNSC soldiers to make it to the jammer's location. They crawled at a slow pace so that they would not run into an attack. Periodically they were forced to seek cover when alien ships hummed overhead, searching for targets. A common sound to be heard was the strange whine of alien weapons and the deep clatter of assault rifle fire and explosions as marines and other surviving human forces waged a fierce war in the embattled streets.

The sound of combat made the soldiers urge to head out to assist their fellow warriors, but they knew that if the jammer was destroyed, it would bring hope to the defenders. Eventually a large trio of rectangular concrete structures appeared within vision, the Harvest police department's headquarters. The company of soldiers took refuge in a building overlooking the precinct's front. There were countless ranks of the stubby tankers, avians, large reptiles and a few of those odd tanks. The alien force was entrenched heavily behind strange colored energy barriers and odd weapon emplacements. They would need a massive force to hope to crack these fortifications. But all they had were a few rocket launchers, nineteen marines, three spartans, and a centurion.

What's the plan? Atlas inquired on his pad as he looked down to the Master Chief.

The spartan did not have an immediate answer. "Cortana, what do you think?"

The AI took a few seconds to correlate a response. "I have many ideas, but none of them are easy." Her voice dropped in over the suit's outside speaker. The centurion only shifted slightly in reaction to the different voice.

"Well what's the best one?" One of the marines demanded. He was a short tan fellow with a Spanish accent. He looked at the spartan, waiting for an answer.

"The best plan of attack would be to spread the marines on teams of two all across the buildings circling the precinct. With their cover fire, two spartans and the centurion should be able to advance on the building and engage the enemy. While that is happening, the remaining spartan should be able to infiltrate the building and take out the jammer. After that the spartan exfiltrates the building and regroups with our forces. Then it should be a simple plan to retreat and call the fleet or any other surviving UNSC forces." She laid the plan out while the others nodded and then shook their heads.

"They'll tear us apart if we try to run!" A female trooper exclaimed. She had lost her helmet and was staring at the spartan with the AI in an expression framing disbelief.

"Not if we can call in for support." Cortana retorted.

"And what happens if the support doesn't exist?" The marine countered.

"Then...we won't need to run, there will be no way to get of this planet." Sam interjected grimly.

That silenced any complaints from the marines.

It took a good hour to plan out the attack. John would be the one infiltrating the building as he was the spartan with the least debilitating injury and had Cortana to guide him. Sam and Kelly would support Atlas as they advanced into the plaza backed by the marine fireteams. All planned out, each player in the strategy moved to their required positions. Sam, Kelly, and Atlas were waiting at the junction leading into the square and the marines were spread out evenly among the buildings. The Master Chief on the other hand was on top of the structure overlooking the whole zone. He would jump down to the roof of the PD building and infiltrate from the access door.

With everyone in position the order was given and the battle commenced. Gunfire shattered windows as the marines fired from their locations and disorganized the alien defenders. Simultaneously, rockets impacted against the alien hover tanks, destroying most of them. Atlas charged out from his hiding place weapon blazing as he mowed down a pack of those masked tank breathing creatures. After him followed Sam and Kelly, were both duel wielding alien rifles and hosing down the immediate area.

John watched as the battle raged and turned his attention from the combat and to the roof of the target building. He gave himself a running start and leapt with all his might. He went soaring through the air and crashed down onto the opposite roof with all of his weight. The concrete under his boots splintered and he rose from his crouch and quickly entered the building from the roof. Cortana opened the locked door and he slipped inside.

**********

Liam rolled a small glowing sphere stuck to the ground next to him and exploded shortly thereafter. In retaliation he fired a short burst from his gun and killed the reptilian that had cast it. The alien jittered under the rounds and dropped to the floor in a pool of its own purple blood. It had been a few minutes since the op started and things were not going well. The surviving tanks from the first rocket strike managed to let off a few salvos before succumbing to additional missiles. In that time they had torn chunks from the building and killed a few marines in the process.

On top of that, his shields had not had the chance to return above 25% since the battle began. Too many rounds kept hitting him and disrupted the charging process. The two spartans occupying him how ever were exceling in combat. They both weaved through enemy fire and dealt accurate death in return. It was clear that they were faster than him and had more combat experience. That did not mean he was weaker. The piles of enemy dead filled with huge holes attested to that, but he did concede that they knew what they were doing.

Feeling a blow to his chest that staggered him, Liam looked down and saw a dark blotch on his breastplate and his HUD was filled with the shrill alarm of broken shields. He rolled into cover and narrowly missed another beam strike. There were a few enemy snipers now, firing from windows in the PD building. The centurion popped up and fired a burst at the windows and ducked back down to reload. He shifted back up to fire again and saw one of the avian creatures squawking as it was thrown out of the building and splattered against the pavement. Liam's enhanced eyes spotted a flash of green before it disappeared. Two things were certain, the Chief was busy, and despite being avians those aliens did not possess the ability of flight.

The battle continued to rage and Liam heard a devastating roar and a titanic beam of green energy soared past his helmet and exploded against the barrier to his left. The centurion dove and looked to the right, spotting a huge pair of aliens. They were of the race of creatures he spotted near the highway. Both were advancing and sending beams forth from their arm cannons. The spartans identified the threat and hosed them down with plasma fire. In response the two aliens locked shields and advanced under the shower of energy. Once the weapons overheated, they fired again. The spartan he identified as Sam was ready to evade but the other limping spartan could not in time. Seeing this Sam grabbed and tossed Kelly roughly away from the zone and received a beam full on in the chest. He went flying backwards from the force of the hit and hit the ground hard, trailing smoke from his breastplate. Kelly recovered quickly and fired at the two behemoths as she went to pull her comrade out from the line of fire. Liam knew they needed help and shifted his fire from the other aliens and to the two brutish shield bearers. The energized 50.caliber rounds crashed violently against the monsters' shields as he advanced upon them. As their shields shuddered under the fire both shifted their attention to Liam. He heard the strange blast as they released the gathered energy in their cannons at him. He dived forward thwarting their attempt to kill him, but that brought him within melee range. One launched itself at him and the ground shook as it thundered closer and warbled a battle cry. Acting fast Liam vaulted over it and fired into its unprotected back as he fell to the ground. Orange fluid gushed out from craterous wounds to splash onto the ground thickly. Its trilling growl shifted into a high pitched squeal and it drunkenly swayed to face him. Before he could relish that short victory he heard a n enraged deafening snarl as something rushed at him. Liam shifted to the right and missed being quilled by razor sharp spines. He pulled the trigger on his rifle and it clunk empty. Before he could reload the best in a surprisingly display of speed twisted to shield bash him. He was sent soaring through the air and his rifle vanished somewhere in the battle zone. He slammed heavily into a broken alien tank and it crumpled under his weight. Liam tore himself out from the tank and shot forward as a green beam slammed into the place he had been, the explosion sent him to the ground. Disoriented he refocused in time to roll to the side as a massive foot stomped the ground he had been lying on. Dazed, he ripped the sword hilt from his waist and activated the blade. It hissed as it sprang forth and he sliced it towards the walking alien tank. The blade sunk into its shield and was almost torn from his grip when it tried to smash him. Leaning back and dislodging his energy blade, the centurion moved to the creature's rear. Behind it he saw its back and plunged his cerulean blade in deep with both gauntlets. It howled in pain and fell to its knees as he dragged the blade out and horizontally bisected it. The two massive halves flopped to the floor loudly and Liam panted out of breath as he recovered.

Recovering his used stamina, his HUD was suddenly sent screaming as a deafening shriek bounced around inside it. The severely wounded beast slammed into him violently from behind and his sword shut off as it fell from his grip. The beast's spines shattered his shields and bored into his spinal plates. He felt a hot flash of pain as it pierced all the way through his many armor layers and slashed up his back deeply. Liam crashed to the floor and painfully rolled onto his bleeding back in time to catch a massive boot. His arms quivered as he used his immense strength to prevent the enraged creature from stomping his chest into jelly, he could feel his muscles tearing as he forced them to the extreme past their limits. A shield dropped heavily onto his helm twice and his HUD cracked as he was concussed. Just before his arms gave out the beast on top of him yowled in pain and lumbered backwards, allowing the centurion's screaming muscles time to relax. He slowly brought his body up to see it pelted by a dozen red glowing rounds. It finally fell with one last moan and hit the ground with enough force to shake it. Liam turned to his left to see Sam standing there holding his smoking rifle.

Liam nodded in appreciation for the save and the spartan returned it tossing the weapon back to him. The centurion grabbed it with pain wrought limbs and was helped to his feet by the other, female, spartan. The trio exchanged looks and returned to the task of holding the line. They fought on for another ten minutes before a harsh yet beautifully familiar whine filled the air. A pair of longswords tore past and the front of the PD building was lit aflame from a strafing run. As the newly created flames raged three pelicans gracefully glided into the zone filling the air with the roar of chin-mounted autocannons. As they mopped up the area, Liam and the other surviving UNSC forces lumbered up the ramps. The Master Chief soon joined them and the trio of gunships lifted off once more and soared over the city with the two longsword guardians. The centurion fumbled with his cracked helmet and pulled it off with his wounded arms. He looked out the dropship's bay and saw the devastation these aliens had wrought. The entire city burned and the once verdant fields surrounding it were not but ash. His noise was assailed with the unforgettable odor of black smoke and coppery blood. Harvest had been struck a mortal blow, and it remained to be seen if it would ever recover. And as the pelican rose higher into the sky and the bay slowly began to close, he wondered if it could even come back from this. The bay closed with a dull thud and Liam leaned back into his seat.

He was jarred awake when it landed. Liam slowly placed the cracked helmet back on and watched as the ramp descended to hit the deck of a UNSC vessel. The four marines in his gunship wearily filed out, clutching burn wounds and bleeding limbs. Liam groaned as he stood up to follow after them. As he stepped down the ramp he saw the Chief and his fellow spartans file out of their ship. The Master Chief looked over and Liam nodded respectfully towards the older warrior. The chief gently lifted his helmet in return and led his spartans away. Liam looked to the gunships again and saw only seven marines in total. Out of the hundred and fifty he had accumulated in the beginning, seven were all that remained.

The centurion sighed sadly and turned away to head into the ship. As he walked, his comm opened and he heard the surprising voice of Samus. He had not heard from the man since this all started. "Head to the bridge," Was all he heard now. So with eagerness to find out about his family he complied. As he walked down the corridors of the ship he saw many naval ratings and crewmen in pristine uniforms, a world apart from his abused, bloody, cracked, and rent armor. His back was covered in dried blood and his arms pained him. His helm was slightly hard to see out of with the spider web crack that scrawled across it and his breastplate was battered up.

But he pressed on despite his injuries. The centurion took a few minutes to arrive at the bridge and quickly walked into the large expanse full of hardworking personnel. Outside the viewport Liam saw many ships floating around and a veritable graveyard of broken vessels. It seemed that the fight up here had been fierce as well.

"Atlas." He heard his centurion name called out and turned to see eight figures arrayed around a holo table. The man looked at the group and almost recoiled in shock. Standing there was Samus beckoning him over, two admirals, a male and female, and five very familiar individuals he had not expected to see here.

And as a pair of bright emerald eyes landed on his form he almost fell to his knees. "Krystal?" He rasped out silently barley loud enough to be a whisper.