Chapter 72

A/N: You guys of have been great with the continued support and I know I don't do this that often but here is another chapter to show my appreciation. ----------Above Actium

The UNSC 7th Fleet had just jumped into the system and the first thing they encountered was the massive Covenant Fleet of 60 ships. Of course, from the distress signal they knew that the Covenant fleet had 60 craft.

In response Vice Admiral Terrence Hood was granted special Authority to utilize 4 of the Forerunner Dreadnoughts in the battle against the Covenant. Vice Admiral Hood took one of the Dreadnoughts as his command ship and placed them at the forefront of the fleet. Axel chose 4 Dreadnought this time to mess with the Covenant Hierarchs. Before they only knew about 2 Dreadnoughts but after this battle, they would be informed about 4 which will start to stir some problems amongst the Covenant leadership.

On the bridge of his command ship Vice Admiral Hood looked at the massive Covenant fleet in front of him and shook his head. "Listen up everybody" Spoke Vice Admiral Hood into the comm channel which was broadcasting to the entire fleet.

"Admiral Woods himself has given us special orders" Vice Admiral Hood paused for a few seconds before he started to repeat the words that Axel had told him to say before the battle.

"The Covenant have invaded our world, seeking to conquer and destroy everything we hold dear. But I say to you, we will not cower in fear. We will not back down. We will rise, united, to face them head-on. We will not only defend our world, but we will annihilate the enemy. We will fight with courage, with strength, and with determination. We will show them the power of our will, the strength of our resolve. So, I say to you, my brothers and sisters in arms, stand tall, stand strong, for today we fight to defend those who can't defend themselves. Together, we will prevail. Victory is within our grasp. Onward to glory!" Vice Admiral Hood had shouted the last part with great conviction.

The moment he finished speaking, a wave of cheering erupted from every ship in the 7th Fleet. They were already eager to participate in the battle, but Axel's words elevated their spirits even more.

"All ships," Hood ordered after a moment of quiet, his voice resonating throughout the fleet, "all ahead full. Prepare for battle."

With an immediate response, the engines of the fleet roared to life in each ship. Every ship capable of launching fighters had launched their fighters including the Dreadnoughts who launched their millions of Despair-class fighters.

Meanwhile onboard the Covenant Capital ship, Arbiter Khega 'Votamee was standing on the bridge of his Sh'wada-pattern supercarrier with his servant the former Arbiter Ripa 'Moramee next to him.

"Arbiter, those are the ships that I was telling you about, the last there were two of them which took my fleet out in minutes, but now there is 4, I dont…" He couldn't get his next words out as Khega 'Votamee hit him in his face sending him back 5ft.

"How does it feel to get hit by your superior while you're trying to give them important information, must feel nice right?" said Khega 'Votamee with a smile on his face as he continued to stare outside the window.

Normally Ripa 'Moramee would have not allowed something like this to happen to him, but he doesn't have any power right now to fight back. So, he stood up like nothing happened while Khega 'Votamee turned around.

"Now, you say these ships are powerful, but there is only 4 of them and I have 60 ships which is more than enough to take care of them!" Shouted Khega 'Votamee.

Ripa 'Moramee only shook his head since he knew what was about to happen.

Within the next moments the 4 Forerunner Dreadnoughts, which had long range weapons, fired on the front-line Covenant ships destroying 4 of them with one volley. The explosion had caused damage to the nearby Covenant ships and had got the attention of Khega 'Votamee as he looked at what had just happened.

"Interesting" uttered Khega 'Votamee as he noted the power of the 4 ships. "All ships fire all weapons!" Commanded Khega 'Votamee as he turned towards Ripa 'Moramee who only stared back at him. He listened to what his servant said and took it into consideration.

A few minutes later and the entire UNSC fleet was now in range and fired their weapons on the Covenant fleet as well. In the eyes of the Covenant, the battle was in their favor because they still believed their ships to be all powerful against Human ships despite their previous losses during the beginning of the war.

However, on the UNSC side they never even saw the Covenant fleet one equal standing with them. Victory was guaranteed the moment the Covenant invaded one of their core worlds.

As the battle progressed Arbiter Khega 'Votamee had seen enough to know that they would not win this battle. "All ships retreat" He ordered. He didn't consider this a loss, but a tactical retreat to reevaluate their plan of attack.

Onboard the bridge of Vice Admiral Hood's command ship the AI had alerted him to the Covenant retreat. "Admiral, they are getting ready for a full retreat" Alerted the AI.

"Good, concentrate all fire on the nearest Covenant ship to our position and since the it's safe deploy all Drop ships to the surface to assist the ground forces" Ordered Vice Admiral Hood.

"Aye, Sir" responded the AI. Within the Hanger, the Drop ships were already prepared to go since they exited War speed. They had only been waiting until it was safe to deploy to the surface except for the ODSTs who were already deployed to the surface.

One by one hundreds of Drop ships began to leave the hangers of their ships and proceed into the planet's atmosphere escorted by fighters and gunships. After a few minutes the Drop ships had breached the atmosphere and was now within the planet's atmosphere.

At the same time, Covenant banshees had been dispatched to destroy the incoming Drop ships. UNSC ground command has been unable to establish control over the skies because of their lack of fighters. The Covenant naturally had more fighters than they already had on the planet so establishing control over the skies was difficult from the start.

As one of the Drop ships neared its drop point it was receiving turbulence from the ongoing air battle between the UNSC fighters and Covenant banshees.

Johnson who was onboard this Drop ship had looked across and saw a soldier about to puke from all the turbulence that was going on. "Son if you puke on my Drop ship, Ima get out of this seat and toss you out myself!" Shouted Johnson as the marine attempted to hold in his puke.

Moments later the Drop ships had touched down alongside other Drop ships and the doors opened, revealing an already ongoing battle. "Let's go marines, move it, move it, move it, move it, you sons of bitches, it's time to go kick some Covenant ass." Shouted Johnson.

"The first one to wet their panties because of some plasma will wish they were dead" Added Johnson as joined the marines in the battle.

As the marines charged out of the Drop ships, plasma bolts from Covenant grunts and elites zinged past them, blasting large chunks of dirt and debris high into the air. Amidst the chaos of the battlefield, Johnson's deep voice bellowed again, "Eyes front, marines! Keep your heads down and your guns up! And for god's sake, don't stop shooting until every single one of them is dead!"

The Marines gritted their teeth against the heat and the noise, the soldiers moved forward in a staggered line formation, their Energy rifles firing at the Covenant forces. The initial wave of Covenant was mowed down under their relentless onslaught, but more were coming; elites, grunts, jackals, all charging forward in a frenzied counterattack.

Just as things started to heat up 12 Spartan-IIIs exited their Drop ship and joined the battle. They quickly pushed to the frontlines causing the Covenant to focus on them.

"God damn, take all the fun why don't you" Commented Johnson as the Spartans basically took charge of the battle. The marines simply followed behind them trying to keep up as they advanced forward.

"Sergeant Johnson, I got I think you will like" said a voice over the comm channel. Johnson looked up and saw a Drop ship carrying what the marines nicknamed the 'Spider Tank' because of its appearance.

(In case anyone forgot here is the picture of the Spider Tank)

"Hell yeah, now that's what I call a Covenant killing machine" Responded Johnson as the Spider Tanks were dropped off and had started firing on the Covenant vehicles.

Above the planet, Covenant forces had retreated, leaving behind their ground troops a few cruisers which were supporting the Covenant ground troops on the planet. UNSC forces had begun to deploy all over the planet to annihilate the Covenant with a secondary objective being to capture any Covenant who surrender or have been rendered unconscious.

This battle had seen the deployments of various new Military vehicles in a real combat situation which included the new drop ships, the unmanned multipurpose military vehicle, Spider tank, new fighters, new gunships, Spartan-IIIs, Energy Rifle, and the Energy Pistol. The combat data collected would help develop new technology aimed at fixing the weaknesses of the weapons and expanding on their strengths.