1 PROLOGUE:

1812 HOURS, SIGMA OCTANUS IV, ERIDANUS SYSTEM, July 17th 2552

SPARTAN II, Chief Petty Officer, BLACK One moved through the troop bay of the Pelican Dropship Bravo 033 and rested her armoured palm on the seat of the young co-pilot, his full sealed helmet hiding his nervous and sweating face from the atmospheric dropout and dodging and swerving through scorching hot plasma from Covenant directed energy weapon based "shade" emplacements.

She glanced back into the troop bay at the 4 Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs), referred to as "Helljumpers" that slouched in the parallel facing seats, each one of them gripping onto MA5B Bullpup Assault Rifles. Their pastel blue, opaque visors of their oval and circular helmets hiding their gung-ho expressions. All geared up in a black battle dress, they were elite special forces marine units, eager to fight the covenant, typically deployed in one man drop pods from orbit behind enemy lines, although this clearly was an exception with using conventional dropships.

Glancing out from the viewport of the pelican cockpit, as it flew over the smoldered remains of strucken skyscrapers, steel bars holding the buildings together reduced to dripping molten slag from plasma bombardment. Bravo 33 skimmed across the tall and metal jungle of skyscrapers, handling well off the pilot's handling who sat down in front of the co-pilots own seat. Three other pelicans, Bravo 034, 030 and 036, soared across the collapsed and burning buildings and plain, deserted streets of the city which Sigma 04's evening sun sent an emanating orange hue down upon the surface of Sigma Octanus IV

The Pelicans formed a V shaped wing formation as they flew closer to the ground to avoid the coming streaks of Covenant Anti Aircraft Fire. The Centre Pelican in the formation. Bravo 34, however, was unlucky as she caught a bolt to her right delta shaped wing, the dropship groaned and screamed as she struggled to keep airborne, not before another streak smashed into her cockpit and vaporised her viewport, surely killing both her pilot and co-pilot, the dropship fell down into the concrete and asphalt, only a few hundred meters of the war-torn Cote D Azur City Central Plaza, or to UNSC Ground Command. "Landing Point Ground Zero" .

For ODST squads, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta. The SPARTAN IIs of BLACK Team had been divided and attached to each squad to provide combat support at the LZ, mostly because the LZ was hot, but "hot" was nothing special to the crazy kind of soldier that the ODSTs were. BLACK Three had been attached to ODST Bravo Squad, from the impact of the pelican, there was a good chance that all four Troopers, and her squadmate, were alive and uninjured.

Bravo 33's pilot yelled into the troop bay, "touchdown!, go, go, go!" The elite Helljumpers rushed out the pelicans drop-ramp and began to scramble for cover, One retrieved her MA5B of her own rear magnetic mount of her MJOLNIR Battle Armor that encased her entire body, looking half an advanced battle machine and half greek warrior. One jogged off the ramp onto the solid and dusty concrete floor. Bolstering her own motion tracker to the full range of 25 metres. She glanced around at what was in front of her, out came Grunts.

Grunts were used by the Covenant as cannon fodder, typically hurled at the opposing forces, lacking in brainpower, their tactics usually made up for this on sheer numbers and tenacity, she had seen them charging UNSC defensive positions, and only would ever succeed by overrunning them in sheer numbers, their dead often in piles of each other. They were meter long, stocky aliens that resembled bipedal dogs, communicating through squeaks, barks and growls, they each wore an orange environment suit that replicated the methane based atmosphere of their home planet. In their paw like hands they each carried a C shaped Plasma Pistol.

Snorting and Sniffling as their legs carried them towards the marines, she sprang out in a charge and began to send singing hot lead from her bulky MA5B assault rifle, which fired at 900 rounds per minute from a 60 round Magazine of 7.62 Armor Piercing rounds. The grunts dropped quickly, barely allowing them to fire a shot at her blackened MJOLNIR armor.

One moved through the rubble of a collapsed building, the Helljumpers of Alpha squad who advancing slowly behind her and giving her backup from her six, mopping up the grunt stragglers she would leave behind when she had to reload, easy goings for now.

After being satisfied with the swath of the dead stocky dog-like aliens. She dropped the dry magazine from the bullpup rifle and sent another one home, locking and slamming the rifles charging bolt back with a clack. The top mounted, integral ammo counter read "60". A fresher pile of grunts sprung out from cover and began sending hot plasma back at her, led by a larger alien with a saurian autonomy. Adorned in a sleek cobalt armoured harness that projected an energy shield which could absorb numerous ballistics before eventually collapsing, its four pronged jaw anatomy, which earned the creature its nickname of "split-jaw" were the Covenant Elites. The covenant's deadly, disciplined and vicious warriors and military leaders. And more dangerous than simple grunts. In his hand he held a larger weapon than the grunts' own plasma pistol. What resembled two curved bodies placed one above and one below, with the handle grip securing it together with a smooth like shape, the weapon looked organic, almost jawlike. It could fire semi automatic or fully automatic, sending blue, hot bolts of plasma which could melt armour and cook the flesh beneath it, a Plasma Rifle.

She limbered her MA5B Assault Rifle back onto her rear magnetic weapon plate and switched to her M6D Magnum sidearm mounted on the magnetic holster on her thigh, a bulky pistol which fired 12 rounds of semi Armor Piercing, High Explosive 50. Caliber Slugs the size of her gauntleted thumb. , and firing several shots into the saurian alien, the fifth shot buckled the alien's energy shielding and caught the crown of its skull, crumpling down beneath it's purple-black blood and brain matter, dead. she emptied the other 7 shots into the dead elite's grunt underlings as they squealed and fled from the black armored killing machine that had just quickly and efficiently killed their leader

One moved further downwards through a bombed out street, near Bravo 034's crash site. The Pelican Dropship wasn't in a flyable state, her predictions were correct and both pilots were now blackened in what remained of the forward cockpit viewport, The right wing's thrusters were a smolder.

The ODSTs of Bravo Squad had all survived and were all in intact condition, they had escaped from the crash and erected several barricades, using the rubble to fortify their new position, that being the inside of a bombed out building that had probably one been a street café, they had made a defensive perimeter around the crash site, with the help of Black Three. One of the ODSTs jeered "If these Spartans are so good as I hear, then why the hell are we even here when they can win the damn fight themselves?"

she ignored the remark and made her way through the barricades,

another trooper grunted "Spartan, you'll be going out into the enemy territory, it's damn rich with the gas suckers, watch your six and don't let 'em swarm you! We're gunna move through the front, you can use the buildings to flank 'em!"

She nodded her helmeted head, her opaque golden visor hiding her face. "Alright, Thanks for the heads-up". She had dealt with grunts as long as she had known the war, but the intel would be helpful

After cutting down another charging lance that tried to breach the erected barricade, she pushed further through a series of buildings, staring out at an impact crater. Two avian bird-like aliens called 'Jackals' using blue, spherical shaped Energy shields blossoming from a gauntlet worn on their hollow arms. Where a M9 frag had detonated, sending pieces of them into the air, as a Black Armoured figure rushed past what was left of them.

SPARTAN BLACK Three. She smiled behind her visor and pushed through another building, or what was left of it that wasn't sunken beneath the collapsed roof, a few metres ahead, another saurian elite barked an order at its underlying in its own unintelligible tongue. A grunt came heaving a powerful plasma cannon mounted onto a tripod, held together by a bright purple energy strut. The stubby creature unfolded the cannon and began to fire hot purple bolts at rapid fire, the range and fire rate of the automatic plasma cannon would quickly cut down ODSTs as they advanced through the debris. She lobbed an M9 frag into the grunt lance and mopped up what was left with her Assault Rifle. Pushing forward through responding grunts and two more elites, cutting them down in quick unison, through a larger crater wide and tall enough for her to step out of and unto what remained of a covenant shade gun emplacement, Black Three threw a pair of M9s at a phalanx of the bird-like jackals, sending them and the grunts behind them up into the air, mangled and in pieces before landing back down in unison with the splat of alien gore.

Three yelled out "Yeah! How's that for ya?" His tenacity and benevolent demeanour made him stand out from the SPARTANs, for all the better. Blowing hot lead into elites and grunts spared from the explosion with his assault rifle.

He ran his index and middle finger across his faceplate, the smile gesture they used to greet other spartans "Hey, Boss"

She smiled back and accessed her Helmets heads up display, which she accessed through a neural computer that interfaced with her brain, and pulled up TEAMCOM (Team Command) and began to speak into the secure COM channel feature. "You all good, Three? Sounds like you're having fun." he nodded his helmet, "not as busy as you from how it's sounding back there, set and ready to go, oh, and sorry about the mess" he gestured towards the curved purple hull of covenant nanolaminate that was a covenant bunker, "mind watching my back, Boss?" She jeered back "mind being quick about it and not killing us both?'' The laughter and quips was good, it eased the tension that was almost always around them. Three was always a great charmer. He crouched down and set a C-12 blowpack charge onto the bulbous nanolamite plating, a 'beep' before he yelled out "fire in the hole!" sending his thumb down onto the detonator. Blowing apart the bunker in front and sending the structure and its occupants into the air, before tumbling to ground into buckled and snapped crispy remains of shrapnel and gore. Charging through and slaughtering a group of elites who stood meters from where the bunker once was, moving through the entrance of the underground subway access

BLACK Two came in her helmet COM. "BLACK One, Delta squad's fallin' up behind Alpha and Bravo, meet you inside the subway.

One came back, "copy that, Two."

Black-One and Black-Three stormed through the Covenant Defenses, cutting down elites and grunts left and right as they did so, through unto the terminal since abandoned at the start of the alien invasion, Black Two had been demonstrating her own close combat prowess against the Covenant forces that now occupied the subway.

Black-Two turned her sights to a charging elite, what had one been thin air, in a darkened gray harness and with a helmet which covered its entire four mandible face. Armed with a razor sharp plasma blade which emanated from a W shaped hilt it held in its three digit hand. A blue, glowing, oval shaped blade formed from the hilt, both the bottom and top of the alien sword. Two grabbed the elite and sliced into his thigh with a knife she unsheathed from her waist. Before sending the knife into the alien's neck, a burst of purple blood spitting out as the alien dropped with a gurgle, she twirled the blade in a careful arc with her two fingers and slid it back home to the sheath and tapped her helmet. "Might want to keep your eye on your motion trackers, bastards are using Av-Camo" Two said into the COM, she was the team's expert engineer and assault expert. She was just as smart and sassy as she was deadly. She slapped a new magazine into her MA5B rifle and took the point forward. One noticed the numerous Jackals Two had recently practised her "handiwork" on as she followed up behind her, with Three on her rear.

Pushing through onto a makeshift covenant supply zone, two outstretched covenant vehicles pushed through the subway tunnels, levitating off the ground by its anti gravity drive, it floated ominously and came to a stop, before offloading its payload of Covenant infantry, grunts, jackals and elites.

"Welcome to covenant central" Two Muttered onto TEAMCOM, "hope Three's got the greeting gifts"

Three didn't reply, but instead hefted a C-12 Shaped Explosive Charge, threw it into the air, and caught it as gravity pulled it down to his armoured palm, One knew he was grinning beneath the helmet.

The Covenant vehicles known as "Shadows" were being loaded with war material to transport to the city outskirts, likely to help fortify the Mega Turret they had orders to destroy. Three armed and threw a captured plasma grenade at the first Shadow Troop Carrier's turret emplacement, mounted onto the front of long outstretched shape of the vehicle, vertically upwards to the driver, the entire turret vaporised in a plume in a flash of superheated plasma. As the infantry around the Shadow Troop Carriers began to turn around or dash for cover to return fire as Black One and Two responded with Assault Rifle fire, Three threw another plasma grenade at the top mounted plasma cannon of the second Shadow as it turned to fire on Black One who had broken into a strafe from the terminal entrance. The grunt operating the turret was sent into the air, missing limbs and half vaporised. The three Spartans began pouring a second hot lead into the crowd of grunts and jackals, dropping in groups of twos and threes. Pushing onwards through the debris and cutting down stragglers that attempted to cower away from the Spartans. Three slapped armed C-12 Shaped Explosive charges onto the alien troop carriers chitinous hulls, before re-joining One and Two, pressing his thumb down onto the detonator.

Upwards through the terminal staircase and into the deserted lobby. Several Elite corpses lay dead at Black Four's feet, a gold armoured one had boldly charged him, in its hand it had held an energy sword which glowed a eery cyan, which shined into his sun-gold visor, he twisted the wrist into position of the elites chest and rammed the blade forward as the energy blade shot out through the alien leader's hinged spine. It dropped onto the ground with a pained groan. He took off a scoped rifle that was longer and heavier than Black One's own MA5B. Four's SRS99 Sniper Rifle fired 14.5 APFSDS (Armour piercing fin stabilised discarding sabot) rounds. Victor formed the two fingered smile gesture and raised them to the crown of his helmet, before returning to grip the rifle's barrel guard. Four was unusually calm, no matter the situation, though some, and One had once herself felt concern for his emotional well-being. Which could unsettle those around him, however, it became a trait she had begun to appreciate in him. "Black Four reporting in, sounded like a helluva party you were having back there."

Three jeered on TEAMCOM "Yeah, you missed all the fun"

Four snarked back "I've been having my own fun"

The four Spartans looked almost completely identical in their MJOLNIR Armor which encased their Augmented bodies, physically built to be faster and stronger than any other UNSC soldier. Their armour bolstered their feats.

Further down ahead and through a exit tunnel, there was a Covenant energy Barrier that had only recently been activated, as well as a Deployable Watchtower, that a grunt squad had recently activated, resembling a base with a circular open canopy with numerous "fins'' which acted as cover for the garrisoned infantry, suspended into the air from its base by a Anti Gravity Drive, on the other side of the shielding, a Jackal wielding a long barrelled Particle Beam weapon sat on top of a portable maintenance lift overlooking the lookout tower, wearing a set of tri-eyed goggles over its beady eyes, the lens glowing teal, Four hunkered almost directly beneath the Sniper and out of its firing arc. He made a gesture towards the heavy plasma cannon mounted at one of the fins of the circular shaped tower. Black Three hefted another C-12 explosive charge and threw it onto the bow of the tower and pressed the detonator in his left hand, the entire tower shook apart in a magnificent explosion, as a large chunk of it ominously crushed a scared grunt as it tried to flee.

the other aliens scuffled away to cover. The Four elites who had been standing guard roared and yelled at the Jackals, who got up and began to pour plasma fire at the Spartans. The sniper tried squeezing off a shot at One, but fell down to ground minus its head, Two threw a pair of M9 frag grenades and watched as the jackals scuffled in response, three, no four of them were sent further down the exit tunnel in pieces.

One's own Assault Rifle roared and sparked at the lead Crimson armored, veteran Elite, it's shielding buckling and penetrated, not having time to reload, she drew her M6D sidearm, finishing him off with a single shot to his cranium, slumping down dead on the maglev track. Black Two approached the generator, and smashed her fist into it's glowing battery, the entire field vanished.

"Jeez, Two. And you say I'm too rough with stuff" Three chuckled

"This is an exception, Three. I like to break stuff too." Two said back

BLACK Team advanced through the tunnel into the wide open track which had since been scuffled and boiled by Plasma bombardment. The train carriages slumped across the smelted and buckled tracks resembled broken, burnt and melted toys scattered across. Half of a Industrial business owned skyscraper lay ontop of the other end of the tracks, blocking the route ahead, an opening had been created through the smelted maintenance tunnel, systematically, they moved through the opening and advanced on the other side of the tracks.

Black One had thought about how the city had better days as she took point ahead, eying every building, scanning any place that could be worthy to a sniper or an ambush, or both.

a UNSC Comm channel crackled in Black One's HUD. She identified the speaker as one Lance Corporal Bill "Buzz" Lehto, the Helljumper noncom assigned as CO of the Sniper Team that Black Four had escorted through the main landing zone,

"Charlie here, covies got us boxed in and looks like they're jonestin' to cook us. Be really nice if someone could save our asses!"

It would be time consuming to assist Charlie than handle the main objective first, but she doubted they would last that long if they were being swarmed, "main objective can wait, let's go save Charlie's asses."

After detouring through a cleared out Jim Dandy Restaurant, One traced around and made her hand into a flat palm into a slicing motion, they spread out through the back end and out unto the square, Four tapped his helmet and gestured towards coming Covenant brandishing plasma rifles and needler weapons, facing and shooting at a four story building with a good overlook across a clearing below where the silhouette of the mega turret stood, it pounded out a triple shot volley of fiery hot plasma and it echoed into the UNSC Marines below. She heard screams and cries as the volley smashed into the hills. Covenant U shaped Spirit Dropships flied off in the direction of the blasts, likely kill squads

Black One gestured to Black Three, who armed duo of M9 Frag grenades and lobbed them at the ground in front, they detonated and sent both dead and alive aliens alike scattering, they dispersed and scattered and collectively filled up was was left across the footpath with AP rounds before they had a chance to shoot back.

BLACK One held her fist in the air and brought it down to a hold, the three others automatically began covering any angle possible, their three bulky rifles pointed at her right, left and rear directions. One came in the entrance of the building, where the ODSTs had managed to quickly react, a fully armoured ODST was observing the quick carnage, turned, noticed and saluted, his MA5B Rifle over slung on his back,

"Thanks for the help, Spartan, might as well give some last minute sniper support if your goin' down through that clearing." He said,

Black One nodded, "much obliged, Corporal". She stepped back out to join her Spartans outside the building, moving back on track through the clearing, gingerly stepping over across the rainbow armoured bodies of covenant, and the many sage green marines.

Further down the road, there stood the Covenant Mega Turret. Resembling a massive two pronged cannon, mounted onto a cylindrical base, secured by two struts which appeared like legs, several tall plasma batteries was stacked near the turret and being loaded by the grunt workers supervised by the Elites, Mega Turrets were heavy plasma mortars that fired plasma at a velocity to do serious damage to even a armoured Grizzly Tank Column in a single volley. By destroying the Mega Turret. It would allow the UNSC to tip the scales of the fight in their favour, and achieve ground superiority. Black One pulled her COM to Charlie Squad, in position on the fourth floor of the penthouse.

"In position, Corporal, fire when ready" She said

"Copy that, Black One" Lehto said back into the COM.

they creeped into strong cover and waited, a moment later, a Crimson Armoured elite fell down headless onto the ground, then a elite who was too far from cover to react in time with a bloody hole through his neck. Charlie Squad began to fire up onto the alien guards.

The four spartans let loose and opened fire with their MA5B Assault Rifles, AP rounds tore into and through the aliens, breaching armour, energy shields and reaching flesh and bone, sparking and setting some of the pyramid shaped methane tanks the grunts wore. Sending wild flame bursting through the file. The Spartans broke into a strafe and spread out across the area, giving multiple targets towards what remained of the defending infantry. As they finally began to realise what was happening, and responded to the Spartans through Searing Plasma and Explosive Needle rounds, some catching their armour, One's own energy shielding began to flicker. One of the ODST Sharpshooters caught another Gold armoured elite with his sniper as he began yelling at his subordinates to send plasma fire uphill towards his position, he slumped down with two massive holes in his chest and abdomen. One armed a Frag Grenade and hurled it at the aliens. Sending grunts up in pieces like confetti. Shade guns began to fire onto the Spartans, but came up short with several muffled cracks as they fell dead seconds before they could start firing. Three dashed onto the control platform for the turret, riddling the golden elite commander who operated the turret with AP Rounds, kicking his body off the platform and began to set C-12 charges onto its main plasma core, flashing yellow twice in TEAMCOM, before sliding down its chitinous plating and setting the mega turret alight in a spectacle of his explosive firework show. One switched her COM to UNSC Ground Command.

"Thanks for the help, Charlie, get clear and RV with Alpha and Bravo for Evac."

WILCO that, Spartan, pleasure working with you, out."

"Black One to Command, Mission Complete: Mega turret's disposed of.".

The response came, "Black One this is Admiral Stanforth, good work on freeing up more breathing room around the city centre, more SPARTANs are being deployed. New orders, Battle group Leviathan reporting shows that a disabled frigate has set down and made landfall in the natural reserve outside the city limits for emergency repairs, ONI see's an opportunity to board the frigate and capture it's navigation data. That'll go a long way for us turning the tide and winning the war. Your Team is being retasked for this purpose, Bravo 33 will fly you in."

"Understood, Admiral, Black One, out"

Bravo 33's pilot sounded in Black One's CO as the Pelican came to view.

"Bravo 33 here for pickup, grab your bags and keep your packs tight, gonna get bumpy"

Four hit the COM "your late out to the snipe hunt, 33"

Bravo 33's pilot scoffed "you guys are lucky y'know, it's an entire Charlie Foxtrot of triple A out there!"

Bravo 33 flew out towards the Spartans near the edge of the cliffside, opening the rear hatch as it did so, one by one they marched onto the ramp and into the dropship. Lifting off unto the outskirts.