Chapter 10

We entered the ODST launching bay, "Pleasure to see you here SPARTANS" we turned around and saw Major Vaughan and his ODST team.

"Sir" I saluted him, "at ease, we're about to drop into hell. No need for formalities" I lowered my salute and greeted the rest of his team, Sunray 1-1.

Warrant Officer Quinn, This smart and quick-witted woman is the technical liaison. The most outspoken member of the team other than Major Vaughan.

Petty Officer Gruss, a cynical and gruff man is the team's medic. Loves dark humour, specifically around death.

Corporal Turpin, the quiet operator for Hank, Sunray's recon and support drone. She has a knack for reverse-engineering Covenant tech.

Lance Corporal Sparks, This nearly mute sniper and his M99 Stanchion gauss rifle can take the eye out of a grunt at a distance of almost 5km. The dumb AI he has with him doesn't hurt his aim either.

"Good to see you all, how long has it been?" Naomi asked, "nearly a year if I remember correctly" WO Quinn replied.

Before we could catch up fully, Cutter's voice rang out

"SPARTANS, I need you on the ground to assist Forge get past a large group of Brutes."

"Entering pods now" I replied and signalled my team to enter the drop pods.

"Love killing Brutes, each one dead is a bit of revenge for Harvest," Douglas said putting Gungnir inside his pod.

Once we all entered the pods they started to turn around and Serina's voice called out, "dropping heavy packages in t-10"

We waited those ten seconds and I heard a nostalgic beeping. Then, we dropped.

it wasn't my first drop into orbit but it still felt just as cool. Falling from the atmosphere, the continuous acceleration. It just got my blood pumping.

"Deploy chutes," Naomi said to us, "roger" we all replied. The chutes on our pods shot open and our fall was slowed down, still fast but slower.

We crashed into the squishy surface of the planet and the doors of our pods shot out.

[Grunt killed]

[25exp aquired]

'Heh, nice'

12 rockets flew out of Jerome's pod, hitting and killing a Covenant soldier each.

A Brute ran toward its Jiralhanae kin and killed one by bashing its skull in.

This, of course, was Naomi using The Masque of Trickery.

Nearby, a Brute was pierced by a long metal spike before exploding into a dark navy mist and injuring his allies at the same time.

I ran out with my Energy sword I had gotten from the Covenant frigate and started bisecting Covies.

Jorge and Alice had ran toward Forge and his troops to provide covering fire.

After a few short minutes and lots of non-human blood, all of the Covenant troops had been taken care of.

"Good to see you back in action, SPARTAN" Forge said walking up to me, "good to be back" I replied.

Forge nodded and went onto his tiptoes to comfortably pat my shoulder, "ahem," he coughed into his fist, "would you contact the Elephant teams for me, I need to check in on the wounded" I nodded in affirmation.

Forge left so I went onto the comms, "Elephant Alpha, Bravo, Charlie. Give me a sitrep"

"This is Elephant Alpha, we are closing in on the setup point"

"Elephant Bravo here, the same report as Alpha"

"Elephant Charlie reporting, we have reached our setup point and-" Charlie stopped talking for a moment and called to someone, "Smith, are the scanners on the fritz? It says there is movement all around us"

A man, presumably Smith, came over near the radio, "what the hell?" Smith said in a confused tone, "could it be Covenant? But there are too many signatures. Oh, they're moving toward us"

A third faraway voice that was difficult to make out started shouting, "...All around...Torch them...Its got Adam!.."

listening to the comm chatter I instantly knew what was happening, "all teams retreat to me immediately!"

-Meanwhile on planet Reach-

"Doctor, you have to realise he is almost out of our control," said a woman with four stars on her uniform.

"I don't know what you're talking about, he is under control," the woman across from her said.

"SPARTAN-049 has disobeyed direct orders on numerous occasions. Do you call that 'under control' Doctor?" She continued, "instead of completing the mission he, and by extension, his team, will rather go and save one marine. He has risked multiple high-class missions for what he thought was right"

"I am well aware, Admiral, but he is one of if not the best SPARTAN we have. He has made leaps and bounds in Covenant technology" Doctor Halsey stated.

"After he and his 'Rogue squad' broke the Cole protocol by bringing Covenant forces onto The Spirit of Fire. He has endangered Earth and her colonies" Admiral Margaret retorted

"Which is why I propose using the Cortana system to take over his body. We could use this with the other SPARTANS in his team, you would just have to give me the clearance and budget to do so"

Margaret glared at her, "I thought I made myself clear the other time. I will not allow it, it is illegal"

"Last time I remember kidnapping children is illegal too" Halsey and the Admiral stared at each other for what felt like minutes, "we will not speak of this any further," Margaret said while leaving the room.

A small smile grew on Halsey's lips

-Back on the shield world-

"On your left!" The Hellbringer turned and shot flames at the incoming combat forms.

*SKREEEEEEEECH*

The combat forms writhed in pain as they burned.

"How many of these things are there?"

"Where is our evac!?"

*BOOM*

"Troopers! get your asses moving, we've only got ten minutes before the Spirit gets sucked into the planet!" Douglas yelled putting a new spike in Gungnir.

""Yessir!"" They all yelled and ran toward the Firebase for an evac.

"Doug, we've got another Bison in place. It bought us 5 more minutes" I said over my team's comm channel, "roger that, I'll go help more Marines" Douglas replied to me, "piss off Doug, you just want to use Gungnir," I said laughing.

I turned my attention toward the Firebase we built, "Squad B, how's it going with that massive creature?" I asked the other half of my team that had gotten separated.

"Jerome here, it seems to get weaker when we destroy some of the smaller ones. We'll need to hurry though, ships can't get us here and back to the Spirit"

"Damn, It was my fault we got split up like this"

I thought for a moment."Cutter, I need a Wasp on my location immediately and a Shiva nuke"

"Sorry? Did you just ask for a nuke?" Cutter asked me.

"Affirmative sir"

"Sigh, you're lucky we have one on standby. I'm sending it along with the Wasp"

"Thank you, sir"

A minute later a Wasp descended from the sky and landed in front of me and the pilot hopped out, "afternoon, sir, I am lance corporal Diego. I was told to assist in any way possible"

I nodded at him, "understood, I need you to go help the injured. Not enough medics and way too many wounded"

"Understood, sir, I'll head there immediately" Diego ran off after saying that, "I didn't even tell him where the medical zone was" I mumbled to myself.

I looked at the Wasp and the payload inside the cockpit, "it definitely looks better than the Halo:5 version" I entered the aircraft and took off at a low altitude to avoid the anti-air Flood varients. Wouldn't be any good if the nuke got set off too soon.

I hopped onto Rogue squads comm channel, "Squad B leader, this is Russell, I am heading to your location to help destroy the large creature"

Jerome answered while panting heavily, "Squad B leader reporting, how many troops are you bringing and what kind of firepower do they have?"

"No troops and a nuke"

(A.N. sorry for not uploading. Some family stuff happened and I was in the dumps, but now my irregular schedule should restart)