/ Unknown – High Charity – Unknown \

/ Cycle 149 - 9th Age of Reclamation \

/ Unit 9.3 - Covenant Battle Calendar \

"The war against the Humans isn't progressing as we'd hoped; they should've been long extinct by now." A brash voice spoke

"Not even the oracle could have predicted their tenacity, we underestimated them, and we have paid for it. However, their arrogance in the face of the Great Journey will be their undoing." An elderly voice replied.

"Their undoing? Their fortress line may be falling but how many more holy soldiers will it take to breach their lines, how many ships to glass their worlds? How many more years until their last bastion falls? Each loss we suffer is a delay to the great journey we cannot abide, our lines are stretched, and supplies are low. There are whispers of the Sangheili losing faith in the council!" The first replied angrily.

"Every loss is for a worthy cause!" The second went.

"Peace brothers, arguing amongst ourselves will do us no good." A calm voice interjected. "The Human's time will come of that I am sure, however the report a Jiralhanae scouting fleet has sent is of more concern at the moment."

A one of the two voices sighed, "You speak the truth as always brother, I too have read the report." The second said.

"Hmm, too think that another coalition of species exists in the galaxy. A democratic one too, humph, fools." The first muttered, before a crunch followed it.

"Even the Holy Forerunners hadn't fully explored the depths of the galaxy Regret, the chances of species gathering together for security isn't unlikely, nor will the methods be the same. We've had the Sangheili as stout allies to defend and wage war for us. Others are not so fortunate. Nor enlightened." The calm voice explained.

"You truly are the wisest of our order, Truth." The second voice spoke.

The third chuckled slightly, "You flatter Mercy."

The three individuals speaking were the High Prophets of the Covenant - Truth, Mercy and Regret. They currently sat in an inner sanctum, specially created for the three High Prophets to dine in. The room's gravity lowered allowing their fragile bodies to sit outside their specially crafted chairs on plush, cushioned seats to eat. The table before them filled to the brim with alien delicacies available only to their order.

The sanctum was large for only the three, a large window overlooked the cityscape in the enormous station and the Forerunner Keyship.

For a few minutes nothing filled the room other than the sound of eating, "What is it we should do with the new interlopers?" Mercy asked at last. "Induct them into the Covenant, with force or without?"

"If we were to do so, we likely would have to force them. The files downloaded from their systems indicate that this 'Citadel Council' have existed almost as long as the Covenant, they would not likely join of their own will." Truth replied after taking a drink from a glass of green liquid. "Nor would they liked to after the admittedly foolish attack on their world."

"Not to mention the Relays they use and the Citadel they inhabit, they do not appear Forerunner in origin but the Jiralhanae reported that they responded to the Holy Song. If so they must be punished for abusing Holy Artefacts!" Mercy yelled.

Truth raised a hand to the other Prophet, "Calm yourself Mercy." He soothed, "If what the scouting fleet said is true, their ships are weak, weaker than even the Humans at the outbreak of the war."

"Even so, they are certainly numerous, and we'd have to divert ships and soldiers away from the Human front to combat them, the Humans are already counter-attacking to regain their fortress worlds. We do not have the ships nor supplies to fight a two-front war of this magnitude." Regret added.

"And so, we will let them." Truth chuckled.

"What do you propose?" Regret questioned.

"The Citadel species are too numerous and spread out due to the Relays, we'd have to commit generous amounts of ships and resources to rooting out every planet and crushing resistance, while on the other hand the Humans are confined to the Orion arm and are packed together. Once they regain their fortress line, they will not attack us, they are too few, allowing us to focus on the Council. Once they are subjugated, we turn back to the Humans and CRUSH them underneath our numbers." He punctuated the small speech by slamming his fist on his chair.

The other two Prophets nodded along, "Of course, the Great Journey stops for no one!" Regret cheered.

/ Unknown – Unknown -Unknown \

/ 12-4-2558 - Military Calendar \

/ 1:14 am - Local Time \

The purple sky was dark and overcast on the alien planet, perfect for infiltrations. Hidden in the underbrush, a single soldier watched the treetops for any sign of movement that might indicate a watcher. Jackal snipers were a threat even to them, their incredible eyesight outmatched anything from Earth.

The clouds cleared ever so slightly allowing light from the planet's three moons to shine onto the forest, silhouetting the lanky figure of the creature he was watching out for.

Without prompting the armour outlined it in red for targeting. Not a second later a cyan laser pierced it's brain with a quiet hiss causing it to drop from its perch high in the trees with a dull thump.

The solider stilled for a minute longer as he waited to see if any more sentries had noticed their dead comrade, a light blinked green on his HUD and the solider rose from his position, weapons raised in caution despite the all clear. He swept the area once again before raising his hand and gesturing forwards.

Two more shadows appeared from the ground further back, their weapons too raised. In perfect synchrony they stepped forwards and weaved their way through the alien forest, sweeping their weapons this and that way, silent even with their large statures.

It was a few minutes before a purple glow grew brighter and brighter as they neared the edge of the forest. The trio crouched at the tree line and gazed at the sprawling Covenant outpost before them, the Citadel centre piece reaching into the sky.

"Numbers?" The first shadow questioned.

"Few thousand, all manner of troops, equipment and vehicles. You know the usual, squad verse a small army situation" A slightly synthesized feminine voice spoke in his ear.

"That's not really an issue for us." A male voice commented from one of the shadows.

"Linda?" The first shadow spoke again.

"I've got no visuals; the tree line is too thick to see through from my position" Another voice replied in his ear.

"Can you relocate?" He questioned.

The comm was quiet for a moment, "Negative, ground isn't high enough to see over the trees and the tree's themselves won't support my weight, I've already tested"

"Understood, relocate to the South West of the outpost, directly opposite our position." He ordered.

"Copy, Oscar Mike" The comm fell silent once again.

"Fred, rendezvous with her." He ordered the male shadow at his side. The shadow disappeared without a word.

"Is it wise to split John?" The other shadow finally spoke, breaking the silence with a third female voice.

"If we're all in the same place we'll simply be overwhelmed with numbers, superior capabilities or not. In pairs we'll have less-contacts between us, and they'll have less to shoot at." John replied, shifting his position slightly to cover the space Fred had left. The female hummed in understanding and went back to watching the outpost in silence.

A little while later Fred's voice spoke over the comm :We're in position:

"Understood, begin the attack" John ordered and immediately the two SPARTAN's exploded from their positions, reaching speeds of 50km/h in seconds as they raced to cross the distance between the cover of the forest and the outpost.

They were half-way across the plains when the keen eyed Jackals spotted them, in the time it took to process this fact and raise the alarm the two super soldiers had cleared the rest of the distance and were already shooting at guards too slow to process the alarm atop the stout wall.

Kelly began accelerating once more as the distance closed and lowered her shoulder, slamming into the purple door, denting it heavily. John, slightly behind now but weighing more, activating the boosters on his shoulders, did the same and the door flew off it hinges into a small courtyard.

John rolled with it and hurled a handful of grenades as he rose at the stupefied Covenant forces, the explosions eliminating a few dozen before they could react in time. Kelly blurred past him and turned around, firing at the Jackals still atop the wall, each shot finding it's mark between their large eyes.

Plasma splashed against their shields now and both darted for cover as more and more alien soldiers arrived now. :Fred, Status?: John asked into the comms.

"Breached the outer wall, pushing inwards, plenty of contacts" Fred replied after a beat, the sound of gunfire almost drowning his voice out even with the helmet dampening it.

"Understood" He said curtly. He refocused on the battle, and in time with Kelly, both turned out of their cover and began lighting up the arrayed Covenant forces that had gathered. Their commander had apparently not responded in strength yet as they were scattered and shooting without any sort of co-ordination.

The SPARTANS's easily tore them apart, John's M742 SAW ripped apart bodies, shielded and unshielded alike while Kelly's DMR downed targets with every well-placed shot. Between the two, they easily waded through the alien garrison, picking apart resistance even when it became tighter and more organised.

It was likely between the pincer of the four SPARTANS's, the base commander had no idea who to face first. These supply outposts tended to be lightly garrisoned, with few heavy weapons or vehicles if any.

John ducked back into cover to reload his SAW, the weapon was bulky and heavy with the MAC technology fitted into it, the added 250 round drum-mag made the weapon quite weighty, but was no issue for a SPARTAN.

He saw Kelly drop back in further up as her shields dropped from prolonged fire, and he stepped back out to give her cover. The LMG kicked in his hands as it spat rounds down range, a dozen Elites were killed in seconds as the mass accelerated rounds ripped apart their shields and then their armour.

Kelly span back out of cover and took down several jackals in quick time, before being caught flat footed as some armoured came Brutes charging forward and began plucking away at their shields. Fortunately, John had seen the same thing and swung his SAW in their direction, firing in short bursts now that the opposition had been thinned. Between the two they dropped the zealous shock-troops from 9 to 0 before they got with 10 feet of the duo. Kelly and John shared a look, Brutes guarding a supply outpost?

Once more pushing up the duo continued taking apart the limited resistance, the numbers large but uncoordinated proving little trouble as most ran straight at the guns hoping for glory or an honourable death at the hands of the Demons, who were more than willing to help them along. Brutes becoming more prevalent as they edged closer and closer to the citadel entrance.

10 minutes. That's how long it took for the 4 SPARTAN's to eliminate the garrison. The pincer had worked perfectly, and the base's commander hadn't been able to efficiently target either party well enough to neutralise them, leaving the Covenant ground forces at the tender mercy of the most highly skilled special forces squad the Humans had to offer.

The two pairs met at the entrance to the citadel among the wreckage of the several shade turrets and the corpses on Covenant soldiers. Fred nudged the body of a mangled Brute with his foot, "Brutes on a base garrison? Doesn't that seem a little weird to you?" He questioned.

"We had the same thought," Kelly replied.

"Something is happening behind the scenes, rarely do the Brutes outnumber the Elites in an engagement. Especially for something like this, a Sangheili commander would never allow it." Fred commented

"Perhaps they're not commanded by an Elite?" Linda theorised.

John stepped past, towards the door into the citadel. "Later." He remarked, he unslung a pack from his lower back and chucked it towards Fred who easily caught it. "Linda, Fred set the charges, Kelly with me. We're clearing the tower."

He held his hand up towards the console and the red lettering turned purple, the locked entrance opened to an empty hall and the two SPARTANS's proceeded in weapons raised, Kelly switched her DMR for a shotgun and John his SAW for a simple Assault Rifle.

The halls were clear apart from a few patrols here and there, each was as easily dealt with as the last. They finally reached the control room after 5 minutes of room clearing and stacked on the door, "Detecting a large group of hostiles gathered on the far side of the room Chief" The female spoke again.

"The door." John spoke, and a few seconds later it opened, expectantly a hail of plasma immediately sped through the door blocking their entrance. They waited patiently for the plasma weapons to overheat to get their window and primed two grenades each.

When the fire began decreasing in strength, they threw their grenades through the door, following only when the explosions cut off the plasma entirely. The only guards left 'standing' in the room were a small group of unshielded Jackals and a Brute chieftain without his hammer, which lay across the room and mangled beyond use. They were dead within seconds.

Kelly surveyed the room as they lowered their weapons with the danger now clear, "Linda was right, there are no Elites here."

John remained silent for a moment before walking to a now abandoned console, reaching to the back of his helmet and pulling out a chip, slipping it into a compartment on the console. A second later a blue feminine figure appeared staring up the giant. "Find out what you can Cortana, then set the base to blow."

Cortana snorted, "Easy as pie, you'd think to give a girl a challenge every now and then John?" She snarked and disappeared.

John shrugged, "Ask command for harder missions." He turned to Kelly, "Return outside and request a supply drop, we have several more bases to hit."

Kelly nodded and left without a word and Cortana once more appeared. "Done, yank me." John did so and slipped the data chip back into his helmet. It was understandable why she was bored really, Cortana was a unique AI, despite advances in AI technology into the sixth Generation now, she still the most advanced AI in Human hands while being third generation, being a flash clone of Halsey herself.

Technically being 9 years of age she should have entered rampancy 2 years ago, not soon after being permanently assigned to him, but Halsey took her back and a month later she was as good as new. Better processing power, more storage longer life. She was the oldest Smart-AI in history that wasn't rampart, the fifth and sixth generations while had a longer lifespan of 9 and 12 years respectively were younger.

He heard her groan in his ears, "This is so boring, why don't they put us on colony defence or something, these types of missions are hardly worth our time." She moaned.

John rolled his eyes, "Because HIGHCOM knows that as soon as word of us slips out the entire Covenant armada will descend on the planet, besides these types of missions are important too." He spoke.

"I'm sure we could take 'em, these raids are a bit above our pay grade don't you think?" She replied.

John rolled his eyes again and slapped his AR besides his SAW on the back mag-plates. "Yes we could, the others defending the colony would have a harder time." He reasoned, turning to leave. "Besides, if you're this bored stay behind."

"And miss all the fun? There are only so many games of solitaire one can play before you go crazy." Cortana replied.

John snorted as he thumped out the room, it was going to be a long night.

/ Orbit – Macedyn – Abtion \

/ 18-12-2156 - Galactic Standard \

/ 09:24 AM - Palaven Standard \

Admiral Fedorian gazed out the bridge view port on his flagship the Dreadnaught Praetorian, as the fleet numbering near two thousand Turian vessels exited FTL into real space a few thousand miles from Macedyn's orbit. The stoic visage he usually wore fell into a grim frown as he gazed once more again against the burnt-out husk of Macedyn. The blackened surface interlaced with trails of red and orange dictated that the former colony was still much cooling since the attack weeks ago.

"Admiral, all ships have reported in. We're green across the board." Comms spoke from his terminal.

Fedorian blinked himself out of his stupor and nodded, "Good, split up into the pre-prepared groups and patrol patterns, reports are to be every 2 hours." He turned away from the view port as fighters and corvettes streamed passed and walked to the view table in the centre of the bride and brought up an orange image of the solar system as the floor beneath him vibrated, the Praetorian and her task force moving into low orbit around Macedyn. "Launch probes and set them to prioritise the radiation we discovered earlier, and contact the scientists, I want to know if they have discovered anything else of value."

"Yes Admiral," Several voices answered, and activity picked up on the bridge.

After a few minutes a voice spoke up, "Admiral, the TSF Sipilia is requesting to dock and Dr. Pinabia Velitumus to come aboard."

Thoughts swirling it took a moment for Fedorian to answer. "Granted." He said and turned and marched out the bridge knowing his XO would briefly take command.

He easily traced the path to the meeting room placed within every command ship nodding at the singular guard present.

He completed idle work on a terminal set into the table while he waited for the doctor to arrive, who did so in good time and entered the room without ceremony, Fedorian standing to greet him.

"Admiral Fedorian, pleasure to finally meet you." The doctor addressed stepping forward and quickly saluting.

"Doctor Velitumus, welcome aboard." Fedorian reciprocated the salute and gestured to the table. "I gathered you have something for me?"

"Yes Admiral, if I may?" He indicated towards the terminal and at Fedoiran's acquiescence he approached and activated his omni-tool, connecting to the terminal.

A few moments later an orange hologram appeared above the table depicting various scans, diagrams and reading. Most flew straight over the poor Admiral's head, but he recognised the general layout of the radiation signatures that were discovered on their first excursion.

"It was hard work, but we managed to not only separate the two signatures but trace them both as well." Velitumus began.

"So long?" Fedorian questioned.

"Radiation is already a hard thing to track in the void of space, no particles to transport across as you can imagine, not to mention it's completely different to anything this galaxy has seen before."

Fedorian brought a talon to his mandibles. "How different exactly, can it be weaponised?"

"I couldn't tell you without a LOT more time to study it and without corrupted samples, as for how different. Try a different dimension all together." The scientist stated blankly.

Fedorian blinked. "I'm sorry?"

Velitumus held up his talons and a placating gesture, "The laws of Physics dictate that there are three dimensions that we move along, Left and Right – Forward and Back – Up and Down. We were extensively scanning the area of the most concentration of radiation when we discovered something peculiar, there was no entry or exit, it simply appeared."

"How so?"

"Take our Eezo drives for example, when we enter and exit from FTL there are clear and defined points where a ship activates and deactivates its drive upon leaving and re-entering real space. The FTL these aliens use operates on a completely different dimension to ours, the likely chance is we don't have the technology to even begin to understand it let alone reconstruct it." The doctor sighed. "The radiation itself doesn't even belong here, it has no signature or structure that suggests that it belongs in the normal chemical, physical or even biological list of elements, more of an anomaly than even Element Zero when it was first discovered. It. Does. Not. Belong. Here." Velitumus finished.

Fedorian leaned back into his chair. This did not bode well, not only has this race appeared to have weaponised plasma to a truly frightening degree, and now they apparently travelled on a different dimension. How were they meant to counter this?

He rubbed his mandibles again as thoughts continued to circle. "You said you had found a way to track it?" He asked after a few moments of silence.

Velitumus' own mandibles twitched, "Not track exactly, more like predict." He turned to the terminal again and another diagram appeared, this time appearing like a cloud. "This is a radiation cloud left behind from the interlopers, can you see how it is slightly orientated?" Velitumus highlighted the area and Fedorian nodded. "Imagine it like a cloud of dust that throw in the air and then walk through, the dust will follow the same sort of direction before you pass completely through it, yes?" Fedorian nodded again. "Well we have theorised that the radiation 'sticks' to the ship in the alternate-dimension and is shaken upon re-entry, with this technique we can get a reasonable predication of which direction they have come from and where they are going, distances is another matter, perhaps there could be a method based on the amount of radiation present in the cloud before dispersing but more data is need before we can follow that line of thought." The doctor finished.

Fedorian continued nodding thoughtfully. "So? Where did they come from and where did they go?" He questioned.

Once again, the holographic image changed, this time to a map of the surrounding systems and their connecting relays. "The largest signature, the fleet must have come from the relay because there is no signs of an entry cloud, however they did leave an exit one." The map changed to include a large lane marked out heading further into Turian territory, several systems were highlighted to include colonies.

Silence reigned for a few minutes as Fedorian absorbed that information. "I see…and the other."

"The other must have followed the fleet as it has a marked entry cloud coming from the relay, it exits from the same point in the opposite direction, back through the relay." Velitumus explained.

"They know we exist?" Fedorian mused.

"If not, they will soon."

Fedorian nodded in finality, "Thank-you Doctor, please compile your research and send it to the Primarch as soon as possible." He ordered, going back to looking at the highlighted Turian colonies.

Velitumus nodded back and saluted before swiftly leaving the room.

The Turian Admiral tapped his talon on the desk, "VI, bring up a list of Turian colonies in the highlighted area." He called and several planets appeared besides the map with their names and population. "List them in terms of defensibility and corresponding defence fleet." The order of the planets changed. "Now remove the planets with a larger fleet size of 50." The planets reduced to three. His talon began tapping again, "Now account for distance from Palaven and the edge of Turian space, favour the latter." The planets reduced to two. "Maximise." He ordered and lent forward. The first planet had a population of 35 million and was on of the furthest in the highlighted area, the second was much smaller and had a population of just 17 million. The defence fleets were 25 and 13 respectively, both easy targets but which one did they go for? He looked at the closest one, Subject: Macedyn was a dumb predator through and through, probably high off a victory and was looking for a close easy target.

He pressed the intercom on his terminal, "XO Laedros?" He asked into it.

"Yes Admiral?" A feminine voice answered.

"Tell the fleet to prepare to jump to Linraka, Talon 13 to 17 are to remain behind to guard the relay." He ordered.

"Sir?" She asked in confusion.

"We have a lead," He replied simply, standing from his chair and heading for the door.

The comm was silent for a beat, "Yes Admiral!"

/ Slipspace – Enroute to New Rome – Entroute to Stellar \

/ 17-4-2558 - Military Calendar\

/ 11:55 am - Ship Time \

A klaxon blared once before being replaced by French accented voice, "Attention, Attention: General Quarters, we will be exiting slipspace in 5 minutes. All essential personnel report to your stations and begin last minute checks. Pilots to your fighters and prepare for a hot AO, exit trajectory is confirmed hostile. I repeat all essential personnel to their stations and pilots to their wings, hostiles confirmed in exit trajectory. That is all." The comm went quiet and the klaxon replaced it along with a yellow light flashing intermittently.

"Thank you, Stewart." A man said.

"Always a pleasure Admiral Cole." The AI replied, dressed as a traditional French Butler complete with a comb-over and moustache.

"We need be combat ready the moment we leave Slipspace, we'll be exiting pretty much on top of them." He murmured. The last few weeks had been hell on his stress levels, between him and Drescher they'd destroyed more Covenant fleets and ships trying to reclaim the Stalingrad line than the past half-decade, and this was thankfully the last stop before the encirclement was complete.

With his larger fleet of near 600 vessels he was to retake New Rome which had been turned into a supply-point to launch further inwards, the Covenant weren't completely stupid and had realised what was happening not soon after it had begun, they were trying to reinforce key points to hold to either keep the pocket open or empty it before it closed.

While he would have preferred Drescher's help in taking the system, she had to split her fleet of 450 vessels and close off the pocket further ahead at Aura and Haige. He was to distract the numerous vessels in New Rome to prevent them reinforcing and take the system. Hence the larger fleet.

He had started the campaign with 358 vessels of all classes, most have been destroyed and none were without plasma scars, even his own flagship bore them, for this last push his had to temporarily absorb some QRF's into his battlegroup, some were with him now as the vanguard, while others were to slip in later once the lines had crossed.

He stood from his chair above the command trenches sent into the floor of the bridge and strode over to the large holotable behind him. Pressing a button on the terminal brought up the most up to date, intel that HMI prowlers had sent on the system a few hours ago.

The Covenant fleet currently numbered 649 vessels, a number disadvantage was never a good thing, but his opening moves should eliminate that factor. The most pressing one was the fact that they had 12 CAS-Assault Carriers in that number, he only had 4 Resolute's in his fleet including his own flagship. Considering there were 13 in total it was a large margin. Two were at Earth and Reach. He had four, and Drescher had another two, the rest were either receiving repairs or upgrades in the shipyards.

The Resolute's were the only ship class capable of facing a CAS in direct combat with a large margin for success, thanks to their Honeycomb superstructure, allowing them to tank an almost unbelievable amount on fire without failing. However, he also had three Punic's and several Artemis' that should even the odds in terms of firepower and numbers.

He stood from the holotable and walked back to the trenches, standing above them and staring out the viewport into the blackness of slipspace.

"1 minute until exit Admiral!" One of the bridge officers called from below him.

"Red Alert, move to full combat readiness." He commanded immediately.

The yellow light turned red and the intermittent klaxon became continues, the 180° viewport at the front of the bridge was covered in metallic plating and was instead replaced by a live recording. Across the ship the bright fluorescents blinked out and a softer light blue replaced it, the darker lights conserving energy and were easier on the eyes.

"Exiting slipspace fleet wide in 20!" The same officer yelled.

"You all have your jobs, do your duty and this battle will be ours." Cole spoke.

"5-4-3-2-Exiting NOW!" A bright blue portal appeared in front of them and they passed without hassle back into the larger galaxy, until various sirens went off around the bridge.

"Contacts, hostile fleet confirmed in orbit around New Rome. 673 enemy victors, 12 CAS-Assault Carriers confirmed!" Sensors reported. "Heat signatures across the board, they're charging weapons and turning towards us. ETA until effective weapons range, 2 minutes."

"Fleet reporting in, green across the board!" Comms yelled next.

"Drift is 2k Mikes, formation retained, task-groups adjusting to face contacts!" Helm finally.

Cole nodded firmly, "Sensors, you have the co-ordinates?"

"Yes Admiral, sending them now!" Was the hasty reply.

"Good, Stewart, begin phase one." He calmly ordered.

"Aye Aye Sir." Outside the ship, and in the wider fleet, 6 corvette's broke formation and began accelerating towards the approaching Covenant fleet, the familiar bluish portal opened in front of their bows and they disappeared within. A few moments later they appeared at even points among the enemy's formation.

Predictably, the Covenant immediately opened fire on the hapless ships, unknown to them, empty apart from a single dumb AI who had a single job.

In synchrony, half a dozen stars were briefly made as the stockpile of nukes in each ship were detonated among the Covenant armada, swallowing ships and defence platforms alike whole.

"WE HAVE DETONATION!" Sensors cheered and the rest of the bridge staff joined him a moment later. "Confirming destruction or combat kill of 228 victors, including 3 CAS-Class!" He reported, reading from his terminal.

Cole nodded again; it had worked. "Fleet Wide: Advance full burn, close the distance. Task-groups slit-off and co-ordinate fire. Wolfpacks, harry their flanks and carriers deploy fighters for support missions. Let's take back what's ours people!" He barked and the fleet obeyed, the more powerful MAC's already taking pot shots at the ships in the distance.

Cole nodded as the ship hummed and thumped repetitively beneath his feet, surveying the tactical layout on the holotable once more. The Covenant fleet was in disarray and would be easy to divide and conquer, especially as the battle lines began to blur.

"Fire the MAC's, staggered line, I want continuous fire on those ships. Missiles and torpedoes prioritise smaller vessels, and plasma beams for high priority targets." He listed and received various confirmations.

Good, the battle will still be tough, but a strong start always increased their odds.

/ Drem – Meridian – Azuro \

/ 18-4-2558 - Military Calendar \

/ 15:37 PM - Local Time \

"GO GO GO GO GO!" A nameless trooper yelled but Zaeed couldn't agree more, plasma pelted them as they raced forward, firing sporadically as they hastily moved from cover to cover.

On the third day, the attack on Delta broke down and the Covenant advance stalled in it's tracks and then routed completely when the promised reinforcements finally arrived, an entire armoured and mechanised battalion. Panthers, Scorpions, Mantis', Coyotes, Gauss Hogs, all of it.

Wolverines helped clear the skies over the Eastern part of the city allowing limited air support, and with help from the reinforcements, the rejuvenated and resupplied defenders pushed the assault all the way back through Charlie in a single day and back towards and into Bravo, the outskirts of the city.

It wouldn't be an easy fight to rid them entirely, they'd held it and Alpha for most of the battle and had set up defences for this exact scenario. Shade and Plasma turrets were stationed seemingly on every bend and terrace, but an abundance of energy shields and purple barricades provided enough cover that they could move forward in a careful advance.

The outskirts of the city were tighter too, the buildings smaller but packed together is tight streets and one-way roads. It made it hell for the Covenant on the way in, but now they were on the receiving end it was tiresome and bloody. The small streets meant they couldn't move a lot of armour through and Infantry advances were covered by the lightly armoured Coyote's and Gauss Hogs. The heavier and slower Mantis' and tanks were pulling up the rear and provided support where they could, but if destroyed they tended to block the road and had to be cleared before more could push up.

Thus the infantry had to be the main driving force behind the counter attack, but with a resupply of heavy weapons such as grenade launchers and batteries for the lasers it wasn't difficult to take care of the static emplacements, it was the numerous infantry that was the issue.

Zaeed slid into the cover of a barricade, Kidman and Fletcher joined them while Allman, Bailey and Preissner stopped a little further back. Zaeed stuck his head out briefly and immediately yanked it back in as streaks of fire swept past, he turned to Kidman. "Shade, 1 o'clock." He informed to the Australian who nodded and pulled his laser off his back.

"Cover!" He yelled and sprang up, Fletcher and Masanni did the same and pelted shots down the road into the lines of infantry. A few seconds later a red laser pierced the shade turret causing it to explode, catching a squad of Covenant around it. Another was destroyed further back by a rocket shot by another group.

"Move up Marines!" Allman yelled running past with Bailey hot on his heels, Zaeed and Kidman followed while Fletcher stayed.

An elite jumped up on the terrace in front of them, plasma repeater ready, but a streak from overhead turned his head into purple mist. They ran past the body, joined now by the rest of their attacking group, and took the high ground. Fighting off a few determine elites and Jackals that stayed behind while the rest of their force pulled further back into a plaza ahead. Their objective for the day.

Zaeed swore and ducked back from the edge of the terrace as his shields flared and failed, the plaza itself was literally crawling with Covenant and more than a few soldiers couldn't react in time.

" 'nade em!" One yelled, the others complied chucking a few dozen grenades into the square, making fire, blood and body parts to go flying. The Covenant weren't done yet however, several returned fire with a fury causing more soldiers to drop while two phantoms floated into the plaza, each carrying a wraith and dropping off 4 squads total of Brutes.

At was also at this point the armour caught up, 7 Gauss hogs raced down the road and into the plaza and began firing at the new arrivals, not taking out many before being destroyed themselves by the wraiths. 4 Coyotes then too joined the fight, their auto-cannons spat shells at the shielded wraiths while the infantry rained hell on the Brutes from above who ran for cover.

With the main threats being distracted, Zaeed and his squad moved right, down the terrace and into the streets again to flank their positions, quickly taking out a few stragglers. Others seemed to have had the same idea on the other side and the wraiths and Brutes were suddenly caught in a pincer.

They opened fire again and the first wraith went up in a cloud of purple fire and smoke, the remaining Coyote turned his gun on the last Wraith, destroying it a short time later. The remaining Brutes put up a fight but without their armour support were quickly cut apart.

The plaza went quiet apart from the general clank and movement of body armour and weapons. The plaza had only one exit but no Covenant advanced through it. Actually, it sounded like fighting had stopped completely around the city.

Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, they set about digging in for the day, setting down in defensible positions and a few Pelican dropped of engineers and equipment to begin some turret emplacements and walls.

20 Minutes later their comm's lit up.

"All forces come in, Covenant forces are retreating from the city" A voice spoke over their intercom, the communications black-out had ended not long ago

Zaeed shared a look with Allman, "The Covenant don't just retreat…we may have pushed them back here but elsewhere they still held strong." He muttered.

There were similar observations around the plaza before a loud, terrible screeching interrupted them. Eyes turned skywards and to the Human's horror two CCS-Battlecruisers descended from the dense cloud cover flanked by 3 corvettes, spreading out around the city scape.

"RUN!" Zaeed yelled, and the men in the plaza scattered heading for the buildings, it took no genius to guess what came next. Standard procedure in a glassing was to find the nearest blast shelter, on the Stalingrad line, it was mandatory for a building to have one deep in the basement.

"HOW ARE THEY EVEN IN THE AIRSPACE? NOT ONLY SHOULD THE NAVY HAVE STOPPED THEM BUT THE ANTI-SHIP BATTERIES SHOULD BE ABLE TO BLOW THEM OUT THE SKY BY NOW!" Allman yelled as they kept running.

Then the first blast hit.

Their first warning was the sky turning red and a loud humming, growing in intensity and noise. The winds then picked up and the vibrations turned into an earthquake.

Next came the shockwave, shattering every pane of glass in the city, upturning vehicles, small or large, and throwing every solider to the ground.

Finally came the explosion.

The noise deafened those nearest and damn near tried for the rest, the noise dampeners installed in the helmets did nothing as the EMP rocked the city throwing out everything powered by electricity. Be it communications or HUD's.

Echo-16 picked themselves up and carried on running, they had little choice in the matter, but their hearts picked up as they neared the first building, an Army trooper already waiting by the door waved his arm.

Then the second blast hit, once more throwing the marines to the ground.

A building collapsed behind them, crushing soldiers not quick enough to get into the bunker.

Spurred on by the increasingly hellish cityscape behind them, standing again they once more continued running and neared the doors finally. The army trooper now inside the basement doors, began closing them as a red aura grew behind them, just peaking over the buildings.

Zaeed, Fletcher and Preissner were the first to reach the basement and jumped in the closing doors. Next came Bailey.

And the third blast hit.

Must closer than the last two, Kidman and Allman were thrown heavily to the side as chunks of the building began falling.

"NO!" Zaeed yelled preparing to run back out but was held back by three Army troopers grabbing him at the last second.

His last sight before the doors slammed shut was Allman rapping his knuckles on his chest piece in quiet acceptance. The room was encompassed in black as Zaeed sagged in the trooper's arms, who eventually let him go.

Meridian had fallen.

(End)

So, sorry for my absence. As I told a few who PM'd me, I had a few health issues that prevented me from writing on top of work I didn't have much time. So I hope the slightly longer chapter and the inclusion of our lord and saviour -117- helps alleviate some of my absence.

And feel free to criticise my explanation of why the Turians are able to track the slip-space ruptures, I know I was mostly talking out of my ass for most of it but I hope it makes some sort of believable sense.

But the big bang, Meridian has fallen, something I had planned for the start.

But standby, the big reveal is coming soon and while I'm still a bit undecided on which way to go about it the outcome is the same. I'm just trying to justify each one and which is more believable than the other.

Hopefully the next chapter shouldn't take as long, but don't get your hopes up. I'm a slow methodical writer.

-Red