Kyle's POV

I looked out a side window and saw a Pelican spiraling out of control near our co-ordinates. I heard the pilot of it yelling through the coms, something about the Covenant and a Banshee. Then I noticed the Banshee they were yelling about far above ours, moving away from us. That must have brought them down. I looked back down and couldn't see the falling Pelican anymore. I hope they're ok. "Get ready for drop." The pilot said to us. Henderson acknowledged them and stood up, grabbing his gun as he did so. "Lock and load Spartans, time to give the Covenant more than they bargained for." He said and loaded a magazine into it. I stood up and grabbed my rifle, clipping in the magazine with a satisfying click! I grabbed extra ammo for it and my pistol as well and loaded the mags into my belt. Hmm, what else? I looked down the weapon rack, spotting a rocket launcher. Heavy, but hey, you never know what could be useful, and rocket launchers tend to be more useful than not. I set down my gun, picked it up, and hooked it onto my back, getting used to the weight for a moment before grabbing some more spare ammo and picking my assault rifle back up.

I walked to the back of the pelican, holding onto a strap in the ceiling. Henderson was waiting there already and within seconds the rest of the team came up behind me. Henderson spoke, "Ok, first priority is to enter the base and meet with Commander Silas. After that you know what to do but I will be give tactical commands as I see fit. Clear?" We nodded in unison. "Good, here we go." He said and hit the button on the top right of the door, turning it green. The hatch opened and the pelican stopped its descent quickly to hover a few feet above the ground. "Go go go!" Henderson ordered. We jumped out one after each other, hitting the ground seconds apart. I bent my legs as I came down and brought up my rifle, alert for Covenant in the open patch of forest where we landed. Roberts was in the lead, and we fast-marched into the forest. I was behind Strang, Henderson was second, Grey was behind me, energy sword out for now, and Smith was last. I heard distant sounds of struggle and checked our coordinates.

We had a half a mile left and were heading north, somewhere in the middle of the upper hemisphere. I saw a flash and raised my gun quickly, but it was only one of the native wildlife, some kind of bird with two long tails. As it took flight I saw two hooked claws at the ends of its wings and a scaled head.

The others had stopped to try and see what I had been alarmed about but I waved them forward and we started up again. "Movement in a quarter mile, stay alert." Rogers said quietly. She slowed her approach and we followed suit. Henderson must have a lot of faith in her. I looked at the burly soldier and tried to imagine him needing anyone. I slowed as I saw him put up his hand. He gave the signal to spread out and stick to the shadows. A large group would be easily spotted.

I grinned and pulled up a panel in my helmet as I walked. I chose something and closed it, watching as the orange on my suit turned a dark green-gray. It was another special feature they had told me about since a lot of my missions require stealth. Invisibility would have been better but at least it didn't need to recharge like invisibility did. I spread out to the left, between Strang and Grey, half crouching. I could pick up the movement now, about 4 contacts so far. The facility was not far behind the contacts.

As we crept through the foliage, I could no longer see the others but I knew they were there. 50 feet until the facility. I saw Henderson's hand raised up and give the signal to crawl and scout out the situation first. I got on my stomach, putting my rifle by my side and pushing it up every few feet as I crawled until I reached the edge of a small clearing. I brought out my pistol and used the scope for a better look.

There were 6 of them, 4 Grunts and two Elites, and a Banshee to the side. The elites had some kind of binoculars and were looking at the base. A grunt kicked the other and started fighting. One Elite angrily spoke in Sangheili and kicked them apart before going back to scouting. Henderson whispered in our feed, "Ok, This will be a silent run. Grey, Strang, and Smith, you take care of the grunts. Rogers, you're with me in taking out the elites. If we're lucky they won't have their shields up. Kyle, you take the banshee, but only after the covenant have been taken out. Is that clear?" We winked our acknowledgement lights. "Ok, go, and be quiet." He said. I crawled backwards a few paces and got up, lightly stepping in an arc around the left of the clearing towards the banshee. The long hatch on the back was open, and I hid next to the banshee, looking for the others. Grey, Strang, and Smith were coming up behind the Grunts, Henderson and Rogers behind the Elites. There was a quick hand motion and three Grunts and the Elites died by a quick slash of a knife. The fourth Grunt was killed shortly after, not even aware of the death of its comrades.

Ok, I can do this. I got up and climbed into the cockpit, the hatch lowering behind me. It was positioned so that I had to lay down to pilot it. I looked at the unfamiliar controls and pushed what I believed to be the 'on' button.

The banshee came to life with a low hum.

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"Henderson, what do I do with it now? " I asked through the feed. "Stay low until we reach the battle. Then come out and give us a hand, just try not to blow up our troops." He replied, and I saw out of the left side the team slink into the bushes.

I turned off my extra camo and looked down at the controls. There were surprisingly few buttons. I maneuvered what looked to be the flight controls and figured out how to go wherever I wanted. I zoomed around the clearing, leaving light trails from the ends of the wings, and backed up. I aimed away from the direction of the base and fired, two twin bolts of blue energy from the two cannons on the front of the cockpit. I hit another button and a big green bolt came out, arcing and landing with a pretty big explosion.

I heard gunfire in the distance towards the base. "Come on Kyle, give us some backup!" Smith called through the feed, sounds of gunfire and explosions in the background.

That's my cue.

I shot out of the trees, heading straight towards the sounds, and saw the battle-ground open up below me. There were many Covenant forces pushing against our line of defense in a half arc about 200 meters from the base. They were in a clearing while our forces hid in the trees with turrets and barricades, staying ahead... For now.

I zoomed in, charging up the main cannon. The Covenant cheered, thinking I was on their side. I fired and they quickly ran in fear as a green bolt blew up a large group of Covenant. Almost immediately a bunch of angry Sangheili came through the Banshee's coms, but I neither knew how to reply nor spoke that language. Our troops cheered as I passed by. I smiled and came back for another round, turning the Banshee in a short left circle. My victory was short-lived however. As I came around I saw a total of three enemy banshees heading straight for me over the tree-tops, cannons charging. Oh no.

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Steele's POV

I walked through the vehicle bay door, stepping aside for a warthog coming in from a neighboring bay. There were soldiers milling about, leaving and entering almost constantly, but a squadron of marines were hanging close to the door. One noticed me and my team and said loudly, "Officer on deck!" The marines quickly lined up and saluted. I looked down their straight and neat line.

I think I'm going to like this a bit.

I stood at a military rest, hands behind my back, feet spread apart, and spoke. "At ease Marines. As you know, me and my team have tactical command, you will follow all orders exactly when we say them. Not complying may cost the life of a fellow marine or the tide of the battle. Who here is the Sergeant?" They all looked towards a guy in the near-back of the group. He spoke, "I am Sir." I nodded, "Come with me, the rest of you, follow my team outside."

They moved into action and I told Selina, "Take them to the back of the fight, I will be there shortly." She nodded and I walked away with the leader following as she yelled a few commands. The leader looked towards me expectantly, his name tag identifying him as Sergeant Colby.

We reached a small raised platform next to the door, overlooking the fight. He saw my silence as an opening to speak and said, "Aren't we glad you're here. Things aren't going so well. The Covenant have been pushing us hard and we can barely keep our defenses up. They've got the base surrounded in a half arc, though other breach attempts elsewhere have been snuffed out pretty fast. We've had to retreat a few time and we are still waiting on the reinforcements from the atmosphere."

Reinforcements? From who? The ones from slip space? I didn't think they would get here so soon. "Well we better get out there, sounds like you need everyone you can get." I said instead.

I watched the fight a bit, noting the closeness of the opposing Covenant and the abundance of fuel tanks the facility had, as this place was also a resource outpost. The Covenant also had very little tanks or Ghosts, little vehicles that floated about a foot off the ground with two purple wings and two twin cannons. They could boost to go very fast but only for about half a minute. I watched as a battalion fell back and the Covenant got a little more reckless.

"I have a plan, follow me." I said, marching out towards the battle, Colby following.

We got closer and I had to duck behind a rock to avoid a plasma blast. The team was only a few feet away, laying out only suppression fire so far. I darted out and rolled to a stop before running a bit to her position, Colby close behind. "Selina, what's the status of our troops." I asked, crouching behind her and my team. "No major losses so far, the group as a whole have lost only about a thousand out of about six or seven thousand dedicated to this position, but the covenant have got a little over ten thousand. The remaining troops are defending other positions and can't come to our aid." This facility really is big for us to have that many troops. The Covenant force isn't exactly invasion scale but I have to keep in mind that there are forces of this size scattered around at several different outposts.

"Selina, I have a plan, relay it to all of our battalion," I asked her. There was a bit if static as it connected and when it cleared I began. "We are going to wipe almost all if them out at once, see the fuel tanks around us?" I paused so they could look and continued. "I need two marines for each one, one pushing and one providing cover fire. Place them in a random pattern as close as you can get to the covenant, it's better if it's pushed into the covenant group, but you must do this randomly and defend that position for a few minutes or a few seconds before you feign defeat. You will retreat and signal me that you are ready while each getting a grenade ready. When I have your signal I will drive up with a few crates and set mine off while I signal you with a light in your HUD to set yours off with a few grenades. Since the covenant are grouped so closely, the chain reaction will be devastating. Then our forces can take care of the remaining covenant." I finished.

They nodded, and even with the helmets on I could tell that a few were smiling. I nodded and said, "Alright, Move out!" and waved them to get started. They dispersed while I ran back to grab a Warthog.