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Authors note, as I earlier stated I don't get to play the game much and am not familiar with dates. I just got my hands on a copy of First strike, and now realize that the fall of reach, halo, and discovery of the earth by the covenan, and the chief destroying the unyielding hierophant all happened between August 30, and september13, thus march is way the heck off, so I changed the date of the combat to September 15th. I apologize for the inconsistency.


Chapter 3
0800 hours, September 15th (Military Calendar)
Planet Athena, Olympian system
Corporate District Marriott hotel, New Crete


Second Lieutenant Michael "Red" Louis was awakened by a strange noise outside his door.
"Damnit Mike, that's second time you've let your self fall asleep," He scolded himself. It was probably just a marine shuffling about, Red was wrong. A single Elite busted the door open and began to scan the room. Red fawned sleep and grabbed the plasma pistol by his bed in an instant, The Elite didn't buy it. The monstrous alien walked over and began to strangle the marine. Red pulled the trigger on the pistol and prayed he would have enough time for it to charge, luckily it did. Michael moved the now burning pistol into the Sangheili's gut, causing it's shield to spark, and fired, It blew the alien back a few paces and killed its shield. Red then rolled from on top of the bed, and grabbed the M-90 shotgun lying on the en table next to him. He flicked off the safety, jacked a round in the chamber and fired a shot into the Elite. Mike than got back on to his feet, walked over to the alien and fired another shot into it at point blank. Then another thought entered his mind, the wounded downstairs. He darted down the hall, then down a flight of stairs, it was as Michael feared. The lobby Aid station was over run with grunts, the Elite must have been their leader. One cried out, and began to fire at him. Red dove behind a sofa and waited for the first batch of needles to hit, he then popped up fired into a grunt and ran to front desk. From behind the heavy mahogany fix he pulled a frag grenade from his breast pocket, pulled the grenade and chucked it into the squad of grunts. The explosion through corpses in every direction, purple blood splashed every where and stained the ornate carpet. Red dared to poke his head up to survey the damage and found utter death. The grunts that hadn't been killed instantly lay on the ground suffocated from their pierced methane tanks.
"Did these bastards know how to duck and cover?" Michael said aloud as he rifled through the bodies, looking for survivors.
"Must have been conscripts," Doc Hardy answered rhetorical question,
"Jesus Doc, where were you?" Red asked his friend
"I went to take the Wounded for evac earlier, just got back, what happened here?"
"No clue, woke up being strangled by an elite, killed him, came down stairs and found this little party, and by the grace of god killed them. Was just going to call my patrols to see what the hell is going on,"
"All Trojans, this is Trojan one, report in," There was static.
"I repeat, all Trojans report in," again no answer.
"Damnit," Red said aloud. By now Michael 's squad was coming to see what the commotion was.
"Garnet, you and Doc are with me, the rest, hold down the fort," he said pointing to the first man he saw.
"Sir yes Sir," the private responded.
"doc, what did you see as you came in?"
"Nothing, I used the alleys getting back, came in the back door," Michael powered out of the building, wondering where the hell his men went, praying they weren't dead.
"I gotta stop falling asleep," he muttered as he ran across the street. Louis sprinted first to Sergeant Finch's building.
"Marine!" he yelled out side the door, waiting for a response, there was nothing. Red kicked in the door, shotgun at the ready, and stormed in, just like the urban combat drills. He ran up a flight of stairs to find the four men lying on the floor, and a single rock in the middle.
"Shit, Doc, Garnet, check for pulses," He commanded the men who had just made it to the top of the stairs. The two did as commanded
"Got one," Garnet yelled, as he gingerly grasped a fellow marine.
"Same here Red, I'd say they've been drugged" Hardy announced.
"Alright lets try and wake them up," Red commanded. First he pulled of his one of his leather glove, and smacked a marine across the face, to no avail. Suddenly Louis had an idea, he took off his message alert wrist band and put it on Sergeant Finch's wrist, then turned it on.
"Damn, what was that?" Finch asked, suddenly awake
"What the hell happened Bob?" Michael interrogated as he threw the band to Garnet.
"Can't say, some one threw a rock through the window, and it exploded into a ball of green gas, after a few seconds we were all down for the count," The Sergeant answered groggily.
"Great, Covie knock out gas," Michael muttered. He, Doc hardy, and Garnet spent the next half an hour going from post to post waking up Red's sleeping platoon. Then Louis got to Sergeant Winter's building, on the other side of the block. Michaels strolled in casually, no longer conscious of the prowling covenant. What he saw was horrific, there were four Marines lying on the floor, though Winters was missing. All had burn holes all over them, one was disemboweled, and another unrecognizable. Once again Red felt the uncontrollable urge to vomit, he did so on the corpse of PFC Frederic Ozakowa. As he wiped the excess form his mouthhe had been trained in CQC*, as a reflex he turned as he fell, rolled and came to a knee, shotgun ready.
"Get away you covenant Bastard!" Sergeant Lauren Winters screamed.
"Whoa Lauren it's me, Red," Michael cautioned, lowering his weapon.
"Oh Gawd, Sorry' she started, then collapsing to the floor.
"Jesus, Doc! Get your Ass in here!" The Doctor rushed in, and saw the carnage.
"Jesus H Christ," he muttered, Louis noticed he was twitching slightly.
"I know, Lauren just tried to attack me, but then collapsed,"
"Better get her back to the CP Red,"
"No arguments here," Red responded, as he hoisted his fallen comrade over his shoulder. The group double timed it back to the hotel, Red panting half the way from the extra hundred and thirty three pounds. The patrol of sorts made it back to the Hotel, just as the covenant decided to attack again. Red set her down on a cot and double timed it back to the second floor to grab all of his gear, and thirty seconds later he was on the balcony firing away at a pair of hunters.
"Connors, can you give me an idea of what we're dealing with?" Red called to his Sniper on the roof, who sniper was all to happy to hear from someone.
"Uh we have a large mass of troops coming from the west and, what the, a pelican from due north,"
"Roger Connors," Red responded as he shot a jackal in the head. A minute later he heard the pelican land on the roof.
"Who the hell could that be?" He muttered. After another few minutes he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Lieutenant, I'm Sergeant Major Jones, the Colonel sent me to re-enforce your positions, I have an additional fifteen men with me," the man said as Louis turned to greet him.
"Roger sergeant, I want you to leave four of your men here, send one to that building, and take the rest to that office over there," he said pointing to the positions.
"Alright Sir," the sergeant yelled over the deafening fire. Michael was slightly relieved, he was running short on men. After a few seconds a pair of PFCs, a private and a lance corporal came through the door, one holding a long tube that resembled a potato gun he used to own.
"What is that private?" Red asked
"Air canister powered grenade launching unit," he answered.
"Right, well use it on them," he said pointing to the group of grunts still trying to climb the wreck of the scarab tank. Red watched as the marine pulled back a slide and inserted a frag grenade. He then pushed a button and the tube made a popping sound as it used air to propel a spherical explosive down range. It exploded on contact killing three jackals, Michael followed this by firing at a grunt, and missing. To correct this, he dropped to a knee, then zeroed in on the Grunt. He took a breath then fired, the 9.5mm bullet traveled slightly faster than the speed of sound, on a collision course with the mall fodder's brain. Red continued the process until the thirty one rounds left were expended, then he mechanically dropped the plastic clip, reached into his ammo pouch, grabbed another and inserted it into the rifle, and continued to fire. Soon the aliens were retreating as before.
"Check call, check call, this is minor one, we are happy to report that the covenant seems to be pulling back. We seem to be winning this one, we have only suffered a thousand casualties as of now, and inflicted roughly three thousand, minor one out," Colonel Stevens called over the radio.





1200 hours
aboard the battleship Cleansing Wind, flagship of the covenant fleet


"Sir reports from the planet are not good, we've lost thirty five hundred troops, while only taking one point six thousand of theirs, mostly civilians," Executive ship commander Relg Ortam read to his captain.
"This is futile, recall troops and prepare planet destroying procedures, The data is not that overwhelmingly important, alert the fleet and drop into lower orbit," Ship commander Sulgo Rulee answered
"Roger captain, powering up weapons, and alerting the fleet," the executive officer responded, questioning the Commanders sudden conservativeness.


1200 hours
Aboard UNSC Jessica Lynch

"Sir they're recalling their troops, looks as if we're winning," the ensign called cheerfully.
"Oh shit Sir, massive heat readings in the weapon bays of that big battle ship, Reactor usage increasing, orbit dropping, Oh Jesus H Christ, they're going to glass the planet,"
"Calm down Ensign," Captain Bartholomew Felts answered calmly.
"Engineering, increase to flank speed, make your course two-eight-zero, Gunnery, ready all Weapons, target is that battleship," he ordered coolly. All along the ships hull weapons came to life. Eight double barreled MAC turrets came to life and locked onto the covenant ship, ARCHER missile pods and 50mm rotary guns did the same, and soon every gun was armed and targeted. The captain knew that the Old MACs were no match, and the bridge crew knew that Course two-eight-zero was a intercept course for the enemy goliath.


The Cleansing Wind

"Sir, a Human Destroyer has appeared on sensors, increasing speed and is heading towards us," Relf called out reading the report.
"What? Where was it?" the captain asked.
"It was drifting so the reactor didn't show on thermals, and we though it was orbiting junk, taken out by the first wave,"
"No matter, launch the seraphs,"
"Will do sir, foolish Humans,"


The Lynch

"Sir fighters inbound,"
"Increase power, fire archers at the seraphs and launch the longswords, All MAC batteries fire at reactor sector of covenant ship,"
"Sir range to cruiser one click, we going to collide!"
"You heard me ensign,"
"Aye, ramming speed,"

The Cleansing Wind

"Sir, human vessel is a kilometer out, and increasing speed, they have launched fighters to counter ours, as well as anti ship missiles, wait, multiple contacts moving a high speed,"


The Lynch

The first three rounds were absorbed by the shields, but the after that the older MACs penetrated into the hull of the cruiser. The smaller older rounds powered through many decks, but failed to make it to the Reactor. Fortunately, however, the concussion of the rounds ripping through the titanium halls jarred loose a coolant hose, causing the reactor to over heat.
The captain commanded "Sound collision," He wanted to be sure that the large ship that dwarfed his was dead, and the bow was strong enough to make due. "Tell the crew to abandon all the bow sections," he ordered, His ship was at full speed heading for the massive ship ahead of him, and Felts had no intention of slowing down.


The Cleansing Wind

"Sir, sector 5 is open to space, and the reactor is at critical heat level, we must abandon ship,"
"Negative Relm, if we die, we die with honor, not scurrying from these apes,"
a few seconds later the hard, blunt bow of the Jessica Lynch penetrated the dying hulk. The life support systems failed and most compartments were venting atmosphere, the Engineers that had been scurrying around to repair the engines suffocated as the wound was pried open by the destroyers nose.


The Lynch

"Captain, all batteries ready,"
"Commence fire,"
"Roger, commencing fire," the large guns came back to life, unleashing a second volley into the ship from point blank. This group of shells detonated the engines, causing massive explosions through out the ship, killing the crew. they had collided with the now crippled ship. The Lynch's inertia kept it going forward, Grinding into the thick hull of the mammoth enemy ship, destroying its life support.
"Oh Shit, compartments 7 alpha through fox are decompressed, venting into space, damn we just lost Engine two,"
"Reverse power to engine one and three, and fire one last volley into the ship, I want to be sure," The captain responded "Its going to be a long week," the he thought.




Aboard the UNSC Light battle ship Caspian Sea, opposite side of the planet.

"Sir, the Lynch reports they have crippled a covenant battleship on the opposite side of the planet," Lieutenant J.G. William Powel read to the commander of the UNSC defense fleet, Rear Admiral Jonathon Stewart spit out his coffee.
"What?" he asked, the Lynch was a twenty year old relic, it was a miracle it could even fire its weapons, much less take down a Covenant capitol ship. This fleet was an antique display, mostly older cruisers that had been considered to obsolete to defend Reach. The only modern ships were his flag ship, Caspian Sea, and the heavy cruiser Merrimack. The only reason they weren't decimated at Reach was the fact that they we're in a ship yard on Mars being refitted after getting caught in an asteroid belt when evading a Covie fleet. The Lynch, Roberts, and Fujikawa, were all twenty year old Kennedy class destroyers, using almost obsolete MK-1 MAC, much less powerful then the newer Super MACs. The Chicago, St. Lo, Shangri-La, and Anchorage, were all ten year old Austin class heavy cruisers, the first to be mounted with four Mk-2 MACs, about 25% less powerful than a Super MAC. Stewart's thoughts were broken with the sound of an explosion. He searched the monitors for the source, and watched as the UNSC Fujikawa's engines exploded. It began listing heavily to port as the atmosphere vented from the starboard side, smashing into a covenant cruiser, crushing it. The dying carrier intern began to rotate being pushed by the dead body of the Fujikawa, causing it's rear section to arc into the bottom of a Covie cruiser. The ships shields valiantly attempted to hold off the incredible mass of the two ships, but failed allowing the hulk to smash its engines, crippling it.
"Hot Damn," the admiral said aloud, getting evil looks from his crew "That dead ship just killed two covenant ships," he said, realizing how over zealous he was over the death of hundreds of his men. The Merrimack moved in to finish off the immobilized cruiser, gutting it with it's massive MAC guns.
"Sir the two remaining covenant Frigates are setting a course for the surface,"
"Acknowledged, fire a volley, all guns, then a pair of Shiva missiles, its time to get the point across to these bastards," All guns moved to track the small ships, and then at once fired. The four fat MAC rounds, flanked by a mass of 60mm cannon rounds, quickly closed the distance and easily over powered the shields of both ships. Then, a kilometers behind were a pair of Shiva, nuclear armed missiles, tracking flawlessly to their targets. both impacted in a brilliant white explosion, blinding every one within eight kilometers. When the flash subsided, there was nothing there, both ships were completely vaporized by the fusing of a pair of hydrogen molecules.




0800 Hours, next day
Marriott hotel.

The battle was a stunning victory, the ground forces fought with both valiance and brilliance, and Captain Felts charge on the Cruiser would probably get him a Flag**. It was incredibly hard to believe that the Covenant had been stopped, and that the Antiques defending the planet had even been a challenge to the Covie. The fleet had lost the Fujikawa, the St. Lo, and the Lynch had an imploded bow. The fact that the Covenant had sent such a small fleet was also puzzling, so close after Reach the UNSC thought they'd have and Armada prowling the inner colonies for targets. Sergeant winters was now up and alert, she kept asking for coffee, a scarce luxury. Doc said she fainted from shock, and an internal wound caused by a fragment of concrete. Although the marines had successfully defended the city, the covenant had destroyed shelters in which civilians were hiding, killing them. The transport ship UNSC Hamira had arrived from slip space a hour earlier to relieve the battered forces and take the marines back to a staging area.
"Mount up" Red motioned to his troops. They all climbed on to their wart hogs and began to move towards a designated LZ, a few miles away. From there they would board pelicans, then the Hamira, and the rumor was that they would be heading back to earth for refitting.



*CQC is short for Close-quarters-combat

** Each admiral has a battle flag, so it was implying that the captain was going to be promoted to an admiral

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