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There were hundreds of them. Thousands maybe, the forklike drop ships came down from the carriers, Jerry Thomas felt a tingle down his spine as he looked through his binoculars. The Covenant had found reach, now they were sending in an invasion force, and there could only be one possible reason. The groundside reactors were where the orbital stations drew their power from. Without the sMac's, the Covenant would walk all over the fleet. For now, however, the Covenant and UNSC were locked in a bitter stalemate. And it was up to the ground teams to keep it that way for as long as possible. He had to warn the defenders of the incoming threat. "HQ this is recon delta, do you read me over?"
"Roger recon what is going on?"
"The Covenant is coming; I'm detecting thousands of contacts. Drop ships, fighters and ground support, be advised strafing runs on the reactor complex will begin in about three minutes."
"Roger, recon," as Jerry put his Com away he looked up at the oncoming swarm and saw hundreds of Archer Missiles and Mac rounds impact the stream of Covenant vehicles. A wave of relief flashed over him, maybe they could survive this, and then the tingle in his spine returned, hundreds of the drop ships cleared the clouds. The Banshee air cover rocketed over to the reactors, as did dozens of drop ships, he raised his sniper rifle to his eyes, sighted the nearest drop ship, and waited, the round tube opened up and two Elites as well as thirteen Grunts popped into his view, and he sighted a blue Elite and pulled the trigger. Two rounds hit the first Elite one hit his face and killed him instantly. He fired into the next one. He exhausted the clip thumbed the release then slammed a fresh one in. As the Grunts poured out he fired four shots in quick succession three hits and three Grunts fell at the round ripped open their suits and tore into their flesh.
________________________________________________________________________

Captain Robert Dawson was given the task of defending the reactor complex's northern flank. He was a veteran of a few battles, but he knew he was not ready for this. He had a company of two hundred Marines dug in around the perimeter of the complex. His position was fortified with four bunkers, each one only protruding about two feet above the ground, and sporting three thirty caliber machine guns. The guns were built to provide overlapping fields of fire. He had also been given command of five warthog. The line was spread out about two hundred meters along the military crest of a small ridge, protecting the northern flank. His squad sat in a fox hole about ten meters away from the right center bunker. He looked through the meter high barbed wire and counted at least two dozen drop ships heading over the trees. They came to a stop half a kilometer away and dropped below the canopy. He made quick calculations in his head. About twenty five drop ships, with thirty troops in each, that meant about seven hundred Covenant infantry. But that wasn't all; he counted half a dozen Wraith tanks on the drop ships, and about eighteen Banshees heading at top speed for them. He picked up the Com unit and called out his orders. "Jackhammer squads fall back into the bunkers and emerge only if you have clear shot and remember to anticipate the dodging. Replies filled his Comm. "Everyone else fire at the banshees till they are down, those fliers are our primary target."
"Affirmative, Captain" He turned off his Com unit and clipped it back to his suit. Alpha company had six rocket jockeys and if his plan worked they could aid in thinning out the air cover. If that failed this would be over in minutes. The drop ships re-emerged from the forest. The Banshees flew over the trees, and unloaded on the Captain's line, one fire team was hit by a plasma bomb. The fire team was thrown into the air, and their foxhole was now a glass lined crater. One of the bunkers took a direct hit. Its armor took the blast and held…barely. The rockets streaked toward their targets. As he anticipated, most of them missed, but at least four made it to their targets. Smoldering hulls fell to the ground. The two remaining of the original five Warthogs hosed down the fliers killing even more. The remaining banshees flew off to continue their run somewhere else, leaving half of their number behind. Hundreds of Covenant infantry charged at the weakened front. As they emerged he gave the order to open fire. The company snipers opened up, and the four remaining rocket jockeys did as well, emptying both of the rockets in the launcher. The rockets and snipers found their marks. Hundreds of Grunts and Jackals fell at once, but hundreds more seemed to replace them. The Wraiths emerged from the trees, and fired at the bunkers, four globs of plasma hit the bunker directly behind the Captain, gouts of flames shot outwards in all directions, the bunker collapsed, and the men inside were vaporized. The heat of the flame washed over his face and blistered his back.
The two remaining jockeys fired, the rounds streaked towards their targets and impacted the tanks. The first tank took both rounds, its hull warped but held. The second jockey was smarter; he fired at the ground beneath the tank. The high explosive rocket detonated under the wraith, hot shards of metal cut into the antigrav thrusters, igniting the fuel tanks. The first wraith exploded in a shower of flames, the Rocketeers out in the open realized their foolishness, and they dove under the cover of the left center bunker, the captain turned his attention to the threats ahead. Half dozen Jackals formed their shields to protect a dozen Grunts, who were hurling grenades by the hundreds it seemed near his foxhole.
"Marines, get some grenades on those suckers." His words were followed by a trio of Marines next to him screening the Jackals with grenades. The detonations tore their shields away. They scattered for a second then tried to reform, but the Captain was faster. He pulled the pin on a grenade and let it fly; it landed next to the main Grunt column. The detonation sent a few of them flying and broke their formation, he, and the few remaining Marines sprayed the wastes of methane with assault rifle fire. The Captain surveyed the field ahead, a pair of Wraiths remained, out of the six original. The last remaining rocket jockey ran to the last standing bunker, moments later the Captain observed twin rocket trails lead to the forward Wraith, the heavy tank erupted into a fireball engulfing a dozen more Grunts.
"This is bunker N3 I'm seeing a few dozen Elites flooding up the hills, be advised supporting Marines are dwindling, may not be able to hold em." The Captain saw the elites move up, but was more concerned about the Wraith.
"Any more rockets, anyone?"
"Negative sir, I'm all out."
Roberts winced; so long as that tank was there anyone who fired would be sighted and cut down. The final bunker continued to fire at the incoming Covenant advancing up the northwest side of the hill now only thirty meters away from the wire. Robert saw the tank accelerate straight towards him where he was crouching, on the northeast side of the hill. Now it was only five meters away, its auto cannons fired and cut down three Marines off to its left. He then had an idea,
"Marines fire on the infantry and don't let up for a second." He shouted over the Comm.
"What about the Wraith sir?"
"Don't worry about that, just keep the pressure up" Roberts slumped into his glass covered fox hole, hoping the armor had not seen him. The Wraith boosted past him. He saw it turn to fire on the last remaining bunker. He could not let that happen, he took a grenade from his pocket, and popped up to advance on the wraith, but there were dozens of Grunts pouring thru the wire, he could not even lift his head up over the line of the foxhole, the heat from even a clear miss was like being in a giant convection oven.
"Marines cover me; I have to get to that Wraith." For a few moments there was nothing, was he the last one? He got his answer when four dozen Marines popped from various foxholes and blanketed the advancing troops for only a second before the counter fire forced them to take cover. The brief hiatus in the Covenant lines was all the Captain needed. He rolled out of his fox hole and dove behind a rock. He hustled from cover to cover and finally stopped, he was now staring at the back of the Wraith. The mortar tank was putting tons of plasma into the last bunker; if that bunker fell the defenders would have no hope. Roberts took the grenade in his hand, primed it, and let it fly. He fished three more from his belt, and then he threw the trio of grenades under the Wraith, the first grenade detonated just as the other three arrived, causing them to explode as well. He saw the grenades detonate but ran away, hearing the loud noise and dull thump behind him.
________________________________________________________________________
Sergeants Davis fire his assault rifle in short sustained bursts, another trio of grunts fell. Behind him he heard an explosion and saw the wraith blow into tiny bits. His ammo was low and there was not much left of the company, the loss of the Wraith was not going to stop the Covenant, the Sergeant opened up his Comm. Link
"We are losing too many men Captain, the Elites are storming into the last bunker. We have to blow the charges then get the hell outta here." There was a six second pause on the radio the Sergeant was concerned the Captain may have been caught in the explosion,
"How long do we have?" The Sergeant surveyed the men, he observed the Elites flooding from the captured bunker methodically eradicating the remaining Marines from the foxholes.
"Few minutes if we are lucky, we've got infantry all around us, we have to blow those damn charges."
"Those charges can only be set off from the bunkers." The reality hit the Sergeant like an Energy Projector hits a Frigate; he knew what he had to do.
"Understood sir, I'm going in, cover me"
"I know you are, ill do what I can. Marines, lets plow the road" the remaining snipers from the next phase line back open fired with a renewed vigor, the few Marines left blanketed the Elites, and grunts, barely stemming the tide as dozens of Grunts flooded past the wire to support the Elites. The Sergeant was fifty meters away, he started running, faster then he ever had before, three out of the four bunkers were collapsed, the only intact bunker was N4, the one previously crawling with elites. He was thirty meters away. Plasma fire cut through the air, one of the bolts caught him in the foot, another in the shoulder. The pain was unbearable but he could not stop, he had to keep going. He paused and crouched behind a rock, removing his last three grenades. He primed them all for detonation .5 seconds after contact with the ground. He renewed his advanced forward. Several Elites took cover but were still able to fire on him; he tossed the trio of grenades giving him a few more seconds, he was now ten meters away. The Sergeant took two steps and caught a Needler round into his sides, moments later it exploded, the wounded Sergeant fell into the bunker, blood flowing from his open wounds, and he crawled towards the desk,
"Marines," he shouted into his Comm. Pausing to cough up blood, "fall back, I'm blowing the charges." He pulled himself to the desk and pulled himself up, then grasped the detonator and fell back down, his wounds were severe, he only had a few seconds left to get the job done. Blackness faded in the world began to spin. A plasma grenade flew into the room; the explosion sent a wave of pain and shrapnel over him. An Elite entered, it bellowed in a deep voice.
"Why do you continue to persist" the Sergeant fell to his stomach grabbed the detonator, then sat back up. "You shall die like all the rest, why bother resisting" bellowed the Elite, savoring the humans pain. The Sergeant struggled to utter the last words he'd ever say.
"For my men," he managed to smile, "Semper Fi Bitch" The Sergeant pulled the detonation trigger
________________________________________________________________________

"Don't let up." The Captain fired the remainder of his clip into the Grunts that surged past the collapsed bunkers and flooded towards his men, then without warning, the entire northern flank was enveloped in a monstrous red flame. The bunkers were cleared away the trenches and the deep foxholes collapsed, nearly a hundred Covenant soldiers were caught in the blast, those that were not killed either ran, or wandered aimlessly, shell-shocked. The shockwave rocketed outward, reverberating through his skeleton, the sergeant had done it. "Let em have it marines, charge forward, push em off our turf."
"Let's go get the bastards." Screamed a marine hungry for revenge
The small remaining Marine force lurched forward, the Covenant were shocked by what the saw, the Captain picked up a plasma grenade from a fallen grunt, primed it, and threw it as he ran. An Elite, a grey one, occupied with the other marines, did not see the grenade coming, the blue orb adhered to his armor, and he ran around in circles till the explosion tore him to pieces. The Grunts, seeing their leader die and still not fully recovered from the explosion, broke and ran, the Marines charged threw the smoke, and took up positions in their foxholes and behind the charred remains of Warthogs, the thick wall of bullets tore into the fleeing grunts, Elites that were in the open trying to rally the Grunts were cut down by the last remaining sniper, several Jackals tried to get into a shield wall but failed, they too scattered, then ran, the orderly retreat turned into a rout, the Marines, slumped down in their cover, the Captain breathed a sigh of relief, they had held, for now.
"Reactor seven and five are down Admiral," he heard over his Comm. "Reactor three has held but barley. The reactors six, four, two, and one are all under heavy attack, over."
"Rodger General, how much longer can you hold?"
"I'm not sure, maybe half an hour."
"Understood, we are sending drop ships to evac as many Marines as we can. Its not going well in orbit."
The Captain wasn't ready to give up but as he surveyed his Marines, he realized there was no hope in resisting. Thirteen marines had survived the assault, he no longer had the bunkers, or and jeeps, or tanks. The only thing left now was to live and fight another day.
"Ok men lets move out. The Covie will be back, Pelicans are being sent to evac us to the ships."
"Sir, we are giving up?" The captain didn't like how the words sounded, but resistance on his part was useless, any remotely legitimate assault would swipe his men off the cliff face.
"We've done all we can do Marine. We will live to fight another day." The Captain paused, trying to fight back the shame. "Let's move out."

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