Prologue
Humanity has been at war for 32 years against a religiously fanatical conglomerate of alien races known to us, simply as the Covenant. Their leadership declared us an affront to the gods themselves and they began a campaign of genocide against the humans in what they referred to as a Holy War. Humanities response to this was to declare total war against the Covenant. Crushing defeat upon crushing defeat at several systems and colonies gave the Covenant the upper hand in its future battles and this also enabled them to push back the UNSC and its affiliates to what the Human Leadership referred to as the RED LINE, soon after this was reached our last few bastions summoned all available troops to defend the colonies of the home system.
More than a year after this the human military hub known as Reach fell to the Covenant in a gruelling battle which lasted for almost a week and caused several million causalities.
No more than a few months later, Earth was found by a small excavation fleet and in this event both sides mobilized everything available to them and then the final fight began.
What however was unique about the battle of Earth was that they didn't glass it after they had defeated the home fleet, they however began to land troops and then a swift campaign of occupation and eradication began. Several cities fell to this and countless million were killed in the first days. Mombassa was the first to fall, followed by New York, Shang Hai, Manhattan, Adelaide, Beijing and then Paris. The next on the list was the city of London however its determined defenders stand tall in the face of impossible odds.
CHAPTER 1: London – 0500 Zulu - 2552
'Vanguard, Vanguard this is Blackjack 6'
'Roger go ahead'
'Main target at 0500 Zulu is CCS class Battle Cruiser at grid reference 135096'
'Roger confirmed'
'Fighter group Sabre 17 inbound, TTO one – one seconds, get your heads down'
PFC Ryan Smith looked up just in time to see several missiles streak across the early morning sky. The only certain way to identify the missiles was by the bone white exhaust trails they left behind. Mere seconds later they struck the Covenant ship and plumes of fire and explosions were met with the shimmer and glimmer of blue purple energy shields. The fighter proceeded to launch another salvo, however this time the Covenant were ready and the point plasma defence turrets kicked in. They destroyed the missiles mid-flight and the fighters broke off but they were destroyed in barely ten seconds.
The first day off fighting in the city of London had begun. Smith looked around and surveyed the city from his position inside the ancient clock tower that was Big Ben. PFC Ryan Smith was of Scottish descent and looked barely out of his teens when in reality he was really 27, the things cryostasis could do to a person's appearance was amazing. He had joined the UNSC at the age of 17 and after six months of basic training he was accepted into the army that same year. After several deployments to combat the Covenant on the disputed colonies of Sigma Octanus, Valencio and Coles Hope he tried out for the Armies special warfare division and from there he joined the army's 31st Special Forces Recon and QRF (quick reaction force) detachment. Almost a year later he was deployed to Reach to assist in its defence, he was one of the few to escape the planet but without his left arm. He now had a robotic replacement.
He surveyed the city from the scope of his S2AM-M6, the M6 was a variant of the standard S2 made especially for urban operation which meant it featured interchangeable barrels and stocks for close quarter combat. His best friend and spotter Alexi Markov also surveyed like a hawk awaiting its next meal, he used a pair of Chevro Binoculars to accomplish this and his primary weapon to back Ryan up with was the MA38 ICWS assault rifle, the rifle was special as it was designed on a rail system where everything could be removed or changed around. As the hunters surveyed the city they were able to watch several phantoms and spirit drop ships fly over their positions and put troops down into the city. All around them plasma and tracer rounds ignited the darkness and in an odd way made a beautiful display of art. As both surveyed the city their primary worry was that of Jackal snipers finding their position and bringing them down. As Ryan looked out for those Alexi was responsible for identifying high value targets. Ryan reached back into his webbing and withdrew his canteen, he undid the cap and took a long draught and then stopped himself. He wiped his face free of the grime that covered it and his cropped brown hair shook out dust for him as he rubbed it back and forth. He pressed his face once again up to the scope and took sight on the surroundings. His partner Alexi then shouted
'Contact, Jackal sniper firing at troops'
Ryan swirled his rifle around until he found where Alexi was centred on. Sure enough a long faced Jackal was standing atop an old 22nd century building, the alien was taking pot shots at a group of soldiers holed up in a building. Ryan adjusted the dials on his scope and countered for a strong wind, he aimed more left then he needed to, he nodded to his partner and Alexi called out
'Target is 2500 meters away, fire on my go'
Ryan slowed his breathing to nearly non-existent and became solely focused on the world his scope contained. Alexi started
'Fire'
Ryan made sure everything was good and put his finger on the trigger
'Fire'
He focussed on his small target despite the 3x magnification of the Chevro scope, he needed to see far and true
'Fire'
Ryan squeezed the trigger and a loud sound reverberated throughout the tower as the 14mm slug exited the rifle and contacted its target only two seconds later. The round ripped the alien in half and showered the building where it once stood with purple blood, Alexi whooped and high fived Ryan and reported
'Hit'
Alexi continued to sight out targets for the best part of another twenty minutes and after this it was decided they needed to relocate to avoid being shredded by a Covenant hunter killer team. As they moved down the many flights of stairs that were encased in the tower, as they made their way down Ryan reflected on his kills, so far in not even an hour he had bagged four jackal sniper, three zealots, an ultra and one nice juicy field marshal. He now had to add another 9 notches to his belt. They moved carefully stopping every few floors to listen and observe for minutes at a time and work out a plan, they moved and nearly 20 minutes later they made it to the bottom. Ryan held up his hand and Alexi stopped and asked in a hushed whisper
'What is it'
Ryan kneeled and unslung his rifle; he removed his backpack and proceeded to change out the barrels, stock and scope on his rifle until he ended up with a compact S2 with an ACOG scope. Perfect he thought to himself. He then nodded to Alexi and they proceeded the last few flights of stairs, they moved through the foyer and took up positions at the main door, as they looked to each other and nodded Ryan slipped a fibre optic cable under the door and surveyed his surroundings, nothing out there at all it was a ghost town, he retracted the cable and slipped it back into his webbing, he nodded once more to Alexi. A nearby explosion shook dust from the foundation of the tower, they pushed the doors open and stepped out into the world if chaos.