Reach 2552

The warthog threw mud from its tires. The tires spun and it still didn't move. We were stuck in a wide open field. "Come on, get your shit in gear!" The banshee flew low, eagerly waiting to get within range. I pulled the trigger and the barrel of the gun started to spin. The banshee was now picking up speed. The 50 caliber bullets started to fly they proceeded to hit the banshee. It yanked upwards and banked to the left. I followed it with my aiming cursor. The warthog finally moved with a lurch and we started driving again. The banshee still hot on our tail.

New Constantinople 2536

I made my way from our bunks to the hangar. I was already dressed in my SPI armor. I continued to make my way through the sleek corridors of the frigate. Right now most of the fleet was engaged in a battle with the covenant in orbit. But we weren't, mostly because if we were to get destroyed, ONI would lose a valuable asset. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Asher. "Good morning Asher," I said with a smile even though he couldn't see.

"Good morning Joss."

"You ready for today? For our first real test as Spartans?"

"Hell yeah!" He said back in an excited tone. We approached the hangar were pelicans would drop us near our objectives. We got into formation near our fireteams and Lieutenant Ambrose got to the front. He spoke in a clear tone. "Today you are going into real combat with real enemies. They will not be merciful, they will be relentless. Some of you may not live. But as a soldier, you must put that thought aside Your orders are as follows. You will help with the evacuation of the civilian population. Once that is done you are to report to firebase Victor. You will be thrown into the forge and cast as new soldiers. You will be baptized by fire." With a nod, he walked away and the fire teams mounted up.

My team strapped in the back of the pelican and the closed. I looked at them while standing. "Alright, listen up. I don't want any heroics today. We do our job and we do it right. We will only worry about getting the civilians to safety nothing else." The Pelican lifted up and we went into space. It glided gracefully using the thrusters to push into the atmosphere. I closed my eyes and waited for touchdown. We decelerated and the back opened to an emerald green sea. Ocean spray came up dropped on my armor. I looked at the sky and through the glare of the sun, I saw two purple shimmers. "Asher come over." He lifted the harness and walked over. "What does that look like?" I pointed over to the shimmers.

"Purple shimmers." He said.

"Pilot we've got two banshees on our tail."

"Roger, keeping an eye on the radar." I looked over to Elisabeth and she nodded and grabbed her rocket launcher. She got on one knee and we cleared the backblast. The banshees sped up and got within range. Down below the sea turned to green spring forest. Elisabeth locked onto one of the banshees and fired. The round hit it and crashed into a tree. "I can't get a clear lock on the second one." She said angrily. The banshee fired a banshee bomb into the wing and the thruster failed.

"We're going down!" yelled the pilot. We locked ourselves in and braced for the impact. The nose hit and the massive mechanical machine tumbled through the forest. We skidded to a stop. All five of us unbuckled and I looked into the cockpit. Two dead pilots. I grabbed my weapons and proceeded to leave. I looked at my map and we were six miles away from the city. We started to move towards it.

We've been on the move for about an hour and we neared the city limits. "Fireteam Titan, what's your sitrep?"

"Charlie Foxtrot our pelican went down. Banshees, we're just outside the city now." I responded over Comms.

"Roger." We entered the suburbs and dead bodies were littered around us. I had a feeling we weren't going to find anyone alive. We continued to push forward. I checked my mag in my SMG. I looked forward and saw a covie patrol. My heart started pounding. I motioned my head towards them and everyone looked. I moved faster into closer range slouched over using the cars making not to be spotted. We got behind them and started to fire. My rounds tore through a couple of grunts and in a minute it ended. We continued heading into the center of the city to meet up with the marines. We crossed streets and finally got to the skyscraper they were at. Elites were trying to pry open the doors. We looked at each other and laughed. The elites heard and turned. We proceeded to light those mother fuckers up! The elites fell to the floor and we knocked. "Open up this is Fireteam Titan." They opened the door and we walked in.

"Take off your helmets." The door marine said.

"Excuse me?" Said Austin.

"Take them off. We need to make sure your not covie bastards." We proceeded to take off our helmets and everyone was shocked. "Christ, you guys look like your twelve!" We put our helmets back on.

"Where's your CO?" I asked. The marines were in a lavishly styled penthouse apartment with about fifty or so civies.

"Over there." He pointed. We walked over.

"Good our reinforcements." He said with a smile. He looked to be in his mid 30s wrinkles all over his face. He looked tired and his hair was graying. "I'm Captain Noles."

"Nice to meet you, sir. I'm Spartan Joss-A003."

"Spartans? Never heard of you guys."

"And you probably never will." I said. The man chuckled in response and said:

"ONI is a secretive bunch, aren't they? Anyways we got a bunch of civilians and we can't get to our warthogs because of the covenant."

"That's where we come in don't we?" I asked.

"Indeed it is. We're low on men and ammo we would get slaughtered if I and my men tried. Well we wouldn't be any help."

"I understand."