August 23, 2552
The freefall back down to the surface from the Ardent Prayer had taken its toll on Noble 6, leaving him wounded and unarmed, with the exception of his knife and a pistol kept in a special compartment of his Re-entry pack. After standing back up, Noble 6 turned around to face a nearby mountain range, where the destroyed Covenant Supercarrier now resided, as pieces of debris crashed around it like small comets. Noble 6 couldn't stop thinking about his fellow SPARTAN Jorge, who gave his own life honorably to give Reach a fighting chance. 6 briefly and silently acknowledged his comrade's death, before moving on.
After an hour's march, 6 climbed up a hill overlooking a large city, most likely New Alexandria. Gunfire could be heard and seen all over the center of the city, UNSC and Covenant alike. There were also several Covenant Corvettes hovering above the skyline, bombarding numerous buildings with plasma torpedoes. 6 hopped down from the ledge and proceeded down the boardwalk towards the gunfire. Two UNSC Falcons suddenly flew overhead, which proved that there were UNSC forces defending the city. 6 passed through a damaged building and exited on the other side, where he was suddenly ambushed by a small pack of Skirmishers. Noble 6 quickly took down the Skirmishers with headshots, before picking up the nearby magnum ammo from a dead trooper.
An announcement over comms was made by a UNSC Army trooper, who was alerting the presence of several groups of suicidal Grunts. 6 pushed on through the next building when suddenly a small army of screaming Grunts with plasma grenades charged the SPARTAN. Noble 6 quickly shot the lead Grunt, who dropped its grenades. The plasma grenades went off, effectively taking out all the Grunts. 6 double-checked to make sure that there weren't any more Grunts nearby, before moving into the dark building, pistol armed. 6 turned his helmet's floodlights on, so he could see better.
After leaving the building, Noble 6 found a group of civilians hiding in a corner. "A SPARTAN?", one of the women asked. "Are you here to protect us?".
"That's the plan", 6 replied. He picked up an assault rifle that was on the ground by the corpse of a trooper, and headed outside onto the deck overlooking a park when a Spirit rose up from the park with its troop bay doors open. Inside the Spirit were several large ape-like creatures. They were Jiralhanae, codenamed "Brutes", and were shooting at 6 with their unique spike-shooting Type-25 carbines. Noble 6 returned fire at the Brutes with his assault rifle, but the Spirit turned the Brutes out of 6's line of fire, and deployed them on the far side of the balcony, where a group of Army troopers were in an intense firefight with some more Brutes. 6 sprinted down the balcony towards the troopers' cover.
"I picked up a friendly!", a trooper announced to his squadmates. "A SPARTAN? Well where the hell did he come from?", a female soldier questioned. "Who cares? SPARTAN! Assist!"
"Got it", 6 replied.
While the SPARTAN and the soldiers assaulted the Brutes, the trooper contacted his commanding officer to inform him of their situation. "Evac Team 7 to Kilo 26, we have eyes on Traxus Tower." "Copy Evac Team 7, move to assist the evac", Kilo 26 replied. By the time the trooper finished the call, he regrouped with the rest of the team. "How do we get to the tower?", the female soldier asked. "Elevator in this atrium goes down to the cargo port", the other soldier explained. "Cargo port goes to the tower."
"Well alright troops, let's move like we've got a purpose", 6 declared. The soldiers moved into the atrium. Noble 6's assault rifle was empty, so he picked up a shotgun off the ground. The team moved up the atrium, which was crawling with Grunts and Brutes. While the soldiers provided covering fire, 6 sprinted through the group of Covenant, blasting them with his shotgun. When the Covenant opposition was eliminated, the rest of 6's squad moved up to the elevator. Another squad of troopers showed up, heavily guarding a group of civilians, which quickly moved to the elevator. A trooper activated the elevator, but nothing happened. "Hey what the hell's taking this thing so long?", he asked. "Uh, we're currently evacuating a group of civilians on the floor below you; soon as they reach the cargo port, I'll send the elevator back up", an officer replied. 6 looked up and spotted a Spirit pass over the sunroof, preparing to deploy reinforcements to the courtyard nearby. The Army troopers hustled the civilians into a saferoom next to the elevator, and took defensive positions behind some crates in front of the elevator.
"Hey, where'd the SPARTAN go?", one of the troops asked. 6 reappeared behind the soldiers, carrying a detached M274H. "Let's rock!", he shouted. Moments later, a large group of Brutes charged through the doorway. The soldiers cleared the way, and 6 opened up with his machine gun, gunning down all the Brutes in the blink of an eye, spraying death and bullets all over the place.
"That's all of 'em?", a trooper asked. His question was suddenly answered when a large Chief Brute with a Gravity Hammer- the Brute equivalent to the Elite energy sword -grabbed the soldier's head from behind and launched him towards a wall, shattering his skull. 6 resumed drilling the beast with his HMG. When the turret ran out of ammo, 6 pulled his shotgun out, and began blasting the leviathan in the face. The Army soldiers moved out of cover and gave the SPARTAN covering fire with their assault rifles. Eventually the Chieftain, panting, dropped to the ground, bleeding violet-colored blood. "I'm one tough hombre", 6 commented to the dead beast.
At the same time, the elevator finally came up, and there was a soldier waiting for 6. "We've got this area controlled SPARTAN," the female trooper stated. "Head down the elevator." 6 nodded to her in respect, and she nodded back, before moving the rest of the platoon and the civilians to a different location. 6 walked into the elevator, and it went down.
"If you're trying to get to the tower, you're too late Lieutenant", the officer from earlier stated. "Corvette over the starport pounded the hell outta the place. Cargo port's impassible on foot; rooftop evacs are lost. We could use the Executive Landing Pad 'cept there's no easy way to get there. A group of ODST specialists are working a plan; they might appreciate some backup."
"Sound's good to me", 6 replied.