The Spartan regarded the planet below with a sense of familiarity. The resemblance to Earth was unnerving, but even more so that there wasn't any sort of orbital defenses. He sighed, crossing his arms as he walked toward the console where he'd left Simo... Before an alarm blared. Holographic screens, those that still worked, flickered onto rear-view cameras and the Spartan and ODSTs stared at the incoming ships with disbelief.

Black-hulled, small and nimble, of resembling reverse trident hull shapes. One had heavier armor and a bigger MAC than the other... UNSC Frigates. From smallest to biggest:Stalwart Anti-Fighter, Charon-Class Multirole and the Paris-Class Heavy... The Paris-Class had its name inscribed onto its side... And the Spartan took pause as he read it. UNSC Diamond in the Rough. Following them as well, was a massive battlecruiser, Halcyon-class... The UNSC Battle Cry of Freedom. Its hull, geometric, beautiful and lined with armor, was also full of heavy cannons, Archer and SHIVA tubes. Enough to bombard the planet below for a sustained 30 hours.

Following it in were the UNSC Pittsburgh and Patton, the Charon and Stalwart, specifically. A com ping sounded off from the Marines' and Spartan's Radio. He tapped the button, then spoke "All allied units on this frequency, this is Sierra Bravo 141, please identify and confirm that I'm not seeing random shit on my visor." as he saw the ships come to a stop alongside the Covenant ship's hull. The Spartan remembered the Patton being commanded by a woman whose ancestor was the late general... And there she was, on one of the holoscreens appearing with a smile on her face. She was a woman in her early 30s, black hair caught in a bun and scarlet eyes. She wore a white dress uniform with the rank pins of Captain. Following her, appearing on two more separate screens were the commanders of the Diamond and Pittsburgh. The Freedom then showed up as well, dividing one screen in half,

"Sierra Bravo 141, we hear you loud and clear." The Captain noted.

"Surprised to see the Freedom, Pittsburgh, Patton and Diamond in the same squadron, Captain... Two questions, if I may." The Spartan noted, grinning to his ears. The Captain gave a nod, allowing the Spartan to ask "One:How the fuck did you four hide? And two:HOW THE HELL DID THE FREEDOM HIDE?!" to which the crews and captains all laughed. Captain Patton gave a nod to him.

"It's a real long story, Aiden. But thanks to your timely intervention aboard that Covie warship, the rest of their fleet was too busy trying to wipe you. Enough so they didn't notice us slip by." The Woman smiled. "Not even the Freedom hoped those fuckers would be that blind." And she looked to the Captain of the Halcyon cruiser on her screen. He nodded back.

UNSC birds launched around the ship. Fighters and the likes, preparing to bring the UNSC crew aboard the Freedom. And deploy an engineering team to strip what they could from the Covie Corvette. The Spartans and their little squad all arrived aboard the Patton with little fuss. Alice was carted off to the medical bay, whilst Aiden went for debriefing alongside the ODST officer, Buck.

Walking the more claustrophobic walls of the UNSC warship felt like a return home for the Spartan and ODST Officer, compared to the gigantic corridors of the Covenant warship. They looked out, to see a picket fighter squadron escorting Pelicans back on board, perhaps for the sake of recovering technology stowed aboard the vehicle. Plasma and other such tech.

Marines ran past them, saluting the Spartan and the ODST as they quickly marched, MA5B ARs stowed on their backs, toward the Hangar. The Spartan raised a brow, then elected to ignore it. He'd ask about it at the meeting between the Captains and them. As they entered the Bridge, they were greeted by salutes from the UNSC Troops present aboard. The bridge was as large as was normally expected of a Halcyon-class. And at the forefront was an actual captain's chair, overlooking the holoscreen that usually bore the Holomap, but now housed the faces of the other Captain sand their XOs.

"... I agree, Captain Hewlett, but we need to remember that the situation we find ourselves in is precarious..." Patton spoke, looking over her own screens from aboard the eponymous ship. "Dividing our resources to try and explore the planet below, even as we detect faint radio signals, could prove problematic. If the Covies traced our random jump..."

"They did not..." Simo's voice came over the com. "I made sure to scramble Covenant Tracking as best as I could."

The Halcyon's captain looked over to the Holo-table in the center and saw the caped figure of the Sniper AI appear from within a strand of white snow. He grinned behind his mask and said "I'm Simo. UNSC AI SMO-0134. Smart-class infiltration AI. One of Doctor Halsey's earlier prototypes."

"Thank you for joining in, Simo." The Captain nodded. "You are certain our backs are covered, right?"

"Yessir..." The AI gave a nod to the man. He was a tall, lanky man with black eyes and greying hair. He wore the standard UNSC Admiral's fatigues. He had a burn scar on his right hand, creeping from under the buttoned wrist of the dress shirt. The man looked over behind him, to Aiden and Buck having joined them. The duet of Spartan and ODST brought up their hands in salute, to which the Captain stood up and smiled at them.

"Boys. Good to have you back." The man noted as he saluted back. "At ease."

The two took an at-ease position. And Aiden stepped in "Sir, you were planning on a groundside op to see what we can find down there?"

"Affirmative on that one. Just gotta get my colleagues to see things the way I do." The man noted.

"I'd like to offer myself up for the job, sir. No need to send Marines or anything else." The Spartan said calmly.

"Wow, wow, wow. Easy there, Spartan." Buck looked at him smugly. "Don't think you're leaving me and my team behind." before both turned to the Captain, who had cleared his throat. They then gazed back to Simo, on the holographic display, as he pulled up an image of a sound synthesizer. He lined it up with a smirk and let the noise play... And what came was a bit of a surprise...

"Gallian High Command, this is the 3rd Armored Regiment. Requesting immediate backup in the Kloden sector. We're under attack by a harassing force of Imperial Jaegers and light armored vehicles." A female voice spoke, seemingly scared, but maintaining a professional posture in her speech.

"This is Gallian HighCom. I'm afraid reinforcements are currently unavailable, Colonel. You are to retreat and assist the evacuation of Bruhl as soon as possible." The voice of the radio operator manning one of the High-Com stations sounded off. "We are attempting to assign a Regular Infantry Regiment to attach and assist, but for the time being, you will have to make due with what few tanks you have."

"Shit... Roger that, High Com... Colonel Graff out. Thanks for nothing." The female voice spoke and the Radio cut off...

Hewlett looked over to his fellow captains, then said "Sounds like whoever's down there's having a nice old war..." before standing up and looking over at the planet below. Specifically, down at the horsehead-shaped territory down north of their Pseudo-Europe. "Captain Patton, may I suggest you deploy with a Spartan or Marine Escort to wherever this High-Com's transmission came from. Meanwhile, Gunnery Sergeant Buck will deploy with Alpha Nine and another bit of our Marine contingent to secure this Bruhl... Hard Drop."

"You got it, sir." Buck nodded, grinning behind his helmet.

"Political moves, Captain Hewlett?" Patton asked. The man gave a nod and she smirked "I'll be deploying with one Spartan and my Marines down to the deck, sir. Aiden? Care to join us?"

"Ma'am... With all due respect, let Adi go with the ODSTs... God only knows the Replacements will need it." A female voice, full of smug, came up from behind Aiden... He turned back, eyes wide, to see Alice on her feet, her wounds patched up already. She had a new helmet slung under her arm with a thicker visor and more plating. A CQB/CQC Helmet. She bumped Aiden, who was smiling, on his shoulder, before continuing "I'm good at political talk and such. Learned it from my days with ONI. So, if you require a Spartan escort, I'd be more than glad to tag along."

"Good to see you're feeling better, Lieutenant." The female Captain smirked.

"Spartan." Buck nodded.

"Ain't going to hell just yet, Gunny... If I do go first, I'll send you a postcard." The woman gave the ODST a toothy grin... He gave a thumbs up as answer and Alice turned to her old time friend, patting him on the shoulder before saying "I got this. Docs were able to fix me up fast enough, so I'm at 100%."

"If the place turns into a shooting gallery?" Aiden raised a brow.

"I'll punch my way out just for the hell of it." Alice winked, grinning.

Aiden gave a nod, grinning right back, before saying "Alright, Cap. Looks like we got our escorts and are ready for a hot drop." before drawing his sniper. "I and Buck will be in first. See you all groundside." before saluting and stepping off with the ODST. The two slid their helmets on their heads and stepped off. Inside the drop bay of the UNSC Halcyon-Class, the Spartan boarded one of the Drop Pods, while ODSTs followed suit close behind. Buck tapped the com...

"Attention, all ODSTs aboard the Freedom. This is your Gunny, speaking. We'll be dropping in hot and assisting locals on the planet below to fend off some kind of assault in a local village. Hold on to your teeth, ask questions before you shoot and expect a hot drop. That's all." Gunny spoke. And the PA went dead. Aiden set his helmet tight on his head, then looked as the lower bay began to open.

... And soon at least sixty pods detached. Blue smoke and flame trailed as the Drop Pods left the mothership and adjusted course in unison for a targeted drop area. Soon, fire surrounded the pod as the heat of reentry played with the shields. Aiden's faceplate polarized to stop him from going blind due to the superheating of the light outside and the Drop Pods adjusted their direction.

Breaching through the upper atmosphere and a layer of clouds, the Drop Pods soon found their landing spot below. Empty, emerald fields with the are windmill surrounded a burning village below, whose defenders seemed outmatched by the enemy army corps. The Spartan felt the 'chute of the pod kick up and, a few seconds later, detach as the bottom thrusters engaged to slow descent... And with a clang, the pod landed in the open field. The Spartan kicked the door aside and drew twin M7 Caseless SMGs, whilst on his back, his SRS 99 waited.

The Spartan raised his twin SMGs and watched as the Drop Troopers landed, some within, some outside the town. IFFs found their way onto his HUD and the troopers of the 63rd Drop Battalion found themselves around the soldiers. He showed the Troopers to form up... And soon, a first shell erupted over his head. A short 75... He looked over, to see it. Clad in red armor, surrounded by soldiers in white plate and brown uniforms... A tank and its complement of knightly infantry.

"We've been engaged! All ODSTs, you're free to fire!" The Spartan said, before kneeling, slinging his SMGs to their mount and drawing his SRS-99/99. It thundered and two enemies were flung and killed by the high-powered, large caliber round. And the shot still had enough power to punch through the light tank's side armor. Weakly armored AFVs vs something above 50 cal. Not a good combo.

ODSTs poured out lead from their MA5s and M7 SMGs, with some even hauling Sparrowhawk launchers. One such launcher fired and a rocket... It screamed through the sky and punched clean through the tank's side armor with enough strength in its detonation that the turret was flung skyward, with the second gun, what appeared to be a large mortar, popping out of its front mount as fire escaped from the barrel and the cupola.

Soon, the ODSTs mounted a concerted effort. Staccato rifle fire gutted through the lightly-armored foes of this 'Empire' while the UNSC suffered no casualties. The Fireteams of ODSTs joined up and maintained spacing all the same while advancing through the town, with Aiden providing the much-needed sniper support to clear out enemy units. The group finally arrived to where the concentration of foes was thickest... A Gate on the west side of town, from where civilians tried to escape an onslaught of enemy forces.

Sitting behind a sandbag fence, a young woman raised her gaze to meet the oncoming deployment of black-clad soldiers. She took a moment to register them all, when she saw one of them pounce over the side of the sandbag fence and set up his strange-looking rifle on it. Following him was an armored giant, who scanned the surrounding rooftops with his rifle, before saying "Area clear!" as the others joined in. The tall, lean giant looked over to the woman. She had brown hair and hazel eyes and wore a baker's red bonnet... She was a beautiful girl by all means, but for now, Aiden had more pressing matters to worry about. He knelt in front of her, (Still towering well over her current height as she too was kneeling behind cover), then asked her "Miss, what's your status here?"

"U... Uh, what?" She asked, shaking her head. "Oh... We're under attack. Imperial troops just suddenly marched into town and started firing on whoever they could see. Not sure of our casualties so far, but... We gotta keep this gate safe. It's covering Civilian escape..." and she saw another man jump in beside the tall armored fellow. He was more gangly, but wore a similar armor to the other boys around, all of whom were heavily armed.

"So, keep the wooden gate safe for people to get out... Sounds easy enough." Buck noted, racking the bolt of his AR.

"Don't jinx it, trooper." Aiden hummed. "What's your name, miss?"

"I'm... Captain Alicia Melchiott. Town Watch." The woman said.

"A pleasure... Now, if you'll excuse us." Aiden stood up and shouldered his rifle... The thunder of the shot reverberated throughout town and nailed an Imperial Officer trying to lead a second wave of assault troops toward them. The round punched clean through, flinging his helmet off his head. Buck looked to his team and said "Fire up, Troopers! This is gonna get hot!"

The ODSTs set up their weapons, took positions and readied themselves to kill any oncoming threat. Alicia looked over to the Spartan, then asked "W... Who the hell are you people?!"

"We, missus?" Aiden grinned, staring down the scope of his rifle "We are the Cavalry."