The passenger bay of the Blackhawk was tense beyond belief. A squadron of six Blackhawks were flying over the city to reinforce friendly defence against a possible attack from the alien ships, and as they passed over Santa Monica the US Army Rangers on board could clearly see all three of the ships that dwarfed the helicopters that buzzed underneath them. So far there had been no contact from the Covenant ships, no visible movement or anything. The weather had reverted back to what it should have been; a clear summer morning. The aid was humid but much of this heat was coming from the four Repulsor Engines that kept each Corvette hovering over the huge city. Onboard one of the Blackhawks, which was in the centre of the tight triangle formation, sat Private James Ramirez. He had just completed his first six months in Afghanistan and wasn't planning on going back anytime soon. Now as far as he knew he could be fighting an alien invasion. He grimaced and checked his M4A1 assault rifle again to occupy himself as he waited for the helicopter to land. He brushed off some dust on the holographic scope, wondering if it would actually do any good. What if they were going to be fighting an alien enemy that was immortal? Ramirez shuddered at the thought and tried to think about other things. He thought briefly about home back in San Diego, his wife and his two daughters. He wondered what they were doing right now. Sheila was probably gardening, which was her favourite hobby by far. The kids were probably at school. But considering what was happening here in LA, they had probably been let out of school early. The three of them were probably glued to their TV, watching everything.

Ramirez's thoughts were interrupted when his headset suddenly filled with the sound of Overlord, callsign of Command, addressing the pilot of the helicopter. Ramirez listened intently to every word while keeping his eyes on the Corvette that hovered over the skyline.
"Ugly Two-Zero this is Overlord, relay from Goliath One. I am in contact with Centurion Two, a Marine Recon Platoon in Santa Monica. They need reinforcement while they get as many civvies out of the city as they can, you are to change course and drop at Santa Monica. How copy, over?" finished Overlord.
"Solid copy Overlord, we are changing course now, out" responded the pilot quickly and Ramirez held onto the sides of his metal seat as the helicopter banked and headed towards the coastal town of Santa Monica, which was only about two minutes away.

Ramirez steadied himself as the Blackhawk banked and he shared a glance with Corporal Dunn, his closest friend. Ramirez usually stayed silent between missions; he wasn't a good people person. And his parents wanted him to be a doctor... he mused as the helicopter sped at full speed over the houses near the ocean. Several clouds of black smoke rose up from places where fires must have been started by looters in the wake of the ship's arrival. Everyone on the helicopter was still staring at the Corvette that hung over the skyline, but Ramirez only made occasional glances at it. It concerned him yes, but he felt that there were more useful things he could be doing than staring at something he couldn't do anything about. He was more interested in studying the city below him, watching great crowds of people heading through the streets, though many crowds were at a standstill and watching either the alien ships or the military that had arrived in the city. Ramirez was watching when he heard the sound of a pair of jet engines nearby. He looked up towards the alien ship and saw a formation of four F-22 Raptor fighter jets streak past towards it just metres over the helicopter. He heard the pilot mutter something.

"Fucking Raptors man, that was way too close to us" he muttered and Ramirez couldn't help but agree. A few more feet lower and the jets would have crashed right into the helicopter. As the fighter jets broke off and flew past the ship, it happened.

As Ramirez watched the fighter jets fly past, four bolts of blue light flew out from the belly of the Corvette over the skyline. Each of these bolts lit up like a Christmas tree, easily noticeable as they approached the ground. One by one, the four shots smacked into the ground of Downtown Los Angeles, each creating an immensely loud bang as they hit. And then from each impact there rose a large cloud of purple fire that grew quickly from the impact zone, tinged with orange and red fire. The fireballs were the size of an entire block, and the bangs from the explosions hit everyone. It was like Krakatau erupting in Los Angeles, that's how loud it was. Instantly after the explosions there was silence on every frequency. Everyone just stopped talking. Then after about five seconds the radios everywhere filled with shouting as people came to terms with what was happening. The Blackhawk sped up as two more F-22 Raptors flew overhead, much lower to the ground than the previous three. Ramirez armed his assault rifle and prepared for battle. He watched as a volley of objects fell from the undersides of all three ships in unison. The objects weren't weapons; they disappeared behind buildings and didn't explode when they hit the ground. Rather, they were drop pods being used to deploy troops.

There was panic on every radio frequency, but Ramirez knew that his life and the life of others would depend on him keeping a cool head. Sergeant Foley, sitting across from Ramirez, was bowing his head down and whispering a prayer. Ramirez wished he could have kept his faith, but after what he saw in Afghanistan he simply couldn't. He was still haunted by the visions of those children, lying dead with blood oozing from the deep slashes on their throats. He shook his head to get rid of the picture before the voice of Sergeant Foley made him snap out of it instead.

"Everyone get ready, we're roping down in thirty seconds!" shouted Foley over the noise of the helicopter blades. Just a few seconds later, the pilot of the helicopter made a transmission to the other pilots in the squadron.

"Uh, we've got multiple unidentified fast-movers converging on our position, does anyone have a visual?" he asked, and a panicked young female pilot yelled into the airwaves in response.

"I see them, I see them!" she screamed out as a squadron of seven small, 6 meter long streamlined purple Banshee fighters swarmed towards the Blackhawk flight like bluebottles to a picnic. One of the alien fighters fired its Projectile Cannon, which launched a green direct-fire bolt of energy that left a long tail as it travelled, like a green comet. The shot smashed into one of the Blackhawks directly to the right of Ramirez's helicopter and it burned through the relatively weak armour with little effort. A large explosion went off in the front of the helicopter's tail and the stricken aircraft went into a spin, before smashing into the ground as the pilot desperately called out a Mayday.

The remaining Blackhawks broke off from the formation except for Ramirez's helicopter, which made a beeline for the target landing zone. It finally arrived as Marines already on the ground popped green smoke to indicate their position. As Sergeant Foley released the rope and slid down it to the ground, Ramirez's head swung around as he saw the Corvette over the skyline unleash another volley of Heavy Plasma Cannons fired down onto the skyline, intent on tearing it apart and purging it in fire. Ramirez watched in horror as one of the shots scored a direct hit with the US Bank Tower. It hit the roof at a perfect 90 degree angle in the centre of the roof and tore through the concrete and masonry with next to no effort. The top half of the building shattered, as the plasma shot burrowed through and melted all it touched. The top half of the building fell open like a cardboard box being opened, before a massive ball of fire grew out. The bottom half of the tower suffered every window being shattered but was relatively unscathed. The top half however, was gone, replaced by a burning crater in the tower where a plume of thick black smoke now rose like the tower had become a volcano, the only bits of the top-half that remained looked like giant, glowing orange embers. Ramirez watched in shock before looking down at the ground twenty feet below, grabbing the rope that dangled off the Blackhawk and swinging down to the ground.

Once Ramirez landed, he rubbed his gloves together to get rid of a small feeling of rope burn before grabbing his assault rifle and following Sergeant Foley, who ran to the end of the street before they all stopped to watch as the Blackhawk they had come on left, flying off towards the skyline no doubt to help evacuate civilians. But there were plenty of civilians to evacuate here, people were swarming through the streets, running away from the area and the Army Ranger squad was finding it hard to get through them. In the end, Ramirez gave up trying this and tried to scope out the area. He climbed up onto the roof of an abandoned car and could see that at least 30 more US soldiers were heading up the street, escorting an M1126 Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicle that trundled down the street slowly as civilians made sure to stay out of their way. A third set of explosions could be heard in the distance, no doubt coming from the skyline as the Corvette rained hell on the poor people there. Sergeant Foley shouted over to Ramirez as the Stryker approached.

"Ramirez! There's an idiot reporter, he's gonna get himself run over! Get him outta here!" Foley shouted and Ramirez jumped down from the car and ran towards the reporter, who was talking into a microphone.

"Hey, I'm really sorry but I need you to leave now for your own safety, we've got an armoured vehicle approaching and you're in the way!" Ramirez shouted over the din of the screaming people that were running past.

"Oh, sorry!" apologised the reporter and he gestured for the cameraman to get away. They both got off the road as the Stryker kept moving down the street, crushing a car that was in the way as it did so. Ramirez watched the Stryker before hearing the yell of a soldier nearby.
"Take cover!" screamed the soldier and Ramirez looked to the sky. Three bright blue Heavy Plasma Mortars were soaring overhead, slowly beginning to fall to the ground right towards the street. They were like blue comets as they gracefully flew over the rooftops before it became clear that they were descending right onto the street. Screams rang out as people dispersed, trying to escape the wrath of the mortar shots. As the Stryker stopped in the middle of the road and the gunner of the attached M240 machine gun ducked into the body of the IFV, the mortars hit. They landed one by one, the first smashing into the roof of a three storey apartment building. The mortar melted through the roof before exploding inside the third floor. The walls of the third storey exploded outward, sending masonry and bits of concrete flying everywhere and raining down onto the street below as an immense fireball grew out of the third floor, consuming everything within it. The explosion was incredibly loud, and the force of it shook the ground so much that puddles on the road rippled furiously. Then the second mortar hit, this time smashing into the sidewalk. Ramirez could only watch as it impacted, sending three US Marines nearby flying across the street and also tossing a white jeep away like it was a toy. The jeep bounced off the hard asphalt of the road as the sidewalk the mortar hit was churned up and scattered everywhere, looking like what would happen if you put a bomb under a garden, leaving a huge crater where the mortar had struck. Huge pieces of pavement and road, some several feet in length, pelted the crowd, vehicles and the Stryker. A civilian car attempting to drive down the street had its windscreen smashed by a flying piece of debris and the driver tumbled out of the door and lay motionless on the road. As the screaming intensified, the third and final mortar smashed into a clothes store on the other side of the road, ripping through the roof effortlessly before exploding in the ground floor, killing several people hiding in the building. The walls of the shop caved in and a tall fire grew out, consuming the building.

Ramirez had been thrown to the ground by the second mortar and was now lying on his back facing up at the sky. He could hear muffled shouts; his hearing had gone after the explosion had gone off so close to him. People ran past him in panic, ignoring him completely. He kept watching the sky as he lay there with small bits of asphalt and dust covering his uniform. He could hear ghostly screams and a huge squadron of Banshees sped by overhead, the screams coming from their engines which were leaving a vaporous exhaust trail behind them. Ramirez turned his head and could see plasma bolts flying indiscriminately into the crowd of fleeing civilians, coming from several Banshees that had broken off from the squadron and were descending on the people, firing off long bursts from their energy guns. Ramirez watched as people fell the moment they were struck by the plasma and he pulled himself up from the ground. He saw his M4A1 assault rifle lying half buried under rubble nearby and he bent down to pick it up. He looked around wildly and saw the Stryker's back doors open. Nine Army Rangers ran out, ready for combat. As they left the Stryker, a single Banshee dive-bombed them, firing off its fuel rod cannon. The shot struck just feet away from the Stryker, knocking one of the Rangers to the ground as a small green explosion threw chunks of the road into the air. The Army Rangers everywhere were firing at the Banshees but to little effect, quickly the agile fighters zoomed out of sight.

Ramirez looked around. Fire was gushing from the apartment building and the clothing store, the two craters from the mortar impacts were smoking, one of them with a silver SUV lying upside down inside it, and smoke could be seen rising from fires in other places all over the city. Ramirez was horrified by what he had seen, but his distraction didn't last long.
"Everyone heads up! We've got enemy vehicles bearing down on us from the other end of the street!" shouted Sergeant Foley, and Ramirez swung his head round to see three glistening, purple Wraiths slowly emerged from the next street, moving in single file. Two groups of Covenant soldiers accompanied them. Brutes, Elites and Grunts walked towards the US soldiers. The Rangers took up positions behind abandoned cars and the rubble of the apartment building, all of them pointing their weapons directly at the Covenant, which were still unaware of the Human presence. Several of the Human heads looked to the sky as two Phantoms flew overhead, eerily silent as they gracefully swooped overhead like ghosts. Then, the entire street was shaken as the Stryker began to unload on the lead Wraith. The bullets had little effect on the strong armour of the alien tank as the Human soldiers opened fire on the Covenant soldiers. Immediately, a Brute Minor fell to the ground as bullets tore into its shoulder, but now plasma and spike rounds were flying in the direction of the US soldiers. And then, one of the Wraiths fired. The huge blue glowing plasma mortar travelled across the street, directly at the Stryker.

End of Chapter 2