As the new force filled into their assigned battle groups, new cargo was reaching the Thor nearly every day. Cargo came from a cargo station, Numazu Station along with new crew members, infantry, weaponry, and vehicles that Captain (Joseph) Lombard asked for. Many of the soldiers were veterans who've fought the covenant before.
While the new troops got physically and mentally ready for their fight, Commander Lombard called in some "old mates".
"L/Cpl Bruin, please get these four people." Joseph said "YES SIR!" Bruin bellowed, and then scurried off to find the four.
The four people walked in, going into attention "At Ease. I was thinking about something, I need you four to be my right and left hands around here. I won't be able to hold them all under control so. Yeah. Oh wait, almost forgot."
Joseph slipped into both his pockets, and then pulled out four cases, each the same size.
The four looked puzzled, and then Jacob, the eager beaver, picked up a case and opened it. Inside was the one bar of a lieutenant junior grade.
"WOW…….." said Jacob, almost breathless.
The other 3 took theirs and all of them had the 1 bar rank.
"You will now be commanding your own platoon of troops. DISMISSED!" Joseph announced.
The four walked out of the room, trying to hold in their excitement of now being Lieutenants. But to their grim surmise, they had to also take on new responsibilities that none of them have ever had before. It was to make sure that they knew how to fight their battles, and win them.
With the surmising battle approaching, the crew decides to unwind a bit; they guzzled down beers and talked to each other. Within 2 days, they were in less than 100,000,000 miles of their targeted planet; they had to get ready, it was going to get hot.
"Sir, we're 10,000 miles in front of the planet. We should sit here and deploy our troops by pelican, sub-atmospheric drop ships, or our drop-pods." Sergeant Major Gwen Sisal said. "We should send in our sub-atmospheric drop ships, and then use the pelicans to touch-down the men and start the fight. But first, we should make a LZ for our men to safely land. Send in our pelicans, but modify them so they carry rockets on each end of their wings. After an LZ is ready, we shall call back the pelicans, and then load up the men." Captain Lombard answered. "Yes sir." Sergeant Major Sisal said.
"All pilots report to pelican drop ships, wait for orders to launch. Engineers go to the hangar and fit each pelican 2 rockets on each wing, they're gonna need it." Sergeant Major Sisal said over the PA.
All the engineers scrambled to the hangar bays and got the pelican ships ready for launch. The pilots took no time to waste for their next mission.
"Hey whadda ya think our next mission is?" asked a new pilot. "Probably something that has to do with clearing a LZ." A veteran announced.
The pelicans were done and the pilots rushed into their pelicans and strapped themselves in. "All pilots, this is Captain Lombard, we need you to clear an LZ for our regiment to land. We need a foothold on the planet so we can take it over. Repeat we need a foothold on the planet so we can take it over." Captain Lombard shouted on the PA.
"Told ya, so lets move out!" the veteran pilot said.
The pelicans took off in the atmosphere getting ready to clear an area. The pelicans found a great place to take over; it was a large field with a building against the wall, probably to hold off intruders. Three jackals spotted the pelicans moving in and got ready for an attack. Without warning, a pelican spat out its uranium slugs and started firing. The three jackals hadn't noticed and were shot straight through the back. Purple blood exploded out of the three, with each bullet, one splash of blood popped out. The pelican eased it's fire and just then, a whole platoon of covenant popped out, and to a couple grunts surprises, they were shot at. 3 seconds later, the last grunt fell, its methane mask leaking from uranium slugs puncturing it, and a couple seconds later, its mask ignited into a fireball and burned their bodies.
"Sir, LZ cleared, we just confronted 43 Covenant. Heading back to base." The veteran pilot said. "Good work men, but, we have another mission for you, we need you to drop off our regiment into the LZ for us, and you all will get a bonus on your paycheck." Captain Lombard chattered back. "Men, get ready, we're goin in on the pelicans." Sergeant Major Sisal said over the PA. Then a sudden whoop came from all the members of the ODAT.
30 seconds later, the pelicans set down back inside the Thor. All 1000 men were ready to load in and fight. As the hydraulics hissed, the 100 pelican ramps hissed and opened for loading. The troops charged into them, anticipating the covenant blood. This is what they had trained for, to fight the covenant and win this fight, no matter what the cost.