CH7: The Tides of Change Cometh…

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AN: Have been recently occupied with all my MLP fics sorry about that, and also I'm going to be posting the final chapters to Era of Contravene up pretty soon, I need to get stuff sorted here and also I may be heading over to Melbourne in 1 month so I will not be writing anything for a few weeks or so.

Anyone have any chaos force or Tau to add you should submit them soon enough. Also eldar are available alongside the imperial guard. And who wants Ciaphas Cain in this? If not then don't worry.

Enjoy the chapters I post for now.

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2555/5/2

Elis- Voros

Over 4 hours have passed in the battle and it was worsening, Meryl hadn't underestimated her opponent on the contrary she predicted every move that this turian was making and it was proving to be difficult to match him. The turian's forces had arrived with reinforcements from above via various drop ships and gunships now arriving from orbit.

She had no means to stemming this tidal wave of attack due to lack of firepower and troops, the space marines were having their hands tied with the mysterious infiltrators who had snuck into the city's boundaries and were playing hell with them. The sheer amount of resources being thrown at the city was a desperate move to capture the place, but it was a costly one for the turians, and whoever their shadowy allies were.

At the moment Meryl was down to her last ships, 3 warships with 2 corvettes, the turian still had a dozen of his own, the last fight would determine the successful defence of Elis or its fall, and she gritted her teeth in concentration, wondering if her mother's ability to sense the future had rubbed off on her. She felt it moving, but she couldn't tell by how the tides were rolling, she could feel them against her.

But there was something, something she could use to draw this battle out for the turian attacking, it was then she heard the echoes of the com channel to the port's primary orbital elevator.
"-overrun, falling back, any and all assistance to the Omicron orbital relay." The transmission was clear, the turians had managed to send a infiltration force to hit the relay, and it was proving a definite challenge to hold it.

But that wasn't the only problem; the turians had proven far more resourceful than initially anticipated, there were over 2 dozen reported locations that were now under heavy assault, not just from infantry but a mechanised unit on top of that. The suits had proven difficult to disable or destroy, and with that there was a report that the front line was now crumbling as the marines did a tactical retreat.

The situation was getting worse as they were falling back to the inner second defensive grid; it wouldn't be much longer before the second line would be getting swarmed by these turians, if they managed to drop in further reinforcements. But from the reports coming in from above, the battle was raging on with the turians suffering extensive casualties attempting to get to them.

She knew that she was in a dangerous position, she loses any more ground. She found herself in a really bad position, it was only when she was about to make a decision fate had given her a hand.
"Ma'am dozens of contacts, they're not UCAF…" The com officer then exclaimed.
"It's the UNSC reinforcements, they're here!"

Meryl's eyes went wide and then sighed.
"Thank the fates."

XXXXX

Location- Elis

Zeke stood on the bridge of the Executioner watching as the fleet approached the frontline, before him the battle raged on it seemed the UCAF had put up more than a good fight, the turian fleet was in pieces across the orbit of the planet, but it wasn't over just yet. There were still reinforcements pouring out from FTL.

Jensen asked Ruyter. "Tactical analysis?"

The AI materialised and replied.
"Good sir, we've got more than enough firepower to match these xeno's, though I'd advise taking a more forward advance, the turians seem to be using everything at their disposal including their ships as weapons. I suggest we engage and deploy, get the troops to help remove the problem on the ground and eliminate the risk of losing them here." Ruyter stated calmly.

"Fair enough, bring the ships around to bear on the enemy's primary force, we'll split off the carriers from the main force with a picket of corvettes and have 'Going Under', 'When Tomorrow Comes', 'Tread On My Dreams', 'Better Late Than Never', 'The Sun Also Rises' protect their descent to the ground." Jensen ordered.

"What of the Spartans?" Ruyter asked.

"Send them on the Midnight Sky and have her drop them in at Voros to help deal with the turian forces there." He replied

Ruyter acknowledged and relayed the orders; the flock of light frigates broke from the fleet alongside the carriers and headed down to the world. Jensen then focused on the battle ahead.
"Have all ships form alongside the Executioner, we'll take point and spear the enemy's flank, make sure that our formation stays aligned. Have all batteries charged and missiles loaded for a full spread."

"Yes sir." Ruyter said as the ships began to come together.

The ships had all received their upgrades, new Advanced MAC guns and first class of energy plating and shielding of course they've never been tested, but now was a better time than ever to see how much these flying fortresses could take. It wasn't going to be an easy fight though; the turians outnumbered the UNSC forces and the UCAF and Imperial forces 7 to 1.

"What was it that Rtas said at the battle of the Ark?" Ruyter asked as he analysed the situation.

"Then it is a fair fight." Jensen replied aptly.

"Truly it isn't." Ruyter smirked.

The Executioner charged the MAC guns and brought its massive ship to ship rail batteries online, dozens of guns aimed forward ready to send lethal bolts of tungsten at their enemies, thousands of turrets armed and primed to swat enemy fighters and missile pods loaded with their deadly payload, the Executioner was more than a challenge for the turians and so was the entire UNSC fleet that was deployed.

The heaviest ships took their place in the rear while all of the lighter crafts took place in front; Executioner took point in a javelin formation. The Executioner was going head to head with the enemy's flagships and would blow a hole in their lines. As they closed the distance, the turians began rapidly deploying their ships to intercept, over hundreds turned to face the UNSC force.

"We're at 125,000km we're just approaching weapons range." Ruyter stated.

"Good once all ships reach weapons range let loose a whole volley, after that we fire at will, but do not break formation we will break once we've broken through their lines. But maintain the fighting within range of the planet; we don't need to chase them anymore than we have to." Jensen ordered.

As the ships reached the front, waves of fighters spilt from bays into formation, the Broadswords, Longswords, Shortswords and Glaive interceptors got loose and began taking their place in the formation. Once they broke through it was going to be a free for all. Before them the angular shapes of the turian vessels became more apparent, their alien designs nothing like any known species the UCAF had encountered or fought.

Jensen honestly wondered if these beings even knew the concept of what the human race had gone through to survive, if they didn't well it was too bad for them then. The enemy force clustered in large packs to avoid being caught in a direct wave of shots; of course they probably thought the UNSC and UCAF ships didn't have much range in their guns.

Well they were dead wrong. At 105,000km Ruyter relayed.
"We're in weapons range."

Jensen nodded.
"All ships fire!"

The 21 ships let loose a barrage of light the batteries blinded anyone looking at the front muzzle of the guns; of course they were the turians who were unfortunate to register the brilliant flash before they were quickly obliterated. The turians lines collapsed in seconds, the first volley took massive chunks from their force.

The turian fleet packs scattered and quickly attempted to speed towards the UNSC ships, from the initial volley 36 ships destroyed, either hit by the MAC round penetrating a vessel behind another or by the sheer force of the gun sending ships colliding into one another. The turians lines quickly dissipated and it seemed their coordination had completely collapsed.

"Sir, they're command ship might have been hit, but their ships are scattering, they're still on a intercept for our fleet, but they're now individual targets." Ruyter reported.

"Then we proceed, don't bother with the scattered ships, and keep pressing till we've destroyed their formation then bring us around to holding orbit." He replied.

The fleet pressed the attack with more volleys, the 2 other packs of ships were smashed in moments, the turian forces found themselves at a loss as the range of the UNSCs guns were vastly superior. The scattered ships seemed to attempt to take on the UNSC ships regardless of their size. Of course they didn't exactly match up against firepower of even just one heavy destroyer, since the upgrades of the UNSC fleet with the assistance of the UCAF, the guns were fairly formidable.

The numerous 50mm CIWS point defence guns let loose torrents of rounds at the enemy frigates the high explosive rounds blasted away, and to add to that, the Paris had received a few additions, there were 8 MA-570 anti-ship batteries added since the refits, each capable of firing 4 inches of tungsten and composite steel metals against the enemy ships at 40% the speed of light. Of course that wasn't exactly the only weapon available, there were dozens of detachable archer missile pods prepared.

The turian vessels seemed to be obliterated in moments their kinetic barriers collapsing after only moments of directed fire from the guns, the Paris class heavy frigates turned the turians back or simply gutted them outright. As the turians forces collapsed, the rest of the force began pushing out the turian forces.

The turians began falling back. Zeke saw as they began rolling back.
"Ruyter how's the situation below?" He asked.

Ruyter replied aptly. "Not good admiral, I calculated a number of hostile forces below attacking the city, the carriers touched down just 5 minutes ago, they're currently mopping up the enemy forces. But it seems they're encountering heavier than normal resistance."

"What sort of resistance?" He asked.

XXXXX

The initial landings were fairly quick, the first PODs to land touched ground outside the city of Voros' outskirts. The first marine detachments quickly set to advancing behind the turian's forces; it wasn't just them of course, Noble team landed ahead in the city. There was also deployment of suits as well; the HRUNTING teams deployed, helped set the foothold on the ground.

Of course the turians hadn't been completely defeated, but it allowed for the UNSC light frigates to get their first real taste of combat, their MACs let loose a volley from behind them destroying or crippling those in range, those that remained turned to face the ships. The various 108mm Vulcan interceptors, and then there were over 4 (triple linked) 50mm M870 point-defence guns, and 6 MA-550 anti-surface guns that had quad linked barrels which were all UCAF rail guns, each were able to fire 4 inch tungsten shells at 35% the speed of light.

The primary guns tore holes through the remaining turian vessels with horrendous ease, the approaching turians ships were dispatched fairly quickly. The UNSC fighters went out to engage the remaining enemy fighters lightening the load on the defenders of the world. However the battle wasn't entirely over.

As Noble team was deployed they approached from the breaching point where the turians had penetrated the defences.

XXXXX

The black armoured plating of Six's suit was well suited for this environment, considering the sheer amount of rubble and smoke created not to mention it was still quite dark, there was about 5 hours left of the night before the sun rose over this world and then it was probably going to be regular army and marines going through the city on mop up operations.

Six stopped and called over her com.
"Jun anything?"

"Nothing at the moment Six, there's way too much smoke for me to see over, all I can tell you is that those split faced bastards are still active." He pulled his sniper back as a shot hit the side of the falcon he was in. "Sons of bitches are good shots, at least some of them, keep to the shadows and make your way 4 streets ahead and then turn to your left, there was a report of some UCAF troops still holding out there."

"Ok I'm on it." She replied.

As the com went off, he heard Carter call to him. The commander asked.
"How's our lone wolf?"

"She's making her way to the front line. She's almost on top of the UCAF troops there; once she links up she'll be on her own for a while." Jun replied as he looked through his modified sensor scope.

"Leaving the kid to do it alone doesn't usually seem like you." Jorge commented.

Carter replied. "Just letting her stretch her legs, besides she's better suited for this than us. No offence Emile."

"None taken, to be honest I'm happier staying high and dry for the moment anyway, I'd like to observe my prey before taking them. Beside Six's been around us for a while, I'd like to make my own, 'evaluations'." He replied as he watched over.

"Charming…" Kat added as if in repulsion to the thought of him trying to make a move on the hyper lethal member of their squad.

"I can be when I want to." Emile replied.

Six down below weaved her way through the ruined streets of the city towards the orbital relay, as she closed the distance she took notice of the numerous corpses that were now littering the roads, turian bodies seemed mostly concentrated here alongside UCAF and imperial casualties, however the massive bulking titans of space marines didn't seem as apparent here.

"There's a lot less space marines here, I wonder where they all went." She mumbled to herself.

As she reached the corner of the building, she began looking around for the traces of the team that was here, she found nothing at first, just spent cases and mags and clips, but then she noticed the signal on her HUD. "Oly, oly oxen free." She repeated. She had heard the code during the recovery of the Spartan IIs from the surface of Reach just following the battle against the covenant super cruisers.

She began looking for the source of the signal until she faced the inside of the building.
"Commander, I'm receiving a signal possibly from survivors, I can't pin it down, but it seems to be originating from the building here." She stated cautiously as she looked around the entrance.

Carter took a moment to reply.
"We have no idea what's in there Six. Our sensor sweeps can't penetrate far, there's far too much interference, for the sake of the mission this isn't necessary I'd advise you should go and forget out the location of this unit. Go to site 23 and look for the Space Marines assigned to that area, it should be a lot more insightful."

She nodded and sighed, she was sure there might have been a reason for the signal, but orders were orders at least for the time being, once things got going she would probably acting on her instinct. She never knew of what was at the signal inside the shop, which would have helped considering there was a dead marine with a warning attached to him. "They were waiting for us."

Six headed directly across the road to the next marker and found the street just in ruins; just more blood stains a few limbs and no bodies strangely. She stepped over some rubble and peeked around the corner of the block, there was still no sign of bodies but just more signs of battle. It seemed the advance here was rather fast, there were more signs of used ammo cases rather than high explosives or used rocket ammo or burning vehicles.

She crept around the corner and headed towards the tower. Six kept checking her sensors for signs of any hostiles or movement but it remained clean, at least that's what she thought. She only noticed the faint shimmer of light behind her in the corner of her eye, she reacted instinctively, she brought her SMG to bear and let loose a burst of fire, her 9mm HEAP rounds blew through the stealth field of her stalker.

A turian in full gear appeared from the place where she had fired, he was dazed only for a moment before rolling away as quickly as he could. Six kept firing away hoping to catch the turian, she carefully jogged backwards to the nearest pile of rubble as she continued shooting, but it seemed luck wasn't on her side today.

Another turian appeared this time it was firing at her with a plasma carbine, her shields took a beating from the sudden assault and she immediately hugged the ground to avoid being hit any more. Her shields began to recharge after a moment and she let loose a few blind shots to keep the turian with the plasma carbine down.

The other turian was making his way around her other flank, she figured that she couldn't possibly hold them both off for very long, and of course fate seemed to fuck her ever more, a third turian appeared and this time it was wielding a plasma fletcher, a plasma shotgun which fired a scattering of condensed plasma over a fairly long range and the gun could track her.

She was having the time of her life alright, as the three turians closed on her position a sudden hollow shriek screamed through the firefight and then the turians fire was redirected elsewhere. Six didn't look over out of caution, but it seemed the turians had gotten jumped on. A short scream of panic and sporadic fire before her sensors showed friendlies.

"I'm coming out!" She shouted before stepped out of her cover.

She found herself faced with half a dozen eldar, two howling banshee's, a striking scorpion, a dire avenger and two night stalkers. They had their guns aimed at her before lowering in response. They talked amongst themselves for a moment in their alien tongue before turning to her again.
"You stumble through the darkness mon'keigh, be careful where you tread, the shadows are not safe."

Six hated when they referred to her as a child, but of course the eldar lived very long lives, she just hoped they didn't intend to ridicule her with their language.
"Thanks for the tip, I'm heading to the orbital relay tower, is the path there clear?" She asked.

The eldar looked at each other and then the banshee stepped forwards.
"It is unknown." She said tentatively.

"What do you mean unknown?" Six replied.

"The path to the tower has been riddled with dangers; the turians have taken to a desperate tactic of holding the tower, and for reasons unknown; however there were reports of your comrades holding the tower." The banshee explained.

"So the tower base is unsecure, yet there is a chance to help retake the tower?" Six summarised.

The banshee looked at her comrades and nodded.
"That is a crude summary; however taking the tower is a far greater challenge."

"How many turians could possibly be at the tower that we can't handle as a whole?" Six asked.

The eldar banshee dead panned. "Over a thousand."

Six registered the response and nodded.
"That might present a problem."

She tapped onto her com and called.
"Commander, I've just found some eldar stragglers, they helped me out, but it seems the primary landing zone isn't a possible site for us."

"The tower base is overrun?" Carter assumed.

"Yes, the area by the Eldar's report suggests a force far too large for us to take head on." She replied.

"We can't set down without drawing attention to the turians, we'll keep in the air and try to provide air support, you'll have to locate a suitable landing zone or make one, and we'll be there, just pop blue smoke once you've determined a location and if necessary use red if you have to clear an area." Carter informed her.

"Very well sir." She replied aptly.

The com went off and she turned to the eldar.
"My commander can't land anywhere here unless we draw the attention of the turians to us, he's suggested we take a direct means of landing the teams down or not, we can either clear the landing zone, or we make one."

The eldar conversed amongst themselves once more before turning towards her again.
"There may be a means of gaining assistance, however it is rather precarious."

"How precarious?" Six asked.

"There are others, space marines who stand at a nearby a restaurant nearby, they have held the position for some time we are unsure if they remain there, but they may be able to aid you." The banshee explained.

"What you're not coming with me?" She asked.

"No, we shall remain here and keep this section of the road clear for you to approach unhindered. Once you have gathered your allies, return here and we may proceed." The banshee stated.

"Fine, but just one thing, you never told me your name." Six said with interest.

The banshee looked over at her fellow warriors and nodded. "I am Evei'Shala the exarch of the Howling Banshees."

"I'm noble six, rank Lieutenant; it's finally nice to meet an eldar that's not condescending." She replied before heading down the road to the location of the space marines.

XXXXX

High above the city Meryl took a list of all the damaged and lost ships which had been defending the city, it was a pretty heavy fight and she knew that the turians would use anything and everything at their disposal to win this fight. She just never knew how badly these bastards wanted to win; it was enough to some of them to actually sacrifice ships to get to her.

She found it fairly brave and rather reckless for them to make such a move, but it had worked to an extent that they had crippled or destroyed half her fleet. She was left with barely 4 functioning ships able to hold their ground. She just wondered how far they had gotten into the city before the UNSC managed to land troops and repel them.

She admitted the turians threw everything they had to win; she just hoped they didn't actually win in this case. She went over repair reports when a com officer called in.
"Ma'am I'm receiving reports from above, it seems the turians have been recalled for the moment, but something's happened." The com officer said in a concerned tone.

"What?" She asked.

The com officer had to listen intently before he turned back and reported.
"They've said that the Void Stalker has been badly damaged by enemy boarding teams, they report that their engines have been crippled and that Farseer Taldeer has been abducted!" The officer relayed ecstatically.

Meryl's blood froze; they took the Farseer, one of the most influential farseer in the newly formed Eldar colonies. This was a calamity waiting to happen, especially once the council of seers hears of the news. She just hoped her parents could stop the situation from escalating, and hopefully recover the farseer before things start going downhill.

She called over to Mike.
"What happened during the abduction?"

Mike appeared and reported.
"Initial after action reports state that the Farseer was lost during a short engagement with several turian vessels, strangely there were pods deployed onto the hull but none from the vessels, they punched through the shields with little resistance and managed to go undetected till they were well inside the ship."

"How long did it take for them to reach the CIC?" Meryl asked.

"Amazingly they reached her within 20 minutes." Mike replied.

"How did they manage to get to her so easily?" She pondered.

"Commander, I'm receiving communications from the UNSC forces. Covenant forces have just arrived." Mike stated aptly.

Meryl broke her train of thought and replied.
"About damn time."

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(Covenant capital ship) CCS- Absolute Redemption

Thel stood at the forward helm watching the display of the world ahead, his arrival wasn't timely as it was before, and the entire covenant fleet had seemingly missed quite a bit of the battle. The UCAF and UNSC as well as Imperial forces were already mopping up the remaining enemy forces. His attention was drawn as a hearty voice chuckled.
"A shame to have missed such a battle, we would have surely left an impression on the upstart race."

Behind Thel, Rtas stepped forward with a little bit of disappointment. Thel nodded in response.
"In deed, this would have been a fight to be written in the annals of history." He said aptly.

"The cloak suits you." Rtas said as he gestured to Thel's new armour.

Thel was clad in full armour, but with greater significance, his armour had been upgraded quite substantially since the war with the humans, being newly anointed Grand Arbiter of the order of Arbiters. He was given rank and position over all of the arbiters now in existence, his symbolic efforts to defend his people from the insidious lies of the prophets and restoring order amongst his people in bringing them to this new future.

Not to mention establishing the New Covenant with the help of the Advent known as Vincent, and the reformed prophet of Amity, his place was secured in the hierarchy of the covenant; Arbiters were to now maintain order and justice in the covenant as an independent faction in matters of the covenant.

As he gained his position he gained ever more respect, he had 45 arbiters and many more to come, of course the ones he had were still being trained, but they would soon take their places in the order to maintain peace and justice in the covenant. His armour was symbolic to his position; the armour he wore had marks of shame, reformed into the mark of honour.

He also sported some rather beautifully crafted pieces on his armour as well as a cloak, all knew who he was and it made him feel confident he could accomplish what the other arbiters could never achieve, independence from the prophets. Their tampering and plots had killed many of those for the interest of the prophets alone; he would rewrite the place of the arbiters to be what they had once been, honourable.

"Rtas, how long till we arrive over the city of Voros?" He asked.

"Within the hour, they are still dealing with certain stragglers." Rtas replied.

"Very well. But keep our fighters sweeping the area, the enemy may have been driven from this world, but they are yet to be defeated." Thel stated before turning his attention back to the view over the world. There was something wrong.

XXXXX

Meryl watched the tactical display of the approaching covenant force, she was thankful for their assistance, rather than dreading their existence, the human covenant war had taken many lives. She was amazed the UCAF was so open for the new covenant; of course Thel was the kind of person who seemed to honour almost everything he said.

As the covenant fleet approached Mike appeared.
"Commander, I'm getting scattered reports, but it seems there's a power surge at relay point Omicron, it's not possible…" Mike muttered.

"What is it?" Meryl asked.

"They've just activated a slip-space drive!" He shouted.

"What?" She exclaimed.

It was then the air began to ionise and the winds picked up around them, the covenant ships that were closest seemed to be pulled in by the sheer gravimetric forces how being generated by the slip-space drive, it was alarming in the least, there was panic from all of the com lines. Meryl understood what the turians had done, a sneaky fucking plan, but it seemed to have worked.

They used the orbital relay's solar generator to power the slip space drive and activated it over the planet's orbit, but the forces being generated wasn't for a ship going into slip space if was for a ship going out of slip space. Her ship was pulled towards the centre of the city; the frigate's stabilisers were slowly overwhelmed.

"Mike, order all hands for crash landing." She roared over the alarms.

Mike got the order out for them to brace but she couldn't hear him as the slip space rift finally came open, what came through made her damn sure that it wasn't normal. The CIC had the full view of the ship, its elongated shape, it was sparking electricity as it came forward and it wasn't alone, dozens of smaller vessels poured through deploying swarms of fighters.

'What the hell was going on?' She asked to herself as her frigate finally slammed into a nearby shield pylon.

She was thrown to the side and knocked unconscious only the sounds of alarms ringing as she passed out.

XXXXX

From orbit Zeke watched as the situation below began to collapse really fast, an unknown slip space rupture had let loose a mass of unknown vessels right into the city's centre, and from what came through over the com channels it was overwhelming the already beaten up defenders. He stepped over to his command chair and called over to Ruyter.

"Bring the fleet around, and get a message to the UNSC and UCAF command that the situation here just escalated." He ordered.

"Aye sir." Ruyter replied as he relayed emergency codes.

The UNSC fleet turned its heads to the planet. Zeke saw the fighting down below begin to worse, the hostiles were bombing the city with point defence lasers and their primary guns, and they were outright demolishing the city from within its boundaries. He was damn impressed at their risky gambit, but somewhat disgusted by their determination to kill everything like the zealous covenant forces that he found not long ago.

It was then he saw the covenant ships under the command of Thel begin to follow suit with Zeke, they were heading down as well, the situation demanded they try to salvage this situation ASAP, but something didn't feel right about this, why the surprise attack? Why now of all time launch a surprise attack right after losing the battle?

It made no sense, they had been beaten, and they couldn't take the capital, at least they haven't managed to do so, so far. But Elis wasn't that critical of a world to them, at least not officially. So why all this trouble?

XXXXX

Taldeer came to as her mind cleared away the pain, she looked around the room it was bare aside from the front entrance, she felt her arms and legs suspended. She saw a large ring with cuffs with some sort of kinetic field holding them in place. She recalled the attack on her ship but nothing more than a flash of light and some alarms.

She was disorientated but managed to kill 3 assailants with psychic blades she had with her, but they stunned her with a shot to her chest, the rest of blurred. And now she found herself here in the midst of very likely a hostile race, she wondered if these creatures knew what she was. He attention was directed to the doors opening to the room.

3 feminie like creatures stepped through, two were clad in armour and the last had a headdress and skin tight suit. She almost thought they looked like spawns of She Who Thirsts, but they looked untwisted like the warp spawned nightmares. The senior of the 3 addressed her directly.
"Ah such a pleasant surprise, I've been waiting a long time for this..." She smiled sadistically.

XXXXX

And end…

Damn I'm tired well guys I'm still taking OCs and armies…

Ideas as well and proofreaders.

(My arm is falling off.)