UNSC vessel The Pillar of Autumn

0540 Hours, August 30, 2552

In orbit over Reach

"MAC gun hot sir."

"Cortana, Get me a firing solution and make ready to fire."

Cortana's slender blue figure appeared on a holo pad.

"I've already got one for you Captain." Cortana replied coolly.

"MAC gun ready to fire sir." Reported Lieutenant Hikowa.

Captain Jacob Keyes turned to the battle raging in space.

"Send them to hell."

"Firing MAC gun now." Hikowa called.

Three thumps resounded through the ship's hull. Keyes watched the MAC rounds impact the Covenant ship. The ship's shields flared a brilliant white then dissipated. The remaining two MAC round penetrated the ship's nose causing it to spin into a nearby Covenant cruiser. The two ships collided and became interlocked. Another MAC round from another UNSC ship hit one ship's core.

The two ships momentarily became twin purple suns. After the light cleared all that remained was debris.

Keyes gave a sigh of relief, "Cortana, how many of our troops are groundside?"

"Give me a second to go over the roster…" she paused for a brief second, "The last Pelican transports was scheduled to transport the 22nd ODST division off of Reach when the Covenant began their groundside attack. They're still out there sir."

"Get me a COM link to their commander." Keyes said.

"Aye sir," Cortana's figure disappeared.

Corporal Juan Perez

0550 Hours, August 30, 2552

Epsilon Eridani System, Reach

"Took you boys long enough didn't it?" Perez asked with a grin.

"Well you know how it is, go for a drive wind up killing a few Covy bastards." The tank commander replied with a smile of his own.

The 34th had made a timely arrival. Perez and his men were on the verge of defeat when the tanks had descended on the battlefield like angels with giant 90mm high explosive cannons. Perez stopped at the absurdity of his last thought.

"90mm cannons..." he mouthed quietly to himself.

"Perez this is Cortana, do you read over?" Perez paused.

"This is Perez go ahead over." He responded

"What is the status of your division, are you able to move?" she asked

"Yeah, we've suffered heavy losses but, I've still got at least twelve people left in my division." Perez said.

"Ok, I've been in contact with your ride, Echo 316, go to grid 43-22 and wait for extraction." She said.

"Roger that, by the way where the hell are you?" He asked

"I'm on the Autumn, where else would I be?" she answered tartly.

"How the hell should I know, I'm stuck on the ground, and in case you didn't notice, there's a little something goin on right now."

He heard a huff of irritation, "Would you hurry up and get to your extraction point?"

"Roger that can't wait to meet you, Perez out."

Perez turned to his ODST's, "Ok saddle up, we're gettin out of here. I want the 34th to stay here and cover our asses."

The tank commander saluted, "Roger that, we got your six."

"Alright, let me send the coordinates to Shaunter's team and we'll be on our way." He keyed his COM switch, "Shaunter this is Perez over," static hissed over the COM, "Shaunter this is Perez do you copy over."

Perez swore, he needed Shaunter to help lead this team off of Reach.

"Perez to Cortana."

A hiss, then "Perez this is Cortana, what do you want now?"

"I need you to find a soldier for me, his name is Michael Shaunter, can you see if his IFF is still active?"

"I can try but I'm a little tied up at the moment, I'll see what I can do." Came the reply.

"Thanks Cortana, I owe you one." Perez said gratefully.

"Damn right you do." She remarked.

Perez ignored the last statement. He motioned for his troops to move out. The trip was at least two miles and a lot could happen in a war zone in that short distance. After they had been walking for five minutes Cortana came back on the COM.

"I've got some bad news Corporal. Shaunter's IFF tag is no longer active. I presume that he is dead. I'm sorry."

Perez stopped, "Are you sure about that, are you sure its right?" he had to know.

"Of course I'm sure," she said with a hint of irritation in her voice.

"Ok…thanks Cortana, we'll be to the Extraction Point shortly." He said quietly.

The 22nd continued their journey; Perez chose to stick with the cover provided by the forest rather than use the roads. After a while he motioned for his team to stop. He waved Hightower over.

"Look over at that boulder and tell me if you see anything unusual." He whispered.

Hightower squinted at the boulder, then rubbed his eyes and looked again, "It looks like a mirage sir."

"Thank you," he said as he brought his M-16 up, "That's all I wanted to know."

Perez squeezed the trigger. But instead of the three round burst impacting the boulder, it impacted a camouflaged Elite. The rounds made its shield shimmer and it also made the Elite to appear out of thin air. The alien roared with fury then began firing.

Suddenly the whole forest was alive with plasma fire. The Marine's returned fire at whatever looked like an invisible Elite. Perez primed a captured plasma grenade. He threw at what appeared to be the area the Elite's were located. The grenade exploded and the EMP from the grenade shorted out the camouflage generators.

Now, with the ability to see their enemy, Perez's company opened fire on the Elites. After what seemed like an eternity the final Elites were killed. Perez looked around to see how many casualties he had.

In the engagement Perez had lost almost half of his troops. He called everyone around him.

"Ok, I know we've suffered some major losses but we're just gonna have to keep moving. Our extraction point is at least half a click away so we're almost there. Check your gear and conserve ammo. I don't know how many engagements we're gonna be getting into so stay sharp and call out any contacts you see."

With that they were underway again. Perez wondered how many more men and women he was going to lose before they got off this God forsaken planet. It was hard for Perez to believe that just yesterday he had thought this to be one of the safest places in UNSC territory. He silently cursed the Covenant and vowed that he would get revenge for his fallen comrades.

Ahead Private Hightower motioned for everyone to stop. They all crouched down and waited.

"I've got what looks like a squad of Grunts up ahead, single file formation and heavily armed." He said over the COM.

Perez quietly crawled to Hightower's position, "Think we can take 'em?" Hightower asked his CO.

Perez looked thoughtfully at the squad, they were cautious, the lead Grunts moved up the road slowly checking everything to make sure they weren't walking into an ambush.

"Yep, this is what I want, Hightower, you're with me," Perez looked at the rest of the squad, "I want three of you to flank them, and two of you to stay back and provide support, me and Hightower will take out the Grunts on point then work our way back."

The small dog like aliens waddled ahead oblivious to the trap that awaited them. They conversed with each other in their native language and appeared to be content with their safety. The ODST's were fixing to change that.

Perez whistled like a bird, the sign for ready. One Grunt stopped, sniffed the air then continued on its way. After a few seconds Perez whistled again. Perez selected the single shot setting for his rifle and fired at a Grunt. The round punctured his chest spraying fluorescent blood on its comrades.

Hightower aimed his MA5B on the other Grunt and opened fire spraying alien with 7.62x51mm rounds. One round tore threw the Grunt's face causing it to fall into the other aliens behind him.

The rest of the squad made short work of the remaining Grunts.

"Confirm all targets are down and sweep the area for any more Covenant activity." Perez ordered.

He then policed any weapons he could find. He came away with two Plasma Rifles, seven Plasma Pistols, and a large quantity of Plasma Grenades which he distributed to his squad. They fired the weapons a few times to test them out and then continued on their journey.

After what seemed like an eternity of crawling, stopping, checking for enemy movement, and then crawling again they came upon a clearing. They had finally made it to grid 43-22.

Perez looked for the Pelican but didn't see it.

"Everybody fan out and find a place to hide, don't show yourself until our ride gets here understood?" Perez got a chorus of yes sir's over his COM. He knew that none of his squad would ever come out of hiding unless he gave the order, or a UNSC dropship came to pick them up.

Perez got on his COM again, "Cortana this Perez do you read, over"

UNSC vessel The Pillar of Autumn

0620 Hours, August 30, 2552

In orbit over Reach

"All hands brace for impact!"

The ship shuddered as a plasma beam impacted on the port side bow. Keyes pulled himself off the floor and wiped blood that had trickled down his eye.

"Damage report Cortana." He ordered

"Hull breach in section C, venting air pressure and sealing containment doors. Hull integrity in Sections D and E are at 50." The AI responded coolly.

Damn, he thought; if this battle doesn't turn soon Reach was going to fall.

"Lieutenant Hikowa, get me a firing solution on the bastard that hit us."

"On it sir… ok I got it." Hikowa reported.

"Fire when ready Lieutenant." Keyes told her.

"Aye sir firing MAC cannon in three…two…one… now!"

The cannon fired three slugs through space and connected with the Covenant cruiser that had attacked them. The first two rounds dissipated the shields, but only one round hit the cruiser directly.

"Cortana get a firing solution for Archer pods D- H and time them so they impact the same time the next MAC rounds hit."

Cortana turned a bright blue then returned to her normal purple. "Done." She said.

Keyes turned to Hikowa, "Fire when ready," he ordered her again.

"MAC gun at 90…95…MAC gun charged, firing!" she called in a steely calm voice.

Keyes watched as the plumes from the Archer missiles raced toward the cruiser along with three more MAC rounds. This time the Cruiser was split in half from the combined force of the MAC rounds and the missile detonations.

The crew on the bridge cheered at yet another victory.

Cortana however, was tracking the progress of the 22nd ODST division. She surprised to see that a few had managed to make it to the extraction point. She had calculated that they only had a 15 chance of making it there.

"Cortana, this is Perez do you read, over."

"I'm here, what's your situation." She replied calmly.

"We're at the extraction point but there's no extraction, care to explain why?" he asked.

"Echo 316 was forced to take off early because of earlier enemy ground movement, they are, however, flying back around and will be at your location in about fifteen minutes. Just sit tight Marines, you've made it this far." She said comfortingly.

"Yeah, easy for you to say, Perez out."

Corporal Juan Perez

0625 Hours, August 30, 2552

Epsilon Eridani System, Reach

"15 minutes!" Perez called on the COM.

As if on cue Private Hightower yelled, "Enemy dropships inbound!"

Perez looked up and saw two U-shaped dropships fly into the center of the clearing and drop at least twenty Covenant troops. Damn, as if this couldn't get any worse.

"All units open fire!" he shouted.

Gunfire erupted on the alien troops before they could even get on the ground. The Marine's concentrated their fire on the Jackals first, and then moved to the Elites.

Perez opened fire on a Jackal and watched his rounds deflect off the shield. He squeezed his left eye shut and looked down the steel sights of his M-16. He aimed for the area that exposed the Jackal's hand and fired. The round blew the Jackal's hand off. The alien dropped to the ground writhed in pain.

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'Unu Olnamee calmly walked over to the Jackal and shot it in the face. True the medical staff aboard the Ascendant Justice could have created a new hand for it but, Olnamee had no patience for a wounded member on his squad.

He looked for the human that had done this. It took exceptional skill to shoot a Jackal in its only vulnerable area. There he was, Olnamee spotted Perez and took note of his weapon. It appeared different from the human's weapons. He wondered if it was a new weapon, a more powerful weapon.

Olnamee fired on Perez just as Perez fire on Olnamee. Perez's rounds hit Olnamee's shields. One of Olnamee's rounds however, hit Perez in his shoulder.

Perez fell down and clutched his shoulder in pain; a purple shard had implanted itself in it. Just as he got back to his feet the shard exploded and blood sprayed from the wound. Perez inserted the tip of a can of self sealing bio foam into the wound.

The foam felt like a thousand ants were biting the inside of his shoulder. Perez shrugged off the pain and turned on the alien that had shot him. He brought his rifle to his good shoulder and fired on the Elite.

Olnamee was impressed. This was truly a fierce warrior. Olnamee knew the pain of being shot with a Needler and was surprised the human was able to avoid going into shock. This would be interesting.

Perez fired until his clip was empty. His shoulder was on fire. He reached down to grab another clip only to find that he didn't have anymore. He looked around for help but saw the rest of his busy fighting off the other aliens.

Olnamee saw his chance to move in and kill the human. He wanted the satisfaction of destroying this warrior up close. He got within five feet when, to his surprise the human pulled out a pistol and fired.

The powerful .357 rounds forced the Elite to recoil back. After to shots the Elite's shields flickered and died. Perez saw his chance and aimed for the warrior's head.

Olnamee saw death coming. He died the way he had wished. By the hands of a truly skilled and capable warrior. He muttered a brief prayer to the Prophets then said to the human, "May the divine journey recognize your worth."

Before Perez could get the final shot in he heard the Elite say something in his native language. Perez paused for a half second then fired. The Elite's head disappeared and the body fell to its knees, then fell over.

Perez leaned back against a tree trunk and waited for the Pelican to arrive.

It finally did just as the ODST's finished killing off the rest of the Covenant troops. Perez managed to get onboard before slipping into a coma. The Pelican got onboard the Autumn and Cortana made ready for a Slipspace jump.

The Autumn jumped into Slipspace after the coordinates Cortana entered were confirmed to be in agreement with the Cole Protocol. The Pillar of Autumn disappeared into Slipspace; her crew unknown of the horrors that they would discover.