The UNSC Eclipse was all fired up, engines heated and massive numbers of troops were loading up on the ship, along with a great many vehicles, weapons and supplies. The troops were all in their upmost condition for battle, uniforms and weapons ready, and they all made their way to their destined areas on the ship... Eventually, the ship finished loading up everything it needed, and this was followed with the ship beginning to hover off the ground and fly in towards Calypso's orbit.
Hinson and his squad were all in their ODST uniforms, and they all walked through the ship until they made their way to the bridge. Reaching the bridge of the ship, the six Helljumper troopers would find General Perez, along with Captain Salazar and Major Reyes. They would also find the ship's supercomputer, a Huragok... Not just any, but were lucky enough to have the famed Vergil.
"Vergil!" all the men of Hinson's squad spoke in some excitement.
"Hey, Vergil," Hiller stated, "You were awesome, you saved the day like all the time, man."
"My main man, Vergil," Kimball said, walking up to the Huragok, "How ya' doing?" Vergil turned his snake like head towards Kimball and floated towards him, greeting him by using one of his tentacles to shake Kimball's hand. "Hey, you manage to get what I asked for," Kimball asked of Vergil. The eyes on Vergil's snake head seemed to light up, for another of the Huragok's tentacles presented Kimball with a couple packs of cigarettes, as well as a disk containing the new Star Wars story, not even released yet, "Now that's a good boy."
"Can't believe you're such a nerd, Bill." Hiller spoke.
"Well, whatever." Kimball stated, handing one of his cigarette packs to Gallagher.
"You have a weird taste in friends." McGinley said to Kimball, then he turned to start walking away. However, Kimball turned to the insulted Vergil and gave him a nod of permission. With that, Vergil turned his head towards McGinley and used one of his tentacles to whip McGinley slightly on the back of the head and give him a little shock as well. "Agh!" McGinley responded with.
Kimball and Hiller laughed at McGinley's misfortune. "You fucker," McGinley shouted, "You did that on purpose, you bastard!"
"Oh, no shit." Kimball spoke.
Reyes and Hinson found themselves chuckling at the situation, when they found that another presence had made her way to the bridge, that of news anchor, Rachel Suzuki, as well as her cameraman.
"Rachel," Gallagher greeted as he walked over, shaking her hand, "Hope you had a good trip."
"I did, thank you." Suzuki responded.
"Wait, is Smith also on board?" Gallagher asked.
"Unfortunately, I'm afraid so." Suzuki answered.
Gallagher groaned a bit, while Hiller walked up to and shook Suzuki's hand, "Hey, Griff Hiller," Hiller greeted, "Big fan."
"Nice to meet you." Rachel said with a friendly smile.
"Well, if you wanna kill some time until we get to Sanghelios," Gallagher spoke, "My boys here will be happy to do some interviews."
"Uh, what?" Kimball questioned.
"Yeah, won't you, boys." Gallagher said, almost as if he was giving an order.
"Sounds great." Suzuki spoke.
With that, Hiller, McGinley and Kimball went over with Suzuki to a part of the bridge to do the interviews, while Gallagher walked over towards Hinson.
"So, you excited, Captain?" Gallagher asked.
"Oh, you bet." Hinson responded casually.
"Amanda's already worried about it."
"Milo, your wife's been worried ever since we were in training... At least you had some shore leave, you know, when you sneaked back home to see her."
"We both say it was well spent, though."
"Yeah, I bet it was," Hinson stated then looked over at his men giving the interviews to Suzuki, "...Wonder if they'll have the same opportunity."
"...Eh, they'll be fine." Galagher said.
The ship was in orbit above Calypso, along with a few other UNSC ships, and immediately, they went into slip space, heading for Sanghelios. On the bridge of the Eclipse, Hiller stood in front of Suzuki, the cameraman rolling the camera towards him as he spoke to Suzuki.
"Well, I come from a long line of military tradition," Hiller said, "It's like that guy from Forrest Gump, had someone fight and die in every American war... So I have a lot to live up to... Members of my family have served in war for as long as we can remember. My great-great, eh, so on, so on grandfather was a Marine, fought in the Pacific. In the Solomon Islands, he killed twenty Japs with his rifle, took out several machine gun nests and pulled a number of Marines to safety, then after that, during some Banzai charge, he was beating seven Japanese soldiers to death with his fists and a rock... Later, when fighting on Saipan, he shot and killed fifty Japs with his Tommy Gun, and then while there was a fight for this village, he went in and rescued eight Japanese farmers from a burning house."
"That... sounds impressive." Suzuki said, honestly a bit amazed.
"I know, it's fucking amazing," Hiller stated, "He's a hero, and I wanna be just like that... As soon as I graduated, I moved out, married my girlfriend, been together for over a decade now, and I immediately signed up, and ever since, I've served as a Helljumper in Hinson's squad. I fought on Earth when the Covenant invaded, helped fight them off, and I also fought on Delta Halo... Now we're dealing with this fucking bullshit all the time."
"Yeah, um, could you just watch the language a bit for the interview?" Suzuki asked.
"I like to see myself as one to stand up to oppression," Hiller said, "I just like fighting too, I guess, but we come to these worlds, we fight people, save people... I just wanna make sure that's all being appreciated."
"My turn." McGinley said.
Suzuki's cameraman turned the camera to face McGinley, then Suzuki faced McGinley and said, "So what do you have to say?"
"I've always had an interest in seeing things that are new," McGinley stated, "New places, new cultures, and what better way to be able to do that than being in the army... You know, you get to go to interesting places, you get to meet interesting people and creatures... Then you get to kill 'em... Also, my wife thinks I look really good in a uniform, so... Yeah, that-um, that's a bonus, too."
"Did you see anything new?" Suzuki asked.
"Hm, what?" McGinley asked.
"Did you see anything interesting in your service?" Suzuki clarified.
"Uh, well," McGinley stated, "We got to see these ruins, and then we had to hold them from the Red Army. I was also in this village, and I ate something called 'Colo'... Tasted kinda like beef."
"Okay," Suzuki said, then she had her cameraman turn the camera to Kimball, with Suzuki facing Kimball and asking, "What's your story?"
"My goal was to find a way to support my son, but I also just wanted to serve" Kimball stated, "Damn aliens tried to take away my home, my family... So I wouldn't let them... That's all I have to say about that."
"You sure?" Suzuki asked.
"I guess," Kimball stated with a slight chuckle, "Now that we won, I just wanna get out as soon as possible, see my son... But, they keep finding stuff to order us to take on... Like, I hear about these things called 'Guardians', and that all the A.I. programs are going crazy."
"I say it's fucking ONI." McGinley chimed in.
"Not this again." Kimball spoke with an exasperated sigh as he buried his eyes into his hands.
"Okay, guys, can we please watch the language," Suzuki stated, "...Also, what?"
"Yeah, that's right," McGinley, "I've heard rumors that ONI is secretly programming the A.I. to turn on us, that way, the government can exert more power over us, tighten our security, our communications. They say they even got an off switch to turn them off, but they keep that secret so they can get more funding... and emergency power."
"That's fucking idiotic." Hiller spoke spitefully.
"You're idiotic!" McGinley responded to Hiller.
"...Okay, you know what," Suzuki spoke, "Let's just take a break, we'll come back to this later."
The camera lowered, Hiller, McGinley and Kimball walked over to another part of the bridge as Hinson walked over towards Suzuki, who rubbed her eyes with her left hand.
"Interesting crew you got." Suzuki spoke.
"They give you too much trouble?" Hinson asked.
"Oh, no more than you usually do... But, it's nothing I can't handle."
"Congrats on your Pulitzer, by the way," Hinson said, with Suzuki responding with an appreciative smile, "Just a warning though, keep an eye on Smith, pretty sure she'll be gunning for your news desk."
"Oh, that's no secret," Suzuki replied, "Don't worry, Eric. That motherfucker has another thing coming if she tries."
Eventually, the UNSC ships exited out of slipstream, coming into orbit over Sanghelios. Hinson's men all stared out the bridge windows, looking at the alien world before them, with massive landscapes and large bodies of water, all gleaming from the three suns in its system.
Hinson looked over and saw Girov watching out the window, being as stoic as ever. As the UNSC ships neared the planet, they saw that a great battle was occurring in the orbit of Sanghelios, with both Sangheili and UNSC ships engaging Covenant ships in vicious space battles, firing plasma and rockets at one another with each side's fighters chasing and shooting at one another in fierce dogfights.
"Shit," Hinson said, then went over to Perez, "General, plan?"
"Colonel," Perez ordered to a nearby officer, "Authorize the landing troops to their ships. Prepare for ground assault."
"Yes, sir." the colonel responded.
Gallagher came up to Hinson and Perez and asked, "You want us in our drop pods, sir?"
"No, the pods are going to be used up by the other shock troops," Perez spoke, "You men will be going in with a Pelican."
"How the hell are they filled up?" Hinson asked.
"You weren't coming with us originally, remember," Perez answered, "Now get your men down to that Pelican, now. Lead the counterattack, Reyes and Salazar will follow up."
"Sure thing, sir." Hinson stated.
With that, Hinson, Gallagher, Girov, Hiller, McGinley and Kimball all put on their helmets, readied their weapons and exited the bridge, while Suzuki had her camera recording the battle outside the windows as Suzuki reported the event... And as Hinson and his men left the bridge, Salazar looked at them from behind, maintaining a spiteful glare of contempt.
Hinson and his men hurried down to the hangars of the ship, seeing many soldiers boarding their landing craft. Hinson and his men found a Pelican and proceeded to empty it, finding no one else in it with the exception of the two pilots.
"Captain Hinson," the pilot spoke, "Everyone on board?"
Hinson looked around and saw most of his men were there, but Girov was just coming towards the ship. Hinson reached out his hand and Girov grabbed the hand, allowing Hinson to pull him up into the ship. All of his men were on board now, so the ship doors closed and the Pelican started to hover and then shoot out of the hangar like a bullet.
Hinson and his men road in the Pelican, riding past the battle raging in orbit, the Pelican just dodging the bursts of plasma and gunfire raging in space. A few other landing ships were shot to pieces, but Hinson's Pelican managed to soar and maneuver its way through the carnage, odging the lasers and explosions... Until they finally got clear.
With that, Hinson's Pelican lead all the rest of the landing ships towards the surface of Sanghelios and return to the planet.