Ch 11

The Offensive

Normandy landing area surface of Halo

2 months before Reaper invasion

They all gathered at Traynor's temporary control center. Standing next to a monitor were Church, Sam, and Shepard. Finishing his report, Church turned around to the rest of the group gathered. Ashley and James stood next to each other, muttering to themselves about Church's convoluted plan. Sitting on crate, Manny looked to Traynor and shook his head; trying to say this was a bad idea.

"Church, there has to be a better way to do this," Manny said, now looking at his leader. "This is just suicide."

Sam glared at him, "Oh, and what would you recommend?"

Shepard prevented Manny from answering, "Go over your intel one more time, Church."

Having already explained the entire story, Church sighed in agitation before starting yet again. "At approximately 1800 hours, Sam and I picked up a large contact on the motion trackers. Moving through the forest, we eventually came upon a Covenant vehicle; the Ghost was piloted by a single Grunt. Our best assumption is that the Grunt was part of a long range reconnaissance patrol."

Church paused for a moment to catch his breath, "After taking out the Grunt, Sam and I were able to take control of the Ghost. We decided to take it in the direction the Grunt had come from, in order to find out if the Covenant had indeed landed. At about 1845, we came across an incredibly large clearing in the forest. There we found Covenant ground forces, placing defenses at some sort of landing site. In the center of their activity, there was a large platform which created some sort of gravity well. Above the platform was a frigate class ship, connected to the ground through the gravity well."

Sam decided to cut in and finish the rest, "We believe the Covenant are exploring Halo, and their using that site as a base camp. So far, that's the only location with a reliable way off this ring."

"I understand that," Manny stood up from his seat. "What I don't understand is why the hell we need to conduct two missions simultaneously."

Unsurprisingly, it was Shepard who answered, "According to EDI, the Covenant are exploring this ring. That means they're looking for something, and we need to find it. While the Normandy was landing, EDI was able to get a good view of the area. She spotted an island, several klicks west of here. According to the communications intercepted by Church, the Covenant are looking for something on that island. We need to find out what."

"Then what exactly is your plan, Commander?" Manny looked visibly upset. He wasn't in favor of a direct offensive, especially not while they were in such poor condition to defend.

"Church will take you and Sam to the island, find out what's there and come back here without being followed. I'll take Ash and James to the Covenant frigate. With luck, we'll be able to take the ship and have a safe way off this planet."

Shepard looked around the room, most the faces looked worried and frightened. They still weren't completely sold on the plan. Noticing this first, Church stepped forward past Shepard. He knew the Commander was on edge, and this would just be another annoyance to send him further off the cliff.

"Look, we don't have much of a choice here. That frigate may be our last hope to see Earth, and we still can't leave until we know what the Covenant glassed Harvest for," looking around, Church could tell his words did nothing to improve their demeanor. It was suicide, no matter what they chose to do. They weren't willing to follow Sheprad's orders while his judgement was clouded. He held their lives in his hands, and one bad call may just as well be the death of them all. And Shepard wasn't in the right state of mind.

Sighing, Shepard leaned off the table and stepped forward. It was his words they needed to hear, they had to know he was still sane.

"We never asked for this, never even saw it coming," he paused for a moment, trying to think of the right words to say. "We're out numbered, out gunned, and out classed in every way. But there are nearly a hundred lives depending on us to take them home. And there are billions more who are depending on us to finish this war before the Covenant glass us into oblivion!"

After a moment, his words were taking affect. Looking toward the Commander, Ash smiled and knew the old Shepard was back. They would survive, he'd see through to that. "Welcome back, Skipper," she muttered to herself.


Covenant Frigate landing zone

Night had fallen. The air was unnaturally quiet, there wasn't a single insect to make any noise. It wouldn't matter about the sound outside, the Mako's engine prevented anything else from being heard. Luckily, they wouldn't need stealth or deception to get on board. Just a well timed surprise.

"Damn it Shepard, watch where you're driving. You nearly ran me off the road," said James through the radio. While Shepard drove the Mako, James had decided to use the captured Ghost. Unfortunately, he was still trying to perfect his driving abilities.

"James, get behind us. We're coming up on the enemy position," Ash turned the turret around to face ahead of them. Sure enough, there was a break in the forest. The moonlight shined across the large clearing, its back drop a pristine beach. The Covenant frigate cast its shadow across much of the area. There were several dozen squads of Grunts, Jackals, and Elites. Seemingly all the Covenant forces were set up in this particular way, with the Elites leading the much smaller and weaker species.

Luckily for Shepard and his squad, most of the Grunts seemed to be asleep. Only a few were walking the clearings perimeter, one unfortunate soul was rammed by the Mako as it exited the forest. Immediately, Ashley opened fire with the Mako's turret. Firing indiscriminately into the alien forces. The Covenant was caught completely off guard, exactly according to plan. Several Elites were obliterated before they were able to move, their organs and limbs flying across the field.

James followed suit, using the Ghost to ram and bash the Grunts as they ran in fear. Maneuvering to avoid fire, the Mako was able to make quick work of most the enemy. Suddenly a lone Grunt appeared directly in front of them. Without hesitation, Shepard floored the gas and prepared to ram it. Panicking, the Grunt held the trigger on his plasma pistol. Covering his head with a free arm, he fired nearly blind at the advancing Mako.

The EMP caused the entire Mako to stall, directly in front of the Grunt. It was only inches away from touching him.

"Ha, you not scary now," the Grunt taunted. He placed his hands above his head and danced around, mocking Shepard and the vehicle. The Grunt's celebration was short lived. James appeared from the other side of the Mako, and after finding the still dancing Grunt, fired the plasma cannon burning away the Grunt's mask and face.

"That's all the hostiles," Shepard said appearing from the Mako's hatch. Ashley following close behind him, both with their weapons drawn.

"Please tell me that's the last we see of that damn Mako," Ashley said cursing the name in disgust. Pulling up next to them, James deactivated the Ghost and pulled out his rifle.

"Come on, the Mako's not that bad... The amour did a good job of protecting you," James said, coming to the defense of the APC.

Turning around, Shepard glared at the two, "Really, you're arguing about that now! Need I remind you we need to focus. Look around, try to find some weapons. I want every rocket possible, before we head up that beam."

Before anyone of them could move, the grave lift changed color from purple to green. Shepard stood in between his squad and the lift, with his back facing it. James and Ash both wore blank stares on their faces, apparently baffled at what they saw. Shuddering at the though, Shepard slowly turned around. In time to see two Hunters reach the ground.

"Well shit."


Covenant occupied island

Manny sat on the edge of the shuttle's open doorway. Leaning against the edge, he looked down at his feet dangling over the side. "Water looks pretty cool from up here. Maybe we should just stop and take a swim?"

Church stifled a laugh, "Why is it you only want to relax when we're about to die? Otherwise I have to order you to sit down and quit working."

"Something about dying just takes a lot out of you. Sam you explain it to him."

Sam was sitting in the co-pilot seat of the Kodiak, Cortez sat next to him piloting the shuttle. Turning back from the console, Sam looked towards Church. "It's real simple, Manny here is afraid of some little aliens."

This caused Church to visibly smile and laugh. Walking over, he stood above Manny and lightly kicked him in the rear. "Don't worry about it, we'll make sure you only deal with the really tiny ones."

"It's not the little ones I'm afraid of," he responded coldly. Church didn't expect that response, and was caught slightly off guard.

"Look, what happened to Erin..." Church thought a moment, he needed to use come up with the right words. "Is in the past. She's fine now, and we need you to focus. If we can't count on you to watch our six, I'll be forced to have Joker take your place."

Manny chuckled after hearing that. He knew the need to focus, how his squad and the crew were depending on them. Now wasn't the time for double guessing.

"Heads up, there's a lot of activity on the far side of the island," Cortez said from the cockpit. "I'm putting you down here on the beach. It'll be a bit of a walk, but I can't go any closer without being seen."

Hovering over the beach, the Kodiak dropped off its passengers, stirring up sand in the process. After putting on their helmets, Church gave Cortez the all clear. In response, Cortez turned the shuttle and flew low, straight across the horizon.

"Come on then, once more onto the beach."

AN: This chapter seemed like a bit of a chore at first, but after a while I got back into the groove and it turned out pretty good. This of course is leading up to some pretty good action, and if any of you have played CE you probably know where I'm going with this. Please tell me what you think, I love to listen to criticism.

And as always thanks for reading.

PS oh and I could still use help figuring out the ending. If you'd like pop a review and give me your idea, no such thing as a bad one.

PPS One more thing, I'm also looking for a new beta. If you are interested please PM me and we'll chat it out.