Once Noble 6 had reached the top of the Spire, he noticed that he had company: about five Grunts armed with Fuel Rod Guns, as well as an Elite Ultra with an energy sword. The Ultra spotted the SPARTAN, and roared; then two of the Grunts approached him. 6 rapidly swung his arm back, cracking the Grunt's skull and shattering its mask; killing it. The other Grunt fired a fuel rod at Noble 6, but he jumped over the projectile, tackling the Grunt and killing it by smashing it against the wall.

One of the Grunts fired a round that hit the ground and knocked 6 out of the room, onto the circular exterior surrounding the top of the Spire. 6 looked down, and nearly vomited upon seeing how high up he was. His nausea was interrupted by the Grunts, one of which fired at him. He dived behind a container and pulled out his assault rifle. Quickly glancing at the ammo counter on his assault rifle, 6 noticed that his rifle only had about 6 rounds left. Noble 6 turned around and took aim at the first Grunt. He quickly and precisely fired 4 shots at the head of the next Grunt, killing it. Realizing that the gun was out of ammo, 6 flung the empty assault rifle at the head of another Grunt, smashing the right side of the Grunt's skull. One more Grunt stood in front of 6, shivering with fear. It dropped its Fuel Rod Gun, and slowly walked back into the control room.

The Elite, however, wasn't too pleased with the Grunt's surrender, and 6 watched as the enraged saurian activated its energy sword and slice off the Grunt's arm before stabbing it between the eyes. Once the Grunt was dead, the Elite blindly charged at the SPARTAN, who merely side-stepped the charging beast and turned to watch as it plummeted to its death about 90 feet below.

6 walked back into the shield control room and on Carter's orders, he deactivated the shield. Knowing that it was going to be gunned down by the UNSC's artillery, 6 sprinted towards an evac Falcon hovering at the edge of the balcony, which was also carrying Carter and Jorge. 6 leaped, and Jorge managed to catch him and pull him into the Falcon. When Noble 6 was aboard, Carter ordered the pilot to pull out, and the helicopter turned away.

"Control, this is Noble 1", he announced over comms, "Spire One is green, and you're free to engage. Have a nice day." "Copy that, Noble One. Be advised, all ground units: Frigate Three-One-Eight heavy is inbound, and MAC rounds have been authorized."

"MAC rounds? In atmosphere?", Jorge asked with both surprise and concern.

"One way to get their attention. Hold onto your teeth, people!", Carter replied.

The SPARTANs watched as the UNSC Grafton slowly dived down past their Falcon and pulled back up, taking aim at the Spire. The SPARTANs then heard the priming buzzing noise of the Heavy Frigate's Magnetic Accelerator Cannon before hearing and seeing the rapid, lightning-like projectile strike the Spire in the blink of an eye. Immediately after, they watched the Spire crumble to the ground in a large cloud of dust.

The SPARTANs failed to notice an ominous, momentary purple-pink light above the Grafton, but suddenly spotted an energy beam streak down from the sky, hitting the Grafton in its midsection, which immediately destroyed the vessel in less than 10 seconds. Carter, Jorge, and Noble 6 watched in horror as explosions tore through the Grafton, blasting off massive segments of the engines and rear hull, while the now-severed front section crashed down, creating a much bigger cloud of dust.

During the middle of this living nightmare, UNSC Air Control attempted to reach Grafton via comms. "The Grafton is dust! We need to get out of here now!", Carter yelled. As the Falcon quickly removed itself from the area, Noble 6 took one brief look at the ruins of the Grafton, and looked up to see what kind of Covenant ship was responsible for the massacre. It wasn't the usual Corvette or CCS-Class Battlecruiser, the backbone of the Covenant fleet.

It was a Covenant Supercarrier.