Author's note: As you can tell, this is where full-fledged battles start taking place.

Katinan space

BOOM!

"Another one bites the dust! And another one down. And another one down. Another bites the dust!"

"Will someone silence that infernal music!" R'tas yelled as someone was playing music through the fleet COM. Most likely a human, as the song only came on when an enemy insurrectionist ship went down. So far 3 insurrectionist ships were eliminated. 1 CCS cruisers, 2 frigate. We lost 1 assault carrier, 1 cornerian carrier, and a UNSC dreadnaught (courtesy of the supercarrier). Several ships on both sides were damaged yet neither was letting up. As warships exchanged volleys, Longswords, Seraphs, and Ar-wings (or whatever the cornerians called them) swarmed around the battle like flies. The loyalist had established an arrowhead formation with the while the insurrectionists had formed 2 perpendicular lines of ships to make their enemies formation less effective.

"Cornerians. Your ships although weaker are by far faster than ours. Move between the lines of ships and fire at the back of the flagship." The cornerian base fleet had 10 ships total. They're primary weapons while effective at destroying energy shields where near useless at piercing the hulls of their warships. In conjunction with the human MAC guns, which did pretty much the opposite of cornerian weapons, they could destroy ships at an alarming rate. As a human worded it, "It's the ship version of the newb combo." The Fleet master would need to research the origins of that phrase when he got the chance.

On the surface of Katina

A UNSC marine was hiding behind sand bags. An unggoy next to him was manning a plasma turret and pinning down advancing insurrectionists. There were 4 other marines in the sand bags with him providing cover for the grunt. They were the only ones covering this area because everyone else was busy holding off the main attack at the north of the base. Over 30 insurrectionists came around from the east to try and flank. No one else could afford to move away from their positions so they had to hold them off by themselves.

"Frag out!" A traitor marine yelled, grenade in hand. The second he popped up the grunt swerved the turret around drowned the poor guy in plasma. The grenade flew out his hand and rolled 10 feet away from the ditch, where 7, now 6, of the enemies where hiding in. They were Slowly moving up on the marines. The marines would be overrun if they didn't get some support.

"Hey! You guys need a hand?" All of them looked up to see what they could swear were a squad of flying ODSTs. The squad of 8 split up and went in separate directions. One of them landed right in front of a trench containing 12 insurrectionists of various races. They thought he was crazy until flames shot out from both his wrist, engulfing the trench in fire, the trooper laughing manically all the while. Before the others could fire at him, he flew over the other 3 trenches containing the remaining insurrectionists, incinerating everything under him. The pyromaniac landed in front of the amazed marines and grunt, giving a superman pose before flying off.

"Who the fuck was that?"

Over the rest of the battlefield, the troopers where flying low over insurrectionists filled trenches and holes in strafing runs, washing them in flames. They're specialized shields meant to take heavy fire (literally) made them able to take numerous shots before flying away to allow their shields to replenish. The insurrectionists were not expecting this, and as a result were shocked at the weapons being utilized by the flying troopers. They tried desperately to shoot down the dragons but they're jet packs surprisingly fast, and allowed them maneuver very easily.

They were of course so focused on the threat above they didn't notice the cloaked ascetic (elite equivalent of a commissar), creeping up on a squad 5 of sangheli insurrectionists. Before they could blink, a hand appeared out of nowhere and wrapped around neck of a minor in red wirey armor. Before he knew it an energy knife ignited from the wrist of the strangling hand, shooting out the minor's throat. The other's shot at the sangheli with the tusked helmet but to not avail. He activated the other energy knife on his left wrist and leapt at the 4 elites. He punched one in the knee making him fall on the knee, and then followed by shoving the energy knife in his other hand into his mouth. He wretched the energy knife around before graphically ripping it out. His improved shielding allowed him to take the plasma bolts with ease. The ascetic elite gave the major of the squad an upper cut, resulting in the energy knife in his wrist splitting the head in two from the neck up. The last 2 attempted to flee but not before the ascetic running the knife into one of the fleeing elites back and wrenching it through the side. Very few took notice to the ascetic, as they were too busy fighting with their loyalist counterparts. The sangheli commissar took one last look at his handiwork before cloaking, and stalking through the battlefield for more easy targets.

Luxury ships

Craig's POV

Attention passengers! There has been an insurrectionist attack on the planet Katina! The Arbiters fleet has engaged them however. You are warned to stay on the planet cornerian until otherwise.

I sat there stunned. An attack? Now! I wasted no time getting out of bed and getting in my legionnaire armor. After running a quick check to make sure everything was in order, I turned and ran out the room. I was heading for the hanger. No doubt after that announcement my squad and star fox would be moving as fast as their legs would carry them to the their ships. Not even an hour after we get back and we're already moving back out to the field. Son of a bitch.

The Arbiters seraph

Arbiter's POV

Master chief was, standing next to me in the small ship. We were waiting to intercept the pariah, and the great fox as hailing them to the surface, explaining the plan, and taking off would've taken to long. We knew they would leave the ship toward the battlefield at first chance. We had been shadowing the luxury ships for 10 minutes, the second it exited slipspace. The ships were about to enter Corneria's atmosphere when a UNSC frigate, and Cornerian dreadnaught exited out the back of one of the luxury ships. They were about to make a jump. 3 guesses where they were going. Cortana wasted no time hailing Kraiden before the ship could jump.

"Cortana? What are you doing on that covenant seraph?" Asked a confused Kraiden. Cortana had no patience to answer unnecessary questions.

"Trying to hitch a ride for the Arbiter and Master chief that's what. Tell the Star fox team to hold off for a second. We have a plan to cut the problem off at its head." She explained. The legionnaire's A.I. complied.

"Alright come into the hanger of the frigate, then we can all get filled in on this plan."

Katinan space

"Stinking insurrectionists!" A cornerian dog said in a strange voice. "We underestimated the strength of their flagship." They had been firing into the back of the super carrier, only for the point defenses to make their lives miserable. They were expecting the ship to be dangerous but not so much, the point defenses alone would hammer them. The ship didn't even bother to turn around, leaving the seraph fighters and point defense weapons to handle them.

"We didn't underestimate anything. We're just luring them in then we'll call in our own ace in the hole." The captain of the UNSC dreadnaught through the fire responded.

"You mind telling us this "ace in hole" of yours?" Asked the apparent commander of the cornerian base fleet.

"You'll know it, if you see it." The human captain promised, with a hint of smugness, and assurance.

On the surface of Katina

The scarab was still standing and doing its best to provide cover in needed areas. The dragon troopers had taken up the job of supporting the infantry. That gave the tank some breathing room but it still had to help with dealing with the tanks, and hostile banshees. The infantry on top of the scarab were utilizing snipers, and turrets to aid in the fighting. 2 insurrectionist scorpion tanks fired into the front right leg of the walking tank. The armor was heavily damaged but not enough to make it have to distribute its wait. The gun and AA both turned to face the tanks. The primary gun let loose a beam into the first tank, while the AA's trailer sized plasma bolts slammed into the second tank. Both weapons switched targets. The primary weapon turned to level a good 17 insurrectionists charging a group of unggoy that were manning a plasma turret. Several of the grunts turned to verbally show their thanks before continuing to fight.

A large group of warthogs, ghosts, specters, and mongooses were coming around to flank the base. However a minefield awaited them. Before they realized it, explosions were going off, and tossing around vehicles and their passengers like rag dolls. While still in chaos a group of loyalist light vehicles came pouring out the side of the base guns blazing. They were supported by turret defenses while surging forward. The insurrectionists didn't back down and charged through the minefield, intent on meeting the charge with their own. The vehicles then met in combat. The vehicle drivers weren't dumb enough to head on ram vehicles larger or of equal size to them, but where more than willing to hit a warthog from the side or smash into a smaller vehicle. If they couldn't do either they would open up with their weapons into the crew. No one was intending to run away and with all the room they had the soldiers were finding creative ways to kill their counterparts.

The Pariah's bridge.

"That's a pretty risky move." Peppy hare commented. The Arbiter, Master chief, Grave team, and Star fox were all present. They had just finished going over the Arbiter's plan to kill the leader of the insurrectionist fleet.

"Boarding a carrier, or even a dreadnaught is one thing, but a super carrier? I have my doubt's on this one." Craig said, giving his two cents.

"It's hard but it can be done." The Spartan stated as a matter-of-factly. Everyone save for the Arbiter briefly thought about that but then remembered he had boarded numerous covenant ships before. He was an expert at stuff like this.

"Oh yeah, 30 year plus, war veteran. You should be able to do that with your eyes closed." Ki'thrathi commented.

"Then it's settled. Star fox, head back to your ship and follow us through slipspace." The Arbiter said dismissing the Star fox team.

Flagship Fury of the oppressed

"Commander Sesa. The loyalist are outnumbered 2 to 1 on the surface yet they're holding off the attack. They've employed a new soldier class." An unggoy COM officer reported. This got the commander's attention.

"Show me." He demanded. A picture was brought up showing a soldier that was obviously human. It had armor that resembled an ODST's but instead of any ODST markings, numerous flame designs, and a red dragon's head on the shoulder pads. It had a jet pack with a 3rd tank. Human jet packs only had 2 tanks. The 3rd one apparently held some sort of gasoline or flammable liquid as 2 wires ran into devices on the troopers wrist. Flames liquored out the devices, not burning the marines hand due to his special gloves and shields, but incinerating any caught in the flames. He also noticed words on the troopers black jet pack in red. It said DRAGON TROOPER. Humans did always have a habit of letting the world know their soldier class for some odd reason. Regardless they needed to be dealt with.

"Have 4 phantoms filled with all the drones sent to the ground battle. If they plan on using flying infantry, then we'll use ours." At that one of the crewmen looked worried.

"Are you sure? They aren't completely trained yet. They may attack us if we release them too soon."

"The phantoms will be deployed over the loyalist infantry in green armor. That will make them think it's reinforcements. Now do as I say." He barked, making the grunt remember his place.

"Yes sir." The grunt replied before relaying the orders. The Fleet commander and ex-heretic commander had been training a large group of over 100 drones to follow his orders. They were still prone to jump on people randomly but were trained enough to differentiate between enemies and friendlies. They were more than cannon fodder however, as they're a lot more vicious than average drones. Normal drones fly around to avoid fire while shooting wildly with their plasma pistols. These drones would simply charge at you furiously, firing their pistols and needlers the entire time. They were more or less flying attack dogs. The perfect thing for the resistance the ground forces were encountering.

This attack wasn't to capture Katina or retrieve resources however. He knew the Arbiter. He would either bring a force with him to board his ship, or go to the ground battle and aid his troops. All his forces were told to look for a kill him, the demon, or both, if they got the chance, by any means necessary. The death of one of these people would drop the morale of the nation they belong to. The death of both would completely demoralize both nations. Then insurrectionist attacks would triple until the nations are begging for mercy.

"Soon Arbiter. You will be dead. Even if I have to rip your heart out, myself."