Chapter 52

The Savage's Strike

Author's Note: The last chapter marked a milestone in my story, this story achieved it's 1000th review, wow I never thought that this story would ever get that many. Well since last chapter was half dedicated to setting up a sub-plot that I won't be getting to for a couple of chapters, I didn't get to develop the Battles of Haven and Altena that well. Besides it's time to get back to our favorite sadistic, psychopathic, knife obsessed, pyro-erotic, cybernetic nutball.

"Wraiths!" Mack shouted as a dozen dropships descended towards the spaceport, three of them dropping the gun-carriages. Nearly simultaneously the three tanks opened fire, their plasma motars arcing through the air. One blast hit a Scorpion whose turret had been rotating to fire, causing it to explode violently, it's turret sent flying. Each of the other two landed in one of the machine gun nests, reducing them to piles of rubble and sending dozens of soldiers flying.

"Take them out!" Mack shouted as the other dropships descended, deploying their load of soldiers, firing his shotgun as they did. Tali slid over the sandbags that she, Ashley and Taylor were taking cover behind, charging the Spartan laser and leveling a shot off at one of the Wraiths. The beam tore through the middle of one of the tanks, causing a massive tongue of purple fire to erupt from it as it exploded. A Scorpion, the only remaining Scorpion among the hastily thrown together defenses, readjusted it's cannon and opened fire on one of the Wraiths, easily destroying it. Scorpion fired it's cannon again, this one destroying the remaining Wraith before a Jiralhanae wielding a plasma launcher fired on the tank, causing it to suffer the same fates as the Wraiths.

Taylor swore under his breath as he leaned out of cover and fired five shots, blowing the optics out of a Geth trooper. Tali followed his move, taking her hand off of the front grip to the laser to draw her pistol and fire off a handful of shots. They, along with all of the other UNSC forces, did their best to resist the urge to look up, for what they would see would only despair them. A dozen Empire ships of various classes had entered the atmosphere and were deploying both OIPs, not just at New London, but at the surrounding cities and towns as well. They had gotten word that the Empire had lost two of it's super-carriers, but not before both had deployed a good portion of their payloads of ground troops.

They had managed to hold the port for what felt like hours, enabling tens of thousands of citizens to escape the planet, en route to Reach. Unfortunately the civilian transports that were being used for evacuation had nearly all been deployed, with countless more civilians still pouring into the port. The backup plan for evacuation of the city was to use smaller aircraft, Pelicans, Falcons and other such transports that were not capable of slipspace and evacuate the civilians to the far side of the continent, well out of the range of the Coalition invasion forces.

There was however, a flaw with this plan. The new evacuation point for the civilians was safe from the Coalition, but only for the moment. If the Alliance fleet crumbled, it could very well be days until reinforcements arrived, and with no orbital defenses, no where on the planet would be safe.

There was another massive roar as a passenger liner took off. "This is flight-EV-5479," a voice announced, "we have lift off, we are beginning our-" the voice was cut off as a CCS-battlecruiser high in the sky of Haven fired seven plasma torpedos at the personal liner. They all hit. "MADAY MADAY, WE'RE GOING DOWN!" the pilot shrieked as the burning ship plummeted the ground. Taylor found himself involuntarily looking away as the ship impacted on the ground, feeling the heat and force of the explosion even thought it was easily several miles away.

"Keelah," Tali whispered, looking at the burning wreckage in horror.

"That does it!" Ashley shouted angrily, rising up as she opened fire on a nearby Jiralhanae Captain. Ashley kept her finger down on the trigger until the gun overheated, even as the Captain began to fire his needle rifle at her. Holstering her SMG and drawing her magnum, Ashley fired two shots, one that shatter what was left of the Captain's shields, and one that hit him directly in the eye, causing it to explode like a rotten tomato as the Captain fell over, dead. Wit her free hand she grabbed a plasma grenade and activated it, throwing it into the midst of five Kig-Yars with shield gauntlets. The Minors attempted to dive to the side, but before half of them had even tensed their muscles, the grenade detonated. There were anguished cries of pain as the aliens were sent flying, all of them missing various body parts, one it's right an another both of it's legs and a third a massive chunk of it's torso.

"This is Mack Norman to all evacuation ships. Escape via slipspace is now impossible, the skies are too clogged up, I repeat enemy presence is too large. All evac ships proceed with backup maneuvers, I repeat secondary escape maneuvers are no in effect."

"Brigadier Norman," a voice crackled across the COM units, "This is Lieutenant Winters, the VIP convoy is en route, ETA 10 minutes. We're going to need three Pelicans to get them out of here."

"Copy that Lieutenant," Mack replied as he shot a Yanme'e that had flown too close, "I'll have those dropships fueled and ready, but you're going to need to make it quick, the spaceport if hot and it's getting worse every minute. If you don't get here fast their Pelican won't last five seconds in the air. Afterwards I want you to fold in with my men and assist in the evacuation efforts, understood?"

"Got it Brigadier, Winters out," Damon said as he disconnected himself from the COM lines.

Mack fired another blast from his shotgun, taking down the shields of a nearby Minor before finishing him off with a second blast. He grit his teeth in frustration as he spotted Sarah take down a Kig-Yar marksman with four controlled bursts while Jacob took a Batarian's head off with a Warp. No matter how many Coalition troopers they killed, more kept coming, and if what he had seen was any indication this was only the tip of the iceberg.

XXXXX

"Keep moving!" Tritus shouted as he and the others jumped over an overturned Chopper. As they came closer and closer to the power plant, the signs of battle became more extreme. Apparently the Empire military had not given up the plant without a fight.

"Sprits," Rason muttered as the rounded another corner to find five burning Scorpions along with a single burning Wraith. "How did it last so long," he wondered out loud, staring at the destroyed tank.

"It must have funneled them into a kill-zone," Tritus replied, "Most likely it kept blasting the Scorpions as they came around the corner." Tritus glanced around. Dozens of dead Jiralhanae lay around the Wraith, while hundreds of various Alliance soldiers lay around the Scorpions.

"They fought so hard," Xeron remarked, "Yet they fell in the end with no one surviving. An unsung battle." Tritus nodded.

He was about to speak when a noise similar to something being knocked over emanated from the side of the street. "Hostile!" Tritus shouted, bringing his machine gun to bear.

"Wait! Wait!" a panicked voice shouted as a Jiralhanae wearing thick lever clothes a green helmet with two glass eyeholes that covered his face completely, and holding a spiker emerged from the ally. "I-I am not Alliance," the Jiralhanae stuttered nervously. "I was a worker at the power plants. When the invasion started we all tried to get to the shelters when we...oh Spirits, Emperor? Is that you?"

"Yes," Tritus said lowering his machine gun. "What is your name?"

"L-Lotan sir," the Jiralhanae stuttered.

"Lotan, you said that you were worker at the power plant. Please tell me did you see the exact size of the ocubation force there and how did the Alliance take it."

Rason glanced at his friend. "Tritus do we not have an objective? The longer we stay here-"

Tritus raised a hand, effectively silencing Rason. "What this man saw may up us greatly in the upcoming fight."

"Oh Spirits," Lotan said again. "You are Rason are you not? And you must be Xeron," he continued, pointing at the hooded Jiralhanae. "The Emperor and two of of the Supreme Commanders, I never thought that I would ever meet one of you in my life, let alone three."

"While it is nice to know that we are appreciated among the general public," Xeron said warmly, "it would be greatly helpful if you answered Tritus' question."

"What...oh yes of course. Uh, I think that they landed around the lab in those pods of theirs, there was about a hundred of them I think, mostly Human and Sangheili. They killed the guards around the plant and started storming in. We tried to surrender but the just started shooting at us, I am not sure if they thought that we were military or not."

'Or possibly they did not care,' Rason thought, but he did not voice his views, letting Lotan continued.

"We all starting running, some of us managed to get out into the streets and ran in practically every direction. I think I saw some dropships landing around the plant though."

"They are most likely fortifying it," Rason pointed out. "We must make haste."

"Wait, you are going back there?" Lotan asked.

Tritus nodded. "I cannot go into details, but we have a plan to repel the Alliance invasion, but we need the city's power grid online in order for it work."

"But exactly how do you plan to bring it online? Most of the staff are dead and those who are not could be anywhere."

"Not to boast but I am a rather proficient mechanist, there is a difference between building machinery and managing power plants and it may take some time but I will manage." It was true, Tritus had drawn up designs for several of the new technologies that been developed since the end of the Covenant, including their rocket launchers and the new Choppers armed with fuel rods. "It...runs in the family," he said, his face suddenly growing dark.

"I...I could help," Lotan pointed out. "I could help you bring the plant online."

"Do not be absurd," Rason said harshly, "We are heading into a heavy combat zone. You are not a specialist, you are not a warrior, you are not even a conscript, you have no combat training. If you come with us you will be little more than a liability. Why should we? If we did you'll most likely have a bullet pierce your cranium."

Rason's insults seemed to cause Lotan to steel himself as his hand tightened around his spiker. "Why exactly do you expect me to do? If I was to run as fast as I could manage to the nearest shelter, there is still a major chance Alliance soldiers will find me and kill me. From what you have been telling me if we can reactivate the power plant we will be able to use some sort of secret weapon to save this planet. I have the technical knowledge to help you do that twice as fast and protect the world that I have lived on for my entire life. If you trust homicidal maniacs to wield weapons and defend the Empire, why can I not?"

He looked daringly as Rason as if he was challenging him to reply, but the Supreme Commander was actually smiling. "You make a good point, if this does not work, I have a feeling that the Alliance is not exactly in a merciful mood today."

"But then...why did-"

"I have seen countless die on the battlefield because they did not put their hearts and have a proper understanding of the situation, I wanted to see if that was the case with you."

Lotan gave a small smile and was about to speak when he heard a noise similar to that of something flying through the air at a rather high speed. The others heard it too and looked up just in time to see an object fall from the sky and land in the city several dozen miles away. The was a blinding blue explosion so powerful that the fur of the Jiralhanae was blown back despite the distance. "Oh Spirits," Rason muttered as he looked through the buildings at where the missile had hit, seeing that several buildings had had their outer layers completely burned off by heat and radiation and that one was slowly beginning to tip over.

"There...there is more of them," Lotan whispered, pointing upward. Sure enough dozens of missiles were descending towards the city from orbit, impacting on sections of the cities miles away each of them having enough force to bring down a block by itself.

"I have had enough of this," Tritus hissed. "Move it! We are ending this battle NOW!"

XXXXX

Mack let out a sigh as he glanced at the Jiralhanae whose heart he had just blown out before glancing around. They had managed to fight off the latest wave of Coalition forces and for the moment the spaceport was free of hostile activity though he had a feeling that would change in a couple of minutes.

"Incoming convoy!" a nearby Marine shouted. Mack looked up and saw several Warthogs an APC and a Scorpion approaching with three Falcons above them.

"Good," Mack said as the vehicles came to a stop in front of the spaceport.

"Bridager, we've got those VIPs," Damon said as he jumped off of the turret, Jane climbing out of the passenger seat of the same car. Not far behind them Liara Neriena and Rebecca exited the Warthog that they had been using while Garrus exited the one that he had been riding in.

"Well Damon I can honestly say that this isn't the kind of backup I was expecting you to bring," Mack said bluntly, looking at the aliens and the silver haired woman.

"Sorry about that, Captain Shepard certainly runs a strange ship," Crystal remarked as she exited her Warthog.

"I would imagine," Mack said, smirking slightly, "after all your kids are on it. Speaking of which you may be interested to know that they've been keeping me company. You've got a few minutes if you want to have a word with them, actually scratch that you have plenty of time to talk to them considering that you're slatted to help me with the evac once the VIPs are gone. Speaking of which I need to get them out of here don't I?" As he spoke Mack made his way to the convoy while Damon and Crystal walked towards Taylor and Sarah, who were now standing behind a row of sandbags, Tali not far away.

"Good to see that you two are keeping yourselves in one piece," Crysal said as they stopped in front of the two of them.

"Yeah well Taylor hasn't exactly been doing that," Sarah said grimly, gesturing to her brother. "A couple of his current body parts aren't the one he was born with. But he set the son of a bitch on fire, so good riddance."

"Well glad to see that that he's staying creative," Damon interjected, causing all four of the Winters to laugh.

Tali smiled slightly and began to walk away, only to be blocked by Damon's outstretched arm. "Hold on little lady," he said glancing at at Tali with a massive grin on his face. "Taylor sent me a rather interesting message about you, mainly about the circumstances between you two, if you know what I mean."

Tali's face turned a furious shade of violet as she turned to face Taylor, who was rubbing the back of his neck. "Did I forget to tell you that?" he asked sheepishly while his sister had a look on her face that suggested that she was trying very hard not to laugh.

"Yes!" Tali snapped, her face growing darker. Ever since Feros Taylor and Tali had reached an agreement. Due to the rather uniqueness of their relationship and the unwelcome attention that might come about if it went out into the open, they had been rather subtle a bout it, only telling Sarah. What Taylor had forgotten to tell Tali was that a couple of days ago Sarah had convinced him to let them in on their little secret.

"Well," Crystal said, smiling widely, "I recall Taylor bringing you by the house a couple of times, I honestly can't say I saw this coming." She raised an eyebrow, "I take it we're not getting grandchildren then?"

"Oh Keelah," Tali muttered, burying her face in her hands.

"Come on stop torturing her," Taylor said slightly exasperated.

Crystal chuckled. "Just having fun." She turned to face Tali again. "So have you told your parents yet?"

"Um," Tali muttered, rubbing her hands nervously. "Not exactly. I was thinking about writing to my mother but...I don't exactly have a very close relationship my father."

"Wait, is your father's name Rael'Zorah?" Damon asked.

"How did you know that? Did Taylor tell you that?"

"Uh, not exactly. He's...he's one of the VIPs that we just escorted. He said something about running experiments on recovered Geth"

Tali felt her heart jump into her throat as she looked around Damon to look at the VIPs that were making their way towards the spaceport. Most of them were Humans wearing either business suits or lab coats but a couple of them were Quarians, one of which she could easily recognize. "Father," she whispered.

She stood where she was, uncertain of exactly what to do. "You ok?" Taylor asked comfortingly, walking up next to her.

"I'm not sure," she said honestly. "I don't know what to do. I never really talked to my father about major things like this, I mainly went to mother."

"If you don't want to it might be for the best if you don't rush it and wait until you feel that you're ready," Taylor suggested.

"Tali?" The Quarian nearly jumped out of her skin as her head snapped to see that her father had spotted her and was making his way over."

"Oh Keelah," Tali whispered, her hands becoming a typhoon as she continued to twiddle them.

"Want me to help?" Taylor offered.

Tali looked at Taylor, and the ODST couldn't help but notice that something seemed to steel behind her eyes. "No," she said, turning to face her father who had reached them, her hands falling to her sides.

"Tali what are you doing here?" Rael asked, looking confused as he stared at his daughter. "What happened to your face!" he exclaimed, noticing Tali's scars, evidence of her session with Sukron.

"I was stationed here," Tali said, her voice slightly shaky. Her hands instinctively began to raise up but they stopped halfway up as she realized what she was doing and fell back down. "Um, father there is someone I would like you to meet," she said, gesturing to Taylor. "This is Taylor Winters he's...my boyfriend."

The second that she spoke Tali felt the overwhelming urge to kick herself. 'Boyfriend? BOYFRIEND! That's the best you could come up with? You made it sound like we're just teenagers in a month long fling!'

Tali managed to keep her face straight even as she felt heat creeping up the back of her neck. "Pleased to meet you," Taylor said, extending his hand towards Rael.

Tali looked at the hand as an excuse to avoid eye contact with her father and noticed something that surprised her. Taylor's hand was actually quivering slightly. 'He's nervous?' Tali thought. 'Well what do you expect, he's meeting your former Admiral father for the first time.'

Rael simply stared at the two of them, a look of utter confusion on his face. "But when did...when did you...how did...does your mother know about this?"

"Not exactly," Tali replied, while repeatedly reminding herself that she was in her 20s, "I was planning on telling her in a few days."

"I...when did you meet this boy?"

As Tali continued to talk, Taylor noticed something behind Rael. As his eyes focused on it he realized that it was some sort of shimmer in the air. He initially thought that it was a heat haze caused by the exhaust from the dropships, but then it hit him that they were too far away from the spaceport for that to be possible. He realized exactly what was making that shimmer just as a Marine near it suddenly burst into flames. There was a chain reaction of painful howls as dozen of Jiralhanae decloaked all around the perimeter, firing their wrist mounted flamethrowers.

Taylor raised his rifle while Tali did the same with her shotgun and began to line up shots when they heard a massive thump a couple yards away. Both of them glanced in that direction before diving to the side behind a barricade dragging Rael with them, narrowly avoiding a jet of fire.

The both leaned over the barricade to see what had attacked them and felt their stomachs drop and looks of fear cover their faces. "Rael'Zorah," Sukron said, walking towards the barricade with his scorcher lit and a grenade launcher in the other hand, his bright red cybernetic eye glowing brightly. "I have been looking for you."

Author's Note: Someone pointed out that they weren't really sympathizing with the Coalition that much, so I decided to put in Lotan. He's a character I've kind of been flip flopping about, not sure if I wanted to put him in. Well I made up my mind and decided that the story would be better for it if he was in.

In case you haven't noticed I'm being subtle about established Sukron as a villain, subtle as an anvil to the head that is. Someone pointed out that I wasn't giving Taylor and Tali that much attention now that they're together, well I have a reason for that, several actually. First off after Fighter For a Purpose I felt like the main pairing in that story involved way too much puppy love moments and I've been holding off on them, they'll still be around I've just been holding them in reserve. Secondly this is a very big story, their romance is one part in a very big machine I'm building so it isn't always the center of attention. Third, they're UNSC personal first and lovers second, meaning on the battlefield they tend to suppress their feelings to keep themselves form making stupid decisions. And the final reason, as I mentioned in story, is that due to the nature of their relationship (Human x Alien in a world were Humans don't really get along with Aliens and where a relationship like that is largely unheard of with the exception if Asari) they keep it under wraps in order to avoid attracting flack caused by oh I don't know a bitchy news reported "wink wink".

By the way some of you may be wondering what Sukron wants with Tali's dad. I'll give you a hint, remember how Rael fucked up on the Alarei? That' all I'm saying

EDIT: The next chapter may not be out for some time, I am going back through this story and trying to get rid of the mass of grammar mistakes and editing sentences and paragraphs that I don't like.