Battle: Actium - (Redux!)

by Ian Otter

Before the Fall of Reach, the Battle of Actium was one of the bloodiest land battles of the Human-Covenant War. Experience the fighting through the eyes of those who fought, and died, in her defense. (Companion piece to my other story, Missing in Action) (Rewrite of an older story by the same name.)

9. Chapter 9: Hold the Line

This chapter is essentially a combination of chapters 15 and 12 of the original version.

Warning: lots of notes at the end of this chapter.

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Chapter 9: Hold the Line

Southern Byzas Metropolitan Area
Thracia Province, Actium
May 6, 2545
1023

Tariq

" – Pathfinder units reporting large group of civilians – thirty to forty strong – are pinned down by Covenant forces at the provincial sheriff's station located at Maple Ave and Greenly Boulevard. Requesting an Osprey be sent in to extract them, over."

"Negative 5, LZ is too hot - we're not risking a bird just for them. Wait for ground forces, over.

"C2, 5: understood. Interrogative: ETA on ground troops?"

"Spearpoint reports ETA to AO… zero niner mikes… Gunslinger 5, you're cleared to do what you can from the air, over."

"Wilco- shit! Taking ground fire, taking ground fire!"

"C2, 5, this is 1: I got eyes on Covie plasma cannon set up on the roof of that rec center just off of Route 123, over."

"1, C2: copy that, we got eyes on. Gunslinger 2, come in and take them out."

"C2, are we sure that building has been cleared of civilians, over?"

"It doesn't matter. We have Covenant on the ground, WINTER CONTINGENCY protocol is in effect… we have authorization to level this entire town with everyone still inside it, if it comes to that. The Covenant cannot be allow to expand their lodgment…"

Tariq shivered at that last part. He had seen firsthand what happened when military demands were placed ahead of civilian lives, and it wasn't pretty. Yet, at the same time, he had to sympathize with those rotor-heads: the Covenant didn't give a damn about collateral damage and because of that, the UNSC couldn't either.

"Okay, crew, listen up!" Buckley called out over the tank's internal communications system, distracting Tariq before he could go down that line of thought. "Surveillance from CAB is indicating the Covenant are beginning to push out from Byzas into the metropolitan areas with long-range reconnaissance units. They're only armed with light scout vehicles and crew-served weapons, but if they get a chance to dig in, they'll be almost impossible to dislodge. We can't let that happen."

"Area we're about to hit is a suburban location: mostly residential, some public works, and commercial buildings. Which means we got to be careful: Driver, there's going to be a lot of places that can't support our weight, so try to avoid going off road. Gunner, we're going to have limited sightlines, so head on a swivel. Check?"

"Check," Tariq replied.

"Got it!" Koroma called from his position at the front of the tank.

Tariq immediately leaned forward and planted his face onto his gunner's sight. Cameras mounted on the outer armor of the vehicle fed directly to his HUD meant he could have a three-sixty view of the exterior of the tank without having to actually poke his head outside, but it was his experience that when it came to looking for threats, nothing beat looking through his gunsights and physically turning the turret around.

Settling in, Tariq turned his focus back to the radio once more, as elements of their CAB flying and engaging Covenant forces some three klicks ahead of them continued to call out threats and targets.

"3, 2: we're marking the location of where that Ghost disappeared with our 20mils. Can you take out the building with a missile, over?"

"Copy; locked on target, missile off the rails."

"1, C2: we're tracking what appears to be a small team of provincial sheriffs pinned down by sniper fire coming from the top of the general store in the southwestern quadrant. Come in from the east and see if you can't provide them with fire support, over."

"Roger, we're shifting location."

"C2, 5: we got Covenant foot mobiles taking cover under the I-270 overpass however we're unable to engage with 20 mike mike. We can engage with Scorpions, but we might damage the bridge. Please advise, over."

"Drop the bridge on them."

"Say again your last, C2? Aren't the ground forces going to need that bridge?"

"Priority is to eliminate Covenant positions at cost of local infrastructure. Spearpoint has bridging units attached to them if need be. Engage all hostiles: drop the bridge on them, over."

"Wilco."

"Hey, LT!" Tariq called into his microphone as a thought occurred to him. "What's our plan of attack once we get to the objective area?"

"Our orders are to capture the town of Newington!" Buckley immediately replied. "Once we do that, we find a hole, dig in, and wait for reinforcements!"

"Wait, we're not going to immediately push into Byzas?" Koroma asked, sounding surprised. Tariq immediately let out a derisive snort.

"You kidding me, kid? A single armored battalion not even supported by artillery pushing into a city as big as Byzas? You trying to get us all killed?" he snapped.

"As Sergeant Helmand has pointed out, Specialist," Buckley began, "a reinforced armored battalion like ours isn't equipped for a MOUT attack, especially in a city as dense as Byzas. Which is why, as soon as we get reinforced by the rest of 2nd Brigade, 1st and 4th Brigades positioned north of the city will sweep in instead and force the Covenant out of Byzas and in our direction where we'll kill them all."

"But what about all the people living in the city?"

"If they can get out before the Covenant bring the hammer down, then great, but if not… unfortunately, there's not a whole lot we can do for them now. Just focus on your job, Driver, and we'll do the best we can, check?"

"Hooah, sir," Koroma replied, though Tariq could tell he was a bit troubled by what he was hearing.

Tariq resisted the urge to snort once again. Replacements: they were all the same. All piss and vinegar until they found out what it really took to defeat the Covenant. Hopefully Koroma would learn, sooner, rather than later.

Turning his focus back to his radio, he managed to hear just in time one of the Sparrowhawk pilots reporting, "C2, 5: be advised, we are Winchester with Scorpions, I say again, we are Winchester with Scorpions. Requesting permission to RTB and rearm, over?"

"Permission granted, break. All Gunslinger victors, report status, over."

"C2, Gunslinger 1: 100, 3, and 25%, over."

"C2, Gunslinger 2: 76, 1, and 27%, over."

"C2, Gunslinger 3: 110, 2, and 30%, over."

"Copy that. All Gunslinger victors, RTB for immediately refuel and rearmament, break. C2 to Spearpoint, be advised, air support is returning to base. You're going to be flying blind here until unit Outlaw arrives on station in zero three mikes, over."

"C2, Spearpoint: copy that."

"Hey, LT!" Tariq called into his mic. "You catch that? Air support is peeling away; we're going to be going in blind!"

"Got it! 2-1 to all Cataphract-2 vehicles: head's up, air cover is going dark for a few minutes. Give me three hundred and sixty degree coverage, ladies and gentlemen, and stay frosty! Gunner, point the main gun forward and cover our frontal arch, I'll cover our left flank with the RWS. Eyes and ears, gents!"

Grabbing hold of his controls, Tariq panned the turret until it was pointed directly forward. With their tank on point, his main concern was about attacks coming from their direct front. Hopefully the rest of the platoon had the good sense to cover their left and rear flanks – fortunately, with the rest of their company advancing parallel to their position on the right, they didn't have to worry about attacks coming from that angle.

Slowly panning the turret from left to right, Tariq resisted the urge to reach for a cigarette. While light vehicles and infantry were normally no match for Grizzly tanks, experiences in the past had taught him that Covenant infantry were surprising skilled at causing a large amount of damage even to the heaviest of armored vehicles, so the last thing Tariq wanted to do was get distracted. Fortunately, at the moment, the streets seemed abandoned. Even the civilians seemed to have –

Tariq paused. "Hey, LT!"

"Go ahead."

"Was this area evacuated of civilians beforehand?"

"I doubt it. Covenant only made landfall within the last thirty minutes; before that, there wouldn't have been any indication where they were going to hit so Command wouldn't have been able to figure out which areas needed to be evacuated first."

Tariq could feel his throat tightening, and he forced himself to swallow. "If that's the case, sir, then where are all the people?"

He could hear Buckley let out a sudden intake of air. "Cataphract, this is Cataphract 2- "

BOOOOOSSSSHHHH! CLANG!

Tariq jumped in his seat as a fuel rod cannon abruptly exploded against the side of their turret, encasing his sights in radioactive green flames and throwing blobs of burning plasma in all directions. At once, all hell seemed to break loose as blue, green, and purple streaks filled the air, seemingly coming from all directions, and the radio practically exploded with chatter.

"Contact, CONTACT! Direct front – "

"- taking small arms and fuel rods – "

" – the fuck did they come from!"

"Holy shit!" Tariq heard Koroma cry out in alarm as plasma bolts splattered against their armor fortunately doing no damage but creating one hell of a light show. For his part, Tariq didn't even bother to wait for orders: he immediately removed the safety switch to his coaxial machine gun and began returning fire even as the tank slowly grinded to a stop.

"Driver, keep going, keep going! Cataphract this is Cataphract 2, be advised we have been engaged. Contact initiated against Covenant foot mobiles two klicks south of Phase Line Yellow. Taking small arms and fuel rod cannon fire, enemy strength currently unknown, break! Gunner, enemy contact, second story, red brick building on the left, two blocks down. Put an HE round through that fucking wall!"

Tariq immediately switched over to his main cannon. Grabbing his controls, he elevated the barrel, doubled checked his range finder, and primed a high explosive round. "On the way!"

WABOOM!

The entire tank shook as one of the barrels to the main cannons recoiled, sending a twenty-three kilogram high explosive shell downrange at nearly fourteen hundred meters per second. The shell immediately smashed through the wall, throwing chucks of brick in all directions, and exploded within the room.

BOOM!

"Gunner, squirt that shit down with your coax, make sure all those fuckers are dead," Buckley was ordering even before the first piece of debris had a chance to hit the ground. "We need more guns in this fight – 2-2, take the left lanes and move up alongside us, we'll advance parallel together. 2-3, watch the left and make sure the Covies ain't trying to outflank us. 2-4, watch our six!"

"Wilco, 2-1!"

Switching over to his coax, Tariq made sure to put about three dozen rounds into the building before rotating his turret to find something else to shoot at. As he worked, he could hear the tank's autoloader kicking in, popping open the breech to the depleted barrel and shoving another shell inside. In a manner of seconds, both his cannons were ready to fire.

"Contact, direct front!" Koroma suddenly bellowed and Tariq immediately swiveled his sights to the road in front of them, just in time to spot a Covenant Grunt appear from behind an abandoned garbage truck some two blocks away, with a fuel rod cannon pointed straight at them. Tariq instantly thumbed the trigger to his coax.

Tariq sent a few quick burst downrange which sent the Grunt diving for cover, though most of Tariq's bullets ricocheted off the heavy grade steel that made up most of the garbage truck's body, throwing sparks every which way but failing to penetrate.

"Hit that thing with a HEAT!" Tariq heard Buckley order and without letting up with his coax, he leveled his cannon once more and –

"On the way!" he roared and pulled the trigger.

The entire tank shook once more as the main gun was fired, however this time it was the right barrel that recoiled. The HEAT shell slammed into the garbage truck's hydrogen fuel cell, rupturing it and causing the entire vehicle to go up like it had been armed with an airdropped bomb. Tariq wasn't actually sure if the Grunt had been killed in the explosion, but he didn't have time to check as a Ghost reconnaissance vehicle abruptly appeared around the corner with an Elite in the driver's seat and two Grunts desperately clinging onto the back support as it went tearing off in the opposite direction it had come from. Without thinking, Tariq sent an HE shell after them, but the Ghost jerked to the left at the last second and the shell missed, hitting a nearby house instead.

"2-1, 2-2: looks like the Covenant are breaking contact and falling back. Do we pursue, over?" Tariq heard the commander of 2-2 asking over the radio.

"Hell fucking yeah," Buckley snapped. "Driver, forward!"

"Cataphract 2, Cataphract Actual: belay that order!" Lightfoot unexpectedly interjected. "Covenant are probably attempting to lead us into another ambush. 2-1, I want you to take your platoon as well as Dragoons 3-2 and 3-4, go two blocks down and flank around on the left – see if you can't catch the Covenant by surprise. Meanwhile, I'm going to take the rest of Cataphract and a mortar detachment from Lancer and lay down suppressing fire, over."

"Actual, 2-1: roger wilco," Buckley quickly replied. "Cataphract 2, Dragoon 3-2 and 3-4: change of orders, we're flanking left. 2-2, you're in our way so you're on point. We'll follow up behind. 3-2 and 3-4 will follow, with 2-3 and 2-4 securing the rear. Move out! Driver, left turn, left turn! Gunner, pop smoke!"

Tariq immediately did as he was told, thumbing his trigger and in just a few seconds, a thick cloud of black smoke was covering the road, concealing their movement from Covenant eyes.

"2-1 to Platoon: keep your ears up and your eyes open, people," Buckley commanded. "Rest of Cataphract might be keeping the Covies pinned down, but we don't know how many are actually around!"

"Hey!" Tariq called out. "Hey, kid! Make sure youmaintain a minimum distance of about ten meters between us and 2-2. We don't want to stick our noses up their asses in case they need to maneuver."

"Got it!"

"Gunner, you scanning for targets?"

Tariq hastily planted his face back into his gun sight. "Affirmative!"

He hurriedly panned the turret left to right, but as it turned out, there wasn't really any need. Based on what he was seeing, Tariq could only conclude that either the Covenant weren't here in force, or they hadn't made it to this section of the town yet, or both, as the neighborhood was completely untouched by war. In fact, if it weren't for the complete lack of people and the signs that they had left in a hurry, Tariq might have thought it was just another Tuesday morning.

Snowmen and other snow sculptures built by bored kids over the weekend still covered many a lawn. Colorful decorations surrounded the front of houses in celebration of the winter solstice or Christmas, or whatever the hell it was people celebrated nowadays, making Tariq somehow feel like he was tripping on acid, too used to the dark grays and blacks that normally blanketed a battlefield. Bright artificial lights still spilled out from uncovered kitchen and living room windows, revealing the interior of several homes, including one whose kitchen table was decked out in birthday party decorations, complete with cake. The cake's candles were even still lit, suggesting the occupants of the house had only fled moments ago.

All in all, it was a rather depressing scene, one that Tariq had unfortunately experienced before.

"2, this is Actual: come in, over," Lightfoot unexpectedly said over the radio after several minutes of silence, save for the sound of gunfire in the distance.

"Go ahead, Actual," Buckley replied.

"2, Outlaw has identified what they believe to be a large group of Covenant soldiers at marked location setting up an ambush along MSR Odin. They don't appear to be aware of your location, giving you a perfect opportunity to outflank them. Set up position on the west flank and standby. FiSTers are calling in an airstrike from two CM SkyHawks, once those bombs go off, you are to advance and eliminate the remaining survivors. Rest of Cataphract will roll up from the southeast. How copy, over?"

"Actual, 2-1: we copy your traffic. Request you give us five minutes to get into position before calling in the strike, out. Driver, halt. All tanks, halt and hold position. 3-2, 3-4: push up and begin deploying infantry. Gunner, head on a swivel."

There was a shrieking of brakes as Koroma brought the tank to a halt. Scanning the buildings that surrounded them, Tariq watched out of the corner of his eye as two M432 "Armadillo" IFVs rolled up on their right to the front of the column. As soon as they were there, they grinded to a halt and dropped their ramps. At once, the infantry inside began pouring out, including Chenko, who looked decidedly disgruntled at having been forced to leave his warm and safe armored box.

Tariq couldn't help but snicker under his breath; that was what Chenko got for becoming a crunchie.

"2-1, Dragoon 3-2: last man is out."

"This is Dragoon 3-4, doughs are on the ground!"

"Copy that Dragoons. All IFVs fall back into formation. Infantry squads, form up behind your assigned tanks and standby to advance. 2-4, take 2-3 and head up the right, I'll take 2-2 and head up the left."

"Copy, 2-1," Tariq heard over the radio. "Moving now."

Buckley waited a couple minutes for the infantrymen to scramble into position. "Driver, forward! Slow though, don't outrun the infantry. All Cataphract-2 vehicles, advance!"

With a rumble, all vehicles started crawling forward.

"Cataphract, this is 2-1: we're in position and on the move, over."

In lieu of a response, Tariq heard one of the FiSTers saying instead, "Vulcan, this is Spearpoint: requesting airstrike on previously established grid location. Target is large concentration of Covenant infantry taking cover inside an office building. Be advised, we've got friendly armor rolling in from both the west and southeast, as well as friendly birds operating in the north, so on approach, come in from directly from the southwest, over."

"We copy your traffic, Spearpoint: friendly forces operating within vicinity of target, approach direction direct southwest. We are inbound, time to target: sixty seconds to drop.

FWOOZFWOOZFWOOZ!

Tariq jerked in his seat as out of nowhere, a plasma cannon abruptly opened up on them. The tank's hull was lit up as plasma fire raked over them. Presumably the Covenant were aiming for the infantrymen behind them, only the tank was in the way.

"Fuck!" Buckley yelped as he ducked back into the tank. Tariq could hear plasma hitting against his hatch as he slammed it shut. "Contact! Enemy plasma cannon, second floor, left building! Driver, continue forward. Gunner, hit that building!"

Tariq looked around. "Sir, I don't see where that fucking fire is coming from!"

"Marking with RWS!"

Bambambam!

Tariq could hear the heavy machine gun mounted by Buckley's hatch going off, but he was too distract to see where Buckley was shooting by the sight of an Elite running out onto the street in front of them.

"Contact front!" Tariq warned as he open fired with his coax. Tracers skipped across the street and slammed into the Elite, causing its shields to light up and the Elite quickly dove for cover, but not before hurtling a grenade in their direction. "Grenade!"

Koroma abruptly gunned the tank, lurching forward and position the vehicle right over the grenade as it landed on the ground. Tariq could feel the slightest of rumbling as the grenade detonated, but he barely noticed as a radioactive green spike struck the window to one of his periscopes with an audible TONK, causing him to involuntarily flinch.

"Foot mobiles behind the corner of the last building on the block, front right!" Koroma called out.

"Got them!" Tariq yelled, spotting the two carbine-equipped Skirmishers firing on them. "These idiots do realize just because we deployed infantry, it doesn't change the fact we're still a fucking tank, right!?"

"Who the fuck cares, Sergeant, just shoot them!" Buckley snapped.

Chunks of masonry fell to the ground as Tariq's machine gun fire chewed up the wall, and he was pretty sure he saw one of the Skirmishers grabbing at his eye as they both ducked back. "They fell back around the corner! Sir, want me to expend a HEAT to take them out?"

"Negative! 3-5, hit that wall I'm suppressing with a couple of grenades!"

"Got it. Frag out!"

Tariq turned away to search for the original plasma cannon as two 40mm HEDP grenades flew downrange and smash into the wall, knocking it down. One of the infantry guys started suppressing the corner with his SAW.

"Watch that right flank, Gunner! Where the fuck is our airstrike?"

As if on cue, the screaming of incoming jet engines could be heard over the sound of fighting and then, "Cataphract, Vulcan: bombs away, bombs away, bombs away."

"All Cataphract-2 victors: halt, halt, halt!" Buckley hollered.

The airdropped bombs came screaming in and perhaps it was Tariq's imagination, but he could have sworn he heard the whistling of the wind rushing past the fins on the bombs as they disappeared behind some of the buildings. A millisecond later –

WABOOM! BOOOM!

The ground shook as both bombs detonated in quick succession, the shockwave rippling down the streets and shattering windows and setting off car alarms as a cloud of black smoke shot into the air. Over the sound of the explosion, Tariq heard someone say, "Vulcan, Cataphract: good effect on target!"

"2-1, this is 2-4, over."

"Go for 2-1!" Buckley roared.

"Sir, it looks like the Covies are breaking contact and falling back!"

"Hunt them down: do not let them get away!" Buckley immediately ordered. "Dragoon 3-5, Covies are pulling back, though if they're retreating or trying to lure us into another ambush, we have no idea. Move out, and start clearing the way for us!"

"Copy, 2-1," Tariq heard Chenko immediately reply. "Alright boys, we're in business! Bravo Team, move up the left flank! Alpha Team, on me, we'll take the right! Just like how we did it in training, ladies, let's take it nice and smooth. Watch your corners and move it out!"

Through his sights, Tariq watched as the two teams of infantrymen slowly begin to advance down the street.

"Driver, follow them! Make sure they don't get further than nine to ten meters away! Gunner, as of right now, Sergeant Chenko is your forward observer! He calls it out, you shoot it! Everyone, keep your eyes peeled, I'm going back up top!"

Tariq could hear the commander's hatch opening up behind him though, to be honest, at this point he really wasn't paying attention. Just based on the volume of fire coming their way, as well as surveillance reports from their CAB, most of the Covenant in the area had been killed, and now it was just a matter of hunting down the few remaining stragglers.

Unfortunately, getting to this point was the easy part. Now they had to dig in, wait for reinforcements and then hope – no, pray, that the Navy and Air Force would be able to hold back the rest of the Covenant fleet.

XXXXX

High Orbit, Actium

Zelda

"Attention all call signs, we are being overwhelmed here! We got Covenant fighters and warships all over the place! All UNSC warships, fall back to sector one three nine and rally on the Canberra! All fighters, cover us as we attempt to reorganize!"

The general wide transmission washed over Zelda, but he barely gave it any heed as he was currently having problems of his own.

"WARNING, INCOMING PROJECTILE. WARNING, INCOMING PROJECTILE," his computer chimed.

"Chaff," he spat, then threw himself into a spin as the fuel rod cannon exploded somewhere behind him.

"Okay, you think you can take me on motherfucker!" Zelda angrily yelled. "You think you can shoot me, 1st Lieutenant Link Kepler down!? You want to see what I'm made of? I'll fucking show you what I'm made of!"

The Banshee he was fighting against, obviously didn't respond but instead opened up with its plasma cannons. Zelda deftly dodged around a hunk of space debris and sped towards cover.

"Cover" in this case was the burnt out hulk of what used to be an Air Force attack transport. The ship had been hit several times by plasma torpedoes, boring holes through the armor and forcing the crew to abandon it. Unfortunate for the crew, however it was something Zelda could use to his advantage right now.

Flying through one of the breaches, Zelda thankfully found himself inside the ship's empty hangar. Being a fraction of the size he was, the Banshee could have easily followed him in, however the Split-lip pilot decided to remain outside and unload on the hole, as if they expected Zelda to turn around and fly out the same way. Which, to be fair, was what any sane pilot would have done. Fortunately for Zelda, he was anything but sane.

Punching his forward facing thrusters, Zelda came to a halt before he crashed into the far wall, then did a full ninety degree turn to the left. Prior to entering the wreck, Zelda had already mapped out where all the hull breaches were, and he immediately sped to the nearest one that was large enough for his fighter to fit. As he flew through the burnt out corridors, he was confronted with clear evidence that not all of the transport's crew had been able to escape, but he ignored the frozen bodies that smacked against his canopy and focused on flying straight.

Emerging from a breach in the front of the transport, Zelda immediately executed a full one hundred eight degree flip and found himself confronted with the Banshee's underside, which was still busy unloading his weapons on the hole Zelda had entered through.

"What up dickwad?" Zelda sneered, then promptly opened up with his main cannons.

The 35mm shells smashed into the Banshee's underside, easily carving its way through the armor and the Banshee erupted into a blue fireball before the Elite pilot even realized he was under attack.

"Dumbasses," Zelda muttered to himself as he banked away and started looking for the rest of his flight.

"Zelda, INCOMING NINE!"

Zelda jammed on his forward thrusters and stopped his fighter just in time as a plasma cannon bolt rocketed past in front of him and slammed into the side of the attack transport, blowing another hole into the wreck. Zelda gritted his teeth as chunks of metal were ripped out and hurtled in his direction, and he frantically punched in his thrusters to try and get on the other side of the wreck. Stray plasma cannon shots aside, this side was getting crowded with all these warships and sitting in a crossfire was no place for Zelda to be.

Doing a half barrel roll to the right, Zelda flipped over the wreck and into its shadow. His proximity alarm pinged, causing him to tense up, but it was only the rest of his flight.

"6, you good?" Odessa asked.

"Just got my feathers singed, but I'm good."

"Good, because we just got cleared hot to engage that corvette. Stack up on me! Longswords will punch a hole for us, all we got to do is hit it! Understood?"

"Yeah, all we got to do is stick it in the right hole, right?" Zelda glibly noted.

"Something I hear you have problems with sometimes," Odessa joked.

"Shut the fuck up, Odessa."

"Guys, is now really the time?" JV asked, sounding exasperated.

"Omega-5, this is Byzas 4 and 9, we are beginning our attack run, over."

"Copy that, Byzas," Odessa replied, instantly becoming serious, "we're right behind you. Flight, EXECUTE!"

Zelda immediately banked to the right and dove, following Odessa as they launched themselves towards their target, a Covenant corvette some three hundred kilometers below them. Ahead of them, Zelda could just barely make out the two Air Force Longsword gunships from Byzas Squadron swooping in on an attack vector.

In unison, the Longswords began firing at the same spot on the hull, trying to blast a hole into the corvette's armor for Zelda and the others to exploit. Armored plating and other metals shards were thrown into space as both Longswords fired over twenty shells apiece from their 110mm rotary cannons in the span of less than a minute.

But while the corvette's shields had been disabled, its weapons hadn't and as the Longswords started to pull out of their run, a pulse laser turret suddenly emerged from the corvette's hull and open fired on the Longswords. Byzas-4 was immediately hit, with the pulse lasers shearing off an entire wing and causing the Longsword to go crashing right into the ship where upon it promptly exploded. The surviving Longsword quickly broke away, shooting off towards the relative safety of the rest of the task force. Annoyingly, the Covenant manning the turret let him go, choosing instead to focus on the approaching Broadswords instead.

"Look out, those lasers are still active!" 303 warn as the turret began firing.

Really?" Zelda sarcastically muttered as the area around them began lighting up from near misses. "Thanks 303, I hadn't noticed."

"5, we're not going to be able to pull off our attack if we have to evade," JV noted.

"I know! 7 and 8, break off and take out that turret! 6, with me, we'll continue our run!"

"Copy, 6 on you Leader."

"Copy, Leader! 7 and 8, breaking off!

Ahead of him, Zelda watched JV and 303 pull out of formation and speed straight towards the pulse laser turrets. At less than a thousand meters away, they both fired a series of missiles and then quickly peeled away before the turret could zero in on them.

The turret spotted the incoming missiles and turned to deal with them, quickly trying to shoot them down before they could hit. Explosions lit up the sky as the turret managed to destroy the initial salvo, but unfortunately for the Covenant, they weren't able to intercept them all. Two missiles slammed home, hitting the turret right at the base, ripping the mount right off and launching the turret into space.

"Omega-5 and 6, you're free and clear!"

"Copy! 6, standby to release your payload on the target on my mark!"

Zelda clicked his microphone in acknowledgement as he angled the nose of his fighter directly at the hole the Longswords had created, trusting his targeting computer to determine the most optimal angle of approach. At the same time, he reached up to pull a lever and waited until his HUD indicated his bomb bay doors were open.

"MARK!"

Zelda jabbed a button on his control stick, and a hissing sound filled his headset as a short spurt of pressurized gas ejected the bombs from their hardpoints and out of the weapons bay. Because of his forward momentum, the bombs continued to fall towards the corvette, even as Zelda hastily peeled away.

"Bombs away, bombs away, bombs away," Zelda announced over the radio, shutting his bay doors. He quickly punched in his afterburners to clear the area. Behind him, he could see his four Mark 210 general purpose bombs heading straight for the flaming hole in the corvette's hull, joining the four Odessa had launched only seconds before. Then -

A series of explosions ripped through the corvette's hull as all eight, one thousand kilogram bombs detonated. The corvette's hull visibly bulged outwards before seconds later, the ship began to decompress, violently venting atmosphere and all manner of debris from the breach. Zelda was too far away to conduct a proper BDA, but he figured the blow must have been critical as almost immediately, all weapons on the corvette ceased firing.

"Omega Leader, Omega-5: I got eyes on eight hits, I say again, eight hits on target 4-Bravo. BDA to follow, break. 7 or 8, you got eyes on?"

"This is 303, I got eyes. Standby... that was good effect on target, 5. I'm seeing multiple fractures forming in the target's main keel, and the crew appears to be abandoning ship!"

"Copy. Omega Leader, target 4-Bravo is trashed, I say again, 4-Bravo has been destroyed. Scratch one more corvette!"

Zelda let out a loud scoff.

"Yeah, one corvette down, only a hundred more to go," he sarcastically sneered under his breath, even as he pulled away from the dying ship and headed back to where the heaviest of fighting was taking place.

"Bravo Flight, come in: this is Omega Leader, do you copy?"

"This is Omega-5, go ahead!"

"This quadrant is fucked," Bellum bluntly stated. "We have Covenant all over the place. Command's ordering the fleet to pull back to sector one three niner in an attempt to reform our lines, and we're being ordered to cover them. Rally on me!"

"Copy, we're on our way."

"Any word on reinforcements?" 303 suddenly asked.

"According to Command, they're 'on the way.' Whatever that means."

"Means they aren't coming," Zelda snarled before catching himself. What was he whining for? He was the best pilot in the entire system. Maybe the entire Air Force. He didn't need help.

The four of them sped off in the direction of the rally point, which was centered near the UNSC Canberra. As the most powerful ship still remaining in the area, she was the focus of most of the Covenant fire. Already Zelda could see she was embroiled in a fight against damn near five separate Covenant warships. Not only that, she was getting swarmed by Seraphs.

"We gotta take out those fighters so the Canberra can concentrate her firepower on those warships!" Odessa yelled. "If the Canberra goes down, we all go down! Split up into pairs: hit them hard and fast!"

"That's a lot of fighters; are you sure you want to split up like that?" JV immediately asked.

"Worried you won't be able to handle a few fighters by yourself, JV?" Zelda did his best not to sneer, but it was a near thing.

"No, but if we're not careful, we could easily be overwhelmed."

"Unfortunately, that's exactly what's going to happen," Odessa reluctantly replied. "We got to draw the attention of as many fighters as we can; the more focused they are on us, the less likely they are to focus on the Canberra."

"Should be easy," Zelda noted. "Them Elites are all about 'honorable duals' and shit. Their Seraphs and Banshees much rather fight against other fighters, not warships."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"We don't have a choice," Odessa interrupted. "These are our orders. 7, take 8 and cut to the right. 6, we'll go left!"

Without hesitation, Zelda jammed his stick to the left, following Odessa as they dove towards the fighting. It was pure chaos. Massive warships the size of cities were exchanging fire at a frantic rate while small, one-man snub fighters maneuvered their way between them at breakneck speeds. The black void of space was filled with an assortment of colors and flashes. Meanwhile, surrounding everything was a rapidly expanding cloud of space debris.

"Fuck, man," Zelda muttered under his breath, and he couldn't help but ask, "Odessa, you sure this is a good idea?"

"Not really," Odessa admitted, "but like I told JV, we don't really have a choice. Hey, watch it! I'm picking up a squadron of Seraphs headed straight for the Canberra's stern! Think they're going for their engines!"

Zelda popped his neck. "Guess it's time to earn our paychecks, huh?"

"That's the spirit. Hey, remember to stay out of the red zones and follow me in! Lock onto the same two targets I am: let's take out as many as we can on the first pass."

Zelda grunted in acknowledgement as he eyeballed the five Seraphs flying perpendicular to them some several dozen klicks below them. Locking as many missiles as he could onto the two Odessa had designated, he waited for the order.

"Ripple fire… ENGAGE!"

"Fox one!" Zelda roared. "Guns, AP!"

Missiles began spitting out from the bottom of Zelda's Broadsword at a frantic pace, even as he switched over to his cannons and unloaded a full hundred shells at the Seraph. The Seraphs must have been distracted by the Canberra because they didn't even activate their countermeasures or even evade until it was too late: as Zelda watched, his missiles and shells slammed into two of the Seraphs, quickly overwhelming their shields and turning them into scrap.

"Ha!" Zelda cheered as the remaining Seraphs scattered. "That got their attention!"

"Yeah, let's not celebrate just yet! Evasive maneuvers!"

Zelda immediately threw himself into a spin as plasma began exploding all around him. Glancing over his shoulder, he noticed the surviving Seraphs had suddenly appeared on his six and were now doing their best to shoot him down.

"Come on motherfuckers!" Zelda taunted as he evaded a few shots. "You're gonna have to do better than that!"

"WARNING, INCOMING MISSILE. WARNING, INCOMING MISSILE."

"Flares!"

Zelda's Broadsword rocked as the fuel rod cannons exploded right above him.

"Close, but not close enough!" Zelda gloated.

"Zelda! Where the fuck are you?" Odessa suddenly demanded to know.

"What the fuck do you mean, 'where the fuck -'" Zelda started to snap, but then looked around and realize he and Odessa were no longer together. Somehow, there had been a slight miscommunication between each other, and in the course of their evasive maneuvers, they had ended up going in separate directions. "Ah, fuck."

Odessa must have realized the same thing because he immediately yelled, "Zelda, head's up, the Seraphs have forced us to split up, I NO LONGER HAVE YOUR BACK! You got two Seraphs about ready to push your shit in! Zelda, you copy!?"

"Solid copy," Zelda grunted out as he did his best to dodge the fire coming his way. Somehow, knowing he was alone suddenly made this fight actually seem serious. "Sorry. A little busy. Where's that third Seraph?"

"He's on my six and- ah, shit, I just picked up a pair of Banshees. Hang on, give me a min, I just might be able to get past and give you some support!"

"Negative, you deal with those fuckers and keep them off my back. I can handle myself!"

"You sure?"

"Not gonna dignify that with a response!" Zelda snapped before switching off his radio.

"Shit!" he snapped as a plasma bolt slammed against his fighter's rear. An alarm started sounding but Zelda quickly silenced it. "Okay you pukes, time to fucking dance."

He threw himself into a canopy roll to a right and then immediately climbed before abruptly jumping into a lag roll and then diving into an outside loop, trying to shake the Seraphs off his tail. Unfortunately, it didn't take; glancing at his rear scopes, Zelda could see both Seraphs barreling after him, undeterred.

The problem was the distance; at a little under fifteen hundred meters away, the Seraphs were a bit too far away to really be fooled by any of Zelda's combat maneuvers. Yet conversely, the Seraphs were too close for Zelda to simply punch in his afterburners and try to outrun them as they would simply lock onto the heat from his engine exhaust and send a dozen fuel rod cannons his way. In fact, probably the only reason why they hadn't done that already was because at this range, the radiation from the fuel rod cannon explosions would play hell with their shields, leaving them vulnerable to attack from other UNSC forces.

Zelda tried to throw himself into an inverted cobra roll, but for his troubles, he almost flew straight into a bolt of plasma one of the Seraphs threw his way. He let out a growl of annoyance. He was beginning to wish he was back fighting in Tenedos' rings. At least over there, there had been plenty of cover he could have used to break line of sight and gotten behind his pursuers.

"Come on, let's go, let's go!" Zelda urged as he tried to think of a way to lose these Seraphs.

Time was running out for him. With the amount of plasma the Seraphs were throwing at him - which they could do because unlike his rotary cannon, plasma cannons didn't run out of ammo - they would eventually hit him through sheer saturation. But every move he did, every maneuver he pulled, somehow the Seraphs were right there, matching it. Zelda didn't want to admit it, but he was beginning to think he might need some help.

Of course, a quick glance at his radar showed there weren't any friendlies available. Hell, he didn't even know who was still alive and who had been shot down in his squadron. The only friendly contact within range was the Canberra, and she was still fighting off the Covenant warships...

A thought suddenly occurred to Zelda and he glanced in the Canberra's direction, or more specifically, the crossfire that was taking place between her and a nearby Covenant destroyer, and Zelda suddenly realized how he could lose the Seraphs.

"Oh, this is a bad idea, even for me," Zelda groaned but unfortunately, it was the only option he could think of. "Shit! Alright, fine! You cunts want to play follow the leader? Let's see how far you're willing to take it!"

Throwing himself into an inside loop followed by a very tight rudder roll, Zelda took off in the direction of the Canberra, with the two Seraphs following close behind.

"Okay, okay, I can do this," Zelda tried to encourage himself as he barreled towards the fighting and an alert flashed across his screen, warning him he was about to enter a red zone where the chances of a friendly fire incident were greatly magnified. He glanced behind him. The Seraphs were still following him, undeterred.

"Oh, this is soooooo not going to end well," Zelda groaned. "Oh shiiitttttt!"

He entered the red zone.

At once all sorts of alarms began going off!

"WARNING, INCOMING MISSILES."

"...INCOMING PROJECTILE."

"WARNING, COLLISION..."

"...INCOMING..."

"...SAMS DETECTED."

"PULL UP... PULL UP..."

"Shut up shut up shutup!" Zelda snapped as he concentrated on trying to not get hit.

Anti-ship missiles the size of school buses rushed passed him on their way towards their target. Violent blue plasma bolts capable of engulfing his entire fighter in one go whipped by, headed in the opposite direction. 50mm shell fire exploded near him, pelting his fighter with shrapnel, and a pencil-thin beam of pure energy lanced by so close to him, Zelda swore he could feel the heat even buried under several layers of Titanium and plastic, as well as wrapped in his pressurized vacuum suit. Zelda ducked, bobbed, and weaved as the barrage continued, unabated, as both ships did their best to kill each other, their gunners completely unconcerned or unaware of the three small fighters foolish enough to wander into their crossfire. And it was still three fighters: glancing at his rear scopes, Zelda could see both Seraphs were still after him, struggling slightly to avoid getting hit in their less maneuverable fighters, but still persistent in pursuing him.

Zelda wasn't entirely sure why. From the way they stuck to him, it was almost as if he had somehow done something that had personally offended them, but he couldn't think of what that something might have been. Honor systems: he would never understand them.

At any case, it was clear this wasn't working. Zelda needed to mix things up.

"Time to up the ante I guess," Zelda muttered. With a reluctant sigh, he banked hard to the left and headed straight for the front of the Canberra. As was tradition for most naval ships, most of the Canberra's heaviest weapons were mounted towards the front of the ship, including her two MACs. Here, the firing was even more intense as the Canberra was splitting her fire between two ships, a Covenant light cruiser and another corvette.

"Here goes nothing..."

Immediately Zelda was forced to jerk to the side as an Archer missile abruptly exploded nearby, having been destroyed by Covenant pulse lasers before it could even get halfway to its destination. Rolling to the right, Zelda was nearly struck by a plasma torpedo which, while it wasn't capable of locking on to his fighter because of his relatively low magnetic signature, was more than enough to completely incinerate him.

The plasma torpedo streaked passed him and then abruptly executing a full ninety degree towards him. Before he could even begin to question how, he noticed a magnetic decoy the size of a small box truck that had been launched by the Canberra floating past him from behind and he slammed on his forward thrusters, bringing himself to a stop as the plasma torpedo passed right in front of him and zeroed in on the decoy.

A pair of needlers from who-the-fuck-knew-where, as most Covenant warships didn't carry needlers, shot over his shoulder and Zelda reflexively threw himself into a dive only to fly right through the vapor trail left behind by a volley of Archer missiles, temporarily blinding him. He yanked back on his stick and climbed out of the exhaust, only to blink as there was a sudden flash of light in front of him. It took him a few moments to realize that had been the light reflecting off a MAC round and it suddenly occurred to him he had almost stumbled into the path of a pair of MAC rounds the Canberra had just fired.

Glancing downrange, Zelda noticed the light cruiser the Canberra had been fighting against was now a flaming wreck and was slowly falling apart even as she was struck amidship by another volley of missiles. Still, even in her death throes, the cruiser fired off a quad of plasma torpedoes, one of which was able to score a direct hit on the Canberra's hull.

The torpedo exploded and he glanced at the Canberra to see a piece of shrapnel about the size of a bumper car get hurtled in his direction traveling at - from what it appeared to Zelda - damn near the speed of light. He quickly spun his fighter but fortunately his judgement had been a bit off and the shrapnel didn't even come near him.

FWOOZ FWOOZ!

"OH COME ON!" Zelda yelled, trying to do his best to avoid the plasma the Seraphs sent after him. "Are you fucking kidding me!? Why the fuck are you two morons still after me!? You guys are crazier than I am!"

He glanced through his rear scopes, trying to figure out if there was another way to lose his pursuers when -

One of the Seraph's shields lit up as he was struck by AA fire from the Canberra! The Seraph quickly banked to the side but abruptly there was a flash of light as a Covenant excavator beam speared the Seraph right in the cockpit. The Seraph survived, intact, but it was clear no one was steering the fighter anymore as it continued flying straight, until it blundered right into a plasma torpedo and exploded.

"HAHA! YES! TAKE THAT YOU STUPID SPLIT-LIP BASTARD!" Zelda cheered. He noticed the other Seraph visibly wavering, before he hastily turned tail and started heading for the edge of the crossfire zone.

"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Zelda roared. "YOU DON'T DRAG MY ASS OUT HERE AND THEN GET TO LEAVE!"

The Seraph ignored him as he headed for the safety of open space at max speed. In a blind fury, Zelda took off after him. Without bothering to try and obtain a lock, Zelda just began unloading all his weapons on the Seraph. All sorts of Medusa missiles and 35mm shell fire, which looked absolutely pathetic when compared to the arsenal the Canberra was firing, were launched in the direction of the Seraph. More than half of them missed, while at least another quarter was destroyed by the crossfire. The remainder of his rounds though struck home and Zelda could see the Seraph's shields light up.

"How do you like that!?" Zelda snarled, nailing the Seraph once more and watching as his shields disappeared. He pulled the trigger once more, only for his screen to flash red. He wasn't given any time to diagnose the problem as before him, the Seraph was unexpectedly struck by a series of pulse laser and the fighter dissolved into a ball of fire.

"Hey, that was my kill!" Zelda weakly protested, mostly out of habit, as he was distracted by looking for a way out. With both Seraphs gone, he no longer had a reason to hang around in the red zone, but getting out wasn't as easy as getting in. With the destruction of the Covenant light cruiser, Zelda would have thought the fire would have slackened but if anything, it actually intensified as the Canberra was free to focus fire on the remaining warships.

"Oh boy, you really fucked up this time, Zelda," Zelda told himself as he launched his fighter towards what appeared to be open space, only to have to divert when a MAC round passed right through. "I fucking told you this was a bad idea!"

Doing a tight loop, Zelda started rocketing upwards, dodging lasers and shells. The fire seemed to intensify as he sped away and it started to feel like every single gunner on both ships was aiming directly at him, trying to prevent him from leaving.

"Come on! You can do it!" Zelda urged his fighter. "Almost... there...!"

Something exploded directly in front of him, so closely, Zelda had no time to react. All he could do was close his eyes as he barreled straight for the blast.

His fighter let out a rumble as flew through the explosion, shaking his fighter so badly he was sure the Broadsword was about to shake itself apart. A loud tock noise filled the air as he was pelted with debris and shrapnel and alarms began screaming in his ears. All Zelda could do was continue to accelerate and pray he would make it...

And then, suddenly, it was all over.

Zelda cautiously opened an eye. When he noticed he was still sitting in his cockpit, and not floating alone in space, he slowly opened both eyes. His fighter was still intact, accelerating through open space, with the red zone and all the crossfire fading away behind him. Somehow, and against all odds, Zelda had not only survived, but survived without suffering from any critical damage.

"I made it," Zelda said slowly in wonder. Then it hit him. "I MADE IT! JUST LIKE I THOUGHT I WOULD! HA! YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKERS! TAKE THAT YOU S.O.B.S! HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW!?"

PING.

Zelda nearly shit his pants when his proximity alarm went off. He grabbed his stick and started searching for the enemy contact, only to let out an immense sigh of relief as he realized it was only Odessa.

"Dude, did you just fucking come out of a red zone!?" Odessa demanded to know without preamble.

Under normal circumstances, Zelda would have tried to play it off like it had been nothing, but honestly his hands were still shaking from the sheer amount of flying he had to do to avoid getting killed, so all he said was, "Yes. Zero out of ten, would not recommend."

"I feel like that should go without saying. But then again, I remember I'm talking to you," Odessa casually commented. "Come on, Bellum's trying to get the squadron back in order."

Zelda nodded and followed Odessa to where the rest of the squadron had assembled. JV and 303 were already there, though Zelda noticed about half the squadron wasn't.

"Zelda, you okay?" Bellum immediately demanded to know as soon as she laid eyes on him.

"I'm good Leader," Zelda simply said, still shaking slightly from his ordeal.

"Yeah? Your bird looks like shit. What's your ammo and fuel status?"

Zelda glanced at his HUD and began cycling through his weapons. "I'm essentially at bingo fuel and Winchester on everything," he read out loud, blinking in surprise. He hadn't been paying attention, but that did explain why he hadn't been able to deliver the finishing blow on the last Seraph; he hadn't had anything left to hit him with.

"How are you already out on everything?"

Zelda thought back to all the intensive maneuvering he had to do to avoid getting hit in the red zone. "You probably don't want to know."

"...knowing you, that's more than likely true. Omega-6, only place we have left to land is the Trenchard, who's holding position among the remains of the fleet. She's probably under attack, but I can't spare anyone to escort you in; you think you can get there by yourself?"

"Affirmative, Major."

"Okay then. Omega-6, RTB to refuel and rearm. Everyone else, on me!"

"Copy. Omega-6, returning to base."

Zelda gratefully turned his fighter around and headed away from the fighting and back towards Actium where the Trenchard was. Quickly getting cleared by the control tower, Zelda coasted into the nearest available hangar and cautiously set his fighter down. Immediately his fighter was set upon by a veritable army of maintainers.

"Sir, what do you need?" the head chief asked as Zelda locked his landing gear in place and opened up his bomb bay doors.

"I need everything!" Zelda warned. "Fuel and ammo! Lots of ammo!"

"We're on it, sir! Alright guys, shake a leg! Let's get this fighter loaded up and back into the fight!"

Zelda turned away as the airmen began hooking up fuel lines to his fighter and started hauling in all sorts of ordnance into the hangar. Outside, he could hear the ship rocking as it was struck by fire from the Covenant, and he impatiently drummed his fingers against his arm rest. He needed to be out there, not stuck in here.

Unfortunately, there wasn't anything he could do to speed the process up, so Zelda did his best to remain patient as he watched the ground crew work as fast as they could to refill his Broadsword's magazines and fuel reserves. He was about to break into his supplies and go digging for some sort of energy drink, or at least a snack, when the entire ship abruptly shuddered..

"The fuck was that…?" Zelda exclaimed, looking outside in alarm.

Without warning, all sorts of alarms began going off inside the hangar, filling the room with red flashing lights as the ship shook once more, which was followed by the thrum as the Trenchard abruptly ignited her main thrusters.

"Whoa, what the hell is this?" Zelda yelled, glancing out his cockpit window only to see all the ground crew going crazy, running around strapping things down and finding cover. "Hey! What the fuck is going on?"

As if someone heard him, Zelda suddenly heard someone yelling over the ship's internal PA, "Attention all personnel, we have massive incoming! All Security Force squads, move to alert status red con zero! Crew and ops, secure all floors and standby to be engaged!"

"God dammit!" Zelda snapped, frustrated at the lack of information. "Control Tower, Omega-6, what the hell is going on out there!?"

"Three CCS-class battlecruisers just jumped into this sector!" the ATC frantically reported and Zelda felt his heart freeze with fear. "They just plowed right through the frigates covering us, and are headed in our direction! Omega-6, you got to get out of here!"

Zelda glanced at his HUD. He was about seventy percent loaded, but the ground crew had yet to even begin refueling him. "I still need fuel! Ground crew, give me fuel, god dammit, NOW!"

He wasn't sure if anyone heard him at first, but then he notice one of the maintainers launch herself towards a lever on the wall and pull it. Immediately his fuel reserves began to climb.

"Comeoncomeoncomeon," Zelda urged, mentally willing his tanks to fill faster, but the numbers seemed to be moving so slowly. "HURRY UP!"

Then he heard the one announcement he'd been dreading go over the PA: "All personnel, we have Bandits! Inbound boarding craft detected, ETA, THIRTY SECONDS!"

"SHIT!"

Zelda's bird was only thirty percent fueled up, but it was going to have to do. He was in an extremely vulnerable state just sitting there and he refused to be killed while he was still on the ground, sitting there like a crippled bird just waiting to be put out of his misery.

"Unhook me! Ground crew, unhook me!" he demanded, gesturing at the fuel line still sticking out of his Broadsword but no one was paying any attention. "Someone unhook me!"

BOOM.

The Trenchard shook once more as something struck it, and even more alarms began blaring.

"Contact! Covenant incursions detected on floors one, four, and ten! All Security Forces, respond!"

"SHIT!" Zelda yelled. The Trenchard was not a naval ship, and was never designed to be able to fight off a boarding party. "I NEED SOMEBODY TO UNHOOK ME RIGHT NOW!"

He reached for his crash harness, fully prepared to leave his fighter and unhook it himself, when the interior door to the hangar abruptly blew open!

"BOARDING PARTIES DETECTED IN HANGARS ONE, TWO, AND SIX!"

An entire platoon of Covenant soldiers came charging into the hangar. Wearing jetpacks, they were all completely undeterred by the lack of air and gravity, and instead instantly began moving to cover. There had been two Security Forces officers stationed by the door and they immediately opened up, blowing away the first couple of Grunts that had entered the room, but then a couple of Elites entered and quickly returned fire. The SF officers were unable to disable the Elites' personal shields in time before they were gunned down, their bodies left floating where they had died.

With the most immediate threat dealt with, the Covenant quickly turned their guns on all the other personnel nearby. Air Force aircraft maintainers were never expected to see direct combat against Covenant infantry and as such, they had neither the training nor the weapons to deal with this threat. Airmen were quickly blown away as they scrambled to find cover, only in an open hangar like this, there was little to none to be found.

"Ah, fuck!" Zelda yelled, horrified, as he watched the slaughter.

Movement caught his attention and he turned to see one fuel specialist launch herself towards the bodies of the SF officers, trying to reach their assault rifles floating harmlessly by them, only to get snagged out of the air by the Elite and thrown hard against the deck. Pining her to the ground with his foot, the Elite leveled his plasma rifle. "NO!"

Releasing his magnetic clamps, Zelda fired his maneuvering thrusters, turning his Broadsword around. The noise immediately attracted the attention of all the Covenant present, and they all looked up in time to see Zelda's gun port to his main cannon open up. "Die you ugly mother - !"

The Elite essentially exploded as Zelda's initial round hit him square in the chest. The rest of the Covenant party quickly met the same fate, and as soon as the last alien was dead, Zelda hurriedly looked past all the floating globules of blood and body parts, trying to find the airman he'd been trying to save, only to see he had been too late and the airman had been one of the many casualties of the Covenant's rampage. "Fuck! Fuck this!"

Zelda experimentally lifted off and started heading for the door with his maneuvering thrusters, only to abruptly get stopped short by the fuel lines. He craned his neck, wondering if there was some way he could just break it free, but it was pretty solidly built, and probably only his main thrusters had that kind of torque. But if he fired off his main thrusters in here, the exhaust from his engine would possibly incinerate everyone not inside a shield or behind some blast doors. And there were still a lot of ground crew floating around.

"SOMEBODY, either unhook me or get the fuck out of the hangar!" Zelda roared in frustration.

"Security! Covenant forces inside the control tower!"

Zelda's head snapped up and he looked over his shoulder in the direction of the control tower. Overlooking the hangar were a series of blast windows that the ATCs could look through and visually monitor all aircraft traffic, if need be. Normally Zelda could look up and see the ATCs sitting at their stations but at the moment, all he saw were Covenant soldiers rushing into the room and gunning down the airmen before they could even get out of their seats.

"Oh, that's not good!" Zelda yelped as the Covenant looked outside the windows and began gesturing wildly at his Broadsword just sitting there.

whomp whomp whomp.

Zelda jerked in his seat as the Covenant began spraying his fighter down with plasma, though fortunately their handheld weapons weren't strong enough to damage his plane. Still, there was always a risk they could hit something critical plus, it wouldn't be long before they brought forth something heavier. He needed to leave, right fucking now.

He reached for the power lever to his main thrusters, but then hesitated. At the same time, he couldn't just leave all these people to die here. At the moment, he was quite easily the only thing preventing the Covenant from coming in and slaughtering them all. There had to be some way for them to get off the ship. But all the escape pods were outside of the hangar and with Covenant presence just outside, there was no way for them to escape. Everyone in the hangar was already dead, they just didn't know it yet. The only question now was, would he be joining them in death?

"Fuck, fuck!"

He could see Covenant soldiers amassing just outside the hangar doors, as well as a ton of fuel rod cannons and plasma launchers, and Zelda realized he was simply, out of time. He had to make a decision: did he stay and die with everyone else? Or did he leave, and live to fight another day?

In the end, it wasn't really a choice.

"Sorry guys," Zelda whispered, powering up his main thrusters as the Covenant soldiers began pouring into the room once more. "I can't help any longer."

He ignited his thrusters.

There was an audible snap as the fuel lines finally broke, and Zelda's Broadsword rocketed out of the hangar. A couple of fuel rod shots followed him as some of the Covenant soldiers tried one last time to stop him, but they all missed. As he rapidly departed from the ship, he could see the Covenant gunning down the last of the airmen left inside the hangar and he closed his eyes until he was too far away to see the hangar anymore, and all he could see was the Trenchard, with her hull almost completely covered in purple-colored boarding craft and drop pods.

"Attention all UNSC call signs," someone abruptly said over Zelda's radio, even as he continued to speed away. "This is Colonel Boyer, commander of the UNSC Trenchard. Be advised, the Trenchard has been completely overrun. I've got… Covenant infantry knocking on the door to my control room right now. They'll be through in a matter of minutes now, and… my crew won't be able to hold them off. I can't let them capture this ship, so in exactly fifteen seconds… we will be self-detonating a Havoc nuke inside our engine room. Hopefully the blast will… take out quite a few Covenant aircraft. To any UNSC forces still out there: all craft, stand clear of Trenchard airspace. I say again: all craft, stand clear of – "

There was a brilliant white flash behind him and Zelda looked over his shoulder in time to see a massive fireball consuming the Trenchard. A strange noise began sounding over the radio, and it took him a few moments to realize what it was: the garbled sound of people screaming.

"Fuck…" Zelda whispered, completely horrified by the sound, yet, he couldn't bear to turn the radio off. It didn't matter though: the screaming only lasted for a few more seconds before the radio waves completely cut off. "Fuck! FUCK! FUCK FUCK FUCK!"

Zelda slammed his fist against his control panel as anger and grief overwhelmed him. He could feel blood beginning to drip down his hand on as the metal housing busted his knuckles open, but Zelda ignored the pain.

His radar let out a ping as it detected movement, and Zelda shot a glance at his rear scopes. Behind him, he could see all three Covenant battlecruisers moving towards the planet, brushing past whatever scant resistance JTF Byzas had left to offer. They callously flew passed the burning remains of the Trenchard like it wasn't even there, coming to halt in orbit nearly ten thousand kilometers above sea level. Even as Zelda watched, the ships began deploying in some sort of triangle formation with the dorsal side of their hulls pointed straight down at Actium, leaving a massive gap in the center of their formation, big enough for a fleet to pass through. What it was for was revealed moments later.

"Slipspace rupture, detected."

A slipspace portal opened up and emerging from it came a massive Covenant capital ship. Zelda recognized the ship as the same one that had destroyed the UNSC Pégoud, back inside Tenedos' rings.

The ORS-class heavy cruiser continued forward, coming to a halt in the dead space between the three battlecruisers. As it did, Zelda noticed all sorts of hangar bay doors opening as hundreds - if not thousands - of drop pods, troop carriers, and dropships began pouring out from the bowels of the ship. They all turned and headed for the surface of Actium.

"Ah, fuck," Zelda whispered as he headed to where the remains of the UNSC forces were assembling.

"That's not good."

XXXXX

Heliopolis Station

Spaatz

Spaatz grimly stared at his tactical display, the image of the four Covenant cruisers positioned in high orbit around Actium burnt into his retinas. So. The Covenant had finally made their move. Now he could finally make his.

He glanced at the hologram of D'Amboise's face floating nearby and gave a single nod.

It was time for Task Force Whiskey to join the fight.

---

General Notes:

Pathfinder: in this story, I'm treating Pathfinders more like the British Army unit in the sense they're a long range reconnaissance unit (US military would call them Force Reconnaissance if Marines, or Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrols [LRRP]/Long-Range Surveillance [LRS] teams if Army) as opposed to an American Pathfinder unit, mostly because I'm not actually sure I get what post-WW2 pathfinder units in the US Army do (or rather did; last pathfinder unit was deactivated in 2017,) if I'm being honest.

They're only briefly mentioned in this chapter, but I'm thinking I might use them again further down the line, which is why I'm explaining what they are here (so I can remember.)

Osprey: this is not a canon aircraft. Ospreys were very briefly mentioned in my other story, Missing in Action (in chapter 1,) but I never did bother explaining what they were. In short, they're intended to be a heavy lift cargo/transport tiltrotor aircraft used by both the UNSC Air Force and the Army. They're essentially the atmospheric version of Pelicans and used in a similar way to the CH-47 "Chinook" and CH-53 "Sea Stallion" helicopters are in the modern-day US military. Advantages of the Osprey over the Pelican would be that they're cheaper and can be used in conjunction with existing UH-144 "Falcons."

Official designation for them would be CH-222 "Osprey II" (named as tribute to the world's first production tiltrotor, the V-22 "Osprey.") In terms of appearance, there's actually a pretty cool concept art I randomly found on Pinterest (no idea who the original artist is, unfortunately,) called the "AC-15 VTOL concept" that I would want to base the Osprey's appearance off of (minus the side mounted cannons,) but probably can't because I don't have permission.

Rotor-head: this is not strictly a military term, but as the name implies, it's a nickname for helicopter pilots, though helicopter crews are sometimes included. It's usually intended as a derogatory term, but not always.

CAB: in this context, "CAB" stands for "Combat Aviation Brigade" which is a U.S. Army aviation formation combining attack helicopters, utility helicopters, heavy-lift cargo helicopters, and manned or unmanned reconnaissance aircraft into one combined arms unit. CABs are designed to provide air support to an entire military division, and as such, every division in the U.S. Army has at least one CAB attached. (At one point, one division – the 101st Airborne Division – had two CAB's assigned to it due to its status as an air assault unit: the 101st and 159th CABs. However, due to budgeting reasons as well as restructures in the U.S. Army, the 159th was inactivated in 2015, and not replaced.)

MOUT: Military Operations in Urban Terrain. This was the US military term for urban warfare according to Wikipedia, however the acronym has mostly been replaced by the term UO, or simply, Urban Operations.

Sparrowhawk: this is a canon aircraft. AV-22 "Sparrowhawks" are VTOL attack aircraft that were first introduced in Halo Wars. For the purpose of this fiction, I'm treating them like the Halo equivalent to real world attack helicopters such as the AH-1 "Cobra" or the AH-64 "Apache."

FiSTer: in the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, a FiSTer is a forward artillery observer (i.e., the guy who calls in both artillery and mortar strikes, and occasionally air strikes if they're qualified.) The name is derived from the acronym "FiST," which stands for "Fire Support Team," which is the team attached to a battalion headquarters where forward observers are usually assigned to.

SkyHawk: this is a canon aircraft. AV-19 "SkyHawks" are supersonic jump jet strike fighters that first appeared in the official Halo novel Halo: The Fall of Reach (it was the jet that Colonel Ackerson used in his attempt to kill Master Chief and Cortana during the test of AI integration with the Mark V MJOLNIR.) For the purpose of this story, I'm treating the SkyHawk as a sort combination of the real-world AV-8 "Harrier" and A-10 "Warthog" (as in, it has the jump jet capability of the Harrier, coupled with the firepower of the Warthog.)

M432 "Armadillo" IFV: this is not a canon vehicle. Armadillos actually appeared in my other story, Missing in Action, where one played a fairly sized role in the plot. As per my description from that story:

"The Armadillo is similar in appearance to the Scorpion MBT in that is has the same four-bogey tread configuration as all UNSC tanks do. Its armed with a M8545 40mm autocannon (not a canon weapon,) an M247 coaxial machine gun, a M247 GPMG commander's machine gun, a dual-barrel Argent V missile launcher on the side of the turret, smoke dispensers, crewed by three men, and is capable of carrying a seven man infantry squad. The name is derived from the real-world Swedish designed "Armadillo" armored vehicle that was never adopted by any army, though that vehicle is an APC, not an IFV like the UNSC one is intended to be."

Attack Transports: this is not a canon type of ship. Attack transports have actually appeared before in my other story, Missing in Action (they're the ship that brought the main characters from Newsaka to Actium.)

Essentially, attack transports are a type of ship designed specifically to transport large amounts of troops across long distances. The difference between a regular troop transport and an attack transport, is that attack transports carry their own landing craft (in this case, Pelicans,) making them far more versatile ships as they're not limited to unloading troops by landing directly onto the surface of a planet, or via specifically designed space docks.

In real life, troop and attack transports were under the control of the Navy (though attack transports no longer exist, having partially been replaced by amphibious assault ships,) but in my headcanon, troop and attack transports belong to the UNSCAF, as they're responsible for long distance heavy cargo transport (it's also why they have fleet carriers.)

Mark 210 General Purpose Bomb: this is not a canon bomb. In canon, a bomb known as the Mark 208 does exist, however, as it is in real life, I figured there had to be more, with the difference being their explosive weight. As the Mark 208 is canon, I decided to treat that bomb as your standard Mk. 82 500 pound bomb (250 kilograms in-universe,) while the Mark 210 would be similar to the Mk 84 2000 pounder (1000 kilograms in-universe.) Other bombs would include the Mark 207 (lightest at 120 kilograms,) and the Mark 209 (medium sized at 500 kilograms.)

Change Log

Tariq:

- The battle to capture the town of Newington is much shorter, less intense, and not as damaging to the UNSC. Partly this is the result of me changing the timeline a bit (in this version, Newington is captured before the Covenant battlecruisers park themselves in orbit, meaning the Covenant don't have as many troops on the surface coupled with the fact the UNSC is able to utilize their air power more effectively because they're not as concerned about getting blasted out of the sky,) and partly because I'm looking more at the long term for this story and I'm hoping to save some of the more crazier battle sequences for a later date.

- Newington is now located in the middle of the suburbs, as opposed to being a large town sitting in the middle of an open field.

- There are actually civilians present in the town, even if they don't play that big of a role. In the original version, I pretended they weren't there even though it didn't make sense (UNSC wouldn't have been able to evacuate all of them that quickly) because I didn't really want to deal with them.

- UNSC air support plays more of a role in the assault, again, because of changes in the timeline.

Zelda:

- The aircraft Zelda battles around the attack transport has been changed from a Type 29 "Vampire" to a regular Banshee. I either didn't know this, or I ignored it the first time around, but apparently Vampires are atmospheric aircraft only.

- In an effort to cut down on the size of the chapter, the number of fights have been reduced. Most notably: the dogfight that took place immediately after Zelda destroys the corvette with bombs, the hunting down of the boarding craft that were headed for the Canberra (because I already did something like that in chapter 7,) as well as the fight Zelda was listening to prior to the arrival of the battlecruisers have all been removed. The fight inside the Trenchard has also been reduced by at least half.