Chapter 4: First Strike

March 7, 2563; 1500 Hours

City of Atlas, Schnee Manor

Weiss stared out of the window inside her room as she sat in a chair at the fireplace she pulled up, with the blizzard continuing to rage on outside. Nora who was wrapped in bandages and recovering from her injuries was still recovering in the bed behind her. She turned around and saw Nora still sleeping, breathing slowly. Her body remained in the same place as it was, needing some much needed rest.

Weiss turned her head back towards the window and lifted up her scroll. She viewed her recent contracts list. Winter was the most recent, having contacted her only half an hour ago. Of course, it went straight to her voicemail as she was unavailable at the time.

She lowered her scroll and sighed. It was obvious she missed her sister dearly. It's been almost what seemed forever for her since she last saw her sister in person. Weiss dearly loved her, there was no doubt in that, but she was a subordinate to General Ironwood, their enemy, and is stuck to follow what he does.

Her thoughts dwelled on her sister. Was she now her enemy? Would she actually follow everything the General did? Would… would she actually kill her and her friends if she had to?

No! Weiss knew Winter wouldn't do such a thing like that. Sure, her sister might seem to be a cold, dignified, and distant person, keeping her emotions subdued on the outside when she's on duty. But on the inside, she was a caring and lovable sister that Weiss knew for her entire life. She knew her sister wouldn't hurt her for Ironwood's approval or for the 'glory and honor' he represented of the Atlesian Military.

But, there was a deep, dark thought in the back of her head. Would she? Would she actually do it? Will her sister actually follow through Ironwood's orders and do it? Her sister was fiercely loyal to the General, but she knew that family would always come first? Did she?...

Weiss was so concentrated on her thoughts that she didn't notice the door to her room open. Ruby walked through with hot drinks in her hands with Blake having one as well, and closed the door behind her. They walked towards their teammate who stared off into space, unmoving.

"Hey, you alright?" Ruby asked. Weiss snapped back to reality as she heard Ruby's voice and looked to her right.

"Oh! I-I'm fine. Thank you." She grabbed the drink Ruby handed to her. It was hot herbal tea and took a sip of it before Blake spoke up.

"Local news said the blizzard is expected to go on for several more days, or maybe a whole week at this point. The weather is unsuitable for any aircraft and communications are being affected." Blake said. "But on the other hand, Salem's forces are being forced to stay back with her plans for Atlas currently on hiatus for the time being. Lucky us, right?"

"Yeah... lucky." Weiss said uneasily, earning worried looks from her friends.

"What's wrong, Weiss?" Ruby asked, seeing Weiss' face starting to frown.

"I just-..." Weiss breathed in and sighed. "I miss Winter, I really do. But, she's Ironwood's subordinate and I believe the next time we meet, it won't be pretty..."

Ruby and Blake looked at each other after hearing Weiss explain. Ruby tried putting her hand on Weiss' shoulder, but stopped herself before her friend stood up from her seat. The young Huntress' face grew more worried as Weiss set down her tea on the stand next to her and spoke again.

"She's not going to give us a second chance..." Weiss declared, her voice getting tense.

"Weiss, you know that's not true." Ruby tried to ease her nerves, but to no avail with Weiss bursting out with anger.

"She's his second in command! The only reason why she let us have a head start to get away from Atlas Academy when she was injured in the first place was only because of me! And the next time we eventually face her, Ironwood and his Ace-Ops, I have no doubt that she will go out of her way to actually arrest or kill us if General Ironwood says so!"

Ruby and Blake were in shock. They never saw Weiss this emotional about someone close to her before. Her voice was filled with a mixture of emotions as she continued to speak, and eventually slowed down.

"I just- I-..." Weiss sat back down in the chair she sat in, and covered her eyes with her hands. She began to cry and release a downfall of tears.

Ruby set her tea down and put a hand on Weiss' shoulder. "Weiss…" She knelt down. "Your sister wouldn't ever hurt you, and you know it."

"You don't know her like I do! You don't!" Weiss jerked away, forcing Ruby to lower her hands from her face and look at her straight in the eyes.

"Your sister knows better than to hurt you. If there's anything I've learned with Yang, family always come first when times are rough." Ruby spoke with her voice in a much deeper, more serious tone.

"You really think so?" Weiss asked, wiping the tears away from her eyes.

"You may be right that I do not know her like you do, sure, but believe me when I say this: No one would ever want to hurt or kill a close family member of theirs, especially a sibling, no matter what." Ruby answered with Blake kneeling down on the other side.

"I'm sure your sister cares a whole lot about you as you do for her." Blake grabbed Weiss' free hand. "I may not have any siblings like the rest of my team has, but if I did then I'd love them for the rest of my life, I wouldn't want to hurt them."

Weiss sniffed and embraced both of them in a heartwarming hug. "Thanks, you two."

"Am I… interrupting something there?" May asked as she entered the room, seeing the three Huntresses in a group hug.

"No, not at all." Ruby said, locking out of their hug.

"Good. In that case, I came to tell you all that the weather has only gotten worse. It's completely unsuitable for flying, so I guess we're stuck here for now." she told them.

"I'm sure we'll make it through this blizzard, we've survived worse." Blake reassured her teammates.

May then had her scroll ring and pulled it out of her pocket, seeing Fiona trying to call her. "If you all don't mind, I'll be taking this call." May left the three Huntresses to themselves with Nora still on the bed resting.

1555 Hours

UNSC Alpha Base, Fortress Garage

Travis exited the hallway he walked through and entered the Garage for the Fortress, filled to the brim with ground vehicles. He walked along the balcony and saw dozens of mechanics, Marines, and other maintenance personnel working on various vehicles, ranging from smaller ones such as Warthogs and Mongooses to larger ones like Rhinos and Cyclopes. The Spartan continued to watch the troops until he heard a familiar voice call him from the left.

"Hey, Lieutenant!" Matthews walked over towards him with his helmet being held underneath his left arm, and had a smile on his face. He approached the Spartan and glanced at the battle rifle on the Spartan's back and the two SMGs attached to his hips. "Good afternoon, Sir. I see you're ready for our mission?"

"Affirmative. The rest of Delta are down here with you, I suppose?" Travis guessed.

"Yes, Sir. They're currently working on our Warthogs and are ready to move out." Matthews replied. "Follow me, they aren't that far from here."

Matthews turned around and led the Spartan down the staircase connected to the balcony, encountering a group of three Marines who were currently on their break and stood at the end.

"And then I told the medic: 'What are you gonna do in combat with the enemy? Shoot medicine at them? Ooh hoo hoo, that's so intimidating!' You could say that it was: heal-arious!" The Marine joked, causing his friends to laugh. One of them noticed both the ODST and Spartan coming down the stairs and elbowed the Marine next to him, and they all saluted simultaneously.

"Sirs!"

"Hello, Marines." Travis greeted them, returning the salute with Matthews. "Has anything worthy of note happened down here?"

"Ummm… To be frank, Sir, not much has happened over the past two hours." the first Marine answered.

"Our forces leave in less than five minutes, are you Leathernecks ready to see some action?" Travis asked.

"Hell yeah! You bet, Sir! We're ready to take the fight to the Banished!" one of them answered, cracking his knuckles.

"Excellent. And just a quick reminder: We all have each other's backs during our campaign on this planet, so let's all do our best while we're out there and make it count." the Spartan told the Marines, earning determined, confident looks on their faces.

"Continue as you were, gentlemen." Matthews nodded at them and left with Travis, leaving the three Marines alone to themselves. The ODST looked over his shoulder and saw the three of them look at each other with the same looks on their faces and nodded.

"You know, for a Spartan like you, you leave a good impression among the troops." the ODST commented.

"Thanks for the compliment, Sergeant." Travis thanked him. "I'll admit though: I'm not that very good at socializing."

"You don't seem like the anti-social type of Spartan to me, Sir." Matthews objected.

"Well, it's when we're off-duty. And to be frank, us Spartans don't really hang out or socialize with anyone except for our own." Travis told him.

"Not from my experience with you. You seem to be an exception to that, then?" Matthews guessed.

"You can say that to some extent, I've grown accustomed to working with non-augmented personnel over the past decade. And to be honest, I've been getting better at making small talk with the troops, although I'm still working on it." Travis explained.

"Well, that's great, Sir!" the ODST said positively. "I'm sure the rest of the troops won't have a single doubt about you in no time."

The two of them then stopped just short of a Scorpion Tank along with two Gauss Warthogs drive by in front of them. Just behind them was a Rhino which slowly rolled through the area with its engine roaring throughout the garage. After the vehicles passed by, they saw the rest of Fireteam Delta at the end of a long line of Warthogs.

Alexander and Makarovich were working on one of their Warthog's engines, with Alexander underneath the vehicle adjusting the transmission with Makarovich at the hood. Gorski leaned onto the side of the Warthog next to them, having her rocket launcher lay on its side in the passenger seat with the safety on. And finally, Morgan and Caleb were casually talking to one another away from the other three at their third Warthog.

Matthews and Travis walked over to the rest of their team, catching the eyes of Morgan and Caleb who saw them approach and stood at attention.

"Hello, Sirs!" Caleb stood at attention alongside Morgan. The rest of Delta soon did the same with Makarovich and Gorski arriving next, and Alexander being the last after crawling out from underneath the Warthog he was working on.

"At ease." Matthews nodded at them.

"Our Warthogs are fueled and we're ready to go, Sirs" Alexander told them.

"Perfect! We should be leaving right about…" Travis spoke and waited for a second. Suddenly the base's alarms started going off, with combat personnel running throughout the building and the rest of the base. "Now."

"Alright!" Matthews put on his helmet. "Let's mount up!" The ODSTs gave a 'Yes, Sir!' in response and headed towards their Warthogs. Matthews climbed into the driver's seat with Morgan on the turret, Gorski and Caleb teamed up with the latter driving, and Makarovich and Alexander were left to team up with Travis.

"Woo-hoo! I call dibs on shotgun!" Alexander announced before being denied by Makarovich.

"I outrank you, get in the back." Makarovich told him as he got in the passenger seat.

"Fuck!" Alexander swore, proceeding to mount the vehicle's gun in the back.

Travis then hopped into the Warthog's driver seat and started the vehicle with its engine roaring to life.

"I'll lead on, let's go!" The Spartan told his teammates before shifting the Warthog's gear into drive, and drove the Warthog out of the Garage with the rest of Fireteam Delta following him.

The three Warthogs drove through the underground tunnels of Alpha Base and soon arrived at the ramp of the Fortress. They drove up the ramp and emerged from the Fortress to the sight of the base's troops mobilizing. Hornets were taking off with Nightingales by their side, Warthogs and Mongooses speeding around the base, Cyclopes marched out alongside soldiers, and Pelicans loaded squads of troops onboard.

The Spartan and six ODSTs drove past the troops and headed towards the main gate. They passed two Cyclopes and a Mantis while driving through the main gate, and entered the winter tundras of Solitas. And just after the trio of Warthogs drove past the base with several land and air vehicles behind them, they all heard Captain Marshall speak over the radio.

"Listen up, everyone. The Banished have dug themselves deep and are dead set on controlling this planet, along with securing any form of Forerunner technology they come across. We cannot allow that to happen on our watch." Marshall began. "Delta and Echo Companies, your jobs are to destroy all local Banished camps and resistance in the West and North. Expect resistance."

Travis and Fireteam Delta continued driving their Warthogs through the tundras, speeding across the snowy terrain before Marshall contacted the Spartan. "Lieutenant, you and your team are to take that AA battery and assist any of our forces after your primary objective is complete. After that's all done and dusted with, we can begin the second phase of our plan to rid the Banished off this continent."

"You got it, Captain. The rest of Delta have been waiting to see some action, Sir, we'll do our best." the Spartan told him.

"Good luck everyone." Marshall ended.

"You heard him, ladies and gents! Let's get 'em!" Travis told everyone with determination as he slammed on the Warthog's gas pedal, with the rest of his team following behind him.

Banished Outpost

Winter grinded her teeth together and breathed heavily while she was floating in some kind of gravitational restriction field. She was currently being tortured by the Banished for all sorts of information she knew about Atlas and their military operations. An Elite walked up towards the Specialist, towering over her, and spoke.

"We will not ask again. Where are the other Atlesian Military base locations in this sector?" He demanded.

"I…" Winter gathered her strength in order to respond. Her aura took several massive hits from her captors electrocuting her, with only a fraction of it remaining. She looked up at the alien straight in the eyes and responded. "I will never tell you anything! The Atlesian Military will never give up any information to you!"

"How unfortunate for you." Her captor said. "Shock her again, full power."

A pair of two Grunts behind a console turned up a dial and began to shock Winter again. Her aura absorbed most of the electricity, but a massive amount of pain was still felt. She screamed and continued to grind her teeth together and resist the pain, but it was far too much for her. Her body was giving up.

Winter's aura was about to give up at the last possible second, right before the pain suddenly stopped. Her body was dropped to the floor, being severely bruised and hurt. Another elite entered the interrogation room as the door opened and stepped over her. He spoke before his superior who gave him new orders, to which he gladly accepted.

"Take her back to her cell, she's of no use for now." the Elite nodded and dragged Winter out of the room.

The Elite and two Grunts were now alone by themselves before the Sangheili gave new orders. "Get me contact with Drarretius, he'll want to know of the prisoner's status.

"Yes, Sir!" one of the Grunts nodded and established contact with the Banished Warlord.

Winter was taken back to her cell with the Elite captor dragging the Specialist by her cuffed hands. The Elite deactivated the energy field before he uncuffed her hands and tossed Winter into her. He reactivated the energy field and left, leaving an exhausted Winter all by herself alone.

The Specialist tried to regain her strength and struggled to push herself up from the floor. As she did so, her muscles were stressed out and ached with pain from the torture the Banished had done, but that wouldn't stop her. Winter laid her back against the wall and decided to let her aura recover, being severely depleted. She took several, long deep breaths while she rested, seeing another one of those tall aliens with the splitting jaws glare at her as he walked by.

By now, Winter had formalized a plan to escape and break herself out. She had memorized the guard rotations and knew where the exit and her confiscated weapons were. The exit was at the end of a long hallway with several guards in between that she would need to take care of before she even had a chance at escaping. From there, she had no idea what awaited above the surface, but she would be ready for anything. These new enemies of hers had plenty of tricks up their sleeves, but with the help of her semblance and skills in combat, she wouldn't seem to have a problem.

Winter grabbed something she kept inside one of her hidden pouches and took it out, it was the pink crystalline shard she kept from the attack on Outpost Bravo. Inspecting it, she noticed that the tip was sharp enough to slice through someone's flesh, and knew what she was going to do with it. Knowing when her captors would eventually return sometime soon, she kept it hidden under her uniform at the ready when she would decide to launch her plan into action. But fight now, she needed to rest and let her aura recover, she was going to need strength to summon her semblance as well. It was going to most likely be difficult, but she was determined to make it out and return to Atlas to inform General Ironwood about a new threat to Atlas.

And deep down inside of her, Winter sincerely hoped that Weiss was safe and okay, even with the large threat of Salem's Grimm army just outside of Atlas. But if there was anything Winter watched from her sister since they arrived in Atlas before the Ironwood and her friends broke off from each other, they had all grown a long way and were able to take care of themselves. Winter was so proud of her sister, seeing how she wasn't the former brat who clinged onto the family name when she was the heiress to the SDC. Weiss had indeed moved on from their father's legacy, and now, she was a true Huntress with her license. Winter couldn't feel more proud of her, even if she was being held in captivity by new enemies of Remnant. Still though, she had a long way to go before she would be able to see her sister again.

Atlas Academy, Ironwood's Office

Ironwood was all by himself in his office, sitting in his chair as he looked out the window. The General saw the blizzard outside in full effect as it consumed the farmlands outside of the main city. Even with this harsh weather, Ironwood was still determined to defend his Kingdom against Salem and her massive Grimm army. His troops were busy throughout the outskirts of the city increasing its defenses, building trench lines and installing AA batteries, artillery guns, Paladin-290s, and much more that needed to be done.

Looking up from the ground below, he saw his warships fly overhead the city's shields with Mantas by their side. He knew the shield would hold, but not for long. Time was not on his side. Ironwood needed the council to give him more resources if he was to defend the Kingdom from Salem's Grimm force before it was too late.

Just then, he turned around and heard his scroll ring. Looking at it, he saw both Councilman Sleet and Councilwoman Camilla calling him. He proceeded to use his desk's projector to bring up the call and answered. It felt like only yesterday that he spoke to them at the Atlesian Medical Facility only a week ago, even if they didn't start off the right path at first with their reaction to him declaring martial law.

Atlas Medical Facility, One Week Prior

"What will you do… Sir?" Winter asked Ironwood as he looked through the medical room's window.

Before Ironwood gave an answer, he then heard both council members Sleet and Camilla storm through the hallway.

"Wait, you can't be in here!" an Atlas technician told both of them with her hands up alongside her partner.

"This is absurd! Let us through!" Sleet demanded.

Ironwood watched through the window and put his hands behind his back, and inhaled a deep breath. He sighed with his eyes closed while Harriet stepped out of the room across the hall with her hand on her hip, watching what was going on. The General opened his eyes and looked at Winter behind him, giving his response to her question in a calm, disciplined attitude.

"No matter how difficult it may be, I'm going to try and do everything I can to save this Kingdom." Ironwood answered confidentially. "Even if the cons outweigh the pros with any decision I inevitably make."

Ironwood slowly walked out of Winter's room and into the hallway, coming face-to-face with both council members.

"What the absolute hell do you think you're doing, James?!" Camilla demanded an answer from the General after she and Sleet pushed their way through the two technicians.

"Martial law?! You can't be serious! The council will NOT approve of this!" Sleet yelled at him. "Have you lost your damn mind?!"

Ironwood frowned and sighed, dropping his hands to his sides with all eyes around directly on him. He looked up and spoke to both council members. "I know it's not a popular choice, but with the large Grimm force outside of Atlas right on our doorstep, we are in incredible danger. That's why I'm declaring martial law until the threat is over, and Atlas is safe."

"We know of the threat, James, but instituting martial law without the council's approval? People are going to fear for the worst, and some will probably start thinking you're planning a coup." Sleet said.

"I know martial law is not the most popular decision, but it's the best we currently have to secure Atlas. The enemy right on our doorstep, and I'm willing to do anything to protect this Kingdom, even if I have to sacrifice parts of myself." Ironwood looked at his newly replaced arm.

"We all have our hearts in the right place, General, but we can't just implement something as drastic as this. The council will want to know of this development and want answers from you." Camilla told him.

"Of course, we can discuss this somewhere more private." Ironwood turned around and led them down the hallway before stopping and looked at both Winter in her hospital bed and Harriet standing in the doorway, nodding at both of them before leaving with the council members behind him.

Present Day

Ironwood accepted the call with both Sleet and Camilla present on-screen.

"General, the council has reviewed and voted on your action of declaring martial law, and they have agreed to declare a state of emergency while the threat is present." Sleet announced.

Ironwood let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Councilman."

"They have also agreed to call up all available units in reserve towards defending Atlas itself." Camilla paused. "The people are going to want an answer to why martial law has been put into effect, General, and we hope that you deliver."

"Of course, I will make sure to make a public statement on this once the time comes." Ironwood accepted.

"I'm glad that we can understand each other, James, even during times like this." Sleet complemented.

The call then ended with both Council Members disconnecting. Ironwood leaned back in his chair in relief and turned around towards the window. From there he watched the afternoon sun set lower with the blizzard continuously raging on.

Just then, he heard his scroll ring a second time from his pocket. Pulling it out, he saw it was Harriet who was calling him. He answered without hesitation and awaited her response.

"Report." he ordered.

"Sir, one of our science teams have made a breakthrough. They believe we can get Miss Polendina back by uploading a new set of orders to her which she can't override, and return back to us without hesitation." she answered.

"Great job." Ironwood smiled at the development.

"They say it'll take time for them to make it work, but they'll have it done."

"Any word from Specialist Schnee yet?" Ironwood asked.

"Negative, sir. No word from her, yet." Harriet answered. "However, we have been picking up strange readings from Western and Central Solitas."

"What do you mean?" Ironwood raised an eyebrow.

"We've detected these signals out in the middle of nowhere. One of our teams managed to pick up one such signal, an audio transmission." she explained, with the transmission being sent to Ironwood's desk.

"I'm sorry, General, we unfortunately can't play it back. This message has an encryption scheme we have never seen before. It's completely foreign to our technicians." Elm spoke over from the other end.

Ironwood looked at the encrypted message in front of him and inspected it before responding. "See if our technicians can manage to make a crack in it, I want to know what's going on the other end of Solitas."

"Understood, Sir." Harriet ended the call.

1630 Hours

Central Solitas, Fireteam Delta

"Hostiles driving around!" a Grunt alerted his squad while shooting his plasma pistol at the Warthog to the right.

"Hang on!" Travis alerted the two ODSTs with him, slamming his boot on the gas pedal while Alexander fired the Warthog's chaingun and Makarovich shot his assault rifle at the Grunts to their right. The Spartan drove and took the Warthog off a cliff side ramp, gaining air.

"YEE-HAW!" Alexander cheered before they landed. Right behind them were their two other Warthogs that sped towards the Grunt Squad who were on patrol and proceeded to gun down the remaining Grunts and their Brute squad leader, running them over in the process.

After their short encounter, the ODSTs and Spartan continued to drive towards the AA gun the Banished had established, denying the UNSC of any air superiority in the region. The drive for them was rather uneventful besides the few random enemy squads on patrol they fun putting down. Several tundras, forests, and mountains were scattered across the snowy terrain with the sun shining over the horizon, a rather nice view for the middle of nowhere.

Soon, they stopped on the bottom of a small hill and parked their Warthogs. They dismounted with their weapons raised and made it to the top of the hill. From there, they saw their objective in sight: the Banished AA gun on a large plateau on top of a hill. Morgan then proceeded to go prone and look through the scope of his sniper rifle, eyeing Banished forces guarding the area.

"I count at least three dozen hostiles. Usual enemy combination; Grunts, Jackals, Elites, and Brutes." Morgan announced.

"Alright, can't be that bad." Matthews said as he pulled a pair of binoculars from a pouch on his uniform.

"About that, Sir, I count at least four Jackal Snipers, two Hunters, a Brute Chieftain, and a few Jump Pack Brutes." Morgan told him.

"Shouldn't be too hard. We can take these bastards easily!" Gorksi confidently claimed as she cracked her knuckles.

"Don't underestimate your opponents, that's the last thing we should be doing right now." Travis advised. "Apex is currently jamming the enemy's comms, which means enemy reinforcements won't be arriving. Once the rest of the Banished find out what we did here, it'll be too late for them."

"So Lieutenant, how do you want to do this?" Matthews asked. "Want to go in with a stealth approach and pick them off one-by-one from the treeline?"

"Actually…" Travis looked at the ODST. "I was thinking we do it the 'Helljumper Way'." He grabbed both of his SMGs. "We go in guns blazing."

"Oh yeah! Now you're speaking our language, Sir!" Gorski lightly punched his right shoulder in a friendly manner.

"I like it, let's go kick some alien ass!" Makarovich raised his Spartan Laser.

"Eh, like Gorski said earlier today; 'What could go wrong?'" Alexander shrugged, earning a smile from Gorski underneath her helmet.

"And you're sure this is a good idea, Lieutenant?" Caleb asked, who was a bit worried.

"As long as we take out the enemy snipers first and focus on high priority targets, we should be good." Travis answered. "It'll be a piece of cake if we all do our jobs and have each other's backs."

"Alright, let's do it." Caleb reluctantly agreed.

"How do you want to proceed, Sir?" Matthews asked.

"We take two Warthogs and we charge them at the front. They won't be expecting a Spartan and a team of Helljumpers to assault them, so it's best to use the element of surprise." Travis explained. "Meanwhile, Morgan is going to give us sniper support as we advance forwards. After that we set charges and we blow that anti-aircraft cannon sky-high."

"Ready to do my part, sir." Morgan readied his sniper rifle and attacked a custom suppressor onto the end of the barrel. "On your mark."

"Then let's get going." Travis told them.

They climbed down the hill to their Warthogs and Travis got in with Makarovich and Alexander again. Matthews joined Caleb and Gorski as he climbed into the passenger seat, and readied his VK78. They pulled next to the Spartan's Warthog with Matthews and Travis nodding at each other; they were ready.

"Morgan, do it." Travis ordered.

"You got it, Lieutenant." Morgan said.

With the press of the trigger, he took down the first Jackal Sniper. Followed up with three more rapid successful shots, the enemy snipers were done and dusted with. The two Warthogs speeded towards the AA battery over a frozen lake and headed towards the Banished encampment. Travis rammed his Warthog into a Brute squad leader, running him over with Alexander and Gorski gunning the rest down with their chainguns. They approached several small makeshift buildings where the Banished had set up camp, splattering Grunts and Jackals in the process. The two Warthogs then busted their way in before the ODSTs and Spartan stopped and disembarked.

"Enemies!" a Grunt alerted everyone.

Travis jumped from the driver's seat and raised his battle rifle at a pair of three Grunts directly in front of him. He fired two bursts from his rifle, killing two of them with efficiency before finishing the third one. The Spartan slammed the butt of his rifle at the Grunt's face with force, killing him instantly before engaging more targets to the left of him.

"The enemy is here! Open fire!" an enemy Elite cried out.

Pivoting to his left, he saw an Elite and Brute with two Grunts in a small bunker and fired his rifle at them. He killed both Grunts quickly as he tossed a frag grenade, taking a chunk of the Elite's shields along with them. The enemy Brute fell to the ground as he was blasted away by Caleb's shotgun with Makarovich offering covering fire with his silenced SMG from behind cover.

Both the Spartan and ODST then focused on the enemy Elite who rolled out of the way from their incoming fire. The Spartan then knocked the Elite's shields out after firing another burst from his rifle, and ran in for the kill. And with a large amount of force, the Spartan landed a solid blow to the Elite's face with the butt of his rifle, knocking the alien down to the ground dead.

"Let's get 'em!" a random Grunt let out a battle cry.

Across from them to the right, Matthews and Makarovich engaged a large pair of Grunts and Jackals from behind large crates they used as cover. Behind them, Alexander and Gorski gave covering fire from their Warthogs chainguns, gunning their enemies down. Matthews spotted two Brutes and ordered his teammates to eliminate them.

"Wipe those giant apes out!" Matthews pointed at them.

"On it, Sir!" Gorski rotated the chaingun towards where her superior pointed and unleashed a hail of bullets at the Brutes, killing them in only a few seconds.

Travis and Caleb emerged from the bunker and began to take enemy fire from their left. The Spartan fired two bursts from his rifle at a pair of Grunts in the head with Caleb switching to his assault rifle, firing short controlled bursts at another pair. The Grunts fell to the ground dead with the ODST and Spartan regrouping with the rest of their team.

"Hostiles down, move up!" Travis signaled as he took point with the others behind him. Alexander and Gorski also dismounted from their chainguns and grouped up with the rest of their teammates. Several Jump Pack Brutes who flew in the sky attempted to land at their position, but they were all sniped quickly out of the air by Morgan's excellent accuracy.

The five ODSTs and single Spartan sprinted up towards a ramp that led to an elevator the Banished had built into the cliffside. They took out several Grunts, Jackals, and a few Elites as they made their approach. Travis took point as his shields had fully recharged after taking enemy fire.

Upon reaching the top of the ramp, they were engaged by two Hunters accompanied by several Grunts, Brutes, and Elites. Travis threw down a drop wall just as both Hunters fired at them, with the shield absorbing most of the damage. The remaining enemies soon followed up by firing their weapons which only degraded the shield's strength even further.

"Take cover!" Matthews yelled right before the shield broke, taking cover behind a crate and switched to his silenced SMG, firing it at the hostiles in front of him. The rest of his teammates followed suit and returned fire from cover. Travis then eyed an enemy Jump Pack Brute who was about to jump and looked at Gorski to his right, ready to fire her rocket launcher.

"Gorski, I need your rocket launcher!" Travis told her.

"Yes, Sir! Here you go!" Gorski handed him her rocket launcher while he traded his battle rifle for it.

Just as the Jump Pack Brute launched into the air, Travis slung the rocket launcher over his back, climbed up and jumped from the crates and fired his grappleshot. He stuck the receiving end onto the Brute's chest who was midair, with the Spartan pulling himself towards the enemy. Travis killed the Brute with a single uppercut using his full strength, breaking the alien's neck in the process. Next, the Spartan equipped Gorski's rocket launcher from his back and fired a single rocket at the enemy troops behind the Hunters before he landed, wiping them all out in one large explosion.

Travis then immediately turned around and fired the last rocket at one of the Hunter's exposed backs. The rocket from the rear killed the massive armored beast as it fell to the ground with a large thud, and orange goo started to come out from its damaged Lekgolo worms. Just after the last Hunter went into a rage after its "bond brother" was slain, it attempted to slice the Spartan behind it in half with its massive shield. Makarovich fired his Spartan Laser at the creature's exposed back which melted and sliced through its worms. Falling right in front of the Spartan with an empty rocket launcher mounted over his shoulder, the Hunter died with the Spartan Laser beam severing many of its worms. The Spartan looked up and saw his teammates emerge from their cover, amazed at what he just did. He nodded at Makarovich for saving him and handed Gorski's rocket launcher back to her.

"Nice job, Sir." Gorski complemented his work as she got her rocket launcher back and reloaded it

"Thanks. Now let's get moving." Travis told his teammates after he received his rifle from Gorski.

The group then approached the cliffside elevator and boarded it, with Makarovich activating it. As the lift went up, the ODSTs and Spartan took in the scenery, seeing the beautiful snow-covered landscape that laid in front of them. And below them they saw the destruction they caused with enemy bodies laying all over the place, along with their two Warthogs where they originally started from.

Upon the lift reaching the top, they immediately spotted a Brute emerge from behind a cargo crate with his back turned towards them. He was busy ordering his underlines around as Travis guided the ODSTs with hand signals. The Spartan went behind the Chieftain and pulled his combat knife out, climbing into the back of the beast before rapidly jamming his knife into the alien's exposed neck. The Brute released a roar of pain and agony before falling to ground with the ODSTs and Spartan going loud. Matthews and Travis took the center while Makarovich and Caleb had the left flank, with Gorski and Alexander supporting the right.

Alexander climbed onto the top of a crate and fired several bursts from his battle rifle at a pair of Jackals with their shields raised. His shots didn't do anything as they merely reflected off the Jackals' energy gauntlets. He then cooked a grenade and threw it before ducking as the Jackals returned fire, killing both of them. The ODST then jumped down and stabbed a Grunt in the face with his knife before aiming his rifle at a Grunt who was thrown into the air by Brute, armed with plasma grenades in his hands.

"Screw you, humans!" The Grunt yelled while flying towards his location. Just before Alexander had any time to react, the Grunt was shot out of the air by a sniper round penetrating his skull, and released his grenades. The lone ODST rolled out of the blast radius and looked behind him to see from the treeline it was Morgan who helped save him. Giving a quick salute, he went back to the fight, joining next to Gorski.

Matthews and Travis were currently up in front on point and continued to press their advance. The Helljumper gunned an Elite's shields down with his VK78 before grabbing his silenced SMG with his left hand and fired it at a Grunt to his left. After dodging the Elite's melee attack with an energy sword by rolling out of the way, he quickly grabbed his combat knife out from its holster and jammed it into the neck of the alien. The ODST managed to score another direct hit by jamming his knife into the alien's eye as the Elite staggered from his neck wound. The Elite's body soon collapsed to the ground after Matthews repeatedly stabbed him in the head multiple times and stopped. Matthews stood up from the alien's dead body and pulled his knife out from the Elite's cranium, raising his VK78 and forming back up with the Spartan ahead of him.

Joining up with the Spartan, Matthews and Travis pushed forward as they made their way towards a Brute Chieftain. Matthews laid covering fire for the Spartan as his shield took a considerable amount of damage and had to recharge. Travis took cover behind a cargo crate like Matthews did and let his shields recharge. The Spartan emerged out from his cover and fired his battle rifle at the Grunts in front of him, killing them within seconds.

The rest of Delta proceeded to group up on them, proceeding to take cover as well. Travis went back behind the crate he was at before a fuel rod round came and exploded next to him and Mathhews. He gave hand signals to the rest of his team barring Matthews who gave them covering fire. The Spartan signaled the rest of his team to flank around the enemy while he and Matthews distracted them. Leaving in their respective pairs, the Helljumpers flanked to the left and right while Matthews and Travis kept the Banished occupied with them.

With Caleb and Makarovich flanking from the left, along with Gorski and Alexander on the right, they attacked the Banished who were holed up. Caleb blasted his shotgun up close at an Elite and killed it instantly, with the pellets piercing through the shields like butter. Makarovich and Alexander gave covering fire for Gorski as she readied her rocket launcher and fired it at a large group of baddies. The resulting blast allowed both Matthews and Travis to push up and engage the only enemy that was currently left in front of them, a single lone Brute.

Without a moment of hesitation, Travis slung his battle rifle over onto his back and charged right at the Brute. The alien readied his gravity hammer and slammed it down where the Spartan-III was. Travis swiftly dodged the attack by rolling to the right and jumped towards the Brute and stuck a plasma grenade to his neck. He jumped backwards before the grenade exploded and killed the Brute instantly, leaving a large chunk of the alien's head gone from its body.

Travis stood up and scanned the area with his helmet. Detecting more hostiles up ahead at the base of the AA gun, he signaled the ODSTs to move out. "Let's not stand around here, I count at least a dozen more hostiles left. Helljumpers, flank to the right, I'll distract them from the left." he told them before firing his grappleshot upward.

"You heard him, Delta! Let's go!" Matthews took point and led his team around.

Travis ascended upward with his grappleshot and spotted two Grunts and a Jackal in front of him as he approached. Slamming his foot to the ground, he crushed one of the Grunts' skull underneath his boot and grabbed the other with his hand and delivered a hard punch to the face, killing the alien instantly. The Jackal charged up his plasma pistol as the Spartan ran forward and fired, only to have the Spartan knock his shield away and jam his knife into one of Jackal's eyes.

The Spartan looked up after reinserting his combat knife into its holster and immediately felt a rush of adrenaline throughout his body. Suddenly within the speed of a second, the Spartan ran up the small hill in front of him and jumped down in front of a group of hostiles. Upon landing, he drew both his SMGs out and fired a hail of bullets at the enemy.

"A demon is here! It's over!" a Grunt panicked while the Spartan gunned down one of the Brutes.

"Get 'em, Helljumpers!" Matthews cried out as he and his team attacked the Banished from behind.

Travis fired both of his SMGs at the enemies in front of him, gunning them down as he ran and dodged enemy fire. Both his weapons soon had their magazines emptied and he put them back on his thighs before charging up to the Brute Chieftain. The Spartan dodged enemy Ravager plasma fire at point-blank thanks to his 300% increased reaction time from his augmentations and delivered a solid elbow strike to the Brute's face, knocking the alien over onto his back. Travis quickly grabbed the Ravager out of his hands and stabbed him in the neck with the weapon's mounted blade on the end.

The Spartan quickly turned around and began firing bursts of plasma at the two Brutes and single Elite which were the only hostiles remaining. He overheated his weapon after killing the Brutes with deadly efficiency and grappled onto the Elite, pulling himself towards the enemy. Travis then delivered a powerful punch to the Elite's face and sent him flying backwards past the ODSTs and into one of the AA battery's legs.

Fireteam Delta and Travis had eliminated all hostiles in the area as it was now all clear. Travis proceeded to drop his newly-acquired Ravager and it was overheated and drew out his battle rifle. "Gorski and Alexander, follow me." he told the two ODSTs.

"Yes, Sir!" Alexander responded as they approached the adjacent gravity lift.

Travis was the first one to step onto the gravity lift which lifted him upwards into the interior of the anti-aircraft cannon. Raising his rifle, he cleared the area with no hostiles in sight just before Gorski and Alexander came up. The Spartan then lowered his weapon and got to work on blowing the Anti-Aircraft cannon to hell.

"Alright, let's get started. Gorski, get those charges ready!" he ordered.

"On it!" Gorski complied with his order as she unhooked a sack of explosives from her armor and started to take out several charges. She took several of them for herself and the Lieutenant and then tossed sack to him. Travis walked back to the gravity lift and dropped the sack to Matthews down below, who distributed the rest of the explosives to his teammates.

"Alexander, are you good with hacking into enemy communications?" Travis asked him.

"Yes, Sir." he nodded.

"Good, see if you can try to hack into the local Banished network and see what they're up to. I'll be helping Gorski while you've got that." the Spartan grabbed a detonation pack off the floor and started arming it on the wall next to him.

"I'm on it." Alexander started pushing the controls to the nearby console. Travis and Gorski soon got to work arming several explosives throughout the AA battery. Several minutes passed by and they were just about done until Alexander called the Lieutenant over.

"Lieutenant? You might want to see this!" Alexander called.

"What is it, Private?" Travis walked over to the console.

"Take a look at this, sir! I just intercepted it." Alexander pressed a button which played the transmission in front of them.

"The prisoner still refuses to give up any information?" a Brute who seemed to be in command asked an Elite who responded.

"Yes, sir. We have been unable to extract anything valuable from her."

"What's going on?" Gorski asked, joining the Spartan and ODST, to which she was shushed quiet by the latter.

"What would you have us do, Sir?" the Elite asked, awaiting his superior's response.

"If the prisoner won't reveal anything, then it appears this Atlesian Operative is of no use for us. Eliminate her immediately." he ordered.

"By your command."

The two ODSTs looked at each other confused and worried, with the Spartan contacting the Captain and Apex immediately after the enemy transmission ended. "Harvest Actual, we've intercepted an enemy transmission. You might want to take a look at this, transmitting message to you now."

AN: I was originally going to post this Chapter on Thursday 4/1, but my dumbass almost forgot that it was April Fool's Day and I didn't want to rub it off as some sort of "Meme Chapter". Never thought I'd ever say that before… But hey, if you're reading this on Friday 4/2, then have a blessed Good Friday, everyone!

Anyway, that's all I've got to say really. I've been enjoying reading all of the reviews you guys and girls have been sending me, to which I'm grateful that people enjoy my work and the feedback is always appreciated! I'll see you all in the next Chapter. (Maybe)