answers to reviewers questions or statements:
REX5678: Yes.
Guest: Well you also have to consider that Atriox probably has more experience fighting Spartans than most Brutes. I very much doubt the UNSC left their research stations on the Ark without Spartan defenses, and they likely were Threes given the importance of the Ark in the grand scheme of things when it came to the Halo Array. So when Atriox rolled in and wiped them all out, he likely fought a few and used the knowledge from that fight to help him with Red Team. Though he seemed to notice pretty quick that they weren't as difficult given that they were as you said in outdated armor and only had roughly a decade of experience fighting compared to their more seasoned 'siblings' and even some of the IV's.
guest: I wouldn't call Parangosky a badass, more of a cut throat back stabbing heartless bitch. I wouldn't say they want to protect and advance the human race so much as they want to mold it into their perceived vision of what humanity should be. And most of the crap they try to do ends up coming back to bite humanity in the ass in the long run. Like Jul 'Mdama, they more or less created him to try and stem the Sangheili's recovery but in all honesty it seems that he's killed more humans than the Arbiter's people. I wouldn't exactly call the Assembly the Illuminati of the Haloverse but they seem to be something close to it.
xGhostSniperx: Not in this story no.
hunter41963801: At some point in the future yeah, not sure when though.
badiullahmeri10: I don't think so, mainly because I am not liking where Marvel and DC comics are taking their respective universes.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel or Halo characters seen, mentioned or used.
Reach, August 12, 2552 08:00 Hours...
Kat... detested open combat operations like the one she and the rest of Noble Team were taking part in.
They were messy, slow, disorganized and filled with far too many viewpoints to her liking, making strategizing a bit of a pain to someone that's used to coordinating small two to four man teams. It also didn't help that the last major offensive Kat took part in cost her an arm and Thom-A293.
Kat heaved a silent sigh as she re-checked her weapon, a BR55 Service Rifle, modified to be switched to full auto and a red dot sight. She was currently sitting passenger in a Warthog while Jorge drove and Emile operated the turret behind them. Carter was in a Falcon flying over them with Captain Romanoff and three ODST's that were acting as escort for her on the mission. Around them was scores of Warthogs, Mongooses and several Scorpion tanks while over a dozen Falcons provided escort to eight Pelicans, all fitted to the brim with missiles, chain guns and Marine and Army fireteams.
Several miles ahead of the strike force, dozens of Ghosts and a dozen or so Wraiths were riding out to meet the human force with dozens of Banshees providing air support.
'This is going to be a blood bath' Kat thought with a frown as she casted a quick glance around at the assault force.
"Dot, what are we looking at?" Carter asked over the team's main net.
"It appears that large Covenant ground forces were able to be deployed planeside undetected, the exact numbers remain currently unknown but are calculated to be high. UNSC High Command has authorized Admiral Freemont to engage enemy forces on every front as per Winter Contingency" the AI. stated before it paused as new information was made relevant "Limited aerial reconnaissance has shown that there is a large staging ground further in the 'Dark Zone' that seems to be acting as a landing site for more Covenant Ground forces, the origin of which is to be determined"
"If we're gonna nip this invasion in the bud, that landing site's gotta be taken out" Jorge observed as he adjusted the speed of the Warthog, the poor thing was near it's max weight capacity with three fully armored Spartans in it.
"This assault would be going a lot smoother if Jun and Peter didn't get their asses caught and gave us a heads up on what to expect" Emile said as he angled the warthog's turret at the approaching Covenant craft, his finger twitching on the gun's trigger.
"And you think we would've fared much better, kid?" Jorge asked casually, though everyone in the team, including Emile, could detect the very real traces of anger in the man's tone.
Few things could truly get under Jorge's skin, but casual if not outright apathetic remarks made in regards to a Spartan being lost during operations tended to cut the older man deep. When Thom was killed, Jorge was nearly impossible to speak to, the man acted more machine than human. With Peter and Jun in enemy hands, Kat was certain that nothing would stop Jorge from getting to them and bringing them home, one way or another.
"Just saying, I wouldn't have been taken prisoner" Emile replied, though his tone was a bit quieter compared to before, even Emile knew when to rein it in when it came to Jorge.
"It doesn't matter, right now we have two Spartans currently being held by enemy forces, so we're going to get them out of there" Carter spoke, putting an end to the conversation.
"Copy that commander" Jorge said before he frowned behind his helmet as he stared at the amassing Covenant forces approaching the UNSC head on "Alright, get ready, we're about to make contact with the Covenant's response force"
Kat looked ahead and saw that the Banshees had accelerated ahead of the Ghosts and were already on a run to strife the UNSC's forces. Dozens of Warthog turrets, including Emile, opened up on the low flying alien craft just as they began to pelt the human forces with fuel rod cannons and plasma bolts. Jorge did his best to avoid the incoming projectiles without risking a collision with another vehicle while Emile let out a few curses as he was forced to readjust his firing from the sudden jerkiness of the warthog. Kat raised her battle rifle towards the Banshees and switched her rifle to full auto and began to fire on the nearest craft, she doubted her rounds would do too much, but it might help convince the pilot to pull out of the hail of gunfire he was now in.
All around the Spartans, warthogs and mongooses went up in fiery explosions', sending shrapnel energy where as the Banshees fuel rods struck home. Than just as suddenly as it began, the Banshee barrage ended, only to be immediately replaced by the charging Ghosts which began to fly into the ranks of the UNSC, some of them striking warthogs head on and sending both up in a explosion of plasma and fire while mortar rounds fired from Wraiths began to hammer into the strike force, engulfing entire vehicles in a blinding blue fiery light.
"Son of a bitch!" Jorge yelled as their warthog brushed against another as a ghost raced past them, some of it's plasma bolts bouncing off the vehicle's windshield.
"Noble Five, there's a bridge about half a mile ahead of you that leads into a ridge that seems to go on to overlook the main landing site. I'll meet you there and we'll procced along it and scout out the area" Carter said from his falcon as he, Natasha and her Spartan escort fired their weapons or the craft's side turrets at any Banshees that came to close.
"Roger that, on our way" Jorge said as he swerved past a warthog ahead of them that went up in flames as a mortar round fired from a Wraith struck it.
"Jorge, can you try to drive a little smoother?" Kat said as she held on to the warthog's frame with a death like grip.
"What's wrong Kat, getting a little car sick?" Emile laughed over the roar of the turret as he fired at any Ghost or Banshee that got close to them.
"With how Jorge drives, yes!" Kat snapped as she saw they were coming up on the bridge that Carter mentioned.
It was over a small chasm and all along the other side was dozens of Covenant infantry, mostly Grunts and Jackals along with a handful of blue and red armored Elites. Further along the ridge was a small emplacement of Shade turrets, though what type Kat had no idea since they had yet to open fire on any of the low flying UNSC craft-
"Incoming!" Emile shouted as he suddenly brought the warthog's turret about and began to fire off a long burst.
Kat turned to see what he was shooting at and saw a Spirit Dropship was flying towards them, or more specifically, the bridge they were going to attempt to cross. Underneath the Spirit's cabin was a turret, though instead of the light plasma cannons most models were fitted with, this particular craft was fitted with some sort of mortar cannon and began to shoot the highly explosive rounds at the bridge.
Sensing their intent, Jorge slammed his foot on the gas and sent the warthog flying towards the bridge as the mortar rounds began to tear it apart before the center went up in a massive explosion of red, purple and pink energy. Jorge seemed unbothered by the bridge's sudden destruction, he simply shifted gears and let their momentum and speed carry them up the small 'ramp' that was made from the remains of the bridge on their side of the chasm, and flew several meters through the air.
"MOTHER FUC-" Emile shouted as he continued to pepper the Spirit chasing them with gunfire while Kat held on for dear life as their vehicle soared across the chasm before slamming into other side.
The force of the impact and the Spartans weight caused the vehicle's axle to give and snap, causing several tires spiraling across the ground while the three Spartans quickly leapt from the damaged vehicle. Kat misjudged her landing and found herself falling and rolling across the ground before coming to a stop before a trio of Jackals. Kat brought her rifle up and opened fire on the avian like aliens, scoring a head shot for two and hitting the other in it's neck. Before any of their bodies hit the ground, Kat had sprung back to her feet and rushed towards cover as the dozens of Grunts and Jackals on the ridge moved to attack the armored humans while the Elite overseers stood back and coordinated their troops movements.
"Someone take those hinge headed bastards out!" Emile said as he began to fire shell after shell from his M45 Shotgun.
Jorge was laying down a field of suppressive fire with Erika, forcing the Jackals up front and to form a sort of shield wall while Grunts stood behind them, prepping grenades to lob at the three Spartans.
Kat sent a green light of acknowledgement to the rest as she sprinted to the rock wall that hugged the ridge and followed it, allowing her to bypass the wall of shields the Jackals had made. One of the Elites, the Major, noticed Kat's movements and let loose a snarl of rage as he drew his plasma rifle and began to shoot at her armored form in short controlled bursts. The plasma bolts struck Kat's shields, but thankfully only a few stray shots made contact and brought her armor's shielding down only by twenty percent while the rest of the Elite's shots struck the wall of rock or ground around her.
Kat slid to a kneeling position beside a chunk of stone and aimed her rifle at the red armored Elite and fired off two three round bursts, one of which struck the Elite in his shielded head, dropping them while the second three round burst tore into his abdomen. The Elite roared in pain and anger as he collapsed to the ground, purple blood leaking from his wounds while the Elite Minor beside him duck behind cover and drew a Plasma repeater.
"Major is down" Kat said as she continued to fire on the Minor's position, forcing him to stay down and thus unable to properly coordinate his ground forces movements.
"Acknowledged" Jorge said as he began to steadily approach the Jackal shield wall, his shields glowing almost constantly as a few green energy bolts fired from some of the Jackals and Grunts struck his armor.
The Spartan-II's modified turret continued to fire a steady stream of short controlled bursts from it's barrel at the wall of energy while Emile raced up behind Jorge, switching from his shotgun to a M139 Grenade Launcher and fired a shot over the Jackal's wall and blasted several Grunts into meaty chunks while their methane tanks exploded. The Grunts began to scatter, causing a few to run into the Jackals and cause the wall to begin crumbling, allowing Emile to fire another grenade off into a small gap of the Jackal's shield wall and watched with a dark grin as it blew apart.
"You know, I just realized something" Jorge said as he used Erika to pick off the grunts and Jackals as their formation all but fell apart and they began to scatter.
"What's that?" Kat asked as she ceased firing on the elite Minor's location and began to instead advance towards it, firing off a burst at any Grunts that got too close to her.
"If the Covenant fitted their Grunts with personal shields, I think even WE'D be having trouble facing them openly like this" Jorge remarked as he cut down the last of the Grunts with his modified turret while Emile picked off any stragglers with his shotgun.
"Noble Five, can you say that a little louder, I don't think the Elite I'm trying to kill heard you properly" Kat said with some annoyance in her voice as she finally made it to the location the Minor was at and saw he was already gone "Dammit, where did you g-"
Kat stopped as she saw movement on her Motion Tracker and turned and fell to her knee and brought her rifle up and pointed it right into the Elite's gut, the barrel striking it in the chest and causing it to stumble back before Kat unloaded her weapon's entire magazine on full auto. Sparks erupted from where Kat was shooting before it was replaced by purple blood as the high velocity rounds tore through the Elite's flesh. The multi jawed alien let out a pained yell as it fell on it's back, coughing up purple blood before Kat reloaded her Battle Rifle and brought it's barrel down to it's head and fired a single round into it's head.
"Tangos down commander" Kat said as she looked up to see the last of the Grunts and Jackals were also dealt with, leaving the three Spartans alone on a alien corpse ridden ridge.
"Acknowledged, in-route now" Carter said as the Falcon he was on suddenly turned and sped towards their location.
Kat nodded before she turned her attention to Jorge and Emile as they approached her, the latter immediately diving towards the two Elites she killed. Emile kicked the corpse of the red armored Elite over and began to search the corpse for something before he growled and gave the Elite's head a viscous kick to the face, snapping one of it's mandibles and sending a few of it's teeth flying.
"HEY!" Jorge snapped at the Spartan with an unseen glare, causing Kat and Emile to both almost jump, before he began speaking in a lower tone once Emile turned to face him "What are you doing Emile?"
"Looking for an Energy sword is all" Emile said with a shrug before he glared at the dead Elite's body "Fucker doesn't seem to have one"
"And that gives you an excuse to disrespect his body?" Jorge asked with a frown.
"He's a genocidal asshole that's part of an empire of these fuckers, what's the issue?" Emile asked with a scoff.
"It's not like he'll need it anymore" Kat added, though she quickly turned her attention to Carter's Falcon as it set down to avoid Jorge's pointed gaze.
"It's a little thing called respect for the dead" Jorge stated with a shake of his head "You people know we're gonna have to live with them after this war ends, right? Go a long way in making sure a second war doesn't break out if we keep the desecration of the deceased to a minimum"
"It ends when their all dead" Emile snapped before he pointed to the dead Grunts "And who the fuck do you think is eating all of the bodies the UNSC has been forced to leave behind after every failed campaign, fucking vultures?"
"Another argument Kat?" Carter asked Kat over a private channel as he disembarked his Falcon and waved it off.
"Yes" Kat responded in a dry tone as she watched Emile try and fail to intimidate Jorge "This time it's a mix between respect for the dead and having to live with them afterwards"
"Joy" Carter said with a sigh before ended the private conversation and spoke to the team as a whole "Alright Noble, can the side conversations until after we've done our jobs"
"Copy that, sir" Jorge nodded before he glanced at the distant ground engagement only a mile away "How's it look out there?"
"UNSC's forces are holding their own but without air support, the Covenant will just take the punches before they respond in kind" Carter said as he brought up his TACCOM and typed a few commands in before a small holographic display of a standard Covenant Anti-Air cannon came up "Some of our recon drones picked this up a few miles up this ridge. It's keeping our bombers at bay, command wants them gone so they can start rolling in more Pelicans and Longswords. Guess who was volunteered for to do just that"
"Commander, what about Peter and Jun?" Kat asked with a furrowed brow "Every second we deviate, our chances of finding either of them alive or at the very least retrievable drops"
"I know" Carter said with a frustrated sigh before he brought up the holographic image again and zoomed in on a small tower of sorts beside the cannon "Kat, you think you can tap into the Covenant's battle-net, get an idea of where our boys are?"
"Possible" Kat said with a slow nod as she began to mentally run through some of the programs she had on hand for such occasions "So long as the traffic is in the Elite's language"
"And if it isn't?" Carter asked.
"We find an Elite and get him to start talking" Emile said in a dark tone as he patted his Kukri knife.
"...We'll call that plan 'C'" Carter said after a few seconds.
"What's plan 'B'?" Kat asked with a snort.
"Hope that Peter and Jun here the fighting from wherever they are and start making noise" Carter said as he signaled the Spartans to follow him to where the UNSC located the Anti-Air gun "Let's move"
...
As Noble Team proceeded along the ridge in the direction of the Covenant cannon, Natasha and her ODST escort followed in a Falcon, to provide immediate air support and bird's eye view of the terrain given that whatever the Covenant had set up kept orbiting satellites from providing any sort coverage.
'For a bunch of Threes, their doing remarkably well' Natasha thought as she watched Noble Team engage another Covenant squad.
Aside from Peter, Natasha's only worked with Spartan Threes on two separate occasions and the red head was less than impressed by their performance. True they weren't outfitted with the same sort of armor as the Two's were, but neither were ODST's and Natasha has seen them personally pull of missions that even Two's would hesitate to take on with just their standard weapons and body armor and nothing else and suffer surprisingly light casualties.
So when Natasha was told that Peter would be assigned to Noble Team, a team Spartan Threes with only a single Two, instead of Grey Team's all Two's like she wanted, the ONI operative was a bit concerned. But after reviewing and witnessing his performance with them first hand, and seeing him start coming out of his shell with them, it laid some of her fears to rest.
But now...
'I can just here ONI telling me 'I told you so'' Natasha thought with a sigh before a burst of static in her earpiece dragged her from her thoughts.
"Captain Romanoff, this is ONI Command, what's your position?"
'Ah, speak of the Devil and the Devil shall appear... bastards' Natasha thought with an tired eye roll before she decided to humor the man and respond instead of just cutting him off outright "Currently two hundred feet above the ground watching four Spartans take on a platoon's worth of grunts and Jackals, why?"
"Captain Romanoff, you were slated to be rotated off of Reach and back to Earth at 0600 this morning for debriefing!" the ONI agent snapped in obvious annoyance.
Ever since the Covenant had discovered Reach and began sending advance teams to it's surface, ONI's commander in chief, Admiral Parangosky, had sent out a general 'recall' to all ONI assets on Reach. It appeared that Admiral Parangosky had as much faith in Reach's defenses as Natasha did and wasn't willing to lose valuable resources in a already lost battle. Much of ONI's senior staff stationed on Reach had long since been gone barring Natasha, who had volunteered to stay and oversee the organization's final withdrawal from ONI's headquarters at Olympic Tower in New Alexandria and the sanitization of any data that couldn't be moved off world.
Than Peter had to go and get himself captured by the Covenant and force her to put those plans on hold. True she could've simply not go and continue her duty, but Natasha left several competent agents to oversee things until her return.
"Your taking part in the UNSC counteroffensive?!" the ONI agent said, or rather yelled, in shock.
"More or less" Natasha admitted while she mentally questioned how far ONI's standards have dropped for them to have inducted a man such as the one she was speaking to with such little discipline. When she first joined ONI, such an outburst would've seen him out the door with a nice boot shaped print on his ass.
'Perhaps they've all since died since this war started' Natasha decided with a mental shrug before she realized the agent on the other end was waiting for a response "Technically I'm flying above it, though I am occasionally shooting at anything that gets too close to me"
"Captain Romanoff, I'm ordering you to withdrawal im-" the man began before Natasha switched the channel off and glanced at her ODST escort, having noticed they were all looking at her now with their polarized visors.
"So I'm gonna go out on a hunch and say that the brass doesn't know we're here" one of the ODST's, Staff Sergeant Eugene 'Flash' Thompson, said with a snicker as he rested his M7S SMG on his lap, this thumb brushing the SMG's smart linked scope.
Natasha liked Flash, unlike most of the ODSTs used by ONI, he still had some personality to him and wasn't a total by the ONI book asshole in her opinion. That, and he tended to tolerate her habit of going behind ONI's back and tag along on unsanctioned ops more than most.
"That a problem boys?" Natasha asked with a wry grin.
"No ma'am" Flash said with a quick glance shared between the three ODSTs' "But it'll be your turn to explain to Parangosky's brat why we did. I had to do it last time and Hobie here before that"
"You want me in a room with Osman?" Natasha asked with a snort "And here I thought you boys liked her more than Parangosky"
Natasha and Osman's rivalry was legendary, or at least as close as it could get when only one of them, Osman, actually gave a damn about it. Natasha for her part could care less what the Spartan-II washout did or said about her, in the red head's eyes, she will only ever be Parangosky's second choice after Natasha and the at the time Rear Admiral had a falling out years ago, and both women knew it.
"Yeah but she's less likely to station us on a planet that's next to be hit by the Covenant" one of the other ODST's, Kenneth Kong, said with a laugh from his seat on the Falcon's right side turret "Still a total cunt though, ma'am"
"Believe me Corporal, I'm fully aware of what a total pizda she can be" Natasha grinned.
It was than the falcon's pilot interrupted the four's banter "Ma'am, air's getting a little crowded with some unfriendlies, I'm gonna have to break off and take an alternate route"
"Roger that pilot" Natasha responded in a curt tone, all trace of amusement gone from her face "But don't get too far, we're the closest thing Noble has to an eye in the sky at the moment"
"Yes ma'am" the pilot said before the Falcon began to pull away from the ridge as Noble team continued along it.
The Falcon had to duck underneath a few overcharged plasma bolts fired at them from some of the various squads of Grunts down below. Natasha responded by aiming the falcon's turret at them and fired off a few quick bursts, sending the Grunts running in different directions as several of their brethren worn torn to shreds from the high velocity rounds. They were almost cute in a gruesome sort of way, but considering what Natasha's seen those meter and a half tall squeaky voiced aliens do to careless Marines and Army Troopers in the past, almost was as much as they were gonna get from her.
"Black Widow, this is Noble One" Carter's voice echoed through Natasha's earpiece.
"Go ahead Noble One" Natasha said as one of her ODST's, Hobie, took a seat in the turret opposite her's and began to operate.
"We're coming on on the Anti-Air cannon now, it should be down shortly" Carter said.
"Roger that" Natasha said as she peered out the Falcon towards the direction the anti-air cannon was and could just make out the thundering 'boom' it made with each discharge before a light blue-ish plasma round shot out into the sky.
Natasha had no idea what the cannon's target was, but considering it could strike warships in low orbit, it could be targeting UNSC warships currently holding right outside the Covenant's Dark Zone until they were cleared to enter and prevent any more Covenant craft from entering. Though their might not be any warships left to either provide fire support or prevent more Covenant incursions if that thing keeps shooting at them.
"Man, I'd hate to be whoever is in a ship above us right now" Flash muttered through the fireteam's comm channel "Sucked into vacuum, that ain't no way to go man"
"Neither is getting glassed" Kong said in a grim tone as he gripped his MA5B, the flashlight that usually sat under the rifle's barrel had been replaced with a underslung shotgun.
"Also very true" Flash nodded before he noticed something odd on the ground and pointed towards it "Oi, what's that?"
Natasha followed Flash's finger and saw what caught the ODST's attention. Rushing across the ground, clad in maroon colored armor, were four Elites, the armor's configuration marked them as Zealots. The red head's eyes narrowed as she watched the four for a moment and looked to see where it was they were heading before she realized the only notable landmark around was the Anti-Air gun.
"Noble Team this is Black Widow be advised I'm seeing four Zealot class Elites moving towards the artillery cannon at a breakneck pace. Assume their aware of your intended target and expect to see them there" Natasha said as she eyed the four Elites before grabbing her DMR and glanced through the scope to get a better look at them "I don't see any heavy weapons on them, could be simple assassins looking to take your heads... or maybe they want to add another four Spartans to their collection"
"Roger that ma'am, keep us appraised of their movements" Carter replied as gunfire and explosions echoed in the background as his team began their assault.
"Acknowledged, Noble One" Natasha said before suddenly the Falcon banked right, hard "AH, DAMMIT!"
Had she and the ODSTs not been strapped in, they would've been sent flying out of their seats. Natasha glared in the direction of the cockpit and was about to demand a very good explanation from the pilot on his actions when she suddenly saw what it was that forced the Falcon's operator to make such a sudden and aggressive maneuver. Only a few kilometers ahead, resting comfortably over the battlefield were three Covenant Corvette class warships, all heavies, the same model that attacked SWORD Base. Dozens of Banshees providing escort to a squadron of Seraph fighters were pouring from the small warships' hanger bays and flying towards the battling armies.
"Holy shit..." Flash muttered in horror as he watched the Covenant's aircraft begin to hammer the UNSC's strike force with a mixture of plasma cannons and Fuel Rod missiles.
To say the UNSC was being ripped to pieces would be a severe understatement and the comm chatter that Natasha was picking up only cemented the fact. If Noble Team didn't get that second AA gun offline so the UNSC could send in it's own aircraft, and the three Frigates they had on station for local fire support, then their counter offensive was going to be quite literally torn apart.
Natasha couldn't help but sigh at this before leaning back in her turret seat.
"Maybe I should've stayed in New Alexandria"
...
And done.
Next chapter, Covenant Hospitality...