Struggle (The Cole List) Chapter 2: Twist, a halo fanfic

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I don't own a halo, sadly.

And... Yup, I'm rewriting this too :D

Thanks to everyone uvu

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November 3rd, Redstow System:

1440 Hours.

Humanity soon began to shift; there were no more orders of ships for a month, just refits for other vessels, leaving the shipyards all over the UNSC to be nervous about if they will even have more to produce soon; anxiousness shared by the rest of the populace, from Earth to the small outpost on Emerald Cove there were movements of people desperate for an answer of what was happening; why were people evacuating, why was contact with 30 outposts in the known as 'Border zone' lost? Why the news was talking about the Agros Sector, calling it 'The Danger zone'? Who were these aliens and why were they attacking humanity? How did the Corbulo Academy fall?

No one knew, at least, it was not known by your average Joe.

In one of the newest ships procured this month, the UNSC Red Fist, a new Musket Class Destroyer, corresponding to the first-ever warship produced in Redstow IV and the fifth of this class, made as a 'Big sticked' version of the Halberd, made to clean the gap between destroyers and Marathons; there was a recently sent text written by VADM Preston Cole and some other admirals on the data that they had about the aliens and how to act against them.

Redstow, the namesake of the ship, was one of the colonies of the so-called 'Danger Zone' as they had been informed, which tried to vent its preoccupations by focusing on the first-ever native warship even when they had seen how the McLee owned shipyard that made the pride of the Redstow system went to Harvest as an attaché due to the proximity while people was evacuated en masse from the planet; that vessel was the after-mentioned Red Fist, the symbol that maintained courage on the hearts on even the most dissident citizens of this colony.

But for the Redstow-born Capitan Allaire, the commanding officer on the Red fist, it was sad to see what was happening on his planet, he was not informed about what was happening aside from the evacuation, the CMA flotilla, and the newly arrived UNSC 99th 'Torpedoers' Flotilla gave the sentiment that this was something important, but the commanding officer of the ones patrolling the five million big planet gave no answers; they only told him to keep an eye on the planet, being integrated on the CMA formation. Were these aliens so strong that they needed to get the Thorium-rich planet depopulated now? Were they going to invade soon? He hoped not for either case, but now there was no time to think about that, they were descending into the planet's surface to begin patrol duty; and it was a mess, the Capital was overrun by ships going in and out of the spaceports and the Orbital lift on the planet; he really hoped that if this was really needed, they finished the movement quickly.

"Crew, this… Is enough for me, if no one objects, let's leave the CMA corvettes do their job, let's go to the south, there isn't a ship there to guard." - Said the captain with the last words being just an excuse to see his home city for the last time and to not demoralize the three hundred sailors by having them see the constant fights between people and the military, or the mass exodus happening.

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On the ground, 'Reddish South' region, in a small town:

"You can't do this, we paired for this house, we live here!" - Shouted a middle-aged woman resisting the arms of two officers prompting her to get out of the residence where she lived, the home of her family that was now inside a police bus just a few meters from here, sitting on the rubble track that went directly into the provincial capital; where they'd be transported into a safer location if the TV announces were to be trusted

"Ma'am, understand, we cannot leave you here, this is for your protection, you'll be compensated by the UNSC" - Said a white-skinned man next to the open door of the bus. The black attire and the FN-10 Pistol on his holster, plus the badge in his shoulder gave it, he was the commissioner of the region, and she and her family probably were the last ones to be 'rescued'. Makes sense, this change of events began two weeks ago.

"Mom, we are going to another planet! Why don't you want to enter?" - Asked an excited little girl sited on the lap of his apparent father and next to another, older-looking kid that by his black hair shared by the girl and the woman seemed to be the older brother.

"Please just enter mom… Please." - Pleaded the kid while looking sad to his caretaker, something his father was showing too with those brows slightly pointing upwards and a mouth that had a concave look.

"Simon, think about the safety of your kids, we can get another house, but we need to evacuate, you already-" - But the man, the father with a sluggish tone, maybe made by tiredness or stress, was cut off by the woman, Simon.

"But how can you be sure we'll be safe on a planet that we do not know!? And why do you think some aliens are a menace!? They'd be here if that propaganda was true!" - A bad selection of words, the commissioner was not having any of this, martial law was on, and his men still struggled with the problematic woman, thus he took his weapon off and gave her a shoot in the left cheek that then struck the vertebrae in her back; killing her instantly. He then signaled to the woman's baggage, which the surprised policemen took instantly, and then entered the bus.

Inside there was silence, the policewoman in the driver's seat was perplexed, her mouth open, she knew this was a thing of life or death, but shooting a civilian was something she did not expect even If they indeed were the last ones getting out from the 'outer' zones of the planet; the other passengers were astonished too, but they were not going to voice any complaints any time soon.

The pair of kids was going to cry aloud, especially the son of the now-dead women, but the man hugged them both pressing them against his chest and soon resting his head above theirs. The little girl was feeling tears and the sensation of puke going up, and the male kid was pressing his dad's shirt. Both, in a few seconds, were joined by a humid sensation above their heads, followed by the muffled sobbing of their father.

"Pierre, Camellia, I'll keep you safe." - Said the man trying to cope with the sudden decision that shook even his beliefs about the UNSC being their protectors even though he was aware of the perpetrators and the reasons, after all, the clothes he was wearing were not a simple civilian attire but a grey shirt with a characteristic curved design and a pair of trousers, he was a UNSCN Officer, a Lieutenant.

A few seconds after the shot, the commissioner and his men, along with the remaining luggage of the family came into the transport giving the signal to the corporal at the steering wheel to close the door and start driving the ten families and eight police officers to the Tomoe, the Capital of the province and the home of a small spaceport that was getting people into Sargasso and Hat Yai.

The killer of the wife then approached with a big brown briefcase and bags that the woman was resisting to give; and placed it under the officer's feet, next to the backpack of the girl.

"I'm sorry for what I did, but my son died on Alpha Corvii; and I'm not going to accept that kind of insult to humanity as the law now states, but I'm nevertheless sorry sir." - Expressed the Captain with bloodshot eyes and his fists closed. The naval officer looked at him the same way and gave a nod before starting to openly cry along with his children to struggle to get out of his arms and go to strike the policeman.

After that, it was a slow day-long trip to Tomoe.

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26 hours after:

When they reached the city, it was deserted, vehicles left, no one on the streets, empty shops, just the occasional transport, families going to the spaceport or Militia patrol with their trucks or even the militia's transports.

The once home of 250 thousand big regions was now only being transited by around 20 thousand, something clear from a simple gaze into its almost movielike appearance; but something encouraging was still on the city, the pride of the system; the UNSC Red Fist, the Destroyer was sitting on the air gallantly, sometimes moving its rampart guns to amaze the citizens which probably haven't seen a ship bigger than this in their lives, leaving aside the technically larger Paris-class Frigates that now we're on the system, or the Panzerschiff-class Heavy cruiser commanding the whole operation.

After some ten minutes of seeing the now abandoned 30-floor tall buildings in the city, there was a long line of people to the port in the outskirts of the north side of the area, covered behind a military checkpoint base of the 2nd Rifle regiment of the Redstow Militia, now formerly known as the UNSC Redstow Corps 2nd Light infantry Brigade. They were received by a private watching over the long road that leads to the over-cumbered site to escape from the planet; he walked towards the bus, letting the people on foot shout in anger as the ones in the vehicle were getting more attention.

"Yo, sorry but we are full right now, in half an hour we will have an old Hillsborough coming to load a few thousand but all seats are reserved, and we just filled a Luxor with passengers moments ago." - Told the young militiamen to the driver, who then spoke.

"And what about letting us in so we wait? We can't let this machine create a bottleneck, nor we can lose the next ship, can we?" - The marine chuckled a bit and walked towards his two teammates and made a telephone hand signal. For the next thirty seconds, he was speaking to someone, what he said was unintelligible for the people on the bus but he returned with a happy look on his face.

"Yeah, you can come, just fill these forms and don't try to sneak by, you will evacuate tomorrow in a Charon coming from Reach." - After saying the name of the military capital of Humanity, the passengers of the transport got happy, they would be on the strongest planet after earth, they'd be surely secure there. Surely it was due to them transporting a navy officer. -"You, as police though, are to help on the movement of civilians, then you'll be transported to the location of your nearest family member, only if you fill those blank spots of course." - After finishing, the marine handed out thirty papers to the people there to fill out. Then, there was a feeling of comfort on the people, until they heard the radio begin to play with a very weird series of notes.

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The UEG anthem was sounding in all civilian-oriented comms, the song that wasn't heard like this since the Far Isle Rebellion. While it was a boost in morale normally, the 'Oh inheritors of the stars' chorus repeated through the song, produced now a weird feeling on the people on all the corners of UNSC controlled space. Then, the televisions showed images of Admiral Terrance Hood looking at the camera while the radios just began flashing his words.

"Dear compatriots, no matter whether or not you feel that you should be thinking of me and the UNSC as your commanders or leaders, we are now in a situation where that should be put aside to fight a threat to our very existence. We are now fighting on Harvest, on Newsaka, Boundary, Persia, and Etalan, we have lost already twenty-two colonies with five million citizens, no, brothers and sisters, lost to these invaders. But, some think that our best bets to get a clearer future are… Unwise, this is with the assassination of admirals Go from Hellas, Triario from Forseti, and the attempted assassination of Vice Admiral Preston Cole, from Earth, with further plans on killing John Senior, ¿the responsible? Disgraceful people from our own species, and even worse, our own people, agents from the so-called Section Two tried to maintain greedy, horrible, and traitorous aristocrats on resources by trying to stop a reform made by humanity's hero that is the one we have seen as the best way to maintain the existence of humanity and its survival as an organized and prosperous race." - After saying that with a calm and assuring tone, typical of the cautious Admiral, the images in televisions, computers, and cellphones seeing the transmission showed a line of people, between them Mrs. Parangosky, the head of ONI and mostly operatives from the after-mentioned section; or at least that was what writing on the wall behind them said because Lieutenant John Mykonos, the right hand of Stanforth and thus part of Section III, was among the 14 ONI operatives.

"And, we will not forgive people that allowed a colony, Bomogin, to be exterminated just to have their data on glassing and the effects of those attacks on OUR people!" - After saying that, a squadron of UNSCA troopers came flashing the newly introduced BR55s, then, while in the background people were stunned as the Father of the two motherless kids saw; some shouts clamming the death of the traitors of humanity, which promptly infected everyone, even the man, whose badge said Roland Freemont; looked like he was anxious to see the people that dared to let his home planet be glassed; die.

A few seconds after this, the sounds of metal moving came through the radio, then, a loud boom just as the evacuation craft began to ascend in the spaceport near them.

In the screens, people could see how the wall was painted a crimson red, and how the bodies of the so-called traitors laid now on the pristine white floor that was part of what apparently is a facility on the outside on a green planet with only one 'yellow' sun, apparently earth given the few shots at the outside that the execution gave. The cheers of people than were expected, and roared like a zealot horde.

"And like we killed those traitors, fear not, we will kill the aliens that dare touch our lands, we will survive! And I am willing to give y li-" - But the excited discourse of the admiral was cut short, the emergency broadcast was on in the Redstow system followed by a loud boom above the heads of the people on the bus, the craft that had just lifted, was destroyed by a plasma torpedo. How did anyone know this? Well, because there was a CAR frigate above them.

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20 minutes earlier.

Oort cloud of the Redstow System.

CMA Sitting duck's patrol:

The Mako class corvette was surveying the asteroids that covered the metaphoric entrance to the system; after all, it was the CAA/CMA's duty to prospect now just to evade a total annexation; which could cause more turmoil that humanity was capable of enduring. The ship was working fast, just sending radar waves and advancing just when their shipborne 'Dumb' AI told them there wasn't much on a certain area; the Commander of the vessel, Mrs. María, wanted to find a uranium or titanium deposit, after all, that would surely give her command of a true intelligence vessel or something like the new Gladius class of corvettes, if not, at least she would overcome the shame that came when she had the control of one of the first CMA Shaw-Fujikawa stripped crafts and was carried by towing by a mere Diligence-class destroyer.

Eventually, when searching in what was likely remains of a protoplanet, possibly Redstow VI; she found a thorium deposit of about 2800 tons, enough to maintain a Circinius sized colony for five years. She eagerly prepared her ship to begin towing the 700m wide rock to the 'moon' of Redstow, which really was just a planetoid instead of an almost planet that the Luna was. She approached the surface of it and sent the Skt-13 Dropship with an EVA crew to attach the tungsten-titanium-carbon alloy cable with a drill and then to pass it to the ventral bay of the corvette; the plan was to then hope that they could move it before the end of the day to Bouvier station, where it would be processed.

The operation began slowly, after all only 7 members of the 50 persons on the crew were trained in this kind of operations, and only 1 actually knew how to operate the drill. Due to this, they had to be extra careful, having to improvise a heavy-duty EVA suit with the armor of the nine marines stationed on the ship for anti-boarding and crowd control.

They landed, registering immediately faint signals of radiation above the normal for a celestial object, the sign of Thorium. The crew, minus the shuttle pilot, began testing the ground for a packed bunch of silicate to resist the impact of the swift acceleration proper of a long voyage to the inner circle of the solar system.

While the people on the ground were working, on the ship they were still sending waves to try and find another resource-rich asteroid in this immense field; it was their 30th cycle sending a deep x-band sweep when they got the signal of a dense radar emitting 'stuff'.

1.8 kilometers of pure rock sending radiation to a corvette just 60 kilometers from it. That was unheard of, not even the mines on Alluvion were that big. That meant that there were at least 50000 tons of uranium or even uranium and a bit of natural plutonium; forget the thorium; that was enough to feed the sol system and Alpha Centauri for a whole year, or feed the entire UNSC Fleet of five Shiva nukes each ship. The commander obviously told the crew to keep working; they'd go to investigate if this was true, leaving the people technically stranded for the time being.

The now identified as Commander Maria Keyes, an ex ODST serving now on the commissioned navy side instead of her previous warrant side as an attaché to the UNSC Ἀθηνᾶ (Athena), an Orion-class Carrier, was thinking about becoming a governor or a Captain overseeing the mining operations on this planet as a whole thanks to this finding, maybe making this her home and prompting his son to come and do the same. But that was a faint dream as the AI after another pulse said that the radiation-emitting source began to move quickly in the direction of the ship that had towed her ship along with the CMA Flying duck for this operation. Then, she had visual identification of a side of the initial position of the radiation-emitting source; it was purple.

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First Contact:

After the sighting, the Commander tried to immediately send a message to her sister ship but was unable due to them being surely thousands of kilometers apart, with an alien ship inbound, but what she was able to do was send a message to her ´piggyback ride' alerting about the attack. The UNSC Diligence-class destroyer, The Providence, not having ever encountered a Covenant ship, made everyone nervous. Tough, nervousness didn't make them forget having read the data from Cole and Volkov's little manual on how to deal with the alien. The 2489 built ship didn't have a MAC, but being an Anti Air refitted ship after the insurrection plus the previous warning; made her able to stop the seven plasma torpedoes fired at them; for that matter, six of her 20mm cannons and eight of their 50mm ones, started firing towards the sure death the attack meant, in the background, the 1st gen Smart AI prepared a missile solution on both the enemy vessel and the torpedoes, enlisting their 8 Ares missiles and some 60 archers to the interception mission and sending them when they approached the ship at the 100km mark.

The ensuing explosion of the 2 torpedoes that were destroyed by the missiles instead of the projectiles, covered the acceleration of the human salvo which in a few seconds closed in with the alien vessel and struck it, the modern ARES missiles, were, unlike their older counterparts, nukes with the same payload but less accuracy than the Hyperion, and they proved effective, destroying the enemy shield after the ensuing explosion also produced rubble from the near asteroids and provoked them to fall as shrapnel to the enemy shield from almost all sides, overloading their protection.

The enemy commander surely wasn't happy though, as the enemy ship soon started flaring flashy colors that probably corresponded to the plasma lance, plasma shells, and lasers trying to hit something 800km from them. The 'excavation beam', or lance as the aliens preferred to call it; proved effective as it absolutely pierced the aft section of the ship, preventing the usage of 5 archer pods altogether. And while inaccurate, the plasma projectiles that did impact shredded armor even when they were enough far too as Volkov put it, be: 'just a hindrance whose exposition for more than 15 seconds kills the affected section'. But the human Captain commanding that ship wasn't dumb either, he began advancing to starboard, trying to make a circle where they could meet with the CMA Flying duck and make a strike using the Mako's 'enlarged Onager' or formally known as the Trebuchet Mini-MAC; thus giving them a good hit that the Flying duck could use, or that they could use as, hopefully, a way to kill that ship. But they were met by the scourge of human ships, a squadron of seraphs getting comfortable 20km from the Providence, and so the captain (a so-called Kenny Gun) stood up and tapped the Comms officer's shoulder.

"Tell our two sisters that they'll have to work alone." - He said firmly, knowing that the man knew of what he was talking about, then he sat at the bridge again, touching a button on his chair, projecting a cartoonish purple dog come out. -"Coraje, please get us a proximity fuse solution on the alien craft and another on the 'sissies." - The AI nodded and got to work.

As his captain asked, the AI and the gunner team worked to get missiles down the range to intercept the seraphs before they got on the 10km mark, and another on the enemy ship, and when they shot, the enemy vessels did not offer resistance, getting instantly deleted by the 60kg warheads of the 5 AA Archers that they had and the enemy ship getting its frontal armor cracked but not defeated.

[I fucked it] – The Captain thought, those alien crafts were supposed to be agile in space and pretty slick, they were gone fast, if they were not strike craft as he thought, then they were… Recon craft for range finding.

And as the feared, a plasma lance pierced directly on the aft, killing the engines and then going through the ship killing all port side weapons and compartments with ease, the enemy ship had slowly advanced enough to have its lance in a better position to attack, now they were dead on the water and had only one thing to do.

"Coraje, delete all that and send all of our ordnance towards those fuckers." - The captain said while suppressing the need to punch something. The young official then stood up and said. -"Everyone to the escape pods, now!".

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The Sitting duck was seeing everything at a distance, getting the message of their superior official just as the UNSC ship exploded after another plasma lance strike to its keel. Meanwhile, the shuttle had come near them, towing behind the asteroid. This immediately prompted the commander to act.

"Stop that ship! We are in a fight with an enemy battlecruiser that's no more than twenty kilometers from us." - She stated furious, making the slowly moving craft go to a halt.

The pressure was enormous, they did not know what to do, they did not have a MAC, their MiniMAC was probably enough to blow a hole on the cracked bow of the ship, but that was frankly suicidal. That was until they saw a party of missiles going to the enemy ship, it was the last volley of missiles from their comrades; the 500 missiles were intercepted quickly, the laser turrets trying hard to shoot every single one of them, but they were unable to stop them, luckily for the aliens, the 150 remaining missiles were not able to kill the enemy ship due to it regenerating it's shields just as they were to be impacted.

It was an understatement to say that they were demoralized, it was stupid to think a single destroyer could take on a CCS-class battlecruiser, the same kind of ship Cole had lost seven Charon class frigates lost to before an eight gave it a fully charged MAC shot and killed it; but what they saw was more than enough to make them think that miracles were possible. Keyes hoped that her son didn't go through the same hell as she was having in this war. Well, she was seventy, she expected to have to fight the famed CAS-class Carrier and die instantly instead of getting a shot here.

"Uh… Miss, what do I do with the asteroid? Do we leave it here and we try to smash those fuckers with our missiles?" - Asked a half-infuriated, half-eager petty officer commanding the shuttle.

That alone gave her an idea if the shrapnel of some asteroids gave the final kill to the first coming of the enemy shield… Would a real asteroid be able to kill it?

"Yeah, new plan, attach your craft to us and let's ram that alien freak show." - After that she smirked, getting surprised looks from the crew, she immediately closed her eyes and began explaining. -"Look, even if we use our 'lil' mac' we can't scratch that thing without softening them, this is our only hope, we don't carry any nukes and we only have sixty archers… So… If you want, you can use the escape pods and get out, but this may be the only hope of the people evacuating."

The looks changed immediately from scorn and anxiousness to understanding and pride, no one wanted to get out, and even if someone wanted, the pride and the sense of comradeship was enough to make them not voice it, thus, the first officer, a Lieutenant commander, drew a flight course to strike the half of the ship, was a slow moving-massive object could seriously hinder their ship and quite possibly cut 'em in half.

"I see… Is someone against this?" - No one even spoke, they just looked to their commander, where everyone depended as they had no 'Smart' AI. –"Then, Lieutenant Samir, give me a solution on their ship, even if we don't make a change, we have more probabilities if we throw our missiles." - A nod was all she got, aside from a small smile. Her crew was ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for humanity.

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Fifty seconds later, with the shuttle in, they started their engine, getting to a velocity equal to 100km/h. They had to maneuver slowly through the asteroid field to evade getting stuck with their kilometer-long payload or their two hundred-meter-long hull. Their fine movements upwards and then downwards had to be calculated using an old subroutine of the AI that made them crash with a little 4-meter long asteroid; disabling their Trebuchet.

Nevertheless, they got into position 20 kilometers from the enemy, directly under their ventral side and hidden just because they were under rubble from the explosions from before. Now they just had to start their emergency thrusters and get the ship into MACH 10 before the enemy killed them for sure.

"Three… Two… One… Ignite!" - Said the Commander, making the petty officer in charge of a movement tense as he pushed the button and let the ship follow its predestined course.

"Get the Archers out!" - As she said this, in just a second the missiles got out and immediately hit the enemy shield, it was still at 90% strength, it wouldn't do, the doubt began to sink into the commander Keyes as she saw their attack defeated.

Soon, the presumably Sangheili leading the ship ordered the attack of the menial enemy that in some six seconds would hit their ship, but they had to change their attention towards something else, a MiniMAC hit that while weak on its own, was more than enough to pierce the enemy shield and strike the port of the ship, cracking the armor. Then sixty archer missiles came, ineffectively intercepted by lasers.

It was the Flying Duck, they were 20km away from them, but they had sent their grain of sand to help, and it was enough to distract the enemy from bearing all its weapons towards them, the Commander sent a 'Thanks' to their allied ship just as the bow of the corvette smashed itself against the shield of the enemy vessel, destroying it, then, the asteroid smashed the enemy in half, it wasn't a contest.

The explosion ensuing from this encounter could be seen as a small flash by the Trident, a Poseidon-class Light Carrier, and his two frigate escorts; from thousands of miles away. But as the Flying duck's commander was sending the summary of the battle and the ingenious tactic used by Keyes, an alert was set; five slipspace ruptures were detected in the vicinity. Soon, a pair of CAR class Heavy Frigates, a pair of CPV heavy destroyers, and an SDV-class heavy Corvette was seen appearing, surely this was the CCS flotilla and the reason it did not strike the colony immediately. The Corvette was no match for these enemies, and the maximum it could do was send a warning to the people in the colony along with the data; but after the signal was given, the SDV found them, sending a pair of torpedoes that deleted the Flying duck from existence.

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The space engagement:

The flotilla eventually was detected by the Trident, but it was too late. They were already halfway to the Colony, only protected by a trio of corvettes, a destroyer, and twelve frigates; it was preoccupying. They had to make a jump there, but maybe it wouldn't even reach before they were the only force defending human space.

In the colony meanwhile, the frigate screen, informally known as the Torpedoers, having lost contact with the UNSC The Providence, decided to get around the Orbital port, protecting it at all costs, hoping the CMA corvettes and the Destroyer inland were able to send a signal to them about where the enemy is, after all, precaution is king on these situations.

This proved right for them as they lost contact with the CMA Cornelius De Tamara, which in turn sent a 'THEY ARE HERE' scream through comms as the last message. This allowed the UNSC to fix their radars towards the sector of space where the enemy is to have destroyed their ally; it was the space between the 8th planet on the system and the 7th, just 100 thousand kilometers for them, enough for a covenant ship to be inbound in about ten minutes. That was when the Carrier present on the system alerted them about a five-ship formation, along with its composition.

Their MACs readied, they could surely take the frigates and the corvette, but the destroyer would be a headache. But maybe god will be generous this time and allow the Heavy cruiser to come from the other side of the system if they die, otherwise, this colony, even if they let one destroyer alive; will surely fall as this colony donated their aircraft to Etalan's militia and the AA guns were scrapped to make their destroyer, the flotilla had brought some 20 Longswords, 60 Nandaos and 10 Baselards, and while it was some, they wouldn't be enough to bring one down if it has its shields on, but, it'll have to work.

At 1000 kilometers from the planet's orbit, they had a targeting solution on the enemy fleet. The five Paris, Two strike stalwarts, two AA Stalwarts, and three Charons decided to divide their efforts between the destroyers. Captain Aimi Torune, the commanding officer of the CMA group and thus second in command of all human forces (At least in space) in the system; decided that they would not risk a thing, their rivals were the destroyers. Five shots to each one and the remaining two are to be in reserve in case they do not blow the Jiralhanae commanding those ships (as they tended to do) up.

"On my mark… Remember, fifty percent power for the firing line and sixty for the reserve, we need another salvo in around a minute for the other ships, they still can kill us if we aren't cautious." - The captain advised when the enemy touched the 900km mark, getting them to believe they'd try to get to the 500km range to not let the UNSC survive their torpedoes.

"Captain, please remember, we have nukes on board, we could give them to the longswords." - Said with scorn a projection of a WW1-german-style officer, a 1st gen AI.

"There's no time; we already have the birds going for the flank. We have to make it work as we can." - After saying that, the AI showed a crude image showing the outline of the enemy vessels reaching the 800km mark. -"All ships, fire and get an anti-air solution, prepare to angle your ship armor in case they get their flashy lasers, then prepare an anti-ship one." - Ordered with the normal military tone.

After that, a volley of 10-60ton tungsten or uranium tipped slugs went at 40km/s due to their unusual charge, contrary to the usual 20% of Human ships. They sliced through space, hitting in 10 seconds the unexpecting destroyers that we're accelerating towards their prey. The destroyer in the left of the destroyer was utterly obliterated thanks to it being hit by two uranium-tipped projectiles from the Charons, the ships with the best MAC on the system aside from the heavy ones on the Panzerschiff; the other one was damaged fully, leaving practically only their engines and a few weapon systems alive but without a bridge to command it; it was dead on the water. Then there was the question about the rest of the enemy fleet because it shouldn't be so easy… And it wasn't, at 100km they detected a group of 30 banshees and 15 seraphs while at the same time they got notice of the launching of 20 plasma torpedoes that was simply overwhelming.

The Air group was called immediately to defend the frigates that didn't doubt a single moment when starting to fire their 20 and 50mm guns against the incoming enemy. The two 'light cruisers' that hadn't fired yet were unable to hit their target, as the frigates went to land evading the Slugs fired at them, leaving the SDV alone to rush against the humans, with the weird company of the already fired weapons and the craft.

It was to become routine. Missiles getting torpedoes down as per Cole's notes, and the spacecraft while a nuisance, were slowly getting shot down by the ramparts, but when they were sufficiently close, the banshees struck the hangars of the human vessels, unloading their Sangheili pilots in the interior of the ships. Even worse was the fact that this inconvenience was enough to slack the gunners of the ships and make the AIs distracted enough for the torpedoes to hit two Paris, the UNSC Ambrosoli and the UNSC Averna, killing both, a Charon was struck in the bow too, blowing it's MAC off. The Seraphs with their plasma bolts began to preoccupy the now 10 ship strong formation, as the plasma bolts usually damaged or destroyed weapon systems.

But the hammer that broke the vase was the SDV making a slipspace jump and appearing behind the human ships, a thing that meant death. But all shipborne AI made a swift decision, all Archers out. But it was too late to save the engines of the Stalwart ships and the bridge of the Charon that had been damaged before, the UNSC Hollow was dead on the water. Still, the sheer mass of missiles striking was enough to kill the SDV and the remaining fighters, albeit damaging every human vessel due to the sheer amount of shrapnel and explosions of varying payloads exploiting near them, but they were alive, and they had lost 3 ships for 3 enemy ships…. Now, the Sangheili on their hangars had to be dealt with, and the now arriving human aircraft wouldn't help with that

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On the Capital:

The shipmasters of the police ships sent to push a landing force with the CCS and SDV began to discuss. Both were Kig Yar, though one was a T'vaoan and the other a 'menial' Jackal; and both had different ideas on how to proceed to cripple the human world. One suggested a strike to the capital, another said that it was better if they went to the outskirts of the planet and tried to establish a base where reinforcements could begin to pour in, just like on Boundary.

Finally, the two decided to part ways to fulfill their own designs to carry the will of the prophets, one would go to the south of the planet and the other would continue its descent into the capital of the humans following the order of the Sangheili shipmaster that ordered them to secure land and begin killing humans, a very general order to give and expected from an honor seeking race that really thought could take on a human MAC volley on its own.

Following the path of the Jackal, he soon began descending into the Capital of the colony, Brewland, who was being guarded by three corvettes coordinating air traffic, but they weren't oblivious of what was happening, they hid on the city, much to the citizens' surprise, as they were just now receiving the alarm from the orbital station above and corvettes never landed. But sure enough, they saw how a purple-looking object began descending. The screams of the people there began to flare, the screeching of impending doom was assured as the covenant ship began firing plasma projectiles to the city; prompting the people to get disordered as they tried to overrun the spaceport to get an opportunity to escape, but the ships on air were shot off by laser pulses and the plasma lances on the ships that began slowly, but surely, glassing the surface of the city.

People began attacking the CMA vessels for not protecting them, trying to make them act, and sure, five minutes since the Covenant vessel had reached the 300m of height and the Redstow militia was firing all their guns towards the enemy, sadly failing to get enough damage racked up in the shields of the ship; if only they had at least an Onager here.

But the two Makos and the Gladius ignited their engines, accelerating and breaking some buildings on its flight upwards. They even started their emergency thrusters on just to be able to move the bow of the ship in the direction of the light cruiser and gave the enemy a shot. The Light MAC was enough to break the shield and the MiniMAC cracked the armor. But infuriating a covenant vessel isn't very smart. Soon enough the alien ship changed the direction of its ventral plasma lance into the human ships, and fired in companionship a barrage of 15 plasma projectiles, enough to kill two of the three corvettes before the third, the Gladius, tried to escape as it was severely damaged from one of the plasma hits melting through its armor and destroying the small hangar.

The Kig Yar decided not to risk anything in this combat, they were sufficient to kill a trio of human 'middle vessels' (as they tended to call the frigates), so this even lesser kind of ships was not a real menace, only the fact that they managed to get the shields off the ship was the real preoccupying fact and something that managed to almost made the Jackal reconsider. Following that train of thought; the shipmaster decided to start striking the enemy with the plasma lance, the pursuit of the corvette though was extensive, it was fast, almost as fast as a Storm Cutter; so the Heavy frigate had to keep itself occupied with trying with this instead of attacking the city, something only realized after five minutes of the chase in which the corvette launched a series of missiles that while intercepted mostly by the lasers, the twenty that struck the ventral side of the ship were able to destroy de middle section; eliminating all the embarked troops, remaining fighters and the plasma lance able to hit the corvette.

But no one can hide or run from the covenant, the frigate made a pinpoint in-system slipspace jump, getting just ahead of the Gladius and killing it by ramming it. The poor humans did not stand a chance to the nanolaminate hull even if their fusion reactor exploding made enough damage to destroy the bow's systems save for the bridge and a pair of plasma turrets.

After that, they proceeded to continue their journey towards the capital to keep glassing it, just as they received the notification about the SDV being destroyed.

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The Requisite of Absolute:

The T'vaoan led ship instead went into the fringes of the human territory, glassing the path as they came. The proud female shipmaster was sure that if she could get a nice landing spot where to unload his centuriae of soldiers; she could hold until the Shadow of Intent of Fleetmaster Jul'Mdamee came to finish any human resistance left on the system along with his two seasoned CCS Cruisers from a recent Lekgolo turmoil on the outer colonies of the Covenant. Surely she would get the praise of the moderate leader for making a breach while his counterpart was destroyed by the human concentration; making her suitable to get into a better ship. Like a light destroyer to work in bigger fleets; like the one assaulting the so-called 'Harvest'.

"Mistress Chur'Releal, sorry for interrupting but our sensors have captured a middle human ship in the distance." - Said a Sangheili Major with a pragmatic intent while looking at a console in the bridge of the 'small' warship. -"Maybe we could strike them from above and get them with our lance before they can put their… 'Super cannons' to bear."

"You speak truthfully. I shall follow your little idea, Let 'Voliree; but you are the one to man the lance then." - She ordered, fully knowing that maybe this was a human ruse, knowing that human 'middle ships' worked in groups, even more, when she just saw twelve ships lined up in orbit.

"As you wish." - After saying that, the Sangheili officer began walking towards the gunner stations to fulfill his honor wish.

Then the ship began its ascend into the higher scales of human airspace using the distance and light refraction to hide their approach; then, when it was time, the shipmaster gave the order, the lance struck a lightship ascending before turning its beam into the bigger ship next to them, trying to take out the bridge of the human destroyer.

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Red Fist:

Captain Allaire got the vision of the Covenant vessel five seconds before they struck the evacuation craft; he after that asked for a salvo of their two naval coilguns and an archer solution of half their missiles; while at the same time he ordered the crew to 'incline' the ship, facing the bow to the enemy and accelerating even if it may mean losing energy and falling to the city under them.

Then, while they were angling themselves, the death beam struck the citadel of the last destroyer made before the Cole Reforms, the titanium melting poured into the dining hall of the ship and got the ammunition bay of a Sentry autocannon, ripping the gun from the hull before the change of position was able to dissipate enough of the attack for the amour to take it long enough to let the ship dispend the after-mentioned payload without the help of the small coilguns, but then the truth snapped into them, they hadn't charged their MAC gun and the enemy was charging the 'cleanse beam' again, they couldn't do enough damage to the ship, and they couldn't use nukes without killing the people blow them.

"I've got this." - Said the little surprise of this ship, the first 4th generation AI made on the Outer colonies appeared in a projection; the Asian looking woman that did not ask for permission to charge a low powered MAC when the sensors capted something a few kilometers away. It was a blessing, because she with a thought got a low powered 50ton slug from the left Light MAC right through the stern of the enemy ship, killing its engines and energy, making it loses power

"We fucking did it!" - Shouted a seaman manning with his team the portside coilgun battery. Soon the sentiment was shared, but it quickly died.

The maneuvering human ship saw how there was a ship five times as massive as itself that was falling to them due to the loss of power, and they were accelerating towards it because of the previous tactic; thus, the captain just shouted:"Slipspace jump now!" - And made a jump into randomness, crashing into the land next to the city of Tomoe while the frigate still fell into the spaceport and the landing area near it. Maybe he caused a lot of collateral damage and his ship was almost dead, but he downed those fuckers before they could kill more humans.

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On the ground:

The short engagement was seen with excitement by the people, that immediately stopped their shouts and screams before gazing at the 10-second blow exchange that suddenly made their hearts fear again, as the enemy craft began accelerating towards them in a free-fall, the officer driving the bus did not think and just acted, starting the engine and pushing the transport to break the barrier and keep going against the weak transit before the 300m vessel crashed into the ground and sent a shockwave that dazzled everyone on the vicinity, worsen by the small slipspace jump's own energy being dispersed, causing widespread damage in the area near the spaceport. The bus itself lost its windows as they broke from the shockwave, sending shards to everyone next to them, knocking some people down, and killing an old lady.

Some later, the UNSC officer, the now identified as Joseph Harper woke up, seeing his arms covered with blood and his chin wet. He quickly saw downwards and watched as his two kids were still on his arms, secured by him, albeit they had minor cuts, especially his little Camelia.

The reckoning tho came in the form of multiple screams and gunshots in the background and the fact that there wasn't a single policeman on the bus, nor were there the other people that had been on the bus with them, save for knocked out people and a single man sited on the metal floor. Thus, he looked to their panic-knocked-out kids and left them on their seats, and when he approached a black-skinned man in a fetal position and tapped his left shoulder, doing his movements in a sluggish behavior.

"Sorry mate, but, can you take care of my kids while I got-… No, first, do you know what's happening?" - He asked dismissing the first train of thought and focusing on knowing what the hell was outside.

"They are here! The ship fell into the airport and it began to pour aliens! The police went to try and stop them but we haven't heard of them, and the screams keep getting closer and closer!" - Shouted with desperation before letting out a screech and forcing himself to look at the officer. -"Yo-you are… A navy man… right? Yes? Yes! You can kill those aliens, right?" - He asked with a hopeful tone that made the company to his newly-formed tears and his weird smile.

"Do not worry, I'll die before letting them touch you. Just do not let them get near my kids, take this." - Knowing this man was his only hope to have a defense for his kids while he fulfilled his duty with humanity, probably the sudden apparition of aliens made the three hundred militiamen an easy prey by a concentration of superior enemies, he had to act, he was probably the higher up here, as he was the officer of a small corvette before he came to evacuate with his family; and thus, he could be the next best thing those men had to a book of data about the covenant, this was what he was trained for.

But reality is often disappointing, after giving the black man a knife from his Navy Combat Uniform, he walked down from the bus and saw that down the road were the green flashes of covenant plasma guns and near him, there was a dead militiaman with an M2A5 rifle in his hands, ten meters away from him was probably the heaviest vehicle in the region, a Bison APC with a 20mm gun that had been utterly annihilated, leaving a scorched man on his back, probably one of the pilots. Even further down the road, at least 20 fighters were shooting at an unknown amount of enemies on the spaceport. The constant fire and blasts were enough to make his ears hurt a little, but he wasn't going to chicken out now, so he began with a light walk, going towards the nearest group of fighters with his now more realistic plan of just fighting until reinforcements could come.

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Red fists' crash:

The once pride of the system began to show the energy lights, there was a radiation leak on the Shaw Fujikawa room, probably the cost of a maneuver like jumping in-system. The underbelly of the ship was totally bashed and only a week of repairs could make this ship space worthy again, but they had survived, the people on the bridge soon began ordering the hazmat unit to go and see the problem, the captain was more preoccupied about the enemy surviving, and after a few minutes they got the confirmation on it; they had to act.

"You, AI! Tell me how many dropships we have left, did the Nandaos survived?" - Inquired to the projection that supposedly was watching them even if she did not show herself right now.

"I have a name, it's Jessica by the way, but of the three pelicans, one is flight-ready, I assume you plan onto getting the marines and the… five out of ten UAV multirole fighters you have right now?" - Answered the disembodied voice with a calm tone, much to the surprise of the crew that wasn't accustomed to AI.

"Perfect, is the dropship carrying the troop-pod?" - Asked with hope the young captain. An 'nhn-nhn' sound from the speakers was all he got, probably a no. -"Still, twenty troopers and some missiles are going to be of much help. Get the word everyone; and if it is needed, we will go too. You all have your magnums, dontcha?"

Weird looks were all that he received, prompting the smile of the captain to get back into a serious look. Nevertheless, their home was under attack, so he knew they wouldn't hesitate if he told everyone to get out and walk to the spaceport and storm it.

"Sir, I have news from orbit." - Said a Petty officer manning the comms.

"Are they any good?" - Asked the Allaire sarcastically, knowing the frigates usually did not last long without destroyers or cruisers.

"Yes, the formation up there killed three covenant ships with three of their own lost, also, they got boarded by several 'elites' each one, but are repelling them effectively… I also have notice of the corvettes on capital dying and the covenant cruiser getting destroyed by a flight of fighters coming from the fleet above!" - Cries of happiness grew on everyone on-board, the covenant could be defeated on more-or-less even terms, this was the proof, their luck, no, their prowess finally shined against the tactically inferior mass assaulters that the covenant was. Hugs were exchanged; even the Ai let a faint 'yay' sound. -"Sir, the UNSC Prinz Eugen is asking us if we're secure."

Everyone on the bridge shut up. The only ship that survived the battle of Second Base, 2520 made Dreadnought, as CMA called it, Battleship as the UNSC called it; the last of ten ships made exclusively by ONI for weapons testing that usually were seen on Reach, Mars, or Luna. It was commanded by a Two stars-Rear Admiral, one of the five great 'Star officers' on the Outer Colony campaign, the famed John Troyez Senior, an Eridanus Secondus born tactical genius that made a name on the campaign on that system, stating only that he did it thinking the rebels there had killed his son. It was enough to make everyone feel safe under its metaphorical wings interpreted by its two Heavy (Once considered Mini-SuperMACs) cannons and its impressive display of coilguns and an understandable amount of Nandaos Fighters and ODSTs to make sure it could hit pretty much everything, not envying any other ship on the UNSC fleet save for the Supercarriers.

"Tell them to send a group here, we might have a mostly undamaged covvie ship to take, and a city to save." - Said with proud Allaire after some weird silence.

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The Requisite of Absolute's crash:

This wasn't happening. She couldn't have lost to a puny human middle ship, she was a shipmaster selected as a spearhead for an invasion of a planet that had resources that would help for the campaigns against the heretics. She was part of the fleet of Punishment Advent and one of the first light cruisers to carry a real centuriae of elite soldiers to clean up and retreat quickly to get information about the enemy.

But reality hits hard. The bow of the ship was cut off from the rest, sections were destroyed, and at least thirty warriors were dead. The systems were dead and they didn't have any kind of heavy support until their Fleetmaster came. Even worse was the fact that the humans surely outnumbered them thirty to one, a guess not far from reality when it came to the shier populace.

"R'tas Vadumee! Come here right now!" - Shouted the T'vaoan while trying to suppress her emotions.

She waited for a minute, and then she shouted again -"VADUMEE!" - And no one came, she then became irate, her feathers began pointing upwards and those on her neck seemed to almost snap out of her skin, her screeches now became what dominated the armored bridge where the unfortunate trio of Sangheili, two jackals, and an engineer had the infortune to hear her.

"Shipmistress! I'm sorry, I was coordinating our troops, humans have grouped around us and try to enter the ship, some have breached but we managed to repel them." - Answered a preoccupied voice now crossing through the arcs of the left door that lead to the command room of the now-dead vessel.

"You!" - She bansheed trying to hit the Major with a plasma knife, but she stopped herself on the ground, where she thought:

[This isn't how I should act, we have to strike before the humans regroup and come in-masse, not try and attack my second in command]

After that she stood up, looking at the taller alien and speaking with still a scornful voice. -"Listen, if that's what you're doing, I need you to keep the 'lower' soldiers here; we will go outside and rout the humans; we have to endure until the rest of the fleet comes."

"Though I might prefer trenching ourselves here and fighting a defensive battle, your proposition seems like an understandable compromise between defense and offense. I'll oblige your orders and prepare my units. Where shall we exit from?" - Said the pseudo-officer knowing that maybe they had a better opportunity to survive acting instead of waiting for a human ship to barrage them and just kill everyone.

"You shall part from our ruined hangar, it's the best place from where to go, and then you shall go through the 'Main road' of these humans and then disperse. And remember, we are to confuse the enemy and hopefully kill enough of their fighters, but don't be foolish and try to gain glory fighting." - Said the now calmer shipmaster before walking towards a jackal and tripping him of his weapons with him only looking with scorn, not daring to go against his leader's ways.

"I already have five minors fighting an invasion force, I'll go now, Shipmistress." - After saying that, the Sangheili ran towards the after-mentioned position.

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Tomoe, five minutes after that:

The gunfight slowly went each time quieter, screams came from multiple directions; but the UNSC officer had his rifle gunning an unknown figure covered in a now reddish coat that exploded and let militiamen get a few shots into its skin and gun it down, not long before a green flash struck his helmet, making it fall off and revealing a third-degree burn on his head and now on fire hair due to the impact. Another man quickly walked towards him while pressing the trigger of his MA37. The squad now was reduced to four people that had killed a pair of elites, a jackal and some unggoys; but they knew the only reason they had been so lucky is that the other streets had more men and they enjoyed more protection due to them being in the main street leading to the spaceport.

"I'm applying biofoam, cover me!" - Shouted the private from before when crouching and getting a weird tube from his battle backpack and starting to apply weird foam into the head of the hurt soldier.

A gunless firing at the maybe eight enemies is a problem, one worsens when one of the elites, a red armored one, disappeared. The M739 SAW operator had to get near the M295-bearing marksmen to protect him and to have him pinpoint the trio of jackal snipers targeting them; ignoring reasons like the fright they must feel when seeing an enemy just vanishing.

Joseph on the other side just tried to shoot anything that tried to get in the left rail of the road, because it could mean that a stray shot may get into the bus and thus hit his children; his accuracy wasn't the best though, making him waste bullets in all of this skirmish that eventually caught him, sensing a 'click' when pressing the trigger again to kill a grunt some 30 meters away from him.

``I'm out of rounds! ``- He shouted to alert his 'teammates', but quickly realized, his enemies dropped weapons, and probably their weapons were more effective against those pesky shields. Thus he tried to devise any kind of weird colored body or thing on the ground near him; the answer to his plea for an enemy tool that might help his mates on the last line of defense? A plasma pistol of one of the elites they had killed when it rushed towards them, eating a .338 bullet from the DMR operator right through his head. He had no consideration if it was too dangerous, he just instinctively ran to it, jumping over the car hulls left there after the shockwave or the evacuation.

The marksman noticed how the jackals now targeted the strangely clothed human and used this opportunity to get some five bullets to those three aliens, and having them all on another abandoned bus at the end of the street, in the Spaceport's parking lot; made it enough easy to get the five seconds to save the running officer, earning a 'Hurrah' from his teammate, but this was made due to a sudden adrenaline rush, and he immediately let a sigh, resting after holding his breath for the rapid-fire-session, making him not realize he was the target of a grunt major, who got a trio of needler shots on his throat in a burst fire not seen by the pair. Before the marksman could warn his 'friend', the crystals exploded, with some shards even impacting the gunner next to him who now saw the digestive tract of the guy that had been killed now and his own wounds too; making him sense a mix of pain and disgust that prompted him to puke.

But his was worth it, the Navy lieutenant grabbed the plasma pistol from the Sangheili they had killed, and instinctively like he always knew how to man one of these so-called 'holy designs' by the covenant; he pointed it into an unsuspecting lance trying to advance now that the MG fire wasn't holding them off. And… He pressed the trigger.

The three grunts in the front were totally scorched by the weapon pointed to them, the elite behind them had lost its shields, and the Kig Yar at the side just began to run towards its ship, disregarding any kind of order and getting killed by a minor elite while he ran as treachery apparently isn't an option in this case.

[I'm doing it]- Was the only thing the official kept thinking about while shooting every single thing he saw, getting praise from the two operational militiamen still alive and the grounded one. But he suddenly felt a pain in his back.-"You split-jaw fuckface!" - Screamed a voice recognizable as the MG gunner, who proceeded to shoot straight to the Sangheili major behind the now falling official, whose pain was numbed by a sudden rush of adrenaline that made the sight of the red armor even the more impactful on his mind. He was attacked by none other than the best fighter on the fleet aside from the Fleetmaster; something unknown by the human, but clear with how he sliced through the human defending the now defeated officer and then jumped into the other pair.

The quick alien soon appeared just a meter away from the recovering riflemen, he was prepared to finish him with a swing of his sword, but he was stopped by the arms of a puny human pushing him away from extending his arm enough to pierce the middle section of the injured man.

"You ain't touchin' him!" - Shouted the soldier now looking directly in the eyes to the soldier, but he received a punch directly to his face, soon, a lost battle ensued, the injured soldier got up and the pair of Redstowers began trying to fend off the alien.

Meanwhile, the officer was still shooting at the enemies, his cauterized wound was beginning to feel weird and he couldn't feel his legs, but his hands were still capable of pushing the trigger to finally kill the Sangheili he had depleted the shield before; and then turn to shoot at the Major; whom already had killed the 'healthy' riflemen, apparently by bashing his head to the bus where his kids were. That ignited anger inside the man, the lieutenant did not wait a single minute before letting himself act on inertia, crawling to the nearest car and escalating it until he was above the capo, letting him have good sight to the alien that now had grabbed by the throat the last militiamen. He had charged the pistol, putting a plasma bolt big enough to probably kill the alien that did not have its shields on thanks to the physical contact with the humans. But he saw how other Xenos were running forward. They were to kill his kids. They could not be stopped. He had to choose, try to be a nuisance to distract them even for a second longer, or help the only soldier capable of setting a fire position to defend them?

The backlash from letting the bolt go was big, the heat itself had burnt his hand into the handle of the gun, a thing that had him screaming with pain partly suppress by the relief after seeing how he had killed a running Sangheili not with an impact, but rather the sheer power of it passing near its head. Even worse, the now-dead militiamen were going to be joined by the black man from before who struck the Sangheili with a surprise jump into him, managing to pierce the flesh of the Major's throat before getting launched towards the ground and stepped on. Now the officer was let to see how his kids were newly awaken and spectating the show on the window next to the black-skinned man hopelessly stretching his knife-armed hands against the Sangheili as they were in the eyes of the enemy.

"NOOOO!" - The man shouted while new sounds of gunfight could be heard, morphing its pain screeching into those words, getting the attention of the alien that now was probably asking why the injured man was screeching and now, looking directly into his eyes.-"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM THEM!" - Screamed the officer, first he had lost his wife and had made himself not attack the policeman due to his sense of duty, and now that little shit was trying to kill his children. He didn't know what to do, his fingers hurt too much to start firing again. Even worse, the alien moved his sword-equipped arm towards the kids that just covered themselves under the flimsy metal of the bus, getting a scream from the pained man and then another insult.-"YOU SPLIT JAW DEFORMED SPLIT JAW, I'M GOING TO HAUNT YOU EVEN AFTER I DIE IF YOU PUT A FINGER ON MY KIDS!" -

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The Major was confused, the man that carried a sacred tool was shouting at him after menacing those… Little humans, brethren of that species, maybe? It was a good display of… Honour. A male defending the little, unseen in any covenant species aside from the Unggoys and Sangheili, sure it was interesting, but he had orders to carry; maybe he wasn't going to finish the kids, but the obvious fighter had to die, so, while his troops advanced further into the city after defeating the last defending humans; he walked slowly but surely towards him. The human then while still looking angry, stopped pointing the gun towards his enemy, maybe he reached the conclusion that if he hadn't killed those kids then the price was his own life; a good exchange that he would follow, maybe not his troops, but he would try to ensure their lives, maybe the hierarchs would like to have them as prisoners at the very least.

"Just kill me, but leave them alone… Meerde sans honneur." - Said the defeated rival with a weird tone not knew by the warrior, earning a weird smile from the Sangheili, honour was present on the enemy; this was a war with more meaning than just religion.

A deafening sound was heard when the sword of the blade warrior was going to strike the man he had injured before. Now, three figures were in the scene, and the one on the floor was the Sangheili. With a scarred head and the two jaws of the left side missing the major asked himself [What happened?]

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"You ain't killing any more humans you freak!" - Screamed a marine with a shotgun that just now had been fired, and the tried to get another shot but the alien cloaked itself and got out, evading the slug fired at his head with the quickness usual to someone of his skill. The soldier quickly turned his head around and crouched before getting his MPV submachine gun and getting a burst to on a retreating Sangheili that was running behind his Unggoy troops towards the spaceport. Then the marine looked into the official, the wounded human was now his preoccupation; any survivor is a must protect, even more, if it wears the naval BDU.-"Don't worry sir, you're getting out of here, we already won in space, just hold a little longer." - Spoke the now identified as a female marine, who began searching for more wounds aside from the big rip on his stomach and spine.

"Me… My… Kids…" - Stuttered the navy man while pointing to the bus, where near it around ten marines were seen rushing the routed covvie soldiers. His weak arm now dropped into the metal of the car under him and them closing his eyes.-"Secure them." - He said with a tear on his left eye, getting knocked out by a sudden collapse made by the stress of the last ten minutes.

The marine wanted to do something; it was horrible to see this kind of thing happen in war. But it was this kind of case whose they tried to prevent, that's why she had joined the military, but she wasn't going to cry nor get herself distracted.

"Juarez, there are kids on the bus near the Bison, get them out of here! Horace, get some biofoam for this naval officer!" - She spoke to the radio on her helmet, she saw one of the running marines turn to her and when she indicated to the bus, he ran into the bus. She then heard a high-pitched scream there, she laughed, and then proceeded with her run towards the fleeing aliens, but before reaching the parking lot of the old spaceport; she looked to the father now being tended by their combat medic; maybe she was crazy, but she could swear he felt a smile on that man.

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The Assault on the stranded enemy:

The fight had been a successful one until now, in space there was a covenant boarding action but it was controlled by the ODST and Marine groups on the frigates who even managed to capture some aliens.

The slipped 'frigates' were contained, the one on the capital got nuked by a frigate of the Trident's group, and the Red fist's fifty (Now thirty-eight) man strong force, sent a successful counterattack to the enemy along with the remains of the 3rd battalion; getting the enemy to fortress themselves in the inner parts of the spaceport and their own ship.

But now they had to finish the fight. They had the UNSC Prinz Eugen above Tomoe and started to pour hordes of marines into the airspace, and with that, the technical leader of the operation to take the enemy frigate was contacted.

"Captain Allaire, please tell me how's the situation being handled." - Sounded a calm but secure voice in the bridge of the Red Fist, causing everyone to get rigid; it was the butcher of Eridanus Secundus.

"Sir, we have a pelican and four Nandaos as air support and around forty soldiers storming enemy positions with the militia and police's fifty men, we approximate there being thirty enemies left, more importantly, we have secured an ONI section three Lieutenant Commander that had apparently manning an enemy gun and helping the local militia. We expect to have the frigate clean in around thirty minutes." - The captain came to respond much to the shock of everyone.

"Good, I'll send some of my hell jumpers to help aside from my marines, then I'll keep patrolling. I advise you to do so too, I've been informed about the enemy having brought only one CCS-class Battlecruiser and it being destroyed around our Oort cloud, thus we are expecting a pair of the same ships or even a CAS-class Assault Carrier." - The Rear Admiral spoke with overly 'to-the-code' mannerisms as he used to, making the captain look at the now called 'Cole Manual' where he saw the ships in question.-"Also, please try to capture the ship intact, this might be the equivalent of the Romans capturing a Carthaginian ship and copying it to win the war." - The captain spoke with a light happy tone.-"But anyways, I'll give you the data of the 54th Battleship Infantry battalion and the platoon of ODSTs. Best of lucks."

After the projection of the 6th biggest authority on the outer colonies fades out, they received the data about the units attached to them, they had to apparently coordinate an assault and some ODSTs that were going to arrive in a minute.

When they got notification of the last grunt being killed on the buildings of the city, they sent orders to blow up the spaceport and then round the middle section of the ship and the holes the militia had made on the failed attempts to penetrate it on the opening stage of the skirmish.

Soon the troops had done just that, with the shock troopers coming to take the point on the openings facing the wild areas of Redstow.

The marines and the newly formed 1st Tomoe battalion took position near the hangar of the ship, where stiff resistance was found, with enemies shooting at them even when they were not at their sight. But they still waited. To what?

"Apprehend them if you can" - Allaire spoke in their comms.

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The Shipmistress was furious, not only had his first officer failed but he got scarred and routed into a siege that they couldn't even annihilate by self-destructing their ship? This was horrible news. She just wanted to go there and die at the hands of the heretics instead of having to endure the stress of not knowing what to do anymore. That thought was stopped by the now half-mandible appearing with the news.

"The humans have what is to us a mortar carrier, what the Arbiter Ripa'Moramee called 'tanks' or 'Armoured cavalry', and they just pounded our makeshift turrets, I'm here to tell you we need to delete all data about our slipspace jumps, right now." - The Shipmistress moved her hand towards a flight officer, a Kig Yar, and he immediately began to type on a console, but he suddenly spoke.

"I can't mistress! I can't access anything!" - The worried tone confirmed it, but before they could reprimand him, a disembodied voice began sounding through the emergency generator-powered speakers.

"I'm sorry that your flashy ships don't have any kind of protection against my suuuuuuperior intellect. But you should have thought better when you let some ODSTs pour by an almost unguarded side of your ship." - The playful tone of that… Feminine voice, was astounding, was a god talking? No, but they didn't understand anything, for them, the AI maybe was speaking in forerunner language, something that might've passed above the Red fist's infiltrator's thought.

Then the Major elite just ignited its sword and stood there, looking at the entrances.

"What are you doing? Shouldn't you be going to try and stop the humans?" - Asked the confused T'vaoan.

"We have to defend this room. We can't allow the humans to have access to it, mistress, please call every troop here." - Answered calmly the Sangheili.

"First officer Rtas'Vadumee… It's been an honor to serve with you." - She couldn't resist it anymore, the pressure, she wasn't made for commanding, she should have been a soldier like most of her species. She hated this, and so, she ended herself with a plasma shot to her own brain, leaving scorched biological remains on her chair.

[It seems… Like there's only one option then.]- The one thing that separated Rtas from the rest of the Sangheili, aside from his now half jaw, is that he wasn't an idiotic fanatic, he knew the limits and the capabilities of what he saw, and this was a lose-lose situation, most of the Kig Yar crew saw it the same way, so when he turned his sword off, they dropped their guns too. The Sangheili were going to shout at them for being cowards, but a team of ODSTs entered the room and saw the armed ones, shooting them first with accuracy that made them earn their title as 'imps' along with the Spartans being 'demons'. They killed the two aliens, but when they saw the others not moving… They understood.

"Arms up if you are surrendering." - Said one of the troops, but the covenant warriors did not understand, following this, the engineer of the room translated it through a console, and then… Vadumee got his hands on the air, dropping his sword.

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The UNSC Trident, one of the new Poseidon-class Light carriers, the 2524 designed ships to be what the Epoch failed to be and what the Marathon tried, a small, light destroyer-armed like, with an 80 craft carrying capacity, along with a battalion of troops. Designed to be the little brother of the Orion and the companion to the Musket class of Destroyers, or Light cruisers as some dared to call them due to their coilguns. But they were not designed to fight what jumped in front of them just as they arrived at Redstow to support the ground action.

The rest of the 'Fist of the Punishment Advent' was there to strike, the two CCS class Battlecruisers and a CAS class Assault Carrier. The captain on the Trident just said 'no' and jumped with his two accompanying Stalwart frigates, they weren't going to risk everything, they were going to leave the UNSC Prinz Eugen to fight them, and to do so, they sent them a message about what was coming; evading conflict themselves, just like they had done earlier.

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"Sir, we have captured successfully the enemy ship." - The cheers on the entire military comms were inevitable. But they died off quickly as the message of their new alien friends came.

"Let's go for a ride!" - Captain Aimi Torune said getting her engines ready to part towards the enemy.

"Not so fast captain, your ships lack missiles save for nukes. You are going behind us. Prepare fir two salvos at 50% charge. My two Hillsborough-B are to charge their MAC batteries to 80% and stock for a low-power one too. My ship will get ours into 20%. I'm going to head on, get their CAS out with a single salvo, or with my destroyers' help. On the other hand, you are to wait until I give my signal to shoot your nukes and then strike at the CCS; I'll save my missiles for if we have to strike at their craft." - The Rear admiral said. No one defied the orders and just updated their plans accordingly.-"Now let's go, around the system… Everyone get their Fighters out to send a few shivas in preparation".

And so it was, the covenant formation tried to confront any human ships they encountered as just some had left their immediate space. The wish for Jul'Mdamee came soon as they saw some 12 different signals coming at them in their systems, with some 56 smaller ones too. They rushed to combat as it was custom to do so, trying to get near the enemy, preferably in less than 10-kilometer ranges; and finish it with your weaponry when they couldn't escape. He dismissed the idea to try and use its own craft to strike first and or use it as sensors to their plasma lance, no, that is for pussies. Unhonorable wretches like the humans did that. So he just pressed on with the advance, fully knowing that their MACs weren't going to be a problem as they tended to not overextend their ships with full power shots and instead preferred low ones for faster reload, as the Harvest campaign indicated.

Soon the perforation of its shields and the destruction of the entirety of the front of the ship, along with the explosion of multiple little things near them, made him think that he was an idiot.

The CCS, though, was fast enough to get near the human ships, but the enemy fighters were forgotten to pursue this… Glory hunt. And so, their shields got shrugged of by nukes and the shots from the Hillsborough's, then the barrage from the frigates came. Soon, Mdamee retreated with a slipspace jump, he had half of its ship destroyed, the best troops on his fleet killed, he was a disgrace, but… He didn't know, he just, wanted to survive the impending doom. No, it wasn't fear, that's just the surprise of seeing a coordinated UNSC response. Even then, the last thing he thought before starting to have the prophets on his mind, was the image, Humans beating the covenant.

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The victory over Redstow marks the end of the known as 'Fear' period of the war, the victory here gave much-needed information about the covenant and how to fight it. And just the fact a colony defended itself against 9 covenant ships with only 23 acting on the fight, with just 9 destroyed and getting 8 enemies dead; was astounding. Getting Cole's victory a run for its money even if admittedly, the fight would have been lost if they didn't have the data of the Cole protocol, the official name of the changes, and data given by the admiral.

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A trio of days ago, Cairo Station:

"I gotta say, Hood, that was a good speech." - Spoke a man in ONI BDU.

"Cut the act Stan, just… Thanks. But remember, you control ONI as long as you try to defend humanity. You get out of hand and I'll get your head on my desk, hear it?" - An infuriated hood spoke, knowing the man surely had known about this ONI section Two thing for long.

"Loud and clear… Loud and clear." - He replied while he saw the Admiral walk away from him. -"See? Now you get your own section and I thank myself for this ruse."

"Forth, you are a sick bastard, just don't make more paraplegic kids." - Said a woman in a wheelchair that came just as the Vice Admiral was speaking and she laughed after that.

"Sure, just let's keep working Osman, I wanna know about what section zero is all about."

The two began walking on the hallway of a ship above Reach, with the view of the planet being on their right.

A silence came as they walked past some crewmen of the UNSC Trafalgar, but once they were far from their ears and eyes on a room where a conundrum of shells for one of the Onagers laid, the woman stood up and the man gave her a nod, they were free to speak.

"In a month the operation will begin, once you have recovered the 'dead spartans' you will report and the broadcast will be shown here, prepare yourself."- He said while looking at her with his brows tilted as to show his seriousness in this case.

The woman smiled and just scoffed.- "Bah, with Cal and the others I have enough to even storm Mars." -After that, she just pointed to the UNSC Leviathan that rested near the carrier they were in now.- "You will be commandeering on that?"

Stanforth smiled and closed his eyes for a moment.- "No, I guess you've heard about the lack of new ship orders, the refit of others, and the construction of the new elevator, haven't you, ONI agent?"

The woman laughed again and nodded, crossing her arms as she knew what he was about to say would be interesting.

"Heh, I guessed so. Paragonsky taught you right." - He then looked at the horizon of the planet below. - "I am making something big, a fleet like no one has ever seen, what the Mjolnir was for personal protection, the fleets will be for human naval warfare."- He proudly said.

"Pretty confident, aren'tcha Forth?" - She mocked now looking the same place that Stan did, but her augmented eyes showed her something: A massive conglomerate of dim lights above it. - "Huh. You mobilized the shipyards of Groombridge or what?"

"No, nothing like that"- The admiral now moved and scrolled down his phone for some images.

"You really using a Panzerschiff and a Punic for that?"- She said while looking at what the man presented to her. - "Hood really gave you permission?"

"And Cole." - He added smugly. - "They just asked for new ships."

"What about the other branches? They didn't get mad?"- She asked due to the massive cost this would bring.

Stanforth just waved it off.- "I have prepared Project: PILOT for the Airforce, the main reason you need to get those spartans,"- The man looked then at the young woman that just rolled her eyes before nodding in understanding.- "I've also lent Mjolnir equipment for the Marines and Army, and... Promised every shipyard on the UNSC the plans of the ships and lower taxes."

An uncontrollable laugh came from the woman, she knew politics and economics well enough, a total war move, humanity really was looking at this as a war now.

The admiral smiled, waiting for her to calm down, something she did after seeing that her actions could lead to someone hearing this.

Once she was again in control of herself she coughed and said: "Sorry sir, proceed."

"Yes, I've had to move things the right way, but it will be worth it, we expect the Project: DRONE ships to go live in the first months of the next year, and Project: ENDURANCE will get the pilot ship running on late 2528."

"Pretty optimistic, ain't it?"

"Well, no, it's combining sections of two ships, removing the interior and adding clamps for the DRONE Project, if we had one of those fix-it-alls flying blobs of the covenant we would probably end it at the late part of next year."- Stanford then decided to take a cigar out, light it and smoke it for a few seconds before continuing.- "But the others, we'll get them soon enough to replace things made to fight our brothers and sisters."

The woman got a notice while Stan spoke, a note from Cal about the weirdness she felt after being reanimated, she smiled.

"But those are all things concerning section three, you go and prepare, Serin."- The admiral said as he saw the happiness on the operator, so he decided to end this conversation for now. - "Dismissed, Spartan."

She just noeeded and made a saulte before walking off the ammo room.

"And be safe, please."- He finished, remembering that this fighter, this supersoldier, was just a teenager.

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AN: Yeahhhhhh, sorry… For keeping you waiting.

Yeah, UNSC won here, but I hope the fight (except the last one) wasn't rushed or bad. I just wanted to show what the UNSC could do with such a simple thing as knowledge about how to act better. Don't worry, eventually, the covenant will do the same, but not for the next decade.

About that, I'll maybe do a time skip with a summary on the next chapter, or is it better to have a chapter dedicated to a timeline based on what would happen in the next years of conflict?

Anyways I hope you enjoyed it, any suggestions or critics, tell me about them and I'll try my best to better myself.