This chapter failed to upload earlier. Sorry about that.

1720 hours, September 16th, 2542 (UNSC military calendar)
Akseli Memorial Hospital, Bhaakto City, Equatorial Plains Province, Alluvion

Pallonis stepped outside of the hospital, rifle at the ready, sweeping for hostiles. He and what was left of the Command Staff had to get away before a second group of Covenant came to finish them off. When he stepped outside, he had expected some remnant of the Turian force guarding the Headquarters to remain. Instead, there was silence.

The parking lot was gone. The bodies of the turians lay where they fell, cut through by energy blades or taken out with precision headshot, their bodies slumped on the ground, or against the cover they had been using moments before. It didn't look like a fight, more like a massacre.

There had been a convoy of armored vehicles stationed nearby, ready to move into action at a moment's notice to evacuate the Command Center or to provide support to the defenders. All that remained were slagged heaps that still glowed with the sickly green aftermath of Covenant anti-tank weaponry. Their dreaded "Fuel Rod Guns."

Grunts and Jackals in black infiltration armor lay where they had fallen, while there were no dead Elites to be found.

Grunts lay dead not in the heeps indicating a massed charge; instead, they laid there in groups of one or two, one carrying a heavy weapon and the other large satchels filled with fuel rods and power cells. They were in excellent cover and could have quickly taken out multiple vehicles before the defenders had time to respond to their position. Pallonis heard the reports of Special Forces grunts but had never seen any before.

Jackals in black armor, and with large helmets that looked like they were excellent for snipers, were dead where they had fallen. Instead of the grunt heavy weapons teams, these ones had fallen more like squads. He recognized the way they'd advanced and fallen, as that of units of infantry that had been cut down mid-stride. Each of them had a Carbine, except for a single one that wielded a longer and bulkier rifle, which Pallonis remembered from briefings as a "beam rifle."

There was an eerie silence as Pallonis and the surviving officers passed the bodies of the company of turian soldiers that had guarded the Hospital. Slaughtered like Vorcha facing Armigers. As he moved in the direction of the manhole that he knew led to the secondary Command Center, he came upon the only dead Sangheili.

Only a single one had been killed during the assault on the exterior of the Hospital. It lay next to a vehicle, some kind of Covenant explosive charge still stuck in its hands. From the way he was holding it, it looked like some sort of shaped plasma charge. Its black armor was tinted with the deep bluish-purple of Elite blood, with a handful of spatters of Turian blood mixed in. Around him lay a dead turian soldier in three pieces. The elite had taken a sniper round to the throat, and still ripped the turian soldier nearest to him apart.

Pallonis was finally coming down from the adrenaline rush of the battle in the Command Center, and as he did, he grew more and more disturbed by the cost of the war. He repressed these feelings, not letting them distract him from his duty, a lot of soldiers depended on him. He continued to lead his guards and officers, moving effectively in impromptu fire teams from position to position, using hand signals, and point to point transmissions for communications. Reflexes drilled since the Turians had been teenagers sprung back to life, and Pallonis could not have been prouder at the discipline.

In the sky, the Coalition's anti-air weapons become more and more erratic as he watched. Lack of direction, of fire support coordination. He wanted to run for the Secondary base, but he had to advance carefully. A single sniper could be their end.

"We don't have much time," Pallonis stated out loud, then turned to his guards. "I want a runner to each battalion headquarters, tell them to prepare for a purely defensive battle. They have to buy time for us to get the surviving civilians off-planet. When the rest of us reach the secondary headquarters, We'll organize a slow defensive retreat towards the Ellana river. Then we can see if the situation can be salvaged. But for that, we need contact with our forces in orbit. We've not been glassed, that means the Covenant doesn't have space superiority yet."

A somber silence descended upon the group, then the turian leading Pallonis's security detail nodded and began handing out orders. It was a younger soldier named Saren. He was just a corporal but was the highest-ranking guard available at this time. The young turian made a series of rapid hand signals, and ten turians soldiers and orderlies broke off from the group, running to the last-known locations of the field Headquarters. Leaving Pallonis, his personal guards, a handful of Turian officers, and a meager handful of human orderlies and lower-ranking officers.

Pallonis really wished he had some other officers of rank to work with. But he was the only general on the planet who had survived the Covenant onslaught, and many Colonels and other high ranking officers were. The Covenant had nearly beheaded the higher levels of command for the Coalition forces on Alluvion. There were going to be a lot of promotions when the fighting was done.

There was the distinct roar of Pelican engines as one of the iconic UNSC gunships flew in at high speed, flipped around to counter-burn, and landed in the tight parking lot, grinding over the tarmac as it set itself down. The ramp dropped, and three figures in thick green armor stepped out, advancing as a fireteam and scouting out the area, making hand signals and gestures that his armor's translation suite could not decipher.

One of them moved up to Pallonis, offering a quick salute. "General Pallonis, Sir. We're Blue Team. NAVSPECWAR. We'll get you to the Secondary Command Center."

"At ease," Pallonis said with a smile. These were the top-secret human Spec Ops forces that their government was so eager to keep a secret. The "Spartans," as the ONI representative, had informed the CEF leaders with the right clearance. Pallonis had the clearance because he commanded elite orbital assault troops, which made cooperation with the Spartans a semi-regular occurrence. Even if this was the first time he ever saw one in the flesh, let alone spoke to one.

One of the Spartans, the one equipped with a Salarian Venom rifle, which had been grotesquely modified to fit human design standards, lifted the manhole cover with one hand, then looked down for movement. The spartan jumped down the hole, yelling out. "Clear!" shortly after impacting the ground.

"After you." The one with "104" printed on his chest piece said.

In exchange for knowledge of the existence of these supersoldiers, the CEF would help keep them a secret, and not inquire into their nature. They would also omit them from any formal reports, news broadcasts, or anything of the sort. The latter had proven a tough sell with the Asari forces, who regularly took reporters along, most of whom also served as commandos.

"I don't trust them. You can't even see their faces." Saren muttered. "Reminds me too much of Bareface."

To their credit, none of the Spartans responded to the remark, instead continuing with their methodical movements and hand signals

"At ease, Saren," Pallonis said. "Blackwatch Operatives have their identities hidden as well. This is just more in-depth."

Pallonis climbed down the ladder, dropping halfway down the climb to land on the concrete below. He could see the Spartan with the Venom opening an unmarked door to a Maintenance area. The former hangar of a group of giant automated sewer-cleaning robots. It had been repurposed as a hidden Command Center in the event the first fell.

Pallonis stepped inside, and what he saw inside was, at that very moment, the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

It was a smaller room than the basement of the Hospital, but it would more than suffice. It had Metallic floors polished to a mirror sheen, sleek, utilitarian metal furniture spread around the room in optimal locations. At the center of the room, there was a modest holo-tank, currently in standby mode. Around the holo-table were regular tables, with computers that folded up into suitcases, connected with fiber optics to the holo-table. On one of the walls hung several smaller monitors, perfect for displaying additional data.

In the remotest corner of the room stood seven massive servers, each containing one vital high-capacity Strategic VI's that would collect all the information gathered by the Tactical VI out in the field, with each strategic VI capable of running multiple versions of themselves as processing power was used or cleared up.

Pallonis smiled at the sight. After the loss of his previous Command Center, he was just happy to have something functional.

Even if it was much smaller, and the equipment more utilitarian, it was just good to be back in command. Pallonis didn't waste a breath to get everything operational again.

Guarded by the Spartans, the remaining command staff headed inside, moving to their stations and activating their computers quickly. The silent room began to buzz with the simultaneous running of a dozen portable quantum computers, and even more omni-tools.

Pallonis approached the holo-tank and put his hand on the scanner. His biometrics were verified, and the Holo-tank flickered to life.

BIOMETRICS VERIFIED: GENERAL PALLONIS OF THE TURIAN HIERARCHY. GENERAL OF THE CEF.
!WARNING! PRIMARY COMMAND CENTER NOT DETECTED.
ENGAGING EMERGENCY COMMAND CENTER PROTOCOL

The whole room was filled with noise as the massive strategic VI's sprung to life, their cooling systems powering up in preparation for the intense usage.

STRATEGIC VI: ACTIVE
HOLO-TANK: ACTIVE
CONNECTION TO REGIMENTAL VI's: CONNECTION COMPROMISED TO UNACCEPTABLE EXTENT. HALF OF ALL REGIMENTAL VI'S DISABLED.
CONTACTING ALL REMAINING VI's.

His heart sank. Half the regiments still in the field had either lost their regimental VI's when they couldn't transfer from their portable servers in time, or they had been destroyed alongside the surviving regimental officers that had downloaded the VI into their hardsuits.

6934 VI ARE STILL ACTIVE. RECONSTRUCTING CHAIN OF COMMAND.

Pallonis had to pause himself before he collapsed. There had been twenty-thousand soldiers on the planet equipped with VI's before the battle had begun. The losses were horrendous. Almost too much for him. He slammed down hard on that feeling and mentally crushed it. He got back into his strategist mindset, replacing his shock at the loss of so many men, with raw conviction to get the rest out.

Two seconds passed.

CHAIN OF COMMAND RECONSTRUCTED. INCOMING DATA FROM NEW VI NETWORK.
UPDATING HOLO-TANK.

The holo-tank in the center of the room began to fill up with the blinking lights that represented each active Coalition combatants. The city north of the river was still firmly held by the Coalition, with the Covenant content to skirmish around the edges. There were a handful of salients into the northern suburbs, but the defensive lines held firm.

There was an unbroken line of defenses across the expanse of the Ellana river, concentrated at the bridges and any location the river was shallowest and most accommodating for a large scale crossing. There were a handful of armored units operating outside of the city, moving to intercept any Covenant tanks that tried to cross the river further upstream. The remnants of the 6th Scathan had done an admirable job putting up defenses.

But the fighting south of the Ellana river was an absolute disaster. The 101st ODST had lost cohesion across its defensive lines and been concentrated into a series of pockets, linked by sewers, subways, and back alleys between buildings. They were trying to move for the bridges and making progress. Pallonis touched the hologram representing the largest concentration of ODST's and pulled up their casualties. They were climbing. Rapidly.

Pallonis's 13th Legion was cough out of position, with a thousand Turians guarding an approach the Covenant didn't even need to take to advance on the bridges. They would be cut off if they didn't pull back. The remnants of the 8th Marine Regiment was currently broken up into chunks, tagging along with nearby Turian forces, too dispersed to function independently.

Then something interesting popped up. There were twenty Elcor and thirty Asari Commando VI's responding. Apparently, not all the ships that crashed had lost their whole crews. It wasn't enough to have a significant impact on the battle. But he could use those forces for a dire emergency. He bookmarked them on his omni-tool, then continued examining the front. He searched for any locations that were in desperate need of reinforcements, and for areas under light enough pressure that he could move troops around.

Gila Setina spoke up, working her magic on her omni-tool. "I am receiving reports that the BATTLENET is now active again across the front. Covenant jammer signals are going down. Sir, we might actually live through this." She said snarkily.

"Let's not get ahead out ourselves." Pallonis chuckled, then straightened up to address the assembled officers, preparing his orders.

"I need the 13th Legion to pull back, and link up between the forces guarding the crossings, and the 101st ODST to break them from their encirclement," Pallonis said, drawing a series of rapid orders onto the Holographic map. The Strategic VI recognized his command and got to work planning maneuvers and movements to facilitate this, while a communications officer established contact with regimental leaders. As the strategic VI's crunched out the most optimal movements, they were immediately passed on to the leaders on the ground, mostly as a suggested course of action. Pallonis didn't care if the officers under his command deviated from his orders, so long the results were the same.

Pallonis drew a series of smaller movements on the map.

One of the human officers spoke up. "You're missing an opportunity, General." Pallonis glanced at him, recognizing him as First Lieutenant Anderson of the ODST's. The human sounded rude and angry and without a drop of respect for Pallonis. The human drew a line with his finger over the holographic map.

"1st Company of the 101st are some of the finest soldiers in the UNSC. You should put them here." He said, pointing at a crossroads near the main raid through the city. "Then the ODST forces leaving the pocket will face less enfilading fire. See these ruined skyscrapers north of the crossroads? Jackals would wreck our forces if they retreated within the line of sight of those. But if we hold these crossroads, we'll avoid that."

"Excellent suggestion. Get it done. Take what 13th Legion forces you need. Some brigades should still be fresh." Pallonis nodded at Anderson, whose angry facade cracked, and he flashed a grin.

Pallonis glanced at the Strategic VI servers, noting that they were now running at full efficiency, the cooling systems roaring as they fought to keep quantum computers from overheating. To Pallonis, it was the most beautiful sound in the world.

Reports from the Civilian evacuation started flooding in. Pallonis nodded and didn't see anything worth changing. The evacuations would continue at full speed, with the Coalition providing as much time as possible.

It was cold calculus, but each freighter carried away more civilians than the Coalition's elite had left upon the planet, and each of these civilians was a potential worker or soldier for the recovering UNSC. It was deemed vital by the UNSC Security Council that as many humans as possible be evacuated to the Inner Colonies to work for the war effort. While the ODST's were valuable, for both the economic and demographic future of the humans, the CEF would prioritize the evacuation of human civilians over soldiers.

"First Lieutenant Anderson. Can you give me Colonel Williams of the ODST's? I think I can see a Salient forming on the main highway. If his forces can launch a pincer movement in grid 018 by 246, through the tram station hub, we can cut off their advance force. Then attack with our Elcor and Asari forces."

Anderson entered some information into his omni-tool, then paused for a moment. "Colonel Williams is dead, sir, as is much of the ODST leadership. His subordinates report a no-go on that plan. They need to pull back, or the Covenant will roll over them.."

Pallonis sighed. It had been too much to hope for. "Then retreat them like we planned. Congratulations, I think that means you're the highest human officer left on the planet."

"I'm receiving a message from CEF FLEETCOM on a priority channel. The 16th Salarian fleet is approaching the planet at high speed. Two hundred frigates, A hundred cruisers, and a command dreadnought. They are moving to engage the Assault Carrier." Gila Setina suddenly exclaimed, frantically working with her omni-tool, talking with a turian officer near her, about possibly sneaking in some quick orbital bombardment from the Asari fleet. But to no avail. "Their Admiral is saying the UNSC 61st Battlegroup is moving as well."

Pallonis quickly did some mental calculations. The Covenant's assault carrier and three remaining cruisers, while outnumbered, were bigger than any Coalition ships, and had enough firepower to kill dozens of Citadel ships in moments. He was not worried about the battlecruisers, which he knew the Citadel ships could take out with concentrated firepower. He wasn't sure the Salarians would be able to crack its shields before it returned fire. It was going to be bloody.

The real problem was that the Salarians might not be able to effectively kill an Assault Carrier without the MAC guns of UNSC ships. It would take much longer to slowly rip at the outer armor, chew their way through, then perforate the carrier with disruptor torpedoes. Standard Coalition tactics were for The Citadel's rapid firepower to strip the shields from a Covenant ship, allowing for the MAC guns of the UNSC ships to deliver killing blows. But the Covenant had targeted all the remaining UNSC ships in the system when they arrived, destroying their MAC guns with Seraph bombers and pulse laser fire.

"How is the Coalition fleet in orbit?" He asked.

"Twenty Asari warships left, five UNSC ships. Asari ships are combat effective, but the UNSC ships might as well be dead in space. The transport ships are moving away from the fighting."

Pallonis somberly acknowledged that the mistake the Coalition had made was thinking they could quickly rush a fleet of bulk transport ships to a planet and unload its cargo of men and material. The Covenant had taken the opportunity and delivered a crushing defeat. The Coalition would have to rethink the way it deployed the vast Turian garrison forces it had at its disposal.

He noticed the Spartans were still in the room, standing guard at the entrance, as still as statues.

"Spartans. Why are you still here, if I might ask? Don't you have some Covenant ships to destroy single-handedly."

Their leader turned to look at him. "When the Covenant hit you, thousands of soldiers died when they lacked coordination. If that happens again, Alluvion is lost. We're here to prevent that." There were hints of bitterness to the Spartan's voice, something Pallonis could barely register.

Pallonis brought up his omni-tool and commanded the Strategic VI's organizing the Turian BATTLENET to give him a full list of surviving Coalition forces.

Current forces ground side:
4194 Turians of the 13th Palavan Legion
852 Turians of the 6th Scathan Legion
1152 Humans of the 101st ODST regiment
502 Humans of the 8th Marine Regiment
33 Asari Commandos
19 Elcor Infantry/Tanks

Enemy disposition:
100

,000 estimated upon the planet.
20,000 enaged with Coalition forces.

There was a painful feeling in his chest as he watched the casualty reports and empty yawning that passed through his body. A third of his Legion had survived. Only a fifth of the human forces upon the planet. While a million soldiers of the 6th Scathan Legion hadn't even made planetfall. It was nothing less than a disaster. But if he pulled back now, the planet was lost. No, they needed to hold until the Covenant could be driven away, and the 6th Scathan reinforcements could adequately land.

"Give me a line to the troops," Pallonis said.

"This is general Pallonis to all Coalition forces fighting for Alluvion. The Covenant have hit us hard, I can not deny that. But we all must perform our duty in the face of these terrible odds.

The final civilian evacuation is still underway, and until then, we can not abandon this planet.

The Covenant has landed in force south of Bhaakto city for one reason: it is the last place upon this planet with a large civilian population. There are still two million civilians hiding in the underground bunkers. And we need to evacuate them.

The Covenant have come to butcher the people of this world. We shall not stand for such atrocities.

Humans. I can not speak for you, but us Turians have sworn an oath to be ready to die for the Hierarchy. We are prepared to die on this day. But I will not make such a choice for you.

I promise that I will be the last of us to leave this planet, or I will die on it."

Pallonis glanced at Gila. "Are any human forces requesting permission to evacuate early?" Some semblance of doubt sneaking into his voice.

She gave him a weak smile. "None."

Pallonis sighed in relief and sat down on a nearby chair, his eyes still locked upon the holo-tank. It took everything he had to maintain his stoic demeanor. But deep down, he just wanted to sob into his hands for the Turians dying under his command. He'd lost soldiers before, but never this many. He could see some of the other turians in the room straining at the pressure. Even the normally resolute Gila was gnashing her teeth and looking like she was holding something back, emotionally. Losing so many soldiers. So many civilians depending on them. The constant xenocidal fighting. Deep down, Pallonis wondered who would be the first of the command staff to snap.

Anderson walked up to Pallonis and sat next to him. "Have you ever lost this many men before?"

Pallonis looked at him, not able to find the right words. He just said "Not in a single battle. Not so fast."

Anderson was quiet, then spoke. "I couldn't imagine losing so many soldiers. But on my first command, most of my ODST's died. It took time, but I learned to live with it. Maybe you should import some of our psychiatrists?" He gave a soft and very respectable chuckle.

Pallonis flashed him a grin, mandibles flaring. "Its about time you humans export something back for a change."

The Command Center laughed, then got back to work. They had lives to save.