Author Note: this chapter begins right where the last chapter ended.

Chapter 17

First Battle of London

Part 2

One Hour after the invasion of London:

Covenant troops managed to quarantine the city, despite the UNSC's, Queen's Guard's and London Police Force's best efforts to stop them, so now they're focus on protecting the civilian population as only a few areas still remained in human hands. Colonel Urban Holland decided to send help as he commanded the 19 Infantry Division, one of the closest Army Division near London. He also had tactical command of two Spartan teams, designated Spartan Team Lancer and Spartan Team Hades. Bravo Company and Lima Company were both moving up the road towards the city with Falcons, Phoenix's, Longswords, A-11s, Sparrowhawks, and Pelicans in support. Colonel Urban Holland was receiving reports for Major Mason who was moving towards the central station to begin evacuating civilians from the city. They had encountered heavy resistance but were still managing to inflict heavy casualties and cleared out several Triple-A batteries so the reinforcements following behind them wouldn't have a hard time. A lot of the Falcon's, Phoenix's, Pelican's, Longsword's and other aircraft were still shot down over the city though.

Lima Company managed to secure two train stations and started evacuating the civilian population until the city was once again in human hands. Bravo Company were forced to abandon their vehicles and proceed to London's ONI Alpha Site on foot but they never made it. Colonel Urban Holland had set up his HQ in one of the Skyscrapers, despite the Covenant Battlecruiser which was ignoring everything; they just launched Seraph and Banshees to deal with the UNSC aircraft since they knew the humans don't have anything to bring them down. Colonel Holland sent reconnaissance patrols into occupied London to determine the enemy strength around Parliament, the Palace and a few other places. They knew the UNSC forces within those areas were keeping them at bay, though for now their main priority is to evacuate the civilians. He could hear the sound of fighting throughout London and He wondered if his division would receive any help from the other UNSC forces near London. Until then they'll fight and hopefully keep the Covenant from getting a huge foothold in the city.

Two hours after the invasion of London:

At Camp Hercules five miles outside of London England, the marines saw the Covenant ship over London, they heard reports coming over the radio. "The Covenant is clearing out everything within a 6 block radius between the palace, Parliament, and the UNSC museum. We need help. I'm trapped at a pharmacy, it's me and six of my fellow officers along with a dozen civilians. we are pinned down by snipers and by something I've never seen before. Oh My God they were bringing in a tank. Please God help us…" All they could hear were screams after that. The marines were balling their hands into a fists, ready to go kill some Covenant.

"This is Private Sanchez, Victor squad UNSC Army, we are requesting aid from anyone! The Parliament building is under attack by some never foreseen Covenant species they are really hard to kill. They are like a mix between Elites and Brutes. Please send help!" The transmission suddenly goes dead as the marine's lieutenant colonel entered the room.

"So I see you have all heard the reports coming in, there are a lot of civilians trapped along with the London Police. The police weren't train to fight the Covenant for very long and they don't have the firepower needed to fight them like we do. The army had been giving them hell but they're getting hammered now that the city is once again quarantined by the covenant, nothing gets out unless the Covenant let it. The army controls several positions, mostly to evac civilians. From what we have gathered, those SOBs have only invaded two cities London and Manchester. We haven't been able to reach any units outside of the United Kingdom so all forces within the United Kingdom are being mobilize to retake London and Manchester. We're gearing up to retake London. I want you to get ready to kill these GOD Dam invaders. Now get your asses in gear we have ourselves a battle to win!"

"Sir yes sir," his marines chanted. They hurry off to grab their gear and get ready for some hardcore fighting up ahead. The marines once they grabbed their kit they headed to the armory to grab their weapons, though unlike other bases their armory was underground. The weapon racks consisted of weapons such as the BR85 Battle Rifle, the Designated Marksman Rifle or DMR, many of the MA5 Assault Rifles variants, M4A6 Assault Rifles, SAWs, Rocket Launchers of different types, Spartan Lasers, Magnums, Crossbows, Shotguns, Covenant weaponry, Rail Guns, Grenade Launchers, and Target Locators. The marines picked up what weapons they would need once in the city and on approach to the city. The marines also had vehicles and aircraft consisting of Warthogs, Scorpions, Grizzlies, Elephants, and Mongooses while their aircraft consisted of Hornets, Falcons, and Pelicans. The Lieutenant Colonel had a company of ODSTs known only as Ghost Company, in memory of the marine that died on Algolis protecting the extraction efforts. He gave them their orders. They were going to go to the Parliament building and secure it from the Covenant. Of course it wouldn't be a simple mission if it was going to the ODST's. They'll have to jump from a fast moving Pelican to avoid Covenant anti-air batteries. Once Parliament was secure and the enemy Triple-A batteries nearby dealt with, more marines would arrive and together they would push deeper into London. The ODST's boarded the Pelicans as the colonel told them they had three hours to secure him a beachhead before he ordered an all-out attack on London.

He knew that the civilians must be evacuated as soon as possible to avoid collateral damage so he sent Falcons to the central train station to help the army and the police evac the civilians. He sent the Hornets to provide air support for the Falcons. As soon as the Falcons and Hornets were over the skies of London, the Banshees attacked. The Hornets opened fire, as do the Falcons, but the Falcons weren't there to dogfight with the Banshees, they were there to deposit marines into the city. The Falcons did their best to ignore the Banshees and let the Hornets deal with them, but they weren't getting off easy as the skies were full of Banshees. A Falcon was taken out of the fight by a Banshees' fuel Rod Cannon but the marines inside had parachutes so most of them manage to bail out before the Falcon crashed into the streets below as another Falcon crashed into the river. The Hornets weren't faring any better as a majority of them had been destroyed, but those that have survived were still supporting the Falcons as they approached the central train station. As they approached they came under fire from the Anti-Air Wraiths but they manage to avoid the deadly plasma. The Hornets silenced the Anti-Air Wraiths and they began their descent in the plaza in front of the central train station. The Falcon and Hornet crews were surprised that the Banshees didn't chase them any further, but then they saw the teams in the buildings around the plaza along with the Warthogs protecting the entrance. The Falcons landed while the Hornets remained in the skies to provide air cover. An army major appeared and watched them before the marine's captain walked up to him. "Captain, I'm glad you and your men made it we can sure use your help."

"I'm glad to be here, Lieutenant Colonel Markesan has advised us to give you any help we can."

"I appreciate the help captain; the situation is this we need to evac the civilians but many were being slaughtered on their way here by Brutes. We need to establish muster points to evac the city and try to cut down the number of civilians being murdered. That's why we repurposed all armored vehicles to help with the evac of the muster points, but I need drivers."

"Don't worries Major, me and my boys will handle the muster points; do you need any help here?"

"No we can handle it; just hurry, we don't know when that ship might decide to glass the city." The marines got on board the armored vehicles and headed off. Muster Station 1 was only 2 miles from the train station. Along the way they were shot at by Covenant snipers and they saw plenty of dead bodies, mostly civilians with some police officers here and there. Muster Station 1 was a bus station with a few dozen London Police Officers defending it. Six of the vehicles stop and begin loading civilians into the vehicles after the marines exit from them. The marines then set up a perimeter around the muster station. Once the vehicles were full they headed back to the train station but this time they had Falcon and Hornet support to clear the rooftops of Covenant. The marine captain looked up and saw A-11's and Longsword's in the skies dogfighting underneath the Covenant Battlecruiser. The Army had set up Wolf Spiders around the central train station for extra security. Major Tom Mason received news from the marines and police officers that it will take hours to evac all the civilians. As soon as the trains were full with civilians they headed towards the direction of the countryside. A couple of soldiers were onboard the trains to provide security and try to protect them from any Covenant attack, but none came; even when they passed a large force of Covenant they didn't open fire at them, which is strange for the Covenant since they've been killing them all damn day throughout the city.

The Orbital Drop Shock Troopers of Ghost Company was on approach to the Parliament building and the Pelicans, along with a flight of A-11 fighter jets is accompanying them, were constantly dodging Covenant Anti-Air fire. The major in charge of the company knew the area around Parliament was hot so he ordered the Pelicans to drop them a couple of blocks away from Parliament and they'll make their way to the building on foot. No one was expecting the Seraph fighters as they made themselves known when a Pelican was blown out of the sky but the ODSTs onboard jumping out and pulling their parachutes zip cord before it crashed. The A-11s go off to deal with the Seraph fighters and instead of waiting to reach the LZ, the major gave the order to jump. The Pelicans dropped the Warthogs and Scorpions before the ODSTS jumped. Many of the ODSTs were scatter across London due to the rush. Major Howler landed and saw several of his troopers heading towards him as he set a rally point in a hotel for the rest of his soldiers to join him. Lieutenant Miranda Silvia arrived at the hotel with her platoon and she told the major she has two missing men, thirty minutes later a captain appeared with all of his soldiers accounted for. Now they were waiting for the last platoon to arrive.

Fifty minutes passed before the last platoon arrived with only two dozen soldiers left. The lieutenant in charge told them that they landed right in the midst of Covenant forces and had to fight their way out. Major Howler ordered his soldiers to advance on Parliament and set a rally-point at Parliament for any soldiers that were unaccounted for. It was slow going because they don't know the locations of any of the Covenant forces around Parliament. Twice they were engaged by squad of Grunts led by two Brute Minors, but they were quickly dealt with. Major Howler found some of the vehicles that the Pelicans dropped for them so he used them to augment his men's firepower. The vehicles consisted of three Warthogs and a Scorpion Main Battle Tank. They saw plenty of dead bodies on their way, mostly consisting of civilians, some London Police Force, and even a few Covenant. Major Howler looked at the dead civilians and it made his blood boil. His men continued their advance and they ran into two platoons of soldiers from the 1st Special Forces Division along with a platoon of marines.

"How in the hell did you get in here?" Major Howler asked the marines.

"The colonel got tired of waiting so he sent in a company of marines to push our way through the roadblock to the central train station. We of course ran into several companies of soldiers from the 1st Special Forces Division with armor support in the form of Grizzly Tanks." A sergeant in the marines told Major Howler. Major Howler turns to the officer in charge of the 1st Special Forces Division.

"Captain, what's your story?"

"Well sir, after we lost contact with our outpost on the outskirts of the city. The commander in charge of all the Army units in the UK decided to mobilize the 1st Special Forces Division and we were sent in to help with the evac of the civilians and to destroy the Covenant Occupation Forces. Most of the Pelicans and Falcons were shot down on approach to Manchester and London but there are survivors scattered all across the two cities. The units coming in by land managed to break through the Covenant defenses without heavy losses on our side and rendezvoused with our fellow army soldiers at the central train station. Once at the central train station the Brigadier General sent out units to make contact with any UNSC forces and destroy the Covenant Occupation forces. According to the latest Intel, the Covenant have a jamming device on top of the Parliament and on the UNSC War Museum. We need to neutralize those jamming devices otherwise we can't get reinforcements."

"I'm well aware of the problem captain," he told him. "Now let's get to work!"

"Sir yes sir" both the marine and army soldiers chanted. Major Howler noticed that the 1st Special Forces Division wore helmets similar to the ODSTs helmets. Major Howler stopped two blocks away from Parliament and him and his command team, along with four marines, moved forward to get a better view of the Covenant forces around the Parliament building. Captain Boston of Alpha Company 2nd Platoon 1st Special Forces Division was accompanying them. They entered one of the buildings across from Parliament. Major Howler and several of his men took out binoculars and took off their helmets so they could look through them. They saw a large Covenant force outside of the building as well as Covenant forces attacking the building with gunfire coming from inside the building. Major Howler was glad to know that there were some survivors in the building. He saw something moving across a parking lot towards a group of armed civilians. He thinks it's a pair of Hunters but they're too big to be Hunters. He has no clue what they were, but he knew what they were going to do, but instead it left the civilians alone. A civilian fired his pistol at the creature in fear, but the rounds had no effect on it. The creature turned around and fired some sort of cannon that blew the civilians to shreds. Major Howler began cursing as they watched it happen before going back to rejoin their men. The ODSTs as well as the soldiers from the 1st Special Forces Division could tell that they saw something that shocked them. Major Howler told them that they had witness a new species in the Covenant Empire slaughter a group of civilians before telling them that they'll wait until first light to attack the Covenant troops.