-1Garrett awoke to the voice of Dr. Halsey. "Lieutenant Gryphen, I assume stressing over where you're going to be working at isn't what marines tend to do?" Garrett's right eye opened, and then his right eyeball rolled around to find the voice. Once he had acquired his target, he opened his left eye. "You know what they say, "You volunteered for this gig. We take care of you, but you WILL do what we say" Garrett grumbled. "Would you like to know what the council has agreed on?" He eyed her, a bit uncertain as to what she would say.

CAPTAIN Garrett Gryphen, UNSC Marine Corp, main attachment to Project SLEIPNIR, Mobile Fire Support and Suppression for the SPARTAN II program, walked down the hall to the docking bay. His new uniform was clean and ready for the ceremony. He didn't much like to go to these things, but he really didn't have a choice. This was a ceremony to give him his pips, and if he didn't, well, he could always stay a Lieutenant…

ONE MONTH LATER

Garrett was strapped in to the locking clamps of the Pelican, and five Spartans and ten ODSTs sat in the seats nearby. This was the first time these guys had gotten to see what was coming with them on the upcoming mission. The ODSTs were a bit surprised to find a fifteen foot armored soldier armed to the teeth being loaded into the Pelican. Garrett was barely able to squeeze into the damn thing too. He was kneeling, almost to the point of prone position, and it was doing a number on his neck. "Auron, engage all sensor systems to full alert. Sync all fire control sections to slave drive two. Place First and second generators on standby. Keep Dark Matter Reactor on at 50. Deactivate Slip Stream Core, because we won't need it on the ground." Auron acknowledged all of it in one second. "I suggest you use weapons configuration C for this assignment." Garrett heard it loud and clear. He switched a few things around with a thought, diverged secondary armaments to locked position, and brought up some general purpose trooper gear. A Projectile auto cannon rifle was placed in his right hand, an XLC-36 "Pepper Box" locked onto his left shoulder, followed by some grenades on the hip plates and some machine guns attached to his collar points. A rocket launching backpack attached between the wings, and an LM-6P "Sledgehammer" Anti-Tank Missile launcher grappled onto the back of his right shoulder. An Ion Mortar Cannon strapped to the back of his left, and the large black tower shield seemed to always be attached to his left arm. An energy blade could protrude from the tip, and two energy sabers were carried in the left hip plate. A small vibro knife was in the calves of the armor, plus two, what looked like fold out handguns but had punch equivalent to a rifled slug shotgun, were carried in internal holsters on the hips. An extra two machine guns were in the helmet, looking like two gold rimmed eyes on either side of the helmet.

"This is Eagle leader to all Pelicans. All squads, standby for a hot LZ. Covenant is heavy just over the hill. Thermals are in the surrounding area, possible camouflage in wet sector 43 Zulu." Garrett heard the group leader, John 117, verify they were near the drop zone. "Sparrow squad, roger." "Cardinal squad, roger." "Raven squad, roger" Garrett said.

The pelicans swooped in, spraying as much area as they could with their chin guns and missiles, then moved around a mountain side and landed. "GO! GO! GO!" was heard over the com channels as combat chatter hit hard. Marines were in the surrounding area, trying to defend a city that was surrounded by a beautiful mountain range in the south. The city was huge, almost as big as New San Francisco after the rebuild. Baraqa was going to be difficult to defend, as there were multiple major openings to the city, being one of the main spaceports for the planet Arcturus. Garrett inched his way out of the pelican, the others slipping by and moving into the city. Raven squad covered the pelicans long enough for Garrett to get out and the pelicans to lift off, some of them being hit by anti-aircraft fire. "All squad leaders this freq, move in to primary LZ." Garrett and multiple others acknowledged the Major's orders, and pulled his squad in. One of the Spartans happened to be Marie, which he was glad was nearby. From what he heard, she was just as a good as a previous Spartan, who died trying to defend a Station near Reach. "Raven 2, pull shot on 8th street, cover the warthogs there; Raven 3, provide her cover fire to get into position; Jackson, kick it up a notch! You're lagging!" He yelled to two Spartans and an ODST. "Sparrow squad, grab the warthogs and move through Main Street. Cardinal squad, cover LZ. All other squads, fire at will and move through. Bring as many back as you can" Garrett heard on channel four.

The mission wasn't supposed to be reinforcement of the troops in this city; it was suppose to be an evacuation of the people still alive to evac point three. Evac point two would bring what remaining defenders there were back to the ships hiding outside the solar system in an asteroid belt, while squads would move back to LZ and draw fire long enough for everyone to get away, and then dust off. This was going to be a hard mission for Garrett, as he didn't exactly like Urban Combat. Hell, he avoided it like the plague. "All Ravens, you are free to move. Try not to scare away the inhabitants." The Spartans and Hell jumpers chuckled at that, and then moved out. This was what Garrett wanted. He couldn't move as well with a squad slowing him down, even if there were Spartans there.

Garrett skated down Williams street, moving near a mall, and heard the chatter of a warthog's LAAG. He boosted toward the sound, to find two marines driving straight by it, with two ghosts hot on its tail. The warthog turned, skidded around a corner, and was gone, but the ghosts weren't so lucky. One of them ran into the nearby wall trying to catch up, while the other was unloaded on by Garrett. He continued toward where there were still relatively intact buildings and places where he detected human life signs. The signs were coming from the mall, but he didn't really want to go in. The place was giant, and a fantastic place for him to get ambushed. He pushed on in, breaking through a glass wall and moved along the flooring, then jumped up to the second floor. He felt a plasma bolt fly by, and then another hit the shields of the armor. He turned, and fired, to find a Brute shredded and a jackal not much better off. He continued through the area, killing mind controlled grunts and jackals, to get to the food court. There, behind most of the counters, were human life signs. Garrett walked up to one of them, heard a woman shriek, and then cower. Some of the men jumped up and either fired some handguns or rifles at him, or tried to tackle him to the ground. He shook heavily, throwing men everywhere, and fired shots to knock the weapons out of their hands. "Whoa, hang on, I'm a good guy. You all need to head towards the marine camp at the back of the city. I'll cover you." No one would move. "GO! NOW! The covenant could be here any minute!" Some of the people got up, and ran towards the door, followed by everyone else. Garrett followed, covering them where he could, and stopping them where he couldn't. Once certain places were secure, they continued on, and he eventually got to the evac point, all 200 of them. "This is Echo 632B to anyone out there! I need back up! We're being hit hard and request aerial assistance! If anyone can hear me!" Garrett heard it well enough. "Auron where…" And a 3D map appeared in his HUD and a pinpoint as to where the signal came from. It was moving, but oddly, it seemed to be behind enemy lines. No one would be stupid enough to go there, especially when most of the pelicans are needed to get people out of here. "Auron, check…" and before he could finish his sentence, the pelican was brought up, reconfigured because of sensor scans, and brought back up as a phantom under some sort of hologram camouflage. The three banshees and one seraph were firing at it, but from the shots angle they were passing by the actual armor and hitting into the hologram, making it look like it was under attack.

"Hang in there, Echo 632. Raven leader is inbound." He boosted toward the signal, found the target, blew the fighters out of the sky, and blasted half the phantoms right engine off. However, Garrett had made a mistake, and against the covenant, mistakes were bad. He heard a lock on signal ping, turned, and found a plasma missile flying straight at him. He didn't even have time to dodge.

The Major was in the general vicinity of Moore Park when he saw the Battle Frame get hit. It tumbled, skidded on its back about twenty feet, the shields flickering. He didn't know if Gryphen was wounded or if he was dead, or whether the shields had taken the shot. He ran toward the downed figure, Marie being on a nearby building picking off any covenant nearby. One of the new hover tanks had gotten a lock on Garrett and took the shot. It was getting ready to fire another shot, the Spartan too close to turn and get out of range. At that moment, the Frame lifted its torso and sat up, engaging its Anti-Tank missile launcher and fired a long high explosive present toward it. The missile flew at mach 10, hitting the tank in a micro second, and punching clean through, then continuing into another, and finally detonating, destroying the entire tank blockade in that street. Garrett shook his head. "You alright?" John asked. "You ever had that fond childhood memory of getting hit in the head with a dodge ball?" Garrett asked. "Yes." "Well, I don't think it was that fond, and this is another I will add to the list of shitty things happening to me." He stood up, shaking his head again, then grabbing the Spartan and diving, bringing his rifle to bare and firing at a strafing phantom. The ship tried to land, but a warthog kept pounding the cockpit with rail fire and it crashed into a sky scraper. Marie was on the roof of it. The ceiling collapsed and she tumbled inside. "Oh hell…" Garrett yelled, and both he and the Spartan ran toward the structure.

Marie was lying on top of a piece of rubble, her rifle broken and her left arm was detected as having muscle tearing. Apparently, she decided to use her arm to cushion her fall, otherwise she might have more severe problems. "I'll get her back to LZ, you continue with the mission Captain." Raven Leader acknowledged, saw Marie give a thumbs up to him with her right arm, then he was off. First was first, and that was to make sure fewer phantoms came in. This meant finding the source of where the reinforcements were coming from, and then destroying it. Auron had locked onto three starships already, The Isolation, The Holy Word, and Vengeance. Resistance was incredibly heavy getting near them.

Garrett dashed around a corner as a missile flew by, taking a huge chunk out of a nearby building. He snapped out of the alley he was in, sending walking fire as he boosted to a wall on the opposite side of the street. His feet latched onto it, as well as making the covenant realize the thing they were fighting didn't have to stay on the ground. He shot two missiles from the XLC then emptied another clip into a few banshees flying in low. He dropped a grenade below him, detached from the wall and landed on the roof of another building. "Auron, get a damn firing solution on those things, I can't stay here forever" he yelled, seeing his shields get hit by no less than seven directions of plasma fire. The shields were holding, but the plasma fire wasn't infantry, making the power percentage for the shields read 90. That was only a few ships hitting me he thought. "Firing solution found. Fire when ready." The anti-tank missile launcher switched to a large cannon, and the rifle was clipped to the hip plates. He brought the cannon to bear, and the barrel extended, only to separate into three parts away from each other. Electricity surged around the barrel, and he loaded a three round clip into the chamber, then the weapon locked the first shot in place.

He gained the lock on, felt the whoomph from the gun and heard the concussive blast as the energy like shell dashed toward the offending target blocking his view of the sky. The shot hit the shields of the ship, and pushed through them, not even losing one bit of its speed. "Anionic warheads are specifically made to ignore shielding systems of starships" Auron piped up. The shot connected with the armor of the ship, punched through, and there was nothing for about four seconds. Then the ship blew in a shockwave effect, tearing apart the other two ships, and destroying quite bit of buildings nearby. The blast was so bright; the sensors onboard dimmed the field of vision. "Pretty…" He said to himself. Com Chatter suddenly erupted with sounds of people hurt or in need of help, but some of it was "The covenant are pulling back! Whoever took those things down, I'm glad their on our side!" He scanned the surrounding area. No other covenant worth his effort, as most of the people seemed to be evacuated in the time he took to make his way to these ships.

Garrett turned to leave, and heard a com channel set for officers only beep on. "Gryphen, John, get to the Resilience now. We have some urgent information for you" Dr. Halsey said. "Alright all squads pull back. Wash fire on six. Get to dust off. Long Swords will cover." All acknowledged and Garrett boosted back to the drop zone. Again he loaded up onto the pelican, and saw another covenant ship trying to descend. It took out one of the pelicans leaving evac point 2. He raised the cannon while in the pelican, and as the craft lifted off, he fired. The blast knocked everyone into their seats, and even rocked the flyer as the shell flew toward the starship. It hit, blew, and knocked a large sky scraper apart. "I thought the idea was to save the city, not destroy it" one ODST said. "Look soldier, everyone is either being evacuated or is dead at the moment, and that city is going to become a ghost town. So either take down as many of the bastards as possible and shut up, or you can stay in this scrap heap and fight your own fight." The ODST became shocked, and then replied. "Sir, glad you took that ship out, Sir!" And off the pelican flew, closing the back hatch and flying toward its own carrier of destruction.