The Doomslayer was located in one of the lower decks at the firing range. He was pointing a plasma rifle down the range as target after target popped up. Each one he blew away with quite easy. The level that the range was simply set at Spartan level. He did try the lower levels but found it too easy for his tastes. This level was at least close to his own level. Several marines watched as he blew the targets as soon as they popped up. He was shooting so fast and accurately it was actually hard to tell which one of the targets he was aiming at first. He kept at it for nearly half an hour with nearly a 95% percent accuracy rate. A level that was only reached with the most prestigious of Spartans.

"Have you heard what he's called?" One of the Marines started up as he was back with a group of seven other. "Ddooommssllaayyeerr." He said, dragging out the name in a sort of mocking sense. The man did not seem to care as he loaded up more energy cells into the riffle. "Sounds like the name the some angsty teenager would give his character in some online game."

"He calls himself the slayer of doom?" One laughed. "I bet the Master Chief could kick his ass."

"He's just a Spartan rip off." Another stated. The man put away his rifle and headed towards the exit of the level.

The marines looked at his score that was now on a screen and they felt all their own words shoot back into their throats. 97% accuracy. Only person to reach a higher rate was the Spartan 058. They watched as a female Spartan in white armor walked towards the path of the DoomSlayer.

"Good job." She said to him. "I'm the Spartan Commander Palmer. I haven't seen anyone reach that rate in the longest time."

He looked up at her as he reached the elevator. He looked up at her with a tilt of his head and a shift of his shoulders. They weren't kidding when they said he never talked. But the message was clear to her "So what?"

"You're better than any of them." She told him, referencing the men that were mocking him for what they believed to be a false tittle.

He straightened his composer. "But you don't disagree." With that the elevator arrived and he headed back up to the deployment level. His free time was up. He was going to meet back up with the Blue Team and head out to a large grouping of covenant soldiers. Palmer watched as the elevator went up.

"He didn't seem to care." He really didn't.

He reached a deployment deck and saw that there were five other Spartan teams as well as nearly 200 some other marines. Warthogs, scorpions, Mantises, and even some Grizzlies also occupied the deck. He once again reached into warp pack and pulled out his double barrel shotgun. He stepped up to the blue team after finding them and stood there as they went over the plan.

"This is just gonna be the foothold team." One of the marines said as he was nearby the blue team. "How many of our Spartans are throwing at this? Around eighty right? Not to mention 400 marines. Pretty insane."

The DoomSlayer simply inspected his shotgun once more by popping it open and closed once more. The Blue team knew that he could handle himself. Even more so. But he also seemed to be the kind of guy that didn't like working with others. Honestly they could not understand why though. The best way they could explain how he was outside of combat would be… itchy. Stressed. Restrained. Like all he ached for was blood. He didn't even have any sort of dog tag. For he did not seem to believe in the very possibility of his death on the battlefield. Either that or he simply had forgotten, by choice or other, to forget whatever sort of being he was before he became the thing he was now.

The Blue team got onto a pair of Warthogs Master Chief drove one with Linda in the back on the turret. The other was being driven by Kelly and in the back was not the machine gun that M12 variant had, but had a Multiple Launch Rocket System on the back. The DoomSlayer looked up and it and nodded a few times.

"I'm gonna leave it up to you." Fredrick said as he stood off to the side. The DoomSlayer looked back up at it for a second before shrugging and held out a hand towards it. "Thanks."

Fredrick hopped on the back of it, the warthog bouncing with his weight a bit, and looked back down at him.

"That shotgun isn't gonna really work while in the warthog." Fredrick told him. The DoomSlayer looked down at his shotgun and almost seemed to sigh as he put it into his warp pack. "If you still got that assault rifle in that pack of yours I would recommend-." The DoomSlayer pulled out a rocket launcher. "-or that. That works to."

"So tell me DoomSlayer." Kelly began. "You ready to kick some Alien ass." The DoomSlayer shook his rocket launcher slightly. She shrugged a bit. "I guess that's why you've got that."

"Alright men." Captain Lasky came over the speakers. "We're deploying. You all know the location that we are headed towards. We are most likely going to be facing an entrenched Covenant force. But above it all we must push through. If we don't, I fear a threat unlike anything the UNSC has ever faced before will arise. A threat that we cannot deal with. So if we do not stop them now we will fall. So we will not fail. I'm leaving it up to you to get us the foothold we need. I know you will succeed. Now with that all being said: good luck. The infinity has to return to orbit as not to get damaged by the carriers that the covenant possesses. We shall return upon your victory."

The dock lowered and planted itself into the dirt. The vehicles plowed over it as pelicans and condors flew overhead along with Falcons. The ground below them was crushed and turned up under the weight of their machines as the went forward. As they did, whatever little subtly that they could have had went flying out of the window. Several Dozen miles ahead were the Covenant as they prepared for intercept.

"The humans wish to push us back." The Elite commander of the Covenant said within his command post. His armor was like that of hybrid between the elite's and a brute's chieftain. He watched through a monitor as the infinity took off into the orbit. "Is that all the forces that they will deploy upon us? The humans think too little of us."

"It is there…" The Demonic voice broke through the Elite's post and rattled the entire room that he was in. "The DoomSlayer…"

"Your legend is no threat to us." The Elite told the voice. "Even the Demon is amongst them. But he is weaker than he once was. Something restrains and aches his flesh."

"You believe that the imitator is killable…" The voice continued. "The DoomSlayer is not… You gave the imitator the name out of respect and hatred… Its name is earned through strife and fear alone."

"They will not defeat us now." The Elite answered. "They will perish and once they are we shall glass their entire planet. Now be gone. I have an army to lead."

"For the sake of your being… you best be powerful enough to stand behind such grandeur statements." And with that the voice vanished. The elite growled and pulled on a transmitter.

"Deploy everything." He called into it. "Crush them before they get even halfway to the valley."

"Does that include-!"

"Yes. Send in the Scarabs."