Well, Guys, It's been three weeks since my last update. Whoops. Anyway, thanks for any reviews and favs you gave me. Means a lot. Anyway, I saw the new vidocs for HW2 and Sonic Mania. I'm definitely looking forward to both. Anyway, R&R, and all that fun jazz.

Chapter 3: Sand and Plasma

Tails opened his mouth... And paused. He swore he'd heard something from downhill...

Suddenly the edge of the sandy slope was rent apart by plasma rounds. The humans pulled the Brute vehicle back quickly, but still some rounds of plasma smashed against it.

One of the humans swore, and the Sargent growled.

"Make yourselves useful, then!" He yelled, jumping out of the vehicle and landing in the sand, laying down to provide cover.

Tails saw his opportunity. Perhaps he could show them how he fought... Without weapons.

He turned and spun up his tails, using them to get of a quick boost as he started downhill, the Chief began his own sprint down the hill.

Tails was barely pushing himself, but the cyborg powered down the hill and nearly fifty kilometers per hour. The kit had never seen a human even top thirty, so this was a surprise.

The Chief slung his rifle over his back and attached it, along with his rocket launcher. From his thighs, he grabbed two smaller guns; which Tails guessed were SMGs.

There were perhaps five or so brutes at the slope of the hill, along with three Unggoy. Two brutes manned turrets. Upon seeing the two making the their way down the hill, they cried out, panicked, and opened fire with their turrets and regular weapons, primarily on the Chief. He was fine however, as he twisted and ducked, dodging everthing that was thrown his way.

Tails picked up his own pace, accelerating to more than eight kilometers per hour. All the same, the Chief struck first. He lunged into the air, jumping more than twice his height, and opened fire on an exposed Brute with his SMGs. The brute raised his own weapon, but was too late, as his armor exploded. The human crashed onto the alien, landing foot first and slamming the brute into the sand, firing all the time. The brute fell limp.

Tails turned his attention back to himself, and narrowly missed a plasma round. He spun backwards, executing a kind of backwards roll, while at the same time continuing his trajectory forward. It wasn't as impressive as it sounded, but it kept himself from getting hit by the burning round.

The kit quickly charged a spin dash and launched his own attack at the offenders, who were in fact, Unggoy. He slammed into one and sent it flying backwards until it slammed hard into the wreckage of a phantom.

There was a crunching sound as it hit home against the damaged hull. The other Unggoy turned tail and ran. Tails let him go.

The Chief was engaged by the four remaining brutes. One of the wielded a huge two-armed cannon with a blade curved around the rear bottom end of it. The cyborg backed up, expertly dodging the alien's swings. He holstered his SMGs and pulled a blue sphere from his leg. He pressed a button, and it glowed a light shade of blue.

The human expertly threw it, and it smacked into the brute, becoming attached to his armor. The alien paused and gave a roar of anger, and the grenade detonated. The blue explosion devoured the entire Brute, leaving nothing remaining but a blemish upon the sand.

Tails spun up another attack and launched himself at two brutes whom were distracted by the cyborg. He smashed into one and bounced off, powering into the one beside him before being thrown off once again.

The armor of the pair exploded from their bodies, and they roared in shock and anger. The human quickly mowed them down with a series of rounds from his rifle.

Tails stood, slightly dazed from his attack. The attack had been more like slamming into a brick wall more than anything.

A plasma round flew inches by his head. He instinctively ducked and prepared his own attack. The alien took a collection of rounds to the chest, but his armor did not break. He staggered backwards, though, his armor rapidly venting plasma.

Tails' spin dash breached the armor and threw the brute to the ground. Tails wondered if the alien was dead. Before he could check, the Spartan strode forward and fired a pair of shots into the head of the brute.

If he hadn't been dead beforehand, he definitely was now. There was silence; and then the marines cruised down the hill in their vehicle. They took in the scene with awe.

"Wow." One of the marines uttered.

"Well." The Sargent grunted. "Looks like you could actually be of some use to us then."

Tails couldn't help but feel a little pride at that statement.

"We need to double time it to the LZ." Someone said hurriedly. "Commander wants to set her frigate down, ASAP."

"Chief, whats-your-name, climb on." The Sargent ordered.

"I'm Tails." He muttered, as he hopped aboard.

The Chief did the same on the other side of the vehicle, and they set of.

One of the marines drew a damaged helmet at Tails. He could it and returned a confused glanced at the marine who had sent it his way.

"It still works." They (Tails found it difficult to tell their gender under their uniform, as the armor plates obscured key bodily features used for that kind of identification) replied. "I doubt it will fit your head, though."

"I'll see what I can do." He muttered quietly, mostly to himself, and began fiddling with the earpiece and mic attached to the green helmet.

They bounced down several cliffs, all of which ended on another short, sandy face. Eventually, they came to an intersection. One path continued down into a wide plain. There was a large structure there, what seemed like a wall, but it had an elevated walkway in front of it, around the middle.

Several Brute vehicles prowled around the wall, moving in a fashion that reminded him of Eggman's robots.

Down the other pathway, it was quiet. Only sand lapped slowly in the wind.

"Weeeeeeellllllll." The Sargent grunted. "Our choice is pretty obvious."

They turned into the empty passage and started down it. Tails turned back to tinkering with the helmet. He managed to separate the headpiece from the actual moulding of the helmet.

With a little tinkering, he formed a piece that could be wrapped somewhat tightly around his right ear. It would probably withstand a few spindashes before being shook loose.

He placed it onto his head and secured it. He flicked to the UNSC FLEETCOM channel and listened in.

"Let your cannons roar!" A deep voice shouted.

Tails heard a loud bang resonate over the COM and a bright flash filled the sky above.

Tails heard a couple of whoops from the marines on the vehicle.

"Fire Archer pods E1 through E5." A woman barked over the COM.

They pulled around a corner, turning to face another passage running almost parellel to the one that they had come from. However, unlike that one, there were two purple vehicles patrolling. They opened fire as soon as the UNSC forces rounded the corner. Several rounds splashed against the side of their vehicle. Several plasma rounds narrowly missed Tails; however, they hit home on other targets.

One marine was hit straight through his chest with a bolt of superheated plasma, killing him instantly. Another one lost their arm to a shot, and rolled across the deck screaming in pain.

The gunner on their vehicle returned fire, but the vehicles gave a burst of speed and whizzed past the fire. As they retargeted the vehicle, Tails quickly bailed, hitting the sand quickly and spinning off to avoid the incoming fire.

Behind him, he heard the heavy form of the UNSC super soldier as he hit the ground. The Chief hit the ground and pulled off his rocket launcher off his back.

Suddenly, the grey vehicle exploded with the force of a hundred grenades. Tails was thrown to the ground from the airblast of the explosion.

As he hit the ground, the Chief fired a round from his launcher. The rocket impacted against the first purple vehicle, and it detonated in a ball of orange and blue fire.

Tails instinctively lowered his head as debris flew through the air. His ears rang.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted a single marine who had managed to escape staring at the burning wreckage.

The second purple vehicle turned towards the Möbian. It's forward facing turrets tracked him and warmed up. He reaponded immediately, diving to the side, using his namesakes to give him as much of a boost as he could. Plasma exploded from the vehicle, powering through the area he'd once stood.

Tails watched as it slammed into the final marine remaining. The human stood and took the first few rounds to the chest, and then fell and remained still. Tails turned back to the purple vehicle. It slowly came around and locked onto him.

Suddenly, a collection of bullets tore through the air, impacting the pilot. An Unggoy tumbled out of the hovering machine and lay still.

The Chief quickly stepped up to the vehicle and pulled himself on board. As he powered it on he spun it around to face the hill. For a brief second, he caught Tails' eye and gestured for him to follow him uphill with a nod of his head; and then he sent the vehicle hurtling uphill.

Tails found himself thinking on how similar that action was to something Sonic would have done, but all the same was so different. Sonic always had a sense of Impatience, while Tails gathered none from the Chief. He seemed almost like he was just telling him which way he was going. The Brute name for him was Demon. And Tails understood why. The man seemed to lack any emotions, or at least the ability to express them. He did not seem to care, or to mourn the soldiers that had just died, Although he had avenged them brutally and quickly. To his allies, the Chief was a huge asset; and yet, to his enemies, he was no other than death incarnate.

Tails looked back at the burning wreckage of the formerly human occupied vehicle. Then he turned and headed uphill at top speed.

Ahead, the cyborg drove the purple hover-vehicle into a swarm of bird-like aliens. They squawked as then were run down, and the Chief bailed backwards off the vehicle. It slammed into the wall and detonated. He turned and drew his rifle.

Tails reached the top of the hill and took in the scene briefly. Two marines were standing by the wreckage of some kind of truck, exchanging fire with a group of Covenant. One marine manned a turret attached to the rear section of said truck, and the covenant ducked behind several barricades to avoid this heavy fire. They seemed to not have noticed either him or the Chief. Big mistake.

Tails glanced over at the super soldier, who took aim on a nearby cluster of Unggoy. Tails closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, and then charged a spindash.

The cracks and bangs of bullets and plasma rounds grew faint for a brief moment. Then he released, smashing into the aliens. They were thrown to and fro, and the marines quickly cut them down.

The Chief unleashed several volleys on the stunned Brutes. Bullets rang against their armor, which glowed light blue under the fire.

Tails backed out of the crossfire range, but was ambushed by a single brute in greenish armor whom had ducked behind a rock for cover.

The Möbian reacted quickly, doing the only thing that came to mind. He twisted on his heel, sticking out his namesakes as he spun. His tails were almost as hard concrete, and hit with the force of them. The ape-like creature gave a cry of shock as he fell backwards, obviously surprised by the force that the little creature had struck with. He hit the dirt. Tails twisted in midair, redirecting his velocity and bringing his tail back down on the stunned brute's chest. It was very much like a body-slam technic. The advanced armor system overloaded and exploded from the force of his hits. However, he was now in an exposed position, with his momentum spent. The brute recovered faster than he anticipated, grabbing his tail almost immediately and pulling it over himself. Tails hit the sand facedown.

He lashed out with his other tail, panic beginning to set in as he was left at the mercy of the ginormous creature. He got lucky. He managed to hit the brute's arm. It snarled and released it instinctively, even though the kit didn't really manage to hit with much force.

The brute staggered back as Tails landed and gathered himself. He looked up at the towering creature and snarled. Now that he was free, he had the options of fight-or-flight.

He snarled and bared his teeth at his enemy, his namesakes arcing backwards as he prepared for a fight, his instincts taking over. For everything that the Freedom Fighters had taught him back in Möbius, there was something that they hadn't taught him, but his fox instincts took over.

He spun up rapidly and launched himself at the brute. He hit with enough force to bend solid steel. The brute was not solid steel. The Möbian's attack smashed into him, breaking several of his ribs, compressing both of his lungs, and all in all, damaging many of the brutes organs.

He fell, with Tails uncurling from the alien's chest. Tails quickly searched the area around for enemies, the adrenaline still surging through him.

Satisfied he was safe for the immediate time, he inspected the brute below him. The brute was dead. The alien's eyes stared lifelessly upwards, with its reddish blood trickling from its mouth. Tails stepped off the chest of the alien. He felt sick looking at the lifeless body, knowing that HE had done that. But, what disturbed him most was a small part of him that took satisfaction in the fact that the brute was dead.

He examined himself. A decently sized portion of the creature's blood was now matted against his fur along his back... Complete with a few chunks of flesh from the body.

Tails turned and staggered a short distance from the body before falling to his knees and vomiting violently. After a minute or so he sat back and surveyed the area around him.

The fighting had died down, with the brutes having defeated. The Chief was standing by the ruined vehicle, inspecting its cargo for weapons. One of the marines was helping the Chief search, while the other watched Tails from vehicle.

He rose quickly and walked over to them. They said nothing as he approached. The one whom had been watching him offered him water. He took it graciously and quickly ingested most of the liquid inside.

After five minutes. The group set of down and short passageway located behind them. Two marines, one Möbian and a Cyborg.

The Chief had pulled the turret off the vehicle, which the marines had called a warthog. The passageway opened into a large valley. A hole was almost directly ahead of them, with a small land pass leading around the hole in a way the left a steep but short slope. A tower rose over the pit on the left side, with another on a rising path on the right side. Two smaller single person vehicles called "ghosts" prowled the central hole, along with a large vehicle that seemed to be nothing more than a large hover turret called a "wraith".

In order to help move the weapons to the passageway, Tails had had to carry an assault rifle and a sniper rifle. He had no intention of using them, though.

The group took cover behind a rock. The Chief leaned out and surveyed the area. A collection of green rounds rose from behind a mound of rocks and flew into the sky, detonating loudly. Gunfire could be heard briefly as well.

"This is the Commander's LZ." A marine explained. "There's a bunch of AA wraiths over the rise there. Once we take them out, the frigate can set down and we can deploy the big guns."

The Chief pulled his head back in. He turned to Tails.

"Sniper." He said briskly.

Tails offered him the rifle. He took it and lay down. He surveyed the valley, and took aim. The others watched as the Cyborg took aim slowly and steadily on the tower to the right. Tails watched his presumed targets through a pair of binoculars.

The two bird-like creatures on the tower to the right were both bipedal. Their legs were almost horselike, though. They held a pair of long, triangular rifles that faintly glowed pink.

The sniper rifle gave a muffled puff, and one of aliens fell soundlessly. The other immediately squawked and backed up, but another shot took him out. The Chief pulled back behind the rock.

"I'll take out the right tower." He said quickly, taking an assault rifle and a collection of grenades.

He sprinted off, heading straight for the tower. The marines and Tails followed him more slowly, not wanting to get in his way. The super-soldier reached reached the tower and went to work on its occupants.

However, at the exact same time, a ghost noticed the three lagging behind. The pilot, an Unggoy, hit the boosters and accelerated up the hill behind them. Tails turned as he heard the ghost's boosters. The marines didn't notice it as quickly as he did.

"Duck!" He yelled, diving to the side as it opened fire.

One marine was lucky, he managed to avoid the shots of the single-person vehicle. The other, however, did not. Three shots smashed into his back, and he fell to the dirt. Tails turned and glanced up at the vehicle. The ghost turned and targeted the other marine, the one who had given him the water bottle after the battle back before the passage.

Tails got up and launched off, spinning up his namesakes and speeding towards the ghost. The pilot tried to turn, but was too slow. Tails sped beneath the left wing of the vehicle and sprang upwards. The Unggoy was knocked clean from his perch and hit the dirt. The marine opened fire on the Unggoy, killing it.

"Thanks." They muttered.

Tails shrugged it off. He climbed on the vehicle. The ghost had an interesting control scheme. There was a pair of handles that changed direction, which had triggers to fire the weapons. A pair of foot pads controlled speed. Not a terribly intuitive system, Tails thought.

The other ghost sped around the foot of the hill. Tails pulled hard on the left handle and spun the ghost around, opening fire on the enemy one.

Plasma smashed against the hull of ghost, and it flipped over. The pilot hit the ground and was knocked unconscious. The marine moved to attempt to take the fallen ghost. Tails drove the vehicle downhill. Immediately; he spotted the wraith. Unable to get an angle at them on the hill, it had held its fire; until now. Tails yelped as the plasma mortar detonated a few feet away from him.

The plasma didn't so much explode as it did just melt through the rocks. A few drops of plasma over-spilled from the explosion, burning his fur and skin on contact. He hissed and turned the ghost towards the tank.

The plasma mortar glowed, charging up for another shot. Tails loosed a few shots off, put these had no effect on the tank's armor. He hit the boosters and dodged the next ball if plasma as it whizzed by overhead.

Tails looked up out the tank, hopelessness filling him. However, he'd forgotten about the Chief. The cyborg lunged down into the pit, landing behind the wraith. He stood and drew a grenade in fluid motion. He pulled the pin with a tug of his index finger and brought his arm up.

The grenade landed in the rear section of the wraith, straight in the hole in the back of it. It bounced into the core, became wedged in the rotating mechanisms, and detonated.

The main turret exploded, and then the stores plasma breached containment and melted through most of the wraith, before it finally gave a final detonation.

The super-soldier slowly marched around the wreckage of the vehicle. He seemed unfazed by the twisted materials and plasma pooling beside him.

The other marine drove the other ghost down the hill and joined the pair of them at the foot of the rise out of the pit. The sandy plain above them was occupied by a pair of modified wraiths that fired smaller, green projectiles up, into a mob of various air vehicles that engaged each other.

To the right, a low rocky hill covered a collection of Covenant soldiers with a plasma placement.

They came to a quick plan. Chief and Tails would take one Wraith each, leaving the marine to wipe out the covenant encampment.

They went. Tails hit the accelerator on his ghost and sped towards his chosen wraith. He knew the ghost lacked the fire to take it out; but he had a grenade which the Chief had given him, and knew where to put it.

Something about that cold metal ball in his hand was extremely satisfying. And yet, it felt wrong in taking satisfaction in that weapon, as he knew he was probably end up killing the occupants of the wraith with it.

Although, he was not aiming to do that, just to disable the tank. The gunner spotted the ghost gunning towards his tank and attempted to get the angle. He couldn't, so the pilot redirected the whole tank towards the Möbian. He pulled right hard immediately, avoiding the initial plasma rounds.

He exhaled loudly; he hadn't expected the vehicle to turn that quickly. He redirected and boosted to avoid falling of the cliff, and then aimed for the left rear wing of the tank. The plasma turret opened fire. Round splattered against the ghost. The screen blared red, and Tails hissed.

He had to bail; this thing couldn't hold up against that kind of fire. He kicked off, full weight on his back, spinning backwards as he whizzed forwards, when he had rotated so his back was upwards, he spun up his namesakes. He narrowly whizzed over the left wing of the wraith and reversed his velocity. The ghost exploded violently, but Tails landed mostly unharmed, grenade in hand.

As the wraith began to spin, Tails flew forward at nearly a hundred meters a second, and threw the grenade.

It landed directly inside of the swirling core of the tank. The core stopped spinning as it was clogged by the metal object. Tails mentally counted down from five until detonation.

Nothing.

Tails launched himself to the side and spun at high speed, behind him plasma rounds spattering against the sand. Tails yelped, swearing at himself internally.

He hadn't pulled the pin before releasing the grenade. He'd essentially just thrown a small metal object into the tank. He wanted to punch himself, but the wraith gunner would not let him get away, swinging his turret rapidly and precisely to block the Möbian from finding cover.

And then the wraith shut down, going dark for no reason. The turret failed and the hover systems shut down. The gunner snarled something as he realised that the thing wasn't working.

Tails realised that the grenade actually HAD had an effect on the wraith; it must have shut down the power, disabling the tank. He snorted; he'd actually achieved his intended goals.

The brute manning the turret swore and cussed away as his system simply failed to work. In no immediate danger, Tails checked on the other two. The marine and their ghost was making short work of the covenant. And the Chief; he was literally beating the wraith into submission; huge chunks of metal fell apart as his fist smashed into the front section of the tank.

It was a true testament to the strength of the super-soldier. It seemed extensively violent, but was there to mostly prove a point. It was like something that Knuckles would do in a bad mood.

Tails heard thrusters in the air; and several vehicles sped over the rise and into the air above the plain. Their colour scheme matched the Chief's, so Tails assumed they were friendly. One of the vehicles was huge and bulky; its wings were thick and bulky and the main body was almost egg shaped.

The other three escort craft were long and thin, seemingly a mixture between a helicopter and a plane; It had two wings, but at the end of each was a pair of thrusters. They reminded him of bees.

They launched a few missiles at the last wraith, obliterating it.

"Ma'am?" A voice called over the UNSC COM. "The coast is clear."

Tails jumped; he'd forgotten about the COM. He checked his earpiece. A bit dented, but nothing that couldn't be fixed.

"Rodger that." The woman called back over the COM. "Beginning my descent."

The three regrouped in the centre of the valley. It was silent for a few seconds.

"What are we waiting for?" Tails asked.

And then, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. A huge, dark, Y-shaped object darted down from the sky at over Mach 3. At the last second, it pulled up and redirected towards their valley. The frigate grew rapidly, having not lost any speed on its approach.

Tails marvelled at the technology required for the ship to change its direction so rapidly without losing any speed during it. At the last second before reaching the valley, the starship opened something a slowed to a stop with an immediate loud bang.

The roaring of thrusters and engines filled the air as the frigate settled into the ground. The debris of the wraiths were thrown across the valley. The three took stances to resist the pressure of the thrusters. Tails had to spin full out against it for a second, while the marine was fortunately secured by the Chief.

"Thanks, Chief." The commander said. "I wouldn't have lasted much longer up there."

The large undercarriage hovered a few meters above the ground. Three platforms hissed, and descended. Along these platforms, there were a collection of tanks.

The marine with them laughed with glee at the sight if these vehicles.

These tanks, however, had four pairs of tracks, and the turret was more shifted towards the back. Without hesitation, the three tanks rolled off the platforms and formed up.

The larger of the hovering aircraft touched down. From it, a tall dark-skinned marine climbed out.

"All right marines!" He bellowed. "Yeh hear me? We are takin' this fight back, to 'em Covvies. And this time, we've been given some N-I-C-E toys to play with. Don't you boys n' girls go wastin' 'em now."

A quite cheer went through the marines, and they moved to climb aboard the tanks. A grey sphere with a blue light floated above them.

"Reclaimer?" It asked in a rather eccentric voice. "Shall I help you pick a vehicle?"

The Chief merely brushed him off, heading for the nearest tank.

"Oh my." The blue sphere said, suddenly dropping up to Tails' face.

Tails backed up instinctively.

"What have we here? An uncatalouged species? How did you get here? Oh my. So many questions!" He exclaimed, scanning Tails with a blue beam.

"Will you stop?" Tails asked, trying to stand out of the line of sight of the hovering orb.

"And what tha hell are you?" The commanding marine asked, taking a few steps towards the Möbian.

"My name is Tails." He muttered. "I'm a Möbian and- will you just go away?"

The orb did not comply, only continuing scanning.

"He's with us, Sarge." The marine that had taken out the encampment said. "He was helping me and the Chief. He single-handily disables out one of those AA wraiths."

The Sargent nodded, apparently satisfied with that answer.

"So long as you're with us, that's fine by me." He replied. "Now listen up marines. The Commander wants us to punch a hole in the Covenant line. Chief, you lead the way."

"Hoo-Rah!" Came a shout from the marines, and they mounted vehicles with purpose.

Tails couldn't help but share in some of the optimism amongst the marines. They now had the firepower. There was now the excitement of no longer running around barely surviving. It was now time to really take the fight to the Covenant.