Mission Log: Entry 221- Spartan 117 (John) CLASSIFIED ONI CODEWORD

John looked over his Spartans, his family, nearly all of them. The only ones missing were Fred, Joshua, and Kelly, and the Blue team Tom had dispatched to secure the Admiral, who was tearing down alongside the Big Horn River at 100kmp in two Warthogs. Charlie two-six was on station waiting to make the pick-up, her 60 caliber chin gun, and 30 caliber wing guns, providing some delightful air support for Task force 141. Comprised of 24 Spartans, 150 ODSTs of the 501st, and 63 ODSTs of the 502nd, the 141 was fortifying their position above the generator complex, awaiting the next wave of Covenant warriors.

Space-side, Caption and Lt. Commander Keyes, respectfully, had the two most powerful ships in human history, the Valiant, and the Covenant Cruiser Truth and Reconcilliation, plus 15 of the UNSCs finest warships, all being expertly fought by the two stellar officers, and controlled with pin-point precision by Cortana, the UNSC's most advanced AI construct.

"Chief this is Capt. Keyes, come in please."

The Chief's comm link crackled with his favorite officers voice.

"This is -117, go ahead sir."

"Chief, I've got good intel that two tier-1 personalities are still ground-side on Reach."

"Sir, I was only aware of Vice Admiral Whitcomb?"

"I'd much rather do this over a secure channel, but you don't have the equipment for that son, the Vice Admiral is only a tier-2, I'm talking about the father of the finest military outfit in human history, and the woman responsible for our survival this far into the war."

"Sir?"

Only two people the Chief knew of seemed to fit the description, but he hardly dared to hope that the only two non-Spartans he might call family were still alive, and on this planet.

"Dr. Halsey, and CPO Mendez, are both reported MIA, last known position at ONI's Omega facility, I believe you know it?"

"Sir I have no knowledge of such a place."

The tone in the Master Chief's voice made it very clear that it was a pre-planned line, delivered automatically.

"I thought so Master Chief, recovery of tier-1 personalities is a priority tasking, recover the Doctor and the Chief as soon as possible. I'll provide any support that I can for you. The Covenant are making this too easy, they're waiting for something, I'm not sure what, but I'm betting it's not too surrender."

"Roger that Sir, my team will get them back."

"Glad to hear it son, just get them to the complex, I'll designate Echo-419 to do a pickup, unfortunately I'm not going to be able to spare any Longswords other than Knife flight, we have a few carriers up here that are pumping out fighters like you wouldn't believe, Columbia will be staying in mid-orbit to provide support, I need every other ship Chief, I'm sorry."

"We'll get it done sir, air support is for marines."

John heard the Captain chuckle before signing off the Comm. If Dr. Halsey and CPO Mendez were still alive, John was going to have his Spartans tear the planet apart looking for them. He would go himself, but until he was relieved, his primary focus had to be in holding the generators, if the Covenant over ran them, everyone on Reach was dead anyway.

"Chief this is Red-1, eyes on large enemy armor column, estimate a full regiment, headed are way, good mix of Tanks and Ghosts, plenty of infantry too, we're in real trouble, there must be over 40 tanks out here."

"Roger that Red-1, pull back to base."

"All units, fall back to the bunkers, we have heavy armor in bound, I want rockets to the top, and make sure those Guass turrets are ready to go, we have 40 plus armor units inbound."

The men and women of Task Force 141 ran to their tasks, loading rifles, prepping rockets, and powering up the mini magnetic accelerator cannons called Guass turrets, each silently wondering how an over sized battalion of infantry was supposed to hold a fixed position against a full armored regiment.

Space side, 1200 miles above Reach

Cortana was busily performing a large number of tasks at once. She was simultaneously monitoring all space in all directions 50,000 kilometers out from Reach, updating order and firing sequences to 9 frigates, 6 destroyers, one cruiser, and two corvettes, flying the Truth and Reconciliation, studying and modifying nearly every system on her ship, keeping an eye on Johns team on the ground, investigating the time displacement on her jump from Halo, using a secure channel to copy the Halo data to the Valiant's memory banks, and tracking the incoming task force from Earth. And all without breaking a sweat, she joked to herself.

Apparently though she had stretched herself a little too thin, as she had failed to notice the five ships moving locally through slipspace on the cruisers scanners specific to that purpose. She didn't know they were there until the Covenant carrier, surrounded by four destroyers, had dropped into normal space, behind the MAC V cannons.

By the time she had tasked every ship at her disposal to fire on the new arrivals, over 200 various drop ships, mostly from the carrier, had cleared the immediate area. Judging by her analysis of the different classes of ships, over half of them were armor transports, capable of carrying up to three Wraith tanks, or six Ghost's, each. Her mistake may have ended up costing them Reach, there was no way the Master Chief and his team could hold off an armored division, not with some serious help, which she was unable to provide.

"Master Chief this is Cortana, be advised, there is a Covenant armored division inbound to the surface."

"Say again Cortana?"

"I repeat, the Covenant are in the process of landing a division of armor approximately 200 kilometers north of your position. I'm sorry Chief, they used a pin-point short range slipspace jump to drop in behind our lines, by the time we took out her escorts, the troops were off the carrier."

"Roger, acknowledged, do we have any available armor in system?"

Cortana did a lightning fast check of every armory on Reach, and every ship in system, before answering the Chief."

"Negative Chief, the combined ships in system only have 23 Scorpion tanks available, and no way to get them on the surface other than in atmosphere drops, currently impossible. I'm sorry Chief, I don't have any options."

"Thank you for the update Cortana. Out."

Cortana returned to her various tasks, wondering briefly if that was the last time she'd hear from the Master Chief.

Ground side- Reach

The leading elements of Covenant infantry had started the attack, grunt squads led by jackal pairs to sort out any mines that might be around, followed by teams of assorted Elites, and sporadic clusters of Brutes, just to keep things interesting. The combined forces of the two ODST battalions, now barely one full one, were doing their level best to keep the aliens at bay, with the Spartans filling in the weak points, and manning heavy weapons to neutralize any armor or aircraft. So far the strategy was working, and the line held, but John was worried that no hunters, nor the expected Wraith tanks had shown up yet. The odd Ghost pair would make a run at them, usually taken out by a round from the Guass cannons, but they wouldn't be enough to take out a tank, not when he only had four of them.

"Columbia this is ground team, come in please."

"Ground this is Columbia, Commander Wills, how can I help you Chief?"

"I'm about to have an armored force assaulting the complex, do you have any anti-armor options available?"

"Tanks? 'bout the only thing I got for those would be archer missiles, or the Mac gun."

"Can you get a positive track on the enemy formation?"

"Negative Chief, too much interference from all the plasma fire, not to mention the nukes, you're going to have to mark your targets with laser sights the old fashioned way, only way I can put an archer on target, as for the MAC rounds, give me co-ordinates and I'll turn anything within half a kilometer into dust."

"Roger that Commander, Master Chief out."

They only had one laser sighter, the damned things were practically antiques, and it wouldn't be enough to have archer missiles come in one at a time, so that left the frigates main cannon, but a 500 pound ferric iron round, super heated almost to the temperature of a small sun by re-entry, would burn down the generators, and everyone around them, by the time he got close enough to sight in an artillery type co-ordinate strike. He'd simply have to fire random, and pray he got lucky.

Luck didn't seem to be with him for once, as motion sensors indicated that the Covenant main armor units were about to enter the kill zone, meaning it was now or never for orbital MAC rounds. If he fired now, there was a chance he doomed them all, if he waited, he definitely doomed them all.

"Columbia this is ground team, fire package uploading now, danger close, say again danger close, fire for effect."

"Roger that Chief, danger very close."

There was a low rumble, like distant thunder, that lasted a scarce ten seconds before the sky turned white as a plasma hot ball of burning metal screamed through the atmosphere at more than half the speed of light, followed closely by 24 burning streaks of what could only be archer missiles, each the size of a pelican. This dazzling image lasted half a second before the MAC round struck, emitting a white hot flash similar to that of a nuke, and no less deadly, the following missiles only served to cremate any remains.