Chapter Three: Flames of Shanxi

Taiyuan, Shanxi, UNSC Outer Colonies, April 20th, 2525

POV: Commander Tieus Sevesis, 28th Marine Division

Turian Commander Tieus Sevesis prided himself on respecting his opponents, and trying to admire their strengths. But that was getting difficult as he received reports that yet another one of his squads had fallen to an alien ambush. This time, though, it was a recon team he had sent to scout out a plaza near the city center, one of the last pockets of enemy resistance. They estimated that there was about a dozen soldiers patrolling the nearby buildings, using rocket volleys and land mines to halt his tank column whenever they advanced. And his infantry just didn't have the firepower to root out the enemy, not when sniper attacks, and various types of traps prevented their entry of the buildings, except through one route.

He had to admit, this was a well organized defense, but the way his opponents fought, attacking his forces, then slipping away, was getting on his nerves. Still, they had information on their opponents. There were two types of enemies, the more numerous ones, with olive clothing and no serious armor, and armed with an automatic rifle that could strip kinetic barriers away and seconds. He had noticed that they were typically disorganized, so he assumed they were a planetary militia. And then there was a type that was quickly dwindling, that had darker green combat armor, that could deflect a few rounds from low caliber weapons. They seemed to be the ones organizing everything...though there was less of them with every ambush his small force of commandos dealt with.

The battleground didn't help, either. The city had small streets, barely big enough for a single tank to pass through, and it had its back to a mountain, the entire city sloping upwards. This plaza was in near the highest point, which made his job harder, as his own marksmen on the roofs were exposed to the enemy. Regardless of this, the battle would be quick, as soon as they had orbital support again. Though his hopes were dashed for that when a younger turian, a sergeant, sprinted into his command post. "Commander, we have incoming...things. Launched from orbit."

He sighs, walking outside of the building, with the Sergeant following a few feet behind him. Tieus raises his sniper rifle, taking a quick look and seeing a dozen black dots on the horizon, rapidly growing closer to them, and revealing that they're burning orange from reentry. He examines them, before noticing a sort of drag chute engage on the pods. "I want my armored vehicles moved underneath those pedestrian bridges, and have all soldiers ready to take cover. Anyone with a rocket launcher, though, get a lock on them and fire. It doesn't look like an orbital bombardment, but I'm not taking any chances."

The moment he finishes talking, his forces begin moving as he asks, several blue accented projectiles arcing up from the city and intercepting five of the pods, causing them to veer off course...and one of them right at his position. "Get to cover!" He yells, ducking inside a nearby doorway, along with the sergeant. A moment later, the object slams into the ground on its side, skipping off the street and slamming into a wall no more than six feet away from the commander...crushing a Turian soldier. After a few seconds of silence, Tieus steps from the doorway, walking so that he had a clear line of sight to the pod. Four other soldiers, including the sergeant, slowly emerge as well, all staring at the pod.

After a few more moments, he clears his throat. "You two" He indicates to Turian soldiers. "Check it out."

The two glance at each other, before slowly walking closer, until both are standing directly in front of a hatch, weapons pointed at it. And thats when all hell breaks loose, said hatch launching off of the object and slamming into the two hard enough to shatter their kinetic barrels and knock both on their backs. The blood dripping from their mouths, as well as the fact that neither moved, being a bad sign. But as he raises his pistol, a black armored figure leaps out of the pod and fires a bulky, two barreled weapon at him. Fortunately for the turian officer, the sergeant had jumped in front, though the force of the explosion shatters both kinetic barriers, and sends him flying into a wall.

His vision goes black on impact, though it reappears moments later, the cracks of a burst of gunfire being the only thing he could hear as the alien commando quickly neutralizes the last turian soldier. It then turns its attention to Tieus, noticing as he weakly pushes himself to his feet. It raises its rifle, preparing to finish off the turian when energy wraps around his hand and launches at them, slamming into their chest and knocking them backwards. The commander lets his biotic energy surround him, giving him a shield, though his kinetic barriers don't regenerate. He then starts walking towards the fallen alien, pistol drawn.

The being quickly rolls onto its knees, before lunging for their weapon, ignoring the few pistol rounds he fires, only one actually breaching the armor. The black armored thing then rolls over again and fires several times at him, the two exchanging fire until both run out of ammo, though as it tries to reload, Tieus charges and activates his omniblade, kicking its weapon out of its hands and planting a foot on its chest. "What are you?" He asks furiously.

It doesnt answer verbally, likely not understanding the question, and yanks a primitive knife from its chestplate and shoving the blade into the leg not resting on it, before roughly shoving up on the foot on its chest. He cries out, his injured leg collapsing and omniblade dissipating, leaving the alien free to get to its knees and tackle him, one hand roughly pulling the blade out of his leg, as it quickly straddles him and raises the knife, before thrusting it down, only to be blocked by him grabbing its wrists.

He finds that while stronger than the alien, it has a much better position, and is able to lean its body weight on the strike, making a bit of progress, before he delivers a biotically enhanced punch to its face. Its head snaps back, visor cracking, leaving him to grab the blade and throw it away, before preparing to punch it again, and shatter its mirrored visor. The attack doesn't work, though, him losing focus suddenly as the alien grabs one of his mandibles and yanks as hard as they can on it. The flesh and muscles rip after a moment, him screaming in pain, before the thing's armored elbow to the throat causes it to fade to a cough. It then pulls a spherical object off of its side, roughly shoving it into his mouth. As it jumps off, he's able to see a red light flash twice, before suddenly, nothing matters to him anymore.

POV: Captain Evelyn Sykes, 13th Shock Troops Battalion

She wipes the dark blue blood off of her now cracked visor, allowing herself a dark grin as she stares at the now mangled corpse of the alien commander, along with his deceased allies. The Helljumper walks a bit closer and pulls her knife from its leg, her collecting her fallen battle rifle, along with the M41 SNKR she had dropped. She reloads its spent tube, before putting the bulky weapon on her back and reloading her rifle. As she does this, however, she hears something behind her and turns quickly, aiming her rifle at the wide eyes of two young men in olive clothing, who both quickly raise their hands.

"I'm recruit Bradley, he's Fenwick...don't shoot us please. We're with the militia." One of them quickly says, Evelyn looking the two over. Bradley was tall, and fairly bulky too, the kind of person the ODST could easily see was a farmer, the old fashioned kind, not one who relied on JOTUNs to do all his work. Fenwick was more slender and only an inch taller than Evie herself, who only stood five and a half feet. The shorter militiaman also looked like he had some asian heritage, as opposed to the blond caucasian Bradley was.

"Good to see that some of you all survived. Though, where's your squad? Or CO?" She asks a moment later, their faces reflecting off of her visor.

"Dead, ma'am. A group of these guys caught us off guard, while we were helping a group of civilians. Gunned all of us down, though me and him dropped to the ground when they opened fire. They walked by us." Bradley whispers, the other recruit remaining silent.

Evie stares at them for a second, before sighing. "Questionable survival aside, I need a sitrep on what's happening? Where are your remaining forces? The plaza I sent all my men towards?"

The two militiamen exchange glances, before nodding. "We saw all the pods heading there, except yours, so we assume so. But the remaining bastards have surrounded the place, and they have shielded tanks. We've only been able to kill two of them. And that took most of our firepower."

"Two out of..." The woman prompts, looking at Bradley.

"A dozen. Don't we have Pelicans incoming, though? Couldn't they take out the tanks?" He asks hopefully.

"Maybe. But lets just focus on kicking these bastards off of our planet. Before our buddies in the air conditioned dropships get here." She turns and starts walking, the two quickly following.

Fenwick finally speaks up. "Ma'am, with all respect, its suicide to take one of these on. They have a full auto railgun capable of mowing down our infantry, and a heavy cannon. Not to mention, it takes a volley of rockets to destroy one."

"You clearly haven't met many Helljumpers, then. Impossible is what we do." She walks down the alley, her moving quickly through the deserted streets, entering a small skyscraper's lobby. They then head up a staircase, before walking out onto one of the pedestrian bridges, her crouching near the railing to avoid getting a round through her head, though she hears a rumbling beneath her. The two militia crawl over, the shorter looking anxious, while Bradley looks rather excited.

"Ma'am, theres a tank and a squad of these bastards below us. You don't seriously expect to take them out? Because that's crazy." Fenwick whispers, barely audible to Evie, who responds by pulling her SPNKR rocket launcher off of her back and tossing it to him.

She then holsters her battle rifle on her back, drawing her magnum in one hand, before looking at the two. "So I'm crazy, then. Because you two are going to take out the infantry while I jump down and take out the tank. We need to move quickly, and you two need to pop up and fire the second I say."

The two nod, her stretching a little, staying crouched, before whispering "Now" and leaping over the railing, falling a story before landing roughly on the back of the tank. She hears the rattle of an assault rifle firing, before the sound of a pair of rockets firing and detonating motivates her enough to quickly leap for a hatch near the front of the vehicle. She was aware she was right in front of the turret, and in a very vulnerable position, before wrenching it open and diving in, her landing among three turian crew members, all of whom look at her, clearly surprised.

Evelyn promptly raises her pistol and shoots the closest in the head, their kinetic barriers being shut off at the moment. The ODST shifts her aim to the second, though the rush at her, causing her shot to simply strike their chest before they slam into her and pin her against a wall, while the third alien activates their barriers and pulls a shotgun from the nearest compartment.

The female soldier is still struggling with her opponent, before she manages to roll a grenade across thre floor, it landing at the armed alien's feet. As they look down at it, the explosive detonates, ripping through its shielding and filling it with shrapnel. But due to the confined space, not only does it hit them, it also strikes the helljumper in the leg a bit, and fills the turian she's wrestling with's back full of jagged shards of metal. The distraction and blood loss of the alien combatant allow Evie to shove them back, before hitting them with a 'mercy shot' in the forehead, ending their life immediately.

As the adrenaline fades a little, she realizes that the militia are in trouble, hearing Bradley cry out, and a hail of alien weapons-fire. So she decides to help, sealing the hatch and sitting in the main driver's seat, her noticing several controls. Seeing a turian directly in front of her, taking shelter behind the front of the tank, she simply pushes forward on a joystick, the vehicle responding and jetting forward, slamming into the alien and knocking them backwards. It just takes out their barriers and knocks them back, though, them cursing at her, likely assuming that the driver had just made a mistake. Noticing what she presumes is a weapons icon in the corner of the screen, she taps it, getting a message with a red or green option. The woman taps the green, being pleased when she's rewarded with her screen switching views into a different camera with a targeting dot.

"You know, its kind of sad when you don't have to even read the language to understand how to use the tank." She mutters to herself, before squeezing down on a trigger on the joystick and swiping it over the enemies, a hail of blue tinged rounds spitting from the vehicle, quickly mowing down the remaining aliens. Evelyn quickly climbs out of the seat a moment later, her opening the hatch and waving to Fenwick. "You two alright? Cause we just got a way to help our buddies out."

The man sighs, before hauling the larger recruit to his feet and supporting him. "Bradley took a hail of bullets to the stomach. So we'll take the long way down. Also, thanks for shooting the bastards. The one you smacked into was about to shoot this bridge with a rocket."

She gives them the thumbs up, the two walking down a nearby ramp onto the street, her quickly running over and helping support the larger soldier, ignoring the biting pain of the shrapnel lodged in her leg, and of the bullet wound on her side. The two manage to haul Bradley into the vehicle and get him seated in the back, before Evelyn holds up a can of biofoam. "This'll sting a little." She tells him calmly, before kneeling next to him and spraying the substance into the injury.

He gasps a bit, the cold foam hurting quite a bit, him squeezing her knee rather tightly as she finishes. "That hurt a...bit more than...a little...ma'am."

The ODST smiles a little, her visor depolarizing as she shrugs. "Or you're just a wuss. Anyways, still got a third of the can left. Fenwick, you hurt?" She turns to the other militiaman, who has no serious injuries, before noticing that Bradley is still squeezing her knee, her gently pushing his hand away.

"No, but you are, Captain." The shorter male says quietly, noticing the blood leaking from her side, and the metal sticking out of her leg. "Just sit back and I can probably apply it better then you can."

She sighs, before sitting in the driver's seat and handing him the can, being sure to lift her arm and expose the injury for him. "Fine, but make it quick. The Pelicans'll arrive in about ten minutes, and as I said, I'd like to deal with most of these fuckers before they get here."

Fenwick nods and gets close to her, before inserting the nozzel of the can near the bullet hole and spraying a bit, hearing a slight noise from the woman, before he pulls out the piece of metal in her leg, her biting her tongue and barely avoiding letting out a shriek of pain.

"Y..You never took first aid, did you? Cause they say not to do that." She says a bit weakly, wincing as he sprays the rest of the foam into the injury.

"Sorry ma'am." He gets into the second chair, noticing the alien numbers and letters. "Also, can I have a bit of help? I don't know what I'm doing."

She sighs. "Tap the icon that looks like a rifle, it'll give you control of the machine guns. My guess would be tap the other gun-looking thing to get the main cannon. Use the stick to aim. I'll drive."

He gives her a quick nod, and the vehicle rumbles off down the streets, navigating them carefully, hunting for the other tanks.

POV Staff Sergeant Damien Xavier, Ninth CMA Training Company

The Sergeant was fairly pleased at the moment. While it was true that most of his two militia platoons, as well as pretty much all but two marines, including himself, were dead, his plan to move as many citizens as possible to the subway had worked fairly well, since the aliens hadn't been able to get past the artificial collapses he had made in the tunnels. So out of a city of one and a half million, he figured at least a third that number were hiding down there. Not good casualties, but damn better than he had expected to get to safety. To top that off, since the timely arrival of the Helljumpers, his small garrison had been reinforced, and the enemy forces seemed slightly more disorganized than they had been. Since he knew that a total of five ODSTs weren't with his forces at the moment, three of which he knew were dead, he hypothesized that one of the two missing ones had killed the leader of the enemy forces.

His mood suddenly soured when he hears a loud smash, before a second loud noise as glass and metal flies everywhere. The marine dives behind a fountain in the center of the plaza, even before he hears the repeating guns on the culprit of the destruction start firing. An alien tank now stood near the edge of the plaza, having smashed through one of the buildings to get here. Around three dozen alien soldiers pour through the opening, finishing off any of his soldiers who were in the open. As he peeks around the corner, he notices three black armored Helljumpers now dead, along with half a dozen of his remaining militia. The marine then quickly pulls his head back as a round hits the fountain, before the enemy infantry run to either side, obviously intending to kill what they thought was the last survivor. But thats when the three ODSTs, a marine and five militia appear on the roofs of the nearby buildings, all lobbing a grenade or two each down into the courtyard, before firing rockets, anti-material sniper rounds, and hails of MA5B and BR55 fire down as well.

Damien chooses now to sprint for the cover of a nearby doorway, while the alien soldiers are falling and writhing as they're gunned down. But the ones with intact barriers charge forward and shield the others, returning fire at the UNSC soldiers, though its clear that the humans have the better position. But the marine sergeant still takes a few rounds in his shoulder from a Turian, the momentum spinning him around, him tripping and tumbling through the doorway regardless. He rolls to the side and gets to cover, before seeing the alien tank raise its main gun and fire, collapsing one of the roofs, and while the humans had scattered, it doesn't save one unlucky ODST, who falls onto the street, and is then torn apart by a hail of gunfire. The rest of the UNSC soldiers find new cover, though it gives the remaining dozen Turians time to seek cover as well.

But though it now seemed to get into a stalemate, with neither force losing anyone else for several seconds, Damien sees the main gun of the tank target another roof, he realizes what he has to do. The sergeant sighs, before standing and lobbing a grenade at the vehicle, which is travelling slow enough that it passes through the barrier and detonates. It appears to disable the weapon, him bringing up his M6 G/GNR, the weapon emitting its customary wine as it charges up. It reaches the usual pitch before spitting out a red beam of energy that passes through the vehicle's barriers and slices through armor. Judging from the secondary explosions, he assumed he hit something vital, though he doesn't get much time to think about it as the machine guns of the armored vehicle target him and fire, the first few rounds punching through his armor and knocking him flat on his back. As the soldier's vision blurs and starts to fade, Damien savors the sound of the tank exploding, along with alien screaming as he lies there, dying. The last thing he sees his his wife and kids, all who he thought had been killed in an innie bombing. But obviously not, since here they were, smiling at him. The man lets out a content sigh, before his body goes limp, and eyes blank.

Authors Note: So...I kept my deadline. Anyways, before my customary response bit, I just thought I would like to thank you all for reading so far, and ask a bit of a question. I have four different stories I'm thinking of writing, all of them halo crossovers. So the first is a Halo/DC crossover, the second Halo/MGS V, the third Halo/Elder Scrolls (Skyrim), and the last would be Halo/A Song of Ice and Fire (The book series the show Game of Thrones is based off of, if you didn't know.) Anyways, just vote in the comments, or in a private message to myself. I would likely be alternating between them, releasing a single 3000-4000 word chapter for either story every month. But enough of that for now, I'd just like to say that the next chapter for this will be out somewhere between a week and a month from now. And now, the reviews.

Major Simi and Chris Adair, thanks. Always nice to see a bit of positive input.

Spartastic 4, I appreciate the advice, though honestly, it would probably be too difficult to change, since I'm just used to writing this way. I did try to, but it took about five times the time to correct a chapter as it did to write.

And that's all for now. Talk to you all in the next chapter.