Onwards to glory. The reviews you guys (Pichu Chris, crossknight56 and patrick05) put in were a massive confidence boost. Thank you so much. Anyway let's continue shall we?

Andreas sprinted over the barren desert earth with is squad arrayed behind him. They had weapons drawn and ready to use in case something tried to stop them. Andreas called out a roll call of all squads.

"All Spartan teams this is Captain Andreas of squad warhammer. Sound off Spartans." He said over the comm... One by one, each squad leader said their squads name and status.

"Squad Rapier standing by." Said Molly G090

"Squad Halberd is green." Said Michael G256

"Squad Scylla acknowledges." Said Horatio of Delta Company

"This is squad Pegasus, were ready to go Captain." Said Laura D367

These and others bombarded Andreas' ear lobes. His squad reached a rocky outcrop and slowed to a halt. They gazed out over the battlefield they were about to fight over. At the bottom of the valley stood the UNSC base. It was chaos. Hornets vied with Banshees for aerial superiority while wraith and Scorpions flung their deadly payloads at each other. Bloodthirsty jackals manned powerful plasma mortars while Brutes battered aside the marine and army troopers trying to hold them back. But Andreas noticed one thing. They were not getting through. The reason for that was now talking over the comm.

"This is General Martin McGuire to the HEV pods that have just landed. Some one, anyone, please respond."

General Martin McGuire was one of the UNSC's greatest defensive generals. One of the many "heroes" to rise from the ashes of the Human-Covenant war. He was widely known for his ingenious defensive lines. If a position was claimed by him, it was not going to break. Overlapping fields of fire and a warren of trenches were keeping the Brutes out. But Andreas could see cracks. The marines and army troopers manning the defences were tired, and they were making mistakes. Andreas zoomed in with his visor for a second. He saw a group of marines sluggishly respond to a Brute climbing into their dugout. Because they were too slow, one of their number didn't get up again.

"General McGuire? This is Staff Captain Andreas of the USC Spartan corps. Need a hand?" Asked Andreas over the comm. There was a pause and a burst of static before the General spoke. The relief was evident in his voice.

"Thank god. I could use a hand breaking this siege Captain. I've gut three Vulture gunships grounded in this base. Captain, I need you and your Spartans to bring down the AA batteries so they can take off." Said the General

"Aye sir."

"Captain, one more thing. If you want to bring the siege down quickly. I'd suggest removing the head of the Brutes. They are led by a particularly aggressive Chieftain. He's on top of the hill in front of the eastern gate." Andreas again used to zoom function of his helmet and spotted the chieftain.

"Aye sir. Andreas out." Said Andreas. He then switched his comm. To the Spartans.

"Rapier, Halberd, Hydra and Argus, you're on the western AA gun. Pegasus, Falchion, Scimitar and Cyclops, you're on the western gun. The rest of you with me. Let's give them hell Spartans!" There was a roar of approval from the Spartans as, as a whole, they charged into battle.

Linda ducked down behind her rock. Down below, in the valley created by the cliff face and the skeleton of UNSC Commonwealth, sat the Covenant. They were mostly Brutes. But Linda had seen a few Phalanxes of Jackal mercenaries and a couple of Drone swarms. The scientists they had been sent to protect were currently corralled like sheep below the decommissioned frigate. She turned to Lieutenant O'Brien and his senior Sergeants. O'Brien had his helmet off and looked incredibly serious.

"What's it like out there Master Chief?" Asked one of the Sergeants. A large man with a nose that had been broken so many times that it was merely a lump of flesh on his face.

"Bad. The hostages are in the open. There is no way to get too them without the Brutes noticing." Said Linda. O'Brien had a look of concentration on his face.

"There must be a way." Said another of the Sergeants. She was an African woman and had a very distinct accent. It wasn't rough, but it wasn't light. But it got the pint across.

"Linda? How quickly can you acquire a target and dispatch it?" Asked O'Brien. A plan was obviously forming in his mind.

"Pretty damn fast. Why?" She replied.

"I've got a plan." He said cryptically.

Linda sighted down the barrel of her rifle. Beside her, O'Brien and the other ODST snipers were doing the same. Linda watched the Brutes that were around the hostages. She then selected her targets. A small device mounted on the sniper rifle emitted an invisible laser that painted the Brute. The other sniper did the same, each claiming their own Brute. One was left with out a sniper. This was Linda's second victim. There were seven Brutes and six snipers in the ODST squads. Watching her targets Linda noticed a ripple in the air behind them. She only saw due to her Spartan augmentations. The ripple came from the movement of the two ODST squads in position behind the Brutes. They were using Active Camo generators and they were all carrying Bubble shield generators. As soon as the Brutes were dead, they would de-cloak and deploy the shields, they would they sit tight until all the Covenant were dead. The squads that would do the killing were hidden in the cliffs as; soon as the word was given they would attack.

"Get ready everyone." Said O'Brien. Linda tensed her finger around the trigger and took a deep breath.

"Three…two…one…fire." Said O'Brien calmly. Linda exhaled and her sight went in to a kind of fast slow motion. The shots were released at well beyond the speed of sound but to her, the delay between the pull of the trigger and the round leaving the barrel seemed like an eternity. All six snipers despatched their targets. The plan went into motion. The cloaked squads appeared among the hostages and deployed their shields. The squads in the rocks scythed down the sentries before charging into the fray. Linda killed a pair of Jackals that were about to take aim at an ODST. Linda quickly discarded the empty magazine and inserted a fresh one. Just before her next target was killed she spoke to O'Brien.

"Nice plan Lieutenant."

Andreas leapt into the trench ahead of him, crushing a Jackal under his weight as he did. Without stopping he brought up his assault rifle and gunned down the pair of Jackals to his right. The bird like aliens didn't even have time to scream in alarm. Zhao landed to his life. His energy spear removing the head from the Brute Minor in charge of the trench. Andreas admired Meghan as she gracefully leapt over the trench. As she did she fired her focus rifle one handed, sweeping the beam, she managed to kill of another pair of Jackals. Marcus was next. He landed beside the trench's plasma mortar. He killed the Avian operator with a kick to the jugular. He them grabbed the weapon and killed a Brute with a Gravity hammer that was charging towards him. With one smooth motion, Marcus twisted the mortar from its mount. He now held the silver tube device like a Spartan would hold a chain gun.

"Really Marcus? Isn't that a bit overkill?" Asked Zhao as he stowed his spear.

"No not really." Said the Spartan as he readied his new toy.

"When you boys are quite down in the toy shop, we have an invading army to bitch slap." Reminded Meaghan from on top of the trench.

"She's right. Lets go Spartans." Said Andreas. He jumped out of the trench, loading a new magazine into his rifle as he went.

"Spartans I want a status report." Said Andreas over the comm.

"Copy this is squad Hydra. We just set the charges in the AA gun."

"Roger that hydra. See if you can help out some marines." Said Andreas. There was clipped response and the next report came in.

"This Scimitar. We've got some tough resistance. Don't worry it'll be dead soon." Andreas acknowledged him. He then joined Meaghan behind a barricade. With a simple nod to each other they burst out of cover and started firing. A Jackal tried to run away from Andreas. He chased it behind a rocky outcrop. This led him into the sights of a Wraith tank. Andreas was just about to start panicking when he saw the mortar glow blue with plasma.