0200 hours, February 05, 2531 (military calendar)
Planet Harvest
Relic Site
The fighting had moved down to a crawl over time until there were no more reinforcements from the Covenant. Naruto didn't like that as Covenant were not known for giving up on something they truly want. They would throw waves of troops at you until they run out or get it. With the bodies laying around he doubted they ran out of troops. Leading Team Kilo while having the others recuperate, he approach the Relic's location only to see a trail of dead covenant bodies.
'It seems they got to it first'. "Joesph call it up. We are moving in link with the other UNSC forces" he ordered as the Spartan nodded and went on the comms while running after the others into the relic.
While running through the facility which they now recognized it to be they could hear combat echo ahead of them before it went silent. It took some time to reach its location before they slid to a combat ready stance to see a group ahead of them on a platform.
Hearing the noise behind them one individual turned around to see who it was. "Spartans? What are you doing here? We didn't request for your assistance" said the man that the team recognized as Sgt Forge. It was when he moved a little closer that he recognized that these Spartans are not Red Team. For one there were more than three and they were of different body structure. One Spartan was bigger than the other Spartans he seen before but not by much. Standing at a height of 7'4 while fully armored the Spartan whom he assumed was lead stepped forward with the other following.
"Sgt Forge. We are not with the UNSC Spirit of Fire. We are with Elemental's Freedom. We have come to assist in securing the area. My name is Naruto is behind me is Spartan Team Kilo" he answered stepping up to him as the other Spartans spread out in the area to form defensive positions.
Catching her full attention for the moment a woman walked up to him to look him up and down before introducing herself as "Dr. Ellen Anders. It's nice to finally meet you Naruto. I have pretty crazy things about you that I wouldn't mind seeing for myself. Your combat prowess, intelligence, and determination. I heard your examinations revealed outstanding things, but it's locked to only be access by your personal" she stated
"And I would like for it to be kept that way" spoke a voice on the comms that she immediately recognized. Rolling down the large hallway was a single mastodon. Pulling off to the side its side hatch opened up for no other than Dr. Halsey to come walking out with a marine detachment. She walked over to them while the marine posted security by the vehicle.
"Catherine" Naruto warned looking over to her not happy she came down here when the site wasn't fully secured.
"Oh, don't be like that. Everything will be fine and plus you and my Spartans are here to protect me if anything happens" she smiled at him as Dr. Anders glared at her.
"What are you doing here? This is my find and my responsibility" she stated clenching her fist at her.
"Don't let our differences interfere with our work here. The point of this is to find out why the Covenant keep coming to this planet and what do they want with this"
"Our differences? What you have done is sickening. The making of the Spartan project and all of its components. And then you go and have a kid of all things. I don't know why you would do so or what's your end game" she started before pausing as Naruto loomed over her when she mentioned the kid. The kid was also his daughter too.
"Let's not say anything that we shouldn't be talking about. After all much of the information on the Spartans is still quite classified. Focus on the mission and then we can sort out our differences" said Dr. Halsey moving forward to look at the Forerunner device as Dr. Anders followed after her. Also whispering to her so she is warned "Also that kid of mine you mentioned. Her father is the big guy behind me, so watch your wording"
Going wide eyed she looked back and forth at Naruto and Catherine before whispering back to her. "What! You and him. How did this happen?"
"Not here. Focus" she said snapping her fingers at her to get her to focus on the task. Doing as she was asked; she went to work on helping her understand the meaning of the device.
Just from the few minutes of working with her, she could see she was well experienced with Forerunner tech. She must have gotten involved with it quite often. Maybe even understand the language as well.
"It's a map" stated Catherine stepping back as it displayed a view of a portion of the galaxy. Looking through it, it showed the next location of the puzzle. It was the last location that was brought up.
"Planet Arcadia" muttered Dr. Anders as Naruto and the other tensed for a second.
Moving his rifle around he turned to the exit near the vehicle and fired a burst of rounds hitting an invisible being behind a marine standing post behind a vehicle.
"Contact! Spartans clear the area!" ordered Naruto shoving both Catherine and Ellen down to the ground behind him, using his body to cover them. The invisible being decloaked to show a dead elite as others started to decloak with rounds from the Spartans slamming into them.
"Kill the heretics!" shouted an elite before his head took a blast of rounds from a shotgun by Sgt Forge. Sliding to cover, Catherine pulled out her comms to contact Admiral Hiruzen in low orbit.
Elemental's Guardian Bridge
Admiral Hiruzen was on the bridge with a cup of coffee in his hand when the comms center reported a incoming transmission from Dr. Halsey. "Put it through" he ordered
"Admiral, what is the status of the Covenant forces on planet or in orbit? Are they retreating from any areas or leaving through slip space?" she asked over the sound of gun fire, explosions, and screams. Looking away from the comms he looked at the command deck to which Kora appeared.
"Some ships have made jumps away from the planet and some forces have retreated. No other Covenant reinforcements have arrived for the last few hours" she answered them both
"It's because they are leaving this planet. They got the information they wanted. What is the status of Planet Arcadia? I believe that is their target" she asked now as Kora took a moment to look through the data on the UNSC feed.
"Planet Arcadia is under Covenant attack. They are requesting reinforcements from any nearby forces" she said a bit worried.
Admiral Hiruzen thought about it for a second before asking Kora "what this the UNSC status on this planet?". "They have more than enough forces to hold this planet". "Naruto, I'm sure you heard what's going on"
"Yes. I'm pretty sure we are thinking the same thing about this" he answered dropping another two more elites with a burst of fire before reloading.
"I'm calling out. All forces are to immediately withdraw from the area and return to the ship. Precious Justice set a waypoint for Planet Arcadia. Naruto, get your asses back on the ship. Admiral Hiruzen out" ending the comms.
"Roger. Spartans move forward! Marines secure the VIPs into the mastodon" ordered Naruto pushing forward. As they were pushing, they heard low cannons going off with explosions happening in results. They could see the enemy be flanked by three tanks of some kind that he never saw before. With the three tanks wiping out the remainder he could see Sgt Forge running up to one of the tanks to give it orders to clear the way for them. Off to the side he watched marines escort the doctors inside the mastodon.
With the orders understood they continued moving forward wiping out Covenant forces that were hiding in the structure of the facility. Rather than clearing out every area they pushed forward to the exit where allied forces were in direct contact with the Covenant from all sides. Moving forward to a clearing they had set up a defensive area for all allied forces to regroup as pelicans came in for pickup.
Seeing a Spirit of Fire pelican land nearby, Naruto ran over to the Mastodon and opened the hatch to see the doctors waiting for instructions. "Sorry about this mam but this is your flight" he said picking up Ellen and leading her to the pelican while Spartan Team Kilo provided overwatch.
"Sgt Forge!" called out Naruto getting the man's attention who was firing a turret on a warthog. "Your bird is here! Escort Dr. Anders to your ship!". Forge could see that Dr. Anders was running up the ramp with his team covering from all angles. With a nod he came racing down to the pelican and up the ramp.
"It's an honor fighting with you. See you at Arcadia" Forge called out as the ramp closed and the pelican took off into the sky with other pelicans.
With them being secured he focused solely on making sure Catherine and all of his men got on the pelicans to head back to the ship. He made it his mission to be one of the last leaving the planet. Within a half hour it was only him and his Spartan team climbing up the last pelican that took off into the sky and headed for his ship.
Moving to behind the pilot's seat he could see them approaching the ship with the Spirit of Fire moving away from formation. With the ship being cleared it immediately headed into slip space as the Elemental's Guardian started to turn in order to move into position to do the same. With his pelican landing inside the ship next to other parked pelicans, he exited the ship to see personal moving about and getting ready for the jump. With Kora's confirmation of 100 percent accountability, the ship took off into the slipstream after the Spirit of Fire towards Planet Arcadia.
The Academy
With everything going on Kora still made sure the kids continue their education. She liked to keep them on their toes with all sorts of questions and explanations. One thing she was going over was the height of different species since they were a bit curious. Since she had a mass database of information on different species, she could answer their question about it.
"Well since you are so curious about this subject, we can go over the human heights first. The average elemental's and human's height is between 5'9 to 5'10. Now for a Spartan's height it is a average of 7'0 with them being 7'2 while in armor. Your father is a special case. He is 7'2 outside his armor and 7'4 in it. With you being his kids, it's a good estimate that you will grow to be near his size. You are all already a bit taller than records have for kids your ages.
The felyne's and melynx's come in all sorts if sizes but the largest on two feet would be 5'0. Togruta's and Twi'lek's are aveargly the same size as humans.
As for the covenant species that have been recorded the smallest one which some call the grunt is averagely the height of 5'6. The scavengers know as jackals are the height of 6'2. Then their classic warriors known as elites are the height from 7'4 to 8'6. Now the bigger ones that I hope you don't ever see which are called hunters are the height of 12'0. One other species we haven't see much yet are known as brutes having the height of 8 to 9'0.
Now that, that lesson is over there is a reason why I didn't mention their true names. That's something for you to research for homework tonight. We will cover it tomorrow so make sure you do it. I will be watching you so no cheating and no skipping" she explained and warned at the end
Note:
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