0900 hours, February 06, 2531 (military calendar)
Planet Arcadia
Orbit
A blue portal opened up in the orbit of Planet Arcadia allowing for the Elemental's Freedom to come out of slipspace. The crew was already expecting for trouble, so they were in their positions with the ship on alert. Admiral Hiruzen with Naruto in his armor were standing next to each other on the bridge as they were waiting for the reports to come in. Naruto currently had his helmet off and in his hand with his battle rifle slinged on his back.
Within a minute Precious Justice appeared on the large holo table and started displaying the status of the situation. "The Covenant had arrived with a small fleet of ships. The UNSC has managed to catch two ships unaware and destroying them. Unfortunately, due to their low numbers the remaining Covenant fleet had retaliated destroying five vessels and damaging four. The UNSC Texas and Belfast are heavily injured and dead in space. The Armstrong is venting atmosphere and is in danger of facing extreme damage. The Autumn had sustained damage but managed to pull away from further fighting. They might have to retreat.
The Spirit of Fire arriving earlier moved to low orbit and is currently engaged in ground activities against the invading Covenant. Your orders?" she finished facing the two as they seemed in thought on the situation. Everyone could hear just the running of the ship as everyone waited for the choice they would make. Would they be committed to ground support, orbital support, or rescuing the ships and crew like before?
Behind them in the back was Admiral Kushina and Doctor Halsey. You didn't need to look at them much to know what they wanted to do. Kushina wanted to save the crew in space first while Catherine wanted to go to the surface in order to find the meaning of this attack. Was it a standard glassing or was it hiding their true purpose of their intent?
"We will rescue the crew and ships" began Hiruzen tapping on the holo deck to bring up the images of the three damaged cruisers. "They are in close approximately of each other so we will bring them in, in unison. They are on limited time so Precious Justice get the ship moving to them now. The Spirit of Fire will have to hold the Covenant off for now. We will prioritize the crew and then the civilian evacuations"
Kushina could feel a smirk on her face knowing that the crew was going to be rescued as the ship moved forward. Catherine could only frown at the choice as now the Covenant would have more time to continue doing whatever they were doing. She hoped this decision didn't bite them on the ass.
Naruto taking over tapped a button on the table to bring up the ground map of Arcadia. "I will lead the ground forces to establish a base of operations planet side. With most of the aircover down from the UNSC, the chances of any civilian evacuations being completed successfully, would be low". On the map it shows a large park where he would land a base at.
"I will pull the ship to hover above the base for support once we are finished in orbit" added Hiruzen as Naruto nodded and started heading off to the exits.
Seeing her chance Catherine added "I can land as well with a team to see what the Covenant is up to" to which Hiruzen frowned before raising an eyebrow as Naruto grabbed her by the shoulder and effortlessly lead her away. "No" stated as they left the bridge.
"Alright, let's get to work everyone. Kushina, set up for the recovery of the ships and crew. Kora will help get you in contact with them so you and your crew can properly integrate them"
Ship Halls
Naruto was walking side by side down the hall as Catherine decided to walk with him instead of him dragging her along. Knowing his strength very well, he could place her seated on his shoulder as he moved with no issues.
"You are not going down until the area is clear. I know that you want to get your feet on the ground to see what's going on, but you must wait. Once the base is up, I'll make sure you are on the first pelicans down" he offered as she frowns at him.
"You know this is wasting time we could spend on investigating, correct?" she asked as he nodded. "Yes, but think of the bigger picture. We are low on staff and personal. So much that we have multiple A.I.'s helping around. Arcadia is doom, we both know that. The Covenant are going to fully glass this planet once they get what they want. While rescuing everyone here, we can recruit a lot of them if willing into our forces. This makes all our jobs easier, and scenarios where we must choose one over the other less common" he explained. While she may not like it, she understood some of his reasoning.
Stepping into the elevator he brought up another topic he was curious about. "How are you and Miranda doing?" he questioned as she gave a soft hmm while looking at her pad. "We are doing good. She is happy and learning well with her siblings" she answered almost robotically as Naruto took her pad from her hands.
"Go spend some time with her. Don't shy away and alienate yourself. She doesn't bite anymore. She has all her teeth now. Do this and I will do my best to get the area secured fast enough to personally escort you to conduct these investigations" he offered as she smiled at him.
"Deal, now give me my pad and hurry up"
Orbit
As the Elemental's Freedom moved into position near the damaged ships, from its bays fighter jets and pelicans came flying out with a D20 Heron carrying a firebase. They were heading into the planet towards the park that was centered on the outskirts of the center of the city. Moving through the clouds they could see combat taking place all around with UNSC forces fighting the Covenant. Forming a perimeter around the park, the fighter jets took off in patrols in order to make sure no Covenant air forces made it through. As the pelicans started coming to just above the city limits pods were sent flying past them and smacking into the ground surface.
A pod smashed into the park ground with a thundering force before the hatch was ejected forward for a Spartan to come rushing out into the area guns up. Other pods smacked into the ground nearby for other Spartan's and ODST to come running out to secure the area. As the forces spread out facing little to no enemy contact, pelicans had come landing in the certain to offload marines to helped establish a perimeter.
With the marines moving forward the Heron came landing down in the center and started forming the firebase as other large pods started landing near it to assist in it. Naruto jogging back to the base could see to forming together started to frown when he saw something else happen. Civilians were running to them from all sides trying to get to safety. It would cause chaos if this were not fixed.
"Sergeant!" he yelled to a nearby marine gaining his attention with a "Yes sir". "Have marines stationed at all sides to herd to the civilians to a location that is secured and not in the base formation's way. Have bunkers dropped nearby the base and have the civilians take cover in it until we can evacuate them" he ordered as the Sergeant gave him a salute and ran off the issues out orders to the other troops and requests to command.
It took some time for the marines to herd in the civilians into an area and for the location to be safe for the rest of the pods to come in for a landing. It was once they had done so and started being set up, large bunkers started to drop down from the sky. They first landed in the outside permitter for defenses before landing next to the base. This allowed for the marines to place them inside the ones close to the base while they manned the ones outside for defenses.
Seeing that pelicans were roaring in from the sky to drop off vehicles and more troops Naruto stopped to order the Spartan team. "Naomi, Joseph stay here and wait for Dr. Halsey. Daisy, Ralph you are with me. We are pushing on ahead to establish an evacuation corridor"
"Yes sir" they answered following their assign tasks. Leading his team, he walked up to a parked warthog that was manned by some marines. They instantly recognized him and gave him a salute to which he returned before pointing at the vehicle. Getting the hint, they hopped out to go report to their Sergeant as he hopped into the driver's seat. Daisy with her sniper took his passenger while Ralph took the gunner seat. A quick flip of a switch the vehicle turned on with ease allowing for him to pull the gear back and slam the pedal down.
The drive through the city was uneventful as all they saw was flaming buildings, dead bodies, wreckage, and rubble. Pulling up to another intersection he pulled the warthog to the corner for a stop. Tapping a device on his pad he connected back to the ship above through its communication network.
"PJ, I need for you to run a scan from the base to my position. I'm looking for every living person" he ordered as a "ok" came from his comms followed by a hum.
"Done. I'm detecting multiple life signatures and numerous locations. They are human life signs, and it seems they are hiding. Some seem to be in injured states of various degrees. I can't tell much more about them from this data" she answered.
"Forward this order down. I want convoys sent out in different directions to evacuate them to the base. You are to forward their locations to them convoys. If you run into any issues, contact Shikamaru. He will be in charge of the ground operations at the firebase" he finished before driving. His trip continued for a few minutes before hearing the sound of ground fighting. Moving the vehicle closer to the location the alarms on all their suits went off. Acting quickly, they all leaped from the vehicle as multiple blasts of plasma rained down on their last location sending the flying away in different areas.
Naruto's body scrapped off the ground before coming to a stop with his helmet facing the ground. He could hear the alarms of his shields going off as he slowly used his hands to push himself off the ground to see an elite with its energy sword drawn walking to a down Ralph while another was picking up Daisy by her chest armor. They were wearing armor sets that he never seen before.
The Academy
The kids were once again in front of Kora with their completed assignments on their computers. She gave them a smile before starting her lesson for the day.
"Well, it seems most of you completed your assignments without me 'motivating' you to do so" she stated looking at Arashi and Nawaki who looked away embarrassed. "So who wants to go over their correct name of the species mentioned last time?...ah yes Sadara" she finished as the young girl stood up.
"The correct name for the grunt is called Unggoy. Jackals are Kig-ya, elites Sangheili, hunters Mgalekgolo, and brutes Jiralhanae. There are two more species that are rarely seen known as Yanme's which are drones, and Huragok which are known as engineers and are priority targets for capture. There are also rumors of another species high in the chain of command but no confirmed reports yet" she finished before sitting down.
"Excellent, and extra credit for added the last bit at the end" replied Kora as Takami raised his hand for a question.
"So, he mentioned shinobi strength ranks before. Where does everyone and thing rank at in this" he asked as she smiled and pulled up a list on the computer board to show and explain.
Academy Students – You
Low Gennin level – Grunts
Gennin level – Jackals
High Gennin level – Marines, drones
Low Chuunin level – ODST and Special Forces
Chuunin Level – Most Elemental ninja onboard, Elites
High Chuunin Level – Elites, brutes
Low Jounin – Hunters, elites, brutes
Jounin – elites and brutes
High Jounin – Spartans, rare few brutes and elites
Anbu – Naruto (your father)
Low Kage - Tsunade
Kage – Admiral Hiruzen (due to age)
High Kage – Admiral Kushina
Note:
Thank you to those who help support on the pat account and also thank you for the reviews.
All my stories are still being redone. I will be posting on my p atreon before I do on this. Just remove the %% and search
pat%% reon .%% com%%% /Flashfoxworld