1034 hours, February 18, 2536 (military calendar)

Planet Tyrphenis

Tyrphenis City Outskirts

A pelican landed down on the surface to allow Naruto and the four Spartan III's to disembark before flying away into the sky. Armed with a battle rifle he scanned the area taking the sight of the ruined buildings and wrecked seat.

: Naruto, we have a report that a group of civilians are hunkered down in an abandoned mall. First mission is to rescue the civilians and clear the area for their extract. Location is marked on your HUD. Let's get to work Spartan: spoke Kora from his helmet.

Looking to where the HUD was directing him to, he saw the destination 10km away. "Let's move Spartan's! On me!" he called out leading the charge towards the buildings. The sprint towards the building was abruptly halted by a platoon's worth of Covenant forces.

Slowing to a walk the group raised their rifles and started raining fire down upon the unsuspecting Covenant. Three elites and six grunts went down before the rest could react as the rounds fell upon them. The others quickly moved behind cover and returned fire. With the returning of fire, the squad moved behind covered and slowly advanced forward from cover to cover.

"Demons! Kill them!" roar an elite jumping over his over cover and charging forward with his plasma pistol firing, only for a kunai to slam into his skull dropping him dead.

Naruto having his left hand extended, showed that he was the one who threw the kunai. Moving forward he gunned down any other jackal or grunt that peaked its head up while throwing kunai at the elites that did. Within a few minutes the ground was littered with bodies from the enemy platoon as the squad moved forward.

: The mall is just up ahead : directed Kora as they moved to a wrecked parking lot with a circle shape mall. With guns raised they moved through the vehicles and wreckage as they approached the entrance.

Pulling the double doors opened they saw the mall in a trashed state but no movement in site. "Kora are the civilians still located in the mall?" he questioned as he scanned the area.

: Scanning now…they are located on the third-floor hardware store. A good place to use the supplies to barricade yourself in : she answered. He thought it was a good idea if you weren't facing the Covenant who would just blow up the building instead.

Jogging up the stairs the team came up to the mentioned store which had wood covering the windows and door. Walking up to the front door Naruto punched his fist through it drawing screams of terror and brought the door down. From the inside he could see a group of civilians hiding behind different stands use all sorts of tools around for a weapon.

"Command, this is Major Uzumaki. We have civilians in tow and requesting a immediate extraction for them on my location" he radio in. He had to wait a few seconds before a reply came through.

: This is command. We read your request and we are unable to safely escort the civilians safely as the situation has changed. New orders are as follow: Secure the current location and build up defenses. The update on the situation will be provided momentarily. Copy? :

"Good copy" he answered before turning around to see the civilians looking at him in confusion and his team for orders.

"Titan team, spread out and secure this building. We will use this as our defensive position. Kora, radio in, to all ally forces nearby that we are making this location a base and are requested reinforcements. Also, direct nearby civilians here as well. This will be the extraction for them as well" he ordered.

With the now identified Titan Team getting their orders, they had spilt up and moved in different directions to secure the large mall. Kora had already started broadcasting on the comms the information.

"Civilians, I am Major Uzumaki. I will escort you to the center of the mall where you shall remain safe and protected until we can extract you all safely" spoke Naruto the remaining people before leading the way to the center of the mall. He did wonder what was going on that is preventing the extraction.

In Orbit Above

The Covenant had quickly learned about the new fleet capabilities and were now attacking the fleet in mass. Ship after ship were sent to attack the fleet in the hopes of breaking through the defensive line they had formed. In retaliation the Maelstrom fleet had formed the front of the defensive line, in front of the stationary MAC's and Tyrphenis defensive fleet. With the heavy fighting taking place in orbit, it made all evacuations be placed on halt. No ship would survive once leaving the defensive zone.

Hiruzen was looking at the battle map on the holo table. While they had a massive amount of firepower, they had numerous ships that they could just keep pumping. And then there was that other fleet in the far distance. They maintain their place but moved to neither assist the Covenant nor getting into flanking range. It seemed like they were waiting for something. Right now, they were in a stalemate.

"Precious Justice, when will our reinforcements arrive?"

: Maelstrom reinforcements will arrive in 15 hours. UNSC in 20 hours :

"We can make a push to open up a corridor for the evacuation to continue. For now, send ground and air support to the surface, so they can shore up their defenses. Once we get the opening we will evacuate them. Also keep an eye on the fleet for any sudden changes"

Unknown Fleet

Onboard the bridge of the command deck was a very large being watching the battles take place with his arms crossed. As much as he wanted to take part in this glorious battle, he knew better then to just jump in. Some of his men were itching to join in, but a simple glare from him silences all thoughts of breaking rank to do so. They will attack on his orders and his orders alone. Any who disobey him, he will have their skull on his throne.

Mall

It was silent at the mall compared to the rest of the city and the world. Titan team was split up around the mall covering all major exits, but it was a very stretched out job. It required them to patrol and use their radar extensively. Naruto was in the front entrance overlooking the massive parking lot while planning on how to make defenses for the area. Its was the reason why he didn't request for any drops for supplies.

: We have movement : spoke up Kora as movement was tracked on the radar. Moving forward a bit he aimed down his battle rifle scope to identify the movement.

The scope zoomed in on a group of civilians running towards the mall as if their lives depended on it. Within their arms were luggage or children. He could count ten adults and 4 kids.

"They are not pursued. They must have heard that this mall is a safe haven" he stated lowering his rifle. : What makes you say that? : "If they were being chased they would have dropped their luggage a long time" he answered waving his hand over to them.

"A spartan! Thank God, we are saved!" shouted a man running over to him. Naruto formed a single clone much to the groups shock. "An elemental as well" muttered a woman wide eyed.

"He will lead you inside to the other civilians" he stated as more activity started appearing on the radar. "Hurry up, its not safe outside" he finished raising his rifle and moving forward as gunfire was heard in the distance. Hearing the gunfire was the signal for the civilians to get running again with the clone into the mall.

Moving forward he saw a squad of UNSC Marines doing firing and maneuvering in order to get closer to the mall while providing cover against a Covenant squad. Stepping forward into the area all action stopped once everyone recognized his presence.

"Oh shit!" shouted a marine as Naruto started firing his battle rifle left to right and then formed hand seals to shoot out a large fireball at a squad of grunts hiding killing them in an explosion of fire. "Get to the mall and secure the front. A spartan team is covering the other exits at the moment" he ordered as he moved on to check for any survivors.

Moving around he came across a elite using his arms to drag his body away from the area. Placing his boot on his back he ended that action before following it up with a round to the back of the head. He was about to walk back to the base when he heard voices come from the dead elite's helmet.

Placing his hand on it and lean in closer to hear. "Kora can you translate?" he asked once hearing elite language. : I was only able to get parts of it. It sounded like reinforcements : she explained making him jump up and sprint back to the mall.

"What is the nearest arrival time for our reinforcements?"

: You have two ground patrols of Maelstrom Forces 1 minute away. A maelstrom pelican is arriving momentary : she answered as he was now sprinting through the large parking mall and toward the entrance. Forming hand seals, he slid to a stop in front of the marines and slammed his hands on the ground making chest high rock walls appear around the entrance.

"Marines, we have incoming! Assume defensive positions" he ordered as the squad jumped into action hiding behind the walls as a pelican landed in the parking lot. Walking up to the bird as the ramp came down, the Maelstrom Marines saluted him the minute they saw him.

"Enemies are on the way; one squad is to join the Spartan guarding the back and set up defensive positions and another is assist the Spartan guarding the west entrance" he ordered as the marines dressed in their gray colored nodded at him and came running out of the pelican and into the mall. Once they were all off, he ordered the pilot to take off and pick up the nearest group.

Next to roll into the parking lot at the same time were to convoys of Maelstrom. They made a straight line for him as the pelican took off into the sky. Pulling to a stop next to him he gave out the next set of orders.

"Have a squad go to the east entrance and assist in the defense of that area. One squad is to go inside and assist the civilians. Have the vehicles split between the four entrances for protection. Once that is done split the remaining squads into the four spots. Hurry up, we have enemies arriving" he finished

"Yes sir!" stated the marine as he started relaying the information on the comms. Within seconds of getting the orders the vehicles started splitting off going in different locations as marines started disembarking to defend the area.

Naruto stayed by the entrance as a group of combat medics walked past him and into the mall. He was focused on when the enemy would arrive, and he didn't have to wait long. The sound of gunfire and plasma fire was heard as two warthogs carrying ODST came gunning at them with a pair of ghost and troop transports following.

"Engage!" yelled Naruto firing his battle rifle at the ghosts forcing them to peel off and the troop transports to move to the side and started embarking elites and grunts into the parking lot. The ODST pulled to the side for some of them to move into fighting positions while a pair of ODST remined on the turrets firing. From the corner of his eye Naruto could see a ODST carrying a wounded ODST inside the mall.

"Kora, I'm forwarding you request. Launch them when ready" stated Naruto typing on a device on his arm.

Note:

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