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"I shall be your Sword"

January 22 2526 - Hour 1512

General Thela 'Vadamee

Approaching Planet of Harvest

Thela knew it.

He was there. He had to be there

The reports suggested it, the losses suffered as the first assault force was decimated confirmed it. Her blood boiled and her mandibles gnawed in intrigue at the brutality exerted by the strong defense put through by their enemies. Humanity wasn't weak, not enough to be beaten back when they were the ones picking the place and the time of fighting.

Sure, it hadn't been a complete win for them. Their ships, albeit reinforced in the arc of a full month, were still unable to provide support in a possible second battle, and their surface-based batteries couldn't reach out if the attacking ships kept away from distance. The last hours of the battle had been the most disastrous for the Covenant Fleet that was sent to reconquer the battle. So many deaths and... a massive blow to their race's prestige.

It was her kin that caused this kind of madness, deciding against retreating and regrouping as any wise and strong warrior would. Some tried to justify it as a crime of honor-driven passion, but Thela saw the truth and she despised it: some of their leaders had grown too prideful and had vanified the good efforts shown by their own blood by throwing them into a quick death. Brutal and stupid. Normally Thela wouldn't have spoken up against her fellow leaders, but that was before she reached her current rank.

A message was written and sent to someone that would definitely listen to her. She was ready to go through her plan, her hope intensified by the vehement criticism shown by part of the council. And so, she was soon given the chance to High Charity. The main hub of the Covenant housed harmoniously the various races making part of it.

A true testament of the ever-lasting alliance that existed between so many different species bonding over prosperity. Yet her main goal there wasn't sight-seeing. She was soon escorted by a Honor Guardsman from the hangar where her personal ship had landed, through the halls of the mega-structure where the government was sited, until they eventually arrived at destination, one of the private council offices.

Formality filtered in her manners, knowing that her current goal there was to convince one of the three individuals which were responsible for providing authorizations for what she was planning to accomplish. The oldest of the Three Hierarchs, the High Prophets, the Prophet of Mercy was the one that saw the Age of Reclamation with a more logical and careful manner.

He believed in it, but he didn't retain the same level of viciousness and aggression shown respectively by the Prophet of Truth and Regret. He was passionate in his knowledge about Forerunners, believing in the Great Journey and its mysterious boons, so he was even more interested to retrieve 'Harvest' before humanity learned of its real importance to the Covenant.

After a few pleasantries, the San'Shyuum was quick to move the main topic up for discussion. And Thela started to put out her best arguments first, targeting the weak and foolishly-planned first assault.

"My brothers were blinded by their own desires of glory, something that damages the integrity of the Covenant's Goal. A few's stupidity, I can assure this much."

"And yet it cost up a valiant fleet, General," The elder councilor rebuked, almost baring his teeth at the explanation and how little it lessened his anger about it. "Lives lost for nothing except weakening an already fragile defence."

"I'm not trying to nullify the shocking defeat, High Prophet. Just trying to reason what caused this defeat to be so terribly destructive,"

"...You seem different from your 'brothers', General. May I ask you what drives you to volunteer for this risky operation? Is it your drive for the Great Journey fiercer than your kin? Or perhaps... you seek something else out of it?"

"If I have to be honest, High Prophet... I would dare to say that while the Great Journey is my current objective like the rest of my more reasonable brethren, I have a personal objective tied to the slight the Covenant suffered as a whole during our first confrontation, and even so the one we were given recently.."

There was silence, the Prophet of Mercy studied the fairly young troop and then decided to guess the motivation itself. He had a clue on what it was but... he saw it as a boon if it was indeed the truth.

"That human, isn't it? The Fiend that caused our siblings in faith much pain with his deadly genocide."

"The one behind our recent loss, or at least, for the most part."

"Yes... I see why you would be driven to end the life of this vile monster," The San'Shyuum agreed with growing sympathy. "And your successes further elevate your request to one of preparation rather than zealotry. Your potential has been noticed, General, and I find myself agreeing to your assessment. The planet has to be retaken, and its technology studied and destroyed if unable to fully reconquer our first goal."

A nod. "It's feasible, High Prophet. We shall make sure the fool-work of the previous blunders are redeemed."

Mercy was convinced with this kind of promise, with drive and passion, and, after a heated interaction with his fellow High Prophets, the old councilor gave Thela what she had planned to get. Despite her rank, she was put in charge of the fleet-coordination group for the second assault. It was unusual for a younger and more inexperienced officer to be put into that kind of situation, but not without precedents and definitely not without reason.

There was still some unease from her kin about this development, but ever since she got promoted to this rank, many had started to believe in her and put faith in her skills. As a General, she commanded a degree of respect- not to the point of absolute loyalty, but enough for all her troops to understand and follow proper orders.

And it was an utmost necessity due to the current risks her plan was meant to take. Breaking into the orbital defence was complicated. Their numbers were fairly distracting, but not enough to put pressure to the main goal of their plans. The invasion force had two specific orders during the first few days of combat: form a foothold and allow the engineers to create a counter to their surface defensive guns.

The powerful cannons that their forces knew were able to tear through ships with ease were limited in their ability to destroy land troops, especially with the various tall buildings obscuring their reach. So, to destroy those with minimal issues, plasma artillery was to be built and used to destroy the dangerous units with long range precise shots.

Bridges were destroyed, Anti-Air units were dispatched and no attacks were authorized: the priority was to create a stable section of the city where their troops could consolidate before an enveloping assault. Slow and steady, she argued with those that complained with her careful attempts. Thela didn't like having to waste time herself when it comes to fights, but this was a situation where they were forced to do so to win. It was either a slowly-taken win, or a quick-paced loss. And losing wasn't an option with the weight of the Prophets' command.

Thela would end up landing a few hours after the space warfare was over, with a good part of the human fleet retreating from the planet and leaving their ground forces exposed to orbital assaults... to a degree. One of the frigates sent to test their surface-level anti-ship defense became a victim of their still-operational cannons. This wasn't going to get as easy as she would have liked. As soon as her dropship landed, she was quickly swarmed by reports on the situation. Everything was holding up well, the ships-to-ground supply line was working without any issues and most of the equipment was already deployed. A full defensive day went by... and then, the troops attacked all at once during the first hours of the next one.

It was going to be a full display of their numeric superiority, with the frontal assault encroaching from the sides and forcing each of the enemy lines to crumble against the attacks' weight. The first few hours of combat proved that her strategy was working, but that there was something that she was more interested in. Four dropships took flight from the main base during the assault, but their destination was nowhere where the clash was unfolding. No, Thela had finally got confirmation of her target's current position and... she was even more interested in his demise when she realized where he was. The humans found the artifacts, and they were definitely getting closer to retrieve them.

And this Thela couldn't stand for and allow it to happen.

AN

Third Battle of Harvest and things seem to be going quite grim for humanity. The Covenants are winning by numbers, aggression and strategy, but... they forgot one thing. Log is still alive, same for Serin, the Spartans and... Cole has not 'retreated' completely from the battle.

Next up, some spicy 1v1 combat.

REVIEW Q&A!

Monkiepawn: That's more Halo Wars 2. Halo Wars is more about Humans against the Fleet owned by the previous Arbiter to stop him from getting a big ass Forerunner inactive fleet for the Covenant to use on the UNSC. I love the first one, didn't get the chance to try the second one because I didn't have much money back then but... I should really consider buying it now...

Fallen Asora: Ignoring the fact that the mannable post was covered with special material to withstand the radiation.

Dolfy's Moustache: I'm a Weezard, Dolfy.

ThyDevoutBeliever: It depends on how it's set up. It's not an instantaneous thing but it will drive some 'drama' after a little while. Nothing immediate but... next time there will be a close quarter combat situation.

Billy Reb: The necessity of the MAC is to counter heavy-tier ships and works little against smaller, faster ships the Covenant have. Hence why Havocs are another solution to this problem and... fighters to stop infiltrations. I think the UNSC at the time had trouble keeping up with Fighters' supremacy in space-bound skirmishes.

Doom Slayer 091: There are a lot. Many of which are people that don't seem to realize that getting Augmented at a young age is just begging for a possible death at that point.