Enjoy everyone.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" the Elite in charge screamed as it ran towards him, the golden armour it wore was dented and almost looked like it was in the middle of being painted before he came on the mission. Light blue and dark purple splattered across the golden armour, the blood and gore of the other boarders, all of which were now nothing more than piles of body parts ripped apart and bent in all manner of ways.

Alt raised his hand and grabbed the wrist that was holding the energy sword, he closed his hand and crushed the limb. The alien screamed as the sword was dropped but Alt was quick to grab the weapon before it could fit the ground, grabbing it with his other hand he brought the blade up in between the Elites legs and kept going until it went past the skull. The two body parts fell in two and dropped to the ground.

Now that the fighting was done, Alt took a couple of deep breaths and looked up to the corner of the corridor, just above the door. He reached up and gave a thumbs up, no sooner than when his hand dropped. The blast door in front of him opened and showed a familiar sight, the control room of the ODP.

He first saw a squad of ten soldiers all standing with their weapons ready. Many of them took a step back as they saw him standing there in the middle of all the carnage, not that Alt could blame them for that, he must have looked a real sight compared to everyone else. He was covered in just as much blood as the Elite was.

Behind them he could make out the large glass windows that gave a view to the battle around them and the planet below them "At ease soldiers" he told them before moving forward "Send out teams and secure the station, no doubt more boarders are going to try and get in" he moved past them and towards the main area of the control room, a large raised dais that was full of big monitors and control terminals, along with a bunch of personnel "Captain Halt" he called out.

The dark-skinned man turned around from the terminal and looked at him as he approached "Seargent Atlas, it's good to have you onboard. Thanks for clearing the place out" he added.

"Happy to help, what's the situation?" he asked as he stood next to the captain.

"Five enemy contacts have gone around us and are making for the city. Admiral Cole was able to trap some of the enemy fleet and due to that we're able to get a direct hit on that Supercarrier" he informed him.

Alt turned his head and looked out the window, more specifically he looked directly up, and he saw the barrel of the ODP and the target it was aiming at. The Supercarrier, from what he could see looked fine "Any damage?" he asked.

Halt turned around as someone came up to him carrying a data pad "Nothing visible but the strain on the shield had to have been immense, the only time we've seen them light up like that is just before they rupture" he tapped away on the pad before handing it back to the woman and moved back over towards the terminal, ignoring how the whole room shook, the barrel of the MAC moving down quickly as it fired again. He typed away on the terminal and Alt watched as a camera view came up, it was quick for him to tell that this was old footage.

'Well, not too old' he thought to himself as he saw the MAC and every ship in the fleet fire at the now much more tightly packed enemy fleet. A couple of the smaller ships were completely wiped out and the ODP was able to fit through the grouping and hit the Supercarrier head-on. Halt was right, the ship shields flared up brightly, he was surprised they didn't go down then and there.

"Why didn't the other ships get out of the way?" he asked aloud more to himself than anyone else. Alt didn't know how Cole got all those ships to move into those positions, but he could make an assumption, at the moment it didn't matter. What had him so confused was why they didn't move away. Sure, they had to move back in the direction they came from which would have taken more time and most of them would have at least gotten tagged by the many MACs that were fired but it was like they didn't even try.

Why?

Was it to protect the Supercarrier? Does it need protection? The questions started to rattle back and forth in his head, Alt didn't know what to make of it but something just didn't seem right with any of this.

"What ship types are heading do..." he started to ask Halt but stopped when a bright red flashing light sounded all around them.

"SIR! THE ENEMY FLEET IS ADVANCING!" a voice called out from the left and both men turned to see who.

"How many?" They both asked at the same time.

"All of them! The entire enemy fleet is charging! They'll reach us in two minutes!" the man turned in his chair to face him.

Everything froze. The men, the battle outside. All of it, everything stopped moving. The only thing Alt could hear was his own breath His mind started to go over every single option and plan, he tried to come up with the best option going forward.

Looking up he saw the enemy fleet facing them, their numbers and what they had, he looked out the window and saw the UNSC ships that they still had. All of them pointed up and faced the enemy combatants, they couldn't afford to lose this station, it was the only sure weapon they had against the enemy, everything else was guesswork.

Only one thought came out on top that should accomplish what they need "Abandon ship" he said aloud.

To everyone else, the man had only just finished giving the news and Alt spoke not even a fraction of a second after. Halt immediately rounded on him "I'm not abandoning..." he started to protest.

"No time!" Alt shouted as he turned and blinked out of existence and appeared on the other side of the raised platform near the terminal. He typed in a couple of keys and brought his mouth near a microphone "All hands! Abandon ship! Get to the escape pods now!" he yelled and he could hear his voice echo throughout the station going through the intercom system. He moved away and typed a couple of commands into the terminal.

As soon as he was done a bright red light shone overhead "All hands, abandon ship, this is not a drill. All hands, abandon ship, this is not a drill" an artificial voice sounded throughout the station.

He turned around and saw everyone in the control room standing up and looking at him but not before glancing at Halt as well. The captain was staring dagger at Alt who just glanced at him before moving to another terminal "Everyone! If you want to live get to the escape pods now!" Alt shouted and seeing that Halt didn't say anything else to them, they all started to run. Halt stayed a moment longer, seeing that Alt was blinking all over the place setting the controls into motion and as he looked at the large screen, he could see that he was locking onto the Supercarrier for another shot.

"Damn you" he muttered before he turned and left as well.

Alt was happy as he glanced Halt's way and saw that he was leaving as well, a part of him was worried that the captain would want to stay behind to make this shot and go down with the ship in the process. Not while he was here. He wouldn't lose any good soldiers if it could be avoided, his hands typed in a blur before he blinked and moved to another terminal before doing the same "ODP to Everest, you read me Cole" he said aloud into the radio.

"Loud and clear Atlas, I see that escape pods are being launched. We're focusing fire on the Supercarrier, if we bring that down now we might have a chance later" Cole told him quickly.

It was as good a plan as they were going to get and Alt couldn't fault him for it, he didn't know the plan "Don't!" Alt said to him quickly "I'm still in the control room, if my math is right, I'll be able to fire just before it rams the station. A payload from that distance should bring it down"

"And destroy the entire station in the process" Cole countered quickly as Alt looked out the window and saw that the UNSC ships were moving away from the station.

"No doubt, but we can't afford to miss this chance. We have to bring that ship down. Focus fire on the rest of the enemy, I'll deal with the big one" he countered back as the last of the targeting was locked into place, not that they needed it for something this close, but the station systems wouldn't allow for it to be fired unless it was locked onto something.

"And give your life in the process? Atlas you are worth more to us than beating one ship, we can't afford to lose you" Cole said back quickly.

"If we don't win here then all we do is prove humanity stands no chance, we have to make a statement that we can win this war" Alt said back just as quickly as he made the final commands.

"Sargent, don't make me pull rank here" Cole's voice was uncompromising and promised punishment.

"give'em hell Admiral" Alt said as he looked up and saw that the Supercarrier was right on top of him. His hand hovered just over the final "Atlas out" he said before hanging up the call and pressing the button.

Once again, everything moved slowly for him. He stood in his place and watched as the large firing mechanism started to move down and fire the slug. Just as it reached the bottom he could see the front of the Supercarrier not even a mile away from the barrel, ready to ram into and go completely through the station.

Knowing that there was very little else he could do in this situation, Alt turned and started to move. A sonic boom going around him as he made his way towards the think window. His eyes lit up with a red light and two beams shot out, not completely breaking the window yet but making them weak enough for this to work. He jumped into the air and instead of the window stopping his movements as he went through, it only barely slowed him down as he went through. The air in the control room pushed him further as it was pulled into the vacuum.

While this wasn't an ideal situation as there was very little, he could do now but float and wait for someone to get his IFF signal and pick him up. While he floated away from the station, he watched as the station's main barrel started to bend as the front of the Supercarrier started to go through it, he could also stay and watch as the lights from the bottom of the barrel started to move upwards, in real time the light would blink on and off in a millisecond as the rail gun fired. For Alt it happened slowly, he saw the light move through the barrel and stop just as it was about to exit it. But it couldn't now, because the Supercarrier was in the way of it. It looked like a nuke going off from this close.

The blast started from the inside of the top of the barrel, it started to get bigger and brighter until even Alt himself couldn't make anything out as the light was so blinding. He tried to think about how much damage this would do and if it would be enough, before he could though, he noticed that the light started to get duller and dimmer and for a moment he wondered if the Supercarrier was smothering the blast. However, that thought was pushed aside as he only had time to widen his eyes before a large piece of shrapnel moved towards him and smacked him head-on. The odds of that happening were stupidly small but now all Alt could do was think about how he could stop himself from moving but unfortunately, it wasn't like he could fly.

At the speed he was moving, he was completely helpless to the gravity of the planet as he started to fall to the surface.

"Multiple targets locked ma'am!"

"Deploy countermeasures" Khane said back quickly as he moved around the command table, taking in as much information as she could in order to make the best calls she could.

As of now, it doesn't look good. Delta squad was in formation over the city, not wanting to go too far out or they'd lose their ground support, not to mention the ground would lose support from them as well. About thirty miles out from the city was the enemy fleet that had over just stopped their descent and was now approaching "Target the lead ship, I want the MAC firing none stop" she ordered.

"Yes ma'am" a voice called out. The bridge rocked slightly as the weapon fired and she watched as the first of the Covenant ships took the brunt of the hit but much like she expected it just shrugged the attack off.

It wasn't looking good but she knew going in that the best chance they had was to bring the ships over the city so the ground-to-air defence missiles could be used. The force in front of them was already more than she would have liked. A squad of four Zannar-pattern frigates led by a CAS-class assault carrier, it's not good. Those assault carriers are strong ships, they won't be able to bring it down without more help.

"Anti-torpedo rail guns being deployed now ma'am!" another voice called out from behind them.

'It wouldn't stop all of them' she immediately thought to herself but stopped, not wanting to damage morale any more than it already was. As predicted, the entire ship rocked as the plasma torpedoes that got through hit them "Multiple hull breaches!"

"We're about to lose secondary engine power!"

"Ma'am, over seventy enemy dropships detected and making their way towards the city!" Khane watched as so many different contacts left the enemy ships and started to make their way towards the city.

"Highlight those drop ships as a priority for the Longswords" she ordered quickly before opening a general call through the radio "Ajax to all ground forces, be advised enemy drop ships incoming, brace for attack" She didn't wait for anything else to be said before she hung up her end of the call.

"Ma'am, do we change rail gun trajectory to target drop ships?" someone asked her.

"No" the answer was immediate "If we go down then ground has no chance, keep them on the defence" It was a fair question, they could use their rail guns to target the drop ships as they flew past them but if they do that then they could get hit by the enemy ships with even less defence then they had already. They couldn't afford to be brought down this quickly.

"Delta squad, low burn retreat. Bring the enemy closer to the city, we need those anti-ship missiles if we're going to win" she ordered the squad and they all agreed quickly "Send a message to the ground, those Lance missile batteries are top priority. I want Spartans and ODST's surrounding those" she ordered quickly.

"It's already done ma'am, 117 has confirmed that most of the Spartan forces have defensive patterns around the six Lance locations. Seargent Diggs has done the same" she was told and breathed a sigh of relief as she heard that news.

"Delta squad moving now ma'am" a voice called to her.

She looked and could see that the squad was moving backwards, thankfully they didn't need to turn around completely but rather move slowly but still face forward and fire at the enemy "Stop movement after four miles that should be enough for the buildings to be used as cover for the missiles" normally the missiles would have been placed on top of the buildings so there would be less in the way and easier to defend but that wouldn't work here, those roof tops would have just been targeted for bombardment by the enemy ships, they needed to use the buildings as cover so that couldn't happen.

"Ma'am, mission update from the Battle Group. We've lost the ODP but the Supercarrier's been crippled. It's out of the fight" The mental sigh that came from her was the strongest yet.

"Not destroyed?" she asked.

"It doesn't seem so, it took a direct hit from the station before it rammed through it. It has multiple hull breaches and they're massive, it seems to have lost weapon function and shields. However, the rest of the fleet can't destroy it because the rest of the enemy ships are keeping the pressure up and..." his voice trailed off.

"What!" she shouted, in no mood for the dramatic pauses.

"We've lost all contact with Atlas" Despite the seriousness of the situation and how dire it was, most heads turned to look at the man as he spoke.

"GET BACK TO IT!" Khane shouted to everyone who was quick to get back to their stations. The captain herself walked forward until she stood next to her communications officer "What do you mean we've lost contact?" she asked him in a quiet voice.

"Atlas's last known location was on the ODP when the supercarrier went right through it, we've lost all contact since then" he told her, looking over his shoulder at the man.

"Shit" Khane cursed before turning and moving back to the control table and focusing on the mission.

"We got incoming!" Jerome shouted from his rooftop as he and the rest of the red team moved into position, the ODSTs doing the same just a little further back from the edge "Get that gun up and moving!" he shouted, looking over his shoulder and pointing towards the AA gun that was stationed behind them, ready to fire on the enemy fighters that he could only just see flying towards them with his own eyes.

"Got it!" one of the ODSTs shouted as he stood up from his crouched position in front of the gun ammo box before moving into the seat, climbing into the seat, he pressed a couple of controls and the large double barrel heavy machine anti-ait gun whirled to life, moving in two different directions before focusing forward.

"Prioritise enemy dropships" he ordered as the ships got bigger and bigger.

"Copy!" everyone shouted.

"Contact!" Alice shouted next to him as the first wave of enemy fighters entered the city proper.

"Weapons free!" he shouted as they all started to fire.

The heavy Anti-gun fired and immediately aimed for the larger Phantom drop ships that started to move towards them, upon seeing the enemy fire the ships all swerved on either side of the large building, only to be met with similar fire from all the others large towers. Jerome wouldn't lie and see it didn't bring him a lot of pleasure to see these guys get shot down, he would never let it distract him or cloud his judgement, but out of the first wave of targets coming their way, he could see that most of them where being taken down, a handful making their way through. To the city, though he doubted it would be enough to hold ground anywhere before they were taken out.

"Banshee's incomiBBBBBBBBBBBBBB" a voice called out next to him but was interrupted as an explosion rocked the roof of the building they were on. The red team all twisted onto one knee, their backs to the blast before immediately all standing up and aiming at the targets. There was a reason why he ordered that the heavy AA gun target the larger drop ship, while their own hand weapons wouldn't do anything against the heavy armour and shields of the Phantoms, the Banshees were a lot less protected. Their assault rifles, DMR and sniper rifles would do a lot of damage to those fighters.

The second he stood up and pointed his weapon, he counted four fighters that were quickly circling the air space around them and moving back "PROTECT THE AA GUN!" he shouted as those who were left standing quickly turned and fired on them.

While he noted that the small number of the Colony's local militia missed nearly every shot they fired, the ODSTs were much better suited and hit most, combined with the Red team's own aim. Three of the Banshees were brought down before the group where within firing range of the rooftop. Unlike before where he saw a flash of green before the blast took place, this time he watched as smaller rapid-fire white plasma bolts. Most of the personnel on the roof fired at that one target, the AA gun still fired but it focused on the drop ships and two ODSTs who were administering first aid to the man who was at the epicentre of the first blast, who was missing a leg.

Douglas who was closer to them than he was could see just as quickly as the other Spartans where the line of plasma fire was heading. The Spartan was quick to act, Dougles moved quickly, dropping his DMR on the ground, he reached out with two hands, grabbed the shoulders of the ODSTs who were working first aid and turned, pulling them both out of the way. As he did so, his foot connected with the back of the injured and kicked him in the same direction, while the kick no doubt caused damage. The force of which was enough to get him out of the way at least so Dougles would see it as a win. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to get out of the attack himself. Jerome could see that Alice was already running towards him in a hurry. Douglas was forced back by the attack as multiple rounds hit him and pushed him back, nearly off the roof completely.

Thankfully Alice was close enough to grab his outstretched arm and pull him back in. Of course, he wanted to go himself, but he had to stay and help defend with the rest. As the Banshee was destroyed, its wreckage filled and hit the side of the building. Jerome only had a moment to look over his shoulder and see that Douglas was on one knee, clutching his chest while Alice was kneeling in front of him, reaching for a pouch she had that no doubt had first aid "Doug! Status?!" he asked as he turned to face back out towards the enemy ships that where still coming closer. From what he could see, it seemed that the main ships were getting closer to the city, no doubt being brought in range of the Lance missiles.

"... Broken rib, possible lung damage, one suit breach" he listed with a heavy voice as Alice injected a large needle into the small hole in his armour, he suspected a pain killer.

"Are you out of action?" he asked, glancing at the ODSTs who after being moved, didn't say anything or allow themselves to be shocked as they just got straight back to work. Though they were taking more care around the shoulder that Dougles kicked.

"Negative" was the quick response before the Spartan stood back up with a noticeable limp but he slowly started to make his way back to the edge of the building, Alice quickly left him and moved back to her position. Douglas kneeled down near the edge of the building and raised his weapon, getting ready for the next wave.

Jerome glanced at him before getting ready himself, the next wave was on its way now and they were already down three men due to one needing the medical attention of the others.

"Commence the broadside blitz!" Cole ordered as one of the smaller Covenant frigates made the mistake of moving too close to his ship, he felt the ground rumble beneath him as the weapons fired. He didn't pay much attention to the enemy marker appearing with a skull and cross bones, indicating that it was dead.

As of now, despite the bringing down of the Supercarrier, this fight was far from over and was too close for his liking. When the ship charged the station, all the other ships followed with it, allowing his fleet to fire a full MAC blitz on them from a much closer range, it did almost as much damage as the wave of nukes did. But it wasn't enough to finish it all off and now his fleet was scattered.

Battle Group X-Ray had surrounded the station meaning when the Supercarrier went through it, they were all forced to move away in opposite directions from each other, now the Supercarrier was down for the count, and its large bulk blocked his fleet from re-grouping. With no other option but to advance forward, he circled the ship and picked up his ships as he did so.

He didn't like that he had to face away from the enemy ships he moved past but he couldn't afford to be a united front against them or they would be picked off one by one "Sir, The Returning Fall is falling into position at the rear of the formation, multiple hull breaches and primary engine damage" Picture told him from its spot on the command table.

They made it halfway around the Supercarrier and nearly reconnected with the rest of his fleet, as they did so he couldn't help but look out the window and see the large ship, ignoring all the explosions and weapon fire around them. The Leviathan was down for the count, not doing anything since the ODP fired and based on the scans they were able to get, its engines were off, and weapons were down. A godsend if he ever saw one, he didn't want to think about what would have happened to them if it's close-range weapons could fire on them.

Looking at the image of it on the command table, the front of the Supercarrier seemed badly damaged, a massive crater appeared in the front of the ship and seemed to go further into it for miles. He wasn't surprised it was out, if it stayed that way then they might have a chance.

As it stands now, his fleet was down to thirty ships while the Covenants was looking at ten but despite the large difference in numbers, three of theirs were the five-kilometre-long assault carriers. It would be a close fight, he needed to think of something that would give them an edge over them.

There was a smile on his face.

The bridge was on fire, alarms blurring in every direction, and blood, gore and dead bodies were scattered all around him. The amount of death and ruin that just came to those under his command was more than it had ever been before, even now all around him, his honour guard lay around him, only now starting to pick themselves up, ignoring those that were dead.

And yet he was smiling.

The attack from the station had been unexpected, devastating and outright crippled his ship beyond anything that has come before. He once felt that there was nothing here for him, just orders from Faora to wipe out these upstarts but this.

This was a war, the excitement that went through him as he looked at the human ships flying around his own, picking off a couple of the survivors as they did so. This was a battle, he feels his warrior blood pump through him as he thinks about this, glorious combat, something he has not felt since waking up in this cursed time.

He couldn't let this opportunity go to waste "My... my lord?" a gruff voice called to him.

Turned his head to turned to see Shipmaster Vad'am slowly picking himself up off the ground, clearly wounded but not dying "To the planet shipmaster" he ordered as he turned to look back forward out the window, his body unmoving.

"What?" came the shocked statement from the Sangheili.

Nam-Ek heard the sounds of the doors to the bridge opening behind them and he looked in that direction to see dozens of different Personnel come in and started to clean up, secure the area, and attempt to repair the damage.

"To the surface of the planet. It's time I taste the metal of these humans for myself" he finished before he turned and made his way out of the bridge, those that remained of his honour guard following him, though slower than they normally would.

I hope you all enjoyed this one, let me know what you all think in the reviews down below.