It was barely a couple months of rest before the defense of humanity had to resume. Summoned back to the frontline above the human planet of Actium, fifteen Ilroh'ynn ships and perhaps two dozen UNSC vessels appeared to the aid of a beleaguered defense force. Down below, through the view ports of the various vessels, the humans and Eldar could see the Covenant had already landed troops on the planet to do battle.

Faenbrynn watched this from the bridge of the Cruiser Guardian of Hope, one of the lighter Aeldari warships deployed within this task force. UNSC Missiles already lanced out from the tubes on board the allied ships as fighters took off. Their own interceptors joined in with the Longswords to assist in combating the enemy invasion force's naval presence. She told them, "Ready our forces. We advance to join the humans below."

"All ships, prepare for battle," Spoke Admiral Benelim. The Aeldari warships soon formed up with their allies, providing a phalanx of energy shields as the Covenant laced the void ahead with plasma rounds, only to receive replies in kind from their warships. Beams of light criss-crossed the void above the verdant world as Covenant forces swiveled about from their massacre of the UNSC's meager defense force to try and engage the bigger threats.

The beams struck shielding on both sides, flashes of gold and azure filling displays as the joint Fleets of the Eldar and Humans deployed transport vessels to the planet below with added Webway Beacons. Fighters soon dived upon each-other amidst the gunfire of the warships, either protecting, or, in the Covenant's case, attempting to destroy the dropships moving down to the planet.

Faen held onto her Singing Spear as she and the others prepared to drop. She listened to the radio donated by the UNSC. A male voice spoke, "This is Colonel Mentieth of the 53rd Armored. Glad to have reinforcements from above. 12th Infantry is welcome down here any time..." and he seemed terrifically calm despite the distant sound of gunfire and whirr of plasma weaponry.

Brave fools, Faen thought, holding back a smile. She was glad she'd caught herself, lest others think she had gone insane. Aircraft swung down through the atmosphere, wisps of plasma intermixing with those of the fires of re-entry. The dropships soon broke through the cloud layer, to the sight of yet another heavily-industrialized and reinforced colony. Tracers filled the air as Covenant air assets and dropships deployed. Strafing runs lit boulevards aflame as UNSC Sun Devils, the famed quad-mount forty-millimeter anti-air artillery met their strafing attacks with intermixed flak and shield-piercing rounds.

Aeldari fighters swept in, shooting two enemy Seraphs out of the sky and forcing the Covenant's air assets to focus on them while the drop-ships and allied troops moved in to deploy. The wide expanse of the city around them provided perfect cover, the Dropships soon deploying within a designated landing area and disgorging troops, Bonesingers and the Farseer and her posse.

Colonel Mentieth, an elderly man with dark skin, slicked-back grey hair and a salt-and-pepper mustache and beard, approached. He saluted Faen and said, "When they told me Aliens would be coming to our aid, ma'am, I had half-a-mind to tell them to stop bullshitting me..." then she felt just how uneasy he was about the whole situation. He greeted, "Welcome to Actium."

Faen extended her hand, though her face remained impassive. When the man shook it, surprise evident on his face, she said, "We were on Miridem. Above it when the Covenant first fired upon our people," then she looked over at the wounded sat to the side of this reinforced Plaza, being tended to by medical personnel, and told him, "The Covenant made a dangerous enemy that day... And Humanity, by your virtue of actually showing restraint, have made allies."

"Glad to hear it, ma'am..." The man nodded. He leaned back as one of his aides ran up and whispered something to him. He frowned, nodded and spoke, "I hate to ask you this right after we met, but my men need help reinforcing Apollo boulevard. Covenant's pouring some heavy armor into trying to make a breakthrough there. Definitely aiming for our HQ. No doubt about that."

Faen soon noticed the man was clad in full combat gear, not a standard officer's uniform. He even had a rifle on his back, though he wore a cap instead of a helmet and an eyepiece that displayed his HUD. She nodded to him and looked back to her own troops, ordering, "Guide with our comrades in the 12th. Tell Lieutenant Parisa and the Sergeant I will soon join you all on the front."

"Yes, Farseer," Caentys and her host of Banshees nodded. Quickly and calmly, the women moved forth, leading the way for the Avengers and other mainline combat units. Meanwhile, through the use of Webway Beacons, the few armored units the Eldar had available to them deployed, hovertanks moving in as well, much to the Colonel's surprise. Unmanned weapons platforms, prism cannons and shuriken cannons, slowly crept forward as well, under the watchful gaze of their 'operators'.

"Seems like we're getting a lot of support," The Colonel now sounded grateful. He showed the woman to follow him to the Command Tent, which she did while examining the tall skyrises with industrial company emblems and markings on them, not to mention the ONI Tower dead in the center of them all. She mumbled something about it being 'familiar' as the Colonel led her to the command center:A damaged convenience store that had been emptied.

He told her, "Covenant forces hit Actium in full just last week, before you and your forces arrived. They're searching for something nearby one of the northern poles, but we haven't been able to ascertain what. When they hit New Athens, we figured it might be a distraction... But then the Carrier appeared and started dropping troops here, here and here," and he pointed out the locations on the two-dimensional, flat map of the planet. Various capes and continental flatlands, all fairly close together.

"Three landing zones?" She asked, looking over at them, "Odd to emplace them all so close to each-other, but I do suppose the Covenant is not going to be smart always."

"All it'd take is a couple nukes to wipe them out," The man sighed deeply, "But our HAVOKs are stuck with a forward demolitions team nearby the ONI HQ," and he zoomed the map in, pointing at the exact street. He told her, "They were trying to destroy the ONI databases in the underground section of the base. COLE PROTOCOL was enacted everywhere, including aboard our ships, but a complete data erasure can some times be reversed with the right tools."

"AIs," The Farseer nodded, "I know. I have met a few of your Smart ones... I will take a team to support your demolitions squad, then return here with them and the nuclear warheads..." She paused, "Wait, why does a demolition team have nuclear warheads with them? Aren't most of your nuclear weapons assigned to vessels, or otherwise utilized through missiles?"

"They retrieved them from the base on Fifth as they were moving to demolition ONI HQ..." The man quickly answered, "Storage space for fissile materiel waiting decommissioning. They figured the nukes would be of more use to us than disassembled for their components. Yield should still be good enough to wipe those Covenant LZs if we can deliver them..."

She nodded, then heard the thunderclap of a plasma mortar's round striking nearby. She said, "We'll meet with them and deal with the Covenant as they come. Thank you for the briefing, Colonel," and she marched out into the street.

He called out to her, "If you find any more civilians, ma'am, send them our way! We'll get them on transports off-planet!"

With that added bit of information, the woman moved forward to join the Marines and infantry fighting it out on the highway, watching as Scorpion MBTs fired their 90mm cannons at advancing enemy armor and transports. One Covenant hoverbike was hit by a direct impact shot, folding in on itself and exploding in a burst of gold and blue. She ran over to join Michael and the rest of his platoon as the man fired a burst from behind the cover of an overturned car.

He smiled at Faen and greeted, "Glad you could join us in the clusterfuck, Farseer!" before he poked out and fired another five-shot burst. An Elite's plasma rifle hissed and struck the trunk of the car, searing clean through and stopping in the floor, though still forcing Parisa to take cover. He then said, "As you can see, Covvies are a bit busy busting our balls right now!"

"As expected," She said, then stood up. Electricity arced out of her hand and a more focused, sharper bolt of lightning struck another Ghost, causing its fuel and ammo lines to detonate in a burning white flash. She ducked back into cover and smirked at the Marine, who shrugged. She looked to Parisa and stated, "Lieutenant, I will require your team to join me and Exarch Caentys! We are to move on to retrieve a demolitions squad from the Office of Naval Intelligence building!"

"The Nuke Squad, right?!" Parisa asked, then poked out and fired her Battle Rifle at the Covenant troops, nailing a grunt that was moving up with a shield barrier. She reloaded her rifle and looked at Faen again, only to get a nod of approval. Of course, that was what it was about. The Sergeant, meanwhile, looked between the two of them with a sudden fearful gaze.

"The fuck does a Demo team have nukes for!?" He asked, watching as Weiss ran over toward them. Faen showed him to calm down, then looked at Parisa, waiting to see what the Lieutenant would do. With a deep sigh, she nodded and rallied up the platoon, while Faen signaled to Caen and her team to follow her down. The others would have to handle the Covenant alone, though that would hopefully not be a problem as the Fire Prism tanks moved up, beams of white light cutting through the smoke and flame burning on the highway and shearing a Covenant tank in half. Plasma fire still flew overhead, rounds striking the armor of the agile Eldar tanks in return.

The troops marched toward one of the side 'exits' off the highway, a sidewalk with a ladder leading down. The Farseer and her Banshees jumped down, their powers and armors respectively allowing them to land safely, while the Marines simply slid down the ladder as fast as possible. They entered into the town, where gunfire and plasma rounds were being exchanged up close.

Michael continued "... Stuff meant for decommissioning. Hope they still work if the Colonel's actually planning to do anything with them," as they advanced down the road, rifle raised. Overhead, more flak rounds exploded, causing a Covenant fighter to careen left and slam into a building, shattering glass which rained down upon the ruined, burning streets like crystal droplets.

A couple fell and scratched people, but no major damage came of it when Faen engaged what looked like some sort of barrier. She told him, "He assured me the weapons that the demolition team retrieved are operational. What do you think he intends to do? Load them into some of your Longswords and fire them as nuclear missiles at the targets? The Covenant's air defense network is thick."

"Colonel Mentieth's known for his more unorthodox tactics," Parisa replied as she pied a corner. She scoffed when she saw dead civilians on the road, blown in half by Covenant plasma weapons. Alongside them were the cops that attempted to defend them, NAPD armed with shotguns and M6 Magnums without the attached two-times zoom scope cams.

Weiss inquired, "You don't think he'd...?"

"Honestly... If the situation gets desperate enough," Parisa nodded grimly. It was easy to understand, much more read what they were implying without saying. Faen felt a chill run through her spine at the thought of such sacrifice. An entire division of 12,000 troops with their tanks, throwing themselves into hell just to defeat a Covenant invasion force? A terrifying waste of life for a species that was going through a very slow extinction event.

The squad advanced in formation, moving past combat areas toward the ONI HQ. They watched more Scorpion MBTs roll forward, firing their cannons at Covenant forces, MGs raking the areas ahead to suppress the advancing alien forces. The Marines and Avengers fired bursts as they moved past, while the Banshees spearheaded the advance with Caentys at the front.

Faen remained firmly in the middle of the force, trying to keep herself and her comrades alive through the use of her powers. She blunted a strafing run from a Banshee by throwing her Singing Spear at it, the powered blade cutting the alien flying contraption and its pilot in half. It crashed farther ahead, destroying another overturned human car and setting it ablaze.

It wasn't long after that the first Covenant units appeared ahead of them, probably attempting to encircle the Demo team. Parisa called out, "We're a couple blocks away! Wipe the bastards out before they hit our buddies from the rear!" only to lift her rifle and fire the first burst from cover. Caentys and her fireteam of Banshees surged forward, causing the Marines to brace, then screamed aloud, stunning the Covenant.

Blades met flesh again as the Banshees almost seemed to dance around the Covenant's troops, Caentys's movements being almost like a blur. Rifle fire filled the air, bullets zipping past the melee units and cutting down various Covenant reinforcements trying to back them up. Faen and Michael exchanged quick looks, then the two of them moved up to support the girls, only to be followed by the rest of the team.

The Farseer's spear did as its name would say and sang as it cut through her enemies. She thrust forward into an Elite's ribcage, splitting it open and pulling the blade upward, then slammed the blunt bottom end of the weapon into a Grunt's face, which snapped its neck. She followed up by sweeping the leg of a Jackal which she immediately decapitated, while Michael was more gung-ho and brawling, as usual, kicking down enemies and filling them full of lead.

The Avengers moved up next, their shuriken rifles screaming as they levelled them at the Covenant's advancing support parties, while a platoon of Dragons deployed from a cruiser in the heavens levelled their anti-tank melta guns at a trio of Covenant Ghosts that were firing at them. One Dragon took a shot to the helmet and collapsed, but the others let loose a volley of sunlit anger at the enemy, melting the trio of enemy ships.

An Elite jumped from one of the vehicles before it exploded and landed amidst the Fire Dragons, his energy blade drawn. He vivisected one of the Dragons diagonally with a swipe, grabbed a second and slammed him against the wall, then stabbed him through the chest and finally turned and charged toward one of the Banshees. The sword duelist was quicker than the Covenant soldier, however. Even as the Elite raised his hand to swing down on her, she was moving. Like a blur, a shadow, unseen, the woman's hand flicked up and her sword flashed.

The Elite lost his blade hand at the wrist. It looked at the Alien woman with wide eyes, then let out a mere "Wort-" before losing its head to one of the Aeldari's sword slashes. She kicked the corpse away, then drew her Shuriken pistol and let rip a volley into a trio of Jackals that were trying to attack them, causing their overlapped energy shield phalanx to shatter.

Weiss sniped the three with three consecutive shots from her DMR. Michael followed up and emptied his magazine into the platoon of Grunts that was using them for cover, with Parisa getting several good headshots in. Hitchcock primed a grenade and threw it at another Grunt, but yelped in pain as two needle rounds struck his left shoulder and his breastplate.

"Son of a bitch!" Mike called out. He barked at the team Corpsman, "GET HIM TO COVER!" before taking cover behind a destroyed truck as a volley of plasma fire washed his position. Another Covenant Banshee was shot out of the sky moments later by their own fighters and even a squadron of Hoverbikes manned by Avengers, driving into the enemy line with their weapons to try and keep them from setting up a foothold in the city.

A platoon of armor rolled up beside them, UNSC tanks and IFVs. 30mm autocannons welcomed another Covenant Phantom as it prepared to drop its troops, the high explosive rounds ripping through the cargo hold of the transport craft and spattering it with blood. Two rounds punctured a fuel line, causing the Dropship to burst aflame from the inside out, then explode in a blinding flash.

Tanks followed up, their canister shell load thundering as they wiped another squad of Covenant. Michael sighed deeply, watching the Army contingent of the planet finally deploy with their troops. MA37s, heavier duty battle dress uniforms and armor and the whole nine yards. They marched up to the group, with the officer of the squad saluting Parisa, who saluted back.

Parisa spoke, "Good day to see footsloggers..."

"Ain't that the truth," He replied, then told her, "Captain Shephard, Army Sixth Battalion, Fifth ID. Things were looking a little rough before you and your buddies arrived," and he watched Faen and Caentys approach. He whistled, crossed his arms to his chest and smirked, "Damn. Actual aliens who're friendly. Thought the reports were insane, honestly, but..."

"I feel like that should stop being as much of a surprise after the fifth person," Faenbrynn murmured, mildly annoyed, then nodded, "Status on your troops, Captain?"

"We sustained thirty percent of our effective fighting strength as casualties, but we walked it off for now. Fourth and eight battalions are also operating, but they've been more hard-hit," He told her, then looked over at Michael as he helped his buddy Hitchcock to his feet. He told them, "You heading to rescue the civvies trapped nearby Reyes-McLees?"

"No. We have to find a demolitions team near the ONI Tower," Parisa replied, "They have fissile materiel that might be useful in dealing with the Covvies."

"The Decommissioning base down on Fifth?" The man jabbed a thumb back, raising a brow. The trio of officers, Eldar and Human, nodded, to which he hummed and sighed deeply, "Hope they pulled the right nukes outta storage. HAVOKs pulled out of bases like that usually have faulty detonator links. Any poor bastard who had to haul one found out too late that they had to detonate them manually..."

As Michael joined the group, they exchanged looks. Shephard scratched his chin, then said, "Tell you what. We can escort you all to the Demo Team. Covvies are thick between here and there and it's on the way to the RM Tower we need to evacuate. You'll have to make the run back to HQ on foot, though," while the rest of his battalion's transports and tanks rolled up.

"Seems standard," Michael nodded, "Let's haul it, then."

The squads mounted up on the UNSC's Oryx IFVs, relatively large and decently armored combat transports with 30mm autocannons and SACLOS ATGMs designed to usually take out anything mobile that wasn't friendly. The thirties had two belts, one for HE and one for APFSDS. They'd seen the HE in action, ripping that Covenant dropship in half, so they felt pretty safe that the APFSDS would do work.

"First day back on the job and it's this big a clusterfuck," Michael quipped, then looked over at Hitchcock and asked, "How's your shoulder?"

"Numb, but I'll live," The man replied with a grin, scratching the top of his head. He looked over at the Farseer and the others, then asked, "You guys think the Demo team's still alive?" only for the conversation to pause as the autocannon of the vehicle audibly let loose, only muffled by the armored walls of the vehicle, which were supposed to be rated to up to 14,5mm APDS rounds from their SRS-99s.

"I believe so, yes," Faen replied with a nod, cradling her weapon, "Though am I the sole person here who would feel more comfortable on the outside?"

"Less likelihood for a mortar to wipe us out," Caentys replied in a mumble as she held onto the vehicle, blade shut off and hugged in her arms. The Marines and Army aboard let out short laughs as the vehicles continued rolling, followed by the ripple of another burst from the 30mm of the Oryx and the muffled thundercrack of a tank's gun firing fairly close to them.

Weiss said, "Eh, I find it comfortable. Not expending ammo or humping it, not hauling ass with like sixty pounds of gear on my back... And if we die, we all die together," with a smirk. The others laughed again, while the Aeldari simply shook their heads, concealing their smiles. Overhead, the antigravity engine of one of the Eldar fighters caused a buzz and static electricity for a moment as it dived after what one would assume was a Seraph.

Five minutes of sheer dumb luck and a few close calls later, the Marines and Aeldari dismounted from the transports a block away from the ONI HQ, which they could see. Tracers flew from amidst the ruins and the broken glass, the Demo Team and the few supporting elements that could make it already fighting with the enemy to try and get out of the encirclement.

The groups pushed forward, Avengers and Marines firing their rifles on the move as they jumped into the building's destroyed lobby. Overturned chairs, tables and even a welcome counter were being used as cover by the Army Engineers sent to retrieve the nuclear weaponry. Several of them donned CBRN uniforms akin to the MOPP systems of old, with lead-lined suits, helmets, armor and gas masks.

Parisa and Faen pushed up as the Marines and Aeldari set up defensive positions and found a man speaking on the radio. He started, "This is Victor-Five-Five-Actual, requesting reinf-" then paused as he saw them. He spoke, "Reinforcements have arrived, stand-by!" and he let them get closer. He asked Parisa, "Lieutenant Jones, you guys our out?!"

"Yes! The Colonel sent us after you!" She replied, then ducked as a needle rifle's round zipped just over her head. Straightening up and shouldering her rifle, she shot back in reply and nailed the Jackal that fired at her before taking a knee again. The other Marines, Michael included, laid down covering fire with as many of their weapons as they could, while Parisa spoke, "Get those nukes ready for transport back to Fifty-Third's HQ!"

"They're packed and ready to go! We need help CASEVACing the wounded, though!" The man shot back, then jabbed a thumb back toward a windowless concrete room in the back, where the squad had placed almost a dozen wounded. Parisa scoffed, then looked back and watched as the armor rolled forward into the next AO. She sighed deeply and waved to Shepherd, who waved back and showed her to wait. He was on the Radio.

With luck, it was the Colonel telling them to provide CASEVAC...