For Weiss Schnee, to say she was well versed about the ins and outs of the most advanced tech of Remnant would be an understatement.
Afterall, growing up in one of, if not the wealthiest businesses established surrounding essential resources used both for industrial and military application, one tends to pick up on these things when exposed to them frequently enough, especially at such an impressionable age.
That being said, nothing could have prepared her for the reality where humanity didn't just have the means to leave their homeworld, but also was capable of traversing the depths of space to see the stars that shone in the night sky up close.

The idea itself seemed nothing short of pure speculation, an optimist's pipe dream.
Yet here she was, the reality right before her and her friends, a different species not only appearing quite similar to her own, also calling themselves human, they had the technology to do what she thought was simply impossible.
The heiress also considered herself very eloquent, knowledgeable and highly educated, granted, she was aware she had her limits and was not above anyone else with a lot to still learn about the world… well, once she came to know her team and her peers that is.
As she walked beside her friends and the soldiers who referred to themselves as marines, several questions were raised, with all the action that had gone on, it was nice to experience a small bout of calm to think.

First, by some chance, without even beginning to quantify the probability, the marines not only looked human and called themselves human, they spoke the same language as them and, by some small slip up by her leader, it sounded like they might also eat the same food too.
That question however, was dwarfed by the second, the space ship known as The Autumn, from the inside; was nothing too special, though perhaps being blood soaked and bullet riddled tended to muddy one's perspective.

But once they were on the lifeboat, seeing it from the outside, truly Weiss would be lying to herself if she didn't admit it was one of the largest ships her two eyes had the fortune of looking at…
Until she saw what it was up against.
Which brought her to her third point, this alternate form of humanity was at war with an alien coalition; the Covenant, which she had been told was due to them being zealots that saw humans as a scourge that needed to be wiped out.

To her, it seemed apparent the war wasn't going in their favour, for one, the fact the crew were in the midst of abandoning ship when they arrived, and second, the fleet attacking the Autumn was large, both in the number of ships within the fleet as well as the sheer size of them in comparison to the Autumn.
How far into a losing war were they?
She hadn't the heart to ask, but something told her she'd find out if they survived long enough.

Then came the final and more sobering thought, with all of this in mind, it was fair to say the technology implemented by these humans was similar to Atlas, maybe slightly more advanced, but when comparing it to the Covenants tech she had seen thus far, nothing in Remnant's arsenal could match it.
So what would a fight look like if the ship they had found themselves on decided to attack from orbit while deploying troops on the surface instead of arriving at this location?

At that exact moment, Blake stopped in her tracks, constituting everyone else halting in their place.

"What is it?"
Kappus asked, his voice uneasy.

The group were currently situated on open terrain, which was slowly becoming elevated.
If anyone was above them, they could easily overpower them without succumbing to any significant offensive they could throw at them.

"The fighting, I can't hear it anymore…"
Blake trailed off as she looked back to the others.

"You mean it ended?"
Fitzgerald clarified.

The raven haired girl was quiet for a few seconds as she pondered her response.
"No, just that I can't hear it clearly, something else is drowning it out."

"I don't hear anything."
Emmerson said.

"Just give it a second."
Blake responded as she once again cupped a hand to her ear and turned her head in the direction of the supposed sound.
"I don't even know how to describe it."

Upon hearing this, everyone held their breath, in the hopes of hearing the illusive noise.
Weiss herself felt compelled to do the same.
Closing her eyes, ears straining as she tried to pick up on the sound Blake was able to hear.
Though the only thing she could hear aside from the ambience around them was the sound of her own heartbeat.
She inhaled slowly and exhaled, doing her best not to think about the latter as she focused on the sound within the former.

As time seemed to stand still for her, silence was all she could hear, well except for the wind that was.
But then she realised, that wasn't the wind, the air around them was still, and this sound was faint, yet, it was becoming easier to perceive with each passing second.
While her eyes remained closed thinking about it, the sound was like a rush of wind, no not wind
more like a deathly howl.
It was getting louder still.
Like it was rapidly approaching their current location.
She felt sickened by it.
If she gave it more thought, the abhorrent noise… almost sounded like-

"Banshees!"

Weiss' eyes shot open as she looked over at Kappus, who had alerted everyone, the man had his rifle raised and pointed it up towards the hill.
And as she looked upwards, she paled.
Her muscles locked up as she saw an all too familiar pair of shapes in the sky.

"Scatter!"
Bisenti shouted as they flew overhead.
There was no hesitation as everyone separated from one another, that was until Yang noticed someone missing, her sister catching on at the same time.

"Weiss move!"
Ruby yelled, the purple fighter crafts orienting themselves to face the group, one of them honing in on the white haired girl frozen in place.

The marines hearing this, looked back just in time to see Ruby get into a running stance, before quite literally bursting forwards with tremendous speed, becoming a blurry red arrow that shed rose petals.
Within the mass of red, Ruby rapidly approached her teammate, scooping her up as she continued to move up along the hill, just as the area Weiss stood seconds ago was ruptured by a green globule of energy fired from the fighter craft.

The marines couldn't spare a single second to be awestruck, for while one Banshee was focused on the white rose duo, the other flew by aiming to hit at least one of the marines as they ran down the hill.
Fortunately for them, the vehicle was moving too fast to accurately land a hit on the chosen target, whoever that may have been.
At the same time, although they could have gotten some well-placed shots in, they prioritized getting on level ground before ever considering fighting back.

For the banshee pilots, they danced in the sky with coordination, ensuring to keep themselves apart while designating specific targets in order to prevent a mid-air collision.
A minute or so prior to the initial skirmish between land and air, the two had been given orders and were resolute in getting to the destination.

"I hunger for a challenge."
The Sangheili pilot muttered as he trailed behind his equal.

"And we may soon, I doubt that when we arrive we will find nothing more than a pile of human bodies-"
His words were cut off as they crested past a landform.
"Wait, do you see that?"

"Indeed my brother, do you think these are the very same humans that we have been ordered to subdue?"
His counterpart questioned, the subtle sound of his hands adjusting the controls being transmitted through the communique.

"I suspect so, but it does not matter. They shall die regardless."
He responded as he made more direct adjustments to his vehicle.
"I can see they are beginning to part, yet one remains without care.
Send a transmission to our cohort to aid us.
Then deal with the ones fleaing, and I shall finish this one off."

"Understood."
Was all he heard as pilot deviated his course for the other humans.

Years of experience within this craft told him he needed to elevate the front of the vehicle before firing off a fuel rod.
Homing in on his target, he did the quick calculation in his head as his finger hovered over the trigger.
Only a few seconds.
His approach was ideal.
The alien's equivalent of a thumb rested on the button.
May the gods guide my killing blow.

*Click*

The rod ejected from the pod of the banshee, the familiar roar that echoed at the same time as the trajectory made its way towards the motionless figure-

"By the rings?!"
The pilot's words hitched in his mandibles as his target was swept away by a streak of red moving far faster than his banshee, first out of danger of the banshee bomb, then looped back around to travel down the hill.
"Did you see that, or do my eyes deceive me?"
He questioned his contemporary as he swung the vehicle around.

"Your eyes are in perfect health, but reality presents itself to be at odds with us…"
His brother in arms trailed off, the echo of his plasma bolts being discharged could be heard in his ear.

"How so?"

"What you saw, it was one of the humans."

"Impossible."

"It would seem not."
There was an intermittent pause before his voice came back through his ear.
"Target the ones closer to the edge of the hill, I will deal with those further back."

"Understood."
He answered with the upmost certainty.

Back with Ruby and Weiss, the pair came to rest at the base of the hill, the team already laying fire upwards at the attackers.
"Weiss… are you… okay?"
The former asked in between breaths, doing her best not to think what could have happened to her friend if she were just a second too late.

Even with the burst of gunfire behind her, Weiss still had a shaken expression on her face

"Weiss!"
Ruby shouted, jolting her prim and proper teammate back into the real world.

"R-ruby"
She locked eyes, her voice in slight turmoil.
"What happened?"

"I used my semblance to grab you from danger after you didn't run when we saw those covenant crafts."
She gestured at the Banshees behind her, watching as they gained altitude to circle around for another attack run."

Upon mentioning the vehicles in question, Ruby felt a pang of dread before turning back to Weiss, the girl was starting to hyperventilate.
Instantly, the hoodwearer clasped her hands on both of the heiress' shoulders.
"Weiss. Listen to the sound of my voice.
Concentrate on it, and nothing else."
Weiss, though still breathing unnaturally fast, nodded, giving the attention she had been asked for.
Ruby in turn kept a neutral expression before speaking with a stern, yet gentle tone.
"Look at me and breathe."

Kappus stole a glance at the girls whilst reloading.
"Shit."
He cursed under his breath, immediately realising they were in no position to fight for the time being.
"Gonna need to provide cover fire, we're down two- not injured, just unable to fight."

The rest of the marines didn't need to ask, instead fanning out even more so as they unloaded their rifles.
The guns might be sporadic at times, but when it came to banshee armour plating, 7.62mm rounds could tear through it like it were a knife in butter.

Blake did the same with her plasma rifle, letting off a few shots that flew wildly, without the accuracy the weapon appeared to have when dealing with infantry.

*Thwump*

She quickly glanced over to her right side, seeing that Yang had hoisted the Jackrabbit turret towards the sky and fired a single volley, her features adamant she aimed to hit one of the banshees.

Despite the cacophony of gunfire, Weiss remained attentive to Ruby, maintaining eye contact with her teammate as she talked.
"We are going to get out of here alive, as a team.
Just like we did when we got out of the Covenant ship, just like with the breach, the fight with the White Fang and just like Roman Torchwick-"

She was cut off as a stray plasma bolt grazed her back when one of the Banshees flew by.
Weiss gasped and moved to steady Ruby in case she toppled forward.
The latter however, held out a hand to stop her, slightly hunching over as she gritted her teeth, seething through the pain while exhaling loudly.
After feeling the immediate pain subside, Ruby stood back upright a few seconds after, taking another quick breath before continuing.
"We've been in worse situations than this, and we came out of it, we are getting out of this fight… alive."

The two broke out of their conversation as Fitzgerald called out.
"We got trouble."

Two hundred meters or more away from the group, Ruby and Weiss could see another one of those tuning fork shaped transport ships touching down,dropping off ground forces before flying away.

"What do you say we deal with them, while the others take care of… the other pair of enemies?"
Ruby asked as she returned back to Weiss.

The heiress gave a slight smirk with a curt nod before lifting the plasma pistol she carried, signifying to her teammate that, although she wasn't ready to deal with the banshees, she was more than capable of delivering death with their new arrivals.

Without a second thought, Ruby grabbed Weiss' arm and whisked her past the others the moment there was a lapse in the fire from the banshees.
When the streak of red blurred past Kappus, he did a quick double take before putting two and two together.
"Bisenti, Emmerson, give those two a hand to deal with our new guests."
He hollered while pointing over to the advancing Covenant squad just as Ruby and Weiss appeared before them, petals scattering around them.

"You got it boss!"
Emmerson responded, lowering her pistol and moving out, placing a hand on Bisenti's shoulder to spin him around to follow beside her.
The man compiled without much effort, maintaining his rifle in the air as he kept his eyes on the banshees in case they tried something.

When the marine pair drew closer to the white rose duo, their attention moved from the banshees to the fight they approached.
Even if they were still some metres away, the girls seemingly began to engage with the enemy.

Meanwhile, with Ruby and Weiss, after coming to a stop some meters away from the ground troops, Ruby advanced forward while shielding her white haired partner behind her, the soft grass lightly crunching underneath her boots.
The hood wearer then leveled her plasma-based rifle as she judged the enemy to be a substantial distance away from Weiss.
With her left hand balancing the body of the weapon, she steadied her aim towards the closest oncoming shorter alien, squeezing the trigger tightly before it could reciprocate its turn.

*Ow!*
She heard it call out as the first bolt connected with the little bit of armour that protected it, stopping it momentarily.
*Ahh!*
Then it halted altogether as the successive shot landed, its now lifeless body slumped sideways which was accompanied by one or two blasts from its own weapon.

Right now, the odds are kinda stacked against us, six to one.
She thought to herself as she glanced back at Weiss.
Take out the little ones first, then the big.
Like Beowolves and Ursae.

With one target dead, she darted to the next one, aiming to lead her shots while avoiding fire, the alien contingent beginning to fan out in an attempt to catch her off guard and to possibly get an angle on Weiss.
*Wahh*
The second cried out as the two burst fire from her weapon swept by it.

However, when the third target bucked from the plasma bolt seared it's right arm-

"Yeow!"
She yelped in shock, quickly releasing her grip with her left hand, shaking off the pain lingering from the resultant heat.
Her weapon meanwhile hissed as it expelled the blue coloured gas.
The hood wearer cursed in her own way, realising she held the trigger down longer than she had liked as she was too focused on the enemies ahead of her.

With the weapon still on cooldown, Ruby kept on her feet as shot after shot narrowly whizzed by her.

"Down front!"
She then scrambled while running to avoid the bright blue grenade that was dangerously approaching her as she heard the small alien throw it.
When the grenade detonated, she tumbled to the ground as the resultant shockwave disorientated her for a second, causing Ruby to trip over her own footing.

When she looked back up, dread and beads of cold sweat formed as the large aliens raised their weapons at her, the one a metre or two in front of her had what she could guess as content on his segmented mouth.
That content only seemed more prominent as she caught a glimpse of the subtle twitch of his finger on the weapon.
Ruby tried to react, but her head still swirled from the grenade…
All she could do was close her eyes and brace for the inevitable.

She heard the fire ring out.
She felt nothing...
Did she die?

Cautiously, her eyes fluttered open, blinded by not only the light of the sun, but a familiar bright glow in front of her.

As for the Sangheili, their smiles of content fell instantly.
After the simultaneous barrage of plasma fire ended, instead of seeing a lifeless body before them, was a barrier of white light hovering above the human child, reminiscent of a flake of snow.

"What is the meaning of-"
One of the minors questioned, but cut himself off, his eye catching the glimpse of several similar looking sigils laid out on the ground.
He wasn't able to process the sight further as a streak of white raced along said trail, which was followed up by a pair of boots crashing into the side of his midsection, knocking him off balance.

Ruby breathed a sigh of relief, an instinctive smile formed as Weiss stood before, slowly rising to her feet, the alien pistol in one hand, and Myrtenaster in the other.
The heiress' face contorted as her knuckles went whiter than normal, a second later, she fired several bolts into one of the large aliens, his shields flared and halted his retort momentarily.
Weiss then darted towards a smaller one, driving Myrtenaster into where she thought the creature's heart was; she never once flinched as its eyes became dull.

The rest of the aliens snapped out of their trance by the sudden appearance of the new foe, firing their weapons into her.
To the shock of the Unggoy (the Sangheili as well, though maintaining their stoicism), the snow haired child absorbed the first hail of plasma, she looked to be pained, but very much alive.

As they held their triggers for the second wave, the girl raised the unfamiliar weapon in her other hand, without any indication, another one of those sigils of white light appeared in front of her, behaving exactly like one of their deployable shields.
Out of the corner of her eye, Weiss picked up on one of the smaller aliens trying to side step around her glyph to fire its pistol, only for it to keel over as blue blood spurted from the side of its head.

"Mind if we join the party." Emmerson's voice echoed as she discharged another round from her pistol, her shot bouncing harmlessly off one of the Elite minor's shields.

Back with the other half of the group and the Banshees.
The attack craft circled the sky above the five once more.
The pilots were aggravated that the filth was able to elude nearly all their attacks, and those one or two that were successful; weren't fatal.
That little fact raised some concern, but for the time being they couldn't contemplate the matter, focusing on breaking their targets.

The same couldn't be said for the vehicles themselves.
Weapons-wise, both ships were more than suited to keep the fight up, integrity wise however, their craft's armour was worse for wear.
The twin anti-gravity pods on the Oghal-pattern vehicle were sparking and slightly spewing smoke, meanwhile the bottom half of the fuselage was riddled by the primitive weapons 'rounds' dotting the metallic surface.

One of the pilots pressed his control lever further forward, pushing the Banshee to accelerate to its top speed, dipping down the altitude slightly.
His eyes scanned the enemies in his line of sight, his thumb drifting from the primary weapons to the secondary, the targeting system changing its display to reflect that.

Yang meanwhile glared at the approaching vehicle, steadying her own aim as the craft did not relent, the whine of the 'engine' piercing through the barrage of gunfire

Then the brawler squeezed the trigger of the turret.

*Thwump*

At the same time, the banshee bomb fired, both projectiles sailing towards their intended targets, time seemed to slow for both parties, the pilot shoving the controls to narrowly miss the grenade by mere centimeters from impact.
As for Yang, all she could do was grip her weapon tightly, and hoped her aura could hold out as the mass of bright green slammed into the ground in front of her, throwing her back.
The heat itself was intense, she imagined that perhaps this is what the others felt whenever she activated her semblance.
And the force itself?
Not as brutal as being sucker-punched by Torchwick's mech, but still kicked the wind out of her.

"Man down!" Kappus' blood ran cold as he watched the ordeal before his eyes, his mouth and legs working before his brain as he started moving over to the fallen girl.
While Fitzgerald and Hoskey covered him, Blake followed suit, standing above the marine as the man knelt down to check the blonde's vitals.
His eyes trailed up and down her still form several times.
No horrific burns, no signs of trauma, broken bones or external bleeding.
Even if the pain of losing a person in a fight was removed from the equation from his initial inspection, the man couldn't rule out internal damage or even the remotest possibility that the blonde's heart might have stopped.

"I don't want to sound callous, but I know she's going to be okay…"
Blake said from behind, even as he went to place two fingers against her neck.
"Yang's been dealt heavier hits than this and survived."
The raven haired girl then briefly caught a glimpse of the rest of her teammates, Ruby dancing around the larger aliens as a means to keep them off of the other three."
I'm going to assist with the ground forces, I can trust you to look after Yang."
She stated, running off to fight before a response could be given.

Kappus raised an eyebrow, muttering after watching her leave from over his shoulder.
"The hell could be heavier than the force from… a fuel rod… to the face?"
He went quiet as he felt a pulse, and a strong one at that.
Immediately, he removed his hand off the girl's neck, letting Yang sit up as she gasped for air, coughing and sputtering as she spat out the dirt kicked up during the explosion.
Afterwhich, she looked at him.

"Id I et im?"
She attempted to ask, still wiping the dirt that had managed to coat her tongue.

Kappus shook his head, chewing the inside of his cheek as he turned to stare up at the banshee in question.
"Missed 'em by that much."
He answered when he turned back, making a small pinching gesture with his hand.

"So Blake tells me you've dealt with worse before?"
He asked, helping her brush away most of the dust on her clothes.
But she firmly pushed his hand away as he went for her head.
The marine taking the hint, raising his hands in a mock surrender.

Yang continued to pat herself down as she spoke up.
"Well Blake is right, I've definitely been hit much harder."

"Well alright then."
He answered flatly.

The blonde paused what she was doing, looking back at Kappus.
"Wait, you don't sound surprised by that?"

The man sighed as he stood up.
"For one, I don't suspect Blake would lie out of the blue.
And two, I've been surprised ever since we bumped into you four on the Autumn.
Your sister was shot and survived, you even more so.
At this point, I'm going to keep my disbelief in reserve.
Until then, I am sitting back and waiting, either for that much needed explanation, or maybe for your other two
friends to survive the seemingly impossible."
He looked away for a second, chuckling at the absurdity of what he thought and debated whether or not to say it aloud.
I reckon Yang looks like the type to speak her mind…
"Maybe getting swatted by a hunter's shield or impaled by an energy sword."
With that, he extended a hand to help the blonde up.
"And besides, just another thing to chalk up for our game of twenty questions."

Once on her feet, Yang then began to shake the dust out of her mane of hair before grabbing the jackrabbit turret, ensuring it wasn't damaged in the attack.

"I highly doubt you'll be able to hit one of those banshees with that thing."
She heard Kappus next to her, the pessimism in his voice obvious.

"I know.
But I'm too stubborn to give up now."
One final once over before gripping the weapon tightly, she looked towards the sky, answering as she returned her attention back to him.
"Especially after one of them nearly killed me and all."

"Alright, that's fair."
He mused as he hefted his rifle, looking up at the Banshees, then back to Yang.
"Then let's see if you can nail it before you either run out, or one of us finishes both of them off before you get to do anything about it."

A wry smirk escaped itself as Yang glanced over to him.
"Just watch me."
With that, the pair joined in the effort to support Hosky and Fitzgerald, it was the least they could do.
After all, pelting the two banshees with enough gunfire so that the pair took precedence of killing their retaliation rather than kill off the easier and more vulnerable Yang and Kappus took some skill.

The banshee pilots refused to admit it, but there was no doubt to an outsider they were being worn thin- both by their combat prowess and the state of their vehicles.
"What are you doing down there?
Can you not even fell one of them at the very least? I can tell from where I'm positioned I can see there are mere children in their midst!"
One of the pilot's resentment for his fellow kin engulfed the confined fuselage of the banshee as he chewed out the major on the ground.

There was a lengthy pause before his ears picked up on a reply, the voice on the other end muddied by his weapon's fire, plasma and human fire and what sounded like high pitched yells in human tongue at varying levels, as if the one making it could not keep still.
"If you were the one fighting here and not me, you would quickly learn that these are not mere children you do battle with!"
Static then filled the pilot's ear briefly, more plasma fire echoed, followed by what he thought he heard the major ruffling his person.
"Holy light."

"And what about the reinforcements, are they not within range to aid us?"
He then questioned, he welcomed the ground forces when they arrived, yet he expected more to follow as his companion had made the call out.

"They are under siege-"
The words were caught off, the echo of energy shields coming to life chimed through his earpiece.
"Help quell these humans and we shall deal with the rest, then we must return immediately-
Another human! Kill her!
The major barked angrily, seconds ticking by as his voice evolved to that of a troubled on.
Brother, to your right side!"

The banshee pilot blinked in surprise as an even greater cacophony of plasma fire channeled through his earpiece, the transmission being cut off deliberately afterwards.
As he pulled on his controls following another attack run, he thumbed the controls to switch his communication to transmit to his fellow pilot.
"We must disengage with the current humans and aid with subduing their friends."

"Understood, making my approach-"
The pilot, from his position gritted his mandibles as he watched the banshee before his eyes, erupt into a ball of flame.
The vehicle dropped like a stone out of the sky, while his brother in the skies plummeted to meet with the rings surface, though his life had been taken the instant the fightercraft became a charred wreck.
Forget the ground force.
They will pay with more than their lives for this…

With the Major on the ground, his work had been more than cut out for him, it was one thing to be faced with a group of human military as well as civilians, he had encountered such groups before numerous times.
It was another for them to fight back, and fight back with a force that he couldn't even begin to describe.
The young human who adorned a cloak had been immobilized and was ripe to be slain, only for her white clothed sister to deploy countermeasures against their attacks.
The then girl ventured to kill an Unggoy under his command with a meager sharpened metal rod with ornate carvings.

The fight only became skewered as two of their military personnel joined the battle, being aided by the cloaked one once she was back on her feet, proving to be an annoyance that prevented him, his kin or the remaining Unggoy from attacking the rear.
And to salt the wound, a new adversary arrived.
"Another human!"
The major hollered as he fired his plasma rifle, his shots narrowly missing the target as she dodged and weaved.
"Kill her!"

As for Blake herself, she wasted no time the instant she was within range of the marines, letting her plasma pistol do the work until it nearly overheated.
At which point, she was well within range to draw Gambol Shroud and deliver several slashing strikes on an unsuspecting smaller alien who was too focused on Weiss to realise she was on top of him.
After a swift flick of her wrist, the alien's neck leaked a light blue hue, the creature's hand reaching up to its left side, only to then be hit in the face by plasma from the same attacker and a bullet in the head from afar.

Ruby meanwhile reappeared behind one of the cobalt blue armoured aliens, firing a burst of three bolts, before scurrying away in a flurry of rose petals as he turned to retaliate.
Weiss followed right after with one or two pistol shots into the alien's turned back, only for her to duck down as he spun back around, his shields depleted and began blaring at him to seek shelter.
His eyes caught sight of the young female nearby, as they fell onto her own pale blue orbs, she struck outwards her crude weapon, sneaking in between armour and digging past his undersuit and into his flesh.
He exhaled sharply, stretching his arm out to push her away, only to be met with a barrage of human projectiles breaking his armor and killing him seconds after.

"Nooo!"
Weiss quickly glanced to her right side as she heard a guttural roar from the maroon armoured alien who glared at her, his weapon raised while his hand went to his side as he produced the shiney blue and orange orb.
She moved to pull Myrtynaster out of the corpse and run as the alien had triggered the switch on the orb, it blue grow only becoming brighter as he sent it her way,
As she leapt away, she felt the world become a blur as Ruby once again scooped her up and removed her from the impending danger.
When the grenade went off and the dust had settled, the Major was the only one left of his ground troop still standing.
And as for the humans attacking?
All remained standing.
All able to fight.
And more troubling…
All pointing their weapons at him.

"So be it."
He drawled under his breath, his last vestiges time coming to a standstill as he looked to try to improve his chances of felling his enemy.
The human at the rear fired his rifle, the brief burst of light and sound punching the air as the Major moved to the nearest of his kin to salvage his rifle, bending down to retrieve it just as the projectile bounced off his shield.
Coming back up, the number of projectile fire doubled, shields still absorbing whatever managed to land.
His hands gripped both weapons tightly, fingers firmly squeezing the triggers as globules of green and blue plasma accompanied the projectiles, shields showing signs of failing.
The bolts he had fired traveled the length of air before connecting with empty space, the figure that had stood there dissipating the moment the plasma made contact.
Shields depleted, alarms chirping away for deaf ears to heed their warning.
His breath short and rapid, his hips twisting to adjust for the target once again, his plasma fire whizzing by.
Course correcting to account for her movements accounted for nothing, as his insides became numb while his extremities were burned away or shot to hell from telling his body he was in pain.
The last thing he was able to see in this existence before a veil of black covered his eyes as he fell to his knees; were the five humans before him, and both plasma weapons in his hands venting heat.

"How's everyone doing?"
Emmerson asked aloud, her eyes drifting from the last dead squid head to each of the girls.

"I'm…good."
Ruby panted, bracing herself with her hands on her knees as she caught her breath.
"Weiss, how about you?"
She asked, looking up at her partner.

"Fine to say the least."
She simply answered looking over her rapier before sheathing it on her belt.
"Blake?"

"More or less the same."
The raven haired girl stated, her gaze trailing back to the rest of marines and her teammate, just in time for her to see one of the banshees in the air rupture into flames, descending to the ground, the pilot's body racing the vehicle to see who would get there first.

"Think they've got it covered?"
Bisenti asked sarcastically, already turning in the direction of the way they came from.

"Yeah, it doesn't mean we can't go back for a better view."
Emmerson answered as she went to catch up with him, the girls following behind them.'
"Any bets as to who took out the first one?"

"I'm going to go with Fitz for sure."
Bisenti retorted without a second thought.
He then glanced back at the three.
"You reckon your sister has a shot of nailing the other?"

"Knowing Yang, she'll not bother with the alien weapon and use the turret off the jackrabbit instead."
Ruby answered confidently.

"Well you're not wrong."
Blake somewhat chuckled as she looked down at her leader.

With Yang, she cursed to herself as another single volley missed the banshee.
Clearly killing his buddy was enough for the pilot to throw caution into the wind.
It happened all so fast.
The pair had completed another fly-by, before climbing altitude only for Fitzgerald to place a shot that blew up one of the crafts.

"Nice shot."
Hosky complimented aloud.

Either Fitzgerald got purely lucky as his shot found a vital component, or because the craft was already on its last legs and his bullet was the final nail in the coffin.

Whatever the case may be, the pilot was seeing red, the attack craft jerked wildly as it dipped down and proceeded to aggressively burn the ground beneath their boots.
Hosky was directly in the line of fire, but threw himself to his right in an attempt to avoid the hail of plasma.

"Guys, might be going on a bit of a limb here, but I think we've just pissed this guy off."
Hosky said after he clambered back to his feet and lifted his rifle in the air.

"You think!"
Kappus called over the sound of his rifle barking away.

As he went to reload his rifle-

*Thwump*

He glanced nearby.
"Yang, I think you need to give up on the turret."

"I've got it, I'm going to get him the next time he swings round, I can feel it."
She defended while steadying the weapon with both hands.
Here eyes tracking the banshee as it's shifted its nose towards the four once again.

"I don't want to say it, but your funeral."
Kappus answered as he aimed down his sights once again.
"Just try to get out of the way this time."
He quickly added.

Seconds passed the banshee drew closer, Yang mentally going over the trajectory of the last shot and the angle of attack of the vehicle, her finger gently pressed up against the trigger, waiting for the moment.

The banshee pilot was already starting to pepper the ground as it rapidly approached the humans.

*Thwump*

Yang was already in the midst of a smirk as the grenade sailed towards its target- only for the banshee to dip down, the grenade flying above the canopy.
A second or two later, the craft fired its secondary weapon, Yang taking Kappus' advice, throwing herself to the ground, and covering her hair with her hands as the fuel rod detonated two or three meters away from where she had stood.

As the banshee's engines faded away from her, Yang could hear Kappus' voice.
"Hate to tell you I told you so-"

"Then don't!"
She bitterly spat while pushing herself up before looking at the grenade launcher.
After picking it back up, she looked over the ammunition in the weapon before looking to the banshee.
"One last time."
She sighed to herself.

The banshee pilot exhaled sharply, watching his instruments flash on and off as he climbed the sky, the integrity of the vehicle showing itself to be in a state of impending failure.
The weapons still worked surprisingly well, if not accurately as they did in their pristine condition.
His focus was on killing the human who had killed his colleague, he would see it though, even if it meant plowing his vehicle into the soldier and crushing him like the vermin he was.
His eyes then glanced back to the altimeter, he was ready to bring the vehicle into a nosedive.

Yang meanwhile, got into a wide stance, changing her hand placement on the weapon, going over each moment she had fired the thing, as well as thinking of a back up plan.
I mean, if it gets close enough, I could try using the other weapon…
And if all else fails, I can always resort to Ember Celica, even if they don't work, I can still beat the thing to failure.

The harrowing echo of the craft began to fill the air yet again, the other three men ready to fire their guns.
The familiar purple drawing closer with each passing second, Yang firmly ensuring her feet remained planted in place, she wasn't going to back down this time, her hands steadied the aim of the weapon as she held her breath.
The banshee began to fire its weapons, gases spewing on the edges of the mounted pods, without remorse, the metal where the gases touched warping as a result of the uneven heat.

If Yang could see it, the banshee pilot had tunnel vision as his aim honed in on her, his muscles ready to adjust if she planned on firing her weapon.
As for Yang, she squeezed the trigger, at the same instant, she subtly lowered the angle of the weapon.

*Thwump*

The pilot became slack-jawed as he saw the shape hurtle towards him, the object making a metallic thud against the fuselage of his craft, before he heard and felt the aftermath.

As the banshee violently exploded, Yang ducked again, this time to narrowly avoid the burnt remains of the craft gilded overhead.
While keeping an eye on the destroyed craft, she failed to notice the body of the pilot, skidding along the ground and slamming into her, the lifeless creature now resting atop of the surprised blonde.

She awkwardly tried to push off against the alien, but to no avail.
"Can I get a little help here?"
She called out, though her voice was undoubtedly muffled.

A few seconds ticked by before she could hear the sound of footsteps approaching, she could faintly hear sister's voice above her.
"Alright, on three, one,. two, three."

Yang blinked once or twice before she reached out and felt Weiss' soft hand clasping hers.
And once on her feet again, she looked to see her teammates with somewhat teasing grins on their faces.
"Don't say a word.'

"What? We were just going to say well done on the final kill."
Weiss simply retorted.

Yang then turned back to the banshee pilot and kicked his body, just to make sure.
Afterwhich, she knelt down and picked up the plasma pistol that had become dislodged in the little tumble that happened.

Meanwhile, Deja Vu seemed to wash over Blake as her right ear twitched under her bow, her face becoming serious as she looked to the marines.
"Tell me if you haven't heard me say this before, but… does anyone else hear that?"

Yet again the others strained their ears as they held their breaths.
In the distance they could hear the echoes of gunfire, but this time, it sounded two sided, a war raging without end.

Just as Bisenti was about to make a comment, all five marines heard their radios come to life as they began to receive a wideband transmission, their earpieces starting to play the message.

"This is Major Silva to all UNSC survivors. We are currently in the process of acquiring a suitable position for Alpha Base, the area is currently under Covenant control, however with our numbers we can push them off and claim it.
If anyone is in the area, make your way to our position."

"Whelp, you heard the man.
Looks like we're finally gonna see some action today…" Fitzgerald joked as he already started heading in the direction of the firefight, the waypoint now marked on his eyepiece.

Meanwhile some several kilometers away

Dowski, Swan and Collier's journey back through the path they entered originally was marred by silence, their fate was certain.
By how much?
Well, they could only guess, the only thing that mattered was that the Covenant found them and solely them.
Dowski herself had always been a cynic, and a bullheaded one at that, but in that same breath, she wasn't a completely heartless person.
Hell, she joined the corps after all, if anyone was worth fighting for, it was her family.
But now that they are gone…
"Hey fellas."
She raised her head as she got both men's attention.
"So back there, what you said about wanting to make sure that those you care for back on Earth were safe, did you mean it?"

"Of course."
Swan answered in a somewhat optimistic fashion.

The bumblebee pilot pressed further.
"But do you think that we're going to help in some way?
I mean, we're who knows where, without a ship and nearly a dozen Covenant cruisers in orbit above us- "

At that, Collier interrupted her.
"Dowski, sometimes even the smallest of actions can result in a big change.
You ever ripped a tiny hole in your clothes before?
If it doesn't get patched up while it's small, what happens?"

"Well, it will get bigger."
She hesitantly answered.

The man nodded.
"Right, and what about an avalanche?
All it can take to set one off is just the right amount of snow to make it heavy enough."

Dowski frowned at that.
"I get what you're trying to say.
But, for all we know, in the time it has taken for us to get from Reach to here… what if the Covenant have found Earth and are making it just another ball of glass-"

"Dowksi, I'm going to stop you right there.
Maybe you could be right, that what we're doing here may seem pointless on a grander scale.
Maybe Earth has fallen and the human race is basically extinct."
He paused as he stopped walking waiting for her to turn around so he could continue.
"If any of that were true, why elect yourself to be where you are now?"

She was quiet as she averted her gaze.

Collier didn't let up.
"Because deep down, you know why you chose to be out here.
If there were any slim chance that somehow, by being bait, the Captain can live to command the others, and hence those scattered on this ring can live to fight another day."

Dowski nodded, Collier was right.
All she needed was for someone to say it to her face.
She sighed a breath of relief, but it was caught half way as the trio could hear the scuffle of several footsteps in the distance.

"That's our queue boys."
She whispered between both men.
"Do me a favour and smile and wave when the welcoming committee arrives, okay."
She cautiously began to step forward, unholstering her pistol before flicking the safety off.
No way in hell was she taking any chances.
Then a thought came to her mind, the gears quickly turning.
"Guys, forget the waving, chew me out loud for abandoning the Autumn."

Swan looked lost by what she was asking of them, but Collier caught on, his voice suddenly growing louder.
"How could you be so selfish!
Just straight up abandoning them like that!"

"We didn't have time and you know it!"
She retorted, giving a subtle wink, impressed by the man's impromptu acting skills.
"Those bastards were right on top of us and were going to force their way in had we not left when we did, the less weight the better."

"We're all in this together! Do you even hear yourself right now?"
Swan chimed in, now getting a good idea what the others were doing.

"Well why didn't you wrestle me off of the controls then?
You know just as much as I do that it was suicide to wait…
I mean didn't see what happened to the escape pod behind us?
Completely decimated by their big fu-"
She cut herself off as, sure enough, after a minute or so of walking and 'talking'; they came face to face with five of the split chins, six of the gas guzzling little buggers and four of the bird looking ones.

Dowski and the others held their weapons 'ready to fire', the enemy matching their stance the second the surprise wore off their expressions after running into these humans.

Then, the maroon armoured alien lifted a hand in command of his troops, a sign the marines were well acquainted with, the enemy lowering their weapons.
The same squid head then glanced down at one of the Grunts and growled in his native tongue, prompting the little guy to waddle slightly forward.
After doing so, he looked back up at his commander, who began to talk more, directing his attention squarely on the three, the Grunt beginning to speak when his leader was halfway through what he said.
"Lay down your arms, you are outmatched and outnumbered.
Your days of running have come to an end."

The three held their stance, eyeing each other before slowly lowering to the ground and placing their weapons down, and proceeding to stand back up with their hands in the air.
"Now with that little exercise out of the way, what happens now?"
Dowski sarcastically asked.

"If I were you female, I would save my talking for when I was sure I was not facing certain death."
The grunt answered with a little more glee than she liked.

"You bastards have glassed humans by the billions, death is kinda inevitable with us according to you lot."
Swan simply stated

"Though true, there is some worth in keeping you alive."
The Elite replied through the Grunt before glancing to one of his fellow brothers, who in turn placed a hand against his helmet after being talked to.
"Of course the only reason is to ascertain anything of worth, and from the looks of that escape vehicle, there might be more of you."

"Well…"
She let the silence fill the air, signaling to the Covenant before her she was giving the courtesy to address the one she spoke to by name.

"Pta' Moramee."
The Grunt replied.

"Well Moramee, to save you the trouble, it was only us three.
Those extra footsteps you think you saw were on the account of this one not making his mind up on whether we should stay put or leave."
Dowski then slapped Collier in the back of the head for emphasis.

Moramee's expression seemed akin to surprise, the Grunt glancing back at him as he spoke his native tongue to him.
"That sounds very strange for your kind, when faced with the threat of death, your species tends to band together to fight against our might.
This is especially peculiar when coming from you specifically, has the threat of you own well being hindered your instincts to protect as you would for your young "

"Well first off, if you're insinuating something… just flat out say it rather than recite poetry to make your point. And second, when you're backed in the corner and you see an opening to leave, you take it."
She flatly stated before adding.
"Regardless if you could have saved other people, you take that opportunity and deal with your conscience later.
Either fight and die, or run to live and fight another day"

Moramee stepped forward, brushing the Grunt aside as he stood before the marine.
"An eloquent way of putting it, but still a mark of cowardice."
He then turned to one of his troops.
"Send word to the Truth and Reconciliation for a phantom, tell them we have survivors and need to transport them back for interrogation."
After which, he knelt down and grabbed Dowski's pistol.
"Come, we shall return to a clearing to await transport."

With that the three humans prisoners compiled without hesitation, the escort keeping their weapons trained on them the whole time as they made their way back towards the mouth of the canyon.
One thought plagued Dowski the whole time.
Please don't find the others.

Tis I once again, this chapter coming out more or less the way I wanted it to turn out.

I will note that there will be (hopefully) one more chapter before you may have to wait a while for the next chapter instalment (if my maths is correct, should be during the events of Truth and Reconciliation, and should be out by the year 2552)

As stated massive childhood game remake coming out in exactly two weeks
AGE OF MYTHOLOGY RETOLD the hype is real and so is the wait.
Really advise any of you who love game OST should check out the original- just look up A Cat Name Mittens to begin with, pure epicness

Nothing of note for the last chapter, but with this one; If some may have noticed, Pta' Moramee, now Moramee should sound familiar to some if not all, as Ripa Moramee was the Arbiter we saw during the events of Halo Wars- I'm going to come out and say that yes this is an OC character I made that is a relative of Ripa, nothing super deep, as I want to have a few Sangheili have actual names as it's getting a bit tiresome with simply not... That being said not every named character is going to have a large role.

That being said, onto the reviews:

Monster King:
Your words provide a great instigator to keep it going, thank you.

StarKiller215:
Oh year, I love the mini series they did where it was done with paintbrush and there was the crew mate who got cancer and was like "What the fuck is cancer" forget the name of it, but the man ends up getting himself killed in order for the ship AI to self-destruct the ship to prevent the Covenant from finding Earth's location.

We will see, I plan on adding more substance, but at the same time the games linear style of what goes on will aid how I will set up sequences of certain events.

Oh I get that, but I'm going to float on that idea, you'll understand the next chapter.

Guest:
Ah, well I hope this chapter is a little better formatted, I used a docx file then uploaded it to fan fic, still had to alter it, but not as much as the previous chapter.

Project 0mega:
It has been a while since i have read a review from you.
Oh boy, the Covenant are going to be getting one hell of a wake up call as things move forward, but yeah, I'm doing my best not to try to make them super OP, but RWBY proper doesn't help me gauge when to say enough is enough (looking at you Elm lifting what is basically a wooly mammoth and yeeting it into the air).

On that note, once again I must depart for the realm of sleep for work beckons to me, and sleep is my only salvation to get on with it.

Signing out, Danilyss