Lucia stared at the amassed force in Salina almost like she was about to drop to her knees and kiss the ground they were walking on. Highly-advanced soldiers equipped with nice armor, heavy equipment and even armor and transport vehicles. When she'd dismounted, crossing her arms to her chest and staring at them, she mumbled to herself, "Ay Cabrón, Church… Qué carajo hiciste…?"

"Surprised?" Mason spoke as he walked over to them, watching Lucia shift through like three separate and indiscernible facial expressions before it finally settled on a small smile. He smiled back and nodded, explaining, "These people found us the moment they landed. And before you ask, no, they ain't from the other Continents."

"Damn…" The woman mumbled, staring at them all, "Guess Church really got us an upgrade…" and she watched the Marines carrying some of their wounded over to a medical area. Walking over to it, she was met by the blonde-haired seeming leader as she coordinated the medical staff. She turned to face Lucia, then nodded. Mason watched this from afar, arms crossed.

"You must be these Sci-Fi guys' commander. I'm Lucia Flores, part of the Movement," The girl offered, then extended her hand. The woman visibly relaxed, extending her hand and gripping Lucia's firmly before shaking it. Lucia asked, "You guys come from some super-advanced commune of not-Integrators we missed?"

"Afraid not," The German Lieutenant replied as she straightened up. She spoke, "Lieutenant Erika Schwarz, UNSC Marine Corps," and pointed at herself. She continued, "We're a friendly unit from up above if you can believe it. One that has a plan of action which may need the whole of the Movement to help."

"Well, you'll have to wait for the rest of our bosses to catch up for now," Lucia replied as she looked around the place, noting the destroyed enemy units and the minesweeping being done by these 'UNSC' folk. She blanked, paused, then looked at the Lieutenant and asked, "Wait, up above? As in… Space, or-"

Erika nodded, then showed her to follow toward the command post. Salinas itself was being cleared out nigh completely, with UNSC airpower seemingly keeping the skies clear somehow. Dart-shaped birds flew by, engines roaring as they patrolled the heavens. The woman spoke, "Our small flotilla of support craft arrived here some time ago. We tried making contact when we realized this wasn't our Earth. Radiation readings were still a bit over the norm… So, we landed troops and started seeing the shit that went down here."

"Ha," Lucia snorted, "No joke, amiga. The Wireheads aren't particularly glad to see us moving about… Not since Galveston," and they entered the command building, finding it populated by officers from both sides of the aisle. Church himself sat in front of the table, looking at maps and details as they were being pointed out by another UNSC Officer.

When he saw Lucia and Erika approaching, he perked up, smiling and nodding, "Welcome to our little abode, Lucia."

"Good to see you, Church," The girl smirked, then said, "So, what's the deal? When were you gonna tell us you got Aliens to help us?" and that got a few glares from the Marines around her. She raised her hands defensively, "Alright, alright. Fellow humans… Touch subject much?" to which the former Founders Lieutenant frowned at her, a bit sad.

"Long story short," Erika spoke as she walked over to the table, "Yes… We had a war against aliens that have been burning our worlds for the past 27 years. To sum it up to its bare bones description? We're getting fucked," then she walked over to the table with Lucia and said, "Regardless of that… We have a plan to help you, at least."

Lucia nodded, "Go on…"

Erika looked at Church, who gave his permission, then sighed and walked forward. She pointed at the mountains closest to them and said, "Our objective after securing Salina will be to move down the road west until we enter Colorado Springs… Then, Cheyenne Mountain. Where an actual base can be built and we can deal with organizing the Resistance."

"That's a straight shot through a chunk of contested territory," The woman spoke, leaning over the table, "Lots of possible Founders remnants and maybe even Wireheads all the way through to Colorado Springs…" and she sighed, rubbing her eyes, "How do we know they haven't taken the place over yet?"

"The Digital Storm," Church commented, leaning onto the table. He looked at Erika while Lucia blinked, then explained to her as well, "It's a weapon we used in Galveston… Stunned the life out of the Wireheads and let us deal with them more easily. We're keeping it in the back-line alongside a few of our convoy vehicles just in case we ring the dinner bell for a much larger raid force of Legion's."

Erika hummed, then said, "If you'll allow our techs a look at it, it might help us understand how to replicate and use it," before scratching her chin and stating, "Other than that, you're saying the data from the weapon's code has provided you a pin on the map at that exact same spot? We wanted to go there because it was a defensible position."

"I meant that we'd use it to break through Legion's stranglehold of that area and we'd deal with any Founders trying to stop us if push came to shove," The man replied, then looked at the map as he leaned onto the table, "But yeah… We only just found it, though. The data on board is… Strange to say the least."

"All the more reason for our Eggheads to take a look at it," Erika mumbled, then tapped the Cheyenne complex on the map and said, "This is our best bet if we are to set up a proper, coordinated planetary defense. Cheyenne once housed NORAD, meaning highly-capable communication systems, sensors and possible technology we could use."

"Alright, alright," Lucia raised her hands and said, "You convinced me, amiga. We'll be on a call with the rest of the Resistance to tell'em…"

"Patch it through our ships. Tell the Captain to encrypt it," Erika ordered to one of the communication officers carrying a larger radio. She looked at Church, then said, "Meanwhile, I'll contact the Captains. See if we can't attempt to get in touch with the rest of the world, if there are any survivors…" to which the man nodded. He watched her walk out and draw her weapon.

Lucia spoke awkwardly, "Well, she sure seems nice and friendly," in a mumble. Walking up to Church, she asked, "How'd you even find these people? Space folks with highly-advanced weapons don't-..." She paused and her face turned into a deadpan mask, "... I almost said 'don't fall from the sky', but I have to imagine they fucking did, carajo."

"They landed here," Church spoke calmly, then sighed and said, "Saved our behinds during a firefight against Legion," and he showed her to follow. The rumble of tracks filled their ears and caused them to feel tremors in their chests as they walked out, an Abrams MBT painted in desert camouflage rolling out down the road and toward a defensive position to join several M808 Scorpions.

Lucia told him, "Then, yeah… Damn. You could've called."

"I wanted to," He shrugged, then he crossed his arms as he watched a platoon of Marines load a few of the Legion's Rev Terminators onto the back of a Pelican, all disassembled and with CPUs and batteries removed. Their armor was cracked, servos destroyed and, for some, their bodies had been torn to shreds by the bullets.

One of the Marines picked up a familiar-looking rifle and looked at Church. The Ex-Founder Lieutenant walked forward, stating, "That's one of their plasma rifles, Private. Your eggheads planning on doing anything with this gear and the Wireheads?" to which the rifleman nodded, setting the weapon down beside the corpses, in the Pelican's famed 'Blood Tray'. Church spoke, "If you guys manage to manufacture these things en-masse, I have more than a few people who'd enjoy using them."

"We'll make sure to let HighCom know, sir," The Sergeant behind the Marine replied. He ordered, "C'mon, Novikov. Let's get these things home," before kicking one to make sure it was 'dead' dead. The Marine private boarded the vehicle, giving a nod to Church and Lucia before getting to tying down the machines. He didn't seem to wanna talk much.

Lucia spoke softly, "Poor guy seems traumatized.. Their War must've really taken a toll on them."

"Yeah," The Lieutenant sighed deeply, watching them tie down the machines completely. The hatch to the Pelican's rear closed and the craft powered its engines to maximum, turning its nose up and taking off toward the heavens, dumping flares as it slowly turned into a black dot on a blue sky. He told her, "So, we good?"

"We're good, yeah," She replied, "Though that one Legion unit's still tailing your ass, I think…"

Alex replied calmly, "I figured," before turning to her and adding, "Let's pack and get ready to move the moment HQ arrives. Legion's probably already bearing down on our heads anyways…" as he rallied his comrades in arms. He paused for a second, looking up as more engines droned on overhead. He saw more dropships swing in, delivering more armor to the ground that they'd need for their push into Colorado.

He and Lucia exchanged a glance, nodded to one-another, then walked to their respective vehicles. The young woman herself saw Mason talking to a few of the UNSC's Marines as they prepared to move out, then pointed at the motor pool where the superweapon they'd used at Galveston was still waiting on board a HEMTT.

The man turned toward her as soon as he heard her walking forward, then asked, "El-Tee already getting us to uproot?" and he got a laugh out of Lucia at that. He continued, "Yeah, the guy and the UNSC's El-Tee don't really wanna let us rest on our laurels for too long. Their aircraft reported Legion scout units moving out toward us."

"Christ, the Legion sounds like it's the one not wanting us to rest," The girl mumbled as she scratched her cheek. They walked forward, toward a Humvee in the Motor Pool, then stopped by it. She looked around, watching the UNSC mill about and exchange small-talk with Movement and other troops. She said, "... This feels too fucking convenient."

"You're tellin' me," Mason mumbled, "I know they say not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but this is somethin' else," and he watched a Pelican land right by the Motor Pool, deploying an armored transport truck of the UNSC's own making. He went on to add, "There's nothin' I'd like more than to figure out how these people got up today and thought 'let's help a fledgling Resistance fight a bunch'a chrome domes'..."

Lucia chuckled, "You heard them mentioning their war, Sarj," and she motioned to one of them, who had visible burn scars and battle damage on his armor as he walked past them, "You can't tell me they were lyin'. The damage looks like Plasma on some of-" only to pause as she saw a second with glowing purple shards of some kind of crystal in one of his wounds. He tipped his helmet to them as he walked past.

"Christ," Mumbled Mason, "Talk about nasty injuries. How the hell haven't we seen any of'em walking in?"

"Too busy shooting, I'll assume," The girl replied. She tilted her head to the truck as the chop-chop of a Black Hawk's rotor blades filled the air. A DAP Blackhawk, the Direct Action Penetrator, or the Armed Black Hawk, approached under the escort of a pair of UNSC light gunships, twin engine VTOL craft with HMGs and missile launcher pods.

As the helicopter touched down and its two escorting craft, 'Hornets', hovered overhead, Lieutenants Church and Schwarz stepped out to meet the woman in charge of the Movement and one of the leading founding members of the Resistance. The two snapped salutes which she replied to rather awkwardly, before starting to chat them up just as Mason got into the truck with his team.

Manning the gun, Lucia watched the pair talking. She said, "Oughta be interesting to see what the Boss Lady thinks of the Cheyenne idea…" in a murmur. She turned to the gun and checked it over, keeping one eye on the discussion. Though she was gesticulating rather heavily, Commander Jessica Kidd seemed rather open…

Indeed, she spoke rather fondly, "... And the next thing I know, forward OPs tell me we've got new friends coming down from the heavens," all while grinning. She looked at Erika, pointed at her and said, "You bastards came in just in time… War's been getting hotter and hotter," as she watched the UNSC's vehicles join the Resistance's own.

Erika spoke, "We're glad we could help fellow humans, ma'am…"

Jessica replied, "We'll follow you to Cheyenne. Setting up an actual base of operations somewhere nice and defensible sounds good," then she looked above, watching a pair of UNSC Fighters swing in low and fast. One detached a missile as the radio crackled to life. She listened in, watching the missile trail behind buildings, then spoke, "All units, prep to move out. Combat formation… We're punching out to Cheyenne…"

"Let's get to our victors, then," Erika spoke. She nodded to Church and told him, "Heads up, Lieutenant. We might have a lot of incoming in the next few minutes," before she marched over toward one of the heavier UNSC transports and mounted up. Their tanks, the Scorpions, rolled forward, with even a new variant, carrying four forty millimeter autocannons meant for AA work, swiveling about and preparing to fire.

As the crews and infantry boarded their vehicles and formed the convoy on the road, Mason watched the first enemy gunships crest the horizon, being harassed by the UNSC's fighters. The distant roar of gunfire echoed all the way to the edge of Salina as the fighters ripped through the Rev Gunships. Plasma bolts were the return fire, the gunships flying erratically to try and dodge the shots.

A Marine appeared out of the side of one of their transports with a two-barrel rocket launcher, a Spanker or 'Jackhammer' as they called them, aiming it and waiting for some sort of lock-on system to pick out the targets. When it did, two missiles streaked out from the tubes, rocket motors roaring to life as they flew out.

Church watched the air battle from his vehicle, surprised by the sight of actual allied aircraft dealing with the enemy in ways that their normal CAS aircraft couldn't even hope to achieve. He blinked, however, when dust clouds rose from below. He picked up his radio transmitter and spoke, "All units, be advised:Legion ground force on approach from the North, same direction as those gunships-"

He got cut off by three of the present Scorpions swiveling their main guns around and letting loose. 120mm rounds ripped through the air between them and the Legion, discarding their plastic sabot sleeves and zipping forward. The first two rounds struck a Legion tank dead-center, ripping its internals out through its back.

The third, a high-explosive round, hit a lightly-armored Hunter unit transport, peeling it open like a can of soda. Their own Abrams soon traversed its own turret and fired on the move, the dust kicked up by the four MBTs firing their guns almost acting like a smoke-screen. Erika's voice soon boomed over the radio, "Convoy, halt. Command vehicles, take cover in defilade on the left. Troops, dismount and engage. Those things'll hit us anyway… Might as well be arrayed in a combat formation."

Affirmative replies filled the com, with Church confirming to his driver. The transports rolled off to the side, Bradley guns and tank turrets soon being the only thing poking out as the infantry jumped out of their combat vehicles and formed up on the berm that the road they were travelling on was on. The tanks fired again, supported by the Paladin artillery and the makeshift Movement-made gun platforms.

The Legion spread out their formation as the UNSC fighters started harassing them with 30mm cannons, some even firing back and up at the craft, forcing them to wave off their gun-runs and fly away back toward the safety of the clouds. Legion SAMs started targeting them, but flares and chaff seemed to be useful in the future, still.

Church jumped out of his transport, hefting his own XM7 rifle and climbing up beside the UNSC, ex-Founder and Movement infantry. Tanks fired again. Two missed, but a third caught an enemy Hunter transport dead center, gouts of flames spewing out of the holes as the vehicle careened and rolled over, its CPU fried.

Other Hunter transports soon deployed their payload:Rev-6 Terminator units and Wolfpacks jumped out, the latter immediately surging out from the vehicles and charging the combined force. Church and Erika both barked out, "FIRE AT WILL!" as the machines drew closer. Rippling thunder filled the air as machine-guns, rifles and anti-materiel weapons opened up.

The Legion's war dogs fired their own plasma turrets at the forces. A few of the Resistance troops flinched at the bursts of superheated ionized gas, but Church watched Erika and her men not even crouch as they returned fire. She aimed each burst she fired carefully, catching three quadrupedal mechs with three bursts and sending them to the scrapyard.

Her comrades, meanwhile, fired and ducked, fired and ducked. Bursts of automatic fire intermixing with the loud crack-pop of their anti-materiel Snipers and the thundercrack of the Bushmasters, 120mm cannons and their own railgun Sherman. It was honestly sort of amazing to watch another unit be more… Founder-like.

He shook off the surprise and coordinated his squad, having their SMAW carrier aim and take out the next closest Legion tank with a well-placed shot while he and the rest of the team continued firing their own weapons. The man saw a crack in the Legion's 'side armor', their flank being exposed. He radioed, "Big Bob, we must have pissed them off! Take two UNSC tanks and flank the bastards! Their side's exposed!"

"Sir," The commander of the Bradley replied. Erika gave an approving thumbs up to Church, never taking her hand off the grip of her rifle as she fired, focused. The autocannon on the Bradley began to bark as it climbed the incline. The two tanks behind it followed and fired with their 12,7mm coaxial MGs. Their cannons roared two seconds later as they, the Bradley and two platoons of Anti-Tank infantry slammed into the Legion's side, Jackhammer missiles streaking into the enemy's armor alongside SMAWs and Javelins.

A Legion spider-tank saw them, turning its turret-head and locking onto the infantry. Its twin 25mm autocannons began to chug, ripping through one of the platoons. Blood sprayed on the sand as the high-caliber rounds tore through the infantry and even struck the front armor of Big Bob. Thankfully, it seemed to be loaded with HE shells…

One of the platoons was cut down to three men, but they were still fighting, pushing up behind the armor. One of the two Scorpions let their main gun speak, ripping the head off the Spider Tank with a round that still had enough momentum after to blow up a Hunter transport and several Rev-6 units that were trying to turn and engage them with heavy plasma guns.

A few of the Revs advanced up to the berm, even as their units were getting cut down around them. They climbed, taking bullets from all sides. Some collapsed, pierced by 7,62mm AP rounds, while others continued advancing, firing into the infantry taking cover… Erika sprung up from her cover, putting the barrel of her pistol into the chin of one and blasting its head and CPU clean off.

She kicked the corpse down, feeling the hit reverberate through her bones as she ducked back into cover, dodging a volley of incredibly hot plasma while firing her rifle into the crowd of monsters. She and Church both stood up, guiding their troops to move back for the transports in a fire-and-maneuver operation, all while their gun trucks and Humvees lit up the upper area of the berm with fifty-cals and autocannons.

A few troops, both Resistance and UNSC, were cut down, but the rebuttal was harsher on the Legion. Overhead, Pelican gunships swiveled in alongside the Black Hawk DAP, firing missiles and guns. HEAT missiles struck the Legion's heavy tracked combat vehicles, their spiders and infantry. On the ground, meanwhile, Erika slammed the butt of her rifle into another machine, sending it staggering back, then filled it with lead.

Church was right next to her, scoping in and popping heads off from the Terminators trying to advance on them. The two Fighters swung back down, firing their 30mm cannons into the crowd of Legion units while the allied forces pincered them. Even with the losses sustained, the troops managed to take out the Legion's advance force…

As the last tin can tried to crawl away, its body split in half by the missiles, Erika pinned it down with her boot and shot three fifty-cal pistol slugs into its back, watching it stiffen up, then fall limp. Sighing deeply, she reloaded both her rifle and pistol and wiped the sweat off her brow before looking at Church and Commander Kidd.

The leader of the Movement nodded approvingly, stating, "Picked up one hell of a reinforcement…" as she looked around that the makeshift scrap-heap that had formed on and next to the Road to Cheyenne. She lifted up her radio and spoke, "This is Commander Kidd to all Resistance units in the AO. Legion attack force dealt with. Reform your convoys and meet us at Colorado Springs."

The UNSC Lieutenant walked to them and said, "As usual, Lieutenant. Good shooting," as she climbed onto a UNSC 'Saddleback', a Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected vehicle. She picked up a transmitter and called their command, while Church turned around and watched the Marines retrieve their and the Resistance's dead, gently placing them together, away from the Machines, so they could be given proper burials.

As the convoy reformed and the troops boarded their vehicles, Alex couldn't help but feel a bit off about the losses. He'd always been taught to save lives at the cost of everything else by Major Stevens. And with how bad the population situation must've been for the UNSC, this felt all the worse. They were back to facing plasma weapons again.

They didn't seem too put off about it, though. Must've been just another day at the office, he thought to himself. He picked up the radio and thought about saying some sort of comforting words to the Lieutenant, but he sighed, grip tightening on the transmitter. He set it down, leaned back into his seat and listened to the familiar noise of engines as they rolled down the destroyed Old World Road, leaving behind a mess of parts for whoever wanted to come and retrieve them.

Their fighters banked up and powered their engines to exit the atmosphere, leaving behind trails of smoke as they did so, their sounds growing ever more distant. Meanwhile, the Pelicans and the Black Hawk continued to provide them the air escort necessary to defeat any possible Legion attack on their way. They'd take a pit stop at a town further down the road again, to rearm, resupply and get some rest before they moved to Cheyenne. Some of the tanks would need repairs, too, considering the damage visible on them.

Hell, their Abrams took a bit of a beating, too. And going by the vehicle count, they were down a Stryker. One less transport to use, but Legion had also lost quite a few resources trying to take them down, so that might as well have been scratched off as a win. Even if the bastards could mass-produce more units…