Human support fleet
Mayem's Delight
Reth'bek cackled laughter filled the command hall of his ship as the vast majority of the human ships had been destroyed, and assault teams had boarded the prize. A massive foundry ship capable of holding multiple ships in its holds for repairs or stripping them of salvage, he watched as EVA suited members of the other ships under his direct command by the mistress Tau'cha begin their own plunder of the derelicts now that the humans had been destroyed. If nothing else the refined metal of the destroyed ships could be loaded into the most important and essential ship the massive freighter where the mistress resided inside the massive hold of the freighter was the Tertiary Assembly Forge.
Using the forge they had been able to modify not only their ships but the UNSC ships that had disappeared and fallen into the hands of these Colonial humans as well as several Colonial ships completely removing their pitiful weapons in favor of newly manufactured plasma and laser weapons. But doing all that work while in space suits took too much time. Over the last two weeks they had seeded stealth probes in space and monitored the movement of all three fleets when they saw the Dream of Virgon physically scoop up the three fragments of a massive "Battlestar" as well as a pair of small "Firestars" with several tons of other battle debris. It became clear to Mistress Tau'cha they needed a ship large enough to build ships at least equal to the UNSC human ships they had before. These pitiful Colonial ships were barely worth the material they were constructed out of.
As if to prove his point he zoomed in on a space banshee its tag belonging to Mayhem Folly's Flight Master as he watched it attacked a flight of seven Vipers their pathetic cannons not doing much more then scratching the purple nanolaminate the banshee did a end for end flip firing as he maneuvered the plasma cannons flashing the small superheated projectiles burned three of the human fighters like they were made of wood under a bombardment cannon before pursuing the remaining four.
Reth scoffed and looked back to the rest of his ships watching the EVA work, not much more than ships computers were being grabbed to be looked over by the mistress. He leaned back in his command chair.
Aboard pirate Pelican
Tappap pushed his Methane rig to a better position off the angry grey scar on his face and gripped the needler tightly as the pelican came in for a landing on the massive Colonial ship. He was serving the Pirate of his own will after the pirates had rescued him from the disabled hulk of a human ship he was trapped on he still remembered the pompous to use a human insult split lip Sangheili minors word over the communicator:
"You Unggoy aren't worth the time to retrieve. There are trillions of you, the mighty Covenant won't miss a few." The wort wort wort of his laughter was cut off as the line went dead.
Tappap and about five hundred other of his kind and a few Kig-yar had been left behind for almost a week they had lived aboard the human ship using the stores of human Methane fuel as a temporary atmosphere surviving off of not only dead humans and their foodstuffs but as that ran out their own dead the KIgyar were wiped out when they killed and ate three Unggoy.
And then the pirates found them and on the promise of loyal servitude they would be rescued. With no other choice they had accepted only to find themselves at the bottom of the pole again the slightest offence to the KIgyar and they were made into slaves, and put to work shoulder to shoulder with the humans and other species of the covenant.
His mind flashed to the seventy six nipple brothers on the other UNSC ships they had before they went silent. The pelican bucked drew Tappap out of his thoughts as the dropship made a touchdown. The Jackals and other Grunts activated their personal shields as the ramp started to drop.
Just as gunfire erupted the guns just like their ships underpowered Tappap flinched after his shield lit up with dozens of hits and looked down at the redout only ticked down a few notches. The others must have noticed the same thing and simply stood not even bothering with cover and simply gunned down any human they found sweeping room by room and deck by deck.
With the dock space under their control the massive clamshells opened up and the pirate Nemesis's and Firestars who had finished their salvage of intact computer cores docked to add their crews to the monster of a ship within two hours there was less than a thousand humans as prisoners aboard the Dream the human supply ships destroyed and their goal acquired they jumped headed for deep space.
UNSC Able
Picon
Major Conrad Smith sat in the pelican troop bay, his ear open listening to the rest of the allied fleet as they arrived in orbit of Picon space was theirs and the navy had kicked some serious toaster ass but now it was time to retake the surface. And that means the Colonial marines and army and UNSC ODSTs and marines were about to earn their pay.
"Listen up maggots the navy did its job and secured the orbitals now it's time for the fire eaters and leathernecks to join the party so keep your shit tight and watch your fire lanes and lets make some more scrap metal Oorah?"
The fifteen other Marine voices screamed out as one "OOOOOOOORRRRAAAAH!
The interior light turned from green to red and the the seat vibration under him intensified from the small hanger of the Able joining with other pelicans from the Colossus, Hyena, Rushmore, and the Hawaii headed for the massive military town of Perkinston home of the Colonial militaries headquarters while dozens of ODST pods heading to the capital Queenstown.
They were dwarfed by the thousands of Raptors launched from the massive colonial fleet. The Colonials were landing everywhere to reclaim the world for their people.
The full dozen pelicans fell in an orderly formation surrounded by nearly a hundred Vipers to provide escort, heading towards a city almost in the center of the continent through his mono display Smith was linked in with the exterior cameras of the pelican. He watched them break through the dirty brown black cloud floor and see the scared surface.
The more sensitive instruments of the pelicans started screaming warnings as the pilot called out
"Incoming missiles launch flares and chaf…" he was interrupted as the leading flight of Vipers screamed "INCOMING INCOMING FRAKK where….." The lead viper is destroyed as the missile hits its target; the rest of them track in on the countermeasures launched by the pelicans. A dropship off to the right fires an Anvil-ll and the warheads seeker zeros in on the active search parameters of a SAM site and prevents any further launches.
However, before any other SAM sites could open up, alerts started screaming "we have incoming!"
Hundreds of raiders and Vipers take off from the surface and race to prevent any landing.
The majority of the vipers broke to engage, leaving only a handful to guard the dropships. As Major Smith watched dozens of furballs erupted as the two forces met the pelican bucked as it dodged a missile and came in towards the city's outskirts only for machine gun and other double A to open up from the city center
"Pilot put us down here any further is suicide!" the Major said to the pilot who hesitated a moment before throwing a thumbs up.
The pelicans hovered a moment dropping Scorpions and Warthogs before touching down to disembark troops.
The land battle for Picon has started.