July 26, 2552, 11:26 Hours.
Around two days later, the Covenant's invasion of Reach was in full swing. Currently Noble team was dispatched to ONI sword base and was to assist in repelling the invading Covenant force from the ground as due to the sensitive nature of the facility, orbital rounds were prohibited.
"Be advised, Kilo-Three-Three and Kilo-Three-Four, your current LZ is too hot." ONI sword control stated forcing Noble team to deploy elsewhere.
"Roger that. Dot, standby to receive and respond." Carter said to Noble team's AI, Auntie Dot. Just then the attacking Covenant corvette came into view. Seth saw that they were a few hundred meters shorter than one of his Star Destroyer, but according to UNSC reports, Covenant ships have extremely powerful shields and it takes about 2-3 Mach rounds to cause damage to the ships. Just then Dot received the data from ONI
"Yes, Commander... Coordinates received. Initiate immediate course correction. The Office of Naval Intelligence Sword Base is presently under siege from a corvette-class Covenant vessel. Due to the sensitive nature of this facility, use of orbital rounds has been, for the moment, prohibited. Regrettably, my efforts to obtain relevant data on enemy forces have been unsuccessful. However, current defensive forces are insufficient. ONI has requested Team Noble's direct intervention to help secure Sword Base."
"Alright, people, we're stuck with that ship for the time being. Let's focus on the hostile infantry - give those troopers a hand." Carter stated as Noble team prepared for battle.
"Kat, Six - you're out here. Jorge, Emile - you're next, get prepped." Carter stated as Seth and Kat got off the Falcon.
"Let's move, Lieutenant."
"Yes ma'am." Seth responded as the two took up arms against the invading aliens forces. He was given an Assault rifle and a DMR. Noble two and six made their way throughout the courtyard not allowing any Covenant to flee, showing to the alien that they were worthy of the title of Demon they gave all Spartans. After clearing out the Covenant, Kat and Seth made their way towards the main gate. There Kat noticed that there was a Target Locator.
"Sword Control, I see a Target Locator. Any artillery support in the area?"
"Limited, but we'll prioritize whatever you need, ma'am." Seth took the Target Locator and put the DMR down. After witnessing a UNSC warthog filled with Marines get attacked by two Wraiths tanks. Seth called in a Missiles salvo attack on the two Wraiths using the Target Locator and watched as they were vaporized from the attack. As Seth, Kat and some Marines cleared out the remaining Covenant soon a pelican with a warthog equipped with a Gatling gun arrived. Seth, Kat and a Marine took to the Warthog and were now tasked with two objectives. The first was to restore the comms array and the second was to get a AA gun back online, to help clear the skies.
After completing the two objectives, Kat and Seth regrouped with the rest of Noble team who were protecting Sword Base from the covenant who breached the defenses. Once inside Noble team, minus Emile, along with the rest of the UNSC forces, fought back against the Covenant. Suddenly the entire building began to shake from an attack. The Corvette was bombarding the base.
"Corvette's gonna eat this base apart. What's the situation, Noble?" Sword control asked.
"Can't do this on my own! Need another Spartan up here!" Emile yelled over the com link.
"Six, get to the top floor and assist Emile." Carter ordered as he and the others were busy. He ordered Jorge to accompany him. The two Spartans fought through the Covenant, but Seth swore for every single one of the damn aliens he killed, three took its place. He was running out of bullets. Eventually that did happen, and Seth was forced to bring out his two purple lightsabers. While avoiding fire, Seth sliced and diced his way towards Emile, who was relieved when he the two friendly Spartan. He was momentarily startled when Seth charged at him with a sword made of plasma.
"Emile, duck!" Seth yelled and without thinking, Noble four duck and Seth struck down an Elite that was using an active camouflage.
"Guess I owe you." Emile said as the two began to open fire on the Covenant Banshees surrounding Sword Base. Once they were clear Emile informed Sword command.
"Yeah, clear. That's the way we get it done, Spartan! Clear."
"Noble Team, Longswords are inbound and ready to push. Orbital defense is standing by to take the shot."
Two UNSC Longswords flied towards the Covenant corvette, which was attempting to flee. Seth watched as the Longswords followed the Corvette, till they broke off and the Corvette was struck by a MAC round. The Covenant Corvette began to sink and headed straight for the lake it was flying over.
"Beautiful, ain't it? Someone should take a picture." Jorge said as Seth and he watched the ship go down.
"Nice work, by the way." Jorge said to his still new teammate.
"I aim to please." Seth said to Jorge as he continued to watch the Covenant ship burn.
"Five, Six... Get down to the science wing. Doctor Halsey wants a debrief, and Command's saying we're all hers." Carter said over the Com-link.
"Repeat? Sounded like you said 'Halsey'." Jorge said to the leader of Noble. This peaked Seth's interest as he could finally see what type of person, Dr. Catherine Halsey, the woman that ripped 75 innocent children from their loving home and turned them into super soldiers for the UNSC.
"I did." Carter said to Jorge confirming they were to meet with Hasley.
"Copy that, on our way. Don't need Command to tell me... Been all hers half me life." Jorge said as Seth was slightly confused. He sensed joy coming from the Spartan when he heard that they were going to meet Halsey. The two Spartan moved towards the science wing of the base and saw the rest of Noble speaking with Halsey.
"I requested your assistance, Commander, and do not need a report on events that occur on my own doorstep. What I do require is a detailed account of your previous engagement—" Halsey stopped when she noticed Jorge walking in.
"Jorge. It's been too long." The doctor took a pregnant pause as she looked towards the newest member of Noble Team. "You happen to be quiet young." Halsey said as she took note of Seth as he removed his helmet. His young appearance seemed to surprise the other members of Noble.
"I know I have a baby face." Seth said to Halsey.
"Indeed. Visegrád Relay. Its data center was home to one of my xeno-archaeologists, Professor Laszlo Sorvad. Perhaps you could shed some light on his death." Halsey said getting back on track.
"If he was a civilian male in his mid-sixties, he died with a Covenant Energy Sword through his abdomen." Carter said.
"Elites, then."
"They engaged us as well. It was just, uh... just after we found your scientist's daughter, ma'am. She was hiding in the, uh-" Jorge said but was interrupted by Halsey.
"Irrelevant. The Elites. Tell me more about them."
"Three. Zealot class. One got by us. The leader, from the looks of him."
"Zealots? You're certain?" Halsey asked for certainty.
"Their armor configuration matched."
"Shield strength, too." Seth added.
"I gave the order not to pursue. Our primary objective was to get the station's relay back online." Carter stated.
"Your primary objective? Commander, are you a puppet or a Spartan?" Now all of Noble was staring at Hasley. Seth would sense that Emile didn't take too kindly to that comment.
"Ma'am?" Carter responded.
"There are those at ONI, myself included, who believe the Covenant dispatch Elite advance teams to hunt down artifacts of value to their religion. Survivor accounts suggest such teams are small, nimble, and almost always Zealot-class. No doubt they came to the station for the abundance of ONI excavation data stored there... And you let them get away."
"Data retrieval was not a command directive. Even had we known, we had other, more urgent matters to attend to."
"Like warning the planet." Kat stated.
"Professor Sorvad's final entry in his field notes made reference to 'a latchkey discovery'. Latchkey... Not a word he would use lightly. So let's hope that the data module your Lieutenant Commander stole... contains it." Immediately Carter looked towards Kat.
"Kat?" The leader of Noble team said as said Spartan walked up to the glass barrier and placed the data module inside a container.
"Before you ask, I was alerted the moment you attempted to access its contents, as I am with any unauthorized tap. That data is classified Tier One... I could send you to the brig for interfering with my work." Dr. Halsey threaten Noble two.
"Maybe you'd like to join her." Carter said to the professor.
"...I'm sorry?"
"We're currently under emergency planetary directive, WINTER CONTINGENCY. I'm sure you're familiar with the punishment for civilian interference with a Spartan deployment."
"Are you threatening me, Commander?"
"Just making a reading suggestion, ma'am."
"Let's move, Noble Team." Carter said as he put back on his helmet.
"Ma'am?" Jorge said one last time.
"That... will be all, Jorge."
Seth was able to get a reading on Halsey with the force and could sense displeasure when she looked at the Spartan III's and himself, but strangely, she felt joy and pride when she looked at Jorge, but she was able to hide her body language. She felt what Chiharu felt when she looked at him. A mother's affection. Seth wanted to spend more time in their so he could peer into her mind with the force, but duty called.
August 11th 2552
Seth and Noble 3, Jun conducted a recon mission toward an area of high covenant activity and discovered a landing site for a full scale invasion of Reach. After reporting their findings, UNSC devises a plan to assault the Covenant forces before they have a chance to attack the planet Reach. A massive assault force is formed.
Szurdok Ridge, Ütközet August 12, 2552 08:00 Hours.
A massive convoy of Scorpions, Warthogs, several Mongooses along with several Falcons and two Pelicans charged towards the Covenant forces.
"Give me the sitrep Dot." Carter ordered.
"It appears that Noble Team's discovery last night was not an anomaly. Large Covenant deployments have occurred undetected, and we are now under attack across the Viery territory, including orbital defenses. As per the Winter Contingency, we are countering on every front. Noble's reconnaissance has also identified sophisticated Covenant army hiding canopies, and has been pinpointed what's believed to be a landing zone for additional Covenant forces, the origin of which is yet to be determined."
Kat and Seth were riding in a Warthog together leading the charge. Seth in shotgun with a special UNSC grenade launcher in his hand. While the M319 Individual Grenade Launcher was like most grenade launchers, it also had a slight EMP effect with every blast from the small device.
"That landing zone has been tagged by UNSC command as a Priority One target." Carter said from his Falcon that was flying close by to Noble Two and Six.
"Det-charge link is loud and clear!" Jun said in regards to the explosive charges that Seth and He had placed last night on their mission the night before/this morning.
"Time to bake that cake we made last night!" Jun stated as they were getting close to the Covenant forces.
"Copy that. Acquiring signal lock on the pylon. Detonating in three, two..." Kat pressed down on the detonator and a massive explosion engulfed the Covenant pylon that the two Spartan had planted the explosives on. Now the Covenant forces began to attack the UNSC forces. Seth and Kat inside their Warthog began to swerve as Banshees and Wraiths rained down plasma on them. As they approached a bridge, a mortar round struck said bridge, destroying it. Unfortunately, they were going too fast to stop in time.
"Might want to hold onto something!" Kat shouted as the Warthog attempted the jump. The Warthog manages to jump the gap in the destroyed bridge, but crashes violently on the other side, killing the gunner and sending the two Spartans flying.
Seth became slightly dizzy from the crash, but he soon recovered. Seth looked back to the destroyed bridge, and saw a second Warthog attempt the same jump, but failing, dooming its crew.
"Six! Can you hear me? Six, you alright? I could use some help!" Kat said to the down Spartan.
"On my way." Seth said as he grabbed his grenade launcher and fired in between two incoming Banshees. He detonated the grenade, unleashing an EMP blast, shutting down the Covenant aircraft, sending them plummeting down into the ground.
"Kat, Six, what's your status?" Carter said over the com-link.
"Pylons are down, we're pushing up the hill." As Seth and Kat fought through the hordes of Covenant that were firing on them, they received new orders.
"Kat, be advised: ONI has identified two hostile anti-aircraft guns southwest of your location." Carter said to the two-man squad.
"Copy, Commander. New target, Six. Shut down those AA guns. Commandeer that Warthog, get us there in one piece." After Seth and Kat destroyed the AA guns, restoring Air support, they split up. Seth got aboard a grenade launcher variant of the normal Falcon along with Jorge and began to destroy as many Covenant forces as they could. The duo soon arrived near a spire that ONI wanted info about. The pilot flew near the spire, but was hesitant to go inside.
"Priority One, pilot. Gotta know what's in there." Jorge stated.
"Affirmative, sir... Here we go." The pilot flew the Falcon into the shields protecting the spire, and lost all power to the Falcon.
"We just lost all power! We're going down!" The pilot stated over the com-link.
"Lock your armor, Spartan!" Jorge warned Seth as the Falcon came down. Blaze immediately locked down Seth's armor. As the Falcon was falling, Seth closed his eyes behind his visor and used the force, to guide the Falcon so it wouldn't have as hard of a landing.
The landing was rough, but the Spartans and the pilot survived, but the pilot was injured. If he didn't receive medical attention, he wasn't going to make it.
"I'm showing hostiles all over the place, we gotta move." Jorge stated.
"We can't! The pilot won't survive out here by himself!" Seth stated.
"Noble two, six, you have to continue the mission." Carter stated over the com-link.
"Jorge, take him, I'll continue on my own."
"You're a Spartan, but not invincible, you'll never survive alone."
"Jorge I need you to trust me on this. I refuse to leave this man behind." Seth stated.
"You better not die on me." Jorge said as he grabbed the injured pilot and moved outside of the spires energy shield so a medical extract could be done.
Seth quickly rushed towards the defending Covenant forces. He came across a group of grunts all firing their plasma pistols at the Spartan. Seth ignited his two purple lightsabers and began to deflect the incoming rounds of plasma. One of the grunts charged his plasma pistol in an attempt to drain the Spartan's energy shields. Seth saw this and noticed a banshee flying down towards him. The grunt fired the charged shot and it soon made contact with the purple blade of plasma, but it soon changed its heading and became sky bound. The covenant banshee that was about to rain down a barrage of plasma soon lost all power as the green sphere of plasma made contact with the purple exterior.
The banshee fell from the sky and as all hope seemed lost for the pilot, the banshee's electric systems came back online, but the elite soon felt his banshee shake as Seth leaped from ground, using the force to enhance his already augmented abilities, and grabbed onto the low flying banshee. The Elite pilot attempted to shake the Spartan off of his banshee, but Seth ripped open the banshee and used the force to pull the Elite out of the cockpit and took his place.
It took the Je'daii a few minutes, but he got a hang of the controls the banshee had. He quickly began to deplete the ammunition the banshee had before making his way towards the spire. After landing at the top of the spire, Seth fought his way to the control panel. He encountered an Elite zealot that pulled out an energy sword, but was quickly taken care of by a purple blade of plasma. He took to the control panel and turned off the spire's energy shield.
"The spire's shields are offline." Seth reported to UNSC command.
"Great work Spartan. Transportation will arrive shortly." Soon enough Carter and Jorge arrived in a falcon and picked up the lone Spartan.
"Control? This is Noble One. Spire One is green, and you're free to engage. Have a nice day." Carter said, giving the green light to the UNSC frigate Grafton to unleash its full fury.
"Copy that, Noble One. Be advised, all ground units: Frigate Three-One-Eight heavy is inbound, and MAC rounds have been authorized." Control stated giving everyone in the falcon a small moment of shock.
"MAC rounds? In atmosphere?"
"One way to get their attention! Hang on to your teeth, people!" Soon the UNSC frigate Grafton appeared and soon set her sights on the spire. As the MAC gun came to live, Seth felt something was wrong. Very wrong. Soon after the MAC gun fired, UNSC Grafton was hit by a beam of plasma. Seth and the others in the Falcon looked up in the sky and were horrified at what they saw. In the sky was a Covenant Supercarrier. Behind his mask, Seth's mouth was agape. This was the biggest starship he's ever seen.
"Blaze how long is that ship?"
"UNSC records show that Covenant supercarriers are nearly 29 kilometers long." Blaze stated as she too was in shock.
"No. No! Somebody tell me this ain't happening!" Jorge stated.
"UNSC frigate Grafton, do you copy?" UNSC command stated
"Grafton is dust! We need to get out of here, now!" The Flacon quickly fled the battlefield.
August 14th 2552
Three days later, the situation on Reach had deteriorated from bad to worse. The Invasion of Reach was getting worst by the second. With very little options left, Kat suggested using the Sabre, a secret Starfighter program by ONI and the usage of a slip space drive to create a makeshift bomb to destroy the covenant supercarrier. However, no one on the team had any experience with the program and the only one that could possible pilot the Sabre was a Spartan only known by the identification SPARTAN-B312, but he was currently under the direct command of ONI and would most likely be unable to assist them.
Seth also informed (He lied) about a secret program he was in for a mechanical exoskeleton that could operate and fight in space, that would be helpful in this situation, but was located in a different base. With their resources limited, Carter placed both request through to ONI to see which operation would commence.
To the surprise of the leader of Noble team, both operation were approved. Nobles One through Five would assist B312 in assaulting the Sabre research and development center, while Noble six was to retrieve the exoskeletons mecha suits with a Team of ODST with the call sign Alpha-nine.
A few hours later.
As Noble team, minus Noble six, were arriving on the beach near the research center, Seth and his team of ODSTs, Alpha-nine, arrived at the base the Spartan IIs once called home. Seth had [B.L.A.Z.E.] and [F.L.A.M.E.] undergo some upgrades. [B.L.A.Z.E.]'s upgrades were mostly minor things, but [F.L.A.M.E.] was gaining two new weapon systems. The first was a plasma grenade launcher, which were plasma grenades that when they made contact with the target, stuck onto the surface of said target, until it exploded.
The second upgrade was that she was getting rid of her Railguns/particle cannons, for Gauss/particle cannons. However, the more correct term for [F.L.A.M.E]'s new cannons would be miniaturized M.A.C. guns as they had significantly more firepower than the Gauss cannons on a Warthog. With the Marker inside of Seth, an infinite power source, the Miniaturized M.A.C. guns could, in theory, surpass the firepower of most of the UNSC's naval ships.
Seth along with the ODSTs of Alpha-nine touchdown in a nearby field and hiked their way to the base, which was now crawling with Covenant, thanks to Seth forgetting to turn the security back on when he left, so they took it without the UNSC and ONI realizing. Seth was equipped with two SMGs and his lightsabers. The plan simple. Shoot anything that isn't human, and if it's still moving, shoot it again.
"Buck, are your men ready?" Seth asked Alpha-nine's leader Edward Buck.
"Were good to go whenever you are, sir." Buck replied. Buck looked towards the other member of Alpha-nine, which consisted of Taylor Edwards aka Dutch, Michael Crespo aka Mickey, and Kojo Agu aka Romeo.
"Let do this." Seth brought out one of his lightsabers and cut a hole for the team to enter. Once the hole was cut, the strike team entered the facility. The group's first objective was to make their way to the security control center, and get the base's internal defenses back online, once that was completed, they would head towards the location where the exoskeletons were located.
As the group silently made their way through the base, killing a few unfortunate grunts along the way, they finally made it towards the security room. After gaining the activation codes from ONI, the internal defense network of the base came back to life. Soon Seth and Alpha-nine heard the sounds of gunfire and plasma rounds going on. Which was shortly followed by in human screams of pain. Mostly from the Unggoy.
"I say the plan is going smoothly." Dutch stated as he brought out a M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle, aka a Spartan Laser.
"Isn't that a little bit overkill?" Romeo asked. Dutch laughed as he primed the weapon. The other ODST's along with Seth readied their weapons and entered the crazed battlefield.
The base was very open in some area, while very compact in others, meaning the strike team had to be very flexible, which they were. Seth was currently engaging a Hunter the Covenant dropped off. He was firing an eight gage shotgun at the damn thing, but it was a bullet sponge. The Hunter brought up its Assault Cannon and fired a round towards the Spartan, but Seth easily avoid shot. He was able to toss a plasma grenade onto the back of the Hunter causing it's protect armor plating on its back to fall off.
"Now!" Seth yelled as the enraged Hunter charged towards Seth attempting to crush him. He was acting as a distraction as the rest of his team unleashed a hailstorm of bullets towards the back of the Hunter. It didn't take long for the Mgalekgolo to fall on the floor dead, but the group didn't have luxury of time to celebrate their kill as more Covenant appeared, and were already firing on the group.
That was when Seth thought of an idea. He noticed the Hunter's assault cannon still had ammo inside of it. He rushed towards the arm cannon of the Hunter amidst the plasma and bullets. He used his superhuman strength and ripped the Assault cannon off. He primed the weapon system and pointed the heavily weapon towards the Covenant. The grunts ran in terror after their commanding Elites were liquefied by the powerful Covenant weapon in the hands of Spartan 121. Seth continued to use weapon until he depleted all the ammo, but by that time, the strike team had made it toward their objective.
Seth punched in the access code provided to them by ONI and gained access to the hidden hanger in the building, inside the strike team found to mechanical exoskeletons with the word UNSC on the units. Seth touched the two upgraded IS units and found himself inside of [F.L.A.M.E.]. The Spartan led the charge towards the outside of the base so Alpha-nine could be extracted by a pelican while he would head towards space.
As Seth and ODSTs fought their way towards the base with the assistance of [F.L.A.M.E.]'s weapon systems. He was really liking the plasma grenade launchers. The blue spheres of death had lock on feature and followed the poor Covenant that were unfortunate enough to get in the crosshairs of [F.L.A.M.E.]'s weapon systems. With Seth going on a rampage it didn't take long for the group to each the open courtyard of the base, but before the strike force could contact the pelican a covenant carrier arrived and along with it a Covenant Scarab dropped down. Seth was about to open on the Scarab with [F.L.A.M.E.] particle beams, but she started powering up her [M.A.C] guns.
"Flame?" Seth asked.
"Watch this master." The demoness stated as she charged her cannons to 10% and fired on the scarab. The Covenant quad walker was penetrated by the high velocity round and fell to the ground before it exploded.
"That was ten percent?" Seth said in slight shock at the power [F.L.A.M.E.] was equipped with.
"Let's test out 100%!" Flame stated as she aimed towards the carrier.
"Buck! You guys should find cover!" Seth stated over the com-link. It wasn't long until Buck learned why. The Covenant carrier was charging up its massive plasma weapon system used for glassing planets, but Buck saw that the Spartan was also charging up an attack. Flame fired at the Covenant carrier and the rounds were too fast for the eye to see, but the effect were not. The covenant carrier exposed as the [M.A.C.] rounds ripped the ship apart.
"Command skies are clear. Send in the bird." Seth ask as she switched to [B.L.A.Z.E.] and headed towards the orbital defense platform.
A little later on.
At The Orbital repair platform, known as Anchor 9, Seth was joined by a few Sabre Starfighters with one containing Spartan B312 and Jorge. B312 introduced himself as Matt. The Spartan II got off the Sabre once it landed inside the station and began work to get Slipspace drive onto a pelican, that would be their makeshift bomb. The slipspace drive was donated by the UNSC Savannah but was exposed as the drive was being removed from the ship. The plan was to get the slipspace drive onto a covenant corvette that was going to refuel with the Supercarrier and cause a rupture in slipspace that would tear the ship apart, saving reach.
However, the group had one more objective to complete before the plan could be started. The defenses of anchor 9 were offline and needed to be protected while the repair crews worked to get the defenses online. It wasn't long till the Covenant launched their Starfighters and attacked the orbital platform. Before being given an order, Seth was unleashing a barrage of plasma from [B.L.A.Z.E.]'s miniguns. The plasma rounds easily ripped through the energy shields the covenant starships had and continued lock onto new targets as they appeared.
Seth saw that two Banshee and a Phantom had broken through the line of defense. They were currently making their way towards the station. Seth activated Trans-Am and rush towards the Covenant. The Spartan brought out one of [B.L.A.Z.E.]'s energy blades and slashed one of the Banshees clearly in half and fired an energy beam at the second one. The Phantom was about to fire on a group of engineers, that were working on the exterior of the defense platform, when it was blasted by two blue beams of energy. Seth saw that one of the Sabre Starfighters was being tailed by two Seraph Starfighter and it's shields just went down.
The pilot of the Sabre tried to shake off his pursuers, but that was proving to be two difficult. He thought his time had come, when his Starfighter was covered by an unknown energy shield. Seth had launched [B.L.A.Z.E.]'s bits and used them to create a barrier around the weaken fighter. As the Seraphs attempted to blast the Sabre, they were hit by [B.L.A.Z.E.]'s sniper rifle. Once the Seraphs were destroyed, Blaze switched her bits from shield mode to attack and they all six grew an energy blade.
It was a short time later that the defense systems came back online and phase two of the plan began. The UNSC knew that a Covenant corvette was currently enroute to refuel with the massive super carrier and they had to plant the bomb on it before then. UNSC Savannah had volunteer to provide fire support during the mission. With the plan now set in motion, the group headed out.
The group found the corvette and began their assault. The first step would be disabling the engines of the corvette and disabling as many batteries as possible on the ship. Matt in his Sabre began attacking engines, while Seth attacked the batteries. After avoiding the barrage of plasma and taking out a majority of the guns on the ship and damaging the engines, the teams boarded the ship.
The next goal was to clear a landing site for the pelican that was carrying their makeshift bomb. The Sabre teams landed their craft on top of the corvette, near an opening, while Seth entered the same opening inside of [B.L.A.Z.E.]. The unsuspecting hanger crew were gunned down by a barrage of plasma as Seth used [B.L.A.Z.E.]'s miniguns. With the area clear, the two other Spartan and marines entered the hanger and took defensive positions.
The next part of the plan was to take control of the corvette comm center. Since this job would be in a more confined area, Seth switched from [B.L.A.Z.E.] to [F.L.A.M.E.]. Matt, a few marines, and he would attack the comm center while Jorge and the rest of the remaining marines would defend the hanger. Seth deployed [F.L.A.M.E]'s shield and rifle bits to help Jorge's team while they assaulted the comm center.
The Covenant trying to stop Seth's team from advancing. Trying being the key word. That was until the defenders realized they didn't have nearly enough firepower to stop the red mecha. Even fuel rod guns were having no effect as [F.L.A.M.E]'s shield could tank the hits and recover before the next one hit.
Once the team reached the comm center and killed the crew inside, Matt began to type in the codes for the shields to be lower and for the automatic refueling process to begin. After the codes were typed in, the attacking group now made their way back to Jorge and his team. After regrouping, the Pelican carrying the slipspace bomb arrived. As they were priming the bomb and setting up the remote detonator, the Covenant launched one last attack.
In the midst of the firefight, despite the team's best effort, the pelican was disabled, but the bomb was find, however the pelican was the team's transport and they didn't have time to get another one from the Savannah, as she had left due to being too close to the Supercarrier, however they still had the Sabres. Unfortunately, during the assault on the corvette, one of the Sabre was heavily damaged and was able to make the landing on the corvette, but it wasn't going to fly anytime soon. However, the group was in luck, [F.L.A.M.E.] was capable of planetary reentry without any assistance and she could carry two additional passengers.
After assisting the Marines to the Sabres, Seth grabbed Matt and Jorge and departed from the Corvette Ardent Prayer. As the three Spartans entered Reach's atmosphere inside of [F.L.A.M.E.]'s red barrier, Ardent Prayer began its refueling process with the Long Night of Solace. Jorge hit the detonator and the Covenant supercarrier was torn apart by their makeshift bomb, but before they could cheer, Dot detected new contacts approaching.
"Slipspace rupture detected. Slipspace rupture detected. Slipspace rupture detected." The three Spartan watched in horror as dozens and dozens of Covenant ships exited slipspace.
The fight would only get harder from here on out.