A Strange Planet: Arrival of the UNSC

"that... was interesting" hope said walking out the building

he seen that the pilot was asleep he got a idea what if he just took the pelican with weapons and ammo in it. hope walked up to the back it was wide open the pilot was still asleep he walked in the keys where still in stupid. hope looked around out the windows no one was looking. hope sat down in the chair and turned the keys the pelican started right up. unfortunately was loud enough to wake him.

"hey, hey stop" the pilot yelled

hope closed the back door before he could get in and took off the ride was a little rough but he managed the ride to the storm base he was half way there when he heard a message from Vergil.

"was that you who stole the pelican" Vergil asked

"yes, i had to get to the base fast so" hope said

"ok, i will keep my mouth shut" Vergil said

"thanks buddy" hope said continuing on.

If John had been trying to annoy Manuel, he'd done more than that. Manuel was an emotionally scarred man. Despite his cold hard exterior, and even his temporary jolly one, there were nothing more then exoskeletons. Built to protect and give him structure.

In the deepest depths of Manuel's soul, he was an emotional wreck. Questions about love were more than enough to "push" his "buttons". John didn't know though, so it wasn't fair of Manuel to turn on him. Manuel had to do this with tact.

"We're about to assault a Covenant base, and you bring up... that?" Manuel shook his head. He had to watch himself. Cool as an icicle on the outside, a raging inferno on the inside.

"But I'll amuse you Mr. Bailey, that I will. Let me give you a few reasons why that wouldn't work out, at all.

One. I'm second in command of the Legion. I don't play favourites, even if Walter does. I'm not like him, I don't make those stupid errors," Manuel said. As of late, he had grown quite distasteful of War's methods of doing things. Manuel quite honestly thought he could do a lot of them better. But the Legion needed Walter to run things, to handle the civilian side of the Legion. Something Manuel was no good at.

"Two. She's had a civilian life before becoming a 'Spartan'. I've known nothing but warfare my entire life. But even I know that killers and warmongers don't make great partners." Manuel used John's terminology for him, if only so that he would agree with him and drop the subject.

"Three. My augmentations left me with a decreased sex drive, if you must know," Manuel answered. He had no real idea if this was true, since most of his life had been spent dedicated to his line of work. All else had been secondary.

"So as you can see, it'd be rather pointless to try. Now, we should probably..." Manuel trailed off, looking behind him. A pelican was on its way.

"Ally 'Hope' is en route with a pelican," Odessa said, informing the Spartans of the Pelican's occupant. For once Manuel smiled a wide smiled, glad to have another ally to assist him in his element, war.

"Hope this Manuel-324, we see you have a Pelican. We'd appreciate it if you were over watch on this assault. John and I will be in the Warthog, and your friend or foe tags should show you what Wraith Admiral Blaine is in. Take out any Covenant aircraft and guard towers that you can, John and I will handle the ground vehicles as best as we can. Hit hard, hit fast, and show no mercy, over and out" Manuel said, taking his hand off his helmet.

"You ready?" Manuel asked, hopping into the driver's seat. He was always a little more cheerful before battle. The engine of the Warthog roared to life, ready to leave when the Freelancer have the word.

Nine had expected to annoy Manuel with the question. He even took a maniacal glee in the prospect moments ago.

Now, he simply felt bad.

"Yeah...I'm ready to go. And sorry about that, man. Didn't mean to piss you off."

Nine rolled his eyes. He'd been out of place, asking that, but it was on Manuel to lighten up.

But then again, it was his fault. He asked the question, intended to annoy, and he'd succeeded.

Success wasn't always a good thing.

"Well, let's ride on those covie fuck-heads. They've been sitting pretty in their little base long enough!"

Nine took hold of the handles of his Gauss turret, and planted his feet, ready to go.

"ok Manuel I'll try to do that this is my first time driving this thing and where do I drop these weapons and ammo at and don't ask any questions please" hope replied to Manuel

Hope flicked a few switches and acadentaly fired a missile right past Manuel's warthog and hit the ground right passed them Oops. The storm knew they where here now.

"sorry about that" hope said as he fired a few more missiles at there base this time he meant it.

"Hey, you a Spartan or not?!" Manuel shouted into his coms, swerving the warthog away from the missile impact. The question was rhetorical since there was no way this "Hope" wasn't a Spartan, considering that he had been wearing MJOLNIR armour.

"But first time driving a Pelican? Has the UNSC downgraded the training of their Spartans? Must be a IV" Manuel assumed as he kept driving.

"Alright John, first targets are the turrets, then we cover Blaine as he takes out the auxiliary structures, and then we mop any survivors!" Manuel shouted, running over a few Grunts. Manuel served around a corner, approaching the first turret. John opened fire, eliminating the building rather easily. Manuel accelerated onto the next one, swerving out of the way of Fuel Rod and Concussion rifle blasts.

"John, the second turret!" Manuel shouted as they raced by, the Freelancer preforming his job flawlessly.

That's when they ran into problems. A pair of hunters exited the building, opening fire on the warthog. Despite the Spartan's advanced reflexes, Manuel was only barely able to dodge the barrage of green projectiles.

"Alright John, aim for the head!" Manuel shouted, trying to give his ally a better shot amid the storm of green and blue plasma flying through the air.

"ROGER THAT." Nine twisted the turret around, aiming for the Hunters. The fifty calibre rounds pinged off their metallic exoskeletons. Nine shut one eye, steadying the turret and aiming for their tendons, but the Hunters were competent, standing against the force and defending their weak points.

Growling, one of the Hunters ordered a small lance of Jackals and Grunts forward. A single elite, wielding a sword, stepped forward, barking orders.

"Dammit!" Nine hissed under his breath as the Hunters withstood each bullet. One lined up its assault cannon on him.

The shot was aimed at him, and the Hunter's arm tracked him perfectly. It would be a direct hit.

"MANNY, GET DOWN!" Nine ducked as the Hunter fired, and the slow stream of green sailed over his head. The Warthog's windshield heated, and melted onto the hood. The turret was sheered off by the shot, forcing the Warthog to bounce, throwing Nine off and onto the ground.

Rolling end over end, Nine came to a stop. He heard the Elite order the jackals and grunts to fire.

Move

Nine dove away from incoming shots, and charged forward. Moving with speed that none of the lesser species could top, he charged forward, his elbow connecting with a grunt's head, killing him in one hit. In the same second, he cleared five feet, and his boot swung, snapping a Jackal's neck with a spinning crescent kick. The the grunt and the jackal seemed to perish simultaneously, as Nine had pingponged between the two, the sound of broken bones echoing.

There was a brief standstill. Nine could hear the grunt twitch and gurgle, its skull caved in. In the corner of his eye, he could see the jackal landing. He heard its body settle on the ground. He smelled blood leaking from its mouth.

Fortunately, he could also hear the roar of the warthog's engine, as his Legion teammate drove close to pick him up.

Manuel swooped past, and the Freelancer leaped back into the warthog. The enemy, snapping out of their terror and confusion, opened fire.

Nine returned shots with his magnum, as Manuel skillfully swerved the warthog to avoid incoming fire, and squeezed off shots with his own side-arm.

Unfortunately, those shots had even less effect on the hunters than the turret-fire. Their armor was high quality, and pistol rounds were nothing to them.

"We lost the turret! Our best option is to ditch the 'hog and take these bastards the old fashioned way!" Nine holstered his magnum, and drew his submachine gun. "I can take a Hunter up close, and I'm damn sure you can!"

“hey guys need help there” hope said in to the coms flying over their heads

“ok now how do I drop this cargo” he said scanning every buttons to see which one opens the back door, but couldn't find it, “well hell just have to guess” he said pressing the closes button to him. As he did the sound of the engines got louder inside the pelican as the door opened, but before he could say anything one of the hunters directed there aim to one of the engines and fired before he knew it the pelican was out of control and was going to crash any second.

“oh god” he said as the pelican crashed in to a nearby building and dumping out all the crates of weapons. he was in the barracks by the looks of all the strange beds and weapon racks, he started to walk to one of the racks before he heard the sound of elites running down the hall all he had was his knife and all the alien weapons he didn’t know how to use. He took out his knife and hid behind one ot the racks waiting for them to come.

“hey guys I’m kind of in trouble I’m in the barracks by the looks of it and all I have is a knife and there’s elites coming and I don’t know how to use their weapons” he said in to the coms as the elites entered the room at last. As the one with an energy sword barked orders to search the area he searched the pelican himself. Hope readied his knife as one of them got closer “here we go”

Manuel audibly sighed as he heard Hope over the coms. He seemed nervous, which was perfectly fine but Hope's words were just spilling out of his mouth non stop. He had to get it together! Manuel shot a fee grunts before activating his coms to speak.

"Hold your ground as long as you can or get out of there. Grab their weapons and learn on the go, it's all you can do. You're on your own for now," Manuel said before terminating the link. Was his reply slightly cold? Perhaps, but he didn't have time to go and rescue the downed pilot, he had more pressing matter to attend to.

Manuel accelerated the warthog before looking at John.

"When I say jump, DO IT!" Manuel shouted as he accelerated even more.

"Hey wai-"

"JUMP!" Manuel shouted leaping out of the vehicle and onto the sand, pulling out his rifle and gunning down a few jackals. His Freelancer ally landed next to him.

"Take the one on the left," Manuel replied, wasting no time heading towards the Hunter the Warthog was about the ram into. The behemoth swatted the vehicle away like it was nothing. During it's brief distraction the Legionnaire had sprinted towards it, rifle on his back and trident and the ready. He slid underneath the Hunter's legs as it brought down its shield again, missing the Spartan.

Manuel lifted himself of the ground and swing his trident forward, slicing into the Hunter's back. Unfortunately he'd miscalculated and the Trident hasn't slashed deep enough, only killing a few Lekgolo at the surface.

The Hunter roared in pain as it turned around, swinging it's shield like a sword. The Spartan ducked the swing, stepping closer to the beast and bringing his Trident up and through the alien's "face", and then tearing it through, "decapitating" the Hunter. Manuel scrambled backwards and the body fell forwards, the small thud enought to cause the imbalanced Spartan to fall.

Manuel got up, ready to fight the approaching grunts and jackals whom were already opening fire. They were using a deadly mix of Needler rifles and standard needlers, forcing the Spartan to prop up the dead Hunter's shield arm as cover.

As Manuel pulled out his rifle he was suddenly grabbed by the neck from behind and smashed face first into the back side of the shield. Manuel eventually turned around and just barely swatted it away. The Elite pulled its energy sword out, ready to plunge it into the Spartan but Manuel grabbed its arms and kept the prongs at bay, thinking of a way out.

"Hey, wai-"

"JUMP!"

Before Nine could react, Manuel had bailed out of the warthog, sending it hurtling towards the Hunter. "Son of a bi-"

Nine leaped out, and landed beside Manuel, drawing his submachine gun. "Take the one on the left." In an instant, Manuel was gone, engaging one of the Hunters.

Nine activated his comms. Hope needed some decent advice, since the two Spartans wouldn't be there to bail him out anytime soon. "Most of the Covie weapons are fire and forget! Don't worry about reloading! Just snatch one that has some ammunition and point the CORRECT end at the enemy! It'll come naturally!"

It damn well should. You're a SPARTAN, ain't you?! Nine fired his submachine gun, shredding a jackal. He drew his pistol and headshotted two grunts, strafing to avoid incoming fire.

Nine did his part, moving quickly to avoid a bolt of ammunition from a grunt's plasma rifle. Nine moved in close to it, seizing the grunt's gun and twisting his wrist, breaking it. With both his smg and his new plasma rifle, he opened fire into the grunt, blowing it away.

Nine heard a massive crunch behind him, and turned. The Hunter that Manuel was engaging had slapped the warthog, and it was sailing towards him.

"SON OF A BITCH!" Nine leaped out of the way, avoiding the vehicle as it flew end over end, slamming into the side of a building. Nine stood, looking around.

He spotted something that would likely avail him. A single shotgun, lying half in and half out of an ammunition crate. Nine looked left and looked right.

Nothing on his left, and HIS Hunter on the right. Nine scrambled for the shotgun and snatched it up. He aimed and fired. The rounds pinged off of the massive opponent's shield, as it lumbered forward.

Nine backstepped a swing of the Hunter's shield, and strafed to the creature's left. The Hunter fired his fuel rod, and Nine ducked the shot, then leaped forward, firing his shotgun again.

"Perhaps I didn't make myself CLEAR." Nine pumped his shotgun, and aimed for the head.

In a bright blue flash, his shotgun was split in half. His reflexes urged him to avoid the impending attack, but his shields were still clipped and depleted by the attacking elite's sword.

The elite stepped forward, and swung his blade. Nine drew his plasma rifle and swung it like a club, smashing the elite's shoulder and breaking his arm. The elite howled in pain as Nine fired his plasma rifle, headshotting him in the eye and mouth.

Nine turned, and the Hunter was bearing down on him, raising his shield.

Nine backstepped the attack. The second swing nearly took his head off as he ducked. He, despite the terror of the situation, was where he needed to be. Up close brawling. He could avoid swings all day, under ideal circumstances.

The Hunter stomped forward, as he backed away, toe to toe. He fired his plasma rifle, but the Hunter was unfazed. He swung a single punch into the Hunter's face, jarring it but doing no lasting damage. Nine fumbled back against a wall, and ducked as the Hunter's shield slashed into the Covenant metal like butter. The Hunter stayed on him, keeping pace with the Spartan as he backpedaled.

He just needed one instant of weakness.

The Hunter over swung, stumbling as the weight of his shield forced him off balance.

Nine lurched to the Hunter's side and fired his plasma rifle into the Mgalekgolo's back.

The Hunter howled in pain as Nine punched his fist into the worms. He ripped and tore as the Hunter swung its arm, attempting to kill the Spartan before he could deal a severe blow.

Too late. Nine tore his hand free, ripping three eels out of the Hunter's side. The Hunter fell, tumbling forward as Nine turned.

Manuel was having trouble with an elite. Nine charged forward.

A single elite cut him off, tackling him. Nine and the elite tumbled around on the ground, the Elite lifting a sword to stab int Nine's chest.

Nine rolled free and stood. The elite swung his sword, and Nine ducked the slash. The Sangheili warrior was wearing special operations armor. He was a veteran fighter. The elite swung his boot, and Nine blocked the kick with his forearms. The elite swung his blade time and time again, forcing Nine back but failing to wound him.

He had no opening to draw a gun, and attempting to disarm the skilled Sangheili may result in losing an arm. He was in genuine danger against this elite, ducking, backstepping, and sliding backwards to avoid each slash.

"MANNY! You alright over there?!"

After killing the elites using only his knife “could of used that five seconds ago before getting a huge cut on my arm” hey said taking a few of the weapons off the racks, putting two holstered and two equipped, and heads down one of the hallways trying to find a way out, the place didn’t have much retaliation in it as he thought only a few grunts and every once in a while an elite but not much.

“guys how are you holding up and im lost in here I might just blow a hole in one of these walls if….” Before hope could finish a huge force sent him flying down the hall hitting some ruble. As he dug himself out he noticed two hunters were advancing on him, as they got closer they started to charge their weapons. hope had to do something and had to do it fast. As the hunter fired his weapon hope grabbed a brick and tossed it at the projectile as it made contact hope darted to the closes one and shoved his hand in to its neck tearing out a few of the worms, after he did that the other one charged at him sending him through the wall to the outside leaving him immobilized under its feet, he tried everything to get it to get off of him but the armor was too thick “well shit”

"GOD DAMMIT" Manuel thought as he wrestled with the Elite Zealot on him. Hope was pinned down by a Hunter, as Manuel had seen when the huge burst of metal attracted both his and his enemy's attention. John was busy dealing with a Spec Ops Elite, and Blaine was still engaging any heavy firepower the base had. If Blaine left his job, they'd be blasted to pieces by the turrets. Each Spartan was on their own.

Manuel yanked the Elite's arms forwards, plunging the sword past his head and into the Hunter shield behind up. The Elite stumbled a bit, giving Manuel and opening. He socked the Elite right in the mandibles, causing it to recoil. Despite being caught by surprise, the Sangheili warrior still held onto its sword, most likely an instinct from years of training.

The Spartan saw his trident lying a few metres away and rolled towards it, dodging plasma fire as he went. He picked it up and held it out, halting the approaching Sangheili in its tracks.

The Elite looked at it curiously, especially the tip. It dared not to touch it, a precaution in case the weapon did indeed function like an energy sword.

The Elite barked out a command, signalling to the grunts and jackals to engage other targets. It seemed like the Human wished to duel.

The Sangheili slashed the Trident tip with his sword, confining that it was indeed an energy weapon. With that out of the way, the Sangheili began to circle the Spartan, and Manuel followed its lead.

Manuel was never one for duels, but he'd take it over fighting the Elite AND its minions. The two circled around each other, a feint here and there. One of them would have to make the first move eventually.

Manuel jabbed forward with his trident, hoping to catch the Elite off guard. Alas, he was fighting a trained veteran, a Zealot. There would be no was victory today. The Elite charged forward, swinging it's sword at Manuel. The Spartan leaned back, and brought the Trident up into the Elite's face. However, the Sangheili stepped back in time for the Trident to only ahead off the tip of the alien's helmet.

Manuel continued the offensive, jabbing and swiping his Trident at the alien swordsman. The Zealot defended itself through a series of blocks and parries, taking steps back.

They continued to do this until the Elite locked its two pronged sword between the three prongs of the trident and twisted, chasing the Spartan to stumble. The Elite pulled its sword back and went in for the kill. Manuel continued to stumble and fortunately had done so out of the way of the sword's path.

When he recovered his grabbed his trident by he end and swung it around. The sheer speed caught the Sangheili off guard, causing it's shields to be depleted and a deep cut right through its abdomen. The swordsman fell to his knees, observing the wound. He looked at the Spartan before nodding and falling over.

Manuel pulled his trident out of the alien corpse before reaching over to claim its sword. As he did, he stumbled on the head of his fallen enemy. Annoyed, he crushed it with his boot, scraping the alien blood off on the armour of the fallen warrior.

A Hunter's roar caught his attention.

"Hope..." Manuel thought, quickly picking up the energy sword and running towards the Hunter.

"HEY!" Manuel shouted as the Hunter turned around. An energy sword flew by its "face", taking a few worms with it. The behemoth wasn't dead however.

Manuel stood there with his trident at the ready, ready to fight a foe at least twice his size. The Hunter began to lumber towards him, shield raised to avoid the stings of the Spartan's trident. Manudl kept the Hunter distracted, weaving between its arms and dodging blows waiting for Hope to take the initiative and attack the Hunter's exposed back.

Don't get distracted! Keep your head in the game!

Nine ducked a slash from the elite. He relentlessly pursued the Spartan, intent on scoring a kill. Nine backed up, and his foot felt a rifle. His first instinct was to use it, and he scooped it up with his foot, popping it into the air and seizing it. He pulled the trigger on the assault rifle, but was met with an anemic click.

"SHIT." It was empty. The elite reared back to swing. Nine swung the butt of the rifle, and it was split in half by a well timed swing of the elite's blade.

The sparks gave him the time he needed. He swept the elite's base foot, bringing it in close. His elbow barred the elite's swinging arm. His free hand swung, smashing the elite's jaw. He shoved the elite, swinging a flurry of fast, efficient blows.

The elite's head ragdolled, as blood was knocked from his mouth as the Spartan's blows became harder. Nine finished the ruthless combination of punches with an elbow. He snatched the elite's sword.

Just in time. An approaching elite minor, clutching an energy sword of his own, seethed with anger at the loss of his commanding officer.

Nine was no newcomer to sword combat. His opponent was wide open.

Nine held his sword up, and let his months of training with Rip'a take over. His arm flowed like water, reacting defensively to the elite's swing. He blocked the attack, letting it soar harmlessly past him.

He spun on his base foot, and swung his blade. At the end of the form, he and the elite were back to back.

The elite's shielding sparked, and there was a steaming cut from his neck to his belly. His head fell to the ground.

"Rip'a So'sonn." Rip'a's technique. Exposing the enemy's charge, and flowing through it, scoring two immediately lethal hits with one motion. The enemy elite fell onto his side, defeated.

The Nine activated his hardlight shield, hearing the discharge of enemy turretfire. He was forced backwards as one of the enemy turret towers opened fire, targeting him.

"Nnnnngh..." Nine held his ground, the rounds slowly bleeding his hardhlight shield's power. His shield broke, and he bolted for cover. His energy shielding barely held as two bolts caught him in the chest and shoulder. They'd saved his life.

Nine drew his magnum, and aimed over the inactive revenant he was hiding behind. He fired two shots, striking the turret but doing no real damage.

"We need those turrets down!" Nine shouted, but Manuel and Hope were preoccupied by Hunters. The turret tore apart the Revenant in an instant, and Nine leaped away to avoid the Revenant's inevitable explosion. Nine returned fire with his magnum, but the turret's hail of plasma was unfazed.

Hope stood up, after Manuel took the hunters attention, and jumped onto the hunters back and started tearing out worms as the hunter thrashed around trying to get hope off but died before he can. Hope dropped the worms in his hand and looked at Manuel.

“what, the thing pissed me off” hope said picking up the energy sword Manuel threw and headed to the crashed pelicans cargo and looked for some weapons pulling out three assault rifles and a sniper handing Manuel one of the rifles and headed to nines position throwing him a weapon and looked around the corner spotting a parked ghost before he was pushed back in to cover from enemy fire.

“hey guys I found a ghost” hope said poking his head around the corner shooting some grunts “do one of you know how to drive I have a plan” shoots more grunts “two people stay here and keeps the turrets fire off of whoevers drives the ghost as he flanks it sounds good”

"The thing pissed you off? Don't try and downplay the fact I had to save you. You didn't kill it out of anger because you weren't able to. The sole reason to killed it was because I created an opening and you took it," Manuel thought, a bit annoyed with Hope's attitude about the whole situation. He spoke as if killing the Hunter had been a simple act of anger, when not even a minute again he was at the Hunter's mercy. A Legionnaire would have taken the situation more seriously, but now was not the time to compare how allies handled themselves. They just had to either destroy or take this base.

Manuel declined the assualt rifle since he was already full of weapons. His trident, magnum, and MA5C-BR55 hybrid rifle left little room for a fourth weapon.

However he did take the sniper rifle in mid air, bringing it up to his shoulder and aiming down the scope. After giving it a quick check he turned to Hope, handing him the sniper.

"I can sneak over to the ghost with my active camo, but I need you to cover me and kill any soldiers that get too close to me. If they bump into me, it's game over. Don't mess up," Manuel said as he disappeared in front of Hope.

Manuel began his journey towards the ghost, stepping as lightly as possible in MJOLNIR armour to prevent creating noticeable footprints. Thankfully, the wind was picking up so whatever footprints he was leaving were being swept away. Slowly, and carefully, Manuel approached the Ghosts until finally, he hopped in it.

Much like the rebels at their base, the Covies stood there astounded at how a Ghosts could start up on its own. Manuel wasted no time in speeding off, gaining a headstart on the plasma fire that followed him.

Hope watched Manuel despite the cloaking, he was good at what he did, when he started he ghost a few elites and grunts started shooting. Hope shot two of the elites in he head the third one turned and took fire at his attacker, hope took a few shots before he was pushed into cover.

"Hey nine how you holding up" hope said shooting a grunt who was foolish enough to run up to him, why the he'll do they have grunts anyways.

With the fuel depot completely and utterly void of hostile vehicles and artillery deployments, Blaine turned his mammoth of a vehicle around.

"This is Blaine. Base is void of all hostile vehicles and Artillery." Blaine paused, as an assault wave of Elites and Grunts armed to the teeth with ordinance plowed out of the entrance. "Well shit, looks like I'm up shit creek without a paddle. They got the stubby bastards with explosives, I'll try and thin them out, make a distraction. Continue with your run boys, just don't delay!"

As the first few Covenant reinforcements piled out of the vehicle, Blaine responded with some heavy Wraith mortar fire. Thus causing the Grunts to disperse, and any Elites foolish enough to stick around to be melted where they stood.

Manuel stuck his foot into the sand, causing the ghost to swerve around quickly. He aimed the twin cannons as far up as he could and opened fire on the turret, getting closer and closer to remain underneath it's line of fire. Eventually the plasma did it's work and the turret was nothing but a pile of melted metal.

Turning around again, Manuel moved onto the next turret, which would be his last. He began to open fire right away, exposing himself but if his gamble paid off it would work. The turret turned around slowly, and by the time it was ready to fire the twin cannons had done most of their work. A few shots manage to hit the ground in front of the ghost but the turret had been sustaining far too much damage for too long and eventually melted.

Manuel brought the ghost around in a wide circle, ready to regroup with John and "Hope". The Admiral was running a distraction, waiting for the other Spartans to finish.

Which would have been great, had their objective been to destroy the base. It was still in relatively good shape, so all that was needed was to eliminate any remaining infantry. According to the Admiral they had a lot of "Heavy" Grunts to deal with, and a few Elites. Taking the base would not be easy, not with infantry equipped like that.

Manuel drove over to Hope and John, the battlefield now relatively quiet, except for the sounds of Blaine's wraith in the background.

"Gentlemen, I suggested capturing this base to help rapidly expand the UNSC's presence on this planet. The Admiral is preforming a distraction on the large number of heavily armed infantry. If we are to take the base intact they must be eliminated.

I have a tentative plan, seeing as how things are somewhat unpredictable at the moment.

Hope, I want you to cover us with that sniper rifle of yours. Watch the Admiral's wraith and repel anything that gets to close.

John, I'm going to need you to help me clear out the infantry. We'll flank them, open fire, and take out as many before going for another run. I suggest you find another vehicle to use however..." Manuel trailed off, looking for one. There was a revenant in terrible shape, and he couldn't see anything else.

"Once we've cleared out the infantry out front, we'll have to move in and clear the buildings. It's going to be tight, but that's where you excel Freelancer," Manuel said, turning back to the sounds of the wraith firing.

"Unless anybody has any objections, we'd better move. The Admiral can only keep a wraith in working order for so long against such heavily armed foes,"

Nine turned his head, and spotted the Revenant Manuel was referring to.

"...Huh. I guess that isn't so bad. I can make it work."

SNAP. Pop. Fzzzzzt. The Revenant sparked and whined, its left thruster flaring for a moment and causing it to buck violently.

"...It's...doable." Nine saluted Manuel. "I'm fine with your plan, sir." The Freelancer nervously prodded the revenant at first, then mounted it, sitting in the driver's seat and engaging the vehicle's antigravity suspension. It hopped up, whirring to life, but a red prompt caught the Freelancer's attention.

"Hm. The cannon's fried. I won't have much offensive capability, besides ramming people and squeezing off SMG rounds. It might EXPLODE at 'em. That'd be pretty offensive." Nine chortled, and adjusted his helmet. "These things are fast, so I'll just get in close to the base, then abandon it. I'll use it as cover, and let it EAT most of the damage it takes." He patted his fist into his palm, satisfied with his plan of attack.

Nine grinned, and worked the controls, doing a test. It could move in all directions. "I'm good to go, Manny!"

Manuel nodded in confirmation before turning and pointing to Hope.

"Flank around and find a decent sniping spot. Cover us, and more importantly, repel any boarders from Blaine's wraith," Manuel said before turning around and going the longer way around. John followed Manuel, the speed boosts of the alien vehicles making the journey fairly close. When they approach the battle from the left, Manuel spoke to John.

"I'll provide covering fire while you drive in and get inside the opening to the base. From there we'll eliminate the infantry and then press inwards," Manuel said before John began his speed boost and he began to fire.

His first priority were the Grunts, as opposed to the Elites, because they had the weaponry to make short work of Blaine's wraith and Manuel's ghost. A trio of grunts feel victim to the ghost's plasma bolts before a barrage of green projectiles forced Manuel to reposition the ghost.

While he did, a sniper shot from Hope pierced the skull of three grunts advancing on the Wraith's position, and the mortar fire from the wraith finally managed to kill two of the Elites present.

Manuel opened fire once again, just about ready to let the Admiral and Hope clean up before moving in with the Freelancer.

Nine's vehicle wasn't going to take much more abuse. Plasma pinged off the hull mostly harmlessly, the chassis bubbling but remaining form. What worried the Freelancer were the plasma bolts striking the exposed wiring of the hood.

As he sped forward, one of the thrusters gave out, and the revenant spun violently. Fortunately, he had reached the entrance to the enemy encampment, and leaped off of the broken vehicle. With a belch of purple fire, the revenant exploded as Nine sprinted through the opening, drawing his magnum.

Pop pop pop. Nine loosed three shots from his magnum to his right, killing two grunts and grazing an elite. The angry elite took cover, returning fire. The spartan was too fast to track, and the plasmafire missed as he ducked, sprinted, and weaved into cover, sliding into safety behind a crate.

Reloading and drawing his SMG as an offhand weapon, Nine moved out of cover, opening fire on the elite. The bullets shredded the sangheili's body. Nine stopped his advance as an elite General leaped atop a crate near him, swinging an energy sword down at his head.

"CRIPES." Nine ducked the first swing, and rolled out of the way of the second. He holstered both guns, lifting his hands defensively. He evaded another slash, moving from side to side, looking for a chance to strike back and disarm the creature.

The general bellowed, and backed away, as a lance of jackals and grunts fired upon the Freelancer. The general's tactic to flush Nine out of cover had been successful, as his troops turned their weapons on Nine, prepared to open fire. He activated his hardlight shield, crouching and allowing the bolts of plasma to ping off of the robust barrier.

"Taking some MAJOR heat over here! I need suppressing fire!"