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NOTE: I think that this section is pretty long. I spent a lot of time on it, so I hope you enjoy it.

A minute later, the two sides both stopped at the same time about 150 yards away from each other. There was a stare down between the two sides, and Josh targeted the lead Gold Elite. Josh then yelled out to break the silenced, not saying anything....just yelling. All the Humans also joined in, yelling and screaming at the Covenant. The Covenant started yelling, and both sides charged the other. The front lines of both sides shot at each other as they charged, and bodies from both sides dropped dead. Josh shot his gun as he ran, not halting his scream of anger. As the two sides were about to meet, Josh threw the gun around to hang on his back. He pulled out his two large daggers and held them in front of him. The two sides came together, and Josh started it out nice by slicing the Gold Elite's head off as they collided. The Shadows, Spartans, and Marines begun the biggest land battle known to mankind up to that point...that stretched across the entire planet of Reach.

The engines accelerated as the Warthogs charged forward to join the battle. Cameron was going faster than the others, fixing up his engine beforehand. Castor rested his gun on the windshield, and Willie cocked the LAAG on the back. Cameron carefully maneuvered the Warthog so he wouldn't hit any humans. He then rammed through Covenant lines, crushing the ones in front with the car as Willie and Castor rained fire down upon them. The other Warthogs took similar roots. Cameron caught a view of a light and saw a plasma grenade land on the front hood.

"Everyone bail out!" Cameron yelled on instinct. He jumped from the vehicle without hesitation.
"Holy shit!" Castor saw Cameron jump and also saw the grenade. He jumped a second after Cameron.
Willie didn't hear him right away, and as he looked down a few seconds later he saw the grenade. He leaped off the Warthog just as the grenade exploded, sending shrapnel all over the place. Willie hit the ground only hurt a little bit, and he jumped up and pulled out a hand gun in each hand. He wasted no time joining the battle, as did both Cameron and Castor.

Castor, Cameron, and Willie moved forward into the Covenant hordes...working as a team to take down loads of Covenant.  An Elite swung at Castor with a plasma sword, and Castor ducked as Cameron hit the Elite in the back of the head from behind, and Willie shoved a knife into his face as he fell forward. An explosion made by a Covenant tank sent both Covenant and Marines flying. Castor caught one of these Marines, and found him dead. Just as he noticed the marine was dead, an Elite shot at him. Castor pulled the marine up and used him as a shield. He then charged the Elite, still holding up the marine. As he neared the Elite, he threw the marine at him and pulled his shotgun. The Elite threw the marine off of himself, and as he looked back at Castor he was shot to death with the shotgun. Willie was also kicking some ass of his own. A Jackal charged him, and as he neared Willie shot the shield a lot to make the Jackal have an unstable hold on it. Then he flipped over to the other side of the Jackal, spun, and round house kicked it directly in the face. He also bashed in the heads of three other Jackals and five Grunts using similar techniques. He also was shooting down Jackals and Grunts with his handguns. Josh of course was brutally ravaging through the Covenant lines with his two daggers. He came face to face with an Elite, and sliced away at the Elite. The Elite threw a melee attack with his rifle at Josh's head, but Josh ducked it and stabbed the Elite in the neck...killing it. Jackals charged him, but Josh kicked their shields away and took about five slices into their small, pathetic bodies to kill them. He was always moving forward, killing Covenant as he went, but never took one step backwards. This kept everyone moving forward, taking his lead. Even a Hunter charged Josh. But being the way he is, Josh simply held his ground. The Hunter took a large swing at Josh, but Josh ducked it. In the same motion he lunged up and stabbed both daggers into the Hunter's neck...where one of the orange weak spots were. He threw the Hunter to the ground, pulling his daggers out, and continued pushing into the Covenant lines. The way the Shadows and Spartans were fighting, you would have thought they were going to win the battle.

The Humans were killing off the Covenant by the second, but they too were losing their troops FAST. And as many Covenant they killed, it seemed that there were an unlimited supply of them. A full retreat was ordered, and the Marines started jumping on available warthogs and taking off. The tanks began to back up, shooting at the Covenant in the process.The retreating Humans ran past the tanks, and the tanks were soon overrun by the Covenant attack. The Shadows and Spartans got back to the line of defense without any casualties, only some bruises. All the defenses were hidden, but set up. The Covenant continued to charge forward towards the installation as the Marines reached it. When the Covenant were about 30 yards away from the hidden defenses, they all began to open fire on the unsuspecting Covenant. Hundreds of Covenant were dropping, but they continued to charge forward.

After only a few minutes, the Covenant started to climb over the small embankment where the defenses lay. This time the Marines didn't retreat, for two reasons: 1. There was no where to retreat to, and 2. They could not let this generator fall. Hordes of Jackals and Elites stormed over the embankment, invading bunkers from the rear and attacking the Marines. Elites also stormed over the hill, shooting down and beating on Marines.

Castor jumped into a trench further back, picking up a radio.
"Any UNSC ships out there, we need reinforcements at the Main Power Generator. Repeat, we need reinforcements down here!"
A transmission came back saying, "We read you, but you'll have to make do. All available reinforcements have already been sent out to other areas."
"Are you crazy?! There's thousands of these guys, we'll fall easy."
"We understand that, soldier. But you'll have to stand it. We already may have reinforcements coming that way."
"Roger that. Over and out."

Castor dropped the radio and looked up at the sky. Indeed, he saw about five Pelicans coming in their direction. He gave a bit of a smile, but then the smile faded as he saw a large group of Banshees engage the Pelicans, blowing them out of the sky. Castor gasped, and quickly started to fight...this time with rage and anger. He charged towards the Covenant troops coming up past their defenses. A few Grunts saw him, and started running away, waving their arms over their heads as they ran. Castor targeted the Grunts and shot them each with his shotgun. He then turned and bashed the butt of his gun into an unsuspecting Elite, knocking the Elite to the ground. He then continued to the beat the Elite to a bloody pulp until it lay motionless on the ground. He saw one of the bunkers be overran by a horde of Jackals and Grunts and he ran in that direction. He hurled his body into a few closely gathered Grunts, knocking them all to the ground and rolling into the bunker. He then began beating them down with his shotgun, shooting them as he stood up. He also blasted the Jackals who jumped in to help. As he stepped back out of the bunker, he realized that the Covenant were flooding past him. The rage faded as he ran out of the bunker and back to where there were more humans.

Mike was still picking off Covenant from the highest tower, having his kill count up to about 200 right now. To him, time stopped as he saw a Covenant tank fire in his direction. The projectile flowed towards his tower, and landed a direct hit about half way to the top. The tower tilted a bit, in a rough manner, making Mike lose his balance and slide. He slipped off but grabbed onto the railing, now dangling about 30 yards in the air. He pulled himself up, and as he threw himself over the rail, another Tank projectile hit the tower near the top. This sent the very top falling to the ground. Mike held on to the railing as the tower fell. It hit hard, and he slammed into the ground. Most of the Marines with him died, but some were still alive. Mike crawled out of the wreckage, hurt beyond belief. He had no major wounds, however, and stood up outside the wreckage...but it wasn't over for him.

An Elite jumped in front of him and gave Mike a hard back hand. Mike stumbled away and the Elite jumped at him with a fist, sending him rolling to the ground. Mike threw himself to his feet as the Elite struck another blow across Mike's face, sending him back into the tower wreckage. The Elite grabbed Mike and yanked him to his feet. He then turned and threw him into one of the fallen tower's walls, making a whole in the now fragile brick. Mike hit the ground hard and rolled to a stop. He barely pulled himself up as the Elite jumped through the hole. Mike grabbed a brick and chucked it at the Elite, hitting him in the chest and knocking him back. The Elite charged forward and kicked Mike in the chest, sending him to the ground and hitting a pile of bricks. The Elite smiled as he picked up a brick and walked up to the fallen human. The Elite's smile faded as he looked at the Human's hand...it seemed to be a detonator.
"I never go anywhere without insurance..." The Elite dove at Mike, but it was too late. Mike pressed the button, and what remained of his tower blew up in flames.

Castor turned as the explosion went off, and knew who went down with it. He said a very quick prayer for his friend, and continued fighting. The Marines were rallied up, and they were actually not dying as fast as expected. A Marine even killed an Elite 1 on 1. The Spartans were still going strong, killing the majority of the Covenant that came. The problem was they kept coming. For every Covenant that was killed, there would be at least five more coming past the defenses to replace it. Only a few bunkers and turrets were still standing and fighting, along with about three towers. The more the Covenant came, the more they pushed the humans back towards the power generator.

Cameron and a few marines ran back to the installation to look for some kind of escape There was a basement with some disguisable doors leading down to the lower areas of Reach. Cameron also found a few Longswords in one of the hangers in the back. They came back out to continue the fight.

Josh carried a LAAG in his arms, strafing and firing it to kill masses of Covenant. He occasionally swung it and slammed it into enemies, but mostly just firing. There were about 400 Marines left, and everybody was falling back to the installation, where backup turrets and other defenses were set up ahead of time just in case. Everyone got into the facility and set up machine guns and such in the windows and began shooting at the Covenant. As always, there were still more charging the installation. Knowing they were going to fall, the Spartans began getting Marines into the underground system through hidden doors in the installation's basement. After a few minutes all the Marines ran down into the basement, and the Covenant tore through the entrances of the installation, in pursuit of the Marines.

The Shadows and Spartans finished loading the Marines through the secret doors.
"Ok, now you guys go," said Castor to the lead Spartan.
"You go, we'll fight them off and get in after," said the Spartan, who's name was Kelly.
"No, they need you down there. Not us."
Kelly looked at him, and said,"You aren't Marines, are you?"
Castor smiled and replied, "No, we are not."
Kelly nodded and said,"Ok, we'll go. Good luck."
The Spartans began to head down the door, and the remaining Shadows (now at 9) headed up the basement stairs to hold off the Covenant. The Shadows weren't charging forward like they usually do...just hanging back and fighting any Covenant who came their way. After about two minutes of fighting them off, they head back into the basement...but find the door shut and locked.

"Dammit! I knew they were going to leave us behind," Josh yelled out.
Castor replied,"No, I wanted them to. This way no one will know about us, and no one else will die."
"Damn right no one else will know about us, we'll be dead," Josh replied back.
Cameron interrupted,"No, there was a longsword in one of the hangers. It has enough room to fit the nine of us in it. If we can hurry, we can make it before this place blows."
Castor smiled,"Then lets do it."

They all head out of the basement and start heading to the other side of the installation. They reach the hanger without encountering enemy troops, and find it covered with Covenant. They all realize they have nothing to lose, so they charge in. They all throw grenades at first, blowing away a lot of the Covenant before they even knew what was going on. They sprinted in the direction of the nearest Longsword, firing at the Covenant and throwing grenades as they go. Cameron jumps in the pilot seat and immediately starts to activate everything. Josh and Willie and a few others stay outside and continue the firefight with the Covenant to allow Cameron to start the Longsword up. The engine roars loudly, and the Shadows still in the hanger started to get in one by one. "Cameron, start heading out! We'll jump in as you go!" yelled Willie as they were still shooting. Cameron heard him, and he started to move towards the hanger door. The Shadows outside were running along side of it for cover, jumping in as they ran. There were three left on the ground: Josh, Willie, and another Shadow named Carl. Carl jumped up to climb in, but caught a Hunter's fuel rod cannon while in the air...which blew him to pieces. Josh and Willie stumbled a bit from the blast but continued running. Josh jumped up and climbed in quickly, and reached back down to get Willie. Willie jumped and grabbed Josh's hands, and they yell to Cameron to go. As Josh started to pull Willie up, a few Elites run up to the Longsword and start shooting their plasma rifles. Willie gets hit twice: once in his leg and once in his arm. He loses his grip and slips off, falling to the ground. Josh yells back up to Cameron to make a U-Turn...but once he sees the Covenant start moving towards Willie's position, he couldn't take it. He jumped out of the Longsword and hit the ground running back towards Willie...he could never leave a man behind, especially one of his best friends.

Willie was still fighting, limping behind cover and shooting with his pistols. Josh dove over a crane with an AR in each hand, shooting like crazy as he somersaulted on the ground and slid behind the same cover as Willie. He looked Willie up and down, and saw that he was hit several more times after he fell. He hooked up his earpiece and linked up with the Longsword.
Josh connected and spoke over the comlink. "Yo Castor, Cameron...whoever. Willie is hurt here pretty badly."
He heard Castor's voice come back to him. "I bet. Can you get out of the hanger for an evac?"
Josh looked at the Covenant moving closer and shot out some rounds at them, pushing them back a bit. "I could have, but the Covenant just closed the hanger doors."
Castor sighed in disbelief...he was going to lose them. The whole installation was flooded with Covenant, they couldn't make it out. "We'll come back for you two, Josh. We'll blast our way in."
Josh shot out more rounds at the Covenant moving towards them, killing a few and wounding even more. He put the piece back to his ear. "Don't be foolish, Castor. You'd kill the rest of the Shadows. You don't worry about us...we'll get out of here one way or another..."
A tear almost came to Castor's eye. They were trained not to mourn for their dead, but these men were more than just his team, they were his friends...his brothers."I read you loud and clear, Josh...good luck to you."
"I'll see you later man...trust me," Josh said, and he dropped the comlink. He threw a grenade at a group of Covenant troops and started throwing out rounds after rounds at the Covenant, dragging Willie back to other positions as he did. Castor was still listening what the comlink was picking up, which wasn't anything but explosions and shooting. Then he heard a screaming sound, and a few Elites laughing...Castor disconnected the link. He couldn't bear to hear it any longer. He walked to the pilot area, where Cameron was flying. He acted as if it didn't happen.

"Cameron, get us to our HQ as fast as you can. We need to get into our own ship and get out of here," Castor yelled as he made his way to the co-pilot seat.
"I'm already a step ahead of you, I'm headed there now...problem is, there are like 50 Covenant Ghosts headed in that direction. We'll show up first but we will only have a few minutes to pack up and leave."
Castor nodded,"Then step on it."

They arrive at their HQ and quickly get off the shuttle. They run into their quarters and pack only the important stuff. They load up their Stealth shuttle as the Ghosts arrive. They all grabbed up as many weapons as they could and got ready. They were all set up, as the hanger door opened...and the Elites charged in. Castor manned a modified version of the LAAG, made to be portable and to take down infantry, and he mowed down the Elites as they came in. Cameron also shot off rockets at the hanger door, knocking out Elites before they could step in. As they both reloaded, the remaining Elites ran in and grabbed some cover of their own. A firefight began, and the Shadows were outnumbered 29 to 6. Castor unloaded the rest of his belt of machine gun, and then threw the gun into their shuttle. Castor then started to yell out to get in their shuttle. Cameron ran in first to start it up, obviously. Another Shadow came in with him, to man to the gun on the side of the shuttle. As the gun was activated, it started to blast at the Covenant troops, making them duck for cover. As they ducked for cover, the rest of the Shadows started to load on. Castor and a Shadow named Danny first ran over to a storage area in the hanger. They dug through junk and took out a nuke packed into a missile. They were shot at, but returned fire and made the Covenant duck again. They carried the missile over to their shuttle and connected it to one of the launchers on the wing. They then also jumped on with the the rest of them, and the ramp closed and the shuttle took off. The gunner kept the Elites down as the shuttle flew out of the hanger and into the sky.

Cameron turned back to their HQ, and bombed the hell out of it. They then returned to the main installation and saw that the power generator had already been destroyed and the Covenant were leaving. All the Covenant they could see were rushing back about 2 miles to where they landed their shuttles. Cameron flew to the landing zone and dropped a bomb...the nuclear missile that Castor and Danny packed. Then they pulled up and headed out...there was no more for them to do there. Their shuttle was cloaked, and as they reached space they were disappointed at what they saw. There were about ten more human ships left, and they were scattering away, getting ready to make jumps to slip stream. They saw a ship they recognized...the Pillar of Autumn. Cameron turned in its direction, intending to board it. But instead, the ship entered slip stream and headed off.

They had no where to go. The ships that were left were either leaving the system through slip stream space or being mopped up by the Covenant. Their choices were slimmed down even further as they begin to see thousands of Covenant transports coming from the planet, heading to their ships. Cameron instinctively headed away from the shuttles, not wanting any more trouble than they could handle.

Cameron for once was getting really nervous. "Castor, talk to me man...where are we going?"
Castor was just as clueless as Cameron. "I have no idea. How many ships are still around?"
Danny was looking at their radar. "About three, but two are about to leave and the other one is covering them."
Castor yelled, "Dammit! What other choices do we have?"
Danny looked at some information that their AI Havok brought in. He read it over and stated, "Just about all the Covenant ships are headed in the same direction as the Pillar of Autumn. The rest are splitting into groups going after each of the fleeing ships. A few of the larger 'sniper' ships are heading somewhere WAY off our navigational charts."
Castor turned and looked at Danny...and Danny stared right back, knowing where the ships were headed.
"Havok, you there?" Castor said aloud, seeing if the AI was present.
Havok's hologram, a gang banger wearing baggy clothes and a beanie, came up in front of the navigation panel. "I'm here, Castor."
Castor smiled, "I want you to track those sniper ships to where ever they are going."
Havok smiled back at him. "You want me to shoot one of our stealth tracking bugs on them?"
Castor glared at the AI. "They did it to us. What do you think I am going to say?"
"I'll take that as a yes, and also a thank you," Havok disappeared, and he shot off one of their tracking bugs and flew it to the main sniper ship. Stealth mode was already on, and he attached it to the area underneath the ship.
Castor looked back to where Havok's hologram was, and he reappeared. "Havok...one more thing. This ship is capable of slip stream, right?"
Havok nodded. "Yes. But it will drain most of the power out for a period of time."
Castor had thought of that fact. "Well, Havok, send the results of the tracking beam back to Earth as soon as they come in. And you make a decision...send us either after the Pillar of Autumn, or send us back to Earth. The Covenant can't track us either way."
The hologram of Havok gave a nod, and disappeared...

The remaining six Shadows slept in small beds that were mounted in the sides of their ship, which was about the size of an average one-floor house. Castor thought about it, and set the coordinates required for their slip stream jump. The ship made the jump into slip stream space towards their destination...

Heading in the direction of an unknown ring-world....

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