"Latest reports just came in from the battle fleet," Selina reported to The Admiral.
"Covenant warships, heavily outdated and around a few dozen, have taken refuge in the planet's atmosphere. Six of them have occupied the airspace over our main objective. The fleet's waiting for your signal to engage. Although I haven't the faintest clue why they even bothered." She added the last bit on. Her tone was condescending, as was her smile.

"Not until we enter the local space, it's standard procedure on my ship, you know that." Yusuf replied sternly, looking down at the holographic table representing the beach planet. Half a dozen red markers were dotted across the holographic Chiron, representing Covenant ship positions. Over two dozen green markers were clustered outside the planet, between it and one of its moons.
"Ah yes, let us all hold back and potentially give the enemy time to mount an effective counter assault just so that you could get the satisfaction of actually being there before the enemy is destroyed. How human of you... sir." Selina said, in a mocking tone this time.
Yusuf shot her a glare.
"I'll... run a quadruple check on the weapons.. just in case." Selina said before disappearing.

The UNSC Liberty exitted slipspace over the beach planet.
An officer at the communications console transferred through updated info on hostile infantry to the Admiral's datapad. He looked down at it and analysed the information. Patches of Covenant stragglers on different islands, all either taking control of or attempting to infiltrate the different research bases across the planet.
Selina re-emerged. "Sir, I recommend we take immediate action. May I remind you that Blizzard Tech's being funded by ONI, and all those billions are going to go to waste if we don't intervene."
"I know the stakes Selina." The Admiral replied before activating the comms.

"Attention all hands, battle stations. Every single ship is to engage whatever is left of the Covenant fleet. Pair off and hunt 'em down."
He then switched the comms so that he would address the troops situated in the barracks.
"Marines, time to work for a living. You have your specific orders, make sure he gets out of there safe."

Objective 1: Engage an enemy ship via broadsword fighter craft.

Objective 2: Engage enemy units on the surface of Chiron.

Objective 2
Location: Chiron

Sebastian moved into his Pelican, followed by Natasha and Valeryie. They were also accompanied by a small complement of ODSTs. As the rest started to store their weapons on the overhead compartments and buckle themselves into their seats, Sebastian moved towards the cockpit and assumed the co-pilot seat.
The main pilot entered their credentials into a small keypad, as did Sebastian into his own and the Pelican's engines came to life. The hangar door opened and the energy shields activated, covering the opening.
"Ready when you are, pilot." Sebastian said. The pilot closed the rear door of the pelican and began to raise the Pelican up into the air. The pilot then accelerated and the Pelican exited the Liberty, passing through the energy shielding.

"Our Pelicans have launched." Selina announced.
"And the others?" Yusuf asked.
"The other ships have also released theirs into the planet's atmosphere. All ships are adjusted for trajectory to the landing sites you marked personally. The fleet itself has already began to mobilize and engage the Covenant warships, also in-atmosphere." Selina reported.
"Good, set coordinates for the main objective."
"Spartan Duarte is already en route to the location, as you ordered. You really think his team can't handle it themselves?"
"We can't afford any risks Selina, I have no doubt he'll get it done but he'll need immediate evac when he does."
"Fair enough."

"We're coming in hot, people!" The pilot barked over the comms.
Sebastian used his console to gun down a few Covenant infantry on the beach. Switching to the dropship's missile launchers, he targeted two Covenant Wraith tanks and opened fire, blowing them to shreds. The pilot steered the dropship and pivoted it around so its rear faced the beach and its front faced the sea. The ship lowered and its door opened, allowing the ODSTs and two Spartans to rush out and secure the area.

Sebastian left his seat to go join them.
"Masterson, I need your eyes in the sky." She looked back at him and nodded, going back into the dropship and replacing him as co-pilot. Sebastian stepped out as the dropship closed and took off into the air, engaging enemy Banshee fighters. The sky was littered with explosions and the distinctive silhouettes of enemy warships. Sounds of gunfire and explosions echoed from within the interior of the island they had landed upon. There were still survivors in the base, and it sounded like they were trying their best to hold off their attackers.
"Alright Aqua Team, I'll take point. Kalashnikov, find another way around and scout ahead, quick as you can. The rest of you cover the sides and rear." They all acknowledged his order and mobilized.

"Well that was a miraculous landing if I ever saw one." Selina remarked about Aqua Team's touch-down. "Good thing you sent those ships in to cover them. Brilliant strategy if I do say so myself." Selina remarked with an obviously faked, look of awe on her face.
"Save me the pleasantries for later Selina." Yusuf said as he watched the clouds pass by his ship as they lowered more and more into Chiron's atmosphere.
"May I remind you, we only did send two ships to engage six of them. One of our own has already had their shields taken down. Perhaps you spread out fleet out a bit too thin?"
"What kind of ships are we talking about, down there?"
"Two destroyers, the rest are CCS Class."
"I thought you said they were heavily outdated."
"The others are, not these."
Yusuf looked at the information on his screen. The ship's scanners was already able to detect all six energy signatures of the Covenant ships. One of the Destroyers was hanging back while the other was moving to target Sebastian's team.
"There, that one. Target it's midsection and charge up a MAC round."
"Wait, a MAC round? In atmosphere? With the team directly underneath it? Have you gone mad?" Selina said.
"Its shields are still up, one round won't penetrate it. Which is why I was going to ask you to prepare our first barrage of archer missiles."
"Oh, I knew that."

Sebastian watched as one of the Covenant ship silhouettes moved closer and closer toward their location.
"Oh, this can't be good."
"Fireteam Aqua," Selina's voiced blared through their comms, "A MAC round and heavy artillery have been authorised near your location. Get clear of the Covenant ship immediately and take cover. Over and out."
The ODSTs briefly looked at each other before looking at the two Spartans.
"Mierda... lets move!" Sebastian shouted as they all broke into a full-on sprint, moving deeper into the island. The team came upon a narrow pathway surrounded on both sides by large rock walls. They carefully moved through the long path, making sure to move quickly but cautiously due to the jagged rocks on the ground.
Sebastian was the last in line, and he briefly paused and looked back. They had managed to put some distance between themselves and the ship, however it appeared that distance wasn't a concern for them. He noticed faint glows along the ship's hull as it charged up it's weapons.
However, suddenly a streak of light shot down from the sky and impacted against the ship's upper hull. The ship flashed as it's energy shields depleted from the impact. A second later, the defeaning explosion was heard by the team, and they were all thrown back by the shockwaves.

"Confirmed hit. The Aqua is still operational. Archer missiles have now launched. They'll be clear before the missiles hit and destroy the ship, but we just drew attention to ourselves. The other five have began to move towards our position."
"Alright, we need a point we can strategically defend ourselves from." Yusuf said. "Letting them surround us will be suicide."
"I recommend getting our other two ships to attack the cluster from both sides while we sent our longsword fighters to deploy a carpet on the other destroyer."
"Send the order."

Sebastian's team had finally reached a clearing, covered in grass and tall palm trees. They were momentarily distracted by the sounds of explosions going off, and turned to witness artillery from the UNSC Liberty striking the Covenant ship and blowing it apart. It's pieces rained down onto the beach from where they came.
"Sebastian," Masterson's voice came through his comms. "I've got eyes on the base. No activity, only a few corpses. I think they already got in. I'm unable to establish contact with the base. They've gone dark."
"Understood." Sebastian replied. "Where's Kalashnikov?"
"She's been at work clearing a path for you guys, sending it now. She's almost at the base. Should she wait?"
"Heh, so much for scouting. Tell her to wait, we'll be there shortly."
"Acknowledged."

"Aqua has made it to the base. They said they're going to enter now. Reports of touch-down and enemy engagement are also coming in from all over the planet" Selina reported to the Admiral.
"Alright, we need to get these skies cleared immediately. What's the progress against their gunships?"
"Spartan Masterson is defending the base against any Banshee that gets too close. Our two other ships are using their point-defence guns to take the others down. Broadsword fighters are also in the air." Selina replied.
"Carpet bomb's been deployed. Explosions confirmed, the Destroyer's shields are still up," a Longsword pilot reported to the bridge.
"Ready another MAC round and finish it off." The Admiral ordered.

Team Aqua were meanwhile making their way down deeper into the base via elevator. The entire facility was littered with corpses; both alien and human, along with destruction and scorch marks and bullet holes of plasma and gunfire.
As the elevator stopped, they all fanned out and searched the area for hostiles.
"This is it," Sebastian said. "He's on this floor. Move out and keep your eyes peeled."
As they spread out into the facility, the sound of gunfire caught all of their collective attentions. The sounds were distant, a machine gun turret and a couple of plasma rifles.
"Move to assist, double time!" Sebastian ordered as they all broke into a full sprint, moving down a corridor, past a set of destroyed double doors, down some steps, twists and turns until they reached their location. Two Elites and a group of Jackals and Grunts stood over a couple of destroyed sentry turrets in a large clearing. One of the Elites was standing near computer panel located on a wall near a set of closed double doors right at the end of the large space. One of the Jackals instantly realised their presence and let out a series of squawking, bird sounds to alert the others. It's comrades turned their heads and instantly began to open fire.

One of the ODST's fired off a shot and put the Jackal down before they team spread out into the room and took cover behind consoles and large circular, metallic pillars.
A grunt readied a plasma grenade to throw at two ODSTs taking cover behind a pillar, but Sebastian, who was across the room, spotted it and quickly fired off a shot with his DMR, nailing the grunt through its head. The plasma grenade, now primed, fell out of its hand and landed next to some Jackals and grunts. The resulting explosion either killed or weakened most of them, enabling the ODSTs and Masterson to finish them off. The two Elites were much more mobile, moving around and aggressively firing off shots with their plasma rifles and forcing the ODSTs to get back into cover. One of the troopers attempted to get a shot in, but was hit in the shoulder by a plasma shot.

However Valeryie sprung up from behind a console and, without looking through the scope, fired off all four shots, taking some fire to her shields as well. The four shots hit home, killing both Elites. Sebastian, meanwhile, took this opportunity to kill off the rest of the grunts and jackals from their blindsides before they were able to attack Valeryie.
"Alright, lets get that door open."

"He's coming 'round. Is our exit secure?"
"Yes sir."
At first the voices were muffled and barely understandable, but as the light returned to his eyes and his vision transitioned from blurs to comprehensible shapes, the voices became clear too.
Boots against metal, orders being given. There were soldiers in the room.

He tried to move but remembered that he had been strapped down to an operating table to the point that he couldn't even move his head. He let out a loud grunt of frustration as he tried to break out. All that was visible to him was the shiny, metal ceiling decorated with lights and vents. The sound of heavy boots got nearer to him, and then suddenly a figure loomed over his vision: a giant armoured man.
"Easy, kid. We're here to get you outta' here." His voice came through some sort of radio in his helmet. Terra could make out a Spanish accent mixed into an American one in the man's voice. Nonetheless, his claim relaxed Terra's frightened state.

The next thing he knew, his straps were undone and Terra sat upright. Pain pulsed throughout different places on his body... areas where he was cut open, shocked and sedated. He grit his teeth to cope with these sensations. The man was still next to him.
"You okay there? You look like you're in pain." He asked.
"I.. I'm fine. I just... they did things to me." Despite being comforted with the idea of a rescue, Terra was still scarred by the flashes of memory of the time he endured in this building.
"You're safe now, I can assure you. But we need to get moving.. can you walk?"
In response, Terra swung his legs off the table and softly jumped down onto the floor. His legs almost buckled, but the giant man caught him by the arm at the right time. It had been a while since he was allowed to walk, his legs had fallen asleep. But he could already feel the strength return to them. He motioned for the man to let go and he took a few careful steps forward. He then looked back at him and nodded.

It had been two hours since the invasion had been initiated, and multiple reports were now coming in, declaring the UNSC ships' victories over their Covenant adversaries. These were also accompanied by reports of Covenant infantry presences across the globe being eliminated with minimal casualties. It seemed that all was going perfectly. Yusuf couldn't help but smile at how far the UNSC had come. Before, a UNSC fleet would have to outnumber a Covenant fleet 3 to 1 in order to have any hopes of victory. Back then, they were the mice and the Covenant were the giants. It was incredible that the tables had turned in only a few decades. Now they were the giants, taking back the territories they had lost and rightfully so.

"Sir," came his communications officer's voice, breaking his train of thought. "I just received an update from Spartan Duarte from within the base, they have secured the package and are heading outside."
The Admiral looked straight ahead and addressed the pilots. "Bring us close to their evac location, we're going to sit right on top of their base. We can't take any chances."
"Yes sir."

The remaining Covenant stragglers in the base were not a problem to deal with. Grunts were easy to dispatch, but the Jackals were a bit more tricky. Still, for a Spartan they were canon fodder.
"Clear!" An ODST shouted back to the rest of the squad after Valeryie shot down the last path to the exit. Sebastian hung back with Terra to ensure his safety, with the rest of the squad securing their corners and sides. Sebastian turned to look at the ODST and Spartan, nodding in approval. Instantly, they all broke for the exit, Valeryie being the first to arrive outside. She sighted through her sniper's scope and scanned the area. She stopped, seeing the faint, almost unseeable silhouette of a cloaked figure.

Just as Sebastian reached outside with Terra, he heard sniper shots go off and turned his attention to Valeryie. She was firing into the forest. He used his visor's in-built binoculars to zoom into the thicket, just in time to see her nail a Covenant Elite through the chest.
"They're cloaked! Use your grenades!" He commanded to the ODST's. "Keep an eye on your trackers, use them as target markers for where you need to throw."
The ODSTs followed his instructions, using their motion trackers to pinpoint the cloaked enemies' locations, and tossing their grenades into those areas. The Covenant troops tried their best to evade the explosions, but many were caught in the blasts. Grunts and Jackals went down mostly, but the majority of the Elites managed to survive, albeit with their energy shields weakened and their cloaking disabled.
However they quickly and aggressively replied with a collective barrage of plasma rifle bolts.

Sebastian made sure to cover Terra with his body, allowing some of the plasma bolts to strike against his shields to protect the boy. The ODSTs meanwhile returned fire and with Valeryie's help, took down a number of them. However, due to the lack of cover, all five of them began to sustain injuries and attempted to retreat back into the base. Sebastian himself noticed his shields failing, but Valeryie's almost pinpoint shots made sure that most plasma bolts were directed at her. Her smaller size gave her great maneuverability and she was dodging bolt after bolt with jumps and flips, all the while returning fire at the same time, demonstrating her incredible talent with the sniper rifle.

However the Elites weren't to give up easily, and began to prepare their own plasma grenades to throw her off balance at least. However Sebastian directed his fire to the grenadiers and managed to take down two of them thanks to their weakened shields. By now however, his shields were also down and he started to sustain bodily injury. Slowly, he started to back towards the base's entrance, pushing Terra towards it as he did so. An explosion went off and Kalashnikov was thrown back. A few bolts landed on her subsequently, but she was saved by the timely intervention of Masterson's Pelican dropship arriving overhead and gunning down the remaining Elites with it's nose-mounted gattling gun.

The ODSTs re emerged from the base, some of them helping those who could no longer walk due to their injuries.
"Haha, gotta love cavalry. Especially when cavalry's a massive dropship with an overpowered machine gun."
Terra watched as the dropship began to lower itself. A sense of relief came over him. Finally he'd be able to get as far away from this place as he could. He'll go back to Earth and build a normal life for himself. He'd never let himself get into trouble ever again.
Suddenly, a large ball of green energy shot out from the forest and impacted against the dropship's side. The force of the impact caused the dropship to steer away from the landing zone and back up into the sky.
"Oh shit, we got Hunters coming from the forest!" An ODST shouted. Terra also noticed the other armoured person begin to fire into the forest of palm trees, that were now heavily burnt or damaged due to the firefight.
"Kid, get back into the base!" The armoured man directly in front of him shouted. Fear gripped him again and he ran back towards the exit, but not before sneaking one last look at the forest. Two large figures emerged, wielding what looked like heavy metallic shields and large cannons of sorts. The ODSTs followed him inside, all the while maintaining fire. They stopped just at the entrance and continued to fire at the massive beasts. Terra heard shots go off and almost deafening explosions. Bullets pinging off the heavy armour and Sebastian shouting orders over the chaos. Terra approached the exit again and managed to sneak another view: both armoured soldiers had the large aliens occupied but it looked like they were struggling. The aliens threw heavy melee attacks at them and the soldiers were barely dodged them.

However suddenly, the familiar sound of the Pelican dropship's engines was heard and the ship started to open fire on the two aliens. The two armoured soldiers moved out of the way to avoid the fire and watched. However the aliens stood their ground against the heavy machinegun, raising their shields against the heavy rounds that seemed to explode against their shields but barely phase them. However, signs of physical struggle were evident, and the two armoured soldiers took this chance to circle around them and open fire into what looked like their exposed orange flesh at their backs. One of the hunters turned its canon to face behind it and fired off a wild shot, causing both soldiers to dive for cover and avoid the ensuing explosion.

Terra at this point slowly approached the exit and in his mind, he began to block out all the noise and focus solely on the two hunters. They were distracted, and now was his chance to help his rescuers. He felt their presence now. As each of their steps made contact with the dirt underneath them, he felt it within him - a sensation that he couldn't explain, but gave him control over the Earth. He raised a hand towards the hunters, his fingers spread out. And then, slowly, he curled the fingers into a fist. He felt movement within him, and at the same time, the ground that the hunters were standing on began to give way. The hunters attempted to move away as they felt the ground beneath them begin to swallow their bodies, but it was too late. The combined distraction of the Pelican and the two Spartans had them sink into the ground quickly, and before long there wasn't a trace of them left.

As Terra lowered his hand and his perception of reality returned to normal, he found that everyone was looking at him.

The UNSC Liberty arrived on-site. From the screens, The Admiral could see signs of a firefight, but all Spartans and ODSTs were accounted for, including Terra. The squad were now beginning to pile onto the Pelican, which had then started to make its way up to the Liberty.

"Final reports coming in from all across the planet, Captain. We've won this one. A solid curbstomp if I do say so myself." Selina reported.
"We'll celebrate later, first we need to get the kid back to Earth." The Admiral replied.
"Don't forget, you have your orders concerning Earth. The Board isn't too happy that you stalled your ascribed task concerning the supernaturals in favour of an invasion. You'll have a lot to answer for when we get back. Should I prepare a script for you to read off?" Selina asked sarcastically.
"Securing an entire array of experimental sites of great significance to humanity's overall progression is an excuse enough, thank you very much." The Admiral replied sternly.

The Pelican journey had been quiet. Everyone saw what Terra did down there. Sebastian had his suspicions but now they were confirmed. He was a supernatural, which brought up a flood of new questions. Why was he so significant that ONI had him locked up in a base across the galaxy? What were they doing to him in there? He watched as two crew members greeted him as they all stepped off the Pelican dropship. They then proceeded to walk him to his quarters.

What were they planning? Was he a loose end? Sebastian had to know. He'll be having this conversation with Nat and Valeryie. Whatever ONI was doing, they definitely would want hidden in light of what he knew concerning them and supernaturals. He'd make sure that Terra would get back to Earth safely, even if that meant compromising everything he would be told to do by his superiors.