The launching of fiery discs was interrupted by a flaming chain which came to constrict Eli's leg. As he struggled to break free from it's hold one of his own soldiers collided with him in the air, thrown by the vampire below. With the impact breaking his struggle he could offer no resistance to the pull downwards, and ended up hitting the ground with force. Rubble and dust flew out as the earth withstood his fall, only clearing when he beat his wings to clear the air.

"Fools..." He gritted through his teeth, standing straight again and allowing the tattoos inscribed all over his body to flow a bright green; the marks of demonic energy. Through his blindfold he seemed to be staring at the Ghost Rider, clearly filled with anger. "You will not defy the Starforger!" His voice echoed all over and caused the demons to reply with a rallying cry. They launched another assault, more of them pouring now from the sky and from portals. Amidst them Eli remained still, awaiting the Ghost Rider's next move.

Amidst the dying chaos, Sebastian allowed himself a moment of respite in. However this was short lived as the glow of overhead portals drew his attention to the sky, where he spotted many more demons raining down upn them.
"Ay dios mio.."
The ODST's with him also spotted the oncoming horde.
"Hell, I almost miss the Covenant. They weren't as ugly.." One of them remarked.

As demon Eli glared at him through his blindfold, the Ghost Rider wasted no time in following through with another attack. Taking a step back, he threw his arms forward, palms together facing the demon. A hose of yellow and red flames burst forth towards the demon at a high speed.

"The only fool here is you Eli!" Kitty was shouting as she tore another tentacle beast apart, beginning to use its dead tentacles as weapons against the green fire monsters considering the disadvantage she had against them. "You aren't the Starforgers ally, you're his bitch! But then again, you've always been under someone elses thumb haven't you?" Kitty was unable to dodge a hit from an oncoming zombie, the force of the punch sending her back into a green fire monster. The creature wrapped its arms around her to hold her in place while another monster approached. Kitty reacted swiftly and brought her elbow back hard, forcing the creature to loosen its grip enough that she could flip him over her shoulder before slamming her foot down into his neck with force.

Throwing his wretched palms forwards, Eli released his own hose of green flame that came crashing against the Ghost Rider's attack. Their fiery competition ensued, different coloured flames pushing each other in a bright display visible across the whole battlefield. Each of their strengths seemed to be locked in a stalemate, as the two colours swayed equally back and forth, vying for supremacy yet meeting their match.

"You don't understand the Starforger's power! You don't know who he is!" Eli roared outwards, enraged at the insults from the vampire.

"Sir! Fireworks, 10'o clock!"
Sebastian had just finished gunning down an undead human before turning his attention to the stalemate between the Ghost Rider and Eli.
"They're going at it, aren't they?" He remarked.
His attention quickly turned to the sound of a death cry emanating from a different foxhole on his right. An ODST had just been impaled through the abdomen by a tentacle from one of the creatures that had managed to break the line and jump into their territory.
"Diego, light 'em up!" He commanded one of the ODST's by his side, pointing to the tentacle beast.
The ODST known as Diego aimed his handheld Railgun at the beast, charged and fired. The supersonic projectile ripped right through the creature's chest, after which is slumped to the ground, dead. However it's distraction was enough to offer a window to the other hostiles, and they began to break through the line en masse due to their renewed numbers.
Sebastian noticed had noticed earlier that there was a dense forest directly behind them, and quickly issued his new orders:
"Fall back! Get to cover behing that foliage! Controlled bursts, no spray and pray! Snipers, cover us!"

Around half a minute into the stalemate, Gavin felt his strength start to diminish against Eli's hose of fire. He struggled to maintain his own burst however this only caused him to weaken further until finallty, Eli's attack broke through and slammed into him, sending him three meters backwards onto the ground.

He let out an inhuman grunt as he strained to get back up, before directing his attention back to the demon. As he got up, he had grabbed a UNSC standard issue Submachine Gun. He channeled some of his fire through the weapon, enhancing it's ammunition count tenfold while also transforming the rounds themselves. He aimed the weapon towards the demon and opened fire. The SMG unleashed a barrage of rounds coated with flames that would detonate on impact if Eli were to be hit.

"It doesn't matter who it is Eli! You're still his little bitch, just like you were Dan's and the Judge's. And when it no longer has a use for you it'll toss you away just like they did!" Kitty screeched at the top of her lungs as she dropped the charred tentacles. Flicking her wrists, they erupted into fire. She grew a fireball in each palm, throwing it forward at tentacle beasts and zombies alike, taking care to avoid the green fire monsters.

U
Objective: 1
Location: Seraph IV



The silhouette of a small cloaked ship was almost completely invisible against the blackness of space as it swiftly sped past the ships orbiting Seraph IV. The ship quickly entered the atmosphere, the friction of the air within the atmosphere of Seraph IV against the hull of the cloaked ship causing a faint glow to appear, giving it the appearance of a meteor.

However the ship's thick plating allowed the it to descend at a steady speed without the risk of structural integrity being compromised. The ship finally began to slow down more and more as it descended below the cloud layer and came to hover a few hundred meters above the battlefield. The cloak deactivated to reveal a small vessel the size of a UNSC frigate.

The Freelancer glanced at the screen to his right which displayed a live video feed of the chaos ensuing below. After close examination, it was clear to him that the UNSC forces were on the defensive due to sheer lack of numbers in comparison to the supernaturals.
Turning back to the main console, he started to tap at the holographic symbols and numbers, which caused the ship's targeting systems to lock onto areas where the hordes were gathered en masse - particularly on the areas that were a few meters outside the foxholes. He then typed in the final commands which caused the ship to rain down artillery onto the targeted areas. The triangular missiles, twelve in number, burst out of both sides of the ship, and arced downwards onto the battlefield, trailing orange energy as they rocketed downwards and struck their designated targets, generating large explosions, hoping to diminish their numbers.

Things were starting to turn in the green demon's favour. His monstrous soldiers had managed to break the UNSC line of defense, whilst his own flames had bested those of the Ghost Rider's sending him flying back. A twisted grin formed on his face as he prepared for victory; before the tables turned again. Explosives bullets came at him, half a round of which hit his skin bare. It took until then to move his arm in the way and conjure a shield, absorbing the rest of the magazine worth of SMG fire but not diminishing the damage already done to him. Smoke still wisped from his chest at the bullets points of impact.

As if matters couldn't turn any worse for him, artillery fire rained from above. A ship he did not recognise had opened fire, and it was doing an exceptional job at thinning his forces. Soon the UNSC could reform their defense, pushing back the now lesser numbered demons with ease.

"No! This was not how it was meant to be!" Eli cursed in anger, throwing forward the energy from his shield at a group of soldiers, before turning to charge straight at the Ghost Rider. Quickly he came stampeding, knocking aside anything in his way until he could attempt to bring his claws down on his target.

Cannons opened fire from the Lightbringer, ripping upwards into the underhull of the enemy ship. Explosions ripped out the metal underneath, causing the mercenaries to jerk off-course suddenly. Cheers erupted from the bridge as a contempt smile came over Dumont's face.
"Good work HELIX, keep it up with more firepower."
"Understood sir." The AI replied as it turned the ship around, trailing behind the altered course of it's target. Once the cannons were ready again it rained fire once more, this time tearing up the starboard side of the enemy. Already they had landed two successful attacks and no doubt more were to follow.

As artillery came down from above and diminished much of the supernatural forces, Sebastian's gaze followed the dissipating trails of energy up to their source, and recognised the ship immediately.
An ODST by his side turned to him; "Sir, unidentified contact. Should we continue our retreat?" Half of their forces were already inside the thick forest while Sebastian stood with his back only a few meters away from the thicket.
He replied: "No.. he's helped us. It's time to push forward again boys, weapons free!"
Instantly, any and every ODST that was either unscathed or injured but still able to stand on their two legs rushed out of the forest, guns ablaze. Sniper specialist ODST's opted to stay back and perch themselves on higher ground in order to have clearer lines of sight down onto the battlefield. Their sniper shots crackled through the air as they hit their targets with precise head and body shots.

ODST's with SMG's charged head-on against the undead and gunned them down with ease while small groups of ganged up on the much more challenging tentacle beasts. Sebastian charged with his men, using his Battle Rifle to gun down some undead enemies with headshots with one hand while he prepared a cryo-grenade with his other. As he passed by a group of weakened green fire-beasts, he tossed the grenade aside towards them and the resultant explosion released a super-cool gas that quickly enveloped the weakened group.

As Eli managed to conjure a shield against his attack, the Ghost Rider quickly realised the futility of his attack and threw the SMG aside. However he was momentarily distracted by the explosions that had rained from above and turned his head upwards to behold the familiar sight of the Freelancer's ship.

His gaze was interrupted by the heavy stampeding of Eli, and he turned to face his foe again. In a "thick-of-the-moment" decision, the Ghost Rider roared a battle cry as he too sprung forth and began to run at his enemy, building up speed and momentum but still lesser than that built up by Eli.

The Freelancer felt a hint of satisfaction as he saw that he had successfully decreased the supernaturals' numbers by a significant amount. However he noted that there were still some stragglers left. Quickly, he cycled through his ship's inventory and selected a group of pods - 8 in number, to be launched from his ship. Using his ship's sensors, the Freelancer had managed to record a bio-print of each undead, tentacle beast, green fire monster and any other supernatural force and fed these recordings into the pods' targeting systems. He then launched all eight pods and they quickly slammed down onto the battlefield, throwing up dirt and rocks around them as they did so.

The pods then opened and out sprung eight, four-legged mechanical beasts that represented wolves but were almost three times the size. The mechanical wolves' targeting systems allowed them to quickly "sniff out" and navigate to each supernatural on the battlefield. The wolves moved with speed, covering a hundred meters as quick as just a few seconds. As they reached their targets, these mechanised wolves used their metal jaws and teeth to clamp down onto their necks or limbs or any other body parts while using their sharp claws to grasp, slice into and rip their bodies apart.

Kitty was just about to tear into another tentacle beast when two of the mechanical wolves launched themselves at it, quickly tearing it apart with their teeth and claws. The second the two wolves were done though, their gaze turned to Kitty. Despite being half human, she was also half vampire which meant she was a supernatural. "Oh hell no!" 

Kitty took off running, throwing stray fireballs behind her as the wolves attempted to chase her down. When of the lunged forward at her, its metal jaws embeddeding itself in her arm. She let out a scream and mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do, there was only one way to get the wolf off. She would heal of course, but it would be slow going. 

Kitty clenched her jaw and flexed the muscles in her arm, then with a forcefully strong tug she yanked her arm away from the wolf. Except in doing so ripped her arm off of her body from the shoulder down.

The two demons collided together with deadly force, both roaring with rage in order to fuel their need to kill each other. At first bone hit demonic skin, but shortly after the impact became clear. Both of their demonic energies shot out from their points of impact, echoing out with the strength of a hurricane across the whole battlefield. Red and Green pushed out in a wave, forcing nearly all those around them to be swept off their feet and sent a considerable distance. As for the demons themselves, well Eli had also been sent backwards too fast for him to recover and was now laid on his back in agony. All around him his monsters had perished, either by the wolves, the soldiers, or his blast. Slowly he stood, grimmacing at the likelihood of his defeat. They might capture me, he thought, but I will tell them nothing.

As the ODSTs managed to effectively draw the enemy back enough and start to regain their territory, a huge blast swept through the battlefield and finished off the remaining hostiles. Most ODST's were pushed backwards onto the ground while some who were further away were merely caught off balance and regained it quickly. Sebastian was caused to drop to one knee before he looked up to see the point of the blast and his eyes settled on Gavin and Eli.
As the ODSTs recovered, they too spotted Eli:
"There's the bastard!"
"Take him down!"
Random ODSTs shouted and started to charge again, firing their weapons at Eli's weakened form.
Sebastian however quickly attempted to order a stand-down, intending to interrogate Eli,
"No, hold your fire!"

The blast resulting from the clash between the Ghost Rider and Eli was also enough to send the Rider back a fee feet before he hit the ground and rolled across it some more, before friction caused him to stop. He was knocked out of his Ghost Rider form and Gavin now lay, out cold, covered in dirt and small rocks.

As the Freelancer watched the battle rage on, a blast momentarily scrambled his ship's sensors and screens. He looked at the screens that were now filled with white, puzzled. Quickly, he re-calibrated the sensors and powered the screens down. He waited a moment before powering them back up again. The screens showed the battlefield again; but it had seemed that the blast had pretty much finished the fight in the UNSC's favour. He watched as the ODSTs struggled to recover from the shockwaves that had send them sprawling, and his wolves too were picking themselves back up. Deeming their job done, he deactivated the wolves and they settled in a seating position wherever they were standing.

Using his ship's sensors, he managed to locate the source of the blast; a large demon attempting to stand up at the edge of the small crater formed by the blast. The Freelancer activated his ship's automatic defenses before getting up, grabbing some gear and entering the gravity lift at the belly of his ship, slowly descending down to the battlefield. As his boots hit the ground, he started a steady but firm walk towards Eli.

Kitty grimaced when she put a hand over the bleeding stump that used to be her right arm. Blood was oozing between her tan fingers, but that wasn't really her focus right now. She quickly stumbled to her feet, she had been knocked over by the blast of fire. Her blue eyes scanned the battle field for her arm, sure it would grow back but it would be faster if her actual arm were just sewn back on. 

Soon her eyes caught sight of her arm and she stumbled towards it, leaning down to snag it. One of the monsters near it was twitching so she smacked it hard with the severed arm, although it could just be twitching because there was a rock embedded in its nervous system. She started stumbling towards the foxhole Sebastian was in, waving her arm at him. 

"Aye Sebastian, lil help?"

A final series of cannon fire finished off the mercenaries ship with a violent explosion. The crew cheered once again, as they had defeated their first enemy on this campaign against the Starforger. Without wasting time Dumont turned to his console, opening comms to receive the good news on the ground. Hearing that the battle was over and Eli had exhausted his forces and power, he patched into another new addition to the crew onboard.

"Valkyries, move out. Contain that demon and clean up the mess." With his order a series of dropships left the Lightbringer for Seraph IV's surface. Many of them were troop carriers designed to recover the UNSC troops and bring them back to the ship, but a few boasted cargo holds for specfic equipment. What that equipment was became clear once they reached the battlefield. Metal spikes dropped from these ships in a perfect circle around Eli, charging electricity around them to contain the monster. After that the roof slotted into place and powered up the capsule it created, putting an energy shield up to fill in the gaps of the metal. The result; a demon containment device.

"Good work ground team," Dumont praised Kitty and Gavin specifically. "We're calling in the rest of the fleet now to garrison here. It's safe to say Seraph IV is under UNSC control once again." As he spoke the dropships landed, opening to allow everyone inside for transportation back to the Lightbringer.

Shots came in for a brief few moments from the UNSC, crashing against Eli's skin and causing him to fall to his knees and raise his arms in defense. A roar of pain followed as he writhed until the bullets stop. Only then did he lower his arms, breathing heavily to recover from the attack. Whether he had any more energy left in him didn't matter, as the metal spikes began to slam down around him. Electricity licked at him, causing him to jerk and essentially pacifying him until the shields came up and trapped him. Inside the capsule he merely slumped more, accepting his death without wanting to look at his captors. Instead he just grunted, the green tattoos losing their glow as his rage slowly subsided. There was nothing he could do now, as soon he would be transported back to their ship.

Sebastian looked over to Kitty.
"Mierda.."
He ran over to Kitty and grabbed her, pulling her down onto the floor as he called for a medkit.
"We don't have the tools to patch up a wound like this, so cauterization will have to do until we find your arm.."
He then looked over towards the Freelancer, watching him approach Eli.

"I've got my arm right here." She waved the severed arm in his face, looking a bit pale. "Just sew it back on, it'll heal faster that way."

The Freelancer stopped and towered over Eli's cowered form.
"Just a few days ago, multiple unknown planets and stars had appeared across the galaxy, sending it's civilisations into widespread chaos and panic. And then, my ship's sensors pick up an energy signature originating from the heart of this galaxy. And on my way there, I come across the skirmish on this planet."

He paused to kneel down.
"It'd be foolish of me to think this as coincidence."
He then peered back to the UNSC forces and then Eli.
"I'll let the humans interrogate you, as this is their territory and not mine. Should you live, I plan to visit you again.. soon."
With that, he got up and walked off.