A wrecked computer console lay by the feet of Dumont's attackers, and with his usual quick thinking he devised his plan. Sending a few shots into the console to send sparks flying up at the lookouts, he then burst out of cover whilst their eyes were blinded. Closing the distance with a speed surprising for a man his age, he sent a basic yet powerful punch straight into the first soldier's face. As he was sent recoiling sideways in pain, Dumont's pistol aimed up to fire a series of shots into the other man, all rupturing the chest area and killing him.

As for the dragon, it swooped up again to rain it's fire on another UNSC ship, burning through it's shields in almost an instant yet not attacking physically as yet. So distracted it was that it failed to notice the Freelancer's sheep aiming to stay above it. The Starforger's soldiers were thinning even more, until only pockets remained scattered across their front. With their numbers dwindling, the only major threat remaining seemed to be the dragon.

The ODST Snipers and Battle Rifle Marksmen that Sebastian had dispatched finally arrived at the site of the Lightbringer's crash. One of the Snipers surveyed the wreckage.
Their heads collectively turned to the sound of gunfire. A Sniper aimed through his scope to where the sound seemed to originate from, zooming in so that he'd be able to get a clearer look.
"We've got flashes of gunfire coming from the bridge sectoon. Some of the crew must've survived." He said.
"Alright, lets go." Said another ODST who was wielding a Battle Rifle. They all made their way down to the bridge section, surveying the torn entrance and then going inside. After moving down the damaged hallways, the followed the sounds of engagement until they reached the bridge. The hostiles had their backs turned to them, giving them the element of surprise. The ODST's looked at each other, shared a mutual nod.... and opened fire.

"Surround them, don't let them run!" Sebastian shouted into the comms. The demolitions ODST team had made their way down from the sand dunes finally and joined the fight with Assault Rifles and SMGs, shredding the soldiers apart using the armour piercing rounds that the creatures' shields and bodies hardly stood up against. Sebastian used his Hydra Launcher to target four hostiles at once, firing off six missiles and taking them down swiftly.
"Kitty, what can be done against that Dragon?" He asked as he started to reload.

"Well I can try and melt it but the melting point of bronze depending on the ratio of the alloy components is about 950 degrees Celsius...I don't know if I can maintain that temperature of fire for very long so it would have to be one quick burst if you can distract it long enough. It would be better if I could get direct contact with the dragon!" Kitty shouted back at Sebastian, dodging a sword of a supernatural before slamming hers into its gut and turning back to him.

The Freelancer's ship's energy projector had finished charging, the yellow having now transitioned into a bright blue, super-hot light at the tip of the weapon that would blind anyone that looked directly at it. After a few last second adjustments in position to properly position itself over the mobile Dragon, the energy projector fired downwards, sending a beam of 10'000°c temperature down onto the creature's back at nigh-lightspeed.

With the help of the ODSTs, Dumont managed to take down the remaining enemies with a few well placed pistol shots. Once everything was clear he half-limped over, lowering his pistol and nodding to the soldiers. "What the hell was that thing..." He grunted, pulling himself to lean against one of the remaining walls. His injuries weren't lethal, only a few cuts and a damaged leg. He'd been through worse.

At the same time the dragon roared out in pain as a piercing hot laser ripped through it's abdomen. For a few seconds it managed a haphazard flight, before crashing into the sand away from the battle. There it lay lifelessly, defeated by technology. However the danger was not over yet. The skies began to darken as clouds gathered, then from nowhere two bright blue eyes appeared in the sky. A familiar voice, that of the Starforger, rang out across the battlefield.
"My power is limitless. Each star's energy grants me an army ten times larger than yours!" He roared as his eyes gleamed even more, as if by that signal there spawned numerous portals in and around the groups of UNSC soldiers. Blue beings, humanoids wielding sword and gun, made of pure cosmic energy, came rushing out to bolster the enemy's numbers. "You shall not prevail!"

Instantly, almost half of Sebastian's troops were beginning to fall under the might of their newer, deadlier enemies.
"Damn it! Everyone regroup and fall back!" Sebastian desperately shouted through the comms.
A swarm of cosmic enemies spawned around him, and he was suddenly thrown into frantically firing at them, switching from one opponent to another as they drew nearer to him. They too fired, and he was suddenly getting hit by bolts left and right. As he noticed his shield indicator going down, he used his suit's built-in thrusters to evade towards the left, jump over a cosmic soldier and out of the circle in which they had him trapped. Turning, he made a steady retreat as he tried to gun them down but his opponents were relentless, and his ammunition seemed to have little effect on them as they charged onwards.

Meanwhile his ODST's were faring much worse, with almost half of them completely wiped out, with the rest either being injured or desperately fighting for their lives, trying to find a way to escape as their foes surrounded them. Some attempts to escape by individual ODSTs were met by either gunfire or getting sliced in half by a cosmic being who were also wielding melee weapons. There were four groups of five-six ODSTs left in total, who were scattered across the battlefield fighting on the defensive now. While they found some strength in numbers enough to hold the cosmic soldiers back to ensure a steady retreat, not all groups were lucky as one of those groups were quickly overwhelmed and wiped out.. leaving only three left with Sebastian lost somewhere in the thicket of enemies and gunfire.

The Freelancer struggled to keep his hovercraft free of the gunfire from the new arrivals, as plasma-like energy projectiles whizzed past him and some almost connecting.
Charging up his railgun, he slowed down and pivoted around to bring the targeting reticule on his screen over three cosmic soldiers stood together with their guns aimed at him, and fired the 200-kilo projectile at them at supersonic speed, aiming to do some effect against them before accelerating away to avoid an oncoming barrage of fire.

As he moved towards the outskirts of the battle, he quickly flipped open his wrist-pad again and typed in a new set of commands into his ship. The ship itself was now de-cloaked as a result of the excessive use of power for the energy projector that was used against the Dragon. It lay dormant, floating using anti-grav generators but The Freelancer's new commands were still registered and being processed. This time, the ship released from either side two-dozen pods altogether - the maximum amount with six on each side being released one set at a time. The pods touched-down and using their prior programming, the mechanical wolves set out with sheer aggression alone, keen to take the cosmic soldiers apart with their metallic jaws and claws.

"Are you kidding me?" Kitty stared at the soldiers that were pouring through the portals and decimating the troops with disbelief. Then she heard the wolves, "Are you fucking kidding me!?" She let out a sigh and decided to ignore the wolves. She flexed her muscles, letting the fire spread across her skin, no longer caring whether or not it with interfere with the stitches on her arm. 

She set out to work blasting her way through some of the cosmic soldiers, while also being blasted at herself. Soon her body was beginning to ache from all the beatings it was taking but she pushed on, she had to.

"You think your army's infinite," The masked figure appeared in the sky, floating above a cloud of red and black energy. His arms stretched out as the energy gathered around his hands. "None outnumber the dead." He shouted, before a mass of skeletons and undead creatures rose from the sands themselves. Most of them seemed to be an alien race, specifically the deceased of the species that once inhabited the planet. These zombies and creatures defended injured UNSC troops and clashed with the cosmic beings, pushing them back to their portals. Some of the undead possessed the ability to weave spells and used such power to begin shutting down the portals.

The tables had turned once again as the Starforger was outnumbered.

His shields were down and he was wounded, but Sebastian continued to barge his way through the cosmic troops, firing left and right and tossing grenades down the path to clear a way for himself, he desperately tried to retreat and locate his ODSTs but suddenly, a bolt struck him in the calf and he was down on both knees.
"Urgh.. shit.." he said, as he was then approached by three cosmic troops that leveled their weapons to aim at his head.
As the being appeared in the sky, his voice booming as he floated in a background of black and red, their attention was diverted. Around him, undead soldiers arose and assaulted his perpetrators head-on, defending him.
"He's on our side.." He figured.
"Spartan Duarte to all trioos, get out of the field and establish a perimeter asap! Ignore the troops, we're being covered!" He said as he got up and reloaded his SMG.

Kitty glanced up at the masked figure in the sky, she knew almost exactly who he was. Despite the change he still smelled the same, and a dark scowl made its way onto her face. "You sneaky mother fucker." She cursed several times at the man under her breath when she turned back to the fight, moving with more anger and ferocity than before. Red was starting to glimmer in her blue eyes again. 

The very tips of her fingers looked like lava, and she swiped them across one of the soldiers faces when he tackled her. She slammed her forehead into his to knock him off before shoving her hand into his chest, ripping out his heart. She heard the clinking of metal nearby and turned just as one of the wolves sailed towards her, she figured it had the same programming as before. Hunt down the supernaturals and make them its chew toy. This time she was prepared and encased her hand in fire, a few of her fingers turning into lava like substance. She slammed her fist into the side of the wolf and knocked it off course before running, turning back to the fight with a renewed bloodthirsty energy.

The wolves continued their work,: charging through and biting, slicing and jumping onto enemy soldiers in attempts to diminish their numbers. Their work having become easier for them due to the arrival of the undead. However their basic programming almost had them attack the undead too, had Freelancer not made last-minute changes through his wrist pad.

The Freelancer himself had exitted the battlefield and had taken refuge on top of a sandy hill overlooking the battlefield - the same hill on which half of the ODST Demolitions team were situated before. He "parked" his hovercraft on top of it and from the side, a holster flipped out revealing gun attachments and equipment. Reaching behind his back, he grabbed his semi-automatic nail-gun and brought it forward. He attached a long barrel at the front of it and a scope on top of it, along with mini-stabilisation jets on either side and underneath the body of the rifle. Takin up sniping position by crouching down, he began to pick off targets from afar.

The giant blue eyes in the sky flickered towards Dan's figure in anger. With the Starforger's forces dwindling rapidly at the combination of assaults, he was most displeased. "Dan!" His voice boomed, and with it a blue glowing jaw could almost be made out in the sky beneath the eyes. "I have made few mistakes in my life, but believe me you are the worst." Even though he was being addressed directly, Dan didn't react at all. Instead he continued to channel the undead, until finally all the portals were gone and only a few stray groups of cosmics were left to pick off. 

"Enough," The eyes descended from the sky, but in turn they grew smaller. So small in fact they when it's body appeared it was no dragon, but a man floating in the sky opposite Dan. He was slim and defined, with long blue hair to match the shining of his eyes. A long blue cloak adorned his shoulders, and although he was mid-air he seemed to 'stand' with a strict posture. "Let us not hide behind armies, Dan. Face me." It was only then Dan lowered his arms, stopping the flow of undead and instead focusing on his true enemy. 

"This fight is not mine." He replied, before dissipating into a red and black burst of smoke. Angered and confused, the Starforger in his human form dropped down to the sand. 
"Fools! Your friend thinks you can defeat me!" His hands shot out, releasing a shockwave of blue arcane energy across the battlefield. It's touch would burn those it hit, whilst also physically knocking them back, or atleast causing them to stumble.

Kitty let out a grunt when the wave hit her, sending her flying into a near by sand dune with force. "Son of a bitch..." Kitty groaned and just barely got up, her entire body was aching from the various fights and the wave of energy that hit her. She glanced around then back up at the man, she was unsure of what to do. Should she be throwing a fireball at him?

Sebastian, along with the ODSTs, was also knocked down as they all tried to make their way out of the battlefield. His energy shields had managed to protect him from harm but now just about every ODST was injured; either critically or lightly. But they still hadn't made it out of the battle:
"What the hell was that?!" One of them shouted through the comms, the strain in his voice evidencing that he was hurt.
"Don't worry, just keep going. Anyone who can walk, help those who can't. Ignore everything else, just get out of here. Fire only if necessary." Sebastian commanded.
He then turned and headed towards The Starforger. Switching to his Hyra Missile Launcher, he took aim at the figure, locking on and firing all six heat-seeking missiles headed straight for him.

The Freelancer was just recovering from the shockwave. As he came to, he noticed the damage dealt to his rifle, making it unusable. He looked down the battlefield, his wolves were also recovering and carried on hunting down the last few cosmic soldiers.

The Freelancer moved towards his hovercraft, which was now laying on its side, and flipped it back upright with raw strength alone, mounted it and headed back down to the battlefield. As he moved closer and closer to the Starforger, he targetted the being with his frontal Heavy Railgun and again fired a 200-kilo projectile straight at him at supersonic speed.

The Starforger grinned as the missiles and projectile came for him, watching them grow ever closer. As soon as they were to hit him he flicked his wrist, and suddenly everyone felt something change. No projectiles were visible to be in the air or have hit him, and if those who shot them looked, they would find that they never actually shot them. Time magic was indeed powerful, yet draining.

"More stars..." He sighed, stepping backwards from the energy needed to negate their attacks. Soon enough he stepped back again, this time into a blue mist which caused him to disappear. Once he had gone a certain quiet quickly came over the battlefield. The cosmic beings had been vanquished, and Dan's undead army had returned to the ground. The first sound came through comms.

"Looks like we won," Dumont spoke, sounding like he'd had better days. "What's the casualties like?" As soon as he asked the ground seemed to shake. The sky had cleared again, but now they could see the blue swirls of energy surrounded the planet to the north. "Shit, we're being pulled to into the center. Everyone who can fight re-arm and get ready, Gavin and Jaya should return soon." The speech through comms stopped, and he spoke a last word to himself. "Hopefully."

As the quaking started and blue swirls of energy appeared to encase the planet, The Freelancer turned and headed towards his ship, using his hovercraft's speed-boost feature to get there quickly in preparation for the battle that may come. His wolves had also returned to their dormant state, ready to be picked up by the ship.