Erde-Tyrene (TPF)

==First Contact==
Popping her second stimulant pack, Aniela turned back to her monitor and studied the Covenant communication waves. She was triangulating their position to one of the many F-99 Wombats circling above the battlespace. Once located, she reported the findings to a Marine Force Recon platoon to hunt down the signature.
“Fuck me,” she muttered under her breath and rubbed her eyes.
The Radio Recon Platoon she commanded was attached to the 32nd Reconnaissance Battalion’s Force Recon Company conducting close-in signals intelligence on a Covenant force. She hadn’t gotten the chance to fire her BR55HB battle rifle since the start of the Battle for Earth. She’d been tracking Covenant signatures for two weeks and never got into a firefight. All the effort to get off Cascade and to Earth paid off, she finally got to be involved in a battle against the Covenant.
Even though they were going after the Covenant, she was glad to have a Company Commander who knew his shit. Bits and pieces told her that he served during the Siege of the Atlas Moons and was awarded a Navy Cross before commissioning as an officer. The stories and myths surrounding him made her feel at ease in going after the Covenant, she was with some real killers.
She stashed away her monitor and readied her battle rifle as they moved out into the dense jungle. It was already night-time, and the triple canopy jungle made it almost impossible to see without her Heads-up Display. She kept an eye on the enemy pings and wiped the sweat off her face as the company continued their maneuver.
“Hold.”
Aniela took a knee and looked next to her to see nothing move. She looked up at her HUD and saw a small clump of red dots moving towards her. Shit, the Covenant was coming to her. The Recon Marines moved into position and Aniela found the closest thing to cover on her left, a tree. She looked down briefly to see a snake slithering across her foot and kicked it away. Pulling out her monitor, she double checked the movement to see the Covenant pings were accurate.
“Ripper 4-1, what does that tech say?” the captain asked over the comm channel.
“Enemy movement, 300 meters and closing on us, sir,” she replied quietly.
“Copy.”
She wanted to stash her monitor away, but instead placed it down to get a better idea of their movements. If they moved a different direction, she’d report it to the captain and the company could adjust. No, she grabbed the monitor and stuffed it back into her pack, she needed to be a rifleman first then her other job. Aniela took a deep breath and remembered her training; a Marine is a rifleman first, everything else was secondary.
Easy Ani, you got this. You’re with Force Recon, you’re going to kick ass.
The command detachment of the company was no further than 20 meters from her and she couldn’t see her own hands in the darkness. The life of the jungle became quiet, like it knew something was bound to happen. They were waiting to make contact with the Covenant, the enemy had to make the first move. Nobody moved as the red pings moved closer, it sure as shit wasn’t a simulation.
“Contact, 12 o’clock. Brute Pack.”
Aniela looked forward, hoping to see the contact, but couldn’t. 1st Platoon called it out and she knew they were off to the left. 2nd Platoon relayed the contact and let the command detachment determine what to do. She remembered the ambush tactics the company was using but didn’t enjoy being behind a tree with a Brute Pack coming at them.
“Open fire.”
The jungle erupted into the sounds of gunfire and Aniela sunk into her heels to make herself a smaller target.
Shit, shit, shit.
She squeezed her battle rifle and flipped the safety to be ready. Both 1st and 2nd platoon were exchanging gunfire with the Pack, forcing the enemy to flee right into the command detachment’s kill zone. She couldn’t see jack shit and tried to look around the leaves to get a better angle, nothing.
“Contact, 12 o’clock.”
Aniela’s head snapped back to the lead point of the command detachment and waited for anything. She trained her gun towards 12 o’clock and waited for something, anything. A Brute stumbled in front of them with multiple gunshot wounds and roared loudly, clutching a Spiker.
“Smoke it.”
The detachment opened fire and Aniela squeezed her trigger, nothing. She scrambled to see what was wrong, squeezed again and nothing.
FUCK ME! WORK!
The Brute slammed into the ground, and she looked at the corpse twitching as the captain walked up with a M6D Magnum and shot it in the head, ending the twitches. He took charge of the battle and led the detachment forward by closing in on what as left of the Brute Pack. 3rd and 4th Platoon moved alongside the command detachment wanting to get into the fight.
Aniela checked her magazine then the barrel to realize she didn’t have a round in the chamber. Sliding it back in, slid the bolt back and felt the round chamber. Now she was ready to fight the Covenant. Another Brute stumbled towards them, covered in bullets and the detachment executed the enemy, not giving him the chance to fight back. The red pings on her motion tracker were getting smaller as 1st and 2nd Platoon’s fire slowed down.
Something caught her vision and she snapped left, rifle ready and prepared to engage. A Grunt came screaming at her with an activated plasma grenade, she pulled the trigger and her HUD flashed safety on. She slammed the rifle to the ground, reached to draw her sidearm and readied to see the enemy lying on its back as the plasma grenade exploded in its hand.
Oh, fuck my life.
She looked back to see the captain behind her with his BR55 trained on the Grunt and dropped her head. He picked her rifle up, shoved it into her hands, and pulled her over to him where she stuck behind him.
Great, not only did I freeze up. I have the captain pulling me around like my father. Fuck.
“All clear!” 
The two words were echoed across the jungle not long after and Aniela felt like utter shit. She had her perfect moment to take all her training and execute it to make herself proud in defending the detachment, only to shit all over it.
“Lieutenant, what happened?”
“Safety was still on, sir. I thought I flipped it, but I didn’t. I’m sorry sir.”
“Let me see your rifle.”
She handed it to him and watched as he studied it.
“The BR55HR line has an issue where they decided to put the safety and select fire beside each other. You hit select fire, not the safety.”
She looked at the rifle knowing they were next to each other and tried to hide her embarrassment for failing.
“Do you prefer burst or semi-auto?”
“Semi.”
He slid the selective fire over to the left side of the gun and pushed the safety to the right with a little tinkering.
“Here, your safety on your right, select on the left. It’ll make things easier. Also, when the contact call goes out, safety off. All Clear, safety on. Remember that.”
“Yes sir.”
He stood up and helped her up. She was glad to not be scolded for making a mistake and losing someone’s life. Before walking off, he turned around and smiled.
“Remember Lieutenant, you have a higher chance of killing the enemy when you shoot them.”
She knew he wasn’t going to live the moment down. She popped her firefight cherry and almost got taken out by a suicidal grunt screaming at the top of his lungs.
“Yes sir.”
==Battle of Superior==
Samuel watched as the Immediate Reaction Force from the UNSC Arras deployed to support the battle. The 87th Shock Troops Battalion was slamming into the ground as Sam and Oriana held the line with 4th Battalion of the 53rd Marine Regiment. He turned back to the battlefield, seeing two Zashk-pattern Draugrs, four Type-47B Scarabs and two mechanized Covenant legions headed towards them.
“ODSTs on ground. We got support.” Sam said quietly to O over TEAMCOM.
“Good, we’ll hold out long enough for the Navy to orbital them.”
“Rog'.”
He gripped the M99 Stanchion Gauss Rifle and surveyed the battlefield as a UNSC artillery barrage screamed overhead with a ANGLICO team coordinating the fire support. O grabbed her own Stanchion and moved left to higher ground and prepared to meet the ODST Battalion Commander.
“You’re Red Team’s Ground Force Commander?”
“Yes sir,” she responded.
“How many you got?”
“Him and I,” she said after pointing towards Sam’s direction.
“We’ll spread out to fill the gaps and reinforce the lines. What’s the sitrep and what do you need?”
“We got two mechanized legions heading towards us with multiple heavy weapons. The ANGLICO team called in a request for an orbital strike, that’s on the way and should be here in 30 minutes. We’re running low on anti-tank weapons and need to fill the gaps in the line.”
“Roger, Weapons Company will setup and hit them with anti-tank. We’ll augment the remaining companies to reinforce the battle lines, and we’ll hold out long enough for the orbital strike.”
O nodded her head and looked across at Sam to give him a green wink on his HUD. They were in business. The Battalion commander headed back down to the Command Post and began directing his ODSTs into position.
Studying a Brute Captain Major, Samuel pulled the trigger and took his head off. The troops shrunk further back into cover while a pair of Wraiths pushed forward to lob plasma rounds at their position. Hitting 200 meters short, he knew the Wraith Commander was adjusting to hit him. Sam moved from his position and went right to another ledge where an ODST anti-tank platoon was setting up shop.
“Heads up, Sam. ODSTs will probably ask you for a sitrep.” O said over the TEAMCOM. “They think we’re the Red Team with the SPARTAN-II program as well.”
“Not surprised, thanks for the heads up.”
He moved far enough way from the platoon to not strike up small talk and went to work on taking out targets. The ANGLICO team notified everyone on the command net the orbital strike was 5 minutes out. Morale boosted hearing the Navy was ready to bring the pain while Sam continued to pick off leaders.
“Incoming!”
He ducked behind a rock and felt the strike. The ground shook violently as the Navy hammered the earth with almost everything in its arsenal. Free Fire area THERMITE was turning into a firework festival. Looking up, he saw Covenant vehicles exploding into purple flames, shrapnel flying across the land, and explosions only a child dreamed of.
“O, did ANGLICO call in a fleet?”
“A few destroyers and a longsword squadron.”
“Wish we had this CAS for Reach.”
He studied the wreckage and watched as two Scarabs were torn apart by the ordnance and smiled. The ANGLICO team announced the strike had ended, leaving most of the legions destroyed. Looking through his scope, he noticed something went wrong.
“Shit! That was supposed to take out both Draugrs!” one ODST called out.
“Sam, rally on me.” O said quickly over TEAMCOM.
He responded with a green wink and moved to the command post. At the post, he saw the ODST commander about to explode at the ANGLICO commander on the orbital bombardment. O nodded at Sam and the two decided to put their argument on hold to plan out the next steps.
“Given the failure of the strike to take out the Draugrs, we don’t have the firepower here to take it out from range with it still operational. We got a gun mission going up the chain of command to help soften it. Our arty is getting low and supplies is coming. We need that Draugr down or we’re fucked.”
“I can send one of mine to go handle it.” O said once the Marine battalion commander stopped talking. “Give him a charge and we’ll disable it. Have one of your anti-tank squads ready to take it out once it's down.”
The post stayed quiet for a minute. The ODST commander was surely thinking of a way to put his troops into a position to define the battle, everyone was. Even if the ODST commander wanted to, he had to go through the COP commander, the Marine battalion commander.
“Ok, Red Team, dispatch your one to conduct a demolition mission. He’ll be reinforced with an ODST company, and we’ll develop the situation from there.”
The ODST commander slammed his helmet on the holotable. “You want me to dispatch my troops to support a SPARTAN?! Do you think we are a fucking support element?! We’re ODSTs, feet first into Hell!”
Sam turned to the Marine commander and waited to see what was going to happen next.
“Colonel, you came here to rip into my ANGLICO team and berated my command staff. If you so happen to raise your voice to one of my orders again, I will shove your head so far up your ass, your own mother won’t know where you start and end.” He turned to O, “deploy your SPARTAN, the ODSTs will be there.”
She nodded and Sam made his way out of the post to run into a Marine squad.
“Oh shit! Look Larsen, it’s a SPARTAN!”
Sam looked down at the Marines and saw the squad’s gunner carrying a M739 Light Machine Gun.
“Trade?” he asked.
Sam gave him the M99 Stanchion, took the M739 and the two drum magazines. It was a standard LMG, and Sam made quick work to link the gun into his helmet.
“But I’m not scout sniper certified!”
“Hook up the target designator to your helmet, then it’s point and shoot.” Sam responded flatly.
The gunner only nodded yes and gave him a quick salute. Sam made his way down a ledge and to his M274 Mongoose kitted out in a Ground Reconnaissance Package to get to the scout point O pinged on his HUD Map. The LMG rested on his back, and he sped off towards the point without wasting time, descending down the mountain and along a convenient hiking path the locals walked.
Meeting up with the ODST Company, Sam ditched his Mongoose, grabbed a demolitions kit, and got a situation report from the Captain and First Sergeant. “Command said they were sending only one of you,” the captain said before laying it out. “My troops are spread out to cover you to the Draugr, you’ll be on your own once inside, but we’ll keep more from joining your party.”
“Layout?”
Sam watched as a scan of the Draugr appeared on a holo tablet. “It’s the command mobile fortress, you’ll want to make it to the command center to disable it. We’ve got reports of a War Chieftain inside we think is a Legion Commander.”
“Copy that. I’ll move when you’re set, sir.”
“Hey, before you go tin can, What’s your name?” Sam turned to look at the First Sergeant.
“Sam.”
“Sheeit, I had you pegged as a Foster. Alright Sam, we’ll cover your tin can ass.”
He turned back to the Draugr and waited for the signal. It was a straight shot down to the hill and he mapped out the path to make sure he didn’t fall. Once he saw the captain give him the signal to move, he launched himself towards the Covenant and began running down the mountain. His reaction time slowed, letting him balance as he focused on a Brute.
Patrol first, then bobo, we’ll get them all before they know what hits em.
A Grunt screamed in horror to see a SPARTAN sprinting right at him and tried to alert his peers. Sam tackled him, drew his M6C sidearm and shot him in the head. A few other Covenant troops curious about the screaming came to investigate, were killed swiftly. Sam moved up to the Brute, drew a knife slashed the back of his knees, watched him drop screaming in pain, and put one round of his sidearm into his head.
“Clear, moving.”
He readied his M739, flipped the safety off, and waited for the moment to engage another patrol. Three short bursts took down a couple enemies, and Sam moved forward. He closed the gap to a Brute Stalker and saw the enemy’s head explode by a well-placed sniper round. Grabbing a personal defense gauntlet, Sam attached it to his armor and sprinted towards the Draugr. Once inside, he surprised a group of grunts and cut them down with ease.
“Inside.”
“Copy, good luck.”
He grabbed a mobile deployable cover from an equipment stash and pushed down a hallway towards the stairs. Sam cut his way through the enemies on the ship and pushed up to the second floor, taking down more enemies. A Grunt aimed a Fuel Rod Cannon at him, forcing Sam to throw the deployable cover. The first shot forced the cannon to jolt up, letting Sam deactivate the shield, and kill the Grunt. Reloading, he continued his purge up towards the command center, taking out anything in his way.
First floor is clear, they’ll know I’m coming. I need to move fast.
A bodyguard grabbed his LMG, throwing it away and disarmed Sam. He activated the gauntlet, blocked a burst from a Mauler and pulled his M6C sidearm to engage the target. Two well-placed shots with his slowed reaction pierced the bodyguard’s skull and dropped him to the floor. Sam reloaded his sidearm, and pushed forward taking out three more targets, then grabbed his LMG after deactivating his gauntlet. He knew he was close to the command center.
I will not accept failure. We will kill them all.
One more floor up, Sam saw two bodyguards and cut them down. He breached the door to the command center, tossed in two frag grenades, and entered killing what remained. The War Chieftain swung his Gravity Mace as Sam activated the gauntlet. Sam was thrown across the room after blocking the swing as the Chieftain roared and stormed him. He dodged a second attack, grabbed a firebomb, and threw it at the Chieftain. Readying himself, Sam grabbed his knife and sidearm.
“No games, Spartan. Fight me! Your time has come! It is time to die your whimpering death!”
Sam waited for his next move, the Chieftain lunged, and he dodged. The mace swung wildly as he ducked, slashed his leg and heard his foe growl loudly as he stumbled back. Sam pushed forward, firing two shots, dashed left, and drug the knife through the flesh of the Chieftain's arm. His leg was grabbed and he was thrown into a far wall as the mace came hurling at his face. He ducked and felt it fly through the wall.
“I will crush your skull and parade your body across the home world. You will be meat for the animals! You will become my trophy!”
“If.” Sam replied.
The Chieftain charged Sam, he dodged the bloodied hand, stabbed his knife into his enemy’s throat and twisted it. Getting onto the back, Sam pulled the knife hard, widening the hole. He grabbed onto a pole above him, wrapped his legs around the neck of the stunned Chieftain and snapped his neck. Dropping down, Sam removed the helmet and shot him twice in the head.
“That was for Lynn, you fucking bobo.”
He put his pistol away, sheathed his knife and set the demolition charge. Grabbing the LMG, he sprinted down the ramps, out of the Draugr, and towards the ODSTs covering his retreat.
“Cover me, retreating.”
“Roger that. Don’t hit tin can! He’s retreating!”
Sprinting, Sam reached the platoon and provided covering fire as they retreated back up the hill. Once high and away, Sam took a knee behind cover and detonated the charge, destroying the heart of the Legion’s command. The Draugr’s command center exploded, causing the mobile fortress to drop onto the ground. An anti-tank squad blew it up and gave everyone around something to smile about.
“Oh, isn’t that a beautiful sight! Get some!” one ODST screamed with joy.
----
“Hey Aniela, check it out, we got SPARTANs here!” Kyon exclaimed while pointing at in the direction.
Aniela looked up to see two SPARTANs coming back inside the wire of COP Superior. She had arrived as a relief force for the battle tired troops earlier. Seeing SPARTANs for the first time was considered to be a religious experience for many, they were the beacons of hope for humanity. She finally understood why.
“Damn,” she said quietly. “I wish I had armor like that.”
“Yeah, they get shielding. Lucky bastards,” he replied
She couldn’t take her eyes off them and noticed how safe she felt with their presence. All the stories about their heroics were often published as a way to boost morale. Seeing two made her feel proud knowing they were going to beat the Covenant.
“Just look at them Ani, they’re already boosting morale around here.”
Looking around, the rest of the COP seemed to be silent as they watched the SPARTANs. All those damn stories were real, it wasn’t some bullshit from ONI Section Two.
“Should we ask if they’re a cyborg?” she said after being speechless.
“No! Section Three might kidnap you for knowing too much.”
==The Last Patrol==
An Operation: JOINT MONITOR patrol was no regular presence patrol for Red Team, their high-level security clearance gave them horrifying insights to why the Fleet of Retribution glassed Voi. Known as the Voi Exclusion Zone, it was under constant surveillance with CBRNE patrols to ensure the Flood was dead. The UNSC was more worried about the Flood than anything else, the parasite was on the capital world.
“Sam, how’s your sector looking?” Oriana asked over TEAMCOM.
“Quiet, yours?”
“Nothing,” she replied.
Sam knew he saw nothing, there was no activity in the sector since December. No matter how many scans and patrols they did, nothing happened. Yet, the area remained a high threat and wanted to keep a force ready to respond to a Flood threat.
“The UNSC says the War is over,” O said to Sam. “I find it hard to believe. Seems like they have their own civil war going on within the Covenant.”
Being out on the tip of the sword in fight, Sam knew the Covenant was far from done.
“Sometimes you need to figure out your own problems before waging a religious genocide against another species,” he replied while watching a computer. “Can’t do much if you’re fighting each other.”
“What do you think you’ll end up doing? Now that this is all over.”
He thought about the question since he never really paid much mind to it. He was a SPARTAN, trained to carry out his duty until he died or was forced to retire from the UNSC. The Great War didn’t look like it was ending anytime soon, what else was he going to do. He wanted to kill the Covenant and avenge his parents, nothing else mattered.
“Probably go to Special Weapons and do some long-range recon work. I’ll probably take a break from the fighting we’ve done the past three years and get out onto the frontier,” he said after a bit. “Maybe help train the next Company of SPARTAN-IIIs.”
O took a breath and studied the glassed landscape; it always looked the same regardless of the planet. “Training sounds nice. We’ll have to protect the trainees from Chief Mendez. From what you’ve said, seems like he hasn’t changed,” she said while looking in Sam’s direction.
“I wouldn’t expect Mendez to change anytime soon.”
The two sat quietly and watched, there was nothing to do. They had no targets, and they were stuck near an Exclusion Zone where there was no activity. O stood up and stretched before making it down from her observation post.
“Sam, meet me for a patrol.”
“Rog.”
He moved down from his observation post and met O at the link-up point she marked on the map. Feeling relaxed seeing her, Sam didn’t care about the BS and wanted to shoot the shit with O. The patrols together were a good way of unwinding from stress without feeling like ONI was looking over their shoulders.
“So, long-range recon?”
“Something like that.”
They moved into their standard patrol maneuver and trekked along the area, not wanting to go near the glassed area. Sam enjoyed the time they had together, he knew it wasn’t going to last forever, they had their own paths. No matter how much he tried to deny the reality, they were likely to go separate ways.
“When you were a Headhunter, what did you see out there?” she asked after turning left.
“Every world we went to had some sort of Covenant war production going on. Many theorized we were not going deep and only hitting their frontier colonies, ones found to help wage the war,” he said while studying the landscape. “Now, there’s a civil war and all those assets are for whoever gets there first.”
“Planets with the primary focus of creating material for war?”
“Sure seemed like it, Alpha and Beta took out critical infrastructure. We only delayed or sabotaged, dragging out their ability to produce. We could destroy, but sabotage did some more supply chain destruction.”
She nodded and kept moving, not wanting to remember Alpha Company and their demise. With ONI already breathing down her neck, the last thing O wanted to give them was a perfect reason to pull her from the field.
“Even after all we’ve done to hit Covenant infrastructure, do you think it was enough to deter them?”
Nodding no, Sam pointed at the Portal. “Not with that there,” he said quietly. “All those fanatics will want to complete the Great Journey and follow the Prophet’s guidance. We’ll have to be more on guard and ready. Remember how many Crusades there were?”
“Crusades? All we got was the Ancient Greeks and Sparta.”
“History lessons we got at the Headhunters taught us about the Crusades, a series of Holy Wars waged over a small plot of land more than 1,000 years ago,” he said. “Nine times the Crusades were declared on official account for the Holy Land. Now, we got this massive fucking Forerunner structure that leads to who knows where.”
“You think the Covenant will try to invade again?”
He nodded yes and took a breath. “If they had a strong leader, we might hold on after we rebuild.”
O agreed and understood why Sam wanted to get out into the frontier. He wanted to deter the chance of a Covenant splinter faction having enough power to overrun Earth. Picking off the right leaders with a small team did more to weaken the enemy than hoping they never came. After all, the Covenant knew where Earth was. Who knew who had access to the information and what might come of it.
“Sam, you always had an optimistic view,” she said after a long silence.
“Yeah, well, watching my parents die really brought out the positivity of what life offers.”