Spartans Never Die

Enemy of my enemy

New York City

"We've got this. It's good, go." Romanoff told Rogers. Captain America, not wanting to leave his teammates in a bad spot as Chitauri infantry squads had dismounted the colossal airborne cyborg and were beginning to wreak havoc, asked them, "You think you can hold them off?"

"Captain," Barton said as he readied one of his specialized arrows, "it will be my genuine pleasure." He proceeded to drop three enemy infantry with one shot. Romanoff followed suit, raising two compact handguns and opening fire on the invaders.

Sprinting off the overpass and dodging Chitauri air attacks, Captain America moved to help protect the civilians who were in the line of fire. Luckily, so far the attack patterns of Loki's army seemed to be designed to cause shock and awe rather than having focused military objectives or causing excessive civilian casualties, but the constant hail of fire from the skies still endangered many noncombatants.

It seemed that Loki was confident enough in his army's superiority that he was focusing his efforts on drilling his supremacy into the minds of his new subjects. The supersoldier of the 40's intended to make Loki's arrogance come at a heavy price. Giving tactical instructions to initially reluctant police officers, the First Avenger returned to regroup with Black Widow and Hawkeye. Upon his return, however, he saw that the Chitauri infantry in the area had already been annihilated.

Impressed that the two non-enhanced Avengers had wiped out the larger alien force, Rogers congratulated them, saying "You guys weren't kidding when you said you could handle it."

Black Widow, panting, smiled and replied, "Told you, Cap," Then, gesturing toward the sky, she added as Noble Five's Sabre flew overheard, "Ok, to be fair, our new friend in air support might have gotten one or two."

America's supersoldier asked his UNSC counterpart, "Spartan-052, what's your status?"

Jorge responded to the Avenger, "My shields are holding out against the Chitauri weaponry. Stark's trying to draw the attention of the armored warbeast, which we've dubbed a 'Leviathan', while I've been mopping up stragglers."

As he finished his report, Jorge saw SBR display: "100 Covenant starfighters and gunboats are being deployed from the supercarrier, flying tight defensive patrols about its wreckage."

Warning the Avengers of the new threat, Jorge said, "Captain, we're going to be seeing more air traffic soon. The Covenant have recovered from the crash and are deploying their air patrols."

Captain America felt his gut turn. If what he'd overheard on the comms about the Covenant was true, they may turn out to be a more vile enemy than Loki or HYDRA ever was. It was fortunate that they seemed to be in a bad way, but it stunned Steve to think that the massive ship that had fallen out of the sky wasn't actually the full size of the vessel. If monsters with such power exist in the universe, it's a wonder that humanity is alive at all.

"Maybe Thor and his race do more for Earth than they get credit for, if this happens mere months after we're cut off from them," the Captain thought as he remembered the alien prince mention that Asgard had a policy of deterrence and swift retaliation against any interstellar invasions on the worlds of Nine Realms.

Suddenly, Thor rocketed through the air and landed beside the other Avengers, informing the others of his adopted brother's withdrawal from Stark Tower. "I have unfinished business with Loki." The Asgardian prince concluded.

Hawkeye, who had plenty of reason to detest the treacherous Asgardian, piped in, "Yeah? Get in line."

Captain America, deciding upon the proper course of action, stepped in and said, "Save it. Loki's going to try and keep this fight focused on us, but with the Covenant involved, that's not a good thing. Spartan-052, try to draw some of the Chitauri aircraft toward the Covenant air patrols. If we can get the two armies to attack each other, they won't prioritize civilians and finishing them off will be easier."