Havoc landed close to the stronghold when the dusk was suddenly lit with plasma cannons.
"Go, go get out now!" Aimilios yelled to Cat who took off and flew away.
"I'll be on standby for your pickup don't leave me waiting!" Cat radioed and Aimilios sighed.
"Goodbye Cat." He said turning off the mic.
"Ready?" He asked everyone else, they nodded and took off towards the fortress taking out any and all opposition.
After an hour they had fought their way past the main gates and up a few floors.
"Aimilios, I'm almost out!" Rookie yelled.
"Pick up a new weapon then new blood!" Cox yelled.
Aimilios meanwhile shot the last elite guarding the stairs.
Aimilios looked back to the rookie and saw a blur moving behind him.
He turned just in time to shoot the elite behind Rookie and it toppled over him. It was still alive but Aimilios walked up to it.
"Good try, thanks for waiting for me." Aimilios said and brought the Elites sword through its skull.
"Aimilios.... you saved my life!" Rookie said, still in shock.
"You're in my squad, I know you would all do the same for each other right!?" Aimilios said.
"Yes sir!" the squad yelled back.
In that moment, Aimilios felt proud, he had been so unsure of leading others in this war... but maybe, just maybe, that old coot of a commander knew what he was talking about.
"Maybe he was right, maybe I can lead." Aimilios thought silently and reloaded his rifle before heading to the stairs and to the final floor of the stronghold.
~~
"That Elite captain nearly had me!" Boom said with a laugh as they walked out onto the top floor of the stronghold and sat down while Patches radioed in for evac.
"This is Fireteam Havoc requesting liftoff, mission is complete and we are ready for home." Patches said into the comms.
"Roger that Havoc be advised you have pelicans in-route." The radio operator said from the other side.
"Havoc this is Cat I am inbound." Cat radioed a short time after.
"Rodger Cat, waiting with welcome arms." Patches said and ended the transmission.
"Well, job well done Havoc, looks like the commander was right to put us together!" Aimilios said, smiling and taking off his helmet again and breathing the fresh air.
"Oorah brother." Shadow said fist bumping Aimilios and sitting on the edge of the tower with him, as they say, nothing brings people together like fighting together against a common enemy.
"Who else kept count!? I got like 138?" Yin asked flopping down with Yang following his lead.
"Final score 150." Yang said with a smirk.
"That beats mine, 125." Shadow said with a smirk.
"Mine too, 107." Valkyrie said, sitting behind Aimilios but not taking her helmet off.
"HA I got like 200!" Boom said grinning and taking off his helmet exposing a long scar across his lower face.
"What did you get Ghost." Rookie asked with excitement.
"329." Aimilios said with a bit of a smirk.
"That adding the number you calculated from the warship?" Boom asked.
"Nope if I counted that I would be in the thousands." Aimilios laughed with a cocky grin.
Everyone laughed and waited for the Pelican to arrive, ready to at last finish this long day.
The pelicans arrived shortly after and everyone stood up and waited for them. A pelican flew and opened its hatch infront of Aimilios and there stood Cat.
"Hey Havoc, We got new orders, a different Unit is coming to take this place off our hands, and we are heading further into the fight. Commands already loaded onto the ship and everyone else is pulling out... ready to leave this god forsaken planet?" She asked and extended a hand. "Valkyrie go." Aimilios said and she jumped on board spanning the gap, Cat left to get back to the drivers seat and Yin and Yang jumped aboard in unison. Then Patches then Boom leaving only Aimilios and Shadow on the tower.
"Havoc, hold one, We're picking up a weird signal over here." One of the Marines at the base of the tower said over the radio.
"Everything okay?" Aimilios asked.
"Yeah looks like its just some covene.... Oh sh-!" The voice stopped suddenly as an explosion rocked the tower, and to everyone's horror it started falling... away from the pelican!
"Shadow! Go, now!" Aimilios shouted and started running for the edge and towards the pelican's edge, Shadow wasn't as fast as Aimilios and fell behind, in urgency Aimilios grabbed him and threw him onto the Pelican.
Aimilios was far away from the edge of the pelican, too far and he knew it.
"Jump!" Valkyrie yelled and Aimilios raced and put his foot on the edge and jumped. He felt like he was flying, and then he swung his arm and caught the edge of the pelican but couldn't grab it with his other hand.
His hand slipped down a little and it kept sliding.
"I got you brother." Shadow said diving forward and grabbing his hand just before he fell to his guaranteed death. Shadow hooked his feet on the opposite edge and pulled but he couldnt pull Aimilios up, then suddenly he was being lifted into the air and pulled into the Pelican, Aimilios looked around at the rest of the squad huffing with the effort of lifting and sitting down.
"We're all here go!" Rookie yelled and the pelican took off, the gathering twilight was filled with Plasma.
"Where did all these bastards come from!" Cox said firing down from the edge. "They were drawing us in..... the smart assholes." Aimilios said realizing with fear.
"Command is pulling us out!" Cat yelled and the hatch closed.
"How bad is it?" Aimilios said walking up front.
"You pissed someone off, they sent the fleet." Cat said and Aimilios saw the huge amount of ships in the air, there were UNSC ships that were keeping the skies as clear as possible.
"This is Commander Johnson, we are leaving, Get to a Pelican if you dont want to be left, T-5 minutes." Commander Johnson's voice rang out.
"This is Sierra 293, I have Havoc on board... we got them just in time." Cat reported and Aimilios went back to Havoc.
"You all alright?" He asked and they gave a thumbs up.
"We killed so many, they just keep coming." Cox said taking off his helmet and setting it down, the rest copied and set their helmets down breathing deeply.
"We have to get out of here.... the fleet, they were supposed to be dealing with the Chief over at the Halo?" Shadow said and Aimilios sat next to him.
"Somethings here, this was a small military world. No way they would risk a Halo for it." He agreed, taking his helmet off and sitting back.
"We're entering the atmosphere, get ready for a little bit of turbulence." Cat said over the radio.
"God I hate this part." Patches said, closing his eyes and leaning forward. The Pelican shuddered and shook violently for a minute then everything was calm.
"USS Armageddon this is Sierra 2-9-3 requesting permission to board." Cat asked from the front.
"Rodger 293 welcome back, 727, Command is waiting for you." The bridge replied and the Pelican flew into the ship and docked.
Aimilios sent the rest of the squad to the barracks for some rest. Then he sprinted down the hall and into the bridge.
"Nothing sir." someone said from a station.
"SCAN AGAIN!" Johnson yelled and turned to Aimilios.
"Good to see you made it back, tell me did you find anything at the stronghold?" Johnson asked and Aimilios shook his head taking off his helmet.
"I only found a whole lot of covenant." Aimilios reported and Johnson slammed his fist on the table. "We lost far too many men, why would they attack now! The other planets were taken with little resistance!" Johnson said.
"Somethings here, something they revere." Aimilios said looking at a world scan, it scanned again and nothing showed up.
"Scan the underground." Aimilios said looking at the new scan he saw something, something that looked out of place, right where the stronghold tower had been.
"There, what's that?" he asked and they looked closer. "It looks like a tunnel or elevator of sorts." one of the men said looking at the circular tube moving into the planet.
"Call High-command, this could be a forerunner artifact." Aimilios said, looking at Commander Johnson who nodded.
"What should we do in the meantime?" He asked and Aimilios smiled.
"Send my team." Aimilios said, equipping his helmet and walking out.
Aimilios ran all the way to the barracks.
"Havoc! On me!" He yelled and they formed up at attention in front of you.
"Alright, we have orders and I'm sure none of you are going to like it." Aimilios said and they looked straight ahead.
"We are going to buy reinforcements some time, as well as look at something that may be a forerunner artifact." Aimilios informed, the squad stiffened a little but didn't move.
"I am warning you right now, if you don't want to do this then stay here... you may live a little longer, but if you want to fight and give the rest of these people a chance then follow me!" Aimilios said loudly.
"Ooorah!" A chorus of voices echoed.
"We will follow you Ghost!" Shadow said loudly and a cheer went up.
"Then its up to us! Lets move!" Aimilios said walking out to what some may call a certain death.