Rainbow Dash and Zephyr walked through their makeshift firebase, looking at their defenses and equipment.

"Alright, what type of equipment do we have?" Rainbow Dash asked

"We have about thirty Marine and Militia volunteers, five scorpions, five heavy machine guns, small arms, and a missile battery to take out that cruiser." Zephyr responded.

"Do you think that is enough to hold out as long as needed?" Rainbow asked.

"Probably not, but we will have to try, won't we?" Zephyr replied.

"We've got Covies!" Alice called out as she raised her two SMG's, firing two long bursts into a group of skirmishers. They all fell over, lying in a pool of their own dark purple blood.

"Take them down!" A brute captain ordered, raising his spiker and firing a few shots in the direction of the Spartans. One of spikes hit Alice in the leg. She screamed out in pain and dropped to ground.

"Douglas, save Alice! I'll cover you!" Jerome screamed as he ran up to Alice, firing his assault rifle widely at the Covenant. Douglas charged up behind him and dragged a screaming Alice behind a fallen tree, where the Chief was taking cover.

"Alice is clear! Get to cover!" The Chief shouted to Jerome. Jerome nodded and fired the rest of his magazine, before running back to the Chief and the other Spartans.

"This is Spartan-092, we are pinned down! We cannot get to the evac point, over!?" Jerome shouted into his helmet radio.

"I copy, Spartan. We are sorry, there is nothing we-" Cutter began.

"Spartan-092, this is pelican flight Alpha three-three, we are in the area and are willing to extract you, over?" A new voice said over the radio, interrupting the Captain.

"I copy three-three, L.Z. is hot, how copy?"

After a short pause, three-three's voice returned. "I copy Spartan, we know the risks."

"Three-three, I am vectoring a flight of shortsword bombers to give you fire support." Captain Cutter stated.

"Much abliged,. Captain. We are in-route to the Spartan's location. Keep the coffee hot for us."

"Incoming!" A nearby Marine shouted.

"Here we go." Rainbow said, pulling back lever of her heavy machine gun and letting it spin up. She aimed it at squad of charging brutes, literally ripping them apart. A large amount of wraiths hovered forward, but a brute chieftain in black and gold armor stood in front of them.

"Be still, comrades!" It shouted. "We have but a small amount of defenders. Your plasma mortars will ruin their precious meat! Charge!" As it said this, the air suddenly became filled with the sound of hundreds of enraged roars, as hundreds of brutes charged forward, a mass of grunts, jackals, hunters, and skirmishers in tow.

"Open fire!" Rainbow Dash ordered. The five scorpion tanks rolled forward, firing their main cannons at a rate of a round every seven seconds. A mass of explosions started blanketing the Covenant infantry, but it barely putting a dent in their numbers. Rainbow Dash turned to Zephyr.

"Z! How many rockets do we have for the missile battery?" She asked.

"Plenty. Why?" Zephyr asked.

"Tell the Marines to fire their rockets at the Covenant infantry." Rainbow Dash ordered.

Zephyr nodded and charged up to the missile battery.

"Marines! Focus your fire on the Covenant infantry!" Zephyr shouted.

"On it!" One of Marines shouted back. Seconds later, the missile battery fired two barrages at the Covenant, a large explosion blanketing them.

"Shotguns to the front!" Rainbow Dash shouted. Fifteen Marines and Militia members armed with shotguns charged forward and jumped into a trench. The scorpions rolled past them, firing round after round until a mass of plasma mortars blew them apart. By then, hundreds of brutes charged past the remains of tanks and jumped into the trenches, ripping apart ponies and humans alike.

"Rainbow Dash, this is Cutter, we have one more MAC round. We are going to use that to take out the shield of that cruiser so you can take it out with that missile battery." Captain Cutter's voice said from Rainbow's radio.

"Understood! Good luck, Captain." She replied, before turning to the Marines manning the missile battery. "Be ready to take out that cruiser!"

"Yes ma'am!" They replied as the missile battery rotated towards the cruiser. Moments later, the Spirit of Fires MAC cannon opened fire, its MAC shell ripping through the shield and multiple hulls of the cruisers. This was soon followed by two barrages from the missile battery. The cruiser shuddered and exploded into a large ball of purple flame and plasma. Rainbow watched as it crashed into the ground and the Spirit of Fire flew off into space.

"We are away," Cutter's voice said over the radio. "Thank you for this..."

"This is shortsword flight Zulu Six-Two, we are closing in on the target area. Alpha Three-Three, are you ready to extract the package?"

"Affirmative." Three-Three replied. The pilot of Three-Three looked out of the cockpit at the five shortsword bombers and three longsword interceptors in front of him. They zoomed forward, dropping their cluster munitions onto the Covenant.

"Take cover!" Jerome shouted as he dived onto Alice, shielding her from the raining dirt and shrapnel. Two Vulture gunships hovered overhead, firing their deadly thirty millimeter cannons into the Covenant. A pelican hovered past the Spartans and landed nearby. The pelicans bay door opened and a few Marines jumped out.

"Get inside!" One of them shouted. The Chief helped the ponies on board the pelican while the others jumped aboard. The Chief then ran back to where they were taking cover, picking up Alice and jumping aboard the pelican. The pelican lifted off just as the Covenant took out the Vulture Gunships. The Chief patted Jerome's shoulder as the bay door closed.

"This is pelican flight Three-Three, we are away." Three-Three said.

"Do you have the package?" Cutters voice asked.

"Affirmative."

"Good job, Three-Three. See you on board."

The pilot of Three-Three turned off the radio as the pelican entered the orbit of Equis and flew towards the waiting Spirit of Fire.