Mickey raised his rocket launcher up onto his shoulder, aiming at an enemy phantom that just flew over their position. He locked onto it and fired, the rocket shooting out at a speed double the phantoms and hitting the phantom in one of its engines. This caused it to crash to the ground in a ball of blue flame. Romeo climbed up onto the roof of a nearby building, setting up his sniper rifle on its bipod. He aimed down the scope, searching for targets. He zoomed in on a squad of grunts, hobbling uneasily towards the town. He fired four shots, all of them dead on. The last remaining grunt froze in fear, only to be taken out by a burst from the Master Chief's battle rifle. A brute charged up at the humans, going berserk. The Rookie ran up, firing his SMG at it, taking out its power armor. However, it just seemed to absorb the bullets as it knocked the Rookie off his feet. The brute moved in for the final kill, laughing to itself. The Chief looked over and noticed this, aiming his battle rifle at the brute and pulling the trigger. The Chief heard a click, signalling he had already used all of his ammo. He threw the battle rifle aside and charged up to the brute, tackling it. The brute pushed the Spartan off him and onto the ground, but the Chief quickly jumped back up, pulling out his combat knife. The brute roared in rage and charged at the Chief. The Spartan took a stance, readying his knife. As the brute closed in, he moved quickly to the left, forced the brute to the ground, and drove his combat knife into the base of his spine. After a few moments, the brute stopped struggling and laid limp. The Chief walked over to the Rookie and helped him off the ground. The O.D.S.T. nodded to him, picking up his SMG and moving along. The Chief pulled out his assault rifle, and aimed at two grunts that were wobbling up the street, firing at them and covering them with bullet holes, their fluorescent blue blood splashing against a nearby wall.

Dutch was manning the turret, blasting away at the charging Covenant. Another phantom landed out in the fields, dropping a wraith and three legions of infantry. Something tapped Dutch's leg. He looked down and saw the Spartan looking up at him.

“Dutch, I need you to drive the warthog; we need to take out that wraith,” he said, having to yell slightly to be heard over the sound of the wraith’s plasma mortar firing. The plasma round hit the nearby troop transport warthog, destroying it. Dutch nodded, jumping down from the turret and getting in the drivers seat. John climbed up and manned the turret.

"Hold on to your ass, Chief!" Dutch called out as the warthog lurched forward. It drove over a few hills at top speed, the Chief unloading on any Covenant in sight with the turret. As the wraith came into view, the Chief fired upon the wraith, killing the grunt that was manning the wraith's turret. It boosted forward, likely attempting to ram the warthog, but Dutch was able to dodge the wraith. The Chief aimed at the back of the wraith and opened fire, hitting its weak spot and quickly destroying it.

Buck looked up into the sky to see two pelicans come into view, both carrying scorpion main battle tanks. They hovered over the ground, dropping them into the town center. Two squads of Marines piled out from each pelican, some of them getting inside the scorpions, the rest charging up to reinforce the squad of O.D.S.T.s. One of the scorpions rolled past Buck, the ground shaking as it fired its main cannon. Several longswords flew over the town, dropping cluster bombs on the Covenant infantry. Buck took cover behind a barricade and peeked his head over it, noticing a squad of grunts hobbling towards his current location. He raised his assault rifle to his shoulder and opened fire, mowing down the squad of grunts. He walked up to them, looking at the small aliens, who were all surrounded by a pool of fluorescent blue blood. After making sure each was dead, he moved on.

"Your excellence, we have exited from slipspace and are drifting in at one thousand kilometers per hour, orders?" An Elite Zealot asked.

"Enter orbit over the drop-zone, I will leave you in command while I lead our brothers to the surface." The Arbiter said, jumping from his command chair and walking out of the bridge and along the halls to one of the many armories.

The armory was cold and spacious, shelves and racks of various weaponry covering all sides and angles, shelved crates filling the area in a grid pattern. He walked up to one of the shelves and grabbed a carbine, it's casing repainted green. He slung it over his back and attached it to the magnetic hardpoints, clipping a needler and an energy sword to his thighs. As he walked out of the armory to the hall, he saw a pair of hunters helping each other attach armor and weapons. 'They must have bonded long ago..' The arbiter thought, walking out of the hall towards the drop-pod bay.

Dutch drove the warthog into the town center and parked it. He and the Chief dismounted it, while three Marines jumped aboard the warthog, driving it up the street. Dutch took off his helmet and picked up a nearby water bottle, quickly drinking it down.

"Master Chief, I need a favor of you." Cole said from the Chief's helmet radio.

"What is it?" The Chief asked.

"I need you and one of the O.D.S.T.s to escort Princess Luna to somewhere safe. Can I depend on you?" Cole asked.

"Yes sir."

"There will be a pelican coming to pick you up in fifteen minutes."

"Understood." The Chief looked around, spotting a napping Romeo sitting in the shade. The Spartan walked up to him, nudging him. Romeo looked up at him.

"I'm going to need some help, think you can handle it?" The Chief asked him.

"You can count on me, Chief." Romeo said, using his sniper rifle to support himself as he stood up. He slung it over his shoulder, tightening its strap, and picked up a battle rifle that was leaned up against a wall. Soon enough, the pelican landed nearby, and the Spartan and the O.D.S.T. climbed aboard. Inside was a pony, both pegasus and unicorn, with a midnight blue, almost black coat, her mane a light blue.

"That is an alicorn." Cortana said, seemingly reading the Chief's mind.

"Ma'am." The Chief said nodding to her. Romeo sat across from her.

"I presume you are Princess Luna, correct?" Romeo asked. Luna nodded sheepishly. Romeo looked over at the Chief. "Well isn't she a cute lil' filly, eh Chief?" Luna blushed heavily at this, and the Chief shook his head.

"T-thank you?" Luna asked, a little unsure of herself.

"Isn't a problem at all, Princess." Romeo replied with a smug look on his face.

"Romeo, we have a job to do." The Chief pointed out.

"Sorry Chief!" Romeo said.

"No, no, Chief, it's quite all right with me." Luna said.

"Are you sure, your majesty? Besides, he should probably be focusing on the job at hand."

"I'm sure." Luna reassured the Chief.

"Alright..." the Chief said looking out the pelican bay door. As they passed over a mountain, two banshees screamed by them. They turned around and activated their boosters, attempting to catch up with the pelican. "Banshees!" the Chief called out as they opened fired. The bay door closed, right as a barrage of shots hit the door, the metal melting where it was hit on the other side. The pelican banked to the right, trying to evade the banshees. One of them managed to get a lock-on, firing its fuel rod cannon at the pelican. It missed the main body, but hit it in the engine.

"Brace yourselves!" The pilot called from the front as the pelican started rapidly descending. It turned on its side, crashing into the forest below. The Chief blacked out as pelican impacted the ground.

"Captain! We have enemy fighters inbound! Orders?" A crewman called out.

"Deploy all longswords and sabers we have in our inventory. Are the Elites deploying anything?"

"Yes sir! The Elites have roughly one hundred seraphs deployed right now, but the brutes have atleast two hundred inbound."

"Then let's give them all we got. Warm up all of our defenses and get those fighters deployed."

"Sir! I have a slipspace rupture coming from our six o'clock. It's the Aegis Fate, sir."

"Tell the Captain of the Aegis Fate our situation, and request he spare a few squadrons of fighters. Also, tell him to deploy all the ground forces he has. The Marines on Equis will need the back up."

Dutch pulled out his spartan laser, aiming at a ghost that was rapidly heading towards him. He charged it up and fired, a large red laser shooting out and instantly destroying the ghost. He quickly slung it over his shoulder, picking up his assault rifle and opening fire on a pack of brutes that were running over a hill to his right. He killed two of them before they returned fire, a spike from a brute captains spiker hitting him in the shoulder. He immediately fell to the ground, screaming out in pain and gripping his shoulder. He immediately got on the radio.

"Gunny, I'm hit, I need a medic!"

"Right, I'll send The Rookie to get you out of there."

The Rookie nodded to Buck, overhearing this. He loaded a fresh magazine into his SMG, hearing it click satisfactorily into place, and jogged past the Gunny, out toward the direction of his wounded comrade. Upon reaching the front lines, he noticed it seemed a bit too quiet for comfort. He slowed his pace stuck to the walls, cautiously scanning around the area for hostiles. He heard a pair of grunts a few meters ahead of him, and crouched behind a nearby mailbox to avoid detection. As the pair of stubby creatures hobbled out of an alley, their plasma pistols in the air, he took aim on the head of the alien closest to him, lining up his sights right between its beady little eyes. Goodnight… A muffled sputter emanated from his silenced weapon, and the grunt’s head jerked to one side, spewing a small fountain of fluorescent blue into the air. The second jumped at the sudden and violent death of his friend, and froze in place, moving only his head to glance about the area, terrified. The Rookie used the opportunity of its confusion to his advantage, and ran up to the helpless alien from behind. The grunt had just noticed his footsteps and began to turn around, only to be met with the butt-end of the ODST’s SMG. He hit it in the face with it as hard as he could, knocking off its gas mask, which fell to the ground in a haze of greenish-blue gas. The creature gasped for air and fell to the ground, inhaling sharply for precious methane. The Rookie thumbed the fire-select to semi auto, shooting it three times in the head with his SMG, and ending its misery. He continued on, slowly and cautiously, before reaching the end of the street, where he could see Dutch lying on the ground, unconscious. He carefully grabbed his arms and started dragging Dutch back into town. He heard a fierce roar, as he looked up, seeing a brute chieftain charging up to the two O.D.S.T.s. The Rookie raised his SMG to his shoulder, switching back to full-auto and opened fire, destroying the chieftains power armor before he ran out of ammo. The chieftain raised his gravity hammer, preparing to crush The Rookie and Dutch. Two shots from a magnum rang out, one shooting off the chieftains helmet, the other hitting him in the side of the head. It fell down onto the ground, blood gushing out of its head. The Rookie looked to the left to see a rainbow maned Pegasus, somehow holding the magnum in her hooves.

"You alright there?" she asked. The Rookie nodded as she helped him pick up Dutch, as they dragged him up the street. They soon reached the town center, where a medic and Buck were waiting. The medic walked forward, taking Dutch from the O.D.S.T. and the Pegasus. "So what's your name, anyways? I'm Rainbow Dash." Rainbow Dash held her hoof out to The Rookie, who took it and shook it.

"We call him Rookie." Buck said walking up. "Sorry, he doesn't really talk." The Rookie just shrugged it off.

"Oh." Rainbow Dash muttered, clearly embarrassed.

"Exactly how are you holding that firearm?" Buck asked.

"Well... each pony has a certain amount of magic that allows us to grip things with our hooves. It's typically easier to use your mouth, though. But you can't fire a gun with your mouth."

"And how did you learn to shoot?" Buck asked.

"Dunno, just watched you guys do it. It's pretty simple." Rainbow Dash shrugged.

Buck got an idea. "Ms. Dash, could you go to the refugee camp and ask for volunteers? If you ponies can use firearms, it would help greatly."

"No problem." Rainbow Dash saluted Buck before flying off, a rainbow trail behind her.

"Chief?" asked a shy, feminine voice. "Are you okay?" The Chief opened his eyes slowly, his vision blurred. He looked up to see Princess Luna standing above him, a few trickles of blood coming down from the side of her face.

"I'm alive." The Chief said, standing up. The two climbed out of the crashed pelican, where Romeo was waiting, his battle rifle at the ready.

"The banshees are long gone, but they will likely send in patrols to make sure we are dead. Why don't you two stand back while I set up a couple of trip mines." The Chief and Luna nodded, walking a safe distance away. Romeo climbed back into the pelican, coming back out with two trip mines. He quickly set them up outside the pelican and ran to the Chief and Luna. "We're good, let's move."

The trio walked a good distance away, trekking through the trees and shrubbery, before two explosions broke the silence.

"We should go." The Chief pointed out, moving a little faster. The others struggled to keep up with him.

Authors note - This is so far my first try at an action chapter, so if you have any advice or criticism, I will gladly take it.