Taking back the Homeland

"Falco! Wh-what are you doing here? I didn't know you were anywhere near here!" Kat exclaimed, eliciting a smirk from the avian just in front of her. He had docked his Arwing to theCat's Paw II, switching over to her more spacious cockpit where the two could talk without the static of a comm system on their words.

"I could ask you the same thing. I'm the person with this fleet, you on the other hand, are a lone wanderer. We're nowhere near Titania, so I don't know why you're here." Falco explained.

Kat shook her head. "It's not safe on Zoness, and sandstorms are high on Titania this time of the year. Both of the old hideouts are out of reach for me now. I've been hiding from the Serpentis patrols, but I managed to steal this fighter from one of their plants, repainted it more to my liking, upgraded the weapons a bit...nothing too fancy"

"So you don't have anywhere to stay then?" Kat shook her head.

"No, like I said, both hideouts are out of the question, so I've been staying in the ship. Why?"

Falco jerked a feathery thumb towards the Halcyon fleet just outside the viewport. "You can stay on the ships with us. We're about to jump through the system and drive on Corneria. If we can grab their leaders, then we can end the war then and there. We need all the ace pilots we can get for the initial air strike."

Kat looked out the viewport, looking at the warships surrounding her own. "I don't know Falco...I'm not the same pilot I used to be...I haven't had to fly for my life in years, and I don't know if I'd be of any use in the battle."

The avian put a wing on her shoulder. "Kat, you're still one of the best pilots I know. You think I don't remember your little escapades during the first Lylat Wars? When you dropped in and helped with the stealth raid on Zoness? Or helping save the Great Fox during that ambush in Sector Z?"

Kat shook her head. "No, I thought you had forgotten. You don't exactly have the best memory." Kat allowed a small smile to show on her mouth. "Alright Falco, I'll join you...but what do I get out of-"

Falco closed the distance between them and planted a kiss on her lips, the feline squeaking against his beak, her eyes wide open. It took her a few moments to realize what was happening, letting her close her eyes and start enjoying it.

Fate would have it that the second she realized what Falco was doing, he pulled away. "Consider that a down payment" He said with a wink. Kat smiled softly at the avian.

"Maybe I will, but just know that you don't get it back" The feline smirked at him and went back to the controls. "Alright Falco, whee do you want me to park this thing?" She looked back and the avian was gone. She felt her ship vibrate as Falco undocked from the Cat's Paw II.

As she turned back to the viewport, she saw his ship blast off towards the super carrier. Kat rolled her eyes and pressed the throttle forward, rocketing after him. She was surprised at the speed it possessed, actually able to keep up with the Arwing despite being as large and bulky as it was.

It wasn't long before the two single ships passed through the docking field for the hangar. Falco eased his ship into a small cleared out area, Kat following close behind.

As the ships landed and powered down, the two aces got out of their ships and looked around. Not many people were in the hangar bay, as most of the crew was sleeping, due to the time being around 2 o'clock in the morning.

The space outside, filled with pinpricks of stars, suddenly flashed a deep blue and then everything flared into a white canvas, than it went to pitch black, the only other things appearing being the rest of the battlegroup. The ships had jumped to slipspace. The assault on Corneria would begin in 7 hours.

"Kat, lets get some sleep, we only have a few hours, and knowing the scale of this attack, we'll need it." Falco stated, offering the feline his wing to lead her to where she would be staying. Kat nodded and slipped her arm around his.

"Such a gentleman" She said with a teasing smile. Falco rolled his eyes. "Always the flirt, Kat." The black feline grinned at him.

"Of course, you know me so well Falco," Falco sighed and started walking, breaching the bulkheads and starting down the halls.

It wasn't long before he reached the quarters where the pilots stayed, stopping at Krystal's room. "You can stay in here for the night, as Krystal's been sleeping in Fox's room for the past week or so, says it's because he has a lot of nightmares. I don't really blame him."

Kat nodded slightly and palmed the door release, allowing the steel to slide open and grant her access. "Thanks Falco...I guess I'll see you again in a few hours?" The avian nodded at her, giving her a thumbs up and palming the button, closing the door and leaving Kat to her thoughts.

(Transition)

Fox heard the alarms warbling through the ship, bolting out of bed and scrambling to put on his flight suit as he saw Krystal roll over and hide under the blankets, groaning. "Krystal, get up! We have to get ready to scramble!"

The vixen groaned again, making Fox shake his head and crawl over her, tearing the blankets from her grasp, revealing her, curled into a ball and trying to go back to sleep. Fox rolled his eyes and groaned. "Krystal, we have to go NOW."

Krystal sighed explosively and rolled over, getting up slowly and groggily equipping her violet colored flight suit. "I'm up, happy now?" Her normally wide open blue eyes were still half closed, narrowing even more as she yawned.

"Yes, now come on, we're in the first assault wave and I need to get the plan down. We launch in half an hour, so let's go." He took her hand and led her out of the room, sprinting down the hallways with her.

He could hear the alarms faintly in the back of his mind, and the clanging of his boots against the metal as he dashed through the purple steel hallways. The blood was rushing through his ears and his heartbeat was deafening.

He saw the doors to the hangar bay ahead, dashing through them and weaving his way through the traffic to get to the squadron. Damon, Falco, and the Star Wolf team was there, but he didn't recognize the black feline with them.

"Who are you?" Fox asked, wondering where she had come from.

The feline only smiled. "It's been awhile Foxy" The vulpine recognized that voice quickly. "Kat! When and how did you get here?"

Kat pointed at Falco. "Flyboy found me drifting around last night and asked if I wanted to join up with you guys. I said yes, but it took a little persuasion on his part." Kat winked during the last statement.

Fox blinked, shrugging off the initial shock of seeing her after all these years, Damon snapping him out of it.

"Alright, we're the first assault wave. Our spies have indicated a special ace is mixed in with the ranks of the normal pilots. Of course, these normal pilots go down easily enough, but this ace...I haven't seen anyone like him in years. He flies a special fighter with a crescent on each wing, he goes by the name 'Ozone', because when he gets you in his sights, that'll be all that's left of you. He's their leader from what I've heard, and his name is Solomon Serant. So far, we know he's a high value target and must be shot down if we are to succeed."

Fox stepped forward. "Colonel, you said he had a crescent on his wings?" Damon nodded. "he's real..." Fox mumbled quietly.

"Something wrong Fox?" Damon asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, nothing's wrong, I've just been having a lot of nightmares lately, most of them involving an enemy ace of that description, usually shooting me down. I don't know..I think I'm gonna meet a real challenge today..I just hope I'm wrong about that prediction..."

Damon nodded, turning back to the display. "Alright, you guys heard the Colonel, if this guy's bad enough o shake him up like this, then we're ready for a real fight if we want to get our home back. Stay sharp, stay with your wingman, and above all else, come back alive."

The squadron let out a roar of approval. They were ready, and they were going to destroy the enemy in the skies of Corneria today.

(Transition)

Solomon growled and turned, backhanding the other serpentis officer hard enough to knock him off his feet. "What do you mean that an enemy fleet just jumped in! I told you to monitor the entire system! They couldn't have jumped from Titania all the way here unless they used a warp gate, and they don't have the resources or time to build it, so tell me how they got here!"

The officer lay on the floor of the command center, trembling. "I don't know sir. I just got the reports and brought them here. I don't know how they did it, and even if I had a chance of finding out, I wouldn't have the time to study it."

Solomon growled again, this time more menacing and dripping with malice. "Whatever, get all of our forces back here, I want fleets jumping in behind the Halcyon forces and flanking them while our planet battlegroups box them in. Scramble every single fighter and soldier we have, NOW!"

The officer nodded, scrambling away as quickly as his arms and legs would pull him, going to give the order to the operations controller.

Solomon turned back to the data pad in his hand. The tiny screen was filled with text, all of it based on the vulpine in the picture: Fox McCloud. "So, the child has returned. My pawn is no longer here to use as an illusion. Not like I can bring him back now anyway, dying three times at the hands of the same pilot doesn't make me want to use him again. Fox knows his weaknesses...but not mine. I got rid of James, and I can just as easily destroy Fox..." he turned to an aid beside him. "You, get the technical crew to prep my ship, I'm going up as soon as the enemy fighters hit the atmosphere." the aid nodded, hesitating a bit. "Go, NOW!"

The aid hurried away as the officer had done before him, not wishing to incur the fleet master's wrath. Solomon turned back towards the viewscreen, looking towards the blue skies of Corneria, knowing they would soon be filled with swarms of fighters. "Soon, McCloud, soon..."

(Transition)

"John...you're being sent back down again, aren't you?" Cortana asked, her eyes pleading to him that she didn't want him going into another battle. "Your luck almost ran out on the Ark, it's going to run dry eventually...maybe even when you get there."

John frowned. "Cortana...I have to do this. It's what I was born to do..." He hugged her, trying to reassure the brunette. "I'll make it back, I promise."

Cortana thought for moment, remembering the last time he had promised her something. "...and when you make a promise..." John finished it for her. "I keep it."

She sighed. "John...I want you to promise me something else...when you get back, promise me you'll try to retire...for my sake. I can't help you anymore in those battles like I used to..." John thought for a moment, all of the times she had saved him those many years ago before he relented to her.

"...I promise."

(transition)

Wolf looked at Panther, Leon, and finally Olivia. Panther and Leon saw the two lock eyes and thought to give them a bit of privacy, going to check on their ships. The departure of the two left Wolf and Olivia alone. The lupine looked at her slightly bulging stomach. "Olivia, I'm gonna have to ask you to stay on the ship for this one..."

The husky was silent, biting her lip and looking at her crimson flight suit sitting on wing of her Wolfen, right next to the howling wolf emblem painted next to the cockpit. "But Wolf-"

The lupine cut her off. "I don't want to risk it. You're still learning, and this is the biggest battle of the war. Hundreds, if not thousands of ships will be in this furball, maybe even capital ships. Do you know how much flak coverage a destroyer has? Enough to put a polka dot pattern in a single ship from a mile away. When we go in to attack, we'll be meters from their guns, making it that much easier to hit us. If you had gotten time in before this all started, like Krystal, then I would have considered it, but I don't wanna lose you...or the child you're carrying."

Olivia looked back at the father of her unborn child, the little wolf-husky curled inside her, barely beginning it's growth cycle. "Alright...but if you don't make it back, I'll kill you." She said, smiling softly at the one eyed mercenary leader.

Wolf's face cracked into a rare smile. "Deal"

(Transition)

Fox and Krystal stood beside each other, their hands interlocked as the briefing began. They looked around the room, spotting Wolf across the crowd, a picture in his hand, his face locked in a look of determination. The Master Chief sat with his arms crossed, his face expressionless behind the golden visor as far as they could tell, with the Sangheilli arbiter, now clad in jet black armor with a few glowing orange marks where the lights in his armor were sitting next to him. Damon sat next to Krystal, staring at the holograph of their forces, his mind racing on what to do once he got into his fighter.

Falco and Kat were in the back row of the circular seating that everybody else was in, Kat leaning against the Avian, a blue feathered arm wrapped around her waist. Slippy and Peppy weren't there. Both of them had been locked in maintenance and planning since the invasion of Katina.

Fox saw the lights begin to dim as General Pepper, Fleet Admiral Hood, and Fleet Master Vadum step to the center of the room, where a small projector buzzed to life, a tiny blue hologram coming to life and coating the faces of the Human, Lylatian, and Sangheilli pilots in a soft blue tint.

General Pepper pressed a few buttons, a map of Corneria expanding from the tiny blue hologram in planetary format. "This is Corneria, our objective and what's going to end this war. Our mission is to clear the space around Corneria of any enemy ships. This will be taken by the Sangheilli and Human navies and air fleets, with the Lylatian navy and air force providing support. Once spacial superiority has been achieved, the ships in space will lower themselves into the atmosphere and provide close support to the ground forces after gaining atmospherical air superiority."

Admiral Hood took over from there, highlighting several points on the planet. "After the navies and air forces have gained control of the skies and space, we will send in thousands of assault boats, each containing a brigade of infantry and armor. After gaining a foothold on the planet, the brigades will form into regiments, eventually completing our force of 143 regiments. They will each get assigned to a corps, and then an army to organize them better. These highlighted areas are where most of the forces will land, and after gaining a better knowledge of enemy deployments, we will put more on the surface where they are needed."

General Pepper highlighted an area in red, circling it. "This is Corneria city. This is where we know the enemy will hold out after we push far enough inland. This is our main objective for the last phase of the mission. The commanders will take over and give commands from here. The commanders for the ground armies will be myself, Admiral Hood, and General Phosphate of the Cornerian 2nd Army before we evacuated the planet at the start of the war, now promoted to four stars. The leaders of the Navies will be Fleet Master Vadum and Admiral Harper of the UNSC navy. The air forces will be led by General Swan, and once they breach the atmosphere, command will be handed over to Omega Colonel Ballard and Colonel McCloud."

"Now, once we have cornered the enemy at the capital, send in everything, don't let up even for a second. You never know what a desperate enemy will do, and when we corner them, that's exactly what they will be. We launch in 30 minutes. Get to your ships and prepare to launch. Dismissed."

(Transition)

The pilots gathered around their cluster of ships. Damon sat at the lead landing gear piece of his interceptor Raptor. Krystal, Fox, Falco, Kat, Wolf, Panther, and Leon stood there, waiting for him to say something.

"I want you all to check your ships while you have the chance. Make sure they're fully fueled and armed, perform as much light maintenance as you can. We don't have much time, so get to it." The Omega Colonel stood and turned around, beginning his own maintenance checks as every body scattered to their ships.

Fox and Krystal looked over their ships, each of them finishing up quite quickly and going to help others get their ships prepared. Fox stopped next to Wolf, crouching down to hold a piece of paneling open for the struggling Lupine. "Need some help?"

Wolf looked over at Fox, startled slightly. "Yeah...thanks Fox" Wolf reached back inside where he had been tinkering and tightened one more bolt, then pulled out and gave Fox the thumbs up to release the paneling so he could bolt it back in place

"What were you looking at in the briefing room?" Fox asked. Wolf bit the inside of his cheek. "Olivia...she's staying on the ship for this battle. She's only flown a little bit, not enough to be considered for a flight in this battle. I don't want her flying...especially not with her pregnant..."

Fox's eyes widened a bit. "She's...pregnant?" Wolf nodded. "I'm not going to risk losing both her and the baby. I don't know what I'd do if I lost either of them."

Fox looked back at the Wolfen in front of him, the red and black coating looking as intimidating as it's pilot. "I understand...but Wolf, just try not to get too wreckless. You don't want to put them in the situation I was in..."

Wolf nodded. "I know. I met your father once, but it wasn't for long. Basically a few card games on a distant supply station when I was beginning my mercenary career, about 13 years ago...We need to continue this some other time. I need to talk to Panther and Leon for a few moments, and you would do well to do the same with your team."

Fox smiled a bit. "Yeah, I'll do that. Thanks Wolf." Fox turned away, beginning to go back to where his ship sat. "Fox." The vulpine turned at the mention of his name, Wolf took a few steps forward, holding his hand out. "Good luck Fox." The vulpine took his rival's hand and grasped it firmly, shaking it. "Same to you Wolf."

Once the two parted ways, Fox stepped into the circle of his peers. Each of them smiled at Fox, even the normally stone faced Damon. "Alright you guys, today, we end this war. A year ago, this war sent us on an exodus from our planet, and today, we take it back. Does anybody remember what tomorrow is?" Nobody shook their head. "Tomorrow, is Christmas, and I'm sure that a lot of people want to be home for Christmas. That blue planet...that's our home, and we're taking it back." The pilots around him cheered, Fox's little motivational speech skyrocketing their morale.

Alarms blared as the call to launch came in, and the hangar shields went up, the doors opening up to reveal the enemy fleet and Corneria in the distance.

Fox climbed into his fighter, and everybody behind him did likewise, the ships called in a countdown clock to where they would all rocket out of the bay at the same time. Within thirty seconds, the timer hit 00, and the delta formation rocketed out of the bay, forming up into squadrons of four. Fox, Kat, Krystal, and Falco formed the first formation, and Wolf, Damon, Leon, and Panther formed the second.
Two cruisers came into view, and they were closing fast. Fox keyed his communicator. "Alright everyone, we're gonna blast one of those cruisers out of orbit. Wolf, your formation will go after the one on the left, and everybody else hits the one on the right. Strike on my mark. The one on the left is Master 1, and the right one will be Master 2. Strike...now!"

The flight broke off, each heading in for their respectful target. Fox led his squadron in close, rolling through the laser fire, seeing enemy ships and allied ships alike blossoming into fireballs as space was completely covered in red and blue strobes of death. Fox went into a dive, hiding his ship in the crevice that ran along the lateral lines of the cruiser, where the guns couldn't reach. "Form in behind me, I'm taking shots at the shield generator, try to blown them out of commission on your passes, we won't get another shot at this without taking heavy damage."

He saw the rectangular generator behind next to the hangar. He jammed the firing studs, twin blue lasers screaming from the ports under the wings. He got within 10 meters and rolled out of the way, then banked into a tight turn, rolling around just in time to see the rest of the fighters pass by, and when Kat slipped by, her heavy cannons taking out the last bit of resistance keeping the shields up

"Yeah! Bulls-eye!" Kat yelled, turning to form up behind the rest of the flight. "Good job Kat, now get ready to pass through the hangar and take out the inner power generator, it'll stop their fire for about 2 minutes, just enough time to get the heavies in and finish it off." Fox said, going through what would be next.

The group went a kilometer out, then turned and gunned it for the opening in the ship, little bodies tumbling out into the cold grasp of the void, suffocating in the vacuum. Fox and the rest of the flight screeched through the hangar, firing wildly and hitting the generator.

When they came back out on the other side, the guns were dark, knocked out of commission until the engineers could get them back up. Fox called in heavy support. "This is Colonel McCloud, the cruiser on the right has been silenced. Shields and weapons are down, but not for long. We need a destroyer or higher to beach this whale."

The comm responded almost immediately. "You got it Colonel, Battleship Orpheon moving in to put a hole through it." Fox heard the human captain drawl through the comm as a hulking battleship lumbered into range, it's MAC cannon, a cannon that would launch 300 tons of tungsten at whatever it was targeting, spit out 3 rounds.

The cruiser tried to turn and make itself a smaller target. The white hot metal that was flying across space impacted the cruiser's nose, gutting the ship from stem to stern and knocking it back a few hundred kilometers, spinning around and venting atmosphere, causing it to tumble out of control.

The second shell hit it in the rear, knocking it's engined completely off, the momentum transferring and knocking it even closer to the planet. It would soon get caught in Corneria's gravity well.

The third and final round hit the ship right where it's fusion reactor was. When the reactor overloaded, hundreds of mini suns blossomed through the gray colored steel ship. It started to fall into the gravity well, trapped with no form of propulsion as it began to burn up in the thermosphere, a cone of fire forming around the doomed cruiser.

(Transition)

Wolf saw the first cruiser tumble into Corneria's atmosphere, bulbous and bloated from the explosions still decimating it's hull. "Alright you guys, they know what we're trying to do, we need a new tactic. The same thing won't work twice. We're gonna take out the engines first. Be careful though, they've activated their gatling lasers. Those things don't have to aim, all they have to do is cover every square inch of space and eventually they'll hit us."

Wolf flew towards the rear of the cruiser. "Arm your smart bombs and aim for the engine you're aligned with." Wolf formed the flight into a flying diamond. He was the top, Leon was on the left, Panther was on the right, and Damon was on the bottom. "Strike...now!" Each member released their bombs and peeled away from it their course so they wouldn't get caught in the blast.

They looked in their radars and saw huge thick spots where the cruiser engines would be. "Alright, turn and check it out." The flight tuned and saw the shielding flare and fail. "Alright, fire away and take those engines out!" The flight went back in, gunning their afterburners and hitting the firing studs as fast as possible.

They saw explosions as the engines hit critical levels and exploded. "Strike!" Wolf cried out as the same battleship from before saw the events unfold and moved in. "Star Wolf team, this is Battleship Orpheon, coming in to clean up"

Wolf pressed the comm button. "Roger that Orpheon, Star Wolf team looking for more targets." The Battleship pulled back in, opening it's archer missile tubes and launching all of it's missiles. Each pod held eight tubes, and in each tube sat 10 archer missiles. Orpheon fired all 186 pods. Over 14,000 missiles launched after the cruiser.

The warship never stood a chance. As soon as the first missile hit, it was doomed. Fire blossomed across the cruiser. In the entire minute and a half that it took the missiles to hit, the hull plating was vaporized, leaving nothing but a floating skeleton. Hundreds of thousands of goblets of molten steel and titanium floated around in space where the cruiser used to be. "Both cruisers are down! Air Force and Navy, you are cleared for atmospheric entry! Orpheon out!"

Wolf pressed a few buttons. "Hey Fox, it's time for stage two of our mission. Meet me over Vol city, 200 miles southeast of Corneria City. Wolf out."

(Transition)

Fox kept the squadron formed up, waiting for Wolf and his half of the wing to arrive. He saw the three Wolfens and Damon's interceptor, and started pushing his throttle forward a bit, increasing in pressure the closer they got.

He was pushing all the way by the time the wing was back together. "Good job out there, Wolf" Fox said, congratulating the lupine on his performance. "You weren't too bad out there yourself, pup...gettin' a bit sloppy though" The lupine flashed a toothy grin in Fox's direction.

"Right, whatever you say Wolf...change to a fleet wide comm channel." Fox pressed a few buttons, adjusting his frequency, as did the rest of the aces. "This is Colonel McCloud, all pilots ready for battle form at Lagrange point three. We need to launch into the atmosphere in five minutes to keep our momentum. Anybody needing to rearm and refuel should do so now, before the fur starts flying...no pun intended."

Fox waited for the next five minutes, and over that short span of time, hundreds of fighters formed on their wing, as well as three UNSC Cruisers and a single Leviathan class dreadnaught. The dreadnaught, named Regence, was the pride of the Cornerian navy. The four capital ships would provide anti air fire and ground support to the advancing troops.

Fox heard Admiral Harper broadcasting on the Regence's channel. "Colonel McCloud, Colonel Ballard, this is Admiral Harper. I've been given command of your dreadnaught, hope you don't mind." Fox smiled a bit. "Not at all, Admiral, as long as you can handle her."

Fox heard the human man laugh. "You got it Colonel, I'll keep her in one piece. I'm right behind you when we go in on this, so try to show me why you're so special around these parts" Fox smirked. "Is that a challenge, Admiral?"

"You bet your a*s it is, Colonel!" Fox laughed again. "Alright, I'll try not to show off too much." Fox looked at the mission timer. The rendezvous limit had 10 seconds left. "Alright, 10 seconds, get ready for the battle for Corneria. In 5...4...3...2...1...LAUNCH!" Fox pushed his thrusters to the max, and so did every other pilot in the formation, the capital ships steaming after them into the atmosphere.

The battle for Corneria had just begun.

(Transition)

Solomon stared at the display. "Looks like I may have to actually destroy him. A pity." Solomon turned from the display, looking at an aid. "You, go, have them prep my ship for battle." The aid nodded, quickly running from the room.

The Serpentis leader looked back at the display and noted that there were eight special ships at the head of the formation, one of them looking as if to be the leader. You'll be with your father soon McCloud..."

(Transition)

The Master Chief checked his weapon once more, strapping himself into the drop pod. All around him he saw more black armored figures getting into HEV's not unlike his own. The Helljumpers were deploying in force today. They would lead the assault into the capital, clearing the way for armor and later artillery emplacements.

The ODST's quickly grabbed their gear and packed into pods. This time, not just 600 Helljumpers would be dropping into hell, but thousands of them, all of them armed to the teeth. More Sangheilli shock troopers would be dropping with them.

The pod doors suddenly closed, and the HEV started to turn around. John could see all the other pods lining the stomach of the troop transporter . ODST's were prepping themselves for the drop in the final seconds. The red light at the top of the display began to blink, getting ready for the launch as soon as it beeped three times and turned green.

Colonel Ortega, the ODST regimental commander from before, appeared on the viewscreen to the left, his visor tinted blue as it polarized. The right screen flickered to life, another ODST appearing, but the trooper's visor was golden, rather than blue.

The golden visored trooper had finished checks and sent data packets to each of the ODST's in the drop-group. Lieutenant Commander Elizabeth Roebuck, their regimental commander this time around, despite the fact that Ortega outranked her.

Ortega called out to his troopers. "Troopers! We are green, and very, VERY mean!" The red light beeped. Once...twice...three times and flashed bright green, launching the thousands of pods from orbit into the atmosphere.

The ODST's could see the wreckage from the space battle. Hulls and skeletal structures floating around in space, both Halcyon forces and Serpentis forces alike. They looked like whale bones floating around in orbit.

The shock troopers dropped through a layer of clouds, giving them a glimpse of Corneria City. Ortega piped up. "Commander, 15 klicks off the deck."

Roebuck nodded. "Get ready troopers, we'll be boots to the dirt in 45 seconds." Every ODST knew that when you had a time until you hit the ground, it would make it even longer. Every second that ticked by meant you sat through another second of possibly getting hit by anti air fire, or another second for your HEV to malfunction and cause you to fall to your death.

Green strobes went off in the distance, and it wasn't long before fiery green lances of plasma started flying through the mass of pods. A few were hit and either vaporized or turned into a pile of slag mid-flight. The anti air guns had started going off.

The Chief saw the altimeter and tensed himself up as the pod hit the ground. Everything went black.

(Transition)

Fox saw the green strobes in the distance and knew the Helljumpers had begun their assault. "All attack class pilots, go in for the AA guns. Interceptors go in fast and hard, knock as many of their ships out of the sky in one pass as you can. Watch out for friendly fire though and try not to get yourselves killed".

The mass of fighters, bombers, and interceptors split. The bombers and attacker aircraft lumbered along, the fighter class ships lagging along behind with them for close support, and the interceptor class ships screaming away to get into a shootout with the enemy ships.

Fox, Damon, Krystal, and Falco shot through the skies, vapor cones forming on the noses of their ships as they broke the sound barrier almost immediately. The four ships continues to accelerate even further, with around another hundred interceptors trying to keep pace.

Kat, Wolf, Leon, and Panther continues to slowly make their way across the skies to their targets. The Star Wolf team's Wolfens had been converted to attackers. Wolf saw the little red dots indicating mission critical targets at the far edge of his radar screen. "50 miles from the closest target, keep current speed and formation"

The interceptors were just getting ready to start their battle. Fox pressed a button, arming his smart bombs. "Arm smart bombs. Contact with enemy waves in 30 seconds. Fire smart bombs on my mark." They continued to close in until the timer read distance was only a mile. "Mark Fire all bombs now!"

The interceptor wave launched their bombs, over a hundred little red dots rocketed from the Halcyon interceptor force, quickly closing on the Serpentis air cover. Fox counted down in his mind. "3...2...1..."

Fox's vision went white as all the nova bombs exploded in the midst of the enemy formation.

(Transition)

John's vision cleared, and he could see blurry figures. He looked around, shaking his head to try and clear it. He could see the cracked door blast door of his HEV. There was a blinking red light where the firing stud activators were to blast the door off.

He pressed all four of them but nothing happened. Cursing, the Chief unbuckled his harness, planting a foot on the seat of the pod. He pushed off with that one leg and shouldered the blast door off it's frame, falling forward. "Crap." Two ODST's came and tried to help him up. It was Ortega and Roebuck. "Chief, it's time to move up." Ortega stated.

"How far in are we?" John asked, still trying to clear his head completely. Roebuck sent over a map to him. "We're about two miles from the capital building. Only 20 ODST's could drop into the area we went into. All the others were scattered and had to join up with other formations. We can sneak around and get in the back of the building if we're quiet enough. From what I'm guessing, they didn't see us drop in here, and if they did, they only sent a few small patrols out, thinking we can't do very well in a firefight with them."

John studied the map, then closed it in a file that was easy to access from the central menu. "Alright. Lets get moving." John pulled an MA6D assault rifle from the pod's interior and inspected it for damage. It was a standard issue assault rifle. It hadn't differed much in appearance from the human-covenant war a few decades back. He also grabbed a shotgun from the inside of the pod as well, sliding it onto his back and clamping it there magnetically.

The ODST's split into two groups of ten, Roebuck going with the first group and Ortega and the Chief going with the other. Ortega was on point, his rifle shouldered. Every so often the trooper on point would stop, cautioned in case of an enemy patrol.

The squads continued like this for about half an hour before the trooper on point for first squad suddenly dropped to the ground, the rest of the squad dropping as well. John, saw two huge serpentis troopers lumber into view. Normally, the serpentis army consisted of various forms of reptiles, but these two soldiers were enormous, and looked a bit like dragons.

They were both easily 9 feet tall, a pair of wings sprouting through their armor, the sun reflecting off the armor and their scales. One was green, and wore elaborate gold armor, andhis cohort was black, red armor coating his body. The gold armored trooper relayed orders to the red armored ally, rows of sharp teeth bristling in his mouth like that of a shark.

The gold armored serpentis suddenly stuck his nose in the air, sniffing it. His claw dipped for the weapon at his thigh.

"Open fire!" the trooper on point shouted, standing and unloading on the serpentis with his assault rifle. It burped round upon round of fire at him, the rest of the squad firing as well, causing a chorus of gunfire to drown out the screams of pain coming from the enemy. His red armored comrade hesitated, then turned tail and ran. John saw and put his weapon away, sprinting after the enemy and catching up quickly. He dove for the dragon's legs and took him down, crawling on his chest and hammering him with his fists, knocking teeth askew and hearing it's snout crack as the bones were pulverized by the warrior's two handed barrage of steel.

John pulled his right hand up and brought it as far back as he could before rocketing it down and crushing the enemy's skull. He stood, shaking the gore off his gauntlet and looking around. The gunfire had ceased and the troopers were coming out of the woods around him, looking away from the gorey mess. Ortega looked down and nodded. "Alright, there goes our element of surprise. I'm sure they had to hear that at their command center, but just to be sure, we're going dark again. I'd prefer we don't have any more confrontations like that. Get back on track."

The troopers formed back into a column, heading towards the capitol building.

(Transition)

Fox watched as the bombers executed their runs on the target positions. He saw the radar was clear, save for a single dot approaching at high speed. "Hey, anybody else getting a single dot on their radar screen? It's coming up fast."

The rest of the flight checked and sent their responses. "Damon keyed his mic. "I've got one coming up. I don't know what it is but-" Damon was cut off as another voice broke through to the channel. "Colonel McCloud. I've been waiting for this since I killed your father"

The channel was silent for a moment. "What's wrong McCloud? Did I hurt your feelings?" Fox turned towards the radar dot and saw a glint in the sky as the fighter approached. It opened fire on the group. "Whoa!" Falco yelled out as he tried to dodge it. Falco's eyes widened as the lasers closed in at incredible speeds, and before he could move, one of them carved through his left wing, sending him spiraling towards the ground. "Mayday! Mayday! This is Major Lombardi, I am going down! Bailing out over the residential district!"

The channel was filled with static as Falco grunted, pulling his ejection lever. An explosion resounded through the comm as his seat blasted free. Fox looked down as he saw a chute erupt from the blue dot that was his wing man. "Falco's chute is out! He's alright!"

The ship passed through the flight as they were watching Falco eject. Fox turned in time to see a crescent on the wing. "The crescent fighter...you're real...Everybody, get out of here. It's Solomon!"

Fox broke from the formation and chased after Solomon. "Are you coming for me, Star Fox team leader?" Fox grunted as he pulled in behind Solomon. "Yeah, and I'm gonna shoot you down!" Solomon laughed, hitting his afterburners and rocketing away. Fox saw a bomb dangling from the wing of Solomon's fighter. "What's the matter Solomon? Can't drop your bomb?" Fox could tell he was going to use it on the Halcyon ground forces. It was big enough to be nuclear. "I'm going to destroy your army, but I'm going to destroy you first,Colonel"

Solomon looped up and around the Arwing, firing his lasers once he got in range. Fox could only pull hard on his flight stick and barrel rolled through the laser fire. Fox dipped towards the ground and screamed across the roads, skimming between buildings with Solomon hot on his tail. Solomon began to close in, pushing his fighter to it's limit to catch up, when suddenly Fox pulled a left and disappeared between a pair of buildings.

Cursing, Solomon looked down. Fox had disappeared from his radar. He began to pull up from the street level when his ship jumped, causing him to look around. Fox was behind him, unleashing a hail of lasers at him.

Fox heard the comm channel open. "Colonel McCloud and Solomon have disappeared from radar, this is a battle between aces." Solomon continued to take damage before he peeled away towards the Halcyon armored column, the bomb on his wing slowly lowering onto the firing point. Oh no, he's going to drop the bomb! Fox gunned his engines and continued to hammer the enemy fighter with his lasers. Solomon's left wing broke off, and an engine exploded. The plane tilted up, exposing the cockpit. Fox changed his firing position to aim at the cockpit, flooding it with laser fire as he spotted a figure fly from the cockpit, mangled and burned.

"This is Colonel McCloud. I've shot down Solomon, he didn't get to-" Fox stopped short as he saw the bomb that had been hanging from Solomon's wing. It was heading directly for the column. "No!"

Fox began firing even faster at the bomb, then time started slowing down as he aw lasers start to hit it. The third strike caused the bomb to explode. Fox felt the explosion, the shockwave causing him to spin out of control and hurtle towards the ground.

He yanked on the stick as hard as he could, trying desperately to regain control. He saw the altimeter dropping as he nosed towards the ground. This was his chance to recover. He pulled back and the nose went skyward, the engines flaring as they went into overdrive to try to keep the ship off the ground. Fox's eyes were on the altimeter the whole time he tried to push away from the ground. The numbers dropped quickly. 200. 150. 100. 50. 40. 30. 20.

The altimeter stopped dropping and began to stop, then went back up again. It had stopped at 3. He had been 3 meters from crashing into the ground.

Fox tried to slow his breathing as he rejoined the rest of his wing. He eventually found them and joined their formation. Nobody said anything as they went to a nearby airport to land. It had been captured by the advancing Halcyon army.

Fox sighed softly as he finally stopped hyperventilating. The sky was clear, and his battle was over.

(Transition)

John stopped at the edge of the forest, the capital building filling his sight. He saw Serpentis soldiers filing out of the building and lowering their weapons to the ground. He could see UNSC Marines policing the weapons. What had happened? Had they surrendered?

One of the marines jogged over. "Hey Chief! They surrendered when their leader got shot down! Luck for us, eh?" John looked back at the serpentis soldiers getting policed.

John looked skyward as the blue sky was filled with capital ships, each of them firing off 3 salvos in unison.

The battle for Corneria was over, and they had won.