Covenant Story (Halo) Part Two
This really aint part two, it's just the finished part one. The first topic about my story goes straight to this one; ____________________________________________________ (Continued from part one . . .) ‘Putumee showed and explained to ‘Rolamee what happened to ‘Putumee’s battle group at then he gave ‘Rolamee a tour of his ship while the two of them spoke. After the tour ‘Putumee had a room arranged for ‘Rolamee to stay in for the remainder of the trip. ‘Putumee went back to the Control Room and read what happened to the carrier on the surface. The human’s best infantry soldiers, SPARTANS, fought there and their dropship came from the cruiser that ‘Putumee was following right now in slipspace. Only three SPARTANS showed up at the carriers landing sight though, all three were disguised in Banshee’s and they rode right over the camps and straight up to the carriers gravity lift to set off the nuke. There was no report of them being evacuated from the surface and few were spotted toward the mountain that is to be spared from the bombardments. Oh great, ‘Putumee thought. They must be giving all kinds of hell near the mountain and if any others are back on the human cruiser, they will give the Covenant ground troops a tough time at Halo. “Your excellency, we have eavesdropped on a secure transmission from the human cruiser,” the communication officer said. “Nearly the entire crew went into their ‘cryo sleep’.” “Alright, continue.” “Well,” the communication officer continued. “The crew that went to cryo sleep, included two of the human SPARTANS, although one is to believed to be dead.” “Okay, good,” ‘Putumee said. “Send the message to ‘Rolamee.” The ship continued toward the holy ring. Since the Covenant ships were faster than the human ships, they would arrive before the humans get there so there will be time to prepare for the human’s arrival and the battle. “Prepare all boarding craft,” the Halo Fleet Commander ordered. The human cruiser took out two of ‘Putumee’s frigates already. The fleet commander decided that if there are any SPARTANS aboard the ship, it would be best to take them out while they are still in cryo sleep. Covenant single fighter ships attacked the humans engines. The Covenant were not allowed to shoot their plasma turrets at the human cruiser so many boarding crafts went aboard, every now and then some one would shoot a torpedo at the cruiser. The human ship would not survive much more of this so it turned toward the ring and headed straight for it. Human life boats constantly launched out of the ship and also headed for Halo. Reports started to come in that many of the Covenant troops were dead on the human ship, and a SPARTAN has been spotted. Boarding crafts abandoned the cruiser and returned to their ships. Torpedoes bombarded the outer part of the cruiser’s hull but it continued to head straight for the ring. A large firewall built up around the cruisers nose as the ship entered the ring’s atmosphere. The view screen showed the life boats go in different parts of the ring. Four of the humans dropships, Pelicans, went to one part of the ring and a herd of small capsules headed in one general spot on the ring. The human cruiser was difficult to see, occasionally a life boat would still leave and it could no longer be seen when it went beneath the clouds. The space battle was done, the hard part was yet to come, on the surface. ‘Putumee landed his ship on the surface, deployed troops and he also got off the ship. When he got off, the ship turned around and went back off to space and will soon go back to the base, where it’ll be safe. ‘Putumee entered an Elite’s barracks, where he met up with a scout. “Your excellency,” the scout said. “We’ve secured a structure that’s on top of a butte. It is a very good defensive position and could be held as an encampment.” “So, we have secured a lot of good defensive positions,” ‘Putumee said. “Why do you report that we have secured this one . . . is there a problem?” “Well, the humans have organized a well-planned strike force and now own over forty percent of the structure. At this rate they will have complete control within the hour,” the scout answered. “Have you reported this to the Prophets?” “Yes, they are sending several ghost to assault the humans right now,” the scout replied emotionless. “Good,” ‘Putumee said, “so why have you reported this to me?” “So far, the assault is a failure,” the scout said. “The Prophets are giving you a week to give you to come up with something.” “A week?” ‘Putumee said in astonishment. “Why so do the Prophets give me so much time? I could come up with something within the day.” “Yes, they know that,” the scout said in a irritated sort of voice. “But the Prophets want it to be fool- proof, they know that the humans can’t get off the ring and they don’t see the humans as a very big threat.” As the day went by barracks, armories, and encampments have been set up all over the ring. One of the Covenant carriers has been damaged during the space battle and will be on the ring for repairs. Reports came in about scattered humans and strike teams have been sent to each of the locations, although many were failures and a lot of Covenant warriors have been killed. A SPARTAN has been spotted at most of these locations, he has rescued most of the humans that survived and caused most of the Covenant deaths on the strike teams. The good news is that the human crashed cruiser has been found and is being patrolled. The bad news is that the humans will need food ammo, water, fuel and oil so they will attack. The Prophets wants to stop the humans from recovering these things so a prodigious attack is going to hit the humans hard, after they get their supplies so those as well can be desetroyed. ‘Putumee went to a briefing on the attack that was being held in a small room somewhere on Halo’s surface. “Here are the routes from the human-held butte to where the cruiser is,” the Elite said, pointing at two different canyons. “The quickest way is this one, right here,” he pointed at the more narrow canyon. “We believe that the humans will try to take this canyon to get to the ship. Defenses around the ship are light, we want them to not retreat so that’s why the ship has few patrols.” “While they are in the ship we are going to drop two Wraiths on top of the hills at this canyon so that when the humans enter the canyon the Wraiths can take out most of the vehicles,” the Elite continued. “Fifty Banshees will be parked on this mesa, on the left side of the canyon, the Banshees will mop up any survivors. We will have thirty ghost on the other end of the canyon so that no Warthog can escape the canyon and just floor it toward the butte.” “Infantry will be on both sides of the narrow canyon to shoot at any humans that abandon their vehicles. Any questions?” the Elite finished. No one said a word. “Good, Noga ‘Putumee, you are gonna lead this attack,” the Elite said, turning to ‘Putumee. “Failure to achieve the mission’s goal might as well be your last. By achieving this goal you will be rewarded. Dismissed!” ‘Putumee came to the canyon on a dropship along with a dozen of infantry troops. He was one of the first to arrive at the scene. ‘Putumee watched two dropships drop off the tanks on the hills then drop off more troops on the sides of the canyon. The air force came and landed on the nearby mesa, the Ghost parked on the edge of the mouth of the canyon on the opposite side from where the ship is. All the troops arrived. The humans were not seen going to the cruiser yet. If the humans are already at the cruiser, they must have gone earlier and quietly. This was confirmed when the next transmission came: “The humans are now assaulting the outer patrols on the cruiser,” ‘Eretumee, the Elite in charge of the patrols around the cruiser, said. “They’ll be heading toward the canyon soon.” ‘Putumee surveyed the trap, the Wraiths were staying still on the two hills aimed toward the cruiser, the Banshees pilots were standing next to their aircrafts speaking with one another and the couple hundred infantry troops were waiting impatiently on both sides of the canyon. ‘Putumee looked toward the cruiser and saw thin trails of smoke rise all around the area. After a few minutes went by he saw about three of the human Pelicans fly over, but they didn’t fire. Each one looked like it had too much weight on it by all the equipment they carried. “Fire at the Pelicans,” ‘Putumee ordered. Most of the troops on the canyons didn’t know what was going on so it took them a while to get their weapons and fire at the pelicans. By; the time they did this the pelicans were out of range, a few bolts of plasma hit them but not enough to do any damage. After that there was not much activity, every now and then there would be an faint explosion in the distance. Some of the trails of smoke thickened and that was just about it for about half an hour. Then ‘Putumee noticed a large cloud of dust start to come from the cruiser, it must have been the human vehicles coming toward the canyon. “The humans are coming everyone get prepared,” ‘Putumee ordered. The Banshee drivers warmed up the engines, the Ghost drivers sat in their seats and the Covenant troops stopped speaking to each other and looked toward the cruiser. ‘Putumee looked around at his troops and noticed a blue Elite lying on the ground eyeing at the human vehicles through a monocular. ‘Putumee approached the Elite, the Elite lowered the monocular and turned to look at the Wraiths. “So,” ‘Putumee said firmly, startling the Elite. “The Council of Masters has sent me a spy. Tell me, spy, who are you here to watch: the humans or me?” ‘Putumee could tell that the Elite did not like how he spoke to him. “Someone has to count all the human bodies, write a report celebrating your la-*test*-('") victory and report your bravery in battle to see if it’s worthy of any medals. ‘Putumee breathed in and stood taller, taking pride. ‘Putumee spoke with the Elite, Ado ‘Mortumee, until the humans got closer, then he ordered the attack. The Banshees came in low and ‘Putumee had to look down to see the Banshee formation because they were so flying so low to the ground. The Banshees fired as soon as they were in range. The humans fired a little to the left of the Banshees and since the fighter crafts didn’t have breaks, they couldn’t miss the hail of bullets. ‘Putumee ordered for the formation to break up and attack individual targets but eight Banshees still ran into the hail of bullets and were torn to shreds. A pair of flyers got through the storm of gunfire and shot at a Warthog. One of the Banshees managed to hit a Warthog with a burst of the plasma cannon, killing the gunner and destroying the weapon on the back. But the Warthogs driver survived and continue to go through the canyon. ‘Putumee ordered for the Wraiths to fire and both tanks fired at the same time. They were too far away to do any accurate damage but they were ranging shots, the giant plasma bombardments hit the ground and left a large crater. One of the Banshees managed to hit a Warthog, the vehicle turned ninety degrees and started to roll while it was still a flaming inferno. All the food, ammo and fuel was destroyed that was stored on that ‘hog, it didn’t stop rolling until it smashed into the canyon wall. Two of the human tanks, Scorpions, turned toward ‘Putumee and they fired. The round hit about fifty meters away killing a lot of Covenant troops. The spy ran for cover. ‘Putumee laughed, enjoying the battle and stopped when a second round hit the summit of a large dirt mound and started a small landside which buried five Grunts. “All infantry fire down on the vehicles and aim for individual humans if you see any,” ‘Putumee ordered. The infantry started to line up against the edge of the canyon and fire down on the vehicles below. The Ghost have now entered the battle and fired at the first of the Warthogs. The Wraiths fired, also, at the Warthogs and the fireball was headed toward the Warthogs. The Warthogs raced to get under the fire ball, the first three Warthogs passed under the energy bomb and the fifth rolled over the crater. The fourth Warthog was destroyed. The surviving Warthogs opened fire on the Ghost. The Scorpions fired again at the Wraiths, except this time the rounds found there mark and destroyed the Wraiths taking a file of Jackals with them. ‘Putumee was not to thrilled to lose a mortar tank but the truth was that with all the Ghost down in the canyon, he would have to stop firing anyways or risk killing his own troops. Another Warthog was hit and the passenger was flung from it, hit the ground and skidded across the rocky ground for twenty feet before coming to a stop, the driver stayed in the seat and the gunner was flown back and landed hard on the ground. Another load of ammo, food and fuel was destroyed, ‘Putumee surveyed the area. Only seven Warthogs were destroyed, none of the humans tanks were destroyed, both Wraiths were on fire, bits of Banshees were littering the ground, so many Ghost were riddled with so many bullet holes and a few were on fire and dozens of Covenant bodies littered the area. “So,” ‘Putumee said to ‘Mortumee, “what are you going to report to the Council?” “The report practically writes itself,” the Elite responded. “Ah, I see,” ‘Putumee said, turning back to the battle, On the other side of the battleground, a human sniper aimed on‘Mortumee’s head and fired. The round pierced the shields and went clear through ‘Mortumee’s head. ‘Putumee threw himself back behind a rock as another sniper round slashed through the spot where ‘Putumee’s head was just at. The other Covenant troops around him, ran and scattered widely, it was mostly grunts. ‘Putumee reported the snipers position to the Banshees. After the next five minutes, ‘Putumee got back up and went to look over the canyon edge, there were few human bodies and vehicles, while there were a lot of Covenant vehicles and bodies. He turned and looked at the end of the valley and he could see the last of the surviving human vehicles exit and accelerate toward the butte. Only around another eighty Covenant troops are still alive, and all the rest were dead, littering the ground. Some of the human bodies were up on the canyon wall, meaning that when some humans abandoned their vehicles, they got up and started to climb the walls to kill the Covenant infantry. ‘Putumee was to report to the minor Prophet on the grounded Covenant carrier. He went through the security and thanks to his high rank, he was in within a few minutes. The Prophets didn’t like to waste their time with minor warriors so instead of first come, first serve, it’s higher rank gets in faster. ‘Putumee entered the room and stood on the podium. “Noga ‘Putumee,” the Prophet said, “your failure at the human ship was disastrous and cost many lives.” “Yes, excellency, I’m truly sorry and I will take full responsibility for what happened at the canyon,” ‘Putumee replied. “The responsibility for the failure will not be yours to take. We need you for a different assault now, a well planned all-out attack on the human butte has been assembled and you will lead the troops into battle,” the Prophet said. “The creator of this plan has found some stray human survivors that the other humans think are to be dead, he and several other Elites will take the human dropship to the butte and land in the middle and clear the other landing pads. You will fill up six Covenant dropships and land of the landing pads once they are cleared. Take over the butte and kill all humans.” “Yes, excellency, I will do my best,” ‘Putumee replied. “You’re dismissed,” the Prophet said. ‘Putumee bowed, turned and left the room. ‘Putumee was onboard a Covenant dropship and was headed toward the butte, it was already dark outside. There are five other dropships also heading toward the human-held butte. ‘Putumee was behind the pilot looking at the view screens, he saw that where the stolen human dropship landed, blaze up in a hellish inferno. The orange, glowing flames exploded outward and burned steadily for a minute, then they started to go out and disappear in the darkness. The pad glowed a faint orange color for a while. The first part of the assault must not be going well, this was confirmed when a voice break through the speakers: “The pads have not been cleared. Do not, I repeat, do not land the dropships on the other LZ’s. Not safe. “Where do you want me to land this thing?” the dropship pilot asked. “Land us with somewhere with cover,” ‘Putumee ordered the dropship pilot. “I see a good spot but it’s quite a run to the butte,” the pilot said. “Okay, land us there,” ‘Putumee said. The dropship turned and headed toward a rocky hillside. When they got close to the structure, one of the dropships was torn to shreds by thousands of rounds. One dropship went above the structure to try to land the troops on top, it had several rockets hit it but it stayed up. ‘Putumee’s dropship lowered into a bunch of large rocks and landed, all the ground troops got off of it. “Clear a path for us, we don’t want any one to attack us before we’re in the butte structure,” ‘Putumee ordered the pilot as he got off the ship. “But,—” the pilot started to pro-*test*-('"). “Just do it!” The ship took off again, went ahead and started to strafe the rocks, with the dropship’s plasma turret, to make sure that there are no humans hiding. The ship retraced its pattern and did this several times until it was sure that there would be no humans hiding in the rocks. The Covenant troops started to run toward the butte. The front line humans have retreated back inside the butte and left the trenches that they must have dug in the last couple days. ‘Putumee stopped to examine one of the holes, there was something wrong with the recent hole, it was too neat and clean to have been dug out recently. ‘Putumee looked up when he heard an explosion, he saw a flash and an outline of a human tank. All around him were explosions, he was hit and all went dark, the world drifted away, he stopped breathing and went unconscious. (To be continued . . . )
This really aint part two, it's just the finished part one. The first topic about my story goes straight to this one; ____________________________________________________ (Continued from part one . . .) ‘Putumee showed and explained to ‘Rolamee what happened to ‘Putumee’s battle group at then he gave ‘Rolamee a tour of his ship while the two of them spoke. After the tour ‘Putumee had a room arranged for ‘Rolamee to stay in for the remainder of the trip. ‘Putumee went back to the Control Room and read what happened to the carrier on the surface. The human’s best infantry soldiers, SPARTANS, fought there and their dropship came from the cruiser that ‘Putumee was following right now in slipspace. Only three SPARTANS showed up at the carriers landing sight though, all three were disguised in Banshee’s and they rode right over the camps and straight up to the carriers gravity lift to set off the nuke. There was no report of them being evacuated from the surface and few were spotted toward the mountain that is to be spared from the bombardments. Oh great, ‘Putumee thought. They must be giving all kinds of hell near the mountain and if any others are back on the human cruiser, they will give the Covenant ground troops a tough time at Halo. “Your excellency, we have eavesdropped on a secure transmission from the human cruiser,” the communication officer said. “Nearly the entire crew went into their ‘cryo sleep’.” “Alright, continue.” “Well,” the communication officer continued. “The crew that went to cryo sleep, included two of the human SPARTANS, although one is to believed to be dead.” “Okay, good,” ‘Putumee said. “Send the message to ‘Rolamee.” The ship continued toward the holy ring. Since the Covenant ships were faster than the human ships, they would arrive before the humans get there so there will be time to prepare for the human’s arrival and the battle. “Prepare all boarding craft,” the Halo Fleet Commander ordered. The human cruiser took out two of ‘Putumee’s frigates already. The fleet commander decided that if there are any SPARTANS aboard the ship, it would be best to take them out while they are still in cryo sleep. Covenant single fighter ships attacked the humans engines. The Covenant were not allowed to shoot their plasma turrets at the human cruiser so many boarding crafts went aboard, every now and then some one would shoot a torpedo at the cruiser. The human ship would not survive much more of this so it turned toward the ring and headed straight for it. Human life boats constantly launched out of the ship and also headed for Halo. Reports started to come in that many of the Covenant troops were dead on the human ship, and a SPARTAN has been spotted. Boarding crafts abandoned the cruiser and returned to their ships. Torpedoes bombarded the outer part of the cruiser’s hull but it continued to head straight for the ring. A large firewall built up around the cruisers nose as the ship entered the ring’s atmosphere. The view screen showed the life boats go in different parts of the ring. Four of the humans dropships, Pelicans, went to one part of the ring and a herd of small capsules headed in one general spot on the ring. The human cruiser was difficult to see, occasionally a life boat would still leave and it could no longer be seen when it went beneath the clouds. The space battle was done, the hard part was yet to come, on the surface. ‘Putumee landed his ship on the surface, deployed troops and he also got off the ship. When he got off, the ship turned around and went back off to space and will soon go back to the base, where it’ll be safe. ‘Putumee entered an Elite’s barracks, where he met up with a scout. “Your excellency,” the scout said. “We’ve secured a structure that’s on top of a butte. It is a very good defensive position and could be held as an encampment.” “So, we have secured a lot of good defensive positions,” ‘Putumee said. “Why do you report that we have secured this one . . . is there a problem?” “Well, the humans have organized a well-planned strike force and now own over forty percent of the structure. At this rate they will have complete control within the hour,” the scout answered. “Have you reported this to the Prophets?” “Yes, they are sending several ghost to assault the humans right now,” the scout replied emotionless. “Good,” ‘Putumee said, “so why have you reported this to me?” “So far, the assault is a failure,” the scout said. “The Prophets are giving you a week to give you to come up with something.” “A week?” ‘Putumee said in astonishment. “Why so do the Prophets give me so much time? I could come up with something within the day.” “Yes, they know that,” the scout said in a irritated sort of voice. “But the Prophets want it to be fool- proof, they know that the humans can’t get off the ring and they don’t see the humans as a very big threat.” As the day went by barracks, armories, and encampments have been set up all over the ring. One of the Covenant carriers has been damaged during the space battle and will be on the ring for repairs. Reports came in about scattered humans and strike teams have been sent to each of the locations, although many were failures and a lot of Covenant warriors have been killed. A SPARTAN has been spotted at most of these locations, he has rescued most of the humans that survived and caused most of the Covenant deaths on the strike teams. The good news is that the human crashed cruiser has been found and is being patrolled. The bad news is that the humans will need food ammo, water, fuel and oil so they will attack. The Prophets wants to stop the humans from recovering these things so a prodigious attack is going to hit the humans hard, after they get their supplies so those as well can be desetroyed. ‘Putumee went to a briefing on the attack that was being held in a small room somewhere on Halo’s surface. “Here are the routes from the human-held butte to where the cruiser is,” the Elite said, pointing at two different canyons. “The quickest way is this one, right here,” he pointed at the more narrow canyon. “We believe that the humans will try to take this canyon to get to the ship. Defenses around the ship are light, we want them to not retreat so that’s why the ship has few patrols.” “While they are in the ship we are going to drop two Wraiths on top of the hills at this canyon so that when the humans enter the canyon the Wraiths can take out most of the vehicles,” the Elite continued. “Fifty Banshees will be parked on this mesa, on the left side of the canyon, the Banshees will mop up any survivors. We will have thirty ghost on the other end of the canyon so that no Warthog can escape the canyon and just floor it toward the butte.” “Infantry will be on both sides of the narrow canyon to shoot at any humans that abandon their vehicles. Any questions?” the Elite finished. No one said a word. “Good, Noga ‘Putumee, you are gonna lead this attack,” the Elite said, turning to ‘Putumee. “Failure to achieve the mission’s goal might as well be your last. By achieving this goal you will be rewarded. Dismissed!” ‘Putumee came to the canyon on a dropship along with a dozen of infantry troops. He was one of the first to arrive at the scene. ‘Putumee watched two dropships drop off the tanks on the hills then drop off more troops on the sides of the canyon. The air force came and landed on the nearby mesa, the Ghost parked on the edge of the mouth of the canyon on the opposite side from where the ship is. All the troops arrived. The humans were not seen going to the cruiser yet. If the humans are already at the cruiser, they must have gone earlier and quietly. This was confirmed when the next transmission came: “The humans are now assaulting the outer patrols on the cruiser,” ‘Eretumee, the Elite in charge of the patrols around the cruiser, said. “They’ll be heading toward the canyon soon.” ‘Putumee surveyed the trap, the Wraiths were staying still on the two hills aimed toward the cruiser, the Banshees pilots were standing next to their aircrafts speaking with one another and the couple hundred infantry troops were waiting impatiently on both sides of the canyon. ‘Putumee looked toward the cruiser and saw thin trails of smoke rise all around the area. After a few minutes went by he saw about three of the human Pelicans fly over, but they didn’t fire. Each one looked like it had too much weight on it by all the equipment they carried. “Fire at the Pelicans,” ‘Putumee ordered. Most of the troops on the canyons didn’t know what was going on so it took them a while to get their weapons and fire at the pelicans. By; the time they did this the pelicans were out of range, a few bolts of plasma hit them but not enough to do any damage. After that there was not much activity, every now and then there would be an faint explosion in the distance. Some of the trails of smoke thickened and that was just about it for about half an hour. Then ‘Putumee noticed a large cloud of dust start to come from the cruiser, it must have been the human vehicles coming toward the canyon. “The humans are coming everyone get prepared,” ‘Putumee ordered. The Banshee drivers warmed up the engines, the Ghost drivers sat in their seats and the Covenant troops stopped speaking to each other and looked toward the cruiser. ‘Putumee looked around at his troops and noticed a blue Elite lying on the ground eyeing at the human vehicles through a monocular. ‘Putumee approached the Elite, the Elite lowered the monocular and turned to look at the Wraiths. “So,” ‘Putumee said firmly, startling the Elite. “The Council of Masters has sent me a spy. Tell me, spy, who are you here to watch: the humans or me?” ‘Putumee could tell that the Elite did not like how he spoke to him. “Someone has to count all the human bodies, write a report celebrating your la-*test*-('") victory and report your bravery in battle to see if it’s worthy of any medals. ‘Putumee breathed in and stood taller, taking pride. ‘Putumee spoke with the Elite, Ado ‘Mortumee, until the humans got closer, then he ordered the attack. The Banshees came in low and ‘Putumee had to look down to see the Banshee formation because they were so flying so low to the ground. The Banshees fired as soon as they were in range. The humans fired a little to the left of the Banshees and since the fighter crafts didn’t have breaks, they couldn’t miss the hail of bullets. ‘Putumee ordered for the formation to break up and attack individual targets but eight Banshees still ran into the hail of bullets and were torn to shreds. A pair of flyers got through the storm of gunfire and shot at a Warthog. One of the Banshees managed to hit a Warthog with a burst of the plasma cannon, killing the gunner and destroying the weapon on the back. But the Warthogs driver survived and continue to go through the canyon. ‘Putumee ordered for the Wraiths to fire and both tanks fired at the same time. They were too far away to do any accurate damage but they were ranging shots, the giant plasma bombardments hit the ground and left a large crater. One of the Banshees managed to hit a Warthog, the vehicle turned ninety degrees and started to roll while it was still a flaming inferno. All the food, ammo and fuel was destroyed that was stored on that ‘hog, it didn’t stop rolling until it smashed into the canyon wall. Two of the human tanks, Scorpions, turned toward ‘Putumee and they fired. The round hit about fifty meters away killing a lot of Covenant troops. The spy ran for cover. ‘Putumee laughed, enjoying the battle and stopped when a second round hit the summit of a large dirt mound and started a small landside which buried five Grunts. “All infantry fire down on the vehicles and aim for individual humans if you see any,” ‘Putumee ordered. The infantry started to line up against the edge of the canyon and fire down on the vehicles below. The Ghost have now entered the battle and fired at the first of the Warthogs. The Wraiths fired, also, at the Warthogs and the fireball was headed toward the Warthogs. The Warthogs raced to get under the fire ball, the first three Warthogs passed under the energy bomb and the fifth rolled over the crater. The fourth Warthog was destroyed. The surviving Warthogs opened fire on the Ghost. The Scorpions fired again at the Wraiths, except this time the rounds found there mark and destroyed the Wraiths taking a file of Jackals with them. ‘Putumee was not to thrilled to lose a mortar tank but the truth was that with all the Ghost down in the canyon, he would have to stop firing anyways or risk killing his own troops. Another Warthog was hit and the passenger was flung from it, hit the ground and skidded across the rocky ground for twenty feet before coming to a stop, the driver stayed in the seat and the gunner was flown back and landed hard on the ground. Another load of ammo, food and fuel was destroyed, ‘Putumee surveyed the area. Only seven Warthogs were destroyed, none of the humans tanks were destroyed, both Wraiths were on fire, bits of Banshees were littering the ground, so many Ghost were riddled with so many bullet holes and a few were on fire and dozens of Covenant bodies littered the area. “So,” ‘Putumee said to ‘Mortumee, “what are you going to report to the Council?” “The report practically writes itself,” the Elite responded. “Ah, I see,” ‘Putumee said, turning back to the battle, On the other side of the battleground, a human sniper aimed on‘Mortumee’s head and fired. The round pierced the shields and went clear through ‘Mortumee’s head. ‘Putumee threw himself back behind a rock as another sniper round slashed through the spot where ‘Putumee’s head was just at. The other Covenant troops around him, ran and scattered widely, it was mostly grunts. ‘Putumee reported the snipers position to the Banshees. After the next five minutes, ‘Putumee got back up and went to look over the canyon edge, there were few human bodies and vehicles, while there were a lot of Covenant vehicles and bodies. He turned and looked at the end of the valley and he could see the last of the surviving human vehicles exit and accelerate toward the butte. Only around another eighty Covenant troops are still alive, and all the rest were dead, littering the ground. Some of the human bodies were up on the canyon wall, meaning that when some humans abandoned their vehicles, they got up and started to climb the walls to kill the Covenant infantry. ‘Putumee was to report to the minor Prophet on the grounded Covenant carrier. He went through the security and thanks to his high rank, he was in within a few minutes. The Prophets didn’t like to waste their time with minor warriors so instead of first come, first serve, it’s higher rank gets in faster. ‘Putumee entered the room and stood on the podium. “Noga ‘Putumee,” the Prophet said, “your failure at the human ship was disastrous and cost many lives.” “Yes, excellency, I’m truly sorry and I will take full responsibility for what happened at the canyon,” ‘Putumee replied. “The responsibility for the failure will not be yours to take. We need you for a different assault now, a well planned all-out attack on the human butte has been assembled and you will lead the troops into battle,” the Prophet said. “The creator of this plan has found some stray human survivors that the other humans think are to be dead, he and several other Elites will take the human dropship to the butte and land in the middle and clear the other landing pads. You will fill up six Covenant dropships and land of the landing pads once they are cleared. Take over the butte and kill all humans.” “Yes, excellency, I will do my best,” ‘Putumee replied. “You’re dismissed,” the Prophet said. ‘Putumee bowed, turned and left the room. ‘Putumee was onboard a Covenant dropship and was headed toward the butte, it was already dark outside. There are five other dropships also heading toward the human-held butte. ‘Putumee was behind the pilot looking at the view screens, he saw that where the stolen human dropship landed, blaze up in a hellish inferno. The orange, glowing flames exploded outward and burned steadily for a minute, then they started to go out and disappear in the darkness. The pad glowed a faint orange color for a while. The first part of the assault must not be going well, this was confirmed when a voice break through the speakers: “The pads have not been cleared. Do not, I repeat, do not land the dropships on the other LZ’s. Not safe. “Where do you want me to land this thing?” the dropship pilot asked. “Land us with somewhere with cover,” ‘Putumee ordered the dropship pilot. “I see a good spot but it’s quite a run to the butte,” the pilot said. “Okay, land us there,” ‘Putumee said. The dropship turned and headed toward a rocky hillside. When they got close to the structure, one of the dropships was torn to shreds by thousands of rounds. One dropship went above the structure to try to land the troops on top, it had several rockets hit it but it stayed up. ‘Putumee’s dropship lowered into a bunch of large rocks and landed, all the ground troops got off of it. “Clear a path for us, we don’t want any one to attack us before we’re in the butte structure,” ‘Putumee ordered the pilot as he got off the ship. “But,—” the pilot started to pro-*test*-('"). “Just do it!” The ship took off again, went ahead and started to strafe the rocks, with the dropship’s plasma turret, to make sure that there are no humans hiding. The ship retraced its pattern and did this several times until it was sure that there would be no humans hiding in the rocks. The Covenant troops started to run toward the butte. The front line humans have retreated back inside the butte and left the trenches that they must have dug in the last couple days. ‘Putumee stopped to examine one of the holes, there was something wrong with the recent hole, it was too neat and clean to have been dug out recently. ‘Putumee looked up when he heard an explosion, he saw a flash and an outline of a human tank. All around him were explosions, he was hit and all went dark, the world drifted away, he stopped breathing and went unconscious. (To be continued . . . )