Prologue Ashes of Reach

(1245 Hours/ September 19th, 2552/ Heavy Cruiser UNSC leviathan/Location: Reach)

On the bridge of Marathon Class cruiser Leviathan, standing in his bleach white admirals uniform was Admiral Stanforth. He had a grim expression on his face as he looked out the front view point on his bridge toward the encroaching covenant fleet. It had arrived after the success of OPERATTION: UPPERCUT, resulting in the destruction of the covenant supercarrier that had been in orbit supporting the invasion forces on the planet below. They had managed to repel the first wave of ships only for more to arrive and he knew that this time they would not be able to hold them off. They were going to lose Reach, Humanities great fortress among the stars. There was only twenty warships left along with 13 ODPs in orbit. He knew that this was not going to be enough to stop them.

In the last wave, the enemy had managed to slip through a huge wave of dropships to the northern and southern poles in order to disable the generators supplying power to the guns in orbit. In an attempt to prevent the loss of the generators, the Admiral had dispatched a group of Spartans with orders to hold the generators as long as possible.

"Admiral, I have a transmission from red team."

"Let's hear it."

As the comm officer flipped a switch, the first thing they heard over the intercom was static, during which the admiral noticed a flash on the surface of Reach that was near the location of the generators. Eventually the static cleared enough for him to make out the voice of Frederic- 104 who was in command of the Spartans he had sent.

"Admiral Stanforth, are you receiving this?"

"Yes I am son, what is the situation down there?" The Admiral asked, almost afraid to find out.

"We have reached the generators. The defenses are holding but not for much longer. The enemy continue attacking in much greater waves every ten minutes. We managed to slow them down by eliminating an enemy encampment along with the cruiser within."

'That explains the flash' the admiral thought but before he could take a note of satisfaction from that, he, along with the bridge crew heard the sound of gun fire and explosions.

"Spartan-104, what is going on?"

"The enemy have renewed their assault, much more fierce this time! Defenses cannot hold for much longer. What are your orders?" The Spartan asked as the Admiral's brain began thinking at a mile a minute. He knew his battered fleet could not hold up to the incoming enemy fleet and the Spartans on the ground couldn't hold up against the enemy much longer. He finally decided that it was time to pull out what was left.

Just he was about to give the order, he was pulled from his thoughts by his comm. officer.

"Admiral, I'm receiving a priority one message. It's from Dr. Halsey."

"What does it say?"

"The package is secured. Nobel team in possession of package. Requires immediate extraction." The Admiral perked up a bit at the sound of at least one plan going right.

"Tactical, scan the surface for any possible escape routes open for noble team." The admiral said as he began to think how to get noble team off planet. It had been a miracle that the enemy was taking the slow route to get to reach. This may allow them time to get the package away.

"Sir, the air space is too hot for an atmospheric exit. Only a warship could get through it." The tactic officer said which caused the admiral to curse at their bad luck as he had almost no ships available to make the run.

"Tactical, what ships do we have able to complete this mission?" The admiral asked but before he could get an answer, the bridge holopad lit up to show the ships Ai.

"Admiral, there are no ships available that will be able to get down to the surface and then fight its way back out as it is a 90% probability that we will fail to hold the orbital space against the enemy. There for, the only ship that has the speed needed to get in and out yet has the durability needed to survive the mission, is the Pillar of Autumn." The Ai concluded with as much calm as he had. The Admiral had arrived at the same conclusion himself. He guessed that this must be the only way to complete the mission and if oni was right, a miracle will happen. Just one thing left to do.

"Tactical, give me the position of the Autumn." He ordered and the officer's fingers flew over his controls as he scanned with the sensors for the modified halcyon, turning up with its location beside station gamma. Apparently HIGHCOM had ordered them to assist the Ai in charge of the station initiate the Cole protocol in regards to the stations sensitive data.

"Sir, I have the Autumn's position beside Gamma station."

"What are they doing there?"

"I can only guess that they have been ordered to enact the Cole protocol." This made the Admiral curse at how jumpy HIGHCOM seemed to be getting. They did not need to have their ships running around the system on errands with a covenant fleet bearing down on them.

Pushing aside his slightly fraying nerves, he made his decision here and now.

"Comms, get me in touch with Captain Keyes. Tell him that I have a mission for him."

(Pillar of Autumn/Position: Gamma station)

Captain Jacob Keyes sat in his command chair as he watched the mission to Gamma station being completed with the return of the Master Chief. The mission had gone badly with loss of James-005 and Linda-058 had been critically wounded, possibly even dead. But despite the losses, they had managed to Evac Sargent Johnson and three marines.

While the cruiser had held station next to the station, he had received the beacons of a few life boats from destroyed ships. It was surprising that there had been any as most ships were not able to survive combat long enough to Evac crews. He had then decided to recover them while they waited but they had only found five, which was dismal considering there had been dozens of ships in orbit at the outset of the battle.

Before he could dwell on these thoughts much longer, he was pulled back to reality by the sound of his comm. officer's voice.

"Sir we are receiving flash traffic from admiral Stanforth." She said and he gestured to put on.

"Admiral, I'm glad to hear you're alive."

"Yeah. It's been tough going but I've managed. Keyes, I got a mission for you. We are trying to get a high value package off planet but they can't get out of the atmosphere without getting shot down. I need you to land on the surface and pick up this package since the only thing that can get in is a warship and only your ship is fast enough to get away cause by the time you get back up here, the covenant will be locking down the system. We will try to hold them off as long as possible." He could hear the grim determination in Stanforth's voice, which told him that not even the admiral believed that statement.

"We will do all we can to ensure that the package gets off planet safely."

"Good Luck. Stanforth out." With that the transmission cut out.

"Cortana." Keyes called and moments later the Holopad lit up as the Ai's blue avatar appeared. "Yes, Captain?"

"Do we have any intel on who has the package and their present location?"

Cortana lowered her head for a few seconds as the coding running through her form sped up. She then looked up at the Captain with a grim expression.

"It is in the possession of Noble team and they are on a pelican." She said.

Keyes tapped his pipe against the palm of his hand as he thought about how to accomplish this mission. The best way to do this would be to land at a frigate yard on the surface and have them be directed to rendezvous with the ship.

"Cortana, is there any yards left for us to land?" again Cortana appeared to be in thought as she dissected the radio traffic and communicated with Auntie Dot.

"According to dot, the only yard left untouched by the covenant is the Aszod shipbreaker yard. It will take one and a half hours for Noble team to reach that location if they change course now." This was not how Keyes would have liked it since his ship needed major repairs but he guessed that this was the best that he can hope for.

"Alright, I guess that is the best we can hope for. Get in contact with Noble team and send them the coordinates for rendezvous. And get me Colonel Holland on the line. The covies are going to see us coming, we are going need some cover down there."

"Aye Aye sir."

(Viery Territory. Two point five miles from Aszod.)

Traveling down a path through a valley, rolled a column of tanks of the 13th armored battalion flanked on either side by warthogs of the 9th division, light recon battalion. Between the tanks were medical transport warthogs that were loaded with wounded. They kept their headlights off in order to avoid gaining the attention of any covenant forces that were roaming through the gloomy territory, mopping up any survivors of the disastrous UNSC counterattack in the region.

In the lead tank, sat the commander, Lt. Brian Holland. He had taken command of his group when his battalion commander had been killed while covering their retreat and allowed him to save the remainder of the group by leading them out of the main battle zone. From there he had run into the recon troops and had decided to form up with them and the Med' 'hogs they had with them to try and link up with the main forces but so far they had been met with despair as all they found were vehicle wrecks and the mangled bodies of the dead. They had been able to stay under the enemy radar by traveling in a zig zag course and using the recon units he had scouting out ahead of them to spot any enemy movement so as to give him time to go down a different path. This had spared them from several run ins with road blocks and the occasional scarab walker.

As they moved along, out of the corner of his eye, he spied what looked to be a path that seemed to lead up and possibly out of this burned out valley but he knew better than to go blindly into a possible gauntlet of enemies.

Just as he was about to turn away from it, the radio in his helmet crackled to life.

"Lt.? Can you hear me?" Came the voice of the recon warthog he had sent to check path ahead.

"I'm here. What do you got?"

"The valley exit we spied three days ago is now a no-go, sir. An enemy scarab has crawled into the valley and is sweeping it for stragglers. Recommend an alternate exit."

"Damb!" The Lt. Brian cursed as he slammed his fist down on the turret of his Grizzly tank. He then keyed up his radio and ordered the column to halt.

"Recon, have sighted a path that leads upward back here, know anything about it?" He asked as he began to eye said path to see if it might provide their way out.

"Yes sir, we passed it two days ago. It can fit the tanks but it's narrow and we saw some covies scouting it. Not sure if they have entrenched in it or not." Just before he could inquire further, there was a loud boom over the radio and it could even be heard in the distance.

"What the hell was that?!"

"The scarabs spotted us and has opened fire. We can't get out. Whatever you do, you better do it fast." Then the radio went dead just as he heard a boom in the distance. He knew that it would only be a matter of time before the scarab came their way and his units were not in shape to fight it. He had to get them out. Fast!

Deciding to take a chance, he turned his grizzly toward the path and ordered the column to follow him.

Over the next two hours they traveled with the tanks split into two groups and the Med hogs between them. They were all on edge as they could faintly hear the whine of banshee engines which meant that the enemy was searching for them from the air. Their saving grace from the aircraft was the fact that the path had led into a tunnel which, with a little luck, would hide them all the way to the top.

The Lt. kept an eye on his surroundings, keeping an eye open for any sign of trouble. It was dark in the tunnel and he did not want to risk the enemy finding them so he ordered them to keep the lights off.

He was pensive as he watched the rocks that surrounded them, the path was strewn with boulders on either side. This made it great ambush terrain should the enemy be waiting for them. Just as he was about to inquire after the wounded, a bolt of energy narrowly missed his head as it struck the armor of the tank behind him. He quickly ducked his head down and swung the turret around and fired.

The round exploded and killed the jackal sniper. This caused the rest of his comrades who had been hiding in the rocks to begin firing on the tanks. The tanks all started to return fire with their coaxial guns, taking out a number of enemies but the Lt. knew that they could not hope to survive if they stayed here and the only way out was to go forward.

"All units full speed ahead! Let's get out of this death trap!" He said as he gunned the grizzly forward, running over the grunts that were in front of him with the rest of his units following close behind.

"Don't slow down no matter what! Our only chance of living through this is to keep moving forward." He ordered and was answered by a chorus of acknowledgements.

As they continued their frantic pace, the tanks were being hit by mostly small arm plasma fire but that changed when they were possibly half way up the the path, they began to take fire from plasma turrets which was beginning to cause more damage to the tanks. The Lt. did his best to take them out with his main gun but he could not get them all. Over his radio, he was getting reports that a couple of the warthogs had been lost and one of the tanks in the back had taken crippling damage to the engine block. He knew they could not be saved so he pushed their losses to the back of his mind and focused on what he had to do. They eventually managed to break out of the valley and into the open.

"All tanks! Fire on the exit!" And as one the tanks fired into the rocks surrounding the exit and sent them cascading down into the path, cutting off the enemy from pursuit.

But just before they could breathe a sigh of relief at getting out, they felt the ground reverberate beneath the tanks.

Lt. Brian turned his head and saw that the scarab had climbed up out of the valley after them. He guessed that the drivers had pushed the big purple monster to its full speed when they had gotten the report of the tank columns flight out of the valley. As he watched it, the front weapon began to glow as it reached stable ground. This made him want to curse but he felt more like trying to survive so he rotated his tanks turret up at the monster and aimed for the front even though he knew that it would be a futile gesture since he lacked the shells to do any real damage to it, having used them all weeks ago. He pulled the trigger anyway and began to fire at it as quickly as possible, watching helplessly as they exploded harmlessly against its armor.

"All of you, get out of here. I will keep its attention on me." He ordered over the radio as he continued his futile attack but instead of obeying, the other tanks pulled alongside him and began to fire as well.

"Sorry sir, but we're not going anywhere. Not without you." He let out a sigh as he knew that arguing with them would not matter as it was too late to run now.

Just as it was about to fire, a pair of heavy anti-vehicle missiles hit the mammoth machine, crumpling the front weapon into scrap and caused the scarab to begin retreating, only for it to be hit again. This hit caused it to stumble and lose its stability as its armor became riddled with cracks. The Lt. saw this and while it had its left back leg in the air to take a step, he quickly ordered the tanks to fire on its right back leg. The concentrated fire power of the tank shells hitting the armored appendage caused the surprisingly light armor to buckle, allowing the shells to damage the mechanics that was exposed. As the leg gave out, the monster began falling backwards causing it to flip over the edge of the slope and begin rolling back down the valley wall, filling the air with the sickening sound of crunching and tearing metal. A minute later, they were greeted by the sound of it exploding as it hit the bottom. This cause the men to cheer at this small victory. The Lt. leaned back in his drivers chair and gave out a sigh of relief that they had managed to not only escape that death trap, but to also destroy a major enemy unit. Though he knew that it could not have been done without the help they had received. When he looked for the source of the help he found to his relief the sight of a pair of hornets approaching their position, accompanied by a vulture gunship. Then his radio crackled to life, but instead of being greeted by the piolets of the aircraft, it was an announcement from his father, Colonel Holland.

"All forces remaining in the Viery territory, the Pillar of Autumn is inbound to the Aszod shipbreaker yard. Spartan team Noble is inbound to her with a priority one package. She needs cover while on the ground and in return for protection, her captain has offered a ride off planet. So if you don't want to be left behind, move your asses. Noble actual out."

Brian felt relief at the sound of his father's voice since it meant he was alive and from the sound of it, he might get to see him.

(Viery territory)

The message rang out over the Viery territory to all the remaining divisions that had managed to survive. They turned their eyes to the sky and saw that what Holland said was true. They could see the pillar of autumn moving down through the atmosphere toward the Aszod area.

This sight galvanized them into action as they began to pull out of their hidden positions and began to make their way toward the only sign of hope they had left on the planet. Much of the air forces in the area began to use their pelicans and falcons to Evac the troops who were too far away to make it on foot while those who could, commandeered civilian vehicles.

It would take a while to reach their destination but hey were determined to reach their salvation. Little did they know was that they were not the only ones that had seen the landing cruiser? The covenant had seen it and quickly deduced that the humans were landing the giant ship to possibly save the remaining humans in the region and their commanders decided to go and prevent the vermin from escaping the divine wrath of the covenant. The world was burning but they could not allow one human to live after they had destroyed the holy artifact. This blasphemous affront to the forerunners made their souls burn for the blood of all humans on the planet and they would have it.

The planet became quiet as the opposing sides in the conflict for its soil began to move toward a final confrontation that would decide the fate of the remaining humans that once called it home. It would decide whether they lived another day or join the dead to lay among the ashes of reach.