Bloodbath of the Burning Plains Preview:

Keyes watched on the tactical display as the million man strong army slowly but inexorably approached the Alliance's lines. Among them, the Intent's sensors were detecting large numbers of Laughing Ones as well as vast phalanxes of Flesh Golems, of both Urgal and Human make. In addition to that, there was at least three Shades down there, possibly more if the blaze of energy that was typical of a possessed individual was anything to go by. To top it all off, there were huge numbers of siege engines, such as ballistae, trebuchets, and what appeared to be crude cannons currently being loaded with grapeshot.

In any other time period, this would be an impossible force for a Medieval army to defeat. Then again, the Alliance's army was far from that.

Across from her, both Rtas and Thel were busy coordinating last minute placement of the tanks, turret nests, catapults, and mortars. It was crucial that the opening bombardment took down the grapeshot cannons or else the followup charge would be a gory failure.

Keyes wondered if this is what it was like to be a Covenant commander, knowing that your enemy was technologically weaker than you were, but made up for it in sheer tenacity or with other factors, in this case, sheer numbers. She let loose a deep sigh. Before this day was over, there would be untold numbers of dead and dying on the battlefield.

Her sigh did not go unnoticed by the Shipmaster. "Problem Commander?"

"Just wondering how many are going to die today, and of those how many will be our own."

"With luck, the number will be very few. The Empire may have the numbers, but we have the will and the technology to fight them back into the hole whence they came from." Thel replied.

The display flickered, before being replaced with a hologram of John-117, Jörmundur, and a Field Master. The three were groundside, coordinating the Varden in getting their troops ready for the battle. The Field Master spoke first.

"Arbiter, we are in position and ready to begin the bombardment. Let us rain the sapphire flames of our wrath apon these mongrels!"

"Soon, Fieldmaster," Thel said. "If we jump the gun on this, they may attempt to retreat from the battle, forcing us out into the open where we are more vulnerable. No, we must wait until they are committed to the battle."

The Fieldmaster gave a salute, before his hologram faded. "Commander, my Spartans are in position and ready to go. We have two people each on a Mongoose and armed with either a heavy plasma cannon, a minigun, or any other of our various heavy weapons. The plan is that immediately after the bombardment, we move forward and engage any survivors, while punching deep into their forces. After that, we go to energy swords or gravity hammers and attack at close range. If all goes well we can instill some panic in the more human of their forces, and reduce the number of Laughing Ones that the Varden needs to face."

Jörmundur paled slightly at the carnage the Spartans would cause, before adding, "The Dwarves and shock troops will follow the Spartans in, with normal forces reinforcing them from behind. Va'naash and his generals have assured me they are ready to do their part despite the sunlight, and the Urgals just finished moving into position. We are ready to attack on command."

Rtas splayed his upper mandibles in a Sangheilian grin. This would be oh so much fun.

"What about your forces, Johnson?" Rtas asked.

With a slight hissing of static, the gruff ODST's hologram appeared in place of Jörmundur. "Pods are full and ready for launch. What ones that don't have a soldier inside are packed with explosives and rigged to explode on impact. Considering how much C-12 we stuffed into each pod, it'll make one hell of a bang," He finished with a chuckle.

"And what of the Scarab?"

Johnson's only response was a rather evil cackle. "Those poor bastards won't know what hit them"

-ToTT-

A/N: this is all you're getting until i get to it story wise; the chapter itself already has some 2500 words done. Next chapter is already in progress and i'll see about a Jan 30th post date, if not, then the end of February. And merry christmas to you all.