A/N: Just to put it out there for you people there will not be a lot of Spartan appearances in this story. I mean we all know what Master Chief is doing right now so I don't find any reason why I should be writing about that. There are parts of the story where I will mention the Master Chief but it will be limited. I like to write about different characters that are not really covered in the Halo universe. Back to the story. Also sorry for the long delay for anyone that is still bothering to read this, enjoy.

Rick looked over the remains of the battle atop the incredibly large Republic tank. The Covenant ground troops and Wraiths did not stand a chance against these metal monsters. Rick didn't even know there was another gun on top of the tank controlled by another Clone until it shot off and almost made the Staff Sergeant deaf.

The large convoy of Clones and Marines easily cut through multiple courtyards. Now they were on top of one of the industrial buildings, heading towards the next courtyard.

Rick's comm piece crackled to life and the open channel was filled with Lord Hood's stoic voice. "Master Chief sit rep".

"Sir" the Chief answered back immediately, "The final courtyard is clear. I'm heading for the AA gun".

"Roger that Chief, All call signs re group in the last courtyard and defend it while the Master Chief takes down that Covenant gun."

Rick looked to the Tank next to him and saw Captain Fenway looking at him. He gave the understanding nod and Rick returned the gesture. They didn't need to relay the orders to the Clone troopers or Ahsoka and Obi-Wan because they were given the channels frequency before they started to move.

The tanks came to the end of the ceiling and started to climb down to ground level. Rick stole a glance up at the sky to see several Falcons, Pelicans and Clone transports in dog fights with Banshees. Rick yet again heard more talking over the radio channel, it was Captain Fenway.

"Hold up everyone" The Convoy of 8 Republic tanks stopped as soon as the order was issued. They had just got off the top of the ceiling, the backs of the tanks were touching the wall. Half of the Clones that were walking stayed on top of the ceiling on lookout for the enemy.

"I've got something big on the scanner".

"Is it friendly?" Rick asked concerned.

"I don't think so" the Captain replied.

The Convoy of troopers were silent, everyone listening for this big contact. Rick didn't hear anything out of the unusual. The Marine took another glance upwards at the air boys. Rick was confused, all of the Banshees were destroyed but they were all facing one direction. They were looking over the large complex to the left of them, Rick now noticing there was a small squadron of Marines stationed there with missile launchers.

The Falcons opened fire first with their chain gun, followed by the missiles from the Pelicans and lastly the few Clone transports with their laser turrets. A distinct sound caught his ear and he was completely horrified. Rick knew what they were firing at and a second later a large green plasma stream tore through the air and cut down all of the aircraft.

"Scarab!" Rick yelled out as the Covenant super tank crawled over the complex. Rick had only dealt with a Scarab tank once in his lifetime. His platoon had to defend an ONI HQ from being taken by the Covenant back when he just joined the core. The troopers had dug into the ground, they were told by their superiors that no reinforcements were going to come and help them. Rick was eager back then, always willing to get into the fight and get some Covie kills under his belt, just like Elizabeth…

The lab was almost done being scrubbed down for information when the Covenant attacked and boy did they attack in force. Ground troops rushed at them by the dozen and had vehicle supporting fire as the Wraiths zeroed in on their position and launched explosive after explosive at them. Despite the overwhelming numbers of Covenant, the defenders were able to keep them at bay. That was until their secret weapon had showed up.

The Scarab blew holes in their defenses killing dozens of Human defenders with just one shot. It didn't stop for anything. They fired Rockets at it, the base had defense turrets but the bullets and explosives just pinged off of its armor.

It took all but 5 minutes for the Covenant tank to reach the base. By then there were only 6 Marines left including Elizabeth out of the 100 men platoon. Rick watched in horror as the main gun charged for another attack right above them. Rick's mind drifted off and his life flashed before him.

A sudden explosion made Rick come out of his mind. The Anti-Air turret on top of the Scarab exploded causing the tank to look away from them. The Scarab looked into the sky just as several more explosion rocked the whole thing. Everyone looked up to see Longswords zoom by causing Rick to cheer along with everyone else. The Scarab's legs gave out making the main body fall to the ground and explode in a large blue fire.

Rick still had nightmares from that day and never wanted to be in combat with another Scarab again.

The main gun focused on the Republic tanks and charged up for an attack. "Everyone off of the tanks now!" Rick yelled out in terror as the Scarab opened fire. The beam struck the tank Captain Fenway was sitting on and tore it into pieces with the Captain still on it.

Everyone on Rick's tank including Rick jumped off of the Republic tank just as the plasma beam made contact with it. Ahsoka was able to jump off with Rick just in time. The two landed on their feet perfectly. "Are you alright?" Rick asked major concern in his voice.

"Yes, yes I'm fine" she looked up at the large tank, "What in blazes is that thing?"

"That is a Scarab" Ahsoka watched in horror as it cut down another Republic tank, killing the personnel that decided to stay on board. "It is a Super Covenant killing machine with heavily plated armor and a big ass gun that packs a punch".

"How do we kill it?"

Rick thought quickly and looked back at the complex the Scarab had climbed over. "I have something but it's going to be a long shot. Run with me to the complex and contact Obi-Wan".

The pair ran for the complex and when they reached the ramp to go up Obi-Wan answered the communicator. "Ahsoka I'm kind of busy right now" he answered as another Republic tank was destroyed, leaving only four left.

"Master Obi-Wan" Rick took the communicator from Ahsoka, "I have a plan to take down the Covenant tank. I need your tanks weapons to aim for the legs."

"I don't know Sergeant we're kind of exposed".

Rick wiped the sweat off of his forehead, "I understand sir but if we don't take this thing down now it will wipe out the whole convoy".

"Understood" Obi-wan replied after a few seconds of silence. "All tanks Concentrate fire on the enemies' front legs" the Jedi gave the order and immediately the fire that came from the Republic's tanks were orderly instead of sparatic.

Rick handed the communicator back to Ahsoka and walked up to one of the missile pods. There was a Marine slouched over it, like he was taking a nap. Rick put his hand on the Marines shoulder and started to shake him violently. Nothing happened so he picked the trooper of the gun and saw he had a plasma hole in his forehead. He tossed the dead body away and aimed the missile pod at the Scarab. He aimed and when he saw a lock on fired away, some of them making their mark and the others hitting the ground next to the super tank.

The combined fire of the Republic tanks and the missiles were enough to cripple the Scarabs right front leg. Loud Klaxon emergency bells were heard as the tank went into a sort of crouching mode from too much damage. Rick knew it was time to act, "Ahsoka stay here, I'll be right back".

"No Rick we're doing this together I'm not just going to stay on the sideline".

"You're not on the sideline." Rick said thinking of an excuse to keep his girlfriend out of harm's way, "Look, I need you to stay here and keep firing on the Scarab. It's going to get back on its feet any second."

He ran as fast as he could seeing as how the complex and the middle of the courtyard was a big run for a ground troop but only three steps for the Scarab. Rick made it to the rear of the Scarab to see a plasma turret being operated by a Grunt. He easily disposed of it with a precise headshot from his MA5B and looked to see if the coast was clear before he climbed aboard the Scarab.

Rick took cover behind a plasma shield and quickly typed in Obi-Wan's frequency. "Obi-Wan order your convoy to fall back now!" Rick yelled over the return of explosions.

"What are you doing? I saw you ran into the Covenant tank."

"The tank has a reactor core in the middle of it, but it's heavily armored from the outside. I'm going to get to the core and destroy it, the blast will be large that's why you need to get your tanks back on the compound ceiling". Rick heard yelling from above him coming from Brutes, they knew he was on board.

"Affirmative Sergeant good luck". Rick felt the Scarab move around signaling the Covenant super tank was operational again.

Rick looked around the room he was in and found a ramp heading up. He did a quick ammo check and took the route up. Coming off the ramp Rick saw he was outside on a small catwalk. He heard a roar and looked to the left quickly to see a Brute aiming a Spiker at him.

Reacting quickly the elite Marine fell onto his back just as the deadly rounds went over him. Rick opened fire and quickly killed the oversized monkey before continuing on his mission. There was minimal resistance on the Super tank, the Covenant probably thought that no one would be able to get onto the Scarab in the first place.

Moving towards the back in a small crevice was the Super tanks core, protected by a small shield which Rick knew he could destroy with his Assault rifle. He needed to really book it because the explosion radius for these things are very large. Rick opened fire and halfway through his clip the blue shield dispersed and it took the rest of the clip for the core to be destroyed.

The Scarab stopped in its tracks and yet again crouched, the loud alarms started to blare again signaling the tanks imminent explosion.

Rick nodded his head in confirmation and turned away just so he could be face to face with another Brute. The large Ape was inhaling and exhaling deeply, drool was hanging from his mouth. The Staff Sergeant tried to raise his gun at the enemy but the Brute grabbed the Assault rifle and lifted him by his throat.

Rick squirmed trying to break the Ape's grasp, all that did was make the bastard laugh at the Human. The emergency bells from the Scarab were getting louder. Rick needed to get off the super tank right now, he wasn't going to go down like this.

Rick spat in the face of the Brute causing slight confusion, just enough to get his leg free and kick the Brute across the face. The Ape let go of his throat and fell to the floor in pain.

Rick picked his Assault rifle up quick and ran out of the core room. He ran back towards the ramp he traveled up and went down. Rick ran past the plasma turret and dead grunt before jumping off and easily landing on his feet.

Running away as fast as he could Rick took a quick look behind him just as the Scarab exploded. He was just out of blasting range but what he did not account for was one of the Scarab's legs to fly into the air. The Marine stopped in his tracks because he had no more ground to run on, in front of him was a cliff leading to nowhere. Rick looked back just in time to see the Scarab leg hit into him. The weight sending him over the edge of the cliff.

…

..

.

(*8*)

Rick's eyes slowly opened, his breathing very shallow. He took a quick glance to the sky to see it was no longer during the day and yet the night air seemed a little too humid for his remembrance of Earth. He looked to the left of him to see the Covenant cruisers that were digging through the Earth were no longer there, how long was he out?

It couldn't have been too long because someone would have found him by now if it was longer than 20 minutes. He rubbed his head and remembered about the Scarab leg forcing him off the side of the cliff. It was a good thing the ledge he landed on was here or he would be a dead man.

Rick sized up the side of the cliff and noted that he fell about 20 feet, he was lucky that nothing felt broken in fact nothing really hurt at all. 'That's a first' Rick thought to himself as he picked up his discarded helmet off the floor and placed it on his head.

The Marine did a quick weapons check seeing that everything was fine, now the only problem he saw was getting to the top of the cliff. He got an idea and started to check his belt. It didn't take long for him to find the grapple cable and he wanted to see all the people who called him a hoarder for bringing everything on a mission and flip them off right now.

The Staff Sergeant connected the cable to his Assault rifle and took aim at the top of the cliff quickly firing. It made contact with the wall a few inches before the top. The Staff Sergeant smiled and quickly tugged the rope a few times to make sure it wouldn't come out of the wall before climbing it to the top.

Rick made it to the top and disconnected the cable letting it fall to the abyss below. He turned towards the courtyard he was once in he doesn't know how long ago and something was definitely wrong. There were destroyed Warthogs, Covenant tanks and even a few Scorpions. None of them were in the courtyard at the time he destroyed the Scarab, so how long was he actually unconscious for?

Walking around the wrecks slowly he noted something that seemed rather peculiar. There were no bodies to be found. He knew that was a terrible thing to say but this was war, people were bound to die unfortunately. What with the amount of destroyed vehicles, it just wasn't right.

He started to examine the closest scorpion. It was definitely destroyed thanks in part to the top turret that was blown off from the rest of the vehicle. Rick started to notice weird marks on the armor, they almost resembled scratch marks. That wasn't the killing blow. Rick noted the large black mark on the base of the Scorpion, right where the MG gunner would sit. This Scorpion was destroyed by a friendly Rocket launcher. Something was wrong.

An explosion tore through the calm air and an already anxious Rick spun around and aimed his Assault Rifle. A clone was running on the catwalk Rick was on when he used the missile pod to bring down the Scarab. He was running and firing off random rounds behind him.

Rick watched in horror as the last possible thing came out of the blown open door. The flood were on Earth. A Flood monstrosity that was once a Marine emitted a screech before running after its new prey. 'Not on my watch'.

Rick ran forward at an intercepting course and just as the flood was going to jump on the clone, he opened fire. A whole clip was used, but it was better than the thing being alive. "Are you alright trooper?"

When there was no response Rick took his eyes off the flood corpse and looked to see the Clone trooper sitting in a corner, shaking back and forth, his helmet thrown clumsily on the floor. Rick saw the utter fear in the man's eyes, something that accompanied the flood was death and it never had any mercy. "Hey" he said softly. For a few seconds the Clone merely kept his eyes to the ground, then like a flick of the wrist he spoke.

"I killed them all". The Clone trooper started to tinker with his sidearm pistol while he thought back. Rick had no intentions of interrupting. There were something's people needed to get off their chest. "Everything was going great until that ship crashed a few kilometers away. They infected my squad, they did things to them. There was nowhere to move, nowhere to retreat, nowhere to hide. They found everybody. Then I had to them down like dogs." The Clones mood changed extremely and he threw his weapon against the wall in frustration.

The Clone stood and looked at Rick, "Sarge, Lucky, Trax, Fives and Echo." The Clone listed their names off as he punched the metal wall behind him in pure anger. "I saw their bodies twitching and the thing taking them, part by part. There were no screams, they were already dead by the time it was trying to burrow its way into their chests. I shot them, I shot my squad and I shot my friends!"

The Clones chest was heaving as he stared at the Marine in front of him. "I'm sorry" Rick put his hand on the man's shoulder, "No man wants to lose their squad and live to tell the tale". The Clone started to calm down, taking slow and deep inhales of much needed Oxygen. It was entirely reasonable for this Clone, no, this man to be feeling this way about losing his friends. Marines and ODST's would always try to get the body of their friends off the battlefield and get them home for a proper burial. Most of the time it failed. Either the Covenant were too heavy in numbers or the men trying to get the body would end up dead with them.

"We have to get off planet. Voi has been compromised and I'm sure the brass wants all of the men back safely." Rick turned his back to the Clone and picked up his blaster. He examined its integrity quick and held it out to the Clone. At first he was hesitant, then he reached his hand out slowly only for the limb to start shaking. With his other hand he placed it on the shaking hands wrist and stopped it. It worked and with a slow trek he grabbed the gun.

"Wh-Whats the plan?"

"Its easy trooper"

"The name is CT-5714" Rick just looked at him with a look of annoyance. The trooper caught on and chuckled, "The nickname is Trigger".

Rick returned the small smile Trigger gave him, "Alright Trigger how long has it been since the ship crashed and released the creatures?"

"20, maybe 25 minutes" Rick nodded and began to type in a frequency into his comm. With a slight nod of the head Rick continued on.

"That means Pelicans are still evacuating Civilians and Military personnel. This frequency is the emergency broadcast signal". He finished typing the code and looked at Trigger, he was sporting a rather uncertain look. "Don't look at me like that. I'm sure there is still another bird in the sky".

He opened the comm after the Clone shrugged, "This is Staff Sgt Rick Matthews requesting evac. I have a Clone trooper here with me and we would like to get the hell out of here."

Trigger snickered and Rick didn't eve he realize he made that joke until it came spilling out of his mouth. A death curdling screech made both men look at each other in pure fright. "They're coming over the wall".

Rick opened fire as dozens of flood hurdled over the ceiling and landed perfectly on the floor. Thankfully Trigger started to open fire and for now the horde was at bay. "Staff Sgt this is Pelican Delta 119 do you copy?"

Rick felt chills run through his skin when he heard the female pilot's voice. "Nice of you to answer my call Delta 119. I need an evac in the east courtyard, flood hostiles are threatening to overrun my position". Rick heard some weird squishing noises and looked to the right to see a flood carrier waddling towards him. He threw a frag towards it and watched the grenade explode in front of the bag of gas, sending it flying away.

"That's a negative sir. I'm under the command of Lord Hood to land in a designated zone only. The nearest zone is in a grass plain 2 Klicks west of your current position". Rick reloaded his magazine and quickly jumped back into cover as one of the flood unloaded an SMG at him. He did a quick check on his new partner and watched Trigger drop 3 corpses.

"Roger that 119. E.T.A 20 mikes. Better warm the seats for us."

"That won't do Staff Sergeant I can only wait 10".

"No! We'll never make it in time. You don't understand-"

"No you don't understand Staff Sergeant!" the pilot cut Rick off. "The perimeter is shrinking every second and in 10 mikes Project Sweep will be commencing and I'm not sticking around for that".

"Project Sweep? What the hell is that?"

There was a silence before the pilot answered, "Lord Hood has authorized the glassing of Voi".

Rick felt his limbs go cold as he stared into the wall in front of him. Glassing. It was coming to that extreme already. He felt a burning sensation around his whole body and the only thing he could think about was being caught in it. "Roger 119" he answered, trying to keep the worry out of his tone.

It was time to leave.