Sent To Protect and Serve Humanity

Chapter 62: Ancient Evil

3rd POV

While the Alliance's Navy may have been on their backfoot, their ground forces could not be in a better shape. After Prejudice's betrayal, the Covenant's ground units had significantly faltered without air support, giving the Alliance's forces the momentum to chase them to the outer edges of the city. Despite the issue of Grimm that plagued the city's borders, the Alliance had managed to thoroughly route the Covenant.

Patrolling down a dilapidated avenue, a team of familiar Marines had been moved from the Academy to Mantle.

"Anything on the scanner?" Davis asked, shooting a curious glance to the woman at his right.

Ange tinkerer with a small device, watching a set of green dots show up toward the center of a screen. "Nothing so far. Just us and the occasional Sentinel."

Eddy groaned and rubbed his neck. "Long fuckin' day..." He stared into a very hectic sky. "Hopefully, the Navy can do their job!"

Behind him, Arbor sighed and shook his head. "From what Coco said, Navy had its ass handed to it. It's only the capital ships up there... everyone else is down here in smoking wrecks or being hauled toward the Manor." His tired eyes drifted toward one of the many wrecked buildings.

"Hey! Eyes up!" Davis quickly grabbed their attention.

The four Marines would be quick to take cover behind the smoking wrecks of a Pelican that had slammed into the street. Davis would hold a hand up and slowly peer around the nose of the aircraft. He watched as a pair of Brutes dug through the rubble of some crash site.

"Two Apes." He whispered as his team readied their weapons. "Digging for something..."

"Does it matter? Let's fuckin' kill em!" Eddy shook himself awake and tightly gripped the battle rifle he carried.

"Arbor, Eddy, you two take the one on the left, Ange, you and I will take the right." Davis turned to his team and received a collection of nods. "Go!"

Like clockwork, the four Marines quickly left their cover and immediately began to open fire on their targets. The Brute on the left attempted to grab the spiker in his holster, only to have bullets pierce through his already broken armor with ease. He would stumble back before a shot from Eddy's BR finished the job. Having been caught by surprise in the middle of digging, the other Brute was quickly shot down by Ange and Davis.

The four would quickly approach the now deceased aliens, making sure they were indeed dead.

Ange analyzed the rubble the two had been digging through and came to a conclusion. "Looks like a... weapons cache...? I think?"

"Could've been dropped by a Phantom." Arbor shrugged, watching Eddy kick the side of a Brute's head.

Davis opened his mouth to agree, only for their radios to go off. They reached for the communication devices in their helmets and activated them.

Loudly, the frantic voice of Autumn cried out through the radios. "SLIPSPACE RUPTURE DETECTED. ALL UNITS-" She paused. "Dear God."

Davis looked up, puzzled for a moment. Then, he found the massive portal in the night sky, and what came flying out of it. He wasn't sure of what it was, but it looked like an UNSC warship, a Marathon-Class, to be precise. If you squinted and looked toward the aft of the ship, or what was left of it, you could find the name 'UNSC HEAVENLY GALE' mirred in a horrid fleshy green paste. The only issue was how gross it looked, and as it flew through the sky, it left an awful green trail behind it. As it cascaded toward the cities, on a direct course for Mantle, chunks of the warship broke off, and it began to rain these horrid materials defined by a gross green and a putrid scent. Finally, a large explosion would deafen the group as they watched the warship slam into the war-torn city.