Halo: The Interlopers

Mark drew his rifle from his back and placed it next to Twilight after he wiped the tears from his face. He created some makeshift bedding using sheets and towels and lied down on it. It wasn’t very comfortable, but it was certainly better than sleeping on the bare floor. He closed his eyes, but found himself unable to sleep or even approach such a state.

He heard the sound of an engine outside and walked to the window to see what was happening. There was a band of haggard-looking human refugees outside dismounting from a troop transport Warthog, some of them armed. Mark walked to the main room of the apartment to inform the others.

“Some humans outside, possible hostiles. I’m gonna go downstairs and check it out. Take care of Twi for me,” Mark explained.

“You’re going alone?” Wall asked. He still wore the makeshift bandage around his head to help with the concussion sustained earlier.

“I’ll be fine.” Mark walked out of the apartment and headed downstairs. The elevators were down, as could be expected, and the stairs were thusly the most convenient way of ascending and descending the building’s levels. Mark had his pistol at the ready the whole way down.

When he reached the lobby, the refugees were already inside, although they had all headed into the restroom. Mark kicked in the door to the fairly spacious restroom, pointing his M6G at them. They could very well be looters or raiders driven to violence by the pandemonium of a crumbling city. Mark had seen and killed many of them in during the Human-Covenant War.

“Freeze! Toss your weapons, hands where I can see them!” Mark barked.

The refugees all drew their weapons and pointed them at Mark.

“I’m waiting,” Mark said.

“Kill him!” The leader snarled. His thugs charged at Mark.

There was no time to aim his weapon at the foes whose bodies now obscured any clear killshots. Mark pistol-whipped one and holstered his weapon. The man fell to the ground with a shattered skull. Four men remained.

He closed with the next one, who attempted to stab him in a lunge. Mark sidestepped the attack, grabbed the forward hand, and delivered an elbow strike to the victim’s own elbow, bending it forcefully into an agonizingly unnatural position. The unfortunate fellow dropped to the floor, bone jutting from the inside of his arm.

Mark rolled to the urinals, and ripped one of them out of a wall. He brought the enormous weapon to bear and struck another attacker with the porcelain still attached, shattering the white mass on his body and breaking most of the bones on the right side of the victim’s upper body. The pipe underneath was used a bludgeon to kill the next thug, striking the man’s temple with enormous force.

Mark dropped the pipe and moved in to dispatch the last thug, the leader as chance would have it. He grabbed the man’s hair, and slammed his head repeatedly into one of the mirrors. After that, he drew his knife and slit the throats of all of the men on the floor, starting with the ones he knew were alive, and finishing with the one he believed were dead. Mark was not a man to gamble with the certainty of his kills.

He walked to the door to exit, and caught a glance of himself in the mirror. He walked to the sink and leaned on it, staring at his likeness as it appeared on the reflective surface.

His once clean-shaven face was covered in a black-brown beard, wrapping around his mouth and chin, stretching to his sideburns, and as covered with filth as the rest of his body; a full beard, short in length and high in coverage. His thick black-brown hair, once a standard military crew cut, had grown significantly into a borderline mullet during the past few months and was caked with dirt from his time in Manehattan. His hazel eyes were bloodshot from a lack of sleep, and felt somewhat dry.

His uniform was filthy, covered in dirt and blood and grime, torn and cut in multiple places. His armor, a single chest piece, was scratched and dented and as dirty as the rest of him. It had taken many bullets and blows, and showed its wear. It was designed for longevity and durability, and would certainly see more use, but it was worn nonetheless. His arms and face were covered in cuts and bruises, an intricate lace of dried blood covering them.

I look like I fought my way out of Hell, and I’d have thought that’d be harder than fighting out of a city. But I guess dragging along some girl would make it almost that hard.

Not just “some girl”, a pony. A pony you love. A pony whose innocence you destroyed. A pony you made a killer.

I did that to save her! I had to or she’d have died, no question about it!

Fight for her, not with her. You need to protect her, she can’t do this on her own anymore. She cares for you.

Mark pushed off of the sink and stood up straight, but continued to stare at himself in the mirror.

Cares for me? What a load of shit.

She hugged you to comfort you after you told her your story. She’s had more experience with you than any other human, and you know how strong of a bond war can forge.

From my understanding of ponies, I would’ve gotten that reaction from most ponies of either gender. And just because we’re of opposite genders and I love her doesn’t mean that it’d be a romantic bond, which is what I’m supposedly looking for. Besides, she hasn’t exhibited signs of romantic or sexual interest in any human or pony that I’ve seen. She could think I’d be disinterested in such a topic, shy about discussing it or exhibiting any hint of such feelings, asexual, or even a lesbian.

Would any of those things stop you loving her?

Mark looked down and closed his eyes.

No… In the months I’ve known her, she’s shown herself to be smart, funny, kind, and modest; she’s great, and that’s why I love her. But what good is love if it gets no returns? It becomes an obsession, and I’d be heartbroken if she found somepony or someone else… Or if she died and I never told her how I felt… What’s the point of living if every idle thought is of love I’ll never have?

Do you want to make her happy?

Yes. It’d light up my existence more than a little to know that somepony close to me is happy.

Then help her to do that. At least die knowing you helped her be happy.

Mark opened his eyes and looked at himself in the mirror one last time before heading upstairs to the apartment.

***

Thousands of miles away and a week prior, Fluttershy had suggested a detour to the rendezvous after the most direct route had been obscured by a large, hollowed-out tree. She based it on what looked like a trail of footprints and hoofprints, which she guessed belonged to Ethan and Rainbow Dash. After running her idea and the thinking behind it by Jason, they agreed to follow the path.

They continued for a few minutes when Fluttershy smelled something foul up ahead, and rushed to see what it was. Not only did she begin to cry when she saw the source, but she felt the bitter taste of vomit creep up her throat to caress the back of her tongue.

Jason came up behind her to find the source of her woes: pools of blood and gore, and dismembered manticores. One of them looked like they’d swallowed a grenade, and judging from the fragmentation dug into the ground, that wasn’t unlikely.

Seeing Fluttershy, who was actively crying now, Jason removed his helmet, crouched and hugged her gently, stroking her mane with equal care. Her sobbing softened, and she rested her forehooves on his smooth shoulder armor.

“It’s okay,” He whispered, trying his best to comfort her. “It happened fast enough they didn’t feel anything.”

With his left hand, Jason put his helmet back on. He gently rested Fluttershy on the ground, and they continued to follow the footpath. Jason had a pretty good idea of who made it.

***

“So hungry…” Rainbow Dash moaned.

She remembered Ethan saying those bars could sustain her for a day, but that they were best when balanced out with real food. What she wouldn’t give for a bear claw and cold glass of skim milk, she was having trouble deciding. It was getting dark too, so they’d need to set up camp soon.

As she followed Ethan, she let out a sudden grunt. She had scraped right by a pineapple plant.

“Sweet!” She exclaimed, realizing her luck in finding one of her favorite fruits. “Hey Eeth, mind grabbing this pineapple for me?”

“No prob.”

Ethan walked over and removed the large fruit from its home, carrying it to a clear spot in the forest before dropping it. He unsheathed his knife and began cutting the spiky exterior off, and then slicing off chunks for Rainbow to eat.
Ethan perked his head up after he finished, a pair of animals appearing on his motion tracker.

He disappeared into the bushes, returning minutes later with some wood, a bee’s nest and a large snake around his neck. He dropped them all to the ground and began to build a “log cabin” with the firewood after digging a fire pit. He shaved off some wood with his knife to use as kindling.

He saw Rainbow Dash looking nervously at the nest.“Don’t worry, I flushed out all the bees. All that’s left is the honey and the larvae,” He assured her.

“Ew, are you gonna eat the grubs?” She asked with a genuinely disgusted look.

“I would if I didn’t have the snake. Grubs got a lotta protein in ‘em; they’re good survival food and they don’t taste that bad if you’re really hungry. I’ll cook up this python in a bit. Just gotta get this fire going.”

Ethan produced a lighter from his UA/COUNTERASSAULT chestplate and started the fire, which quickly warmed the surrounding area.

***

Jason drew his M6G and shifted into a combat stance. Fluttershy quickly rushed to hide behind his legs, recognizing that he sensed danger.

“Smoke up ahead; unknown source. Stay low, keep quiet.”

Jason crouched and proceeded towards the source of the smoke. When he got close, he heard Fluttershy squeak. Just as quickly as he registered the noise, he heard a gun’s safety click off.

“Freeze!” Jason shouted at the same time as the other. He recognized the olive and black armored figure and lowered his weapon. “Ethan! Good to see you, man.”

“Likewise. Just started up a campfire, caught some food. Come on, I got RB- I mean, Rainbow Dash with me.”

Fluttershy galloped to the camp, and her eyes met Rainbow’s. They rushed to give each other a hug, each glad to see their oldest friend safe. Ethan and Jason noticed an odd “Squee” sound when they hugged.

“Oh Rainbow, it was horrible,” Fluttershy moaned.

“What happened!?” Dash asked, worried.

“We came across these two dead manticores, horribly mutilated. The whole area was covered in blood and guts,” Fluttershy sobbed.

“Oh, that.”

“Wait, you saw it too?”

“Actually, I kinda helped Ethan cause it,” Dash said sheepishly.

Fluttershy bolted to Ethan and gazed at him furiously.

“How dare you!!” Fluttershy roared at him.

“Jeez, calm down Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash said, trying to soothe her best friend.

“Don’t you tell me to calm down! Ethan murdered those poor things!”

“Hey, those manticores almost killed me, and if Dash hadn’t distracted them with her tasty-looking flank I’d be the crunchiest meal those motherfuckers would’ve ever had! It was self-defense, completely justified!” Ethan interjected.

“‘Tasty-looking flank’?” Rainbow Dash repeated with a suggestive look and smile.

“I didn’t mean it that way. Or at least not consciously,” Ethan responded, embarrassed.

“Justified my flank! You didn’t have to provoke them!” Fluttershy resumed, ignoring the mildly flirtatious dialogue.

“Provoke them? If I could I would’ve avoided them, but when Dash and I were racing, I ran into the middle of two of them and she saved my life! They attacked the moment they saw me, and I’m lucky to be alive!” Ethan retorted.

“Fluttershy, please just lay off him, we don’t need to fight,” Dash interrupted. To her surprise, Fluttershy nodded and calmed herself.

They ate the food they’d managed to find, the humans feasting on the cooked meat of the snake Ethan had found earlier and the ponies eating various fruits and plants in the area.

“Okay, come morning, we’ll have to switch to operations mode. We can’t forget that were shot down by an unknown group, and we need to figure out whodunit before we try to leave this jungle,” Jason spoke up.

“There’re only four of us; just two soldiers. For all we know, there could be an entire base full of bad guys out there!” Rainbow Dash objected.

“Which is exactly why we need to figure out what’s going on here and get backup. I know you and Fluttershy aren’t soldiers, but what’s out there could threaten San Cadenza AFB, which is the only major military base in the region. We lose that base, and all of northwestern Equestria is open to whatever faction decides to take it,” Ethan countered.

“We should really talk about this in the morning,” Fluttershy added.

Their stomachs full and bodies fatigued from moving through the jungle, the four of them fell asleep around the warmth of the campfire.

***

Mark returned to the apartment to find the others snacking on a bag of Hay’s Classic potato chips and some warm soda. Twilight had woken up and was eating with them. He sat down and joined them, the three humans and two ponies forming a circle. They shared the food and began to plan their escape.

“I got our radios working,” Wall began. “Here’s what I’ve gathered from listening in on our guys. The whole area around Grand Canteral Station is the base of operations for allied forces in Manehattan. We’ve got about four hundred UNSC Army and Air Force personnel there. In addition to that, there’s a large contingent of the Royal Equestrian Army there, and the majority of the UNSC forces in Manehattan are operating from there.”

“So we need to head several klicks north to reach safety?” Mark asked.

“Exactly. The pony in charge of the operation, Brigadier General Red Clay, has been sending out search-and-rescue units, company-size, to locate wounded allies and civilians and get them to safety. One of them is in the middle of a sweep a bit west of here. We link up with that unit, we’ll have our ticket in.”

“What’s our window to link up with them?”

“Starting now, two-and-a-half hours, tops. They were separated by debris from that quake earlier, which must’ve been from that Covie excavation, so even after we link up with one, we’ll have to help fight our way to get to the companies. Bravo, Charlie and Delta were already split up to cover different areas when the quake hit. Delta’s closest to us, so we’ll go to them. Eventually, all three companies will link up and head back to the station in a large convoy, which will be given limited air and armor support.”

“Then we better roll out ASAP,” Mark concluded. “Alright, all of you grab your shit, we’re heading out in five!”

Wall helped Helia gather her essentials while Carpenter inspected his M6G and M45 Tactical Shotgun. Mark noticed that he’d scratched his name onto the upper-back of his armor piece.

Mark walked to Twilight and knelt down. “Hey, you alright?” He asked softly.

“I’m fine, thanks to you. I used my magic to check if anything like shrapnel was left inside, but there wasn’t. My only complaint is it hurts to walk on it. I could fix it up a little better with a healing spell, but given how draining our time here has been, I can’t risk using much magic out of my dwindling reserve. But yeah, I’m okay.”

“Good to hear.” Mark patted her on the back.

The five of them assembled ready to go a few minutes later, and headed downstairs in an orderly line, with Helia in the middle since she was unarmed. Their Warthog was still there, and they hopped in. Carpenter drove, Wall rode shotgun, and the others rode in the vehicle’s bed. The vehicle began to move west.

“You’re Twilight Sparkle, aren’t you? One of the Elements of Harmony?” Helia asked.

“Yeah, I am.” Twilight responded with a weak, embarrassed smile.

“What in Equestria are you doing here anyway?” The turquoise pegasus asked, blowing a golden hair from her face. She wanted this to at least seem as fast as possible, which made sense considering she was an easy target.

“The New Yoke Times wanted to interview me, and then Mark too. We were in the middle of the interview when the attack happened. We headed into the city and got captured. We escaped around the time we met Wall and Carpenter.”
Twilight sighed. She was tired in a way sleep could not cure. Getting so little sleep, not enough food, and enduring constant stress had worn her ragged. Frankly she was surprised she hadn’t had one of her notorious stress-induced breakdowns. Helia was probably the only one who’d gotten any decent amount of sleep.

Carpenter and Wall were better off than her, although they showed signs of fatigue; a slight slur in their speech, a bit of feet-dragging when they walked, worsened posture, all of it pointing to exhaustion. Mark showed none of these signs; the only hint to his extreme fatigue was his tired expression. Other than that, he seemed to just endure the fatigue through sheer willpower alone.

Mark was watching out for any potential threats when the generic combat chatter on the team’s radios was drowned out by an urgent-sounding voice.

“Charlie Two, this is Delta Six, we have civilians and wounded in tow, we need backup now. We’re exchanging fire with some kind of- Alien armored vehicle. It’s using heavy plasma weaponry. My ponies can’t- We don’t- My ponies are fucking dying here!” The voice went from urgent to genuinely panicked. Mark knew that tone; it was the tone of someone who was about to break.

“Delta Six, this is Charlie Two. We are en route to your position, but the streets are blocked, it’s gonna take some time to-” The beginning of that sentence disturbed Mark as much as the end. Not only were they cut off from support, they’d lost enough of their leaders that the sixth-in-command was calling the shots.

“We don’t have time, Charlie Two! You get here now, or you’re just gonna be counting our fucking corpses!”

Mark had heard enough. “Carp! Get us to Delta’s position and hang back with the civilians!”

“Sir!” Carpenter affirmed. He slammed the accelerator and closed the distance towards the pinned company. The M12 FAV’s suspension absorbed most of the bumps, but that comfort was lessened by the speed they were travelling at.

Less than a minute later, they arrived. Mark hopped out and ran to the edge of the firefight. He saw a pony in dirty Multi-Terrain Pattern fatigues wearing a buck sergeant’s chevrons, and went to speak with him. A plasma bolt flew by his head, resulting in him hunching down behind cover next to the non-commissioned officer.

“Lieutenant Colonel Thompson, UNSC Army. Gimme a sitrep,” Mark barked.

A few green plasma bolts flew past Mark. He peeked out and returned fire with his DMR, dropping the Grunt who’d fired at him.

“Beyond fucked sir! This is all that’s left of Delta company; the few heavy weapons we had were slagged when that thing attacked, so we’ve got no way to take that thing down.”

Mark peeked out and glimpsed the vehicle that had caused so much trouble. A Locust. Locusts were essentially scaled-down Scarabs, and had firepower to match. Their armor was about as tough as it was on a Wraith tank, which made them tougher to deal with when their enhanced mobility was in play.

“Have you tried calling in air support?”

“Fuck yeah I did! Our unit doesn’t have priority.”

Mark patched into the Air Force’s comms.

“Overwatch, this is Colonel Thompson, UNSC Army; requesting immediate air support! Danger close, repeat, danger close.”

“Copy Colonel. We are diverting an AC-220 Vulture gunship to provide support fire. Specify the nature of your target.”

Mark heard a blast of energy as the Locust fired its main cannon, obliterating a ruined building some of Delta Company was hiding in.

“Locust. ETA?”

“Thirty seconds, stand by.”

Mark looked at the acting commander of Delta, a childish grin glowing beneath his dirty features. “Sarge, tell your soldiers to get under a rock; air support is coming in less than thirty.”

The noncom, though bewildered at first, joined Mark’s smile. He yelled over his radio.

“Heads down, everypony! Air support’s about to rip this fucker a new one!”

***

“Chang, you’re up!” The Vulture’s co-pilot shouted to his starboard gunner. “Locust has friendlies pinned down, danger close!”

Warrant Officer Chang searched around for the target before spotting it. The four-legged mechanical giant was blasting its way through human and pony soldiers to reach a convoy of civilians a thousand meters below him.

“Not on my watch," He muttered. "Firing!"

As soon as he had a clear shot, he fired his gun. The autocannons fired a steady two-second salvo of rounds at the vehicle. All seven 30mm rounds impacted the target, first staggering, then obliterating the walker. He saw the distinctive blue explosion of a destroyed Covenant vehicle from his screen and called it out.

“Target neutralized!”

***

Thunder rang from the clear night sky, as the beleaguered soldiers watched their tormentor fall under a mere few seconds’ worth of fire. As it fell, they hid behind whatever cover they could find to avoid the impending explosion.

“Target neutralized!” Mark heard over the radio.

The remaining soldiers stood up and let loose a collective sigh of relief. While that ordeal was over, they were a long way from the safety of Grand Canteral Station.

“Quit standing with your dicks in your hands ponies, that’s ten minutes to sweep for survivors, then we link up with Bravo and Charlie at the library!” The sergeant barked. With the destruction of that four-legged terror, he had assumed a more professional composure. “Charlie Two, this is Delta Six. A new arrival rustled up some air support to take that fucker down. Will proceed to rally point. Out.”

Mark helped to dig some civilians out of the rubble. Most of them had been able to get to away from the attacking vehicle, but not all were as fortunate. The majority of the bodies under the rubble were just that, bodies.

Mark hopped back into the bed of his companions' Warthog and waited for the convoy to start moving. It did shortly.

Around ten minutes later, they arrived at the library, where a column of human and pony vehicles were assembled. Civilians were streaming out of the building, which was burning from an earlier salvo by Covenant artillery.

“That’s the same library we…” Twilight trailed off. She had a look resembling sadness on her face, but not of remorse for the lost tomes; for the pony who had until so recently been her idol.

“So. Bye-bye, Starswirl,” Wall said without a hint of remorse.

“No. No, something tells me we’ll see him again,” Mark responded.

The convoy, now accompanying almost a thousand civilians and with an armed escort numbering in the hundreds, proceeded towards Grand Canteral Station.

It was around 4:30AM when they stopped, a gate apparently blocking their vehicles. It would need to be bypassed from the front gate. The convoy’s CO had tried reaching the gatekeepers, but to no avail. Mark led a team of a few volunteers to try and get the gates unlocked.

They proceeded through a ruined building towards the gate controls, when assault rifle fire killed two of them.

“Blue-on-blue! Hold your fucking fire!” Mark yelled as loud as he could.

The firing stopped.

“Identify yourself!” One of the guards shouted back.

“Lieutenant Colonel Thompson, UNSC Army; I need those gates open, there’s a convoy with a fuckton of civvies waiting to get in!”

“Sorry sir, your IFFs didn’t come up at first!” Another guard apologized.

“That doesn't cut it, you killed two friendlies!”

“Princess fucking Luna… Okay, gates are open!” The first one again.

Mark jumped out of the building and followed the convoy in. His companions’ vehicle was near the back, and he grabbed onto the rear bumper to pull himself on. He rode it into the makeshift motorpool before dismounting.

A UNSC Army Private First Class walked up to them, saluting Mark.

“At ease, private.”

“Sir, Brigadier General Red Clay wants to see you and your group, sir. He should have sent a waypoint about… Now!”

“Thank you,” Mark said before leading his group off. Outside the station was a field of tents. They walked into the station and beheld the mess inside; People and ponies just clustered together on the floor, dirt and litter lining the ground. It would have been difficult to navigate through the crowd without bumping into a refugee had there not been lanes designated for movement.

It broke Twilight’s heart to see all the suffering these people and ponies were going through. So many robbed of families, friends, homes. Her human companions were less shaken, having seen this before during Covenant sieges.

It took a mere minute to walk to the one-star’s makeshift office. He was a rusty brown earth pony wearing a dirty pair of Multi-Terrain Pattern fatigues. He was conversing with two people on screens.

As the group walked in, they saw the screen’s occupants. On the left was Princess Celestia herself, and on the right was Admiral Hunt.

Mark, Wall and Carpenter snapped into salutes. “Sirs!” They said in unision, addressing the Brigadier and the Admiral. “Ma’am!” Just as simultaneously, to the princess.

“At ease,” The Admiral and General replied simultaneously. Celestia giggled at the sudden synchronization.

“So you’re the group that took down that company of Sabers and saved Manehattan. Not bad for three soldiers and- Who are you anyway?” He spoke with a smile until he inquired about Twilight.

“Twilight Sparkle, sir,” She answered.

“Twilight!?” Celestia gasped.

“Princess!” Twilight ran to the screen and tried to embrace it, only to remember it was an inanimate object. She backed away, blushing and grinning apologetically.

“Twilight, what happened to you?” Celestia asked with concern. She noticed Twilight’s various scratches and generally disheveled appearance, as well as her salvaged uniform, weapon and body armor.

“Well, it turns out city life just isn’t for me. Too much stress and negativity,” She joked.

“I’m just glad you’re alive,” She smiled.

“You can thank Mark for that. I promise I’ll tell you about the whole ordeal when we get out of here.”

“Where is Colonel Thompson?”

Mark stepped forwards. His filthy and blood-spattered uniform and armor, bloodied arms and face, and plethora of cuts and bruises betrayed the punishment he’d taken. The way he ignored the pain was positively monstrous.

“Here, Your Majesty.”

“I have to thank you for protecting my pupil.” A look of overwhelming gratitude dominated her features. “She’s… Like a daughter to me.”

Twilight had never heard her teacher say that, and was both deeply touched and ecstatic to know it.

“Don’t thank me yet, ma’am. Until this city is secure enough to evacuate her safely, I’d hold off on the gratitude." Mark corrected her "Now, do we have a plan?”

“Yes,” Admiral Hunt began. “We need to neutralize that Covenant heavy destroyer. The problem is how to do it. It’d take several MAC rounds to take it down, and we can’t risk bringing multiple ships into the atmosphere to bombard the target. Firing the MAC rounds from orbit would reduce their power drastically, meaning even more ships would have to devote time to fire support. An Archer missile strike, while feasible from orbit, would reduce the accuracy of the missiles and make it even easier for them to be shot down than they’d normally be.”

“Then what exactly is the plan?” Brigadier Clay demanded.

“That structure below Canteral Park; it’s Forerunner. Emmerich, care to explain?”

“Yes Admiral.” Emmerich’s slim, bespectacled avatar appeared on-screen. “Shortly after the invasion of Manehattan, the Office of Naval Intelligence conducted a seismic scan, with a particular focus on the Covenant dig site. The results were quite interesting. Buried under Canteral Park is a fortress. Given what we know of this Forerunner fortress, we can assume that they armed it with a powerful cannon, and a very large contingent of normal Sentinel drones and Sentinel Enforcers. We also know that for reasons we can’t even begin to fathom, humanity is the chosen successor of the Forerunner legacy; that means that if we can get a human inside there, then we can hijack the systems, blast that destroyer out of the sky, and configure a targeting parameter for the Sentinel drones to clear out the remaining Covenant in Manehattan.”

“What if the bots go crazy? I know from reports what the Arbiter said about Guilty Spark snapping,” Mark asked. He was wary of bringing another faction into this conflict.

“Excellent question. We believe that the drones are self-maintaining and semi-autonomous; they can function on their own, but need something from outside themselves or they cease functioning. Namely, a signal. While they do not take commands from central intelligence that controls their every action, Sentinels require a sort of authorization to continue operating, similar to the Permissive Action Link used on nuclear weapons, although it’s a continuous one rather than a one-time input. This signal originates from the structure itself; destroy the origin, and the drones will fall to the ground like so much junk within seconds. The structure itself would actually be vulnerable to MAC rounds due to aging and inferior building materials.”

“Let me get this straight. You’re proposing we mount an assault on Covenant-occupied territory without support from UNSC starships in order to sic a whole army of potentially hackable drones on our invaders?” Clay repeated skeptically.

“Well, it’s possible we could keep a ship just outside of effective MAC range. The heavy frigate Andraste would be ideal for that job; it has a powerful gun and is fast enough to move from a safe loitering area to a firing position within a minute. But as it is, it would only be able to fire two shots from its already upgraded cannon before it would have to recharge and reload, which isn’t enough to destroy that ship. But it would definitely be enough to destroy that installation if we could get a clear shot at it.”

Clay sighed. “Look, this is all just speculation. Right now, we need to hold this city for a few more days until we can get everything ready for the primary and secondary evacs. Until we get that done, nothing else matters in this theater. Meeting adjourned.”

The visuals on both screens cut out, and switched to displaying various tactical and strategic information.

"As for you four," Clay resumed. "I'll need your talents here."