Author's Note

New story, new rules.

Rather than taking a story driven narrative like my other story A Different War To Fight i am going to primarily focus on combat

neither story is going to be put aside so that i can work on the other one, instead i am putting a month for a single chapter, for june that chapter is this and for July i will be providing the next chapter for A Different War To Fight

Enjoy the story
Feet first into hell

Chapter 1: Hope at last

One year after the human Covenant war ended, the remaining government officials declared earth's surface to be uninhabitable and the remainder of the civilians on the planet were sent to other colonies. Only days after this ordeal had reached its climax large scale politicians started to argue about how soon the remaining colonies could be overpopulated within a few years. Upon reaching an agreement with the UNSC's commanders a fleet of three Halcyon-class light cruisers. The two rear cruisers were named Hells Fury and Dawn's Light, the lead ship had earned the name Winter's flame.

Winters Flame was home to most of the marine forces, including the ODST squads, each squad consisted of six members so each squad was given a seperate dormitory. Hell's Fury and Dawn's Light each housed their own marine barracks, but they were primarily their to act as a police force for the civilians.

It was like any other day aboard the Winters Flame, with each day growing more antagonizing for the ODST squads, all except Sigma Squad, which consisted of Lieutenant Lee 'Cowboy' Adams, a Texan and leader of the squad, his armor had patches of green markings on it, Corporal Alex 'Wolf' or as the other squads call him 'Jager', the group's sniper and tracker, originally from Anhalt, Wolf travelled to Reach to train as a combat officer but found he had a better nack for tracking, his chest piece and helmet stripe were as black as night, with K9 like teeth drawn around the visor, Corporal Sal 'Brick' Holland, a dim whitted Italian, who's armor was primarily black apart from his orange torso piece, Corporal John 'Fox' Smith, the British infiltrator, his armour was a dark shade of red, Private Alice 'Rabbit' Wright, she was the only female ODST and one of the few medics, her amour had white patches, and Private Damien 'Greenie' Glass, his armor was still slightly sliver, as it was fresh off the production line.

The other ODST squads all acted like children, using their rank or training to get what they wanted from the lower ranking marines, but Sigma squad always acted as if they were just marines, treating the other soldiers as equals, no matter rank or role, other than their superiors, whose order would be carried out without a second thought.

It was that same day when the bridge crew of Winter's Flame had discovered a planet with a similar atmosphere and ecosystem.

"Are you sure" asked Captain Cortez

"Yes sir, it is very similar to Earth in size, land to water ratio and plant life" replied Lieutenant Raptor

"Alright then, what does the scanner show" the captain asked, leaning closer to the monitor

"Pretty normal for a planet this size, but there are some anomalies, like these much larger blips" the Lieutenant replied pointing to one of the strange flashing lights

"Hmm, interesting, how would you proceed Lieutenant"

"I suggest we send one of the ODST squads down in the pelicans, i recommend Sigma Squad, as that way we can rely on the information we get back" the lieutenant replied, shocked that the captain was asking for his opinion

"Good choice, I'll inform the men, they leave in two days" the captain replied, smiling

The Captain left the bridge, leaving the Lieutenant in charge.

About an hour later there was a knock on the squads door, as Sargeant Adams went to the door the other three members turned away from what they were doing to see who it was.

As the Sargeant opened the door, said "Captain on deck" and watched Greenie and Brick scramble into a line as Wolf calmly dropped down from his bunk and lined up next to them

The captain stepped in and said "At ease" before taking a seat at the table in the centre of the room and gestured for the troopers to take a seat which they did, except Wolf, as they only had six seats in the room

The captain pulled out a list and a map and handed it to Tank, before asking "are you gents ready to get off this rust bucket"

Tank handed the map to Wolf before simply responding with "oohra, sir"

Wolf looked at the map and asked "how far sir"

Captain Cortez smiled and said "eager to stretch you legs son, either way we're two days out, then you'll be deploying"

Wolf smiled and nodded before the Captain left the room. As the squad celebrated that night, Wolf decided to plot out landing points and teams. The next day as his squad loaded their packs with any useful equipment Wolf talked to the Captain about the rest of the team and showed him the plans. Wolf spent the remainder of the day assigning people to their teams and showing the pilots the location of their LZ, which was a clearing in a forest for team one and the edge of a desert for team two. The next day Wolf showed his squad the plans and Tank put the ODST's into the teams as he saw fit.

The Sargeant said "Brick, Rabbit, you two are with me and team two, Greenie go with fow and Wolf and team one to investigate the strange blips, now lets arm up, the birds are up in twenty, oohra"

The rest of the squad responded "oohra" before leaving for the Armoury.

Tank loaded himself with two MG6 Magnums and a MA37 Assault Rifle. Wolf grabbed a M392 DMR and his customised 99D Anti Material Rifle. Brick picked up a MA37 Assault Rifle and a M90 Shotgun. Fox grab a M90 shotgun and a Suppressed
M7S SMG. Rabbit picked up a M7S SMG and a MG6 magnum. Greenie on the other hand only grabbed a MA37 Assault Rifle.

After leaving the Armoury the Squad grabbed their packs and headed for the Pelicans. They regrouped with the marines and went over the plans again before they loaded up and were shipped out. Whilst the other soldiers were fine during the flight Greenie had took his helmet off and threw his guts over the marine sat next to him.

As boots hit the ground Wolf removed his helmet and asked Greenie "are you sure your ready for this, if not feel free to go back up in the dropship, no one is going to judge you"

Greenie declined by saying "gotta prove my worth somehow" before the group set off in the direction of what for all they knew was just a bug on a camera feed. About an hour later they reach the point of origin and found a town.

"Tank, you know that random blip on the map, its a town, permission to investigate" Wolf asked over his radio

Through the static he heard Tank say "you have the green light"

"Alright then lads, lets move" he said

As the team aproached the towns large stone wall. They saw an odd amount of ponies around the area, maybe it was abandoned. As they got close some of the ponies got spooked and ran off leaving the team confused, they weren't that close were they.

As they got closer to the towns gateway they heard a voice shout "FIRE"

Upon hearing this the soldiers dove for cover and drew their weapons as a barrage of arrows flew over head.

"Wound, dont kill, we need to find out why the insurrectionists are out here" Wolf shouted to the marines whilst preparing a flashbang

As Wolf threw the flashbang the marines all pushed up, shortly followed by the ODST's, but there was no gunfire, just lots of screaming. But this screaming was not coming from any human, nor were they from any Covenant species, no these screams were coming from most of the ponys.

"What the fuck" muttered one of the marines

As Wolf, Fox and Greenie caught up with the other marines they were quickly surrounded by what appeared to be ponies wearing golden armor.

"Whats your order Wolf" asked Greenie trembling

"This might be a stupid plan, but just follow my lead" Wolf replied, before putting down his weapons and removing his helmet, revealing his tide back brown hair and clean shaven face, with Greenie quickly coping him revealing a young boy who couldn't have been any older than twenty one. Fox did the same showing short red hair atop a clean face. The marines followed Wolf's order shortly after.

"Alright, you've got us, we surrender" Wolf said to the crowd, secretly turning on his radio

"Who are we to stand up to your might, so we'll come peacefully, lets avoid bloodshed" Wolf continued

Then one of the ponies stepped forward ever so slightly and said "by order of the four princesses you are under arrest"

The ponys led the soldiers to a large jagged castle just beyond the town. Because the guards did not have any cuffs for creatures of the humans size the ponies decided to keep their weapons drawn on the soidiers, with another two ponies hanging around behind them carrying their captives equipment.

"So, where are you taking us" asked Greenie

The guards just shrugged off his question and continued moving. Wolf started to look up and saw something that made his heart sink.

Fox saw his expression and look up and shouted "WEVE GOT COVEE'S

As a super carrier came out of slip space, followed by more and more smaller carriers, phantoms started to fly down to the planets surface, and drop pods were deployed shattering the ground where they landed.

"Give us our weapons, these creatures will not surrender, you cant beat them by yourself" Greenie pleaded

The lead guard laughed before saying "nothing can stand up to the might of us, not even you"

As plasma bolts started to fly at them Wolf said "yea, cause we have a sense of morality, we could have easily slaughtered your entire town, but no, we took the peaceful option, they wont, they will kill and kill untill you go extinct"

The guard shrugged as a bolt of plasma flew by his ear, burning it. As the pony guards scattered for cover, the marines grabbed their equipment and joined the ponies.

"Thought you would've ran, since you were our prisoners" said the lead guard pony, clutching his burnt ear

"We're here on friendly terms, we dont want to harm those who aren't directly against us" said Wolf loading his DMR

"OPEN FIRE" Shouted Fox, as he stood up from his position

Wolf activated his COMS unit and tuned into an open UNSC frequency, sending a distress call to the Sargeant and the Cruisers, in this he said "This is Sigma 2 requesting reinforcements at grid location 351-623, the Covenant is here, i repeat the Covenant is hear"

The captain heard this and ran to assemble more troops to send down to the surface, leaving the Lieutenant to sent out an alert. Within ten minutes three Pelicans were filled and sent out to the surface

Lieutenant Raptor sent out an alert to the ODSTs "reinforcements are ten minutes out"

As the distress call reached the Sargeant he turned to the marines and said "you know the music, time to dance" before the group started the long journey to other team.

As the distress call went out Wolf drew his sniper to deal with the Covenant forces, focusing on the elites and Jackles. As the battle raged on Wolf got the signal that reinforcements were on their way. Although pony and human alike were falling, neither faction gave up their attack. As Wolf turned to reload his rifle he saw the casualties of the battle, all but two of the marines that were with him were dead or half covered in Bio foam, Greenie was however the ponies casualties were far worse, all but three of the towns guards were dead.

Wolf whispered "Scheisse" before turning back to fire upon the Covenant forces

As the reinforcements arrived the Covenant fled back into the forest with the dwindling pony force chasing them.

"For equines you can bloody well fight" Said Fox, before putting the safety on his shotgun

Wolf clambered to his feet and activated his radio and said "thanks for the assist lieutenant, although we are currently in need of a large medical team, prep them for equines as well"

As the radio signal went through lieutenant Raptor replied "say again Sigma 2, did you say equine"

Fox took the radio and said "yes sir, its a long story"

As the ponies soldiers regrouped they decided to continue escorting the two ODST's into the large jagged castle, not as prisoners, but as guests.