Bab 76: Tip of the Spear
After we finished loading up the Corvettes I sat in the captain's chair of what would be my flag ship. Jack was operating the ship's coms systems and had established a line to the UNSC forces defending Reach. Her presence cause a bit of stir, but after she slapped a few Brutes around no one questioned her place further.
"This is Admiral Roland Freemont of the UNSC. Any attempt at negotiation will have to take place after the full withdrawal of Covenant forces from UNSC controlled space." The Admiral spoke after appearing on our communication display.
"Admiral, you are talking to War Chief Grax." I introduced myself, "There will be no negotiations between the Covenant and the humans, but there can be negotiations between the USNC and me."
"Are you offering to defect?" The Admiral asked in a serious tone.
The UNSC desperately needed information on the Covenants shot callers and plans.
"Defect." I smirked, "No. I already led a mutiny and have taken the super carrier stationed above your planet. The Elites destroyed the ship's engines, but I have most of the Corvettes that the ship carried into this engagement, and thousands of warriors just floating up above you. I am not offering to defect, I am giving you the chance to procure my services in evacuating Reach."
"Super Carrier?" the Admiral questioned, "What load of shit are you trying to sell us?"
"You people haven't taken down the cloaking Spire on the ground yet, but the forces currently attacking Reach are only a portion of the whole. The Elites lobbied for the vanguard, and took on the role of softening your orbitals and establishing Covenant assault bases. I was to lead a reserve force if deemed necessary, and take command of the Brute forces soon to arrive on the hundreds of ships coming in the second wave of our attack."
"I see." The Admiral stated, "What are you offering and how can we trust any offer being made by you?"
"Whether as pirates or privateers, we will go to war against the Covenant." I told the Admiral, "The differences are how much we make for our efforts and how much human suffering you can avoid with my forces supporting yours. There is also the possibility of a cascading effect on Covenant desertions my forces can enable on the ground. The Elites and the Prophets have a lot of hate coming from the lower castes, and I can easily convince the packs to follow me. They will follow my strength."
The Admiral nodded even if he didn't fully understand the dynamics of Covenant politics.
"I'll give you people two hours to decide. After that my ships are leaving this system and I will pursue the Prophets without the help of the USNC. The choice is yours, but the right answer is yes."
Ninety minutes later we were going through a privateer contract from the USNC. It was decent, not exceptional, but they'd make things worth our time.
"What do you think Timit?" I asked the mercenary.
"I'd add a few things." He quietly added a few addendums to the resources we'd be paid for our services and I signed it and sent it back to the USNC. Ten minutes later we got the fully executed contract and the green light to attack the Covenant forces on Reach. We'd begin hitting targets in what would be called the Battle of Viery.
I had all my forces marked with red X's in an attempt to cut down on friendly fire and the USNC had our ships' signals identified in their IFF networks. I knew things wouldn't be clean, but we'd put in the effort. We spent the rest of the time before the battle stripping the ship and the dead elites off gear, munitions, supplies, and resources and loading them up onto our Corvettes. I ended up mostly converting the elite's energy shields into forms usable by my Brutes. By doing that I upped their combat effectiveness by at least two hundred percent.
The Elites and the Prophets kept the good shielding and weapons out of the hands of the lower castes as much as possible to more easily facilitate their oppression. With the armory of the Long Night of Solace in our hands, we armed ourselves to the teeth with equipment only meant for the hands of the Elites and became the vicious threat the Covenant top echelons so feared.
The morning of August 12, 2552 found me piloting a Ghost leading our ground forces assaulting the Szurdok Ridge alongside the USNC vehicular charge. It was fucking glorious, like someone just said, 'Lets all get in our cars and go to where they live to fuck them up.' and everyone just got up and did it. I was briefly surprised to see a pair of Spartans driving the Warthog next to me and was having a real fanboy moment right up until I remembered that these guys were about to crash their vehicle. I flew past them as their Warthog crashed and flipped and jumped out of my Ghost as it kamikazed a fuel rod turret up a fortified hill. The explosion was well worth the lost vehicle.
I got up and hit cover in the rocky right half of the hill by the cliff side and began doing business with my modified Plasma Repeater. Nobles Two and Six caught up to me as a white armored Elite Ultra led a counter attack with a Concussion Rifle.
"I got him. Cover me." I commanded as I charged full speed at the Elite, dodging a few of his shots and tackling him to the ground where I turned his head 180 degrees.
I got up with a roar of primal joy that knocked the nearby Grunts onto their asses and demoralized the enemy forces while boosting up my own.
"Fuck yeah!" I shouted, "It's good to be killing folks on someone else's dime again."
I ran over to the fuel rod turret and threw the dead Grunt out of it and tore the cannon off its hinges so I could carry it to the next engagement.
"I thought you people were supposed to be super soldiers." I teased the Spartans following my trail of destruction, "How's my dust taste?"
I ran off to get to the next fight but ended up getting passed by when the Spartans drove up in a new Warthog with a marine operating a rocket turret on the back.
"How's our dust taste?" Noble 2, the one armed Kat, asked.
Rather than answer I sped up and ran alongside their vehicle.
"I'll let you know if you ever find a way to go faster than me." I laughed and fired my cannon at a trio of Skirmishers trying to hold the middle of the road for some reason. After killing them I unleashed into a squad of Grunts moving alongside an enemy Ghost, hitting the hovercraft with my cannon till it exploded.
A Revenant Light Assault Gun Carriage came up to try and kill us with its Class 2 plasma mortar, but I ran to fast for it to tag me and tore the Elite piloting it out and yanking his head off his body before taking his ride and putting my fuel rod cannon in the passenger seat.
I road right up to the forces surrounding the newly installed AA emplacement and ran over the Elite leading them.
"Surrender to War Chief Grax!" I demanded and the local Grunts and Skirmishers threw down their arms.
"Good. You boys have enough brains to save your hides." I walked around and painted their chests with red X's, "Now pick up your guns as proud warriors in my army!"
"Long live the second revolution!" A grunt shouted and the others followed suit.
I was really starting to like these little fart breathers.
The rest of my forces were employing a similar tactic trying to entice the Grunt's, Jackals, and Skirmishers to our side. It didn't really cost us anything to try, and I would let each Brute keep any of the enemy forces he converted under his command. This was a big opportunity for my followers to boost their social standing, and none of them would miss it.
"What are you?" Kat questioned, "You're obviously not a Brute."
"Damn girl," I looked her up and down, "Your ass is incredible."
"Are you coming on to me?" She backed up unsure of what to do.
"I'd rather be going down on you, but we have a battle to win, and a bunch of minions to recruit." I responded.
I kept applying the wining strategy to grow my horde by running in and killing any Elites and jacking any vehicles and marking everything and everyone with red X's afterwards. By the time we entered the mining facility being held by an Elite Zealot my platoon had over a dozen Skirmishers with just as many Grunts and a tank. The tank made the convincing the forces holding the bridge to the facility to surrender even faster.
"Are we even needed on this front?" Noble Six asked.
"No." I answered as a Grunt went around spray painting X's on my new minions with a can of paint I gave him.
"Are you helping us because you find human's sexually attractive?" Kat asked, having apparently found her lady balls again.
"Haha!" I barked in laughter, "I wouldn't be the first guy to launch a war over pussy, but this is about the Prophets. I am going to kill every last one of them, or at least do my best to facilitate their deaths. Really, I'd kill anyone trying to fire the Halo Rings."
"Halo Rings?" Kat asked for clarification.
"Giant Forerunner superweapons made to wipe out all life in the galaxy." I answered, "There's shit out there in space that makes that kind of measure seem reasonable, but the dipshit Prophets believe that the rings are some path to immortality. They got the whole Covenant believing that bullshit. If we don't kill them all, they will kill us. Thems the stakes girl, if the pressure is too much I can help you take the edge off."
"I will not be having sex with you." she denied ecstasy so coldly.
"I was offering you liquor." I laughed and knocked back the Horn of Party Hardy, "Shit, do they even let you people drink."
"What do you mean by 'you people'?" Noble Six interrupted testily.
"People owned by the state." I answered, "Government Dogs, G-Men. Whatever they call kids these days kidnapped for super soldier programs… or was that the Spartan 2's. Were you guys kidnapped as kids?"
"More or less." Kat answered.
"Neat."
The mining facility acted as a fine recruitment area for me. Most of the Grunts turned on the Elite officers when they saw my forces approaching and the Skirmishers and Jackals exchanged hand signals that convinced them to switch teams. When I snapped the Zealot's arms I threw him into the pack of Grunts they beat him to death with their weapons.
On the way out a trio of Skirmishers hopped into the nearby parked Ghosts and a pair of grunts got on the Revenant. The rest followed me on foot until I needed to charge out alone to deal with a pair of Wraith tanks, quickly adding them to my army.
"All of you wait out here." I commanded them while I sparked up my axe and shield and entered the nearby AA emplacement we were targeting to battle the Hunter pair inside.
"You two are a pair of ugly mother fuckers!" I declared to the worm colony masses that propped up two suits of heavy armor and operated a pair of arm mounted assault cannons. Their shields weighed two tons and were completely impervious to any form of small arms fire available to both the Covenant and the USNC.
It was a battle between the ultimate big boys.
I felt like I cheated when I knocked them down with the explosive power of Volendrung and the stamina leaching aspect affected each worm in the colony giving me an incredibly refreshing burst, but also causing them to lose cohesion and unable to protect themselves from the second burst of my hammer.
I walked away from the exploding AA gun, a very disappointed man.
Noble six ended up on a helicopter with Noble 5, leaving Kat and a freshly arrived marine squad with me and the newly recruited boys. Her and I sat across from each other on some wreckage, and I stared into her visored helmet without looking neither left nor right for a long time. Finally when the tension was too much to bare I asked her,
"How bout it then?"
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
JManM
JManM A long Bonus Chapter brought to you all by MrBadMan17 and SeekingRaven. There will be another tomorrow evening or Sunday if I feel to tired.
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