Ch. 3

As we were traveling through slip-space to Earth I had everyone at battle-ready. If Artemis is right and we've gone back in time it would just be another precaution. But we had to be prepared for the chance that the Earth was being attacked by the Covenant. Sending silent prayers to a God that I stopped believing in years ago I waited for us to exit slip space.

With a flash of light on the screen, we exited slip space to a scene that made everyone's face pale and our blood boil. The space around the Earth was void of any of the space stations, ships, and defensive satellites. But what we did spot was a giant portal opens in the upper atmosphere above New York and an army flying through it. Artemis took the initiative to hack into whatever networks she could and brought up the video footage on the main screen. What it showed confused us, it wasn't any race we had seen before. There were giant metallic centipedes flying in the air, and humping figures flying on what looked like high-tech chariots.

Getting my thoughts together on the situation I turned to XO Hamilton. "Bring us down to geosynchronous orbit, we'll deploy the ODST to start helping defend the civilians and then send down the Marines," I ordered as I turned around to head to the hanger.

"Sir, where are you going?" Hamilton asked.

"To let Fireteam Dagger know their objectives, and join the fight. My call sign will be Retribution-1." I said as I jogged out the door and to the hanger.

Reaching the hanger I saw everyone still combat-ready milling around. Once they saw me running in everyone gathered around for orders. Coming to a stop in front of the hardened soldiers I looked at everyone's grim looks.

"Listen up! We've arrived on Earth, New York is under attack." I shouted and that caused murmurs through the crowd.

"It is NOT the Covenant. Boys, I'll be straight with you. It looks like we've gone back in time, there is no UNSC to be seen. But that doesn't change the fact that we humans are being attacked by some alien race. ODST will be deployed first, you will secure civilians and lead them to shelters. This race doesn't seem to have the capabilities to punch far into the ground, so subways and basements will be ideal. ODST you are dismissed to get ready, and godspeed you crazy bastards." I continued and got a couple of hoots from the crazy bastards as they left. Turning back to the Marines I gave them their orders. "Ok Marines, once you get boots on the ground link up with the ODST and secure the perimeters. You'll be babysitting until locals can take over, if you do get relieved by them go search for more civis. We don't have the manpower to fully take on this army, so no heroics. I want to see everyone back for beers." That got me a resounding "Oorah!" and I couldn't help but smile as they left to load up on the Pelicans.

All that was left was the Spartan fireteam. As they approached I held out my hand and the lead one reached out as well, we clasped each other's forearms in greetings. "Dagger 1," I said in greeting.

Dagger 1 responded with a laugh and said, "Oh come on Felix, I had you screaming my name last week. Now I'm just Dagger 1?"

The smallest Spartan in the group chimed in, "C'mon Elise, who hasn't screamed your name? Hell, last night I saw you snag that VIP's 18-year-old kid."

Elise chuckled, "Oh how I do love the in-experienced, they try so hard. It's just so cute."

We all just groaned at that. I looked over the team that has gone through so much with me. Dagger 1, who was in pink armor, was of course Elise-020. She is a jack of all trades and master of none. She also had a real streak of pulling off some major upsets, and a knack for bringing people together. Dagger 2, who is in grey armor, is Jace-090. He is the team's tech expert. Dagger 3 in red armor is Charlie-100, he was the team's sniper. Dagger 4 wore yellow armor and is the team's weapon expert, her name is Candice-135. To round them all out, the smallest at 6'0" even, is Dagger 5 in purple armor. Her name is Heather-004, the mechanic and heavy weapon specialist and she'll mess your day up.

Listening to their banter back and forth calmed me down a bit. Even though we've all seen the worst this universe can show, we're still able to bicker like this. Deciding to throw some gas on the fire I waited until a break in conversation. When I got my chance I chuckled out, "Since we're talking about our bang list. I'm waiting on Heather to give me a shot!" Everyone laughed at that and I could tell Heather was fuming under her helmet, it didn't help I could hear her sputtering. Candice chimed in with, "Good luck with that, she still only has eyes for Jace." Elise followed up, "No she doesn't, I dragged her and Jace into my bed 2 nights ago!"

People looking from the outside in on Spartan's relationships would think it's messy as hell. But when you never know when you're about to die, things like gender and relationships don't really matter. Our augmentations did more to us than make us stronger, faster, smarter. It put our libido in overdrive. If you mount that will all the stress we go through, there has to be an outlet. So to say that we're an amorous lot is a bit of an understatement.

"Ok everyone settle down, I have orders," I said wrangling everyone back to the task at hand. "You will get 2 Falcons with pilot crews. Your continuous objectives will be to take out those giant ass flying centipedes. Any questions?" As I was giving the orders Artemis was bringing up images in their visors to correlate the objectives.

"What do we do if we come into contact with locals?" Elise asked.

"They're friendly, no retaliation if you are being fired upon by them. I suspect their weapons won't even leave scratches." I replied.

"Any restriction on weaponry?" Candice shot out.

"No Spartan Lasers. Other than that no." That got a grumble out of Heather. And something that sounded like, "you're no fun."

With no more questions, I dismissed them to get ready. I made my way to the armory and got a Battle Rifle, pistol, and a couple of grenades. I then made my way towards the Falcon that would take me down. By the time I reached it, I could hear the ODST drop pods launching and I put my game face on, ready to see the horrors of war once again.

-POV Change-

-Captain America-

Loki is such a pain, setting up this invasion just for petty revenge. Fortunately, Nick Fury had some forethought to set up The Avenger's Initiative to fight off such threats. What's shocking is the number of other heroes that have come out of the woodworks just to defend this city from this invasion. I've even seen some of the villains fighting back, it re-affirms my thoughts that people can change. But despite having two hulks smashing through the city, we're still falling farther and farther behind in this fight. The last I heard from Fury was the Fantastic Four were on their way but they were still at least an hour out.

Me and Black widow have been holding this bridge for the past 20 minutes and it's starting to wear on me. I don't know how she does it without going through the Super Soldier program as I did, but she's still keeping up with me. Looking up to the sky to see more of the Chitari coming through I saw something different. Far behind the portal, I saw 40 rectangular things plummeting towards us.

"What the hell are those?" I asked Black Widow when we had a little respite.

Black Widow turned her head to where I was looking. But now the 40 rectangles broke off into groups of 5 and spread out. As they got closer to the ground something started to pop out of the tops of them, it was crossed shaped and looked like it slowed the descending vessels down. When they got closer to the ground they were hidden by the skyscrapers, but we knew they hit the ground hard by the vibrations on the ground.

"I really hope they're on our side," Widow spoke out as she pulled her pistol and shot at and killed a Chitari flying by.

Before I could start fighting again I heard a crackling on our radio and then heard someone I didn't know speaking.

"This is Petty Officer Spartan Felix-116 of the UNSC. I am broadcasting on all frequencies. We have deployed ODST in New York to help protect the Citizens. A company of Marines is on the way down to help secure them and keep them safe. Would the CO switch over to frequency 169.77 and coordinate with my XO. We have air-assets engaging the big guys so please do not engage them."

"Well, that answered our question." I quipped to Widow who just smirked.

We were both re-invigorated by the reinforcements by the UNSC. Since SHIELD was a secret organization, this UNSC might be a secret the UN has been keeping. As the fight continued, me and Widow got into a good rhythm until one of the big flying aliens started to make its way for us.

"Tony! I need you or a Hulk over here on Park Avenue, we have a big one!" I yelled out into the radio.

"Little busy," Tony replied a bit out of breath.

"On it!" I heard the feminine voice of She-Hulk.

"I'll be there." came a voice I had just heard giving broadcast earlier.

As the giant beast flew closer to us I saw what looked like an Osprey but smaller. The front of the ship was sleek and I saw a cannon swiveling on the front and spitting lead down on the best. It was followed up with two minigun turrets on the side and the two gunners were giving it all that they got. The beast started to slow down from the withering fire, it also attracted the Chitari that were flying around.

When the ship got close enough I saw a metal-clad man jump from it while shooting a rifle at the incoming Chitari grunts. The cannon and miniguns switched targets to the inbound fliers and started to fly off leaving the ironclad man on the beast.

"Tony is going to be pissed," I quipped and Widow laughed at that.

-POV Change-

-Felix-116-

After giving out the frequency to contact Hamilton I had the pilot fly around the portal to get a decent look at it. Doing a couple of fly-bys I started to form a plan on how to choke out their reinforcements.

"Artemis, patch me through to Ensign McGee at the helm," I said.

"Got it, Felix." She said as she opened the connection.

"Yes sir?" McGee asked.

"If we bring Retribution into the atmosphere, will the remaining engine be enough to get her back out?" I asked hoping that it would be.

"Plenty sir, maintenance has already reported we have 60% power back in the hit engine," he said.

"Thank you." Artemis cut my connecting to Ensign McGee and opened one up to XO Hamilton.

"Hamilton, I want you to bring Retribution down into the Atmosphere and plant her right outside that portal. You'll fuck up anything that tries to come out of it. The big nasties don't have any weapons on them, and there are only small arms on the individuals." I ordered him.

"Yes sir! I have the Commander of a group called SHIELD who's boots first on the ground. We will coordinate with them until this is over." He reported.

"Godspeed Hamilton," I replied and cut the connection.

"Artemis patch me into the core fighter's comms. First one to ask for backup we'll go to." I ordered her.

"You sure that's wise?" She asked.

"Who wouldn't love the dude that saved their bacon? First impressions darling." I teased her. Her body appeared on the side of my visor with her arms crossed and she rolled her eyes at me.

"Tony! I need you or a Hulk over here on Park Avenue, we have a big one!" was called out as soon as she patched me through.

Some prissy-sounding guy said he was busy and out of breath.

Then came a female's voice excitedly saying she's on it. I really like the spunk on that one, she'd make a good Spartan.

Wanting to see the crazy woman who would be this excited to take on one of these big bastards I replied to them, "I'll be there."

Patching my comms back into the Falcon I gave them orders to head towards Park Avenue. As we arrived we saw the big bastards barreling its way towards two people surrounded by dead aliens. One of them was wearing a weird blue leather suit accented with red and white. While the woman was dressed in ONI spook black, she had to be a secret agent. Getting alongside the big beast everyone opened up on it causing flesh wounds down the side as the Falcon got closer.

Doing this caused the solo-fliers to come our way. I gave the order to drop me off and go cause some mayhem for these bastards. When we got within jumping distance, I made a running jump out and got a couple of clear shots at the incoming solos. Not missing the opportunity to pad my stats I took the shots with ease. Once I reached the beast I stowed my Battle Rifle and brought out the Plasma Sword and ignited it.

Bringing the Plasma Sword down it sliced through the armor on top like it was butter and I started to drag it as I ran forward. Artemis gave me a heads up when something was fast approaching from above. Looking up I saw a green woman with hair flowing behind her as she fell and a wide grin on her face. An idea popped into my mind looking at the rate she was falling. I deactivated the plasma sword and put it away, then I grabbed the corner of one of the armor panels and lifted it up. The piece broke out in a triangular shape, I proceeded to set it up with the spikey point down. I looked back up to see if she understood the setup I made for her, and I knew she did by the mischievous grin on her face.

She threw her weight down causing her to go faster as she aimed for the middle of the wide strip of metal. As she landed on the piece I let go and it silenced clean through the beast. With its spine severed the beast could no longer stay in the air. Crashing to the ground me and the green woman were thrown from it and rolled our way to the two on the bridge.

My roll took me to my feet, it took many years to perfect this one, however, the woman wasn't so graceful. Walking over to her I reached my hand out to help her up. She grabbed it and pulled herself up and introduced herself, "Jennifer."

"Felix," I replied not letting go of her hand.

We stayed there staring at each other for a couple of seconds before I gave her my winning line, "Drinks are on me tonight."

That got a hardy laugh out of her. We then turned towards the two who had requested the backup and walked towards them. As we got closer their gazes went from me to a shocked gaze into the sky. Jennifer followed their gazes and turned out then stopped. I smirked knowingly then turned my head to Retribution in all of her glory descending into the atmosphere guns blazing.

"Maybe drinks should be on you tonight, looks like this is costing me a pretty penny." I joked out, but I was just met with the background noise of battle and opened mouths.