The overall battle lasted a good two hours, the Covenant tried hard to fight back, but the marines simply out numbered, and outgunned them three to one.
After the initial battle the U.N.S.C. built a quick base in the courtyard of the castle, it wasn't much, but it was super packed with soldiers, so all in all, it was very secured.
Shining Armor and Mord were on their way to the bar, after that battle they both needed a couple of drinks. Mord asked Shining Armor.
"I gotta ask, how many wars have you ponies fought? Because that fighting was pretty shit in my professional opinion."
"It's not shit!" Objected Shining Armor.
"Come on, you were close to dying to a grunt, that's kinda sad."
"How's that sad?"
"I've seen a six year old kill a grunt, with her bare hands."
"Wait really?"
"Ya, now please answer my question."
"Alright, we ponies actually haven't been in a war for over a thousand years."
"Wow, I'm impressed, wish we could have that kind of peace."
"Well, how long have you humans been in war with the Covenant."
"Heh, 30 years or so." Shining Armor halted.
"30 years?!"
"That's right."
"One planet?"
"Oh no, over 800 worlds much like this one, ya we figure the civilian loses alone are about 60 billion or so."
"Okay, you're blowing my mind here, 60 billion! Well how many planets have you lost?"
"Over 500 or so."
"Oh sweet Celestia, five hundred?! You humans have gone through some serious stuff haven't you?"
"Oh we have, but enough about all of that war stuff, we're at the bar, time to drink the night away."
"Well, I guess the first round's on me." Said Shining Armor.
"Nice!"
Shortly after about 2 rounds or so Shining Armor and Mord have a light buzz going, but not enough to render them drunk.
Shining asked, "So after all that war stuff I wanna ask you something a bit personal."
"What?" Replied Mord.
"Do you have a special somepony back on your planet?"
"Ha, no I don't. I've never gone steady with a girl before, although I got drunk after prom night and woke up next to two fat chicks, so I technically had sex. I want to do it again, hopefully sober this time, with a more steady girl I might have a relationship with. But for now I'll stick to fighting the Covenant and getting drunk every other night."
"Interesting, well after this is all done I'd be happy to help you find a steady mare."
"Whoo now, I'm not sure if I should fuck a mare, wouldn't it be wrong, I man interspecies beastiality."
"Well, technically you're an alien, and to you, we're aliens, so it's just interspecies, but no beastiality.
You could get away with that, also, at the end of battles or stressful bouts mares love to.... give themselves away, as a way of thanking the pony, or human in this case, who helped them. It's quick pussy, it's how I managed to get Cadence. I helped her during a test, and we, we started to date the day after."
Mord was a bit impressed, "Interesting, I've been in space in basically a no jerk off zone for 3 months or so, so I might just try that if I can, we'll just have to see."
They finished their glasses of beer and decided to get some sleep, tomorrow was gonna be a long day.
The next day:
Mord slowly opened his eyes, he's used to a huge hangover, but today he woke up just fine, he was a bit surprised, he got over it in ten seconds.
He took a shower, drank his pot of coffee, and ate a mint before heading out to the pelican.
At the pelican was Shining Armor and the rest of his squad, Helen asked.
"This question kept me up all night, how does a drunk commander like ours, keeps his breath fresh, and minty. How?"
They all just shrugged, Mord walked up to the pelican.
"Alright team, let's get a move on, I'll debrief you all on the way, let's get moving."
They obeyed and sat themselves down in the pelican, followed by Shining Armor. "Hey Shining. Why are you getting on? You're not a marine, and ponies don't need to be in these battles. you're soft, you have no weapon, and that purple armor begs for a jackal to snipe you, so why?"
"Because my sister's in there, I love her and I need to see her again, I have to see if she's alright. And nothing you can say will stop me, plus I have a weapon, I brought what you all call a fuel rod canon."
All Mord could say was, "Alright, I wasn't going to remove you, I was just curious. And I kinda like the backbone, it shows guts, but lose the attitude or I'll personally throw you out of the pelican."
Mord walked to the front of the pelican and sat down, the door closed and it took off.
About 10 minutes into the flight Mord got up, the lights dimmed, and a projection of Ponyville was shown.
"Alright, our objective is to destroy the AA batteries, AA-1 is located next to a jungle, while AA-2 is facing what you ponies call Canterlot. Baker, Macy, Trev, and Yori you all will take out AA-2, Shining, Helen, you two are with me, we'll take out AA-1.
After both are destroyed we'll meet up at what looks like a another crystal castle. Why are there so many god damn crystal castles everywhere?"
Shining Armor replied, "I don't know."
"Sigh, alright, does everyone understand?"
"Sir yes sir!" His squad shouted.
"I do." Replied Shining Armor, the hologram disappeared and the lights brightened up, Mord walked back to his seat and sat down.
The pilot shouted to them, "Eta 3 minutes, so don't get comfy."
They were all just sitting there, messing around with various shit, no talking, no chants, nothing cool. Shining Armor got bored, so he asked them.
"Okay I've been curious for awhile now, and I just have to ask, why did all of you join?"
Macy was the first one to talk, "I joined because I've wanted to be a soldier since I was a little girl, my parents are high ranking officers so I naturally joined, and now I love it more than anything."
Yori was next, "I joined because I feel like I need to do something to help my people, also this is the only job where you can kill people legally."
Baker said, "I joined to protect my family, I lost my father in a battle and I won't let that happen again, not on my watch."
"Trev replied, "Well, I just joined because I barely passed high school and my highest calling was a management position at a super market chain. So I guess I joined because I had no other choice."
Helen replied with, "I joined so I could get revenge for my older sister, she joined the marines, but she died, I vowed to kill every elite in her memory."
Mord was silent, "Mord, why'd you join?" Asked Shining Armor.
He sighed, "Well, I joined because I witnessed my entire family being killed by the Covenant, my planet was destroyed, my eye was sliced out, and I lost my entire life. I had to kill five elites just so I could get off of that planet alive. That day Mordimer died, and Mord was born. Now please don't ask me again or I will slap you."
The pilot shouted, "Covenant scarab is pounding us hard, I'll try to avoid it the best I can!" The pelican made sharp turns, making everyone on board hold on to their seats for dear life.
This went on for about 30 seconds, until the pilot shouted, "There's too much plasma! I don't know how long I can't keep avoiding it!" Just as he finishes the entire left wing of the pelican was shot off. It tilted to the left and was falling down at a very fast rate.
The pilot shouted, "Brace yourselves for a rough landing!" The pelican crashed down inside Ponyville, it crashed in Ponyville Square, right in front of the main building.
The squad slowly made their way out of the pelican, all of them were slightly dazed, but nothing too great. But Shining Armor was crawling out with some blood running down his right cheek.
"What just happened?! Did we crash?" Asked Shining Armor.
"Oh great, he's a bit out of it, Baker! Help him up and get him to fighting status, Macy, check the pilot, if he's alive, that's another gun."
They nodded and got to work, "The rest of you, we need to pack anything we can get, we move in 2 minutes!"
"Yes sir!" The rest of them shouted.
Baker knelt down in front of Shining Armor and asked, "You alright?"
"Ya, ya I think I'm fine, but, what now?"
"We're gonna complete the mission, we leave in as soon as Macy checks the pilot."
"Wait, we're still doing it, aren't we getting out of here?"
"Hell no, we're O.D.S.T.'s, we've been in far worse and we've completed the missions, like our motto, 'We get any mission done no matter the sacrifice.'"
"That's-" Shining was cut off by Macy coming back and saying, "The pilot's dead, half of him is in the seat, the other is over there, over there, and up there someplace."
Mord replied, "You all heard her, he's dead, now let's get a move on before those phantoms find out we're still alive. It's amazing how long it's been and we haven't had one grunt come over. Maybe this planet's lucky. Demons! Activate camo and move out, Helen take point."
"Yes sir." She replied, they all pushed a button on their chest plates and they went invisible, Shining Armor was surprised.
"Sweet Celestia,"
Mord said, "Alright, Helen and Trev, take the first AA battery, Macy, Yori, take out the second one. Baker, Shining, and I will take out that scarab, if we don't, our reinforcements will be less than half of what we need to win."
The squad said in unison, "Sir yes sir!"
"Will do Mord." Said Shining Armor.
"Move out!" Shouted Mord, they separated into the three teams.
Mord, Shining Armor, and Baker were sneaking their way through the Covenant with great haste. But once they got to the Scarab they ducked behind a bunch of crates and decloaked.
"Mord, what's the plan?" Asked Shining Armor.
"Alright, Shining I need you you to stay here for the moment, Baker and I will make our way to the back of the scarab, once you hear gunfire you light up any Covenant you see with that canon, provide cover fire. Got it?"
Shining Armor nodded, Mord and Baker turned the cloak back on and walked towards the scarab while Shining Armor waited patiently.
Once the two got to the back of the Scarab Baker hopped up on the back and he pulled Mord up, luckily the guard just passed the area so they were unseen.
Baker readied his smg and Mord shouldered his SAW. There were two grunts and a jackal chatting, behind a grunt was a plasma cannon, Mord uncloaked and sprayed bullets in the general direction of the enemies.
Each grunt got about 7 bullets in their chest, and the jackal was shot in the head, it fell over the side of the scarab. The grunts fell to the floor dead.
Mord Moved up as Baker slung his smg and he picked up the plasma cannon and headed to the other side. Mord turned a corner and came face to face with an elite minor, it growled, but it was cut off by Mord emptying the rest of his ammo in the elite. he heard two more running down towards him.
So naturally he pulled out two frag grenades and threw them in the path of the elites. He ran to the back corner and counted. "3, 2, 1."
Boom!
He looked back to see the two elites dead, one was off the scarab and the other was smeared all over the side of it.
Mord ran to the very back of the Scarab and grabbed a couple of plasma grenades from the dead bodies, He walked right up to the core and asked.
"Baker, are you at minimum safe distance?"
Baker replied, "I am, but we're getting pounded over here! Hurry up Mord, the rest of the squad is ready to attack."
Mord activated both of the plasma grenades and he threw them at the main core, he jumped off the scarab and ran as fast as he could to a small brick wall, he jumped behind the wall and he heard the scarab go down.
Mord looked back and saw a blown up scarab, bits and pieces were all around the area, he looked back to see Shining Armor and Baker fending off the Covenant. Mord looked slightly up and saw two explosions, both right at the AA batteries.
"AA battery 1 down." Said Helen.
"AA battery 2 down!" Shouted Macy.
Mord replied, "AA batteries and scarab down, send in the reinforcements, captain."
The captain replied, "They're on their way, 10 minutes tops, marking the drop off location to all of your HUDs."
"Yes sir, thank you sir." Mord grabbed his SAW and ran over to assist Baker and Shining Armor. He fired about a fourth of the barrel into an elite making all the grunts around him run around, Baker and Shining Armor quickly picked the grunts off.
"What took you so long?" Asked Baker.
"I was simply admiring my work."
"Come on Mord, we got to group up with the rest of the squad." They started to walk away, until Mord heard a very muffled female voice call out.
"Help, please anypony, help!" Mord stopped making Backer and Shining stop.
"What's wrong?" Asked Shining.
"I heard a voice from over there." He walked over to a crate right next to him, he heard a whole bunch of voices, all muffled, and very scared,
"I think I know where all the ponies went." Mord busted the door lock making it open.
It was all silent in there for a moment, that is until somepony started to walk into the sunlight. It was a yellow pegasus wearing a blue tracksuit, she had partly melted goggles and her tracksuit was pretty ripped up from fighting.
Mord said, "I'm U.N.S.C Commander Mord of ODST squad Demon Skulls, and were here to free ponies and kill the Covenant for all they've done, and you are?"
She replied, "I'm Captain Spitfire of the Wonderbolts, and we need a miracle." They looked over head to see a couple pelicans fly over them, "What are those?" Asked Spitfire.
Mord replied, "They're ours, I'll explain after we get you all out of here."
Suddenly three elite Zealots uncloaked in a slender hallway of prison cells, all of them had energy swords at the ready, "Shining, Baker, get the ponies out," he dropped his gun and pulled out his energy sword, "I got this."
They nodded as all of the ponies followed Shining Armor and Baker out of there, the Zealots being cocky just stared Mord down.
Mord got into a fighting position and he said in Shangueli, "Come over bitches, I'm waiting."
The far left one got angry with him speaking in the holy language, so it charged Mord, he activated a hologram as the elite sliced the hologram.
The elite looked back just in time to see Mord plunging a sword into his back, the elite fell to the ground dead and Mord pulled the energy sword out.
The far right one cloaked and the middle elite charged right at Mord, Mord smirked under his helmet and he simply threw the energy sword to his left and it hit the other elite right in the heart, Mord took out his knife and charged the final elite.
As they got close Mord jumped up in the air, barely missing the sword swing, he landed behind the elite and stabbed the elite in the neck, Mord took a step away as the elite grabbed the knife trying to pull it out, it fell on it's knees, still trying to pull it out. After a couple seconds it fell over dead.
Mord pulled the knife out of the elite's throat and the energy sword out of the other one. Mord shouldered his SAW and pressed on.
Sadly there was only a couple grunts and one elite who was taking a piss, now of course he let the elite finish, but right after, it got a bullet to the head.
Once he got to the drop zone he saw a whole bunch of marines pushing in, the hornets wrecking all the Covenant air support. There in the drop zone were all the ponies being cared for, medics were checking them, making sure they were alright, He saw his squad waving at him.
He walked up to them, Macy asked, "So you scored 3 more? Not bad, I could have done better."
Mord replied, "Macy this isn't the time, we're working here, but no, you couldn't."
Baker added on, "Sir, the battle's almost over, the marines are pushing in and we're actually winning, we can rest for a second."
"Alright, but stay ready." There was a small silence, until Mord said, "How about we assist the marines, get some target practice in, then head to the nearest bar and drink until Macy blacksout?"
They were all in agreement, they ran off and had a blast killing the remaining Covenant.