The pelicans set down about one mile south of the invasion force, the ODSTs and the two spartans jumped out, ready for. A fight. A platoon of snipers got up on a hill to provide fire support. The rest of the marines, along with the two spartans started marching towards the oncoming griffons. As the griffons came into view they started running towards the marines. Once they came within a few hundred meters the ODSTs opened fire on them. Combined with the sniper support, the results were devastating, however, the griffons numbers worked towards their advantage, and the UNSC forces were slowly but surely pushed back. By now he reinforcements Celestia had sent were dead, but the UNSC had only lost about 5 troops to the griffon horde. About the same time that the marines were starting to run low on ammunition, the tanks, along with the warthogs arrived. The griffons didn't know if these metal beasts were friend or foe. However, this was quickly settled when the guns opened fire. The griffon formation was devastated, the canister and bin explosive shells into scores of griffons every second, hundreds were falling to the chainguns on the warthogs. The griffons put up with this only for about twenty seconds, then, their formation decimated, they turned tail and ran.
Nine out of ten griffons had fallen. For every UNSC soldier killed or wounded about sixty griffon soldiers were killed or wounded. Only a handful of griffons made it out alive. One of these griffons eventually made it to the commander of the army. He reported how easily the enemy had taken them out from range, and the deadly efficiency with which the metal monsters had chewed the formation apart.
However, one of the most interesting facts were about the two soldiers clad in the special armor. Apparently it had some sort of shields, as well as hardened metal plating. Reports said that these two had managed to take down at least one hundred griffons singlehandedly. This worried the commander, and he had new weapons developed to combat this new threat. These now weapons would be named project Orion.