Seeing such a beloved character from his past life before him, Shawn felt a bit of emotion stir within the cold mask the war had forced him to wear. "I'm glad to make it in one piece. How's Alpha Base?" He asked as Forge showed him what of the base was up and running as Herons and Pelicans brought down more supplies and troops.
Seeing that he had everything under control, Shawn decided it was time for him to do his part. "You've got everything sorted out here. I'll be out getting intel and having a good time. I'll tell you if I see anything you need to look out for." He said before leaving, Sgt Forge to rally the troops arriving.
It didn't take him long to find a lone Covenant patrol. Shawn swiftly dealt with them, taking the Elite's plasma rifle for himself as he went searching for anything of use. As he scouted the snowy tundra, he avoided larger patrols while alerting Forge to any strike teams headed towards Alpha Base, and placing homing beacons near captured allies.
Spotting a sniper tower, Shawn waited to see if the Jackals inside had noticed him. Confident he was still hidden, he rushed the tower, riding the small grav lift before snapping the necks of the Jackal snipers. 'That was for 6 hours in New Mombasa, ' He thought gleefully.
Taking one of the combines they had, he spent the next half-hour taking out Covenant patrols that came into range, waiting until Forge started heading out before he pushed forward.
"Hey Spartan! We're heading out. Give us a heads up if things start coming our way." Forge called over the radio before Shawn confirmed and left the tower. Moving through the snow, he followed any tracks he could; most led to nowhere, but he eventually traced a large number of tracks to a Covenant base.
"This is Spartan-118 to Forge and Spirit actual, I've got eyes on a Covenant base, marking it now." Forge was busy liberating soldiers and equipment, but noted it, up in orbit, Captain Cutter briefly considered taking out the base with a MAC round, but decided against it.
"Thanks for the heads up, I'm gonna free more of our people before calling in the big guns, then we'll take out that base." Forge said after freeing several marines, on the way back to base, he also found a few intact warthogs that he took back.
Shawn went back to taking out any patrol he came across for the next hour and a half, when he felt a distant rumble, like thunder. Taking cover, he waited until he saw what was making the noise before coming out. It was Forge and a heavy strike force from Alpha Base!
"Heyya Spartan, need a ride?" Forge called from his gausshog, and Shawn gave a curt nod, taking one of the Scorpion battle tanks for himself, making the driver sit in the gunner seat. Together they rolled towards the Covenant base, taking out the small bands of enemies that thought it wise to rush them alone; they were blown to bits.
Coming up to the base, there was fierce resistance as ground troops threw themselves at UNSC lines. Elites roared orders as grunts ran forward more in fear of those behind than in front. Jackals took shots when they could, but the hogs kept them honest for the most part.
The biggest problem was the harassing Banshees; even with Shawn helping blow them out of the sky, they still took their pound of flesh as Hunter emerged from the base. "Hunters! Tanks, blow them up before they can take out our vehicles!" Forge yelled as a grunt went flying in the air after being rammed.
As one, four Scorpion battle tanks adjusted their cannons and fired on the Hunters, they put their shields up at the last moments, but it didn't matter, the bonded pair was ash now. Marines cheered as Elite roared in frustration, choosing to charge with swords drawn. Shawn didn't let them get far as he blew several into the air, with Forge and the two remaining warthogs running over the rest.
With the defenders now bleeding and/or smoldering corpses, the UNSC troops hammered the shield that covered the Covenant base under sustained fire; it didn't last long. As they had their fun, Shawn gave the tank driver his job back as he went to see what resistance was left. It had been a few years since he'd played Halo Wars 1 (Being reincarnated and all), but he always made sure to try and remember key points in the war, that way he could know how close it was to the end, and which catastrophic battles to avoid.
Finding a downed Elites camo module, he jury-rigged it to his armor before setting off to find the 'relic' as both sides were calling it at the moment. Getting close, he activated the camo and snuck into the tunnel leading down into the Forerunner structure, passing scores of Grunts and Elites.
Seeing where they were setting up explosive charges, he remembered how the Prophet of Regret had ordered the Arbiter to blow that place up so the Humans couldn't get to it. He made his way to the detonator and spent several long minutes defusing the thing.
He sighed in relief once he was finished. Despite being able to do the same with ease for Human ordinance, he was still a bit new to how the Covenant rigged their bombs; he'd almost paid for it a few months ago when boarding a Kig-yar scouter that had been disabled, he'd lived though.
"Spartan to Forge, I found what the Covenant is digging up, they're setting up explosives, better hurry before they blow it up."