Extras: Battle of Radiant: Oz's viewpoint

Oz watched as the boarding craft fell towards the planet. I must admit, they are more efficient than HEV pods, he mused to himself. Pelicans descended towards Bravo, delta, and echo sites. The others would be approached by only infantry, as terrain, or the objective in question made vehicle use difficult. All was going well, and despite his hatred of the man, he trusted Damian to get the job done in space. Alpha was making good progress, it seemed the enemy there was unprepared, as was probable after such a long inactive period. It was a small outpost, well out of the way from the front lines, and it had never been attacked before during the multi-week seige of the planet. Only at Damian's insistence had it even been considered. Oz was suspicious, but he wouldn't question his decision- yet. They approached on foot, battle command showed engagements around the facility. The closest group were nearly 100 meters to the outer perimeter. That's odd... Oz looked over his readings again, battle control was showing HEV pods being dropped. Imperials? Spartan signatures? He looked up with alarm. Spartans change everything... but why were they only being landed at Alpha? This reminded him of the last battle of viery Plaza... spartans landed, and just as strangely vanished. He had heard reports of other times this happened with the admiral around as well..

"Team Gamma twelve, you have a new objective. You're closest to the facility, i need you to track a group of spartans entering by HEV."

"Spartans sir?" They replied "Bastards are more likely to track US."

"Just do it." He ordered grimly. He looked over the other sites. The three with vehicles were rolling over the weakened defenses. On site commanders could handle them. "Charlie lead, what's your status?" The forces attacking Charlie site hadn't moved in awhile.

"This is Charlie lead" Oz heard, over the sounds of rapid gunfire. Chain hogs. We blew em to smithereens, but some craft bastards ripped the turrets right off and brought them into the facility. They have powerful shields blocking us out, They're shooting out with the turrets with some spare ammo packs, the shields are lowering just long enough, and in just the right spots to let their bullets through. we're stuck."

Oz marveled at how well prepared they were. He set his eyes on their last boarding craft. Technically reserved for Evacuation of important crew- such as himself. "Launch the last craft" he said as he turned to a nearby officer. "Drop it right on top of charlie's doors. Bring in a power drain, we'll send her down."

Power drains were ancient, but still effective. used back in the human-covenant war, they rapidly drained power from any and all applicable sources, human or covenant. They still kept a few around, acquired through suspicious means, for emergencies. For once, Oz was thankful for Damian's shady past. He watched on Battle Control as the pod smashed through the roof near the entrance, disrupting the shield just by the hit. A small flash appeared, and the area was bathed in a blue light and the shields shut off entirely. The pinned men opened fire.

"Sir" he heard over his com unit. He turned back to Alpha site.

"Yes?" He asked.

"This is Gamma team, we've infiltrated alpha site, Lot's of dead imps. Saws by the look of it. We've tracked the spartans, they seem to have teleported some strange object, and now they're planting a device of some kind deep inside. We were approached fairly quickly, they are not hostile."

A second link beeped online on his com unit. Command line. "Oz, i have an important message..." Damian's face winked into view on a nearby holo-unit. He turned to face him, waiting patiently. He disliked Damian's disregard for his time nearly as much as he hated his dismissal of deaths. Damian seemed to move closer. "alpha go boom." And he cut out.

Oz shot forwards angrily, he knew Damian too well to think he was joking, or to think that he could demand an explanation. "Emergency coms link to all of Alpha force. NOW."

"All units, retreat from attack point alpha, repeat, retreat from Attack point alpha." He watched as battle command flickered offline for a moment, replacing it's view with fire. "Damn it, send search and rescue teams down immediately, who's left? all units respond and begin retreating to The Azmodeus."

A nearby officer nearly tripped out of her seat and rushed to the hanger, ordering pelicans to launch on her comset as she ran.

So this was Damian's reason for being here hm? Of course it would be too simple for him to want to win the war or anything, he had to have some ulterior motive. He ran through the reports. Alpha was gone. Bravo and delta were won, echo was being won, though it wasn't secured yet, and charlie was now thoroughly swinging in their favour. Even with the win, they had to send overwhelming force. if only the other battlegroups had beaten through.

He sighed, and stood up. He turned to the nearest officer "I need to find the admiral. Notify me immediately of any changes and i will respond on my tacpad." He turned to leave. There would be no consequences for him for leaving this battle. None except those of his own mind that is. Even if damian did it as a reward for his successes, he didn't like it. Though, he wished they were on the frontlines again. Against mere garrison troops like these, he barely did anything worth notice. He checked that line of thinking, Damian seemed to be rubbing off on him. He shivered at the thought.