The plunder of the heavens begins with the Spirit Cage.

This suddenly gave Lu Qianwei the feeling of Japanese soldiers charging into battle like pigs.

However, it must be said that with this tactic, the human side has been overwhelmed by the Covenant, and their defenses are on the verge of collapse.

The shells had already blasted away, and the bullets only produced a few sparks when they hit the energy armor.

The soldiers at the front row had large holes burned through their legs by plasma blasts, and blood was flowing all over the ground along the seams of their armor. It looked like the next wave of Covenant attacks was about to engulf this remaining force.

Lu Qianwei naturally wouldn't watch these soldiers be killed and left to die. He casually took out an antimatter grenade from his personal space, unscrewed the pin, and threw it into the Star Alliance pile.

After a deafening roar, the entire Star Alliance force within a 20-meter radius was reduced to nothing. The two remaining enemies, who were some distance away, were shot in the head by his kinetic sniper rifle before they could even react. In less than half a minute, the once ferocious enemies were all silent.

The remaining soldiers were stunned for a long time before they came to their senses. When Lu Qianwei appeared in front of them, they thanked him repeatedly.

Lu Qianwei applied his own healing gel to the wounded soldier and casually inquired about the situation here.

The leading sergeant wiped the soot off his face and, panting, told Lu Qianwei some information.

Just hours earlier, the Covenant's massive fleet had launched a surprise attack.

The orbital defense system collapsed rapidly, and most of the planet was lost.

Massive alien forces continue to parachute onto the surface, ambushing and killing scattered human soldiers. Battlegrounds are everywhere, between cities and wilderness.

Reach is nearly lost!

Their squad was originally a regular patrol unit, but they were ambushed by the Covenant during their march. Their armored vehicles were destroyed, most of their comrades were killed, and only a few survived.

All communication equipment had long since failed, making it impossible to contact any command unit. The hilly area where they were located had become an uncontrolled zone where the Covenant could sweep through at will.

After recounting the truth, the sergeant looked up at Lu Qianwei, his eyes filled with unconcealed despair, yet a faint glimmer of hope quietly rose in his heart.

"Sir, Reach has fallen."

We received the order to retreat when we were separated from the main force early yesterday morning.

Thirty-one kilometers to the southwest, there is a temporary evacuation point where two Pelican transport planes with full fuel are parked on the tarmac.

Once we can reach a suitable location, we can board the plane and evacuate the Cygnus assembly point.

Based on his performance just now and the power of the grenade, the sergeant had long considered Lu Qianwei one of his own.

Lu Qianwei was more than happy to do so; by getting on this front, he might even be able to plot against the Halo, a weapon capable of destroying all life within the Milky Way.

I also received the evacuation order from Zhiyuan Star.

"You all find a secluded place to rest first, I'll go and bring my men."

Lu Qianwei didn't explain further and returned to the location of the time portal.

When the sergeant saw Lu Qianwei again, he was sitting on a huge tracked armored vehicle.

There were three vehicles in total, and the 120mm armor-piercing heavy gun on the front of the vehicles made the sergeant and the others feel quite reassured and excited.

Regardless of whether these people have different equipment and systems.

The sergeant had already excitedly emerged from his hiding place.

Looking at the rows of soldiers covered in full-body power armor, his eyes shone even brighter, and he had no doubt that the troops led by Lu Qianwei were a secret special forces unit.

Unexpectedly, after Spartacus, they have such a secret armed force.

"Hahaha, my God!"

"Sir...your unit looks much stronger than those Spartan warriors!"

Almost all the remaining soldiers, upon seeing this army made of steel, had their almost extinguished will to survive reignite, their faces filled with the light of hope that they had regained what they had lost.

Lu Qianwei nodded and waved for the sergeant and the others to get into the vehicle: "You give me directions in a bit, and leave the fighting to us."

Soon, the group packed their belongings and set off southwest along an abandoned troop transport trail through the hills.

But they had only gone less than ten kilometers when the advance scouts sent a message.

"A Covenant patrol has been spotted one kilometer ahead. It consists of one senior elite, twenty-seven Gollums, and two Ghost vehicles, and they are searching our way."

Lu Qianwei raised his hand and made an attack gesture. The armored vehicle immediately turned into the oak forest by the roadside to hide. Twelve powered armored soldiers quickly occupied the high ground on both sides of the road and set up anti-vehicle rockets.

Within minutes, the Covenant patrol floated over, the elite leader riding a ghost chariot, humming Covenant religious tunes, completely unprepared to encounter a well-organized ambush in this already occupied territory.

"Fire."

Four rockets were fired simultaneously, instantly destroying the Ghost Vehicle in front.

The blue plasma fuel exploded into a sea of ​​fire, engulfing seven or eight Gulu people huddled together nearby, who let out sharp, piercing screams.

The remaining Gruul were thrown into disarray, blindly firing their plasma guns before being shot in the head by snipers.

The elite reacted quickly, immediately deploying an energy shield and hiding behind a granite slab.

He raised his hand and fired a plasma bullet, aiming it at the direction of the ambush.

As a result, his attack also hit the armored soldier's energy shield.

The soldier then pulled out an even more powerful armor-piercing bullet, specifically designed to break through energy shields.

Under continuous bursts of fire, the elite's energy shield was shattered, bullets grazed his shoulder, and green blood gushed out instantly.

Seeing that things were not going well, the elites were about to send a signal to retreat when Lu Qianwei had already sneaked up under the cover of the grass and trees.

He leaped over the boulder and drew the energy lightsaber he had picked up after dealing with the first wave of Covenant fighters.

The pale blue blade sliced ​​through the air in an instant. The elite soldier hurriedly raised his plasma rifle to block, but the lightsaber cleaved the rifle in two and then slashed across his neck. Green blood splattered all over the ground. In less than five minutes, the entire patrol team was completely silent.

The sergeant followed behind to collect the body. Looking at the corpse of the alien elite, he couldn't help but gasp in amazement, feeling that this officer's physical strength was even more formidable than that of a Spartan warrior.

Lu Qianwei smiled but didn't reply. He searched out the elite's personal tactical terminal, cracked it, and made an unexpected gain.

The Covenant has been relentlessly pursuing a UNSC Spartan squad in this area for the past two days.

The team appeared to be carrying "an object of vital importance to the survival of all humanity".

The Star Alliance leadership has given a death order: even if they have to turn this hill upside down, they must intercept the person.

Lu Qianwei's heart skipped a beat. Wasn't this the Noble Squad they were talking about?

In the prequel, this squad escorted an AI with Halo knowledge and technology to the Pillar of Autumn, which led to the Master Chief's storyline.

Being at this point in time... that's quite a coincidence.

After a short rest, the group continued forward and entered a narrow valley with steep slopes on both sides.

Plasma bombs suddenly fell on both sides of the hillside, and the explosions caused rocks to fall from the valley walls.

Three ghost vehicles rushed in from the valley entrance, blocking the retreat. Four high-ranking elites led more than fifty Gruul people down the slopes on both sides, clearly having set up an ambush, just waiting for passing stragglers to slip in.

"Armored vehicles will block the entrance to the valley from the front, while infantry will split into two groups to seize the slopes on both sides!"

As soon as Lu Qianwei finished speaking, he leaped over a rock about half a person's height and shot down two of the Gulu people who were charging at the front with two shots.

The Covenant's firepower was fierce; fuel cannons and plasma bombs rained down like rain, hitting the armored vehicles with a resounding thud.

However, the armored forces brought by Lu Qianwei are also quite strong.

The two teams crept up the mountain along the rock walls and grass on both sides of the valley. The heavy artillery of the armored vehicles blasted away the Ghost vehicles blocking the exit from a distance, cutting off the Covenant's retreat.

After fighting for nearly twenty minutes, the Gulu people on both sides of the hillside had been almost completely cleared out.

Only two high-ranking elites remained, hiding in the highest crevice of the rock, continuing to fire downwards, pressing down so hard they couldn't lift their heads.

Lu Qianwei gripped his energy lightsaber and climbed up the rock wall. Two elites flanked him from the front and back. The energy lightsabers collided, sparking blinding blue-white sparks.

Lu Qianwei feinted, dodging the slash from the elite on the left. He then stabbed the elite in the chest with his sword. Just as another elite was about to fire a shot, he was struck between the eyebrows by a throwing knife that Lu Qianwei had thrown, and he fell straight down the hillside.

After clearing the battlefield, Lu Qianwei captured two more wounded and captured Gulu people.

After a thorough interrogation, the previous information was indeed confirmed.

The Covenant has deployed two battle groups to surround Noble's squad.

They've now cornered them in a ravine less than three kilometers from the evacuation point, and are just waiting to wear them down and take down the AI ​​containing the pioneer's data.

There was nothing more to say. Lu Qianwei called on everyone to advance at full speed and rush to provide support.

In less than twenty minutes, the group reached the outer edge of the valley.

You could hear the intense gunfire and explosions coming from inside the oak grove.

Lu Qianwei raised his hand to signal the team to stop, and then he pushed aside the dense bushes to look inside.

Sure enough, behind the pile of rocks in the middle of the valley, stood six Spartans dressed in different colors.

Captain Carter, dressed in black armor with a large gash torn in his left shoulder by a plasma blast, was leaning against a rock, calmly directing the operation.

Sniper Jun lay prone on a high rock, firing his sniper rifle at the Gruul people charging up.

Kat, who was missing her entire right arm, leaned against Carter, clutching a large-caliber pistol, and kept firing at the approaching enemies.

Berserker Emile's silver-gray armor was stained with Covenant green blood, and the skull paint on his mask looked particularly fierce in the smoke.

Holding a shotgun and guarding the left flank, any elites who charged forward had their energy armor shattered by a single shot.

The most silent Noble6, gripping his assault rifle, guarded the middle lane, constantly throwing grenades to blast away the advancing Covenant cluster.

There were already more than a dozen Covenant corpses piled up at their feet, but the Covenant forces outnumbered them. Two hunters, each nearly four meters tall, carried fuel cannons and took turns providing cover as they pressed forward.

With each blast of the fuel cannon, a large chunk of rock fell down, and the Spartan defenses were being pushed back relentlessly, with their ammunition running low.

One of the hunters, carrying a fuel cannon, aimed at the rock where Jun was hiding and fired a shot.

The shell hit the rock face directly, and the granite exploded with a deafening roar.

Jun quickly rolled away to avoid it, but was still grazed on the thigh by the flying pebbles, his movements were a beat too slow.

Suddenly, an elite warrior wielding a lightsaber rushed out from behind a nearby rock, the blue blade flashing as he slashed towards Jun's back.

Carter was too late to provide assistance in the middle lane. Just as she was about to rush over to block, a crisp gunshot rang out, and the elite's head was blown open by an armor-piercing bullet, splattering green blood all over the ground.

Immediately afterwards, bursts of gunfire suddenly erupted from both sides of the ravine.

Armor-piercing shells rained down on the Gulu people charging ahead, instantly felling them in droves.

Two armored personnel carriers crashed through the small trees blocking their way and rushed in from the entrance of the ravine.

The heavy artillery fired straight at the two hunters, hitting the exposed fuel tanks behind them precisely.

With a deafening roar, one of the hunters was blown to pieces, while the other was thrown off balance and fell to the ground, unable to get up for a long time.