As energy bolts pelted his shield, causing concentric circles to pepper the shimmering surface, Tristan decided he needed a new plan.

"Put me in, chief!"

"I have not yet shown these foes what I am capable of."

"Let's let Kitai take the lead on this one. Everyone else give her whatever help you can."

With that Tristan felt his body leap twenty feet into the air, bolts tearing through the space he just stood. His shield dissipated as each of his arms went to opposite hips, drawing his gladii from their sheaths. Their blades shone as the furies in the metal honed the edges and strengthened the steel. The green sphere set into the pommel of one sword glowed warmly as a transparent scarlet shell inched over his body and pure adrenaline began to pump through his veins.

"Reflect should take care of those energy weapons. And who goes into battle without Haste?"

As he was about to land, Kitai called to Kaze, her wind fury, and he came at her call. He granted Tristan his speed, and the world seemed to slow around him. He hit the ground running, one sword held horizontally in front of him, the other behind. The blaster rounds were moving just as fast as they had been before, but to Tristan they had slowed to a jogging pace, looking more like musket balls than their traditional beam-like appearance. Tristan collided with a few but they did little more than bounce back, taking out a few Stormtroopers who had been unlucky enough to aim properly.

Charging the nearest Kull he drew strength from the earth and he felt his muscles surge with raw power. Tristan slammed into him like a bullet, and not even the thick armor of a Kull warrior could resist the speed, strength, and razor-sharp blade of his gladius. He moved on to the next one, scything down his enemies with reckless abandon. In under five seconds there wasn't a Kull or Storm Trooper in sight. Well, not a living one at least.

Tristan released all of the powers he had summoned and collapsed to the ground. His muscles ached and were devoid of strength, and a few of his bones may have been broken.

"No being is meant to move that quickly. Your body could not maintain such a state without harming itself. I did what I could with watercrafting at the time, but the air isn't exactly saturated at the moment..."

"You should'a let me know! I could'a been curin' him the whole time!"

Tristan's body began steadily repairing itself with intermittent bursts of relief as Cid Cured him. Bones mended, and muscles stitched themselves back together. It hurt. A lot. He gripped the handles of his swords tightly until his metalcrafting buried the pain of his injuries.

He was just coming to his feet when he noticed jeep-like vehicles flying through the air near all of the portals. The Warthogs got nowhere near him, but the threat posed by beings that could throw them around like pebbles gave him cause for alarm.

"I think it's time we got a better perspective on the situation."

Double-tapping the webshooters in his palms, Tristan aimed towards the roof of their HQ. His aim was true, and he sprung towards the top of the building landing slightly harder than he would have liked.

"I'll have to work on that sometime when we're not being assaulted."

He looked out at the Temple District, and couldn't believe what he was seeing. Sith warriors had streamed through the portals, and with the help of Storm Troopers had broken through the UNSC's ranks. They were heading towards the HQ in large numbers while the marines closed the breach in their defenses.

"Think we could pull off the speed boost long enough to take down about a hundred Sith and ten times that many Storm Troopers?"

"Well, it depends. Do you plan on being alive at the end of it?"

"I think that means no, chief. "

"Thanks for the input, Cid."

He stared out at the swarm, formulating his next plan of attack.