No, the pelican doesnt have the power to fly back to Earth. The spartans had a mission before Reach got under attack and that was to capture a covenant ship, so the pelican and the longsword were up against 5 conenant flag ships in the debris of Halo. So they had a battle, few eliets got shot, they bored one of the ships and took it over. There was 3 life pods things and in one of them there was the spatan called Linda, best sniper of all time
Mam that was boring lol.