Vandread Fan Fiction ❯ VanDread - Halo The Second Stage ❯ Blast From the Past Part 3 ( Chapter 7 )

VanDread Halo The Second Stage

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to VanDread or Halo, so let's stop with this foolishness and enjoy the story instead.

Chapter 5

Part 3

Blast from the Past…

< >: Thoughts

********

In the Nirvana's Engineering Bay…

Parfet looked over all the data concerning the NOVA bombs and couldn't help but whistle at the specifications that went into the bomb's construction. To think that before her were plans that would give rise to a weapon powerful enough to literally destroy a planet was considerably disturbing, the fact that they were going to use a number of the weapons to destroy ONE ship seemed like overkill to her.

But she knew that with the Harvesters coming into play and the risks of the alien technology falling into the hands of the Harvesters as well as those who might continue to ignite the fires of war between her world and that of the men. So they had no choice but to destroy the ship, she only hoped that they were going to be able to start studying the data that would be salvaged from the ship by the ground teams, and also get some live samples of the technology that would be found there. The idea of studying actual alien artifacts had been a fantasy of hers for some time and now she hoped that she was going to get the chance, for now however she had other things to deal with.

“Parfet, we've gotten the first three Drones ready!”

Parfet turned and replied.

“Good….make sure to load it up with all the portable laser systems that we can afford to place on them without them being weighed down.”

“Right!”

Apart from working on the NOVA Bombs, Parfet and her engineering crew were currently working with the Talvernian Engineers and both Dr. Catherine and Franklin Mendez to on another key part of the operation, the deployment of the UNSC Air Force's F-99 Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle commonly known by the UNSC Armed Forces as the Drone Fighter or the Wombat. Designed for advanced recon and ground support roles in battle the Wombat was used special optics packages for their duties and could carry a small number of weapon packages that would make it a fast moving fighter/bomber unit that would be able to help ground forces for a short period until heavier forces were in the area as well as be able to help coordinate ground and air assets in the field.

The Megele forces had a number of their own drone technology but these units were never designed for combat roles so there were that many weapon packages that would fit on the drones themselves, so Parfet had to make them, she took a number of Megele Laser Rifles and began to modify them to have a much higher charge than normal, removing most of the safety features to give them an extra boost in power ratings while building special heat sinks to the new housing to keep the weapons from blowing up as well as regulators to keep them from overcharging themselves.

She would have preferred to use the Weapon/Anti-Vehicle Model 6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle or the Spartan Laser for the job or one of the extra Dread Weapon Systems but both would limit the Wombat's maneuverability and speed, not to mention weigh them down, they also couldn't fit heavier missile pods on the drones so they had no choice but to rely only on the laser weapons for offensive purposes.

The reason for the Wombats being built was the possibility that the ship may have Flood Organisms in them, Magno and Buzam had already seen the horrors the Flood could do on living and even dead objects and the idea of going into the planet's surface to face such horrific creatures was one thing that Magno and Buzam were keen on avoiding at all costs as they were not going to risk their crew in a pitched battle with them.

The Master Chief also insisted that they be built as recon and first response units to help his fellow Spartans and the Spartan IIISs to secure the ship. John had already prior experience with the Flood due to his encounter with them the first Halo Ring, then on the Delta Halo Ring, his encounter with Gravemind in the same place, on High Charity as the Flood attacked the Covenant Capital City when he and the Arbiter were forced to be allies, then on Voi and New Mombasa in Africa, on the Ark and in the newly build and unfinished Halo Ring that was the replacement for the one he had destroyed with the aid of the Arbiter. Because of this, he was seriously focused on this mission, knowing how much had been lost to keep these monsters away from life itself in his world, he was not keen of having the same thing happen in this universe and on other worlds.

Cortana handed over the data she had gathered on the Flood both in her time in Halo as well as her attempts to stall the Gravemind so they had modified the Wombats' optical systems to detect the Flood more effectively. This data was all that they had and they were going to have to get it ready for the mission.

This was also going to be the time that Parfet' Power Armors were going to see serious action, though they were not advanced to match the MJOLNIR, they were pressurized and over the months had been rigorously tested for safety and protection for the users. It had been expensive and time consuming, but Parfet was able to double the number of Power Armor on the ship for the Nirvana Fire Teams to use if vehicles were not viable for the mission parameters as well as the terrain. They also would be using the Vanguards that they were able to modify for heavy battle as these would be helpful in the mission ahead. Parfet hoped that despite them being untested for actual warfare, her creations would be able to give her comrades the fighting edge they needed in the battle to come.

While the planet showed no signs of the Flood transforming the atmosphere to suit their biology more, the pirates were taking any chances whatsoever so this was why they were bringing all that they had to bear for this fight.

They were racing around the clock as preparations were underway and she could only do her best and be ready for anything.

********

In the bridge…

Magno looked over the incoming data from the Clarion Spy Drones that had been deployed in the area to monitor the Harvester Combat Fleet as she thought over the situation before her, it was bad enough to have to deal with the Harvesters, no they had to make sure that their new found allies from their world and that of the men don't decide to throw the shaky alliance into the wind and start attacking one another first chance they got. The last thing they needed was a break in ranks as well as a backstabbing.

However, a new concern was the Flood after seeing the footage and being told exactly what the Flood was and how deadly it was in battle from both Cortana and the Master Chief who had prior experience with these creatures and had learned as much as they could from it due to Cortana's access of the Forerunner database as well as her own words with the Gravemind, she was NOT going to take any chances and let these horrors loose in the universe, they had enough problems dealing with the insane Harvesters, the last thing they needed was a battle with an intergalactic parasitic species hell bent on consuming and infesting all living things.

As she looked at the screens as both the Ruby Rapier and Titan's Wrath were busy doing as much repairs as they could manage under the cease-fire, she was also informed by Ezra of other news. The incoming troop transports from both ships were on the way as both Marcus and Cassandra had sent several of their best soldiers to help with the mission. As much as she still had doubts of their actions, Magno knew that she was not in the position to say no, they needed all the forces they could get their hands on. However, she had made it clear to the ground teams to keep their eyes peeled and trained on the two factions to make sure that they work in unison and try not to kill one another.

********

In the Forward Unto Dawn's planning room…

John was able to get the Dread Squadrons into the planning room as well as the contingent of the Ruby Rapier and also the contingent from the Titan's Wrath together with the members of the Talvernians. His fellow Spartans and the Spartan IIIs were also there and ready to get to work but the Master Chief was not going to go down just yet, he wanted to make sure that they were fully prepared to face what was down there. He had a feeling that even if the ship was already a wreck, there would no doubt still be active defenses in the ship or worse, the Flood.

He knew from his personal experiences as well as the fact that he had gained a considerable deal of information about the

The Megele officer then taunted the Master Chief with a smug look.

“What's the matter you male? Afraid our forces can do better than you?”

The women from the Ruby Rapier gave slight smiles at that as they didn't have their helms on, but the officer as well as her group of Megele soldiers got the shock of their lives as the Nirvana's Fire Teams all collectively told them to shut up, and one of the NCOs, namely Kara actually walked up to her and without any warning, slapped her hard.

WHAP!!!

The women from the Ruby Rapier's forces were stunned at the sight of a woman from their world striking another woman from their world as well….all over a man.

The officer looked at the irate Kara with shock and spoke after a moment or two.

“You….you slapped me….”

“Yeah I did and if you say anything bad against the Master Chief then a slap is the least of your worries!”

The officer got up, still stunned that a fellow woman of Megele, even if she was a pirate, would strike a fellow woman over a man no matter how intimidating he was, she was soon joined by other officers but Kara was soon joined by her fellow Fire Team NCOs Hilda, Sheena, Carla, Fiona, and Rena…all five of them were also angry. The female officer then stopped as she decided to find out why this happened.

“Why did you slap me?!”

“Isn't it obvious? You insulted the Master Chief, and no one does that to him while they're here on the Nirvana!”

“Why do you protect him, I'm sure he can take care of himself?”

“Oh believe us sister, we KNOW he can take care of himself, heck, if he wanted to he could wipe the floor with us easily. But while you are in front of him, you WILL show him respect!”

The officer was getting angry as she spoke.

“Why do you care so much about us showing him respect? He's just a man after all.”

Kara and her fellow NCOs glared darkly at the officer, ands their glares were actually enough to make her and her lackeys back away a step. They had never seen fellow women this angry before in their lives and wondered why. They got their answer as Carla spoke seriously.

“He may be a man, but he is one of us here on the Nirvana and he is our Commander, so you had better respect him.”

The officer was surprised by this and she spoke out her surprise.

“You take your orders from a….”

Rena then spoke with a dark tone.

“If you insult him again, I will not slap you, but punch you in the face!”

The officer could tell that Rena meant it and stopped from what she was about to say but still she couldn't fathom why her fellow women would defend this man before her.

“Why are you doing this for him, even if he is indeed your commander, he is a man and you all are women….so why?”

Sheena then replied.

“The Master Chief is more than a Commander to all of us here in the Fire Teams! He is a man worthy of our respect, loyalty, and trust. Without his training, lessons, support, and leadership all of us here in the Fire Teams would not be here and none of us would be alive! In fact we see him as more than either our Commander or a man! He is OUR ohma!!!”

“What?!”

“You heard me!!! He is OUR ohma and all of us will gladly fight with him no matter the odds before us!!!”

“That's right!”

“He saved our necks more times that we can recall!!!”

The shouts grew until Fiona spoke seriously.

“You have NO idea who the Master Chief is, and what he has done in his life and service long before he ever became part of the crew here on the Nirvana. He has seen more battles and fought in more battles than you can ever hope to live in. he taught us many things and like Sheena said, without his training, lessons and leadership…we all here in the Fire Teams would have been either crippled or worse.”

“He showed all of us respect and fairness, without favoritism at all. And he trusts us well when the battles with the Harvesters happen. I, Fiona, Kara, Carla, Hilda, and Sheena earned his trust enough to be NCOs of our respective Fire Teams because he sees potential in all of us, regardless of being women. And that is why we all see him as both Commander and Ohma, so you show him respect!”

This would have gone on until John spoke in his usual tone of cool professionalism.

“Carla, Hilda, Kara, Fiona, Sheena, Rena, I need your focus on the mission, we do not have time for these debates so I need you all to focus on the plans before us, is that clear?”

All the NCOs turned and with professionalism and respect in their tones replied.

“Yes Master Chief!”

As they sat back the atmosphere in the room cooled a bit, but Kelly, ever the funny one in Blue Team spoke to John in a private COM.

“You got quite the fan club John. They even think of you as a father figure.”

John couldn't help but smile a tiny bit as he replied.

“I try.”

As soon as things cooled off, the Master Chief then spoke to the three groups who were new to this kind of operation as he reached for a data chip that was going to show the reason why he had insisted that his Spartans were going to go in first.

“There is a viable reason why we're going ahead…and that is the Flood.”

The people were curious at this and the female officer that Kara slapped before, still smarting from the confrontation with the NCO decided to speak.

“What kind of danger is there in a flood?”

The Spartan shook his head and didn't answer, as the Men from Tarak were also curious about this as well as the men and women of Talvern, but the members of the Fire Teams and their NCOs quickly gasped in horror as they began to get pale….unlike the three other groups in the planning room, they had seen the Flood before so they knew just what the Master Chief was talking about.

John then replied.

“I am not referring to a flood of water…but this.”

As soon as the video showed up, the gasps from the people were heard, that was when the Master Chief spoke as the images depicted the Infection forms running over the facility floor of the first Halo Ring as they were shown to the audience as they attacked Captain Keyes, several Marines and the late Avery J. Johnson. The Master Chief felt a brief rush of memory as he recalled the things he had seen the very second he had seen the recoding from Private Jenkins' helmet recorder of the attack, he managed to calm himself and continue.

“What you are seeing is actual evidence of a parasitic race called the Flood or by the records of the aliens who owned that ship on the planet we are going to as the Parasite. These creatures survive by consuming and infesting all organic creatures, either living or dead. Where we Spartans come from, they had nearly succeeded in wiping out all life and were barely kept in check. The owners of the ship there on the surface waged a bloody war that ended in a Pyrrhic victory for them, they starved the Flood into submission, but all of them were wiped out and most other life as well, except for those species that they were able to save.”

As the images played on, the Tarak men, the Megele women, and the co-gender group from Talvern couldn't help but be horrified by the sight of the Flood doing's grisly work on living and dead beings, converting the living ones into horrific monsters while reanimating and converting the dead to serve them. The Master Chief waited patiently as the images played before the groups, he disliked having to allow these images to be seen as they would terrify people as well as remind him of the horrors the Flood could unleash when left unchecked, but it had to be done, they needed to know what the dangers were for this mission. He could tell that show was horrifying to the men and women before him as the men from Tarak, the women from Megele, and the men and women from Talvern were more than willing to voice of their horror.

“My God!”

“Oh man….I'm going to be sick….”

“This…can't be real….”

“I can't watch this anymore….”

The words of the combined crews were enough to tell the Master Chief that his actions in revealing to them the exact kind of monsters the Flood were was working. The crews watched as the Flood Infection Forms attacked both living and dead creatures, they watched as UNSC Marines were fighting for their lives as the Flood began to attack them en masse, they heard the screams of terror of the battle hardened Marines as well as their cries of anger and horror as they watched the Flood transform their fellow Marines who were alive into monsters, allowing the audience to hear the victims' desperate screams for help turn into cries of pain then into inhuman monsters. They watched as even the alien forces of the Covenant were not spared from the horrific transformation that

As the videos played, the Master Chief then spoke to the audience.

“The Flood by nature are simplistic and straightforward, relying on overwhelming numbers to win battles, but their simplicity is not a sign of stupidity in the very least. They are able to absorb the knowledge of the victims they consume so they can operate weapons and even vehicles. There are at least four stages to their development, the first is the Feral Stage, in this case, the Flood operate in a more localized fashion, similar to the hunting pack of animals that use pheromones as a communications medium and it is considered limited with no complex command structure.”

“However, once the Flood can create a Proto-Gravemind with enough bodies and accumulated knowledge and information, then the next stage is called the Coordinated Stage. In this state, the Flood becomes more organized with the Proto-Gravemind acting like a hive mind center, allowing the Flood to fight more effectively and with greater organizational planning and skill. This also allows for more Flood biomass to gather and Pure Forms are born.”

The images then revealed the horrific monsters that were not made from the bodies of humans and the various Covenant species and while the watchers were spared the sight of the horrific way the Flood transformed living beings, and brought the dead back to life in the most brutal fashion available, the sight of the Pure Flood Forms was no less easier on the eyes.

“The Pure Forms normally start as collected masses of Flood Super Cells with recycled bones, muscles and tissues collected by the Flood, instead of transformed beings and reanimated corpses There are three forms, the Stalker Form is the basic one and is agile enough to avoid being shot at, while they do not attack, they can turn into Ranged and Tank forms, which while lacking the agility of the first base form, have deadlier uses in battle.”

The images revealed the spider like Stalker Forms that he faced in the now corrupted city of High Charity and then showed the Ranged Form to the audience.

“The Ranged Form cannot move anywhere without turning back into a Stalker Form, but while they cannot move much, they can unleash deadly barrages of pure hardened bones that can cut through basic metals with deadly ease, they curl their heads to hide when attacked but cannot survive long under heavy assault. However they can easily pin you down, transform and move in Stalker Form, and revert back to be in a deadlier firing angle. Energy as well as explosive weapons are the best choice to face them at this point and time. The next form is the Tank Form.”

The images changed from the Ranged Form to the hulking beast that was the Tank Form of the Pure Flood.

“The Tank form lives up to it's name and can take tremendous amounts of punishment and can dish out just as much when using it's massive limbs and can unleash Infection Forms from their mouths, while they lack the ranged ability and agility of both the Ranged and Stalker Forms, and unlike the Combat Forms created from infesting living and dead beings, they are more than able to kill anyone foolish enough to be ill prepared to face them. They move slowly but they can increase their speed by using all four limbs in battle and they are not foolish creatures, killing them in the head can stop them and like the other forms, energy and explosive weapons offer better results.”

“This will give birth to the Interstellar Stage, this is where the Flood have gathered all known knowledge and technology, conquered all planets in the given solar system, and have no need to assimilate more biological matter. Once this stage is reached, the Flood then travel into space, looking for the next system to invade and infest. Once they take control of all the systems in a galaxy and consumed all the sentient life they can find, then the Intergalactic Stage begins.”

“This is the worst stage, for once the Flood get all that they desire in terms of knowledge, technology, scientific concepts, and consumed all sentient life in a galaxy. This stage is when they reach critical mass and then soon move out to do the same thing to the next galaxy.”

As the images faded, the Master Chief looked at the audience and he could tell there and then that he now had their full and undivided attention as he spoke.

“While we do not know for certain if there are any traces of the Flood there, we cannot take any chances either as they will become a very deadly threat once they recover from whatever put them into stasis, Cortana will take over from here.”

On cue it seemed, the former A.I turned human appeared in her A.I form in front of the assembled crowd as she spoke.

“The first mission will be with an atmospheric insertion with Wombat Combat Recon Drones that have been linked to the Nirvana's command center, they will be the ones to scan the area below for any visible sign of Flood infestation on the surface of the planet. While there is no visible sign that the Flood from here in space, the Captain requests a more on the spot examination of the planet, once a suitable landing zone is selected, the Spartans will be the first to secure the ship and hold the entrance and soon you will be deployed into the hot zone.”

Cortana then showed the images of the Vanguards and Parfait's Power Armor as well as the Cyclops units that they had with them in their arsenals.

“The dangers the Flood pose to any human forces requires that Vanguards will be sent into battle along with Parfait's newly improved Power Armor designs, they will form the needed support for this operation, the Key-ship is a massive vessel, capable of carrying a basic crew of at least a thousand and can carry thousands more and a massive amount of supplies and equipment so the Spartans will need support for this mission, we've also come up with some other aids.”

The door opened and in walked Parfait and Gascogne with several flying robots, the robots resembled spheres with large eyes on them. The Spartans quickly recognized them to be camera drones that were similar to the ones used on Earth, and for a brief moment, John felt anger as the image reminded him of that Rampant Fore-runner A.I Construct Guilty Spark, he placed that aside as Parfait spoke.

“These will serve as forward recon units on the surface, and a pair will accompany the entry teams into the vessel itself so they will be able to feed information to cut the risk of being caught off guard.”

As soon as that was done, Cortana spoke once more to the Talvernians, the men of Tarak, and the women of Megele.

“We need to do this fast and hard, there's no room for error or delay, and there is certainly no room for bigotry and hatred here, you are all in the same situation whether you like it or not, if there is Flood on this vessel or planet, then we have a serious situation that could spell the doom of all known life in the universe, the Flood see ALL living things as food, nothing more. We have to prevent that from happening. And also, we must make sure that the technology that can be salvaged from the ship below cannot be used for the wrong reasons. That is why you are going to be monitored to prevent you from taking any technology for your own ends.”

The men and women of the two worlds were not happy with the information but Cortana was well aware of their thoughts and replied.

“The technology is too advanced and too dangerous for anyone without a proper understanding of it to have. And if the Harvesters get their hands on this technology….or somehow even salvage this entire ship and refurbish it, they will be able to equip their forces with weapons that will make everything your two worlds can muster look like simple farming tools and pop guns. And that ship possessed enough firepower to turn entire fleets into scrap and debris….that is why that ship must not only be cleaned of everything that can be salvaged. But also destroyed as well to prevent them from resurrecting I, if they do accomplish it….then no world is safe from their genocidal campaign to harvest all the organs that they can find. That is the reason why we all have to work side by side.”

As soon as that was over, the Master Chief spoke seriously.

“We have only a few hours to get everything ready for the operation before us, we have no time for bigotry and hatred, those of you who are chosen for this operation have to know this since there is no telling if and when the Harvesters will deploy an assault force to the surface of the planet once they see the ship, Get everything done and be ready for a serious battle ahead of you.”

As the crews were soon dismissed, the Master Chief spoke to the Nirvana Fire Teams, as well as the heads of the Security Teams and the officers of the Talvernians who were going to remain behind on the Nirvana, he knew that since he was going to take half of the Nirvana Fire Teams to the surface for the mission as well as half of the Talvernians to operate the heavily modified Vanguards, the Nirvana's security was going to be halved so he ordered the Security Team leaders to bring all the needed heavy hardware and the remaining Fire Teams as well as the Talvernians to go heavy when dealing with the threats before them.

Once that was squared away, the Spartan told his fellow Spartan IIs as well as the Spartan IIIs to get ready for heavy ordnance and also bring energy weapons with them on the mission as he took his leave to speak with the other members of the crew.

As he made his way to the Nirvana, he was greeted by Parfait who had just managed to complete the designs of several of the no working NOVA Bombs.

“How is it going Parfait?”

The spunky head engineer replied to the Master Chief's question.

“We've gotten enough supplies to make the first three NOVAs plus were attaching the new weapons on the Power Armors and the modified Vanguards that should be able to help give the ground teams extra punch just in case we encounter a good deal of resistance Master Chief.”

John nodded at that and spoke to Parfait a bit more about how to best deploy the NOVAs once the ground teams secured the Fore-runner ship and after they had taken as much technology and data that could be salvageable from the ruined ship. Afterwards, he made his way to the rest of the ship and spoke to Gascogne who was currently supervising the Register to get the Dreads ready for heavy combat and would be directing the delivery of the NOVA Bombs as well.

The dark green haired head officer of the Register spoke to him with a smile as she had grown to respect and admire the Spartan for his abilities, and skills for a while now.

“Hello Master Chief, what's up?”

“How are things going so far?”

Gascogne looked about and replied.

“As busy as one can get, the good thing is at least this time we get to have some backup for a change, though I'm not very comfortable with the fact that the ones we're getting backup from are from Megele, don't get me wrong, having fellow women from Megele backing us up is all right with me, but having the military here….isn't very easing on my nerves.”

The Spartan noted something odd about that particular statement and asked the question.

“You have some history with the military?”

Gascogne nodded and replied.

“I used to be in the Megele Navy, and served as a pilot and officer, and so did my sister.”

“Sister?”

Gascogne nodded sadly and replied.

“Both she and I served in the navy but we were very different then, she was the calm one and always by the book, me? I was the passionate and fiery one, kind of like Hibiki and Barnette in a way. I used to be very unhappy with my sister's calm nature and always being collected since she seemed cold and distant, so we didn't exactly get along all that well with one another. But after…an accident that caused her to give her life to save mine and many others she told me why she was like that. It was hard for both of us but in the end I decided to be like her and keep my emotions controlled so I could be able to save more lives and not make mistakes.”

The Master Chief nodded at that and replied.

“I can understand that.”

Gascogne smiled and replied.

“I can bet that you would, I like what you did with that kid too, Hibiki's a lot better off under your charge, in fact, he idolizes you a great deal, with you taking him under your wing and making him your protégé and all.”

“I noticed, I'll need to talk to him before the mission starts.”

Gascogne nodded at that and got back to work as the Spartan left the Register and headed to the Hanger bay and there was Hibiki, and well enough there with him was Jura, Meia, and Dita, he then decided that it would be far better that he spoke to all four of them to plan out some key strategies, as soon as he walked up to them, Hibiki turned and saluted him and he returned the salute as Hibiki spoke to him.

“Good to see you Master Chief, sir!”

“At ease Hibiki, we all need to talk.”

Hibiki did so as Meia smiled a bit while Jura smirked a bit as Dita smiled in greeting of Mr. Green Alien. The Tarak youth was currently dressed in his Marine Body Armor and carried his MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle on his back while the others were already dressed in their uniforms though the Spartan began to think that in order to avoid injuries to the pilots, they were going to need some form of protective armor to make sure that they would be all right, their clothes might be more comfortable, but in his mind, the dangers of being injured where high so they needed far better protection.

He placed that aside for the moment as he spoke to the four of them.

“We need to talk about some important matters before the battle starts.”

Meia had a feeling about than and replied.

“What do you have in mind?”

“For starters, we need to be ready for anything the Harvesters might have cooked up, we all know that just because they used the same tactics before, doesn't mean that they are not planning a new strategy or making new weapons, they did the same when they introduced that high speed fighter, their Urchin Ship, and of course the Copy VanDreads, they might have something new to throw at us this time.”

The others nodded at that as they could see the point there and Jura replied.

“That's true, they could be using something new soon enough, but we can at least counter that in space, the VanDread Hibiki and I form with our machines should provide extra protection on the call.”

“True, the shield can be key in protecting the attack teams and for other plans, so we'll keep that in reserve, Meia and Hibiki's VanDread can be key in making hit and run attacks first out, and of course Hibiki and Dita's VanDread can be key for closer battles and long range fire power. We're dealing with a large battle group so we'll need to soften them up as best we can in order to maximize the damage we can inflict.”

Meia then had an idea.

“We can send small attack teams ahead to inflict as much damage as possible; Cortana's Longswords can be with the attack teams to cause as much damage as possible before moving back to the front lines.”

The Master Chief thought of that as an excellent idea, if the attack teams can cause enough damage, it would cut down the attacking forces before the Nirvana and the two other ships so they would not be caught in a seriously dangerous situation that could prove to be a very dangerous trap for all involved, he turned and in walked Cortana and he smiled a bit at her as she joined them and they were soon joined by Barnette, the green haired woman had become a lot more receptive towards men though she was still not over her planet's teachings completely and she showed more respect to the Spartan, the Master Chief noticed that and knew that she was going to be key to this operation as she was skilled indeed as a Dread pilot and she would help in coordinating the plan once Hibiki, Dita, Jura, and Meia were on their own missions.

As they planned things out as a team, the Spartan wondered for a moment on what was happening back there in his own home dimension, he had a feeling that the UNSC and the Separatists were going to be rather busy with other matters soon enough.

********

Back in John's home dimension…

The new Battle Group was now being assembled and ready for their mission as the ships were currently getting their systems ready for the final trip before entering Slipspace and heading off to their target area to meet up with the Eternal Covenant Battle Group named the Fleet of Redemption, at the lead were three ships, one was naturally the Spirit of Fire, serving as a fleet support ship, along with two other ships, a UNSC Super Carrier

“Officer on deck!”

The bridge staff on the Spirit of Fire were quick to respond to the command as they all stood at full attention along with the Spartans of Red Team as Captain James Cutter came back into the ship, the elderly but still highly respected Captain returned the salute and spoke to the crew who he had served with for nearly three and a half decades.

“Status of the ship?”

One of the officers, responsible for the point defense weapons on the ship reported in.

“We have a full complement of MAC rounds in our stores as well as the Archer Missiles along with new plasma torpedoes as well as new plasma rounds loaded into the ship's main weapons along with our own supply of Shiva and Fenris Nuclear weapons sir, we even have a number of NOVA Bombs in case we find the Halo Rings to prevent the Eternal Covenant from trying to use them. We also have newly acquired defensive Laser Turrets as well as the Plasma batteries given to us by the Reborn to add power to our Point Defense Guns.”

Cutter nodded as he turned to his other officer who was in charge of supplies for basic operations as well as the supplies needed by the Marines and ODSTs as well as the pilots and vehicle crews.

The woman didn't need to be asked as she gave her report.

“We have been given at least twenty years worth of food and drink supplies to restock our supplies for feeding the crew as well as extended operations in deep space, we have new supplies for our vehicles and the aircraft along with a new fleet of Supply ships and more new Firebase modules. The armories have been restocked with new weapons and munitions, we also happen to have been a large number of Covenant weapons as well as a new supply of the Weapon/Anti-Vehicle Model 6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifles to give our soldiers more power against enemy aircraft and heavy armor, along with the newly produced Bubble Shields.”

“Good, anything else?”

“Yes sir, we've gotten some new Robotic Rovers as well as a number of the new Huragok to help augment our technical divisions here on the ship as well as help with repair and maintenance on the ship as well as our ground forces. SO far, most of the crew are getting used to the arrival of the Huragok and also the new personnel we're getting into the ship's crew roster are still busy squaring things away before we get the deployment order from Lord Hood.”

“Good, keep things running until we get the go ahead order.”

“YES SIR!!!”

As Cutter looked through the view screen, he was greeted by Serina who was more than ready to stand and serve with her Captain once more.

“Good to see you up and about Captain.”

“I can say the very same for you as well Serina, how are you holding up at the moment?”

“Apart from the major overhaul to my systems and the addition of a New Riemann Matrix, I feel perfectly fine and ready to do what I can.”

Cutter nodded at that and turned to his bridge crew.

“All right, our mission as you are aware is to help deal with the reported activity of the Eternal Covenant who have been seen in the sector we're about to be traveling to, this will be the first time in several years since we got back to Earth and getting to see the friends and family that we thought were lost when the Covenant attacked Reach. The R&R did us all some good, but now it's time to go back and fight with what is left of the old Covenant.”

“The new Covenant who named themselves the Reborn have been marked as allies and have thoroughly changed their appearance to show that fact, and many of them happen to be led by Elites. Many of us, including myself cannot easily forgive the Elites for their part in the start of the way several decades before, but now we are to work with them to end the remaining threats of the Eternal Covenant. If anyone has any problems with this mission, then tell me now.”

Cutter looked at the people before him, there he saw that none of them seem to have any problems with the idea and that was something that he hoped would remain that way, for now he looked things over from his command console until Serina called his attention.

“Excuse me Captain Cutter, but I'm getting a transmission from Lord Hood.”

“Patch it through Serina.”

Soon, the COM system revealed Lord Hood and the leader of the UNSC spoke to Cutter.

“How is everything there on your ship Captain?”

“As good as it can get sir.”

“Good, is Spartan Red Team onboard?”

“Yes sir, do you want me to have them come onboard to the Command Bridge?”

“Negative Captain, I have however a request, for them to be prepared to get their new MJOLNIR Mark VI units and the spare parts for their suit's maintenance and repair needs, we've just finished their construction in Songnam so it would be best that the Red Team get an upgrade in their armor.”

Cutter nodded and replied.

“Understood sir.”

As Lord Hood faded away, he turned to a nearby PA system and called in.

“Spartan Red Team, this Captain Cutter, report to the Bridge ASAP.”

********

In one of the rooms of the Spirit of Fire…

As the Marines and personnel of the Spirit of Fire were getting their gear squared away as well as help with the moving of supplies for basic needs, the ones who were not working were currently resting for a moment or two before getting back to their duties, at the moment several of the ODSTs where busy checking their gear for their soon to come work on the field, or at least two of them were as their fellow ODSTs were currently chatting, having squared away their gear for the moment.

The leader of the group was Lieutenant 1st Class Edward Buck, famed for being one of the few men of the UNSC forces to have survived practically every major campaign taken by the UNSC against the Covenant for all the thirty years of fighting ever since the Covenant declared war with the UNSC, the highly respected ODST officer had lost a bit of his old hardness with the war being over and naturally his relationship with a certain Captain Veronica Dare had gone well enough as she was currently working in the Spirit of Fire as ONI's top agent in the newly rebuilt fleet known as Battle Group Washington.

As the rest of the group had been assigned to the Spirit of Fire, they were waiting for the order to head on out, it was then that Veronica arrived into the room and Edward smiled as he saw her, over the months of the peace that settled on the UNSC after the ceasing of hostilities with the Covenant the two had been able to rekindle their relationship and it was good thing that both of them were going to be in the same ship this time.

Veronica smiled and spoke first.

“Good to see you smiling again Edward.”

“Hey, I'm only smiling cause you're here.”

“Hah…charming”

The two kissed one another while the other three member of Buck's team were currently doing their own things, Kojo and Dutch were currently chatting up about what was going on with their off times before they were called back together to the battle ground, Mickey were currently reading a book to pass the time after packing in his weapons, and Lance Corporal James Dobson, was still sleeping like before in his ODST Body Armor Suit and his M7S near him after squaring away his gear. The four were so wrapped up in their own things that they barely noted the kiss between the two until Kojo saw that and whistled.

“Hey Boss, you want us to leave you two alone or get you both a private room?”

Edward turned and gave a glare to his squad's sniper expert.

“Why don't you gorram shut up Kojo?”

Kojo grinned at that and replied.

“All right Boss.”

Veronica smiled and when the two moved aside she quickly spoke to Edward.

“You all right?”

Edward nodded at that as two grabbed a pair of chairs and sat down as he spoke.

“Yeah, the down time helps clear the old noodle more than some of the others think, anyway, I still can't believe that I'm onboard the ol' Spirit of Fire, I thought this ship was lost after that battle on some gorram forgotten section of space, care to fill me in?”

Veronica sighed a bit and reviewed what she recalled of the data that was given by the Captain of the ship. As soon as she was done, she told Buck about all the things she knew and afterwards, Edward whistled a bit at that.

“Damn, so she's fully refurbished?”

“Pretty much, most of the Huragok onboard are members of Vergil's group. The Spirit's fully rebuilt from the ground up, reinforced, you name it.”

Edward smiled a bit at that.

“Speaking of old perfume pack, how's it going?”

“Pretty good, it's been happy to learn that the rest of its kin aren't slaves anymore.”

It was then that two other ODSTs arrived on the scene and the taller one with the rank of Master Sergeant looked at Dutch's direction and spoke out.

“Been a while Dutch.”

Dutch turned just as the ODST Officer removed his helmet to reveal a face that he recognized as he smiled a bit more as he got up and walked over to him and extended in his hand in a hand shake.

“It's good to see you again sir.”

Master Sergeant Cortez smiled at the former member of his Fire Team and shook hands with him, after the mission, Dutch had been requested to be transferred from his unit for the battle of Ariel and that was the last he saw of Cortez, though he had heard that Cortez was busy doing other missions for the UNSC both on the front lines and behind it, he still looked the same as before, no doubt since he had been moving about in missions, Cortez spent plenty of time in cryo-stasis to get from one battle ground to another. Dutch had to admit that he was a bit worried about Cortez but seeing him here was good news to him, he then directed his attention to the other one who was in the ODST uniform and he already had a very good idea on just who it was.

“That you O'Brian?”

The ODST chuckled a bit and removed his helmet and showed his face, it was the blue eyed and red haired ODST Sniper O'Brian, it had been some time since Dutch had seen O'Brian ever since that mission long ago, the guy still looked the same and still a short guy, but he had no doubt about O'Brian's abilities as a Sniper since he was the one who killed the Prophet that he, Cortez, and Checkman had gone with Cal-141 at least some years ago. He was still somewhat short but he heard that O'Brian was still alive and kicking in battle and that was good news.

O'Brian then replied.

“Good to see you too Dutch, this your new team?”

Dutch grinned as he looked at the others as he introduced the two comrades he had been with before to the new team that he was assigned with.

“Yep, my commander, Edward Buck over there with Captain Veronica Dare, the one who's sleeping his butt off is James Dobson, the other's Mickey, and of course, the resident sniper and my buddy Kojo. Guys, this is Master Sergeant Cortez and O'Brian, I worked with them for a number of years before being transferred. You still the bitchin' fellow I knew O'Brian?”

O'Brian snorted and replied.

“Yeah, and you're still the same wise ass who rubbed me the wrong way when you open your flapping mouth Dutch, anyway, when did you get transferred to the Spirit?”

“Just a few weeks ago, nice to see some friendly faces, got to see my wife Gretchen after she got those new flash cloned limbs to help her recover, she wasn't too happy about me sticking around in the ODSTs, but she's all right with me helping out, though she's hoping that I get to be in the Motor Pool soon, I might take it up though I am going to have to get some training with being a grease monkey.”

Edward then spoke to the three as he was curious about the whole thing.

“You three worked together before?”

Dutch nodded and looked at both Cortez and O'Brian as he knew that the things they were going to talk about were supposed to be kept as something of a very important secret. Cortez nodded and replied.

“Go ahead Dutch, it's time it came out anyway.”

Dutch nodded as he, O'Brian, Cortez and the others with the exception of James who was still silently sleeping on the side took some seats and decided to get the story going. Dutch naturally was the story teller of the group and started it out.

“Years ago, me, Cortez, O'Brian, and Checkman were on the UNSC Destroyer Yamato on a mission to assassinate a Prophet who was in charge of some sort of supply and logistics base on the surface of a planet known as Heian, originally O'Brian was supposed to be the shooter, but he got relegated to being the backup, and the reason was the primary shooter for the mission was one of the Spartan II Commandos.”

Kojo snorted and looked at O'Brian.

“You got yourself replaced by one of those so called super soldiers? Some sniper you turned out to be!”

O'Brian glared and so did Cortez but before things would get out of hand, both Edward and Veronica looked at him with Buck being the first to talk.

“Dutch is telling the story here Kojo, save your comments till it's over.”

The female ONI officer then replied.

“I know of the mission, it was a success, but no one else talked about it on the view of the ground, so can it Marine.”

Kojo would have normally commented about that, but he decided to keep quiet for now as he had admit that he was rather curious about this mission that Dutch had taken up and now was a good at time as any.

“All right, I'll keep my trap shut for now.”

Dutch could tell that Kojo was serious and he continued with his story.

“Naturally we were not that pleased by High Command wanted us to keep our feelings to ourselves, we were not only going to assassinate the Prophet but also take picture of some ruins there, they were not made by either us or the Covenant and predate just about everyone. After a few minutes of preparation we got sent out, we lost Checkman in the drop, he struck an asteroid and burned up in the atmosphere, O'Brian here hit the side of a cliff and landed in a lake. After me and Cortez got out of our pods we tried to get the gear to get him out. Cal on the other hand just walked into the lake without any trouble, reached O'Brian's pod, grabbed it and literally lifted the thing and tossed it out of the lake as if it was something Spartans do everyday.”

“Cal then pried off the door and out came O'Brian, downright pissed at being tossed around, and after telling him of Checkman and how close we lost him, we hustled off to the target zone, O'Brian here took every chance to needle Cal but the Spartan didn't seem to care at all about that, we got to the ruins, and even if it's been years, I still think about the place now and then, we had to kill some Grunts there who were watching the place, but somehow one of them spotted O'Brian, he took them out but one Brute Chieftain tried to turn O'Brian into paste, somehow Cal saved his ass from the Chieftain and taking a long drink into the nearby lake after nearly falling on a water fall. Cal even carried him bridal style if I recall, but that Spartan sure knew how to fight, took that Chieftain alone in hand to hand combat, damn near killed it too”

O'Brian shook his head at the memory of that and Kojo tried not to snort at the last part as well as not laugh at the part where O'Brian was carried by Cal bridal style, as Dutch continued with the story.

“Anyway, we took all the data we could of the ruins and got to our area for the sniper mission just as the prophet's ship arrived on site, Cal was setting up while the rest of us watched for a possible attack, while we were setting up, the Brute Chieftain came back and tried to kill us again, O'Brian was about to get hit sideways by the damn thing's Gravity Hammer, but Cal pushed him out of the way and took the hit on the face and shoulder, just as the Prophet was on the move, all three of us tackled the bastard and I shot him full in the face with my M7S, after it died, we tried to check on Cal, with Cortez removing the helmet that was badly damaged. Back then…we thought Cal was a man like the rest of us, we were wrong, Cal was a woman and that surprised all of us, she had severe head injury and no doubt a broken shoulder, and she ordered O'Brian to take the shot since he's the only sniper left. O'Brian did it and the mission was over.”

“We tried to help her as best we could, but her injuries were pretty bad, but all she did was give us the data chip on the ruins and told us to hand it to the head of their Program, Catherine Halsey, saying she'll know what to do. She was dying already and Cortez here tried to assure her that she was the one to hand it to Halsey herself, but we all knew it wasn't going to happen. Afterwards….she died in front of us, even if she did wear that half a ton of armor, we sure as hell were not going to leave her behind cause who knew what the Covenant would do to her body if they found her, we carried her to the evac site. After we got back we had the chip sent to Halsey and we, or at least me and Cortez even got into a fight with a Marine who insulted Cal's abilities.”

Dutch shook his head at the memories and replied.

“I never talked about that to anyone else since it was supposed to be black ops and not to be mentioned.”

Kojo shook his head a bit and looked at Dutch with a surprised eye.

“You never told me you worked with a Spartan.”

“You never asked.”

The colonial born ODST sighed and spoke.

“All right, so maybe Spartans ARE all that they are cracked up to be, but still, I'd like to see them in action myself so I can really be convinced.”

It was then that a voice came out, and it was the kind associated with Spartans.

“You are going to get your chance.”

The ODSTs turned and there before them were three Spartan IIs, and the red markings on their MJOLNIR Mark VI Powered Assault Armor showed them to be the fabled Spartan Red Team of the Spirit of Fire, the three walked over to the group and the one who spoke earlier turned to face Dutch, Cortez, and O'Brian and he spoke.

“The name's Jerome-092, leader of Red Team, this is my squad, Alice-130, and Douglas-042, you three were with Cal-141 until the end?”

The three nodded and the Spartans seemed to relax though it was hard for the ODSTs to be sure since there was no way for them to see for sure, but they didn't have to wait long before Douglas spoke next, he was the quiet one of the group but he was no reclusive person to say the least in most senses, while many Spartans were quiet and calm unless around other Spartans, there were others who were more open and vocal.

“And she gave her life to save your life for the third time?”

O'Brian knew that the question was directed at him and he nodded, normally before he met Cal, he would have been like the others in the ODSTs, and that was being hostile and wary to Spartans, but he had changed a good deal and replied to the question directed to him by Douglas as he knew that this Spartan deserved an answer to his question.

“Yes she did.”

Douglas nodded a bit and replied.

“Then she did what she could to make sure the mission was accomplished, and she won't be forgotten, not by any of us.”

The ODSTs were surprised by this until Alice-130 spoke.

“Douglas and Cal were close back then when we were still on Reach, at any rate, at least we got to meet the men who were there to be with her in her final moments, she was more than a fellow Spartan, she was a sister to us all. Anyway, we best let you all relax and get ready, we're going off to fight the enemy once more.”

Jerome-092 nodded and saluted Captain Dare and the three left the ODSTs and Kojo had to whistle and shake his head.

“Now that was different.”

Dare then spoke.

“You'd be surprised, a large number of the personnel here in the Spirit have a great deal of respect for Red Team, even the ODSTs here have tremendous respect for the Spartans, so they are not all that keen that people disrespect the Spartans, so if anyone else with the exception of Dutch, Cortez, and O'Brian have issues with the Spartans, then I suggest you keep it to yourselves.”

Edward sighed and replied.

“For me, I don't care if they are Spartans, if they fight against the enemy then they're welcome on my side of the pool anytime of the day.”

Dare smiled and that was that.

********

In the Marathon-Class Cruiser Miranda Keyes…

The activity on the Miranda Keyes was very much the same as that of the Spirit of Fire as the leader of the ship was busy looking over the information of the crew's readiness as well as the supplies that they had for the soon to come mission into the area where the Reborn were holed up and causing all sorts of mischief.

Admiral Robert Whitcomb looked over his newly built ship and was happy that things were going smoothly for the time being as he was ready to go and take the fight to the Reborn Covenant and make sure that they were not going to go about and cause more death and suffering for the people of the UNSC, his brother died fighting them and through his efforts, he had severely weakened the Covenant forces that had come to attack Earth before Truth's own fleet came on the scene, which was why it was an honor for him to take up the reins and help in the fight and the mission before him.

At this moment the ship was still in the process of final checks before it and the rest of it's battle group were going to move out and head off to the new battle zone, the Marathon Class Cruisers were once built to supersede the older Halcyon-Class Cruisers and these ships were considered to be the most powerful of their line, armed with enough firepower to really cut through most opposition and with the technology of the Reborn plus the new materials and manpower, the Marathon-Class Cruisers were making a serious come back into the battle field. Many of them were used to defend the Inner Colonies and Earth and just as many were either severely damaged or destroyed by the Covenant in their initiation invasion of Earth. Ever since the alliance with the Sangheili and the end of the UNSC-Covenant War, the Marathon-class Cruisers were being rebuilt and redesigned to incorporate tried and tested technology with ne Covenant technology.

And the Miranda Keyes was one such ship that had undergone a considerable number of changes to fit the new alliance, like the new UNSC ships and those that were retrofitted, she was armed with a heavy shielding system to augment the naturally present ten meters worth of Titanium A armor plating as well as the armor plating being reinforced by Covenant alloys to make the armor lighter and more resilient to energy and solid weapons fire, apart from the defensive systems, the Miranda Keyes carried a number of enhanced sensor networks and improved communications arrays to increase both command and control functions for a fleet, and it also made sure that the ship would be able to have the ability to scan ahead to avoid enemy ambushes. The armaments were also improved, apart from the two standard MAC Cannons, the cannons were now armed with an option to use plasma rounds, this would further increase the overall damage potential of the warship as the plasma was made to fire at a much faster rate and a much further distance, making the plasma rounds a serious weapon of war. The UNSC then had to improve the coolant mixtures to make sure that the MAC Cannons as well as the ship's other key systems didn't suffer severe damage from the use of the gathered Plasma. Apart from this, the Archer Missiles were given improved warhead load-outs as well as advanced guidance packages to improve their power, and they were even equipped with some form of shield jamming technology that was recently developed by the UNSC scientific community that could allow the Archers to finally have an easier time cutting through energy shields, The 50mm Point Defense Guns were still present but this time were supported by more advanced plasma turret batteries and much larger Needler Cannons to further add to the firepower, as well as new and improved Pulse Lasers as well as several turrets that were armed with UNSC Laser weapons derived the from the Spartan Laser weapons for defense as well as some now fully integrated M68 Gauss Cannon Turrets for extra firepower, making the Marathon a bristling weapon of war.

In terms of power, the Fusion Engines were improved and incorporated Covenant engine designs as well to boost power output to help deal with the new systems being installed. The ship also had power stations for Covenant weapons installed all over the ship to add to the powerful arsenal of the Marine and ODST contingents stationed onboard as well as their current UNSC arsenals. The power supply was supported another set of Fusion Engines to further increase the power needed by the Miranda Keyes to support the new additions to it's arsenals, And in the case of their Slipspace Drive System, this was a hybrid engine with UNSC and Covenant influence to make it more effective in it's functions. The engines also underwent many changes as well to address the need for power, speed, and safety. The ship also now had a contingent of Huragok to support any needs for repairs for the crews onboard.

All these changes have given the UNSC Navy a serious boost in power and technology, something that had become a major boon due to the alliance between the UNSC and the Reborn Covenant, and as much as Robert had not forgotten the

The UNSC Marines were currently getting their gear squared away for the new mission that they were going to undertake soon, and right now, several of the Marines

The Marine recruit was standing up and attention and for good reason as the Gunnery Sergeant was glaring at him with a gaze that would have put a Brute to shame when in a raging frenzy.

The sergeant was an African American woman who was smoking a Sweet William cigar and had her hair in the usual UNSC Marine regulation cut and had on a sergeant's cap, she was tall and very athletic, with the kind of build that would have been that of a super model and had deep brown eyes with a hint of grey , had she been a dancer or a regular civilian and had her hair in a regular style, she would have been quite the beauty. But while she was good looking, she was hardnosed and very much strong and tough, the aura of a skilled Marine was in her…

Just like her father…

Gunnery Sergeant Jessica Al-Cygni Johnson placed out her cigar aside and released some of the smoke and once she was done, she quickly berated the recruit.

“You got some nerve talking about the Master Chief in that fashion Private… you care to tell me why?”

“Uh….”

The female sergeant was not in the mood for delays and spoke once more.

“All right maggot…I want an answer to my question at this moment on why you are insulting the Master Chief or else I am going to make you clean every latrine on this ship with your own tongue until you can't tell the difference between crap and hard tack, do you get me soldier?!”

“Ma'am! I just think that those stories of the Spartans were just ONI propaganda…”

Jessica snorted and replied.

“So you think that those stories about Spartans risking their lives with fellow human Marines is all nothing but a crock of bullshit?! Let me remind you that if it hadn't been for those Spartans risking their necks with us, then the UNSC and Earth would either been glassed the Covenant Loyalist or overrun by those goddamn Flood, and if it hadn't been for the Master Chief taking that mission to end the whole war, you would either be dead or turned to ash! Or is that bit of history something you think the spooks at ONI cooked up?”

Jessica looked at the rest of the Marines who were silent, she eyed them carefully and replied.

“Let's get one thing straight men, those Spartans gave everything they got to help us win this war with both the Covenant and the Flood, and as such, they are as human as anyone of you here in this room, so you will show them respect or the next time I hear you ladies insult the Spartans or the Master Chief, I will personally shove my boots up your ass so high that when you spit, you'll be spitting out shoe polish! Is that clear?!”

“Yes Ma'am!”

“Good, now get back to work, the ship launches in three hours so make sure you everything squared away before then.”

Jessica then left the area and as soon as she was out of sight, the Marine recruit relaxed and spoke out.

“Man…what's with the Sarge?”

That was when one of the Marines spoke out.

“Hey man, you're damn lucky that you got away from that the way it happened, her old man rode shotgun with the Master Chief after all and she's considered the Spartan as something a of a family friend, or so I hear.”

“What? Who's her old man?”

“Sergeant Major Avery J. Johnson ring a bell?”

“No way….you mean she's the daughter of?”

“Yep, her old man was one of the heroes of the war we had with the Covenant, and has fought with the Master Chief for years, so you can bet that she holds her father's friend in high regard so she's got a respect for the Master Chief…and she isn't the only one.”

“What do you mean?”

The senior Marine then replied.

“A good number of the older guys here served with the Master Chief in the battles here on Earth man…so if they heard you bad mouthing the Chief…they are NOT going to be happy with it, so I suggest you try not to cause trouble with them.”

And that was true…a considerable number of the UNSC Marines onboard the Miranda Keyes were veterans of several of the hardest battles here on Earth and many of them had taken part in the battles where the Master Chief had been so they were very much on the side of the Master Chief and that meant for the new recruits that if they have issues with the Spartans, then they best keep those opinions to themselves.

********

As she got to her bunk, Jessica sighed as she then looked at a picture taken of her father being given the Colonial Cross by Lord Hood, alongside Commander Miranda Keyes and the Master Chief himself, it still amazed her that her father was such a famous hero and friends with one of the famed Spartans and the most recognized one of the whole group known as the Master Chief. She smiled at her father's face and wished that she had been able to speak to him.

She was born twenty years after her father and mother's first battle with Covenant back on Reach and she had very much been on special trips with her mother for a very long time since her mother Jilan was part of ONI, she had often asked her mother who her father was and it was when she was ten that her mother told her who her father was and since they were currently in another Inner Colony at the time, they had not gotten much news on him despite Jilan being part of ONI, however it did both her and her mother proud to know that Avery had survived so many battles and that served to make Jessica all the more proud of her father.

It was only when she was around twenty that she decided to take the course of being a Marine, she would have taken the path of her mother and enrolled in ONI as she had all the traits that would make her an excellent member of her mother's side of the UNSC forces, intelligent, dedicated, and practical, but she wanted to be a Marine like her father and her mother was not against it. She passed the basic training with flying colors and soon began to be a Marine in the front lines, apart from attacking the Colonies they found, the Covenant before had sent out recon and raiding teams to cause as much damage as possible and Kig-Yar, being pirates would routinely attack Colonies without any warning, this helped her gain experience in fighting the Covenant, and a few scars as well as she gently touched a scar on her shoulder where a Jackal had managed to graze her with a shot from it's Beam Rifle before she quickly took out the Jackal with her own BR55 HB SR Battle Rifle.

She proved herself as a skilled soldier, rising from Private to each higher rank as she underwent a number of missions and killing a good number of the Covenant forces while also dealing with Insurrectionists who usually cropped up to cause headaches for the UNSC. In those battles she displayed many amazing traits, both physical and mental to the amazement of her fellow Marines and even her own amazement as well as she did them. That was what made her each her current rank for her actions in saving fellow Marines from death or capture

It was not long before her mother told her that her father was a member of a covert project to test genetic augmentations on soldiers, and that was where she got her amazing physical abilities and traits. Jilan told her that her father was a Spartan I and would explain many of his accomplishments as well as her own, she had found out about the project recently when she was surprised that ONI had a file on Avery and there she learned of his participation in the ORION Project, which was the precursor to the Spartan II program that gave birth to the famed Spartan II Commandos, thus making her father an equal to them. Jilan was surprised by this and so was Jessica, but they knew of the many things that Johnson had done in the war and so they were utterly proud of him, with Jessica being the prouder one as she vowed to use her abilities to serve the UNSC to the best of her capacity.

After the end of the UNSC-Covenant war, she decided to visit the site where her father's name was etched and also the Museum of Humanity that was constructed there on Earth and it was there that she was able to meet none other than Lord Hood. Jessica had to admit that meeting the head of the UNSC was a bit hard but what happened next in that meeting was something else entirely.

Flashback…

Jessica was in full attention as she was before Lord Hood.

“Gunnery Sergeant Jessica Al-Cygni Johnson reporting for duty Lord Hood.”

Hood nodded and replied.

“At ease Gunnery Sergeant, it's good to see you in person, I've been reading your records and I must admit that you have an impressive reputation.”

“Thank you sir!”

Hood smiled and spoke.

“Good, you do your father proud; I am to assume that you are aware of your father's….status as a Spartan 1 Gunnery Sergeant?”

“Yes sir, I am proud of my father's record and his contributions to end the war between the Covenant and the UNSC.”

Hood nodded at that.

“Good, there's a reason I asked you to meet me here Gunnery Sergeant, your was father was on the only Spartan I, and you are not the only Spartan 1.1 in record, there are several others, they recently attempted to fight the Covenant on their terms as something of a private army, however, their operations were cut short when the Covenant showed up in the area and invaded Earth. They are still alive and I have brought them here for you to meet.”

Jessica was surprised as she now saw that she was not the only one and soon enough several people were brought in and she looked at them, one was a female blonde who was Caucasian and carried herself with considerable strength and power, the other was a dark brown haired man who was tall and also well built like the kind of build one saw when they looked at athletes, another looked to be a rich kid but not the scrawny kind either and of Asian build, another was an African American like her though in this case the new one was a male, the other was a male Italian from the looks of him and he gave her a smile that she ignored for the moment, the other was a Mexican female who had her hair in a series of dreadlocks and an old style necklace of shells, another was a female European with deep red hair and amber eyes, another was a Japanese male who had his hair in a ponytail, two more who were red haired twins and siblings, and the last three were brown haired youths, one was a woman and the last two were also twins.

Lord Hood then spoke to the assembled Spartan 1.1s

“Good to see you gentlemen and ladies, you know me already as Lord Hood, current head of the UNSC, I am well aware of your previous battles with the Covenant when they came to Earth and your original plans to fight them before, and I also know for a fact that you all are Spartan 1.1s. Do not think however that I am here to have you arrested or harmed, in fact, I have another thing to tell you. The officer before you is Gunnery Sergeant Jessica Al-Cygni Johnson of the UNSC Marine Corps…and like you is a Spartan 1.1.”

The other Spartan 1.1s were surprised and they looked at Jessica who nodded as she spoke.

“My father….was Avery Junior Johnson, and he was part of the ORION Project.”

The dark brown haired one spoke.

“I know just about everyone in the Spartan 1.1s, so how come I never heard of you?”

“My mother was a Lieutenant in ONI. I could have chosen to work with her, but I chose to be in the Marines to honor my father and she agreed and she was the one who told me about my father being a Spartan 1, she never told me of the others with my dad having children.”

“Hmph, guess she must be Section III then.”

Jessica glared and moved forward in an aggressive manner, forgetting for a moment that Lord Hood was there as she was not happy with the way this guy was talking about her mother.

“You got something about my mother being in ONI?!”

“Gunnery Sergeant, stand down.”

Jessica stopped and showed some shame for her actions but not before scowling at the young man and he replied in kind but even he was quiet when Lord Hood spoke.

“The reason I brought you all here is to offer you all positions as members of the UNSC, I am aware that some of you have issues with the UNSC turning down some of your applications and your leader here does not want to be under Section IIIs thumb, you have assurance from me that you are not going to be under their command at all. You want to serve Humanity, then here is your chance, under my personal signature you are to become members of the UNSC, the only thing needed is for you to say yes or no.”

The apparent leader spoke.

“And if we chose to say no?”

Lord Hood replied.

“Then you have my personal promise that you will not be harmed or sought out in any fashion by ONI or other organizations, you are free to do what you like and live the way you want in accordance with the law. Is that all right with you Kevin Morales?”

Kevin Morales looked at Lord Hood and then to the other Spartan 1.1s and replied.

“I take it there are some strings attached if we say yes?”

“There are only two, the first is that you are to undergo the full extent of the UNSC's basic military training regimes and courses. And the second is that you will all be under the command of Gunnery Sergeant Jessica.”

Kevin was surprised at this and so was Jessica herself as she finally spoke.

“Lord Hood, Permission to speak?”

“Granted.”

“Why are you asking me to lead them?”

“You are an official member of the UNSCDF Gunnery Sergeant and you have plenty of operational field time in fighting the Covenant as well as the Insurrectionists who are still causing headaches to the UNSC. You might not be aware of this, but I have high respect for the Spartans of the Master Chief's group, not just for their accomplishments but for the fact that they saved my life twice and have never given up. And that respect now extends to you all, you are all Spartans, I want you to be given the chance to serve Humanity on your own free will, you already have the gifts and talents, and truth be told, you are more than qualified for the Program and would make excellent Spartans. But you are human as well, you have the right to decide to accept this offer or turn it down. It is up to you, I will not stop you or detain any of you if you all walk out right now. It is your choice.”

Kevin looked at Lord Hood and nodded.

“All right, I accept.”

The others nodded and Lord Hood smiled warmly at that and replied.

“All right, I therefore welcome you as members of the United Nations Space Command Defense Force.”

End of Flashback…

Jessica sighed at the memories and she couldn't help but hope that she was ready for this, Kevin and his teams might have breezed through the training for a few months but she was about to see how they operated well as a team in a real combat situation, and for a moment, she wondered just how her father would have reacted to the situation his little girl was getting into. But then she smiled, she was daddy's girl, a tough and ready to fight girl for that matter. She looked at the last picture of her father in his Marine Dress Whites and with the Master Chief and Miranda Keyes, and hoped that she could live up to their example, both her father and the Master Chief were Spartans who gave their lives and souls to defend the UNSC and humanity, and now it was her turn.

It was then that there was a knock of her door and she opened the door, she looked at the Marine before her.

“What is it?”

“Excuse me Ma'am, but the new recruits you were left in charge with by order of Lord Hood are here.”

“Thanks for the heads up Lance Corporal Dubbo.”

“Not a problem Ma'am.”

Another Marine joined them and it was none other than Pete Stacker as he got ready and was eager for the mission to go ahead, he was eager for a chance to get back into the fight.

********

In the UNSC Super Carrier Jacob Keyes…

At the moment, the leader of the of the Super Carrier Jacob Keyes was also deep in thought as well as the activity on the ship continues after she had given her orders to the rest of the crew in order to get the ship ready for the oncoming mission that lay before them. She then looked at the picture before her and couldn't help but sigh a bit at the face of her uncle who's name was now being used by her ship.

Commander Michelle Keyes wondered just how her uncle would have reacted to the news that in honor of his courage, skills, honor, and more to the war that he was now having a ship named after him, he would have just shrugged and accepted it and went back to his duties in his own fashion, doing himself proud. She wished that bother her uncle and cousin were around to see the newly founded peace between the Separatists and the UNSC, it would have shocked his socks off and her cousin would have smiled as she would have wanted peace in her time. Michelle couldn't help but feel some measure of sadness at this as she knew that her wish was not going to come true at all. Her uncle had been lost to the Flood and her cousin was slain by the Prophet of Truth, the only time that sanctimonious maniac had ever dirtied his hands himself with fighting.

Every time she thought of that she felt such anger at the Prophet, but she had to admit that with the bastard removed from the picture, there was enough peace for all of humanity to enjoy and time for them to rebuild and recover from the war. Now there was a new Prophet spewing more nonsense now and the UNSC and their Reborn allies were going to answer that with force, she was not going to let another war spark out once again and have all that they had strived to rebuilt be torn down by another one of those religious hysterics.

She looked at her command staff and she turned to one of the Marines under her roster as he seemed to have something to speak about.

“What is it Master Sergeant Banks?”

The African American saluted and spoke.

“Ma'am, the supplies for the ship are now in order and stored away.”

“Good Master Sergeant, what about our Marines and the ODST forces?”

“They are getting their gear stored away and things seem to be working up

********

Lieutenant 1st Class Reynolds looked over the reports and sighed as he was eager to finally quit the damned desk job and get back to beating those damned dirty Baby Kongs, he still owed them for giving him that damned scar with one of their Spikers. The Lieutenant was more of a battle hardened warrior and not a desk jockey and he was eager to finally get back to the battle ground.

Another Marine arrived and saluted him.

“What is it?”

“Everything has been set up sir.”

“Thanks Nunez, time for me to put these darned papers away and get back to the action.”

********

Back in the VanDread dimension…

As the Nirvana got into position, the Ruby Rapier and the Titan's Wrath were also on the move, the crews of both ships were able to make the needed repairs to the ships and they were getting into position for the soon to come battle. From the converted pirate ship came out a strike team of Longswords with several Pelican Drop-ships. The Longsword were given their usual armament, however in this case, there were several reinforced pods on their wings and as soon as the Longsword broke through the atmosphere, the pods fell away and soon opened up to reveal the Wombats themselves.

As soon as they were deployed, the Wombats powered up and began to fly over the planet to get the lay of the land to relay back to both the Nirvana and the ground teams, there were at least three dozen, each flying a full four hundred and fifty meters from one another in order to maximize the recon range that they had and the Wombats worked in threes as they scanned the planet while the Pelicans were maintaining their flight pattern with the Spartans above.

Linda looked down through the images and spoke to the others using her COM system.

“Place seems too quiet to me.”

Tom nodded in agreement and so did Mark.

“Yeah, there should be some noise at least.”

John spoke to the others.

“Let's get some of the initial data first before making a move Team, once we get the all clear, then get ready for full aerial insertion.”

“Roger!”

John checked the data and waited for the results and it seemed that so far, the area of the location before them appeared to be clear of most if not all contacts of Flood, but he was not going to take chances as the group made it to just where the ship was and soon enough, they were able to spot the massive Key-Ship, even if it was in a bad angle and it looked like it had seen better days, the ship was still an undeniably impressive sight.

Leena whistled.

“Damn….that is one big ship….makes me wish Lt. Kurt could see this.”

Cade nodded in agreement, he had never seen a ship that size before, makes just about every ship in the UNSC and even in the Covenant look like a bunch of figurines, the other Spartan IIIs were surprised and even if she hid her expressions, one who was gifted in Spartan body language could easily tell that Lucy herself was utterly impressed.

John however focused on the task at hand when Cortana's voice finally came on his helmet speakers.

“The data shows no sign of the Flood infestation on the ground John, and there seems to be no sign of Flood Biomass all over the ship, but I have detected something on that ship.”

“What is it?”

“A large residual presence of energy radiation, and while it's severely depleted it's still around, and here's the deal….I've run some calibrations, and it seems that this entire ship was hit by a blast from Halo.”

“What? Are you sure Cortana?”

“Positive, Dr. Catherine and I just ran the analysis with the data I got from the time in the Ark and that of what she got from her time in that Shield World of Onyx, the energy radiation matches that of the energy unleashed by the Halo Array, I think this ship must have been part of the Fleet that fought with the Flood, if that's true, then this ship must be over one hundred thousand years old.”

John thought of the implications of that and decided to place it aside for the moment as he spoke to her once more.

“Do we have a clear drop zone Cortana?”

“Right there, it's a fair distance from the Key-ship so you and the others are going to have to fast walk it there to the site, so far there's no sign of the Flood, but if the data is right on the money, you and the other Spartans can withstand them if they try to infect you. Still be careful, just because the sensors tell you that there's no sign of Flood doesn't meant there aren't any at all in the area.”

“Got it, we're touching down now.”

Cortana's reference to him and the Spartans being in safer hands was due to the augmentations done to their nervous system, the superconducting fabrication of the neural dendrites had somehow given the Spartans immunity to being infected by the Flood, possibly due to the fact that their nervous system had been enhanced to no longer be compatible with the transforming effects of the Flood's ability to rewrite a host's DNA patterns and body through latching on the spinal cord and then taking over brain functions then transforming the body. This made the Spartans unique to the Flood as they couldn't be assimilated easily.

This was discovered by Cortana and Catherine only recently as they had run some tests on the data the Forerunner had on the Flood themselves, and when they worked on it, it showed that since the Spartans' nervous systems had been altered in such a fashion, the Flood would read it a irreparable damage and thus the former host is immune to infestation. This was why the Spartans were the first in and the Nirvana forces were going to go down there with them in full protection since they were immune to the Flood already.

As the Pelicans landed on the ground, the Spartans were quick to hit the ground and were ready to go out and do their mission.

********

In the Nirvana…

Cortana turned and spoke to Magno and Buzam as she was currently in her AI form.

“John and the other Spartans have hit the ground Captain.”

“Good, have the salvage teams on standby and get the crew selected to get the NOVAs ready for transport to the surface.”

“Roger that Captain.”

In the Nirvana's hanger several large containers were being loaded into a number of transports for the mission as well as anti gravity sleds, and most of all seven powerful weapons were now being loaded into a lone Albatross Drop-ship with the call-sign of Horseman-071, it's cargo was too valuable for regular transport and was under heavy guard by the half of the Nirvana Fire Teams and that was why they were supplemented by a strike team of Talvernians to make sure that the cargo was secured and on lockdown for transport to the surface.

After all, on the ship were seven UNSC WMDs and only one of them was reported to be capable of literally breaking a planet into two pieces and the fact that there were seven of them in the Albatross was not lost to the crew who were selected to carry them, Hana and Lisa were the pilots while Felix and three of his fellow Talvernians, Sandra, Callista Fawkes and George Conrad were there as well to help them in the mission, Felix and Callista were the security and Sandra as well as George were there to make sure the bombs were up to the task before them and were at their best levels to be effective for the mission that they were soon going to be used in.

********

On the surface…

John quickly made several hand signals to his fellow Spartan IIs and the Spartan IIIs to move quickly to the sight, the Master Chief was armed with his MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle and a M90A Shotgun on his back as well, he also carried a number of Plasma and Frag Grenades, as well as a pair of Plasma Rifles on his thighs. Kelly was with him armed with the same MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle and a BR55 HB SR Battle Rifle on her back as well as the same compliment of grenades that John had, she also had a pair of Plasma Rifles on her sides, Fred was armed with an MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle as well as a pair of Plasma Rifles on his thighs along with his grenades and his pair of Combat Knives. Linda was armed with her trusty SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle as well as an Energy Carbine made from the design plans of the Covenant Carbine itself, as well as a full complement of grenades on her person.

The rest of the Spartan IIIs were also well armed, with an assortment of UNSC weapons such as their trademark MA5K Carbines, the BR55 HB SR Battle Rifles, the MA5C ICWS Assault Rifles, the SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifles, and M7 SMGs.

While John himself would have preferred to carry lighter weapons, he knew that they were going to need as much firepower as they could manage to carry. This was a situation where heavy fire power won over maneuverability and speed since they had no idea what they were going to find in this ruined Key-ship. He recalled his own time there and how much of a battle it was when he tried to kill Truth and get past all those guards. He had been captured before but had been able to fight his way out of that and landed back on Earth afterwards to take the fight on a more ground based level.

He placed those thoughts aside as he looked about in the ruined ship, he could see massive amounts of plasma burn marks, showing that the crew of the Forerunner ship had put up a hell of a fight with the Flood and he couldn't help but feel some measure respect to the Fore-runners, they might have been the cause of the UNSC-Covenant War, but they did what they could to safe guard the races they encountered, but they died in the attempt. He turned and spotted what appeared to be an entrance of sorts in the ship.

He signaled the Spartans as the Wombats and the Pelicans flew overhead as air support for his team, and when they got there, they could tell that this was going to be an issue. Tom signaled the other Spartan IIIs to form a defensive perimeter in the area to allow him and the other Spartan IIs to get to work, he, Fred, Linda, and Kelly each took either side of the door and then they pulled the doors in either direction, the sound of grinding parts could be heard in that exact moment as it had indeed required the strength of all four Spartan IIs in order to get the door open, as soon as they were able to get the door pried, the Spartan IIs moved into the room and began their exploration, but not before the Master Chief made the call to the rest of the ground teams that were hovering above in the Pelicans and the Albatross Drop-ships.

“This is Spartan-117 to ground personnel, be prepared for landing operations.”

“Roger that Chief! We're sending down the Power Armors and several Cyclops and Vanguards units.”

The Spartan nodded as several Pelicans came down and several of the Nirvana Fire Teams, namely Fire Teams Alpha, Bravo, and Fox were on the ground in Parfait's Power Armor, the suits had been vacuum sealed as well as given extra inner plating in order to counter the possibility of the Flood's Infection Forms getting to them, the head engineer was able to do this after being given all the relevant data on the Flood and how they would affect their victims and thus the Suits were improved in that regard.

The women were not alone however was several Talvernians under the command of one of the high ranking officers; one Sergeant Grant Tasco came on the scene piloting some of the modified Vanguards. Normally such a force would have difficulty getting in, but the Spartan was sure that they could figure something out, and they had as several of the Vanguards were able to carry modified plasma saws that were much larger than before. These were made after Parfait was able to take a full look at the Energy Sword that they had on the ship.

The plucky head engineer managed to get the basics down pat and used it with the current Megele technology that they had on hand and created a much larger version of the weapon which she dubbed as Plasma Saws, designed to cut through heavy substances, she believed that this would work both as a tool and a weapon, the first being used to cut through heavy obstacles as well as cut through areas that would impede progress, and as a weapon…it spoke for itself and was quite an achievement by any standard as this was the very first time that anyone had ever tried to make an Energy Sword that could be carried by robotic units. This added to the deadly power of the Vanguards, but required them to be overhauled with a secondary fusion power cell to accommodate the Plasma Saws on their arms. However, the increased weapons load-out for close combat was a good trade off, plus the Vanguards still had their mobility as they could easily shed the weapons off of themselves if needed.

The Power Armors also carried a pair of new weapons to further expand their roles in battle. Parfait had been able take a number of available weapon packages that were on hand and was able to create laser rifles for them, though rifle was a bit of an understatement. The weapon was actually a Dread Laser weapon package system that had been made for the battles with the resources they had been able to accumulate, as well as the surplus packages that they had on hand before. The head engineer was able to modify the packages to be lighter and in a smaller form, this resulted in making a portable laser cannon that was normally used in Dreads. While not as small as the Spartan Laser itself and less portable, it made due with a much faster firing rate and decreased charging cycle, making it ideal for combat use by the Power Armors after Parfait removed most of the components that were intended for Dread use and made them into portable cannons for the Power Armors to use in conjunction with the Spartan Lasers.

The Power Armors were also using something that both Parfait and Dr. Catherine had been able to construct and that was a portable Plasma Flame thrower, this used a very powerful mixture of plasma gas that was channeled through a special cycling chamber but unlike the Covenant Plasma Rifle, this was designed to unleashed a wide stream of the super heated plasma gas instead of forming it into a solid mass. This made it deadly in combat as it's super heated plasma blast was five to seven times hotter than the fuel mixture of the standard UNSC Flame Thrower and made it downright deadly.

The weapons would prove to be very helpful in dealing with whatever threats were onboard the ship and it was not going to be long for them to find out just what sort of threats were in this vessel, just because the Wombats had shown that there was no sign of any Flood activity on the outside of the planet, doesn't mean that there was no internal activity as well. The Spartans were quickly switching on their flashlights while the Vanguards did the same with their built in search lights and the women in the Power Armors did the very same thing.

There were four groups to explore the whole ship from top to bottom, there was one Spartan II in command of the whole group with several women in Power Armor while accompanied by one or two Vanguards as well as two or three of the Spartan IIIs themselves and the four groups were to scan the ship from top to bottom and eliminate the traces of the Flood that might be in the area of the ship. As they entered the vessel, the Spartans were able to see the results of what appeared to be a massive battle, inside the ship were large numbers of dead and now skeletal bodies of alien like figures dressed in some form of Armor, the areas were scored with burns from plasma fire from all sides, sections of the ship's internal structure were ruptured, barely held together by the ship's delicate super structure, The groups moved quickly to see just what this ship was from the inside so they relied on John's information to help them.

During his attempt to kill Truth en route to Earth, he had been able to record as much as he could of the Key Ship's internal design though he had not been to all of the rooms themselves, along the way they spotted bodies, or what were left of them and what appeared to be some form of armor suit. The Master Chief recovered one and quickly contacted the Nirvana.

“This is the Master Chief to the Nirvana.”

“Go ahead Chief.”

“Ma'am….I think we just found a Forerunner Combat Skin.”

********

In the Nirvana's Bridge

Just as John and his team were looking at the suit itself, the bridge crew of the Nirvana were looking at it as well via data-link. The Forerunner Combat Skin appeared to be a human sized body suit layered with highly advanced alloy body armor plating, and a good deal of packs, the armor was silvery in hue with dark grey for the inner body suit, some form of pack was on the back of the suit while some parts of the armor appeared to be thicker in some regions of the body, the hands were five fingered, just like that of humans, next to the Combat Skin was some form of helmet that seemed to replicate that of a ODST helmet and a type of Plasma Rifle, similar to the ones carried by Covenant troopers like the Elites and several others, next to that was a Plasma Pistol and even some form of handle, no doubt that of an Energy Sword.

The crew of the Nirvana were all looking amazingly at the images before them, seeing the interior of the actual alien ship from the view points of their ground teams was impressive, but the sight of actual alien technology was something else entirely.

Magno shook her head, in all of her long life, the idea that she was looking at actual alien technology was something she was still trying hard to grasp. Buzam was in the same boat as she looked over the information and the images before her.

“To think we're actually looking at an alien ship…”

Magno shook her head and spoke.

“Master Chief…any sign of life onboard?”

“Negative so far Ma'am, standby, we're going to use more light in here.”

In a moment, the Vanguard escorting the group activated it's headlights and the rest of the group did the same and there they saw the carnage. There were bodies everywhere, some of them were like that of the humanoid forms before them while others appeared to have been totally transformed into something terrifying, the other Combat skins were torn apart and ripped yet salvageable while the others were very much intact and worth taking.

The Master Chief lifted the Combat Skin they had found and found it to be very light by his standards and the interior was a bit messy due to the remains of it's deceased owner and the Spartan was quick to see the other weapons in the area, all of them easily passing up for the weapons the Covenant were keen on using in battle before, but these were different in the sense that they were more powerful looking, all over the area were remains of the battle between the now destroyed Flood and the crew of Forerunners who fought to the death with the parasitic Flood itself.

In that moment, the elderly woman spoke to the Master Chief.

“How's it looking in there Chief?”

“No sign of the Flood, if this ship crashed here and if any Flood were still alive, then this entire planet would have been overrun by now and converted, this might be our only chance Captain, send down the salvage teams ASAP as well as the rest of the Megele and Tarak contingent, two of the ground teams here on site will act as security detail for the salvage teams as well as setting up the NOVA Bombs once we give the all clear. The rest of us will head off to the ship's power station and see if we can get enough power to access any terminal and start gathering any and all information that we can take with us. ”

Magno nodded at that and gave the order for the Salvage teams to saddle up and head out for the mission, they had already set up several sections of the Nirvana to gather and stockpile all the salvaged technology and equipment that they could find on that ship, the salvage teams were going to be first with their escorts and then the Megele and Tarak contingents, after they got what they could afford to take, the next team were the ones who were going to bring in the NOVA Bombs.

“Cortana, get Horseman-071 ready for rapid insertion into the atmosphere once we get the all go from the Master Chief, we need to hurry up before the Harvesters get to the site.”

“Understood Captain.”

********

In a few minutes, the Nirvana deployed a wave of Pelican Drop-ships and two pairs of Albatross Heavy Drop-ships with Longsword escort to the ground of the planet; they were soon followed by a number of Megele Transport ships and Tarak transport ships from both the Titan's Wrath and the Ruby Rapier. The Nirvana was quickly deploying it's Dread squadrons along with a number of Longswords that were soon deployed along with them. These were soon joined by the Talvernians who were going to be piloting the Vanguards and those of the Titan's Wrath and the Dreads of the Ruby Rapier.

Both ships were now able to move and fight despite their damage and they would soon reveal their own weapons fire. However, a smaller wing of Longswords were deployed with nuclear FENRIS and SHIVA nuclear weapons were now moving along with a certain Vanguard and a trio of Dreads. They were going to inflict as much damage as they could manage to slow down the advance of the Harvesters so the rest of the forces could set up a better defense grid.

********

Out in deep space...

The Harvesters were now getting ready to move, however the forces that it had with them were moving ahead, a massive wave of Seed Ships were moving through as well as the Cube Fighters and Urchin Ships to strike hard and fast to make sure that when their main Battle ships arrived on the scene, they would be intact and ready for a serious battle with the Nirvana, Next to the fleet was a much larger vessel not as large as the battle-ships themselves, but about the same size as that of a ground troop transport and seemingly better armored. The ship had the usual complement of Harvester Troopers and some of their Shock Troopers, but in a large number of storage pods were much larger, as if containing something much larger and more dangerous in itself.

These were the Harvesters answer to the Spartans, the Spartan Slayers, and they were eager to finally face the Spartans in battle, they had been in a large number to finally slay and bring back the Master Chief for he might well be the key to the survival of the Harvesters, an irony not lost to the Council, but now, there were more of them, and if they had the same traits as the Master Chief, then these new Spartans could well be the key to the survival of true humanity, there were some of the Council that worried that the forces that they had deployed might not be enough to defeat the Spartans and bring their corpses back for study and possible cloning, but the others thought otherwise and went ahead with the plan to attack the Nirvana, destroy it, salvage any organs they could find, defeat the Spartans and take their bodies.

The Spartan Slayers were meant for that mission, and they would succeed this time.

********

To be continued…

********

Author's Notes:

Man…it's been a while since I cooked up and new chapter for this story of mine!

Anyway, here it is for this story.

Well, that wraps up this chapter, as you can see; we are seeing the characters that are recognizable from the Halo Universe as well as some OCs that I have recently created for the continuing storyline of VanDread Halo The Second Stage. As you have read, Edward Buck and his ODST forces are in the story as well as them getting promoted for their efforts in the war, along with Spartan Red Team, as well as several well recognized faces from the UNSC Marine Corps.

These happen to be Sergeant Major Pete Stacker, Former Private now Lance Corporal Chips Dubbo, Former Gunnery Sergeant now Lieutenant 1st Class Reynolds, Former Staff Sergeant now Master Sergeant Marcus Banks, and Former Corporal now Sergeant Benjamin M Nunez. They form the core of the elite veterans who had taken part of the final engagement on the Ark that ended the UNSC-Covenant War for good, and since they have worked well with the Master Chief in those battles, they are very respectful of the memory of the Master Chief and take some offense to those who try to downplay the efforts of not just the Master Chief but the Spartans in general. They are not alone in that regard as the ODSTs in the Spirit of Fire are different from the other ODSTs, due to the fact that they have worked with the Spartans for a lot longer and thus, while the bad blood between the ODSTs and the Spartans is not completely gone, they are more than willing and ready to work side by side with one another, and of course we also have Cortez and O'Brian from the short anime film Babysitter to join the gang.

Of course we have now been introduced to none other than Jessica al-Cygni Johnson herself, and she is as strict as her father though she somewhat lacks a portion of her father's eccentric personality, but makes up for it for being a dedicated Marine and officer in battle. She idolizes her father as well as the Master Chief and respects the friendship between the two men.

And, since her father is a Spartan I, then yes, she does have inborn genetic enhancements that her father had so she is the first Spartan 1.1 to be introduced in the story and now is joined by the other Spartan 1.1s, so you can expect things to get very interesting from here on out. And we have another pair of OCs, Michelle Keyes and Robert Whitcomb so they will play a key role in the coming battles

The story will soon be ended with the next chapter as we are about to meet the Spartan Slayers, how will the Spartans fare with the Spartan Slayers on the field?

And as to how the ships mentioned in Battle Group Washington will arrive in the VanDread Universe? That is still going to be a secret that will soon be revealed to all of you who will be reading this.

See you soon and thank you for your continued readings!