Captain...

Captain...

William, wake up!

Captain William Clarke's eyes snapped open and he immediately took in his surroundings. Everyone on the bridge was either on the ground, like he was, or shakily standing up. Groaning, William pushed himself on the ground and turned to the source of the voice who woke him up.

'Standing' on the holotank was the ship's AI, MND 0189-8 or Mindy, as she likes to be called. Her physical appearance was that of a eighteen year old girl. Her 'attire' consisted of a plain shirt under a suit vest with the sleeves rolled to her elbows. Formfitting suit pants and sneakers. Her 'hair' was tied in a messy bun and a pencil was tucked behind her ear. She wore reading glasses and held a holopad on her left hand. Despite not really needing them, she kept it for her own reasons.

Mindy sighed in relief before pushing her glasses up "You had me worried there, Captain. Everyone was coming to but you were taking too long."

William steadied himself on the holotank. He shook the dizziness away and addressed the AI "What happened, Mindy?"

"Power Overwhelming entered Slipspace along with Unrivaled and Unstoppable. We were still in Slipspace when Unrivaled hailed us and asked what was taking us so long."

William nodded "Yeah, I remember that."

"Do you remember when the ship nearly shook itself to pieces? Judging by the look on your face, you don't. Something else happened that knocked the everyone off their feet. What looked like an EMP struck the ship but instead of electronics getting hit, it hit organics. Overwhelming changed course, I tried to set it back but nothing worked. Then everyone started waking up."

As the AI finished, William finally stood straight and stared at the in Slipspace through the window. His attention was called elsewhere when Mr. Clayton told him that they were about to exit Slipspace.

"Thank you, Mr. Clayton." He nodded to Mindy who nodded back and showed him that she was typing on the holopad.

"You're live, sir."

"Attention, Power Overwhelming. We are about to exit Slipspace. I want everyone back to their stations ASAP. What happened to us is currently unknown but we do know that our course was changed. Unfortunately, Mindy did her best but something is keeping us from setting back to our original course. I don't know what we'll face once we get outta here but I sure as hell want this ship to be ready for anything. To your stations!"

"Oorah!"

"Captain!" Mindy yelled "Exiting Slipspace now."

"You heard the lady, double time!" William turned to Mindy "Has the Director been briefed yet?"

"He's already suited up, sir. SPARTAN Fireteams Eagle and Boar are prepped up and ready to go. They're awaiting your orders, sir."

"Good."

"Captain!"

William turned away from Mindy and looked at Ensign Hunt "What is it, Ensign?"

Hunt looked at him with wide, disbelieving eyes "You're not gonna believe this sir. Look!" The Ensign pointed at the window. William looked outside and he couldn't believe what he saw. Everyone in the bridge stopped what they were doing and stared slack-jawed.

There she was... Earth. But that was not what stunned the crew. What made them stop was the fact that parts of her were burning. Flaming wreckage from destroyed ships orbited the planet while unidentified ships made their way to Earth. The whole thing spelled 'Invasion'.

Clenching his fist in anger, William yelled to the ship's comms "This is Captain Clarke, all hands. To battle stations! Earth is under attack! I repeat. Earth is under attack! Mindy, prime the MACs, Archer Missiles and Point-defense Guns! Line 'em up and start killing these bastards. It'll be a cold day in Hell before I let Earth fall into these bastards' filthy claws. Captain Clarke to Major Harrison, I want those Marines down there now!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Director Daniels, I want Eagle and Boar down there. Earth is our number one priority. Overwhelming will do whatever we can to stop them from sending anymore to Earth. SPARTAN Fireteams are at your disposal."

"Requesting permission to drop via HEVs, sir."

"Granted. You'll drop via HEV and secure an area for our Pelicans to land. Marines will take care of crowd control and evac. I'll be sending in Scorpions as support. How long 'til you're ready for the drop, Director?"

"I'm already in the egg. I got a squad of ODSTs and Eagle with me. Dropping now!"

~Line Break~

"Alright, Eagle. Time to fly."

"Sir, yes sir!"

SPARTAN Wade 'Director' Daniels smiled in satisfaction. He watched as Fireteams Eagle set themselves up in the HEVs.

"Wade!"

Daniels turned around and smiled at the redhead. A female ODST with neck length, red hair walked up to him. She wore the standard ODST armor with red decals. A BR55H strapped on her back while an MA5C was held in her hands. An M6C SOCOM was holstered on her thigh.

"See ya down there. Last to a hundred kills has to buy drinks when we're done."

"If we can find a bar that ain't wrecked, you're on Hollywood!"

Major Holly 'Hollywood' Jones grinned before stepping in to her pod. Wade nodded to her before the pod closed. The SPARTAN walked over to his pod and put his helmet on. Climbing in and closing the pod, he checked with Mindy for the pods' drop zone. The HEVs began their descent from orbit.

"Where we dropping Mindy?"

"This will be a bit tricky, sir. Right now, we're on top of Vancouver. I got a live feed on the city now. Here, take a look."

The screen on his left turned on and showed a video of the besieged city. The invaders looked like giant, cyborg squids. The squid fired a red beam of light and decimated the buildings it hit.

"We also have a problem with these guys."

The screen on his right turned on and showed a meteor touch down. What he could only describe as monsters came out of the crater and fired their weapons on some soldiers on the ground. A humanoid monster charged at one soldier tore his throat out then continued to maul the body before getting shot in the head.

"Those are their ground units. What does it remind you, sir?"

"The Flood."

"Correctomundo."

Wade sighed "ETA?"

"30 seconds. Any requests sir?"

With a small smirk on his face, he said "You know what to play, dear."

"This is DJ Mindy from Overwhelming Radio. Our first song for today: Paranoid by Black Sabbath. Enjoy."

The HEVs' speakers boomed as the song began.

"On my mark, deploy chutes." Hollywood ordered through the squad radio.

"I'm hit!"

Hollywood braced herself as a pod slammed against her and set her off course.

"Wade, I'm going off course. You're in charge of them for now. This is gonna hurt." She muttered the last part as her pod bounced against multiple buildings.

~Line Break~

"You guy alright?"

The medic tending to the wounded soldier looked at Shepard and frantically yelled "Get down! They'll see you!"

Jane looked up and saw Cannibals rise from the gunship's wreckage. Shepard dove behind cover and prepared to open fire but stopped when something crash down on the group of cannibals. One was crushed while the others were blown away from the impact. Jane observed the object that just crashed and realized it wasn't anything the Alliance made. Add to the fact that the side of the pod had 'U.N.S.C' painted on it.

One Cannibal rose from the ground only to be struck by the pod's hatch. A figure stepped out and opened fire on the remaining Cannibals.

"Eat lead and die, motherfucker!"

The figure, a female, was blindsided by a Husk.The Husk tried to maul the woman only for her to pull out a pistol and placed the barrel in the Husk's mouth before firing. The woman pushed the body off before standing from the ground and dusting herself off. She picked up her weapon and looked at Jane. The woman tilted her head before holstering the weapon on her back and pulling off her helmet.

What Jane saw shocked her to the very core. The woman had her face! The red hair, green eyes, even the freckles. The woman herself had an expression of disbelief before walking towards Jane.

"Whoa... You look like me!"

Jane tilted her head "But you don't sound like me."

Her lookalike snorted and gave a lazy, two-finger salute.

"Sup." She held out her hand "Name's Holly. But most people call me 'Hollywood'. Gonna give me your name, beautiful?"

Jane shook her head before hesitantly shaking the offered hand with an unsure smile "Jane Shepard. Gotta say, never heard of this 'UNSC' before."

Holly rose an eyebrow "Oookay. Let's talk about that after Earth isn't being destroyed by giant cyborg squids and mutant fucks, yeah?"

Jane opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by Anderson. The Admiral looked at Shepard then at Holly then Shepard again. He sighed and shook his head "We'll worry about this lookalike situation later. Shepard, there's a radio in that gunship over there. We'll take it and radio the Normandy but first." He motioned for them to follow as they walked over to the pinned soldier. Anderson put a hand on the soldier's shoulder "Don't worry, son. We'll get you outta there. Shepard, help me with this."

Holly watched the two work before checking her surroundings. Everything was different. No UNSC presence whatsoever. She met someone that looked exactly like her. She recalled Mindy telling her that Africa didn't look like it was glasses. The Home Fleet wasn't even there with the wreckage. Her musings were stopped when Shepard called her name.

"Holly! The Admiral and I are going in that dropship to radio in my ship. Dropship's probably crawling with Husks and Cannibals. We could use your help."

Holly nodded and joined the two. Wade can handle the ODSTs and SPARTANs. She'll link up with them as soon as she helped these people. She put her helmet on again and called Mindy.

"Mindy, you heard all that?"

"Yup. I ran all the scenarios. The best I can come up with is that we may be in a different dimension."

"...Mindy, honey. You're not shitting me, are you?"

"Nope."

Her brows furrowed in frustration "Let me guess. It was the off course Slipspace Jump, wasn't it?"

"Got it in one."

Hollywood sighed "Fucking great. Did you tell everyone?"

"Nope. Just you, dad and William. The Overwhelming's crew shouldn't be distracted in the middle of this battle. Earth is on the line. They can't have the thought of Interdimensional Travel looming over their heads."

Holly nodded in satisfaction before taking point "Good call, honey."

"Thanks, mom."

Hollywood dove behind cover and pulled out a Plasma Grenade before throwing it at a Cannibal's head. The blast killed the other Cannibals near it but two more Cannibals showed up and opened fire on the three. She turned her head to her companions and asked "You have anything other than pistols!?"

Jane shook her head before rolling out of cover and charging the two Cannibals. She shot one in the knee before cutting it's head off with her Omni Blade. Without missing a beat, she fired two shots at the other one's chest before unloading two on it's head. Before the body could drop, she wheel kicked the side of the Cannibal's head and watched it flip to the ground. Dead.

Holly gave an approving nod "Nice. Taking 'em out with style. I like that."

"Good work, you two." Anderson complimented. He then crouched down to the radio and tried to get a hold on Normandy "Alright, now let's see if we can hail the Normandy this time. Normandy, this is Anderson. Do you read?"

The radio came to life and a female voice responded "Admiral, What's your location?"

"By a downed gunship in the harbor. I'm activating its distress beacon. Send support. We've got wounded down here."

The radio let out static.

"Lieutenant?"

The radio beeped before shutting down.

"Dammit!" Anderson cursed "We lost the signal."

"Let's hope that beacon does its job." Shepard replied.

"Eyes up! We got company!" Yelled Holly. The trio looked up as the meteors fell from the sky. One crashed near them and Cannibals stormed from the rock, firing their weapons at them.

"Fucking great!" Holly cursed as she ducked behind cover "They got Orbital Insertion too. Bullshit! That was our schtick, ya fucking cocksuckers!" She rose from cover and let loose on the MA5C. Shepard returned fire with the M8 Avenger. Anderson moved his head to avoid getting shot and turned to Holly "Hollywood! Got any grenades with you?"

Holly went back to cover and tossed Anderson a Type-3 Incendiary Grenade "Firebomb, Anderson. Burn these motherfuckers!"

"Wait." Mindy's voice rang through her helmet's inside speakers "Where did you get the Covenant arsenal from?"

Holly switched from the MA5 to the BR55 took precise shots at the Cannibals' heads "Lipyap. He said there was a black market shit among the Grunts in the Covenant back in the War. They sell Human movies and what not. I told him I'll give him trade him movies for weaponry. I thought it was a fair deal."

Jane growled "There's too many of them. Where the hell is the Normandy!?"

"They'll be here soon." Anderson replied before killing a Cannibal and returning to cover "Let's just hope we're still alive when they get here."

"You and me both, sir." Holly said as she reloaded her Battle Rifle.

"Ma'am, SPARTAN Fireteam Eagle has secured an evac site for civilians. The Pelicans are touching down and deploying Marines and Hellbringers as we speak. We got Scorpions along with Warthogs setting up defense for evac. Longswords are doing their best to take out the squids. Some of them got lucky and eliminated one. Hang on... Be advised, friendlies are coming up from the enemy's six. It's dad!"

Holly peeked over her cover and saw Wade vault over some debris and kicked a Cannibal off the platform. Her ODSTs soon followed behind him. Gunny, Wes, Pac and Niko ran after the SPARTAN-IV while shooting down any Husk or Cannibal in their way. Wade walked over to the trio and Holly saw her two companions' expression of disbelief.

The blast shield of Wade's helmet slid up and his visor depolarized. Jane saw a gruff looking face with hints of a 5 o' clock shadow. Brown eyes and black hair.

"Commander Wade Daniels of the UNSC Power Overwhelming. How ya doing?"

He held out a hand towards Anderson and the Admiral shook it, still amazed at the armored man's height. If he had to guess, the man must have been at least 6'9 or more. Shepard was thinking along the same lines as she shook his hand next.

"Admiral David Anderson. Systems Alliance."

"Jane Shepard. Former N7 and Spectre."

"Looks like you guys needed a hand. Glad we made it just in time."

"Don't celebrate just yet, Wade." Holly said before aiming her gun at the oncoming Cannibals and Husks "Troopers, Open Fire!"

The Cannibals his behind covers while the Husks charged in without a second thought. Jane looked to the armored soldier and saw the blast shield slide down. The visor polarized a on illuminating red. She saw the blast shield had two slits that acts else eye holes and when the red visor polarized, gave her the image of a demon's glowing eyes.

The ODSTs hid behind whatever cover they could find. Gunny switched from his SRS99 to a M90 Shotgun. Wes heaved the Spartan Laser over his shoulder and opted to use the M7S. Pac and Niko aimed with their MA5Ds. Everyone opened fire as the wave of Husks charged in.

Soon the wave of Husks ended but the Cannibals still had their numbers. Seems like if they killed one, two more pop up. Gunny ran out of ammo for his M90 now he was on his last four shots in the SRS99. Wes ran dry and didn't wanna waste the Spartan Laser just yet. Pac was down to his M6S while Niko was saving the last of her grenades. Holly fired the last shot of her Battle Rifle at a Cannibal's head before running dry.

"I'm out!"

Beside her, Jane cursed as her M3 Predator finally ran out, along with her M8 Avenger. She turned to look at Holly and asked "Can you request any air support, anything!?"

"Negative. Overwhelming is too busy taking out squids on orbit. She's circling around the planet but this was the only place she could deploy our troops. The fly boys are taking care of the squids here. The Marines are evacuating the civilians now. Our armor are busy guarding evac zones. We're stuck here 'til your ship gets here."

"Son of a tied down-"

Shepard's curse was cut off when the Cannibals got decimated by missiles. A ship passed overhead and the UNSC personnel saw the writing on the side: NORMANDY.

"About time."

"Let's go!" Shepard yelled before running towards the Normandy. Everyone else followed after her. The Normandy lowered it's ramp and Shepard jumped the distance.

"Welcome back, Shepard." Ashley commented.

"Thanks."

Ashley saw the ODSTs and aimed her Avenger at them. Wade saw this and jumped to the ramp. He grabbed her rifle and gave it to Shepard before turning back to address Ashley.

"Cool it, hot tits. Is that anyway to treat friendlies, marine?"

Ashley looked to Jane for confirmation. Shepard nodded back before helping the ODSTs inside. She clasped Holly's shoulder and said "Get yourselves comfortable. We're gonna leave orbit soon."

Holly nodded "Just in time too. Overwhelming said the squids are retreating from here. Lot of places are still hit but this place is secured for now."

Shepard patted her back before seeing Anderson staying behind.

"Anderson, come on!"

An Alliance dropship flew by and Anderson turned back to reply "I'm not going! You saw those men back there. There's a million more like them, and they need a leader."

Wade decided to interrupt before she could reply "I'll ask Captain Clarke to put in word to any UNSC Personnel in the area that Admiral David Anderson will be gathering all Alliance personnel in the area. The Marines down here will do whatever they can to support you." Wade stopped and looked to the side before looking back at Anderson "The Captain gave the green light, Admiral. UNSC assets on Earth are at your disposal. Good luck, sir."

Wade gave a salute to the Admiral, which he returned. His gaze fell on Shepard as she continued to refuse to leave him behind.

"We're in this fight together!"

"It's a fight we can't win. Not without help. The UNSC helped but as of right now they only have one ship. That's not enough to stop the Reapers. We need every species and all their ships to even have a chance to beat the Reapers. Talk to the Council. Convince them to help us."

"What if they won't listen?"

"Then make them listen! Now go! That's an order."

"I don't take orders from you anymore, remember?"

Anderson reached in to his pocket and pulled out a set of dog tags. He threw the tags at Shepard who caught it.

"Consider yourself reinstated... Commander. You know what you have to do."

"I'll be back for you. And I'll bring every fleet I can."

Jane turned to walk inside but looked over her shoulder one last time "Good luck."

Anderson nodded "You too, Shepard."

The Normandy lifted off. Jane, Ashley, Holly and Wade watched as Alliance dropships and Pelicans made a hot extraction for the civilians.

Wade's comm buzzed to life and Mindy's frantic voice came out the speakers on UNSC open channel "Alert! Alert! A Reaper destroyer is approaching your location! Danger close! Onyx 0-1, 0-2, 0-5 get the hell outta there!"

"This is Onyx 0-1. Civilians secured! Pelicans and Alliance dropships are leaving."

"Reaper's charging up a shot!"

"Fuck! Spread out, spread out!"

"This is Mindy. Hold on, I just fired a MAC round. MAC Blast inbound! Danger close."

"Too late! Everybody hang o-"

The four watched in horror as the Reaper fired it's red beam and destroyed the fleeing transports. As it fired it's third beam, the Reaper destroyer was hit with 600-ton in 30 Km/sec. The Reaper was decimated but it was for naught as the Pelicans and Alliance dropships were destroyed.

"Mindy."

"Yes, Director?"

"Scan for survivors."

"I just did... No life signs detected. I'm sorry... I was too late."

The four were silent before heading inside the Normandy.

~Line Break~

"What's the status on Vancouver, Mindy?"

"Vancouver's fighting back. With our support, their chances are a little bit higher."

"And the rest of the world?"

"Not good. The Systems Alliance weren't prepared for a direct invasion on Earth. They were underpowered and undermanned. What about you sir? What does the Systems Alliance had to say about us?"

William sighed. He wasn't even pass his twenty's and he feels like he was getting too old for this shit. He stood from his chair and paced around the bridge. "We came to an agreement. Help us, help you. We help take back Earth and in return, they'll supply us with any material we need to build our arsenal. Archer missiles, MAC rounds, anything we need to rearm Overwhelming. Even repair her. Mindy, I want you to find suitable places in Vancouver for us to build Fortresses. We start production as soon as possible. If we are truly the only UNSC presence in this universe, we won't survive with just one ship." Everyone in the bridge stopped and watched their Captain "Earth needs the UNSC, even if we have to build it from scratch. Those Reapers are a threat to Humanity. And it is our duty as men and women of the UNSC to protect Humanity and all her colonies, whatever the cost!"

"Oorah!"

"Captain." Mindy called from the holotable "The Normandy has successfully docked. Wanna meet our new guests, sir?"

William nodded and straightened his suit to look more presentable. He looked over to his reflection and tried to make himself look decent. Mindy saw this and snorted good-naturedly.

"Come on, William. You look handsome as you are. No need to pretty yourself up anymore."

Checking himself one last time, he gave the AI a mock glare before heading down to the hangar to meet the infamous Commander Shepard he heard so much about from the Alliance.

"You know, Captain. It should be a crime for a man like you to walk around with an ass like that. Daaamn."

"Mindy!"

"Hahahaha!"

~Line Break~

"Numbers, numbers, numbers. Math, math, math." Mindy muttered as she kept the ship in shape

"Hm. Slipspace anomaly detected."

Her avatar popped out on the screen in the elevator William was taking.

"Captain, I've detected a Slipspace anomaly near Overwhelming." She closed her eyes for a second before opening them again "A Slipspace portal just opened and, you're not gonna believe this, a Phantom just exited it. Appears to be heavily damaged and barely keeping itself up."

"Give me a visual."

Her avatar was replaced by a live feed of the Phantom. It looked like one of the Banished but why a Phantom? A damaged one at that.

"Did you scan for any life forms?"

"Affirmative. I received three life signs. None of them are human. Wait! I just received a hail from the phantom. They want to dock and demand an audience with Director Daniels, sir."

William rose a quizzical eyebrow "What the hell does the Director have to do with this?" He shook his head "Whatever. Let them dock but alert all personnel in the hangar to ready themselves just in case."

"On it sir."

Her avatar blinked out and the elevator doors opened. William walked through the hangar and nodded at the Marines, Pilots, etc. He reached the frigate-sized ship that was the Normandy. His eyes widened when he saw Hollywood talking to her twin. He schooled his features before greeting the Normandy Crew.

"Greetings. I'm Captain William Clarke of the UNSC Orion-class Assault Carrier Power Overwhelming. Welcome aboard."

He held out his hand and Holly's twin walked forward and shook it "Commander Jane Shepard of the Systems Alliance. Pleasure to meet you, Captain Clarke."

William smiled "The pleasure is all mine."

Their hands let go and William clapped his hands together "I'm sorry to cut this short but it seems we have new guests arriving." His eyes turned to the docking Phantom.

The Phantom activated it's gravity lift and a large figure slowly descended. Wade was in front of the gathering and squinted his eyes to get a better look at the figure. He saw that the figure's shape was that of a Brute's but wait... Did Brutes had giant heads?

The figure was revealed to be a Jiralhanae in a bulky, red armor. Atop the Brute was none other than Lipyap, Holly's Covenant Weapon Smuggler and they bane of Wade's existence.

Lipyap spread his arms and yelled "Your Savior is here!"

Wade could've sworn he heard a cricket in the hangar just now.

"What. The. Fuck?"