— One Size Fits All —
Orbiting the gas giant Treshold, what remained of the Halo ring was being searched by a much larger Covenant fleet as battlecruisers had formed a defensive perimeter around the ring pieces left behind from the explosion weeks earlier. One of the Covenant's assault carriers had exited slipspace and approached their planetoid Menagerie, their holy city and homeworld which was also guarded by the largest fleet they had assembled.
Covenant Holy City, Menagerie. Ninth Age of Reclamation.
"There was only one ship." A female Faunus in golden armour told three others in gravity thrones in front of her; the three High Leaders.
"Only one?! Are you certain?" One of them asked.
"Yes. It was called the Pillar of Autumn." She answered as most of the other Faunus and San'Shyuum councilors had whispered to each other.
"How come you didn't destroyed it with the rest of their fleet?" The female of the three asked.
"It was fleeing the planet as we were glassing it, but I followed with all of the ships in my command." She answered.
"When you first saw Halo, were you blinded by its majesty?" The much larger and shredded one questioned.
"Blinded?" She replied.
"You know, were you paralyzed? Dumbstruck?" He shouted a little.
"What? No. I was amazed by its majesty." She responded with glee.
"Yet, the filth were able to evade your ships, commander, and land on the Sacred Ring! Desecrating it with their filthy footsteps!" He replied.
"Noble High Leaders, surely you all understand that once the parasite attacked -" She was interrupted by the Faunus and San'Shyuum councilors who started to yell at her for excuses.
"There will be order in this council!" The female shouted as she slammed her fist onto her armrest.
The middle High Leader went forward. "You were right to focus your attention on the Flood, commander. But this Demon, this Master Chief..." He asked.
"When I learned the Demon's intent with the Sacred Ring... it was too late for me to stop her." She answered as she pictured seeing Installation 04's destruction.
This heated up the councilors even more. "She's a traitor!" Was heard from one of the councilors.
"Noble High Leader Adam, this has gone on long enough. You need to make an example of this heretic! The Council demands it!" The large High Leader urged his fellow High Leader.
Adam held up his hand, silencing Ghira. "You are one of our most treasured instruments, commander. Long have you led your fleet with honour and distinction... but your inability to safeguard Halo was a colossal failure." Adam dishonoured Blake for her failure.
"Nay! It was heresy!" One of the San'Shyuum councilors stood up.
All the other councilors around her were yelling in agreement as well as calling her other names for what she was unable to do.
"I will continue my campaign against the humans!" She told them her solution for what she was facing. Everyone had quiet down.
"No! You will not dare." He responded, signaling Tartarus to have his Brutes arrest Blake.
They grabbed her arm but she growled at them to back off as she turned around and walked to the exit with them following closely behind her.
"Soon the Great Journey shall begin, but when it does, the weight of your heresy will stay your feet... and you will be left behind with your failures." He finished as the Brutes escorted Blake out of the chambers.
Meanwhile at Earth, ships were coming in from all the other Inner Colonies, and joined the UNSC Home Fleet for the award ceremony while Ruby, one of the last SPARTAN-II super soldiers, was with the Master Gunnery Sergeant in the Armoury as she was given a newer suit of armour, the Mark VI.
"Your armour plating was about to fail. There's viscosity throughout the gel layer. Optics? Totally fried. And don't get me started on the power supply. You know how expensive this gear is?" He finished with a question.
Ruby picked up her new helmet on the table and put on, the helmet hissed, and clicked when it was secured onto her head. She looked at the Sergeant.
"Ugh. You sound like Weiss when she complains about these things." She replied.
The Gunnie scoffed. "Well then maybe Weiss is right, Chief. Anyways, I need to run a diagnostics test on your new helmet's targeting settings." He finished.
She nodded and stepped into the inhibitor where she would test the targeting on the Mark VI helmet.
"Well I guess it was all obsolete, anyway so no more complaints here. Your new suit's a Mark VI, just came up from Seongnam this morning. So please, try and take it easy till you get used to the upgrades. Okay, so let's test your targeting, first thing. Take a look at the top light." He said to her as she looked up.
"Good. Now look at the bottom light." He continued instructing her as she looked at the lights. "Okay. So something seems a bit sketchy, I want you to run through it again. Everything's normal but something is off. Look at all four lights, Chief." She looked at the four lights.
"Okay, I'm gonna make it inverted. Now try looking at the lights again." He instructed.
"Hey, don't just change my settings like that!" She said to him.
"Don't worry, its just testing, okay? We need to make sure your suit doesn't run out of batteries in the middle of battle." He replied. She rolled her eyes and looked at the lights, however with inverted looking settings she was confused.
"Can you just switch it back, please?" She asked nicely.
"Fine. Its back on normal, I think I've had enough fun messing with you anyways." He finished as he chuckled at her.
"You're so mean, Gunns." She replied.
"Ah, come on, Chief. Its only humour. Alright, stand by. I'm gonna offline the inhibitors. Move around a little, get a feel for it. When you're ready, come and meet me by the zapper." He said as she walked around, looking at what he had in the armoury.
She happened to knock over one of the heavy crates in the back. "Hey, take it easy!" He said. She backed off from the crate. She then jumped up on the table beside the inhibitor.
"Careful, you'll pull a tendon doing that!" He warned. She got off the table. She went over to the zapper and stepped on the spot he told her too.
"Alright, pay attention, 'cause I'm only going over this once. This station'll test your recharging energy shields. Press the button whenever you're ready, Chief." He explained as she pressed the button. It charged up and disabled her shields as they began to recharge a lot quicker than the Mark V suit.
"Bingo! As you can see, these shields recharge a lot faster!" He said to her as the beeping within her helmet was fast but slowed down. Sergeant Branwen then walked out of the elevator behind the Gunnie without him noticing.
"Whenever your shields go down, find some cover and wait for the meter to read fully charged. Then you should be fine." He gave her advice that would help.
"That, or she can hide behind me. You done with my girl, Gunnie? She looks just fine and I don't see any training wheels." He surprised the Gunnie who turned around.
"Sergeant. Her armour's working fine. Though, she did skip the targeting diagnostics test earlier but we think it shouldn't be too much of a hassle for her so shut your chili-hole." He replied to him.
Branwen scoffed. "You're telling me, Gunns." He said.
"Alright, Chief, you can go now. Just remember to take things slow, it'll take a while for you to get used to the suit." The Gunnie said as they went over to the elevator.
"Don't worry, I'll hold her hand." They both stood in the elevator.
"So, Branwen, when you gonna tell me how you made it back home in one piece?" He asked.
"Remind me to tell you when its been declassified." He replied.
He scoffed again. "Huh! My ass! Well, you can forget about those adjustments to you-" His voice was slowly silenced as the elevator went up and the doors had closed.
"Heh, well he seems to be a fine mood. Probably wasn't invited. How do you doing, kiddo?" Branwen said as he looked over to Ruby.
"The suit's crotch area feels really tight, its kinda uncomfortable. Its probably just the suit. But things are going great, Qrow." She replied. Rubbing around her crotch to try and loosen the tight grip.
The elevator stopped, the doors open and both the Chief and Branwen get out to board a small tram that stretched around the station, connecting to the bridge. The tram began to move towards the command bridge.
"Earth... haven't seen her in years, kiddo. She's beautiful, and she's home. When I was first shipped out for training, the Orbital Defense Grid was nothing but theories, rumors and politics. But look at it now! The Beacon is just one of three hundred geo-sync platforms. That MAC cannon can tear right through a Covenant capital ship clean without hassle. With fire being coordinated from the Atlas and Haven, nothing's getting past this battle cluster in one piece. Ships have been arriving all morning. I don't hear much but I have a feeling something's big about to go down, kiddo." He said to the Spartan beside him who was listening.
The Orbital Defense Grid was a battle cluster that protected a small portion of Earth's orbit above its surface. As mentioned the Beacon Station was in the same cluster as the Atlas and Haven. The tram approached the outside area of the command bridge where there were Marine Corps personnel cheering for the return of Ruby, a decorated hero of the UNSC.
"Chief!" Was heard from the marines, many of them greeted her as well as she and Branwen approached the doors as there were cameras flying around them.
"Hold on, you said there wouldn't be any cameras here." She said in response to seeing the cameras.
"Eh, come on, Chief. Its only cameras. Besides, folks need heroes. To give 'em hope so please, smile. Since we got something to smile about!" He replied to her as the doors in front of them opened and both walked in.
Meanwhile back at Menagerie, Blake was being escorted by Tartarus and his Jiralhanae personnel. They came towards a ledge where the guards had placed her hands onto floating cuffs.
"It seems your heresy has drawn quite a crowd." Tartarus said gleefully to the Supreme Commander.
"If they are here to hear me beg, they'll be disappointed." She bitterly answered.
"Are you sure?" He replied with a smirk on his face.
Energy beams then hit Blake on both sides, sending waves of pain throughout her body as she screamed. A few seconds later, Tartarus then turned over to the Covenant personnel who were all watching.
"There can be no greater heresy! Let her be an example of all who would break our Covenant!" He said to the crowd watching as they cheered once more. He then barked an order to his two Jiralhanae guards as they grab onto Blake's chest, pulling off her armour and leaving her nude.
With her armour off and weakened from the energy beams earlier, she hung limply from her restraints. Beside Tartarus, a glowing brand rises from the floor behind him as he picks it up and strides forward to her. She weakly raised her head as she saw what was coming to her. He then pressed the brand against her upper right chest near the shoulder and above her right breast. She fought the pain but gave in and screamed again, loudly this time.
Ruby and Branwen came up to Lord Terrance Ozpin, a UNSC Fleet Admiral in command of the Beacon and the UNSC Home Fleet itself.
"Ruby-117, Sergeant Major Qrow Branwen, we're lucky to have you back." He said to both of them shortly after saluted while an officer behind him whispers in his ear. "Go ahead, Weiss." He continued.
Weiss' avatar had appeared on a nearby holotank and looked at the Admiral. "There is another whisper from Io. Our probes are returning and en route." She replied.
"Well I'd hate to say this; I apologize, but we're gonna have to cut this ceremony short." He said to them as he turned away to grab the medals.
"You look nice." She said to Chief.
"Thanks, Weiss. I could say the same but you know..." She replied.
"I know what? Come on, spit it out!" The A.I. responded.
"You're an A.I., Weiss, you have an avatar but not a physical body..." She answered.
"Oh, when I get back into that helmet of yours..." She responded with a friendly threat.
"Sergeant Major, the Colonial Cross is awarded for acts of singular daring and devotion, for a soldier of the United Nations Space Command." He said as he clipped the medal onto Qrow's ceremonial dress.
Later a young woman joined both Ruby and Branwen in line as Ozpin had an award which was for her father that she was going to accept.
"Commander Pyrrha Nikos. Your father's actions were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service. His bravery and courage in the face of impossible odds reflects great credit, upon himself, and the UNSC. The Navy has lost one of its best." He said as he handed her father's Colonial Cross medal, a tear ran down their eye.
Just before they could hand out Ruby's Colonial Cross, the alarms began to sound off as Weiss had already checked out what the problem was.
"Sir, there are slipspace ruptures directly off our battle cluster." She said to the admiral as he turned around.
"Alright, show me." He replied.
"I count fifteen Covenant capital ships holding their position just outside the kill zone, sir, in standard formation." She reported as the UNSC Home Fleet was going to engage the Covenant fleet.
"This is Fleet Admiral Harper, we are engaging the enemy." One of the admirals in the Home Fleet relayed out to the Beacon.
"Negative. Form a defensive perimeter around the cluster, make sure none of them get through." He said as he then turned to Nikos. "Commander, get to your ship and link up with the fleet." He ordered.
"Yes, sir!" She said, saluted and left.
"You got the MAC gun, Weiss. Once they enter our range, open up." He said to Weiss.
"Finally, some practice." She replied as she turned back to the screen.
"Something's not right..." He said as he looked at the screen.
"What is it, sir?" Weiss asked.
"Take a look at how small this fleet is. Remnant was destroyed by a fleet fifty times this size." He replied.
"That is concerning, sir." One of the officers replied.
"Sir, additional contacts. Boarding craft and lots of 'em!" An officer behind them reported.
On the screen in front of them, they saw a lot of boarding craft launching from the Covenant assault carriers, and heading straight towards the Beacon, Atlas, and Haven.
"They'll be targeting our MAC guns to take them offline, giving their capital ships a straight shot at Earth." Ozpin said to the officers as he turned to look at Chief. "Master Chief, defend this station!" He ordered.
"Yes, sir!" She acknowledged as she looked to Branwen. "I need Crescent Rose!" She said as he nodded.
Branwen and Ruby left the bridge as Lord Ozpin turned back to his command station. Through the bay windows, the MAC cannon was seen and the fleet went to engage the Covenant attackers as Longsword fighters hurtle overhead trailed by Marathon-class cruisers.