Hey everyone. Guess whose back. Sorry for the long wait on updates, but my computer died a couple weeks back and I lost my muse for a bit. Thankfully, it's a snow day and I can't get to GameStop to pickup Killzone 3 and Bulletstorm until later and I decided to get to work on finishing this chapter.

We now return to Altered Universe

Shipmaster Loka Varmee was the commander of the taskforce sent to annihilate one of the remaining Human worlds. His forces had quickly destroyed the enemy ships in orbit, exploiting their lack of point defense weapons, and quickly began landing. His efforts had been thwarted when the remaining humans used some immensely powerful weapons to destroy several of his cruisers that were glassing the planet.

Loka pulled back and decided to force the humans into a war of attrition, and once they were to exhausted to continue or dead, he would glass the planet.

It irked him nonetheless that he was the last commander to not complete his objectives, in addition to losing so many cruisers. The fleet had lost almost half their ships attacking Reach, and they had no reinforcements on the way.

"Shipmaster" one of the crewmembers said "A human ship has just entered the system!"

XXX

As the Arthra entered the system, a sudden explosion rocked the ship. They hadn't repaired the ship since it had escaped the original attack, and it had taken a clear beating.

A group of sixty Seraph's speed towards the wounded ship. Admiral Lindy held her breath. Just a the Seraphs entered their effective range, four SMC Destroyers warped in. The seraphs, caught off guard, immediately went evasive. The Destroyers released their compliment of fighters and the battle quickly became a high stakes dogfight.

Two CCS class Battlecruisers headed towards the fleet, with hundreds of Banshee interceptors. Two Destroyers moved to intercept.

The Banshees easily evaded the Destroyers, leaving the four ships to duke it out. As the Banshees closed in, an SMC Carrier jumped in front of them. It side lit up and revealed a massive drop pod bay.

XXX

Bitterman sat in his assigned pod, waiting for the attack to begin. He, along with Rhodes and Cortez were going in with the orbital troops. He was to eliminate an enemy command bunker behind their lines. Rhodes job was to eliminate AA guns that could wreak havoc on dropships once they were deployed. Cortez was going in with the main force to secure the mages.

"Attention all Orbital Insertion units" A voice came over the com "This is Colonel Price. This is the first combat action of the SMC Colonial Forces, and this mission will be our first test."

"You've all seen action before, and we have some regulars to help us, but don't think that this is going to be easy."

"Once were in, we will have to rely on whatever the TSAB set up before they got wiped out. If were lucky, some of them will still be around to help us."

The alarm rang, it was Showtime.

Hundreds of Orbital Insertion pods jetted out from the carrier, using their point defense lasers to destroy incoming banshees. They pressed forward, passing a CCS class Cruiser that had finished off the two Destroyers. It was grim to lose two full destroyers, but Bitterman didn't let it affect him.

The pods continued forward, and soon they faced the Covenant fleet, 3 CCS class, 1 Assault Carrier, and a Flagship. Heavy plasma fire tore through several pods, and the rest had to be continually on the evasive. By the time they entered the atmosphere of Raxdrin, there were only about 150 pods left.

XXX

Back with the SMC fleet, the CCS class ship had been destroyed, but the rest of the Covenant fleet was closing in. The SMC commander contacted Lindy

"What's the status on the Arc-en-ciel?" He inquired.

"It's operational, but just barely." She replied.

"Good. We've got one shot to wipe these Mothers out!"

The cruiser moved out of the Arthra's line of fire. The magic cannon fired, striking the Assault Carrier, and expanding out to encompass the other ships. The massive Space-Time distortion eradicated them all.

Cheers went up across the remaining ships.

"SIR!" One crewmember yelled "Scanners picked up four Corvette class vessels approaching from the other side of the planet."

The cheers stopped, and all eyes turned to the commander

"Send our fighters to intercept" He ordered "and get our dropships planetside immediately!"

XXX

The orbital insertion pods landed, their occupants scrambling out towards the designated rally point. Cortez was one of the first to touch down. Rifle in hand, he sprinted towards the makeshift trench line the TSAB had erected.

When he got there, Covenant had already engaged the last few defenders and were preparing to finish them off. He dispatched the Elites with a couple of shots and jumped into the trench.

"Are you alright?" He questioned the two defenders.

"I'm fine" The one with the more rifle looking weapon responded "Who are you?"

"Alejandro Cortez, Rhino squad Sharpshooter." He replied.

Just then, another soldier jumped into the trench. It was Colonel Price. He helped the other woman up. "Nanoha Takamachi, I presume"

Receiving an nod of conformation, he continued "I'm glad you're still alive, I lost five hundred men breaking atmosphere, so its good that something went according to plan."

"Why is the SMC here?" Nanoha asked.

"Unlike some people, we're willing to intervene in situations that don't directly involve us if it will save lives." He responded.

Looking out, Price saw the Covenant forces were launching a ground attack. He radioed his grenadier units.

"All Grenadiers, fire at will" He ordered

A barrage of M203 shots and other assorted explosives pounded the enemy lines, throwing them into disarray and allowing the SMC troops to get to the trench line.

Price then radioed his Second in command "Soap, what's the status on our sniper teams?"

"We're in position, but the Covenant is launching Phantoms to flank us."

Price then opened a com channel to all the ground forces

"Men, today we evac several important TSAB mages or die trying" He said "Let's make it the first one"

XXX

Bitterman's pod impacted the side of a building, deflecting off the surface and smashing through the street. So typical landing. Wasn't nearly as bad as his insertion on Stroggos.

Bitterman got out of the pod, chain gun ready. Seeing no immediate hostiles, he opened up his tactical display.

His objective was to take out the enemies command center in the city, then regroup with Rhodes, who was taking out the artillery and AA guns. They would then make a beeline for the rest of the SMC forces for extraction.

Now they were supposed to hold the planet, but the Commander had realized that that objective was impossible with multiple Covenant ships in the system and such heavy casualties. Bitterman did wonder why him and Rhodes were still tackling their objectives, but he reasoned that they could still deprive the enemy of valuable commanders, the artillery was still targeting the trench the rest of the troops had holed up in, and the AA guns could take out their evac birds.

He saw his objective was 2 blocks away, unfortunately, a large enemy group was heading his way. As much as he'd love to slaughter them, that would make his mission that much harder.

He quickly dodged into an alleyway

XXX

The SMC Commander watched as the fighters he'd sent dropped of the radar, one by one. He knew that they probably wouldn't make it, but he had hoped they could hold out longer.

To make matters worse, the AA guns planetside weren't down yet, so they couldn't start Evacing their men.

He watched as more fighters blinked off. He knew that he may have to sacrifice himself to save the mission

XXX

And….. Cliffhanger. I feel like an A**h*** for doing this knowing that I wont finish the chapter for a while, but at least I got this far.

Now I know this is pretty confusing, seeing as I haven't posted all the back-story yet, but I will try to explain the best I can.

When the wormhole opened up to galaxy 4, the major difference from the other 3 (Halo, The Clone Wars, and Original Trilogy) was that this galaxy didn't have a central command structure. This lead to many of the galactic superpowers (UNSC, Republic, Empire) to a mass territory grab.

The TSAB ignored this, until the UNSC and Republic intervened in the Russo-American War (MW2) and allowed the SMC, who had been discovered during the territory grab and quickly entered it themselves.

The issue was that Earth/Non-administered world 97 was home to both Nanoha Takamachi and Hayate Yagami, two of the best mages in the TSAB. They TSAB tried to reclaim the world diplomatically, but the SMC refused to let it go.

The TSAB stated that the had been uninvolved in the affairs because they were best equipped to defend magical worlds and shouldn't have to worry about every other world. This was proven wrong when General Zero began draining Worlds of their magic in order to power his ultimate weapon. The TSAB was unable to halt his advance, and the Republic and UNSC ultimately destroyed him.

So that is why some stuff happened. Hopefully I'll get working on the timeline soon. Also remember, I allow Anonymous commenting, so even those without FF accounts can comment on my stories. Please do. It wont affect my update schedule (I.E. I won't deprive those who don't comment of the story just because of a lack of commenter's), but I really want reviews to judge how I'm doing.

Also, I'm sure some people out there will hate me forever for Liking Modern Warfare 2, Halo, and Killzone, but you know what, deal with it. I like a lot of things.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to warn earth of the impending Helgast attack, or something like that. Oh and kill a former CO.