Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or Mass Effect, all OCs are mine

Chapter 9: Dark side of the Moon

Date: September 15, 2552 ][ Location: Cygnus system/New Jerusalem orbit- Covenant flagship Incorruptible

Fleet Master Tano 'Inanraree gazed out of the holographic projection that made up the bridge viewport, at the human planet below. Strategic glassing at cities that did not contain Forerunner relics had broken most of the human resistance. Inanraree knew that a small fleet of human ships was on the other side of the planet, but those ships had been damaged yesterday and were likely evacuating what remained of the human scum. His troops were already searching the areas of land that the luminary had identified contained holy relics and engaging the human forces in one of their nearby cities. As soon as they had recovered the relics 'Inanraree would order the glassing of the human population centers as punishment for settling on this holy world.

"Fleet master, we have intermittent contacts coming from the other side of this planet's satellite."

That report came from Inanraree's second in command and protege; Voro 'Mantakree. While not a member of the Governors of Contrition, Inanraree held great respect for his second and intended to recommend him for his own command within a cycle; he was one of the few non sect members Inanraree called a friend.

"Another human fleet approaches," Inanraree concluded. "Bring the fleet to alert, we will crush them with all our forces swiftly."

The Covenant fleet broke orbit and headed for the planet's moon as the UNSC and Quarian strike groups entered visual range. On the Incorruptible's bridge, Inanraree relished the opportunity to defeat the humans and their new allies, and humiliate the incompetent Thel 'Vadamee.

Voro 'Mantakree looked at the tactical display. "The humans and their allies number few," he commented.

"Their numbers may be few, but their cunning is several fold as evidence by Vadamee's defeat," Inanraree said.

The two fleets closed to weapons range, and the UNSC/Quarian force opened fire first. Inanraree watched as seven of his ships were hit and disabled by only a handful of enemy ships that immediately headed for the moon. One of the damaged ships drifted away from the fleet and promptly broke apart from secondary explosions. Inanraree slammed his first on the railing in front of him.

"I will not fly into their trap!" he roared. "Order the fleet to come about as soon as the enemy leaves visual range. Have two ships continue the pursuit and bring the fleet back to the planet."

"We would be sending those crews to their deaths!" Mantakree protested.

"Do not question my orders, carry them out!"

Voro was taken aback by his friend's sudden change in behavior, but nonetheless carried out the fleet master's instructions.


Date: September 15, 2552 ][ Location: Cygnus system/New Jerusalem- 10km south of Mount Haven

"Incoming!" A Marine in one of the many trenches screamed as another plasma mortar from a nearby wraith slammed into their position.

"Do we have any anti tank rockets left?" Gunnery Sergeant Zane asked over the radio. The gunny was the highest ranking soldier left in his platoon after their Lieutenant was killed three hours ago in a Covenant assault on their position. They were pinned down on a highway that paralleled a river that flowed through Mount Haven and to the south, right near the Covenant's main dig site. Zane's platoon was ordered to build a forward CP as the rest of their company advanced toward the base on recon; they were wiped out by the very attack Zane's people now faced. Their CP was in flames behind them, along with the bodies of their Lieutenant and five other Marines.

"Negative, sir, Ramirez had all the specials, they were wasted with him."

Lance Corporal Ramirez was one of two Marines that had their platoon's SPNKr launchers, and had been one of their first casualties. Zane's platoon was down to nearly half strength, the only thing keeping them in their position was a pair of heavy machine gun nests on the highway and a couple of gunboats on the river parallel to them. If the Covenant decided to bring in air support, it was all over.

"Snipers, load any AP rounds left and hit their armor!" It was practically a token gesture, nothing short of an anti-material rifle could penetrate wraith armor. Shots rang out from the two surviving snipers from their positions on the remains of the highway. One of the snipers jerked back as a carbine round passed through his helmet, taking his head with it. The other sniper quickly finished off his clip and lost his nerve, sliding off of the concrete slap he was posted on shortly before a wraith mortar destroyed it. The sniper was thrown very close to Zane's position, so the gunnery Sergeant crawled through the rubble to his position. Pushing him over, Zane saw the blood and the slab of metal in his chest.

"Damn it!" He swore. Two men dead and they didn't even get the wraith. "Ok, Simmons, get on the horn to the FOB, tell them we're pulling back."

"I already have a transmission coming in from the forward operating base, sir. They say to keep our heads down!"

No sooner had the Marine relayed the words did a squadron of Shortsword bombers fly over their position and bomb the troublesome tank. Encouraged by this, the few gunboats on the river advanced and began spraying the surviving enemy troops with machine gun fire. From behind came a pair of Scorpion tanks that likewise attacked the now retreating Covenant force. Zane stood up for the first time in over an hour and surveyed the changing scene; reinforcements that he didn't know about were now pushing the Covenant advance force toward their dig site. A trio of cargo warthogs pulled up, loaded with ODSTs one of whom approached Zane.

"I'm Major Silvia, 9th ODST battalion, where's your CO?" The helljumper said.

"Dead sir, we're all that's left of D Company; I'm Gunnery Sergeant Zane. If you don't mind my asking, sir, where did you guys come from, I thought the Air Force was hammered and our armor was protecting the city?"

"We came down on the Say My Name, its in orbit along with a third of the Eridani fleet, we're kicking the Covenant out," Silva said with an air of confidence in his voice. "Liaise with my XO, we need to get this place up and running to support a counter offensive."

The Gunnery Sergeant stumbled through the debris to the former CP where Marine combat engineers had gotten the fire under control and were already inspecting the damages. Out front was a female Marine directing the efforts as warthogs unhitched their trailers of supplies.

"Ma'am, I was told to report to you," Zane said. She held up a finger as she finished her conversation over the radio.

"And tell them we don't have time to debate who takes point on this. Look, my orders come from my CO, ok? If he says you guys have to support our brigade, then you're supporting it." The Marine then pulled her helmet off and ran her hand across her short hair, which was starting to grow over the tattoos on the side of her scalp. "Sorry about that, I'm Lieutenant Melissa McKay."

"Gunnery Sergeant Zane, I guess I'm in charge of my platoon now."

"Alright, what we want you to do at this point is provide interior security for the base and get any wounded to the triage being set up about half a click up the road," McKay ordered. "The helljumpers will handle the hard work from here on, you guys deserve a break."

"Oorah to that, ma'am," Zane said.

"Get to it, gunny," McKay said as she put her helmet back on and ran over to a large section of highway that had just been cleared. She pulled a flare from her pants pocket and lit it, tossing it into the middle of the cleared area. A trio of Pelicans descended through cloud cover and came down quickly on the makeshift landing pad. From each of the Pelicans came a horde of Spartans; Zane had never seen them in combat before, just heard the usual tales.

"Lieutenant McKay," one of them said as he walked over to their position. "We're not exactly happy to be put in this position by Silvia."

"Yeah, well he outranks us both, chief. If it was up to me I'd let you guys take the lead; this is the hornet's nest we're about to stir up," McKay said.

Zane just stood there, practically speechless as he saw the ODST and Spartan verbally spar about their assignments. Even with the rather ludicrous scene in front of him, the gunny felt that the battle was starting to turn in their favor.


Date: September 15, 2552 ][ Location: Cygnus system- dark side of Cygnus IV-B

On the other side of New Alexandria's nameless moon sat the main UNSC/Quarian attack fleet, awaiting the return of the two wolf packs that would hopefully lure the Covenant fleet into their awaiting trap. A nuclear minefield was being set up near the northern pole of the planet, which Keyes and Gerrel were passing through on their way back. If the Covenant followed them exactly, they'd run right into it and hopefully with their ships damaged, the rest of the fleet would come up from the dark side of the moon and finish them. As soon as the two battlegroups passed the mines, the prowler that laid them switch the field on.

"Admiral, all fleet ships are orienting themselves to fire as soon as the Covenant enter range," Sendai reported as the fleet movement was put up on the tactical display fro Keyes to review.

"Very good," Keyes replied, "Lovell, its time to see what this Mass Effect core can do, bring us around."

"Aye, sir," the Ensign muttered from the helm pit as his board indicated the Mass Effect core was online and active. Under normal circumstances, a UNSC ship of their size would have to employ a complicated turning maneuver using their thrusters to bring the ship about that was time consuming. With the new Mass Effect core drastically reducing the ship's mass, they could now pull off a turn that would normally require the firing of nine emergency thrusters and the bracing of the entire crew.

"Executing turn," Lovell said as he turned both of the joysticks hard to the left, and the starscape on the holographic screen turned in response. The ensign, as well as Keyes and the rest of the crew were amazed as they felt barely anything as the inertial dampening system compensated for the high G turn. Within seconds the Autumn was oriented to match the rest of the fleet.

"Alert the fleet to prepare for max acceleration as soon as the mines detonate," Keyes said

Sendai suddenly appeared on the holotank. "Captain, the Gettysburg is patching in a feed from one of their Clarion spy drones."

On the main display in front of him, Keyes watched as only two Covenant ships came over the northern pole and into the minefield. He waited a few precious seconds to see if the rest of the fleet would follow; they didn't.

"Damn. Sendai, order all ships to engage those ships, and detonate any of the mines closest to them."

The visual feed from the spy drone was lost as it was damaged by a quartet of nuclear explosions that engulfed the two Covenant ships. When the blast cleared, one ship had lost shields and the other's glowed hot on the brink of failure. The UNSC Quarian fleet raced to meet them, detected by the Covenant pickets barely functional sensors. The leading three ships, two UNSC destroyers and a Quarian frigate fired first. The damaged Covenant ship was hit by a single MAC round to its unexposed hull and promptly broke in two, secondary explosions destroyed the aft section and sent the forward half toward the surface of the moon. The other Covenant ship had restored energy enough to get off a plasma torpedoes before a mass accelerator round collapsed their shields and overloaded their power grid, but before the final slug could hit them the Covenant ship somehow managed the power to activate its energy projector. The Quarian ship bore the brunt of it, its barriers helpless to block the energy stream as the ship was gutted stem to stern and broke apart. The second UNSC ship was fortunate that its plasma torpedo lost cohesion as its parent ship was destroyed, but the destroyer flew through the cloud of dissipating plasma and suffered heavy damage to its forward hull. Molten titanium-A covered the MAC barrel and quickly cooled, rendering the gun useless.

"All the hull sensors are out in that section. Fires on B deck near the fuel depot, we'll have to vent the fighter fuel... forward Archer pods were also hit by slag, they're useless... casualties with 3 degree burns reported on all forward decks."

Keyes listened to the frantic damage control efforts over the COM. "Dominique, contact the Perth and order her to remain here until she can restore her engines and rendezvous with the tug ships." Two for two pretty much, not how Keyes was hoping the second engagement would go. And to see one of the Quarian ships destroyed like that; due to suffering no losses during the battle at Reach they had an aura of invincibility among the UNSC fleet. Keyes could only imagine how the Quarians were feeling.


Date: September 15, 2552 ][ Location: Cygnus system/New Jerusalem- 2 km from nuclear waste facility

On a small hill overlooking the facility, Legion looked out over the complex from atop a tree, gathering intel. The Geth immediately uploaded this data to Shepard's omni tool as he and the team stood at the base of the tree. Shepard's omni tool was currently displaying a 3D render of the complex that Legion's run times compiled, continuing to update the map as he located more Covenant positions.

"Looks like their heavy stuff is right in the middle with that drilling equipment," Shepard pointed out.

"With sniper towers likely garrisoned with a jackal and a handful of grunts," Linda pointed out. "They'll have midrange carbines; the snipers will be posted along the maintenance walkways along the exterior of the main complex. Linda pointed out a few obvious positions on the main complex."

"Legion, see if you can confirm that," Shepard ordered.

Within a few moments, Legion confirmed snipers on each of the positions Linda pointed out, as well as a couple others.

"In order to get the whole team in we're gonna need to knock out one whole side of the perimeter fence," Johnson said. The entire facility plus its expansive grounds for lading transports was in the shape of a pentagon. The Covenant were in the center of the courtyard and landing pads with their drilling equipment, a sniper tower had been erected on each side in front of the perimeter fence. There was no way to sneak in without being detected and carry out their plan.

"Kasumi, how long can you run your stealth device?" Shepard asked, though he already knew what her answer was gonna be.

"If you think long enough to breach the perimeter, plant the charges, and get out, I wish," Kasumi replied. "The damn thing overheats after running for seven minutes. One of the little things Kengi wasn't able to fix when he first got the stealth device. This ain't gonna be that easy, Shepard, unless your Geth wants to tell me the secret of how Geth stealth runs a lot longer."

"Specification of mobile platform stealth generators is restricted material, Goto-Kasumi. In any eventuality, this platform would be unable to contact Geth for schematics due to our transdimentional transit."

"We'll find a way to neutralize part of their perimeter and get the team inside," Shepard said. "We just need a diversion to focus their attention."

No sooner had he said that did the whole forest light up followed by a fierce wind that shook the trees. The team scrambled for cover and began checking their surroundings for hostiles as the light faded.

"Legion, did you see anything up there?" Shepard asked over the COM.

The Geth, which had barely managed to grab hold of a branch in time, checked in. "Shepard-Commander, there has been a nuclear fusion explosion approximately thirty kilometers from our current position. Electromagnetic interference and radiation hazard minimal."

"If the ground forces had to set off a nuke they must be desperate," Shepard said as he opened a secured COM link to the Normandy. "Miranda, did you pick that up?"

"We did, the blast was ground level, just north of the city and on the side of the mountain, away from the main ground force. They literally set of a nuke in the middle of nowhere, however Covenant aircraft were swarming that area right before the explosion."

"Shepard, I am also detecting an emergency beacon broadcast on a UNSC frequency from the other side of the mountain," EDI cut in. "UNSC forces will be unable to respond due to the blast zone between them and the signal."

"Alright, have Zaeed take the second shuttle and check it out," Shepard ordered.

"I think I know how we can distract them," Sergeant Johnson said.

"What, with a nuclear explosion?" Tali jokingly asked.

Johnson just grinned and hefted his missile launcher, "Something like that."

XXX

Not far from the blast site, on the other side of the mountain a sole ODST ran from the epicenter; a crashed Pelican where he just listened to a man recount most of his life before he committed suicide in the nuclear blast.

"… those freaks are gonna pay for every piece of dirt they've ever taken from us."

It wasn't exactly the usual rousing round of propaganda they had fed him in boot, but it had nonetheless had an effect on the rookie ODST. It was hard to believe this was his first combat drop since graduating from boot just a few weeks ago and being shipped out. After checking to make sure his emergency beacon was active, the trooper sat down on a rock and looked at his rad meter on his wrist; it was still green meaning radiation from the blast hadn't reached him yet. When he looked up again he saw the strangest looking craft heading for him; it wasn't UNSC, or Covenant for that matter. The ODST guessed it was sort of civilian craft as it settled to land right in front of him, but thought twice when its hatch opened. From inside came a massive figure that looked like a cross between a brute and a frog, it wore a white armor and carried a fairly human looking weapon. The trooper quickly raised his battle rifle at the unusual alien as another emerged from the craft; this one was green and scaly, dressed in some kind of leather coat. The final person to emerge, was thankfully human, but he wore an unfamiliar armor and has some serious scaring on the side of his face.

"Grunt, get back in before you give this guy a itchy trigger finger," the human yelled.

"Who the hell are you, and what is that?" The ODST asked.

As Grunt went back in, the human introduced himself. "I'm Zaeed Massani, mercenary. Big guy is my associate, Grunt, and the Drell is Thane; we're your rescue party."

Strangely enough, the trooper lowered his weapon, wondering if the rumors that were floating around of an alien fleet saving Reach from Covenant attack were true.

"I don't want to have what's left of my goddamn hair fall out just standing here waiting for that cloud to come our way!" Zaeed yelled. "Get in the damn shuttle."

"Zaeed, you must be calm, this soldier must not know of our alliance with their people," Thane said.

"Like I give a rat's arse if he knows. If he wants to be rescued or not, now's the time!"

"Soldier, I would implore you to come with us," Thane said to the ODST.

"Ok, but first sign you guys try anything," he gestured to his battle rifle, "its not gonna be pretty."

"Like you could take us anyway," Zaeed quipped as they all boarded the shuttle and took off, the trooper giving Grunt a wide berth.

"You know I can see a rookie just from the way you hold your weapon," Zaeed said. "How long have you been a real soldier for?"

"This is technically my first combat assignment; rescue the guy who just blew a nuke up in his face, the" Rookie said. Where are you from anyway?"

"Blew himself up, eh? Guy must have been mental," Zaeed muttered, but as he began to explain something about parallel universes, the rookie thought back to that so called crazy man; Gage Yegevny.

XXX

Near the front gate of the nuclear waste facility, Sergeant Johnson crept through the underbrush with his rocket launcher handy. The Covenant had blasted the main gate and erected an energy barrier in its place when they took over. The Marine quickly took aim and fired off three rockets in rapid succession, destroying the shield generator and collapsing the barrier. The Covenant reaction was immediate; the two wraiths station inside fired on the treeline, but could not pursue because the remains of the generator blocked their path.

"You want breakfast! Come and get it you scaly bastards!" Johnson yelled as he took off into the forest as a Grunt squad and their jackal master pursued him.

On the opposite side of the compound, a lone Grunt watched the commotion from his sniper tower and did no notice his fellow Covenant disappear one by one until he himself was lifted into the air by a strange force and propelled deep into the woods. The Grunt impacted the side of a large tree, and fell as the force that captured him was released, landing on top of his dead or unconscious compatriots as they had met a similar fate. Samara stood nearby, satisfied at her work. From concealed positions, Legion, Garrus and Linda dispatched all the snipers Legion could find as the rest of the team dashed to the fence. Shepard, Tali, Samara, Kasumi and Jacob then ran up to the fence and covered Tali as she cut an access hole through with a small torch kit. As soon as they were all through, they ran for the side of the building for some cover.

"You understand what you need to do?" Shepard asked Kasumi as Jacob passed a few charges over to her.

"Plant the charges and get out, simple enough. I still don't see why you even need to bother going inside."

"We don't know if the Covenant will try and force their way through another way, Tali's gonna need to get the backup systems online," Shepard explained.

The entire facility was run by an AI with very few support staff, which is why it had been overrun so easily. But without the AI, the military couldn't simply remote access the emergency system and flood the storage chambers with enough molten led-graphite to block any radiation from escaping. If Kasumi wasn't able to disable all the drilling equipment, or worse, the Covenant were going to drill from inside, then they would need Tali's engineering expertise to get the emergency systems back online. Kasumi shimmered away and Jacob remained behind as the rest breached the interior of the facility.

XXX

The second shuttle had set down in a clearing a couple clicks south of the facility to rendezvous with Johnson, who currently had several Covenant search parties combing the woods on his tail. Grunt, Zaeed and the Rookie were waiting by the treeline for any sign of Johnson when they saw a rustle in the brush. The Sergeant came stumbling out of the brush, his new omni tool glowing with a transponder program active to guide him to the shuttle.

"How the hell did you people ever conduct stealth ops with these things?" he said as he held up his arm. "The damn thing gave me away twice when I activated it, its too damn bright!"

"We manage," Zaeed replied, "now lets get the hell out of here."

A blob of plasma came out of the trees and struck the shuttle, melting a section of hull plating. The Rookie and Thane began firing blind into the woods while Grunt hefted his own rocket launcher and fired into the woods. The were screams as grunts and what was left of a jackal were propelled out by the explosion, scattered dead in front of them.

"I think you could have just scared em off, big guy," Johnson remarked.

"This was more fun," Grunt replied.

"Sergeant, sir," the rookie said as he saluted briefly. "I'd like to try and get in touch with my unit if you're heading back to the front."

"I'm with these guys, trooper, but we'll gladly give ya a lift back into orbit so you can drop down again," Johnson chuckled. Once we're back on the shuttle I'll see what I can do."

"Zaeed, Sergeant, this alien is still alive," Thane said as he pointed his pistol at a Grunt that was only dazed by the explosion and was starting to stir. The others quickly surrounded the Grunt as it awoke to see itself outgunned and as good as dead.

"We should just kill it here," Grunt said.

"Unwise," Thane interjected. "This creature is defenseless, killing it is the job of the wicked."

"We'll take it prisoner then," Zaeed said as he walked forward and bashed the Grunt in he skull with his rifle, knocking it out. "Mordin will just love to get his hands on a live one."


Date: September 15, 2552 ][ Location: Cygnus system/New Jerusalem orbit- Covenant flagship Incorruptible

"The human attack fleet approaches," the Sangheili manning the sensors called out. The fleet master and his second switched one of the three main screen to the tactical display as 57 Quarian and UNSC ships were approaching, with two vessels leading the attack.

"Order our lead vessels to close and destroy the leading humans ships with their energy projectors," Inanraree ordered. "Move the Incorruptible to the rear."

In accordance with Sangheili battle doctrine, the flagship moved to the rear of the fleet to give it the most protection and allow it to continue to coordinate the fleet. On the pillar of Autumn, Keyes watched and hoped that the mass of fighters that were trailing the two lead ships wouldn't be detected. Keyes plan was gutsy, as it required the commitment of the skeleton crews manning the ships and the fighter pilots, seventy percent of which were UNSC longswords, the rest being volunteer Quarian fighters. Half of the UNSC fighters were armed with nukes of varying yield while most of the Quarians carried disruptor torpedoes; it was hoped that this fighter force could get in close and do some damage to the Covenant fleet. The two UNSC ships, a pair of destroyers, had volunteered to screen the fighters from enemy fire and appear to be on a suicidal charge, which they were as there was no coming out of this.

"Two Covenant ships are moving forward," Sendai reported. "There is an increase in energy levels..."

The AI was cut off as the two Covenant ships fired their energy projectors and bisected their sacrificial shields, Keyes could see a trio of smaller explosions among the fighters as three of the craft were caught too close to the beam. The fighters slammed their engines in reverse to put some distance between them and the destroyers as they broke apart and exploded. As soon as the smoke cleared, the fighters gunned their engines and flew through the remains of the explosion right at the Covenant while their sensors were blinded by the blast. The two lead Covenant ships were practically defenseless as they recycled their energy reserves, and were easy pickings for the disruptor torpedoes launched at them. Their shields buckled and collapsed at the strain of the dark energy waves, and a pair of nukes launched from the fighters finished them off. The Covenant now saw the bigger threat and dispatched multiple waves of seraphs and closed to firing range for their pulse lasers.

"How long before we're in firing range?" Keyes asked as he watched the tactical display with baited breath; fighters and their pilots were winking off his screen and out of existence one by one.

"Fifty-seven seconds to firing rage, Admiral," Hikowa called out as she loaded a pair of nuclear missiles into the forward tubes and took the safeties off the rest of the Archer pods.

"Covenant vessels have already entered optimal firing range, I'm detecting over twenty plasma torpedoes in track, one targeted for us," Sendai warned.

"Order all ships to close to optimum firing range, fire, and then scatter," Keyes ordered as he sat in his chair and contacted engineering. "Purdy, I need that Mass Effect core at full strength in three minutes or we're dead."

"We're working on it, sir."

"Lovell, prepare to fire all starboard emergency thrusters and then kick the main engines to max thrust. I was that torpedo eating our exhaust."

"Aye, aye."

Keyes watched as fifteen of their ships entered optimum firing range and took their shots before taking evasive action. The rest of their fleet did so as well as Keyes felt the quadruple recoil of the MAC followed by over 500 missiles being hurled at a Covenant destroyer. The blue glow of the plasma torpedo filed the viewscreen as the projectile came dangerously close to the ship. Lovell's board greenlit as engineering got the Mass Effect core up to 103%; he slammed the emergency thrusters on and the whole ship lurched to starboard before he throttled the main engine. The dark energy of the core reducing the hulking cruiser's mass to give the engines a 150% boost in speed, enough to avoid the torpedo. The torpedo tracked and followed before its mothership was destroyed and the magnetic bottle was broken, dissipating the plasma.

"Get me a fleetwide damage report, our losses and theirs," Keyes ordered.

The AI flickered for a moment before removing his rescue hardhat in a symbolic gesture, "I'm afraid Admiral that twenty one of our ships were either destroyed or heavily damaged, including two Quarian vessels and one of our refitted destroyers. We have thirty five ships intact and battle ready; only 20% of our fighter strike force survived. The Covenant are worse off, they have only nine vessels intact along with two completely disabled ones and three heavily damaged, those three are the ones we hit on our first strike.

"Only fourteen ships and five need cover," Keyes muttered, "lets regroup our remaining ships and give 'em one more go. If we're damned lucky they might just turn tail and run. Sendai, get on the COM to the Normandy, see if we can open a second front with these guys."

XXX

The sound of Inanraree's fist banging on the railing in front of him echoed through the bridge. The humans their their allies had wiped out over three quarters of his fleet, and the ground reports were not equally as encouraging. Their main dig site was under siege by the humans, along with their feared demons. A secondary dig site had likewise been attacked by a singe suicidal human who had still not been located.

"Fleetmaster, I would humbly suggest that we consider withdrawing our troops from the surface before the human fleet regroups," Mantakree suggested.

"We will not run like the coward Vadamee!" Inanraree baked back. "If you do not wish to fight the humans anymore then I will kill you here! To emphasize the fleet master actually drew his plasma pistol, but refrained from pointing it at his junior officer. Mantakree was startled, but non the less took his superior's threat seriously and returned to his duties."

"Fleetmaster!" The sensor operator called out, "I have detected a disturbance in the upper atmosphere of a planet, possibly a vessel rising to challenge us."

"Have you confirmed the presence of a ship?" Inanraree asked.

"Negative, my lord. The sensors do not register its presence."

"The phantom..." Inanraree muttered. He had heard of this ship, and how it had managed to close to point blank against their prototype supercruiser over Reach. Then again when it destroyed two battlegroups before it was tracked visually. With the planet beneath them the visual sensors would have difficulty in locating the phantom vessel quickly, that left but one option. The Sangheili looked over at the device which stood in the center of the bridge; the luminary. The Governor's of Contrition had vowed never to use the device ever since the beginning of the war, when the prophets demanded all the devices be 'tuned' as they said to detect the humans whom the prophets claimed had managed to shield themselves from their scans. Altering a luminary, or any other holy relic was against the very core of the contrition's beliefs, so they forbade themselves from using it. Inanraree would never dream of using it, but its Forerunner sensors were far in advance of their own and could easily detect the phantom through whatever stealth it used. The Sangheili went over to the device and with a wave of his hand activated it. The small holographic display was for a shipmaster's eyes only; if any subordinate Covenant viewed the feed they would be imprisoned for life. The holographic display told him what he already knew; the two relic sites on the surface and the various instances of humans on and around the planet, represented by the symbol for heresy. Sure enough, the luminary detected the phantom ship rising up from the planet at the remains of his fleet. A number of other glyphs were displayed next to it; one Inanraree didn't recognize but was similar to the glyphs for alternate and land. The other one was for alien, which had been used when the Covenant encountered its other client species. The final one made Inanraree's hearts stop cold; Reclaimer. The phantom ship, bearing human scripts on its hull, had reclaimers aboard. Such a thought was heresy in of its self, but how could he explain this? Luminaries did not lie, they were the holiest of Forerunner creations, unless what the prophets did to them all those years ago had concealed the truth, and by a divine will the devices were showing him the truth. He deactivated the luminary and fin ally snapped.

"No!" Inanraree yelled, "we were wrong! All this time we were the heretics!"

The bridge crew all looked over at their suddenly crazed Commander.

"We should have embraced the humans, not senselessly slaughtered them! Deactivate our weapons and order the fleet to stand down."

"Fleetmaster, by the rings what is wrong with you!" Mantakree yelled. "You would have us at the mercy of the humans to be wiped out!"

"They are the reclaimers! We cannot kill them!"

"How dare you utter such heresy!" Mantakree roared. "We are the rightful reclaimers of the Forerunner's legacy, and you suggest the filth that are the humans are above us!"

"Carry out my order!"

"No, heretic!"

Inanraree roared as he tackled his protegee and pinned him to the deck. The two Sangheili wrestled around, each trying to block the other from getting to a weapon. Just as some of the bridge crew attempted to intervene, the glow of three plasma bolts came from between the two Sangheili. Mantakree kicked the body of his former Fleetmaster off of himself and to the deck, then confronted the stunned bridge crew.

"I'm assuming command of the Incorruptible and the and fleet," he announced. "Tell the other ships that Fleetmaster Inanraree suffered a mental collapse and was killed while in a crazed rage. And get this body off the bridge."

A few Unggoy dragged the body of Tano 'Inanraree off the bridge as the crew returned to their stations. The fleet signaled acknowledgment of the message and recognized the change in command, that left Mantakree with a fairly difficult decision; to stay and fight or to flee the system with the ships he had left. Before he could make any decision he was distracted by the various alarms signaling a slipspace rupture nearby. As if an answer to his wishes, a Covenant assault carrier appeared between their fleet and the humans', poised for battle.

"The vessel is the Seeker of Truth," the sensor operator identified, "she hails us."

The image of Fleetmaster Thel Vadamee was a welcomed sight for Mantakree, even given his former commander's opinion of him.

"Where is Tano 'Inanraree?" he asked.

"Dead," Mantakree replied, "he suffered a mental collapse and began spouting heresy. I was forced to kill him in a struggle."

"I see," Thel replied, "given your fleet's current status it makes sense that your Fleetmaster was under some kind of mental distress. He was not competent to lead you."

A part of Voro that still saw Inanraree as his master and teacher was stung by Thel's words, however he was still a soldier and had a duty to perform. "Fleetmaster, at this time I strongly suggest you take command of what's left of our fleet for the duration of the battle."

"I will take command, but this battle is lost," Thel announced. "Give me three of your ships, I will draw the humans fire while you evacuate our troops. I will also send my special ops contingent to assist. We will not leave our people behind as we did on Reach."

"By your order, Fleetmaster."

XXX

"Where the hell did they come from?" Keyes asked as he looked at their latest arrival.

"Its possible it was held in reserve," Sendai speculated. "Admiral, an assault carrier is a significant bolster to their forces, we should strike now."

Only ten UNSC ships had regrouped with the Autumn, the rest were still maneuvering to assist or were assisting in rescue of the crew from the damaged ships.

"Three Covenant vessels are moving to flank the assault carrier, and I'm detecting an energy build up."

"Oh hell! All ships, evasive act..."

The order came too late for a marathon class cruiser and a destroyer as they were hit by the energy projector of the assault carrier and heavily damaged. Unseen by them, the Normandy exited the atmosphere and initiated its attack run, going after the damaged Covenant ships. Its javelin weapon system easily collapsed what shields the damaged ships had managed to restore and were promptly hit by Normandy's mass accelerator in its engineering spaces. As one of the damaged ships broke apart, Normandy targeted another with its Thanix, causing tremendous damage. Normandy arched up over the few damaged ships left and head back down into the atmosphere. It was a successful retribution run as the Covenant didn't even give chase. Keyes was thankful for it, but he now had another two ships gone and four Covenant vessels poised to strike again.

"Admiral, I don't believe it! Look!" Lovell cried as the four ships turned and headed back to their now more heavily wounded fleet.

"Sensors are detecting numerous dropships leaving the Covenant fleet and heading for the surface. Ground forces are also reporting a massive retreat of Covenant forces."

"Any sign they're maneuvering to glass the planet?" Keyes asked.

"Negative, though one cruiser appears to be moving into position to glass their main dig site, perhaps to keep whatever they were after out of our hands," Sendai said.

"We'll let them go," Keyes said, "we've got too many wounded here and I imagine its much the same for them. If they don't leave after picking up their troops or if they turn to attack we'll take them out, otherwise we'll hold here."

His order turned some heads on the bridge, but was nonetheless accepted as the fleet began rescue efforts on the downed cruiser.


Date: September 15, 2552 ][ Location: Cygnus system/New Jerusalem- nuclear waste facility

Shepard and company entered the lower levels of the facility from a service ladder and fanned out, Shepard's omni tool showing a map the UNSC provided to the main AI core. If the could reactivate it then it would be much easier to get the facility's emergency systems back online. They arrived at the room to find the doors forced open and melted by repeated plasma bolts. Tali activated her omni tool's flashlight and shined it inside; the main AI processors had been raised out of their coolant tank and shot repeatedly, there wasn't any chance of the AI surviving.

"Any chance you can get this place working?" Shepard asked.

"Possibly, I can run most things out of here manually since it has the most connectivity, Tali said as she accessed a terminal on the far side of the room. "You'll need to go down two floors to open the coolant lines manually, I'll reboot the backup computers and if anything goes wrong I can flood the containment rooms with the coolant."

"Samara and I will take care of it," Shepard said as she headed for the door. "Tali, watch your back."

The Quarian nodded to Shepard and continued her work, but unseen by her was the mass of tentacles opening a ventilation duct above her.

XXX

"Right down there," the Rookie pointed to a column of UNSC troops heading to reinforce their main attack force, and instructed the shuttle pilot to land. The Kodiak came in over the troops, in order to get their attention before setting down nearby, but only four UNSC soldiers came over to investigate it though. The hatch opened and the Rookie was treated to the sight of four fellow ODSTs, who looked in on the strange sight of him, Zaeed, Grunt and Thane with a Grunt hog tied and unconscious on the deck.

"I believe this is yours," Zaeed said as the Rookie disembarked. "Keep your head down, Rookie."

The shuttle took off into the sky a moment later, leaving the rookie to explain to his bewildered comrades what just happened.

"Corporal, I'm Gunnery Sergeant Buck, mind telling me just who those aliens were?"

"Honestly, sir, I'm not really sure," the Rookie replied.

XXX

The lone Sangheili Zealot standing in the middle of the waste center's courtyard was furious. The lone human had managed to strike at them directly and avoid all the patrols he sent after him; all but one had returned. He had the grunts try and clear the debris from the shield wall that isolated the base and prevented the wraiths from scorching the forest. He looked over at the laser drilling equipment as the engineers assembled the final critical components. Luminary scans had discovered a massive Forerunner chamber beneath the human instillation, and this Sangheili was determined to crack it open and bring great honor to his name.

"All forces, we will begin drilling in..." his announcement to his men was cut short as the equipment suddenly exploded, knocking the zealot back. When he regained his composure, he saw all the drilling equipment had been destroyed by an unseen force. He quickly scanned the skies for any human aircraft, as they frequently bombed targets with aerial weapons that weren't detected until it was too late. Unggoy and Kig Yar rushed to the scene to search for survivors, finding only the charred tentacles of the engineers assigned to finish the device. The zealot turned away from the scene, ashamed that he had allowed the humans to distract them so their aircraft could desecrate his holy task. Before his eyes however, a figure shimmered into existence near the main building. The hooded figured turned, and the zealot saw it was a human, who quickly scampered off toward the perimeter fence when she saw that her camouflage was gone.

"Perimeter teams, you have a human in your sector!" He yelled through his COM unit, to no reply. "Perimeter teams, respond now!" he then came to the conclusion that the humans had somehow neutralized the perimeter teams without raising any alarms and destroyed their drilling laser. The zealot quickly drew his plasma repeater and began firing at the human as she fled. Another human appeared from one of the outer building and returned fire, covering the first one. An Unggoy squad and a pair of Kig Yar gave chance, only to watch as the other human raised is hand and two grunts were lifted into the air by a strange blue aura and tossed at their compatriots. The two humans met up and escaped into the main building on the complex, leaving a stunned zealot debating what to do next. Suddenly, multiple phantom and spirit drop ships descended, and as if an answer to his prayers special ops troops emerged and secured the immediate area. A white armored Sangheili sought out the zealot and jogged over to him.

"I am Rtas 'Vadumee, commander of this contingent, he said. You must gather your forces for evacuation, we are retreating."

"We have been attacked by the humans," the zealot said, "they used demons with mystical powers against us. They are inside that building there."

Rtas looked at the large structure that the zealot pointed to, part of him was enthralled at the prospect of combat with a famed demon. The other part knew Thel had entrusted him with the duty of evacuating the soldiers stationed here. Rtas figured that the two thoughts weren't exactly exclusive, and the Covenant could do with some recon of their powers. But he would do this alone.

"Take charge of the evacuation, I will delay the demons and join you," Rtas said as he sprinted off.

XXX

Shepard and Samara walked across a catwalk in the bowls of the facility, following the coolant pipes to the main containment vessel. Eventually the pair came to a dead end, and Shepard found a series of valves where the piped branched downward and into the containment room. He and Samara turned them all to the open position, and then something unexpected happened. The seemingly dead end suddenly slid upward into the ceiling and revealed a metal door stamped with a familiar insignia.

"Office of naval intelligence?" Samara read off the door.

"Its the UNSC's intelligence branch," Shepard explained, "we were at one of their facilities on Reach during the initial negotiations, this symbol was everywhere."

"I thought Admiral Keyes said this was a civilian nuclear waste facility?" Samara questioned.

"It is, just on the outside," Shepard said. "Whatever the Covenant are after down here is something the UNSC found first. This whole facility is some kind of front operation, I doubt there's any nuclear material even here. We need to rethink our game plan." Shepard's COM become active a moment later.

"Commander, its Jacob, the drill is gone and I've got Kasumi with me inside the building, we're gonna go for the roof. Linda, Legion and Garrus are going back to get the shuttle."

"Understood, we'll fall back to you," Shepard replied. "Samara, go rendezvous with them and secure the stairwell to the roof. I'm going back to get Tali."

The Justicar nodded as they both ran to their respective goals, but just as Shepard got out of sight of Samara his COM activating with a scream that stopped Shepard's heart cold.

"Shepard!"

It was Tali's voice, and the COM feed was cut off a moment later.

XXX

As Tali began rerouting command functions, she noticed how centralized the computers were, meaning most functions were slaved to the AI with no backups. As she was working, behind her suddenly one of the AI processor towers came back online and began to lower into its cooling tank. Tali heard the noise, and turned around, seeing nothing. When she turned back to her work, she came face to face with a blue appendage with six black eyes staring at her. Tali immediately backed away and drew her pistol, and to her surprise the creature backed away and appeared to cower before her. The creature floated off the ground, and was covered in some kind of armor, underneath which Tali could just barely make out bulges on its back. Its tentacles were waving frantically in the air, but it didn't make any threatening gestures toward Tali, so Tali reluctantly lowered her weapon, but kept it in her right hand. The alien seemed to calm down, and began making motions with its tentacles in the air.

"What are you doing?" Tali asked it, seeming forgetting there was no chance it could even understand her. The creature began uttering a series of clicks and tones that Tali could have sworn was in a frustrated tone as it repeated the same motions with its tentacles. Suddenly, Tali caught on that the alien was trying to communicate. She put her gun away and activated her omni tool, searching for the translation program she had purchased years ago on her pilgrimage to understand the various alien languages.

"Welcome to the Codex galactic translation matrix: 2181 edition, the automated program said. Please specify your translation query as either verbal, text, or visual."

Tali went through the motions and commands to get the outdated program into visual recognition mode, and hoped the old program came with a sign language database. The alien had been staring intently at her omni tool for the last minute, and when Tali was ready she nodded to the alien, which surprisingly nodded back, and began its sign message again. The omni tool recorded and processed the motions.

"This sign language does not match any of the basic galactic sign languages currently in mainstream use, the program VI replied. Expanding search to include all known forms of sign, and cross referencing with known patterns to attempt extrapolation... no known language match found, extrapolation using 75 known patters has produced a probable translation: 'no hurt, builder like you, only watch, to help'. For a more accurate translation, please purchase Codex galactic translation matrix: 2181 language supplement pack, featuring over 9000..."

Tali shut the program down and looked at the creature, which assumed that Tali had understood its message and it wasn't a threat. The creature then turned and activated the console, showing Tali the source of the problem. This facility held no nuclear materials what so ever, thus there were no real emergency systems to deal with a possible radiological release. The server stack that the alien had repaired contained the security matrices of the former AI that managed the facility, allowing it and Tali to access the classified data it held. The whole facility was built on top an alien ruin that had been discovered thirty years ago, and ONI sponsored the construction of this 'fake' to hide the real one which was contained in the supposed nuclear waste containment rooms. The AI was military in nature, designed to appear as a simple custodian to the facility was in face guarding the entire secret complex, hence why all the systems were slaved to it, to prevent anyone unauthorized like Tali from finding out it's secrets. Tali began copying as many files as she could, not knowing how long the alien's patch job on the system would hold. Suddenly, the alien began cowering again, and Tali was wondering for a second why when she saw the reflection in the computer screen. She put her hand on her shotgun and spun around only to come face to face with a white armored elite bearing down on her. Before she could draw her weapon, the elite lashed out and grabbed her neck, forcing her against the wall. The alien engineer fled up through the air duct it originally entered from, leaving Tali at the mercy of the elite.

"Shepard!" She screamed through her COM before the elite closed its hand around her neck, cutting off her air supply. Tali grabbed its large arm with both her hands and struggled in vein to break free, but was suddenly released when the elite saw her three fingered hand.

"So, you are one of the aliens who choose to ally with the humans," it spoke in broken English. It drew a device from its hip which produced a blade made from plasma. He held it up to Tali's neck, and through her suit's various heat warning she heard it say; "you will tell me everything I want to know about your people."

"Get the hell away from her!"

The elite turned only to be hit by multiple shots from Shepard's mattock rifle. The elite decided Shepard was the greater threat and charged toward it, tackling Shepard before he could knock out the elite's shields with his gunfire. They both fell into the hallway, and Shepard managed to get to his feet first. His mattock had been lost in the struggle, so Shepard drew his pistol as the elite got back up and likewise drew a sidearm. Shepard fired off a few shots and collapsed the alien's shields, but was forced to dive left and onto a catwalk to avoid the plasma bolts of the elite's weapon. Before Shepard could get to his feet again, the elite had rushed him and pinned him face first to the floor. It snatched up its plasma sword and reignited it, planning to skewer Shepard right there. After hearing footsteps, the elite turned in tome to see the barrel of Tali's shotgun, and the slug fired from it. It caught him right in the side of the face and the elite staggered, but managed to kick Tali's legs out from under her as he clutched the side of his face. The elite then dove over the side of the catwalk and to the floor below, running from the pair, deeming his recon to not be worth his own life.

Shepard was helped to his feet by Tali, who suddenly embraced him.

"I knew you'd come," she said. "I thought that elite was going to kill you."

"I got your back, figured you'd return the favor," Shepard replied. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," she replied, "I found out some things you need to hear."


Date: September 16, 2552 ][ Location: Epsilon Eridani system/Reach/CASTLE base- Brigadier General Case's office.

"Come in," General Case said to the visitor knocking on her door as she finished her paper work. She was still engrossed as the visitor sat in one of the chairs in front of her desk. "James, well isn't this a surprise," she said when she finally looked up.

"Nicoletta, I see the desk job is treating you well," Colonel James Ackerson replied.

"We all have to play desk jockey eventually," Case replied. "I managed to get in touch with my contacts in material command."

"And?"

Case opened one of her desk drawers which was actually a safe, and a quick thumbprint later she removed its contents; a small container. She put it on the desk and passed it to Ackerson who inspected its contents; six smaller canisters were inside.

"That was the amount your AI specified you'd need," Case said. "Its doubtful I can get my hands on anymore."

"This will do," Ackerson said as he slipped the container into his briefcase.

Case leaned back in her chair, "so, you must be itching to give that gamma company of yours a decent target."

Ackerson chuckled, he had told the General of his Spartan-III program some time ago as her position at the time proved to be valuable in securing materials needed to maintain his secret training facility.

"Right now we're awaiting news on New Jerusalem, if its another success we may not be able to convince Parangosky that another strategic assault is in order," the Colonel explained. "The Quarians have alleviated the desperate mood at HIGHCOM and even ONI, but if I'm lucky I may be able to assign gamma company on another attempt at operation red flag. Command is getting too soft with these Quarians around."

"Your whole plan of stationing ODSTs on the Pillar of Autumn to disrupt and cancel the mission may not have succeeded, but fate it seems intervened to scrub the mission anyway," Case said. "I wouldn't be to critical of the Quarians just yet."

"This war will be won by human ingenuity," Ackerson said with a scowl. "This Mass Effect technology is a godsend, yes, but it will be humans who will use it to its full potential."

Case smiled and withdrew a bottle of liquor and a pair of glasses from another desk, "now there's something I can drink to."


Well, obviously you're all getting tired of the usual apologies for the long waits between chapters, I know I am. However we all can't fight events in real life, and this is after all just a hobby of mine. All I can say is expect long delays more frequently now, but I will do my very best to get a new chapter out sooner next time.