A/N; so here you go. up faster than other updates before so... have fun.

Disclaimer: Don't own anything.


UNSC Colony World Shanxi, Shanxi-Theta system, September 18 2586

Adrien Victus wondered around the Human vessel known as the Sevenfold, it was the same ship that they had first encountered at the Relay. Captain Fedorian had insisted that it be Victus' squad that got sent aboard the sleek and angular warship.

He had been transferred not long before the Council fleets had jumped into FTL; he had been greeted by the Commander of the ship, Commander Walters, and had met his human counterpart, Lieutenant David Shepard, the Lieutenant had taken Victus' armour, along with his men's armour and had said they needed some 'upgrades'. He wasn't really all that bothered by it, it wasn't like it was the most advanced armour system in the Hierarchy, but that didn't mean he liked it.

He made his way to the mess hall where the rest of his men had gathered, it was one of the few paces on the ship he was allowed access to. He entered to find the same sight he saw every time he entered; the Humans 'Marines' were sat in one section, the ships crewmen were in another and the ODSTs were in their own little section, his men were with them so he made his way over to them and sat down.

"So, Sargent you must have a few war stories to tell," the Human female asked, Sargent Vakarian was an old fashioned Turian and the human was grating on his nerves, Victus knew that Vakarian wants to transfer to C-Sec on the Citadel but his transfer had been postponed thanks to their current mission.

"I have plenty of stories to tell human, but I doubt you are mature enough to deal with such gruesome details," the Palaven born replied, the other Humans at the table looked at one another,

"Oh really now, Vakarian? There was this one time where we responded to a colony under attack by pirate forces; so in we go, a bog standard drop, now we're thinking it's just URF forces raiding for supplies so when we enter the main city all we find is bodies; everyone had been torn apart, some had been eaten alive, even children had been torn limb from limb. Turns out Jackals had raided the colony and decided to kill everyone, not their usual MO of in and out get what ya need type stuff." She said and it was one of many stories the ODSTs had under their belts.

"Hmm, fair enough, I'll give that one to you. Okay…" and went on their conversation, the humans spoke to their Turian counterparts and Lieutenant Shepard was no different,

"So, Victus you got any family?" he asked, Adrian did indeed have family, a wife and a son on the way, and he said as much,

"Cool, got a wife and a daughter myself back on Earth, after this tour of duty I'm taking a nice safe job groundside and I'm gonna send time with my daughter, I don't see her all that much, missed a lot of special moments," he said, Victus knew what he meant, his own father had been away for most of his child hood, all ways one more enemy to fight, one more base to raid that was until he did return home, where he was laid to rest.

They spent the rest of their time on the ship talking, getting to know each other; they all wanted to know and to be able to trust the people watching their backs in combat, although Glory had chosen to stay out of the majority of their conversations until Felix and Train as they were known as, grabbed her and made her watch a sport game with them and got her join them all during meals and spare time, usually by dragging her while she threw out curses at them but if she really wanted to she could have easily shrugged them off and walked away.

They were all spending time near the bottom of the ship where the ODSTs deployed from, they were all engaged in idle conversation when the Commander walked in, sure the dark skinned man, Train or Eugene, was tall but the Commander was taller still; he stood slightly taller than Adrien and slightly wider at the shoulders, he was skinny though, it was odd look.

"Right, I'm sure your time together has been fun and all but it's time to get serious; we drop out in an hour, you drop in three, understood?" he said, at their affirmative nods he left, leaving them to getting ready.

"Well we better armour up, follow me," Shepard said before leading them to the ships armoury where weapons were neatly stacked along with crates of ammo, he led them to a row of lockers with a single bench running down the middle, the lockers were full of armour and weapons,

"Okay, Echo you know where your stuff is so armour up," he said, "Boys here are your lockers, they got your armour in it already so don't worry 'bout that," he continued as he showed them five lockers side by side, inside each was their armour, except it had a new paint job and some other new features,

"Okay so your probably wondering what I had done to your armour, so I'll tell ya; we had the under suit improved to allow a Kinetic dampening gel layer to fit in, that means you won't become a pile of mush when we drop. The second thing is improved software, we added an on board computer for you along with a VISR system into the helmet, last but not least is the Titanium-ceramic plating which protects you from most small arms, also added some thermal insulation so you don't become baked Turians in less than twenty minutes. Any question?" he rattled off as he opened all the lockers for them,

"Yeah, a couple; what's a 'VISR'?" asked Vakarian, the human Lieutenant gave a smile before replying, "It's stands for Visual Intelligence System, Reconnaissance. It's simple: if you see green, squad up, if you see red, shoot. Next?"

"What do you mean 'Baked Turian'?" Victus asked this, "Ah, we'll get to that during your crash course in SOEIV's" David replied,

After seeing no more questions from Adrien's team David left to get ready himself, they slowly put on the new suits and when they were done he noticed it was a lot lighter than he thought, it also felt like a second skin rather than heavy armour, it was nice though.

As he finished he noticed the humans had already geared up and left except for the Lieutenant who was just tightening his chest plate, when he finished he motioned for them to follow him to the drop-bay where the other humans had gathered around a table with a holographic presentation on it.

Adrien took a brief moment to look over the Humans in their battle gear, it was all shaped the same but the Lieutenant had dirty yellow highlights across the chest, helmet and shoulders with what appeared to be the bottom half of a skull under the visor and two attachments on the top and side of the helmet although what function they possessed was unknown to the Turian. Sargent Coulson's armour had Red highlights and had extra plating nearly everywhere, her legs had thick plates of armour along with what looked like ammo wrapped around one leg.

The other two wore identical armour, both with blue highlights and thick shoulder plates. The only way to tell them apart was that 'Felix' had a strange attachment on his helmet while 'Train' had none.

"Right so, what's the mission Lorelie?" David asked as he moved forward to the table, "You are being deployed to the town of Himiko, near the Capital. You along with the rest of Echo Company are to remove any Batarian presence from the town, any questions Lieutenant?" Lorelie said as she materialised on the corner of the table and a small town formed in the centre.

"Rules of engagement?" he asked,

"Brass has given the old fashioned order of 'if it's alien, shoot it'. Barring allies of course." The A.I said, nodding to the Turians present at the last bit.

"What about the terrain?" Adrien asked, it was a village and it would be fairly small lines of fire but he wanted to know everything about the place, it might very well save his life.

"An old fashioned French style village, the buildings are made of stone and wood, dirt roads and even an old style Church in the town centre, it's all a bit silly really considering the Japanese and Chinese heritage of the planet." The A.I replied to him, he may not have trusted it but it was useful he guessed.

"What's so important about one village?" Coulson asked she chewed the end of an unlit cigar, she was frowning, he noted with a slight hint of amusement,

"It's a backdoor, a way into the city away from the frontlines," Adrien said as he looked at the topographic map, the village was in the centre and the a road stretched from the city through the village and beyond,

"Exactly, not only that but the main bulk of the Batarian military forces is located thirty clicks south of the village, which will be where we will counter them when the move to retake the city," the A.I said, Victus took some time to study the village on the display; it was divided into two by a small river, a single bridge was all that connected the two halves and a building with a tower on one end sat near the river, from what he had been told a 'Church' was a place of worship for many Humans, Religion wasn't as common among them now, apparently too many had simply stopped believing in any form of god.

For another half hour by human standards they talked about the mission, expected resistance and so forth, but when Adrien felt the need to bring up the question of 'baked Turian' again, this time Shepard decided to answer and from the rather evil looking grin he sported Adrien had a bad feeling about what he had just asked. Shepard pointed to a pod like thing nearby.

"That there is a Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Insertion Vehicle or SOEIV for short, it's made of titanium-A, lead foil and ceramic skin. Most of the pods bulk is simple heat protection during atmospheric entry," he said but most of the words went over Adrien's head after 'Exoatmospheric Insertion' a drop from orbit in a metal coffin, surely the human was joking.

"You have got to be joking; no way would any sane being do such a thing, an orbital drop? In a tiny little pod?" Shepard smiled widely,

"Oh yeah, nothing quite like dropping in from orbit, now get your men over there I need to give you a crash course in orbital drops so get to," he ordered, while Adrien didn't like taking orders from anyone but his own command and he was technically the same rank as Shepard, the human had command of the two teams while Victus would act as a second in command.

They spent the remaining time learning the basics of an orbital drop. Adrien could feel the ship accelerate beneath him, all the while take them closer and closer to enemy forces and to where they would drop. He was still unsure of this particular method of transport but he had little choice now that they were so close.

An alarm bleared and the lights went off, leaving them all bathed in dark red emergency lighting. "Alright boys, you know the music, time to dance." David said over the alarms. The human squad moved to a weapons rack nearby while David showed the Turians where their weapons had been kept.

Victus watched as Felix took a large rifle with a scope and a smaller weapon about the size of Adrien's own assault rifle and a bulky looking sidearm, Train took an assault rifle and sidearm and a large silver and orange weapon that looked similar to the Forerunners armour. Coulson took a larger assault rifle that bore a similar design to the ones used by Train and Felix while Shepard took a completely different weapon; it was sleek and dark and had a scope but was too small to be a sniper rifle.

"Becks, you fill up everyone's packs with same cartridge ammo?" Shepard asked,

"Yes, sir, except for the Felix's S3 and Train's M45." She replied in her strange accent, she was an odd character Adrien thought; she nearly always had a witty comment for everything, she was almost always found smoking something she had called a 'Sweet Williams' although the smell was far from sweet. Not only that however but she never called someone by their names, instead she gave them nicknames like his was Birdy while Vakarian had been named 'Blue Raptor' although the humans often shortened that to simply 'Blue'.

"Good, means we can share ammo if need be. Victus, get your men in their pods, we drop in five!" David said, was it just him or did the Human sound happy about that?

So following his orders like a good soldier Adrien seated himself inside the cramped pod, when the lid came down he realised that there was a window that ran from the top of the lid to the bottom, two screens came to life and showed Lieutenant Shepard and Sargent Vakarian, both had their helmets on and their faces covered by their visors.

"I really don't like the fact that this thing has windows." Vakarian mumbled slightly, as the pods shifted their position and the grated metal floor fell away to the sides and a large door slowly opened up beneath them. Adrien looked down and saw the slight twinkling of stars at the very edge of his view and directly beneath him sat the human colony world of Shanxi. He could see the large tethers that reached down to the Capital city. Such a feat had been declared far too expensive to invest in so no one ever did, except humans it seems.

"Okay troopers, we are green and very, very mean!" David said over the Coms,

"We're dropping into hell ladies; it's time to grow a pair!" Sargent Coulson added, although he felt that it was mainly aimed at him and his men who were still voicing their concerns about this.

Various voices came in through their Coms as the entire battalion was doing their last minute checks; a red light appeared inside the pod along with a tone, followed by another and then another. When Adrien realised that it was a count down the red light became green and the tiny little pods lurched as magnetic accelerators and an internal rocket boosted it away from the Sevenfold and towards what he was certain would be his incredibly hot death.


UNSC Colony World Shanxi

The Sevenfold and all other ships in Battle group York entered Shanxi's orbit and at full burn they headed round the planet where the Council forces along with Battle group Dakota would have drawn the Batarians away from the planet and allowing the other two Battle groups to get in behind their lines and let loose. He was glad that the Sevenfold was part of battle group York as it would allow many of the crew to vent their frustration on the four eyed bastards.

As the battle group came round the horizon he could see the distant flashes of light as ships fired and took fire in return. Some of the smaller Council ships were outright destroyed. The Valiant-class Cruiser leading the battle group sent over firing solutions and took control of the MAC guns and Energy Projector as they got closer and closer.

On his display Philip saw multiple lines form between York and the Batarian fleet, more lines showed the firing lanes of Battle group Carolina. The forty ships escorting the Infinity were taking the brunt of the fire as their shields were far more advanced than the simple ones used by Council forces.

"ODSTs are away Commander," a Lieutenant reported as they neared their targets. When they were in position the Valiant-Class Cruiser Fuji in command of Battle group York had given the order to fire, two bright flashes and the dimming of the lights on the bridge indicate the MACs being fired. His display showed nearly three hundred MAC rounds heading towards the enemy fleet, nearly all of them hit their targets and some even passed through into a second target. As the Batarian forces turned to face the new threat on their flanks Battle group Carolina made their appearance and fired all their weapons into the Batarians exposed backs.

Sure enough the remaining Batarian ships were turned into debris, most pieces no bigger than a small car. But something was off, Philip couldn't explain it. The battle had been too easy. Everything he had learnt in school, of his dad and in OCS had told him Humans never did this well in space combat. Last year had proven it for him on the Gorgon. He sighed silently and watched for even the slightest hint of anything that would explain why it had been so easy. But none came. The combined fleet moved into a defensive orbit while the Super-Carriers descended to let loose an army that wanted revenge and freedom for their people.


Adrien felt his stomach fly into his throat and his lungs compress as the G-forces piled up. The pod entered Shanxi's atmosphere and started to burn causing the temperature inside to rise but the 'upgrades' to his armour quickly rectified his discomfort and kept his body at a stable temperature.

The drop seemed to last forever, the ground was reluctant to rise up and greet him, for which he was thankful. At around thirty thousand feet the pods main chute opened and he was forced into the seat and against the safety harness which was too tight to begin with due to his larger chest.

The pod hit the ground with a thud and he felt like he was about to throw up his entire chest cavity. Sure he was glad to have survived but he never wanted to do that again in his life. He would file his complaint to the Generals later but right now he had more pressing issues. He had enemies to kill.


A/N; so Review? please? anyway i read Silentium yesterday aaannnddd... I KNEW FORERUNNERS SURVIVED! just not in the way i thought or who or anything else. but seriously in an extra bounus feature on halowaypoint there is a line spoken by a Forerunner-'We were always meant to stand side by side as brothers, Forerunners and Humans. not as enemies.' or something like that( it was late when i finished the book and than did the extra feature.

I won't say anything else except that the Reapers and Forerunners can never exist in the same universe. well they could but it would be pushing the limits. so yeah Reapers were going to appear but now? i guess i'll have to use the other bad guy i was planning on using, except in a slightly different role. :(

Also last chapter i mention Force Recon Marines having their own story, well i won't be doing anything but someone did approach me asking if they could do it, i said yeah. so i'll let you all know when i hear something about that.

Anyway- Review and i'll talk to you next chapter.