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UNSC Colony World Shanxi, Shanxi-Theta System, September 28, 2587

The trip back to UNSC lines was thankfully uneventful, after hours of fighting and moving the last thing Echo team needed was another fire fight or problem to crop up. When they arrived back at the village the sun was setting, casting a purple hue on the skyline. Marines had set up shop; machine guns were set up along with mortars and defensive barriers. A company of Marines from the 4th Rifle Battalion, a mechanised infantry unit, was setting up a motor pool for their vehicles.

David had the teams pull the old Warthogs in there, no point leaving them out in the open. As he turned the 'Hog into a free spot he saw one of the new Bulldog fighting vehicles, a bigger, heavier and better armoured version of the Warthog, it was also just as fast. It sported a 30mm cannon and a Spartan Laser mount, all controlled by the weapons station on the inside via several high-res camera's and computers. It could transport four soldiers and all their gear, one of the few disadvantages is that it is more susceptible to enemy air support.

Becky let out whistle of appreciation at the impressive truck; a Marine 1st Lieutenant nearby had a nasty looking frown on his face as he approached the dismounting ODST and Turian team. "You Echo team?" the Lieutenant asked, "Sure is, what can we do for you Lieutenant?" David replied as he came round the front of the Warthog, the Marine looked at Victus distastefully and relied,

"Well I would prefer it if you just fucked off in those old junk heaps you just brought in, but someone up top has ordered us to lend you two of our Bulldogs, next thing you know their gonna ask us to surrender our Challengers to the fucking Grunts." The Marine grumbled out in a thick Irish brogue, he was obviously not happy with the arrangements but orders were orders.

"Wait, Bulldogs only carry four people and there's nine of us," David said with a slight frown, the Marine just looked at him, "yeah apparently the Forerunner is staying with us, the bosses way of making things even,"

That was just great, he was losing one of his men as a trade off because someone else said he should, sometimes David really hated the chain of command. "Where can we get some rest, we've been shooting shit all day so we would really appreciate somewhere where we could get some sleep," David asked and the Lieutenant looked like he was about to explode, "Great first you want our trucks now you want our fuckin' beds, ugh fine we set up some cots in the church, but the second Shanxi-Theta pops up over the Horizon I want you to get the fuck out of here," the Lieutenant spat out with as much venom in his voice as possible.

The group left the motor pool and headed to the church where they would rest before setting out again in the morning, sure they could have carried on going and would have done had events played out differently, but they had the opportunity to get some sleep and all of them knew not to waste a chance like that.

At the first hint of daylight Echo team was driving away in their new IFVs, the larger seats were more comfortable for the bulky Turians and the ODSTs felt like children at Christmas, after all they were in a brand new vehicle that had only just entered service. David took his Bulldog upfront and took the team down the long road to Yamatai, the Capital. The large IFVs were surprisingly quick and they moved along the dirt road and into an urban area just outside the city before midday.

They reached a UNSC checkpoint that had been set up near what was once a school, gates and barriers had been quickly erected and a Company's worth of troops were milling about, all had their weapons and armour on and were ready for anything.

Once inside the checkpoint they quickly dismounted and made their way towards an ODST at the centre of camp, her Captain bars stood proudly on her chest plate as their HUDs identified her as Captain Alexandra Dixon, commander of Echo Company, she was the daughter of some war hero, although everyone who survived The Great War was considered a war hero.


In Orbit of UNSC Colony World Shanxi, Shanxi-Theta System, September 28, 2587

The bridge was deathly silent; the only noise was the hiss of the life support systems or tapping as the crewmen worked at their stations. Philip was deep in thought; if these Batarians had indeed gotten their hands on an old Halcyon-class and added a Mass Effect core to it… he didn't dare think about the implications, the main gun would then be able to tear through nearly everything in the fleet, barring the Infinity and some of the Forerunner ships.

"Lorelie, Mass Effect based ships use FTL in real space right?" Philip asked, breaking the silence, "According to the data the Council species sent over, yes. Why?" she replied as her avatar formed next to him,

"That would cause a rather noticeable blue shift, correct?" he asked her, she looked at him, "Yes,"

"And the scanners on the Sevenfold would be able to detect this, even from beyond the edge of the system, right?" she sighed dramatically and replied in an annoyed tone, "Yes Commander, now what is the point in all these questions…oh…" she asked before realising what he was implying, "you want me to track any form of Blue Shift around the system, just in case right?" he nodded in reply but said nothing.

It was several hours before she picked up something moving towards the system, the Infinity also seemed to pick it up as well as the massive vessel turned about, the rest of the group following it.

"Spool up the Slip-Space drive Lorelie, we might need it." Philip ordered and power started to shift from non-essential systems into the Trans-light drive,

"Sir?" one of the Ensigns asked, but Philip said nothing—he had nothing to say, no reassuring speeches, no epic battle cry, nothing. He just stared out the viewport and into space.


Millions of kilometres distant two hundred warships sowed down and exited FTL, the large bulky form of an old Halcyon-class light Cruiser surrounded by four of the more streamlined Gorgon-class Destroyers and then a hundred and ninety six ships of Batarian design surged forth, powerful Mass effect fields being emitted allowed the old UNSC ships to move quickly.


The bridge of the Infinity hadn't been this hectic since the events of Requiem, the lights dimmed and a red light lit up the bridge as power was shunted into more vital systems.

"All hands to battle stations, I repeat all hands to battle stations, this is not a drill!" Admiral Lasky said over the ships wide Com. He could see the holographic representations of the joint fleet moving to engage,

"Admiral, that old Halcyon is emitting a large Mass effect field, the min gun on that thing will tear trough anything in the fleet!" Roland said as he appeared on the corner of the table, he sounded worried,

"Shields to maximum and power up all MAC guns!" Lasky barked,

Throughout the fleet ships were preparing to fire their MACs and Energy projectors, but the Batarians fired first, the three hundred ton slug moved at almost relativistic speeds, and it was aimed right at Shanxi, not at the fleet, if it hit the planet millions of people would be killed, Batarian, Human, Turian, Asari, Forerunner and Salarian.

"Move the Infinity to intercept that round!" Lasky ordered and the Infinity moved with an incredible amount of speed, but even than it was too slow, "Admiral, the Sevenfold is preparing to jump, I don't…" Roland trailed off as the Sevenfold disappeared and reappeared in the way of the MAC round and fired all of her Archer missiles, just before the slug smashed through the Destroyer the Archers detonated, the MAC round shifted ever so slightly, but it was enough, it still broke through the upper decks of the Sevenfold and carried on, the slight change in its course was enough however, it would miss the planet, if barely.

Lasky watched as the Sevenfold tumbled uncontrollably, it was pushed into a low orbit and it carried on going, the damaged hull started to tear itself apart as it entered the upper atmosphere, the chances of any of the crew surviving would be low, and Lasky knew this.

"ALL SHIPS OPEN FIRE!" he ordered and hundreds of MAC rounds, Archer missiles and energy beams fired, the Batarians had tried to earn a cheap shot, only for it to fail.


Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the Sevenfold exited from Slip-space, everything seemed to happen so slowly, the Archer missiles fired and detonated, the sheer explosive force behind all the warheads shifted the MAC slug just enough to miss the planet, but not the Sevenfold.

Philip and the bridge crew saw the slug shoot past the golden shield and tear through the upper decks, including the number one MAC gun, the ship shook violently as the kinetic force caused the Destroyer to tumble, the weakened superstructure groaned as it tried to hold together. The round had forced the Sevenfold into Shanxi's gravity well, the reactors were offline which meant the crew could do nothing as it started to burn up in the upper most reaches of the atmosphere.

"All hand abandon ship, I repeat abandon ship!" Philip ordered throughout the crumbling Destroyer, as his bridge crew made their way out one of his Lieutenants stopped at the bulkhead,

"Commander?" he called, Philip turned to face him for a brief second before continuing what he was doing, "I'll be right behind you Lieutenant, just need to secure Lorelie for travel is all, let her see the sights," the Lieutenant headed towards the command escape pod while Philip pulled Lorelie out of the ships systems and heading towards the escape pods himself, Lorelie's chip tucked away securely in his uniform pocket.


"So Captain, what's our new mission? Ya know 'cause last time I checked we were meant to be holding the little village few mile down yonder," David said, pointing in the general direction they had just come from,

"Plans change Shepard, you know this," the Captain replied, "Right, the Council races are attacking the northern side of the city while Marine forces are attacking the east side, Spartans are wiping out anyone in the south and Forerunners are doing the same on the western front. Echo Company is to move into the city and wipe out jammers the fuckers have set up on the northern and eastern sides." Captain Dixon stopped for a moment before continuing,

"You'll be riding with some armour on this one Echo, Challengers and Warriors will support you as you move through the eastern front, reports show fierce fighting in that area, they're using human slaves as meat shields and cannon fodder." Dixon said, Becky was almost bouncing with excitement, she loved the Challenger tank, the massive tank would roll over just about anything and what it couldn't roll over it would destroy.

David however could help but frown, these aliens, these monsters were using slaves against their attackers, and how were they meant to liberate these people if they were forced to shoot them.

"ROE sir?" he asked, referring on how to deal with any slaves that might be sent his way. Captain Dixon sighed slightly before replying,

"Incapacitate but do not kill any of them if you can help it," she replied, as the Captain and Lieutenant carried out their planning an explosion caused the entire Company to go to alert, up above them they saw the yellow streak of the MAC round bouncing off the atmosphere, shortly followed by the burning wreck of the Sevenfold. It would crash hundreds of kilometres away, way outside their theatre of operations.


The Librarian had seen many things in her many millennia of life, she had seen the rise and fall of the ancient Human empire, she saw the ten thousand ships left by ancient Forerunner Warriors in another galaxy, and their descendants, she saw the fall of the Forerunners and then the rise of the Reclaimers, well she was still witnessing that last part. This generally meant that she was wise, knowledgeable and had extreme amounts of patients, that is why she was currently heading towards the ONI building, as she walked through the perimeter she saw the statue that had been erected, it was of one of the Humans 'Spartan' warriors, people of vast skill and power that their enemies often thought of them as demons.

Apparently this one, this Spartan, had sacrificed itself to stop the Covenant from accessing the Shield World; he had even destroyed the outer layers to do so.

Inside the building were desks and lots of guards and security, however dominating the wall opposite the entrance was a large slab of Onyx rock, in its dark surface was the names of the people who had died to stop the Covenant or that were killed by the sentinels that used to protect the shield world. She was quickly waved through however, as she was needed by the man who ran the base.

The man I charge went by the name of Admiral Sullivan; he was also a good friend with Admiral Lasky from what she had heard. He was also very involved with the work that went on here, he studied everything along with the scientists.

The Admiral however was sat at his desk reading through what looked like dozens of reports, he looked both board and interested at the same time. He looked up as she entered the room, it was dominated by the large wooden desk at which the Admiral sat at, and he smiled at her and rose to his feet,

"Librarian, thank you for coming, we have something to discuss," he said, the humans hadn't changed all that much over time, a few skin variations and that was about it, they were just as robust, if not more so than their ancestors. The Admiral had short grey hair, and wore a uniform that made the ones his ancestors wore look plain, the dark greys and blacks were dotted with golden bars and linings and four silver stars that dominated his shoulders.

"Of course, what is it you wished to talk about, Admiral?" the Librarian seemed to hesitate at the title but it was brief, so brief that a less observant man would have missed it,

"We've just gotten word back from the force at Shanxi, you know the one that went there to wipe out the alien slavers," he made gestures with his hands as he spoke, "well apparently the fleet sent there happened to come across another alien civilisation calling itself the 'Citadel Council', a conglomerate of aliens that work together for the betterment of all life in the galaxy, or so they say," he paused to take a breath, "the reason I asked for you here is fairly simple; we want you to head the negotiations with these people, after all our track record with aliens hasn't gone really well so far and certain members of Fleetcom, myself included fear it won't be too long before the uneasy truce between us and them breaks down and a whole new war starts, which we don't want, at all. Ever."

The Librarian was only slightly shocked; she figured she would lead any form of diplomatic mission simply because of her many years of experience in dealing with other races. "I would be honoured Admiral Sullivan, I must ask however, who else will be joining us?" she asked, referring to the other races already encountered,

"A Sangheili Ship Master, an Unggoy Tribal chief, an ambassador from the UEG and an Admiral or General from the UNSC, maybe one of the younger races will want to join in on the talks, even if it's just to see what the grown-ups do," he replied, she nodded her understanding, although the way modern Humans seemed to talk with metaphors always confused her, but who was she to second guess the manner in which a species talks and expresses itself.

"You'll be on board the Dauntless for this mission, a brand new line of Battle Cruiser; it's still experimental so it's the only one we have. It'll be under your command during the talks, after that though, I want it back." The human continued,

"Of course Michael, however I would like to bring a few personal aides with me, they would greatly benefit from being allowed to interact with the alien cultures,"

"I wouldn't have thought of anything else Librarian, but the Dauntless won't be going anywhere until Shanxi is a free UNSC colony once again,"

Admiral Sullivan and the Librarian spent a great many hours talking about what would be negotiated, mainly territory, resources and other such things.


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