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Normandy: Spirit of Fire: Arcturus

The Normandy came out of FTL with the largest ship in HSA space, the Spirit had been in transit for nearly three days, a FTL tug and a fleet of ships were sent to secure the UNSC vessel, though it had been a more exhausting flight, mostly due to the extended period of time needed to get the ship to the relay and move past.

Now heading into dock, Daniel and Shepard along with all of the officers and Spartans were gathering in the hangar to meet with admiral Hackett.

"Sir" Daniel said and saluted.

"At ease soldier you not under my jurisdiction anymore." He said returning the salute.

Turning to Cutter he gave a handshake.

"Good to meet you, you must be Captain Cutter I presume?"

"Likewise, sir, we sent the message from the Normandy of our arrival from Tyr." The two resumed their normal postures.

Hackett noticed the sudden increase in Spartan numbers.

"I assume the extra force is necessary?" Hackett asked.

"They're here to help, and I am sure Daniel helped explain his situation."

"Yes he did, as much as we try to disapprove on the use of gene augmentation, they are who they are, and the alliance is open to any help it can receive."

"Sir, just curious, has Alliance command accepted our 'employment'?"

"Well that is not technically for me to decide, as to your situation, Lieutenant Daniel here has more pull than what most other soldiers have, considering you are actually employed by the Nova Corp, which Daniel founded, they have more pull within the alliance than most people know, so, yes."

This was slightly startling; most Spartans have no head for business or politics.

Daniel decided to explain.

"Sir, I think you might want to know, as the founder of Nova Corp, I am only just its founder and creator, but I don't actually run the corporation, I just helped build it, over six months, Vinaya is actually the one who runs most of the products and such."

This explanation helped clear a lot of confusion up, though most wouldn't question what a Spartan could ever accomplish, so they never did, especially in Daniels case.

Preparing to set off again, Daniel was happy to let the Spirit rest in the docks for repair, Shepard had told them that their next point of interest was coming up and fast.

XXXXX

Things on the Normandy was quickly settling down, Daniels announcement of his romance with Tali did nothing to spark anyone's attention, Red team was now aboard the Normandy, Shepard and Liara were spending more time together, and Kaiden was sleeping in the quarters.

Ash was nowhere to be seen at this point, Vinaya was cleaning her 'room' and Garrus was spending time with Dr Anders, Jorge was training in the lower holds with Red team, and an old friend made his return, Jenkins who had been in surgery for nearly a month had finally been given a clean bill of health.

The rest of the crew was doing what they had to do, so nothing special today, the only difference was the new tank that just arrived and the four warthogs and one APC, two Pelicans and the Sabre fighters in the hangar.

The fighters were just there as support, the warthogs were their new form of getting to their destination fast and the Mako was no more, it was replaced by a new vehicle that Daniel had left in development called: MK1 Ballista Rail Tank, the vehicle was made much like a Cobra but kept the more Mako look, fast and destructive with added speed and fire power.

The news from Tyr was things were being cleared away and the remaining wreckage has been secured by the Nova foundation along with Alliance forces, reconstruction was to begin in a month with the help from the Spirit of course.

Cutter was accepted as a part of the alliance but with Daniels decision had left them out of any major alliance databanks like he did for himself.

The Spirit was going to have to stay as a repair and defence for alliance colonies in the traverse, though it was getting break time for the crew, having just arrived in this universe.

Nova foundation keeps its checks on all of the Spirits systems and weapons making sure the ship would be combat ready before the end of the week, some add-ons such as FTL for the under development engines Anders was working on would not be active for a while longer, so the ship stayed in dock until completed.

There really wasn't much to say.

XXXXX

Now en route to Feros

Another day or so before hitting Feros, Daniel was checking on all of his gear, and preparing some.

Liara was a new addition to the team and rather unexpected one; he had thought to keep some other variants of suits so he had to improvise something from inventory.

Biotics was not in his area of expertise but he knew that biotic powers weren't as useful if stuck inside a heavy suit of armour, fashioning some ODST armour and light combat gear.

He had already finished a set of armour for Wrex, but that was more complicated, the suit had to be made from the same material as the MKV because Wrex was capable and suited to heavy armour but it had to sacrifice biotic protection in order for the suit to suffice.

Tali's suit had taken damage on Tyr so there was that to repair and Jorge was in need of something new, the amount of things was plenty, but this was simple chores.

Virana's arrival as well had slowed the process to complete, though Daniel wasn't complaining.

Setting the computer to give the best possible estimate for the suit size and design he left to get a drink of water.

The cafeteria was practically empty; there were very few people inside at the present moment, though he did notice Shepard enjoying a cup of coffee by a table near the port side window, and Jorge who had just finished a drill.

Everyone was either in stasis or asleep in quarters seeing as it was 5:20 in the morning, Daniel liked working early so he decided it was easier to just get things squared away before missions, he also needed time for Tali, so that as well.

Grabbing a cup from a dispenser he went over to the water tank and poured himself a cup.

There was quite literally nothing to do but wait, heading to his quarters he decided to check on Tali.

Opening the doors he headed to their bed, Tali, was quietly sleeping on the bed.

Walking over to her, he stroked her head gently so he did not wake her from slumber.

XXXXX

Arcturus

CVF Spirit of Fire

Only one day of relaxation for the crew came as they were to be redeployed, thanks to Nova Corp they were at optimum capacity and ready to get to the fight, or deploy support.

Daniels upgrades were added to the ship, including the fusion FTL drive and the new ablative armour, there was also all the new repair work added by the corporation, the ship now had an extra area for defence.

The new refit also came with the new infantry gear, the crew of 8,750 was given all the basic uniforms and armour upgrades.

ODSTs had to remove their old suits so they could receive their new ones, Allan Ulan of the 21st ODST expeditionary force that was stationed on Advent a world that had recently joined in the conflict, he was shipped to a naval training facility for some time before being admitted, he was 19 and a very skilled and smart soldier.

Allan had a history with the covenant, especially since burning Cyrus V in 2529, when he was 17, he could never turn his eyes to forgive the covenant, but he restrained himself from the other species of this universe.

Now receiving the new armour he placed his own custom suit, red and black set nicely over his body, and one dark visor.

Pilots on the flight deck were gathering all their gear; all pelicans had to receive upgrades and the sparrows, hawks were being re-armed with more weapons and tech, while the vultures began to undergo changes.

Tank and vehicle drivers were having the time of their lives, they had to sit out waiting for the Nova Corp to replace their Scorpions armour and add on shields, Grizzlies were no different, and the warthogs had to mount new gauss guns, the elephant transports were being designed for planetary insertion and the Wolverine MAT was being refitted with new cluster missiles.

The only thing that did not change was Serina who had decided to be a little picky on what she wanted as an upgrade, she now had the option of clothes and a few choices of make-up and colour, she was now looking livelier as her holographic projector made her life like form attractive.

(Just kidding)

James Cutter watched as the reports came over the ship, he had only so much time, his ready room was already undergone its changes, a small fish tank or garden attachment came with his new room (ME2) which seemed larger than most of the ships standard compartments.

Robert Damien was a flight officer, a civilian flight officer, he had some of the worst luck, the ship he was on was being attacked as it left Arcadia and he had no choice but to scramble aboard the Spirit, he was temporarily commissioned to assist the crew when they reached the shield world.

He had plenty of shuttle piloting skills, but he was mainly a private flyer, he had also used to fly older long-sword fighter bombers, and crashed a plane at one point into a set of cars, he had a good reason, but the council did not want to hear an excuse.

He eventually ended up going about looking for work and found himself on Arcadia.

Now being commissioned into the ranks here, he found himself stuck with the crew once again, he had no objections to it though, he was sure that he could make a new life here, he had nothing to go back for, and he was still 20, with lots of time left.

Med bay, medical officer Gregory Hurston was dealing with some patients from the Tyr campaign as he kindly put it, he was not the best in this area, seeing as he worked as a medical practitioner on Arcadia, he and 249 other civilians were aboard the ship, they all had to pitch in to the effort.

He was a doctor not a nut job, as he was constantly placed in near death situations, he was also on the shield world, and Tyr, he had no place in the military yet he continued to assist, he doubted he might ever get off the ship.

But then again he was 21 with a university degree in medical science, a major in medicine and minor in technology.

He was only starting to work when the attack happened, so his career went straight out the window.

The ship was at its peak capacity soon, and with the loss of some crewmen they were to receive more, another 500 plus candidates for the crew were being selected by admiral Hackett, he decided only to choose those who were simply capable, in the end it was rounded down to the last 500.

Serina did a very thorough background check and medical examination of each to determine the best suited and least, she ended with most being combat capable, but most were also volunteers, not being the most well suited for heavy combat or archaic vehicles.

She also found an entire Cerberus infiltration team, which were led into a small compartment and spaced, though they were inside their hard suits, so there wasn't much to do either than wait for rescue.

The day went by quickly, and most of the ship was back up to combat status, Arcturus though had received some other recruits, a salarian STG task force and Asari commando detachments with one Turian company, this was just in the interests of the council species.

Serina was tasked with trying to locate the best and most suitable areas, and she also performed a more thorough check on each of the assigned task forces backgrounds.

Finding no evidence of being a threat she allowed each to join the crew, but more new arrivals, a salarian spectre and asari with Nihlus himself joined the crew.

It wasn't easy for the marines or the entire ship to get used to having aliens aboard.

There was also the fact that they had some quarian engineers, which were employed by Nova Corp, Serina had some issues with them running about, they did not trust the AI or the fact that the entire ship did, though the recent conflict with the geth had pushed their decision to assist.

There was just 50 quarians, though most were helping maintain the ship, and the engines.

Some of the other species started inquiring as to why the quarians were aboard, Serina was sent to tell them that everyone was allowed their opinions, though racial discrimination was not necessary, the recent conflict with the geth had not favoured the quarian people.

But with everything said and done, there was only one thing left to do.

XXXXX

Feros

A large wave of geth poured into the landing bay, the team started a systematic purge, Daniel stepped on the head on a downed unit and continued fighting, he and the others punched through the lines like paper.

Sky way

A pelican dropped off the Ballista with Shepard and her strike team, Red team was dropping in by HEV at the designated sight, while Shepard cleared the road.

"Were burning sunshine people, let's move it."

VOTE

What should the Spirit of Fire's first mission be?

Bring down the sky?

Rachni?

Cerberus: Hades Dogs?

Just review, I want to know.

And BTW choose which is the next pairing