Thanks to: Dave Lister, HolyKnight, Rogue15, Sepharih, Shawn Provancha, Darklight, Ronin100, YoraththeWolf, Direwraithe, AjaKe, dogbertcarroll, W1REF1RE, and FireClaw for the reviews, I appreciate the feedback.

Dave Lister: There will be only one small part of Stargate SG-1 in this story, anything else will be saved for a sequel.

HolyKnight: Read on.

Rogue15: Yeah I have given some thought to Xander fighting alongside the military, but I guess for now we'll have to wait and see.

Sepharih: Oh don't worry you'll see more of Xander's four-wheeled friend.

YoraththeWolf: Actually I made a big deal of Ted for two reasons, one of which you saw last chapter, but the other will be a surprise.

Direwraithe: Yeah, RvB is hilarious, I was thinking about doing a chapter about it, any thoughts?

F1REW1RE: Not a bad idea with the weapons, I'll have to consider that.

Sepharih and Direwraithe, and anyone else who wants to know: Warren is, basically, totally fucked up. He's a fanatic but he knows he's "not worthy" at the same time and can't take part in the Great Journey. Despite this, he embarces the Covenant, so he prays directly to the prophets.

Anyways, I guess that's all so on with the story!

Chapter 6

Xander brought the Warthog to a screeching halt in the makeshift garage Cortana had constructed. She shimmered into view and gasped at the still-smoking holes in the hood, the melted windscreen and the assorted dents and melted globs in the titanium A armour plating around the vehicle. "What the hell did you do to your brand new car?" Cortana asked exasperatedly.

"Don't blame me." Xander replied, dropping out of the driver's seat and onto the floor. "Giles was driving. We burst through the gates and he just sat there like a big, fire-drawing duck."

"Well, I'll make sure to e-mail him some driving lessons then." Cortana said, smiling. "I only got a fragmented view from the radio transmissions. Give me a report."

"We got most of them." Xander replied. "Seven or eight got away. The mini-MAC worked perfectly."

"What about exposure?" Cortana asked.

"Well, busting through the gates of a military base isn't exactly what I would call discreet, but we were moving quick and the soldiers were preoccupied, plus we stayed out of town so no civilians saw us. I'm sure there will be some questions about us, but more about the Elites. I brought back a sample, by the way." Xander reached into the back of the truck and pulled out an Elite that was nearly intact save for the noticeable lack of a head.

Cortana looked down and examined the disabled robot. "I'll have to peel away this armour before I can say anything for certain, but offhand I would say it appears similar to Ted. I'll do it after I fix the Warthog, then I'll let you know. You should get going, you have school in a couple hours."

Xander looked at his watch and groaned.

"So, what is the situation?" The President asked.

"Well sir, the base in Sunnydale was attacked by perhaps 30 soldiers of some kind." The Secretary General explained. "They were wearing bulletproof armour, and did not appear to be human. They used some kind of laser or plasma weapon that caused severe burns upon impact. We now believe that these are the same people who attacked the USS Patrick Henry. After the soldiers appeared to have won, a truck with a large mounted gun burst through the gates and opened fire on the radicals. No one got a clear look at the truck, but after the occupants had destroyed a couple of soldiers, it became apparent that they were not biological. The soldiers were robotic. The people in the truck eliminated several of the robots, then when they retreated they made a hasty exit."

The President looked at the report in his hands. "Gentlemen, can anyone here tell me what the hell actually happened in Sunnydale?" He asked angrily. "Is this a terrorist attack? A foothold?"

"For now sir we have not ruled it a foothold situation, though we have also not ruled that possibility out." The Secretary General replied. "We also do not believe it to be some kind of insurrectionist or terrorist group, as we received no demands."

"What about a foreign power, then?" the President asked. "Maybe Russia, or the Chinese?"

"No sir, we don't believe so." The Secretary General replied.

"Done anyone have even the tiniest idea what happened?" The President pressed. "What about the men who saved the base?"

The Secretary General shrugged. "No sir."

Senator Kinsey stood up. "Mr. President, I know little more than you, but I have looked into the records for the town of Sunnydale. Do you know that Sunnydale's death rate is as high as many third world countries, in many cases higher? This attack on a military base is only the tip of the iceberg."

The President folded his arms and looked at Kinsey. "Alright Senator, you clearly have a better grasp of the situation than anyone else." He glared at the rest of his staff. "What do you propose?"

"Well sir, before we come to any conclusions I think we should get a better idea of what exactly is going on over there." Kinsey replied. "I suggest we form a group designed to uncover what exactly is going on in Sunnydale and, if necessary, try and contain it."

"You're talking about a military operation?" The President asked.

"No Mr. President, I think this needs to be done more discreetly." Kinsey replied. "I believe that it would be better to conduct this operation from a separate, secret facility. And I don't think it should be run by the military, at least not entirely."

"I'm assuming you have another suggestion?" The President asked.

"Yes sir, I'm not sure if you're entirely familiar with a civilian operation, known as the NID." Kinsey smiled sinisterly.

Xander watched the reporter standing in front of the military base. Behind him, blast marks spackled a concrete wall, and the edge of the hole that Xander had gouged in the tarmac was visible. "Though details are sketchy, government and military officials offer assurances that this is an isolated incident. Fatalities for base personnel are now estimated to be at least 50, if not more."

"The military seems to be doing a pretty good job of keeping this covered up, or at least bending the story the way they want." Xander remarked.

Cortana, who had joined him in front of the TV, nodded. "Yes, I imagine this won't be public knowledge any time soon."

"So did you learn anything about the robot?" Xander asked.

"It's more basic that Ted in many ways." Cortana replied. "The skeletal structure, and especially the hands are simplified. However at the same time, the structure is designed to withstand much more abuse than Ted. The whole thing is plated with Kevlar or hard metals. It's clearly built with battle as the number one priority"

"What about the, what would you call it, brain?" Xander asked.

Cortana shrugged. "Couldn't tell you much. You blew it off, so all I can tell you is that the head is where the main CPU is located."

"Oh. Sorry." Xander said sheepishly. "Anything else of note?"

"There are some curious design qualities, specifically relating to power regulation. It seems an awful lot like a meld of human and Covenant design elements." Cortana continued. "Whatever we're dealing with here is definitely as much human as Covenant."

"How is that even possible?" Xander asked. "Covenant and human are mortal enemies, like Reds and Blues, spaghetti and milk!"

"Interesting choice of analogy." Cortana replied. "Perhaps this has something to do with how I got here in the first place. Maybe someone has residual memories like you did."

"So who then?" Xander wondered aloud. "It couldn't have been any of the Grunts, so it must have been the Elite. Who was that again?"

"I have no idea." Cortana said. "He ran off before I saw his face, I was trying to keep your from killing yourself, remember?"

Xander ignored her. "Damn, we need to find out who that is. I'll have to organize something with the gang." Xander sighed.

"Still having doubts about them?" Cortana asked.

"Well, yes." Xander replied. "I've accepted that they won't let me pull away, and that they accept me as a leader, but still. It would be so easy for one of them to catch a stray shot of plasma or something."

Before Cortana could reply, Xander's communicator blinked and beeped. He looked down at it, and saw that Buffy was calling him. He pressed the reply and said, "Yeah?"

"Xander, we have a problem." Buffy's voice came through the communicator, sounding slightly tinny.

"What's up?" He asked.

"Angel and I found out what Spike is up to, he's assembled the Judge, some kind of unstoppable demon." Buffy said. "We're meeting at the library."

"I'll be there as soon as I can." Xander said, standing and heading for the door. "I'll meet you there." He called to Cortana, who nodded and vanished.

Xander walked through the doors to the library and saw that Buffy, Giles, Ms. Calender, Willow, Oz and Cordelia were already there. "Hey." He greeted, discreetly hiding his communicator at the sight of Ms. Calender. "What's up?"

"It seems Spike has assembled a demon known as the Judge." Giles replied, cleaning his glasses. "From what I understand, the Judge is an extremely powerful demon that cannot be killed. It took an entire army to defeat him before, and even them they were forced to separate him into different boxes to keep him apart."

"Hmm." Xander said simply. He turned to Buffy. "Are you okay?"

She nodded. "Never better. Angel and I got caught, but we got away without much problem."

"Where is Angel, anyways?" Xander asked.

Buffy shrugged. "I don't know, I haven't seen him since last night."

Xander detected something strange in the Slayer's voice, but decided to file it away and deal with it later. "So, any plans?"

"What can we do?" Ms. Calender asked. "It took an entire army to stop him last time. No offense Buffy, but you wouldn't stand a chance."

Xander smirked, deciding to keep to himself that he, or rather the Master Chief, beat the army that came after him.

"What's so funny Xander?" Cordelia said, looking at the expression on his face. "You seem awfully calm for someone who's facing certain death."

Xander shrugged. "We've done it before."

"No." Cordelia countered. "Buffy's done it before, you stay at the back and try not to get in the way."

"Hey, leave him alone." Willow said. "He does more than you know." She gave Xander a sympathetic smile.

"What?" Cordelia asked. "He gets coffee as well as donuts?"

Xander shrugged, not letting Cordelia get under his skin. "Tell you what Cordelia, when you stake one vampire, then you can gloat over me, but until then, just sit down."

Cordelia was surprised by the supreme confidence in Xander's voice, and she took his suggestion.

"Anyways," Xander continued coolly, "the army beat him by dismembering him, right? So, we have faster ways of doing that these days."

"Chainsaw?" Buffy suggested.

"Combine?" Oz suggested, drawing a strange look from everyone. "It's a piece of farming equipment."

"Good, but I was thinking something that you wouldn't have to be quite so close to use." Xander said. "Something that you could launch?"

The lights went on in Buffy's head. "Oh. OH! Good idea Xander!"

"I don't get it." Ms. Calender said.

"I'm in the dark too." Oz added.

"Rocket launcher." Xander said simply. "They'll never see it coming. We'll they'll see the rocket coming but you know what I mean."

"A rocket launcher." Cordelia scoffed. "Brilliant plan Xander! Are you just going to walk onto the military base and ask them for one?"

"For your information I already know where we can get one." Xander shot back. "Just leave it to me, you guys figure out where he's going to be." Xander turned and walked out of the library. Cordelia followed him.

"Xander!" She called. "What is with you lately? Since when are you confident, and tough, and authoritative?" She softened her tone and moved closer to him.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Xander lied.

"Yeah, right. It's getting harder and harder to make fun of you." Cordelia said. "And not just because I'm starting to not dislike you, but I'm also running out of ammunition. You haven't tripped, or failed a class, or made an idiot of yourself for a while now. Not since… Halloween." Cordelia said, looking up at Xander. "Whoa! How did I not notice this before?"

"Notice what?" Xander asked, feigning innocence.

Cordelia grabbed his arm, gripping it hard. "People don't just turn into all muscle overnight! I've seen you in gym class, you never looked like this before."

"I've been working out for a while now." Xander replied.

"Xander, cut the crap. I'm not stupid." Cordelia said sharply. "What happened to you after Halloween? Are you still Master Chief?"

Xander grabbed Cordelia and dragged her to a more secluded corner. "Cordelia, you can't tell anyone." Xander hissed. "The only people who know are Willow, Buffy, Angel, Giles and Oz. Now you know too, I'm a Spartan."

"What's the big deal?" Cordelia asked. "I can keep a secret. Let go of my arm."

Xander released his grip on her and turned away. "I mean it, do not tell anyone."

"Fine, you have my word." Cordelia said. "Why do you care anyways? Buffy's the Slayer and a lot of people know about it."

"A Spartan isn't quite as quiet to the general population as a Slayer." Xander replied. "Case in point, I busted into a military base the other night and tore the place up with a truck that had a giant gun on it. Think the military might be a little curious as to who I am? Plus I'm sure the Watcher's council would be interested in taking a look at me."

Cordelia shrugged. "Hey, it's your life. So I'm guessing you really can get a rocket launcher then?"

Xander gave a half smile.

Willow was in the library when Angel arrived. Immediately, she could feel that there was something different about him. Willow could see it in the expression on his face, and the swagger in his step. "Angel?" She asked.

"Angel's not home anymore, Willow." Angelus replied. "Just me." He advanced menacingly towards Willow, causing her to shriek loudly.

Xander immediately emerged from the stacks and flipped over the railing and over Willow, landing between her and Angelus. "Don't. Touch. Her." He said with conviction.

Angelus laughed cruelly. "You gonna stop me, Xander?" He looked him over. "You're tougher now than you were before, but you seem to be missing your armour."

"I don't need it to beat you." Xander lied. He took up a fighting stance and waited, keeping his face neutral.

Angelus eyed him up coolly then snorted. "Another time maybe. I have places to go, people to kill, towns to destroy. You know how it is."

"So much to do so little time," Xander replied sarcastically.

Angel turned and walked out, leaving Xander standing in front of a trembling Willow. He turned and helped her off the floor. "What just happened?" Xander asked. "Isn't Angel supposed to be a good guy?"

Xander arrived at school the next day with the Jackhammer rocket launcher in a duffel bag. He brought it into the library and set it down on the table, checking to make sure that no one other than his friends were around. He saw Giles, Buffy, Willow, Oz and Cordelia sitting around, but no Miss Calender. "Brought the rockets," He said simply.

Giles turned to look. "Yes Xander, good work." He sullenly returned to looking at the ground.

"Why's everyone so down?" Xander asked. "We've got the Judge licked, isn't that reason to celebrate?"

"Xander, we just found out that Miss Calender has been spying on us," Willow explained. "She's part of the Gypsy tribe that cursed Angel."

"So she's the one who-"

"No," Buffy answered, cutting him off. "That was my fault."

Before Xander could answer, alarm noises began coming from the air around them. Xander whirled around, looking for the source. "What the hell is that?" he asked.

Giles jumped to his feet. "The dimensional wards have been breached," he answered. "My guess is the Covenant have made another appearance."

"Those guys have impeccable timing," Xander said dryly.

"Which do we deal with first?" Willow asked.

"Both," Xander answered decisively. "You guys take care of the Judge, I'll deal with the Covenant. Buffy's used a rocket before, she knows what she has to do. Right?"

"Sure," Buffy answered easily. "I have to kill him." There was a hardness in Buffy's voice that he hadn't heard since she fought the Master, and at that moment Xander knew Buffy would do what had to be done.

He was wrong.

Xander threaded the fiber-optic wire up over the ridge he was behind and plugged it into his helmet. The view automatically switched to that of what the tiny camera was seeing, which, to Xander's dismay, was a lot more than the two previous Hunters. Approximately five hundred feet away from Xander at least three dozen grunts, seven or eight jackals and four Elites, two of which had energy swords, stood in a defensive position around a mangled dropship. Though the dropship was banged up, the most obvious damage was that the back left corner was simply gone. There was a precision line along the hull where it had separated from the rest of the ship.

"Looks like the portal closed partway on the ship," Cortana observed. "It must have sheared away the back part of the ship, which incidentally is where the engines were located."

"What do you think?" Xander asked. "Can I take this many by myself?"

"The probability of a successful head on assault is not stellar," Cortana replied. "The outcome is only 43.28 percent for a victory by you. I would suggest trying to eliminate the forces from range."

"How perfect, the one weapon I don't have is a sniper rifle," Xander retorted, rolling his eyes.

"The battle rifle should be an acceptable substitute. Switch to single shot and attach the silencer," Cortana ordered. "Hit the Jackals first, then prioritize as needed."

Xander did both and then slaved the scope to his helmet screen. He held the weapon up over the ridge while keeping his head below. It was a strange feeling to aim the rifle from his position, but Xander quickly sighted a jackal, then ran through the pattern.

"Can't decide which one to hit first?" Cortana asked.

"I figure if I'm quick I can get at least two or three before they get their shields up," Xander reasoned. He again took aim at his first target and, after a second to steady his aim, he fired. The rifle emitted a barely audible pop, and three large holes appeared in the Jackal's midsection, quickly beginning to seep thick alien blood. Before the first one even dropped, Xander had re-adjusted his aim and fired again, taking out another jackal quickly. He re-aimed and managed to get one more shot before the Covenant forces suddenly realized what was going on. The jackals deployed their wrist-mounted shields and took cover behind them, while the Elites barked strange, garbled orders to the grunts, who began surveying the scene, plasma pistols and needlers drawn.

"Time to move, Shorty," Cortana ordered. "They'll figure out where those shots came from soon enough."

Xander withdrew his rifle, then shuffle-walked in a crouch position about 200 feet down the ridgeline, where he again dropped to his back and aimed his rifle again. Lucky for him, the Jackals' shields were now out of line, pointed at where he was before. Xander took aim and fired again, picking off another three jackals quickly, as well as a grunt. This time, the Covenant forces picked up on where he was firing from and returned the favour with interest. Xander hunched down as the solid rock wall in front of him began to melt and turn to glass.

"Get off your ass!" Cortana shouted.

Xander took a second to reload his nearly spent mag before standing up and taking pot shots as he ran. He picked off several more Grunts before expending his ammunition, but with an enemy in site the Covenant forces began advancing towards him, while the remaining jackals and a couple of grunts laid down covering fire. Xander dove behind a particularly thick piece of rock. He dropped his battle rifle and pulled twin SMGs from their holsters.

"Well," Cortana commented, "looks like we've got ourselves a good old fashioned shoot-out."

"No weapon forged can stop me," The Judge declared, leering haughtily at the Slayer and Scoobies in front of him.

"That was then," Buffy said. She knelt down and removed the Jackhammer from the duffel bag it was it. Hefting onto her shoulder, Buffy calmly finished, "This is now."

Angelus and Drusilla dove away from the Judge, who stood there staring at the twin tubes. "What does that do?" He asked.

Buffy pulled the trigger, and a rocket shot out of the tube and ignited, flying directly into the Judge, who was immediately blown apart. "You guys pick up the pieces," she said, "I'm going after Angel."

Unbeknownst to Buffy, things were not going quite as well for Xander. Pinned down from all angles, Xander had been able to chip away at the Covenant forces, eliminating the remaining jackals, several of the grunts and one Elite. Unfortunately, he was starting to run out of ammunition. Xander popped his last two clips into the bullet hose SMGs.

"Gotta make those count," Cortana said. "Sorry I didn't think to bring more, I had no idea we would be facing so many."

Xander grimly surveyed the scene with a cold, calculating eye that came entirely from the Spartan side of him. At least fifteen grunts and three Elites remained, two of which held energy swords. It would take his remaining rounds just to take out two of the Elites, leaving him with nothing but a combat knife to deal with the grunts and another Elite.

"You know we can't win this, right?" Xander asked.

"The probability is extremely low," Cortana replied.

"Then I say we go down fighting," Xander said. He emerged from behind the rock and fired several rounds, taking out a grunt trying to hit him with needles. Xander spun on his heel and sprayed fire at the closest target he could find, one of the sword-wielding Elites. His shields glowed a bright blue as he charged Xander, ignoring the hail of bullet's directed at him. Xander held down both triggers until he heard the chambers click empy. The Elite, which now stood only a few feet in front of him, dropped to its' knees and then fell forward. Dropping down, Xander quickly snatched the white bar out of the dead Elite's claws, fiddling for some kind of switch or button. He was rewarded when the energy sword blasted out of the handle and materialized in front of him.

Xander ran at full speed towards the nearest grunt, dodging left and right to avoid the needles that the alien was launching at him. As he ran past, he swung low with the sword, bringing it back around in an arc that sliced through the hapless grunts mid-section. The little alien screamed in agony as his innards were torn apart by the plasma blade, which gutted him entirely.

There was a flash around Xander and he looked at his shield bar, which now read zero. Xander felt the heat begin to rise in his suit as plasma pistols began scoring the armour. Xander accepted this with a grim certainty. There was nowhere to take cover and let his shields recharge. He was going to die, probably a very painful death as his suit became his own personal microwave. "Goodbye, Cortana," He said quietly.

Xander's vision began to grow red as the heat inside the suit grew to over 300 degrees Fahrenheit. He noticed somewhere in the back of his mind that there was also a serious burn on his abdomen, but everything felt dulled, slow. Which is probably why he didn't notice Cortana shouting at him until the first explosion rocked the ground.

A group of eight grunts exploded into little bits as an Ardent V missile struck the ground directly in the center of the group. Immediately the Covenant shifted their fire to the new target, which Xander dimly recognized as a Pelican. The human dropship hovered silently fifty feet over the ground. The two fifty millimeter machine guns on the front suddenly lit up as they sprayed bullets over the field, tearing apart the grunts like soggy paper bags. The Elites did not fare much better. The guns, capable of firing off 4000 rounds per minute each, tore through the shields in less than a second and literally blew apart the Elites, tearing off limbs and even significant portions of torso.

Xander managed to crawl away from the scene. Once the firing had stopped, the temperature in Xander's armour had begun to drop as the suit vented to majority of it's hydrostatic gel. He managed to get to his feet and stumbled towards the Pelican, which was lowering to the ground.

A gruff looking, black marine chewing on a cigar stump looked on impatiently from the open rear hatch. "Come on son, get your butt in gear. I don't got all damn day!" He barked.

Xander lurched into the back of the dropship and fell forward, rolling over as his shoulder hit one of the bench-style seats. The marine looked over, concerned. "Don't you dare give up on me son! I will personally kick your ass from here to Sunday!" He turned to look to the cockpit. "Get us airborne, now! And get that corpsman back here double time!"

Xander's vision began to fuzz. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was the tag on the marine's uniform, which read 'Sgt. Johnson.'

End chap 6

Hope you liked that chapter. Sorry it took me a while to get it out but since I'm paying a crapload of money to be at school, it takes priority. Thanks to everyone for reading and please leave a review!

P.S. I have decided I should probably get a beta reader since most of the stuff I end up posting is quite raw (usually posted within less than an hour of being finished). So if anyone would be interested in doing that, please send me an e-mail.