Instead of 12 hours, the harness fitting took 29 hours. Mostly due to the fact that the infinity didn't have any large asteroids that met the requirements for that they needed. So, they needed to pull back, which was helped by the fact that the Empire fleet was reinforced with a storm fleet. It wasn't a large fleet, but they were the elite ships of the Empire. Given the best weapons and top-of-the-line ships.

But the result was the same as the ships were forced away from Zeta's reach to lick their wounds. But it also allowed the joint forces to repair their ships and get the rocks ready. It wasn't easy thanks to the mix of minerals inside them. But that was of little concern as they just needed hollow out the inside before installing a support and crash frame. The materials in the rocks helped out with suppressing signatures inside and small anti-targeting modules were also installed to help prevent the stations from targeting them automatically.

Now the Infinity had over 50 asteroids that fit their need. Each one having space for one or more human-sized people to fit inside. The larger ones that could fit more, were set up with ODSTs in mind. More people inside meant more chance of success if they landed. If they didn't and overshot, the asteroids had a beacon inside that they could transmit on a federation only band to alert their location.

The only problem was that they had enough power and oxygen for 48 hours. Meaning if they overshot, there was a 2-day window for them to be rescued. With that in mind, only people who volunteered would be attending the mission. That went for both ODST and Spartans as they were the only ones who could pull this off. John made a final check of his weapons before he approached the asteroid he was going to take.

"John wait," Parisa called as she walked up to him.

"Parisa," he nodded. "What is it?"

The President bit her lip as he looked at him. "Just be careful, ok? I know you're lucky so don't push it too far,"

"I won't," he said with a nod.

"Good, take off your helmet," she then ordered.

Inwardly, John frowned but did as she asked. Before he could as why she grabbed the sides of his head and pulled herself in for a kiss on the lips. The room fell deathly silent as they watched these two hold each other their lips locked. While a moment passed, an eternity passed in the hangar before Parisa reluctantly pulled away, blushing slightly.

"Just come back in one piece," she said before walking off.

The shocked audience just stared as their president left and John claimed into one of the asteroids. A resistance to cheer was felt and the people just got back to work. Silently muttering about what just happened.

Parisa his in a side passage with her hands over her face as she turned beet red with embarrassment.

"OhGod,whydidIdothat?" she asked herself. "In front of everyone? I'm such an idiot!"

Shame and embarrassment filled her as the realisation what she just did and the consequences of that. Taking a deep breath, she sighed and removed her hands from her face. What's done is done, and there was nothing she could do. Taking another deep breath, she looked up at one of the cameras and smiled.

"I don't mind sharing," she said before straightening up and walking off.

In her room, Cortana saw the whole thing. To say she was fuming was an understatement as the heat from her body and face could melt the bulkhead. Her teeth barred as her eyes flared at watching the president hide her face.

"I'm going to kill you, slowly," she growled.

As she watched Parisa turned to the camera with a smile. "I don't mind sharing," she said.

That just made the former AI fume even more. "He's not some toy for us to share or play around with," she growled. "He's mine,"

OOOOO

Using one of the cargo ships as a delivery system, the rocks were piled inside the cargo bays with around 360 ODST soldiers and 60 Spartans. A bit overkill, but this was mostly based on the higher estimation for how many troops were needed and in case any rocks missed. While the main targets were the MAC platforms, there was also a chance of hitting the ring or the command-and-control station.

With this in mind, the rocks were reinforced with buffers, which added to the fit time and plans were made. If the rocks hit the command-and-control station then the objective would either be to take control or destroy the station. The ring was another matter, however. Everyone knew what kind of secrets they held, so there were standing orders for everyone if they reached the ring.

Bunker down, hide and don't touch anything. If they could see any way to disrupt Imperial forces, they should. But the main objective was to hide and wait for reinforcements. Other than that, it was the best of luck to all of them in case they missed it.

The ship they used was battered and badly maintained, a good thing for them to use. It meant that when they jumped in, it would look like the ship was so badly maintained it exited slip-space at a bad time and exploded. Nothing suspicious about that and the wreckage it sent wouldn't be looked too highly at. At least that was the plan but plans seldom cooperated when the enemy had guns.

"Stand by," Dana said through the radio. "Jumping in three, two…" she didn't get to say the last number as the ship shook and jumped.

It appeared to the side of the enemy fleet and stations. While there was no, left, right, up and down a system was made to figure it out. Earth, being humanity's home world, was used as a focal point as the main determinant. Earth represents the galactic north while up and down are based on whether or not you are under Earth's south or above Earth's north. It helps with navigation but took a while to get used to. 3D travelling was confusing at the best of times.

As soon as the ship existed, it shook and soon after exploded sending the rocks towards the fleet and stations. It was going to take them a better part of 3 hours to get there, so John decided to check who they lost.

According to the data he looked at, they had only lost around 30 soldiers. Which was better than expected and they would serve as a good cover for the ship exploding. It was callous, yes, but they all knew what they signed up for. With that done he checked his projected path. To his surprise, he was on course, but not for one of the MAC stations, but for the command-and-control station. He wasn't sure if that was lucky or not, but it would allow him to try and take the fight to the command team. Remove them, that would be one less problem to deal with.

Deciding to see what the others look like, he brought up a broader view of the other rocks and their expected projections. He didn't like what he saw. About 40% of the rocks, the ones with people inside, would miss the target, and about 8% of them would land on the ring. This wasn't good, but it wasn't bad either. The worst projections were that 100% o the rocks would miss the target and fall into the planet.

At best, about 80% was projected to hit the stations and overwhelm them. A shock and awe tactic that should work with what they were trying to do, but that doesn't guarantee it would work. All they could do now is plan for the worst and hope for the best.

As he relaxed, he closed his eyes to get as much rest as he could and come up with a plan to get the station under Federation control.

OOOOO

Duncan Smythe yawned as he watched the radar. Outside of the failed attack from the other warlords, the only thing of note was a ship exploding outside of effective weapons range. Whatever happened, it was bad and wasn't worth noting. The only thing that they were concerned with now was taking out the debris before they could hit the stations. It wasn't long now until he could open up with the main guns.

With another yawn, he turned to his partner, Mitchel. "After we get those damned rocks destroyed, wanna grab something to eat?"

Mitchel checked his watch and nodded. "Yeah, it's due for us to get off anyway. Something to eat would be a good idea,"

"Heads up guys," another operator spoke up. "Those rocks are entering effective range,"

"Roger," the two said as they turned to their terminals and turned the guns on.

After a moment, the autocannons swivelled facing the rocks. "Huh," Duncan muttered. "Unable to track or lock,"

"Probably some rare earth elements interfering without instruments," Mitchel agreed as the two of them switched to manual but the same problem still persisted.

Whatever the ship was carrying was massing up their targeting sensors to the point where even with manual wasn't going to work as effectively as they liked. With a grunt, the pair of them open-fired some test rounds to see if they could hit anything regardless of the tracking systems. Heavy calibre rounds flew through space and hit a few asteroids which exploded sending more debris flying around. But the shields would be able to deal with them. With a satisfied nod, the two began to pick their targets and open fire at the asteroids. There was a lot to pick out, but they only needed to pick out the major threats.

As they picked out their 17th asteroid, Duncan's guns went dead, followed by Mitchel's.

"Ahhh what the fuck?" he muttered as he tried to reconnect, but an error message still remained.

"Sir," Mitchel called to the station commander who walked over and looked over a railing to them. "Guns 1,2,6 and 8 are down,"

"I'm just getting an unable to connect message," Duncan added. "There's got to be a problem with the wiring,"

"I'll…" the commander tried to say, but at that moment the station shook. "What was…"

The station shook again, this time the alarms sounded. "Sir! We have borders!" one of the operators said.

"What?" the commander asked as he turned to look at a map of the station to see some areas turn to red. "What's going on?"

"We've been invaded," a deep voice said causing people to turn.

A Spartan leaned against the main door with an evil smile. He lacked the helmet of other Spartans, but instead had a pair of shades that covered his eyes. Another thing that he had was a long brown trench coat that was more for show than any kind of practical use.

He smiled as he looked away. "Don't worry. My men will gun them down," he said before walking away.

The commander involuntarily shook. "That guy gives me the creeps,"

"Sir we're getting alerts from the other stations!" another one of the operators called. "They're under attack as well!"

"SLIPSPACE RUPTURE!" another called. "It's the Warlord fleets,"

"Just one thing after another!" the commander yelled. "Deploy combat teams to repel borders and fortify the command sections,"

"Yes sir!" the people in the command centre yelled as they moved to issue the necessary orders.

OOOOO

O'Malley, or Omega as he preferred to be known as, just sighed as he looked up at Katarina who had her arms crossed. He was one of the few to know about the Meta's secret, something that he hid because he knew the chaos it would cause. And while he liked chaos, the one that particular nugget would bring wasn't going to be beneficial or fun.

"How did project Freelancer get their hands on an Orion Spartan?" she asked.

"Well, as you know, the director wanted to get his hands on whatever he could. Legally or otherwise, hehehe, and one of the ones he got was an Orion subject who more than proved to be useful. But… my… brothers manipulated that big oaf into doing their bidding," Omega let out a chuckle before continuing. "The moron,"

"Hey," Doc said managing to take control for a moment. "That's not very nice,"

"Quiet you," Omega shot before turning back to Kat. "So, you found it out, what do you want me to do about it?"

Kat indicated to a terminal near him. "I want you to have a look at the data, see if I missed anything," she shook her head. "You are more familiar with the information than I am, maybe you can find something I cannot,"

"And in return?" he pressed.

"You get a good meal," she shot in a deadpan tone. "For a month,"

"Oh, thank God, I'm getting sick of those MREs you keep feeding me. They're revolting," he shuddered as he sat.

"Hey O'Malley, is it ok if I ask doctor Kat a question?" DuFresne asked.

"Ok fine, just don't make it too long. I need all the brain power here," Omega said before typing something and then turning to Kat.

"Sorry about this doctor, but I've been wanting to know, why do I have Omega still in my head?" he said earning a groan from his other self.

Kat paused and thought. "It's hard to explain," she admitted earning a snicker from Omega. "It's sort of like split personality disorder but not as the two of you are completely separate just sharing the same mind," she paused wondering how to word what she had found. "Freelancer armour was similar in style to Spartan armour but each one has a system that allowed for an AI to occupy it. This system is a direct interface with the user's brain,"

"So, the user can use the armour in order not to tear a limb," DuFresne nodded.

"Which would have been fun," Omega laughed. "Watching all those poor souls have their arms ripped out would have been hilarious,"

Kat ignored them as she continued. "Because of this, the possession of an AI is more literal as it takes control of the brain in order to control the armour. But the human brain will always fight the intruder until it leaves," she paused licking her lips. "This is why it is different with you. Your, personality, personal values and the time the two of you spent together imprinted a copy of Omega into your mind. Creating an artificial personality split within the two of you. But because of… well who you are doctor, your mind didn't reject it but accepted it as a part of yourself,"

"In other words, you pacifist simpleton, I may be fake, but you didn't have the stomach to kick me out," Omega smiled.

DuFesne sighed. "Thanks, doc,"

"Now please be quiet," Omega said before looking at the data.

Kat shifted in place for a while before a question came to mind. "Would I be one of your women if you conquered the universe?"

Omega paused before laughing. "You a member of my harem?" Kat frowned at that as he continued to laugh. "Please, that is only for the most beautiful women in the galaxy. You aren't one of them, if anything you'd be one of my scientists tasked with bringing me the best soldiers you could make,"

"Is that right?" Kat asked her eye twitching.

"Yes, you aren't my type anyway," Omega shot. "Don't get me wrong, you are smart and beautiful. But it's your personality and your… ambitions. I could never get with someone like you,"

"Why you little," Kat muttered as her eye twitched.

"Guys look," DuFesne spoke up and the two turned looking at the screen.

"Is that…." Omega muttered but Kat looked a little confused.

"Yeah. I did a check on all of them, and this matches," the doc said.

"Wait, stop what's going on?" Kat asked confused.

"Well, when I was in Blood Gulch, I did several tests on the guys there. Even without them knowing," DuFesne said shyly.

"My idea," Omega added. "As it turned out, it was a good one. One of the things I programmed in was a comparison with the red and blue teams. See if any match up. And we do have a match,"

"Two in fact," DuFesne said. "The problem is we don't know where they are,"

Kat smiled. "I do,"