Disclaimer: All series belong to respective owners.

The Halo of the Hero

Chapter 8 The fall of Reach.

Note: Ranma is 17-18 during the fall of Reach, but he looks older due to the augmentations, and acts older due to his training.

11 December 2550

Reach Military Complex

Ranma stood in the huge amphitheatre along with the rest of the Spartans. He looked around on the faces of his family, seeing that they only had grown stronger and more determined since he last saw them.

He had been with Kelly, Sam, Linda and Grace onboard the cruiser ATLAS, for over a year, as part of the ODST Marines stationed there, having no contact with the rest of the Spartans.

Then he had been reassigned to the Special Forces as a ghost for about a year, and because the four others had been assigned to different units he was all alone.

He had been extremely isolated under that year, finding it hard to befriend the other soldiers. Sure, he had the usual talk at the mess, played cards with his team and had different games and drinking contests like any other marine but he felt out of place.

Every time he smiled or laughed he did it because he was expected to do it, not because he really felt like it. He knew deep down that he didn't belong there, the other marines were normal people. On the battlefield he felt kinship with the soldiers that fought and died, but once they where back onboard the cruiser he couldn't join in their camaraderie and share their joy.

While the marines became normal humans again, he remained the disciplined soldier.

He let his gaze fall upon every Spartan in the room, locking eyes with some. Their faces were void of any felling except grim determination and the promise of death. Every Spartan had their dress-uniform on, their chests decorated with medals and campaign ribbons.

He also wore the uniform, his chest adorned with every single medal the UNSC had, from the Purple Heart, Wounded in Combat to the famous Medal of Honour, the only medal missing was the Prisoner of War.

He had more medals and ribbons than most generals, but didn't take any pride in them, they just reminded him of the countless lives he had taken, and you didn't take pride in that.

The doors to the room opened and a Captain walked in and along her side Dr Halsey and Dr Izack.

"Officer on the deck" Ranma said and then stood rigidly and gave her a crisp salute.

"At ease soldiers" The captain said.

The Captain and Dr Halsey then walked up to the podium, standing before the gathered Spartans.

Dr Halsey talked into the microphone.

"You have all been separated, spread across the stars fighting the Covenant and renegades that have threatened the UNSC. You have all seen combat, more so than most veterans, and you have all been successful. You are the UNSC best soldiers, not a single casualty among the Spartan ranks and every mission completed successfully. Spread out among the regular ranks of soldiers you have proved yourself time and time again. Alone with normal soldiers you have been successful, now working together with the rest of the Spartans you will be unstoppable."

Dr Halsey looked up and into the eyes of the Spartans.

"Your training is now complete, and now you will begin your service as Spartans."

The Spartans didn't show any emotion or surprise, looking like they had suspected it. Dr Halsey looked slightly taken back by the reaction or lack thereof from the Spartans.

Ranma, and the rest of the Spartans, was quite shocked to find out that the last two years of intense combat was just training. They were surprised yes, but they could understand why, they needed the experience, but they didn't show their surprise.

He saw as Kelly raised an eyebrow, which for a Spartan was quite a sign of emotion, but except that they remained cool and composed.

"The following two months you will go trough an extensive training program to prepare for the last stage of the SPARTAN-II project."

Dr Hasley looked out at the Spartans once again.

"Any questions?" The captain on her side asked.

She didn't really expect any questions but then she saw as one of the Spartans, with his chest full of medals and campaign ribbons, raised a hand.

"Who are you soldier?" The Captain asked.

"Master Chief Petty Officer 1st grade Ranma-One-Seventeen, Captain" The soldier answered.

"And, what is your question?" She asked the man.

"What is the last stage of the SPARTAN-II project?"

The Captain turned towards Dr Halsey and Dr Izack, which in turn pressed a small button and a projector in the roof turned on.

"The last stage is your armour, the MJOLNIR MARK 5. The armour is a full body combat suit, capable of reflecting plasma to a small degree. This armour is the newest in battle-gear, featuring a Heads Up Display or HUD for short, a multi vision goggle, motion tracker and advanced life monitoring equipment." She said and pointed toward the dismantled pieces of the armour.

"But the most important part of the armour is the small fusion reactor and shield generator placed on the back of the armour, which will put you on even ground with the Covenant."

As before the Spartans didn't show any outwards sign of surprise, but inwards they were smiling in anticipation.

"The armour has one major drawback however, without a Spartan in it the weight is 500 kilos. This will decrease your speed and strength before you have gotten used to it, but we think that the protection it offers makes up for the drawbacks."

--------------------

Ranma walked towards their quarters with the rest of the Spartans, felling for the first time in a long while that he was with his own kind.

That didn't mean he let his guard down, a Spartan never did, it was just something that they had learned after years of training with Mendez.

The Spartans walked trough the halls of the base in total silence. The door to their quarters opened with a small hiss.

Ranma threw of his gear on the bunk with his name on it, and then began to unpack his backpack and then placed it in the footlocker. The rest of the Spartans was doing the same.

The last item was a small metal box, which every soldier got. It should contain small personal items and trinkets, like photos and such. The Spartans rarely opened it but none the less they still carried it with them.

Ranmas was filled with photographs of him and his fellows Spartans, going from the early training when he still had the irritating pigtail, then a group photo of all of the 190 Spartans, and then to their last photo before they split up.

On the last they where only 75, a grim reminder of his dead and wounded comrades.

Their training was complete, and they where together again so he thought that it deserved a photo.

"Soldiers, prepare for a reunion photo" Ranma said.

Every soldier looked up from what they where doing and then smiled one of their rare smiles, the one they only showed when they where around the other Spartans.

"Yes Sir" Came the gathered reply.

They where soon standing on three rows and the camera was placed. Ranma pressed the timer and then walked over to his place.

The camera clicked and forever capturing the legendary Spartans on a picture, giving their legacy physical evidence for coming generations to see.

-----------------

Ranma was standing on a small platform, technicians moving around him, fastening the armour to his body.

First on was the skin-tight black jumpsuit with thin flexible armour plates over the vital areas, followed by a pressure suit.

The pressure suit was followed by the different parts of the armour. He could hear a small hiss as the pressure seals connected and closed with each other.

Three technicians were needed to lift the breastplate as they placed in on the Spartan.

They where almost finished, the only thing left was the helmet and the backside armour.

5 men were needed to lift the heavy piece of armour with the fusion reactor and shield generator.

The seals of the armour clicked and the pressure locks hissed as they disposed of unnecessary air, making the armour and the under layer skin- tight.

"You can move now Sir" The lead technician said.

He gave the man a nod, and then flexed his shoulders, trying to get rid of the stiff felling after almost five hours of standing still.

He then slowly walked around the room, trying to get used to the additional 500 kilos of weight. He took the helmet from its place on the desk, only it weighed 50 kilos.

He slid the helm over his head and then locked the seals.

"Now sir we need to activate the fusion core, please sit there." He said.

The technician shivered a little as the man turned towards him. He couldn't see the Spartans eyes, the only thing seen was the reflection of the room around him in the yellow visor.

Ranma nodded slowly and then walked up to the bench and then sat on it.

Two technicians then began to connect the armour to a computer and began to type in some commands.

His enhanced hearing picked up small click and then everything went quiet again. His HUD went on, displaying medical information (green), shield status (offline) and many other things.

"Reactor working with 34,7 efficiency and rising." The tech standing before the computer said.

"Bring the shields online Harry" The lead tech said.

"Powering it up Sir"

Ranma could see a shimmer surround his body and armour, small sparks of yellow light hovering in the air around him. The shield bar climbed slowly then was full. He tried to stand up but it was felling like he was standing on ice. He looked down and saw that he was hovering 1-2 centimetres in the air.

"Sir lower the shields on the underside of your feet via the menu on your HUD"

Ranma did as he was told and was soon standing on solid ground again.

"And you should probably lower your shield at your palms or you won't be able to operate a weapon efficiently."

He mentally accessed the menu once again thanks to his neural implants and lowered the shield.

The door to the chamber opened and in walked Dr. Halsey.

"117, come here please" She said.

Ranma stood up and walked up to her. She stood and looked down on her, hands behind his back.

"As you no doubt can feel the armour is extremely heavy, that's why you and your men will wear it 24/7, to make you get used to it."

He only nodded and then walked past her and out the door.

-------------

He and the rest of the Spartans was slowly doing a kata, slow for Spartans standards at least, to a normal human the kicks and punches came at lighting speed. Everyone was clad in their Mjolnir armour, standing in four rows with enough space between them as to not hit another by accident. They where standing in the 4 gee area to get used to the armours weight.

They where moving in perfect unison, in their armour they looked exactly the same, which made them look like robots to the marines watching them.

Ranma could feel the sweat drip down his face and his pulse quickening. They had been doing extreme training for over 9 hours in the 4 gee area and in their armour which made him a little tired.

But Ranma wasn't complaining, he LOVED this armour. The thing would offer them great protection, would make communication with his team a lot simpler and had the most advanced HUD he had ever seen, and the most important thing it didn't hinder any of his movement. It was like a second skin, it didn't decrease his agility, but unfortunaly it did decrease his speed because of the weight.

Well another months training and we will be as fast as before.

"No slacking off" He said in the intercom.

"Yes sir" Came the reply.

We have two months training, one to get used to the armour and another one to sharpen up our skills.

Ranma had pushed the Spartans and himself to their limits, and then beyond. He knew that he was driving them hard, but it was necessary, the Covenant gained more ground every day and they needed to be prepared.

"You are slacking off, now move it triple time."

He would be damned if the Covenant won this war. He promised himself that, that he never would surrender, never would give up, never would lose this war, mankind depended on it.

------------------------

August 27 2552 Reach Military Complex

Ranma and the rest of the 35 soldiers under his command was standing in the amphitheatre, but instead of wearing the dress uniforms as was standard they where wearing the MJOLNIR armour.

The armour was now a part of the Spartans, they only took it off if they needed to do repairs, and only when they weren't around other marines. It was like a second skin to them, they didn't even feel the weight anymore, and they knew the armour inside out, they would be able to put it together in a pitch black room.

The armours had lost their metallic green colour from the constant use and now had a matt olive green colour.

The door to the room opened and in walked an Admiral followed by a Captain and Dr Halsey.

"Officers on the deck" Ranma spoke out so it was heard over the entire room.

Like one the moved and gave them a crisp salute, the admiral and captain answered them. They walked up to the podium, the admiral walking forward and fixed the microphone.

"Good day soldiers, you may wonder why we have recalled you from the frontlines and back to Reach. The answer is simple, we have a new mission for the Spartans. This may well be the most important mission of the war, if you succeed we will end the Covenant threat forever, but it will be hard, tough, and you will fight with the odds against you. Do you understand?"

"Yes maam" Came the gathered reply.

"Good, let me introduce Captain Jacob Keyes, which will be your commanding officer during this mission."

She pointed towards the man that was standing behind her, he was in his late forties-early fifties with grey hair around his temples and a rough looking face. The man only nodded to acknowledge her introduction.

"You will leave as soon as the second group of Spartans under the command off Master Chief John-118 arrives at Reach, which will be in about two to three days from now. The mission will be to find and capture a Covenant ship and locate their home world, you will then report back to Reach and we will launch an assault on the planet."

The Spartans all nodded.

"You will be leaving on the ship Pillar of Autumn..."

August 30 2552 Forward observation pod A-12.

Ensign Powell was sitting in the forward Reach observation post scanning slip-space and normal space with probes. This was a quite boring duty, the last 8 months he was stationed here nothing out of the ordinary had happened, and for that he was happy.

Nothing out of the ordinary meant no Covenant.

He leaned back in his chair, a loud crack was heard from his stiff neck as he leaned it to his right.

He scanned the surrounding space but found nothing, he then turned towards the slip-space monitors.

Nothing.

He could hear a small blip and turned towards the screen again. The entire screen was filled with what looked like interferences. He began to scan the area once again just to make sure.

The thing was huge, to huge to be a ship maybe an asteroid, but something seemed awfully familiar about the shape.

He made a cross reference with the computer and the result was printed out. He picked up the paper and read it as a chill went up his spine, he dropped it to the floor as he ran through the room.

He slammed his fist into a small glass case on the wall and pressed the red button underneath.

Red warning lights flashed and the howl of sirens filled the air as Ensign Powell ran to the microphone and pressed the all frequencies button.

"This is forward observation post A-12, we have incoming Covenant. I repeat Covenant inbound. Vector A-1423-Z-2345-Q"

He ran back to his post, the room was slowly being filled with personnel.

Ensign Powell slowly sat at his post a calm expression on his face. He knew that he and the rest of the 14 men onboard the station wouldn't make it, but he knew that every bit of information on the enemy could mean the difference between victory or loss.

May the horror of this war end soon. He though and resumed the scanning, sending everything back to the HQ. 15 minutes later the first Covenant plasma torpedoes struck the pod, incinerating it and its crew.

It wasn't a ship, it was hundreds.

----------------------

Captain Rykov was standing on the bridge aboard the destroyer STUKOV, one of 19 destroyers surrounding Reach. He looked at the main view screen, displayed on it where something he never think he would see, a Covenant fleet in the Reach system.

He mentally went through the current number of Covenant ships and then their own.

Over eight-hundred and fifty Covenant ships including numerous battle cruisers, this was the biggest number of Covenant ships ever to assault a human world.

Their own defences couldn't possibly hope to defeat a fleet so big. 280 ships and twelve of the orbital super MAC where at their disposal, most of the entire human fleet.

A human fleet could possibly win if they outnumbered their enemy three to one, not the other way around.

The purple teardrop shaped crafts where flying straight towards the defenders at full speed, the hulls of the ship glowing with light as the ships charged up their weapon systems.

He could see as the Super MACs fired of their 30 000 tons solid tungsten rounds at the enemy, leaving a trail of light in their wake.

"Status on weapons?"

"All archer missile pods are armed and ready to go sir."

"MAC at 50%, 90 seconds and its ready to fire."

"Give me a target solution."

The Super MAC rounds slammed into the oncoming Covenant ships, going through their shields and gutting the ships like they where simple tin- cans. Twelve hulls of Covenant ships where left floating lifeless in the cold of space. But this didn't stop the remaining ships, they where heading straight towards Reach.

"Sir I am getting a target solution from the AI onboard the SERENITY."

The SERENITY was the flagship of the Reach fleet. Rykov walked over and looked down at the screen.

Every ship in the fleet had gotten their own targets and they would all fire at the same time and then engage at will.

They fired as one, letting lose MAC rounds and archer missiles towards the enemy, the second rounds from the Super MACs following closely behind.

The Covenant ship fired a volley of superheated plasma towards the human defenders.

The MACs and archer missiles it home. Most of the MACs disabled the shields and the archers blew gigantic holes in the armour.

Rykov could see as the plasma torpedoes headed for their fleet and the Super MACs.

They never hit.

Three of the civilian repair crafts began to accelerate, heading past the UNSC fleet and towards the Covenant. The crafts where huge squares, over 5x5 kilometres and while they didn't have any weapons their captains would still put their ships to good use.

The three captains knew that if the Super MACs would be destroyed their defences would crumble. The accelerated to full speed intercepting the incoming plasma, sacrificing themselves and their crew to save the MACs and the UNSC ships.

Rykov could only watch and say a short prayer towards those brave men.

"Break the formation and get me a target solution. Those men gave their lives so we could fire another round, lets not make the death of them be in vain."

The third volleys from the Super MACs gutted another twelve ships.

Now both the Covenant and the UNSC had broken their formations, and engaged each other.

The second volley from the Covenant hit home, reducing a lot of ships to glowing metal.

-------------------

Rykov could only show pride in the way they defended Reach, over 150 of the Covenant ships where totally destroyed, and another 100 where to badly damaged to continue the battle, at the cost of 80 of the UNSC-ships.

Rykov knew that they wouldn't win this battle, but he would make the Covenant pay dearly for every meter of space they took. Rykov and his crew intended to give the Covenant hell.

--------------------

"Sir, we have been able to slow down the Covenant advance thanks to the orbital MACs, but at least ¾ of our fleet is either destroyed or badly damaged."

Admiral Stanforth listened to the report, they had ordered every single ship pull back and protect the twelve Super MACs. Those guns were the only thing standing between the Covenant and the 12 billion civilians on Reach.

Five of the twelve MACs where already destroyed, their defenders fighting to the last man.

Seven rounds left the MACs, scoring seven additional kills. For every UNSC ship that was destroyed a Covenant ship would soon follow, but he knew that even with those odds the Covenant would win, they had simply more ships.

The main screen showed MAC-04 and the half dozen or so ships defending it against the oncoming hordes of Covenant.

One of the Covenant ships managed to breach the perimeter and charged up their weapons.

In response a UNSC destroyer left the formation and headed towards ship.

The Covenant fired their weapons, blue orbs of destruction heading towards the orbital MAC. The UNSC ship fired its own MAC, going through the weakened shields and hitting the reactor.

The UNSC- ship placed itself in the path of the plasma. The plasma struck the underside of the ship, boiling away the armour in an instance.

Stanforth could see as small explosions began to appear on the hull of the ship, a sure sign that the reactors had reached critical levels and was going to explode.

Stanforth knew that the ship was out of action but was surprised as it began to accelerate and head straight towards the Covenant. The ship flew past the smaller ships and headed straight towards on of the 15 battle cruisers in the Covenant armada.

The ship slammed into the broadside of the Covenant ship, making the shields flare blue and the white and finally disappearing. The Covenant ship broke into two pieces while the UNSC ship exploded in a white flash.

The only thing left was some debris floating around, one scorched plate showing the name STUKOV.

Stanforth only shock his head, those men and women had sacrificed themselves for the survival of the civilians on Reach.

"Sir, we have incoming Covenant troop-transports, they are heading for the generators."

Stanforth cursed, while the fleet would be able to keep the Covenant at bay and protect the MACs, they could do nothing to protect the generators powering them.

"Send a message to all ships, ask them for reinforcements."

"Message is on the way sir."

Stanforth just hoped the reinforcements would get there in time.

--------------------

Pillar of Autumn, bridge.

"Sir I am getting a priority alpha order from the SERENITY, the planetary reactors are under assault and they need reinforcements." Cortanas body was glowing purple and red as data flowed across her holographic body.

Captain Keyes turned around towards the AI. He couldn't believe it, the Covenant had attacked Reach, UNSCs most well defended colony after Earth.

"Cortana, prepare the Spartans for aerial insertion, they are needed at those reactors."

"The first group of Spartans are already geared up and waiting in hangar bay-2 for their orders, and the second group arrived in system half an hour ago and are already inbound towards the reactor."

"Send them in" Was Keyes only reply.

"Giving the orde..."

"Sir the civilian vessel Circumference hasn't activated the Cole protocol, and numerous Covenant dropships are heading towards the station where it's docked."

"Destroy the ship immediately." If the Covenant found the data they would find the remaining human colonies

"Cant get a clear shoot, they are to near the MACs."

"Cortana, order a group of Spartans to destroy the data base."

"Yes sir."

-------------------

Ranma walked into hangarbay-2 where the rest of the Spartans where going through their gear. As the Spartans saw him they stopped and turned towards him waiting for their orders. He had talked with Cortana, a special AI with computer hacking skills which would have helped them during their mission to capture a Covenant ship.

Now it looked like the mission was cancelled because the Covenant attack.

"The planetary reactors powering the super MACs are under Covenant attack, second team has already landed and secured a perimeter and we will drop in and reinforce their positions. Unfortuneally a civilian vessel docked at the P-24 station have neglected to follow Cole protocol and whip their database clean. We are sending in a small team to destroy it. Intel says the resistance will be heavy, numerous Covenant ships are already on approach. All power on the station is destroyed so it will be zero gee."

The Spartans stood still listening to their commander. Everyone knew that the mission to the station would be the most dangerous, while all Spartans had experience in fighting in zero gee it was with dirt beneath their feet and with real gravity that the Spartan excelled in combat.

"Sir, request that I am allowed to take the mission to the station." While every Spartan looked the same in their armour to an outsider, Ranma could see at once who whom was because of their stances, and the speaker was James.

Ranma knew that every Spartan would gladly take the dangerous mission, not to prove that they where brave but to make sure that the others had a bigger chance to survive.

"Request denied, I, Kelly and Sam are going, you James will lead the second team and meet up with Johns squad at the generator."

"SIR YES SIR" Came the gathered reply.

-------

The two pelicans took of the first heading towards the planet and the other towards the space station. Ranma adjusted the thrusters making sure they were on course.

During the space-battle an archer missile had struck the station and hit the main power cable, shutting down everything including life-support, communication and artificial gravity.

He could see tiny dots a purple, Covenant crafts heading towards the station.

In the distance he could see the hulking frame of the 4,5 kilometre long orbital Super MAC. He could see a flash and the MAC fired a lance of light towards oncoming Covenant warships.

"ETA 30 seconds, prepare for venting."

He brought the pelican next to the station, the magnets on the underside of the pelican attached to the station a 20 feet from an airlock.

"Hold on, venting atmosphere now."

The back hatch of the pelican blew away, sucking out all air in a matter of milliseconds.

He floated out of the pelican towards the airlock, followed closely by Kelly and Sam. He checked the small panel on the airlock. The status showed green, meaning that the back-up batteries where online. He pressed correct combination and the doors opened.

"Incoming Covenant forces." Sam said with a calm voice.

Ranma turned around, 300 metres or so from the station he could see a group of twenty elites in spacesuits coming straight towards them.

Kelly opened fire with her sniper rifle, the 14,5 mm tungsten round punched trough the shield and the suit, the elite clawing at the tear before finally dieing.

Ranma opened fire with his MA5B assault rifle, the rifle not making a single noise in the vacuum of space, only the flashes indicating that it was used at all. Twenty rounds were needed before the shield was down and then a single bullet was enough to rupture the suit.

To his side he could see as Kelly fired her rifle, for every flash an elite would go still.

"Pull back into the station." Ranma said as he fired off his last round and ejected the spent clip and injected a new one into the rifle.

The twenty elite where dead, but he could see as more made their way towards the station.

He pressed the panel and the door shut. He looked into the map in the station on his HUD and then placed a nav-marker on his and his fellow Spartans HUDs. It was a good 2,5 kilometres to their target.

He began to float down one of the corridors, Kelly and Sam following behind.

The entire station was dead, no lights, no gravity no air.

---------------

They had only five hundred metres left when their communications crackled to life.

"Master... John ... Covenant...everywhere... ships...income..." They had a bad transmission almost unable to hear what he said.

"John this is Ranma what's your current status?"

"...Defence...imiter...breached..." In the background they could hear the rattle of automatic rifles firing and plasma screeching.

"John this is Ranma do you copy?"

"...we... late... unable...

"John, do you copy over?"

"... reactor... fallen... request... inforcemnts...bombard..."

"John what is happening down there?"

"lost...pulling back...nuke...strike...approve..."

"John we are losing you, what is happening down there?"

"... Reach...s... fall...w ... fight... end...evac...civilians..." The com fell silent, only simple crackle could be heard.

"Let's continue." Ranma knew that whatever had happened groundside was bad, really bad.

He couldn't think of that now, he had a mission to complete.

-------------

"Fire!" Ranma yelled and let lose on full automatic, blasting away the Covenants helm. He clawed at his face for a second and then went still.

Ranma put a bullet in his skull for good measure. He looked around in the corridor, only finding corpses and the two other Spartans.

They helped to open the final door to the hangar bay where the CIRCUMFERENCE where docked. The entire bay was filled with Covenant, some where working on opening the hatch to the ship.

The Spartans couldn't possibly hope to defeat all the Covenant in the bay, but then Ranma saw a pelican in one corner.

"Get the pelican and give me some covering-fire. I will take care of the data."

---------

"Sir, MAC 2,4,7,5 are offline, we can't keep a stable defence line."

"Those Spartans kept them up longer then predicted... how is the evacuation going."

Admiral Stanforth didn't like how this was going, another 15 minutes and there wouldn't be much left of their fleet.

"Bad, we estimate that over 11 billion civilians are still left on Reach and we are running out of ships to evacuate them with."

"How many military vessels are left?"

"62 sir."

"Sir, the rest of the MACs went offline."

The ship shock violently and Admiral Stanforth fell to the deck. The screen and light in the bridge flickered for a moment before returning to normal.

"Sir, a plasma torpedo hit us, engines and weapons are offline."

Stanforth sighed, now they where a sitting duck.

"Admiral the last line of defence is breached."

"Order the crew to abandon the ship and the rest of the fleet to retreat from Reach."

"But sir... the civilians..."

Stanforth pointed towards the main view screen. Ten Covenant cruisers where charging up their weapons, but not towards the fleet they aimed for Reach.

The young ensign sighed.

"Sir yes sir."

-------------

The pelicans 50mm chain guns filled the air with metal death, blowing the Covenant to pieces.

Ranma leaped from behind his position and ran like the hounds of hell was chasing him, which wasn't so far from the truth, a pair of hunters where trying to clobber him to the ground.

The chain gun changed target, taking care of both hunters, their orange blood flying everywhere.

He slammed his fist unceremonially into the panel and the hatch opened.

The ship was small, 50 metres or so, and finding the bridge was easy.

The data cube was located by the main view screen. He ripped the metal protecting the cube away with his augmented strength. He crushed the cube in his fist, turning it into thousands of shards.

"Sir get out of there now, we have numerous Covenant inbound.

He ran out of the craft and was about to jump into the pelican, when three yellow dots appeared on his HUD. The HUD showed that the where about a hundred metres or so from their position.

"I have some marines on my HUD."

"Sir we can't hold this position any longer."

"Return to the Autumn, I will take care of it."

"Sir..."

"Do it now soldier."

"Sir yes sir."

Ranma saw as the pelican engines lit up and it flew out of the hangar bay. He turned towards the corridor leading to the marines shouldering his rifle.

Red dots had begun to appear around the yellow ones.

----------------

The pillar of Autumn had gotten orders to pull back out from the fight and to pick up some of the marines that had managed to get off Reach alive. There wasn't much of a battle now, the UNSC-ships had begun to pull back, playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the Covenant.

Cortana couldn't believe the stupidity of the Covenant sometimes, they had extremely advanced ships, superior weapons, and in general more advanced technology, but they had zero grasp of strategy and tactics.

The usual plan of the Covenant was to fly right in and attack, to pull back and regroup seemed like an alien concept to them. They didn't have much of formations, just flying right in and shoot.

But Cortana didn't complain, it was one of the few things humanity was superior in.

Tactics and computer skills where the only two areas in which they could go toe to toe with the Covenant.

Her scanners didn't pick up any enemy ships within firing range.

Because of this Cortana didn't even need to use one tenth of her processor capacity to monitor the battle and make corrections in the flight-path of the Autumn, so she decided to access the Spartan-II files to see what they could do exactly.

She only found the mission logs, no names, no birth records, nothing. She then tried to access the restricted files, she was an AI built for computer- hacking so it didn't prove any difficulties to access them.

She found everything, the abductions, flash-clones, the training, augmentations, the two years of combat with the different military units, her ethical routines didn't like what she saw.

She then began to go through the personal files of the Spartans and she stopped by number 117.

Before the Spartan program there didn't exist any record of him at all, no date of birth, no parents, no birthplace, nothing.

There weren't any hidden files, it just stood that they couldn't determine who he was. She continued down the files.

Cortana knew that something was wrong, there was something special about 117, and she began to sort through every little piece of information determined to find out what it was.

There she found it, when she had read the bit of information, she stopped everything she was doing for three whole seconds, she couldn't believe it...

------------------

The grenade bounced around the corner and exploded in a huge flame, sending shrapnel everywhere.

He checked the ammo-counter on the rifle making sure he had enough ammo.

He peeked around the corner, the only thing seen was the floating bodies of Covenant.

Making sure they where dead and then continued down the corridor. He could see the plasma burns on the walls and spent shell casing floating around. He pushed the body of a dead marine in a spacesuit away to make room.

At the end of the corridor he could see a half closed blast door. One of the corners where molten so it was unable to close it further.

His HUD showed that the three soldiers were in there. Now that he was near them the HUD displayed their names and rank. Sergeant Avery J. Johnson, PFC Wallace C. Jenkins and PFC Kim S. Edenberg.

"This is Sergeant Johnson, who the hell are you soldier?"

"Master Chief Ranma-one-seventeen, Spartan-II." He replied with a calm voice.

"A Spartan? well thanks for the timely rescue Master Chief.

Three heads popped up from the blast door, and once they confirmed that he was speaking the truth they kicked off and floated towards him.

"There is a pelican a hundred metres or so from here, let's go."

"We are right behind you Master Chief."

---------

He flew the pelican towards the Autumn, skilfully evading incoming fire. He could see ten teardrop shaped crafts brake through the defences and head towards Reach. Most of the fleet was retreating, and he could see that the MACs had fallen silent.

The Covenant was slowly gathering around Reach.

------------------

Cortana accessed the data from one of the relics from Moln, aside from the blueprints for the genetic modifications there was something else.

A long flow of different symbols that they couldn't decipher, she tried everything, but couldn't decipher it either. She was about to leave it when she got a data flow from the Serenity, they should follow Cole protocol and make a blind jump out of the system.

Then she got the idea and compared the symbols and her starmap and got a 78% match.

It was slip-space coordinates.

---------------------------

"Master Chief, would you please report to the bridge." It was Cortanas voice over the speakers.

He stepped into the lift together with a few techs. Out of the corner off hid eyes he could see as the men stared at him, in his armour he looked almost as alien as the Covenant.

Part machine, part alien, no human.

He mentally chuckled to himself at that thought, he wondered how much of his humanity he still had left in him after the augmentations and training.

He didn't regret it either, now he had a purpose in life, to serve and protect mankind. The time with Genma and his mother back on Earth was like a dream, almost forgotten and very unclear.

As far as he was concerned he didn't have any parents, the only family he had was the Spartans.

He stepped out off the lift and walked the short distance to the bridge.

"Master Chief, I have bad news." Captain Keyes stood and watched out of the main view window.

"Sir?" He asked in his deep voice.

"The reactors have fallen and then we have lost contact with the ground- teams."

He felt a stab of pain in his chest, almost all the Spartans where down there, and he knew that if the reactors had fallen Reach would soon follow. And then came guilt, he had though that the he had given the others the easy mission but that wasn't the case. He should have been down there with the others.

"Sir if the reactors has fallen then the Spartans down there are dead." He knew that the Spartans would defend it to the last man.

Keyes only nodded and then sighed.

"The pelican with the other two Spartans never made it Chief"

Another wave of guilt and pain washed over him, he had ordered them to return to the Autumn earlier.

"I understand." He said without any emotion.

"The Covenant has put our fleet on the run, and are going to glass (1) the planet any minute now."

He looked out of the window, the ten cruiser where slowly charging up their weapons. In a blue flash the cruiser let lose a barrage of blue plasma.

The first wave hit the polar caps, boiling away the white snow, leaving a black landscape which was lit up by a spider-web of red flames.

The next wave boiled away the oceans, leaving only a small strip of untouched land at the equator.

The final wave hit the equator, leaving the once mighty world of Reach, home of billions and the UNSC main military complexes, a black sphere of glass.

Ranma looked on as billions died before his eyes, and among them his family.

He was the last.

------------------

"So the data was slip-space coordinates."

It was very tempting to use them and see where they lead.

Cole protocol says that we have to avoid all human space, but this isn't near Earth.

With her mind made up Cortana began to prepare for a slip-space jump

---------------------

"Sir, the rest of the fleet has entered slip-space." An ensign checking the scanners said.

"Well then, lets to the same. Cortana prepare for a jump."

"Already done sir."

The lumbering hulk of the Pillar of Autumn began to accelerate, her hull badly damaged in numerous places.

Within the armoured giant the Master Chief, the last Spartan, lay in cryo- sleep.

The space around the Autumn seemed to fold and soon the ship disappeared to an unknown location for every one except the AI.

Authors Notes

It took a little longer to finish this then expected, I had a huge writers block. Every time I tried to write something I just ended up staring at the screen for hours.

(1) It's when the Covenant destroys a planet. Their plasma burns away everything including the atmosphere, making the planet a black sphere of glass

Q: A Ranma story without fiancée problems?

A: Well I have some ideas, but I think I will wait with the romantic stuff till after the war.

Hmm... wonder how Akane and the rest of the NWC would react to a Ranma that wouldn't hesitate to seriously injure a girl or even kill an opponent.

"Obstacles are for Amazon to kill!"

Click... BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Ouch... Maybe not"

Q: Jusenkyo curse?

A: No I am not going to give Ranma a Jusenkyo curse. He wouldn't survive it, all of his combat implants would probably shred his body from the inside out during the change.

Q: Hellsing crossover?

A: Only time will tell.

Big thanks for Madrikor for pre-reading this