(Note)

Whew! Chapter four is here folks, took a bit longer to post than the first three chapters, I am going to keep reviewing my posted works and fixing the grammar bugs I find. Anyways we get our first taste of combat this chapter, hope you all enjoy it.

I do Not Own Mass Effect or The Halo Franchise. Both Universes Respectively Belong to Bioware/EA and Microsoft/343 Industries.

Now ON WITH THE STORY!

It had been a month and the whole ship was patched. It wasn't battle plating, it couldn't take hits, but it would lower the risk of failure in slips-space transit.

Cortana had the drones retrofit an airlock to where the new bridge would be on the front of the Dawn, said bridge was being prefabricated in two parts by the repair drones, in the mostly empty HEV Launch bay.

The Hunter pair had recovered from their long nap, and were both sleeping in the pelican bay where they had decided to take up residence, the huragok having taken the engineering deck.

Cortana wouldn't have thought the engineering deck would have been the two's next choice, then again the Mgalekgolo species were used by the San'Shyuum, to reverse engineer forerunner technologies, as well as power the covenants scarab assault platforms. So it wasn't really that surprising.

The Spartan and the two Hunters hadn't wasted the past month doing nothing, when going to war the first step is know your enemy. They had been taking mission briefings every day in the pelican bay, where everything they needed to know from threat assessments to basic knowledge on the languages of each race. was taught them by Cortana.

The Hunters only needed to know what they were fighting, tell them who to kill and what to destroy, as well as who to spare and what to save, and they were ready to hit the battlefield.

The Chief however learned the very basic understandings of each language, and was more concerned with being discovered and put in the galactic spotlight. he focused on each topic, learning all prevalent information... just as he always did.

Sharing his concern Cortana had ordered the huragok retrofit a signal jammer into the both the Hunters armors; she then keyed the jammer to block any recording or communications tech this galaxy used. It helped that she found all the blueprints and detailed designs for these device, to be just one hack away on the extranet.

The Hunter's main weakness in combat had Cortana slightly worried, for now it wouldn't be a problem. But when they started attacking places with large numbers of hostile combatants, the gaps on the backs of their armor could prove to be their undoing. if the weak energy shield was dealt with that is, being spec-ops Hunters had its perks.

Cortana shelved that line of thinking in her 'fix the heck out of later' box in her digital mind, deciding to recheck their plans for commencing hostilities.

The huragok had retro-fitted a pelican and one of the phantoms, making Cortana able to pilot them remotely, this made deployment to groundside much easier.

The Dawn had entered slips-space and was approaching their first target; it was a minor pair of pirate outposts on the fringe of the terminus systems. The battle plan was simple: drop in, kill the pirates and leave a basic encrypted distress signal for any military patrols, letting them do the cleanup and pickup of any slaves or prisoners the pirates had, while the Dawn would be long gone.

Due to slip-space having such an advantage compared to the mass relays. The next twenty four hours would see the destruction of two pirate outposts and one staging base; afterwards they would take a breather and plan their next targets.

The pirate outposts were on the same planet but in different sectors, each one had an estimated twenty hostiles, the plan called for the Chief and the Hunters to split up and hit both at the same time.

After leaving the distress signals and bugging out of the system, they would head to a pirate staging base, located on the other side of the terminus systems.

The Chief and the Hunters would be deployed together on the surface and wipe out the fifty or so pirates located there. Once again bugging out, leaving a distress signal, with no one but confused slaves and freed prisoners left behind.

Speed and blitzkrieg tactics were mandatory, the less time the slaves or prisoners had to comprehend what was happening, the more the eyewitness accounts would vary… making finding out what really happened an impossible task.

The targets were far enough apart by mass effect travel time, that any relation between the two would be less noticeable, and those who connected the dots would be considered paranoid.

With everything ready, the huragok checked the Hunter's combat gear for the final time, while the Chief checked the plasma weapons he would be using. He would have used UNSC weapons but Cortana had made the argument that the bullets and their casings were evidence, and people didn't need to find ballistic weapons evidence, so unless he wanted to retrieve every last casing… well he got the idea.

Cortana made a mental note to have the huragok make a snap on gun bag to catch bullet casings, so that the Chief wouldn't have to depend entirely on covenant weapons.

With the dawn about to exit slip-space, both the Chief and the Hunters boarded both their respective landing crafts. Cortana smirked to herself, by the time the pirates realized what was happening they'd be dead, their destroyers having disappeared without a trace.

Ghulton Lakbel was not a happy camper "sure, they said… Command an outpost, they said." He continued to grumble, "It pays a lot, they said…" he trudged his way to the vehicle garage of the small outpost.

"Females will throw themselves at a pirate lieutenant, they said… It's a Batarian's dream come true, they said…"

Lakbel had finally learned why most people in the galaxy hated recruiters, they always painted a pretty picture; convincing you to sell away years of your life. Then they sent you off to boot camp or orientation training, that's where you faced reality and realized that this wasn't what you signed up for.

Not that Ghulton was truly complaining, his family back at home was proud of his position and enjoyed the wealth and slaves he sent back to Khar'shan, he was pleased that the next rotation would allow him to spend some time at his home planet; being a hegemony sponsored pirate paid well.

His children needed lessons on how to properly break a slave's spirit; he prided himself on not having to completely depend on the recently introduced neural command chips. Oh the chips were useful, but Ghulton knew that if the chip was deactivated, then the slave would become rebellious and that was… troublesome.

Ghulton rather enjoyed breaking in a new slave, the females were especially feisty, but he had ways of dealing with them. When he was done the subject was so full of fear and despair, that they would never even think of trying to leave his families service… those that had, were made a public example of.

Ghulton arrived at the outposts vehicle garage, he looked over to the Turian lounging on the turret of a grizzly, the vehicle was old but dependable. "Hey you!" the lieutenant shouted. "Is that piece of trash you call an APC fixed yet," the Turian fell of his perch and quickly picked himself up.

"No sir," he said "my brother has to find parts he says are in storage, and I was just waiting for him to come back." Ghulton cursed under his breath, his superiors would be back to pick up supplies and drop off loot, gained from raiding merchant and civilian ships on the edge of the Attican traverse.

They had tasked his outpost with repairing two grizzly APC vehicles, promising him a larger cut in the goods once his rotation was finished, if he had them repaired on time that is.

With two weeks left and the one of the grizzlies still not fixed, that pay bonus was appearing farther and farther from his grasp. One of the pirate captains had reported over the network the successful raiding of an Asari maiden ship, full of the young beauties, Ghulton had hoped to take some of the newly acquired Asari stock home to train as slaves.

He looked at the Turian, "get that grizzly fixed by within the next week and a half, and ill let you two have some fun with the Asari goods that are going to be dropped off, each your own pick of the batch for a night, what you think?" The Turian grinned and shouted his affirmation and sprinted off to find his brother, and tell him of the offer.

Ghulton grinned to himself, that grizzly was as good as fixed. The rotation trade off happened at the end of the month, and his return to home would be with slaves and exotic loot to show for his work, he was very pleased.

Arriving at the command center for the small outpost, he turned to the local Salarian electronic security specialist. "All is well I presume, no attempted escape by the goods has occurred, yes?"

The Salarian nodded his affirmation, "Yes, but something else is amiss, our communications with outside sources are fizzing out, similarly to a solar flair event…" The Batarian pirate just looked at the Salarian "and that's a problem how?" The Salarian turned to look at Ghulton, "It's a problem when no solar flair has, is or should be occurring."

As if to underline his words the bases perimeter sensors started screaming. Pulling up the alert on the screen, both the Salarian and Ghulton stared at two massive movement signatures on the motion sensors, "cameras show nothing but static, the two bogeys are approaching the entrance to the garage."

In the Garage the Turian brothers were both slaving away at the grizzly, with thoughts of what their reward would be circling through their heads. When the base alarms started screaming they stood still and waited for the intercom to sound off orders… none came.

With a mighty crunch the garage entrance buckled inwards, something on the other side roared deeper than a thresher maw. A roar so deep you could feel it vibrate your bones… in fear the two Turians manned Both the grizzlies turrets, it was the engine that was broken, not the guns.

Aiming both cannons at the door, the Mechanics turned pirates waited… they didn't have to wait long. With another deep vibrating roar the doors were smashed in, falling aside to reveal two terrifying 13 foot Monsters, clad in dark metallic green and grey armor, with black and silver helms.

The Turians fired their cannons, the kilograms of mass effect flung shavings propelling themselves at the two walking armored embodied nightmares. As one the two titans raised their heavy forerunner alloy shields, blocking the attack, receiving no damage from the absurdly light Weight rounds.

Slowly with powerful steps that spelled doom for their enemies the Hunter duo advanced, the Turians firing wildly until the grizzlies turrets both overheated… for a brief second both sets of brothers stared at the other, then the Hunters struck.

With a low roar the leftmost Hunter slammed his shield down on the first grizzly smashing the vehicle and flattening the turret, instantly killing the Turian within.

While the rightmost Hunter raised his plasma launcher encased arm and burned the second grizzly to molten slag…

Both Hunters cleared the garage and marched to the nearby doorway, it was far too small for them to use. But that had not stopped them before, as one they raised their plasma launchers…

Ghulton and the Salarian stared at the monitors for the garage cameras; they had showed the large door being smashed, and the Turians manning the both the grizzlies turrets. But then the cameras had faded to static, right as the garage doors had caved to whatever was assaulting it, and the Turians had opened fire.

The Salarian security specialist had immediately postulated the theory that the attackers were Geth, the recent sightings beyond the Perseus veil, coupled with attack on the Human colony of Eden Prime and on novera corp, supported the theory of their presence.

Plus a Geth juggernaught could be capable of taking down the doors; it wouldn't fit through the garages interior entrance though. So they should be safe, since the other movement signature was the same as the first, the Salarian deemed themselves secure for the moment…

That is until the outer hall guards ran through the room screaming about giant creatures burning through walls, green liquid fire and the pirates in the mess hall being killed to a man.

Ghulton stared at the Salarian, "Find the attackers on the cameras NOW!" the Salarian pulled up all cameras in base, setting their feeds side by side on the screen. From the garage to the mess hall was utter destruction and death… gaping burned holes had replaced where doors had been, pirates flattened, smashed and burned to crisp, littered the screen…

The only camera not showing video was that of the crate storage room, located across from the mess hall. It showed static, static that faded to show the broken bodies of two pirates smashed into the walls. All the command centers occupants watched as the hallway feed outside of the storage room went to broadcasting static.

The Salarian cursed, "They are jamming the cameras, cant un-block them, armory on other side of that wall is last room before the attackers reach here…"

As the Salarian gave updates on the situation. All the rooms occupants stared at the door, none saw Ghulton begin to slink towards the door leading to the barracks and slave quarters he would not be the one in front when the attackers came through.

Stopping at the rear of the room Ghulton raised his avenger rifle at the door leading towards the rest of the base, the others in the room raised their weapons as well,

The armory's camera blinked into static… loud thumping noises came from the other side of the wall, followed by gunfire, which fell silent after a loud metal on metal slamming noise… silence reigned among the occupants of the command center.

Then a strange noise was heard, followed by the wall between the command room and the armory shuddering, beginning to glow a dull red. "Their not using the door!" the Salarian cried, "They are burning through the wall!"

And then the wall was smashed apart the molten metal slag tearing away to reveal a creature… its head scrapped the ceiling, yet it was crouched down, its legs bent under it. This thing was terrifying…

With a deep growl the creature placed its shield across its front to block the pirates fire and raised the other arm with its signature green glow of a charging plasma launcher.

Ghulton Lakbel had seen enough… he fled the room as the other pirate's screams were cutoff by the glowing green weapons discharge.

Sadie had been crying in a corner of her cage, her mother and father hadn't found her yet. They had been moving into a new home, after traveling in a spaceship! She thought it was the perfect birthday present for her sixth years of being alive… her mommy said they were going to be colonists, that had sounded like fun…

But then the Monsters came and took her away… they had come when she had been playing in the forest outside of her new home. And they had forced her to drink some kind of bad water, it made her sleepy and everything had faded to black, then she woke up in a cage.

She had been missing a long time, her mommy and daddy were looking for her, she was sure of it. She had tried to escape but the Monsters had caught her every time…

She had been crying because one of the Monsters had hit her the last time she tried to escape… but she stopped crying when the thrummings started.

Sadie couldn't hear… she never had, she had been born without being able too, her mother had taught her to speak with her hands, and she was proud of it.

Her father had told her she could sense something called what he spelled as "v-a-b-r-a-t-i-o-n-s" better than others. She just called them thrummings, because they thrummed with life and influenced her body and emotions.

thrummings on a ship or in a building were just the same thrumming note and feeling, constant never changing tone until someone turned off what made it in the first place.

These thrummings were different, Sadie sat up in her corner and began to hum along with the feelings the metal walls and floor slightly vibrated with, Sadie smiled it was a song, a thrumming song filled with life.

It made her emotions tense yet relaxed, her mind excited yet wary. Sadie continued to hum and sway with the strange music; she suddenly felt the feelings thrum throughout the very air around her.

Sadie looked up to see that the door had opened and one of the Monsters had run through, the same one that hit her… yet she wasn't scared anymore… the thrumming song comforted her. The Monster with the weird face and lots of eyes ran past the cells and to the back of the room trying to open a door…

Sadie felt the thrummings increase, then a green line of blinding light accompanied with a pulsing thrum and wave of warmth blasted through the open door and wiped the Monster with lots of eyes from existence…

Sadie stared in awe, the Monster was gone. The green thrumming light had killed it, but where had the light come from. Sadie continued to hum along with thrumming song, pondering the question… then the song suddenly stopped, so she did as well… then it started again and she started too.

With another pulsing thrum, the wall with the door that the green light had come from glowed red. The pulsing thrum stopped, replaced by the thrumming song again, Sadie leaned foreword her curiosity bleeding into her humming of the strange song.

Suddenly Sadie saw a weird small metal wall pierce the wall with the door in it, and then bend half the room's wall with door out of the way, revealing the small wall to be an arm. Sadie Froze then the giant creature stepped into the room with its other arm glowing with the same green as the bright beam of light…

Sadie relaxed this wasn't a Monster; it killed Monsters and sang the thrumming song. Which, she realized, it was still singing. So she hummed along, the creature turned towards her filling its thrums with curiosity, she hummed along with confusion.

The Creature stepped back thrumming with surprise, and then stepped foreword with another following behind it, when it was directly before her cage Sadie felt the thrums surround her and they were filled with assurance.

Than the giant creature; she decided to call them "Monster Hunters" for they killed Monsters. Reached foreword with its strange wall like limb and poked the tip between her cage's bars, then it rotated its arm and her cage's bars bent and broke apart.

Humming her thanks she stepped from her former prison, the creature returned her hum with a deep thrum of comfort and assurance, the second one had smashed the door the Monster with lots of eyes had tried to open. Finding an empty room… both the titans thrummed their satisfaction.

Sadie smiled, that meant no more Monsters. Then the creatures began breaking all the other cages, the other people in the cages didn't seem to like the Monster Hunters, they cowered against the back of their cages and looked very afraid…

A blue skinned woman slipped from a cage after a Monster Hunter had opened it and moved away. The blue lady looked scared, but not as scared as every one else, she tried to gently pull Sadie by the arm in order to go hide.

Sadie resisted and gave the blue lady a calm smile, the blue lady stood their and looked fearfully between Sadie and the two giant Monster Hunters, Sadie watched them turn and head toward the wall they had torn away, humming along with their thrumming song, she filled her hums with thanks.

The two giants stopped at the corner of the hall beyond the room and Thrummed peace and Farwell so deeply that even the blue lady could feel it shake her bones…

But Sadie didn't think the blue lady understood… she still looked scared. Sadie just sighed too herself and hugged the blue lady's waist to comfort her, not realizing that the Asari thought that the girl who could not hear was the one who was scared and seeking comfort.

Sadie couldn't wait to go home and see her mommy and daddy again… she had to tell them of the Monster Hunters, she could just picture their happy faces when she told them how the Monsters who took her from them had been stopped…

But she would keep the new song she learned from the creatures to herself… the thrumming song was too precious a comfort to share with another, it was just for her and the Monster Hunters to sing...

Outside the now ruined pirate outpost, a pair of mgalekgolo bond brothers, hummed the final verse of their battle song… their job was done, the emergency signal activated. The mission had its surprises; the Human hatchling was an interesting one…

Showing little fear or discomort in thier presence, having been able to hear their true voices, as they vibrated out their battle song. that was something they didn't think would have been possible for a Human, much less a Human hatchling could do.

She had sung with them and for this they were pleased.

'But interesting surprises aside,' the duo mused together as they boarded they're waiting phantom, 'we have another mighty fight to do before we rest' with those thoughts the pair returned to the Demon's ship in order to fight yet another glorious battle.

The Spartan sat in the co-pilot seat of the pelican drop-ship, the super soldier was running constant weapons checks. His gear consisted of a simple plasma pistol and a Sangheili type 51 carbine; it fired a twenty round magazine of case-less radioactive plasma rounds.

He figured the citadel's poor scientists were going to have one hell of a serious migraine figuring that out, if they investigated the bodies that is.

He had a pair of m7 dual submachine guns on the magnetic plates of his outer thighs; he had made the pointed argument that they fired jacket casing-less rounds to Cortana.

She had relented and allowed him to take them along, only after he'd promised to remove the serial numbers on every SMG round he took with him.

This would make even more confusion for those doing clean-up, finding a pile of un-traceable metal slugs in a bunch of pirates dead bodies, would surely make some poor analysts day a very interesting migraine inducing one.

In fact the m7's bullet caliber was not even produced in this galaxy, no new bullets were mass manufactured. Historical enthusiasts, who used old guns for hunting and holiday events, made their own bullets or paid someone to do so.

Also since the UNSC had perfected the mass manufacturing of near flawless high quality ammunition, there would be no true comparison for any scientists or analysts to compare the round with.

Cortana had smirked to herself when she learned all this, it meant that there were high chances the bodies wouldn't be searched for bullets.

A very sloppy and un-wise move on the part of whoever got the distress signal and began the cleanup procedures, they would hopefully assume the slave witnesses to be delusional and the pirates to have been killed by some new mass effect based weapon.

Cortana knew that it wouldn't last if it happened that way, the Turian and alliance leadership would realize something strange was happening, once more pirate bases turned up slaughtered.

Reaching the surface the Chief stepped off the back ramp of the pelican, which then soared away to await the call for retrieval after the completion of his mission.

They had dropped in low and fast, the drop ship having deposited him behind a mesa's rocky outcropping. Making his way to the mesa's top vantage point in order to better view his targets, the Chief began to observe and plan his assault on the base that lay below him.

The outpost was a repurposed mining shaft; the pre-fabricated buildings were six in number and were placed in a half-circle around the mineshaft's entrance at the base of the rocky mesa.

Counting twelve targets outside the makeshift pirate base, the Chief noted the small transport ship being loaded with material goods; this meant the base had a boost in personnel at the moment.

Not that it would matter, the Chief leapt from cliff he had been on and landed in front of the mineshaft's entrance.

From there he made his way towards the left three prefabricated buildings, starting at the leftmost one, the Spartan slipped in swiftly and silently dispatching the pirate occupants with CQC and his combat knife.

The next five minutes saw four more structures cleared the same way without incident, Salarian, Turian, Human, Krogan, Asari, Vorcha it mattered not. All were felled by a masterful strike by fist or knife.

Then he allowed himself to be spotted while approaching the final building, and the pirates began to fire upon him, he stood there like a wall of green armored, gold faced death. Taking each shot from the pirate's military grade weapons, the Chief watched his shields drain. Cortana wanted a field test of how his shield held up against their weapons, in case her math was off... as if.

When approaching the red zone on his shield gauge the master Chief turned and began circling in place neatly putting a radioactive plasma projectile in each of the attacker's heads. After all five were dead, the remaining outer building was easy to clear; next he cleared the freighter vessel.

The two remaining pirates outside of the mineshaft were swiftly dispatched; the freighter was now empty of occupants. The Spartan made his way to the mineshaft entrance and entered the air-lock. Taking the elevator down to the base below the Spartan activated his camouflage module in his armor and shimmered away from all but heat sensitive eyes.

His armors built in sensor jammer was hard at work keeping the cameras from recording his progress, while also stopping enemy communications from transmitting.

Arriving at the elevators destination the Spartan went to work, sneaking between two Krogan guards he dispatched both. then he began clearing room by room, hallway by hallway cavern by cavern. Until his job was mostly finished, the pirates had taken refuge in the last room bottle necking the entrance.

All the while screaming things to each other about an invisible vengeful ghost, a new super Mech or an armored figure of death incarnate come too send their souls to the afterlife. It was funny how no matter what galaxy he seemed to end up in, he was always being called names influenced by an alien's superstitious beliefs.

The more superstitious of the Turian pirates seemed to think him one of their spirit's sent to punish them, the rare Asari pirate he encountered didn't really know what to think of the green armored thing that was intent on their bases permanent removal from operational status.

The few Salarians cried out that he was prototype Mech controlled by an advanced virtual intelligence, the Vorcha growled in animalistic fury attacking with poor strategy or teamwork.

The Vorcha just growled and fired their weapons, while the Batarians cried out that a demon from one of their folklore legends had come to slay them.

the Krogan were the exception, they didn't give a care in the world who he is or what to name him. they just wanted something to fight, the Chief had no problem obliging they're interests.

The Spartan tossed a flash grenade into the room, which the last of the hostiles were holding. After it had detonated he sprinted in and raised his dual m7 SMGs, three to the left-side, two to the right-side and one Krogan warrior in the center.

He unloaded both weapons on the Krogan warrior and perforated his head and brain with rounds, and then he moved both weapons in either direction, taking down the last five opponents with direct quick bursts of fire to their helmeted heads.

Checking the lead Batarian pirate's omni tool he found that it contained the pirate security codes for the base's doors.

Turning he walked throughout the base searching for any prisoners, only finding several pirate stragglers and a sealed off door to a small dead end cave. There were four persons within, all were huddled farthest from the door: two Human children of eight or nine years of age, an Asari youngling no older than thirteen and a Human woman who looked to be in her forties.

The three younger occupants huddled behind the woman who sat with a straight back and sharp gaze, the Spartan and the woman stared at one anther for several seconds… then the woman spoke.

"If you have come to raid this pirates outpost than I assume your group was looking for new slaves, so march us to your ship, take us to a market and be done with it already." She said with venom in her voice, the children pressing in tighter behind her with fear in their eyes.

The green armored giant said nothing in reply, he simply tossed the omni-tool with all the door codes that he had removed from the pirate leader into her lap, and then turned to leave… pausing before he exited the room, he finally spoke.

"The pirates had several crates of rations in their storage room on the other side of this base, they will feed you until an alliance or Turian patrol arrives to investigate the beacon I've activated." With that he left the now very confused woman and wide eyed children to sort out what his words had meant.

Outside the base the Chief activated the encrypted distress signal and boarded the waiting pelican, leaving twenty seven dead pirates and a small group of now former slaves.

Returning to the Dawn he learned that the Hunters were nearly complete with their assigned mission and would be returning soon, the Chief reported to Cortana about the results of his shields test against enemy weapons fire and what his weapons effects were on hostiles, giving her the relevant data.

The Chief went and ate a light meal in the mess hall; they had one more target to take out, a pirate staging base.

It was manned by over fifty hostiles, maybe more. He would be using heavy weapons for this assault, he would take a shoulder mounted plasma cannon and another weapon which he hadn't fully decided on yet.

Cortana spoke through the ships speakers "Chief the two walking tanks are back, they have re-loaded their weapons and are ready for another fight."

The Spartan stood and left for the armory while giving the order to enter slip-space en-route for their next target destination, his mouth gave the slightest upturning of a smile. They would find a way home, however while they figured out how to return, he intended to do as much to flip this galaxy's cycle of galactic genocide on its head as he possibly could.

And he intended no one to learn of just what and who he and his odd crew were.

(Note)

Whew that was a tough one. anyways I am already working on chapter five and its a doozy, i mean whats a halo/ME fic without Shepard in it... its time she showed up! (no they don't meet each other, sheesh.) anyways hope to see at chapter five, this Gabenator5 SIGNING OFF!