Were it So Easy

by Sigma0327

Six's life was a giant war. Every battle was a test of sheer tenacity and stubbornness against insurmountable odds. Every moment, every bullet fired, every Covenant, Insurrectionist, and Flood spore killed has led up to his last fight. Once again he was one of the few that stood between Earth and her enemies. This would be his final battle, and nothing could change that, right?

7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Collectors

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Halo or Mass Effect Universes.

Rated M

•••

Miranda Lawson coughed up dust as she struggled to get up. She could feel pain in her legs, her ears were ringing, and she had a persistent headache.

The woman looked down at her legs, frowned, and carefully removed the debris keeping her trapped in this precarious position.

She stood up, shook herself from her disorientation, readied her weapon, and swore.

The Collectors were here.

What were the chances that those bloody insects decided to attack the very world they were imprisoned on? It didn't matter now.

She heard pained groaning coming from behind her, and the woman carefully made her way to the source of the sound, weapon in hand.

It was hard to see through the cloud of dust that permeated the inside of the building like a thick haze, she squinted her eyes as they began to sting from the irritation.

She could make out a figure slowly getting back on its feet, and she sighed a little in relief; Garrus.

"Are you alright?" She called out, hoping that the Turian fared no worse than she did.

"Yeah." He coughed. "Never better." He picked up his weapon and made his way over to the Cerberus operative.

Another explosion shook the building they stood in, kicking up even more dust. The sounds of war continued on outside. Gunfire, explosions, and the screams of innocent people.

Miranda clenched her jaws, it was not something she relished, listening to that horrible sound… the screaming.

"Is anyone else there?" Called out Miranda, hoping that her voice could cut through the cacophony outside.

She waited a moment for a response, and was about to call out again when someone did respond.

"Thane and I are still here." Samara replied, calm and serene as always. The both of them stepped out from the shroud of the ever persistent haze.

"Everyone else must have been cut off from the explosion." Said Garrus.

After the attack their marine guards let them out, surprisingly, and gave them directions to reach the armory. Although, it must have been a foreshadowing to just how desperate the Alliance was, to allow Cerberus prisoners to take up arms and help fight the Collectors.

Frankly, Miranda would have preferred if the marines kept them in their cells, because the situation must be horrific if they were willing to let Cerberus personnel out of detainment and give them weapons to help fight the Collectors.

The insectoid bastards have a habit of forcing people to band together.

Alliance marines were capable soldiers, but for them to so easily fall victim to this surprise attack… it was a testament to the power of the Collectors.

They managed to grab all of their gear, and were planning on moving outside to meet the Collectors head on, until the hallway they were moving through got hit by an explosive of some kind.

Now, there was a pile of debris, preventing them from going back and the others from reaching their position. With the Collectors jamming all communications, they had no way of letting each other know their status.

She hoped everyone made it out, and that no one was crushed by the debris… or blown apart by the explosion.

"What now?" Garrus ventured.

"The plan stays the same." Miranda said. "We need to get out of here before this place comes down around us. We should have an easier time finding the rest once we get out there." Everyone nodded, no complaints. Miranda could appreciate that.

Miranda took point along with Samara, while Garrus and Thane covered the rear.

The power to the base was cut off since the attack started, but rays of light from the planet's sun peeked through windows and holes in the wall offering at least some natural light.

Bloody hell, it was so eerie. It seemed as if they were the only ones in the building. There was no sign of any Alliance personnel, no sign of the Collectors. Despite the conflict that raged on outside, it seemed eerily quiet somehow.

She chanced a glance outside one of the windows, and her breath momentarily caught in her throat.

Given the amount of chaos occurring in such a short time, and being cut off from the outside, Miranda never could have imagined the scale of the destruction that the Collectors dished out in this short amount of time.

Massive fires raged in the distance, seeking out any and all flammable material. Apartment buildings turned into pyres, preventing people from escaping, lest they succumb to the fire. Flashes from explosions and gunfire came from every angle. She could occasionally make out the distant figures of Alliance troops clashing with the Collectors, and the figures of civilians running for their lives and failing as they were cut down by mass accelerator fire and explosives.

She forced away the feelings of sadness; she needed to focus.

"Such a waste of life." Samara said. "This crime will not go unnoticed."

"Let's move."

They did so, the cold muzzles of their weapons sweeping all possible angles.

They found no friend or foe as they pushed on. They didn't find remnants of the dead or wounded. They found nothing but an empty husk ravaged by war and filled with silence that contrasted the chaos that went on outside.

"Where did they go?" Questioned Garrus. "It wouldn't make sense for them to just leave this defensible position."

The Turian's answer came in the form of another massive explosion that shook the building's foundation.

"That's why." Miranda said.

They increased their pace.

"How fast do you think the Alliance's response time is?"

"It won't matter." Said Miranda. "They've completely disabled all communication."

"Then we're screwed." Garrus growled. "How can we save these people and fight off an invasion at the same time?"

"Stay focused." Miranda ordered. In truth, she didn't know. It won't be long before the Collectors wipe out all resistance, just like the last few colonies they destroyed.

Then what? The Normandy's ground team is among the best in the galaxy, but what could they do against a force of this magnitude that has orbital support?

Miranda wasn't sure, but they had to do something. She didn't know what, but what she did know was that their chances of survival would be higher if they regrouped with the rest of the team.

"Please. D-don't kill us."

Miranda froze, just shy of the door in front of her. The four-membered team stacked up on the door.

The Cerberus operative slowly poked her head out. She immediately noticed the half dozen or so dead marines, and the Collector drones who outnumbered the dead with their own living by two to one.

A quick look around told her that this was one of the entrances to the base. At the back of the room relative to their position was the remains of a large armored door that was seemingly blown open. Closer to them was a reception desk of sorts. Slumped up against the desk was an injured marine, young, probably early twenties. A young woman of similar age was lying in his lap, she was almost dead, barely conscious.

A Collector drone partially obstructed her view of the two individuals. It stared at the two of them with its four emotionless eyes.

The man sobbed.

"Please let us go. We just want to go home, we'll-"

The Collector raised its weapon.

No!

The alien unleashed two bursts from its rifle, each one heralded the abrupt end of a life. The lack of hesitation that alien showed, its complete disregard for life, no empathy.

It sickened Miranda.

She could hear Garrus quietly growling, and the clenched jaws of Samara and Thane told her all she needed to know about their thoughts on the situation.

Samara's body became enveloped in blue light. Their eyes locked, and Miranda nodded.

The Justicar rushed into the room, and lashed out with biotic power that only a combatant of her prestige and experience could muster. Four of the insectoid creatures were launched across the room with frightening speed before slamming into the wall behind them.

Miranda moved afterwards, her hand glowed with the same ebon blue. She lifted up the executioner and unloaded her M-9 Tempest into the suspended alien.

She frowned as it took several bursts from the weapon to kill the creature; Collectors were very durable bastards.

The Cerberus agent quickly ran for cover behind the reception desk, doing her best to ignore the bodies. She crouched low, avoiding the return fire that streaked over her.

Garrus and Thane revealed themselves from the back, surprising the Collectors with their own precision fire. The reduction of suppressive fire allowed Miranda to return the favor.

She shouldered her submachine gun, and mounted it on her cover.

She lined her sights up on another Collector, this one was trying to move to cover behind the entrance. She fired short controlled bursts from the high rate of fire weapon.

The alien's kinetic barrier did well to soak up the first burst or two, before the high velocity sand grain sized projectiles tore into its exoskeleton. It kept moving despite the injury, obviously not bothered by the pain, if it felt any pain at all.

Miranda growled, and squeezed the trigger again until the Collector bastard dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Garrus's sniper barked once, then twice, killing another Collector. To her right, Samara finished executing another pair of aliens that she stunned with her biotics.

Miranda sighted up the last two Collectors, who bolted into the bathroom of all places on the left side of the room.

She rolled her eyes.

Idiots.

Wordlessly, her and Samara made their way to the holed up Collectors. They took positions on opposite sides of the door, and Miranda lobbed a grenade inside.

There was a heavy 'thump' and Miranda rushed into the confined room weapon ready to kill the survivors. She trained her sights on the limp corpses of the Collectors, and relaxed slightly.

"Clear!" She shouted before exiting the room.

"Clear here." Replied Garrus.

She casually walked out of the room and met up with the others.

"Well, that wasn't so bad now was it?" Garrus remarked. "At this rate maybe we'll be able to kill off the rest of the Collectors."

"I hope you realize that the ship they arrived in can carry thousands of Collectors, right?"

"Ok, I spoke too soon."

The Collector ships they've encountered so far are massive. But even so they can deploy more troops than what would seem reasonable for a ship of even that tonnage. It meant that the requirements needed to maintain their troops is much less than any other species which meant that more space could be dedicated to bolstering the number of troops each ship could carry.

The operative frowned at the thought, realizing the numbers disparity they were dealing with. They needed to get out there to get a better idea of what was going on.

Miranda urged everyone to follow her. They slowly, cautiously, made their way outside.

It was at that point that the gravity of their situation finally dawned on them.

It was hard to miss the destruction that had befallen what was once an Alliance checkpoint.

Several dozen Alliance soldiers lay dead as twisted corpses. Some had fallen victim to gunfire, their armor sporting several small holes from penetrating projectiles, some were torn apart by explosions. Some of the bodies were missing limbs or had chunks of flesh torn off. Blood and gore was everywhere, leaving a horrific scene for those alive to witness it.

Fires left over from the fighting raged on, leaving plumes of smoke spiraling in the air. The embers from the flames formed a haze around the entire scene, leaving an eerie, ominous atmosphere behind.

Above it all, high in the sky, was the massive Collector cruiser. It was a strange amalgamation of organic protrusions and a metallic superstructure. The vessel held position ominously above the city, making its presence known like a god would to ant-like mortals it would deem insignificant.

"This… is not good." Said Thane, speaking for the first time. He knelt over one of the bodies and gently closed the man's eyes.

"No one has survived." Samara said. "Nothing we can do for them."

Miranda moved first, stepping over debris and mutilated corpses; she did well to keep the contents of her lunch in her stomach as she narrowly avoided stepping in what looked to be the guts and intestines of an unfortunate victim.

Miranda was an experienced operative, and she's seen many things that would churn the insides of most. But she is no frontline soldier, she'd admit that she isn't used to seeing the aftermath of a real conflict.

Though the operative would never admit that to anyone.

When they left the safety of the military checkpoint and into the town square, Miranda was certain that this was some sort of hell.

What was once a statue was now just a concrete stump with rubble strewn everywhere.

Some of the smaller two story buildings were reduced to rubble. Struck by explosives that seemed more suited to putting holes in bunkers rather than civilian structures. The larger apartment buildings had several holes in them from all manner of explosions, more fire was visible too.

The roundabout around the remains of the statue was covered in debris from buildings and pieces of the road kicked up from explosions which left several craters around the area. A few twisted wrecks from civilian cars were visible around the area as well. Some of them still had human remains in them, which were nothing more than pieces of charred bone and flesh.

The worst part about it was the dozens of bodies, mostly belonging to civilians, just strewn about and left to rot.

Miranda clenched her jaws at the horrific scene. Never before had she seen something like this.

"Spirits." Said Garrus in disbelief. "This isn't like the Collectors. They usually just kidnap the survivors, not turn colonies into warzones. What's going on?"

"I don't know… t-this has never been observed before." Miranda cursed herself for stuttering, for that moment of weakness, but damn it… look at this atrocity! She couldn't bring herself to take in the traumatic scene around her and tried as hard as she could to focus on possible positions that the Collectors could attack from.

Garrus did bring up a good point about the Collectors' usual method of attacking colonies.

The Collectors have always used seeker swarms to immobilize human subjects before taking them to their ships and leaving the scene. They have never committed to a full scale military campaign like this before. It didn't make sense. The Cerberus operative figured that their previous strategy was more efficient.

Whatever the case, they had a new mystery to solve now… if they made it out of here alive.

More gunfire erupted down the street in the direction of a forest of apartment buildings, forcing Miranda and her companions into action.

"Move, move!" She urged.

If they could rescue surviving Alliance marines, then their chances of survival as a whole improves.

They made their way quickly to the source of the fighting, an intersection, littered as it was by the remains of several destroyed cars piled up in the middle, it looked like a makeshift foxhole of sorts. She could make out several muzzle flashes coming from the impromptu garrison.

And there were the Collectors, they were quickly converging on the marines, hoping to crush the resistance. Despite the smoke and embers in the air, it was still broad daylight, so it wasn't difficult to spot the bastards.

Miranda took cover behind a wrecked car, they were about fifty meters from the firefight.

"Engage the Collectors, we need to wipe them out quickly."

"Don't have to tell me twice." Said Garrus. His sniper rifle barked, dropping one then two Collectors.

Miranda followed the Turian's example, sending short controlled bursts down range.

The small projectiles hit their mark instantly, shearing through the kinetic barriers of one of the Collectors and eviscerating its innards.

Her second target ducked behind a pile of rubble, saving itself from sharing its comrade's fate.

Even at a range of fifty meters, it becomes difficult to use biotics in an effective offensive manner.

On the other side of the marines' position, two Collectors were launched into the air before being promptly cut down by automatic gunfire.

Unless, of course, you were Samara.

"I'm gonna get in close, cover me!" Miranda ordered.

She vaulted over her cover and sprinted as fast as she could. Her augmentations, training, and light gear allowed her to cover the thirty meter distance quicker than most.

Two of the Collectors noticed her approaching, they turned their guns on Miranda. But the Cerberus operative was faster, she lashed out with her biotics, picking up both enemies and slamming them into the ground. She put a few rounds in both of them to make sure they were dead.

With Miranda's sudden incursion, two things happened. One, she was in a position to use her biotics more effectively. Two, the Collectors were now fighting a two front battle.

Even so, she had to be careful. Biotics were powerful, especially in close range engagements, but they were taxing. Unless someone had extremely high calorie rations on hand, she was only able to use her biotics a few times before she was worn out.

That was the serious drawback of biotics; they suffer in long term engagements.

"Ballsy move!" Said Garrus over their short range comms… at least those were working. "You've got multiple Collectors moving on your position!"

They were distracted, that was good.

She peeked out from behind the slab of concrete she was hiding behind, and lobbed a grenade into the general direction of four or five Collectors headed towards her position.

The explosive detonated, sending nasty pieces of shrapnel everywhere. Two of the Collectors were outright eviscerated, the other three were stunned from the blast.

The Cerberus veteran took it as an opportunity to finish them off. She shouldered her weapon and squeezed the trigger- at this range, she couldn't miss.

Two of the aliens dropped dead and the third was finished off from her newfound allies.

Perfect timing too. Miranda ejected the red hot thermal clip from her weapon, and quickly replaced it with a fresh one.

The gunfire died down. Miranda was grateful for the quick engagements. Assuming that the Collectors had numerical superiority, and they definitely do, drawing out engagements wouldn't be good for their long term survival as it would do nothing but draw in enemy reinforcements.

She noticed one of the marines slowly scan the perimeter with his rifle from the proverbial automotive castle. "Clear!" He shouted, though at a distance of twenty meters, it was difficult to hear over the background noise.

They locked eyes, or at least, she thought they did. Miranda waved, hoping the friendly gesture would be reciprocated.

The marine returned the gesture and beckoned her over. The woman sighed in relief.

Behind her, she could hear the rest of her team trailing her.

"I guess they aren't mad at us now." Commented Garrus.

"I don't think they know we're Cerberus and if they did, we're the least of their worries right now. Just keep your weapons down and play nice."

"Yes, mom." She rolled her eyes.

"Fancy seeing you here, Cerberus!" The marine said. Miranda felt a little anxious, hopefully they can see the gravity of the situation and look past their allegiance.

"Thanks for the save." The soldier continued. "Now get your asses in here, before more of them show up." Miranda felt a little bit of relief knowing that now they've got more guns to work with.

They stepped up over the cover and crouched low. There were only seven survivors and almost a dozen bodies piled up in a small corner of the pile of cars and rubble.

"Yeah, we're a little short on marines." The soldier said somberly, noticing Miranda looking at the casualties. "They were a different squad we linked up with, they were already down by half and in the thick of it when we showed up."

"What's the situation out here?" Miranda inquired. She took up position next to the soldier, keeping her eyes peeled for anymore of the four-eyed bastards.

"They completely took us by surprise. Don't know how, but they made it past early warning. We didn't even have enough time to mobilize our forces before they showed up and started killing… everyone." The man paused, Miranda could detect the hint of anger and sadness, normally well concealed, but not to her.

"Soldiers, civilians. Men, women, even kids. These sick sons of bitches don't discriminate. I'll tell you that."

Miranda nodded, she was familiar with that.

"Where's the rest of your unit?"

"Got cutoff from the rest." He responded. "We're under Lieutenant Hawkin's command, have you heard from her?"

"Negative."

"Damn." He scoffed. "She's tough I'm sure she's out there showing those assholes why you don't fuck with humanity."

Another explosion rumbled in the distance, like thunder.

"We've never faced an enemy like this before. We're losing, faster than what should be possible. Were you heading?"

"We got cut off from our team too." She explained. "We're trying to find Shepard and the rest. If we succeed then we might just have a chance."

The man nodded. "Hell, I'm not a fan of you Cerberus pricks and I'm certainly not a fan of Shepard's choice." He sighed. "But if the stories are true, then Shepard can maybe turn things in our favor. You know where he could be"?"

"No, we got cut off early on in the attack." Said Miranda. "We've been trying to regroup since."

The marine nodded. "Maybe they made it through another section of the base. There's another entrance maybe five, ten mikes North of here. We can take you there but be warned, those insect fucks seem to have the ability to fly, at least partially. They can hop around like crickets, making it easy for them to reach high positions on the rooftops. They are very good at ambushing us when we least expect it."

Yet another thing to look out for. The Collectors are very maneuverable. It's easy for them to quickly reposition, moving from one position to the next very quickly. Makes it that much harder to combat them.

"Lead the way, we'll need to stay close and hug the walls, minimize the different angles they can ambush us from."

"Sounds good to me." Another of the marines said. "Anywhere's better than this death trap."

Miranda nodded. "Garrus, Thane, bring up the rear."

She followed the marines, leaving the safety of their cover and exposing themselves again to enemy aggression.

They stacked up against the wall in a line formation, and slowly, cautiously pushed on. Their weapons scanned every possible angle for Collectors.

At this rate, it would take a while to reach their destination and regroup… if there was anyone left to regroup with in the first place.

•••

"C'mon! Move your asses or you get left behind!" Phoenix shouted over the chaotic scene around her, spurring the soldiers around her into action.

The situation was dire, with seemingly no local command structure to maintain some sort of order along with the sheer chaos of the situation, the marines struggled to order themselves effectively into their respective units. Without any orders or ability to communicate, everything was in shambles. Airforce can't communicate with the infantry to coordinate airstrikes on the enemy and military units are unable to regroup and consolidate to counterattack.

Everyone was taken by surprise. In all of Phoenix's lengthy military career, she has never seen the command structure collapse the way she is witnessing it right now. It was sobering, and highlighted the kind of enemy that the Collectors really are.

A massive explosion shook her from her thoughts.

"You there!" She said pointing towards one of the dozen or so marines-a sergeant belonging to a different unit. "Take your squad and post up on the northern entrance, do not let any Collectors in. If they take this base, then we're well and truly fucked!"

"Yes ma'am!" The sergeant nodded, and rallied his troops. They hastily exited the armory leaving Phoenix and her friends behind.

She checked her M-8 rifle and turned to meet Gunther, noticing the large duffel bag slung over his shoulder.

"You got it?" She asked.

The large man nodded. "It's all here."

"Alright, let's go. We see any of our own, they come with us. Comms are down so we can't rely on long distance communication. Any non-combatants we direct to the nearest safe room. You see any Collectors you put them down, no hesitation… am I clear?" Her subordinates and friends nodded without hesitation. They knew how many lives were at stake, and if there is anything that the past few minutes has told them, it's that the Collectors don't take prisoners.

"Let's go!"

They quickly filed out of the armory with Phoenix taking point. Despite the relative safety of the Alliance complex, Phoenix knew better. The Collectors were on top of them in moments. It was reasonable to believe that in the time it took for them to leave the security room and meet up with Gunther, the Collectors had already breached the base.

More explosions went off in the distance, sounding like guided munitions.

"That the air force?" Wondered Marcus aloud.

"If it is then they are fighting a losing battle." Said Joel.

Phoenix raised her fist as they approached a hole in the wall on their left. It was easy to see the carnage outside the safety of Alliance fortifications. The flames and explosions, the muzzle flashes and screams.

The Collectors were going to pay.

There was something else, she squinted noticing four figures within the confines of the out perimeter. A Turian, Drell, Asari, and a Human.

She growled.

Cerberus.

"Looks like someone let the Cerberus clowns out of their holding pens." Remarked Marcus.

"We have bigger problems." Hawkins retorted, more aggressively than was necessary.

She gestured to her team to follow her, they moved quickly, limiting the amount of time they were out of cover and exposed to potential hostile fire.

At the end of the hallway was a staircase, which was where they needed to go to reach their destination.

"Friendlies coming up!" She heard a voice call out from the bottom of the staircase.

"Friendlies on your twelve at the top, check fire!" Phoenix responded.

"Copy, coming up!"

She could hear the pounding of combat boots as a trio of armored marines made their way up to the second floor.

"You guys lost?" Phoenix asked, noticing that they weren't part of her unit.

"No ma'am." The soldier responded. "We're looking for additional survivors and potential hostile breaches."

She raised an eyebrow. "Only the three of you?"

"We're low on troops. The entire unit is either dead or split up, there isn't much manpower to spare."

Jesus, is their situation really that desperate that they could only afford to send out three men to recover survivors and uncover hostile incursions?

"Where are you going ma'am?"

She hesitated at first, she wasn't quite sure how to answer that question.

"We're going to get a weapon that might help us with the Collectors."

The man regarded her with a confused expression.

"A weapon? What do you mean-" The man stopped as realization sunk in.

"Jesus… nevermind. Goodluck with that ma'am, I wouldn't want to be in your shoes."

Phoenix smiled. "We need to move, goodluck on your mission."

They nodded to each other and went their separate ways with Phoenix and her team moving down the stairs.

"He looked spooked when you mentioned that." Said Gunther.

"Can't say I blame him." Said Phoenix, stopping in front of their destination, a big armored door. "He's not the one that's gotta let loose a seven foot tall killing machine."

She activated her short range comms, glad that at least that was working. "Six? It's Lieutenant Hawkins. We're outside your room, about to open the door, how copy?"

The deep voice that responded sent chills down her spine.

"Copy, standing by."

She was about to approach the door when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and locked eyes with an anxious Joel.

He almost looked scared.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" He asked softly.

She considered his words for a moment. The man in there, if it is even a man at all, is an enigma. He was as big a mystery as mysteries got. He's unknown, his allegiance and motives are unknown, his origins and name are unknown. Hell, even his species is held into question.

What did she know about him? Only that he is a soldier, like her, and puts the safety of civilians above his own, if the situation they found him in was any indication.

In their current situation; a hellish warzone where hellish aliens were slaughtering innocent people, that was as good a resume as she could hope for.

"If we don't let him out, the Collectors kill us all." She said in a firm voice, as if she were a mother addressing her child. "If we let him out, then maybe we stand a chance of getting out of this alive. We don't have much of a choice."

The man nodded in understanding and gestured towards the door with his head.

She had a feeling that Joel knew that, but maybe the man was just looking for reassurance.

She understands.

As she got closer to the door, she could feel her heart beating faster, her fight or flight kicking in. The adrenaline poured into her system slowing everything down.

She felt like if she got any closer to the door, a black armored gauntlet would shear through the metal and pulverize her head.

She shook herself from the negative thoughts and entered the code into the system.

The door didn't open.

She tried again, believing that she might have mistyped the code.

Nothing.

Damnit!

"It's not working." She said.

"What do you mean?"

She looked over at Joel. "System must have been fried from the attack."

She keyed her comms again..

"Six, we can't get you out, looks like the attack damaged the base's systems."

There was a pause. Ok… maybe short range comms weren't working now?

"Step away from the door." The command, though devoid of emotion, was harsh.

"Understood." She responded. "Everyone get away from the door."

"What is he gonna do, break through the door? Marcus said, he was incredulous. "That's several inches of starship grade armor! Nothing can get through that!"

CLANG.

The sound of the metal warping silenced Marcus, and apparently, the cacophony outside.

Phoenix instinctively raised her weapon at the door, not at all expecting that.

CLANG.

She could see the door denting outwards. Her mind tried, and failed, to do the mental mathematics needed to figure out just how much force you would need to apply to dent an armored door like that.

How was this possible?

CLANG.

"Weapons down." She whispered, worried that Six may hear. The last thing she wanted was for the giant mech-like soldier to hear that they had weapons raised in his general direction.

Didn't seem very productive to their long term survival.

CLANG.

No one spoke as little by little, the door was becoming more and more deformed through what looked like sheer supernatural strength. Not even a krogan had the physical strength needed to replicate this feat.

Everytime Six struck the door, the sound deafened Phoenix and the ground beneath her shook from the immense force.

Just what the hell were they dealing with here?

It was when the door's deformation became palpable that the final strike did it in.

The sound of metal on metal was so loud that Phoenix's ears were ringing painfully. She made a mental note to get her ears checked up afterwards to make sure they didn't suffer any permanent damage.

The door, which had to weigh a ton, was flung across the hallway like a wet paper towel. It slammed into the door on the other side of the hall and dented it, the thundering boom that followed pierced Phoenix's ears.

She quickly shook herself from her disorientation.

The lights inside the room were off, so it was impossible to see inside. The fact that she couldn't see the Spartan was unnerving.

The massive, seven foot tall, jet black bulk of the Spartan stepped out of the darkness, as silent as the night, and graceful beyond reasoning for a man of that size and weight.

"What's the situation?" He asked without missing a beat.

He was military to the bone.

"The Collectors are attacking." She said, gesturing to Gunther who gently placed the duffel bag on the ground. "You read up on them?"

The Spartan was on top of the bag instantly, Phoenix kept her rifle trained on the hallway, providing the Spartan with some cover as he grabbed his equipment.

"Information was limited. Motivation for the attack?"

"Unknown." She replied, jumping slightly as he appeared next to her.

That was fast.

"They made it past early warning, took us by surprise. Military presence on the planet is dwindling quickly by the minute. The Collectors are targeting civilians-" She watched as his helmet turned towards her.

"-Men, women, children." She continued, cursing herself as her voice became softer.

Phoenix turned towards the armored warrior, looking up into his visor.

"I don't know if your story is true, I don't know where your allegiance lies, shit I'm still not even sure if you're human or not… but we need your help."

The Spartan looked down at the woman for a few moments, appearing to consider her words.

"What are your current orders?" He asked.

"We don't have any." The Alliance soldier replied bitterly. "All long range communications are disabled and as far as I know, Colonel Yan didn't make it. I could very well be the highest ranking member in the area." The Spartan nodded.

"Man what do we do?" Growled Marcus. "We can't just rally the remaining military here and save the survivors!"

"We can't just sit here with our thumbs up our asses either!" Retorted Joel.

"Easy Joel." Gunther jumped in, trying to diffuse any hostile situation between the two marines. "No one's planning on doing that, I can assure you."

Phoenix momentarily closed her eyes, trying to come up with an idea. They needed to do something. But what? There were only five of them against an army. If the entire Alliance garrison couldn't fight off the invasion, then what chance do they have?

"Asset denial." She looked at the Spartan.

"What do you mean by asset denial?" Joel inquired nervously.

"This is a first contact situation gone south." The Spartan said. "The Collectors have resorted to hostile actions without any attempts at communication or negotiation. With their indiscriminate targeting of military personnel and civilians, we must assume the worst."

As the Spartan spoke, Phoenix felt goose bumps forming on her skin. She was hoping this wasn't going where she thought it was.

"What does that mean?" Joel asked, venturing into a realm of questions and answers that the man would soon come to regret.

The man's answer would haunt Phoenix for a long time to come.

"The Collectors plan to wipe Humanity out. All of it."

The Alliance Lieutenant paled, never once imagining that she would be fighting against the extinction of humanity in her military career.

She clenched her jaws and tried to calm herself as the gravity of the situation finally dawned on her. If what the Spartan was saying is true, then they weren't just fighting to protect everyone on this planet, they were fighting to protect every single man, woman, and child from a menace of incomprehensible cruelty.

She hoped Six was wrong. It sounded like such an unnecessarily extreme assumption, so outlandish, so impossible.

But he sounded so confident. Like he knew what he was talking about!

Phoenix found that just as unsettling.

Why would the Collectors want to wipe out Humanity? What did Humanity ever do to deserve their wrath? She wasn't just scared and sad at this revelation, she was also angry.

"What do we do?" She asked, turning to meet the soldier, this otherworldly man who seemed so much more knowledgeable in the machinations of their current situation they found themselves in.

"The Collectors can't know where to find the other worlds." Phoenix clenched her jaws.

"That won't work." She said. "All the planetary coordinates are available on the extranet, anyone can access them."

The Spartan looked down at her. If she didn't know any better, she'd say that the man was frowning beneath that golden hexagonal visor of his.

"Alliance tactics, force projection capabilities, contingency plans?"

"All classified."

He nodded. "This planet is lost." She hated hearing him say that. It was a hard to swallow pill, but at this rate, this colony isn't going to be a colony anymore. "With no way of warning the Alliance, we need to destroy all compromising intel."

"Then what?" Joel said. "We just lay down and die?"

"We do what we can to repel the invasion force."

Phoenix was incredulous. How the hell did he think just the five of them were going to weather this storm when the entire Alliance garrison couldn't?

"Are you crazy?!" Joel exclaimed. "What, with just the five of us?!" The Spartan turned to face the angry, disbelieving marine.

"If that's necessary. We buy the Alliance some time and protect Humanity, whatever the cost."

Phoenix was taken aback. If this guy was telling the truth, then he was plucked away from his galaxy, thrown into a place more foreign to him than it could ever get, is practically detained by a foreign military, and now he is helping this military to fight off insurmountable odds without hesitation, fear, or any questions?

That level of steadfast dedication isn't human. The knowledge, the confidence to so easily know what to do given the odds… it was inspiring. Phoenix tried her best to conceal her awe as she stared at the giant armored man in front of her.

But it was hard to.

"I've got the armor." He said, stepping in front of the marines, laden with more firepower than any mortal man could hope to carry. He leveled his Avenger rifle down the corridor.

"Tell me where to go, we need to reach the central servers before they do."

The way he talked too. Normal conversations didn't sit well with the Spartan, but on the battlefield, he spoke freely and without hesitation. Either he really is a robot or he was bred for war.

She wanted to know what circumstances resulted in the deployment of a soldier like the one before her, what circumstances armed this man with the knowledge to so easily know what to do in the face of a possible genocidal invasion.

What circumstances necessitated the development of soldiers like him?

She shook herself from her thoughts; they had a mission to do.

"Servers are underground and locked behind a reinforced door. We're gonna have to head through the main lobby to get to the nearest security checkpoint, from there we head down beneath the complex to reach the servers."

The Spartan nodded. They all fell in behind the walking tank, and moved down the hallway. Phoenix kept her weapon shouldered but she didn't dare flag the Spartan with her muzzle.

It was one of the worst sins in the military; you never let your rifle muzzle anywhere near your teammates. Something like that would get you kicked out of any military unit in an instant.

Weapon safety was taken very seriously.

"How large was the Alliance presence here?" Six asked, weapon sweeping along all possible angles impossibly fast.

"About two or three battalion's worth with additional supporting elements." She responded. Phoenix once again marveled at the complete silence of Six's footsteps. With the way he moved and seemed to somehow blend into the shadows, he'd make an effective assassin as well as a frontline soldier.

"This colony had a relatively large garrison, larger than usual." Marcus added.

"Friendly orbital assets?"

"They left with the refugees." Whispered Joel from behind Phoenix. "We weren't even stationed on those ships. When we got your call they were short on men so they assigned us, we were supposed to be on leave before our next deployment."

"Say… you think the Collectors were waiting for those ships to leave?" Wondered Marcus. "A little convenient that the attack happened almost immediately after the navy left."

"They likely did." Phoenix responded morbidly. After all, if she was leading a planetary invasion, she would have done the same.

"Do we really need to go through the lobby? It's probably crawling with the fuckers by now."

"It's the quickest way Marcus."

"And what if the Collectors are waiting for us?"

"We clear them out." The Spartan finished, as if the answer was obvious to everyone.

"Take a left at the intersection." Phoenix instructed. It was here where the destruction became more noticeable, with them having left the confines of the more fortified section of the complex dedicated to detainment.

There was a large hole in the ceiling above the intersection which made way for some natural light that helped light up the interior. Pieces of debris were strewn around the area.

All of the countless offices that ran along the hall on both sides were devoid of life. Most of them were a mess; dossiers and files were thrown around, furniture was misaligned, and personal belongings were left behind.

The lack of bodies left some sliver of hope in Phoenix's heart; she hoped it was a good sign that at least those people made it to the various safe rooms all around the complex.

Most of them were underground, so they'd find out eventually.

They switched sides and stacked up on the left of the intersection.

The Spartan's weapon snapped up towards the hole. "They have orbital support." The Spartan observed. "One cruiser-sized vessel."

He moved around the corner once confirming the coast was clear. Phoenix spared a glance as she passed under the breach and her breath caught in her throat.

The vessel was huge. The strange amalgamation of organic and metallic parts that called itself a vessel was easily the largest ship she has ever seen personally. She reckoned it was almost twice as long as an Alliance dreadnought!

Just what kind of technology and firepower did the Collectors possess?

"Jesus!" Exclaimed Marcus. "That is not a cruiser! That's a massive dreadnought! Where the hell are you from where something like that would be considered a cruiser?"

The Spartan didn't respond for a moment. "Ship sizes are larger where I'm from."

Yeah, no kidding.

She wondered how his people managed to scale up the size of their ships so much without running into the restrictions associated with needing so much eezo for such massive vessels.

Maybe eezo was just more common in his home cosmos.

As they continued to press on, the illumination provided by the miniscule amount of natural light died, the only bit of light came from sparks that cascaded onto the floor from the ceiling above.

That, along with the sounds of war in the background that contrasted the silence in these dark halls made the place seem so eerie.

The Spartan in front of her became harder to distinguish as well. It didn't even seem like the Spartan was trying to blend into the shadows and yet he was still somehow pulling it off despite being only a few meters in front of Phoenix.

"Take a right-" The Spartan held up a fist, silencing Phoenix and signaling them to stop.

The woman didn't know what alerted the Spartan. She didn't hear anything and she certainly didn't see anything. But the experienced soldier knew better than to voice her thoughts lest she give away their position.

The massive soldier crept over to the corner and then became motionless, like a statue.

Then she heard footsteps.

The woman wondered how he was able to hear them before she did. He must have really good hearing.

"Three hostiles approaching, standby." He whispered quietly over their short range private comms.

How did he know there were three of them?

She watched the man produce a wicked looking kukri from the small of his back that the woman could have sworn wasn't there before. His rifle was attached to his back and the Spartan held the menacing blade out front, ready to smite whatever was about to turn the corner.

He planned to take on three armed opponents with just a knife?

Phoenix instinctively opened her mouth but stopped; she just needed to trust him.

Her heart continued to beat faster and faster. What if he missed his mark? What would happen when they brought their guns to bear? Sure his armor is a hell of alot more durable than hers but the sounds of gunfire would just alert more of the enemy to their position.

Fighting a Collector invasion force in close quarters wasn't exactly on her bucket list.

She prepared to activate her omni tool, but she waited, not wanting to alert the enemy of potential danger from the orange glow of the wrist blade.

She could just make out the first of the Collectors turning the corner before Six struck.

If she blinked she would have missed it.

One moment the Spartan was still as a statue, knife in hand. The next moment, he exploded into action, accelerating to unnatural speeds so quickly that he practically blurred out of existence. The first Collector dropped to the ground immediately afterwards, the time interval between Six striking and the Collector dropping being so small that the two events seemed to occur simultaneously.

Around the corner, Phoenix heard the sound of the blade shearing through the carapace of the Collectors and the sound of bodies dropping.

How quickly did all of that happen? A second at most? She didn't even register the Spartan turning the corner after dropping the first Collector. All of the different events happened so quickly together, and with such ferocity that Phoenix couldn't even reliably process what she just witnessed.

There was a small delay where she was simply dumbstruck, unable to come to terms with what she just saw.

She turned the corner, weapon in hand, only to find the other two Collectors' corpses with brutal slash marks from the Spartan's massive blade.

The Spartan stood between the two bodies with his back facing the disbelieving, slack-jawed marines. He returned his knife to the small of his back and shouldered his Alliance made rifle.

"Holy shit!" Joel Whisper-yelled. "Holy shit!"

"Incredible." She heard Gunther whisper to himself.

"How the fuck did you do that?" Marcus exclaimed.

"Hostiles eliminated." The Spartan deadpanned. "We should keep moving."

They fell in behind the Spartan. Phoenix did her best to forget about what she saw and focus on the mission.

But it was hard.

She's never seen anything move that fast, not even close. She was well aware that some aliens could move much faster than Humans such as Drell and Krogan. Geth combat platforms were amazingly fast. But this? Nothing even came close.

"We got some light up ahead." Informed Gunther. "Looks like we've reached the lobby."

Fifty meters ahead of them was the first landmark on their way to the servers. Plenty of natural light made its way into the complex's main lobby. It was a stark contrast to the dark, cramped hallways they've spent the last several minutes maneuvering through.

"Let's hope it's clear." Said Marcus in a way that sounded more like a prayer to Phoenix, something that wasn't normal for the usually gung-ho marine. It was clear that no one was eager to fight the Collector menace, and for good reason.

Phoenix frowned as the universe seemed to have other plans in store.

Several Collectors walked past the entrance to the lobby, oblivious to the Human survivors slowly stalking towards them. With the abundance of sunlight hitting their retina, it made it almost impossible to see anything in the dark hallways, so at least they had the advantage of stealth.

"You always have to Jinx everything, don't you Marcus?" Joel whispered, he was irate.

"You damn well know that there was like a hundred percent chance of those assholes being there right?"

Joel didn't respond; it was for the better.

They carefully made their way to the entrance, stopping once they had. Phoenix looked around the corner on the right side of the hallway while Six did the same opposite to her.

The place was a mess. The entire front side of the lobby was just gone. The door, the wall, everything. It was as if someone dropped a guided bomb on the place. Piles of rubble littered the area, and so did the bodies.

There were only a few Collector corpses. There were a few dozen human bodies. The lobby was large, it almost reminded her of an airport terminal from the twenty first century, though not as large. This room could probably fit a hundred people. There were several dead marines behind the reception desks.

Dead civilians were strewn around the area too. The Collectors' disregard for life was disturbing, and Phoenix found herself getting progressively angrier as she took in more and more of the carnage.

"Motherfuckers." She muttered angrily.

"I count twenty three hostiles." The Spartan reported.

Indeed, she looked around the room and could easily make out the groups of Collectors patrolling the area for survivors. They milled about, inspecting each one of the bodies as they went about their grizzly work. The Collectors looked so dispassionate, so emotionless as they carried on about their work.

She couldn't detect any form of anger or hatred or any form of glee that they had essentially won. They were like drones. Phoenix found that disturbing.

Guiltily, she realized that this was the entrance where she sent that squad of marines to defend. She couldn't see their bodies, meaning they were likely outside, acting as the first line of defense against the Collectors.

Phoenix felt a pang of sadness well up in her, she should have just taken them with her instead of sending them to their deaths.

She took a deep breath; she could worry about this later.

"Got a plan, boss?" Questioned Marcus.

Instead of Phoenix responding, the Spartan spoke."I can draw their fire. You can engage them while they're distracted."

She looked at the Spartan, but was hesitant. "You sure?" The giant soldier nodded without a second thought.

She wasn't sure if that was the best idea. That armor looked durable as hell but even a suit like that had limits. But given the circumstances, it didn't look like they had much of a choice.

"On your mark." She said, shouldering her rifle and taking aim at a trio of Collectors inspecting the bodies left behind the reception desks.

The Spartan crept forward, alarmingly quick yet as silent as a Drell assassin. He stalked towards the closest of the Collectors on her left, the man lashed out with a single strike to the head, applying enough force to cave it in and kill the alien instantly.

Given that he has enough strength to break through reinforced armor doors, Phoenix expected such a grisly end for that particular Collector.

The Collectors that Phoenix was watching heard the crack of their comrade's carapace, and spun around quickly.

Phoenix and her marines opened fire.

She squeezed her trigger, sending a hail of rounds into her target's center mass, just as she was trained.

The kinetic barrier fell, though it took more rounds than she was expecting. She sent more bursts into the alien, watching in disbelief as the creature ate several rounds before finally collapsing.

Moments later, and the other two bastards danced a deadly macabre on their way down to the cold hard floor.

The Alliance lieutenant frowned at how durable these things were. It was no wonder why the Alliance military was struggling the way it was.

The rest of the Collectors caught on, and all hell broke loose.

"Spread out!" She ordered. Phoenix sprinted out from the confines of the hallway as fast as she could and threw herself behind the reception desks, her kinetic barrier weathered the few rounds she took in the process.

Years of combat experience and training took over, he shouldered her rifle and stood up to meet the enemy. The marine squeezed the trigger and sent short controlled bursts downrange. The alien in question took a smattering of rounds and collapsed like a sack of potatoes.

The remaining Collectors all spread out around the lobby turned to meet her and opened fire.

She ducked down, barely dodging a tsunami of automatic fire that slammed into her cover or zipped by over her head. A split second too late and she would have ended up looking more like a piece of swiss cheese than a human.

"Fuck!" She yelled, unable to return fire. With the amount of suppressive fire being directed her way, Phoenix reckoned her barrier and armor would let her survive for a second at most before being cut down.

"Jesus they're everywhere!" She heard Marcus yell in the distance. The number of Collector guns easily drowned out the sound of her teammates returning fire.

Phoenix heard an explosion go off in the relative position of the Collectors. She took the reduction in enemy fire as a good sign and decided to return the favor to the Collectors.

But before she could neutralize the nearest alien, the Collector dropped. She sighted up the next target before it too met the same fate.

She sighted up a third Collector and quickly claimed that kill as several bursts from her rifle tore into its abdomen.

It was only then that she noticed the smoking rifle muzzle on her right. She turned to the source.

There was the Spartan, crouched low next to her. She didn't know how she once again failed to notice his approach but it didn't matter.

He was on their side.

Every single time the Spartan fired his M-8, a Collector died. He cycled targets so quickly that his rifle muzzle was simply a blur. Phoenix tried and failed to keep track of the targets that he brought down; he was just killing them too fast.

The effect was instantaneous. The enemy gunfire dropped drastically as the Spartan's supernatural accuracy and machine-like efficiency downed the Collectors so fast that Phoenix could feel goosebumps all over her skin at the sight.

She watched in awe as the Spartan quickly cycled in a new thermal clip. The movement was so fast that he was already reloaded and downing the next Collector before the previously spent thermal clip had even hit the floor.

The insectoids immediately opened fire on the proverbial elephant in the room. To Phoenix's astonishment, a brilliant golden light absorbed the fire. it shimmered and crackled over the Spartan's armored form, increasing in intensity as more rounds struck true yet failed to penetrate the almost angelic looking barrier.

In hindsight, within the hellscape she found herself in, the Spartan did in a way seem angelic with the way the sunlight reflected off of his armored form and exotic kinetic barrier as he stood there unfazed, taking hits for her and her team.

Phoenix shook herself from her amazement and sighted up one of the survivors, eager to let the Collectors know that Six wasn't the only threat in the room, killing two of the invaders before it was over as quickly as it began. Between the gunfire brought upon the Collectors by the marines and the supernatural accuracy thanks to the Spartan, the insectoid-like humanoids stood no chance.

She looked over the dead Collectors, noticing how most of them had a single hole directly in the center of their heads. She shook her head in disbelief, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck stand as she turned to stare at the Spartan.

The crackling golden cloak around his body lowered in intensity until it returned to translucency.

The Spartan stood up and began inspecting all of the bodies, making sure they were dead. Even with gunshot wounds to the head, the Spartan was meticulous, taking no chances as his visor scanned the dead with the same dispassionate nature she witnessed from the Collectors moments prior.

Even though the man was on their side and probably the only reason they were still alive, the similarity disturbed her.

The woman did the same, and looked over the slain Collectors, shaking her head as she did so.

Soldiers were trained to aim for the center mass of the target for the reason that while it might not be as effective as a shot to the head, it was more practical as the chest was a bigger target and it had plenty of vital organs.

But for the Spartan to so casually and consistently score shots to the head in a chaotic combat zone pointed towards a level of mastery and reflexes that just shouldn't be possible.

"Ah man!" Marcus said excitedly. "Finally some back up! Good to know some other marines made it out."

Phoenix raised an eyebrow in confusion, before realization set in.

Six had been killing the Collectors so quickly that it seemed as if there were multiple soldiers engaging the Collectors at the same time.

But that wasn't the case, this was the work of just one rifle.

Amazing, and also terrifying.

Gunther emerged from a nearby pile of rubble he had been taking shelter behind.

"No Marcus." He said, stopping right next to the hulking form of the Spartan. "That was all him." He gestured to Six.

Marcus' eyes widened and his jaw dropped comically.

He struggled to find the words to express how he felt.

"You are something else man." He said.

She looked at the Spartan and stifled a laugh as the quiet man just shrugged.

Phoenix looked between Gunther and Six, getting a good appreciation for the height difference between the two.

Gunther was 6'4, quite a bit taller than most marines. But the Spartan was almost a head taller than the already tall Gunther.

A normal human of that height would find it very difficult to perform on a battlefield.

Yet Six can move faster than a Geth platform, as silent as an assassin, and can fire a weapon with perfect accuracy. That's not even mentioning that he can dent starship grade armor with his brute strength.

Is there anything he can't do?

"Alright." Phoenix said. "Let's keep moving before more of them show up."

Six nodded and took point, leading the marines across the lobby on the other side of their original entry point, back into the dark and cramped hallways.

Things were a bit quicker. They didn't find any Collectors over the next few minutes, which the woman found weird, ominous, even.

The grisly work of the Collectors didn't seem to reach the part of the base they were in.

She was wrong of course.

The underbelly of the base was deep underground and protected by several feet of reinforced concrete, enough to survive an orbital bombardment in the event some asshole thought it would be funny to give a middle finger to Citadel law.

Beyond just containing the servers, there was also a plethora of bunkers containing all the necessities needed to keep not just base personnel alive, but also civilians for a lengthy time.

There was more than one entrance to this heavily fortified section, all of which are heavily reinforced and protected by guards at all times.

Standard protocol dictated that those guards needed to maintain positions even in the event of an invasion.

The guards were there alright, just not alive.

"No, no, no!" Phoenix whisper-yelled through clenched teeth.

She counted five dead marines through the bullet resistant glass, both the security doors seemed to be blown open. Blood was splattered everywhere and a quick look at the bodies told her that they were killed by gunfire.

"Those Collector motherfuckers!" Marcus seethed.

"Six, there's several shelters down there, shelters filled with non-combatants, we have to get down there!" Joel pleaded.

Gunther said nothing, though Phoenix could easily make out the man's disturbed expression underneath his helmet.

The Spartan simply nodded. She followed him through the two security layers and down the stairs which took them down several meters under the ground.

The bland gray metallic appearance of the underground shelter served a more practical purpose, certainly not one of striking appearance. The lights were still working thanks to the numerous emergency generators kept far away from any potential sabotage or damage from fighting around the complex.

The first thing she noticed was the bodies. It was a haunting theme with these Collectors. They took no prisoners, offered no mercy, didn't understand mercy or empathy in any capacity.

The floor and the walls were painted by human blood spilt by the alien invaders. There were corpses all the way down the several hundred meter hallway. Dozens of innocent, helpless employees were cut down without mercy; there were only a few dead marines that tried in vain to protect them and around just as many dead Collectors.

Phoenix felt a small part of her slip away and die. She couldn't stand the hellish sight before her; it reminded her so much of the Tokyo incident but on a scale far worse.

"We're too late." Gunther said softly.

The Alliance lieutenant didn't respond. She couldn't respond, all she could see was innocent people that have never hurt anyone, never raised a gun towards a living being. These people weren't soldiers, most of them were just office workers with normal 9-5 jobs, these people had families and friends and normal lives.

They were about as innocent as you could get in a galaxy as cruel as this one.

They were also people that she was supposed to protect.

And she couldn't.

Phoenix blinked the tears out of her eyes, and felt the sadness make way for anger.

Those sons of bitches, those heartless sons of bitches.

They reminded her of Cerberus with their disregard for human life. They could very well be worse if Six was right about them wanting to wipe Humanity out.

She hated these bastards, hated them with every fiber of her being and she would gladly kill every last one of them if she could.

"Fuckers!" Roared Marcus. "Those cocksucking pieces of fucking shit, they killed them! They fucking killed them. Son of a motherfuckin' bitch!" Marcus screeched in unadulterated rage. He was seething. The man squeezed his rifle as if he had wrapped his hands around someone's throat.

She watched Six step over the bodies and search the rooms. The way he casually did it indicated that the violent scene didn't bother him at all. Phoenix felt angry at that, angry at Six for not showing a Human response to this massacre.

She didn't say anything, figuring it would be better to avoid a conflict in a dangerous situation like this one.

As the Spartan disappeared into one of the rooms. Phoenix went to check up on Marcus. The man was breathing heavily into his helmet, his shoulders rising and falling with each breath he took.

"These Collectors better still be down here!" He growled. "Because I'm gonna make them suffer in ways they couldn't imagine!" He locked eyes with Phoenix.

"Can't wait to take some of them prisoner, oh the things I'll do to them." He laughed in a deranged manner. It wasn't a threat, it was a promise, to bring suffering upon the heartless beings that would so callously butcher innocent people as if the action was as easy and mundane as breathing.

Phoenix resisted the urge to cringe; It wasn't like Marcus to break down this way. She could sympathize with the man, though. If she had the power to, she'd make those assholes pay.

But she had no such power. The only power she had was to do whatever it took to ensure the continued survival of the remaining humans on this planet, and even this power was very limited and quickly dwindling.

Everyone needed to be performing at their best in order to take the fight to the Collectors.

"Marcus." She said softly, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. "These fucks are gonna pay, mark my words." She took a deep breath. "But for that to happen, I need you at your best. I need you to think clearly, I need you to be a marine. That means being the most efficient killer in the galaxy, and efficient killers like you are calm, collected, and intelligent."

Marcus didn't respond, he only continued to stare.

"You're angry, and so am I. I'd give my right arm in order to make them pay. But this anger… you can't let it control you. None of us have that luxury. We give in to our anger and we die. But we stay calm and rational and we just might have a chance." Marcus closed his eyes and hung his head slightly, silently contemplating her words.

"That's the only way we're gonna get back at these monsters for what they did. Can you do that for me?"

The marine breathed in, and nodded. "Of course ma'am, I'm sorry about that, I just-"

She raised her hand. "You've no reason to be sorry. You have every right to be angry, and we have every right to butcher these sad sacks of shit for daring to have the balls to start a war with Humanity."

Marcus nodded in appreciation to Phoenix's empathy. "Lead the way, boss." He said.

Phoenix knew that this wasn't the end of Marcus' anger. This wasn't some corny movie where a quick peptalk suddenly eases someone's emotional ailments. Marcus was angry and full of hate, and might damn well take that hatred to the grave. Which meant that she had to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't stray from the realm of rational thinking.

She turned around to Six who was watching their back this whole time, always the diligent soldier.

"All rooms are clear, additional casualties present. No sign of hostile forces."

"They didn't come for anything else." Joel said softly. "They came just to kill the people here." He looked over at Phoenix. "Oh my god, they really are here just to slaughter us. They didn't take prisoners, resources, or information… they just wanna kill us."

"We'll make them pay." She growled.

"How?" He questioned almost feebly. "What are we gonna do?"

She didn't respond.

"First the servers. Then the Collectors." Six said. Phoenix felt a small amount of relief that she didn't have to respond to Joel, because frankly she didn't know what to do in a situation like this.

But Six did, he seemed to have an answer or a response to everything despite his quiet nature.

Phoenix just nodded to the Spartan… what else was there to do?

"Go to the end of the hall and take a right." Phoenix said. "Servers are through there."

"Understood." He said, voice devoid of emotion. Phoenix found herself having to quell another spike of anger at the Spartan's seemingly dispassionate nature.

How does this not bother him? All of these lives, these innocent lives snuffed out as easily as putting out a candle in such a gruesome manner doesn't bother him?

Stay calm, focus on the mission, Phoenix.

They quickly turned the corner, Phoenix did her best to ignore all the bodies they had to step over. The armored door at the end was their destination. This whole place was designed to withstand orbital bombardment, EMP, artillery bombardment and airstrikes. All of it was to protect the people and the important assets below.

As a senior officer, Phoenix had access to the codes so everyone else assumed a perimeter around the door as she entered the code.

Of course, it didn't work.

"Fuck!" She growled. "Does anything work around here?"

"You think you can break this down, Six?"

She turned towards the hulking member of the group. She's seen him do it before, maybe he can do it again.

Without responding or hesitating, the Spartan attached his rifle to his back and approached the armored door alarmingly quickly. Phoenix hastily moved out of his way.

He slammed his gauntlets into the middle of the door more aggressively than last time, and with such force that the floor beneath her shook.

She watched in disbelief as the man pried the door apart. The metal warped and groaned in protest. Sparks cascaded over Six's armored form as he continued to pry the door open.

It didn't take long for him to open the door, a few seconds really.

The first time it was incredible, but to see the Spartan actually dig his hands into the metal and tear it open was something else. What Phoenix would give to even have a tenth of the Spartan's strength.

They entered the server room hastily, it was quite expansive. The room in question was about seventy meters wide and twice as long. Dozens of rows of servers flanked them on either side, stretching from the entrance all the way to the end of the room where the main access consoles sat; at the top of a staircase in an explosive resistant room with bullet resistant glass and blast doors.

They moved to the end of the room, Phoenix sighed in relief as the blast doors actually worked and opened on command.

"Here it is." She said. "This contains everything. All the information about the Alliance that an invading force would need to know."

She turned towards the Spartan. "If the Collectors get a hold of this, then they'll know exactly what to do to counter most Alliance tactics and contingency plans, they'll know the troop distribution on all of our colonies. Not to mention other types of classified information that could spell trouble for us if it gets in the wrong hands."

Six nodded. "We need to shut it down."

"This might not be the best idea." Joel said. "If the Collectors can cut off our communications and bypass early warning, who's to say they won't be able to pick up the spike in electronic signals coming from the server room?"

"How much time do you need?" The Spartan inquired.

"To delete all of this information it would take too long. Destroying the servers won't work completely, I'd have to completely cut off this installation from the Alliance's military network so that they can't use it to access any more information from external Alliance sources beyond this colony. That takes time, time we don't have if the Collectors come knocking."

Six seemed to consider those words for a moment, before nodding. "Do what you can back here." He said before turning right back around leaving.

"Wait, what the hell are you doing?" Phoenix demanded.

Six paused, his head turned slightly back towards the apprehensive marines.

"I'll buy you some time."

•••

Yuri swept through the confines of the military installation with the practiced ease and speed befitting of a Spartan-III. Every corner, doorway, and room was methodically analyzed for any survivors and enemies.

He found none.

The way these Collectors operated, it reminded the Spartan so much of the Covenant. These aliens didn't take prisoners or offer mercy, they just killed. It didn't matter the age, gender, or whether they were soldiers or not. Everyone was destined to suffer the same fate.

It was obvious that the Collectors had the extermination of all Humans on the planet as their primary goal. Kill squads were sent out to hunt down and execute survivors, and there are no signs of prisoners. On top of that, it doesn't appear that they were tampering with any military hardware.

Just like the Covenant, these were the hallmarks of an extermination operation. It made the Spartan uncharacteristically angry, that even in a different galaxy there exists genocidal aliens hell bent on the systematic extermination of Humanity.

The emotion was expunged in a millisecond, and Yuri felt himself return to the ice cold, and calculating mindset that he's used to.

The Covenant often sent special teams to infiltrate UNSC controlled areas to obtain information of value, but that wasn't very common. They saw Human technology as beneath them, and so they often didn't bother salvaging or analyzing Human technology.

Of course, there were exceptions, and the UNSC made sure to make it as difficult as possible for the Covenant to learn anything about Humanity, especially the locations of Human colonies.

This Alliance obviously was not of a similar mindset.

It confused the Spartan. He was well aware that the Cole Protocol did not exist before the Human-Covenant war, but Humanity never came into contact with aliens before so who would they be hiding colony locations from? Certain planets like Onyx were kept a secret from the public, of course, but the UNSC was always secretive and cautious. Any compromising intel would be kept a secret at all costs, especially planet coordinates to hide Human worlds from the Covenant juggernaut.

Knowing the UNSC and its history even before the war, if his Humanity was introduced to a galactic community spanning multiple species then the UNSC and ONI would make damn sure to prevent anyone from being able to so easily access planet coordinates in the event that things went south.

The idea that anyone can go on this galaxy's version of waypoint and access the coordinates of any Human world was very concerning to the Spartan, and this Humanity's lack of caution was absurd.

It didn't matter, these people weren't his Humanity. He'd do what he can to protect them but his loyalties lie with the UNSC, and he'd choose his Humanity first anytime.

He'd eliminate the Collectors and find a way off this planet once they weren't around to obstruct him from doing so, then, the real work would begin.

The UNSC would need every Spartan it could get.

First, it was time to make some noise.

It would be easy enough, he just needed to expose himself and let the Collectors know that he was the real threat.

The Spartan passed through the lobby and frowned at the scene that was so familiar to him throughout his efforts to combat the Covenant.

He passed over dead bodies and piles of rubble until he was outside. He looked up at the enemy's ship. It was quite large, probably about as large as a UNSC heavy cruiser, maybe even a bit larger.

With the way the Alliance marines regarded its size, it was obviously a very large ship by this galaxy's standards. But UNSC and Covenant ships reached far larger tonnages.

The ship's design was the strangest he had ever seen. The strange organic protrusions and the metal superstructure made the ship appear as much a living thing as it was a traditional ship.

It almost looked like a giant hive with ship engines to the Spartan.

If it served a similar purpose, then the Collector presence must be extensive; likely numbering the thousands.

That ship needed to take a hike.

Yuri exited the large military checkpoint; a large reinforced concrete wall that served as a buffer between the military base and the city. As he went, he made sure to take the equipment from the fallen, namely additional thermal clips and grenades.

They won't be needing it after all.

Outside the checkpoint were the remains of countless civilians that tried, and failed, to escape the alien onslaught by seeking refuge in the military base.

There were dozens of smoldering wrecks of vehicles of all shapes and sizes. Some were covered in holes from gunfire and others were ripped apart by explosives, leaving their charred and shredded metallic remains savagely strewn around the bloody asphalt.

The bodies of the innocent were left to rot, cast aside from the realm of the living like a horrific portrait that served as a mockery of the dead.

Yuri clenched his jaws as memories of his countless operations on UNSC colonies came back to him.

He easily remembered the remains of Covenant assaults. The charred bone and flesh, the savage scattering of Human innards, and the aftermath of ravenous Grunts, Brutes, and Jackals having had their fill of Human flesh.

The Spartan-IIIs were different from normal people. With the exception of certain Spartans like Emile, the IIIs didn't experience hatred or anger like normal Humans. Most of them were trained heavily on techniques used to turn that hatred into a drive. A drive to complete whatever mission they may be assigned.

It was important for the Spartans to learn how to control all emotions, rather than the other way around.

Yuri was a master at logically compartmentalizing his emotions and turning it into a fuel to achieve the most clinically precise results possible. It was why he was so sought after by the various sections of ONI, and later, the UNSC once his existence became known to the public.

The Spartan stepped over the remains of the innocent. He knew that they couldn't be saved. But the hyper lethal vector also knew that he'll certainly avenge them.

He crouched low next to one of the smoldering wrecks. There was a young boy, no older than ten, slumped up against the wreck with a gunshot wound to the chest.

The Spartan closed the boy's glassy eyes with a gesture that was more gentle than what the super soldier seemed capable of.

It was a rare display of Humanity that would go unnoticed by the universe.

Yuri was glad the refugees made it out before the Collectors arrived.

The Spartan moved through the streets of the city, passing over dead civilians, marines, and piles of rubble knocked off of buildings or from craters in the ground. The Spartan's precise movements were the product of years of nonstop training and fighting. The way the Spartan scanned the environment with his rifle, how he maneuvered himself behind or near cover, even the subtle movements of his head to ensure every vector was checked was all muscle memory to the Spartan.

While the destruction was bad, it was nowhere near as bad as what the Covenant did to his Humanity's cities. It seemed that the Collectors weren't as adept in the concept of total war as the Covenant.

It didn't take the Spartan long to exit the more urban area of the city. The large number of apartment buildings made way for a larger number of smaller houses and buildings.

In front of the Spartan was what looked to be the city's park. It was of a modest size; no more than a square kilometer in total area.

Despite the fighting that took place, most of the park was relatively intact. The green of the grass, trees, and hedgerows still persisted. Past that he could see a small river with an old-fashioned cobblestone bridge that curved over the natural body of water.

Suddenly, the Spartan heard gunfire in the distance on the other side of the park.

Survivors, and Collectors to kill.

Without a millisecond of hesitation, the Spartan instantly accelerated to the speed of a highway vehicle. He crossed the kilometer distance in less than a minute, leaving massive imprints of his boots in the stone and dirt as he went.

As he got closer and the gunfire got louder, the world around him slowed to even more of a crawl.

It was a phenomenon experienced by the Spartans. The combination of the superconducting fibrification of their neural dendrites and the amplifiers of MJOLNIR allows the super soldiers to experience the world around them in slow motion.

It was dubbed 'Spartan Time' by Kelly-087.

The Spartan's visor switched to thermal, allowing him to very easily detect the lifeforms around him. On his right he spotted two marines pinned behind an overturned car, blind firing at the rapidly advancing Collectors.

To his left were the Collectors, a whole platoon of them, advancing quickly towards the marines.

In a few seconds, they'll be on top of them.

As the Spartan continued moving towards the Collectors at a nightmarish speed, he readied a flashbang, trampling the metal fence separating the park from the road underfoot as he did so.

The Spartan threw the flashbang, watching it lazily tumble through the air.

At this rate he'll be on top of them before the flashbang even hit the ground.

He slammed his elbow into the first of the Collectors, shattering its skull with a sick wet crunch.

He shouldered his weapon and fired at the next Collector, this one being the closest to the desperate marines.

The sand grain sized projectiles withered down its shield and then shredded its brain, or what passed for it. The Collector dropped.

He switched targets and cut down another Collector in the process of throwing a grenade. The offending alien soundlessly dropped amidst the cacophony around it, and with it, the grenade.

The small explosive went off, sending pieces of shrapnel that the Spartan could track with his eyes.

They aimlessly flew around the blast zone, impacting the shields of the nearest of the aliens.

The flashbang finally landed, and exploded. Six's visor polarized and audio receptors cut off instantly, protecting him from the flashbang's brutal effects. The effect was instant as several of the Collectors around the immediate blast zone were disoriented, and stumbled around aimlessly.

Six was on top of them in moments.

His weapon barked, claiming two more of the aliens, their heads adorned with identical holes in the center of their foreheads.

He lashed out with a heel kick behind him, catching one of the defenseless alien soldiers in the chest, sending it sailing through the air in an almost comical fashion.

Finally, the Collectors noticed him. His ambush was so fast and brutal that it took them several moments to realize what was happening; a stark contrast to the hyper fast elites and brutes he was used to fighting. The entire force turned their weapons towards Spartan-B312. They moved slowly, as if submerged in jello.

Yuri's left hand reached towards his supply belt and returned two grenades heavier. He lobbed the explosives towards the aliens and opened fire with his rifle, downing the closest of the aliens.

He slapped in a fresh thermal clip just in time to see the grenades explode, claiming the lives of half a dozen of the insectoids.

The Collectors returned fire, and Six caught a smattering of rounds, his shields crackled and shimmered in protest. Yuri responded instantly, and darted into an alleyway to his right.

He slammed into one of the doors and bull rushed through what looked like a corner store, crushing stands and smashing through the window.

Yuri turned the corner just in time to see the Collectors approach the alley, still expecting the Spartan to be holed up in the confined space.

They obviously didn't know just how quickly a Spartan can relocate when the need arises. It only took him a few seconds to reposition and put himself behind his enemy.

Six threw a grenade at the largest group of them stacking up on the wall.

Yuri timed his shots perfectly as immediately after the grenade exploded, the Spartan fired, claiming the lives of three surviving aliens.

Immediately, the Collectors responded. The super soldier crossed the dozen meter distance between him and the nearest Collector in the blink of an eye. Before the humanoid creature could bring its weapon up to its shoulder, the Spartan appeared before it, ripping the weapon from its hands and then slamming the butt of the strange, almost organic looking weapon into its head, breaking both.

Another of the aliens raised its weapon and fired. Before Yuri could react, a thin yellow lance of energy slammed into his shields instantly. The Spartan rolled to the side behind a car to avoid more damage. The beam weapon took out a fifth of his shields, and that was only from a small length of exposure time.

More sustained fire would get through his shields rather quickly. That was the problem with energy shields. Lasers and plasma weapons were quite effective at bringing them down.

That was a weapon that the Spartan needed to be careful of.

Yuri's shields recharged and he popped up from cover. His left hand shot forward and caught a grenade that one of the Collectors had thrown at the hunkered down Spartan. He threw it back. The explosive landed behind two cars that had previously crashed into each other. The explosion killed four of the aliens, but not the one with the beam weapon.

They were trying to distract him long enough for them to bring the heavy weapon to bear on the Spartan.

There were only a dozen or so Collectors left.

Six primed another flashbang and threw it towards the last of the enemies still fighting for their lives.

The device exploded, and Yuri vaulted over his cover, his shields weathered the rounds that impacted him from the few aliens that were outside the range of the flashbang.

The Spartan dropped those bastards with his M-8, doing his best to avoid using his Covenant and UNSC weapons unless he was in a situation that demanded it. As he approached the remaining Collectors, he noticed the trooper with the beam weapon desperately attempting to get a bead on the rapidly approaching Spartan.

Six wrenched the weapon free from it and fired. The thin lance of energy easily drilled a hole into the alien's chitinous exoskeleton. He focused the weapon on the survivors, cutting them down quickly until the weapon seemingly ran out of ammunition. Without any way to reload it, the Spartan discarded the strange gun and made his way to the surviving marines.

As he approached the overturned vehicle, the sound of coughing spurred the Spartan into action, moving quickly to the marines' aid. He reached the soldiers and saw the result of the Collectors' assault.

One of the marines didn't make it, the man was slumped against the car with a gunshot wound to the throat.

The other man next to the body was clutching his chest, trying to stop the bleeding. The Spartan took a knee next to the man and withdrew a biofoam canister.

"Don't." The man said weakly, he coughed up blood. "There's no… saving… me."

He looked up at the Spartan. "You shouldn't have… come for… us." He smiled sadly. "The Collectors… will be… coming for you." He said between coughs.

"I'll deal with them." The Spartan said.

The man frowned. "It won't… matter. They'll just keep… coming."

"Are you aware of other survivors in the area?" The Spartan questioned.

"There's people that we… got cut off… from." The man was starting to speak faster, realizing that his time was running out. "Two Humans… and a Quarian. They're gonna die… save them… you have to…" The man went still. The Spartan checked his vitals and got nothing.

He closed the man's eyes and stood up.

Two Humans and a Quarian… remnants of Shepard's team?

If Six could find additional survivors on top of distracting the Collectors long enough for Phoenix and her marines to complete their objective then all the better.

Six pressed on, leaving the aftermath of the battle behind him. The Spartan noticed that the sounds of battle, which had been consistent over the course of the engagement, had almost completely died down.

Only a few gunshots and explosions could be heard in the distance. That was a bad sign, as it meant that the Collectors had almost completely eliminated all resistance on the planet.

How long would it take the Alliance to find out that they lost a colony? Hours? Days? Weeks? How long would it take for them to mobilize a response?

Yuri didn't have the time to hold out against the entire Collector invasion force.

Spartan-B312 moved down the streets unchallenged, stopping when he approached a pair of adjacent apartment buildings about a hundred meters down the street.

The Spartan's combat instincts lit up like a christmas tree, signaling to him that something was wrong.

More gunfire erupted down the street beyond visual range, but the Spartan didn't move. He just watched.

Sure enough, the first of the Collectors exited the left most apartment, each of them dragging a human body. The Spartan watched, confused, wondering why they would care about recovering the dead. He quelled the memories of Covenant troops doing the same, knowing full well why they would do that.

But this wasn't the Covenant, so he didn't jump to conclusions.

More and more of the Collectors appeared from the buildings, there must have been three dozen of them by now.

One of the human bodies began to show signs of movement, subtle, but visible enough for the Spartan to see. The Collector dragging the man didn't stop, even as the victim finally gained enough consciousness to comprehend his plight, even as he screamed for help, and begged for mercy. The alien didn't stop dragging the man even as one of its comrades fired a burst into the man's chest, killing him instantly.

The Spartan frowned at the waste of life, and the Collectors' disregard for it. They behaved like robots in that regard. In fact, the Spartan hadn't seen any of these aliens show a single emotion at all. They didn't show any anger, fear, or anything else. All of the Collectors were the exact same, no individuality seemed to exist to these aliens.

The Spartan found that strange, but otherwise simply logged the observations in the back of his head.

The aliens slowly piled the Human bodies in the middle of the street, before turning around to head back to the building.

Suddenly, a dozen more Collectors appeared from the adjacent apartment and suspiciously made their way towards the Spartan at an alarming pace.

Six immediately disappeared from existence, his physical form manifesting as merely a faint shimmer in the air.

The remaining Collectors joined in, dropping the bodies and following their brethren away from the sounds of combat further down the street and towards the Spartan. He supposed that he did indeed get their attention then. They must have been informed of the little encounter he had with them a few minutes ago… that took longer than he expected.

With no communication, Six had no way of knowing if the marines had finished their objective, or even if they were engaged with the enemy. As a result, he didn't know just how long he needed to keep the Collectors' crosshairs on him. What he did know was that he needed to find a more efficient way to deal with them rather than just killing them in the streets little by little.

Yuri primed another flashbang, his last one, and waited until they were about ten meters away from him. He lobbed the flashbang towards the mass of bodies. The sound of the device clattering against the ground earned the attention of the aliens, who quickly froze when they saw the device.

Too late.

Those that were close were disabled instantly, and even the Collectors further away were disoriented in at least some capacity.

Yuri unsheathed his kukri and lashed out. The strike caught the first of the Collectors in the throat. The alien clawed pathetically at its wound before collapsing to the ground, but not before the hyper lethal vector cleaved his way through the rest of the first squad of Collectors with movements that were impossible to track.

Six was in more than one area at once, smiting his defenseless and hopelessly outclassed opponents so quickly that the first sign of resistance didn't come until after Yuri had slain a third of their number.

By that point, it was a little too late. For the Collectors, engaging the Spartan in hand to hand combat was far more dangerous than engaging in a gunfight. At least in the latter case they had their kinetic barriers to offer some sort of protection.

Even though the Spartan's strikes moved impossible quickly, it still wasn't enough to activate the kinetic barriers; it was a severe weakness that Yuri would gladly exploit.

He crushed skulls, tore apart limbs, and shattered rib cages as the Spartan's hand to hand mastery was put to lethal use. Every strike he threw claimed the life of a Collector. Every kick and every punch had the capability to pierce light armored vehicles.

The large amount of gunfire that was directed to the Spartan wasn't accurate by any means. With the way the Spartan could so easily change the direction of his movement, it made it impossible to reasonably track him with inferior reflexes.

Even so, the rounds found their mark, and his energy shields were paying for it. But Yuri was calm, collected. He knew that the rate at which he was killing them was outpacing the amount of damage they could dish out.

That changed as one of the Collectors produced a rocket launcher and took aim at the Spartan.

He recognized the weapon instantly, having read up on this galaxy's weapons extensively.

The ML-78 anti-tank weapon was an upgrade to the ML-77 missile launcher. The latter was capable of launching multiple small anti-personnel missiles that was also capable of taking down some light armor. The ML-78 was designed to compensate for the lower firepower of its predecessor, working like a traditional rocket launcher firing a single, larger anti tank projectile to eliminate armored targets.

It seemed the Collectors had no qualms about using their enemy's weapons.

At a range of only fifty meters and with a velocity of around nine hundred meters per second, Yuri only had a limited amount of time to react.

And react he did.

Yuri could feel the adrenaline pouring into his system, the world around him slowing down to almost a stand still. Here, everything seemed reality defying from the soldier's perspective. Collector troops, who were moving slow enough as it is, now looked like they were stuck in quicksand. The flames that engulfed the city in the background looked like a picture drawn by an artist; they hardly moved at all.

The anti tank missile screamed towards the Spartan, getting closer and closer.

One hit from that, and the Spartan was finished.

He didn't know if the missile was designed to track him or if it was an airburst designed to catch any potentially evading targets.

He wouldn't take any chances.

He brought his arm back, waiting until the perfect millisecond. Too early, and he'd miss, giving the missile the opportunity to shear through his shields and armor. Too late, and he would even have the opportunity to save himself from death.

The missile drew closer and closer, almost looking like a predatory shark, drawing in for the kill. The flames and smoke behind it remained almost frozen in air, contrasting the speed at which the missile moved.

The very instant before the missile was in arm's reach was when the Spartan struck, lashing out with his armored gauntlet so fast that even from the Spartan's perspective his arm was but a blur. His arm slammed into the missile, backhanding it out of the air in an impossibly fast motion that anyone but a Spartan would have missed.

The warhead cartwheeled through the air and exploded, showering the supersoldier in shrapnel. His shield weathered the damage, barely. The Collectors hesitated, though not out of fear, but rather because their feeble brains could simply not comprehend what they witnessed.

From their perspective they wouldn't have seen the Spartan move at all. Yuri's supernatural speed made it seem like there was simply an invisible barrier around his armored form protecting him from the enemy's weapons.

Yuri immediately threw himself towards the heavy weapon operator, grabbing the heavy weapon and shattering it over the alien's head like a baseball bat. He finished the remaining handful of Collectors with a combination of gunfire and brutal hand to hand kills.

He swept his weapon around the target poor environment, looking for survivors or reinforcements.

He found none.

Six nodded to himself and allowed himself a moment to collect ammunition and for his shields to recharge.

He looked back in the direction of the gunfire, noticing that it had slightly decreased in intensity. That was either good or bad; good in the sense that the Collectors were losing and bad in the sense that they were winning.

He needed to get there to assess the situation. He did a number on the Collectors just now, and would surely get the attention of additional reinforcements. The supersoldier approached the pile of dead Humans cautiously.

He was reminded of the times he went toe to toe with the Bloodstars, a special operations unit of Brutes employed by the Covenant that were responsible for intelligence gathering, sabotage, and later, hunting Spartans.

Being a very successful Spartan often working deep behind enemy lines, one could say that they were well acquainted with each other.

Yuri remembered on numerous occasions when the bastards would surgically implant remote detonated plasma explosives into dead humans (at least, as surgically as Brutes could get). They would hide using their optical cloaking and wait for UNSC forces to check on or recover the dead and then detonate the explosives, vaporizing anyone in range and finishing off the survivors in a brutal ambush.

First time he witnessed it, he was sixteen. A group of ODSTs he was working with were caught in the explosion. They had been avoiding the Bloodstars for days after sabotaging a Covenant methane refinery. It was one of the few times the Spartan worked with other special forces behind enemy lines. Despite the Spartan's suspicion and warning, they didn't listen, letting their hatred of Spartans get the better of them.

They didn't make it. Yuri did.

The Spartan found it odd for the Collectors to leave bodies like that in the open, and thought better of it, giving the bodies a wide berth as he passed them.

He passed the dead with no issue, zooming in with his visor to check the street for hostiles.

The Spartan detected more humanoid shapes moving towards him, and quickly determined them to be the source of the less intense gunfire. It turns out that the Spartan was wrong about the reason behind the reduction in gunfire. It wasn't because either side was losing, it was because the Collectors were diverting forces from the combat zone to engage the Spartan, probably in an attempt to stall the hyper lethal and prevent them from linking up with the survivors.

It was a shame that they were simply delaying the inevitable.

Yuri shouldered his weapon and disappeared into one of the buildings, preparing himself for an ambush.

Seems like no matter the galaxy, it was fundamentally the same. Humans were always on the receiving end of genocide with no one to turn to for help.

Same shit, different galaxy.

•••

That's a wrap! Longest chapter I've done so far with 16k-17k words not including my notes here, and much quicker than last time too. I know I sound like a broken record here but hopefully you guys like the chapter. Last chapter I was definitely hyping up an encounter between Six and the Collectors and hopefully you guys like that combat sequence. I didn't draw it out for too long as I was worried about making it monotonous and repetitive (I might have already done that) so I stopped here and will continue on next chapter. Noticed some frustration regarding the length at which it takes for me to update and all I can say is I understand. But at the same time, please understand that I am busy and will be even busier starting this week. I can't provide a deadline or schedule because this is simply a hobby and will always be put behind my priorities. So no, I can't say if updates will be coming in a week or a month later because I can't just divert copious amounts of time towards this story. This chapter was an exception as I had some extra free time. Also, to separate POV's, I've switched the thin line with these black dots to hopefully make it more obvious, let me know if you guys prefer this. Anyways, let me know how I did and hope you guys enjoy it! Thanks!