The Halo Effect: War and Civilization

by free man writer

A crossover years in the works. Civilizations rise and fall but to those that do stand, they prosper. They Expand. They reach out across the stars. But of course, such is a Universal law, War is never far behind. War is a language all civilized races speak and it is war most are familiar with. Co-written with BulletStormX. Halo/Mass Effect with a dash of Star Wars.

8. The Second Year

Thanks for the awesome review guys.

But… I think I need to make this clear, here and now.

There's a lot of conclusions and reviews and such that kinda… jumped the gun and just flat out believed things are gonna go as expected. Some may go as it were others… not so much.

There's a lot that we have planned out and if you guys just jump to conclusions, you're kinda killing your own fun and expectations. Take it from me, I used to do the same and it is not fun.

Just sit back and read as the chapters come out. If things go up to your expectations and you're disappointed, that's fine. If not, and you were happy with what we had that's also fine. And also great.

Until that time…

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.

The Halo Effect War and Civilization Chapter 8: The Second Year.

Journal Entry XII

It was honestly frightening and daunting just how quickly the war began to spread.

Within the first year alone, there had already been multiple engagements.

Harvest may have been lost but our retaliation against the Covenant would come swiftly. Chi Ceti IV was where we learned that this collective wasn't as invincible as we were led to believe.

Plasma… and very excellently crafted at that.

We had some advantages of course. In actuality, they outclassed several aspects of the Covenant.

But they… they had the numbers. They had three thousand years of interstellar travel compared to only our meager five centuries.

In all that time, none of us ever truly understood the scope nor the size of the Covenant.

We didn't realize how lucky we were when we began uncovering just how much the Covenant had been holding back.

Still… I'm most certain the best of the UNSC would have been able to take them out single handedly

End of Journal Entry.

2526/2170

March 1st

Admiral Preston Cole stood before the window of his ship within the bridge, posture straight, hands behind his back and eyes filled with grim determination.

They had assembled a sizable fleet of ships to say the least.

Heavy hitters and the best that each species within the UNSC had to offer up to this point.

Preston Cole led his fleet aboard one of the most powerful starships the UNSC had ever designed. A carrier class ship that was commissioned in the late 25 century, thanks to the shipyards of Annaxes and Fondor they had churned out a few dozen of these with only perhaps a few more digits away from breaking into the early hundreds.

Massive in size, shape and presence, the newly created 4.5 kilometer sized Punic-Class Supercarrier lived up to its name.

This Supercarrier was armed with the most powerful MAC cannon at the UNSC's disposal, simply named the "Super" MAC. Along with the Super MAC came state of the art defense point Railguns, Archer Missiles, Gauss defense turrets and Mini-Macs.

Not only did it have the best MAC cannon the UNSC had at their disposal, it also carried with it a complement of six Charon-Class Light Frigates loaded into the specifically designed hangar bays of this Supercarrier.

And adding to this already stacked carrier, there was the complement of the latest line of starfighters.

Aside from the Frigates the ship was packing, there were dozens of X-Wings, Arc-Wings, Y-Wings, A-Wings, Longswords(Nicknamed the D-wings) and Pelicans.

In regard to the name of this ship, being an Admiral, Cole went with calling this Supercarrier the UNSC Midway. Originally, that name was meant to go to a Destroyer but Cole felt it would go better with this ship in particular.

Along with the Supercarrier were three Valiant-Class Super-Heavy Cruisers, one of which was his original Flagship that he used during the Insurrectionist conflict. The UNSC Everest.

And this fleet wasn't alone.

Along with this fleet was none other than Admiral Ackbar's fleet of ships, fresh of the Mon Cala shipyards.

Ackbar led with his flagship, the newly created Viscount-Class Star Defenders.

A top of the line battleship, this was one of the latest ships within the Mon Calamari line of cruisers.

With a length of three kilometers and armed with some of the most powerful Railguns and Gauss cannons, the Viscount is one of the strongest ships the Mon Calas had ever designed.

The Viscount-Class UNSC Tsunami would come down upon the covenant as its namesake and take out these bastards.

Along with the Tsunami was the escort of three MC80B Star Cruisers, each at a solid 1.2 kilometers in length and 10 MC30c Frigates.

The large assemblage of ships were on route to one location right now.

Where this war started.

Harvest.

It had already been a year since the start of the war with the Covenant.

Since then, while it wasn't immediate, the full mobilization of the UNSC fleet was underway. Some planets apparently weren't made aware yet from what Cole has heard, astonishing as that may be. From what he understood, some of these planets were on the outer fringes of UNSC controlled space.

Still, regardless of those planets, the war was well underway.

Since Harvest, there had been sporadic engagements but each was no less as important as the last.

Though they had retreated from Harvest, a few months later they had scored their first victory against the Covenant within the Chi Ceti system.

It was emphatic to say the least, showing to all that while this foe was new and daunting, they were not invincible.

The Spartan-II's saw to that.

Afterwards, no less than a week after this engagement, Admiral Raddus scored another naval victory on the third of December during the Battle of Alpha Corvi II. Though less than two weeks afterwards, the Covenant found a Wookiee colony.

The Colony of Kantyyyn, a Wookiee-centric colony that had a population of two million Wookiees 500,000 humans and 230,000 Mon Cala.

All of which were killed and turned to ash and glass.

2525 ended with what was a month that many considered a draw.

The start of the new year was silent for the most part…

Until the 13th of February, the Covenant discovered the joint colony world of Bliss. 3.5 million Humans and Mon Cala perished in the Covenants scorching of the planet.

They had lost Harvest and two planets were burnt to the point of being uninhabitable.

Some within the UNSC were referring to the process as glassing due to the glassy looking surface that was left over after the Covenant had scorched the two planets to literal death.

Now it was their turn to strike back.

From scouts sent by Captain Grun Whell, the Covenant were still orbiting Harvest with a now reinforced force of about seven ships.

They would be met with a rude awakening with their arrival.

Cole's thoughts were interrupted via the Midways Smart AI Odin.

"Exiting Slip-Space in five minutes."

"Attention all-hands." Cole said a moment later. "Standby for battle stations. All Starfighters prep your fighters. Silver Team?"

"Yes Admiral." Daniel-116, Spartan-II of Silver Team responded.

"You'll be leading all squadrons for this engagement."

"Copy that, sir."

"Red, Omega?"

"Sir." Came the responses of the team leaders Jerome-092 and Leon-011.

"You Spartans will be a part of the ground engagement under Captain Gerald Shepard of Boomerang Company. There are two drop zones marked as priority targets. Clear those out for us to start landing more troops."

"Acknowledged sir." Both team leaders said.

Once the orders were given out, alarms began blaring as all ships were notified with the same broadcast.

Standby for battle.

Once the five minutes elapsed, the tears within space itself opened before all UNSC ships with them entering the Epsilon Indi System.

"All ships, call in." Cole announced.

"This is Admiral Ackbar of the Tsunami." The Mon Cala Admiral's rumbly voice echoed within the Midway bridge.

Grun Whell's loud roar from the Everest signified his ship was ready.

The rest were all accounted for, crew prepped and ready for combat.

They were drawing closer to Harvest.

"Cole." Ackbar spoke up.

"I see 'em." Preston said, narrowing his eyes as the projection before Cole highlighted seven Covenant Ships over Harvest and enlarging them for the Admiral to get a better look at them.

One was labeled as a super-destroyer, the first ship to ever be encountered by the UNSC from the Covenant.

Two kilometers in length, the ship certainly didn't lack intimidation.

With it were four of the identified CPV-Class Heavy Destroyers each being an even 1.6 kilometers in length.

There was a slightly smaller RPV-Class Light Destroyer, just a hundred meters smaller in length compared to the CPVs, though no less deadly.

However…

There was a new unidentified ship that stuck out like a sore thumb among the seven Covenant ships.

It was odd, to say the least.

At its center was a sphere being surrounded by two large… hangar bays, yes, those were hangar bays.

And it was quite massive compared to all the other ships. Their systems had identified the ship as being one with a length of 3.1 kilometers with a width at a solid 3 kilometers and height of about 1 kilometer. It's circumference… really didn't matter to Cole nor Ackbar as they had gotten a brief scan of the ship.

From what they were able to deduce, this must be some kind of carrier as they had picked up on multiple smaller vessels within the ship.

And whatever this new ship was, it was clearly important due to three of the CPV Heavy Destroyers moving to form a defensive perimeter around the ship.

The other CPV joined the RPV and Super-Destroyer in their advance on the newly arrived UNSC fleet.

"Alright you alien bastards." Cole muttered underneath his breath. "Let's see what you're all about."

The Charon-Class Frigates were deployed and moments later, a few dozen fighters that flew before the UNSC fleet numbered now in the one hundreds.

"This Admiral Ackbar of the Lance Fleet." The Mon Cala called out. "All squadron leaders report in."

Multiple X-wings, Y-wings, A-Wings, D-wings and Arc-Wings all formed up into varying strike formations.

Some were evenly shaped V's while others had fighters favoring a particular side depending on where they were in the large formation of Starfighters.

At the head of all the Squadrons were four X-wings and two Y-wings.

Daniel-116, leader of Silver team, was flanked by his teammates for this battle.

Yumi-124, Joyner-118, Nicole-121, Caleb-095 and Riz-028.

They would be covering the naval engagement of this op.

Red and Omega have the ground game, the teams being composed of Jerome-092, Douglas-042, Alice-130, Leon-011, Robert-025 and August-099.

"Admiral, this is Silver Leader, standing by."

To Silvers immediate left was a squadron of X-wing fighters number in the dozen.

"This Yellow Leader, standing by."

"This is Crimson Leader, standing by."

"Hawk Leader, standing by."

"Blue Leader, standing by."

"All Squadrons accounted for." Daniel-116 announced.

"Blue Squadron, Yellow Squadron, defend the fleet." Ackbar ordered. "Silver, Hawk, Crimson you press the attack. Keep the Covenants fire on your fighters. Take out turrets and engines. Watch your tails, there's no telling what the Covenant have up their sleeve with that new ship."

"Copy, Admiral." Daniel said, grasping both controls of his X-wing. "Alright fighters you hear 'em. Hawk, Crimson, form up behind us and get ready to enter the fray. Watch those pulse and torpedo turrets."

"Copy Silver Leader." Hawk-1 responded with him and his squadron of twenty five X-wings, A-Wings and Arc-wings.

Beside them was Crimson Squadron, another twenty five set of ships, primarily X-wings, D-wings/Longswords and Y-wings.

"Silver leader, they're launching fighters of their own." Riz-028 responded.

Sure enough, multiple starfighters were exiting the ships of the Covenant with the most coming from that new unidentified ship among the alien fleet.

The leading ship type were the ones that the UNSC had dubbed Seraphs.

For the most part, this ship was shaped in a piscine, teardrop-like shape which seems to aid in its ability to maneuver in zero-gravity. They were fast and could move about well enough as Admiral Raddus had reported but it appeared lacking certain areas via speed and was a tad bit less maneuverable than most of the UNSC's fighters.

With the Seraphs were the ships that ONI had identified last year as Banshees. Though there were only a select few that participated in the first battle of Harvest, they left enough of a mark to be remembered quite distinctly by those who had suffered under their barrage of fire.

This appeared to be a space-oriented variant. From what the UNSC had gathered, the back of the cockpit of the Banshee was rather wide open and exposed in comparison to the Seraphs. These however had enclosed ships and their two were angled more inward for a more streamlined design.

However, these two fighters were not alone.

With them was a flock of brand-new starfighters, or new to the UNSC fighters at the very least.

They were thin, needle-nosed with a bulb-like canopy that gave them a clear view of the pilots within the ships.

From what some of the UNSC pilots were able to discern, they spotted some Sangheili, Unggoy but primarily Geonosians.

"Those are new." Caleb said in a low tone.

"Stay Frosty." Daniel replied quickly. "The primary weapons look like they're situated on the interior tips of those needles."

"Needles?" Joyner remarked with a chuckle.

"What do you want me to call them?" Daniel retorted. "All Squadrons, brace. Let them pass in between us. Their plasma is effective but not as fast as the primary starships. Pick your targets. Arc-wing fighters, you're our eyes out here, call out patterns and bogeys. Those new fighters are being marked as priority targets. If you have a chance to take them out, do it. Rather not find out their capabilities."

116 got an acknowledgement from the squadrons as Silver Team accelerated forward before diverting into pairs of two.

A moment later, multiple fighters flew by one another dogfights underway with targets being pinged and pursued.

"This is Hawk-2, moving to engage."

"Murphy, you've got a bogey on your tail."

"Clean hit."

"Watch those new ships, they're fast."

"Crimson-5 is down, repeat, Crimson-5 is down."

"They're all over me!"

"Hold on Hawk-8, we're coming around."

"Watch your vectors, those needles can move around easily."

"Hawk-1 to Hawk 3, 5, 11, 12, 15 and 16 with me. We need to clear a path for our ships."

All this was heard over the comms by Cole and Ackbar as they observed the dogfight.

Ackbar was observing all this, taking particular interest in the Covenant destroyers that made sure to keep that new ship defended. Narrowing his eyes, Ackbar began looking around as he took note of the formation before making a decision.

"Cole."

"Ackbar?" Cole responded from the Midway.

"That ship that's behind those three destroyers, it's being defended quite explicitly. Almost like…"

"They're challenging us." Cole finished getting a nod from his fellow Admiral. "Then I say we meet their challenge head on. Attention all hands, prep for battle stations. Odin get the MAC ready. Let's show these bastards the fire we're packing."

"All ground units make way to your designated ships." Ackbar followed up with his set of orders. "Boomerang Company, prep your pods for a danger close drop."

The UNSC ships began moving and positioning their ships to face the Covenant ships with the opposing force responding in kind.

"Admirals, this is Blue Leader. Requesting permission to engage the enemy fleet."

Both Ackbar and Cole mulled it over for a brief moment before agreeing.

"You're clear to engage, Blue Squadron." Ackbar stated. "Keep your formations loose. Their defensive turrets have a wide range of fire."

"Watch those turrets." Cole added. "They can lock on to a target and pursue."

"Copy that."

Thirty UNSC starfighters broke off from the fleet and moved to attack the Covenant ships head on.

One was shot down right away by a stray plasma bolt yet the rest began harrying the multitude of enemy ships with lead and missiles.

The rest of the UNSC ships were firing off archers missiles and blasting away any enemy fighter that flew by their ship with the railgun turrets.

UNSC starfighters were meeting their match with those new needle-like ships yet it seemed they held the edge in speed and depending on the fighter, maneuverability as well.

They were slowly taking down the enemy ships bit by bit with the battle showing the UNSC's clear superiority in terms of starfighter combat. The Covenant appeared to only have three fighters in comparison to the five ships the UNSC have out right now.

With the smaller ships being taken care of, it left the much larger ships open to engage one another directly.

"Prime the MAC's boys." Cole ordered. "It's time we showed these Covenant bastards just who the hell they're messing with."

The UNSC ships began positioning their MAC cannons at their targeted Covenant ships.

"SIR." Odin suddenly yelled out. "I'm detecting multiple Slip-Space ruptures."

"What?!" Ackbar said aloud in surprise.

"Target those ships and fire." Cole quickly ordered. "Not taking any chances."

Upwards of a dozen MACs and Railguns were shot in rapid succession with each shot impacting the Covenant destroyers. Several had their shields absorb most of the blows until they appeared to have been overwhelmed, and sustained damage.

However, the 2 kilometer destroyer that the UNSC Midway targeted was completely and utterly destroyed.

The "super" MAC round fired from the Midway tore a hole straight through the ship and fractured it into two large chunks with smaller pieces idly floating about.

The Viscount Defender Tsunami's Railguns had also struck a series of critical blows upon its target of one of the CPV Destroyers.

After the barrage, the Covenant was down four ships.

Yet their victory was short lived as a half dozen slip-space ruptures appeared a few hundred kilometers behind the Covenant line of ships.

And from those ruptures came six more Covenant ships, five that were small in comparison to the gargantuan sixth ship leading the charge.

"Odin." Ackbar spoke up.

"Five CRS Light Cruisers with one CCS Battlecruiser." Odin answered straight away. "Raddus encountered them back at Alpha Corvi II."

"Our two Ships are still bigger than theirs but their plasma can melt through our ships with ease." Ackbar stated with a grim tone.

The comm chatter was then filled with warbles and growls of Captain Grun Whell aboard the Everest.

"Grun is right." Cole said. "We need to deploy our troops on the ground now."

"I'll move my portion of the fleet up to engage that unidentified ship." Ackbar said.

"Sirs, before you do anything else, there's something you need to know." Odin said, gaining both admirals' attention. "It took me a while but I detected some sort of transmission coming from that large ship behind those Destroyers. I didn't understand what it was but after the ships that had appeared here, it must have been sending out a call for help."

The six new ships appeared to be making a beeline straight for the circular one that still had two destroyers around it as protection.

"Change of plans then." Cole said. "Mark that new ship is a priority one target. We need to take it out now."

As the naval engagement raged on, within the interior of several UNSC ships, Pelicans were being loaded with marines while attaching tanks and warthogs for drop offs.

Multiple men and women with uniquely designed helmets were rushing towards specially made pods.

Drop pods.

That would send them all directly down towards the surface of Harvest.

The men and women entering these pods were known to the UNSC as the best of the best.

Orbital Drop Shock Troopers or ODST's for short.

"Boomerang company, move it!" An ODST Captain with red tinted armor yelled out to nearly 500 ODST's. "We got to show those bastards just who they're fucking with right now."

Humans and Wookiees with the occasional Mon Cala were quickly armoring up, loading on weapons and jumping into their drop pods.

With the ODST's were six outliers. Six behemoths that stood out from all the ODST's.

And by behemoths, they were even taller than most of the Wookiees. Each one stood between six foot 11 to 7 foot 4.

These were the Spartans of Red Team and Omega Team.

They were silent for the most part. Mindful only of their duty and objective.

Each one was armored up with Mjolnir armor though there were small distinctions between both teams and one another overall to tell one another apart.

Aside from each one having their number on their chest plate, each Spartan had an accent or flare to their armor in order to set themselves apart from each other.

Jerome had a red diagonal accent on the right side of his chest piece.

Douglas's right shoulder pauldron had the ancient helm of the Spartans colored red.

Alice had her shoulder pauldron simply be colored red with a red accent down the middle atop her helmet.

Leon had the omega symbol upon the back of his helmet.

August had the symbol on both her shoulders and Robert had his on his chest piece.

"Spartans." The ODST Captain called out to them. "Load up into your pods and get ready for the drop."

"Yes sir." Jerome said, the Spartans entering their designated drop pods.

Once inside each of their pod, their hatches closed tight with hisses of air coming out to signify that they were securely sealed inside.

"ODST's, this is your Captain Vaughan speaking." The ODST Captain spoke in a casual, almost civilian airline captain type of manner. "We're about to be going down feet first, right at the doorstep of our brand new friends in the stars where our objective will be to shove our boot straight up these Covenant Bastards ass's and give them a UNSC greeting the likes that they'll never forget. Or likely will considering we're gonna kill them all."

There was a small ripple of laughter and growls from the company as the pods jolted.

"ODST's." Vaughan said aloud, tone now intense and fierce. "WHAT'S OUR MOTTO?!"

"FEET FIRST INTO HELL SIR!"

The pods were then maneuvered from their docking bays towards the bottom of the ship. The sight of the naval battle over Harvest greeted the ODST's from most of the ships of the UNSC. fighters were whizzing by back and forth, left and right engaged in heated dogfights with multiple ships crashing into the larger ones or getting shot down and proceeding to fall and burn up in the atmosphere of Harvest.

Within each pod, there was a small set of beeps that signified the countdown before hundreds which turned into thousands of drop pods were jettisoned from the UNSC ships.

The pods were racing down straight towards Harvest.

"ODST's, we have two targets." Captain Vaughan spoke up through the comms as they were racing towards the surface of Harvest. "Intel gave us two locations that we need to secure in order to take the planet back on the ground while our boys in the Navy handle things up there. The ruined city of Gladsheim and a northern structure just a couple hundred clicks out from the city. Boomerang battle group 1, you're with me. Gladsheim is our target. Battle group 2, you're under Lieutenant Tavish. Red Team with me, Omega, Group 2."

The ODST's began adjusting themselves in mid fall, splitting into their two groups as the ground drew closer and closer.

Down below, many saw the scorched and glass plains of Harvest, each ODST being filled with a growing sense of unbridled and righteous fury.

Many began recalling the casualty report that the UNSC had shared after Harvest was taken.

Three million civilians were wiped out.

Most began clutching their controls or weapons tightly, with a breath of anticipation looming.

From the surface, it appeared that their incoming trajectory was noticed by the Covenant ground forces. Plasma was fired at them with some having been unfortunately shot out of the sky.

As they drew closer, the fire became heavier but they were all undeterred.

It was only a matter of seconds now.

Within one of the pods, one young man with a blank suit of ODST armor exhaled with his visor de-polarized. On the two screens in his pod's interior was a human ODST on his left screen with a Wookiee ODST on his right.

Though they were in separate pods, they all locked eye contact with one another for the briefest of moments until their eyes were obscured by their helmets polarizing.

The pod crashed down hard onto the ground and the young twenty year old man grabbed his rifle.

The hatch door burst open and he ran forward in a sprint, firing his rifle immediately as he was joined by dozens of other ODST's that were all firing at the large battalion of Covenant ahead of them.

Bodies dropped all around him yet he pressed on, firing his weapon with a great ferocity as the multitude of enemy species of the Covenant fired back.

His weapon was a personally customized HAR-5A Heavy Assault Rifle that had an extra kick in terms of caliber.

Each shot hit its mark with the aliens called Grunts and Jackals all falling with every bullet that tore through their heads and bodies.

They ODST's were running at full speed, tearing through the Covenant forces even though one after another of their own ranks died.

Each one fought with a rather extreme level of viciousness that made some of the grunts begin to flee in terror.

The fighting was fierce as it was sudden.

It was strange how they were told to capture the city of Gladsheim when the city itself was in ruins or simply glass. There was barely anything left.

All they were told was the sizable Covenant Force that had taken up defensive positions within the city ruins. And those early reports appear to be true as they kept running into wave after wave of covenant forces.

Yet they pressed on with a ferocious vigor.

Some of the Wookiee ODSTs showed this with fantastic displays of athleticism and strength. There were some that jumped forward, tackling down the aliens known as the Sangheili and killing them with intense vitriol.

"Move up that left flank!"

"Watch their fire!"

"MEDIC!"

"Come on you motherfuckers, COME ON!"

"Take down that turret!"

It was madness all around as the UNSC clashed violently with the Covenant, blood, lead, scorch marks and bodies littering the ground.

Yet the UNSC was gaining ground.

Within a specific section, three heavily armored individuals were carving a path straight through the Covenant.

The Spartan three man squad of Red Team was utterly decimating all that got in their way. They were a blur of death and slaughter, ruthlessly cutting through swaths of Covenant forces.

It was unreal in the eyes of the ODST's closest to them watching these giant soldiers completely decimate the Covenant.

The twenty year old ODST watched as the Spartan with the number 092 dashed forward and literally clotheslined one of those split-lipped aliens down before killing it with a shotgun round to the head.

This distraction served to allow for a wary Unggoy to fire its plasma pistol at the ODST, catching him on the right side of his helmet.

He cried out in anguish, hissing as he stumbled down to the ground while throwing his hand up to his helmet in a desperate scramble to get it off.

There was a familiar roar to his side followed by a crossbow being fired.

Getting his helmet off, he winced as his fingers grazed over his injury.

"Zaeed, you alright?"

"Graaa, Raaa!"

"I'm fine, Zaalbar." Zaeed Massani said in a gruff tone, standing back up to his feet with his assault rifle in hand.

The Wookiee growled in concern yet a slight shove from his friend was enough to make him stop for the time.

"Focus ya big carpet, we got a war to win." Zaeed grunted out, momentarily using his weapon as a baseball bat since he didn't have time to reload. He cracked an Unggoy atop the head before slamming a new mag into his rifle to resume fire.

Though the ground battle was bloody, it was effective as they noticed the changing tide of the fight.

They had lost a third of their numbers yet the Covenant were being pushed back.

It helped that Pelicans began coming in danger close to deploy marines, Warthogs, Mongooses and Scorpions just as the Covenant were preparing their own vehicles.

The small intense skirmish scaled into a full on proper battle with both sides inflicting heavy losses upon one another.

However, the sudden drop of the ODST's, their ferocious push through the Covenant and the Spartan Red team on top of the flow of reinforcements was proving to be too much for them.

All the while, in orbit, the battle raged on with several of the UNSC frigates having been destroyed and the majority of the Covenant fleet were now in shambles.

Thanks to the joint efforts of Ackbar and Cole, the Covenant fleet was whittled down and completely and utterly annihilated.

Omega Team and Red Team had soon reported victory in capturing the two staging grounds for the retaking of Harvest groundside.

This was the first counter-operation the UNSC had launched against the Covenant and it was deemed a victory within a few short hours.

The Second Battle of Harvest was theirs.

Marth 10th

The war has passed its first overall year.

The second is underway, the engagement and retaking of Harvest being the latest in what would undoubtedly be a long and bloody war. A sentiment shared by all within FLEETCOM and the UNSC.

As a result of the glassing of several planets by the Covenant, the UNSC ratifies the documents of WINTER CONTINGENCY.

Upon detection of Covenant forces nearby a UNSC controlled system or arrival at a UNSC plant, WINTER CONTINGENCY is to be declared.

Full mobilization of the planet's defenses and the immediate counter-attacks of Covenant forces on all fronts are to be declared.

This document was officialized and signed by dozens upon hundreds of high ranking UNSC officials from all four of its races.

April 20th

Circinius IV

Corbulo Academy of Military Science

The Corbulo Academy of Military Science. The academy where many high ranking officials within the UNSC be it military, political or business wise had their children sent to be trained in becoming commissioned officers within the UNSC.

Or in layman's term, a preppy school for kids whose parents have a lot of money and a lot of influence.

This is where, aside from training the future officers of the UNSC took place, some of the more newer and experimental weaponry and technology of the UNSC was to be tested. Well… one of the places at the very least.

Since first contact with the Wookiees, Mon Cala and Kaminoans, there has been an influx of new weaponry that were designed and tested in multiple sights. This academy was one of those sights. Pays to have rich parents sometimes. One tends to get all the goodies earlier than most at times.

Currently, a lone human male stood within the barracks of the Academy, going over inventory as that was his assignment for the day.

He was listing down the weapons the Academy had on hand, taking some time to examine some of the newer models that were officially entered into service not too long ago.

The HAR-5A Heavy Assault Rifle was the newest model within the MA5 series. These new Assault rifles were in essence a bulked up and more customizable assault rifle with an upgraded caliber round.

His team had used it earlier in training earlier today and they were damn effective. The rounds were armor piercing and shredded tree bark apart like no tomorrow.

There was also the latest model of the A280C Burst Rifle.

Developed by Humanity, the Wookiees and the Mon Cala, the Burst Rifle is the latest line of Gauss based assault rifles that were based off of the Wookiees Bowcasters. This new model is a fusion of the basic 7.62mm mixed with Gauss technology.

How they pulled that off was beyond this young man's understanding and reasoning.

All he knows is that they did it and it is a powerful rifle.

It is rather rare at the moment with those who had made this particular rifle stating that it should become more common within the next five years.

This along with the Westar 55 Heavy Pistol.

The old model was angular and boxy while this one is more circular and streamlined, specifically the barrel of the gun.

Next to these three new guns were the standard UNSC weaponry.

MA5 Assault Rifles, SRS99-AM Sniper Rifles, M392-DMR, the M45 and M90 shotguns, M6G handguns and so on and so forth.

"Heya Lasky, there ya are."

Thomas Lasky, son of Colonel Audrey Lasky looked up from his work and saw the cheerful face of one Michael Sullivan.

"Hey Sully." Lasky said in a monotone voice, returning to his work.

"Hey Sully." Sullivan parroted in amusement. "Do you have to make it sound like seeing me is a bad thing?"

Lasky smirked slightly, shaking his head as he closed the locker he was conducting inventory on to move on to the next one.

"Well, unless you're here to relieve me of my boring duty then…"

Sully only laughed. "I got something really cool to show you later."

"More of those forbidden vids?"

Sully chuckled once more, draping his arm around Lasky's shoulders. "Trust me, you're gonna wanna see it."

Lasky only nodded absent mindedly.

He eventually finished his duty and rather than going to see Sully, Lasky instead opted to go straight to his own room.

Sitting down at the desk, he brought up several files with a brand new one from his brother, First Lieutenant Cadmon Lasky.

The pride of his family, an ODST. one of the very best of the UNSC.

Opening the file, he saw the paused video of his haggard and tired looking brother yet he seemed in high spirits.

This was a stark contrast to the last video he sent in regards to the death of a squad mate and friend, Ridge. Someone that Thomas knew personally as well.

Playing the video, Thomas leaned back and listened as his brother regaled him with another one of his most recent missions.

"Hey bro." Cadmon said with a slightly strained tone but more upbeat if that was possible. "So the jungles have not been too kind but shit… we've been driving the Innies back for days now. It's fucking insane how much ground we've gotten back."

Thomas leaned forward with clear interest as Cadmon went on.

"We were getting hammered for a while until…" Cadmon then paused to look around for a brief moment before leaning into the camera in a conspiratorial manner. "Don't know whether or not I should be talking about this but we recently got reinforcements and Bro, these guys are something else."

'What did that mean?' Thomas asked himself internally. What wasn't he allowed to talk about?

"So these new guys come in and they're fucking huge." Cadmon said exaggeratedly. "I think one of them was like… 7 foot 2 or something like that. They were taller than some of the Wookiees we have on our squad."

Taller than the Wookiees?

"And Thomas… they're fucking crazy strong. And really, really good at fighting." Cadmon said, inclining back with an awed look in his face. "They tore apart the Innie lines like they were butter. All that ground we lost, we got back in four hours."

By this point, Thomas was completely enraptured by this story. Just who were these people that his brother was talking about with such reverence?

As if to answer his question…

"They didn't give us names really. Said they were uh.. Green Team and only referred to their call signs or numbers on their chests." Cadmon said with a thoughtful frown before brightening up. "Oh, there was one guy. The leader of this team. Said they were simply called Spartans and we could call him Kurt. Was really friendly with a lot of the officers. Even made sure I got some extra rest after today."

To say that Thomas was curious would be an understatement.

Just who were these… Spartans was it?

Lasky crossed his arms, momentarily pausing the video.

Spartans…

If he remembers his history correctly, Spartans were the ancient warriors of ancient Greece. They were a warrior culture, priding themselves on their battle prowess with their greatest known point in their history being the 300 Spartans that fought against the invading Persian army in the battle of Thermopylae.

A battle that is spoken of within all academies of the UNSC to this very day. Nearly 3000 years ago by this point.

He pressed resume, with Cadmon going on.

"We've got a long few weeks ahead of us but man," his brother sagged in relief. "I feel like with these new guys, we've got a fighting chance now." Cadmon gave him a cheerful smile. "Maybe I could get some leave soon to stop by and see ya buddy."

Though the message was old, both brothers snorted simultaneously.

"Yeah right." The Lasky brothers said at the same time, laughing a second later as if they were in the presence of one another.

"So, I'll be seeing ya Thomas. Duty calls and all. Miss ya man." Cadmon said, ending the video shortly thereafter.

"Miss you too." Lasky said quietly to himself.

April 26th

The entire academy was in chaos.

Alarms blared, cadets were running, marines were shouting and pandemonium reigned.

What the hell was going on?

Thomas Lasky had a profoundly intimate moment just a few minutes ago with his fellow cadet Chyler Silva and now they were running towards the tether of the academy.

They had linked up with the rest of their squad, all screaming and yelling about in total confusion.

"Lasky. Chyler." A female Mon Cala with their squadmate Junjie Chen.

"Ibtisam." Chyler yelled back, the two running towards her.

"Come on you two, the rest of the squads near the entrance." Junjie said, the four running through the now increasingly crowded corridor.

Eventually, they all linked up with the entirety of Hastati Squad.

April Orenski, their squad leader with Walter Vickers, Dimah Tchakova, Michael Sullivan, Phillip Shere and Sean Kaye.

"Alright, everyone's here." April said in satisfaction though the worry for the situation at hand was written all over her face.

"What the hell is going on?" Lasky asked the million-dollar question. "Is it the Insurrection?"

"I have no idea." Sully said in obvious fear.

"Stay calm." Ibtisam said, placing a comforting hand upon Sully and Dimah's shoulders, both of whom nodded.

"What'd we do, April?" Vickers asked in a panicked tone.

"We stick together and wait online until we get to the tether." April said with Walter nodding.

Suddenly, crackling booms were heard from above making all within look up at the glass ceiling.

From the darkened clouds above, pods began falling from on high and crashing down around and within academy grounds.

Everyone then turned to look outside the windows lining the hallways and they saw armored humans and Wookiees begin to file out of the pods with their weapons drawn.

"ODST's?" Ibtisam said aloud in shock.

"What the fuck?" Walter added.

"Why are ODST's landing directly down here?" Sully asked, trembling now.

Lasky took a moment to look at his squad and then back up at the sky with only one conclusion coming to mind.

"It's because we're under attack." Lasky said, a sense of silent shock coming over Hastati squad.

"This is not good." April said.

"ODST's dropping in is never good."

They looked around at one another until Dimah spoke up.

"Guys, I can get us on that tether."

"No, we will hold our positions." April said with a tone that brokered no argument.

Dimah was about to leave them when Sully and Ibtisam grabbed her and pulled her in.

"What are you doing?" Dimah said in a scathing manner. "We can get out of her now."

"We're sticking together." Ibtisam said in finality.

"What she said." Sully said tone shaky but demeanor resolute.

Before Dimah could argue back, the tether doors closed with the lift going upwards. She gave them a furious look when the entire area began to shake.

Once more, all heads turned to the skies above and all saw some kind of vague outline of lights coming through the clouds.

At first, no one could identify or discern as to what they were looking at until it was made clear.

A strange ship of some kind had pierced through the clouds followed by two exact replicas just above it moments later.

These ships were unlike anything any of them had ever seen.

They were not human, nor Wookiee and certainly not Mon Cala or even Kaminoan.

In essence…

"What the hell are those things?" Lasky asked aloud in open shock.

No sooner did he ask that question did the ships do something that is quite frankly an image that would be ingrained within Lasky's mind for the rest of his life.

The large ship closest to them fired off some sort of energy beam that destroyed the Space elevator.

It swayed above them before it came crashing down and then…

They were running once more; screams heard all around.

Lasky's ears were ringing, finding himself on the ground with the rest of his squad all around him.

"...Sky! LASKY!"

*THUD*

The Hastati squad whipped around to see a body slump down on the ground.

In front of them, the academy grounds were hazy mist of dust and debris.

Gunfire was heard all around along with… indescribable noises.

An ODST pair of a Human and a Mon Cala were backing away when they saw a figure within the mist.

It was clad in some kind of armor with certain parts glowing.

As it walked closer, a two-pronged glowing sword appeared from its hand as the bipedal creature sliced through the statue of the academy in two.

"What the hell is that thing?!" Vickers asked in terror.

"Lasky, come on." Chyler helped him up.

They all stood around with a sense of total confusion and at a loss of what to do.

"What was that?"

"I don't know."

Then, a ringing from above transformed into screams of terror.

Lasky looked up with his face turning ghostly pale as bodies, literal bodies of all the people that were on the space elevator and possibly other orbiting platforms from above began falling!

The sickening sounds of bodies, blood and guts breaking and crumbling upon impact was sickening and enough of a motivator for them to start running again.

Hastati squad ran straight into a firefight with ODST's and marines firing and screaming all around.

"GRAAAA"

"LEFT FLANK, LEFT FLANK."

"I NEED AMM-GAK."

"WATCH YOUR SIX!"

"THEY'RE ALL OVER!"

Lasky was looking about wildly, momentarily losing his squad.

He heard his name get called out and he turned to see…

"Colonel Mehaffey." He whispered.

She was in her basic uniform with an SMG in hand.

"Lasky." She yelled out. "Get to the door! Go! G-AH!"

Suddenly, from nowhere, Mehaffey was struck by what appeared to be glowing needles.

Everything seemingly slowed down from Lasky's perspective as he watched his mentor fall to the ground. Upon hitting the floor, the needles literally exploded, taking her body along with them.

He began to look around, breathing heavily as his ears rang.

ODST's and Marines were firing from all sides at enemies that Thomas could barely make out.

He saw two Wookiee ODST's get cut down with ease by that same armored figure that sliced the academy statue.

"Thomas!"

Lasky's body jolted, Sully and Chyler by his sides.

"Come on man, we gotta go!" Sully said, pulling him along.

"Junjie?"

"Here!"

"Hastati, MOVE!" April yelled out, the entire squad reforming and running for their lives towards the dorms.

They eventually entered into the hallway with their dorms, taking refuge in Lasky's as it was the only one that was unlocked.

Once all inside, the squad took a collective breath of relief that they were alive.

"Wait." Junjie spoke up. "We're missing two?"

They looked around with them soon realizing…

"Oh fuck, where's Phillip and Sean?" Walter asked.

"They got shot down." Dimah said, shaking as she sat upon Lasky's bed. "I saw it."

They were silent, only breathing heavily when Dimah broke down into open sobs practically jumping into Sully's arm.

"Oh my God, I could've died." Dimah wept profusely into Sully's shoulder with him only holding her tightly as a few silent tears fell from the corners of his eyes.

"Colonel Mehaffey." Lasky said, expression turning green at the sight of her gory death repeatedly going over in his mind.

"It's a whole new war." Vickers said in abject dread.

"What kind of war was that?!" Ibtisam asked, shaken to her core over what they had just survived.

There was a lull of silence between them as they tried to calm themselves.

That was until a terrified scream that was quickly silenced caught their attention.

"That sounded close." Vickers went to look outside when Lasky stopped him and checked instead.

Peeking out of his room, Lasky looked down at the end of the hallway to see that bipedal armored creature with its energy sword piercing a girl.

It spoke in a language he could not understand, pulling its glowing blade out of the body and letting it slump over dead.

This…

This was undoubtedly a new alien of some kind cause it sure as hell wasn't a Wookiee or Mon Cala.

The alien looked around for a moment before it quite literally turned invisible.

Lasky backed away into his room.

"It's invisible." He whispered.

"What the hell's invisible?" Walter asked.

"One of those things is inside and it is invisible." Lasky said, raising his voice to get the message across.

The feeling of panic returned with an even stronger presence than before.

"What do we do, what'd we do?!"

"We gotta get out of here!" Lasky declared.

"What about that thing out there?" Ibtisam asked, scared beyond all measure.

"Shouldn't we stay here?" Dimah, still clinging to Sully.

"Where are we gonna go?" Junjie asked.

"No, no, no" Orenski stammered out. "We're gonna go to the training room, we're gonna get gacked up and get ourselves some weapons."

"I'll take point." Chen said straight away.

"Alright everyone." April said, with the squad moving about inside. "Get in line and get ready."

Once they were in position, April was right behind Junjie who looked outside into the hallway.

It was quiet, with no sound heard other than the ambience…

When the glass door next to their room was broken in.

"Now!" Junjie said, with the squad quickly filing out of the room and running in the direction away from the invisible threat.

They sprinted across the hallway, turning several corners until Junjie came to a halt raising his right fist up.

"Wha-?" Orenski was confused.

"JJ, why'd you stop?" Vickers asked.

Junjie Chen only stood, stock still with his breath trembling with a hot breath fogging up his glasses.

Behind him were his squadmates.

"Ru-"

Junjie was pierced by a two pronged energy sword with his body being held up into the air.

"JJ!" Vickers shouted in distraught terror.

"Run, RUN!" Ibtisam yelled with the squads fleeing for their lives as Junjie's body was dropped to ground like garbage by the invisible menace.

They miraculously made it to the training room, quickly sealing the door behind him.

April ordered Lasky and Ibtisam to get a distress beacon out while she and Chyler tried to get the weapon and armor lockers open.

They were typing in codes to get them open yet nothing happened.

"It's locked!" Chyler said in frustration. "My code isn't working!"

"What the hell." Sully cried out.

"Mayday, mayday, this is Cadets Thomas Lasky and Ibtisam. Mayday, mayday!" Lasky said frantically. "There's been an attack on Corbulo Academy, repeat, there has been an attack on Corbulo Academy. Does anyone copy?"

"Ibby?" Dimah asked in a soft, utterly terrified tone.

The Mon Cala only slammed her fist against the wall.

"There's no response or signal. Comms are down."

"I don't have access to the live rounds." April announced.

"I think the beacon tower is down as well." Thomas said in defeat.

Dimah only wept more, holding onto Sully for dear life.

"We're dead." Sully said blankly.

"No we're not." April retorted; hands raised up to her head. "Alright, there's gotta be a way out of this. Think, think, think, think."

Lasky and Ibtisam regarded the door.

"We can't stay in here, April." Ibby stated.

"We can't go out there." April shot back.

"Then what do we do?" Lasky asked when Vickers held up a tank of some kind and began bashing it into the lockers.

He kept smashing it into the lockers with the squad encouraging him on…

*BANG*

They jolted into silence as they turned to the door.

*BANG*

There it was again.

"Hide." April whispered.

They ran to the end of the room, Vickers breaking off to see if there was another way out.

Seeing none, he looked back to Lasky who was gesturing him over to join the rest of the squad.

*BANG*

The sound of the door being struck once more made Vickers stay in his spot as they now awaited the inevitable.

*BANG*

They pressed themselves up against the lockers with Lasky and Vickers looking out at the door.

*CLANG*

Both hid themselves as the training room door fell to the ground.

Heavy footsteps were heard yet they couldn't see it.

Lasky kept watch while trying to remain as hidden as possible.

Nearby, there was a bit of steam coming out of a dislodged pipe from the ceiling. The steam was then blown by a breath which made Lasky tremble.

Looking back out, he and Vickers locked eyes when the door that was blown off its hinges moved. They returned to their hiding spots, frozen on the spot.

More footsteps came after, appearing to go in the direction away from them.

Lasky steeled himself, looking to the rest and nodding, gesturing his head towards the door.

They begin crawling and moving about to get closer to the door.

Once within reach, they crowded at the corner they were crouching at.

"Lasky, go for the door." Sully encouraged.

"We can't leave Vickers behind." Lasky countered.

"Where is it?" Chyler asked with Lasky laying down on the ground to see underneath the lockers.

Close by was a puddle of water… which soon had three stubs of some kind step right on it with a footprint outline of some kind.

Shooting back up, Lasky was sweating profusely now. "He's right there."

The fear was palpable amongst the group.

Sparks flew out which fell over the invisible form of this alien.

An unusual hum was heard and the group saw the glowing two pronged sword.

They then heard some sort of static followed by an unknown language with the large alien responding in kind with its own alien dialect.

It was a series of warbles and what could only be described as worts and honks.

It decloaked, revealing itself to the group of terrified cadets.

The alien was tall, possibly the same height as a Wookiee if not more so. It had unusually jointed legs and what looked like four fingered hands.

"Hey!"

The group froze as they heard Walter announce himself to the alien.

"GUYS RUN!" He shouted, readying his makeshift weapon…

Only for the alien to whip around and fire at him with its other weapon, shooting him down.

Sully cried out to him which in turn, alerted the alien to their presence.

It slowly walked around the locker that they hid behind and stared down at them.

Once more speaking in that unknown alien language, it then did something… quite scary to put it plainly.

Something that sent a chill down their spines.

It laughed.

"GURK"

The alien then jolted; a fleshy sound of a knife piercing skin being heard from behind.

It proceeded to slump over dead and from behind was a large figure in green armor with the number 117 painted on the left side of its chest piece. Small lights turned on from the side of this figure's helmet as it turned to face them.

"We don't have much time." The armored figure spoke in a slightly gravelly voice. "Let's go."

The cadets all stared up at the… man?

Was it a man?

Cause whoever he was, he was massive.

*CLANG*

*THUD*

The entire group jumped in fear as they looked over at the exit to the training room in alarm.

They saw the figure of another one of the same species that this new guy took out and standing over it…

Was another large imposing armored individual that was taller than the armored figure with 117 on his chest piece.

This one had identical armor on yet the helmet was different as well as the number.

034.

'Numbers on their chests.'

The words of his brother echoed through his mind.

Were these the same individuals Cadmon spoke of?

What were they called again?

Spartans?

"Found 'em Chief?" the newly arrived armored figure asked.

'Chief' just nodded.

"What's the situation outside?" 117 asked.

"Ghost town." 034 said with a shake of his head. "No survivors."

There was a momentary pause, both looking over at the cadets that had now come out of their hiding spots with one of them going over to the recently fallen Walter Vickers.

"Blue-three inform Command 034 and I have six survivors." 117 began talking into his comms. "Take your team North. Rendezvous at Evac Alpha for Pelican extraction. We'll meet you there. Blue-One out."

"How'd you find us?" Lasky asked straight away.

"The distress beacon." 117 replied.

"Why'd you come for us?" Sully inquired.

"You were the only survivors." 117 said.

"In the school?" Ibtisam asked for clarification.

"On the planet." 034 this time spoke, tone dark.

A sense of indescribable loss and horror washed over the last six survivors of Circinius IV.

They were all that was left of the entire population of the planet?!

"We've got 15 minutes to get to the evac point." 117 informed them. "Armor up."

"It's… it's locked." Sully stammered out.

The two armored men shared a look before 034 proceeded to punch through the lock with ease and tossed aside the small doors to allow access to the weapons and armor.

Well, that's one way of getting past the locks.

A few moments later, the six cadets were equipped with the standard marine armor weapons in hand and sandwiched in between two gargantuan soldiers that led them down the darkened hallways of the Academy.

They were in tight formation with the lights of their weapons moving about as they were constantly looking around for anything or anyone that may pose a threat.

117 abruptly halted holding his fist up making the rest of them stop.

034 immediately went past them and stood by 117's side, the two sharing a look.

117 turned back to the cadets.

"Stay quiet." He instructed them. "Do not leave, no matter what you hear outside."

"Wait." Lasky spoke up. "Just… who are you guys?"

"034." Said the tallest of the two. "Blue-Two if you want."

"Chief-117. Or just Chief for short."

With that said, both turned and went ahead, their footsteps barely being registered by the cadets who proceeded to slouch slightly.

Ibtisam shook as she lowered her assault rifle and with her free hand leaned against a nearby wall.

Dimah basically made sure to stick to Sully who wasn't faring much better.

Chyler all but slumped down to the ground, breathing heavily.

"I knew those ONI vids were bad news." Sully muttered out.

"I don't think ONI has anything to do with this." Ibby remarked with a strained tone.

"Oh God." Chyler whispered out. "Everyone…"

Dimah shuddered, stifling a sob as she shook her head and tried to gain some control over herself.

"What the hell is going on?" Sully asked, slightly panicked.

"Sully, not now." Lasky chided.

"We're following giant robots." Sully said.

"No… not robots." Lasky said, thinking of his brother's last message before all this madness.

"Spartans."

"Spartans?" April looked at him. "You know what they are?"

"I have an idea." Lasky said vaguely. "I'll tell you about it… if we get out of here."

"Are they even gonna come back?" Dimah asked in a terrified whisper.

"They'll come back." Lasky stated in an assuring manner. "I believe them."

He looked to Chyler who looked severely distraught, several tears streaming down her face.

"You ok?"

Chyler hesitated. "I don't know."

"Hey, we'll be alright." Lasky said with more conviction now.

He reached over to a helmet lying beside her and placed it on her head.

She looked up at him in fear yet he remained resolute.

"We're gonna make it outta here." Lasky promised.

"Thanks." Chyler managed out.

All the while, gunfire was heard far ahead.

"Do you think they'll be enough?" Ibby asked.

The question went unanswered until they heard a loud banging sound with heavy footsteps.

Hastati tensed up in fear until they saw the two large forms of 034 and 117 return with them slumping in relief.

"Who's the best shot here?" 117 asked.

…

"You probably." Sully answered and 034 appeared to huff in amusement.

Chief looked at the cadets, glancing down at Lasky who had just strapped on a helmet for himself.

"Chyler is." Thomas said straight away.

"I'm good." Chyler nodded.

"I am too." April said soon after.

"Cadet Lasky, can you drive a warthog?"

"Uh…" Lasky stammered. "Yeah sure."

"Anyone else?"

"I can." Ibby said. "So can Dimah."

"Good." 117 said. "There's several Warthogs and Mongooses nearby. That's where we're all headed. Shooters on the left and right, drivers in the center."

"Don't wander and stay in formation." 034 added. "Stay close to the both of us. It's your best chance for survival."

They knew this was not to be a boast but a fact.

Getting into formation, the cadets followed the two behemoths out to the now deathly quiet academy grounds.

It was a haunting sight to put it mildly.

Everywhere they looked, only the dead could be found.

Fellow students, faculty with marines and ODST's littering the ground.

There were particularly gruesome and gory splotches on the ground from poor souls that fell from above upon the initial attack.

Humans, Wookiees and Mon Cala all around them.

Dimah had to close her eyes, lip trembling as tears streamed down her face upon once again realizing she could have been one of the dead on the ground.

"Sully." Lasky spoke up in a low whisper, making Dimah look back to her roommate. "Keep up."

"Come on Sully." April added.

"Sully." Dimah reached out to grab the back collar of his outfit and tugged him along.

"Where'd they all go?" Sully asked.

Then a purple needle was embedded into Sullivan's ankle.

He yelled out in pain, looking up to the one that had shot him with everything slowing down from the perspective of two specific soldiers.

Chief had shot his arm out in time with his armor absorbing the second shot of the enemy fire, shoving Sully to the ground.

"Get down." 117 barked out. "Sam."

"On it." 034 sprang into action with Chief, the two firing rapidly at the enemies while the cadets were hiding for cover.

"Move." Chief ordered. "Get to the warthogs. We'll keep their focus on us."

Lasky caught something out of the corner of his eye, watching one of their shooters get attacked from behind.

"Chief!" Lasky shouted, pointing towards that direction.

117 looked over in time to see a shadowy figure attack one of the enemies and kill it with what looked like a bowcaster.

"Go!" 117 ordered.

The cadets began running straight for the Warthogs, seeing them in sight despite all the commotion.

Just before they could reach them, a stubby looking alien was flung down before them with a sickening crack being heard.

A moment later, a Wookiee ODST landed before them with a roar of victory.

"Holy-" Sully was promptly dragged forward by Ibby and Dimah.

"Come on. We gotta move." Ibtisam said, getting to the warthogs.

The Mon Cala quickly looked to the newly arrived Wookiee. "Can you drive?"

The Wookiee warbled in affirmation, quickly going over to the driver's seat of one of the Warthogs.

Ibby, Dimah and Sully piled in and the gun was suddenly manned by 034 who began riddling the remaining enemies with lead.

Over in the other Warthog, Lasky got into the driver's seat with April and Chyler whilst 117 manned the gun to join Blue-Two in firing at the enemies.

"Drive."

Both warthogs were floored, tires grinding up against the ground for a few moments until they began accelerating and driving away from the academy and directly into the woods.

"Where were you the whole time?" Ibtisam asked their new Wookiee companion straight away.

The Wookiee barked and growled out on how his entire squad was killed and he barely survived by retreating into the woods. He was fighting off this enemy that was apparently called the Covenant within the woods until he heard the sound of gunfire coming from the academy.

"Well you're a godsend." Ibby said a moment later.

Their warthog drove behind Lasky's, turning to follow after them as they drove down another road. 034 informed them that their exit was up ahead.

As they were driving, both 034 and the Wookiees' heads twitched, looking back behind them at the darkened forest.

"What's wrong?" Dimah asked in worry.

The Wookiee growled to stay alert with 034 now moving the gun around.

"Chief, we got trouble."

"Do you have a visual?" 117 asked from his warthog.

"Nothing yet but I'm picking up movement." 034 said, tone grim.

117 only response was to tell Lasky to drive faster.

Suddenly, on the road ahead, a glowing blue sphere was thrown into the center of their path.

Lasky had to sharply veer the warthog out of the way as the blue sphere exploded, enveloping the left side of the warthog in a strange pulse of some kind.

Gunfire erupted from the two warthogs.

"Controlled bursts." Chief yelled out. "Don't spray and pray."

Those that were able to begin firing on all sides, managing to take out most of the enemies that resided within the forest.

"Chief." 034 called out to him with 117 wordlessly moving about to fire at a large cluster that 034 himself was firing at.

"Ah dammit." Ibby cried out as multiple glowing needles struck the hood of their warthog with another few clipping the front left wheel.

Lasky looked back for a brief moment and looked back in time to see another one of those alien creatures jump at the car.

A shot went off as he rammed right into it and crushed it beneath the warthog, screeching the car to a halt as the other one had basically stopped moving.

"Man the gun." 117 ordered April with the squad leader quickly taking his place on the turret as he jumped out and ran over to the disabled warthog.

"What's the status of the hog?" Chief asked straight away.

"Trashed." 034 said succinctly, jumping down from the gun as he flicked his hand up as a silent gesture for the occupants to get out of the warthog.

Only the Wookiee remained, opting to man the unoccupied gun as Dimah and Ibby helped Sully out of the car.

Sully was assisted to a nearby tree with Chief administering Biofoam to his injury.

"This should help you walk again." 117 said.

"Or at least limp really fast." 034 added, getting a strained chuckle out of Sully.

"You know how to cheer a guy up."

There was a brief lull as they patched up Sully.

"They aren't attacking." 034 pointed out in private to 117 within their helmet comms.

Before he could respond, Lasky began shouting in a distraught manner.

"Chief! Chief! Chyler's been hit!"

117 was by Chyler's side a moment later, with him helping the gravely injured cadet out of the Warthog.

The others save for the Wookiee and 034 surrounded them a moment later.

"Chyler!" Dimah cried out fretfully.

Ibtisam held her hand with Lasky on the other.

This moment was then interrupted by the sound of scurrying and screeches from all around them.

The cadets looked about wildly, noticing that the sounds were getting distant.

"They're… retreating?" Ibtisam said aloud in confusion.

"Why would they retreat?" April asked from the gun.

"John!" 034 yelled out with all heads turning to where 034 was standing and in the distance they saw a glowing green light.

"We're being hunted." 117 said grimly. He looked up to the Wookiee on the second Warthogs turret. "What's your name?"

Chewbacca

"The Pelican extraction point is just ahead, North of here." 117 said. "Get these Cadets to safety."

The now identified Chewbacca grunt out, jumping from the warthog and jogging over to the Cadets who were still fretting over their gravely injured comrade.

"Let's go Sam." John said quietly to his brother, the two running toward their new foe.

Back with the cadets, the Wookiee had joined them with the sound of roars now beginning to reverberate from the directions the two Spartans ran towards.

"What do we do?" April asked with Chewbacca answering.

"North?" Dimah looked about frantically. "Which was is tha-"

*GROOOAARRR*

They turned back and several of them gaped at the sight of a figure completely towering over their two saviors, standing at nearly five to six feet taller.

"Oh my God." Sully murmured out.

"Come on, we need to get out of here." Orenski said rapidly.

"Wait." Dimah said looking around. "We're near the blind."

"We are?"

"Yeah, it's on the way North."

"Lead the way, Dimah." Ibby encouraged her. "I'm right behind you."

April and Lasky placed Chylers arms around their shoulders with Chewbacca supporting Sully.

They moved as fast as they were able to, hearing gunfire and explosions going off from a distance.

Chyler moaned out in agony as they reached a stone structure with Lasky and April setting her down.

"Hang in there, Chyler." April said straight away as Lasky removed her helmet while checking over himself.

"Don't we have any more Biofoam?" he asked in desperation with the team only shaking their heads as the realization began to set in.

Lasky looked back down to Chyler who was breathing heavily and becoming paler by the second.

Wordlessly, she reached underneath her shirt and pulled out her dog tags. Tugging them off her neck, she holds them out for Lasky to take who was now having his own tears streaming down his face.

"It's ok, Tom." Chyler said kindly, voice steady despite her state. "I'm sorry."

"No." Lasky was torn. "Please."

Chylers hands became limp, falling away from Lasky.

Lasky only wept, holding on to Chylers dog tags whilst the rest had silent tears streaming down their faces.

They were so focused on Chyler, they had not realized 117 and 034 had returned.

117 had kneeled down to Lasky who barely even registered him.

"I'm sorry." Chief said sincerely.

There was a brief moment of silence until 117 returned his attention to the main problem.

"We'll need your ammo cadets; it took us everything we had to take that thing down." Chief said.

"We don't have anymore." Dimah said with a sullen tone.

Chewbacca grunted out he was empty as well, having lost his weapon.

Lasky however pulled out a grenade and held it up for Chief to take.

"Think that'll be enough?" 034 asked 117.

"We'll find out." Chief stated. "Get these cadets to the Pelican."

"What about you?" Ibtisam asked fearfully.

"I'll take care of-"

Chewbacca abruptly let out a roar for everyone to get down as a glowing green sphere impacted some of the trees nearby.

"Move, move!" 117 yelled out, the survivors scrambling to run as fast as their tired legs were able to.

Chewbacca up and hefted Sully over his shoulder with the Cadets, ODST and two Spartans running away from more explosive green spheres being lobbed at them.

They jumped over a small cliff, landing down on the ground and pressing themselves up against the dirt wall.

"Hey Kelly." 034 spoke through the comms. "Gonna need you to hold that pelican for us a bit longer."

"We're not leaving them behind." 117 said resolutely. "All of you, get ready to run for the Pelican. 034 and I will hold it off."

Before they could move, Lasky suddenly sits up and gets into a kneeling position.

"No sir… I'll be the decoy for you both."

"What?"

"Lasky, no!"

"AXIOS!" Lasky bellowed out, dashing forward at full speed.

He was running through the forest as fast as his legs were able to carry him, the sound of rumbling roar coming from behind.

Close to his right side to his back, the ground burst and shook.

Back with the others, the other creature that was pursuing them landed on the ground.

Without waiting, the two Spartans ran forward just as the giant alien fired its literal arm cannon at the running cadet.

It then surprised the two, swinging its large armored arm at them both and striking them away.

It then turned back to Lasky who was still running and prepared to fire.

However, the Spartans were on it once more with 034 pouncing on its shield arm and in a display of herculean strength held it down allowing for 117 to run up the arm.

The arm cannon fired another energy sphere in the meantime.

Chief kneed the head upon reaching it and maneuvered around the bulky frame of the alien and then shoved the primed grenade in between the exposed flesh.

The creature warbled, flinging 034 off of it before it blew up into thousands of fleshy chunks and blood.

The cadets gaped in shock save for April and Sully that were rushing over to the unmoving form of Lasky.

They rolled him onto his back, yelling and shaking him in hopes of getting a response.

His eyes suddenly opened, with him inhaling sharply and coughing.

"Oh thank God." Sully said, helping his friend up to his feet while the others joined in just as they heard the sound of engines flaring close by.

"There's our ride." 117 announced.

The group soon ran out of the forest into a clearing and saw a Pelican awaiting them with

Two more armored figures and two marines having a perimeter around the Pelican.

One of the armored figures that had the number 087 on the left side of its chest piece approached 117 and 034.

"We have six survivors." 117 said.

"I've alerted command." Was her response.

"Let's get out of here." 034 said, getting no objections out of his teammates with everyone piling into the Pelican.

Once all were inside, the ship ascended into the air and flew off.

As they got higher into the sky, the survivors of the academy looked out the yet to be closed hatch of the pelican and saw the horrific sight of the planet being burnt to glass before them.

The last of the Hastati squad all sat opposite the four armored individuals with Chewbacca opting to sit with them.

Lasky had his elbows leaning against his knees with April's glazed eyes staring out at the destruction below.

Dimah opted to lean her upper body entirely onto Sully's legs with him wordlessly taking her hand and both held onto each other tightly.

Ibtisam simply inclined her head back and began breathing as a means of trying to calm herself down after the nonstop adrenaline rush for the past few hours.

Chewbacca slouched forward, face in his hands as he trembled.

The cadets stared at him momentarily realizing that he, like them, had lost everyone he had known because of this attack.

They still had each other but this ODST was alone.

Everyone sat in silence for the most part until 087 reached for her helmet and took it off, a small hiss being heard.

The Cadets stared in bewilderment at the brown haired, blue eyed and pale skinned young girl before them.

A moment later, 104 had done the same, revealing a similar pale complexion having black hair with bluish-green eyes.

They looked no older than them for the most part.

Both turned to 034 and 117 who opted to keep their helmets on.

"H-" Sully stammered slightly. "How old are all of you?"

"That's classified." 087 said, almost robotically.

"Huh." Sully said, simply accepting that answer and pressing his head back against the wall while Dimah closed her eyes.

Lasky had sat back up, sighing tiredly and looked up at the armored figure opposite to him.

117.

The large man looked at the cadet and wordlessly held out something for Lasky to take.

Holding out his hand, Chief dropped a piece of some kind that Lasky realized came from the large alien that 117 and 034 had slain during his distraction.

"Well done, Soldier." Was all Chief said, making Lasky look upon him in slight awe.

It soon morphed into one of steeled conviction and determination.

One that held the silent promise for Lasky that he would not ever let this go or take what had happened here in vain or for granted.

He would prove that he would indeed live up to Corbulos academy's motto.

Axios.

I am Worthy.

May 3rd

Journal Entry XII

Looking back, there were years that always stood out from the others.

And when I do, the first five years I always see as nothing more than a prelude.

These opening years were just the first act.

The buildup for the ground swell of madness that would come at the start of the next decade.

Looking back, I recall the innovation this year had for the way we waged war along with our own advancements.

Alec Ryder… It's strange when I speak of people whom I consider friends but had it not been for my work with Alec, we would not be where we are today.

Our work with AI had at long last bore fruit with most if not all of the current AI the UNSC has created stemming directly from our work on this day on the third of May in 2526.

The expansion of AI lifespans from seven to ten years was groundbreaking giving rise to many standouts for the war that followed.

Versatility and creativity was greatly enhanced along with a whole host of other capabilities that would benefit the UNSC for decades to come.

One of the few early highlights of the war.

I wish we had more during those days.

End of Journal Entry.

October 21st

Admiral Raddus clenched his chair tightly, eyes narrowed as he analyzed the collection of Covenant ships before him.

There were twelve in total, compared to his fleet of forty ships.

He sat within Viscount-Class Star Defender named the UNSC Torrent.

Accompanying him were four Valiant-Class Super Heavy Cruisers, ten Wookiee designed Kumauri battleships between 800 to 1200 meters, five MC80 Liberty class star cruisers at 1.5 kilometers each, ten Sphyra-class Hammerhead corvettes ranging between 500 to 900 meters, and ten newly serviced Paris-Class frigate at five to six hundred meters each.

Facing this assemblage of ships was a Covenant fleet composed of three CAS-class assault carriers, four SDV-class Heavy Corvettes and five CRS-class light cruisers.

Their twelve to the UNSC's forty.

And Raddus knew that this was hopefully as evenly matched as it could be.

These Covenant ships have the unfortunately distinct advantage of being shielded where they only had titanium and metals that could only hold back the barrage of plasma for so long.

"This is Admiral Raddus of the Third Fleet. All starfighters and battlegroups report in."

He heard the growling of Wookiee battle group Beta call in from their starships.

The hammerhead corvette followed with the MC80 Liberty ships shortly after with Paris class frigates a moment later.

"This Gold Leader, Standing by."

"This is Red Leader, standing by."

"This is Blue Leader, standing by."

"This is Yoru Leader, standing by."

Narrowing his eyes, he watched as the Covenant ships drew near.

"Gold and Yoru Squadrons defend the fleet. Red and Blue Squadrons, engage the Covenant and clear a path for our starships."

"Copy that Admiral, this is Red Leader moving to engage."

"This is Blue Leader, moving to engage."

Raddus watched as upwards of three dozen starfighters composed of X-wings, A-wings, Y-wings and D-wings all flew headfirst into the Covenant fleet.

Plasma, lead and gauss began being fired all over the place with the UNSC starships launching missiles, firing up turrets and priming their Railguns and MAC cannons.

The Covenant cruisers moved in to engage the UNSC frigates.

Though they were comparably smaller in size, their plasma technology proved more than enough of an equalizer as it simply burned through the hulls of the frigates.

Gold squadron flew in to even the odds, harrying the ships as they flew under their shields and fired at specific locations on the ship.

Firing missiles and modified Gauss cannon that can rapidly fire, the starfighters whittled down the Cruisers defenses allowing for the frigates to angle themselves and fire their MACs.

However, it appeared that the Covenant had come prepared with their own set of starfighters sending out the Seraphs and the now identified Geonosian or Beak Wing Starfighter.

The ships flew in between one another, entering into fierce dogfights but once again, the UNSC had the upper edge with their pilots outmaneuvering and besting the Covenant fighters. If not for the cruisers adding additional fire power, the Starfighters would have taken less losses.

Raddus cursed under his breath, cursing both the UNSC's unfortunate luck and the Covenant's advanced plasma technology as he watched four frigates get torn apart by the cruisers.

If not for the Super heavy cruisers coming in to take out the remainder of the cruisers though two managed to branch away to get into the safety of the much larger and more imposing Covenant ships.

The battle was now engaged in earnest with Raddus coordinating attack patterns and strategies while suffering several more losses.

Three Kumauri ships were destroyed as well as two Hammerhead corvettes.

Though the UNSC was experiencing losses, the battle was still firmly in their favor.

They had taken out all five of the cruisers and one of the Heavy Corvettes which meant the Covenant fleet was at half strength.

Still, thirteen ships for Six was not a trade Raddus was proud of.

He sorely wished for the Supercarriers right about now as he recalled how Cole's were one hit kills for the UNSC at the retaking of Harvest earlier this year.

But he wasn't an Admiral for nothing.

Setting up a makeshift strategy, he had one of the Hammerhead Corvette that was severely damaged and on the verge of being destroyed and evacuated any survivors that it had.

The Dumb AI upon this damaged Corvette was then to make sure the thrusters were on full power and to guide itself directly into a Heavy Corvette.

Within the Hammerhead Corvette that would be colliding with the Covenant Corvette, all of its nukes were primed and ready to set off.

The Hammerhead smashed headfirst into the SDV and its thrusters flared at full power.

This Corvette was targeted in particular as a Y-wing bombing run had disabled its engines, leaving it floating aimlessly in the vacuum.

The Hammerhead began pushing the Corvette…

Straight into the path of one of the CAS assault carriers.

The large ship began firing with all of its defenses in an attempt to either stop the hammerhead or destroy the disabled corvette. Yet from UNSC starfighters destroying those defenses or them being unable to respond in time, the two corvette collided with the carrier.

A moment later, the nukes within the Hammerhead detonated, completely destroying all three ships.

The Covenant now had only four ships.

And they were the most powerful that they had.

But Admiral Cole had come to the conclusion before that overwhelming firepower is to be the best strategy against the Covenant. One that Raddus would employ with aggressive zeal.

The starfighters and support starships moved in to begin firing everything they had upon the remaining ships of the Covenant.

Raddus had his Viscount Star Defender move in, readying it's M1000 Railgun, aligning itself at the front of the closest CAS Assault Carrier.

The Mon Cala Admiral had his eyes trained against the shields of the carrier that were flaring up by the continuous barrage that it endured.

…

Until he saw it.

That brief flicker of the shields weakening and faltering under the prolonged fire.

"FIRE!" Raddus yelled aloud and the Torrents Railgun shot out the single glowing white shot that punctured a hole straight through the Assault Carrier.

The shield around it died out and the ships that were firing at it now had nothing to stop their onslaught.

This went on for the rest of the battle, having lost three more ships along the way until at long last…

The Battle of Alpha Aurigae was won by Admiral Raddus of the UNSC.

December 25th

Biko

It was Christmas day on the colony world of Biko.

Normally, there would be a largely festive feeling in the air despite the Rebel presence that had remained at large on the planet.

But for some reason, an unusual tension permeated the planet.

The Rebel front, while active still, had drastically reduced their attacks and campaign against the UNSC militia garrisoned here under Biko's Chancellor.

As a matter of fact, a majority of the soldiers on Biko were exceptionally tense.

They hardly spoke to any civilian nowadays and were acting as though an attack was coming.

Not just any ordinary attack, judging by their demeanors.

But one that could single handedly decimate whatever it was Biko had in terms of military might.

However, these thoughts and concerns weren't really in the mind of one six year old girl going towards a house with her mother and two year old baby sister.

She held her mother's hand with one hand while the other was carrying a small bag.

Within the other arm of her mother was her baby sister.

Somehow, the mother was managing half a dozen bags in her arms while holding both her daughters.

Eventually the trio of girls arrived at the two story house they had been walking towards the entire time.

The six years old mother knocked on the door and a moment later, it opened to reveal another woman who had a beaming smile upon her face.

"Wanda!"

"Janet." her mother said kindly, letting go of her daughter's hand to embrace the other woman.

Once pulling back, she kissed her two year old sister on the cheek before looking down at her with a wide smile.

"Miranda."

"Hi Auntie Janet." Miranda Lawson said cheerfully before laughing as she was scooped up in her arms.

Carrying her inside the house, it was filled with several other people who were all busy either cooking or talking with one another while setting a large table.

"Wanda, Miri, Ori." A man stepped away from the kitchen with a broad smile. "So glad you guys made it. Bowie, can you take over?"

"Rawr."

The man walked over to them, hugging Miranda and Janet followed by Wanda and her little sister Oriana.

"Hi uncle Reggie." Miranda said cheerfully.

"How are my favorite little nieces doing?" Reggie asked, ruffling her hair much to her annoyance making him laugh.

Setting the two girls down, the adults got to talking while Miranda walked towards the back of the house with Oriana in tow.

She knew exactly where to go, walking out into the backyard.

There, she saw a young boy her age sitting on a homemade porch swing looking up at the night sky.

"Carter." Miranda said happily, making the boy turn to her and smile brightly at her.

"Hey Miranda." Carter said with a calm voice, hopping down from the porch swing in time for Miranda to give him a tight hug.

He reciprocated the gesture with Oriana moving in to join a moment later.

"Merry Christmas." Miranda said happily, holding out her small bag from her hands with her friend only to grin.

He took the bag out of her hands and placed it on the porch swing with Miri spotting a small box resting there.

"Dad helped me make this for you." Carter said, taking the box and holding it out for her.

Opening the box, she saw it was a carved metal necklace into the zodiac sign of Leo and an emblazoned M.

"Wow." Miri said with wide eyed awe.

Carter's grin grew at seeing how taken his best friend was with the gift, going over to hop on the porch swing with Ori and Miri joining him.

The trio of kids sat upon the porch swing, looking up at the stars.

As the kids and their families celebrated the holidays…

They all remained blissfully unaware of the raging war that was playing out across the stars.

The war that would one day reach them.

But until that time, Miranda and Carter would continue living out their lives in peace on Biko.

Hey guys.

Yeah this was a bit of a long one considering it covered a year.

You guys have no idea how much longer it was originally intended to be. Like a solid… ten to maybe fifteen thousand words bigger.

I was gonna cover the main big battles and events in greater explicit detail but that would mean I'd be on this chapter for another solid month.

BSX and I want to get this up to a solid ten chapters before returning to our work on Spirit Unto Dawn.

We've both been very busy on our ends with other stories and ideas, him with Tales of Infinite Wars and me with Infinite Wars proper.

There's also the stories I work on with Jebest4781, both current and in development.

Lot has happened since I last updated this story.

Mass Effect trilogy remaster coming soon on top of Halo Infinite being delayed being the main two that strictly are associated with this story.

But the big one is, as you all are aware of, is the passing of the phenomenal actor Chadwick Boseman.

It is a great tragedy and loss that will be felt for us nerds the world over.

I have written out a proper tribute to him on Infinite Wars Chapter 44 with Jebest, so please check it out. RIP Chadwick, Wakanda Forever.

Other than that, there's a lot of reviews that I want to answer but that would lead to spoilers so gonna need to hold off on that.

There's a lot of awesome shit that BSX and I have planned out in the coming chapters once we kick it into high gear.

You might as well consider these ten chapters as a long set up cause shit is gonna go down once things start popping off. I just wish I could write at breakneck speeds every time I sat down at a computer.

Writer's block. It's a curse.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.