Criticism of any kind is welcome!

Also: Italic for radio communications, an AI speaking from a Spartan's helmet and/or ships intercom, name of a warship, etc.

Anyway, that's all folks, enjoy!

Chapter 1: Awakened


March 6, 2563 15:00 Hours

UNSC Harvest, Cryo-Bay 1

There was a calm, quiet atmosphere inside one of the several cryo-bays onboard the warship UNSC Harvest. The entire room was near silent with no activity as several thousands of cryo-chambers were lined up against each other, the only sounds throughout the cryo-bay being the low humming from them. Most of the crew onboard the Harvest were frozen, except for a very small fraction assigned to do scheduled maintenance every now and then to make sure the ship and its systems were still functioning and operational. Thanks to the cryonic suspension done to their bodies, metabolism was almost zero for them, preventing aging and completely eliminating the crew's need for food, oxygen, and warmth while they were frozen in cryo. And though it would take awhile for them to get to their destination, and knowing of the possible danger on the other side once the ship was out of slipspace, the crew would be ready for anything once they were up and about.

Before their departure only two weeks ago, the UNSC High Command and Office of Naval Intelligence were notified of a newly-discovered planet the Banished could potentially use as a launching point for raids and attacks against the Inner and Outer Colonies. While some newly-found planets were either gas or ice giants, this one was a terrestrial world that was very similar to Earth in almost every way, with the major exception of the planet's moon being shattered into several pieces from an unknown source, forming a broken crescent-like shape. What made the UNSC High Command and Office of Naval Intelligence definitely worried though was the planet's location, being set right between the Inner and Outer Colonies, giving the Banished a perfect location to harass the UNSC from and potentially cut off their supply lines to the Outer Colonies.

Both Fleet Admiral Lord Terrance Hood and Admiral Serin Osman, along with the rest of High Command, worried of the potential danger present, knew they couldn't take any chances. And with a Prowler sent to the system to check things out, the crew reported a Banished ship in the system and base on the planet's surface, action had to be taken immediately. Without any hesitation, the Navy called upon the crew of the UNSC Harvest and her battle group, informing them of their new mission: To scout and observe the planet while eliminating all potential Banished forces in the area.

After gathering enough supplies to last for a prolonged fight, along with all of their crews and ground forces, the Harvest was ready to depart. However, the majority of its battle group was sent to a nearby UNSC-controlled system to fend off a Banished raid. And so, with most of the battle group preoccupied in the meantime, the Harvest was sent with one Paris-class heavy frigate and three Stallwart-class light frigates as its escorts, and entered slipspace towards the unknown planet.

The UNSC Harvest, her namesake after the planet of Harvest, the first battleground of the Human-Covenant War and the result of a Pyrrhic UNSC victory, was one of the newly-commissioned Spirit of Fire-class ships to recently enter service within the Navy. Taking lessons learned from the retrofitted Phoenix-class ships during the Human-Covenant War, and with advancements in post-war UNSC technology, the Spirit of Fire-class was a successor to the retrofitted warship Spirit of Fire, the class' namesake. As a purpose-built ship, the Spirit of Fire-class was designed to be an assault carrier. In terms of onboard weaponry and defensive measures, the Spirit of Fire-class had energy shielding, improved Titanium-A3 armor plating, two light MACs, ship-to-ship and ground support missiles, and point defense guns.

The Spirit of Fire-class had a length of 15,000 feet (4572 meters), a width of 2,800 feet (853.44 meters) and a height of 2,500 feet (762 meters), making it larger than most capital ships of the UNSC Navy, but not as large in comparison to the Infinity-class, by any means. And finally, the crew for each ship consisted of 6,000 sailors, 12,000 Marines, 2,000 Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, 4,000 Army troopers, and 2,000 airmen numbering a total of 26,000, accompanied by hundreds of aerial and ground vehicles to assist them in a planetary invasion, along with two squadrons of C709 Longswords. There were also a few HAVOK tactical nuclear weapons onboard, just to be safe.

As time onboard the Harvest passed, the majority of the crew were still frozen in cryo with exception of the skeleton crew sent out to do their scheduled maintenance work while the ship continued its course through slipspace. Approximately fifteen minutes later, several pods began to slowly open and awaken the crew from their slumber. One of the first individuals amongst the crew to wake up was a young Spartan-III supersoldier in his mid-twenties, Lieutenant Travis-G090.

The Spartan regained consciousness just as the door to his pod opened with the interior lights cranked up to maximum, squinting his eyes at the brightness. Travis proceeded to push himself up from his pod's gel bed, clumsily climbing out of the tube and racing to sit on a nearby bench in front of him. He sat up and drew his first breath in two weeks, and coughed up the surfactant that coated his lungs and throat until a string of clear fluid flowed into his mouth, and swallowed, his taste buds tasting the liquid's bitterness as it went down his throat. The liquid he swallowed was a bronchial surfactant, with its purpose to coat and protect the lungs upon entering cryo-sleep, and then to be regurgitated and swallowed upon reawakening, replacing any nutrients lost during the journey through slipspace.

Travis proceeded to take several long, deep breaths and blinked several times, letting his eyes adjust to the cryo-bay's interior lighting. He saw his empty cryo-chamber with its door wide open in front of him and looked around to see several other pods open up with the crew climbing out of them. Every crew member who was awake followed standard UNSC cryo wake-up protocols, checking up on each other to see if they've revived from cryo alright. With more of the crew waking up, a large portion of them were completely naked as they emerged from their cryotubes, due to the extremely high risk of having blistered skin once they emerged with clothing on. Some of the crew, however, did have dedicated cryo-suits they put on before entering two weeks prior.

But for the Spartan, he emerged with his whole suit of MJOLNIR GEN3 armor on. His armor had all the basic components, features, and advancements that the GEN3 platform provided, ranging from the wrist-mounted Grappleshot, MJOLNIR GEN3 BIOS, and SPDR counter intrusion measures to name a few. His specific variant was GEN3 Mark VII armor, colored white and dark gray, along with sporting a standard golden visor and the HUL-I/RS/Facelift on the left side of his helmet, and his service number inscribed on the left breastplate in dark gray: "G090".

Though the Spartan did not feel any immediate pain after coming out of cryo with his armor on, he still went ahead with a team of medical personnel checking up on him and scanning his body for any freezer burn. It was better to be safe than sorry. The medical staff did find a somewhat small amount of freezer burn beneath his armor's bodysuit, with the Spartan also having his suit run a medical diagnosis, detecting the freezer burn the doctors found. Thankfully though, there was little to no pain that would bother him for the most part, thanks to his training in dispelling the pain.

"Whelp, that's it, Lieutenant. You're good to go!" one of the doctors told Travis after she lowered her handheld data pad.

"Thanks." he nodded his head at her just before she and her team left.

Travis proceeded to follow protocol and help the rest of the crew who just woke up or were in the process of waking up from cryo. He walked across the cryo bay, helping out anyone he could in the process. The Spartan was just about done helping out the rest of the crew when someone caught his eye. Travis looked and saw one of the crew members wearing a white cryo suit suddenly collapse onto the floor, causing the Spartan and a medic next to him to rush towards them. Travis grabbed and lifted the crew member up from the floor and sat him straight up onto the bench behind them. The medic proceeded to make sure he was alright, doing standard medical procedures per UNSC regulations.

Travis inspected the crew member in question, seeing he was around in his mid-thirties with shaved black hair, brown eyes, and fair skin. The Spartan thought he was one of the new recruits they picked up before the Harvest departed, until the medic helped him take off the upper half of his cryo suit, revealing tattoos on both his upper arms which bore a skull and a drop pod behind it, along with a banner at the bottom inscribed 'ODST'. He now knew the man in front of him was an ODST, one of the many thousands onboard the Harvest and some of the best soldiers the UNSC had to offer.

The ODST cleared the corners of his eyes as the medic checked his eyesight and continued to do any remaining medical procedures on him. While the medic continued his work, the Helljumper looked to his right and saw the Spartan-III tower over both of them, remaining patient and silent with his hands behind his back. Finally, the medic finished his work and packed up his gear, moving onto the rest of the crew that needed assistance.

Next, the Helljumper got up from the bench he sat on, stretching his legs and arms out before facing the Spartan to his right, and spoke. "At first, I thought some of the new recruits here were joking when we boarded, but it seems we really do have a Spartan onboard after all."

"You're new around here?" Travis assumed.

"Yeah, me and my fireteam were just assigned to the Harvest before we left for our mission." The ODST replied. "Apologies. Allow me to introduce myself," He stood with his hands behind his back. "Gunnery Sergeant Andrew Matthews of Fireteam Delta." Matthews then extended his hand towards the Spartan. "And you?"

Travis shook his hand and replied. "Lieutenant Travis-G090, Spartan-III."

"A Three, eh? Nice!" Matthews stopped shaking hands with the supersoldier.

"Where's the rest of your fireteam?" Travis asked him.

"They're somewhere on this deck, either recovering or still asleep." Matthews answered. The conversation went on for a while with Matthews doing most of the talking before a message popped up on the left side of the Spartan's heads-up display from someone named 'Apex'.

Apex: Lieutenant, the Captain wants to see you on the bridge, ASAP.

Travis closed the message and said goodbye to Matthews. "The Skipper wants to see me on the bridge, guess that's my que."

"Alright, sir. Nice knowing you." He nodded at the Spartan. "Good luck, hopefully we'll have the chance to work with each other in the future."

"You too, Sergeant." Travis ended the conversation and walked towards the exit.

He exited the cryo bay and headed for the armory down the hallway. The Spartan entered the room, seeing several Marines, Army troopers, and ODSTs getting dressed into their BDUs and grabbing their gear. He walked past several soldiers and headed to one of the weapon racks where he grabbed a BR75 battle rifle, two M7 SMGs, extra ammunition, and a few M9 fragmentation grenades. Travis then left the armory and headed towards the nearest elevator that could take him to the bridge. A few seconds passed after he pressed the elevator's button with the doors opening, revealing two Marines who each gave the Spartan a salute as they left.

"Lieutenant."

"Sir."

Travis returned the salute before entering the elevator.


Meanwhile onboard the bridge of the Harvest, the crew on deck were at their stations doing their duties just as the ship came out of slipspace. At the front of the bridge stood a man in his early fifties who looked through the ship's viewport with a mug full of coffee in his hand. The man looking out the viewport was the ship's captain, Anthony Marshall, a veteran of the Human-Covenant War with more than 30 years of military service under his belt. Marshall had shaved brown hair, which was graying, green eyes, and lightly tanned skin.

Marshall saw the planet that was in direct view, seeing the broken moon with its crescent-like shape orbiting around it. The view was quite pretty from where he stood, seeing half the planet's continents in light and darkness out the viewport. He then spoke to the ship's onboard AI just as the entire crew of the Harvest were now fully awake and reported to their stations.

"Apex, status?" Marshall asked before taking a sip of his well-brewed black coffee.

"Standard orbit achieved. All systems are operating at one hundred percent." Apex, the ship's onboard 'Smart' AI answered after projecting himself onto the holotable behind the Captain's chair.

"Good. Bring the shields and weapon systems online, and prepare reconnaissance parties." Marshall took another sip from his mug.

"Affirmative. I've also started a planetary scan on the world in front of us, we should be receiving data from the surface soon."

Marshall placed the mug in his chair's cup holder and walked towards the holotable behind him, bringing up a 3D projection of the planet. "Good, we'll need all the intel we can get on this world other than what NAVCOM and ONI have provided us so far."

"Right, sir." Apex agreed with the Captain. The AI's design was a WWII U.S. Captain's Naval Uniform as he projected himself from the bridge's holotable in the center of the room.

A few minutes eventually passed until the doors to the bridge opened, revealing Spartan Travis who gave a salute to the Captain.

"Captain Marshall, sir!"

Marshall returned the salute to the Spartan who was in front of him. "At ease, Lieutenant."

Travis walked to the other end of the holotable across from where Marshall and Apex were observing a projection of the planet in front of their ship. "Captain, what's our first course of action?"

"I'm glad you asked." Marshall brought up the surface of the planet. "Our first objective is to do reconnaissance on the northernmost continent, and secure the LZ Apex has marked. It's a perfect spot for us to establish our main base of operations on the planet. After that, we'll begin our campaign against the Banished in this system. We're going to need a solid ground presence before we can attack any of their forces."

Apex spoke up after the Captain finished. "Concealing our presence isn't going to be quite as easy as we thought. Beside the native wildlife on the surface that our intelligence suggests, the data that I've just collected from the planetary scan indicates this planet appears to have already been colonized by humans."

"They could possibly be insurrectionists." Marshall theorized.

"Actually, no sir." Apex spoke up. "From what I've gathered, the inhabitants of this planet seem to be pretty developed and they have their own local militias and proper militaries. And just by looking at the data I'm receiving, none of them seem to have a proper war economy put into effect."

The Captain stroked his chin. "Then we might be dealing with an illegal or lost colony."

"Also about that, Captain..." Apex searched through several files projected in front of him. "I haven't found a single record regarding any attempt to colonize this planet, at least from what I've been able to find through the declassified UNSC and ONI files we've been given for this mission. And furthermore, they have no outside contact with the UEG and UNSC, or anyone else for that matter."

Marshall took a second to collect the information Apex told him, lifted his cap and ran his hand through his buzz cut hair, sighing. "Well then, until we can get more information on the people of this world, we're going to have to label them as either illegal or lost colonists in our reports. This is going to make our mission more complicated than it seems..." He paused for a brief moment before snapping back into action, putting his navy cap back on.

"Apex, show the Lieutenant where you've marked for our base of operations to be established."

"Yes, sir." Apex nodded as Marshall zoomed in on the planet's surface, propping up a projection of the northernmost continent's surface. He brought up a big, flat hill overlooking the surrounding terrain his AI chose as their landing site.

"Lieutenant, I want you down there with our recon teams and secure the area. Be on the ground within the next half hour, Apex will send you the coordinates." Marshall gave his orders while Apex transferred the coordinates to the Spartan-III. "ODST Gunnery Sergeant Matthews will be waiting for you in Hanger Bay 5 with the rest of his fireteam, best go meet them."

"Yes, sir! We'll be on the ground within the next half hour." Travis saluted before leaving the bridge, leaving both the Captain and his AI alone at the holotable. Marshall deactivated the map on the holotable and returned to observing the planet from the viewport in front of his chair, just in time to see nightfall for the western half of the planet. He saw thousands of lights as they lit up the night sky below, allowing them to be seen from orbit.

"I'll keep gathering intelligence on this planet and its inhabitants in the meantime, Captain." Apex informed Marshall.

"Good, and put together a briefing package once you've finished. HIGHCOM will want to know of our status immediately." Marshall ordered.

"Affirmative." Apex acknowledged before disappearing from the holotable.

"Now then, let's see what kind of world we've woken up to…" Marshall said, observing the planet below the Harvest through the viewport.


Solitas, Banished Stronghold

From somewhere on the planet's surface, or what the locals called "Remnant", there was a private meeting being held by the four leaders of all Banished forces present in the system. There were three Jiralhanae and one Sangheili, each having an important role within the Banished forces on Remnant. Among the Jiralhanae, or "Brutes", was one Legionmaster and two Warlords. The lone Sangheili or "Elite", meanwhile was a Shipmaster.

The Legionmaster present was the wone who was in charge of the Banished operation on Remnant, and went by the name of Drarretius. While he was just as brutal like the majority of his Jiralhanae brothers, he was also a cunning leader who had a vast knowledge on military tactics and strategies. And he was a leader who was determined to finish the mission alongside his men, leading by example.

Meanwhile, the two Warlords went by the names of Zurvaus and Vesarsis, who were cousins. They were Drarretius' two right-hand men, who made an excellent team together. If Zurvaus represented the brains and pragmatism of the Banished, then Versarsis was the embodiment of unwavering loyalty towards Atriox and what it meant to be a Jiralhanae warrior. And finally, the lone Sangheili was Mruza 'Nudam, the Shipmaster of the Banished CAS-class assault carrier Justified Vengeance, and in charge of the rest of their ships near Remnant's system.

Inside the war council, both Drarretius and 'Nudam were present in holographic form with Zurvaus and Vesarsis standing in front of them, behind the holotable in the center of the room. Drarretius was the first one to speak, and began to ask his subordinates about what the Banished truly came to Remnant for: Finding several secret underground Forerunner complexes that held valuable technology, and the conquest of the planet.

"What's the status on finding the nearest complex, you two?" Drarretius asked his two Warlords, promoting Zurvaus to respond.

"We are close to finding it, our Engineers should discover its location and how to unlock it within the next two hours."

"Good, this planet has plenty of these complexes for us to loot. If we can manage to find ourselves a Cartographer on this world, then we'll have an easier time finding them."

Vesarsis spoke up after his superior finished speaking. "Our Engineers are also working on finding one, although it may take us a while. We'll know soon enough."

Drarretius grinned after hearing the good news. "Excellent… Everything seems to be going our way. But we must be careful about the UNSC being up to no good around this system and snooping around. We are dangerously close to UEG Space, and we don't want them to send an entire battle fleet over here."

"Understood, Sir." Zurvaus replied.

"And what about the natives of this world?" 'Nudam brought the people of Remnant up. "They'll be a threat to us sooner or later, and most likely ally themselves with the UNSC if they get the chance to."

Drarretius turned towards 'Nudam and answered his question. "The natives will eventually be dealt with when the time comes. We will make them stay out of our way and respect our might. And of course, they wouldn't want their planet to be potentially glassed, now do they?" he brought up the potential threat of wiping a large portion of the planet out.

'Nudam nodded at him and the two looked back at the two Warlords. "Continue your search, report back if you've found anything." Drarretius told them.

"Yes, Legionmaster." Zurvaus nodded his head. The holographic projections of Drarretius and 'Nudam disappeared with the two Warlords leaving the room, making their way to the exit of the War Council and started chatting with each other.

"I hope we find one of these complexes soon, my men continue to grow restless as we try to look for one." Vesarsis said to his cousin, Zurvaus.

"Keep them on a leash, Vesarsis. We can't afford ourselves to go looking around Remnant with no intelligence and find nothing. Your men can have patience and wait like the rest." Zurvaus told him.

"Don't worry cousin," Vesarsis punched Zurvaus' shoulder in a friendly manner. "I'll make sure my men can get the message and be patient for a little longer."

"When we do eventually find one of these complexes, we have to tread with extreme caution. Who knows what kind of threats may lie inside of them? It could be the Parasite for all we know." Zurvaus warned.

"Still worried about the potential threat of the Parasite? Our Engineers have found zero traces of them on this planet. We'll be safe." Vesarsis tried to ease his worries.

"You can never be more prepared for such an occasion if it were to happen. Still though, we have to be careful. There are many things about the Forerunners that we do not understand." Zurvaus responded as they approached the exit.

"I understand, but don't forget that we are the Banished!" Vesarsis said as the door opened. "Fortune and glory await us!"

Zurvaus saw his cousin exit the War Council and stepped outside, revealing the rest of the Banished base. The Stronghold itself was nothing special to look at, sporting the same color scheme and design as the rest of their bases on the planet. Besides the War Council, the rest of the base's buildings were two Harvesters, one Power Extractor, and a single Raid Camp accompanied by four Spike Turrets on each corner of the Stronghold's perimeter. The Warlord walked past several of his troops, making his way to the Stronghold itself until an Elite and Grunt both clad in red-colored Banished armor approached him.

"Zurvaus, Sir!" The Elite stopped in front of him. "Our Engineers have made significant progress, and they're close to finding a nearby Forerunner complex. It's estimated to be near one of our outposts."

"Good. Anything else to report?" the Warlord asked his underlings.

"Yes, Sir!" The Grunt replied. "We have leftover parts from constructing both the Harvesters and the Power Extractor, and now we're making additional upgrades to them in the meantime."

Zurvaus smiled at the good news. "excellent. Report back to me immediately when our Engineers have discovered anything new."

"As you wish, sir." Zurvaus saw the two of them depart and continued on his way towards the Stronghold. He knew that whatever lies ahead for the Banished, they would be ready for it.


UNSC Harvest Hangar Bay 5

"Helljumpers! Attention!" Matthews shouted at the fireteam of ODSTs in front of him. He was fully dressed in his ODST battle armor with his helmet off, holding it tucked under his left arm as the soldiers lined up in front of him, standing at attention. The Gunnery Sergeant walked past his soldiers, eyeing and inspecting them. All five of them were fully dressed in their battle armor with weapons of their personal choice, ready for their next assignment. The hangar they were in had minor activity with Warthogs being driven around, delivering personnel and equipment to pilots and maintenance crews working on the several air and land vehicles. Among the vehicles present were Pelicans and Condors along with Scorpion Tanks and Kodiaks to name a few. Matthews walked back to where he originally was after a Cyclops and Grizzly passed by them.

"Alright Delta, listen up!" Matthews announced. "As you may know, we have been assigned to Echo Company onboard this vessel. Our first mission is to secure an LZ so the Harvest can make a base drop and establish an HQ for our ground operations, and we'll be under the command of Spartan Lieutenant Travis for our time on this world."

The ODST paused for a brief moment before continuing. "You may not know him just yet, but I've had the pleasure of personally meeting our superior officer early after waking up from cryo. I want all of you to be on your best behavior and treat him like one of our own, just like we do for the rest of our fellow brothers and sisters in arms. Am I understood?!"

He received a confident 'Sir, yes sir!' from the ODSTs in front of him, replying together in unison.

"Good! That's what I want to hear!"

"Having fun there, Sergeant?" Matthews heard a voice from behind him and turned around, revealing Travis who stood right behind him with his hands by his sides.

"Lieutenant, sir!" The Sergeant gave the Spartan a salute, which he returned the gesture. "Glad to see you, Lt. This here is Fireteam Delta, my squad. Delta, this is Lieutenant Travis, we'll be working together from now on."

"Mind introducing your teammates to me, Sergeant?" Travis asked after stopping next to him.

"Don't mind at all, Lieutenant." Matthews started to introduce his team to the Spartan. "First off are Lance Corporals Aaron Caleb and Konstantin Makarovich, our team's combat medic and heavy weapons specialist. Next is Corporal Cledwyn Morgan, our marksman. And finally Privates First Class Izabela Gorski and Jakab Alexander, our explosive and communications experts."

"Nice to meet you all." Travis nodded at them. "Now let's get going, we have a mission to do. I don't think the Captain would like to see us slacking off."

"You heard the Lieutenant, let's move out, squad!" Matthews ordered his team. The ODSTs left after giving a salute to both superiors and making their way to the nearest D78-TC Pelican.

"I hope your team is ready for what we'll possibly be up against." Travis worried.

"You don't have to worry about them, Sir. We ODSTs are just as capable soldiers as you Spartans are out in the field, no offense of course." Matthews said, putting his helmet on.

"None taken." Travis told him.

"They're not bad once you get to know them, and they'll have your back covered if you've got theirs." Matthews reassured his superior officer.

"Glad to hear it."

Travis and Matthews proceeded to walk towards their Pelican, seeing the rest of Delta take their seats alongside two Marines who would be operating the Warthog attached to the back of the aircraft. The two of them climbed in the back and took the two closest seats available, right next to the troop bay's hatch in the back. Before they sat down Travis nodded at the two Pelican pilots, signaling they were ready to go.

The Pelican's pilot informed mission control as she pressed a bunch of buttons in front of her while her copilot did his assigned tasks. "Control, this is Pelican Alpha 028, we're wheels up and engines hot. Ready to proceed, Over."

"Roger that 028, you're cleared for takeoff. Be safe out there, good luck." one of the personnel from mission control replied.

"Thanks control, 028 out."

The pilots began lifting the Pelican off the ground with the help of a marshaller guiding them. Alpha 028 then took off from the hangar with another Pelican following right behind and headed towards the surface of the planet. The ride was pretty uneventful until the pilots called Travis forward to the cockpit

"Hey Lieutenant, you might want to see this!" Travis heard the pilot and stood up from his seat, entering the cockpit to see the planet's shattered moon right in front of them. "Looks like the brass weren't kidding when they said the moon of this world is completely shattered."

"If you ask me, shit's pretty fucked." her copilot said.

"What do you think, Lieutenant?" She asked Travis. The Spartan stood still as a statue behind them, observing the shattered moon in it's truly awe-inspiring form.

"Whatever caused the moon to shatter from the looks of it," Travis paused, inspecting the moon's broken surface. "it wasn't natural."

Both pilots looked at each other in confusion after hearing the Spartan's answer. "You sure, Lieutenant? An asteroid could have hit it for all we know." the copilot theorized.

"That's impossible. A single asteroid couldn't have done this much damage to a celestial body." Travis explained.

"Maybe the Banished did this?" the pilot suggested.

"That doesn't fit the MO of the Banished, they wouldn't just blow up a planet's moon in the middle of nowhere to send a message." Travis told her. "Someone, or something, down below on this planet caused the moon to shatter by their own means."

The Pelicans passed the shattered moon and headed down straight for the planet's surface. Travis made his way to the back of the Pelican just as they passed through the planet's atmosphere and sat back down next to Matthews. Soon the hatch opened, revealing the cold tundra and the snowy hills and mountains of the continent.

"That's some view." a Marine from the other Pelican said over the radio as the two aircraft passed over a large, snowy mountain.

"Enjoy it while you still can, Marines." Travis told everyone, standing up from his seat. "We know our orders: We're to immediately secure the LZ so the Harvest can deliver a base at our location. After that, we'll expand our area of control and establish our HQ so we can begin our fight against the Banished. Keep your eyes and ears open for any possible threat, and stay frosty."

The two Pelicans soon began to descend downwards with Travis grabbing the battle rifle from his back. "Stand to, troops!" He ordered, receiving a collective 'HOO-RAH!' over the radio and from behind him. Their Pelicans touched down and Travis was the first one to jump out of the aircraft after their Warthogs were detached.

"Pile out! Go, go, go!"

Fireteam Delta exited the Pelican behind Travis with the other two Marine squads departing theirs and followed the Spartan, making their way to the LZ. Their two Warthogs scouted ahead as they drove by, and soon enough, they made it to the LZ Apex designated, which was a big flat area on top of a snowy hill, and oversaw the nearby valley and frozen river. The spot was perfect to set up their base, as the terrain gave them a suitable high ground advantage against any potential Banished attack. After they secured the area, they set up green smoke flares for their firebase location.

"Harvest Actual, we have secured the LZ and are ready for base drop. Over." Travis informed the Captain.

"Roger that, Lieutenant. Herons are on their way with a Firebase and four Pelicans carrying extra troops. Apex will help coordinate the construction of our main base of operations with you in a moment. We don't know who or what is potentially waiting for us out there, so be careful and keep your guard up." Marshall told him.

"Understood, sir."

Travis and the rest of his troops continued to secure the surrounding area as their two Herons and four Pelicans made their way towards them. Eventually out of the sky, the two Herons with both ends of a prefabricated "Pod" Firebase came and hovered over the area they designated with their green flares. The Herons then placed their firebase pieces on the ground and released them before returning to the Harvest. As the Herons took off, the four remaining Pelicans delivered more Marine squads with Warthogs.

"Alright team, let's get to work!" Travis told everyone, who immediately proceeded to move out and secure the rest of the surrounding territory around their firebase. It wasn't long until the Spartan was being contacted by Apex.

"Lieutenant, what's the status of your Firebase?" Apex asked him.

"Our Firebase is almost done deploying itself as we speak." Travis responded as the Firebase locked itself down into the planet's soil with its clamps.

"Good, we've only got a few hours until sunset, so we're going to need to get our main base of operations up and running fast." The AI explained as more Pelicans arrived on the scene and unloaded their Marines. "I'm sending down more Pelicans and Condors down to deliver turrets, buildings, and walls for your base, along with some engineers to help get the base online."

"Good to know, Apex. Thanks." Travis thanked him for the assistance.

"There's also going to be a large blizzard happening tonight, thankfully though, it won't hit us." the AI informed him.

"Copy that. Anything else?" Travis wrapped up the conversation.

"Yes, have you encountered the local wildlife?" the AI inquired.

"Negative, we haven't encountered anything while we've been down here."

"From what I've managed to gather up from the locals, the creatures of this world they call the 'Grimm' are hostile and extremely dangerous. I don't have much information on them yet, but they are easily identifiable by their black body structure, bone spikes and armor, and glowing red eyes. They'll attack anything and anyone on sight. Proceed with caution, Spartan."

"Roger that. Out." Travis ended the call with Apex.


0300 Hours Later

Atlas Academy, Ironwood's Office

Ironwood was standing at the table in the middle of his office with two holographic screens projected in front of him. One of them had the map of Solitas, which marked the Kingdom of Atlas, Amity Tower, and Salem's giant Grimm, the Monstra, on-screen. The other one had a list of military outposts just outside of Atlas with their status being highlighted in green, except for one of them, which was red. Ironwood was in deep thought until the doors to his office opened, revealing Winter Schnee who approached him.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Winter entered, stopping at the opposite end of the table across from the Ironwood. She was wearing her Atlas Specialist uniform, now sporting two red-and-black pauldrons on her shoulders and legs along with her left arm covered in a black brace with red and white highlights. The wounds she also received from her fight with Cinder were now fully healed thanks to the medical staff present, and using her Aura for the minor injuries she had.

"Yes, Winter. We have a problem." Ironwood zoomed the map of Solitas for her. "Contact with one of our outposts outside of the city, Outpost Bravo, was lost, all signals from the outpost had flatlined approximately 24 hours ago. This is one of the only sites outside Atlas that we still operate, but from where it's located, the Grimm never travel that far out."

"What are you suggesting, General?" Winter asked.

"The Grimm are all concentrated just outside of Atlas with Salem. The outpost had reported since she arrived here with her army, they had no sightings or contact with any Grimm in the local area. A highly guarded base such as Bravo wouldn't just lose contact overnight with us, and we can't assume anything until we know what happened there." Ironwood closed the two holographic screens before resuming the conversation. "I want you to find out what happened at Outpost Bravo. Our security is too damn important, especially with Salem here."

"With all due respect, sir, wouldn't it be better for me to stay here and help you with the defense of Atlas?" Winter asked.

"Yes, but I need someone who's experienced to figure this out." Ironwood responded. "With the nearby blizzard that's going to hit Atlas, it'll delay any potential threat that Salem has to throw at us for a while, giving us more time to prepare. Understood?"

"Yes, sir. Shall I take the Ace-Ops with me?" Winter suggested.

"No, they're currently preoccupied with their own objectives." Ironwood answered. "There's something not right here... And I have a feeling that we'll find out soon." He walked up to Winter. "Find out who or what made us lose contact with our outpost and report back to me ASAP. Take the best soldiers you have."

"Yes, sir!" Winter saluted and left Ironwood's office.


Solitas, Outside of UNSC-Controlled Territory

"This is Recon Team Alpha reporting: We're in position, no hostiles in sight. Over." Travis announced over the radio.

"Solid copy, Lieutenant." the Marine Sergeant of Recon Team Bravo replied.

Travis and Fireteam Delta were on their first mission together since establishing Alpha Base; scouting for any possible Banished forces in the area. They were on the edge of a taiga forest that was next to a nearby mesa, hiding their winter camouflaged Warthogs first and moving out. Matthews and Travis led the Helljumpers up the mesa's cliff, watching out for any hostiles and unstable terrain.

"We'll report back immediately if we come across anything, sir. In the meantime, we'll maintain radio silence." the Sergeant told him.

"10-4, Out." Travis finished, scanning the perimeter with his SRS99-S7 AM sniper rifle.

The Spartan and six ODSTs continued their way alongside the Mesa as they continued their mission. Along the way Travis heard the small banter between the ODSTs behind him. He immediately recognized their distinct accents from their voices and identified each one accordingly. Matthews had a standard American accent, Caleb's being a soft Ethiopian, Makarovich with a thick Russian one, Morgan's well-spoken Celtic Welsh, Gorski's broad Polish, and Alexander's elocute Hungarian.

"Hope we don't get picked off by any damn Jackal Snipers out here." Makarovich said.

"Yeah, everyone hates those smug bastards." Alexander agreed.

"There's barely any favorable sniping positions from where we are." Morgan told them as he identified any possible sniper nests with his sniper rifle, his finger ready to pull the trigger.

"Well if there are any out there, then we'll blow them up to hell." Gorski claimed.

"Enough chatter. Let's focus on the mission, right Sergeant?" Caleb asked.

"Right Caleb, focus on the mission at hand. There'll be plenty of time to kill some dumb alien bastards." Matthews answered until Travis told them to stop by raising a closed fist with his left hand.

The ODSTs stopped in their tracks as Travis then lowered his hand, telling them to stay low. Travis crept slowly towards a rock he used as cover and peeked over, scanning the area. He raised his sniper rifle to get a better look, and found zero hostiles present. Next, he signaled Matthews and Caleb to move up, to which they did and took cover behind another large rock. The seven of them slowly moved forward, weary of any possible ambushes. Luckily for them however, they found no enemy contacts and moved towards the edge of the cliff they were on.

"Well this is a dead end for us." Alexander said, looking over the ledge.

"You guys see that?" Morgan asked as he pointed towards the top of the mesa where a bright yellow beam was shot up into the night sky.

"Now how the hell are we supposed to get up there?" Makarovich asked, seeing how it was almost impossible for the ODSTs to climb up.

"I heard there's this trick with grenades that Spartans can use." Gorski suggested. "Buuuuut... I don't think it'll work for us Helljumpers, though."

"I'll see if I can get a better view." Travis said, stepping forward and aimed his Grappleshot. "Keep an eye out for targets, I'll be back shortly."

Travis fired his Grappleshot at the top of the mesa and was pulled towards it with his sniper rifle in hand. He grabbed the ledge and pulled himself up, crouching down as he approached the other side to see where the light was coming from. What he saw in the distance was bad news for the UNSC and the locals of this planet, it was an entire Banished outpost with a large army present.

"Harvest Actual, this is Spartan Travis. Captain, Apex, you might want to see this. Transmitting visual." Travis informed them.

"Lieutenant, sir! We have confirmed visual on a Banished outpost!" the Marine Sergeant from Recon Team Bravo alerted.

"Roger. Transfer your feed to the Harvest, Sergeant." Travis ordered.

"Yes, sir! Transmitting now!"

"Captain, it's confirmed. The Banished are on this planet." the Spartan reported in.

"All recon teams disengage and fall back. It's going to be a very busy day tomorrow..." Marshall ordered.

"Roger. Falling back now." Travis replied.

Before Travis got up from his spot, he noticed his radar flicker for a second and saw a red dot behind him. The Spartan immediately went into action and rolled to the side, avoiding a blue energy sword that struck the ground where he was. He saw a Banished Elite that tried to sneak up on him and kicked the alien back with his foot. Travis then rolled to the side again and got up, switching his sniper rifle out for the MA40 assault rifle on his back. He aimed and fired half of his rifle's magazine at the Elite, taking down its shields, and ran forward, delivering a buttstroke to its face with the end of his rifle.

Travis then caught the glimpse of two more cloaked Elites as he loaded a fresh clip into his rifle. He quickly turned to the nearest one towards his right and fired a few short controlled bursts at the invisible alien, scoring a few hits in the process. The Elite went in for the swing with his energy sword, but the Spartan dodged the attack and struck his combat knife into the Elite's neck, killing him instantly.

"Lieutenant, are you alright up there?" Travis heard Matthews over the radio.

The Spartan didn't have time to respond as he proceeded to fire the remainder of his rifle's clip at the final Elite. The Elite dodged his attack and hid as Travis took the opportunity to reload his weapon. He kept his eyes open, watching out for the Elite's cloak when it revealed itself. Eventually, Travis turned and fired at the Elite before it knocked the rifle out of his hands. The Spartan immediately tackled the alien down onto the ground, knocking the energy sword out of its hand. He then proceeded to pull his combat knife out, and jammed it right into the Elite's mouth, killing it instantly.

After getting up from the dead Elite's and grabbing his assault rifle off the ground, Travis heard gunfire over the other side of the mesa and ran towards it. He looked over and saw Fireteam Delta facing off against several Grunt squads with Brutes leading them down below. The Spartan backed up and ran over the mesa's edge, sliding down a steep slope before jumping off it at the end and landed right on top of one of the Brutes, delivering a quick and devastating blow with his knife to the back of the head. He then fired his assault rifle at the numerous Grunts while the rest of his team focused on the Brutes.

"Heard you needed some help!" Travis announced before dodging a Brute's melee attack, and then climbed onto the alien's back and stabbed him in the neck.

"Woah…" Caleb said, amazed by the Spartan's quick reaction time.

After killing the remaining Grunt squads, the team made their way back to the Warthogs as their cover was now blown. "Let's get out of here while we still can. I'm afraid we've poked the hornet's nest!" Travis warned them.

"Couldn't agree more with you on that, sir!" Morgan agreed.

The seven of them continued to fight their way through Banished squads until they reached their Warthogs they hid amongst the trees. Travis got on the Warthog's chaingun with Alexander in the driver's seat and Gorski sitting in the passenger's. Alexander fired up the Warthog's engine as it roared to life just as more Banished reinforcements came, now with Hunters.

"Stop them!" one of the Brutes ordered his subordinates, with the Hunters starting to aim their cannons at the Warthogs.

"The ride's going to be a bit bumpy back there, Lieutenant! Hang on!" Alexander yelled before slamming his foot on the gas and took off with the rest of their team before the enemy Hunters fired their assault cannons at them.

"Harvest Actual, we're under fire and being chased by enemy vehicles! Requesting assistance! Over." Travis alerted before firing the Warthog's gun at the Ghosts and Choppers that appeared behind them.

"Solid copy, Spartan. Reinforcements from Alpha Base are on their way." Apex informed him.

"Thanks, Apex." Travis responded.

"This is Recon Team Bravo! We're under fire by enemy vehicles giving chase! Requesting assistance, Over!" Travis heard the Marine Sergeant over the radio and looked to his right, seeing three Warthogs being chased by Ghosts and Choppers. Soon several Banshees joined the fight, firing their plasma cannons at the Warthogs they were now chasing.

"Looks like we'll get to see some action after all!" Gorski announced before she aimed her SPNKr rocket launcher at a Chopper flying in midair, and fired, blowing it out of the sky and sending its driver flying in the opposite direction.

The two recon teams were now hightailing it out of there, making haste towards Alpha Base with the Banished hot on their tail.


Atlesian Outpost Bravo

It was too quiet at the Atlesian outpost, even for Winter's taste. Upon finishing her team's inspection of the base, she had the same feeling as Ironwood did, something definitely wasn't right here. The entire outpost was left in ruins, buildings were left completely destroyed, and the surrounding area, along with the vehicles and dead personnel present, were left with black marks on them, indicating that some kind of battle happened. Upon a closer look, Winter kneeled down at a destroyed AK-200 and inspected the broken pieces, she saw several spots melted away by some superheated energy source and several long, sharp spikes sticking to the body, most likely made out of a tungsten alloy.

Winter looked to her left and saw a dead Atlesian soldier with his body missing a large chunk from his chest. From inspecting the blood and intestines pouring out of his motionless body, Winter saw something that caught her eye. She grabbed and held it in her hand, it was a small, pink crystalline-like shard that seemed to have broken off from a much larger piece. Winter knew that Ironwood would want to see this for further inspection, so she tucked it away into one of her pouches and tried to contact the General.

"General, this is Winter. We have important information regarding Outpost Bravo. Do you copy?" She tried to contact him, but her transmission failed and tried again. "General Ironwood, this is Winter. Come in, Over." Still no response.

"Ma'am!" One of the Atlas soldiers approached her. "All of our communications aren't working. None of our transmissions are going through."

"I've noticed." Winter stood up to the soldier in front of her and replied back. "Keep trying, the General needs to know of our status ASAP."

"Understood." The soldier nodded at her before turning around and leaving.

Winter had an uneasy feeling that they were being watched, but it wasn't the Grimm. And to that, she was right. Far from their position at the edge of a nearby forest, two Grunts along with a Brute Major were overlooking them at a safe distance.

"Hey, look! More of those humans in white uniforms and armor!" one of the Grunts pointed at the Atlesian soldiers in the distance.

"Yeah! They probably came from… uhhh…" The second Grunt forgot what he was going to say. "Hey Yapflip, what's the name of that city again? The one with the giant floating city?"

"You mean Atlas?"

"Yeah. That's it."

"Quiet fools!" The Brute behind them ordered. "We don't want to give away our position to them."

"Right! Sorry, boss!" the first Grunt replied, only to get a growl from his Brute superior which scarred him into submission.

"I said, quiet."

The three of them continued to watch Winter and the dozen Atlas soldiers she brought with her, along with the Manta flying over their position. Then, the Brute soon received a message from one of his superiors over the radio, and answered the call.

"It is time…" the Brute leader on the other end informed him.

"Affirmative." He replied. "Back away, you two!"

The two Grunts backed up with their leader as a Reaver behind them emerged from the treeline and readied its thrasher missile pods.

"FIRE!" the Brute yelled at the pilot of the Reaver, who proceeded to launch all of the walker's missiles at the lone Manta aircraft.

It was all quiet for Winter and her team, until one of her soldiers yelled, "INCOMING!" Their Manta was struck by several missiles from out of nowhere and crashed to the ground. Those who were nearby managed to jump out of the way in time before the aircraft crashed at their position.

"Check the pilots!" Winter ordered. Two of her soldiers climbed into the smoking wreck and found both pilots motionless.

"Pilots are dead, ma'am!" one of the two soldiers told her as he climbed out.

"Form a defensive perimeter!" Winter ordered.

She and the twelve soldiers formed a perimeter around their crashed aircraft and prepared for what was to come. Strangely though, no enemies came out to attack them. Winter didn't like this, and motioned with her hand, ordering her soldiers to clear and sweep the area.

Her soldiers slowly walked with their rifles raised and their fingers on the trigger. Among the smoke and ruins, there still were no hostiles in sight. That was until one of the soldiers stopped in her tracks, seeing something invisible step in a pile of snow in front of her. She looked up with her rifle raised to see a tall, nearly-invisible figure right in front of her, standing almost three feet taller than her. Before she had any time to react, her body was pierced with a massive blue energy blade that went straight through her torso, lifting her upwards off the ground.

"Ivory!" One of her male colleagues called her name out. Her motionless body soon hit the floor as the figure dropped her, with every single Atlas soldier and Winter aiming their weapons. The attacker let out an almost animal-like roar as another invisible enemy from behind took out another Atlas soldier.

Soon the soldiers fired in all general directions. Winter kept her eyes on the invisible enemies until a massive, almost ape-like creature jumped out from nowhere with a massive hammer-like weapon and slammed it onto the ground, causing a shockwave in the middle that stunned Winter and the soldiers next to her. The giant ape-like creature then slammed its fist into Winter, sending her flying back before it took on the rest of her men.

Winter was sent flying and back hit the side of the destroyed Manta, with half her Aura being depleted. She tried to recover herself as she saw more enemies approach her team. One of her soldiers fought two small, stubby creatures with what seemed to be gas masks on their faces. He held his ground until he was impaled by several, large pink crystalline needles in his chest and stomach. The needles then combined into a massive pink, misty explosion with his blood and guts flying out.

Another one of her soldiers fired at another pair of the small creatures, who instead of firing pink crystalline shards, shot green bolts of energy from their pistols. One of them pulled out a glowing blue ball and tossed it, leaving a trail behind it as it flew. The ball soon stuck to the soldier's chest and desperately tried to get it off.

"Oh Gods! Get it off!" He screamed, desperately trying to get the ball off him. But it was too late as the ball, which was actually a grenade, stuck to his chest and exploded, killing him instantly.

Winter got herself up and looked around for her swords. Unfortunately, she had lost them after she was sent flying by the enemy with the giant hammer. She proceeded to grab a combat knife off of one of her dead colleagues and tried to do the best she could. The Specialist ran towards one of the smaller enemies and stabbed it in the face through its gas mask, releasing a blue-like gas that leaked out of it. Next she dodged enemy fire in the form of green energy blasts coming from another one of the smaller enemies. Winter jumped and with both hands, she jammed the knife into the creature's skull.

She turned around to face off another enemy, but was electrocuted from a giant mace of sorts, sending her flying backwards. Her aura completely broke from the hit, and laid down on her back against the ground. Winter's body was completely immobilized from the hit as she tried to recover herself. But the giant enemy grabbed her by the neck, and lifted her three feet off the ground.

"As I suspected…" The giant creature spoke. Winter felt his hand squeeze her neck with a tight grasp, strangling her as she was stuck looking at his face. Her attacker was a giant, horrifying ale-like alien, with a massive scar and tatoos across his face with facial hair that made him look like a monster.

"Nothing. But a weak…" She felt his hand squeeze her neck even tighter. "Pathetic excuse of a living creature…"

Winter's vision started to go black, this was the end. But her attacker soon slammed her down onto the ground behind him, landing Winter on her stomach. She desperately coughed and gasped for air as she held her throat. Her attacker stepped to the side as two of his subordinates of the species approached forward.

"Bring her back to your base for interrogation. She might be…" He snarled while looking at her. "Useful…"

"Yes, Legionmaster." One of his subordinates replied as their leader walked away. He then pulled out a small device and aimed it at Winter's back, and fired. Her vision went black as she was knocked out, with her captors dragging the Specialist back to one of their vehicles and drove off.